Delta Epsilon Chronicles

Things that are Out of the Ordinary, Part I

2010-07-31T01:31:00.004-04:00

Today, I went to 6-120 with some friends to watch a movie on the big projector. We decided to put on Adventureland. After a few minutes, I realized that I had no idea what was going on. Maybe I'm just very tired, I thought. But the movie continued, and I was still completely lost. Directly following a scene where the main character stated that he crashed his dad's car, we see him driving his dad's car like nothing had happened. At one point we see the main character meet the movie's female protagonist, and then the scene cuts to him telling a friend that he loves her. Confusing, right?

About a half hour into the movie, Ankit finally said what everyone was thinking: "this movie doesn't make any sense." So I pause the movie to try to figure out what's wrong. Adventureland's supposed to be a comedy, not blow-your-mind we're-going-to-have-our-timeline-go-backwards film like Momento. And I don't think it was supposed to be as confusing as Primer. Of course, I hit up Wikipedia. First I checked the length of the film, and the version I had matched the length of the film stated on Wikipedia. Next, I read up on the plot. I didn't read too far into the description, because I didn't want to spoil (?) the "rest" of the movie.

Well, the plot description on Wikipedia was nothing like what we saw in the movie. Totally weird. Apparently, the copy of the movie that I had was playing all of the scenes out of order. It contained all the content, but just had it mixed up. More, the splicing was in between scenes--not in extremely noticeable places. I've never heard of anything like that before. So strange.

Things that are Retro, Part I

2010-07-29T23:57:00.019-04:00

Recently, I came into possession of an old Sony turntable. It didn't work, but I figured I'd have a go at repairing it. Basically, the turntable spun just fine, and the needle moved up and down like it's supposed to, but the arm didn't move.

So I took apart the base to diagnose the problem. It turns out that the arm is actuated by a small DC motor, which is geared down by a through a pair of pulleys connected by a rubber band and then by a worm gear. This mechanism moves a small rope, which wraps around a few pulleys and attaches to the arm.

Problem 1: the rope had fallen off one of the pulleys and would no longer move. It was easily fixed by putting the rope back on the pulley. So I reassembled the turntable and tried out playing Rubber Soul. The arm appeared to be working just fine. It responded well to pushing either the left or right button. The album started out playing just fine, but after about a minute it started skipping. I tried to move the arm to another part of the record, but the arm wouldn't move to the left at first. However, after moving it to the right a bit, it then freely moved in any direction.

It appeared that I still had a problem with the arm motion; it wasn't moving when it was supposed to. Upon closer investigation, I realized that the needle was well ahead of the arm on the record, which was causing the skipping. Also, the arm was trying to move appropriately, since I could hear the DC motor running when arm should be moving.
Problem 2: I have a sticky arm. To discover why, I once again removed the bottom of the turntable. This time, I started playing a record to see what was sticking when the DC motor was running. Sure enough, the rubber band attached to the DC motor was not catching to the next pulley--it was just freely spinning. That wasn't too shocking, since the record player is probably older than I am. Luckily, the player came with a spare rubber band. After switching out the rubber bands, I tried to play the record again. Still no success; the rubber band was still slipping.

The problem then had to be somewhere further down the line. So I decided to completely disassemble the record player, hoping to re-lubricate the shaft on which the arm slides. If the arm could move with less friction, the rubber band might be less likely to slip. After getting some WD-40, I sprayed down the shaft and reassembled the mechanism.

Again, I put on one of the records to see if the problem was fixed. Nope. The rubber band was slipping just as much as it had been before. Well, there happened to be another rubber band taped to the top of the turntable. So I decided to try out that one. Still no luck. I had to figure out a way to make the rubber band tighter. I got some Elmer's glue, with the intention of placing a few drops on the rubber band.
After waiting for the glue to dry, I put the new rubber band on the pulleys and tried out playing a record. It slipped less, but there were still a few particularly sticky parts on the shaft that would cause continual slipping. I wasn't exactly sure what to do next, but then I came across a LEGO Mindstorm kit with a bunch of different rubber bands, all about the same size as the one from the turntable, with different degrees of stretchiness.
I started trying out different rubber bands. Some were actually to tight. Instead of slipping, they would cause the needle to jump ahead when the arm would move. That would at least allow me to play records without needing to constantly attend to the turntable, but the would be a discontinuity in the sound every ten seconds or so. Not ideal. However, I finally came across a rubber band that worked near perfectly.

Check it out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0QZi73ZMLTs

Open Letter to Old Navy

2010-07-19T01:01:00.002-04:00

Dear Old Navy,

A few years ago, I bought a pair of your "field tested vintage regulation issue" shorts. Generally, they were sub-par shorts. Despite the flaws, the shorts held up for a long time, and I have continued to wear them. It was not until today that I realized my mistake.

Since day one, I noticed that the shorts had shallow and unusually shaped pockets that made items prone to falling out of them. Over the years, I've lost coins, pens, etc., that have fallen out of the pockets on trains, cars, and seats of any nature. A few pennies and writing instruments didn't mean much to me, so I didn't think twice about the problem.

Today, while sitting on my bed, my iPhone 4 fell out of the pocket and onto the floor. Despite the robustness of Apple's phenomenal product, no smartphone can survive a three foot drop to a hard floor without some damage. Though Apple's glass manufacturing partners have done an excellent job at hardening the glass screen, there is now a small dent on the bottom right corner of the phone, that is noticeable is you look very closely or run your finger slowly along the edge.

My phone's physical damage--and with it, my emotional damage--stems from a critical design flaw in your product. Your pockets are on the outside of the pants, not the inside. Therefore, there is no way that the fabric can position itself such that pocketed items will not fall out. Unlike the external antenna design on the iPhone 4 (which actually improves cellular reception, despite what the media is trying to get the general public to believe), the outside pocket design is a critical failure that only leads to loss of and damage to possessions.

To remedy my injuries from the pocket issue, I ask that you cease all production of any shorts of this design, provide me with a new, completely undamaged iPhone 4, and notify all owners of the shorts about the problem.

Thank you very much.

Craig Broady

Things that iLove, Part I

2010-06-24T18:22:00.013-04:00

June 15, 2010.

iPhone 4 goes online for pre-order through AT&T and the Apple Store. Thousands swarm the online stores in a frenzy to get an iPhone 4 reserved. Did I want to buy an iPhone 4? Maybe. But I had plenty of time to decide. Or so I thought. The Apple and AT&T servers lagged and crashed, went up and down, like a metaphor for a really bad storm out at sea. Before noon, Apple's ship date for iPhone 4 had been pushed to July 2nd--a full week later than the initial delivery date. After even more pre-orders, Apple had to push the ship date back to July 14th.

This had never happened before. A phone has never had 600,000 pre-orders on it's first day alone. 600,000. AT&T said that there were ten times as many iPhone 4 pre-orders than 3GS pre-orders. They even suspended all pre orders after day one. Apple issued an apology for their flaky servers. This is crazy. I no longer even had the option to pre-order an iPhone 4 for its release date.

So I was left with three options: pre-order the phone for July 14, wait in the standby line outside the Apple Store on the release date, or not get an iPhone 4 just yet. The third one wasn't an option, and the first wasn't much of an option either.

June 23, 2010

7:00pm

My bag is packed tight with blankets, food, and electronics. I am going to wait. I unplug my iPhone 3GS for the last time with a full charge for the coming night.

7:15pm

I enter the 4E lounge. Tim, Lizzie, and Shaymus are there. We meet Nicole on at the Harvard Bridge and make our trek into Boston. We're going to see Toy Story 3. It seems as if my whole day is committed to Steve Jobs. See, he sold Pixar to Disney a few years back and now is the biggest Disney shareholder. In essence, Steve Job's is Mickey Mouse's boss and the reason why Toy Story exists. I might as well just give him my credit card and say "here, take whatever you want."

8:00pm

We pass by the Apple Store on Boylston Street on the way to the movie theater. There are a handful of people sitting in the reservation line. About 40 or so people are in the standby line. Some of them have tents. A sense of uneasiness overcame me--there were a lot of people in line so early and so well prepared for camping out.

10:30pm

After parting ways with Shaymus, Lizzie, and Tim, Nicole and I arrive at the Apple Store. We get one of the last spots on Boylston street, before the line bends around the corner towards the river. There are about 80 people ahead of us. One of the Apple Store employees is there, and she assures us that everyone in line will get iPhones. Within a few minutes of our arrival, the next camper arrives and introduces himself. Rafael. Shortly following him, Anna joins the pack. After that, Jen and Wael get in line and the next people form the line around the corner.

Nicole and I lay out a blanket on the sidewalk and begin chatting with Anna and Rafael. Rafael makes the night's first Walgreen's run and orders Lobster for delivery from a local seafood restaurant. Lots of people are passing by, asking what we're all in line for.

11:15pm

12:15am

After waffling for quite some time, Nicole finally decides to head home because she has to catch a bus at 7:30am for her brother's graduation. Maybe she'll get an iPhone someday. I turn around to meet the people who are in line ahead of me. I meet Tess and Stephanie, both of whom are moving to another network to AT&T for iPhone 4s. We begin to play a game of Scrabble.

12:25am

Mike arrives with his iPad, and everyone soon gets distracted from the Scrabble game. Mike and I stream Arrested Development to his iPad via Netflix and try to play a Ping Pong game. Lots of drunk people pass by very confused.

2:00am

Mike and I are still playing on his iPad. Tess and Stephanie are playing cards. Anna and Rafael are watching Love, Actually on a 17" MacBook Pro. I need to use the bathroom.

2:30am

After I return from my adventure trying to find a place to use the bathroom, Mike heads out (his iPad is out of charge). I talk with Tess and Stephanie for a bit

3:00am

I cover myself in blankets and try to fall asleep. No such luck.

3:45am

NECN arrives with cameras. A couple of guys sitting near me are watching porn on their laptops. Tess and Stephanie are spooning under a blanket to keep warm. The news people try to interview the guys nearby, but they are too distracted by the porn and the spooning to give any coherent content.

4:30 am

The sun begins to rise
Apple Store employees begin to arrive at the scene. They bring everyone free donuts from Dunkin' Donuts, followed by coffee, fruit, CapriSun, Dunkaroos (!), cupcakes and freezepops. Anna and Rafael head out to find bathrooms, and I watch The Office on Rafael's computer. Since the sun started rising, people started getting in line pretty quickly. The reservation line extended all the way to Commonwealth Ave, and the reservation line extended down Boylston Street a few blocks, at least.

Finally, it's 7am. The doors are open. People are cheering. News reporters are everywhere. The line begins to slowly move. After just over an hour, Anna, Rafael, and I get inside the store and are being helped by an employee. With all of the hundreds (thousands?) of people there, patiently awaiting their iPhone 4, the Apple Store really had their act together. All of their employees were present for the big day and none of them rushed anyone. When we got inside, we were asked about our night spent living on the street, what we do, why we want the iPhone, real conversation--well, at least as real as conversation gets in a retail store. I see my first iPhone 4!

Good news: I can get a phone. Bad news: I don't have a subsidy, so my wallet gets a little bit sad. But I'll live. I get the phone and get home shortly after 9am. After restoring the iPhone 4 from my 3GS, I crash for a few hours. When I wake up, I enter the magical world that is iPhone 4...

Things that are Sexy, Part One

2010-02-28T00:25:00.015-05:00

My 2.007 robot.

To those on facebook: to see all of the video, you may need to click "original post" link on the bottom of the page

My 2.007 robot is a sexy beast. It picks up codices and puts them on the third step of a four-step, 19" pyramid.
The codices are the little book-like things on the ground, made up of five 5"x5" accordion-folding cardboard. By putting a codex on the pyramid steps, I get points.

The robot can also get points by moving the lever on the center of the playing floor. The lever is connected to the feathered serpent "Quetzalcoatl" at the top. Rotating the lever rotates the snake. By rotating the snake, I can multiply my score by 2, 3, or 4 times.

My robot has an arm with a claw at the end connected by a four-bar mechanism so that the claw remains parallel to the floor. (The picture on the right is a foam-cor mock-up). The arm base reaches 15" from the ground, and the arm itself is another 15" long. With the added 6" or so of the claw, the robot can reach pretty far.

The chassis has three sides--left, right, and back--with four wheels. Two of the wheels are driven by continuous-rotation servos. The other two wheels are casters.

The claw has two fingers. Sexy, sexy fingers. One finger remains stationary and connects to the arm. The second finger, rotates so that the claw can open to grab codices.

Generally speaking, the claw stays shut. This is thanks to the help of a compression spring mounted an inch behind the rotation point. The claw will be forced closed, even if nothing is driving the rotating finger. That means that when a codex is in the claw, I won't have to worry about dropping it in the event of a power or data loss. Sexy.

Also sexy: not only does my robot give codices to the feathered serpent god. It looks like a serpent. Oh yeah.

To open the claw, a paperclip is attached to a point on the rotating finger and to a servo mounted to the stationary finger. When the servo rotates, it causes the claw to open. The robot can then move forward and grasp a codex. When power/signal is severed from the serve, the spring acts to close the arm and hold onto the codex.

The two pieces that actually touch the codex are 3" x 3.5" foam-cor with small screws extruding from each corner to gently press up against the soft cardboard codex, holding it tightly in its grip. Oohhh. That's hot.

The video below demonstrates the claw opening and closing under the power of the servo-spring system. Watch as it repeatedly opens and closes. Over and over again. The back and forth motion grasps the codex and lets it drop. Be careful to hold onto your feet, because this footage my well knock your socks off.

The next video demonstrates the claw's ability to pick up a codex and hold into it. No matter how hard I shake it, that claw won't let go of its grip. Talk about sexy...

The next step is making the final design for the claw. The claw will be made from water-jetted sheet aluminum. Be warned: the following models may be too sexy for some to handle.
Look at the sensual curves! Beautiful folds, cuts, and edges titillate the senses. Mmmmm...

Singles Awareness Day 2010

2010-02-13T20:39:00.006-05:00

Tomorrow is Valentine's Day, or to some, Singles Awareness Day. Every year, I typically produce some flier and a series of stickers despairing over how depressing it is to be single. This year, though, I've put on a new spin. Singles Awareness Day isn't about being sad; it's about being happy. People are single for a number of reasons, many of those by choice. So I've created a new flier and I made Singles Awareness Day buttons to be distributed. Let's enjoy Singles Awareness Day 2010.

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Every year the people at Hallmark have convinced most people in our society that the day of February fourteenth is a day for celebrating romance. Fellow friends, neighbors, peers, relatives, so many people go out and spend their money on cards, flowers, chocolate, and expensive dinners at fancy restaurants. And what does this accomplish them? A wild drunken night full of passionate, fingernails-in-the-back sex. Maybe. But usually not: for most people this doesn’t happen.
In the US, according to the 2008 census, 43% of adults are single. That’s a lot of people. And I bet not many of them are big fans of Hallmark’s Valentine’s Day. Our culture promotes the value that it is good to be in a relationship—that it’s the right thing to do. To many, the path of life involves getting in a serious relationship, getting married, having some (1.8) children, moving to the suburbs, having a stable job, etc, etc. There’s nothing wrong with having this dream. These can all be great values, but only if we want them to be ours.
For those that don’t see eye-to-eye, Valentine’s Day is a depressing and upsetting holiday. Some don’t want to be in a relationship, others are unable to find a girlfriend or boyfriend (or a hookup), and even others don’t want to be involved in a romantic relationship whatsoever. No matter what the cultural deviance may be, the anxiety that so many feel because they don’t have a significant other on February fourteenth is often considerable.
So what is Singles Awareness Day? It’s a day for people that don’t adhere to cultural romantic standards just for the sake of adhering to those standards. It’s a day for single people to celebrate their singleness. It’s a day for people unsuccessfully in search of a significant others to take a break and de-stress—celebrate being single. It’s a day to be proud to be single. Because anytime a bachelorette party drives through the city in a limo, sticking their heads up the sunroof shouting “What’s up, Boston?” the single people will be what is up, Boston.
Singles Awareness Day is a day for people to forget what Valentine's Day traditionally wants and to understand their own values. There’s nothing impervious to your inquiry and pondering. Muse on what’s important to you and find your own solutions. February 14 is a day that everyone should be happy on, not just the select few in happy relationships. So go out and celebrate.

Things that are Underestimated, Part I

2010-01-27T22:24:00.002-05:00

Before I begin my post, let me clear up a few issues I feel must be addressed. When I started blogging in a regular fashion last year, I did so for two reasons. The primary reason I began blogging was because it is a good means for me to vent about serious and trivial issues that I feel passionate about. The second reason is that it gives me a good medium in which to write, which I find relaxing. First and foremost, this blog is for me--not for you. I post my entries in a public forum for people to read if they so choose for whatever reason they choose to. My goal is not to offend anyone, since this blog is not for anyone but me. Take this as you may.

Let me now turn to what has been the big hype today: the Apple iPad. Even though Steve Jobs terminated the Newton project (Apple's touchscreen hardware from the 90's) in 1998 when he became interim CEO of Apple, there have been rumors of an Apple tablet. The magnitude of the hype has fluctuated over the years, but there has been a massive increase in hype over the past year. Ever since the eBook reader became popular over the past few years, people have expected Apple to reinvent the tablet, just like it reinvented the phone with the iPhone in 2007. The rumor mill has exploded with everyone speculating on what an Apple tablet would be. People have guessed at a name (iPad, iTablet, iSlate, etc, etc), the functionality, what it would look like, the list goes on. The speculations were just guesses, nothing more. People would say what they'd like to see in an Apple tablet, whether it be realistic or not. Over the past month, the tech reporting industry has predicted basically *everything* for an Apple tablet that it would be virtually impossible for Apple to do something unpredictable (because everything was predicted...). Accordingly, so many people this afternoon followed a liveblog of today's Stevenote on engadget, gizmodo, macworld, etc with incredibly high expectations. That is not to say that Apple didn't deliver on a splendid product (only time will tell), but that few people watched the Stevenote with a clear state of mind.

After the iPad was announced, many people were immediately disappointed with the product because of misconceptions put in their head by the endless rumors. I'd like to clarify some of them now. I've heard many people say they don't like the name iPad because it sounds silly. To this I would ask: how does iPod sound any different? The iPod, originally released in 2001, has just as silly a name. What does music playing have to do with a pod? Moreover, in 1998 when Apple introduced the iMac, the "i" stood for "internet", because Steve Jobs believed that the future of computing was dependent on the internet. The iSomething naming scheme quickly caught on, and was used in naming the iPod, even though the first iPod had nothing to do with the internet.

I've also heard that people are unimpressed with the functions of the product. Okay, but there are a few facts that people should get straight before they're unimpressed (which many have so far failed to acknowledge). The iPad is a tablet--not a tablet PC. It is not supposed to have the functionality of a regular computer. It's primary purpose is to serve as a breakthrough mobile internet and media device. To this end, there is little need for regular computer components such as a file management system, external ports (video, ethernet, etc), and heavy computing applications. The tablet is incredibly good (and intuitive) at watching videos, listening to music, viewing pictures, playing games, surfing the web, checking email, and scheduling. The fact that is has iWork (productivity) is an added bonus, but not part of the primary purpose of the device. Accordingly, this device is not for everyone. People expecting a tablet PC are disappointed, but they shouldn't be disappointed because the product doesn't do what they want. Apple just chose not to make that product. Apple wanted to tackle another part of the consumer computing sector. So to people who are saying, "why would you pay $500 for a tablet with a 1Ghz processor and a small hard drive when you could get a decent tablet PC for not much more money?" I would say the question does not make sense. Such a person is referring to two different types of devices. The iPad, is more like a big iPod touch than a PC because that is what it's supposed to be. The major difference is that it also served as an eReader and it better shows video. So paying $599 for an iPad doesn't seem that bad when a comparable iPod touch costs $299 but is much smaller, doesn't play video for as long, doesn't serve as an eReader, along with the other functions only on the iPad.

The iPad certainly is not for everyone. It will attract a different part of the consumer market than a iPod touch or tablet PC would. When you forget about all of the hype and crazy rumors, it is easy to see that Apple has created a new product that no other company has even begun to think about. I cannot think of any other mainstream product that has the same purpose and niche as the iPad has. Perhaps this type of product will not attract a huge market of buyers, but that is not to say that Apple has not created a completely new device that performs in a way like no other. I will be interested to see how the iPad fares in the coming months. Hopefully people's misconceptions of what the iPad is (due to the endless rumors and predictions) will not prevent everyone from seeing the iPad for what it actually is and judging it accordingly.

Things that are Offensive, Part I

2010-01-18T01:46:00.006-05:00

Creationists.

I'm offended by creationists to the extent that I'm unsure I'll be able to fully capture the whole of my frustration in such a written form. Creationists in the face of enormous amounts of evidence--DNA blueprints, geological continental drift, anatomical homologies, carbon dating, fossils, etc--deny that the earth is 4.6 billion years old and that living organisms are produced by means of natural selection. This denial amazes me. There is no way that a free thinking person can logically come to the conclusion that humans (and the rest of the universe) were created in their present state by a divine being just 10,000 years ago. It is impossible. Instead, creationists set out to find flaws in the Darwin's theory and in many give defenses of creationism based purely on illogical speculation. Yet every single piece of evident points to evolution. There is no denying that. (As it is, many creationists simply deny that evidence exists instead of actually tackling such evidence--which cannot be done).

So why am I offended by creationists? Creationism (and intelligent design--which is just creationism in a fancy business suit) teaches people not to think. It says: "Read the Bible. That is it. No questions asked." It has the Bible, a highly paradoxical book whose origins are so unauthenticated it cannot be considered as evidence, is cited as the definite, incontrovertible source of Creationism. If any evidence arises that contradicts Creation theory, the evidence must be ignored (with the theory of evolution it is the exact opposite--if any evidence is found to disprove the theory, the theory would be immediately discarded). Since there is no evidence that could be admitted to disprove a Creationist's theory, there is no need to bother searching for such evidence, because a Creationist would deny it exists. This consequence leads to a very bad place. To blindly follow the word of the Bible (or anything for that matter) is to not think. It is to be illogical. If one were to freely think for himself or herself, and logically come to the conclusion that Creationist theory is correct (independent of the Bible), that would be fine. Alas, that is not possible.

Many Creationists pass their beliefs onto their children, thus creating another generation of people that blindly follow a dogmatic principle without thinking for themselves. Children have been brainwashed to accept creation by the terror of hell that they are afraid to think. To be taught to not think is the very opposite of the purpose of education! Clearly, supported by all the evidence in the world, Creation theory is false. But isn't everyone entitled to his or her own opinion? One of my friends asked my how I could be offended by a Creationist that does not pass his or her beliefs onto children (or anyone else), but just idly holds those beliefs. It's quite simple. This person, who lacks the fundamental ability to think, is a voting citizen. Some might say that there exist some Creationists who do not know of any alternative theory. To this I would respond by asking: "if this person does not know of something so fundamental to life as the theory of evolution, what else don't they know that every voter should?" I am offended to be in a society where Creationists, who either lack the ability to think or common knowledge, go out and vote. Why? Because voting has big impacts on societies. Should we really let people vote who can't think or don't know the issues? I would say definitely say no. However, another friend of mine pointed out that I run the risk of hitting upon a slippery slope argument by arguing that Creationists should not be allowed to vote. Nevertheless, my point stands; we live in a society where these non-thinkers actually have a say. And that is incredibly scary.

There is another big issue at hand. Creationists deny the truth. Some may say that to deny something such as the theory of evolution does not harm. I will argue otherwise. To deny evolution is to deny the history of mankind (and every other living organism). Richard Dawkins actually calls Creationists "history-deniers". Examples can be found everywhere, and they're all appalling. There exist people who deny the Holocaust. Iranian President (?) Ahmadinejad, a public denier of the Holocaust, says that "We are of the opinion that, if a historical occurrence conforms to the truth, this truth will be revealed all the more clearly if there is more research into it and more discussion about it". There is no evidence against the Holocaust--all evidence exists in support of it.There can be no "discussion", since it would be completely one sided. The fact that the Holocaust happened is as true as the fact that water is H20. The same is true of evolution.

I shall address two more cases of history denial. Take for example someone that denies the September 11th attacks on the WTC. I don't believe such a person actually exists, although there are some conspiracy theorists. A person of this belief would argue that two planes never crashed into the WTC, that the twin towers never fell down (maybe that they never even existed in the first place), and that the nearly 3000 victims never died. This person would be considered insane, likely labeled as unfit to live in general society. Without a doubt, this person either cannot think or has not seen any evidence of the attacks. Yet this person is no different from a Holocaust denier (except for the fact that the Holocaust happened 65 years ago, whereas the Sept 11 attacks were a short 8 years ago). And this person is no different than a Creationist, who denies evolution.

The last example I will turn to is the recent earthquake in Haiti. Currently, there does not exist anyone that denies that the earthquake happened and that many Haitians are homeless and suffering (I would not be surprised, though, if in 50 years or so, such people would exist). There are many who are supporting the Haitians by donating to the Red Cross and other great relief organizations, as I would now recommend you do if you have not already. However, some people have a different point of view. Pat "batshit crazy bastard" Robertson claims that the Haitians made a pact with the Devil "a long time ago" to get their liberation from the French and that Haiti has been cursed ever since. Obviously, this is completely made up and completely untrue. Pat "insane d-bag" Robertson is speaking out his ass to fabricate some reasoning behind such a horrible and tragic event. No one thinks that anyone deserves what happened in Haiti, but Pat "fucking lunatic" Robertson makes up some bogus reason--that the Haitians had it coming--to explain why the earthquake occurs.

Unfortunately, Pat "shit for brains" Robertson brings up an argument that so many people, especially Creationists, use. The devil-pact story claiming that Haitians deserved the earthquake is proposed (and accepted by a few crazies) because it gives a feeling of comfort. Robertson cannot believe that he could live in a world that can cause so much harm to so many innocent people. Accordingly, he rejects this truth in favor of a story that comforts him. Instead of living in a world that causes (or has a God that causes) so much harm to innocent people, he chooses to believe that the people were not innocent, and that the harm is justified. This "reasoning" is called the argumentum ad consequentiam, and it often appeals to human comfort. This same "reasoning" can be applied to Creationism. Creationists seek comfort, not truth--even if that comfort directly contradicts the truth. Creationists will abandon logic or evidence if it gives them the slightest bit of comfort (that God created them and they are inherently special because of it).

So we're left with a question: do we want truth or do we want reject the truth in favor of personal comfort? I would say that's not much of a question at all. We want the truth. If the truth gives us comfort, that's great, but if it doesn't that fact doesn't make it any less truthful. So to all Creationists out there: you are actively offending me on so many levels. Please, please, please, for your own sake and for the sake of the society you live in, go out and read a book. Learn to think. Come to logical conclusions. Accept what is true. Reject what is false. Knowing the truth is a comfort in itself.

Things that are Punishable, Part I

2009-12-23T13:14:00.002-05:00

I watched the local news (channel 7, I believe) last night for the first time in many years. This action was not out of some choice of mine, me thinking "oh golly, I think I'll watch the news today." Instead, I was at my grandmother's house playing Scrabble with her, and the news happened to be on the TV. Since it was not my center of attention, I had no need to concern myself with changing the channel or turning off the TV altogether. So the news remained on while I played Scrabble and I overheard bits and pieces of it.

For those of you that don't already know this, I hate the news. Not just 24 hour news networks, which have been a recent target of frustration. No, I also hate the local news, but for different reasons. The people on the 24-hour news networks are full of shit. The content on the local news programs are just dreadfully miserable, and completely irrelevant to everyday life. First and foremost, there is nothing happy about what's on the local news. The newscasters only report on dreary topics such as death, murder, violence, robberies, etc. Of course it is important to be aware that such atrocities occur in the world, but I do not believe that the news sheds any more light on such situations--it only gives examples. Why make your life more depressing if you could just as easily turn off the TV? You may disagree with this statement, but this is actually not the topic of the post, so I will abandon it here. Returning to my original point, the only exception to the dreadfulness of the newscast would be the weathermen, who, though they can often be incorrect in their predictions, are often greatly entertaining with their whimsical attitude and bad jokes. Allow me to elaborate on the stories in yesterday's news broadcast.

A middle school athletic coach and colleague sexually abused a student a number of times over many months
A group of armed tweens mugged someone, taking his iPod and cell phone
A man who pulled over to the side of the road to help a stranger who looked lost, was assaulted from within his car by the stranger who had a knife
A (non-Jewish) women awoke one morning to find a swastika graffitied on her garage door
A senator under house arrest (forbidden from drinking) failed a breathalyzer four times within an hour, claiming that his use of toothpaste was the cause
Balloon Boy's parents could be facing jail-time
A Red Line train derailed; no fatalities

From what I could gather, this was actually a relatively happy newscast. There was no murder and no domestic violence. No suicide bombings and no war-related deaths/violence. But it got me thinking. Why do we allow such atrocities to exist in our world? After ponding this question for some time, I asked myself another question: Should there be draconian punishments for motivated violent crimes? i.e., should there be a rule "a head for an eye"? Before I go on, let me say that I do not have an answer to the question, not have I even sided with a 'yes' or a 'no'. The question just entered my mind and I've spent some time pondering it. Continuing, this draconian punishment system would imply that murder is punished by death, domestic abuse is punished by death, rape and other forms of sexual abuse is punished by death, etc. The thinking behind these punishments would be that these crimes cause more damage to an individual than a simple death would. Someone that is assaulted will likely face more hardship and struggles (pain and suffering) than if they had just been killed by their assailant.

There are a lot of questions that such a system brings up. Obviously we have the question of "can we take another life as punishment?" This question is not exclusive to the system I bring up, but a question argued often today concerning the death penalty. Another question that we should consider asks "is the person actually guilty?" Again, this question is not exclusive to draconian systems, but to all systems of punishments. For the sake of this argument specifically concerning a draconian system, I think it's okay to assume that we have the right to take a criminal's life and that the criminal is actually guilty. So we are left with more questions pertinent to this system: "is the person deserving of such punishment?" and "is retribution justified or is the criminal's death a reasonable/effective way of preventing future crimes of that nature?". I'm tempting to be more comforted if there are less murderers and violent/abusive people in existence, but I also believe that there are probably many other factors that I am not considering (such as the criminal's family).

Anyways, this question of draconian punishment has been on my mind for some time now, and I figured I'd share my thoughts on it so far, and see if anyone has any more opinions, questions raised, or information to add to such a discussion. My watching the news yesterday reignited an anger I have towards criminals of such the nature I've described, and I'd like to see what others think on such a topic. Happy Wednesday, all.

Things that are Different, Part I

2009-12-21T00:12:00.003-05:00

A few weeks ago I was browsing Wikipedia, and I found myself on the Apple "Think Different" campaign article. It was almost finals week, and I was drowning in classwork, so stumbling upon this page had a profound impact on me. The campaign text was the following:

Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.

Something about the passage opened my eyes to the opportunities available to me. In the midst of all of my classwork, I had begun to think that success comes from following the cultural standard: 1 get a masters degree or PhD, 2 join a big company or create a brilliant start-up, 3 succeed. Yet I was beginning to become disenchanted with the whole "success" notion. It's not an excess of knowledge or the number of letters after your last name, but your drive to change the world that defines your success. It's not the number of A's or B's or C's you get in your classes or what you put on your resume, but your desire to continually push forward and create a better life for you and those around you. Because, honestly, what good is some fancy degree or brain packed with knowledge if you can't be happy with yourself and your impact on a forever fleeting world?

Things that Grind My Gears, Part I

2009-12-10T23:53:00.002-05:00

Newton's Law of Cooling

It sucks and it is always frustrating me. How many times I've gone to eat a bowl of soup, needed to wait twenty minutes before it's cool enough to consume, and then *bam* it's cold before I'm even finished. Newton's Law of cooling states that the rate of change of the temperature of some object is proportional to the difference between the temperature of its surroundings and its own temperature; dT/dt=k(T(air)-T(object)). Let's take the example of soup. Let's say that soup is heated to 93 degrees C, and the room temperature is 25 degrees C. The change in temperature of the soup (dT/dt) is -68k, where k is some positive constant. Well, okay, this makes sense; the soup is cooling. But here's the problem: k is proportional to the amount (volume) of the soup, so that when I have a full bowl of soup, it cools much slower than when I have half a bowl left. As I mentioned in the beginning, I have to wait a long time for the soup to cool down to eating temperature, and when it does do so, it's like a race against the clock for me to finish it before it gets cold.

I think this is a pretty good argument against intelligent design. Why? Because if there is an intelligent designer of the universe, he would not make it this difficult for me to eat soup. Instead, he would make it so that when the bowl of soup is full, it cools pretty quickly. That way I won't have to waste my valuable time waiting for my soup to be eating temperature. And once it was cool and I started eating it, a good designer would make it so that my soup wouldn't cool as quickly. Then I wouldn't have to eat it really fast and get a tummy ache after. Because that makes me sad. In conclusion, if there were an intelligent designer, it would not be as difficult for me to eat soup.

(note: to those of you that freak out about nothing, this is a farce. I am using inverted logic. It is ironic. Ha ha.)

Things that would not work today

2009-11-27T12:42:00.003-05:00

Tom and Jerry

I think that everyone of reasonable intelligence acknowledges that Tom and Jerry is a groundbreaking cartoon that has been enjoyed for many generations. But the Tom and Jerry Show was on Cartoon Network this morning and I thought "This show would not be able to start today." This made me very sad. Try to imagine someone pitching the concept of Tom and Jerry to a major network today. Think Nickelodeon or the Disney Channel or even Cartoon Network, TV stations now plagued with live actions shows about "high school" problems such as Zooey 101, iCarley, JONAS, etc. Here's the problem as I see it. Tom and Jerry would try to be marketed towards younger kids (say 4 to 8 years old) or older kids (8-12 years old). I would imagine that it wouldn't go through for younger kids because there is too much comic violence, which is supposedly completely inappropriate for this generation. I could totally see a network suggesting that the show instead have a cat and mouse breaking stereotypes and working together to solve problems instead of fighting. They'd also suggest that it be computer animated. Now think about kids 8-12 years old. Could you seriously see Nickelodeon or Disney considering such a show? I really couldn't. All of their shows now focus on either some sort of reality concept or portraying high school or middle school students in some unrealistic scenario, trying to pass it off as an authentic high/middle school experience. Sure, shows like Spongebob and Fairly Oddparents and other such shows that were started back when I still watched these channels regularly are still on the air, but no new shows like this seem to be starting. Anyways, I think this probably more an opinion than an actual analysis or TV networks, but there are some really terrible kids shows on the air today.

Things that are missing, Part I

2009-11-20T16:05:00.002-05:00

Respect.

It seems that I've been a bit more grumpy and frustrated lately, as my recent posts have basically been a crusade against things that are pissing me off. Well, over the past week I've been ruminating over my last post, Things that are Political and Paradoxical Part I. In light of this, I've discovered that there is one underlying feature in my abundance of grievances: a fundamental lack of respect. It's difficult for me to even keep track of all of the instances I have witnessed where people are adding unnecessary anger and conflict in the world out of lack of respect for one thing or another. You do it, I do it, everyone does it. But it seems that lack of respect is on the rise, and the best way to defeat such a negative force would be to first acknowledge it.

As I was mentioned in my last post, I was stunned by the utter disrespect shown by many when Obama visited MIT. Just because you disagree with an individual or a group about some issue, does not mean that you should disrespect their character. But I've heard so many people say that because of one small thing--be it an act, an idea, a viewpoint--they no longer respect someone. This someone is often a friend, a peer, a leader, or even a figure of authority. I get a nasty feeling in my stomach when I hear someone say "I do not respect this person because of X." It just repulsed me. Why? Well, I'm of the opinion that (with rare exception) people should respect everyone, regardless of their acts, deeds, thoughts, stances, etc. Let me make it clear that I am in no way saying that you should not disagree with other or even that you shouldn't confront these disagreements. By all means you should discuss these issues and discover that motivates these differences of opinions. Go out. Have a conversation. Argue about the issue. But there is no reason that this cannot be a respectful discourse. Because disrespect is gross. I see protesters with pictures of Bush or Obama as Hitler, people suggesting that we should burn Creationist literature, news pundits saying that liberals hate people with trisomy 21 (6:15), someone no longer respecting a friend because they disagree with him on a triviality, the list goes on and on.

There's one issue I'd like to focus in on. For those who don't know, Kirk Cameron and the group Living Waters, have mass produced a "special copy" of the Origin of Species, which includes a 50 page introduction concerning "'Adolf Hitler's undeniable connection' to the theory of evolution, and highlighting 'Darwin's racism' and 'his disdain for women.'" (For those of you who have not already seen them, I recommend watching both videos on the page, especially the second one). On the 150th anniversary of the book's publication, his group will be freely distributing the copies of the book on college campuses across America. Now, I've read this 50 page introduction. Most of it is BS. There are a lot of made-up fact that are far from the truth. But I've been shocked at some responses to it. Some people have suggesting burning the books or mocking the people handing out the books by ripping them up.

And I ask: how does this lack of respect help the issue? Sure, you may disagree with them (and I'm of the opinion that you should), but disrespecting them is just rude and uncalled for. Even though many people are of the opinion that evolution should not be a debate, unfortunately we live in a world where it is. And there may not be any way to win this debate. Some people are guided by dogmatic views that will not listen to logic and reason. I admit this is frustrating. Very, very frustrating. However, showing disrespect is no way to behave--I'd even argue that doing so would be to lose ground. I believe that the only way to deal with this issue is to educate people as best you can in spite of those that would spread lies (or just differing opinions if it be the case). Show them why your view is correct--don't scream at those that disagree with you, even if you find their viewpoint to be preposterous. Antagonism is never a path to victory. As I have said previously, I may simplify the issues greatly, but I think there is great merit in looking at an overview of situations at hand. So please, let's show some respect.

Things that are Political and Paradoxical, Part I

2009-11-15T23:24:00.009-05:00

Ever since Obama visited MIT a few weeks ago, I've been feeling more politically charged. Was it because the President of the United States came to MIT? No. Was it because we received an address about clean energy and MIT's devotion to it? No. Was it because we had a auditorium full of political giants? No. How about because MIT scrambled in less than a week to prepare the campus for a presidential visit? Nope. It wasn't that either. So what was it? Well, I was absolutely appalled by the disrespect and disgraceful sense of self-entitlement so many people showed around Obama's visit. I saw so many people who were endless bitching about the pedestrian traffic on campus that inconvenience their usual walking or biking routes. There were people who were pointing out the hypocrisy of Obama's use of a gas-guzzling motorcade and Air Force One to get to a speech about clean energy. Others simply complained about the fact that MIT only got to distribute 200 tickets to the effectively ~800 seat auditorium. Some people even went so far as to rant about their inability to access video of Obama's speech.

Let me respond to some of these points. You may not like Obama. You may not agree with his views. You may not like the direction in which he wants to take the country. But he is the President of the United States. He is wiser, more talented, more charismatic, more influential, more knowledgeable, more politically charged, more dedicated, more observed, and busier than you are many, many, many times over. If you dislike something concerning the President, bitching about it is completely inappropriate. Especially here at MIT--our motto is "Mind and Hand," not "Mind and Mouth." If you see a problem go out and fix it; don't bitch. To those who complain about the street closures and influx of visitors during Obama's visit: you were told ahead of time that roads and sidewalks would be closed and to expect delays due to security. But beyond that, the most powerful man in the world has decided to visit MIT. You accept these minor inconveniences. Even if you don't like him, it's an honor. To those claiming Obama was hypocritical by taking Air Force One to his speech, I say "seriously?!" People are not the same; people are not of equal importance on a world scale. While, yes, Obama burned some fossil fuels, he did so out of necessity, while giving a speech that charged scientists to rid the world of such a necessity. He discussed the Recovery Act, that gave an unprecedented about of money to clean energy research (READ: MIT). Sure, Obama could have done a telecast. But I could also say that he should never leave the White House. And that no one should use cars in order to reduce omissions. And people should produce their own food to get rid of pesticides. Of course there's always things we can do to be kinder to the environment. But until technology comes along that utilizes clean energy, I don't think we should stop everything we're doing. I think it's a matter of thresholds, and different people draw the line in different places. Also, there is no electric Air Force One. To those complaining about the lack of seats available to MIT students in Kresge: the President of the United States was visiting MIT. How many times must I say that. He had the right to give no seats to MIT if he so wanted. I won't even address those that complain about lack of video access, since the speech was streamed live on MIT cable and posted shortly thereafter on MIT's website.

These small acts of disrespect and wrongly-placed self-entitlement bring me to my main point: they are only the tip of the iceberg of the political issues that are concerning me. Before I go on, I must say that I am not even close to a political science major and that I don't claim to know much about politics. As such, this could make me an ideal commentator on political issues (since I don't have too many preconceptions), but I may also run the risk of misrepresenting facts in my analysis.

I don't believe in Democracy. It is a bad system. Literally meaning "rule of the people" and roughly translated to be "mob-rule," it' is basically source of endless troubles. Thankfully, the United States is not a democracy. We are a constitutional republic that hold democratic elections and votes on propositions and questions. However, there are forces at work that are bringing about a mob-rule mentality to America.

A lot of these issues spawn from people forgetting the basic purpose of government. Governments were initially formed to protect peoples rights to life, liberty, and property. People essentially form a pact with the government. They say, "You protect me in exchange for some of my rights." To this end, a person gives up some rights by agreeing to follow the law of the government, set forth to ensure that it can ably protect the citizens. These laws include not killing, not stealing, paying taxes, etc., all of which are required by the government if it seeks to successfully protect your life, liberty, and property. These taxes go to building roads; providing electricity and water; establishing post offices, libraries, fire departments, police departments, hospitals, schools, transportation systems, and the army; setting up institutions such as healthcare, welfare, and public office; all of which the government deems necessary to best protect you. If you don't want any part of the pact, you can leave the country. You cannot absolutely reject the pact and still take advantage of the government's systems.

In my opinion, people are dumb. They do not know what they want, even if they think they do. Most of this problem comes from ignorance. Why? Everyone thinks they know everything about everything. That's why a 60-something year old retiree from Minnesota will complain about government healthcare. Does he have a right to voice his opinion? Yes. Is his opinion valid? No. Should it ignored? I would say yes. This man has no knowledge about healthcare. He has no idea what the proposed system would bring about. He knows nothing about the intricacies and exploitations of our current health insurance system. In fact, provided that he is a healthy man with social security and some money in the bank, none of this healthcare stuff concerns him at all. I bring up this healthcare issue as just an example. I could have said the same thing about other hot issues such as gay marriage, war, global climate change, clean energy, foreign oil, elections, net neutrality, the list goes on and on.

So where does this problem come from? Why are people so angry at the government, with whom they have a pact to protect their rights? Why do people have such a false sense of self-entitlement that makes them think they can launch complaints about issue that know nothing about and be taken seriously? Why won't people live out their lives and let the government do its job? I believe that issues the country faces today are not much different than issue of years ago, but both the government's and its citizen's responded to these issues are not as they used to be. Previously (with some exceptions), the citizen's would do their jobs, progressing the country into the future, utilizing roads, electricity, schools, and other such things the government provided. At the same time the government would not be inhibited in providing these services. There existed a mutual beneficial system: the government provided for the people and the people trusted the government to protect them.

Now the question arises: what happened to this trust? I think one of the key factors in this degrading trust is new media. By new media I mean 24-hour news-networks, readily available access to television and radio, and especially the internet, which hosts an abundance of political videos, blogs, and news pieces--created by both knowledgeable amateurs and professionals alike. With the death of the newspaper (let's face it--the newspaper is dead), people turn to TV and the internet for their news. But there is no longer any unbiased news. Have you ever turned on FOX News? They're not informing the public of what's happening in the political world. They're selling entertainment--a distorted reality that does well in the ratings. Glenn Beck is just there rant and cause turmoil. Whatever will get people to get up and get angry is what he wants to be a part of. Seriously. Turn on FOX news. Tell me if any of the "news" reported there is unbiased or even pretending to be unbiased. Even other news stations, such as CNN or any of the local stations, are turning to entertainment due to dwindling ratings. Even the Daily Show will distort facts for a joke. People watching these news stations are getting political information--some true, some not--and these people think that all of a sudden they're experts. Most people are not.

Then there's the internet. I love the internet. It's one of my favorite things ever. But I think it's causing massive political damage. Not only can news networks put their (biased) information on their websites that is accessible on demand, but anyone with a pulse can give their two cents. They don't even need to make sense. So readers are getting incredibly biased opinions and taking them as facts. And for some reason, people think that once they have this "information" they should go out and tell it to other people, shout it at politicians (who are usually quite aware of the issues), and make a fuss because they can. But just because you read an opinion piece on the effects of gay marriage on family values or watched FOX and Friends speak about how Obama is a socialist, does not mean that you have any greater understanding of such issues than the actual politicians. In fact, your opinion has even less value since you've been biased by some source seeking viewership. So why can't we just let the politicians do their work? New media is (at least partially) responsible for this too.

Try to think back to an election years ago. Before the internet, before TVs were readily accessible (or at least before 24-hour news stations). People found out about the candidates by reading about them in the newspapers or hearing about them in their nightly news broadcast. There was no 24-hour news covering their every move; no people blogging endlessly about why they personally like or dislike the candidate. Politically charged persons had to work hard to get opinions--they weren't jut shoved in their faces. Now elections are basically a sham. Because candidates are being followed and written about 24/7, they must sell themselves. The candidates no longer truly fight about political issues--they fight for the best public image. They can't waste time with what's right or what's in the people's best interest, but instead they're forced to cater to those particularly vocal individuals that think their opinions are fact.

But there's an even worse problem. Once these candidates are elected and in office, they can't do anything. Let's assume we have a genuine politician after the election (big assumption). Even if he wants to get something done, he can't. Why? Everyone is watching every step he makes. Even when he goes to do the smallest thing, he will face immense opposition from the most insignificant people with the most barbarous, uneducated, wrongly self-entitled opinions. Personally, I believe that is why Obama has been perceived by some as a disappointment. He must spend so much time and effort watching his tracks that he no longer has the ability to get anything done.

This problem is absolutely disgusting. In a time of crisis, like we face now, the government is being flooded by unhelpful, angry, ignorant citizens that believe they can tell the government what to do. Progress cannot be made, and the country is slowly being torn apart by these poorly formed opinions. And here we reach the paradox. The internet and new media, something that could not have been created without the existence of a government such as we have, one that protects our rights to life, liberty, and property, is the very thing that is harming the government. What do we do? I am hard pressed to think of any solution. The best I can say is to take a breath, America. Don't be so pompous to think you really know all the issues completely--don't think that your opinions are any better than anyone else's--don't cause a raucous simply for the sake of causing an uproar. Put some trust in the government. They're here to help--that's why it was created. I'm not saying that people should let the government do whatever it wants to do--people should let the government do what it should do. There exist checks and balances within the government. You are not part of those checks and balances. As for corruption, citizens' shameless senses of self-entitlement are the source for that. If you let the politicians do their jobs--to protect your rights--and not scrutinize their every move, they'll have the leeway they need to make progress. And so it comes down to this. Do not think you know everything. I don't. I'm usually very quiet about my political views. Honestly, I believe that the government is generally doing what's best. I assume that it has information that I do not know (and should not be allowed to know), and thus it knows more about the issues than I do. As such, it can make better informed decisions.

I know it's not as simple as I make it out to be, but we need some trust, here. It would be a good start back to progress.

Things that are Naive, Part I

2009-11-15T22:52:00.002-05:00

High School Underclassmen

Obviously, right? But in all, seriousness, the other day I overheard some high school freshmen and sophomores discussing climate change politics, and I was truly flaberghasted by the naivete of their claims. Their claim was that "even though the US knows about global warming, there's nothing anyone can do about it because the CO2 omissions from US cars has no harmful in comparison to the factories in China and India, where no one cares about global warming." Wow, right? Let's get some facts down. Just over 60% of Americans believe that global warming is a serious issue; less than 40% of Americans believe the CO2 omissions from cars contribute to global warming. So regardless of your take on the issue, you're not justified in saying "even though the US knows about global warming." Concerning CO2 omissions and their relative contribution to climate change, clean energy is not a contest to see which country can contribute the least badness. Since I'm not to familiar with the field of clean energy and global climate change, I don't have the audacity to make an actual claim as to our current endgoal, but I'm pretty sure it's not to be the least shitty. Moving on. Freshmen, sophomores, do you really think that the entirety of two large countries do not care about CO2 omissions? If not about climate change, how about pollution? And who do you think these factories exist for? I'm pretty sure the factories that exist in east Asia aren't producing good for east Asia; they're for the US. If we really wanted clean factories (that paid decent wages), we'd be paying $800 for an iPod. And no one wants that.
Personally, I think there is a bigger issue at hand here, that I think is addressed pretty well in the Tech. CO2 omissions produce pollution. Dependence on fossil fuel is bad. Especially foreign fuel. There's this famous guy named Ralph Waldo Emerson that wrote a nice, well-known essay about America being self reliant. Fossil fuels from the middle east that cause economic troubles, pollution (and war?) aren't a good thing. So regardless of your take on global climate change, pollution is bad; foreign dependence is bad.
Getting back on topic: high school underclassmen. Your belief that the US is in the right here is based on ignorance and sheltered underexposure to life outside of the daily high school grind. So please, think before you speak.

Things that are Bananas, Part I

2009-11-09T22:20:00.005-05:00

Forward: This title is a pun. You are probably reading it thinking that this post is about things that are "bananas" in that it is about things that are crazy or about things that are effed up. While this is true, this post is also about bananas the yellow fruit. You see, here bananas refers to both the fruit and craziness. This is a clever pun, because not only is it a humorous use of a word in such a way to suggest two or more meanings, but also each of these two words is a different part of speech (i.e. one being a noun and another being an adjective). It is also clever because both meanings are evident upon first glance at the pun, and you think that it means one or the other but aren't sure which, when in fact it actually means both. This reminds me of my slogan for the BUA class of 2009: "They're fucking idiots--both as an adjective and a verb." Now that I have clearly wasted a minute or so of your life, I will write the actual content of this blog post, which will surely waste even more of your time. I mean come on, is this really better than working on your problem sets?

So I went to Star Market last weekend to pick up some groceries, including bananas. All of the bananas were super green, so I figured I wouldn't be able to eat them for a few days. They'd need to ripen and become more yellow before they would be any good. So when I got back from the grocery store, I put the bananas on top of my mini fridge, next to my pots and pans. After a couple of days, the bananas were still green--no yellow had appeared. Okay, I thought, they'll just need a few more days to ripen. Nope. After a few more days, the bananas started showing brown spots, but no yellow. It was really gross. I ended up with green bananas covered in brown speckles--neither colors desirable when considering the best way to eat a banana. So I had to throw out the bananas. And I got no potassium for the week. How sad. Anyways, a picture is attached of these vile monstrosities--it's a bit tough to see that they're green, but they really are. Thank you for allowing me to have a few minutes of your life that you will never get back. Your IQ has likely gone down some points.

Things that are ruining my childhood, Part I

2009-11-06T19:25:00.006-05:00

Center of Percussion.

Given an impulse on a rigid body, there is a point on the object known as the center of percussion that feels no force (and will not accelerate). The concept of center of percussion is used in sword and baseball bat design. Typically, the center of mass is just below the impulse point (where the baseball is hit or the sword is struck), so the hilt does not experience a force that would hurt the wielder.

This got me thinking about lightsabers and their usability as weapons. It seems that they'd be pretty bad as weapons, mostly because all of the mass is centered at the hilt. This would cause lots of pain to a wielder's wrist. The blade is made of energy, which everyone on the internet concludes in massless. Follow my reasoning:

On the figure below, there is a lightsaber. The hilt has width 2r and length l. An inpulse of Ft (strike to the blade) occurs at length L above the top of the hilt. The moment of inertia of the hilt is mk^2, where m is the mass of the hilt and k is the radius of gyration. The radius of gyration is the radius such that the mass distribution of the hilt would be were it a thin ring about the center of mass. I have designated my center of percussion at the center of the hilt (l/2), where a wielder's hand would be. The center of mass is located a distance q above the designated center of percussion. Accordingly, my aim here is to determine the center of mass, given a strike point and a center of percussion for a reasonable mass distribution. If the center of mass is not within the hilt, then a lightsaber would not be a viable weapon from the center-of-percussion-perspective. More technically, my goal is to find the point such that after a strike, the velocity of the center of mass will cancel out the rotation of the center of percussion about the center of mass (1). I assume here that the lightsaber is swung linearly--not in an arclike fashion.

(2): I use the concept of conservation of momentum to find the velocity of the center of mass. (3) and (4): I then use the concept of conservation of angular momentum to find the angular rotation about the center of mass. (5): from (1) I add my results from (2) and (4) to set up my center of percussion equation. In (6) and (7) I solve for q, the center of mass. Regardless of the mass or impulse, q=-k^2+L+l/2. Accordingly, if the center of mass is located somewhere within the lightsaber hilt, q must be less than l/2. For this to happen, k^2 must be greater than L. This cannot be, since k is likely l/4, which is much less than L. Therefore, lightsabers would hurt to use. This makes me sad :(

Things that are easily avoidable, Part I

2009-11-02T17:08:00.003-05:00

The Pizza Problem. Whenever a group of, say, ten or more people get together to order pizza there is always a problem. How much of each type of pizza should be ordered? Typically, individuals will suggest some of their favorite pizza toppings, many of them esoteric, and while these toppings appeal to some, they do not appeal to others. Accordingly, a pizza order is placed that contains entire pizzas with strange toppings that only one or two people eat. This leads to many tasty options for those that like a variety of toppings, but those with more traditional taste are left in the dark. Sometimes there isn't even any pizza that they'll eat. And this makes me sad.

Allow me to illustrate the pizza problem with an example. There are fifteen people who are ordering pizzas for a study break. This means that they'll order about four large pizzas. The person ordering asks people what toppings they like. Person six says "I like Hawaiian." Person eleven says "I like buffalo chicken." Person ten says "I like cheese pizza." Person eight says "I like Hawaiian too." Person two says "I like pepperoni" and person five says "I want vegetarian pizza." The person ordering the pizza then (hopefully) takes a quick poll to see what everyone wants. It turns out that 3 people vote for Hawaiian, 5 cheese, 4 pepperoni, 2 buffalo chicken, and 1 vegetarian.

This is when the problems begin to arise. Typically, these numbers would amount to the following order: 1 Hawaiian pizza, 1 cheese pizza, 1 pepperoni pizza, and 1 half-buffalo chicken half-vegetarian pizza. This doesn't sound too bad, does it? Assuming everyone eats about 1/4 of a pizza, the entire pepperoni pizza is consumed, the entire buffalo half is consumed, and the entire cheese pizza is consumed. There's a leftover quarter of Hawaiian and vegetarian, and two people that wanted cheese only got one slice of pizza. Not too bad.

However, this is not a realistic depiction of pizza eating. More often than not, the people who wanted an esoteric topping (such as Hawaiian or buffalo chicken) will eat one slice of their favorite topping pizza, and then they'll grab a slice of cheese or pepperoni. So the pepperoni and cheese pizzas, which are either already saturated or over-saturated with people that specifically want that topping, are even more strained. Often, someone who only likes cheese pizza won't get any, and someone who likes only cheese or pepperoni will either only get a slice or cheese or no pizza at all. Moreover, in this scenario we're left with a lot of Hawaiian and buffalo chicken leftover.

So how does one solve the pizza problem? Well, speaking as someone who's ordered pizza for a hungry robotics team for three years now, I have a pretty solid solution. First off, always make half of your order cheese pizza. If there isn't enough interest in any one topping, then order more cheese pizza in its stead. Everyone likes cheese pizza, even those that also like Hawaiian or buffalo chicken, or what-have-you. The converse is not true.

The ideal order for the example above would be two cheese pizzas, one pepperoni pizza, and one half-buffalo half Hawaiian pizza. This way, the 5 people who want cheese and the 1 that wants vegetarian will eat cheese. The 4 people that want the pepperoni will eat pepperoni (or maybe one would even eat cheese). 1 of the 3 that want Hawaiian will get two slices of Hawaiian and the other 2 will get one slice of Hawaiian and one slice of cheese. The 2 people that wanted buffalo chicken will get buffalo chicken. In this scenario, there is about half of a cheese pizza leftover, so that people that wanted other toppings can still eat cheese without preventing people who only like cheese from getting any pizza. It works out very, very well.

Essentially, the algorithm is this: for a non-cheese topping pizza, order [(number of people that want that topping)/5] number of pizzas, assuming that everyone will get 2 slices in an 8 slice pizza. Tweaking this number downwards in order to ensure an order of at least half cheese pizzas is favorable.

omnomnomnom

Things that are Awesome, Part III

2009-11-01T14:49:00.008-05:00

Spooky Skate.

Spooky Skate is SaveTFP's annual Halloween party, where we rent out MIT's ice rink, and offer free skates, pizza, t-shirts, mini-pumpkins, crafts, cookies, veggies, hot cocoa, and costume contest prizes. We had 524 attendees, which was high for Halloween night. I was dressed up as Steve Jobs--I had a black mock turtleneck, loose jeans, white shoes, and a white Apple remote--so I decorated an Apple pumpkin. No, it's not a combination of an apple and a pumpkin, but more of an iPumpkin.

People in general seemed to have a really good time. Because we had rotating ice rental times, more people got to skate this year over last. Even though we had less food than last year, pizza came in two installments, so people who weren't skating the entire time got to enjoy the food. There was also a lot of hot cocoa left over, so expect to see at our future events (Nov 13 Rock Band / Milkshake night; Nov 20 coffeehouse revival; Dec 4 waffle night).

The "Love Your Beaver" T-shirts were also a huge success. All t-shirts designated for Spooky Skate were given out within minutes, but there will be more at upcoming events.

The best part of the night was the costumes. Some people really went all out.
This guy was the Doppler effect (vroom)
Nicole was a snowspeeder.
Roberto had his dick in a box. (don't worry, there was just candy inside)

Things that are Awesome, Part II

2009-11-01T01:14:00.002-04:00

Well, not thing. People.

There's this guy that works the morning shift at Forbes Family Cafe in the Stata center. I don't know his name, but I know that whenever I eat breakfast there, he's there to give me my food. And he's always excited about it. Day in and day out. He's bright and cheerful and goes out of his way to make sure the food is always fresh. I eat at Stata every morning before an exam, so that he can brighten my day and boost my confidence going into the test.

There's also this guy that works at the deli counter at Star Market. Again, I don't know his name, but he's always excited to be there and get me my meat. Sure, he does the same job as anyone else at the deli--ask me which meat I want, how much I want, how thick I want it cut--but there's something about his attitude that just brightens my day. He seems to be someone who's completely happy with what he's doing and wants to pass it along to others. And he also turned me on to Muenster cheese, which is delicious.

Things that are destroying the environment and MIT's budget, Part I

2009-10-29T15:52:00.002-04:00

Sitting in the lobby of MacGregor right now are 18 boxes full of student directory books (20 books per box). That's 360 directories for 325 students. These directories contain on paper basically no more information than one could find at http://web.mit.edu/people.html or http://whereis.mit.edu/ , except one would have to look up the information alphabetically and need physical space to store the book and need to physically alter it for when anyone moves. Also, the books contain everyone's dorm room phone number, which is really convenient because there aren't any phones here at MacGregor.

Let's see. What's wrong with this? Well, first off, no one (at least studentwise) uses paper directories anymore. Everyone has a laptop and many people have smartphones for which MIT IS&T designed a special mobile web site so that it's easy to look up phone numbers, email addresses, and physical addresses.

Is there any advantage to having a paper directory? A little; but not much. For one thing, the paper directories have home addresses, which is not available on the online version. Some may see this as a benefit--I find this creepy. Is there any practical disadvantage to having a paper directory? Yes. It takes time to look up information (alphabetical sorting is slow to go through).
Students would also need to be in their room (or wherever they keep their directory) to use it. With the web alternatives, users only need be near their laptops or smartphones. Let's face it, this is MIT. Everyone's always within a close distance of a usable computer.

The real problem here lies beyond the practical disadvantages. There are 360 directories sitting in the lobby. I would be shocked if any more than 5 books are taken. That means that 355 books are going to waste. Assuming that these books are distributed every year, that's almost the equivalent of throwing out one book each day for a year, for MacGregor alone. That's pretty pathetic, especially because MIT considers itself to be leading the world in environmental friendliness.

But let's say you don't care about the environment. These books are not free. They cost money to make. And because MIT's has limited budget and is in the process of cutting its budget by up to $150M over the next year or so, why are they still making these outdated book? There are way better things to spend money on. How about the Athena Clusters? One of the ideas in the institute-wide planning preliminary task force is to shut down the Athena Clusters or even limit printing (see http://ideabank.mit.edu/system/files/TaskForcePrliminaryReport.pdf middle of page 34). There's over 90,000 sheets of paper in the directories sitting in the MacGregor lobby. I don't know about you, but I'd much rather print my psets on them, then use them for redundant information that I can access seamlessly from my phone. Does anyone know who is responsible for making these directories or what department they're under? I can't seem to find a name or address to contact.

Things that Frustrate Me: Part II

2009-10-23T19:10:00.001-04:00

The MIT admissions office is changing their freshmen application. Instead of having a 1000 word long essay (and an optional 500 word essay), they are asking for three shorter 500 word essays. I don't think this is a good idea. I'm in favor of the one longer essay (plus one optional shorter essay) rather than the three shorter essays. My reasoning is simple: The purpose of the essay is not to show off talents and skills. It does not exist for applicants to prove to the admissions office that they have the qualifications of an MIT student. That's what the resume is for. The purpose of the essay is to give the applicant a chance to show that he/she is a true, genuine person with emotions and the ability to learn and change. To give him or her a chance to speak from the soul--not from the brain.

The applicants don't need three short chances to describe three different aspect of their lives. What they need is one long opportunity to show to the admissions office who they are. With a larger word limit, applicants can fully express themselves, and go into deep detail about who they really are--what makes them tick as people.

Unlike analytic essays or scientific papers, cutting down on word count does not make the essay more concise or cogent. The admissions essay does not convey facts and information (like an english paper or movie review). Rather is opens to the reader the world of the applicant. A smaller word limit takes away from the full depth that the applicant can go into.

With the three shorter essays, I feel the admissions office cannot gain as full an insight into the applicant's life. With the three shorter essays, they'll only see shallow facts and information about the applicants. It is my belief that this will not better differentiate the applicant, but instead will make the applicant pool less heterogeneous.

However, I do believe that, as Stu Schmill wrote in The Tech a few weeks ago, this is MIT and we are a school with the spirit of experimentation. Accordingly, the admissions office's "science experiment" of changing the longer essay into three shorter ones could yield interesting and positive results. Yet, after this round of applications, if the admissions office finds that it is harder to differentiate applicants with three shorter essays, I hope that they will choose to revert back to the longer essay format.

Things that Frustrate Me: Part I

2009-10-23T17:36:00.003-04:00

The institute wide planning task force suggests “increasing educational opportunities” in its preliminary report by, in part, increasing undergraduate enrollment, adding a “3+2” Bachelor’s program, and offering online Master’s degrees. There are a few problems with such proposals, some obvious, others not.
The addition of online Master’s degrees is a bad idea. Period. Admissions departments at online institutions are not admissions offices—they are sales forces. Their only goal is to sell education, not select the best applicants to be leaders of tomorrow. MIT seeks to train brilliant students to deal with the problems of tomorrow. This cannot be done if they’re trying to sell education online to whoever is willing to pay. You cannot learn everything there is to learn is a science or engineering master’s program strictly online. You need lab experience, class experience, teaching experience, and real interaction with scientific principles. As great as the Internet is, it cannot provide these services.
The task force also estimates that increasing the class size by 10% would increase revenue by about $4M, without increasing the undergrad education budget. To get the apparent issues out of the way, increasing undergrad class size is not possible for many of the GIRs. The multimillion dollar TEAL classrooms are utilized at full capacity every weekday from 9am to 5pm. If class size increases, additional TEAL rooms would be required in order to accommodate these extra students. Moreover, classes like 7.012 are completely filled, in that the number of enrolled students is equal to the number of seats in 26-100, MIT’s biggest lecture hall. Beyond costly increases to classroom logistics, increasing the undergraduate enrollment would put a strain on the already strained housing system.
As Room Assignment Chair in MacGregor, I know that virtually all student rooms on campus are occupied. To the best of my knowledge, there are two open rooms on campus—one in Senior house and one in Bexley Hall—and the waitlist is much longer than that. Until the completion of W1—which is expected to add rooms for an additional 400 students—the dorms would be overcrowded. Many doubles would become triples and many triples would become quads. Even after W1 is completed, the extra 400 vacancies would not be enough to account for a 10% increase of 4,125 undergrads. Vice Chancellor Lerman acknowledges these points. As he should.
But the task force then goes on to suggest a “3+2” bachelor’s program. In essence, this program has students attend another institution for three years, studying liberal arts, and then come to MIT for two years to study science or engineering. The students, after completing the five year program, will earn two bachelor’s degrees—one of which is from MIT. Dean for Undegrad Education Hastings says that this would allow MIT to admit students that “do not go though the GIRs, skipping bottlenecks, [and go directly] into areas where there is actual capacity.” There is a big problem with this
MIT has a special undergraduate community. There is a sense of unity that exists here that does not exist at any other school. Some of my friends at other colleges marvel at the fact that everyone MIT undergrad has something in common, a shared sense of community. Instituting a “3+2” plan would be taking away this campus unity. What makes MIT students MIT students is their suffering through the GIRs together, pulling all nighters to complete an 18.02 problem set, relaxing with dorm- and class-sponsored study break, ending their week with SaveTFP’s Waffle Night, getting their class’s Brass Rat at the end of their sophomore year, experiencing REX and choosing the best living community for their time as an undergrad, joining fraternities and sororities, making friends in their course’s intro classes. Any “3+2” student would not be able to experience any of these things, and therefore, would not be true MIT students. What makes MIT special, and what makes it’s undergrads stand out, is this distinct sense of connection that each student has to each other and to the institute as a whole. It is only be experiencing these good and bad things, that make us the MIT students that are so curious about learning, that can work together to accomplish tasks from hacking the dome to solving the energy crisis, and that so many employers seek out. Not only would these “3+2” students not be part of our MIT community, they would be lessening the value of our degree. Experiencing this community unity gives is to each student an important skill, and any MIT undergrad without such experiences as those from their first few years on campus cannot truly be said to complete MIT’s curriculum. Dean Hastings says that the goal conforms to our mission, “to educate more scientists and engineers for America.” But MIT’s mission is “to seek to develop in each member of the MIT community the ability and passion to work wisely, creatively, and effectively for the betterment of humankind.” These “3+2” students do not conform to the mission.

Things that I shouldn't be allowed to do: Part I

2009-10-21T01:26:00.002-04:00

Watch too much TV.

Summer started on Thursday, May 21st. I stopped watching TV last Sunday, October 18. That's 150 days. During those days I was watching a lot of TV. All of the shows were really good--shows that I've been wanting to see for a long time, but never had the time or opportunity. But then came this summer, and as much as I enjoyed the shows, I should not be allowed to watch this much TV.

So what did I watch? I started off my Summer with Heroes season 1. I was told not to watch season 2, because it's complete crap, so I didn't. Josh and I watched the show on the projector, so it was pretty epic. Once we finished the first season, I moved on to Firefly. After the first few episodes of Firefly, I was completely hooked. Mike had told me to watch it many times before, but I never had the drive to do so. I finished up Firefly (and Serenity) after about a week at desk, working lots of hours. After Firefly, Ankit and I tried to watch Star Trek: the original series, with William Shatner, but the show was just too cheesy, and we gave up after three episodes. Next was the final season of The Practice. Since Boston Legal ended last spring, I wanted to see the eighth season of The Practice where Alan Shore was introduced. Once done with The Practice, I simultaneously started The Big Bang Theory and Chuck. I finished The Big Bang Theory pretty quickly, but I didn't finish Chuck till near the end of the summer. On Reg Day, I started Battlestar Galactica. This was a bad choice because the show is so good that it completely sucked my life in. I finished last Sunday. Now I will not be watching TV for a while.

Here's the breakdown:
Heroes: Season 1 (23 episodes x 43 minutes) = 989 minutes
Firefly: (84 minute pilot + 13 episodes x 42 minutes + 119 minute Serenity) = 749 minutes
Star Trek: TOS (3 episodes x 51 minutes) = 153 minutes
The Practice: (22 episodes x 42 minutes + 42 minute Boston Legal Pilot) = 966 minutes
The Big Bang Theory: (40 episodes x 21 minutes) = 840 minutes
Chuck: (35 episodes x 42.5 minutes) = 1488 minutes
Battlestar Galactica (183 minute pilot + 77 episodes x 42 minutes + 30 minutes Resistance webisodes + 22 minutes Razor Flashbacks webisodes) = 3469 minutes

Total = 8654 minutes = 144 hours ~ 7 hours per week.
This doesn't sound like too much, but I took some weeks off and also watched the Daily Show and Colbert Report almost daily. And BSG alone came out to be ~9.5 hours per week.

So...what have I learned? As awesome as TV is, I need a long, long break.

Things that Are Awesome: Part I

2009-10-16T00:43:00.002-04:00

Things that are awesome:
I was walking home last Sunday from a SaveTFP meeting when I noticed that B-entry had put letters in their lounge window reading "IHTFP." Everyone walking down Amherst Alley could simple look up to the MacGregor tower and see the display. Obviously something had to be done about this, to counter the frustration. So, I grabbed some cover pages left at the lobby Athena printer and made my own letters for to hang in the C-entry lounge: "ILTFP." Within a week, D entry responded, kindly requesting of everyone "Pants Off Now" with their usual accompanying picture. E-entry's rebuttal (within a few days) asked everyone to "Pull them up plz!"

What an awesome place.

Other things that are awesome: Battlestar Galactica. I started watching the show on reg day (Sept 8) and have only 10 episodes left in the series. It's been fantastic. What a crazy, mind blowing plot. I can't wait to finish. Also, then I'll have tons of free time. About 10-15 hours per week more time. I could spend that time reading, socializing, being productive, picking up a hobby, focusing on 5.12....

People at MIT suck at riding elevators

2009-10-14T21:08:00.002-04:00

Elevator etiquette. Have you heard of it? From my experience, if you go to MIT, probably not. It's goddamn simple. If you're getting on an elevator, and someone else is getting off, before you get on the elevator let the other person get off first. Let me repeat that for you: if someone else is exiting an elevator when your getting on, DO NOT set foot on the damn elevator until the other person is completely off.

Seriously. It's fucking simple. Why are so many people idiot enough to not understand this concept? I have two examples of such idiots, whose ability to get into MIT is beyond my comprehension. A couple weeks ago, I was riding the MacGregor elevator down to the lobby. As the elevator door opened, I saw someone with a rolley suitcase waiting to get on the elevator. No, let me rephrase that. This ignorant motherfucker was not *waiting* but was actually boarding the elevator when the door opened, suitcase and all. When the door opened, he rolled this suitcase onto the elevator, forcing me to the back. The door almost started to close before I could get off. Really? Really?

Example two: last week I was doing laundry and I was carrying an overflowing laundry basket on the elevator. I was standing right at the door when it opened. Some idiot decided that he should brush right past me, nearly knocking over my laundry basket, so that he could get into the elevator before I got off. Seriously? Who the fuck do you think you are?

There's also another rule of elevator etiquette, that I thought was so simple that it need not be mentioned. But once again, the idiocy of those who ride the MacGregor elevator proved me wrong. If everyone is getting off the elevator, the person closest to the door gets off first. The same goes for exiting a bus, an auditorium, a train, etc. It's pretty basic stuff. Or at least I thought. But when I'm standing right in front of the elevator door when it opens, and the dumbass behind me decides to sneak right in front of me so he can get off the elevator (even if he's with a friend who waits like a normal person should), it just blows my mind.

C'mon people. You should be able to do this right.

Back to C-entry

2009-07-30T11:33:00.003-04:00

Yesterday I got an email from Bob, the MacGregor house manager, that said my semester room is clean and ready for me to move into. Sweet. I can get out of A-entry and return to C. Don't get me wrong, being on the 14th floor with all of the summer residents was nice and all, but the place was really a ghost town. Everyone stayed in the rooms or wasn't around. Seeing as something like 30% of the A-entry summer residents are from C-entry, I figure the 8th floor lounge will be bustling with activity by the end of the week.

Even though my new room is really small--about 10 sqft smaller than my room last year--I get a fantastic Charles river view. A lot of downtown is obscured, but I get a nice direct view of the river and parts of BU. So that's nice. Anyways, after I returned home from work, still giddy from learning that I can move back to C-entry, I checked into my new room.

I first went to scout out the room. As I stepped out of the elevator on the 8th floor, I noticed that carpet cleaners had just left. No one told me about that. Now my socks were all wet. Gross. I walked up to my room. It was smaller than I imagined. The window curtain was quite big--that's good, since my old curtain wouldn't cover the entire window. The bed was setup at its highest notch. Well, that just wouldn't do. I wanted it to be about 10 inches closer to the ground.

So, I went about adjusting the height of the bed. The metal latches were jammed in pretty snugly, so I couldn't remove it by pulling up on it. I decided to flip the bed upside down, to jump on it in the hope that the metal platform would detach from the legs, allowing me to adjust the height. Unfortunately, I wasn't heavy enough. So I scouted about the entry for something large and metal to slam against the bottom of the bed. I found a metal chair! Hooray. With one swift slam, the bed detached from the legs. Well done! However, some of the summer staff workers overhearing the raucous in my new room insisted that they adjust the height for me. They flipped the bed right side up, and detached the metal portion from the legs by using a large lead ball. Well, that was great. Except when they reattached the bed, one side was four notches from the top and the other side was five notches. So my bed was at an angle. How fun! I managed to fix it after a few minutes.

Next was adjusting the height of the shelves on the wall. Most of the shelves were right where I wanted them, save one. So I struggled to get it off of the wall for me to adjust. After about fifteen minutes of pulling and twisting, I still couldn't remove the shelf. So I finally gave it one last large pull. I happened to tear the metal attachment point strip from the wall. Oops. I guess I should have left the shelf where it was....

In contrast to my last move, I didn't use any boxes to get all of my stuff from the 14th floor to the 9th floor. Instead, I stuffed whatever I could into my laundry basket and took many, many trips. Slowly bringing everything down to my permanent room. By about midnight, I had almost everything moved. It was a long night, but well worth it, because I have a sweet room now.

The End.

Without the Internet for 24 Hours

2009-07-18T00:00:00.001-04:00

9:44 AM I'm at the lab, writing this in textedit since I can't go online. It's already been almost ten hours without the internet, thought I was sleeping through most of them. It was a restless night; I don't think I was asleep for more than a half hour at a time. When I woke up, I saw I had 19 unread messages in Apple Mail, but I can't check them. Worse, I was supposed to get a deposit in my bank account for two weeks pay this morning, but I can't check until tomorrow. I've turned off Wi-Fi on my phone, and closed out of Safari on my MacBook. Thankfully, I planned ahead and checked today's weather forecast last night. Okay, back to work...it looks like matlab is encountering some ugly errors...

11:00 AM I've (hopefully) finished sorting out my matlab errors. The process is running, but I won't know for a few more hours whether or not it worked. If it didn't, I have to start all over again. In the meantime, since I can't browse the tubes, I've found in introductory neuroscience textbook that I've begun reading. It's pretty entertaining and enlightening, though I'm curious as to what my tweeple are up to right now.

12:27 PM is going to Cosi for lunch with @gallivan

1:50 PM so it looks like most of my matlab processes are going well--and much faster than I was expecting. I should be done by the end of the day. So that's good. I also just received a text message from Pamela saying that she got tickets to the Daily Show for sometime in December. Hopefully it's not during finals week or on the day of an exam, because I'd love to go.

2:02 PM the person next to me is on Facebook. I'm kind of jealous

3:35 PM someone asked me again if I was a grad student. that's two times in one week. Do I really look that depressed and jaded? Maybe it's the beard.

3:59 PM matlab is still running. This is taking forever. I got tired of reading the neuroscience textbook, so I read a bit of the novel I just started. Then I rearranged some files for work. Now it's 4:01 PM. I'd really like to use the internet right now.

5:17 PM So I had to print something for someone that was sent in an email. This posed a big problem, since I can't check my email. So I had Kai print it for me. Awesome.

6:11 PM at Sophie's house, importing wedding photos and videos onto my MacBook. I'm also playing with Courtney the kitty!

7:00 PM So now I'm in a car driving to a restaurant somewhere on the MA/NH boarder. My dad, Sophie, Madison, and I are meeting my Aunt and Uncle for dinner. For the next few hours, it should be pretty easy for me to control my compulsions to check fmylife, textsfromlastnight, facebook, twitter, email, twitter, facebook, etc. Overall it's been a pretty decent day so far. I worked on matlab in the lab. While all the data was processing, I discovered this "plant room" on the sixth floor. It's a giant room filled with tons of plants! There were vines climbing up the wall, bamboo shoots, palm trees, and some other plants. Anyways, that was kinda cool.

11:42 PM I'm back from dinner. It was very delicious. I had a brownie sundae for dessert that was to die for. Anyways, I'm importing wedding videos using iMovie, and everything would be a lot easier if I had internet. Only 18 minutes left....

Harry Potter and the Bad Pick-Up Lines

2009-07-16T16:44:00.002-04:00

So yesterday the sixth Harry Potter movie hit theaters. Sweet. After choosing not to hit up a midnight showing, I opted for an 8:30pm show along with Raul, Ankit, Kachina, Juliana, Hao, and Sunshine. After getting back to MacGregor from work, a bunch of us started walking to the Boston Commons AMC around 5:30. Ankit was planning to work late and Kachina was hungry for hippie food, so they would meet us at the theater. The walk usually takes about an hour, but we stopped at a Trader Joe's, so we got to the theater around 7. Ironically, Ankit was already there waiting for us.

We got in line--we were the second people there: sweet. Raul chatted with some other people there that he knew, Ankit got some food, and the rest of us played Chinese poker. I pulled out a sheet of paper filled with Harry Potter pick-up lines that I had acquired earlier that day. See, there's this facebook group called "Harry Potter and the Bad Pick-Up Lines" that's loaded with cheesy, magical, often dirty pick-up lines. So I picked out my favorites and compiled them onto a single sheet of paper to read off while in the theater. Since I didn't have cell phone reception, I couldn't find out if Pam was okay with me scaring off strangers in the line for the movie, so I just recited the pick-up lines to people within my group. It was very exciting and humorous. But when I go to see the movie again in IMAX in a few weeks, it'll be loads more fun!

About a half hour before the movie started, we were let into the theater. Being second in line, we got the best seats in the house: center, middle. Awesome.

Why the internet killed [Scrubs]

2009-07-16T14:24:00.006-04:00

Now, don't get me wrong, I love Scrubs. It's one of my top five all-time favorite TV shows. I've seen every episode many times over, own all of the available DVDs, follow Bill Lawrence's blog, watched the webisodes, etc., etc. Scrubs has been there for me in good times and in bad. There was a time from January to April 2007 when I watched on average 5 episodes of Scrubs every day. With the exception of the episodes around the writer's strike and a few flukes here and there, all of the episodes are fantastic. I've laughed, I've cried along with JD and the rest of the Sacred Heart staff. But enough of these cliches; I'll just say what I'm here to say:

The internet killed Scrubs.

I don't mean that it made Scrubs a bad show. But it created problems for the show that forced the producers to make bad decisions, leading to an inconclusive, tentative series finale in addition to some incoherent, poorly done episodes.

Let me explain.

On November 5, 2007, the Writers Guild of America Strike began. Why? While the studios' money making was on the rise, the writers' pay was basically staying the same. Studio's revenue was increasing drastically because of "new media," namely the internet. People can download TV shows from iTunes or Amazon, or they can stream shows from the likes of Hulu. Because of the download charge or advertisements, the TV studios make a ton of money. What goes on to the writers from this new medium? Well, up until the writers' strike: nothing. And the writers were angry about that. So we can pretty safely say that the internet caused the writers' strike. Good? Good.

What does this have to do with Scrubs? A lot, in fact. At the time the strike started only two episodes of the seventh season of Scrubs had aired. Only eleven out of the eighteen episodes for that season had been written. And only ten of them had been filmed and edited. The eleventh episode was eventually filmed during the strike without the help of and WGA workers. Picketers disrupted the filming, but Bill Lawrence (creator) kept the peace. This eleventh episode, "My Princess" is easily the worst episode of Scrubs ever aired. A twelfth episode, called "My Commitment," was supposed in production, but was never finished or aired.

During this time, the six episodes that were completed before the strike were aired on NBC, ending on December 6, 2007. At this point, Scrubs was put on hiatus and a lot of questions were left unanswered. Would Scrubs have a series finale? NBC had only agreed to air seven seasons of Scrubs. They refused to negotiate with Lawrence for a potential eighth season. If there was to be a series finale, how would it be distributed? There were rumors floating around that there would be a long movie-like finale, much like Ricky Gervais's Extras and The Office. Lawrence even went so far as to say "I will use all my leverage to end this show properly, even if it means I have to do all the voices myself and call people up to read it over the phone."

Eventually, the other shows that had been filmed before the strike and "My Princess" were completed and started airing again on NBC on April 10, 2008. Thankfully, Bill Lawrence worked out a deal with ABC to air the eighth and final season of Scrubs. This was great for fans. Everyone was skeptical that the change would deteriorate the quality of the show, but Scrubs came back as strong as ever. With the exception of "My Nah Nah Nah," which according to Lawrence "was especially weird as it was shot mostly during the Writer's Strike (without us there) and was then cobbled together with new stuff this year (50% of it was shot over a year ago)," Scrubs was back as we all knew and loved it. I was really happy.

But there was a problem. No TV studio wants to pick up a great show for only one season, and ABC is no exception. While they were happy to air the eighth season of Scrubs, they didn't want to end it there; they thought they could still squeeze some money out of the franchise. They didn't want to recognize the end of a legacy. And while Bill Lawrence was clearly ending the series, he was open to ideas to keep the show going: "It looks like we might get to do another season of SCRUBS, but next week still marks the end as we know it...The legacy issue: who gives a crap. Legacy-schmegacy, it's a tv show and nothing can happen that will make me not proud of it."

The Scrubs series finale "My Finale" was incredible. I doubt anyone would really argue with me here. Continuing the show under the same title Scrubs is very, very risky. Personally, I'm afraid that this new show will undo some of the finality of "My Finale," thus cheapening it (even though Lawrence says otherwise). I just don't want this fantastic show to be slowly killed (like Family Guy or That 70's Show).

Now I'm open to Lawrence's idea about having Turk and Dr. Cox as med school professors, but he's already undo-ing some of the finale; we already know that Turk is Sacred Heart Chief of Surgery and Dr. Cox is Chief of Medicine. And if the new show goes to break apart Eliot and JD, to prevent them from having a child, to prevent JD and Dr Cox from being frends and spending the holiday together, then I will be pissed. Now I'm sure Lawrence or some other TV exec could claim "that ending scene in 'My Finale' was just a hypothesis of the future and that none of it is necessarily true or set in stone," but that's just bullshit. Utter bullshit.

Side note: I love Bill Lawrence. I really do. Everything he's produced is simply brilliant. Spin City and Scrubs, two of my all time favorite shows are his brainchildren. Even more so, my favorite part about the Scrubs series finale is also his favorite part: "My favorite thing about the finale. Just dumb trivia that makes me happy... The dialogue in bed between J.D. and Elliot at the beginning ("So, we live together...", "I feel like I should have been told") was lifted word for word from the SPIN CITY pilot (Between Mike Fox and Carla Gugino) thus proving that I can essentially only write one story." That's beyond brilliant. It's spine-chilling. Fantastic.

So why am I saying that the internet killed Scrubs? Here's why. Without the internet, there would be no writers' strike. If there were no writers' strike then Scrubs would have had it's finale during the seventh season on NBC as planned (thus avoiding some of the poorly-done episodes). If Scrubs ended on NBC, then there would be no temptation to create more episodes under the same name 'Scrubs'. Without this temptation, then there would be no risk at all of ruining "My Finale" and the integrity of the show. Sure, Lawrence could easily do a spin-off show, much like Fraiser was a successful spin-off of Cheers (under a different title), without having to call it "Scrubs." And it would probably be great; but if it wasn't, no big deal--Scrubs would still be intact. And I probably would have loved this. Why do I care so much about a name? Because I'm just too sentimental.

But now, because of the series of tubes, Scrubs is skating on thin ice with this ninth season. Now, I'm going to watch the ninth season of Scrubs, and hope that Lawrence and crew will make a fantastic show. I'm giving him the benefit of the doubt, because he hasn't led me astray so far and because he asked on his blog:

"The things I promise: If SCRUBS comes back it will not be the same show, thus cheapening the finale. It will not be a lame imitation of the original. We will work our butts off (Yes, I will work on it, too - I'm too much of a control freak to totally let it go) to make it new and interesting and surprising and different and redundant synonym. Don't get me wrong, it may still suck. But if it does, it will not be a fizzle-suck. It will suck in a truly grand, disasterous way. Just give it a chance, AND THEN be outraged and hate it."

but...

Because "the internet killed Scrubs," I am going to boycott the internet on Friday, June 17, 2009 (apart from lab-related access).

iPhone 3G S initial impressions

2009-06-19T21:47:00.002-04:00

Wow. This speed is incredible. I thought the slower WiFi internet before was due to a slow wireless card on the iPhone. Apparently, it was just the processor and memory. Webpages are loading incredibly fast!

Switching from app to app is also much faster. Pocket tanks is having a bit of trouble running on the new graphics card. There's a bit of grass residue left over from where I launched a missile. It loads a bit faster though. I'm sure when Pocket Tanks has it's next update, it'll be fixed.

The Bank of Ameirca app, which was always horrendously laggy on my original iPhone, is working 100x better. It's no longer lagging whatsoever.

Assassin's Creed is also loading much, much faster. It also looks a lot smoother, too.

One of the things I'm struck by is how much more fantastic the picture and sound is. Remember, I'm upgrading from the original iPhone, not the 3G, so there's a world of difference here. I never realized how much Apple had improved the screen and speakers. I'm completely blown away by this bright, clear, and oleophobic screen!

I'm also liking the battery meter with % left.

The restoration from my original iPhone was better than perfect. It remembered all my text messages, the last website I visited, even in app things, such as my stats in Solitaire and my progress in Assasin's creed! It also kept my ringtone, google account sign-in in safari, background image, and password lock time. The only things I needed to reinstall were the MIT web certificates.

The compass is pretty cool, though it hasn't been perfectly accurate yet. Also, my maps is placing me somewhere in Arlington, the last place I "found myself" on my original iPhone. I've had to move around quite a bit in order for the GPS to register me in Cambridge. It's still not acting great though--maybe it's because I'm in an old brick building. Additionally, some magnetic source from my desk (maybe the MacBook, one of many hard drives, or Ankit's speakers) is causing the compass to err pretty badly when the phone is near my desk.

One of my suitemates alerted me now that my biscuits have been in the oven for 20 minutes (instead of 8). They are completely black. I am now sad and hungry.

The extra MP in the camera is fairly noticeable, but the focus programming is just incredible. It's done a great job focusing on things that my old iPhone could not. Nice improvement, Apple. Also the voice commands seem to be working pretty good.

As for OS 3.0, cut and paste is pretty cool. Apple's selection method is nearly seamless and is easy to integrate into all of the apps. Better than that, "select and delete" has been immensely helpful for me, allowing me to delete bulk text faster than ever before. Spotlight is pretty cool, but I'm usually too OCD with keeping my iPhone organized so that I don't have much need for a search feature. I'm also liking the enhanced stock application, as well as many more details provided for phone call history (win!). Hopefully AT&T will have MMS up within a month or so.

Except for the poor GPS and compass functionality, everything seems to working just great and superbly fast. Even though SPJ hasn't been around at Apple on a day-to-day basis, I give him, Schiller, Forstall, and the rest in Cupertino mad props for getting this iPhone out on the market. As many people have been saying, the new updates in iPhone OS 3.0 and upgrades in the 3G S are evolutionary, not revolutionary. Accordingly, I'm not nearly as excited as Oct 6, 2007, when I got my first iPhone, which I still consider the 3rd greatest single day in my life. Despite this, the 32GB iPhone 3G S is a great phone with lightning-fast processing speed and graphics rendering, definitely worth the upgrade from the original 8GB iPhone for only $299.

Frappes

2009-03-23T11:54:00.002-04:00

I have a problems with frappes.

They are delicious. I love them.

I usually buy frappes from uburger. Their frappes make me excited. Really excited.

Uburger makes the best frappes ever.

My problem is that every time I get a frappe from a place that is not uburger, it sucks.

Attention places that make frappes that are not Uburger: Please raise your standards. Your frappes suck.

SAD Bear '09

2009-02-04T19:19:00.002-05:00

So I have a new way too boost the revenue for Single Awareness Day: SAD Teddy Bears. Concept art below:

I was slightly bored in Biology Recitation

2009-02-04T19:05:00.003-05:00

OMG! It's Matt Riley!

2009-02-01T00:13:00.002-05:00

More stuff I've done over IAP:

Learned to make tomato sauce
Passed 18.02A
Mentored the BU robotics team
Played Super Smash Bros Brawl, Mario Kart Wii, and Rock Band
Wandered around Boston in search of dinner
Caught up with people from my high school
Ate at an IHOP in Harvard square
Went to Abe's birthday party
Sent 700+ text messages
Made my wallet cry
Worked at desk (to make my wallet cry slightly less)
Picked up my class of 2012 sweatshirt
Signed up for and utilized a Netflix subscription
Went to a couple of movies
Slept a ton

I have to say, though, that my craziest IAP story comes from last night. My dad flew in from Florida on Thursday night, so he picked me up from MIT at 5:15 and we went to Frank's for STEAK NIGHT (we're gonna eat right). Then we picked up Mario Kart Wii for c-entry. He dropped me off back at MacGregor around 9:30ish. As I got off the elevator, I saw Jason waiting to get onto the elevator. He had come by to visit Yuzhi and me, but neither of us were in our rooms. So Jason got a text message from Najah that said that a bunch of people were going to roast marshmallows over the barbecue pits at Next House around 11pm. The two of us headed over there, but no one had a lighter to get the fire started. As people scrambled to find a lighter, Jason and I began to wander the hall of 4West. He know some people on that floor through ATS. We found a few of his friends in one of the floor lounges playing Super Smash Bros Brawl. It was pretty intense; they were practically glued to the TV screen. After Jason and I got bored, we continued down the 4West hallway. At the end of the hall, we found some people holding a "Linux party." Now, the term "Linux party" doesn't aptly describe the actual event; it was just some guy installing ubuntu on someone else's MacBook Pro. While the two of them began their installation, Jason and I went to one of his friend's room nearby. His friend hadn't returned to MIT yet from her winter break, but she had borrowed Jason's copy of the last lecture beforehand. So Jason reclaimed it during the visit.

At this point the two of us wandered to the Next House courtyard to see if a fire had been started in the barbecue pits yet. Much to our delight, a fire was blazing. But this wasn't any ordinary fire, fueled by newspapers and wood. No, this fire fed on old lecture notes, problem sets, and tests from the last semester and from Interphase. This papers gave rise to rich, healthy flames, due to the excessive amount of hours and tears that go into the average MIT pset. So as Jason and I fed these papers into the fire, others (including Tim, who had shown up during our absence) roasted marshmallows over 18.01A notes. I created some paper airplanes and flew them into the fiery inferno. All-in-all, it was a healthy display of pyromania, note-burning, and marshmallow roasting.

However, the craziest part of the night had not yet begun. At around 12:30, with the fire extinguished, Jason and I returned to MacGregor, looking to find Yuzhi. We went down to the C12 suite where she lives, and caught her just as she was going to bed. All of a sudden, none other than Matt Riley (BUA '05) walks out of the suite lounge and right past me. "Matt Riley?!" I exclaimed. "Do I know you?" he asked, slightly inebriated. "We took an ancient Greek class together two years ago. We went to the same high school and rode the same commuter rail home." He still didn't recognize me, so I tried to cover my beard. When that didn't work, I showed him my BU ID, covering my name. "Broady! I remember you." Just then, Coleman Connely (BUA '06) walks out of the room, and Matt stops him saying "Guess who I found?" Apparently the two of them were visiting Alex Mott (BUA '05), a resident of the C12 suite. Matt stopped by after work at a hedge fund, and Coleman was in for the weekend from Princeton. How crazy is that?! And by mere coicidence, I happened to be in the same entry as Mott, and deciding to visit that suite on the very night that Matt Riley and Coleman were visiting. What a crazy world!

25 Random Facts About Me, a la Facebook

2009-01-31T13:05:00.003-05:00

1) I have a 400+ fortune cookie fortune collection
2) 85% of my swearing is due to Mario Kart
3) I had a Michael J Fox obsession in Summer 2008
4) I believe computer viruses are an anti-virus software company conspiracy
5) I am an Apple fanboy
6) My life goal is to become Obi-Wan Kenobi
7) I have four iPods
8) I have won Windows Solitaire in 42 seconds
9) I wore a Star Wars shirt every day leading up to the release of Revenge of the Sith in theaters.
10) I saw Revenge of the Sith eight times in theaters
11) The day before visiting MIT for a campus tour and info session in July '07, I adamantly did not want to go to MIT
12) I have Yoshi plush slippers
13) I once had a dream where a freshman from my high school was the lead singer of Panic at the Disco and was the substitute teacher for my ancient Greek class, even though he didn't know any Greek
14) The above is not an unusual dream for me
15) I carried around a Mickey Mouse stuffed animal with me everywhere I went for the first six years of my life.
16) I'm very self-conscious about my music
17) I have been able to carry on conversations using only Family Guy quotes
18) Next to the purchase of the Mickey Mouse stuffed animal I mentioned above, my iPhone is the single smartest/best purchase I have ever made
19) My OCD is preventing me from finishing up this post later, even though I need to go to Robotics now
20) I'm afraid of Urinals
21) I once had a TV Remote/Calculator watch
22) I am a rockaholic (Rock Band)
23) I am not wearing a shirt right now
24) I subscribe to the lolcats RSS feed
25) I own the complete Star Wars LEGO collection from 1998-2001

The Circle of Life

2009-01-26T20:25:00.003-05:00

No....I'm not ripping off indexed.

I've Been IAPing

2009-01-18T14:15:00.005-05:00

So the past two weeks, and the next two weeks, are Independent Activities Period here at MIT. I've been quite busy. A usual day for me:
9am Wake up
10am-1pm Math Class (18.02A)
2pm-6pm Robotics
7pm-2am dinner/visit friends/Rock Band/Mario Kart
Often, though, I don't have a usual day. Thrown into this schedule is about 10 hours of working desk per week (which is very good at helping me watch movies and catch up on 24, Scrubs, How I Met Your Mother, and 30 Rock).

Being a mentor on a FIRST Robotics team is immensely different than being a team member. So I'm not supposed to do actual work but just guide the team and make sure that they're on the right track. Not sure how good I am at it, but it really feels weird to be back on the team, me no longer a high school student, with everyone I'm become accustomed to working with. It's not so much strange that I'm no longer at the Academy everyday, sharing in the same experiences as the team outside of the robotics room, but more that as a mentor I can better see the inner workings of the team. It's as if the outer shell of the team has become transparent, and I have a greater understanding of the organization as a whole. Now this does come with its own shortcomings however. Even though I can see all that is great about the team, I can also see our flaws and where we need to work better. The difficulty lies in determining the best way to solve our problems--both in construction of the robot and effectiveness of teamwork. Solutions are not as obvious as I would have hoped them to be, yet we seem to making great progress. We already have our chassis built, along with some thorough prototypes. Though we sorta stalled out over the past couple of days, we seemed to have jump started our progress with a captain/mentor meeting this morning.

A couple of days ago, after everyone had left the robotics lab for the day, I came across an old team photo album. In it were pictures from many years of the team. On the front were pictures from 2006, including Toby sitting on a newly assembled chassis and drive train, team members drilling cheese holes in the roller structures, and Rob and Dana operating the robot at competition. There were some pictures of us constructing the 2006 playing field, talking to reporters during the ship day competition, and working in the lab. As I got deeper into the photos, I found myself looking at previous seasons. I saw some pictures from the Quincy High School mini-meet in 2005--pictures from my freshman year, when the team was starting to bloom. I went further back in time, looking at pictures from 2004. I was somewhat familiar the game, and I recognized some team members: Sam Duffley, Sam Finney, Sam Massie, and of course Garber was there. It was nice to see people I knew, but never worked closely with or people I'd only heard stories of building robots for the team, leading Overclocked. Flipping through the photos, years fell away and I found myself looking at a team photo (likely from 2000) in which I recognized no one. Everyone was wearing 246 Overclocked shirts, displaying a familiar-looking FIRST robot, standing with the same coach as we've always had. But I knew none of these people, and they don't know me, yet I'm continuing their legacy. And it got me thinking, five, ten years down the line, no one on the robotics team will know me. Except for the contribution I gave to the team during my years in order to keep it going, I'll have no impact on its direction. It'll be as if I never existed on Overclocked. In ten years, some member will be rummaging through the lab and find the team picture from the 2007 Championship in Atlanta and have no idea who I was or who anyone else in the picture was. I can now remember robotics stories from as far back as 2004, but when I leave the team, no one will know of these people. And just like that, years down the line, I will be in that position--my existence to the team lost to time, faded into oblivion. However, I feel my blog is not the appropriate medium for an existential crisis, so I'll stop here. There are much better uses for this space.

18.02A. Math is hard. I'm taking multi-variable calculus now, and we've just finished studying line integrals. They've difficult to understand conceptually. So I went to office hours, and rediscovered how awesome that time is. Professors and TAs are really adept at explaining concepts 1-on-1. I'll have to make sure I utilize office hours more frequently during the spring term. Anyways, I just had my test on Friday, and it was really awesome. I'm not sure how well I did, but the test was amazingly well-written. All of the problems required clever little tricks. If you tried to solve them directly, it would be too hard and take too long. But if you used concept learned in lecture, it was easy to solve. For a line integral of a brutal force equation, the curl would equal one, so all I'd need to do is find the area of the shaded region. Or for a curve that's hard to parametrize, whose force equation has a divergence of zero, I could apply Green's Theory and solve for a simple line. Anyways, I'm a dork and I find this really cool.

Something about Rock Band and Movies

2009-01-08T14:05:00.003-05:00

Dear Internet,

I haven't written in a while. It's been something on the order of 11 days or so since my last post. Has a lot happened in the last 11 days? Meh. Not really. I went through a lot of Rock Band withdrawal. Right after my last final exam, I headed straight to Florida. There were a lot of TV, movies, and internet there but no Rock Band. I found ways to curb the craving: sleeping in till afternoon, not getting off the couch most of the day (spending time either reading or watching movies on HBO), going to a swimming pool, or meeting up with Sam to (mostly) talk about philosophy. But the craving got bad. While my dad and I were in a Best Buy to pick up an iPod Nano, I saw the store had a Rock Band set and TV on display. Hmm....I can play some here. After a few songs I pulled myself away. However, a few days later, at a Toys R Us, I found myself again in the Guitar Hero section getting pwned by Guitar Hero Aerosmith. That's a hard game. Not to mention the fact that the plastic guitar's buttons were slippery so my fingers kept sliding off. A few days later, at a restaurant, there was a girl and her family sitting at the table next to mine. She was playing Guitar Hero for the DS, and I was totally jealous. I thought offering the girl money to let me use her DS would be sketchy, so I just ate my dinner in peace. Then I had ice cream. Now I'm back at MIT and getting my fair share of Rock Band. Nice.

On another note, I finally finished reading the Myth of Sisyphus. It was really good, and everything Camus said made total sense to me, but somehow I finished feeling more down than I was expecting to. His optimistic ending to the entire book, wasn't as optimistic as I was hoping for. It seemed to lack a deeper meaning---which I guess probably is the point of most existentialist writings. Meh.

I saw The Curious Case of Benjamin Button in theaters last week. Even though Benjamin was aging backwards, the film captured the essence of what it is to be human and go through life. Benjamin lived an extraordinary (in all meanings of the word) life. Sorta gave me a bit of the "What the hell am I doing here? I could be out living" bug. One of the most important parts of the film for me was the fleeting happinesses he had. There were some short periods in his life when he was absolutely happy. But they were few and far between. It was filled with either traveling or the utter drag of waiting for something new to come along. But these moments of happiness were the key points, that were a giant focus of the film, what people will remember the most, likely reflecting on those parts rather than the long waiting. I find it funny that life plays out that way. Even though there are only few joyous times in life, they're so joyous and so momentous that they mark one's life forever, effectively becoming a "shatterpoint" within one's existence. The film really illustrated Camus' writing: "There is no noble love but that which recognizes itself to be both short-lived and exceptional." I'm not sure exactly how I feel about this, but it seems to be pretty true to life.

Next up: Synecdoche, New York.

What Grinds My Gears: Christmas Edition

2008-12-28T11:44:00.002-05:00

You know what really grinds my gears? The "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" song. First off, all of the reindeer are making fun of Rudolph because he has a red nose. That's really, really mean. Worse, Santa, the jolliest man in the world, who judges who is naughty and nice and gives gifts accordingly, is actually using these bigot reindeer to help him spread the joy of Christmas. Instead, he should send them to the museum of tolerance. Then, when Rudolph saves Christmas during a foggy night, all of the reindeer like him. What gives? First they're making fun of him for his bright red nose, now they love him for it? Hmm...shouldn' they be judging Rudolph for his inner character and personality, not physical traits? These reindeer are pretty shallow. I mean, liking Rudolph only for his bright nose is like dating someone who works at a fancy clothing store only to get a discount on a jacket and then breaking up after you have the jacket. Or like pretending to be a rich kid's friend because he buys you expensive things for your birthday. That's just false representation and it's definitely not in the spirit of Christmas.

And that is what grind my gears. Happy holidays, everyone.

I had an absurd dream last night

2008-12-23T22:18:00.000-05:00

I’m somewhere in Central Square hanging out with some friends. Raul is there, along with some other people I don’t remember. It’s around 2 in the afternoon, and lots of people and cars are passing us by along Mass Ave. I’m supposed to have my first SaveTFP meeting at 2:30—or was it 1:30?, I thought. I couldn’t remember—but I had lost track of time and was still talking with friends in Central Square at 2:35. I quickly ran off, planning to get to the meeting by 3pm, hoping I wouldn’t be too late. I thought the meeting was to be in Kenmore Square, so I made haste down Mass Ave. Side note: in the dream, there was no Charles River. Instead, there were just a couple of sets of railroad tracks, used occasionally by freight trains—much like the ones behind Storrow Drive near BU. Because of the lack of river, the fastest way to get to Kenmore Square from Central Square would be to head down Mass Ave, turn right on Amherst Alley, walk down dorm row, cut between New House and Next House and cross Memorial Drive and the train tracks there. So I’m about at New House along my route when I decide that I should check the calendar of my iPhone to make sure I’m going to the right place at the right time. I see that the meeting is at 2:30, but the meeting place is actually room 55-3AB, not Kenmore Square. Another side note: The MIT campus is set up a bit differently in my dream than in real life. Lobby 7 and Building 5 are together known as Building 55. From the student center to Bexley Hall is located Building 56, a building mirroring Building 55 over Mass Ave. So in this dream the student center, the cross-walk, the chapel, and Bexley Hall don’t exist—they’re all just this Building 56.

Mixing up Building 55 and 56 in my head, I enter building 56 around where the student center would be located. I walk up three flights of stairs to the third level and begin looking for room AB. Walking down the hall, I see that the place is just like the rest of the MIT main campus; there are high ceilings, long hallways, and large doors with the name and room number on it. I reach the end of the hall, having not found the room. The hallway then opens up into an old fashion ice cream parlor. A bunch of children—about ten years of age—are sitting on stools, but no one else is present. I ask them if they know where room 55-3AB is, and they tell me that I’m in the wrong building.

Remembering that building 55 is actually on the other side of Mass Ave, I leave building 56 and cross the street. I enter building 55 on the first floor and find myself in a fancy restaurant. I approach the host’s podium and see a busboy standing there. He is scraping the breading off of old chicken fingers into a plastic sandwich bag. The host looks up at me and says: “Oh, you must be part of the large party.” I nod. “They’re on the third floor.” A waiter comes over with someone’s meal and the host takes it from him, delivering it to a table a few yards away. Instead of returning to the podium and escorting me to the third floor to the SaveTFP meeting, the host sits down at the table and begins eating the meal. That’s awfully rude, I thought. I couldn’t find a public stairwell, so I use the fire escape to get to the third floor. When I enter back into the restaurant, about 70 people are sitting around tables listening to a middle-aged man. No one noticed that I was late for the meeting Wow. I didn’t know that there were this many people in SaveTFP. I thought there were only about ten or so. The man was talking about past events that SaveTFP had hosted. He mentioned one where they put a ladder in the middle of Mass Ave, allowing students to climb it and jump off the top onto the pavement. He also described some hacks that had been pulled off. I didn’t know SaveTFP was involved in hacks. The man sounded like a cult leader. I half expected him to hand out blue running suits for everyone to put on before we drank the mysterious purple drink. However he appeared just to be a strange faculty advisor. He stopped speaking after a little while, turned to me, and asked: “who are you? How much time do you have?” I told him that I was a new member and that “I’m only taking four classes this semester, so I should have plenty of free time.” At that, the man ended the meeting. He opened a door on the side of the building facing Mass Ave. The door didn’t lead too a hallway, though; it opened directly outside, to a three story drop in the snowy weather. The man jumped off, landed on the ground and walked off. The other members followed as he did. One of them appeared to hurt her ankle upon impact. Well this is stupid, I thought. I walked back to the fire escape exited the building that way.

Next I found myself in a research lab. Jake Magid was sitting in the hallway, wearing a shirt that read “SaveTFP 1989-1990.” I entered the lab and found a grad student’s office in a small closet of about 3 square yards. The grad student was sitting at his desk, pouring over a bunch of papers. He looked pretty miserable. Another grad student came over to say hi. I said to her “It must suck to be a grad student, being cramped up in such a small space. I mean, they treat undergrads here better than they treat you guys.” “No,” she said, “While we pay about $30,000 for our first year in grad school, MIT actually pays us about $30,000 per year plus housing for every year after that!” She then went on to explain how grad school tuition works—though it wasn’t true to reality.

How I got to be in Florida now

2008-12-19T15:57:00.005-05:00

My last couple of weeks have been busy. During the last week of classes, I didn't get much sleep. Most of my time was consumed by a mix of Mario Kart, Rock Band, and revising my final HASS paper. This 10 page term paper, for "Darwin and Design," concerned the notion of consciousness and whether a computer can be said to become self-aware in such a way as we see humans to be. Anyways, I had already written a rough draft of the paper before Thanksgiving, so all I had to do for that Wednesday was revise it. Easy, right? No. I was expecting the revision to take about three hours or so; it took more like ten. It wasn't all bad, though. I actually really enjoyed writing the paper--it was a fun topic to explore. So even though I slept only about an hour and a half that night, I've had much, much worse nearly-sleepless nights. During the Sunday-Monday-Tuesday nights that were the last half week of classes, I averaged less than three hours of sleep per night with a couple of hours of napping during the daytime. Now I know this isn't uncommon for many MIT students, but it's far less sleep than I like to get.

Once classes were over, I decided to take Thursday and Friday off from studying; my mind needed a break from work. So I amused myself with games of Mario Kart, some Super Smash, an occasional song on Rock Band, going to some chemistry and physics review sessions, attending various a capella concerts, cooking some food, some trips to the gym, and catching up on sleep.

On Friday night after a thorough cleaning of my room, I went to the Logs winter concert with Jason. When I got back to my dorm around 10pm, I decided to try to make some class layout plans for the next couple of years to help me determine which major I would like best. I got out all of my handouts that I had collected from the majors fairs during CPW and orientation, and I opened up a bunch of tabs in Safari to the course websites. My first plan of action would be to layout a 7 (biology) major and 24 (philosophy) minor plan. I saw that within the 7 major, there were a bunch of different track options, such as Biochemistry, Neurobiology, Bioengineering, etc. The one that looks the most intruiging to me was the human biology track. Within this track I fulfilled the regular biology requirements (biochem, organic chem, bio lab, genetics, cell bio, thermo), and the track requirements sounded really interesting to me. I would take classes that would enhance my knowledge of bioethics, society and health, and statistics. Out of all of the biology restrictive electives, the ones within the human biology track would be the ones I would want to take: Human Physiology, Principles of Human Disease, and Development and Evolution. Overall, this sounded pretty sweet. Now I needed to throw in a bunch of philosophy courses to get my 24 minor. So I added the ones that sounded interesting. They included Moral Psychology (that I'll be taking next semester), Theory of Knowledge, Metaphysics, and Topics in the Philosophy of Science. I had added so many interesting courses within 24 that I had actually fulfilled a 24 major. Here, with two majors and all of my GIRs fulfilled, I still was only taking 4 classes per semester--leaving plenty of room for me to explore other interests. Sweet.

By the time I had finished my 7/24 path, it was already 3am, but I was so excited that I decided to work on a few more plans involving 1E (envoronmental engineering), 2 (mechanical engineering), and 20 (bioengineering). I didn't get too far before I started to get tired and decided to stop. I read Camus' The Myth of Sysiphus until about 4:45am and went to sleep.

It wasn't until 2pm on Saturday that I woke up. I had planned to get a lot of studying done that day; well I knew that wasn't going to happen. I headed to LaVerde's to pick up some ingredients for the ice cream pie I was making for C-entry's holiday party later that evening, and then I attempted to study some chemistry before party started. However, I couldn't find the chem notes from the first ten lectures. Frantically searching my room--and thus undoing all of the cleaning I had done the day before--I still couldn't find them. Turns out I had left them at home over Thanksgiving break, but I didn't realize this until the day before the exam. So, without the actual notes, I studied the electronic copies on the course website. I got through about 5 of the 36 lectures before the holiday party started.

The C-entry holiday party was a lot of fun. We had lots of food, christmas music, and Secret Santas. I got a bread baking pan and a muffin tin (now I'll have to learn how to make popovers during IAP). After the party ended, I retreated to my room to study some physics (and read more of The Myth of Sysiphus). Again, I went to sleep late--about 4am--and got up at 1pm on Sunday. I spent a lot of the day studying physics, but I believe I spent some time playing Mario Kart. I visited Pam down in E-entry to deliver my chem review session notes to her, and then went to sleep around 2ish.

The next morning was my Physics exam. I was lucky enough that I didn't need to take the exam in order to pass the class, but I needed to get at least a 54 to get a B. I got a 54, but I forgot to take into account that I needed to get at least 1.5/2.00 points possible from the in class clicker questions. So I refreshed the physics grade webpage for a couple of hours until I saw that I had earned the points I needed (it was very close). I also watched Blade Runner. Cool movie. Afterwards, I visited Jason and Kevin on Conner 5 to discover that they were trying to take apart a broken Xbox 360 in an attempt to fix it. Once back at MacG, I alternated between studying for chem and playing Mario Kart until I went to bed.

Tuesday was my Chemistry exam, which was way longer than I expected, so I couldn't get to a few questions, but it overall went down well. After I finished the exam, I took a nap, visited Sara in Burton Connor, who had just got a motorcycle from reuse, and then studied a bit for my Multivariable Caluclus exam. The exam itself was brutal; I only answered about half the questions--but it seems like most everyone else did the same. So I sit here now, in Florida (visiting my dad in Ft Lauderdale), waiting for my math grade to be posted on grade management. Fingers crossed.

This is why strangers call you

2008-12-14T19:54:00.003-05:00

Allow me to go on a little rant here. Occasionally, I will see a group on facebook that says "lost my phone...need numbers" or "new phone...can I have your numbers" or "Sorry, lost all my numbers" or something of like nature. If you click on the group, you see a picture of something random, like a penguin or a pirate ship or a Moto Razr. The group creator--let's call him Steve for simplicity's sake--writes a brief description along the lines of: "Hi guyz. So i lost my phone the other day. i left it in mickey d's for a few minz while i went to the bathroom and when i got back it was gon. So you know the drill; rite down ur numbas on the wall for my new fone! Thanks, guys. Sorry about all this!" From this point, about a hundred or so people join this group and post their cell phone numbers on the group's wall.

I'd like to discuss a few reasons why this is really dumb. First off, spam bots. You ever notice how if you look at someone's facebook profile, their phone number isn't in regular text, but in an image file format? That's some bots won't hijack your number and add it to a few dozen telemarketing lists. Secondly, creepy dudes. Anyone on facebook--and face it, there are a ton of really creepy people on facebook--can look at this group and get your phone number. Anyone. How weird would it be to have some 50 year old man named Joe call you at 4:27 a.m. from Switzerland saying that he really likes some of your profile pictures and wants to meet up?

So how do we fix this problem? There are a few ways. 1) stop being stupid. Don't lose your phone. 2) get an iPhone. If anything happens, all your numbers are backed up on your computer and simply plugging in a new phone will transfer all of your numbers to that new phone. 3) stop being stupid. When you get a new phone, just copy all your old numbers from the old phone. If you're using a sim card, move it to the new phone. 4) stop being stupid. Facebook has its own "phonebook" feature in the "friends" menu. All you're friends numbers are there. No need for a group.

In conclusion, don't put your phone number on the internet. It's bad. People will read it. People who you don't know will read it. That's weird. You don't want that happening. Buy an iPhone.

A letter to the readers

2008-12-14T02:05:00.003-05:00

Dear Friend,

This morning I was reading the Control Alt Delete "Sillies" comics, as I do every morning, when I cam across one that mentioned the new Knights of the Old Republic MMO. I thought, "Oh, I remember hearing about that a while ago. I guess they made it official now."

So, as any logical person would, I did a Google search for "Star Wars KOTOR MMO." The first website that came up was www.SWTOR.com . Okay. That sounds pretty legit. Apparently BioWare is teaming up with LucasArts and EA games to produce a new Star Wars MMO based on the Knights of the Old Republic franchise. I looked over the entire website, from the screenshots, to the videos, to the FAQ's. Not much has been produced yet, but I can already say that this game looks awesome.

SWTOR takes place approx 300 years after KOTOR 2, and about 3,500 years before the Phantom Menace. The graphics look amazing (not only realistic, but visually stunning), and BioWare says that they will be focusing on the story element of the game in addition to the MMO basics of combat, exploration, and progression. They've also kept the element of having companion character from the KOTOR games, that I've never really seen done in other MMOs. In short, I'm really excited.

I haven't played any MMOs for a while now. In fact, it's been over 28 months (yes! 28 months!) since last I have played World of Warcraft. I really never liked WoW, but it was decently addictive. The only reason I started was because Julio Torres, the idiot producer of Star Wars Galaxies, decided to completely revamp SWG and effectively make it a terrible game geared to seven year olds that had no legitamate leveling or freedom to explore. His inconcievable dumb changes, known as the "New Game Enhancements," literally lost the game over 50% of it's players overnight. His NGE destroyed the whole art of crafting, ending the career of my awesome droid engineer. I had no drive to continue playing on my alt, who was a Squad leader training to be a Jedi, because with the NGE, anyone could become a Jedi instantly with no training. It became a dumb, starting profession. After Torres' armegeddon hit SWG, I, along with my guild Ronin Epsilon, sadly left the game because it wasn't fun to play anymore.

You may be asking, "Craig, you haven't played an MMO in so long (28 months!), why would you want to break that and go back now?" Well, the answer is quite simple. SWTOR just looks that awesome. I don't care about any of the past with SWG or WoW--I just want to play the upcoming SWTOR game.

It doesn't look like SWTOR will be released for quite a while. In fact, BioWare hasn't even announced a tentative release date. One thing I do know: when this game hits the market, you will not likely see me for a very long time. The release probably won't be for a couple of years, at least, so I'm just writing as a warning here. I can't wait to be a Jedi.

May the Force be with You,
~Craig

I got whiteboard rickrolled

2008-12-12T16:22:00.007-05:00

I came home from my physics review session today to discover that I had been white board rickrolled. So I have been rockrolled, limerickrolled, barackrolled, and now whiteboard rickrolled. Is there any other medium by which I can get rickrolled?

Today I did laundry for the first time in a few weeks. I had a lot. It filled all of my room. See pictures below.

I'm still working to decide on a major. At the beginning of the year I had it thought I would major in 1 (Civil and Environmental Engineering), 2 (Mechanical Engineering), or 20 (Biological Engineering). Before yesterday, I had it narrowed down to 1E (environmental) or 7 (biology), with a minor in one of: 15 (management), 20 (BME), or 24P (philosophy).

Quite honestly, I think a 7/24 combo would be the most interesting. When I look all the requirements and classes offered within the major, I think I'd enjoy them all. Plus, the biology field is huge now. On the other hand, I fear the lab classes would get tedious and repetitive. Scientific method is boring; running with bold ideas is awesome! Not to mention all the pre-meds I'd be competing with. Plus there's the whole problem of practicality. As much as I like biology, I can't say I want to be a lab rat forever (then again, I don't need to really specialize until grad school). I'd rather a career that concerns a broader aspect of biology (in society?) rather than studying something as esoteric as a single biological process for 30 years of my life. It's pretty admirable for people who can do that--I just don't see myself as one of them.

So if I look at 1E, all of the classes look pretty cool. Classes like 1.018/1020 (ecology), 1.050/1.060 (engineering mechanics), and the economics requirement are intriguing. Plus clean energy research is a huge up and coming field. But I'm not sure if 1E overall would be best for me. Can't tell quite why yet. From what I've seen, a lot of people in 1E are more concerning with developing countries technology, rather than dealing with the energy crisis (with biological technologies). And I didn't see any UROPs in course 1 that particularly intruiged me.

Someone mentioned course 2 to me again yesterday. While all of the intro core classes (like fluids and materials and dynamics) don't look particularly exciting and I'd rather major within a smaller department, but it seems that everyone who graduates from course 2 goes on to the most diverse and intruiging career paths. Plus, I could really do whatever I wanted to within the MechE department. It seems that there's a ton of flexibility. Meh, very confusing. Maybe I should look at course 3, as well. I've heard good things about that. Since it turns out that I really like chemistry (thank you, 5.111), course 10-B is looking pretty Ideal right now. Unfortunately (?), I'm not that much of a masochist to attempt course 10-B, especially when I want a minor. Oh, yeh, about that minor problem; I'm really interested in BME, philosophy, and management, but can't do all of them (or even two of them, most likely). I'll have to look more into this. Any suggestions? Please?

In other news, I finally figured out how to play Mario Kart Wii: you set the car to automatic. Then you win.

I ate a Christmas donut today

2008-12-09T19:16:00.003-05:00

I had my last chemistry recitation today. Everyone got free donuts.

Today was also the last day of my Darwin and Design class. Everyone gave presentations about their term papers. I had been up all night--well, until 5:30 am, allowing me only 2 hours of sleep...--working on finishing my paper, so I think it came out pretty well. All of the topics were really interesting, but one particularly intrigued me. One of my classmates was discussing the discrete computing machines operating at a quantum level. By this, he meant that computers are made up of X many transistors, allowing for Y computations per [time]. He went on to describe the human brain in a similar way. Instead of transistors, our brains have a discrete number of neurons. My classmate then proposed that a computer will have the same computing power as a brain when its number of transistors equals the number of neurons in the human brain.

This got my mind running. What if we were able to program a computer to model a human? We know that it is already possible to record all DNA in a computer (the human genome project). What if we were to take this one step further and create a mechanism within the computing environment to make a human within the computer. Not only would this require all genetic code to be programmed into the computer, but the computer would also need to know how to transcribe the DNA and translate it into amino acids, how these amino acids would then interact with one another (probably a lot of physical and chemical programming), and how it would take up virtual spatial space. Moreover, there would need to be a "feeder" mechanism to give atoms such as carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen to the virtual body so that the amino acids can actually perform their function. From here, we would then need to find a way to allow this virtual body to signal its existence via the computer--maybe some sort of speech feature.

It would be interesting to see if we could actually create a form of artificial intelligence by modeling an actual human via DNA within a computer. Would we be creating a replica of a person or actually creating another soul? Not sure, but I think it's a pretty cool theory.

It's late now. I should be asleep...or reading.

I slept 45 minutes last night

2008-12-08T19:54:00.005-05:00

I think the title pretty much says it all. I didn't sleep much last night. Not really because of work, but because I didn't want to go to sleep. I spent most of the night reading, writing, or talking to friends. And I went to sleep after the sun began to rise. I surprisingly wasn't that tired today--much less so than if I had slept 4 or 5 hours. I was on a lack-of-sleep rush, that pushed me through the day. Sure, I slept on a couch in Barker library for a few hours today, but I'm wide awake now. Best, I had to give 1.5 presentations today, and both went over pretty well.

Tonight was the series finale of Boston Legal. Though I'm sad to see the show end, I'm glad that it's ending while in its peak (instead of dying like many TV shows). C-entry had a Boston Legal study break. I made mad cow brownies, and Ankit brought salsa and chips, veggies and dip, and cheese and crackers. We set up the projector screen, so we could see Crane, Poole, and Schmidt go out in a blaze of glory on the big screen.

The two-hour long episode itself was hilarious, though it offended basically everyone: Chinese, Jews, Christians, Gays. The show truly took it to the extreme in its final episode, making its mark in TV history.

Even though I'm glad that Boston Legal ended on a great and happy note, I'm really going to miss the show. I've been watching it every week for the past four years. It's become part of my weekly life routine at this point. I guess this will void in my TV schedule will make room for 24 and Scrubs which start up again in January.

Here's to you, Boston Legal.

It's 4am (correction, 4:30am)

2008-12-08T03:54:00.005-05:00

First off, I've been running too many laptops lately. See? I've been working on emptying out my Acer laptop (far left) and putting all of its files on the Cyberpower (middle), so that I can install ubunto on it. Right now, the Acer runs *shudder* Vista (below system requirements). It takes about 10 minutes to boot up. So I plan on using a huge partition on its hard drive to run ubuntu (not the pokemon). Furthermore, I'm trying to recover another laptop (not pictured) with corrupted OS files, so I test drove ubuntu on it, and it works great. So once, I'm done moving all of my files off of the Acer, I'll be ready to ubuntu.

Also, some things about my MacBook--other than it's awesome. I got a free trial of MobileMe, and now I have push mail to my iPhone and iPod touch (yes, I have a lot of iPods). It is so awesome. The amazingness of push mail sends chills down my spine. The only downside: when separating my email accounts into Gmail, MIT, and MobileMe on Apple Mail, it downloaded all of my messages from the MIT email server, all 2800 of them. And because I'm so OCD, I had to sort through all of those messages before I could do anything productive, like write that 5 page paper due today (which turned out to be 7 pages) or prepare that presentation due today. I got through everything, but the whole 2800 emails thing is the reason I'm writing at 4am and not 12am. And just now, I used my MobileMe iDisk to upload that presentation to the "cloud." Sweet.

On a similar note: "Dear Steve Jobs, I love three-find swipe gesture on the MacBook. They are awesome. Love, Craig." Never again will I have to hit that pesky "back" or "forward" button in a webbrowser. I can just three-finger swipe to the left or right! Imagine how much time that saves. A lot!

Some other things I feel that I should mention: I had the lights turned off on me while I was in the shower today. That kinda sucked, though I found it pretty funny. Most importantly, I was accepted into SaveTFP this afternoon. Aren't I awesome? Yes I am .

In other news, it's now 4:30 A.M. and I have to wake up for class in three hours. Accordingly, I have no idea if this blog post is in any way coherent. Anyways, before I end, I'd like to mention that Jacob's pet beta fighting fish, Ja Marqus, had a facebook account. I friended him. Also, I've been reading Camus again. We'll see where that takes me...

Waffles and Classes

2008-12-06T13:56:00.003-05:00

So last night I helped make ~400 waffles. It was pretty sweet. I'm looking to join this group SaveTFP, so I was invited to help out at the waffle night event. Never in my life have a seen a line so long of people waiting for waffles. I heard it was a twenty minute wait at times. Well, worth it, though; the waffles were delicious. I also have some important news of a great discovery that I made while there. It happened completely unintentionally, and may change the face of this world forever: I have combined lolspeak and ebonics. Yes, it is true. It can be done. See, I was writing cards to indicate which plate contained which type of waffles. We had blueberry and plain, so I made a sign for the blueberry waffles that said "blueberry." Simple, no? So I decided that I should have a more fun sign for the plain waffles. Planning to write "O Hai! Weer plain," I instead wrote "O Hai! Wee plain."

On another note, I'm trying to pick my HASS (Humanities, Arts, and Social Science) class next semester. I've narrowed it down to a few, but not quite sure which one to take. I'm leaning towards Moral Psychology as of now.
1A.218J - Identity and Difference http://student.mit.edu/catalog/m21Aa.html#21A.218
21A.335J - The Anthropology of Biology http://student.mit.edu/catalog/m21Aa.html#21A.355
24.00 - Problems of Philosophy http://web.mit.edu/shass/undergraduate/hass-req/hass-d/hdsups.shtml#24.00
26.06J - Bioethics http://web.mit.edu/shass/undergraduate/hass-req/hass-d/hdsups.shtml#24.06
24.120 - Moral Psychology http://student.mit.edu/catalog/m24a.html#24.120
24.211 - Theory of Knowledge http://student.mit.edu/catalog/m24a.html#24.211
For those interested, I'm also taking 18.03 (Differential Equations), 8.02 (electricity and magnetism), and 7.013 (Intro Biology).

Rant, Pt I

2008-11-19T17:45:00.002-05:00

1) Afternoons. What is the point of them. Nothing happens in the afternoon. Ever. Classes are in the morning, and homework doesn't get done (started) until night. Usually the afternoon is wasted away browsing youtube or watching bad TV shows. And I wouldn't mind it if I could get some sleeping done in these hours, but the afternoon is the one time of the day that I'm not tired. I mean, seriously, what gives? Afternoons, you are useless.

2) Emo Facebook statuses. This seems to be a new phenomenon spreading about the Facebook. All I see now are depressing Facebook statuses, like "X is never going to be the same" or "X has too much work" or "X hates physics with a passion" or "X is meh." Stop it. This is Facebook, NOT MySpace. Go be whiny there.

Umbrellas and Milkshakes

2008-11-09T22:02:00.002-05:00

So I have two problems.

1. The umbrella equilibrium. There are two situations when I don't know whether or not to use an umbrella. If its drizzling too little and I use an umbrella, then I look stupid because my umbrella is serving no purpose. If its raining just enough and I'm not using an umbrella (just holding it), then I look like an idiot who is getting wet. So I think that we need to commission a board to determine the appropriate times to use an umbrella, to find an umbrella usage threshold.

2. Milkshakes. Milkshakes are great. I love them. But there's a problem. Everytime I get about 1-2" above the bottom of the cup, I hit this "residue." It's not ice cream, it's not milk. It tastes like chunks of freezer-burn and it's difficult to eat. Someone needs to do something about this.

Some Random Thoughts

2008-11-08T17:00:00.003-05:00

I like to hum the Indiana Jones theme when I ride my bike over the Harvard Bridge. It makes it more fun.

I like to think of laundry as a chemical reaction. On the left side of my equation (the reactants) are my clean clothes: socks, boxers, shirts, pants. On the right side of the equation (the products) are my worn/dirty clothes: dirty socks, boxers, shirts, pants. So the process of wearing the clothes completes the reaction. And when the reaction is completed, I must to laundry to start all over again. Where I find my fun in this is determining, my limiting reactant. It's usually pants. Most of the time I run out of pants before anything else. One time it was boxers. I am such a dork.

Continuing on the theme of me taking science too far, let me describe the process of me trying to wake up every morning. Usually, I'm so tired that no coherent thought goes through my head. My alarm the other day went off at 8:12 (well actually 7:30, but I hit snooze a few times until 8:12). So I thought, "Hmmm....8=1 2. This looks like a physics equation." That totally makes sense at 8 in the morning after only 3 hours of sleep. "This must correspond to angular momentum! L=RxP. 8=L, 1=R, 2=P. Wait a sec, this doesn't make sense! 1*2 does not equal 8! I must wait for this equation to make sense until I can wake up!" Then 8:18 rolls around and I realize I was using the wrong equation the whole time. So it's not until quarter of nine until I realize that the time does not correspond to physics equations and that I'm going to be late to class.

Lightning

2008-05-17T12:47:00.004-04:00

On a warm Friday evening in autumn, a thunderstorm descended upon the city of Caram. Caram was a large city whose chief exports were salmon, copper, and tin. Its waterfront location enabled it to interact with many other cities and achieve superior economic standing. The standardization of money and the creation of bronze coins made Caram’s copper and tin extremely valuable. Ships containing the precious metals left the city’s port twice per week, and wealth poured into Caram in return. However, this wealth was not equally distributed throughout the city. The mine and port owners collected most of the money, leaving the miners and fishermen with little pay and long hours. The rich built skyscrapers peering ominously over the harbor. Even though living conditions were less than ideal at the base of their corporate towers, those working in them rarely left. Most of their time was consumed in micromanaging the construction of the railroads, which would let Caram’s exports reach cities not accessible by sea. As a consequence, the businessmen had their homes built within the towers so they would never have to go outside. The low-level workers—the miners, construction workers, fisherman—never seeing their bosses, were left to their own devices in paving their lives. After their shifts were over, few cared about what happened in the city of Caram.

As the sky began to thunder and flash, and water poured from the sky, we find Christopher Lemn, editor of the local paper, and his friend Julie Michel walking home through an old, empty park. “Its beginning to thunder,” said Julia, “you should put away your umbrella.” “I don’t want to get wet,” Lemn responded. “Lightning has a tendency to strike umbrellas,” she said. “And?” They continued to walk.

“I think the odds are in my favor,” said Lemn finally, “of not getting struck by lightning. Regardless, it doesn’t matter much in the long run. Either I’m dead or I’m not. And if I’m dead, I really don’t think that I’ll be caring to much about getting struck by lightning or not.” “What about your friends, then? Surely we would despair your passing.” “Then be sure to hire a clown at my funeral.” They left the park and entered the part of town where the skyscrapers stood. “Well,” said Julia, “I guess I’ll have to trust you to avoid the lightning. We all die someday, but I’d rather it be later than sooner.” “If it is sooner, how will we know it’s not later? Or know anything for that matter?” “I suppose you have a point. However I’d still like to hope that there’s some sort of afterlife.” “Hope is an amenity which I cannot afford right now. You’ve seen this city—you get behind for just an instant and then you’re metaphorically, and very often literally, crushed by the waves of the sea. The people in the towers show no sympathy. And there’s very little your peers can do to help.” “Then we must wish for better times.” “Yes, we must.”

Lemn and his friend arrived outside of her apartment. As they waved goodbye and parted ways, the rain began to fall harder and Lemn headed home. In the nearly flooded streets lined with towers and businesses advertising their goods in giant windows, he passed a man in a dark gray raincoat walking a dog. Lemn approached his home, a quaint little house at the end of a narrow, dark alley between two towering skyscrapers. A casual passerby on the street would not see Lemn’s house, it was hidden so well by its surroundings. The house had a spacious lawn for its size and a garden rich with color. A lone lamppost stood on the lawn, dimly lighting the yard and alley. Lemn, as editor of the city’s paper, had run into a good deal of money. He, in turn, built a large basement in his house that no one would know of unless seen from the inside. It had a swimming pool, a motion picture screening room, three guest rooms, and a dining room. In his spare time Lemn would utilize all of these rooms.

Approaching the front door, Lemn found a package sitting at his doorstep. The box wasn’t much bigger than a loaf of bread. He brought it inside, put his umbrella in an umbrella stand alongside dozens of others, and placed the package on his kitchen table. He opened it up to find a plain, unpolished rock with a piece of paper taped to it. The paper read: “Go to the northeast entrance to Wombat Park.” Lemn looked at his pocket watch. It was only a quarter past midnight. He had plenty of time to visit the park. After feeding his pet lemur and grabbing a different umbrella from the overfilled stand, Lemn walked out the door.

When he arrived at the southern entrance to the park, the rain stopped. Lemn paused, looked up at the sky and chuckled. The night had become cloudless, and hundreds of stars sparkled above. The air was humid, but a breeze cooled the night. Lemn let his umbrella drop to the ground and walked on. He could not imagine what could be waiting for him at the park—especially at this hour of the night. When he reached the northeast gate, he didn’t see anyone there. He peered outside the park, but no one was there either. He checked around the trees, behind the bushes, under the benches, but still found no one. Lemn was beginning to think he was on a wild goose chase until he spotted a hand written note taped to the steel gate. He walked over to it and read it slowly: “Mr. Lemn, please go to the corner of Marble Street and Charles Avenue.” Lemn knew exactly where this intersection was. In fact, it was near his favorite bar, where he intended to go that night. So, after one more unsuccessful look around the park to see if there was any clue as to what he was after, Lemn put the note in his pocket and left for the corner of Marble Street and Charles Avenue.

He was beginning to get excited for what may lie at the end of his journey. Surely no one would go through the trouble to lay out such a path for him if there wasn’t some prize at the end. But even if it did turn out to be a meaningless search, thought Lemn, chasing after the unknown in the night had been reward in itself. That’s one of the reasons Lemn had become a journalist. He disliked the boredom associated with fishing or mining—same thing day in and day out. Even most of the rich folk who lived in the towers were stuck in a dreadfully repetitive process, worse than the workers. The rich didn’t even leave the skyscrapers after their work for the day was done. And most of them were just pushing paper. As a journalist, Lemn explored new parts of Caram and new aspects of life in general daily. He rarely found himself stuck in the routine so common to the everyday men. As a result, it was always easy for Lemn to embrace new and peculiar things. And he did. As you already know, he had a movie theater and a swimming pool in his basement; no one else in Caram could say that of himself.

Lemn approached the intersection that he had been instructed to go to and found himself in the same predicament as in the park. No one was there. The traffic lights were functioning normally, but no cars were on the streets. One of the streetlights was broken, so the area was slightly darker than usual. Lemn checked his pocket watch. It was 1:02 am. The broken streetlight suddenly came back to life, flickered for a few seconds, and went dead again. Lemn looked both ways down each of the streets. A young couple on bicycles rode by. Still no cars. So Lemn walked out to the middle of the intersection to see if a clue might wait for him there. He looked up and down both of the streets again and checked the ground for any sign but found nothing out of the ordinary. Finally, Lemn looked up and saw that a note had been taped to the traffic light, just like the one on the park gate. Hoping to grab it, he jumped but couldn’t reach the note. Lemn paused for a moment, in thought, and walked back to the sidewalk. He shimmied up the pole holding the traffic lights, and walked over to the note, carefully keeping his balance atop the narrow pole. He kneeled over the light and reached down to grab the note. Lemn then proceeded back along the pole and leapt onto the nearest building, the building which coincidentally contained the bar he was planning to go to. Lemn decided an unconventional entrance would be fitting for such an unconventional night. He looked down the chimney but saw that a fire was blazing below. A hazardous and likely painful way of entering a bar, he thought. So he didn’t jump down the chimney into the fireplace. Lemn spotted a stairwell leading down to the main floor, and emerged in the bar’s storage room. He walked out to the main area and took a seat at the bar.

“G’morning, Tim,” Lemn said to the bartender. “Hello, Christopher. What can I get for you?” “Something new. You pick.” Lemn looked around the room. A few guys were playing pool, and another few guys were watching a few young girls play darts. The bar itself was fairly empty for a Friday night, but a few people were at the stools. Above the bottles of alcohol on the wall stood a cross.

“Here you are, Chris,” said Tim, putting Lemn’s drink on a coaster in front of him. “What’s with the cross?” asked Lemn. “It’s new. I don’t think I’ve seen it here before.” “What? A bartender can’t show a symbol of his religion?” They both chuckled. “But really,” Tim continued, “it’s up as a sign of hope for the everyday man.” “Hope?” “For a better future. For a better afterlife.” “Afterlife?” Tim again chuckled, though not as genuine as before. “You know. Heaven, hell, that whole thing. Jesus dying for our sins.” “Well how do you know that you haven’t died for your own sins?” “What do you mean, Chris?” “In the storm earlier today, do you remember one flash of lightning being much greater than all the rest?” “Yes.” “Well, what if that bolt of lightning was your own death? Or even the end of the world? How do you—how can you know—that this right here isn’t that afterlife? That death isn’t just a continuation of life as we know it?” “Are you trying to shake my belief in Christianity?” asked Tim, growing slightly agitated. “No. I’m strengthening it.” Tim smiled. “Well then, my friend, I must answer your question with another question. How do you know you’re not still alive and when you die you don’t go to heaven or hell?” Lemn grinned back at the bartender. “I can’t know. I understand that Christianity is a possibility, one among infinitely many. I just like to keep an open mind.” “It’s unlike you to not be committed to something like this.” “Oh, but I am. I am committed to the ‘what if there’s nothing else?’ to the ‘if there’s no afterlife or if this is the afterlife then how would I act?’ And if Christianity should happen to be ‘right,’ then no harm done. If not, then that’s just fine too.” “So, Chris, do you believe that you’re dead?” “That’s irrelevant.” “Well I’d like to think you’re alive. That way, you can continue to come to my bar and buy drinks.”

Lemn realized that he had forgotten to read the note from the traffic light. He retrieved it from his pocket and looked it over. “Mr. Lemn. Please meet me in the boiler room of Lawrence Tower at 1:17 am Sunday morning. Come alone.”

Later that morning, Lemn was eating breakfast with Julia at a diner on the pier overlooking workers loading crates onto a barge. “So why are you following these instructions?” asked Julia. “Because it’s fun. How often do you get to say that you’re on a mysterious scavenger hunt?” “Rarely. But rarely do I also say that I am on a mysterious wild goose chase. Wouldn’t your time be better spent investigating the railroad construction details?” “Probably better for the paper, unlikely better for me.” “What do you think is at the end of the trail?” “Perhaps a job, maybe money, possibly a bullet. It could be membership to a guild. I know many company executives offer people who hold sway into their guilds. I bet many corporation owners would want the city paper on their side. My job comes with a lot of perks.” “When are you supposed to meet this person?” “A little after midnight.” “Well be careful. You don’t know what awaits you. A guild membership would be likely, especially in Lawrence Tower. Jim Lawrence, the owner of this pier, lives there. A lot of people are growing angry at Lawrence Corp for overworking their employees. They’ve been exporting more copper and tin than all the other shipping companies in Caram combined. Because of this, their shipping prices are so low that few mining guilds deliver their goods using any other carrier.” “Rumor has it,” added Lemn, “that Lawrence is putting a lot of money into new equipment. About five years ago he hired fifty engineers. For a time, he exported far less metal than expected and his profits dipped.” “Wasn’t that from the construction of the warehouse on the north docks?” “Partially, but it consumed a lot more money than a typical warehouse of that size would. They’re building something huge. I talked to the lead engineer last Tuesday. He said that they’re working on a whole new fleet. They’re planning to get rid of about thirty five percent of the two and a half thousand person company. The new ships are supposed to be twice as fast as the current ones. Lawrence Corp can cut the fleet size in half and still make the same profits—maybe more. I doubt that they wouldn’t up the shipping costs for this expedited delivery. And the cargo ships themselves are supposed to have new crate loading technology that requires half the manpower. The paper is publishing a big article about these developments next week.” “No wonder Lawrence wants to meet with you,” said Julia. “He’ll need you’re help to calm down the populace after the major transition.” “Well,” replied Lemn, “I don’t know for a fact that Lawrence is at the end of my hunt. He’s more a man to approach me directly than lay a path of clues.” “It still seems like a very likely scenario. I’m sure things will work out in the end.” “They usually do.” “Until then, you can only hope that the best is in store for you.” Lemn looked at her strangely. “Or act so that it becomes so,” he said.

Lemn looked at his pocket watch. It was nearly eleven thirty in the morning. “It appears I must be off to conduct a job interview for the paper.” Lemn paid his bill and quickly finished his coffee. “See you later,” he said to Julia. “Bye for now.”

Lemn walked over to the last dock on the pier and climbed down a ladder to the sand beneath it. He found a young man in suit waiting there, confused. The man’s suit had sand on it from the climb down the ladder and the look of puzzlement on his face made Lemn laugh. “You made it,” Lemn greeted. “I was beginning to think I was in the wrong place,” responded the man. “Do you conduct all of your interviews here?” “Yes, it weeds out the bad reporters. About half of the hopefuls don’t find their way here.” Lemn walked up to the young man and the interviewee put out his hand. “Ted Mills. Pleasure to meet you.” Lemn shook his hand. “Christopher Lemn. So, Ted, twenty six years old, born and raised in Caram, assistant to the manager of the South East Caram mining guild for seven years, why do you want to be a reporter?” “I’ve always enjoyed writing, sir. My favorite part of my last job was writing up reports of the guild’s weekly progress.” “Yes, I’ve seen some of the pieces you’ve sent me. They’re quite good. And your boss speaks quite highly of you. I don’t see any reason why you can’t be a reporter for me. You can start on Monday.” “That’s it?” Mills asked in disbelief. “You don’t have any more questions for me?” “Oh,” Lemn said smiling, “I didn’t. Would you like some?” Before Mills could reply, Lemn started rattling off questions. “What’s your favorite color Ted?” “Red.” “Walk with me. I can ask you questions while we walk.”

As they began walking to Lemn’s house, Lemn continued to bombard Mills with questions. “What’s the longest time you’ve held your breath underwater?” “I don’t know. Maybe seventy seconds.” “If you could remove a letter from the alphabet, which letter would it be?” “Umm, Z.” “Approximately how many squirrels could you fit inside of a two cubic meter crate?” “I have no idea.” Mills was beginning to look as bewildered as he did under the pier. The two of them had left the harbor and entered into the urban area filled with towers. Lemn continued his strange interrogation. “Pick a number between one and ten.” “Three.” “Wrong,” said Lemn, stopping short with a serious look on his face. Mills turned around and was going to ask him why three was the wrong response when they heard a crashing sound above them. A man flew out from a window on the tenth story of one of the towers and landed with a loud thud just a few yards away from Lemn and Mills. A look of horror overcame Mills’ face as he saw blood spreading under the dead man’s body. Lemn appeared to keep his cool and looked up to the broken window. This was not an unusual occurrence for Lemn to see. Every few months a despairing businessman, caught up in the bureaucratic mindlessness of his company, leapt out of a window to escape from his meaningless life.

Lemn looked back at Mills and said “Well, here’s your first story: suicide at the Cormid Building. I’ll expect a copy on my desk by tomorrow night.” Lemn saw that Mills was still in shock. “Don’t worry,” he added, “three is a completely reasonable response.” On that note, Lemn walked home alone.

It was 12:58 am. Lemn had just checked his pocket watch. He decided to start heading to Lawrence Tower and grabbed an umbrella as he walked out his front door. It wasn’t raining, but ominous thunderclouds were congregating in the night sky. Lemn arrived at the entrance of the tall tower at 1:14am. The lobby was empty. Lemn entered and took the elevator down to the basement. A stairwell led down to the boiler room from there. Lemn sat on the handrail and slid down all the way to the bottom. The handrail curved up at the last second, causing Lemn to fly off and fall flat on his face upon the concrete floor.

He looked up from the floor and saw a young women sitting on a crate in a shadowy corner of the warm room. She couldn’t have been older than twenty-five years. She was wearing a long purple hooded sweatshirt with the hood covering her head. Her hair was dark brown and it nearly covered her deep brown eyes. It appeared that the edges of her hair were tinted green, but it was hard for Lemn to tell in the dark room. He could tell, though, that the girl had beautifully smooth skin. Lemn could see her bare legs—it was unclear whether or not she was wearing shorts because the sweatshirt fell to the middle of her thigh. Either way, whatever she could have been wearing was very short. Lemn was immediately intrigued. He stood up and walked to within a few yards of her.

“Good morning, Mr. Lemn,” she greeted him. “I’m glad that you showed up.” “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Ms…?” “Ateleia. I’m sure that you have many questions, and I will do my best to answer them, but there is little I can tell you because this is not the end of your path.” “Would you like to go on a date with me?” Lemn asked her. Ateleia bit her lower lip, hopped off of her crate, and walked over to Lemn. She whispered into his ear “let’s skip the date and head back to your house right now.” “I’d much rather go on a date with you,” said Lemn. “Fine, then,” she responded, disappointed. “Written on this piece of paper are the time and location of your next stop.” Ateleia put the note into Lemn’s pocket next to his pocket watch. “I’ll see you there.” She then walked away and left the boiler room through a small door Lemn had not seen when he came in.

Confused, Lemn warily left the building to find that it was raining heavily outside. He opened his umbrella and began walking home. About halfway home, a bolt of lightning struck his umbrella and sent a shock through his body. Our hero, Lemn, had died. But he didn’t know that he had died.

MIT course distribution charts

2008-05-11T14:32:00.001-04:00

Kafka on a Plane

2008-05-10T00:16:00.002-04:00

I arrived at Logan airport around 9pm a few nights ago. The flight docked at terminal b, but AirTran's main terminal is c. They had told the passengers on the plane that we must pick up our luggage at baggage claim C6. So I disembarked from the plane and saw that there were a few flights waiting to be boarded. I followed the signs to baggage claim, and the amount of people around me became fewer and fewer. By the time I was away from the gates, I was the only person around. I saw a sign overhead pointing ahead to the baggage claim area. However, there was also a temporary sign in front of a flight of stairs just under the overhead sign that pointed down the stairs to AirTran Baggage Claim C6. I figure that's where I should head. So I walk down the stairs, but when I get to the bottom, there is another temporary sign directing me back up the stairs. I go up the stairs and see some others from my flight going down the stairs. I follow them and find myself in the American Airlines baggage claim area. I look around confused, and within a few seconds everyone else had disappeared. The giant room was empty. I decide to find baggage claim 6. I walk far down the hall until I reach claim 6, but absolutely no one was waiting there for any bags. I find a lone airport employee sitting behind a desk and ask him where baggage claim C6 is. He tells me to go all the way back up the hallway and then up the stairs. So I do that and a few minutes later find myself at a dead end. Well, not entirely. There's a small hallway closed down because the cleaning staff is cleaning the floors. I must find a way to get around it. I walk around for a bit and find myself in another empty area of the airport. But this place isn't like the others--it's dead empty because it's being refurbished. There's construction tools and scaffolding everywhere. I reach the end of my route and see a brand new elevator. I get on it and take it to the third floor. On the elevator are some people that were on my flight. I get off the elevator, quickly lose these people, and walk across a parking garage level. In the dark. In shorts. at 9:30 at night. I hear someone behind me from the flight. He's swearing at the inconvenience of the baggage claim. I laugh, but he doesn't hear. I cross over the main car unloading area via a pedestrian bridge and take the stairs back down to level 1. It is there that I see AirTran Baggage Claim C6 along with everyone else from my flight waiting there. My bag is the first one on the conveyor belt when I got there, so I picked it up and walked away.

Graduation Robes

2008-04-21T17:52:00.003-04:00

So for those of you who don't know, my graduation is on May 19, 2008. This marks the three year anniversary of Revenge of the Sith's theatrical release. So I propose that instead of the traditional graduation robes, we (the class of 2008) march in Jedi robes. Now I know this is non-traditional, but isn't that really what BUA is all about? Breaking the boundaries and daring to be different, do something new? The administration probably won't be too hot for this, but maybe they'll let this fly.

Best $3.99 I've Ever Spent. Ever.

2008-03-14T13:36:00.003-04:00

Yesterday, I went to GameStop with my cousin to pick up Brawl. And I saw that the store had Mario action figures--and better yet Yoshi. So I bought it, and it's the best $3.99 + tax I've spent in my entire life.

Bored

2008-03-09T23:15:00.003-04:00

It's 11:14 on a Sunday night over spring break and I don't want to do homework. But I don't know what there is to do. And that's depressing. I really want to play Knights of the Old Republic, but my old Cyberpower laptop isn't up to the challenge. I'm not surprised. It's been dead since May 2007. First it had a hard drive failure, so I recovered it. Then it had a nasty RAM problem and wouldn't work altogether. A few days ago, I tried to boot it up and it actually worked. There were a few explorer problems, likely due to lack of good RAM, but otherwise it was okay. Turns out it's not okay enough to run KOTOR. Guess that's to be expected when you buy a laptop from Cyberpower PC. It's kinda like the first episode of the seventh season of Scrubs, when Eliot dumps Keith. First he's all upset, then he gets excited when Eliot showing signs of them getting back together, then she goes off for good. So that's me and my laptop. Now I have to run this crap single-core Acer that has Vista but only one gig of RAM that it has to share with the video card.

I still can't find anything better to do than type in this blag. I already tore through the facebook's features. I deleted people I'm not really friends with IRL. This is cause I'm bringing morals back to the facebook. I don't just friend anyone to amass the biggest friends list ever. Who cares if some random frosh that I don't know is upset about his physics homework. I only wanna hear stuff from people I care about. That's why I got an account in the first place: to keep in touch with those who are no longer a big part of my life. But enough of my morality rant, I uploaded some more photos from the robotics season (I made a box fort out of the robot crate). Then I got bored.

Let's see. Then I watched some Two and a Half Men reruns. There's nothing on TV now because of the strike, so I soon got bored. Thankfully, Scrubs is returning to NBC Thursdays on April 10th! But really, there's nothing I want to do now. Sure, there's plenty I should do. Like fill out those scholarship applications or work on my thesis or write that English paper or do that philosophy reading or make those animations for robotics or get ahead in anthro and physics or register for CPW, but at 11:30 on a Sunday night, it's not going to happen.

So here I am. I guess I can write about Brawl. For the 1% of you who have an internet connection and do not know this, Super Smash Bros Brawl, one of the most anticipated games of all time came out today for the Wii. And unlike the system itself, I was not disappointed with the game (I got to use a GameCube controller!). Best, I was surprised at how good I was at it. All of my favorite characters didn't get nerfed in the console upgrade--Samus even got way better. Thank you, Nintendo, you've made at least one good choice in the past four years. Congrats! I look forward to playing a lot of SSBB this week...and getting all that other stuff done, too.

What I'm going to do when I grow up

2008-03-03T18:50:00.003-05:00

Here's what going to happen. I'm going to go to college and get a degree in Bioengineering, with a minor in mechanical engineering and a physical anthropology concentration.
Do you remember the episode of Futurama "Mars University" where Fry goes to college so he can drop out? Well in that episode, Farnsworth sets up his monkey Gunter to be Fry's roommate. Gunter is the monkey with the black bowler hat that makes him super intelligent. So, yeh, that's what I'm going to make when I grow up--a monkey smart hat.

Gym

2008-02-27T21:41:00.002-05:00

So after my two months of robotics, I finally returned to the gym! This was good, because I notice my mental stability and academic focus decreases exponentially with time away from the gym. However, I learned some lessons today.
1) Make sure you get a haircut. Running on a treadmill with incredible long hair is annoying. I think there were about 20 second intervals between each time I pushed my hair back.
2) Running away from your thesis gives you huge motivation to run faster. It kept me going for a while. You think its creeping up right behind you, and you want to run away from it as far as possible, as fast as possible. Well, that is, until your stomach hits the bar at the front for resting hands. Then you realize that the deadline is still two days ahead of you so you turn around and run backwards. However, as you are on a treadmill, this does not work out too well, and you find yourself on your ass on the floor with an emo haircut holding your stomach...
On the bright side, I ran into someone I had not seen in ages--one of my old karate instructors. That's always good.

Ski Trip

2008-02-24T17:14:00.003-05:00

This weekend was BUA's annual ski trip. We drove up to New Hampshire Friday afternoon and skied Bretton Woods on Saturday. As a senior, I got to ride in the van with nine others--a privilege which most underclassmen envy. They think all the cool conversations happen on the van and that it is twice as fast as the 50 person bus. However, most people just slept (kinda boring, I know). For Friday night at the hotel, instead of packing a swimsuit--I'm not a fan of swimming--I packed Stratego and a deck of cards. Neither were used. It turns out the ideal night is watching Arrested Development and falling asleep at 11:30. So when I woke up to a pancake breakfast well rested, everyone else was complaining "I only got 3 hours of sleep!"

We got to the ski slopes around nine in the morning and didn't have to return our equipment until 3pm. So after conquering the greens, I moved onto the blues with a group of BUAers. It seemed that even though I've been skiing since I was five years old, everyone else at BUA is faster than me. Nevertheless, I managed to keep up with the group. At around 11:30 I stopped for lunch, which was ridiculously overprices--even for a ski resort. It cost nearly $20 for a bottle of water and chicken fingers and fries. However, there were waffle fries, so the price was totally worth it (waffle fries are amazing). After lunch I donned my cape on the slopes. Wearing a cape while skiing has been scientifically proven to increase skiing skill. Skiing down the hill, the cape flows behind you in the wind. When you reach the chairlift, you wrap it around your neck like a scarf. While I don't have any photographs of this, an artist representation (photo above) depicts what I probably looked like. After a few runs, a freshmen girl asked me in front of the chairlift "What happened to your cape? Did it tear?" The chairlift attending, seeing my "scarf" caught wind of the conversation and told me I had to take off the cape. This, once again, proves that the first law of BU Robotics always holds true.
After I returned my ski equipment and got on the van, we stopped at the Tilt'n Diner for dinner. I had Belgium waffles. So not only did I have two breakfasts, but I had two meals with the word "waffle" in them. How much better could my day get?

Robotics

2008-02-21T19:57:00.003-05:00

On Tuesday, my school's FIRST Robotics Team shipped off our robot. As captain, it was exciting to see the season end--we had accomplished a lot, and I would finally have some time to catch up on sleep. After a few all-nighters, an average of 4-6 hours of sleep per night, and tanking grades, I needed to recuperate.

The FIRST Robotics Competition, For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology, is a worldwide competition with over 150,000 student participants and over 12,000 robots. FIRST Founder Dean Kamen explains that the vision of FIRST is “to create a world where science and technology are celebrated….where young people dream of becoming science and technology heroes.” Essentially, each team is given six weeks to build a robot that completes a task assigned at the beginning of the build period. The robot can be four feet long and three feet wide, but it must be built by high school students within the time restraints.

At the start of the year, everyone was worried that we wouldn’t be able to live up to the 2007 robotics team standards—we lost a lot of key team members. But the 2008 robotics team proved otherwise. Kickoff began with a shaky start. When we arrived at the GSU, there were a ton of chorus people in our space. The captains and vice captains, carrying the “robotics people go this way” signs were quickly drowned out in a chaotic array of music people. So we quickly called up the coach and he came to the rescue. As we watched him run across the study area outside the All School Meeting auditorium and leap over one of the couches with feline grace (yes, this really happened) we knew everything would be alright. It seems that the BU provost has more say than a chorus coordinator. So the musicians were marched out of the GSU, and the robotics teams filled the auditorium for the NASA telecast.

This year’s game, Overdrive, was announced at kickoff, and I was optimistic about it (I don’t know about anyone else). The next day, we held a brainstorming discussion in Ingalls. Each person wrote down a robot idea on a note card, and we quickly learned that everyone had different ideas about how the game should be played. By the end of the brainstorming session, we had two robot ideas: a possessor and a hurdler. The hurdler is some robot that can pick up balls from the ground, control them, and launch them over the overpass. If at all possible, it should be able to get the balls off the overpass/maybe put them on. We did determine that the extra 12 points were actually worth the time, so if possible it would be great. The possessor is some robot that can scoop up a ball to move with it easily, then can release it to score. During our brainstorming session we did not think of any explicit mechanisms for the robots, just ideas. Additionally, we decided that we would try out some form of crab drive for the robot. Since robot contact and pushing are prohibited in the game rules, we shouldn’t need as much traction as in year’s past.

The next day (Monday) we discussed which type of drive train we would use this season. We definitely wanted crab drive so out choices were mecanum wheels, coolie wheels, and omni wheels. 8” wheels were ideal (as opposed to 6” ones because we want speed over torque). After a long discussion and online debate we decided mecanum wheels would be best (and I totally agree. They’re awesome).

We began to work on building the chassis—since we were to use mecanum wheels, we could build the kitbot. As pretty as they were, the AndyMark gearboxes were a pain to assemble, not to mention the fact that many pieces did not fit as they should have. Once the mecanum wheels were delivered, the chassis came together pretty quickly. It didn’t take long at all to assemble them. Well done, team.

The next day, we began prototyping our designs. Fast-forward to January 19th. The claw for our robot had come along very smoothly. We built it out of flatstock, using a pneumatic piston to open and close the claw. Our biggest problem was grasping the trackballs. The claw would not open symmetrically, so after much thinking, we reinvented the music stand! It required the claw to open symmetrically. We also attached a globe motor to a model arm to lift the claw mechanism. See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=heTqby5Epdw . At this stage, we used the lightweight belt drive. We soon found out that the belt drive would not be strong enough for the task. While all this was happening, we realized that we were using the 2008 kitbot chassis for the practice bot. So we had to move all the wheels and gearboxes to the practice kitbot chassis.

The next day we got the practice bot up and running. Let me just say, mecanum wheels are awesome. See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LuTL6IWt7j4 .

Over the next few days we continued to work on building the superstructure, the electronics board, the pneumatics board, and the programming code for the robot. By February 3rd (Superbowl Sunday) we had the practice bot mostly finished. The claw was mounted to the arm, the arm was mounted to the superstructure, and the superstructure was mounted to the practice bot chassis. We learned (at Sergeant Gym) that the superstructure was too flimsy. It needed to be much more robust, so we began to construct a sturdier one. Also, we needed a stronger globe motor mount. We created a SolidWorks sketch to mill an awesome structure to attach the globe motor to the end of the arm.

Over the next two weeks a lot happened. We completely rebuilt the superstructure. We mounted the second pillow block on the new superstructure. It lined up very well, except that it was backwards and needed to be turned around. We milled the globe motor mount. We rearranged the final electronics board because, with the new superstructure, it was possible to mount it horizontally, which we all agreed is better overall, not only because it makes it easier to fix anything on the board that goes wrong, but also because it allows more cross bracing inside the structure. We began constructing the supports for it within the superstructure. A completely new claw was made out of round aluminum tube. A more efficient musical stand mechanism was made, and chain was used for the globe motor wrist. We made bumpers which work amazingly. They’re so easy to get on and off the robot.

By 8am on Saturday Feb 20, we had a working robot! And only 117.5 lbs (2.5 lbs underweight)! See working http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_W2nirXyrc . We spent most of the night working on the wrist and arm code. Instead of using a joystick for the arm, we use 4 switches. Each one tells the arm to go into a different orientation for hurdling the ball.

Overall, the 2008 season was great. Our robot was the best one every built by the team, and our community outreach was unparalleled.

That's What She Said!

2008-02-21T19:25:00.003-05:00

As everyone knows, National That's What She Said Day falls on February 15. Is it a coincidence that it is one day after Valentine's Day? I think not. Anyways, That's What She Said Day is a time when you take "that's what she said" to the extreme. It's a day when you can just go crazy and not care how immature it seems. That's what she said! I had made stickers for people to wear, but it appears they ended up on some posters...

Singles Awareness Day 2008

2008-02-20T19:05:00.004-05:00

As you all know, last Thursday was Singles Awareness Day 2008, also known as Black Thursday and in some places as Valentine's Day. In the past, I have always dressed in black , donning my Singles Awareness Day t-shirt and Singles Awareness Day stickers. At first I did this just for the extra credit in history class (my teacher wanted us to be just as sad as he seems to be on Valentine's Day), but now I just do it to whine about being single. Not to mention the fact that the only people who profit from the so-called holiday are the greeting card and jewelry companies. The gift-giving aspect only strains relationships because finding a good gift is next to impossible. As Randall Munroe puts it: "because love isn't quite complicated enough as it is." And of course, for the many of us who are single, February 14 only depresses us. A lot.
Anyways, since this is my last year being single at BU Academy (not that I'm going to be in a relationship--I'll just be single elsewhere), I wanted my SAD spirit to go out with a bang. So I made a Singles Awareness Day Awareness Pamphlet. For your enjoyment:

Overview

Did you know that every day, more than 173,800,000 Americans are single? As many as 10% of them don’t even know they are afflicted by singleness. But there are ways to help those who are single. While, of course, singleness is not always curable, there are ways to curve the depressing side effects. In this pamphlet you will find symptoms to help you find out if you are single and tips to mitigate this state of being.

According to the United States Bureau of the Census, the fastest-growing household type since the 1980s has been the single person.

Symptoms

If you identify yourself with any of the following symptoms, you may in fact be single.

•You feel lonely

•You feel depressed

•You have teenage angst

•You watch Battlestar Galactica every Sunday night

•You think Green Day is the greatest band ever

•You teach philosophy

•You eat unhealthy amounts of dairy products

•You are waiting for “the right one”

•You think everything is in innuendo (in-your-endo)

•You listen to any of the following songs many times over:

Cable Car (Over My Head) – The Fray
Inside Out – Yellowcard
Boulevard of Broken Dreams – Green Day
Bad Day – Daniel Powter
Anything by Fall Out Boy
Wonderwall – Oasis
Do It Alone – Sugarcult
All By Myself – Eric Carmen

Suggested Courses of Action

•Cry

•Or, try knitting

Dystopia

2008-02-17T11:55:00.002-05:00

Amidst my 17.5 hour sleep last night, I had the most dystopic dream ever. I started off at home with my dad watching some movie called "End of the World II" or something like that. Essentially, it was like Men in Black meets terminator. Before finishing the movie, we went to eat at a 99 with my mom, taking the move with us. Now, these people weren't really my parents, but they were in my dream. They had no personality and looked vaguely transparent. In the middle of dinner I heard a huge blast and saw that some miles behind me there had been a giant nuclear blast. I saw, far away, an orange mushroom cloud in the sky. Beginning to feel the ground rumble beneath us, restaurant patrons realized that the end of life as we knew it was near. I thought "I hope this doesn't affect any Apple products." (yes, this seriously happened in my dream). Then, the bright lights at the Wal-Mart across the street from the 99 went out. We soon heard an announcement over a loudspeaker that the government was ordering a mandatory evacuation to safe houses to prevent radiation poisoning. Apparently more bombs had gone off elsewhere. Thinking they were in the clear, the people in the restaurant cheered, as residue smoke from the blast began to enter. Everyone marched outside to secret government train stations, from which we be sent to safer areas. In the commotion, I had the feeling that the movie I was watching earlier could lead me to some answers. I couldn't find my copy, but I saw a few other people had copies at their tables. The first two DVD cases were empty, but the third one had the disc. I put it in my bag and quickly caught up with my parent and the rest of the group.

We went underground into this black and white train station. There were about 15 or so loading platforms. In order to get from one to the other, you had to head back above ground. Each platform seemed incredibly long. Because the place was so poorly lit, I could barely see the end of it, probably about 1/4 mile away. Worse, they were only about 20 feet wide. Apart from the crowd of citizens packing the platforms, there were no government officers. People were beginning to wonder what was going on. Just then, old, long trains filled the station. They appeared to have come right out of a horror movie and hadn't been used in years. Still, I didn't see any government officers, for the trains were computer operated. The doors sprung open and everyone rushed into the train. My bag had gone missing and I didn't want to board the train without it. After hastily searching for about a minute. I decided it was time to give up and get on the train. However, the doors closed before I got on, and the windows on the train were one-way windows, so people inside couldn't see out. As the train began to pull away, I jumped onto one of the the metal blocks that hold the cars together. I saw for the first time someone who
appeared to know what was going on. He was crouching in front of me, looking into one of the train cars at all the people. He looked a lot like a slightly fatter version of the trainman from the Matrix. He turned around and told me not to move or else he would report me as an enemy combatant. For some reason, I looked down and saw my bag on the tracks as the train passed by it. So someone had purposefully thrown it there. I then, to the surprise of the trainman, jumped under the train and it miraculously didn't harm me. I ran to my bag and found that the movie had disappeared from it.

I got back to an apartment (which apparently was mine) on the 15th floor of an urban building. Literally no one was on the streets or in the building--not even policemen. There was still a small fog in the air from the nuclear blast. I went into the bathroom and saw a small flash from the closet. I slowly approached it and found a squirrel with a camera inside it taking pictures of me. I went to grab it but it ran away too quickly. I decided to go downstairs to get a copy of the movie from the presumably empty blockbuster. At the front door there was a giant deer with an open zipper instead of a mouth. He looked me in the eye and said "You don't remember me." He went on to explain that I saw his son, an alien, implanted in a human body and given to parents looking for a child. A species of extraterrestrial aliens had taken over the planet and all governments to get control over the human race. For some reason, I was humanity's last hope. Unfortunately, it was at this point I woke up...

Robotics

2008-02-16T06:21:00.002-05:00

So I've been at robotics for the past 14 hours. Its 6:22AM. I slept about 45 minutes. Anyways, we have a really cool robot. I'll go into more details later, but here's a nice video.

Nietzsche, Darwin, and Origins

2008-02-13T13:21:00.002-05:00

So. Something I never noticed before: Nietzsche and Darwin have a lot in common. Both try to explain origins--Darwin, of species, and Nietzsche, of morality. And they both use evolutionary mechanisms. Not surprising, they both piss of Christian fundamentalists. Darwin explains that species are not fixed--god did not create the essence of a given species that is fixed and take form in reality. Nietzsche just says that god is dead. But really, they are not trying to say that god has died or that there is no god, but "suppose there is no god at this time". Darwin, a scientist, and Nietzsche, a philosopher, cannot start out with the assumption that there is a god. It doesn't work in their respective fields. So, they ask "what conclusion about this world or about the origin of species or about morality can I reach if I do not take god for granted?" Whether or not there actually is a god is of no consequence to them. (Well, a Christian god--omniscient, omnipotent, and omnibenevolent--would not be compatible with Nietzsche--but I can't see him opposing some other divine being). In the end, Darwin discovers evolution by means of natural selection, and Nietzsche makes distinctions between moralities.
Now here's what really bugs me (and this only applies to evolution): Christianity is compatible with evolution. Why are there these Christian Fundamentalists who say otherwise? By trying to disprove evolution with the intelligent design argument, they are only making themselves look worse. Sure there is no fixity of species, but there are many other parts of the bible that obviously cannot be taken literally. (for example) the sun does not rise and set. It looks like it does, but in fact the earth revolves around the sun. And the term species was just coined by humans. There is no clearcut definition. Sure some organisms resemble some more than others, but there is not exact definition. If one wanted to, one could define each person as his own species. In this respect, there is a fixity of species. Moreover, who is to say that God is not the one who regulates natural selection. I'm perfectly open to this (whether or not I believe this is another matter entirely). Or even more, perhaps god created and controls natural selection, so that it would create/select for a human mind that understands the concept of natural selection as rational and true. This could explain why organisms are so complex. One could say god was controlling the mutations, or one could say that DNA just makes mistakes copying itself every now and then. Believing in a Christian god and in evolution (and once again, I will not disclose whether or not I am in this camp) makes perfect sense. All I can say is: think deep (time).

Existential Fatalism

2008-02-10T00:01:00.000-05:00

Yes, Existential Fatalism. It works. Existentialism, self-determining your own future by willing your actions, with fatalism, everything is fated/meant to be. They may seem contradictory, even paradoxical. Yes, they are. But that's okay. So is Christianity--combining the infinite with the finite in Jesus. It's the paradox that makes it work. However, Existential Fatalism is even more paradoxical than Christianity. While an all-powerful god could do anything, including becoming in part finite, two opposites cannot be compatible with one another. But in my book they can. Everything is fated. Every action, every word, every thought. But all these things are choices, and for every person, there can only be one choice that is right for him. For example, I chose to go to BU Academy over any other high school. I had other options--I could have gone to Gann or Swampscott High. But given these choices, BU Academy was the only school that would have been right for me--it could not be any other way. So even though the choice to go to BUA was predestined, it was I, and I alone, who made that choice. And it is I who am always making that choice. I decided to go to BUA when I was given the option, but more importantly, I had also decided to go to BUA before I was given the choice and I still acknowledge that it is my one and only choice.
What a great school.

Admitted Students Reception

2008-02-09T23:18:00.001-05:00

So today I went to the MIT admitted students reception. I sat at a table with my a professor and a current student, and two girls who would probably be with me in the MIT class of 2012. The professor was the head of the chemistry department, which goes way over my head (chemistry is hard and scary). While he was talking about his research (which did seem cool), I found myself drifting off. The first thing I realized is that I was noticing how often people were blinking their eyes--and people blink a lot. As I started measuring the interval between the average blink, I thought to myself, pay attention. So I drifted back into listening to the chemistry research. But merely the fact that I was noticing such a detail as the average human blinking rate--and began to quantitatively analyze and compare it on a whim--tells me that MIT is the right place for me. I never thought that something so seemingly trivial would make one of the most important decisions of my life.

The two girls at my table, who obviously now I don't know at all, will probably be my friends or at least acquaintances next year. Someone now, seemingly unfamiliar, will be familiar to me in the near future. And that sent me time traveling in my mind back to the BUA admitted students reception back in 2004. I remember that I met Ben, one of my closest friends now, back at that reception. But it wasn't until a few years later that I realized that it was Ben who was that kid I talked to at the reception all those years ago. I know Ben, and I remember the person I spoke to at the reception, but it took a few years to recognize that they were one in the same. So my goal now is to remember who these two girls were when I start next year at MIT.

Scrambled Eggs and The Sarah Connor Chronicles

2008-01-14T21:49:00.000-05:00

I could probably be a lot more rational. So for dinner, I was too lazy to reheat America chop suey. Instead, I decided that it would be easier to cook scrambled eggs. Really? Could I be any less rational???

I watched the pilot for the Sarah Connor Chronicles last night. I'm not really sure what happened. I think it was Prison Break + Terminator 1 - all plot. Actually, it may have been a promo for an adult film. The new terminator ally was a hot teenage girl. And because she's for some reason showing emotion, we know that she's going to do something "unnatural" with John Connor by the end of the first season. Now don't get me wrong, that's going to be totally hot, but where does that fit in with the plot? Just because Schwarzenegger has become the governator and is no longer acting doesn't mean you can ruin his work. There was too much sex appeal for it to be a Terminator spin-off. I mean, after the first ten minutes I was expecting the cast to take off their clothes and prance about the screen. It turns out they waited until about 40 minutes in to do that, but because it's aired on FOX, they can't show anything. Come on, people. This is the terminator, not the OC...

I am awesome

2007-12-16T10:13:00.001-05:00

So against all odds, I got in to MIT. And because of the 15% early action application increase (due to Harvard and Princeton's dropping of SCEA), MIT's admit rate was the lowest it has ever been (and possibly the lowest in the nation).

Early Action

2007-12-13T23:04:00.001-05:00

So on Saturday, everyone who applied to college early action and early decision will hear back from colleges. And I find it quite scary. I thought I wouldn't be freaking out, but I am. I've told myself that I will make a facebook if I get into MIT early. Most likely I will not get into MIT in two days. Only 13% of the people who applied will get in (Thanks to Harvard and Princeton who dropped single choice early action). But Saturday afternoon, thousands of high school seniors will sit in front of their computer with their future on their monitors. It's really depressing that most of these students will be encountering bad news. The world can be too cruel at times.

My Philosophy

2007-12-13T22:38:00.000-05:00

I'm continuing to read about existentialism and it's quite interesting. But this whole ethics thing is confusing. So you've got your liberalism--Locke, Mill, etc.--saying that all humans have inalienable rights and are equal. But this all based on Christianity and Moral Law. Now Nietszche comes in and says "God is dead." Maybe he's right; maybe he's not. I don't really care. It's completely irrelevant. But what he did was sweep the foundation of liberalism away. We have this great city of ethics and moral law which is now built upon nothing. Can people now run rampant, believing that some people are better than others? How can we replace liberalism's foundation? Because I'd like to think there is some sort of ethics that guides everyone. If we really look closely, believe it or not, Nietzsche is arguing for a hero who is in fact ethical. He wants someone who is strong and will dominate other for his own interest. But this person would not "over" dominate and suppress anyone, because 1) it would not be in his best interest in the long run, and 2) he would then become a weak person if he needed to harm others. What if Nietzsche is wrong, though? No matter. If we look at everyone person on earth, we will find something in common. Stripped down to its barest form, everyone shares a set of values. For some people, these values have been mutated, but are there nonetheless. No one would say that killing babies is a good thing. Evolution has shaped humans in such a way that collaboration is much better than pure violence. Those who work together live, while those who fight each other die. One might ask "Well, isn't this 'set of ethics' always changing because of evolution." Not really. Because think about the concept of evolution: survival of the fittest. Why does that work? Why isn't it survival of the weakest? It's just logic. That's how the universe works.
So I guess I believe in a kind of "Force," so to speak, binding the universe together. It doesn't need to be a deity (it could be--but that wouldn't change my philosophy in the slightest way). For some reason, I have come to believe that everything happens for a reason. No matter how terrible (and I've had some pretty terrible things happen to me) things may become, sooner or later it will turn around and bring some good. It's not that some god is looking after me. God is irrelevant. It's that this "evolution" this "Force" has bred the universe in such a way that everything works out as it does. For every bad, there is a good. At least that's how its worked for me.
And this leads to predestination. Once again, this has nothing to do with a god. Predestination for me has nothing to do with divine intervention. And predestination does not take away free will either. We can only act in one way, the way we do, because that is the only way that makes sense. It is not that we are deprived of choices in life--we have infinitely many choices--but these choices are already made for us, by us, because the choice that we choose to make is the only choice that makes sense to us. Why am I writing this blog right now? Because there is nothing else that I could be doing now. I could not be myself and not be writing this blog right now. So sit back, relax, and enjoy the ride (and other old cliches).

Holiday Shopping

2007-12-01T18:04:00.000-05:00

Yesterday I went holiday shopping with my dad. We picked up a headphone extender/splitter for my iPhone (remember, I have an iPhone because I'm that awesome) for me for the holidays. And I have to say, going out to buy your own holiday gifts isn't nearly as fun as unwrapping them, not knowing what's underneath the gift wrap until it's off. Now I'm going to have to do something very childish to counterbalance this disappointment brought about by growing up....

Existentialism

2007-12-01T17:19:00.000-05:00

So, I've been thinking, and I've discovered a remedy to the woes that come hand in hand with finding morality in existentialism. OK, so you believe the world is uncaring and there is no reason for you existence. Maybe you're a hardcore evolutionist who doesn't believe in god, or maybe, like Nietzsche, you believe god is dead. Possibly you're just a teenager. Regardless, you're having trouble coping with the meaning of your existence (and being shot at by super soakers doesn't bring you out of this trance). You ask: If the universe doesn't care if I live or die, why should I? Why do some people get sick and die and others don't? So you're trying to find meaning in a world without any. Thus, nihilism is born. But where are the morals? All those god-fearing Christians who have been around for the past 2000 years, following morals to get into heaven, could they all be wrong? Without the presence of a god, in an uncaring universe, are absolute morals possible? No, not really. But what I've come to believe is that for people who can foresee far enough into the future, by following this so-called "morals" that each person creates for himself (mostly the same for all people) will bring about a happiness greater than that brought about by small actions done only to achieve short term happiness. So next time you see someone doing something generally deemed "immoral," and you don't want to think "I follow morals because I want to go to heaven and he will go to hell," then you can now think "I'm going to follow these "morals" because in the long term I'm going to much happier than this asshole."

I need an assistant

2007-11-30T22:37:00.000-05:00

I change the world. That's what I do. I'm that amazing. But even for a person as amazing as I am, it can be difficult to manage everything. I mean, I've got all that homework to do, a thesis to write, a robotics team to help run, noobs to pwn, tours to give, tutorees to tutor, books to read, books to write, rebellions to assemble, fights (metaphorical) to lead, movies to produce. My god, I do it all. But damn do I need an assistant to keep things running smoothly. Just yesterday, I got so caught up in my hectic life that I took home someone's calculator (bringing the total number of calculators in my backpack up to four). Don't get me wrong, my iPhone (yes, I have an iPhone) has great note taking abilities, but an assistant would be invaluable. I should look into that...

Cupcake in the Gutter

2007-11-27T19:20:00.000-05:00

I have found the perfect way to compare a mac and a PC, because, it seems, some people still don't know the difference. "Why," they ask me, "would you spend $2,500 on a mac when you could buy a PC for less than half that?" Sometimes it is hard to get past the ignorance of such a person, but when I do, I tell them to consider the following: You are planning to take a cross-country vacation, so you book a plane ticker. Even though the plane ticket is fairly costly, the plane quickly brings you to your destination, you get complimentary food and drink, you can watch whatever you want on the TV screens in front of your seat, and you have a flight attended at your beck and call to help you with whatever you may need. Planes are one of the safest and more reliable modes of travel; you're totally in control. Buying this plane ticket was a good choice. This is analogous to buying a mac. A PC on the other hand, well, instead of buying a plane ticket, you buy a sunshine bus ticket. You still get where you're going, but the bus is very, very slow, the seats are uncomfortable, and the fat smelly guy sitting next to you keeps asking to see pictures of your kids. Not to mention that you don't have any TV to watch (unless you want to see Ferris Bueller's Day Off for the hundredth time on that tiny screen at the front of the bus). Oh, and did I forget to mention that the bus crashes every two weeks? That's a fun perk. So, if you like that kind of stuff (and thus, you're a dumbass) go out and buy a PC. And while you're at it, make sure you upgrade to Vista. Now, even though macs may have their flaws (because nothing's perfect, except the iPhone), in comparision to a PC, a buying a mac is like finding a cupcake in the gutter.

Babies are unstable

2007-11-25T12:42:00.000-05:00

I saw this picture in my physics book and couldn't stop laughing. "The toddler is relatively unstable (in comparison to a kitten)"

Thanksgiving and Hitler

2007-11-22T23:51:00.000-05:00

I was at my cousin's house today for Thanksgiving today. His nephew was over and the three of us were in his room playing video games. I was playing Assassin's Creed on his Xbox 360, which is a really cool game. Now, my cousin's nephew is only in fourth grade and he does not stop talking. Ever. So my cousin and I see no wrong in feeding his nephew some false information every once in a while. As I am playing Assassin's Creed, I run into an old man with a long white beard. "Who's that?" asks nephew. "Oh, him?" I pause. "That's Hitler." "So are you a bad guy?" he asks. In game, the old man takes out a parrot and releases him out the window. Before I have a chance to reply, nephew bursts out: "That must be Hitler's gay bird!" I respond: "Hitler wasn't gay." To this I hear: "Hitler was stupid." Of course, I cannot let the conversation end like this. I add: "Hitler wasn't stupid. Hitler was a genius." Nephew now is utterly confused. He looks to his uncle for guidance, but my cousin just responds: "Yes. Hitler was a genius." So, nephew bursts out: "I thought Hitler was evil!" "He was evil," I explain, "very evil. But a genius. A genius with terrible motives and terrible power."
And that got me thinking, my cousin's nephew had been indoctrinated in such a way that he unconditionally believed Hitler to be evil, with no evidence whatsoever other than the word of a parent or a teacher. I, having read works by Hitler, novels by Wiesel and other holocaust survivors assessed the situation for myself. By investigating and questioning, I came to my own conclusion that Hitler was an evil person. How else can one truly conclude anything. And my cousin's nephew, who blindly believed in Hitler's evilness, how are his thoughts any different from those of the Nazi youth, who were taught that the Allied Powers were pure evil?
So what is there to be thankful for on this Thanksgiving, when children are being brought up blindly, unable to solve problems for themselves? I guess we must take comfort in the fact that our American education is as close to accurate as possible--that Hitler was completely evil, objectively. Because without this belief in ourselves and the system we follow, there is nothing to be thankful for. So we must keep faith in all we hold dear.
Happy Thanksgiving.

Reflections

2007-11-21T13:08:00.001-05:00

So, I'm updating my calendar and looking forward into the future. My last exam, my last prom (although that poses a completely different problem entirely), graduation, my last high school spring break. That really freaks me out. I think back to four years ago, when I first entered BU Academy, and 2008 seemed so far away. I had four years to enjoy my high school xp. Plenty of time. When I went to visit BUAfor the first time, I passed by MIT while driving going into the city. Now MIT is a very prestigious college, to which I am applying now, but at the time I didn't know it. I just asked my parents "Oh, MIT, is that college any good?" Amazing to see how much I've grown the past four years. They're all memories now. Time can be a bitch.