I Need New Glasses

I wanted to start this post off with a video but I didn't want it to lag our homepage, hence the lack of writing before the jump.  So without further ado, here is a video I watched on Wednesday that I felt was extra pertinent to us and especially me.  Maybe you'll find it entertaining as well.  And by maybe, I don't mean you have the option to watch it.  I require you to watch it because without it you will not be able to understand some of my post that follows.  And if you think, "I can't bother watching a four minute video!" then just stop reading now.  Because you don't deserve to be reading this post that I've put hours of my time into.  Ouch, that sounded harsh.  Well, it was.  Now watch the video.

And now I present my response to said video in vlog form.  What you guys don't know is that when Rachael first posted her Friday vlog I texted her how I was just thinking of posting a vlog one of these weeks.  So my reason for posting this vlog is not just to continue in Rachael's footsteps (which Derek so expectedly strayed from) but also because I was curious how effective and entertaining vlog communication works.  I was pleased with how Rachael's vlog turned out because it's nice to see you guys rather than just reading your words.  I am definitely able to see your personalities in your writing, but sometimes it's nice to see you in person.  Call it human nature.

And yes, I know I mixed up point 1 with point 2, but I really did not want to do another take.

To address two more things that I have stolen from John and Hank, I would like to present you with a) a possible idea for us (like book club, which is happening, please TFiOS first!) and b) what John considers an excellent speech and I (upon reading it due to his recommendation) think is an interesting, thought provoking speech.  So, to go out of order, here's the link to the speech.  It's a little long, but I encourage you to read it.  And no, this one is not mandatory.  So whoever is tired already, which is understandable, can skip over this.  Maybe bookmark it to read another day.

http://web.archive.org/web/20080213082423/http://www.marginalia.org/dfw_kenyon_commencement.html

The second thing (idea a) is for us to participate in a form of NaNoWriMo.  NaNoWriMo (pronounced how you think it would be) is National Novel Writing Month and takes place during the month of November.  The expectation is to write a 50,000 word novel, however for our sake I think maybe a 500 or 1000 word short story might suffice?  I've thought many times about writing a short story, so I thought this might be a cool idea.  Tell me what you think.

Also, I lied about being done with JG and HG.  On Thursday, I watched another one of their videos (yeah, this has become my new hobby) where I was introduced to HG's project of vlogitizing the Pride and Prejudice story.  I personally didn't like that book, but I know Rachael did and so this is definitely for Rachael and possibly for others who enjoyed it.  It's an interesting approach to telling the story.  Look up "Lizzie Bennet" on YouTube and her first vlog is the first video on YouTube.  This again, is optional.  I realize I'm making you guys do a lot of work this blog.  Sorry about that.

 On Friday, Cole brought my attention to a particular fad going on in East Asia where they are dying their dogs to look like other animals.  I don't think it's animal cruelty per say, but you can be the judge. Basically, I kinda want a panda dog.  They are soooo cute.

Friday night I went out to dinner with some friends to a place called Flavors of India.  It was chosen by Jay (mentioned last week) who has the opinion that it is the best place for Indian food in Berkeley.  I think I've mentioned House of Curries before in a post, but Kevin and I really like going to that place for Indian food, specifically the chicken tikka masala, so I was comparing this new place to this standard.  Although a bit more expensive (talking about Flavors of India now, sorry if this is confusing) it was indeed better than House of Curries.  I got chicken tikka masala to limit variables so I could compare it better with House of Curries.  (And of course Naan.  Also, a rose lassi which was pretty good but I wished they had made it colder)  Overall, FOI's food was a lot better, however HOC wins in terms of cost and location.  

After Indian food, our group (of seven guys) split up because three of them were babies and wanted to take the bus back (around a one to one and a half mile walk) so the remaining four of us (me Jay Will and Aaron, brief bios in CSV format (I hope someone gets this), made of awesome, future biofuel entrepreneur, funniest guy I've ever met, next semester roommate) walked back (intended destination of Phi Psi but would end up being my dorm).  Yes, I know that "back" doesn't refer to anything making the grammar of that sentence something to be desired but whatever, I dgaf.  

On our way back we stopped at this really popular ice cream place called Icii that serves more unique flavors of ice cream.  I don't remember exactly all of the ones they had when we went, but I know there were flavors that included anise and pumpkin seed.  All of us who got ice cream ended up getting molasses gingersnap which was absolutely delicious.  Also, the waffle cones that came with them were fantastic. Oh ice cream, why are you so good yet so bad for you.  We ended up taking a detour to my dorm because Jay wanted to see the layout of my building so we hung out there for a bit. Then, we headed back to the Phi Psi house where I proceeded to hang out for about another hour before returning to my dorm for some much-needed sleep.

I ended up (not surprisingly) sleeping in on Saturday, and what I have realized is that this habit of sleeping a lot on the weekend is really not a problem at all.  I would ideally want to get up early so I have more of my weekend to be productive, but hey if my body needs sleep than I shall give my body what it deserves.  So I slept in till 2:30pm...  Cole slept in till 5:30pm so at least I can say I was up earlier than someone.  

At 6:30pm, Cole and I proceeded to meet up with people for dinner which turned out to be surprisingly good for dining hall food.  We proceeded to loiter around the DC until 8:00ish when we headed over to see Noteworthy (a capella group that Matt is in) perform.  They did a wonderful job and it was cool to see Matt in such a predominant role in the group even though he only recently joined.  Seeing him perform made me really want to get back into piano so I'm going to try over summer to relearn the songs that I used to know by heart and then during Sophmore year practice on the piano we have at the frat house.

I went to bed early on Saturday night (11ish) because I wanted to wake up early Sunday morning.  It was a success (7:50!) and I met Kevin at Cafe Milano where we both got orange juice and a croissant (mine of the almond variety, his chocolate).  Despite the fact that we both enjoy this place's OJ, we met here because I had to get softball gloves from him that Phi Psi was in need of to compete in "Frats at Bat," a philanthropy event put on by one of the sororities (Chi Omega).  So I got those gloves, dropped them off at Phi Psi, and proceeded to return to my dorm. I ended up still being tired so I took a nap.  I ended up missing out game, but I heard we lost anyways so I guess I didn't miss much.

I've basically been in the library, asleep, or at class from Sunday night till now (I'm currently typing this in the library).  One thing I seem to have forgotten to keep you updated on is my "Special Lab Project."  Berkeley does this cool thing (I don't know if I said this before, but if not just take this as a recap) where my partner and I get to create our own lab.  Although intimidating, it's looking to be a great experience.  And by great experience I mean a frustrating experience that I think will in the end benefit my lab skills.  

Normally my lab is on Thursday, but due to the slow progress of our lab, my partner and I came into lab today and lets just say it was a less than satisfying four hours.  We intended to finish making our final solution and start on spectroscopy (btw we're determining protein content in fruits in case you were wondering) but we discovered that due to lack of stockroom materials, we had to make our final solution from scratch.  I won't bore you with all the details but in the four hours we spent in lab we managed to get I would say 25% done with ONE solution...  Yeah, so that was really disheartening.  Looks like this is going to be a long lab...

After lab (5pm) I headed over to Qualcomm, got my coffee, watched some vlogbrothers, and then headed over to Stacks (library).  I've been here ever since writing this post.  After I'm done I'm going to get to work on my Mastering Physics (like WebAssign) and then work on my E7 lab.  Fun stuff.  I don't know if I've made this clear but my kryptonite is definitely chocolate so I couldn't resist checking Qualcomm for my favorite unhealthy snack.  Fortunately, or unfortunately, they had some. 

Webcam in the library because my phone was out of battery

Wait... didn't I have these last week and didn't they look extremely different.  Turns out these are "Chocolate Toffee Almonds" instead of "Toffee Almond Crunch."  Damn you Lex Luthor.  Yes, I just equated my conscience convincing me to buy (again $8.95, highway robbery) these overpriced confections to the notable fictitious supervillain.  Fortunately, these sweets are turning out to be more tasty than their predecessors.  Still not worth $8.95, but whatever, it's meal points that my parents have already pre-payed for me.  In three and half years when you are reading this I'm sorry for spending my meal points so loosely! Just ask Kevin, he will assure you I'm super cheap and barely spend money on anything!  

And yes, with that I've revealed my master plan of binding the entirety (what I hope to be four years) of my blogging into one epic piece of literature that I give to my parents upon graduation so they can read about all my college endeavors... after they've already happened of course.  So yeah, please don't spoil this surprise by mentioning the blog around my folks when I'm sure all of you blog-goers will interact with them in the next four years.  So that's all I have for this week, hope you enjoyed it!  See you next Tuesday which will officially be my last Tuesday of class this semester!  Don't be too jealous :P

Jason

P.S. I really do need new glasses. I felt I should address this, as the topic of this post is as such.  They always fall down my nose which is really annoying.  Hopefully I'll be getting new ones over summer.