omar eduardo’s blog

After two years and a month in Boston (that including three summers) I still find it quite peculiar how big 4th of July is here. But as a good Puerto Rican and US citizen I need no other excuse to embrace the holiday other than… it’s a holiday. That, of course, defeats the purpose. This time I am celebrating fourth of July with friends I’ve known for four years. It’s quite an event.

Two days ago I went out with two of my best friends from high school. We had dinner at Chinatown and then walked back to MIT from there, an approximate 3 miles walk according to google maps. We stopped at the new Apple store in Boston, because when I saw it I simply HAD to walk in. Not only because it was an Apple store, but because it is an amazing store. The building is gorgeous.

I looked around and was tempted to replace my laptop with a mac laptop.There was no logical explanation for this other than, I want it. I decided to just go play with the iPhone for a while and go home. That was enough to calm down my need for a new mac product.

Yesterday, fourth of July, my two friends and I went out to the Haymarket subway stop and visited a very interesting and historic catholic church in the area. It brought back memories. Right after that we visited a graveyard that was nearby, just to get the full picture of the attractions around. After that thrilling experience we went forward with our lives and ate an exquisite meal at Ristorante Saraceno, a great small Italian restaurant in the area. I highly recommend it to anyone. Right after we saw the Holocaust Memorial. This was completely by chance since none of us knew about it. As someone who hasn’t studied or heard much about the Holocaust, only a few remarks, I must say that the memorial really made an impression of me. It really sent shivers down my body and made me realize many things about this horrible event…

After a day of experiences in Boston, my friend and I decided to return to MIT. We spent the afternoon/night at Senior House, the MIT dorm in which I live during the term. We had a barbeque in the afternoon and, afterwards, we all went on the Senior House roof to watch the fireworks. If you Google Senior House’s address (70 Amherst Street, Cambridge, MA) you’ll realize that the dorm is located right in front of the fireworks show. There is simply no better view. You’re jealous, I know.

Well, it was fantastic.

My friends and I lingered around and had a quite good night, which culminated with a few burgers and the three of us walking back home.

What will I do today? I do not know. What I do know is that I am getting a much needed haircut. A $50 one that is, but may I tell you it is worth it.

I’m still waiting for the iPhone 3G to finally start being sold so I can change my two and a half years old Nokia 6020.

There is nothing much more I can talk about. My job as a chemistry teacher assistant is very satisfying, and my research at the MIT Langer Lab is exciting. My summer is going pretty well so far, I just need to get my small injuries healed so I can go back to taekwondo practice.

-Omar

I usually don’t agree with Microsoft, and I really don’t like most of their products much, however, this sounds good to me.

Microsoft Launches Office Subscription Service

“If a man has failed to find any good reason for believing that there is a God, it is perfectly natural and rational that he should not believe that there is a God; and if so, he is an atheist… if he goes farther, and, after an investigation into the nature and reach of human knowledge, ending in the conclusion that the existence of God is incapable of proof, cease to believe in it on the ground that he cannot know it to be true, he is an agnostic and also an atheist - an agnostic-atheist - an atheist because an agnostic… while, then, it is erroneous to identify agnosticism and atheism, it is equally erroneous so to separate them as if the one were exclusive of the other…”

-Robert Flint

After a conversation last night I kept thinking about religion, faith, believes. I’ve been thinking about my points of view in these topics, which I have expressed before. The above quote by Robert Flint pretty much summarizes where I stand in terms of religion. To claim any knowledge of the existence of a god and what he/she/it would expect from me and humanity is simply something I won’t do. Some may call me foolish for not embracing god, others dumb for not rejecting the notion of his existence altogether, but why should I bother doing either if the truth is… I will never know for sure?

I’m open to hear opinions.

-Omar

There is nothing like looking, if you want to find something. You certainly usually find something, if you look, but it is not always quite the something you were after.

J.R.R. Tolkien

As logical as it might sound, Tolkien’s quote pretty much describes the state in which I currently am, and I don’t only mean literally as in lab work. Getting through the day doing one thing after the other, being ‘productive’, I always stop at some point and wonder about my future. What am I to become in the next five years? ten years?

I’m in a constant state of wonder, questioning every aspect of my life and every action I take. And I do this just because I’m sure that if I keep thinking about things, if I keep looking for more, I’ll find something. Something that will make every step I’ve taken meaningful and will make the future much more clear.

I should join some sort of religion, that’s what people do. But there’s no need, I’ve got bacon.

-Omar

I went home for three weeks after finals week, gained 10 pounds and got completely sunburned up to the point in which I spent a week recovering at home. That’s how you know I had a good time. My sunburn was so great that I had to put cold gel with aloe and several other ingredients on my back and shoulders and I still felt like an oven. Now I know what it’s like to go to hell, thank you Jesus.

After that fantastic experience I got back to MIT, but on the way here I had to go upstairs with my suitcase and backpack (over my sunburned back) for what seemed an eternity, simply because a train station was closed and the station at which I had to get off had no elevator… (it was broken).

I finally made it to the MIT Saturday night (that’s last week’s Saturday) and was settled in my room by midnight. I am yet to unpack and completely settle in, but that’s something you don’t care about. Sunday was a relaxing day, I had an exquisite dinner at Suzanne’s place and went to bed by 1am.

This week I spent doing the following:

1. Training for my job as an Interphase TA
2. Finishing up training for my summer research
3. Practicing taekwondo
4. Lifting weights with René
5. Eat, sleep, socialize, have a life.
6. Working on the taekwondo club’s websites.

I got a bike from René, so I have been able to go back and forth from places without wasting too much time. One exciting thing was that my celphone fell off my pocket while I was biking on Massachusetts Avenue, and thanks to some sort of miracle I could recover it without it dying or a car killing me. I had a fantastic week indeed. Now, however… I feel like a piece of disposable human.

Thanks to the amount of exercise I did combining taekwondo practice and lifting weights this past week, when I woke up this morning my body was in pain. Severe pain. God forgave all my sins since my last confession (several years ago) because he thought I was in enough pain now. Even now when I walk to the door I have to do it as if I were an 80 years old man, arching my back and moving slowly.

I hope this pain goes away soon because the Interphase students (my students for the summer) started arriving today and I’ll be working 6:30am-5:30pm tomorrow receiving the rest. Shall be fun. I guess it would be great if I receive them sitting on a chair and not being able to move.

Okay well, I’m going now to make things worst because I’m a masochist. I just got a call from people who just convinced me to play Ultimate Frisbee with them… because apparently that’s all that taekwondo folks in the club do during the summer. I can barely move, but they don’t care, so we’ll see if I survive. I’m also very hungry… I could eat a cow.

-omar

Even with a full time job… or 50 hours a week of work… I can still train at Taekwondo constantly, lift weights, and, more importantly, write. I socialize too, of course.

Blog entry about my life coming up soon, but for now, here’s a good youtube video to watch.

Consent

For the few of you who have been following this blog for the past few days/weeks/months/years?, I have to apologize. As you may have noticed I’m a bit neurotic and I’m a geek wanna be. This is the reason why this blog has been moved from service to service over and over, and you keep getting messed up versions of the blog every other week. Well, now that I’m a grown up and an absolute savvy of how to mess things up with this website, I’ve finally decided to settle down just a bit.

This blog will NOT be moved from one URL to another ever again (unless I can’t pay) and it will be running on WordPress so you guys can easily follow it. There will be no ads as long as I can afford it, and there will definitely be space for you all to comment in each blog entry. All of your patience is greatly appreciated, and I’m just glad I’m not someone like Heather or else I would probably have my inbox full of hate comments right now.

Although, actually, hate me if you want. Send me an e-mail, I’d be grateful. I don’t get any personal e-mails from blog readers anyways. Well… there was that one back then… but the kid only wanted me to teach him how to do something in Ubuntu. Geek.

This blog entry is just to apologize and to let you know that this new blog will be more stable than I am, and it should be easier to follow.

Not that you care.

-Omar

Two years at MIT are almost over, and I cannot describe how I feel. Oftentimes I’ve questioned if coming to MIT was the right decision. I could have done so many other things, how did I choose my current path? I really don’t know, and I don’t think I’ll ever be sure that this was the right decision. However, at the same time I couldn’t imagine my life being any better than it currently is.

Now that was a pretty strange thing to say. My life usually consists of being sleep deprived and trying to fake a smile in order to get through the day, this definitely wouldn’t be the case had I chosen something other than MIT. The amount of work that has to be done here, just to be disregarded as an average student, is something that I fear at the beginning of each week. The thought that, every minute I spend talking to someone is a minute I’m going to regret having ‘wasted’, later when I’m working on my problem sets… this is another sad thought. But hidden between all these horrible experiences that are enough to make many of us want to quit, there are the good times that makes it all be worth it.

The experiences I’ve had in the past two years are treasures that now I get to keep for the rest of my life. The rate at which I’ve ‘grown up’ in many aspects of my life is something that was catalyzed by my experiences here at MIT. Although I’m reminded constantly, much more often that I would like, that I’m just an average student, my academic growth as an individual is evident. At least to me it is. The activities that I’ve pursued while being at MIT are completely different to things I would have done in many other places. This is probably due to the people that I’ve connected with and the way they have influenced my life.

My second year at MIT is almost over, all I can say is… ‘THANK GOODNESS’. This is probably going to be my ‘worst’ term because of my course load, and soon I’ll be starting a ‘new’ phase of my education. This summer I’ll be doing research full time for the first time, and I’m quite excited about that. Also, soon I’ll become a junior… which is a scary but thrilling thought.

There is no real purpose to this blog entry, other than to say, I’m enjoying my life, even though it could be much better. I guess I have a very optimistic take on things. Now I’ll go back to work, and hopefully I won’t regret not having done something more… ‘useful’ during this time I just ‘wasted’.

-Omar

A few days ago I watched the short movie ‘Missing Pages’ and I found it very interesting. The plot is not what I’m usually looking for in a movie, but the movie imagery is so rich and beautiful, I couldn’t stop loving the movie.

The short movie you can download and watch for free through iTunes. You can check out the website and watch the trailer to see if you’re interested. The movie is in Japanese with English subtitles and it is around 30 minutes long.

The interesting thing about this short movie is the way it was made. It’s basically many sequential images that were shot, and then the voices were added over the image sequence, so you can just watch the imagery and appreciate it, or also pay attention to the plot.

This is the first movie of its kind that I’ve watched, and I would like to see more. If you have any recommendations let me know. I’m also very interested in watching Japanese movies so if you’ve seen any that you’ve liked (of any genre), let me know.

Check out Missing Pages at: the missing pages website

Milena wrote a few days ago about how she felt that the only thing she needed right now to compliment her life is a hot boy. She has good grades, she parties, she eats well and even goes shopping. As an 18 years old girl she’s only missing that special person that will give her some love at the end of the day. I was happy to hear that she was doing so well, but a prospective MIT applicant wasn’t. He wrote her the following:

“Well, you applied and got into MIT…as a prospective student, it’s hard for me to see someone who has been accepted have that kind of mentality. If the epitome of success is good friends, good looks, good grades, a good guy and being very well off, living off of a comfortable income and indulging in luxuries, then what is being at MIT all about?”

Let’s call this prospective applicant Y (because X was part of my last blog entry). I just have one thing to say to Y, I think you’ve been overwhelmed by MIT promotion material. Seriously, close your eyes and shake it off for a little while. MIT has ~4000 undergrads, most of them between the ages ~18-22. Do you really think that all these people are constantly thinking about how to save the world? No.

MIT students party, drink, enjoy their lives in many ways. This is, of course, when taking a break from doing homework. What kind of homework? The one that consumes their lives during the days (and nights). The solutions to the problem sets that MIT undergrads work on, are not going to save the world, not at all.

The things that Milena, and most MIT undergrads, want right now, are just normal things. They do not want to throw away the ‘college experience’ so they can save the world… because even if they did, they’ll probably just fail out of the institute after getting depressed. Which is pretty sad. In order to keep themselves sane, MIT students just don’t try to save the world and get good grades at the same time. It would just consume their lives.

I’m not saying that every MIT student wants what Milena wants. Oh no, some of them are just looking forward to Friday night so they can do something they call “LAN Parties” where they sit in a lounge and play starcraft all night. There’s also others that just want to watch a movie, or at least catch up on what has been happening in the world. MIT students barely talk about world issues, because they don’t know shit about what’s going on out there. Most of the people I talked to three days after the California fires began, didn’t even know that it was burning down there!

If you’re a prospective applicant, you can come get your high quality education, and afterwards use it for everyone’s good. But don’t think that after 50 hours of school work in a week you’ll be able to call home and say, I’m making the world a better place… cause you’re not. Not just yet. There’s time for everything, and current undergrads are just expecting that recent graduates are making the world a better place.

I hope my realistic point of view doesn’t go unappreciated.

-Omar