UW Update Tuesday 4/21

1.     UW Update Tuesday 4/21

a.     This has been one of those crazy days where all the scheduling goes PERFECTLY. No homework (I nearly finished it all yesterday!), but busy as Leroy. Very strange, but awesome.

b.     Woke, grabbed breakfast in the 8. It was more than I intended, but quite delicious. Read more Martian.

c.      Went to machine shop class. Ron showed us nearly all the cutting equipment, as well as all the sheet metal cutting/folding/punching equipment. No way we’re getting through all of it in lab! The specialized tools for sheet metal are very powerful—you can make all sorts of stuff with little complication or danger.

d.     I left the machine shop and made my slow, meandering way to Padelford, where I had some questions for the math advisors. That is, I explored the entire physics building, checked out the greenhouses and several other buildings before I got there.

                                                 i.     On the top floor of the physics building, there’s this sweet “Data Science…” something. Institute, whatever it was, there was a library of neat books having to do with data science, including some Edward Tufte books, a beautiful study space, and an amazing glassed-in conference room. Several startups appeared to be working in the space. And, there was a wall that had been covered with whiteboard coating! Super cool, because it was really hard to tell the wall was coated, until you realized nobody would scrawl equations permanently on a standard wall.

                                               ii.     Checked out the Nuclear Theory Institute. Not much to see, but neat to know it existed. Three separate lounges with blackboards completely covered with work.

                                              iii.     Down to the Astronomy floor! Ran into Matt from machine shop, who told me, to my chagrin, that the awesome Data Science… uh… ____ used to be a nerd paradise, a library filled with sci-fi volumes and old armchairs overlooking the greatest view in the university. Matt was sad when the physics overlords appropriated the space.

                                              iv.     Checked out the remaining floors—some neat labs, but not too much to see.

                                               v.     Left and started walking north. Realized I’d never given the Biology greenhouses, near the physics complex, a closer look. On closer inspection I found, to my great surprise, that the greenhouses were open to the public. I marveled at all manner of exotic plants, cacti, giant lily pads, &c. There were some spaces reserved for researchers (and one space closed off with biohazard signs!). It was pretty neat.

                                              vi.     Exiting through the other side, I happened upon the UW Farm, which apparently is a thing. Fairly small plot of ground, but looked interesting.

                                            vii.     I walked randomly into and out of the Material Science building. Interesting, not too much to see from the outside.

                                           viii.     Finally, I made my way to Padelford, found the math advisors, asked them my questions (yes, you really can get a math minor basically just with the Honors 33x series! Yes, you only need 5 more courses to get a math major!).

e.     By this time I was in a hurry because I had 3 things I wanted to get done in the space of a few hours:

                                                 i.     Go to the study abroad office.

                                               ii.     Get a haircut.

                                              iii.     Cut my whiteboard paneling to size.

f.      The latter was the time-constraint—the machine shop, with the table saw, was only open from 3:30 to 4. So I marked my paneling, booked it to study abroad office in Schmitz, asked a few questions and got leads to follow up on, booked it all the way back across campus and past UVillage to the east to get to this barber Johan had recommended, Epic Cuts. At this point, despite my sprinting, it was 2:50 and I was despairing of making it back to campus in time to cut my whiteboard. But the Epic crew (2 women, friendly, the place looked like a recent startup) made short work of my haircut and gave me a student discount to boot, and unbelievably, after running back to Haggett and collecting my gear, I was running across the quad with a 3’x4’ sheet of whiteboard. I made it to the shop at 3:35, Ron showed me how to run the table saw (an amazingly fancy saw! Conductivity will immediately run the saw into an aluminum block and stop it if you stick a finger on the blade, so there’s literally no way you could cut yourself with the saw. Crazy!). Anyway, I got my whiteboard cut, chatted with Janelle from the SPS camping trip, who was machining a part for the research labs.

g.     Then I headed to Lander, checked availability on 2104 House. 3 male spots left. I’m now at the mercy of those with more quarters of priority than me.

h.     Returned to Haggett with my whiteboard, and again amazingly, squeezed in half an hour of Frisbee and conversation with Issa before Glee Club. Glee Club went really well—we all were sounding good under Boers’ expert tutelage and I was no exception. Focused on tone rather than remembering every note—that helped.

i.       Ate quick dinner with Chase in the HUB. Talked about D&D like campaign he was planning on running.

j.       Walked through slight drizzle to Salsa Club. That went well. I mean, WTF?! (I realize here I’m picking up some of the narration style from the Martian J). Remembered people’s names, remembered steps, all the rhythm training from Glee was proving helpful.

k.     Returned to dorm. Talked with Xin for a bit. Took shower. Hung whiteboards, a time-consuming but ultimately successful process. Went down to Rick’s, got crazy mango sorbet sodashake thing that was quite good. Finished The Martian and read Ribbonfarm.

l.       Checked email, wrote this log and went to bed.