Never Say That Again
Ever heard a phrase that made you absolutely cringe inside? The most obvious offender this week was “Asante Samuel signs with Eagles,” but there are far more. Think of anything that Howard Stern says, most of what President Bush says, some of what your parents say, and a little of what your “over-sharing” friends say. Here, for your reading pleasure, is a list of the phrases that have come up in conversations in the past seven days that I really wish hadn’t. If you have ever used these phrases, please, please, PLEASE never say them again.
Not Even Fit For a Last Meal
MIT food is a lot like Michael Bolton’s music — it’s kind of funny how bad it is at first, but after an extremely short while it gets old and eventually kills you. While part of this is due to the unavoidable nature of college food, MIT is noticeably lacking in one department: real, all-you-can-eat dining halls.
Woes of a Premed
This past December, on a lonely afternoon in the building 12 Athena Cluster, I finally decided what I wanted to do with my life. I filled out my Prehealth Advisor Request Form, available as a PDF on the Careers Office Web page. “The MIT Careers Office (MITCO) is now accepting prehealth advisor requests for individuals wishing to enter medical or other health profession schools in Fall 2009,” the Web site stated. Perfect, I thought, this is when I’m planning on entering! I spent two days writing eight essays for the application — not an invigorating experience, considering it was winter break. I filled out the GPA and course requirements form, and indicated I was interested in applying to MD/PhD programs. Then I addressed the envelope, sealed it with love, and placed it in the mailbox. (There’s no way to apply online).
Campus Life Special Edition: Rants and Raves
Let’s be honest, February sucked. Here at MIT, we were subjected to absolutely miserable weather and the resumption of hell, which the administration innocently refers to as “classes.” In the real world, or at least the world outside MIT, we witnessed nightmares such as the Patriots losing the Super Bowl, Britney and Jamie Lynne spiraling downward faster than anyone thought possible, and, oh yeah — numerous foreign and domestic government issues. We can’t remember a time when the collective student body sported more frowns or played more emo music, and included in this sad state of affairs is <i>The Tech</i>’s staff.
Top 5 Albums to Blow Out Your Eardrums
1. To Live and Shave in L.A., “The Wigmaker in Eighteenth-Century Williamsburg”
Ask A TA
This week features TAs asking TAs questions because you undergrads don’t ever write in. You also never show up to recitation. You think we like having recitations just so we can monologue to ourselves? Seriously, if you have any questions about life or, hell, even the midterm, write to us at <i>AskaTA@tech.mit.edu</i>. Putting it off until the night before won’t be fun for either of us.
Quotes from the Facebook Group: Overheard At MIT
To submit quotes, join the Facebook group!
Figuring Out Fashion
We here at Figuring Out Fashion know how hard mornings can be. Mornings are a time for the ring of a monotonous alarm clock, grumbling showers, and the unpleasant jolt of cold air in our faces upon leaving our dorms. Dragging ourselves to class is far from an easy task, and when combined with brushing teeth and eating breakfast, the challenges of the typical morning seem insurmountable. Most mornings, the last thing on our minds is fashion. Yet, we found it was no coincidence that the mornings we dressed well and felt good about ourselves led to our best days. In the interests of our own future happiness and that of our audience, we’ve collected a set of morning tips from our most stylish friends and acquaintances. The plan? Doing just one of these every day to make our lives more positive and fashionable.
Through My Eyes
Murder. Genocide. Political unrest. Displacement from homes. Here at MIT, most of us are fortunate to say we have never experienced these griefs first hand. Most of us are even so fortunate to say that we do not have close friends or loved ones who have experienced these horrors first hand in Sudan, Iraq, Haiti, or even in more stable locations like Kenya and South Africa. However, with MIT’s diverse student body, growing focus on international development, and increasing number of students traveling to countries all around the world, events occurring in locations hundreds of miles away are coming one step closer to our lives and our hearts.
It’s a Big, Big World
I returned to the United States with a penchant for tea. On late Buenos Aires afternoons, I’d join my family for mate, an Argentinian drink made from a holly-like herb. Each member of the house would take turns drinking the hot water infused with herbs from a hollowed gourd using a metal straw. After coming home from classes in Bangalore, my host mother would ask me if I’d like to “take tea” and would proceed to create her chai masala concoction of tea, milk, and spoonfuls of sugar. In Beijing and Shanghai, my hosts would serve tea after meals. While waiting for the tea to brew, they’d douse the cups with hot water to pre-wash, pre-heat, and pre-rinse them. Throughout our hour long conversations, they’d graciously pour and refill my mini teacup with fresh tea.
Brouhaha Rhythm
People have declared for ages that, for a man to be a proper boyfriend, he has to be willing to watch an occasional chick flick with his significant other from time to time. As a point of policy, I’ve responded by proclaiming how wonderful it is to be dating a woman who doesn’t even like chick flicks, thereby negating the cookie-cutter advice. Yet I’ve recently come to the horrifying realization that I may be gravitating more towards the genre than I thought I would.
Life Lemmas
A few years ago when I was 18 and moving out to university, my mom gave me an iron. Don’t get me wrong, practical gifts are great and by no means am I ungrateful. I’m sure you can imagine every 18 year old male, bags packed, shipping out to the big city, dreams of receiving an iron to go with that kiss from his mother. The truth is I don’t remember using an iron in the first 18 years of my life. Why not just keep it that way for another 18? It’s not like one needs an iron to navigate the tribulations of frosh days. Rather, one could dream up half a dozen more vital items: a coffee machine, a hockey stick or a gross of Mr. Noodles. I contained my thoughts, graciously accepting the iron wondering if I would ever actually use the thing. So it sat in my dorm, unopened for months, as a bookend holding up our friend Michael Spivak’s <i>Calculus</i>.
Figuring out Fashion
As spring semester kicks off, long hours in freezing classrooms and psets galore are bringing us back to earth after the good times of IAP. We all would love to show off the fruits of our holiday bargain shopping, but the cold is forcing us to cover up with the usual MIT sweatshirts and baggy sweatpants. Isn’t it frustrating that cute, affordable clothes in the winter seem to come only in short sleeves?
Quotes from the Facebook Group: Overheard At MIT
Quotes from the Facebook Group: Overheard At MIT
Top 5 Jazz Ballads to Put on While Engaging in Sweet Baby-Making Love
Top 5 Jazz Ballads to Put on While Engaging in Sweet Baby-Making Love
It’s a Big, Big World
Here is a list of phrases that I wrote to describe Bangalore immediately after returning to the United States: meandering cows, trash, spit bins, extended families, the head nod with multiple meanings, auto rickshaws, colorful saris, noise, outdoor eating, markets, no maps, two wheelers, temples, men holding hands, <i>masala dosas</i> (a Southern Indian omelet), spices, bucket showers, squat toilets, hard mattresses, crazy traffic with underutilized lanes, broken infrastructure, and learning to cross the street without getting killed.
Brouhaha Rhythm
There are an awful lot of student organizations available at MIT, but for a school as unusual as ours, they start to seem a little boilerplate. I suppose I’m not really an authority on student clubs here, since the only thing I’m a card-carrying member of is Blockbuster, but even so, I can’t help but feel like we could be weirder and more distinctive — no offense meant to the Tiddlywinks team.
Figuring Out Fashion
It’s Valentine’s Day! People are in love, chocolate boxes line the streets, and all you see is pink and red (not that we’re complaining). Yet, it isn’t all fun and games. For many of us not so caught up in the rush, this is a dreaded time filled with forced reflection on both single-hood and the dreary rut of longtime couple-dom. So how can we here at Figuring out Fashion be of any help? Well, there’s really only one way to cure the V-day blues — a makeover! After doing some exploring, we came up with an affordable plan to reinvent your look and spirit this weekend.
Quotes from the Facebook Group: Overheard At MIT
“She wants to spend money on me. I mean, it’s not that she’s senile …”<i>—Unknown</i>