From the Desk of Mr. Apple

Yesterday was project interviews in 6.867. That meant that all of Thursday and Friday morning was spent reading through the students' projects, and then from noon until a little after 4pm yesterday I was in a room interviewing them individually. It was pretty tiring, but I really have to say I was impressed with the work they did. Pretty much every single project met the basic standard, about 2/3rds were exceptional, and 2 or 3 were mind-blowing in terms of the care and work people had put into them. What a bunch of nerds. Anyway, after interviews it was poker night. This was the last tourney of the fall season, and despite having not won a single tourney in the fall, I had a big point lead going in. By showing up to every single tournament and playing consistently "ok", but never good, I'd somehow managed to dominate the points and yet be down money....go figure. Since there were about 4 or 5 people who deserved the championship more than me I had no problem agreeing to a different point structure that would let the top finishers have a chance to catch me. As usual, I went out in like 6th out of 14 and ended up 2nd in the final standings. I bought the champ a beer and went back to my office to eat Doritos and cry softly to myself. I am making some changes to my game in the winter. This shall not stand.