Tim: yay campaigns

I only spent 13 hours at work today and it made me really happy. Also, Antonio Villaraigosa is pretty much awesome.

My daily caffeine intake is trending towards “probably unhealthy,” with ambitions of achieving “mildly alarming.” I have a firm new appreciation for espresso and also of the Starbucks conveniently located between the house where I’m staying and the campaign office.

Livin’ the dream!

The semester in a quote

“I always thought this college and entrepreneurship thing would be something more than sitting in a bathroom and coding while singing Spice Girls”

-Chester Macklin

(it should be noted that our office is in a bathroom which was turned into a hallway)

Tim: Tucumcari, New Mexico

Hello from Mountain Time. I have photographic evidence that there are many cows in Oklahoma. Also at that link: photos from the Clinton library!

I picked up an audiobook copy of Giving at the Clinton museum store (more on the store in a coming post) and Sondy and I listened to it in the car today. I wasn’t really what I was expecting — it’s v. much an inspired laundry list of ways to do good things in the world, and of people who are doing good things. Useful and practical, certainly, but not a ton of insight into Clinton’s life, presidency, or plans. A good listen, though, and it’ll have me thinking about giving for a while now.

Tonight, we’re in New Mexico.  The motel feels very Edward Hopper. That is all. Good-night!

Tim: Hello from Memphis!

Good morning from Memphis, Tennessee! I’m road-trippin’ it across the country to Las Vegas, NV, which is where observant Planet Olin readers will have noticed that I’m going to be working for the Hillary Clinton campaign from now through January. More on this later, probably.

It turns out that Virginia is a bigger state than I thought it was, particularly when you’re heading out the very southwest corner of it. It’s been a good drive so far; the scenery was all very pretty but nothing surprising. Tennessee is sort of like an east-west New Jersey, in that it is long and in my way.

Today’s plan: cross the Mississippi and crash the Clinton Presidential Library in Little Rock en route to Amarillo, TX. It promises to be an exciting day! Pictures tonight.

Ben: Walking

I’ve recently discovered that I enjoy walking. No… I really like walking.

I especially enjoy walking alone because it gives me a chance to reflect on everything that is going on. Despite not taking classes, I am still staying very busy, and so any time that is spent not worrying about day to day life is much appreciated.

With this in mind, as I walked home from Wellesley last night (a short 3.6 miles), I decided that it could be fun to walk into Boston. And so, at 11:00 PM, I quickly looked up the route for the Boston Marathon (which conveniently runs just a mile away from our house) and decided to leave the next morning on this walk.

I then continued to think about this and realized that if I was going to all the trouble to walk the 16 miles into the Boston Commons, I might as well continue the walk to make a full 26.2 miles.

And so, this morning, at 9:00 AM I left home. After a leisurely walk to the Commons, up to Porter Square and back down to MIT, I found myself getting on a bus back to Wellesley at 5:55 PM. Upon arriving home, I discovered that my route was not a full 26.2 miles, but only 25.66. Regardless, it was a day well spent.

Perhaps the highlight of my day occurred on Route 16, just past the Woodland T stop. Here I found a synagogue. It wasn’t the synagogue that made my day, but rather what was on the sidewalk following the synagogue: trash.

For the next mile, there was slightly more litter than usual, and on each piece of trash there was a name tag that said “Jesus.” The first piece of trash I saw was a Dunkin Donuts cup, and so I assumed that some man named Jesus had a nametag, was drinking coffee, placed his nametag on his coffee cup, and then threw his coffee cup on the ground. But then there were chip bags, and Charlie Tickets, and cigarette boxes, and everything imaginable.

For the next hour, I kept thinking of the story behind this trash. Perhaps it was some evangelicals trying to convert the Jews by leaving signs that would let them “find Jesus in their lives.” Perhaps it was actually a Christian gang, who realized that the Bible denounces all crimes except littering (rather than tagging walls, they tag trash). Perhaps it was some Christian group that wanted everyone to notice how much trash there was and feel bad about littering. (This of course raises the question of why they went to all the trouble to put a name tag on every piece of trash, when they could have just picked it up)

But the only thing I know for certain is that it made me respect Christians less (and yes, I am Christian). Hmm… for that matter, maybe it is a band of Islamic or Jewish terrorists trying to soil the good name of Christians (or perhaps even those damn dirty liberals trying to defile the Christian Right)

How to get into and out of Boston

As a member of the Somerville House (which, when combined with Natick House’s abbreviation NH, completes the compass points created by WH and EH), I find myself frequently commuting to Olin through a variety of means. Today marks my 4th successful bike ride from Olin back to the Boston area, and I’ve finally settled on a regular route. It’s something that I’d been hoping to pin down for a while, since I’ve had some pretty bad experiences when I didn’t really know what I was doing. For your convenience, here are the maps (if you’ve never heard of pika, see my introductory post):

pika to Olin

Olin to pika

I’ve run this exact route twice, and have generally found Beacon making for the best compromise between a direct route and an enjoyable one.  It has the added advantage of going all the way into Boston, so you can easily modify these directions to get anywhere that you’d like.  There are some not-insignificant hills in the suburban parts, but with enough patience and proper gearing, you should be able to make the route in an hour at most. Note that it’s 12.5 miles long, and a bike tops out at between 15 and 25 mph. So considering that you will be stopping at traffic lights and the such, you should be able to get your time down into the 45 minute range- which is comparable to driving in traffic!

It’s a pretty enjoyable ride, and definitely makes me feel like a respectably fit person for at least the rest of the day. I highly recommend that you try it before it gets too cold. So much so, in fact, that if you pull into pika with a bike at around 6:15. I will invite you to dinner and introduce you to everyone around here. They’re really cool, which is why Gui never sees me (he’s pretty cool too, but not 32 times as cool as the average pikan).

Actually, if you show up through any means, you’re more than welcome to a pika dinner. They love visitors and, thanks to Ryan Hubbard, think all Oliners are fantastic. Other suggestions for non-car transportation include:

• Green Line (take it from Eliot to Kenmore, then get off and grab an outbound Green-B to Boston University Central and follow this map)
• Wellesley Bus: This was my primary mode of transportation for the last two years. Note that there are two flavors- the Exchange Bus and the Senate Bus. The Exchange Bus is much like the Olin-Babson-Wellesley shuttle, insofar as it’s free, during class times, and theoretically restricted to students of those schools. However, I’ve only once been asked for my ID, by a new driver who was still a stickler for the rules, and was able to confuse him with my old MIT ID from the summer. Guys- you’re likely to be the only male on the bus, but if you look like you belong they won’t care. And to be honest, the bus never fills up during weekdays, so they have no reason to. Senate Bus exists to bring students into Boston on weekends. It requires a $2 ticket, which cannot be bought on the bus. I recommend getting them at the machines in the Wellesley student center, right near the parking circle entrance, where you wait for the bus anyway. If you realize that you’ve got no ticket as you’re boarding the bus, you may be able to get help either from the driver not caring or a friendly Wellesley student. However, this bus does fill up inbound btwn 9-10pm / outbound btwn 12 and 1. Wellesley students will get pissed at you if you crowd them out. Generally, you should be extremely polite and remember that you are a visitor of sorts. Both of their schedules can be found here.
• Commuter Rail: There’s no reason to do this, unless you want to take in a bike (forbidden on the Green Line), but can’t ride it all the way. The closest stop is Wellesley Square, and you’ll end up in South Station. It’s expensive, erratic and slow, sort of like the Big Dig on rails.
• Bus: At least it’s cheaper than commuter rail. If you’re entirely without transportation of any sort, this will (eventually) get you into Boston. You’ll have to use an unholy combination of this bus, out of Needham, and this one, which almost reaches the exciting parts of the city. There may be some variants- feel free to post them if you find a better route.
• GoLoco: A recent startup designed to make ride-sharing cool again. It’s sort of like Facebook, except you can see trips that your friends have posted, and hop along (with seamless cost-sharing). It should be noted that, according to GoLoco’s formula, a solo drive into Boston is significantly more expensive than any of the options except for the commuter rail, and probably more dangerous than all but biking. As a full disclosure, I know the founder, and may at some point do an internship there. But it’s pretty clear that having a system like this to organize trips into Boston would alleviate both the stress of not having a car on Friday night, and the stress of always being asked to drive your car on Friday night (well, at least your passengers would share the cost).

I hope that you give it a shot. If you want any advice, feel free to comment or email me. I’d be up for leading a bike trip into Boston at some point, so please tell me if you’re interested and we can figure out the best time.

It should also be noted that the New York City subway pwns the T like a five-headed piranha at a cow eating contest.

A Year Off

On this blog, you’ll find a collection of posts from several students who have opted to take a year off from their classes at Olin College of Engineering. We’ll be using this blog to document our adventures and general happenings, as well as to reflect on the concept of “An Olin Year Off” Stay tuned for more!