As promised...
Things have been happening.
> Tech Squares class ended, with a rather interesting graduation ceremony. And we got our shiny new official badges. Mine has a magnetic back (squee!). It's really nice to be able to dance club tips now; I went to the dance two days ago, the night before my chemistry exam, which might have been ill-advised but I really think was worth it. (Considering what was on the exam, I think I prepared as well as I could have, and an extra hour and a half really wouldn't have helped. Besides, exercise and fun helps maintain sanity, which improves performance...I digress.) As trite as it sounds, I've really come to love the club, the dancing, and the people; and the badge ties that up really neatly, into something I can gaze at when I'm feeling emo and remind myself that yes, something that awesome really does exist in the world and I'm a part of it, so life is not completely without merit. Plus, it's just fun to stick to random things around my room -- fridge, shelves, bed frame... (I'mma need to be careful not to lose it O.O)
(All y'all Bay Area people should check out the Stanford Quads, which I hear are the local equivalent of Tech Squares, and were in fact started by Tech Squares alumni IIRC. No seriously, it's a great activity.)
> My ringtone is a short, simple, repetitive thing, it's only four chords long. The sequence is I - I - IV - V, a canonical half cadence. I was listening to it the other day and I wondered if I pick it up faster because it's a half cadence, not an authentic cadence. (It ending on the dominant is a very strong signal that we've reached a breathing point, but there is definitely more to come -- you really wouldn't end a piece on it. An authentic cadence ends on the tonic, and strongly signals that the piece is allowed to be over now.) I guess I actually did get a lot out of my music theory class. And now I want to do an experiment on whether people pick up faster if their ringtones end on different cadence types, perhaps poking into the neural correlates of "what sounds good/right". There are no Google Scholar results for this experiment, and very few for experiments on this topic but not using this method...
> It really does get very dry around here during the winter. Cold, snow, and wind I'm handling perfectly fine (yes, Mom). But I have a newfound appreciation for lotion, chapstick, and water bottles. Grr extremely low humidity capacity.
> I've been spending a lot of time on Tetazoo (third floor of east parallel of East Campus dorm), where my people live. Sort of following a long and illustrious tradition of unofficially living in the geekier dorms; apparently Random Hall has some closets that they've converted to rooms for people who really really want to live there. Tetazoo doesn't really have a system like that, but it has unofficial residents all the same. It's a hassle that my stuff is all in one building and my heart&mind is all in another; it's a hassle and a half that the two buildings are maximally distant from each other. But that can be dealt with, and it's worth it to live with shiny people. I came to MIT specifically for that culture (among other things), so I figure I should be availing myself of the opportunity to get any of it, even if the stupid housing system shafted me out of it.
> I don't have a lot of official grades yet, but I seem to be acquitting myself relatively well in all my classes. The two term grades I know about are music theory and physics, both A-. Could have been better, but not bad by any stretch. Still waiting on my chemistry grade, and my calculus class doesn't finish till the end of January.
> Tech Squares class ended, with a rather interesting graduation ceremony. And we got our shiny new official badges. Mine has a magnetic back (squee!). It's really nice to be able to dance club tips now; I went to the dance two days ago, the night before my chemistry exam, which might have been ill-advised but I really think was worth it. (Considering what was on the exam, I think I prepared as well as I could have, and an extra hour and a half really wouldn't have helped. Besides, exercise and fun helps maintain sanity, which improves performance...I digress.) As trite as it sounds, I've really come to love the club, the dancing, and the people; and the badge ties that up really neatly, into something I can gaze at when I'm feeling emo and remind myself that yes, something that awesome really does exist in the world and I'm a part of it, so life is not completely without merit. Plus, it's just fun to stick to random things around my room -- fridge, shelves, bed frame... (I'mma need to be careful not to lose it O.O)
(All y'all Bay Area people should check out the Stanford Quads, which I hear are the local equivalent of Tech Squares, and were in fact started by Tech Squares alumni IIRC. No seriously, it's a great activity.)
> My ringtone is a short, simple, repetitive thing, it's only four chords long. The sequence is I - I - IV - V, a canonical half cadence. I was listening to it the other day and I wondered if I pick it up faster because it's a half cadence, not an authentic cadence. (It ending on the dominant is a very strong signal that we've reached a breathing point, but there is definitely more to come -- you really wouldn't end a piece on it. An authentic cadence ends on the tonic, and strongly signals that the piece is allowed to be over now.) I guess I actually did get a lot out of my music theory class. And now I want to do an experiment on whether people pick up faster if their ringtones end on different cadence types, perhaps poking into the neural correlates of "what sounds good/right". There are no Google Scholar results for this experiment, and very few for experiments on this topic but not using this method...
> It really does get very dry around here during the winter. Cold, snow, and wind I'm handling perfectly fine (yes, Mom). But I have a newfound appreciation for lotion, chapstick, and water bottles. Grr extremely low humidity capacity.
> I've been spending a lot of time on Tetazoo (third floor of east parallel of East Campus dorm), where my people live. Sort of following a long and illustrious tradition of unofficially living in the geekier dorms; apparently Random Hall has some closets that they've converted to rooms for people who really really want to live there. Tetazoo doesn't really have a system like that, but it has unofficial residents all the same. It's a hassle that my stuff is all in one building and my heart&mind is all in another; it's a hassle and a half that the two buildings are maximally distant from each other. But that can be dealt with, and it's worth it to live with shiny people. I came to MIT specifically for that culture (among other things), so I figure I should be availing myself of the opportunity to get any of it, even if the stupid housing system shafted me out of it.
> I don't have a lot of official grades yet, but I seem to be acquitting myself relatively well in all my classes. The two term grades I know about are music theory and physics, both A-. Could have been better, but not bad by any stretch. Still waiting on my chemistry grade, and my calculus class doesn't finish till the end of January.