Now, whenever you print something to one of the campus printers (unless you take the action to turn it off), the printer automatically prints what's called a "header page" before all of your stuff. This page has your MIT username in the top corner, so you can quickly and easily find your printouts in the massive pile of stuff that has been strewn around the printer over the past few days. To make them less wasteful, the header pages always have something useful on them, like graph paper or musical staffs, so that you can actually use them for something, instead of just killing trees. They're also useful for clothing, as Ruth demonstrated at the Anything But Clothes Party 2 years ago.

Anyway, I had used a header page for scap paper and thrown it into the recycling bin earlier that day, so Diana decided to recycle it again to save my piece of cake for me. People sometimes go by their username as a nickname, and since another Laura moved onto the floor over a year ago, I've been trying to get everyone to call me by my username (with very limited success) ever since. I found the slice of cake in the kitchen the next morning, and decided to eat it for part of my lunch right before heading off to my 2.008 exam, which was at 12:30.

Then I noticed the small note below my username:

Well, Diana is an excellent cook, she probably knows best.

So I went and took the 2.008 exam, which SUCKED and was way harder than it ever needed to be, and I certainly didn't have time to finish. (Although it didn't seem like anyone else did either, so I guess that's not so bad.) Then I went to music class and had another test, which was just in major scales but still hard because I suck at music. Also, music is dumb. Intervals are just stupid. I don't understand them, so they should go away. After that I had another organizational meeting for MassCPR, this huge event that is ruining my life by not planning itself.

So, when I finally returned to the dorm, I walked into my room to find a slice of chocolate cake that literally had my name on it. I poured myself a glass of milk, and enjoyed Diana's delicious baking. Thanks Diana!

Okay, so an update.

Remember my to-do list from a week ago?

Well, some of them were completely impossible, and some of them I said "screw it, I'll do it after break." So I'm not totally superhuman, but after realizing my limits and readjusting, I'd sort of completed everything. Then I sent our technical advisor for MIT-EMS an email, explained to him what he needed to do to complete the event registration form I'd dropped off for him at MIT Medical earlier today, thanked him for being my hero and taking care of this so I could get away from this place without stressing out about whether the CAC would spontaneously call me up the day before to cancel the event that has ruined my life because the paperwork wasn't filed on time, and took out a big black marker to cross off the last item on the list.

So now all I have to say is:

Forget this place, I'm going to Paris. Oh, and Rome. HA!

I don't exist, because this is my to-do list:

No joke. It's an entire sheet of loose-leaf paper. With 2 exceptions, every item on that list must be completed within 1 week. Starred items must be finished today.

Speaking of starred items, I between taking that photo 3 minutes ago and writing the first 2 lines of this entry, I remembered another one. But I've run out of actual lines on the sheet, and had to squeeze it into the margin.

I hope you'll notice that I actually added a section labeled "fun." Basically I decided that if my to do list looks like that, I might as well add "GET OFF CAMPUS" to it, to keep myself from going insane. Unfortunately, one of the "fun" items has the description "Let someone else do it." No joke.

Anyway, I'm going to get back to my list now that I've given you the proof of how completely hosed I am. (hosed = MIT slang for being so busy that your to-do list takes up an entire sheet of looseleaf paper)

But there is light at the end of the tunnel. The reason all of these things need to be done by next Thursday is because I will be spending Thursday night packing for my week long trip to Paris and Rome.

And now you know why Spring Break exists. To keep us all from going crazy.

You might be wondering about MIT's language department, considering that....it's MIT, and languages don't involve math and all. First of all, I can reassure you that MIT does have humanities classes, and a lot of them are pretty awesome. In fact, MIT has one of the best political science programs around. For example.

But this entry is about languages. Unfortunately, MIT's selection is pretty limited, but the classes are still great. (We only offer Chinese, ESL, French, German, Japanese, Spanish, and only one level of Italian is offered, and only over IAP.)

The very first humanities course I took here my first semester was 21F.716, Introduction to Contemporary Hispanic Literature. We read a different book each week (Bodas de Sangre, La Nada Cotidiana, La Plaza del Diamante, El Beso de la Mujer Arana, and a few others) and discussed them. As you might have figured out, the class was held entirely in Spanish, so it was pretty advanced, but I enjoyed it a lot.

Knowing Spanish has made learning Italian both easier and more difficult at the same time. It's easier because Romance languages have a lot of similarities, so I'm already used to conjugating verbs and making nouns and adjectives agree in number and gender. Plus, Italian and Spanish are even more similar than almost any other pair of Romance languages. There are words which are identical except for the spelling, conjugations which differ only slightly, and very similar idiomatic expressions. At the same time, this makes it difficult: because a lot of things are so close to each other that I often forget which is which. A perfect example: the word "and" in Spanish is "y" (pronounced like a long E), while the word "and" in Italian is "e" (pronounced like a long A). You can imagine that I mix these two up quite a lot. Throw in de/di, se/si, and so on, and you can see how this might get annoying.

But, the class was still awesome, and I will hopefully be using my knowledge when I visit Rome for 2 days this spring. Or, maybe I should say, hopefully I learned enough to get around Rome for 2 days this spring....

Anyway, like all good language courses, there is a listening component. And like all introductory language courses, there's that awful video series of 2 people (one male, one female) traveling around the country where the language originated making overly dramatic but grammatically simple statements. But we didn't use these materials in class- they were part of our homework assignments. So how did we access them?

The LLARC- the Language Learning and Resource Center is a familiar place to all who study language at MIT.

Right outside the LLARC there's a lounge, which is obviously cool because it has laser discs on the walls. I mean, come on. That's awesome. Also, there's a television which is always set to some foreign language channel or another.

The LLARC has audio tapes for all of the various language textbooks used at MIT:

And individual tape recorders you can use to listen to them. Here's what it looked like when I was doing Italian listening assignments:

There are also video monitors and computer stations for watching videos and doing computer based learning activities, and the walls are decorated with foreign film posters. There are also a couple of conference rooms which you can use to watch a foreign language film with some friends, or your whole class.

The textbook videos, along with a whole selection of other materials in each of the languages offerred, can be checked out from the front desk:

Plus, French comics!

Learning language through media is pretty awesome. Every day in Italian class, our professor would show us another Italian music video, and we would challenge ourselves to see how many words we recognized in each one. Then she'd hand out the lyrics and we'd go over them together, learning to translate the whole thing. Once we even watched a commercial for coca cola (which was hilarious), and a scene from 90210 which had been dubbed into Italian.

But by far the most awesome and class favorite video was Lunapop's 50 Special. It's about a guy who wants a Vespa. It's amazing. Watch it once, and you'll be hooked. Promise. I mean, it's Italian pop music! What's not to love?

Who ever knew YouTube would be such a great learning tool? (Don't tell Snively. He'd never see the sun again.)

Plus, completely not related: This is totally going to start up a huge gender/affirmative action war, but dude. Hilarious.

As I might have mentioned, I have never been outside the country (unless you count Bermuda and the Bahamas, which I don't). This makes me very sad.

It's hard to explain how incredibly jealous I get of friends who have traveled. I think it's a particularly touchy subject because I feel....well, "ashamed" is the closest word I can think of...of the fact that I've lived such a sheltered life so to speak, and when I gush over the fact that my friends have been to even the UK (of all non-exotic places, at least from our point of view), I feel the need to rush to my own defense, saying, "No, you don't understand! It's not my fault I'm this naive!" I'm sure some of you understand this feeling- it's very, very uncomfortable to feel defensive about things outside your control.

So I played around with that Facebook application yesterday, just to see how boring my travel experiences really were, and how little of world out there I actually know anything about. Places I've been are highlighted in blue. (Also, this is clearly a very US-centric program, since it delineates the US states but for example, none of the regional divisions of China).

Basically, the most interesting places I've been are Disney World, Utah, and the Henry Ford Museum.

But all that's about to change.

First of all, I'm spending spring break visiting Adelaide in France, with a 2 day excursion to Italy.

Second of all, I was officially offered a job at Telefónica. If the name sounds Spanish, it might be because the office I'll be reporting to every day this coming summer is in MADRID.

OhmygodI'msoincrediblyexcitedyouhavenoidea!

So basically, after 21 years of living on either the same street in New Jersey or the same floor of the same dorm at MIT, I'm finally taking matters into my own hands and knocking off as many interesting places as I can in the next few months. Any suggestions for weekend travel while I'm in Europe this summer? =)

And hey, if I get into D-Lab next semester, maybe they'll send me to Africa...

The only practical result of this for me, since I insist on denying that the future is rushing towards me at a terrifying pace, is that I am constantly being asked what I'm going to do when I graduate.

And I HATE it.

Why? Because I have NO CLUE what I'm going to do when I graduate. Furthermore, I'm spending four years bashing my head against textbooks about thermodynamics and control systems, and I don't even know if I want to be an engineer anymore.

I can't tell if I never even wanted to be an engineer and just accidentally ended up on this path which led me to MIT and my ultimate hatred of anything math-related, or if I'm just burned out from classes and getting sick of doing textbook problems instead of actual engineering, or if maybe I choose the wrong major after all and should have just been Course 16, or if I'm just in a grouchy mood lately and want to do nothing but lie on a beach reading all day for the rest of my life.

Luckily, I've found that Adelaide '09, despite being as mild mannered, polite, and sweet as I am not, usually agrees with me on matters of great importance, such as this. During one particularly gross problem set, she proclaimed that she would simply become a hermit in a cave in Hong Kong after graduation. I proclaimed that I would become a baseball announcer, since everyone on the floor has commented on how much enjoyment I get out of yelling at the television during baseball games. (This usually involves mocking the actual announcers for their lack of insight into the intricacies of the greatest sport of all time.) Adelaide told her mom about this plan, who wasn't sure that Adelaide would like it so much, so she suggested that Adelaide at least keep her options open- maybe there are suitable caves in other cities as well?

Inspired, Adelaide and I proceeded to spend the rest of the semester continually adding to the following list of ridiculously improbable post-graduation paths. The only thing is, we're not at all sure how ridiculously improbable any of them actually are...

• hermit in cave in Hong Kong
• baseball announcer
• The Daily Show
• Admissions Counselor
• Teach for America
• start up FIRST teams worldwide
• escape to Spain
• EMT/Paramedic
• wedding planner
• teacher
• Board of Education
• librarian
• author/screenwriter
• movie producer
• magazine editor
• book critic
• escape to Italy
• escape to South America
• engineer medical devices
• one of Santa's Elves
• actress
• United Nations!
• sock designer
• teacher at HTHS (my high school)
• Discovery Channel "reality" (host our own Mythbusters type show!)

I'd like to point out that the word "engineer" did make it onto the list once, at position 19, and was immediately followed by "one of Santa's elves." You see the scope of our confusion.

While this was going on, I was applying for a summer internship through MISTI-Spain. MISTI, which stands for MIT International Science and Technology Initiative (gah! embedded acronyms!), is a program which helps students find and plan study and internships abroad. I've been corresponding with Telefónica lately, a telephony and IT company based in Madrid. They asked me to come visit them at the European Career Fair, which was today in the athletics center on campus.

So I got up this morning, ate some waffles, and headed over to the fair. As soon as I got there, I realized an important fact: I was wearing jeans, and every signle other person there was in business attire.

Yeah, it had totally slipped my mind that I was supposed to dress up for these kinds of things. I'm very fashion challenged. So, I headed back to my room to get changed. This proved to be a difficult task, because I hate dress clothes and...well, I had an adventure. I found an undershirt and then put the collared shirt on over it. Was I supposed to tuck it in? What about the buttons? You only button the bottom half, right? Or something? And what about the sleeves? The shirt I was wearing needed to be cuffed...but do you have to fasten the buttons on the cuff afterwards? I didn't know. I decided not to, because I could barely bend my elbows without the sleeves cutting into my wrists as it was. I probably looked like an idiot. Maybe I should have gone to Charm School. How to Dress Yourself 101. Or something.

This is what my bed looked like when I left:

I successfully arrived at the Career Fair, now appropriately dressed. The first booth I passed was MISTI, one of the sponsors:

I wandered around the fair a bit, taking pictures for your enjoyment:

Then I briefly chatted with the representatives from Telefónica (they're interviewing me tomorrow, so we kept it short today), and then I wandered around the fair, looking for cool companies to talk to.

I picked up some information on Sennheiser (they design audio equipment...I never knew there were so many kinds of headphones), EADS (aerospace, defense and security projects), Stryker (designing medical devices, with openings in over a dozen countries including Italy and Spain...and hey! that was actually on the list!), and Finmeccanica (more aerospace and defense with a year long training constituting a master's program in International Business Engineering which takes place in Rome).

And then something happened.

I thought...that maybe I might actually want to be an engineer after all. Previously, the idea of having a job as an engineer in some firm just...bored me to death. And then I learned about some supercool and socially responsible European firms...and for whatever reason, the idea of doing the exact same thing I thought I'd dread, only in Rome instead of New York...made some sort of huge difference. I can't say I have any concrete plans. The coolest company I talked to today was Finmeccanica, and the chances that I would ever actually be admitted to their program is approximately zero. But still, some idea has been planted...so I think that maybe, if I can somehow manage to get a job doing interesting stuff and applying engineering to sustainability or renewable energy with a company that has projects which advance technical education, and can mix things up a bit by living in Italy or Spain...maybe this will work out after all.

While I was writing this entry, Alison '09 informed Zach '08 and myself that she was voting for Obama in the primaries, which basically shattered our respective worlds. (Alison is the resident Republican.) I immediately emailed Adelaide to tell her about it, and a few minutes later she sent me a Skype message about her concern for Hell, which had apparently just frozen over. During the course of our conversation, I mentioned this blog entry, and she told me to wait while she ran and got her Chinese notebook, on which she had scribbled another item for the above list which came to her in a moment when she was supposed to be studying:

Adelaide says: OOOH!
Adelaide says: i have something to add to the list!
Adelaide says: wait i wrote it down in the back of my chinese notebook!
Adelaide says: okay, and this is a serious plan this time (not that i'm not serious about the cave in hkg on occasion, but you know):
Laura says: of course
Adelaide says: grad school somewhere (possibly california since that's where all the cool kids are going these days, and, you know, good schools and stuff and i have to get out of mit), internship at the UN during a grad school summer (since they only take grad student interns), then work in developing sustainable energy things -- i'm doing tons of fluid mechanics here and am really getting into the idea of working on wind turbines/wave turbines. preferably, working in hong kong, but that's not required. and then, to keep life balanced, I would be a FIRST volunteer and a UN volunteer. and life would be good
Laura says: oh wow, that is like an actual plan

So, good times all around- apparently we're both figuring out what to do with our lives. So okay, Adelaide has figured something out, and I have a vague idea that I'm not totally screwed. But still! Baby steps! It's exciting!

Our conversation veered slightly off topic, and we started talking about classes we'd be taking. I leave you with this parting thought:

Laura says: did I tell you? I'm planning on taking 21M.051, so I can stop being musically ignorant
Adelaide says: i certainly don't recall you being musically ignorant
Laura says: ummm
Adelaide says: however, speaking of ignorant... i don't know what 21m.051 is
Laura says: it's called fundamentals of music or something
Adelaide says: oh ok
Laura says: and I am most certianly musically ignorant
Adelaide says: really?
Laura says: James was going on about the difference between minor chords and major chords, and I said, "what's a chord?"
Adelaide says: oh well never mind then
Laura says: my knowledge of music is that there are scales, with lines and spaces
Adelaide says: it's a start!
Laura says: and each one represents a note, which come in octaves
Laura says: I have no idea what that means
Laura says: the octaves part
Laura says: but I know you count by 8
Adelaide says: i mean, when you think about it, mozart didn't know any more than that when he composed his first sonata or whatever when he was 5
Laura says: haha so there's hope for me to be the next mozart =P
Adelaide says: precisely!
Adelaide says: ADD IT TO THE LIFE LIST!
Laura says: Adelaide, you're awesome
Laura says: this is totally how I'm ending my blog entry

The topic, you might be surprised, to know, was religion.

MIT's Asian Christian Fellowship hosted "Doubter's Anonymous," which listed the following description in the IAP guide:

"A discussion group about hard questions regarding faith and Christianity. Practicing and retired Christians, agnostics, atheists, and general doubters are all encouraged to come. Discussion will follow the questions that you anonymously suggest at the beginning of the meeting. Facilitators are Kevin Ford (an MIT chaplain and pastor) and Garrett Smith, who is well versed in Judaism, Eastern religions, and Christianity. Regardless of where you are on your spiritual journey, come and pose your hard questions about faith, science, Christianity, and doubt."

As someone who considers herself spiritual but often has a hard time believing things on blind faith, this seminar seemed particularly interesting to me. The two speakers took turns answers some tough questions, like "How do Christians view Muhammad, who said that God spoke to him? Are we to simply disregard his personal spiritual encounter?" and "As a scientist, how can I believe in things described in the Bible like the sun standing still, Sodom and Gomorrah, etc?"

Unfortunately, the seminar seemed more geared towards Christians hoping to strengthen their faith by overcoming these questions, rather than someone like me, who wasn't actually looking for a solid answer. Because of that, I found some of the answers less than satisfying. For example, the speakers explained their personal reasons for believing in Jesus rather than Muhammad, which was insightful, but without an Islamic point of view, the discussion...wasn't really much of a discussion.

One of the interesting things the speaker mentioned was that he thought that there should be a huge price for declaring faith- that'll keep you honest. When members of a certain religion are persecuted, only those who really believe in it will risk it. Think about it- when people are less tolerant, religion is more pure. Crazy. Looking at it from the reverse: part of the problem with Christianity today, in this speaker's view, is that if you grow up in a Christian family, there's a huge price for NOT declaring your faith. So you end up with a lot of people who say they're Christians when they're really not, which really dilutes the power and message of those people who are truly faithful. The world is unfortunately brimming over with the effects of this phenomenon as it applies to all religions.

The second question I mentioned above was perhaps more interesting, because one of the students at the seminar suggested that we change it to reflect some recent letters to the editor which had been published in the Tech.

Rather recently, MIT appointed Dean Randolph its first ever Chaplain.

This inspired a letter to the editor of the Tech by someone who opposed the apointment of a chaplain, and, as you can imagine, a few responses to that. I've provided the links to the letters below, but be warned, it gets heated pretty fast. My personal opinion is that the original letter writer is being horrendously narrow-minded, but see for yourself:

MIT does not need a chaplain
Responses published on 1/16
Responses published on 1/23

One of the speakers wrote on the board, "Is there purpose in the universe?" pointed to it, and asked "can science answer this question?" He claimed the answer was "no," because science isn't designed to answer that question. Even among scientists, it's pretty commonly accepted that the limit of science merges with philosophy. That there's a point at which things might just be unknowable, and that's where faith comes in.

As for the miraculous, science-defying events that happen in the Bible, he claimed that people just wrote what they saw, and we have to figure out what they meant by that. He posed the following example:

"If you're at the beach in the evening and the sky is a very pretty red, you might say, 'what a pretty sunset.' You don't say, 'Wow, look at the way the sun's rays are refracting through the layers of the atmosphere as its angle of declination to our line of sight changes over time.' You say, 'that's a pretty sunset-' but that's terribly scientifically inaccurate!"

I'm not sure how far this goes into convincing skeptics of the truth in the Bible despite its miraculous proclamations, but it certainly got a good laugh out of the crowd.

The other speaker took a different route: he claimed that there are so many miraculous things that happen all the time that we take for granted that we just never bother to try to explain them. For example, the miracle of birth. Sure we know all about the biology of it, but we seem to be so caught up in our detailed knowledge of the sperm fertilizing the egg and the chromosomes splitting and so on and so forth, that we never really seem stop to think that all of those cells doing their thing actually creates a new person. That's pretty miraculous, if you stop to think about it for a second.

Like I said, I had a lot of problems with some of the things the speakers were saying, but it did provide some interesting food for thought which should keep me mentally occupied for awhile.

So, in case you were wondering- yes, there is a religious following at MIT, but like in everything else, we're still MIT students about it- so we think too much and make science jokes about it too. =)

You can see more IAP activities related to religion here.

Responses to comments:
Isshak said:
do you like to read Kafka ? You should read The Trial, it's a great book !
What do you like to read ?
I haven't read any Kafka, but I do read pretty much anything and everything, so I'll be sure to add that to my list. I've literally walked down an aisle of the library and pulled a book off the shelves at random for leisure reading. In general, though, I'm a big fan of fantasy, however cheesy and unoriginal it might be. I just love reading about people who are doing more exciting things than me, leading brave and epic lives and fighting evil and what not, because I'd totally love to be one of those characters. I'm also a big fan of Kurt Vonnegut, because his stuff is very sarcastic and satirical, and sarcastic just might be my middle name. One other thing I love to read but am never, ever able to finish is Hispanic literature. It's just so hard to get through a whole book in a non-native language. It takes SO long, but I absolutely adore Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Isabelle Allende anyway. They write with what's called "magical realism" which is a style that relies on blurring the line between fantasy and reality. Sorry for the long-winded answer, but you did ask me a question about one of my favorite topics ever. =)

Justin Powell asked:
Also this might be a dumb question but I have looked for the emails of the bloggers a few times and have not been able to find them... Where the heck are they??
This one has already been answered, but for anyone else who's wondering, all of the bloggers have contact information listed to the left of their banner photos at the top of each of their entries. Feel free to contact me at asklaura at mit dot edu. I will reply to your email, but I can make absolutely no promise as to how quickly I'll accomplish that.

Also, to everyone who sent in blog entry ideas in response to my last entry: you're awesome! Obviously they won't all be happening right away, but rest assured that I've taken note of them and will be tackling them eventually. If you ever have any personal questions or blog entry ideas, please let me know. Believe it or not, the comment section below is not specifically designed so you can have a "first post" war. And like I said, I do reply to all the emails I get from you guys. Eventually. =)

1. Just read it.
Every once inawhile I get questions like, "So, what's MIT like?" Yeah, I'm not answering that. Read the blogs, that's what they're for. We try to make them interesting, and I personally try to link each entry to as many other entries as possible, so that you can waste hours clicking arond to random interesting topics. In fact, I think I'll link random words in this entry to some random blog entries. You know, just for fun.

2. Tell us what you want to hear.
So, you know those 2 ridiculously long entries I did a little while ago about all of the machine shops on campus? That was done by request- a prospective student asked one of the admissions counselors, who passed it on to us. That was awesome. I spent a week wandering around campus machine shops, awkwardly taking pictures of random people I didn't know. (I find this kind of situation hilarious, personally.) I've been blogging for over 2 years now. Every once in awhile, I run out of ideas. So give me some of yours. =)

3. Ask good questions.
If you ask me “does MIT have a major in economics?” I’m going to be like “dude, why didn’t you just go to the MIT home page, click on academics, and then read through the list until you got to the part about the economics major?” Similarly, if you ask me “Is there a group for students who are religiously identified as Lutheran?” I’m going to just google the MIT site, and while I don’t mind doing that for you, it’s not a really exciting question. If you ask something cool and insightful,it may even inspire an entire post, and that would rock. Everyone would be happy. I don’t have any examples of this, because if I did, I’d be off writing said inspired posts instead of this one. My point is, we love getting good questions and entry ideas- a lot of times we don’t know what to write, and even when we do, we don’t know if you’ll really care.

4. Remember that I am a lowly student.
Please don’t ask me if I filed your letter of recommendation yet. The answer is always no. (You can direct that stuff to admissions at mit dot edu.)

5. Cut it out with the “what are my chances?” stuff.
I have a very serious question to ask those of you itching to ask this question: who the hell cares?! For real. If there was a crystal ball you could look into that would tell you who was going to be admitted to what schools, you wouldn’t need to fill out all those applications, would you? Just fill out the application, send it in, and then wait for the answer. I know the waiting sucks, but is getting some random person’s opinion of your chances really going to help the waiting suck less? No, probably not. If you ask this, we're just going to say we don't know anyway.

6. Do not insult my SAT score.
I got a 700 on the SAT I math section, and every time I get asked "zomg I only got a 760 on the SAT I math and I don't have time to retake it and I'm doomed to work at mcdonald's for the rest of my life what should I do???!?!?!?!!!" ...I get angry. And that's not just a personal thing. I'm just as angry when the grade in question is as low or lower than mine. Listen to me very carefully: THERE IS MORE TO LIFE THAN THE SAT. And thank God.

7. Every once in awhile, get off the internet and go outside or something.
I'm serious. Get a tan. Read a book. Stop thinking about college applications so much.

What are your thoughts on my ramblings?

Friday, 16:19
Anyway, I just got out of class and ran home to get my laptop. So nothing interesting has happened yet on my end, but stay tuned!

Friday, 16:22
I'm sitting at my kitchen table, eating leftover baked ziti I just heated up. I got sidetracked, okay? I'm chatting with Adelaide '09, who is currently studying in France. We've been trying to chat all week, but the 6 hour time difference makes it a little complicated sometimes. We finally caught each other, and Adelaide is more important than Mystery Hunt. The puzzles aren't solving themselves, but they can wait an hour.

Friday, 16:39
Jordan '11 just ran into her room. Then she ran back out, pausing just long enough to explain that they needed some maps for a puzzle. This sort of frantic searching for resources will be pretty common this weekend.

Friday, 16:45
Adelaide and I are now talking about Sam '07. This is relevant (to you, dear reader), because Sam was basically the coolest blogger of all time. Go read his archives. Seriously.

Friday, 16:55
In response to Isshak's question: this year's theme is a mystery. Someone named "Otto Awkward" has been murdered, and we've been charged with the task of figuring out who had the means, motive, and opportunity to do it. We're given a "little black book" with lots of contacts in it. We've got to solve the puzzles, figure out how the contacts should be grouped together, and contact some of them for more information about the case. But the contacts won't give up information easily, so the only way to convince them is to solve the puzzles and figure out what we'll need to give them in exchange for our next clue.
Mystery Hunt is all about the meta.

Friday, 17:19
I arrive at Hunt Headquarters. Somebody give me something to do....

Friday, 18:14
James '11 loves comics, so he gravitated towards the puzzle "World of Comics." Right now I'd love to tell you the current research topic I'm bashing my head on, but that might give something away to other teams. Sorry!

Friday, 18:45
Aaaand all of that research was completely useless to solving the puzzle. Well, we got it anyway, on to the next one. (I'm still really bitter though. Grr.)

Friday, 19:15
In the last 30 minutes, I've discovered 2 things: I cannot recognize actors and actresses to save my life, and creating tables in wiki markup is the worst thing ever.

Friday, 22:31
Choice quotes I've been keeping track of since my last update:
"What do these people have in common? WHAT?!"

"Hey, that's the font the Asgard uses on its menu!"

Me: "Oh my God I've SEEN that movie! I would have KNOWN that!" (This is a huge accomplishment for me. I never get movie clues. Like, ever.)

"I last slept like...33 hours ago."

"Where are there neon room numbers?"

"It doesn't make sense, there are two images with no difference except that the one of the images is a higher resolution."
*Someone else runs in*
"That's not the only difference!"
"There's a different difference?"

Saturday, 0:19
Oh my God I've been working on the same puzzle for foooouuuur hoooouuuurssss and I'm getting delirious....

Saturday, 0:45
I just got off a Skype call with our remote solvers in Boulder. We're both working on a horrendous crossword, and we're going to take some digital pictures, upload them to the Internet, and compare. I love technology.

Saturday, 2:13
Somebody: "Do you recognize this as a font?"
Snively: "No, but this looks like a really doable puzzle."
Me: "Ha! Don't talk to me about doable puzzles."
Other guy: "I'll keep working."
Snively: "Well, do you know who that cat is?"

Saturday, 3:51
And we are closing in on 9 hours working on this puzzle.
Wes: "Laura...now I know why you're so bitter about the world."

Saturday, 5:27
This puzzle has 132 movie titles. 132. We are now re-checking all 132 of those answers. In order to finish the rest of the puzzle, each of them has to be exactly correct.

Saturday, 5:32
3 of them were wrong.

Saturday, 5:52
Okay, maybe that one was actually right the first time.

Saturday, 7:32
Chris: "He's calling something in." (This means calling Hunt HQ and checking if an answer is right.)
Dan: "Oh, did you figure it out?"
Chris: "No, he's just calling in an answer so they know we're not dead."
Wes: "While you're there, call in aardvark for our puzzle!"
Me and James: "It's NOT aardvark!"

Saturday, 9:53
Screw this ?!@#&*$ puzzle, I'm going to sleep.

Saturday, 20:00
Back to Hunt HQ. I'm officially 12 hours sleep shifted!!!

Saturday, 22:06
So far I've looked at ANOTHER horrendous crossword, some pictures of Muppets, and not much else. Just for the sake of completeness, I updated the wiki our team uses with my detailed commentary on "Guilty Pleasures," left instructions to find our work with the operator (person who answers the phones and keeps everyone organized), gathered up our work and put it all in a safe place with the operator. I took a picture for your enjoyment. (And yes, if I spent 15 hours working on the puzzle, I was willing to spend 5 minutes blurring out the answers we have so far. Not that I really expect any other teams to be reading my blog for tips...but hey, I'm being paranoid.)

Saturday, 22:21
Evan: "Hey guys, they just released hints for Frontal Lobotomy, Talk to Me, In Other Words, Character Witness, Global Coolness, Manual Transmission, and Facebook."
General chaos ensues as people shout at each other and scramble for laptops, papers, and highlighters.

Sunday, 3:33
I just walked in to HQ and immediately heard, "Laura! You're responsible! Be operator for a few hours!"
So, now I get to feel all special and important and sit here, answering phones and coordinating remote solvers and such. There are, of course, lulls in the action, which I intend to fill by working on the only puzzle I've worked on all weekend, since I think I'm the only person left who actually give a ?@#& if it ever gets solved. But I did just call in my first answer as operator (meaning someone else solved a puzzle and I answer the phone call from HQ to verify that it's correct), so that's exciting!

Sunday, 4:13
I just called in another correct answer for someone else, and everyone cheered for them. Sigh. If only I could solve the ONLY puzzle I've worked on for more than 15 minutes all weekend...Currently reviewing all of the clues...

Sunday, 8:02
This just plain sucks.

Sunday 16:10
Operator says:
"btw, talk to li-meilim - they were working on guilty pleasures
also, they'll kill you if you get the answer before they do :)
i told them you shared the sentiment"

Email from Ben:
Did you win yet?

Reply:
aaaaaaaaahahahahahaha I've been working on the same ?&*!@#$?(*!@ puzzle for 2 straight days and I can't DO IT.
*curls up into fetal position and cries*
But wait, has it been 2 straight days? I can't tell. What time is it? What day is it? Am I tired or not? I DON'T KNOW.

Sunday, 20:33
Email sent to all hunters:
"We are pleased to report that the Evil Midnight Bombers What Bomb at Midnight found the coin at 8:28 pm on Sunday January 20, 2008."

Evan: You realize we don't have a chance at second, right?
Nathan: Why do you say that? Everyone else went home!

Now it's time to clean up, and go home, and CRY because I never solved the puzzle I dedicated all weekend to.

Yay for Mystery Hunt. =)

Anyway, the point of this entry is the tables. I just wanted a small table to put in my room, but Rick decided to go all out, and convinced me to add a compartment to my table, so that you could open the top and store stuff underneath.

Well, Rick's table turned out exactly as he wanted it, but mine turned out huge. By that I mean, we built it to the dimensions that I wanted, but it turned out to be far larger than I really expected it to be, especially when I put it in my room. I tried it out for a few days and decided that I hated it. So I donated it to the floor lounge, where it was quickly claimed by Yuki '11.

My room is beach themed- the walls are blue and yellow (ocean and sand), and the table was painted the same colors. Yuki wanted to know why I was getting rid of the table. He claimed that I should seal the compartment and fill it with sand- or better yet, make it into an aquarium to really complete the theme of the room.

I sort of suspected that this might make a mess. My response was, "If you want to do that in your room, you go right ahead."

Okay, so that's awesome.

But, believe it or not, as Wes '10, James '11, and Dan '11 discovered, making sandfalls, observing different patterns of sand dunes and burying your hands in the sand gets boring after like 20 minutes. We decided we needed more toys.

So we called on Snively, of course.

Snively's reinforcements arrive. Yuki's immediate reaction: "Okay, you guys know this totally means Ducks vs. Army Men, right?"

Preparing the troops for battle.

The army men hunker down in a trench (...created by a glowstick).

The battle rages on.

The ducks receive surprise reinforcement from a ferocious piranha.

The funeral for the fallen soliders of battle, complete with a "Chaplain" duck (handed out to new students by the chaplain's office in September) and 21 gun salute.

We put the toys away. No one would ever know what lies inside the table. (Except maybe thanks to that leak...)

In case you haven't read it: Machine Shops, Part 1

There are a lot of machine shops on campus, so in my massive efforts to document all of them, I split the entry into 2 parts. Unfortunately, I still don't have all of the photos I would like, but honestly, if you've seen one milling machine you've seen them all, so I trust that you can use your imagination, and I'll just describe some of the other shops I haven't shown you photos of.

Up first: the Lab for Manufacturing and Productivity (LMP). This is another lab run by Course 2 (the mechanical engineering deparment). Course 2 students see a lot of this place during the IAP of their sophomore year, when they take 2.670 (hey, funny story about 2.670- I took it a year ago, took a million pictures, then never blogged about it. If none of the other bloggers is taking it this IAP, maybe I'll finally do that) and whenever they take 2.008. 2.670 is a class for learning all about drafting and machine tools, and 2.008 is a manufacturing class where you're required to make a large batch of yo-yos using cool processes like injection molding. LMP is a lot like Papallardo, with its long rows of lathes and milling machines and other useful machinery:

but it also has some other cool stuff, like a waterjet:

and an injection molding machine:

and some super heavy duty CNC machines:

plus a computer lab with solid modeling and CAM programs to write the code for the CNC machines:

For those of you not familiar with these terms, CNC stands for Computer Numeric Control, and it was basically the precursor to modern robotics. CNC mills or lathes are machines which are set up to allow a computer program to operate it. CAM stands for Computer Aided Manufacturing. The way the whole process works is to design a part on a solid modeling program, import that file to a CAM program which will write the CNC code for you, upload that code to a CNC machine, then sit back and watch as your part is made for you without any human intervention. It's pretty awesome stuff.

On to the last set of photos that I have: the Course 16 (Aeronautics and Astronautics) lab space. I have to warn you, what you are about to see is some of the coolest stuff ever. Seriously, Course 16 has the most awesome lab/lounge space I've ever seen. Everytime I walk by I'm wonder why I choose Course 2.

The entrance is appropriately decorated,

and the areo/astro library is located right next to the lounge and lab.

Yes, that's a hammock in the background. Plus, there's some open lab space and a shop:

Then there's the Edgerton Center shop. Unfortunately I don't have any photos of it, but it's pretty standard- some CNC mills and lathes, bandsaws, jigsaws, and some hand tools. (By the way, most CNC machines, except for the "super heavy duty" ones I showed above at LMP, are able to be operated manually.) The cool thing about the Edgerton Center is that while Papallardo and LMP are run by Mechanical Engineering and only open to students in that major (likewise with the Course 16 space), the Edgerton Center is open to all MIT students, provided that they complete a machine tools and safety course given by the Edgerton Center staff. If you want to use the Edgerton Center, you can sign up for the class- but do it early, because there's a pretty long wait. It took me almost a full semester to get into the class, which is offered every 2 weeks. The class is actually pretty cool- you learn how to use the lathes and milling machines, and even make a cool little flashlight in the process. Once you've completed the course, you're free to use the shop whenever you want, whether it's for a class project, a student group you're working with, or your own fun idea.

And that's not even the end of it- there are even more shop spaces around campus which are for more private use. Several dorms have their own shops- East Campus and Random Hall, for example. My dorm, Burton Conner, is currently expanding on a modest tool collection and working on getting a space to put an actual shop as well. Lots of student groups also have their own shop spaces- theater groups have access to woodworking tools for the purpose of building sets, and there are lots of engineering-based student groups that also have their own shops. For example, FSAE (Formula Society of Automotive Engineers- they design and build a racecar for competition every year) and the Solar Electric Vehicle Team share a machine shop a few blocks north of main campus. The FIRST Robotics team also has their own shop which they share with a few other engineering-related student groups (I can't remember which at the moment). These shops are located in MIT building and owned by MIT, but the students are in charge- they literally have the keys to the rooms, so this creates a pretty different atmosphere. Those shops tend to be a bit messier than the academic shops, for example. These groups also typically allow their members to use the space for personal use at their own discretion- meaning I doubt you could just pretend to be a member to use the space, they'd probably expect you to show up to meetings and stuff. =) But during the crunch time for 2.007 last year, Adelaide '09 and I certainly dragged all of our robot parts all the way over to the FIRST shop (the easternmost building on all of campus, and a huge pain to get to) to slave away on our projects for an entire Saturday.

So, there's an overview of machine shops on campus- they're run by academic departments, administrative departments, student groups, and even dorms. Obviously my entry is a bit biased- since I'm Course 2 I have the most photos of Course 2 lab space. But no matter what it is you want to do, I guarantee you can find access to some awesome power tools to get it done. =)

Responses to questions:
Kelsey K asked: But, are there welding facilities available to students? I'm one of those girls that likes to weld, and it would be amazing to know if there was somewhere I could Arc weld every now and then!
Hmm, I'm not entirely sure about that. I know there are welding facilities in Papallardo, but usually if you want something welded, the machine shop guys will do it for you. If you convince them that you know what you're doing, maybe you'd be able to, but I'm not positive if they'd let students do it themselves.

EA applicant asked:
IT IS SOOO CLEAN!!!! How do you keep it like that??
...
It is true that you can keep a mini mill in your dorm at MIT?
And do you get time to work on your own projects?
The shops I've shown you pictures of are used for academic purposes. It's expected that students clean up after themselves, or face the wrath of the shop guys, or a drop in their grades. I can guarantee that some of the other shops I've mentioned but don't have pictures of (like the shops used by different engineering clubs) are much messier than that. =) But keep a mini mill in your dorm? Like in your room? I don't know about that, but as I mentioned there are several dorms that have their own shops in a common area. Not sure if any of them have mills or lathes though. And the time to work on your own projects is whatever time you're not doing your real psets.

Sh1fty asked:
can people who are not course 2 use those machines or at least get someone to make what they need?
Rachel asked:
Woahh! Do you get access if you're not a course 2 major? Are there lots of CNCs? Is it okay to use the shop in the wee hours of the morning?
Generally the shops that are run by academic departments are strictly for the use of those students- but the Edgerton Center is open for all students to use. And yes, there are plenty of CNCs. Most of the mills and lathes have CNC capabilities. The shops I've shown you are only open when there's someone there to staff them- but rest assured that engineering-centered student groups that have their own shops (FSAE, FIRST, Solar Car), are working all hours of the day and night.

Noelle and Haris asked:
Is it free?
With the exception of the Hobby Shop (which charges members a fee each semester- of about $50, if memory serves), all of the shops are free for the students who are allowed to use them (Course 2 students in Papallardo, for example). Generally you have to pay for your own materials, unless you can convince someone to give you scraps. You can also keep an eye on "reuse," a mailing list where people post about stuff they don't want anymore that you can go get for free.

Sam 2 asked:
Which Courses allow room for the most electives, and which ones require more courses within the major?
Harrison replied:
In response to Sam 2's first/less serious question, from what I've seen Course 6 people (especially 6-3) on the old curriculum are consistently hosed but somehow always find time to complain about it/play Starcraft. 6 used to be an incredibly tough major until they messed with the curriculum. Also from what I hear Course 10 is also incredibly difficult but really awesome if you're into ChemE.
Oh Harrison, who says they "messed up the cirriculum?" I happen to much prefer the new Course 6 cirriculum. Anyway, Harrison is actually mostly right- Courses 2 (Mechanical Engineering), 6 (Electrical Engineering and Computer Science), 10 (Chemical Engineering), and 16 (Aeronautics and Astronautics) are among the most "strict" in the sense that you get very few electives. Most Course 2 students actually only get 2 electives within the department. (That's why 2A is much cooler. *grin*) Course 9 (Brain and Cognitive Sciences) is easily the most flexible, as those students get a wide selection of electives within their major. I can't think of any other notably flexible major off of my head, except for maybe 8B ("flexible" physics). Each major is different, so there are definitely more that lie on the flexible end of the spectrum, but I don't want to incorrectly label any of them and have lots of people yelling at me that I claimed that their major was easier than it actually is or something. =)

Anonymous asked:
What if are u are really honest about ur self..and it comes out in the app and in the recs and interview...but still the admissions people decide that you are just not good enough!!! Wouldn't selling yourself by writing what they might want to hear...which u might be able to pull off have a better chance give u a better chance of getting in???
Of course not- that's no way to lead your life. If you lie your way into MIT (which I don't think you could even accomplish, these guys in admissions have read lots of applications and know BS when they see it), what are you going to do when you get here? Chances are you'll be miserable, because you tried to convince MIT that you'd be perfect for it when you really weren't. Plus, you'd never know if you were actually good enough, because you didn't even give yourself a chance. But logic aside, the choice is ultimately yours. If you'd like to lie on your application and pretend to be something you're not just to impress some people you've never met so you can go to some school that may not even be right for you, no one can stop you. But I can tell you that's no way to lead a happy, healthy, and successful life.

an 8th grader, Trenten'16 asked:
I am an prospectent '16er and I want to know your Course 6 and Course 2 classes.
Here's my advice to you, and I really mean this in the most honest, sincere way possible. I'm not trying to be rude or snarky (for once): Focus on passing the 8th grade. I'm completely serious. You will have plenty of time to worry about college 2 and a half years from now, and there's no need to start getting into the details of college classes now, when you're still not even in high school yet. Just do the best you can in your classes, and follow your passions, and get back to us in 2 or 3 years with your questions.

Anonymous said (in response to my complains about not being able to remember a formula for my 2.005 exam):
the formula that you refer to was actually on the 2.005 aid sheet.. as it was on the 3rd test.. hmm.

tanmay said:
Well, I remember that Cp-Cv=R. So IF the log of the pressures is related to the ideal gas constant, then it's also related to the specific heat at constant volume. Am I right???

I refer both of you to the following:
phreaker said:
Tanmay, discussing formulas AFTER the test with someone who forgot them is a good way to get beaten up :p

Ahem. Thank you.

Anonymous said:
I thought MIT students excelled in the area of test taking. You imply that they're just ordinary people who were either lucky enough to get in. Oh wait...

to which phreaker replied:
Everyone is ordinary once you look at them long enough. And i'll bet most ppl, including MIT students have trouble with tests, especially when competing with all the other good test takers ;)

Man, phreaker, you're on a roll. Do you want my job?

Seriously though, the only claim anyone ever really made about MIT students is that they're smart people. But we're still people. We're not perfect or superhuman, and we don't like people thinking that we're perfect or superhuman. It makes Christmas break really annoying, for one thing. (To quote numerous relatives: "So you get good grades, right?") I'm sorry you were under the impression that we're all super geniuses who never find exams difficult. I assure you that is not the case.