Learn Me Something New

With less than one month until I leave for college and begin the next four years of my life, I begin to think about what I hope to accomplish. I get the same feeling when I look at the course catalog as I do when I see all the books I want to read at Barnes & Noble. I get a sense of fatigue. Not the kind of tired fatigue where you don't want to do anything anymore, but a sense that I will never get all that I want to accomplish. I have a desire to take every class, from economics to art history to rhetoric. Through this I discovered one of my most coveted values, education.

I don't necessarily care about being rich anymore, I want to be able to live so I can be able to know more. I will never gain all knowledge, but I hope to make a small dent. I hope to make a small dent in the Universe. Whether it be for the good of mankind, or for some other individual. I hope to someday build upon the knowledge I have gained and contribute to the vast libraries in the world. I want to imagine, create, inspire, & explore.

This isn't so much an anecdotal blog as it is a blog of what is going on in my head (which is much more than you see here). This is just the beginning, the past 18 years I gained a foundation for acquiring more knowledge and the next four years I hope to gain an even better foundation and maybe someday build upon that foundation and give back to the community that has inspired me. I would also be happy just giving back to the individuals who have given me so much. As of right now, I am a philosophy major. Look for changes.

Where the tree of knowledge stands there stands paradise.

Home Remedies & Vacation Memories

I am finally back home. After 10 days of vacation, I have made it back to the 100+ degree Antelope Valley. My vacation spanned from Berkeley to Ashland to Bend to Portland to Olympia then Sequim and finally home... I am glad to be back.

After 19 hours, 1150 miles and various pit stops we made it back home in one day. It was one of the toughest drives I have ever endured, but luckily with a good book on CD, music and fellow passengers it wasn't as bad as one might have thought. I drove for about 300 miles in various locations, but the most fun was driving from Coalinga to the Grapevine on the I-5 at midnight. I was really tired, but the bright lights from other cars and high traveling speeds of 80 miles per hour helped like a double shot espresso. We got home around 3:00 AM Thursday morning.

As promised I am including a link to a photo gallery of several pictures I find worth posting on my blog, I hope you enjoy them because it was not easy sifting through over 500 photos to get the good ones of me and my family. (unfortunately it requires an account with Kodak, but no worries, it's free and I don't seem to be hassled by emails or just my junk mail filter is amazing)

[Edit: I fixed the link for the photos, I am pretty sure you don't have to log in anymore, just click "view slideshow"]

Greetings from Sequim

I am at the end of my vacation here in the middle of no where in northern Washington state in a city called Sequim. My Uncle David, who is 51 but acts 80 retired up here and it's basically the lavender capital of the world. I have been a bad blogger on vacation. Too many activities, trust me though, everywhere I go I think, "I can put this in my blog" so I promise one of the first things I do when I get back is to make a blog about my entire vacation with pictures and everything. I am having a good time, but I am ready to come home and see my dog and my friends. In the meantime, I am keeping the camera battery fully charged and taking plenty of landscape pictures (because I can't take pictures of people to save my life) and I am letting Angie take the pictures of me. Well world, I have plenty to say, just no time to say it now. Good night!

C-A-L-I-F-O-R-N-I-A

I am writing this from my hotel room in Ashland, Oregon.

The past two days I attended CalSO, the Cal Student Orientation in Berkeley. This included getting up at 6:30 in the morning on the weekend in the summer to drive up to the bay area wih my family in our 2003 VW Passat. We stopped in Cupertino to visit my aunt who lives in Olympia, but was visiting her parents. I also had an ulterior motive of getting to see the holy land, headquarters of Apple Computer.

On Monday I woke up to begin my orientation with people who put the same major on their application (mathematics). We did the typical "get to know you" ice breakers (which I hate), took a campus tour, and learned about what our first year experience at Cal will be like. We also registered for our first 10.5 units worth of classes. I also decided to change my major to something with a little more substance and amusement. My major is now philosophy (although I am sure it will change a billion times before I graduate).

I learned about the diverse history of Cal and I absolutely love the city. I am proud to be a Golden Bear and look forward to starting my new life there in the fall. As for the rest of the vacation, I will keep you posted.

I included some photos from the trip (I was behind the camera)

Fourth of Jew-ly

The Fourth of July in my family consists of watching the Twilight Zone marathon and making sure my dog doesn't go crazy with thg loud noises of the fireworks. This particular Fourth of July was only a little bit different in that I finally finished one of the funniest books I have ever read, "The Know It All" by AJ Jacobs. The author had so many hilarious anecdotes about what he read it was amazingly exciting and quite the page turner. I can't say that I know the encyclopedia as well as he does, but I felt like he brought me along for the journey.

At around 9:30 I decided to take a shower and maybe lounge around, but instead I decided to call my friend Kasey and instead I rushed over to his house where we lit illegal sparklers (no fireworks in Lancaster) and just enjoyed the closing of the 230th anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration. It's amazing to think that 230 years is a long time, but if you think about it, we're quite the young ones in the world. There are trees in the United States older than the country . I don't suppose we're going anywhere soon, but certain things this country is doing makes me question our moral values. We are supposed to always be on the cutting edge of what is moral and what is good, but rising gas prices, the War in Iraq, global warming, and lack of universal healthcare make me think different sometimes. The (supposedly) most advanced nation in the country can't provide healthcare for its citizens.

Oh well, on the bright side, I skipped the carrot cake and went for watermelon for breakfast this morning.

Breakfast

I woke up this morning and after getting a drink of water I proceeded to the refrigerator to look for something to eat. I could have had the traditional yogurt or blueberries, but there was something else there staring me in the face as if to say "C'mon eat me, you know you want to." It was the Trader Joe's carrot cake I enjoyed a slice of the previous evening. I thought to myself, "why not?" I figured it was healthier than a donut, I mean, it has vegetables in it. It's the first word in the name, "carrot". I think if people can have a chocolate chip bagel for breakfast, why can't I have a little bit of carrot cake with cream cheese frosting? So I satisfied my taste buds and went all out for the carrot cake. I think I should have my own talk show, "Justifying Poor Eating Habits with Benji Coleman-Levy"