This is the blog that should have been. Last weeks has just been horrible, and I really had no incentive to blog. Nothing really happened... And even if there were stuff to blog about, I would rather choose to keep up in EVE than "waste" time blogging or sleep. No, not sleep.
There were 3 points of interest from last weekend. The first was the 60th anniversary Logarhythms concert. The theme was alumni reunion, and I thought the combo was for the worse. They weren't bad or anything, but it wasn't as entertaining as their past concerts. It might just be because of the music. The old alumni (like really old) sang a bunch of old songs that didn't really pique my interest. The highlight of the concert was definitely the beginning when the alumni from the 2000s sang, and one of them did Float On by Modest Mouse. Then on Friday, the song was woke me up (my alarm is the radio) was Float On, and I was like omg, that song is so good. Been hooked ever since. I'm going to post a shit load of pix after the text.
The other two highlights are more ephemeral. The first one was an epic (yes epic, epicness does not have to correlate with fun) Magic game. It was Emporer format with me, Anton, and Amber vs. Nathan, Bohan, and Anthony. But it turned out to be more like me and Anton vs. Nathan with some support from Bohan. The seating made it easy for me to transfer my creatures to Anton for him to pound Nathan with. We played three games. Nathan changed his deck every game. The first two was rape. The beatdown from two beatdown decks (my Naya and Anton's Nathan's Progenitus) was just too much for one deck to handle. The third game was a fucking marathon. At one point, I though Anton was going to be screwed, but we fought back and first eliminated Nathan. Bohan at this point was a good repertoire powerful creatures, and Anton and I were being really careful on each of our turns because both sides had more than enough firepower to kill each other in one turn. At the same time, the games have been really straining on the other team, and they were really on edge. Until at one point, while Anton and I were planning out our attack, Bohan was like FUCK IT. "I SCOOP! ALRIGHT?! YOU GUYS WIN! I'M NEVER PLAYING MAGIC AGAIN!" Four days later, he was back. That game really showed the dark side of Magic. Magic can be fun, but in its core, it's still a competitive game. And competition can really push buttons. Nathan was really sad and Bohan was pissed after those games. I made me wonder if we truly liked playing Magic, or it's just an easy escape from other harsh realities. Some people drank, party, smoke, etc., maybe our heroin is Magic.
The last "highlight" was a late night AIM chat I had with Anton Monday morning (before classes >.<). We were talking about group dynamics again (mega >.<). And well things weren't so optimistic in the conversation, and lots of sensitive shit came up. I hate stagnation. Anyway I think I got more mad than I should have in the chat and maybe said my bad stuff? I apologize.
So yea, last week SUCKED. Like one of the worst weeks of MIT so far. Like I just felt overall really antisocial, so I tried to play a Sandra and actually tried to be productive with the antisocialness, which just lead to more and more epic fail. Like my school work even decreased in quality. I just pwned on the 18.03 test (I don't know my grades yet, but I'm certain I got -20pt out of 100; there were just too many damn direction fields to draw; fuck I hate 18.03). I even skipped class to study for it and got a good sleep... Shit. 18.03 makes me feel shitty. So I tried to bury my pain in Magic and went to the draft. And had the worst draft ever. I got shitty cards and made a shitty deck. When it pours, it rains, right? Went back to MacG to play some EVE (which is pretty awesome, and I wish I made more time so I can do corp stuff instead of just missions and farming :'() and then started 6.01 at 1AM. Not good. I half-assed the last few questions, so I could watch Savior vs. Zero in the MSL ro8 at 4:30, so I didn't get perfect even though I could have. Yea, I'm continuing to let myself down. And to pile more shit on, Savior lost to my noob. Game 4 was just embarrassing. Savior, where are your mutas? Sigh. I got 3 hours of sleep that night.
Thursday was when the light started to peek out of the dark clouds. I was paired up with someone called Luis Pena for 6.01 lab, and he was actually not a retard! My first partner was nice and all, but not too good at comp sci. My second partner was just dead weight. Finally, I got a competent partner. And we breezed through the lab in 2 hours (labs are 3 hours long) and even spent 30 minutes looking for the concept questions. After class, I returned my Hyperstudio keys to Belinda. It signified the official termination of my journey with the team. I can't say I learned much, but it was fun, and I made good money. Belinda is also awesome. If you are into web developement, web design, or Shakespeare, and need a summer or spring job, I can recommend you to Belinda. Awesome person to work under. After that I was just too exhausted for the rest of my classes and take a loooooong nap back in MacG. Worked on 14.01 later that night. And earlier Friday morning I watched Stork advance in the OSL tiebreakers baby! Birdtoss is gonna get gooollld.
We had Joe Jacobson come over to speak for MAS Friday breakfast. He helped design the e-ink display for the Kindle, so I thought the talk was going to be really cool, but instead it was about complexity functions and was boring as hell. And I fell asleep right in front of the guy, but he really didn't deliver his worth imo. The class were like normal. Nirupuma made fun of one person asking a question... It was a legit question, but when the TA asked if anyone else was confused, no one really said anything, so she basically said that the girl asking the question was either need to grow up and learn some study habits or she's failing at being funny. It was really harsh, and I think she realized it too. Yea.. she's intense. I wasn't prepared for my meeting with Ankur because of the horrendus week, so I did some intense programming after classes to "catch up". This lead me to be so late for the meeting that he left. >.< I felt really bad. There's also a flood after the downpour... But Friday night was awesome. Anton, Nathan, Bohan, and I went to MacG to do some Rock Band. It was SICK! Normally when I do vocals, I do put in any effort, but last night when I sang Float On and The Hand That Feeds, I really sang. It's like letting out angst. It felt good. After 2 hours, some other people came, and we let them take over because we were tired. They were INSANE! Like this one girl just pwned up the drums and guitar on expert. And one guy got 100% on expert guitar! WTF!!! We then went back to Next to watch Slumdog, which I dled from torrent in 20 min (I FUCKING LOVE MIT INTERNET!). Nathan wasn't impressed... But watching it again was still really good. It's not a technical "good" movie, but I felt like it had great mass appeal, and really good story telling. A top notch movie (when Nathan said the the Da Vinci Code was just as good, I was like NO FRACKING WAY). insert: I need to stop doing so many caps. After that, Julian, Anton, Anthony, and I talked. It was first about Julian's problems, which I'll write about in the next paragraph, and then Anton and Anthony talked about religion... so a long time. I wasn't too interested and fell asleep on the couch. Eventually so did Anton and Anthony. Then I woke up at 5AM because of neck pain, and was like WTF? Where am I? Julian, the douche, left us sleeping there and went to bed. Anton and Anthony were also passed out. LOL. Friday night was good.
Ok to be continued.. waiting at Bad Taste Concert from the Chorallaries. It's going to start soon. It's got lots of hype :D.
Saturday, February 28, 2009
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
The Rounds
omg too much to do, don't feel like blogging, but must blog... must keep it up to date. shit.
random thoughts that i'll expand upon later: magic outburst, late night aim chats, sister mister, eve, 18.03, hugh jackman, slumdog, missing classes, tiredness/boredom/stagnation/shits, grilled cheese, blister, magic draft, escapism, life, drug cartel
lol the list turned into more of an word association
i could write a 5000 word blog on all that shit.... but i'll spare y'all and myself the pain.
P.S. The original title of this blog was going to be New Logs, Old Logs, describing the past weekend.
Bonus pic:
from 3.094 lab last week, we made an ingot of silver(25%)-copper(75%) alloy. yea, our own personal bling
random thoughts that i'll expand upon later: magic outburst, late night aim chats, sister mister, eve, 18.03, hugh jackman, slumdog, missing classes, tiredness/boredom/stagnation/shits, grilled cheese, blister, magic draft, escapism, life, drug cartel
lol the list turned into more of an word association
i could write a 5000 word blog on all that shit.... but i'll spare y'all and myself the pain.
P.S. The original title of this blog was going to be New Logs, Old Logs, describing the past weekend.
Bonus pic:
from 3.094 lab last week, we made an ingot of silver(25%)-copper(75%) alloy. yea, our own personal bling
Sunday, February 22, 2009
OMG Fridayz
What a hellish week. The latter half of the week, I literally got 12 hours of sleep total. And next week doesn't look too good either >.<
I actually went to 18.03 lecture this week, and it was as boring as fuck. 18.03 really sucks so far, even though last week's pset wasn't too bad. After that I went back to MacG and spent 2 hours reading about Eve Online, before going to my UROP meeting at 5PM. Instead of dancing around issues in our previous meetings, Ankur and I actually got to work this time, and actually started to analyze the bank data. Yes progress! What was suppose to be a 30 minute progress report meeting turned into a 2 hour MATLAB fest. Things are finally moving? I hope so.
Anton, Anthony, and I initially planned on playing Rock Band in MacG that night, but the lounge was already taken. phail. Next time we want to use it, we gotta stake it out early. So Anton and Anthony trudged back to Next in the cold weather, fruitless. I stayed at MacG a bit longer to put together my second legal Magic deck. It's a simple Naya beatdown deck that originated from the draft on Wednesday. I think it's actually a pretty good deck. It seems like I'm starting to get back to Magic after all these years. Is this a good thing?
Once I got to Next, I saw everyone just sitting there doing work... It's a Friday night, why can't we have some fun :(. When I pushed for watching Cowboy Bebop, everyone except Nathan had to be persuaded, and even then they agreed halfheartedly. It was really sad. Our family is losing its spice. Anton think we're getting bored of each other. If so, we need to take action. Like right now. We need each other, and that's just the fact. Anyway the Cowboy Bebop version we watched was subbed. It felt really different from the dubbed version I watched years ago. The pace seemed really slow, and the soundtrack music, which was changed, felt strange. Faye's voice really bothered me, but the plot and humor made the viewing worthwhile though.
After the movie, people just chilled. I tried to convince Anton to check out some of the epic Eve stories, I've been spending my time reading recently. One can be found here. Apparently, he's not impressed. Eve on the surface seems like the best game ever. In fact its depth is breathtakingly epic. It's economy and freedom is better than any MMO than I've ever read up on. The downside is that, it requires a HUGE time commitment to get most of the time. Running a corp is literally like another job. I'm almost afraid to go anyway near this game. But as I'm writing this, I've already started my 14 day trial, and its installed on my external. If a teamliquid corp gets started, I might seriously consider playing regularly. But how I'm going to balance this with RL and Starcraft, I have no idea.
At least, the work week is over.
P.S. This blog entry feel like weak sauce
P.P.S. Blogger is being buggy again. I always wondered what website do during downtime and maintenance.
I actually went to 18.03 lecture this week, and it was as boring as fuck. 18.03 really sucks so far, even though last week's pset wasn't too bad. After that I went back to MacG and spent 2 hours reading about Eve Online, before going to my UROP meeting at 5PM. Instead of dancing around issues in our previous meetings, Ankur and I actually got to work this time, and actually started to analyze the bank data. Yes progress! What was suppose to be a 30 minute progress report meeting turned into a 2 hour MATLAB fest. Things are finally moving? I hope so.
Anton, Anthony, and I initially planned on playing Rock Band in MacG that night, but the lounge was already taken. phail. Next time we want to use it, we gotta stake it out early. So Anton and Anthony trudged back to Next in the cold weather, fruitless. I stayed at MacG a bit longer to put together my second legal Magic deck. It's a simple Naya beatdown deck that originated from the draft on Wednesday. I think it's actually a pretty good deck. It seems like I'm starting to get back to Magic after all these years. Is this a good thing?
Once I got to Next, I saw everyone just sitting there doing work... It's a Friday night, why can't we have some fun :(. When I pushed for watching Cowboy Bebop, everyone except Nathan had to be persuaded, and even then they agreed halfheartedly. It was really sad. Our family is losing its spice. Anton think we're getting bored of each other. If so, we need to take action. Like right now. We need each other, and that's just the fact. Anyway the Cowboy Bebop version we watched was subbed. It felt really different from the dubbed version I watched years ago. The pace seemed really slow, and the soundtrack music, which was changed, felt strange. Faye's voice really bothered me, but the plot and humor made the viewing worthwhile though.
After the movie, people just chilled. I tried to convince Anton to check out some of the epic Eve stories, I've been spending my time reading recently. One can be found here. Apparently, he's not impressed. Eve on the surface seems like the best game ever. In fact its depth is breathtakingly epic. It's economy and freedom is better than any MMO than I've ever read up on. The downside is that, it requires a HUGE time commitment to get most of the time. Running a corp is literally like another job. I'm almost afraid to go anyway near this game. But as I'm writing this, I've already started my 14 day trial, and its installed on my external. If a teamliquid corp gets started, I might seriously consider playing regularly. But how I'm going to balance this with RL and Starcraft, I have no idea.
At least, the work week is over.
P.S. This blog entry feel like weak sauce
P.P.S. Blogger is being buggy again. I always wondered what website do during downtime and maintenance.
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Suspensions
Suspensions are heterogeneous mixtures containing solid particles big enough to settle. The key word is settle. It seems like things are settling back to "normal" for better or for worse...
Saturday
Woke up late on Saturday. Did D&D with my party (all of whom are upper classmen) on Valentine's Day. Hung out at Simmons for a bit. Ended the night with Braveheart. Didn't make any That's What She Said Jokes. Something's changed/wrong.
Sunday
03:55
(3:59:46 AM) westinggame738: what happened on sunday?
(3:59:58 AM) westinggame738: besides the movie
04:00
(4:00:08 AM) uPoNeMeRaLdWiNgS: nothing
(4:00:13 AM) uPoNeMeRaLdWiNgS: literally
Yep. Sunday was boring. Mainly work. Don't even remember what I worked on. But on Sunday night. Julian, Anton, and I arrive 2 hours "late" to Zack and Miri Make a Porno and missed the entire thing. But we did not want to feel that we walked from Next to 26-100 for naught, so we stayed for Twilight. Yes, Twilight. The vampire sex book/movie franchise that has enchanted 14 year old girls all over. The movie basically sucked. The conversation was painful. Isabella, the main character, was as emo as fuck and should cut herself. The only person creepier was her infatuation, the guy who played Cedric Diggory in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Now that is a quality movie. Anyway the best part of the movie was the vampire baseball game, which was actually really sick until three rabid rogue vampires showed up and ended the fun. Sigh. Afterwards, Julian was trying to be all philosophical about the movie... maybe it's to make up for the lack of vampire sex.
/Sunday
Monday
Monday was another workday. The only interesting part (which was actually really interesting) of it was when I was walking to Anna's to grab lunch, and I saw Anton and convinced him to eat an actual meal. So we had lunch. During we talked about random shit as we ate and walked back, but somehow group dynamics popped up. And when offered the opportunity, I cannot resist theorycrafting about group social interactions. I fucking UROP is based on that lol. Anyway 2 hours of discourse passed super quickly. Well... the conclusion was kind of grim... But that's not to say everything's going to fuck up. If you think about it, something is kind of grim is analyzed in depth (even your mom!). But the best course of action is still to look out for yourself and your friends. Don't jump ship too early. In fact, why am I evening blogging about this right now? What kind of group has its own members talking about the nature of the group? WTF that's like metasocialogy. Nuts isn't it? But still some things should just be let free to grow and mature on its on. Yea... Though it would be really refreshing if the crew got together and did something fun on a weekend. I bet everyone needs a break. The long weekend really did not feel like a break. Maybe we can do that bowling thing from SaveTFP on Friday... or some Boston trip. When's St. Patrick's Day? South Boston should be hella fun. If we look further in the future, we need plans for spring break. Roadtrip/traveling is out of the picture... So expensive. We could work on our crazy band idea? Youtube video anyone? Camping? Just throwing stuff out there. We need a meeting. You know what, since we're so close to being a frat anyway, we should have weekly meetings lol. Ok this whole paragraph has been some ridiculous rant... One thing I got from my talk with Anton was just I'm good at interrogating people. Maybe I should be a lawyer? Criminal justice sounds fun... Damn I've been watching too many cop shows.
/Monday
So not much work got done over the weekend, so that means I'm hosed. After lab two days ago (10pm), I had to finished all of 18.06 due yesterday. Last night, I had all of 6.01. Tonight will be 18.03 AND 14.01. FML. Strangely enough though.... being busy as fuck feels sort of good... gets the blood flowing... keeps you alert... Savior vs. Upmagic is coming up!! w00t!
P.S. Click on the title. They're usually linked to something cool.
P.P.S. Went to a DCI sanctioned MIT draft yesterday. Shouldn't have though because of all my work. Turns out that it was Yang who organized it. Damn he's nuts. He single-handedly is bringing together the MIT gaming community, not kidding at all... The draft itself was good and disappointing. I had some epic games, but in the third round, when three people were fighting for second including me, I was matched up against Nathan. The first two games were just bad luck on both sides, leaving the score 1-1. The third game, Nathan got out his exalted mythic rare card that gave any creature attacking alone double strike. He also had an unblockable creature (unblockable+exalted+double strike). GG. What a shitty way to lose. Like that combo is just imba. And my deck was legitimately good. Got to over 90 life one game. Damn it. I deserved second. Nathan probably came in first. Killing a bro like that... not cool. I need to either pick Starcraft or MTG, not enough time for both...
P.P.P.S. Apparently html tags (to add a nerdy/geeky zing to the blog) just disappear when I publish.
Woke up late on Saturday. Did D&D with my party (all of whom are upper classmen) on Valentine's Day. Hung out at Simmons for a bit. Ended the night with Braveheart. Didn't make any That's What She Said Jokes. Something's changed/wrong.
03:55
(3:59:46 AM) westinggame738: what happened on sunday?
(3:59:58 AM) westinggame738: besides the movie
04:00
(4:00:08 AM) uPoNeMeRaLdWiNgS: nothing
(4:00:13 AM) uPoNeMeRaLdWiNgS: literally
Yep. Sunday was boring. Mainly work. Don't even remember what I worked on. But on Sunday night. Julian, Anton, and I arrive 2 hours "late" to Zack and Miri Make a Porno and missed the entire thing. But we did not want to feel that we walked from Next to 26-100 for naught, so we stayed for Twilight. Yes, Twilight. The vampire sex book/movie franchise that has enchanted 14 year old girls all over. The movie basically sucked. The conversation was painful. Isabella, the main character, was as emo as fuck and should cut herself. The only person creepier was her infatuation, the guy who played Cedric Diggory in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Now that is a quality movie. Anyway the best part of the movie was the vampire baseball game, which was actually really sick until three rabid rogue vampires showed up and ended the fun. Sigh. Afterwards, Julian was trying to be all philosophical about the movie... maybe it's to make up for the lack of vampire sex.
Monday was another workday. The only interesting part (which was actually really interesting) of it was when I was walking to Anna's to grab lunch, and I saw Anton and convinced him to eat an actual meal. So we had lunch. During we talked about random shit as we ate and walked back, but somehow group dynamics popped up. And when offered the opportunity, I cannot resist theorycrafting about group social interactions. I fucking UROP is based on that lol. Anyway 2 hours of discourse passed super quickly. Well... the conclusion was kind of grim... But that's not to say everything's going to fuck up. If you think about it, something is kind of grim is analyzed in depth (even your mom!). But the best course of action is still to look out for yourself and your friends. Don't jump ship too early. In fact, why am I evening blogging about this right now? What kind of group has its own members talking about the nature of the group? WTF that's like metasocialogy. Nuts isn't it? But still some things should just be let free to grow and mature on its on. Yea... Though it would be really refreshing if the crew got together and did something fun on a weekend. I bet everyone needs a break. The long weekend really did not feel like a break. Maybe we can do that bowling thing from SaveTFP on Friday... or some Boston trip. When's St. Patrick's Day? South Boston should be hella fun. If we look further in the future, we need plans for spring break. Roadtrip/traveling is out of the picture... So expensive. We could work on our crazy band idea? Youtube video anyone? Camping? Just throwing stuff out there. We need a meeting. You know what, since we're so close to being a frat anyway, we should have weekly meetings lol. Ok this whole paragraph has been some ridiculous rant... One thing I got from my talk with Anton was just I'm good at interrogating people. Maybe I should be a lawyer? Criminal justice sounds fun... Damn I've been watching too many cop shows.
So not much work got done over the weekend, so that means I'm hosed. After lab two days ago (10pm), I had to finished all of 18.06 due yesterday. Last night, I had all of 6.01. Tonight will be 18.03 AND 14.01. FML. Strangely enough though.... being busy as fuck feels sort of good... gets the blood flowing... keeps you alert... Savior vs. Upmagic is coming up!! w00t!
P.S. Click on the title. They're usually linked to something cool.
P.P.S. Went to a DCI sanctioned MIT draft yesterday. Shouldn't have though because of all my work. Turns out that it was Yang who organized it. Damn he's nuts. He single-handedly is bringing together the MIT gaming community, not kidding at all... The draft itself was good and disappointing. I had some epic games, but in the third round, when three people were fighting for second including me, I was matched up against Nathan. The first two games were just bad luck on both sides, leaving the score 1-1. The third game, Nathan got out his exalted mythic rare card that gave any creature attacking alone double strike. He also had an unblockable creature (unblockable+exalted+double strike). GG. What a shitty way to lose. Like that combo is just imba. And my deck was legitimately good. Got to over 90 life one game. Damn it. I deserved second. Nathan probably came in first. Killing a bro like that... not cool. I need to either pick Starcraft or MTG, not enough time for both...
P.P.P.S. Apparently html tags (to add a nerdy/geeky zing to the blog) just disappear when I publish.
Saturday, February 14, 2009
Hell, It's About Valentine Part 2
Oh love songs. Here's a less innocent love song.
Stay tuned. More to come.
Update:
Who knew blogging was such a burden? Jeez, the only reason I'm updating today is because I need to kill an hour before Savior vs. Upmagic in the MSL Round of 16. That sounded horrible...
Let's see.. where did I leave off... oh yea Valentine's Day...
So on Friday night, Nathan, Peter, Bohan, and I decided to check out Pi Lambda Phi's Communist Party (hahaha get the pun?). It wasn't so much of a communist themed party as it was a normal party. For some reason, whenever I'm at a party, I feel really out of it, uncomfortable, and bored. It's like I'm dulling my senses to avoid being sucked into the sea of debauchery. We met Darren and Ben (from 3W) there. Didn't get to talk to them much... couldn't really actually. The music also blew. Not the the songs, but it would frequently just stop completely or switch to another song. DJ fail. Now I think of it, I probably should have gone to the ZBT soiree with Anton and Shankari because at least there I could hang out with the cool ZBT bro's. Get to know them better. wtf it sounds like I almost want to rush... I need to figure that shit out. On the other hand, it's a fracking soiree! A SOIREE! It's meant for the girls, and I just wouldn't feel right going to one without a date. Of course this is just pure speculation. When we got back from the party, I got really worked up about parties in general. They all seem so pointless. The sole aim is to get laid, and if you're too shy to try to seduce a girl, why be there in the first place? Anyway I said some stupid shit about, just sticking to academics from then now and being a complete, yet successful nerd. It sounds logical actually.
To remedy a night wasted, Bohan and I had this epic game of Starcraft. It was as if I vented my frustrutations into the game, and I played that game so friggin well (so did Bohan). I don't remember the last time I played that well. The key to Starcraft success is to get really worked up about seducing women? What? Que? Se ma? что?
Stay tuned. More to come.
Update:
Who knew blogging was such a burden? Jeez, the only reason I'm updating today is because I need to kill an hour before Savior vs. Upmagic in the MSL Round of 16. That sounded horrible...
Let's see.. where did I leave off... oh yea Valentine's Day...
So on Friday night, Nathan, Peter, Bohan, and I decided to check out Pi Lambda Phi's Communist Party (hahaha get the pun?). It wasn't so much of a communist themed party as it was a normal party. For some reason, whenever I'm at a party, I feel really out of it, uncomfortable, and bored. It's like I'm dulling my senses to avoid being sucked into the sea of debauchery. We met Darren and Ben (from 3W) there. Didn't get to talk to them much... couldn't really actually. The music also blew. Not the the songs, but it would frequently just stop completely or switch to another song. DJ fail. Now I think of it, I probably should have gone to the ZBT soiree with Anton and Shankari because at least there I could hang out with the cool ZBT bro's. Get to know them better. wtf it sounds like I almost want to rush... I need to figure that shit out. On the other hand, it's a fracking soiree! A SOIREE! It's meant for the girls, and I just wouldn't feel right going to one without a date. Of course this is just pure speculation. When we got back from the party, I got really worked up about parties in general. They all seem so pointless. The sole aim is to get laid, and if you're too shy to try to seduce a girl, why be there in the first place? Anyway I said some stupid shit about, just sticking to academics from then now and being a complete, yet successful nerd. It sounds logical actually.
To remedy a night wasted, Bohan and I had this epic game of Starcraft. It was as if I vented my frustrutations into the game, and I played that game so friggin well (so did Bohan). I don't remember the last time I played that well. The key to Starcraft success is to get really worked up about seducing women? What? Que? Se ma? что?
Hell, It's About Valentine Part 1
Yes, I'm still awake. Before I talk about current affairs, let's go back to last Friday. I wrote that the ZBT after-party was disappointing. That was and is true, but I did get something out of it though. David Zou was playing music from his laptop, and one of the songs that came up was One by Epik High. Now, I am normally not a fan of Asian and Korean music, but this was one damn good song. You can find the youtube video here. And I really want to learn the piano part. A video tutorial can be found here, and the sheet music is here (mediafire blows, but deal with it).
Now, you probably don't want to read about the boring daily routine of weekdays and classes, and I can't remember enough right now to make it worthwhile, so I'll just give a brief overview of each class.
6.01:
Ahh computer science. 6.01 is Introduction to EECS 1. The first part of the course is about basic programming, especially object oriented stuff and modularity. And it's done in Python. Python is pretty cool, but the syntax can be annoying, and I can't see how a huge programming project can be completely done in Python (maybe I just don't know enough about Python yet; these are initial perceptions). The lectures are ok. I really like the instructors, and they have a good amount of energy. However the lectures themselves are somewhat mindboggling. What I mean by mindboggling is that they try to teach the EECS stuff through a new angle (modularity), and that can be at times confusing or just plain boring. I don't particularly look forward to lecture. But I do look forward to lab assignments. Notice how I write "lab assignments," not lab. This is because the lab activities are super cool and fun to do. But the concept of going to a huge computer lab to program by yourself does not make much since. It's supposedly so that you can ask for help, but in the real world, there won't be TAs to bail you out of programming bugs. I think they should let the students figure it out. The excercises are too long to finish all of in one lab anyway, so why go to lab at all... I am talking specifically about Design Labs (on Tuesdays) where you work alone on programming excerises. Software Lab on Thursday involve working in teams and doing a small programming project. That I kinda like.
18.03:
18.03 is Differential Equations. It's taught by Professor Jerison. Unlike a lot of people, I actually like the guy and think he lectures pretty well. Though, as I mentioned in a previous post, he tries too hard to be funny. But I like lectures. Recitation and Psets are another story. I have this tall, nervous German grad student as my recitation leader. She is not very good at explaining things. But nice and friendly. Not much to say. Psets are just a pain in the ass. The problems themselves aren't too difficult, but understanding them is half the battle. The problems are worded in the worst possible way. Thus it's likely Friday mornings will be spent finishing up this bitch. As for the subject matter, diff eq's are interesting, but can easily get annoying.
18.06:
18.06 is Linear Algebra. Despite despising matrices and everything to do with them in high school, 18.06 has been really interesting thus far. It's a bit easy right now, but still engaging. This might be due to me having to use MATLAB more now. Professor Johnson is relatively young and seems like a really cheerful guy who knows his stuff, but he fu-fucking stu-stutters so much. It's quite bothersome. I can't pronouce nor spell my Russian TA's name. I think he can be a good TA, but he's also shy and nervous. Math TAs suck in general.
3.094:
3.094 is Materials in Human Experiences. By "Materials," they mean metal and fiber, and by "Human Experiences," they mean native Central/South Americans. This class is a proejct based classed, so there will be a lot of hands on labs, which is awesome. The first part of the course is on metals and is taught by this badass old lady who still travels to metal mines and studies up on metalworking. My most recent lab was on smelting copper from malachite. We got to work in the furnace. It was long/tiring, but really cool. Need to ask Nathan for the pix. However the lectures are dense, and they're about the archaeology of Andean cultures. It's hard to tell whether I should be taking notes or not, but lecture is basically a lot of information force fed to you. Not my idea of fun. The second half of the course is on fibers, and one project I'll be working on is building a raft from balsa wood shipped from Ecuador. Fun labs, boring subject matter.
14.01:
14.01 is Principles of Microeconomics. This class makes me question if I'm really into econ or not. The lectures are really convoluted, and there are often equations and graphs that aren't explained well. At the same time, the lectures seem really disconnected, as if every lecture was a completely new subject. The professor has an annoying voice too, maybe it's because he's straining it by not using a mic. And the pset does not seem like it's connected to the lectures either. Sigh. It's a clusterfuck. It is however seemed by the most badass TA I ever had. She's like super energetic and super serious Indian grad student. She goes through subject by subject at bullet train speeds and manages to explain things with clarity as well. She basically covers up and repairs the wreck caused by lecture. Awesome TA. But intimidating as well. Yesterday, I was busy copying down notes, when she called one me ("you, with the neon green shirt") to solve a Lagrangian as part of a derivation. The problem was that I didn't quite remember how to do Langrange multiplier problems and was somewhat embarassed. But after a bunch of ummms, I made it through. Phew. This class will be really important is helping me decide on my major choices.
That about summarizes my classes thus far.
Stay tuned for Part 2 for actual Valentine's Day/Eve coverage.
Now, you probably don't want to read about the boring daily routine of weekdays and classes, and I can't remember enough right now to make it worthwhile, so I'll just give a brief overview of each class.
6.01:
Ahh computer science. 6.01 is Introduction to EECS 1. The first part of the course is about basic programming, especially object oriented stuff and modularity. And it's done in Python. Python is pretty cool, but the syntax can be annoying, and I can't see how a huge programming project can be completely done in Python (maybe I just don't know enough about Python yet; these are initial perceptions). The lectures are ok. I really like the instructors, and they have a good amount of energy. However the lectures themselves are somewhat mindboggling. What I mean by mindboggling is that they try to teach the EECS stuff through a new angle (modularity), and that can be at times confusing or just plain boring. I don't particularly look forward to lecture. But I do look forward to lab assignments. Notice how I write "lab assignments," not lab. This is because the lab activities are super cool and fun to do. But the concept of going to a huge computer lab to program by yourself does not make much since. It's supposedly so that you can ask for help, but in the real world, there won't be TAs to bail you out of programming bugs. I think they should let the students figure it out. The excercises are too long to finish all of in one lab anyway, so why go to lab at all... I am talking specifically about Design Labs (on Tuesdays) where you work alone on programming excerises. Software Lab on Thursday involve working in teams and doing a small programming project. That I kinda like.
18.03:
18.03 is Differential Equations. It's taught by Professor Jerison. Unlike a lot of people, I actually like the guy and think he lectures pretty well. Though, as I mentioned in a previous post, he tries too hard to be funny. But I like lectures. Recitation and Psets are another story. I have this tall, nervous German grad student as my recitation leader. She is not very good at explaining things. But nice and friendly. Not much to say. Psets are just a pain in the ass. The problems themselves aren't too difficult, but understanding them is half the battle. The problems are worded in the worst possible way. Thus it's likely Friday mornings will be spent finishing up this bitch. As for the subject matter, diff eq's are interesting, but can easily get annoying.
18.06:
18.06 is Linear Algebra. Despite despising matrices and everything to do with them in high school, 18.06 has been really interesting thus far. It's a bit easy right now, but still engaging. This might be due to me having to use MATLAB more now. Professor Johnson is relatively young and seems like a really cheerful guy who knows his stuff, but he fu-fucking stu-stutters so much. It's quite bothersome. I can't pronouce nor spell my Russian TA's name. I think he can be a good TA, but he's also shy and nervous. Math TAs suck in general.
3.094:
3.094 is Materials in Human Experiences. By "Materials," they mean metal and fiber, and by "Human Experiences," they mean native Central/South Americans. This class is a proejct based classed, so there will be a lot of hands on labs, which is awesome. The first part of the course is on metals and is taught by this badass old lady who still travels to metal mines and studies up on metalworking. My most recent lab was on smelting copper from malachite. We got to work in the furnace. It was long/tiring, but really cool. Need to ask Nathan for the pix. However the lectures are dense, and they're about the archaeology of Andean cultures. It's hard to tell whether I should be taking notes or not, but lecture is basically a lot of information force fed to you. Not my idea of fun. The second half of the course is on fibers, and one project I'll be working on is building a raft from balsa wood shipped from Ecuador. Fun labs, boring subject matter.
14.01:
14.01 is Principles of Microeconomics. This class makes me question if I'm really into econ or not. The lectures are really convoluted, and there are often equations and graphs that aren't explained well. At the same time, the lectures seem really disconnected, as if every lecture was a completely new subject. The professor has an annoying voice too, maybe it's because he's straining it by not using a mic. And the pset does not seem like it's connected to the lectures either. Sigh. It's a clusterfuck. It is however seemed by the most badass TA I ever had. She's like super energetic and super serious Indian grad student. She goes through subject by subject at bullet train speeds and manages to explain things with clarity as well. She basically covers up and repairs the wreck caused by lecture. Awesome TA. But intimidating as well. Yesterday, I was busy copying down notes, when she called one me ("you, with the neon green shirt") to solve a Lagrangian as part of a derivation. The problem was that I didn't quite remember how to do Langrange multiplier problems and was somewhat embarassed. But after a bunch of ummms, I made it through. Phew. This class will be really important is helping me decide on my major choices.
That about summarizes my classes thus far.
Stay tuned for Part 2 for actual Valentine's Day/Eve coverage.
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Picture Dump
Battlecode Finals
the finalists watch intently...
gtg ice skating lessons wins!
Spenser and co. get awards
Forward 1 or 2 weeks...
Sandra dancing? and having fun?!
Now to Valentine's Day...
The Logs rickroll 18.06. I have a feeling that they randomly chose a girl in the class...
FLASHBACK to first semester:
Sunday, February 8, 2009
Working Hard (not!) and Out
The result of sleeping at 5AM is being really tired and out of it, so when Jenny woke me up today right before the track meet, I was like "FML." But I got up anyway.
Never been to a track meet before. The MIT track on top of Johnson ice rink was huge, and there were a lot of people. And people there were pretty intense about track. They would be cheering like madmen when the runners finish a lap and do the crescendoing clap thing whenever someone's about to do a long jump. And people cried when they didn't do their best. Apparently I don't know where to stand and ended up standing at the very end of a race multiple times and have exhausted people run past me and sometimes cry as I just mentioned. I never knew MIT has such a huge track team. Anyway I watched Nathan do a couple of pole vaults. The pole wasn't as high as I had envisioned, but it still looked really hard. I decided to leave around 1PM, and for some reason, tried to leave by some back exit. The stairs I went down led to the basement, and when I tried to backtrack, the doors were locked. I had to call Jenny to rescue me >.<
The afternoon passed by slowly, as I either did nothing or laundry or watch 18.06 lecture, or nothing. Then Bohan and I headed to the ATS Lunar New Year celebration (which was one week late...). We got there kind of early, and the food wasn't ready, so we just sat awkwardly. Then Bohan just abandoned me for his cool fobulous friend Jay. Wtf man... So I just started talking to Geza about Microsoft, Linux, and programming languages. Sometime later, Bohan returned (Jay was too cool to wait?). We then met up with Julian and waited in line for our food. Julian for some reason felt confrontational with Geza as he was saying how 6.01 was easy. A verbal duel took place. But the cloud of awkwardness ended the fight before any blood was drawn. Geza can be really cool sometime; you just have to look past his layer of pure CS (to use Anton's awesome phrase). The food was good, and the performances were better. The all asian acapella group Sycopation was really good. And Julian found the love of his life in the hot lead singer. Peter looked exhausted by all the preparation that went into the event.
I left the event around 9:15PM and decided not to go to ZBT for the CSL showmatch. I really wanted to, but travel was a bitch, the weather wasn't that nice, and I wanted to work out and do work. Are they excuses or did I make the right choice? All I know is that I felt great about the work out. I did simple excercises with cardio and weight training, but a bunch of them. And I felt really good. I was calm and relaxed, and also kind of tired. Now I'm at Next. Haven't started 18.03 pset part b yet. I really should. Hosed already.
MIT won the CSL match!! w00t! though one of our guys is C+, a bit unfair.
Random tidbits: Bohan and Julian saw Nathan and a bunch of track girls heading to a party earlier (what a player), Sandra said she wouldn't hang out with us anymore... wtf (fun quota is filled I see... :P), and I got my first serious comment to my blog (really appreciate it)
Tomorrow will be painful.
Never been to a track meet before. The MIT track on top of Johnson ice rink was huge, and there were a lot of people. And people there were pretty intense about track. They would be cheering like madmen when the runners finish a lap and do the crescendoing clap thing whenever someone's about to do a long jump. And people cried when they didn't do their best. Apparently I don't know where to stand and ended up standing at the very end of a race multiple times and have exhausted people run past me and sometimes cry as I just mentioned. I never knew MIT has such a huge track team. Anyway I watched Nathan do a couple of pole vaults. The pole wasn't as high as I had envisioned, but it still looked really hard. I decided to leave around 1PM, and for some reason, tried to leave by some back exit. The stairs I went down led to the basement, and when I tried to backtrack, the doors were locked. I had to call Jenny to rescue me >.<
The afternoon passed by slowly, as I either did nothing or laundry or watch 18.06 lecture, or nothing. Then Bohan and I headed to the ATS Lunar New Year celebration (which was one week late...). We got there kind of early, and the food wasn't ready, so we just sat awkwardly. Then Bohan just abandoned me for his cool fobulous friend Jay. Wtf man... So I just started talking to Geza about Microsoft, Linux, and programming languages. Sometime later, Bohan returned (Jay was too cool to wait?). We then met up with Julian and waited in line for our food. Julian for some reason felt confrontational with Geza as he was saying how 6.01 was easy. A verbal duel took place. But the cloud of awkwardness ended the fight before any blood was drawn. Geza can be really cool sometime; you just have to look past his layer of pure CS (to use Anton's awesome phrase). The food was good, and the performances were better. The all asian acapella group Sycopation was really good. And Julian found the love of his life in the hot lead singer. Peter looked exhausted by all the preparation that went into the event.
I left the event around 9:15PM and decided not to go to ZBT for the CSL showmatch. I really wanted to, but travel was a bitch, the weather wasn't that nice, and I wanted to work out and do work. Are they excuses or did I make the right choice? All I know is that I felt great about the work out. I did simple excercises with cardio and weight training, but a bunch of them. And I felt really good. I was calm and relaxed, and also kind of tired. Now I'm at Next. Haven't started 18.03 pset part b yet. I really should. Hosed already.
MIT won the CSL match!! w00t! though one of our guys is C+, a bit unfair.
Random tidbits: Bohan and Julian saw Nathan and a bunch of track girls heading to a party earlier (what a player), Sandra said she wouldn't hang out with us anymore... wtf (fun quota is filled I see... :P), and I got my first serious comment to my blog (really appreciate it)
Tomorrow will be painful.
Saturday, February 7, 2009
Food and Liquor
You see food and liquor stores everywhere. I guess that makes sense. Food and liquor is the staple of an average Joe's diet right? Today was sort of a test of that hypothesis. Food and Liquor is also an amazing album by Lupe Fiasco.
The day started out late. Note to self: Try to sleep at 2AM; MUST sleep by 3AM. So I ended up sleeping until 11:30, missing MAS breakfast and 18.06 lecture. Then for some reason I thought my next class was at 2PM, so I went back to sleep. Turns out my 14.01 recitation was at 12:00PM; I could have made it (conclusion: I haven't gone to a single 18.06 and 14.01 class yet). At 1:45PM, I briefly went to lunch with Bohan and Anthony, and then went to my first 18.03 lecture. The teacher was ok, but he tries too hard to be funny -_-. Math professors are not funny. After that I went went back to MacG and chilled until 6PM.
Bohan and I sat in deep 3W just wasting our time until Nathan and Julian came back. Apparently the Koreana plan failed (I still don't understand why... it's in the direction of Harvard Square and Korean food is good). Then we went our separate ways to change. At first I planned to wear jeans and a button-up shirt, but the way Julian, Bohan, and Anton made the Salsa Party sound, jeans wouldn't cut it (and boy were we wrong). So I ended wearing what I wore to TechFair dinner (stripped blue shirt with the top button unbuttoned and my jacket with the pants that went with it). I really need to buy clothes that's in between formal and casual, like casual shirts and khakis (slacks?). And what do you know? I turned out to be the most dressed, and Robert wore cargo pants.
The trip there and the dinner was very frustrating. We decided to go to Harvard Square for dinner, so we took the 1 bus there. The bus was pretty crowded and stayed that way because whenever a seat opened up near us, no one would take it. First of all, to the girls reading this, SIT DOWN when offered. This avoids the fucking penis length competition that us guys have to go through to decide who is the first to sit down. Everyone is satisfied when the girls are seated. If there are open seats and the girls have been seated, whoever that's closest, SIT DOWN. Christ. Standing up != being man. Anyway after we got off at Harvard, everyone told me to lead the pack to a food place. I decided on Crazy Doughs because that place is awesome, I haven't been there in a long time, and they also have awesome veggie options for our lone vegeterian. When we got there, most people seemed happy with the idea of ordering 3 pies (2 meat, 1 veggie). But the next thing you know, some people were scheming in the background and were complaining about what we were ordering without actually saying what they wanted as topping. It was retarded, so Bohan and I were like fuck it and ordered our own slices. At the same time, the girls and Robert were standing a circle bitching about the friggin' pizza joint. If you didn't want to go to a pizza place, SUGGEST SOMETHING ELSE before we order our food. Whatever happened to eating together. VOICE YOUR FUCKING OPINION, before your start conspiring in the background. But luckily I found my cool again after finishing an awesome meal of 2 buffalo chicken slices.
Our group showed up WAY too overdressed for the Salsa Party. But it seemed like no one cared, and I didn't give a shit after a few minutes. The class was taught by the Harvard Ballroom Team. They were pretty good. And demonstrated pretty well. But it was annoying how they spent the same amount of time on each "lesson." The basic step was not too hard to get, but I definitely needed more time to learn the spins and stuff (I don't the name for any of the moves). It was really fun learning the steps. I got paired with Jenny, then a girl named Olga, and Sandra, which was nice because we were all beginners. Then the "party" started. And well... I immediately resumed my uptight nerd mode. Like I practiced some salsa with Jenny, but didn't have the balls to ask anyone to dance. And then when I finally got into the feeling of the party, the beginners all left (because they lived down the street, and if they had no incentive to stay, why stay?), and the only ones left actually knew how to dance salsa. I learned that the hard way, as one girl just schooled me. After that, I guess I felt really intimidated by everyone because at an event like this, girls expect you to know how to dance (do they? I dunno... maybe I was psyching myself out). So I just proceed to practice salsa some more with our girls. But overall it was fun. Nathan and Peter are just pimps. Anton got mad moves, but he didn't really share it with the pretty ladies :(. And Sandra had way too much fun than she's willing to admit (fun quota for the month is fulfilled? jk).
We left early because Nathan had a track meet the next day, and everyone was getting tired/bored. Bohan, Sandra, and Shankari went with Robert to his room because he's hosting the afterparty for some ZBT party. Everyone else took the Saferide back to Next. I picked up my stuff and then managed to convince Julian and Jenny to come with me to Robert's place. The "party" was weird. Like when we got there, we immediately split the room in half. The Deep 3W and the ZBT group. Yea... We played a game of BS to do something other than sit awkwardly on the other side of the room opposite from a bunch of people drinking. Bohan and I had a cup of some fruity cocktail that was really good. Then this Coke+rum mix that tasted much like Vanilla Coke. Good stuff. Somewhere in there, Yifan and Robert went up to me and were like "Take a shot with us." I had nothing better to do, so I agreed. Turned out to be a practical joke, and it was actually water. I offered Julian a sip of the fruity cocktail, but he vehemently refused. It's sad how taboo alcohol is. A little bit doesn't do shit to your body and mind. And I'm sitting in MacG blogging like normal (though a "drink and blog" would be really funny). When it was close to 3AM, the Next crew bounced. Julian and I were somewhat disappointed and started making bad sexual jokes and just fooling around. On the way back, we were talking shit about our girl deprivation. Shankari and Jenny quickly left us in the dust. But seriously though Spletz and Tim Peng were fucking annoying. Those guys make me sick. They're probably nice people, but I can't stand them. So ends my long day. It was fun, but below expectations? I wonder when I can finally loosen up. Will alcohol do it? And even if it does work, is that really the solution? People like Yifan drink way too much... Shit, this sounds bad, but maybe I sound experiment and find out what works. I just need to grow a pair in those social situations.
Tomorrow I'm going to try to go to Nathan's track meet. Seeing pole vaulting live should be interesting. Then I should go do laundry and watch 18.06 lectures while waiting. Then move on to 6.01 and 18.03? Probably go to ATS's Lunar New Year celebration at 6 and then head over to ZBT at 8 to cheer on the MIT starcraft team (technically I'm an alternate, but I should start training... I need more time QQ). Let's see how tomorrow pans out. Now should I sleep or watch the MSL ro32 Group D match?
The day started out late. Note to self: Try to sleep at 2AM; MUST sleep by 3AM. So I ended up sleeping until 11:30, missing MAS breakfast and 18.06 lecture. Then for some reason I thought my next class was at 2PM, so I went back to sleep. Turns out my 14.01 recitation was at 12:00PM; I could have made it (conclusion: I haven't gone to a single 18.06 and 14.01 class yet). At 1:45PM, I briefly went to lunch with Bohan and Anthony, and then went to my first 18.03 lecture. The teacher was ok, but he tries too hard to be funny -_-. Math professors are not funny. After that I went went back to MacG and chilled until 6PM.
Bohan and I sat in deep 3W just wasting our time until Nathan and Julian came back. Apparently the Koreana plan failed (I still don't understand why... it's in the direction of Harvard Square and Korean food is good). Then we went our separate ways to change. At first I planned to wear jeans and a button-up shirt, but the way Julian, Bohan, and Anton made the Salsa Party sound, jeans wouldn't cut it (and boy were we wrong). So I ended wearing what I wore to TechFair dinner (stripped blue shirt with the top button unbuttoned and my jacket with the pants that went with it). I really need to buy clothes that's in between formal and casual, like casual shirts and khakis (slacks?). And what do you know? I turned out to be the most dressed, and Robert wore cargo pants.
The trip there and the dinner was very frustrating. We decided to go to Harvard Square for dinner, so we took the 1 bus there. The bus was pretty crowded and stayed that way because whenever a seat opened up near us, no one would take it. First of all, to the girls reading this, SIT DOWN when offered. This avoids the fucking penis length competition that us guys have to go through to decide who is the first to sit down. Everyone is satisfied when the girls are seated. If there are open seats and the girls have been seated, whoever that's closest, SIT DOWN. Christ. Standing up != being man. Anyway after we got off at Harvard, everyone told me to lead the pack to a food place. I decided on Crazy Doughs because that place is awesome, I haven't been there in a long time, and they also have awesome veggie options for our lone vegeterian. When we got there, most people seemed happy with the idea of ordering 3 pies (2 meat, 1 veggie). But the next thing you know, some people were scheming in the background and were complaining about what we were ordering without actually saying what they wanted as topping. It was retarded, so Bohan and I were like fuck it and ordered our own slices. At the same time, the girls and Robert were standing a circle bitching about the friggin' pizza joint. If you didn't want to go to a pizza place, SUGGEST SOMETHING ELSE before we order our food. Whatever happened to eating together. VOICE YOUR FUCKING OPINION, before your start conspiring in the background. But luckily I found my cool again after finishing an awesome meal of 2 buffalo chicken slices.
Our group showed up WAY too overdressed for the Salsa Party. But it seemed like no one cared, and I didn't give a shit after a few minutes. The class was taught by the Harvard Ballroom Team. They were pretty good. And demonstrated pretty well. But it was annoying how they spent the same amount of time on each "lesson." The basic step was not too hard to get, but I definitely needed more time to learn the spins and stuff (I don't the name for any of the moves). It was really fun learning the steps. I got paired with Jenny, then a girl named Olga, and Sandra, which was nice because we were all beginners. Then the "party" started. And well... I immediately resumed my uptight nerd mode. Like I practiced some salsa with Jenny, but didn't have the balls to ask anyone to dance. And then when I finally got into the feeling of the party, the beginners all left (because they lived down the street, and if they had no incentive to stay, why stay?), and the only ones left actually knew how to dance salsa. I learned that the hard way, as one girl just schooled me. After that, I guess I felt really intimidated by everyone because at an event like this, girls expect you to know how to dance (do they? I dunno... maybe I was psyching myself out). So I just proceed to practice salsa some more with our girls. But overall it was fun. Nathan and Peter are just pimps. Anton got mad moves, but he didn't really share it with the pretty ladies :(. And Sandra had way too much fun than she's willing to admit (fun quota for the month is fulfilled? jk).
We left early because Nathan had a track meet the next day, and everyone was getting tired/bored. Bohan, Sandra, and Shankari went with Robert to his room because he's hosting the afterparty for some ZBT party. Everyone else took the Saferide back to Next. I picked up my stuff and then managed to convince Julian and Jenny to come with me to Robert's place. The "party" was weird. Like when we got there, we immediately split the room in half. The Deep 3W and the ZBT group. Yea... We played a game of BS to do something other than sit awkwardly on the other side of the room opposite from a bunch of people drinking. Bohan and I had a cup of some fruity cocktail that was really good. Then this Coke+rum mix that tasted much like Vanilla Coke. Good stuff. Somewhere in there, Yifan and Robert went up to me and were like "Take a shot with us." I had nothing better to do, so I agreed. Turned out to be a practical joke, and it was actually water. I offered Julian a sip of the fruity cocktail, but he vehemently refused. It's sad how taboo alcohol is. A little bit doesn't do shit to your body and mind. And I'm sitting in MacG blogging like normal (though a "drink and blog" would be really funny). When it was close to 3AM, the Next crew bounced. Julian and I were somewhat disappointed and started making bad sexual jokes and just fooling around. On the way back, we were talking shit about our girl deprivation. Shankari and Jenny quickly left us in the dust. But seriously though Spletz and Tim Peng were fucking annoying. Those guys make me sick. They're probably nice people, but I can't stand them. So ends my long day. It was fun, but below expectations? I wonder when I can finally loosen up. Will alcohol do it? And even if it does work, is that really the solution? People like Yifan drink way too much... Shit, this sounds bad, but maybe I sound experiment and find out what works. I just need to grow a pair in those social situations.
Tomorrow I'm going to try to go to Nathan's track meet. Seeing pole vaulting live should be interesting. Then I should go do laundry and watch 18.06 lectures while waiting. Then move on to 6.01 and 18.03? Probably go to ATS's Lunar New Year celebration at 6 and then head over to ZBT at 8 to cheer on the MIT starcraft team (technically I'm an alternate, but I should start training... I need more time QQ). Let's see how tomorrow pans out. Now should I sleep or watch the MSL ro32 Group D match?
Friday, February 6, 2009
The Flow of Things
Woke up on time today! Well barely. I was actually 5 minutes late for 6.01 lab and missed the nano-quiz, which made the 6.01 guys think I dropped the class. The first design lab assignment was to create this polynomial class that added, multiplied, and found roots of polynomials. I actually thought it was really cool and helped me get the flow of Python, but apparently I'm the only who thinks so. Anton was bored by it immediately, and Julian was just frustrated. And they were right in saying the Tues-Thurs morning lab is crowded. Barely got a seat.
Then I ate lunch (by myself QQ) and did some Hyperstudio stuff before going to 18.03 recitation. My new TA is this Swedish lady who spoke way too soft and had this tedious teaching style. She tried to get us to work together on this sample problem, but most people didn't know where to start, and others just kept quiet. The recitation was filled to the brim with fail. Most boring class I ever took, no joke.
I had to skip 3.094 today to go to the last glassblowing practice session (which also made the 3.094 guys think I'm dropping...). My first piece started off great. Awesomely shaped and on center and shit. Great color, and I was actually satisfied. But when I tried to transfer the piece to the punty, both connections broke, and the piece shattered on the floor :'(. I then had to do my second piece in 20 minutes. It started out ok, but not great. This time when I transfer, I pushed the punty a bit too hard to try to get it to stick on better, but instead it pushed the bottom in too far. It held though. It kind of messed up when I was opening up the lip of the cup, but alas my second cup was finished. At the cost of $120 in lab fees.
For some reason, the two hours between 6 and 8PM flew by like there's no tomorrow. Next thing I knew, I had to rush to Next before dining closed. I was also surprisingly chipper too. But that soon changed as Anton and I slaved away at 18.03. My brain was mush after 3 hours of that. I'm going to hate that class...
Tomorrow I get to go back to MAS breakfast w00t. Lucky Anton doesn't have class until 2 fucking PM, so he's going shopping in the morning... wtf? Anyway I'm going to try to sleep by 2AM tonight. 2AM is a good sleeping time. Also tomorrow is the dressy group dinner that Sandra organized but isn't going to and Harvard salsa night. How did Robert hear of it? And why did he want to go? He doesn't seem like a dancing type to me... Who knows? Maybe there's someone he knows at Harvard. *wink wink nudge nudge* Just kidding guys. Tomorrow night could fun and awkward... We'll see.
P.S. Jenny is being awesome right now and letting me use her laptop for 1 hour. Thanks.
Thursday, February 5, 2009
Collecting Shits
Woke up at 2PM today. Missed all my classes. Spent the next 2 hours doing nothing. Then went to Mr. (or Professor?) Holtzmann's office to give him a copy of my reg form and got food on the way back. My one and only meal. Slept an hour. Tried to do 6.01, but the next problem looked convoluted, so I gave up and went to Next. Not a good start.
Things got better at Next though. I really wonder if I'm more productive at Next or MacG, but Next is more fun hands down. Used Anton's book to do all the Part A book problems. Supposedly this is a "short" pset. Short pset, my ass. I can see that 18.03 is going to be a major bitch :(.
We had Julian's birthday party today because his DEECS crew was busy yesterday. Ray bought him an ice cream cake, which was pretty good, but definitely not big enough for like 20 people. Julian was really surprised and quieter than usually about these kind of things. Maybe it was him on the receiving end, or school's getting to him already. MIT gets to people really fast. Anyway we then got the climax of every party. The showering! Except it was anticlimatic because Julian was tired, and he didn't really resist. It happened really quickly. Funny thing happened when I was chatting with Julian, and his girl back home fb chatted, so I said "I'll leave you alone now." And Julian took it the wrong way... Like cybering? Come on, I wouldn't joke about that with someone's real gf...
This is going to be really emo, but I feel like I'm in a rut right now. Feel underappreciated :(. Like no one ever calls me up. Fucking A. Need to start collecting my shits. Need to get in the academic, socializing, and hopeful mode.
Update: Julian and I just released some pent up anger in deep 3W, while I blasted California from my laptop. That felt really good.
Advantage of public blog: people can read it
Disadvantage of public blog: people can read it
Things got better at Next though. I really wonder if I'm more productive at Next or MacG, but Next is more fun hands down. Used Anton's book to do all the Part A book problems. Supposedly this is a "short" pset. Short pset, my ass. I can see that 18.03 is going to be a major bitch :(.
We had Julian's birthday party today because his DEECS crew was busy yesterday. Ray bought him an ice cream cake, which was pretty good, but definitely not big enough for like 20 people. Julian was really surprised and quieter than usually about these kind of things. Maybe it was him on the receiving end, or school's getting to him already. MIT gets to people really fast. Anyway we then got the climax of every party. The showering! Except it was anticlimatic because Julian was tired, and he didn't really resist. It happened really quickly. Funny thing happened when I was chatting with Julian, and his girl back home fb chatted, so I said "I'll leave you alone now." And Julian took it the wrong way... Like cybering? Come on, I wouldn't joke about that with someone's real gf...
This is going to be really emo, but I feel like I'm in a rut right now. Feel underappreciated :(. Like no one ever calls me up. Fucking A. Need to start collecting my shits. Need to get in the academic, socializing, and hopeful mode.
Update: Julian and I just released some pent up anger in deep 3W, while I blasted California from my laptop. That felt really good.
Advantage of public blog: people can read it
Disadvantage of public blog: people can read it
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Back to School
Back to the daily ritual once again!
My schedule is fucked up. The current schedule is actually pretty awesome, but the last hour of 6.01 lab on Thursday conflicts with 3.094. So I had to get that changed, and I'm not sure if that's even possible with the crap load of 6.01 students, and if it does happen, I have to change all my recitations. Bureaucracy blows.
Started the day with 6.01 lecture. The professor started off by approaching CS from this weird modular point of view, which I thought was pretty cool. Then she got into basic Python, and I fell asleep. I can't say that I know Python, but the only thing I don't know about it is the syntax. During lab today, I got to experience it a bit more. And it feels really structured (this is coming from a Java developer). The lack of syntax almost makes some stuff ambiguous, though I'm in no position to comment on Python right now... 18.03 recitation was boring. Today's 3.094 class was all introduction. We're going to learn in detail about metals and fibers and the archaeology behind them throughout the semester. It's extremely hands-on (we're going to smelt copper next week), which is just badass. And we're going to build a raft from imported Ecuadorean balsa wood. Sounds like a sweet class.
I finally got/ordered by books today. Going to cost $350 QQ. Turns out that the COOP is out of used books. Oh well. I don't have the time/effort to do some serious bargain hunting. Oh yea, I almost forgot, I have a pset due this Friday! But I have no books -_-. Argh classes are a bitch and undeniably useful and essential.
On the bright side, Next dining is open again! No more starving nights (tbh IAP wasn't that bad...)! Gonna head out now. Peace.
P.S. I might update my blog from 6-7PM everyday now. Seems like a good time.
Update:
I ordered a Grilled Chicken Caesar Wrap from the Grill today. Jose unfortunately wasn't there, and there was a new guy. He messed up my order to start off. Why is it that I'm so bad with cafeteria people? As for the food itself, I was impressed that he actually grilled chicken breast and chopped it up for the wrap, but the Caesar dressing was pathetic, the croutons were stale, and I literally got ten french fries. Please bring Jose back (he's getting back surgery; get well soon!). I'm hungry right now as I type.
In other news, it's Julian's birthday today. Ray and Kevin came over, and I had a good chat with Kevin about future academic plans. He's an awesome guy, really chill and helpful. Jenny's getting really upset over the mysterious food thief that takes food from her room at random times. To make things worse, her door is half broken and one of her friends had a scary encounter with some drunk guy walking into her room. She should follow my suggestion and install some webcam program and use her laptop as a security camera to catch the prick. She's seems reluctant for some reason. Either she doesn't trust me/take me seriously or she's afraid of the truth. Stop speculating and just do it already. Bohan also wrote a really good Facebook note about motivation and life goals. A 5/5. He should consider blogging.
Second day of classes is approaching. I feel sucked in already.
My schedule is fucked up. The current schedule is actually pretty awesome, but the last hour of 6.01 lab on Thursday conflicts with 3.094. So I had to get that changed, and I'm not sure if that's even possible with the crap load of 6.01 students, and if it does happen, I have to change all my recitations. Bureaucracy blows.
Started the day with 6.01 lecture. The professor started off by approaching CS from this weird modular point of view, which I thought was pretty cool. Then she got into basic Python, and I fell asleep. I can't say that I know Python, but the only thing I don't know about it is the syntax. During lab today, I got to experience it a bit more. And it feels really structured (this is coming from a Java developer). The lack of syntax almost makes some stuff ambiguous, though I'm in no position to comment on Python right now... 18.03 recitation was boring. Today's 3.094 class was all introduction. We're going to learn in detail about metals and fibers and the archaeology behind them throughout the semester. It's extremely hands-on (we're going to smelt copper next week), which is just badass. And we're going to build a raft from imported Ecuadorean balsa wood. Sounds like a sweet class.
I finally got/ordered by books today. Going to cost $350 QQ. Turns out that the COOP is out of used books. Oh well. I don't have the time/effort to do some serious bargain hunting. Oh yea, I almost forgot, I have a pset due this Friday! But I have no books -_-. Argh classes are a bitch and undeniably useful and essential.
On the bright side, Next dining is open again! No more starving nights (tbh IAP wasn't that bad...)! Gonna head out now. Peace.
P.S. I might update my blog from 6-7PM everyday now. Seems like a good time.
Update:
I ordered a Grilled Chicken Caesar Wrap from the Grill today. Jose unfortunately wasn't there, and there was a new guy. He messed up my order to start off. Why is it that I'm so bad with cafeteria people? As for the food itself, I was impressed that he actually grilled chicken breast and chopped it up for the wrap, but the Caesar dressing was pathetic, the croutons were stale, and I literally got ten french fries. Please bring Jose back (he's getting back surgery; get well soon!). I'm hungry right now as I type.
In other news, it's Julian's birthday today. Ray and Kevin came over, and I had a good chat with Kevin about future academic plans. He's an awesome guy, really chill and helpful. Jenny's getting really upset over the mysterious food thief that takes food from her room at random times. To make things worse, her door is half broken and one of her friends had a scary encounter with some drunk guy walking into her room. She should follow my suggestion and install some webcam program and use her laptop as a security camera to catch the prick. She's seems reluctant for some reason. Either she doesn't trust me/take me seriously or she's afraid of the truth. Stop speculating and just do it already. Bohan also wrote a really good Facebook note about motivation and life goals. A 5/5. He should consider blogging.
Second day of classes is approaching. I feel sucked in already.
Monday, February 2, 2009
Tech-Super-Battlecode-Bowl-Fair
I need to keep my blogs more up to date...
Saturday:
Woke up super late. My hair was getting long, so I went to TechniCuts with Julian. Sort of got my regular style cut, but the guy was really cool. Julian got rid of his crazy Hawaiian look and went for a cleaner cut. I guess I'm satisfied.
Then it was time BATTLECODE. There was pizza beforehand (free food ftw), but I might have ate too much... I wonder how Julian felt after eating 8 slices (an entire pizza). Crazy. Battlecode was awesome. Everyone's codes was insane. Though I felt the Bro Code and Positron7 were somewhat lacking. When I Wish Upon Astar (all freshmen) came in 6th and was very impressive. I felt like we tried to do what JIT in My Pants did (turtle and mine), except they had the best stacking code in the tourny and they could actually defend... Good stuff. JIT actually beat gtg ice skates in an upset and sent them to the loser brackets. Eventually gtg came back and beat "I for one welcome our new team 207 overlords" (one guy from New House, what a beast) in the finals. Go Spenser! And damn there were a lot of prizes. First got $5000, second got $4000, third got $3000, fourth got $2000, and fifth to eighth got $1000. It's funny how it's actually financial sensible to do nothing but Battlecode during IAP.
When we got back to Next House, we started our Lord of the Rings series at 1AM... Fell asleep for a bit I think
Sunday:
Conflux pre-release! Nathan, Eric, Anton, and I got to Pandemonium 15min "late" and then had to wait again 30min. Events hosted by nerds always start late for some reason. We played in the sealed format (6 boosters + infinite land). Nathan managed to pull a Progenitus (lucky bastard; both Anton and Nathan got two super-rares). The best card I got was Blood Tyrant (which is a monster, but not imba good like some cards), but a foil version of that comes in a starter pack... Despite my lack of good cards, my deck was decently strong. I went 1-2 before dropping out and heading back, but the two losses were really close and fun matches. Five hours of Magic breezed by. Went to Falafel Palace for lunch :D. Haven't been to that place in ages...
The crew headed for the ZBT Superbowl party at 5:45PM; we were suppose to be at the van stop by 5:30PM... Julian's fault. The Superbowl party was a load of fun. I think the ZBT lobby area got moved around a bit; it looked different than orientation. The guys at ZBT were really cool. I had some pretty good conversations with Rajeev, Matt, and Yang (the first CSL match will take place at ZBT). Makes me wonder if I should have tried to "rush." The wings made by Karen the chef were amazing... The game itself was pretty good too. The Steelers dominated first half. They scored a field goal in like 2 minutes and then made a 100 yard interception-touch down right before halftime. The halftime show was pretty awesome. Bruce Springsteen played. I didn't recognize the first song he did, but then he did a really long rendition of Born to Run. Quality. The Cardinals made a good comeback in the second half, and the Steelers had only 3 minutes to score a touchdown, which they did. GG. The Cardinal QB didn't look too good, but what do I know about football. During the Cardinal resurgence (you tricksy bastard), Julian wanted to bet with me that Cardinals would win. The stake was to ask one of the girls in the back out or get a number. I refused. They were pretty hot (8-9/10), and looked like upper classmen because they were flirting/snuggling/chilling with ZBT upperclassmen. Turns out they were freshmen from Wellesley; figures.
After the game, we went to J.P. Licks and then went back. Watched the Two Towers. This time I fell asleep through most of the movie. Two down.
Monday:
Reg day/the day before classes. Fuck my life (click the post title). Woke up at 1PM. Went to Tech Fair at 3PM. Turned out they close at 3PM, fuck. Then caught up on the Office and blogging. Bohan was awesome and signed me up for the Tech Fair dinner. The 30 minute mingling time was boring as fuck. Talked to some small web development company rep; it was boring, and I wasn't interested, and he could tell. Yea. I was the first to sit at my table (3) when the doors finally opened. Some sophomore girls sat next to me (can't remember names). They were attractive, but no one spoke, and it was definitely somewhat awkward. The Mathworks rep was really awkward as well and didn't say much. I ended up spending the time before food talking to the girls about scheduling and advising... yea.. lame.. can't get numbers with that kind of conversation... Then spent the rest of the time eating food. The girl to my girl right left after the entree, didn't wait for desert. I had a chicken entree, which was ok, but the desert was amazing. I want to say it was pecan pie, but there were more variety of nuts than just pecan... After desert, the girl to my left and her friend said they might have to leave early. The funny thing was the the Mathworks rep left right after that, making up some lame excuse. It was obvious she didn't want to be there :). Then girl soon followed suit. Those three actually missed the best part of the night, which was this "high-tech" magician, who worked at the Media Lab studying the emotions of "wonder." He did some awesome stuff that involved "reading" minds via popular search sites. Crazy shit.
Back to Next. Watched the Return of the King. LoTR was finished. Stayed fully awake the entire time. Great trilogy. Now I need to find time to read A Game of Thrones. And buy books. And do UROP. And get my shit together. Fuck school.
P.S. Apparently I'm the "bad" one in our group. And Julian doesn't like my swearing -_-
Saturday:
Woke up super late. My hair was getting long, so I went to TechniCuts with Julian. Sort of got my regular style cut, but the guy was really cool. Julian got rid of his crazy Hawaiian look and went for a cleaner cut. I guess I'm satisfied.
Then it was time BATTLECODE. There was pizza beforehand (free food ftw), but I might have ate too much... I wonder how Julian felt after eating 8 slices (an entire pizza). Crazy. Battlecode was awesome. Everyone's codes was insane. Though I felt the Bro Code and Positron7 were somewhat lacking. When I Wish Upon Astar (all freshmen) came in 6th and was very impressive. I felt like we tried to do what JIT in My Pants did (turtle and mine), except they had the best stacking code in the tourny and they could actually defend... Good stuff. JIT actually beat gtg ice skates in an upset and sent them to the loser brackets. Eventually gtg came back and beat "I for one welcome our new team 207 overlords" (one guy from New House, what a beast) in the finals. Go Spenser! And damn there were a lot of prizes. First got $5000, second got $4000, third got $3000, fourth got $2000, and fifth to eighth got $1000. It's funny how it's actually financial sensible to do nothing but Battlecode during IAP.
When we got back to Next House, we started our Lord of the Rings series at 1AM... Fell asleep for a bit I think
Sunday:
Conflux pre-release! Nathan, Eric, Anton, and I got to Pandemonium 15min "late" and then had to wait again 30min. Events hosted by nerds always start late for some reason. We played in the sealed format (6 boosters + infinite land). Nathan managed to pull a Progenitus (lucky bastard; both Anton and Nathan got two super-rares). The best card I got was Blood Tyrant (which is a monster, but not imba good like some cards), but a foil version of that comes in a starter pack... Despite my lack of good cards, my deck was decently strong. I went 1-2 before dropping out and heading back, but the two losses were really close and fun matches. Five hours of Magic breezed by. Went to Falafel Palace for lunch :D. Haven't been to that place in ages...
The crew headed for the ZBT Superbowl party at 5:45PM; we were suppose to be at the van stop by 5:30PM... Julian's fault. The Superbowl party was a load of fun. I think the ZBT lobby area got moved around a bit; it looked different than orientation. The guys at ZBT were really cool. I had some pretty good conversations with Rajeev, Matt, and Yang (the first CSL match will take place at ZBT). Makes me wonder if I should have tried to "rush." The wings made by Karen the chef were amazing... The game itself was pretty good too. The Steelers dominated first half. They scored a field goal in like 2 minutes and then made a 100 yard interception-touch down right before halftime. The halftime show was pretty awesome. Bruce Springsteen played. I didn't recognize the first song he did, but then he did a really long rendition of Born to Run. Quality. The Cardinals made a good comeback in the second half, and the Steelers had only 3 minutes to score a touchdown, which they did. GG. The Cardinal QB didn't look too good, but what do I know about football. During the Cardinal resurgence (you tricksy bastard), Julian wanted to bet with me that Cardinals would win. The stake was to ask one of the girls in the back out or get a number. I refused. They were pretty hot (8-9/10), and looked like upper classmen because they were flirting/snuggling/chilling with ZBT upperclassmen. Turns out they were freshmen from Wellesley; figures.
After the game, we went to J.P. Licks and then went back. Watched the Two Towers. This time I fell asleep through most of the movie. Two down.
Monday:
Reg day/the day before classes. Fuck my life (click the post title). Woke up at 1PM. Went to Tech Fair at 3PM. Turned out they close at 3PM, fuck. Then caught up on the Office and blogging. Bohan was awesome and signed me up for the Tech Fair dinner. The 30 minute mingling time was boring as fuck. Talked to some small web development company rep; it was boring, and I wasn't interested, and he could tell. Yea. I was the first to sit at my table (3) when the doors finally opened. Some sophomore girls sat next to me (can't remember names). They were attractive, but no one spoke, and it was definitely somewhat awkward. The Mathworks rep was really awkward as well and didn't say much. I ended up spending the time before food talking to the girls about scheduling and advising... yea.. lame.. can't get numbers with that kind of conversation... Then spent the rest of the time eating food. The girl to my girl right left after the entree, didn't wait for desert. I had a chicken entree, which was ok, but the desert was amazing. I want to say it was pecan pie, but there were more variety of nuts than just pecan... After desert, the girl to my left and her friend said they might have to leave early. The funny thing was the the Mathworks rep left right after that, making up some lame excuse. It was obvious she didn't want to be there :). Then girl soon followed suit. Those three actually missed the best part of the night, which was this "high-tech" magician, who worked at the Media Lab studying the emotions of "wonder." He did some awesome stuff that involved "reading" minds via popular search sites. Crazy shit.
Back to Next. Watched the Return of the King. LoTR was finished. Stayed fully awake the entire time. Great trilogy. Now I need to find time to read A Game of Thrones. And buy books. And do UROP. And get my shit together. Fuck school.
P.S. Apparently I'm the "bad" one in our group. And Julian doesn't like my swearing -_-
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