Welcome back to the adventure (or lack thereof) that I call my life. Not much changes from week to week right now, which is a blessing and a curse. You can get settled into a routine, which is nice, but it’s also not so great because there isn’t always a ton of activity in that routine, which can make life pretty dull.
Research continues to carry on. I can’t believe it, but it is already halfway done. I had no clue what was going on in our group on Monday and Tuesday. Then, we got an e-mail from our adviser Tuesday evening congratulating us on the great things that we had accomplished. We had, apparently, proved some fantastic mathematical point using a method that no one else had ever used before, which is very exciting. Unfortunately, it was news to me and I had no idea that what we were doing was so exciting and innovative until I was told, since I’m a little lost in the complicated ways of slicing methods and osculating circles and cycloids and Euler’s method. It took most of Wednesday for my fellow research assistant and myself to grasp what was really going on. After such a productive week, we took part of Friday afternoon off to socialize as a group, which was much needed. We finally got to see each other outside of the work environment and find out a little about each other. I learned that that my fellow research assistant was on Singapore’s national ping-pong team, that the busiest airport in the U.S. is Atlanta (which I should have known since I always go through there to get to Richmond), and that my adviser was the Wisconsin State Champion in French when he was in high school.
Even more socializing occurred with our weekly LURE group event. I had suggested the idea for this week and also planned it, so I was really excited. I had put together a scavenger hunt and the groups had two hours to scour campus and come up with the roughly eighty items on the list. Some were tangible objects and others were photos that the group had to take using their digital cameras. Amazingly, they found and did almost everything even though I thought I had made it difficult. The only things that all three groups could not find were: silk boxers, a receipt for under $2.00, a sand pail, fishnet stockings, a portable cassette player, a Chia pet, a photo of a non-group member singing in our Greek Theater, a Furby, a beanie baby, and a Massachusetts license plate. There was an item for a photo of a group member in the back of a police car or in handcuffs that was the biggest scorer with 12 points, but we ran into issues of protocol with the police department and no one was able to get the points. Overall, everyone had a good time and I had fun creating the list.
6 Points: A library book with “LURE” in the title
3 points: Photo of 3+ group members in the Gumenick fountain
Photo of 2+ group members with the gym’s lifeguard
Photo of group member touching Tryceragoose/King Duck
Winner of “Most creative pose with Robins statue”
Winner of “I can’t believe we all fit in here!”
9 points: Random stranger’s phone number and a photo with them
Winner for most creative of “Group performing Disney scene”
All of the items being scored after the hunt
Other than that, life is the same as before. The gym sees me almost every day of the week and I’m actually getting back into shape. I guess that’s what happens when you have nothing else going on in your life. I also played some beach volleyball now that my sunburn is all better. Finally, I’m continuing on with my quest to bring disc golf to UR. I met with the designers again and we’re really excited about some of the hole locations, but we’re still waiting on the administration. Sadly, you’ve heard this all before and so have I. I’m ready to get back home and add some more excitement to my life. I will see my family in a little over a week and I’ll get a vacation (what I firmly believe is my first 3+ day break from classes, my job, or hard labor since Christmas).
To help me with the boredom, I’m incredibly grateful that our Media Resource Center is open and has lots of movies. I’ve created a list of “Famous Movies of All-Time that I Have Yet to See” and plan to start getting around to them. Most of the selections are based off of the American Film Institutes’s Top 100 List. So, I embark on that adventure starting this weekend with, I believe, “The Producers” and “Psycho”. Maybe your weekend will be more entertaining. Best of luck and I’ll report again next week.
Quotes of the Week: Math pick-up lines courtesy of another research group’s presentation. I may be the only one who understands them , but I find them funny.
“Honey, you’re sweeter than pi.”
“The Kerckhove group likes cycloids, but my favorite curves are yours”
“I wish I were sin²(x) and you were cos²(x) so that together we’d be 1.”
“Are you the square root of 2? Because I feel irrational when I’m around you.”
“How can I know hundreds of digits of pi and no the seven digits of your phone number?”
Thought to Ponder: Are there interstate highways in Hawaii?
Shout Outs: My family
YouTube Video of the Week:
And you thought your ride to school was interesting
