School! Classes!
1. Kitchen managing is hard.
2. Getting no sleep is a bad idea, and possibly gives one raging headaches.
3. Berkeley is fun.
Today was the second of two full days of classes. I've been showing up to no fewer than eight classes, six different courses, with the intention of actually taking four of them. Indecision reigns.
I have to take E190, technical writing for engineers. It is the only graduation requirement that I have not yet satisfied. Years ago, I dreamed of getting out of it. Supposedly the only way to do so is to publish a paper and submit it to the E190 professors for evaluation, or, in other words, to get one of the heads of an engineering department to talk to them. Eh. I have two options. The first is Nevader's mythical section 14, which is apparently a pilot version of the class (labeled "V" for venture) in which we form into groups and spend the entire time writing a business plan for a product we come up with. No grammar exercises, no multiple essays. The professor is funny, engaging, and laid back. He told us he feels honored when students sleep in class, since it means hs voice has such a soothing quality. He's happy to let us miss class for stressful CS150 days (that was, in fact, his example of a reason to miss class). Only problem? I don't like business.
The other section I showed up to is research-specific, and is supposed to be aimed at students applying to grad school. Only half the students in the class seemed aware of this fact. The professor has the quietest voice ever, grades on attendance and participation (and says that my absences due to *attending conferences* count towards my total allotted absences in the class), and asks class discussion questions such as "What is research?". On the plus side, class assignments include writing a personal statement (instead of refining our resume and working on job applications) and two short research papers, things which I'd end up doing anyways when applying for grad school.
So, option 1 or option 2, or should I pursue the option of getting out of e190 more seriously?
I also showed up for two sections of math 185, complex analysis. The first professor is your classic soft-spoken bearded mathematician. He seemed bewildered by the huge crowd of students stuffed into the room, and summarized the punchline of the class in an hour. Straightforward presentation. Probably has a reputation for easy exams, hence the huge over-enrollment in the class. The second professor, Geba, apparently has the kind of reputation that sends chills down the spines of the students who have dropped his classes after a couple weeks. One student on ratemyprofessors.com says, " 'I finished grading midterms for two 104 classes in an hour cuz there were nothing for me to grade' by Prof Geba. Half of the class got 0 and one third got 1 out of 10." He gave us the punchline of complex analysis in 5 minutes, and spent the rest of the class methodically reviewing complex numbers. His class will probably kick my ass, but I'm leaning towards thinking the challenge might be worth it. He says cute things like "a good rule of the thumb is..." and refers to the class as "my friends". He most likely yells at students for asking stupid questions.
CS 172, computability and complexity, looks like fun. The professor has a neat british accent, different from Russell's, and says he will not be grading the class on a curve. I like the subject matter. The textbook (Sipser) is apparently fantastic. I need to re-read GEB.
Math 250, algebra, was also a lot of fun. The room was packed. Twice as many came as claimed to be enrolled in the course, and I believe the entire non-graduated membership of last semester's galois theory was there. Ribet told an amusing story about his copy of Lang's Algebra, which he said he had online until Lang made him take it down. Apparently Ribet wrote a snarky comment in his copy of the book while he was using it as a grad student, and years later Lang ended up in his office, flipped through the book, found the comment, and replied to it. Even more years later, someone approached Ribet at a conference and asked "Is it true what I've heard about your copy of Lang's Algebra?" We reviewed things about groups. Someone suggested the p-adic integers as an example of a group, and Ribet replied "I'm always up for a challenge" and ended the class with the definition. I don't think I should take the class, but I'm planning to show up until I get lost. Fuzzier is the question of whether I should buy the book and do the homework. It's almost temping to take this instead of complex analysis, which would bring me to a total of three semesters of algebra out of four upper-div math courses.
I showed up to math 115, number theory, but I don't think I'm going to take it. It, too, was rather crowded. I learned about the abc conjecture (but had to miss Serge Lang's lecture on it the hour after). Lecture was delivered in an extremely organized fashion, but it seems that at least half the class is going to be on divisibility and congruences, which I don't think I need to see again. I can't believe I've become a math snob already, turning down an upper-division course because it's not challenging enough.
My sixth course is, again, yoga. It is amusing precisely because the flouncy ponytailed-and-thonged sorority girls who would take the most chill yoga class on the planet are the polar opposite of the math nerds and engineers filling my other classes.
Such indecision.