10 websites you might not have heard of
Every once in a while, you run into someone who’s lived in a particular city for a long time and knows her way around. She call tell you the best local restaurants, the coolest clubs, and which places to avoid at all costs (the real-life equivalents of 4chan.org). I like to think of myself as that person — except for the Internet. So I might as well show everybody around. Here are ten good sites that you’ve probably never heard of:
Editor’s Note
Campus Life will be adding new features this volume, and I hope you’ll like them.
Events for Feb. 1 – Feb. 6
Tuesday 1. TBP MIT Spring 2011 Career Fair (9 a.m.–3 p.m.) — Rockwell Cage 2. Sloan’s Africa Business Club hosts Georgina Theodora Wood, the Chief Justice of Ghana (5–7 p.m) — E51-115 (Wong Auditorium) Wednesday 1. Sidney-Pacific Lectures Series lecture by Prof. Peter Diamond (6–7 p.m.) — Sidney-Pacific Multi-Purpose Room 2. Dress For Success Fashion Show (7:30 p.m.–8:30 p.m.) — 10-105 (Vannevar Bush Room) Thursday 1. First performance of Dramashop’s Hydriotaphia (8–10 p.m.) — Kresge Little Theater 2. IPTV: The Scrum for the Last Six Feet with Mark Cuban (5:30–9 p.m.) — E51 (Wong Auditorium) Friday 1. Final day of APO Book Exchange (10 a.m.–5 p.m.) — W20-307 (Student Center, Mezzanine Lounge) 2. Technology Through Time: 150 Years of MIT History - Opening Reception (1:00–3:00 p.m.) — 14N-130 Saturday 1. Inside 150: Stories of the Institute (2–3 p.m.) — MIT Museum 2. Final performance of Musical Theatre Guild’s Jekyll and Hyde (8–10 p.m.) — W20-202 (La Sala de Puerto Rico) Sunday 1. Folk Dancing: Greek Night! (8 p.m.–11 p.m.) — W20-202 (La Sala de Puerto Rico) 2. LSC shows The A-Team and Megamind (7 p.m., 10 p.m.) — 26-100
A Boston holiday
I spent my holidays this year at a place few people on campus saw during break. Some people went home, others went on vacation. I stayed in Cambridge and Boston.
The app that ate my summer
I’m the Ash Ketchum of programming. I want to be the very best — which is why it pains me that I’m still nothing close to an elite coder. So when my parents bought me the new Sprint HTC Evo 4G last summer, I decided that I was going to write an Android app. I needed something fun to do while home for summer break, and becoming an Android developer would help further my progress toward the 10,000 hours of practice that Malcolm Gladwell insists I need to be really good at something.
Taking the initiative
Dating is hard these days for women like me. While nothing short of charming, women at MIT are a different breed of female: We’re stronger, more empowered, and generally smarter than your average girl down the street.
Google me — I dare you
I have become a fiercely private individual when it comes to my romantic life. These days, it takes me a while to warm up to people enough to even acknowledge whether or not I have a boyfriend. It’s not information I usually freely offer, and I don’t believe that undermines any of my feelings towards a romantic partner. Instead, I think it’s a greater testimony of my independence with my refusal to ever publicly acknowledge an intimate relationship.
A night in at the movies
Hosting a good double feature, like assembling a good mix tape, is an art form. Sure, you could theoretically pick any two movies based on random selection or convenience and watch them together, but if you’re going to sit down with your friends and spend four to five hours staring at the same screen together, you might as well take a little extra time to plan. You could take any of several different approaches in picking which movies to watch and what order to watch them in, depending on the situation.
VARIOUS STATES OF UNDRESS What what (in the butt)
I’m making no bones about this: My sex life has been pretty sucktastic lately. Two horrible hookups at the beginning of the semester did a lot to deter me from any carnal pursuits, at least for a while.
A diamond in the rough, miles underground
Seemingly in defiance of all logical conventions of game development, a computer game called <i>Minecraft</i> is quickly gaining popularity. Ordinarily, this wouldn’t be a big deal — statistically speaking, some games have to do well. What makes <i>Minecraft</i> unusual is that it’s still in development, with a dev team of approximately one. With some exaggeration — the core gameplay idea comes from <i>Infiniminer</i> by Zachtronic Industries, and the audio and art assets have their own designers — <i>Minecraft</i> is designed and programmed by Markus Persson and his company Mojang Specifications.
A tale of French bravery and American cowardice
I’ve always been perplexed by all the rules and conventions of dating the American way. I don’t understand how “it’s complicated” ever came to be a relationship status, and I don’t understand why people would pay to read books or see movies based around making women realize that guys are not that into them.
“Bars of Color”
It was the middle of September 2010, and I was still the wandering freshman beguiled at everything MIT presented — from the snake–y tunnels to the TEAL classes and even to the problematic problem sets!
Power Gig shakes up the rhythm genre
Seven45 Studios released <i>Power Gig: Rise of the SixString</i> released October 19, an indie developer’s first toe–dip into the rhythm game swimming pool. By far the most intriguing aspect of <i>Power Gig</i> is the revolutionary use of a bona fide electric guitar as the primary controller for guitar gameplay, a first at time of release with some serious implications.
Harmonix releases Rock Band 3
Harmonix Music Systems’ newest rhythm game releases today. Gamers eagerly awaiting the release of <i>Polka Band</i> will be tragically disappointed to know that the accordion–fest they had hoped for is still a long time coming. In the meantime, they’ll have to make do with the new <i>Rock Band 3</i>.
Love those turtlenecks
I recently received a call from a friend who had found herself in a tricky situation with a foreign male. You see, they were feeling a bit frisky and decided to get better acquainted, and her excitement quickly diminished once she was ambushed by the fella’s uncircumcised ween.
Bam! Pow! Comic Con!
The New York Comic Con drew thousands of fans of nerd/geek culture in all 31 flavors to the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in Manhattan last weekend. The largest such convention on the East Coast, the NYCC this year shared space with the New York Anime Festival, making the attendance even larger and more diverse. The guest of honor for this year’s NYCC was Marvel Comics titan Stan Lee, while Japanese voice actress and singer Minori Chihara was the guest of honor for the NYAF.
It’s a good thing laughter is the best medicine
Oh, stand-up comedy, you sultry minx. I’d always admired you from afar, watching your constantly growing harem of intrepid men and women perform in your name. Those whom you graced with your muse-like powers constantly amazed me, but I never even dared to hope to dream to imagine of even thinking of you as my mistress. Everything changed when one of your favored disciples appeared to train me in your mysterious ways, and I at last slowly stepped into your sphere of influence. Though I am yet a novice in your seductive ways, I consider myself unspeakably fortunate to even occasionally be in your cool embrace.
You sexy thing
While waiting to board a plane to Berlin this summer, I got completely absorbed by an article printed on a foreign issue of Cosmopolitan on — get this — sex positions for a woman to camouflage the parts of her body that she hates. As in, “Hate your tummy? Try reverse cowgirl!”
VARIOUS STATES OF UNDRESS A bloody affair
Thanks to the wonders of the female body, every 28 days my cooter turns into that scene from <i>The Shining</i> where blood pours out of the elevator and into a hallway, rushing like a massive flood. I hang up a sign on the muffin shop stating that we’re closed for business and will re-open in seven days because, really, what guy wants to do a girl when she’s on the rag?
BROUHAHA RHYTHM Fifteen minutes of being near someone famous
Being the film-inclined person that I am, I’m fortunate enough to have friends that likewise enjoy watching movies and will let me know when nifty movie events happen. So naturally, I eventually caught wind, albeit at very short notice, of the Boston Film Festival that happened last weekend and decided on a whim to hop out after class on Friday and go to my first film premiere.