UW Update Friday Feb. 27

1.     UW Update Friday Feb. 27

a.     Rolled out of bed and went to physics, where we talked more about the Lorentz contraction. I think I’m finally almost understanding it.

b.     Returned to dorm, did housekeeping on my task list, did physics postlab.

c.      Grabbed tacos at food truck while chatting with Chase, who walked down to Red Square with me. The tacos, and the spicy tater tots I ordered with them, were quite good.

d.     Lab tour! Met up at the SPS, headed to CENPA labs below Haggett. We toured a complex particle accelerator apparatus, checked out the lab that had most precisely determined the gravitational constant with a ridiculously precise torsion balance (measures forces by the twisting of a wire), and found out about a computing cluster open for use by all UW students with simulations to run.

e.     Headed back to physics complex and toured the basement labs. One lab was studying proteins that moved DNA using a tiny pore that, when DNA was passed through it, measured the reduced current of ions flowing through the pore. Whichever DNA base was currently occupying the pore determined the current flow through the pore, so by looking at the current, the researchers could determine how the proteins were moving the DNA. Another was building resonant cavities for detecting the axion.

f.      Finally, we questioned to a panel of researchers. I felt like I got useful info.

g.     Found out that I got into the CSE department! Yes!! No more worrying about having to rewrite application essays, no more paralyzing uncertainty, no more agonizing about squeezing every last grade point out of every course! Plus, I get to register for cool departmental CS courses now.

h.     Headed back to the dorm. Worked on understanding how the Lorentz contraction related magnetism and electricity; figured out the nonintuitive math underlying the relation (in basic “current-carrying wire” terms) to my great satisfaction.

i.       My family was visiting for reasons that will soon be disclosed, and they grabbed me for dinner. We ate some delicious pizza at Delphino’s.

j.       Returned to dorm, worked on physics tutorial.

k.     Went to Denny Field to play basketball. Met a guy in Phys 122B, who had transferred in from the normal physics 121 section and was struggling. Talked to him for a while; it sounded like several people were in his position, forced into honors physics because the other sections were full, and not understanding what they were getting themselves into. Bummer. I offered to take a look at anything he was particularly struggling with. He left for his apartment, and I shot around for a while.

l.       Returned to dorm, brushed teeth, then played Mario Kart and Smash Bros in the lounge for about an hour. It was fun, but I played extremely poorly J.

m.   Wrote this log and hit the hay.

UW Update Thursday Feb. 26

1.      UW Update Thursday Feb. 26

a.     Physics tutorial revealed a crazy (I think) truth: magnetic fields are just electric fields viewed in a frame of reference that is moving so that moving charge undergoes length contraction and charge densities change, resulting in electric field effects that, in nonrelativistic contexts, are thought of as magnetic.

b.     Cows; interesting discussion of Creatures of Empire and fur trade

c.      Lunch at Mod with CS group. Talked about potential grad school plans (for them).

d.     Physics lab, on magnetic fields, induced currents.

e.     Returned to dorm, tried (and I think finally managed) to get ahold of the length contraction concept

f.      Went to Glee Club

g.     Dinner with Jamie (Sophia joined us in the middle).

h.     Saw this crazy movie at Film Club called Sorcerer (misleading name), which was about a group of down-and-out exiles in Colombia agreeing to drive volatile dynamite across South America to stop an oil well fire. It was really intense, and surprisingly plausible for such a nutty premise.

i.       Returned to dorm and met with Ayush from physics, research class to talk about interviewing Garcia tomorrow. We came up with some questions, but ended up having a long conversation about a tutor-tutee coordination app, an “Uber-for-tutors” kind of thing, that Ayush and his friend are building. They want to throw up a usable Android prototype and webapp before Dead Week (they already had a website uwtutor.com), and Ayush recruited me as a tutor. We talked about their pricing model, potential features, all sorts of stuff. Ayush had well-considered responses to most of my questions, but I think I came up with some useful input. Curious where that’s going to go.

j.       Wrote this log and went to bed.

UW Update Tuesday Feb. 24

1.     UW Update Tuesday Feb. 24

a.     Cows

b.     Lunch w/ CS group in HUB; I tried to figure out a learning algorithm one of them brought up.

c.      Return to dorm. Lots of reading Building a Better Teacher. Wrote up summary of paper on unschooling.

d.     Went to SPS Science Café where head of UW Computational Neuroscience department talked about ongoing research. Very interesting. Had to skip Glee Club to attend.

e.     Ate dinner, read more. Forgot Salsa club was at 7 not 7:30 and showed up late, but had a good time anyway.

f.      Read even more, shot some hoops at Denny for half an hour, read some physics, wrote an email to Garcia asking him if he was interested in being interviewed about his research, wrote this log, went to bed.

UW Update Sunday Feb. 22

1.     UW Update Sunday Feb. 22

a.     Woke, did reading for education class and did physics hw. Was frustrated by lots of mistakes I was making in simple problem.

b.     Went to Which Wich, ate a delicious sandwich and read for teaching class.

c.      Returned to dorm and met with August and Chase. Unfortunately George and the other D&D player couldn’t make it, so we cancelled D&D for the day. Chase and I clarified our stances for and against relativity; we plan to carry out an ongoing debate as the class progresses. Chase went to lunch. I finished physics hw then headed to the gym for some basketball.

d.     Got into a game quickly and played three games. I felt that my instincts and coordination, along with my shot accuracy, had improved from Friday; playing two days in quick succession probably helped.

e.     Returned to the dorm, showered, and read more Building a Better Teacher. 

f.      Got picked up by Julie, Ken, Joseph, and Noah, who were down visiting our friend in the hospital. We went to Taste of India and ate an amazing dinner with our friend’s parents (thanks Coopers!) Julie and I chatted about my unschooling project and she gave me some leads to follow.

g.     Grabbed some groceries at the District Market and returned to the dorm. Read lots more Building a Better Teacher, took a break to eat an apple and listen to some stories on the MOTH podcast, then Skyped with Ian (most of it was actually instant messaging since he only found his computer’s microphone at the end of the call). We talked about my Cows class and Egyptian religion, our complex social lives, and his classes at Whatcom. He’s hanging out with Lydia and keeping in contact with the rest of the homeschoolers there.

h.     Wrote this log and went to bed.