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Once again I speak from the depths of building 4’s Athena cluster, where I have been sitting for the past half-hour frantically typing up our project proposal for 8.012. Though it is a “project” of the simplest caliber, I still felt a little thrill of excitement as I recited the typical sections in my mind, ingrained there over four years of science research, like a chant: purpose, hypothesis, materials, procedures, analysis, discussion, conclusion…! At least this time around there are no human subject forms =)

Schedules for MIT’s Independent Activities Period (IAP) of January 2009 are up online, and as I browse through the offerings, I am still wondering whether I should stay for the greater part of IAP or stay at home until mid-January. I will definitely be journeying back during the third week to give lectures/pep talks to my science research descendants at VRHS, and typing up my proposal today reminded me that I should prepare a “cheat sheet” of sorts for them, in addition to a typical lecture. If Mrs. Mann doesn’t think it too grand or flashy, I believe a Powerpoint presentation coupled with handouts would be a lovely way to present the material.

Hey now, just because I’ve graduated from Intel ISEF doesn’t mean I don’t still hold it extremely dear to my heart and hope that my school still kicks butt at Regionals - let’s get that sweepstakes award for the fourth year in a row, shall we?

Anyways, as it is now 1:50pm and my proposal is due in 10 minutes during recitation, I suppose I should get going. Until then, a toast to science, research, corrosive soda, and conservation of angular momentum! =D

Dear everyone who complains of inequality (yes socialists, I am looking at you):

In life, there are winners and there are losers.

Some of you will be winners in some aspects. Some of you will be winners in other aspects.

Some of you will just be losers.

So stop complaining; life’s not fair and you need to deal with it.

1. Do laundry.. or buy more jeans…
2. Redeem savings @ the COOP since I keep on forgetting my number
3. Make plans for IAP (take a class? when is the schedule going to be out?)
4. Write up tip sheets for science fair participants @ VR
5. Make 4-year plan in easily editable format
6. Relax and read one of those 7 books I bought in the past month…
7. Colourcode all SnM Xmas album songs (!!)
8. eBay the stuff we got off of Reuse
9. Convert one of the CRT monitors into a fishtank and buy fish for the lounge
10. Pass all classes this semester (!!!!!!!)
11. Decorate room for Xmas
12. Design Next House site
13. Write letters to teachers
14. Ask father about summer internship @ IBM
15. Buy dress for fall formal (which is tomorrow…)
16. … actually attend the formal with said dress
17. Put together a resume
18. Grocery shopping - there is no more soymilk!

Sorry to have to present to you a laundry list, but when you’re in an Athena cluster and you’re putting off doing 18.01 p-sets, and there are a ton of things in your mind you need to put down in writing… well, this is how you do it! Also, look at what I have~! I believe this is the book that my father recommended me..?

After a terribly stressing week consisting of molecular orbital theory and hybridization, fundamental theorems of calculus, and a killer 8.012 p-set in which we had to calculate the incident flux of the sun on Boston (taking into account the day/night cycle, the inclination of the Earth, the scattering of the clouds, the CO in the air, and the fact that there was an elephant in the way other factors)… well, let’s just say I was glad that it was finally the weekend.

Yesterday, after turning in our 8.012 p-set just minutes before the deadline at 4pm, Lindsey, Chao, Jason, and I hobbled back over to the student center to grab something to eat. The huge banner stating, “Welcome MIT Families!” was enough to make me smile, and the sight of my father was even better =) I introduced him to my friends and we ate a late lunch/early dinner together (while discussing linear algebra and Python programming, but I won’t bore you with the nitty-gritty details of how fellow engineers interact). After a small adventure to Random Hall to retrieve my keys (long story), I headed back to Next House to dress and then headed out to Kresge for our annual Family Weekend concert, where MITSO performed an amazing rendition of Punkie Night (IMO, it was much more energetic and fun than at our concert last Friday).

This morning, my father dropped by my humble abode Next House to deliver me…

… A CARE PACKAGE!! I love getting stuff from Texas; not only is it cheaper, it’s nice to know that these things came from my house, where I live. Just a little sentimental connection, I suppose =) The rest of the bag included a poncho (so I won’t have to get soaked again while biking through the rain, thank god), a ton of sweatshirts and turtlenecks, random odds and ends, a picture+frame of me when I was… erm. I had been instructed to guess, so I estimate I was about 14 in the picture? No idea.

So of course I was naturally delighted. My father also handed me some tweaks for my AT&T phone so that it stops trying to con me into connecting to MediaNET (thus charging me digital S&H for unwilling data transfer), and after I took a shower to freshen up, we headed out to MIT Press Bookstore for their annual Loading Dock Sale. I ended up buying six large books for only $35 - they weren’t kidding when they said “drastically reduced” - some of these books originally retailed for over $30 each, and today I managed to all of them for under $7 each for hardbacks and $5 for softcovers!

Two of the books are related to my ISEF project from last year, over the physics of music and how it can be harnessed to improve cognitive skills =) The Musimathics textbook is actually very over my head (it includes Fourier transforms!), but I assume I should be able to understand the information… once I actually sit down and pore over it with the aid of multivariable and diff.eq textbooks. In case you can’t see clearly, in my stash are:

• A History of Modern Computing, by Paul E. Ceruzzi
• Musimathics volume 2, by Gareth Loy (unfortunately, volume 1 was nowhere to be seen)
• The Cognition of Basic Musical Structures, by David Temperley
• The Internet and American Business, ed. William Aspray and Paul E. Ceruzzi
• The New Media Reader, ed. Noah Wardrip-Fruin and Nick Montfort
• The View from the Center of the Universe, by Joel R.Primack and Nancy Ellen Abrams

Note that some of the books were originally $52…! I got quite the discount, hehe ;) and you wanna know what else I got?

That’s right. I got not one, but TWO shirts in one day! The one on the left was free, given to me by Campaign for Students (which I totally support), and the one on the right is a family weekend shirt, which matches one that my father also got =) It’s actually pretty amusing, despite the fact that MIT seemingly can’t spell…

… oh come on, Engineers. Despite not having to write elaborate liberal arts papers like our neighbours, I am sure that correct spelling might help your research papers earn some scholarships, grants, and awards in the future =P