It's a beautiful day
Sky falls, you feel like
It's a beautiful day
Don't let it get away
Today was a beautiful and yet terribly sad day.
The time ultimately arrived to part ways with me beloved research lab, the most difficult part saying goodbye to my mentor who I've come to admire and adore over the past two years. I saw him get married, watched his eldest son graduate, stood by his side as he rose through the faculty ranks, listened to him when he needed it the most, and formed this everlasting bond with him - something no one else in the lab can rival. He is more than my mentor. He is a friend, someone who I deeply respect and can approach about anything. He is a fountain of wisdom and a beacon of light in my life. I'll never forget him.
Out of all the lessons I've learned from him, one truly struck a chord with me. It was when I practically burst into his office screaming that MIT accepted me. He obviously rejoiced, perhaps exhibiting more emotion than myself. After all I became like a "son" to him. But after we settled, letting our highs subside, he sat me down and told me one of the most profound statements I've ever heard. Getting caught in all the hub bub of getting into a "US News-acclaimed" school, it's easy to forget about the real essence of college. He opened me eyes, however, allowing me to finally advance past the superficiality of brand-name schools. Sure, I got into a great school. What does that even mean though? Nothing, if you don't work for it. He told me, "College is a tree of opportunities, ripe for the taking. You must take advantage of every possible one you can. You've got in, but that's only the beginning." It's easy to live in the fantasy that the "college name" will mystically guide you in life toward success and endless treasures, but because of my mentor, my friend, I'll never forget that every accomplishment is only another chance for opportunity, another means to achieve.
Being the gracious and kindhearted man that he is, he treated the entire lab to a wonderful lunch at our city's premier Chinese restaurant. We all chatted for hours, discussing the memories, the good times we all had together, and of course they gave me the obligatory reprimand that they'd hunt me down if I did not visit.
We were all a close-knit bunch - my second "family" if you will. Today I bade farewell to all that.
Things are changing. I know that. I even understand that. I may be grasping, practically dangling, onto the last threads of the life I've grown to love, but regardless, in three days I'll be in Cambridge at the start of a new epoch.
Maybe in all the craziness of these last days, it's hard to remember how life without change is boring, dare I say, even pointless. I can't help but smile that the end of this chapter ushers in a new phase of my life full of bountiful opportunities and friends just waiting to be made.
Today was a beautiful day and I loved every moment of it.
Sky falls, you feel like
It's a beautiful day
Don't let it get away
Today was a beautiful and yet terribly sad day.
The time ultimately arrived to part ways with me beloved research lab, the most difficult part saying goodbye to my mentor who I've come to admire and adore over the past two years. I saw him get married, watched his eldest son graduate, stood by his side as he rose through the faculty ranks, listened to him when he needed it the most, and formed this everlasting bond with him - something no one else in the lab can rival. He is more than my mentor. He is a friend, someone who I deeply respect and can approach about anything. He is a fountain of wisdom and a beacon of light in my life. I'll never forget him.
Out of all the lessons I've learned from him, one truly struck a chord with me. It was when I practically burst into his office screaming that MIT accepted me. He obviously rejoiced, perhaps exhibiting more emotion than myself. After all I became like a "son" to him. But after we settled, letting our highs subside, he sat me down and told me one of the most profound statements I've ever heard. Getting caught in all the hub bub of getting into a "US News-acclaimed" school, it's easy to forget about the real essence of college. He opened me eyes, however, allowing me to finally advance past the superficiality of brand-name schools. Sure, I got into a great school. What does that even mean though? Nothing, if you don't work for it. He told me, "College is a tree of opportunities, ripe for the taking. You must take advantage of every possible one you can. You've got in, but that's only the beginning." It's easy to live in the fantasy that the "college name" will mystically guide you in life toward success and endless treasures, but because of my mentor, my friend, I'll never forget that every accomplishment is only another chance for opportunity, another means to achieve.
Being the gracious and kindhearted man that he is, he treated the entire lab to a wonderful lunch at our city's premier Chinese restaurant. We all chatted for hours, discussing the memories, the good times we all had together, and of course they gave me the obligatory reprimand that they'd hunt me down if I did not visit.
We were all a close-knit bunch - my second "family" if you will. Today I bade farewell to all that.
Things are changing. I know that. I even understand that. I may be grasping, practically dangling, onto the last threads of the life I've grown to love, but regardless, in three days I'll be in Cambridge at the start of a new epoch.
Maybe in all the craziness of these last days, it's hard to remember how life without change is boring, dare I say, even pointless. I can't help but smile that the end of this chapter ushers in a new phase of my life full of bountiful opportunities and friends just waiting to be made.
Today was a beautiful day and I loved every moment of it.
As I was perusing my 18.02 notes, I was reminded of when I posed you all with the "nerd test," this atrociously difficult math problem that can only be solved with ingenuity and elegance (is it sad that ASEs are the only things in this world that truly frighten me?). Don't let me mislead you. One stare at this problem had me running to the hills when I first encountered it. Now, though, I appreciate the trickery behind it, the way something so complex and seemingly insolvable can become refreshingly simple and, in hindsight, easy. Well, I return now with the solution to this problem. In reality, I don't think you'd be that impressed unless you live in Michigan and find it difficult to have a life. But seriously though, can you blame me when cows here are as common as McDonald's and soccer fields are found within corn fields? Anywho, without further ado, here is the solution straight out of some random multivariable calculus book that I seem to have lying around for some reason.
In actuality, I do live a life outside the blogosphere (*gasp shocker I know). Today my friends and I were doing one of those "I might never see you again so we should keep hanging out" get-togethers. In our attempt to relive the glory days of senior year, we all decided we wanted to gulp down frozen custard so obviously we met up at Culver's, home of the cheese curds and all that is Wisconsin.
To my delight, the flavor of the day was "rockin' raspberry." I approached the counter and asked the lady, "Can I get the raspberry Concrete Mixer?"
"Yea, what toppings do you want?"
"Hmm, let's see. Cookie dough and-"
"You want cookie dough with raspberry?"
"Yea, why not?"
Mumbling to herself, "You don't get cookie dough with raspberry..."
"It sounded good in my head."
"Ok, your call...anything else?"
"Yea bananas too!"
To the side, "Oh god, raspberry and banana really?"
"What was that?"
"Oh nothing..."
Five minutes later another girl comes out, "Raspberry concrete float with oh gosh umm-"
"Yea yea I know. It's mine. Givee here."
Well, you know what? It was positively scrumptious, despite all the attitude I received! It just goes to show that it's always the weirdest combinations, like peanut butter and mustard sandwiches, that turn out great.
Not that I have anything against Culver's, even though I should considering the girl who waited on me, I found their advertising scheme ridiculously corny. Everyone at the table passed around the flip card thingies so we could all take pictures and laugh at the cheesy slogans.
Seriously? We aren't five years old.
*Shakes head
Shamefully reminds me of the somewhat flattering catchphrase "You've been Omerized" from American Dreamz (yes with a z).
There you have it. Culver's, the heroic food chain of the cheeseheads, uses ads that insult our intelligence. I'd like to give their advertising agency a piece of my mind! At least they made for a good laugh.
As the night pressed on and my ice cream degenerated into a puddle of red, chunky mush, three teenagers sneakily approached the fence of the putt-putt place across the parking lot and slid underneath. They then proceeded to climb onto this giant fake mountain that featured this life-size lion at the top. The hooligans slowly made their way to the summit, only their silhouettes showing against the night sky. As my friends watched, the girls giggling, the conversation basically went like this:
"Wow, they're so cool."
"Yea I want to be just like them."
"Uhh, where's that guy's hand going."
"Is he putting his hand...up that...on the lion?"
"Umm, yeah I think so. Oh god-"
"Did he just pretend to give that lion-"
"Ow my god, what are they doing?"
"Yea, I'm pretty sure that lion is scarred for life."
These three teenagers single-handedly managed to gross out the entire customer base of Culver's in a manner of 5 minutes. After these kids finished molesting this plastic lion, they were chased out by the workers who finally noticed what they were up to. Talk about a shocking night >.<
Excuse me while I try to recover my eyesight and erase the events of tonight from memory.
In actuality, I do live a life outside the blogosphere (*gasp shocker I know). Today my friends and I were doing one of those "I might never see you again so we should keep hanging out" get-togethers. In our attempt to relive the glory days of senior year, we all decided we wanted to gulp down frozen custard so obviously we met up at Culver's, home of the cheese curds and all that is Wisconsin.
To my delight, the flavor of the day was "rockin' raspberry." I approached the counter and asked the lady, "Can I get the raspberry Concrete Mixer?"
"Yea, what toppings do you want?"
"Hmm, let's see. Cookie dough and-"
"You want cookie dough with raspberry?"
"Yea, why not?"
Mumbling to herself, "You don't get cookie dough with raspberry..."
"It sounded good in my head."
"Ok, your call...anything else?"
"Yea bananas too!"
To the side, "Oh god, raspberry and banana really?"
"What was that?"
"Oh nothing..."
Five minutes later another girl comes out, "Raspberry concrete float with oh gosh umm-"
"Yea yea I know. It's mine. Givee here."
Well, you know what? It was positively scrumptious, despite all the attitude I received! It just goes to show that it's always the weirdest combinations, like peanut butter and mustard sandwiches, that turn out great.
Not that I have anything against Culver's, even though I should considering the girl who waited on me, I found their advertising scheme ridiculously corny. Everyone at the table passed around the flip card thingies so we could all take pictures and laugh at the cheesy slogans.
Seriously? We aren't five years old. 
*Shakes head
Shamefully reminds me of the somewhat flattering catchphrase "You've been Omerized" from American Dreamz (yes with a z).There you have it. Culver's, the heroic food chain of the cheeseheads, uses ads that insult our intelligence. I'd like to give their advertising agency a piece of my mind! At least they made for a good laugh.
As the night pressed on and my ice cream degenerated into a puddle of red, chunky mush, three teenagers sneakily approached the fence of the putt-putt place across the parking lot and slid underneath. They then proceeded to climb onto this giant fake mountain that featured this life-size lion at the top. The hooligans slowly made their way to the summit, only their silhouettes showing against the night sky. As my friends watched, the girls giggling, the conversation basically went like this:
"Wow, they're so cool."
"Yea I want to be just like them."
"Uhh, where's that guy's hand going."
"Is he putting his hand...up that...on the lion?"
"Umm, yeah I think so. Oh god-"
"Did he just pretend to give that lion-"
"Ow my god, what are they doing?"
"Yea, I'm pretty sure that lion is scarred for life."
These three teenagers single-handedly managed to gross out the entire customer base of Culver's in a manner of 5 minutes. After these kids finished molesting this plastic lion, they were chased out by the workers who finally noticed what they were up to. Talk about a shocking night >.<
Excuse me while I try to recover my eyesight and erase the events of tonight from memory.
"Do not take life too seriously. You will never get out of it alive." ~ Elbert Hubbard
Do you enjoy converting aerosol spray cans into impromptu flamethrowers? Do you spend your spare time playing with bubbles, soft, cuddly methane bubbles? Do you find yourself uncontrollably amused by popping hydrogen/oxygen balloons? If yes to any of these question, then you and I are destined to be friends - best friends forever.
Don't give me that look. I can still be utterly engrossed in pyromania and still be normal. We all burned ants with magnifying glasses as kids, watching them smoke with awe. We all messed around with fancy, high-tech lasers, using them to light matches in mere seconds. Ok, well maybe the latter isn't so common, but that didn't stop me from reveling in the wonders of green lasers! Before you think I'm absolutely obsessed with fire (well, maybe I am at times :p), let me get to the point. I recently learned of this boyscout survival technique that is used to start a fire when abandoned in the middle of nowhere. All it involves is a 9V battery and some steel wool - why someone stranded would have either of these I don't know.
When first hearing of this neat phenomenon, I was fairly skeptical, not believing that you could start a fire with just a common household battery, but as always, physics (and maybe a little bit of chemistry) has the answer. As anyone who has dipped their toe in physics would know, circuits produce heat, a whole lot of it - this being the reason why three obnoxious light bulbs can render my room 81.9 degrees. Well, that means if you have a plain old circuit, doing nothing but circulating electrons, then it's just wasting energy in the form of heat. If one were to use a wire - this is where the sheep wool comes in - that is easily combustible, then like dark, medieval magic, sparks fly and the good times roll. So what fun is a lengthy, boring description of this? Since I wouldn't be any good at this job if I didn't subject myself to horrifying dangers on a daily basis for the sake of blogging, I threw in bundles of steel wool into my handy-dandy fire pit and lit away. Check out my exploits below:
Do you enjoy converting aerosol spray cans into impromptu flamethrowers? Do you spend your spare time playing with bubbles, soft, cuddly methane bubbles? Do you find yourself uncontrollably amused by popping hydrogen/oxygen balloons? If yes to any of these question, then you and I are destined to be friends - best friends forever.
Don't give me that look. I can still be utterly engrossed in pyromania and still be normal. We all burned ants with magnifying glasses as kids, watching them smoke with awe. We all messed around with fancy, high-tech lasers, using them to light matches in mere seconds. Ok, well maybe the latter isn't so common, but that didn't stop me from reveling in the wonders of green lasers! Before you think I'm absolutely obsessed with fire (well, maybe I am at times :p), let me get to the point. I recently learned of this boyscout survival technique that is used to start a fire when abandoned in the middle of nowhere. All it involves is a 9V battery and some steel wool - why someone stranded would have either of these I don't know.
When first hearing of this neat phenomenon, I was fairly skeptical, not believing that you could start a fire with just a common household battery, but as always, physics (and maybe a little bit of chemistry) has the answer. As anyone who has dipped their toe in physics would know, circuits produce heat, a whole lot of it - this being the reason why three obnoxious light bulbs can render my room 81.9 degrees. Well, that means if you have a plain old circuit, doing nothing but circulating electrons, then it's just wasting energy in the form of heat. If one were to use a wire - this is where the sheep wool comes in - that is easily combustible, then like dark, medieval magic, sparks fly and the good times roll. So what fun is a lengthy, boring description of this? Since I wouldn't be any good at this job if I didn't subject myself to horrifying dangers on a daily basis for the sake of blogging, I threw in bundles of steel wool into my handy-dandy fire pit and lit away. Check out my exploits below:
With all the buzz of the new facebook, I decided I'd throw in my two cents. After some exploring, I've concluded that the new design is quite friendly to those who hate the flashy applications that force you to scroll for a minute before you can reach someone's wall (psh, no exaggeration, I'm sure someone out there has enough apps for a minute of scrolling). It's nice to click "wall" and see this roll of posts and events that actually form a story. They've improved the wall by adding status updates, replies, friend additions, and various other news items in between people's comments. Of course, there's an option to return to the real wall we all know and love for those purists out there.
Now, it took me some time to decide whether I like the tabs, but since they hide the annoying apps, I've embraced the arriving of the tabs. I've actually been using tabs for quite some time now on the facebook web application for the iPhone, but that's besides the point. Another reason tabs rock is that it allows for a person's biographical and contact information to be concentrated on one page rather than mixed into one giant jumble with everything else.
One of my favorite enhancements is the new presentation of pictures. A person's tagged photos and albums are all located in on easy-to-reach - you guessed it - tab! There's not much I dislike about the renovation and since I'm one who loves change, I give facebook a hearty two thumbs up for this one. But wait, there's still one last thing left to ponder. Why has Facebook taken such a strong hold on our lives to merit lengthy discussions and controversy? I'll leave that to the philosophers.
Indian people, why is your food so darn spicy!? Don't get me wrong, I am a die hard fan of your food. I'll eat it any day, any time, any where etc etc. I love trying new Indian food and have gone to all the restaurants in my area, but it is this very propensity to your food that has landed me in this uncomfortable situation. Today I tried a newly opened place called the "Curry Corner." They have a large selection of delicacies that are cheaply priced, something any student like myself would squeal at (oh you know you would, at least a little whiimper on the inside perhaps). I went crazy and got pakoras, aloo tikka, somasas, and masala dosa (actually that's normal for me, not crazy >.<) and quickly downed the food while watching Psych and drinking lots of water. After I finished and my water ran out, some strange feeling engulfed my mouth. This feeling rapidly degenerated into pain. All I could feel in the cavity of my mouth was this stinging pain and so I darted toward the freezer downstairs and scarfed down an ice cream bar (you know the one with two soft chocolate biscuits with vanilla ice cream in the middle). Immediately the pain subsided and a long, exasperated "Ahhhh" emanated from me. A few minutes later, after the effects of the ice cream faded, some pain returned, but it was on an order of magnitude much less than before. I resumed my reading and then left for tennis two hours later. While playing with my friend, I could still feel the effects of the food in my system and even some acid reflex. And now, hours and hours later, I can still feel the food playing havoc on my digestive system. It's truly been a uniquely fun day I guess. I will have to gather up some courage and watch the video Snively showed me (embedded below) many times before I'll feel man enough to return to the "Curry Corner" and eat some more of their food. I'll have to man up quickly though, because they have an all-you-can-eat buffet for only $6.99. I bet now you squealed, didn't you? Be honest.
How to Deal with an Annoying Baby Chick
It is now time to once again to face my daily dilemma of how long I should read before falling asleep. See the problem lies in that I can read for a long time, finish the book, be happy, start a new book, and on and on, and at the same time be extremely tired tomorrow as I must wake up at 6:45 am. On the other hand, I could not read so much, not finish the book, feel lousy about not finishing the book that's almost done and have to repeat the process tomorrow, but be well rested and energetic to assist teaching my early morning chemistry class. In the end, it's a lose-lose situation that I can never win so I guess it's a lot like losing "the game." But I guess that's just life so essentially life is just full of loss. Man, how did I just end up depressing myself and the tone of this entire post as well. I guess that takes serious skill, but what do you expect, it's me and I'm just awesome. 'Night.
I found out I'll be temped in Simmons at MIT for orientation! For those who aren't familiar with MIT's housing, freshmen basically are given temporary dorms during orientation. Right before the semester starts, we have the option to select a new dorm based on what we have experienced during orientation and if we're feeling particularly dangerous, we can even choose a new roommate. MIT definitely does housing in a manner that does not disappoint and provides flexibility.
I'll be in room 744 on the south wall, which gives me a beautiful view of downtown Boston. Unfortunately, I probably won't see the river, but at least I will see this:
I was perusing floor maps of Simmons and noticed that I am temped in a single. There's nothing wrong with this as I'd rather meet someone during orientation than randomly be paired with someone based upon some whimsical answers we put down for the housing questions. In the end, if I end up alone and desolate, at least I'll be able to revel in the extra privacy.
By the way, the photo at the top is my random picture for today. I snapped it last year when I was visiting the great New York City. Some parking garage owner seems to have an MIT-like sense of humor. I bet he cruelly enjoyed watching us nerds stop and laugh as opposed to most people who had no clue about it. You should consult wikipedia about 1337 if you are not sure what it means.
Well, now that housing lottery results are out, I feel one major step closer to MIT. All that's left is the loooong drive out there, which I'll be sure to blog about. Shannon and I already discussed this. She'll be blogging her journey as well, but don't worry because both of ours will be completely different. Luckily, she is taking the route through Canada as it is the shorter one while I will be taking the other route that goes through Ohio and Pennsylvania. So yes, be sure to read both of ours.
Until next time, good night!
For a while, I've been feeling that the generic blogger template I've been using for my site seemed a little boyish and just not me. As the days went on, my cozy friend I called my blog became more and more unfamiliar. Every time I saw the pale green and beige background or the stars at the top of the page or whenever I posted a new entry, I wondered when change would come, when this blog would finally feel familiar again. Yeah...It really wasn't that dramatic. It's been six months and a chapter of my life has been completed so I felt change was necessary. I'm going to try this out for a while and see if it works. What do you think? Should I keep it? If not, maybe I will find something more appealing.
By the way, the picture above is a picture I took at the top of Mount Washington in Pittsburgh. I forced my dad to drive all the way to the top in rain just so I could see the amazing view (and take pictures, of course, for my blog). Aren't I such an awesome son? I know right. I think I read somewhere that the view from the top of Mount Washington is the second best view in America. That's right they even rate views nowadays, not just institutions (*cough MIT is 7 *cough). Now, if rating of the views is anything similar to the prestigious US News' college ratings, then I would completely ignore them, but I did go through the trouble of looking up the top 10 views in America and this is what I found. So apparently the view of Pittsburgh is number 2, three spots ahead of the Golden Gate bridge view, which I think could be a strong contender for the number 1 spot, but like I said, these ratings are just as "good" as US News' ratings.
Enjoy the new look!
Thanks to geardiary.com for the picture.Check out more pics and a video interview at engadget.com!
