It’s fall break, so I’m finally back home!! I’ll only get to stay three days, but still, that’s better than nothing. It’s been so long since I’ve had real Chinese food, and I almost went into a food coma after dinner. Unfortunately, I still have a decent amount of work for the weekend, so it won’t all be fun and games.
Author: Jeff
So sore
Ah, so it’s been a stressful week, with two midterms, one test, and various club activities. I’m also really sore from working out on Thursday and playing tennis for two hours yesterday. Even though it was the fourth time I was playing tennis, I feel that I’m improving pretty quickly. My swings feel better, and I’m hitting the ball more consistently. I’ve also been able to return some harder shots that I normally wouldn’t have gotten just a couple of weeks ago.
A fork in the road
From the school blog:
I arrived at Penn somewhat undecided between Materials Science (MSE) and Computer Science (CS), but then in the first couple of weeks, I suddenly had the urge to study CS (I’ve always been interested in computers, and have done a lot of work with website development and design before). But now, after a couple weeks in CIS-110, I’m seriously reconsidering my future. One of the reasons I decided to take CS was that I believed that it would set a good academic foundation for me–writing code, like mathematics, refines one’s way of thinking and helps improve one’s problem solving abilities. While I still believe that this is true, I have also come to realize that MSE is the technology of the future. In the next 50 years, the real innovation is going to come in nanotechnology and how to make existing technologies cheaper and more effective. While there are still going to be advancements in the field of CS, I want to be working with cutting-edge technology that is going to have a real impact on people’s lives (e.g. a couple of years ago, a team from Penn designed a cheap and effective way to line the inside of piping with a safe antimicrobial material. They brought this technology to third world countries and poor communities in Africa, where it was made a significant impact on the citizens there!)
In other news, I’ve been relatively busy with school work and clubs and such. I am currently a member of the PennVention Committee at Weiss Tech House (WTH), an organization that supports student innovation and helps turn people’s ideas into actual consumer products. PennVention itself is an annual contest dedicated to this cause, with prizes awarded to the top entries. It’s no surprise why WTH is so appealing to people like me who are interested in both engineering and technology, and it’s also no surprise that there are a lot of M&T students on WTH committees.
Yesterday, I found out that my application was accepted by the M&T Club Board! I am now officially chair of the Corporate Outreach Committee, as well as joint chair of the Technology Committee, sounds pretty cool, haha. Anyway, I am really excited about the upcoming year, especially about implementing one of the ideas I brought up: an M&T Big Brother/Big Sister Program that’s geared towards helping freshmen M&Ts with the transition process into college, as well as with course planning and social life, etc. Overall, I think the program will be a real benefit for new M&Ts, and it’s my hope to get it going starting this year.
As far as non-academic stuff is concerned, David and I are currently in the process of rushing Lambda Phi Epsilon, an Asian-American interest fraternity on campus. While we haven’t received our bids yet, we’re remaining hopeful, as we were one of the few people who attended a lot of their events during rush week.
Fail Dance
I guess the school postings are actually doing me some good, since I’m now forced to blog daily, which was what I aimed for at the beginning anyway:
Hmm…not too much happening. I finally got into Physics Lab, so I’m up to 5.5 courses again, but the lab only meets once a week for 2 hours, so it’s not too bad. Anyway, this will make future semesters a little easier, so I’m not complaining. I went to the Ballroom Dancing free lesson today, but it wasn’t as exciting as I thought it would be. Our instructor was going too fast, and many first-time students couldn’t keep up. I guess for now, my focus is to really get into tennis. I’ve invested in a nice Babolat AeroPro Drive Cortex, with XCel Power 17 strings. I know they say that the racket doesn’t make the player, but I figure that if I have a good racket, I’ll be able to develop my form better. Plus, it’ll force me to play more, because otherwise I would feel like I wasted a lot of money, haha.
The Maestro Falls
Excerpt from Writing Seminar daily blog:
I usually don’t blog about the same subject two times in a row, but in this case I can’t help it: Federer lost. Unbelievable. Another five-set heartbreaker, this time to the up and coming Del Potro, whom Federer had actually beaten in five sets during this year’s French Open (karma?). I guess I’m most disappointed with this loss not because it puts an end to Federer’s streak at the U.S. Open, but because I felt that Federer didn’t play his best. In fact, he looked pretty lackluster the entire match, and his first serve percentage was under 50%–yikes. He also missed quite a lot of break points down the stretch, but Del Potro also deserves credit for playing a phenomenal match, especially that incredible forehand that Federer had no answer for. One thing I found interesting was the number of contentious calls during the match. Ever since the introduction of the “official review” (Hawk-Eye) system in tennis, where players can challenge a close call by the linesmen and the shot is reviewed using computers and image analysis, the game has not been quite the same. A lot of pros on tour complain about it, Federer being one of them. I felt that one of the turning points in the match was late in the second set, when DP hit a shot down the line that was initially called out. However, DP challenged the call, and the computers showed it barely, barely nicking the line. (Another question: how fine is too fine? Is it practical to review down to the ten-thousandth second during Phelp’s epic win over Cavic during the 2008 Olympics, or would it have sufficed to give both swimmers the gold? Remember, ties do happen in swimming, albeit rarely.) In this case. Federer couldn’t seem to get over the call, and consequently seemed distracted for the rest of the match, which he lost in a tiebreaker. While I welcome the use of technology in sports (more accurate timing in track, swimming, etc.), I also believe that it can sometimes hinder game play. This is especially true in tennis, where momentum can mean everything. The bottom line is that linesmen make mistakes all the time that aren’t noticed or challenged. Because players are only given a set number of challenges, players only invoke this right during the most critical moments in a match, oftentimes shifting the momentum of play entirely. While the official review system does ensure that the “right” decision is ultimately made, it seems to cause a lot of unnecessary animosity among both players and officials. Furthermore, players often abuse the system by purposely taking a long time to challenge the call in an effort to delay the match or disrupt their opponent’s momentum (of which Del Potro and Federer are guilty). In the end, we have to remember that officiating in sports is never perfect. Either review every contentious call or let the players play.