sitting in matlab class

i never would have thought i'd be teaching matlab.  and i'm not, really, but i will be helping 20 girls do their matlab homework.  this is a big deal for me, having scraped a C in my only programming class and hating it the whole way.  turns out, the girl who is teaching me right now dropped that same class when she took it, and now she's flying.  just goes to show, classes suck.

last night all the girls except one played scategories over dinner.  at one point i said praline, with an ahhhhh sound.  one of the girls commented on my pronunciation and then said "i know all these WEIRD people who say prahhhline instead of prayyyline"

we all cried we were laughing so hard.  and then she said saulmon instead of saaalmon, and i felt better.

some tidbits of information:

-tj is back from japan and is driving to san francisco on thursday or friday

-the wtp girls come on saturday

-i found the key to my (brooke's) bicycle

-a black squirrel was eating food from my room on the balcony but didn't break the window screen but did knock over the instant soup bowls

-fanny found a raccoon on the roof

-christine moran's car door is rusted shut

-hanna wants to get a tattoo on her crotch

-gabe will take his dad's painting soon

etc

etc

etc

love sadie

today today

today i woke up and did not do too much

but yesterday, yesterday i went to a music fest in Harvard square to celebrate the summer solstice and ran into barry and bennett and some old beta i didn't know and sungyun, and all in all it was fun but not amazing

but the day before that, well i moved some stuff from senior house to mccormick so i could start living there and then i went grocery shopping, and by the time i wanted to go out my back was hurting so i played scategories in my room with the other girls i'm living with, and i guess that wasn't so great either.

but thursday i went to the fablab again.  i cut a stencil of this old drawing:

just for fun.  and then the vinyl cutter went crazy! it started eating up my film, which was the last bit of film i owned! it was so sad! so i asked alec if something was going wrong, and he said probably not, but that he'd be happy to tell the fablab to buy more film, which is completely awesome.  so i can keep cutting my stencils, and my screens arrived too! i have 14 now.  plenty plenty plenty.  and i have an empty suite where i can print too!

i somehow ended up at beta splitting a Colt 45 with john and watching blazing saddles.  it's funny that john an i have trouble finishing a 40 when we split it, while his roommate downs three a night.  the poor kid's liver.  he said it's unfortunate that he doesn't have two livers like he has two kidneys.  i said if he did he would just be drinking more.

i found my bicycle key under a cushion and took it for a ride today down memorial drive to river st and then to central, back up mass ave and over to beta for dinner.  by the time i got there my legs were all gelatinous and my hands hurt from leaning on the handlebars.  but it was totally worth it.  bmx bikes are really not that great.  the waitress at dinner was really cute and kept saying "escuse me, escuse me!" when she filled up water cups, and she said things like "bloccoli" and "led bean." the food was good too.

i'm back in gabe's room which is still a disaster. it's not going to be fun to have to move out of here, if i do.  i used my light table today for the first time.  of course i had to move some boxes off of it first, but it's a great addition to the studio, storage and all.  tj is keeping all of his electronics underneath it right now until he gets back from japan and drives to san francisco with his girlfriend and his sugar gliders.  again, i will scan things later.  really i'm falling quite behind on drawing.  i've got something, but it's nothing to be excited about, unfortunately.  i drew a nice older lady in harvard square yesterday while listening to the tokyo tramps, an older chinese man and woman and what looked like their 20-something year old son who played the tambourine.  the woman had a thick chinese accent but sang country music, and the guy had ling sideburns and wore a cowboy hat and a harmonica stand on his neck.  the woman i was drawing stood up when i had half of her drawn, so i'll have to improvise a little.  she was cute though.  

tech+Knowlogy

three things:

1) the fab lab

2) the broad institute

3) wtp

FIRST

the fab lab is a fabulous laboratory called the fabrication laboratory in the back bay area with some high class computer controlled (cnc) equipment including vinyl cutters, which is the subject of this section of the post.  vinyl cutters can be used for a lot of really cool things, like cutting vinyl...but also for cutting mylar, which can be adhered to a silkscreen to print tshirts.  for those of you reading this who don't know me, i had a silkscreening business when i was in high school (soSadieBUG).  There should be ten stretched screens in a ups truck driving from Arkansas as we speak, and with a few more vinyl cutting runs to the fablab, it should be time to start printing again!  

SECOND

the broad institute is roughly a block and a half away from where I live and i've been inside once for an art lecture.  needless to say, the building has nothing to do with art, but instead houses millions of dollars of chem and bio engineering equipment.  almost all of the labs are bl2 biohazardous and full of people laughing over pipettes and one-million-dollar slide scanners and stuff.  on the seventh floor is the information storage room with ventilation in the floor and a water-evaporation cooling system on the roof above it.  as we (jason who works there who i ran into who decided to give me a tour) ogled through the little window in the door and remarked on how much storage there might be in there, an older guy with a name tag stopped and said there were probably 1.6-1.8 petabytes, which is more than some countries!!  Then he unlocked the door and let us look inside.  it was remarkably well cooled, and the pretty giant room was packed floor to ceiling and all the way back with hard drives.  there were over a dozen large boxes containing sever hard drives each unopened in the corner.  the older guy remarked: "we buy storage like it's going out of style!"

Jason and i went to the cafeteria where he gave me free coffee (coffee was the reason i had left senior house, and as i was talking to jedediah by kendall jason walked by, and so was the chance tour of the broad) and we talked about taking time off (he took three years off right before he graduated, got a job and went back to finish his degree when he wanted a research job instead) and about picking a major, and applying yourself.  it was great advice because it sounded like he had been through everything i talked about.  my lesson: never pass up what people offer you, especially when it's a tour of an unfamiliar hazardous lab building.

THIRD

wtp or the women's technology program is a summer program for high school girls going into their senior year to help expose them to mechanical or electrical engineering.  i'm working for the mech-e half.  started today, it was wonderful.  my lovely boss barbara hughey told us (there are seven undergrads working for her) that she does not like to micromanage, so she had whiteboards all around the lab telling us what jobs need to be finished in the next two weeks.  the jobs ranged from assembling a cabinet (done) to writing a lesson plan (in progress) to killing the large bug that keeps flying around (not done).  It's totally loose.  we took a lunch trip to fire and ice in harvard square where dr. hughey bought us all-you-can-eat lunches which were delicious, and we walked back afterwards, all on the clock mind you.  sarah cole spent the day putting together wind-up turtles and foxes, and i sent a billion emails to people about rube goldberg machines.  it was great.  on top of it all i got my id card today with food money on it.  i can now eat anything i can buy on techcash non-stop until august first (gross!).

summer is looking up.  unfortunately gabe's room is looking like a jungle, or a storage closet.  i had to climb through boxes to find a pair of socks this morning. it's ridiculous, but all of my stuff is in it (less one box, one lamp, and my mattress topper).  it should take another ten hours or so to get it all arranged nicely.  woe is me.  also i got some books from the library by the guy who wrote emotional design, as well as a comic book and a dvd copy of blazing saddles, which i've been meaning to watch for ages!

the sun is setting beautifully and the tree in the courtyard of senior house is so nicely lit and yellow-green.  it's not raining anymore, i could buy myself ten dinners tonight if i wanted, and it'll be a great day at work tomorrow.  mmmmmmmm summer.

new (york) post

just got back from nyc. four of us drove down in a two-door toyota 

with shaggy fur seat covers. I sat in the back both ways, it was hard 

to walk when i first got out of the car. we listened to pretty droney 

music like the smiths and the decemberists, or sugar-high music 

like atom and his package, or vampire weekend on repeat. needless 

to say it's great to be listening to my own music right now. and 

speaking of music, there was a free concert at summerstage in 

central park this weekend, vampire weekend, born ruffians and 

kid sister. we showed up around 2:30 or 3 (it started at 4) and the 

line was about a mile long. usman, our in, had already gotten into 

the concert, so we missed our line-cutting shot. (on the way uptown 

we passed the farmers market at union square where i saw one of 

the guys i used to sell apples with)

while we waited, i saw two gals i went to high school with, one in 

a white shirt and one in a white dress (it poured during the concert). 

then john and i ditched. we walked a bunch and got up to the Met, 

which is where i wanted to be instead of waiting in the sun for two 

hours and the rain for three (when we saw barry connie and usman 

for dinner, they were comparing pruney fingers and toes.). there 

was a superhero costume exhibit, complete with the iron man outfit 

from the movie, which was neat.

on the train ride downtown we were talking about new york being 

dutch when two kids in the seat in front of us asked us if we were 

from mit and flashed their brass rats. turns out one of them is in 

phi sig, a block away from where john lives. it's really cool to be 

recognized by your ring. went to whole foods when we got down 

to union square where i saw another friend from high school who 

has an inexcusably weak handshake according to john.

we met the three wet concert-goers for dinner and as we decided 

where to go, it started pouring like nothing else. we decided go to 

s'mac, a mac and cheese restaurant 6 blocks away. we made a little 

fortress with three umbrellas and 5 people, which meant we were 

all exactly half wet when we got there. it was quite squishy. and 

i've never eaten so much mac and cheese in my life, it was huge! 

it was served up in a cast-iron pan, which was a lot bigger than it 

looked considering it's solid cheese. the only people to finish were 

connie and usman, because connie got a small and we all liked

usman's. gross

connie and i broke and went to see fuerzabruta, finally! we split a beer 

at the bar that didn't card me and went in to see the show which was 

in a large smoke-filled room where everyone stood in a circle. the 

show was a mix of treadmills, moving furniture, falling people, 

gunshots, sideways walking women hanging from the ceiling by 

their waists, flying walls, water, women sliding in water above 

our heads, boys kissing their girlfriends between acts, boys taking 

photos of women in water above them with their iphones and cat-

calling them, dancing, moving around in the dark, holding connie's 

hand, and confetti. it was great. maybe not $80 great, but great.

john and i went home that night and when we left in the morning to 

go to my dad's for breakfast we ran into one of my old-time friends 

and her dad and sister. it was great. turns put she's going to china to 

teach playwriting in english this summer. we only got to talk for one 

stop though, so i don't know what else she's been up to. it was a good 

way to end the circle of running into people i didn't know very well.

we ate breakfast at dad's where he told us he is at war with his caribbean 

housemate, and their way of getting to each other is by leaving the 

bathroom door open while the other one is in the kitchen and saying 

hilarious rude comments to the wall or the air and never directly to 

the other person. the woman left the bathroom door ajar while we 

were making eggs, it was great. dad spoke to the door as he went and 

closed it.

then we left and met barry and connie in queens to drive home, 

slept in the car listening to bad music, and got home and slept until 

noon. feels good. i wish i were still in new york. i move to mccormick 

today, start working tomorrow. a full day of ice breakers and scenarios 

to learn about, and lunch at fire and ice! should be great. i'm going to 

grab some coffee. will scan some drawings when i finish them. falling 

a little behind. happy monday!

john williams

chessman

Certainly Can Cancan

yesterday was very hot.  very very hot.  in fact i stayed inside all 

day except for getting a cup of coffee at 7:30am, and trying to get 

an espresso machine from reuse around 5.  there was no espresso 

machine when i got there but i did get a large cutting mat, and on 

the way back i scoped out the SH dumpsters and found a bicycle!  

Ken had thrown a few out that were parked in front of an emer-

gency exit.  i have a bike now, single speed, with a flashlight duct 

taped to the back of the seat for night riding.  it's a road bike and 

it has brakes, and i pumped up the tires with my new bicycle pump 

from rachel.  john said it was fast, i have yet to ride it.

i started painting in gabe's room yesterday, over the koi.  brooke 

you are in the painting, and i might be in it too if i decide to be,

there's a space for me. and my mom is teaching us how to chop 

fish (koi) and telling us not to feel too bad about it.  so that's the 

homage to the koi i'm painting over.  

i drew some chess players in harvard square the other day.  it's 

funny to watch them play and watch them pour 40s into abp paper 

cups at the side of their tables, and hear them click their timers as 

they make moves.  they're pretty ferocious looking.  i'm reading 

the yiddish policeman's union by michael chabon. it's all about yids 

who play chess, and this one who's father was the master of it, and 

tried to teach him but ended up just slaughtering him every time, so 

he writes a letter to his father telling him he loathes the game and 2 

days later his father kills himself (incidentally before the letter had 

even arrived).  but the detailing on the characters is great, and trans-

lates pretty well to watching the grumpy old harvard square chess 

players.

the final episode of top chef is tonight, and the final mexican summer 

camp party in 462, and i'm working desk until 10 when they both 

start anyway... 

i have a few little basil plants growing on the windowsill.  they smell 

good but they're also covered in fruit flies or they were yesterday.  

i've killed several bugs this morning on the carpet, an one on my 

drawing pad, and i'm trying to assemble the light table i got but of 

course i cannot lift it by myself so it'll have to wait.  also i have no 

idea where to put it.  the room right now has two library-style book-

shelves in the middle of the room while i try to paint the walls.  in 

fact all i have in this room is furniture.

i think i'm done here, will scan drawings in later.