Spring Break Pinball!

I love pinball. I always have. As a kid, I made my own pinball machine when I taped a bunch of wooden blocks to a board that I set at an incline, fashioned flippers out of long blocks, and substituted a rubber bouncy ball for a metal pinball. True story. I'm pretty sure my parents have pictures (maybe they will scan the pictures and send them too me... hint hint!!!).

Anyways, I somehow discovered a pinball machine in Seattle via the vast interweb. There's a $7 entry fee, then you can play as many machines as you want for free. The machines are placed in chronological order around the room, starting with 1961 going through to the latest and greatest machine. Not only is it fun to play the machines, but it's also fun to see the evolution of the game over the years - bells to electronic buzzers to digital sound systems, mechanical to electronic scoring, low tilt angle to high tilt angle playing surface, etc.

One of my favorite machines was called the Circus. It was from the 70's. Instead of the small ping of a bell, there were small horns that provided the audible feedback. The horns were different tones and were quite surprising as they stood out among the other similar sounding machines. Here's a video of me playing the Circus machine, listen closely for the horns!

I would recommend to anyone with any interest in pinball machines to go to the Seattle Pinball Machine. You can play games all evening and the machines constantly rotate (we saw three machines leaving as we were on our way out!).

With graduation approaching, are there any pinball machine companies out there that are hiring?

Spring Break Climbing

I first started climbing in Indianapolis at this gym. It was a nice gym, conveniently located near work, and had a great monthly rate. The walls were basically a smooth wood surface with holds conveniently (or inconveniently placed) up and down. I enjoyed going there very much and spent many afternoons climbing around.

Then I went to a climbing gym in Seattle. It was a whole different level. First off, the gyms are much bigger and MUCH more crowded. In Indianapolis, I could expect to see 10 to 15 other people at they gym. In Seattle, it seemed like hundreds. The Seattle gyms are also much more expensive... but look at them!!!

The walls have a grippy rock feel as the underlying structure has been covered by a textured, cement-like material - as seen by the different colors in the pictures below. There are HUNDREDS of holds. So many, I get a little dizzy looking at them!

While on Spring Break, I joined many of my Seattle friends at the gym one evening after they were done working for the day (and I was done relaxing for the day). It was a fun experience, much more similar to outdoors but not quite there. Enjoy some pictures...

What I like to call the Wall with a Million Grips

This is a picture of about half of the climbing gym... its BIG!
When it rains in Seattle, climbers go indoors. There's a lot of climbers in Seattle and a lot of rain.

Spring Break!

I spent my Spring Break in Seattle and it was awesome. There will be a few blogs to cover all of the activities that I experienced, but I thought I would start with the mountain cabin that we rented for the first weekend I was there.

I joined 13 of my Seattle friends (from my internship at Boeing) at the Riverdance Lodge in lovely Leavenworth, WA. Once again, I took on the responsibility for cooking for the entire group. I made a HUGE grocery run on Friday which held us through for the weekend. We had "Brad-Thai" on Friday, Chili on Saturday, and Breakfast Burritos on Sunday. Delicious if I say so myself. We had a hot tub, sauna, huge living room, and beautiful mountain views. A great weekend to kick off spring break.

Leavenworth is a mountain town with a Bavarian theme. Due to the usually warm weather, my plans for cross country skiing fell through, thus I decided to go to the local fish hachery to complete my education on the salmon life cycle.

The Fish Hatchery.

I caught a fish in the information center.

After a great weekend we headed into downtown Leavenworth to enjoy a bratwurst lunch and see some of the tourist traps (aka, shops). Our favorite shop was the hat shop, with tons of different hats.

Downtown Leavenworth.

The hat shop.

Red Line Pub Crawl 2011

The 2nd Annual Red Line Pub Crawl took place on February 27th, 2011. It was once again, a great success. Those who attended last year dug out their pub crawl shirt for the evening of fun. We made 6 stops and included a location where families with kids could attend (see below where pub CRAWL gets redefined). Due to a ridiculously long line at the last bar, there was a sudden switch to a different location, but everyone made it and had a great time. Class of 2012... we expect you to uphold this tradition.

Our youngest pub crawler yet - Sean Smith. He redefines the pub CRAWL... get it? It's funny.
The first pub in South Boston.
Our annual Red Line Rebels.

MIT Energy Conference II

The 2011 MIT Energy was a huge success. Although I'm still recovering from the weekend workload, it was a great experience and a lot of fun to be a part of. My role was Audio/Visual centric as my team and I coordinated all of the needs of the panelists and speakers. Everything ran very smoothly and after a long day, everyone rejoined for fun at the after party.

Here's a few shots capturing our team's contribution to the conference:

Video screens and lighting in one of the three rooms.
The new MIT Energy Conference GOBO lighting up the wall at the JFK Library during the VIP dinner.
For current or future MIT students... get involved with this conference! It's awesome!

MIT Energy Conference

This weekend is the MIT Energy Conference. As a 2nd year organizer, I find that the time I dedicate to the conference has increased quite a bit. I'm helping out with the AV side of things, and if you know my past, this is right up my ally! It's been a fun break from school work (and sometimes displacement of schoolwork) as I toil away with other passionate people driving towards a common goal. Everything culminates this weekend with the conference... and it's going to be great.

If you are one of the 1000 people who purchased tickets, then perhaps I'll see you there!

My Apartment

New semester, new apartment. It's becoming a theme as of recently. Anyways, I found a great sublease of a room in a condo owned by an MIT Sloan alum. It's a few blocks from where I lived last year, thus I'm very familiar with the area. It's a typical Boston "house"... a 3 story building with an apartment on each floor. I'm living on the first floor of this building.

As you can see, every house on the street looks pretty much the same, except for the color. These are very old houses as indicated by the stone foundation found in the somewhat creepy basement.

I have a HUGE bedroom, a nice kitchen, free laundry, and a free parking space (this is huge!). But as you can see, there is barely room between the buildings for a car. We'll just say it's been fun trying to find a place to put the shoveled snow this season.

Valentine's Day

Have you ever been "that girl" or "that guy" in class (or maybe at work). I'm talking about the one who receives the overly-public yet secret display of affection. Well, let's put it this way, while it may be very embarrassing, it can be particularly entertaining for those around you at the time of reception. My experience added a level of appreciation as class was delayed a few minutes and it was fun to see the professor try to regain his train of thought.

I was lucky enough to have my camera handy when this "Valentine's Day Sing-a-Gram" busted into my Environment, Materials, and Manufacturing class. I want to thank you, whoever gave Jenny on the left side of the room in the 3rd row of my class for sending this our way.

For an engineering school, those guys can sing!

Winter C Function

The first C-Function of the semester was appropriately Winter themed. I was impressed with the ice sculptures commissioned for this event.

Does this look familiar?

Snow Street Parking

There is an unspoken rule in Boston regarding shoveling a street parking spot - if you shovel the spot, it is yours. These claimed spots are typically marked by a folding chair, cone, or recycling bin.

Basically, when you shovel your car out from 24inch of snow to drive to work, you leave a marker in your spot indicating that the spot is yours. No one takes it! Quite an honor system! I first learned about this from my brother who lived in Boston for 4 years before I came to the area. As I was walking around I noticed a bunch of chairs sitting on piles of snow next to parked cars and remember that these are used to mark the spot when the car leaves.

For those visiting during the snowy season... don't park in these spots!!!