November 11, 2004
Some Observer History
How I Spent My College Days.
(Thanks to Steve Jackson Games for the image.)
My college days were definitely not a representative experience. I was a geek from pretty early on. I lettered in Math, for crying out loud. That's because I quit the tennis team after spending a disappointing junior year warming the bench as the 7th best player (only 6 are allowed to play varsity). Anyway, I had some good friends in my math classes, and they talked me into it. The best part was that I got to compete in a lot of local competitions in the "novice" division, even though I was a senior. I got a closet full of trophies from that.
My specialty was the calculator competition. I also tried number sense, where you have to solve problems completely in your head, but I wasn't fast enough to be competitive. I still use a lot of tricks from that, though, like I know how to square any two-digit number in my head quickly or multiply anything by 25 or whatever (I can freak out my math-intensive science class sometimes using these tricks while I'm lecturing). Calculator was like applied video games, where you had to quickly and accurately punch up solutions to problems like sqrt[(0.00304 - 0.000875)/(5.67)(4.3e-9)] and solve geometry problems.
I tied for 2nd in the district-wide competition, then I tied for 2nd at the regional competition. In both cases, only the top three advance, so I was only one missed problem away from not advancing. I got killed at the state level, finishing 10th out of the 12 people who made it, but I didn't care. Turns out that if you make it to the state level in an academic competition, you qualify for some very nice scholarships. Since I was going to school in state (and most finalists ended up going to the East or West coast), and that was a requirement for getting the scholarships, I didn't have much competition.
I ended up with a $13k/year + tuition scholarship. It pretty much paid for everything, including books. I supplemented my income by doing some math tutoring over the summers and later by working as a research assistant as a prelude to going to graduate school. And I got a pretty good scholarship for grad school, too. So I really never had any money worries in college.
I was a good student, maintained over a 3.5 average with a double major in science and computer programming. I eventually dropped out of computer programming because I just hated it. It's too bad. I could've been a great programmer or electrical engineer, but it was just too damned tedious, even for good money. I knew I wanted to teach for a living, so it was just a matter of picking whatever subject interested me the most and going to get a PhD in it so that I could teach at the college level. Worked out great.
I spent most of my spare time gaming in the student lounge or playing ultimate frisbee with our really crappy dorm floor team (we were all geeks, so you do the math). If there had been online electronic games (like Clan Lord) or sophisticated computer strategy games like Civ II or Heroes or Diablo, I'm not sure that I would've ever graduated or made any friends. Just having games like Tetris around was bad enough.
I have a real soft spot for students who want challenging courses. I always wanted to be the kind of professor that the dumb/lazy students fear. I want to be the one whose name is whispered among the frat houses, "Oh man, don't take *him*. He totally flunked me. I mean, yeah, I never showed up for class and was drunk off my ass for the whole semester, but *still*!" I liked challenging classes, professors who made me think. I didn't mind doing a ton of work if the class was interesting, so for better or worse, that tends to be the kind of student I cater to.
Posted by Observer at November 11, 2004 11:57 AMComments on entries can only be made in pop-up windows while those entries are still on the main index page. Sorry for the inconvenience this causes, but this blocks about 99.99% of the spam the blog receives.
*Snicker*.
My mind trick is being able to do base 10 logs & antilogs, to 1 place, in my head. Comes in real handy at certain times. Of course, just explaining what that is is enough to make many people reach for their silver crosses and send me to a concentration camp.
["Some guys are addicted to narcotics. Some guys like little boys. Some guys like mathematics. There's no accounting for taste."]
My high school was a wannabee jock school, and the very concept of intellectual interscholastic competition was, to them, an abomination unto the Lord. (I say "wannabee" because they never fielded particularly good teams.) I didn't know there were such things until I heard about them from my friends at college.
I was among the first wave of RPG players, having started on the original D&D in 1975. (I started playing board wargames back on Christmas 1967, I think.) Didn't play much in college, played even less in grad school, enforced partly by having my dungeon destroyed in a fire. Didn't play at all in my first postdoc, and upon returning to where I live now I joined the gaming group that my brother was part of. Met my wife there.
Posted by: Feff on November 12, 2004 10:44 AMI met his wife there too... Or something like that.
My dad was always a gamer and when I was finally old enough he started me on Avalon Hill games about 1977-78. Initially he had me playing what I now call advanced beer&pretzels games. Stuff Avalon Hill rated a difficulty of 3 or less.
They also gave me a copy of the basic boxed AD&D set early on (probably about the same time) but I never had anyone to play with so that just sat mouldering on a shelf until we moved in '82 and I found other geeks. From then until graduation in '89 I played D&D and Squad Leader and Supremacy and a host of other games. Never was very picky about my games back in those days.
Went to college and actually did some game theory as part of a Math/Physics double major. That's the point at which I got more discerning about my gaming. I statred seeking out games that had smaller elements of chance to them (AH Civilization, Diplomacy, etc.).
By the time I got out here to go to grad-school I was not gaming much anymore (lost my gaming group in the move and brought a fiance who was not a gamer and not understanding about gaming). When that relationship finally fell apart I managed to hook up with Metro Seattle Gamers and got back into gaming again more seriously.
Finally managed to get Feff to hook me up with his gaming group about two to three years ago now and I game with them once or twice a week these days. Also have an every-other-week wargaming group who tends to focus on games like Puerto Rico and Tigris & Euphrates.
As far as the academic competitions goes, we were heavily involved. I was on three or four math teams, went to state competitions in German, Math, Physics and Chemistry. We also competed in Academic Bowls which came in various formats but mostly team competitions with a wide variety of "academic trivia" short answer type stuff. I was involved in those competitions for 5 years and as I recall I placed in the top three in a couple of subjects every year and went to state finals in the academic bowls a couple of times.
Always looked at those as games and so I competed enthusiastically in them.
Posted by: Seattle Astronomer on November 12, 2004 11:12 AMOoo, I was on one of those academic quiz show teams back in high school. It was called "Whiz Quiz". I'll have to tell that story someday. It was my first time ever on tv.
Posted by: Observer on November 12, 2004 03:19 PMMy school started to cook up one of those teams in my senior year (the first round of participation was to have been the following year). No idea if it ever went beyond the formative stages. I think the idea of doing anything with academically inclined students (besides the usual private harassment and social rejection) was too much for that school.
Posted by: Feff on November 12, 2004 03:25 PM