UW Update Wednesday 1/28/15

1.     UW Update Wednesday 1/28/15

a.     Woke up, went to physics. Talked about magnetic field in way the book had not discussed yet. Interesting stuff—magnetic field can set up “eddy currents” in moving metals that then interact with the magnetic field and slow the metal’s motion; application in brakes.

b.     Returned to dorm to find students streaming away; fire drill. Studied in McMahon, then went to Haggett to print puzzle papers for teaching.

c.      Grabbed lunch at Motosurf, took it to research class. The professor talked about earthquake engineering and different ways of modeling stresses on buildings, which was pretty cool.

d.     At teaching class, each of the people in our group explained/enacted with group their strategies to help a uncommunicative, hostile team in a biotech startup work together. It was pretty cool. My solution entailed collaboration via Git/Github or other versioning software.

e.     Returned to dorm, headed out to Denny field with basketball. Got into the most intense game of Bump I’d ever played with a group of people who arrived together after I’d started shooting. Their timing strategies were complex, making the duel of two shooters look like fencing. Do I try to get a quick shot in? Do I wait, then attempt to shoot the ball through the hoop in reverse to kick the opponent’s ball out? Do I take the long shot and risk being Bumped back to the Neolithic, or do I bounce off the backboard to myself, then go in for the layup? Tricky questions. I had a hard time at first overcoming the functional fixedness I felt towards the basketball—you shoot it, you lay it up, but you don’t use it to smash another basketball, nor throw it backwards through the hoop. I had to retrain my intuitions.

f.      Took a shower, wrote results section and turned in puzzle paper, then put on concert getup. Grabbed slices of pizza, then walked to the basketball arena where we were to sing Star-Spangled Banner. Hugh, a physics major and fellow Glee Club member, showed me how to tie my tie.

g.     After the sound check, we were ushered into a room where we practiced, talked, and ate. I practiced extra to avoid forgetting lyrics and non-melody refrains.

h.     Finally, at 8, we walk out onto the court and sing. It goes very well!

i.       Surprisingly, all the Glee Clubbers leave without watching the game. Mom and Dad had driven down for the game, so I sat with them and watched the game. We chatted a bit. Huskies lost abysmally, but it was fun to watch.

j.       Returned to dorm, was about to eat Asian pear when realized I’d left my fruit in Rick’s yesterday. Bummer.

k.     Wrote down upcoming tasks and deadlines, did physics pretest and prelab.

l.       Wrote log, went to bed.