Visiting Caltech

OK, so it's been a while since I posted last. Um . . . on New Year's Eve (old news, I know, but bear with me) I jammed with a couple of my cousins, one of whom has a degree in woodwind performance and is currently doing graduate work in music. He plays a mean saxophone solo . . . brought back many happy memories of our TASP jam session *sniff.*

A couple days after New Years my dad and I drove down to Pasadena to visit Caltech. It's kind of like MIT, only much more math-and-science concentrated - they have only about 900 undergrads (ALL of whom have some kind of math- or science-related major), but there's a 3 to 1 student:faculty ratio and 32 Nobel prizes won by professors. They have NASA's jet propulsion laboratory, a giant tank of liquid nitrogen (which is "pretty freely available" according to the information session), and a swimming pool behind the admissions office. Also, there is great weather (as that last would suggest). Plus a better hack record than MIT. Definitely a pretty ill school, if you like math and science and can get in. I'm still waiting on that last . . .

I finally got my apps all sent in, plus the Cornell House app (woot!). I have a BYU scholarship I need to get around to applying for in the next month, plus an extra essay McGill wants me to hand in (but they don't list a deadline for it . . . those silly Canadians!).

This morning I was trying to associate particular musicians or music genres with particular dishes - e.g. Simon and Garfunkel is a glass of 2 percent milk, bebop is crab, Vivaldi's Four Seasons are pasta with artichoke hearts in white sauce. It strikes me as the kind of exercise somebody else taught me, but I can't come up with a specific memory. Hmmm . . .

1. Hazy Shade of Winter - Simon and Garfunkel
2. Mardi Gras in New Orleans - Dirty Dozen Brass Band
3. Opus Pocus - Jaco Pastorius with Wayne Shorter and Herbie Hancock
4. Call Me the Breeze - Lynyrd Skynyrd
5. Understand Your Man - Johnny Cash

Groetjes,
Sam