Over spring break I went to Detroit to volunteer at an urban farm, which was a truly great experience. Here's a link to the blog about that, which I wrote for altbreaks (the program) in my assigned capacity as blogger: http://uwalternativebreaks.wordpress.com/spring-break-trips-2012/detroit-michigan-spring-break-2012/. It even has pictures! Now this blog is like an onion. Because it has a blog inside of it.
What else? I read this essay from The Atlantic which is yet another internet response to the internet's effects, namely those of facebook, but this one stands out because of a) its sheer length and b) how in depth it goes. It's a commitment but if you're willing to make it, you'll get a lot of interesting thoughts out of it. Interestingly, I recently deleted my facebook in no connection to this article but for some of the reasons that it mentions.
Check out this band! http://delicatesteve.bandcamp.com/album/wondervisions. If you'll forgive me, I'll put on a Pitchfork/Stereogum hat (or is that too un-hipster? A raw organic straw woven fedora) for a moment and describe them as: instrumental, irreverent, crisp, quirky and unafraid to mix up gorgeous plucked guitar melody with space sounding synth, to have no discernible time signature, to make a track thirty seconds long. It's like walking into a rainforest of candy canes and psychedelic colors. I love music that's rich and complex and THIS BAND ROCKS OMG YAY. </fedora>
I'm reading this book called For The Love of Physics, by an acclaimed MIT professor. It's about physics. But it's physics in a digestible, even tasty, form. This guy's enthusiasm comes out so strongly that it can't help but influence you. While reading it, I thought these things (i wrote them in a word file so it's imported):
1) Reading about
parallax, and the often cited example of parallax using your eyes and your
finger; I had the urge to actually measure the ratio between parallax distance
and distance to my finger, so I could come up with the proportional constant.
It’s so entirely different when you passively
take in ideas, be it from a book or from a lecture, as when you create it from your own interest. Take
physics lab for example; when I went to physics lab, it was to do something
that the “other” (curriculum) had set out for me to do and hopefully gain
insight from. What if, instead, I was very intrigued by parallax and went to
lab to measure how effective parallax is at short distances from long? It’s
bottom up rather than extracting information and it FEELS ENTIRELY DIFFERENT.
Think about it. You come up with the idea, you are interested, you set the
parameters, you consider what might go wrong and how to address it…every little
thing that you hear not to do in lab or you must remember not to, etc, is
already accounted for in your organic setup instead of memorizing what your ta
says. Creation, creation, creation.
2) The truly great
aren’t just talented, they are passionate. Learning doesn’t stop once you leave
the classroom. Walter Lewin being constantly astounded by the wonderful beauty
of nature, but mathematically not only purely appreciatively. Dr. Lokuta and
figuring out how a semilunar valve works while he was drying his daughter’s
hair and getting her ready for school. Pondering “in a quiet contemplative moment”
is very real! Only the vast majority of people don’t and that’s why you get the standouts. Because they do.
So. Otherwise, life has been pretty good. I ran past my and Becca's (why is that the most awkward configuration in grammar ever? is that even right?) future apartment on my run today. Soooo excited to live in the Monroe St neighborhood and be in a less crunk environment than Langdon! Peace :)
