November was … by Danny and Allan G. '20

A lot of very stressful things have been happening this month (and honestly this whole semester, which is why we haven’t been blogging as much as we would have liked). But, there were also a lot of really good and fun things that happened. So we decided to write lists of each. Hopefully there will be more good than bad, let’s see, we’re curious ourselves lol

Stressful Things

6.837 (Computer Graphics) Test

This class has only one test towards the very end of the semester and no final, which is great, because lots of tests aren’t fun. But because this test is so late in the semester, and covers all the material up to that point (which was probably 70-80 percent of the whole course), it felt a lot like a final. To be honest, it felt a little worse than a final because it was during a normal school week as opposed to during finals week. To illustrate how much material it was, here are our allotted cheat sheets. There’s a certain chaotic charm to it, don’t you think? 

 

So Many Job Applications

We have been applying to so many jobs. Probably Definitely too many. It is basically another class. Nisha summed it up really well here so we won’t say more except AHHHHHHHH

Very Stressful/Exhausting Interviews

We both managed to get to the final stage of the interview process of a few companies, so yayyy! Except that they are anywhere from 3-5 hours, involve a lot of talking, selling yourself, and solving difficult problems, all of which combined is a very exhausting process. And we didn’t do well on most of them, unfortunately. 

Grad School???

After going through this initial job hunt, we realized there is still A Lot for us to learn and so we very, very last minute decided to apply to a few grad programs. Because this was so last minute, we hadn’t taken the GRE once, let alone taken a practice test, let alone even known what is on the test. We hadn’t reached out to anyone for recommendations. We hadn’t requested any transcripts. So over this past week, many emails and many dollars later, we each signed up for two test dates and found 3 recommenders willing to write us letters. Big Exhale.

Studying for the GRE???

We studied A Lot for the SAT/ACT like starting in 8th grade. If we want to replicate that experience for the GRE, we would’ve had to start studying in senior year of high school, and started taking the test last year. Now, we have a few days before our first test date and around a month before our second test date. Wish Us Luck??? >_<

Realizing that we have just been absolute messes in this *figuring out what to do next year* phase

In senior year of high school, we were confused about which school we’d attend, but we could still find comfort in that we *knew* we were going to college. In our senior year of college, contrarily, we are totally lost. We thought we wanted to go to industry, but #lol #yikes at our interviews. So now we’re thinking maybe to go to grad school, but are like #lol #yikes at our tbd GRE scores. Maybe we can take a gap year worst case? Every day we feel like we are changing our minds and envisioning different futures and we just feel like *question mark*

Good Things

A Chorus Line

We went to see MTGs fall show with a friend and it was really fun! Everyone was so good and talented!

Twelfth Night

We went to see Shakespeare Ensemble’s fall show to see our friend perform, and it was also really fun! Unexpectedly, they incorporated a lot of music into it and also a meme at the end. It was our favorite play we’ve seen thus far! 

Tig Notaro

We got to see this Famous comedian for FREE! WGS gets incredible speakers/performers and usually their events are free! Tig was insanely hilarious and also SO amazing at making up jokes on the fly! 

Escape Room

We went to an escape room and it was really fun! We didn’t escape, but we were So Close, like 1.5 steps away. 

Doing well on the 6.837 test

We were happy with our exam results, so the studying and cheat sheets paid off!

Finding Really Cool Grad Programs

We are actually really excited about the programs we found and are feeling excited about the idea of school again (crossing our fingers we get in somewhere)

New York!

We went to New York to spend time with our family that still lives there (which is most of them). We had a delicious Thanksgiving dinner at out uncle/aunt’s house, that consisted of mostly really good Russian food. We also got to spend a lot of time with our 7 year old cousin! We saw Frozen 2, played a lot of hide and seek, Pictionary, Jenga, and this one board game called CandyLand (which was a huge throwback to our childhood). We also got to eat at Roll N’ Roasters which is this amazingly delicious junk food place in Brooklyn that we ate at a Lot as kids. If we had to choose one smell that is the definition of nostalgia, it would be the smell inside of this place. And finally, we got some hipster donuts in The Donut Plant.

The Dragon Prince

Season 3 came out on Netflix recently and we binged it. The animation and art style is very unique, and although it took a bit of getting used to, now we really like it. It’s 3D animated but made to look 2D by rendering the characters with hard shadows. It’s made by some of the people that worked on Avatar:The Last Airbender, and although this show is not as good as Avatar is in our books, it still has a lot of the same qualities that we really loved about Avatar – a rich and complex magic/fantasy system, suspense balanced with humor, and complex characters/relationships. Overall we enjoyed getting taken back into the story. It was a great way to destress.

My Hero Academia 

Season 4 episodes have been getting released weekly since the start of the month and it’s getting good! 

Sara Barelleis’ Amidst the Chaos album

We love love love Sara and her music. And this new album is no different. It came out a bit ago, but we just got around to listening to it through this break and it’s soooo good (and relatable for reasons)

Infinity Train Trailer

We loved Infinity Train so much that we wrote this blog about it. Now season 2 is coming out and a trailer was released and it looks so good! 

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11 Good to 6 Stressful! Good wins! It’s a shocking victory in what felt like a poop-storm of a month lol