I don’t know why, but I’m just about ready to pass out. See, this is why I don’t write in my blog. This was supposed to be a long weekend. Don’t people typically relax and drink martinis on long weekends? And I was originally going to go visit my mom. Instead I danced in a parade, had dinner with folks I worked with who I haven’t seen in a long time, worked on ridiculously elaborate Halloween costumes (basically I am trying to make Yang a Daft Punk getup. Out of paper mache. I know, Daft Punk does not do paper mache, but I’m not a big fan of Bondo fumes in a small city apartment, soooo…), and, last but not least, attended a 9-hour event at MIT called Startup Bootcamp.

The Honk! parade was amazing as usual. We were once again Endangered Animals with Lipstick but with a tongue-in-cheek healthcare theme this year. We had wolves in lab coats (Dr. Wolfe) handing out prescriptions for “a 6-pack of beer before breakfast,” “30 spoonfuls of sugar with every meal” and other healthcare atrocities and people lining the streets loved them, especially the kids when they got the sugar/ice cream/caffeine ones. (I love happy people.) We also had polar bears and a skeletal Death Panel with bat wings and scythes and a Miss Public Option (Professor Pinto of Tufts U.) and a Miss Junior Single Option (her cute daughter). Our float was modified from last year’s missile to a gigantic syringe and we speared the stuffed pig with it. The pig had a banner that said “Health Care.” Finally we had picket signs with messages like “Bite a Senator” and “Who-Cares?” There are few things that I love more than making a scene in time to marching band beats while dressed up as a forest animal. With Yang and Nika! Who danced with me this year.

This is a picture of our float:

Clearly the coolest thing on campus that day.

(It’s funny how I’ve been graduated for over a year and yet I feel completely at home back on campus. I thought it would be awkward, but it isn’t… it feels like coming home. Now I know why alums drag their families back 50 years later to their alma mater, whining bored offspring in tow.)

So that was that, and I’ll be sad to miss it next year. So pretty much I’ll have to hop a bus up from New York and possibly miss a day of Grad School to get back in on the action.

That was Sunday… today was MIT Startup Bootcamp. It was 12 speakers and a total firehosian amount of information blasting you in the face. Highlights:

- Dan Theobald of Vecna following 2 extremely irreverent, charismatic young folk with a seemingly dull speech but which was chock full of wisdom. First speaker to allude to social relevance and responsibility

- Robin Chase (only female speaker) hoping for an antitrust lawsuit 10 years down the line because her company will have so monopolized the shared car industry (go Zipcar go!)

- (who was this?) showing a graph depicting his company’s growth over time and then disclaiming that it was actually a chart showing German dog food sales

- Other People’s Money = OPM = makes you high, and obstructs bowel movements

- Dharmesh Shah’s Powerpoint being the only one that clearly had a graphic design team work on it. It was stock photo central with punchy short lines set in Georgia.

- A moment of awkwardness when an audience member snagged the last opportunity to probe the last speaker on why he thinks there are so few women in attendance. I applaud her braveness and boo all the people who basically laughed her off the mic. True, it was a bit random but come on… if you did not notice that disparity today, you were probably blind.

- Angus Davis using live polling via http://www.polleverywhere.com to gather votes on what the audience wanted him to talk about

- Mini-party on Twitter made possible by intermission projection of http://visibletweets.com

- General consensus that bootstrapping is the way to go. They should have named this event Bootstrap Bootcamp.

There were lots more interesting things that were said, but I’ve run out of juice. I wish I had more, because Bolthouse Farms is pretty fantastic-tasting. And expensive. Oh but I’m tired. Tomorrow is another day.

All I can say after today is, I’m glad I brought an iPhone for this.