Something Important that I Forgot to Mention!

On Sunday, 9/11, I sang in a beautiful memorial concert in Institute Park right across the street from WPI. Here is an article about the concert, featuring Tyler Wack, a junior at WPI:

http://www.telegram.com/article/20110912/NEWS/109129937

A Capella, Boston Harbor and Hackers?!

Hey everyone!

So, this entry is going to be pretty long since it has been a while since I posted. For those who don't want to read the entire story, here's a quick recap of what has been happening (in chronological order):

• I got into the Technichords! Yay! We had our first rehearsal yesterday, and I volunteered to plunk out some of the parts on piano; yay sightreading! It went okay, and I'm thinking about trying to be assistant director later in the year because I would like that on my resume and I can help out by playing piano. :)
• I went on a day trip to Boston with Cody, on of the Dean's List winners, to meet up with Christina, another one of the Dean's List winners who is going to MIT!
• I had two tests; one in math and one in physics. I've gotten both back and I did well on both of them! :)
• I joined the CSL (Collegiate Star League) team with Thomas. We are a 2v2 diamond team now, so we've been practicing and trying to get good enough to fill the 2v2 spot.
• I joined the new freshman hackerspace group!

Now, all of those things in more detail.

Technichords

I want to credit my successful Technichords audition to everyone at AHS and the Hi-Liners for teaching me audition and interview professionalism. I dressed up in business casual clothes, put on a smile, sang "Happily Ever After" from Once Upon a Mattress, and went through some sight-singing (meh) and blending exercises with the girls in the group. I felt like I was well prepared for the audition, and evidently I left a favorable impression upon them! They are such a talented group of musicians, and I am honored to be working with them. We've already learned five songs, and some of them are pretty challenging. I can see that this group is going to push my music skills and I can't wait to learn from them!

Boston Trip

I had an amazing day in Boston. Unfortunately, it was kind of rushed because I had trouble figuring out the train schedules (not all mass transit systems are like the light rail!) so we only ended up having about two hours to run around and see the sights and get some food. My good friend Christina, who was one of the 2011 Dean's List winners, met Cody and I at the train station when we got in around 4:00 PM. She had gone on a tour of Boston as part of the pre-orientation activities at MIT, and so she knew all of the good places to see.

Boston is probably the most amazing city I have ever been to. It is very true to the time period in which it was built in that it is pretty much a pedestrian city. There are tons of markets and pedestrian-only streets, with lots of shopping AND STARBUCKS! We walked along parts of the freedom trail, and saw many sights including old graveyards where Sam Adams and other historical dignitaries are buried, Boston harbor, and of course, Old North Church (one if by land, two if by sea.) The church was definitely my favorite place. Instead of pews, the families sat in booths, and they would decorate them to indicate social stature. There were many plaques that said "[insert historical figure here] sat here." Most of them weren't confirmed, but the one that was read "Theodore Roosevelt." How cool is that?!

Christina also showed us plaques in the courtyard of the church commemorating historical events that had occurred there. Of course, the biggest one was about how it was used to signal where the British were coming from in the Revolutionary War, but her favorite (and mine) was about a guy who, in the mid 1700s, had jumped off the roof of the church with a DIY flying device and glided from the roof of that church to another building. They posted that plaque commemorating his "flight" in 1923 when the first continental flight was completed. I love that story because of how random it is!

After seeing some sites, we got delicious delicious pastries and pizza, and then booked it back to the train. If you can believe it, we did all of this in under two hours! I need to find time to go back to Boston and just sit at the waterfront and enjoy the ocean, but that trip was a wonderful chance to get to see Christina and get a taste of all of the rich history of Boston. I will definitely plan another trip to Boston in the near future, now that I understand exactly how the silly train schedules work!

Hackerspace

And finally, possibly my favorite part of the events; the hackerspace! For those who don't know what a hackerspace is, I will explain it in brief. It's basically a room filled with materials that the hackerspace group can use to build awesome projects. On a deeper level, it is a network of geeks who have different skills and lots of ideas for cool engineering projects, like 3-D printers and shopping cart go-karts, who can form small teams and go at it! If you want a good example of a hackerspace, check out the MIT group, MITERS, here. One of my good friends, Dan, is running for VP of the hackerspace (if you're a WPI freshman and reading this for some reason, you should vote for him because he is awesome! :D) He invited me to the second meeting, and so I decided to go after dinner and D&D (D&D&D.) Anyway, most people hadn't heard of a hackerspace before, and after visiting MITERS, I felt like I could do a pretty good job of explaining what a hackerspace is, so I stepped up to do that. The president of the club recognized my communication skills, and recruited me for publicity after the meeting. I'm extremely excited about this group, and even more excited that I have skills to offer in return for the technical expertise of its members! Navid and Thomas built a segway for their senior project, and they got a much more hands on experience than they had in FIRST because it was just the two of them and three-ish mentors working on it. I have been wanting something like that as well, but I haven't known where to look for the resources. Now it has been handed to me!

That's it for now; I will try to post more often in shorter installments!

Lydia

Amount of Activities, Overwhelming!

Okay, so those who know me won't be surprised--I'm getting myself into too much stuff.

Yesterday I had an audition for the Technichords; WPI's no fella a Capella group. They were all extremely kind and welcoming, and I had a wonderful time despite my anxiety about auditioning. The song went pretty well, and even though they were nice it was a little disconcerting to have roughly ten people listening to you sing and taking notes about things. Also, the wind ensemble was rehearsing in the room just down the hall, so I had to sing a Capella with that going on. Needless to say, it was difficult, but hey, I got to sing, so I have nothing to complain about there! Then, they had me sight-sing the melody line from a song. That caught me off guard a bit, because I thought they had said we were going to be doing ear training where they would play something on the piano and then I would sing it back to them, which is what I am actually good at. After I attempted it, they encouraged me and had me sing that same arrangement with the second sopranos and first sopranos, and then the entire group to see how well my voice blended with theirs. I had such a fun time singing with them! They are incredible musicians, and if you get the chance you should check them out on iTunes, just look up the Technichords! It's an extremely competitive group to get into, so I probably didn't make it, but I had so much fun singing with them that it was worth the bit of anxiety just to audition. If I don't make it this time, I will definitely try again the next time auditions open up!

The girl who was auditioning before me, Melanie, was extremely nice. When she came out of her audition she gave me a hug even though she didn't know me and told me I would be great. I love people like that! She was talking to someone outside when I came out and started heading back to my dorm, and so we started talking about Harry Potter and Pokemon--I love going to a nerd school! We also ran into this guy named Owen who has been to all of the Game Development Club meetings, who joined in on our conversation about HP and Pokemon. We discussed which houses we think we would be in, and even almost broke out into a wizarding duel... unfortuantely I don't know enough fair spells to really duel effectively (I wished Navid and Roxy had been there, they would have been all over it!)mI had to leave early to get back to a floor meeting, and so he walked me all the way back to my dorm and we discovered that we both love D&D! He is actually registered with Wizards of the Coast as a DM, and was looking for a group! I think Megan, my roommate, and I will probably be joining him. He's so great!

I talked to my awesome RA, Maddie (who is a FIRST alum from Flagstaff, AZ :]) about the audition after our floor meeting, and she helped me look at the audition as a fun opportunity to sing, regardless of the outcome. If I don't get in, I plan on using the extra time as an opportunity to take tons of swing dancing lessons and possibly to compete, because the Social Dance club asked me to join when I went swing dancing with my friends last night and I had tons of fun dancing with them.

Tonight is also very busy! I am going to choir after my classes for about an hour and a half, and then we are all getting on a bus to O'Connor's, which is an Irish pub near the school. We all get free appetizers and drinks if we are of age (I wish I had a crazy straw for my water...) and we get to join tons of singers in really fun Irish folk music. I won't get back until ten, so I need to go look over one more physics problem from the homework that is due tonight (THAT I DID IN ADVANCE BECAUSE I AM A GOOD STUDENT.)

More later,

Lydia

Welcome To College

Despite all of the preparation my high school and friends had given me, I didn't really know what to expect when our rental car stopped at the curb across the street from my dorm. I thought that I would feel some sort of gripping fear or anxiety, but it seemed like just another day to me. Thomas and I removed our bags from our cars, handed them over to frat boys we didn't know who were assigned to take them to our rooms, and proceeded to the main dorm on our quad to get our keys and access cards.

After moving in, we were submitted to the whirlwind that is New Student Orientation (NSO, one of the thousands of TLAs [three-letter acronyms]) of WPI--even the college's common name is a TLA! We listened to speeches about succeeding in college, high-fived over a thousand people (our class is about 1040 students,) got tons of free food, played rubber chicken volleyball--all the usual stuff. Then, it was time for classes...

...Which have been pretty manageable so far. For those who don't know, this quarter I am taking PH1111, which is a calc-based physics mechanics course, MA 1024, which is Calculus IV (multivariable and stuff,) and Fundamentals of Music I, which is "this is a note!" For the first three days at least, the work load has been fine. I love taking calculus-based physics; the professors have lifted the curtain that prevented our prior teachers from admitting that the basic kinematic equations are related through calculus. I also switched into Calc IV from Calc III, which in retrospect was an excellent move because I love multivariable and hate series. Fundamentals of Music I is pretty easy; we're going from "this is a staff!" to ear training, so it's starting off slow and will hopefully pick up soon.

Now for extra curriculars(ssssss because I am, of course, in all of them.... >.>)

Game Development Club

There are two parts to this club: a development side and an events side. The former is self-explanatory and the latter puts on tournaments and gaming nights and things. You can guess which one I will end up doing if I stick with this club. :P This weekend we reserved a lecture hall to project matches from MLG Raleigh. We had to cancel on Sunday due to the hurricane, but it's really cool that they did that for us. Not too many people showed up because it was last minute, but I'd love to get more organized MLG parties and tournaments going in the future.

Choir

The choir here is amazing. It requires no audition, because they believe that all engineering students should know how to sing or do something musical by the time they graduate (I know what you're thinking, yes, this school was made for me!) I just did my vocal placement, nailed the ear training section, and showed up. Though it was an informational meeting, we jumped right into singing in between powerpoint slides about all of the options for vocal performance at WPI. The WPI chorus was featured on a Grammy Award-winning CD--needless to say, it was pretty awesome. I am excited for the first rehearsal for the women's chorus tomorrow, and the trip to New York City at the beginning of October! Details about this trip forthcoming.

Robotics

Mentoring a FIRST (italicized for Roxy <3) robotics team is really intense, especially for a college freshman, so I don't think I will get too involved in the team this year. However, I do intend to work on off-season projects, volunteer for events, and get shop certified so I can use the 11 CNC machines in the Washburn shop whenever I want! Thomas' roommate already has an idea for an engineering project, but for now I will keep it a secret. :P

Additionally, this Sunday was the first official video conference meeting of the 2011 Dean's List Winners! We had a bit of trouble with the technology at first, but we got a few things accomplished and have more in the works. It was really great to see everyone again; I've only been away from Manchester for a week and I already miss all of them!

????

Tonight pretty much summed up my social life at WPI. Thomas and I grabbed some dinner after our math class, and then had our first laundry adventure (which of course involved starcraft.) Then, my roommate and I met with two of the guys from upstairs, and we walked over to Fuller for the Outing Club meeting. There, we learned that we could pay $20 to have unlimited access to a slackline and access to WPI's climbing wall from 7-10 every weeknight FOR THE ENTIRE YEAR! That sounds like a sweet deal to me (parents, take note.) They are also planning a kayaking trip soon, which I may go on if it isn't too expensive (again, my mom and dad don't know this yet and will probably find out by reading my blog... >.>)

After the meeting, the four of us walked to the library and rented movies for a movie night we're planning for tomorrow after the ice cream social that our dorm is having. Then... the best part of the whole evening! We were walking back to our dorm across the quad, and we saw tons of people larping... we asked if we could join, and they handed us swords and helped us jump right in! I love going to a nerd school. :)

Congrats! You have made it to the end of this unusually long post, or at least skimmed to the bottom much like you would for an end users' license agreement. I promise to write shorter entries with greater frequency; it just takes a significant word count to capture the way one's life can change entirely in one week. For those who are interested, I will post my recount of the Dean's List trip later in the week when it is not a time I should be in bed.

Friends and family, please comment with how you are doing! I miss you and want to hear from you.

Much love,

Lydia

My Life of Video Games

Hey guys, just wanted to post something since I haven't been active for over a year. I'm posting a monologue I wrote for my AP Literature class, and I think everyone who grew up in the nineties can identify with this piece.

I want to write more monologues and short essays, but I'm not sure what topics to write about. If you want me to write more, please leave your topic in a comment and I will see what I can do.

Now that business is taken care of, here's the monologue:

My Life of Video Games

The most important things in life, I learned from playing video games. While my mother shaped her character in childhood by riding horses and playing on tire swings, I forged my own path by ascending to level 85, and becoming a Pokémon Master. I started playing video games at the tender age of four, when my brother passed his Super Nintendo down to me. I spent more time than I would like to admit mastering Super Mario Bros, Donkey Kong Country, and Lemmings. Even at a young age I gleaned a few life lessons from my gaming experiences, such as the universal remedy of fixing dysfunctional technology by blowing on it. Works every time. Unfortunately, jumping on your enemies’ heads to vanquish them doesn’t work quite as well in real life.

Wanting to branch out from my purely Nintendo education, I moved on to Sony platforming games featuring Spyro, a miniature purple dragon, and Crash Bandicoot, an orange, genetically advanced rodent. When I was on the go I turned back to Nintendo, the venerated purveyor of Pokémon Red Version. Most girls my age looked to Seventeen magazine for advice, while I spent late nights poring over Game Informer and Playstation Magazine. Today, I use computer games as a way to relax from an intense schedule. Over my history as a gamer, my forays through the virtual world have taught me countless invaluable lessons, which I will share with you for your own wisdom.

First and foremost, if you are going to get into trouble, you have to have a plan to get out of it. Of course, you shouldn’t get caught in the first place, but in the unlikely event that you stir up the guards, here are two options sure to get you out of trouble:

• Option one: Sit on the nearest bench between two people. If you happen to be wearing white, you may also choose to walk with the nearest group of scholars. The police are sure to overlook your escape.
• Option two: Steal the nearest car and drive away as fast as you can until the stars go away. Once they're gone, you're safe to leave the car in an alleyway (or on a freeway, doesn't make too much of a difference) and continue on your merry way.

Clearly, both options require effort and don’t contribute to completing your quest. It is therefore best to circumvent resorting to either option, which can be achieved by keeping yourself in proper physical and mental condition. Be sure to visit the stores in town before entering combat to stock up on health and mana potions—you never know when you or someone in your party might need a slight boost. If you’re short on arbitrary currency or can’t seem to find a mart anywhere, remember that there is always time in the day, regardless of the situation, to take a restful nap to restore your party’s health. This is particularly useful before you face off against an intimidating boss such as the AP Calculus exam. All you have to do is find the local innkeeper or kindly old lady and you will instantly have full HP!

Now that you know how to keep yourself in good form, you must know how to defend yourself against enemies when preparation and escape attempts fail. While speccing and training is intricate and time-consuming, combat is often simple. In fact, you will only detriment your success if you attempt to execute long, frivolous combos. Mashing buttons with fast attacks that keep your opponents defensive are best. Break line of sight by ducking under cover, and don’t forget to keep your gun loaded by shooting outside the screen. You can also opt to avoid the problem of reloading entirely by using melee weapons instead. Swords counter every other weapon including guns and fire, particularly if they are of improbable mass and size. This leads us to one of the most well known tenets of combat, which is that style is much more important than practicality when it comes to finishing moves. It doesn’t matter if that extra backflip wasn’t entirely necessary. As long as your leather coat and gravity-defying hair billow attractively in the breeze, victory is assured. Even if you somehow fail to execute this advice, remember: if things go wrong, it’s the healer’s fault.

Everything I have talked about thus far has been about survival, but video games are great educators of virtue as well. My favorite games over the years have taught me three essential values that get me through the day and generally make life more manageable and enjoyable.

First, teamwork. This is essential in the art of breeding and training the perfect party of Pokémon. When I first started, it was all about getting to level 100. Of course, you only needed to worry about training one Pokémon to level 100, because everyone knows you only need Charizard to beat the Elite Four. However, in Silver version I began to think of my party more as a team than as a single hero with filler Pokémon for HMs. I learned how to share experience equally between my Pokémon so they all leveled up at the same rate. It was much more time consuming, but ultimately more rewarding because I wasn’t defeated if Typhlosion somehow fainted. The Pokémon training system itself isn't entirely applicable to life (I tried training my dog, but she never managed to evolve or learn any moves other than tail whip and growl), but the intensity and teamwork I learned from my quest to be the very best has aided me in work and in life.

Next is patience. When the human rogue ganks your alt endlessly in Arathi Basin, don't allow yourself to become irrationally angry. Your guildmates will tempt you with offers of fast revenge exacted by the over-geared fists of their mains, but this won't bring you true satisfaction. Simply channel your rage to improve enough to gank them back, or, alternatively, take it out on the frost mage that can't find their ice lance button. You will look especially cool if you /yell "FOR THE HORDE!" while doing it.

Finally, persistence. You will never improve if you hate yourself for losing or making mistakes. This year, I started playing a game that requires skill rather than preparation: Starcraft II. I am still in the process of learning how to use losses as a way to learn and improve rather than an excuse to get angry and stop playing. This is the most difficult and important thing I have learned from a video game, and it’s still a work in progress. Video games, much like life, are meant to be fun rather than frustrating. If you can learn to lighten up on yourself in a video game, you can learn to laugh off mistakes in real life like missing a calculus problem because you made an arithmetic error. Even when you make mistakes and fail, believe in yourself. It doesn't matter if you need to fight off one-thousand zombies, zerglings, guitar notes, or equilibrium problems... with enough micro, button mashing, and determination, anything is possible.