this is procrastination

It's clear that school is almost over, with all the hooting and hollaring outside tonight. Last Friday night of the semester, I guess. Weirdly I've noticed the effects of "finals season" much more this term than any other, perhaps because I'm outside of it. The "stress level" of posts on my livejournal friends list is directly observable! Tomorrow is move-out day, and it will be nice to have about a week in a quieter Berkeley. Already the house and campus networks are a lot faster, and from work we can hear the air-horns, cheering, and Pomp and Circumstance from the Greek Theatre.

Finals are always kind of stressful, but I always remember liking finals for the chance to relax, because there's no class and no homework and there are often many days between finals. I usually procrastinate studying to the last possible minute. Such as now, 02:00 before an 08:00 final, and I still have half the textbook to review. Only it doesn't matter much this time around. Three memories from finals in the past: the time I had three finals in one day (and two of them were really hard), the time a guy in my quantum course had a heart attack during the exam, the time we made the magnetic card decoder in dead week.

I have only a week left in Berkeley. So that means we have to live it up for this week! I have a lot of work to do, but breakfast/lunch/dinner are always fair game. Saturday morning (today, I suppose) I have the 141A final; then I'll probably want to take a nap; and then it's the annual lab party at Ken's house, and then Diane and I are off to see the Cardigans in the City. (woo!) Rumor has it that there's a summer-residents slumber party here on Tuesday. I think those are all of the definite plans.. although I would at least like to meet Tyson M., go to the Parkway theatre, have a picnic, go to Urban Ore with Kenny, have dinner in SF a few times, bicycle around West Berkeley, and test wireless connections between co-ops in that time. The boundary condition is that on Tuesday next week I start work at UCSD. Maybe on next Monday I can find a place to live.

Rumor has it that Alex and JennyJo are going to go traipsing about taking photos for the Wiki. That's super-cool; exactly the scavenger-hunt type activity I'd hoped the Wiki would engender, and that I found it inspiring in myself too. But that's not all! Alex says they'll wear reporter hats that, instead of having little cards that say "Press", they'll have little cards that say "Wiki". I did say that they're the coolest people in the world, didn't I? Even if they don't pull off the hats, it will be fun just imagining them as Wiki-agents.

My dad mailed me a bunch of awesome maps of Rochester, NY and the surrounding area (western NY and finger lakes region). I received them today at work just as we were having an ice cream sundae party for the departing undergrad (who actually managed to write an allegedly-impressive senior thesis out of work in our lab.. grumble grumble) and they created a lot more excitement than I would have expected. Ken (a Cornell PhD) exclaimed, "My old stomping ground!" and proceeded to pore over the maps, becoming oblivious to all other happenings. Other than that, nobody at the lab seems too excited about me going to Rochester.

Tobin: "I have relatives there.. my dad grew up there."
Luis: "Ah, *that's* why you're not prejudiced against the place."

They seem to forget that I'm going there, since it seems like every few days I have the conversation: "Have you decided on a grad school yet?" "Yup, I'm going to University of Rochester!" "Oh, you don't want to go there! It's too X, Y, and Z!"

Anyway, the maps make the place a little more exciting, since I can associate an actual geography with the place names, and pore over the funky features of the terrain. I have a secret hope that it will be kind of like Sweden, where I once bicycled to the beaches at Malmo, and on the way stopped at a nifty little cafe and had a tasty breakfast. Maybe that's just because there's a county of "Sweden" that butts up against Monroe County, though.

Malmö seems like a much larger, more legitimate city when one arrives by bicycle, threading through all the over- and under- passes, and crossing over the vast rail yard antecedent to the train station. I rode around the canals and through the parklands. The city was full of people enjoying the wonderful weather, lounging around by the canals, etc.

Maybe I should actually get back to this Solid State Physics. It would be nice to get an A, even if it has absolutely no consequences (partly because that's not entirely true).

wonders of a navigation chart

I'm still not quite adequately informed about the band structure of semiconductors, but before I go to sleep for a bit I have to mention this nautical chart that's on the wall in the study room. Accurate, up-to-date, waterproof, and comprehensive, this "chart, map, & guide" to the San Francisco Bay [and?] Golden Gate is really quite nifty. It's basically a topographic map of the bottom of the bay and is a key to an otherwise unseen geography. For instance, the shipping lane through the Golden Gate is actually rather narrow but 51.9 feet deep. Off to the side is indicated the area where they dump the dredged channel material, and on the other side there is the "Four Fathom Bank" and the "Potatopatch Shoal." The ruins (what is the story, anyway?) of the Berkeley Pier (which goes nearly to Treasure Island) are clearly illustrated; the pier was possible because this whole bay centered on the Berkeley Marina is only nine feet deep. It's also interesting to see all the special channels (as separates Alameda from Oakland) and weird mooring areas ("Anchorage for Explosives, No. 12"). I suppose it takes a certain kind of person to find that fascinating. This is also further evidence of the coolness of JennyJo, as she is the one who put this nifty chart up on the wall. Too bad I never managed to tomsawyer the Sacramento.

141a is over now

141A final went OK given the non-studying that took place. I'm glad that I took the course; I learned quite a lot and being in the class helped nudge me along, and I met a lot of cool people (Tom Allison, Dana [who will be going to Cornell, and who I actually met at University of Rocheter], Eduardo, ... and several whose names elude me at the moment) and it was fun being in a class with Michelle (dolinski). Afterwards I walked up to the Greek Theatre to see the Engineering Commencement, and arrived just about half-way through the EECS B.S. students. I stayed for about 20 minutes looking for James (doclonghair or jester) but didn't find him, despite prowling around amongst the graduates.. I think he might have not stuck around to hear more names read -- seemed to be a popular strategy, as there were very graduates sitting in the graduate sitting area. One amusing discovery: I'm listed in the program again this year!