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

It’s been quite a while, hasn’t it? Summer is going by faster than ever (halfway through!) I actually have a legit explanation for my absence, though…

I was in a car accident two weeks ago.

Long story short: I was biking back from Central Square (I ride the T from Alewife to Central and then bike back to the dorm). I stopped at an intersection and began to turn left. Unfortunately, the car that was stopped parallel to me thought I was not going to turn left. So I was effectively t-boned by the car.

Thankfully, I was riding on a fairly high bike; my leg was efficiently squished between the front of the car and the main bar frame of my bike. At the time, however, I was thrown onto the hood of the car, where I bumped my head, and then rolled off onto the pavement, right in the middle of the intersection.

I’m really grateful to the people who stopped their cars and got out to make sure I was okay. I curled up in fetal position while someone dialed 911. Since Jason was closest, I also instructed one of the kindhearted women to call him. By the time the ambulance came, I realized that I didn’t hurt that much. They asked me a ton of questions, which I kept on responding with, “Yes, sir” and “Thank you” in a really perky voice, haha.

At the hospital, they poked my leg and took it in for x-rays. Thankfully nothing was broken; I was only scraped up pretty badly (my left leg was gushing blood) and I was bruised all over. When I arrived home, I noticed that the bar of the bicycle (where my leg was smashed up against it) was bent. Yes, my leg bones > a metal bar. And despite being bedridden for nearly a week, I am now mostly healed and can speed-walk again :D

The moment of the accident was actually really inspirational. When I first landed on the ground (thankfully I caught my head in my arms), my heart was beating SO fast. I seriously thought I was going to have a heart attack. So immediately, as if a little voice had manifested itself in my mind, I heard myself saying, “CALM DOWN” … and then I started singing to myself. Namely, I sang the chorus of 女に幸あれ (“All the Best to Women”):

Ah, someday happiness will come;
It would be too unjust if it didn’t.
Ah, I’ll go all the way there.
All the best to women;
Rise, morning sun!

Needless to say, it was at that moment that I realized how inspirational music could be. In addition to this, I’ve experienced a bit of a social revival! Next semester, I will be focusing on striking a wonderful balance between the three facets of my life:

1. Academics
2. Career
3. Social life

… including being more involved with AXO, devoting a lot of my time and passion to AKPsi, going to more frat parties, and treasuring my friends more. In addition, of course, to aiming for straight A’s and a finance internship! And now, a bit about my….

New hairstyle!!

Last Saturday (in addition to two hours of fun karaoke with Chris Luna, Lindsey Shi, Michael Chen, and Jason Chiu), I took a trip to Chinatown to get a haircut at Ecco Hair and Beauty Salon. As I browsed through the hairstyles, though, I noticed that a lot of the styles I liked involved curly/wavy hair.

And so, on a whim, I decided to get a perm. And it looks surprisingly, absolutely gorgeous! I look very summery and younger; the volume in my hair makes my face look shorter =)

Also, guess what came in the mail today? That’s right; the first Alpha Kappa Psi shirt to be worn by a member of the newest colony at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology!

On Saturday, July 3rd, Jason and I did a bridge loop on our bikes to scope out the Esplanade (best location for watching fireworks) and get some exercise. We ended up going from the Harvard Bridge (Mass Ave) to Longfellow Bridge… all the way around to North Harvard Bridge, and biking back down Mass Ave. In total, Google tells me this was 15 miles; I definitely feel accomplished!

Anyways, after biking for so much, I collapsed in bed around 3am and didn’t wake up until 2pm, effectively missing the Ashdown BBQ that I had hoped to attend. Instead, I made myself Easy Mac and decided that even though I hadn’t been invited along to any of my friends’ excursions, I could go have fun by myself. I packed my new Decora bag full of essentials, threw on a summery dress, grabbed some lemonade and munchies at CVS, and at 5:00pm, I was off… to walk the Freedom Trail!

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Hey all! I see it’s been a while since I’ve blogged, but honestly, the internship life barely leaves me any time to do leisure-related things. Toss in a dance recital last weekend, ADT rehearsals twice a week, and preparations for [super secret project]… by the time I can sit down and catch my breath, it’s 10:00pm at night, and the most I can do is relax with some new age music, sleep, and then get up and do it all over again.

Anyways, let me tell you a bit about my internship at Unica Corporation!

I’m working a product management internship for the NetInsight product, which is Unica’s web analytics software. I was a bit nervous when I first came in, because I wasn’t quite sure of what “product management” would consist. Even nowadays, I’m not quite sure what it means. I’m taking on a plethora of jobs, including coding, writing documentation, undergoing TAM (technical account manager) training, etc. In fact, this entire week consisted of training and setting up a database. The latter sounds like it should be easy, but I ran into errors left and right (mainly due to my restricted permissions on the test server).

I’m really glad, though, that I’m actually working on things that will be useful. “Real work”, Chao calls it. The stuff that I’m programming will someday show up in a release; one day, I can point to the features I’m implementing and say, “I did that.” I feel this has/will be a great experience, since I’m being exposed to so many aspects of the industry: developing, marketing, strategy, pricing, management…

Goal for this summer: meet everyone who works in the Unica building. EVERYONE.

I sit in a cube right next to my “secondary supervisor” Mike Lu. He’s not actually my supervisor, but he directly reports to my supervisor Dan DeMichele. For lack of a better term, I call Mike my “secondary supervisor”, haha. He’s been really nice about answering my questions and handing me files when I need it. Many of the other employees have also been really nice to me. Franklin (who sits on my right) dropped by to say hi on the first day. Gerry, Joe, Rahman, and Corrine have been helpful in installing items for me when I don’t have permissions. I’ve befriended nearly the entire HR department, along with quite a few directors and important people like Bill Ferro and Todd Belcher. For the most part, I really like meeting new people and learning about what they do. Everyone here has such an interesting personality, and group dynamics are always interesting to watch.

The people to whom I’ve definitely gotten closest would be the new TAM hires, who are on-site for 2.5 weeks getting training and practice. Brandon Madsen (from Utah), Dustin Wallace (from California), and Anand Madhavan (from Nebraska) are some of the most amusing and fun people here. We bonded over Starburst, Milano, World Cup, and TAM training. A few days ago, we went with Todd Belcher to Web Analytics Wednesday at the Asgard Irish Pub in Central Square. WA Wednesday is basically a meetup of individuals working in or interested in the web analytics industry; I got to meet another intern at Localytics, some more Unica people, and a handful of others from around the area. It was definitely “not a haahrible moment to remember”.

Photo courtesy of Brandon (snagged it off your FB)

Unfortunately, though, the three of them will leave next Wednesday. As such, this weekend we’ll be hanging out around Boston (along with Grace, who will be in Boston for a few days with her mother, the wonderful Michelle Herman). And speaking of this weekend, boy have I got a lot planned!

Friday

• 6:30-11:00pm ~ China’s Disabled People Performing Arts Troupe at Kresge! They were the ones who performed Thousand-Hand Guanyin for CCTV!

Saturday (aka “Day of Dance”)

• 00:00-2:00am ~ MIT Mafia Society summer session #01
• 10:30-11:30am ~ Intro to Ballet class at the Dance Complex
• 2:45-3:15pm ~ ADT performance at Sidney-Pacific’s Cultural Festival
• 7:30-10:30pm ~ ACAS Chinese Dance Festival

Sunday

• 00:00-2:00am ~ MIT Mafia Society summer session #02
• during the day ~ hanging out with the TAMs, Grace, and MIT friends
• 5:30-7:00pm ~ dinner at Fire & Ice
• 8:00pm ~ Skype session with Chao! =)

Thank goodness for weekends. Without them, my life would be so hectic. Is this really what the working life feels like? It’s a little saddening but also really nice. I like the fact that after I come home from work, I’m not obliged to continue working unless I want to. Contrast this with school, where the real work doesn’t even begin until you get home! I like being able to walk home from Central Square and grab some food. I like living close to Shaw’s, where I can go and pick up some fresh fruits at any time of the day (well, before midnight). I like living a distance away from my usual friends and taking time to work on my personal development without interference. Not that I don’t like my friends (quite the contrary), but when I spend most of my time socializing with them, it’s hard to work on personal things.