Hundreds of Miles from Home: September 2005

Tuition might be killing me, but the petty cash flows freely

Slight Exploit

I highly advocate the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences as a side job. Ca$h money y’all.

Sunset over Simmons

There are way more chairs in this room than people

Bill and I on the campus of BU

Bill, debating eating babies...

Dorna and I

Looking out over the Charles from Boston

From the roof of Theta Chi

To echo my thoughts on football, MIT also has a damn fine volleyball team

Fireworks in Boston

Skyline

Let's Talk

This weekend, Bill Magnuson and I took advantage of the entertaining, ludicrous, and slightly depressing world of college debate.  The format is simple; two people debate a topic against two other people, each showing how the other side is clearly wrong.  This is fun with inexperienced people because they don’t take it seriously enough to care about the outcome of the match.  I soon discovered this large underground contingent of debaters on the “national debate circuit” who have been doing this for most of their life and generally take the fun out of the whole debate procedure.  They share secret phrases and handshakes, talk about “running steno vs. anti-fem,” and do a pretty good job of pretending they are better than you.  That’s not everyone, otherwise I wouldn’t even be interested in debating, but I can see a few who fit that mold.  It’s also a little scary to be able to debate either side of a case, even if you know it’s wrong, with such enthusiasm.  I’ll file that somewhere under “life skills.”

I was thoroughly shocked and amazed to see Dorna at the BU tournament, representing UPenn.  Sadly Ashu did not make the trip.

I’ll probably continue this debate and see where it takes me.  Well, I know where it’s physically taking me; a free trip to Stanford and NYU.  Until then, I’ll suffice with a nice conversation between friends and fireworks on the roof.

For all you skeptics, MIT does indeed have a football team and we won this game 24-4, an impressive, albeit rare, score

A sunny day on the Great Dome

My first trip to see the Sox play

Miss Whitney Weiss

And a silly picture of me

A sold out game at Fenway Park

Here comes the pitch...

Everyone on their feet for the Sox's homerun!

A shot into right field

Peanuts and Crackerjacks

I had a wonderful trip to Fenway Park with the Weisses from Jacksonville. The Sox were killed 12-3, but the weather held out for the game. Afterwards I was treated to a delicious Italian meal and curbside service back to my dorm. What a lovely day.

Sandwiches inside Lobby 7

The great dome

Inside lobby 7

The Infinite Corridor

The doors of 77 Mass Ave

Disproving gravity here at MIT

Let's Go To The Hop

So I’ve been a bit quiet recently.  It’s been hectic, I’ll admit.  I do have lots of news, however, of varying degrees of excitement.

I saw Seu Jorge in concert which was riveting. 150 people dancing inside an auditorium, perhaps he would have been better suited to a club scene.  Some good clean fun for the evening.

I also joined the school newspaper, The Tech.  I’ve written two articles for the past few publications, about Freshman Rush and sounds from the ionosphere, which you can read here and here.

In a surprise move, I pledged Theta Chi.  I was rather vehemently opposed to the fraternity system before entering college so I guess it took a lot to change my mind.  I think it was a good move but we’ll see how everything plays itself out.

I’m busy moving from one task to the next, but trying to avoid the feeling that I’m not accomplishing much of anything.  I am getting paid for some of this hustle and bustle, in reward for my time spent inside an MRI machine looking at moving dots.  Paul Aparicio, a graduate student in the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences recruited me as a test subject studying the area of the brain called the “MT” region, which processes motion.  I sit in a machine, it makes loud noises, and they pay me money.  I get to learn a little about the brain and how to use the Boston subway system.

The view from my dorm room is encouraging, with the sun reflecting off the Charles by morning, the Boston skyline at night, and a fleet of sailboats on the weekends.  The weather remains warm but I can tell that autumn is approaching.

I have a three day weekend, thanks to the obscure Constitution Day.  The Weiss family is coming from Florida, with tidings of good cheer and some Red Sox tickets.  In the meantime, I’ll be cleaning my room.

Is that John Vanderslice?

During the song "Continuation"

John, myself, and the morning DJ

Almost Spooky

Bernard informed me that John Vanderslice would be playing a free show at Lorem Ipsum Books this Friday. Checking his website for directions, I was surprised to see that John was also coming to the MIT campus for the radio show “Breakfast of Champions,” starting at 8AM. And so it was that I spent the morning dumbstruck in a sound booth with John Vanderslice while he played some cuts from his new record “Pixel Revolt.” After the show we chatted about his life growing up (he was almost thrown from a moving car while battling a bad flu), I shook his hand, and left for a 9AM physics class.

Absolutely ridiculous.

My old place with room mate Thomas Carr

Due to the underexposure in this shot, it gives an odd impression as to how much light actually enters the room

Currently a bit messy

A view of Boston from my bed

My room mates, trying to remove a bookshelf

Learning is Fun

Looks like classes have begun, let’s get ready to rumble.

:D Young Love

Pool Hall Blues (and greens)

Hott

Micah, hacking his pants off with a steak knife

Da' Girls

Typical Ashwin

Smiley (and white)

Quite a fight

Dead (to rights)

Oh Noooooo!

Kostya, co-starring in Sin City

Ladies and Gentlemen, Mr. Brian Williams

This is one of those odd moments where the planets align and two people who may not have ever shared more than a few sentences together take a good picture