Elston’s Blog

Old, but whatever.

Also, probably because I don’t have any creative musical abilities. Sigh.

Today was final move-out day, after a week of cleaning up and moving boxes and furniture into Dunster (D-HAUS!) storage. I believe I used a full seven boxes, although two of them were smaller, and stored perhaps 3 or 4 other things. For the next two weeks, as I do dorm crew and Reunions, I’ll be staying in Winthrop, one of the upperclassmen houses right along the river. Eight hours a day of making beds, however, does not sound appealing, regardless of the pay…

As I stood in my room for the very last time today, I felt this weird sense of completion. Granted, I had been done with finals now for two weeks, but the forced move out of Matthews led to something different. I think that the fifteen times I rechecked my room to see if there was something remaining might have been a reflection of an unconscious desire to stay in my room as long as possible. It wasn’t until I finally removed the tape from my lock and closed the door for the last time that the sense of realization of the completion of freshman year finally registered in my mind.

I’m not quite sure how I feel about this yet. Granted, there is the sense of relief of having completed a year of school, but also a bit of sadness, in the fact that it reflects the fact that life passes far too quickly. For now, while I’m still at Harvard, there’s still a bit of the college feeling left, and as such there isn’t too much nostalgia, except for being able to eat at Annenberg/a dining hall with free, prepared food. Having to pay for every meal is such a hassle and a pain for the wallet, especially because I don’t have a kitchen or even a refrigerator to store meals.

In the midst of writing this post, I was alerted by a friend through gChat that grades had been released. I no longer feel anything for this school…my grades have only marginally improved from last semester, contrary to my previous thoughts/beliefs. I’m barely average here, if even, and that seriously disappoints me, given the effort that I decided to invest into my five classes this semester. Shrug. It happens. I just need to work even harder for my LSAT. 

One of the things I kept from my room for at least the next two weeks is my little plant. I bought it with my friend, who also picked up the same plant but with pink flowers instead of purple. It’s been alive for probably three weeks now, impressive given that it’s just a simple potted plant. It’ll probably not last that long, and it’s been a hassle to carry around, but even still I feel something immoral and grotesque about throwing away life, even though it’s just a plant.

So this blog post has been pretty much all over the place, and quite lengthy as well, but I hope it sums up my thoughts the past couple of days. Hopefully I’ll post again at the end of Dorm Crew…

Buy Me These

“The Wrap 920AR is the world’s first consumer video eyewear with 67-inch displays as seen from 10-feet (3m) and a stereo camera pair that “looks” into the world, bringing mixed and augmented reality to life. The stereo camera pair, each capturing 752 x 480 images at 60 fps, delivers a single 1504 x 480 side-by-side image that can be viewed in 3D stereoscopic video on the Wrap eyewear displays.”

Enough said.

Now that it’s Monday evening, and most of the visting pre-frosh have departed for their respective homes (and impending AP tests!), Annenberg has returned to its usual, half-empty 5PM state. And for those pre-frosh that remain, they are easily noticeable, for they appear to be about 10 years of age and possess this bubbling sense of enthusiasm that seems to disspate from Harvard students right after three weeks of school. Anyway, hosting two pre-frosh and talking to them about Harvard was quite interesting; their giddiness about attending college makes me slightly nostalgic for the days of second semester senior year of high school. At the same time, however, they can also be somewhat annoying, especially from the perspective of a student who has lived at Harvard for nearly a full year. Basically, they possess a level of immaturity and overexcitedness that contrasts starkly with the general mood of Harvard students at the moment, concerning this is last week of school, with final papers and exams quickly approaching.

Pre-frosh, for all the liveliness they exude, give off this sense of arrogance, probably derived from just being accepted to the some of the best universities in the world. They also are still the best at what they do, and haven’t been crushed by the realization that at college, there are always people better than you at something. But I shrug in my digression, for in a few months this will all change. Overall, pre-frosh weekend was rather interesting.

So there are about three weeks of school left, which means that I’m going to be doing major paper writing for Phil 131 and Phil 156, which have significant final papers, for Expos (third essay), and for Slavic 148 (shorter final paper). In addition, Phil 156 and Slavic 148 have take-home finals, which aren’t that bad given the timing of Slavic 148. What’s particularly horrible, though, is my scheduling for Music 187 - essentially, I have to learn the fourth movement of Franck’s Violin Sonata in about 2 days. Wonderful. Which means five-six hours of piano a day; I’ll be satisfied with an A- in that class though, because at this point anything would raise my GPA. Lulz.

Ughhhhhhh. I’m currently in the process of writing an essay on Hegel, which means I have completely no idea what I’m doing. Wonderful.

Absoluteness of finitude?…

Here I sit, back in my dorm on a beautiful, slightly warm Saturday afternoon. The past week, spent with seven other students, was one of the more interesting experiences I’ve had in my eighteen years of life. Sunday at noon, the eight of us volunteers headed down by Megabus (outlets and moderately fast WiFi) to New York City, to spend the next week working at God’s Love We Deliver, a nonprofit organization serving New York and parts of New Jersey; it prepares 15,000 meals each week and delivers them to various clients unable to prepare their own meals, such as those who are terminally-ill, afflicted with cancer, HIV/AIDS patients, the blind, quadriplegic, etc. It does serve an essential purpose for many of its patients, who are definitely in a particularly bad point in life and desperately need the help that God’s Love delivers. Through my van assistant rides on Tuesday and Thursday, I was exposed to a variety of circumstances throughout Queens, Staten Island, and Manhattan, all of which helped me develop a deeper understanding of different socioeconomic statuses; coming from a solidly middle-class West Coast suburb, I had not been extensively exposed to urban life, and this week in New York was rather eye-opening for me.

One of the best things about New York is the pure vitality of energy that seems to fill the air on a bustling day. Workers, cab drivers, and tourists crowd the streets of Times Square, Central Park, and other major areas in Manhattan, the sheer hustle-bustle of everyone involved creates an environment quite unlike any other. In addition to enjoying this feeling, I also saw God of Carnage, a Broadway show that proved quite entertaining and that afforded me the opportunity to meet Lucy Liu, of Kill Bill and Charlie’s Angels fame.

Most importantly, however, the human connections that I established were the most important. I came to know seven other Harvard students in a special context not usually experienced, i.e sharing two suites and the better part of the twenty-four hours of a day together, and am now friends with people whom I never would have expected myself to know. It seems to me that it’s always the human interaction that counts, because for me the most interesting thngs on the world aren’t nature, or technology, or physics, or even philosophy, but rather, people.  Every single person is unique and has some attribute to be learned, or learned from, and that’s precisely why I love meeting new people and visiting new places. People, such as my fellow volunteers or the van drivers I worked with, provide differing perspectives on life; in fact, interacting with non-Harvard community people was quite refreshing…, and these viewpoints not only allow one to reflect upon the state of the larger world as a whole, but upon one’s own life, and it relates to those of others. Every interaction allows me to learn more about myself, and how I change as I talk and interact with different people.

Life is far too short not to explore the world, which is why I’ve determined to intern in Washington, D.C. this summer. It’ll allow me to live in a completely new environment doing substantive work for an organization whose goals I respect, and speaking of that, I need to start my grant application soon.

Essentially, with AAB recruitment, Music 187r, WHRB, IMUSE, my research job at the Radcliffe Institute, and having a social life, I no longer have a life. I’d also liike to start exercising again, especially cycling, but it doesn’t look like that’s going to happen either. I’ve taken on far too many responsibilities, and I’d like to start attending more office hours with professors; I plan on Wednesday 2-3 for Phil 156 and Thursday 2-4 for Slavic 148, and hopefully 2 sessions for Expos and 2 more for Phil 131, meaning that today and tomorrow I’m going to write a good deal for my essays, while also trying to practice a decent amount of piano for Music 187r and do some research work for Radcliffe…and trying to sleep because I’m somewhat sick. Oh well. Now I have to run around doing errands.

The world’s most addicting website. It hosts several thousand flash games, many of them of low quality, but it’s not like people actually play them: they don’t have badges. The reason Kongregate is particularly popular is that it not only provides flash games, but gives good games badges and achievements. For these games, accomplishing certain goals within games, e.g. 1000 kills, 5000 points, etc., will earn you badges stored on your account. Each badge is like a Boy Scout equivalent, with a little drawing and sentence description. Additionally, earning badges is accompanied with gaining points, which also helps you gain Kongregate levels. For example, I am level 9 on Kongregate, while many people have levels in the twenties.

The benefit of having a higher level? Well, certain games or beta testing of games is only available to those with a high enough level, say 35. Also, it lends you credibility in the comment sections of games, adds street cred in general (although only among gamer circles - higher levels generally denote a lack of a social life), and will, most importantly, help you become an administrator on Kongregate.

In addition to badges and leveling up, there are also multiple chat rooms. Thus, Kongregate becomes a fully functioning social network, in which friends will talk, and can keep track of others’ accomplishments. This website takes the inherent solitude of playing computer games and completely obliterates it; simply having the presence of other people in the same gaming community reverses the isolation, and for this reason Kongregate is relatively popular.

A good business model.

The past few weeks have been tediously boring, and consisted of my sitting at home struggling to work on internship applications, practice piano, and work out/cut down on my weight. I’ve been volunteering half-workdays at the City of Santa Clarita, Community Services, but that’s not that exciting…although the one time I taught chess to some elementary school kids, it was much more fulfilling. Hopefully during the next two weeks I can get in some more of that.

In the meantime, I’ve been working through Fated to Love You, a Taiwanese drama, in a sorry attempt to improve my Chinese. I also saw Avatar in 3-D; this movie is definitely overrated, given its predictable storyline and Pocohontas-like qualities. Was it worth the fourteen dollars? Probably not, but oh well.

On a final note, I am planning to conduct more research for my job…I actually haven’t really done much at all.