HEY, long time no see. I hope everyone has landed a lucrative summer job and is simultaneously buying truly excellent dorm stuff.
I went back to MIT for a glorious week to visit friends. EC was even more fun with all my friends and no homework or tests. Absolutely perfect weather, a sunny 75 degrees and a light breeze for four days straight. Hell of an improvement from 98 degrees and 70% humidity down here in TX. Matt has stayed at MIT over the summer, he has a UROP building robots. We explored Boston, walking everywhere and usually ending up in the serene Boston Gardens. The Gardens are right next to the Commons, a little more natural and less "kid's park." And there's a pair of swans living there! The whole place is so pretty, and lots of shops nearby to look at. And a surprising number of Fried Dough stands. Go figure. Matt and I also went to visit the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, which is FREE for MIT students! Yay, free stuff! Several large collections of paintings, sculptures, and all sorts of things. I recommend the Asian art exhibits, there are some kimonos to die for and sleek katanas to do it with. :P
The 4th of July fireworks were amazing. I didn't care much for the canned pop music accompanying the show, but DUDE! Cubic fireworks! And stars, and hearts, and smiley faces, and fountains, and explosions so big they filled the sky. MIT has an excellent view, the fireworks barge was actually sitting in front of Walker Memorial. Great times!
Besides work, my latest adventure has been tinkering with my laptop. Again. I'm toying with the idea of buying a larger hard drive, and I definitely need more RAM. I'm going to upgrade my Linux partition to Fedora Core 4 soon, too. My brother is having some issues with his old Fedora Core 2 laptop, namely that he doesn't know how to maintain it. I'm going to write a guide for setting up a XP/FC4 dual boot system with multimedia and stuff, hopefully i can get things polished soon. All you nerdlets desiring such a blinging system, you know where to find me.
While I'm on the topic... let me give some advice on buying a computer for college. I'd recommend doing some thorough comparison shopping. What do you want from it? Gaming? Just email? Hard-core computer programming? I recommend Windows XP Pro, since I've tried XP Home and found it to be a third-rate cheap-ass piece of software. At least Pro works. You'll also need MS Office, of course, which means a total of $230 in software if you don't get it preinstalled. Mac OS X or anything Apple also will work great, I've seen some Course 6 upperclassmen typing madly on them as well as anything else. And so snazzy looking. Especially great for the artsy types, since multimedia seems to be Mac's main strength. Well, that and the absence of crashing. Heh. And finally, for those who don't want to spend more than $600 on a system, get a truly powerhouse tower off of eBay for $400, a cheap monitor, and spend a bit on video card or other upgrades. Then install your choice of Linux distros and enjoy the benefits of open souce! There's so much out there now that's free and built for Linux, you can do anything from play your mp3's to doing 3D animation. And answers to your questions are no farther than Linuxquestions.org! I'm going to try and set my brother up with a desktop Linux system, we'll see how it goes.
FYI, a basic system to last you all four years needs:
1.2 GHz processor, preferrably not Intel Celeron (there are better quality chips)
256MB RAM
30GB hard drive
CD-R drive (most play DVDs)
And a better system would be:
2.6 GHz processor (1.2 or greater if Intel Centrino)
512MB RAM
80GB hard drive
DVD-R drive
And if you're going to play high-end games or do animation or anything like that, skip the laptop and get a desktop or you'll pay a fortune:
2.8 GHz processor, no less
1024MB RAM, no less
160GB hard drive, maybe slightly less but you might as well fork over the money now and save yourself the hassle later
AND DON'T FORGET TO SPRING FOR THE EXTRA YEARS OF WARRANTY! If it's available, it's probably worth it.
Let's see... I have my schedule and my advisor, and I should be applying for various fall semester jobs like, tomorrow. And I'm definitely going to be an associate advisor for some of you lot! Little robots, what fun! And I can laugh maniacally whilst you moan about 8.01TEAL (physics) and such. No more for me, muahahaha!
Not much else, just thought I'd post. As always, feel free to email. Have a great rest of the summer, and I'll be back at MIT on August 28th!
Hey, freshmen. I'm home for the summer, and I start my job next week. Since there will be very little happening other than work and reruns on tv, I'm going to spare you the details of my family vacation and return to blogging when I return to MIT. You can always email me with questions: AIM TheAllPwrfulRoot, akunz@mit.edu, facebook Allison Kunz.
Have fun with the FEE, and try not to worry too much about AP scores. You all did fine, and if you didn't it doesn't matter anyway. Go shopping! Buy Twin XL sheets and laundry baskets and a blingin' new laptop computer for your dorm room. And speakers! Don't forget the speakers. I suppose you could also get textbooks, but that's slightly less theraputic.
See you in the fall...
And thus ends my semester. Going to sleep now...
In less than 24 hours, my Bio grade will be set in stone and I'll be done with it forever.
Wish I'd studied more.
PhD, Piled Higher and Deeper, can be found online at www.phdcomics.com. It's a whole lot of nerdiness, hope you all enjoy.
As for employment, that's kinda tricky. Job hunting sucks, that's a life constant. MIT helps out, just go to the Student Employment Office's website! There are job postings for many different categories (supposedly up-to-date, but act fast if you find one you like). Another handy feature is the SEO's “On-Call” listings. Fill out the form and your name is added to whatever list you want- tutors, manual labor, etc. People will call you if they need you, and you can either accept or decline the job. Nice.
UROPs are great, but you may want a semester to settle in before you make that committment. The average UROP requires 5-10 hrs per week, and if you're doing sports, clubs, or even just exploring your options, that may be too much. Or it may not.
Hope that helps.
What an awesome afternoon! I talked to my grad student for a while, he said that Prof. Rubner wants me to have MY OWN PROJECT next semester, which would be cool beyond all reason. He also showed me pictures of his trip to Italy, with all the art and architecture and stuff. Plus his poster for the conference with all his research. Big poster, with lots of research. And I helped, so he put my name in the credits! Neato.
Then I dragged Matt over to hear the creator of PhD Comics give a talk. He was cool! He's now a post-doc at Caltech, I believe, and his comics are featured in the Tech. He's really a robotics guy! Who knew? I bought both of his books- one of them is signed to me, the other to Matt. Hooray for comic books! And funny grad students.
Right, I hereby do solemly swear to start reading Biology.
Tomorrow is the last day of classes! I'll turn in my physics lab report and be done with that GIR forever. I'll go to Bio recitation. And I'll get free food at the Course 3 "meet the faculty again now that you've officially declared your major" lunch. Good times.
Of course, I also have to start, you know, studying.
I guess you guys are wrapping up AP stuff and getting ready for graduation. I'll bet quite a few are polishing speeches and receiving medals and cords to wear with their cap&gown attire. It's good times, take pictures and have some fun. Demand great graduation gifts. Or cash.
Keep up the good questions, it's cool when you guys post.
No more tests! One lab and three finals left to go, but the end-of-term ickiness is over.
Hope you all are surviving AP. Who's taking the most tests? Can anyone beat my senior year 7?
Right! Got an A on the Bio test, boo-ya! And the UROP presentation in front of two profs, my grad student, and a bunch of grad students and post-docs went as well as could be expected. I had to pass a lot of questions on to my grad student, but that's forgivable considering my lack of Intro to Materials classes. Anyway, it looks as if I won't have to search much for another UROP for next semester. Good.
Only two more tests to go, and then it's the weekend. Hope you all are having tons of fun with those AP tests! Hahahaha. Just wait until MIT only gives you useless credit for like four of the dozen you sweated through during high school. Don't worry too much, AP can only help you. What are they gonna do if you get a 2 in Macroeconomics? Kick you out? No. So relax, and think of them as giant bonus problems.
Later
Right, so I have three tests, an essay, a UROP presentation, Associate Advising junk, and the usual lab/homework duties over the next two weeks. I'm not posting not because I don't love you, I'm not posting because my entire life consists of books, papers, and the occasional few hours of sleep. I'm sure you all are in the same boat.
Good news is, the weather no longer sucks.
Right, so there was an AWESOME drag show fundraiser tonight. My friend Milo performed twice, and he makes one hot chick. I was so impressed! All the "queens" danced better in 6-inch stilettos than I could walk in them, and the sets were fantastic. One guy danced to that god-awful "Barbie" song, the one that made the top 10 worst songs of the old millenium or something like that. It was hilarious! And so well done at the same time. Kudos to, uh, her? Ah well.
Point being, for those who care, that "alternative lifestyles" are welcome here. LBGT stickers appear randomly on doors and stuff, and the Rainbow Lounge just got renovated. Religion is also an open subject, with several faith-based groups. Race is not really an issue, so far as I've seen. Although I've hear East campus is more race-blind than West: some administrator once commented that "It's like you [at EC] don't even see male or female or black or white or Asian..." So MIT is cool like that.
I hope that LBGT does the same thing next year. Milo will have to get me VIP seats, and I'll bring lots of cash to wave at all the guys who are sexier than me. :)
Pikans are cool, let me say that up front. They have one of the highest GPAs of the independent living groups, they're a close community, and they like to do lots of different stuff. My friend likes to call them a "hippie commune, but without the drugs," and that's actually a valid observation. Many are vegetarian or vegan, quite a few like to hike, bike, or run, and they tend to wear comfortable clothes and sandals. The house is old, but they keep it reasonably clean and working well, especially considering that their room&board is the cheapest around campus. During Rush next year, I highly recommend finding the place and talking to people over dinner. They're extremely nice and will give you a tour and possibly a ride on their golf-cart.
So today the Pikans took a few freshmen with bids over to Walden Pond, which was an adventure. Some people actually rode their bikes all the way to Concord, a good two-hour ride. We took the commuter rail, because I'm out of shape and have no bike. Matt tagged along as well, since we kind of function as a unit. We bought fresh chocolate chip cookies, so I don't think anyone minded the extra wheel. At first I felt quite grumpy: the beach was full of flies, mosquitoes, and small children. We finally found another spot on higher ground with much less insect life and more grass, and after a PBJ I relaxed on Matt's blanket and read the latest issue of Technology Review. And I didn't burn! Hooray for three coats of sunscreen. Everyone seemed to have a good time after lunch, sleeping or talking or playing frisbee. I also got my feet wet on the beach, trying fruitlessly to skip rocks on the pond, and I saw two fish swimming by. They must have been confused fish, to wander into the shallows like that. The pond was very pretty, although suncreen and lots of insect repellent are a must for such a trip. I'm not much of a nature girl, obviously. My idea of camping involves sleeping the back of an SUV and bringing lots of mosquito netting. Ah well.
I hope everyone has a good week, and I'll update you when more interesting stuff happens.
So, if you're a mediocre student at a top university, are you still ahead of the game? I got all my tests back, and it looks like I'm a solid B student in all of my classes. No word yet on King Lear, but this essay was much less moronic than my last one that earned a B-. I'm happy with this situation, considering I'll never care about physics, Shakespeare, or biology ever again.
This weekend is a four-day weekend at MIT! I've already taken a 4-hr nap this afternoon, EC is having a Cthulu party tomorrow, 5E is having a Marti Gras party tomorrow, and Pika is taking all its frosh bids to Walden Pond on Monday. I think I'll go see a movie at LSC - hooray for cheap and convenient entertainment! What's better, Spanglish or Sideways? I'm rather out of the movie loop.
Oh, and I'll get to return all the books of Shakespeare analysis to the library this weekend... how cathartic.
Pizza's ready, please post.
What a weekend! Liquid nitrogen ice cream and a crate of capacitors, fun with coffeemate, tours, bouncy balls and beach balls from the sky, and then tooling like mad until 4 this morning. Such is the life.
I hope everyone had fun, and I met a few of you that I'll look forward to seeing next year. My reply came in via email today- I'll be an Associate Advisor for some unlucky freshmen, hopefully related to course 3. Which also means that I get to come back early for Orientation! Wheee! A week of fun and games, playing in the sun and eating rediculous amounts of free hamburgers and hot dogs. :D
No more King Lear or magnetism! Five pages of essay, two more of BS for filler, and no more trying to divine The Bard's true intent through tangents and common phrases and thinking “Back in the day....” And the 8.02X test this morning could have been so much worse. I'm three-quarters of the way through X!
Start petitioning to bring that class back, btw. Come on, circuits are so cool.
Post your thoughts/observations/favorite things about CPW!
Stupid amounts of exclamation points were used in the writing of this post!!!!!