Hey, Ocarina

While I was at Cornell for the summer I took advantage of the moderately decent weather to visit the farmer’s market on multiple occasions. There was the time I walked to the farmer’s market after walking to Cass Park from Collegetown (four miles total, because why not?). There was the time it started pouring right after we left. There was the time I got my very own ocarina.

Thusfar, I’d only spent money at the farmer’s market on food. There’s a really popular Cambodian food place that I tried. I had rice with potatoes and chicken in some sort of curry-like sauce that was good. Another time a friend and I had peanut lime noodles and corn fritters from another place that were really good, followed by a strawberry lemonade and a raspberry chocolate shortbread bar that I saved for later (both also good). The only thing I’ve eaten at the farmer’s market so far that was disappointing was a samosa. The filling was bland even though I dumped in several spoonfuls of sauce.

But back to the ocarina. Thanks to The Legend of Zelda, I already knew what an ocarina was when I saw them at the farmer’s market. I decided that I was going to spend my hard earned money on something other than food because 1) The Legend of Zelda and 2) obscure woodwind instrument. First, The Legend of Zelda is my favorite video game series; my brother and I first played through Wind Waker and Four Swords Adventure, then my brother played most of the old Zelda games, after which Twilight Princess came out, and finally Skyward Sword. I’ll always remember Wind Waker as the first Zelda game we beat, but the dungeons in Skyward Sword rival it, plus Skyward Sword has (finally) an orchestral soundtrack and benefits from MotionPlus on the Wii. Also, Link is originally left handed and my favorite character to play on Super Smash Bros. Second, I appear to be starting a collection of instruments, including my clarinet, a recorder from third grade music class, and a tinwhistle. With that kind of solid reasoning behind my choice, I decided to buy an ocarina to add to my collection.

The ocarina I got is a five hole ocarina, and I currently know how to play a major scale on it. I can play most of Davy (the fight song) and O Christmas Tree the Evening Song. I’m thinking ocarina Christmas caroling in a few weeks. Who’s with me?

The View from Saturday (and All the Other Days)

When I was in elementary school, one of my favorite books was The View From Saturday by E. L. Konigsburg, who also wrote From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, another book I really liked. I’m not sure why I liked it so much, because it’s about a middle school quiz bowl team, sea turtles, and tea parties, and not mountain climbing or ukulele playing goats*. But I recently (last year?) found The View From Saturday at either a book sale or picked it up for free and reread it, and I still liked it.

Maybe it had something to do with the point in my life around middle school where I decided that I didn't like fantasy books (don’t ask me why) and preferred reading realistic fiction. I have since progressed on to reading anything, including the fantasy novels The Lord of the Rings, most of the Harry Potter series, and this summer, American Gods and the start of the Discworld series, as well as my lease and software agreements.**

On a tangentially related note, I also just realized that the bus scene in The View From Saturday is a lot like the opening of Park and Eleanor, which I just read for fun because young adult novels are marginally easier to read than my organic chemistry textbook. Both scenes are about the new kid trying to find a seat on a bus with already established seating. I rode the bus to and from school for nine years straight (fourth to twelfth grade) and kindergarten on occasion (back when there were still more students enrolled in half day than full day kindergarten). People sat in different seats every day and the only year my stop was at the end of my driveway was fourth grade. Then there was the late bus, which was only obligated to drop us off within a mile of my house and preferred to leave us to walk home from the end of the street. So I've done my time on the school bus.

Finally, the point of this post was not to discuss my weird reading habits or bus stories (I've got more for another time), as interesting as they may be. What I actually wanted to talk about was the view from my dorm room, which I get every day, not just Saturdays. (See the connection?) I moved to the fifth floor of the same dorm I lived in last year, to the suite that is as physically far away from the laundry room (in the basement) as possible. On Tuesday when I did laundry, I counted and it took over 300 steps to get to the laundry room. Multiply by six and that’s what it takes to get clean clothing.

To recap: what I wanted to do was show some pictures of the view from my room but I did so in the most complicated way possible. And here are the pictures taken through my window.

The Cloud that Ate Ithaca: Coming Soon to a Theater Near You

Pre-winter at its finest

Good morning, Cornell University.

*Note that I have not actually read a book about ukulele playing goats.
**Note that I do not recommend the last two for leisure reading.

Much Excitement

After using column chromatography to separate a mixture of two chemicals, I turned in two solids that appeared to be different in my orgo lab practical. I recovered 0.064 grams of my original 0.17 gram sample for an overall percent yield of 37.6%. I’ve done worse.

My bruise is fading. From the center out, but hey, it only took two weeks. I suspect it was from rock climbing but I don’t recall hitting anything hard enough to cause the subsequent explosion of purple and red on my kneecap.

It’s hockey season. The women’s team is 0 and 3, and they’re already playing ECAC games, which is concerning. I haven’t seen them play because they were away last weekend and their game yesterday was at 3 pm. I have class until 4:30 pm. On a Friday. It sucks* is suboptimal. The men’s team opened with a pair of 3-2 wins in exhibition games last weekend, then tied the University of Nebraska Omaha 1-1 last night. Rematch is tonight. Things might get violent.
*Not a Lynah approved word

Surprise package:

I have a thing about penguins. And also applesauce, peanut butter, and hats. And also against tight pants, half naked Halloween costumes, and finely chopped celery.

This is happening.

From MLSsoccer.com:

The Best and the Brightest

As an Ivy League Institution, Cornell attracts some of the greatest young minds. Case in point:

1) The other day, I was going to eat breakfast in the dining hall in my dorm. I live on the fifth floor, so I have quite a few stairs to descend to get to the dining room, which I access by crossing over to the other side of the building on the second floor. On my way down, I caught myself passing the second floor landing and figured I just wasn't fully awake yet. One day later, I was returning from dinner and going up the stairs when I walked past the fifth floor and started up the flight to the (locked) roof. Stairs are hard.

2) When the weather could still be considered nice out, I was periodically going for bike rides. The other week, I biked out to the Arboretum and back just for the fun of it. As I was wrestling my bike back into the bike room, I shifted a gear. It’s not good for the bike to shift gears without pedaling, but I didn't want to wrangle my bike outside to pedal for fifteen or twenty feet, then have to get it back inside, so naturally I tried pedaling in the eight feet I had in the bike room. I’m sure it looked absolutely ridiculous, but I did eventually get my gear to shift to where it was supposed to be.

3) A couple weeks ago in lab, I showed off my impeccable lab skillz. Part of the procedure was to preweigh a round bottom flask, so I massed it and recorded the result in my lab notebook. After evaporating a solvent in the flask, leaving a white powdery product, I reweighed the flask and product. The total mass was less than the initial mass of the flask. I made negative mass! Not really. When I first weighed the flask, it was slightly wet. I thought that a little water wouldn't matter. Then I found out that the maximum amount of product I could make was 0.032 grams. That little water? Mattered. But it doesn't end there. I then ran my product and a standard solution on a chromatography plate. The general idea is to use a liquid to carry the two samples distances up the plate. My product moved. The standard did not.

Things Engineers Don’t Say

Rise and shine; 8 am classes are the best!
I get too much sleep.
It was really hard to choose my classes this semester because I had so many choices.
I should take more classes next semester.
Fugacity is my favorite physical chemistry topic.
I love everything about statistical mechanics.

Let’s name all our variables η.  That’s not confusing at all.

We should go faster in class. I understand everything.
Could you write messier? I can read your handwriting.
Taking notes on my computer is really easy. Especially the equations.
Poetry analysis? My favorite.
My essay is too long. I wish it could be single instead of double spaced.
I don’t know why I scheduled a lunch break. Having seven lectures in a row is great.
All labs should be windowless basement rooms lit by flickering light bulbs.
My lab technique is flawless.
I am so ready for the prelim tonight.
The textbook readings were super interesting this week.
I bought all five of my textbooks new and spent less than a hundred dollars.
I read three hundred pages of ancient Greek texts last night in an hour, no problem.
All my problem sets this week were easy and short.
Office hours? I never need office hours to get my problem sets done.
I don’t spend enough time working on my problem sets.
No class on Fridays or Mondays. Four day weekend!
My professor cancelled class. Again.
I have nothing to do tonight. Let’s go to a party.