So, as I contemplate the encrouching liveline (deadline is inappropriately negative) of college (ZOMG <11 days!), there are about a thousand things on my mind. Since I can’t discuss a thousand things on my blog I will pick an overarching theme that I think sums it all up pretty well: Quantum Mechanics.
Now, before you go running away screaming AHH PHYSICS, NO!! I promise I am interpreting the theme in a way free of equations or word problems (at least ones you have to solve). In fact, its probably a way that will make actual physicists angry. Basically, I’m thinking of Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle. While the literal statment is about the fact that its ” physically impossible to measure [both] the position and momentum of a particle,” and I am clearly not a particle, I also feel like while my position is relatively clear, my “momentum” is immeasurable at this point.
I haven’t actually yet observed my role, my wavefunction has not collapsed; I am Schrödinger’s prefrosh.
To dispense with the abstraction and nerdiness, I am basically saying what I said before: I still feel like my possibilities at MIT are limitless. Therefore I have no idea where I am heading and what my role will end up being.
Let us consider some specific examples. One point that has been confusing me is what I shall do for a math class. I have a 5 on AP Calc BC, so 18.01 is right out. I feel fairly competent with it, so 18.01/02A is also eliminated. This leaves “only”: 18.014, 18.02, 18.022, and 18.023. (To my non-MIT friends who are now lost, here is the catalog of math classes with normal titles/descriptions: http://student.mit.edu/catalog/m18a.html ). This would be a complicated enough decision (the main conflict being between taking 18.02 on the strength of Aroux’s reputation and 18.022, since I already have a good familiarity with Multivariable Calc from a class last year), but it is further complicated by the fact that, out of boredom I have been reading a calc book I won from a competition and, as a result, feel that I might actually be able to pass the 18.02 ASE. This would leave me deciding between 18.03 or 18.06 then .03 or .034 in the spring. If I wanted to go really crazy, I could try to go straight for 18.100B.. but thats highly unlikely.
Anyway, I have whined about math class choice long and hard elsewhere, and while I still appreciate advice if you have it, this is not really the point of this post, I simply mean it to be illustrative of my class choice uncertainty. I have similar conflicts between 8.02/8.022 and 3.091/5.111/5.112, anyway.
Alas, my indecision does not end with classes; extracirriculars are also a source of uncertainty. I really want to audition for an a capella group, as I love them, but I’m not even sure if I’d rather be a member of the Logs or Resonance (I may even audition for others, but I’m pretty sure these are my top 2). On top of this, I know what kind of comitment these groups are. Meanwhile, my mind wants to hatch plans about Roadkill Buffet, Musical Theater Guild, and even UA. All of these plans are of very time consuming things and all together are not possible. At some point, I WILL have to make a decision, and the wavefunction WILL collapse. And I am really curious about what I will pick and how I will make these decisions.
But of course, a huge part of the aforementioned uncertainty principle is the so-called “observer effect,” the fact that to observe somthing is to change it. Even in writing this blog entry, I may be changing my future (perhaps even by becoming an admissions blogger ^_^). Certainly when I have to make these decisions final, it will change what other decisions I can make.
Still, its so odd to think that at this point my college life is essentially a (metaphoric) wavefunction, all of the possibilities coexist in some sense. Even things that I am relatively certain of (my inteded major: VI, my intended dorm: EC) could easily be different. If I have a great time at some Senior Haus event during REX, I could live there and end up being significantly different than in relatively similar EC. In more extreme variation, I could even end up living in Baker :-O!! With all this talk of Physics, I could switch from VI to 8.. anything could happen!
And then of course there are even more remote possibilities. For example, a timely allusion is the activation of the Large Hadron Collider 21 hours, 4 minutes, and odd seconds from the time of this writing. As has been well-established by press and lawsuits, there is an incalcuably small chance that the LHC could produce micro-black holes or a “strangelet” that could devour the Earth or even the entire universe. While I personally expect neither, I can concede that until they don’t occour, they are still technically possible.
Perhaps my college career is of less importance than the LHC activation, perhaps it is more. Point of fact, both are possible. And in both, there are so many possibilities.
As with the LHC’s physicists, however, my plan is to accept the minor catastrophic potential, swallow the facts of the unlimited possibilities, and forge forword. I doubt it’ll be the Higgs Boson, but I am certainly excited to see what the reality of my college experience shall bring… ^_^
Until Next Time (assuming the LHC doesn’t kill us all),
~Donald Guy
P.S. Monday’s Penny-Arcade is totally relevant, and totally hillarious, but I felt it wouldn’t fit in the mostly serious entry above. Still .. check it out: http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2008/8/4/
Hello … it is 9:40 on May 25, 2008 and I am blogging. I am supposed to be writing my speech for my upcoming graduation, but I have a bit of writer’s block so I am going to babble onto the internet. Perhaps it will get me in a writing mood and I can turn out some speeching later. In any case, what exactly is the point of a blog? .. let’s ask wikipedia! According to said wiki, a [[blog]] is “a website, usually maintained by an individual, with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video.” (see, you learned something). Lets check this one:
maintained by an individual? *opens photobooth as a mirror* check!
regular entries? ermm … about that.
So. Onto commentary, descreptions of events, graphics and video. I think I’ve already covered some of the commentary aspect, so I guess I should talk about events. What has happened since I last updated? Well, as I predicted (sort of), I survived the english portfolio project! I got it all turned in, have gotten it back, and recieved a 100% A+ on it. Further, AP Exams are over! There is a draft of an entry in which I was going to do a break down of each AP exam, but they are over and I don’t want to talk about them too much, so screw that entry. What I will do, since this blog’s limited history is in the habbit of prediction, is predict my scores:
AP English Government: 5, simple, simple exam. There was an essay on the difference between monetary and fiscal policy on which I made things up and another regarding supreme court regulation of apportionment in which my answers were a bit off.. I think I can sustain both faults.
AP English Literature: 5, 4 possible. I somehow managed to run out of time and leave a significant number of MC blank, but my essays were pretty good. Again, it should shake out. Regardless, I got a 5 on Language last year so no FEE for me.
AP Psychology: 5. Yea .. pretty much. (I have 104% in the class for the year, it is by far the easiest AP class I ever took)
AP Physics C. I’m gonna say 5 on Mechanics, 4 on E&M. A 5 on E&M is possible, but unlikely. Truth be told, I don’t deserve a 5 for E&M, but since I will be taking 8.02(2) regardless, it would be very nice. Also, while I could perhaps have been a bit better prepared, fouling up this exam can not be seen as entirely my fault. First off, the class was not best taught ever. Our teacher, Mr. Boyles, is a nice guy and a pretty decent teacher, but we simply didn’t keep a good time table. This is partially because due to the double-class nature with Muti/Diff, his time was cut short most days (if you are curious what I am talking about, feel free to comment). Also, the day of the test, it was very rainy and stormy outside. We all showed up and sat in the testing room for about an hour for the test to start. Right before it did, however, an employee of the place we were testing came in saying that they needed the room for other purposes. As a result we were moved to a different room with a loading-dock sytle exterior door that preceded to make loud banging noises throughout the test. We stayed in this room for all of Mechanics and the MC of E&M, then we were moved again for the free response portion of E&M. Almost needless to say, I was a bit frazzeled by the whole ordeal, and it very well may have made the difference between a 4 and a 5. Due to this situation, I was offered a complete retest which would have been last Friday, the 23rd. Knowing that this was going to be after the English portfolio of doom(!!!), I decided it wasn’t worth the effor to prolong the exams.. thus, it now stands as it is. My socre report will, however, show a note saying that my performance was possibly affected by a disturbance in the testing room. I doubt this will give me enough sympathy points to get out of 8.01 with a 4 on E&M, but we shall see.
So yea, thats probably pretty much what the draft I never finished would have said. Hopefully it is at least slightly more condensed. In any case, for now, events… check!
I have one quick other random piece of commentary to add. Note to all advertising, marketing types and people in general: A forward slash and a backslash are different characters!! Again, note carefully:
I have repeatedly in the last few days heard radio commercials giving a web adress as ” h t t p colon slash slash [note proper usage] w w w . [almost invariably] myspace . com BACKSLASH <something> “. This is wrong! As a concrete example, I have heard the local surf shop Wave Riding Vehicles do this recently, but if you go to http://myspace.com\wrv , you get an error like you damn well should. Perhaps some marketing executive heard the term backslash and thought, “Hmm that sounds like a fancier word for slash; I should use that word instead, afterall market research shows that surfers love feeling fancy—thats why they don’t just surf the waves any more, they surf this newfangeled thing called the interblagotubes The sad thing is that I realize most listeners will also not know the difference between a slash and a backslsh, but they should! And ignorance is not an excuse to promote further ignorance! </rant>
So, that covered commentary and descriptions of events. I will leave you with “graphics or video”. This has been on the internet three days, so most of the people who will appreciate have probably already seen it. Oh well, its worth watching agin!
In any case, that is enough blogging for one time. See you next time….
So, I’m sure you have all heard that supposedly the world is supposed to end in my/our college graduation year, 2012 (or at least there is supposed to be some major psychic shift or something .. trouble with this Mayan predictions is we can’t really ask them what they meant). Well, I’m not talking about that … I’m talking about now.
Like most of my peers, I am afflicted with the lovely ailment referred to as senioritis. On top of that, my teachers (particularly my english teacher) thought it a good idea to set up a negative correlation between seniors’ motivation and seniors’ workload .. it’s actually insane.
<whining about english>
Consider that, in the first place, our AP English Lit exam was last Thursday, so by all reason, the class should be pretty much done or at least switching over to “fun” activities. Yea, we aren’t. At my high school (and by all accounts, only my high school within the district), we are required to submit a senior english portfolio composed entirely of NEW compositions.. in the order of 12 of them. For most of them, we have to submit 3 drafts + pre-writing (as though we actually do prewriting). On top of that, she thought it a good idea to assign us a series of poetry journals. Not only are these of substantially larger quanity than those earlier in the yaer (6, each requiring analysis of 3-6 poems), but they are in the majority due BEFORE the portfolio. But no, it does not stop there, on top of this we have been assigned to read and keep “a detailed character list” for One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. So, in summary, the first day after our AP exam, we have the first poetry journal, 69 pages of Cuckoo, and a check on our senior portfolio progress (theses checks are graded seperately). Also, keep in mind, it is still AP exams .. I won’t be there.. I have AP Physics C, for which I do not feel prepared and won’t feel prepared, despite studying more than I have for any other AP exam. Then the next day, I have AP Psychology.
</whining>
On top of the insane English load and AP Physics C, I have a chorus concert I need to work to prepare for, and a 2 day Enviornmental competition (about which I am less than enthralled) that will wipe out my ability to work on the english portfolio Sunday or Monday of next week, with the portfolio itself due .. let’s see… WEDNESDAY. Oh and on top of this I also feel physically ill.
Basically .. my point is that of my title, I feel doomed plain and simple. That said, I also know myself and having gone through this cathartic excercise would expect that this prediction of doom will go the way of most (i.e. it will turn out false, but its true believers will continue on unphased). We’ll see.
Anyway, if I get through this one, I’ll see you in 2013.
Thanks for listening to my doomsaying,
~Donald Guy
P.S. one other prediction, amongst my HASS classes, I will probably never take another english class proper.
