Get Ready for a Long One Folks

Salvete Omnes, and so begins another chronicle of my week as a freshman in college.  Can I just begin by saying I miss you all.  I can't wait for summer to come so I may see you all.  I was laying in bed the other night and planning out our reunion, specifically our reading party.  We all meet at someone's house extremely early in the morning.  We will make a glorious brunch filled with waffles (and peanut butter! more on this later) and other wonderful food while still in our pj's.  Then we all inhabit a singular bed and get our read on.  Spontaneously we would break out into random acts of fun-ness to make our reading marathon less tedious.  It will be awesome.  I also considered getting snacks and have decided that in the interest of health we will only have fruits and nuts as snacks.  I don't want to be stuffing my face with chocolate deliciousness that I will later regret.  So yeah, miss you all.

Before I address what happened this week, I would like to say that I forgot to include something that I wanted to say last week.  Favio and I sat in on an a cappella performance by a bunch of Berkeley (and one other group that was visiting from some east-coast college, I forget which) and Matt (Funsten, in case you were confused as to who) was performing and he had quite the amazing rap about Dr. Who. In retrospect, it seems kind of vulgar, but the whole thing was based on making sexual inuendos so trust me it fit in. (That was unintentional)

Yo my name is Matt and they call me the doc

I'll come and heal your soul by turnin back the clock

No I ain't got no Tardis but I'm a survivor


In the bedroom the ladies call me a sonic screwdriver!

Today's week, like most weeks that are taken from the reference frame of a Tuesday do not actually begin till much later because lets face it, there's nothing really going on on Tuesday or Wednesday nights.  Unless you want to include studying, because then they're basically ragers.  So yeah, with that little preface I'll bet you never guess what day I'm going to begin recounting my week on. Thursday was a great day from the moment I woke up.  Actually, the greatness started even before that.  At around 2am I had finished my chem lab that was due at 1pm.  This, despite it sounding rather late, is actually early for me to completely finish my lab, and thus I was able to not stress about it in the 5 hours that I am usually awake preceding my lab.

Slap the Bag?

The joy continued when I did not have to wake up for my 8am physics lab.  Due to the fact that there had been a midterm that week (Monday) we had neither lab or quiz, and frankly when my 8am classes aren't mandatory it takes a great force for me to get up out of my oh so warm bed and go to them.  So, I got to sleep in, and when I awoke I had no stress on my mind whatsoever, the start of an amazing day.  Stress came however when I entered my lab section.  This week was the start of what are deemed special projects.  Special projects are labs that are designed by us, the students.  It's a cool idea, having the ability to create your own project, however it turns out to be much easier to just be told what to do rather than having to create the entire lab yourself.  Tabitha and I are determining the protein content in a variety of fruit, and it's an exciting experiment to be working on, bar the fact that in our first lab section we basically did nothing but create two of our required solutions because the stock room (where we get chemicals) took so long to fill requests.  Twas a sad day, and I hope we are more productive this Thursday when we try to mash up banana with liquid nitrogen.  Also, I don't know why but the stock room happened to have some box wine in it... odd.

After chem lab, I went to probably my favorite place on campus.  You guessed it!  Except you probably didn't... I went to Qualcomm Cafe.  It was about 5:15 when I arrived, and they close at 7:00 so my plan of attack was to stay there till 7:00 and then move into the library.  Needless to say, I stayed there till 7:00, but then the thought of walking from the library back to my dorm late at night didn't sound so appealing to me so I changed my plan of attack and decided to head back to my dorm early. Upon walking back, I ran into two of my brothers who were going to the library and they asked me if I wanted to come.  I decided that I probably should go so I could get some work done.  Thus, I decided to join their company.

Due to shitty camera quality his head is like a pixel, but
I swear he's there...

As we approached the library, we realized it was blockaded by hundreds of people that were there to hear Ron Paul speak.  Having one of the more conservative brothers in the house with us who decided he would actually like to hear what RP had to say, Jay (I don't think I've talked about him before, but he's pretty awesome so just imagine whatever awesomeness personified looks like to you) and I (the two remaining members of the party) decided a small rest to hear him talk for a bit wouldn't be too out of the question.  We were shortly attacked (read approached by) a fervent RP supporter who decided we were in need of fliers.  We graciously accepted the fliers and he moved on to another group of bystanders.

Now, don't get me wrong I like RP more than many of his competitors, however these pamphlets were among the worst I have ever seen.  Unless the plan was to make RP seem more radical than he already is, they were ineffective.  My favorite quote from it was, "As a physician, RP has delivered over 4000 babies, more than any of his competitors."  May I ask why the number of babies one has delivered is a representation of their political competence?   Enlighten me, please.  Cole has further reflected that this is to be expected because "all candidates try to use appeals to pathos to try and garner votes."  If weak appeals like these actually get candidates votes am I seriously concerned with America's well-being.

Blasphemy....

So, after staying for approximately 15 or 20 minutes, Jay and I moved on to the library leaving Nick (our third compadre's name) to listen to the remainder of RP's speech.  I forgot to include this above, but when I was at Qualcomm I saw a food item that I had previously not seen before.  Toffee Almond Crunch.  Three of my loves, chocolate, toffee, and almond combined in one.  I couldn't resist myself.  I picked a bag up, not ready for the shock I was about to receive.  I went up to the cash register, to be charged $8.95 for this small bag of candy. $8.95!!?!?!?!?! That's more than an all-you-can-eat cafeteria trip.  This was highway robbery...

So Jay and I set up camp in Stacks (our biggest library in units of books) and began to work.  This was probably around 8:00pm.  I stayed here till 2am doing one homework assignment.  Can you guess what it is?  If you guessed my E7 homework you were correct!  That class is definitely my least favorite by far, yet probably the one I'm doing best in.  It's funny how things work out like that.  I returned to my dorm after eating the entire bag of Toffee Almond Crunch (I really have no self control when it comes to chocolate, hence why our reading orgy party snacks will be healthy) at approximately 3am. This unfortunately, but expectedly, was a little too late to meet Cole's cousin who had arrived earlier that day and who had at this time already fallen asleep.

I woke up Friday morning to the amazing feeling of having all of my homework for the week completely finished.  This is generally not the trend, as I am often struggling to tie up loose ends at the last minute.  When I attended my 10am chem lecture I was prepared to lose somewhat of my joy to the inevitable frustration I would feel when I did not understand one of the topics our professor covered.  I was greeted however by a guest professor that happened to have a striking resemblance to Hank Green.  I was also shortly to discover that my good mood (already elevated by his HG-ishness) would skyrocket due to the topic of his lecture.  He was to lecture on Green Chemisty.

We started by talking about the characteristics of Falling Water
and an Ipod that made them good/bad designs

My first thought was, "YES I DON'T HAVE TO LEARN ANYTHING NEW!" which was followed by, "I wish it was about something more interesting though..."  This last thought may confuse you, but I assure you I didn't type it wrong.  My thought of "Green Chemistry" was of chemistry that is catered to only environmental application.  And what I, and possibly you, thought of are the standard issues in the race against global warming such as Biofuels, allocations of different types of energy (Solar, Wind, etc), essentially anything that confronts the issue of moving away from coal and fossil fuels into forms of renewable energy. It's not that I don't care for the environment, but it's simply not something I want to study which is a whole 'nother Oprah for another day.

Green Chemistry is more about the environment however, it's really applicable to every type of chemistry.  It is the method of looking at the entire life cycle of a chemical and determining the most sustainable way to create/use/dispose of it.  Now, I'm explaining it in a way that makes it sound like it is environmental because its core principle is with sustainability, but trust me, if you were at this lecture, you would be convinced otherwise.  This lecture basically changed my opinion on Green Chemistry being uninteresting, and thus I'm going to look into it more.  I encourage you to do the same if you, like me, enjoying learning about science and its impact upon real world politics.

After my classes ended on Friday (fairly lackluster) I set off for Daly City (South of San Francisco to all those who aren't Derek) to meet my relatives for the Passover Seder (I think I said that right as a noun form?).  As the majority of you know, I am not Jewish, so I wasn't drawn to this occasion by religious interest but rather a desire to hang out with family and eat some delicious food, which, if you have been eating dorm food for the past two weeks, is a great incentive.  I think all of you know what I would be referring to when I say, "I took the BART" but in case you don't I will enlighten you by telling you that I traveled by a subway of sorts to my relatives house.

I won't take you step-by-step through Seder, but it was pretty awesome.  I have a severely limited knowledge of Judaism, so this was an enlightening experience as I was able to learn about many of its tenants.  The liberation of the oppressed is, from what I understood, the main concern addressed in this holiday. Learning about Judaism's teachings, I was finally able to understand why Jews tend to be more liberal. The goals of what is now considered to be a liberal political agenda coincide directly with a majority of the goals of Judaism.

The real White Terror...

Before I go into more about religious philosophy, I would like to address one part of Seder that makes for an interesting story.  A tradition is to consume bitter herbs in memory of the bitter herbs that our (our referring to the Jews in the Middle East during the early years of Judaism) slaved ancestors ate to stay alive.  "Bitter herbs" didn't sound that bad.  "Fresh horseradish" didn't sound that bad.  My mom loves horseradish, she eats that shit up.  My relatives warned me, but without fear I took a sizeable bite of the white herb presented to me.

Holy. Fuck.

My eyes begin to water.  My sinuses are on fire.  I wait and wait, hoping for the end of this punishment.  Every second feels like a year, slowly creeping by as the insides of my body are purged by this devil's root.  Finally, the feeling subsides.  I look around the table, surveying the havoc committed by this ungrateful herb.  People are coughing, crying, whimpering in pain.  What kind of tradition is this...  Is Judaism another word for Masochism?

Luckily, I am informed I do not have to finish the remainder of my poison.  Seriously, I don't understand why the "Horseradish Challenge" isn't a thing.  I think it would be harder than than the cinnamon or milk challenge.  Ok maybe not, but still a painful experience and one that if I am to repeat will consider taking a smaller bite.  As we moved on with what would be our five hour dinner, I was relieved to discover that our future contained no further torture.

Seder, I was to realize, was more than just a dinner. It was a discussion.  A celebration.    I entered not with the anticipation of learning new things, but with the intention of reflecting upon my recent past.  Telling my relatives what had happened in the past months at school.  Instead, I was filled with ideas, ideas that would later shape my future thoughts.  Future thoughts being the thoughts I was to have later that night, and thoughts that I will have years down the road.  Before I go into particular ideological points that I found interesting, I would like to clarify one of my pet peeves and my position on it in relation to my religious beliefs, Atheism.

One of my pet peeves is when people judge based on my affiliation with Atheism what kind of person I will be.  More generally, when people categorize other people based on a word.  A word that has one meaning, but can imply so many others. So I did some research and under modern categorization I would be classified as an agnostic atheist (one who believes that no diety or dieties exist, but will not deny it as a possibility).  What I find confusing is why I cannot just be an atheist and still have this opinion.  Atheism is a belief.  A belief that there are no dieties. But by saying I am an atheist, I do not affirm that my opinion is fact, that there is no possibility that a god could exist.  No, I affirm my beliefs; beliefs that are possibly wrong.  Thus, isn't it superfluous to have two words that have the same meaning?  It's crimethink folks.  Wait...

So yeah, by being an Atheist, I can still have an appreciation for other religious beliefs.  I can appreciate them because they are more than just the belief in a diety.  A religion is a one word classification of numerous beliefs on how to run one's life. And I can pick and choose what to appreciate and what to not appreciate.  So basically to all those Atheist haters (which I feel like is almost none of this audience ironically) get off my back bro.

Time to finally tell you what I found interesting about Seder.  There were a lot of interesting things that I took in, but one thing that in particular was part of a reading from a Haggadah that my Aunt (btw if you're reading this right now that nutloaf with mushroom sauce was amazing, can you give me the recipe for that) happened to share.  She mentioned (partially emphasized before) how we should respect and remember our ancestors for their sacrifices to us.  Now, when I first heard this I realized that I considered a respect for one's elders important, but not necessarily a respect for relatives that I hadn't even known important.

Upon reflection though, I realized that my whole interpretation of being successful in life relied on this same principle.  To not go into detail of what I want my life to be like, one of my desires is that I'll be able to leave whatever material wealth I obtain to my successors so that my work can be passed down to people I care about and trust in and not lost.  Then, thinking about this ideal in relation to this idea of respect for one's ancestors who have passed away I realized that one day I would be the one who sacrificed for their future and I don't want some ungrateful brat inheriting what I worked hard for.  So basically, RESPECT YOUR ANCESTORS = GOOD.  That was eloquent wasn't it...

Ok, I think that's enough talking about Seder, but it was honestly a lot of fun and I was able to learn a lot of Judaism's beliefs.  It was curious to discover how so many of its ideals coincided with my own. Maybe in another life I'm Jewish.  Derek, can you confirm that yet?  Have you gotten into talking about multiverse theory yet?  So thanks to the Schwer/Tabatsky family for being made of awesome. (eh!?!?!?) (that was to all members of nerdfighteria out there) (I'm slowly learning all of the language, and Ms. T. I now realize how obvious it would have been as a student of yours to discover your allegiance, I am sorry for not addressing you in my previous post)

I traveled back to Berkeley via BART, and again was too late to see Cole's cousin, so now I was 0 for 2 (pronounced "oh for two," I didn't know how to write that out so now you get parentheses that have gone on much too long) for meeting her.  Sad, I climbed in to bed, speaking briefly to Cole about how we should hang out tomorrow so I would finally get to meet her.  Apparently Matt had told her I resembled William Howard Taft...

Cole and I both woke up around 12pm on Saturday (I know you're jealous).  Apparently Cole had instructed Megan (Cole's cousin, she has a name!) to wake us up by 11 if we weren't already up, but I guess she was too polite to do so.  So yeah, after getting ready we went to Foothill brunch (because they had an omelet bar and because Clark Kerr brunch looked gross as it normally does) and it turned out to be less exciting than we expected.  Which made it devoid of almost any fun because our expectations weren't great to begin with.  The view was nice though.  After brunch we decided to go up to the top of the campanile.  We sauntered down to campus (down referring to elevation, Derek I'm curious if you already knew that?) but we decided that before we wanted to reverse our recent change in elevation we would check out this building with some cool architectural features.

Awesome!

Coincidentally, this building was hosting some sort of robotics tourney that we ended up watching for maybe close to an hour, I'm not sure.  It was really cool (see figure A) and I kept on commenting to Cole how I wished CDM had something like this to really jump start an interest in Engineering because a lot of schools, CDM included are severely lacking in introducing students to the wonder (absolutely no bias) that is engineering.

Finally, we arrived at the campanile, otherwise known as Sather Tower.  Free for Cole and I, unfortunately Megan (I realize now I don't exactly know the spelling of this so I hope I'm getting it right) had to pay $1.  The view from the tow of this thing is absolutely stunning.  I took a picture, but it really doesn't do it justice.  See Figure B. I don't know why I like using "figure" assignments, but I do.  After getting our high on (har har, elevation, get it) we decided to go and get Cream, which if you don't know what it is by now is pretty sad.  Wait, just kidding, I forgot you were reading my blog and not Coles.  This was my first Cream in a long time, so I'll remind you that it is an ice cream sandwich shop that is, as Rich would put it, orgasmic.

Justice is not served.

This is getting to be a really long post and I should probably start studying so I'll move on to Sunday morning/afternoon when Cole and I got Clark Kerr Brunch.  "WAIT! Didn't you say Clark Kerr brunch was bad?"  Yes, I did. And normally, it is.  But this time they had waffles, which is nigh impossible to screw up so we decided to go.  Unfortunately, they did screw up by omitting any sort of syrup...  Waffles without syrup, what is one to do?  Cole opted for butter, but I remembered a little factoid told to me by a close friend.  Needless to say, peanut butter waffles are indeed delicious.

The last thing I want to mention is that on Monday Cole was given a bid from SigEp (Matt and Kevin's fraternity).  Errbody be joining the Greek system basically.  The real message is, Berkeley's Greek system is awesome.  It really is so different from the stereotypes perpetuated by other school's Greek system.  Cal was definitely the best decision I've made.  Oh, and as a side note to Derek, I realize I've been putting your cousin in Cole's ownership and I hope you aren't offended, it is merely an action in the interest of convenience.

DFTBA.

Jason

Edit: I just went to the bathroom and saw such wall-writings on the grout of the tile as: The Grout Gatsby, Grout Expectations, and Forget Agrout It!  Made me laugh.