UW Way-Back Backlog Post-Date
Monday Sept. 22 to Thursday Sept. 25
Summary:
First
week of classes! Everything is going well! The material in computer science and
physics isn’t new to me yet, but I can feel at least physics going in that
direction. I really like my physics professor—he’s very eager to teach well,
and on the first day of class, he showed us this slide with a student getting
information aurally and losing information aurally (in one ear, out the other).
He then told us that we were to gather most of our information outside of class
by reading the text, and he’d discuss the most important/interesting things in
class instead of trying to frantically cover everything in the lecture. This is
a model of education I agree with J
Plus, we’re all using clickers to answer questions in class and we can see the
aggregate answers on the projector, which I think is neat. I still have
three(!) classes I haven’t attended; the two-credit “Driving Change in
Education” online seminar, which I wrote a short paper for, the one credit
Intro to Honors and the one-credit Honors add-on to Computer Science.
Timeline:
1.
Monday Sept. 22
a. Bike
ride to Fremont
i. Got
bike checked at ASUW bike shop! The bike shop is super nice and the tools are
free to use for students. Guest retired Microsoft dude wants us to pilot his
altruistic project to squish bike thieves with his new app Project 529.
ii. Biked
to Fremont. The trail we took to get there was nice, along the water. Met
Chengtao, an exchange student planning to major in EE, along the way. Visited
the Fremont Troll.
iii. Ate
lunch in Fremont with others on the ride. I was going to go to a swing-dancing
class, but decide to eat lunch with them instead. Before I can
iv. Walked
around in Fremont.
v. Biked
back from Fremont.
b. Went
to Fall Fling concert with Jamie, didn’t like the rap music, so went back to
dorm. Worked on UW Update #1, replied to emails, tried to set up OneDrive.
c. Went
to my Cardio Dance workout at the IMA. It was a lot of fun, although I sucked
at it J.
Lots of fast movements coordinated with music and plenty of weird hip
movements.
d. Went
back to the dorm and met up with Jamie and Eleanor for dinner. Afterwards,
Eleanor and I watched part of a Feynman lecture in the dorm, eschewing the Late
Night Shopping at Fred Meyer event.
e. Eleanor
went to bed and Jamie and I went to the 5th/6th floor
lounge. We played Peanut Butter with a bunch of floormates. More people
trickled in, some carrying bulging plastic bags from Fred Meyer filled with
everything from hangers to woks. Eventually we had to move the Peanut Butter
game to the floor since we had about 15 players. Everyone introduced themselves,
and after Peanut Butter, we played a game called “Never Have I Ever” (Everyone
starts with 10 fingers, then each person in turn says something that they have
never done, whereupon all other players who have done that thing clap and lose
a finger.) Everyone was joking and grumbling about actually voluntarily
participating in an icebreaker. Afterwards, a long conversation ensued. I
learned where the party scene was at from an exchange student, Mika, who had
participated in Early Fall Start classes before the quarter began. They said
that many of the Asian exchange students had grown used to drinking alcohol in
China, and had wealthy parents, so these students threw lavish parties in their
apartments and West Campus dorm rooms. (I excluded North Campus because Mika
said that the students with wealthy parents lived in apartments or the newer
West Campus dorms.) Mika advised us to keep partying off campus, telling us
that he and a bunch of friends got busted for partying in Alder Hall and given
a citation whose implications had not yet become clear. One of my floormates,
in a low voice, told the group that she would be buying fake IDs and would be
glad to buy one for anyone who wanted one so that she could take advantage of
the group rate. At some point, a nice exchange student came in from the 5th
floor kitchenette (which has a range) with a steaming plate of stir-fried
cabbage? (Not bok choy) in soy sauce,
which everyone ate. Another student and I went to the kitchenette to wash and
return the plate.
f. Finally,
at about 1 am, I went to bed exhausted. The conversation was still going
strong.
2.
Tuesday Sept 23
a. Jamie
and I go to the Biomedical Ethics club at 11:00. It’s really fun. I take a
utilitarian stance on a triage issue, arguing that those who are more valuable
to society based on a wide range of metrics should receive treatment for
potentially fatal kidney disease first. I think I’ll be going back.
b. We
have just enough time to get lunch at the HUB before going to the Student Film
Screening. I order a delicious and very filling green curry with garlic naan.
We walk to the film screening, but I realize I need to meet with Mom, who drove
up to Seattle with Connie and Heidi, to grab some stuff. I do so, drop off the
stuff at the dorm, then go back to the film screening. It’s pretty
cool—students have made some pretty neat short films. We get club information,
and I hear that at the next meeting they’re screening Little Miss Sunshine,
which I want to watch.
c. Then
we hit the poster sale in the HUB. I look through a lot of posters, but they’re
$10 each, so I only buy one: a very artistically rendered Einstein with lots of
equations. I looked at the eqs and they don’t make actual sense, but who cares.
d. Then
I hustle off to the Chess Club meeting. I get there and there are only four
people, but by the middle of the meeting there are 15 or so, several of whom I
end up knowing. I play and enjoy a couple of random games. I get a text from
Eleanor saying she’s going to the bookstore, so near the end of chess club I
sprint over to the bookstore to try to take advantage of her privileged
position in line. I miss her by a few minutes, but the line is short enough by
that time that it doesn’t matter.
e. I
go back to the dorm, drop off my stuff, then go to the IMA for Cardio
Kickboxing. I try to bike there but the way isn’t obvious; eventually I just
end up walking my bike down the stairs that link the dorms on the hill with the
IMA in the valley.
f. So
I’m late to the kickboxing class, and it’s popular, so they don’t let me in. I
decide to check out the basketball court and end up playing a couple games. I
play a lot better than I expect to. I have a great time. When I leave the gym,
I notice a game of pickup soccer going on and join in. It’s been sprinkling
rain all day, and now it’s pouring. After soccer, a couple guys split off and
we play soccer tennis, a sport I am horrible at. Basically, you juggle the
soccer ball between players on your side, then kick/head/knee it over the “net”
(caution tape stretched between two orange post cones) to the other team. After
that, I’m wet and cold and exhausted and I take a long hot shower. I hear later
from dormmates that a fire drill had taken place while I was gone, so I was not
the only one left in the rain. I answer email, finish writing the last update
and send it out, read, then go to bed.
3.
Wednesday Sept. 24
a. I
wake up bright and early for Physics at 9:30. Walk down with Eleanor and Jamie,
who splits off at the fountain to go to econ. The fountain looks pretty in the
drizzle with the gray light reflecting off all the umbrellas.
b. I
like the physics professor.
c. Afterwards
I go to the club fair and visit every booth. I put my name on the email list
for:
i. The
robotics club
ii. The
salsa dancing club
iii. The
Pipeline volunteer in schools organization
iv. The
3D printing club
v. The
Ultimate Frisbee club
vi. The
Rugby club
vii. The
Kendo club
viii.
The Neuroscience Journal club
ix. The
Theater group/club/thingy
x. The
Graphic Novel club
xi. And
more that I don’t remember
d. By
the time I’m done, I’m pretty tired. But I still go to the Student Tech fair in
Odegaard Undergraduate Library and get a free T-shirt from Microsoft.
e. I
go back to the dorm, eat lunch, then do physics homework and finish setting up
OneDrive before my computer science class.
f. I
go to Kane Hall for lecture. It’s pretty simple stuff on arrays and OOP; I
relearn the glories of JGrasp, which would be the best development environment
ever except it lacks autocomplete, so I have to type everything in full.
g. I
go back to the dorm and install JGrasp. I probably do some physics homework
too.
h. Then
I go to the IMA for “Self-Defense”. Like the other IMA Dawg Daze classes, it’s
almost all women. But in this class, I’m the only guy. The class is actually a
lot of fun. We talk about the emotional state of a person who is forced to
fight and try to put ourselves in that state by hitting pads that the other
person is holding against their chest, closing our eyes before being whacked by
a pad from a random direction, etc. We learn an interesting stance and we learn
to put our hands in front of our face to protect it, and to strike with an open
hand to avoid breaking our wrist. We practice kicks to the groin by holding out
pads near that level and leaning back. It’s pretty fun. I might sign up for the
class.
i. I
go back to the dorm and take a shower. Then I meet up with Eleanor for a
Feynman lecture. We can’t get wifi in the lounge so we go to my room. I eat two
peanut-butter bananas for dinner. The lecture is very interesting; he explains
the particle-wave two-split experiment. I still need to finish it.
j. Chris
from down the hall comes into the room and we all talk about physics. I try to
do the hardest problem in the introductory section, come up with an answer, but
can’t find the answer key.
k. I
read and go to bed.
4.
Thursday Sept. 25
a. Again
I wake up bright and early for my Physics tutorial section. We basically do
homework and argue about problems we’re not sure about. The homework is
tedious, but I like the explanation-focused approach.
b. Afterwards
I eat lunch with Eleanor and we talk about the section and physics problems.
c. Then
I go back to the dorm and do my normal stuff (email, homework, finally putting
the issues with OneDrive to bed).
d. I
go to the computer science TA section. We practice writing some arrayList
methods, which is kind of fun, visualizing the space in the array and deciding
to loop backwards vs. forwards.
e. I
borrow Eleanor’s physics textbook (mine hasn’t arrived from Amazon yet and
Eleanor is being very nice to let me borrow hers) and read the assigned
reading.
f. Then
I go to the IMA with Eleanor and Sasha to do cardio kickboxing. Unfortunately,
they ask for our Dawg Daze passes, which we didn’t think we’d need. So we
switch over to the more relaxed Hip Hop class. All the dance classes seem to
teach a dance that incorporates a bunch of moves (analogous to a form sequence
in martial arts) and this one is no different. But the speed of the dance and
the complexity of the moves are beyond the other classes I’ve taken. It’s still
fun.
g. I
realize there’s a Salsa class at 7, and I need to get some food. So I catch the
end of the Science and Engineering Business Association barbeque. It actually
sounds like a really neat organization, plus they give me 4(!) hot dogs. I
hustle back for salsa, which is really fun.
I still suck at it, comparatively, but I like the music (contrast to the awful
beat + rap != song music played at hip hop, cardio dance, etc.) We get to try
partner dancing. I’ll definitely come back for the next meeting.
h.
Then I run back to get my water bottle which I
forgot at the bbq and head back to the dorm.
I shower, do a little homework, read, and go to bed.
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