MHacks has begun! I didn’t quite know what to expect when I stepped off the bus and walked to EECS. The hall leading to the atrium had a few people in it, some with dinner plates and others with laptops. As I entered the atrium I heard a growing noise and saw hundreds of people. A dozen companies had tables set up. People were submitting resumes and eating dinner. After registering at the front of the EECS atrium (registration was free, even though I didn’t RSVP, and they gave me a t-shirt to boot), I met a girl named Frannie advertising her Minecraft Art. She was displaying two pieces that communicated the proliferation of imagery on the internet and the evaporation of copyright. It was awesome.
I made my way to the Beyster building. Each classroom I passed was full of hackers and had a name like “Aaron Schwarz Hackerspace” or “Android Cortex”. The atmosphere was one of excitement. People walked past me talking about an event that was about to start, and projectors in every hackerspace indicated a livestream was about to begin. A guy I asked told me the event was going to be in Stamps Auditorium, the very room my U of M orientation was held in.
It was impossible to find a seat in the auditorium. The speaker told everyone to hang out and talk to the strangers next to them. Eventually the main event began. Several speakers, Alexis Ohanian among them, extolled the virtues of hacking. Many speakers represented event sponsors and promised prizes to the team that best met their company’s challenge. Uber had a prize for the best project that affects the physical world. Microsoft offered a prize to the team that best used their Azure platform. The last speaker focused on inclusion and comfort – anyone who made others uncomfortable would be removed from the event.
Now that the speeches are done, it’s time to get to work. Everyone has returned to a hackerspace, with the exception of the lone wolves. I am alone right now, but plan to take a seat in the Nikola Tesla hackerspace. I wore the wrong shoes for this event – comfort is key.
12:00 AM Writing really is something that must be practiced frequently. I seem to have lost the edge that earned me my GRE English score. How to fix this? I must have a creative outlet to strengthen my writing skills. I must be able to write anything and put it anywhere. I must write frequently.