Sam M. '07 | February 21, 2007
"Some Megaphone, Pressed Against An Insect's Brain"
DID YOU KNOW? Tyra Banks is 5'10" tall and weighs 161 lbs. I am 5'9 3/4" tall and weight 150 lbs.
I have taken a cue from fellow blogger Lulu and changed my name to Samsam Siam. No no, I've actually just taken all the spare pictures from last month that I had meant to blog and assembled them together into one photo entry so I can move on with my blogging life (and believe me, this time I'm really gonna move it!). My pictures aren't quite as good as Lulu's, but American Idol is on and Nicole Tranquillo seriously looks like she's having a heart attack right now, so I'm too distraught to fix them at all.
This is Lauren, who was incredibly pink at the extraordinary holiday dinner party for Course 17: Political Science. Look, MIT has not only girls, but also a political science department. Before your mind even goes there, Lauren is NOT EVEN a political science major--she's just a minor! My own connection to political science is even more tenuous (I was pretending to be Ruth's date and she's a minor) but that didn't stop me from eating like 47 free peking duck spring rolls.
I also took some pictures of my own outfit at the dinner, but I decided that posting them here would be a little gratuitous. Suffice to say that I think purple, red, green, and gold is a perfectly valid color combination.
This person is MIT '10 and he came down from Hazleton, PA to visit me in Harrisburg over winter break, which is the second time that something like that has happened. Like Moria '06 and Friends before him, I managed to get him hopelessly lost within like 20 minutes of my house. Also he untags pictures of himself on facebook in which he thinks he looks bad, so he'd probably have to crash the MIT admissions server if I named him here.
After getting some reasonably-priced Harrisburg cheesesteak, we checked out the State Museum of Pennsylvania, where we saw this proud beaver preserved through the miracle of taxidermy (or maybe it's just a fake model; I'm not too sure really). Of course, I had to take its picture.
Here is the same beaver hiding in its dark underground beaver hole. He must be a Course 10 major using Aspen to finish his problem set in the basement of Building 66,
After seeing Dreamgirls later that afternoon, nothing happened to me for like two weeks. Oh, except I saw this Futurama clip and laughed for like three or four days straight.
But then I got to go to the Pennsylvania Farm Show, the world's largest indoor agricultural exhibition, which takes place a 5-minute drive away from my house. Have you ever noticed that, according to this blog, everything cool in the entire world happens within a 30 minute radius of me?
Probably the most awesome thing about the farm show is the greasy food peddled by friendly mennonites. My high school friend Ben thinks that the point of the farm show is to consume as much food as possible within 5 minutes without throwing up. As you can see above, to achieve this end he does not close his gaping maw even for one second while in the food court.
Seriously though, the milkshakes will make you feel like my high school friend Allison.
Not like my high school friend Michael J here, who is not excited by most things, except the band Gogol Bordello.
Of course, most farmshowgoers think that THE SUPREME GRAND CHAMPION is the coolest thing there. Personally, I like the champion Asiatic chicken better...
...but then again I am drawn to shiny and colorful things, like a hungry ostrich.
Actually, you ought to watch out for the champion Asiatic chicken.
How about an alpaca? Here my beloved high school friend Shana, the supreme grand champion of my heart, pets this adorable little booger.
And here's this year's model of the famous farm show butter sculpture! BUTTER. This year it was Benjamin Franklin inspecting the Liberty Bell. And as a supreme grand champion of the environment myself...
...I was excited to find that this year's entire butter sculpture is being converted into biodiesel for consumption in Pennsylvania farm equipment! DID YOU KNOW? that Biodiesel@mit, a new club or, uh, something started by my friend Joe '08 (maybe my ex-friend after that description) is now one of the Top 10 finalists in a national contest sponsored by GE and MTVU?
Now Joe '08 will be my friend again.
YOU GET VASELINE!
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FIRST POST!!
Posted by: alyssa on February 21, 2007 11:13 PM
I
Posted by: Melissa '11 on February 21, 2007 11:55 PM
I definitely think the Biodiesel@MIT is a very cool project for that group to be undertaking. Way to go for supporting the environment...you know, that thing that we all live in? Yeah, that thing.
On a side note...what kind of cooling system is keeping that big ol' butter sculpture from melting. I mean, you would think butter + bright halogen bulbs ==> not the same butter shape you had before. It must have been on display for more than a day.
Posted by: Bryan H on February 22, 2007 12:25 AM
I'd never heard of the Biodiesel@MIT project before, but I HAVE heard of Joe '08. And he rocks, so Biodiesel must rock. It all makes sense!
Posted by: Laura on February 22, 2007 02:36 AM
that first picture of a "beaver" looks like a weasel.
This is definitely the most random post ever...i love it.
Posted by: Anonymous on February 22, 2007 09:12 AM
Great post! Thanks so much for using small pictures, I have dial-up and to be honest, of all the picture posts by all the different bloggers, yours are the only ones I can actually read because the pictures load. It's nice! Keep on compressing and enjoy American Idol!
Posted by: Snively on February 22, 2007 09:40 AM
Cool entry, usually visually stimulating. The beaver thing looked like an otter to me though.
Posted by: Peter on February 22, 2007 03:36 PM
OMG, Snively, my pictures are ALWAYS 500 pixels wide. I'm guessing you mean smaller file sizes, in which case I'M SORRY my pictures are TOO HIGH QUALITY FOR YOU.
NO RESPECT!!!!
(lol.
Posted by: Jess on February 22, 2007 05:00 PM
Butter sculpture? Wow, so amazing. I definitely like to make one.
By the way, you had a very bussy and interesting vacation Sam.
Posted by: Saman on February 22, 2007 05:11 PM
No worry ____________ I am 6'1.5, but weigh a bit less than you too ;)
Posted by: The madman who makes people fly on February 22, 2007 09:17 PM
MIT'ers need to spend more time in Natural history museums - "beaver #1 = river otter; beaver #2 = muskrat
Posted by: TOJO on February 23, 2007 03:56 PM
great TOJO..it's rich!!@!
Posted by: The madman who makes people fly on February 23, 2007 08:28 PM
Sam,
Nice vacation. Seriously, there's farm fairs out near Harrisburg? That's actually pretty cool - right up there with meeting the Mennonites, of course - because it's WINTER and you get to be at a FARM. (Oh, classic stuff, that.)
Still - gosh, butter sculpture being made into biofuel? Sure, it may not burn as cleanly as a lot of other fuels, and it'll make everything smell like... uh... butter, or popcorn, (depending on your perceptions of things) but that's still a really cool idea. (Of course, you could slice that sculpture into a LOT of grilled cheese sandwhiches, but you know what I mean...!)
The PA Department of Agriculture should be VERY proud of themselves, at any rate.
- Michelle
Posted by: Michelle on February 24, 2007 06:12 AM
Oh, Sam, I forgot to mention this in my last comment, but you could very well be a supermodel then... =P
Posted by: Michelle on February 24, 2007 06:17 AM
Not only will Joe '08 continue being Sam's friend, buthe will be your friend to if you vote for MIT at www.ecocollegechallege.com, you could visit the web site too at the URL that should show up somewhere with this post... yeah for Sam and free publicity. Also, Sam I think your next blog should be on our 10.392 project topic options... I think we should let the audience decide how we will try to save the world. What do you say?
Posted by: Joe '08 on February 25, 2007 12:45 AM
I love us.
Posted by: Michael J on February 26, 2007 01:24 AM
I love how MIT students manage to have both smarts and considerable fashion sense. Tights are so hot on Paris runways right now!
Posted by: Chandelier on February 26, 2007 06:03 PM
