It used to be that, even when procrastinating, I was never afforded the true experience of relaxation. This was because, from an academic point of view, I could be spending my time more productively. Even during previous Summer vacations, feelings of exuberance and relief were tempered by the knowledge that I’d be back in class…
Unless there is animosity between them, coworkers who happen to see each other by chance at the store, on the street, or elsewhere other than their workplace, will be inclined to smile. I think there are two things happening. 1. Identifying a familiar face from among the faces of countless strangers who populate a person’s…
Technical courses steeped in analytical problem solving offer little room for opposing views. If you question the validity of a conclusion, you need only use mathematics to see how the conclusion was derived and to verify that it is in fact correct. Alternately, soft sciences, collectively known at this university as ‘perspectives on the human…
There’s a section of the local paper called community snapshots, where the pictures featured depict usually two individuals, one handing the other a check. The people pictured represent their respective organizations, sometimes non-profits, sometimes banks, etc. The money exchanging hands, with the check posing for the photo between the grip of the two individuals, is…
You experience a small change. Something outwardly minor enough that it goes unnoticed by people around you. You notice it because it’s persistent and uncomfortable. Being persistent, you’re always aware of it at some level, and it comes to the forefront of your attention when you are busy with nothing and have no distractions. And…
Time management: if you want to speed up the passage of time, think of all the things you have to complete before semester’s end. If you want to slow it down, think of how much you want for the school year to be over. One of my friends likes to think of our lives as…
Tomorrow I take the Fundamentals of Engineering exam. It is comprised of 2 sections, with 4 hours allocated to each and a break in-between. The morning section is the same for everyone and has 120 multiple choice which cover the basics of many fields, Chemistry among them. The afternoon section has 60 multiple choice which…
Why is it so satisfying to break the ice layer that forms over puddles during cold nights? It’s like Amélie shoving her hand into a bin of beans. Maybe it’s the fun of breaking molecular bonds with the clean knife precision of cracks. It’s also the rarity of opportunity. The visual, auditory, and tactile senses…
There are paths on campus woven between dorm buildings. At some point along one of these paths there exists a staircase that might have been designed by a civil engineer who was angry at the world. It isn’t so much a staircase as it is a series of overlapping cement slabs. It’s more likely to…
This morning, in an attempt to avoid a repeat of what he perceived as the studentry’s tendency towards sleep last class, the business course prof played a short video of a beached sperm whale carcass being blown up by 20 cases of dynamite. The sense that my future depends on my leaving this place is…