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MIT student blogger Shannon M. '12

“Well, you just cost me money.” by Shannon M. '12

Best. Desk Call. EVER.

On any given day, you’ll totally forget how awesome it is that you’re an MIT student, and that there are people outside of MIT who automatically assume that you’re some crazy child genius and an expert in anything and everything just because you go here- and then you get emails like this. I’m still working on the Ring Premiere entry, but a friend forwarded me this in the meantime and I had to share.

———- Forwarded message ———-
From: Emma
Subject: BEST DESK CALL EVER
To: bmf

me: hello, Bexley Desk
guy: hi, is this MIT?
me: this is a dorm at MIT.
guy: can you connect me to the science department?
me: this is a dorm, I don’t really know how to do that. MIT has multiple science departments, so you’d need to call the main number and be more specific.
guy: well, i was calling to settle a bet between me and my stepdaughter. We wanted to know if the moon is a planet or not.
me: well, the moon is a satellite of the planet earth, not a planet itself. it’s a natural satellite.
guy: are you an MIT student?
me: yes.
guy: ok thanks. well, you just cost me money.

36 responses to ““Well, you just cost me money.””

  1. mrmish says:

    Ah well, being an MIT student, Emma should have told him that moon is indeed a planet – just being different from most others, lol.
    //And for his stepdaughter, if someday humanity plans to free moon from Earth and make it a planet through some crazy emancipation proclamation, no doubt its script will be prepared at MIT.

    More crazy thing:
    I had FAXed my parents’ most recent tax forms on Feb 10 which are not yet showing up on MyMIT and today the Financial Aid tracking reads:
    6 additional form(s) have not been received

    The following documents have not been received in any form and are still required:

    Required for Packaging

    * Parent’s 2009 Foreign Income Tax Return
    * Parent’s 2009 Foreign Income Tax Return
    * Parent’s 2009 Foreign Income Tax Return
    * Parent’s 2009 Foreign Income Tax Return
    * Parent’s 2009 Foreign Income Tax Return
    * Parent’s 2009 Foreign Income Tax Return

    Any Fin Aid official reading !

  2. shaw says:

    mrmish, I have exactly the same problem.

  3. Anthony says:

    @mrmish

    I got the same crazy thing in the tracking box .. Plus a 6-times “CSS PROFILE RECEIVED”.
    Hehe.
    I guess they’re all tracking problems.

    Nice call btw, funny wink.

  4. Hania (14?) says:

    @mrmish and rest with that problem:
    I also had this problem on Google Chrome, but Firefox shows it in a good way, I mean, only once every sentence. Maybe try to change a browser or some settings

    @Shannon: Coool :D

  5. Shavonna says:

    Well if i were you guys i would not take so much pride from a call like this. If he was calling thinking that the moon is a planet, he doesn’t sound like the brightest parent i know. I would bet him that Saturn’s rings are miniature planets and each one holds a living society. He would call an MIT dorm (if he didn’t bother to look up the answer online, let alone look up the proper MIT number)in an instant to confirm.

    @mrmish
    Perhaps the blue prints for the HOW to get there would be printed at MIT, but I don’t agree with your statement. I respectfully believe it would be printed at Harvard, you know, because we actually know about politics. It would also have less spelling errors. =D

  6. Elias says:

    @Shavonna: I believe you mean ‘fewer’ spelling errors. If you’re treating the number of spelling errors as a constant, then it is countable, and it is grammatically incorrect to use ‘less.’

    Do you know that joke, the one about an MIT student and a Harvard student at a store in Cambridge…?

    raspberry

  7. navin says:

    does he mean that MIT people never cost anything???
    and btw FIRSt wink

  8. Brad says:

    @Hamsika
    I think so too :|

  9. I am totally impressed this guy could get Bexley’s phone number. It’s pretty hard to find out ANYTHING about them.

  10. Shivam says:

    Hahahahah that is really funny. :]

  11. Bliss says:

    Funny!!

    @ Navin: No he means he trusts MIT students to know, and he in fact was betting the moon is a planet…

  12. Anonymous says:

    @Elias: I wouldn’t mind hearing that joke wink

  13. Piper '12 says:

    @Watchinthedetectives – If you search for “Bexley” in the MIT search bar, the first result has the number in blazing soft blue letters :D

  14. Hania ('14?) says:

    @Elias
    I’m waiting for this joke wink

  15. peiyun says:

    That’s so cool, for lack of a more precise word. So, so cool.

    :D

  16. Dimitris says:

    lol. this was funny. you cost me money.

  17. Justin says:

    I would trust anything that an MIT student told me… And BTW, the next time I have a science related question, I’m def calling some random MIT dorm lol…

  18. Shavonna says:

    @Elias
    Ha, good observation, but it is quiet easy to identify spelling errors when you look for them! If an experiment would to take place of who would make more spelling errors between the two schools, it is statistically more possible that MIT would loose. That’s where i based my lame joke ( A JOKE NONETHELESS), so i would not take my grammatical error so serious (even more so knowing English is not my first language and I’ve only been speaking it for a few years) =D

    P.S. I would love to hear that joke you speak of. Enlighten me(us) please.

    P.P.S. That was a terrible grammatical error, no doubt. =( Does that make you feel more of a genius? Good for you!

  19. mrmish says:

    @Shavonna: No truck with Harvard; MIT and Harvard can share the task, but if the Moon shoots back on Boston — HEY, DON’T YOU KNOW, HARVARD DID IT! (lol)
    {disclaimer: not yet an MIT student (can’t wait to be one!) so my comments should not start a civil war}

    @Elias: Interested in ur joke~

  20. Anne says:

    When I was an undergrad at a certain women’s college west of Boston we would call up any MIT fraternity whenever we wanted to play a little poker to make sure we knew “What Beats What”. This was long before the internet, of course. The guys always seemed to enjoy our call, and knew the answer cold.

  21. This just serves to show that if you dial up MIT at any time, to any section, whoever answers will be eligible enough to engage in a full blown conversation about random topics! I mean whoever Emma is she raised MIT’s head high. Who needs the science department when you have eligible students?

    @Shavonna
    English should not be a weak-point, and I know you said MITers can’t spell as a joke, but in a way you’re right. We should work on enhancing our language skills because they are our means of communication.

  22. Nasser says:

    Love the blog.Guys go easy on Shavonna.

  23. Muy buenos días,

    Soy Juan David de Colombia y estoy interesado en conocer si ustedes tienen algunas becas para America Latina donde encuentro la informacíón y como puedo acceder a ellas.
    Como puedo encontrar los precios de los cursos?.

    Gracias

  24. navin says:

    @Bliss:
    i think i should learn some American comedy wink
    sometimes i dont get what you people are saying :|

  25. navin says:

    @Shavonna:
    i think Harvard people do know politics, may be, but most of the politicians are idiots XP
    P.S. when Politicians=Harvard people
    and also go learn some math cos Harvard people dont know what math i used in the above equation XD

  26. @Elias, you are doing an excellent job of frustrating us all. I would very much like to hear this joke.

  27. Sueshep says:

    @Taymon: I don’t know that joke, but I do know a variant.

    A college student is in the store doing his weekly groceries. He’s obviously from one of either MIT or Harvard because he is wearing a distinctively colored jacket, but the cashier can’t tell which because crimson and cardinal are similar in appearance. When the student is done, he goes to the isle where a sign marked “QuickLane: Up to Nine Items Only!” is clearly visible.

    As he unloads the cart, placing down more than a dozen items, the cashier stares in disbelief. “I’m sorry, you can’t use this line.”

    “Why not?”

    The cashier points to the sign. “What, are you a MIT student who can’t read? Or are you a Harvard student who can’t count?”

  28. Trezitorul says:

    Juan, Yo no hablo espanol muy bien pero yo trato a darte una sugerencia. Yo sugiero que tu usas esta pagina porque tiene informacion sobre becas y ayuda financiera en MIT.

    http://web.mit.edu/sfs/scholarships/MIT_scholarships.html

    Ojala que esta te ayuda.

    Trezitorul

  29. mmswimfan says:

    One of my swim coaches went to Harvard and he told me this joke too.
    Sadly, it’s kinda true. He’s a politician who is awful with numbers but extremely talented with Doubletalk.
    :D

  30. Shavonna says:

    @Navin:
    “and also go learn some math cos Harvard people…” Really?
    P.S. when “cos”=pathetic vulgarity of an idiot who doesn’t know how to write. I don’t need to know what kind of math you used to be sure that my math is right. I was making a simple joke, yet you take it so seriously… i bet you there are as many good mathematicians at Harvard as there are at MIT. jezzzz…. and who said we didn’t know math? You’re particularly pointy on your talented math skills, and it’s good for you, but such a generalized statement that most politicians are idiots? Are you even an MIT student? I like MIT students, in fact, my brother goes there, hence the friendly joke…but you had to ruin this blog by being defensive and aggressive. Learn how to take some jokes. Learn something from Nasser who seems to understand it was just a joke, and who suggests he will get back at me with more jokes…JOKES(and i will welcome them =)), no aggressive rude comments like you.

    @Sueshep: Great joke =D haha

  31. C2 says:

    So… there are other people who live in Dorms in MIT?

  32. Anthony says:

    Oh my.. And I thought Lebanon was the only place where everyone fights everyone else.

    Cheer up; this blog was supposed to be the sharing of a nice little SHORT funny story..

    Enjoy the story, don’t miss the point =).

    –by the way, I’m an Asian, a Regular MIT applicant, and definitely not a geek =).

  33. person says:

    Wow these comments are all retarded. Wtf does your finaid problem have to do with the price of tea in china? And speaking of asia, can you practice engrish somewhere else? You’re not going to get into MIT by commenting here.

    “@Elias
    Ha, good observation, but it is quiet easy to identify spelling errors when you look for them! If an experiment would to take place of who would make more spelling errors between the two schools, it is statistically more possible that MIT would loose. That’s where i based my lame joke ( A JOKE NONETHELESS), so i would not take my grammatical error so serious (even more so knowing English is not my first language and I’ve only been speaking it for a few years) =D

    P.S. I would love to hear that joke you speak of. Enlighten me(us) please.

    P.P.S. That was a terrible grammatical error, no doubt. =( Does that make you feel more of a genius? Good for you!”

    Wow really you’re the advocate for Harvard’s spelling? I think you need to go back and learn grammar again before you comment on other people’s.

    “@Navin:
    “and also go learn some math cos Harvard people…” Really?
    P.S. when “cos”=pathetic vulgarity of an idiot who doesn’t know how to write. I don’t need to know what kind of math you used to be sure that my math is right. I was making a simple joke, yet you take it so seriously… i bet you there are as many good mathematicians at Harvard as there are at MIT. jezzzz…. and who said we didn’t know math? You’re particularly pointy on your talented math skills, and it’s good for you, but such a generalized statement that most politicians are idiots? Are you even an MIT student? I like MIT students, in fact, my brother goes there, hence the friendly joke…but you had to ruin this blog by being defensive and aggressive. Learn how to take some jokes. Learn something from Nasser who seems to understand it was just a joke, and who suggests he will get back at me with more jokes…JOKES(and i will welcome them =)), no aggressive rude comments like you.

    @Sueshep: Great joke =D haha”

    I’m pretty sure navin didn’t mean “cos” as in “cuz”, but rather like “because”. If he can’t write, you can’t read. Oh and you can’t write either. If you actually went to Harvard (which I seriously doubt based on your writing here), you should also know (and proudly spread word of) Math 55 which is apparently as hard as if not harder than any MIT math class. He was obviously joking about the politicians (although it’s not too much of an exaggeration), so I think you’re the one who needs to learn how to take a joke. I’ll give you some aggressive rude comments if you want them.
    And FYI MIT has a very strong political science department. I know a couple course 17s myself.
    @navin
    You aren’t alone. As an American, I can tell you it’s not a comprehension problem on your part, but rather the things you are reading are posted by little kids whose parents want them to go to MIT to be a good asian but they never learned english for some reason. Hint: life’s a lot easier in america when you speak the primary language. And to americans, life’s a lot easier if you don’t feel so self-entitled all the time and learn the language of other countries when you visit so you don’t look like jerks ordering creeps and poems freytes.
    When you’re done reading this, stand up and do some exercise and stop ogling over your computer and doing work all day.

  34. mrmish says:

    @Everyone: Don’t make me feel guilty ‘cos I started with a pleasant joke which has now turned into a dirty fight.

    @person: You are indeed a good person ‘cos you are tryin’ to resolve the fight, but your method seems to be 20% inappropriate. So hav a look at mine~

    @Shavonna: I understand that you mean good. You seem to be really proud of Harvard and that’s a very good thing! Just see that you express your love for Harvard in a way that makes everybody feel good. For example, do something wonderful and make Harvard proud (you may use the moon for that purpose!). And that day you’ll see that MIT and all of us will also be happy.

    @Navin: I sincerely wish that you’ll make it to MIT one day and see for yourself the very healthy relationship shared by students of Harvard and MIT. Furthermore, if you can believe that every person in this world has got some worth and nobody is an idiot, it’ll do you a lot of good. (Just don’t get carried away by wrong conceptions.)

    @Elias: There are billions of people in this world who do not know English, but they are all very good human beings just like you!

    @Sueshep: Cool joke smile

    @Anthony: Oh dear, I sincerely hope that people will stop fighting in Lebanon very soon. (you and I can also think of helping them.) I am a strong pacifist and you can verify that from my website!

    !!!!!!!!ALL PROBLEMS RESOLVED!!!!!!!!!!!

    RECAPTCHA: blaming side (lol)