As Time Goes By

                So it has come to this. You. Me. This place. The seasons are changing, and I find myself with the urge to write a blog post. I must say that I am not looking forward to Spring or Summer nearly as much as I was Autumn and Winter, not when it comes to the weather. Don't get me wrong, Spring is a stunningly beautiful season; the trees are budding with not only green leaves, but pink, violet, red, white, and all colors of the spectrum, and it creates such a beautiful scene at any time of the day. Particularly beautiful for me is when the sun is hidden behind a thick layer of clouds, so that it creates a dark, grey atmosphere. Perhaps this sounds dismal to you, but I think it creates a beautiful contrast between the bright colors of the trees, and the darkness of the skies. This is most captivating when the sun has just dipped below the horizon, so that it's dark all around, but the trees and other plants seem to emit light from every pore. Despite this beauty, it is loud in the way it calls your attention. This is why I much prefer Autumn to any other season. In Autumn you see the trees changing color to bear these beautiful hues of red and orange, and at times you have the sun beaming brilliantly from above. And yet, amid all this beauty, there is a quietness, a finality to Autumn marks the end, whether this be the end of the trees, as they die for the winter, or the end of the Summer. It is this feeling that draws me to Autumn more than Spring or Summer. But, I have digressed. My point is that, as beautiful a Spring and Summer are, I'm not looking forward as much to the sweltering heat that it will bring.

               With this season change comes something else: the end of my first academic year in college. It has truly been an experience. At the beginning of the year, seemingly so long ago, I felt like an outsider in my own department. I forced myself to stay in the physics department as much as possible to try to create relationships with my fellow majors. However, I quickly saw that nearly all of the other majors already knew each other, and had strong bonds between them. Because of this, I found myself spending more time out of the department than in it, most often spending time with Dogmeat, The Muse, and The Settler. Once a week, Messy would join us on campus, and those were fun days indeed. When I wasn't spending as much time with the gang, I was still forcing myself to stay in the department to try to connect with my fellow majors. At the end of my first semester, when I last wrote to you, the most I had done was attend nearly weekly lectures on various different Physics topics. They were very interesting, but I still felt like a bit of an outsider. The second semester started, and I again attended the now weekly physics lectures. These were even more interesting now that I had obtained a bit of a basic understanding of advanced Physics, and was able to see what was going on. Because of how my schedule lined up for that semester, I did not get as much time with Muse, Messy, and Settler as I would have liked, but I did see much more of Dogmeat and Clangore, which resulted in many jokes and puns that still make me wince, along with many beautiful League games with Nimagist. When I was not carousing with the gang, I was in the department, and this time I felt more a part of the family. I started talking to different people more and more, asking people for help with problems, and just conversing with them in general. It made it much easier that there is a very out going student who is a first year like me, so he created a bridge between me and the upperclassmen. As we neared the end of the semester, I realized that I had grown closer to my fellow students than I had realized. 

                During this past semester, I had quite the class schedule. Mondays were the easiest because I had only Calculus in the morning, and beyond a Physics lecture in the afternoon there any responsibilities other than homework and studying, so I spent the majority of  my time the Muse and the Settler in the library. Tuesdays were difficult because I began with Calculus in the morning, followed fifteen minutes later by Intro to Mechanics, followed thirty minutes later by a research writing class. I finally got a break after my English class until 4 pm, then I had to go to my Intro to Computer Science class. On Wednesdays and Thursdays, my schedule was pretty much the same, with an absence of English class on Wednesday. On Fridays, that's when it got interesting. I started with Particle Physics, which actually turned out to be a kind of terrible subject. The class itself was fantastic, but I've become almost entirely disinterested in the field of Particle Physics. All Physics is built on the idea that everything can be explained, and Particle Physics seems to make all sorts of assumptions based on theory, and scientists seem to almost be making things up at this point. After Particle Physics, I went onto Intro to Mechanics, then onto Intro Mechanics Lab. The lab was very interesting to be a part of. We were given an objective to complete, like prove a well known theory. When we set out to prove it, we had to do so without making any assumptions, such as gravity. We couldn't assume that gravity works, if we did, we had to prove that. It's essentially how the physicists did it in the 1700s. It was a lot of fun having to justify physical laws that we knew to be true, but had to find some way to prove them. I think my lab partners and I did a fairly good job in justifying the various laws that we needed to.

                Another exciting thing happened this semester: I rejoined the Bach Collegium. I don't remember if I talked about that in my last post, but during my first semester, I sang in the Collegium with the Muse for a segment, but backed out of the second segment to make sure that I could properly focus on my studies. It's really too bad that I could not join for the second segment, because the choir had an absolutely beautiful selection of music. Despite not being able to sing for that segment, I was able to attend the concert, and was blown away by the choir's performance. After the second segment ended, I rejoined the Collegium, much to the enjoyment of both Muse and myself. In the first weeks, I needed rides from Kantor to the rehearsals, but after a few weeks, Muse finally was able to legally drive people outside of her family, and so Dogmeat and I joined her and her family at their house for dinner every Tuesday before practice. Those days were definitely one of the highlights of my weeks during this past semester. I had a blast singing with the Collegium again, It was frustrating a times: sometimes we would drag the tempo, other times we wouldn't hit the right notes. But, in the end, we pulled together an amazing concert. After getting my schedule for next semester, I know that I can join the Collegium yet again for the next segment. With luck, Muse and I will be able to sing in the choir for many years to come.

                Now that you're all caught up, let's talk about the present and things to come. I finished finals week just last week, and unless something changes in the next few days, I managed to get one B+ and the rest are As. This is better than last semester's grades, so I am content with it. Now that the semester is over, I'm moving onto my summer schedule. After talking to different faculty members in the physics department, I decided to help with the research of superconductors. I will be doing this on Mondays and Thursdays at IPFW, but today was a bit of an anomaly, because one of my partners needed to take care of his children. Because of this, I spent the day familiarizing myself with the programming language we will be using to make the superconductors. From 10:30 am to 4:30 pm, I worked with a chip to make it accept an analog input and convert it a digital output. After working nearly nonstop with quite a bit of help, I was able to complete my goal, although it was crude. I hope to improve upon it at some point. Beyond research, I have a job tutoring math for IPFW, and will be doing that on all Tuesdays. On Wednesdays I will actually be traveling out of town to Indianapolis in order to work at an auction center. On Fridays I will be tutoring by appointment, and I am free for the rest of the week.

                All in all, this is lining up to be a fantastic summer, filled with Physics and friends. Perhaps I'll write again when the next semester starts up, but we will just have to see. Until next time.

It's been a long, long time

            Well, it's that time of year again. We cannot ignore it anymore. The weather has turned cold, and I do believe it will stay cold for the remainder of the season. Time to pull out our sweaters, our boots, hats, gloves, scarves, and anything to make you feel extra cozy. Time to get out our favorite mugs and sip on tea, hot chocolate, late night coffee, or whatever strikes your fancy. Time to take strolls down the road looking at all the colours of nature. See the children playing in piles of leaves (is it too late for that?). I don't know how you like to spend your days, my esteemed readers, but I for one enjoy sitting in a coffee shop, listening to soft music, sipping on a hot drink, and watching people go about their lives. I find this pastime to be very relaxing, as right now I can see two men, obviously good friends, sitting and chatting. Behind them there is what looks like a grandmother, a mother, and a baby. It always gives me great joy to see babies nowadays, far more than it used to. It's an interesting change that I have truly enjoyed experiencing. 

            Now, I haven't written a blog post in about two years, give or take some; but I have to say, reading through my old posts, I think it was probably for the best. However, I have gotten the urge to write again, as you can no doubt tell. Probably has to do with the coffee house atmosphere, the collared sweater, and the, frankly, quite hipster music I've taken to listening to. Not that any of these things are negative factors, quite the opposite; I feel more comfortable than I have in a long time. I don't know if anyone uses this site anymore, the last post I have in my feed is a post from six months ago that isn't even truly there anymore. So, I do not know how many people this will reach, but I guess that's okay. I'm not necessarily looking for attention, not that it wouldn't be enjoyable. 

            Let's begin with a summary of what I've done in the past two years or so: I became a senior at the Indiana Academy for Science, Mathematics, and Humanities. Quite a long name, isn't it? A little pompous too, now that I think about it. But, no matter, it was a blast attending that school. I may not talk to any of my friends from there very often, but they are the sort of friends that you don't need to keep in touch with; you can meet up with them at any point, and you know you can start right from where you left off. It is a comforting feeling knowing I have such amazing friends scattered around Indiana, and even out of state. Over the course of last year, I made good friends with some juniors, and I will always have a special place for them in my heart. We had an incredible relationship, in that sometimes they would take care of me when I needed them, and I like to think I took care of them when they needed it. 

            During the course of that year, I played copious amounts of League of Legends; it had quite taken over my life. This was not something I am very proud of, even more so because I have come to realize that, despite how much I've played, I'm not very good at all. Surely I have improved, else I would not win the occasional games I do, but I certainly am not on the same level as some of my friends. Nowadays I don't play nearly as often as I used to, perhaps two or three times a week. I believe this fact has contributed greatly to my current success in college. 

            Oh yes, did I forget to mention? I graduated high school last academic year. Quite a big event, lots of pictures, lots of crying, lots of goodbyes. I managed to hold it together for the whole thing, but thought the emotion would hit me later. Strangely, it has not. I do not have an explanation for why this is, but I've come to accept it. Perhaps it is better in the long run not to have cried at graduation. As much as I know that holding in emotions can be harmful, I think this is for the better. After all, it's not as though I've left the Academy behind completely; I have managed to visit once this year. I had quite a lot of fun hanging out with friends from my class, and all my juniors (now turned juniors). It amazed me just how much they had grown up while I had been gone. They were the same wonderful people I had come to love, and yet they were different at the same time. It was quite the experience. 

And now I am back in Fort Wayne. It was a crazy summer. Full of visits from my doppelganger, Nimagist, which were great fun. We have great fun joining Dogmeat on the Fields of Justice. Once or twice I believe we even got Whimmish and Clangore to join us. When this happened, we ruled the Fields. It was an exciting time for all. After these conquerings, we were graced by the company of The Muse, Messy, and The Settler. And there was much rejoicing. This was the majority of my summer, and while I did not get a job during that time, I would not have it any other way.

            After the summer ended, I entered in IPFW as a dual major in Physics and Mathematics. Thankfully, I had amassed quite a few college credits during my time at the Academy. I was able to enter college as a Sophomore, almost a Junior. In fact, at the end of this semester, I will be considered a Junior, thanks to the credit load I have taken. I am taking 16 credit hours this semester, and will be adding one more this coming semester. My father seems concerned that I will find it too challenging to cope with the work load, and his worries are not unfounded. However, I do chafe under his concerns. I wish he would give me a chance. I know that I have failed him in the past, and not too long ago either. Even so, I wish that he could see just how well I recovered from that failure. Very quickly did I take responsibility, and I did not hesitate in getting help. But I am babbling. The basic point is, next semester will be challenging. I am starting my first real physics course with Intro to Mechanics, and I have a small class on particle physics, and I'm also taking two math classes. It will be interesting.

And the final thing I feel I should talk about: my recent job interview. Yesterday, I went into the Starbucks where Dogmeat and my Grand-senior work to meet with the Manager for an interview. Naturally, I was dressed in my best suit. The fact that this was my only suit is irrelevant, it was my best, and I was wearing it. I started by ordering a Venti Caramel Macchiatto with and extra shot of espresso. I believe this was the right choice, as the manager make an excited noise when I told what I had ordered. The interview then commenced. She asked me standard questions, I answered honestly, but I didn't feel awkward more than once because many of my answer were very cliche. In the end though, I think everything went well. She departed with a smile on her face and told me she would make a decision by the end of the week.

And thus is my life to this point. Right now I am sitting in Starbucks while Clangore works, putting off homework, and listening to good music. I must say that, however hard it has been to get to this point, it has been more than worth it. I will not lie and say I would leave things exactly the way they are had I the choice, but I can honestly say that I am happy and content with where I am. And to you, reader, who has managed to get through this swamp of information; I commend you. I am not easy person to deal with sometimes, and it seems to me that anyone willing to take the time out of their busy life to read this is one of the people that has stuck by me through thick and thin, and I greatly appreciate it. So, thank you. I shouldn't think I'll be blogging again anytime soon, but know that I have not forgotten about my blog, merely put it on hold.

Farewell.