Writing writing writing

It wouldn’t be Harvard if I wasn’t behind on something. I found myself cramming in a bunch of reading for Chinese Pop Culture, which was actually entertaining (even though I probably should have gotten a better understanding/done close reading; damn my lack of interest) and I straight up haven’t done any reading for astronomy or sex lit. Of course, my inactivity in all my other classes must be due to some other commitment, right? Right. In this case, it’s problem set 0 for CS50. It’s actually the easiest problem set as far as technical skill goes, but it took me about five days to think of a project that I can even do. I’ll post a link to the problem set so you can see the software and stuff if you’re interested in that sort of thing.

http://www.cs50.net/psets/

There were really two roots for this problem (this problem being my inability to come up with an idea for the program despite thinking about it a long time). The first was that I had this desire, stemming from the last vestiges of arrogance I had from actually getting into Harvard and being the smartest person in a small high school, to make a project that was better than the average project. So I wanted to make it more complex than the dancing cookies video, but less complex than the DDR thing, but close to DDR, right? However, when trying to think up a program, the second root came up, which was that I couldn’t think of anything, simple or complex. That was a little distressing as well, since it sort of implied that I don’t have the creative skills to think up something cool (when I say implied, I mean mouthing it and pointing in my direction), which really made me feel worse about that first bit. [I have a really focused stream of consciousness, don't I. /sarcasm/] I’m too tired to really belabor that last point anymore, but I did finally think of something that I can implement fairly simply. It involves Spongebob jellyfishing, but at the same time trying not to get stung by jellyfish. It’s definitely something I can get finished by Friday at 7:00 PM, but I could see myself finishing around 6:30. The most frustrating part about this project is that it is taking me a lot of time to implement (I’d definitely put myself in the less experienced column, btdubbs) but I know that when I’m finished with it, it won’t be very impressive. I suppose that’s what separates the boys from the men (or girls from the women, etc.), and no one said it would be easy. This is way too stream of consciousness. I’m gonna break it up with something high-larious.

I’m starting to get more excited about the freshmen for Glee Club. Less so for band, but that’s mostly because you can never tell if they’ll stick with it. But with Glee Club, it’s gonna be a lot of fun. Sing-ins are on Sunday, and I remember that being one of the most exciting moments of the first semester for me, so I’d definitely like to share that experience with new members, almost like new brothers. I tell you, the Harvard Glee Club is like a fraternity, but with less exploiting women and more singing.

Tom recommended a prescription for these blog posts that he’s sort of followed for his, but I can’t remember what it was, and I’m fine with however this turns out. But I do hope that these posts are interesting to people other than me. And I will try to cut down on the stream of consciousness in the future, but it’s just so much fun! Thanks for taking the time to read, I know this was a little excessive.

Sax-a-ma-phone

Hello everybody. Lemme tell you a story.

Once upon a time, I played the saxophone a lot and got pretty good. (They even wrote a newspaper article about me: http://www.oregonlive.com/living/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/living/1209176704150210.xml&coll=7 ; tremendous apologies for the self-promotion.) Then my senior year of high school ended and I got lazy and stopped playing. Then my freshman year of college came, and I decided I wanted to focus on school more than music, so I didn’t join any music groups, and ultimately didn’t play my sax at all. In the end I left my horn completely unused for 15 months.

This summer, though, I realized that I’d given up a piece of my life that I’d really enjoyed, so I decided once I got back to school I’d get back in the groove. And — somehow — I’ve held to it! After fetching my sax out of summer storage last week, I started practicing again on Thursday. I even decided that I’d audition for the Jazz Band here. With only four days to prepare, I didn’t think I’d do all that great, but it couldn’t have hurt in any case.

A clip of what I sounded like on Saturday, day 3 of me “coming out of retirement”: sax_prax2

Today was my audition. I played significantly better than what you can hear in the audio file, but nothing terribly impressive. Still, I told my story to the band directors and they were quite sympathetic to my situation, saying that “you’re at the toughest point, getting back into it right now, but keep on playing; it’s great that you’re picking it up again”. It was really nice to hear that encouragement. And, even though I got an email from them at 6 PM telling me that “we are unable to offer you a regular playing opportunity”, I feel like I’m ready to get back into regular practice again. Perhaps that is all that matters.

Well, tomorrow morning Charles is taking us out to Dim Sum, woo! It’ll be my first time. And today we saw District 9, which is way cool. I’ll go shopping tomorrow for school-related stuff; I’ve gotta get some notebooks and maybe binders if I hope to keep organized this year. And maybe I’ll even finish up my CS project. Things are going decently well for a new year.

Too Much Desktop Real Estate? Not Likely…

After receiving two 21″ CRT monitors today (involuntarily), we have a total of 11 monitors in our room (soon to be 12, Tom’s old laptop is being shipped).  I forgot how large CRT screens are; they’re about the same length as the desks.

Duncan's desk

Tom

Danny's desk along with his new laptop on the table

My desk

Order of acquisition:

1. At the beginning of freshman year, Danny and I come with 2 computers.  Tom and Duncan have 1 each.
   Total: 6
2. Tom buys a new laptop last year.
   Total: 7
3. Duncan gets a second monitor off a senior.
   Total: 8
4. For my birthday last week, I order a new 24-inch monitor.
   Total: 9
5. Danny buys a new laptop.
   Total: 10
6. Today, Danny spots a free desktop offered on an MIT mailing list, but the catch is we must take 2 CRT screens as well.  I guess the guy had to get rid of them somehow.
   Total: 12

I imagine that we will all be much more productive now even if the extra monitors are only used for email/YouTube/Windows Media Player (I’m just gonna ignore the diminishing marginal utility that we’ve been experiencing for a while now).

Next step: connect everything with Synergy.

The Freshman A Capella Jam, or Why the Crimson Key is a Terrible Organization

I love gullible freshmen, for one thing. We were the last in the a capella jam (we being Glee Club Lite), and in the announcement before Hey Julie by Fountains of Wayne, Umang announced that the next song was “…dedicated to a Julie in the audience, so if you’re here, this is for you.” No one laughed, there were only coos and ahs. Wonderful.

Now the Crimson Key is an organization that only runs events for only the freshmen, and does it poorly. We were scheduled for a sound check at 6:30, in full “costume”, and then we were to be in Sanders Theater at 8:45. What they neglected to tell us is that they had already calculated that we would be on stage at around 10:15. I don’t think any choir needs to be dressed and ready for a performance an hour and a half before their performance. Incidentally, it was scheduled to be a 2.5 hour concert, so a good deal of our audience had left by the time we got up on stage. On a positive note (a pun, get it?) they really did seem to enjoy our performance.

I haven’t posted anything yet, so I suppose I will.

Classes:
I’m currently planning to take Physics 143a, Physics 15c, CS 175 (Graphics), Math 122, and English 182 (Sci Fi). I’m also intending to audit CS 50 (everyone’s taking it!) and Astronomy 17, and possibly CS 153 and CS 61, though 15c conflicts with a half hour of 61. Also, I have the 61 book, so I might just try to read it.

That will be all for now.

Failure is just success rounded down, my friend!
- T-Rex

Day Two

Dear potential readers,

Do not skip dinner and then make up for it by eating a Qdoba burrito in a minute.

It’s amazing how only two extracurricular activities have managed to take up so much of my time, but since I’ve arrived at Harvard, I believe I’ve done something for either band or glee club every single day, and today I managed to have both which entailed a total of five hours of commitment (to be fair to the band, their commitment was a little over two hours, and I only attended one of them so that I could spend more time with the glee club). I’m looking forward to Tuesday, my first day with nothing. It’s funny how different extracurriculars are in college than from high school. In high school, you (I’m assuming “you” is a similar person to me who was motivated and wanted to impress college admissions officers) racked up as many activities as possible so you could add an extra sheen to your resume, and most of these activities didn’t mean anything. Hell, I had band, choir, knowledge bowl, cross country, swim team, NHS, and probably something else, and by Harvard standards I would have been an underachiever. Here, every organization knows you’re motivated and capable; otherwise you wouldn’t be there. So they expect you to give everything you can, and actually treat you like an adult a little bit, which is both good and bad, depending on how much you depend upon the security blanket protecting you from the real world. In any case, two years ago I wouldn’t have expected two organizations to be able to take up so much of my time and energy. (I suppose the same could be said about classes as well, but I’m not thinking about those yet.)

Isn’t that a cute kitty/dog/Japanese animal?