June 2005 - Posts
I'm posting all of them, cause they are cool. . .but they all lead to the same place, a survey from MIT about weblogs.
kinda cool, they're trying to collect statistics about blogging, and I saw it on Anisa's livejournal (sorry, I dont know if she wants me to link to her livejournal, but you can always go to her MIT site)
i'm assuming that the "free cameron" one is a reference to Ferris Bueller's Day Off. or maybe not. who knows. it could just be because one of the guys running this has the name Cameron and wants to stop working. . .
I swear I'm not a sellout by posting this. . . i'm just too tired to post anything interesting. . .I'll come up with something. . . give me more ideas!
-Stephanie
Well, since the last time I wrote about the books that I've read, I've finished two more. I read Maurice by E.M. Forster, and Artemis Fowl, the Opal Deception by Eoin Colfer. Maurice was actually written in 1913-1914, but was not published until after Forster's death due to the subject matter. The novel is basically like any normal love story, except that it was about homosexuality. This topic was too racy for the time period it was written in. But I thought it was really good, and I'm planning on reading more of E.M. Forster's works (I've already read one other book of his, A Room with a View). And I loved the Artemis Fowl book! I'm a fan of the series. It's very mythical, with fairies, trolls, magic, etc. But they're very well written. . .and I managed to finish the book in only 3 days! (it probably helps that I have such a long commute each day!).
I also went to go see The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants last night with my younger sister and one of her friends. Very good, though it's definitely a tear jerker! I don't remember the last time I cried that hard! But it's still a really good movie. Just don't forget your tissues! I hadn't brought any, and let me just say, that was one regret I had!
Well, that's it. Work has been going well. A bunch of people came to learn about what we do at the place I work as part of a conference sponsored partially by EPRI, Electric Power Research Institute. I one of the guys who presented was course 3 from MIT! I met him, and we talked for a bit. I gotta say, there's something that brings some sort of weird connection between MIT alumni/students. I think it's the shared pain, and the ability to talk about stuff that you both know about. He also got a glimpse of my Brass Rat, which he pointed out to me. That's another thing I like. The brass rat is like a universal sign that you have suffered through/enjoyed MIT. Or something like that. Anyway, I dont know what else to talk about, so I guess I'll end there. Keep the questions coming!
-Stephanie
First of all, glad I could be of some help to you with my information. And now, Elina has a question for me!
"What
Do I buy???..I never do my own shopping..always wear what mum brings for me..but NOW !!!
as in clothes and shoes..... and how much???"
Well, there are quite a few things to consider, and certainly, everyone is different. A
lot depends on the styles you like, or the money you have/want to spend on clothes. And of
course, it is important to think about the weather. I guess I can discuss
types of clothes as related to weather.
Weather
So, when you first get to MIT for orientation, it's going to still probably be nice
and summery. So at that point, you can have tshirts, tank tops (girls only please!),
shorts, etc. It's also a good idea to have pants for around that time (jeans are my
preference if I'm wearing pants on a warm day), and a light jacket. Fall comes relatively
quickly around Boston, and I usually survive with pants, a long sleve shirt, and a
sweatshirt jacket. Come winter, you might want to invest in something like long underwear
to wear under pants (if you want/can fit them under pants), and of course a winter jacket as
well as the extras, like hats, scarves, gloves, and, the most important, waterproof and
relatively warm boots (thick wool socks are good too). My opinion (not everyone shares this
opinion) is that comfort, warmth, and preventing frostbite is more important than
fasion.
How much should I bring?
A lot of the amount you should bring depends on a few things. For example, you don't
want to have to be doing laundry too often because you ran out of clothes. Keeping this in
mind, the key piece of clothing is underwear. Make sure you have more than enough to get
you through a couple of weeks. Sure you can wear a pair of pants a bunch of times before
washing, you can wear some tshirt under your jacket and no one will know. But you know
you're in trouble if you're out of underwear. So, underwear is often your freedom-from-
laundry limiting factor. As for other stuff. . .don't go overboard. Most dorm rooms have
limited storage space (though they will have closets, drawers, etc.), and so don't go
bringing everything from home (or buying out the whole store). You might want to invest in
storage as well, since you can never have enough! Dual purpose storage (boxes that can be
stacked into a table, a footlocker/trunk can hold stuff and can be sat on, etc.) is
especially good. But enough about storage. That can be a whole other post!
What types of clothes should i bring?
This starts to be more based on your personality and style. . .you should bring both
casual and dressier clothes. . .i suppose that's a given. . .. I tend to have a lot of
comfortable clothes, like drawstring pants and loose jeans. I do have a few pairs of khakis
and am a huge fan of jeans as well. But it's also a good idea to have clothes for
interviews, nice dinners, parties, formals, etc. hmmm, shoes, i would say dont bring too
many, just sneakers, dress shoes, sandals. Oh, and dont forget flip flops for the shower!
hmmm, this makes me think I should tell you about other stuff to bring. besides clothes.
I mentioned storage. . .I guess bedding, pillows, etc. you get a bed and a matress as part
of your room, but they dont really supply bedding (except perhaps during orientation, when
you are in your temp rooms so you dont have to unpack. . .contact the house manager for
whatever dorm you are temped in). Towels (bath, washcloths, hand towels) are good, and
random other toiletrees. hmmmm, i think maybe I'm being obvious, but. . .hmmm. well, dont
forget your computer, and maybe keep a few things around to eat with, like a few plates,
forks, knives, etc. and if your room isnt part of a suite with a kitchen, maybe consider
bringing a fridge.
Okay, maybe I'm starting to get excessive with all my suggestions? I don't know. If you
are thinking about maybe bringing something, and you're not sure if you should bring it or
not, and I can give you my opinion.
One last question I'll answer was about if you can go home for winter break. The answer is, YES! First of all, over winter break, you can just go home, leave all your stuff at your dorm (unlike other schools where you have to move out and such), and enjoy yourself. But you also don't HAVE to leave, either. And in terms of other times of the year. . . College is not like high school: theres no real mandatory attendance. So, if you have to go home to see your little sister perform in her school play (like I did) or if you have any reason (or no reason at all) you can leave. I mean, sure, you'll miss class (or whatever happens on the weekend for you) and just plain leaving when you have a test or other mandatory attendance event will get you in a buttload of trouble, but you're free to do what you want. However, some classes do have mandatory attendance, so skipping those isn't reccomended (although Professors are rather understanding at times if there is something that requires you to miss class. . .so, don't be afraid of them!)
Well, I do have another "book review" to discuss, but I figure this is enough for now.
Maybe I'll post it tomorrow. Keep the questions coming!
-Stephanie
So much to talk about! First, answers to your questions you posted (thanks Laila and Saad). The first answer: I live at Next House. I really like living there! The second question: how do u spend weekends at MIT, and how often can I go to New Jersey per month. I'll answer the first part first. There's lots to do on campus and around Boston. Usually, though, I'm kinda lazy on the weekends if I can help it. Basically Saturdays I'll sleep in, and then clean my room a little, look at my homework a bit (yeah, I know, BORING!) Sundays are usually my busy days. I usually have Resonance rehearsal, attend Church at the MIT Chapel. The chapel is really great to be in, if you haven't visited it yet. A lot of different religions have services in there, and even if you're not religious or anything, it's really nice to just see (architecturally and acoustically). There are actually concerts held there as part of the MIT Thursday Noon Chapel Concerts Series.
Okay, so I've realized that I start to ramble when I start thinking about stuff to talk about. Anyways, besides tooling and attending meetings, I do try to have fun! Many fraternities have parties on the weekends that you can go to. I often visit Theta Xi, one of the fraternities that many of my friends are members of. It's kinda funny, me telling you all this, because there's often a difference between what I want to do, what I should do, and what I end up doing on any given weekend! Let me think. I mean, a lot of weekends (or weeknights if I'm really lucky) I will hang out with friends, maybe order in some takeout, or go out to eat. And now that the Student Center has Anna's Taqueria, it's easier to get cheap, good food on the weekends (dorm dining halls are open for dinners Sunday through Thursday, and Lobdell is only open for lunch on weekdays). I mean, there's also a lot of other options, but I can go into those at a later date if you want.
So there I've gone again, rambled on about a topic that I meant to only talk a little bit about. I think that's the usual with me. lets see, I mean, there's lots to do. sometimes I'll watch movies with my friends, or just spend time alone in my room cleaning, arranging songs for Resonance, or singing along to music. Of course, I do work sometimes too, but I try to have a little fun while I'm at school! Oh, one more option (actually I have a ton of options, but I can go into those at a later date, too) is to go to LSC. LSC stands for Lecture Series Committee, but most of the time they show movies. The tickets are $3.00 a person (last I looked) and you get to watch the movie in a movie theatre-type atmosphere (big screen, good sound system, etc.). Usually, these movies are shown in 26-100. And they're actually good movies, recently shown movies, so you know that you can see something that you didn't want to pay $10 to see at a local movie theatre. A few other options for stuff to do are listed in my "fun links" section to the left.
Oh, and about going home to NJ. I do that occasionally. I come home for holidays, and if there's an important event happening at home. I usually take Amtrak to NY Penn Station, then NJ Transit from there to home (because it's cheaper to do the rest of that, and it gets me closer to home than taking Amtrak all the way home. Some people will also take a bus to NYC. There are the Chinatown Buses, which take you between Chinatown in Boston and Chinatown in NYC, as well as Greyhound. The most famous Chinatown Bus (that I know of) is the Fung Wah bus.
I still haven't updated about all the fun stuff from this weekend! Let's go in order:
Friday night I went out to see a movie with my mom. It was a really cute movie, Après Vous. Even though it was made in 2003, for some reason it was showing at this little theatre about 20 minutes away from my house. Definitely a good movie (as long as you don't mind reading subtitles!). After that, my mom treated me to ice cream at Cold Stone Creamery.
Saturday I got a haircut. I think I took like 6 inches off, and it looks a lot better than it has looked in quite some time. When I find my digital camera (or someone else with one) I'll post pictures (because I know Katelyn wants to see them!) I also bought a laptop Saturday evening. It's a Compaq Presario Notebook. I spent the rest of the night setting it up (and by setting it up, I mean downloading all the software I needed!) It's giving me a bit of trouble, freezing up every once in a while, but I'm going to look at it later and try to figure it all out.
Sunday was Father's Day! We went to Lancaster, PA and the surrounding area (Amish Country). We shopped a bit, then had dinner at Miller's Smorgasbord. Oh man, that is some good food! Afterward, we went back to NJ and gave my Dad his presents. My little sister and I got him tickets for "Whad'Ya Know?", a quiz show that is broadcasted on NPR. They're taping it at the Trenton War Memorial, and we figured since he likes the show, we would take him. So yay. My older sister and her husband got my dad the Spamalot CD (and a promise to take him to the show!). My mom got him something MIT-tastic! My dad went to MIT way back when, and we've been looking for plates for a while. There are special MIT plates (like, good china) that have different images on them of different places around MIT. So, my mom got him a bunch of those. So cool! There was a picture of Senior House, and the Gray House (president's house).
Whew. I talk way too much about stuff here! okay, well, you all can let me know if you have any more questions.
-Stephanie
Hey Folks,
I realized that I haven't posted since Monday. Let's see. . .I was asked to write up a procedure for one of the tests we perform. that's pretty cool, since I'm only an intern, but they were impressed at how I streamlined and fixed up the process. Yay.
And now, I've decided that you all should ask me questions, or give me suggestions for posts. Like, if you have a question about MIT, or just me, or anything, or if you want to see something posted, let me know. Because I mostly got this blog so I could help the incoming class of 2009 (because I'm a nice kid like that).
So, send me your ideas/questions. Either post them to me, or email them to me. Cool. To all of you going to interphase, have fun! And recommend to others that they should get blogs. I think this is a really nice community we're building here in the "blogosphere" or whatever it is.
Oh, and if you would like me to put a link to you, let me know. I lose track of things sometimes, and it helps to be reminded.
-Stephanie
Well, after a rather confusing weekend, it was back to work for me. I discoverd that I got my first paycheck. And I was reminded just how much taxes suck. I mean, sure, they go to some good causes and such. but my problem is the fact that almost half of my paycheck went to taxes. boo to that. Anyway, work went well, stayed a little bit longer (which hopefully means more pay!).
Anyway, about this book I finished reading. It's Franny and Zooey by J.D. Salinger. I guess the best way to explain it is that it's very Salinger-esque, if that makes any sense. It's the kind of book where, once you finish reading it, you have to close the book and just sit for a moment and reflect. I liked it, if that's any help.
So, not much else to talk about. The weather's been excrutiatingly hot, and it's not so great to walk from the subway station in the Bronx to my job, but I guess that's something I have to deal with. Hmm, time to go fix some links so they're better (i noticed that my links to the books could be linked to a better link. . .if that makes any sense.
Hope all is well with you!
-Stephanie
So, this post is mostly devoted to talking about the books that I have read so far this summer. In a previous post I talked about the first book I had finished reading. Now to discuss the rest.
So, next book I read wasn't a long book, but it was very relaxing to read. It was The Art of Doing Nothing : Simple Ways to Make Time for Yourself. Very nice to read, because it just had simple tips and ideas about relaxing and enjoying life. I'm a fan of that, since it's very hard to relax sometimes when you're at MIT.
Next book I read was more of a middle school book, but it was still cool to read, because it was almost all normal, with just a tiny bit of magic. The book was The Library Card by Jerry Spinelli. It was a nice read for a long day when I had nothing to do.
The most recent book I read I absolutely loved. It was A Room with a View by E.M. Forster. It was about a girl in what I think was the late 1800's, and it was so good to read because it was a romantic story at some points, and a frightening story at other points. As you can tell, I'm not so good at describing books (i never did too well at book reports). But I definitley reccomend this book, at least to the girls.
Well, that's all I have time to talk about right now. I'm so tired all the time when I'm home, so I think I need to go lie down and relax.
Thanks for your comments!
-Stephanie
And stole a counter from Katelyn, who stole it from Laila. Well, I guess I didn't really steal it, but yeah, I decided to do what they did.
I'm actually feeling really tired, so I'll have to post some other time. I'm planning on posting about the books I have read so far. We'll see.
G'night, more to come in the next few days.
-Stephanie
So, Katelyn claims that I haven't posted in a while. So, I feel compelled to post something, even though I don't have much to say. Work has been pretty cool, the other intern learned a bit about the different tests we can perform, and have started doing them on our own. Let me explain what this is all about. Basically, at my summer internship, I work with electric cables and splices (the joining together of cables) and analyze failure in these splices. The goal, in the long run, is to eventually be able to predict/prevent failures. Anyway, it's been nice getting to do some hands on work with the materials, and i learn more techniques and stuff every day. So yeah, that's been pretty cool. I guess I haven't been posting much recently because I'm gone all day, and when I come home, I usually dont have much time before I have to go to bed.
Anyway, Katelyn was talking about her username. Most people use some permutation of their name (mine is my initials) or something meaningful (like Katelyns). But I would recommend that you try not to be overly clever or cute with your username. I had a classmate who used her AOL screen name as her username. And since most people's screen names are usually "QTgurl17" or "HottieMcHottHott", I would reccomend not doing that. and make sure you're not tricky, either. I knew someone else who had a bunch of the same letter in the row. like "laaaaaaaaaaa" is also not a good choice. Basically, you want it to be easy to write down (so sometimes periods, hyphens, or underscores can be confusing) and something that you would be willing to use as your contact on your resume. Besides, you can use Moira or other list management tools to create mailing lists or aliases or whatnot, so that's where you can be silly. If you have any questions about mailing lists at MIT, feel free to ask me. They come in handy!
I hope you all don't think of me as obnoxious from my posts. I don't mean to come off as someone who thinks she knows everything. I just figure I'll dole out advice until people beg me to stop, because I want you all ('09s) to enjoy your time at MIT. So, please ask me questions! And I'll try to comment on your blogs (I've been trying to, at least.)
-Stephanie
So I think that working for an energy company is pretty darn cool. Especially after yesterday, when the other intern and I went out to Manhattan and got to watch our supervisors working in the manhole. They performed all sorts of tests to make sure everything was as it should be. And being in the middle of Manhattan was pretty cool. It's definitley a bustling sort of place. haha, and yesterday, after work, the other intern invited me to be his friend on thefacebook.com. Fun times. Oh, and hopefully soon I'll have pictures I can post from my first trip to the manholes.
Anyway, not much else is going on right now. I'm starting to get used to the commute, and being in NYC and everything. It's an absolutely gorgeous day out today, so maybe I should be outside enjoying it instead of being inside blogging. But I think I'm addicted to this blogging stuff. I love seeing the comments you all post, as well as all of your blogs. Please feel free to ask me about anything, MIT or otherwise. Oh! some fun news is the newest Monthly Bale came out a few days ago. They're newsletters about recycling that are issued every month. I gotta say, I'm a bit of a hippie or conservationist or something. I actually am pretty involved in recycling at MIT. I'm the recycling chair for Next House, which means I coordinate the recycling program at the dorm, hiring student recyclers, contacting Facilities (who actually do a lot of different things at MIT) about recycling pickups and other needs, and making sure our house manager, Julie Mills, and our janitors all know what's going on in the dorm. Plus, I send out reminder emails and such to the dorm, and also listen to questions, comments or whatever from my dormmates about recycling. I was actually lucky enough to get facilities to send me boxes full of small recycling bins for the dormrooms, so people could have their own little bins. That was fun, especially since so many people contacted me about wanting one. Made me excited to know so many people were that enthusiastic about recycling. Hmm, as you can see, I get into recycling quite a bit. I guess if you have any questions about recycling, you can ask me. and check out those monthly bales, they have lots of cool information. Some of it is more geared at offices and labs, but some information is still applicable.
okay, enough of this typing. must go take advantage of this nice weather. Hope the weekend rocks (for you and for me)!
-Stephanie
Well, I have to say, one problem with work is that I have to get up in time to catch the 5:20 AM train. And then take that train, then the subway, then walk to get to work, which all in all adds up to a 2+ hours commute. Boo. But my job is pretty cool. I work at the Cable and Splice Center for Excellence, a part of the energy company, Con Edison. The first link is actually just a report I found online, I can't actually find an official website for that part of the company, because it's relatively new. Hahah, I love the name though. It makes me feel special. center for EXCELLENCE. yay. Anyway, it seems really cool, because I get to do stuff that pertains to a lot of different majors besides Materials Science. Don't get me wrong, I love course 3, but I guess I like that there's a lot of different aspects of it, like the Mechanical Engineering, Chemical Engineering, and Electrical Engineering type stuff I'll get to do.
One of my friends/classmates actually was an intern at this company last year. She, a guy, and I worked on a project together that I think is pretty cool. It was for 3.042, Materials Project Lab. Check out our project! It's about 3D printing (very cool stuff).
Well, believe it or not, it's just about 8:30 pm, but I should probably get to bed so that I can get enough sleep. haha, oh well. I hope all of your summers are going well. Let me know what you're up to!
-Stephanie