DID YOU KNOW? Some languages do not effectively distinguish between blue and green.

By now I think there should be a category called "e-mails that Sam has received from Hillel, who still mistakenly think he is Jewish." But there's not, so this will go in Miscellaneous.

From: Irving Spiderman
To: pi-pi-pie@mit.edv
Date: 01-25-07 1:00 PM
Subject: pi, Pi, pie. TONIGHT.

Like Pi? or "Pi"? How about Pie?

TONIGHT, 7:30pm at the Hillel Center in w11.

Join MIT Hillel for an evening packed to the brim with pi. We'll view the movie "Pi", while simultaneously enjoying a dinner of pizza pies. To top the evening off we'll have a Pi competition; the person who knows the most digits of Pi will be rewarded with a Pie!

Come for the pie, stay for the pi.

Only at MIT Hillel.

Unfortunately, I missed it because I was running 3 miles on a treadmill in the Burton-Conner cardio room. Normally this is the worst thing in all recorded history (in fact, on my running log, I have "FREAKING BC TREADMILL" written for the last time I used it) but, thanks in part to the Undergraduate Association, MIT now gets Comedy Central! Do you know what that means? I can watch The Colbert Report, just like a real college student! And so I did on the really old cardio room TV, nearly falling off the treadmll as I squinted to read "The Word" without my glasses.

Also, I don't know if it can possibly be a coincidence, but Comedy Central is channel 52 on both MIT Cable and my very own cable back in Harrisburg. What channel is it on YOUR cable?

Sorry if you don't have cable. Or feet.

Last night I dreamed that Al Gore committed suicide by being burned alive by a dragon in Vietnam or some other Southeast Asian country (there were seven dragons in total; I think this one was the most powerful). I read about the suicide on his Wikipedia article and then saw video footage of it on CNN. I wonder what that means.

I wonder if it has to do with the fact that I've been taking 10.391: Sustainable Energy eight hours a day for the past two weeks?

Comments (Closed after 30 days to reduce spam)

First post-- hooray!

Posted by: Sha on January 26, 2007

Hooray!-first post.
Oops! second.

Posted by: Tim on January 26, 2007

MIT Hillel has managed to follow me from Conner 2 to Boston and back to NJ. I half-expected to be presented with mailings for the Hamantaschen-Latke debate by breathless couriers in Bulgaria.

Also, "Irving Spiderman"? Wasn't that the name Jon Stewart urged Spider-Man to adopt to appeal more to New Yorkers... on COMEDY CENTRAL (ch.50)?

See how I tied that in? That's quality, kids.

Posted by: Jon '06 on January 26, 2007

I'm near Philly, and Comedy Central is 65 for us. But comcast just changed the channels around at the end of summer I think? So sometimes I still think it's 41.

Posted by: Mike on January 26, 2007

Instructions for reciting Pi

Memorize 3.141592653589. When someone asks you to recite Pi, say 3.141592653589 followed by about 100 numbers at random. Of course, random numbers are hard to generate for a human, so try to be careful. Don't talk to quickly, either, or you'll stumble on the random numbers.

Now of course.. This works wonderfully on other students at my high school.. But obviously it wouldn't work at places like MIT.
----------
Comedy Central is channel 18 on our cable.

Posted by: Adam S. on January 26, 2007

There's a music stand in our gym at Next, so I've been watching tv shows on alluc and abc.com on my laptop while I run. I'm so productive it's not even funny.

Posted by: Jess on January 26, 2007

haha...I am one of those people that happily survive without cable (almost without television!!!)but I do have feet.

curious dream...it probably means gore won't be running at the next presidentials

Posted by: crippy on January 26, 2007

Re: your Did You Know --

A paper published in this week's Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences claims that "color naming reflects optimal partitions of color space" (Pubmed search it; I'm on Harvard's bizarre convoluted journal access system and I don't know the actual URL).

...okay, back to being a grad student.

Posted by: Mollie on January 26, 2007

Channel 75. I usually neglect its existence, though.

Posted by: Joe P. on January 26, 2007

Ha! Adam S, I like your method! It would be very effective here - there are actually people who think pi is (*gasp*) 22/7 !!!!

Posted by: Daniel on January 26, 2007

I think it's 56 at my house? Who really knows.

(Notice how in the above sentence, my statement ends with a question mark and my question mark ends with a statement, all to demonstrate intonation and attitude. I am clearly a born screenwriter.)

Mostly I just commented to say I NEVER THOUGHT COMEDY CENTRAL WOULD HAPPEN AND THE FACT THAT I NO LONGER HAVE TO GIVE ITUNES MILLIONS OF DOLLARS EVERY TIME I WANT TO SEE THE DAILY SHOW IS AMAZING.

Posted by: Nina on January 26, 2007

Love the title and the totally random blog entry that goes with it. Also pi. And pie.

Posted by: Meara on January 26, 2007

I got the Jewish War Veteran's Award and I happen to be Asian and Roman Catholic. I looked up the requirements of the award (after asking my school how I got it-they said it had to do with leadership) and it stated "demonstrates commitment and dedication to Jewish activities." Haha We'll I'm still going to the breakfast and we'll see what happens...

Posted by: Aaron on January 26, 2007

Nice tip- Adam!
I'll try on my HS collegues;)

Posted by: Monika on January 27, 2007

poor al. that sounds like either a terrible way to die or a fantastic publicity stunt. or both.

Posted by: maia on January 27, 2007

I hate running on treadmills. While a necessity for marathon training when there's like a foot of snow outside, I'm still convinced that they're the spawn of Satan.

And they lie. Oh, do they lie.

Posted by: 0 on January 27, 2007

Channel 45

Posted by: Alvin on January 28, 2007

I love Colbert! But I love Jon Stewart even more. Comedy Central is 62 for me.

Posted by: Kelly on January 29, 2007

The Colbert Report is awesome. Now I can go to college and still watch my favorite show plus reruns of MadTV .

And in NYC, Comedy Central is channel 45.

Posted by: Bianca on January 29, 2007

the colbert report is awesome.

i don't know what channel comedy central is on because comedy central is our permanent tv setting; 48? well that and showtime on demand (it's all about sleeper cell and dexter) and that's all i watch.

i lied....i watch the office too.

Posted by: rain on January 30, 2007

41
turner classics or something like that is 42
bummer right?

pi the movie rocks by the way.
good job Missing it.

Posted by: Larisa on January 30, 2007

r u saying my country is a dragon, i'm a southasian too..? lol..

Posted by: 0 on January 31, 2007

107

Posted by: 0 on January 31, 2007

For the language thing, take it at face value. I speak both Chinese and Japanese fluently and very rarely now in Chinese do you refer to things as "qing". Green is "lue" and blue is "lan". The same goes for Japanese. Green is "midori" and blue is "ao".

Posted by: Oasis on January 31, 2007

channel 75

Posted by: jeet on February 3, 2007

Clearly you were Jewish in another life. Fyi, STHS is doing Kiss Me Kate this weekend. It won't hold a candle to your Les Mis and Sound of Music, but such is life in the burg. And as to Al Gore--is it really suicide if the dragon did it? But most importantly, when will we read about the almost Amazing Race??

Posted by: Beloved High School Friend Shana's Mom on February 16, 2007

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