Friday, October 14, 2005
Work
So, I decided to do my job for the first time today. I ran into my supervisor in the library, so I couldn't very well avoid it for much longer. She showed me how the scanner worked, and the computer program that went with it, and where to get the plans out of a drawer, and where they were on a certain list. Basically, my job is to set the darkness level (like on a copy machine) so that there are not background dots all over the scanned image, but also so that the lines come out completely and are not missing pieces. This takes a bit of trial and error, since some plans are printed on white paper in black ink lines, some are on beige plastic-ish paper with brown lines, and some are on bright blue paper with dark blue lines (those are the hardest).
For dinner I made Japanese curry. I decided to make 12 servings while I was at it, instead of six, because that takes a lot less effort than to make the whole thing twice. So now we have a very large batch of Japanese curry left. It looks sort of like stew, but it is much tastier.
This morning we had policy, where we talked about our research (which I need to start calling people about) and about next week's moot court. We also talked about the cases from our reading, about the Clean Water Act. In the afternoon, a Williams English professor, Cassandra Cleghorn, gave a talk in which she read us some poems about the sea -- about the beach, really -- and talked about them. I think her talk would have been better if she hadn't been reading from pages she had written, even if she did justify this aloud at the beginning by saying she had just been to a bad extemporaneous speech.
It rained today, but not all day.
This weekend I will read more of Moby-Dick, start calling people for my policy research, do some reading for the moot court, and go running, maybe for a long time.
For dinner I made Japanese curry. I decided to make 12 servings while I was at it, instead of six, because that takes a lot less effort than to make the whole thing twice. So now we have a very large batch of Japanese curry left. It looks sort of like stew, but it is much tastier.
This morning we had policy, where we talked about our research (which I need to start calling people about) and about next week's moot court. We also talked about the cases from our reading, about the Clean Water Act. In the afternoon, a Williams English professor, Cassandra Cleghorn, gave a talk in which she read us some poems about the sea -- about the beach, really -- and talked about them. I think her talk would have been better if she hadn't been reading from pages she had written, even if she did justify this aloud at the beginning by saying she had just been to a bad extemporaneous speech.
It rained today, but not all day.
This weekend I will read more of Moby-Dick, start calling people for my policy research, do some reading for the moot court, and go running, maybe for a long time.
Thursday, October 13, 2005
Yom Kippur
Yesterday was the beginning of Yom Kippur, so Hilary made matzoh ball soup and latkes and this casserole-looking thing made of egg noodles and custard with crumbly brown sugar stuff that smelled like apple crisp when it was baking. All of it was good. I cooked some of the latkes. We had the leftovers for lunch, and there are still leftovers.
Yesterday morning we had Oceanography, and we talked about the sources of salt for the ocean. Next time we will talk about how salt leaves the ocean (because if salt only went in, then it would keep getting saltier, which it doesn't). The composition of elements in the ocean has been constant for at least the past 1.5 billion (yes, billion) years (the earth is 6 billion years old).
We also had boat handling, but there were 15-20-knot winds in the estuary, and whitecaps, so we learned about the rigging of sailboats instead. Only Rebecca and I were actually there. One sailboat needed one of its stays replaced, so we got out the wire and the pin and the wire-cutter and all, and attached a new stay. That was kind of neat. We also tied ropes between the docks so that if one of them blew off, it wouldn't go far. This included tying it to the Conrad, which I thought was interesting, since it's a museum ship, you know, tying things to it, kind of odd...
I decided to sleep as late as I possibly could this morning, which I succeeded in doing quite effectively. We met for History class in the building where the Seaport stores all of the stuff that it is not currently displaying, which was pretty neat. We went back in the storage rooms, and there are racks upon racks of half-models of ships, whale bones and scrimshaw, the big name-boards for the ships, models of ships with all of the rigging and sometimes the sails, figureheads, and you name it related to the sea, they've probably got it. Steve gave a presentation about the frigate Essex, which the citizens of Essex county, MA raised money to build in the late 18th century so that they would be protected even though the fledgling nation didn't have enough money to build a full navy. We also got our papers back -- the papers that were due at the end of a busy week, that I spent about eight hours doing the night before it was due. Except for forgetting to go back and expand upon a citation -- I left it reading "Vassa & class" -- it was none the worse for the short time I wrote it.
This afternoon I wrote a postcard and some thank-you notes, kept reading Moby-Dick, had a nice dinner of chicken, broccoli and rice by Ashley, with some cake from Hilary's mom when she got back from Yom Kippur services (today was the rest of Yom Kippur), and then we heard there was a puppy at Johnston, so we all ran over. But it turned out it was just Lisa with Bingo, because she had gotten a phone message from someone that said "I need puppy love" so she figured it was someone from Johnston, which actually it ended up not being, but they liked Bingo, who is not a puppy but merely a small adult tog, anyway. Then we ended up watching the second hour (of six) of Pride and Prejudice, which was good. Maybe I will watch the third hour (of six) tomorrow, also.
Pictures from California, taken by Hilary, with me in them:
Playing jump rope with a piece of kelp
Lecture at Point Lobos
Monterey Bay Aquarium circular fish tank
Our Ghiradelli Earthquake team
On the historic boat the Alma
I made them sort of small, but you can click to make them bigger. They don't get very much bigger, though, because I took them off of Shutterfly.
Yesterday morning we had Oceanography, and we talked about the sources of salt for the ocean. Next time we will talk about how salt leaves the ocean (because if salt only went in, then it would keep getting saltier, which it doesn't). The composition of elements in the ocean has been constant for at least the past 1.5 billion (yes, billion) years (the earth is 6 billion years old).
We also had boat handling, but there were 15-20-knot winds in the estuary, and whitecaps, so we learned about the rigging of sailboats instead. Only Rebecca and I were actually there. One sailboat needed one of its stays replaced, so we got out the wire and the pin and the wire-cutter and all, and attached a new stay. That was kind of neat. We also tied ropes between the docks so that if one of them blew off, it wouldn't go far. This included tying it to the Conrad, which I thought was interesting, since it's a museum ship, you know, tying things to it, kind of odd...
I decided to sleep as late as I possibly could this morning, which I succeeded in doing quite effectively. We met for History class in the building where the Seaport stores all of the stuff that it is not currently displaying, which was pretty neat. We went back in the storage rooms, and there are racks upon racks of half-models of ships, whale bones and scrimshaw, the big name-boards for the ships, models of ships with all of the rigging and sometimes the sails, figureheads, and you name it related to the sea, they've probably got it. Steve gave a presentation about the frigate Essex, which the citizens of Essex county, MA raised money to build in the late 18th century so that they would be protected even though the fledgling nation didn't have enough money to build a full navy. We also got our papers back -- the papers that were due at the end of a busy week, that I spent about eight hours doing the night before it was due. Except for forgetting to go back and expand upon a citation -- I left it reading "Vassa & class" -- it was none the worse for the short time I wrote it.
This afternoon I wrote a postcard and some thank-you notes, kept reading Moby-Dick, had a nice dinner of chicken, broccoli and rice by Ashley, with some cake from Hilary's mom when she got back from Yom Kippur services (today was the rest of Yom Kippur), and then we heard there was a puppy at Johnston, so we all ran over. But it turned out it was just Lisa with Bingo, because she had gotten a phone message from someone that said "I need puppy love" so she figured it was someone from Johnston, which actually it ended up not being, but they liked Bingo, who is not a puppy but merely a small adult tog, anyway. Then we ended up watching the second hour (of six) of Pride and Prejudice, which was good. Maybe I will watch the third hour (of six) tomorrow, also.
Pictures from California, taken by Hilary, with me in them:
Playing jump rope with a piece of kelp
Lecture at Point Lobos
Monterey Bay Aquarium circular fish tank
Our Ghiradelli Earthquake team
On the historic boat the Alma
I made them sort of small, but you can click to make them bigger. They don't get very much bigger, though, because I took them off of Shutterfly.
Tuesday, October 11, 2005
Exeter
But first, here are my pictures from California, with sparse descriptions of what the things are. I am really proud of some of my pictures, but most of them aren't very good. A lot of that is because of the camera, because it likes to make every picture that has the ocean in it tinted quite blue.
I intended to go to Exeter on the 6:13 bus, so I got up impossibly early, as did Valerie because she offered to drive me to the train station, and got there at about 6:05. The 6:13 train came, but it was on the other track, and although I ran about and yelled and waved my arms, there was no way for me to get to the other track, so it went by without picking me up. I called Valerie, but she was already asleep, so I ran back to the house and decided, finally by flipping a coin and having it come up "yes, you should still go" nine times in 10 flips, that I would take the 9:31 train. So I tried unsuccessfully to go back to sleep, and cleaned up my room and packed my bag again and went to the station again at 9:15 (Valerie and Hillary were asleep this whole time). I also had two Nutri-Grain bars and a juice box for breakfast because, having just returned from California, that was the only nutritious breakfast option.
Although I had a reservation, and the Internet and the toll-free line on which I made my reservation both said that the fare was $32 from Mystic to Boston, when I paid on the train, they made me pay $46, and would not take any amount of persuasion otherwise. There were two boys on the train, one of which was living in Boston and his friend/brother who was going to Durham, so I did the T thing switching from South to North station with them. I figured the one who lived in Boston would know what he was doing, so I trusted him to choose the right T connections, but he picked a slightly less efficient way to get there, so that was kind of annoying.
In North Station, I purchased a bagel with PB at Dunkin Donuts, because I had to have some lunch since when I got off the train in Exeter I would be having xc practice. In the station, I saw someone wearing a black sweatshirt that said HAYSTACK. I pondered whether I should say anything to this person, and actually walked in two small circles in front of her while I was pondering, and I finally asked her if that was the Haystack Mountain School of Crafts Haystack.
Steve was talking the other night about how everything happens for a reason, in the context of surfing being cancelled, and then he found two little kittens abandoned by the road. I was wondering how it could possibly be propitious that I missed the morning train, because that was really awful. But then I ended up meeting these people from Deer Isle -- the woman was her aunt -- so I guess that was good.
The train was supposed to get to Exeter at 1:14, and xc practice begins at 1:15 by the track. The train station is about 1/4 mile north of the north side of campus, and the track is on the extreme south end of campus, so I already had my work cut out for me, and then the train didn't arrive until 1:30. I had my running clothes on under my normal clothes, and shed my normal clothes on the train, so I started running when my feet hit the platform, pausing only to leave my backpack in Mr. Parris's house as I ran past it. As it turned out, I arrived at just the right time, as the team was coming across the field with the start/finish line. When they finished warming up, I ran with a girl who was injured who was just supposed to do a "long run," but her injury kept occurring, so after about 15 minutes of that, she went inside and I joined in with P, timing and keeping just ahead of the interval-runners.
In the afternoon, I talked to Ms. Kemp, Mr. Wolfson, and Mr. Parris about when I could give a talk, and we decided on December 4. I have lots of finals and final papers due then, but the whole rest of the semester after the Chesakpeake trip is like that, so it's as good as any weekend. I will talk to the older, smarter half of the math club about my summer research. I also attended the accelerated prep class which was the equivalent of what I took in my prep fall, in that same room with P.
Jenna and her mom kindly let me stay over at her house on a few hours' notice, and while Jenna did her homework, I talked to her mom about Williams and to her dad about Williams and my summer math research, which was fun. I got farther in my explanation of it with him than I have ever gotten with anyone, which was neat. When Jenna had finished her Arabic (!) I helped her with her stat homework, which was fun. Jenna's mom gave me my own room, with a nice warm bed, which was very nice of them. And in the morning, she made me eggs -- in the microwave! and they were not slimy, and not tasteless! -- and an apple for breakfast, and drove us to school.
I went to Mr. Parris's A format, which was a prep class, and they talked about one of those things that is my pet peeve when people get it wrong -- when something increases from 1 to 4, it has increased by 300%, not by 400%. Mr. Wolfson wanted me to see his B and C classes, which I did, and they were indeed both good classes (meaning good groups of students -- they were both Math 3). I also went to Assembly, which was the John Phillips Award, to an alum who worked to eliminate large dams because they devastate the economy and the lives of millions of poor people. He also used the phrase "invasive species," which I thought was quite appropriate.
After D format, I ran into Sasha, which was nice, because I had missed seeing her the previous day, because she is injured, and I like Sasha. I quickly changed in the library bathroom and made it to practice in time to be on the first Red Dragon to... Apple Annie's! We had a nice run, where I got to talk to a few runners that I didn't know (the only people on the team I know now are Laura, Jenna, and Sasha, and the team has 46 people on the roster) and we ended up at Apple Annie's, where we ate drops and drank delicious cider.
When we got back, I said bye to P and Laura walked me through the new part of the gym, which is shiny and new-looking. While Laura and Jenna changed, I ran to the bookstore to pick something up, and then met them for lunch in Elm Street (yay for free delicious food). Lunch was, as it had to be, too short, and all too soon I was running north across campus to make the train. Which I did. I bought my ticket on a machine in the general store, which was neat, and read Moby-Dick (yes, the hyphen is required) and took a nap on the way to North Station, where I took the T (the efficient way this time) to South Station, where I bought the next ticket ($32 -- see? I asked the agent for a refund on the previous one, but he only gave me the address to write to) and a McFlurry. I read a lot of Moby-Dick on that train ride, and again hit the platform running, as I thought I was 20 minutes late for Celestial Navigation. Happily, Celestial Navigation occurs half an hour later than I thought, so I had time to change into dry, albeit less in dress code, clothes. And there were only four students there, instead of the usual ten or so, becuase people didn't realize that we had it tonight. Humph. Now I have to do more work before I can go to bed. Humph humph. I am tired.
Oh, and in case you either got this far, which I doubt, or scanned to the bottom, which is slightly more likely -- by "parents," I meant the lurker parents that I didn't know about. The parents who comment, I know they read it, but the ones that don't, all I know is that I get hits from random places that I don't recognize, and I guess those are other people's parents. I hope you like the pictures.
I intended to go to Exeter on the 6:13 bus, so I got up impossibly early, as did Valerie because she offered to drive me to the train station, and got there at about 6:05. The 6:13 train came, but it was on the other track, and although I ran about and yelled and waved my arms, there was no way for me to get to the other track, so it went by without picking me up. I called Valerie, but she was already asleep, so I ran back to the house and decided, finally by flipping a coin and having it come up "yes, you should still go" nine times in 10 flips, that I would take the 9:31 train. So I tried unsuccessfully to go back to sleep, and cleaned up my room and packed my bag again and went to the station again at 9:15 (Valerie and Hillary were asleep this whole time). I also had two Nutri-Grain bars and a juice box for breakfast because, having just returned from California, that was the only nutritious breakfast option.
Although I had a reservation, and the Internet and the toll-free line on which I made my reservation both said that the fare was $32 from Mystic to Boston, when I paid on the train, they made me pay $46, and would not take any amount of persuasion otherwise. There were two boys on the train, one of which was living in Boston and his friend/brother who was going to Durham, so I did the T thing switching from South to North station with them. I figured the one who lived in Boston would know what he was doing, so I trusted him to choose the right T connections, but he picked a slightly less efficient way to get there, so that was kind of annoying.
In North Station, I purchased a bagel with PB at Dunkin Donuts, because I had to have some lunch since when I got off the train in Exeter I would be having xc practice. In the station, I saw someone wearing a black sweatshirt that said HAYSTACK. I pondered whether I should say anything to this person, and actually walked in two small circles in front of her while I was pondering, and I finally asked her if that was the Haystack Mountain School of Crafts Haystack.
Her: Yeah, I live in the town next to it.At this point, the woman behind her joined in the conversation with an unmistakable Deer Isle accent. That was pretty weird in North Station. So anyway, they were taking the same train to Portland, so I sat with the girl on the 1.5-hour ride to Exeter. It turns out that she is Kevin Grindle's daughter! Whoa.
Me: Oh! Me too.
Her: Deer Isle?
Me: Yes. I was a summer person, but now I'm just From Away.
Her: Oh, okay. I live on Little Deer Isle by the bridge.
Steve was talking the other night about how everything happens for a reason, in the context of surfing being cancelled, and then he found two little kittens abandoned by the road. I was wondering how it could possibly be propitious that I missed the morning train, because that was really awful. But then I ended up meeting these people from Deer Isle -- the woman was her aunt -- so I guess that was good.
The train was supposed to get to Exeter at 1:14, and xc practice begins at 1:15 by the track. The train station is about 1/4 mile north of the north side of campus, and the track is on the extreme south end of campus, so I already had my work cut out for me, and then the train didn't arrive until 1:30. I had my running clothes on under my normal clothes, and shed my normal clothes on the train, so I started running when my feet hit the platform, pausing only to leave my backpack in Mr. Parris's house as I ran past it. As it turned out, I arrived at just the right time, as the team was coming across the field with the start/finish line. When they finished warming up, I ran with a girl who was injured who was just supposed to do a "long run," but her injury kept occurring, so after about 15 minutes of that, she went inside and I joined in with P, timing and keeping just ahead of the interval-runners.
In the afternoon, I talked to Ms. Kemp, Mr. Wolfson, and Mr. Parris about when I could give a talk, and we decided on December 4. I have lots of finals and final papers due then, but the whole rest of the semester after the Chesakpeake trip is like that, so it's as good as any weekend. I will talk to the older, smarter half of the math club about my summer research. I also attended the accelerated prep class which was the equivalent of what I took in my prep fall, in that same room with P.
Jenna and her mom kindly let me stay over at her house on a few hours' notice, and while Jenna did her homework, I talked to her mom about Williams and to her dad about Williams and my summer math research, which was fun. I got farther in my explanation of it with him than I have ever gotten with anyone, which was neat. When Jenna had finished her Arabic (!) I helped her with her stat homework, which was fun. Jenna's mom gave me my own room, with a nice warm bed, which was very nice of them. And in the morning, she made me eggs -- in the microwave! and they were not slimy, and not tasteless! -- and an apple for breakfast, and drove us to school.
I went to Mr. Parris's A format, which was a prep class, and they talked about one of those things that is my pet peeve when people get it wrong -- when something increases from 1 to 4, it has increased by 300%, not by 400%. Mr. Wolfson wanted me to see his B and C classes, which I did, and they were indeed both good classes (meaning good groups of students -- they were both Math 3). I also went to Assembly, which was the John Phillips Award, to an alum who worked to eliminate large dams because they devastate the economy and the lives of millions of poor people. He also used the phrase "invasive species," which I thought was quite appropriate.
After D format, I ran into Sasha, which was nice, because I had missed seeing her the previous day, because she is injured, and I like Sasha. I quickly changed in the library bathroom and made it to practice in time to be on the first Red Dragon to... Apple Annie's! We had a nice run, where I got to talk to a few runners that I didn't know (the only people on the team I know now are Laura, Jenna, and Sasha, and the team has 46 people on the roster) and we ended up at Apple Annie's, where we ate drops and drank delicious cider.
When we got back, I said bye to P and Laura walked me through the new part of the gym, which is shiny and new-looking. While Laura and Jenna changed, I ran to the bookstore to pick something up, and then met them for lunch in Elm Street (yay for free delicious food). Lunch was, as it had to be, too short, and all too soon I was running north across campus to make the train. Which I did. I bought my ticket on a machine in the general store, which was neat, and read Moby-Dick (yes, the hyphen is required) and took a nap on the way to North Station, where I took the T (the efficient way this time) to South Station, where I bought the next ticket ($32 -- see? I asked the agent for a refund on the previous one, but he only gave me the address to write to) and a McFlurry. I read a lot of Moby-Dick on that train ride, and again hit the platform running, as I thought I was 20 minutes late for Celestial Navigation. Happily, Celestial Navigation occurs half an hour later than I thought, so I had time to change into dry, albeit less in dress code, clothes. And there were only four students there, instead of the usual ten or so, becuase people didn't realize that we had it tonight. Humph. Now I have to do more work before I can go to bed. Humph humph. I am tired.
Oh, and in case you either got this far, which I doubt, or scanned to the bottom, which is slightly more likely -- by "parents," I meant the lurker parents that I didn't know about. The parents who comment, I know they read it, but the ones that don't, all I know is that I get hits from random places that I don't recognize, and I guess those are other people's parents. I hope you like the pictures.
Sunday, October 09, 2005
We're back
Yup, and we had a safe trip, with no mishaps.
So, I heard that a bunch of parents read what I write here. That's neat. Feel free to pass around the URL. I hear that it helps my classmates to avoid having to repeat what they do to their parents, because they do the same things as I do, and I write about them. So, if you are a parent and you want me to post a picture of your kid or something, just let me know and I will be ever so happy to oblige.
That's about all for now, because I still have to call Amtrak to reserve my seat on the train for tomorrow early early in the morning, because I'm going to Exeter.
So, I heard that a bunch of parents read what I write here. That's neat. Feel free to pass around the URL. I hear that it helps my classmates to avoid having to repeat what they do to their parents, because they do the same things as I do, and I write about them. So, if you are a parent and you want me to post a picture of your kid or something, just let me know and I will be ever so happy to oblige.
That's about all for now, because I still have to call Amtrak to reserve my seat on the train for tomorrow early early in the morning, because I'm going to Exeter.
