The humdrum of school is nice because it imposes order — there are rewards, a sense of accomplishment.

At the same time, it leaves me with almost no time to enjoy things. It’s odd, but now, after working for the last two weeks, even my favorite books seem bland. At this point, it is surprising to read about other people who place so much feeling into nonworking life.

Anyway.

I believe that the key to great literature is a premonition of the extraordinary. There is a line that can’t be crossed because the opposite side is the realm of the weird, the fantastical, the shoddy sensationalistic genre of science fiction. But the border is where greatness lies, where men like Gatsby, and Dick Diver are conceived, too fantastic, idealistic, or good looking for every day life, but vividly real caricatures of our own idealism, our own lust and desires.

I spent the last 24 hours watching and bidding on one ebay item: a pair of Axiom M22ti cherry wood speakers.

This singular event precipitated passion, joy, disbelief and despair.

Passion for the wonders of music that I shall enjoy!
Joy that I outbid the stupid motherfucker by $5!
Disbelief that after a short break from the computer, I had lost by exactly the amount I had cunningly won by.
Despair that I had wasted all day with an obsession that bore no fruit.

Anyway, whatever evil that swept over me in the last day is over.

A man was shot in Kirkland House today(I live in Claverly, which is about 3 blocks away).

This was big news throughout the country for a while — even taking the #1 spot in google search trends. Having access to both Harvard mailing lists and news reports, it was immensely surprising how differently the event was characterized in the two spheres.

At Harvard, the student reaction was overwhelmingly one of concern for student safety, and for the impacts that such an event would bring to the community. The news media on the other hand, jumped on the fact that someone was shot at Harvard. Several of the sources I read(including the Huffington Post) mistakenly reported that the victim was a Harvard student. This sensationalistic confusion seems difficult to justify to me, as every official line I read from Harvard administrators, and from the Crimson, took pains to emphasize the fact that the status and id of the victim was unknown. The Huffington Post claim was especially egregious, since the Boston Globe article they linked to specifically said that the victim was not known to be a Harvard Student.

The exaggerated reporting was disturbing on another level because, overwhelming, the outside world honed in on the fact that this shooting happened at Harvard. Maybe I am really paranoid, but all the responses I read (on Reddit, on the huffington post) seemed to indicate that much of the public interest in the whole thing is due to a gleeful and slightly malicious interest in seeing if Harvard’s fallen from its pedestal of privilege. This is understandable, and not really new to me, but it’s still shocking to see how much underlying hatred random people have for the “pampered pussies” that I am apparently a part of.

A lot of political discourse in the past year, especially with regards to the 2008 election, have focused on the alienation of intellectuals from the average person’s life. But really, who’s to blame for that?

To organize my activity this summer, I am blogging!

I hope to

a) Post math problems/papers/solutions

b) Muse in a significant way about the world outside of Harvard, studying, and the Fung Wah, which occupies almost all of my energy during the school year

c) Document my trip to China with pictures and shit.

Morse Theory Paper

A Harvard Education has meant for me an almost inhuman disinterest in everything. This is not to say there haven’t been bright moments where I’ve rejoiced in the conversation, the work, the whole mantra that adorns the side door of Boylston Gate — “enter here and grow in wisdom”.

It’s just that, sometimes, I feel like a zombie.

By midterms, I’ve usually lost interest in at least half of my classes.  From monday to thursday, I work at least 40 hours. On friday, I give up, reflect upon my week, feel dissatisfied, complain, and sleep. I waste saturday. I waste sunday. On monday, the cycle begins again.

The only salvation in that from monday to thursday, I am usually too overwhelmed to feel dissatisfied.

There’s been plenty of other people who feel the same way. I guess all I really have to say is: to all the South Korean tourists — rub a load of this!

If you’ve ridden the redline on the MBTA in the past month, you’ll have seen Dentyne’s new advertising campaign. The new campaign,  with the slogan “make face time” is splattered in every frame of advertising space. Look eye level at all and you’ll see picture after picture of happy couples(possibly aryan), friends(multiracial friends!), “making face time”.

It’s the scariest thing I’ve seen all year.

All the ads focus use the rhetoric of technology to describe age old social interactions. Super-imposed on a picture of two couples is the phrase “The first instant message”. Above two interracial friends hugging, is the familiar facebook message — “Friend Request Accepted”. The idea, as Dentyne states above two kissing lovers(heterosexual) is to reconnect with the world: “power down. log off. unplug. have mercy on your thumbs. browse the world wide something else. send some not so instant messages. undo. hit cancel. be together. make face time”

The campaign imagines a culture, and presumes a society, where people are permanently networked to mediums destructive of meaningful social interactions (hugs, kisses, love). The campaign proposes as a solution, to suddenly “unplug” and buy lots of gum. Instead of alienation via substitutive human interactions(such as ims, voicemails), Dentyne proposes commodity fetishism. “Buy gum! For it will make you loved”

How can people be bamboozled by this shit?

(Dentyne tastes bad too!)

1027notes

From Math 122. I couldn’t read my hand writing, and I wanted to try to learn commutative diagrams. So I typed it up.

There’s not very much commutative diagrams.

The Burj Dubai tower, as of september 1st 2008, is the tallest structure in the world. The only Kablaam I didn’t hate: Prometheus and Bob.

On Tuesday Nights, those damn Problem Set Nights
Meghan T. Purdy in Lowell, Megan T. Purdy within my sights
And Lo! My melancholy world is brighter
Meghan T. Purdy, you are like a fire fighter
Too bad you weren’t there by ABP
That fire would’ve whimpered to see –
You in your glorious attire
Ready to conquer any fire (or photograph)
With one hand you curve color balance right
A green face, a blurry leg, things that might give small children fright
With the other you stand tall
Overcoming natural disaster with nary any effort at all
Meghan T. Purdy: ubermensch
Megan T. Purdy: photo bench

Forgive me!