Big Game

Colts vs. Patriots. Sunday Night Football. 8:30 pm.

I'm a Colts fan living in Patriots Country. The displays of Patriot Pride whether it is through posters at bars, local TV promotions and new, or logo-ed clothing on the "locals" frequently make me feel quite ill. All I can hope and pray for is that in 24 hours, I have a huge grin on my face and a win on the record books.

Half Way Round the World

The internet amazes me sometimes. I typically have a strong appreciation for it, and then occasionally that appreciation flares up even more. Tonight's one of those flares and I apologize in advance.

I've grown up with the internet. I remember in 5th grade when I went to my first website on my dad's work computer. I thought... wow, is that it? It was just a product page for Nike or something of the like. Nothing to exciting or fun... maybe a little overrated. Then as I grew older, I found more and more uses such as email and the Dr. Pepper homepage (I love Dr. Pepper) and I appreciated it more. I found instant messenger where I used to spend hours talking to friends after hanging out with them all evening on a friday or saturday night.

With high school came high speed internet and it really started to take off. I could do research for classwork, download music, and websites became more interactive. Then I went to college. Much of my classwork required the internet and at this point and I sat back in amazement thinking how this used to be done with paper. I then got a laptop and was introduced to the world of wireless. Wow... what freedom!

Now, here I am back in college. I can sit here with my cell phone where I use the wifi connection to check emails and surf the internet without pulling out a computer (no, I don't have an iphone but I hear that those work too).

Tonight I had one of those experiences that made me sit back in amazement. It's 1:37am in Boston and I "ran into" my previous-coworkers/friends online. We started up a gmail chat and flipped on the cameras for a video call... and suddenly I was swept away into a room I knew so well. The room happen to be a conference room at a contract manufacturer located in Xiamen, China. I had spent many hours in that room working on several projects for Klipsch during my time there. There on the screen was the familiar room with 5 friendly faces to greet me... Tom, Mark, Don, Bin, and Jerry - the team that I used to work with. They were half way around the work, some 8000 miles away and 12 hours ahead (roughly 1:30pm their time) yet it felt like we were in the same room. It was great to see them and hear about their latest adventures in China! Oh the internet!!!!

I guess I have time for one more story.... my Grandma on my mom's side, who lives in Indiana, has recently adopted the internet into her home (Hi Grandma!!!). She was a little reluctant at first, but with some coaxing and the help of my other Grandma who has been online for a while, she "gave in" and she loves it! It's nice to be able to communicate with her via email and show her the great things that the internet can offer. But the awe of the internet comes from how I can teach her how to work her computer in Indiana from here in Boston. I can log into her computer and take control of it from any internet connection (www.logmein.com, its great if you haven't tried it). With a simple phone call, I can then talk her through what I'm trying to show her. It's like we're in the same room! When she needs help or if the computer is acting funny, she lets me know, I log in and fix it. It's great! Once again... oh the internet!!!!

Latin Si Function

Not much time before class so here's a quick post from the Latin Si Function last weekend.

We walked into Walker Memorial to see these great decorations! We then enjoyed many different latin foods and drinks before the entertainment began.

Here's Joe completely off the mark when swinging for the Pinata. His swing got uncomfortably close to the video projectors.

Latin dancing!

Mexican dancing!

And my favorite... the REGEATONE Dancers!

MIT Energy Conference

The MIT Energy Conference is schedule for March 5th and 6th 2009. This year's focus is Opportunities, Pathways, and Solutions. It will be a two day event with energy related events such as panels, key note speakers, and workshops.

At this point, I am working on the Marketing Committee in the online marketing subcommittee to help organize the event. Check out the website and if you are interested in joining us you can get your ticket on January 10th.

Fall Ball

The Sloan Fall Ball 2009 was on Friday in downtown Boston. Every got dressed up for an evening of dinner, dancing, and friends. Basically, prom for MBA's. While this sounds fun by itself, add the incredible venue and you have an almost perfect evening.

We were on the 33rd floor of the 60 State Street building, in a two story ballroom looking out over the city! You can see the Marriott Clocktower in the view out the window. This building has also been feature in my North End Blog and when my cousin came to town. However this time, instead up looking up at it, we were looking down!!!

The dance floor was busy and beautiful all night

With a gorgeous view in the background.

First Hockey

Epic fail on my part. I forgot to take my camera to the first LGO Hockey Game of the season. Although, in retrospect, I'm not sure that a camera was really necessary. For anyone who ever saw the movie "The Mighty Ducks", you can imagine exactly what we looked like. Out of 20 people on the team, approximately 2 had played ice hockey before, 1/4 have experience in roller hockey, and about half had ice skated before.

Our line changes were confusing. Our puck handling skills did not exist. While chasing a puck I fell down and slid into the goal (picture that scene in the Mighty Ducks... that was me). The other team had more points than we did shots on goal. Needless to say, we were not good... but we had a ton of fun and can't wait to get destroyed by our opponents again.

BRING IT!

Halloween Picture

Here's a picture of me with Manuel on Halloween. I'm not sure who is scarier.

Culmination

Tonight is the culmination of excitement before the first LGO '11 hockey game tomorrow. Jerseys are in, nick names have been awarded, rules have been explained to those of us new to the sport, and on ice ice-skating practice has occurred. The only thing left to complete is the email war within the team.

I am convinced that anytime there is a distribution where the people involved know each other fairly well, and someone can hit "reply all" with a pertinent joke... it happens. I'm definitely not complaining about this, and in fact, I endorse the email inbox propagation. I'm have noticed that this happened in undergrad, at work, between friends, and now within our LGO class and hockey. There seems to be almost no boundaries... which is great. I'll share with you the latest attachment that I received:

Watch out MIT Hockey players! It's gonna be a throw down tomorrow night!

Halloween pictures to come... I'm still looking for the perfect picture!

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.