May 5 2012

Bibliophiles assemble!

Posted in: Miscellaneous, MIT Facts, Information, Life & Culture

A few weeks ago, I had the best weekend in recent history. Of course, it was CPW and the weather was magnificent. But sometimes the most unexpected details go a long way in raising your spirits. For me, that little detail was the MIT Press Loading Dock Sale. And I lied - I KNEW it was going to make me happy.

Every semester or so, the MIT Press (located to the Eastern edge of the campus) hosts a legendary Loading Dock Sale where several rooms are lined wall to wall with moderately new books at prices reduced up to 90% off. How could they afford to sell them for such low prices? Apparently, the books are mainly MIT Press overstock, or with minor damage, or out-of-print. But these factors are no deterrents!

Students, educators, and other segments of the MIT community crowded room after room, carrying baskets filled to the brim, and accumulating checkout sums of several hundreds. It could get crazy in there and it wasn’t hard to see why.

The content range was incredible. From... read the post »

Discussion

Apr 17 2012

Attention local high school students interested science and engineering!

Posted in: Miscellaneous, Visit, Information, Life & Culture

WIth CPW 2012 just a few days away, the whole school is getting ready to invite new friends from all over the world onto our campus. But in just under a month, there will also be an opportunity for high school students to explore the Institute through an engineering competition organized by MIT undergrads. Here's the official low-down! 

The MIT Society of Women Engineers would like to invite local high school students to participate in the exciting annual engineering competition, BeaverDash. BeaverDash is an event specifically designed for high school students and is held each year at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). No previous engineering experience is required, and male and female students of all science and math levels are encouraged to participate.

This year the date is set for Saturday, May 5, 2012 from 9:30 am to 4:30 pm. The topic of the competition will remain a mystery until the morning of the competition. When students arrive on the day of the... read the post »

Discussion

Apr 2 2012

¡Vámonos!

Posted in: Miscellaneous, MIT Facts, Information, Life & Culture

Residential life is a big part of going to college, and the unique diversity of living environments at MIT is something we're proud of. As many of the blogs have illustrated, school is often exciting, but when the wave hits a difficult spot, knowing the people you live and learn with is more valuable than ever. In the MIT dorms,  you have your friends/classmates, but there are also Graduate Resident Tutors (GRTs). GRTs is MIT-speak for RAs and they are the "grown up" figures in the house. (We're technically grown-ups too, but you know.) Anyways, I recently spoke with the GRTs on my floor - hereon refered to as B1 (Burton 1, first floor of the Burton side of Burton-Conner). Greg and Katrina just joined our floor this school year, and I thought it would be interesting to hear their insight as they settle into this new role. 

Thanks for reading! If there are other aspects of MIT you'd like to learn more about, let me know in the comments below!

And finally, here are some... read the post »

Discussion

Feb 21 2012

It’s like finding candy in your pocket…

Posted in: Miscellaneous, Information, Life & Culture

MIT is incredibly wired; wi-fi all over the campus. Students are likewise very into the Internet as you may have guessed, and as it should be in my opinion. 

I'm sure we all fall victim to surrendering minutes and hours to the Internet - aka procrastination. But is it me or are we all getting desensitized to the negative connotation of procrastination so that now it has become you know, a staple part of our day? 

- Hey whatchu up to? 

- Procrastinating. 

I don't blame us. The Internet these days is filled to the brim with appealing content - things to make us laugh (memes), things to make us react in one way or another (Linsanity), things to make us stalkers (Facebook)... just kidding.

But sometimes!

When I stumble upon neat stuff about my professors, I feel just a tad bit redeemed.

Two examples from this past week. 

ONE.

I was scrolling through my Tumblr dashboard (Tumblr is a micro-blogging platform by the way).

Usually it'd look something like this:

A ... read the post »

Comments (6)

Feb 7 2012

The Way We Live

Posted in: Miscellaneous, Life & Culture

Do you ever feel like you can't do just one thing at a time? These days, I can't watch TV (a real TV) without internet on my lap. I can't read or sometimes even sleep without doing "errands around the web" every once in a while. OK I may be an Internet addict, but I am not alone. 

According to a recent New York Times blog titled "The Rise of the Toilet Texter", 91 percent of people between 28-35 have used their mobile devices while on the toilet. Blame it on all those apps for everything you can think of.

As our Internet culture continues to mature, words such as "social media fatigue" are becoming legitimate concerns. 

I wasn't fully aware of this problem in my life until our trip to Seoul in my last week of IAP in Korea. 

South Korea may be the Starcraft capital in the world (with its own serious Internet addiction problem to tackle), but it is also a country with such distinct and concentrated culture that upon exposure, inspires many thoughts about the differences in the... read the post »

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