I’m 19 years old at the University of Chicago, originally from Maryland. I’m a biochemistry major and physics minor, and have almost no idea which area of these field to go into. My only expressed goals for work are to do research somewhere and to have my work improve the overall quality of life by some amount.
I was raised in a Jewish household, but slowly turned atheist between the ages of 14 and 16. My parents were rarely around due to work, and they took little interest in my schoolwork, assuming I could handle it. As an only child, I was essentially raised by the internet. Honestly, I’m shocked I turned out as well as I did. I have little trouble with akrasia, as I use the method of procrastinating work with different work.
I’m called a morning person, but that’s just because I always get almost exactly 7 hours of sleep every night. So, if I stay up until 2, I’ll be awake by 9. Unless I get bored by a teacher’s lecture, this method ensures that I’m almost never tired during the day but still able to fall asleep easily in the evening.
At the beginning of the year, I joined my school’s circus club, which was surprisingly fun and fairly easy to pick up. I previously did glowstringing (poi) which is what got me into circus, but now I do various acrobatics, some stilt work, and a bit of juggling.
Additionally, I recently got a research position modeling protein folding that requires the use of unix and python. I’m pretty happy about this, as this will force me to actually learn a programming language, a mid-priority goal of mine for a while now.
One of the things I like best about LW is that it’s the closest the Internet gets to U of C dining hall conversation, which I’ve missed ever since graduating.
Unfortunately, I was placed in a house where less intelligent conversation takes place, but I’ve found some other people I can sit with who are pretty good with that.
I seem to be succeeding in helping to convince my graduate program in bioinformatics to ditch Perl in favor of Python. I’m very happy about this! When you don’t have a programming background, and you’re going into a field with heavy programming, Perl will hurt you—it’s likely to make you dislike programming. Python OTOH is like the fuzzy kitten of programming languages—but it still has claws! (By which I mean, you can do serious stuff with it, despite its apparent adorableness.)
Also I’ve just started juggling again after a longish hiatus. I just decided to try a four-ball pattern the other day, and was absolutely shocked when I kept it going for like four complete cycles. Next mileposts will be: five-ball cascade, and three balls one-handed. I think 3⁄1 is probably harder than 5⁄2, but I’m not sure. I did a 3⁄1 flash the other day after ten tries, but I’ve never been able to complete a 5⁄2 flash. OTOH I’ve only recently begun to regard a 5-ball pattern as even achievable.
One thing I do is make gimp/lanyard (http://boondoggleman.com/idea_yonatan.htm for an example of something that I have the ability to do, but won’t because of the time/money involved in doing a project like that.)
I also love playing diplomacy, but haven’t been able to for a few months due to the time input needed.
Wow, those are pretty impressive! I can understand them taking a lot of time, but I would have expected plastic lanyard to be rather cheap. That’s one of the things I love about both tiny embroidery and tablet weaving: A small monetary investment can get you enough material to work with a looong time! Is it expensive because you can work through a large amount of lanyard fairly quickly?
I’ve only ever seen diplomacy mentioned here on LW. What sort of game is it?
Diplomacy can best be described as Risk with minimal luck, so the biggest part is negotiating with other players.
Hm. You’re right about the cost, it would be pretty cheap. Probably less than $15 counting the cost to buy each color. You seem to be familiar with this sort of thing, what did you do?
I’m 19 years old at the University of Chicago, originally from Maryland. I’m a biochemistry major and physics minor, and have almost no idea which area of these field to go into. My only expressed goals for work are to do research somewhere and to have my work improve the overall quality of life by some amount.
I was raised in a Jewish household, but slowly turned atheist between the ages of 14 and 16. My parents were rarely around due to work, and they took little interest in my schoolwork, assuming I could handle it. As an only child, I was essentially raised by the internet. Honestly, I’m shocked I turned out as well as I did. I have little trouble with akrasia, as I use the method of procrastinating work with different work.
I’m called a morning person, but that’s just because I always get almost exactly 7 hours of sleep every night. So, if I stay up until 2, I’ll be awake by 9. Unless I get bored by a teacher’s lecture, this method ensures that I’m almost never tired during the day but still able to fall asleep easily in the evening.
At the beginning of the year, I joined my school’s circus club, which was surprisingly fun and fairly easy to pick up. I previously did glowstringing (poi) which is what got me into circus, but now I do various acrobatics, some stilt work, and a bit of juggling.
Additionally, I recently got a research position modeling protein folding that requires the use of unix and python. I’m pretty happy about this, as this will force me to actually learn a programming language, a mid-priority goal of mine for a while now.
One of the things I like best about LW is that it’s the closest the Internet gets to U of C dining hall conversation, which I’ve missed ever since graduating.
Also, do Scav Hunt. You won’t be disappointed.
Yeah, I’m definitely doing Scav.
Unfortunately, I was placed in a house where less intelligent conversation takes place, but I’ve found some other people I can sit with who are pretty good with that.
I seem to be succeeding in helping to convince my graduate program in bioinformatics to ditch Perl in favor of Python. I’m very happy about this! When you don’t have a programming background, and you’re going into a field with heavy programming, Perl will hurt you—it’s likely to make you dislike programming. Python OTOH is like the fuzzy kitten of programming languages—but it still has claws! (By which I mean, you can do serious stuff with it, despite its apparent adorableness.)
Also I’ve just started juggling again after a longish hiatus. I just decided to try a four-ball pattern the other day, and was absolutely shocked when I kept it going for like four complete cycles. Next mileposts will be: five-ball cascade, and three balls one-handed. I think 3⁄1 is probably harder than 5⁄2, but I’m not sure. I did a 3⁄1 flash the other day after ten tries, but I’ve never been able to complete a 5⁄2 flash. OTOH I’ve only recently begun to regard a 5-ball pattern as even achievable.
Thanks for writing! I do circus-y stuff too! What other sorts of hobbies do you have?
One thing I do is make gimp/lanyard (http://boondoggleman.com/idea_yonatan.htm for an example of something that I have the ability to do, but won’t because of the time/money involved in doing a project like that.)
I also love playing diplomacy, but haven’t been able to for a few months due to the time input needed.
Wow, those are pretty impressive! I can understand them taking a lot of time, but I would have expected plastic lanyard to be rather cheap. That’s one of the things I love about both tiny embroidery and tablet weaving: A small monetary investment can get you enough material to work with a looong time! Is it expensive because you can work through a large amount of lanyard fairly quickly?
I’ve only ever seen diplomacy mentioned here on LW. What sort of game is it?
Diplomacy
Diplomacy can best be described as Risk with minimal luck, so the biggest part is negotiating with other players.
Hm. You’re right about the cost, it would be pretty cheap. Probably less than $15 counting the cost to buy each color. You seem to be familiar with this sort of thing, what did you do?
No experience with lanyard in particular, but the basic concept reminds me of tablet weaving, which I did do a good bit of.