ThePanda

So I did start writing this entry earlier today, and I realized I was going to pass judgment on Park City without actually seeing or walking around, and that would have been bad, I guess, not that much has changed. Hmm well OK I did go for a longish walk (rather long, I was initially looking for food, then for other things, and I kept getting lost, seems to be a familiar situation ), and in someways it is still too early to make comments, I know no one here, yet, or perhaps this is how it’s going to be for the rest of the three weeks, though that seems unlikely, I did get some hellos across, met my roommate, seems I have problems melding with roommates, current one is asleep, has been half asleep since he came in, which while completely understandable is sorta sad, and umm I don’t know, I guess we got off to a rocky start, or I believe we did, hmm that is to be seen, still trying to figure out where exactly Rider college is. I wish I bump into the Harvard/Yale people soon, pretentious as this may sound, at least past experiences with people from their have been positive, to say the least. Hmm well at least in someways Park City is exactly as Providence was, it doesn’t get dark until late, something I have at various times found strange, wonderful, irritating and annoying, it really isn’t that bad, just that I am not used to it. Hmm, OK in terms of just being there, Park City is gorgeous, it is all these mountains, some of them still capped with what looks like remnants of snow, beautiful trees, and really cool skies, it however suffers from problems because of these same characters, that doesn’t sound right I know, so let me exemplify what I mean. Providence, and every other American city/place I have been to has been characterized by an automatic inclination of people to walk, a presence of cars, but still a large mass of pedestrians, closely spaced things, and somewhat of a safe illusion. Park City, I guess bearing some similarities to other mid-western towns is spread out to an extent where it takes like a mile of walking to see some form of civilization outside of where you are living, it is characterized by huge gorgeous avenues, broad streets, beautiful cars, and what looks like an apparent absence of any kind of pedestrians, which is good in some ways, on my way over I was thinking about how the landscape resembles the beautiful landscape many racing simulators seem to copy, but when you don’t have a car it makes things weird to say the least. I really like the outside, and would love to walk around, and every now and then a few pedestrians do suddenly emerge from nowhere (there however are lots and lots of cyclists, something about this being cycling time in Park City), but it is by and large a city characterized by people driving big, fast/loud/gas guzzling cars, and cruising around, and walking, except probably for whatever hiking is done in the trails is conspicuously absent. Oh as for the mormons, much like the rest of the people, I am still to run into any of them, the southern drawl however seems less conspicuous here than it did in Atlanta, kind of interesting.

In some ways I guess being here isn’t as bad nor as exciting as I was imagining it to be, for one it’s kind of nice, it’s a new place away from Providence, and a nice way to see the world I guess, and well as a friend put it on her LJ, it really won’t do to dwell on a place, the world has to be saved (hmm though I distinctly remember disliking the thought of doing anything with the specific intention of saving the world, the world being saved would in most cases be nothing more than another one of the consequences for whatever action was taken), and well in a way I guess I want to explore more of the world, and I guess hat is exactly what I am doing here, sitting here in a hotel room, typing this out on a desk, with a half read copy of an article titled “Invariance and Selectivity in the Ventral Visual Pathway” sitting next to me is perhaps not what I envisioned when I was thinking about this entire exploration thing, and wearing badges proclaiming in loud, uninspiring/fear inducing letters my name, is perhaps one of those things I wasn’t planning on taking along on any such trips of adventure, but I guess it makes an OK replacement to my conspicuously absent utility knife.

Current question on my mind (some of which would perhaps be answered before this goes online, the “computer room” and the wireless router seem to be dead until tomorrow at 8 AM, so this will probably go up sometime later tomorrow night, once I am done with things, and have free time), include questions about what this entire “biological math” thingamajig is, why there are more grad students here than undergrads, where the rest of the undergrads are, how humans segment images (OK that is from back in Providence ), why has my roommate been sleeping for the past four or more hours, what does that mean to rest in the night, and most importantly when will I manage to convince a few people to walk down to the hiking trail with me, really don’t want to go there alone, though given a few days, and if faced with a suitable lack of interest from people, I might just do it myself.

MD-88’s are good, I am impressed by them, even though I have always believed that as aircrafts which are hardly found outside of the US they might be worse than Boeings or Airbuses, and I am surprised to say that I rather liked the way MD-88s are configures, especially in the extreme aft section (which is where I was sitting, near the tail end exit), and even though it usually goes against my instincts to pick a seat that far back in an aircraft (leg room, though I picked this one because there was a gallery right in front of the seat, thus giving me space, though the MD-88 was mostly empty, I shifted back a row, and had one of the three seat clusters to myself), and it seemed to be a great plane, I was sitting right next to the twin tail engines, like I was practically looking at them, and yet there was hardly any vibration coming through, hmm I like that plane. Airports experienced today are a different matter though, hmph, airports seem to have an innate ability to disappoint.

OK more outdoor time, I guess, I am bored, I need the internet or the outdoors to blow off this excess energy, which I shouldn’t have seeing as I haven’t eaten much, hmph.

Next morning: OK so I have definitely met two professors, two grad students, and two teachers, still haven’t run into any undergrads, but that I guess is to be expected, seeing as the first undergrad summer school thing starts up at like 9:40, there really is little reason for most people to show up. After all if Brown has taught me one thing, it is that undergrads sleep .

Hmm, more exploring needs to be done sometime soon .

Ze Panda
PS: Answers on the entire biological math thing are stilla waited, if evidence from today is to be believed I probably won’t ever.
PPS: Times for me, until whenever I leave this place are -2 whatever it shows on the post.