Today was an impromptu tour of DC. I went to the Philippine embassy first thing this morning to get some labor forms. After this, I hopped on Metro to the National Building Museum. I went there to try and find a better topic for one of my final projects this sem. I'd much rather do a case study on a particular structure or examine the evolution of an engineer's work than explain a specific topic of structural engineering. Whatever I choose, it has to be very mathematically rigorous because it is a graduate-level class. Right now my topic is "Nonlinear Plastic Hinge Analysis of Three-Dimensional Steel Frames in Fire." While I concede that this may well prove very interesting, now that I still know next to nothing about the subject it sounds rather boring, but I am starting to think that I will have to stick to this subject.
Unfortunately, the museum had nothing that could help me out. Indeed, it had virtually nothing at all. Just three tiny exhibits placed far away from each other in a huge building. However, there was this one cute girl who worked there, and we were (I think) making eyes at each other so I gave her a shy smile. At this all my courage was spent and I could not make anything more out of our brief 'interaction.' I wholly regret this because I'm sure this could have been taken further. It must be said, however, that she could have been looking at me with amazement for being the only visitor under sixty at the museum. Perhaps I would have turned her off if I'd talked to her about the museum and said, 'it's very nice, but i need more math.' Or maybe she would have liked that. Oh, the regret I feel. Take my advice, kids, just go for it. You never know. That's at least the third I've missed there.
After this I took Metro again and headed for school but I changed my mind on the way and decided to go to the National Gallery of Art. When I was a kid I used to love the National Air and Space Museum, but now I find it pretty boring. I used to hate the National Gallery but now it's my favorite of all the Smithsonians. I saw them all again, the Rembrandts and the van Goghs, among others, and, of course, the da Vinci, which is the only one in America. Beautiful.
After this, I hopped back on Metro to go to school where I wasted time looking unsuccessfully for an engineer I could do my project on. I was also able to buy a copy nearby of the new special-edition Lady and the Tramp for the niece. At a quarter-to-four I got on Metro one last time and headed home to watch the movie. I really have to get to work on my school stuff starting tomorrow.
No comments:
Post a Comment