One of the many unique and altogether unavoidable aspects of MIT life is the mailing list. Mailing lists are powerful tools that allow people to contact a large number of other people whom all have a common interest. Most sporting groups, clubs, class groups, dorms, floors in dorms, classes, councils, and recitations all have unique mailing lists. It's impossible to avoid getting added to many MANY mailing lists during your time at MIT. By the end of my four year stint I believe I was on ~200 different mailing lists. This isn't unusual.

There are some mailing lists that only see use for a semester, others that get used for a year or more, and still others that are used for four or more years. Many mailing lists lack clever names and all of them end with @mit.edu. Since they lack clever names it's usually pretty easy to recognize patterns (or guess what a group's mailing list name might be). Take, for example, the mailing lists that are used for contacting an ENTIRE CLASS of students. We're not talking about a math class here, we're talking about a class of 1000+ admitted students. Each has a very simple naming scheme and a little research showed that all of the class mailing lists up until the class of 2015 had been created and had owners, likely administrators at MIT.

So, what's a group of PSETing MIT students at 2 in the morning to do when they discover such a pattern? Create and claim ownership over the first unclaimed list, duh! So, back in 2009, four tired, grumpy, overworked, and snickering MIT students stole the class of 2016's mailing list.

BWAHAHAHAHAHA!!! Oh my god, it was hysterical. Seriously, we were soooo proud of ourselves. We could hardly stand it. We told everybody!!!

Actually, we just chuckled, didn't tell anybody, and forgot about it for three years :)

Tonight we got an angry email claiming that the class of 2016 class council was upset and wanted their list back.

SUCCESS!!!

But, just giving the list back would be too easy, far FAR too easy. So, here's the plan, ladies and gents -

THE MIT FRESHMAN'S GUIDE TO RECOVERING OWNERSHIP OF THEIR CLASS MAILING LIST

The name of the game is a photo scavenger hunt. Upon receiving photos of freshmen from 9 of the 12 undergraduate dorms spelling MIT in the traditional 4-person pose SOMEWHERE IN THEIR DORM we will release the mailing list. Here's an example:

To further sweeten the pot, the freshmen with the best MIT picture and in the coolest location within their dorm will receive four flaky biscuits and a set of magnetic buckyballs to share among themselves.

Freshmen, please send submissions to tinsington[at]mit[dot]edu by 11:59PM today (Thursday).

Prospective freshmen, please enjoy watching this year's freshmen scrabble to reclaim custody of their mailing list :)  While this blog entry isn't necessarily aimed at you, hopefully it gives you a peak at some of the fun shenanigans that happen from time to time.

Finally, just as a reminder, we were all freshmen at one point. No matter how hard it seems, you'll get through it, it's just school. Here's (from left to right) James, Yuki, Sauza, Jordan and yours truly way back in 2008 on Conner 2, "collaborating" on Mastering Physics, just like you!!!

Chin up, and get photographing, or you'll never see your mailing list again!!!
 

Unfortunately, I've picked up a new hobby that makes that second rule a little more difficult.

In the summer between sophomore and junior year at MIT I did my first tandem skydive while I was back home in Oregon.  I didn't tell my parents, I just went with a bunch of friends, shelled out the cash, got strapped to a skydiver, and was pushed out of a plane.  It was AWESOME!  I didn't even mind that there was a malfunction on our main parachute and we had to cutaway and deploy our reserve, I was too busy being on sensory overload :)  My parents weren't really excited that I'd gone skydiving but they were glad that I'd had fun and were also glad that I was still alive.

I did some checking that semester and discovered that MIT had a skydiving club!  More checking revealed that the drop zone (standard name for the airport you skydive at) was about an hour away and accessible only by car.  My research also revealed that getting your skydiving license costs about $3.3k.  I decided that due to time and money and because of a lack of vehicle I should probably hold off on skydiving for a while.

Fast forward to, oh, about 2 months ago.  As I sat in my apartment watching South Park I thought to myself "Why am I not skydiving?  What's stopping me from just going ahead and getting my license?"  As it turns out, nothing was, so I called the DZ, asked a few questions (how many jumps does it take, how much does it cost, is it self-paced, etc etc) and registered for the 6 hour ground training.  A week later I found myself sitting in a classroom with 4 other guys learning the finer points of how to not die when jumping out of an aircraft. 

We used some pretty high-tech training tools

I was really surprised by the layers of safety and redundancy built in to the skydiving gear you wear.  Not only is there a reserve parachute, but there's also a little line that connects your main to your reserve so when you cutaway your main your reserve is automatically deployed.  There's also a little electronic device that automatically detects if you fall too fast below a minimum altitude and automatically deploys your reserve.  

I was also curious about how they were going to teach me to recognize and react to various malfunctions that could happen.  The solution was pretty clever.  They have point-of-view photos printed onto big sheets that they hold above your head while you wear a practice harness.  You look up, recognize the malfunction, and then have to react appropriately.  We did this over and over, to the point that theoretically I won't even hesitate if I look up and see a big ball of snot flapping around above my head.  

We practiced body position, exit procedure, pull priorities, malfunction recognition, altitude awareness, and all sorts of other things.  By the end of it I was ready and anxious to actually jump out of an airplane - which I did.

I got all dressed up in a student jumpsuit (bright purple, lovely), helmet, clipped a radio to my chest, was gear checked a million times, and made my way to the airplane with the two instructors who would be jumping with me and holding on to me during freefall.  That's right, your first skydive towards your license isn't a tandem, you jump out all by yourself and are responsible for pulling your own chute.  The instructors just hold on to you and give you hand signals to help correct body position during freefall.

The ride up to 13.5k feet was awesome - I went over the jump verbally and in my head, touched all of my handles to help record their placement into muscle memory, and then made my way to the door when the red light came on.  Up the door went and we checked our spot by looking out the door.

I can see my house from here!  See the little red light?  That means look, but don't jump.

The light turned green, I climbed into the door, got nods from my instructors, and then WOOOOOOOSH!  GAAAHHHHH!!!!!!!!  Freefall, guys, is AWESOME!  I did all of my jump requirements, followed the hand signals given to me by my instructors, pulled my chute at the correct altitude, and soon I was drifting pleasantly under a big orange parachute :)

The radio on my chest crackled to life and gave me instructions on where to go and what to do, gradually talking my down and helping me land.

The next 25 jumps blurred by.  

WEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

Soon I was jumping with just one instructor holding on, then one instructor who didn't hold on, then by myself, then from a low altitude.  Some jumps went great, others not so much, but all were extremely fun.

What exactly happens on a jump that's "not so great?" you may ask?  Well, I happen to have a nice series of pictures that shows you.  Here's what happened:  When you pull your chute you are supposed to be stable and falling with your back facing upwards.  This allows the parachute to come out of its container and inflate above you.  During one jump, as we neared our pull altitude, I went a bit unstable and instead of taking a deep breath, stabilizing, and then pulling, I decided to pull regardless of stability.  Technically, this was the right decision, because the priorities during freefall are 1) Pull, 2) Pull at the correct altitude, 3) Pull while stable.  Anyway, I pulled, and I knew I was unstable so I mentally prepared myself for whatever nightmare might occur.  I felt something bump into my left foot and almost knock my shoe off and then, before I knew it , I was upright and under canopy.  No crisis, no injury, no nothing, YAY!

On the ground I got debriefed by my coach.  Apparently I pulled while facing straight down in a dive.  That thing I felt bouncing off my foot was the bag that holds the canopy.  A lot of things could have gone seriously wrong BUT, nothing did and it was a great learning experience.  Smiles all around!

After 25 jumps I did my check dive to get my license.  I had to jump out, locate my instructor, go up to them, grab their wrists, back off, spin 360 degrees, do a front flip, and then pull while stable.  I did all of those things and had a pleasant and uneventful canopy ride back to earth.  That's when I got nervous.  Ty, one of the coaches, comes up to me as I'm headed back to the tent for debrief, comes up to me and says "Dude, Nadya (the instructor on that jump) is really upset with you.  You landed fast and easily could have broken a leg.  You need to give her some time to calm down before going to see her."

crap.

I turned left and started walking dejectedly to the hanger in order to put my gear away.  I made it about halfway there when I heard yelling behind me.  "It was a joke!  Come back here!"  Then there was all sorts of cheering and congratulations - I passed!!!

And then I got pied.

It's tasty at first.  Then it smells like spoiled baby poop :(

Now I can jump all by myself!  I also get to buy my own gear and do whatever I want, no coaches or radio necessary :)  I've been spending a lot of time at the DZ and soon realized that the MIT skydiving club is alive and well.  I'd completely forgotten about it, but one day I realized that half a dozen jumpers were all sitting around and I was hearing key words that clued me in on their MIT ties.  ". . . Course 3 . . . 3d printer . . . Central . . . all-nighter."  Apparently the club fell apart for a while but in March it was re-established and is now going strong again, which is awesome!  Technically I'm not a grad student.  Actually, no technically about it, I'm just not a grad student, but I like to think of myself as an honorary member of the MIT Skydiving club now since I at least went to MIT and now skydive.  Their facebook page claims that "Club membership is open to all MIT students, staff, faculty, and affiliates, as well as to members of the Cambridge and Boston community" so there you go, I'm in!  And you could be too!

I spend most of my weekends now jumping out of airplanes and learning more and more about how to control myself during freefall.  It's an awesome hobby and if you are at all interested and think you'll have the time/money/transportation, definitely check out the skydiving club.  Also feel free to ask questions in the comments, I'd be more than happy to answer them.  If you're here over the summer and have the cash then it's really easy because you aren't worried about PSETs and such.  You can slam through the 25 jumps needed for your license in about two months if you just go on weekends and the weather cooperates.

No more purple jumpsuit, yay!  And, a fancy full-face helmet.  Movin' on up!

About to push some friends out of the plane

I kept seeing all of these blog entries about "How to . . . " and wanted to contribute one of my own (even though I'm not discovering pulsars), so here you are!  How to skydive: just go do it!  A bunch of prefrosh on the MIT 2016 Facebook group bought tandem tickets and you should too!  We're making a trip in September to the DZ and we're all going to go have fun jumping out of planes.  We jump at Skydive Pepperell, shoot me an email if you want to come and I'll make sure you know when it happens.  Also, remember, during MIT and even after MIT, you aren't in high school anymore and the freedom to do whatever you want on a whim is a freedom you shouldn't ignore!  Want to go eat hamburgers for breakfast?  Go ahead.  Want to take a bus to NYC and spend a Saturday there?  Go ahead.  Want to join a skydiving club?  Do it!  

Taking advantage of the freedom you're afforded in college is one of the coolest things you'll experience.  I remember one day I skipped 18.02 lecture and just cooked (and ate) bacon.  Why?  Because I wanted to!  Awesome.

Another time I found a pool noodle so I dressed it up with googly eyes, a nose, and a santa hat.  I then bought a clay pot and some potting soil, planted the noodle in the pot, and put it on Susan Hockfield's front porch.  Why?  Because.

One day I took a bus to NYC to be a part of an improv everywhere mission, which was one of the best memories I have from senior year.  

Don't restrict yourself from doing things that seem silly or different just because you've never done them or because they're out of the ordinary.  Now's the time to do those things!

Do your work and keep up in your classes, but don't be afraid to do something just to do it.  As Ms. Frizzle would say, take chances, make mistakes, get messy!

Before I go too much farther, I suppose I should introduce myself. It's been forever since I've blogged and many of you may not have heard of me. Hi. I'm Snively, I graduated in 2011 (MechE) and have just completed my first year out in the real world. That's right, electricity bills, rent, gas, insurance, and all that other boring stuff.

You know what's not boring though? My job. My job is very much not boring and I think you'll agree. I build interactive exhibits for museums AND design/build interactive walkthrough adventures.  The company I work for is called 5 Wits and the CEO is MIT alum Matt DuPlessie. Each year Matt gives back a little to MIT by being a lab instructor for 2.009 and I give back a bit by being a lab instructor for 2.00b (toy design). We also sometimes use the 5 Wits shop to help fabricate portions of projects for these classes.

In addition to all this MIT/5 Wits collaboration we also host a group of MIT interns each January. This year we had five. See, here's me and them:

Awwwwww. They were awesome and we helped introduce them to the design/brainstorm/prototype process

So, why am I telling you all this? Why the sudden blog entry after a year of nothing? Well, 5 Wits is building a new show and we need YOUR help.

Our shows take about $200k to build through to completion and we're jumping on the Kickstarter bandwagon to see if we can raise some funds that way. This blog entry is a humble request for you to check out our Kickstarter page, watch the video, read the description, and decide whether you'd like to contribute.  I make an appearance in the video at 3:03.  It's also a request to share the kickstarter link with EVERYBODY that you know.  The more eyes the better.

There are a variety of award levels and most involve free tickets to the show. It'll definitely be finished while you're at MIT so you'll be able to go check it out if it gets funded.

As a special "MIT Admissions" bonus if you decide to help contribute, I'd be more than happy to give you a behind the scenes tour when it opens AND, prior to that, Skype/Google hangout with you for 1/2 hour discussing admissions, MechE, or whatever you'd like. Donate and you get thirty minutes of my time for your trouble.

I hesitated a bit when considering posting this because it's a bit spammy but when I considered the close ties we have with MIT, the interns we host each year, and the fact that 5 Wits is an awesome example of a place you can work after you graduate, I feel a bit less scummy about asking you to check out the Kickstarter.

So, check it out! Also check out Bryan's blog entry from years back when he visited one of 5 Wits's shows. Remember, behind the scene tours and Skype dates await you! 

CLICK HERE TO VISIT THE KICKSTARTER PAGE!  

Share this link:  http://kck.st/LIUjOb

Alright, sorry about the delay. I was too busy celebrating the New Year. ;) I hope you're still checking in on this account.

Anyway, I think I have a bit of a unique perspective. I've seen MIT admissions from the perspective of the applicant, a student, a teacher, and now as an alumnus conducting interviews of prospective students. The fact that you mentioned MIT specifically really made me feel like I should take the time to produce a good response!

I wanted to start by writing out standard admissions advice (e.g. no one thing like SAT scores will keep you from being admitted, etc.). While all that is true, the problem you're dealing with is so much bigger than that. The problem you're coming up against is one I've seen so many of my fellow students encounter. If I could set up a wavy-fade flashback, I'd show you my freshman year.

I moved into one of the dorms at MIT thinking I was hot shit. I had, after all, just gotten into MIT. And beyond that, I had tested out of the freshman calculus and physics classes, meaning that I was able to start math "a year" ahead in differential equations and start with the advanced version of the physics 2 class we have. Registration went by easy enough and I was pleased with my decisions.

Term rolled in and I was getting crushed. I wasn't the greatest student in high school, and whenever I got poor grades I would explain them away by saying I just didn't care or I was too busy or too unmotivated or (more often than not) just cared about something else. It didn't help that I had good test performance which fed my ego and let me think I was smarter than everyone else, just relatively unmotivated. I had grossly underestimated MIT, and was left feeling so dumb.  

I had the fortune of living next to a bright guy, R. R. was an advanced student, to say the least. He was a sophomore, but was already taking the most advanced graduate math classes. He came into MIT and tested out of calculus, multivariable calculus, differential equations, linear algebra, real analysis (notoriously the most difficult math class at MIT), and a slew of other math courses. And to top it all off, he was attractive, engaging, sociable, and generally had no faults that would make him mortal.

I suffered through half a semester of differential equations before my pride let me go to R. for help. And sure enough, he took my textbook for a night to review the material (he couldn't remember it all from third grade), and then he walked me through my difficulties and coached me. I ended up pulling a B+ at the end of a semester and avoiding that train wreck. The thing is, nothing he taught me involved raw brainpower. The more I learned the more I realized that the bulk of his intelligence and his performance just came from study and practice, and that the had amassed a large artillery of intellectual and mathematical tools that he had learned and trained to call upon. He showed me some of those tools, but what I really ended up learning was how to go about finding, building, and refining my own set of cognitive tools. I admired R., and I looked up to him, and while I doubt I will ever compete with his genius, I recognize that it's because of a relative lack of my conviction and an excess of his, not some accident of genetics.

It's easy to trick ourselves into thinking that "being smart" is what determines our performance. In so many ways, it's the easiest possible explanation because it demands so little of us and immediately explains away our failings. You are facing this tension without recognizing it. You are blaming your intelligence in the first two paragraphs but you undermine yourself by saying you received good grades you didn't deserve. You recognize your lack of motivation as a factor in your lack of extracurricular activities but not in your SAT scores (fun fact: the variable that correlates most strongly to SAT performance is hours of studying for the SATs). Your very last statement could just as well apply to your entire post:
But none of this has to do with my intelligence; I'm just rambling.

You got A's because you studied or because the classes were easy. You got a B probably because you were so used to understanding things that you didn't know how to deal with something that didn't come so easily. I'm guessing that early on you built the cognitive and intellectual tools to rapidly acquire and process new information, but that you've relied on those tools so much you never really developed a good set of tools for what to do when those failed. This is what happened to me, but I didn't figure it out until after I got crushed by my first semester of college. I need to ask you, has anyone ever taken the time to teach you how to study? And separately, have you learned how to study on your own in the absence of a teacher or curriculum? These are the most valuable tools you can acquire because they are the tools you will use to develop more powerful and more insightful tools. It only snowballs from there until you become like R.

MIT has an almost 97% graduation rate. That means that most of the people who get in, get through. Do you know what separates the 3% that didn't from the rest that do? I do. I've seen it so many times, and it almost happened to me. Very few people get through four years of MIT with such piss-poor performance that they don't graduate. In fact, I can't think of a single one off the top of my head. People fail to graduate from MIT because they come in, encounter problems that are harder than anything they've had to do before, and not knowing how to look for help or how to go about wrestling those problems, burn out. The students that are successful look at that challenge, wrestle with feelings of inadequacy and stupidity, and begin to take steps hiking that mountain, knowing that bruised pride is a small price to pay for getting to see the view from the top. They ask for help, they acknowledge their inadequacies. They don't blame their lack of intelligence, they blame their lack of motivation. I was lucky that I had someone to show me how to look for that motivation, and I'm hoping that I can be that person for you in some small capacity over the Internet. I was able to recover from my freshman year and go on to be very successful in my studies, even serving as a TA for my fellow students. When I was a senior, I would sit down with the freshmen in my dorm and show them the same things that had been shown to me, and I would watch them struggle with the same feelings, and overcome them. By the time I graduated MIT, I had become the person I looked up to when I first got in.

You're so young, way too young to be worried about not being smart enough. Until you're so old you start going senile, you have the opportunity to make yourself "smarter." And I put that in quotes because "smart" is really just a way of saying "has invested so much time and sweat that you make it look effortless." You feel like you are burnt out or that you are on the verge of burning out, but in reality you are on the verge of deciding whether or not you will burn out. It's scary to acknowledge that it's a decision because it puts the onus on you to to do something about it, but it's empowering because it means there is something you can do about it.

So do it.

First things first, I have to post this, as promised in an earlier blog entry:

What could this possibly mean? It means I've graduated!!! Holy smokes, four years of MIT and now it's over. It seems like it goes so fast, how could it be over? Then you think about specific moment, all of the episodes, and you realize that it didn't go fast, that it took just as long as anything else takes because there's no way to slow or quicken the progression of time. So here we are, four years from when I started, and I get to look back at all I've done. Not gonna lie, sometimes it's hard to remember (not because the moments are painful, just because they were a long time ago and I'm getting old), and all these blog entries I've got archived here are an awesome way to reminisce.

Ups and Downs

It started on my personal blog with this, admittedly, super tooly entry. It's amazing to compare how I act and write now with some of my earlier entries, both in my personal blog and MIT blog. MIT has certainly calmed me down, added a slight glaze to my eyes, and made me demand more than just trivial occurrences to get me excited ("Oh, math joke, not funny"). For better or for worse, I'm a different person now than I was when I got here. How much of that is MIT related and how much of that is general maturation related we may never know, but I know that it's certainly due to both.

Apart from aging me a bit, MIT has also done its best to shove every bit of knowledge it could into my relatively small brain (relatively small compared to many of my classmates). I came into MIT with very little knowledge about anything they were about to teach me. In fact, everything I learned here was new except for vectors. I dominated the first 3 weeks of 18.02 because of a pre-existing knowledge of vectors. After that, everything was completely new, and there was a lot. At MIT I learned how to machine, prototype, design, sketch, how to do mechanics and select materials, how to to define dynamic systems and control them, I learned more about thermal fluids than I thought existed, I learned Matlab and MathCAD, learned how to design circuit boards and how to surface mount solder, discovered a budding love of literature, and saw/experienced more events than I could have imagined.

All the learning and amazing experiences were certainly countered by a lot of negativity, to be sure. One tends to start getting disillusioned here, everything stops seeming so Utopian and begins feeling more routine. So what if this guy invented that? Oh look, a unicycle, meh. Killian court turns into a big piece of lawn, Stata becomes ugly instead of awesome, and lectures turn into a chore instead of an exciting opportunity for learning. This does not apply to everybody, of course, I'm just telling you about my experiences. One of the things that gets me most is how MIT seemed to take all of the things I used in my application to get into this school (marching band, speech team, building things in my free time, etc) and managed to remove all the time I had to do those things. MIT took away all the things it wanted me for because of the crushing amount of working. Just sitting and doing nothing during my free time became a very appealing notion, something that rarely happened before MIT.

In the end, I'm glad I came here, absolutely. I learned so much about both myself, engineering, and life. Plus, I mean, really, look at this thing.

Totally worth it. So what now? You haven't heard much from me in the last year or so, let me fill you in!

The Past Year

Last summer I worked Analog Devices Inc and, while I learned a lot, I discovered that electrical engineering was not my thing. That's ok, that's what internships are for! I also biked to work every day, 16.5 miles each way, and lost 40 pounds. I am the champion of the "stop eating and exercise a lot" diet!

This last school year was divided into two pretty distinctly different semesters, the "work my butt off" semester and the "be as lazy as possible/thesis" semester. The first semester was dedicated to 2.009, the capstone MechE class that gives teams of 20 a semester to design and build some product, in my team's case a fleet of robots that delivers sushi to waiting patrons. I was the "System Integrator" for the team which pretty much required me to glue my phone to my ear and stop sleeping.

Between semesters, during IAP in January, I did an unpaid externship at 5W!TS Productions (more about that later).

Second semester is when, just like high school, senioritis hit. Second semester I cranked through Atlas Shrugged, beat Plants vs. Zombies as thoroughly as humanly possible, began the epic adventure that is Minecraft, wrote a 100+ page thesis, and graduated!

January

So, January, that was a good month! Back in September I visited a place called 5W!TS and fell in love.

They had a walk-through adventure game, somewhat like a real-life video game, that had me crawling through lasers and ventilations ducts, cracking safes, defusing bombs, and debugging rooms. It was a MechE wonderland! I was as fascinated by the adventure as I was by the technical details behind all of it. I awkwardly and giddily started asking every question I could come up with. As it turns out, the CEO was an MIT alum with close ties to MIT's Toy Design Class and its teaching staff. I was bouncing with excitement for the entire bus ride back to campus. The next day I e-mailed the CEO and asked if I could work there in January. The email said something along the lines of "I don't know if I'm correct in emailing the CEO to ask for an internship, but can I have one?" The answer was yes and lemme tell you, it was AWESOME! I spent the month helping to finish their 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea game. In other words, I helped build the Nautilus. I modified hundred-year-old Edison Wax Cylinder players, built governors for the engine room, and wired up the fuel rod receptacle. I helped turn this

into this

In addition to its two games (Espionage and 20k), 5W!TS does production and effects work for museums. You know all those neat interactives and demos you see at science museums? Yeah, they build those things (AWESOME!). As it turns out, over the last year or so, I began realizing that I didn't want to be a mechanical engineer. Mechanical engineers tend to design and engineer but then ship off designs for fabrication. I wanted to build things! I wanted to design, build, use, and move on. I didn't want to work on one small insignificant part of a 10 year project, I wanted to be a part of each project from beginning to end and help with all of the phases. 5W!TS allows that to happen, with just 9 people doing the brainstorming, designing, and building for 2-3 month projects. After January was over and after I received several grad school rejections (not so important after discovering 5W!TS) I accepted a full time position at 5W!TS, where I have now just finished my second week. I'm moving into my first apartment on July 1st, have a new car (bet with my parents I made in 5th grade, they said they'd get me a harley if I graduated from MIT. I accepted a car instead.), and am about to start real life. Crazy? Crazy!

This is all exciting, but let's talk a bit more about commencement and the end of the semester, that's exciting too!

Commencement

At MIT, and probably other colleges as well, mortarboard decorations are a staple of any good commencement. A week or so before the ceremony my friend Pall posted something on my facebook wall

HELL YEAH! Fast forward to staging before the march to Killian

I ended up with the blue portal and the front half of the beaver. It was super awesome. Even President Hockfield thought it was pretty rockin'

On a quick side note, I'm pretty sure these two professors were playing Angry Birds during the whole ceremony

At the end of the 2.5 hour long name-reading extravaganza I headed over to the MechE reception for food, free coffee cups, and pictures. Awwww

By the end of the day I was exhausted and ended up just laying on the couch playing Minecraft. A good end to a good day, the official conclusion of four years at the 'tute.

Toast to Tech
MIT held a MASSIVE celebration a day or two after commencement to cap off the MIT150 celebration in a grand fashion. Grand. Like, most lavish thing I've seen at MIT in the four years I've been here. I'll let the pictures I took speak for themselves.

Dome

Dome

MIT Seal Ice Sculpture

Beaver Ice Sculpture

MIT Ice Sculpture

The Prudential Building Celebrates With Us

The Stage

This next bit needs an explanation. MIT sprang for a 750 pound cake, or suite of cakes. It was amazing, check it out!

Stata

Simmons

Dome and Green Building

Tim Flopped on the Bridge (reminds me of this)

Cupcake River

A special shout-out to the Hernley family for adopting me that evening and letting me pal around with you, it was great fun.

Blogging

To conclude, I want to talk a little about the relationship I have with these blogs.

No cliches, no sappy messages, no speeches. Read any of my blog entries and you'll see that my role on these blogs isn't to fit in and publish what everybody else is publishing. Nor is it to publish what people think I should publish. No, when I got hired to be an MIT admissions blogger, second semester of freshman year, I made it my goal to blog about all the things you would NOT expect to see on an admissions website. I wanted to share all of the things MIT hides from prospective students and all of the things you'd never find out about unless you were here.

I blogged about hot dogs, bathrooms, thongs from VS, bad experiences with physics professors, wrote the first entry ever removed from the blogs (so they say) and ended up in Matt McGann's office more than once. I made admissions enforce their censorship-free stance many a time in an effort to bring the really nitty gritty parts of MIT to the blogs, the parts that aren't so pretty, the parts MIT doesn't want you to know. I loved this about my job because, while generally an amazing place, MIT is not a perfect place, and making sure applicants know this adds a degree of believability and credibility to both the school and the admissions blogs. My favorite blog-related quote came from Ben Jones, MIT's ex-communications guru. He came up to me one day after a particularly brutal entry and said "Snively, in the four months you've been blogging here we've received more complaints from faculty and deans about your entries than we've received about all of the entries ever published in the last four years."

I took that to mean I was doing my job right ;)

The nice emails from parents, from prospective students, the comments on the entries themselves, the random encounters during campus tours and CPW, and all of the kind words in whatever form or fashion they reached me in meant a lot. Ok, it was creepy sometimes, and usually pretty awkward, but looking back it's nice to know that I was able to help the number of people I did.

When you write an entry and push it to the site you forget how many people read them. There are the prospective students, of course, but also current students. Then there are the parents of prospective students, and the parents of current students. I got a comment once from a parent, thanking me for blogging about physics because their son didn't call as often as they'd like him to. By reading my blogs they were able to see what his classes were like. Not only students, prospective students, and parents, but faculty members also read these blogs. More than once have I shown up for the first day of class and had a faculty member already know who I am . . . or at least know the Internet version of me. More than once, in a class (usually a smaller class, to be fair), a professor has mentioned or referenced something about me that they've read here.

But it even goes farther than that. I met President Susan Hockfield for the first time at a Christmas reception and before I even had a chance to introduce myself I heard her yell "SNIVELY!" when she saw me and then beckon me over, proceeding then to scold me for not saying hi when I saw her walking down Vassar Street. Yes, even MIT's president reads these blogs.

These blogs are important and their aim is true. Admissions really does want the outside world to see the raw and unedited side of this school through the eyes of current students. Anytime you find yourself reading them and thinking "Hm, this all seems staged" or "The admissions office is feeding them stuff," know that you're mistaken. Â Anything is fair game so long as you have bloggers that are willing to stick their neck out and attract the negative attention that comes along with sharing the smaller and more controversial aspects of MIT. And really, that's what I'd come to the blogs to see, because that's the good stuff!

So that's me, and I'm all done! No more blogs, no more MIT. I'm moving on and its been a wild ride. Thanks for everything everybody, it's been awesome!

1) If you haven't heard of hacking, go here: hacks.mit.edu
2) Ok, now that you know about hacking . . .

About 1 week ago Nintendo released their new handheld, the 3DS. Ooooh, ahhhh.

It's very similar to Nintendo's other handheld DS systems but includes some new goodies. The first, and most notable, is the glasses-free 3D top screen. Using some fancy hardware and focal length magic, the top screen actually sends two different images at two different angles so that each hits one of your eyes, creating a 3D image.

The 3D is cool, but irrelevant for this entry. More relevant, is the new "StreetPass" feature. Basically, in a ploy to get people carry around their new 3DS systems, Nintendo rigged it up so that if two people, each with a 3DS, pass each other on the street or in the hall, data (avatars, game stats, points, etc) is swapped between the two systems. I happen to be planning a massive raid with some kitty cat warriors and as many Miis as I can find, so I carry this sucker around with me at all times. I bank on the fact that MIT has a bunch of people that will buy a new system on launch day and thus far, have not been disappointed. I've encountered about 5 people via StreetPass.

Ok, so that explains I had my 3DS with me when I walked through Lobby 7 this morning on my way to a 2.002 exam. I stepped into Lobby 7, looked up (ALWAYS look up when you go into Lobby 7, you never know what you'll find) and, to my amazement, I saw a big ol' question mark thing.

I knew exactly what it was, but others may not, so allow me to explain. A third set features new to the 3DS are its augmented reality (AR) abilities. With a certain predefined image displayed in front of the 3DS's outward facing camera, the 3DS is able to establish its orientation in 3D space and project rendered objects into real life.

Basically, point the 3DS at a special playing card laying on a table and, if you look at the screen on the 3DS, it will show the card, the table, and then little characters or whatnot will appear and look like they're walking around on the table. You can then walk around the card and look at all the sides of the characters. It's cool technology, it's kind of like having a magic looking glass that reveals invisible video game characters sitting on your table.

I INSTANTLY recognized the giant card hanging from the banister as one of Nintendo's AR cards. My 3DS was out of my backpack, opened up, and pointed at that card faster than you can imagine. It was a bit tricky because it was at such a steep angle and not well lit, but after walking around Lobby 7 like a complete doofus, holding my 3DS up above my head as if in offering to the Nintendo Gods, it recognized the card.

LOOK AT MII! I'M STANDING ON A GIANT AR CARD IN LOBBY 7!!!

Ok, this was too cool. I walked around for a while and my character maintained eye-contact with me. I fiddled with my 3DS and found a bunch of other Miis that I'd downloaded from Reddit and dumped them all on the AR card as well. What a happy group!

I'm pretty sure Borat and Jesus are in there.

Turns out there are all sorts of different stances and poses you can put the characters in, so I cycled through all of them. Here are some of my favorites:

CONGA!

Bow to me! (I like that they're standing on the columns)

Skydiving!!!

By this time I'd noticed two other people looking just as goofy as me, wandering around Lobby 7 holding their 3DSs up in the air. A third person walked by and said "Hey, do you have Street Pass on?" *nod* "Sweet, we'll get each other then!"

It was an awesome start to my day. I had a great time fighting a giant dragon, shooting targets, and watching my Mii conga around on the columns. Thanks, whoever hung that thing, it was awesome. Unfortunately it's gone now, but know that you caused quite a bit of amusement for those of us with 3DSs. It definitely did not go unseen.

Five(!) robots

A pirate ship out of water bottles

and, most recently, a working metal lathe

But there are certainly downsides. I think this comic does a great job summarizing:

___

___

You may laugh, but you'll laugh for a different reason if you're a student here, because you'll realize just how true it is. Once you transform into an MIT student, you are held to a standard that other people just aren't. Ok, maybe not "held to a standard," but people do look at you in a different light and expect you to be the expert in everything. Trust me, this isn't true, we aren't the experts on everything.

A friend of mine was an editor for the MIT student newspaper, "The Tech." As editor, his name was printed in every paper and he was associated closely with MIT news. It was as an editor that he received a letter in the mail. The letter was from a man who had convinced himself that an underground dam had helped to create giant underground lakes in ancient Egypt . . . at least I think that's what he convinced himself. It wasn't entirely clear. I'll be honest, we all sat around in my suite reading this letter and had a jolly good time laughing at it. It began something like:

This was the second letter he'd sent to MIT regarding this dam. The first letter was all but ignored by its intended recipient (because, let's be honest, you can't take every single e-mail you receive seriously, there are just too many wackos out there) so he sent this second one to President Hockfield, Dean Colombo, two professors, Chancellor Clay, and my friend. Needless to say, he was a bit confused, especially when he kept reading.

Wait. . . seriously? STAR CHARTS!? At that point we were almost obligated to keep reading.

Alright, that just doesn't make any darn sense. (for the full letter, click here)

As funny as it was, my friend was a bit concerned. He didn't want obsessive individuals like this contacting him, which is totally understandable, so he contacted some higher ups at MIT and he has everything all fixed now. Luckily it was an easy fix.

This is just one example of the types of things that happen at MIT. There was an incident over at Bexley (a dorm) when a man called the front desk and demanded to know whether the moon was a planet or not. The letter and the moon incident seem funny, but over time they can get really annoying and sometimes be scary. The world is full of weird people out there, be careful.

So, do you really want to be popular? MIT is an excellent school, it'll definitely set you apart, but be careful, sometimes it's nicer to just blend in and keep a low profile.

See ya!

Right now, we're all getting our prefrosh assigned to us, as you can see below:

1,100 of you are coming and we're going to feed all of you! And, you know, run you into the ground with sleep deprivingly awesome events for an entire weekend.

Good luck, happy travels, see you this weekend! Make sure to swing by Burton-Conner and say hi, I'll likely be involved with most of the events we host but, unfortunately, I wasn't assigned a prefrosh this year. :(

By the way, Mikey just mentioned that some of you are flying in TOMORROW!? The entire room just lit up with concerned grumblings and surprise. I wouldn't expect a whole lot of attention from your host if you get here tomorrow, there are A LOT of exams this week, but we'll be done by Thursday, so no worries.

: )

to

Next, mix in a little of this (slightly nsfw for about 3 seconds)

Now, put Jess and I in charge, give us a couple of months to stir, and what do you get?

Wait and see!

(no spoilers in the comments if you know por favor)

For Some:

For Others:

And Then Some:

Can anybody enlighten me?

How are you prefrosh? Long time no talk, although some of you got to enjoy our sweet dance party a couple of weeks ago (which included a friendly visit from the MIT police before our party's ultimate demise). I write to you for several reasons. The first (and, sadly, primary reason) is that I am poor. That's right, the money I earned over the summer is dwindling rapidly (for a variety of reasons) and blogging is one of the few ways I am able to support my spending habit. I have a theory that bloggers from juniors on up tend to blog more when they need money than when they feel like they should blog. This is just a theory though.

Anywho, I'm running out of money. Why am I running out of money? It all started over Christmas break, when I started spending lots of money because it made me feel good. I have a propensity to see something expensive, want it, and buy it. Now, if I worked for Amazon or Google or something, this would not be a big deal, but when I worked for my dad out on our acreage, there's only so much of this "I want I want I want" spending that can happen before destitution sets in.

My first big purchase was a new camera. Amazon had it on sale for $409.00 and I pulled the trigger. It's a Canon XS and my first DSLR. I've wanted a DSLR for quite some time, but the price was never right. I checked the reviews and the XS turned out to be a sweet camera for a sweet price, so I'm now the proud new owner of a "Real Camera." I know (knew?) absolutely nothing about cameras so I put in the effort of reading through the entire manual for the camera, learning what all the different functions and settings do, and then also read a bunch of photography blogs and websites (dpreview anyone?). I'm very happy with my purchase, but am poorer as a result.

My second big purchase was a pair of snowblades. Go ahead and judge me, all you snowboarders and skiers out there, but I love snowblades and have a great time. They're a nice transition from rollerblading (which is what I'm most comfortable with) and don't require me to lug around poles. That, and they're smaller less expensive. Lucky for me, my cousin had a pair of snowblades that he was no longer desirous of, as well as a pair of ski boots that, while too large for him, fit me perfectly. For $100 the price was right, and I bought both the snowblades and the boots from him. I bought a helmet from some sketchy website that had inexpensive helmets, some ebay brand goggles (I still can't find them on any other website), and some comfy gloves and am now all set for mountain escapades. Those of you who do any winter sport know that, the cost isn't just in the gear, it's also in the travel/lift tickets. I've been skiing three times since being back, each time at ~$75 (plus food at the mountain) which is wiping me out even further. MIT has a Snowriders group that makes it really easy (and affordable) to hit the mountain for a day, transportation included, but it's still not cheap.

Next is Toy Fair in NYC. Last weekend was my third time at Toy Fair and, as always, I had a blast! I met tons of CEOs, saw (and played with) lots of awesome toys, and even bought a 7x7x7 V-cube (better than a Rubik's Cube). Of course, the bus to NYC and back was expensive, as well as the food I ate there, but again, these are the prices to pay for entertainment.

So here I am, with a rapidly dwindling supply of cash. What is an MIT student to do? Work! This means blogging and UROP for me, in addition to some more work for Livescribe (three jobs!? what am i, crazy???). I work for SmartCities in the Media Lab now, helping to design the caster system for the CityCar (seen below)

My semester is crazy this time around, and I don't know how I'm going to pull it off, but I'll certainly try. I'm taking 60 units of classes (a chunk of which is TAing for Toy Design), doing Pistol (Nationals are coming up), am i3 chair (along with Jess Kim, be on the lookout for the Guide to Residences and the i3 DVD this Spring, Jess and I are working to make an awesome video), am doing NextACT (a play put on by Next House during CPW), am Social Chair for Burton-Conner, and have a UROP. I feel like this could backfire, but for now, we'll go with it.

One last thing before I go. This will sound creepy, but I don't want it to. Two friends and I are going skiing/snowboarding during Spring Break at Sugarloaf (which is in Maine). Due to a variety of reasons (none of which, I promise you, are ill intentioned), we are looking for one more female to join our trip. We'll be leaving MIT on March 21st and getting back March 26th. It costs just $300 for 5 nights lodging and 5 days skiing, which is an incredible deal. If you are interested in joining us and live in the greater Boston area or Maine, shoot me an e-mail at ask-snively@mit.edu and we can work out details. It should be an awesome trip and it's a deal you really can't beat. For more details, check out our trip on Snowriders:

http://snowriders.mit.edu/details_ride.php?id=325

You: Hey
Stranger: ASL
You: 19/M/Cambridge
You: ASL?
Stranger: Lemur
You: wtf, bye
*disconnect*

You: I like turtles
*disconnect*

You: I want your body.
Stranger: Yeah baby!
*disconnect*

Today (more specifically tonight), something really awesome/sketchy/creeptastic happened. A dozen or so of us were sitting in our floor lounge, playing with Omegle on our 60" HDTV and server, when we decided to tell the random stranger that they were talking to a room full of MIT students. As it turns out, they had a friend that was just accepted to MIT EA. I'm not sure how much info I want to give away on the internet about this particular subject, but . . .

HI ALEX/PRISCILLA FROM THAT ONE BIG STATE THAT WAS TALKING TO HER FRIEND ON THE PHONE WHILE HER FRIEND WAS ON OMEGLE!!!

Friend or poke me on facebook so we can sketch on you more.

Cheers!

-Conner 2

This, however, is too important. I've been building a robot for a class this month and it's now alive and moving! We cut him from acrylic, slapped three motors and some omniwheels on him, and gave him a battery + eeePc. He's just now learning to drive and move (which is exciting!) but even more exciting is the fact that we trained him to tweet whatever he's doing. So, if you'd like, you can follow our robot as he becomes sentient and grows up into a red-ball-nomming beasty.

http://twitter.com/c2bot

Definitely be tuned in to the feed on Jan 29th for the final competition, he'll tell you what he's doing the entire time!

Cheers.

For our final (9th) lab of the semester, we were assigned a lab station with a particular setup. One station had an anechoic chamber with some microphones and a tweeter with some tanks of various gases, another station had some DC motors with a force gauge and a prony brake setup, another has a beam that is wired up to record its response to an impulse with various levels of damping, etc. The lab setup my partner Pall and I were assigned? Force Gauge. Excellent.

The lab that most people do with the force gauge involves measuring the strength of your bicep and correlating it with EKG and all sorts of other stuff. For lab 9, each team of two people was given a setup and allowed to come up with their own experiment. Pall and I are convinced we had the best setup for this. We decided to measure the impulse of a head when it was snapped up from a sleeping position (not much unlike lecture). We grabbed a strap from the collapsible litter group in 2.009 (that didn't make any sense to you, that's ok) and rigged it up to the force sensor. Then, it was time to do science.

In the end, these were the results:

Come to MIT, you get to do this.

AWESOME JOB GUYS!!!! WE WON THE DARPA CHALLENGE!!!!!!!

CLICK HERE FOR THE OFFICIAL ANNOUNCEMENT!

Prefrosh, undergrads, alums, this is a call to action! It is time for us, all of us, to band together under a common dome and accomplish what needs to be done!

Tomorrow, at 10:00 AM (ET), DARPA is deploying Ten Red Weather Balloons all across the country. $40,000 goes to the first team to locate all of them, by any means necessary. The balloons will only be visible until 4:00PM local time, so time is short!

With alumnae, prefrosh, and current students all across the country, who better to win this than a team from MIT?

Register/Report Located Balloons here

******************
CLICK TO REGISTER!!!
******************

and be on the lookout tomorrow. If you find a balloon and MIT ends up winning, you get $2,000. Period. Simple as that. The person who invited you gets $1,000. The person who invited that person gets $500. Get it? The rest of the money MIT collects goes to charity. I've now invited all of you, and it's up to you to invite your friends!

Let's do this folks!

video courtesy of Raymond Ma

"Well . . I don't have one. . . but look, it still works!"

A week later, after I had totally forgotten about this 5 second conversation, she gives me this.

She 'shopped the spork in just for me! I have the best girlfriend ever.

A lot of people who use iTunes.

What happens when you have a lot of people using iTunes on the same WiFi network? Shared libraries!

So many music choices!

That is all. Time to study for my test.

Your thoughts on Alaska are welcomed.

The announcement was on Tuesday, with MIT only finding out about the visit the weekend before. MIT went into scramble mode, which is always fun to watch. It doesn't go into scramble mode very often, the only other times I've seen it are immediately prior to CPW and before the Dalai Lama came and visited. Scramble mode, if you'll let me draw another comparison, is like when you have 10 minutes before your parents come upstairs to check to see if you cleaned your room. MIT was repairing buildings, pressure washing everything in sight, replacing windows, emptying stores of hazardous chemicals, and beautifying MIT just as fast as they possibly could.

All of this was fine and good, and I kind of enjoyed watching how MIT prioritized what was being cleaned where (you could pretty much predict the route Obama was going to take based on how clean the sidewalk was), but I expected that to be the most of my Obama-Visit-Experience. Word on the street was that MIT, as an entire institute, had received 200 tickets to allocate however they saw fit. That means all of the faculty, administration, undergraduates, and graduate students had to share 200 tickets. In the end, 50 of those tickets went to undergraduates, typically those who are doing some kind of work with energy or that deans felt would benefit the most from Obama's address. Needless to say, the MechE student who doesn't have a UROP and would rather build toys than wind farms was not chosen for a ticket.

So that was that, I'd stalk around and try to get some money shots of snipers and motorcades but in terms of actually seeing the president speak, it was a no go. That is, until I realized I worked for the Admissions office. Hmmmmm, I write for a website that prospective students read so that they can see what cool opportunities await them at MIT. This seems like a cool opportunity . . . I smell a PRESS PASS!

Turns out, Jess had a similar idea, and both of us e-mailed the powers at be (Dave) and asked if we could have press passes. 2 days and many strings pulled later, guess who had tickets to the address! WEEEEE!

Seriously. This was cool stuff. Everybody all over campus was abuzz about how only 50 students were going to be chosen and complaining about how more should be invited etc, and now all of a sudden I was going to see the President! On Thursday evening, the evening before Obama arrived, the Secret Service and Security had taken over MIT. All of the garbage cans from around Kresge (the auditorium) were trucked off, all the manholes and steam vents were welded shut (seriously) and tons of other invisible-to-me security measures were enacted.

Friday morning I woke up at 7:00 after having gone to bed at 4:30 (PSETs are brutal). I dressed nicely and headed to lab to get some work done before the big event. I made sure to bring my ticket with me:

On my way to campus I noticed that it was a little more difficult this morning, difficult enough that they provided signs.

and had everything blocked off with cones

I spent some time in lab, built some yoyos (my team is getting REALLY excited about these yoyos, they're actually coming out how we expected, and we're 2 weeks ahead of all the other teams), and then went to get in line. The ticket told me to get in line at 10:30AM. I got there at 10:00AM and what did it look like?

Yeah. I was like, last. Ok, I'm last in every line that I join, but you know what I mean.

Time went fast, luckily enough, because eavesdropping on people attending an Obama address is AWESOME! Let's see, the guy in front of me helped design Fenway park, somebody behind me appeared to know every single congressman ever, and so on and so forth. I was standing next to Julia '13, who also got a ticket (one of the 50, as a freshman!), and we chatted about how we were totally out of our element, about how excited we were, about security, about whether we were going to see Marine 1 or a motorcade, etc.

Oh, speaking of snipers, we spotted this guy chilling on the Z-center.

What's that black dot?

Ah. Sniper. Gotcha.

Eventually we wound our way into the auditorium (after three ticket checks) and towards the metal detector. The metal detector was relatively routine, until they saw my smartpen*. You see, the plan was to make a pencast of the address, taking digital notes and recording Obama's voice on my pen. Guess what the Secret Service had never heard of before. My pen. I had to explain what it did, let them pass it around (almost gave them a demo), and eventually they cleared it. I didn't beep so I didn't get frisked or wanded, and then Julia and I headed inside. We saw a bunch of empty seats up front that we immediately headed for, only to realize that we weren't nearly special enough to sit in those seats.

We ended up about 7 rows back and on the right side of the auditorium. It was 10:30. The speech started at 12:30. We weren't allowed to leave. We didn't know anybody. What's one to do? Take pictures and wander of course. I wanted to hobnob with the important people but I'm pretty sure they didn't want to talk to me. Professor Sadoway was a little less afraid, standing up at the front with the senators and mayors, presumably talking about his research.

I feel like this is the "Ok, which multi-millionaire can I tell about my battery research next?" look.

Then I took some pictures of the scene around me. The first thing I noticed, surprisingly, was the amount of room the news cameras took up.

No wonder they couldn't invite more than 200 people from MIT, 200 more seats were taken up by cameras! Sam Range '13 (my prefrosh for CPW last year) is a photographer for The Tech and was forced to hang out behind all of the video cameras in the roped off area. He got some good pictures though, I'll show you one later.

Next was the stage, all decked out for the occasion.

The flags all looked identical, and the lady next to me told me the trick. They put a coat hanger up inside the flags at the top to give them similar angles, and then tape the back of the flag to the flag pole so they all lay flat. Betcha didn't know that! The shrubberies were a nice touch, but we couldn't figure out what those black screens were for, flanking the podium. The nearest we could figure, Secret Service was just laying behind them, waiting for something bad to happen so they could jump up and go all ninja on everybody. Makes sense, right? Right.

After two hours of waiting, I made my way to my seat. A lady came out onto the stage, was introduced, and sang the National Anthem (very well) and we all cheered, remaining on our feet. We stood there awkwardly for about 2 minutes, completely silent, expecting the President to be announced, but nothing happened. Eventually the sound guys played the same classical music they'd been playing for the last two hours and we all laughed and sat down for another 15-20 minutes. Soon a man came out and put the seal on the front of the podium, and we all got quiet again, expecting something to happen. False alarm.

After some more waiting and more classical music (and talking about MIT Admissions with the woman next to me, who knows somebody applying this year), a side door opened and some bigwigs came in, including the governor and the mayor. Everybody clapped really loudly, this must be it! Then, from the other side of the auditorium, my side (like, 20 feet in front of me), John Kerry walked in.

So, the thing about John Kerry is that, well, he looks EXACTLY like John Kerry. No joke, it's like "Hey! That's the guy from JibJab!"

The gravity of this whole thing kind of clicked in when I saw John Kerry. He's an important guy, and he's just standing right there! Like, RIGHT there, in front of me. I could throw my cell phone at him and hit him (it'd be the last thing I ever did, but I could have!).

Then, all of a sudden, we heard it. A voice, as if from god, saying: "Now, introducing our speaker, the President of -- MIT, Susan Hockfield!" False Alarm AGAIN! No offense Dr. Hockfield, but you weren't the most important president in the room right then.

Susan Hockfield came up and gave a nice introduction, welcoming us, and then said "It is my great pleasure to introduce -- Professor Moniz!"

GAH! Another False Alarm! I couldn't take much more! Finally, FINALLY, Professor Moniz said "And now, the President of the United States, Barack Obama!" (not an exact quote, but you get the idea). The room roared and leaped professionally to its feet.

There he was. Barack Obama strolled across the stage. Our stage. The stage that we put a moonbounce on just for kicks. The stage that I've stood on dozens of times. The stage that was presently 30 feet away from me. The President. GAH! You can feel it, you know, when he walks on stage. For some reason it becomes immediately obvious just how important this guy is, he's in charge of our country. Country, as in all the people I've ever met.

He began his speech the way most do, and I'll save you the specifics because I took notes and you can listen to it yourself. I will take the opportunity to show you a picture I took of Obama with my very own camera. That's right, the President is in my camera.

and here's the picture Sam Range took.

His is, um, better. But mine looks more amateur (which = real).

So go ahead and listen to his speech, or at least the first several lines when he rags on Harvard and praises MIT hackers (score++).

You'll want to skip ahead to about 27 minutes into this pencast. I paused the pen during recording, which apparently just inserts silence into the recording, which a stupid implementation that Livescribe needs to fix. Anyway, wait for it to buffer about halfway and then either click the word "Introducing" in the top left or drag the slider to the 27:00 mark.

And like that, it was all over. Obama left on the left side of the stage and headed down the front row, shaking hands with all of the important people on his way out. This was going to be the chance when I could get closest to him, and I had a mission.

Mission? Allow me to explain. The floor I live on at MIT has this silly little tradition of assigning units of measure to people, units that measure something that person is known for. For example, 1 Snively is equivalent to 1 byte wasted on the Internet. A Tang is a measure of orthogonality to normal conversation (meaning 90 degrees of Tang will sever a conversation clean in two, creating a really uncomfortable silence) and an Itani is the unit of negative tact (meaning if you are tactless, you get 1 Itani). You can read more about the origins of this tradition here. Several years ago, ex-blogger Sam Maurer '07 visited the set of the Colbert Report and decided that he should ask Stephen Colbert what his unit was. The fact that he actually asked Stephen Colbert, in person, is somewhat legendary.

Now, I was about to be in the same room as the President of the United States. There was no WAY I was leaving that room without asking President Obama what his unit would measure. I didn't know how it was going to happen, but it was going to, and it might involve scolding by important members of the audience and the Secret Service, but once in a lifetime opportunities only come once.

So, as I said, Obama was going to walk right in front of me. I pushed my way up to the second row of seats but was way too short for Obama to see me, so in the words of James '11, I went in "guns blazing." I climbed onto the armrests of the chairs and stood about 3 feet above everybody else. Obama was RIGHT there! I struck:

"PRESIDENT OBAMA!" I screamed, "PRESIDENT OBAMA!"

he looked at me.

"IF THE OBAMA WERE A UNIT OF MEASURE, WHAT WOULD IT MEASURE???"

he smiled and shook somebody's hand. Every around me laughed and told me it was an awesome question and that I should try asking again. Obama was getting closer to the door, I only had one more chance.

"PRESIDENT OBAMA!"

he looked at me and said "Hi!"

Totally unfazed by the fact that Barack Obama had just said "Hi" to me, I tried again.

"IF THE OBAMA WERE A UNIT OF MEASURE, WHAT WOULD IT MEASURE!?"

he just smiled again. And then he was gone. And then I got tapped on the leg. I looked down and a member of the MIT event staff looked up at me.

"Secret Service is going to ask you to get down." This I knew, so I got down off the chairs and stopped making a scene. Those people who have met me know that I can be very loud when necessary, so anybody within a 30 foot radius of me had heard me yelling at the President (and seen me because I was standing on chairs). I'm pretty sure I had instantly been flagged by Secret Service and they were on their way over. Sure enough, once I was on the ground, I was met by my favorite humor-less suited friends.

"Next time please stay on the ground."
"Ok." I said. Sure. Next time. Next time I'm that close to the President I'll make sure not to climb on chairs. Roger. is what I thought.

So, the verdict on Obama's unit? Unless he officially rebukes this and offers an alternative unit, the official unit of Obama is equivalent to "Smiling at somebody and subsequently completely ignoring them." If you hear somebody, smile at them, and then ignore one, you've earned 1 Obama.

The end! I mean, after that I grabbed some lunch and went to lab to crank out yoyos.

A once in a lifetime opportunity to be sure. It's not every day that you get to see snipers, the President, and he says hi to you while you make a scene and draw the gazes of all the Secret Service agents in the room. But it was a good day. A gooooooood day.

*According to new revisions to section 255.5 of the FTC Guides Governing Endorsements and Testimonials, I'm obliged to inform you that I'm currently employed as a marketer by Livescribe, manufacturer of the Pulse Smartpen. You are so informed.

So here we go! Right now I'm just waiting for it to start, people are all signing in on OLPC's (somehow the admissions office got a hold of two of them and use them for signing in now) with Mac keyboards (thank goodness, OLPC keyboards are AWFUL!).

1:56 -- I'm taking this opportunity to finish up my food, Chicken Makluba from Sepal (a restaurant in our student center)

2:04 -- I just led everybody through a game of MIT Hangman. I chose the words "Green Building" and "IHTFP." Both were guessed and the MIT student didn't die!

2:06 -- Most of the students here are seniors, some juniors, and poor little siblings drug here (not drugged, drug), from a variety of states (farthest being Texas).

2:07 -- MIT was founded in 1861 by William Barton Rogers who decided that people weren't being trained for life after college, so he created a place that would prepare students to adapt with the changing world and become leaders.

Originally MIT was in downtown Boston until 1916. MIT used to be one building and everybody was near each other, something everybody liked (created relationships, encounters, collaboration, and friends). Current campus has the "Infinite Corridor," really really long hallway that connects many labs, classrooms, and offices, encouraging collaboration and "bumping into people" in today's campus.

2:09 -- "Use science and technology to benefit society." is the core mission of MIT. An example are the OLPCs people signed in on. OCW (OpenCourseWare) is also an example of benefiting society. MIT Publishes almost all of its courses (notes, problem sets, exams, lecture slides, etc) online for people to get a similar educational experience as at MIT (but not the same, nothing compares to being here). Additionally, the new cancer research center here is just being finished and will hope to find a cure for cancer.

MIT's motto is "Mens et Manus," Mind and Hand. It's important to get the theory and the smarts, but it's also important to get your hands dirty and get stuff done.

2:13 -- At MIT you don't learn facts, you learn to think. You will rarely ever spit out memorized information on a test. You will sit down for a test and see something completely new, something you have to apply your knowledge to and critically think your way through. It requires adapting to new problems and finding solutions.

Academics: An application to MIT is an application to the institvte as a whole, not to a particular major or school. There are separate "schools" here, but they aren't really distinct and are kind of a technicality. School 1 = Engineering, 58% of students. School 2 = Science. School 3 = Architecture. School 4 = Management. School 5 = Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences (over 500 courses), 8 required to graduate).

Beyond those humanities requirements, there are other requirements, like the GIRs (General Institute Requirements). 2 physics classes, 2 math classes, 1 chemistry class, 1 biology class. Most are finished freshman year with friends and other freshmen.

2:20 -- There's a swim test that you MUST pass to graduate. No, I'm not kidding. There is also a PE requirement (snowboarding, hiking, yoga, pistol, soccer, etc). Your major is declared at the end of freshman year. Requirements in each major vary vastly so it'd be best to look up those requirements. The swim test is ~1/2 the width of the Charles River, ensuring that if you fall in and swim in the right direction you WILL survive. If you swim the wrong direction, well, you shouldn't be at MIT.

2:22 -- MIT is set up on a 4-1-4 schedule (4 months of classes, 1 month off (IAP) and then another 4 months of classes). MIT emphasizes working with peers and collaboration. Some problem sets ask who you worked with as one of the problems (this isn't actually true, but we'll let the people here believe it). "PSET Parties" often happen the night or two before the assignments are due (PSET = Problem Set, weekly homework assignments).

MIT has a Pass/No Record system for freshman year. As, Bs, and Cs all are recorded as a "Pass" on your transcript. A D or a F is not recorded and your transcript shows no record of you having taken that class. This tries to eliminate competition among peers and eases the transition to college without trying to get a perfect GPA first semester. You slowly transition into a normal grading system. Second Semester is A/B/C/No Record, just like Pass/No Record except you get letter grades (much harder to take advantage of). Sophomore year is a normal grading scale.

2:27 -- IAP (independent activities period) is during the month of January and every student gets to decide what to do. They can stay at home, travel abroad, spend free time on campus, or take fun/serious classes. Some students do research, others take classes like 6.270, glass blowing, MASLab, welding, ballroom dancing, EMT certification, charm school, Mystery Hunt, etc. The environment is much more relaxed and gives students a chance to do things they normally don't have time to do.

MIT also has one of the largest underground tunnel systems and can get you around campus during the winter without having to go outside.

UROP (undergraduate research opportunity program) is wildly popular with undergraduate students. It lets students work in just about any lab on campus and do research with professors and graduate students. Getting a UROP is as easy as checking the UROP website or directly contacting a professor and asking if they could take you on as a researcher. It's actual work, not just cleaning test tubes, so it's important research somewhere you'd enjoy working.

The Media Lab is one of the most popular places to UROP at MIT.

2:33 -- Internships are also very popular. MIT has connections with places around Cambridge, Boston, and the world. MISTI (MIT International Science and Technology Initiative) helps send students to other countries to do research with partnering businesses.

D-Lab (Development Lab) is a popular class at MIT that allows students to look at developing countries, think about resources available in those countries, and device solutions that address the issues they're facing. A recent class used a bicycle to cut the corn kernels off of a corn cob so developing countries no longer had to pick kernels off by hand. Wheelchair design is a spin-off class from D-Lab that designs wheelchairs for countries with limited resources. Students in these classes sometimes visit different countries during IAP or the summer.

2:37 -- "Do you need a perfect GPA to get into MIT?" short answer, no. long answer to come.

All undergraduate courses are taught by professors, not graduate students. Graduate students often run recitations (smaller subsets of students that are all in the same large class), but lectures are run by professors. Standard Eric Lander plug (man who mapped the human genome teaches freshman bio, 7.012). Student/Faculty ratio is ~6.8:1.

"Can students start their own research here?" Yes, but you need to get a faculty advisor/mentor to work directly with. It's less common, but can happen.

2:41 -- Social Life: Housing is guaranteed all four years. All dorms are coed but one, all freshmen have to live in the dorms. All the dorms are different (suite style, hallway style, kitchens, cats, murals, etc). After freshman year you can a) stay in your dorm, b) move dorms, c) move into frat, sorority, or independent living group. Many FSILGs are on campus but most are across the river in Boston, accessible via foot, bike, free shuttle, etc). 20% in FSILGs, 70% dorms, 10% off campus.

MIT has over 450 student clubs and organizations (newspaper, radio station, knitting, MITBeef, cultural, religious, performing arts, a capella, MIT chocolate science lab, and underwater hockey club). Boston and Cambridge also afford a lot of exploring opportunities, food, and theaters/shows.

Lastly, athletics. MIT has 33 varsity sports (division 3 except for crew, division 1). 25% of students are in varsity sports, there are also club sports (75%-80% of students are involved in some kind of sport).

MIT is like drinking from a fire hose (so much to do, not enough time to do it all).

2:47 -- Now it's just a Q&A session, which I'll skip, in favor of you all asking questions in the comments and I'll get around to answering them (probably sometime tonight after swimming).

2:50 -- Psych! It's time to talk about admissions and applying. MIT uses "MyMIT" for applications. EA is due November 1, Regular Action is due January 1. EA is non-binding and the only real difference between EA and RA is the date it's due. EA applies sooner and finds out sooner.

MIT has an optional interview as part of the application, conducted by alums who live all over the world. Seniors are assigned an interviewer to chat with. It's not a math test, it's just a chance for an alum to get to know you and report back, think of it more as a conversation. Interviews MUST be scheduled by October 20th. You will be responsible for contacting the interviewer to set up the interview.

2:53 -- Parts: Essays! Now MIT has 3 short essays now instead of one long essay. Students were doing too much story telling and meandering with the long essay so MIT shortened them to get more direct and focused answers to the essays. For the "End of the world" essay, note that it doesn't need to be a life-altering experience. It can just be a time where things didn't go quite as well as you wanted. Don't stress out about having a relatively boring and lackluster life, this doesn't need to be extreme, just some time when you failed or something didn't go well.

2:56 -- What do you enjoy? Stuff like Mythbusters, Red Sox games, Chess, etc. What department are you considering? It's just so they can learn about you, they don't have a quota and they don't make this binding.

Activities: They want to know what you enjoy, what makes your eyes light up, what's most meaningful to you. NO RESUMES! What's meaningful to you now.

Recommendations: Math/Science teacher, Humanities teacher, and counselor.

Academic Record: Which class have you taken (difficulty level), GPA (does it match up with the difficulty and courseload?) and what's your background.

Standardized Testing: SAT I or ACT with writing, with SAT IIs in math and science. "Score Choice" is supported. MIT pulls out the top sections from tests taken multiple times in order to get the best possible scores (Reading from Sophomore year, Math from Junior year, writing from Senior year, for example).

3:01 -- Admit rate ~10%, so it's not easy, but it is possible.

Financial Aid: Need blind admissions (they don't care how much money you have). Scholarships are only given for need, not for academics or sports. Loans are also a big part of financial aid, in addition to work study (UROP, on-campus jobs, etc).

OK, I think that's it. Thanks guys!

MIT has always bragged about its motto, "Mens et Manus," or "Mind and Hand," because we're constantly creating, building, and getting dirty. I've done my fair share of building since I've gotten here (plastic bottle pirate ship, 4 robots, an Olmec, etc) but all of that used skills that I really already had. This last week, however, I learned something new. I learned how to use a CNC lathe and a CNC mill.

For those of you who are unacquainted, a lathe and a mill are tools used to machine metal/plastic/anything that needs to be shaped into a part. A lathe is for radially symmetric features and spins your part really fast, letting you touch it with sharp tools to cut grooves, pockets, round edges, so on and so forth. A mill is essentially the lovechild of an etch-a-sketch and a drill press. Using two dials you can move your part around on a table (like an etch-a-sketch) and then when you pull a lever you can lower a drill bit into it (like a drill press). The main difference is that you can move the part around while the drill bit (actually called an "end mill") is in the part, cutting grooves, notches, and all sorts of neat shapes into it. The "CNC" means that these tools are computer controllable. Come on, you know how hard it is to make a circle on an etch-a-sketch! CNC lets you design parts in SolidWorks, import them into a program called "MasterCAM," and then load them onto the mills/lathes. Then the tool does all the work for you, spitting out a finished part in just a few minutes. Neat, huh?

Later in the semester we'll be using these to create aluminum molds to injection mold yo-yos with. Until then, we were assigned a "Learn to use the equipment" project of machining a paper weight. Each of us was given a piece of aluminum stock, 1.5"R with a height of .625". We were allowed to do pretty much anything possible, but we had to use both the lathe and the mill. We designed our paper weights in SolidWorks first, the easiest way to bust out a 3D part.

I didn't want my paper weight to suck. This had the potential to be a really nice product, something that I could keep forever, so I got a kind of intricate with my design. I decided to machine the great dome, with some special features. Here's what my finished SolidWorks file looked like

As you can see, I added some footsteps to the top of the dome, because I'm pretty sure there are some. I also put the "Inscription Hack" around the perimeter of the dome. Awesome, looks good in SolidWorks, how's it going to look in real life?

The first thing to do was to "turn" the part. Never say "lathe" the part, it's called "turning." We put my aluminum stock in the machine, closed the doors, and checked through my code using the control panel on the outside. If there is anything more intimidating I have yet to encounter it. It was the scariest thing ever, but luckily shop guys are VERY good at what they do. Please note that that hand is certainly not mine.

Once it was all set we hit "GO" and off it went! The part spun and the tools cut into it. There was a lot of coolant splashing everywhere so it was hard to get really good pictures, but here are a few I managed to get.

I made a video of the final run of the paper weight so you can see the lathe in action.

Without a CNC I dare you to get that kind of curve. Consider yourself dared.

So, I had a perfectly shaped little dome, next it was time for the mill. The mill was programmed to etch the writing and the footsteps into my paper weight, one at a time, using an engraving tool with a tip only .02" in diameter (TINY!). I popped the part into the vice, set my zero at the top of my part, and pushed "GO!" ~20 minutes later (lots of etching) it was all finished, but while it was being etched it looked like this

Finally it was all done! Well, sort of. I cleaned it up with a rag and some hot water, then I took it over to a normal lathe (not CNC) and let it spin while I touched it with some fine grit sandpaper to polish it. When everything was all said and done I had this lovely before and after picture to take

Isn't that awesome!? But, there was an issue. Well, there were two issues. I realized shortly after polishing it up that there was a "u" missing "Industry." The space was there, just no letter, so it looked like "Ind stry." Not good. Then I noticed that I spelled "science" as "sceince." Those of you who know me know that I am WAY too obsessive compulsive to be ok with this, so I ended up re-machining the whole thing after making the changes on the computer.

When everything was all said and done, I had a beautiful paper weight that I was really proud of. Will I make another? Potentially, the code is all there. Will I make many awesome things in the future with my newly learned skills? Absolutely.

1) I no longer have swine flu
2) I am now 21 years of age
3) Spectrum wrote an article about me
4) The New York Times wrote an article about us
5) The Livescribe company blog published some instructions I made on how to build a loft.

ANFSCD

This last weekend I attended "CollegeFest 2009" at the Hynes Convention Center, just across the river in Boston. It's basically an excuse for companies to give out tons of free stuff and market to the college crowd. Alas, I didn't attend as a college student, I was there for Livescribe, demoing and handing out "Dumb Pens." MIT students certainly attended though, several people recognized Chris and I there and we got the usual "Hey! Are you that blogger guy?" a couple of times. But, I mean really, who wouldn't recognize this face (especially now that it's plastered onto the New York Times)?

So Chris and I (along with Kirsten and Hawkins) spent all day Saturday and Sunday chatting with college kids and showing them this smart pen. That doesn't mean we didn't take some time to have fun. I made a point of demoing to every mascot I saw. First was Wally, the Red Sox mascot.

I'm perfectly well aware that it looks like I'm about to swallow my pen

And then the chicken from the PETA stickers. You know, the ones that say "I am not a nugget!"

Look, I understand that you're not a nugget, but have you seen this pen?

In addition to that, I also spent some time being angry at the live band. They were SO loud that I was having to shout everything I said. It got so bad that I, in all of my frustration and infinite wisdom, decided that shooting an elastic foam rocket at the band would be a good idea. You know, one of these things:

What I forgot was that the Aflac booth was between me and the band, but it shouldn't have mattered because I was shooting over the Aflac booth. Turns out, I'm a terrible shot, and ended up shooting into the Aflac booth. This wouldn't have been a big deal normally, I'd have hit a stuffed duck or two and everybody would have been ok, but that day it wasn't ok. You see, Aflac was hosting the Red Sox and some Red Sox memorabilia, including the 2004 World Series Trophy.

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to know what the rocket hit. I stared, not quite believing what had just happened. I turned to Chris,

"Did that just hit th--"
"Turn around and pretend it wasn't you!"

I quickly wheeled around and busied myself with organizing some pamphlets and straightening the table cloth. After a while I checked to make sure I hadn't snapped a flag off the trophy and was relieved to find it was all in one piece. They had confiscated my rocket, though, but I figured it would be inappropriate to ask for it back.

Now I'm mostly all caught up in my work I missed (just some lab stuff and a PSET to do) and I'll be working all weekend on more work. No rest for the weary, except for right now, so if you'll excuse me, I'm going to take a nap.

Yesterday a video, made by a bunch of people from Baker (one of our dorms), was uploaded to the internet. The instant something hits the tubes it becomes fair game, so now it goes on the admissions website.

The link has been sent to a couple of dorm lists and is popping up here and there on Facebook. My guess would be that this doesn't represent ALL of Baker, but I can't imagine many dorms other than Baker coming out with something like this.

Enjoy, or cringe, or weep, whichever comes the most naturally.

This is what I look like today.

Wonderful. I suppose it was only a matter of time, but now I'm running a fever of 101, my stomach is hating me, and I keep getting chills. MIT Medical isn't actually testing for H1N1, so there's no way to know if I have it, but considering all the likely cases I've been around, I'm feeling pretty piggish right now.

So, how's MIT dealing with the H1N1 "issue?" There are signs all over campus telling people to wash hands, be clean, and avoid class if you have flu like symptoms. MIT Medical has sent several e-mails to the entire campus telling them symptoms and how to react if you exhibit them. They even have a website deemed "Flu Central", which is where I went to figure out what to do. I called a phone number they listed, they told me what steps I should take (self-quarantine, Tylenol/ibuprofen, fluids, rest, etc), told me how long it'd last (~4 days), how long the cough would last (~2 weeks), and told me to avoid class.

Skip class!? At MIT!? Absolutely, especially with my bio professor co-chairing Obama's Council on Science and Technology. We're threatened daily with horrible and gruesome consequences if we come to class with the flu. In order to prevent everybody from skipping and in order to allow people to reschedule exams (like my exam on Friday potentially), the Dean of Student Life sends a list of flu cases to Student Support Services and then students can e-mail professors.

So for now it's up to me to just hydrate, chill (literally and figuratively), and wait for this to go away.

Awesome.

Instead I listened to the new Muse album (go buy it now) and found a solo in one of the songs ("I Belong to You") that I really liked, so I sat down with some paper, a pen, and my clarinet. A while later I had transcribed it. Technically it's a bass clarinet solo, but with an octave shift and some creativity when notes dip below my playable range, I got it to sound pretty good. I printed some staff paper and actually wrote it out with ties, accents, and other notation so it'd be easier to read and play. Then, Mason '10 busted out the Sibelius and wrote it all out "officially," resulting in a nice piece of sheet music.

I looked around on YouTube to see if anybody else had covered this on clarinet and, sure enough, somebody had.

Eh, decent, but I knew I could do better, so after some misadventures with my Macbook's built-in mic (note, don't use for instrument recording) I made a video of myself playing my little transcription. Now, for your enjoyment, a video of me playing the clarinet solo from Muse's new song "I Belong to You," along with the sheet music.

It's over, finally. For the last two weeks all of the upperclassmen have been orienting the froshies, and now it's over. You may have noticed a severe drop off in the number of blogs, which may make perfect sense to anybody at MIT right now, but potentially not to people at home, so let me do my best to help you understand.

When I got to campus we got to work right away planning and organizing orientation events for our dorm. We planned a "Legends of the Hidden Temple" themed party, a rave, breakfast every morning, a food fight, jello wrestling, and a ton of other good stuff (including a water war!). All of this planning, running to home depot (an adventure every time), and building/setting up pretty much devoured our time, not to mention we were also trying to get to know freshmen.

For my part, my first task of orientation was to build an "Olmec," the giant talking face from "Legends of the Hidden Temple." This sounded agreeable, so I snagged a freshman (Trevor '13) and we went to Economy Hardware (local hardware place) and bought all the necessities. The dude working the store was super helpful, he remembered Olmec as a kid and really wanted to help us build it, so he showed us where everything was.

We got back to the dorm and got to work. We constructed all the mechanics of the frame while Jordan '11 did the painting. We had to make sure that it would both have a movable mouth and that the eyes would flash red. I'm pretty content with what we ended up with. Trevor '13 is seen here modeling it.

Next on the agenda was helping with the food fight, an adventure that ended up with a lot of people very covered in whipped cream and food coloring. It was a very colorful mess, but it hosed off nicely so nobody is complaining.

After orientation was over it was time for Floor Rush. Floor Rush allows freshmen to wander the different floors of a dorm and decide which ones they may like to live on. Conner 2, my floor, went for the crepe/french toast/balloons approach this year, wowing freshmen with our delicious tastes and lighthearted spirit. Not to mention our sweet murals.

After floor rush was over I finally got around to finishing the new paint job in my room, which I'm happy with. It's nice and bright, very geometric, and hopefully will keep me awake late at night.

I used my awesome new ladder to help me paint. It's telescopic, meaning it goes from very small to 15.5' in a snap of the fingers. *snap*

Then, it was mattress dominoes time. I mentioned this in my last entry, and since then have managed to actually organize and get this event to happen. 21 people showed up (honestly, more than the 5 I was expecting, but way fewer than the 124 RSVP'd) and we had an AWESOME time. We even made it into the front page of The Tech!

I made some movies of the adventure. The first is the straight fall, the second is of a spiral we made in Lobby 7. Note the guy we almost accidentally kill when he comes out of the bathroom.

Here's a shot from above

And a shot of me being interviewed after it was all over

After all this was done, Chris Mills and I realized that we had a Livescribe demo table to run, so we grabbed up all of our gear, borrowed a table from my dorm (Burton-Conner) and drug everything over to Kresge oval.

Funny story about this. There were lots of tables set up with businesses, but Chris and I were pretty sure we hadn't registered, so our approach was to just set a table up on the stage by the student center, act like we knew exactly what we were doing, and hope we didn't get yelled at. It worked surprisingly well, here's a pic of Chris and our setup.

As it turns out, we actually were registered and later found our official table, down in a worse location, so we left it where it was and stayed where we were. We gave tons of demos to over a hundred people, gave out lots of coupons and brochures, and did our parts to keep our employment with Livescribe!

Now, classes have started. I'll save my schedule for my next entry, but I will say that I'm taking 60 units, which is 5 12 unit classes. 60 units is borderline uncomfortable in terms of workload. We'll see how well I can keep it up.

That's all for now, ciao!