Monday, October 13, 2014

Run #26: Parking Structure 7, Paul G. Allen Building, Paul Allen Center for Integrated Systems Annex, Pepper Tree House, Peterson (550), Physics & Astrophysics, Pigott Hall (Language Corner) (260), Pine Hall, Price

I saw two former students who are now at Stanford today.  At the beginning of the run, Kelsey rode by on her bike and said "hi".  (I guess it counts that Kelsey is my former student, although she did drop my class after a week.)  Then, as I was riding back after the run, I rode by Ricky and he said "hi."  Seeing Ricky was somewhat timely, as he is the SHP codingbat.com champion, and I just graded the first codingbat.com assignment of the year.

We started off today with Parking Structure 7, which is sort of underneath the new business school. We ran a few feet into the garage, and I jumped up to touch the sign that said "8 feet, 2 inches."  I touched it easily.  I've got mad hops.

Next was the Paul G. Allen Building.  OK, map-maker, I've got several questions.  The next building listed is the Paul Allen Center for Integrated Systems Annex.  What's the deal with the middle initial for the first building and not the second?  He didn't want his middle name (which, by the way, I looked up: it's Gardner) associated with the annex.  This also brings up the long standing issue we have with the inconsistency of alphabetizing by first name or last name.  Fine, you put this building in the P's for some reason.  But, then, shouldn't "Paul G. Allen" come after "Paul Allen", huh?  Our other big issue is that we never actually found a sign that said "annex." It sure looked like one big "Paul G. Allen" building to us.  In fact, if you go to the place on the map where the map-maker has labeled "annex", the sign says "Paul G. Allen Center for Integrated Systems."  What is that?  The closest we came to finding the "annex" was one sign on an enclosed chain link fence area that said "CIS", which I'll assume means "Center for Integrated Systems."  No "annex"?  Frustrating.

But, wow, look at what this building looks like inside.  I take back all my nasty comments.  This building is awesome!

Then we had a really long run all the way across campus down Escondido to the Pepper Tree House, which is a daycare center across from Escondido School.  Ira went on a rant as we were running, thinking we were going to another "Pepper Tree House" that was further away.  There were a couple of parents picking up their kids, so we didn't want to freak anyone out by going into the gate and touching the building.  Looks like a nice, fun place for kids, and I'm also happy to say that we ran through the new roundabout twice without getting hit by a car.

We headed back to the center of campus (which seemed like an eternity) for Peterson (550).  It's one of those numbered buildings up the little hill behind the Quad.  It is on "Panama Mall".  Ira and I have been trying to use correct "map lingo" as we run around, and we've noted that this section of Panama Street is blocked off to car traffic, which makes it "Panama Mall."  There's even a street sign!  As long as we're running around, we're trying to learn some vocabulary.

Next we ran down the hill for the Physics & Astrophysics building.  Again, map-maker, the naming scheme of the buildings seems totally arbitrary.  Let's say you were a visitor looking for the astrophysics department.  You'd never think to look for this building under the P's, would you?  Actually, you might, because if you were an astrophysicist, you'd probably be pretty smart, and I bet you could figure it out.

OK, so one more big rant for today.  Our next stop was Pigott Hall (Language Corner) (260).  You thought I'd complain about the weird double parentheses, huh?  Well, no.  I'm going to complain about the fact that WE'VE ALREADY BEEN HERE!  Yes, this building is inexplicably listed twice: once under the L's as "Language Corner (Pigott Hall) (260)" and again under the P's as "Pigott Hall (Language Corner)(260)."  Ugh.  This seems like such a goof.  How did this happen?  The only positives are that, today, I got to say "let's pivot back to Pigott" and, second, Ira knows the Pigott family, so he can share this experience with them.

We were pretty tired, but we kept going to Pine Hall, which is one of those older buildings behind the engineering quad.  Ira tapped on the door and someone thought it was a knock and answered the door, but we kept running.  With one more stop to go, I tried to take a shortcut through a parking lot, but it ended up to be a dead end, due to some chain link fences.  Sorry about that, Ira.  It probably cost us an extra quarter mile, which hurt a bit.

After backtracking, we made it to Price, which is one of those really sketchy, semi-abandoned buildings off Searsville Road.  They aren't labeled well, so we had to run all the way around it before we saw a sign that said "Price", and there is just a bunch of old broken furniture behind it.  Seriously, if you're looking to do something illegal, this is where you should go.  It feels like you've left civilization.

One last rant for today: Price is totally out of alphabetical order.  Completely.  The next few buildings are Police, Polya, Poplar, Post Office, Press.  So, yeah, this is totally, totally wrong.  I feel so negative today, but seriously, map-maker, how did this happen?

Distance: 6.6 miles (we're up to 134.7 total)

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