What do 35-ish miles, severe dehydration, and a good time with friends all have in common?

This week was indeed a short one. We got back on the grind on Wednesday, and the past 2 days have gone by very quickly. We began low-fidelity prototyping yesterday, and developed 2 prototypes for our stationary solutions, and 2 for our proposed handheld solutions. We also began prototyping our toe separator devices, and we will use these prototypes in our decisions when we score these brainstormed solutions.
Before we began prototyping however, we created detailed technical drawings of the 4 solutions we were moving forward with. We scanned these drawings and got some K R I S P Y results. These scans are quite literally the most beautiful thing I’ve seen this summer. After we finished the prototyping and some light testing, we began work on our Mid-Summer presentation. We presented today (Thursday) and it went well! We had a big flashy number for the intro, and I feel like we really reached the hearts of our audience.

We ordered parts for our remaining prototypes, since our client has made it clear that a stationary device is the way to go for this project, so our next step are developing a Gantt chart, and prototyping.

ADVENTURES IN THE OUTDOORS

Last Friday, a group of us interns–Manuel, Caz, Christina, Tori, Luis, Alex, and myself–went on the Critical Mass bike ride. We all thought their tagline wasn’t a lie, “a social ride for cyclists of all skill levels”. It was a lie. We ended up doing quite literally the length of a marathon–26.42 miles– and over 35 miles by the end of the night (including an IHOP trip). Literally less than (about) an hour into the ride, we were all but out of water, but still, no warning alarm had gone off. By the time we had reached the midway point, 13 miles from downtown Houston, we started to have our doubts, but it was too dark and too late to turn back. We realized that we weren’t in Houston when the Houston police Car that had been bringing up the rear this whole ride blasted from their speakers: “be sure you’re fully clear from the street. We’re not in Houston anymore, so we cannot stop them [the local police] from ticketing you guys.” Some other features of the ride included the two only hills in Houston, which I had to climb in 7th gear because I missed up the tension of my shifters a few nights before. I cannot even count the number of times we stopped because we lost someone in the thronging mass of people, and at a few points I myself was lost. I dropped my phone twice (straight out of my pocket onto the unforgiving concrete), but luckily it suffered no damage. Both times I didn’t notice, so I owe my life to Manuel and Caz for noticing. When we finally refueled at a gas station, we resolved to go to IHOP before the night ended, and drove through Downtown Houston, acting as a car, and some very dark and spooky neighborhoods. When we finally got to IHOP, there were no bike racks, so we locked 6 of the bikes together (Christina left to hang with a friend) and then locked the first one to a fence. Somehow we made it home a little scathed, with quite a few scratches and cuts on us. All-in-all, although my account may have had you on the edge of your seat, wracked with fear and suspense, this bike ride was an AMAZING time. I made so many memories and enjoyed seeing so many people on bikes having a good time.

11/10 would do again.