spectastic

at this point, my CV and resume look almost identical..

I was actually going to take sign language at my school, before this girl told me that it's one of the hardest classes she's ever taken. hehe If I have time, I might try to pick it up, but that's really easy to say and really hard to do.

I was under the impression that Europeans use plastic for their transactions. Their credit cards are supposedly more advanced than ours. Theirs have encryption, while ours are primitive by comparison, and leave records on every machine it touches, which is why Target had that big screw up during holiday season. In any case, I thought we might need to get something different for Europe, and this lady explains it pretty well http://www.creditcards.com/credit-card-news/chip-pin-emv-upgrade-europe-1433.php It's probably to just easier to get a free atm card, and make daily withdraws in cash like someone already mentioned. I don't like the idea of having to keep track of emergency cash, but I suppose it's a good idea to have a backup.

yea... I did it my freshmen/sophomore year of college. it's the only way if you want to be paid for a job. talk to your international office to get the process started. It takes like 2 months for them to process the paper work, or something.

England is expensive, and it's on its own island. I hear it's super easy to get around Europe by train. unfortunately, I don't speak a lick of French, German or Italian, and I can only understand Spanish words by themselves, never in an actual sentence. this is going to be a challenge....

I have so many questions How long did it take you to visit all those countries? Do they all speak English? Did you have to get a new credit card, or how did currency work? Did you mostly visit, or did you do stuff too? How much did it end up costing?

This wouldn't be a problem if you had Liam Neeson in your family. I'm thinking about doing the same thing this year. I think it's definitely a must to do your research ahead of time.

I think it's a noble crusade to fight for environmental conservation, but I think the keystone protests are more a symbolic gesture than anything else. Ultimately, preventing the keystone won't stop anything. Someone will still mine those reservoirs, and whoever ends up controlling that traffic would have a big influence over that market (and yea, make a lot of money too). I find a lof of the argument against the pipeline, such as tarsand requiring more process energy and emissions, potential pipe leaks, property rights, and Big Oil getting its way to be all valid arguments, but none of them are new to us. (I think the potential leak issue and irreversible environmental damage has the most people pissed off, but even so, keystone pipeline is a drop in the bucket compared to what's already out there) As offshore drilling migrates further away from the gulf coast, importing and processing tarsand becomes the more economical option. And whether they come from a pipeline, rail cars, or cargo ships is just a matter of time and cost. So from that perspective, it makes sense for America to capitalize on this opportunity, especially when Canada is already our largest exporter for oil. In the grand scheme of things, I think the bigger influence on reducing carbon emissions relies on the initiative on a global scale, which we're already starting to see with China starting to ban its coal fired power plants in some major cities. And because the of the public scrutiny of the Keystone XL, rejecting its completion may set a precedence and let other countries know that we're serious about this (probably won't happen). Like any other market, oil is driven by profit, whether that means trying to stay alive (eg. coal industry) or staying ahead of competitors. So that's why I think we should be more focused on enforcing environmental policies to not stop producing oil, but rather produce at a greater efficiency and still meet the increasing world demand. Until they figure out how to make clean energy cheaper than fossil fuels, this is the way it's going to be, Keystone or no Keystone

Out of curiosity, what are your guys' opinions on this?

yea, simulation software is nice to have on your resume. Aspen Plus is a good one. At my school, we used Hysys. But really, these are all really user friendly software that are easy to learn. I'll be honest though. When I was looking for a job, I didn't know what I wanted to do. I wanted to get my feet wet first, before I decide what type of engineering suits me the best, and for many people, this changes throughout their career, so I woudln't get too hung up on it. I said chemical company because there's a sort of a production line within the oil/gas industry. The refineries get their crude from their suppliers and purify it. Chemical companies take these purified raw materials and turn them into chemical intermediates. And then a manufacturing company might take these intermediates and turn them into parachutes. And then you get all these consulting firms and vendors who provide specialty services to facilitate this 'production line'. If you want the short answer, refineries make the most money. Exxon start out their new engineers from college at 95k (yea...). And I wouldn't say math skills are particularly important so much as computer or programming skills. Programming skill is more of a survival skill as more things are becoming digitized and automated. having even a basic understanding of computer programming will complement any work that you'll do with process control. P.S. you will run into a lot of politics in engineering. if you ask me, engineering is more about people and politics than it is about engineering. that's one of my primary drivers to go to grad school, get my doctorate and do research. The bottomline is the main driver in industry, and all that interesting stuff you learn in school eventually ends up at the bottom of a box, along with your old textbooks.

if you want to work in oil&gas, you'll probably end up somewhere in Texas, near the Houston area most likely. They also have reservoirs up in the rockys and regions such as North Dakota, but it's freezing up there! F**k that. they also have locations on the east coast for NG. But California is not really the place for oil and gas, partly because there is little incentive for companies to stay there, due to the stringent environmental policies in California. from what I know, there's a lot you can specialize in as a chemical engineer. process control is one of them. there's also production, projects and field. and you can always get hired, and have the school pay for an MBA if you want to go the management route. working at a chemical company, and not a refinery, my knowledge is limited. but if you want to work in process control, it's definitely important to understand the various types of controllers, logic diagrams and control loops. Even with a masters degree, most of these things come with experience on the job, not from a textbook.

entertainment? I'm not going to waste my time reading all this shit. ignorance is bliss.

when I wake up tomorrow. I expect this thread to be at least 3 pages long.

and I thought my mom was OCD.

I've always thought the GPU is the limiting factor for PC gaming. You can't really get much out of a 13.3 screen anyway. and this is just from my personal experience. I unwind a lot better doing something outside than playing video games. It gets real boring after a while, but you keep playing it because it's addicting.

thinkpads are pretty expensive if you ask me. They're like the PC version of macbooks. but they are very well built from what I've understand, even after being acquired by Lenovo. I don't know about you, but I feel like there's not going to be any time to play video games in grad school. I sold my xbox for this very reason. With the free time that I do get, I'll probably make the most of it, and I can never really get any satisfaction playing video games afterward.

also this is hilarious http://www.wimp.com/exhaustedmeerkat/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9mHpF1yOCxc&feature=c4-overview&list=UU9u_aoBRzy7N9jFQYD9fxpQ

my dick has matured. only a matter of time before my head does too.

you can probably upgrade the processor for an extra $100 if you do it yourself, still a good deal if you ask me.

A lot of companies have internship positions with the intention of hiring some of them for full time positions, so I'd treat them like full time positions, and not mention grad school at all. It also seems fishy that you've graduated and are looking for internships, which will inevitably lead them to bring up the question why. So just tell them you want a full time job. If/when you get the job, eventually bring up your plan about grad school, and allow them a peaceful transition for someone else to take your place. no harm done, everyone wins. And as you've mentioned, it's not yet certain whether or not you'll be in grad school this August, so I would definitely cast a wide net, just so there are more options.

if that hp split came with a core i5, I would've bought it. tablet is nice, but it's more of a luxury item. Can you take notes with it?

my dad bought a gateway laptop for our family in 2002. He was still using it in 2012, when I graduated college.. The trackpad is like 2"x1.5", and the screen was more like a 13.3 screen on a 14" laptop. The screen broke, and somehow, he found a spare on ebay, and put it together. I'm like why the F are you still using that POS? I don't think Gateway even exists anymore. Poor dad, time to let go of the old obsolete hardware and get with the 21th century. I probably won't get anything mac. I've used macs, and while they're quality machines, I like to stick with the more mainstream OS, unless I decide that windows 8 is a total loss, and windows 9 is even more screwed up. Why did they make the computer interface the same as the one on my old xbox? I'm trying to get shit done, not get distracted. But to me, battery life is not a real big issue, provided it's a 13 or 14" laptop. I bring the cord with me all the time anyway, and anything over 5 hours is fine by me. Just have to make sure to not get a core i7, or one of those power horses that just eats up all the energy. and because these lithium ion batteries are perishable, I figure might as well go with a brand that's not super overpriced, or even go with an older model, such that any aftermarket parts are easy to find cheap.