SSP 2021 ONL - SSP International https://summerscience.org "The educational experience of a lifetime"...since 1959 Sat, 24 Jul 2021 07:29:28 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.4.5 A Hodgepodge (yes, Joey) https://summerscience.org/a-hodgepodge-yes-joey/ Sat, 24 Jul 2021 07:29:28 +0000 https://summerscience.org/?p=11771 By: Neil S Hi astronomers! Yes, my OD report isn’t done. Yes, it’s due in an hour and a half. […]

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By: Neil S

Hi astronomers! Yes, my OD report isn’t done. Yes, it’s due in an hour and a half. But yes, I also am aware that on my list of priorities, writing this blog post is at the very top, so here I am. This blog post is probably going to be a mix of quite literally everything. This is a straightforward way of saying that I couldn’t pick a single theme so we’re about to go through them all.

First things first, quotes. I’m not talking about some sappy inspirational quotes. I’m not talking about quotes you use when you’re citing people. I’m talking about QUOTES. On the first day of SSP, after realizing how insanely quotable this campus was, I decided to set up a quote log and that was probably the best decision I’ve made in the entire program. I’m going to do my best to sum up the entire program with a series of quotes.

This is just a fraction of the available material, but I think with this series of quotes, I have successfully captured the essence of SSP. Let me know if I’m missing anything (please I’m actually curious). Anyways, moving on to the next thing in Neil’s hodgepodge of random things that he’s throwing together and calling a blog post (yes Joey, I said hodgepodge unironically): bookshelves. For those of you who are unaware, a bookshelf is a magical object. When used correctly, a bookshelf can be both a source of endless knowledge or the foundation of a grand illusion. Simply put, we here at ONL love bookshelves.

Source: Dude, trust me.

Also this big one. Somehow I managed to suggest this and it actually happened. Thank you Dr. H for inspiring me.

Oh my, SSP ONL. The land of magical bookshelves and soup. Even though it would make miso happy to talk about the latter, pho real I think you guys have heard enough soup puns to last the educational experience of a lifetime. 

Anyways, it’s time to get soupy (or sappy?) and talk about the thing I’ve been trying to avoid talking about. SSP. Is. Ending. I wasn’t really sure what to do. First things first, let’s open with a song. We have not yet had the time to record this song yet, but there was something Bewley and I planned to record (although Bewley takes almost full credits for writing it because they’re just insanely talented). Have fun with these lyrics. Note that these had originally started as a celestial coordinates diss track but somehow ended up as just being a good song about SSP:

No, no, no

What you know about missin’ out on some sleep?

When your brain goes numb, you can call that SS-freeze

When Dr. F talks too fast, put that stuff in slow motion, yeah

I’m feelin electroweak like a boson, ayy

What you know about missin’ out on some sleep?

When your brain goes numb, you can call that SS-freeze

When Dr. F talks too fast, put that stuff in slow motion, yeah

I’m feelin electroweak like a boson, ayy

Kim says that we’re smart (damn straight)

I’m like “yeah, that’s true” (that’s true)

I believe in A-I-J (ayy)

Don’t believe in N-A-S-A

This math keeps playing me dumb (play me)

But they do math for fun (uh-huh)

Y’all I got to know my peers, oh

Lemme give you the picture like NIRo

Falling behind, ‘scope was out

No pics, rain was pouring down (pouring down)

See, that pain was all around

See, ONL was kinda lounged

Didn’t know which-which way to turn

Data was cool but I still felt burnt

Energy up, you can feel my surge

I’ma reduce everything like this purge (ayy)

Let’s just get this straight for a second, I’ma work

Even if I don’t do linear regression, I’ma get it (get it)

Everything that I do is electric

I’ma keep it in a motion, keep it moving like kinetic, ayy (yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah)

Put this stuff in VS, better know I don’t get stressed

Everything that I code, man I seen it get broke

Let me estimate, this ain’t a prank

Have me calculating Planck’s, la-la-la-la-la, like

Both hands together, God, let me pray (now let me pray)

Uh, I’ve been going all night round, it’s OD day (uh oh)

Pass the param, back and I’m on

Feeling like a fool, yeah you are, uh

Want a piece of this, a piece of mine, my pics aligned

Can you plate solve these pics of mine?

Asteroid’s inclined to break my mind

TA’s say that it’s all fine

You could never match my grind

Please do not, not waste my time

What you know about missin’ out on some sleep?

When your brain goes numb, you can call that SS-freeze

When Dr. F talks too fast, put that stuff in slow motion, yeah

I’m feelin electroweak like a boson, ayy

 

Yeah, I warned you all. This blog post is going literally everywhere. Now, back to being actually serious, I’m really going to miss SSP. I thought people were overstating the sense of community when I talked to them about SSP but I really do have to say that SSP truly feels like an INSANELY close-knit community. Apart from a few squabbles over the Mandela effect, which no one really cares about (see what I did there Jeremy?), we’ve all gotten along with each other perfectly. At SSP, most of us struggled, but we struggled together and I loved that about the program. Honestly, struggling better honestly feels better than doing really well alone. I’d rather need help on something, be able to use that excuse to drag out an assignment for 2 hours while actually socializing and then figure it out after having a bit of fun than just figure it out and press submit. I think the level of satisfaction received from viewing the Canvas confetti is directly proportional to the amount of time you spent “working” on the assignment (and I think this statement is a bit less controversial than the last statement I made about proportions – cough quote log).

Also side note: this blog post is really turning into one of our progress group meetings. Let’s just keep going until we’re the last room standing!

 

Anyways, before I get to the very last thing I want to do, a few quick shoutouts:

Team Souper Stars (Ethan, Joey) – Shout out to you guys for being epic enough to let me write this blog post while the OD Report remains unsubmitted. Shout out to you guys for being epic, period.

Gartic Phone – Thanks for making me laugh.

Anyways, let’s end with a not so funny meme:

Anyways, with the closing ceremony tomorrow, this Super Special Program is coming to an end. And I’ll miss the rage.

About Me

Hey! I’m Neil S, a rising senior at Ann Sobrato High School in Morgan Hill, California. When I’m not stressing out over an OD Report, I like to hike, listen to Taylor Swift songs, obsess over Grey’s Anatomy, obsess over math and code.

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Virtual Museum Tour https://summerscience.org/virtual-museum-tour/ Sat, 24 Jul 2021 04:22:45 +0000 https://summerscience.org/?p=11725 By: Andrew L “A thousand words leave not the same deep impression as does a single deed.” — Norwegian playwright […]

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By: Andrew L

“A thousand words leave not the same deep impression as does a single deed.” — Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen. This is the centuries-old skeleton of the modern-day adage that we all know and love: “pictures are worth a thousand words”. The past five weeks have been amazing; unfortunately, I’m not talented enough to articulate just how amazing this program has been for all of us in a way that does the past month-and-a-half any justice. So, here is a gallery that I’ve put together with snapshots of all of my favorite moments with ONL SSP ‘21.

Exhibit A: Work-Play shenanigans

Arguing with Sanjana, Andrew P, and Grant over spherical trigonometry over a zoom whiteboard will never gets old

150 games of bullet with Jeremy Y. in 3 days #sigma

Eminem who?? Peyton C’s dripped out background during work-play

image credits: Neil

Mandatory tribute to Mandatory fun

Amogus illustration by Sarah W

iykyk

image credits: Sarah

trivia legend

image credits: Andrew Pk.

#1 ONL activity: quiplash with Kimberly

image credits: Jennifer S.

Who would win in a fight? Sir Alan or Sir Mason?

I guess we’ll never know… 

image credits: Joey T.

loads and loads of skribbl. 

image credits: shamelessly pirated from Jeremy Y’s blog post

The birds… what do they mean, Dr. Bauer … what do they mean??

pls 😂 send 😂 OD 😂 help 😂

image credits: Feli CUB’20

no caption needed

Ethan S’s QOD winning Nebulamogus

Tribute to the QOD, possibly the hardest and most intensive part of the entire program.

 

Exhibit B: TA Lectures

Gravitating towards Mason’s lecture on black holes and star systems

Alan and his talk on the TSP SSP

ZP’s handwriting is almost as insane as her LaTeX formatting

Kimberly was probably a racehorse in another life.

 

Exhibit C: ONL Talent Show

Dr. H is a magician (or scientist? or both??)

Andrew Pk’s rendition of Baka Mitai was one for the ages

Hayagreev’s performance packaged musicianship and artistry all in one 😀

A Masterfully crafted parody of the Duck Song by Alex G and Jennifer.

In an alternate universe, Dr. F is a professional circus performer!!

The musical talent throughout the entire talent show genuinely made me feel like I was ascending into another plane of existence

TA impressions were emotional

Ms. M’s rendition of Green Day’s “Good Riddance (time of your life)” was the perfect way to end the show <33

the four knights of SSP

monte carlo

Corporate asked you to find the difference between these two pictures: 

(They’re the same picture) — Sarah W.

Hours upon hours of data reduction and analysis with Hillary and Sarah. Fly me to the Spoon was far and away the best observing team <333

P.O.P = (Psets On P.O.P) = (Psets On (Psets On P.O.P)) = …

Snapshot of the night sky in Australia from one of the coolest softwares I’ve probably ever used

SSP ONL ‘21 has been unforgettable… huge thank you to everyone for making this program as amazing as it has been over the past five weeks: Ms. Mauldin, the professors, the TAs, all of my fellow SSPer’s, and everyone in between for making this such an amazing experience for us all ❤

image credits: Vinnie

About Me

I’m Andrew L, a rising senior at Adlai E. Stevenson High School in Lincolnshire, Illinois. In my free time I like to cube, play chess, and play the violin. My favorite subjects are math and astronomy.

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SSP https://summerscience.org/ssp/ Fri, 23 Jul 2021 02:43:14 +0000 https://summerscience.org/?p=11709 By: Haedam I Super Star People at the Summer Science Program. Our Stunningly Sparkling Passion  would Shine in Space Permanently.  […]

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By: Haedam I

Super Star People at the

Summer Science Program.

 

Our Stunningly Sparkling Passion 

would Shine in Space Permanently. 

 

Our Solidarity Stays Persistent

when we Struggle with Stressful Python. 

 

Superfluous Syntax errors Prolong.

It Seems to Stay Problematic 

forever until the Solar System Pops.

 

However, we Soon Solved the Problem

with a Strong Sentiment of Proudness.

 

The Spectacularly Special People

like Shimmering Star Palettes 

 

at the Summer Science Program

Shall Stay in our heart Perpetually.

Everyone at SSP is like the wondrous stars above: that’s why SSP stands for Super Star People!!!

I can’t believe almost five weeks have passed since SSP had its opening ceremony. Despite a virtual format, I was able to feel how everyone started to form the unique atmosphere of SSP ONL ‘21! It was such a mesmerizing experience to be a part of SSP and meet all the marvelous people here. Although everyone had a common interest—astronomy—each one of us had different interests within the broad range of astronomy: neutron stars, black holes, exoplanets, computational astronomy, and more. 

In the course of a month, I was not only able to learn awesome astronomy but also experience genuine collaboration with others. I was impressed by how everyone was helping each other out, especially when it came to debugging python code. 

The most significant impression that I had throughout SSP was that I really enjoyed learning astronomy, but I also very much loved spending time with these incredible people! The SSP poem that I wrote above shows my final thoughts about SSP! 

I am sure that these once-in-a-lifetime experiences at SSP would last as one of the best memories in my life!!!

A fun quiz for the work-play block today: who are the real Dr. F, Dr. H, and Alan T???

Five Dr.Fs in the Work Play Block

About Me

Hi! My name is Haedam I., and I am a rising senior from University High School in Irvine, California! I enjoy astronomy, star-gazing, and soap-making!

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Someone Fix My Computer https://summerscience.org/someone-fix-my-computer/ Fri, 23 Jul 2021 02:22:25 +0000 https://summerscience.org/?p=11678 By: Andrew P         It’s kinda crazy how it feels like just yesterday the legendary Dr. Bauer […]

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By: Andrew P

        It’s kinda crazy how it feels like just yesterday the legendary Dr. Bauer was still showing us pictures of penguins and leopard seals. Now I’m sitting here writing my blog post on a day intentionally chosen in the last week of SSP so I wouldn’t have to worry about it for a while. Well, I guess I have to worry about it now. I can already tell this blog post is going to have zero structure, just a conglomeration of random thoughts, memories, and uhm

        Well, this last week is definitely not it, so much to do and just a few days left. Good thing my team, excluding myself, is literally the best team in ONL and perhaps the entirety of astrophysics (I’m not even saying that to be nice I’m being deadass, I don’t care what the other teams say, y’all are wrong). I have never in my life been carried so hard. I’m pretty sure Sanjana has done more OD code than any other astro participant, she whipped out some big-brain vpython visualization of our asteroid and Monte Carlo histograms yesterday and I’m over here content with finishing the required OD outputs. Grant (feel bad for the man) did basically all the data reduction because AIJ refuses to work on my potato computer. 

        Speaking of my potato computer:

Exhibit A

Exhibit B

Exhibit C

        I rest my case. I actually didn’t know how bad it was until Grant just died laughing when I showed him the first picture the first week of SSP. Also when I ran my SWRI code overnight and woke up to 17% completion?!?!?! At this rate it’s still gonna be chugging along at my funeral, istg. Why can’t my test particles just throw themselves into the sun already. SSP head honcho if you’re reading this, I seem to recall that SSP was sending computers to participants? Hit me up. 

        During the first SWRI lecture block, I got absolutely thrashed by Jeremy at bullet (don’t mind the scoreboard). But since this is my blog post, I get to show a game I won 🙂

“I Miss the Rage” – Jeremy Y

        The funniest thing was when Kim forgot to put Jeremy on the superlatives form on the same day as his birthday. I guess Kim thinks he’s “Most Forgettable.”

        I’d like to take a quick moment to give a shoutout to my chair. It’s really comfy, 10/10, highly-recommended. Makes sitting everyday for hours quite enjoyable, not that I didn’t do that before SSP anyways. Sadly the pleather is starting to crack, please send your prayers.

        Here’s a pretty picture from the guest lecture today.  

        Other than that I have no clue what’s happening because I’m writing this post right now so I can play Rocket League tonight and get carried by Grant (I have yet to make contact with the ball). Also Grant was too shy to submit his act for the talent show, but I’d like to share what he had in mind so everyone would at least know he’s exceptionally talented at what he does.

        My biggest regret in life was not signing him up.

I’ll leave you with some of my burning questions:

  • What’s behind Dr. H’s new bookshelf? 
  • Does Dr. Bauer just get paid for a week’s worth of work?
  • Can I still be rescinded from SSP at this stage? 
  • Does anyone enjoy the Purdue surveys? Who identifies as a “researcher”? 
  • Am I a bad person for thinking it would’ve been funnier if Kim actually got fired?
  • Who is the best Andrew? Is it the asian one?
  • Apart from Sanjana, does there exist a sane person who actually enjoys pure math?
  • Would it be bad etiquette in 20 years when I’m inevitably broke to send emails to every SSP alum asking for their financial support? Would you respond to my cries for help?

Update: It’s been 8 more hours and my SWRI is at 60%. sigh

About Me

Hi! I’m Andrew P, a rising senior at Beckman High School from Tustin, California. I enjoy playing the electric guitar and taking advantage of my older sister’s Prime Video account.

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I Could Have Lied https://summerscience.org/i-could-have-lied/ Tue, 20 Jul 2021 18:30:24 +0000 https://summerscience.org/?p=11639 By: Vinny G         Right now I am in the TA office, using their mind waves to […]

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By: Vinny G

        Right now I am in the TA office, using their mind waves to write my blog post. Me being myself and being horrible at planning ahead I scheduled a drivers test for the next step of my license tomorrow, which I now have to wake up early for. I will be so sleep deprived during my test but I feel like SSP has awakened a special gene in me to power through the brain numbing consequences. If I upset any future biochem students with my lack of biology knowledge, good.

*Me driving tomorrow

        Am I upset that I am lacking sleep? No. Why? Because SSP has probably been one of the best summer experiences I have had in my entire life. Sure, traveling and relaxing with my family is fun. But meeting new people? Learning new rigorous content? Quite amazing. I know everyone has said this before but I feel like I have to say it again. 

        This is the last Monday of SSP, which is very sad. I will miss all of you guys. Luckily we live in the age of communication and there is no need for missing. Hopefully we will be able to meet up and reminst on some of the best memories of our lives while looking forward to our futures. Before I go on to the next section of my blog post, I wanna give out a series of shoutouts and apologies. First, the apologies. 

        The TA’s and Faculty: Thank you for putting up with me so much. Honestly half of the time I don’t know how I haven’t been kicked out of the program yet. Extra shoutout to Mason and Alan for me keeping up with me annoying them all of the time a little extra. I still think my brain waves are in sync with Mason’s. Also Mason, sorry for calling you Alan and Alan sorry for calling you Mason

*Shoutout to Neil who was stealing the TA’s brainwaves with me.

        The Participants: Thank you guys for also putting up with me. I can be so annoying. In fact, half of my vocabulary within a particular group (you know who you are) is just “bro” and “dude”. I feel like I have seriously upset/annoyed some people. So, sorry dudes/bros.

After apologizing to everyone in the program, I feel it is appropriate to now shout out some cool peeps. (You’re all cool dw)

        ONLy ONL People: The image below doesn’t do this group justice. There are at least 5 more people and a couple of TA’s who are also a part of this group. Anyway, thank you guys for the late night jamming, gartic phone and chilling. Honestly, playing gartic with some of y’all has given me chronic cheek muscle pain. *Also for the people in here, there are 3-4 of you that join and leave at the same time. Coincidence?? I think not!

        My observing collective: You two are awesome. Beverly thank you for putting up with me and Jeremy thank you for introducing me to DN.

        The Trio: You know who you are. 

        The TAs / Faculty: You guys are all awesome! You guys have most definitely enhanced the experience of this program and I am very grateful for that. Also Alan and Kim, your TA lectures were quite epic today. 

        Everyone: I mean, c’mon you didn’t think I would recognize that you guys are all amazing? As a wise man once said, and my favorite quote ever, no man is a failure who has friends. This applies to everyone and I feel like I have definitely made some friends for life at this program.

        Closing Statements: 

        Today was awesome! T-Minus 7 hours until my drivers test without taking into account the time it will take me to wake up, get ready and get there. That is okay. I would much rather spend my time with people at SSP anyway. Driving is dumb.

        Also Dr. Fallscheer, your juggling today was pristine! Thank you for the tips and tricks!

        Thank you all at SSP for giving me such an amazing time this summer! At the start I was a little nervous but now I feel like everyone has gotten to know each other so well that it feels like I am talking to longtime friends sometimes. Anyway, adios!

About Me

        Nice to meet you all. I am Vincent but I prefer Vinny. I go to Harrison High School but live in White Plains NY. In my free time, you will usually find me biking, using Raspberry Pi / Arduino, playing the electric guitar, or playing Kerbal Space Program and Europa Universalis IV. In college, I want to major in Mechanical Engineering and go into Mechatronics as a career. 

        As a wise man once said, there are two kinds of spurs: those who come through the door & those who come through the window!

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Accepting the beginning of an end https://summerscience.org/accepting-the-beginning-of-an-end/ Mon, 19 Jul 2021 18:48:26 +0000 https://summerscience.org/?p=11604 By: McKenna M         It’s Sunday July 18, 2021. It’s the first day of the last week […]

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By: McKenna M

        It’s Sunday July 18, 2021. It’s the first day of the last week of SSP. I just woke up from my 23 minute nap, and I have come to a realization that most of the major events in my life have occurred after I take naps. This realization has led me to recall the day that I was accepted into SSP.

        I had spent the day hanging out with my friends, and when I got home I decided that I would take a nap. I thought that if I took a nap I would be refreshed when writing my short response answers. However, like most of my naps, I ended up sleeping for five hours and woke up an hour before the application deadline. I jolted out of my bed, and I started typing away. I rambled and rambled(sort of what I am doing now). I rambled my heart out. I did a quick grammar check, and submitted everything fifteen minutes prior to the deadline. After I submitted the application I never thought about SSP again and somewhat forgot about it until I woke up from another nap about a month later. I had fallen asleep while watching Erased, and in my sleep I must have accidentally pressed the volume button because I was awoken by the ending song. I awoke groggily and exited out of the netflix tab. I accidentally clicked on my Gmail bookmark, and saw that I had 15 updates. Fun fact, I rarely check my email. My first instinct was to click out of my gmail tab, but the yellow unread updates were annoying me, so I decided to click on it. I saw “Congratulations”, however, I thought it was just spam.Then I remembered that I thought the Congratulations I received from the Naval Academy just a few days before was spam as well, but  I was actually accepted. So  I clicked on the Congratulations that was sent to me two days prior, and I realized I was accepted into SSP. For a second I couldn’t believe(sometimes I still can’t), but I ran downstairs and shouted to my father that I had been accepted. He paused WandaVision and started smiling as I dropped down to the floor with a huge grin on my face. 

        I remember the first week vividly. I remember meeting my observing collective, which was once dubbed Primordial Soup but because we were not fast enough to submit our file, another group who had the same clever idea submitted the file first and received the name. We then became the Souper Star Cluster. I was extremely nervous starting out. I remember the first pset and wondering if I would ever comprehend any future ones. My anxiousness didn’t end there. Dr. H’s Calculus lecture stressed me out, considering I haven’t taken Calculus yet. For a short period, I doubted my mathematical capabilities. My doubts soon seeped into social life and activities. In the beginning, I thought that getting to know people and finding people to relate to would be challenging. I thought the online setting would impede on my capabilities to talk to others and find similarities outside of the social and learning blocks. I was wrong about all of this though!

Here are some things that I would tell about the beginning of SSP McKenna.

  1. Academically: Sure you have not taken Calculus but that does not mean that you are in some way unable to complete the work. You have a whole group of people surrounding you,  including participants and staff that you can reach out to for help. P.S. Although your observing group has shrunken by one person that will not negatively affect your observing group dynamic. Hayagreev and you will be there to support each other socially and academically :))
  2. Socially: During work play blocks you will get to know the other participants so much better while doing psets. The amount of people that I have met while working on broken code, or zooming after WP to finish off assignments is a lot! Try to join vc if you can because you’ll make great memories, especially if there is karaoke.

Now that I am finished with the sappy stuff, and I only have 22 more minutes to complete this I am going to just list off some of my happiest moments

  • Finding my asteroid for the first time and having a stupidly huge grin on my face 
  • The first time I completed a pset before the end of work play, and I was able to go to bed early
  • Listening to Blaise Aguera y Arcas’s lecture about Neuroscience & AI
  • Sining minecraft parody songs in vc at 3 am and also having a dance party to Demi Levator and Taylor Swift
  • Practicing for the talent show with the ‘Champs’ squad
  • Watching the talent show and just seeing how amazingly talented and supportive everyone is. Also shoutout to Joey, whose video made me extremely teary!!
  • Seeing Sarah’s apparel design for the first time and trying to figure out who was who of the 34 people
  • Using the telescope for the first on the night of our observations and seeing my asteroid!!

Finally an update on my day

  • Personal: Last night I watched a really trippy and good anime that  Zp streamed. I forget the name but it was by Madhouse Studios, which also produced Perfect Blue, a movie I thoroughly enjoyed.
  • Today I took the ACT. Afterwards I met up with my friend to get sushi burritos and boba. We then went to a weird smelling bookstore and walked to the beach. I also watched Star Trek(2009) for the 13th time
  • SSP: My observing collective received our fourth and last batch of images, however there are no flat,bias, or dark files so we are a bit confused on how to create them. Also Hayag ran our SwRI script(my computer is outdated and won’t download Text Code for some reason), and we found out that our asteroid will most likely not stay in our solar system for very long. Hayagreev and I plan on meeting after I finish this post to analyze everything and work on our OD report! 

Conclusion:

        Today is Sunday July 18, 2021. It is the first day of the last week at SSP. The kind of work that has been done and that is still being done is amazing. It’s been amazing to learn so much from such incredible professors, TAs, and participants. SSP will forever be a part of my life and some of my more notable memories! I know we still have a full week left, but I will miss everyone! 

                                                                                                                    – Finished five minutes before the deadline :)))

About Me

        Hi! I am McKenna, and I am a rising senior from the heart of Chicago. I enjoy physics, programming, debate, watching movies, playing video games, and road trips with my friends.  Something that I also love is sleep, however, once I started SSP; sleep isn’t something that I have gotten much of. My favorite movies are Forrest Gump, The Matrix, Juno, and Se7en. My favorite shows are Attack on Titan, American Horror Story, and I am getting into Ozark. Some strong beliefs that I hold are Star Trek > Star Wars, Apple Juice > Orange Juice, Cupcakes > Cake, Dogs ≳ Cats, Minecraft < Terraria, Sakura ≠ Trash, and this last one isn’t an opinion but just facts -> Sailor Moon bodies Goku. Needless to say I very much dislike unnecessary hate towards female characters.

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20+ paragraphs of me struggling to process the sheer amount of talent of ssp onl. https://summerscience.org/20-paragraphs-of-me-struggling-to-process-the-sheer-amount-of-talent-of-ssp-onl/ Sun, 18 Jul 2021 08:32:20 +0000 https://summerscience.org/?p=11549 By: Amanda C Preface/Disclaimers 😀 This blog post,  like my acceptance to SSP, was an absolute accident. When I signed […]

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By: Amanda C

Preface/Disclaimers 😀

This blog post,  like my acceptance to SSP, was an absolute accident. When I signed up (rather late) for a random date in July, I innocently picked 7/17 because I liked the way the date looked; it was a 1 sandwiched in between two 7s! 😀 But no, I accidentally chose the date of the famed talent show (no pressure, right?)

I lay awake last night, wondering how I’d do the talent show justice. The answer: I simply won’t be able to. If you want the full experience, you just had to be there; there’s no way to recreate the incredibly wholesome, supportive, and overall unforgettable atmosphere, but I will still try! 

Okay readers, buckle in, because this is the culmination of my sleep-deprived attempt to process the mind-boggling talent that I witnessed today. Please enjoy the following stream of consciousness!

Pre-show antics

On a whim on Thursday evening, Hillary, Caroline, Morgan, Mckenna, Jennifer, Pablo, Sarah and I finally signed up for a talent show act after panicking about it all week. After much discussion, we’d finally decided on a zoom magic show! The catch? At the time of signing up, we’d only had ideas for two (2) tricks, both of which only involved two of eight people! Despite our unpreparedness, we didn’t get to meet to discuss it until after Work/Play block on Friday. After a very sleep-deprived meeting about our act briefly at 3 am EST, we went to sleep without even having rehearsed a single trick.

Today, I woke up just in time for our planned rehearsal, which was due to start 30 minutes before the show. However, we didn’t get started until nearly 8:45, where we performed our tricks for the first time. After a single rehearsal (filled with hitches), these 8 amateur magicians were ready to roll (sort of)!

Act 1

9 AM PST. Having just gotten off the rehearsal Zoom, I was filled with nerves. However, the excitement of the talent show quickly caught up to me, and it started off with a bang (a bounce?).

The first act DEFINITELY did not disappoint! Daisy’s table tennis skills were way faster than the zoom framerate; the video could hardly keep up. After sitting through the first 30 seconds in utter awe, I finally regained my senses and decided to give up on my dream on scoring one (1) single point against her in ping pong when we eventually meet in real life (for reference, I am a table tennis amateur and she is on the Canadian national team). It’s okay, I think I’ll embarrass myself trying. 

Just when I thought the acts couldn’t get any faster, Peyton stepped up and single handedly dismantled the entire American rapping industry. I’m pretty convinced that he secretly recorded himself beforehand and showed us a video on 4x speed, because it should be scientifically impossible to rap that fast! 

However, we’d just barely scratched the surface of ONL’s musical talent, apparently. Next was Andrew Pk’s act, “I’m An Idiot”. Contrary to my initial belief, this was not a self-deprecating (defecating) joke, but instead was a song title. With his professional singer outfit (glasses) and super cool mic, Andrew absolutely nailed the song, and I’ll be looking forward to his album release!

Just when I’d (barely) finished processing two incredible music acts in a row, Hayag began screen sharing. He wowed us with an excellently played rendition of the Epic Sax Guy song over a very detailed drawing! So multitalented (please spare a crumb, Hayag)!

Next was the SSP duck song. As soon as the video started, I could tell that the act would be fantastic. Jennifer and Alex absolutely blew the audience away with their singing, lyricism, and video editing. They completely put the original duck song creator out of business, and I think everyone should go stream it on Youtube: https://youtu.be/JBRoZdffQBY 

Apparently the SSP musical talent simply does not end, because next was Calvin and his studio ghibli performance. As a super avid studio ghibli soundtrack listener, I will personally be swapping out my current playlists for Calvin’s performances. In addition to his performance, I also really enjoyed his sister’s cameo (very relatable tbh, I also cannot flip pages for my life)!

Next was the woman, the myth, the legend herself, Sarah, the dancing queen. Young and sweet, only 17. Anyways. Sarah was FANTASTIC! I simply cannot believe that she choreographed her entire dance, and I am convinced that I’m attending SSP with one of BTS’ backup dancers. 

After Sarah was Sunny, our resident piano prodigy. Did I mention that Sunny, a member of my humble observing group (Team Primordial Soup), is quite literally Mozart’s reincarnation? I’m seriously still struggling to wrap my head around his performance. Anyways, Sunny’s performance was so incredible that I’m fairly sure he actually invented the art of piano playing itself. Everyone else go home (jk we’re all already home </3).

ONL’s musical talent continued with Ian’s cello performance! I’m fairly sure the pianist and violinist were just side characters and were Ian’s backup instrumentals or something (just kidding, they all did really well; I may just be slightly biased toward a fellow SSP-er)! Anyway, Ian’s performance was incredibly powerful, and I’m looking forward to a cello duet with Ian and Calvin in the near future. 

To end off the first half of the talent show was a performance by the one and only Dr. H!! Reminiscent of Dr. Sverdrup’s incredible guest lecture, Dr. H wore a super rad tie-dye lab coat, and led us through a series of fascinating science magic tricks, including creating expanding s’mores and forbidden juice. Despite not juggling bricks as the QoD suggested, Dr. H is clearly a man of many talents!

Dr. H’s snacks science tricks!

In between the two segments of the talent show, we heard a Very Good song (Renegade by Taylor Swift, thanks Neil!). I’d like to take this intermission to thank the amazingly charismatic emcees: Neil, Sonal and Vinny! The show quite literally would not have been the same without you guys, thank you so much for your efforts! 😀

 

Act 2

The second half of the talent show kicked off with Ethan L! Ethan, if you’re reading this, you didn’t need to apologize at all; it was fantastic! We witnessed a murder by decapitation (of a figurine, don’t worry), and learned how to make our own telescopes! I’ll definitely apply this knowledge to observe 2003 HA22 (objectively the best asteroid).

No self defecation (self-explanatory).

As I was still reeling from Ethan’s performance, Sri and Sunny took the stage in an incredible duet. Their cover was definitely the LOVELIEST rendition of the song I’ve heard thus far (haha?), and I’m looking forward to seeing them on tour soon (come to NY first guys, I will absolutely sell out your shows!). The sheer amount of musical prowess in that act? Unparalleled.

Then, our QoD finally came true; Dr F wowed us with her circus act. As we saw photos of her unicycle tricks, I decided that I officially want to be like Dr. F when I grow up, both in regards to her juggling talent and her involvement in astronomy. The live juggling performance was fantastic as well (sidenote, I think this learning juggling would be a great LB activity, in case the faculty needs ideas). Thank you so much, Dr. F!

Monday’s LB1 activity? 😀

At long last, it was time for my own act. Firstly, Neil started it off with an impromptu disappearing trick in which he turned off his camera on Zoom (very cool, thank you Neil :D). Then, after some (totally staged) technical difficulties with screen sharing, the show finally got started. Pablo began with an eerie, horror-movie worthy act, and then Morgan and Caroline shocked the audience with their teleporting coin trick. Then, after a brief cameo from my evil twin (in which she killed me on live camera), the dancing queen herself, Sarah, led us in a charismatic performance of YMCA. However, all was not well, as in the middle of the performance, Caroline was kidnapped and dragged offscreen by Hillary! Unfortunately, at the time of writing this post, Carline’s ransom has still not been paid, so please make your payments to the following website in order to prevent her from death by pset: deeznuts.com 

After our magic-show-gone-wrong was the next incredible member of my observing team! Bewley recited an entire monologue from Julius Caesar, which they had memorized within the span of only two (2) work play blocks! Along with the support from the plebians (Sunny and Andrew Pk), Bewley had the entire audience enthralled; those 12 years of theater really paid off!

I wish a Guinness World Records representative had been here to witness Andrew L’s act; he solved five (5) entire rubiks cubes (rubik’s shapes? I’m not too sure what to call the pyramid “cube” HAHA) in less than 5 minutes. He even solved the last cube one-handed, which was absolutely unbelievable. The act was even further elevated by Vinny and Jeremy’s fantastic commentary. Anyways Andrew, if you’re reading this, please teach me how to speedcube; I can barely make <1 minute on a good day </3.

I was still recovering from the shock of Andrew’s act when Joey began. Her parody was perfectly crafted and filled with SSP memories. Not sure about everyone else, but I almost teared up watching it, and I wasn’t planning on crying until the closing ceremony (D:). Her parody had such cleverly-written lyrics, and the memories were so fun to reminisce upon!!!

To finish off the participant acts was Saraliba’s fantastic piano performance. In addition to her piano skills, Saraliba’s cinematography was also very memorable! With her profile silhouette against a window, it looked like a super artsy instagram influencer photo or a painting from the Renaissance Age (you choose)! 

Then, we had two acts from our very own TAs, beginning with some spot-on impressions of each other (except apparently, ZP didn’t enjoy Demon Slayer), even though the program suggested otherwise. Although I was sad to miss the SOTS joke, the impressions far surpassed my expectations. Just when I thought it couldn’t get better, the TAs launched into a Pluto diss track. Although the act was very well written, I thought that poor Pluto didn’t deserve the slander and I will now be writing a pro-Pluto song.

The second to last act, I’d actually already gotten a sneak peek of, but that didn’t make it any less exciting. Kim neighed three entire times, and I almost cried from laughing. Kim (if you’re reading this), when you said you were a horse girl, I didn’t think you meant literally but I wouldn’t rather have it any other way!!

Neigh commentary!!

Finally, the last act was brought to us by our site director herself! Ms Mauldin surprised us with a lovely karaoke of Good Riddance, and the chat went crazy in support! Her vocals were excellent, and it was truly the perfect ending note to the most talented of shows!  

 

Epilogue 

Firstly, if you’ve made it through this entire stream of consciousness, you’re a real one! Thank you so much for reading!

Just kidding, I’m still not done yet.

Quite honestly, I think I could go on forever about SSP, but this program is truly extraordinary; in just a few short weeks, it’s brought me so many laughs (which outweigh the occasional cries :,D) and memories that’ll truly last a lifetime.

Okay, enough being cheesy! Time for some acknowledgements. Firstly, I’d like to brag that I have (objectively) the best observing group in the history of ever. Sunny and Bewley, you guys are the smartest, most patient, capable, and understanding people I’ve ever met, and I genuinely would not be here, a week from the end, without you guys! I can’t thank you guys enough for everything that you’ve both done (including putting up with daily pickle reminders). Next up, I’d like to thank CHAMMPS; you guys are all genuinely so sweet and amazing, and I couldn’t be happier to have met you all! Thank you all so much for the 3 am Zooms; I honestly don’t think I could’ve gotten through half of the psets without you guys. 

Finally, I’d like to thank the entirety of ONL! Thank you to the 33 amazing participants; you guys are honestly the coolest people ever, and it’s been so nice getting to know you all! I would write a personalized thank-you note to each of you, but I don’t have the brainpower (or word count) to do so right now :,D. Thank you to the faculty for creating such an engaging curriculum, and thank you to the amazing TAs for all your help; it’s only because of you all that SSP runs as smoothly as it does.

Okay, I’m pretty sure my brain is thoroughly emptied now, so thank you so much for reading this super long-winded blog post! May your asteroids be easily visible for the rest of the program 👍

About Me

Hi everyone! I’m Amanda, a rising senior from New York, and I think I’ll use this space to thank you again for reading this incredibly lengthy blog post :,D. Anyways, I’m your resident Greek mythology nerd and peanut butter + pickle enjoyer (please try it), and I dabble in drawing, singing, and playing tennis in my free time. Talk to me anytime (especially after 3 AM EST) if you’d like to hear the best worst karaoke of your entire life!

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It’s All Coming Together https://summerscience.org/its-all-coming-together/ Sun, 18 Jul 2021 08:11:27 +0000 https://summerscience.org/?p=11540 By: Sri S The Prologue “Summer Science Program.” I’d like to say this wasn’t my fault, but it seems like […]

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By: Sri S

The Prologue

“Summer Science Program.” I’d like to say this wasn’t my fault, but it seems like I was the only victim here. SSP entered my world when I was 13, when I received word from the all-knowing upperclassmen that it was this super cool astrophysics program where you meet cool people and do cool astronomy things. I was effectively excited and prepared to maybe, hopefully, possibly go do it myself. I bided my time, patiently waiting until junior year to apply. I might’ve bided too much time, because among other applications and, well, school, I was left with a week to complete my entire application. Finals week. (This is what I get for attending a school with trimesters. Along with 3 midterms and 3 finals each year. I see no upside.) A few hours before the application is due, I tell myself I am ready to submit it. I try a few times, but I can’t bring myself to press the button. I take my laptop to my little sister, who encounters no hesitation before submitting it for me. I take a minute to collect myself and try to return to living normally in the meantime.

Oh, what was I a victim of, you ask? Well, admissions decisions were released on a fine Friday evening, as I prepared to log on to Terraria. I received a notification on my phone, took a minute to glance at it, and went back to waiting for my world to load. A minute later, my brain caught up. “Summer Science Program” was SSP! Not another college spam email. It was SSP. The email I had been waiting for since I was a mere freshman. (Yeah, this reads like it’s my fault. But I needed to tell someone.) I screamed; my mom thought I had gotten hurt, my sister thought my game data had been erased when my world loaded, and I thought this was a dream. As it turns out, I was, in fact, conscious, and thus began my wait for the commencement of SSP.

 

The In-Between

Much of the time between my acceptance and the first day of SSP was uneventful, but I did get the chance to become familiar with the people who would be doing SSP right along with me. Through Discord and Zoom meetings, we began to get to know each other, often finding out how much we have in common and clicking together perfectly. The week prior to July 20th, the first day, we were informed of the required software for the program. I downloaded Stellarium, DS9, and AstroImageJ, and found that Stellarium was easily the only one I could guess how to use. I began to familiarize myself with the night sky, and settled in for the ride.

 

July 20, 2021 to July 15, 2021 (in PST)

I entered SSP thinking I was ready for the challenge. I was accepted, so I should be able to do the program just fine, right? Well, that idea was most definitely tested. We started off running, forming our teams with a soup themed puzzle, and subsequently getting to work on our asteroid proposal. I’ll admit it was quite daunting. A system was quickly established, with a clear schedule and regular psets.

As time passed we all grew closer together. Not just us new ONL SSPers, but the TAs and faculty too. Thank you to Kim, Alan, Mason, and ZP for being the best TAs and helping us with everything we need, while making sure we have fun, and a special thank you to Ms. M, Dr. F, and Dr. H for organizing everything so well, teaching us all we need to know, and answering all of our questions. I feel that’s one of the most valuable things I’ve gained from SSP. Not only have I learned a ton about physics, astronomy, and programming and been able to apply this new knowledge, but I’ve also been able to meet all sorts of extraordinary people, and make new friends. 

 

July 16, 2021 (PST)

This morning began as many of mine do, waking up to stuff a piece of french toast in my mouth and make a cup of coffee before joining LB1. Today, we attended a guest lecture by Dr. Tracy Drain, who discussed her background and work with Juno, as well as what systems engineers do and the future of Jupiter’s exploration.

Key takeaway from today: Jupiter is gorgeous

Surprisingly enough, I can now contextualize this information, and subsequently be amazed by it.

Dr. Drain left a special impact on me, as her manner of speaking and honest life story left me with a sense that I could go on and follow in similar footsteps. 

We then moved onto the social block, where we were given the opportunity to debate various significant controversies, such as: pancakes vs waffles, cats vs dogs, and who would win in a fight between Alan and Mason. One of my favorite arguments was from Kim regarding why cats are superior: “I like cats because I can just drop them whenever.”

After half an hour of intense debating and a break, we returned for LB2 with SWRI. While it wasn’t named after me, the Southwest Research Institute introduced us to a pretty cool program: Swift, which we would be using to look into the future of our asteroids. Almost like a crystal ball for them. It takes a few hours, so my computer will be best friends with this program for the next few days.

The W is even smaller than the others. It’s so close.

Workplay block was largely work today, punctuated by both Sunny and Daisy playing Oxygen too loudly, after I revealed to them that it was an actual song. During our mandatory fun, many of us played diep.io for the first time in years, bringing back nostalgic memories of trying to get upgrades during a social studies lecture in middle school. Most of the time, I was trying to put my OD code together. The pieces are already there, what’s left to do is to put them together, and form the working code, one of the main goals of the program. The fact that I’m working on it now only reminds me of how short the program felt.

The talent show is tomorrow, and I’m looking forward to the acts. When the program began, the talent show felt like something so distant, but it seems to have rushed up to me in an instant. I chose to sing, something I’m more used to doing in front of people I don’t know than ones I do. But, I’m overjoyed to have a talented and supportive accompanist (thank you Sunny), as well as an encouraging audience. The finishing touches are being performed as I write this, reminding me once again, that there is only a week left of SSP.

 

Finale

SSP has been a wild ride. It has definitely been one of the best experiences of my life, and I adore everyone I’ve met here. The air of everyone helping each other up has been an honest wonder, and I am here for it. It’s unbelievable that the OD project is due next week and the program will be over, but I’m looking forward to submitting a finished report. Writing this post has only reminded me of the approaching end of SSP, but I’ve had so much fun and learned so many new things, I know I’ll be looking back at it fondly very soon.

About Me

Hi!! I’m Sri, a rising senior from the Bay Area (California). I love math, programming, and science, and I also play violin. In my free time, I like to do cybersecurity and skate around town. I love listening to different types of music and talking to people, so let me know if you have any recommendations <3

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A Blog Post 240 https://summerscience.org/a-blog-post-240/ Fri, 16 Jul 2021 21:10:29 +0000 https://summerscience.org/?p=11464 By: Alex G I dunno what to talk about so my blog is going to be a bit scattered around […]

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By: Alex G

I dunno what to talk about so my blog is going to be a bit scattered around random topics.

Some thoughts on SSP so far

It’s hard to believe that SSP is almost over already. In these short weeks I’ve learned soooo much, learning new concepts and techniques every day. I love how everything we learn is building up towards our ultimate goal of orbit determination, and we encounter many side topics along the way, plummeting into astrophysics, calculus, programming, material science, optics, telescopes, etc. The combination of an amazing community, supportive faculty, and thorough, rigorous curriculum make the Summer Science Program a truly unique and generally (not relatively) special experience that I will never forget.


Our team has been extremely unlucky in observing our asteroid. After 4 observing requests, we haven’t had a single success yet, running into unfortunate hurdles including bad weather, telescope changes, and other unknown issues. Hopefully, we can rock-et and observe our asteroid on our last attempt, but at this point it seems like our team is just cursed or something. Anyway, it’s not too big of a deal, as we can still use other team’s data and complete the asteroid orbit determination in the same way, only we may not have data to submit to the Minor Planet Center.

The people at SSP are all so amicable, comet-cal, and un-apollo-getically talented. Socializing during work-play and making new friends has been out this world! Chilling with Jackbox, playing bughouse chess, and hopping on the SSP minecraft server was a blast. One thing that doesn’t seem right though—how fast must this spaceship be moving that the stars in the background are moving by that quickly??? 🤔

Push The Button, a Jackbox game (gif from youtube)

Units

The notion of setting physical constants to 1 is a practice common throughout physics. But learning the system of Gaussian units has helped me understand the full scope of its usefulness. After writing dozens of pieces of code, I realized how much of a pain it would be to carry around GM’s everywhere and repeatedly multiplying by constant factors; setting μ=k=1 makes everything so much simpler! But this made me question the fundamental idea of units. The Boltzmann constant converts a temperature to a measure of energy, as in E = kBT. But if we set kB=1, then temperature is just energy. In fact, we don’t even need a separate unit for temperature at all. But wait a second, do we even need any units? In special relativity, we set speed of light c=1; so E = mc^2 can be written as E=m—i.e. Energy is mass. Why not just set everything (the universal physical constants) to 1? c=1, G=1, ħ=1, kB=1 so all units are identical! These are Planck units, no units necessary!

 

Mind-boggling Paradox

Here’s an interesting physics paradox: Consider an infinite universe with infinite stars spread uniformly (i.e. uniform mass density). Due to gravity, we would intuitively expect every star to be attracted to each other, and so all the stars would eventually collapse to one point. However, if we consider any particular star, the net gravitational force is 0 by symmetry. So what happens? Does the universe remain static, or does it collapse? If it does collapse, to what point does it collapse? (Assume no dark energy and no expansion of the universe).

 

XKCDXDXDXDXD

Dr. Nick Suntzeff pointed out the weirdness of why there is more matter than antimatter in the universe. Want to learn more? Research anomalous electroweak sphaleron transition baryogenesis and you’ll find out! Piece of cake! (I have no clue what these words mean)

Dr. Cornell’s presentation was especially fascinating—the idea of using frequencies of oscillations to measure some quantity very precisely is an insight that makes so much sense after you hear about it. After all, harmonic oscillations are a universal phenomena, appearing everywhere in physics. And just by waiting longer, you can increase the precision of your measurement. It’s mind-blowing how today’s technologies allow us to measure unfathomable scales, on the order of 10^-28 cm. This talk opened my eyes to what it’s really like to work in experimental physics.

About Me

Hi, my name is Alex, and I’m a rising senior from VCS in the Bay Area. I enjoy practicing piano, learning physics, playing fish, and not eating grapefruit :>

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The EST Experience https://summerscience.org/the-est-experience/ Fri, 16 Jul 2021 20:34:05 +0000 https://summerscience.org/?p=11455 By: Ian B Normally, the East Coast is a great place to be, and on a normal, non SSP day, […]

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By: Ian B

Normally, the East Coast is a great place to be, and on a normal, non SSP day, I would happily defend its superiority over the West. However, with the coming of SSP into my schedule, I found myself becoming jealous of my Western friends and their self-proclaimed “balanced” sleep schedule. While they would finish their work and fall asleep by midnight, I was usually up till 2 or 3 in the morning finishing Psets. But, such is the SSP life, and the amazingly welcoming community makes all the work and wacky hours worth it. Whenever I get stuck, I can just turn to the various discord channels and friends and there is bound to be somebody who can help. 

The work itself was something extraordinary. Never before have I been so abruptly shoved into an academic field I knew next to nothing about and enjoyed it! I felt like a proper astronomer learning about various coordinate systems and new mathematics. Although the workload was difficult and stress-inducing, It felt good to get stressed out about something when I had told myself previously “Don’t worry Ian, this is gonna be hard and you’re gonna get lost.” So all in all, I’m thankful for the hard work environment SSP provides, because the community helps balance it out and make you feel like you’re at a second home.

Right now, we are in our final week of SSP. No more problem sets are left, but we have the final OD due in about a week. Tension is in the air, and I’m tentatively relaxing my brain in advance. After I write this blog I’ll begin, but for now, I want to get a good night’s sleep. 

About Me

My name is Ian and I’m from Weybridge, Vermont. I love dogs (We have 5), and love living out in the rural countryside. I go to Groton Highschool in Massachusetts, and am a rising senior. I love well made cinema. Some movies I like are Interstellar, The Mad Max movies, and many more). I also love shows like “Dark” and “Katla” and love talking about them. I play some video games but I’m not very good, and I find them most fun when they are with good friends. I also love talking about philosophy, theology and mind-boggling moral questions – ask me some!

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