So I think I'm getting sick which is no good. A bug has been going around the school and lots of people have been getting sick. This is a big fear among students especially because the pace of your workload at HMC doesn't give you much time to be in bed all the time (hah, I have to do a post about sleep deprivation sometime soon).

I hope I get lucky and get better soon. I have some midterms coming up blehhhhh.

Another little tidbit:
There are many email lists for the college which have different subscribers. There are, of course, lists for the entire student body, lists for graduating classes, lists for clubs, and lists for students enrolled in different courses. However, there are also two email lists per dorm. One is for more serious emails about dorm-related affairs. The other is a "dorm chat" list where all sorts of completely unserious emails get sent out. They're filled with anything from strange and gross youtube videos to incoherent banter. There's also a list called "community-l" (all the lists end in "-l"), which is a place where students can have serious discussions/debates about issues that they're interested in. Topics range from the role of diversity at Mudd to the strengths and weaknesses of the Room Draw system. There's currently some discussion on how free speech impacts the Claremont Colleges and what constitutes a "biased-related incident."

So I guess I fail at that whole "post everyday" thing haha.

Here's a little tidbit about dorm life:
Once a week, the various HMC dorms (North, South, East, West, Atwood, Case, Linde, and Sontag) have a dorm barbecue (different dorms can have it on different days). For the barbecue, the dorms get grills, charcoal, lighter fluid, patties, buns, quesadillas, etc. for the dorm residents to make burgers and other food with.

West (the dorm that I live in), has their dorm bbq every Sunday. It's a good way to hang out with other people in the dorm and you get some good, not-dining-hall food (I've made some delicious burgers at dorm barbecue).

If you don't know how to flip a burger, you'll soon find out how.

So my new plan for this blog is to try to post something about 6 times a week, with one of those posts being longer and elaborating on a particular topic. The other posts will be short and sweet. My intent is to meet my goal of catching things that "slip through the cracks," as I've stated before.

Woooo! We'll start with a short one:

So I'm working on my Math 63 (Linear Algebra II) homework right now. I'm a little stuck which has been frustrating, especially because I usually find my LinAl homework to be challenging but very doable. It kind of got to me a few hours ago, when I was getting a little angry about it. I had dinner at the dining hall with cool people though so that lifted my spirits.

Transitioning to Harvey Mudd can be weird because you will inevitably have trouble with technical courses. When I was in high school, I really looked forward to all my math and science classes because I liked them AND because the homework was really easy for me. At Harvey Mudd, it's not rare to find that the technical stuff is really the hardest stuff you'll face on any given night of homework. At times, it will create an extremely defeating feeling (Being the best at something -> Being the worst at something = T_T). In high school, I think I built up a sense of security and comfort through the math and science classes I was good at. Well, Harvey Mudd definitely tore those barriers down and showed me what it was like to be bad at math, science, and engineering classes. Bleh.

Don't worry though, there are many resources out there to help you when this happens. Academic Excellence tutors (special upperclassmen who help with core curriculum classes), regular tutors, your peers, and accessible profs (professors). You'll be fine ;)

... that was a longer post than I expected haha.

So it looks like some students infiltrated the career fair earlier today and set up a table for Aperture Laboratories.

Nice one.

"Who is this kid?":

My name is Michael Ho and I’m a sophomore engineering major with a humanities concentration of art. In addition to finishing up the core curriculum, I’m taking classes in continuum mechanics (solids and fluids), digital design and computer architecture (implementing a microprocessor), design representation and realization (making a tool tray, screwdriver, and hammer), and experimental engineering (launching a rocket and collecting data). Outside of class, I’m involved with the campus through The Muddraker, where I create the layout for Harvey Mudd’s newspaper, DOS Activities, where I plan goofy activities every week, API-SPAM, where I act as a mentor towards Asian/Pacific Islander freshmen, and the admissions office, where I lead tours and blog for all you wonderful prospective students. Finally, aside from all the crazy extracurricular activities, I enjoy live music, photography, sitting at my computer for long periods of time, and going out to eat.

Yay! So that's me.

"What are you babbling about?":

This blog will be chronicling my day-to-day adventures at good ol' Harvey Mudd College (often referred to as HMC or Mudd or life-suck (just kidding about that last one - maybe)). Yes, I know that last sentence had nested parentheses. Whatevs. You can do it in math so it clearly can't be wrong.

Anyways, this'll be a place for you to get some insight on what it's really like to be at Mudd. Hopefully this blog (and the others) will give you a sense of what goes on at this really strange place. From the dorms to the classrooms, from weekdays to weekends, I'll try to give you a taste of the entire Harvey Mudd experience.

"Why should I care about you and your silly posts?":

Geeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeezzz. What's with the attitude?

You should care because, if it all works out according to plan, this blog will give you more information about Mudd than any tour, any brochure, any information booklet, any college counselor, or any online college resource site (wait... am I in this category?). This is due to the fact that other resources always fall short of completely describing what it feels like to be an HMC student (a Mudder, as we say it). For example, as a tour guide I know that tours can never be perfect. There are an endless number of student resources, activities, research projects, fun facts about the school, etc. so you simply can't fit it all into one hour. The blog will give me chance to tell you about the tidbits that sometimes slip through the cracks.

But really, all that stuff is superficial. Could you really determine whether you'd be happy or not by knowing the ratio of physics graduates moving on to doctorate studies or industry? If you said yes, I don't believe you and I'll just continue with my point :)

It's really important that Harvey Mudd is a good fit for you and vice versa. If you don't know what you're getting into, you might be very unhappy at Mudd because HMC is definitely not for everyone. This especially includes non-academic aspects of Mudd. For example, you might ask if you would find common ground with other Mudders or if you would feel alienated from the rest of the community. Clearly not an easy question to answer with an informational booklet.

Luckily, you have totally awesome people (us bloggers ^.^) who can help you out in this respect. By chronicling our thoughts, experiences, whatever, you should be able to figure out if you'd love it here or hate it here (or somewhere in between).

If we're not being helpful then PUUHHHLEAAAZZE ask us some questions. I'll try to answer anything you throw at me, even questions which are deliberately made impossible to answer.

Btw, I <3 xkcd (as do many of the people at Mudd):

Okay, I am very tired and need some sleep. Unfortunately, I need to do some research on companies and make copies of my resume for the career fair tomorrow. Arghhhhhasdjf;akjf;jah

Peace out.