All things California

Reading Will's post about California (and what it lacks) got me thinking about a couple neat things that have happened to me in the past couple weeks which are worth sharing. A lot of you were around for the meteor shower that we saw outside together on the roof of Mirrilees. Despite the light pollution, it had been a real long while since I had seen shooting stars. That was a nice night.

A more awesome experience occurred while I was returning home to the hills the other night at about 1:30am. I was driving down the road and sort of heard this thundering outside. I rolled down my window and looked to my left and realized that a herd of horses were simply running alongside my car as I drove, and had been doing so for the length of the road. All of them almost perfectly in sync with the speed I was driving, and maybe twenty feet away. I stopped in the middle of the road and just watched them continue running. So fast, so much energy, and kicking up all this thick dust in the middle of the night. The whole thing occurring, mind you, in near total darkness as the hills don't have any streetlights. It was pretty awesome.

In addition, I've gotten out yacht racing on the bay for the last two weekends, which has been tons of fun. That'll get it's own post and pictures when I decide to post and wrap up how this summer has gone. Can't wait to see everyone soon!!

and many returns...

so, when are we all back on campus? and who's ready for the shitshow of a lifetime???


For me, it all starts on September 5th.


and you?

I should be working

But posting here will be item #27 on the list of things I've done today other than work. I really don't know if it's that long, but I'm constantly amazed by what I come up with to avoid doing more work than what's minimally expected of me in this place. To be fair, many of my diversions are important. There is a spankin new bulletin to peruse and a time schedule to check, and those Facebook messages won't reply to themselves. Occasionally I'll even do a bit of work for my thesis, and I take up way too much of AJC's bandwidth doing various tasks for DM.

I only have six more work days, and clearly I'm counting. The monotony of my job is really starting to get to me, and I'm anxious to move on to honors college and especially to get back to Stanford. It's been a little weird not to be there after spending most of my first two summers on campus. On the other hand, I'm really glad that I'll arrive having missed the place a great deal.

I've been wondering how other people are feeling about the upcoming year. I suppose it's kind of the obvious question: how do you feel heading into senior year? I don't expect anything other than the same mix of anxiety and excitement that I feel, though I'm sure the proportions vary from person to person. This summer has proven useful in that I'm no longer thinking about going to grad school right after college, but that unfortunately generates at least as many questions as it answers. And it still doesn't allow me to completely devote myself to things at school this year...god knows finding a job will be as stressful and time-consuming as applying to masters programs would.

On a completely different note, I've been regretting not having been in better contact with many of you this summer. Not that an occasional phone call or e-mail would substitute for what I really miss...those absurdly late conversations about free will or good wine; our epic, semi-lit wiffle ball games on the lawn; reliving random moments of "Manstud" production...but it might lend a bit of comfort. Suffice it to say, I can't wait to see you all next month.

"I Should Be Sleeping"

I'm back home in St. Louis as of Monday night. Fortunately it's cooled off to a mere 90 degrees, with humidity so high that the air feels thick...heavy, even. Your clothes cling to you and you can walk around all day without getting thirsty because you're drinking in so much moisture with every breath. It actually seems pleasant this time around.

when I got back Sunday I slept 15 hours straight, so tonight I woke up at 3 am and thought I'd check in.

I'm so glad to be out of California. Don't get me wrong, as states go it's nice enough, but I'm sick of it. Everything is dead and brown. There's no weather. I can count the number of times I've seen lightning from campus on one hand. The dorms remind me of cell blocks or egg cartons. Pretension, ego, and determination to succeed permeate the walls. The place seems to have no soul of its own. Maybe that's why it seems like it's trying to steal mine. There are so many street light that everything is well-lit, even at night. You can barely see the stars.

I think my recent rejection of Californian culture and my complete disappointment with today's popular music scene (coupled with the sad truth that "classic rock" is not a growing body of music) are responsible for my new-found love of country music. It's reminded my of home during this last rather trying month in CA--despite the fact that I never listened to it in the STL. Unlike my other options on CA radio, the lyrics actually seem relevant to my life experiences, although we all know how much I like pimpin' bitches, rollin in ma benz, flashin ma bling wid ma chains a-sturr, jus crankin' tha shit cuz gettin ma party on all up in hurr.........right.

Joel, you're probably lucky that this happened after we quit being roomates.

Oh, and Pandora.com is the best thing to happen to music since the mp3 player. It allows you to create personalized, fully customizable, commecial free radio stations. It's a great way to discover new songs and artists. Check it out if your haven't already.

Hello everyone. This is my last week at Stanford for the summer. I will soon head home for I few weeks before I return for staff training. In recent news, my research has finally turned up some results, but in doing so it has raised only questions andprovided no answers. My cousin was here this weekend, which was a nice change of pace. We toured SF on saturday and walked through the redwoods of Big Basin on Sunday. Jenna was kind enough to allow us to join in her birthday festivities. Thank you, and I am sorry. It was clear that most of you thought he was obnoxious rather than entertaining. I appreciate both your tolerance and your charity.

On a different note, I want to apologize to all of you whom I have offend in my poor attempts at humor. For all the disparaging remarks and the cultural, racial, religious, and regional jokes, I am deeply sorry. My sins are all the greater for having forgotten them. I have only recently come to understand the effect such seemingly inocuous comments can have.

I hope you all are well,
--Will

Learn To Play Golf

Hey Fuckers - So Sam and I are going to play a weekly game of golf this year, and it would be a fun way to get all of us together and outside once a week. So if any of you have been looking for an excuse to learn golf, or pick it up again, this is it! Take a lesson this summer, get some clubs, and come play with us. It'll be fun. I promise.

wine and birthdays

hey all!

so my parents are coming out for my birthday and are continuing on to napa valley. does anyone have any recommendations for a B&B for them to stay at?

on that same note, all of you who are around should come celebrate with me next week! it will likely be ridiculous. saturday night, when i turn 21 at midnight for a bit and sunday night probably starting at 9 at nola's. let me know if you are around and can come!

hope you are all doing well wherever you are. miss you guys! xoxox- jenna

Are you gay?

More fun from Chuck Klostermann:

A novel titled Interior Mirror is released to mammoth commerical success (despite middling reviews). However, a curious social trend emerges: Though no one can prove a direct scientific link, it appears that almost 30 percent of the people who read this book immediately become homosexual. Many of these newfound homosexuals credit the book for helping them reach this conclusion about their orientation, despite the fact that Interior Mirror is ostensibly a crime novel with no homoerotic content (and was written by a straight man).

Would this phenomenon increase (or decrease) the likliehood of you reading this book?

Typical

I know it’s cliché to say at this point, but it really is so wonderful to hear from you all. Oh Victor, how I do miss thine incessant whining! And Zewde? Where the hell have you been? Great to hear from ya! Sounds like people are doing cool things out there. I really am so interested to see what everybody will end up doing with their lives.

Anyway, over in these parts, life is a mix of fast-paced jet-setting and absolutely boring nothingness. Work was crazy last week, getting ready for the “No Reservations” (chef-themed chick flick starring Catherine Zeta-Jones and Aaron Eckhart) premiere and screenings. Oh these “important” Hollywood moguls have their seating requests! Sadly the big premiere was in NYC (and no, they don’t fly the interns out for that), but the screening in LA was kinda fun too. But now that’s over, and there’s very little for me to do in the office. But hey – I’m getting really good at alphabetizing binders! And diligently reading up on Lindsay Lohan (we get fashion/celeb magazines before they hit the newsstands).

Some other random highlights of my summer so far: shootin’ the shit with George Wyhinny when we met up for dinner the other night, taking Jonathan Grossman around LA on an “architecture tour” that I was very unqualified to give (e.g. “There on your left, see that? Yeah, right there. That’s a house.”), rocking out in a Santa Monica dance club with some random Stanford-ians… for a full 10 minutes (we had to wait in line to get in, and then they turned on the lights early – I mean, I kept dancing when the lights came on, but everybody else seemed to leave the dance floor. What’s up with that?), going to a Dodger game in which most people were actually there just to see if Barry Bonds would break/tie the record (when he went up to bat, the camera flashes literally lit up the stadium)… which he didn’t, having eye sex with Marlon Wayans during my lunch break (ha, ok maybe a bit hopeful there – but he did turn around three times to continue the eye contact as he walked away...), and attending a party at the Princess of Morocco’s house (very bizarre experience – many friends from high school I hadn’t seen in a while, now all working in the entertainment industry in some capacity, and then some plastic-looking foreign 40-year old men and women, all getting drunk on nice champagne while overlooking the sparkling lights of the city).

And, other than that, everything’s pretty low-key. Spending lots of time with my family and high school friends. Thinking about the future. Being stuck in traffic. Trying not to think about the future. Eating a lot of Pink Berry frozen yogurt (if you haven’t heard of this phenomenon, then you clearly aren’t from LA). Doing yoga at the WB gym and becoming buddies with adults who don’t know I’m a lowly intern. Sneaking in the back door of Hollywood clubs to sit casually sipping cocktails by pools that nobody swims in. Getting my eyelashes tinted and fingernails painted. Reflecting upon the shallow, ridiculous lifestyles that so many people lead here... and the fact that I can’t help but be a part of while I’m in this god-forsaken city. You know – just a typical summer break.

I still feel vastly inadequate

I mostly have the boringest life one could imagine, so I don't post here that often. I hope you'll forgive me. Tonight, however, I had dinner in Newton, MA with a bunch of Stanford students (including one of Andrew's fellow Miltonians) and then went to a Black & White themed party at Jackie Weiss' Brookline apartment dressed in women's underwear.

There may be pictures on facebook. Also, the more I think about how I could never run for public office, the more I'm conviced that merely knowing me might be an impediment to the rest of you ruling the world someday. But maybe not. Best of luck.

Two more things:

1) I'm coming back to Stanford in three weeks or so. I'm thinking about trying to pick up some part time work until school starts (though this isn't totally necessary), but if you have any ideas, let me know.

2) I've been hanging out in Boston a lot lately. Ashwin when we get our apartment in Cambridge next fall, we're going to have a lot of fun.

How Hot Are You?

12. You meet a wizard in downtown Chicago. The wizard tells you he can make you more attractive if you pay him money. When you ask how this process works, the wizard points to a random person on the street. You look at this random stranger. The wizard says, "I will now make them a dollar more attractive." He waves his magic wand. Ostensibly, this person does not change at all; as far as you can tell, nothing is different. But--somehow--this person is suddenly a little more appealing. The tangible difference is invisible to the naked eye, but you can't deny that this person is vaguely sexier. This wizard has a weird rule, though--you can only pay him once. You can't keep giving him money until you're satisfied. You can only pay him one lump sum up front.

How much cash do you give the wizard?

Holy crap

You guys would totally not believe the stuff that's happened to me in the last two months. First, as I was lugging Joel's giant eye-sore of a couch up to the third floor of Xanadu, I lost my footing and the damn thing slipped. Onto my foot. Crushed it totally. So obviously living on the third floor of a building with a shattered right foot sucks balls but not nearly as much as the run in I had with that crazy religious nut out in White Plaza. I was going to lunch one day and he started yelling at me for who know what reason and I asked him a simple religious question (Was Jesus Jewish?) and the guy flipped a shit. It was like I insulted his grandmother.

But whatever. I got over it. In the meantime, I've been dealing with the entirety of China in Hoover Tower which has been pretty freaking awesome. (Did I mention it was opposite day?)

I'm glad to hear that everyone is doing fine and dandy. Sorry about not posting more regularly (or at all). Conference services/VIS/URP stuff/Joel's mom have been owning my ass. I'll try to keep up.

Oh, and I didn't actually break my foot or anything. I've picked up lying as my new hobby. That and choking hookers.

But I wasn't kidding about your chair being a total pain Joel. You better get that shit before summer's out or I'm throwing it off the roof. In a loving manner of course:)

Update...

I haven't had internet at home for a couple weeks now, so I can't really remember when I last checked the blog or posted to it. I try to refrain from doing much personal stuff while at work, but for so many reasons (aforementioned lack of internet at home; general lack of work to do, and complete lack of anything with a deadline attached; little to no oversight of what I'm doing while at work), I spent most of today e-mailing, reading news (well, kind of part of my job...kind of), doing some DM work, and now catching up with this wonderful site. I am completely intrigued by Em's account of Guatemala, and I can't wait to catch up with all of you in person this fall. It sounds like there will be endless lunch-time fodder, and we all know deep down that we'll be eating plenty of meals on Durand's porch regardless of whether we're living there.

DC on the whole has been really wonderful. I like the city a lot, though I hate humidity more and more with each passing day. Fortunately it's been pretty mild since I got here, but occasionally there are those nights when a three block walk leaves me drenched in sweat. Yum. Work is generally pretty boring. The one huge upside is that they don't seem to care how often I leave to attend hearings on the Hill, seminars put on by one of DC's million think-tanks, or other events that I can in some way argue contribute to my understanding of the issues I'm working on or my position as a well-informed citizen. In other words, I can go to anything I want. Luckily, I really like most of my co-workers. The other fellows are all sharp and fun to hang out with, and I'm bummed that most of them will be taking off in the next few weeks to have some time off before they head back to school in mid or late August.

I spent last weekend in the Twin Cities with my family. My uncle threw an engagement party for my sister and her fiancee in St. Paul, and we spent some time with his family in Minneapolis too. They dragged me to my first (and, god willing, last) bridal shower...yikes. When not with family I spent every waking moment reading the Deathly Hollows. I won't say anything beyond the fact that I loved it from start to finish and plan to read it again as soon as Sam is done (or perhaps sooner...).

It's a long summer, but somehow I already feel like it's nearing the end. I think it's because August is just a week away, meaning I only have another month before honors college. I haven't started any of my reading, and although I'm not really worried about it, it's just one more thing to toss onto the to-do list. With Sam and Jess both gearing up for grad school tests (GREs for the former, LSAT the latter), a small part of my mind is also much more acutely attentive to the decisions that await most of us in the coming year.

Good Thing There Are Iraqi Frenchmen in Chimaltenango

Hi guys,

All continues to go not as planned in Guatemala, but hey you know those interview questions when you have to come up with kick ass stories for which you aren´t culpable, well I have more now.

Everythings going great with the survey. In the last month we´ve seen more of this country than most Guatemalans see in their lives, we´ve seen natural beauty to match Eden, and I can at least hold multi hour conversations in Spanish even if I still sound like those the equivalent of Chinese grocers in the Sunset. It looks like we can probably get 1000 of these surveys, including about 6500 people probably (since each ones about a household and households are pretty big).

But then on Saturday one of our backpacks got stolen on a bus. Which really was rather unfortunate seeing as it was valuable out of all proportion to its size: money, wallet, credit cards, drivers licence, passport, camera, USB backup, journal, master copies of all of our documents, shuffle, two pairs of glasses, books, oh yeah, and our computer, with a bunch of our data. It really was a nice little moment stopping traffic there and yelling at the bus driver in Spanish for not locking the back door while hundreds of people swarmed us to take part in the melee. Thank God there was this autoshop owner there who it turned out was an Iraqi who´d moved to France and gotten citizenship then wandered over to Guatemala to fall in love and run a mechanics shop while living off the fortune he made on US defense contracts to make guns for Israeli soldiers. Oh yeah, he was Catholic.

So now we´re leaving Guatemala a little early because we can´t do the last third of our work (entering data in Excel, ohsomuchfunyouhavenoidea) without our computer. But we´ve still made quite the run of it. Suffice it to say I´ve definitely never spoked so much in my life nor been this unstressedout in all of college. Quite a good little country for me. Like Andrew I´ve had quite a few other random adventures, throwing myself off of bridges and spraining my back, talking politics and drinking Cuban rum late into the night with Jesuit priests in no electricity little villages where the people speak 8 different languages, etc. But those until later.

Glad to hear that everyone is at least alive and more or less well. Miss you all.

P.S. Andrew you owe me a copy of the book, which you´ve owed me for about a year now so it´s really gathered interest and you probably owe me all of your articles you´re writing down there now as well. Oh, and Stegner´s Angle of Repose is amazing. I love Stanford, everyone should read it.

Watch Steve's Wet Dreams?

Here's the Chuck Klosterman Question of the Week:

At long last, someone invents "the dream VCR." This machine allows you to tape an entire evening's worth of your own dreams, which you can then watch at your leisure. However, the inventor of the dream VCR will only allow you to use this device of you agree to a strange caveat: When you watch your dreams, you must do so with your family and your closest friends in the same room. They get to watch your dreams along with you. And if you don't agree to this, you can't use the dream VCR.

Would you use the VCR?

Still Alive

Hi, I'm not dead yet. I thought I should let people know that.

I have actually been having a great time in Kampala. I'm frustrated this morning because my Editor is incompetent. But I honestly can't complain about that too much as everyone in government is incompetent too, which is why my job is extremely amusing. I have finished two detailed articles profiling a member of parliament and a crippled homeless guy. I have a lot of sources for these articles and so I spend my time wandering around the city and bothering important people. I can't do that today on account that there is literally a damn monsoon outside so I'm stuck in a very large and very empty hotel, where I get internet for free because they assume I'm a guest. It is just great being white in Africa. Every morning I pass a school on my way to work and its like a parade. Much waving. Kids yell mzungu (white person) happily. Still I don't get as much attention as Maura, who is a perennial star with Ugandans who find her quite foreign looking.

I am living with Jeff Love, Melina Platas, and Maura, but also to a degree Nate Falck and Dave Herbert. Dave is, of course, always fun. Our best adventure so far was being the only mzungu at a born-again christian fundraiser thrown by a USAID worker who admitted that, though she found Jesus, she still needed to be heavily medicated to get through the day. GOOD STUFF! I've also gone through the African rituals of playing three card poker in a seedy casino while drinking gin and tonic and the always wonderful being harassed by hookers wanting green cards. Uganda is a fine country and reasonably safe but people still want out. THe other day a grown man in a suit offered me his resume on the street. It is difficult to react to these things.

I should be leaving soon to head up to Murchison Falls to shadow park rangers. I'm excited about this because I will get to see Giraffe and because it is, probably better than the original plan, which was to go on an anti-poaching patrol, which would have probably required a flak jacket.

All in all, I've been very happy here. Though I spent an odd amount of the first week and a half drunk on beer processed from Nile water, things have calmed down now, which is fine. Jeff is a lovely house mate and Maura and Melina live in another little house next to us. There are flowers and its normally sunny. My days are tiring because you have to pay attention at all times because when you are as conspicuous as I am people pay attention to you.

I have a great deal more to say because I have been having adventures and living in a very surreal way but there is more time. I have to go over to the Wildlife Association. I have to get in touch with a disgraced member of parliament and I probably have to apologize to the British High Commission for hanging up on their PR representative. All in a days work.

Oh, and the book is going well. Though it gets put on hold, like email, because power comes and goes. I do read the blog though and it really makes me smile. It makes me happier when I pass a sign next to the Ugandan Golf Club which says, "Golf Balls Kill." And I smile at the many possibilities for Ani and Ashwin everytime I step over a leper. Truly, the world is your oyster. Oh, and Anthony, the coffee is terrific.

Tonight. The Southern Hemisphere goes wild

1:00 AM has never looked better to people below the equator. Indeed, tonight even we here in the southernmost city of the world (I think...) will be celebrating the release of the final thrilling and chilling Harry Potter saga. The local Woolstone's bookstore in the god-forsaken mall I keep visiting for internet service, is holding a Potter Party for all willing participants, including mostly young children who will be up far past their bed-times for the 1:01AM release of the novel. Suffice it to say, I will NOT be attending; I'm excusing myself from this incredible opportunity because not only will I have to be waking up five hours later for a full 12hr day of baboon-herding in the rain and 40MPH winds, but in my haste to stay under the weight limit I forgot to pack my Potter regalia. Again.

So, there you go. THe baboons have NO idea what's going to hit them tonight when wild Potter fans confuse them for Dobby and start throwing socks at them. I sympathize because I get that all the time.


And where in the world has the summer gone?

The weather up here is fiiiiiiiiine

I just got back from my physical and would like you all to know that since June 2006, I have grown one inch, lost nine and a half pounds, and gotten thirty-five percent sexier. I don't know how they come up with these totals, but you've gotta trust science. For those who want the math, I am up from seventy-one and a half inches to seventy-two and a half inches. I have waited my whole life for this day. Don't ruin it.

Tuesday July 17 in Addis Ababa

Yesterday afternoon in Addis Ababa brought a long-awaited pause tot he yearly onslaught of rain, the tail end of the monsoons crawling across the Indian Ocean. If you check the weather services here they'll more or less always carry the same message: it will rain, heavily, in the highlands, while triple digit heat continues to strike the nation's periphery. Addis was built in a valley in the Shoan region at the turn of the century. Its high altitude allowed the Emperor Menelik's military a strategic advantage over its many potential enemies--rebellious peasants, southern tribes, Western colonizers--all of whom would share the dismay of Modern Addis difficult terrain, poor draining system, and lack of a source of water.

But on Tuesday the sun came out. More than the occasional oasis in a day filled with gray skies, muddy half-completed roads, and sudden thunderous showers, it actually didn't rain all day. But the mood in the old restaurant/cafe "The Tea Room," a colonial pea-green building along Haile Selassie Avenue, in the old city center known as Piassa, couldn't have contrasted the weather anymore. Two years ago, opposition leaders were imprisoned for inciting a rebellion. Their incarceration followed months of civil unrest, demonstrations broken up by tear gas, mass arrests and (according to Amnesty international) the slaughter of 200 civilians by government troops. The whole carnage and its surrounding atmosphere of fear and distrust, along with the arrests of several journalists and the looming conflict with Somalia--which would make the headlines for 2006 as America's War on Terror came to the Horn of Africa, bringing back the Nationalist sentiment of the Eritrean War of 98 and briefly putting an end to tribalist anti-government sentiment in the city's capital.

But not today, Tuesday, noon, lunchtime. The little twenty year old television hung in the corner of Tea Room as our waiter, who I thought bore an interesting resemblence to Buddy Holly, but who, my father said, was a longtime friend, like many other working-class Ethiopians, a mild-mannered boyish fifty year old who had been in the same job in the same place since the Revolution. The others in the room belonged to a city that had rejected the ruling party's bid by a stunning landslide of some 196 of 197 seats. As the opposition prepared to take over, with its Deputy and most charismatic figure poised to take on the difficult administrative role of Mayor in a breadbasket surrounded by government forces who, despite their lack of popularity in much of non-Northern Ethiopia, where there tribal heritage was often not shared and never appreciated, still wielded one of the strongest armed forces in Africa. Just ask the Somalis. Meanwhile, the city refused to collect municipal taxes in the two months in 2005 between the election results and the imprisonment of opposition leaders. Today those same leaders, who share blame for the carnage as they incited the people to rise up--their chairman even went to America and claimed to a bloodthirsty diaspora, raging irrationally against the government from the murky outposts of exile--those same leaders have finally acknowledged it.

Only the letter they signed, the day after (Monday), the court sentenced them to life imprisonment, contradicted everything they had been saying all along. The government, they held, was racist and genocidal (the latter absurd charged was reciprocated in court, shortly before its repeal), they were guilty of everything under the sun and, in these months, the rain. But while Ethiopia continues to stagnate economically, signs of its slow infrastructural progress spring up everyday. And while the utterly shameful inefficiency of the state could be blamed on its hybrid socio-capitalist technocrat-run bureacracy, the freakish state has little to do with the day-to-day incompetences of individuals in private and public sectors, or the infuriating iniquities of class and tribal relations. Everything works on nepotism and no opposition has ever been coherent enough to even suggest real change. As soon as anyone coalesces, rivalries and defections begin to take place providing fodder for the daily papers and bitterly foreshadowing the events of this day.

"There are some honorable people among them," my father, who never truly supported any opposition, mumbles resignedly. He calls a few friends, discusses the details of the letter, which just about everyone of them signed, and which took on full responsibility, while begging pathetically for pardon from a government surely beaming with the triumphalism of a wary boxer in the tenth round of a grueling match against an undersized opponent. "They have shamed us all," he adds, hanging up.

As we leave the Tea Room in a hurry, each of us of to work, an elderly gentleman, silver haired and fair-skinned, thin and well-dressed in a Manchester suit and an auburn-tinted scarf, strolls over to the two of us from the adjacent table. He had waved briefly to my father when we entered the room and was now coming to shake his hand. He told an anecdote about the Emperor, as people who still feel they belong to that age, before Marxism and revolution, before nationalized property and NGOs, before ethnic federations, but not before ethnic conflicts or border tensions, tend to enjoy doing. But his voice is animated, his narrative steady. He seems sure of himself, like he's merely going through his oft-practiced routine. My father's dissappointment and hurried manner betrays the stress of the last weeks--he is here to cheer him up.

The Emperor has come to a graduation ceremony, where he hands out diplomas to young men, calling out their names and their father's name. (There are no family names in Ethiopia, so the biblical convention of so-and-so the son of Zebedee persists while most similar cultures have given in to Western naming traditions, among other kinds). One young man's name translates to "return to Gonder," his father's name translates to "the crown." Gondar is where the crown, that is the Imperial seat, remained throughout the Middle Ages. You can still see the ruins of castles there today. The Emperor, of Shoan Dynasty and a Harrar background, refuses to hand over the diploma, stating, in his absurdly poised way, "it will not return," prompting my father's laughter. The joke loses everything in translation. Not only linguistic translation. The concerns of his story and the style in which it is told--the location of the crown, the oral form of anecdote conveying feudal myths and the down-to-earth humor humanizing those myths--belong to another age.

As we left the building, I was told that this man was a premiere Ethiopian author, a detective story novelist, with some thrity books to his name. But, my father adds, with a sympathetic smile and a nostalgic shake of the head, "he is getting old..."

We drive through Mercato, the largest open-air market in Africa. The streets are lined with women crouching around clay grinders filled with berbere, a spice that brings life to just about every kind of Ethiopian cuisine. A few streets behind them is the center of the Tchat trade. This "mild hallucinegenic" is a legal narcotic somewhat similar in effect to speed. It makes people paranoid and incredibly ambitious, speeding up the mind, which it eventually leaves in a state of schizophrenic turbulence. Other side effects include dark-green tinted teeth and impotency. Of course, this is only if you take it everyday, which many people do. In this street, for example, the social problem, which originally came from the same spots int he Horn of Africa that the Ethiopian army patrols with a dynamic combination of brutality and professionalism, is on display in the form of dozens of young workers sitting on the sidewalks chewing all day. The other streets bear the faint smells of red spices, and garlic, the colorless shops are filled with people, each standing in front of a small square storefront beside barrels piled on top of one another, their sense of smell now completely impervious to the herbs around them.

We make our way to the statue of Abuna Petros. "Abuna," I then realized, must have the same origin as "Abbe," which, the character of th Abbe Faria in Dumas's "Count of Monte Cristo" taught me, during one of the many summer rainy seasons spent in Ethiopia with during my youths, perusing the abridged versions (I wasn't what one calls a "precocious reader") of various classics, meant some kind of priest. Petros was the "Papas" or "Pope" of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church who excommunicated every and any Ethiopian who cooperated with the Italian Occupation (1936-1940), one of the events that led to the Second World War. When the Italians asked Petros to lift the excommunications, he refused, and met the same fate as many educated Ethiopians who, branded by foreign degrees, wristwatches or eyeglasses were often thrown from airplanes or burned alive in their homes with their entire families. Petros' fate wasn't as gruesome, they merely stood him up against the wall of a clay house on an ordinary Addis Ababa street and machine-gunned him to death.

The spot where he was shot is marked bys everal stones, across the street from the white statue of the pious old man, which stands at the center of a little roundabout in the middle of Mercato. As we pass him, my father tells his story, one of his favorites, again. He then sighs and says, "and here we have politicians, supposedly tough guys, not clergy, begging for pardon from the fate of spending there last few years in jail, they're not even being asked to make a martyr's sacrifice." There are no more heroes, no more stories, no more pride. Only statues, myths and pardon requests.

What I'm listening to...

I might be a bit behind on this, but I recently heard Feist's single "1234" on the radio, and totally liked it. Especially because there's a banjo (they're listed as an 'alternative' band if you're looking for a label that will provide you no information about the band). So I bought the album "The Reminder" and have really liked it so far (one listen through). I think they're already in a commercial of some sort though, and apparently at Starbucks, so it's not some sort of new discovery on my part, but I think she/they are really good. Here's a NYT review:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/13/arts/music/13feis.html?ex=1184817600&en=8f005731fe70acde&ei=5070

Anyone else listening to this group?

It's Business Time!

For those of you who loved the Business Time song: I highly recommend checking out Flight of the Conchord on HBO. The network gave those two guys their own TV show, and its really funny. It's a really dry comedy that works their songs into different plot lines. TV-Links doesn't seem to have it, so maybe find someone with HBO On Demand. It's worth it - those guys are hilarious.

And now, the Chuck Klosterman Question of the Week, sticking with last week's theme of bodily mutilation:

5. You meet your soul mate. However, there is a catch: Every three years, someone will break both of your soul mate's collarbones with a Crescent wrench, and there is only one way you can stop this from happening: You must swallow a pill that will make every song you hear--for the rest of your life--sound as if it's being performed by the band Alice in Chains. When you hear Creedence Clearwater Revival on the radio, it will sound (to your ears) like it's being played by Alice in Chains. If you see Radiohead live, every one of their tunes will sound like it's being covered by Alice in Chains. When you hear a commercial jingle on TV, it will sound like Alice in Chains; if you sing to yourself in the shower, your voice will sound like deceased Alice vocalist Layne Staley performing a capella (but it will only sound this way to you).

Would you swallow the pill?

Please show up tonight!

I want to see all of you, and I really hope you come to the housewarming (starting at 9pm, see older post for directions). Even George W. is coming, in the flesh.

I was also recently sheared (this afternoon), so if nothing else come see me with my hair cut short(er), which only happens 2 to 3 times a year. And please carpool.

I am in a really relaxed mood, as getting into the mountains for climbing and camping with family and friends these last few days was exactly what I needed. Donner lake and Big Bear lake were really beautiful, and climbing on granite was amazing. Nothing like 7000' of altitude, crystal clear waters, and lots of 3 year olds running around causing me to think about my own (future) family to ground me. I am so excited about family. Now if I only knew what I wanted to do with my own life on a day to day basis.

An interesting footnote: country music stations were named the Cat, the Wolf, the Hawk, and the Fox. Those cowboys love their animals. I know lots of top 40 country music songs now.

I owe an update...

The last few days have been interesting. I've seen some old friends, made some new once, made a fool out of my self, starting taking french again, and really thinking a lot about next year. However it plays out, I can't wait.

The biggest influence on my life, however, has been a strange death that my family has been dealing with. The man that my mom was dating six months before she met my dad (and a year before she was marrying him) passed away in a plane crash that I found out about while I was watching ESPN (obit here). She hadn't seen him in about twenty five years, but the fact that she's so broken up about it--and the fact that she has gotten five or six phone calls from the crew that she hung out with when he was in dental school and she was working in Boston--has really made me think about the lives we live now and how truly connected we are with our future selves. I suppose I see myself in twenty years and I really don't know what I'm going to be like or where I'm going to be, but I just hope that wherever I am (assuming I make it), I at least get the chance to cross paths with everyone who's meant something to me as often as possible. My mom has been lamenting all day that she always thought that some day their paths would cross again (apparently he was a terrific guy but "not husband material") and that she can't believe he's gone.

On a lighter note (in more ways than one), I saw some pictures of my mom with him today, and when she was 24, she apparently wore similar dresses and hairstyles to what Caroline wears. It was weird. I'll scan the photo if I can find a scanner.

Life in Ithaca

So I suppose I owe an update...

Life in Ithaca is good. Work has finally picked up. We're working on this project for the local art museum that takes previous visitors' comments about an exhibit and displays them on this big screen for future visitors. We'll eventually study what effect seeing previous museumgoers' thoughts has on one's museum experience. So its half really boring: sitting next to an exhibit and asking people to write down words they associate with the object. The other half is thinking of the most engaging visual display for the words, which is the part I really like. Its challenging both from a programming point of view but also from a graphic design point of view. Its lots of fun, and is great experience for the future.

Ive started studying for the GREs, in preparation for applying to the co-term program in Symbolic Systems. Its really boring and tedious. It's just a harder version of the SATs, something I had hoped to never deal with again. It's especially frustrating because the professor who judges my application is someone I know fairly well and have taken a 4-person class with, not to mention the 50 page honors thesis I will turn in with the app. The idea that my performance on 30 analogies will make one lick of difference is absurd. So I plan on putting in a bit of mediocre studying and calling it a day.

And in the most exciting piece of news, I've started a bit of a summer romance. (I can see all of you were scanning suddenly pay really close attention). Yeah, she's really great: her name is Golf, and I'm pretty sure I'm in love. We've flirted on and off for a few years, but this summer I decided to take our relationship to the next level and get serious. Though I'm still pretty awkward and bad (ohh, the parallels to real relationships), it's still so much fun. She's pretty much all I think about, and I do her at least 2 or 3 times a week. My best friend growing up also fell in love with her at the same time, so we do her together (again, the parallels to real relationships). Sadly, she's a very expensive girlfriend, and I can already see myself spending inordinate amounts of money on her. Its ok though, she's worth it.

That said, I want to try and play a weekly game once I get back to school. Anyone interested? Sam, I'm looking at you...

The NL sucks

Except for the Brewers, which Steve caused me to realize is an awesome team.

And Harry Potter was a lot of fun. I found myself both oddly attracted to and scared by Bellatrix Lestrange, which frankly is not a bad combination.

Anyone else get out to see it last night?

Baseball and Housewarming

Hi Guys,

I owe you a lengthy update on how things were in Spain, pictures, etc, but all that will have to wait. While I continue to postpone that post however, I didn't want to neglect to let everyone know that I'm back in the bay area and want to see them! Haven't really had a moment to sort out pictures and the fun things that happened, but I'll be sure to do that. I also have big ass cuban cigars for a bunch of the guys, so we have to get together for those.

I'm back safely in Cali, moved into my house Friday and Satuday, and returned to lab today. I want to see everyone who's around! In that vein (go to the bolded events), the home run derby is today at 5pm and the All Star game is tomorrow at the same time. If any of you can make it out of lab/work by that hour I'd love to see if we could all get together. I already know that Lane Barrasso and I will be getting together to watch the games, most likely at the Old Pro, so please post, call, or email if you have any interest.

In addition, show up to the house warming party we'll be having Saturday night at 9pm. It's a PJ Party, and we're encouraging people to both drink and stay the night. I'll try to get facebook invites out, but I can't promise much. Here are the directions to 27950 Elena Road, Los Altos Hills, it's simple:

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=27950+Elena+Road%2C+Los+Altos+Hills%2C+CA

(make sure you copy the entire url into the address bar, I can't get it to work as a hyperlink)

Okay, really hope to pull you all away from your work and boredom so we can see each other! And Ani, please leave the SRC and come to these things. Do it for your well-being.

Prancing with the Stars

Oy, I can't believe I'm following Jenna's touching account of Camp Kesem with this one, but here goes...

Wow. What a whacky day/ night. So I guess this is the new-fangled “glamour” that they talk about. Today was the HP5 premiere (aka Harry Potter 5), and oh my-lanta. I was staffing it the whole time and didn’t even get to watch the movie, and I was basically on my now-blistered feet for the last 9 hours… but it was so sweet!

First, at the premiere itself, I walked along the red carpet lined with hundreds of screaming fans holding signs (I thought one sign said “Dan, blow me” – for Daniel Radcliffe, who plays Harry – but I realized it actually said “Dan, blow me a kiss” upon second glance), and pretended to be important. My first job was to take guests to their seats in the theater, including Antonio Sabato Jr. (so hot in real life), Seth Green (so short, but funny), and Jeff Foxworthy (quite friendly), among others whose faces I recognized but didn’t know their names. And I was like 5 feet away from Rick Fox (soooo hot) and AnnaSophia Robb (I don’t even know who that is, but people told me she was famous, in “The Reaping” or something).

And then there was the after-party, which was beautiful but such a ridiculous way to spend so much money. They had a huge 3D cake in the shape of Hogwarts, flat-screen TVs on the walls to look like the moving photographs in the Harry Potter stories, and a huge platform behind the bar that spit green fire every few minutes (to name just a few of the spectacles). I was responsible for guarding the VIP area, making sure that all the important people had everything they needed, and keeping out the “riff-raff.” I rubbed elbows with Emma Watson (pretty, but very petite), and yes, Harry Potter himself said hi to me (he’s so tiny!). Everyone who talked to him said he was funny and warm.

Perhaps the most noteworthy part of the evening was when I was talking to this British guy for a decent amount of time, explaining to him why he wasn’t allowed in the VIP area, asking if he liked the movie, and such. But when he said he was in LA just for the film, it well, hit me, and I said, “Wait, were you, uh, in this movie?” He cracked up, and told me that yes, in fact, he was one of the semi-leads in it (he played Cedric Diggory). Oops!! I was mortified. But he was drunk enough not to care, joked that he was barely in this one anyway, and we continued talking for a while after. I wonder if that was 100% insulting, or somewhat refreshing to him?

In addition to the celebrity factor of which I am bragging about so disgustingly, it was fun to talk to other WB people I hadn’t met yet, and even the security guards and waiters were cool. So overall, although it terrifies me to admit this, I really enjoyed myself.

PS

for the record joel was correct- i was waiting to blog about camp kesem with ned aka raindrop. unfortunately, ned is too busy preparing to embark on an awesome italian adventure.. so you get my terrible writing instead- feel free to blame him for that. i do . and steve, your abuse of me on this blog will not go without payback. be prepared.

sooo.. hi :-)

alright all. it is time for me to finally re-introduce myself to the front porch. for those of you who forgot who i am after all this time (or who can't guess from my username), its jenna, the girl who adores you all like woah. it has been SO fun catching up with the blog and getting a sense of what you are all up to this summer. whether its crazy cool and exciting or relaxing and rejuvenating, I think it definitely sounds like you are all having interesting, good experiences, and i think that is really AWESOME.

to start in the very beginning of my summer.. ending the year with the few of you left in durand was really nice, and a great way to transition into camp mode. camp kesem was amazing... people told me that it was "the best thing they've done at stanford" and i can see why and would have to do a lot of reflecting to find something that i consider "better". i gave up a lot to do camp kesem and that worried me a bit, but it was worth every experience i couldnt have because i decided to do it, and i would have given up so much more if i was asked to. it was a really important week for the kids, who are surrounded by other kids who understand them and what they are going through. there is a big range of feelings about cancer, and there are a few kids who have been going for all 7 years and others who i spent the week helping work through homesickness. my job was as counselor of the 6-8 year old "yellow unit" and co-coordinator of arts and crafts. because of the age group i had, camp was less about cancer and more about fun and forgetting and just being a kid. all roles were important, and all the counselors did a great job with the entire week- they are amazing people that i am so glad to have gotten to know- sometimes i forget how many great people there are at stanford that i just havent met yet. ahhh im starting to ramble, and am terrible at writing this down... but, if you cant tell, it was just an all-around fabulous experience: challenging, painful, frustrating, rewarding, enriching, enlightening, empowering, wonderful week.

i finished kesem debriefing, grabbed dinner with val and victor, fell asleep, and woke up to 6 hours of class. woohoo. but in general im LOVING being at stanford over the summer: it is so nice to be enjoying the campus, facilities, surrounding area, and people still around without feeling overwhelmed by commitments- social, academic, extracurricular, etc. the people still here are great (i lovvvve you guys!!!) and im meeting a bunch of other really neat people as well (including my roommates!) and am just feeling overwhelmingly spoiled by having my own room! and a bathroom! and kitchen! it is fabulous. i'm taking three classes and interning 8 or so hours a week at health promotion services. i keep forgetting about the honors thesis and the grant i have to write.... but those will get done at some point too. in between the beach and berkeley and barbeques.

this weekend i surprised my mom by coming home for her birthday.. she had NO clue and was thrilled. we saw spring awakening with jo, who is still in the states- doing rounds at Mt. Sinai- before heading to uganda. by the way, for those of you near new york city, i highly highly recommend going to see spring awakening- i love musicals, and this one is high on my list. i didnt sleep much on the redeye home because they bumped me to first class and i wanted to stay awake and enjoy it. im almost running on empty now, after waking up early for a cooking class this morning with my mom and her best friend. so although my writing is poor and my thoughts scattered, its been worth every moment of this weekend.

wow, so reading back over this, my email sounds giddy and possibly annoyingly happy. and im writing this while in my house, so yeah, im likely to be extra smiley. but really, this has been an awesome three weeks so far. minus the "Kesem Cold" I caught (say that 5x fast) but which is almost gone. i fly back to school late tomorrow (always a mixed bag of feelings for me) and head back to work at 9am monday. but i cant wait to read more of your posts when i get back to school- again, they are all so fun and enjoyable to read! give me a call whenever, or shoot me an email. stay safe all and i love you!

Honors Thesis

So as Ive complained about before, part of my task for this summer is to choose an honors thesis topic. It has been very frustrating and sobering, discovering just how few original ideas I have about the world. But I think I'm circling around something decent, but its still a rough idea and I'd love people's input.

The premise: As wonderful as tv-links and YouTube are, they take away one key aspect of movie watching - the community feel of the viewing. Part of the experience is going in a dark theater with strangers and all being affected by the same movie simultaneously. It's well-documented that we find something funnier when those around us are laughing, for instance. My idea is to design a new YouTube-like interface that somehow gives you a feel for the other people watching the same video at the same time. One idea is to have little webcam feeds of fellow viewers floating around the main movie, showing them as they watch it. Another is just to have little icons of people that react in different ways when they feel humor, fear, etc., so you get some sort of visual sense of how other people are receiving the movie. The research question is then how such information affects your viewing experience.

SO, my question to you: What are the best parts and worst parts of watching movies/tv shows online? Obviously the instantaneity and lack of commericals are great. But at what cost? Do you miss watching movies in theaters or all gathering together for a TV show? Think of our 24 watching parties this year - what aspects of that are missing from watching it the next day at Fox.com? To take it a step further, what about watching a show on your video iPod on the subway? Pros and cons of that. What sorts of information would you want about fellow viewers: name, age, location, current emotional state, other movies they liked, nothing? Would you find an interface like this distracting? Would you feel your privacy was invaded if I asked you to show your face to other viewers? Or, just any other thoughts...

Thanks for the input. I appreciate it.

Klosterman Question #2:

Alright kids, the Einstein question was a warmup. We're going a bit darker this time around:

#2. Let us assume a fully grown, completely healthy Clydesdale horse has his hooves shackled to the ground while his head is held in place with thick rope. He is conscious and standing upright, but completely immobile. And let us assume that--for some reason--every political prisoner on earth (as cited by Amnesty International) will be released from captivity if you can kick this horse to death in less than twenty minutes. You are allowed to wear steel-toed boots.

Would you attempt to do this?

As requested.

Raining today, so not much going on. At a small internet cafe/business card printer shop in Muizenberg, about 30mins from cape town. Two of the guys are out surfing in the rain, and I'm enjoying this little rundown village. Not dangerous here, just so funky. Lots of reading, lots of tea- not much else to entertain us on our days off. Even TV is repulsive. But that's okay-- it's gorgeous even in the rain.

Our "leader" gets back tomorrow and she'll probably try to kick our asses into shape, even though we've been working our asses off. A little aggravating.

Picture key:
this is what they do most all the time. try recording that for 12 hrs. the one on the left is christina. i like her. she sits and stares at me all day.
watching the sunset
watching the sunrise. that bush is nearly impossible to get through. damn buggers climb right over it.
baby Mike. awful nasty piece of shit baby. he's the one who got me in trouble with the big guy and then played innocent. arg
evolution in action. fucking mindblowing.
that's the view from our house, cape town somewhere between those two peaks.
Kommetjie, our sleepy ramshackle alternating with expensive town.
dunes in the distance-- we climbed from where this picture was taken down to where those dunes are and found a troop that no one's observed before. Sweeeet and painful all at once. not to brag, buy my legs resemble Merritt's, post-regatta.
Bugger on a car.
the top of the cliff we climbed at 7AM. This is at 9:30AM, and the babs are no where to be seen....

The Inside Scoop

First of all, to answer Joel’s previous question: I’d say good ol’ Albie is still more impressive. I mean, unless the magician has hair like that, in which case it might be a more difficult choice to make. Just so you’re not disappointed, I say now this is not a Fourth of July story, because mine wasn’t very interesting. Instead I shall tell you about my “job.” Get ready for Hollywood glamour and intrigue!

So, I’m an intern in the Premieres & Special Events department of Warner Brothers, which sounds kinda cool, right? Well let me tell you what I did my first week. Drumroll please.

1) Walked from my computer-less shared cubicle to the other interns’ cubicle to “observe and learn” everything they did. Intern #1, Lindsey, has the most hard-hitting, go-getting type-A Napoleon-complex personality possible. A pistol, if you will. She hustles around all day in her platform sandals, name-dropping and ass-kissing with every step. And sadly, I know she’ll probably be running the studio in a few years. I tried following her around for a few hours to see what she does and how she does it, and she’d walk so fast that I could barely keep up (which I’m sure was intentional). Intern #2, Meg, couldn’t be more different. Skinny, tan, and bleach-blonde, she comes to work in flitty little sundresses, snacks on cashews (her only meal of the day), and browses fashion websites when not answering an occasional phone call in her girly-girl voice. I’m hoping I fall somewhere in between on that spectrum. And, luckily I have a few high school friends working in other departments, so I have lunch with them every day, and get a little dose of “normal” to balance out the rest of the day.

2) Cruised the floor asking all the assistants if they needed any help with anything. Begged for work to do. Anything. They’d feel bad they couldn’t give me stuff to do, except for one nice assistant: “Hmm, I’m sorry I don’t think I have anything for you… oh wait, ooh! I have something! I need a copy made of this document! Here ya go! Have fun!” Talk about excitement. The annoying part is that I know there’s so much work that needs to be done, and I can’t tell why they won’t let me near it – because they don’t trust me yet? Because they guard it for themselves, in this crazy competitive world of entertainment? Because they had to do shit-work when they started, and now they make sure that everyone else has to also?

3) After I’d made a few rounds and was starting to irritate people, I’d sit in my cubicle and do anything I could think of. Wrote out my plans for next year. Made check-lists. Doodled logos for FACES. Tried to read some documents about premieres that were laying around (some of which were actually interesting, budgets and blueprints). Made myself a binder. And when I couldn’t think of anything else productive to do, I settled for an In Style magazine. I mean, I know I should feel lucky that my job is so easy, but I get so antsy! I want to be a part of the action! If only they’d let me design a premiere invitation, I’d show them…

But, then something cool happened. I’d become friends with one of the assistants (she’s the secretary for one of the VP’s of publicity), and since she was taking a day off on Monday, she asked me to cover for her. Woo hoo! A promotion! So for one day, my job was fast-paced, demanding, and you could say almost exciting. I talked on the phone with Mandy Moore’s rep, wrote emails about Catherine Zeta Jones (or CZJ – to those on the inside), and got to learn firsthand information about how these events come together. Cool! And then… that was it. All downhill from there, now that the assistant's back at work. But hey, this Sunday is the Harry Potter 5 premiere, which I’ll be staffing at. That could be fun. I might get to be Hermione’s bitch for a couple hours.

Though I get frustrated, I know it’s good experience. It’s such a surreal world to be a part of, and though I don’t really feel like it’s my world, it’s fascinating to observe – the shit-talking behind people’s backs, the unbelievable price tags, the ladder-climbing, the obsession with Celebrity, and yes, even the glamour. I hope I don’t sound toooo cynical. It’s just Hollywood – beautiful on the outside and a mess on the inside. Nothing I didn’t know before.

Hope everyone is doing well! I miss you!

How was the fourth?

I had an interesting fourth of July.

I'm assuming that most of you (if you're anything like me) weren't that cool in high school (or maybe you were, but you went somewhere like Milton, where nobody's cool ;-] Andrew). Like, I had my friends and we had fun, but I certainly wasn't tight with the kids who were dating all the prettiest jailbait and smoking pot at fourteen and all that.

However, my mom has a very good friend who she works with that has four children, each of whom is in among the cool kids of their age and class. They also happen to all be pretty good friends of mine, but in the family friend sense. There is one daughter, she's my age, and she's been one of the cool kids forever. We'd hang out, but there was clearly social stratification involved when we went to school in middle school and everyone knew I was the weird kid taking eighth grade math who owned a graphing calculator at the age of eleven. I was not cool. Still ain't.

Anywho, my family and I went out to celebrate the fourth last night and the kids, parents, everyone got hammered. My mom had about three drinks too many and once used the expression "going down" to describe the relationship between Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky. I was abhorred. The girl insisted that I come out with her friends afterward instead of going home with my parents, so I did. It was sobering. The kids who once owned Marblehead High School seem to be stuck in the same ruts they were in eight years ago, the last time I really knew any of them. Not only have half of them quit college, they work at burger joints, liquor stores, and still get stoned every night. You never really see this sort of thing at Stanford, and even my friends from home who smoke weed every night still seem to be going somewhere, even if it just might be outside the borders of the town they grew up in.

I suppose we've heard stories like this before from everyone else, but I had to see it myself, and that was my experience. Also it was raining so they cancelled the fireworks.

Let's hear fourth of July stories.

I can’t decide: “American primatologist taken hostage by baboon male” or “American primatologist sentenced to life for murder of compatriots”

Hi guys,
Ani, I completely empathize with having too much time to think. However, I know I am in the more beautiful place, and I'm loving the view! Yesterday I was looking out over the Cape of Good Hope (not to rub it in or anything, I just love saying that name), with my Buffel’s Bay baboons sitting behind me scratching their asses, and I thought to myself, what the fuck am I to do? Medicine? Marine Biology? Law? Become an unemployed Australian badass? Marry a 50yr old Greek slimehead? I have some clue of what not to do, but really no clue of what to do.

That was on hour 3 of watching these fucking baboons. There are 12 solid hours in our workday. And the landscape is anything but easy to navigate. I lost them yesterday in 12 foot high bushes with acacia thorns five inches long on average, which they easily crawled over. Evolution my ass.

The alpha male of the troop, BB King, attacked me yesterday. That might be the biggest news I’ll have all summer. Don’t worry, a hundred pound baboon running straight for me is nothing- they have king cobras and some of the most deadly snakes in the world here, and the rustling in the bushes testifies to that. However, he did leave me shaking in my boots, quite literally, and completely sick and tired of fucking immature baboons.

They are curious creatures, but their lives are quite dull. Especially when you’re not allowed to interact with them at all, beyond following them. So I spend my time combing the beaches or sitting on a rock reading if I have abook with me.


I have a day off today, so I’m writing this in advance in Word for you. Hopefully I’ll get some pictures up for you guys, as the scenery is spectacular here. I’m already injured—not by the babs but by my backpack. I’ve done something to my shoulder, so I’m walking around all day in the field with a purse slung over the other one, with a full Nalgene, four sandwiches and an elephant’s meal of dried fruit in it, on top of my camera, binocs, GPS, notebook, 90% deet cream, cell phone and aviators as well. And yes, that is all necessary. Yesterday, I finished my sandwiches before 2PM, with five hours left to go, and busied myself counting over 150 ticks on my pants before the day’s end.


Anyway. Maybe y’all can’t imagine little me doing rough and ready field work, and you know what? I’m starting to agree. Not because of the physical, but because of the boredom. Reading “A portrait of the artist as a young man” while watching baboons fight is fascinating, but it’s a short book, and I can’t carry anything longer…


No complaining allowed. Sorry. I owe a few of you emails, but it is quite difficult to get internet here, especially with such long days and no internet within walking distance. And the telephones?? Well, the landline is impossible to hear out of, and calling the US with my South AFrican cell for 15 minutes costs… well, $30. Then again, that is all I’m buying here, because there’s not much else to do…

This house is in Kommetije, right on the beach, surrounded by wealthy expats and native South Africans (Afrikaaners). The workers are all black, and they sit on the rocks on the beach, wrapped in multiple layers against the sun. They take their shoes off if they are women; if they are men, they lean against the fences and cross their arms and gesture only with their heads. George, you know what it’s like here, and the Cape Town people I am with don’t give me much hope for any economic, social or religious changes happening anytime soon—they’re our age and older, and they criticize the people living in townships for not cleaning up better. I don’t think I can morally judge them, but I think I’m right in saying that is kind of strange and not very understanding.



Happy 4th of July. Those of you at Stanford, I’d recommend watching the fireworks in the Oval—Ani, you know you should, and bring some good food! Those of us elsewhere and abroad, all I can say is be careful and don’t be afraid to miss the states or Stanford. I miss the endless conversations, whether by phone, email or in person.

Yours truly,
Frustrated and charmed by the landscape,
Caroline

Question of the Week

Seeing as how I am one of the blog contributors with the least interesting summer (how can Ithaca hope to compete with Spain, Uganda, and shit-throwing baboons?), I've decided to introduce a new feature to our beloved blog. This feature is called Chuck Klosterman's Question of the Week. Chuck Klosterman is a fantastic writer about pop-culture, music, and sports. In one of his books he proposes '23 Questions I Ask Everybody I Meet In Order to Decide If I Can Really Love Them.' They are all difficult, essential questions of our time. Over the next few months, I will post one or two of these questions every week, and anyone who wishes can offer their 2 cents in the comments section. Perhaps by the end of the summer we'll know who on this list we can really love. So, drumroll please, here is Question #1:

1. Let us assume you met a rudimentary magician. Let us assume he can do five simple tricks--he can pull a rabbit out of his hat, he can make a coin disappear, he can turn the ace of spades into the Joker card, and two others in a similar vein. These are his only tricks and he can't learn any more; he can only do these five. HOWEVER, it turns out he's doing these five tricks with real magic. It's not an illusion; he can actually conjure the bunny out of the ether and he can move the coin through space. He's legitimately magical, but extremely limited in scope and influence.

Would this person be more impressive than Albert Einstein?

Post Bar Mitzvah

It is Monday morning, and I just left the house after saying goodbye to the last group of relatives in town. This means that I officially survived the Bar Mitzvah weekend. It really wasn't too bad - it turns out we have some very interesting family and friends, so I enjoyed a lot of the conversations that I had. The trick was finding something we were both interested in talking about, mostly through trial and error interrogation about college, major, hobbies, summer plans, grad school, etc. My speech on Saturday night was mercifully early in the evening, so I managed to keep it short, sweet, and most importantly, sober. The rest of the party was decidedly less sober, but still lots of fun. And let me just extend a hearty thank you to Mr. Andrew Burmon for the lovely suggestions about my speech. They were invaluable.

Thursday I went to Cooperstown NY to see the Baseball Hall of Fame, which for those who haven't been is really a magnificent place. I don't care that much about the intricate history or the various statistics, but in the entire place you just felt this aura of love for the game of baseball, a real passion for the essense of the sport itself. It was a great day, and it reignited a somewhat waning interest in baseball.

That's about it for me. I hope everyone is doing well in their various countries. Keep in touch.

Public vs. Private

Hello from DC! I'm finally here and semi-settled, though there doesn't seem to be a grocer very close to our apartment. I've yet to explore thoroughly, but this could be a problem. Otherwise the place is great...2 bedrooms, decent sized kitchen, nice living room with a TV and amazing cable, wireless internet, yadda yadda yadda. Suffice it to say I couldn't really be happier with the living situation, save perhaps the not so optimal 15 minute walk to the closest metro stop. Can't really complain though.

I got really lucky in that the city had a terrible heat wave that subsided right before I arrived last night. Yesterday's high was 94, while I don't think today the temperature eclipsed 83. The walk to the Hall of the States (to see Ralph Nader speak, courtesy of Princeton in Washington) was still fairly sweat-inducing, but it could've been much worse. It was great to have something to do my first day here. They invited us to see Nader talk and then the SIW summer coordinator put together a kickball game on the lawn next to the Washington Monument later in the afternoon. Mostly due to color schemes, we played with Harvard against Cal and Michigan. It of course didn't take along before it became the whole public vs. private thing. Sleep soundly my friends...after a slow start we came back for 5-3 victory over those unbearable Berkeley-ans and their now guilty-by-association Wolverine companions (I might add that I scored the go-ahead run, but that's neither here nor there). 

Lastly, is anyone going to be in Boston over Labor Day weekend? I might be there for a night...

First few days home

So, here are a few notes from my first few days home:

- Fenway Park is awesome. Not to harp on baseball, but after a stretch of a year and a half of not going to a baseball game in Boston (and, by my best count, 16 games in five other states), I finally made it back to Fenway. Seats were uncomfortable and there was no leg room. The Sox won 2-1 and are now ten games up on the Blue Jays. Not sure how close the Yankees are. I don't usually pay attention to third place teams.

- The Office is awesome. I have been watching season three for the last two days. I've never really watched it before, and I'm totally in love. Stanley is my favorite. Kelly is the name of the Indian girl for anyone who is still wondering.

- Legos are awesome. Yes, that is what I've been up to.

- Ashwin is not awesome. His drunk ass called me last night after I had an epiphany and text messaged him about it. He told me that I was a racist (not true) and that Jenna had a roomwarming party. Apparently my invite got lost in the mail. That bitch.

One last thing

Someone get Victor, Jenna, Merrit and Co. to join the blog. I am worried about them. However will they socialize without the internet!? Joel, this is right in your wheelhouse.

Also a brief draft of Joel's remarks on the day of his brother's bar mitzvah:

I was reticent at first when my parents asked me to speak today. While I am happy for Ari, on this his day of days, I am also not sure if I am an appropriate speaker as I was, from the get go, against my brother's conception. Certainly I had been excited when Gabe was born. But he turned into nothing but a doe eyed disappointment (points to Gabe) and so when I heard rusty rumblings from my parents bedroom and the distinctive erotic sound a shofar, I was concerned.

My concerned turned out to be quite substantive. When Ari's head crowned, peaking out of my mother with all the subtlety of a Ridley Scott creation, my heart quickened. I wondered if there might be a chance that he would be a girl. I looked hard at the baby, whose anatomy, remarkably like my own, obscured the answer. It wasn't until the bris that my worst fears were realized.

Ari, now I must speak directly to you, you have exceeded my low expectations. While I am still concerned that you will trick our father into giving you the blessing I so richly deserve, I am happy to have you as part of my life. That being said, I do expect a speaker's fee.

Before I sit down I just want to take a look out over the audience. There are so many young faces here today. So many young female faces looking expectantly towards the future, mouths agape with the possibilities of adulthood. It is a pleasure to see this and has been a pleasure to speak to you all. I have to go be alone now.

Bideebideebum and Thank you all.


I think Joel did very well.

Home and Away

So Maine was pleasant. Very pleasant as I can actually sleep there so I feel worlds better and ready to leave, in three hours, for Uganda. I'm all packed and prepared but I'm still nervous about the whole thing. I will have to see how things go once I arrive though I'm pretty sure I convinced my boss to let me do a project I like to call "8 people in 8 weeks" which is pretty much me spending time interview a cross section of Ugandan society. Its democrative journalism in action. So things are good I suppose. Because if I wasn't leaving there would be an article in the paper about how I killed my parents. Then there would be a controversial but generally accepted acquital. I've attached some pictures of my place in Maine. Its a small pretty place. Also I trapped some fireflies and took a picture. I try to keep myself busy with that sort of important activity. Oh, and writing is going wellish, though I do spend a lot of time staring at a blank screen.

Crooked porch.


My Room.


Fireflies

The baboons dont say hi

I have 10 minutes left on this internet account, so I'm sorry I'll be brief. There's so much to read now!! and thank god, because I've finished four of my books since getting ehre Tuesday night. Yesterday wwas the first baboon day=== up at 6AM, back at 7PM, all baboons in the middle, following them point to point as they ate, shat, yelled and raided a passing picknicker. No kidding, they stole the sandwich right from her hand.

the day before i sp[ent trekking through the dunes and mountains of Cape Point, looking for an elusive group of 40 baboons. Couldn't find them, but found a dozen 18the century shipwrecks instead. sweeeeet.

it's gorgeous and strange here. hideous poverty, and then mcmansions next to each ohter. GReat white sharks and surfers coexist like they're paid to.

it's all good, the people are in general okay. They're boring, actually. I miss the porch more than ever.

But stil, it's time abroad, and it's fascinating. the use of English here is wideranging, and i've never heard these words used like this before. More to come on this later, when I can actually understand their accents better... british/australian/german cross. confusing


It's pouring today, so no baboons. you all are asleep, most likely, but it's midafternoon here, and we're heading back to the house. Everything is closed on the weekends, including banks, and my ATM card has been locked, and I have no cash. fuck.

The baboons are nasty pieces of shit, but their babies are hilarious-- kittens crossed with, maybe, dolphins or something. They're ridiculously funny and energetic. And the alpha male was playing with himself yesterday and somehow it seemed perfectly normal to the other people.

need to go. probably nothing very interesting in this post, but mainly just wanted to put something up while i had internet access. I am glad to hear you all are at least being busy, and some of your stories are just terrific!! It's very interesting and comorting to see where everyone is going; the rest of the world is so different from stanford, not necessarily in good ways either.

i miss you, probably all of you, though i don't know who's been posting lately... ! five minutes left. more to come when things are actually interesting. and i'l post pics when i have more time. they say much more than these words.

the best to you all, and travel safe. please.
love,
Caroline

Email from Cihan Baran

I thought I'd share this gem for all you former Larkinites out there.

"Subject: To Whomever Is Playing the Loud Music On 4th Floor

Shut your goddamn music down.
(1) Your taste in music is degenerate.
(2) Quiet hours during weekdays begin after 11pm.
(3) Where are the RAs when they actually have to do something, i.e. policing?"


--Don't you just miss his sunny personality? His oh-so-cheery demeanor? It just makes me nostalgic for the good-old-days. No wonder you thought I was a decent roommate, Joel, given your *ahem* previous experience.

Emailing it to the Man

So ... apparently the entire second year class of analysts in the healthcare group is leaving UBS(they have a choice to stay or go) for fat cat private equity jobs..

this is a prelude for one of the funniest UBS "case studies" I have ever seen....
This is actually perfectly formated in UBS colors, font, style ... etc(it's a bad screen shot sorry)

oh and he was being completely serious... can you say bitter?

note the fact that we rename our deals with ridiculous code names... I wish we were a little more creative...I'm working on a "Project Nature" right now

so the highlight of my days is sending snarky emails to my intern friends...and I send a LOT of them...it's my little way of striking back at the man for making me work so much

oh and snarky is officially in the Merriam Webster dictionary

From the Merriam Webster online dictionary
snarky
Main Entry: snarky
Pronunciation: 'snär-kE
Function: adjective
Etymology: dialect snark to annoy, perhaps alteration of nark to irritate
1 : CROTCHETY, SNAPPISH
2 : sarcastic, impertinent, or irreverent in tone or manner

I epitomize the second definition of "snarky" and if I stay here long enough I will start epitomizing the first...eep?!

oh and when I was going down yesterday to get my third starbucks latte before it closed at 8, I took an elevator down with a sloppily dressed man in his mid-50s, who, as I entered, was bobbing his head to the music on his ipod. As the elevator progressed downwards he started getting more and more into his music ... by the time the door opened on the plaza, he was doing a fantastic rendition of the "weapon of choice" video by Fatboy Slim...although I have to say, I prefer Christopher Walken

it was mesmerizing, even more so through my greedy peripheral vision in my oh-so-polite poker face.

I Think I'm Sacrificing What Remains of my Sanity

Lab is a mess. I'm not given the information, the attention, or the training to be remotely effective. I feel like I'm trying to reinvent the wheel...only it's far more complex, I don't know to use the tools available, and I can't see what I'm doing. So its more like creating an invisible car using instructions written in Japanese. That's fitting, I suppose, since I just learned that the key gene--the thing my whole summer project (which they assigned to me) is based upon--isn't currently part of our lab's stock: it'll have to be ordered...from Japan. Delivery takes anywhere from 3 weeks to 3 months.

My Mom called me yesterday to tell me it was my father's birthday. I've been so disconnected that I completely forgot. I then found out that my mom bruised her ribs in a water-skiing accident and can't even get in and out of a chair without help because of the pain. The medication they put her on is starting to help, though.

My math class has about 60 students in it, and only 10 of them are Stanford students. The rest are uppity high schoolers. Oh, and after years in the sciences muddling through teachers' relatively impenetrable east-asian accents, my math teacher's thick russian accent seems like a blessing.

The final oddity: my new, heavily regimented life leaves me with exactly one hour of discretionary time (11-12pm). For a guy used to dicking around for 5+ hours a day, it's been a bit of an adjustment. I think I'm in withdrawal.

Dear Lord, what am I doing here?

Safe in Madrid

Delta sucks, and delayed us about three hours, made us get off the plane, etc, but I got here. Madrid looks to be a lot of fun (only been here about 12 hours). The hotel is great, and in a great location (feet from kilometro cero, ie. the center of the city), and I got to see the Royal Palace today. They have a room there filled with Stradivarius violins, which I´m guessing are around 350 years old. I don´t play those instruments, but I can appreciate quality like that. And famous musicians get to come to the palace and play them semi-regularly, which is pretty awesome.

So yeah, weather is great, women are very great (looking at least), and I think my sis, mom, and I are going to have a lot of fun. Will be tough to decide whether we´re going to spend the extra day here or head to Toledo, but I´m confident I´ll work through it. Prado museum is coming up tomorrow and more wandering about this city.

Really clean for a European city which is cool. Especially given my memories of Rome.

Give America a big ¨fuck yeah¨ for me

Warning Wiffleballers

Just a heads-up: After a particularly useful afternoon at the driving range a few days ago, I found that I was pulling my front shoulder out on my swing, and that fixing that made a huge difference in my contact. That evening I played wiffleball with my brothers, and discovered that this little correction worked wonders on my swing there too. So be warned, Wiffleball Pitchers: I'm no longer an easy out. Especially you, Steve: Let's see you try that sweeping curve shit on me again. I think I'm an early candidate for Comeback Player of the Year.

Also, for my brother's bar mitzvah, the party favors are those fancy wiffleballs with the little red ring that you can adjust to throw all sorts of crazy shit. I fooled around with them, and they're pretty fun. I plan on comandeering a couple for our league, so get excited for some ridiculous pitching duels.

Hello, I am re-entering this world

Hey all, after Burmon I was the first person to join this blog, then I completely forgot about it. I remembered last night and read all the posts: amazing stuff. I must say being stuck on Stanford campus I am supremely jealous of all you guys traveling the world and doing cool things. I'm still doing the same thing (read:killing mice), but meh, hopefully someone will benefit from it eventually.
But, with regards to the title of this post, i am re-entering this world because i have just turned in my med school application. Even though I just found a typo in one of my activities descriptions, i just don't give a fuck because its out of my hands now (for at least a month) which is very relieving. I'd like to thank all those of you out there who helped me out in this process, it was a bitch (esp you burmon).
Right now i'm sitting in the W hotel in San Francisco. For those of you guys that don't know, the W is ridiuclously nice, but a bit to fancy for me to actually be comfortable in the lobby (for example they have cucumber/lemon infused water to cool off, and the bottled water in the room costs 8 bucks, a resees costs 4). My sister is here on a business trip from PWC and she had a free room here, so naturally i came down to check out the digs. We also went out to eat at this awesome vietnamese place called BONG SU. after we ordered, we got a free appetizer that was kobe beef wrapped in avocado, just because we were staying at the W hotel. god, i love beef, and yes, i'm going to the hindu hell, whatever that is (probably reincarnation as shit eating bug)
Anyways, whoever is on campus come visit, mirrielees 112, ani i'm looking to you considering you are flaking out on medicine and you hate SRC

Brief (for me at least) Update

Isn't it funny how updates on this blog seem to come in droves? No one will post for a day and then all of the sudden, the whole community is spilling their electronic souls for us. It's great.

I'm headed out of NY this afternoon and will be going to Spain. The plan is to see Madrid, Toledo, and Barcelona, with most of time spent in the latter city. Once I actually head out I think I'll get into it.

As for leaving NY, it has been nice to catch up with people. At 10pm last night an old friend of mine whom I had a crush on in 7th grade came by and we went for a walk. This is a girl I spent all my time with from like 7th through 10th grade maybe doing all this acting, improv, "odyssey of the mind" stuff. Pretty dorky, but it consumed us. We went our separate ways later in school, me not really appreciating her friendship, and hadn't caught up at all during college.

We basically walked out of the house, turned down the street, and then walked on a nature trail along the Croton River lit up by nothing but the moon (so it was really pitch black out), and shared what we had been up to. It was really rewarding, and I feel like I got to open up a bit. Towards the end of the trail we stopped and looked over to our right at this huge wall of trees that were about 100 ft away (with empty space in between us and the trees). The entire woods, from top to bottom, were twinkling with fireflies. It was unbelievable. It looked like a dark drapery of trees that had thousands of stars scattered across it that were just going off at random. I've never seen anything like it, not covering so much area (all the way up to the top of these trees), and not from such a vantage point. We felt like we were just looking at this twinkling drapery hung from sky, with an electric green color shooting off in thousands of spots every second. Not to wax poetic or anything, but it was pretty darn cool.

So I'm off. Might have some lugares del interneto in Spain where I'll read the blog, and mention any cool happenings.

All the best.

Huh? A job?

Ok so I'll preface this post by saying that this is more of a rant than an update, but I'm starting to go a little crazy here. Not the "I haven't slept in 6 days, I've been studying physics for the last 15 hours straight, my backpack weighs twice as much as a chubby newborn baby, and if you try to talk to me I will stare you down with my gigantic blood-shot eyes" kind of crazy to which so many of you have unfortunately been subject. Its more like the "Oh god I'm so lonely and I've had too much time to think and I don't know what to do with my life anymore" kind of crazy.

The people in SRC suck. There's really no better way to put it and I guess I'm not really surprised. I haven't spoken to anyone here. The most human interaction I've had in the last week has been through phone calls to LA. And with the yogurt lady at Yumi yogurt.

At the risk of sounding extremely desperate, PLEASE CALL ME IF YOU HAVE A MOMENT FREE I'M BORED OUT OF MY MIND.

Also, I'm reconsidering medicine, for a variety of reasons that are not worth mentioning, which leaves me with the arduous task of 1) trying to figure out what I'm going to do with my life, and 2) finding a JOB. Luckily Stanford has equipped me with the extraordinary and highly useful skills set of a HUMAN BIOLOGY major. Fuck.

So, thoughts on any cool/ridiculous/fun jobs I could apply for after college?? In the last two weeks I've heard everything from a dog walker to a senator, so I'm pretty much open to anything. Except stripping or prostitution. Or drug dealing.

Much love from this end.