I started writing this post on Monday, now it’s Wednesday afternoon. No, I haven’t been writing the whole time…

I made a GoAway update the other day, for those of you who know what that means. If you don’t, no worries, chances are I don’t want you to.

Classes seem be going well. Physics and Calculus are definitely going to be harder this semester than last. Phys 2 is Electricity and Magnetism, which in itself is harder than traditional Newtonian physics, because you have experience with gravity and the normal force (what keeps you from falling through the floor), but not much experience in terms of electric particles. It’s just harder to wrap your head around. Plus, it’s a totally new concept to me. I hadn’t really learned any new concepts in Calc or Phys since I got here, although we did go into more depth, and I understood them better than I did in Physics, and with a proper math background. But now I’m on to new stuff, so it becomes a bit more difficult.

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I did my laundry on Tuesday. I hadn’t done it since I’d gotten back from break, and I was to the point where I had one clean pair of underwear, and no socks that I liked. I still had a pair of the footie type socks, which I wore today–they don’t keep your ankles very warm when you’re outside.

Speaking of which, the last few days, I would have believed you if you told me it was Spring. We even got to the 60s last week! Not bad for January. I bet we’ll get some more weather before spring.

We had an ice storm a week ago last Saturday. It kind of came on through the day. Some ice was there in the morning, and by the end of the day, there was probably half an inch of ice on most flat surfaces. Not really that much, but it’s enough to make things pretty slippery. Going up hills is the trickiest part.

The way the campus lays, to get from my dorm to the Commons, in a straight line, you have to go down a set of stairs, about 3 stories, and then back up the other side, because there’s a big gully between them. The physical plant is down there. Or you can go around Mehling, and then you still have a slope, but it’s only about a difference of one story. I walked to dinner, and thought that it would be a better option to take the stairs than to try and slide down the hill. It took about two stairs before I realized that I really needed the railing to keep my balance. I was able to get there with no major mishaps. The way back, I went the other way, down and up the hill. I was walking with Nik, at this point. We made it down the hill ok, as there was grass alongside the sidewalk, and it wasn’t ice coated. Coming back up, you just had to walk slowly, and I ended up holding Nik’s arm for the last bit, as he broke his collarbone over break, and really didn’t want to fall. I went back out to try and take some pictures, but my camera really is no good with night shots. I was trying to shoot how the light from the lamppost shone off the icicles on the trees, but my camera insisted that the light was too bright, and couldn’t get the icicles. I did get one shot of someone’s tire that turned out ok, though.

While I was out there, I saw that several people had taken trays from the cafeteria, and were sliding down the hill using them as sleds. That looked interesting enough, and then they decided to hold on to the person in front of them, as go toboggan style. Turned out pretty interesting, with several crashes. I tried to walk down the hill to take another picture, and discovered the only way to keep your footing while going downhill was to practically run, and then hope you didn’t slip on the way down–which I did, but nothing but a wet spot on my pants and a bruised ego. I went back in, and a few of us ended sitting near the fire in the Villa lounge, just watching the fire for a hour or two. A few people came in later, and were playing music, and the whole thing was actually not nearly as boring as it sounded.

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I’ve been working with the tech genius down the hall, Neil, to install Linux (Fedora) on my computer. I’ve long been hearing about how great it is, and figured that once I got my own computer, I’d try it out. So far, I’ve booted it twice, and figured out how to make the trackpad work. I’ll get into the system stuff later, I think. For now, I’m still using Windows as my primary OS. Anyone that has any cool Linux stuff that I need to do, or see, let me know.

Speaking of which, I got my e-mail set up properly, so I can now be contacted at nathan AT nathanoliver DOT net.

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I’d better get going If I’m going to make lunch!