This article is about my best friend. He told me the backstory a couple nights ago:
He gets a random email asking if he's available to talk to the Globe about his pirate license. "Sure, why not?" So he gets on the phone with a reporter who asks him about his interest in piracy, and that's when he mentions that he used to dress up for Talk Like a Pirate Day in high school. "Do you have any photos of you dressed as a pirate?" "No..."
So a couple hours later he gets an email asking if the Globe can take photos of him dressed as a pirate. And when he suggests they do it at the MIT Sailing Pavilion, they ask around and find a photographer who somehow knows the guy who runs the pavilion. So they meet up, and in some down time the manager tells Jacob: "You know, he's a pretty awesome photographer. Everything he does ends up on the front page."
And it did.
edit: I forgot the best part of the story (for me). I was eating lunch with his former roommate when he walks right past us. We both text him. So he comes back and talks to us for a while, then mentions offhand "So I need to go take photos with a reporter for the Globe. By the way, can I borrow your socks?" The next time he passed by he was in full pirate costume.
During my last semester at MIT, I really wanted to take the sailing class. It always fills up pretty fast, and I was late registering. Clearly, my only option for getting into the class was to show my passion for sailing by coming dressed as a pirate.
I showed up to the sailing Pavilion all decked out, and the people who didn't think I was weird (which was relatively few as folks are used to strange stuff on the MIT campus), seemed to like it.
We weren't allowed to sail the first day, but the instructor did a presentation entire the whole class (30ish students). He asked the class for a sole volunteer to crew for him. Being excited to get out on ye olde charles milky-greens, I hastily shot my hand up. After a moment of contemplation, the instructor somewhat reluctantly said "yeah, we'll take the pirate".
Since he and I were now alone in the dinghy, I drew my [plastic] cutlass and started whacking him in an attempt to commander the vessel. That didn't work, so I gave up. On the way back, there was a lull as the wind died down. We were just sitting there with the entire class watching and I was bored/thirsty, so I took out my flask and took a swig. He gave me a strange look, which I thought meant he wanted some. So I offered him some, which he kindly yet strangely declined.
Anyone else think that making it official makes it less fun? I guess if you were a student there now it would be cool that it got made official, but in future it will be just another official piece of paper, rather than something people do or say because they decided to.
Maybe I'm just a killjoy...
EDIT: I see the article has a page two, where it details how they involved the students in the whole thing. Note to self: resist the urge to skim read articles, even if they are about students dressing up as pirates.
I've never fully understood why a college would have a class that was wanted so badly it was nearly impossible to sign up for, but not just have more classes of it. It seems awful silly.
I could understand if it was a certain professor that was wanted, and not a subject.
Four years of signing up for pistols, never once got in (I signed up fairly early too. Guess I shoulda automated it). This new degree will now make it even harder to get in! Maybe as a result they will look into expanding the class.
I'm not really surprised that the availability is still pretty low. Regular lecture-oriented courses don't have to deal with requirements like "there is only one room on campus where this course can meet," but this becomes a problem _very_ quickly for pistol, archery, etc. I've never seen MIT's range (didn't even know there was a range in Cambridge until now), but I'd guess it can't handle too many students at once. On top of all that, I'm not sure how easy it is to find instructors for hire in the Boston area (it looks like they have one instructor teaching all sections of pistol and rifle).
Adding to the (very long) list of reasons I wish I had considered engineering much earlier in life (or rather, known what AP exams were– small towns, pffft).
No, physical activity is really important. College is (in part) about developing intellectual habits, and exercise is very important if you want to have focus and energy in the other things you do. I think MIT is making a statement that we shouldn't let smart people turn into the "nerd" stereotype. MIT is doing a good job by telling the world that "you can be smart, healthy, and fit too."
It's not a "revenge of the jocks" -- getting a "pirate certificate" is still kinda "nerdy," but it encourages students to be active.
I repeat: You do not need to be physically unfit to be smart, and fitness will often make you more productive!
The perception that someone is "forcing" "nerds" to exercise is superficial and reinforces incorrect nerd/jock stereotypes. Perhaps you didn't mean this in a serious way, but in my experience some people still think that MIT is all stereotypical nerds. It isn't at all.
People get up early in the morning on signup day in order to be the first to sign up for phys. ed. classes.
In addition to that, until they cut 8 varsity teams a few years ago, MIT had the most varsity sports teams in the country (tied with Harvard, I think). There are also tons of intramural sports happening throughout the year.
Everyone at MIT is a nerd to some extent, but by far not everyone is a "stereotypical nerd" (whatever that means). People are very diverse here and you'll find all kinds of stereotypes (if you are so inclined), even "jocks."
Do you think It's a bad thing to learn how to be physically healthy? There have been plenty of studies that show a direct correlation between being active and increased brain function.
i had a ton of fun during a few of my MIT P.E. classes and ended up incidentally meeting at least one guy whom i became good friends with later in life (when people ask where we met, "P.E. class" is an unexpected answer).
there might be some value in "forced" non-academic activities, as long as people don't take it too seriously. iirc the P.E. teachers were often grad students who loved their sport, not jaded old fogies from middle school nightmares.
[+] [-] wylie|14 years ago|reply
He gets a random email asking if he's available to talk to the Globe about his pirate license. "Sure, why not?" So he gets on the phone with a reporter who asks him about his interest in piracy, and that's when he mentions that he used to dress up for Talk Like a Pirate Day in high school. "Do you have any photos of you dressed as a pirate?" "No..."
So a couple hours later he gets an email asking if the Globe can take photos of him dressed as a pirate. And when he suggests they do it at the MIT Sailing Pavilion, they ask around and find a photographer who somehow knows the guy who runs the pavilion. So they meet up, and in some down time the manager tells Jacob: "You know, he's a pretty awesome photographer. Everything he does ends up on the front page."
And it did.
edit: I forgot the best part of the story (for me). I was eating lunch with his former roommate when he walks right past us. We both text him. So he comes back and talks to us for a while, then mentions offhand "So I need to go take photos with a reporter for the Globe. By the way, can I borrow your socks?" The next time he passed by he was in full pirate costume.
[+] [-] blhack|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jeremyis|14 years ago|reply
I showed up to the sailing Pavilion all decked out, and the people who didn't think I was weird (which was relatively few as folks are used to strange stuff on the MIT campus), seemed to like it.
We weren't allowed to sail the first day, but the instructor did a presentation entire the whole class (30ish students). He asked the class for a sole volunteer to crew for him. Being excited to get out on ye olde charles milky-greens, I hastily shot my hand up. After a moment of contemplation, the instructor somewhat reluctantly said "yeah, we'll take the pirate".
Since he and I were now alone in the dinghy, I drew my [plastic] cutlass and started whacking him in an attempt to commander the vessel. That didn't work, so I gave up. On the way back, there was a lull as the wind died down. We were just sitting there with the entire class watching and I was bored/thirsty, so I took out my flask and took a swig. He gave me a strange look, which I thought meant he wanted some. So I offered him some, which he kindly yet strangely declined.
Needless to say, I learned to sail that semester!
Here are some pics:
In lab after the events, finishing my flask: http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-snc7/25837_577030723648_...
Being a software pirate: http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash2/25837_577030868358_...
[+] [-] JonnieCache|14 years ago|reply
Maybe I'm just a killjoy...
EDIT: I see the article has a page two, where it details how they involved the students in the whole thing. Note to self: resist the urge to skim read articles, even if they are about students dressing up as pirates.
[+] [-] wccrawford|14 years ago|reply
I could understand if it was a certain professor that was wanted, and not a subject.
[+] [-] stryker|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] kd0amg|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] joshAg|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] evoxed|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] noonespecial|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] glimcat|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] adoyle|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] losvedir|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] d2vid|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] fatjokes|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] tomjen3|14 years ago|reply
On the other hand the entire forced 'physical education' just screams revenge of the jocks over the nerds. At least at MIT it should be the other way.
[+] [-] shantanubala|14 years ago|reply
It's not a "revenge of the jocks" -- getting a "pirate certificate" is still kinda "nerdy," but it encourages students to be active.
I repeat: You do not need to be physically unfit to be smart, and fitness will often make you more productive!
[+] [-] snikolov|14 years ago|reply
People get up early in the morning on signup day in order to be the first to sign up for phys. ed. classes.
In addition to that, until they cut 8 varsity teams a few years ago, MIT had the most varsity sports teams in the country (tied with Harvard, I think). There are also tons of intramural sports happening throughout the year.
Everyone at MIT is a nerd to some extent, but by far not everyone is a "stereotypical nerd" (whatever that means). People are very diverse here and you'll find all kinds of stereotypes (if you are so inclined), even "jocks."
[+] [-] InclinedPlane|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] cadr|14 years ago|reply
On the other hand, I didn't understand why we had to pass a swim test.
[+] [-] kenrikm|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] pgbovine|14 years ago|reply
there might be some value in "forced" non-academic activities, as long as people don't take it too seriously. iirc the P.E. teachers were often grad students who loved their sport, not jaded old fogies from middle school nightmares.
[+] [-] killnine|14 years ago|reply