The Happy Thread-- no chances, prestige ranks, or waitlist angst allowed!

Colleges & Universities University of Chicago
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<p>Hi all–</p>

<p>So I thought we (meaning I) needed to start a thread about happy things. Like, what we do with our lives when we’re not tearing our hair out about college admissions.</p>

<p>This is just a place to talk about good things in our lives and the things we enjoy doing. All are welcome to share. I’ll go first.</p>

<hr>

<p>*I just looked at my schedule today for the summer and I realized that I have the perfect summer sketched out for me. I’ll be able to do everything I want to do, and I’ll have a chance to challenge myself and also take it easy. My two side goals are reading a boatload of books and going to the gym as often as I can (a goal I try to stick to now, until I decide to watch an episode of Top Chef or America’s Next Top Model instead…)</p>

<p>I have a long, long, long list of books and a long list of movies that I want to see. The booklist has been a few years (and edits) in the making… I pulled from Time’s 100 Best Novels, my best friend’s reading list, bibliographies of interesting things I read for classes… to give you an idea of what it looks like, here’s a non-random sampling of books I want to read:</p>

<p>Fish, Stanley. How Milton Works.
Venturi, Robert. Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture.
Dick, Philip K. Ubik.
Roth, Philip. American Pastoral.
Asimov, Isaac. Asimov on Chemistry.</p>

<p>I’m always open for suggestions :-)</p>

<p>*Classes have been going well, and I’ve recently realized (and realized that other people realize the same thing at about the same time) how easy it will be for me to graduate. I’m taking a variety of interesting courses right now, and the fall courses on timeschedules look deeeelicious. If you have U of C net ID, I highly encourage you to check them out. Supplementary sites to timeschedules are evaluations.uchicago.edu, and collegecatalog.uchicago.edu. Evaluations have evaluations, and college catalog has course descriptions. Just wipe the drool off of your keyboard when you’re done.</p>

<p>*I went to a really great party the other weekend where I found myself dancing (!). I came back to the dorms, hung out in the lounge, and had a long long long long conversation with my housemates until I decided to go to bed some time around 5 am. It knocked my system a little bit, but it was worth it.</p>

<p>*Summer Breeze is tomorrow. Summer Breeze is basically a kiddie carnival (because all U of C kids are secretly five years old) with a concert in the evening. I’ve been a slacker about buying my ticket. Cake, Talib Kweli, and others are performing.</p>

<p>*Today was such a beautiful day that I found an empty space of grass on the quads where I napped, people-watched, and thought about Freud (I have to write a paper on him).</p>

<p>Not everything in my life is wonderfully peachy at the moment (I’m dealing with some personal and family issues) but it’s always nice to think about good things every once in a while. I hope others agree.</p>

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<p>You might also read PKD’s The Man in the High Castle. Or VALIS. The Zap Gun is my personal favourite. Quite short, too.</p>

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<p>It sounds like one of the books on your reading list should be Laurie Colwin’s Happy All The Time. It will take you about 97 minutes to read, and in its own way it’s quite a brilliant and experimental novel: the title summarizes the plot (such as it is).</p>

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<p>Today is a happy day. 74 degrees high, which is rather unusual. Especially as it’s been hanging around 60 degrees lately (which is something like 5-10 degrees below the seasonal norm).</p>

<p>I’ve got quite a happy reading list over the weekend:</p>

<ul>
<li>The first three chapters of Apostol’s ‘Introduction to Analytic Number Theory’</li>
<li>The Group/Ring/Field Theory aspects of Lang’s ‘Algebra’</li>
<li>First Chapter of Koblitz’s ‘P-adic Numbers, p-adic Analysis, and Zeta-Functions’</li>
<li>A sample of readings taken from Japanese textbooks and the like</li>
<li>Something about analytic isomorphisms in Lang’s ‘Complex Analysis’</li>
</ul>

<p>Only the last 2 things on my list are my homework. Tonight I’m going out for Japanese food for the first time in a while. I actually haven’t been downtown all quarter, and I haven’t been to my Complex Analysis class in a few weeks. I wouldn’t go to Honors Analysis either, if it weren’t for Sally’s habit of only giving homework problems during class and taking attendance in his crude ways (i.e., asking you questions, which is terrible for those of us with severe attention problems).</p>

<p>Oh, and I also have to spend my 90 remaining flex dollars in the next 4 weeks which, if you calculate it, amounts to about 1 bagel and 1 coke a day. :slight_smile: We’re also approaching Memorial Day, and I’ll be going to a concert that weekend (for free)! I’m also going to Lollapalooza (NIN + RADIOHEAD!!) during summer break (but hey, who isn’t?), which I’ll be spending on campus doing research and tutoring math punks and elementary school teachers. And hey, looks like the race for Democratic nomination is pretty much finished, which is a big relief. Good times.</p>

<p>I have plenty of unhappy things too, but I’ll omit them.</p>

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<p>whoop doop i’m spending summer in the city yeeeah</p>

<p>[YouTube</a> - Regina Spektor - Summer In The City (live)](<a href=“http://youtube.com/watch?v=syqLReA_okU]YouTube”>http://youtube.com/watch?v=syqLReA_okU)</p>

<p>but other than that my life is generally out of control</p>

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<p>David Mamet’s Bambi vs. Godzilla: On the Nature, Purpose, and Practice of the Movie Business or On Directing Film. Funny, and informative. And just interesting.</p>

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<p>Speed-the-Plow was a great play. Spartan was a great movie. I’m a big fan of Mamet.</p>

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<p>Happinesss Spews From My Mouth!</p>

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<p>lalalallaalalallalala!!!</p>

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<p>Unalove! what a great idea. I try to be as happy as possible all the time, and am rarely down about things. Hmm…lets see things that are going well and things that I am looking forward to.</p>

<ul>
<li><p>Uchicago next year!</p></li>
<li><p>Beijing 08’ Olympics, I have tickets for track events (im a runner) and the soccer finals</p></li>
<li><p>Now that AP Exams are over, I’ve had SOOOO much free time recently. I skip classes like its nothing now.
Consequently, I’ve been able to avidly read for pleasure, something I wasn’t able to do much of in my previous time in high school.</p></li>
<li><p>I recently read…
This Side of Paradise
Important of Being Earnest
Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Thus Spoke Zarathustra
Walden…all in about the last month or so. Am starting Anna K at the moment</p></li>
<li><p>The weather’s been beautiful lately</p></li>
<li><p>Track season is coming to a close, and I’m excited to conclude my HS career…and begin my collegiate one at UofC</p></li>
<li><p>Went to a huge party yesterday, but my head wasnt hurting this morning =). Am looking forward to prom, mdw, and summer festivities</p></li>
</ul>

<p>all i can think of for now, but life is good =)</p>

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<p>My life has been going absolutely fabulously. School is ridiculously less stressful now that APs are over, (mostly-i had mono during the AP weeks so I have to make up calc and stat) and I’ve stopped freaking out about school. </p>

<p>I’m super-excited for Chicago. Every few minutes I remember how unbelievably lucky I am to be going to such a wonderful place. On that note, I’m hella anxious to pick classes; does anyone know when we get to do that?</p>

<p>I just finished reading Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, and it was phenomenal. I’m trying to decide what to read next, so if anyone has any good drama selections feel free to suggest something.</p>

<p>Right now I’m in full prom-planning mode. I have a gorgeous dress and a fun date and I’m looking forward to celebrating the end of high school. I’ve never been one to get excited over dances/school functions, so its nice to be girly/normal for once.</p>

<p>All in all, life is good, and I’m looking forward to the rest of it, which promises to be even better.</p>

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<p>As suggested earlier in the thread, I’m a huge Mamet fan, so if you’re into plays, pick up something like Glengarry Glen Ross.</p>

<p>You will pick classes during O-Week and you’ll have ample time to consult timeschedules, course evaluations, and your newly made upperclassman friends for course advice. Don’t worry about it now.</p>

<p>And have fun at prom!! I remember that I bought a really great dress for under 50 bucks.</p>

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<p>i loved glengarry glen ross. i have yet to read anything else by mamet though</p>

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<p>cory123</p>

<p>hey</p>

<p>I just wanted to say that first of all I’m super jealous that you’re going to the '08 olympics and seeing the track events (im a runner too)</p>

<p>Also, your post sounded exactly like what my life is like right now…barely going to classes, reading alot, and my track season just ended last week (which was actually kinda sad cause I’m going to miss my HS team alot, although im really excited for college running)</p>

<p>Are you doing cross country at UC as well or are you a sprinter?</p>

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<p>As far as books go, do any current students have any suggestions for what books to bring in terms of what you generally read in the core? I have thousands of books in my house, and it would be nice to bring ones I will be using and be able to avoid buying books I already own. </p>

<p>Also, the weather was beautiful today and instead of sitting through my now-useless ap classes after my makeup calc exam this morning, I took Welcome to the Monkey House and read outside for five hours.</p>

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<p>Unfortunately, Natalie, there’s no way to know which translation you’ll need. All professors will specify a translation, and though some/most professors will accept work done on a different translation, sometimes translations vary pretty dramatically from one another. It can also be difficult to follow along in class if you’re using a book with different page numbers. Having said that, it is possible to get by with a different translation. If possible, I’d wait until you register for classes during orientation week, and then see what your professors require and if necessary ask whether you can use a different translation. Then you can have the necessary books mailed to you (along with cookies and anything you forgot to bring to college :).</p>

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<p>hey becster</p>

<p>yep, I’m a distance runner. I’m more of a middistance guy, but i’ve run 1640 for 5k, so I’m pretty stoked for XC.</p>

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<p>cory and becster, I think you’ll love XC at Chicago, as some of my friends are on the team and they’re really awesome people.</p>

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<p>Mailing the books from home works fine. Other translations sometimes work fine, sometimes not. You probably don’t want to use Fitzgerald (or Pope) for the Iliad, unless that’s what was assigned, but Feagles and Lattimore are reasonably interchangeable. Most of the stuff in the Core seems to have one standard translation, although there may be different editions.</p>

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<p>i had a weird dream about registering for classes last night. when does that happen anyway (for the fall)?</p>