4/18/16

1. 4/18/16
1. Woke early, started on Thermal hw.
2. Met the SPS National president, DJ, who’s been visiting on sabbatical, at the Cafe Solstice. We talked about SPS growth strategies (some neat ideas!):
1. Listed here for my convenience:
2. Grab freshmen looking for a peer group in classes
3. Email freshmen who’ve listed physics as an interest on the UW app (talk to department)
4. Go to the RSO fair at the beginning of the year (get outside the department)
5. Make liquid nitrogen ice cream
6. Get a prof to take students out for dinner
7. Hmm, what else?
8. Oh, have every other meeting be an activity. One neat example--a photo scavenger hunt where the prompts are physics principles (find an example of buoyancy / self-similarity / second law / etc)
9. Anyway,
3. We also talked about the big SPS national organization, which isn’t that big after all (at least centrally). They’re trying to get a new director after the last guy, who ushered in a period of real growth, went back to academia. It’s a good sign when people leave power because they want to do something else, and the powerful are drawn from the rank and file of university physics faculty :D
4. Parted on good terms, and I was off to math, except not, since I still had Thermal to do. Ended up missing both math and systems, but got a sweet lunch at Motosurf to take to thermal and had time to review accounting.
5. Thermal was interesting, shades of entropy material we covered briefly in the intro series.
6. Took my accounting quiz and got off early.
7. Thence back to Haggett. Went down to McMahon hoops courts, then Xin came down and we went and played a little badminton.
8. To Haggett, to work (caught up on slides for missed system lecture and math reading, plus systems textbook), then to peer tutoring class, discussed exam problems a little bit. Frisbee with Isaac for 10min, nice guy.
9. Grabbed dinner at the 8 and took it to the floor lounge. Madison was playing gorgeous ukelele music and singing classic songs with lyrics like “wanna be your left-hand man”. I sang along a tiny bit :)
10. Worked a bit longer--easy accounting hw--then I headed out. Alex was studying for Chemistry midterm, and so I decided to cut Monday dance and go to a poker night with Lavin students (@Joan I wish I had had my hat :D
11. $5 buyin, these entre students, they took big risks and dropped like flies. I bided my time and capitalized on each irrationality, Hornblower style, chewing gum like a seasoned cowboy. Only 4 left, then 3, then 2, and it was late so we cashed out. +$15! Still gotta collect though :D
12. Returned to Haggett, showered, wrote this entry, got tickled by Xin. Tried to resist, but need to work with Izzy on this :D
13. Good night all!