Labyrinth

April 15, 2008 – 2:26 pm

Found out today at my lesson that my guitar teacher is moving to California in August – I’m bummed. It took me a year to settle in with a teacher who understood my schedule and goals with music while carrying a full load at MIT. The guitar scene is incomparably better in the bay area and I miss everything about it: my teacher, going to concerts, playing in concerts, open mics… One option for next year is studying with a very, very good player who’s been trained classically, but plays flamenco – impeccable technique.

Other news: CPW was great, I loved my prefrosh, really hope she decides to come. I think I need to buy new running shoes as the soles of my feet have been hurting on the longer runs. Can’t decide if I’m going to swim/bike/run (or some combination) today.

Rest of the week: paper for 17.20, rough draft of project for 15.354, 2.004 pset, 7.013 pset, lots of 2.007 (robot. must. work), making a shield on the water jet for media lab urop.

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April 9, 2008 – 8:03 am

There was a sound outside my window yesterday – I was trying to figure out which of my neighbors had left his alarm on or was listening to music – when I realized that it was coming from the birds spring!

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Internship, etc.

April 6, 2008 – 10:57 am

I decided to take the internship at Boston Scientific this summer in Valencia, CA (close to LA). The project is interesting, the supervisor seems very nice and organized, and I’m getting paid more than I ever would’ve expected. I’m close enough to San Jose that I could go home on weekends if needed, and my mom’s already talked about shipping the brother down for visits on occasion. On top of that, Erin will be around LA for the latter part of the summer.

I’m really looking forward to the warm weather and beaches! Yesterday was decent outside, a little overcast, nice enough for a run. I’m in the process of looking for something to train for. Even if I don’t find a road race or triathlon, I’d like to follow a training schedule to give me a goal during workouts.

Bio test and milestone for 2.007 due tomorrow, on top of work for the media lab urop, a little guitar in there, and maybe a swim.

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$

March 29, 2008 – 9:16 pm

I bought a pair of jeans today – after walking a couple blocks, I realized that I truly gain no satisfaction from material purchases. I often feel worse after having spent money, even if I needed the item. I’ll come to a point where I’m tired of wearing the same sweatshirt or shoes, but I can’t stand the process of getting new things and replacing the old…

The incentive for making money for myself in the future is not to buy things. I do, however, look forward to living in a well-landscaped, architecturally-interesting home when I’m older, going to some nice restaurants, and traveling. I dont care about the cars, clothes, etc…

I also felt today, in particular, that Boston was a very superficial city. What is there to do when it’s unpleasant outside but walk to the nearest conglomeration of retail? I love cities where entertainment is outdoors and cultural – I want to live in a place like that when I’m older.

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DOE funding for PV lab

March 13, 2008 – 12:01 am

The Department of Energy announced it will invest in 11 university-led projects over the next three fiscal years. I am very excited to be working with this lab – brand new facilities (literally.. we chose the counter-top color at our last group meeting) and a nice grant from the government.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Cambridge, MA) with CaliSolar: Defect Engineering, Cell Processing, and Modeling for High-Performance, Low-Cost Crystalline Silicon Photovoltaics. This project will characterize defects and engineer their distribution within a solar cell to close the efficiency gap between industrial multicrystalline and high-efficiency monocrystalline silicon cells, while preserving the cost advantage of these low-cost, high–volume substrates. The project is targeting 18-22% efficient cells at manufacturing costs of less than $1 per peak watt. DOE will provide up to $1.5 million for this approximately $1.9 million project.

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