Midterms came and went

So...it HAS been a while since I last posted.  I can't say I'm really sorry for the long gap...well, I could give you one of those little kid apologies when your parents make you tell your sister you're sorry...but you're not sorry, you just want ice cream.  Anywho, the week leading up to midterms was very time consuming for me just because a number of things were culminating all at once (LFM hockey registration and domestic plant trek committee meetings)...and after that my busyness led right into midterm week.  So for me, midterms were not that bad.  I didn't spend too many hours studying, but I have been keeping up with my economics and financial accounting homework, so for me studying was just a bit of review.  Some people went insane on the studying, making intricate cheat sheets with tiny writing (financial accounting allowed 1 sheet of paper, econ was not so nice).  All I can say is I hope those people got As...cause I did pretty well and the text on my cheat sheet was readable from 3 feet away.  The point is, the tests were not that stressful and there was no homework those weeks, so the workload was not THAT bad.  Some of the second years had horror stories for us at the beginning of the semester...but I'm not passing on any horror stories.  This continues on with the theme that the workload is as bad as you let it be.  You can get your schoolwork done and still have time in the day for yourself...or you can take on 100 extra activities and run from one thing to another.  The choice is yours.

So after midterms is SIP.  So if there is one thing I have absorbed about MIT it is that they LOVE they days off.  MIT takes every imaginable holiday off and once a month we get a day off (anti-suicide day..apparently MIT students are stressed).  So in the MIT tradition, after mid-terms the Sloan school takes a whole week off.  Sure, they give it a fancy name, Sloan Innovation Period (SIP), and sure they require you too attend seminars during the week...but for most people it is just a sweet week of vacation.  I know a number of people went on fun exotic trips but yours truly is pretty lame, so I just sat around the house.  I did go on a long a strenuous 20 mile hike the first Saturday of the week.  A couple of the rugged outdoorsy-type LFMers put together a hike along the Presidential range in New Hampshire and they made the mistake of inviting everyone in LFM (j/k).  I have not been hiking in quite some time, so I took them up on their offer.  I wont lie, the damn hike was tough for all of us, but I was in the worst shape so I was the "herbie" of the group.  Read "The Goal", you'll understand.  The hike begins with an 1,100 meter assent and for those of you other non-hikers out there, that is bloody hard.  Checkout the elevation profile and path of the hike in the pictures below.

[caption id="attachment_203" align="alignnone" width="150" caption="Elevation Profile"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_204" align="alignnone" width="150" caption="Hike Path"][/caption]

The terrain was very tough (extremely rocky and tough on the knees even on the way down) and to top that off, it was icy on the summits.  In the end, I was in such bad shape that we split up into two groups and so that I could bypass some of the out-and back summits...so i did not walk the entire path from the picture.  I've attached some of Amy's pretty pictures from the hike.

[caption id="attachment_211" align="alignnone" width="150" caption="We started at 4:30 AM...very dark"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_212" align="alignnone" width="150" caption="Here you can see me trying not to throw up while the rest of the group enjoys the light stroll up 1,100 meters"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_213" align="alignnone" width="150" caption="Needless to say, it was pretty up there"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_214" align="alignnone" width="150" caption="More pretty"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_215" align="alignnone" width="150" caption="Post lunch...and on the way DOWN...I look less like death"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_216" align="alignnone" width="150" caption="A good example of the tough icy rocks"][/caption]

Back to SIP week...I did have to go to my engineering classes, but my Engineering load on its own is a light schedule.  Quick Fact: LFMers are not required to attend SIP seminars because we still have our engineering classes going on...nice.  With the rest of my week I watched a large assortment of movies including, but not limited to, Braveheart, Patton, A Bridge Too Far, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (the live action one), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II (the one with Vanilla Ice), 300, Harry Potter 1 - 5 (I cant wait until July 17 2009) , Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, and a few more movies that are escaping my memory right now.  What an awesome week.  I was not sitting around idly during these movies...I was working on my Halloween costume.  My costume has become a bit of a tragedy.  More to come on this later, but the point is it HAD potential...until things fell apart.

Why not LFM?

IM Foosball

So I played on the Sloan Intramural Football team today.  My core teammate Chris helped organized the team and he talked me into participating.  Originally we were going to have an A and a B team (I am 100% B league) but we went from 30 people to 10 people when it came time to play so now we only have an A team.  Overall it was fun, we won, and personally I got my butt kicked.  I forgot my cleats today and the grass was a bit wet...but that was only a small portion of my butt kicking.  Mostly it was my lack of talent, size, or physical ability.  Think Rudy without the heart to captivate America and gross $22,750,363 domestically.



I'm a good team player though and I don't mind riding the pine.  There is just no room in football for a small guy who is slow and can't catch.  The surprising thing about flag football at MIT is that it IS physical.  Flag football at UF is more or less no contact.  O-Linemen can get in the way of rushing defensemen, but they have to keep their arms down so really they are just big pylons.  AT MIT pretty much anything goes.



Don't get me wrong, it wasn't Necessary Roughness out there (Staring Scott Bakula, Sinbad, and of course Kathy Ireland)...though we were playing iron man football.

Overall we were more or less civil, but who knows what will happen when we play a super competitive team.  We might stand a chance though because one of our big guys is a former Navy Seal (super badass) and he more or less looks like the Hulk, we have a speedster who played track at Georgia Tech, and we're lead by a former Army football player.



Again I will reinforce that I was sapposed to be on the B team with the foreigners who have never played football before.  Anyway, back to the physicalness, the refs at the games are just players from the team playing before or after you...so they are not really in control of the game.  Like I said, who knows what happens when the serious contenders get on the field.

Ghost Busters said "Don't cross the streams"

The LFM class of 09 is back in town for their Mid-Stream Review.  This review is a great chance for the returning LFMs to discuss how their internship is going, reconnect with their class, interview with potential companies for post-school jobs, meet the new class of LFMs, etc.

I've learned most of my life lessons from Ghost Busters, so I would like to look at this in Ghost Busters terms.

Background Life Lesson Example 1: Winston tells Ray, "Ray, when someone asks you if you're a god, you say YES!"  Obvious life lesson...because if you say no, Gozer tries to kill you.

[caption id="attachment_156" align="alignnone" width="150" caption="Gozer is scary. It/He/She turns people into dogs."][/caption]

Background Life Lesson Example 2: Ladies love a pimp ride.  I give you the Eco 1...need I say more.

[caption id="attachment_143" align="alignnone" width="150" caption="Back when they knew how to pimp rides"][/caption]

Case at Hand: The 09 LFM class meeting the 10 LFM class...or to keep with the Ghost Busters analogy...crossing the streams.

[caption id="attachment_160" align="alignnone" width="150" caption="Note how carefully these two Chost Busters avoid crossing the streams as they attempt to apprehend Slimer"][/caption]

The movie Ghost Busters clearly teaches the extreme risk/reward potential of crossing the streams.

The Risk: As described by Egon Spengler, "Try to imagine all life as you know it stopping instantaneously and every molecule in your body exploding at the speed of light."

[caption id="attachment_157" align="alignnone" width="127" caption="I'm not sure if this means a nuclear explosion"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_158" align="alignnone" width="150" caption="or a black hole"][/caption]

Maybe it is both.  Either way, it sounds bad.

The Reward: You might tap into the power required to explode a Destructor who has taken the form of a giant Stay Puft Marshmallow man.  The real bonus of taking down a giant Stay Puft Marshmallow Man is all of the free smores.  I estimate that the city of New York got enough marshmallow from this incident to make 341,768,480 smores (assuming of course that they could find 113,922,827 Hershey Bars and 5,340,132 boxes of graham crackers).

[caption id="attachment_159" align="alignnone" width="150" caption="Don't worry, I showed my work"][/caption]

As for the two LFM classes, we started to mingle this week but our camping trip set for this weekend has been canceled due to rainy weather.  This may be a bad sign...only time will tell.  The two classes are having a party this Friday and hopefully some type of fun bonding event this Saturday.  If you reading this Blog after Sunday...the world did not end...and hopefully someone made smores.

Let's Play Dress Up

This past Saturday night (after Florida walloped Tennessee) we had an awesome costume party.  The theme was G.I. Joes and Barbie Hos.  Officially the party was for Orietta's birthday and LFM represented well.  I am not very good about reading my emails thoroughly so I did not find out that it was a costume party until a couple of hours before it started...so the wife and I were scrambling.  I went as Snake-Eyes.



Here is what Wikipedia has to go say about Snake-Eyes:

"Snake-Eyes is the code name of a member of the G.I. Joe team. Much of his history and information, including his real name, place of birth, as well as most everything else about him, have remained classified throughout all depictions of his origin. All that is known for certain about his military standing is that he holds the rank of U.S. Army Sergeant First Class (E-7) and has undergone Drill Instructor training. He is also the team's resident hand-to-hand combat instructor. Very little else about his past has been revealed."

Basically...I went as a bad ass.

Here is my outfit (keep in mind I had an hour to throw it together):  Basic blank pants, black shoes (I wish I had boots!), a long sleeve black t-shirt turned inside out, a black undershirts tied on my head as a ninja mask (see this you-tube clip to understand what I am talking about), black gloves, my ski-goggles, and two guitar hero straps for my military suspenders.

Weapons: I created a knife out of duct tape and cardboard (I have real knives but I did not want to carry them on the T dressed as I was) and I rocked dual Hasbro Nerf N-Strike Maverick Blaster plus additional ammo.

As for the wife, she went as Barbie stewardess.  Again, given the limited time I think she did quite well.  She had a tray with drinks (she made tips running beer out to everyone and paid for our cab ride home!), snacks, and barf bags.

All-in-all a good night as seen by the additional photos below.  All photos were stolen from Becca.  Check out her blog!

[caption id="attachment_146" align="alignnone" width="150" caption="Lets say this is Duke and obviously I am Snake-Eyes"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_148" align="alignnone" width="150" caption="Snake-Eyes and Barbie (she provided the photos, thank her)"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_149" align="alignnone" width="150" caption="The hosts, Erin and Orietta"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_150" align="alignnone" width="150" caption="I don't know if it counts as dress up if you were in the military"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_151" align="alignnone" width="112" caption="Barbie Stewardess"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_152" align="alignnone" width="112" caption="In case you were wondering, the Navy GI Joe was called Shipwreck"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_153" align="alignnone" width="112" caption="I think the German was protesting GI Joe. The whole WWII thing. Disturbing either way."][/caption]