Daily Post (Josh) 2010-04-14

Whew. After much debate, the committee has decided to let me still apply to the MIT program for Fall 2010. I think having had class with a few of the committee members worked heavily in my favor - certainly professor McCollam was more gracious to me than I expected or deserved when I tracked her down this afternoon. Can't say I care for the fact that the person I contacted initially never replied to me by email or phone, forcing me to haunt the office until a decision was reached, but given that everything worked out, I'm willing to forgive.

For the record: My wife is made of awesome, wrapped in wonderfulness, with tiny sparkle sprinkles of understanding. She was impressively forgiving about my not telling her of the issues until they were somewhat resolved. The fact that she's sicker than a dog right now may have allowed for some distraction from how mad she really should be. Oh well - gift horses and all, yes?

A&P lecture is not going terribly well this term. Seems like the stuff Dr. McVay's quizzing on is barely touched on in either the book or the notes. First two quizzes are landing at 60% apiece (I actually got 9/15 last week, rather than the 8/15 I thought). I'm doing fabulously in lab, fortunately, but that doesn't bode well for doing more than struggling for a C overall. Poop. I think part of the reason for this is that I've effectively lost my study partners as they're both now in another lecture class and have essentially been unavailable since the beginning of term, but still - this is HARD to keep everything in my brain.

The interview workshop wasn't as informative as I might have hoped, but if nothing else, it gave me a bit of a chance to size up my competition. Going with the assumption that the people who showed up are the more dedicated types who are actually likely to get in, I'm encouraged. We had about 20 bodies show up for Rad science, which is the approximate number that will be accepted to the program. I'd expect somewhere around 45-50ish to apply, but if only 20 are willing to put in the effort, I think my chances are very good.

Spent the evening with Abe and Nicole again, decompressing. I have to say, Abe made a very good example of why I'm enjoying their company lately. His Pug has some sensitive eyes and a seizure problem, so he asked me not to use a flash when shooting Inky - I said something to the effect of "Oh, don't worry, I've got a lens that'll work in this light". His response: "What's the trade off?" Goddamn do I love people that actually think.