Poplar Pal: University of Washington Freshman Student Blog

http://poplarpal.blogspot.com/

I'm recommending you check out an affiliated blog since his Asian dad's blog is getting about 1,000 hits a day and he's got about a half-dozen. Of course he's got a ton more friends than his dad who went to Bexley hall at MIT in the 70s.His dorm has one bath for 2 guys, we had one per suite of 4, his dorm is brand new, mine was renovated. My house was on the opposite coast, his home is a jog up the 520 bridge and up 405 to Bothell. I didn't get to drive my dad's VW bug, he gets to drive the Accord. My dad told me if we didn't study hard enough we'd end up at UW. Now Asians MOVE TO SEATTLE to get their kids into the 15th best college in the world. I sent postcards home to dad. Now I just monitor his blog and facebook.

http://poplarpal.blogspot.com/

Welcome Home - The Less Obvious Pros and Cons

...Last year there was snow.
This year there is fog. 

Until the "IT'S CHRISTMAS EVERYONE" feeling really sets in, I need to look elsewhere for the happy in my holidays w/o the snow. 1st quarter grades? Probably not the best place to look. Coming home for two and a half weeks and pretending that ALEKS, math, and chemistry never existed? That's a start.

Costco Creme Brulee. Easy to access
at home, a thing of fiction at UW.

When you come back home, you start realizing things you never realized before about home. 1) The carpet all of a sudden feels like the worlds best memory foam mattress compared to the industrial grade "carpet" in the dorms. 2) The vegetables are cooked correctly at home. 3) As good as you think your food stash is at the dorm, the one at your house has always been better. 4) It's a good thing you don't have to wake up early during break because once you brought the alarm clock to college you forgot to put a new one back in your room. 5) If you want to watch your big screen TV, you don't have to awkwardly fight people out of the floor lounge like you do at college. These are the pros.

Then come the cons.

My temporary Facebook/Words
With Friends command post. *sigh*

1) You forget dishes and housework ever existed UNTIL you come home. And once you do remember these tasks exist, all of a sudden they take much, much longer. 2) Depending on a 10 inch netbook for a computer set up in your bedroom SUCKS when you've been working on a much better (and bigger) desktop at college. (Case in point why everyone else bought real laptops...) 3) To get around in Seattle for fun, all you had to do was abuse the UPASS where the bus system actually works. In Bothell, it's back to the basics and driving because community transit is basically useless. The driving part I don't mind, in fact I quite missed it. What I didn't miss were the slightly-guilty and slightly-expensive trips to the gas station.
and finally You know you live in Poplar Hall when... you realize the shower in your house is not as good as the one at college.


Oh well, cons will be cons. I'll happily take my comfy carpets, TV, and food to do a few dishes and use a smaller computer. Are there are frankly more important things to think about than "the less obvious pros and cons of home"? Probably. Family, friends, fellowship, holidays? Perhaps. But admittedly it's much easier to fill a blog with the little things than with actually useful information.


Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

c.a.l.c - Creating Algebra (so_Long_it_takes_8_sheets_of_paper) Chaos

I've never felt the need to put a WTF on any
of my homework until this year (lower right)

2pi/3(-476+61^3/2). That was the answer to one of my homework questions asking for the volume between to objects. Really??? I was even surprised that my computer told me I got the answer correct. Where in the world will you need to use a volume of a-gazillion pi divided by infinity plus cow over caviar? In the first couple weeks of class, homework took about 30min to an hour - very reasonable. Now, homework takes about 10min a question... and the assignments have 18 questions. Less than reasonable. I think if I've spent 2 hours working on double integrals that the understanding is that I know what I'm doing. Webassign doesn't seem to agree. Trees are dying for the cause - with each passing assignment taking as much as 8 sides of scratch paper. Recycling old sheets is futile. *rant rant rant*. Oh well doing this is supposedly good for me...

( I've had my chance to vent - that is all =] )

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

More than Ramen

Sitting at my desk watching How I Met Your Mother and eating a bowl of instant wonton noodle soup, I wondered how much food crap Robby and I really have in the dorm. So... I took stock of the cafe:

• Food
• Breakfast
• Oatmeal 
• apple cinnamon 
• maple brown sugar
• cinnamon spice
• Waffles
• Biscuits
• Ham
• Sausage
• Cereal
• Lucky Charms
• Special K
• Nutella bread
• Yogurt
• Blueberries
• Strawbeery
• Bananas 
• Oranges
• Lunch and Dinner
• Ramen
• Beef
• Chicken
• Wonton Soup
• PBJ Sandwiches
• Rice
• Pork Buns
• Snacks



A rice cooker makes everything better

• Hello Panda
• Pop Tarts
• Nutrigrain Bars
• Costco Pub Mix
• Popcorn
• Ice Cream Sandwiches
• Gummy Bears
• Beverages
• Cold
• Milk
• Apple Juice
• Mango Juice
• Ginger Ale 
• Ramune Soda
• Warm
• Herbal Teas 
• Hot Chocolate
• Apple Cider
• Mocha
• Tully's French Roast

Hmmm... nope we don't have enough...