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the Campus Hobo Challenge

As the second challenge in the Andy vs Sam Challenge Series, we will be attempting something I've wanted to try for awhile.  The weather has gotten cold for this one, but here goes.

A while back, if I couldn't find a place to live for the semester, I had heard of (doubt it's true) a guy who camped out for a semester by the Duck Pond, and I was going to try it.  Granted I did find a house with David and James, but being homeless the questions that come up immediately were "where will I eat" and "where will I shower" or "what about my stuff (bikes)."  However, the challenge stuck with me and I've been wanting just to try it. The days of warm have passed, but the questions above aren't too hard to answer for a 3-day attempt at this. Given I'll be eating lunch at D2 every day like I always do and can bring a camp stove to make oats in the morning and spaghetti at night which is what I always eat now anyways. The gyms are open to students to shower. And I'll only have what I can carry (shouldn't need more!).

Blacksburg is the polar opposite of NYC though, and there are parks galore, including the Jefferson National Forest that has lots of campsites ~3mi outside of town.

Without further adieu, the rules are:

• the challenge lasts 72 hours (3 days)
• cannot go "home" in that time
• no sleeping or showering at a friend's place (how easy would it be just to crash on a friends couch for three days)
• no camping anywhere illegal (not trying to get in trouble here)

Where it is illegal to camp is more of an open question, but I don't think nodding off on a book in the library will land you in trouble. What I haven't been to strict about is food, and so you're allowed to eat out, eat on campus, eat a friend's place. But the idea is to carry as much of what you need as you can (definitely including textbooks #sorryback).

Challenge on! I won't elaborate on my plan to accomplish this, but save that for a post after it's went down.

The first challenge: Mountain-top Sunrise

Or, in Sam's case, the tallest-building-in-my-flat-town challenge .

The result:

NIMBioS Conference

This past weekend I traveled to the University of Tennessee in Knoxville for an undergraduate conference at the interface of mathematics and biology. Paul, Emily, Jim, and myself were afforded the opportunity to present our research from the summer, and it was a fun trip. The other speakers and poster presenters had interesting things to say, and it's great being a part of the community that will be pursuing the future of scientific research.