If you happen to read this, click on the link below.
HERE
Ok, I think that it's probably time to get back to this hobby and waste time practicing my written english rather than doing nothing at all. So, I see that some people are still visiting my blog... hmmm... Who the hell are you? After so much time from my last post, one would think that everybody would forget about this page. It is of course probable that you, whoever you are, got here by accident. But if you came here on purpose, then the following is for you.
So, what happened since my last post? A lot of time has passed. I have finished my freshman year, worked at a project, went home, come back and have become a sophomore. Summer was great, tonns of sleep; that's what an MIT student has to do over the summer. It was a great experience - seing my world from the point of view of the other one, but even greater experienc wa scoming back to US. Did you know that America has it's own distinct smell? I didn't notice it the first time I came here, but this time it was obvious.
The sophomore year is ok. I have already dropped one of my subjects (18.100A) and now I'm living with 4 (8.03, 8.033, 1.00, 24.00), yes, I'm a physics major :) Classes are great, I really like the material and mostly the way it is presented.
Well, now I'm alive again and hoping that the readers will leave comments
"Gosh, what a pain!" It was his back. As a matter of fact, you can't
sleep more than 4 hours on the table. He opened his eyes and looked at
the watch: 11.03. He closed the eyes again. Yeah, no more than four
hours. He straitened up on a chair and looked at the screensaver. It
was a second morning in a raw of waking up in the athena cluster in
Student Center. At least, he managed to finish 18.02 pset, but damn,
there is a 8.02 test tonight. DAMN.
He clicked the [enter] button and typed in the password. There was a
number of zephyr messeges from his friends in the top left corner of
the screen. Some messages made him smile and he typed "znol" in the
terminal window to find out, whether friends were still online. Noone
was, and he decided to check the email. "pine" and there you go,
several messages from several people: 5 messages from the dorm council informing him about some "important" dorm events, he
started to delete this kind of emails without reading back in the first month of the first
term. There was only one important message, from his UROP professor, asking him
to drop by his office to get the proposal. After finishing with the official one he opened the Mozzila
browser to check his other emails - gmail and yahoo mail. A minute
later he was again typing in the terminal window, "logout".
It was time for breakfast or whatever. He washed his face in the
bathroom of the fifth floor and bought a gum from a vending machine.
The breakfast or whatever was in the Lobdell, again. How quickly can a
person start to hate Chicken Teriaki? After a hundred of them?
Thousand? Or even a million? Anyway, he was eating it again. Then he
decided to go to the Hayden Library to read the texts for the writing
class. On the way to the library he dropped the pset into the box in
the first floor of building two and decided to use the athena cluster
on the second floor to print the practice exam for 8.02. After that it
was almost time for the 18.03 recitation. His instructor was an asian
grad student in math. She had to be in math, because she teached math
and she to be a grad student because... she was. Anyway, he liked this
recitation section, because he had some friends in it. And second order
differential equations were fun.
An hour later, there was a 18.02 lecture in the Green building. He
didn't like the class. The professor's voice always sounded soft and
drowsy and he always wondered how the other students were able to stand this torture.
He couldn't and fell asleep five minutes after the class started.
Gradients had to be very interesting, but he didn't manage to learn
much about them and finally woke up when students started to get up and wre already leaving
the class. Next was an hour break at which he had to read a story by some
writer very fast, because after the break he had this writing class.
The class was small - fifteen or sixteen people. He liked it a lot and
would love to spend much more time on it. However, Calculus,
Differential Equations and Physics wouldn't let. Psets, tests and
classes themselves. But now he was in the writing class and they were
discussing some story which was very interesting and it was interesting
to discuss it. His instructor was an interesting woman, too. She was a
science fiction writer, a woman, who knew the bussiness "from the
inside" and her classes were always fun and informative. An hour and a
half later he was walking in the corridor, inspired to write another
story, about a huge guy and a girl's death this time.
He was heading to
the library to prepare for the Physics test. Suddenly, he stopped and
remembered that he was supposed to pick up the proposal. Turned around
and rushed towards building 66. The professor was in his room and was
not alone, but he smiled at him and gave the proposal pointing out some
mistakes in it. He responded to the comments, said that everything will be fixed and walked out.
OK, now, study. He had less than 3 hours to
the test and he was unprepared.
Electromagnetism is a very interesting subject. And he was quiet
surprised to find out that most of his answers in the practice test
were correct. He studied a little more, tried to solve one
more practice test and memorize some problem solving strategies. At
exactly 7.00 PM he decided to check his email and went to the cluster
in building 4.
The test turned out to be held in a not very big room. He bought
himdelf a bottle of Coke, which he was holding and found himself a
seat. Room got packed pretty quickly and the test started at exactly
7.30. It wasn't hard. At least it didn't seem to be and he was solving
the problems. Got stuck a couple of times but generally thought that
did not extremely bad, considering that he prepared only 3 hours. Quite
happy with the test, he decided to have a dinner, met his roommate at
the student center and went to the dorm. It was going to be the night
of 18.03. The problem set was due the noon of the next day and he spent
the most of the night in his friend's room solving it. At 4.00 AM he
was happy to finish the problem set and was going to his room. It was a
surprise to find the roommate awake, but then he found out that he had
a test the next day. He decided to check the email again. There was a
letter from his mother asking him to write. He didn't contact the
parents for more then a week then and decided to call.
He didn't sleep. At about 9 AM he turned in the pset and had a hell a
lot of things to do. Get a UROP coordinator signature, drop the UROP
proposal, get an account refund and pay for the credit card, drop a
subject. Certainly, he did everything.
IAP is going full blast. I'm taking the advanced beginner swimming class, looking for a UROP, working at my job and hanging around the campus. First day (Monday) I went to the video of a Richard Feynman's lecture on gravity, that was pretty cool. Rght after that there was a History of the Universe in one hour in the same auditorium (32-123). There's so much fun stuff going on that it's pretty common to be confused. Just like I was yesterday: I was sitting and having a dinner and a friend of mine comes and says that there's an incredible TV show premiere that night and there's an MIT alum and it was going to be shown in 10-250. We went there, and watched the primiere of the second seoson of the Beauty and the Geek. That was cool :)
ok, now... pics... Over break, I was just walking around and taking them.
Merry Chrismas Folks :). this is the entrance to building 7:
well, the same place, just thought that this is beautiful:
this thing is called 'yakor' in russian, and I have no idea what it is in English.
rather wet student center:
simmons hall
A tree:
me at the athena cluster, that is my scarf, if the question appeared in your head:
On the other day, closer to present time, Boston has been unually warm and sunny. Global warming? Anyway, there you go, a shot from Memorial drive
Boston downtown
and a shot in the evening
... that's it for now and I would like to congrat Jane for making it to the first page of the Tech
See you soon, folks
Hello Folks! How was the winter break? For me it was somewhat refreshing. I stayed on campus, ijn my room, kept ordering pizza and gaining pounds, anyway, I still look skinny. Did I tell you that I was dead, as you can see, I'm not... However, my blog was, for some time, but it's back. And it feels so good to be back. A lot of things have changed, a lot and probably I have changed myself, but I still like Linkin Park and Harry Potter. So, to start from the beginning, or from the end - the first term is over and the winter break is almost over as well. It was a great term, a lot of new friends. But I've lost the touch with people that I thought would become my friends. Jane W, for example. We just don't share a lot of classes, actually didn't share any, the life at MIT has seperated us. I have never met Katelyn, and I think that I have seen Stephanie once... that wasn't my best day. A lot of people are much different in the real life than in the net, and I'm not an exception. I have talked to Kevin only once or twice, even though he is the first person from MIT that I have ever met. Thank you very much, Kev, your help was extremely useful... a year ago :).
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, nice one. Probably the best potter-movie so far but for some reason it just felt like a lego house. The director took the story and tried to make a movie out of it, a very well illustrated one but it lacks something. It lacks something that makes The Prisoner of Azkaban my favorite.
A lot of new music has popped out from nowhere in such a short period of time that I feel like coming from Mars. Eminem, Madonna, Fort Minor and so and so, where are you guys hurrying? :/
About the classes, I took 4: 18.01, 8.01(TEAL), 5.112, 21F.222
18.01 - Calculus I, everyone who took will understand my feelings towards J Starr. The course was interesting with problem sets I really liked and the exams were every 2 weeks, what kept me studying. Everything was fun, except the lectures. I fell asleep at the first one, and kept sleeping untill I decided just not to go the lectures.
8.01 TEAL - Physics I - Felt like a great experience on the first days. However, after some time the screen on the walls started looking quite annoying, I hate PowerPoint and that's actually what we had to look at the whole term. Problem sets were extremely boring, without making any sense and that's why I was very dizzy at every quiz. None of our experiments worked the way it was supposed and PRS was just useless: “Hey, what do you think it is? C. Oh, ok C”.
5.112 - Chemistry - Hmmm... You know, Chemistry was the subject that I liked the most, before taking this awful class. The class that didn't make any tiny bit of sense, every proof just stopped in the place where it actually had to be very careful and definite. Didn't like the exams, problem sets, professors, lectures. Just hated this class. If you guys are thinking about taking this class, think twice. If I had a choice, I would definitely take 3.091
21F.222 - Has my writing changed? The class is named Expository Writing for Bilingual Students. I'm not bilingual, actual penta or hexalingual, but that doesn't mean anything, the class was just awesome. Loved every session, we were in groups of about 15, everybody knew each other and the class went pretty much like a group work, with everybody talking and giving some ideas. I didn't like writing before taking this class.
next post, picsy pics!
I lied...
I'm dead now. I mean the blog is dead, personally, I think that I had to finish it right after the first day post, well ok, sorry.
It has been a trully great experience, to get to know all of you guys, now I know all of you in person and I really have less time, and I would like to spend those tiny bits of free time freely resting., I a lazy person, everyone has to admit it :)
ok folks, see you later, It's almost a year, since I have started this Ximik from Far Far Away. I'm still from far far away and I just hope that now I'm a little closer.
and the film was... beautiful :)
Hello my dear fellas, I'm sorry for being this lazy, now, it's time for a new blogging era on "ximik from far far away". It trully is, because I hope that, my writing will become understandable - I'm taking writing class [:)]
but this post is not going to be long as you might see, actually it ends right now...
Hey, sorry for not blogging, when people here say that they have no time they mean it :) psets, papers, projects, essays and exams drive people crazy (at least they are driving me)
I have applied for a social security number, can't wait to get my first salary in US. btw, I got a work, u know. in the office, clerical, ok :)
thinking about UROP.... let me think more
I'm loosing my friends, well, not actually loosing them... loosing the touch - nice expression
no photos, sorry, everyone's seen MIT campus :P
ok, I'm just wondering, who the hell is reading my blog now?
ok, September's almost over and the weather over here is getting cold
anyway... i'm getting used. i ahd my first exam (18.01) which i failed (well, not actually failed, but 74 is a fail for me) and... i'm missing home...
i just bought my first thing with "MIT" on it... a hood :) it's really cold outdoors, and for some reason i wore just a t-shirt... the air froze my arms and i decided to get a hood
harry potter... NOVEMBER, did u watch the trailer? it's nice and it's pg-13 (:/)
just wanted it to be 5 in september :)
I'm not showing off but... this blog is actually about me:
Today's TechTalk (pdf here):
My Capital (Bishkek):
Hello People :D
Life at MIT is going on and I just thought that I should write an entry :) (even though I have incomplete chem and calculus psets)
ok, so what I am planning to write about now is a certain group of people here at MIT. Sometimes it is pretty weird to see a couple of asian and turkish-looking guys talking among themselves in some language, that doesn't sound like English or Mandarine Chinese. We talk in Russian :). We are the people from post-Soviet countries. So-called, Commonwealth of Independent States. And we have started a new group in the Facebook, called F-USSR (Former Union of Soviet Socialistic Republics).
Here I just wanted to talk about some members of this group:
First of all...
me and my roommate - Nurzhas. He's from Kazakhstan, participant of IMO and ISEF
Agshin - From Azerbaican. He has studied 2 years at Marmara University in Turkey, IPhO Medallist
Vova - from Ukraine, IBO participant, biochem monster
Mekan - from Turkmenistan, IChO participant, I met him in Germany (36th IChO)
There's also Andrei from Moldova, but I couldn't find his picture (btw, all the rights on these pix belong to people that are actually on pics), he's a hardcore mathematician.
and we have also some upperclassmen (Tural, Kuat, Igor, Alibek = all of them are very cool guys) and some new members whom i don't really know but I want to.
ok, so, if u feel like u can be a part of our group, u're welcome to join.
===EDIT===
U won't believe it but i'm right now sitting and sort of working on my first all-nighter at MIT :). it's 4.15 am and the case is that I started solving my calculus pset at 10 pm... i didn't think that it would take so much time, but happily, I'm done, and I hope I did a good job. there's a chemistry pset, which I still have to finish but that won't take more than an hour (i hope)
and don't forget! Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire official movie trailer is right now showing and it's AWEsome :)
Orientation is over and all that “activity” could be described as one big party. Unfortunately, I didn't take many pictures during it.
OK, Today is my first day of classes and classes have finiched now :) so, I decided that it would be cool to describe my first study day at MIT with illustrations. Now, seat comfortably and start reading
First of all, I woke up :D, and got prepared. Then I looked at my schedule:
What do we have today? 8.01 (physics), 5.112 (chemistry) and 18.01 (calculus). All Right, I'm ready to go!
I got out of Simmons and and started walking... vassar street...
(one of the) football fields...
Z-center
Kresge Oval ...
and Stratton Student Center ...
... where I was going to have a breakfast (there're not many people, because it's a bit early)...
and to log in to Athena. (that's not me there)...
ok, now, I'm ready for classes... I headed to 77 Massachusetts Avenue...
the Building 7 is an an entrance to...
...infinite corridor that connect all the academic buildings at MIT...
my first class was in 26-152 (studio classroom?)
...is it really for physics?
yes, it is! this year 8.01 physics is completely different from what was in all previous years. it is computerized, we were divided into groups of 3, to work together, we had a computer and we had to conduct an experiment ourselves :)
2 hours later... again infinite, now it's full of students...
I met my friend Kuat and since I had an hour break we had a lunch together.
while walking to the food court we saw the...
after that I had my 5.112 (chemistry) lecture, which was a pretty classical introduction to the course, I don't know why i didn't take the pictures :/
then there was a calculus recitation (Kiersten and I have the same recitation times)...
after which Kiersten remembered that we actually had our advising seminar at 3.
I'm in Chemistry and Arts and today we were observing photography :) here we are, on the Killian getting prepared to take some cool pics. The woman in a blue t-shirt is my advisor (Dr. Janet Schrenk) and the girl in green one is Kiersten
we used a 30 year-old Pollaroid camera and here's the pic that I took...
after that we went to the lab to wash our negatives, because we will work on them next week...
then I came to dorm and played some pool (i don't know how to spell it) with Nurzhas (my roommate) and now I'm planning to go to the Olympic pool to swim :)
ok, so Labor day is about to end and tomorrow is the first of classes. well, actually, it's gonna be a registration day but anyway the fall term officially starts. I got a swim test tomorrow morning too, and i tried to swim 100 meters today... not as bad as i have expected :)
sorry for not posting throughout the normal orientation and not giving u much of MIT views... i'm just too lazy, let me get used to this place very well :) I have met almost all members of the blogging community (from Matt to Elina) and I'll try to meet each one of them once more to have a pic to post here
I have also met some other cool fella froshes and my room is really cool. 7-5941 - for in campus calls. I just wanted to wish Good Luck to all people, whose term is beginning (or already has began). Good Luck folks!!! It was a great summer!