Laura N. '09 | December 01, 2005
"I'm back!"
Hello friendly readers!
It's been awhile, and I really do apologize for that. I've had several equally insane weekends in a row. So this one had better be good, that's all I have to say. So far my plans include tentative plans to visit the Cambridgeside Galleria (the local mall) and watching Saturday Night Live (because Dane Cook is hosting!), both of which should be good times.
Today is catch-up day. First of all, let me draw your attention to today's date.
Today is December 1st.
December!
That means several things:
First, that the semester is almost over. Second, that pass/no record is almost over. That's sad. I like pass/no record. It's my friend. Third, it's almost Christmas! Quite aside from the fact that Christmas involves quite the lengthy break from school, I love Christmas time. I'm one of those cheerful fools who drives everyone else crazy with her abundance of holiday cheer. =) I hope to pick up some holiday decorations during my shopping trip this weekend to decorate our room. April's already adorned the shelving pieces with two dozen candy canes, because she's a cool roommate like that.
Speaking of holiday breaks from school, let's backtrack to Thanksgiving. It was the first time I got a chance to go back home since the middle of August, which was quite the experience. It was also crazy hectic, because I was only home for 3 full days, which is far too little time to cram in all of the things I wanted to do and people I wanted to see. It was nice to go home, shower in a real bathroom and sleep in my own bed...but at the same time, it was oddly disconcerting. You feel like you're not sure where to call "home." Of course everyone says, "I'm going home for the holidays," and that's true. But then when you get there you kind of feel like you don't really live there anymore, which is also true. So it's just plain confusing. My advice to all of you when you get to this stage next year is to just enjoy the spacious bed and real shower and not think about anything else. It's just too confusing.
So, awhile ago I mentioned "a supercool but top-secret adventure" I had planned for the next day. This was almost 3 weeks ago. Better late than never, right?
The thing is, I was going to wait until I got the pictures or the press release came out, but the Museum of Science seems to be a little slow on that end, so I'll just tell you about it now. But I'll be sure to update you if I ever get the pictures. Ready for it? This was my supercool top-secret adventure:
I met Dean Kamen, the founder of FIRST Robotics!
Most of you probably don't get it. But if you were involved in FIRST, you know how supercool this is. How did it happen? Here's the story:
My freshman advisor works for the Media Lab and is involved in designing educational toys for kids. Because of this, he's done a lot of work with the Boston Musem of Science, so they invited him to the awards ceremony for this year's Washburn Award. According to the MoS webste, "This prize is presented annually to an individual who has made an outstanding contribution to the public's understanding of science, its fascination with science, and the recognition of the vital role it plays in our lives." My advisor was pretty bummed to realize that he couldn't make it, because he had to lead his freshman seminar that night. But then he thought about it a little bit, and he thought maybe he could just bring us with him. So he ran the idea by us during the seminar one night and told us that this year's recipient of the award was Dean Kamen. Being the FIRST geek that I am, I immediately recognized the name and got pretty excited. In the end, my advisor worked out all the details with the museum. In the process, he mentioned that some of his students had participated in FIRST in high school. The woman organizing the event emailed him back and asked if any of the former FIRST-ers would mind coming to the museum early for a photo shoot.
My advisor forwarded this information to me, saying that they thought it would be cool to get some pictures of Dean with someone who benefited from his program (since that was the reason he was receiving the award). I thought that was totally random but SO COOL, so of course I said yes!
On the night of the ceremony, I took the T over to the museum about an hour before my classmates. The director of the program met me at the information desk and took me into the museum. I got to meet Dean and we just chatted about FIRST. The photographer took a few pictures, and that was it. It was all very low-key, but at the same time is was so, so, so cool.
Sometimes the craziest things just happen to me, I swear. I mean really, how random can you get? What are the chances that my freshman advisor happens to be invited to this event, and then mentions that I was involved in FIRST, and then...yeah. Completely insane.
Anyway, they took down my name and email address and said they'd email me the pictures. I'll be sure to let you guys know when that happens.
The rest of the entry was directed by Sam:
Sam came by a couple of weeks ago as I was eating dinner to invite us out to the Garment District. Despite the fact that this particular location is featured on the "101 Things to do Before You Graduate," couldn't go for some reason. Sam commented on my dinner, which was home-cooked cheese-basked chicken with mashed potatoes (ok so the potatoes came from a box). I had absolutely no intention of trying to brag about my lack of cooking skills, but Sam said, "I look forward to reading about it in your blog." So I thought well, I'll give Sam what he wants.
A couple of days later, I was getting ready to go do some homework with friends on a different floor when I ran into Sam in the hallway, who informed me that it was Cassi's birthday and I was just in time for cake. He also quite graciously said, "you can blog this one" (coordination is key when 3 bloggers all live on one floor), so I ran for my camera.
Here's a typical Conner 2 birthday celebration:
It's also a tradition on C2 for someone to feed you your piece of birthday cake, which is always quite fun and messy. Unfortunately, I didn't manage to get a picture of that one.
Maybe next time.
Happy Birthday, Cassi!
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The author has filed this entry in the "Science Fairs, Olympiads, Etc." section; check it out for further reading on this topic. |
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Clarify: sadly, it's not "technically" our tradition. It's been *borrowed* from Conner 5, since my birthday party freshmen year, when a bunch of my Conner 5 friends came, and Ryan "Pinko" Pester '07 (of C5) invoked their tradition as an excuse to shove Moria '06s delicious carrot cake all over my face. Sadly for him, I got it all in my mouth, and now I terrorize Conner 2 by trying to find somehow who's mouth is as big as mine. But judging my the length of this comment and my generally blabiness, that's not likely to happen soon.
But it is a testament to interfloor bonding, and our love of delicious cake.
Posted by: Ruth on December 1, 2005 06:59 PM
Dude, that chicken totally looks better than the hat I got at Garment District... man, I should have made you cook for me instead of going. I didn't realize I had this much influence on your blog/life (same thing, really). You should stop listening to me; it hasn't turned out well for most people.
I really don't know much about FIRST Robotics, but I've heard of it before, which means this Dean Kamen guy must be pretty famous. Congratulations! This sort of thing, where you just randomly and arbitrarily run into some amazingly famous person whom you idolize, actually seems to be unsually common around here, judging from previous blog entries.
Posted by: Sam on December 2, 2005 10:52 AM
hey laura,
nice pictures :)
so hows the cafeteria food at MIT? you think I should start learning how to cook this winter break lol
I'm like AKASH, I can only cook garlic bread (I think mine is better though lol jp...I can't decide until I taste his)
anyway, how do i get a blog like this? Do I have to be an MIT student to get one these blogs...can I be a prospective applicant and get one? lol
Posted by: Merudh on December 2, 2005 11:58 PM
Hi Laura!
The FIRST robotics and meeting Dean Kamen sounds awesome.
Congratulations!
I have to admit that I hadn't heard of FIRST before (because I don't live in the US), but your link helped a lot.
It kind of reminds me of my small experience with a summer robotics club at the University my parents work at four years ago...robotics was cool, but I was the only girl there and everyone else kept stealing my lego pieces. Lol.
Posted by: Emi on December 3, 2005 01:36 PM
Not to mention, FIRST competitions are starting up today... we just got a $3000 grant from the US FIRST people, so we can compete! Yayyyy!
Who else is going to be FIRSTing?
Posted by: Timur Sahin on December 3, 2005 11:47 PM
Ohhh myyy gawwwd you met Dean Kamen? That's absolutely amazing. I'm jealous. Woodie Flowers and Dean Kamen...you can't get better than that.
(In response to Timur... we are FIRSTing -- team 1345! we just got a generous grant so we're competing after all. have no idea how we're going to find money to build though...)
Posted by: nehalita on December 4, 2005 10:07 PM
