Saturday Mornings and Einstein on the Beach!

Good Evening, gentle Readers!  I hope you have had an enjoyable…uh…10 days (sorry) since we last spoke.

It has been a very busy ten days.  I turned in my application for the Honors program (super nervous about it!!).  I had my first Calculus III exam.  Finished reading The Odyssey and have now moved on to Hesiod’s Theogony and Work and Days.  We are discussing electrostatics in physics.  Big guy from this week:

 oh yes!  Lovely, isn’t it? I dream of physics constants…k=8.99e9 N m^2/C^2…

In other exciting news, my SPS (Society of Physics Students) group went to Ann Arbor today and met up with the SPS group from the University of Michigan.  We went to the Saturday Morning Physics lecture series.  It was a great panel with Sean Carroll (CalTech and Cosmic Variance [see blogroll]), Michael Turner (University of Chicago), and Philip Glass (Einstein on the Beach) about Einstein as a cultural figure.  It was very delightful!  The SPS group from the U of M was really fun and I look forward to socializing with them again and organizing outreach opportunities!  Also, Sean Carroll is much taller than I thought he would be.  I don’t know why I am so stuck on this fact (or why a twitter photo of his face would give any indication of his height…) but in addition to being taller than expected, he was also a very engaging speaker.  It was very interesting hearing Philip Glass’ take on science from an artistic point of view.  And Michael Turner was very well spoken and interesting as well.  Overall, it was a very successful day.

If I may complain for a minute, Reader, I have to admit I am a little frustrated about my SPS group.  I feel like we have the potential to do so much, but it is really difficult to get people to come to meetings and agree to do things as a group.  One of the reoccurring complaints is that people don’t feel welcome.  Now, scientists aren’t necessarily known for their social skills, but I think that I am rather good in most social situations.  I went to several classes last semester to get people to let people know about the group and to gain more members.  It went very well.  But, the people I spoke with last semester haven’t really shown up so far this semester.  I just feel like if I could get people to a meeting, they would be hooked and as excited about our group as I am.  Please observe the gif below for an adequate expression of my feelings about this situation:

 thank you to the tumblr friend responsible for this!

If any of you lovely people have suggestions on how to people wrangle, I would be very grateful.

In closing, I would like to leave you with a teaser.  I may have some good news regarding summer plans in the near future.  So! Keep your fingers crossed for me and I will update you as soon as I have information!

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