Hello World
All first ventures should start with hello world, right?
I like following blogs, I like reading blogs. I don’t really read “the news”, or read long forms of prose any more (not that I don’t want to, of course, if I just had the time…). I’m subscribed to roughly 100 different RSS feeds, spread across a huge range of posting schedules and topics. I’ve roughly divided these into “Comics”, “News”, “Course 2” (mechanical engineering for you non-MIT folk), “Photography”, and “Art”, plus a special one - “Blogs”. Comics includes some standards like xkcd, SMBC, and FoxTrot. I read most of the things from this category pretty religiously, but they also usually take less than a minute to read. News is just Engadget and Popsci - I scan the headlines of these, and every now and then click through into an article. Most of the time, I’ve already seen anything particularly interesting on Reddit. Course 2 is basically just Hackaday - I also read the headlines, but am much more likely to actually open up an article and give it a read. Every now and then my friends have projects featured, which is exciting. Photography could probably use a bit more organization - I have both photo sites, like 500px, and photography news sites, like Nikon Rumors. I think my favorite from this section is the LensRentals blog, which is by far the best source of actual technical data on lenses. Art is a few particular art blogs, most of which don’t post frequently (maybe a couple times a year).
Finally, there’s Blogs. I have by far the biggest set of subscriptions, and the biggest variety.
I have a confession to make - if I know you, and if you’ve ever posted a link to your blog on Facebook, I probably subscribed, and probably put it in this folder. I read most of the articles here, though if they’re clearly more private/personal, I’m respectful of that. I have a lot of friends that do a lot of awesome things, and I’ve found blogs to be the best way to keep track of them all. To highlight a few that I think are intended for a more public audience:
- etotheipiplusone.net - Charles Guan's site of robots, interesting vans, flying contraptions, motor controllers, and silly electric vehicles of all shapes and sizes. Charles posts pretty frequently, but his series on CMV is probably my favorite.
- Buildits - Ben Katz's site of robots and motor controllers. Ben is one of the most legit engineers I know, and everything he builds is a work of art, and excellently documented. Ben recently collaborated with another friend, Jared DiCarlo, to beat the robotic Rubik's cube solve record by almost a factor of 2.
- PJ - PJ is a designer friend that has the most aesthetically pleasing, beautifully documented photo/travel blogs I've ever encountered. She hasn't posted all that much recently, but some of her blog posts about traveling to Santorini were stunning.
- MIT Admissions - I used to follow this religiously as a high schooler, but have found it to be less interesting than experiencing things around MIT myself. That said, it's still a smorgasbord of interesting content. I particularly love the recent Pi Day video.
There’s also dozens more blogs that are less active, or less public and more personal, and to each of those authors that I know, thank you for writing. I may not be the intended audience for many of you, but I appreciate the glimpse into your many vibrant lives.
What do I hope to accomplish with this blog? I’m not quite sure. I take a lot of photos, which can be interesting to write about, and I really like cameras - I have more than I know what to do with. I also have a lot of thoughts on more technical aspects of photography. I started cooking more recently now that I’ve had free time, so Lauren said I should make a cooking blog. Every now and then I like to make videos, and I’ve even thought about making a Youtube channel, but editing videos is a lot of work. Editing blog posts is a lot less work. Let’s try dipping our toes in before making the plunge. I have lots of thoughts about 2.009 (and then later TA’ing it), lots of other MIT classes, and MIT in general. I also like consuming other media - movies, anime, a few TV shows, short films, blog posts, Reddit, Youtube - I wouldn’t mind reviewing them or compiling them on occasion. Every now and then I travel, which seems to be popular for bloggers. I also have an endless list of personal projects that I’m planning or working on. Right now I’m waiting on parts for a custom glasses case I designed.
Most likely, this blog will be a wide sampling of my interests, and each post will be a snapshot of my thoughts or progress on them. You’re welcome to follow along :)