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Sunday July 1
Hi My Name Is...
So, the first day begins slowly with everyone coming in one at a time basically. It's run quite crappily if you ask me how they got us all checked-in, but I won't start going on about that. I was able to get rid of my parents by 2:30, which is good. At 5:15, I all of the sudden realize that everyone has left, and after some investigating that includes meeting two people off the ARML team I was on in 1999 out of nowhere, I discover that I have to get my ass to dinner. At 6, we all get to know each other, and then we find out that our safety meeting as scheduled for 7 won't happen because there's thunder and the guy doesn't want to come. We have a wonderful floor meeting, which is all the better since our floor has just 4 students and 1 counseler. We discuss all the ways Floor 4 is better, and then I type up the day's summary. TOMORROW is gonna be the difficult part.
Quotes:
Sasha Schwartz on the Belgian waffle maker: "It's so fulfilling. It's like I make the waffle, then I eat the waffle. Usually you're just given food to eat, but now I'm eating food that I kind of made!"
Andy Itsara on Eve's obsession (Eve is not a PROMYS student. If you don't get it, ask me.): "Steve Byrnes? That guy's a jerk! I mean he's smart and all, I'll give him that, but he's a jerk."
Jeff Woods, the only counselor on Floor 4: "We need to do some cool shit here!"
Paul, on the coolness of 4: "It's 2+2, 2*2, 2 to the 2, 2 tetra 2 -" Me: "2 tetra 2? What the hell's tetra?". Paul: "I'm not sure if it's an actual operation..."
Jon, on Fedor L and his hard-to-pronounce name: "Well I can call you F.L. -" Fedor: "No you can't" Jon: "Phil! FL - Phil!" Fedor: "No. You can't."
Monday July 2
To Think Deeply
Ah, the first day of classes! Rule #1: the ingenuity problems suck. The lecture was about as exciting as I figured it would be, which is not at all. Let's just say there were multiple examples of what addition and multiplication are.
Quotes:
Professor Stevens: "There's 1, then there's 2, there's 3, and then most of know what the next one is."
"You're making connections, namely 2*k, and k+k." [Grinning like an idiot]
On 0*k = 0: "Can we solve that equation? YEAH! With a vengence!"
Paul describing his sandals: "These could actually make good weapons. You could put some spikes on them..." Jon: "One moment. I'll be right back." Paul: "To get some spikes?"
"There have been that many people talking about improvising weapons from footwear?"
"My life is a series of text files."
Jon, that's me: "I'm gonna smack you silly! I oughta smack you silly!"
Tuesday July 3
Ronald Reagan's Nose
Prof S was introducing us to Z, the set of all integers, and telling us that many of the facts that we know are from experience, using an example from 1981, where he was shown Reagan's face and didn't recognize it until it was turned upside down because Reagan's nose had been upside down to start with. I think his point was that if you change something, you might not recognize it. Or something. The counseler poker game was the source of these quotes. * is a counseler whose name I do not know.
Sasha: "This is a deep deep game. [Pause] This from the guy in the green hair.
On the importance of shutting the hell up during a round: "It's that important. [...] You'd get shot."
[Arthur tries to bet, but it is Aaron's turn.] Sasha: "It's not your turn." Arthur: "Blair was looking at me." Blair: "You're across the table from me!" [Aaron passes. Nothing happens.] Jon: "NOW it is your turn." Arthur: "Oh yeah, because Blair is staring at me."
Other quotes:
Prof S: "ExpoNENtial" and "No labs conflict with the advance seminars... except Lab 3."
Paul: "Two different elements that are the same."
Prof S again: "Should I get a stadium of chalkboards and fill it with every true mathematical fact?"
Wednesday July 4
Z-1 and the Day Whose Number Does Not Exist
You'll understand the title when you look at the quotes. Prof Stevens was going into Z again, and we started with 6 axioms about Z and then was going to try to deduce all of math from that. There were complications separating Z from Z-m = {0,1,2...m-1}, especially Z-1 = {0}. The day is still in progress as I write this so more will be added.
Quotes, of which there are a veritable feast:
Daily dose of Prof S, on using the 6 axioms to try to distinguish Z-1 from Z: "Does (0*0)*0 = 0*(0*0)? Is 0+0 in one order equal to 0+0 in the other order? Existence of zero? YEAH. Multiplicative identity? 0*0=0, so 0. Additive Inverse? Let's check 0, since that's the only element, and 0+0 just happens to be 0. Distributive Law? OK, with properties 1-6, we are unable to distinguish between Z and the set whose only element is 0!"
"When we see Z, we see it with an order. A beautiful order!"
"I don't understand what you're saying, but I have a feeling it's something interesting." Student: "No it isn't. Never mind."
Jon: "Why do I have a feeling he's about to say something obvious and make us all feel stupid?" Matthew: "He's going to... [Prof S's chalk breaks] as soon as he learns how to use chalk."
After Prof S wrote out Z-11 = {0,1,2,3,5,6,7,8,9,10}, Jon: "Does 4 not exist?"
A few lunchtime chats with Povs (a female, and yes that IS her name), Molly and Scott, not PROMYS people, and Paul:
Jon: "So which program are you in?" Povs: "BUTI!" Jon: "That's the theatre thing right?" Scott: "Well, yeah, but it's sex. It's sex camp." Paul: "Are they kidding?" Povs: "No. Scott and I have had sex 6 times in the last 2 days."
Povs: "So how many girls are there in the math camp?" Jon: "19, I think." Povs: "If you outnumber them so much, why aren't you scoring?" Jon: "Well, for one, they can be selective." Povs thinks for a moment: "No."
Playing a hand of poker. Jon: "I'll show first. A pair of aces." Povs: "OK. Queens and threes." Jon: "Two pair." Povs: "So do I win?" Jon: "Yeah." Povs stands up and yells: "I BEAT THE MATH GUY!" Scott: "At what?" Jon: "Poker." Steve: "Oh. What's 5*2?" I don't know why, but I went along with it. "10." It went on a bit longer with random numbers, until Molly said "You know he could just be making up numbers..." For my credit, I was answering the questions truthfully.
Thursday July 5
Meeting Steve Byrnes
First off, I apologize to Eve. Eve is one of my friends who, among others, is obsessed with Steve Byrnes. I failed to recognize Steve on Wednesday and in chatting with her on Thursday, I realized that that was him, and I promised to apologize to her on this site. That said, I can't stand him! He's an absolute ass, and I don't understand why Eve likes him. When I find my list of quotes from Thursday, I'll put them up.
Friday July 6
Getting to Know You
So we have another day of classes, and get a weekend problem set. Then at 7, we have our first social, which will consist of "Getting to Know You" type games. The first event in really stupid, in which one person sits on each side of a blanket, the blanket is thrown to the ground, and the winner is the first one to guess the other person's name. The second event was the scavanger hunt. Davy was disqualified, as was Steve Byrnes, for reasons obvious to anyone here. Once again, you'll have to wait to get the quotes.
Saturday July 7
The Weekend
OK, how do I start? The weekend is frickin' BORING! There was basically nothing to do. At all. Except late-night Mafia. And obviously I had to wait for the late night. Then at 2am, I tried to go back downstairs to play some more, and encountered resistance from a loser security guard. His logic: "Past curfew, anyone who's already downstairs can stay, but you have to go back to your room." What?!?!
Quotes:
Connie, I think: "You can't inspect God!" [Twice.] It turned out Steve was Inspector.
Pez as God: "Aw, you killed the prostitute. I was going to have fun with that."
Li-Mae, during Connie's turn as God: "OK, God just told me we have 2 minutes to kill someone or she's going to randomly kill someone!"
Connie: "You guys actually thought I was going to smite someone? How gullible are you?"
Pez and Jeff, soon joined by Jon: "Smite! Smite! SMITE! SMITE!"
After Megan and Janna, two BUTI members joined our game... Megan: "It's not sex camp because I haven't had sex, actually I haven't had sex ever, because I'm a virgin, and why am I telling you guys this?" Jeff: "Whoa whoa. Too much information."
Steve: "Don't worry, I haven't had sex. In the last 3 days... With my roommate.