How I feel right now.

I am back at school as of Wednesday and it is very unpleasant indeed. I don’t think I’ve ever been so busy so early in the semester. Before this year, the first two weeks at least were pretty laid back. I thought I’d be proactive this year and use those two weeks or so to get really ahead. Unfortunately, I’m struggling to just get what’s assigned done.

-I’ve started reading Don Quixote for my literature class, Major European Novels. I have to read thirty chapters by Tuesday, but I’ve been reading for hours and I’ve only read fifteen chapters. I don’t know why I’m reading so slowly. In any case, I’m really enjoying it. It’s so different from what I expected though. My only exposure to Don Quixote has been seeing bits of the ballet…so I was thinking it was about some gallant guy and his adventures. I had no idea that Don Quixote was actually a fifty-year-old man who is either completely mad, or the biggest science-fiction/fantasy nerd of all time. Either way, he apparently imagines that he’s a knight, attacks a windmill he thinks is a giant, etc….it’s hilarious, but really not what I expected. Fun fact!: John Lithgow played Don Quixote in a 2000 tv movie. That would’ve seemed like really weird casting before I read the book, but I think it works.

-One of my classes is 6.034 (Artificial Intelligence). The work so far is all programming which is really easy, but the lectures and material is pretty out there. A lot of the things we’re talking about remind me of this awful class I had in high school called Theory of Knowledge. On the first day, the professor continuously called on people—by NAME—no small feat as there are probably 100+ people in that class. He even called out people and said “You didn’t preregister for this class, did you?”

-6.02 is Intro to EECS II, and focuses exclusively on Electrical Engineering apparently. All I’m going to say about this class is that I’ve only had one lecture but I already want to crawl under my bed and hide for the rest of the semester.

-6.006, Intro to Algorithms. A class that I’m so far understanding and enjoying. The professor does not call on people randomly and there are lots of programming assignments, so I am pretty happy. My TA is also really nice.

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Completely unrelated to school, but last week I went to the Hilltop Steakhouse outside of Boston. It was featured on one of those Food Network shows about Best Steakhouses or something…so here’s two pics:

Huge cactus sign outside

Biggest steak i've ever eaten...there's an "after" picture but there's not much left to show