Journal for 2003 September 9

I just got myself a monthly combo pass. After being broke for a week, my mother called me on Sunday to ask how I was doing, given that I had gotten several pink slips in the mail, and that I appeared to be $300. I said, "That strange. I stopped taking any money out when it got low. Do you have the transcript there?" She did, and said, reading it, "After that point, there are several checks here." "Uh-oh-- I practically don't use my checkbook." "Well, here's one for $50, check 502... oh-- wait." It turns out that she's been using a checkbook which, unbeknownst to either of us, was drawing money out of my account, and by the time we notice, she owed me $600. That is enough for me to pay back money loaned from friends, and this combo pass. At this point in the month I don't get much for having it, but given how much Claudia likes to get out, I'm sure it will pay off, and I'm sure I'll appreciate the extra freedom. I can feel the possibilities now, running through me like an airhockey table being turned on in the middle of a game.

Yesterday I ran my first labs. Olin people are much tougher on policies, "Can you tell us more specifics about deliverables?" I'm going to have to write up something very clear on what I want and what I don't want. Other than that, since it was an easy lab (an introduction to Matlab, which they generally didn't need), I was kept busy running around to people's stations, checking them off. I should try to find some good ways to be helpful to them more generally, especially for the second lab of the day, where there are 25 students and me.

As tiring as running around was (and I was kept running around on a tiered-lecture hall room), I stayed until 8:20 for the first time, got all the homework graded just in time, walked/ran back to the train, thinking I would be late, and got there with 20 minutes to wait. The most exciting part was the last minute deposit of the homeworks that I'd been working on, finishing the last one just as I should have been leaving Olin, and running to the Academic Center after I should have left. It was invigorating in a way I haven't felt in weeks.

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If you have any questions or comments that you want to email, feel free to contact me, jrising@ mit.edu.