No, I haven't died. The gap between my last post and this one is due to my annual hosed-ness break, generally caused by Orientation and fraternity Rush. Graduate Orientation was interesting. Aside from meeting some new people and getting amazing free food (and alcohol), the graduate deans wasted no time telling us that the next however many years would be a struggle. Thanks a lot guys. It was a stunning contrast to what they told us as undergrads. Speaking of undergrads: since I was mostly busy with old people stuff I had very little time to meet freshman. But enough of that came during the following week...
Rush isn't over yet, but the meat of it went very well. Sure, there were some mess-ups, but they took place behind the scenes and everything went smoothly as far as the freshman were concerned. As the result of our efforts, Rho Alpha's pledge count currently stands at 11 and can only get higher. Rush officially ends tomorrow, but we plan on pushing until all bids are accounted for.
As for classes? I'm taking 16.346 (Astrodynamics) and 2.152 (Nonlinear control system design). How's this for a bamboozling moment: Prof. Battin, who teaches .346, has taught it since 1961. He's a major part of the reason why MIT was awarded the first ever Apollo contract by NASA, and his list of former students includes Buzz Aldrin and two other Apollo astronauts. Yeah, it's only slightly intimidating. .152 seems good so far too. And when I'm not in class, I'm usually at Draper working on my project that has to be shipped out to Boeing/Andrews/NASA on MONDAY. Turns out, my summer project that was designed to "get my feet wet" has turned into the core of the current work the team is presenting. No pressure?
That's a quick rundown of my life over the past few weeks. But a lot has happened around the world that I haven't had time to comment on, so perhaps I'll throw my thoughts into the ring now...
Politics--
Again, this is a subject I've avoided since the primaries ended. In fact, the only part of the Democratic convention I watched was Obama's acceptance speech (drink to hope and change!), and I saw nothing from the Republicans. Why? Because I don't care to see the partisans celebrating under the guise of "nominating a candidate." It's pretty much just a feel-good party for those in attendance, if you ask me.
But what did catch my attention was John McCain's VP pick--Ms. Sarah Palin. This is such an a interesting move on his part. He counteracts the historical nature of Obama's candidacy and brings in all of the angry Hillary supporters by putting a woman on the ticket. The irony is that the lady single-handedly negates all of the ridiculous "Obama doesn't have experience" arguments, but her selection has given McCain a massive boost in the polls. In other words, the Republicans totally exploited the idiocy of the average American and it's appearing to work. As unfortunate as it is, I am not that surprised.
But idiocy of the masses aside, one thing that is driving me insane is how the McCain camp is asking the media to stop picking on and scrutinizing Palin. Seriously? After tearing Obama (and to an extent, Biden) apart, you really expect your lady to be left alone? Give me a break. If you're gonna start a fight, be sure you can take a punch when it comes back to you*.
(*Granted, this is not to say I approve of all these headlines about Palin's pregnant kids, people who hated her in Alaska, and her own crazy preacher. But if the media is going to drill Obama in equally as politically-irrelevant issues, then it's only doing its job in giving Palin the same treatment.)
Hurricanes--
All I want to say on this is that I'm very happy that Gustav avoided New Orleans. The last thing those people needed was another monstrous storm while the mess from Katrina is still being cleaned up.
Technology--
I'm a fan of Google Chrome, and it will probably become my default browser as soon as it's able to handle certificates. Also, did you hear about the new iPod Touch released today?
Baseball--
Argh. This is a topic I'd rather not talk about. I hardly watched a game at all over the past two weeks. However, the sport went on, and during it:
- The Yankees pushed themselves farther out of contention
- The Twins blew the opportunity to wreck havoc on their road trip and gain a sizable lead in the Central
- The Rays went on a slide as the Red Sox continued to mash at home. As a result? They're on the verge of taking first in the AL East...
(But the irony is that turning off baseball before October will only extend the painful offseason. I just can't win!)
Well, at least Jeter tied Babe Ruth on the all-time Yankee hit list the other day. And also, replay for homeruns is in session, and coincicentally Arod was the subject of its first use. Who saw that one coming, eh?
Wow that was a lot. I suppose I'll have to keep updates more regular from here on out.
