I'll Procrastinate Later

First essay of the semester, and yes, I was writing it the night before it was due.  Great start.  I actually do have some reasons beyond the usual “I was too busy playing solitaire,” but some of them are kind of circular.  For example, I was at pep band events all weekend (more on that to come) so I didn't have time to write my essay, but I went to pep band so that I wouldn't have to do homework.  Also, as I mentioned in an earlier post, I've been doing all my reading, as well as marking it up.  My reading is currently done, but my essay needs finishing (and I’m totally not starting this post as I’m supposed to be making my essay close enough to three pages to look done).  If only I could write essays as fast as blog posts.

So the essay assignment was to write about a memorial or monument on Cornell’s campus.   I decided to write about Olin Hall because I figured if I’m going to be pretty much living there for the next three years or so, I might as well know about it.  And if you’re thinking right now that I’m an engineer but I keep writing about English, that’s a good point.  However, writing seminar assignments tend to relate more to interesting stories about Cornell and math homework depends mostly on the ability to integrate.  Although, if anyone’s really interested, I could be convinced to provide an in-depth commentary on the process of solving separable and/or linear differential equations (the ordinary kind; we haven’t started partial differential equations yet).

Back to English.  I found out that the engineering students used to go to class on the arts quad, back when Cornell was just starting.  Olin Hall was one of the first engineering buildings to be completed, and has housed the school of chemical engineering since its construction.  The money for the building was given by Franklin W. Olin, but the building is named for his oldest son, Franklin W. Jr., who committed suicide about twenty years before Olin Hall was built.  Olin Hall was completed in 1942, and within the next decades, several more engineering buildings were finished.  Those are actually on the current engineering quad.  For whatever reason, Olin is across the street, and looks like it was dropped there as an afterthought, but it was built before most of the rest of the engineering quad. . . .

The research was pretty interesting, and I might have gotten to do a little more reading, but I had an essay to write.  I did finish it the night before it was due, really.  Anyway, soon to come: my first full week of classes, more than a weekend with the pep band, and the weather in Ithaca.  Also check back here for a picture of one of my favorite buildings on campus.