Galaxies and Relativity

My motivation has fallen away, like the snow melts and falls off in sheets from Marquez Hall, endangering any passersby. I've resorted to looking forward to stuff, and those stuff included Spring Break and E-Days, both of which are now gone.

So now I look forward to summer.

But hey, baseball is back, and E-Days did not disappoint, so there's that.

I think I've finally recovered from my disease of comparing everything to freshman year and finally found a year to just enjoy. My third E-Days held the same philosophy. I did things that made me happy, like took naps, rather than trying to do things to just do them. GalaxE-Days Lesson #1: Don't volunteer for events just because you want a t-shirt. I love Orecart Pull, but volunteering wasn't the best idea ever. I mean, it's a good thing to do if you have time and your heart is in it (and things are organized well). GalaxE-Days Lesson #2: Wear good shoes. GalaxE-Days Lesson #3: Naps are amazing. I spent the rest of my Friday napping (for 5 hours) until I woke up to show up to a rootbeer kegger late. But whatever, you know. GalaxE-Days Lesson #4: Starting E-Days early is totally great. Even if it's due to snow canceling a class.

E-Days was a lot of fun and I didn't do homework at all, but it made me tired. My feet are still silently weeping from the stuff I put them through during Orecart Pull. I get the feeling I'm going to be tired for a long, long time...

Sigh. Is it Summer (Field Camp) yet? No, but registration for Senior Year is tomorrow. What. When did this happen? When did we become so close to responsibility, to pretending that we know what we're doing?

As Orion sets slowly below the horizon and South Table Mountain begins to look more green than its usual brown color, all I know is that we got older somewhere. Maybe it was during the coffee-stained tests, or the index out of bound errors. It could have been all the free food we've eaten, or the late hours we spent just talking when we should have been doing other things. It was probably climbing all those stairs in the Green Center, or reaching over to open the doors to the Student Center. But no matter how much I notice that time is passing more and more quickly, it still accelerates. It probably has to do with Relativity and Quantum Mechanics, but I think has to do with the number of times that we've laughed so hard that it hurt.

 While my classes increase the gravity on my eyelids and put my head on my desk, life is still good. It's a good year to be a Mines kid.

Tonight, We Are Young

Coming off of MysterE-Days 2013, I am even more convinced that I despise this "time" nonsense.

Nearly 50% of my life at Mines has been wisked away already (assuming 4-year plan...I'm not gonna fail a class, danggit!!!). We are slaves to this concept. 4/8/13 as a header before we start taking notes. Monday, I go to this meeting. Friday, I gotta be here there, and everywhere in that order. And somewhere in there find time to study for an exam or get that assignment done, concepts that I've been neglecting more and more of late.

It's somewhat monotonous, somewhat an adventure scrambling each Monday to get everything done, somewhat interesting to see if we'll actually learn everything needed to fumble around on the exam to do decently. It's somewhat scary too, with us somehow making it through the torture each week, bringing us that much closer to the end. The end of the week. The end of the year. The end of college.

I'm still in the 40%- it's not like I'm graduating in less than a month. But it seems like we've all grown up to be 80 years old.

Do not want. As frozen as time seems through the monotony, the amount at which it progresses causes me to want to either freeze it or travel back into it. I don't want to get old. I don't want to even grow up.

It's funny though- last semester seems like forever ago. I can hardly remember any of it. All I remember was studying in Brown all the time. Struggling through geology lab. Struggling to wake up for 9am Intro to Geophysics. Stupid Econ. And the such like.

This semester has been crazier, but I've not been in Brown as much (but the Linux Lab more). I think back to Fall semester and it seems like forever ago. Like it was a totally separate year. It makes me feel old.

***
Monday morning after E-Days, nobody wants to get up and go to school not even me, who did not drink at all. My body ached everywhere, and even though I had gone to bed at 8pm (like an old lady), I wanted to skip my 8am class. I should have.

Yeah, I went to bed pretty early- don't judge me. I just wanted the weekend to last a bit more.

Who knew having fun could be so exhausting? No wonder we at Mines don't take time to do it too often. The shenanigans started Wednesday for me, a day in which I was tired from taking two math midterms in 12 hours. After class was over though, I was a happy camper for four days.

Blaster on the Orecart Pull.

Rockies Opening Day right after the Orecart Pull.

Some of my friends competed in the Cardboard boat race Saturday.

Trebuchet launch at the Carnival. 

 

Mines baseball won their first series. 

The struggle of sophomore year has been comparing everything to freshman year. Yeah, it's different. It doesn't mean it's bad. If it was the same, it'd be boring.

We're still young. Even if we have to pretend so for just a few nights.

Nerds Just Wanna Have Fun

College Freshman. First E-days. Didn't die!

I am spent. I haven't done any homework all weekend, but I am exhausted. Oh wait, I did. What a nerd. Nevermind. But the Mines holiday weekend of the year has left me in want of sleep and normal routine.

The E-Pocalypse started on Wednesday night for some, as a few classes got cancelled. I could hear outside roars of kids making dumb decisions already. But I had NHV to do, and my friends their subsystem analysis, so we pressed on. And were up for quite a while. No matter how late my classes start, getting up after staying up so late sucks. I kind of feel bad for being out of it during a lot of NHV classes. It deserves better. Not! After my last paper I am just so done with NHV and its stupid readings and its stupid research. Blargh. You know, that's not fair- I am just done with school. At any rate...

I had class until Thursday at 4. Then it was E-days (E-DAYS...WOOOOOOO!!!). Mines Activities Council put on quite a few events this weekend (not all of which I attended). It started with the comedian which was alright, but I had to bust out my "Shut up, drunk frat guy!" line already. Afterward people decided to do their own thing, but the friends I hung out with all weekend decided to toss a frisbee. Then we went to explore Chauvenet (the really maze-ish Math building), but it really wasn't that sketch. So while loitering and making our way back to Maple we got stopped by a cop. Security is ten-fold during E-days.

We were going to wake up at 7:15 Friday for the Ore-Cart pull, but we still stayed up late watching a movie. I know, weird: staying up late for fun rather than work. So I was tired boarding the "very special people" buses (seriously, they said this on the back). And the trek ahead of me was 7.4 miles, or over 100 blocks. But it was a great tradition to be a part of. One of my upperclassman friends encouraged me to "commit for a couple miles and pull the Ore-Cart". So a few of us weaved and jogged and caught up until we grabbed on a piece of the rope. It was great and I fill fulfilled in Mines tradition, especially singing the fight song every so often.

At the Capitol building, the lieutenant governor proclaimed it E-days and said some stuff about Mines being the most important school in Colorado. Heck, yeah. And then my feet fell off. I had a blister on each toe.

Some kids took a nap, but I went to Physics homework help and finished after 5...that homework was pretty hard. Sigh...I'm such a nerd.

We watched another movie Friday night- a scary movie. I think we all just wanted to go to bed. You see, I use weekends to sleep in and recharge and do homework. Saturday I woke up at 10 (still too) early and missed the cardboard boat race. The carnival was fun though. The trebuchets were cool to watch and the food was good too. I played this one game where you try to drown frat guys by throwing a softball at a target. I succeeded.

Saturday ended with me being a pretend physics TA again. Before that there was a rootbeer kegger. Sunday I had way too much stuff to do. Oh yeah, at 8am Sunday morning on my way out of Maple I saw a guy passed out on the couch snoring. I don't even think he lives here. But that was E-days. I'd say the Ore-Cart Pull was the best part, since our fireworks show was postponed. Note to future freshies: stay with friends, make good life choices, have fun.

E-DAYYYYSSSS WOOT WOOT!!