No Name Blog

So, here is a general catch-all entry for the past few weeks.

Starting with the Ig Nobels. The Burton-Conner student government allocates money every year to an IFAF to try and encourage interfloor bonding. Floors are allowed to get together and do stuff, and the dorm will pay for it. The activities are also known as IFAFs.

This year, one of our IFAFs was attending the Ig Nobel Prize Award Ceremony with Conner 2.

I don’t have photos, but suffice it to say that we had a good time. Highlights included an appearance by Benoît Mandelbrot, a spokesperson from the IAEA and 5 or 6 Nobel laureates demonstrating the sound of nails across a chalkboard, and a paper airplane hitting one of the Ig Nobel recipients in the head (throwing paper airplanes onto the stage is a traditional part of the ceremony).

Another fun thing from a while back: famous people tend to come to MIT for various reasons. For example, Steve Wozniak came to promote a new book, and I got a signed copy of said book. Now I just have to find time to read it. The founder of Pandora was also here.

Also, The Mythbusters are coming in about a week and a half, and some friends and I are going to go see them. Honestly, we’re not even sure why they’re coming, but it should be fun.

In addition, there are multiple recruitment sessions every week from big name companies, like Google or EA. And they usually bring food and/or swag.

For a brief excursion on classes…

I realized today that one of my 6.042 professors co-founded Akamai. Most people probably don’t know what Akamai is, but basically, they deliver big content like videos and music for lots of big companies, including, for example, the iTunes Music Store. And that’s really cool that he’s my professor.

We also had our first test in there last Wednesday. However, I completely accidentally slept through my recitation section on Friday, so I haven’t gotten the test back yet. I should tomorrow.

3.091 is going well. Sadoway’s lectures are still great shows, which makes them easier to sit through. However, we have another test coming up next Wednesday, and that makes me a little nervous.

We just got to Faraday’s Law of Induction in 8.02. Basically, it’s the AP Physics C curriculum, and I don’t understand why we don’t get credit for that. I got an 89 on the first test, which is satisfying, not to mention well above average. I guess having had the material before gives you a slight advantage. Not to mention a year of experience playing with vectors. As a class, it basically takes the form of interrupted lecture, which I think is unfortunate, because in theory, TEAL-style learning should work with the right teachers.

We’re covering techniques for using recombinant DNA in 7.012. I know that this was material I knew really well when I was in AP Bio, and it’s not significantly harder now, but I’m having a slightly difficult time with it, so one of the sophomores who’s a biology major is going to help me with the problem set, and I should be fine by our next test.

And that’s schoolwork.

Like I mentioned earlier, a few friends and I travelled down to New York for Columbus Day weekend.

We went into town on Sunday, planning to see a Broadway play that night. However, the interesting piece is that we are college students, so we were looking for tickets that were less than about $35-$40 or so, and finding tickets in that range is just not easy for Broadway. In fact, we quite literally walked from 42nd Street to 52nd Street, stopping at every theater we saw, and couldn’t find tickets that we liked. We checked the TKTS booth, too—the selection was really bad.

In hindsight, showing up in NYC on a holiday weekend was probably not the wisest idea, but at least we learned something. We took a regional train out to where Becky lives and basically relaxed for the evening (although not before working on homework for a little while).

On Monday, I had this theory that we would be able to get tickets for a Daily Show taping for that night. I requested the tickets about a week and a half in advance.

In hindsight, maybe I should live tickets to someone else in the future, because I seem to have bad luck with them.

So, we ended up caving, raising our ticket price cap, and getting tickets for Avenue Q. They were center of the very back row of the balcony, but the seats are very steeply sloped, so the view was great. And basically, it was amazing. One of the best parts was that Rick Lyon was on Broadway again. He created the roles of Nicky and Trekkie Monster, and he does them both very, very well.

And with that said, it’s really late, and I have class really early tomorrow, so I’ll finish bringing you up to date later. But probably soon.

Nothing like extended holidays in honor of people who were total jerks. MIT gives us two days off. I guess their policy is one day off every month, and two off every two. Whatever it is, I’ll take it.

This week sucked for just about everyone on campus; most classes gave tests in anticipation of the four-day weekend. For me that included 7.012, 3.091, and 8.02.

3.091: the class so far has covered some relatively basic material: stoichiometry, photoelectric effect, De Broglie hypothesis, etc. While none of this stuff is actually simple, the applications we used in class basically involved applying an equation or two. Also, two years’ worth of old tests were available online. Also, we can use a periodic table, a table of constants, and an 8.5×11 sheet of paper with whatever we want written on both sides. All of these things mean that several people did well, including me. The class average was higher than in previous years. Personally, I made a few minor mistakes and got a 96.

7.012: so far, we’ve done the biochemistry and basic genetics portions of introductory biology. It’s mostly been material I’ve seen in AP Bio, but the biochemistry is significantly more difficult. Unfortunately, the test was heavy on the biochemistry stuff, and it was harder than I had hoped. I think I did OK, although not great, but I won’t find out until Wednesday or Thursday.

8.02: electricity. Almost all of it: Coulomb’s Law, Gauss’s Law, and capacitors. No circuits yet, though. It felt like an easy test, but I got a a 74, so I’m not entirely sure what I did wrong. I’m hoping it was little things where I just didn’t pay attention, but I should find out for sure on Wednesday. Incidentally, the class average was a 70.

I’m not sure how well I can use these as indications of future performance, because all of the tests were either easy and/or covered material I’ve seen in previous years. I expect that the 6.042 test in two weeks and the next 3.091 test will give me a better sense of things, since 6.042 is basically a sophomore class and 3.091 is moving into new material.

In any case, to enjoy the four-day weekend, some friends and I are going to New York for a few days. We leave in just over an hour, so I need to go and finish getting packed.