Fear not, my dear and faithful readers! I am, in fact, alive. MIT and the usual things that just come up in life have kept me from blogging. Exams, papers, p-sets, resumes and applications for government jobs that probably don't actually exist because of budget cuts (thanks a lot, NRCS), helping run MIT's debate tournament, and Spring Break have basically made life incredibly busy. Well, saying that Spring Break is making my life busy is kind of a lie - I'm spending Spring Break here in Boston, with very little to actually do. I guess I've been exploring the city, using my camera, and reading, instead of blogging. On the upside, I finally saw Watchmen.
(Funny story - I went and saw it by myself in the afternoon a couple of days ago at the AMC Loews (a.k.a. professional wallet rapists - $8.75 for a matinee? REALLY? and $8.50 for a small popcorn and a small soda? REALLY?) in Boston Commons, and looking around the theater, I noticed something. Everyone there was there by themselves. Yep, I saw Watchmen with all of the other single, loser comic book (... I mean, "graphic novel") fans, most of whom were probably seeing it for the fifty bajillionth time. Needless to say, I walked out of that theater with a little less dignity than I walked in there with. Oh, and my verdict on the movie: it was awesome! I don't care that the ending was different, I was completely happy with the movie all the way through.)
I was also pretty excited to get my hands on a copy of the new Decemberists album, The Hazards of Love. Reason #1340974519384 why I love being a member of WMBR: I was listening to The Hazards of Love last Saturday. It came out this past Tuesday. I didn't have to pay for a thing. Promotional copies are fantastic. This new album is the first of their full-lengths to not get a score of at least 8 from Pitchfork, and for once I agree (Pitchfork and I are usually not the best of pals - Pitchfork doesn't know this of course, but I tend to disagree with most of their scores, and their reviewers... but what do I know, right?). While this album clearly has the usual hallmarks of a Decemberists album, it lacks a few elements that make a Decemberists album truly great. This album is much darker than their previous works (yes, it is possible - gone are the days of songs of vindictive sea-faring orphans - they've moved on to talk of killing babies), and the songs are clearly intended to be listened to in order. The single, "The Rake's Song" can only be truly appreciated in context with the other songs on the album, which present the listener with a very detailed and intricate plot line that can occasionally be difficult to follow without the liner notes (which they've generously provided on their website). I once told a friend of mine that of all the musical groups I listen to and love, the only two that I feel can do no wrong are Spoon and the Decemberists. I still feel this way, and will continue to unconditionally love the Decemberists despite The Hazards of Love. I mean, I like it, but I think I'm going to go back to listening to The Crane Wife and Castaways and Cutouts.
There's no rest for MIT students, though. Well, I suppose I could have not done any work over break, but I would have payed dearly for it next week. So interspersed between all the exploring of Boston and photography and literature binges, I've been working on my 14-page museum exhibit design proposal for my writing class. Surprisingly, it hasn't been that bad. Maybe it's because I love writing, or maybe it's because there's not really any pressure right now. No clue. Regardless, I'm certainly not complaining. We also had a requirement to critique a speech or presentation for my writing class, which I'm knocking out tonight by going to a forum on food locavorism, which should be interesting. I'm interested to see how they portray agriculture and family farms.
And finally, the reason behind the blog title: wolverines are BACK! Those things are vicious, and I hope I never come across one while camping or hiking. I think I'd probably hyperventilate. Or have an asthma attack while running away. Actually, the asthma attack is probably more likely.
[Congrats to the MIT Class of 2013! Can't wait to meet you all at CPW and in the fall!]
Showing posts with label writing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label writing. Show all posts
26 March 2009
02 October 2008
Why I Officially Win (Or, some of the positive things in my life right now)
For my Film Experience class, I'm supposed to write several papers about the movies we watch in class to fulfill the HASS-D requirement. My first paper was on the role of accident in Buster Keaton's The General.
This is a story of what NOT to do (and what I'll never ever do again, I promise).
I have a lot on my plate lately, between all my classes and debate and WMBR. The extracurriculars don't take up that much time away from p-sets, but the work consumes every other waking moment (when I'm not obsessively checking my e-mail or Google Reader, of course) of my life. P-sets that require math (which is pretty much all of them) get my attention first, because I know they will take me the longest. Then I work on chemistry, because the math for that mostly just requires a calculator - yea for no derivatives!
HASS-D? What HASS-D? Oh, yeah, HASS-D... That one class that eats up every Tuesday evening with two lectures and a full-length film (sometimes two of them!)... Now, I really like the subject. And I really like the fact that it allows me to write (Too. Many. Numbers.). But I forgot about the essay that was due today until the last minute. I started working on it last night (Mom, Dad, I know you're already freaking out... Just hold your horses and remember how I said I would never ever do this again...) and didn't get much done. Then I woke up late this morning, without much time to work on my paper.
Panic set in, and after the quickest shower of my life (no joke) I was pounding away on my keyboard. I only paused to get juice from our fridge on the opposite side of the room, then I was back to describing what some critics call Keaton's greatest film.
Page totals:
Last night - 1.25 pages
This morning after an hour and a half of work - 5 pages
Oh snap. I powered through nearly four pages of an essay in an hour and a half. At that rate, I would have had my Senior Project paper (all 12 pages of it) done in a day. Truth be told, I had no idea I was capable of that. Another great thing - this isn't my worst writing ever. As in, I'm not ashamed to turn it in like it is.
But I will never ever do that again because now my brain is fried and I need some food.
In other news... I got eight hours of sleep last night! Go me! That's a record, I think, for the past two weeks. Which is terrible. But, I've been doing a bit of it without caffeine, so that's good (This is not to say, however, that I've not had coffee. I completely forgot how relaxing it is to just get a cup of coffee and sit in a comfortable chair for a while, not doing any hardcore work until I did it at Starbucks the other day... I need to do that a little bit more often).
Turns out I got a 65 on my 18.01 (single-variable calculus) test last week... WHICH IS AWESOME. In the real world, this might not be a very good score, but for MIT (and me) that is not bad and I am really really happy about it. And we are now going to completely ignore the train wreck that was my 8.01L (physics) score.
There's a ton of cool stuff going on tonight, however. Dale Chihuly is speaking at MIT tonight at 6:30, and I am unbelievably excited for that. He's an amazing glass-blower and I've seen his work exhibited all over the US, so it'll be really interesting to actually see him speak and give a presentation. Also tonight is the Vice-Presidential debate! I'm not too impressed with either Biden or Palin, so this will be interesting. The Tech had a wonderful take on the upcoming debate (I don't recommend playing this game - alcohol poisoning is bad - but it's at least funny to read).
Also, TWO WEEKS UNTIL NATIONAL CONVENTION. That's right, the annual FFA National Convention in Indianapolis is coming up, and I am missing a whole week of classes to go and compete/kick some serious butt in Ag Communications (a journalism contest). It's going to be amazing!
Random tidbit of information: Buster Keaton's The General was filmed entirely in Oregon. That's right, they've been filming movies in Oregon since at least 1927. In my book, that's awesome (and far more awesome than The Hunted being filmed in Oregon City).
This is a story of what NOT to do (and what I'll never ever do again, I promise).
I have a lot on my plate lately, between all my classes and debate and WMBR. The extracurriculars don't take up that much time away from p-sets, but the work consumes every other waking moment (when I'm not obsessively checking my e-mail or Google Reader, of course) of my life. P-sets that require math (which is pretty much all of them) get my attention first, because I know they will take me the longest. Then I work on chemistry, because the math for that mostly just requires a calculator - yea for no derivatives!
HASS-D? What HASS-D? Oh, yeah, HASS-D... That one class that eats up every Tuesday evening with two lectures and a full-length film (sometimes two of them!)... Now, I really like the subject. And I really like the fact that it allows me to write (Too. Many. Numbers.). But I forgot about the essay that was due today until the last minute. I started working on it last night (Mom, Dad, I know you're already freaking out... Just hold your horses and remember how I said I would never ever do this again...) and didn't get much done. Then I woke up late this morning, without much time to work on my paper.
Panic set in, and after the quickest shower of my life (no joke) I was pounding away on my keyboard. I only paused to get juice from our fridge on the opposite side of the room, then I was back to describing what some critics call Keaton's greatest film.
Page totals:
Last night - 1.25 pages
This morning after an hour and a half of work - 5 pages
Oh snap. I powered through nearly four pages of an essay in an hour and a half. At that rate, I would have had my Senior Project paper (all 12 pages of it) done in a day. Truth be told, I had no idea I was capable of that. Another great thing - this isn't my worst writing ever. As in, I'm not ashamed to turn it in like it is.
But I will never ever do that again because now my brain is fried and I need some food.
In other news... I got eight hours of sleep last night! Go me! That's a record, I think, for the past two weeks. Which is terrible. But, I've been doing a bit of it without caffeine, so that's good (This is not to say, however, that I've not had coffee. I completely forgot how relaxing it is to just get a cup of coffee and sit in a comfortable chair for a while, not doing any hardcore work until I did it at Starbucks the other day... I need to do that a little bit more often).
Turns out I got a 65 on my 18.01 (single-variable calculus) test last week... WHICH IS AWESOME. In the real world, this might not be a very good score, but for MIT (and me) that is not bad and I am really really happy about it. And we are now going to completely ignore the train wreck that was my 8.01L (physics) score.
There's a ton of cool stuff going on tonight, however. Dale Chihuly is speaking at MIT tonight at 6:30, and I am unbelievably excited for that. He's an amazing glass-blower and I've seen his work exhibited all over the US, so it'll be really interesting to actually see him speak and give a presentation. Also tonight is the Vice-Presidential debate! I'm not too impressed with either Biden or Palin, so this will be interesting. The Tech had a wonderful take on the upcoming debate (I don't recommend playing this game - alcohol poisoning is bad - but it's at least funny to read).
Also, TWO WEEKS UNTIL NATIONAL CONVENTION. That's right, the annual FFA National Convention in Indianapolis is coming up, and I am missing a whole week of classes to go and compete/kick some serious butt in Ag Communications (a journalism contest). It's going to be amazing!
Random tidbit of information: Buster Keaton's The General was filmed entirely in Oregon. That's right, they've been filming movies in Oregon since at least 1927. In my book, that's awesome (and far more awesome than The Hunted being filmed in Oregon City).
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)