Weekend journal
Mar. 18th, 2003 04:53 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tarigwaemirAd Mundo Exteriore,
The HMMT was insane torture, but despite that it proved to be really fun.
Why the HMMT was horribly cruel:
1) We roomed in Random Hall, which actually isn't such a bad dorm in my opinion, but it did smell really bad and the floors were unbelievably filthy. (And when the boys with you are even more vocal about how dirty the dorms are, that says something. Jeez, Dean and Harry just wouldn't stop complaining.)
2) On the team round, they gave us an excruciating set of questions on k-configurations and cells and orders of consistency. >_< Set theory, apparently. I don't even think that the proofs themselves were really that difficult, but just trying to understand the questions took up half the time.
3) On the individual round, I made five or six really stupid mistakes. But at least I took the general test, which was much easier than the two subject tests that most of the team chose to take. I saw the questions from the other tests, and some of them seemed downright impossible.
4) On the guts round, after a while, questions just became downright impossible. And I know this was intentional. The last few questions, which the insane problem writers didn't expect us to ever reach, were either ridiculous or far beyond the scope of any high school student's abilities.
5) On the relays, among the 29 teams that participated, no one scored above zero.
6) They took way too long in presenting the awards, and it was downright chaos on the stage at points. Not to mention the microphone screeches every few seconds.
Why the HMMT turned out to be worthwhile:
1) I learned how to play Liar's Poker. I quickly lost four cards and then survived at two while everyone else was eliminated. I still lost to Harry, but in one-on-one games that started from one card each, I managed to win a couple of times. (Now I actually know what a full house means in poker.)
2) There was a handpainted map of Middle-Earth on one of the walls at Random Hall. Plus, a sticker that said "Mind the Gap" and several posters written in Quenya. That is definitely a plus for the crazy Random Hall students. (The math team has apparently reached a conclusion that Random Hall people are to be avoided like pariahs. We walked Jason over to his brother's dorm, where he was going to sleep. Vincent's in a very clean, very chic, modern building, with all these curvy sloping walls and weird avant-garde furniture. When we asked about the gaping discrepancy between dorm halls, he explained to us that MIT basically divides into East and West Campuses. East Campus, which includes Random Hall, apparently includes all the freaks who are really into computers and math, but not so into showering and basic hygiene, according to West Campus stereotypes. I was a bit miffed however because East Campus people sound more like my friends than Vincent's sort—Vincent, despite a certain geek status, exudes popularity and normal standards of coolness, not at all weird—though I certainly believe that Hallway people are much neater than those at Random Hall.)
3) We had donuts and bagels for breakfast. And I ate shrimp the night before, which is always a treat.
4) The general test wasn't so bad, and the guts round, despite how utterly bewildering it became, was pretty fun, with everyone thrusting pieces of paper at one another and yelling for calculators.
5) Our chaperone, Ms. Kuberska, is a really interesting conversationalist. She's also a bit of a Harry Potter fan—Sirius Black is her favorite character. I think I managed to persuade her to read The Lord of the Rings.
6) Well, of course, I can't forget to mention this. We won fifth place (out of about 50 teams) overall, fourth place for the guts round, and sixth place for the team round. I brought back a silver medal on a green ribbon and a jar of white "Fun Dough", which we all received for our team prizes. We're bringing back a plaque and a very nice crystal trophy to the school as well. Harry got a third place trophy for the general test and a sixth place individual standing overall. These achievements become especially noteworthy considering that we were up against many excellent private and public schools from across the country, including Thomas Jefferson, which apparently wins ARML every year. We beat their B team across the board, but their A team came in first for every single round. (How disgusting.) Actually, I think that girl who used to be Bean goes to Thomas Jefferson. It's in Virginia, after all. It's also second (after good old HPTF) in the number of students it feeds to the HYP colleges among the public high schools in the country.
7) I finally ruled out any possibility of deciding to go to MIT. The only way that the universe will convince me to go there instead is if my parents have no money in the bank, and if they offer me near full tuition financial aid. Even Vincent's dorm building, with all its modern fashion, is too artificial and industrial for my tastes. (Though the fact that all the rooms have their own bathrooms is a nice touch.) I want an Oxford-esque campus, thank you very much, not one that looks like it's in the middle of a factory zone. >_<
I've scanslated five out of eight pages from the second chapter of Ragnarok, the manga, or should I say manhwa, based on the Korean MPRPG. It's in Korean, and I'm surprised to find that I know most of the words. It helps that I have a pretty good grounding in Norse mythology. Still, I haven't figured out what "hunuub" is supposed to stand for (I think it's a name, but whose?) and whether "metshyu" is indeed "Matthew" or something else entirely. Editing manga scans is fun!
Sunday night, we saw a Korean traditional dance performance at Colden Center. It was really exciting, especially during the drum dances. I usually don't like drum music from other cultures, but I like drums in Korean traditional music better than any other instrument. Mother said that the dancers were real professionals, and she felt as if she saw the monk's dance performed properly for the first time. I was also surprised to find that ACS actually doesn't do such a bad job with Korean dances—the choreography isn't wholly incorrect, just unskilled, uncoordinated, and badly performed. Also the ACS dances don't really take into account cultural aesthetics, but nevertheless, the farmer's dance they did last year wasn't completely off the wall. Needless to say, the performance at Colden Center was the real thing and much more satisfying. They performed all the traditional dances, the costuming was gorgeous, and well, the drum dances were spectacular. I had the drumbeat stuck in my head for hours afterward.
...Tari
Post-script: By the way, just saw the episode where Shindou plays Hong Suyeong...Why, Koreans don't all have small slanted eyes! (I mean, they do, but not especially small and slanted for Asians. Besides Japanese are Asians too, so I don't see what this eye stereotyping is for! Still, I suppose they needed to do that to salvage their pride after having to say so often how bad Japan is at Go internationally.) And the Korean dialogue was pretty convincing but now I know what a Japanese accent sounds like in Korean. For example, "danyeowatseumnida" becomes "daniyowatsumunida". But not bad, not bad at all. I was nearly fooled for a moment. Oh, and I'm annoyed about the "Hong-kun". That expression actually exists as is in Korean (e.g. a teacher may call me Yi-kun in Korea), but it's not as common as it is in Japanese because most people have the same last name as at least a million other people. Koreans would go around saying "Suyoung-a" instead.
The HMMT was insane torture, but despite that it proved to be really fun.
Why the HMMT was horribly cruel:
1) We roomed in Random Hall, which actually isn't such a bad dorm in my opinion, but it did smell really bad and the floors were unbelievably filthy. (And when the boys with you are even more vocal about how dirty the dorms are, that says something. Jeez, Dean and Harry just wouldn't stop complaining.)
2) On the team round, they gave us an excruciating set of questions on k-configurations and cells and orders of consistency. >_< Set theory, apparently. I don't even think that the proofs themselves were really that difficult, but just trying to understand the questions took up half the time.
3) On the individual round, I made five or six really stupid mistakes. But at least I took the general test, which was much easier than the two subject tests that most of the team chose to take. I saw the questions from the other tests, and some of them seemed downright impossible.
4) On the guts round, after a while, questions just became downright impossible. And I know this was intentional. The last few questions, which the insane problem writers didn't expect us to ever reach, were either ridiculous or far beyond the scope of any high school student's abilities.
5) On the relays, among the 29 teams that participated, no one scored above zero.
6) They took way too long in presenting the awards, and it was downright chaos on the stage at points. Not to mention the microphone screeches every few seconds.
Why the HMMT turned out to be worthwhile:
1) I learned how to play Liar's Poker. I quickly lost four cards and then survived at two while everyone else was eliminated. I still lost to Harry, but in one-on-one games that started from one card each, I managed to win a couple of times. (Now I actually know what a full house means in poker.)
2) There was a handpainted map of Middle-Earth on one of the walls at Random Hall. Plus, a sticker that said "Mind the Gap" and several posters written in Quenya. That is definitely a plus for the crazy Random Hall students. (The math team has apparently reached a conclusion that Random Hall people are to be avoided like pariahs. We walked Jason over to his brother's dorm, where he was going to sleep. Vincent's in a very clean, very chic, modern building, with all these curvy sloping walls and weird avant-garde furniture. When we asked about the gaping discrepancy between dorm halls, he explained to us that MIT basically divides into East and West Campuses. East Campus, which includes Random Hall, apparently includes all the freaks who are really into computers and math, but not so into showering and basic hygiene, according to West Campus stereotypes. I was a bit miffed however because East Campus people sound more like my friends than Vincent's sort—Vincent, despite a certain geek status, exudes popularity and normal standards of coolness, not at all weird—though I certainly believe that Hallway people are much neater than those at Random Hall.)
3) We had donuts and bagels for breakfast. And I ate shrimp the night before, which is always a treat.
4) The general test wasn't so bad, and the guts round, despite how utterly bewildering it became, was pretty fun, with everyone thrusting pieces of paper at one another and yelling for calculators.
5) Our chaperone, Ms. Kuberska, is a really interesting conversationalist. She's also a bit of a Harry Potter fan—Sirius Black is her favorite character. I think I managed to persuade her to read The Lord of the Rings.
6) Well, of course, I can't forget to mention this. We won fifth place (out of about 50 teams) overall, fourth place for the guts round, and sixth place for the team round. I brought back a silver medal on a green ribbon and a jar of white "Fun Dough", which we all received for our team prizes. We're bringing back a plaque and a very nice crystal trophy to the school as well. Harry got a third place trophy for the general test and a sixth place individual standing overall. These achievements become especially noteworthy considering that we were up against many excellent private and public schools from across the country, including Thomas Jefferson, which apparently wins ARML every year. We beat their B team across the board, but their A team came in first for every single round. (How disgusting.) Actually, I think that girl who used to be Bean goes to Thomas Jefferson. It's in Virginia, after all. It's also second (after good old HPTF) in the number of students it feeds to the HYP colleges among the public high schools in the country.
7) I finally ruled out any possibility of deciding to go to MIT. The only way that the universe will convince me to go there instead is if my parents have no money in the bank, and if they offer me near full tuition financial aid. Even Vincent's dorm building, with all its modern fashion, is too artificial and industrial for my tastes. (Though the fact that all the rooms have their own bathrooms is a nice touch.) I want an Oxford-esque campus, thank you very much, not one that looks like it's in the middle of a factory zone. >_<
I've scanslated five out of eight pages from the second chapter of Ragnarok, the manga, or should I say manhwa, based on the Korean MPRPG. It's in Korean, and I'm surprised to find that I know most of the words. It helps that I have a pretty good grounding in Norse mythology. Still, I haven't figured out what "hunuub" is supposed to stand for (I think it's a name, but whose?) and whether "metshyu" is indeed "Matthew" or something else entirely. Editing manga scans is fun!
Sunday night, we saw a Korean traditional dance performance at Colden Center. It was really exciting, especially during the drum dances. I usually don't like drum music from other cultures, but I like drums in Korean traditional music better than any other instrument. Mother said that the dancers were real professionals, and she felt as if she saw the monk's dance performed properly for the first time. I was also surprised to find that ACS actually doesn't do such a bad job with Korean dances—the choreography isn't wholly incorrect, just unskilled, uncoordinated, and badly performed. Also the ACS dances don't really take into account cultural aesthetics, but nevertheless, the farmer's dance they did last year wasn't completely off the wall. Needless to say, the performance at Colden Center was the real thing and much more satisfying. They performed all the traditional dances, the costuming was gorgeous, and well, the drum dances were spectacular. I had the drumbeat stuck in my head for hours afterward.
...Tari
Post-script: By the way, just saw the episode where Shindou plays Hong Suyeong...Why, Koreans don't all have small slanted eyes! (I mean, they do, but not especially small and slanted for Asians. Besides Japanese are Asians too, so I don't see what this eye stereotyping is for! Still, I suppose they needed to do that to salvage their pride after having to say so often how bad Japan is at Go internationally.) And the Korean dialogue was pretty convincing but now I know what a Japanese accent sounds like in Korean. For example, "danyeowatseumnida" becomes "daniyowatsumunida". But not bad, not bad at all. I was nearly fooled for a moment. Oh, and I'm annoyed about the "Hong-kun". That expression actually exists as is in Korean (e.g. a teacher may call me Yi-kun in Korea), but it's not as common as it is in Japanese because most people have the same last name as at least a million other people. Koreans would go around saying "Suyoung-a" instead.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2003-03-18 02:37 pm (UTC)It actually really pisses me off, but I'm not sure if that's because I'm right now pissed at my Japanese teacher (long story, perhaps one day I'll force you to listen)
O.o
Re:
Date: 2003-03-21 09:28 am (UTC)...Tari
(no subject)
Date: 2003-03-23 10:08 am (UTC)O.o