A five minute drive, or – more commonly – a twelve minute bike ride from my house, Lake Michigan slices through the countryside and stretches west (on all but the clearest days) as far as the eye can see. The resulting shoreline draws tourists from all around the tristate area … but mostly from Chicago. [...]
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This made the rounds on the internet a few days ago. For the last three days, I’ve gotten up in the morning and showered using option number two. I need every bit of help waking up I can get.
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I’m hardly the first to inform anyone: forty years ago, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin ScD ’63 stepped onto the surface of the moon, snatching the top prize in the Space Raceand placing the astronaut firmly ahead of the classic fireman as the dream occupation of every child. It was all over the mainstream media [...]
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Being an unabashed consumer (in the economic and biological senses), receiving new stuff makes for an exciting day – exciting enough to make me wonder if George Carlin had it right with the meaning of life (relatively clean for Carlin, and hilarious): So, what am I excited about? First, I got my notebook for class [...]
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Yesterday, after about 48 hours of drying, I was quite confident there was no more moisture left in my terribly misfortunate camera. I had waited two days – longer than I really thought necessary – because I knew that pushing current through the delicate circuits while still wet would in all likelihood kill it dead. [...]
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Friends and loved ones, we gather here to recognize the probable demise of something very dear: my Nikon D40. While the circumstances are undoubtedly tragic, a jazz funeral seems more fitting given the bang it went out with. Last evening, sunset neared, and it was overcast and dreary, but interestingly enough the sky actually seemed [...]
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Freshman Essay Evaluation: passed (yay!), leading to HASS-D Lottery: due very soon. I have yet to start picking classes. The Clapper: I have one. Hopefully I’ll write about it soon. The lightning radius of death entry: I just finished, after about two months in progress. Check it out. 18.03 Advanced Standing Exam psets: ~30 left [...]
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Before we begin, intuition check: if you’re swimming in the water and lightning strikes nearby, is it better to be in freshwater or saltwater? No cheating. Some weeks ago, I found myself sitting in a Dairy Queen with a pen, a notebook, and some imspiration – it was physics time. Note: several months have actually [...]
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Last weekend, I drove down to Naperville, IL to watch a drum corps competition. (If you’re confused and unawares, drum corps are elite college-age marching bands consisting of 150 brass, percussion, and color guard members. They compete all summer and possess an indescribable level of awesomeness. By definition, I can’t explain it, and neither can [...]
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With the preliminaries of logging into Athena taken care of, we can move on to Zephyr itself. Note: if you are unsure of how to log into Athena, refer back to part one for an introduction. Zephyr Zephyr is Athena’s messaging system. Conventional wisdom says that Zephyr is difficult to explain – it’s better experienced, [...]
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