UW Update Monday 3/30/15: The First Day of Spring (Quarter)

1.     UW Update Monday 3/30/15: The First Day of Spring (Quarter)

a.     This day felt like an eternity (in a good way). Woke, grabbed oatmeal at the 8, and hiked down to physics. We reviewed waves from last quarter, and learned some interesting models of how waves reflect off of medium boundaries (a string tied to a pole, etc.)

b.     Walked to linear (Linear Algebra) with a few physickers. I really like our postdoc instructor, Annie, although the material we started with was pretty basic, and Annie warned us of several limitations based on the way the course is standardized that she could do nothing about (a point in her favor, but not in the course’s favor).

c.      Picked up a paper copy of Nonlinear Dynamics at the Engineering Library, which had lots of neat study rooms. Sat and wrote the last log outside for a while. Checked in at the SPS: no Lunchbox Seminar. Hit the bookstore. Spent too much time making sure I was making the right decisions, then spent more time buying office supplies. By the time I returned to campus, I had to scarf down my delicious taco lunch.

d.     Scrambled to CSE 311. A ton of people I knew were there: Maddie, Diana, Sarang, Steve, Johan, Katie, Jessie. But the class is lecture-oriented, so we won’t really be able to talk in class. Our prof James started off with pretty basic material on logic, but things are likely to get more interesting. Chatted with Katie on way out.

e.     Picked up my hold, Mindstorms, a book on the LOGO programming education system recommended by Bret Victor of worrydream.com.

f.      Tried to recover my jacket which I had left in the MEB, but class was in session. Stood outside and finished my log.

g.     Went to the IMA, looked into intermural leagues (Soccer? Flag Football?) and checked in my basket. Played some basketball. I didn’t play that well L

h.     Grabbed my jacket at the MEB. Met Chase for dinner at the 8. We talked for awhile—he had come up with a model for how he classified people, not in terms of carefully refined categories emphasizing permanent and intrinsic similarities like the enneagram, but in terms of tropes—categories abstracted from anything seen to be similar across a bunch of instances, sometimes drawn from literature or TV (e.g. the “everyman” -> a not-well-fleshed-out character (In real life, maybe someone not open with internal details) that everyone can identify with because they cannot identify any obvious dissimilarities, used to create a sense of connections in a TV show). Chase would identify someone with a trope, then refine them by noting differences with what the trope predicts.

i.       Returned to dorm, checked out my classes’ websites and schedules and set up WebAssign.

j.       Volunteered at Rick’s! It was a lot of fun. Rick’s was packed for practically the entire time we were there—we served about 300 bowls, cones, shakes, etc. Ayla and some others (Thomas, Taylor, more) showed me the ropes. I was scooping like a madman for most of the evening. By the time I got back to the dorm, with my self-made Sammy, I was exhausted.

k.     Read physics, showered, talked with Issa for a bit (he's taking a graduate level climate modeling class, and he said the first meeting was a bit intimidating), wrote this log, and hit the hay.