This is version two of the blog, which currently contains 103 published posts. To some extent, this blog represents the creative excesses of a design enthusiast who is somewhere in the process of applying to grad school, working at a law firm and resides in the Financial District of New York City.
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So, there’s been a variety of guy-drama going down in the past few months, and it’s been a bit of a complete wreck. Like a total fucking mess. I wish I could undo some things, and I think I misread some situations and realized too late that certain things would actually matter. Also, alcohol, used incorrectly, is a dangerous thing.
I could say a lot about it, but for various reasons discretion is required and because it’s not classy or ladylike to blab about these sorts of things (not that I usually describe myself in those terms) and because I honestly just sort of don’t want to talk about it, all I can really say is that I’m really starting to realize that I have a lot to learn about relationships and such, especially considering that I’m not really a kid anymore.
I’ve always shunned those teen magazines and Cosmopolitan and that sort of stuff with their articles about dating and “ASK A GUY” sections and advice columns. And I’m sure I’ve also ragged on self-help books and just corny stuff in general. I know I’ve always had a sort of fierce pride about not being dependent on other people. And I think most people who know me would agree that I have a very obvious aversion to being vulnerable, probably to my own detriment.
But at the same time, I’ve always said, even when I’m feeling like a complete gunner about work, that at the end of the day I never want to be a complete workaholic and that my personal life is important, more so than my career. I guess my point is, I think it’s time I started figuring things out that don’t have to do with banking regulations, law, coding errors, organizational systems for research or logic puzzles. I’m not really sure how to go about doing this, but I guess acknowledging the issue is step one. I think.
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So, I’m in the process of changing around my life plans, once again. I’ve done this a few times now, but each time it’s hard and scary and tiring. The first time was deciding to join the Journalism Program at Emory, a decision that was made a few days right before the deadline for applications.
The second time was after I decided to drop advertising and marketing in order to switch to a finance concentration in the b-school (resulting in me not being able to finish the journalism major) — that decision took place during add/drop/swap during the first semester of my senior year.
Later, around second semester, I made the decision to go to law school and applied to about 20 law firms in the span of a week and booked a flight to New York not long after to interview with a bunch of firms for paralegaling positions.
Now, here I am again, starting from scratch again. Each time I have to convince people that I know what I’m doing and that I know what I want to be doing. I think this is the right decision for me. Books are the only thing that have ever really stuck. Sigh.
I’m pretty much in the thick of the hard and tiring part — applying for jobs, figuring out how I’m going to make ends meet, scheduling interviews between work obligations. Christina and I got a new person in the FIG paralegaling crew, Emily, who we think is great and we’re really happy to have her, but training her is turning out to be quite a drain of time and energy.
I’m trying to keep my spirits up, but between general work stuff, training Emily, applying for publishing jobs, applying for secondary (paying) jobs, dealing with law school financial aid issues, dealing with certain health-related issues, waiting for responses from law schools, dealing with personal life issues, dealing with more personal life issues, dealing with other personal life issues — I just feel spent. I want to spend a weekend in my bed watching chick flicks and finally finishing reading Murders in the Rue Morgue, which I always seem to get interrupted from, even though the whole thing is so short. I need a vacation.
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As tends to be the case with all good things, an elaborate prank that the corporate boys at work cooked up some three months ago finally, finally came to an end. It was basically a hoax to convince one of the other guys, Peter, that one of our other co-workers was a disabled homeless man that shouted lewd things and performed various other…acts outside the Goldman Sachs building. I’m not entirely sure why guys are so into things like hobos and zombies, but boys will be boys, I guess.
It’s hard to explain, but it actually got to be pretty entertaining to hear him talk about this hobo that they nicknamed Otis for the past few months. We finally ended it yesterday, and the finale was extremely satisfying — Otis attempted to chase Peter down Broad Street while Pete tried to talk him down.
Anyway, I’m glad Peter was touched by the effort that went into the prank. And, despite my initial resistance to the idea, Otis will live on in our hearts.
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So, I haven’t been posting a lot recently, mostly because my computer is broken (the screen freezes unless I bend it at an angle — weird, I know) and HP has told me that it would cost $400+taxes+parts to fix. Obviously, I’m not going to spend what could likely be over 500 dollars to fix a three-year-old computer that cost less than a thousand dollars to begin with. Assuming a five-year rate of depreciation, $500 would be well over it’s current value. It’s a bit of a racket seeing as how Hewlett-Packard also has the highest hardware failure rate of the leading notebook manufacturers. It was relatively cheaper, but given that my last HP laptop also had similar problems and the screen died out shortly after it hit its 3rd year, I don’t think I would get another HP notebook.
In fact, HP has a 3-year manufacturing failure rate (as opposed to accidental damage) of just over 25% compared to Asus, Toshiba and Sony which each have failure rates hoving just above or below 16% over the course of the same three-year period. You can see the results of that study here (PDF file), though, it’s coming from a vendor of warranty protection plans, so take it with a grain of salt.
But aside from discussions of the book value of my laptop and manufacturing failure rates, I have, however, as a result of it’s shitty hardware, been reading more instead. Here are some of the recent ones.
Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood. Loved this. I’ve never been a huge fan of dystopian novels, mostly because anything taken to an extreme is bad, I think, but this world is so carefully constructed and her writing is so readable that it was hard to be such a cynic about it. I think my favorite part was the relationship between Oryx and Sandman. It’s an alternate reality; if you’re into that you should definitely read this (and probably already have). Otherwise, just read it anyway cause it’s good.
Girl’s Poker Night by Jill Davis. Eh. My sister gave this to me a while back. It was better than the average chick lit but not by a lot and not really worth reading unless you particularly are in the mood for that stuff.
My Name is Red by Orhan Pamuk. Huh. I liked this book in theory. I liked that it was almost a philosophical (regarding art) mystery. It’s a story about a murder among a group of miniaturists (read: artists), set in the Ottoman Empire (it’s translated from Turkish). The idea is that they are working on book of illustrations that reflects a style that is considered to be sacrilegious in that it is considered idolatry, detracting from the glorification of God, etc. There’s more to the plot line than just this, but the main character, Black, investigates by speaking to the suspects regarding their views on various aspects of art, and at the same time the unidentified murderer discusses his thoughts as well. Theoretically, you should be trying to figure out who is the murderer based on these discussions of art philosophy. It was good in terms of writing, pacing, etc., but I think my appreciation of this book is largely on an academic level. If you think you’d enjoy theoretical discourses on art, for example considering what “is” art and whether things like personal style detracts from art and the representation of “truth,” then you’d probably love this book.
The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie. Always good. I think this was the first Hercule Poirot novel ever. I thought I would be over my Agatha Christie phase by now, but I guess not.
Bel Canto by Ann Patchett. Very Oprah. Obviously unrealistic. But entirely enjoyable. A group of rich important people get kidnapped by terrorists who are good people at heart.
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Schafer. I liked reading this, minus the romance. Its seems like a solid novel who had an editor who forced in some contrived romantic plot line so there would be was more of a plot arc, but it was just distracting. It’s about the German occupation of Guernsey (not fictional), as told through a conversation in letters (entirely fictional). It begins when a writer receives a letter from someone from the island and ends up conversing with various people to find out about their experiences during the occupation. It’s Hallmark-y in it’s way, but interesting from a historical perspective.
Baby Proof by Emily Giffen. This was sitting on my self for, like two years. It’s chick-lit, but I liked the premise of this book, mostly because I liked the idea of exploring the trade-off between decisions about kids and someone you’re into. Oddly enough, it was something I recently had a conversation with someone about so I finally picked it up and went ahead and read it. Overall, it was pretty good as far as this genre goes, but the ending was such a disappointment and waaay cheesy.
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I promised, like three years ago, to Jessie that I would read something by Barbara Kingsolver, who she says is one of her favorite writers. So, true to my (procrastinating) word, I finally got around to and finished The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver earlier today.
I’ve been trying to mix it up in my reading repertoire terms of genres. The Poisonwood Bible was more on the serious side of drama. For the most part it’s set in the Congo during its short-lived bid for independence from Belgium. However, the story actually spans three decades and is told through the wife and four daughters of a zealous preacher, Nathan Price, who move to a small village there, Kilanga, to do missionary work. As one expects with these sorts of fish-out-of-water-type premises, it changes them more than they change it. However, it’s well written and thought-provoking in other ways, though it is clearly bent on challenging certain Westernized, I guess, attitudes for lack of a better word (the author doesn’t use such terminology, thank goodness) and on criticizing the U.S. and other foreign involvement in the economic and political affairs in the Congo.
While most of the story focuses on the difficulties of the Price family, the political/social message comes through in bits and pieces and finally comes to light more fully as they are forced to flee. In short, Belgium colonized the place and essentially handicapped the country (by not allowing non-whites to get an education, not building infrastructure, etc.). After the people rose up and demanded their independence, President Eisenhower, in cahoots with other foreign leaders, gave orders to have the elected leader of Congo assassinated because these leaders of white men were unhappy with the negotiations regarding the sale of the country’s natural resources (diamonds, in particular). They fixed the following election to have him replaced with a puppet figure instead and corruption ensued (the U.S. began building a power system in Congo they knew would fail in order to saddle the country with billions in debt, ensuring that the flow of resources would be unhindered in the future). There are also non-politically geared messages in the book as well — about people, human nature, etc.
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Season’s Greetings — thought I’m a few days late for that. The holidays went by swimmingly. I dragged my New Year’s cohorts to The Mermaid Inn in the upper west side for dinner, and it was actually quite delicious. I recommend it, but the portions are on the smaller side. We did a champagne toast watching the ball drop on television, but we could see the fireworks going off in Times’ Square from the balcony, so that was funny. We never considered actually going, however, because apparently the area gets so full that they close it off by around 3:00-ish, so you’d have to wait outside for at least 9 hours (and it’s been snowing this whole weekend), so there was no way we were ever going to do that.
Christmas was spent doing hot pot at Bo’s apartment. I brought back the FIG-mas tree at work. It’s a small Christmas tree adorned with hand-drawn and colored logos of some of our main financial institutions clients. It’s also got some gold ornaments and in lieu of an angel, there’s a little lawyer finger puppet at the top. (It’s actually Franz Kafka, but it’s the closest I could get.) I would post a picture, but given our non-disclosure, I could theoretically get in trouble for disclosing who are clients are (even though it’s well known, but whatever).
Overall, it’s been a fun holiday season. Going to Panama helps, haha. I’m really glad I got law school apps out of the way before it started or else it would have been significantly less fun. 2010! w00t!
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Avatar was one hell of an experience. Over the weekend, I got together with Hemal and Bo. I suggested we eat at dieci, which Don had taken Christina and I to earlier in the year. It’s a cute, small place with delicious food, by the way, and they swap out their menu frequently so it’s fun to go back. Anyway, afterwards, after a lot of trekking around in something resembling a blizzard and multiple attempts to find a showing of Avatar that was not sold out, we ended up playing Street Fighter on xbox and, later, watching a late showing of the movie.
So, I thought it was amazing. I actually managed to cry in this movie during the final action sequence, which is bizarre, both because it’s an action sequence and because I tend not to get very emotional when it comes to sci-fi flicks.
While I am neither a sci-fi person nor a fx junkie, anyone who likes science fiction and special effects stuff should, without a doubt, see it. In 3D. The world that they’ve created in this movie is just so intricate and well-thought out that anyone who is even remotely interested in it should go just for that experience. And I loved that it was in 3D – it made everything seem much more immersive – even though I was originally extremely skeptical and for the first 15 minutes or so my eyes had difficulty adjusting (it’s hard to know what to focus on visually at first, but eventally it’ll stop seeming that way), so, I could see how if you don’t have the patience with that sort of thing, you might want to avoid it.
As for anyone else, I’d say the action component is solid — it is pretty non-stop, so this is not a movie where you’ll be likely to feel “bored”. There’s romance, drama, solid acting, etc. The plot line I thought was good, but it bears some obvious resemblances to a Sci-Fi rendition of Pocahontas when it first starts, and it’s more or less what you’d expect. And yeah, the movie takes itself a wee bit seriously. All in all, yes, you could find things to dislike or criticize about it, but there’s so many good things about it and it’s so well made that, for most people, it’s worth the cost of admission to give it a shot.
Oh, also, I watched Julie and Julia with Amy, which was fortunate because the charater/real person Julie Powell lives along the water in Queens, which is where Amy lives, and a lot of the shots in the movie were the views that we had from Amy’s apartment, haha. Pepsi-Cola!
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So, a lot has been going on the past few months, and yes, I realize I haven’t been posting. Additionally, I have been re-designing this blog/site and working out kinks so any “website” time has been allocated towards that. I’ll probably switch over to the new template soon, but it’ll be a bit messy.
Also, I went to Panama for a week-and-a-half over Thanksgiving and then Texas where it managed to snow the one day I was in Houston. Thanks, Mother Nature. Panama was amazing, except for that one place with bad water that made me break out. Yeech. And I was also tired the first few days — I spoke a lot of Spanish, and I think dredging it out of my memory was surprisingly enervating. However, there was sun, snorkeling and beaches, and I went on a coffee tour, saw dolphins and sloths, met the indigenous people, watched a boat go through the Panama canal locks, went hiking in the mountains, etc., so it was worth it. We also ate a lot of fancy meals and fruit there was so good– I can’t even compare it with the fruit in New York, it’s too depressing.
Anyway, I returned to the dank coldness of the city and managed to get sick. Fast forward two weeks later, I’m all better and now there are inches and inches of lovely power-like snow all over the place. Also, since returning from my trip, I’ve gotten admission into Duke, Georgetown and NYU Law (I’d already gotten into UT in the beginning of November)! (!!!!!) So, I’m excited for law school, but I’m a teeny bit scared of how much work it will be. Regardless, thanks to the happy news, I’m sure it’ll be a very merry holiday season.
Now that law school is close to definite, I’m starting to realize that my time in New York might actually be coming to a close — at least for now. It went by extremely quickly. My two years of indentured servitude to the firm is up in July, so I’ll probably be leaving then or even earlier. Seven months. Weird.
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So yeah, I apologize to the 3 visitors to my blog about the porn banners that took over for a while. Apparently the permissions on my files were set incorrectly, which (gasp!) left my mySQL tables unprotected! And then I neglected to fix it for some time, haha.
At any rate, I’ve started applying to law schools now. The basics of my applications are finished, my personal statement and resume, etc. so I’m glad to finally have my life back to some extent.
In fact, I finally finished Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke, which I really enjoyed. It’s about two magicians, set in England during the Napoleonic Wars. When the story begins, magicians are almost an anachronistic remnant of Britain’s past (according to the story, magic once abounded but has since disappeared). Instead, there are only theoretical magicians, as opposed to practical magicians, who study magic in an academic manner. However, two “practical magicians” appear on the scene and attempt to rediscover magic, piecing things together.
All in all, it’s long, but it’s funny (a sort of dry, British humor) and very enjoyable. Plot-driven and well-conceived, IMHO. To quote Wikipedia: “It has been described as a fantasy novel, an alternate history, and an historical novel.” I’m not much for fantasy (with the exception of the Harry Potter series, obviously), but I liked this take on magic. Recommended. A solid 4 stars.
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So, I spent the Fourth of July weekend in Chicago — it was amazing! I got to take a look at both the Northwestern (very collegiate) and UChicago (very serious-looking) law schools and campuses. We went to Taste of Chicago where we ate anything and everything our paunchy stomaches could handle, haha. My favorite place was the indian place that served up some spicy puffed-rice curry concoction that was delicious. Oh, and we also saw the bean on the way there which is actually more entertaining than you might have imagined.
We also went to a showing of the Best of Second City (a well-known Chicago skit/comedy/improv club), which was hilarious. We took the Architectural Boat Tour of the city, we watched fireworks (an oddy death-defying and harrowing experience, actually) and Ali’s parents were gracious enough to cook and grill for us! Yummy!
So, yeah, that weekend was great. Speaking of Chicago, I bought a ticket to watch Hugh Jackman and Craig Daniel in a limited run of A Steady Rain, which is a broadway play set in Chicago about two cops, etc. I got the ticket for the day after my September LSAT. After the June administration, I went to watch Neil Labute’s reasons to be pretty, because I thought it would be nice to relax afterwards and to have something to look forward to that wasn’t the LSAT. Well, I thought that play was great, so it worked out pretty well.
Anyway, the 1-year anniversary of my moving to the city passed by last month, and I didn’t even realize it. I suppose it’s making me want to be sure to check off all the things that I had planned on doing in my time here — I’m going to John Stewart in September, too. I should have more time for these things once law school apps are over, but I don’t want to risk putting it off and never doing these things. Oh yeah, I also turned 23 last month, so I am rapidly approaching old age, haha. My birthday was great — we went to Cuba, per Rita’s reservations, where you get a free cigar with your meal that some guy that rolls in a corner — hilarious! A mish-mosh of middle school/high school/college/work friends came, which was awkward at times, but fun for me, haha.
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