secrets secrets are --FUN!

hehehe... kudos to the whoever's behind this.

Brilliant.

Ups and Downs

Ups!

1. Today is (inter)National Poke Ben Jones Day! So if you read this and you haven't poked him on FB yet, do it!
2. Only 15 more days of real class!
   
3. Find out about Interphase soon. *Crosses fingers*

Downs

1. The chat is dying.
2. I still have 15 more days of real class.

C'est la vie and que sera sera sera. So no worries.

<3.

CPW.

To follow suit or not?
I guess not. I want to say hi. CPW was awesome. I'm more bruised up than I expected and fell down more than I wanted, but when you are that exhausted, things happen. So basically, everyone seems to already know my weekend, so I don't think I need to go through all of it again. Oh, I played Rockband for the first time at CPW. GO ME.

CPW!

Okay I'll follow Najah's lead and post my account of CPW too I guess :)

Note: this will probably not be as short as Najah's lol.

Thursday
Airport at 9 am. Mommy gets stuck in security for a while. (She didn't go w/ me btw, just wanted me to board safely). Sat bored on plane for an hour cuz there were fuel probs. Landed at 1. Registered. Had lunch at Subway (TechCASH!). Met up w/ chat ppl and went to see Omar's hack. Free ice cream at Burton Connor. Campus tour. Met up with host and went back to sorority for dinner. Biology Open House. Prefrosh icebreaker and festival. Party on roof of Baker (eh). Went back home and watched Rush House w/ host at Phi Sigma Kappa (really nice btw). Sleep at 2.

Friday
Up at 9ish (missed President's Welcome thing, oops). Shuttle back to Cambridge, make-your-own-waffles at Next House I think (except they ran out of batter so I scraped the bowl). Shopping at the Coop (student center one). Intro to Bio class with Julia. Gourmet lunch at ATO/ other lunch at Kappa Sigma. Eat-your-way-through-the-Jewish-year with Julia. Chilled at student center w/ chat ppl. Watched half of a Demo Parliamentary Debate round. UROP tour at Whitehead Biomedical Center. Tour at Baker? Info session about dining/TechCASH. Make-your-own-pizza and sundaes at Next with Tina. Ballroom dancing lessons! (fun fun fun). Meet the Bloggers. Jacks + Citrus. Chilled at BC/Simmons/student center. Shuttle back to Alpha Phi/fb-ed on host's computer. Sleep at 4.

Saturday
Up at 10ish. Shuttle to Cambridge. Crepes and pancakes at McCormick. Random brunch/tour of New House. Tour/smoothies at MacGregor. Tour/omelette/ball pit fun at Simmons. Activities fair (I signed up for Ballroom Dance team, Taekwando, Society of Women Engineers, Biochemistry Undergraduate Student Association or something like that, some Chinese clubs, Parli Debate, and still want to do orchestra and Dance Troupe). Make-your-own-truffles at Random Hall (got sort of lost lol). Bubble tea / tour of McCormick. Chilled at student center w/ chat ppl. Wii tournament at Simmons w/ Jeff, Rachel, Cameron, Tim (I just watched). Shuttle back to Boston for dinner. Pasta Bar w/ host at Phi Delts or something (quite yummy). Shuttle back to Cambridge. Battle of the Bands, but too much metal so left early. Shuttle back to Boston for Phi Kappa Sigma Karaoke Party (ahhh soo fun! sang No Air by Jordin Sparks. except I got lost initially and went to Phi Sigma Kappa instead and saw cage dancing and ran out. Shuttle back to Cambridge (omg, so much shuttle-ing). Underground CTF yeeahh. Midnight buffet at Kappa Sigma (mmm). Watched POTC II at Simmons. Crashed at Next House and had fun lying on top of ledges :P. Sleep at 5

Sunday
Wake up at 7, shuttle back to Boston to pack. Except I fell asleep again and woke up around 10. Shuttle back to Cambridge. Check-out. Breakfast at Baker. Left MIT (*tear*). Shuttle to airport at 11. Super bored because flight was at 2 and i forgot to bring ipod/book. Back home by 5.

Monday
Skipped school to sleep/catch up on stuff hehe except I woke up at 3pm and didn't really get any homework done.

Ahh such a fun weekend, I didn't realize how much I'd miss it until I got back home, back to school and homework and immature high school people. :(

I guess for me, MIT was everything I expected it to be (and more?) but MIT's not the one I really needed to visit anyway... Need to visit Stanford in 2 weeks and I suppose I should give it a chance... ah well...

I'm currently procrastinating on lots of homework by making this blog entry lol.

~Marie

CPW

Since it seems like no one else is going to post...

Let's see. I'll make this as short and sweet as possible.

Thursday.
Airport. Brother picks me up. Drops me off. Meet my host. She was amazing! Meet up with chat people. Run around. Go to a class. Meet up with more chat people. Have ice cream and stuff. Minority student dinner. Some might say it had a negative influence on me. I'd like to say it made me have a different view of the world and MIT. Do other crazy random stuff during the day. Prefrosh icebreaker and festival. There was a step show. That was amazing. Festival a bit crowded but there was bubble tea. Yum. Party at Baker. Lack of party at Skullhouse. 3-5am. Well... I had some bad tacos ;). Sleep.

Friday.
Up and and about. Doing stuff. What stuff. Who knows? Intro to Urban Studies and Planning Department. That was fun. Go to a class. Supposed to go to Jummah yet Omar never shows up to go with me. Academics / Arts fair and athletic fair. a.k.a. free stuff! Ballroom dancing. I had to quit cause they made us change partners and I couldn't handle the germs of people who I didn't know for more than 5 min. Bouncy ball drop & meet the bloggers. Jack took me to baker, but then again not really. Sleeping in the penthouse. pancakes at new house.

Saturday.

Breakfast at new house. Door tours. Boba fest! Meat at random. This was actually the first time that I saw people I knew eat non-well done meat. CPW closing remarks and variety show. Games at McCormick. Parties. Frat parties are boring, well boring in the sense that the party added no fun to the mix. It was the people I was with that made it fun. Underground CTF! Fun fun fun. Sleep.

Sunday.

Goodbye to my loves! Random fun. The most depressing plane ride of my life! Looking forward to the next four years!

That was my cpw! It was overly amazing. And it was kind of just like WOOSH! MIT is now my lover for life.

Photos are here:

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 other

Things to do at CPW

MIT12 CPW Schedule.
We'll wait a few min before we leave to Party Hop. Call someone if you miss us so we can tell you where we are.

Thursday
6:30 - Salsa lessons (simmons)
8:00pm - Meet at Anna's (Student Center)
8:20pm - Walk over CPW Student Welcome (Building W33)
9:30pm - Go to CPW Festival
10:30pm - Meet up to being the party hopping!

Friday
3:00pm - P@KC
6:00pm - Learn to Ballroom dance (New House)
11:30pm - Meet up to party hop @ the student center

Saturday
11:00pm - Meet up to party hop @ the student center


This is a list of invites that people have recieved from students already at MIT:

Go visit:

The Theta Chi (OX) Frat House.
Fred's room: Senior House room 254 (please speak to him first so he knows that you will be stopping in)

mit is stalking me

Before this weekend, my past 6 weekends have had some connection to MIT. WHAT? Yes. 6 straight weekends.

Week 1: I was going to watch a swim meet at Harvard. I got distracted, took a wrong turn, and to make a long story short, I got lost around the BU/Fenway area. I got back on Storrow Drive in the wrong direction thinking I was going to be lost for a good 3 hours, when I saw the DOME across the river. I found my way to the dome and to MIT, where I became oriented again and was at the Harvard pool within 15 minutes.
Week 2: I went to watch a swim meet at MIT / visit a friend.
Week 3: I had my overnight!
Week 4: I had a swim meet at Harvard, but my friend and I arrived an hour early and got hungry. MIT had food and free parking, so we ate lunch at the Subway in the student center. We also saw a friend/current MIT student and tried to say hello, but failed. We also came back for dinner at the Bertucci's off Mass Ave.
Week 5: PILLOW FIGHT! With Boston-area MIT '12s and Snively '11 and Michelle '11. Again, I took advantage of the free parking.
Week 6: 21! With more Boston-area MIT '12s and Snively '11.

A majority of this weekend, #7, was spent in Fort Lauderdale, so I was thinking my streak would finally come to an end.
BUT WAIT
Today I boarded the airplane home around 12. And you know once you get on the plane you have to stand in the aisle a bit and wait for people to put their luggage away and get settled. So I was standing there and All of a sudden I overhear this in the rows next to me:
Old Man & Wife: Talking about how Florida is nice, but glad to come back to boston.
Young Guy: Oh, are you guys from Boston?
Old Man: Yeah, are you?
Young Guy: No, but I go to MIT.
Old Man: Hey! I'm an MIT Alum! Class of '79!
Young Guy: Oh cool! I'm a physics major. What about you?
Old Man: Aero/Astro ...astrophysics talk
Young Guy: Yeah, I almost did Aero/Astro... more astrophysics talk
Me: *thinking* WHAAAAT?!? Is this really happening?!?!

But before I could introduce myself the aisle cleared out in front of me and I was yelled at to proceed to my seat, which was disappointing. But guess what, that makes a week 7! AND a week 8!
Week 7: MIT student and alum on the airplane from Florida.
Week 8: Three letters: C. P. W. Oh, and exclamation points: !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

:D peace homeskillets

5 Days!

So today, I missed my first day of school since 5th grade. Why? Because I was really really sick and I'm missing school for CPW anyway. On to the important stuff...

CPW is only 5 days away! The schedule is PACKED. I don't think it would be physically possible to attend every single event. I think it's clear that everyone is really excited. Free food + free stuff + a ton of events + amazing people = a weekend that is sure to be overly amazing.

All I can say is that I can't wait. It's so close and yet so far!

Love you all! Bye!

never gonna let you down

Sleep is nice. Without it, my brain becomes a horrible boggy swamp through which only the most persistent of thoughts may crawl, gasping, to the muddy roiling shores of my consciousness. So naturally I try to get at least 6 hours of sleep a day. More is better. Wednesdays are my savior, because I get double first free then extra help and saunter into school at 9:30 or so instead of 7:50 like usual.

Today, thanks to the extraordinarily pleasant non-anally-violating goodness of a diffeq test that is worth approximately 30% of my semester grade, I decided to get plenty of extra sleep and came in at about 9:25 am, slightly ahead of time so that I could review section 3.6 once more before the big crunch. The hallways were deserted. Must be an alternate schedule. And then I remembered: THE MIT LOGS ARE PERFORMING THIS WEEK. I dropped my backpack, ran to the gym, and sat in the very back so as not to attract unwanted attention from cranky decaffeinated teachers eager to hand out detentions. Hm, bad idea. I could barely see the tops of their heads milling around in front of the stage. They were still introducing themselves ("W, mechanical engineering." "X, computer engineering." "Y, nuclear engineering!" [faint cheers from the audience] "Z, ROCKET SCIENCE!" [the crowd goes wild]) and I was sort of awkwardly sitting there way way in the very back corner of the gym, craning my neck over the taller Asians' heads while trying to pick out the face of Sham's stalkee as I'd promised.

And then they sang and it was beautiful. I'm not going to attempt to confine the pure auditory bliss to the feeble constructs of the English language. Except that we got rickrolled unexpectedly, and for once, it was pretty good.

When they moved on from eargasms to Q&A, Harker went straight to the point. The Logs didn't answer the question about their high school GPAs. Most of them did, however, raise their hands when some girl in the front asked if they were single. (Go for it, MIT12.) Then we all descended upon the stage in a fangirling blizzard of excitement and purchased their CDs. I exchanged like three lines of conversation with a probably half-asian Log, by which point I was still reeling from their intense aura of awesomeness but had also realized that no, I could not possibly do them all, not even for the sake of the MIT12 chat. Thus I leave this arduous task to you, fellow 12ers.

See you at CPW.

Okay, if a Log actually reads this, a lot of it is sarcasm, I'm not that creepy.

3 minutes and 3 seconds of your time

A short one from me today... something to distract you from 1. how disappointing your finaid is 2. counting down to CPW.

When I first saw this video, I couldn't think of a better place to talk about it. Granted, it probably isn't impressive to many of you, but don't forget I'm a bio kid. :) Anyway, now I really want to take apart my game boy starwars game, because it definitely has one of those motors that goes off when you crash into the walls or other pod racers... haha.

Countdown to...
"21" --2 days
CPW --15 days
graduation --66 days (whaaaat?!)

A Bigger Party

Now that all the RD people are starting to come, everything's gotten a lot more exciting. I finally got my financial aid package over the weekend and admitted student gatherings are just around the corner (anyone going to the NYC one?). And CPW isn't too far away either.

I think it's finally hit me that in a few months, I'm gonna be done with high school. Guys. We're going to college.

HI.

I haven't been here since this blog started. So what have I been doing? Absolutely nothing! No, I lie. I've still been doing my normal stuff.

But otherwise, congrats to you RDers. CPW is going to be a lot of fun. Um, I ran out of things for me to say. Suggest something so I can write about it.

Hmmm....

I don't really have anything to say. I'm really excited about CPW though. The Schedule looks great. Hope to see you all there!

I think I'll end it here.

Bye!

the attendance policy vs. the most fabulous weekend ever

“I am SO over you, high school!”

Even now, as I have been accepted to college and am in little danger of failing my classes, I can’t escape!!! Not even one day for CPW!? It doesn’t help that recently the CPW schedule became much more interesting, because now I get to see all the fun things I’m going to miss Thursday until 7:00 PM and Friday between the hours of 1:00 AM to 3:00 PM (and that three o’clock number is being optimistic, assuming that I will be pushing 75 on the highway and I get lucky with traffic lights):

Some of the Fun Things I Will Miss on Thursday/Friday
-Classes
-FOOD everywhere! And it’s free!
-Two separate ice cream parties!?!? No fair!
-EAsT camPUS tour (out of curiosity)
-A capella serenaded dinner
-Bubble wrap hallway (how random! …oh, hold on. haha!)
-Chopstick eating contest (I might get lucky on this one)
-“Spontaneous lectures” at odd hours in the morning
-Capture the Flag at 1AM
-Waffle Breakfast (!!!)
-Classes
-Graffiti!
-Several BBQ’s, my favorite food group
-Did I mention FREE FOOD? L
-Ultimate pick up game

Boo. The moral of the story is that I wish I didn’t live so close, so that “travel” would be a more legitimate excuse to miss school. So all of you who are fortunate enough to live in Far, Far Away: enjoy every fabulous second of CPW you get! Lucky kids.
“Hey, yeah I won’t be here on Friday cause I’m going somewhere. I need the day to travel.”
“Where are you going?”
“A thing for MIT admitted students.”
“Is it at MIT? Like, in Cambridge?”
“Maybe.”
“Isn’t that just 20 minutes down the highway?”
>>This is where I need to get creative.
“Well, actually you know how there’s a lot of engineers there? For a class project, they picked up the whole campus and moved it to Vancouver for the weekend. Isn’t engineering fabulous?”
“Wow! Yes! Okay we’ll count Friday as an excused absence!”
“SCORE!”

Random non-MIT picture today... my bad. Don't lie, this is why you all remember the name "Avogardro" no matter how long ago your last chem class was!
Leave it to Trader Joe's to sell something like this. Needless to say, it was delicious.

"The List"

Screen Names - Real Names/Facebook Links
In alphabetical order for your convenience!

(If you would like your SN/ Name/Facebook added leave a comment or IM Pochacco666999 (Najah) )
('11 doesn't necessarily mean they are in the class of '11 it just means they are already at MIT :P)

aditi14929 (gtalk) - Aditi
Alexskryabin – Kevin
alphawolf6969 – Steven
alroo12 - Ale
amandah27 - Amanda
ambryllien – Becky B
arabesquelolita - Vivi
ardnassak411
armorsmith42 - Andrew
attilitus - Tim
axiomadaescolha – Will part 2
aznfishonprozac
BaLLiNStaLKeR – Matt G
Bananafryer
beccavas16 - Becca
bookgirl102990 - Nan
calvinfourth - Calvin
cheddarcatcher - AJ
citricavalanche – Sam XY
conversacomigo - Stephcrazycanook42
creepygargoyle - Dhruv
d07riv
dazzlingdina234
dga ballllla
DnasTheGreat - David
Doyoulovekiwis - Kayla
Dreems of Winter - Raina
Eskimocherokee - Mike
ethuilas - Rutu
everythinginvsbl
foll0myfootsteps – Donald Guy
frednirv632 – Fred ‘11
Frozen Moosehead - Michelle
God of Electrons – Will, The Original
GyrotheDragon - Katie
hawkinsmit12 – Daniel (Hawkins)
i meant to win - Gina
ieatbabyduckies - Rachel
iobiojibkid - Shannon
jaungchiu - Jason
jbwldcr
jeanbrazil – Jean
jeniscool8d
JxDxCx8890
keys40k
kingoforigin - Alex (lex)
kissmeimagreek - Sappho
knightofni88
lakshmi2290
LaLaLoo6 – Lauren
lazytrackrunner
littleklutz247 - Karen
LittleUnit113 - Cameron
littleyanners - Yanran Chen
lslyv102 - Lesley
luciaprincess2
luv2ch33r08
miccapicca - Micca
minglu1234 - Ming
monsterkw - Cathy
Musicianistic - Yan
Mythili Iyer
N is for NEHA - Neha
njtitans16 – Ernie
Nohcnonk – Eli
Notspelledright – Chris (Chrixx)
oharder2breatheo - Meghan
OldCityRambler - Healy
omarramo12 – Omar (Moar)
omegacredarius – Chris Mills (Chris3)
Ordinarydaysx
Oscarsdumpster
ospreyoars227 - Chip
pagefiler
pamannmon - Pam
PhilotheaZS
Psykid90 – Chris, The Original
Pwafflesprinkles – Marie
Rainynightstarz – Yuzhi (Uz)
Risenage – Kevin
rms27025 - Di
rmv7213 - Robbie (Our Favorite FSU student)
rockernswimmer - Alina
S p e n s i n o
Sammyorbarry – Keshav (Barry)
Scottymorr – Scott ‘11
seeplusplusrules - Andy
shamzillaXD – Shamarah
skswimmin - Alli
SomeBoredSchizo - Stephen
sooxee
speaker td - Joy
sportsaholic989 – Alisha
Steve Biski
SuperSam372 – Sam XX (Sorry Sam!)
surfdude421 - Sean
TekkenGrl13 - Katie
THEJ1990 - Janice
ThePeanutGa11ery
Theyjuststared - Marty
timanthasan
tinashsu314 - Tina
twilights07 - Alex
uhhxgrr
ummmmuhhh64
unmasked14 - Justin
VgMAnGUs
Viridaelassa - Yoonjoo
vulcancountry5 - Matt
Westing Game 738
Windingminds – Karen ‘11
Winnietheluo - Winston
WuTheFWasThat - Jeff
Xchocolatthundax – Arthur (Arty)
Yonderrwindow
Zanyzambiazach - Zach

for the zillionth time

I already wrote on the MIT 2012 facbook wall, and said it in MIT12, so yet again,

“OMG CONGRATS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” to everyone!

Now that this whole thing is over (a few months ago or 2 days ago), we can all take a deep breath and chillax. Like, until the end of senior year. Well, not so much that we get rescinded! :D But seriously, its been a great journey. I just thought of that Semisonic song… “every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s end.” We’re going to college guys!!! Woo!

Anyway, now that MIT12 is crazy busy, at least for the past two days, I figured I’d transfer some energy over here to the blog. Word on the street is I’m doing all my homework right now so that I can be on MIT12 tonight without having to worry about it. Yes, I'm that lame.

Sorry for the disjointedness and poor grammar… I’m sitting at home right now out of school with the flu’s annoying little brother, eating saltines and sprite with my calculus homework ominously staring me in the face… I’m a bit of a scatterbrain right now.

**Edit
Happy Evacuation (coughStPatrick's) day! Don’t go too wild… remember, it’s not the weekend anymore. :P
Happy St. Patty's day every year except 1940, 2008, and 2160!!
Thanks Snively...

Picture: from MIT's Technology Review
P.S. TR is amazing. Those of you who haven't poked around there yet, I highly suggest using it to be a s^3 (second semester senior) i.e. procrasinate. It's also just great reading in general. I read this article this morning on the most promising technologies of the year...very neat stuff.

Mile 26

Ok sorry guys this is long and serious (most of the time)...

1. Happy pi day! I hope your ratio of fun : crap was at least = pi!

2. Some thoughts on the college admissions process, MIT, and the meaning of life (no, really!):

Applying to college is like running a marathon. Your preparation starts months, in our case years, ahead for this one race. We’ve slaved through high school for three and half years, subjected ourselves to tests than run four, even five hours, spent sleepless nights on commonapp.org during deadline week. All for a couple of form letters that barely fill a standard sheet of paper. “But Alli, it’s not just the letter, ____ is my dream!” …or, “But Alli, finishing the Boston Marathon is my dream!”

Take a step back. Why are you applying to college? No, not because you want to go there. Why do you want to further your education? College only lasts four years, an hour in a week of life. What counts is what you do with your education. Many kids our age just don’t have the opportunity to go to college at all. We should leap at any higher education we can get, MIT or otherwise, because we have access to it and therefore it is our responsibility to put it to good use. I, for example, want to go to college to make a difference in the world. Is MIT going to make that difference for me? Had I been rejected, would I have abandoned my dream of changing the world? Absolutely not! Changing the world depends on whether I have the conviction to follow through with my dream, not if I spend a mere four years at a cool school.

Continuing with the analogy, why are you running the Boston Marathon? If I ever ran (ha ha), it would be to raise awareness and support for Habitat for Humanity, since I do a lot of work with my local branch. Now, if I go halfway and pass out, or at the very end some race official, for whatever reason, pulled my aside and told me not to finish the race, will I disown HfH and never volunteer there again? Um, no.

Turns out that all our preparation wasn’t actually for college applications (think of those as an added bonus), but for ourselves. We found dreams, inspiration, and motivation. We laid the foundation to do great things wherever we go. “Doesn’t that fit the spirit of MIT? I’d fit in perfectly!” But that isn’t the spirit of MIT, that’s the spirit of YOU!

So here we are, mile 26. We feel like we’ve been in this race forever. We know exactly where the finish line is and we are all capable of reaching it. If you finish, congrats! If a random dude pulls you over to the side two seconds before you break the ribbon, takes your chip and chucks it in the Charles River, thereby preventing you from finishing, you’ve got every right to be angry and slap the guy in the face. And either way, don’t lose sight of why you wanted to run in the first place.

Let me finish with quotes. I like quotes!
“Don’t let today’s disappointments cast a shadow on tomorrow’s dreams.”
-?
“Let us think of education as the means of developing our greatest abilities, because in each of us there is a private hope and dream which, fulfilled, can be translated into benefit for everyone and greater strength for our nation.”
-JFK

GOOD LUCK EVERYONE!!!

warning! science!

Hey hey. Bonjour from beautiful Essex County, MA. Our monstrous piles of snow have almost completely melted and our citizens are enjoying a sight they haven't seen in months: grass! Granted, it's all dead and nasty, but that's beside the point. Spring is in the air! Easter is in a week and a half! CVS is selling easter candy! CPW is in 28 days! All's good in the hood.

To help those waiting for... the D word, I found some strange/fun/random science. Which we all will enjoy because, duh, we applied to MIT.

>Some human test subjects checking out mentos, pop rocks, and coke. Have you ever heard the myth of the little boy exploding to death because he downed an entire pack of pop rocks and chased it with a two liter bottle of coke? No? It's okay, its probably just me. This was proven false, yet the playground-rumormachine was well underway among kids ages 4 to 13. General Foods spent thousands of dollars sending letters to schools and running newspaper ads reassuring Soccer Moms of America that if their kid happens to swallow a packet of pop rocks and chug a can of soda (gross), no, little Timmy/Suzie will NOT explode. You're probably not thinking right now, 'Okay, so what would happen?" They have EVERYTHING on youtube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zRccwJenuC4 "So far, no death."

>No write up on this one, but its wicked cool. Bionic Contact Lenses

Picture: Reading Room under the dome (taken during my visit)

3.15.08

That's when regular decisions come out. Hopefully all our RA chat friends will be accepted. Good luck to all those waiting for decisions and I hope you have a lot of work to do this week so that you have something to help you keep your mind off of it (though that's practically impossible :D)

Once again good luck!

bye!

RD?

So apparently there are rumors going around that RD might be march 22nd rather than the 15th. If anyone has solid evidence of the date that regular decisions will come out please let me know ASAP.

-Thanks.