entry of dooom!
last night i propped my door open and burned incense and played music and cleaned my room, and the doomkitten came by to explore my room further. she ended up asleep in a bundle on top of my clean laundry pile. so much yay!
i now know what happens when you get caught w/o shoes at star, if you're lucky: if you claim to be nearly done with your shopping, the nice floor-stocking dude asks if it's ok if he walks with you until you're done, so you don't step in any broken glass. and then trails you at 20-30 feet, checking every so often to make sure you're not weirded out. i refrained from thanking him for not summarily banning me from the store for life, and avoided buying pads b/c he might've fallen over in embarrassment. (or maybe that would be me, b/c i am not entirely shameless OMG wail!)
holy jesus, party party party. last friday's both got kill't ded, but i had a drink anyway and played matchmaker, b/c i am stealthy liek whoa and have incense. saturday i discovered that my email handle-meatspace map is a bit broken, and that i am thoroughly cursed when it comes to things flammable. cue shorter eyelashes and hilariously burnt lips, and unrelated social awkwardness. super special bonus for both helping rec schrodinger's eqn as a way to pick up chicks and explaining schrodinger's cat in v. small words, though.
i need to spend more time dancing. i think i need more 1e parties, or something. when 4th ware dances, it also sings, and that justs kills my stamina. *iz weak*
monday, despite being a holiday, i went to work early b/c i'm a workaholic and a tool; highlights included explaining that every food outlet (except the falafel food truck, which fuckin' blows, btw) was closed today b/c it's labor day, it dawning on jarek that everyone, including him, was supposed to have a holiday, and my prof a. noting that all the serious groups were working today b/c it's so quiet and they'd get lots of work done (he works every labor day for jsut this reason.) b. buying an extra lunch to heat up for dinner c. predicting upcoming nobel prizes in the community (if anyone thinks they can make money off this, i suspect he might be right about one.) then talking to my grad student after lunch, and freaking the fuck out, see previous post. am...calmer now. somewhat resigned, unsurprisingly. we'll see how tomorrow goes.
tuesday..was reg day, yay! i drew a pretty picture of my schedule for nergis, who seemed not to remember how pissed she was at me last semester, and actually agreed to everything i was asking. she unfrowned when i said 'p/d/f', and that i had Plans. so this term i'm taking:
- 8.07, 12, E&M II
- 8.09,12, Classical Mechanics II
- 3.07, 12, Introduction to Ceramics
- 6.004, 15, Computation Structures (p/d/f)
- 21H.522, 12, Japan in the Age of Samurai: History and Film
- 21M.401, 6, Concert Choir
i haven't quite worked out a hierarchy of what to drop when term gets rough, but i'm working on it. also add in ~12 hrs of urop a week (there's these awesome chunks of time tuesday, thursday, and friday for it.) and i think i'm dead. note the ninja concentration switch; i realized i really didn't need another hass-d with a prof i somewhat disliked, plus people all over lj were like 'dude, 21A.100 is boring and hard work', and so fell back on my original east asian studies notion. having just read the syllabus for the samurai class, it actually does have several papers and a final-thing, but i think if i keep on top of the readings it'll be ok. and, y'know, weekly film showings! and samurai! *sigh*
ok, so i'm not entirely zen with things yet; we had a group meeting this afternoon in which my professor [said many things about the future of this group, some of which made me twitch a bit and feel useless]. last night i found scissors in my backpack and sat out on the porch under the rain and cut all my hair off, in a somewhat ill-advised move. apparently mirrors are my friend. judicious trimming with a shaver helped a bit, but it'll be a few weeks before i stop looking like an asylum escapee. whoops.
anyway, i've had lectures for the first three classes today; 8.07 and 8.09 are, well, about as i'd expected, from what little i knew. psets are wed. and fri., which is nice. each has an excellently accented prof, who seems hellbent on making me a k0re physicist. which is, i suppose, the point of taking them. that, and they're an excuse to spend a lot of time in nicole's room this semester, tooling really really hard. um. yes.
as for 3.07, i was warned by vtarasov that the prof was a bit of a jerk, esp to girls, but apart from the slightly awkward making of unfunny jokes that he then laughed too hard at, i wasn't alarmed. i'm a little wary of the end-of-term group project, though it appears to be much less intense than last semester's, and of what appears to be yet another class that isn't as information-dense as my physics classes and thus will simply get ignored. argh. psets are also (some) wednesdays.
so i'm doing these classes this fall, and thesis researching. i'll be lucky to make it, but i intend to make an honourable go of it. what i'm not doing: stressing out over grad apps or the gres, which i might not bother taking til the spring or whenever isn't this november. i should, i suppose, polish my resume up and submit it to the career fair folks, and go talk to the career office. i have a philosophy of maximizing my options wherever possible, despite chronic failure to properly take advantage of said options, but i think i'm committed now. actually, i'm just tired, and can't really deal with the massive questions. i've been agonizing for the last month or two over 'no, really, you're not going to make it in physics...and even if you did, would you be happy?' after hearing about how academia just sucks in different directions than Real Jobs, often. listening to my prof today, though, i remembered why i take mat.sci classes: if i'm going to go save the world, it's not going to be with physics, shiny though it is. seriously, thermoelectric materials? uber-insulation? portable hydrogen systems? they're materials problems, and that's where people are doing (some, i hear other majors have some of this too) the research and projects i'm probably looking for, as well as (more importantly) the people i probably want to work on them with. physics has the former, but perhaps a more widespread/uncertain collection of the latter. this realization a. tells me i want to work for/go back to school for mat.sci, more likely and b. makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside. (note: i write these things down so 6 months down the line, i don't forget. i've totally had this revelation before.)
oh, i forgot to mention the two parties i made on monday night: first sondy's apartment-warming out in the merry land of wellesley, where i was informed that i 'didn't have the wellesley aura', which apparently involves, um, talking to strangers? or perhaps not leaning on walls with a forlorn paper cup in hand. then back home to 414, where a bunch of strangers were drinking through our handles of rum and vodka, fueled by smoothie-makings. ghe made the mistake of getting everyone in his room for wine, which made the rest of us lol and casually walk by to gawk. also, nicole and lemon grey goose. wheeee
for those who've skipped the lots of words, what are your thoughts on yaoi the term 'anarcho-sexual'?
also, how did you figure out what you wanted to do in life? (feel free to respond in any way you see fit.)
now to tool and read papers and sleep in. tomorrow, i clean.
'i only ask b/c, you know, life without a thesis can be...a little distressing.' - nergis, gently enquiring as to my likelihood of graduating. b/c i'm not 8b yet.
i now know what happens when you get caught w/o shoes at star, if you're lucky: if you claim to be nearly done with your shopping, the nice floor-stocking dude asks if it's ok if he walks with you until you're done, so you don't step in any broken glass. and then trails you at 20-30 feet, checking every so often to make sure you're not weirded out. i refrained from thanking him for not summarily banning me from the store for life, and avoided buying pads b/c he might've fallen over in embarrassment. (or maybe that would be me, b/c i am not entirely shameless OMG wail!)
holy jesus, party party party. last friday's both got kill't ded, but i had a drink anyway and played matchmaker, b/c i am stealthy liek whoa and have incense. saturday i discovered that my email handle-meatspace map is a bit broken, and that i am thoroughly cursed when it comes to things flammable. cue shorter eyelashes and hilariously burnt lips, and unrelated social awkwardness. super special bonus for both helping rec schrodinger's eqn as a way to pick up chicks and explaining schrodinger's cat in v. small words, though.
i need to spend more time dancing. i think i need more 1e parties, or something. when 4th ware dances, it also sings, and that justs kills my stamina. *iz weak*
monday, despite being a holiday, i went to work early b/c i'm a workaholic and a tool; highlights included explaining that every food outlet (except the falafel food truck, which fuckin' blows, btw) was closed today b/c it's labor day, it dawning on jarek that everyone, including him, was supposed to have a holiday, and my prof a. noting that all the serious groups were working today b/c it's so quiet and they'd get lots of work done (he works every labor day for jsut this reason.) b. buying an extra lunch to heat up for dinner c. predicting upcoming nobel prizes in the community (if anyone thinks they can make money off this, i suspect he might be right about one.) then talking to my grad student after lunch, and freaking the fuck out, see previous post. am...calmer now. somewhat resigned, unsurprisingly. we'll see how tomorrow goes.
tuesday..was reg day, yay! i drew a pretty picture of my schedule for nergis, who seemed not to remember how pissed she was at me last semester, and actually agreed to everything i was asking. she unfrowned when i said 'p/d/f', and that i had Plans. so this term i'm taking:
- 8.07, 12, E&M II
- 8.09,12, Classical Mechanics II
- 3.07, 12, Introduction to Ceramics
- 6.004, 15, Computation Structures (p/d/f)
- 21H.522, 12, Japan in the Age of Samurai: History and Film
- 21M.401, 6, Concert Choir
i haven't quite worked out a hierarchy of what to drop when term gets rough, but i'm working on it. also add in ~12 hrs of urop a week (there's these awesome chunks of time tuesday, thursday, and friday for it.) and i think i'm dead. note the ninja concentration switch; i realized i really didn't need another hass-d with a prof i somewhat disliked, plus people all over lj were like 'dude, 21A.100 is boring and hard work', and so fell back on my original east asian studies notion. having just read the syllabus for the samurai class, it actually does have several papers and a final-thing, but i think if i keep on top of the readings it'll be ok. and, y'know, weekly film showings! and samurai! *sigh*
ok, so i'm not entirely zen with things yet; we had a group meeting this afternoon in which my professor [said many things about the future of this group, some of which made me twitch a bit and feel useless]. last night i found scissors in my backpack and sat out on the porch under the rain and cut all my hair off, in a somewhat ill-advised move. apparently mirrors are my friend. judicious trimming with a shaver helped a bit, but it'll be a few weeks before i stop looking like an asylum escapee. whoops.
anyway, i've had lectures for the first three classes today; 8.07 and 8.09 are, well, about as i'd expected, from what little i knew. psets are wed. and fri., which is nice. each has an excellently accented prof, who seems hellbent on making me a k0re physicist. which is, i suppose, the point of taking them. that, and they're an excuse to spend a lot of time in nicole's room this semester, tooling really really hard. um. yes.
as for 3.07, i was warned by vtarasov that the prof was a bit of a jerk, esp to girls, but apart from the slightly awkward making of unfunny jokes that he then laughed too hard at, i wasn't alarmed. i'm a little wary of the end-of-term group project, though it appears to be much less intense than last semester's, and of what appears to be yet another class that isn't as information-dense as my physics classes and thus will simply get ignored. argh. psets are also (some) wednesdays.
so i'm doing these classes this fall, and thesis researching. i'll be lucky to make it, but i intend to make an honourable go of it. what i'm not doing: stressing out over grad apps or the gres, which i might not bother taking til the spring or whenever isn't this november. i should, i suppose, polish my resume up and submit it to the career fair folks, and go talk to the career office. i have a philosophy of maximizing my options wherever possible, despite chronic failure to properly take advantage of said options, but i think i'm committed now. actually, i'm just tired, and can't really deal with the massive questions. i've been agonizing for the last month or two over 'no, really, you're not going to make it in physics...and even if you did, would you be happy?' after hearing about how academia just sucks in different directions than Real Jobs, often. listening to my prof today, though, i remembered why i take mat.sci classes: if i'm going to go save the world, it's not going to be with physics, shiny though it is. seriously, thermoelectric materials? uber-insulation? portable hydrogen systems? they're materials problems, and that's where people are doing (some, i hear other majors have some of this too) the research and projects i'm probably looking for, as well as (more importantly) the people i probably want to work on them with. physics has the former, but perhaps a more widespread/uncertain collection of the latter. this realization a. tells me i want to work for/go back to school for mat.sci, more likely and b. makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside. (note: i write these things down so 6 months down the line, i don't forget. i've totally had this revelation before.)
oh, i forgot to mention the two parties i made on monday night: first sondy's apartment-warming out in the merry land of wellesley, where i was informed that i 'didn't have the wellesley aura', which apparently involves, um, talking to strangers? or perhaps not leaning on walls with a forlorn paper cup in hand. then back home to 414, where a bunch of strangers were drinking through our handles of rum and vodka, fueled by smoothie-makings. ghe made the mistake of getting everyone in his room for wine, which made the rest of us lol and casually walk by to gawk. also, nicole and lemon grey goose. wheeee
for those who've skipped the lots of words, what are your thoughts on yaoi the term 'anarcho-sexual'?
also, how did you figure out what you wanted to do in life? (feel free to respond in any way you see fit.)
now to tool and read papers and sleep in. tomorrow, i clean.
'i only ask b/c, you know, life without a thesis can be...a little distressing.' - nergis, gently enquiring as to my likelihood of graduating. b/c i'm not 8b yet.