Yesterday was characterized by a series of wonderful conversations.
The day started, more or less, with lunch with Rachel at Casa Italiana. Rachel happens to be my main inspiration and example for starting this blog, as she kept an impressive blog while she was in Oxford fall quarter. She shared a lot of her experiences in Oxford, and I told her about some of my grand plans for the quarter. We talked about how and why she kept a blog and what role it might play for me next quarter. She said, and I can see how this is true for me now, that keeping a blog not only helped her record memories, it also changed how she looked at the world as she was experiencing it. Similarly, I find myself thinking about how I will write about the things I experience every day even as they are happening. I also look around for interesting things to write in this blog, so I make sure to find interesting things every day. It was also interesting to hear what coming back to Stanford has been like for her. Her time at Oxford clearly meant a lot to her, and I hope that mine will mean as much to me.
After leaving Casa, I went across the street to Hillel, where I found Joe working in the computer cluster. I talked to him for a bit and then we ended up going to fix his flat tire at the bike shop. Joe's original plan was to blow up the inner tube and then find the, supposedly small, hole by placing the tube in a bucket of water and looking for the bubbles. As I was filling up the tire with air, though, the tube completely exploded around 30 psi and, with it, any hope of patching the tire. (It turned out that the tube would have probably needed replacing anyway.) Joe then had to buy a new inner tube and, with the repair guy's strong recommendation, the tire as well. With some good teamwork, we had the new tire on and inflated in no time. Then we walked back to Columbae.
All the while, we talked. Talking with Joe inspired yesterday's post and several other thoughts.
Next, I went to the Entrepreneurial Thought Leader's Seminar. This week's speaker was from Conservation International, and she talked about how CI, a non-profit, shows businesses and governments economically beneficial ways to partner with other businesses, governments, and people to promote conservation of natural resources and biodiversity. The talk is/will be on the Stanford Entrepreneurship Corner website if you are interested. It was a pretty good talk, but so are all the other ETL talks, so check them out on the website.
Half the reason I went was that I promised Aaron Kalb that I would see him there before I left. After the presentation, we got to talking a lot. We ordered Ike's sandwiches, sat down, and kept talking until I realized I had completely forgotten that I was supposed to have dinner with someone else.
So I ran to my car and drove back over to GovCo to meet Eric Miller for the second half of my dinner. We went over to Ricker, sat down, and ended up talking for about an hour and a half straight. Among other things, we decided we would try to find an apartment off campus to share for the summer, when he will be working at Genentech.
After saying goodbye to Eric, I got a break from socializing at Yost for a bit before heading out to Haus Mitt Beer and Pretzel Night with Lilly and Ashley. I had never been before, but it was a pretty fun event with tons of people I knew to talk to. I had promised Joe I would see him there, but we did not end up talking much. I had also told Jessica that I would be there and that I wanted to see her before I left.
The party died down soon after Jessica came, so we headed back to her room at Chi Theta Chi, where we just chilled and talked for several hours. After knowing each other for thirteen years, there is always plenty to talk about. It helped that I hadn't spent any real time with her for more than a quarter and that she is graduating and we will probably never go to school together again.
I left Chi Theta Chi a little after 2 am, when I went back to Yost. Ben wasn't even back from working on CS homework at Synergy, so I waited in my car to get back in. When we got back in, we talked with Clementine and Julien, probably the only other people awake in Yost for a while. I told Julien about my idea of writing an article on the Stanford Physics Department and how they do such a poor job with undergraduate education. It was encouraging to hear that he agreed with me on most points of my argument, and that I am not alone in thinking that the department could use a bit of a push in the direction of better teaching. I think he agreed that his experience with the department, particularly with required courses, has been largely negative. (Hopefully, more on that later. I keep telling people that I might write this article in the Daily, so I probably should man up and do it.) A bit later I went to sleep.
On the conversations I had:
Without going into details on what I talked about with all these wonderful people all day, I will say that I talked about some awesome, serious, meaningful stuff. Discussions covered plans for Oxford, plans for senior year, plans for graduating, plans for graduate school, plans for careers, balancing family with professions, academia vs. industry, life priorities, marriage, past relationships, current relationships, ideal romantic relationships, divorce, benefits of journaling, old stories, shared experiences, old friends, old enemies, the role of education, different styles of education, current academic interests, Edden's bar mitzvah, Judaism, conversion to Judaism, comedy, improvisation, the appeal of the 9-to-5 job, traveling, the difficulties of traveling, traveling alone vs. traveling in groups, the adventurousness of people, and so on and so on and so on. I wish I could remember it all and write it all down, but I just can't do either. I will just say that I love days like yesterday, and I wish I had more of them. I will remember bits and pieces of these conversations for some time to come, and their memory will influence me in small ways forever.
One thing concrete that came out of all this came from my conversation with Jessica. Jessica reminded me of something I thought of doing some time ago, but never did. It is easier said than done. She mentioned that she has never nailed down and written out explicitly what values and morals she believes in and stands for. This is something I would really like to do and may attempt to do in this blog at some point in the future. So far, all I have is that I believe firmly that the loss or taking of a human life is, in the most general case, a negative thing. It is to be avoided and postponed when possible. Of course, it may be permissible under unfortunate circumstances, war, euthanasia, or the death penalty for example, but it is still a negative thing. That's the only thing I am going to say I believe in for now. Well, I guess promotion of Truth is probably a generally good thing also, but I'll have to think about it and get back to you.
Friday, April 8, 2011
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
The Forgotten Post
In my tiredness last night, I made the mistake of writing about the day I was posting on and not the day before, as I usually do. So now I will correct that mistake by writing to you about Monday.
Before lunch on Monday, I went to a mini SPOT reunion picnic on the Oval. Unfortunately, only Aurelia, Michael, Fabian, Lauren, and I showed up. Still, I brought some Ben and Jerry's ice cream (two inside jokes in one) for us all to share, and we had a great time. Everyone else missed out.
Aside: Leading SPOT has probably been the best thing I have done all year. The freshmen were all great. Working with Aurelia was great. Backpacking was great. All of it. I look forward to doing it again this coming September.
After lunch, I went to Green Library to check out Austin Powers.
I had dinner with Liesl at Ricker. I am sad that I did not spend more time with Liesl the past two quarters, but it was good that I got to see her before I left. She's graduating this June, and she's almost definitely going to be leaving the area. She got a fellowship through the Haas center that sounds like it was designed specifically for her, it's so perfect for her. It pays her to do work in social change through art. In her case, the artistic medium is theater, and it is basically what she has been doing for free for the last four years. It sounds like she will most likely be doing her internship in New York, which makes perfect sense for her.
I was just so happy to hear that she is doing so well, and that she's getting this amazing opportunity. It's just refreshing to know that there are (paying) opportunities out there for college grads that can really make them happy.
After dinner with Liesl, I went to the Financial Literacy class that she's auditing, just because it's interesting. The class was full of seniors about to graduate. Not that much of a surprise.
Then Laura and I watched Austin Powers. For some reason, everyone else had work or other things to do. I don't understand.
Reflections for the moment:
I ran into Joe Gettinger earlier today here at the Hillel computer cluster, and then we ended up hanging out with him for a while. Somehow we go to talking about living a balanced life, and it reminded me of a couple different philosophies about how to achieve that.
The approach my (former or current?) roommate, Ben, takes is that he finds a bunch of activities that are meaningful to him - push-ups, stretching, learning Japanese kanji, reading, meditating, writing a blog/journal (when he was in Japan), etc. - and making habits of doing them every single day without fail. I have taken the same approach for this blog, at least for the time being. He does these things a little bit every day - one set of push-ups, 20 kanji, and so on. After doing this for a long time, he has really accomplished a lot without sacrificing too much of any one day. By building these regular habits, he has developed all sorts of random skills and improved himself in all sorts of different ways.
The other philosophy I heard comes from the book/movie Eat Pray Love. I don't particularly recommend watching the movie, but my mom enjoyed the book and said it was much better than the movie. To summarize, both are autobiographical accounts of Elizabeth Gilbert traveling to Rome, India, and Bali trying to improve upon an uninspiring life by learning from these radically different cultures. I think "eat" comes from Rome, "pray" from India, and "love" from Bali. While she is in Bali, the author writes about her relationship with a Brazilian man, also a divorcée. She becomes worried, though, that her time spent with him would detract from learning what there was to learn in Bali and from putting into practice all the things she learned in India and Rome so that she could live a better life. Someone then gives her the advice, "To lose balance sometimes for love is part of living a balanced life." To me, this also said something much more general - that you may not have to be living a "balanced" life at any given time to, in the end, have lived a balanced life. It made me think that, perhaps, living a balanced life necessitates being constantly off balance in one way or another.
In talking to Joe about this, I decided, at least for now, what should be obvious - living a balanced life necessitates a balance of the two life philosophies. Of course, I am sure Ben and Elizabeth Gilbert would say the same. I think a lot depends on what aspect of life I am trying to balance. As Joe said, it is important for him to go to Israel, but he can't go every day for a little bit. Building off of that, I think it is important, for me as well, to go to Israel regularly. In the case of Israel, I used to go every other year or so for short visits. However, I don't think that alone would give me a "balanced" life. It really took living in Israel for almost a year to really connect with Israel. To feel, many years down the road, that Israel is a real, important part of my life, both the short, regular visits and, hopefully, the few, long stays there will be necessary parts of that. I don't think it would be the same to have one without the other.
There are ups and downs to both approaches. The positive part of doing something either every day or on some regular basis is that it becomes a part of my life, my identity, and my character. By thinking about things regularly, my thoughts develop. Especially for building skills or relationships, regular practice or interaction is crucial. Some things I need to get into muscle memory or into habit. I think a neurologist would agree that the brain is not infinitely malleable. It has a characteristic, finite response time for everything. Our brain learns patterns and makes connections, but often only by regular, continual conditioning. I think this effects relationships with people as well. To get really close with people requires interacting with them over a long period of time. I start learning their habits, mannerisms, ways of speech, humor, logic, and so on. Even if I spent 20 straight hours with someone, I don't think I would learn some of the things I get from being with a person every day for 40 days and interacting directly with them for only around 30 minutes every day.
The negative aspect of this is how things become routine, thereby losing importance or excitement in my mind. With any activity or person or whatever, there are somethings you can't learn or feel experiencing them only in small bits. Some goals can't be accomplished by dividing the task into small bits. You can't learn to play an hour-long symphony only by practicing 20 minutes a day; you can't build an arch one section at a time; you can't get to really know someone by talking with them for 10 minutes a day.
To me, it would be hard to claim that something is important to me without being willing to sacrifice for it at some point. By focusing on something or, as in Eat Pray Love, someone very intensely, I am making a sacrifice. Time I spend going to Oxford will disrupt my regular learning habits, interaction with the Jewish community, social dance, etc. here at Stanford. To focus intensely on something almost always means neglecting or disrupting other activities, responsibilities, people, and so on.
If travel is important to me, though, I have to be willing to go on more than just short little trips around California. I need to really get away, see something different, and spend serious time there. The same is true with people. There are plenty of people whom I like. With my closest friends, though, we can always talk about some time where we really spent a lot of time together by ourselves and did something awesome. Maybe it was a weekend trip or maybe it was a year long relationship. I don't think I could call my relationship with someone close if I am not willing to, at some point, ditch the rest of what I am doing and spend some serious time with him.
What does this mean for Oxford? I don't know. That I should go, I guess. And I should enjoy it without worrying too much about other things going wrong. I don't think that's quite the right answer, but I'll figure things out soon.
Before lunch on Monday, I went to a mini SPOT reunion picnic on the Oval. Unfortunately, only Aurelia, Michael, Fabian, Lauren, and I showed up. Still, I brought some Ben and Jerry's ice cream (two inside jokes in one) for us all to share, and we had a great time. Everyone else missed out.
Aside: Leading SPOT has probably been the best thing I have done all year. The freshmen were all great. Working with Aurelia was great. Backpacking was great. All of it. I look forward to doing it again this coming September.
After lunch, I went to Green Library to check out Austin Powers.
I had dinner with Liesl at Ricker. I am sad that I did not spend more time with Liesl the past two quarters, but it was good that I got to see her before I left. She's graduating this June, and she's almost definitely going to be leaving the area. She got a fellowship through the Haas center that sounds like it was designed specifically for her, it's so perfect for her. It pays her to do work in social change through art. In her case, the artistic medium is theater, and it is basically what she has been doing for free for the last four years. It sounds like she will most likely be doing her internship in New York, which makes perfect sense for her.
I was just so happy to hear that she is doing so well, and that she's getting this amazing opportunity. It's just refreshing to know that there are (paying) opportunities out there for college grads that can really make them happy.
After dinner with Liesl, I went to the Financial Literacy class that she's auditing, just because it's interesting. The class was full of seniors about to graduate. Not that much of a surprise.
Then Laura and I watched Austin Powers. For some reason, everyone else had work or other things to do. I don't understand.
Reflections for the moment:
I ran into Joe Gettinger earlier today here at the Hillel computer cluster, and then we ended up hanging out with him for a while. Somehow we go to talking about living a balanced life, and it reminded me of a couple different philosophies about how to achieve that.
The approach my (former or current?) roommate, Ben, takes is that he finds a bunch of activities that are meaningful to him - push-ups, stretching, learning Japanese kanji, reading, meditating, writing a blog/journal (when he was in Japan), etc. - and making habits of doing them every single day without fail. I have taken the same approach for this blog, at least for the time being. He does these things a little bit every day - one set of push-ups, 20 kanji, and so on. After doing this for a long time, he has really accomplished a lot without sacrificing too much of any one day. By building these regular habits, he has developed all sorts of random skills and improved himself in all sorts of different ways.
The other philosophy I heard comes from the book/movie Eat Pray Love. I don't particularly recommend watching the movie, but my mom enjoyed the book and said it was much better than the movie. To summarize, both are autobiographical accounts of Elizabeth Gilbert traveling to Rome, India, and Bali trying to improve upon an uninspiring life by learning from these radically different cultures. I think "eat" comes from Rome, "pray" from India, and "love" from Bali. While she is in Bali, the author writes about her relationship with a Brazilian man, also a divorcée. She becomes worried, though, that her time spent with him would detract from learning what there was to learn in Bali and from putting into practice all the things she learned in India and Rome so that she could live a better life. Someone then gives her the advice, "To lose balance sometimes for love is part of living a balanced life." To me, this also said something much more general - that you may not have to be living a "balanced" life at any given time to, in the end, have lived a balanced life. It made me think that, perhaps, living a balanced life necessitates being constantly off balance in one way or another.
In talking to Joe about this, I decided, at least for now, what should be obvious - living a balanced life necessitates a balance of the two life philosophies. Of course, I am sure Ben and Elizabeth Gilbert would say the same. I think a lot depends on what aspect of life I am trying to balance. As Joe said, it is important for him to go to Israel, but he can't go every day for a little bit. Building off of that, I think it is important, for me as well, to go to Israel regularly. In the case of Israel, I used to go every other year or so for short visits. However, I don't think that alone would give me a "balanced" life. It really took living in Israel for almost a year to really connect with Israel. To feel, many years down the road, that Israel is a real, important part of my life, both the short, regular visits and, hopefully, the few, long stays there will be necessary parts of that. I don't think it would be the same to have one without the other.
There are ups and downs to both approaches. The positive part of doing something either every day or on some regular basis is that it becomes a part of my life, my identity, and my character. By thinking about things regularly, my thoughts develop. Especially for building skills or relationships, regular practice or interaction is crucial. Some things I need to get into muscle memory or into habit. I think a neurologist would agree that the brain is not infinitely malleable. It has a characteristic, finite response time for everything. Our brain learns patterns and makes connections, but often only by regular, continual conditioning. I think this effects relationships with people as well. To get really close with people requires interacting with them over a long period of time. I start learning their habits, mannerisms, ways of speech, humor, logic, and so on. Even if I spent 20 straight hours with someone, I don't think I would learn some of the things I get from being with a person every day for 40 days and interacting directly with them for only around 30 minutes every day.
The negative aspect of this is how things become routine, thereby losing importance or excitement in my mind. With any activity or person or whatever, there are somethings you can't learn or feel experiencing them only in small bits. Some goals can't be accomplished by dividing the task into small bits. You can't learn to play an hour-long symphony only by practicing 20 minutes a day; you can't build an arch one section at a time; you can't get to really know someone by talking with them for 10 minutes a day.
To me, it would be hard to claim that something is important to me without being willing to sacrifice for it at some point. By focusing on something or, as in Eat Pray Love, someone very intensely, I am making a sacrifice. Time I spend going to Oxford will disrupt my regular learning habits, interaction with the Jewish community, social dance, etc. here at Stanford. To focus intensely on something almost always means neglecting or disrupting other activities, responsibilities, people, and so on.
If travel is important to me, though, I have to be willing to go on more than just short little trips around California. I need to really get away, see something different, and spend serious time there. The same is true with people. There are plenty of people whom I like. With my closest friends, though, we can always talk about some time where we really spent a lot of time together by ourselves and did something awesome. Maybe it was a weekend trip or maybe it was a year long relationship. I don't think I could call my relationship with someone close if I am not willing to, at some point, ditch the rest of what I am doing and spend some serious time with him.
What does this mean for Oxford? I don't know. That I should go, I guess. And I should enjoy it without worrying too much about other things going wrong. I don't think that's quite the right answer, but I'll figure things out soon.
Post for the sake of posting
I'm tired, so this will be a post for the sake of posting, as the title of the post says. The main point of doing the blog before being in Oxford is to build a habit of doing it daily. I haven't missed a day yet, and I don't plan to.
First thing I did to day was wake up at 8 am (I know, right?) to go running with Naran. We have a list of things we made over the summer that we said we needed to do together, and this was one of them. We have two left on the list and all of next year to do them. So, we did it, but it was kind of painful.
I got lunch with Aaron Kalb at the Thai Cafe in the psych building. Their business model is great - only offer soups, salads, and two dishes a day for a reasonable price. It's a small place, but there were dozens of people of line at any given time, and it was probably the fastest moving line I have ever been in. It's a money-making machine.
Aaron is now among my favorite people to have meals with. Our conversations are always meaningful and enlightening. I think we both find each other very interesting and relate well. It's a shame I didn't hang out with him more in the last three years. But oh well.
I returned Austin Powers to the library, rented a couple more British movies, and then spent an hour or so reading British history next to the hoop fountain.
I went rock climbing with Ben.
I talked with Chris Olivares and John Rothfels about CS and, particularly interestingly, machine learning. It's going to solve some pretty cool problems in the future, I bet.
Went to AEPi rush; it was Jazz and Hookah Night.
Came back to Yost. Watched Trainspotting, a Scottish movie I rented, with Ben. Wrote this blog post. Done.
First thing I did to day was wake up at 8 am (I know, right?) to go running with Naran. We have a list of things we made over the summer that we said we needed to do together, and this was one of them. We have two left on the list and all of next year to do them. So, we did it, but it was kind of painful.
I got lunch with Aaron Kalb at the Thai Cafe in the psych building. Their business model is great - only offer soups, salads, and two dishes a day for a reasonable price. It's a small place, but there were dozens of people of line at any given time, and it was probably the fastest moving line I have ever been in. It's a money-making machine.
Aaron is now among my favorite people to have meals with. Our conversations are always meaningful and enlightening. I think we both find each other very interesting and relate well. It's a shame I didn't hang out with him more in the last three years. But oh well.
I returned Austin Powers to the library, rented a couple more British movies, and then spent an hour or so reading British history next to the hoop fountain.
I went rock climbing with Ben.
I talked with Chris Olivares and John Rothfels about CS and, particularly interestingly, machine learning. It's going to solve some pretty cool problems in the future, I bet.
Went to AEPi rush; it was Jazz and Hookah Night.
Came back to Yost. Watched Trainspotting, a Scottish movie I rented, with Ben. Wrote this blog post. Done.
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
Sunday at Stanford and Some General Ruminations
Amy says that I need to include more reflection, and I agree. So, for this post, I will try shorten my summary of yesterday.
Summary:
I went on a nice snack-picnic with Michelle and Bianca, two of my friends from Petaluma who got into Stanford with me. Because of that whole deferring-Stanford–for-a-year thing, they're both graduating this spring, and, after going to school together for NINE YEARS, we may never see each other again. It is pretty bewildering when I think about it.
Then I crashed the senior gift-giving event, just because I could. Sarah Nguyen, a friend from Petaluma going to UC Davis, also happened to randomly be on campus yesterday. It was great to see you. Also, the event had free champagne and a chocolate fountain. I saw a bunch of friends there, most of whom wondered what I was doing there.
I helped some JSA-endorsed senate candidates flier at Yost, EAST, and Murray. I did it alone, and I didn't enjoy it. I don't even know the people I helped. Hopefully they're as deserving of my time and energy as my friends say they are.
That night I went over to Hammerskold to visit Laura. She told me all about her time in Berlin, and I gave her some of the news she had missed about Winter Quarter Yost. True to form, Keren came back from a party. Then she told us some great stories about experiences at South African clubs. Crazy stuff.
Ruminations:
For now, all I have is a list of a few things I want to start thinking about.
1. Purpose. How do I find it? What does it look like? How specific or general does it need to be? Short term or long term? What should I do if I don't have it? How should I feel about not having it? What should I do when I think I have found it? Why has it eluded me these past couple years?
2. Goals for Oxford. What are they? Which ones are most important? Meet people? Make friends? Make Stanford friend? Make Oxford friends? See sights? Get to know some cities? Focus on academics? Play sports? Stay in Oxford? Get out of Oxford? Sleep? I can't do it all (well).
3. Inspiration. How and where can I find it? How can I make myself more ready to experience it? What should I do when I find it?
4. Love. Where do I find it? Or does it find me? Do I know it or feel it? Do I need it? How valuable is it? Is it a helper or a hinderance? It's role outside marriage?
5. Future. The F-word. I don't know where to begin. Need to address the items above first, really.
Some things I need to process:
1. Saying goodbye to people I may never see again.
2. The entirety of winter quarter, especially identifying successes and failures.
3. The effects of keeping a blog/journal.
That's all I've got for tonight. Hopefully I will think about all these things and have some publishable thoughts about them in the near future.
Summary:
I went on a nice snack-picnic with Michelle and Bianca, two of my friends from Petaluma who got into Stanford with me. Because of that whole deferring-Stanford–for-a-year thing, they're both graduating this spring, and, after going to school together for NINE YEARS, we may never see each other again. It is pretty bewildering when I think about it.
Then I crashed the senior gift-giving event, just because I could. Sarah Nguyen, a friend from Petaluma going to UC Davis, also happened to randomly be on campus yesterday. It was great to see you. Also, the event had free champagne and a chocolate fountain. I saw a bunch of friends there, most of whom wondered what I was doing there.
I helped some JSA-endorsed senate candidates flier at Yost, EAST, and Murray. I did it alone, and I didn't enjoy it. I don't even know the people I helped. Hopefully they're as deserving of my time and energy as my friends say they are.
That night I went over to Hammerskold to visit Laura. She told me all about her time in Berlin, and I gave her some of the news she had missed about Winter Quarter Yost. True to form, Keren came back from a party. Then she told us some great stories about experiences at South African clubs. Crazy stuff.
Ruminations:
For now, all I have is a list of a few things I want to start thinking about.
1. Purpose. How do I find it? What does it look like? How specific or general does it need to be? Short term or long term? What should I do if I don't have it? How should I feel about not having it? What should I do when I think I have found it? Why has it eluded me these past couple years?
2. Goals for Oxford. What are they? Which ones are most important? Meet people? Make friends? Make Stanford friend? Make Oxford friends? See sights? Get to know some cities? Focus on academics? Play sports? Stay in Oxford? Get out of Oxford? Sleep? I can't do it all (well).
3. Inspiration. How and where can I find it? How can I make myself more ready to experience it? What should I do when I find it?
4. Love. Where do I find it? Or does it find me? Do I know it or feel it? Do I need it? How valuable is it? Is it a helper or a hinderance? It's role outside marriage?
5. Future. The F-word. I don't know where to begin. Need to address the items above first, really.
Some things I need to process:
1. Saying goodbye to people I may never see again.
2. The entirety of winter quarter, especially identifying successes and failures.
3. The effects of keeping a blog/journal.
That's all I've got for tonight. Hopefully I will think about all these things and have some publishable thoughts about them in the near future.
Sunday, April 3, 2011
Baseball and Birthdays
For the first part of the day yesterday (I mean the afternoon), I just read and blogged on Sydney and Eliana's balcony. It was a beautiful, sunny day in Palo Alto, so it was the perfect thing to do.
Around 5, I drove John Watson, two AEPi rushees - John and Micah, and Micah's friend from Seattle up to Oakland for an A's game, where we met up with a bunch of other AEPi guys and a few more rushees. The company was great, but I was reminded of just how boring I find baseball. There were only seven runs in the entire game, and five of them were the Mariners'.
During the game, I had a big realization. Sports stadiums are just money-making machines for whomever owns them. I paid $18 just to let my car sit on asphalt for a few hours in a part of Oakland that is not particularly expensive. AEPi bought $400 worth of tickets just to sit, watch a game, and then leave. Food is super expensive only because it is being sold in the stadium. A small cup of Budweiser is $5. For the money you spend on two nacho dishes at the Coliseum, you could probably buy one of those giant Costco tortilla chip bags and a giant thing of salsa. Instead, you get 20 or 30 chips and just enough salsa and nacho cheese for those chips. It's highway robbery. For hundreds or thousands of people at least once a week for a whole season. And the Raiders play in the same stadium for football season. Whoever owns the Coliseum has got it made.
Anyway, the A's lost to the Mariners, and we may break the baseball game tradition next year because it was just kind of boring.
We got back to Stanford from the game at around 10. Clementine and a couple of her friends were having a birthday party at French House. I dropped my stuff off in my car, and walked over to French house, taking the scenic route along Lake Lagunita. At night, all the frogs come out, and the lake just sounds like a hundred frogs ribbit-ing nonstop. Meanwhile, dozens of ducks just float on the surface, sleeping I guess. I noticed them first when I heard a big splashing commotion on the lake and saw a couple flapping things frantically chasing each other in figure eights for half a minute. I guess they were either fighting or sexing, but I'm not sure.
Eventually I got to French House. After finding Aurelia and, true to tradition, dropping my jacket off in her room, I went down to the party. It turned out to be possibly the best party I've been to all year. It was great because I knew so many people there - probably because it was almost entirely juniors and seniors. I got to the perfect, fun level of drunk and then just never stopped running into friends for a few hours straight. Before anyone knew it, it was 1 am, but the party couldn't stop. The music went off for a few minutes and then started back up again. At some point, Ashley thought she wanted to go back to Yost, but then she kept having a good time, so we didn't. We probably didn't get back to Yost until 2:30, at which point we convinced Ben to watch a movie with us. Both of them ended up falling asleep in Ashley's bed during the beginning of Aladdin.
And that was the end of another great day of spring break. Time for another.
Around 5, I drove John Watson, two AEPi rushees - John and Micah, and Micah's friend from Seattle up to Oakland for an A's game, where we met up with a bunch of other AEPi guys and a few more rushees. The company was great, but I was reminded of just how boring I find baseball. There were only seven runs in the entire game, and five of them were the Mariners'.
During the game, I had a big realization. Sports stadiums are just money-making machines for whomever owns them. I paid $18 just to let my car sit on asphalt for a few hours in a part of Oakland that is not particularly expensive. AEPi bought $400 worth of tickets just to sit, watch a game, and then leave. Food is super expensive only because it is being sold in the stadium. A small cup of Budweiser is $5. For the money you spend on two nacho dishes at the Coliseum, you could probably buy one of those giant Costco tortilla chip bags and a giant thing of salsa. Instead, you get 20 or 30 chips and just enough salsa and nacho cheese for those chips. It's highway robbery. For hundreds or thousands of people at least once a week for a whole season. And the Raiders play in the same stadium for football season. Whoever owns the Coliseum has got it made.
Anyway, the A's lost to the Mariners, and we may break the baseball game tradition next year because it was just kind of boring.
We got back to Stanford from the game at around 10. Clementine and a couple of her friends were having a birthday party at French House. I dropped my stuff off in my car, and walked over to French house, taking the scenic route along Lake Lagunita. At night, all the frogs come out, and the lake just sounds like a hundred frogs ribbit-ing nonstop. Meanwhile, dozens of ducks just float on the surface, sleeping I guess. I noticed them first when I heard a big splashing commotion on the lake and saw a couple flapping things frantically chasing each other in figure eights for half a minute. I guess they were either fighting or sexing, but I'm not sure.
Eventually I got to French House. After finding Aurelia and, true to tradition, dropping my jacket off in her room, I went down to the party. It turned out to be possibly the best party I've been to all year. It was great because I knew so many people there - probably because it was almost entirely juniors and seniors. I got to the perfect, fun level of drunk and then just never stopped running into friends for a few hours straight. Before anyone knew it, it was 1 am, but the party couldn't stop. The music went off for a few minutes and then started back up again. At some point, Ashley thought she wanted to go back to Yost, but then she kept having a good time, so we didn't. We probably didn't get back to Yost until 2:30, at which point we convinced Ben to watch a movie with us. Both of them ended up falling asleep in Ashley's bed during the beginning of Aladdin.
And that was the end of another great day of spring break. Time for another.
Saturday, April 2, 2011
Back at Stanford for a Continued Spring Break
Being back at Stanford feels great - particularly because I have no work. Camp Stanford is simply the best. I spent an hour or more yesterday just contacting all the people I have to see before I leave - particularly the graduating seniors I know.
In the afternoon, I took a nice walk around campus with Aurelia. She told me about some crazy vacations in Cancun and Las Vegas. She also told me how she learned a lot from preparing for the LSAT even if she never took it. Also, she may or may not be an alcoholic in denial. We set up a SPOT reunion picnic on the Oval for next week since this is the last time all of us will be on campus. Aurelia doesn't know yet what she will be doing with her life, and she may even return to lead another SPOT trip next September. We ended our walk by just sitting on the bough of one of the old oaks next to Lake Lagunita, which is now filled with water by the recent rains.
When I got back to Yost, Ben and I went on an alcohol run to BevMo to get stuff for the Yost progressive at night and some random stuff for stocking Ben and Ashley's rooms.
After BevMo, it was on to Slav, where Chris and Eric Karpas had invited me for beer Sundowners and dinner afterwards. All sorts of friends were there, and it was great to just talk and chill with all of them (over beer, of course). I had a nice dinner with Ashley (who was also invited by someone), Eric, Chris, and Patrick (Eric's roommate) out on Mayfield Playfield.
The festivities continued with the beginning of Shabbat. I went to go pick up the three Atkins siblings, Ari, Zohar, and Shira, for dinner at Rabbi Kamin's house. When we got there, what we thought would be a small, intimate Shabbat dinner turned out to be a pretty large affair. Probably a dozen other guests showed up - Erica, Jacob Stern, Dakin, Chen, Jordan, Gelbart, a guy named Peter, Lindsey Funk, Janet, Josh Bowman, Ben Lubkin, Jacob Kouvacs, and probably a few who I'm missing. The dinner and the company were great. The Atkins family is particularly great, and I look forward to spending some time with Zohar when I get to Oxford. I had the pleasure of sitting next to Erica and Ari for the dinner. I was really glad to spend a bit of time with them for the first time in too many months and to hear that they are both doing very well. Look for Ari's custom-made guitars to be in production within a year.
After dinner at Rabbi Kamin's, I went back to Yost to catch the last half of the progressive. The party moved to Ben's (used to be my) room almost as soon as I got there. We served some decent pina coladas, though we still have tons of rum, cream of coconut, and pineapple juice left. Then the party kind of spread out all around the second floor. I enjoyed talking to people, from Yost and not from Yost, I hadn't seen in a while. Though Oxford will be awesome, and I'm sure the people there will be great, I will definitely miss Yost at the same time. It's a fun place with good friends.
In the afternoon, I took a nice walk around campus with Aurelia. She told me about some crazy vacations in Cancun and Las Vegas. She also told me how she learned a lot from preparing for the LSAT even if she never took it. Also, she may or may not be an alcoholic in denial. We set up a SPOT reunion picnic on the Oval for next week since this is the last time all of us will be on campus. Aurelia doesn't know yet what she will be doing with her life, and she may even return to lead another SPOT trip next September. We ended our walk by just sitting on the bough of one of the old oaks next to Lake Lagunita, which is now filled with water by the recent rains.
When I got back to Yost, Ben and I went on an alcohol run to BevMo to get stuff for the Yost progressive at night and some random stuff for stocking Ben and Ashley's rooms.
After BevMo, it was on to Slav, where Chris and Eric Karpas had invited me for beer Sundowners and dinner afterwards. All sorts of friends were there, and it was great to just talk and chill with all of them (over beer, of course). I had a nice dinner with Ashley (who was also invited by someone), Eric, Chris, and Patrick (Eric's roommate) out on Mayfield Playfield.
The festivities continued with the beginning of Shabbat. I went to go pick up the three Atkins siblings, Ari, Zohar, and Shira, for dinner at Rabbi Kamin's house. When we got there, what we thought would be a small, intimate Shabbat dinner turned out to be a pretty large affair. Probably a dozen other guests showed up - Erica, Jacob Stern, Dakin, Chen, Jordan, Gelbart, a guy named Peter, Lindsey Funk, Janet, Josh Bowman, Ben Lubkin, Jacob Kouvacs, and probably a few who I'm missing. The dinner and the company were great. The Atkins family is particularly great, and I look forward to spending some time with Zohar when I get to Oxford. I had the pleasure of sitting next to Erica and Ari for the dinner. I was really glad to spend a bit of time with them for the first time in too many months and to hear that they are both doing very well. Look for Ari's custom-made guitars to be in production within a year.
After dinner at Rabbi Kamin's, I went back to Yost to catch the last half of the progressive. The party moved to Ben's (used to be my) room almost as soon as I got there. We served some decent pina coladas, though we still have tons of rum, cream of coconut, and pineapple juice left. Then the party kind of spread out all around the second floor. I enjoyed talking to people, from Yost and not from Yost, I hadn't seen in a while. Though Oxford will be awesome, and I'm sure the people there will be great, I will definitely miss Yost at the same time. It's a fun place with good friends.
Finishing at Home and coming to Stanford
A few things happened yesterday, but none of them were super exciting.
I ran a bunch of errands at home. I got the smog check done for the minivan, I got a haircut, I returned my travel DVDs to the library, I returned Monty Python to the library, I cleaned dishes, I wrote in my blog, and I read British history. I also cleaned the garage a bit, cleaned my/Edden's room a bunch, packed for coming to Stanford, and paid the periodontist a visit. Exciting, right?
The story behind the periodontist: I need some gum surgery from a combination of bad genes (dad's side) and overbrushing the outer part of my upper right gum line. Now the roots of, more or less, three teeth are exposed. The periodontist wants to take tissue grafts from either the roof of my mouth or a pig and put them over part of the exposed parts of my teeth. That way, the roots will not be exposed, and my gum will use the grafts as a matrix to grow back over the exposed areas. It is actually a much less serious procedure than it sounds. Apparently the whole surgery takes about an hour, and I could have had it done that day. Instead, I am waiting until the summer, since it is not in any way an urgent procedure. So, I'll deal with it later.
After playing some Civ IV and eating some dinner, I was out the door and in the car, until my dad realized that he did not have the key to my grandfather's Maxima. I thought I had left it on the key hanger, but it wasn't there. We spent close to an hour combing the garage, driveway, and house for the key but couldn't find it. Eventually we gave up and I just drove down to Stanford. I haven't heard if they found it.
I got down to Stanford in time for the second half of AEPi rush for the night. The event was pretty cool, with N64 games, burgers, DDR, and a blow-up game of Twister. Sadly, there were very few actual rushees. I have no idea where they were. Overall, the night was a mild success. We saw a bunch of the most important rushees, and we had a pretty good time too.
Then, I headed over to Yost, got my stuff set up in my old room, and went to sleep. I am now going to sleep in my new bed arrangement. Ben got rid of my bed frame, but kept the mattress. So, I'm sleeping on the mattress, which is on top of what used to be my desk and what is now my temporary bed platform. It's a bit weird, but sleeping next to the window is also kind of nice.
OK. Ben is asleep (or trying to sleep), so I'm going to get off the keyboard.
I ran a bunch of errands at home. I got the smog check done for the minivan, I got a haircut, I returned my travel DVDs to the library, I returned Monty Python to the library, I cleaned dishes, I wrote in my blog, and I read British history. I also cleaned the garage a bit, cleaned my/Edden's room a bunch, packed for coming to Stanford, and paid the periodontist a visit. Exciting, right?
The story behind the periodontist: I need some gum surgery from a combination of bad genes (dad's side) and overbrushing the outer part of my upper right gum line. Now the roots of, more or less, three teeth are exposed. The periodontist wants to take tissue grafts from either the roof of my mouth or a pig and put them over part of the exposed parts of my teeth. That way, the roots will not be exposed, and my gum will use the grafts as a matrix to grow back over the exposed areas. It is actually a much less serious procedure than it sounds. Apparently the whole surgery takes about an hour, and I could have had it done that day. Instead, I am waiting until the summer, since it is not in any way an urgent procedure. So, I'll deal with it later.
After playing some Civ IV and eating some dinner, I was out the door and in the car, until my dad realized that he did not have the key to my grandfather's Maxima. I thought I had left it on the key hanger, but it wasn't there. We spent close to an hour combing the garage, driveway, and house for the key but couldn't find it. Eventually we gave up and I just drove down to Stanford. I haven't heard if they found it.
I got down to Stanford in time for the second half of AEPi rush for the night. The event was pretty cool, with N64 games, burgers, DDR, and a blow-up game of Twister. Sadly, there were very few actual rushees. I have no idea where they were. Overall, the night was a mild success. We saw a bunch of the most important rushees, and we had a pretty good time too.
Then, I headed over to Yost, got my stuff set up in my old room, and went to sleep. I am now going to sleep in my new bed arrangement. Ben got rid of my bed frame, but kept the mattress. So, I'm sleeping on the mattress, which is on top of what used to be my desk and what is now my temporary bed platform. It's a bit weird, but sleeping next to the window is also kind of nice.
OK. Ben is asleep (or trying to sleep), so I'm going to get off the keyboard.
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