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!
Saturday, December 29, 2007
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
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?
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?
Sunday, October 7, 2007
Fly Sex
On Friday morning I walked over to MIT from the hotel, picked up a copy of The Tech, and called Jess Kim. She had invited me to her Genetics lecture, which I normally would have avoided at all costs (Biology is not my friend). But JKim was going to be there, so I wasn't going to miss it! =) I found my way to 54-100, an old lecture hall in the Green Building, and sat next to her.
The lecture itself was really boring, probably because I had absolutely no idea what the professor was talking about. None whatsoever. At all. Not even a little bit. But JKim kept me entertained. =) One of her friends was taking a very expensive nap...
JKim probably has a short story about every person she has ever known. Here's an interesting one:
She also tried to translate the lecture into words I would understand:
When the lecture ended I hurried back to the hotel for a quick lunch before our tour of Boston. The lunch, at California Pizza Kitchen in the CambridgeSide Galleria, was a very pleasant experience until someone attempted to exit through the door labeled, EMERGENCY EXIT ONLY - ALARM WILL SOUND. Not too observant... maybe they should work for Logan Airport; I hear they hire people who can't even tell LEDs from IEDs. ;)
It was a bit strange touring Boston with a group of businesspeople (the event was organized as part of Dad's business trip), but all the same it was enjoyable. I'm not normally a fan of history, but the American Revolution is one of the few exceptions. We visited some important historical places, including the site at which the shot heard 'round the world was fired. We also walked through Harvard Yard - I did so wearing my MIT hoodie, which garnered a few strange looks - and saw the Statue of Three Lies. This was just a few days before the Halo hack. I'm not sure why the tour guide took us to Harvard but not MIT... Lame!
Meanwhile, my cell phone had decided to stage its own revolution. The screen had gone blank and I apparently missed several calls from Paul regarding our dinner arrangements for that evening. When I got back to the hotel and finally realized what had happened, I was already late. Paul, nice guy that he is, waited for me to walk back to MIT, and we set off toward PKS. One of the brothers met us there and we went to UBurger. I had never been before and was downright impressed.
After the burgers we went back to PKS and I hung out while the pledges were doing super-secret, pledge-related things. When Paul returned (at about 0100) it was my turn for some super-secret activities. =) We walked back to the campus and did some, er... exploring. Anyone want to venture a guess as to where this photo was taken?
Although my adrenaline levels were pretty high at the end of our adventure (for reasons not to be discussed here), by the time we returned to PKS I was ready for some sleep. I crashed on a spare bed for a few hours and woke up early enough to eat breakfast before heading back to the hotel to meet Dad and Melisa. We took a cab to the airport and talked about our amazing weekend over lunch, and then we parted ways. So long, Boston! See you next year! =D
The lecture itself was really boring, probably because I had absolutely no idea what the professor was talking about. None whatsoever. At all. Not even a little bit. But JKim kept me entertained. =) One of her friends was taking a very expensive nap...
JKim probably has a short story about every person she has ever known. Here's an interesting one:
She also tried to translate the lecture into words I would understand:
When the lecture ended I hurried back to the hotel for a quick lunch before our tour of Boston. The lunch, at California Pizza Kitchen in the CambridgeSide Galleria, was a very pleasant experience until someone attempted to exit through the door labeled, EMERGENCY EXIT ONLY - ALARM WILL SOUND. Not too observant... maybe they should work for Logan Airport; I hear they hire people who can't even tell LEDs from IEDs. ;)
It was a bit strange touring Boston with a group of businesspeople (the event was organized as part of Dad's business trip), but all the same it was enjoyable. I'm not normally a fan of history, but the American Revolution is one of the few exceptions. We visited some important historical places, including the site at which the shot heard 'round the world was fired. We also walked through Harvard Yard - I did so wearing my MIT hoodie, which garnered a few strange looks - and saw the Statue of Three Lies. This was just a few days before the Halo hack. I'm not sure why the tour guide took us to Harvard but not MIT... Lame!
Meanwhile, my cell phone had decided to stage its own revolution. The screen had gone blank and I apparently missed several calls from Paul regarding our dinner arrangements for that evening. When I got back to the hotel and finally realized what had happened, I was already late. Paul, nice guy that he is, waited for me to walk back to MIT, and we set off toward PKS. One of the brothers met us there and we went to UBurger. I had never been before and was downright impressed.
After the burgers we went back to PKS and I hung out while the pledges were doing super-secret, pledge-related things. When Paul returned (at about 0100) it was my turn for some super-secret activities. =) We walked back to the campus and did some, er... exploring. Anyone want to venture a guess as to where this photo was taken?
Although my adrenaline levels were pretty high at the end of our adventure (for reasons not to be discussed here), by the time we returned to PKS I was ready for some sleep. I crashed on a spare bed for a few hours and woke up early enough to eat breakfast before heading back to the hotel to meet Dad and Melisa. We took a cab to the airport and talked about our amazing weekend over lunch, and then we parted ways. So long, Boston! See you next year! =D
Friday, September 28, 2007
Are You a Freshman?
So once again I'm slacking with the content... Sorry, readers! I really do love you. But I have been extremely busy the past couple of weeks and for my own personal sanity I took the weekend off from everything and went climbing at the other end of the state. I'm behind on everything from laundry and blogging to making appointments and replacing my cell phone. That said, I now give you day two of my visit to MIT! =)
I woke up and went with Paul to his first class of the day, 8.012 (Physics). I had forgotten how much I actually liked Physics, and I actually understood what was going on during the entire lecture! I was lost on a couple formulas and some of the math, but I knew what was happening. There's no way to describe just how encouraging that was! I might just make it through freshman year after all.
Next stop was the career fair! Wow. I had never been to anything remotely like this before. There were a few hundred booths set up in the Johnson Athletic Center - booths belonging to companies like Google, Firefox, IBM, 3M, General Motors, NVIDIA, etc. (no, Microsoft does not make the list of cool companies that impress me). All these companies were recruiting MIT students, which meant there was an abundance of free stuff! I suppose I wasn't technically allowed to be there at all - owing to the fact that I'm not a student yet - but I never liked following rules anyway.
NOTE: Walk quickly and look like you know what you're doing - you'll be surprised what you can get away with. ;)
My presence prompted some interesting questions, the most common of which was, "Are you a freshman...?" What a simple question, right? Not for me... I must have answered this question (in one form or another) a hundred times during my visit, explaining my deferral of enrollment and trying hard not to induce further questions by mentioning that I'm in the Navy.
All this deferral talk was making me feel a bit estranged, so I was very glad to receive a call from Vicky '12, a fellow defer! She was about to have lunch, so we hurried away from the crowd of companies to join her in the student center. On our way there we met someone who knew Paul (big surprise), so the four of us ate together. Vicky had to get back to work (she interns at InvenTeams), so I walked and talked with her on the way and then started to make my way back to the hotel.
Having never walked through Cambridge before, I had no idea where I was going. While getting un-lost I took this awesome picture of the Boston skyline from the Longfellow Bridge. =)
Once I found my way to the hotel I met Melisa (my acquired mother) for a second round of lunch. We talked about our fun times in Boston so far, and I explained the theory behind my secret plan for hacking the number of hours in a day (it's a secret because I'm still doing the research; as soon as I have a firm grasp on things, I'll tell you all everything). She and Dad were going to a banquet dinner that night, so I went to explore the CambridgeSide Galleria for a few hours (it was just across the street from the hotel).
We all returned to the hotel at about the same time and went down to the hotel restaurant for a late dinner (I ate - they sat with me). I was tired and sleep soon sequestered me, but little did I know that the next day would prove to be the biggest adventure yet...!
I woke up and went with Paul to his first class of the day, 8.012 (Physics). I had forgotten how much I actually liked Physics, and I actually understood what was going on during the entire lecture! I was lost on a couple formulas and some of the math, but I knew what was happening. There's no way to describe just how encouraging that was! I might just make it through freshman year after all.
Next stop was the career fair! Wow. I had never been to anything remotely like this before. There were a few hundred booths set up in the Johnson Athletic Center - booths belonging to companies like Google, Firefox, IBM, 3M, General Motors, NVIDIA, etc. (no, Microsoft does not make the list of cool companies that impress me). All these companies were recruiting MIT students, which meant there was an abundance of free stuff! I suppose I wasn't technically allowed to be there at all - owing to the fact that I'm not a student yet - but I never liked following rules anyway.
NOTE: Walk quickly and look like you know what you're doing - you'll be surprised what you can get away with. ;)
My presence prompted some interesting questions, the most common of which was, "Are you a freshman...?" What a simple question, right? Not for me... I must have answered this question (in one form or another) a hundred times during my visit, explaining my deferral of enrollment and trying hard not to induce further questions by mentioning that I'm in the Navy.
All this deferral talk was making me feel a bit estranged, so I was very glad to receive a call from Vicky '12, a fellow defer! She was about to have lunch, so we hurried away from the crowd of companies to join her in the student center. On our way there we met someone who knew Paul (big surprise), so the four of us ate together. Vicky had to get back to work (she interns at InvenTeams), so I walked and talked with her on the way and then started to make my way back to the hotel.
Having never walked through Cambridge before, I had no idea where I was going. While getting un-lost I took this awesome picture of the Boston skyline from the Longfellow Bridge. =)
Once I found my way to the hotel I met Melisa (my acquired mother) for a second round of lunch. We talked about our fun times in Boston so far, and I explained the theory behind my secret plan for hacking the number of hours in a day (it's a secret because I'm still doing the research; as soon as I have a firm grasp on things, I'll tell you all everything). She and Dad were going to a banquet dinner that night, so I went to explore the CambridgeSide Galleria for a few hours (it was just across the street from the hotel).
We all returned to the hotel at about the same time and went down to the hotel restaurant for a late dinner (I ate - they sat with me). I was tired and sleep soon sequestered me, but little did I know that the next day would prove to be the biggest adventure yet...!
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