godream

I do *everything* at the last minute. Especially (but not limited to) homework. It's a really, really bad habit, this procrastination thing, and (as the joke goes) I keep telling myself I'll stop tomorrow.

Now I have to go do calculus. (Entirely unrelated. Really. No, okay, that's not true at all.)

From this evening's physics assignment: While watching the crane in operation, an observer mentions to you that for a given load there is a maximum angle theta_max that the crane arm can make with the horizontal without tipping the crane over. Is this correct? ... Later that week, while watching the same crane in operation, a different observer mentions to you that there is a maximum load the crane can lift without tipping, and you can find that maximum load by observing the minimum angle theta_min that the crane arm makes with the horizontal. Is this correct?

All right, so extra credit: Even later that week, you find yourself watching the crane again. What kind of sick fascination do you have with this machinery? Is your obsession with the strength and angle of the crane arm compensating for something? Do you exude some strange vibes that scream out to strangers, "Please, tell me random anecdotes about crane arms! I will listen and consider seriously, even if you're not even right!" Do you collect these bizarre factoids? Do you ever think you'll actually need to know this? Do you just not want to go home and do your physics homework?

Got calculus test back. Was happy. Took chemistry test. Got chemistry test back. Was moderately unhappy.

It's interesting, though. ( I think too hard about things like this. )

So Sadoway's 3.091 got hacked this morning. -- Uh, translation from MIT-speak: there was a practical joke played in the large (400ish students, I think) chemistry lecture class this morning, taught by one of the most famous/infamous lecturers for freshmen. Someone rigged the sliding blackboards to go up and down, rather than being under the control of the professor. I'm not sure if they had a remote to control it or if it was just sliding every once in a while at random. And, well... people didn't laugh, probably because Sadoway was obviously more than a little annoyed, and he's also the professor who, when a cell phone rings, won't resume class till the perpetrator leaves. He seems to have a sense of humor about other things, just not about running his class.

And hacking is a huge part of the MIT culture, right, and it's really one of the things I was looking forwards to about going here, and I'm not sure why I didn't think the 3.091 hack was funny. Maybe it's because it's been done before -- I've heard the stories of how someone first did it, and that seemed clever and funny, and when you do it again then it just isn't. The creativity's gone; you're just imitating someone else's joke and it's stale now, it isn't new and it isn't funny. I'm not sure how it impacts the effect that they chose to pull it on Sadoway -- in theory it seems like it'd be more amusing; in practice, watching him get frustrated, I didn't even want to laugh. Maybe it's this, or maybe I just don't have the right sense of humor. Or maybe it's one of those stories that's only funny if you *weren't* there, the opposite of most anecdotes... which makes me wonder if the original were that way as well.

minttown1 had this challenge about a million years ago (read: in July) and I wrote something that sort of fit, kind of, and then it sat on my hard drive waiting for me to decide whether or not it sucked, and eventually I remembered it was there and decided it sucks a little bit but not too much. So. This is set in Roger Zelazny's Chronicles of Amber universe, and it probably won't make sense if you haven't read at least one of the books. (And if you haven't, you should, now.) Deirdre's POV, although keep in mind I haven't read the books in ages and about all I could remember about her was the scene in... Sign of the Unicorn, maybe?... where Fiona says in regards to an attempted assassination (I think) that it has to be one of the brothers, because "Flora lacks the brains, Deirdre the guts, Llewella the motivation, and I, of course, am innocent of all but malice." Or something like that. From which you can conclude this is not Deirdre the warrior princess. And maybe it isn't really all that much about her anyways. ( So if the disclaimers haven't scared you off... [568 words, untitled.] )

Corn on the cob at one am and pineapple-orange-raspberry smoothies, frosh bonding, LSC movies, study groups, discussion lists, phone deals, cocoa, hall invasions, neato advising seminar. It's starting to work.

This in spite of the 18.02 problem set of EVIL. I like math, I thought I was good at it by normal-people standards and at least sorta-average by MIT-geek standards. But this homework is just beating me up left and right. *sigh* Yeah -- I like math but I don't like calculus. Is that allowed?

Getting cookies in the mail is the best thing in the world.

Even if one has to wrestle with the combination on one's mailbox for half an hour to get them. Not, of course, that that would happen to me. Oh no.

Am moving to East Campus. Yay! (Now to choose a floor...)

I can never sleep the first night in a new place -- it takes me at least a night or two to get used to a new bed, new night sounds, just a new place in general. I slept fine on Sunday, though, which is a good omen, right?

Of course, in spite of this, I've decided I want to switch dorms. Simmons is really nice, very windowy and clean, but... well, I've been going by East Campus nearly every day and everyone there seems friendly and creative, if possibly clinically insane, and there are just so many upperclassmen back early to convert freshmen who seem to care about the place, and that seems important. So hopefully the housing adjustment lottery goes my way and I get to live over there, and then hopefully after that the in-house room lottery *also* goes my way, and I get to live on 4e, which bills itself as "the warm and fuzzy floor" and boasts nightly cocoa feeds and friendly people. We'll see. Otherwise... I mean, I don't *not* like Simmons, I could certainly live here, but I think I'd be happier at EC. So. I'm keeping fingers crossed and all that jazz.

Speakeasy played at Senior Haus last night. I'd kind of already filed everything L-S into a neatly labeled little box in the back of my mind, so it was a surprise to see all those people (hi itallwillfall!), though definitely a good surprise. And of course I was reminded that I kinda regret lots of the times I opted for the lazy/shy route in high school... motivation to do better here, or something. *shrugs* It was also the first time I'd been over to that dorm, which was... okay, smoky and a little sketchy, and not really my kinda thing, but as usual the people seemed on the whole friendly.

All sorts of silly Orientation type events this week, involving being bombarded with a million times more names and faces than my brain knows what to do with, watching cheesy videos, touring the campus, learning about the facilities, all that stuff. I was going to go into more depth (and maybe will, later) but there's free food outside and after that I have an audition for one of the campus a capella groups, so I should probably get on that whole social, active resolution now. :)