Tilton: The Gathering

As this year at Tufts comes to a close, I realize I've learned some new things from my freshman dorm. And no, this isn't where the post gets sappy - it's where it gets nerdy. Over the past few months, I've been introduced to a sprinkling of awesomely nerdy pastimes, from card games to computer games. Here's the rundown.

Cards from "Magic: The Gathering"

Visualizing in Degrees

Students at Tufts University are happy to know that the old SIS (Student Information Systems) is being updated, scheduled to be operable by my senior year (2013-2014). It is certainly a much-needed improvement; the current system, aside from being incredibly slow during course registration and simply looking text-based and ugly, has an interesting sleep schedule. For example, the entire system goes down between 6pm-8pm every night, and "may be unavailable on Sundays from 6AM to 10AM EST/EDT for scheduled maintenance." I'm sorry, your database needs 18 hours of down-time per week? Yikes. So wonderful; SIS is getting an upgrade. It took a whole new building on campus, but it's going to happen. But what if SIS wasn't the only thing changing? I propose a makeover for our Degree Audit Reporting System, DARS. And it would look something like this:

(click image to enlarge)

Paint it Blue

During reading period, Tufts Mock Trial set out on our third attempt to paint the cannon. Our first attempt was undercut by Tufts Wilderness, which got there a few hours earlier to guard. Our second attempt was rained out. But the third time's the charm, they say! Here's a recap of our season, and some great shots from out painting expedition.

Middle East Timeline

Since my first semester here at Tufts, I've been studying with the help of technology. And every college student knows there's no technology more intriguing during finals than Facebook. That's probably why I used examples from Facebook to study for Psychology the fall of my freshman year. But with the new Facebook timeline, it only seems fitting that this technology be used for a history course. After all, I've already written about ideas for an historical Facebook of sorts, so this exploration of middle eastern politics is simply the next logical step. Presenting a brief compilation of Facebook-timeline screencaps for important figures of the middle east. Disclaimer: Without having taken the class, you might not find these as hilarious as I do.