Energy

It's clearly been a while... My apologies for that, everyone. I could give you a million excuses, but I'm not going to. I could also give you a lengthy update on my life, but the details even bore me. Instead, here's the short version:

• Spring term sucked. I hated my classes, I passed all my classes, and I realized I want to go back to MIT.
• I'm taking summer classes - physics and vector calculus. More along the lines of what I'd take at MIT, and I'm so much happier.
• I have a job at a local pizza place washing dishes some nights and serving pizzas/cleaning up after people on other nights. I work weekends, which is unfortunate, but the people are awesome and the pizza's delicious.
• I'm going to be on the newscrew for the National FFA Convention in October! Needless to say, I'm beyond excited.

There really haven't been any other major things going on, unless I'm forgetting something. Anyway. Expect more regular posts here! Well, hopefully. I'm toying with the idea of switching to a tumblr site that's a little less text-heavy and energy-intensive (the thought of sitting down and writing out a blog is a little boring these days), and continuing writing about focused topics on another site. I'll keep you all posted!

Yes, I'm Still Alive

So, it's been pointed out to me twice this weekend in Facebook wall posts that I haven't posted in a while.

Sorry about that.

There have a been a number of contributing factors: lack of topics, lack of time, and lack of energy. All lousy excuses, I know. So here's what's been going on over the past few months for me...

Summer
Summer was... well... awesome. I spent it with awesome people doing awesome things, which is precisely how summer should be spent. Highlights: barbeques galore, an eight mile hike, buying a ukulele, visiting fairs and rodeos, and just having fun.

MIT
I realize that this is a given. But I don't know if it's possible to convey in print just how severely MIT has been kicking my ass this term. Like, it's seriously on a level that I didn't know was possible. I do actually like one of my classes, though. My ecology class (1.018 for you MIT-ers) is amazing! The CI-M part (a term paper) can be a little obnoxious at times, but the subject material is incredibly interesting, and something I could spend hours happily working on. Physics and chemistry... well... they're a different story. Things outside of classes are keeping me busy as well. Pi Phi and the radio station take up some time, which is fine. But by the time I manage to make a dent in the amount of work I have, the last thing I want to do at the end of the day is blog. Typically I just want to sleep.

I'm actually going to be incredibly lazy right now and just post some pictures from the past few months (because, well, I want to sleeeeeeep). These are all from MIT, and the few moments I've not been studying. Enjoy!

The Cambridge side of the Charles River.
Boston's John Hancock Tower.
Boston Public Library's courtyard.
There's some construction going on in the Infinite Corridor, and these signs appeared. Naturally, MIT students had to add their commentary.
Obama paid a little visit to campus back in October. This was the car he was in (my photography skills failed me for a moment). I'll actually be posting more about this...
Girl Talk played at the Boston House of Blues earlier this month. It was one of the most epic dance-y shows I've ever been to. If you have no idea who Girl Talk is... well... you need to fix that. Go. Now. I won't be offended.
People always complain that MIT has an ugly campus. I actually have to disagree with them.
As much as I complain about being in New England, I must say there are times when I wouldn't want to be anywhere else. These moments are typically on gorgeous fall days...

So. A post! I promise you that there will never again be a four-month unannounced hiatus. And thanks Ms. Behrle and Nathan for hinting (though not so subtly) that I needed to update this.

Impressive!

Yes, that time stamp is correct.

It's official, ladies and gentlemen! I have officially just pulled my first all-nighter here at MIT. There's really no point in me going to sleep before my 10 AM class. I've also set a personal record for number of hours spent in the Student Center Reading Room. My previous record was around seven hours, but I just upped it to ten.

While I am going to crash at some point today, I can crash easily, knowing that I am finally done with a massive paper! I can also crash easily knowing that I sent a million and two e-mails to people in a million different departments about transfer credit, declaring my major, and the like.

The most impressive part, though? I've managed to do all this and the only caffeine I've had in the last 36 hours has been a bottle of Coke. This is weird, because I am rather addicted to caffeine, have it all the time, and normally I need a lot more to even remotely feel the effects of it.

This can't be healthy.

The Chirality Game

I'm working on studying for my 7.014 exam right now, and one of the study materials they suggest is called the Chirality Game.

I definitely expected some cheesy game, but I instead discovered the cutest chemistry-education game ever. You should definitely check it out - the snails are adorable, and now you'll never forget what chirality is! Nerdiness for the win.

Click here!

The Miracles of Modern Technology

I am incredibly absent-minded.

Like, beyond reason.

I misplace, forget, or lose things all the time. The most recent victim of my forgetfulness?

My ID card.

I definitely lost it the other day when I put it in my pocket after buying some food at the student center. When I tried to get into Simmons later that day... I had some issues. After searching through every bag I have ever used, every jacket pocket, and the places I went in the student center, I came to the terrible conclusion that I had flat out lost it.

Unfortunately, Card Services closes at 4:30, so I didn't have a chance to get a new one yesterday. But, after spending five minutes at Card Services (that was a lot less time than I was expecting) I walked out with a new ID card.

So I would like to sincerely whoever came up with the little machine that churned out my ID card so quickly. You are my hero.

I would also like to thank whatever gem of technology is responsible for making my radiator worthless. I have it turned up all the way, and it's still cold. Which makes me really happy considering it is currently 31 degrees here, and the low tonight is supposed to be 21 degrees. And my dorm is a giant hunk of concrete and metal.

[Three days of the worst week ever completed! Now I just need to worry about a presentation and an exam! YEA!]

Update on Life

So, I realize it's been a while since I've blogged about the amazingness that is MIT... Or anything else going on in my life. Which is kind of pathetic, I will agree. I guess I'll just do a massive update, and have it over with. Sorry if this gets really long and verbose...

Classes
Ehhhhh... Yeah. Classes. Well, they're going all right I suppose. I'm actually understanding calculus right now, and could see myself doing really well on the final. Which is a fabulous feeling. What's not looking good is this next week: two exams, a paper, and a presentation. Obviously, I'm not too worried about the presentation or paper (I'm actually incredibly excited for them), but those two exams are going to kill me. I realize that this probably isn't a bad week in the cases of most MIT students, but oh well. I'm just happy that everything isn't quite as overwhelming as it was earlier in the semester.

National Convention
So, I realized I never blogged about Nationals, other than to say what result we got. I apologize for that. Basically, Nationals was a fun time, though a bit stressful. It was nice/strange to see people from home, and nice/strange to be off campus for a week. By the end of the week, I found myself missing MIT, so that was a good sign. Because pictures are worth a thousand words, I'm going to save some space and just post some pictures from the trip instead.

We found these in Chicago. AMAZING.

Chicago was pretty, but cold.

We visited a grain elevator in Indiana, where they had ridiculous amounts of corn and fertilizer.

They took us up on the catwalk above their fertilizer storage, where they have a conveyor belt set up. The stairs and catwalk itself were rather rickety, and it was a terrifying experience...

The current US Secretary of Agriculture, Ed Schafer, spoke at one of the convention sessions. He gave a great speech, which included the line, "I felt the excitement in the halls all night long." The entire crowd exploded with laughter when he said that, and he definitely had to wait a few moments before he could speak again. I love it when politicians provide you with "That's what she said" moments (e.g. Sarah Palin's "Drill baby, drill!" line during the vice-presidential debate).
Our team walked away with this! It's kind of sad it doesn't say that we got third on it...
Our super-happy team in Monument Circle in Indianapolis. We were on our way to get ice cream right after the awards banquet.
So, for some reason, I was the only Ag Communications participant to show up to the final session to be recognized on the national stage (I even changed my flight back to MIT to be able to do so) so I was the only one up there with the national officers. It was totally worth it. Oh, and they messed up the plaque they gave me (it had the name of the girl who was third high individual in Ag Sales... oddly enough, her name is Kelsey as well...) so they're sending me another one...

Movies
I've watched a ridiculous number of movies lately. All on the weekends, but still. A ridiculous number of them.
Including...
Yes, you're reading that correctly. Quantum of Solace... at midnight. Awesome, I know. It was a pretty good movie, and I recommend seeing it for the action (certainly not the plot). That, and James Bond is just plain awesome. I also finally saw The Dark Knight last night, thanks to LSC! I thought the movie was just a lot of hype over the summer, but it lived up to its reputation. It was amazingly good. And I can now see why some people saw it multiple times...

Politics
Gordon Smith lost. The school bond failed. Okay, we're all on the same page now...

Life in General
Overall, things are going quite well. This weekend will be spent doing fun things with friends (and studying for those two tests), and there's a chance I'll be in New York next weekend. Thanksgiving is quickly approaching, which means that my friend Joanna will be coming down from her school in Vermont to visit me! I am ridiculously excited. Anyway. After Thanksgiving will be finals, and then I CAN GO HOME. Fortunately, my finals are on the Tuesday and Wednesday of Finals Week, so I am on the first flight home on Thursday. Thank you Dad for scoring those tickets.

HELP WMBR REACH THEIR FUNDRAISING GOAL!!! (Pledge before next Wednesday! Get awesome premiums! Feel good about yourself! Support independent, non-commercial radio!)

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! :)

Classes? OH NOES!

Yep, that's right! I finally registered for classes!

So, officially, I'm registered for 5.111 (Chemistry), 18.01 (Single-variable calculus), 21F.376 (French I with Globalization), and 8.01L (Physics - Classical Mechanics [Long - which means it goes into January]). Unfortunately, it all doesn't really fit into my schedule.

Also, looking at the 8.01L stuff online, I realized that we covered all that material in high school. In fact, I magically still remember some of it. So, while 8.01 and 8.01L cover the exact same material, I think I might actually be able to handle the faster-paced class. Plus, it's Pass/No Record.

I'm also wondering about 18.01. I took calculus in high school, and while I am a little fuzzy on how to do it anymore, I think that once I get into a class and actually see it again, it'll all come flooding back to me. At least, that's what I'm afraid will happen, and then I'll be bored. I'm not really sure about the protocol when it comes to switching into 18.02 (Multivariable calculus) without having taken the Advanced Standing Exam or have transfer credit (though I suppose I could get it if I really tried, but it might be difficult from here). And again, it's Pass/No Record this first semester...

I do need to finagle my way into Globalization, however. That's the class that is in conjunction with the French class, and is the HASS-D (Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences - Distribution) that sounds the most interesting to me... Other than, perhaps, the Film Experience one (I figure learning a new language might be a better thing for me than watching movies for class, which could be a very dangerous thing for me...). My advisor says there are quite a few spots left, which is fantastic.

Basically, I need to switch around a million recitation times, add and drop classes and all that jazz just to have a schedule that works right now. And I don't even know what P.E. class I'm in yet (but I did just enter the lottery for it! YEA!). I hate working out scheduling logistics.

While figuring out classes, I also need to figure out what activities I'm going to be doing when I'm not drowning in p-sets (Problem Sets...). I went to the Activities Midway yesterday afternoon, and I was definitely overwhelmed by the massive amount of things I could get involved with. Debate, music, photography, etc. There are a million and two things I want to do, and definitely not enough time for everything. Hopefully it will all work out.

Now I'm going to go try to have a good weekend before classes make me want to die. :)