Nolan’s Notes

Wow, it’s been a whole month since my last posting! These last couple weeks have been filled with exams, final projects, and a ton of end-of-semester surprises to fill out my first year as a college student. I didn’t have opportunities for many pictures that I haven’t done before, but I am plenty involved with various activities around Carnegie Mellon’s campus. The first was a highly interactive event put on by the CMU’s Entertainment Technology Center, called Building Virtual Worlds. It was first started by Randy Pausch (who I’ve blogged about before), and I had a lot of fun attending it’s various showcases. The first was an exciting pre-show event called “Get In Line,” where arts and science students separate into groups and try and best each other in various activites using their cellphones! And of course, inside McConomy Auditorium, the ETC students showcased their game-oriented projects with an excited crowd awaiting. Search YouTube if you’re interested in watching them, they’re really cool!

Later in the week I played in the Kiltie Band final concert, which was cool too. Skipping the ECE picture, the map of names is showing the hierarchy of a test that the “Science of the Web” professor Luis Von Ahn proposed to his students. Their task? See how many people could enroll in a facebook group. If they reached 3,000 people by the end of the week, they would get an extra 10 points on their final! The black circle in the top left corner is where me and a few of my friends are. Thankfully, they reached 3,000 people by Friday, and we got a really cool map to boot.

The last picture is of a new game that I discovered that is called Blokus. The game is basically like Tetris, except that you have to play the pieces at direct corners to each other, making the game a lot of fun for everyone, especially the engineering and computer science students at CMU. For those of you back home, I guarantee you, you will be hooked!

Can’t wait to come home for Christmas Break! Now…just to get through Finals

As I was eating lunch today in one of the many haunts around CMU, I couldn’t help but notice the progress that the new Undergraduate CS Building was making. I won’t go too much into the history behind it, but Bill Gates himself donated $20 million towards the building, it has a special bridge named after Randy Pausch that will link it to the drama building right next to it, and it just looks cool too. That last part was something I could share with you all easily, so here’s a panorama I made up to show you what it looks like so far. Enjoy!

Well, with the coming occurring of Halloween and Daylight Savings Time a week away tomorrow, I think I can safely say that autumn is upon us (and my time for activities has slowly decreased). The temperatures have dipped a bit, with lows in Pittsburgh hitting barely above freezing. In my escapades recently, I’ve been able to slip in a few Pittsburgh activities along with my normal homework-week. The first is of a yearly celebration started by a local Pittsburgher to celebrate the yearly anniversary of the Pittsburgh Pirates winning the World Series in 1960 (which I blogged about last time). A few members of the original World Series team were there as well, which was really cool! Three weekends ago was Mid-Semester Break, which basically means a Friday off to do whatever you want to. So, some floormates and I got together and played frisbee golf in nearby Schenley Park, and had a blast doing it. I also have a picture of SausageFest, which is an event put on by my dorm sell hot dogs and sausages to raise money for charities.  Dare I say it, there’s only 6 weeks left in the semester, and while I like the new sights and people, there’s nothing like home sweet home!

Well, it’s back to the old grindstone again with school. I just got done with my Calculus and Intro to ECE midterms, and I was glad for the break this weekend. In the last couple of weeks, I’ve been able to do some cool stuff like tour the Robotics club on campus (with 8+ projects to choose from), finally perform with the Kiltie Band, and meet the CS professor who created the smilie face emoticon as we know it today . This last weekend I was able to do some exploring and try and find the location of the old Forbes Field. After getting lost in the UPitt campus, I asked a student nearby where the field was. His reply: “You’re standing on it!” Wow…duhhh. Turns out that the old home plate is located inside Posvar Hall and that the center field fence is still standing 457 feet away. To make the story even better, I happened to run into Robert Lavelle, an original attendee of the famous 1960 World Series game where Bill Mazeroski bashed in a home run in the 9th inning to beat Yogi Berra and Mickey Mantle of the New York Yankees (Roberto Clemente was playing for the Pirates then as well). Yay for history coming alive! I took a picture from the Cathedral of Learning to give a bit of modern-day perspective on the original LIFE photo and got a good shot of Carnegie Mellon as well.

It’s starting to get a little colder and darker here in Pittsburgh, which is a nice change. Fall colors are just around the corner!

Until next time,

Nolan

Wow, I just finished up with my first two weeks at Carnegie Mellon, and it was a blast! I can’t possibly write down everything that happened (partly because it was such a blur), but I will do my best to give it justice. As usual, I have some pictures at the bottom of the post as well. Before we even got to campus, my parents and I were able to do a little sightseeing around Pittsburgh, including looking at Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater and the shopping-crazy Waterfront. Once move-in rolled around, it was a sad parting but also the start of a very new beginning. Carnegie Mellon made sure to do their part by putting on an awesome orientation week for us new students, including a giant icebreaker called PlayFair, organizing tons of campus activities with good food, create team bonding with a House Wars (yes, that’s me down there), and wrapped it all up with a talent show that showcased some amazing freshman artists. After Orientation, everyone geared up for the first week of school, which strangely enough, wasn’t all that difficult. All of my professors seem quite nice and not too boring, and I didn’t have any homework this first weekend. This Saturday, I was able to take a trip to the Carnegie Museum of Natural History and Art, right down the street from CMU. As I soon found, this museum is a must-see for anyone visiting in Pittsburgh…I haven’t heard of a place yet that can match their collection of real dinosaur bones and natural minerals. The art exhibit was pleasurable as well, but not quite as interesting for my geeky type. I miss all you Portlanders! This is Nolan, signing off.