So this is my final week of classes before study period and final exams start. I have so much to do with last minute presentations and papers so I'll probably not be on Blogger much for the next two or three weeks. I'll probably wander on to take a break but posts will be limited at best.
So much work I could do right now, but so little motivation to do it.....
Pretty much nothing too much is going on. I pulled off a 93 on my second Finance midterm which bodes well for my overall grade now. Same goes for German; my professor really wants me to continue on and try intensive German II since I'm doing well in my current class but since I'll be abroad in the Fall, I'm probably going to forget some key things which wouldn't help me if I decide to pick up the language again. I really don't want to see the past year go to waste but right now I don't know what future German and I have. In other news, I declared Finance and International Business as my two majors earlier in the month so now I really need to work towards really nailing classes in those two subjects.
Anyways, in lieu of doing actual work, enjoy the trailer to Magic Mike. Basically, it's a movie about a stripper played by Channing Tatum. To be honest, the trailer doesn't make it seem like a very good movie, but if I don't have anything better to do on a Friday night, well....
Another thing I learned today? How to get guys to like me.
In a last ditch attempt to procrastinate work on a Saturday afternoon, I decided to finish a post I started quite a while back on things I don't understand.
1. Gotye - Somebody That I Used to Know
The song falls into a category I like to call "whiny songs" where the lyrics, voice, and style of song all work together to make it sound like somebody is doing just that - whining. I have little tolerance for people who whine and bitch constantly in real life so this song hits a nerve for me. Even watching the video the dude even looks like he's whining, which he is actually. The fact that the song has hit the top or near-top of so many charts like the Billboard Hot 100 really confuses me. To each their own musically I guess.
2. TOMS (The Shoes)
They're not comfortable, they look odd in my eyes, they feel cheaply made, and they cost up to $70 which is ridiculous. I get that TOMS donates a pair of shoes for every pair sold but couldn't you just donate the money directly and have maybe 4 pairs of some other shoe sent for the same amount? I think it's a statement piece much like driving a Prius, (except the Prius actually makes sense), and a rather silly one at that.
I think my Cuban manager at my job last summer summed it up best - "They look like shoes the poor people wore back in Cuba. They took scrap fabric and made shoes out of them there and here they're charging $70 for it"
3. Grading Curves
Grading curves can make sense if implemented properly, but it can also be a huge pain in the ass if they're applied where they don't belong. At my school, all the business courses are set on a strict curve - and when I say strict, if an nontenured professor decides not to follow it, they'll get fired. Only a certain percentage of people can get an A/A-, anybody that falls below that threshold in the class is screwed. While it maybe makes sense for conceptually more difficult classes like Finance and Accounting, in easier classes like Marketing and Management, they screw so many people out of the grade they deserve. Last semester, I pulled off "A"s on all my case projects, got an 91 on my midterm, and around the same for my final and ended up only with a "B"in the class because the curve was so high. Rules say only a certain number of people can get an "A", but when the curve is set such that a 96% is the cutoff for an "A", so many people are SOL even if they get a 95% overall. And now in my marketing class I'm worried things will repeat since the average on the last midterm was a 91% and everyone is pretty much brilliant. Last semester, my friend's marketing class had a 95% A/A- curve - meaning if you got a 94% you were stuck with a B+ and below a 90% was a B. Fuck.
4. Macs and especially the Macbook Pro.
I grew up with PCs and I imagine the majority of people in my generation did too so imagine my surprise when I get to college and EVERYONE has a Mac. I remember when having a Mac was such a hipster thing to do but now they outnumber PCs 3-to-1 at my school. What I don't understand is why people are willing to spend pretty much double the money on a laptop when you can get a similar spec PC for so much less. Case in point - I have a 14" HP Pavilion and many of my friends have a 13.3" or 15" Macbook Pro. My laptop has a gen-2 Core i5 processor, 640GB of memory, 6GB of RAM, and a 6 hour battery life with normal use. It's pretty much similar or in a few ways superior in terms of specifications to their computers except for one way: I got my current laptop last summer for about $500 after rebates while they got their Macs for $1200-$1600. Even aesthetically the difference isn't too much; they both have an aluminum case and the fun little light-up logo on the back of the monitor. The only difference that's actually useful or cool is that they have a light-up keyboard and the fancy Apple logo. Even sillier in my mind is that in the business school we run programs that were designed ONLY for PC so people end up partitioning their laptops so one half runs Windows. Why don't you just buy a PC in the first place? Macs really arent' any more reliable either; I've never had any major problems with my HP laptops. My last one lasted about 4 years without major fault and I still keep it as a backup today. The only reason I replaced it was that I wanted something faster and lighter so I could carry it around more easily. If Apple's brand equity can justify a $600-$800 markup then man, Apple's got everyone just drinking their fancy Kool-Aid.
5. Kony 2012
I know it's mostly died out now but while there was the whole frenzy after the Invisible Children video came out, I was so confused as to why everyone was suddenly so impassioned about it. Guys, watching a 30 minute video does not make you suddenly into a world activist. It presents only one view of a situation and you can never become an expert on ANYTHING in the length of a weeknight sitcom. I'm also sure 99% of people who suddenly became Kony2012 supporters wouldn't even be able to find Uganda on a map of Africa (Probably unhelpful hint: it's by Kenya, Tanzania, and the newly formed South Sudan). I won't dive into Invisible Children's sketchy financials which is another important issue but I was really disturbed by just how even well-educated individuals can be so illogical at times.
Anyways, I'm sure there are dozens of counterarguments which can be raised on any of these five things so please, if you think you can explain to me some hidden benefit or meaning that I might be missing, please do. I would love to learn something new or at least hear the other side of an argument.
I have an extended break for Easter so I decided to go visit M this past weekend over in Princeton for a few days. I ended up driving to there from DC so about four hours and an unhealthy amount of "Call Me Maybe" later, I arrived around 3. After lots of hugs and "I missed you"s, I dropped off my stuff in her suite and we went out and she did a little tour of campus which was....oh man. Princeton's campus is probably one of the most beautiful I've ever seen. The buildings are all stone-and-arches old fashioned on the outside but thoroughly modern on the inside. There were also so many green spaces and lawns too which is something that is sorely lacking at my school. There was even a sand volleyball pit right outsider her dorm, damn. The campus was also much larger than I expected, with lots of space between buildings and meandering walkways going off in every direction. Overall, fantastic.
After a brief tour, I started meeting some of M's friends. Her suitemates were all really sweet and welcoming and I also got to meet M's hot bro/varsity volleyball player neighbors who she's very close friends with. I ran into them a few times during my stay and they made a good impression on me. I also met one of M's best friends Kan when we went out to dinner Friday night at one of their dining halls. We ended up clicking immediately since we both shared a love for the French language and culture and also because she's also very easy to talk to. We decided that we were soul mates after we both agreed that we found one of M's bro neighbors to be the hottest out of the three - that was also the moment I ended up coming out her in a not to graceful way but that wasn't a big deal really. After dinner we hung out in the dorms for the first part of the night and watched the Matrix with her suitemates. Later that night, we went to see another movie at the in town theatre the school bought out for the night called Pariah which is about an African American teenage girl coming to terms with her sexuality and being a lesbian. I was expecting it to be really heavy and dense which it was, but it was actually a very, very well put together film. I highly suggest looking into it since I think it's in limited release right now.
Saturday, M and I got lunch at a local Indian restaurant and then I spent part of the day studying for some more midterms I have coming out since she needed to go to a few meetings. That night I went out to dinner with some of M's friends from the International Relations Club to a local brewery/restaurant which was really good. I got the pork belly sandwich (think about a thick, grilled, meaty slice of bacon) which was fantastic. The two guys we went out with were also really cool; one was a soldier in the army and now is a junior (he's in his late 20s) and the other guy was the previous president of the club. They wanted to hear stories about M from back in high school and in exchange they told me stories about M at college which I gladly obliged to. That night was also Kan's birthday so after dinner M and I baked her chocolate-coffee cake with coffee icing and brought those to the pregame for Kan's birthday night. That was actually part two of Kan's birthday surprise since earlier that day we had also broken into her room and covered her walls with pictures of Ryan Gosling since she has an obsession with him; she found it plenty amusing and M and I had a great time decorating the place. After hanging out, we ended up going to one of the eating clubs which was a definite change from the social scene at my school. They're former mansions on this street near the school which have been converted into social clubs and alternative dining halls for students. You have to apply to and essentially rush many of these clubs, but once you're in, you can attend all of their social events and eat all your meals there. The basement held an open bar and tables and tables of pong, while the main floor had a giant sitting room, a patio, and a room with a DJ to dance in. The whole idea of it was pretty genius in my mind. I danced a little, chatted, and chilled with Kan and a few of her friends for most of the night. We got back to M's dorm around 2:30 that night and crashed soon after.
Sunday was a chill day. We got brunch and then meandered around campus a little more and just chatted. I also ran into one of my other classmates from high school who also ended up at Princeton that I hadn't talked to in almost a year. She also seemed to be doing well which was cool. After a little more walking and stopping to get some frozen yogurt, it was time for me to depart. I had a long drive ahead and M had work to do so we said our goodbyes that afternoon. My GPS ended up taking a different route on the way back which confused me since I ended up driving through Philly which I didn't do on my way up but otherwise all was smooth and again Call Me Maybe-ful.
Overall, my trip to Princeton was a brilliant. The campus is absolutely amazing, the people are really open, friendly, and not one bit uptight or pretentious unlike Yale or Harvard folk, who are some of the most obnoxious people I've ever met. Seeing M again was fantastic since we were pretty much best friends in high school and nowadays I only get to see her via Skype or over the summer. I'm also glad to see she is doing well and really enjoying her time at the school. I'll admit that I was worried about her for a period of time that she was overworked and super stressed but it looks like everything worked themselves out now.
I hope you had a nice Easter weekend and that everything has been going well in your neck of the woods.
Well, this actually makes for 401 posts including those still in progress but damn, this is pretty sweet.
I started this blog back in high school and never thought I would still be writing today. Since I first started this blog, I've seen to many things and have gone through so milestones in my life. I've graduated high school, entered college, started my second year of college, traveled the world, met some pretty amazing people, and very importantly for me, come to accept myself for who I am, and not even just the gay aspect of myself. I've matured so much since I started this almost three years ago now, and looking back, it's actually shocking and also funny to see some of the situations I've gotten myself into.
I've used this blog not only to chronicle some of the key moments of my life but also just express my thoughts and occasionally to get some feedback on things I wanted third party views on, and my readers have never failed to deliver. It sounds cheesy and all but it is still true, this blog wouldn't be possible if it weren't for you guys, my readers. I know I have readers from across the US and an amazing number of people from abroad as well, which, if you asked me in 2009 when I was a scared 16 year old about to share his life with the internet, I never would have believed.
I hope that you've found some pleasure in reading the digital scribblings of this now 19 year old college student and his stumbling through life. This blog has had its ups and downs but if anything, I really hope to keep this thing up for a very, very long time. It's become more than a digital journal, but something I find comfort in and even an odd sense of pride in for everything I've written, and I hope it has become something you enjoy taking a few minutes out of your busy schedules to check up on every so often.
So here's to 400 more posts and hopefully even more after that.
The personal blog of a now recent college grad who successfully pushed through a business school curriculum and now is facing the "real world" with an actual big boy job. This blog follows the the joys, challenges, struggles, and surprises it presents to him, whether it be work, school, his peers, or the occasional rogue deer running into the road. Join Me, Won't You?
Maria - My best friend since kindergarden, I know almost everything about her and she about me. She was the first person I came out to and has been the rock ontowhich I go to when things get rocky in life. She's the only person I can actually speak completely open and frankly with. I don't know what I would do if I never met her all those years ago.
M - A girl I became friends with freshman year of high school, we've become very close friends and continue to be to this very day. We are surprisingly similar personality wise and value each other's opinion very highly. I can talk freely to M almost as much as I can with Maria. She currently attends an ivy-league university up north; I'm really glad we met all those years ago and can only imagine how my high school years would have turned out if we never met.
Miss X- Foodie, blogger, photgrapher, one of my best friends, and someone who can have a delightfully dry sense of humour. We met early on in high school and have been friends ever since. We often go on adventures accross NOVA with our little circle of friends which are occasionally recounted here on this blog.
Christine- Friends since we could barely ride half the roller coasters at theme parks, Christine is a magical being who is one of the few people I could and would talk about anything with for hours on end. She's currently spending much of her time in NYC though we still see each other very often. Her dramas sometimes make my drama seem like childsplay.
Mark -A former dorm mate, and now former crush. He came out as bi to me and Maudry one night which he has been increasingly comfortable with. He's tall, has short brown hair and used to play football. He's ambitious and looks to make a big impact in the world of Politics in the future. I have had a crush on him and we've gotten together a few times. I thought our relationship could have been something more, but in the end it will end up staying as a friendship. I hope only the best for him.
Liz - One of best friends at school. She's funny, charismatic and is someone who I can tell almost anything to. She's friends with Maudry, Mark and is part of the first floor crew who I love and frequently visited during my freshman year, we're still great friends today.
Matt - My now former love, hate, drug, everything. I met him back during my Sophomore year and the crush I developed on him that stuck for the longest time. He's tall, has brown blond hair and the rare but desirable "serious but funny" personality that makes me melt. He also has probably one of the best smiles of any guy I know. He was one of the captains of my high schools cross country team. For quite some time I've tried to end this obsession over him but everytime I seemed to make progress, I'd relapse. He's a great guy but in all liklihood he's straight.
Southern Charm (aka SC) - A guy on the crew team who had moved up from Florida during my senior year. He's charming, tall, and slim with brown slightly wavy short hair. When I first met him I got the thought that he might be gay, a thought I quickly suppressed. Since then, we had become pretty good friends. My friend Jess has a crush on SC. One evening on a car ride home, my friend Dutch told me she thought that SC might be gay, something I had repressed in my mind for months, but was pushed to the front of my mind again. He's now a freshman and is study engineering and comp sci in university.
Ben - A guy I had the pleasure of knowing for one of the best weeks of my life during a cruise over the summer. He's a bit shorter than me but was also a senior who runs cross country. We got to know each other pretty well and had many conversations during that week that I will probably never forget. He has brown hair and the most beautiful light brown eyes. I'm pretty sure he's straight but i couldn't help but get the feeling he could have been bi. He's mostly in my summer 2009 posts.
Dutch - My friend who I met during my junior year on the crew team. She's a fun great person to be around and is someone I could talk about anything with, especially during the private car rides back from practice. We both know of all the crew drama that goes on.
My Family - A network of people who I love with all my heart despite their nuances, quirks and often ridiculous practices. Apart from my mom, I haven't told anyone I'm gay and probably won't for a while. They're not ready for that and don't need the added stress.
Various Single Lettered Friends (L, T, K etc)- Friends I got too lazy to actually come up with an alias for (I gave up after five, how sad haha). They are usually someone from my close group of friends some of which I have come out to. We have a very mutually supportive relationship that fosters great bonds between us as a group.
**Names Changed to Preserve Anonymity**
I'm from the ________
I Can't Resist...
Where are You From?
Full Disclosure
All pictures on this blog are taken from the internet and are assumed to be of public domain. If you own any image and would like for it to be removed, let me know and it will be removed immediately.
