Well, here I am at last. I'm now a card carrying MITer. Yup,
I've got an office, a phone, a dorm room, and I work the grad student hours
to boot. I'm writing this at 11:30 on a Sunday night, and I've spent the
past two days in the lab running subjects. But at least I'm in Boston,
and there's some real snow around (up to 2' this week!).
Man Vehicle Lab
I'm in Boston until the middle of May, doing three months of research
that will count towards my MSS degree at ISU. I'm working in the Man
Vehicle Laboratory at MIT, as part
of the Artificial Gravity group. I'm
working on a piece of equipment called a Short-Radius Centrifuge (SRC).
We're running experiments which involve spinning people on a bed, having
them turn their head and feel like they're tumbling, and measuring their
eye and head movements, as well as their subjective sensations. The point
is to understand the function of the vestibular system, as well as develop
the SRC as a countermeasure which will provide short-term gravity during
long-term space flight (to prevent muscle and bone degradation, cardiovascular
system deconditioning, and other physiological dangers of microgravity).
What I'm really doing is checking out MIT, Cambridge, and Boston, and enjoying
myself along the way.
MIT (Cambridge, really)
MIT is exactly what it is stereotyped to be, and sometimes worse! I
could give you many examples, but I think just one night's example will
suffice (though I also recommend checking out http://www.geekporn.com).
Saturday March 2nd, after spending from 1-9pm in the lab fighting with
the equipment, Erika took me to see the Chorollaries,
an MIT a capella group singing a "Concert in Bad Taste". Now, normally
an a capella group will only get a small audience, but at MIT, that was
not the case. I got into the line at 10pm, for a concert that was due to
start at 11:59:59 (it's MIT). When I got there, there were already a couple
of hundred students in line. The first person got there at 5pm the night
before, and the majority got there at some point that afternoon.
In typical MIT style, a good portion of the lineup was working on problem
sets, with many people working on their laptops (some with air-LAN, others
stringing power and network cabling everywhere). Others were playing cards,
some working on a 6'X6' crossword puzzle, some lying in their tents (one
built out of used pizza boxes), and so on. People were walking up and down
the line, offering freindly help on problem sets, selling soda and
candy, or Assassin's Guild disc guns.
Finally, we crammed into a large lecture hall, and I mean crammed. Then,
the Chorollaries put on some crude, high-school humour sketches along the
lines of Skule Nite(TM), but read off of cue cards, and without the wizardry
of props, costumes, and choreography found a little further North. Their
singing was dead on though, with an amazingly well executed version of
the Engineer's
Hymn. I was very impressed at their courage and strength in the face
of an unruly band of geeks (myself included, unfortunately), many of whom
shooting them with a miscellany of disc guns, witty quips, or header sheets
from the closest computer lab.
Oh, and I suppose that I forgot to mention that the alternative entertainment
on campus that night was a concert by Naughty by Nature... Welcome to MIT!
Boston
Boston is quite an interesting city. It's very friendly, for the most
part, although some of the service people have a slightly rougher edge
on them. Admittedly, I've been constrained mostly to Cambridge, Somerville,
Allston and Brookline, as I've been searching for housing. I'm back in
love with Harvard Square, and I'm really enjoying the amount of Middle
Eastern, Chinese, Thai, Portugese, and Pizza/Grinder restaurants around.
There's even a falafel truck within 2 minutes of my lab - what more could
I ask for?
So far though, I've only managed to make it to Quincy Market and the
Aquarium, but that won't last. I'm itching to see a Celtics game, another
Sox game at Fenway, and go skating along Boston Commons. Also, I've missed
Penn and Teller and Ladysmith Black Mombazo, but there's plenty more coming,
including the Kodo Drummers (score). I could really get to like this.
Monday, April 30, 2001
OK, so I know that this is really late, but at least I can say that
I really have something to write about. I guess I should first mention
that I write this to the detriment of my thesis, which is due before I
leave Cambridge in 2 weeks, but since I've got a whole two weeks to do
all the analysis and write the thing, I've really got nothing to worry
about. That all said and done, I have to say that I really enjoy living
in Boston. MIT really knows how to live it up. The following are a couple
of small examples of what makes life so much fun:
Quincy Market
Well, I know I've already talked about this place some, but I really
do love a place full of buskers, with two magic/juggling shops, great buttery
cookies, a Discovery Channel store, and good seafood. Timmy G. and I went
back there to kill half a day, and took in the sights, sounds and taste.
Concerts & Events
While this is in no way representative of what I've been doing the past
8 weeks, MIT and Boston have a great commitment to the arts. I made it
to the Kodo Drummers, the Harlem Globetrotters (OK, maybe not the arts),
a 4-university collaborative orchestra/choir performance at Wellesley playing
Mahler, the Boston Marathon (watching it at Heartbreak Hill was fun) and
so much more.
Just this past weekend (April 27-30th), I had a chance to see a whole
bunch of other shows. Friday night, MIT hosted Blues Traveller and Roots
in the gym (still not a Roots fan, but that's OK). Saturday was EarthFest,
featuring Joan Osborne and Blues Traveller on the Esplanade, overlooking
the Charles River. Saturday night, Erika and I stopped by a jazz performance
to take some pictures of an avant garde group called Ardvark (then we went
for great Thai food in Harvard Square). Sunday night, after an afternoon
snack of Kahlua Almond Cheesecake, Stefan Milenkovich played the meanest
violin I've ever heard.
A slight detour here: Milenkovich was a child prodigy, has played thousands
of concerts and won international awards, and could play every single style
of violin piece like a virtuoso on his Stradivarius. I've never heard such
amazing music; velvety, long-lasting, high-pitched notes... stacatto notes
played faster than I thought was humanly possible (with plucked notes thrown
in to make it more complicated)... and my favourite - he played a deep,
melodic, full note on one string while playing a light, airy, and dancing
tune on the other string.
In case that all wasn't enough, I think I'm going to see Our Lady Peace
play tonight, Blue Man Group in a couple of days, and the Red Sox at Fenway
before I go! I love all this at my fingertips. I know Toronto has a lot
of it too, but damn!
Food
Last, but never least, I have to compliment Boston on its abundance
of great food. This also goes out as a thank-you to Daniella for the recommendation
of some excellent restaurants (Emma's in Kendall Sq., Burdox and High Rise
Bakery in Harvard Sq., etc.). I'm told the food in Providence is even better,
but I'd be really surprized by that.
Other Perks
I have to give many thumbs up to any school that a) gives the residences
a great view of the river (and good running tracks too), b) holds crew
practice to give those students living in the residences something to watch
when they get tired of one of the best views of Boston, c) has free sailing
on said river for all students. Life is good. I'm going to see about getting
out on the day-sailer moored in the harbour as well. I'm also hoping to
get a chance to head to Nantucket or the Cape at some point. Who needs
to do school work (see above comment about thesis being due in 2 weeks)?
Last perk - this morning I went to hear Bob Vila and a culinary anthropologist
talk about the kitchen. I was tempted to act like Tim the Tool-Man, but
I decided that it was definitely in my best interest not to. The chocolate
printer, ball microphones, and cheese grater to shave dark, milk or white
chocolate onto the espressos were a nice touch though.