let's stumble towards success and pack some snacks for little breaks

I've been sitting here for fifteen minutes, watching the world go by and thinking about its physiology, how insane and wonderful it is that everything works so well, that existence has come as far as it has and that it has the potential to just keep getting cooler.

Every time I say something like that, my friends start getting all nostalgic for college. Does that mean you grownups never get caught up in the sheer awesomeness of everything anymore?

Can't take cell biology because it's at the same time as physics. Grr. But I think I came up with a schedule I'm happy with anyway:

Intro to Physics I
Intro to Chemistry I
Brain and Behavior
Human Anatomy
Senior Honors in Psychology

I've completed almost all of my degree requirements, so this is mostly preparation for grad school. I'm going to have to take an art class next spring to satisfy the last Learning Perspective requirement. My biology minor isn't done yet, but Brain and Behavior and Human Anatomy both contribute toward that as well as being good for grad school prep. And the honors will be conducting my thesis experiment and writing it up.

Brain and Behavior used to be called Neuroscience II, while my current Biology of the Brain class was Neuroscience I. Dr. Kennedy had to change the titles because--and I am not kidding here--people didn't know what "neuroscience" was.

I think I've been this undergrad for a few of my TAs, and teachers too. At least I hope I have. The prospect of teaching at some point is intimidating to me mostly because I'm afraid none of my students will give a shit.

Last Sunday, it was just beautiful outside. I wandered around with my camera for a while.

( Here's what I saw... )

I went to a couple of talks today. One was a biology seminar by a grad student from Stony Brook about spacial cognition in stickleback fish. I can't wait to take Biology of the Brain and Brain and Behavior. I don't know if I'll be able to handle neuropsychology as a career, but I do think it's the most important part of psychological research and will become more important as more is learned about it, and I want to at least understand the basics.

Later there was a dinner event, put on by the Innovation and Entrepreneurship folks, at which this dude talked about starting this site. It was very cool--he knew what he was talking about, and was very friendly (not to mention remarkably easy on the eyes). I told him about Calendar Geeks, and he sounded enthusiastic about it. He said to ping him on Facebook and he'd put in a plug on his Twitter, which is apparently followed by something like 2500 people. I also talked to the president of the entrepreneurship club about joining. I haven't actually joined any clubs here yet, although if the vegetarian/vegan folks or the gay folks were tabling, I'd sign up.

The best part of the evening, though, was when I mentioned Will Shortz (I wasn't name-dropping, really; I didn't even realize it might sound like that until after I said it) and my entrepreneurship teacher said, in all seriousness, "Will Shortz? The New York Times crossword editor? I thought he was dead!"

THE OLDER MEMBER OF HARRY AND THE POTTERS GOES TO CLARK

WHY DID NO ONE THINK TO TELL ME THIS BEFORE NOW

OMG

OMG

OMG

EDIT: He is actually the younger member. I was too excited to do math.

I just picked up my mail, and it consisted of a bank statement, a check, a medical bill (more than $200, ouch), and a letter about a loan. This is the kind of stuff people warned me about when I was a kid and said I wanted to grow up. Bills and taxes and responsibility are no fun, they said. Well, y'know what? It's totally worth it. So far, the positives of adulthood far outweigh the negatives.

I've been dwelling on a flaw of mine, and then realized that several of the people I admire most share that flaw. So I feel a little better about that. Mom always says you become who you admire, and that's really true, I suppose. That was the basis for the essay that got me in here, actually.

I seem to have made a good impression on the dean of students and the head of the psychology department. Someone said on Facebook that it's because I actually care about what I'm learning. I know it's beneficial to me to stand out in that regard, but I wish I didn't; I wish more people cared.

I miss Ava.

Everyone smoked at Penn Valley, but I thought that was a Midwestern thing, or a low-economic-status thing, or a really-stressed-people thing, and would change once I left. But 24% of Clark students smoke, according to the orientation presentation, and after a month here, I would have guessed an even higher percentage. Smoke is everywhere. I can't have my window open at any time of day because smoke comes in my room, even when students do abide by the twenty-foot rule, which they usually don't.

Did I just get lucky in my childhood? Am I going to have to suck it up and learn to live with cigarette smoke for the rest of my life? Is there anywhere smoking isn't a socially acceptable activity? It might be a serious criterion when I start applying for grad school.

My big brother Cordell has launched a blog about his adventures as an intern in Japan: Travels of a Yellow Hat. He's pretty funny sometimes, and it's interesting to hear about his experiences, so you guys should check it out. Warning: he is a fan of retina-breaking shades of yellow and orange, and the site design reflects that.

Yesterday, I found myself conducting an impromptu circus school in my dorm room. Being the juggling expert for once was nice. Later, one of the girls I was teaching and my roommate's boyfriend compared running speeds. I'm no running expert, but I know that "7:15 mile, but that's after my ankle injury--I was a lot faster before" and "Five-something, I don't remember exactly" are Impressive.

I just had my first class: Qualitative Methods in Psychology. I like it okay, but I suspect I will end up using chiefly the sort of psychology the teacher explicitly said the class was not about (formal experimentation). Observation and interpretation are all well and good, but I'm uncomfortable with drawing conclusions about populations based on case studies. I mean, I can live without concrete hypotheses in some situations, but I need decent sample sizes if I'm going to be doing any generalization. Still, observation and interviewing skills are important, and in any case, I should learn the basics before I start writing anything off.

Turns out I need to apply for a fifth course even if I'm just auditing it, so I'm going to do that for Quantitative Methods (statistics) and just sit in on the Entrepreneurship class instead of officially auditing it. I checked with the teacher, and he's cool with that.

I just woke up from a nightmare that I'd submitted my health insurance waiver to Clark too late and had to pay an unnecessary $2,000 for my first year.

Jeez. What happened to giants and flying and stuff?