Sam King's Verbose Letters

Intro

CS221 (along with all of the sheer amount of classes and extracurriculars) is what made this term hard.

The Material

I learned a lot about working with a group and developing a large project. In terms of AI content, the course material:

Intro

At the beginning of September, I was a part of a program called Sophomore College. Sophomore College is two weeks of one class at the start of sophomore year. You apply to one of several programs. There are small class sizes, and there are lots of cool activities.

Intro

This term was the first time in my life that I felt challenged. As hard as it tried, it didn't stop me. Thus, I now feel unstoppable. That is good for my confidence and for causing me to take risks in helping the world, and it is bad for moderating myself and getting sleep.

Intro

This term was very busy. And that's by my standards. This term was the first time that I really felt like I worked hard. And it felt good. Each time, when given the opportunity, I try to push my limits because there is so much to do and so little time. And this term I found out that I have very few limits, and when I am at my limits I am satisfied.

Aside from that, spending 3 months at my limits taught me a lot. It taught me how much I can do. It taught me about how I work. It taught me more about what I value and what I don't.

Using MS Word

I was inspired to write a document about the features of MS Word for my debaters.  However, when it got long enough, I decided to release it to the entire debate community.  It’s posted to my website at http://stanford.edu/~samking/debate/paperless-current/ if you want to read it for yourself.

Music

My music interests have remained mostly the same.  I’ve gained a new appreciation for some old bands, though. 

I’ve been listening to Blue Scholars and Common Market, Washington based hip-hop groups, recently.  Their music has a good message (politically / philosophically) and is very community-oriented. 

Coaching

I am very proud of my debaters at Palo Alto HS.   They seem very excited about the upcoming topic and have been doing a lot of work on their own.  I have high expectations. 

One team even wants to do paperless debate!  That was what originally inspired me to make my own version of the paperless template rather than just helping Whitman with their template.

Intro

I started working on way too many tech projects including a project to take the paper out of debate. 

I wasted lots of time. 

I taught at a summer camp with 4 days notice and no lesson plan (and no sleep during the week).  It taught me some lessons about teaching, such that handwriting, no matter how horrible, can still help.  It showed me the other side of kids not paying attention (Get off my lawn!).  It made me realize just how valuable debate and debate camp is.

The Job

The last week in July, I was teaching Java at a summer camp.  The camp was run by Matt Fraser, the director of debate at Stanford, who also owns a company called Education Unlimited that puts on summer camps.  A few days before the start of the camp, he gives me a call saying that his regular person flaked on him, and he needs a replacement.  I accepted.

Lessons Learned

Country Fair

July 10, I went to the Oregon Country Fair.  This is one of the experiences that most strongly demonstrates that the anti-consumerist in me is much stronger than the hippie in me.