#maybe also Zee but Zee is friends with everyone so it’s not that notable

[total-mkulia]

Julia is so hard to handle once you realize she has no friends

[ripaxed]

Forgive the lazy and rough graphic but, Season 2 team ideas?

Should note I made these with the self imposed and probably unnecessary restrictions of having an equal split of former Ferocious Trout and Frogs of Death members.

Splitting up both Wayne & Raj and, to a lesser extent, Millie & Pryia just feels very natural to me. Wayne & Raj were nearly always together so separating them AND making them compete against each other is just a natural source of conflict. Whereas Millie was of course very dependent on Pryia during the first season to make it far so isolating them from each other seems like the natural next step. This would force Millie to try to make new allies and use whatever skills that stuck from Pryia’s training.

Having Bowie/Raj and Emma/Chase on the same team not only creates the contrast of a very healthy couple vs a very toxic one, but also forces interaction between Bowie and Emma after their fallout.

Also for Bowie, there’s drama in him interacting with Caleb, as he would now know that it was Bowie who got him voted out day one. His reaction in the first episode tells me he wouldn’t let that go.

Axel and Scary Girl can kind of work on any team, so I don’t have much to say for them. Though I do think the idea of Axel and Bowie contrasting against each other to be rather funny.

(I know a lot of people want a Lauren-Damien-Pryia thing to happen and I support that, I just think it can happen with not all of them being on the same team)

I’d like to see Julia and MK on the same team again. It was MK who jumpstarted Julia’s whole villain arc and, more notably, it was Julia who got MK eliminated, which she’d definitely not be over. I could definitely see them having a strong rivalry, or a bit of a villainous alliance. Either way I think they should be gay about it.

Speaking of MK being eliminated, I’m imagining her line about “At least [she] didn’t make any friends” to be some sort of foreshadowing. Who’s the character I think has the best shot of being an actual friend to her? That’d be Zee. He’s shown to be able to get along with pretty much anyone. MK typically avoids having any deep interactions with other characters by overloading her conversations with sarcastic insults, and I literally couldn’t imagine Zee actually comprehending that she’s insulting him. Instead, he thinks they’re just having a pleasant conversation. I see them becoming ‘friends’ by Zee just hanging around her a lot and MK eventually getting used to it (and start to enjoy his company, not that she’d admit that).

In contrast, I actually like the idea of there being someone Zee doesn’t like, that being Nichelle. In Taste Buddies there’s that whole exchange with Julia and Zee about how rather than him not wanting to talk about a very disgusting alien movie because it was gross, he didn’t want to talk about it because he felt it was a weak directorial effort. I could imagine this idea of Zee being a bit of a film buff being expanded to him not vibing with Nichelle like he does everyone else because he finds the movies she stars in to be vapid or something along those lines. I easily see this bothering Nichelle since she’s so used to being praised and beloved. (Should note: I saw someone else come up with this concept, but I don’t remember where)

Speaking of Nichelle, something I’d like to see is her being contrasted with Priya, as she’s someone who actually has the skills everyone believed Nichelle to have. Though, I like the idea of despite that, they actually end up bonding, as I could see Priya’s parents making sure she knows a lot about the entertainment industry (both because of Total Drama of course being a show and in case of a TDA like season) and them getting along from there.

I also want to keep Priya and Damien on the same team. Wether it be to develop them romantically or further their friendship, I’d just like to see more of them together. Maybe make up for the lack of ‘knows everything about TD vs knows nothing about TD’ interactions that I’m surprised we didn’t get in the first season. Maybe they could even have a bit of a brains and brawn duo thing going on.

I don’t have too many thoughts on Ripper, I’m kind of imaging him as an early boot this time around. Still, this gives him a chance to interact with characters he hasn’t before. And maybe Priya finds out he was who suggested that Millie cut her raft, and something happens from that? Could be something there.

[imminentinertia]

Apparently I have some last things to say about Step by Step.

I'm mad, and I happen to think that's a really stupid and unnecessary reaction to a show, so I have some things to say about myself, probably more than about SbS, to be honest.

Sorry if you read this and really liked SbS! I definitely don't want to take that away from anyone. I liked a lot of it.

First of all, how come I, an eternal loather of the token Camp & Chaotic Gay Side Character (especially because he's treated so terribly most of the time, cough cough 2gether and Gap, for instance) went and started adoring Pat? It took a while for me to realise which mold he's made in, partly because he's the one everyone in the office relies on, but when I did I realised why I hadn't taken to him - and then I evidently went full on Pat Fan, because his more dramatic scenes in episode 12 were the scenes that didn't just bore and/or baffle me.

Well, Man's acting when Jeng discovers that Pat unblocked him was also quite a treat.

We did get a fully formed Camp & Chaotic Gay Lead Character, didn't we, and Pat was true to his expanded type to the very end, messy and dramatic and drinking too much when he shouldn't, as well as a hard worker and an intelligent and competent marketing officer.

I loved that. I may even detest the side character archetype a little less now that I've seen one properly fleshed out to lead.

But second, how the fuck is it even possible to phone in a finale like that. It's tempting to believe SbS was shot chonologically and Tee Bundit lost interest halfway through. Of course it wasn't, but surely he must have lost interest at some point in the editing, or maybe even before that.

But why am I getting angry?!

Usually I bitch a bit to an unlucky friend or two about the things I don't like, and then I move on, but I'm so angry with how SbS bellyflopped and I can't let it go. Why do I feel so let down by a mere entertainment production?

I think it's because it really looked like it was setting out to do something well thought out and clever, and it somewhat did, and then it went to the mall to gossip and get grass jelly instead of polishing its presentation and getting ready for Khun Nadia.

The office "work" was better done than usual, Jeng is a great manager character and Man acted well and looked the part a lot more than managers in BL tend to, Ying got to have more than one dimension, Chot was a really good and really queer character, there was so much that was nice and to have that fizzle away... And I haven't even mentioned the binning of several plot aspects, notably Jaab/Jen (why the fuck was that arc left to rot). Also the whole Zee/Nunew debacle which Dee Hup should have fucking owned insted of flopping over - that, or made the BL couple in that scene a fictional one.

I really hope the actors will get other roles where they get to shine more, if they have more to shine with. For some of them it's difficult to tell.

All in all, I feel let down, much more than I did because of the shall we say uneven season 4 of SKAM or the new Persuasion adaptation that turned out to be the cringiest mess, because I was fed so many really sweet and tasty tidbits and then they took it away from me. The new Persuasion signalled horrifying shit well before it opened, and with SKAM S4 I already knew that the showrunner had writer's block.

Now I'm going to take several deep breaths and go outside and water my plants, and then I'm going to watch some nice BL that doesn't set itself up to be better than most only to throw itself into the shallow end of the plot pool. Something where my expectations are low already should be nice.

[realtalk-princeton]

An additional perspective on the physics major

Marty answered a question awhile back about the physics major, and another physics major who also happens to be a RCA realized that some of his/her frosh got a bit nervous about the major, so he/she also wanted to share some perspectives on the major. Here’s the link to Marty’s answer:

https://realtalk-princeton.tumblr.com/post/186555703749/marty-downsides-of-physics

Here are the RCA’s thoughts:

I really appreciated Marty’s broader statement about choosing majors that cater to your likes and dislikes rather than thinking of the “pros” and “cons” of each, but was surprised to then see it preceded by saying the physics major has many downsides. I do not believe this at all. The physics major is certainly one of the tougher tracks at Princeton, but also one of the most rewarding, and I would not necessarily call more pset hours or tougher material a “downside” if the field is something you are interested in.

To clarify, this is not a (total) rebuttal of Marty’s description. I found much of the description to be fair and unbiased, and plenty agreeable, but would like to offer a more positive connotation to what I found a somewhat negative review, to help others review the department and make a decision for themselves (I am a PHY major, and an RCA, and after hearing some expressions of concerns from zees who were originally excited about the PHY major after reading Marty’s review, hope to provide another perspective). I’ll also break it up similar to Marty:

Difficulty: pretty much what Marty said. I find physics much, much, easier than any humanities major, but that isn’t to say physics isn’t difficult—it is Princeton, after all. “It’s also important to keep in mind that it’s easier to do 20 hours of work that you want to do than 5 hours of work that you don’t.” It’s about the skillset you have and what you want to learn about. But you won’t see every pset taking 20 hours. I’ve done some in as little as 2, and as many as 24+, but that’s also pretty standard across Princeton’s concentrations.

Psets/HW: For the most part, problems will be pulled from textbooks, with a couple written by the professors or pulled from graduate entrance exams. You’ll tend to get one (or two) problem(s) that is blatant application of what is covered in class (i.e. “plug and chug”). You’ll also get some problems (idk, 3-4?) about the current topic that require a little more thinking (a little more being as little as 15 min if you have your eureka moment, and hours if not, but that’s what working in groups is for), so that you’re not just learning to regurgitate what is provided in lecture, but instead how to actually use these skills when you enter the real world…because you can be sure that the complex real-world physics you do outside the classroom isn’t going to have a pretty answer, or even one defined way of solving it, so the department is going to throw a few curveballs because there is no other way to help students practice for that sort of situation. These definitely don’t involve deriving “new math” or starting from scratch, or (as Marty put it), you certainly aren’t “lacking the necessary information”… professors cannot test you on something they haven’t taught. Instead of seeing a problem and thinking you haven’t been provided the tools to solve it, you ALREADY have all the tools you need to solve it, you just need to figure out how to use them the right way (and that is not always something that can be taught, and must sometimes be experienced to be learned. This is where many of the longer hours on physics psets come from). There is the occasional (I can think of maybe 2 or 3 up through the end of junior year) problems where the professor mistakenly assigns something where some information is truly “missing” on the student’s behalf, and when the students speak up about it, the problem is excised or compensated for in the grading. Department is also pretty decent with normalizing (they’ll do so at the end of the semester at once, rather than per test or per assignment, so seeing grades below B- is quite uncommon, but you’ll really have to crunch to get an A as opposed to an A- or B+).

Difficult times and Department: I’ll use this as a convenient segue. On those few problems where you’re struggling or your group is struggling and just can’t make any progress, I think the physics department is actually one of the BEST departments in this school for helping you overcome your current obstacle. There are always people in the department (yes, even at 2am, some follow more studentile schedules than we do) and unless you’re taking a senior elective or graduate course, 95%+ of the people in the department are equipped to help you with where you’re stuck, and will gladly do so. It just requires being proactive on your part to either 1) email someone for help, 2) set up a meeting, or 3) literally drop in to their offices unannounced, which are all a miniscule amount of effort (and yet, many still do not). This is what makes the Princeton physics department one of the best in the world, matched only by those of schools like Oxford or Cambridge – the level of undergraduate attention. Not all physics professors in Princeton to research, and NONE are allowed to do only research. Your lectures may not be too different from what you’d see in some other schools, but you now have access to some of the top people in the world in this field, and another major difference is they WANT to help you (with maybe a few notable exceptions, but every group has their bad apples). It is your choice/prerogative whether you want to make use of this resource to its full capacity, or not at all and treat the department like you would any other teaching group in high school. Talk to them about their class, their work, their lives, ask about what you can help them with (which is how I found my two JP projects), take them to dinner, and do all of these again. It is a privilege to even have the ability to do these things, and you will never TRULY struggle (or wither and die) in the department as long as you do. I don’t see this in other Princeton departments.

The Material: I agree with Marty that most of what you learn is not the stuff that people get excited about. We just aren’t that smart or experienced yet, you will spend all 4 years at Princeton merely building the tools to put in a toolbox, rather than using them, because there is just that much physics needed to start making exciting progress nowadays. Like Marty said, physics is very different than pop science videos, but that doesn’t have to mean the excitement can’t be found. You should look for the connections in how things from your different classes over weeks and semesters work together (and I agree this can get very hard when you’re stressing over short-term pset or exam performance). I also agree that you lose it if you don’t use it—I too have embarrassingly stumbled on the basics when push comes to shove, but for the most part people within the field understand this point too. Most everyone is making sure you understand concepts, how things link together, and how to approach problems rather than that you have an encyclopedic knowledge of equations and facts.

I also blatantly disagree that physics majors have to take a lot of classes. We have very few classes we actually have to take (I think 8?) and a few more (I think 4?) that are departmental prerequisites that can be skipped (if you’re lucky or wicked smart) or cross-satisfied with other similar classes you’re interested in, if you’re willing to go into the department and talk about it (again, this goes with the engaging the department to its fullest extent and being proactive, like was said above). We have so much room for electives that I could have been a double major if Princeton allowed it.

Marty covers mental health, undergraduate groups, and independent work very well, so I won’t keep blabbing on it. Physics is great about being open with hardship, and there are definitely times that everyone feels like they’re a dummy. Don’t get caught up in those moments, and appreciate what you learned from them afterwards. Use the opportunity to work with all the other kids that are interested in the topic like you, make new friends, and learn together. It can even be fun (sometimes) and misery is mitigated in company – some of my best friends here are people I started with studying and working with, and our relationship is now based very little off that though we still do so.

I also disagree strongly with Marty’s final paragraph. I don’t recommend shying away from physics, I’d recommend trying it if you’re interested and doing it if that’s what you want to do (if you’re doing it because that’s what you think smart people do, that’s a different matter). It keeps so many doors open for post-college plans, I’ve worked in CS, ORFE, data analysis, defense, non-academic research, and research jobs, and all of them hire physicists post-college. So “not like it’ll do you a lot of good for post college plans” is a very warped view.

So basically my main takeaway is the department is going to be what you put into it. Go in with a positive attitude and be excited about what it can offer, and use this to be proactive and you’ll likely do just fine in the department (and even, dareisay, like it, from time to time?) I’m with Marty for saying if this writing doesn’t appeal to you, you probably won’t want to be a physics major, but don’t be afraid to be one just because of some longer pset hours or whatever you hear floating around (I find it a rule of thumb that many PHY, and Princeton students in general, love to complain, I know I do, so take a lot of it with a grain of salt. Their experience will not be yours, only you can determine that). Reach out to the contributors if you’d like to talk to me about this too, I’d be happy to talk. And please read both my and Marty’s reviews, as I’ve written this to be in tandem with Marty’s. Thanks.

If any readers want to talk about physics, the writer who wrote this bit is willing to be connected.

Response from Marty:

This is really great and I’m glad it’s here, but I definitely didn’t mean my post to be an overall negative review of the department. The question explicitly asked about downsides, so I wrote about that, but I could’ve written an equally long post about upsides. Sorry if anyone was discouraged by what I wrote. It also seems like this rebuttal misunderstood some of the points I made, so apologies for anyone who was misled.