Even though I’m a Deckie, I like to broaden my own field of knowledge by getting involved with things from other departments as well. Currently the International Maritime Business department is offering a 3 part series on how to build your own PC. Being interested in computers, and having built PCs before, I was curious to see what this was all about and what they were using to do it.

I unfortunately was unable to make the first part of the series, in which they covered more of the non-technical aspects of building a PC - where to get parts, the advantages and disadvantages of building it yourself, etc. Last night was the second session, which I luckily was able to attend.

In the second installment, they had gotten all the parts they were going to use, and did the actual assembly of the computer. They purchased parts that were the exact same specs of a Dell XPS (I’m not sure which model, I’ll try to get that information and post that here later on), which cost about $2,300 direct from Dell. Using online retailers, they were able to purchase all of the parts (including monitor, mouse and keyboard) for about $1,300. That’s a pretty big benefit of doing it yourself right there!

As they assembled it, they went through what each part does, why it’s important to the system, and how to install it. They had a webcam going through a projector so that we could all see the small precision work they were doing, which was definitely helpful. Once it was all assembled, they plugged in the monitor, keyboard, mouse, and the power cord, and pushed the button. The machine whirred to life, but didn’t get very far since Windows isn’t installed yet. That’s what next week’s session is for.

Next Tuesday is the final installment in the series.  We’ll be going over how to install Windows (this machine will be running Vista), as well as Linux.  I’ll be sure to get plenty of pictures!

The Photo of the Week for this week was taken from my room last semester:

This is a RoRo (Roll-On Roll-Off) vehicle carrier ship, passing the Mass Maritime campus transiting the Cape Cod Canal. Notice how, even from my elevated angle on the 04 deck, it towers over everything on campus, including the Bresnahan Building (the one with the glass front), with a height of more than 3 stories!

We had a helicopter land on the parade field today, and do some low altitude flying over the campus. It was doing surveying and research for a new experimental low-power RADAR system to integrate with the wind turbine. The system is intended to automatically control the aviation indicator lights on the top of the windmill, so that they can be turned on and off depending on whether aircraft are in the area.

I got some pictures and videos of the helicopter:

Definitely the excitement for the week. It made it even better that it was wicked nice outside, so I had a good excuse to be outside instead of in my room doing schoolwork

Today I had my whaleboat qual (short for qualification). We’re tested on the boat and line handling procedures we’ve been learning for the past couple of weeks, on a points system for various stages of the operation.

The procedure was the same as it’s been while we’ve been practicing - undocking, maneuvering outboard of the Enterprise, making an approach, and docking again.  This time, however, we were making a starboard landing (starboard side of the boat against the dock) instead of a port landing, which was how we’d been practicing.  At our dock, a starboard landing is much harder because you have to clear the bow of the Enterprise by only about a foot, and then turn hard enough to come in alongside the dock at the right spot.  The real kicker is that you’re not supposed to put her in reverse to slow down or maneuver, since you should be able to properly manage speed and direction going forward.

I wasn’t able to quite hit the mark when making my approach, and ended up about 3/4 of a boat length down from the mark.  However, I did everything else properly, so hopefully I passed.  We find out next week the results.  I’m hoping that doing quals doesn’t mean the end of motor whaleboats for this class, because so far that’s been my favorite part of deck classes!

This week’s Photo of the Week is out of my archives from Sea Term 2008.

I took this photo while on board a similar vessel doing snorkel tours of various points of interest, including a sunken German freighter.

Regatta at Harvard on the Charles River

Originally uploaded by cconover

Part of the fleet waiting to start at today’s regatta.

I’m going to start a new segment called Photo of the Week. Every Friday, I’m going to post a photograph of something MMA-related that either I or another cadet has taken.

If you have a photo you’ve taken of something at or relating to MMA that you’d like me to post, please e-mail me to let me know.

Today was the annual Spring Career Fair here at MMA, where dozens of companies come to try and recruit this year’s graduating class, as well as some of the other cadets for internships and cooperatives. There were close to 100 companies represented, from all over the country and the world.

I only stopped and talked with a few companies, since the main focus of this career fair was to help juniors and seniors line up jobs, so underclassmen were a lower priority. I talked to recruiters from the United States Coast Guard, since I plan to do the Reserves, and will be going to boot camp this summer. I also talked to McAllister Towing, where I was told that I might be able to get an internship in Baltimore this summer on a tug. I didn’t even know that internships were offered to freshmen before tonight! I stopped by the American Maritime Officers union booth, and I only talked for a minute with the representative, but I got a sweet Merchant Marine bumper sticker out of it

I had planned to take my camera with me, but in my haste to get out the door after sailing practice to make sure I got there before it closed for underclassmen, I forgot to grab it (I really need to start getting better about bringing it with me more often). Regardless, it was a really good experience, and gave me a sense of what’s available after graduation.

I found this video, I’m guessing put together by a parent, of the Enterprise going through the Miraflores locks in the Panama Canal on our return trip.

I’m pretty sure that I have photographs looking right back at that camera.  I’m really glad that somebody recorded these shots, so thank you to whoever posted this!

Today was the Welcome Aboard event at the Academy. This is a day specifically for high school seniors who have been accepted into next year’s freshman class. It allows them to get a more in-depth sense of some of the things MMA has to offer, such as firefighting, cold water survival, small boat handling, and basic engineering. I was one of the cadets running the Semester at Sea seminar, where future cadets got to see pictures and videos from previous Sea Terms, get information about life as a freshman on the Enterprise, and have a question and answer session.

There were four sessions today, so my group got to talk to about 120 students about our experiences on cruise. We had two juniors and four freshmen (including me) so we were able to offer a wide array of information. We showed a video that one of the juniors had put together after his freshman cruise, the year they went to Europe. Then we showed a slideshow of some pictures 2/C Wilson took this year. While we were showing pictures, we each discussed a specific aspect of Sea Term. We talked about division rotations, the Enterprise itself, deck & engine watches, classes, and port time. We also fielded a lot of questions from the future cadets about life on Sea Term, from watch to life in the holds and time off.

I think today went well overall. If you were there and have any additional questions or comments, or weren’t but still have something to share, please post a comment.