First off, an update on my life: I am now a tenured graduate student (passed both halves of my qualifying exams), became a vegetarian, and started training for triathlons. Aside from that, I still live at ZBT as the resident advisor (GRT in disguise...kind of) and still have managed not to pull an all-nighter (for academic reasons). The past two years have been full of excitement from studying, switching from mechanical engineering to a completely different discipline, biking around Boston, traveling, and research.

About an hour ago, I registered for my last class at MIT. Actually, I registered for two classes because I couldn't decide from the syllabi which class I wanted to take, so I signed up for both of them. I registered for my first set of classes in 2003 (3.091, 21A.109, 18.01A, 8.01 and a seminar). I don't know how many total classes I've taken since then, but I came close to taking a class in every department so that's kind of cool.

When I first started MIT, I never once expected to stay here for this long (partly because I didn't think my mom would support an undergraduate education that took that long nor did I ever expect to go to graduate school). When I came to MIT, my plan was to study EECS, start a video game company, and go make millions. Today, I work in a mass spectrometry lab studying insulin resistance and couldn't be happier. What I realized that MIT taught me more than anything was to take risks. It was definitely a risk to switch disciplines for my PhD. It's definitely a risk for me to study anything related to biochemistry given how poorly I did in 7.05, but this I realize is what makes MIT the place it is. It's safe to take risks; it's safe to say you don't know. It's safe to do something you know absolutely nothing about. That's what education is about.

So to all the new students starting off their MIT experience: be free, take chances, and don't sweat the small stuff.

No CPW-goer would set out for a day's adventures without the booklet as it contains, in addition to useful maps of campus and the Cambridge area, the dates, times, locations, and descriptions for all 620 officially-recognized CPW events. That's enough for one to begin every 7 minutes or - more closely resembling reality - for 8 to begin on every hour of the weekend, causing even the most fervent Course 8 disciples to curse the physical laws restricting them to a single location at a given time. Of course, the most hardcore physics geeks attempt to channel the powers of quantum mechanics to transform themselves into distributed probability waves, but are ultimately unsuccessful and, along with their fellow mortals, only get to attend a fraction of the events they would like.

These events are the most visible external feature of CPW: they are many, well attended, and thoroughly documented. However, I'm writing here to point out another aspect of CPW, one far less frequently discussed, possibly because of the challenge describing it poses. It is the difference of CPW and the events; it is why years of blog posts detailing the minutae of CPW never adequately described the vitality and excitement of the weekend; it is the intangible element that makes CPW so much more than a jumble of activities.

Most of all, it is extremely difficult to define. So, I'll instead attempt to demonstrate the part of MIT that can't be found in any booklet: the other CPW.

Thursday, 8:15-9:15pm Frialator @ Theta Xi
After wandering Boston lost for the better part of an hour, our group was getting quite hungry, so we decided to head to one of the fraternity cookouts on Beacon Street. Under the direction of our dubiously-appointed navigator, Maria '13, we located a frat house and knocked at its door. As it turned out, it was a Boston University fraternity and was understandably not holding a CPW barbecue.

Further roaming brought us to Theta Xi, an MIT fraternity whose Thursday-evening cookout was long over, but which nonetheless invited us to pick through the leftovers. To our surprise and delight, among the lukewarm hamburger patties and scattered ketchup bottles was a large cardboard box filled with industrial quantities of frozen french fries. The brothers of Theta Xi saw our excitement and offered to prepare some for us. We followed downstairs to the kitchen, where we saw the most glorious thing a disheveled pack of hungry prefrosh could imagine: a piping-hot frialator.

The master chefs of Theta Xi fried and salted an entire bag of potato sticks, far more than we could possibly eat. Then, we all headed back upstairs to the TV room, where the Daily Show with Jon Stewart was on, shortly followed by the Colbert Report. Jon talked about the tea party protests, teabagging (of course), and the Red Sox / Yankees rivalry, all of which collectively made for some amusing but thoroughly intellectual commercial conversations.

The brothers also gave us a tour of the roof deck, a delightfully hazardous structure grandfathered into local ordinances. In addition to making a fine grilling platform, it has an excellent view of the imfamous Citgo sign.

Thursday, 9:30pm Course 5 UROP Seminar @ Boston West Saferide

Walking the Harvard Bridge and counting off smoots along the way is an excellent CPW activity, but the novelty wears off quickly after the first crossing, so we literally chased down the Boston West Saferide for the trip back to MIT.

On the mostly-empty bus, we were easily recognized as prefrosh by a friendly Course 5 senior. During the ride around Boston, we talked about his experiences at MIT, focusing on research at MIT and in Israel through MISTI. The discussion quickly involved everyone riding on the bus, and Divya '13 led nearly half a dozen other prefrosh in an "OMG, you're from New York too?!" powwow.

Once back on campus, we wandered the floors of Burton-Conner (all of them) and settled into Conner 2's TV lounge for the night, just down the hall from where I was supposed to be sleeping in suite 223. From about midnight to 4am, there was a steady stream of floor residents walking down the hallway, most of whom spotted the prefrosh in the lounge and stayed to chat. A constantly-revolving set of natives sat with us on the couches, and we talked about everything from 8.01 flavors to dining (which is still an extremely touchy issue) to Mason's knack for awkwardly and hilariously ending conversations, something he had done 117 times since the floor began keeping tally on a whiteboard in the lounge.

Around 4 am, we and the more permanent inhabitants of Conner 2 went to sleep. The plan was to sleep until lunchtime, then carry on well-rested, but a bright East Coast sunrise at 6am got us up in time for earliest of waffle breakfasts. Apparently, even our celestial friend knows: if you're sleeping at CPW, you're doing it wrong.

Friday, 7:30pm Divya '13's Birthday Party @ BTB Lounge
Friday morning, I attended a 2.007 (robot-building) lab at the recommendation of a dedicated mechanical engineering student I met Thursday evening walking down the Infinite Corridor. She was walking down the center of the hallway working on a Solidworks model on her laptop, but apparently had time to chat with prefrosh about Course 2. Shortly thereafter, I attended an 8.022 ("electromagnetism for masochists") lecture, wearing my Maxwell's equations t-shirt, which received a passing compliment from the lecturer as I took a seat.

The next few hours blurred, but I'm fairly certain I toured East Campus in that period. Next thing I remember, I was at Meet the Bloggers, which as an "event" would be outside the scope of this post, but there Yan presented me with another Maxwell's equations shirt, but this one from Course 8, so the equations were written in proper symmetrical differential form. At one point that evening, I was simultaneously wearing two t-shirts bearing Maxwell's equations, one in integral form and the other in differential. That's a level of nerdiness frowned upon even at CPW.

After Meet the Bloggers, which ran late, a text message proclamation arrived from Divya '13: "I HAVE CAKE!!!" The promise of food assembled the previous night's wandering group within minutes. As it were, Divya's parents drove 7 hours round-trip to deliver this wonderful cake (only slightly damaged) for her birthday.

Requiring a table and utensils, we headed back to Burton-Conner and this time settled on Burton Third, home of the Burton Third Bombers. Sitting in the lounge, we ate as much as we could (perhaps one third of the cake) and talked with some of the floor inhabitants. We offered them some of our surplus cake, but they politely declined, typical of BTB's bashful reputation. When we had finished, however, we left the cake for the floor residents, and when we checked back in a few hours, it was devoured.

Friday, 10pm-2:30am Absolutely Nothing at All @ Anywhere
Nothing of any interest whatsoever to anyone happened Friday at 10pm. This stretch of nothingness ran well into the wee hours of the morning.

Afterwards, we groggily stumbled back to some lounge on a Burton floor with abundant couches, still contemplating the inky black void encompassing the last 5 hours of our CPW experience. Sleep arrived at about 4am.

Saturday, 4-4:30pm Impromptu Rock Band @ Conner 2
Another day's worth of drifting around campus and event-going somehow led us to Conner 2, where I was theoretically staying. I hadn't seen much of my host due to my wandering, but he gave us a tour of the floor and then demonstrated his drumming prowess on Rock Band. Here, Snively '11 on drum set, Laura '13 on bass, Albert '13 (barely visible behind Laura '13) on vocals, and Chris '13 (off-screen) on guitar play an unknown song in the TV lounge of English House (you can even see the Union Jack on the side wall).

Saturday, 9-10pm Getting Lost @ Boston
That evening, when hunger pains returned, we flipped through our CPW booklets, scrounging for food-containing events. Promising looked Sigma Nu's "Pizza/Smoothies/Video Games!!" as it apparently involved pizza, smoothies, and video games, along with a second exclamation mark promising copious amounts of excitement.

So, we once again crossed the river, then sat under a street light for several minutes trying to locate Sigma Nu's dot on the CPW booklet map. No, I jest. We kept walking without direction, eventually boarding a Saferide. The friendly driver let us off at the next stop, saying the bus didn't get any closer, and pointed us up a hill. Being clever prefrosh, we recognized the hill as a freeway exit ramp and instead veered to the side. Through a long and exciting series of misadventures, we found ourselves at Fenway Park (game night, Red Sox v. Orioles).

Trust me when I say this was among the most enjoyable lost experiences I've ever had, but we were all still hungry, so we oriented ourselves and headed to Sigma Nu, 28 The Fenway, which is interestingly enough nowhere near Fenway Park.

Saturday, 10pm Pool and Photography Seminar @ Sigma Nu
Finally, we arrived at Sigma Nu, which is a fascinating fraternity. It is geographically isolated from most of the frats, which are largely on Beacon and Bay State Road. The house is actually more accurately described as a mansion, with grand dining halls and a massive 4-story spiral grand staircase, capped off with a stained glass roof.

When we arrived, the smoothies and video games were well underway, but the pizza had been reduced to meager scraps of Hawaiian. We grabbed the remainder and toured around the building, ending up in the basement, where we played pool and talked to the brothers of SN for several hours. We also attended a brief photography masterclass, which presumably inspired Divya '13 to create this masterpiece.

Sunday, 3-5am Chair Racing @ The Tunnels
If there's one thing that no CPW experience would be complete without - and there is one - it is pulling an all-nighter. For me, that was the last night of the weekend. After departing from SN and walking across the Harvard Bridge in the rain (the Weather Machine broke the last day), we headed back to the Infinite Corridor.

More specifically, we headed under the Infinite Corridor, into the tunnels. These passageways are useful for traveling in the cold Boston winters, but in a few locations, then also slope steadily downward. A resourceful student could locate rolling chairs and head to one of these inclines. A lucky prefrosh, such as a blurry Maria '13 here, could walk down a tunnel, turn a corner, and find herself in mortal peril.

Of course, even more dangerous than walking through tunnels filled with speeding chairs is to ride said chairs down the treacherous slopes, so that's precisely what we did for the following hours. Several bruises, scrapes, and one narrowly-avoided cranial fracture later, we left the underground to watch the Sun rise over the Boston skyline, all without a minute of sleep.

If there exists an appropriate conclusion to a CPW entry, it's not something I'm capable of writing, so in its stead, I welcome the Class of 2013 and wish all future applicants good luck. Having just turned in my enrollment forms, hopefully I'll see you all at another incredible CPW.

Almost exactly one year ago, on a Junior year college tour trip during Spring Break, we were strolling the gloomy length of the Infinite Corridor, admiring the cracked Terazzo floor and the pipes hanging from the ceiling, when my son looked over with a smile and said “this feels right.” My aesthetic sensibilities were honed amid the mellow brick and expansive green lawns of my and William Barton Rogers’ alma mater (10 points to anyone who knows without looking at the link), so I was somewhat skeptical. But I am nothing if not supportive of my children’s right to choose, so I bought him a “Nerd Pride” shirt at the Coop, went to the MIT Admissions Road Show featuring Bryan Nance when it rolled through town during the summer and, as promised, celebrated his admission in December by running around the yard waving sparklers (thankfully, this hasn't found its way to YouTube). I was impressed by the effort made by the MIT admissions staff: the personal notes, the long awaited “tube,” and the holiday cards. But some part of me remained unconvinced; was this cold, stark, urban enclave of technocrats REALLY the right place?

Well CPW quieted all my doubts. MIT is amazing. Let me count the ways:

1. At MIT students change the world

   Everywhere we went during CPW, we were regaled with incredible stories: Donald Sadoway’s students working on a new process to make steel with oxygen as a bi-product instead of carbon dioxide; Amy Smith’s students creating charcoal out of waste material to prevent deforestation in the third world; UROP presentations from students who had worked at CERN (yeah, that place in Geneva with the particle accelerator that might create a black hole); CSAIL presentations on developing new microprocessors and robots; Dean Vandiver’s presentation on the MIT “vehicle summit” which resulted in student designed and built passenger vehicles with ridiculous fuel efficiency (did he really say 200 miles per gallon?) and so many more. It quite literally boggles the mind.

2. At MIT the faculty and staff sincerely care about the undergraduates

   
   It isn’t what you would expect at a premier research facility. Surely there are anti-social, nose to the grindstone researchers tucked away somewhere?? Well, if there are, they were well hidden at CPW. President Hockfield herself assured me that all the Nobel laureates actually teach, hold office hours and involve students in their projects. And everyone was so NICE - President Hockfield, Stu Schmill, Daniel Barkowitz, (who handed out a 100 Grand to every parent who registered for a Financial Aid session - okay, it was the candy bar variety, but it is the thought that counts!) of course the crowd in Admissions, and every professor, administrator, and dean we met. And the Housemasters. Like in Harry Potter! Full professors who live in dorms with their spouses, and their children and even their dogs and actually keep an eye on the students. They had open houses on Saturday and fed the parents brunch. Plus there are Graduate Assistants who live on every hall. Anyone who, like me, has had to drop a child at a large state university in a high rise dorm presided over only by an undergraduate “R.A.” a year older than her charges, would certainly be reassured by the quality of the safety net at MIT.
   

3. At MIT the students are multi-talented and fun loving

   
   Admittedly, they are not normal… But they are still fun. I mean, Snively really does wear a binary watch, but he was still charming. The Logarhythms dressed a member in balloons … but their concert appearances were still amazing, as were all six a cappella groups who sang, - and the mariachi band, - and the salsa dancers - and the Steel Orchestra - MIT students all. The parents were excluded from the really fun stuff. I thought it would cramp Donald’s style if I showed up for the bouncy ball drop at Senior House, or the human hamster wheel at East, or the liquid nitrogen ice cream at Random, and he expressly forbade my going on the unofficial tour named after a certain citrus fruit… I did snag a hot dog at Theta Delt (thank you for your kindness to a starving parent) and some regular ice cream at the Meet the Bloggers party and got a feel for the warmth and camaraderie that permeated every corner of campus during CPW. After all, no one could do it all. The schedule of events was 87 pages long!

4. The aesthetics of MIT do grow on you

   
   Stata included. It does look like something out of a Dr. Seuss book, but it is bright and open, and airy and, if you try you can convince yourself it is “whimsical” rather than “weird.” I did look up too long while sitting in 32-449, and it made me dizzy as my brain tried to make the panels straight. If you leave the corridors and tunnels and walk outdoors along the Charles River, the view is quite lovely. And when the weather turns to *#%& as it did without warning on several occasions (the Weather Machine must have shorted out) then there is something to be said for being able to get from Mass Ave to Kendall Square while still indoors. I got caught out twice and bought not one, but two MIT umbrellas at two different Coops. I also bought decals for my car’s window and a “MIT Mom” sweatshirt. Yep, I’m ready. MIT is amazing.

We are, we are, we are, we are, we are the Engineers,
We can, we can, we can, we can, demolish forty beers,
Drink rum, drink rum, drink rum all day, and come along with us,
'Cause we don't give a damn for any old man who don't give a damn for us!

1. Hearing
While at MIT CPW, I had the wonderful opportunity to sample all sorts of auditory goodness. I’m a musician myself, and met several awesome members of the MIT Marching Band and MIT’s vocal groups.

As it turns out, MIT has an active and talented a cappella scene, with many different kinds of music represented. The Chorallaries wow’d the crowd (yeah unintentional rhyme!) with the Engineers’ Drinking Song (see below). The Toons’ (I am biased towards them because they let me sing with them in Lobby 7) Boston was astounding. All other groups were also simply awesome beyond all reason (koodos to Cross Products, muy bueno Muses, first rate Resonance, and of course gotta love the ladie killin’ Logarhythms).

2. Smell
What could a man possibly talk about smelling at MIT? Well, you probably think he’d make some pathetic attempt to personify a big, philosophical theme into a “smell” in a sad justification of his self-imposed theme.

And you would be right.

Let’s just say I smelled the smelly smell of [Insert your own smell here, but it was probably a fusion of tangerine, liquid nitrogen ice cream, Spring weather, sweat from underground CTF, and a million other smelly smells] wafting throughout the campus. And it was all incredible.

3. Taste
Quothe the Bryan, “If you’re paying for your food, you’re doing something wrong.” The man couldn’t be more right. I happened to be staying at the ridiculously awesome Theta Delta Chi, which was chockfull of food and video games. I even ventured out to explore some frat parties across the river, and they were all awesome.

I could go into great details of Goldfish eating, glow-stick dancing, midnight raving, and Top Gun rocking, but instead I’ll just leave you with this crucial idea:
When they say Work Hard, Play Hard at MIT, they mean it. And it is awesome.

4. Vision
There was too much to see to really take it all in, and I think that’s what MIT looks like overall. If you’re not sure what I mean, allow me to tell you about my check-in experience.

Me: “Kapaku, Robert.”
MIT: “OK, here’s your folder, your booklet of 600+ activities, and this card to give us when you check out Sunday.”
Me: “Cool!
…
…
…
…
“Now what?”
MIT: “Haha, well, now you go wherever you want to go! Enjoy, and call if you need us!”

From Thursday check-in until Sunday check-out, I was free. FREE. For a kid with strict parents and curfews and schedules and day planners and high school and work schedules and this that and the other, this was truly bizarre. I’ve never truly felt freedom before, and besides, at home there’s only so much to do.

Suddenly I’ve got this kaleidoscope of crazy activities to do, and the freedom to do (or not do) whatever I wanted. There was a ridiculous amount to see and take in. I could sample any color or pattern from this kaleidoscope, and had to report to no one to do it. I think that’s what life at MIT is like. A million opportunities and possibilities, and only yourself as the ultimate guide (with a friendly MIT support staff there should you need a little help). See the sights!

5. Touch
Thus far I’ve only really addressed social-type things that I encountered at MIT. However, I’m told that the ‘tute is also pretty good at science and engineering and whatnot.

My goodness, they’re not lying.

Hearing Prof. Amy Smith talk about getting HANDS-ON (Get it? I’m writing about this under “Touch.” If you’re still reading and following my gimmicky theme, thank you and I’m sorry.) was positively amazing. D-Lab definitely sounds like the kind of place where I want to be: a place where you take your talents and then DO something with them.

This was just one example of many at MIT that contributes to how the overall campus felt (har har, more theme punning) to me. It was just this feeling that everyone there is bright, everyone there is capable, and (here’s where it’s different than other colleges) almost everyone there wants to DO something about it. People want to research on projects supervised by Nobel Laureates, people want to travel to small villages in third-world countries to engineer solutions, people want to create a thermite reaction in the backyard of their frat (Here’s lookin’ at you TDC!) just to see the molten explosion because it’s wicked cool and slightly dangerous.

In this realm of IHTFP, I don’t know if I’ll love or hate this effin’ place.

But I love the feel of it.

And now, a small sampling of my CPW

Vika ’12 at Simmons’ Instructables. Something about tattooing cell phones.

Yummy liquid nitrogen ice cream at Random.

Another photo blogger? Leanna ’12 at TDC dinner.

More ice cream with fellow prefrosh Mary ’12, Isaac ’12, and Phil ’12.

Authentic delicious burrito from Anna’s. Mmmmmmm.

Blogger alert! Snively ’11 raffles (as opposed to rofls?) at the Burton-Conner party

Scott ’12 and Lindsay-Paige ’12 cross the Smoot Bridge into Boston!

Maryam ’12 and Lindsay-Paige ’12 wait with me for a tour. A citrus tour. Something about tangerines… *ahem*

Kickin’ it with the other natives (I’m part native Hawaiian). Among the cool people here is my ridiculously cool host, LeVon ’09 on the far right.

John ’09 and Rob ’08 let me sing with them as Toons serenaded Lobby 7.

And finally, the MIT Chorallaries sing the Engineer’s Drinking song. Sorry the video isn’t great quality. The lyrics, by the by, are a couple of variations on some found here.

Cheers,
Rob
http://www.xanga.com/tomorrow_infinite

Oh I wish that I were back again at Tech..

Well, we all heard the Chorollaries’ beautiful renditions of the Engineers Drinking Song, but there is another traditional MIT song (this one in the Logs standard repertoire) that (at least in bits) more accurately expresses a lot of prefrosh’s current feelings.

This is quite seriously how I am feeling at the moment. Like a lot of prefrosh, I am dealing with a lot of senioritis (yes, there is a wikipedia article on it) and I’m ready to head back to the ‘tvte. Though I have some great friends here at home (many whom I will miss dearly), I feel like I have friend’s at (and soon to be at) MIT who I already miss.

Since this is ostensibly a CPW entry, I guess I should talk about my CPW. Overall, my CPW was pretty tame. Keep in mind this is saying tame for CPW - this is a lot like saying west campus people are normal (they are, for MIT).

In any case, for a trip to my new favorite place, the beginning was less than glorious. It can be summed up well in one picture

yea -_- Due to nice fog, my plane to Boston never touched down, so I went to Boston from Virgina Beach… by way of Atlanta. While displacment is a vector, time is a scalar, so I caught the shuttle

and arrived on campus a lot latter than intended (noonish rather than nineish).

Over the weekend, the rest of my schedule has been covered by a lot of the other entrants:

• I was, at times, in the chat group with Omar (in the picture of the cameras, mine is the orange camera phone)
• I was there for Chris’s head injury


• I went to the CSAIL presentation, 6.02 class, and EECS open house, Ball Drop and many other things where Karen could be found. (In general, her longer blog here closely follows my CPW experience (especially thursday, friday), though somehow I never actually met her)
• I went to see Roadkill Buffet like Joey C.


• Like lots of people, I was there for the Icebreakers, festival, Meet the Bloggers etc.


• Though I didn’t play Underground CTF, I did play BC’s CTF on Thursday night

So, I won’t bore you with too much redundant recounting. Quickly here are some pictures/videos I have to add (in roughly chronological order):

the housing/dining info session

The real beauty of CPW

4th East (Slugfest)’s Iron Curtain music visulization project

The poor orientation hosts who were in charge of running “ice breakers” on the chat group (and the one poor guy in the group who wasn’t a chat person)

The obligatory picture from the roof of Baker (before the party)

A nearly empty infinite corridor at 2am on Thursday (Random Standard Time)

Our hard-hatted tour group at the new grad dorm where the so-called Phoenix/W1 Incubator group will live for two years. Will U, Kimberly S ‘12 and I were the only prefrosh to go on the tour of the dorm. It was a really nice (albeit under construction) facility and really will afford the people who go for it great opportunities to jump-start the culture of the former-Ashdown house. That said, I’m not sure if I can handle living one place 2 years (WAAY off campus) and another 2 years some place else, both new. For those of you who are adventurous, its definitely worth looking into.

6.02 Lecture on Variable Length Encoding. Very interesting and I actually understood it and learned a lot.

Some (anti-)VI propaganda handed out at the EECS open house. (Note: free shirts that Omar didn’t get!)

The sounds (and almost sights) of the Ball Drop

Snively + Me + Colbert’s “my ______ friend” pose = AMAZING PICTURE! (if only camera didn’t ruin it)

Random Hall's flying cow. You can hear part of a Random Hall tour in the background

As even these few meager pictures show, I had an awesome time at CPW. Keep in mind also that during some of the most awesome times, I was too busy (or forbidden hint) to be taking pictures.

For example, during the GBIS A cappella concert, I was literally too awed by the awesome groups (several of which I’d love to be a part of), to snap a picture. During the Roadkill Buffet performance (which I forewent Battle of the Bands for), I was much too busy laughing. By far the funniest moment to me, although it may not translate well to text, was during a game in which they had to interject phrases the audience wrote before the show into a scene,

Actor 1: *pulls phrase from pocket* GERANIUM URANIUM!

Actor 2: Yea, I remember man. Thats what we called you in high school. Everyone was afraid of the Geranium Uranium. I remember they called me *pulls phrase* Lions and Tigers and Bears Oh My!

Actor 1: yep, we used to call you LTBOM for short

.. I laughed to the point of tears (I think you had to be there).

Overall, however, I find myself wanting more. Not more from CPW, but more from MIT - I need more of MIT… soon.

This is partially my fault. I enrolled before CPW, so I wasn’t running to make sure it was all for me and I feel like I left some things undone. I never saw Simmons nor Senior Haus; I hung out with the chat group a lot and, in doing so, didn’t meet that many completely new people (though I actually probably am now best friends with some of the chat people I knew least before the weekend), and I feel like I probably slept too late.

The larger cause of this yearning, however, lies squarely in the nature of CPW. CPW was MIT in super-condensed form and, as much as we tried, one simply couldn’t experience it all. This isn’t really a problem, but it does have a serious side effect: MIT Addiction. I want to go back ASAP. I realize that real MIT life involves a lot of tooling, but I’m ready to face that for the rest of it (plus I actually love learning, so maybe psets won’t always be torture) (one can hope).

I feel ready to learn, ready to tool, ready to punt, ready to hack (if the occasion arises).

And yet orientation is 4 months and 3 days away.

Being the smart one I am (I got into MIT!), I know that there is still a LOT of fun to enjoy here in my senior year. I will continue to keep that in mind, but like a lot of prefrosh, I find myself singing “Take Me Back to Tech”.

So hoorah for technology, ‘ology, ‘ology oh.

^__^

Until August,

~Donald Guy ‘12

"STUDY. SLEEP. PARTY….pick two": this was the advice I received from an MIT alum a while back. Throughout my time at CPW, I came to understand the meaning and context of those words.

My name is Li, and I am an enthusiastic member of the incoming class. I attend Cambridge Rindge and Latin School (more commonly known as "CRLS" or simply "Rindge"), the only public high school in Cambridge, MA. I must admit that it was often awkward answering the question: "Where are you from?", and approximately ¼ of the time it was followed up by: "You mean, Cambridge, like…here? Or are you from England?" My trek to MIT was very humble, yet, as my Dad drove down Mass. Ave, the journey felt decidedly different.

(Oh yeah, this is my first time blogging, so let me know if I'm just rambling on aimlessly! No one at my school blogs, and it would have been rather silly to create a blog that no one would read. Nonetheless, I thought I'd try it since I've enjoyed reading the blogs on MyMIT. I can't possibly describe every fact and anecdote, but I hope that I can bring some of my most exciting moments to life.)

I started my CPW experience by tagging along with my host—a fellow artist/dancer and a Course 20 sophomore—to her first class, 6.00. Course 6 isn't really my cup of tea, but it was surreal to find myself sitting aside current MIT students (even one who was sleeping with his mouth wide open!) After this lecture, I went out on campus alone. After attending both 3.042 (a materials science course) and the general tour, I met up with my host and a couple other prefrosh for lunch on the steps of the Student Center. The sun was shining and the campus became more and more animated as the day continued. All of a sudden, a familiar figure walked out of the building, and we took a picture together:

After lunch and an informational meeting on housing and dining, I (along with Tina'12 and Marissa'12) was approached and interviewed by folks from TechTV! (Kind of embarrassing now that I watch it…) We then walked down Mass Ave, following the chalk arrows down to Random Hall to taste liquid nitrogen ice cream. Tons of prefrosh were packed into the room, waiting in suspense at 4:17 PM as Random Hall residents organized their flavoring and got liquid nitrogen from the adjacent room:

By the time everything was ready, I managed to get past the crowds to take a front row seat:

…and here's the awkward part: I met up with someone I knew from Facebook! As we walked back towards MIT for the EAsT CamPUS tours, we met yet another Facebook prefrosh. Despite the oddness of these encounters, we got along really well and ended up spending the majority of CPW together.

Given the beautiful, balmy weather (quite extraordinary for Cambridge, since it had been cloudy and drizzly for a while) a few prefrosh and I decided to go to the Baker Rooftop Party. We were surrounded by a breathtaking cityscape:

We also took this silly group shot together before we called it a night:

The next day, I attended a wide range of activities: Applied Math Lab Tours, Tie Dye at McCormick, the MIT Energy Showcase, The Advanced Music Performance, Meet the Bloggers…etc. I even managed to catch the EC/Senior House Water War in action:

One of the most exciting of Friday's events was the Bouncy Ball Drop, where I was fascinated to see not just people at (and climbing out of?) their windows, but a cat, too:

I stood back far enough to record a video. You can't really see the balls falling, but this video decently captures and strobe light and the tail end of "White Rabbit" by Jefferson Airplane (how psychedelic):

For me, Saturday was mostly a dorm tour day. I visited MacGregor, Simmons, New House (où j'ai parlé avec quelques étudiants à La Maison Française), and Next House. After having a very nebulous idea of what dorm I was looking for/preferred, Simmons became my instant favorite. Another prefrosh and I went down to see the famous ball pit/meditation room, and I thought I'd just embrace the craziness by practicing yoga:

And of course, Simmons was filled with photographic possibilities:

(But of course, I have more concrete reasons to prefer it, too!)

After the Activities Fair and CPW Closing Remarks/Variety show, a couple of prefrosh and I ran through the drizzle-turned-downpour all the way down Dorm Row to Next House, where a past classmate of mine (a current sophomore) performed in "Once Upon A Mattress." Coincidentally, it was also "hack night" for "Next Act."

During my time at CPW, I managed to visit every dorm (minus Bexley…), and participated in more events than I can keep track of. It was truly the most fun I had had in a long time (especially since "senioritis" is really starting to kick in.) My only regrets are:

1) I didn't get to any events across the river
2) I didn't spend much time with my host, who was AWESOME

I know this sounds cliché to the extreme, but I truly felt that I could be myself at CPW. When I applied last fall, I made that decision based upon MIT's curriculum and location, but I never realized how cohesive the community was on an emotional/social level. The students I met struck me as independent, innovative people with brilliant senses of humor. Being on campus revived within me a sense of wonder that I hadn't come across since childhood—a feeling in between that of visiting the Museum of Science for the first time, and going trick-or-treating past my bedtime. I am still awed by the creative energy that flew through the campus, and am honored that I will soon become part of it.

For the record, during my CPW, it rained for a little and despite that, I still had a blast; so, regardless of weather, get ready for the most jam-packed days you'll have until you come for Orientation of course ;-)

Here are a few tips to making the best of your CPW experience.

Rule #0 (To be done before you come): Figure out the big questions that you have about MIT, Cambridge/Boston, etc...

That way when you get here, you can make sure that those questions that you do have get answered by students, faculty, and anyone else you manage to meet.

Rule #1: If you're paying for your food, you're doing something wrong.

Campus Preview Weekend is full with free food all over campus. Open houses, free pizza, liquid nitrogen ice cream, donuts, dinners at fraternities. So keep the cash in your wallet for your MIT sweatshirt.

Rule #2: If you're sleeping, you're also doing something wrong.

There is so much going on, and I don't remember getting much sleep whether it was checking out another aspect of MIT or talking to the potential students.

Rule #2.5: Caffeine.

Courtesy of Snively. See his blog post from last year here.

Rule #3: Talk to people, prefrosh and current students alike.

I think the best part of CPW for me was talking to other prefrosh getting to know the people that I would be going to school with for four years. I also had a lot of questions about MIT and what it was like here. Ask people tough questions, and if you aren't satisfied with the answer, ask someone else.

Rule #4: Explore the campus.

Walk around the campus. The fact that you're a prefrosh is like an open door to visit labs, classes, and get exposed to everything that MIT has to offer. Relish in it.

Rule #5: Don't knock it 'til you try it.

I can't say how many things I would have missed out on if I had not kept an open mind. I really took CPW as an opportunity to explore things that I had not seen before. So don't judge a book by it's cover, and take a chance to try something new.

Rule #6: Pack for the weather.

I forgot my umbrella during my CPW. Not awesome. So pack a jacket and check the weather before you get here.

Rule # 7: HAVE FUN. If you're not having fun, something is not right.

For students and faculty alike, CPW is one of the most fun times of the year, so please have fun. And lots. Thanks :^)

And now for shameless CPW plugs:

Friday, April 11, 8:30 PM: Meet the Bloggers, Mezzanine Lounge

You've read our stories for an entire year and you've shared your stories with us. Now it's time to meet in real life :) And hopefully, you don't tell me that I look a lot taller in my picture than I do in real life because that would make it three years in a row. Bring your parents and your friends!

Saturday, April 12, 8 PM: Battle of the Bands, Lobdell Cafeteria

Battle of the Bands is an annual CPW event hosted by ZBT where a bunch of bands get up on stage to show their musical talent and you get to rock out all night long; could it get any better? Maybe. You get to hang out with Ben Jones as he and I will be judging the acts. RSVP on Facebook

(Historical fact: My CPW was the first BOTB.)

OK -- no more shameless plugs :)

If you have any questions, feel free to post comments and ask questions about CPW and I'll answer them here on the blog or someone else will if I'm asleep.

See you all on Thursday!

Specifically, let's look at 1998.

1998 Disney has bought MIT for $6.9 billion. The School of Engineering will be renamed the School of Imagineering and the campus will move to Orlando, according to hackers who altered the MIT homepage. Hey, anything's better than trying to work in an Athena cluster.

From the MIT Hack Gallery:

On April Fools Day of 1998, hackers broke into the MIT web server and changed the MIT home page to indicate that The Walt Disney Company had purchased MIT for $6.9 billion.

More here.

What are some of your favorite April Fool's pranks?

Last year, I piloted an effort to capture CPW through the eyes of a prefrosh, and this year, the bloggers are inviting YOU to join us as guest bloggers.

This will be a great opportunity to share your CPW experiences as well as audition for those coveted blogger spots that will be open next fall!

We'd love to share as many of your stories as possible because you'll experience the MIT lifestyle firsthand. There will be too many things to do at any one time and you will have to make choices, so the probability that you and anyone else will have a similar experience is 1 in a bajillion.

If you'd like to write an entry, just email the Paul, Snively, and myself at snively [at] mit [dot] edu -- ask-paul [at] mit [dot] edu -- bryanblogs [at] mit [dot] edu and we can discuss.

Basic blog guidelines:

- Attend CPW
- Visuals are a plus - pictures AND video
- Keep it rated PG13 (my younger brothers are reading this)
- Balance - try to highlight the facts as well as your own experience and thoughts
- Fun, energy, and voice - we want to hear you and hear what CPW is like for you and the friends you meet along the way
- Timeliness - we don't want to post CPW entries in July -- just saying

I think that's all -- hopefully, we'll hear from you soon!

See you in 9 days!

CPW is a blast -- tips for conquering CPW coming Thursday.

Instead, hopefully, I can be the umpteenth person to talk to you about college decisions and my own experience. When I applied to college, all I knew is that I was going to college, and hopefully, going somewhere away from home so that I could not go home to do laundry on the weekend. With that said, I began applying to colleges where I could study biomedical engineering because that's what I originally wanted to study. MIT had always kind of been that school for me but since I didn't know anyone who had been accepted I did not really know who went there or what it took to get in. As I started to fill out applications, I was afraid that the 500 word essays would not completely get across who I was or what I wanted to do when I grew up. And let's just say this, I was not the most fun person from the months of January to March of 2003. Then one afternoon, I got a phone call. Actually, I missed a phone call. So the emo-high school senior Bryan was at home when the phone rang. My mom looked at the caller ID and said, "Oh look it's an out of state area code. Who knows it could be MIT!" I responded with a snarky remark to the effect of I know every area code in Massachusetts and that is not one of them. By the time the debate ended, the phone had stopped ringing, and I stormed off in a huff. Then a couple minutes later, my mom knocked on my door with the phone in her hand. She simply says, "It's MIT." Mom wins ... and so does Bryan when the person on the other line is calling to congratulate me on being accepted to MIT!!! zomg were they serious?!?!?!?

Luck had struck and I had been admitted to MIT and I was incredibly happy. I still had to visit and make sure that it was the right place for me and all that stuff, but I had made the first step. Part of the excitement lied in the fact that I was not expecting to get into MIT at all, and somehow the admissions gods allowed it to happen. Weeeeee!

Four years later, it's still an incredible feeling to walk up to the steps of lobby 7 and realize that I'm at MIT. This year, I've had the incredible and humbling opportunity to interview for MIT. Now, I'm not sure whether I was more nervous being interviewed when I was a senior or being the one doing the interview. I wanted to be cool but serious, fun but collected. AHHHHH! Yea, I was more nervous being an interviewer rather than being interviewed. My general perspective with the interview was that I wanted to do my best to communicate what MIT is like while at the same time trying to get an idea of who I was interviewing and whether MIT would be the right personality match for them. What I learned from the students I interviewed was incredible. Each interview left me with an inspired feeling and made me value my MIT experience so much more because sometimes when you're caught up in the thick of homework and projects, you don't really see what you're getting other than little sleep. However, when I was able to see that spark of imagination and the spark of excitement in the eyes of those who I interviewed, I realized the value of my own education and experience. So to all of those I was fortunate enough to interview, let me say thank you.

I will close here and say this, to all of you who are off to college this fall, good luck. Over the past two decades, you have worked incredibly hard to get where you are. You've stayed up late for projects, played in concert halls across the country, won state championships, and had an incredible experience thus far. No matter where you go, the work has just begun. Continue to be an inspiration to those who you meet along the way as you've inspired people like me who get to know you for just an hour. For those of you who will be joining me in the Infinite next September, get ready for a wild ride; it's not easy but when you look back and see what you accomplish, you will be quite happy.

Dear student,

Your monthly student account statement has been posted. Please review your statement on MITPAY by following one of the secure links below, and arrange payment for any charges shown. Statements are available by the 10th of each month and balances are due by the first of the following month.

This would normally total to a tuition payment at the beginning of the semester or my overdue library book fees of 50 cents a day.

Today, an email from MIT asking me for money reads something like:

Dear Bryan,

Now that you're rich and famous, would you consider giving us a piece of your salary?

OK, so it's not really like that, but sometimes, I feel like responding:

Dear MIT,

You know how much my graduate student stipend is. How much can I afford to donate?

Again, it's not completely the case. I figure sometimes if I hold off from my daily purchase of fruit snacks, I can afford a $50 donation once a month...maybe.

But getting hit up for cash by the 'tute is not the central theme of this entry.

So according to my quick Google calculation, it's been 230 days since I graduated from college; at the same time, I can still remember hopping off the subway back in 2003 with duffle bag in hand where I walked into my dorm room in Baker ready to begin my college experience.

My mom always tried to teach me when I would call home and complain about hard tests and feeling oftentimes overloaded that I would look back one day and see the positive much more clearly than I would be able to when I just felt as if I had been pwned by a 2.005 exam..

Dear Mom,

You were right.

It's funny to look back in my journals and see the days when all I wanted to do was snark on "omg this sucks" or "it's 2 am and this problem set is still not done" but believe it or not, it was a good thing.

So taking a look from 1000 feet, in the past six months, I'll admit a lot of things have not completely changed. I'm still an MIT student. I still have problem sets; I still have final exams, but it feels a little different now, and I think a lot of it is from the skills that I gained in my first four years here.

What are those merit badges I earned?

The Fundamentals:

I can add, subtract, multiply, divide, differentiate and do fourier series. I can explain PCR. I can design floating buoys for wind turbines. I can write policy proposals for the environment. I can speak spanish. I know what the Damkohler number is.

Punchline: I learned a lot in my classes. While that in itself is a tremendous feat, there is much more that I gained from my education than information and equations.

Synthesis:

One of the most valuable learning experiences (possibly the most valuable one) is the one I gained through my research project as an undergraduate. With almost all problem sets that I received at MIT, there was an answer that could be found after some amount of work. With research, the mental leap was a much longer one to make. Inherent in the word, research is a repeated effort to search for new information and new ideas, and oftentimes, an equation or the appropriate engineering assumption is going to be insufficient in order to get where you need. With my research, it wasn't just about what I could regurgitate on a test or what I could write in a 10 page paper. It was about how many different sources could I draw from in order to get the information I needed in order to be productive and see forward motion in my project. So while with problem sets, you have to agree with the professor's solution in order to get the A; with research, people disagree and the field is constantly changing, so you also obtain the skill of being able to critically navigate through the volumes of material and make decisions about what is useful and what is not.

The capstone to my formal educational experience in the classroom was my research because I was able to draw upon all of that material in order to create new hypotheses and challenge prior held ideas. This, for me, is the best preparation for the real world. There are no problem sets in the real world; there are real problems and they require the skills you develop in a broader sense in order to really be able to address them.

So keep in mind, that's it's not just about what you know. It's about how you use it and how you communicate it.

Analysis:

So the higher math gods might come down and strike me with a bolt of lightning, but I am going to publicly say that there is more to life than math and science. I will not deny my love for biology and engineering but while my education has prepared me to obviously take these challenges on, a lot of people go on to careers in finance, consulting, and government and do well. They are successful because they took advantage of the fact that the skills that you learn at MIT don't solely prepare you to write equations. While I primarily use my education to work on the science and math questions, I've also found it helpful in understanding political discussions (if you're 18, you should vote ps) by understanding the players, the issues, and how they interact.

Personality:

MIT taught me a lot about myself. When I first came to college, my arrogance got the best of me. I didn't go to office hours and I didn't ask for help. BAD IDEA. I soon realized that I need to constantly appraise my own abilities and make an effort to supplement the areas of my education that just did not click for me the first time. At the same time, MIT also taught me to be more confident in myself because yes, MIT is hard and when you're taking an hour test with six hard problems, you have to learn to not second guess yourself and write an answer you believe in and move on.

MIT also taught me to worry and stress less and take risks more. With four years of college, you can do fine taking no risks. For me, taking risks at the appropriate time allowed me to progress academically and with respect to my research and also my personal life.

So what does any of this mean?

Simple explanation: What you learn from MIT is more than just math and science, but you have to be willing to accept the greater lessons that are available to learn.

So I'll end this entry and echo a question that Laura recently asked, "what do you want to know about?"

Currently in 13-4101 trying to solve our first puzzle before I have to go to lab meeting in 20 minutes ... ahh!

Update #2 (7:17 AM)

Sorry for the delay in updating but the rest of the day has just been absolutely crazy and I'm just waking up from a power nap. I don't know how other teams are doing, but I think the puzzles this year are ridiculously hard. Since noon, I've been working on this one puzzle with pauses to work on other puzzles, but despite my recharging with pizza, carrot sticks, and Gatorade, nothing seems to be working.

Funny part of it is that even though we're working at full speed, they keep giving us puzzles faster than we can solve them ... bummer.

Alright, I'm gonna get started on the puzzle from &#%% and for your reading enjoyment, I'll post it here to see if you can come up with any bright ideas:

Odd One Out

Or maybe it should be "One Odd Out"...

1. NWOKAANA
2. ROETJFENCIGMKN
3. BSAHIBRPIECBNOG
4. AEUIUNTEECOTEABSHLRLSTEATMETENSPTETGAITTEETDWSSDSO
5. YSAAAUENTOSLCLSMRILTKNJ
6. HRINGGRRUHGIHRCSHRSRUAKRNSELRVLETNVLOGOTM
7. CMCNRLAEIAMVELISSIIHNBCMRCEDIEESENETIMNTVSO
8. CLSDASJCNOLCRBRMPTOPAWRO

Update #3 (9:46 AM)

Still working ... no puzzles solved yet this morning. Can we get a hint? And everyone is still asleep. :(

Update #4 (11:41 AM)

The dry spell is over! We just solved a puzzle. We called in like a gajillion different answer, but finally, WE GOT IT.

Still no luck on Odd One Out, though. LAME.

Update #5 (12:48 PM)

I WILL NOT SLEEP until I solve this puzzle. However, running low on energy, I'm playing Ricky Martin's "Shake Your Bon Bon" in order to wake up.

Update #6 (5:40 AM)
Somewhere around 18 puzzles solved except this DREADED ODD MAN OUT .... AHHHH

WHYYYYYYYY

The sun is about to come up ... beautiful

Update #7 (8:06 AM)
The sun is up and the puzzle is not solved.

Update #7 (2:12 PM)
THE PUZZLE HAS BEEN SOLVED.

I will post a solution tomorrow.

OMG

WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

Happy Dance

Update #8 (4:59 PM)

Still puzzling

Update #9 (8:16 PM)

THE HUNT IS STILL GOING!!!

in my five years, it's never gone this late.

recent dialogue:

douglas: (awkward noise)
mike: what was that?
douglas: i had a meatball and it was tasty.

anecdote: our team cannot operate without food; thus, we just had an italian buffet :)

---

another comment:

while eating dinner, dan our resident comedian looks over a puzzle:

dan: HOLY CRAP

everyone goes silent.

dan: ... i just realized this puzzle has two lucky charms in it.

Update #10 (8:51 PM)

The hunt is over.

From: Abigail Freebie

We are pleased to report that the Evil Midnight Bombers What Bomb at
Midnight found the coin at 8:28 pm on Sunday January 20, 2008. The
murderer was John Alafontaine, because Otto broke down his will. The
investigation is shutting down at this point.

Wrap up and fill revelation on Monday January 21 at 12:00 noon in room 26-100.

What a weekend :-)

---

Here's a puzzle for you to try out (directly copied below)

Kana Game
Okay, this isn't exactly the way Rampo would have written it. But really, what's the difference?

Unfortunately, if i had to grade myself on level of success in achieving said goals, this probably would have been a failed test. However, with extra time over the summer and this semester to look back at my four years as a continuous system rather than a bunch of discrete points, while things don't make any more sense necessarily I see that I was able to carve out a path for myself that I feel very happy about, and if I could go back and do it all over again, I'm not sure that I'd purposefully try to do anything differently; however, I am also not sure that I would want everything to occur the exact same way that it did.

To start, I will describe two snapshots at two different phases of my college career:

1. September 2003 (Freshman Year): I had a mustache, for one. I wanted to major in Computer Science and graduate and then start my own software company where I developed video games. At some points, I think I favored my extracurriculars over my problem sets. (Disclaimer: I did always have an interest in bioengineering, but i just didn't know about it as much as I did computer science, so I wanted to be "safe" and go with something that I knew.)

2. May 2007 (Senior Year): As many of my friends had begun looking for apartments and packing their boxes, I was en route to spend another five years at MIT pursuing a PhD in Biological Engineering.

For many this would seem as a very strange plot twist in my biography, and then for some it might not, but I think that one of the things that I appreciate about my MIT experience thus far is that I have been able to carve out my own experience and connect extremely disparate nodes into a path that brought me from point A to point B.

For example, I'll draw the following map for you that I think brought me to discovering my passion for bioengineering.

As a freshman, I came to MIT with aspirations of becoming UA president and making sweeping changes to undergraduate life. Having come out of high school with experience in student government, I thought this was really what I was supposed to do. So I did. After attending an information session, I had signed up to chair a committee on housing and orientation even though I had only been at MIT for a week. While I had a significant learning curve throughout this experience, I was able to meet a wide array of people from all over campus and begin to gain a better understanding of who the people were that I went to school with. That year, with the announcement of the retirement of our former President, Charles Vest, students were invited to apply to be members of the Student Advisory Group to the Corporation Committee on the Presidency where a group of students from all over campus came together to provide a student opinion on what MIT's priorities should be and what type of characteristics we sought in a president.

As a freshman I thought that it would be extremely unlikely that I would be invited to participate in such a committee; however, having gained what little experience I had so far with my experience with the UA, I was selected as a member where I finally really met the other student population of graduate students in a context outside of them being my recitation instructor. This experience in itself provided me with a lot more perspective than I had about life at MIT, but it also began to expose me to things about college life that I had not yet begun to consider. As time went on with this committee and I got to know the other students on the committee better, they began to tell me about their own MIT experiences.

In parallel with my work on this committee, it also became time for me to select a major, and by this time, I knew that computer science was no longer my intended field because I had realized that I wanted to something more physical that I could connect to biology which was becoming more interesting to me by the minute. Fortunately, through my work on the committee, one of the graduate students there was a graduate student in Biological Engineering and she was able to describe to me about her research and work and she actually helped me find a UROP in her lab my sophomore year.

If I had to limit myself to only writing a paragraph about my entire UROP experience at MIT, I'd truly have to say that it was really life changing for me because it showed me that science wasn't a passive beast that you encountered only through 20 pound textbooks. It was something that provided as much challenge and growth opportunities as anything else. I really attribute my UROP experience to really allowing me to explore interesting questions about biology as well as explore my own personal passions such that I know where I am now is where I want to be.

So as I sit in my theoretical rocking chair on my theoretical porch and look back on four years at MIT heading into another five, it's seems quite bizarre that something done on a whim can propagate such unexpected downstream effects. I never won the UA presidency...actually, I lost a campaign for vice president my sophomore year, but I feel as though everything happened the way that it did and I made the most of it.

What does this all say about life at MIT?

Hmm...well I think what I want to say is that sometimes it's very easy to project a very linear path for your life or your experience somewhere and have checkpoints along the way to enable failsafe mechanisms to make sure you end up where you a priori predict your end point. While this works for some, it may not work for others.

I'm personally beginning to believe that in college and especially at a place like MIT where there exist opportunities you may have never encountered in your life, it might be time to relax a lot of these constraints on what it is you have to do in order to become XX or win YY or move to ZZ. I think it's more important to realize that paths can be somewhat erratic and extremely nonlinear, however, still at the "end" lead you to a place where you can be happy and feel accomplished. I believe that if I held myself to going a certain route that my MIT experience would have been very different. Allowing myself to dynamically readjust to my current environment as the four years progressed allowed me to take advantage of opportunities that I did not know about earlier. I'm not saying it's easy either because sometimes it either seems like you have no idea where you're headed or that you're presented with so many opportunities that you don't know how to appropriately make the "right" one, but sometimes it's about taking that jump to the other side without knowing exactly what is there. That's where the excitement is. I realize a lot of college is about learning how not to make mistakes a second time and learning how to take control of your life.

So embrace the unknown and ride the roller coaster like you never have before. I promise it will all work out.

Scene: On my way back from my daily trip to get fruit snacks from the vending machine. Bryan runs into friend who had been participating in the Cambridge-MIT Exchange the last year.

Bryan: Hey, long time no see. How was Cambridge?
Friend: I really liked it, but I'm glad to be back.
Bryan: Cool.
Friend: Weren't you supposed to have graduated by now? What happened?
Bryan: I'm actually starting grad school.
Friend: Oh that's better.
Bryan: Right.
Friend: OK, well I'll talk to you later.
Bryan: ...

zomg ben jones - blogger alum?!?!?!? did you really have to remind me? Can I at least be Bryan O. '07, '12?

So the purpose of this entry is to somewhat reintroduce myself and talk about life post MIT at MIT.

I graduated June 8 and I was in lab on June 9. Welcome to graduate school! (I actually chose not to take the summer off) Enough sarcasm though, I've really enjoyed my research and being able to continue looking at unanswered questions that I now have time to dedicate to. This summer, I've been working for my UROP advisor, Linda Griffith, with a variety of projects pertaining to our central goal of developing a high throughput bioreactor for tissue engineering applications.

Aside from my time in lab, I've been learning how to cook and clean and all of the other skills required of adulthood. OH -- and if you think you can do everything at MIT in four years, I've actually done something that I never once did while an undergrad -- SAILING!

I officially start graduate school in a week pursuing my PhD in Biological Engineering. I graduated from MIT in June with my BS in Mechanical Engineering -- so it is possible to switch fields. And it also is possible to stay at MIT for grad school if you were an MIT undergrad. So hopefully, my graduation date will be the same as those of you who are applying for admission to the Class of 2012! By the time I graduate, I will have spent 1/3 of my life at MIT. This will be the longest I've ever spent at one educational institution in my life. I went to 2 different elementary schools, 3 different middle schools, and 2 different high schools. And maybe if I'm cool enough, I can become an MIT Lifer (you just found out one of my secret life goals -- GASP).

One of the most challenging things as of late has been graduating but still staying at the same place. Part of growing up is knowing when it's time to part ways with things that are still fond to your heart in order to move forward. So with that said, my days of partying and running here and there from event to event may be fewer and far between. Even though I'm still a student, graduate school is somewhat an apprenticeship in which you prepare yourself for a career in research and since I'd like to go into academia, I need to be focused.

With that said, there are certain things that I cannot part ways with because they still remain to be very important to me. One of those things is this blog. I can't tell you how many people told me not to apply to MIT because of the "weird people" they believed to be at MIT. Not to say that I don't have personal quirks like any other human being, MIT is great place to learn, see, and do. That is a fact that does not change depending on your status, undergrad/grad/alum/faculty/staff. I look forward to coming to school, meeting really interesting people, and challenging myself further. That attitude is part of what makes MIT the place that it is. Everyone has energy and is motivated by something. However, now that I'm graduated, I think I may focus more on things that are more abstract and not about events and activities.

Another aspect of my life that I cannot part with is the community that helped me through my undergraduate experience, my fraternity. One of my biggest pieces of advice about college is that you find a community in which you feel you belong and will support you. I'm not going to lie and say it's a cakewalk. MIT is challenging, there's no doubt about that, but having people who are willing to be there by your side is really important. Recognizing that graduate school would provide a similar amount of challenges as undergrad, I felt that having a community that even as a grad student would remain to be supportive was a crucial and important thing to me. However, don't expect Old School 2 out of me. I'm going to be helping them out with advice, career planning, and general getting through MIT skills (you can call me a grandpa, it's okay)

So as I enter this new phase at MIT, I'm excited by the challenges that will face me and I'm excited to meet new people. For those of you arriving on campus or for those of you have already arrived, grad students don't bite, so say hi if you ever see me around. I'll want to take breaks from lab eventually :) And for those of you applying, I'm in a privileged situation in which I got to apply to MIT ... twice, so I've had two times as many application seasons, scholarship applications, and challenging decisions to make when it comes to selecting a school. So even though I'm not an undergrad anymore, I'm still MIT through and through and will try with the new chapter of entries that I will write to talk about what I've gained from my education, lessons you learn at MIT, and what it's like to be here even at age 22. And I'll throw in some throwback entries every now and then/all the entries I wish I had written when I was still an undergrad.

OH -- and I'M INTERVIEWING FOR MIT THIS YEAR :)

SWEET

I figured it would be cool to take some classes at Hogwarts and see if there are any similar ones at MIT:

Looking for Herbology ... stumped
Looking for Potions, try: 5.36: Biochemistry and Organic Laboratory
Looking for Transfiguration ... stumped
Looking for Charms ... stumped
Looking for Defence Against the Dark Arts ... try the Kickboxing PE Class
Looking for History of Magic, try: 21A.211: Magic, Witchcraft, and the Spirit World
Looking for Astronomy, try 8.282J Introduction to Astronomy
Looking for Care of Magical Creatures, try 21H.909 People and Other Animals
Looking for Divination, try 12.310 An Introduction to Weather Forecasting
Looking for Ancient Runes, try 6.875J Cryptography and Cryptanalysis
Looking for Arithmancy, try 18.781 Theory of Numbers
Looking for Muggle Studies, try any one of the many classes the HASS department

Strangely enough, even though Hogwarts is fictional, many similarities exist between MIT and the fictional school. If you consider that everyone at Hogwarts has special abilities, you could say the same for MIT. I've never had a professor I despised as much as Harry despised as Snape, but I have had my share of Dumbledores and Hagrids.

I'VE BEEN WAITING FOR THIS BOOK FOR NINE YEARS ... ZOMG

Oh and if you think you're going to post a spoiler, think again. I've been given permission by admissions to deny or revoke your admission or diploma (jk)

The t-shirt I was planning on wearing reads:

"If you tell me what happens in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, I will punch you in the face. I'm not kidding."

Photos from camping out for the book:

A lesson I learned from all of this was that if they say the line doesn't start forming until X o clock, it means the line started forming at X - 2 o clock.

Bloggers have a way of running into each other.

Harry and the Potters Concert

So my friend Diana and I were terrified of spoilers:

Don't watch this video if you don't want Book 6 spoiled for you:

But this video made me semi-paranoid

And then this cartoon from dieselsweeties made me laugh:

... so we quickly dashed on the bus and hurried home where I finished the book the next morning by 1 pm ... if you'd like to discuss the book, email me.

And in commemoration of Book 7, there was a hack!

(Photos courtesy of the MIT Hack Gallery)

So this semester I had just one ninety minute final, open book, open note final exam in cell biology. It wasn't even really a final exam because it only tested us on the new stuff and was equally weighted with the other exams. The final was last Thursday and the last day of classes was the Thursday before, so I had a week to study right?

So what I've learned is that you can only read a book so many times before you just can't read it anymore. And that is when my brain went to mush when I think I'd attempted my fourth read of the sections that were going to be on the test.

Cue Facebook. The best and worst invention given to man. Now imagine if I really had to study last week.

Battle of the Walls:

me: shouldn't you be studying like i am pretending to as well?
friend: what is this studying thing of which you speak?
me: about that studying thing, i was just kidding. i watched pirates 2 then fell asleep on my couch. i can't study anymore. i've read my notes umpteen times.
friend: i swear you change your profile picture once-a-day.
me: i mean, i have a folder of facebook photos, and when i get bored, it's what i do. i can't look at p53 pathways anymore.

and if you don't believe me, just check my album.

ps. jkim, i'm glad you're back on facebook.

Procrastination Technique #2: Eating.

Sunday Night: Capital Grille

Monday Night: Anthony's Pier 4

Procrastination Technique #3: Working Out

Thanks to all the "we expected you to be taller and more buff comments" at Meet the Bloggers...just wait until you see me in the Infinite in the Fall.

I can bench the bar.

Procrastination Technique #4: Media Arts

Season Finales of 24 and Heroes

I want to see Jack Bauer take on Sylar.

I don't know about you but I was quite disappointed by the endings of both.

Twelve attempted viewings of Pirates of the Caribbean 2.

Let's just say I'm in no rush to see Pirates 3.

And finally, if all else fails:

Procrastination Technique #5: SLEEP

I can't tell you how nice it is to sleep more than 10 hours a night now. My almost all-nighter for my thesis has been compensated for with my recent sleeping schedule.

Tomorrow begins Senior Week.

Event #1: Wine Tasting!

Tomorrow's Blog Entry: 80s Night - Jokes on Us!

Happy graduation to all of you who have already turned the tassle.

So this semester with my overwhelming courseload of two classes, one of my classes 2.008: Design and Manufacturing II gave me a taste of the various manufacturing methods including injection molding, casting as well as the tradeoffs between cost, quality, flexibility, and rate.

But as you well know by now, at MIT, nothing is ever simple and nothing is ever easy. Ergo, cue term project.

From: Professor Chun
To: Us
Subject: Your Mission v2.008

Your mission should you choose to accept is to build 50 yo-yos including at least three parts. This message will self-destruct in a minute. Bye!

So that was it and then we were set on our way to make some yo-yos.

We could have made a simple yo-yo...but everyone know that simple isn't always the most exciting.

So we thought to ourselves, what else can we do:

A yoyo that whistles
A yoyo that has water

...wait for it...

A YOYO THAT DOUBLES AS HEADPHONES, so that is what we did.

(More photos coming soon)

More updates coming soon as the night progresses.

2:13 AM

I started rocking out in my Athena Cluster to:

Still going. I just had a DATA breakthrough. I want to hug someone.

3:57 AM

In Bed. Will wake up at 8 am and read it over one more time.

Good night everyone. I'll post the final version of my thesis later.

Thursday, I arrived at CPW two hours later than intended. My flight through O’Hare airport was delayed, and it took over fourteen hours to get to Boston from my hometown. I was soaked from the weather, completely unable to find Terminal E, and jet lagged.

By that night, I was bouncing with glee and sugar in the elevator to the fifth floor.

The chocolate and peanut butter ice cream with eleven toppings I ate at the dorm probably played a part in that total happiness. So did the welcome event and festival- I was entertained, I was deeply impressed, and I was incredibly relieved that I wouldn’t have to give up Taekwondo or good chocolate at MIT. It was my very first time on campus, so I was struck by the sheer variety of activities that students do. All it takes to make a group is passion.

Over the weekend, I learned about everything from tie-dying to the fourth Roman Emperor to complex Fourier series. I went on tours that went over, under, and through all that is MIT. My favorite building is the one I have affectionately decided to name “sponge-waffle square dorm”... because who needs a pineapple under the sea with a place like Simmons? Everywhere I went, people were nice and doors were metaphorically open.

At the MIT museum, my favorite things had to be the photography display, the artificial intelligence exhibit, and the t-shirt in the gift shop that said “There are 10 types of people in this world- those who understand binary and those who don’t.” Seeing some of the history behind MIT was surprisingly interesting, mostly because famous hacks were mentioned. Hacks are the absolute best part of the culture. I must disagree with the shirt and way that there are two kinds of people in this world- hackers and those who wish they were hackers.

The nanotechnology lab I visited on a UROP tour was also exciting, and they gave out soda can holder things.

In fact, I got a bunch of free stuff that I wasn’t even looking for. Besides the two soda can holders, I was given a mug at the Women’s Dessert Reception, a t-shirt at the Beaver and the Geek show, one I tie-dyed myself, a pair of two way radios at the Dorm Life raffle, and a red clip ring. And that’s not even counting whatever I bought with my $20.11 of Tech cash and my mass of brochures, folders, and booklets. Haha!! Plunder!! It’s great that MIT actually cares about its prefrosh and wants them to see what the place is really like. As if I still need convincing that it’s the best.

Saturday night, I went to Next Act’s Beauty and the Beast instead of Battle of the Bands. It was the greatest part of CPW for me! Since it was the “hacked” version, every scene was slightly changed to keep the Disney feel but make it 1000x more hilarious. It represented MIT better than any other event I went to. In fact, I’ll go so far as to say that it was MIT, condensed into a play and stuffed into the biggest, most colorful costumes I’ve ever seen.

And now for some random and wonderful CPW moments:

Tim the beaver dancing to “Total Eclipse of the Heart.”

The organic chemistry professor exclaiming “Please ask dumb questions like that!” after she miswrote an equal sign as = and a student asked if it was a triple bond.

This awesome person.

When it was finally time to pack it up for the flight home, I wished I could stay. Boston is already my home. Happily, I woke up to a hack at the student medical building. (Actually, I watched X-Men, X-Men II and Spiderman instead of sleeping, so change “woke up” to “set down my ice cream and put on shoes and a sweatshirt”). So I was able to leave with a huge smile on my face, confident that the students will still be just as awesome when I return in August.

The parting hack. That walk button lights up the red and green parts alternately.

I’m one of those people who function best when I have an idea of what my day’s schedule looks like…and if you’ve seen the encyclopedia of an events list that we all got for CPW, you know that didn’t work out.

The Icebreaker and CPW Festival were some of the few things that I actually attended after finding it in the book, noting its location, and successfully finding said location.

MIT Logarythms

Nitrogen Icecream!!!

Afterwards I just wandered around and did everything spur-of-the-moment. Thursday night, rather than walk to a building across the river in search of a Boston frat, in the dark nd in miserable weather, I did homework. Yep. My host Jennifer (a Kansan!), left, Melis the blogger, right, Rachel, middle, Jennifer’s roommate Karlen, not pictured, and many others were poring over their psets

in a Baker House lounge. I thought, hey, might as well get that AP Lit & Comp homework out of the way before I get too tired to function. So, these Course 2 (MechE) majors made a spot for me and my disdainful poetry homework (How are “broken walls and burning towers” in line x related to the myth at hand, and in which line did Agamemnon’s significance come into play?) and for the next five hours or so we talked about MIT professors, TAs, dorms, dining, and random stuff. We also did work. Drained by the calculations, which to me just looked like hieroglyphics + lots of arrows, Mario decided to order pizza. He used no phone--just logged onto his computer, went to a handy-dandy website, ordered, paid online, and voila, pizza at your door half an hour later. The other prefrosh in our room, Lyla, came back after a mighty good time in 3 or 4 different (how did she DO that??? It was soooo cold, and imagine reading a campus map in the dark.) places. When Lyla and I went to bed, the MIT students were still working on their psets.

This same spontaneous schedule filled my next two days, with a few exceptions. I’d see something interesting in the schedule book, try to find it, and get distracted by something along the way. It’s fine by me, because I heard an amaaazing Emerson Fellow’s senior recital for flute, bumped into a steel drum performance in front of the student center,

found out about a sale at the MIT Press near Kendall Square, met a bunch of wonderful and accepting students of the Korean Students’ Association, followed Alan Touring the Tourbot,

and popped into random people’s dorms all for being at an unintended place at the right time. I did successfully navigate myself to a Parliamentary debate demo round, Beaver and the Geek (modeled after Beauty and the Geek. Don’t pretend you didn’t at least watch a few minutes out of curiosity!),

…fashion (?) show…

Meet-the-Bloggers (they really like comments, as I found out. Not the “first post!” kind, but real ones. Gasp! Substantive comments exist?), and Senator Ted Kennedy’s lecture. I even spoke to a real live Caltech student. I didn’t realize that the bizarre Tech issue was Caltech’s work since even the CPW schedule book had promised a “special issue.” If I had known at the time that this guy was from Caltech and they had hacked the MIT “Tech” …well, humph…

Sunday rolled around and it was time to leave. My good friend Kyle ’10 came down from that red-bricked school up in Cambridge to take me to see Boston. Except that the rain was so bad even the Red Sox game was cancelled. Logically, we ran around Boston Commons and had lunch before getting back to catch the shuttle service to the airport.

CPW has passed in a flurry of running around, splashing in puddles, meeting students & prefrosh, sharing name, home state, and interested courses/majors every time you met someone, AND!!! I found a fellow prefrosh Kansan on the flight back to Kansas of all places! I had an awesome time at CPW because MIT just plain rocks.

I leave you with a few items to consider:

If anyone asks, someone wearing black named Jack is taking you to Baker House.

Midwest Airlines really is the Best Care in the Air because they give you chocolate-chip cookies baked in-flight.

Come to MIT!

Senior Haus bouncy ball drop--6000 of them pelting us poor prefrosh below. I snapped this photo before they actually got to where I was standing.

Since Matt Mcgann was occupied on the phone at the moment, I talked to Ben Jones. I proceeded to ask if the admissions office was still open so that I could give them my MIT Reply Form, and wait, couldn't I just give it to him, would he take it? Now??? Why yes, Ben congenially and ecstatically answered. "That's awesome! I guess we don't have to work on you this weekend." Well, right he was. When Matt Mcgann saw my awesome "nerd-tastic" Calculus shirt (Coke ripoff, said enjoy calculus, check Friday Liveblog), I knew that MIT was the place for me. Now to explore.

I started off by battling the cold/raining/sleeting weather that outright broke my subpar Houston umbrella. (It had worked for going on 8 years in Houston and didn't stand one day in Boston, go figure). So, there I was with the better half of my umbrella that tried to fly away on a quest to Random Hall, where the was word of Truffle-making. When I finally got there after what should have been little more than a 5 minute walk I was glad to find a warm place to dry off. I met some fairly cool people there, but it was a little intimidating after hearing about all the insane crazy acamedic feats that my peers had conquered. I couldn't help asking myself if I was really intelligent enough to go to MIT. But Marilee Jones never makes mistakes, right...Right???

I was however, meant to find some more awesome people that spoke less of academia and were willing to listen to whatever random story came to my mind while waiting to play 3D twister, which was awesome. I have to admit the resident Randomites (people living at Random House) were a little, well, random, but very cool and welcoming. I started to feel a bit better.

The weekend went on as I struggled to find stuff to do. Solace came in the form of a very pretty asian girl who will probably go to Harvard, despite CPW awesomeness (Oh well...) Some of her friends and I hung out that night and even attended some parties that night. "Parties???" You may be thinking. "at MIT??!" Yeah, I was pretty surprised to. But... there was enough loud music energy drinks and dancing to go around. I tried to talk to a bunch of different people and met some pretty cool people at Skull House, and even some Boston University Undergrads that claimed, "Oh yeah, MIT has the best parties. We love coming here because MIT totally has the best looking guys." Hark, could this mean great things in Kevin Rustagi's future. I would endeavor to believe so.

So yeah, went back to Next House, which was cool but very far from the center of campus to sleep. Of course not until after talking to my host Andrew Bishara until 4 AM about random stuff, including the arcade project that my friends and I worked on in January. He gave me some comfort that classes were difficult but not impossible.

Oh yeah, and Marilee Jones' opening statements were awesome. Some kids laughed when she exclaimed that there was a high tolerance for failure. Her statements about how MIT encourages invention, creation, and freethinking made my head spin with excitement for the oncoming 4 years. The Logs, one of MIT's premiere a capella groups performed and that was awesome as well.

The next day was important. I had goals to accomplish because so far I hadn't talked to anybody on the ski team or inquired about where to put my drumset and/or another arcade that my friends and I are building/overhauling/re-engineering this summer. My prospects brightened at the activities fair where I met the crew people who seemed to be almost too excited about the fact that I was over 6 foot and under 140 lbs. "Yeah, dude, you don't need any athletic experience at all. Just put down your e-mail and height and weight." A little strange... But I did find the ski people and they were very encouraging. I talked the team captain and after telling him my level of experience and expressing my zeal for the program he was very enthusiastic about my joining the team (I'm not rich, I just have close family that live in Colorado). So that was cool. I also found out that if I had an idea for an activity while at MIT that all I had to do was write it up and MIT would probably throw some cash my way to get it started. I also learned that there were several faith-based groups at MIT, which is cool b/c I've been pretty involved with my church throughout high school. And I talked to the Logs who were totally into me trying out. (I'm a drummer turned singer turned guitarist). And the dramashop said I didn't even have to take the class to submit my own One act play that they would put on (It's always been a dream of mine to write a play.)

So I'm thinking, awesome, " Activities, Check!" The Korean Karate Club even showed me how, and I did, break a board. Way cool.That day I also met this awesome girl, Allie, from Wisconsin and I hung out with her and some friends she made. We even had an opportunity to go on an underground tour of MIT, we'll just call it a Citrus tour to protect the innocent. The funny thing was a bunch of us were all just waiting there and I thought these crazy kids were hacking us. Allie and I saw a bunch of kids up on one of the balconies so we decided to "role play" I approach one of the guys and say, "Haha we got those kids..." He's like, who are you, and I told him something like I'm Kevin didn't Jim tell you about me. The guy responds with, "Are you a CALTECH student." I couldn't believe it. How crazy! This guy thought I was an outsider trying to hack them, when I thought he was hacking us prefrosh. Anyway it turned out to be just fine, though it ended early due to some searchlights on MIT's Great dome... I wonder what could've happened...

This was cool though because it gave Allie and I a chance to check out this hot tub deal, which was awesome. A bunch of kids and I hung out there until the wee hours of the morning and they let us sleep in this fishing net that they had hung from the ceiling. (We also could've slept in beds, but the fishing net was HUGE).
Btw, the food was all free after Friday morning because all of the Frats across the river were hosting free meals. Of all of them, my favorites were Zeta Psi, and Skull House (can't remember the name) Allie and I walked back across the bridge 4 hours from the time when we went to sleep at Tep (A coed living group, also across the river) to take our first showers since arriving at MIT, Ewww! What can I say, we were living the college life. OK, so at this point in writing this I'm pretty sure I mixed up the events of Friday and Saturday in the last two paragraphs, but you know what, I don't think it makes that much of a difference. Just know that the weekend was a blur (Woohoo! - music reference) of awesomeness.

So what I do know is that Eddie from Zeta Psi showed me around Zeta Psi later that night and they had some awesome stuff like artwork painted on the doors (they're on campus and not a historical landmark like many of the Frats across the river) and even stadium seating built into one of the rooms. His like many other frats and some of the dorms had music rooms for me to put my drumset and speakers and guitar/amp respectively. (I totally want to have a rock band at MIT) and he even found the perfect place for my arcade that has a bajillion games on it.

Before that of course, I had seen a few last awesome events, the closing remarks/ Logs performing and I got really wrecked at Texas Hold 'Em at one of the Frats. Which is wierd because I'm from Texas, for Pete's sake. That evening we went to see battle of the bands. It was pretty rad/throwed/insert synonym to awesome of your choice. Ben Jones' band was awesome, as were the rest. And, I must explain something. In the south, when there is a point of uncertainty or potential encore, someone in the crowd yells out 'Freebird!' in reference to the famous Lynyrd Skynyrd song, calling for it's musical reiteration. Well, I was trying to teach this one girl from New York how to do it and when the opportune moment was, when I yelled it out before Marilee Jones came on stage. Some thought it was funny (either out of understanding or mere spontaneity) but she started singing You Can't Always Get What You Want and it all melted away as us and the Cartoony Beaver Mascot Tim swayed his arms to the music with us. He had also crowd surfed to a metal song earlier and that was by far one of the funniest and most surreal things I have ever witnessed in person. So the last band was a classic rock type band along the lines of Creedence Clearwater Revival (CCR) and they as the closer played their three songs and wondered aloud if they had more time. Two beats passed of silence and then without warning or planning or knowledge of each other me and two others yelled out the call for "Freebird!" I couldn't believe it! They had sensed it too. The perfect moment. Well, the band played a half-done rendition of Sweet Home Alabama that I thoroughly enjoyed (They kind of accidentally repeated the 2nd verse instead of doing the 1st and 2nd, and they didn't really finish the song.)
But otherwise I said my goodbyes at Zeta Psi later on and caught a cab at 1:30 AM back to my airport hotel in the interest of getting out early because of the oncoming storm.

Well, if you have read this far, I must commend you for your dilligence, patience, and ginormously long attention span.

And of course, as with a good pizza, I always save the best for last,

So I will leave you with this thought that Allie McKenzie '11 shared with before the Battle of the Bands.

Take it as you will, it is not meant to offend anyone but is merely poking fun at the general quirkiness that I appreciate and love in MIT students.

And Bryan, if you do, thank you for publishing this pearl of wisdom.

At MIT, so far as relationships go, this statement mostly rings true:

The Odds are Good, but the Goods are Odd.

What a lovely epanelepsis, at least I think that's what it is.

So, with that I step out of the limelight, at least until next semester (mad scientist laugh). Thank you for listening. Please e-mail me @ kevrustagi@yahoo.com if you have any questions. And I am totally on facebook complete with pics of my crazy arcade project. Matt Mcgann:" You gave a pinball machine to a nursing home?" Lol.

I love you all and will see you in the fall. hey, that rhymes. -Kevin.

So if you other prefrosh have attended the dorm information session (yes, the one for the students), then you’ll understand when I say “Hi I’m [Debbie], my major is [undecided, but most likely Course 20], I’m class [2011], and I’m tempted at [Burton Conner – the Burton side]. If you get this, you can laugh along. If you don’t, well, I assure you that I’m not too weird.

So I arrived on campus on Thursday, and I was actually delayed about 6 hours (I arrived at 7, but was supposed to arrive at 1) because we had a malfunction in our darn WINDSHIELD WIPERS. I was stuck in an auto-repair shop in Strousbridge (?) for about 5 hours, and it did not make me happy. But yea, when I finally arrived, I registered and met up with my host at Burton 5th (the “quiet” floor), and ate dinner with her at Baker Hall. It was actually pretty good food, considering that I had not eaten all day. BTW, TechCash is awesome, and we had $20.11 in honor of our 2011 class! (Later I was told that we were jipped because previous prefrosh had gotten about $40 for the weekend, but whatever). Afterwards, I met up with Fangfei at the Welcome Festival, where we were greeted by the Logarhythms who sang “Over My Head” by the Fray! The Fray = awesome. (Go ahead, Google them right now) We also attended the CPW Festival, where we got free bubble tea and liquid nitrogen ice cream. (Hands down, Nerd Heaven) We also met Matt McGann, and we overheard two guys talking to Matt, whom I thought were pretty funny. One was leaving on Friday to go to prom. He was single. The other one decided to stay for CPW, even though he had a girlfriend. Matt was like "what the heck, that doesn’t sound right." Yes Matt, I concur. Curiously enough, I managed to encounter four people who worked in my research lab over the summer – it was basically a research reunion! Then, we then headed over the French house to have some scrumptious midnight snacks and hot chocolate – so delicious! But yes, after all the excitement I managed to return to BC and sleep by 2 am (even if most of the students were still up doing an 18.03 p-set).

At first when they said “Logarhythms” I thought it was spelled normally… and then maybe after about half an hour I realized… err… yea.

I know a picture of this is up already (by Snively?) – but I couldn’t resist?!

Ice cream, in the making….

Don’t be fooled. It really is good stuff, I tell you.

Some highlights from Friday include the welcome from Susan Hockfield/Marilee Jones/keynote speaker and the activities and academics fair, where I learned so much about potential majors, and got this really cool T-shirt from the visual arts center booth. Speaking of the visual arts center, we passed by the building with the ‘black, red and yellow’ squares that are considered ‘art.’ I mean, after hearing the wonderful hacking story of the mysterious ‘mint’ square, you’d think that it was a really big monument or something. But alas, contrary to popular belief, these squares are… well. You’ll see in the picture below. Later, I ate dinner at a sorority called Sigma Kappa, and gaped at how spotless the place was compared to my room. Speaking of which, I haven’t unpacked thoroughly yet – the suitcase is still in the center of my room. Lastly, of course, one could never forget the “fruity thing in Lobby 7…”

Marilee Jones! Just because she’s awesome like that.

President Susan Hockfield. Inspirational. She reminded of us why we were special. Even if we thought we got in by mistake.

Me: “I went to CPW and all I got was this free t-shirt!”

Fangfei: “You’ve GOT to be kidding me.” (In reference to the mysterious mint square hack)

And of course one could not to go CPW without going Dorm Touring! Fangfei ’11, Drew ’11 and I (as well as various other people we encountered throughout the day) headed off bright and early on Saturday Morning to Simmons Hall to eat some awesome pancakes and French toast for breakfast, accompanied by delicious smoothies. Then, we headed over to MacGregor (or MacArthur, according to Fangfei) and took a tour of the place. Unfortunately, their smoothies weren’t as good – maybe they should steal Simmons' smoothie recipe. Anyways, we then headed over the McCormick to eat some good takeout food for lunch, and some Asian snacks and MORE BUBBLE TEA (I think it’s just an Asian obsession, correct me if I’m wrong). We then looked at New House, Next House, and took a tour of Simmons. After that, Fangfei left me to go home, but alas I was whisked off to eat dinner with an old friend (current student) who I attended high school with. She also took me to a party at Phi Delta, which was a pretty cool experience, especially since they were really good about staying dry (alcohol-free). Before I went back to my dorm though, I made a quick stop at MacGregor convenience to use up the rest of my TechCash (there was so much free food over the weekend, it was insane).

Oh btw, apparently there’s this myth that the weather is supposed to be ‘rainy’ for CPW weekend, but it always clears up for us prefrosh. Well, the rain did clear up on Friday and Saturday, only to return on Sunday morning (haha, just in time for the Boston marathon!). But yes, I had a lot of fun, and let me tell you MIT, you have stolen my soul and I’ll have to look for again this August when I come up to Cambridge. Ahhh - I was so wiped out that I just slept the entire drive back – and luckily no breakdowns this time.

*Just a note! Caltech's 'prank' this year was pretty sweet - they make a fake issue of the Tech and filled with funny things. (Milena ’11 posted a pic of this) My personal favorite things were the two-space sudoku and the weather update "You wish you were in California right now."

Some [Random] Pics!

When we toured Simmons, we curiously inquired about the ducks in the architect’s prison. Apparently there was much controversy over these ducks, and they’ve even developed a ‘duck committee’ to deal with rubber duck maintenance. Or so I’m told.

Well, I just have to say, this is one of the coolest drapes I saw at East Campus.

Wow this is such a random picture. But like, I guess the university needed a restock after the weekend! This is still pretty cool, though.

Seleeke Flingai (me): All the time. It's called MIT, it's the only way to fly.

I don't care how you take it, but my CPW experience was one of the most liberating, invigorating, and awe-inspiring times of my life. That's no exaggeration -- my four days at MIT changed my life more than I'd ever expect. From the myriad of future classmates I met, to the numerous fraternities I visited, to the awesome trips to a breakdancing competition at Tufts University and my little venture to Chinatown, I'll never forget my time at CPW 2007.

Wait, breakdancing competition?! Chinatown?!?!?

You bet. You could spend your time at CPW relegated to the large, sprawling campus, where you'd definitely have loads of fun. But my best experiences involved plenty of exploration. On Friday, many prefrosh and I attended an hour-long breakdancing class, which involved none other than yours truly huffing and puffing after many failed attempts at six steps, set ups, and a number of other breakdancing moves. After conversing with the two MIT students who taught the class (and learning about the large breakdancing community at the school and at Boston), I decided to trek over to Tufts University and catch a sweet breakdancing/popping competition that put "You Got Served" in its place.

Don't worry, his right arm somehow isn't broken.

The atmosphere was insane as a bevy of schools, ranging from our own MIT to the folks at Harvard, Boston U., Tufts, Brown, and more, danced their asses off with move after mouth-opening move. You'd be surprised at how agile and flexible these guys were, just as you would at how organized and choreographed their routines were. The improvisation was top notch too. But enough with the breakdancing -- on to Chinatown.

On only my second trip on a subway EVER (my first was to the Breakdancing shindig the night before), I braved the Boston T train system and made my way down to Chinatown, where I went shopping crazy for my peeps back home. I brought home a Chinese newspaper and a few gifts for my special lady in Minnesota, along with a couple of trinkets for my family. My humble state of 10,000 lakes doesn't have anything even close to a Chinatown (and I live in Minneapolis, the state's epicenter), so I HAD to make my way to this area on my stay here. I loved it, and if you ever have the chance, please check out this version of Chi-Town.

Now, my entire time at CPW wasn't spent away from campus. I visited a few classes, including a pretty entertaining Differential Equations class (although I still have no idea what the Dirac delta-function is) and a likewise interesting Japanese II course. I went to a Study Abroad panel that happened to include blogger Sam, and at the awesome Battle of the Bands event on the last night of my stay, I caught a glimpse of blogger Bryan. But, as anyone else who went to the Battle of the Bands would tell you, the highlight of the show (other than the fantastic closer by Dirt Water Refuge, who very much reminded me of Zeppelin and other classic rock staples) was the inspired performance by the Ben + Marilee Jones Power Duo (this name is trademarked by me...NO STEALING!!).

Marilee sang her heart out with a magnificent performance of the Rolling Stones' classic "You Can't Always Get What You Want," while Ben rocked out (unplugged) with some great guitar work. The crowd went wild, swayed along with Marilee, and sang the lyrics in unison. Oh, and how could I forget the Beaver's (MIT's beloved and oh-so-cute-yet-not-very-intimidating mascot) crowd surfing later in the night? It was the perfect end to a perfect CPW.

Will I remember CPW 2007 one, five, or even ten years from now? You betcha. My entire stay, which included my travels on campus and throughout Boston, is unlike anything I've ever done, and I can't wait to do more exploring come this August. See you in the fall!!

*If you didn't catch the Matrix quote at the top, shame on you.*

My total caffeine intake curing CPW looked something like this:

2.5 Bawls sodas
2 red bulls
1 Sobe energy drink
1 energy drink water thing
5 cups of coffee

I slept 5 hours over the course of CPW. 1 hour on purpose, 4 hours on accident (which is a funny story that I'll share shortly).

So, from the beginning: I arrived in Boston Wednesday evening to catch an MIT Wind Ensemble rehearsal and received 2 free Rep CD's from the director, very cool. Then, my last night of sleep for a long time.

The next morning I met Sara '11 at South Station and we headed over to campus to get all registered. The highlight was actually seeing people in person that I've been seeing online forever. Nance, Ben Jones, and Matt McGann were all at registration. I got my picture taken with Matt at 9:55. Then it was off to the Stata center and CSAIL for a tour, which is when the fun actually began. This is where I encountered "The Group". For the last several months there has been a group of people on the MIT '11 Facebook group that have always just kinda gotten along, and we all managed to find each other about an hour into the first day.

Meet (from left) Michelle Nason, Sara Ferry, yours truly, Tim, Hank Robinson, Yuki Yamada, and Jon Estrada. Unfortunately Sauza couldn't make the picture, and the little girl, well, we don't know who she is.

So what adventures did we go on? Allow me to steal the following format from Milena:

Liquid Nitrogen Ice Cream
Didn't spend a lot of time at this one, but it's worth noting because it showed up on the schedule about a gazillion times. Throughout campus there were huge containers of liquid nitrogen, they were a common sight. This is what they were used for:

Simmons Ball Pit
WHY IS THIS NOT ADVERTISED?!?!?!?!? Look, if a dorm has a ball pit, I need to stay in it, because it is automatically the coolest dorm ever, hands down. We played in it a lot, here's Jon:

We also played the "Bury Snively under little colorful balls" game and I soon found myself completely in the dark. Good times.

Oh, and did you know that the dining room chairs in Simmons bounce? It's true!

Fire hose: λ Calculus
So, lambda calculus is one of those types of math that is probably impossible any time of day during any time of the week at any age. I'll spare you the explanation of what it is, sufficing it to say that three 18 year olds were probably not going to grasp it at 3 in the morning. Here are some highlights:

Look at us pretending to understand what's happening!

Yes, apparently it's true in lambda calc.

Did you know you could use an octopus as a variable?

Science Museum!
Alright, technically this isn't part of CPW, but it is in Boston, so it's worth mentioning. First off, we saw an R2D2 mailbox, which was far too exciting to handle.

We stretched our MIT muscles and bartered for free admittance because we were nearly MIT students, that was pretty awesome, no $16 tickets for us! After exploring we had our picture taken with the beaver exhibit.

And then we had pictures taken in the main lobby spelling various things. Here are the girls spelling MIT:

And here are the guys and Sara spelling IHTFP. After this particular picture somebody noticed that it was 3:15 and proclaimed "Gah, it's too bad we missed pi guys." Then somebody else chimed in. "Wait, didn't we just take a picture?" We dove for our cameras and zoomed in on the IHTFP picture. Sure enough, completely by accident, the digital clock in the background was displaying "3:14". We cheered, people stared.

Meet the Bloggers
Meet the bloggers rocked because the bloggers were no longer little pictures at the top of a web page. They're real, believe it or not! I'll skip the stories with this one and share some pictures instead:

(Me taking a picture of Matt McGann taking a picture of me)

Student Center Sleep-over
Remember how I said we accidentally slept for 4 hours?

Here's the scene: Hank, Harrison, Yuki, Jon, Dan, and yours truly were all tired because it was 3 in the morning. The next event wasn't scheduled until 4:17 (Pancakes at Random Hall). We decided to just chill in the student center lobby until it was time to leave, figuring we could even slip in a half hour nap before taking off. We took our places on various couches in the lobby. Jon had to separate from the group and go to a different couch because there wasn't enough room near us. Well, turns out it's hard to take a half hour nap after going two days without sleep. After dozing off I hear a voice faintly in the distance: "Stupid pre-frosh sleeping in the lobby." This woke me up, and that's when I checked my watch. 8:00 am. CPW registration was back in full swing, people were wandering everywhere, eating, meeting friends, and here we were completely asleep with mouths hanging open and backpacks strewn across the floor. I woke some people up and we all just sat there, disoriented, and trying to figure out what had happened. That's when we remembered Jon, where was he?! We struggled up from our stupor and wandered around, eventually finding him taking up an entire couch, sleeping while people watched him from all the couches nearby. Oh, and did I mention that Hank's backpack, filled with bouncy balls from the bouncy ball drop, had tipped over during the night and spilled bouncy balls all over the floor of the Student Center? Yeah, we're classy.

Chillin' with Sam and Laura in BC
While chillin' in the basement of Burton-Conner we happened upon blogger Sam and blogger Laura! Sooooooo, both are pretty much amazing. Sam was amazing just because he was so cool, and Laura was amazing because you can insult her all day long and she'll just swing right back and make you feel like an idiot. She makes up some pretty awesome words too. I look forward to a time when I'm not sleep-deprived and can argue with her without totally getting pwned, it's ON Laura!

BTW, this has nothing to do with Laura or Sam, but if you live in Burton Conner, this is the kind of stuff you get to do to your room:

And Sam sings.

If you have any comments or questions, post/email them and I'll be sure they get to the author.
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CPW has been by far one of the best experiences I’ve had this year. When I got into MIT back in December, I must admit that while I was very, very, very excited, I had a weird breakdown for five minutes when I realized I was going to college with a couple hundred geeks. Luckily, MIT wanted to pay for my trip to CPW, so I went there with this “what the heck, they’re paying for it so I might as well go” attitude. Well . . . MIT proved me wrong big time. (Which I loved, of course.) The people there are seriously the nicest people I’ve ever met. I got lost a few times (ok, a LOT of times), and instead of whipping out my map, I took that as a chance to ask someone and meet people. I don’t think I met a single stuck-up person there, so that’s a pretty good sign I’ll fit in. :) I also loved how every time I met a new person it went sort of like this:

Me: "Hi, I'm Milena."

Other person: "My name is ____. I actually know who you are, I've seen you on Facebook."

Me: "Oh. Well... nice to meet you!!"

Oh, where would we be if it weren't for Facebook... *sigh* Some people saw my pictures on Facebook, and a lot of them are of my host’s dorm, Simmons Hall. Well, how could you not love Simmons?! They have a "meditation room" full of balls, which I loved being in.

I spent a lot of time in my dorm (wow, that sounds nice...) with my fellow Puertorrican people on floor 7C. My host was the APR's president, so I got to meet a lot of the Puertorrican students, and I even had dinner with them. Talking about food.... The amount of free food on campus was INSANE! There were BBQ parties going on everywhere, even though it was pretty cold outside. Although I didn't make the most of the free food (I was having so much fun I forgot I was hungry), I did go to a few frats to have a bite (TDC having the best burgers I had during the weekend). And I also got to try those Anna's burritos I'd heard so much about, and LOVED them.

A list of things I'd never done before and tried them over the weekend (pictures included!):

1. Having soda with dry ice.

2. Swallowing two live goldfish swimming in root beer. (Before you go ahead and think I'm gross/insane/your new best friend, a friend who shall remain anonymous had 26. Think about HIM.)

3. Going to a frat party (I went to DTD's Goldfish party, Nu Delta's Climax party and Phi Delt's party on Saturday night). They were all awesome!! The picture is from the Goldfish party.

4. Walking across the Harvard Bridge. That was very interesting because the bridge's length is measured in smoots.

364.4 smoots = 2034.6 feet, so think twice before crossing the bridge and walking all the way to Simmons Hall wearing high heels. Your feet will thank you.

This is supposed to say "halfway to hell" with an arrow pointing to MIT, but I'd have to get on the road to take a better picture, and I'd rather be alive.

5. Taking an Organic Chemistry (5.12) class in room 10-250. The professor was very funny and wanted people to "ask more dumb questions". I had a few, but I'll leave them for when I actually have to understand everything she says. The pictures look kinda blurry because I didn't want to use the camera's flash and draw attention to myself. By the way, those boards are amazing. The professor pressed a button and they moved up and down so she could write on them.

6. Watching hundreds of bouncy balls drop at Senior House. I saved a few :-)

You can't see the balls really well because they were small, but I did my best.

7. Reading a fake issue of the Tech. Caltech decided to prank MIT by printing these real-looking Tech issues, which I thought were hilarious, but the hack could have been a lot better if they had hidden all the real Tech issues and replaced them with their fake issue. Which goes to prove, Caltech students are not as smart as they think they are. Bwahaha.

That "Facebook leaves student friendless" headline worried me. That could be me in a year!

This was very funny, especially the one about birth control.

I didn't get to sleep much (I only slept about 10 hours during CPW), but I'm glad I stayed up as long as I could. I did loads of cool things, met lots of cool people and had a great time. CPW was great and they did a great job of convincing me to give them all of my Dad's money in exchange for the best education I can get. I hope I see all the amazing prefrosh I met next fall!! :-) (By the way, if I met you during CPW, please facebook me!)

Sorry to those of you who couldn't make it, but I'm sure with all the pictures everyone took that there will be mad blog coverage of CPW over the next few days, so fear not.

And finally, a sorry to those of you who thought I would be taller or more buff. My genes didn't really favor that department. *Gulps protein shake*

So I thought it would be appropriate to talk about why it was I chose MIT...twice. Yes, folks, I'm making it public. I decided that I love MIT so much that I want 5 MORE YEARS. By the time I graduate, I will have spent a third of my life at this place. I LOVE IT.

So why would anyone want to come to MIT?

I think the way that I see it is if you've ever read one of those choose your own adventure books and loved it, that would be a great reason to say so. If I think about my daily set of activities at MIT, I'm really choosing from this very long catalog of options of what I want to see, learn, do, taste. Essentially, it's sensory overload of the amazing kind.

If you believe that the only education you will receive at MIT is in the classroom, that's not true. I think probably one of the biggest assets MIT has is the people. Coming to MIT I was a pretty shy and reticent guy, but I think one of the biggest lessons I've learned while here is that it is both fun and worthwhile to get to know the people that you share this community with. Apart from the fact that working with others makes the work get done faster and in a more fun environment, the people here come from all different walks of life, and it's really great to be in a place where to a degree the world comes to you and you can meet a group of people from all over the country and globe. Now that's a cool feeling.

So is all this "you can change the world" message just lip service or can you actually do it here at 18 years of age? I return to a personal anecdote. When I came to MIT, I wanted to do one thing, I wanted to get my degree and get out. I also wanted to learn how to make cool prosthetic devices. Have I done (or will I do) either of those two things by June 8? Probably not. Am I upset about it? Not at all. One thing that I acknowledge is that when I came to MIT, my exposure to the world of science and engineering was limited. I'd done some fun GFP experiments in high school biology but I didn't solve protein structures or anything like that. I never did any summer research before coming here either. So was MIT really going to fit with my personal background and experience? I guess it did. Having never touched a pipette, today I work in a lab where we're trying to reduce the need for organ transplants by understanding the etiology of diseases. At the same time, we're trying to expedite the drug development process. So is it lip service? Nope.

So why do I think someone should come to MIT?

If you really want to be able to consider your education an open-ended question where the question is "what's next?" I think that this is the place for you. I think in some respects you have to be a car that drives itself insofar that you have to push yourself and take yourself to the next step, but at the same time, you have to know when it's time to seek help and help others.

I used to think that everything in life was a linear sequence of events. Then I came to MIT. I realize now that life is a timeless twister that never stops.

The late professor Gian-Carlo Rota had ten maxims about learning of which I will close this entry with three:
1. You learn what you don't know you are learning.
2. By and large, "knowing how" matters more than "knowing what."
3. The world and your career are unpredictable, so you are better off learning subjects of permanent value.

Get PUMPED.

Hopefully, I'll see you all in the fall. Don't forget about me when I'm a grad student. I might even be your TA. Ha!

Rule #1: If you're paying for your food, you're doing something wrong.

Campus Preview Weekend is full with free food all over campus. Open houses, free pizza, liquid nitrogen ice cream, donuts, dinners at fraternities. So keep the cash in your wallet for your MIT sweatshirt.

Rule #2: If you're sleeping, you're also doing something wrong.

There is so much going on, and I don't remember getting much sleep whether it was checking out another aspect of MIT or talking to the potential students.

Rule #3: Talk to people, prefrosh and current students alike.

I think the best part of CPW for me was talking to other prefrosh getting to know the people that I would be going to school with for four years. I also had a lot of questions about MIT and what it was like here. Ask people tough questions, and if you aren't satisfied with the answer, ask someone else.

Rule #4: Explore the campus.

Walk around the campus. The fact that you're a prefrosh is like an open door to visit labs, classes, and get exposed to everything that MIT has to offer. Relish in it.

Rule #5: Don't knock it 'til you try it.

I can't say how many things I would have missed out on if I had not kept an open mind. I really took CPW as an opportunity to explore things that I had not seen before. So don't judge a book by it's cover, and take a chance to try something new.

Rule #6: Pack for the weather.

I forgot my umbrella during my CPW. Not awesome. So pack a jacket and check the weather before you get here.

Rule # 7: HAVE FUN. If you're not having fun, something is not right.

CPW is one of the most fun times of the year, so please have fun. And lots. Thanks :^)

That's all I can think of right now, but if you have any questions, feel free to post comments and ask questions about CPW and I'll answer them here on the blog.

See you all on Thursday!

Thanks everyone!

Expect an entry tonight about how to make the most of your CPW experience.