UW Update Saturday 5/3/15

1.     UW Update Saturday 5/3/15

a.     After staying up until 3 am the preceding evening, I realized upon waking at 11:30 that I’d only slept 8.5 hours—hardly sleeping in. But I felt wide awake, and I didn’t want to destroy my sleep schedule completely, so I got up, whipped open the curtains, took a shower.

b.     Checked email, attended to a few things. Texted Xin and Brandon to see if they wanted to get Indian around 2pm, after I played some basketball. I’ve realized I really do enjoy food (and especially heaping plates of Indian) more after exercise. So I headed to Denny Field, got into a few fun games of half-court 3-on-3. Some of the players were very good, so the games were intense and tiring despite being half-court.

c.      A fraternity showed up with about a dozen people, and my 3-on-3ers left. I stayed and got into the second full-court game. I played well, getting lots of good rebounds and coordinating well with my teammates. A few players introduced themselves after the game ended (sadly, the likelihood that someone will introduce themselves/bond with you after a game is very correlated with how well you play. There are a few exceptions, but when someone new talks to you after you play poorly, the mode of interaction is different—less pure bro-camaraderie and more asymmetrical encouragement.)

d.     Ran into Jacob from judo last quarter. Chatted for a bit.

e.     Realized Brandon had texted me back about Indian, so I hustled back to Haggett, drank a gallon of water, showered, and met Brandon in the lounge. Then we went to Jewel of India. They were just about to close the lunch buffet, so both of us pre-loaded our plates. Man, it was so good! My basketball hypothesis worked perfectly. Brandon almost couldn’t finish his food, but in the end managed to hew to buffet etiquette (never take more than you can eat J)

f.      Returned to Haggett, donned my Glee Club gear, and walked to the softball field behind the stadium to sing the national anthem for the game against Oregon State. The day was beautiful, the sun was warm, but alas, Dr. Boers had fallen into a miscommunication, and the gig was canceled. So I tossed around my Frisbee with Sean for a while (it must have looked very strange: two dudes, loitering outside the softball field in full concert attire, tossing a Frisbee). Then I headed back to Haggett. Passed through this crazy Indonesian festival in the quad on the way back. It was super packed, otherwise I might have stayed. I was too stuffed to be lured even by the temptation of free, exotic food.

g.     Was heading out to read physics outside when Xin walked in, told me I should do the postlab with him and Donovan. I walked into the study room, intending to find struggle and confusion, but instead found that Donovan understood the postlab better than I did! For some reason, Xin hadn’t absorbed any of Donovan’s clever arguments, and failed to do so until I told him, hey, listen to Donovan here! He’s right!

h.     Went to dinner with Donovan. Not hungry enough to buy food at 8, but earlier in the week Micah had given me a random container of sushi, so I ate that and an apple.

i.       Returned to Haggett, lent out my pans and spatula to Xin to make fried rice. Read physics outside for a while then came back. Jamie, Alex, and Sam were watching a boxing match in the room; apparently one of the most exciting matches in a long time. It was quite interesting—the fighters had very different styles. Sam was really disappointed that the more exciting fighter didn’t win.

j.       Read a bit more for physics.

k.     Skyped with Grace! She decided to drop her double Art-Math major in favor of Art+(maybe a minor)+(pursuing diverse academic interests). I pitched a minor in physics, testing my new idea that physics isn’t really that different from philosophy in a lot of ways. The modes of argumentation, the explicit creation and application of abstract models, the types of questions both seek to answer, are really quite similar.

l.       Did a little bit of linear hw.

m.   Read Diaspora, an awesomely majestic experience spanning an annoying amount of dimensions. (The author dreams up some pretty awesome hypothetical pizza. Wait. Freudian slip. I meant hypothetical physics.) It’s also really cool to explore a universe where these sentient programs, capable of experiencing anything they want and any degree of separation from physical reality, are constantly making existential decisions.

n.     Hung out with Jamie, Abum, and Noah in the lounge for a bit. Wrote this log and went to sleep.