Leaving for MIT

Thursday, August 27, 2009 at 9:50 PM
Just cried my eyes out when Grace was leaving. I haven't done that in a long time. I'll write more when I get to Boston.

EDIT 1:
So I am now in MIT. I'm quite busy trying to settle in, but I'm going to try to update on what happened the past few days. Grace and I had a long talk about our future, and we poured our hearts out talking about how we felt. She's still not completely sure if she's ready for the next step in our relationship, but I think she's getting closer. We shall see how that goes. We both cried a lot because we were going to be separate for longer than ever before.

EDIT 2:
I am now officially at MIT, as in my RA has started. I was freaked out last weekend, before starting orientation at MIT. I have it in my mind that MIT is this ivory tower with super duper geniuses, and that I was gonna get run over by their brain power. I guess I'm a little less freaked out now. The people here seem pretty normal, albeit a little geeky. The same thing happened to me when I started at Michigan. I remember the first few engineering classes, I was just in awe at how smart some of the people were. In the end, everything turned out ok for me. I suppose the same thing will happen here (hopefully).

Though I'm less scared now of failing out, a new problem has come up: I have no project. That means that I have nothing to work on all day, except to talk to people in my group and find out what they are doing. It doesn't help that people keep asking me what project I am working on. I feel like I have to give an answer. I tried talking to a few people today, and they were nice about it, and took time to explain to me what they did. However, I feel if I keep asking people to take time to explain to me what they do, some of them might get irritated. I will try to see if I can catch people doing experiments, and maybe I will be interrupting less.

So these are my immediate thoughts on school and being apart from Grace. I'll post an analysis later.

Listening to Take Me Home Tonight - Eddie Money. This song is sweet.

-Howitzer

Grace is Home Now!

Saturday, August 8, 2009 at 9:57 PM
Hurrah!

4 Shots Today

Wednesday, August 5, 2009 at 5:17 PM
I got four vaccines today: Hepatitis A, Meningitis, Mumps/Measles/Rubella, and Tetanus. I'm overdue for three of those shots, so I'll consider myself lucky that I'm not dead at this point. Especially since, as George points out, I go to China pretty often. I only found out I needed all these shots because of some vaccination forms I needed to fill out to go to school in Massachusetts. Imagine, I show up at the clinic to have them fill out these forms for me, only to find out that I'm horribly under protected against dangerous diseases(haha).

My arms hurt like a bitch.

Also, Grace back in 3 days!

Braces Off Continued

Tuesday, August 4, 2009 at 5:42 PM
So, I got my braces off on Monday. Feels strange, just like it did last time. I have the feeling of my lips rubbing against my teeth all the time now, as opposed to being help away by the wires. It's really weird. It will go away soon enough though. My teeth also look fine. I'm not so much excited as relieved. Now I can feel free to ignore my teeth, instead of being bothered when my tongue catches on some crook in my teeth.

I got some retainers that I'll have to be wearing for the next six months. The purpose of these is to keep my teeth set the way they are, until the bone density around my teeth increases back to its normal density. Then, my teeth will be less prone to shifting again. I looked it up, and I got the Hawley retainers. These feel kind of bulky actually, and make it feel weird to talk. I will give it a week, and if they still feel weird, I may ask for the VFR (vacuum filled retainers). These are the retainers that look basically like a clear mold around your teeth. My current ones have a wire that wraps around my bite, with a plastic piece flush against the roof of my mouth.

It's too bad I only got to see my second orthodontist a few times. She was really nice, and we got along well. The first orthodontist was fine, we just never really clicked as well. By the way, these are all student orthodontists, who are maybe 5 years older than me.

Former Presidents Paid by US Government

at 7:26 AM
So, every former president is still on the US payroll. Not sure how I feel about this, but here is the wording of the Former Presidents Act:

"(a) Each former President shall be entitled for the remainder of his life to receive from the United States a monetary allowance at a rate per annum, payable monthly by the Secretary of the Treasury, which is equal to the annual rate of basic pay, as in effect from time to time, of the head of an executive department, as defined in section 101 of title 5, United States Code [section 101 of Title 5]. However, such allowance shall not be paid for any period during which such former President holds an appointive or elective office or position in or under the Federal Government or the government of the District of Columbia to which is attached a rate of pay other than a nominal rate."

On the one hand, presidents should be thanked for their service. Being president is probably the hardest job in our country, and it's nice that they're taken care of by the citizens after serving. On the other hand, it's not like they're going to need the money. Heck most of them start off rich enough. They are probably earning around $100k to $200k, considering how much a current president is earning.

Braces Off.

Monday, August 3, 2009 at 9:15 PM
Got my braces off today. Will add more later.

Ford GT

Sunday, August 2, 2009 at 11:08 PM

The Ford GT. I guess I'll continue to post pictures of sweet looking cars. Apparently, the original version, Ford GT40 beat the Ferrari in some race four years in a row (24 Hours of Le Mans). It also gets 3.5 seconds from 0-60mph. Sick. I guess I might take the Ford GT over a Camaro or a Mustang. But then, it also costs 5x as much.

Here's one more picture.



2009 Ford Mustang Shelby GT500

at 7:55 AM






















Here's another car to view. The sculpted hood gives a classic American muscle look. The Ford Mustang has more of a brawny look, whereas the Camaro has a bit more of an aggressive look. The Mustang is still pretty sweet though.

2010 Camaro

Saturday, August 1, 2009 at 8:20 PM


SEXY.

That's what this car screams to me. The curves, the "mean eye" lights, the muscled hood...This thing is just damn aggressive. God I want one.

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