Archive for the 'College' Category
Food Literacy: not the same thing as actual literacy
So HUDS sells this “93 Gallon Canteen” that’s supposed to deter people from using disposable containers, like paper cups or bottled water. I bought one yesterday since I had over 100 bucks still burning a hole in my BoardPlus account, and as any good Harvard student knows BoardPlus is worthless unless you spend it by years’ end. Apparently the Food Literacy Project is also involved in producing these canteens to some degree, since they have their logo stamped on the thing. So I find it particularly amusing–and, well, somewhat embarrassing–that the blurb on the canteen (about how exactly you’re saving 93 gallons of… various things?) reads, in part, like this:
The EPA regulates tap water, ensuring it’s [sic] overall safety.
“It’s”? “It’s”? Are you kidding me? I think Strong Bad said it best, so I’m just going to leave this one to him.
iLive, You Live, We All Live
So today (by which I mean yesterday, since I’m posting after midnight), Mac OS 10.5 (“Leopard,” as they call it) made its triumphant debut to much fanfare. Even here at that university in Cambridge, 6:00 saw a fairly lengthy line stretching out of the main computer center in the Science Center, full of people anxiously awaiting their shiny new OS.
Although I was obviously in the vicinity at the time (as you can tell from my observations of the line), I was not there to obtain Leopard—I had another mission in mind. Some barely circulated flier advertised a raffle, where 100 lucky winners would obtain a free copy of iLife ’08. I hadn’t planned on upgrading, but since this is something like $40 with a student discount, it seemed like a nice chunk of change to save. Noticing the total lack of visibility of the fliers, I expected that the occasion—an event starting at 6:00, and a promised drawing at 7:30—wouldn’t even draw 100 people to begin with, and if it did, the odds would almost certainly still be overwhelmingly in my favor.
Showtime arrived, and I made my way past the line of Leopard-seekers (taking a few Apple-branded things they had lying around for the taking) in search of this raffle. It was a bit of a stretch, but no matter—an employee shows me a box of entry forms, and I take one. Then, a curiosity: I notice a girl exchanging her entry form for a copy of iLife. I ask whether I’m just supposed to fill out the form (hopefully to be told that they’re just giving it away to anyone who enters), and I hear the bad news: only entry forms with special stickers are winners, and since mine didn’t have a sticker, I wasn’t going to win. I was told that even though I was supposed to fill out the form, there wasn’t any chance I could still win, and he wouldn’t blame me if I didn’t bother.
Frustrated, I gave him back the blank form and left. Of course, this was a giveaway—you could say it’s hard to be annoyed with something so petty as to be free to begin with. But still, the fact that this was hardly a raffle at all—that you could feel around with your hand for a stickered entry form, or that you could come back again and win later, or even that earlier arrivals had an advantage against those who came closer to the 7:30 “drawing” that wasn’t—made it seem awfully unfair.
After attending to other matters that demanded my attention this evening, I made my way back by the Science Center a little after 7:00, aiming to try my hand at getting free stuff again. Surely, the masses would have largely left, and perhaps they still hadn’t gotten 100 people to show up. If, as I overheard, 1 in 4 entry forms were missing a sticker, there was a fair bit of hope.
I put on my glasses, hoping this might at least disorient the employee I saw before, if he was even still there. There were about three customers there, and a number of employees, but I didn’t see the one who I had spoken with before. I approached a man behind the counter, and had a conversation something like this:
“Is there a raffle going on here?”
“Do you have iLife ’08?”
“No, I don’t.”
(The man hands me a copy.) “You do now.”
Ah, the wonders of free stuff. I still need to figure out what exactly the new iLife has that’ll benefit me, but it’ll probably have at least a couple things I’ll find useful at some point.
Satisfaction is the theme of the night.
Two Weeks
Effective next Friday the bonds of school will be temporarily released so that I may engage in a break of rest and relaxation, and perhaps (dependent on other factors to be determined in the interim) enjoyment. Things to note:
- About this: if you’re truly the one person concerned about me getting more than one CD you should either claim it or choose something else. Obviously I can’t be privy to everything I’m getting, because that would make me omnipotent, and I can only be so perfect.
- The poll is now approximately representative of actual votes received, and not votes erroneously calculated. I think I’ll have to end it by Thursday or so, for obvious reasons (which I will not state, in the event that they are not obvious).
- Guidance demanded today that I fill out an application for a New York State scholarship, which I don’t think I’ll even be entitled to since I’m almost certainly not going to an eligible college in New York. But it was demanded of me, so there you go.
- Recent surveys have indicated that my readership apparently dislikes both long entries and entries that are entirely devoted to computers. As my entries frequently fall into both of the aforementioned categories, this poses a problem as far as sustained readership is concerned. We may return to this topic of discussion in the future.
That is all.
Smart Decisions for Senior Year
Want to get through the first month of school with little to no formal writing? Avoid AP Chem and AP Euro; substitute with Physics C and AP Government. (Corollary: AP English is acceptable if you’re willing to confine your writing to 14 minute blocks.)
Want to avoid calculus teachers who can’t teach calculus? Take Physcalc.
Want to make sure you don’t keep falling asleep while reading Crime and Punishment for English? Take Fitness Walking in gym and take your book with you, and do the readings a day in advance.
Want to claim a Saturday morning to yourself? Do well enough on the SATs in the spring so that you don’t have to take them again in October. (Corollary: Don’t do the Columbia Science Honors Program unless you’re already antisocial enough that you’d have nothing to do on a Saturday morning anyway.)
Since this entry is pretty much to-the-point, here are some other points I feel compelled to include:
- The Almighty College Board has informed me that I have reached the level of “AP Scholar with Distinction”. I’m not sure what that’s worth exactly, but it sounds important.
- It seems the influx of questionable poll votes has been curbed. I’m still not sure of the cause, but I took some preemptive measures to attempt to solve the problem, and one of them worked. At some point in the future I might try to figure out how to appropriate the votes.
- My body hurts. This is probably because my shoulders don’t like supporting my backpack (which I recently updated, thank you). Yesterday I also was due for a couple shots, which while not a big deal left both of my arms sore. Interesting note: the building in which I went to get my shots is numbered 666. Notable politicians who have a campaign office located in said building? None other than Democratic candidate for Congress John Hall. (Be warned, a mysterious figure will appear on your screen if you click that link, and he makes noise.) The distinguised candidate has some dumb picture of Bush on his door saying something about John Hall giving him a headache. I think Mr. Hall is a bit too fond of himself.
- Random thought: all work weeks should be four days long.
So that’s what I’ve got to say. Now to go off and work on college stuff, or calculus problem sets, or something.
Pardon the Amotivation
Since school started a few short weeks ago it seems I’ve found difficulty encountering a free moment. Probably because senior year is a bit of a drag, and rather than screwing around all the time I’m now just devoting my time to getting work done for school. Less of a stretch compared to those used to screwing around with other people in their spare time (take that as you will) who now face the same fate, but still a bit of a chore.
So since I’ve been a bit sleep deprived in all of this, I’ve been neglecting my blog. Hopefully this is a condition that won’t last for exceedingly long, as I do enjoy being able to write a bit on what’s on my mind, which hopefully is not the fact that I haven’t been doing much of that.
Though the amotivation thing is kind of bothering me. I wrote my national merit essay Sunday night. My counselor told me it kind of sucked (using other words), so I took it back, reworked it, and handed it in on Wednesday (she wasn’t there to read it on Tuesday, else I’d have had it in then).
Maybe it’s just the amount of work I’ve had to worry about that prevents me from getting anything done. Last Spanish test I didn’t bother to study for until my free period the day of (though for the record it turns out I got the highest grade in the class on that, so maybe that wasn’t such a bad idea). The school newspaper editor application was due yesterday, but I didn’t bother to finish mine. My guess is that the whole concept of answering yes/no questions in “3-5 sentences, typed” kind of suggested that it wasn’t the job for me anyway (there were probably other things too, but I’ve got enough to worry about without trying to rewrite articles rants about how much cafeteria food sucks).
Of course, my “free time” is really supposed to be spent toward application completing and essay writing and whatnot. So I guess we’ll see what that ends up leaving me with.
By the way, I don’t know if you knew this, but Ken Jennings has a blog. I only stumbled across it (not to be confused with StumbleUpon) a few days ago, but it seems he’s slightly more regular in his posting habits. He’s probably more enjoyable to read too. And you’ll learn more from him than you will from me. And even if you don’t think he’s that great I gave you a second link to suck up some time so you won’t notice me not posting.
And one day I’ll figure out where all those damn poll votes are coming from.
