(no subject)
treasure hunters
start the clip at 8:30. dark paint on a historical site!? awesome.
the mole
totally forgot how much i LOVED THIS SHOW. favorite reality show ever. watch the clip starting at 1:30. this is totally what i based my 106a adventure game on. (xylophone, binoculars, psycho, the safe, keypad, etc.)
high school musical 2 - what time is it official video!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (courtesy lia)
ummmmm... yeah. it looks pretty incredible. ("what time is it?!?!" okay. i bet he feels like a mild idiot. hahaha.... oh. and the spiral is pretty absurd as well. the bball choreo is well done.)
OKAY. there are about one thousand things that i need to update about. but i'm just going to write whatever i write right now, and then get to the rest later.
theories regarding life. these sort of make explicit things that were obvious (i hear that at work. when they're like "umm, you have to network and meet the committee members. i'm just making it explicit..."). but i thought these ideas were both really, really solid:
1) the 3-things college theory. (courtesy sarah) "they say that there are three things that you can do in college: work, sleep, or have a social life. at most colleges, you only do two. but at MIT you do three." (which, btw, is bs.)
but seriously. because the question is usually phrased "what do you want: a relationship, work, friends" right? like something always gives, right? SLEEP. i dunno. i feel like sleep was never included. but of the three, it's honestly really hard to get ALL three.
people who i think do a good job balancing all three: bristin, jim
personally, i think that i sometimes skimp on work and sleep. not to say that any one is "better" than another. like i think that we all have reached some degree of self-awareness and discipline that we know that we have a finite amount of time and spent it in ways that are aligned with our personal value system.
also seriously: people at stanford sleep so much more than people at any other school ever. seriously. sleep wise, i would say that we're sort of pansies. (quite the james thing to say.)
also, someone who really does have everything: armon. seriously. did you know that he's applying to PhD programs in ChemE and won an academic award!??! or that he has a really healthy relationship, was a staff member, was a very active social chair for sigma nu, and has friends? mindblowing. seriously, he does have everything. (except for maybe sleep. but he sleeps a good deal too.) i remember asking him: "what gives?! what do you neglect!??!?" ".... nothing."
2) the spectrum of motivation: (courtesy a magazine)
0. amotivation. (lack of motivation. such as... reading. i have no motivation to read.)
1. external motivation. (outside forces are making you do something. such as me making jules do dance marathon)
2. introjected motivation. (if you don't do it, you feel guilt. the guilt is imposed on you. BLOOD DONATION (ps, permanently removed myself from their list))
3. educated motivation. (you know that it's good for you. eating vegetables.)
4. intrinsic motivation. (you actually enjoy doing it. such as watching tv. playing the game.)
the spectrum goes from weakest to strongest.
very few things in life for me actually have intrinsic motivation. especially vocationally. which is what distresses me the most.
the thing with sarah, erich, and eric is that we definitely bond because we really, really dislike very specific things about the internship (specifically the necessity of schmoozing and general fakeness of people due to the high necessity of schmoozing.) but the thing is, they actually all really, really like some aspects of the job as well. eric revealed that he really, really wants to do research and every since high school has really enjoyed reading 10-k's of companies (!??!?!?!?). erich is really interested in algorithmic prop trading. sarah... i still don't know about her specific passions. but she really likes it.
me? nothing. nothing!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i would say that my motivation for this job is educated at best. mostly external.
today someone asked me 1) why i really want to work for them and 2) what separated me from the rest of the candidates. needless to say, i had zero good answers, and refused to lie.. my answer? TECHNICAL ABILITY. as;dlfkja;slkdfjl;aksdjfa;sdf. lol. okay, it is the truth. i do think that i am technically more proficient than most of the interns. but yeah. that certainly should NOT be the defining factor in choosing me over them. lol. who cares about technical ability.
okay, men's health. i admit it. my landlord person had a copy.
bday. yes, it is momentous. no, i will not be doing anything crazy. no, after an extreme reversal after my 3 mega-bday celebrations sophomore year, i really don't think that bdays should be a big deal. hence, why i don't really kill myself for friends' bdays anymore. so i apologize if i'm totally taking advantage of friendships that are one-sided-bday-celebration relationships. (eg stace. THANKS STACEY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)
again, i hate being the center of attention -> something you can't avoid at your own bday party.
for the record, i called grant (hs friend. i would say... not my one of my two closest friends, but in my circle of close 5 friends), and he was definitely like "and... so do i have to call you again on friday to wish you a happy birthday?" which is mindblowingly absurd because grant doesn't have feelings. but the thing that was most impressive is that virtually everyone can be like "oh, your bday is july 13th". but NOBODY, NOBODY will actually be like "oh, it's on friday." that reflects so much forethought. doesn't it?!?!
i bet the fact that hp5 totally advertised for 7/13 totally tipped people off....
but yeah. officially celebrated my bday with sarah, erich, and eric yesterday after work. it is fairly hard to coordinate these people's schedules, so i jumped at the chance. last second, erich was like "oh, i have to go back to work." in a really apathetic way. like not even in a "dude, i'm really, really, really sorry" sort of way. but then i sort of forced him to come. so... yeah. otherwise, the chemistry was really nice. part of me wishes i had a lot longer to spend with them. but another part really wants this insanity to end. for memory's sake: we went to casa villa, the actually-authentic mexican place in the mexican ghetto. yes, it was really hot and there was no AC and we were all in nice clothes, but that's beside the point.
but seriously. living out one of jim's worst nightmares: one sided relationships. seriously. i think i just abuse these people (eric, erich, sarah). like i like them a lot more than they like me. which blows.
not to give jim grief, but our relationship has evolved somewhat this summer into a one-sided relationship. i completely understand and don't blame him, because he's with his gf. his family. his closest high school friends. HIS CITY. and i have... him. lol. and my family members and other friends are just a phone call away, friends here, etc. but yeah. definitely unbalanced. (which again makes me worry about the future.) i don't want to leave college ever. ever ever ever ever ever.
public speaking. of the 30 some speakers i've heard in the last 3.5 weeks, this guy (tim m from northsound capital hedge fund) came in. and he was by far the best speaker. he used information INCREDIBLY charismatically and convincingly, super x-factor, spoke really fast and people who asked questions also asked questions at like 100 wpm. it was awesome.
case in point:
"what do you think about the sub-prime mortgage problems?" (this is pretty much like one of the biggest macro things happening now. seriously, we talk about it every day.)
tom's response: "i like to think of it as a 9-inning baseball game. now let's say that you're driving to the baseball game. you turn left on elm, and right on wrigley, you're pulling up. and maybe you're really early and decide to park so you can pick up a beer before the game. THAT"S where we are in the sub-prime mortgage problem. i don't see it ending until we are well into double digits, 2011 or 2012."
what i would have said: "i think we are just beginning."
(okay, it definitely lost some x-factor in the paraphrasing and the text, but it was -perfect-.)
lol. not to rag on accountants, because there are stories that go both ways for every job, but today someone came to speak to us about how he joined sales/trading from accounting: "so i was sitting and some executive was making a speech. and then he was saying how impressed he was by our dedication to the work and the a lot of the work was superfluous and not intellectually stimulating, and how we had spent so much time away from our families and late nights. and how none of the people in the audience, including the speaker, was making more than a million dollars a year. i was auditing jpmorgan at the time and saw the any joe schmo was making a lot of money. and i left the job in two weeks."
oh, how i WISH i could tell stories like that.
the office rehash. this show is incredible. the office season2 is up there with "favorite tv seasons of all time" (the only other season being desperate housewives season 1. grey's season 2 was actually pretty good. veronica mars season 1.) so much heart, so hilarious, so much stuff to identify with. two things:
1) the idea of playfulness and inside jokes. i love that. granted, i would never have the moxie to play pranks on other people, but jim and pam's playfulness is so enviable. like really. all i want is during a meeting for me to look at someone, and i can find something totally hilarious that is not meant to be funny and the other person will be there laughing with me.
2) the idea of being a freak. and having someone like jim still treat you equally. i still argue that it is arguably the thing that keeps driving us to jim. because we've all been in those situations where we are the freak of a group, and a guy completely tactfully and charmingly brings us into the group.
season 3 spoilers to follow:
so... i actually finished all the episodes on sunday morning. about a week span i think? something along those lines.
yeah. thoughts re: season 3:
--season 2 was better.
--it lost a lot of heart, imo. granted, we had to see the bad sides of jim, pam at some point just to move the story along (also why i think grey's season2 was better than grey's season3 meltdown), but they became a helluva lot more unlikable.
--i hate and worry about the illiquidity of relationships
--i still on some levels worship jim and think that he is really the paragon of being comfortable with himself. on the flipside, i still would argue that his nonchalant attitude would also have some drawbacks that we don't get to see in the show. just because the show is written for us to fall in love with jim. (except when he's being annoying in the 3rd season)
--was it ever discussed what was on pam's text to jim? or did she call him?
season finale:
--what about karen!??! fine, i'll accept some drama, but i refuse to let it continue for more than 6 episodes.
--ryan's breakup with kelly was unnecessarily mean. but i'm really excited about the storyline possibilities of him being in corporate.
--the twist re: jan getting fired was very well done and humanized her really well.
--hunter. lol. what a boytoy.
--okay. the date!? i would have liked for it to have been a bit more dramatic. but i suppose it's the same anti-traditional factor that drove the sopranos series finale. "hey pam, are you free for dinner tonight?" "...ummm... yeah..." "alright, it's a date then". seriously. is what we waited 3 seasons for, people.
--pam's beach campfire speech: i really, really liked it. i think she got a HUGE undue amount of grief for it, and i am so proud of her.
--the finale almost made me cry. once, when they were having the talk at the beach. second, when pam started crying after jim asked her out.
--dude. tobey is incredible. i love him. and i'm really pissed that michael doesn't like him. on some levels, i feel like i am tobey. like i will never be the jim halpert, but i can always be the tobey. when he wins the duck for pam? priceless.
Click to viewstart the clip at 8:30. dark paint on a historical site!? awesome.
the mole
totally forgot how much i LOVED THIS SHOW. favorite reality show ever. watch the clip starting at 1:30. this is totally what i based my 106a adventure game on. (xylophone, binoculars, psycho, the safe, keypad, etc.)
high school musical 2 - what time is it official video!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (courtesy lia)
ummmmm... yeah. it looks pretty incredible. ("what time is it?!?!" okay. i bet he feels like a mild idiot. hahaha.... oh. and the spiral is pretty absurd as well. the bball choreo is well done.)
OKAY. there are about one thousand things that i need to update about. but i'm just going to write whatever i write right now, and then get to the rest later.
theories regarding life. these sort of make explicit things that were obvious (i hear that at work. when they're like "umm, you have to network and meet the committee members. i'm just making it explicit..."). but i thought these ideas were both really, really solid:
1) the 3-things college theory. (courtesy sarah) "they say that there are three things that you can do in college: work, sleep, or have a social life. at most colleges, you only do two. but at MIT you do three." (which, btw, is bs.)
but seriously. because the question is usually phrased "what do you want: a relationship, work, friends" right? like something always gives, right? SLEEP. i dunno. i feel like sleep was never included. but of the three, it's honestly really hard to get ALL three.
people who i think do a good job balancing all three: bristin, jim
personally, i think that i sometimes skimp on work and sleep. not to say that any one is "better" than another. like i think that we all have reached some degree of self-awareness and discipline that we know that we have a finite amount of time and spent it in ways that are aligned with our personal value system.
also seriously: people at stanford sleep so much more than people at any other school ever. seriously. sleep wise, i would say that we're sort of pansies. (quite the james thing to say.)
also, someone who really does have everything: armon. seriously. did you know that he's applying to PhD programs in ChemE and won an academic award!??! or that he has a really healthy relationship, was a staff member, was a very active social chair for sigma nu, and has friends? mindblowing. seriously, he does have everything. (except for maybe sleep. but he sleeps a good deal too.) i remember asking him: "what gives?! what do you neglect!??!?" ".... nothing."
2) the spectrum of motivation: (courtesy a magazine)
0. amotivation. (lack of motivation. such as... reading. i have no motivation to read.)
1. external motivation. (outside forces are making you do something. such as me making jules do dance marathon)
2. introjected motivation. (if you don't do it, you feel guilt. the guilt is imposed on you. BLOOD DONATION (ps, permanently removed myself from their list))
3. educated motivation. (you know that it's good for you. eating vegetables.)
4. intrinsic motivation. (you actually enjoy doing it. such as watching tv. playing the game.)
the spectrum goes from weakest to strongest.
very few things in life for me actually have intrinsic motivation. especially vocationally. which is what distresses me the most.
the thing with sarah, erich, and eric is that we definitely bond because we really, really dislike very specific things about the internship (specifically the necessity of schmoozing and general fakeness of people due to the high necessity of schmoozing.) but the thing is, they actually all really, really like some aspects of the job as well. eric revealed that he really, really wants to do research and every since high school has really enjoyed reading 10-k's of companies (!??!?!?!?). erich is really interested in algorithmic prop trading. sarah... i still don't know about her specific passions. but she really likes it.
me? nothing. nothing!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i would say that my motivation for this job is educated at best. mostly external.
today someone asked me 1) why i really want to work for them and 2) what separated me from the rest of the candidates. needless to say, i had zero good answers, and refused to lie.. my answer? TECHNICAL ABILITY. as;dlfkja;slkdfjl;aksdjfa;sdf. lol. okay, it is the truth. i do think that i am technically more proficient than most of the interns. but yeah. that certainly should NOT be the defining factor in choosing me over them. lol. who cares about technical ability.
okay, men's health. i admit it. my landlord person had a copy.
bday. yes, it is momentous. no, i will not be doing anything crazy. no, after an extreme reversal after my 3 mega-bday celebrations sophomore year, i really don't think that bdays should be a big deal. hence, why i don't really kill myself for friends' bdays anymore. so i apologize if i'm totally taking advantage of friendships that are one-sided-bday-celebration relationships. (eg stace. THANKS STACEY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)
again, i hate being the center of attention -> something you can't avoid at your own bday party.
for the record, i called grant (hs friend. i would say... not my one of my two closest friends, but in my circle of close 5 friends), and he was definitely like "and... so do i have to call you again on friday to wish you a happy birthday?" which is mindblowingly absurd because grant doesn't have feelings. but the thing that was most impressive is that virtually everyone can be like "oh, your bday is july 13th". but NOBODY, NOBODY will actually be like "oh, it's on friday." that reflects so much forethought. doesn't it?!?!
i bet the fact that hp5 totally advertised for 7/13 totally tipped people off....
but yeah. officially celebrated my bday with sarah, erich, and eric yesterday after work. it is fairly hard to coordinate these people's schedules, so i jumped at the chance. last second, erich was like "oh, i have to go back to work." in a really apathetic way. like not even in a "dude, i'm really, really, really sorry" sort of way. but then i sort of forced him to come. so... yeah. otherwise, the chemistry was really nice. part of me wishes i had a lot longer to spend with them. but another part really wants this insanity to end. for memory's sake: we went to casa villa, the actually-authentic mexican place in the mexican ghetto. yes, it was really hot and there was no AC and we were all in nice clothes, but that's beside the point.
but seriously. living out one of jim's worst nightmares: one sided relationships. seriously. i think i just abuse these people (eric, erich, sarah). like i like them a lot more than they like me. which blows.
not to give jim grief, but our relationship has evolved somewhat this summer into a one-sided relationship. i completely understand and don't blame him, because he's with his gf. his family. his closest high school friends. HIS CITY. and i have... him. lol. and my family members and other friends are just a phone call away, friends here, etc. but yeah. definitely unbalanced. (which again makes me worry about the future.) i don't want to leave college ever. ever ever ever ever ever.
public speaking. of the 30 some speakers i've heard in the last 3.5 weeks, this guy (tim m from northsound capital hedge fund) came in. and he was by far the best speaker. he used information INCREDIBLY charismatically and convincingly, super x-factor, spoke really fast and people who asked questions also asked questions at like 100 wpm. it was awesome.
case in point:
"what do you think about the sub-prime mortgage problems?" (this is pretty much like one of the biggest macro things happening now. seriously, we talk about it every day.)
tom's response: "i like to think of it as a 9-inning baseball game. now let's say that you're driving to the baseball game. you turn left on elm, and right on wrigley, you're pulling up. and maybe you're really early and decide to park so you can pick up a beer before the game. THAT"S where we are in the sub-prime mortgage problem. i don't see it ending until we are well into double digits, 2011 or 2012."
what i would have said: "i think we are just beginning."
(okay, it definitely lost some x-factor in the paraphrasing and the text, but it was -perfect-.)
lol. not to rag on accountants, because there are stories that go both ways for every job, but today someone came to speak to us about how he joined sales/trading from accounting: "so i was sitting and some executive was making a speech. and then he was saying how impressed he was by our dedication to the work and the a lot of the work was superfluous and not intellectually stimulating, and how we had spent so much time away from our families and late nights. and how none of the people in the audience, including the speaker, was making more than a million dollars a year. i was auditing jpmorgan at the time and saw the any joe schmo was making a lot of money. and i left the job in two weeks."
oh, how i WISH i could tell stories like that.
the office rehash. this show is incredible. the office season2 is up there with "favorite tv seasons of all time" (the only other season being desperate housewives season 1. grey's season 2 was actually pretty good. veronica mars season 1.) so much heart, so hilarious, so much stuff to identify with. two things:
1) the idea of playfulness and inside jokes. i love that. granted, i would never have the moxie to play pranks on other people, but jim and pam's playfulness is so enviable. like really. all i want is during a meeting for me to look at someone, and i can find something totally hilarious that is not meant to be funny and the other person will be there laughing with me.
2) the idea of being a freak. and having someone like jim still treat you equally. i still argue that it is arguably the thing that keeps driving us to jim. because we've all been in those situations where we are the freak of a group, and a guy completely tactfully and charmingly brings us into the group.
season 3 spoilers to follow:
so... i actually finished all the episodes on sunday morning. about a week span i think? something along those lines.
yeah. thoughts re: season 3:
--season 2 was better.
--it lost a lot of heart, imo. granted, we had to see the bad sides of jim, pam at some point just to move the story along (also why i think grey's season2 was better than grey's season3 meltdown), but they became a helluva lot more unlikable.
--i hate and worry about the illiquidity of relationships
--i still on some levels worship jim and think that he is really the paragon of being comfortable with himself. on the flipside, i still would argue that his nonchalant attitude would also have some drawbacks that we don't get to see in the show. just because the show is written for us to fall in love with jim. (except when he's being annoying in the 3rd season)
--was it ever discussed what was on pam's text to jim? or did she call him?
season finale:
--what about karen!??! fine, i'll accept some drama, but i refuse to let it continue for more than 6 episodes.
--ryan's breakup with kelly was unnecessarily mean. but i'm really excited about the storyline possibilities of him being in corporate.
--the twist re: jan getting fired was very well done and humanized her really well.
--hunter. lol. what a boytoy.
--okay. the date!? i would have liked for it to have been a bit more dramatic. but i suppose it's the same anti-traditional factor that drove the sopranos series finale. "hey pam, are you free for dinner tonight?" "...ummm... yeah..." "alright, it's a date then". seriously. is what we waited 3 seasons for, people.
--pam's beach campfire speech: i really, really liked it. i think she got a HUGE undue amount of grief for it, and i am so proud of her.
--the finale almost made me cry. once, when they were having the talk at the beach. second, when pam started crying after jim asked her out.
--dude. tobey is incredible. i love him. and i'm really pissed that michael doesn't like him. on some levels, i feel like i am tobey. like i will never be the jim halpert, but i can always be the tobey. when he wins the duck for pam? priceless.