A Term of Firsts
The last six months culiminated in my pre-third kyu aikido test, and it went beautifully. Sophie was an incredible partner, enduring countless repetitions of techniques and bad throws with a smile. The hard work paid off: techniques feel more natural, timing is sharper, and I now have more bandwidth to help beginners. A couple of new students are learning fast, and I’m eager to see them progress.
Serving as treasurer has been its own challenge. Getting the budget sorted was one hurdle, but the real test was proofreading the paperwork and reconciling fees and forms for the recent exam. It took hours of careful accounting last night, but everything is finally in order—and I suspect future tests will go smoother now that I’ve fumbled my way through this one.
On the field, Physbee (the physics ultimate team) remains undefeated. The late-afternoon games are spectacular, with light sweeping over the campus as dusk approaches. I’m still relying on hiking boots for sprinting, which isn’t ideal—maybe I’ll pick up proper cleats this weekend.
Back to the Lab
Classes are demanding: Psychopathology, Math Structures (proofs), and Atomic and Nuclear Physics. The physics course is challenging, but it’s oddly refreshing compared to the specialized CS coursework I’ve done before. Olin feels like home again—last Monday I was in the lab until 4:30 AM. Error analysis remains the toughest hurdle, but the labs themselves are real science: we replicated the Millikan oil drop and Rutherford alpha scattering experiments and got solid results. It’s remarkable that you can work out the charge of an electron with an oil spritzer and a voltage source.
The lab work has pushed software projects to the back burner, but two are waiting in the wings: a class-oriented Ruby interface for LDAP directory implementations, and a backup system I’m calling Archivist. I’ll have more to say about those this winter.
UPS still has my computer, though the insurance claim is progressing. Once it’s back, I need to repair the damage they caused—that box is never getting shipped again. For midterm break, I’m headed to Madison for some psych reading and dancing, but first: structures homework and an electron diffraction analysis.
