physics is phun

today instructions end for spring 2004, so i thought instead of getting an early start studying for the finals, i should take a day off and completely have fun.

thoughts turn to actions, wishes fulfilled.

physics quiz today was not as bad as the previous two. i got all the correct answers, but there might still be some minor mistakes along the way that brian will subtract points off. hopefully not. considering the 50%s i've been getting on the last two quizzes, i could really use a perfect score. besides, it'll be nice since i've never gotten any perfect quiz score during my five quarters taking physics here.

i should make this remark: physics majors in ucsd are awesome, and ucsd physics faculty is definitely the best. i would not regret joining the physics community in ucsd. things were awesome at the party today. where else will you see physics faculties playing volleyball with graduates and undergraduates? where else will you see frisbees flying around hitting the heads of professors? where else will you see such action is retaliated with a bunch of physics professors throwing frisbees back at us? where else will you see YOUR physics professor plays frisbee with you? where else will you see graduate students aiming volleyball smashes at the professors? where else will you see professors drinking beers and laughing like they've never laughed before? where else will you see professor driscoll, arovas, and sharma playing frisbee?

i remembered from before i started college that people had been telling me about how professors in colleges don't socialize with their students, that they don't care about our education and we're left to study on our own, that they know us by numbers, not names, that they think we're not intelligent enough to have a conversation with them, that they're not interested in talks other than class materials, that they can never be reached, and all kinds of that stuff. well, physics department here seems to be quite the opposite of what i've been hearing. even though there are only a total of about 100 physics undergrads here in ucsd, i feel like this community is the one where i belong. i have found another place i can call home. =)

frisbee is a game i have never played in my entire life, until wednesday when tara encouraged me to make our own frisbee from paper plates. look at me now: i've been playing frisbee for the past three days in a row. today was the worst one: THREE HOURS NONSTOP, during the physics party. but here's why i kept playing and i didn't stop to rest my legs that are completely paralyzed now:
1. i get to tackle my TAs.
2. i get to tackle my professors.
3. i get to see professors get hit on the head by spinning paper plates and frisbees.
4. i get to yell "oh YOU SUCK" to graduate students.
5. i get to sneak up from behind one of the graduate students and steal the frisbee right in front of his face.
6. i get to push around juniors, seniors, and graduate students.
7. i get to socialize with faculties such as sharma, driscoll, and arovas.
8. arovas is such a good thrower; i guess being short and overweight do not prevent him from kicking our asses in frisbee.
9. i get to see people trying to take down scott who just won an award and kept catching the frisbee.
10. i get to see my TAs stumbling and tackling each other for a frisbee.
good times. david norris was right, we should push this so we can do this every quarter or month.

a note on physics faculties here: they're awesome. where else will you see a professor you had an appointment with to simply talk about some crap that's bothering your mind, telling his fellow researcher who called him to discuss some experimental issues to go see him after an hour just because he's still talking to you? and he mentioned your name on the phone, not "a student". where else will you see a professor who saw you carrying around four paper plates stapled together into a frisbee and started yelling at you for not taping the edges of the staples because staples are made of iron and could cause infection? and after you kept being persistent on how staples are not dangerous he said that he'd call your dad to go buy you a frisbee.

being a part of the physics community in ucsd is great. i'm definitely going to apply here for graduate school. and later, for a post-doc position in the high energy department.