The Same Old Excuses

No, I haven't dropped off the face of the planet, I promise. I just need to actually sit down and blog...

Coming soon:

• My adventures in San Francisco with my friend Natalie
• Music goodness
• Tales of a treasure hunt in which technology was no help (a.k.a. a recent geocaching/hiking trip)
• A cell phone review for the ages
• The latest addition to my family (hint: it has a tail)
  
• Why I'm the worst sister in the world (and an exploration of molasses consumption)
• Just how behind I am in Infinite Jest
  

... and probably a lot more!

This summer, despite things for Berkeley falling through, has been one big adventure with my friends and family. As such, there's been little time to sit down and chronicle it for you all. Sorry about that! I will definitely be making a bit more time to blog, so stay tuned!

This Plan Will Probably Fail Miserably

I feel like I should at least give it a shot... I probably won't be able to follow through, but then again, that's how I initially felt about this blog, and it's still going strong over a year after its inception. Well, not really strong. I've kind of been slacking off lately. I suppose I could use the whole "I'm a busy MIT student" excuse, but all that is is an excuse. A really lame excuse.

So here's my plan: I'm going to have a posting schedule. I figure that forcing myself to post at least twice a week is probably a good way to make sure my posts are a little bit more focused, as well as more succinct. Because if you wanted to read a novel, you would do just that, rather than read my blog. I may post more than the two days a week, but when I eventually run out of things to talk about (my mother is laughing right now - I'm willing to place money on that) I'll probably just start complaining about pop music and bad music videos, or weird news stories. Clearly this would be less than optimal content, but content is content, no?

What days can you wake up super-early to check your Google Reader?

Mondays and Thursdays, my friends. Mondays and Thursdays at 5:00 AM Eastern.

What? I said super-early. And it's not like I'm going to be up at that hour; thanks to the magic of the internets, I can schedule those suckers to post themselves.

To make up for how thoroughly boring this post was, here's a random selection from Fail Blog that really isn't that funny:

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).

Screw You Guys, I'm Going Home.

Ah, Cartman. I actually miss "South Park" right now. Sadness.

So. Today was my first crappy day here! Fun, right? Okay, not so much.

Last night probably set me up for the bad day, though those events have zero impact on the things that have pissed me off. I went on a certain citrus-y tour of campus last night, open only to students. I had a blast, and it was quite the adventure. I got back into the dorm at 4 AM, so I was exhausted. I've been running on very little sleep this last week and a half, so I slept all day. No, really. I didn't get out of bed until noon, and even then I just cleared off my desk and watched some "Arrested Development" on Hulu. After that, I decided that I had expended far too much energy, and just went back to bed until 3.

While checking Facebook later on, I learned that the Math Diagnostic results were out. Now, the Math Diagnostic was a 20-question test I took yesterday morning that determines which physics class I'll be in. There was some calculus and some pre-calc on there, and some stuff that I had no idea existed. Here's what I read today:
Math Diagnostic for Physics Placement Results

SCORE:
21
Comments and Advice:

As judged by your performance on this Diagnostic, your score indicates weakness in your high school math skills. For this reason, the Physics Department strongly recommends that you enroll in 8.01L, the longer version of Physics I designed for students with weak background in math or physics. You should also be concurrently enrolled in a version of 18.01, Calculus I. Please discuss these decisions with your freshman advisor. You are also strongly encouraged to work through the problems in the Math Review Modules available at: http://mit.edu/firstyear/mathdiagnostic/modules.html.

:(

Then, I was in the Athena Cluster in the Student Center (basically, a computer lab), checking Facebook (goodness, I'm not an addict... *cough*) when I saw stuff about the Admissions Blogger results. When I finally made it through the post and saw the list, I was mildly (okay, really really) disappointed. My name was definitely not on there. Gah. I'm kind of miffed right now, but I think it's going to be like State Office, where I'll be glad I didn't get it about a week from now. It's still a little annoying though.

I guess things could be a lot worse, but these things really just add to the list of reasons why I statistically (or otherwise) should not have been admitted to MIT. I really just don't get how I'm going to survive here.

XKCD's random button makes me happy, though.

This is actually a lot like getting to my house in Oregon. No lie.