Here’s some of the stuff Colin has gotten recently (and a bit of what he’s been up to):

Tau Beta Pi bent. I received this Saturday morning at the Tau Beta Pi initiation banquet. These were especially cool because we actually made them ourselves. My triceps can attest to the physical labor involved in packing molds full of oil and sand to be filled by the molten bronze that made these very bents. See earlier post. Well, that process has finally come to completion, and after meeting other requirements, we officially became Tau Bates on Saturday morning.

A solderfree breadboard for playing with electronics / circuits. Got this off EBay for about $25 after shipping. Should make designing circuits a lot easier. (Last time, I physically soldered all the parts together and kindof hoped that they would work…) One project on the todo list: an infrared receiver/decoder that will control my stereo system since it came without a remote and I’m too lazy at night to get off the couch and walk the 2 steps across the dorm room to the volume controls.

College of Engineering Mug. I won this from the weekly CoE trivia question, also located on the College of Engineering homepage. You (especially Tim) should keep your eye on this Wednesday mornings next semester, and you, too, could win.

Microsoft Student Ambassador plaque. This came, a wee bit delayed, this weekend. Microsoft flew us out to Seattle on September 30, for reference. I’m guessing delays in the company that engraved all the plaques. Yes, I understand the irony in the picture. It was the only black thing in my room large enough to lean the plaque against to make it readble in the picture…. Or at least, that’s my excuse.

Finally, I picked up this box yesterday from the DoIT store, along with a static-proof bag of silicon, gold, and various substrates. I was happy.

Needless to say, today’s blog entry brought to you by Apple, and my really cool new 15″ PowerBook G4. Here’s a picture of my PowerBook family: [click to enlarge]

So, in summary: [click to enlarge]