In Which I Take a Productive Break
September 6, 2014
The next day was empty. Almost entirely. I slept recovered and ate lunch with some new people. A welcome break from the hectic schedule I had previously been running under.
In the night I was a little more productive, refreshing my resume, website and doing a little coursework for cryptography. When 9.45PM hit, I set off to Rodin to join a number of friends from the community for nerf-gun capture the flag in the engineering buildings. Unlike the time in February, this time was packed out with over thirty five people playing. It was great fun and great exercise as per the previous time and I was looking forward to the subsequent times we would get to play.
Sunday was a little busier again, with Glee taking up the bulk of the day. The early afternoon was taken up by ‘Grilling with Glee’, an event held to recruit new members that largely involved us standing around free food and chatting with any prospectives as they came by. The day was a hot 33 degrees and very humid and so it wasn’t an altogether pleasant task, but I met a few new and lovely people including Jasmine, one of the tech staff for Glee that had joined the previous year. It was also a good chance to spend some more time with the other new members of PGC that had joined.
The evening consisted of sitting outside auditions to speak to auditionees and make them feel comfortable and enthusiastic about joining club. However, Sunday night was a little low on volume and so I would be returning the next night again to meet more of them.
Wednesday/Thursday – Day 247/248
April 10, 2013
Today started in the usual manner, classes that were unremarkable for the most part, the usual stresses of work etc. However, in the afternoon an exciting gig was planned
We were meant to be performing for the resignation party of the CEO of a Fortune 500 Company, UGI Energy, and being paid a hefty eight thousand dollars for the privilege. Supplementary to that, we were being offered spots and the party and our travel covered.
Unfortunately for all us lay-clubbers, this turned out to be a clever April Fool’s joke perpetrated on us (and even the business manager!) by the President Scott Ventre. However, as I will not detail here, this had far reaching repercussions. One must be careful about taking pranks too far…
Thursday was meant to be a little more relaxing but my day was packed full again! In the morning I proctored the CIS-121 midterm on which my students did pretty well. I also watched a pre-recorded physics lecture on electrodynamics and the derivation of optics from first principles. Fascinating stuff.
The afternoon was packed full with the usual work, but mostly trying to get as much of my group project work done as possible, before my study for the Physics midterm, upcoming on the next Tuesday.
Dinner post-hillel dinner, with the Glee Club was at Zach Costa’s (our Publicity Manager) family’s restaurant; The Blind Pig! Famous for their Thanksgiving Balls, they served pub style foods that were greatly enjoyed by the PGC. I for one, had a delicious cider that was on tap. However, dinner was slightly marred by internal politics within the PGC, that although eventually came to nothing, were worrying for a short time.
I got back far too late, and had far too much work to get done, but midterm grading was to start early the next day and so I took a relatively early night.
Monday/Tuesday/Wednesday – Exams – Days 137-139
December 17, 2012
I had experienced multiple exam periods before, but none so stressful as what I experienced at Penn. Possibly one of the most stressful weeks of my life and, unfortunately I lacked the perspective to step back from it.
The week didn’t begin so badly, with a few major projects due Tuesday but no exam till Thursday. I thought all was well as I’d planned ahead and completed most of the projects. Monday held two PGC gigs, both of which were pretty awesome. The first of those being a performance at the top of the Huntsman building, on the eighth floor, never seen on regular occasions by students. One could tell the event was of higher status than some of the others by the flashy catering provided and the seemingly unlimited supply of pepper steak being carved up for the guests. Our performance however, was less than stellar and I’m not 100% sure we earned our keep that time. However, we had a chance to redeem ourselves later in the evening with the President herself, Amy Guttmann.However before that there was coding to be done in the break and candle lighting at Hillel with a brief appearance by President Guttmann.
Following her speech there was a performance, as below, by the Jewish acapella group on campus, the Shabbatones.
Following that it was again, a short period of study and work before a trip to the fantastic Presidential Holiday Party at the house of the President herself.
There was a line out the front reaching a decent way back and understandably so, for on the other side the beautifully adorned building was a back garden filled with desserts and holiday treats. However, the Glee Club was sequestered to a side room to await our performance.
We waited anxiously for the entire crew to arrive and when they did, we sang our bit before spending time mingling. It was during this period that I managed to snag a photo with the President, one for the wall.
After all this hubbub I planed to work a little and then sleep early. Unfortunately, a few small issues with my code ballooned out and ending up taking me till the early hours of the morning, programming in Engineering, Moore 100. Around me students with bleary eyes were all focused on the same goal. Completing the assignment by 10AM Tuesday. Many fell by the wayside or more literally, fell asleep.
Tuesday morning I slept through most of and the evening was spent in a mixture of coding and revising. Today was also the day that the family visited Penn and I spent at least a little time showing them around before my recital at 1PM where I sang fly me to the moon. Email me for a link to that video.
Different project this time and lots of math catchup for the algorithms course.I seem to be doing this more frequently, but another significant event this past week was another interview, this time for an on campus position of ‘Teaching Assistant’ or TA (tutor) for the algorithms course. This applied extra pressure on me to do well on the exam to prove myself. The interview in fact went excellently, and the interviewer Val Tannen, had a few words with me after that were most encouraging. It was then on Tuesday I received notification that not only had I succeeded in being offered a TA job, I was to be given a tutorial/section/lab to teach because of my strong performance. This made me nervous a little but I was more than happy to accept. In the evening I went for a delicious dinner with my parents before arriving back on campus a little after nine PM to get back to work. However at around ten PM I received an SMS from JHo, my Glee mentor, wondering where I was at auditions, and then it hit me, I had forgotten my audition slot half an hour beforehand for the PGC Spring Show! The moment I received that message I grabbed my coat, some sheet music and, sprinted as fast as I possibly could, over to Platt Student Performing Arts Center where I was the last person to have my audition and, though I was a little stressed out I felt it went relatively well.
Wednesday was a non stop day of study, almost without pause and the study went well into the night where I helped out a few friends with their questions. Unfortunately for me, I never remember that when I manage to help others for an exam, I often doom my own performance….