Car vs. Concrete

Concrete wins, in case you were wondering. I had heard of this result from other sources, but the day after Christmas I took it upon myself to try it out with my own car, pirouetting elegantly across the road and into a concrete median. In retrospect, I could have picked a better time than the night before my 11-hour drive back to Virginia. On the other hand, maybe subconsciously I was trying to get stranded in Tennessee... Unfortunately, my subconscious isn't that smart; there was a spare car at the house (a Toyota Echo that gets 40 mpg!), so I was able to get back to work.

Now that I am back in Norfolk, the "armpit of the Navy," I'm counting down the remaining days. It's astonishing to think that this year I'll become an MIT student! There's so much to prepare for, having been out of high school for four years... I know a lot of people feel this way, but I think I'll be way behind the rest of my class. I do have some useful skills though; my superpower is sleep deprivation. Right now it's 1:00am and I have to be up at 4:30am to get ready for work, and what am I doing? I'm blogging.

I'm also checking Facebook, since someone thought it would be a good idea to ban Facebook at work. =( I've been too busy to check it at home, because I'm helping my friend Chris get his house ready to sell. This involves new tile, new carpet, new trim, new doors, new lighting, new wiring, new appliances, new paint, new cabinets, new counter-tops, and a few other things, so it has been an interesting project. Everything should be finished by this weekend, and we can finally relax (I will relax; Chris will work on his car, because he likes to work on things).

One of my goals for the year is to get more involved in the open source community. I started by switching to OpenOffice, and I'm in the process of switching to Linux. I'm happy to say that I now own a Linux laptop (made by Dell) and I love it! I'm still learning (understatement?), but my normal daily computing tasks have given me no troubles thus far.

In the next entry, I'll be unveiling my secret plan to hack the number of hours in a day. Suspense!

Back to the Blogosphere

Hello again, readers! If you're wondering why I've taken a break from blogging for a while, my father died suddenly a couple of months ago. It has been a strange and staggering experience, but I think now is the time for me to return to those things that made my dad so proud. During the next six months I'll be finishing up my enlistment in the Navy, preparing for MIT, and doing some research that will help me hack the number of hours in a day. Next week I will be acquiring a very rare book to aid my research efforts, so that will likely become the focus of much blogging. =)

In other news, MIT released early action admissions decisions last Saturday. I now have over 500 fellow members of the Class of 2012! To my new classmates, CONGRATULATIONS!!! See you next fall! Until then, keep in touch and get to know yourselves on the Facebook group. To all those deferred, take heart! I was deferred last year, and when I got accepted during regular action I turned the tables and deferred my enrollment for a year! Unfortunately, I think it had less to do with dramatic irony, and more to do with completing my commitment to the Navy.

Our holiday stand-down starts on Thursday, so I'll be driving 11 hours to Nashville, Tennessee to be with my family for Christmas. I can't wait! What are your plans?