Author: Emily Sara Smucker
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Sounds of Summer
Jenny blows up the air mattress so she can spend the summer sleeping outside. Summer smells like Garage Sale perfume on your hands. It is Canada day.
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Fifth Place and Frugal
Yes, we did just get 5’th place in the MATE International ROV competition, beating out big fancy schools like Purdue and Ohio State, and we did it in style. (By “style” I mean “multicolored LBCC t-shirts we hastily purchased from the bookstore minutes before we left, which resulted in people getting us confused with Long…
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Narwhals Always Win
Today we all wore LBCC shirts that didn’t exactly match. “Next year, we should call ourselves the ‘otterpops,’” joked one club member. “Our theme this year is ‘as cheap as possible,’” said another. Our robot did look a little lame next to the sleek models sported by other schools. The frame was constructed from PVC,…
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Wendy Darling
Today was day 1 of the ROV competition, in which I ran around setting up a poster display, printing documents on the floor of the lobby of the aquatic center, and trying to organize a presentation that completely rested on the knowledge of the other club members. It went well though. Now, the communications portion…
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Traveling With Robot Boys
Part 1: Discussions we had while traveling up to Seattle. – What is the difference between the terms “cylindrical” and “tubular?” – Have people done scientific research to figure out the most annoying/scary/attention-getting sequence of flashing lights on police cars? – Does the term “guys” refer to only males or is it gender neutral? That…
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Robots are Cool
Recent conversations have been running something like this: Me: So yeah, I joined the ROV club on campus… Person: What’s the ROV club? Me: Well, “ROV” stands for “remotely operated vehicle,” so it’s basically an underwater robot. Person: Wait, you make robots? Me: Well, um, not really. But I think they’re cool. … At the…
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The “Generally Awesome Person” Award
I graduated tonight. I sat beside my friend Nora. We each had a card with our name and degree on it, for the person to read off just before we were handed our diploma cover. “I wonder if they’ll read off everything I wrote on here,” said Nora. I looked at her paper. After her…
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Graduation and Missing Families
I lay in bed and thought about this picture and was sad. I know everybody says “I have the best family!” and obviously not EVERYONE can have the best family. But I still like mine best. They all swooped in for Steven’s graduation, and we had a week of grand adventures. Then, “poof!” They all…
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The Benefits of Looking Religious
I was entering the learning center when the old man stopped me. “Do I know you from the store?” he asked. I knew he meant Grocery Depot, the Mennonite-owned store in town that mostly employs other Mennonites. “I don’t work there anymore, but I used to,” I said. “I have friends that work there.” “But…
The Girl in the Red Rubber Boots 