Harry returns to Chicago (again)
Mar. 1st, 2012 09:19 pmSo here I am in Chicago.
I've been staying with Colin and Aviva, far to the north of anywhere I ever went when I was in school there. (It feels weird to have downtown be south of me.) Today after two days of doing not much but wandering aroud, internet, talking to Colin and Aviva and playing with Prince Myshkin (their cat) I decided to go down to Hyde Park and wander around there instead. (OK, and sleeping off headaches. Getting a headache two days in a row while here is annoying; I could at least get work done otherwise!)
(Also Colin and I played Twilight Struggle on Tuesday, him as the commies, as usual. I lost quite badly, although the cards and the dice were really against me... if you make that many realignment rolls at -1, you should succeed with more than two of them! I'm leaving Saturday so hopefully we play another game before then... switch sides for once. Also Wai Lee came by briefly but no we did not play Bean Game[5].)
Anyway! Notes from wandering around Hyde Park:
Happened to encounter Jack and Sarah just as I got to Pierce Tower. Well, actually it was Hannah I encountered first. She didn't remember me, actually, though Sasha did. Still, seems Hannah is less shy now, as she was willing to tell me about how she's in 1st grade now and likes to read even so. Also Isaac, being 3 years old now, no longer looks just like Sasha. He's quite friendly, like she was, though.
I think Nikita is the only person I know left in Tufts House (aside from Jack and Sarah and etc.), and of course I only know her from the week I came to visit two years ago, I never actually overlapped with her. Didn't encounter her though. (Well, OK, apparently Isis also still lives there...) I guess next year that'll be it -- I doubt that Jack and Sarah will be staying another year. Only other person I've encountered down in HP that I know at all is I passed by Yola on the street -- took me a bit to even recognize her; I didn't bother hailing her. (And there is a guy sitting here in Grounds who looks vaguely familiar, but that really doesn't count.) I wonder if Watson still lives in Thompson? I didn't think to go up there; I'd come to see Tufts House, after all.
Still, some traces remain, though not what I expected. I had thought Charlie's quoting of me in the study lounge would still be there, seeing as how people had previously put it back after it had been erased[0], but instead over the door is some new graffiti. What does remain, surprisingly, are some quick notes Peter and I made (in pencil!) on the wall of the lounge: a diagram 0→A→B→C→0 marked "this sequence is NOT exact"[3]; the note "y=10-24"; a statement of deMorgan's laws.
I forgot to check whether Kate and Girl Alex's galaxy ("the Girlalexy") is still there on the ceiling.
Glad to see Smash being played again (Melee, specifically). It seems we have 4 TVs now -- I warned them that would happen! Two of them are where the old main upstairs TV used to be, flatscreen and aligned with the wall, making a lot more room there. The old one with the bad connections is finally gone.
The house has a Harry Potter theme this year. Whatever happened to us just being Slytherin, I must wonder?
Someone had illustrated Ceva's Theorem on the study lounge board, which I found amusing. (Recollection: I am telling Youlian about how some of the math I learned on math team I have never had reason to use since, with the obvious example being Ceva's theorem. He doesn't know the statement, so I illustrate it. Peter walks by and sees the drawing -- "Ceva's Theorem? Why are you talking about that?") The lounge blackboard was empty so I left a note about asking "WTF is Ceva's theorem doing on the board?" and saying I was surprised to see Peter and my's notes still on the wall (but perhaps not as surprised as Peter would be to see Ceva's theorem on the board). I signed it just "Harry"; that ought to be enough.
Other notes:
I was thinking as long as I was in Hyde Park I would go see this Clarke's Diner, but I've been walking around enough today and it's not so close. The center of the quad is now closed to cars. The area in the center of the Reynold's Club quad now has little walls around it? Like knee-high, maybe. The robot library is now complete; it's not a separate building, you enter it from the Reg. Maybe I should see if my ID would still be accepted? I didn't think so but I was able to sign onto the network, and I do still have it. I tried taking a picture of Dererrer[4] near some of the ducks at Botany Pond, but there wasn't enough light.
I think that's all for now. I do hope Colin and I will have time for that second game...
-Harry
[0]"The real world is sucks!" That sentence got a little mangled, and I'm not sure why it was quote-worthy, but Charlie insisted on putting it up there just as I'd said it.
[3]The sequence I was originally referring to was exact, of course, Peter just threw that note in for fun.
[4]The duck Heidi made me.
[5]What I call Bohnanza.
I've been staying with Colin and Aviva, far to the north of anywhere I ever went when I was in school there. (It feels weird to have downtown be south of me.) Today after two days of doing not much but wandering aroud, internet, talking to Colin and Aviva and playing with Prince Myshkin (their cat) I decided to go down to Hyde Park and wander around there instead. (OK, and sleeping off headaches. Getting a headache two days in a row while here is annoying; I could at least get work done otherwise!)
(Also Colin and I played Twilight Struggle on Tuesday, him as the commies, as usual. I lost quite badly, although the cards and the dice were really against me... if you make that many realignment rolls at -1, you should succeed with more than two of them! I'm leaving Saturday so hopefully we play another game before then... switch sides for once. Also Wai Lee came by briefly but no we did not play Bean Game[5].)
Anyway! Notes from wandering around Hyde Park:
Happened to encounter Jack and Sarah just as I got to Pierce Tower. Well, actually it was Hannah I encountered first. She didn't remember me, actually, though Sasha did. Still, seems Hannah is less shy now, as she was willing to tell me about how she's in 1st grade now and likes to read even so. Also Isaac, being 3 years old now, no longer looks just like Sasha. He's quite friendly, like she was, though.
I think Nikita is the only person I know left in Tufts House (aside from Jack and Sarah and etc.), and of course I only know her from the week I came to visit two years ago, I never actually overlapped with her. Didn't encounter her though. (Well, OK, apparently Isis also still lives there...) I guess next year that'll be it -- I doubt that Jack and Sarah will be staying another year. Only other person I've encountered down in HP that I know at all is I passed by Yola on the street -- took me a bit to even recognize her; I didn't bother hailing her. (And there is a guy sitting here in Grounds who looks vaguely familiar, but that really doesn't count.) I wonder if Watson still lives in Thompson? I didn't think to go up there; I'd come to see Tufts House, after all.
Still, some traces remain, though not what I expected. I had thought Charlie's quoting of me in the study lounge would still be there, seeing as how people had previously put it back after it had been erased[0], but instead over the door is some new graffiti. What does remain, surprisingly, are some quick notes Peter and I made (in pencil!) on the wall of the lounge: a diagram 0→A→B→C→0 marked "this sequence is NOT exact"[3]; the note "y=10-24"; a statement of deMorgan's laws.
I forgot to check whether Kate and Girl Alex's galaxy ("the Girlalexy") is still there on the ceiling.
Glad to see Smash being played again (Melee, specifically). It seems we have 4 TVs now -- I warned them that would happen! Two of them are where the old main upstairs TV used to be, flatscreen and aligned with the wall, making a lot more room there. The old one with the bad connections is finally gone.
The house has a Harry Potter theme this year. Whatever happened to us just being Slytherin, I must wonder?
Someone had illustrated Ceva's Theorem on the study lounge board, which I found amusing. (Recollection: I am telling Youlian about how some of the math I learned on math team I have never had reason to use since, with the obvious example being Ceva's theorem. He doesn't know the statement, so I illustrate it. Peter walks by and sees the drawing -- "Ceva's Theorem? Why are you talking about that?") The lounge blackboard was empty so I left a note about asking "WTF is Ceva's theorem doing on the board?" and saying I was surprised to see Peter and my's notes still on the wall (but perhaps not as surprised as Peter would be to see Ceva's theorem on the board). I signed it just "Harry"; that ought to be enough.
Other notes:
I was thinking as long as I was in Hyde Park I would go see this Clarke's Diner, but I've been walking around enough today and it's not so close. The center of the quad is now closed to cars. The area in the center of the Reynold's Club quad now has little walls around it? Like knee-high, maybe. The robot library is now complete; it's not a separate building, you enter it from the Reg. Maybe I should see if my ID would still be accepted? I didn't think so but I was able to sign onto the network, and I do still have it. I tried taking a picture of Dererrer[4] near some of the ducks at Botany Pond, but there wasn't enough light.
I think that's all for now. I do hope Colin and I will have time for that second game...
-Harry
[0]"The real world is sucks!" That sentence got a little mangled, and I'm not sure why it was quote-worthy, but Charlie insisted on putting it up there just as I'd said it.
[3]The sequence I was originally referring to was exact, of course, Peter just threw that note in for fun.
[4]The duck Heidi made me.
[5]What I call Bohnanza.
