Mohawk or Mullet?

Why not both?

I may have previously mentioned my love for Halloween. If it haven't... I love halloween. This year's costume has been in the works since May 26 when I got my last haircut. The costume has several phases, which cannot be revealed in advance. However, the first phase is done thus I can make it public.... the haircut.

Before: Long Hair

After: Mohawk

And Mullet!!!

More pictures to come! I'm off for some ice skating at the student sports center!

Fundraising!!!

I need your help!

I have signed up for two events for which I need to raise money. The first event happens this December. Several classmates and I will be doing the Santa Speedo Run here in Boston. It is basically what it sounds like. A mile long run on December 6th in the streets of Boston wearing a speedo... like a polar bear plunge without the water. We each must raise $250 in donations in order to participate. There is no time keeping or prizes to win, but that doesn't mean I'm won't be training. I plan to start taking cold showers, stop wearing a shirt when I go for a run regardless of the weather, and most promising, sit in the open coolers at the local grocery stores. As far as funding thus far, I have nothing.

Here is the Santa Speedo Run information page.

Here is my Santa Speedo Run donation page.

The other event is the Race Up Boston Place... much like the Bop to the Top in Indianapolis, this is a vertical race UP a skyscraper. I have registered proudly with an Indiana address (thanks Mom and Dad!) and hope to be in the top 30. In Indianapolis, I finished 11th out of 1225 participants in the 37 floor race. Here is Boston, the competition seems tougher and the race is longer with 42 floors of competition (only 5 more floors but each floor is taller here in Boston, I check the building stats) thus I have loosened my goal. Fortunately, I have access to the tallest building in Cambridge with my MIT ID to help with the training. Once again, for this race there is a mandatory $100 donation and I have nothing.

Here is the event information page.

Here is the stair climb donation page.

Please consider any sized donation. Donating is VERY easy with web based credit card or pay pal payment located on each events donation page. Based on the counter from this web page, $1 from each person would be more than 3 times my goal. Thank you in advance for your generosity and feel free to contact me with any questions you may have. As YES, I will be dedicating a post for each event.

Phone... or camera?

I recently bought a new phone. My contract was up, so it was time to upgrade. While I've had several mobile phones before, even ones with cameras built in, I have never been impressed by them. But on this new phone, I would consider myself impressed. The picture quality is acceptable and more importantly, it is very easy to get the pictures from the phone to the computer with the USB cable or, if I'm feeling tech-y, the wireless bluetooth connection. Perhaps in reality I shouldn't be impressed that I finally have a phone that has a usable decent camera, its just that my expectations have been significantly lowered by previous experiences. Enough with the rant, here are the pictures:

I was up in the Winchester with Dave and Rebecca after church this evening. I have never seen such a beautiful town! See for yourself!

OBAMA!

As I mentioned, Obama was here last friday. I was expecting campus to be "nuts" and instead I would consider it "secure" or "completely locked down". There were police EVERYWHERE! The seemed to walk around in packs of threes and almost reminded me of Storm Troopers from the Star Wars movies.

The President spoke in MIT's Kresge Auditorium (see below). The speech was broadcast throughout campus and all over the internet and TV. Although, I haven't had a chance to actually watch it yet, it was primarily about Energy. What better place than MIT to talk about energy!

And finally, what is a Presidential appearance without protestors. I'll keep my comments to myself:

First NHL Game!

I went to my first NHL game last week. My brother called me up asking if I wanted to attend a Boston Bruins game. A co-worker of his had extra tickets and offered them to us. After I cleared and confirmed my schedule, I committed to the event. It turns out the tickets he had were in a suite... SWEET!

I met Dave in the MIT/Kendall subway stop and we headed on our way to TD Garden, home of the Boston Celtics and Boston Bruins, where we met up with his co-worker. The seats were excellent and I thoroughly enjoyed the game. It got me PUMPED for playing on the LGO ice hockey team. I've played a little street hockey as a kid, and I've done of ton of rollerblading and a fair amount of ice skating through the years. Combining all three with my classmates is going to be great. The season starts this coming week, stay tuned for pictures and reports... I know I can hardly wait. I'm already wearing my hockey pants around the house!

Anyways, some pictures from the Bruins game:

President Obama at MIT

http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2009/presidents-visit.html

WOW! Campus is going to be a mess today! But in my opinion (and I believe many other's as well) totally worth it. A lucky few will have the opportunity to hear him speak in person. The rest of us can watch it live via various different methods.

Last night I was at the athletic center, and they had already transformed 3 basketball courts into the press staging area. Just for a presidential speech. I'm sure many other facilities around campus are seeing an alternate use today. I'll see what I can capture on my camera.

More C Functions

I first mentioned the awesomeness of C-Functions in a previous post in regards to the Dinner Cruise and Japanese events. Well the awesomeness has continued with the Korean and October Fest C-Functions.

The first year MBA students put on a great event! They had delicious Korean food followed by Tai Kwon Do demonstrations,

a Korean Fan Dance,

as well as a fashion show and street dancers. The entertainment was top notch and the food was out of this world.

The next event was the October Fest. They set up tents on the Sloan Plaza and had an Oompha Band, German food, and German Beer! We even had mini beer steins for the beer! I can only imagine what the real Oktoberfest in Germany would be like.

My visit home is complete

No visit home is complete without a trip to YATS! I may have mention my strong appreciation for Yats prior to this post... at least I'm consistent. After a day of gloriously bumming around the house with Mom and Dad - playing ping pong, going for a walk, working on their computer, etc - I headed to Broad Ripple in Indianapolis to enjoy Yats with friends/mentors/previous managers Larry and Tom, and college buddies Ross and Julie. We all have a rather strong appreciation for the restaurant, thus making a for a great dinner.

After dinner I headed to my cousin Chad's house. He recently had purchased a new house and I had yet to see it. It was beautiful! Very modern and spacious! It made my place in Boston feel like a closet.

I head back to Boston tomorrow, and when I land, I head straight to Sustainable Energy class followed by meetings of one sort of another until almost midnight. I think I'd rather stay here a few more days!

Purdue beat OSU?!!!

I'm home for a weekend in Plainfield, Indiana. It's great to be back in the midwest with friends and family. I arrived at 5:30 pm on saturday and enjoyed dinner with the family. I then loaded up my explorer with my old DJ equipment (for those who didn't know, I used to run a DJ business) and headed up to my buddy Ross's place in Brownsburg to prepare for the next day's activities.

I woke up to my alarm at 5am with Ross's dog Sable right next to me. She likes to snuggle... and yes she has 3 legs.

We were on the road by 5:30 am, met the rest of our tailgate caravan at 6:30, and were at the tailgate fields at 6:40 waiting to be let in. On our way to the tailgate fields, we drove by the Purdue bars where students patiently waited in their Breakfast Club costumes for the bars to open at 7am. For those who are not familiar with the concept of breakfast club, allow me to quote the Purdue Graduate Student Board's description on this re-occurring event:

"Purdue has a tradition known as Breakfast Club. This means that students hit the campus bars at Chauncey Hill around 7 AM. This happens on football game day Saturdays during the Fall, and once during the Spring, Purdue Grand Prix. If you plan to go (and you should go at least once while you are at Purdue), wear a costume. If you do not, you will be one of the very few who did not, and will be heckled."

In this picture, you can see the pope next to two dogs and most of the original Mario Brother's cast.... oh breakfast club.

The tailgate field gates opened at 7 and we were on our way. As you can see, the sun was not up at this point. Luckily, the fields we tailgate in have lights because they also serve as Purdue's Intramural Fields.

We then set up the sound system and 3000watt generator,

And the Oktoberfest themed food... My buddies have a tailgate for every game. Each tailgate has a different theme. This one was Oktoberfest. There was a German meat and cheese platter, bratwurst, potato pancakes, and German Beer!!!

The sun rose, the music was turned up, and friends a family dropped by. We even had a visit from the man himself... Purdue Pete!

The tailgate was AWESOME, and it turns out the game was even better!!! Not going to the game was one of my worst decisions of the year. I was fully expecting the usual OSU blowout and decided I would rather hang out with my friends than sit in a crowded stadium and watch bad play after bad play. Well, it turns out, had I been at the game, I would have been able to rush the field when the clock expired and Purdue had won! Oh well! I can't have it all.

I returned home (to my parents house) that evening and joined the weenie roast that was roaring at our next door neighbor's house. Several kids look bored and so I busted out a flashlight and taught them how to play flashlight tag. They were astonished by the game that I had played almost every summer night as a child. They were even more surprised to see me scale a tree for my first hiding spot. Apparently kids don't climb trees anymore. I must say it was fun to relive my childhood... maybe a little embarrassing when everyone answered the "how old are you" question (8, 9, 11, 12, 14.... and me at 25 years old), but I quickly got over that as I sprinted off for my next hiding place under the patio deck.

The only thing that could make this weekend better would be tickets to a home Colts Game (unfortunately, they have a bye this week).

Classmate Blogs

As many of you already aware, many of my classmates are also bloggers. Their blogs can be found at lgo-blog.mit.edu. However, there is an additional blog that I would like to point out. My classmate Noramay has an 11 year old daughter Chassitty who has recently started a blog. Chassitty's blog can be found at chassitty.tumblr.com. We frequently see Chassitty around the office and at social events. She puts up with our goofing around and even gives us a hand when we need it. She helped my summer team cut and construct our contest winning helicopter design. Her smiling face is great to have around! Thanks Chassitty!

MID TERMS and Free Food

It's midterm week. We have two schedule for the same day! Economics and accounting both occur this thursday morning. Tensions on campus are high this week as everyone prepares. Personally, my motivation to study has been declining as the exams approach. I put some time in over the weekend, but at this point, it seems worthless. Thus I have spent a lot of time avoiding preparing for the exams by contacting friends who I haven't spoken with in a while... due to school work, working on other easier homework, speculating about business ideas, and now blogging. All techniques have provided a more pleasant distraction than the act of studying.

Now onto my second subject... free food. Most people are familiar with the concept of free food as it is almost synonymous with a college campus. It typically consists of pizza for call-out meetings and club sponsored events in the evenings. Here at Sloan... it is similar, yet MUCH different. There are so many club meetings, Sloan events, and company presentations here that you can literally eat a very nice lunch and dinner for free all week. I'm not exaggerating.

Each day is packed here, and luckily there are no classes scheduled from noon to 1pm. This gives time for companies to present and clubs to meet. Since it is during the lunch hour, they provide lunch so that everyone doesn't get incredibly cranky due to lack-of-lunch syndrome. Literally within the one building, on any given day at around noon, there are 3 to 9 different meetings/presentation with food. And the food isn't just pizza. It ranges from pizza, to lasagna to Chinese food, to Thai food, to box lunches, and even Indian food! Take your pick! Go to the hour long presentation or meeting and learn something, then be on you way to afternoon classes. Classes are typically over around 5:30 and the routine repeats.

As I mentioned, I have experience free food at college before... but nothing like this! Bon appetit!

BHP!!!

Beacon Hill Pub! For most Sloanies... enough said. I have found a description that somewhat accurately sums up the experience. While most refer to it as a dive bar, I must say that everything is relative. Relative to the other bars in Boston, yes it is a dive bar. Relative to the true dive bars that I have been to in West Lafayette, Indiana (home of the Boilermakers), the venue is a palace.

Regardless of your physical description, it is a fun time. Every wednesday the Sloanies literally take over the BHP. We typically represent at least 85% of the crowd, and we all crowd together in what seems like as small of an area as possible (leaving much of the bar completely open!). Conversations are rousing, occasionally someone puts money in the juke box, darts are flying, it's impossible to move, and most importantly... lots of smiles! It's our chance to relax for a bit, forget about school and the 8:30 am class the next morning, meet students from the class above/below, and enjoy our time with classmates.

Field Trip Revisited

As I mentioned in the past, the LGO program features great opportunities to see what we are learning in the real world. I like to call them field trips, but the more professional term is Plant Trek.

Anyways, in a previous post I mentioned these field trips. What I didn't mention is that cameras are not allowed to the proprietary nature of what we are shown. However, I did receive permission to post this picture from the Pratt and Whitney tour.

This was distributed in the Pratt and Whitney company news letter and forwarded to us! We are standing in front of the jet engine destined for the Airbus A380, the world's largest passenger plane. As you can see from the picture, the world's largest plane also requires one of the worlds largest jet engines.

This is just one of the many amazing things we have seen on our local Plant Treks. I'm already looking forward to our 2 week long tour in January of manufacturing plants all across the country! ROAD TRIP!