The Masochist's Institute of Technologyanecdotes of an ambitious MIT student

The 2009 summer is almost over – in about a week I’ll be reentering MIT’s classrooms and lecture halls for another year of p-sets, laughs, and good times. As a final farewell to my awesome summer, I figured I’d post up some random pictures that I’ve snapped throughout the last three months. I haven’t included major events that I’ve already blogged about (like Harvard Summer Orchestra and AX09), although those major events definitely made my summer awesome.

When I was living in Sidney-Pacific, I actually had a kitchen. This resulted in me trying to “cook” various things, most of them instant foods out of the box. I ended up buying these packets of rice in a ten-for-ten deal and made them for lunch a lot. The one you see above is the chicken-flavoured rice. It tasted super-yummy, although it made me really thirsty afterwards. Other items on my summer menu included Italian bread, soup, fruit, and various snacks (like Oreos!)

It’s rained quite a bit over the summer, and with the rain came some beautifully cloudy days. This is a picture of some clouds over the graduate dorm Ashdown. I tried as hard as I could to capture the gorgeous sky, but a picture really doesn’t do it much justice – since it was around sunset, there was a brilliant blend of pinks, blues, oranges, and purples.

If there’s food for which I have a weakness, it’s definitely Swedish Meatballs. I bought this at Shaw’s for the super-low price of $4.99 (note the sarcasm), but it was worth every dollar I paid for it. It’s been so long since I’ve eaten this dish that I devoured it within 10 minutes. I’ve wanted to get more, but admittedly if I ate a dinner of Swedish Meatballs every day, that would amount to way too much money spent…

MIT Summer Philharmonic Orchestra hosted their concert on August 1st, so Jason and Sarah and some of her friends went to hear them play some absolutely gorgeous pieces (e.g. Scheherazade!) It was in the Hatch Shell, which is outdoors. There were so many people gathered on the grassy field to hear them play! For the most part, the quality of MITSPO was a lot better than MITSO, which was a very pleasant surprise =)

The entire summer, I’ve been greatly irritated by the sunlight burning my eyes. So when I took a trip to the mall one day and saw a sale on sunglasses, I immediately grabbed myself a pair or two. And of course, what glamourous student doesn’t have her own pair of white-rimmed glasses?

Another thing I did a lot over the summer was (obviously) play RockBand! Jason and I trained our skills every so often on his set – I managed to significantly hone my drum skills, including beating some songs we had never been able to do before (Red Hot Chili Pepper’s Snow on Expert Guitar, Shoulder to the Plow, etc.) The screenshot above is from the World Promoter challenge, which basically unlocks all of the Nightmare songs in the game. Awesome, huh?

The latest fad with our group has definitely been gathering to play games. We would gather in the student center to play games like 80 Points (shown above) and Mafia. We’ve also played various others: Clue, poker, mahjong…

All in all, a very enjoyable and eventful summer. I look forward to the fall semester being just as rewarding and exciting. Hopefully my classes live up to my expectations (and vice versa!)

A week ago, I rode the Red Line all the way to the very last stop – Braintree, MA – to get a preview glimpse of Microsoft’s upcoming Zune HD, which will be released in September. And thankfully, they let me get some pictures of it!

The Microsoft representative had set up his table right in front of the main entrance. He had a large Samsung HD monitor, which can display the Zune’s screen in widescreen HD. He had a working 16gb device with him, along with empty cases of the 32gb model. There were also various pamphlets and cards for you to reserve your Zune HD. I didn’t reserve mine since I already have a perfectly working Zune 30gb (first generation), but I’ll admit after seeing the gorgeous interface, I was definitely tempted.

Here are close-ups of the devices. I am really impressed by the interface – it’s really simple but still maintains the Microsoft flair instead of trying to imitate the iPhone. The animations are really smooth, and the glowing effects make it very web 2.0. Plus, white-on-black is always a winner. The left model is the 32gb, while the right is the 16gb.

Here’s a closer look at the variety of pamphlets available. Note the really nice box – it’s a list of the Zune HD’s features, overlayed with a rainbow gradient. Very aesthetically pleasing, I must admit. I’m really excited for this release; I know my 11-year-old brother is already super psyched and is planning to request one for Christmas, haha. As for me, I think I’ll wait a few years before I replace my current Zune. The only downside is that they won’t be releasing a firmware update for the older Zunes alongside the Zune HD’s release, but hopefully in the future we old-school Zune users will also get the new, pretty interface =)

If you’re interested more about the technical specs, check out CNET’s hands-on.

Between moving in, wrapping up my summer jobs, and fraternizing with freshmen, I haven’t had a chance to blog very much lately. Here’s a quickie post to show you all some bits and pieces of my new room!

After living at Sidney-Pacific for nearly three months, I think I eventually became a little spoiled. I got used to the huge room size, the oversized desk, the squishy carpeted floors, and the lovely armoire (upon which was affixed a full-length mirror). When I moved back into Next House – and I’ll admit it now – I was slightly dejected. Especially when I tried arranging my room in the orientation that I had planned, only to find that it didn’t fit that way.

Here’s my desk! It looks much the same as it did last year, only now the printer is on the right side. It is strategically placed right in front of the door, so that when people enter they may immediately see the irritated look on my face. In addition, it makes it feel more “office-like”, which – via an excellent placebo effect – somehow makes me want to work harder. And yes, that is a Rolodex on my desk. I am so excited to start using it! Other noteworthy items: raspberry-scented air freshener, bowl of candy, Caran d’Ache rhodium-plated solid silver pencil my uncle Banh gave me (it’s on the other side of the printer).

Right behind the desk is my food alcove. As you can see, I’ve already gone grocery shopping and stocked up on some delicious foods. There’s also some leftovers from last year (soy sauce). The sequined calendar was made by my mother, but I haven’t gotten the chance to hang it up on the wall yet. It will be placed on the wall to the right of my desk for a nice, quick reference when needed. Unfortunately, the chest of drawers upon which all this stands isn’t as deep as the one I had last year…

Most rooms at MIT come equipped with one desk, one uncomfortable chair, one bed, and one bookshelf. Some dorms have a wardrobe (like Burton-Conner) while others have a closet + chest of drawers (like Next). Last year, I was somehow fortunate enough to have two bookshelves in my single, which meant that I could spread out my stuff. I ended up using one for books and one for foodstuffs and random knick-knacks. This year, I’ve had to cram everything into only one bookshelf. As you can see, I even had to stack some boxes (they contain my winter clothes) just to get my three shelves (for silverware, office supplies, and technology, respectively) at an appropriate level. I have sorted my books so that the academic-related ones are on top while leisure reading is in the middle (the bottom shelf contains class notes, folders, binders, etc.)

My closet looks much the same as last year – thank goodness my hanging cloth shelf hasn’t collapsed on me yet. I’m not quite sure what I would do without it. I’ve hung up my suits and fancier articles of clothing, while the two boxes contain random items (like my iron and hair dryer).

Awesome things about my room:

• My desk has really deep drawers, for some reason. It’s useful!
• I really like the setup – it’s a perfect blend of cozy (the left side, where my bed and shelves are) and professional (the right side, where my desk is located).
• I finally got my whiteboard hung up on the wall. How awesome is that?

Not-so-awesome things about my room:

• The bed is not raised. This is my main complaint, as I can’t store boxes underneath, and it’s no longer fun to “climb” into bed.
• Next House is blazingly hot in the summer, due to lack of air conditioning. I’ve had to leave the window constantly open, but that brings up another thing:
• I have no window shade. This really isn’t a problem though, because…
• The view from my window is nothing but a green mess of leaves from the trees in the courtyard.

The positive things far outweigh the negative, though, and I’m really happy to be back with the undergraduates again =) It’s also getting really lively around here; today is the first day of orientation and the campus is teeming with freshmen!