Meeting with the Visiting Committee

The great Anne Hunter emailed us a few weeks back asking for volunteers to meet with the EECS department's visiting committee, a committee that comes by ever two years, meets with various people in the department and makes recommendation. They wanted to meet with a group of undergrads/M.Eng students for an hour today to ask them about their opinions on Course 6. So I volunteered, not thinking much of it.

I was kinda taken aback when I found out who actually was on the visiting committee. So, here are only some of the people to whom I, the little worm, spoke to today:

Ray Stata (founder of Analog Devices)
Roger Bamford (Principle Architect of Oracle)
Gerald Burnett (CEO of Avistar Communications)
Alexander Dreyfoos (not sure he was there)
Arthur Gelb (president of Four Sigma corporation)
Brian Hinman (CEO of 2Wire)
Mark Horowitz (Director of the CS Lab at Stanford)
Charlene Kabcenell (VP of Oracle)
Bob Metcalfe (don't think he was there, but he invented ethernet)
Jay Tenenbaum (Founder of CommerceNet)
Louis Tomasetta (CEO of Vitesse Semiconductor)
Andrew Viterbi (President of Viterbi Group)
Jeannette Wing (a Dean at CMU)

Oh my god! I confess to a bit of stagefright. I didn't say anything significant nor speak for more than 5 mins total, but that was quite an experience. The best part was when all these accomplished people finished introducing themselves and then it was our turn: "Hello, I'm Karolina Netolicka, I'm class of 2004, working on my M.Eng thesis...."


P.S. Nov 2006: Nowadays I often get a similar feeling at work, interacting with some of the people who are much more accomplished than me. But I'm getting used to the idea.

My first poem

Composed at the age of five:

"I am a goldfish, my name is Twink,
I swim around the goldfish pool, sink, sink, sink.
I love my name, it's Twink you know,
I sometimes swim fast and sometimes slow."

Unfortunately, I think that was high point of my poetry career...

Not a treasurer any more!

Today we had the election meeting for the Ballrom Dance Team, an organization for which I've been the treasurer for the past year. I'm rather happy to shed this responsibility, although I must say I've enjoyed it a lot, too. It was my first time being involved in any sort of student group, the first time I had a large influence on a big organization. I finally see what they mean by this "leadership" thing - it is a bit of a bullshit buzzword, but there definitely is a difference between just doing your job, and between inspiring people to actually become more dedicated to the organization (although I can't claim I quite achieved the latter). I'm quite happy with the composition of the new exec and I know the team is in good hands. Goodbye MITBDT, I'll see you in a year when I come back for the MIT Open competition!

Britney Spears

.... and cosmetic surgery:

http://www.liquidgeneration.com/poptoons/britneys_breasts.asp

If she actually hasn't had any surgery, I want to know what bra she wears.

How to carry your iMac

From apple's user manual:

How to pick up and carry your iMac G5

"Don't know how to pick up and carry your iMac G5? It's easy.

Before moving your computer, make sure all cables and cords are disconnected.

Pick up the iMac G5 by grasping both sides of the computer. Carry it to wherever you wish."

Wow. Suddenly I'm less inclined to call myself a Mac user...

A bad joke

Q. What's the main export article of the Philippines?
A. Manila envelopes!