I’m just popping in to show you guys a video from an exciting event at MIT last weekend. The Chinese Students Club (CSC) hosted their annual Chinese New Year Banquet. There were plenty food, skits, performances, and festive spirits – but the highlight came at the end. You see, this year, CSC (whose exec board includes our own Celena) brought Far East Movement (FM) to MIT’s Walker Memorial – you know, the same place I took both of my calculus finals. But on February 21st, the building was raging for very different reasons.

See for yourself.

[full]

Sorry for making y’all dizzy. :P A tidbit of info on this electrobop/hip-hop/rap group: FM’s songs have been featured in “So You Think You can Dance”, “America’s Best Dance Crew”, “Entourage”, “Fast and Furious: Tokyo Drift” and more; they also recently toured with LMFAO. FM ended the performance @ MIT with their new song, “Go Ape.”

On a similar note, the Student Activities Office is bringing hip-hop/funk group N.E.R.D to campus for Spring Weekend. Last year, I waited four hours in the rain to see N.E.R.D. I would absolutely love an encore – but this time, under the protection of Johnson Athletic Center --

This is simply a dream. One of the most exciting things about partaking in art-related anything is the sheer range of supplies you get to use! Although all of the above goodies are complementary with the class, I still need to go out and buy fome-cor this weekend. Not complaining…yet. I really hope expenditures for 4.111 materials will be manageable as I can no longer depend on the parental units for feeding this creative money-sucker habit of art-making. (OK - a classmate just informed me that we could quite possibly be charged a lab fee ...but oh well, a sketchbook is a sketchbook!!! :P)

The following is a crop of the syllabus we got for studio this semester.

The purported “blizzard” that otherwise left 49 of the 50 US states covered somewhere in snow last week, forgot about dear Boston. But this past Tuesday brought an actual blizzard that killed our plans again. In the shot above, Professor Bill Hubbard describes our sad 4.111 week.

So essentially, today was the first real session of studio, and we…

practiced drawing a regular floor plan of our lecture space, just to get acquainted with representing a real 3D space on paper…

practiced drawing a section plan with a little person inside, as to imagine a body inhabiting a space...

and learned about our first project: we’re given a long stretch of lake-front space and a single wall, as shown above, and essentially have to design an environment for one person’s perfect reading experience – taking into account sunlight and shadows, views, the estate close by, etc.
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One thing I realized during the 3-hour process was that I need to use the materials now! No more saving everything for later, long-lasting use! Architecture is about to take over my life, and it should... I'm beginning to experience the huge transition from taking mostly GIRs to classes in something you want to commit to. Commitment is scary, guys! (End/rambing)
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More pictures! :)

Our workspaces! Equipped with drawing/cutting boards and T-squares!

The knife with which I will do much damage. :P

Sam '12, revelling in his new sketchbook.

An overhead drawing demo during lecture.
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Lastly, Prof. Hubbard used drafting dots during a demo, and I thought it was the coolest thing ever.

Who knew something made of some puny paper and plastic can be so perfect! They’re like Pez dispensers for drafting dots! Drafting dots, by the way, are used to mildly tape down tracing paper and the like. I have a feeling I'll be using lots of those.

Hooray for second and last half of the week! ☺

7.013 – Introductory Biology (a GIR class)

I’m ALWAYS excited to take biology, but that interest usually fizzles out into indifference somewhere not too deep into the course. I think this has something to do with the science education track in American schools. I had learned some basic biology in 6th grade, some more in 7th grade, for a whole year in 9th (including some intense cramming for SAT Biology as I’m sure many of you are aware), and then hardcore AP Biology in 12th. It’s like – I know what meiosis and mitosis are, and why there is photosynthesis or ATP, but I can’t really tell you too many details. Yet when AP Biology came along, during which I’m supposed swallow down all the details, I felt already jaded by this subject that seems to always bounce back. But every time I have to take biology again, I’m excited again, since both of my parents are in the biology field – and well, I have lots of respect for their work.

I hope MIT’s 7.013 will be different, in that the professor will be engaging, the class less distracted than in AP Bio, and I myself more buckled down to memorize details. But speaking of which, I think I’m even more excited to see how MIT does biology. 18.01A-18.02A psets were definitely nothing like what we had in AP Calculus. How will 7.013 psets emphasize problem solving?

4.602 – Modern Art & Mass Culture (a HASS-D,CI-H subject)

We had our first lecture yesterday, and to be honest, I was a little bit unpleasantly surprised. It seemed a lot like an Art History class, where pictures of famous or not-so-famous works are shown on the projector screen …and we talk…about it… I’m hoping that as the lectures go on, the “mass culture” portion will be adequately incorporated, because I’m more interested in how the evolving art world impacts every other aspect of society – education, recreation, commerce, politics, etc. – rather than a straightforward discussion of so and so modern artist’s characteristic technique. But with that said, I have everything to learn in this class, since I’ve never actually studied art in a books and concepts kind of way.

8.02 – Physics II – Electricity & Magnetism (also a GIR)

Oh, physics. This is probably the class I’m least looking forwards to. Lots of equations, calculations, math-like things. Not to mention it’s held in a basement – with no windows, or fresh air. At least it’s under Stata. But!!! I'm crazy excited that the classical theory of electromagnetism includes cool natural phenomena like the aurora borealis!!! I’m also happy that this class is not graded on a curve, which means what I give is what I get. It’s going to be hard, but at least I know I got most of the freshman class there with me. ☺

Well, I saved the best for last, didn’t I?

4.111 – Experiencing Architecture Studio

As I might have mentioned before, I will declare Course 4 – Architecture at the end of this semester. Which means! That 4.111 is the first studio in a sequence of studios I will have to take for the degree. 4.111 basically introduces design and basic architecture techniques to course 4 majors, minors, or just anyone interested. We had our first meeting today, and there were students cross-registered from Wellesley and Harvard – which is pretty cool. The class will be a mix of lectures and studio time – during which we complete model projects responding to tasks somewhere along the lines of “design a space for reading that overlooks something” – that’s the first assignment, in fact. The roughly 50 students in the class are divided into cohorts of 9, and each student will get his or her own work space and locker drawers!

In my fantasies, I imagine 4.111 being like Project Runway, where designers create their projects, meet some challenges along the way, but ultimately stand before the judges (in this case “reviewers” who may be graduate students or industry professionals) to defend their work and get evaluated. But I've also heard horror stories about studio students disappearing as the semester moves along, spending the night at their work spaces, etc. But for now, I’m just looking forward to next week – when I will meet my workspace and cohort and first lecture and first project! And you can look forward to a more detailed, photo-documented post about 4.111 in a week or two. Wheeeee.

I don’t want to go a post without visuals, so here’s my favorite discovery of the day. Anyone have a guess where these two adorable chairs are found? I’m so in love.

P.S. How awesome is it that this entry is entry # 4111.....woot.

And now, I’m going to practice saying goodbye to Pass-No Record and start embracing real grades (ABC’s) for the 2nd semester. I'm going to grade my IAP.

The following is a hypothetical but unembellished report card. ☺

*click

Let’s see – 3 F’s and 2 C’s? What!!! Second-semester can’t be like this!

Okay, so the report card was just for fun, but the serious question to ask is: Where did all the glorious IAP time go? This seems to be a popular question popping up on Facebook statuses lately. For me, 18.02A was the obvious culprit, but I can't help but mention some other preoccupations that edged into those rare un-mathematical intervals of time.

To start:

I had never realized that my gummy vitamins were bear-shaped, that my Tupperware was microwave-safe, and that those green furry soybeans are called edamames

But then I learned, and now my food/grocery awareness improved just a little bit; still can't get over how exotic edamame sounds.

I didn’t plan on getting this bruise, and several others:

But then I did, and surprisingly I'm loving Taekwondo more and more everyday - despite the customary twinkling of fear before each practice. Taekwondo during IAP sucked up nearly 9 hours every week, but thank god for it I'm pulling my weight in getfit@mit. With every sore leg, bruised foot, and scratched elbow, I feel it's harder and harder to turn back and say "I don't want to do this anymore". And about that, I'm very excited.

I didn’t know there was a mulberry tree a little farther up Charles River:

But then I found one. One morning before calculus lecture, I power-walked along the Charles to put in some minutes for getfit@mit. I was happy to find that near the Boston University bridge, there are a couple of mulberry trees in a little park-like setting right next to an industrial overpass. This was an interesting find, precisely because I want to study the intersection between architecture and urban planning that improves the look, feel, and functionality of every precious space in the modern city.

It feels good to rematerialize the bygone times.
--
Anyways, I gathered from this IAP that planning well and aiming high is really important - but prioritizing at the right times could be critical. If 18.02A was a fail, I would probably be freaking out under a pillow right now.

But it wasn't - so Happy February!

getfit@mit challenges teams of 5 to 8 people to log the most number of minutes exercised each week. Participants must enter their minutes every day, Monday through Sunday. There are weekly prizes for eligible teams and individuals drawn at random – “eligible” meaning they are meeting the steadily increasing weekly exercise goals suggested by the program (shown in the image below.)

In 2009, almost 2,300 people on 300 teams logged over 7,000,000 minutes of getting-fit-@-MIT. Those are some big numbers.

It’s easy to see why. Smack-dab in the middle of IAP – when everyone is trying to relax but feel relatively productive, nothing sounds more attractive than hopping on the “Wooo! Let’s get fit!” bandwagon. When Molly first sent out the email to the floor, a few people responded…and then tons more. What started out as plans for one team became three full teams of eight, divided by suites.

So what’s going to be my plan for this challenge? According to the official rules page of the program website, “Any physical activity done at a level that increases the heart rate and/or challenges the muscles will count as exercise”. Well, the possibilities seem endless now, don’t they. Most of my minutes will probably come from Taekwondo. If I go to Monday practices, that’s 150 minutes. If I go to Monday and Wednesday practices, that’s 300 – add the Friday practice, Saturday Office Hours (yes! There are office hours for Taekwondo), and an occasional treadmill date in there, well …Bring it on.

We start logging minutes on Monday, January 25th ----- all the way until April 18th. By then, working out should be an established habit.

Cheers to a healthy & vivacious second semester!

Anyways, Monday 1/4/10 marks the beginning of IAP 2010. For those unfamiliar with IAP (Independent Activities Period), it’s basically the whole month of January during which …MIT students do whatever they find worthwhile – whether it’d be a mini-internship, starting/continuing an UROP, learning to snowboard, making pottery, or (gasp!) taking a class (many people do. ☺)

Browse around this year’s IAP site for a better idea → Overview of IAP 2010

From what I've heard, some of the most popular offerings that fill up very quickly include the beverage-related activities (such as A Taste of Scotland: Single Malt Scotch Whisky Tasting Seminar, In Vino Veritas, and Thirsty Ear Beer Connoisseur Class (all with legal age and ID's as prerequisites of course). Also with competitive enrollment is the IAP beginner glassblowing class, which uses a lottery system; students will learn the basics of making beautiful projects like this:

(Credit: The MIT Glass Lab-http://web.mit.edu/glasslab/sales_labsales.html)
Luckily, my suite-mate Evie got in this class -can't wait to see what she makes!

& Finally, a search for “IAP” on the blogs homepage will pull up some more personal experiences worth reading.
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Here’s a preview of my first IAP – which I’ll surely blog about in the coming weeks.

• P.E. ice-skating @ 10 AM on MTWR - I’ve been ice skating before, but am no where near comfortable on ice. Here’s a chance to change that. You might wonder why I should subject myself to something @ 10 AM four days a week, why, it must be because I have a math class at 12 PM and would not like to rush in between; plus I just found out p-sets for that class are due at 11:45 AM…good call on my part. Pat pat. Without further ado, the aforementioned obligation that will try to monopolize my IAP…

• 18.02A– This is a continuation of 18.02A in the fall semester, during which we finish learning multivariable calculus. After completing half of the course in December, students choose to complete the second half during either the spring semester or IAP (which I believe is the choice of many since IAP grading is still pass-no record). But IAP 18.02A consists of daily lectures and recitations twice a week, four difficult p-sets, an one-hour exam, and a two-hour final. It will be a pain in the rear, but surmounting the math GIRs during IAP means room for other classes during the spring!

• Java/Python/C++?? – So there’s a bunch of IAP offerings on programming. The options include Postscript, Python, C, C++, Haskell, and Java. I have not heard of half of the aforementioned languages, but gathering from Chris’s latest post, 630 MIT students are course 6! I have got to taste some of this, the computer science part that is. So if I find time, I will try to attend one of these programming series.

• Paint my room bamboo – personal goal; wonder how this will go.

• Random events - i.e. LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook…Oh My! What does your online image tell employers? ,Charm School, and Chinese Dessert Night .

• The much talked about Mystery Hunt - See Matt's 2007 post

• Take/practice for the Swim Test! – shhh... I still haven’t taken the swim test (100 yards consecutively any stroke you prefer) that we were supposed to have taken during orientation or by September 24th … or by Oct. 30th as the last email from MITPE commanded…Maybe it’ll get done during IAP?

Feel free to discuss your new goals for 2010 - now that apps are, for the most part, history!

Lastly, Happy New Year’s, of course!

1) People love Indian food and/or frozen-yogurt-more-endearingly-“Froyo”. I can’t count how many “Ordering Indian in 10! Come to Room # if you want in!” emails I've gotten over these past few months. My family eats rice every night and do not dine out much; I’ve never had Indian food in my life. I got my first taste of Indian cuisine this semester, however. I had a mixed chicken curry or something. It blew my mind away – more because of the spiciness than anything else. While i had to keep chugging down water, it was no doubt delicious. Now froyo: again, never had it in my life. But once I arrived at MIT, it seems almost blasphemous if you’ve never had froyo or do not like it. But my concern is: although froyo is logically healthy, the containers they're delivered in seem huge. Bottom line: campusfood.com is probably the root of Freshman-15 and much college-related weight gain; it's like "Hey, it might be freezing outside, but they deliver so you can still have froyo in a warm comfy room." Crap.

2) Sometimes you need to impulsively hit that “Send” button.. There were many times this semester I had to send awkward emails – like asking a professor about UROP opportunities, or asking my chemistry TA how to make up a quiz that I overslept :X. When facing an unpleasant topic or intimidating recipient, writing emails can become anxiety-mongering. But I remember reading a cartoon that described how the student spends 15 minutes crafting an email that the professor processes in 5 seconds… So what I tried to do is: read it over once, smash the send button, and just breathe. (Sometimes I say under my breath, ”OMG, OMG, OMG” afterwards, but same idea.)

3) Ink lasts quite a while. – This semester, I took Disease and Society in America, which is a HASS history class, and there were many papers to write. But that’s nothing compared to the countless randomosities I had to print for writing-centric high school classes like US Government and Psychology. With that said, invest in your own printer for college – might just add a few years to your lifespan. I remember dedicating quite a few Facebook statuses to the irritatingly unpredictable nature of MIT printers.

4) Do not be afraid to go forward - in solving integrals. . This one's quite specific and personal. I am slow at math and continue to lack the skill of cleverly manipulating ...integrands - a.k.a. functions to be integrated. But solving problems by applying trig. identities one after another, substituting multiple times, invoking the scary-sounding integration by parts, and sometimes a combination of these dreaded steps, have pushed the limits of my mathematical patience. On several quizzes and exams, I've gotten the feedback "Keep going..." Ahh - so close!!! Must not be afraid to take one more (annoying) step; perhaps this experience could be applied to life at large?

5) Online scheduling/sign-up applications are the bomb! How come I've never used Doodle or Google Docs before coming to college? They are so incredibly useful! My dorm uses them for potluck planning. The Taekwondo team uses them for banquet/Secret Santa planning. Chris used it in the beginning of the year to schedule the first Blogger Meet-Up. Just this week, I used it to set up a get-together in New York City. Yes! I learned something in college!

6) Spam Mailing Lists are fun. There are times during the endless p-setting night when you just neeeeed a break. Luckily (?) for me, my floormates on Burton 1 have lots of diversions to supply. Funny/cute/absurd/ridiculous/amazing Youtube videos, random questions, requests for envelops or batteries or lime-colored things, and cookies-up-for-grabs that turn into tea parties... I love checking my email! And procrastinating...

7) First impressions can be mistaken and inhibiting. During orientation and dorm rush, I noticed that this girl was really pretty, but she bore a really guarded expression for most of the event we were attending. I thought, "Why??? God - just take it easy!" So somehow my brain connected those observations and thought she was mean or obnoxious. But she ends up being on my floor and my initial ideas about her are every bit off. I've since realized to not let odd first judgments irrationally deter me from saying Hello.

8) MIT campus-wide wifi is unbeatable and oh-I-miss-it-so. Anywhere else – Starbucks, on the Megabus, even @ home – wifi is comparably unstable and/or slow. Enough said.

9) Rain boots are a way of life. This may apply to the female population @ MIT more so than the male...but in general, I've never seen a greater concentration of rain boots in greater variety of patterns than at MIT/Cambridge/Boston. When it rains (or even snows) outside, forget the umbrellas - put on some rain boots and skip away. (I think the forgetting umbrella part is just me though.)

10) The heating in my dorm is amazing. Now at home, I’m typing with a coat on. It does not feel good. If I was still in my room @ MIT, I could be wearing a t-shirt. During dorm tours at CPW, I remember hearing about how Burton-Conner has no heating. And when I got Burton-Conner as my final dorm, I was wary but skeptical that BC could legally have no heating. Well – nothing to worry about there! Heating is ample ☺. That will certainly be one thing I’m going to miss over the next two weeks.

Keep warm! or cool!- depending on where you are :)

Happy Holidays everyone!

--

[P.S. I just realized half of the things I wrote relate somehow to the computer or Internet...Is it a blogger instinct? An MIT psyche? or a sign I need to get more of a life? HAHA.]

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Chances are, if you’re reading this, you’re still lingering around the blogs, looking for answers – why you were rejected, deferred, or accepted, how you should proceed college admissions from here on, what other applicants are feeling right now.

Last year this season, I pried every source on the Internet related to a particular college decision as results were released. This is understandable behavior. The past few months of your life were probably focused on getting into college, and much of your life may have been drilled in working hard for “the one you want”. So whether you didn’t expect to get in and got in or had all the passion in the world for MIT and were rejected/deferred, you will be thinking about yesterday’s decision for a while. No need to downplay that.

Well let’s talk about it.

One of the biggest perks about getting accepted early is also getting on the “2nd-Semester Senior” (SSS) wave early. My friends and I started longing for the “chill and settled” state-of-mind SSSs had since say, sophomore year. Before early-admissions results came out, I remember thinking “Omg. If I get in next week, I’ll be easy livin' for the rest of the school year. Sweeeeet!” Wishful thinking, it was.

Upon rejection, besides the realization that I have 0 chance to go to my early school, I was also stressed and depressed about having to keep focus and send out quite a few more applications; indeed, the rest of December and into January was very, very tough.

But in retrospect, I would say the sweat, doubt, and frustration was worth every bit. The process of completing more applications that asked a greater variety of questions forced me to think about what I liked to do, what I don’t, what my passions are, and which schools are right – or wrong. The early setback is really an extra impetus to push a little further in finding your next home. Just don’t be intimidated by the to-do list.

With that said, I did not apply Early Action to MIT, because frankly I was not interested initially. I didn’t want to dedicate so much time to math and science and I heard Cambridge had no trees. But after rejection from my early school, rethinking about what I want to pursue, I brought MIT into the picture. And since getting here, despite being bogged down by the academic intensity, I see more and more reasons why I like this place.

Some might feel that an icy-cold rejection or a vapid deferral offers no reward for many years of hard work. But from an artist’s point of view, I had always believed that if you could paint something brilliant, even if someone stole and burned the canvas, the work could be reproduced; because you hold the techniques and vision. Your existing skills, goals, and potential are things not even MIT can take away from you. The end of high school is only the beginning – and can’t be all summed up in rewards just yet. Work and motivation don't end with high school graduation; silly, but I once believed this.

Some others might very simply feel they deserve the spot just as much as the accepted student did. But the fact of the matter is, the process of choosing 1600 from tens of thousands of highly and often uniquely talented applicants is an absurd and nearly impossible task in itself. But that’s why we apply to multiple schools, and if you’ve been doing your job, you should end up happy at the one that reciprocates your love – whichever school that may be, MIT or not.

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If you were denied - It’s true, by the very definition of the word, you failed to get in MIT – but you can never believe in that you’re a failure. We can all fail at things, but failing doesn’t define us. In fact, I’m pretty sure this is one of the principles MIT drills in its students – the capacity to fail and get back up ready to attack something else. In all honesty, I think the ability to keep going after all your mind’s/heart's/soul’s desires amidst an often unfair and irrational world is all too important. Don’t be heartbroken for too long – it’s time to reflect, reevaluate, and perhaps redefine what you want. The next month will be critical, but it should be upbeat and productive; another two months later should bring not necessarily “fruits of labor”, but more so a direction to lead the next couple steps in your life.

If you were accepted – Congratulations & Welcome, sincerely. You now have a great opportunity at hand. If you’re indeed wondering how you got in, there’s definitely a reason. And if you decide to come here, you can go to the Office and ask to see notes in your file…Time to do some thinking! Or not. :P

If you were deferred – it might all seem like a clueless limbo right now, but it’s actually a two-front war. Same deal: reflect, reevaluate, redefine – go after it.

’10 college admissions is far from over.

It was pretty ugly. Checkout the iCal for this past week.

[Calculus pset x4, Chemistry Pset, Final Paper Proposal, Seminars x2, Taekwondo x2, Physics Quiz, CLASSES!!!]

For the moment, I have no profound thesis for a profound blog post, so I’ll go ahead and zoom in on some the crazy things that happened amidst the massive blue busyness up there.

MONDAY 12:07 AM

You know what’s the best part about going to 3.091 [Chem.] at 11 in the morning?
Going to Steam Café at noon. OK – Maybe that’s not exactly the right attitude towards a very expensive education, but truth is, sometimes real food is a serious priority (you will see why soon).

RICE. ORANGE CHICKEN. CARROTS/CELERY.

I understand this is not by any means high quality, but right there in one plate I’ve covered 3 groups on the food pyramid.

MONDAY 7:10 PM

If food were traditional art, this would be my surrealistic modern masterpiece:

LETTUCE/ROMAINE PIECES/KIMCHI, BREAD, WALNUTS, PRESERVED FISH

Compared with the example above, this is hardly real food; but obviously, I was desperately trying to pack in as many food groups as I can. Despite my honest efforts, this is still a very pathetic attempt at making a meal. I will have to try harder.

TUESDAY 4:35 PM

Mastering Physics; Bane of my existence, and I know I’m not alone.

For 8.01 – the intro physics course that a large portion of the freshman class enrolls in – we have to complete Mastering Physics assignments twice a week. You are essentially given five or so multiple-part problems and you earn points by typing in the right answers. This is honestly the most tediously formatted, arbitrarily graded online tutorial program. You get points for getting the question right, obviously. You also get bonus points for not opening hints. But then you can gain points for opening hints and answering hint questions right; it’s crazy. And if you get a true/false question wrong; sorry – that’s a heartless 50 percent deducted. Moreover, the problems are not at all similar to questions on quizzes and exams –because Mastering Physics is probably the only “high-school-like” assignment here. The problems test one or two concepts at a time, whereas exams pretty much combine a bunch of concepts, put twists on the classical examples, and churn out brain-frying exam questions. Mastering Physics does function as a potential grade booster and an illusion that you are indeed “mastering physics” – until the real exams come that is.

WEDNESDAY – Nothing happened on Wednesday, because all I did was calculus; I guess that p-set happened ….at 5:00 AM the next day.

THURSDAY

A pset completed @ 5:00 AM leads to waking up at 1:00 PM, realizing p-set had been due at 12:45 PM, frantically trying to get p-set in, and overall, starting off the day really late, and really grumpy.

But I had a movie screening to take care of. I write for the Arts section of the Tech, the MIT student newspaper. @ 7PM Thursday, there was a special screening for Red Cliff, an epic ancient Chinese war film that lasted 2.5 hours - and I had a physics quiz the next day. The film was average, but it was surely a good study break! Or investment of a study break, because I haven’t actually studied yet.

Charliecard is my best friend. Have it on hold, you’re ready to go!

Swipe, swipe – feels like Boston is resting in my palm. Although, it was my first time traveling alone at night; all I could do was pray that Google Maps proves accurate once I come out of the T station (our endearing term for subway). But I’m still alive, so yes, Boston is safe @ night! :P

FRIDAY is now – and it's all about Taekwondo and the Sunday tournament at Princeton.

The whole campus is sprinting towards "end-of-semester", and it's getting hard to hold on.

But I will let you know.

//
P.S.
Here's a video of me trying out my makeshift Halloween costume; it was entertaining.

Happy Weekend!

Well, there was Obama. And then BJ Novak – Heck, I don’t even watch The Office and I felt all giddy @ his comedy show. (Yes! He was here on 10/24, standing on the stage in Kresge, thanking Pres. O for a great opening act - he was one funny dude).

But aside from all those exciting diversions, I must blame my darn itchy hands for escaping necessary work+studying way too often.
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1 AM on a Friday night, I decided to break out my art supplies and recreate an image captured on my little 2-megapixel camera phone several evenings before. You see - the walk down West Campus’s dorm row is a (weather-permitting) pleasant one, especially starting from Burton-Conner, where the frontal sight escapes from the tennis courts to a vast Briggs Field trademarked by the always-astonishing Simmons Hall and a wildly nebulous sky. The colors change from day-to-day, hour-to-hour in fact – one moment, all you see is a Claritin-clear blue, the next it’s all about a muggy purple. But the image on my phone encapsulates the singular instance when everything else is drowned out by the blinding rays of a familiar sunset.

I adore the sight too much not to enlarge, enshrine, and share it with the world. Well, five 1-or-2 hour sessions later, I can show you somewhat close to what I saw:

Sometimes, a paintbrush sounds so much more attractive than a mechanical pencil, and the ensuing distraction becomes a euphemism for procrastination.
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2 Nights before my second 3.091 (Introduction to Solid-State Chemistry aka Chem. General Institute Requirement) exam, I betrayed my trusty iCal. The schedule blocked out that Sunday night for studying x-ray diffraction, cubes, semi-conductors, and doping…but I figured that iCal isn’t going to jump out of the screen and stop me from carving some pumpkins.

That night, the Porter Room (Burton-Conner’s now-defunct dining hall) hosted a warm-and-fuzzy pumpkin carving competition with gift cards to favorite vendors’ on the line. Even better, all the tables were prematurely equipped with Halloween candy. I must confess: I ate all the AlmondJoy’s at our table (there were 4 of them) and grabbed 2 more from another table. That was great.

But yes, pumpkin! It started out like this:

-all orange, round, shiny, cute, perfect!

Having never carved a pumpkin before, I was rather clueless. But someone gave me a knife and told me to carve out the inside. Still unsure, I timidly stuck a petite knife in:

-and left it there...

Until killer instincts kicked in:

I had envisioned sort of a …crazy… hip-hop-man-beaver-with-fauxhawk pumpkin….WELL in the end, it turned out like this:

and after carving all I could carve within the time-limit, pumpkin man turned out like this:

...with hair shaved in the pattern of “MIT” in the back:

This would all look much better in dark with candlelight shining out, but as a first-timer, I did not consider that larger carved-out areas meant more light projecting out…SO FOR FUTURE REFERENCE GUYS – carve them big!

But here are some pumpkins by BC residents who obviously knew what they were doing – I was speechless at the sight of these masterpieces.

Can you tell that it's a witch? (Carved by Andrew Hoy '10)

Do you see what's in here?

To no surprise, these were two of the winners. [Excuse the blurry photography & credits (and crazy props!) to whoever carved these!]

Half-past ten,I left the Porter Room in sweat and pride, awe and admiration, and guilt for all those AlmondJoy’s and Snickers and pumpkin muffins…but everything added up to a jolliness that lasted into the AM. And boy – a pleasant mood in the wee hours is hard to come by around here.
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3 Days before the real Halloween, I ordered various glow sticks over the Internet. If they arrive on time, my hands will be up all night figuring out a glowstickman costume for Halloween – or not. Who knows. Those mens et manus are fickle … after all, that’s how I get sidetracked in the first place. But glow sticks are fun for all occasions right?
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MORE EXCITINGLY, 4 Mornings later, all you early birds will be free birds! Or you’ll feel above-the-clouds, basking in the sunshine for a little while…You've worked hard (so, so, hard - I'm sure), So after the initial wave of relief, please celebrate by releasing all that stress build up in your mind over the past few painstaking months!

Bake something, draw something, build something, sew something, take photographs, crawl through piles of fallen leaves, dig a hole, climb a tree, relax – play!

The sense of balance that follows is amazing. And the ability to find your own little oasis from time to time is important at MIT...

ALRIGHT you can snap out of that pristine serene dream now - breathe & take the final steps in the application - all the way past "Submit".

See you on the other side of " Nov.1st "! Good luck :)