A Masters in Prankology

So, you thought this was nerd camp? You thought I would be learning about differential equations and computer science and biochemistry? Well, that's all a lie. It's a cover up. Remember the move Agent Cody Banks? Cody goes to 'summer camp' but it's really a CIA training base. That is exactly like YSP! Except they are not training us to be spies. And I am actually learning about differential equations and computer science and biochemistry. But while I am here, I am learning about and training in the noble and ancient art of Prankology. 

prankology - the study of the art of pranking

I studied prankology while at summer camp. 

"Our best feature is our $12.95 appetizers 

local legend Andy Sandberg is a live lobster

$7,777"

What projects have I had in prankology? Let's start from the beginning. One day my accomplice, who shall remain unnamed, and I, decided that we were extremely bored. And as the proverb goes, "Boredom begets shenanigans." So in our modest box of craft items we discovered The Duct Tape. We duct taped counselor Joey's door and left him a ransom note (see picture to right). We soon ran out of duct tape, so it was a pretty lame prank. But as introductory prankology students, it was ok. 

"I am looking for a hot & spicy love nest
student living with marijuana was charged
while 17-year-old satisfying the excitement
mix $15,000 visa call 574-2200
Tennessee July 12, 2012"

Next, we found ourselves with a abundance of newspapers  and a good roll of tape. We created a wall of newspaper that we covered counselor Chelsea's door with. It was kinda cute and Chelsea still has it pushed aside like a curtain on her door. Her ransom note looks like the picture to the left. 


Then, on a wonderful a glorious night I found myself saying goodbye to Chelsea and Kara as they had to go to Chipotle. I just happened to walk back to my room and I found that Kara's door was left open. As any master prankster knows, you have to be ready at a moment's notice. So, thanks to the daily training we get at YSP, I immediately knew what I must do. I seized the nearest nerd and demanded that they hand over their toilet paper. Properly armed I went to Kara's room and wrecked havoc with the paper product. Of course they suspected me at this point, but I had mentioned how I really needed to go to Walmart for several days because we were out of toilet paper and have been using tissues.


So, I hit three out of four counselors when the scheme ended. I was working on homework out in the hallway with a few others when out of the blue a menacing looking Joey, Chelsea, and Kara appeared. They knew that I knew who had done the pranks and were desperate to seize the culprit. So we started the negotiations. They offered food. I asked what kind. They said cookies, butt sandwiches and candy. I wanted  Yogurt Mountain. They said no. I said $3.00 limit. They said ok. I asked if I would get YoMo regardless of my answer. They said yes. I told them it was me. DO YOU UNDERSTAND HOW GREAT THAT WAS?! I PRANKED THEM AND THEY PAID ME WITH MOUNTAINS OF YOGURT!

Even though the ruse was up, I still had a pranks ready to go. I pranked head counselor Drew with this lovely contraption to the left. And I helped plot this wonderful scheme to the right. Fortunately, I was watching Batman at the time of its execution.

 Most recently, I repranked Joey and Drew. With the help of several different unnamed accomplices I successfully blocked the male counselors in their room with cups of water. However, some of those cups had occupants . . . FISH!  

In these few short weeks, I have earned most of the credits I need for my masters. Hopefully I will be able to complete my degree in these last few weeks!

Nerdy Green
Master Prankster

Superweek

Wow! So much happened this week, I don't even know where to begin.Actually, I do. Let's start with PSSSHU! PSSSHU! SPIDERMAN! I went to see the Amazing Spider-Man last Sunday! It was a lovely and fun movie that made me feel like I could save NYC. It was very good and if you disagree, well, good for you.

My roof design

On Tuesday, I actually got to do some science!!!!!! Gustavo, the graduated graduate student, helped Sarah and I test our wonderful boxes/houses. The balsa wood did not show the proper results because it absorbed too much of the pressure sensitive paint. So when then had to bend a sheet of aluminium to fit our roofs.

Wind tunnel

We then resprayed them, and stuck them in the wind tunnel. BUT! Something was wrong with the camera in the wind tunnel so we did not get the results we wanted. . . :( BUT! Gustavo said he would try again on Friday and hopefully it worked!


Now let's discuss the classes. They are actually quite challenging. And by challenging I mean, I have to study a lot, think a lot, and be bumfuzzled a lot. Math is extremely difficult. And by difficult I mean impossible. Dr. Oberlin is a great teacher and a very punny person, but the subject of differential equations is just a bit over my head right now. But because of this experience when I do have to face the demon of D.E.s, I will have a much higher chance of winning that battle. The best part of the class is that Dr.Oberlin automatically gives everyone A's because he does not approve of the 'competitive nature' that the evaluations cause.

Comp sci. Hmmm. Still a challenge, but at least better than math. To be honest, I did below the average on the test we had the other day. And to be even more honest, I am actually proud. C++ is a completely new language to me and, as I demonstrated with Spanish, my linguistic abilities are lacking. So I was proud of the tricky questions that I answered correctly, and I learned from the ones I missed. I probably won't get an 'A' on my evaluation, but I gave it my best and just like D.E.s, when the time comes to face computer science again I will have a foundation of understanding that few others will have.

With this here photo I prove myself human.
#yesthesearemychromosomes

Biochem. Well, I really enjoy the labs, except for the flies. I hate the flies. I have learned so much about genes , chromosomes, DNA, flies, and genetics (and I have proved that I am human). However, (there seems to be a lot of buts to this post)(heehee, butts!) I haven't done that wonderful on the quizzes. It takes a while to understand what a teacher expects out of you. At first I wasn't sure what to study, how much to study, etc. But now I know. And with every quiz we have taken, I have improved. So while the grades are slightly depressing, again I am proud of what I have accomplish so far. I told Dr. Epstein how much I enjoyed his class and apologized for my less than great performance quiz-wise and that I would get the elusive 100 on his test ( a lofty goal, I know).


Whew. Glad to express my feelings to the world. It is a different experience to learn with students that are all as intelligent or more so than you. I have noticed the different sorts of intelligence. While so-and-so might have the vocabulary and reasoning skills of an aged professor, he/she might lack basic navigation skills. Everyone is truly gifted in their own way, instead of making me feel inferior like I once thought YSP would, I feel . . . empowered?  . . . just good.

Last and most important to this week was . . . BATMAN! Most of the nerds went to the midnight premiere of The Dark Knight Rises, even though had class bright and early the next morning. All I can say is definitely worth my lack of sleep. For the first half of the movie I was thinking to myself, "This isn't that great." and "This might just be the most depressing movie ever." Yet there was a point and I'm not sure when this happened, that I was so enthralled by the movie that I forgot to think. I When my brain was finally allowed to speak again, it was at a loss for words. If you don't like the Dark Knight Rises, you're wrong. And The Batman will find you.

<3 Nerdy Green
P.S. "A hero can be anyone." -The Batman

Crash Tests and Cookies

The annual semi-secret Miss YSP contest was Sunday, and what a joy it was. My guy *Larry, with my help, was transformed into a beautiful honorable-mention-earning woman. I wish I could show you the photo where Larry looks prettier than I do; but we had to swear that the photos would never see the light of the internet. Sorry. 

*name changed 

On Tuesday, Sarah and I went to see a crash safety test. The Paratransit Bus Side Impact Crash Test encountered several problems so it did not start at 9:00 am . . . More like 4:00 pm. But it was pretty cool and rather quick. Here is my video of the test. Dr. Jung will be sending me the slow-motion edited version later and when he does, I'll post it here. 

The other day in my Biochemistry of the Gene class, we were gel electrophoresis-ing. Basically, an electric current is sent through a mixture and DNA fragments separate according to size. And then the actual sizes of the fragments are compared to known size standards. Anyway, we were doing that. And you have to put a small amount of your DNA samples in the small wells with initially hold the sample. So, I was a doing this and Dr. Epstein said, "That was the cleanest loading into the well I have ever seen." (Note: not verbatim). I might have a promising future at the loading wells! Here's a picture of half of the class.

 I am including it for two three reasons: 
1) I look rather good in this photo.
2) Pictures are worth a thousand words.
3) Photos make this blog more interesting.


Last, Southgate has these amazing cookies. They are wonderful. If you are considering a Southgate meal plan, do it if only for the cookies. Every less-than-decent meal I have had here has been redeemed by these cookies. I sure hope you can buy them at Publix.

It's been a long week and it's only Wednesday. I sure hope this week gets better because right now . . . it kind of sucks. But whatever.


Later gators,
Nerdy Green
p.s. Can I mention gators at FSU? Hmmmm . . .

Viewing History in Git

This tutorial will cover:

·  Introduction

·  Viewing Modes

·  Interpretation

·  What those changes mean to the users

·  Commands

About:

Git allows for programmers to share their code with other programmers to view and to edit.  Git tracks changes and allows the user to be able to view the individual stages of the changes that were made to the program. Different versions of a program correspond to different changes that were made. For more information about Git basics click here.

Viewing:

            ‘git log’

The command ‘git log’ will show you the commit history of the program in reverse chronological order.  It will include the following of each commit: checksum (unique file name), author’s email & name, date, and any comments. For example:

‘-graph’

This restructures the viewing history to show how the program has developed.

$ git log --pretty=format:"%h %s" --graph

* 2d3acf9 ignore errors from SIGCHLD on trap

*  5e3ee11 Merge branch 'master' of git://github.com/dustin/grit

|\

| * 420eac9 Added a method for getting the current branch.

* | 30e367c timeout code and tests

* | 5a09431 add timeout protection to grit

* | e1193f8 support for heads with slashes in them

|/

* d6016bc require time for xmlschema

*  11d191e Merge branch 'defunkt' into local

            ‘gitk’

The gitk is another type of history viewer but allows you to see the information in a more visually pleasing manner.  

                        

Interpretation

            Briefly mentioned above, the output from the viewing history will tell you several things. 

1)   The SHA-1 hash – a generated file name comprised of 40 characters using only the hexadecimal characters (0-9 & a-f). See also checksum.

2)   Human info – Name and email address of the committer

3)   Date – Date and time modified.

4)   Comments – Statements summarizing the changes made to the program during that modification.

What this means:

            This section is still in development.

Commands:

            ‘git log’ – brings up the commit history of your program

            ‘-p’ – shows the patches with each commit

            ‘-stat’ – statistics of the changes made (ex. number of lines added, etc. )

            ‘git log’ – allows you to narrow down the commits

                        ‘-<n>’ – shows last n commits only, where n is an integer

                        ‘--since’ - shows only commits since date specified

                        ‘--author” – narrows down by author

For more information visit these lovely websites:

http://git-scm.com/book/en/Git-Basics-Viewing-the-Commit-History

http://learn.github.com/p/log.html

http://git-scm.com/book/en/Getting-Started-Git-Basics

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Git_(software)#History

The scAvengers

Today we had a scavenger hunt of sorts. At 9:30 AM, I, the team captain, got the instructions for the hunt. It was kinda like a photo contest. We had twenty-six phrases that we had to capture in our photographs. At least one team member (out of five) had to be in the photo and points were awarded for creativity. They had to be turned in by 4 PM sharp or the team would be disqualified. The 26 phrases were rather racy; plus, we had our own special spin on them. The actual photo taking wasn't as much fun as it could of been because some of us were feeling a little bit crabby in the hot Florida sun. . . But I do enjoy the end result.

Here are the photos we took with the phrase that corresponds to it. Enjoy! 

Relativity

Minorities Writes

Monkeys in a Tree

One Time at Nerd Camp

Survival Cooking for Nerds

Sportsmanship

Tallahassee Natives

The Other Half of Knowledge . . .

Lax bros and tennis hoes

What Happens After Curfew

YSP Essentials

Phallic Symbol

Ping Pong Double Team

I DO PARKOUR!

How Not to Treat the Head Counselor

The Indian Connection

When Kara Drives . . .

Call me maybe . . ?

YOLO

Olympics

Breaking the Plane

College Stereotype

Favorite Position

King Me

Leap Frog

Losing Your Religion

We didn't win. But the other groups had more fun and had funnier photos so it's ok. :)

Nerdy Green out.

July 6th!

We had a wonderful Fourth here at nerd camp. For starters, we got to sleep in! Which that alone is cause for celebration! Also, we took a very peculiar trip to the local Tallahassee Goodwill. Why were we there, you ask. Well on Sunday, the annual cross-dressing Miss YSP contest will take place. And we had to venture to this place of cheap used clothing to transform our nerdy guys to beautiful women! Unfortunately, photos are not allowed so I cannot show you the hilarious sight that is twenty drag nerds, but I bet you can imagine it.

A Tom Brown July 4th

Afterward, the nerds piled in the vans and drove to Tom Brown Park. It was a picturesquely American Fourth of July! There were several food trucks and food tents selling lemonade, hot dogs, pizza, and of course, ice cream. Thousands of people sat on this hilly lawn listening to the sounds of local bands and children laughing. It was very very cute.

We had a pizza eating contest yesterday at Cici's Pizza. Why? Well it is tradition, of course. The record is 61, a feat accomplished by head counselor Drew back in his day! My roommate nearly won the title for the females but in a surprising turn of events an underdog ate an astonishing 31 pieces to claim the prize. How many did I eat? Like four, plus breadsticks! It was delicious and I didn't feel the need to puke afterward like some.

Classes are still very difficult. Friday just wasn't a good day to be a nerd. In comp sci we nearly broke the internet, but no worries. It fixed-ed itself. We downloaded a free version of Minecraft, which at first I was really excited because I thought he was talking about Minesweeper which I just recently learned how to play. But sadly Minecraft is not the same as Minesweeper. Guess I'll have to learn. In my Some Interesting Differential Equations class, I had an interesting time trying to understand/stake awake. I was just too tired to derive! You ought to pull over sometimes and rest! (Heehee, you see what I did there?). And I am not looking forward to the homework, which is always a challenge. To make nerd Friday even more taxing, we had a quiz in Biochemistry of the Gene which I definitely failed. And then after the quiz, my dang fruit flies started flying everywhere! They were not properly sedated, so numerous flies darted out of the tube and attacking me! It was terrifying. 

Nerd life is sometimes the hard life.
Stay classy, Planet Earth.
Nerdy Green

Fun Day Sunday!

In case you were wondering, I am still sick. It has officially been a week of this sickness which means I have been ill for half of my time here. Which means today marks two weeks at YSP.

I don't really have much to update you on regarding nerd life here at YSP. . . Oh, my computer science gave us really fun homework for the weekend! It is a video game! No, really. We have to play this computer game which teaches us about Vim. I still have no idea what a Vim is, but the game VIM-Adventures is kinda fun.

Now on to the much more interesting part of YSP, the non-nerdy stuff! Saturday we went canoeing on the Wakulla River! It was quite fun, although tiring. Especially since I had to steer/paddle the entire time! The river was beautiful and we saw an alligator (but sadly no manatee)! I captained a three-person canoe, and we kept going until the current was so strong that we were barely moving. We then enjoyed a very peaceful float back with minimal paddling. 

Following the canoeing adventure, I wasn't feeling too great. So what do you think I did? I napped! I fell asleep and so did my roommate, Jamila. And when we finally did wake up three hours later, we had slept through the Tango class taught by Sir Nathan that we were planning on going to. Hopefully, there will be another opportunity to Tango. After we woke up from our nap, we were bored (this happens a lot)! So what did we do? We went to the Sweet Shop, of course! I enjoyed some frappe, falafel, and some of Priyanka's cheesecake. I'm not sure what I would do without that wonderful place.

Hmmm . . . What else? Oh, I've taken up knitting! So far I have knitted a very lovely rectangle. But I am doing something wrong because I started out with 24 stitches and I now have 43 . . . Oh, and I enjoyed  Lord of the Rings late last night. We shall watch the next two soon!

Under the guise of stargazing, all 40 of us nerds piled into the vans and drove to the FSU stadium. We then gathered around this fountain at midnight. According to FSU tradition, students must be thrown into the Westcott Fountain on their birthday. Well, Gerardo was the lucky birthday boy! However, the Westcott Fountain was drained so that's why we went to the stadium instead. It was quite a sight and actually pretty cool. 

Well that's all I got. Later,
Nerdy Green

P.S. I did well on all my AP tests (just ok on some though)