Playing Catch-Up: Part One

I have officially been the worst blogger ever, and I sincerely apologize!!! IAP, the beginning of the spring semester, and extracurriculars have eaten up every spare moment I have, and unfortunately blogging hasn't been too high up on the priority list lately. Now that I have two p-sets due tomorrow (and I haven't started either one), blogging is suddenly the most important thing EVAR. Aaahhh, procrastination...

A lot of things have gone on since I last did a real update (not my "Ah! Look at this cool site so I can feel like I am actually posting something you'll want to read so I don't lose the meager readership I have because that would be lame! And I really don't want to be as lame as I already am!" posts), including the wonderfulness that is IAP, a couple of fantastic concerts, Pi Beta Phi recruitment (yes, a sorority...), and the first couple of weeks of my second semester here at MIT. Because this is a lot to cover, I'm going to split things up a bit. This is the first installment in a series of posts I'll be making over the next few days that cover what's been going on in my life so you know I'm not dying out here in Massachusetts, and that I can still form coherent (or somewhat coherent) sentences as proof that MIT hasn't completely broken me just yet.

So first thing's first: IAP!

IAP was amazing. I feel like I could have done more with my time, but I also feel like I could have relaxed more. In the end, I think relaxing was the better choice, because it made the start of the semester a little easier. So, here's what I did over IAP:

1. Darkroom photography class: I had blogged about this a little earlier, but that was in the middle of the class. It ended up being a very worthwhile class for me to take. I've had a fair amount of experience with darkrooms in the past, but it was a nice refresher, and I learned about printing with colored filters, which I had never done before. I still have a lot of photos I need to print, but this is one of my favorites that turned out even remotely well and is the product of many hours of frustration and many wasted pieces of photo paper:

2. Retaking 18.01: yeah, that didn't work out so well. I didn't do so well on one of the exams, so I ended up failing it again over IAP. As a result I'm retaking 18.01 again this term. I've accepted that I am just completely terrible at learning math, and it just takes me more time than most people. Oh well. Thank goodness MIT has such wonderful grading policies freshman year.

3. Debate Tournament: NorthAms is a debate tournament that happens every year, the title a shortening of "North Americans." Teams from a number of Canadian colleges that participate in CUSID and American colleges that have APDA teams gather either at an American or Canadian school (it switches every year - this year it was in Amherst, MA at Amherst College) for a debate tournament. The rules are this strange hybrid of CUSID and APDA styles, and to be perfectly honest I actually really like these rules. Unfortunately, I wasn't feeling too fantastic for most of the tournament, but I still had a good time, and it was fun to debate one last time before the insanity of the semester prevented me from doing so.

4. New York City trip: waking up at 5:30 AM, walking across campus in 14 degree F weather, sitting on a bus for three hours, and walking around in 12 degree F weather? Totally worth it. A group of friends and I went to New York the weekend of Mystery Hunt (we missed it, yes... lame, I know) and had an amazing time. We ate lunch at Becco, worked off all the calories from all the pasta we ate by walking to the Met through Central Park, saw only a fraction of the Met (favorite exhibits: Impressionism and contemporary photography), had life-changing chai lattes at Mud (and when I say "life-changing" I mean life-changing - I thought I knew what good chai tasted like, but the chai at Mud is so incredibly good it blew everything from back home out of the water), ate dinner at a little dumpling place, got cupcakes, and then caught the bus back home to Boston. It was a long day, but a fantastic one.

5. Andrew Bird Live!: ANDREW BIRD IS A GENIUS. I'm not even exaggerating! He is so incredibly talented, it's ridiculous. Loney Dear (and no, I did not misspell that!), a Swedish group, opened with a great set, and I definitely think they are much better live than they are in their recordings. Bird's set was fantastic; he played mostly songs from Noble Beast, but threw in "Imitosis" off of Armchair Apocrypha and "Tables and Chairs" off of ... And the Mysterious Production of Eggs (one of my favorite albums of all time). The show was the last Friday of IAP at the Orpheum Theater in Boston. Oddly enough, the Orpheum has seating. I'd never seen a show while sitting down before, and it was kind of strange. The show also got over at about 11 or 11:30 or so, which is the earliest any show I've ever been to has ended. Enough of my blabbering, here are pictures! The first one is Loney Dear, and the rest are Andrew Bird.
There was a review article in The Tech, but I can't say it was a good article. Not only is Loney Dear misspelled (just a little pet peeve of mine), the author clearly didn't do her research (the custom built gramophones are just for this tour, as one example...). Overall, I don't think it did the show, or Andrew Bird, any justice. Though he really did take his boots off and perform in pink socks, and there were so many hipsters there it was a bit like Urban Outfitters and American Apparel decided to have a convention with all their models.

So that was my IAP. When I wasn't doing one of the things listed above, I was hanging out with friends watching movies!

Now, for a video from Nerdist for G4, all about MIT's Mystery Hunt:

(I don't know why he keeps calling it "Puzzle Hunt" because that is definitely not what it's called... Oh well... This is the price of a bit more fame for MIT, I suppose?)

And I just can't resist linking to this article about movie projects involving things like vampires, Elton John, and Jane Austen novels. It's just too fabulous.
Plus, you should reward yourself for reading this much of this post. It was really long. Sorry about that! There was just so much to cover...

Home State... Pride?

I won't deny it: I love Oregon.

Naturally, I get pretty excited when Oregon comes up in the national news arena. I'm always so pleased when I see my home state portrayed as something other than a land of meth addicts and crazies. However, things appear to have gone to crap since I left. (Okay, me leaving and moving to Boston clearly has no impact on the behavior of the citizens of the Beaver State. I recognize this... Just go with it.)

First off, there's the scandal business with Portland's newest mayor, Sam Adams. The local news stations have been buzzing about it for a while, and it's now made several appearances on the New York Times website.

"The Great Gay Hope" - Timothy Egan Blog

Portland Journal: A Mayor’s Lie Throws a City Into Turmoil

What it boils down to is this: Adams lied about his relationship with a significantly younger male in his campaign for the mayoral seat (the issue is not that this relationship was with a male - Portland is the largest city with an openly gay mayor in the US - it's the age differences). He's since come clean about it, and a large number of his former supporters are calling for his resignation (they can't recall just yet - Portland has a law that you can't recall a mayor for the first six months they are in office), which he has refused to do. In my opinion, Adams has done the right thing. Honestly, I don't think it's impairing his ability to lead the city in any way, and there are politicians out there that have committed far more egregious acts and we've allowed them to remain in office. Obviously we shouldn't be letting this slide, because it could be seen as a condonation of behavior we don't really want to see from a mayor, but if the man can actually do a good job of leading the Rose City, then I think we should let him.

Secondly, there's some crazy CIA stuff going on. Apparently, a man and his son from Eugene have been caught committing espionage and selling information to the Russians.

CIA Spy Enlisted Son to Collect Espionage Debts, Feds Say

I think the father is held at the Federal Correction Institution in Sheridan, judging from the article. Which is kind of weird. That's definitely only about ten miles away from my house. I guess this article isn't as interesting or controversial as the ones about Sam Adams, but it's interesting in that it went on so close to where I lived...

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Back here in Boston, things are going quite well. IAP is swiftly coming to an end (Registration Day is Monday! AH!) and spring semester is starting next Tuesday. Things I have to worry about are shifting from dividing time between sleeping, hanging out, what movie to watch next, studying and eating, to class schedules, study habits, studying, eating, and more studying. IAP has been a lot of fun, but I think I'm (sort of) ready for the semester to begin. I just want to get it over with. Then there's the problem of figuring out what to do with my summer. And camp is no longer an option, for a number of reasons. Hopefully I'll get something figured out...

Happy Birthday, Jesse!

It's my brother's 15th birthday today! In honor of this, I naturally have to post cutesy baby pictures of him that I just know he will appreciate. Okay everyone, on the count of three... Awwww!


I would just like to point out that this kid is now a good five inches taller than I am. I would also like to point out that I am sort of thankful I'm not going to be on the roads back home - Jesse can officially get his permit now.

In other news: IAP is in full swing here. I still have a concussion, and it hurts a lot. I finally have access to the darkroom in the student center, and I finally managed to make a decent print with a negative that I was having some difficulties with. And now I need a nap.

[Happy Birthday, Jesse!!!]

Culture Shock

Okay, you'll realize in about five seconds why that was the worst pun in a title EVER.

I'm on the Tillamook Fan Club website again!

(Tillamook makes cheese. Get it? Cheese? Culture? *sigh*)

Anyway.

So, turns out they don't have bots posting things; they have robot interns! And these robot interns have a sense of humor! So humorous are they that I am once again on their online buzz page on their website. It also appears that my site was passed around the office or something, judging by the increase in Portland readers in my Sitemeter statistics.


Lost? It's okay. It all started with this, and continues here and here.

Also on the interwebs: my MIT Admissions Guest Blog (courtesy of Snively - thanks!!!).

In other news... It's IAP at MIT! Basically, that means the next month is going to be full of fun awesome-ness (and I think I'm going to spend some time concentrating on expanding my vocabulary...). I'm re-taking 18.01 (don't ask) and I'm also taking a darkroom photography class. The photo class is going well - I'm halfway through it right now. It's a refresher course for me (I started playing around with 35 mm cameras and darkrooms about five and a half years ago, but I haven't been in a darkroom in a while) and it's strange to realize just how much I missed the darkroom. Today we went through the film development process, and it was kind of funny how the smell of developer and fixer triggered so many memories of working in the darkroom at Sheridan High School for hours on end, only emerging to eat lunch. Included in the class fee is darkroom access for the whole month. Essentially, I'm going to be spending a lot of time in there (when I'm not enjoying all the other amazing things going on around campus and Boston).