In Which Things Are Complex
October 22, 2014
I won’t actually run through the next week or so. Things get wonderful and things get difficult. There are a lot of tears and a lot of happy moments. I make some progress on research and make some backwards steps elsewhere. When we resume our regular feature the Glee Club Show will likely be over, and the missing two weeks will thankfully be over as well.
Among the things I’ve learned this week are the difficulty of forgiveness, the value of close friendships and the ways that different people deal with things. Hopefully I’ll be a better person for it all.
As much as this post reads to be a little morose, the past week has been great too. It’s just harder to focus on those things!
Recovery – Sunday/Monday/Tuesday – Day 201/202/203
February 25, 2013
So began my third century of days at Penn. Though it may have been assumed that this week would be any quieter than the last, it was in fact, almost as tumultuous, albeit not in such an exciting way.
Sunday was first and foremost a day of sleep. After hell week, there was no way my body could tolerate even another few hours straight without sleep and so, my bed took me, clothes and all, too much needed repose. Then, it was down to work.
The first item that needed completion was more of the group project for networking, which unfortunately was going rather slowly. I thoroughly dislike group projects primarily due to a consistent imbalance in contributions from the various group members.
Alongside this, I needed to plan my recitation for the next day, and I spent a good hour wracking my brains for a way to make midterm revision fun.
At around 3AM I treated myself to bed, and slept right through till my lecture at midday on Monday. Thankfully I made it that far. However, recently I’ve felt attending lectures hasn’t been so worthwhile as the pace is thoroughly relaxed. That is not to say that the courses are ‘too easy’, as the workload is sufficient to bury even the most intrepid of code explorers.
Following Networking and Security, I headed down to CVS to make the purchases I needed to run my class (a bag of chocolates and some envelopes) and set about preparing. My lab this week was a ‘training camp’ for an upcoming ‘midterm battle’ the coming Thursday. Up on the board were a series of envelopes, one per two people. My ‘troops’ chose strike team names and then raced to the board to collect a mission for their team. In five minute increments they were then asked to solve the ‘mission’ within the envelope and return it back to base. For correct answers mission control responded with a ‘mission dossier’ (envelope) filled with a chocolate. For incorrect they received a message. Finally, following the completion of all the missions, there was a post-operational briefing, reviewing all the missions. From what I gathered, it was relatively successful, marred only by the addition of a number of students to the class, leading to a miscalculation on needed envelopes and missions on my part.
After class, rehearsal was cancelled so I went to a panel on Tech Internships with Vivian Huang, a fellow TA, and Louis, a friend from CIS-121 last semester. Then it was to a quick dinner before Brahms’ Requiem rehearsal in which both Thea and Steph Li were distinctly missing. Then back to work to finish off some more homeworks till 5AM.
Tuesday I let myself slip a little, though in such an enjoyable way. Following my torture hour of physics (taken my a substitute PhD student this class) I was walking back to Hillel and Sweeten Alumni House, with its Steinway, caught my eye. I was hooked and, for the next two hours, I was stuck in Sweeten playing to my heart’s content on a beautiful instrument. Later that afternoon I caught up for an hour on some sleep, before auditioning for a big upcoming Penn event (still a little secret). The judge for this particular audition was the wonderful Shaun Altman, fellow tribesman and founder of Rockapella. I have great respect for him and auditioned partially just for the opportunity to meet him! The audition went well, but it was definitely more a part for a low tenor, going up to a good F# on the high-end.
And, back to usual, Glee rehearsal, though, tonight was a meeting; a post-mortem for the show. Taking over three hours, we commented on almost every possible element on the show, from rehearsal to our director, nothing escaped unscathed.
Back to my room after for, you guessed it, another late night working. Boy, Penn students need more sleep.
Singing Valentines Preview
February 15, 2013
I don’t have time to do a full post as it’s almost two AM and I’m completely exhausted but here is an article from the Daily Pennsylvanian (the Penn Newspaper) on what I was up to today, complete with a quote from me!
http://www.thedp.com/article/2013/02/glee-club-brings-love-embarrassment-to-valentines
Take a read and I’ll fill out more of the details in the days to come after the show!