“Worcester Rocks” Video Contest
Here’s a video that I threw together for a contest held by the Worcester Consortium. If you get a chance, please take the time to watch it. Thanks!
A Weekend With Taylor Mali
And what a weekend it was.
This past Friday afternoon, I left WPI a little early (missing a Physics class) to be in Portland in time for Taylor Mali’s arrival in Maine.
For those of you who don’t know who Taylor Mali is, I suggest that you look up a few of his videos to see how amazing his slam poetry is.
That night, we had dinner at the Local 188, along with Ed, her mom, the MFA President, and his wife. Perhaps the highlight of the night was when I found out that Taylor is as much of a Mac guy as I am; we spent some time sharing iPhone apps and anticipating upcoming MacBook Pros.
The next day was a long one, with a cold, two-and-a-half-hour bus ride to and from the University of Maine at Orono, for the Maine Speech & Debate State Championships. Edward Little did very well, with a couple state champions and 3rd place speech sweepstakes. But before awards were given out, the audience was treated to a special performance by Taylor Mali.
Without a doubt, the plethora of speech and debate geeks were blown away by his presentation.
Also that day, I was able to have him sign two of his books for me: What Learning Leaves and The Last Time As We Are.
Bill Clinton Comes to WPI
It’s been a while since I’ve shaken hands with a famous person. You might recall my last such experience when I shook hands with Steve Jobs, exactly 2 years ago…almost to the hour.
This time around, I got to meet and shake hands with Bill Clinton when he came to WPI to campaign for Martha Coakley, who is running for the U.S. Senate. I got in line for the 4:30 pm event at around 4:00, just after my physics class, and the line was already quite long.
News crews had been setting up earlier in the day, and the police and security had been around campus for quite some time to prepare for the former president’s arrival.
When I finally got inside, there was already a crowd of people filling the standing room in anticipation.
Even though the event was scheduled to start at 4:30, Bill Clinton arrived late and we weren’t able to start until after 5:00. At this point, several people I don’t know spoke about Martha.
Then, finally, after waiting for a very long wait, Bill Clinton was introduced and we finally got to see the former president speak.
He is a great speaker, and he worked the supportive crowd very well. I really like this shot of someone taking video with, of course, an iPhone.
Then Martha Coakley began speaking, and though many people left as Bill’s speech was over, most stayed if only to be polite.
The crowd began to thin when it was all over, but that stopped as quickly as it started when Bill started making his way through the audience to shake hands, sign books, and kiss babies.
Like when I met Steve Jobs, I edged closer…
…and closer…
…and even closer until I was finally within arms reach and able to throw my hand out there for a shake.
Mission accomplished.
The New Mabuhay Net
The new Mabuhay Net is up! Check it out!
First Snow at WPI
A couple somewhat-mediocre pictures from the first snowfall at WPI. For some, this is their first time seeing snow (but not for me, of course).
Happy 3rd Birthday, MacBook Pro!
Three years ago today, my computer left China. That’s 90 in computer-years.
AT&T Hates Me
Well, maybe not. I’ve had a great experience with my iPhone 3GS on their network while here in Worcester. In fact, I get a full 5 bars of 3G coverage here in my dorm room.
However, I can’t quite say the same about my experience while home in Maine. From my room, I’ll be lucky to get 2 bars…of EDGE. The painfully slow download speeds elicit memories of dial-up. So you can imagine how excited I was to hear that my city was getting a 3G upgrade in the near future. This would solve that problem, right?
Wrong.
I recently took a look at their 3G coverage map. Here is what I saw…
Very clearly, you can see that their new 3G coverage makes a perfect radius around my house. Thank you, AT&T. Thank you so very much.
One Million Hits!
At around 3:24 AM on Sunday, October 4, 2009, this website finally had it’s 1,000,000th hit! Special thanks to Rocio and Gera, who helped out the cause by reloading the page!
Here’s the screenshot of my visitor tracker, right as it passed the mark…
A Not-So-Rare Nerd Moment at WPI
It was around 10 AM, and I was just heading back to my room after a physics lecture and a stop at Dunkin’ Donuts when I see an odd contraption being set up in the middle of campus.
Nothing unusual, right? They’re always working on weird projects here. But upon closer inspection, I realize what this is.
See those Google stickers? And the 360-degree camera mounted on the top of the tricycle? This isn’t any ordinary contraption. This is a photography session for Google Street View.
Along with many other way-too-excited WPI students who appreciate this occurrence, we follow like stalkers. I’m fairly certain we got our photos in many of the shots as they went around the fountain.
It also ended up being the first time I took photos at WPI; I can’t think of a better occasion. Here are a few more up-close photos that I took while they weren’t looking:
NFL Nationals: Dreams Come True
It’s been such a busy week that as much as I wanted to keep this site updated and stay in touch with people (I’m talking to you, Kim Clark), I simply couldn’t. But let’s start at the beginning. Sunday, we had a southern-style lunch (“Y’all are from Maine?”)…
…followed by a trip to De Soto Caverns, where there were lots of cave things and total darkness when they turn off the lights.
There was a cheesy religious and patriotic light show as well.
It turns out Alabama is highly religious; we counted 30+ churches on just the roads we traveled. In fact, we saw a place called “Church’s Chicken” and photoshopped the sign slightly.
That night, we had dinner at Fire+Ice with the Maine people.
Monday, I had four rounds of OO. Before each round, I got just one Tic-Tac. ‘Nuff said.
Tuesday, two rounds of OO. Just one Tic-Tac for both again. In my 5th round, I faced the “Harvey & Jack” oratory about imagination that won at CFLs, and in my 6th round, I faced the “You Got Served” oratory that was also in the final round at CFLs. They posted after lunch. Here we go…
My speaker code was 222.
It was there. I screamed. Break face:
Rounds 7 and 8 were the same day (no night to worry about it like CFLs), so Mr. Blanchette and Mrs. Deveau went to 7th round (along with Ed, who went to all my rounds by default). For 8th round, they were joined by Ryan and David (DUO), Greta Landis (HI), and her coach Lyndsy Shuman. Despite getting one Tic-Tac before each of those rounds, I thought I was definitely in the bottom half of the rounds. However, John told me after I was done that my performances were the best he had seen and that I was “distinctly in the top half of both rounds.” He objectively placed me 1st in my 7th round and 2nd in the 8th round. I didn’t believe him. I was wrong.
Postings were at the Host Party, which featured a science museum and a hilarious comedy show.
They unrolled the postings.
It’s hard to see, but 222 was there. I screamed more. Break face #2:
I was now in the top 30 (take that, CFLs), and I had that night to worry about Rounds 9 and 10…quarterfinals. We went to the Cheesecake Factory again to celebrate, and John was very encouraging. He did a lot to make sure I didn’t get intimidated by the competition, and that night, we worked for about an hour on getting things just right with the oratory.
Wednesday, the plan had been to do supplemental events (prose and expository). Due to my unexpected success, those two pieces would never be performed. Instead, I was at Spain Park High School, home of the elimination rounds.
I look to my right, and last year’s Charlotte’s Web duo was having a talk with their coach. I look to my left and three people from the CFL final round of OO are walking over to a table. That’s when I realized what kind of company I was in.
I got one Tic-Tac before both of those rounds as well, a 10-round streak. Of course, the competition was tough, and I didn’t make it past these rounds. After seeing 56 oratories (over 9 hours worth), I was pretty much done anyway. I ended up placing 25th out of the 220 oratories. Not bad at all. Here are the semifinal postings, without my code…
…and my plaque.
Thursday was the day of my one and only additional event: Storytelling. This was terrible last year; we were competing late with my supplemental events so I didn’t get to start memorizing until after midnight. This year, I had the whole afternoon and night before to put together a performance. Here we are at Oak Mountain High School, playing Quiddler with Orono.
I was very proud of the performance, and I got 1st in my first round. In the next round, I thought I had 1st as well, but the judge strangely gave me third to two okay-ish performances. I was “down” in the round, so speech was over. Forever. I also had one Tic-Tac for both of those rounds, making it a perfect 12-for-12 at nationals.
Greta Landis ended up doing very well in Storytelling. She made it four rounds (semifinals), and she was only one rank away from final round.
Interp final rounds were that night, and John ended up judging the final round of DUO (Mrs. Deveau judged final round of storytelling).
HI was mediocre, DI was intense, and DUO was incredible. The people from Charlotte’s Web placed 2nd, and my favorite in the round got 3rd.
Friday and Saturday involved various attractions (including too many zoo photos to post) and a failed attempt at traveling home. Our flights didn’t work out, so we had to stay another night and leave for home very early on Sunday.
Regardless, it was fantastic week. I’ll never forget it.