Play Imitates Work

“All of these stars are actually shining just for you.” — The Boxer

Sleep

I used to think that it was crazy that humans sleep an average of eight hours per day, which adds up to be 1/3 of a lifetime. Spending 33% of the time not doing anything still seems kind of crazy to me.

My rationale was that if I just slept for six hours a day, then I would get to spend 75% of my life being conscious, which is more than 67%.

I met a traveler from an antique land…¹

I remember Mr. P once said that sleep is more important than staying up to do homework, a statement I accepted without application.

There are definitely health benefits of all kind, including recovering from sickness and injuries and improved memory and focus.

However, I could never feel a big difference between sleeping different amounts of time. There’s a small difference in the dread of needing to get outta bed, but it’s not even close to the difference between eating ice cream and vegetables.

Half sunk, a shattered visage lies…

Red Door Cafe is open from 7 AM to 2 AM on weekdays and 3 PM to 2 AM on weekends (different on holidays).

Last night, I went at around 12:30 AM to get an Orange, but the cashier thought I said Corndog, which was pretty funny.

This afternoon, I went again and noticed that the cashier’s reaction time was much faster compared to last night and there were no errors.

I also noticed that the cooks/baristas get orders wrong more often at night, like making a hot chocolate instead of a latte or something like that.

So, even though I didn’t notice those effects taking place on me, it’s still possible to see it happen to others.

___

I recently had lunch with Professor Adam Blank (they/them), who teaches CS 2, and a few of my friends.

Da Rulez

In CS 2, if a student hands in homework early, they get a number of grace points equal to the number of days early.

A group of six students can exchange seven grace points each for a lunch or dinner at the Athenaeum (Caltech alumni club hotel/restaurant) with Adam.

Apparently we were the second group of CS 2 students to ever exchange for a lunch (the first in years), which seems kind of weird, why wouldn’t people want to eat good food?

SAT

In Ch 1b, Professor Hosea asked us about whether admissions should look at SAT score, and the people who answered in class all said no. However, I feel like the pressure to say no during the lecture in front of the entire grade is way too high, which definitely resulted in a biased sample.

Adam said that it’s complicated, but they believe that it should only be used as a basic bar set at ~650 for math. This was also the conclusion I reached because every point raised shrinks the number of applicants and the talent diversity exponentially.

For example, if you only take 780 and above for math, then you will only have 2% eligible. Now, add more axes for desirable traits like creativity, curiosity, common-sense, kindness, etc. In the end, the likelihood of capturing a group that’s closest to the average full score is not going to be helped by only taking 2% of the population.

Education

Adam went to undergrad at Carnegie Mellon and then dropped out of grad school for health reasons, but was accepted to be a professor anyway. This is probably because of all the TAing experience they got by just enjoying the process.

In that way, we are similar, so I might take CS 101 in the spring, a new class Adam is teaching so that students will be prepared to be a TA for CS 2.

“Life imitates Art

far more than Art imitates Life.” — Oscar Wilde

Today, I went to my first art class at Caltech. I emailed the teacher, Jim Barry, who told me to just come check it out.

I am signed up to take PVA 062C: Drawing and Painting next semester, giving me a total of 51 units.

Spring Schedule

My schedule for next term is:

1. Math 1c practical (9 units)
2. Phys 1c analytical (9 units)
3. CS 3 (9 units)
4. Geology 1 (9 units)
5. Humanities (9 units)
6. CS 101 (3 units)
7. PVA 062C Drawing and Painting (3 units)

CS 101 and PVA 062C should be fun.

The drawing board

Jim told me to come by at 7 PM to check out the vibes and I sort of liked it even though I didn’t know anyone there.

The art classes don’t have any instructions or assignments, it’s just whatever people want to work on. For me, I want to learn sketching so that I can draw people to show off.

Jim showed me a few books on sketching figures (bodies) and I got through the first few pages of the one he recommended.

Why So Serious?

When he walked by, he noticed (through his artist’s eye) that I was touching my face/head in a way that expressed a negative emotion associated with working.

He said, “Don’t make it into work,” which was something I didn’t really want to hear but I definitely needed to hear.

I was treating art as if it were a subject of study, like math and physics. I was reading the textbook and doing example problems, taking notes.

Back to the drawing board…

I don’t even read the textbook or take notes for math or physics, so it’s a strange kind of juxtaposition.

Perhaps I associate a desire for something with working hard for it, and I simply don’t desire to be good at math and physics as much as I currently desire to be better at art.

However, the real problem is that I don’t have enough fun when I do math and physics. I am not enjoying the process of learning even though that’s what turns work into play.

They come in pairs

Jim offered me some candy from a big jar while stating, “They come in pairs.”

I took three small jawbreakers, which were called dopplers or something, but Jim stopped me and repeated, “They come in pairs.”

So, I took a lollipop. Then, he poured me a cup of hot chocolate, which was actually really good. I think there’s cinnamon in it or some kind of apple spice.

…but I don’t know how to draw…²

The main purpose of that class is for relaxation, which is something I need to realize. And although I would like to learn some techniques from a teacher, I would also like to have fun, and I’ve never really had fun in a tutoring format.

I always hated piano and swim lessons (and art lessons). The only time I’ve liked things are when I learned them on my own for fun.

What other people think

There is also a nude model that comes in every class at around 8:30 PM³ and poses in the basement. I did not go to the basement this time, but I figured I would go next time. If I were Feynman, I would have gone to see the model today and written about it in this post⁴, but I hesitated for some reason.

However, I will have plenty of opportunities next semester, or this semester when I go visit again. Jim said if I weren’t able to take the class next semester, I could just go this semester every Wednesday and perhaps I could get credit for it. I would go even if I didn’t get credit!

…so you’ll have to do the drawing.

In the middle, I texted my friend C that I was learning to draw. She was very supportive (“OH LFG”) and asked me to send pictures. Also, I often send Kirby memes, so she said that I should “DRAW sm [some] KIRBY.”

I gave Kirby an uncanny human face and she said “that’s crazy,” which was super funny. I could have done better though.

Play imitates work⁵

If I project my enjoyment of art into the future using my method of taking notes and working super hard every class, I will eventually stop coming because I would find it tedious.

The same is probably true for math and science. If I don’t find a way to enjoy them, I’m going to end up quitting. I need to make it fun for me.

Play imitates Work far more than Work imitates Play, the opposite of what should happen!

Chipotle

is pretty good, I had it for the first time today with A, W, G, O, C, and a guy I forgot the name of.

Zankou Chicken

I heard good things about Zankou Chicken, a sort of fast food restaurant near Afters Ice Cream, but I tried it tonight before art class and I don’t think it lived up to the hype. I would rather eat at Cluck2Go if I were going to have that type of meal with just chicken and some other stuff.

They have a giant mirror on one wall so it looks like the inside is twice as big. I was actually wondering, “Why are there two lines for ordering food?” until I realized there was a mirror.

If this were Diary of a Wimpy Kid, I could walk into the mirror and fall over, suing the restaurant for a lot of money.

Footnotes

1. From “Ozymandias,” a sonnet by Percy Shelley. ↩

2. Joke from “The Rat Movie: Mystery of the Mayan Treasure” ↩

3. Yes, I memorized the time. ↩

4. Somewhere in one of the books about Feynman, he says that he sometimes did stuff just so he could tell people he did it. ↩

5. (Un)fortunately, I am not the first person to think of this. ↩