Recycle, Reuse, (Map) Reduce

Recycle, Reuse, (Map) Reduce Some people[1] say that you need to seriously rethink your life when your days dont end with grass stains on your knees. Id like to suggest that grease, dust, and oil be added to that list, at least for those of us at MIT. [1] Whod have thought MIT doesnt own the rights to Calvin and Hobbes? Hmph. Guess Ill just have to reference the comic strip awkwardly inline. As fun as it is to play outside, the time-honored sport of crufting (see: crvfting) is an important part of daily life at MIT. Although you can easily furnish your dorm room with exquisite, handcrafted Scandinavian furniture from your favorite importer (I got a new bookshelf! I have a massive summer reading list that I cooked up although it is strangely almost all nonfiction. *shrug*, guess Im old Or very original, high-quality lighting from your local upscale retailer Target, okay?You can also easily furnish your room with much more unique furniture, with significantly more dings and dents, from another great source. MIT! Quoth my friend Kevin upon learning of this: Thats not fair. Many schools and companies (arguably, thats redundant) dont like to give up their stuff. Ive asked for old computers and furniture from a number of such entities (cough, cough, Microsoft, VMware, other such companies), and they all have stringent policies about when they can give away things theyre getting rid of. Most companies end up sending piles and piles of perfectly functional furniture, cat food, used clothing and computers straight to the trash heap. Guess who doesnt? MIT! Well, mostly. MIT still throws out a great number of things. However, theres one place of refuge for discarded stuff (cruft) at MIT; that wonderful place is known on these hallowed grounds as reuse. Looking around my room and my hall, here are a few examples of things weve picked up off of reuse in the last two years: Several refrigerators Several air conditioners One 138 gallon bow-front glass aquarium Many smaller aquariums One cat Toner for my 15? year old printer, which is still going strong! Bar-height stools (for my standing desk. and for other things) Four comfy couches Three weird freshmen Two queen size beds And a partridge in a pear tree! Maybe I got a bit carried away at the end, there. We didnt actually pick up three freshmen, or a partridge in a pear tree. However, we did collect a nine foot tall cactus named Bubba. Yes, Im serious. And to think that companies would throw out things like this! The waste is appalling. (Yes, I did just imply that large corporations may throw out cats. Accidental implication? Perhaps.) Obtaining such things is often made easier by my dear friend Lucy; however, even with a huge honkin SUV to cart things around, obtaining goods from reuse often means climbing through dirty, dusty, greasy piles of cruft to find the gems that make their way back to our dorm. And thats why a good day is often a day when, at the end, youre covered in grease, scrapes, and sweat. (The aforementioned Kevin, a high school friend who goes to a perhaps more wasteful university, and I obtained these twenty two computers the other day; if I actually get my butt out of this chair and do some cool projects this summer, then stay tuned for a blog post about DIY supercomputing[2]! If I dont get my butt out of this chair, then I guess its business as usual) [2] Probably not involving anything like Map Reduce; I just wanted a nice title. Happy summer! -Cam [3] yes, those are my legs in bed, pointing towards the computer pile. Is that appropriate for the MIT Admissions blogs? *shrug*. Im wearing covers, at least. [4] By the way, for those of you whod been asking about the name of the cat in the pictures Id posted a few months ago I got an e-mail the other day: From: Vincent To: Cam Subject: blog i just happened to look at your mitadmissions blog for the record, i also call my cat cat. her given name is geneva. and the only name she might respond to would be kissing noises. lol.