Halloween is awesome, for a bajillion reasons. 

1: I turned 19!

My favorite part of birthdays is...mushiness.

Mushiness comes in sentiment form. People like that-friend-you-haven't-spoken-to-in-ages-because-you've-both-been-super-busy give you a call, or send you an e-mail, or (more commonly) write on your Facebook wall, and the two of you set up a time to Skype. 

Mushiness also comes in cake form. At 10:30pm, I was psetting in the lounge near my room (yes, on my birthday. I'm lame, I know. The firehose stops for no aging ritual, though) when the door behind me flung open with a bang and a hat was pulled onto my head (with more of a "swoosh" than a bang.)

The hat looked like this:

This hat has been worn by many generations of French House residents. It's something I try not to think about when I wear it. 

Anyway, I was led upstairs, where French House and a recently-baked chocolate cake lay in wait. After a chorus of "joyeux anniversaire", which ended on a lovely three-or-four-part chord, I proved that maturity has nothing whatsoever to do with age when I couldn't stop giggling and failed miserably at blowing out the candles. 

2: I was mass 1 of a driven coupled harmonic oscillator.

Sophie '14 and I are both taking 8.03, a class called "Waves and Vibrations." In our second unit, we did so many problems involving coupled oscillators that it seemed only right to become one. For a driving force, we stole a wheel from the wii in the TV lounge and labeled it dcos(wt), and bought some coils of wire to be our springs, labeled appropriately with spring constants k and k'. 

Jealous? Yeah, I thought so.

Other costumes on the night included a few from Super Smash Bros. Brawl, the little stick figure man from xkcd, an array of characters from Doctor Who (the tardis, two weeping angels, The Doctor), a female Draco Malfoy, and Merlin (from the TV show.) It was pretty fantastic. Two shown below:

3: Food.

Pumpkin cupcakes, chocolate cupcakes with super-elaborate cream cheese frosting, candy corn. More pumpkin cupcakes. And so on. 

4: Some people here are way too good at carving pumpkins.

I don't think I've ever carved a pumpkin in my life, which is part of why the pumpkins that emerge at French House's annual pumpkin carving competition totally blow my mind. Examples from previous years, from one particularly talented pumpkin-carver (who also has a host of other talents):

Now, take a look at this:

Correct response, on your part: Woah, that girl looks so familiar!

That's RIGHT! She does! BECAUSE THAT'S THE GIRL IN THAT LAST PUMPKIN. Anyway, moving onto some pumpkins from this year: 

First person to figure out what all these pumpkins are (except for the one with the French House girl, since I kind of gave that away) wins. 

5: At the pumpkin drop, a pumpkin exploded and a piece hit me. 

Multiple pieces, actually. It was pretty dramatic. It was made even more dramatic by the fact that it was snowing heavily.

Boston's gift to me: the first time I've seen snow on my birthday. :)

Comments (Closed after 30 days to reduce spam)

We dont have this in our country but seems really great!! )

Posted by: Rahul Shrestha on November 15, 2011

Happy birthday! Nice birthday hat:)

Posted by: : D on November 15, 2011

DOCTOR WHO! Man, Blink was quite possibly the best episode ever.

Posted by: Piper H. '13 on November 15, 2011

That costume. So great. ++++

Posted by: Anthony L. '15 on November 15, 2011

first is vader, last is a circuit with a diode and resistor, second is uh.

Posted by: Kwame on November 15, 2011

Obama
don't know
Bill Gates (? not sure ?)
Dr. House
Something about witches
The Girl
Darth Vader
Nemo? Turtle from finding nemo?
Electronic circuit

Happy BDay

Posted by: José ('17?) on November 15, 2011

This inspires me to dress up as a force vector next year.

Posted by: thelittlerhoboatthatcould on November 15, 2011

@Piper H. '13: AHH RIGHT??

@José ('17?): Other than the "don't know", 1 of those is wrong, and the "witches" thing is close.

Anyone know?

Posted by: Anna H. '14 on November 15, 2011

@thelittlerhoboatthatcould: Do it. Alternatively, you could dress up as either the, or the sailor of the, little rho boat that could. That would be pretty awesome.

Posted by: Anna H. '14 on November 15, 2011

The second one looks like the Jedi Order crest, so I'll guess Obi Wan and Anakin? The "witches" one is the poster image for Wicked, although I have no clue who the third one could be if it isn't Bill Gates.

Posted by: Austin on November 15, 2011

@Anna: Eek! I honestly hadn't thought of that yet! Maybe I'll dress up as the (sailor of the) little rhoboat with all its force vectors (I'm in a very physics-y mood today). I'm set for next year :D

Posted by: thelittlerhoboatthatcould on November 15, 2011

Just to start off by saying happy birthday! I'm totally a stranger and might seem a bit intrusive, but I have MIT set as my goal for college. Currently a sophomore in high school, and graduating the same year as you graduate college! I would SOO SO appreciate it if you could give me any advice at all on getting accepted. I'm aware it's a bit rude of me to just comment on your blog like this, but I'd be ecstatic if you are willing to talk with me on this.

Thanks so much!
chococat221@hotmail.com

Posted by: Grace on November 22, 2011

Happy birthday! Wow, that sounds so fun... :D

Posted by: Alice on November 24, 2011

Awesome read, thank you. I also especially liked your take on your 'Challenge' post from a little while back (I just now got the opportunity to read it). Keep 'em coming.

Posted by: Eric B on November 26, 2011

Oh, by the way, Darth Vader, French House

Posted by: Eric B on November 26, 2011

obama
ahh no idea, but at a wild guess something from the hunger games? no idea why i guessed that
no idea
house
wicked (the musical)
french house girl
darth vader
finding nemo
electircal circiut

Posted by: Emily on November 27, 2011

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