March 2008
39 posts
Aloha Airlines Halting Passenger Service →
And unfortunately, that is the airline Juliana’s family flew to Hawaii on last week. They are still there, and hopefully Hawaiian or United will fly them back. Talk about bad timing. Way to go, Go—priced Aloha right out of the game…I thought predatory pricing was illegal…?
36 Hours in Berkeley, Calif. →
Berkeley made it into the travel section of today’s NYT! The author caught the major attractions— Moe’s book, Berkeley Bowl, Indian Rock, etc.
ANYONE who thinks that Berkeley is just a hotbed of political radicalism is in for a surprise. College Avenue, the town’s main drag, is packed with more hipsters with BlackBerrys than hippies with beards. The city’s revamped shops can...
New photos added
The new photos are from Marrakech. It took three and a half hours to upload the 64 photos. I think/hope in the future we will look back on today and say, “Remember when you had to wait for pages to load and to upload photos to websites?”
Man dies after Tenderloin argument →
I don’t know about you, but this headline captured my attention. I thought, wow, these guys must really have felt strongly about different cuts of meat. Perhaps one guy preferred flank steak and the other wouldn’t budge, insisting tenderloin is superior.
But, after reading the article, I quickly learned that aside from being a certain cut of meat, Tenderloin (the proper noun) is also...
Sisters in Idiosyncrasy →
A good article in today’s NYT about the “creative class” favoring living in the Bay Area and Manhattan. I like the idea of a “residet tourist” at the end of the article, where you live somewhere but you don’t necessarily want to stay there forever. It reminds me a lot of my sister, who loves NY and LA and has lived in each for years at a time. Here is a good...
Penny Dreadful →
An article from this week’s New Yorker about the value of (or lack thereof) the penny.
“A penny minted before 1982 is ninety-five per cent copper—which, at recent prices, is approximately two and a half cents’ worth. Luhrman, who had previously owned a company that refined gold and silver, devised a method of rapidly separating pre-1982 pennies from more recent ones, which are...
Happy Birthday Dad!
Aside from being the earliest Easter since 1913, March 23rd is a big day historically.
Patrick Henry gave his “Give me liberty or give me death” speech (1775), the University of California system was created (1868), the Wright brothers patented their airplane design (1903), and NASA launched Gemini 3 (1965). Births include botanist John Bartram (1699), former United States VP under...
“It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without...”
– Aristotle
Buttered Cat Paradox →
What do you think would happen?
My dream last night.
I had a dream last night that I was at graduation, receiving my degree in economics, when I realized that I wanted to be a doctor.
Uh, oops? I hope that doesn’t actually happen.
Justin puked out the window of Rich's parent's...
Warning: Some readers may find this post repulsive, distasteful or vomitous. Proceed with caution.
I couldn’t think of a better title for this post. We were driving through the hills on a windy road to the town of Ronda, when Justin notified us that he was feeling a bit woozy. Having been hung over all morning from a long night of “botelloning,” and with a stomach full of a...
Earliest Easter since 1913.
And we won’t have an earlier one for 220 years! I always learn something new when I call my dad.
Me: Happy birthday Dad!
Dad: Today is Mom's birthday (laughing).
Me: Ooooohhh. I knew it was one of yours.
Happy Birthday Mom!
She is in New York visiting my favorite sister Amanda. I called my mom a few minutes ago (this post says it is the 22nd, but in the States it is still the 21st) to wish her a happy birthday, and afterwards I was talking to Juliana and she said that she thought my mom’s birthday was the 23rd. Since my parents have birthdays on March 21st and 23rd, I thought “Oh no! It’s...
I went to the UK yesterday.
Well, not really the UK. Rich’s parents drove us to Gibraltar, which is a British territory. I didn’t actually know it wasn’t part of Spain until the night before we left, when Rich told me to bring my passport.
The two hour drive through the Spanish country side was amazing. There were many olive tree groves, vineyards, and even a few golf courses as we got closer to the...
“How hard can it be?”
– Indiana Jones, 16 minutes and 40 seconds into Temple of Doom, once he realizes he needs to figure out how to fly a plane after the pilots jumped out with parachutes
#1, Raiders of the Lost Ark
Great movie. 99% of the movie seems entirely realistic. The settings are amazing, with the Egypt scenes being shot in the same valley where Lucas shot Stars Wars. It is amazing they made this movie with just $20 million. There are so many explosions, tons of extras, and some really extravagant sets. One of my favorite scenes is when the Nazis are boarding the ship that Indiana and Marion are on,...
Indiana Jones
Today I am embarking on a journey through time. I am going to watch the three Indiana Jones movies in as short amount of time as I can. I’ve never seen any of them, but I love the ride at Disneyland (I’ve waited 4 hours at times). I also want to watch them after visiting the Roman ruins on Saturday, which resembled what I imagine the sets of Indiana Jones would look like. Thanks to...
The B Word →
Article by Paul Krugman in today’s NYT about the bailout of Bear Stearns. Found via Brad Delong, my econ professor from last semester.
“Bear, in other words, deserved to be allowed to fail — both on the merits and to teach Wall Street not to expect someone else to clean up its messes. But the Fed rode to Bear’s rescue anyway, fearing that the collapse of a major investment bank would...
'Pre-Inca' temple found in Peru →
Today is one of those days where I wish I was an archaeologist. We went to a small village an hours train ride outside of Sevilla and hiked to some Roman ruins. It was amazing—it looked like something out of Indiana Jones, and we were the only people there the entire time.
Bear Stearns Gets Emergency Funds →
An interesting article that explains how JP Morgan, with the backing of the Fed, is going to help Bear Stearns escape bankruptcy. It makes me wonder where the line should be drawn for when the government should bailout a company. In a free, competitive market Bear Stearns would go out of business and other companies would take their place. This would allow companies that made wiser investment...
Happy Pi Day
Sorry if you prefer cake—today, Friday, is Pi Day. Alright, I’m sorry for the bad rhyme. In honor of the day, I’ve collected some pi jokes:
i to Pi: Get real. Pi to i: Be rational.
Pi R not square, Pi R round!
Q: What do you get when you take a bovine and...
Puddleblog →
Someone keeps a blog for this puddle in New York. That is so awesome.
New photos added
As promised, I just finished uploading more photos from Morocco. There are still more—Marrakech and some random shots still need to be added. Given that it took 3 hours at 4kB/s, I think I’ll do the rest tomorrow. I hope you enjoy the new Fes photos!
Email.
I wish my email could be automatically split into two categories: emails that are directed to only me and email that has been sent to me and other people. For example, I think it sucks how an email from my sister is clumped with email from my school warning me about approaching deadlines. Do you have any thoughts of ways to improve email? Email me ideas and I will post them.
Travels and Exams
I returned from Barcelona late last night, where it was raining as we boarded the plane. Contrary to most opinions I heard of the city before I left, I actually liked it. I wouldn’t want to spend an entire semester there, but a weekend was fun. Rich, Farooq, and I walked around Olympic village, where I looked for the velodrome (but never found). We also went to the aquarium in the...
“Do you want to spend the rest of your life selling sugared water or do you want...”
– Steve Jobs, to the CEO of Pepsi, to convince him to join Apple, which he did
One of the perks to being sick I’ve discovered is that I have a lot more time to read. Today I read about Apple, the SEC, executive pay, and a few Congressmen. I learned new terms, like “in-the-money” options, “springloading,” and “underwater” options. I like reading about those kinds of things online, but sometimes I wish I could just rattle off a hundred...
Feeling Better
I am feeling much better today than I have been over the past couple days. I don’t want to jinx the much-welcomed progress, but I think Morocco’s Revenge is receding. Taking Cipro seems to have helped a lot. I also drank a lot of tea and Airborne. Parents advice of avoiding protein and eating carbs helped too. Mama Rosa has made a lot of noodle and rice soup for me at dinner to...
Morocco's Aftermath
Our trip to Morocco was amazing, but it has come with some unwanted consequences. I am nauseous, have the chills, a fever, dizzy, and very tired. I couldn’t eat all day today, and on the bus to school I sat with the window open “just in case.” Unfortunately, I am not alone—Justin and Rich are also suffering from Morocco’s Revenge. Additionally, I have a midterm...
WatchA panoramic of our first city during our adventure.
We're back!
We got back from Morocco this afternoon after an overnight train ride on the Marrakech Express to Tangier, where we then took a taxi to the ferry station, ferried to Tarifa, Spain and then took a bus to Sevilla. Four methods of transportation in one day! It was by far the most interesting week I’ve had. In Chefchouen, most of the locals spoke Spanish (and Arabic of course). But in Fes and...