can't stop...but must stop

i haven't been terribly good with keeping this updated lately, but hopefully this weekend might be a catch up one. last weekend's 4 day holiday would've been a good time, as it was a combination of hectic and relaxing. i did much more relaxing and enjoying of the weather than most of my peers, though. it was an unusual weekend when i got to:

1. meet up w/ an old h.s. friend for some good cambridge pizza
2. discuss international development opportunities with my housemaster
3. grab ice cream w/ my boston marathon runner friend, now sporting a new mohawk
4. hear john piper deliver a great message on joy at park street church [click to listen - it's worth it]
5. enjoy a sweet and savory brunch w/ a friend from gcc, thankfully in the area
6. figure out how mit can get involved with the department of micro-urbanism [more on that soon]
7. finally have a french soiree w/ my old parisienne roomie over crepes and scrapbooks (remembering one of our favorite cafes)

and...yes, i did do work in between. ! this past week was actually pretty crazy, with a deadline in every class. i also got sick and am still not really recovered...which makes it even more difficult because our schedule never stops for anyone, and an illness or even simply feeling under the weather can really take a toll on your momentum. my body pretty much came to a halt a couple days ago, and there were two nights in a row when i had to go home early and sleep 12+ hours. this amount of time is pretty much unheard of, especially on a weekday...people typically sleep about a quarter or a third of this amount on a daily basis.

so it's a perpetual conundrum: you need to stay awake to get your work done, but if you don't get enough sleep, you get sick and then can't get your work done. it's a bad cycle, and unfortunately, the system doesn't really accommodate for pit stops of any kind. i guess that's where personal discipline and balance comes in. some professors have said we don't need life balance, since we're doing this for only 3.5 years of our lives...but i'm not so sure i buy into that mentality.

sadly, this actually does happen to people in studio as they're trying to work...or pay attention in class...or even drinking a cup of tea (me, last semester...agh):


in sum total, architecture breeds narcoleptics if we're not careful.
anyways...more (cheerful) updates soon. tonight, sleep. tomorrow, a nyc wedding!

_currently: on the uprise...i hope
_excited about: international development, some possibilities of travel for the summer

mit press dock sale

can't resist a sale!

every semester, something delightful happens: books go on sale! these aren't just any books, but ones published by the mit press. located on main street right next to the kendall/mit t-stop, the store opens its doors (and loading dock) to members of the university and then to booksellers and the public, giving us access to its inventory at discount. most of the book prices drop down to under $10, which is such a steal! (my inner bargain-loving asian was delighted!)

the selection ranges from the obscure of obscure to more "mainstream" titles within a discipline. for instance, i grabbed a copy of venturi scott brown's learning from las vegas last semester and this time around found works by aldo rossi and bernard tschumi, all well-known architectural theorists. i had to regulate myself so my wallet wouldn't be too light afterwards, so i set a sort of budget for myself and wanted to only get books i would actually use.

for the most part, this worked. kronenburg, an expert on portable architecture, will help w/ my history-theory paper. tschumi and rossi are good for general architectural knowledge. resisting global toxics will bolster my growing interests in sustainability and international development. but...a book on randomness and the slow food movement? i'm guilty. brian, who was kind enough to tag along w/ me, actually got the schott's for me just because he thought it too hilarious to pass up. (so i DID show restraint!)

there goes another way to procrastinate. but hey, it's intellectual stimulation, which i can live with.

_currently: trying to be productive

with one voice

the first time i heard the voices last semester, it made me stop in my tracks just to listen to that unearthly echo. no, i wasn't hallucinating - after tracking down the source, a couple of us found a huge group of students in lobby 10, participating in the mit choir's community sing. i had never heard of it before, but apparently it's a once-a-semester event where the choir invites anyone and everyone to grab some sheet music and join in with song. such an awesome idea! it created quite the spectacle for passersby and was fun to watch, being something very unique to mit.

so, when i saw the poster advertising the 3rd annual community sing to take place today, how could i possibly resist? it's been such a long time since i had participated in any sort of formal musical group that i was just itching to return to the music. after a bit of convincing, i got reem to come down with me and join with the sopranos. the repertoire was rather broad, spanning a supposed 500 years of musical tradition. some of it i had never heard before and was just sight reading (very rusty... although i managed), but others like "o fortuna" from carmina burana or handal's hallelujah chorus were familiar and made me excited to sing again.

how i miss the presence of music in my life... this hour of time was such a nice break from studio and work in general, and reminded me of all the many facets of mit and how much there really is out there beyond our studio walls. music has such a communal feel to it... maybe i'll try getting involved somewhere/somehow...once i have some time. (we'll see about that.)

i didn't get to take any pictures, but i found an mit student who posted some online. these aren't from today, but you get a sense of what the experience is like.

the hallelujah chorus also reminded me of easter, since we had sung it at park street earlier this week. happy easter! it's such a joyful song, although the high A's sort of kill my out-of-shape voice. for me, though, it does seem to embody the celebration of the cross.

for a funny rendition, some nuns and the chorus!

an unfortunate chemistry lesson

[ courtesy of bed-stuy banana ]

i'm always a fan of using my own photos when it comes to things like illustrating blogs, but in some cases, the photos taken by others are much more apt.

this sign, though, would be more accurate if it were posted on our school's laser cutter. the laser cutter is part of our rapid prototyping lab (RPL), cutting just about any sort of non-toxic material placed in its bed with...a laser. (tricky, huh.) it's been extremely useful for complex geometries or repetitive elements, although it's also been abused as the lazy person's way of automating a simple process. (i am guilty of this sometimes.)

but i digress. the real issue today was toxic fumes, emitted in the cutting process. we're allowed to cut plastics as long as they're plexi or acrylic, both of which are smelly yet still non-toxic (except in the state of california). so this morning around 4am, i thought what i was cutting was the usual acrylic and could do no harm.

wrong. the flames and purple-pink scorches told me plenty, so i stopped the machine and resorted to plan b for my pieces. but i had been exposed long enough to the fumes (hydrochloric acid), so later felt dizzy, with stinging eyes, a running nose, sore throat...the whole bit. i went to mit medical to check it out, and found that even the doctor on call had to look it up on wiki or something to figure out how to treat me. poison control's suggestion was for me to get some rest until things improve.

although i could've googled that advice on my own, it was still good to get everything checked out. i still ended up presenting my project for our midterm review later on (great timing), and although i'm feeling better than this morning, it's still not so good, so i believe i will go sleep. i think my friends somehow like saying i was poisoned - wouldn't go so far, but it's definitely taught all of us to:

1) read all labels and distrust the unlabeled,
2) actually take materials w/ toxic chemicals seriously

whew. ok, bed time.