WOLVERINES!

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!]

More coming soon...

GUESS WHAT?!

This Saturday is a holiday! Well, two holidays, to be precise!

Not only is it Valentine's Day, it's also the 150th anniversary of Oregon's statehood!

In honor of the state that spawned Kettle Chips and Tonya Harding, my radio show tonight will consist entirely of music from Oregon bands!!! So, show Oregon some love and listen in!

http://wmbr.org at 10 PM PST/1 AM EST, 9/10 February!

And I will do a real update soon, I promise! I have to blog about IAP, concerts, and spring term, so that's what you have to look forward to! This week is looking like it's going to be a little hectic, so I can't say when I'll be posting again, but I will try to make it soon.

In the meantime, here's a nerdy video featuring music by The Fall and chemistry. I officially love the EU.

And We're Supposed to be Sad?

No more TRL!

I suppose the show contributed to the development of pop music, but I can't say that I can think of many people that I know that are completely heart-broken over this (and I am certainly not).

In other news... it's getting cold here! My weather widget on my computer is telling me the lows for this next week are going to be in the 20s, and the high on Friday is supposed to 38 degrees. Back home, the highs are in the 50s and the lows are in the 40s. Essentially, I miss the Pacific Ocean.

Okay, I'll stop complaining.

You can still help out WMBR by pledging here!
We're really close to our goal, and you can help us reach that $70,000 mark! Thanks!

Help WMBR Out...

It's the 2008 Fundraiser here at WMBR (wmbr.org)!

Help support independent college radio by pledging your support HERE. It'd be really awesome of you. There are premiums to thank you for your support, but the bigger gift is knowing you're helping WMBR out! Help us reach our goal (of $70,000!!!)!

You can either pledge online (which is pretty snazzy and awesome) with your credit card, or call in (617-253-8810) to give your support.

You can also stream live and listen in from all four corners of the globe.

I am way too tired to come up with a decent title for this.

So, the past few days have been rather epic, no lie.

Sunday, Tess and I went with a bunch of random people to the Museum of Fine Arts (free with our snazzy MIT ID cards...) and saw some fabulous fine arts! Actually, it was really amazing and I nearly died when I went into the Impressionism room because Monet and Degas just make me so happy. After the art museum and a fruitless search at the Galleria mall for hangers for Tess, I was off to a million and two (okay, three) club intro meetings.

First was the Parliamentary Debate team, which I am ridiculously excited about. I really miss competitions, and debate is going to be amazing. As soon as the demo round was over, I dashed over to the student center to go to the Tech. I volunteered myself for writing a story about the US News and World Report rankings, which I am kicking myself over because it's already stressing me out. Not good. Anyway. So, after visiting the snazzy offices of the campus newspaper, I hiked on over to WMBR, MIT's radio station. We got to eat free pizza (which, by the way, was better than the pizza they gave us at the Tech), and we got a tour of the station, which is pretty bad-ass.

On Monday, Tess, Stunes and I went to Target. My oh my, was that epic. So, we had to trek to the bus stop in Central Square, take a bus, walk several blocks and across the Target parking lot. After we came out of the store with an entire cart's contents in giant bags, we went back to the bus stop and waited, and waited, and waited. The bus we wanted never came, so we ended up having to take a bus to Harvard Square, where we got on the T and took that to Central Square and then we had to walk back to Simmons from there (and that is a long walk when you're carrying a bajillion things). It was a really long day, and I naturally complained a lot.

Tuesday morning, I was on the radio! Yeppers...
Stream it here. I played the set starting with "Oregon Girl" by Someone Still Loves You, Boris Yeltsin. Pretty much, the second half-hour. The other shows are good too, though! Definitely listen to them! And you can make fun of the times where I messed up. Whoo...

Today, I worked on getting textbooks. Holy crap, they are expensive. If I went through the Coop for everything, I'd have to pay something like $860. Which is not going to happen. I really hate whoever decided that these books needed to be so damn expensive. Seriously, our high school textbooks were at most $60 and they really aren't all that different. Grrrr...

And now I'm going to bed because I am really tired and I have classes in the morning! Yea! Sorry if this post is rife with errors or passages of incoherence. My brain is already pretty much a goner. For now, here's this interesting (okay, maybe if you're from the Northwest) article about spotted owls! I like how they don't mention that the spotted owls and barred owls are cross-breeding in the wild...

Oh, and hi there Mom and Dad! :)