Schools in

School’s… in Today was the first day of academic year 2005-2006 at old Tech! (I dont know why that deserved an exclamation point. Probably because I dont have any problem sets due until next Friday.) My entry spent most of this afternoon and evening sitting around the lounge, eating pizza, watching DVDs, and generally bemoaning the fact that school has, in fact, begun. Some of the freshmen even started doing problem sets. Theyre so precious. The upperclassmen started a pool about when theyd start to put off the problem sets until the night before theyre due; the general consensus is that this behavior will begin at least by the two-day student holiday in October. To celebrate the years start (and because Im lazy), I took an informal survey of people sitting around the lounge to see what classes theyre most excited about taking this term. Mark Dog B. 07: 24.02, Moral Problems and the Good Life. Mark claims he wants to take this class to argue with feminists, which I do not doubt Mark may be a liberal from the OC, but that doesnt mean he doesnt like to argue. (Marks second choice for most exciting was his PE class, Archery, but I dont think that counts.) Adam Angry W. 07: 16.100, Aerodynamics. Although this class is going to be a time sink (Adam walked in tonight after class and said, See you guys in December), Adam is deliriously excited about it because he loves airplanes (possibly even more than he loves his poor forlorn girlfriend). Dave Less than Jake L. 07: 2.671, Measurement and Instrumentation, because theyre going to teach us how to use rulers. Joseph Jomar M. 06: 9.15, Biochemistry and Pharmacology of Synaptic Transmission (which prompted me to say, Youre taking 9.15? Me too! Yessss, pset buddy). Jomar just switched to Course 9 from Course 5, which in my humble opinion was a Very Good Choice. Jay Jay T. 08: 6.041, Probabilistic Systems Analysis. I am required to say here that Jay actually refused to give me a course that hes excited about, but I picked 6.041 because it was the only class I could remember that Jay was taking this term. But Im sure he should be excited about taking 6.041 I gave him Adams old textbook, so he didnt even have to pay for a book! Warren Woody H. 08: Unified*. Woody says he is excited about Unified, although I probably wont be in a few weeks. (Unified is a legendary class at MIT it takes up about as much time per week as a full-time job, and if you think Im messing with you I assure you, Im not.) Chris Dr. Glade Plug-In P. 09: 18.023, Calculus with Applications. Although I suspect he may be excited about 18.023 because he hasnt been there yet, Chris swears he hearts math and wants to be a math major. As he is an RSI alum, I am inclined to believe him. *Note: Most technical classes at MIT are referred to by their course numbers. Those that arent Unified, Junior Lab, Project Lab, Digital Death, etc are generally considered to be Very, Very, Hard/Time-Consuming/Impossible/All of the Above. (And yes, the capital letters were critical for emphasis in this case. Just make sure you read them in a very dramatic voice in your head.)