Vector Gloves!!

Captain's blog, stardate 2888.3....
So yesterday it was cold out and my friend was wearing some gloves she bought at the Coop. If you don't know much about MIT, the Coop is our campus store that sells merchandise with "MIT" written all over it, textbooks, and a ridiculous number of Star Wars and Star Trek books, which I always stare enviously at for a few minutes, wishing I had the money to buy them all and the time to read them all. If you do know a lot about MIT, that's still what the Coop is.

So anyway, these gloves had little plastic-y patterns on the palms to help the wearer grip things, and said plastic-y patterns took the form of circles with Xs inside of them.

Physics time! (Yaaay!)

This is how we denote a vector pointing into the page.



This is what the pattern on the gloves looks like. It's just like having vectors pointing into your hands!! Obviously I had to go buy some. (I'm such a sterotypical teenager.)

With my new gloves, I can pretend to be an electric flux superhero, absorbing the electric field into my amazing power gloves, storing it in magic capacitors inside the gloves, and then discharging the capacitors to shoot lightning from my hands! It would be more useful if one of the gloves had the symbol for vectors pointing out of the page, so I could shoot lightning without having to build up a stored electric field first, but oh well. Every superhero needs some sort of flaw. (I plan to make a comic book about this as soon as I buy a decent pencil sharpener.) And anyway, the power to absorb electric fields might be more useful, because that way you can get rid of any Force lightning that happens your way, and eventually fire it back at the Sith attacking you.

Oh, and if you don't think Star Wars has anything to do with vectors, you are wrong. I did a Google Image search for "vector pointing out of page" and got no results that actually showed a vector pointing out of a page. I did, however, get this:

Seriously, Google?

Happy Halloween!

Captain's blog, stardate 2749.8....
Ah, Halloween. An excuse to dress up in nerdy outfits, plus you get candy! What's not to like?
Also, my costume rocks. I bought the shirt, but the braid on the sleeves and the badge were sewn on by me, and it took a really long time. Totally worth it though. Check it out. (Click the pictures to make them somewhat bigger.)

Saturday evening there was this party kind of thing except not a weird party like frats apparently have. It was just open to all MIT students and there was candy and pizza and ice skating. (There is an ice rink at MIT; isn't that amazing?) There was also tea! I had Earl Grey. Also, you could get your picture taken. So I did, except it would be silly for me to post a picture of a picture, so you don't get to see it. I will just say one thing: There's dramatic lighting on my face! If you've ever watched the original Star Trek series, you'll know that Kirk very frequently has his face lit from the side or whatever to make himself look more dramatic. I think it's pretty awesome that my picture just so happened to come out the same way.

Nobody else had the same costume as me, which I was grateful for. There was a girl who had Uhura's uniform from the new movie and a guy in a TNG uniform though. They had bought their costumes though. Mine is all handmade and amazing (even if that's only because it's way too expensive to buy a costume, and besides they don't make Captain Kirk uniforms for girls.)

Did I mention there was ice skating? (That was a rhetorical question, FYI.) There was a somewhat long line to rent skates, which became much longer after I was on it, so I prided myself on my timing. While I was waiting for my skates, there was annoying music playing. There was even a Lady Gaga song! I think it was "Poker Face" because they kept saying "p-p-p-p-p-poker face". When I started to skate there was still annoying music. But just as I started to get the hang of it....this is so dramatic and awesome I am saving the reveal for the next paragraph....

...MUSIC FROM THE STAR TREK: 2009 SOUNDTRACK STARTED TO PLAY!!! I was skating like a pro (well, like a semi-competent person who hasn't skated in ages) and humming along. Then some random music that seemed vaguely familiar and non-obnoxious but wasn't from Star Trek played, and then there was another piece from the ST:2009 soundtrack! After that I stopped skating, because it was making my ankles hurt, and the music switched back to annoying. The only logical conclusion to draw is that I am so awesome I cause Star Trek music to play when I ice skate. Best superpower ever.

After that today was relatively anticlimactic, since there's no trick-or-treating at college really. (I still ended up with candy though, from the ice skating thing. Also my Aunt Beth sent me some cause she's cool like that.) I wore my costume for most of the day.

At the Asymptones, we had a little party before rehearsal where everyone brought food. I brought pineapple but nobody wanted it except me so I got to take it back and save it for breakfast or something. Most of the other people weren't wearing costumes, but one guy was wearing a kinda fancy black suit and had a toy gun. So of course when he wasn't looking I stole it.
Me: Haha, I have a phaser now.
Him: Hey! I need that!
Me: Why?
Him: I'm Bond. James Bond.
Me: But I'm Kirk. James Kirk.
There followed an epic battle of gun versus banana Laffy Taffy, which was the only weapon anyone would supply me with.
(By the way, I have a secret theory that Kirk and James Bond are secretly the same guy, because they're both named James, are impossible to kill, and date lots of people.)

To celebrate having such an awesome costume, I wrote a rap about the non-interference directive and its flaws. You seriously need to watch it. (Assuming my video embed works, that is.)

Miscellaneous Awesomeness

Captain's blog, stardate 9274.1...
Hi there folks! I'm procrastinating on my physics problem set and bringing you a few important pieces of news.

First of all: Splash registration is almost open! If you want to come to my awesome classes you'd better go register for them. (And I'd better actually start planning out what I'm going to say.) Registration closes on November 2, so you'd better hurry up! It supposedly opened today but still says it isn't open and I don't know why. Maybe by the time you check it will be working properly.

I got an 87 on my math test and a 94 on my chem test, so I'm very proud of myself. Well, not really. I'm not not proud of myself. Just tired enough that I'm relatively indifferent.

I dreamed last night that my sister Mary and I were young versions of Spock and Kirk respectively, and that we went to Tarsus IV and destroyed Tom Riddle's diary with lightsabers. It was the awesomest thing ever. (My subconscious must be really nerdy.)

In other news, I worked harder on my Halloween costume than on my homework today. For shame.

Check This Out

Captain's blog, stardate 2834.1....
So it was Parents Weekend at MIT this weekend and all the a capella groups were in a concert; each group sang two songs. My group, the Asymptones, sang "White & Nerdy" and "Title of the Song". The people backstage said we got the most applause of all the groups :)
I don't normally use smileys in formal (or is this semiformal?) writing, but I feel that this somehow merits one. Go figure.

I narrowly escaped having to wear a red shirt--at first we were going to have girls in red and guys in purple shirts, but not enough people had the right colors so they changed it to girls in warm colors and guys in cool colors. This meant I got to wear my nice yellow shirt. Several other Asymptones complimented me on how much like a Starfleet shirt it looked. I was honored.

So guess what? Some person in the audience took videos of the concert and put them on YouTube! Take a look! The camera this random person used couldn't tell my face apart from my shirt very well. But I'm standing in the front row next to my friend Bones (technically short for "lazybones") who is wearing a red sweater thing.

Splash!

Captain's blog, stardate 2864.9....
AD BREAK!
Me: I'm gonna teach at Splash, I'm gonna teach at Splash!
Random Kids: What's Splash?
Me: Glad you asked! Splash is an educational opportunity for middle- and high school students. Students who register for the program can come to MIT from November 20-21 and enjoy classes taught by MIT students. The course offerings are incredibly diverse, ranging from crash courses in computer programming to knitting to board game strategy. There's something for everyone!
Kids: Wow! It sounds great!
Me: It is!
Kids: I wanna go to Splash!
Me: Registration for students will open in late October! It costs $30 for high school students and only $20 for middle school students--a low, low price to pay for the fun and educational value of this weekend!
Kids: Oh boy! Hey, didn't you say you were gonna teach something?
Me: You bet!
Kids: Ooh, I wanna come to your class! What's it gonna be about?
Me: I'm teaching two classes, actually! The first one is "Star Trek and the 1960s," in which we'll explore strange new worlds how the original Star Trek series reflected the issues of its time, and the other is "You Canna Change the Laws of Physics: Science Mistakes In Star Trek," which is exactly what it says on the tin!
Kids: WOW! That sounds so cool, Captain Quirk! I can't wait!
Me: *stares into camera* Splash 2010. Be there.

Everything in that ad was true, except for the part about random kids wanting to go to classes about Star Trek. Still, I bet some people will go.
...will YOU be one of the lucky few?

OK, advertising is over for real this time. In all seriousness, Splash is gonna be totally awesome, and if you're in the right age group and are available on that weekend, you should definitely come, even if you don't go to either of my classes. After all, they are pretty nerdy subjects. (Earn your nerd badge by coming to Star Trek class! Aw, right, no more advertising...)

The Most Awesome Game

Captain's blog, stardate 9274.8....
My sister Mary and I often end up chatting on Skype. Unfortunately Mary tends to quickly switch from having meaningful conversations with me to copy-pasting Star Trek quotes that she gets from iGoogle, for no apparent reason. I guess she thinks it's funny. Anyway, one time she was doing this copy-paste quote thing and I came up with the brilliant idea of playing along.

Hence, Awesome Game #1: In which Mary quotes Star Trek and I am a psychiatrist.
Here's a brief sample: (NB: iGoogle gives Mary quotes from all the Star Trek series, so don't be surprised if you don't recognize some of these.)
Mary: You're in love with a computer subroutine?
Elizabeth: No. Are you in love with a computer subroutine?
Mary:  It's like being pecked to death by ducks.
Elizabeth: Well, I've never loved a subroutine myself so I wouldn't know. Is it very difficult for you? What does your family think about it?
Mary:  I think I'm in trouble.
Elizabeth: Because your family doesn't approve?
Mary: I think I'm in love.
Elizabeth: With a computer subroutine, yes, you've already said so.
Mary: On my home-world it's much simpler. You choose a mate for life. There's no distrust, no envy, no betrayal.
Elizabeth: And you feel betrayed because your family doesn't support your choice?
Mary: Didn't think I had it in me, did you?
Elizabeth: This isn't about what I think of you. Tell me more about your family.
Mary: We're Starfleet officers. Weird is part of the job.
Elizabeth: So you consider them "weird"?

Here's another:
Mary: Either I've become impervious to antimatter explosions, or we're still dreaming.
Elizabeth: Dreaming? So you've dreamed about being impervious to explosions. That means you feel youself to be very powerful, even invincible.
Mary: I was trying to blend in!
Elizabeth: I see. And you weren't accepted into the group.
Mary: I had not considered that...It is a risk I am willing to take.
Elizabeth: What risk are you talking about ?
Mary: The anomaly, my ship, my crew, I suppose you're worried about your fish too.
Elizabeth: I'm not worried about my fish. But I am worried about you. What is this anomaly?
Mary: Oh, very clever, Worf. Eat any good books lately?

As you can see, we're very good at this. But since it gets annoying for me, I limit our "therapy" to once a week. However, Mary found out that iGoogle also has Star Wars quotes, and decided to copy-paste some for me even though she doesn't like Star Wars. (I know! How can anyone not like Star Wars?!) Introducing...Awesome Game #2, In Which Mary Quotes Star Wars and I Quote Star Trek.
(I didn't get my quotes from iGoogle, they were all ones I remembered or found in my Star Trek notebook, so they're pretty much all from the original series.)

We only played this game once, which was tonight, but look how good we are at it:
Mary: I've got a bad feeling about this.
Elizabeth: Emotions are alien to me. I'm a scientist. [Spock]
...
Mary: Are you sure about this; trusting our fate to a boy we hardly know? The Queen will not approve. [Padme]
Elizabeth: I've already got a female to worry about. Her name is the Enterprise. [Kirk]
Mary: Well I don't approve. [Padme]
Elizabeth: You will cease to pry into my personal matters, Doctor, or I shall certainly break your neck. [Spock]
Mary: You Jedi are far too reckless. The Queen trusts... [Padme]
Elizabeth: Mr. Spock, the women on your planet are logical. That's the only planet in the galaxy that can make that claim. [Kirk]
Mary: For a mechanic, you seem to do an excessive amount of thinking. [C-3P0]
Elizabeth: I'm a doctor, not a mechanic!! [McCoy]

Ah man...I'm such a nerd and I love every second of it.

Coincidences

Captain's blog, stardate 1893.2....

What do you know? Turns out I do have some entertaining news to share with you! Guess I was just too tired before to remember it.

Anyhow. Coincidence #1: On Sunday, I was eating my supper in the dining hall, as per usual. I had a salad, which is nice because I like salad if it's not just lettuce and dressing. So anyway, I was eating my salad and thinking that there was a pretty good variety of food in the dining hall. I was comparing it to the food at home and noticed that there had never been any hamburgers in the dining hall, whereas we have those every so often at home. So I was thinking "Hmm, I wish there would be some good hamburgers for supper around here..."
And then, the very next day, that's what was for supper in the dining hall.
They plan these things out more than a day in advance, so either whoever decides the menu predicted what I would want to eat on that particular day, before I even knew, or...the dining staff plants subconscious suggestions in the minds of everyone who eats there so that they'll want whatever's on the menu! How insidious!

Coincidence #2: This one doesn't involve evil dining hall staff. Also, the setup for this one is really long but totally worth it. So, I was tired today (as you might have noticed from my previous post's lack of coherence) and during math the professor was taking a long time to set up a problem that wasn't that hard (he was trying to explain the physics behind it). Hence, I got distracted and started to think about really random stuff. Namely: the similarities between Harry Potter and Star Trek, in particular the 2009 movie (because I'd been thinking about that movie earlier in the day). Seriously, think about it. Kirk=Harry, Spock=Hermione, McCoy=Ron, Nero=Voldemort. So I got to wondering what would happen if the Star Trek characters re-enacted the plot of the Harry Potter series. I was just wondering who would take on the more minor roles. In particular, I was wondering about Viktor Krum, who has to be involved with Hermione (Spock), which led me to think maybe he could be Uhura.
Now, most Harry Potter fans could tell you that Viktor Krum is famous for using a Quidditch move called the Wronski Feint. Just as I was thinking this, the professor introduces a concept called...a Wronskian!!
I kid you not.

Isn't that awesome? By the way, if you have more Star Trek 2009/Harry Potter correspondences, leave 'em in the comments.

Shopping

Captain's blog, stardate 7384.2...
Yes, I went shopping! Well, not really. But I did buy something, so that sort of counts as shopping. I even get bonus points for it not being a book! Truly, I live up to the stereotype of the American teenager.

The day started out normal, if you call writing an English paper normal. It is normal for me, and here's why. You can tell if something is normal to a vector by seeing if the cross product is at a maximum. No school-related task makes me as cross as writing papers, so the cross product is maximized. Therefore writing papers is normal to me.

Anyway, I finished the paper and decided to take a walk down to Harvard Square. It's about a mile away, nice walk, the weather was great, so why not, I figured. Everything was pretty nice. I got some ice cream and ate it on the way back. Then I stopped in at a store called Pandemonium to read some D&D player's handbooks. Player's Handbook 3 was really cool, and I still didn't have it.

I bet you all think you know what happened next, don't you? But you're wrong. I didn't buy the book. If you were paying attention up top there, you'd remember I said I didn't buy a book. I put it back on the shelf and went upstairs to leave.

And then it caught my eye. The words "Star Trek" in bold white letters. The USS Enterprise blasting an asteroid with its phasers. Resistance was futile.

A brightly remastered image for each month. All the lettering in that familiar title font. Birthdays already marked down for the members of the original cast.
And in between June and July, a stunning two-page spread:

I needed it, and I needed it bad. Barely thinking, I handed over the money and brought it proudly back to my room.

And that is how I, Elizabeth, went shopping on a Saturday afternoon. I don't regret it a bit.

Stuff that Happened Recently

Captain's blog, stardate 8294.3...
It seems that in my excitement over getting to write about Star Trek, I forgot that the point of my blog is to talk about what's going on.

Well...I'm really busy. I have a physics test on Monday, a math test on Wednesday, an English paper due Thursday, and a chemistry test a week from Monday. Also, I still have problem sets to do for chemistry and physics. So that kind of stinks.

On the topic of math, I don't think we've had a Quote of the Day from my math professor yet.
"The logistic equation can be used to model population growth, or the spread of a disease, or chemical reactions, or some other disease, like how many people are playing FarmVille on Facebook."

On a different, completely unrelated topic, I didn't get any work done last night, because my dear friend Elena was visiting colleges and we met up in the evening. So that was lovely; I got to advertise my college and jabber on about physics. Also, I got to help improve Elena's woefully inadequate knowledge of Star Wars and Trek.
Elizabeth: Haven't you seen Star Wars?
Elena: I think I saw one of them, it had the little green guy.
Elizabeth: His name is Yoda and almost all the episodes have him. [Episode 4 is the only one which doesn't.]
Elena: Well, uh, there was this guy who talked funny and I think they went to his planet?
Elizabeth: Oh, Jar-Jar. That's Episode 1. Silly Elena.
She's so awesome, and I hope she comes to MIT because she would like it a lot there. She would have to learn at least the names of the main Star Wars characters, though, because that's just common knowledge.

More Classes!

Captain's blog, stardate 2643.3...
So. Yesterday I had classes. Maybe I should talk about that. Righto, here goes.

I got to sleep in, because my first class (math recitation) isn't till 11am. Some of you high school kids might not know what recitations are. If you do know, go to (*). Else, continue reading. (I have a tendency to think "else" instead of "otherwise". Too much time messing around with calculators, I think.) As you probably know, most introductory classes are very large. To make sure everyone can keep up, the class gets split into recitation groups. Each group has its own recitation, typically taught by a grad student/TA. During recitation, we review what went on in the lecture, get questions answered, and do practice problems.

(*) Good for you, you know what a recitation is. So yeah, I had math recitation, and it was pretty cool but kind of silly because what we did in class was mostly review, so we reviewed review. (If you analyzed a theater critic's writing and then went over what you'd written, you'd be reviewing a review of a review of a revue!)

Right afterwards was chemistry recitation, pretty much the same deal of reviewing review. It will get better though.
I have swim class right after chem recitation, so I rushed over to the sports center and asked where the entrance to the pool was, only to find out that phys. ed. classes don't start until next week. Yay.
Then I had Shakespeare class in the afternoon; we are reading The Tempest and have to finish it by Tuesday, so that should be fun! An excuse to do some reading! Oh gosh, I'm going to have to write English papers eventually....
I auditioned for the concert choir and got in, so that should be extremely fun.

And that's pretty much all that happened yesterday (other than me doing problem sets, which you probably don't need to hear about.)

*Sneak peek at what's happened so far today*
"Physicists are like babies; they still smash things together." --My chemistry professor

What my college tuition is paying for: Hundreds of Ping-Pong balls, to be thrown at styrofoam balls suspended in the air as an imitation of the Rutherford gold-foil experiment!

Chem professor: *does calculations* Based on the number of balls which rebounded, the radius of the styrofoam balls is 1cm. It's amazing, it comes out right every year.
Everyone: Yeah, when you do all your calculations with 1 significant figure...

Me, thinking: If we still had IDs called OSIS Numbers, like in high school, then my ID # would be a MITOSIS munber!

Classes!

Captain's blog, stardate 2384.6....
So. I should probably be doing homework right now, but I just did some physics so I'm in a relatively good mood. I'll probably buckle down and work on chemistry for a bit after I post this.
Chemistry? Yeah, chemistry! I know I said before I was taking biology, but as it turns out that didn't work with my schedule, which is great for me because I don't even like biology. I'll have to take it next term though. Woe is me. Who cares, though, as long as I get to take physics, math, AND chemistry all in the same term?
Allow me to recount for you the dramatic events of my first day of MIT classes. To further immerse you in the narrative, this will be written in the present tense. To give me a chance to have some fun, it will be written over-dramatically and in stilted prose. (Just thought I should warn you.)

7:51 AM. Thunder crashes outside the window I fortuitously closed last night, waking me before my alarm clock gets the chance. I peer out the window with still-blurred eyes, to see rain pouring down outside. (This is an auspicious beginning for the day. After all, children born during storms in stories are often marked for some greater destiny. Why not those who start college during a storm?) Combing through my mind to try and remember where I put my umbrella, I prepare myself for the day ahead. Where are my notebooks? I realize to my shock that I have none. Check the schedule again. There will be time between physics and chemistry.
I hastily toast some bread for breakfast and leave with it; the time between my awakening and my necessary departure seeming to have slipped away without my noticing. The storm has passed by the time I leave my dorm, and the sky has brightened--another auspicious sign; overcast skies usually foreshadow tragedy of some sort.
I arrive at the building of my physics class, check the room number on my "schedule" (in reality nothing more than my hastily scribbled list of classes, locations, and times) and eventually find my way to it. One slight problem presents itself before I even walk in the door: The classroom does not exist. Perhaps one of the students accidentally divided by zero? Idle jokes will get me nowhere. If there were a computer anywhere nearby, I could check the class location online. But no such machine is readily available. Finally I give in to temptation and use the Internet access on my cell phone, a technique normally forbidden as I do not have a data plan which includes the cost of said access.
The risk pays off. I find myself in an underground chamber (the classroom is in the basement) filled with round tables. Already late, I take an empty seat where I can find it.
Then the lecture begins. It starts as nothing of note, logistical announcements and basic review. Then, as an indication of things to come, Maxwell's equations appear on the projector screen. I stare, entranced. Until today, I had never realized how stunning they were, how mysterious at first and then beautiful. Every curve of every integral sign calls out to me. And I realize I've forgotten how much I love physics.

Today physics lasts for two hours. Afterwards, I purchase my notebooks, leave some in my dorm room, and set off for chemistry. Yeah, chemistry. No sweeping equations here, no gleaming integrals, but it's still refreshing in a down-to-earth sort of way. I haven't officially enrolled yet; my advisor still hasn't given me the forms to add chemistry and drop biology. I enjoy the class anyway.
A longer break this time, enough for me to eat and relax in my room for a while. Then comes the high point of the day. (If a math lecture at the end of an exciting day of classes is not the definition of the word "apotheosis", I don't know what is.) Differential Equations, finally. I look at the syllabus. Within a few weeks, we will learn topics I have never been exposed to. Some of these techniques are things I've never even heard of.
I emerge from the lecture hall, euphoric.

(N.B. Euphoric is another of those words which deserves to be used, but not too often or it will lose its meaning.)

Well, hopefully that little narrative satisfies; I have chemistry homework to do.
Yeah, chemistry.

And A Few Days Later...

Captain's blog, stardate 8426.4....
I have somehow survived for several days without my parents being around to provide for my every need! Of course, the fact that there's plenty of free food during orientation week helps. As does the fact that my mom went grocery shopping with me before returning to the world of People Who Aren't In College. (It's kinda weird to walk around and see only people of my approximate age. There are adults working and stuff, but if I walk around I see about 50 college kids, maybe a couple adults, and no young children at all. It's slightly disorienting.)
Well, now that I've congratulated myself on my remarkable survival skills, I suppose I may as well talk about what it is I've been surviving, which is not a huge amount.
Let's see...when was the last time I blogged about anything...aha! On Friday! What have I done since then? Heck, I don't know, I'm ridiculously tired. Classes haven't started yet, in fact, registration hasn't started yet. Just orientation activities.
Speaking of orientation activities, on Thursday, when I arrived, I didn't know activities had already started, since not everyone was required to have checked in until Friday at noon. So I missed out on my favorite activity of all time: Nerdy Singalong! Basically, this is the coolest activity ever invented in the history of mankind. (In other news, I ADORE hyperbole. Or maybe you'd noticed?) When I visited MIT for the admitted students' weekend, it was the high point of the entire weekend. Why? Because 1) singing is awesome, 2) nerdy songs are twice as awesome as any other songs. But I missed it this time around.
However! On Friday evening, I was eating a free meal at one of the dorms and talking to this guy who was sitting across from me. (Yeah, I was being sociable! Crazy, huh?) Conversation approximately as follows:
Me: Yeah...I can't believe I missed Nerdy Singalong!
Him: What does one sing at a nerdy singalong?
Me: Oh, lots of stuff. Let's see...we did "White & Nerdy" of course, "I Will Derive", "Finite Simple Group of Order Two"...
Him: Finite Simple Group of Order Two?
Me: YOU'VE NEVER HEARD IT??
Girl who lives in the dorm: YOU'VE NEVER HEARD IT?? *pulls out computer and plays the YouTube video*
Me: *starts singing*
And thus began my own personal Nerdy Singalong, since I missed the real event. But the best part is yet to come! We were all having a great time and I was singing really enthusiastically, so this guy who lived in the dorm asked me if I wanted to join his a capella group which sings nerdy songs! So I gave him my email address and he told me he'd let me know when they were holding auditions! So maybe I'll get to sing those songs more often. Wouldn't that be lovely?
Did I do anything exciting on Sunday? Not all that much. I went to Random Hall, of course, because we're allowed into all the dorms during orientation (for activities) and Random is the best of all the dorms. They have fun activities every day and I try to go to as many as I can. After orientation, we're not allowed in dorms other than our own unless we're on the guest list of a resident, but a guy I met at the impromptu singalong said he'd put me and my friend who didn't know Finite Simple Group of Order Two on his guest list.
Oh right, I did do stuff on Sunday! There was Convocation and stuff. Convocation was basically us sitting around and listening to speeches about how we could change the world and we're supposed to make the most of our time at MIT etc. etc. etc. It was slightly boring. (I'm not averse to a bit of understatement at times, to go along with all the hyperbole. Say, if using hyperbole makes you hyperbolic, what does using understatement make you? Parabolic? Elliptical? No, wait, elliptical would be if you used too many ellipses. Heck, I don't know.) Also, we had to take a math diagnostic to help with placement for a physics class I'm not taking because I already placed out of it. But the test was mandatory.
And then today I took a placement test to try and get out of multivariate calculus, which I doubt I'll be getting out of but it was worth a try. I kind of made up all the space integrals because I couldn't remember how to do them. But I did wear a Captain Kirk shirt for luck, and he's pretty lucky, so we'll see.
Oh, and there was a TARDIS on the dome today.

Six Flags

Captain's blog, stardate...uh...3251.8. (Completely random numbers now.)
I'm on the bus to Boston and noticed that I have been quite remiss in my blogging duties. I plead with you to have mercy on me.
At any rate, are you ready to hear about Six Flags? No? Too bad.
I went to Six Flags on Tuesday with my dear homeschool friends Rachel and Erin. It was supposed to rain, so the park was nearly empty and we got to go on almost all the rides we wanted to. I say "almost" because it did rain resulting in all the rides being closed for quite some time. By the way, if you ride a roller coaster in the rain, it's kind of fun sometimes, but if you're going fast enough the rain really hurts your face, as we learned the hard way. But it was a great day. We rode Kingda Ka twice (Erin, being more patient, got to go three times), and it was quite exhilarating. (I was going to say that "exhilarating" is a word which should be used more often, but that would make it less meaningful when it was really needed. Kind of like inflation, but with words instead of money.)
While it rained, the three of us played those games where you shoot the target to win a prize. Only three people were needed to play, and there were three of us, so we got a prize every time. Erin got a stuffed whale (she's obsessed with whales) but I got something much better.

A PLUSHY KIRK!!!!!!
HE'S SO SOFT!
HE'S SO PLUSHY!
HE'S SO ADORABLE IN EVERY WAY!

And they even put the right braid on his sleeves! I checked!

Hailing Frequencies Open

Captain's blog, stardate 3141.5...
The main point of this blog is so that my friends and family can have some idea of what I'm up to while I'm away at college. (Hence the "four year mission" mentioned at the top of the blog page. Yes, I know it's really a five-year (TOS) or ongoing (TNG) mission.)
But what the heck, why not start a little early and get some practice in? This way I'll be in the habit of blogging before I get super-busy with college. Plus I enjoy doing this, and hopefully you folks will too.
Besides, this is a good time to start because I'm super-old now. In other words, it's my birthday, as Facebook has already informed those of you who check Facebook on a regular basis.

It was a pretty cool day, overall. I got about a trillion Facebook messages saying variants on "Happy Birthday! May the Force be with you!" which is a very nice message to get on one's birthday. Moreover, I got a Star Wars blanket from my grandparents, to take with me to college, and a Star Wars T-shirt. And my brother got a Star Wars trivia book (on my birthday. I know, weird.) with 2500 questions in it. I did 100 and only got 57 right.
So that disappointed me, actually. because I like to think of myself as pretty knowledgeable. But then again, most of the questions were about stuff that's never mentioned in the movies. (Who cares what Jar Jar did when he was a kid? I spend enough time trying to ignore him in the movie without having to deal with expanded universe-ness! And so what if I don't know Luke's height in meters...)

But the best is yet to come. You know how, in the beginning of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, it's Kirk's birthday? Well, the very beginning is Lt. Saavik taking the Kobayashi Maru, but then you find out it's Kirk's birthday. So anyway, Spock comes up to Kirk, wishes him a happy birthday, and gives him A Tale of Two Cities as a present. Then McCoy comes over and gives Kirk some reading glasses and a bottle of Romulan ale.

Well, guess what my two sisters gave me for my birthday?

Our copy of A Tale of Two Cities from my sister Mary (who always plays Spock in our Star Trek games) and my glasses and a bottle of "Romulan Ale" from my sister Maggie (who's always McCoy).
The Romulan ale is really water with lime juice and blue food coloring. It tastes quite good.

I did the label on the bottle.
You can click the pictures to make them bigger.

Oh, one unrelated note: The screen name "Captain Quirk" is probably something to explain. I came up with it when my mom and I agreed I was a "quirky kid". So I'm Captain James T. Quirk for now.
Sorry TNG fans, but "Picard" just doesn't lend itself to puns as easily. You can comfort yourself with the thought that "Kirk" also rhymes with "Jerk". I'm sure the unflattering limericks will come rolling in now.
Here are a couple for you:

There once was a captain named Kirk
Whose plans never quite seemed to work
"He's really quite dim,
That fellow called Jim,"
His officers said with a smirk.

That was surprisingly easy, especially considering that I actually like Kirk...I guess I'd better be mean to Picard now, huh?

There once was a guy named Picard
Who didn't try awfully hard
He let Wesley go
Take over the show
And so TNG became marred.

If you want me to insult anyone else, I'd be glad to.