The Adventures of Charlemagne & The Sarge

The beauty of opportunity

2009-12-14T07:17:00.003-05:00

As infrequent and sporadic as my posts may be, I sometimes like to look back on them and remember all the stories I talked about, the things I got excited about, the musings about where I'd be--all that jazz.

One thing that always strikes me is how remarkably quickly things change, all the time. It seems like every few months I'm having this epiphany, but that's because every few months I've been fortunate to have major opportunities to do something or learn something important about my life. It's never more apparent to me than it is at sunrise though. Something about the colors and the light just inspires me. It's an opportunity to do something remarkable for 24 hours, and you get that opportunity every single day.

Today will be a good day.

California

2009-08-18T20:42:00.002-04:00

This week I'll be enjoying some much demanded down time as I visit my girlfriend out in beautiful Los Gatos, CA. Astute stalkers will remember that I was just 15 minutes away from here a week ago at Stanford running some experiments for Los Alamos. For the rest of you--I was just 15 minutes away from here a week ago at Stanford running some experiments for Los Alamos.

My impression of California is overall a positive one. At the end of the school year, my roommate and close friend Michelle took a road-trip from San Fran through all of NorCal into Oregon because I'd never been to California at a meaningful age or for a significant amount of time, and now by the end of the summer, I've flown to and fro between New Mexico and California 4 times now. In some ways I guess I got more than I asked for, but it's given me the opportunity to really get a feel for what living here must be like.

For one thing, it's expensive. So much so that I can only afford that one thing. Tax is 9.25% and a $50,000 down payment on a crack-shack house is less than 10%. Wow. You can tell the area is pricey as well by the number of "[something]i" Italian supercars running around the streets. Honestly, after a few days, seeing a ferrari was not at all a surprise, and even lamborghinis began to look a bit cliché. But once you go outside you realize why. The weather is WONDERFUL. Easily the best weather I've ever had the pleasure of enjoying. Cloudless every day, roughly 75 degrees at noon, cooler at night, and little humidity. There's also a large entrepreneurial spirit still very much alive in Silicon Valley, and California is racing to be the "greenest" state first, creating a large market for solar panels, hydrogen powered cars and the ilk--you know, all the things I'm interested in. I'll be coming back for a few weeks in the winter to run some more experiments at Stanford, but so far, if I were handed a bucket of money, I wouldn't mind living here at all.

Dust off the cobwebs

2009-07-22T03:31:00.002-04:00

Been awhile eh? I don't know why that is. Maybe it happens to all (pseudo)writers, but I just hit this dry spell where I had nothing to talk about, nothing interesting seemed to be happening, and I had worse joke drought than the Great Depression.

So the burning question in the internets mind is what HAVE I been up to? (or WHAT have I been up to, depending on inflection...). Well the answer is a lot, a whole lot (though I've never heard anyone say a semilot, or a hemilot or a quarter lot, so a whole lot maybe isn't as descriptive as we all think).

I live here!

For starters I'm working at Los Alamos National Lab in Los Alamos, NM. Fortunately, it's a job I enjoy as I get to travel to different places and do experiments, and living in the desert is a very new experience for me. Unfortunately there are lots of rules about writing about my job, one being anything I write about the lab has to go through classified security to make sure I'm not saying something I shouldn't be, so I can't talk to much about it. (but that's ok, it's not that interesting to the general masses anyway).

I have been on a bit of an outdoor knack lately, and as I find myself window shopping REI catalogs (online, so I guess it's still "window shopping"! ok ok bad joke) I realize that being outside actually makes me really happy. You'd never guess it from my eggshell complexion and the physical build of a cadaver, but being outside resonates with something deep inside me. Maybe it's the trancendentalism from high school bubbling back up in my thoughts as I imagine living out in the wilderness. There's something comforting about the wild, it feels honest. It doesn't care if you planned to go hiking, if it's going to rain it will rain. And maybe that's what I like about it, I like feeling powerless because it means I might as well not even worry about it. Nature will do as it pleases regardless of how polite or polished I look, or how strangely I talk. It's freedom at it's finest.

Unfortunately, I've already had my last weekend at Los Alamos, and in 3 short days I'll start the craziest travel itenerary I can imagine. I'll be several places in California (mostly around the Bay area)for two weeks, a trip to Arkansas for my sister's wedding, back to Los Alamos for a week, then back to California for a leisure visit, then back to Pearland to visit my family for a week, then back to Boston. I'll be living out of a suitcase for about a month, racking up frequent flier miles and commiting the airport security dance to muscle memory (at this point I can probably do it without exchanging a single word or look to the TSA, which frankly is an idea that makes me smile).

In the spare time I do have I've been building my cooking skills and recipe box, and working on some (unsurprisingly) geeky projects that involve programming, mountain dew, and late nights. I have too many ideas to even begin to be able to accomplish them, but some of the stuff I'm working on include:

A grocery optimizing program.
A networked door lock for my room at school. (unlockable with my phone!)
using twitter to control things like lighting, sound, etc. in my room at school.
An iPhone app (I'm a developer now!) that will make multiple website logon easier.
Learning Dvorak (way better way to type. Google it)

So I've got my work cut out for me in front of the keyboard and screen, but hey that's what layovers are for right?

Thought of the day

2009-01-12T23:36:00.003-05:00

Why is it that movies, which generally people like to watch alone or quietly with a small group, are shown in theaters; when sports games, which people like to watch on big screens in loud rowdy bunches aren't?

Does anyone else think that playing sporting events in movie theaters would be awesome? You and your friends could get together and go watch the game on a massive screen in a surround sound with a bunch of other people who would be cheering/booing etc. It'd be like being there.

Just a thought.

**UPDATE**
Apparently I'm not the only one who thinks so, though I don't know about this 3D business:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28545049/
(Thanks Anon!)

Computer Issues and colossal snowmen

2009-01-11T19:25:00.002-05:00

So as you may or may not know, I've been having big computer problems for the past month, though a thorough diagnosis shows that my computer is infected with a virus known as "Windows Vista", that's another story. The point is, I've been blog-disabled for a while, but I'm back online! And I take this opportunity to let you know that tonight will be the setting for the birth of a creature more infamous than Bigfoot, more legendary than Nessie, more ugly than Gary Busey. That's right.

The Snow Colossus. (Or "Coldossus", get it? HA!)

It boils down to this. I'm an engineer now, and I like to build stuff, and I love things in excess. So when MIT was involved in a snow emergency, where nearly a foot of snow fell in 24 hours with predictions for snow for the rest of the week, the idea for the snow colossus was born. I'll keep you updated.

But bigger.

A New Beginning

2008-11-09T12:38:00.005-05:00

Let me preface this all by saying there are no words in the English language to aptly describe the state my room was in. English wasn't designed to deal with horror on such a scale. It was appalling, it would have made my mother weep. You know that feeling when you spill sugar or salt on the kitchen floor and then walk on it barefoot? You know how irritating that is? That's how my floor was all the time. So yeah, it was bad.

Something like that.

Now I don't consider myself to be incredibly type-A like my older sister, in fact I'm so laid back I may in fact be around type-G or H. But there is a line, and having a filthy filthy room is definitely across that line.

But believe it or not, this entry isn't about how I cleaned my room, although it sort of is, it's like a metaphor (though that sentence was a simile....) Just hang on, it'll make sense I promise.

The way I got around to cleaning my room was by living in this terrible state for so long until I finally discovered that it was impacting my life in a very negative way. I didn't clean it before because I seemed to be getting along fine and to perhaps a larger extent, I was intimidated by the scope of it.

That's the same way I cleaned out some parts of my old life. Without getting too terribly contrived in the backstory, for the past 7 years of my life I've been clinging to this girl in some aspect or another. For 7 years I would've given nearly anything to be with her and I held on to the idea that one day, everything would change, that it was just a matter of waiting, even long after I knew if I wanted what I was waiting for.

Now at this point I could try and blame movies for instilling a false sense of what romance is like, but to be honest it wasn't movies. ( I can still blame movies for instilling a sense of how awesome it is to drive a car into a helicopter though.) It was me.

It was me. All along it was me.

So on the heels of this epiphany I realized something: I could let go. Now I don't mean to sound incredibly creepy or anything like that, but I had a box that had letters, tickets, and all sorts of sentimental knick-knacks. I can remember nights where I'd read through some of those old things and cry, and that box was so important to me that it was one of the things I shipped here to college.

Last night I ripped up and threw away everything inside it.

Before it sounds like I just went on a crazy rant, there is something important to realize. At no time last night did I feel angry or spiteful or anything less than resolved. It wasn't a moment of passion where I cried while burning photos or anything like that, it was just me acknowledging that part of my life as over, and getting rid of the old baggage that held me back, and what would have seemed so impossible to me not but 3 months ago was in fact so very easy once I started. I remember holding a letter in my hand and tearing it in half, and I felt relief. For seven years I'd been looking for closure on this, and last night it emerged from the scraps of paper.

The letters were the big thing, but I also shut down my old blog that was filled with my vague musings on the situation, and I shut down my myspace that was filled with messages about the situation. In essence I've got no more chains, I'm free.

So why now? Because I'm growing up. Because I've realized you shouldn't devote your life to someone who wouldn't be willing to do the same for you, and that you should love someone who loves you back just as much. Love isn't about not making mistakes, but it's about correcting them, and it's not about things being easy, but it's about the courage to do things that are hard.

I've come so far in the last 2 months, I've grown up more in the last 2 months than I think I have in the last 2 years. Though to be fair it wasn't an overnight transformation, I can see that in most ways I had already let go over the course of the past year, but last night was the finale. And now that I've resolved the biggest issue of my teenage life, I can start to fix the mistakes that I've made.

That's why you should clean your room kids, because it will change your life. =)

(Also it's nice to not have plates serving as petri dishes on your desk)

McCain speech remix

2008-11-06T20:35:00.001-05:00

No matter how you felt after watching the election results, hopefully this will make you laugh as hard as I did. Oh the wonders of modern computing:

If McCain's Concession Speech Was As Bitter As His Campaign -- powered by Cracked.com

Work

2008-10-29T18:29:00.004-04:00

So every blog in the universe prefaces an entry after a long period of time with something like "oh man, sorry about the lack of entries, I've been SooOoOooOo0Ooo-0-00-0 busy!"

That's pretty cliche, so I'll make something up instead.

Oh man, sorry about the lack of entries, my laptop was confiscated by the CIA for containing unusual levels of awesome and I was only recently able to prove to them that I'm qualified to be that cool.

Better?

Anyway, much to the disappointment of my physics fans, this post is not about the integral of Force dx (sorry guys), by work I mean actual work, like the process of expending yourself doing things you don't like because they're good for you. One of the things I've learned lately here at MIT is really what it means to work hard. I mean, I thought I knew what hard work was from high school, and to an extent that may have been true. But in all humility, I was a pretty smart kid, I didn't have to study as much as some of my friends and I never really read the books and I still did just fine. But it never really dawned on me that I didn't know how to work, I'd never really had to before.

A few weeks ago the thorough arse-whupping that was Freshmen Hell Week gave me that epiphany. At first I was disappointed with my grades because the first thing I thought was "I'm working so hard and this is what I have to show for it?" Then I thought about it and realized, I really hadn't worked hard. I hadn't read the book. I did the psets the night before. I didn't take notes. I goofed around with my friends all night. Where was the hard work?

So these last few weeks I've been doing something strange and applying myself, focusing on doing things when they need to be done and not just glancing through material, I've been making sleep and work schedules and going to libraries and studying and all the things I should've been doing and guess what?

I've never been happier.

There is nothing like making a 95 on a test where the class average is 55 and standard deviation is 10. There is nothing like getting a solid 5 hours of sleep every night (that may not seem like much, but this is MIT after all). Actually knowing whats going on during lecture and gleening some deep understanding that previously wasn't there is such a great feeling, and it's wonderful to be able to answer my friends questions. And the best part is that I didn't really need to give up anything to do it, I only stopped wasting so much time. I never realized that I wasted more time than an all day "Meet the Spartans" marathon.

So I guess the point amongst all this is that amidst all the great things MIT is teaching me right now, the most influential has been managing my time and improving my work habits. Who'd have thought? I love this place.

Cold!

2008-10-04T14:07:00.003-04:00

So now that my entry titles have completely regressed into one word grunts, I'm fairly sure you can guess what I have to complain about today. It's really cold. Really.

Now I know there's going to be at least one or two people who read that and say "Oh just wait until the winter, then you'll see whats cold". Now that may (read:will) be true, but I'd like to bring up an important fact about weather. Temperature is relative. I'm sure the winter will be a dark bitter freezing time for all of us, but I'm at least smart enough to know to be prepared with coats and scarves etc. The Autumnal (EDIT: turns out I did NOT make that word up) temperatures took me by surprise, both by extremes and by swiftness. Seriously, in like one day it went from being 73-75, to a low off 44 degrees tonight.

Did you read that? 44! I realize that's not "cold" by absolute standards, (or absolute cold by any standards, hehe science joke), but considering in my home town it's 83 right now, that's a bit of an adjustment. I'm off to spend my paycheck on long sleeves and wool, I'll update you all when I have something else to complain about.

DANG!

2008-09-30T20:29:00.003-04:00

wow this place speeds up quick, which is partially why there has been a distinct lack of posting. The other partiality (new word!) is because I've been pretty sick. But to keep you all updated, I have two tests this week, had an MRI today, blood labs yesterday and Thursday, Russell Peters is coming on Friday, and I'm a brother at Beta Theta Pi. I'll do a lengthy post about Boston in the fall this weekend.

Awesome=Picasa + Google Earth + iPhone 3G

2008-09-14T22:35:00.004-04:00

Finally, I've been able to use one of the neglected (at least for me) features of the iPhone. The ability to make use of the geotagged metadata. (if you just said "huh?": a) you're cooler than me and b) it means the gps tags the location of where you took your pictures.)

Luckily Picasa has the ability to interpret that data, and google earth communicates with Picasa. I couldn't be happier with the results, check it out:
That's a view of pearland with my pictures overlaid on top of their locations, and it's really accurate. It's a surprisingly cool feature that really brings your pictures to life when you look at them, they no longer appear as fragments of memories, but together as one cohesive picture, like a giant memory quilt (that's the only analogy I could think of).

Check out this other one from Boston:
Super cool. I plan on utilizing this feature extensively. (i.e. I'll do this instead of pset -_-.... )

Tale of the Midnight Tool!

2008-09-12T17:44:00.003-04:00

Last night I had my first tooling session. In complete honesty, it was entirely my fault, I'd taken the fact that I was pretty good with numbers for granted, and assumed having taken Calc BC (and should've got credit for it) that it would be easy. Indeed, I knew exactly what lecture was about, and glancing over the pset I saw that there weren't too many problems, no big deal right? a bit of review right?

Oh so very wrong.

After working all night on that pset (literally, I got home at 7.a.m. today 0_0) I've realized what exactly makes this place so hard. The problems don't test your knowledge of the subject, they test your understanding. Now if I'd heard that last year I would've said "same thing", but now I understand the difference. Knowing how to do a problem means you can quickly identify similar problems and apply the same generic formula to solve them, the difference is that none of the problems on the homework are like examples in class, but they all use ideas presented in class.

Take the derivative for example, in class you might learn chain rule, product rule, power rule etc etc and find the derivatives for a bunch of functions. Easy huh? of course it is, it's just like what you know. But here, you might have a problem which asks you questions about the behaviour of the derivative, like this one particularly nasty problem last night. Essentially you had to find the "(p+q)th" derivative of a product of two functions raised to the P and Q respectively. The breakthrough that solved it was to realize that the nth derivative of a function with exponent n is n!, and thus the n+q derivative must be 0, because at n it's just a constant. That one little idea that was never explained meant that several terms in a series ended up as zero, and only the last term mattered.

That's the difference, application, a deep understanding. I don't just know how to solve problems, I know how to figure out how to solve them. And though it's ridiculously hard, and sometimes impossibly daunting at times, the best feeling is finally figuring out the one piece you're missing that makes it all fall in place. To make one more analogy, instead of asking you to connect-the-dots to draw a horse, MIT gives you some paper and says "draw the horse", it's up to you to figure out how you want to do that.

In related news, no longer will I be waiting until thursday to look at the second half of the pset. =)

Worst.Night.Ever.

2008-09-07T03:26:00.001-04:00

Preface: Ok first, before you read any of this entry make note of the time. Go ahead, look. Assuming the timestamp is correct (which it isn't always) it should say 3:28 A.M. That's right, 3:28 A.M. exists, and it's ugly. I figured I'll try something new and explain to you first where I am and then how it happened, so as to build suspense.

I'm wet, I'm shivering, and I've been jolted awake. I'm sitting at my computer trying to get warm. Now that I have you (and perhaps your sympathy, in which case sympathy cookies can be mailed to Simmons Hall with my name on them), you're chomping at the bit to know what happened. But rather than dive into let's have a fuzzy flashback to earlier this evening for the sake of contrast.

Misty, my friend from Emerson came over after I went grocery shopping. I'm in a great mood, we're laughing, watching movies, eating pizza, drinking O.J.; seriously great stuff. Eventually it's time for her to go home and it's dark outside, I hear it's cold so I give her one of my jackets. I start to walk her home and it begins to rain. swell. It's not really a big deal because I'm having such a good time with her, and to be honest it makes me look kinda macho to be walking her home while it's raining and me being soaking wet, I don't have my phone so I figure it's no big deal if I get a little wet. Then it starts to really rain and I begin to get very very wet, still not a huge deal, but Misty has her purse and her phone in it. Uh-Oh, better hurry up to the Z-center detour. We get to underneath the overhang and-- the door is locked. Wait what? Why is the door locked? They're doing construction everywhere, this is the only way to get to the student center without going all the way around. After trying to break the lock with my mind (note to self: I don't have telekinesis), we eventually have to walk all the way down to Mass Ave and around to get to la Verdes. Inside I buy my price-gouge-on-a-pole (seriously, who the heck charges $10 for a tiny umbrella? ugh.) and Misty gets an apple, things are getting better.

We decide to take the tunnels as far east as we can. I'd never actually navigated the tunnels so I was fairly uncertain of where I was going but the signs made it pretty easy, plus it was nice and warm down there. We came out at MIT medical, which is literally spitting distance from the Kendall T stop. We board the train and head for Boston.

The walk through the commons while it's raining is actually, daresay, nice. The streets and buildings look really cool disappearing into the clouds and rain. Once we get to her dorm we stay in the lobby for a few minutes while the rain dies down before I head back. I bid her farewell and head off.

The way home is long, the trains keeps making long and random stops, and walking in the rain is far less fun alone at midnight. Simmons hall has mysteriously moved in the middle of the night to be about 12 miles away from the rest of campus, but once I get there I'm free. I get out of my soaking clothes and into dry PJ's and get to bed. Sleep comes quick and I christen it a good day before drifting off to dreams.

Then things get bad, real bad, real fast.

The alarm in our room goes off as the beacon flashes. A woman's voice plays over the speaker over and over:

"There is an emergency in the building. Please head outside via the nearest stairwell, do not use the elevator"

I, with all the grace and finesse of an elephant comind down from an acid trip, put on a shirt to supplement my shorts, and a few drops of saline into my blurry eyes. I head to the stairwell dazed and confused, uncertain of what time it is, what's going on, or what I'm doing. All my floormates are similarly herding like brainwashed cattle( or Moby fans) towards the green light at the bottom of the four flights of stairs. As I get to the door out of the building I witness the worst possible scenario for something like this. It's very cold, very windy

and raining.

Oh.My.God.

The second I step out the door wind whips around the corner of Simmons carrying with it both rain and what I can only suspect are the tears of my fellow residents, soaking me in ice cold sadness. I head as quickly as I can for the overhang off the side of simmons that exists for just such terrible occasions. It's full of people, who HAVE UMBRELLAS. I stand right outside the overhang, clearly miserable and shivering as a guy in a coat with an umbrella looks at me and continues to use his umbrella to shield him from nothing. Seriously? Does it make me a bad person to think that having a coat and umbrella means you should let people who don't have your place in the dry spot? Then comes the waiting:
5 Minutes- I'm shivering pretty hard now

10 Minutes- I'm very much awake and aware of how much it sucks to be outside in the rain while it's cold.

20 Minutes- I'm searching the crowd for a virgin to sacrifice and appease the angered gods.

30 Minutes- Appeasement is futile. God has forsaken Simmons Hall.

45 Minutes- Fireman tells us we're clear to go back in. It was all a false alarm, someone was smoking in the gym.

Let me repeat that. An MIT student, arguably one of the smartest people in the country, was smoking in a room that is very clearly FILLED with smoke detectors. What did they think was going to happen?

That brings me to where I am now, cold, wet, and stalking facebook profiles to find out who lives near the gym who also smokes....

GIANT SCREEN

2008-09-03T23:23:00.001-04:00

My laptop is now connected to a-- ready?

30" computer monitor.

that's right. 30. Freaking. Inches.

And how much did I pay for this?

FREE!

I LOVE REUSE!!!

Class Schedule

2008-09-02T11:38:00.001-04:00

Thus far. Though, 18.01 is definitely going to change to either 18.01A, or 18.014, I haven't decided which yet. Not too bad, no class before 11, one on friday, I could get used to that. =)

Politics

2008-08-31T14:55:00.000-04:00

Uh-Oh. This will probably end up messy.

Unsurprisingly, I've been hearing a lot recently about the candidates and their running mates, Obama-Biden and McCain-Palin. Of course the political atmosphere here in Boston is much different than it is in my sleepy town of Pearland, Texas; but as a college voter, disillusioned from media coverage and political speeches (no matter how nice they sound), this post is less about my support for one candidate over the other, and more about my interest in people's response to the political process.

I grew up, like most school kids, being taught to respect other people even when you disagree with them. And as universally as most people agree that "everyone has their own opinion" and "respect" and all this, the second the issue becomes political, tolerance and understanding are tossed out the window. Issues have no perspective, they become either my way, or you're inbred-idiotic-communistic-death-of-america-brainwashed view. What the heck? Why?

In any other context, most people don't feel the need to heave their beliefs on another person: "I'm a vegetarian" "I like Cauliflower" "I'm buddhist". If any of those statements were followed with "You're wrong because--" then most everyone would agree that that person is a jerk, insensitive and narrow minded. But if it becomes "I like McCain's stance on foreign policy" "I am for abortion" "Obama lacks experience" it's no longer an opinion, it's a personal attack on your values, and whoever illustrates the counterpoint is judged in favor of the majority of conversation.

I know it's a bit ramblish (rambly? consisting of large amounts of ramblitude?) but the political system bothers me. Anything more than a vaguery can't possibly be supported by the entire country, or even the entire political party. McCain-Palin is a War Hero and Soccer Mom to some; and a Degenerate and a Greenhorn to others. The point of all this I suppose is that next time you get into a political discussion with someone, keep in mind that they don't believe what they believe solely to destroy america and piss you off. They have honest and, dare I say, VALID reasons for their beliefs, and they are just as personal to them as yours are to you. There are good arguments for both sides of every major issue, that's what makes them issues. The real way to bring about a major change in our country is to quit being so divisive, and maybe work together, novel idea eh?

I'm a Blogger!

2008-08-27T09:43:00.000-04:00

WOOOHOO!

I'm a blogger!

As in, an admissions blogger! That means I'll get paid to tell people my opinion! Isn't that basically the perfect job?

There have been so many incredibly exciting things going on here at MIT as of late, I apologize for the lack of posts. I truly, truly love this place.

HOORAY Internet!

2008-08-22T15:19:00.000-04:00

I've been having problems with my internet lately, being sporadic, or nonexistant. I went to Information Services & Technology, and they gave me a FREE ethernet cable. Now my internet is super-fast! Hooray!

Mexican, Babies, Delays, Sponge, Cake, Crowds, and Bed Bath & Disaster.

2008-08-19T00:43:00.001-04:00

Ok guys, I know you've anxiously been waiting, clicking refresh on my blog, eager to read what I have to say about MIT. Let me be brief, and honest:

I am home.

But more on that later, here is more of a chronological description of how and when things happened:

Thursday:
Thursdays are crazy days for me (err, they used to be). I tutored two (horrendous) children Thursday mornings and then usually spent the rest of the day in Silverlake hanging out with friends or what have you. This particular Thursday was different because my going away party was that night, so after tutoring, I high tailed it over to Misty's house to start setting up for our party. The decorations were pretty awesome, we went to a party MEGA STORE known as Arne's where they literally have anything you've ever thought about.

Exhibit A: Obama and McCain masks.

Sadly, we passed on those masks and opted for balloons instead. we? oh right I almost forgot, Misty is going to Emerson so we decided to have a joint party.

Party was fantastic, all the last people I wanted to see and say goodbye to were there, and there was this awesome cake.

It's like eating art.

I got some really cool presents (drinktionary, excellent cologne, hand-made MIT mug. I repeat HAND-MADE) and then I got some.....well...surprising presents (let's not talk about that). I got home late Thursday night and was too distracted to finish packing, and instead I slept.

Friday:
Friday was my last day and the day Kim left so it was all sorts of crazy, physically, emotionally, can't-find-freakin'-boxes-ally, the works. I had one huge box with all my stuff in it, only to find out it was too big to ship so then I ended up using a whole bunch of smaller boxes. I also discovered that if you roll your shirts tightly like a sleeping bag, you can fit WAY more plus they don't wrinkle.

After all the packing, my family went out to dinner one last time. What did I eat you ask? Did I take a picture? Better my friend, I took TWO! And made a panoramic! Behold:

mmm. Delicious!

delicious fajitas and citrus tea. With my belly full, my bags packed, my suitcase stuffed, and my contacts taken out, I was ready to leave.

Saturday:
Saturday was my travel day, and I hate flying (flying coach anyway.) Thank God I had the Watchmen (Thank you Kim! That's not transitive though, Kim is not God). No joke my flights were full of babies with cries timed on par with a wet fart on match point at Wimbledon. I nearly choked one. Arriving in Massachusetts though I met Snively downstairs and we took the MIT shuttle back to campus. I'm ready to move in to my dorm, but oh no! the key to the key room has been lost. (Ironic nay?) Snively and I ate dinner at Anna's Taqueria on campus, I bought him a cookie, and moved in. Good Day.

Sunday:
Everything on campus is closed on sunday, which means I had a fairly uneventful day until that night where I rode the "T" to Boston Common and saw Tropic Thunder. Raunchy, tasteless, offensive, and totally hilarious. (I should write those review quotes they play on commercials). Robert Downey Jr. was brilliant.

Monday: Busy day for me today, I had to drop of my forms with MIT Medical, go to Student Financial Services to make a withdraw for my dorm stuff, deposit two checks, and go to Bed Bath & Beyond. Look how much I walked:

View Larger Map

Dang. There was a mix-up at Bed Bath and Beyond so instead of showing up and getting my boxes of stuff, I showed up, and the manager had to print my shipping receipt, confirm my name, look for boxes, can't find them, try a different name, call the store I registered with, print out content list and shop for the things himself. He said it would take 5 minutes. It took 48.

but I'm back in my room with all my stuff, happy as can be. Tomorrow I'll post about my dorm. Simmons Hall!

!!!BONUS BONUS!!!

Oh so you're left unfulfilled by that post, yearning for more? Ok, well since you insist (and because I love to talk about how cool MIT is) did you know MIT has an entire mobile website for folks with iPhones? Check out the pics:

You can access anything you'd ever want: Shuttle schedules, maps, phone numbers, ANYTHING! and since MIT has campus-wide WiFi, you can get it anywhere! (I heard that the entire 18.blah blah IP band spectrum is owned by MIT, meaning they own 1/256th of the Internet!)

**Double-Bonus**
I just found these pictures of the last trip I took to the beach, and figured they belong with this "last stuff" enjoy:

HOLY CRAP!!!!

2008-08-16T02:34:00.000-04:00

Anyone see Michael Phelps in the 100 butterfly? I thought the 400 Relay was amazing with Jason Levak (EDIT: an anonymous tipster pointed out I meant Jason Lezak. Thanks. ) pulling it in at the end, but this is ridiculous, .01 seconds, that's a HUNDREDTH of a second. Ridiculous, absolutely incredible, and now he's tied for Spitz. I hope he pulls off 8, it would be amazing.

Also, today was my last day in Texas, expect a huge blog about it tomorrow (from MIT!! AHH)

Meteors and the Blue Screen Of Death!

2008-08-12T03:21:00.000-04:00

so I was going to watch the meteor shower tonight (quick anecdote: I love meteor showers, though that shouldn't surprise you. I'm a nerd. I'm going to MIT) and thus prepared myself by sleeping as much as possible during the day (in other words, not changing my daily habits at all) and downing within 10% of the lethal dose of caffeine before leaving. I had a pickup truck (this is texas after all), blankets, pillows, and a red flashlight to keep my night vision from deteriorating. I'd even used a tool online to find the closest, darkest spot in the sky to watch the show from. Everything was set up to be an amazing display of the Perseids, and then:

clouds.

everywhere.

Damn. I tried watching for a little while just to make sure, but you can't see a blessed thing. Oh well, theres always next year.

Since I've been up and scourging the internet though, I found this picture and nearly laughed myself silly (I blame the caffeine).
Some of you may not recognize that that is the Olympic "Birds Nest" Stadium. (Anecdote #2: I think it's the most hideous piece of architectural crap I've ever seen). Others may not even recognize what is so remarkable about that photo. But look closely.
OMG! It's the windows Blue Screen of Death! AT THE OLYMPICS! Guess one of the computers couldn't do it's one job right.

OLYMPIC FAIL!

More eBay goodness!

2008-08-10T21:55:00.000-04:00

So you're reading my blog and you think to yourself "my that droll chris mills, what charm, what wit, I just wish I could own his clothing!"

Fear not my creepy little friend, because I'm here to make your dreams come true!

head on over to eBay and check out my auctions. My username is cmills90.

Your fetish is my profit! (wasn't that the original pokemon slogan?)

Lego Mindstorms for sale

2008-08-09T19:37:00.000-04:00

Hey blog readers! Have I got a deal for you*! It's my Lego Mindstorms robotics kit. All the lego stuff I used to build countless robots and machines. It made me love engineering and science, and helped me get into MIT**.

If you're interested you can check out the auction here.

Buy it for the legos, buy it for the coolness, buy it because you're a creepy stalker who has a shrine of my things in a closet somewhere, I don't mind!

*sort of
**not really

Bye Bye Beardie Part 2: The New Hairdo

2008-08-08T19:38:00.000-04:00

I try and rhyme as much as possible. But as you may or may not have known, I no longer have a beard, and now I no longer have long hair. Check it out:

Very Likely to be the Coolest Thing You See Today

2008-08-08T08:10:00.000-04:00

Unless of course you work on NASA's Phoenix lander crew or something.

Why High School Education Should Be Mandatory

2008-08-06T19:14:00.000-04:00

Home

2008-08-05T12:57:00.000-04:00

you know what's weird to think about? Leaving home in 11 days. I had this discussion with some of my friends leaving to different corners of Texas yesterday, and it got me thinking:

What is home anyway?

I mean for most people it's probably where you grew up, and where you're family is, but when does it change? When does somewhere else become you're home?

I think home is less of where your family is and more of where you feel happiest. Like when I move off in 11 days, I don't feel like I'm leaving home, I feel like I'm going home. I feel like I'm going to be incredibly happy in Boston. I'll miss my family, sure, but I'll come to visit them. I'll go visit my family, but my home will be in Massachusetts now. Thoughts anyone?

P.S. Hurricane Eduardo came in this morning. For those unfamiliar with Texas Geography, I live pretty close to Galveston, which was right in the middle of the projected path, but Eduardo didn't even make it to Hurricane status. It was Tropical Storm Eduardo (that's a lot like being the 5th string linebacker on the crappiest football team in existence.) It's barely even rained here, it's pretty lame.

August and water foutnains.

2008-08-02T12:11:00.000-04:00

August is here, and with it I bid goodbye to my last full month in Texas. It's closing in so fast, two weeks are flying by like nothing. And what have I been up to lately? Well for one our sleepy little town in Pearland, TX is growing up to be quite a little suburb. Exhibit A is the Pearland Town Center which just opened this past Wednesday. It's an outdoor mall reminiscent of the shopping strips you find downtown or along the beach, anchored by Barnes & Noble, Macy's, and Dillards, with a Courtyard Mariott and above-retail apartments, our town is growing up pretty dang fast.

Walking around is nice, it's pretty and there was free red bull!

No no, they asked to take a picture with me!

but I did notice one strange anomaly. While walking around Gamestop, showing off my Guitar Hero abilities, I saw this:
Hmm......does that seem odd to anyone else? Water fountains in the middle of a store? Not even in Texas.

Other than that, I went and saw my friend James show last night at the Alley Theatre downtown. He wrote it, and it was put on by professional actors, and it was FANTASTIC. By far the best one there. No doubt he'll do great things at NYU.

MIT in exactly 14 days.

BLAST FROM THE PAST!: Retro-blog

2008-07-31T01:54:00.000-04:00

Ok first some back-story:

I have a few fake teeth (three on the bottom row of my mouth to be exact). Some kids were admiring the low hum a metal plumbing pipe made when they swung it around and I got to close. I believe it went like this:

"WHEEWHUM"

*giggle giggle*

"Hey kids, that's an interesting demonstration of open pipe harmonics you hav--WHEWHACK!"

right in the mouth, and presto! my teeth were gone.(That'll teach you to try and explain resonance to kids with pipes)*

anyway, the first dentist I went to denied that there was anything that could be done for the gaping maw in my gums (seriously, think toothpicks in a jello-mold)

Actual photo. (of someone else)

so I wrote a bitter poem about him to make light of the situation and distract myself from the horrid pain. I posted it on another one of my older blogs, but it's kinda funny so I thought I'd repost it here. Without further adieu:

"the story of the retarded dentist done in the style of Dr.Seuss"

there once was a dentist
or so he claimed to be
though after my visit
i cant say i agree

through forests of papers
inquiring who where and why
mothers maiden name?
I fill out with a sigh

at last i'm seen
though thats about it
i wait in a chair
frankly its bull....well you know

a 10 second x-ray
and the dentist reveals
i'm imagining the pain
it just can't be real.

well that cant be true
i say im in pain
though i suppose he knows me
better than my own brain

he says he could fix it,
but decides that he will not
i think he's got dumb
i think he has a lot

so i leave the poor man
i pity him thats true
for it must be hard to live
with the I.Q. of a shoe.

To another dentist I'll go
though before I do
im tempted to play a round
of quaint peek-a-boo

Goodbye retard dentist
I'm tempted to shout
and add "dont forget"
"its breathe in then breathe out"

~Chris

*it was actually an accident. They felt bad and horrified as I bled profusely.

Deodor-cicle

2008-07-28T13:02:00.000-04:00

So, I love camping.

With that said, it's no secret I love camping (I just told you, after all) and with that comes a certain amount of tolerance for gross things. Like smoke showers and drinking bacon grease*. It also means that sometimes I leave things in my car from camping only to discover them later (In the case of wet clothes, very soon, but not soon enough). One such item I recently found was my travel deodorant.

"Oh boy! I was looking for that"

*I go inside and put it on the counter*

*hours pass*

*I'm meeting friends for volleyball, and decide an extra coat of protection can't hurt*

*Pop the top*

Looks normal enough. But something is off, it's awful squared....

BAHAHAHAHA! I guess at some point during the heat of the Texas afternoon, it melted and took the form of the cap. Voila, perfect deodorcicle.

(for the creepy curious, it still works.)

Blogger Apps Are Out!

2008-07-27T19:07:00.001-04:00

Here we go! MIT's admissions blogger applications are out, and I'm heatedly working on mine.

Those of you who are unfamiliar with MIT or the MIT bloggers, basically it means I would get a chance to do two things:
1.Brag about how cool MIT is, or (sparsely) how much I dislike it.
2. Get paid to do it!

But most importantly, the coolest thing about being a blogger is that I get to help people in the same way they've helped me. The bloggers really separate MIT admissions from other colleges. Hands on, constantly updated accounts of whats going on in the lives of real students. Wish me luck everybody!

(I may end up deleting this post by the time I submit my application in a few days, just so it doesn't look like I'm intentionally sucking up.)

Bye Bye Beardie!

2008-07-26T14:56:00.000-04:00

Well, I can now cross beard off my "I've-had-it-growing-on-my-face" list. Maybe I'll change my opinion about it when it comes time for the harsh New England chill, but for a Texas summer, it's just too hot and itchy. Say goodbye everyone!
In Memoriam

iPhone 3G

2008-07-19T12:26:00.000-04:00

Chris Mills (18) a local teen from Pearland, TX was found dead in his house today, suffering from what appears to be malnutrition and dehydration, while clutching an iPhone 3G in his hand. Preliminary reports indicate that it appears that Mr. Mills became so engrossed with his iPhone that he neglected to eat or drink, ultimately leading to his demise.

Fear not blogosphere! I'm not dead (yet anyway...)! But after using my new iPhone for a week I do have a full review to give those of you who are interested. First things first though, let's talk about that Friday.

I woke up around 3 because I couldn't sleep the night before (too excited, I know, I know, I'm incredibly nerdy). I got dressed and the plan was originally to meet my girlfriend at the AT&T store in pearland around 5. I changed it to 4 since I was up early, but she ended up not being able to go so I went alone. (Note to self: bring books when waiting in long long lines. Also, a chair.) After sweating in the early morning hours under the Texas sun, it finally came time to where I was next in line (there were some people in front of me, but not too many). I walk up to the counter at the same time the man in front of me walks away with his two new phones.

"I'm sorry sir, we've just sold out of phones"

[My lawyer says I shouldn't post the things I said then, due to a pending lawsuit]

The gist of it was that AT&T employees should be able to count and understand what those numbers mean. And they should know when or IF they get shipments. They are incompetent otherwise.

So I head home disappointed and grumpy from being up so early. I ended up crashing on the couch until about 11 when my older sister wanted to go to Freebirds for lunch. On the way, our of curiousity I call the Apple store at the mall (I'd already called all the AT&T stores, nada). They have plenty they say, and not too long of a line, so I decide to take my chances:

Not terrible, could be worse.

So I'm waiting in line, and waiting, and waiting. I made a new friend named Jorge. (it's what happens when in long lines).

As I'm sure you've heard, AT&T servers kept crashing, as did iTunes servers (never have a single point of failure, it will fail-always). So I was in line for 9 hours to get mine. But at the glorious end of the day, I walked away the proud owner of a brand new iPhone. Here's what they give you:Here you go Mr. Mills, display the fact that you just bought one of the most coveted items to the crowded mall as you exit, also we've gone through the trouble of showing them exactly where you're keeping it by printing it largely on this bag. I can in no way see how that could possibly be a bad idea.

Inside that poor idea of a bag is this:

Pictured in front of the new headphones (not really)

So you may notice that the box is white. That's because I opted for the white model (16 gB) because the black one looked cheaper, and attracted more fingerprints.

The device itself is somewhat weighty, not heavy, but the authoritative kind, the pleasant sort. It fits nicely in your hand, and the headphones are remarkably easy to keep in for extended periods of time.

If you own an iPod with video, or a touch (P.s. please help my friend recover his) then you know how good the video display is. If not, it's something that really must be seen to be believed. It's stunningly gorgeous. I don't think I'd mind watching TV shows at all. (something I used to make fun of other people for).

GPS and 3G (functional in both Boston and Houston, YES!) are welcome for me, as I like to think of myself as a bit of an internet junkie and having constant access to information about movies while in blockbuster, or reviews of nearby restaurants, youtube videos, etc. is a dream come true for me.

But the coolest feature in my opinion has been the applications. Third party apps that range from increedibly cool and useful (Box Office-reviews of movies from Rotten Tomatoes, click to buy tickets at nearby theatres; Facebook) to incredibly cool and useless (iPint-virtual beer drinking;Bubblewrap popping game; and Phonesaber-uses the accelerometer data to make lightsaber hums and clashes as you swing the phone about). The best part? a ton of the apps are free or very cheap (I haven't spent a penny on them yet).

Perhaps whats most exciting about it is where it's pushing tech though. Look at the number of imitators. It's helping to bridge the gap for connectivity, social networking. It really creates an exciting number of oppurtunities for change in the market. Maybe products have to rely more on quality because there is ready access to online reviews, maybe lines at starbucks move faster because people can touch their orders up on their phone, and even pay through an online account. Or take a picture of something, and image recognition pulls up information about it from the internet. Truly useful mobile internet pushes the envelope for what you and iCan expect from not only mobile devices, but what the internet itself can do.

at long last...

2008-07-11T22:09:00.000-04:00

I type this to you from my brand new iPhone!! At 3g speed whilst travelling on the highway!!

still in line.

2008-07-11T18:50:00.001-04:00

As we speak I am still in line for my iPhone. Crazy day. Big post tonight. Gotta log off before apple employees see what I'm doing.

Mint.com

2008-07-10T01:30:00.000-04:00

Ok, if you have never heard of Mint.com please please please please take this one piece of advice from me and check it out. I know (or at least suspect (or at the very least hope)) that a lot of people who read this blog are my friends, and generally fall into the young-ish category. As such, i believe that many of them probably don't use personal finance software like quicken or microsoft money. I've been working on my budget and finance stuff all day, and the final piece for me was some software to keep track of all my spending information. I looked at a bunch (Quicken, Microsoft Money, Moneydance etc.) and very nearly settled on Quicken Starter 2008 (very good, I may end up getting it later anyway) when I stumbled upon (not the website...) mint.com.
In a nutshell it shows all your accounts informations including spending habits, budgets, etc etc that all the big programs do, in addition to making suggestions to how you can save more money by suggesting relevant deals or coupons etc. It can compare your spending with certain companies versus the US average and has support for investment firms as well. Basically, it can make managing money incredibly easy and wonderful, which is a useful skill to have. Best of all?

It's free.

Go check it out, I fully reccomend it, and give it a solid four out of four roaring Leonidas's (Leonidi?)

HI JULY!

2008-07-07T11:34:00.000-04:00

Hey everybody, It's July you know what that means?

It's my last full month here in Texas.

HOORAY!!

Know what else it means?

iPhone 3G in 3 days.

DOUBLE-HOORAY

And Batman midnight IMAX premiere

OMG TRIPLE HOORAY.

so as you can see, July is substantially more exciting than June. (Or what could be called "the wet season" here, seriously it rained nearly every single day). 4th of July here was awesome, best one I've ever had. Houston has this

The "largest land-based fireworks show in the country" (Is it just me or does every show manage to be the biggest in some way. Biggest how? most fireworks? longest show? launched from the largest area? occupying the largest amount of space in the sky? no one knows) Unfortunately, if you want to see them you have to cough up money for parking, admission, and then fight these:

way too many people trapped in the sweltering heat. But this year, my friend James works at the neighboring Alley Theatre, and invited me and some friends to a company party. On the roof. With free food and drink. No parking fee. And an amazing view of the fireworks.
It was absolutely spectacular, the fireworks are synced with music which is always cool, and they have lots of neat fireworks like hearts and smiley faces. Combined with a skyline view from the building, it was the best show I've seen thus far.

Also yesterday I bought a bunch of stuff for my dorm. It was cool because Bed Bath& Beyond does this program where you can pick out all the stuff you want and they'll ship it for free to the Bed Bath & Beyond in wherever you're going, conveniently packed in one box for you. Very Nice.
All of my stuff is green (which, blogosphere, is my favorite color. Remember that in case of a quiz!) and soft and awesome. I think my dorm bed will be better than my bed here at home. The coolest thing I found though were these removable adhesive modern art stickers. You can stick them on your wall to make it look like it's been painted in cool ways, but it hasnt! Perfect for dorm life!

In closing, I also saw Wanted:

Which is, in a word- badass. I liked it a lot, even if it was totally over the top, it was good over the top, like shoot-people-with-exploding-arrows over the top, or drive-a-car-into-a-helicopter over the top, or believe-keanu-reeves-could-possibly-save-mankind over the top.

(Bonus points if you can name all those movies)

2008-06-30T01:34:00.000-04:00

i typed this using only my voice.

Weekend Update!

2008-06-29T20:17:00.000-04:00

You know what sucks?

Being sick

You know what sucks worse?

Being sick in the summer.

If there's no school to get out of, there is no point in being sick (unless you're a freak of attendance like this guy)

Speaking of, he wrote an interesting blog about blogging. Yes yes, how very existential self-reference post-modern of him, but it's an interesting read.

Anyway, I'm sick and have done nothing but lay in bed and drink orange juice. (not so different from my "well" life) but I did buy tickets for the midnight premier of the Dark Knight at IMAX and I'll be camping out before the showing, so I should have some cool things to talk about then. Also, tomorrow is the last day of June, everyone say bye June!

An update, a funny quirk, and a challenge.

2008-06-26T08:23:00.000-04:00

So the lack of school (and an interesting summer job this year, boo recession) has made for some interesting opportunities for me. (side note, did you know I never spell opportunities correctly the first time? I always spell it oppurtunities for some reason) Most of this summer I've spent doing things I never deemed important enough, or had enough time to do before. I'm trying to absorb as much Texas as I can before I leave (Which luckily means a lot of BBQ), but I'm also reading books. For fun. which I haven't done in a whi--- "Chris What books are you reading?"

Ok, way to interrupt. That's rude, this is my blog, but since you insist:

The Big Over Easy-Henry Fforde (Not a typo, his last name has two F's right next to each other)
Catch-22 - Joseph Heller
The bell jar - Sylvia Plath

So with that, my librarian thinks I must be a violent sociopath.

Have you guys seen this?

Oh I almost forgot, my challenge!

Ok, do you see that little map off to the right? the one with little red dots on it? that's the number and location of pings to my blog I get. (Note the big dot in Massachusetts, that's doubtless the fault of Paul and Snively)

So heres my challenge. Link to my blog, send it to people you know who know other people in other countries, I want worldwide representation. You can do it, I know you can.

Nerdcore.

2008-06-20T16:17:00.000-04:00

Hokay guys, another little snippet of a blog. Check this out. So I bought a laptop right, and it's nice, does all the stuff I want, ( 3Gb ram, Intel Duo core, Nvidia for you fellow nerds), but the speakers just aren't very loud. I am a bit of an Audiophile, so crappy sound sort of bugs me. But I'm also a big nerd, and realize that there are ways to do whatever you want with electronics. So looking at my audio deck I notice that the tape recorders are collecting dust because, well, this isn't 1985.

*lightbulb*

hey, I could use the tape deck channel as an input from my laptop.

hmm, but how? the only output I have is an 1/8th stero jack for headphones.

So I head off to Fry's to get a long stereo jack ($3, awesome!) and some solder and I head back home. I carefully crack open the tape deck and take a look on the inside. Heat sinks, motors, all sorts of crazy stuff, then I find what I'm looking for, the stereo out. Cut off the end of the wire I don't need, solder the leads in place, drill a hole through the case and BAM now my laptop has 5.1 surround sound in my room. Movies are epic, YouTube is legendary, iTunes is phenomenal, even Pandora sounds fabulous. Greatest mod so far.

MIT here I come!

FPOP

2008-06-19T14:37:00.000-04:00

Hallo blogosphere! This is a blogget to let the world know that I got into the hiking Orientation program for MIT that I wanted! I can't wait!White Mountains

A week of backpacking through the white mountains, navigating by compass, learning wilderness survival techniques.

I can only assume it will be taught by Bear Grylls

Anyway, I now leave on August 17th which is a week earlier than I'd planned before, but I think it will be time well spent. I can easily translate survival in the wilderness to survival in college: lack of food and clothing, inhospitable environment, fend for yourself, bears; ok maybe not bears, but I hope I learn some useful (or at least cool!) things while I'm away.

Easier living tip#1

2008-06-17T11:58:00.000-04:00

I'm going to start out bold.

Boys are disgusting.

As a boy I sometimes cut a lot of corners be it with cleaning a room, or mowing the lawn, or doing the dishes. I like to think of myself as efficient, but in reality it's probably just laziness. With this in mind, I'm proud to present you with the first in a probably one part series of easier living tips as brought to you by me and my boy habits.

#1: Clothes that are marginally dirty (i.e. physically clean but just sort of smell bad) can be "cleaned" by just throwing them in the dryer with a few dryer sheets. You're good to go for at least another two or three wears.

Ang-Ray and the last days of school

2008-06-05T00:06:00.001-04:00

I've been absent from the blogosphere because I've had an unusual (well, for me) amount of stuff to do in the real world (or IRL for you true internet junkies). School has been done for a while, and in fact all I do all day is sign yearbooks, make jokes, play my guitar and sleep.

This is English IV AP believe it or not.

It's nice to wind down though, high school has been crazy. I won't wax nostalgic (yet anyway), so I only say that to establish that I have a lot of free time so that maybe you'll understand why things like this next part happen:

CAUTION VEGETARIANS! THE MEAT OF THE ENTRY FOLLOWS:

So today was Senior checkout, which for those uninitiated marks the official last day for Seniors. All you do is get everyone to sign a sheet saying you owe the school nothing, and your grades are locked and theres nothing you can do except graduate. It starts at 8 and takes about 10 seconds. Kim, James, Kayla and I all finished and decided to go to Starbucks. (Side note: Black Tea Lemonade is a prime example of what scientists are referring to as "delicious") We just sat at the bar for a while talking and joking around while I glanced over the bulletin board. If you've never been in a Starbucks (in which case I wonder how you've been on the internet and not at a Starbucks), then you may recall the giant bulletin board where people put stuff. On this bulletin board was an ad that said "Astros Tickets: Pairs available for Boston Games" and a listing of prices for tickets and game dates. In the lower left corner of the bulletin board is a very large bullet that reads "board is for information only, not for selling things" Noticing an opportunity for mischief, I decide to call "Ray" about his baseball tickets. voice mail picks up and I leave the following message:

"Look here Ray, I'm at starbucks and the bulletin board clearly says in the lower left corner 'board is for information only, not for selling things', I don't know if you were standing in such a way that it fell in your blindspot, or perhaps you're missing your left eye, in which case I am sorry, but you astros tickets are very clearly things, and thus selling them is in direct violation of the board! Good day!"

So I thought I made it pretty clear that I couldn't possibly be serious, but no less than 1 minute later my phone rings.

It's Ray.

I let voicemail pick it up, and receive the following message:

"Hey Chris, it's Ray, hey I'm really sorry about the board, I didn't realize it was such a big deal, but I don't appreciate your attitude about the whole thing, you could've just told me politely to take it down, you didn't have to be a jerk about it, anyway I gotta get going" *click*

So Ray didn't catch on that I was joking. Rather than exacerbate the problem, I just left him a note on the board that said:

"Ray,

Hey I was just kidding, I don't think anyone is really offended by you trying to sell Astro's tickets.

~Chris

P.s. Knock $50 off Thursdays game and call me"

WTF

2008-05-23T20:18:00.000-04:00

So today we got our yearbooks, and I immediately flipped to take a look at all the senior pictures. I'm scrolling through the list and I see "Lauren Miller" "Taylor Mills"

Wait, WHAT?

My yearbook FORGOT ME

They apologized and refunded the price and everything, but still. That's incredibly disappointing. Now I have to make little picture stickers of myself to give to everyone. This sucks.

The Great Photo Dilemma

2008-05-21T00:01:00.000-04:00

So I'm pretty much broke. The end of Senior year has been wildly expensive, and that combined with MIT bills and various other expenditures has left my wallet pretty tightly accounted for, that being said I couldn't afford to drop a hundred or so dollars on graduation photos, so I said to myself "Well heck Chris, you've got photoshop, you know what you're doing, make some yourself!" So that's exactly what I intended to do. This is the picture I took:

Washed out, poor contrast, and very obviously my bathroom.

But, through the magic of Photoshop, (and some long hours of internet radio and tablet drawing) here's what I came up with:

better.

So then I went to Walgreens to go have prints made. This is where things get interesting. I pulled up the picture to have them printed and the guy says "Oh we can't print that, it's copyrighted material, you'll have to go back to the studio", at first I'm a bit flattered by this man's unintentional compliment, and I tell him that I did in fact take these pictures myself, at home.

"No you didn't"

I think he's just in disbelief, once again I assure him they are mine.

"Hold on one second"

*I wait. A woman clutching a clipboard and paperwork comes and greets me*

"Sir, you'll have to take this copyright release back to the photographer so that we can make prints for you"

This isn't fun anymore

"I'm the photographer, these are my pictures, I took myself."

"Sir, please, just take these forms to the photographer and we'll be able to help you"

"I took these pictures, I hold the copyrights, do you want me to fill them out myself?!"

"Sir if you took these pictures at home, how did you get it to say 'Class of '08' at the bottom?"

"I own a copy of Photoshop. Just like any photography studio does. I have all the equipment I needed to make a good picture, I'm just trying to save some money. In fact, I can prove these are my pictures."

*I pull up the original photos I didn't use*

"...."

"Well I guess we won't be needing these forms, thank you for choosing walgreens for your picture needs!"

In the end though, it cost me $12 to have 100 prints made, whereas a similar package would have cost in excess of $250 from a local photographer.

Frugality Prevails!

Some clarification

2008-05-16T00:39:00.000-04:00

ok, partly because I need a new entry, and partly because some of you asked what in the story of Niels Bohr reminded me of AP physics, the questions on that test are similarly ridiculous, asking questions that are utterly ridiculous or convoluted and serve no practical purpose. This is an actual question:

Here is a question involving circular motion, for your practice:

A simple pendulum of length ℓ is suspended from the point O. The bob of the pendulum is a sphere of mass m and is initially at rest at A. An identical sphere S (not shown in the figure), which is a projectile with its trajectory in the plane of the figure, has its highest point at A. The projectile therefore collides (elastically) with the bob of the pendulum at A and makes it move with horizontal speed V1 as shown. The acceleration due to gravity at the place is g.

(a) If the speed V1 of the bob of the pendulum is just sufficient to make it travel along the circular path of radius ℓ, derive an expression for the speed V2 of the bob at the highest point B of the circular path.

(b) Derive an expression for the kinetic energy of the bob in terms of m, ℓ and g just when it starts moving from A.

(c) Obtain an expression for the speed of the bob at C, when the string of the pendulum is horizontal.

(d) What was the kinetic energy of the projectile (sphere S) just before it collided with the bob? Give reason for your answer without writing theoretical steps.

(e) Briefly explain the nature of the motion of the projectile after hitting the bob.

A poignant counter-point, WHO THE HELL CARES?! Now I love Physics, really I do. I make physics jokes (Hey, what did the cow say as he slid down the inclined plane? Muuu!) but I just groan with things like that. All year I had to do questions like "I f I throw a jug of water that weighs 8 Kg at a kid who weighs 140Kg riding a skateboard moving with an initial velocity of 8m/s opposite the direction the jug is thrown, describe what happens" I laugh at the kid and run away. That should be the answer.

Off my micro-rant (thanks paul!), I am done with school and these last three weeks are a formality. Seriously, no finals, no tests, no homework. I do nothing. It's boring and nice at the same time.

Niels Bohr and the Physics Question

2008-05-12T23:47:00.000-04:00

This reminded me of AP Physics. No idea if it's true or not, but funny nonetheless:

A physics student was asked to describe a method by which the height of a building could be determined using a barometer

"You tie a long piece of string to the neck of the barometer, then lower the barometer from the roof of the skyscraper to the ground. The length of the string plus the length of the barometer will equal the height of the building."

This highly original answer so incensed the examiner that the student was failed. The student appealed on the grounds that his answer was indisputably correct, and the university appointed an independent arbiter to decide the case.

The arbiter judged that the answer was indeed correct, but did the problem it was decided to call the student in and allow him six minutes in which to provide a verbal answer which showed at least a minimal familiarity with the basic principles of physics.

For five minutes the student sat in silence, forehead creased in thought. The arbiter reminded him that time was running out, to which the student replied that he had several extremely relevant answers, but couldn't make up his mind which to use.

On being advised to hurry up the student replied as follows:

"Firstly, you could take the barometer up to the roof of the skyscraper, drop it over the edge, and measure the time it takes to reach the ground. The height of the building can then be worked out from the formula H = 0.5g x t squared. But bad luck on the barometer."

"Or if the sun is shining you could measure the height of the barometer, then set it on end and measure the length of its shadow. Then you measure the length of the skyscraper's shadow, and thereafter it is a simple matter of proportional arithmetic to work out the height of the skyscraper."

"But if you wanted to be highly scientific about it, you could tie a short piece of string to the barometer and swing it like a pendulum, first at ground level and then on the roof of the skyscraper. The height is worked out by the difference in the gravitational restoring force T = 2 pi sqroot (l / g)."

"Or if the skyscraper has an outside emergency staircase, it would be easier to walk up it and mark off the height of the skyscraper in barometer lengths, then add them up."

"If you merely wanted to be boring and orthodox about it, of course, you could use the barometer to measure the air pressure on the roof of the skyscraper and on the ground, and convert the difference in millibars into feet to give the height of the building."

"But since we are constantly being exhorted to exercise independence of mind and apply scientific methods, undoubtedly the best way would be to knock on the janitor's door and say to him 'If you would like a nice new barometer, I will give you this one if you tell me the height of this skyscraper'."

The student was Niels Bohr, the only person from Denmark to win the Nobel prize for Physics.

Dan Sauza, gamer ballad

2008-05-11T13:04:00.000-04:00

"It's not easy being l33t", as Kermit the Frog so very nearly sang.

AMAZING!

2008-05-09T19:54:00.001-04:00

The most epic fail

2008-05-07T21:47:00.000-04:00

So today was the BC Calc exam, and sure while it may be nothing compared to some other crazy people's schedules, I maintain the belief that the dauntitude (I made that word up) of a task is directly proportional to the system it's within, thus it was still a big deal for me. I've studied for this test for literally a month, done a ton of practice exams, went over everything. I knew my stuff, and I was ready for this test.

"But Chris, how is that the most epic fail?"

Quit interrupting, that was all exposition to highlight the severity later.

Anyway, I went to bed at midnight, woke up this morning, had a breakfast of a bagel, orange juice, eggs, bowl of wheaties, banana and some peanut butter (I'm a fatass, it just hasn't caught up to me) and went to school. The test begins and I feel pretty good, for those unfamiliar the test is broken up into 4 parts like so:

Non-Calculator Multiple Choice-45 minutes
Calculator Multiple Choice-45 minutes
Non-Calculator Free Response-45 minutes
Calculator Free Response-45 minutes

You have to bubble in an answer sheet by the time the test is done, when the bell rings, you have to stop everything you're doing and seal your test.The timer goes and I dive headlong into the problems. To optimize my test-taking, I always allot 5 minutes at the end to bubble in everything. Periodically I glance up to see how much time is left : 35 minutes, 22 minutes, 8 minutes, great, I'm making good progress and answering a lot of questions. I get to the end and glance up at the clock: 4 minutes 30 seconds

(!!FATAL ERROR APPROACHING!!)

For some odd reason, since I was so focused on seeing 5 minutes as my mark to begin bubbling, when I saw 4 minutes and 30 seconds, I thought "Oh wonderful, I am 4 minutes and 30 seconds ahead, I'll go back and work some problems I wasn't sure of" I managed to get all of them answered and felt really confident about it all, the timer went off and everything was great, I had answered all of the questions, now all I had to do was---

Oh shit.

"Pencils down, no more working"

Oh my god.

"Seal your tests"

I looked over at my answer sheet. Completely Blank.

The next multiple choice section began and I sat for about 5 minutes, unable to do any work, mentally kicking myself for being so dumb. Then I spent about 3 minutes trying to figure out what to do now, so I crunched the numbers for scoring and found out that if I aced the the rest of the multiple choice and got 6 out of 9 points for every free response, I could still make a 4, which would be worth credit. I aced the rest of the Multiple Choice part for sure, and it was time for free response. I had no problem with most of the free response, except one part of a question that asked me to calculate the Lagrange Error Bound (for those who don't know, it's the most useless, convoluted math idea out there) for a series. Partially because I didn't care, and partially because I was so pumped at the idea of actually pulling this ridiculous come-from-behind feat, with about 15 seconds left I wrote the first thing that came to my mind:

"THIS IS SPARTA!"

I feel tentatively confident about the possibility of actually making a 4 on the test, even though I missed an entire section. If I do manage to pull it off, it will be the most amazing feat I've done thus far, and a pretty good story. If not, theres always the standing exams in August....

Retro-Poem

2008-05-01T00:14:00.000-04:00

Quick background:
I once had my teeth knocked out by a pipe, and when I went to the dentist, he was an idiot. I wrote this poem about the experience. Enjoy!

"the story of the retarded dentist done in the style of Dr.Seuss"

there once was a dentist
or so he claimed to be
though after my visit
i cant say i agree

through forests of papers
inquiring who where and why
mothers maiden name?
I fill out with a sigh

at last i'm seen
though thats about it
i wait in a chair
frankly its bull-well you know

a 10 second x-ray
and the dentist reveals
i'm imagining the pain
it just can't be real.

well that cant be true
i say im in pain
though i suppose he knows me
better than my own brain

he says he could fix it,
but decides that he will not
i think he's got dumb
i think he has a lot

Theory of Everything

2008-04-30T02:00:00.000-04:00

i know it's been a while since posting, we're in the heat of AP testing. But I wanted to take a second and reveal to all who may be reading that I believe strongly in the Unified Theory. If all of the universe has been created out of a singularity such as in the Big Bang, then all the matter would be infinitesimally close together, and thus there could be only one governing force within it. Every other force must then be derived from this one force that ultimately governs the universe. A cosmic Constitution if you will. Sort of a rant, but it's an interesting topic for discussion if anyone feels like commenting.

Look at the horse!

2008-04-20T17:28:00.001-04:00

GASP

2008-04-19T10:02:00.000-04:00

Ok loyal readers/stalkers (viva, I'm talking to you). I note that there has been a huge lag in posts, as you may have theorized this is because I spent a week in Boston. (Note to self: Going to Boston is better than going to school) Unfortunately, despite wearing my MIT hoodie, my school won't let me just stop working, so I've had piles of make-up work to do since I got back. I don't even understand it, it's almost like some huge joke, like all my teachers decided to have a test or a packet on the days I was gone. No joke heres what I had/have:

*Physics E&M packet
*Physics Mechanics packet
*Physics video notes for 3 videos.
*Calculus chapter 12-6,7,8 and chapter review out of the book.
*Calculus test over convergence tests (ewww!)
*Calculus AP Test practice packets 1-7 (each has about 50 questions)
*Government Test
*Government essay since I missed the socratic seminar.
*Comp-Sci Test
*Comp-Sci algorithm packet
*English research paper over Robert Frost
*English test over literary devices.
*ENTIRE FOUNDATIONS OF PERSONAL FITNESS COURSE BY CORRESPONDANCE!

whew! so the good news is that I finished that last one in a day, because it actually wasn't that hard. I'm glad it's done though, because I needed that half p.e. credit to graduate. It would be a shame to have my admission rescinded and go to summer school because of a stupid p.e. credit.

BUT other than that being a second semester senior is awesome. For example, yesterday we found these vintage military flight suits in our theatre class (we don't do anything in there.) so we did what any rational person would due. We put them on, stuffed them full of pillows, and had a sumo wrestling match. If I can find pictures my friends took, I'll definately put them up.

The art auction was also yesterday. It was a great success, what a wonderful show of support from our community. Two of my pieces went for $100, and $80! Since the charity that we're donating to (World Vision) gives gifts such as chickens which are $15. That means I just gave some village ...*asks savant*... 12 chickens!

If you're interested in knowing how my week in Boston was, check out my CPW blog. It should be finished by the end of the week along with the guest entry for the MIT website.

ciao!

CPW, Senioritis, and all things white.

2008-04-06T22:21:00.000-04:00

Ok, first things first, those of you stalking my blogs (cough VIVA cough) may have noticed that I've added a new blog: CPW 2008. That's right no mere entry will suffice, an entire BLOG is necessary.
Speaking of CPW, did I mention SNIVELY is my host? oh I didn't? well let me repeat: SNIVELY is my host.

That's right, feel free to gwovel (I have no idea if thats how you spell that)

So it's no surprise that I'm intensely excited. I intend to photograph/videotape EVERYTHING that happens, so it'll be like you guys are actually there!

I'm so excited that I can think of no good segways. Senioritis has caught me full swing. I am doing a record little amount of work. Seriously I didn't bring a notebook to class all last week, and it didn't affect me in the slightest. I've got to finish studying for the Physics C AP test, finish a weeks worth of BC Calc, study for a government test, write up some labs for Java....the list approaches infinity. I just need to coast through one more 6 weeks and I'll be through....

I took the plunge and had my teeth bleached this weekend. I never thought anything was particularly wrong with them, but I have some friends who've enjoyed good results, and it was half off, and I have senior pictures coming up, sooooo it seemed like an ok splurge. I got to the place-Britesmile in the Galleria - and sat in the worlds most comfortable chair. The lady put this horrific device in my mouth that held it wide open and then decided it would be a good idea to ask me some questions. I sounded like I was on the losing side of a lifelong bout with cerebral palsy. Eventually the small talk was over and she covered my teeth with some gel and set me up with the TV. I watched Blade. An hour later I rinsed my mouth out and lo and behold the whitest teeth I'd ever seen. Every remotely shiny surface I pass I flash a smile to, and admire the advances of modern cosmodentistry (I made that word up). In short I reccomend it.

Look for the amazing CPW blog next week!

The Knack

2008-04-04T20:59:00.000-04:00

I have the knack.

lmao!

April Fool's

2008-04-02T16:39:00.000-04:00

The "Whimsical" (some would say mean) side of me loves April Fool's day. In years past I've had great pranks (balloon taped to the tire of dads car; he backs up, it sounds like the tire pops, hilarity ensues) and I've had....less.... great ones (note to self: do not pretend to come out of the closet for April fool's day.) This year was no exception, with a few friends and I plastering the local Chinese buffet with "Have you seen my cat" posters.
But as thought-out and epic as I try and make each years prank, I have to salute the fine folks at Cracked. To sum up, they called Judge Joe Brown with a fake case, and actually made it all the way on air. I've embedded the video for your entertainment:

BOSTON!!!

2008-03-30T17:07:00.001-04:00

My best friend in the known universe (the one in the beach pictures a few entries ago) is going to Emerson (letter B on the map) we've grown up together, and we picked colleges that met our dreams, and only after did we find out that they are in the same city and the exact same distance apart as we live now!

Great news, things look great

AP Tests

2008-03-30T00:16:00.000-04:00

I have my own room for Physics C. Dialogue went like this:

AP registrar- "Ok just sign here to indicate you are taking this test"

*indicates blank sheet titled "Physics C"*

Me- "uhh am I the only one?"

AP registrar-"well, this is the last day for regisration, so...probably"

Me-"Does that mean I get an entire testing room completely to myself?"

AP registrar-"Yes"

Me-"Cool"

So I guess my AP physics classmates are afraid of the C test. But I am not afraid, I have Walter Lewin on video lecture! I'm going to do wildly irritating things to my test proctor, like change seats after every question, or talk to myself loudly during the test, or listen to soft music whilst I write, and leave immediately after I finish. With no one else to worry about, I can do anything! I'm going to bring a lazy boy to take my test in. Rest assured, it will be epic!

OMG OMG OMG!

2008-03-28T16:45:00.000-04:00

Fuel tank is FINALLY here! Hoorah Hoorah! look for an epic entry tomorrow, in the meanwhile, I'm gonna go see 21 tonight.

The Beach

2008-03-26T20:01:00.001-04:00

Wow, it is neck-and-neck in my poll, a solid split! What will I do? I can't buy half an iPhone!

Coming out from that false importance (and my supreme jealousy of Snively....don't ask, he knows why....) I know you all were wondering "Chris? where are you? how can I make it through my days without your opinions on absolutely everything?" Well it's been a crazy past few days folks, and I'm here to share with you all the laughter, the tears, the beach trip.

Ok, a bit of prologue. My best friend in the known universe (and theorized to be so in 13 abstract dimensions) owns a beach house, and thus several times a year we make trips out there to get away from it all. The only problem is that Galveston Island is well....gross. The currents in the gulf carry the silt from the Mississippi right into Galveston, so the water assumes this disgusting opaque brown look. Great for farms, less for swimming. I wanted to establish that before you all send concerned emails that I'm a disillusioned youth swimming in an industrial park, because I know thats sort of what it looks like. Anyway, pictures:

This is what the postcards would have you believe galveston looks like, put on your reality glasses and compare that with what you see from my trip.

These are Baby Jellyfish. They look sort of like gelatinous ice cubes, but they're jellies!

For those of you who aren't near a beach, and maybe don't know what this beautiful thing is, it's a Portuguese Man O' War and it can kill you. Yea, beautiful and deadly.Just like (joke omitted for fear of being called misogynistic)

Live barnacles. Aren't they neat?

That's me in the red hoodie. That's Misty, my best friend not facing the camera. So then that night we drove into town to buy a firepit to roast hot dogs and marshmallows.

Delicious.

Here you can see me eating two s'mores in one mighty bite. Note that my hands are black, that's because I'm going to MIT. Let me explain. I got out of the car and was elected to make the fire because I'm most qualified by virtue of being accepted to MIT. The charred wood made my hands black. I couldn't tell in the dark, it only showed up when this photo was developed.

The next day included lots of sand sculptures, including:
Worlds tiniest sand castle (That's my foot for reference!)
Misty's "Screaming Head" aptly named.

And I buried that girl and gave her gnome feet.

The next day we went skim boarding.
That's me, skim board king, looking all cool.

The next day we drove into town and saw a ferrari

Artists Reproduction

The woman in the cars age can be modeled by the equation a(x)=sqrt(x/3) where x is the drivers age in years. Yea it was nasty.

Shortly afterward we loaded our stuff up and headed home, good times.

DHL Freight, phone calls, and iPhones

2008-03-20T11:06:00.000-04:00

Ok, since the iPhone dilemma is an ongoing and raging debate (or at least for my ego's sake I pretend it is) I've included a poll in the margin to your right. Funny story actually, I spent this morning writing up a little java applet to do it, and I just finished only to realize that blogger includes a poll as one of their options....xD oh well, their's is better anyway. I think I'm going to keep this poll as a running theme, as in I'll change the poll from time to time and you'll have a way to voice your opinions on such important issues as, whether a beard will increase my manly magnetism (alliteration-zing!) or just make me look like grizzly adams(Fig.1), or other such things. One important thing to note is I can't change my carrier (as much as I'd like togrumble....Cingular sucks!....grumble
Last night I received my phone call from Maddie (yay!).
She's pretty cool, but since she's lived up north her whole life, she was unable to offer me much advice as far as what to wear so as not to freeze to death. But other than that she was very helpful, and recommended I check out the Burton Conner bunch, which I may (read:will) do.
Ok. I've decided for over a week now to blog about fixing my car with photos, dry-witted humor, a real blog party. Problem is, my parts haven't gotten here yet, even though I frickin' FREIGHTED them here over a week a ago. Sorry, had to express that frustration. Anyway when they come, expect a wonderful blog about it, until then I'm going to the beach! I'll be back Saturday!

P.s. For those of you who don't stalk the MIT blogs, I was first on Snively's post about tours
! I still think it's dumb to try and be first, or second etc. but since the oppurtunity presented itself.... don't look at me like that, it's not hypocrisy, it's....celebrating and trying to understand an alternative belief to my own =)

The iPhone dilemna

2008-03-18T15:43:00.000-04:00

It's simple. I want an iPhone. It does everything I want it to, I can check my Gmail, mobile blog, and do iPod things in addition to a phone. I have AT&T, so no problems there. I went and played with one today and they're just as awesome as they were the last time I played with them, the new SDK means there will probably be some useful and cool programs coming out, and the memory is now 16 GB which is now within what I'd be happy with.

So whats the problem?

$499

yikes. that's a lot of money, and I could feasibly buy it, but it was so hard to earn that much. Sally says I should buy one just to treat myself, but that seems foolish. hmmmm

thoughts?

The whole admissions story

2008-03-16T22:14:00.000-04:00

Ok, now that everything has sort of simmered down a bit, I figured you may be interested in how yesterday went (if not, don't read it. That simple.)

*Ahem*

Let's start with Friday. Friday was the day before spring break at Pearland, and thus time for the annual Senior Vs. Faculty Dodgeball game, which was epic. I thought seniors were pretty lazy folk come 2nd semester, but the truth is senior teachers are just as bad, so in my classes I did Orange Juice of work. (inside physics joke. Hint: Whats the common abbreviation for Orange Juice? What unit is work measured in?)

In government we had an impromptu talent contest showcasing my ability to dance [read:not] and play the guitar. My teacher surprised us all when he started playing and singing, and he's 60-somethin years old!

Directly after school I went to tutor math for this one girl. She's in 5th grade and, no joke, absolutely does not get math. At all. Actual conversation:

"So if 12 buses can each carry 12 students, how many students are there?"

pause

"ok, well what should we do to figure out how many students there are?"

pause

"...divide?"

*Chris bashes head into table*

The rest of the night is me just trying to do anything to keep my mind off decisions the next day. I finally end up falling asleep at 3.a.m. My mom and sister wake me up at 7 to tell me goodbye as they leave, and I can't fall back asleep. Great. So I spend the rest of the morning watching shows on the discovery channel, except I was constantly thinking about decisions so I have no idea what I watched, except at one point a crazy man with an Australian accent talked about snakes having two penises (penii? I'm not sure) because he said the word "Hemipenis" and I busted out laughing. (partially because in my head it made all those Chevy commercials incredibly akward. "Dude, does that have a hemi?" Finish the scene in your mind)

Anyway, about 10 o'clock I head to the bank to deposit my weeks earnings and such. While I'm waiting I'm again trapped by thoughts about admissions. I kicked myself for not applying to more schools. I think about the video I made and wonder who's seen it, and what they thought. The song that plays at the end, How Far We've Come by Matchbox 20, is one of my favorite songs, and in particular that line for me sums up the whole experience of my senior year to that point:

"I believe the world is burning to the ground/

oh well I guess we're gonna find out/

Let's see how far we've come/

Let's see how far we've come"

It means regardless of what happens, take a look and see what you've made of yourself, the journey you've gone on. I felt it was appropriate. I'm thinking about this as I get in the car, I turn on the radio and this is what I hear:

"I believe the world is burning to the ground/
oh well I guess we're gonna find out/
Let's see how far we've come/
Let's see how far we've come"

I think "Well wow, that's sort of a crazy coincidence." By the time I get home, it's 10:40. 20 minutes left (actually 15, I figured they'd post them a weee bit early). I sit down at my computer and open up three tabs in Firefox: the decision page, Pandora, and a page of encouraging quotes. I put on some Constance Demby on Pandora, (great band if you've never heard of them) and start reading the quotes to mentally prepare myself for the 88% chance (statistically anyway) of disappointment. The quotes I read are in another post. One in particular stuck out to me:

"When one door closes another door opens; but we so often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door, that we do not see the ones which open for us." ~Alexander Graham Bell

That helps calm me a lot. It puts everything in perspective, and I truly feel ok with not getting in to MIT. Sure I'll be disappointed, but there will be other oppurtunities for me that I wouldn't have had if I went to MIT. I switch over to decisions, type in all my stuff, take a deep breath and

*click click*

I read:

Dear Chris,
On behalf of the Admissions Committee, it is my pleasure to offer you---

and flip out. I don't even finish the sentence, I let loose a very spartan battle cry and jumped up. I ran into the the living room to tell my dad, his reaction: "are you sure?"...."are you kidding?"

I can't stop saying "Oh ma gawd" over and over as I run my hands through my hair, he sits down and reads the letter. "congratulations kiddo, you did it". I stumble a bit and feel queasy, too much adrenaline I guess. It subsides and I print a copy and race out the door to tell my best friend.

I get to Misty's house and ring the door bell. No response. I ring it again. No response. I look at my watch. It's 11:08. I laugh (Misty, her mom, and I all share a rather...nocturnal... sleep pattern, they don't get up until noon on saturdays, literally). Finally I call her, and her mom comes to the door squinting at the light. I shove the paper to her punctuated by "look look look look look" She freaks out and gives me a hug, she tells me Misty is asleep, she'll go wake her up. 5 minutes later she comes out of the hall and says "Misty says just go back there". I walk into her room and it's pitch black (no windows). Misty is grumpy and half-asleep.

"Hey I want you to see something."

"mmm what?"

"Read this"

*turns on light and squints to see paper*

"OMG!"

*big hug*

*screams* (her, not me lol)

Her mom comes in to celebrate with us. We celebrate by getting Jack in the Box. I send text messages to every person in my address book, here are some of the best:

"cool."

"lol...Who is this?"

"congratufuckinglations" <--my foul mouthed theatre friend

"what's that?"

I head home and my dad has called all our family. I do all the obligatory blogging and stuff. That night I went out clubbing with some of my friends to celebrate, and tonight my dad and my older sister went out to dinner. All in all, an amazing experience.

Heres what my week looks like

2008-03-16T00:16:00.000-04:00

So my dad and I are home alone for the week because my mom and my sister are out on a trip. No biggie right? Well I come home today after my dad went "grocery shopping" and this is what I see:

Our "groceries" consist of nothing but frozen food. My dad's defense "eh, I didn't feel like cooking"

It's going to be a long week lol.

Admission Decisions

2008-03-15T14:14:00.000-04:00

I'm going to MIT! I am so excited. Out of respect for the very many friends I've made who weren't offered admission (Justin, Shruthi, Wendy) , that's all I'll say about it at this time. For you guys I want to share some quotes I read before I got my decision to prepare me for the worst. Reading these before-hand went a long way in making me feel better about the potentially disappointing outcome, and I hope that they offer you guys some measure of comfort now, this ones for you guys guys:

"Experience is not what happens to you; it is what you do with what happens to you."

~ Aldous Huxley

"It is said an Eastern monarch once charged his wise men to invent him a sentence to be ever in view, and which should be true and appropriate in all times and situations. They presented him the words: "And this, too, shall pass away.""

~ Abraham Lincoln

"When you feel like giving up, remember why you held on for so long in the first place."

~ Unknown

"Instead of giving myself reasons why I can't, I give myself reasons why I can."

~ Unknown

"When one door closes another door opens; but we so often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door, that we do not see the ones which open for us."

~ Alexander Graham Bell

"When you come to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on. "

~ Franklin D. Roosevelt

"If you have made mistakes, there is always another chance for you. You may have a fresh start any moment you choose, for this thing we call 'failure' is not the falling down, but the staying down. "

~ Mary Pickford

"What the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the master calls a butterfly."

~ Richard Bach

"Fall seven times, stand up eight."
~Japanese Proverb

"If one dream should fall and break into a thousand pieces, never be afraid to pick one of those pieces up and begin again. "

~ Flavia Weedn

"The world is round and the place which may seem like the end may also be only the beginning. "

~ Ivy Baker Priest

"One has to remember that every failure can be a stepping stone to something better."

~ Col. Harland Sanders

I wish you all the best. Wake up tomorrow and chase your dreams.

Pi Day!

2008-03-14T16:43:00.001-04:00

I forgot my camera, so until my friends send me more pictures, you'll have to make due with this one from my cell phone. It's an apple pie, for pi day! (see the pi symbol on top?) I was going to make it square so that I could say "my pi are squared" but we didn't have any square dishes. Happy Pi Day everyone!

Bad news for applicants named Caesar

2008-03-12T00:16:00.000-04:00

Just realized that decisions come out March 15th, the ides of March....hmm...

My very first proof!

2008-03-11T23:55:00.000-04:00

alright so I know none of you can read that, but it's an epic proof that tangent acceleration to any velocity vector incuces a circular path to it, and by lemma, that for a circular path, if r is constant, then velocity and acceleration must be equal in magnitude. Of course I found out that this is no major breakthrough, but it felt pretty cool to actually prove something on my own!

Here We Go Again Edit Nifty Eh?---------------->

2008-03-09T12:56:00.000-04:00

Well it's that time of year again. MIT decisions come out next Saturday. (Missing Pi day by 24 hours, tsk tsk.) Now originally I thought I'd write up some long post wringing my hands about how nervous I am (I am), or how excited I am (I am), or how I can't believe it's here already (I can't). But what's really more interesting for me is the journey I've gone on to get where I am just right now. I've met some amazing people along the way, and had an amazing time this year, so since noone has asked, here's my senior year in review:

July- Thanks to reading my Popular Science article about jobs in science, I decided that was my career goal. Prior to this it was a struggle between art and science, two absolutes of my personality. Popular science sealed it for me though, and so I began looking at science and engineering colleges.

August- Registered for High School. Made a list of science colleges to look at, among them : Stanford, Yale, Princeton, Caltech, MIT, and Boston University. Yale and Princeton seem too "stagnant" for me, and Caltech seems boring based off of my friend Kasra who goes there. The Boston Area looks promising and I take a look at MIT. First thing I find out: THEY MADE MINDSTORMS, MY FAVORITE TOY EVER!. Major kudo's. Then I read the mission statement about making a difference in the world through science. MIT becomes top choice for me. I look at what admission requirements are. Heart sinks a little bit. This school is damn hard to get into, but I can do it! Immediately I register for SAT and SAT II (Math II and Physics).

September- SAT rolls around, first time taking it. Bought Princeton Review (I swear by them). Skipped school Friday before so I could study. Wake up Saturday and head to Kelly's Country Kitchen for a hearty breakfast. Sit through four hours of SAT. Scores come back, I did good. Chris is pleased. Mom and I go to MIT seminar in Houston. After essentially being slack-jawed for the entirety of the seminar we both leave really excited that such a place exists. I buy Princeton Review for Physics and Math (The physics one is a terrifying beast) and immediately start studying. Interview for MIT is set up, and I decide I'm applying early action.

October- I'm working almost everyday at American Eagle, and Friday and Saturday nights for Upstage (a construction company, MIT and heavy lifting?) . This continues basically every week for October. Interview with a guy named Alfonso. He works for NASA as a thermoshielding engineer. We talk a lot about MIT. I leave forgetting that I just went to an interview for that school. I thank my theatre experience for making speaking less nerve-wracking.

November- I take the subject tests, and have finished my application. I realize that if I'd known where I was going to apply earlier, I'd have been able to take and retake my SAT's if I was unhappy with the score. Oh well we'll see how we did. Thanksgiving rocks, I eat 10,000 calories in one day (thanks in no small part to eggnog). My friends and I go camping in Brazos Bend:

Beautiful. I make it my mission to catch an alligator. They don't like the cold though, so they are nowhere to be found. I burn my hand on a hot rock and exclaim: "&*%! Jeezy Creezy! How dense is that rock? It's been away from the fire for like 30 minutes!" My friends point out how ridiculously nerdy that is for me to exclaim.

December- My best friend wants to go to Emerson, and if we both went to school in Boston, our schools would be the same distance apart as our houses are now, Crazy! Did well on my subject tests too, the anxiety about it being my only shot fades. Decisions draw near. Decision morning I had completely forgot about them. I had been up since early in the morning working in a warehouse moving things around. I was sweaty and covered in dirt when I sat down for dinner and remembered. "Oh dang!" ran into the room and saw I was deferred, incredibly happy I wasn't rejected. Make a list of things to bolster my application with, among them is to make a video. My friend Sally (Wharton '12 GO SALLY!) tells me her friend Wendi from MIT (and Pearland Alumni) wants to talk to me about colleges. Wendi and I sit down and talk about everything, and she tells me she really hopes I get in, that I seem like a great fit, and that she's surprised I was deferred. This makes me feel good. Talking with her inspires me to push the envelope of what I'm interested in. I make a phone call to the US Department of Energy:

"Hello my name is Chris Mills, I'm an applicant to MIT and passionate about the field of Alternative Fuels. If you have the time I have a few questions I'd love for you to answer for me. Thanks, have a good day"

Can't hurt right?

Two days later I get a phone call:

"Hi may I speak to Chris Mills?"

"Speaking"

"How are you doing Chris? My name is Neil Kirschner, Director of the US Department of Energy, are there a few questions I can answer for you?"

Oh.My.God.

January- Finish my video. My birthday comes around! I get the flu. January is bittersweet.

February- AMC comes around. I finish bartending school and am a licensed bartender. (That's how I'm paying for college). I start reading the blogs of Snively. Find him pretty funny. Post on his blog, instantly meet a billion other cool people like Justin, Shruthi, Viva, and others. MIT applicants are pretty cool folk.

March- Decisions come out soon, senior year is wrapping up, I feel happy to be alive and to have been a part of this whole experience.

Hooray Farmers!

2008-03-06T19:37:00.000-05:00

This looks terrible.

That picture was the first thing that came up when I googled the blog title. Gross. Good thing it's unrelated, what I'm really happy about is Farmer's Insurance. If you scroll a few blogs down you'll see that the Sarge and I were involved in an accident which has left him wounded. Today the claims adjuster came out to assess damages and give me a check. I did some preliminary research for how much it will cost me to fix my car. You ready?

$100

yup that's all it costs for a new fuel tank, the sad pieces of metal that serve as a bumper can just be hammered back straight and nothing else is broken, just scuffed. So the claims adjuster comes by and after his assesment he gives me the check:

$1002.33

HOLY SMOKES! That guy felt the need to replace EVERYTHING that was in any way scratched, bumper, exhaust, EVERYTHING. Plus the estimated labor (which I'll be doing myself). So in the end, I made $902.33 for being in a wreck.

Not too bad.

The Big Bang Theory

2008-03-05T22:48:00.001-05:00

It's a show on CBS, and it's freaking hilarious! I watched an episode on DVR tonight, I'll try and find some YouTube clips or something later, but first, Vector Calc!

How I Nearly Died

2008-03-05T18:07:00.000-05:00

No joke. I seriously nearly died yesterday. The cause? As much as I wish it were venomous pythons, terrorist organizations, explosions, fast cars, dangerous women, or one of the other awesome archetypes found in movies the culprit was:

That's right. Dum-Dums. Specifically the blue little bugger 2nd on the right. That's right. Infamous Blue Raspberry.
Anyway, as you may have experienced, occasionally the candy part becomes dislodged from the the stick part. No big deal right? most cases yes. Today:

No.

So aforementioned candy comes off stick, someone with my group tells a joke or says something funny and I laugh. Then I get that uncomfortable feeling you get when you sometimes inhale M&M's or bits of ice whole, you know that cold "whoosh" sort of feeling? well I opened my mouth to say "OhMaGah I can't believe I just swallowed that whole dum-dum!" but what came out was "........" Then I felt it in my throat, blocking off my air and making my eyes water. Then the horrific realization that I was:

Ok, if you've ever choked on like water, where you cough for a little bit and stuff, it's NOTHING like that. You can't breath, you can't talk, and then there's the realization that you could DIE. Meanwhile, my friends (we'll call them Janet and Eliza, not everyone likes their name on the internet) quickly realize I'm not fooling around, and that something is seriously wrong.

"Are you Ok?"

*head shake*

"OhMaGAWD HE'S CHOKING!"

*head nod*

"Do you want me to do the Heimlich?"

*head nod*

[Eliza assumes heimlich position]

"Get the nurse!"

[Janet runs like her last name is Rodriguez and "La Migra" have just pulled up to her taco stand]

So on about the fourth or fifth Heimlich, I can feel the little ball of death higher up in my throat, and finally it gives out with a "POP!" like a potato out a potato cannon. I wipe my eyes, take a few deep breaths and thank Eliza for saving my life. Shortly thereafter Nurse Redundancy proceeds to not listen to us tell her that Eliza successfully performed the Heimlich she learned from lifeguard training and says "well ok, I'm gonna show you something in case it ever happens again." To everyone's shock, the Heimlich! Thankfully at the end of the day, a sore throat was the only casualty.

X-Men in the White House

2008-03-03T20:19:00.001-05:00

Q.E.D

Ron Paul is Magneto

Math Problem of The Week

2008-03-03T19:52:00.000-05:00

Alright, so as you may or may not know, I tutor kids in math on monday afternoons. (this week, on tuesday, and thursday afternoons as well....oy). The particular boys I tutor today always have a "Problem of the Week" which is almost always some very simple or very tedious math problem. They are interesting though, and I usually try and find complex algebraic ways to solve them as opposed to "just countin'" (suck on that Keep-it-simple!). So todays problem looked like this:

How many squares are there?

So there are more than 64, and at first I just thought it would be multiples of 8 i.e. 1, 2, 4, 8. But then I looked at it and realized there could be 3x3 squares. or 5x5.

This was harder than I thought.

So here comes the whole point, the way I ended up thinking was that basically there are 8 types of squares. 1x1. 2x2. 3x3. 4x4. 5x5. 6x6. 7x7. 8x8. And I know there are 64 1x1 squares and there can only be 1 8x8. "That's funny 64 is 8² and 1 is 1², it's like the opposite."

*cartoonish lightbulb* "Maybe it's the sum of squares up to 8?"

1x1=8²=64 squares + 2x2=7²=49 squares + 3x3=6²=36 squares + 4x4=5²=25 squares + 5x5=4²=16 squares + 6x6=3²=9 squares + 7x7=2²=4 squares + 8x8=1²=1 squares

___________________________________

204 Squares

That's what I figured, and it sounded good to me, can anyone confirm if that is right? Else I'm gonna have to go back over there and pretend that's what he wanted to do and that I wanted to just count them.

The Sarge

2008-03-02T20:36:00.000-05:00

EDIT: ^The Sarge, for the uninformed.

Well Sarge has seen better days. Up and running for about 3 days following a faulty Distro cap and then:

SQEEEE! SMASH! BOOM! HISS! and other onomonapeia!

Rear-ended. (I found out the text message I sent to people "I just got hit by a car." was unintentionally misleading, and probably disappointing for a few.)

Lucky for me, here in the Lone Star State, if you ever hit the back of someone, ever, for ANY reason, it's automatically your fault. So I got the phone call, and yup his insurance is taking full responsibility. Plus, the settlement check is more than it cost to fix my car, so in the end, I guess it's not too bad. So Sarge should be up for another tour of duty by spring break.

Speaking of Spring Break, what am I going to do? No UIL means a week off for the first time in years, so I'm really at a loss for what I'll be using all this free time for. Also I hope I'll hear back from MIT about my admission decision.

Speaking of admission ("speaking of" is the only segway I know), I was reflecting about how hard I've worked on my application* and in general how much I look forward to going, and I constantly waver between feeling complacent with my application, and being a nervous wreck about it. Like the graph of y= 100Sin(t)/t as
t->0 the amount of variation increases exponentially, until finally, when that moment gets here (in 19 days according Snively-damus) it's undefinable.

Will it be joy? will it be disappointment? we don't know. (L'Hopital says it will be 100 but that doesn't really help us here...) Anyway, enough math jokes for one day. I'm off to work out and go to bed.

*supplement video included for your entertainment

frustration

2008-02-08T01:33:00.000-05:00

*Names have been changed to protect the innocent.

ugh. I normally try to avoid nasty blogs about venting and stuff but this one cannot be avoided. It feels like everyone I know is mad at me. [Ellen] is mad at me because we broke up, [Karen] is mad at me because she thinks that my car being broken made her lose hours at her job. My mom and Dad are mad at me because I haven't gotten my car fixed, [Jessica]'s mad at me because I didn't tell her everything about [Ellen] and I getting back together right away. The really hard part about all of it is that these are the people I was trying not to upset, and I was trying really freaking hard. I broke up with [Ellen] and afterward I felt bad because she said she felt like I abandoned her, hat I just left her without giving her the decency of a conversation about it. So we talked on the phone and I decided to give it all another shot to be fair. The truth is, I didn't have high hopes for our relationship, and I told her that, I asked what she thought would happen if we broke up again, and she said it would be easier for her to accept. Wednesday, my birthday, [Jessica] asked how my "[Ellen]-free" life was going while we were at dinner with my family at a restaurant. I didn't tell her that we were back together because :

1) we were in a resteraunt on my birthday.

2)I didn't think it was a good idea to start telling people we were back together when I anticipated that we would be seperate again soon. It seemed to me like that would be harder for [Ellen] and I to have to deal with.

So I avoided it that night by talking about the messages she'd sent me calling me names and yelling at me. That weekend [Ellen] and I got into a fight and I needed to talk to her about our relationship again, to tell her I didn't think it was going to work. Also that weekend, [Jessica] and Matt broke up, on Saturday. Saturday night I went to the musical show with her family and worked on my car. On sunday, [Ellen] came over really mad at me and told me it was through. All this week I've either been in bartending school or at school. [Jessica] and I only have theatre or lunch together. I certainly wasn't going to talk about it then, and I didn't want to have to be cut off. We were supposed to hang out Friday (doubtful now) so I figured it would come up then. Of course someone beat me to it, so now she thinks I've been hiding it from her, and doesn't believe that I was going to tell her tomorrow. [Karen] thinks that I'm intentionally needing the car so that she doesn't have a vehicle to use to go to work, and blames me when her boss says she doesn't want to inconvenience her while we have transportation issues. These issues of course are completely my fault, and my Mom and Dad are frustrated with me because I haven't been able to fix it yet.

I'M FREAKING SORRY! I'M UNDER A LOT OF FREAKING STRESS PLEASE TRY AND UNDERSTAND!

GUHSgh I feel so frustrated.

The Flu...

2008-01-28T00:09:00.001-05:00

...is terrible. That's the logical end to that sentence, and the reason why I've been markedly absent from the blogosphere. it sucks all the life out of you.

Back to School

2008-01-10T11:06:00.000-05:00

You know that great feeling you get when you're super-excited about someting, and then how annoyed you are with all the tedious things that stand in your way?

Well if you didn't catch on by the subtle mix of title and opening sentence, that's how I feel about school. Now I know the first day back from Christmas break has been scientifically proven to be the most miserable day of the year, but this week has been remarkably boring. Economics finals and project and then I'll be out of there for good though, that's the good thing.

My dad and I went and looked at guns one day. I went with him to a shooting match, shot one round, and actually ended up really loving it, so I've been looking at perhaps getting my own gun and doing a little bit of shooting. The particular gun is a .22 Ruger Mark III Target (I won't lie, saying gun names makes me feel like the manliest man on earth). It'd be pretty good for shooting targets I think.

My birthday is coming up soon!

The Prologue

2008-01-07T14:12:00.000-05:00

Well hello.

Possibly the worst introduction ever. Lemme try again.

Why, hello!

A bit more chipper but not quite there-ahh forget formality and I'll introduce ya the way I learned in Texas (bluntly). My names Chris (Charlemagne) and I have a Jeep (The Sarge). Together we cause mischief and mayhem in the sleepy town of Pearland TX. I'm a senior this year, and as such I've decided it's high time I get to bloggin'.

Whoa, nearly forgot to set the timer on my pizza rolls in the oven. That would've been sad.

So it's a new year, and a new semester, (and 23 days until my birthday!) and the possibilities are seemingly endless. I have to admit, I was let down by the winter weather this year. It can't seem to make up it's mind. Today it is overcast, 76 degrees, and windy. But I digress, on a more interesting note, this is the last semester of my high school career (the first time I heard someone refer to it like that I laughed, now.....not so much) and I'm really excited.

Take for example my christmas break. I've done surgery with the Sarge, gave him a bath, been to parties galore, slept in until 3, finished half the Physics 8.012 course from MIT OpenCourse, tinkered with inventions, drawn some pictures, spoken to various companies about alternative fuel, camped in Cuero, played with my new Wii (named after the sound you make playing with it) and found out that I really like shooting pistols and American Gladiator. Yea, I'm a bit of an odd kid.

So my attitude going back to school is illustrative. I can't wait for calculus (NERD), and also spring break in Hawaii (COOL). I'm excited about the second set of 8.012 (NERD), and working out in the gym (COOL). So I am in equilibrium, as everything else in the universe according to physics. I must be conserved, for every cool object there is an opposite and equal nerd object that brings me balance.

Well that appears to be quite a hello indeed. I'm delighted and excited about this blog and the rest of my life, and I could spend pages rambling about everything, but my pizza rolls are done!

Cheers,
~Charlemagne