101 Things

In response to Angie's "100 Things" I posted "101 Things" because I like showing her up.

1) My best friend walks on four legs. 2) I wish I could memorize things easily. 3) My high school home life was considerably different than before. 4) I like getting awakened by a phone call from a friend in the middle of the night. 5) I hate the sun. 6) I only have enough testosterone to grow hair below my waist. 7) I still feel like it's too much. 8) I shower longer than any boy should. 9) The first book I ever wanted was a thesaurus. 10) I don't understand religious fanaticism. 11) I believe killing someone is wrong. 12) I have Apple's "Think different" manifesto memorized. 13) I like stability. 14) But day to day stuff bores me quickly. 15) I am afraid of looking in a mirror. 16) Sometimes I think my life is just a dream and I will wake up 2 years old in a crib. 17) Sometimes that sounds nice. 18) I'm generally a realist 19) Laughter is my defense mechanism. 20) I can't laugh alone. 21) I spend three years of high school to get approval from one girl. 22) One day it just stopped. 23) I feel best about myself after a shower in my underwear. 24) I am an internet addict. 25) I'm not seeking to have that fixed. 26) I hold others on a pedestal because sometimes I think so low about myself. 27) Nothing makes me want to do something more than when I am told not to do it. 28) The first thing I said when my sister was born was "put her back". 29) I'm glad they didn't. 30) My eating habits suck. 31) Same to my exercising habits. 32) I want the power of the written word. 33) I believe in the pursuit of happiness. 34) I trust in the good of human nature. 35) I'd rather be comfortable and happy then rich and lonely. 36) I still have nightmares about high school. 37) Plants fascinate me. 38) I laugh at stupid stuff. 39) I feel like I don't have a creative bone in my body. 40) I listen to unrequited love songs. 41) Apple is my vice. 42) I had a 66% chance for an STD. 43) It was a UTI. 44) I've never even had sex. 45) I am capable of being a doctor. 46) The work overwhelms me. 47) I can walk with my iPod for miles. 48) As a vegetarian the food I miss most would be my mother's brisket. 49) I like the smell of fabric softener. 50) My sister used to dress me up in her clothes. 51) I didn't mind; I got to play with her. 52) I think my hair is one of my best physical attributes. 53) I don't know what I can offer the world. 54) I have a drinking problem, I have to have over 64 ounces of water a day. 55) Tea is comforting. 56) I have high standards for workmanship. 57) Aesthetics are important to me. 58) If I had one wish it would be the ability to fly. 59) Overcast days make me happy. 60) I went through a 2 year Gilligan's Island phase. 61) I am scared of drugs. 62) I enjoy being in solitude. 63) My deadly sin is envy. 64) I love going places with my friends. 65) I also love just sitting and talking with them. 66) Without peanut butter and the salad bar I wouldn't eat much at my dining commons. 67) I like flying. 68) I hate airport security. 69) More people call me their friend than I call them mine. 70) If you are my friend I will fight hard to keep you. 71) MTV never interested me. 72) I feel like I can define childhood and adulthood. 73) Still don't know where that puts me. 74) I like the holidays. 75) I can't go a week without cleaning my sheets. 76). I love feeling loved. 77) I consider a B+ good. 78) In high school that would have devastated me . 79) My sister makes me laugh harder than anyone else. 79) I'm an environmentalist. 80) Solar power is so obvious that my hometown wont even consider it. 81) I hate feeling like the world is going on without me. 82) I like falling asleep to the sounds of the rain. 83) I am proud to be a Mac user. 84) I read 'Foxtrot' religiously. 85)I am sure education can fix the problems of the world. 86) I am very emotionally sensitive. 87) I find almost everything symbolic. 88) That turns into a problem. 89) Thinking of a day without a shower scares me. 90) I hate the way I look naked. 91) In middle school I wore a white polo shirt everyday--by choice. 92) I think the bible is just stories. 93) I like to tackle conflicts head on. 94) In 19 years I still haven't learned how to study. 95) I still feel like I need my mommy. 96) I believe in karma 97) Karma sucks. 98) I turn red really easily. 99) I am a good listener. 100) I want to invent something. 101) Education, justice, and family are my greatest values.

from the soap box

I'm starting to doubt human nature. My entire life I assumed people were born good and that they want to do good for other people. My life, despite all of my complaining, is quite good. I have a family that supports me and money in a bank account. I have a roof over my head and I know I will eat everyday (of course ruling out Yom Kippur). What just irks me is the urban homeless population. I am not bothered so much by homeless people in general, I am bothered by the lack of interest in the seemingly obvious problem facing society. In the most advanced cities in the world we cannot solve a problem that seems solvable. The problem is we all live in our own small selfish bubbles. I will be first to admit I am guilty of it, but I think as a society we must break through our bubbles and help fellow members of the human race.

I am supposed to be attending a University with some of the most brilliant minds in the country. The people who of UC Berkeley invented the atom bomb, helped to start what is now the internet, and created the anti-proton (whatever the hell that is). What I am trying to get at is these same people can't seem to come up with a way to help their fellow residents. We all seem to live in this "UC bubble", once we're on campus we care about our grades and our research and once we're off campus we care about what happens in this week's episode of Grey's Anatomy.

It's depressing to see people without homes on the streets of a city known by its progressive values, yet it has one of the highest rates of homelessness within the city limits. I don't have a solution for the problem, but I want to help find one. I want people to know they can get a meal and medical care without having to ask strangers for spare change while smiling through the gaps in their teeth. I still believe in the power of the goodness of human nature. People are and can be good. We just need to stop being silent and open our eyes to problems bigger than wardrobe malfunctions and celebrities' shaved heads.

My Philosophy

The most important thing in the world is a person's happiness, whether it be your own or someone else's. I believe that everyone has the right to be completely happy with every aspect of their life and if they can find it they should strive hard to keep it. I deserve to be happy with my environment, my school, my choice of friends, and my relationships.

There isn't anything in the universe that knows me better than me and I know what makes me happy. How do I know what I know? I wont go into epistemology right now (that was last semester) but I will say that through experience I know what's best for my 19 year old life. I could be considered naïve, but isn't that what life is all about? Taking risks because you believe something to be right and then learning that it wasn't necessarily the best thing for you. I know that's kind of what I am going through right now.

Let's look at where I am right now: UC Berkeley. Great school, intelligent people, wonderful geography, and on the cutting edge of academia. It has a great name. Who doesn't know the prestige of the University? But where does that leave me? The past four years of my life were all about working towards this goal, not Berkeley, but prestige. The recognition by my peers of my hard work was something I thought I wanted, something I thought would make me happy. Complete rubbish. Since August I have been weighing my thoughts on Berkeley, whether it was the right decision for me. I still haven't come to a conclusion yet, but it doesn't look too good in for the University. As great as it is here, I don't think it is for me. The people, the professors, and the environment.

I still don't know what will make me completely happy right now, that's something for me to find out in time. What's great is now I know what seemingly does not make me happy. I don't have a plan for next semester yet, so far I have no idea if they even include Berkeley. I love learning and I will always remain a student. I know I could always withdraw from the University for as long as I need to and, if necessary, enroll in courses at AVC and decide what to do from there, whether it's going back to Cal or transferring to a university that might make me happier. I do know this, I will finish my semester here in Berkeley and along the way I will open doors and research all of the different opportunities I have. Maybe I'll switch into a University I like for next fall.

Who cares if people say I couldn't handle Berkeley? I obviously showed that I had the potential to handle anything academic Berkeley threw at me. Like I said before, I need to do what makes me happy and I need to find out exactly what that is. It needs to be understood that if I decide to do this I would want it to be completely for myself. I dont want to do it for my family or my friends, but for myself. I need to find myself and see what could possibly help to make me happier. There is still a very high chance I will be in Berkeley again in the Fall and I will be joking about these emotions I am feeling right now. Whatever happened I'll keep you updated. Let me ask you this though, why spend four years of your life being anything short of happy when you have the power to change it? Exactly. Fuck what everyone else thinks, just be happy.

My Major

If you asked me in high school what my major in college would be, I would have answered "math" without much thinking. If you asked me my major just out of high school I would have said "business" with little effort. If you asked me once I moved in to my dorm I would have said "philosophy", but with hesitation. Depending on how well I know you I now answer with some ridiculous concentration (interpretive dance) or a "hell if I know" (for you reading this, the latter).

I feel almost completely overwhelmed and stressed with picking a major. I know I have time to think about it, but everyone already seems to know what they want and they have at least something to pursue. My roommate is a bioengineering major, besides meaning that he is about twenty billion times smarter than me, it also means he knows what requirements and breadth classes to take in order to graduate with that degree in hand. For me I am taking a hodgepodge of classes that I hope will someday get me a degree in something. I keep telling myself I am doing what I am supposed to do, get breadth out of the way and try to find something to fall in love with. It's not quite working. It's not that I don't like my classes, it's the opposite, I see myself enjoying all of the subjects I have taken so far.

I miss how in high school the schedule was hand picked for you and you knew exactly what classes and subjects you had to take to graduate. The problem here is that there are four sets of requirements before we can graduate. There are University of California requirements. UC Berkeley requirements, school requirements, and major requirements. I feel I am behind in everything because I haven't picked a major and I feel that when I do pick a major I will be behind all of the other people in that major because they probably knew freshman year. I figure I could always try to make it lucky and keep going like this and see if the classes I am taking fall into a major. Right now it just so happens I am closest to being an art history major. Go figure.

Berkeleyian Disappointments

The urban dictionary defines Berkeley as a city that makes "Amsterdam look conservative". Berkeley was home to the free speech movement and was the first city to convert its entire diesel fleet to bio-diesel fuel and to prohibit the sale of ozone depleting styrofoam in fast food containers. Progressive and liberal go with Berkeley the same way 'evil' meshes so well with Wal*Mart. Lately, however, I have been disappointed with my fellow citizens.

Every time I take a shower the previous user of the shower has left the water running. They haven't left it running full blast mind you, but it's a steady trickle. The dripping is loud and it's blatantly wasteful. I am also sure I am the first one to use it in the morning which translates to the water being on all night. While this is not only bad for the environment, I am almost sure that it does help whatever fungus may be growing in a college freshman dorm bathroom.

It's not only my fellow floor mates that are wasteful, it's my damn roommates as well. Why must one of my roommates insist upon leaving the lights on when he leaves. Not just the main light, but his desk light as well. And no, it's not because someone else is in the room and he doesn't want to be rude. I have walked in from my day at school and work to find both of the lights on and my roommate absent.

The other roommate is no better, I don't know how many times I have walked into the room and his godforsaken speakers are blasting his hyphy music. But where is the roommate responsible for this? Oh he left about thirty minutes ago to get drunk and stumble in at 2:00 am yelling things that have nothing to do with anything.

Mind you this is the same city that has hippies up in oak trees for the past few weeks trying to save them from being torn down. I think if they saw what my fellow floor mates were doing they would be sitting in our shower stalls protesting the water the pressure or something.

After all of this disappointment in my fellow "Berkeleyans", I am never disappointed by their sense of humor. In high school people would write on the desks about how one person might be a bitch or how they have the biggest copulatory organ at the school. Yesterday I discovered some desk graffiti that made me giggle a little. One student carved into the desk "Who let the dogs out?". Directly underneath, written by another student: "Pavlov?".

A Year in Review

Last year I posted a year in review on my MySpace blog. It was a nice way to recap the year and set some goals for the year ahead.

Last year's hopes and wishes: from a 2005 perspective In 2006, I will turn 18 and graduate high school. I hope to be accepted to either Stanford or UC Berkeley. I hope to strengthen bonds with my friends as well as generate new ones with new people, and even help reattach those broken threads. I hope to reach all of my goals and I will work hard to reach them.

Let us review my year month by month, similar to last year's blog.

January: I started the year off with some of my closest friends, watching movies and hanging out. At midnight I laid outside on a trampoline in the bitter cold discussing aspects of life with Kasey. In a weird way, my best memory of 2006 was also my first. It was finally 2006, the year I have been waiting for since middle school when I discovered I was part of the "Class of 2006". It was also the month of my 18th birthday, turning 18 was not anything like Hollywood leads us to think. Angie went off to college in Colorado which began the longest time I have been away from my sister.

February: Once again Valentine's day was nothing too exciting, but I did get to host the robotics media event. I became friends with the Wallaces at their Valentine's Day party in early February.

March: Traveled to Annapolis and Las Vegas with the robotics team and did very well with our robot. I became further and further behind in school due to the progressive symptoms of the highly contagious disease of senioritus. Finally spring break came and I got to take a brief vacation away from the ridiculous demands of high school. College acceptance letters started pouring in with acceptances from Long Beach, Irvine, Santa Cruz, San Diego and on the last day of March, Berkeley.

April: April Fool's Day was a big day, the robotics team won the second most prestigious award they could and I found out I got rejected from "the school across the bay". I had within that weekend pretty much sealed my fate for my next our years without even thinking too much about it. Within 48 hours of knowing I was accepted, I decided to attend Berkeley to do god knows what.

May: For the past four years of my life, May was almost monopolized by AP testing. This would be my last round of those dreaded tests. High school dwindled to only weeks where the good-byes inevitably began.

June: Happy graduation Benji! 13 years, from kindergarten to senior year in high school, it all came down to that very warm afternoon in early June. I got handed a diploma case as well as a mild sunburn from the hot June weather. The rest of my life had begun and I didn't know what to do and where to start, I just knew I had to enjoy the best summer of my life.

July: The 230th anniversary of our "great" nation. I spent it watching TV in a house that was far too warm for humans to tolerate. I went over to Kasey's house in the late evening and lit sparklers to feel patriotic. We sat on the grass remembering the memories from New Years. I attended my student orientation and went on vacation. My student orientation was two days long, but I only really needed to be there for about an hour of it. My vacation across the left coast of the United States with my family was great. I returned home and caught up with my friends before the last month at home began.

August: Angie went back to Colorado. At that point I have seen her everyday since May and kind of got used to seeing her again. The local high schools started again, this time without me. It was a weird feeling knowing that life at Lancaster High went on without me, but I knew I didn't really want to go back. I was still burnt out from the past four years. In my last month I said goodbye to the people I have gotten to know over the course of a lifetime. I shook many hands and hugged many bodies. My mom and little sister dropped me off in Berkeley with the essentials of my life that accumulated over the past 18 years in a few boxes that managed to fit in a midsize sedan. I spent a week waiting for classes to start and just getting used to my new environment. I also got hired at my current job at The Scholar's Workstation.

September: The Wallaces, Rene, Tyler, and Alan came up from Lancaster to visit me on Labor Day weekend. We toured San Francisco and spent just one more weekend together. School came into full swing with my first true college paper. I came home to Lancaster for a long weekend at the end of the month to help my mom move out of the house into a new one. My room was how I left it, even the smell and look were the same. When we moved it was like I was going away again and I had to pack up even more memories into boxes that I knew may never be unpacked.

October: Just a month filled with repetition. More assignments and a midterm. Time just kept flying by and before I knew it, it was Halloween.

November: Before I knew it, there were six weeks left in the semester. More papers and a midterm and then I realized it was Thanksgiving and I got to go home again. This was when I finally realized I was going to see people I haven't seen since August, unfortunately Angie was not one of them. I did however get to reunite with Kasey and just talk about life, like we used to and we realized even though our lives were now 500 miles apart, they were still very similar and our friendship just as strong. It felt a little bit like it was summer again and that I didn't have a care in the world. Then reality hit and I knew I had to go back for my last three weeks of my first semester at the university.

December: It started with me just wanting finals to be over and wanting to take a break from dorm life and the stress of college. I came back just in time to celebrate the first night of Chanukah with my family. I still had to wait a week before my friends came back to hang out again. Angie was supposed to come back two days earlier than she did, but she was trapped in a blizzard in Denver for two says and our reunion was delayed. The last day of 2006 was spent with the same person as the first, very appropriate if I say so.

Review: Most definitely one of the most eventful years of my life. 18, graduation, college, life, and love. It was hard, it was surprising and it wasn't at all what I expected. On a five point scale, I give it a solid four.

How did I do?Well, I was vague to say the least. I did keep in touch with old friends and now that I am here in college (UC Berkeley) I of course made new friends. I did not get accepted to that school across the bay, but it was all for the better, who wants to spend five times as much money for an education just as adequate? Exactly.

Hopes and wishes for 2007: Well, we're one month into it, so I guess I have to shorten it a little. I hope to keep my relationships strong and let them grow. I look forward to seeing what they blossom into. I hope to live somewhere next semester that isn't the dorms. I want to maintain a good GPA and finally pick a major to work towards. Maybe I'll start a business or something and get rich and drop out of college like a few famous people I know. Or maybe I'll become a model and make money off of my *cough* perfect *cough* body.

Getting My Routine

I've been through two weeks of classes and I am still shifting my schedule. I guess technically this was the first full week of classes as last Monday was a holiday and this is the first week we actually attended discussion groups. I feel like it's taken two weeks to get classes started because we're just now going to discussion because each discussion also has a syllabus to accompany the syllabus in the lecture. The section syllabi suck though because they often include more work than what the professor asks of us. In lecture it's pretty much midterm, paper and final with reading to do in between. In some discussions though we have homework assignments and I mean assignments like back in high school. I'm talking worksheets that take 10 minutes to complete, but it's the most inconvenient 10 minutes of your weekend. Last semester I was spoiled by the dry classes which only had a few papers and exams. The only supplemental thing was reading and the occasional (monthly) homework assignment, I guess that's the price you pay for having interesting classes.

Other than that, I guess my semester is chugging right along. My roommate is out until 5:00 in the morning every night and missing his morning lectures which is kind of humorous to me and the other roommate is back to his gaming from afternoon to the wee hours of the morning. I wonder if it would be safe to say I was the most responsible one in my room? I mean my side is the cleanest and I actually make an effort to have a somewhat normal schedule.

The dorms are quite annoying though. If you recall from last semester I had a blog entitled "No More Summer Camp", what I realized now is that all year it's like freaking camp. The biggest reminder is the hall association which meets weekly to plan social events for the people in the dorms. While I guess I enjoy a sense of community, it is actually kind of annoying feeling like a child with events planned for us and a lot of them have little educational tie-ins like why not to drink alcohol. Maybe I just want to be left alone to do my own thing now that I have been here for half a year, I just want to live this and move out as soon as possible, I hate the dorms.

In the meantime I encourage all of my readers to get a dose of my sister's new blog, she can actually write.

Procrastination is like...

One day into my new semester and I learn something that took me three months last semester to learn. I am of course talking about new procrastination methods. Last semester, during a writing workshop my English instructor tells us he visits cuteoverload.com which distracts him for hours. Of course, instead of working on the paper he assigned, I visit the website and spend hours looking at the cute kittens, puppies, ducks, and whatever other animal makes your heart melt. I did manage to finish the assignment though and I pulled off an A in the class.

Day one of the Spring semester: my LGBT professor starts lecturing on what the class is about (in case you don't know it's the history of alternative sexual identities in the United States) he pulls out a quote from isitnormal.com and discusses how the website works. People submit stories and readers rate it on how normal it is, ranging from staring at other boys in the locker room to the frequency of going to the bathroom in a given period. Of course the next time I can access the Internet I pull open the website and spend a good deal of the early evening reading a variety of stories and rating their normality. Thank God for the Internet, She most definitely blessed us with that.

Other than that, my classes this semester look promising. They seem to be a lot more satisfying than the somewhat dry schedule of last semester. I am taking LGBT 20AC, English 95, Environmental Science and Policy Management 191 (upper division) and Nutritional Science and Toxicology 10. I dropped linear algebra so I could take environmental science, I didn't need the math for GE or for my major (which I am pretty sure will not be math related).

One week down, sixteen to go.

Back in Berkeley

Four months after the most difficult semester of my life I was allowed one month of an almost stress-free break. This was the best break in recent history. I also rediscovered some of the best people I have the honor of knowing.

My sister, Angie, after battling a killer blizzard in Denver managed to make it home for two weeks. I haven't seen her since the beginning of August and we had a much needed brother-sister reunion. It felt as though we hadn't been apart and everything kind of went back to how it was, it was awesome.

Some of my best laughing times were with Janet & Will. We discussed the experiences of the first semester of college and the possibility of where Janet may attend law school (Boalt maybe?). I enjoyed the little time I spent with them, but every moment was enjoyable.

One of the most pleasant surprises was seeing Katie. In high school I didn't have the pleasure of hanging out with Katie outside of school as much as I would have liked to. I ask myself now, "why the heck didn't I hang out with her more?" I still owe her an ice cream cone however, when I see her again, I will pay her back.

I spent all but a few days with Kasey and have gotten closer to him than I could have ever imagined. We did everything from shopping in Valencia to taking a stroll in the park. My favorite memories of the break were spent with him. New Year movie night, countless Starbucks visits and staying up late just to talk. I know my break was meaningful because of you. I owe you more than you will know. You have given me so much happiness these past few weeks. I really hope he can make it up to Berkeley to visit in February.

No Snow, Still a Good Winter

Sunday. I go back up to Berkeley in less than a week to start my new semester. This has been one of the most relaxing breaks I can remember. I feel well rested and I am ready to start the new challenges that lie ahead. School challenges and the challenges of being away from the people I have come even closer to these past few weeks. It feels similar to leaving after high school again, the only difference is I am leaving after a month, not 18 years. I feel prepared and I know what to expect the next few months. It isn't all new like it was before, last time I was nervous and excited, now I am just excited. I built a life for me up in Berkeley, surrounded by good, intelligent people.I look forward to resuming everything up there.

However there is a part of me that wants to stay. I like what I have here, I am happy, a happy that I have never felt ever before. I am going to miss you, but you should already know this. Still have five more days, let's make them the best of the break.

19 years old in ten days.

Good-bye 2006. Hello New Promises

I have recently been informed that I have "frequent" readers. Frequent being the operative word as I do not post all that frequently. I realize it's not very fair to those of you that do read my posts. I should be more respectful to my readers. The truth is, there is a lot going on in my life, this is not an excuse, this is a statement. Plenty of stuff I could and would love to share with the rest of the world, not because I am the most interesting person, but because in my mind it's worth sharing. I let you into my life and have not done my best to keep you here, thank you to those of you that stuck around, you're great.

Since my last post we have entered a new year, 2007. It was time to say good-bye to 2006, it was and still will be my year. High school graduation, starting my new life in a new city to further my education and discovering new things about myself. 2007 will be a good year too, I entered it in a most memorable way, celebrating the change of the calendar with Kasey. I try not to make New Year's resolutions, but if I had one for 2007 it would be to embrace every day as a new adventure and a goal to accomplish. Today's goal: post a blog.

Also this is a new year for the blog, I would like to take this time to announce I got a brand new camera as a holiday present to myself. I will post more pictures to help you see what I see everyday.


The Family Photo/01.05.07

Happy Winter Break

With a semester under my belt I feel a bit more relaxed about everything. I have successfully secured at least a 3.0 GPA in my first semester at Berkeley. What am I going to do now? I guess now that I am home I am going to relax and visit with old friends. The thing is, I feel a little overwhelmed with all of the people I can see. I haven't seen my sister since August so I want to spend time with her, but I have people I want to see outside my family. The thing is, there are a lot of people that want to see me, but only about a handful I actually want to see. I guess what I want is to just hang out with the right people and not waste time with the people who cause me stress, I just want to see the people who make me happy. Thank you to those who do. Hopefully I will be seeing a lot of you this break as we go on great adventures.

My Tranquility

My favorite place to sit on campus is at Ludwig's Fountain. Ludwig's Fountain is located just to the side of Sproul Plaza between the little market place and the student store. It's just before students meet a handful of groups "tabling" for student support for various causes from wanting a free Palestinian state to the Berkeley College Republicans (yes, they do exist). Ludwig's Fountain has a history behind it, as well as half of whatever is on campus. Ludwig von Schwarenberg was the campus canine back in the early 1960s, he enjoyed hanging out near the dining commons hoping to get scraps of food from students and he enjoyed just playing with all the young adults. When the new student union center was built back in 1961 the university built a fountain to attract foot traffic to the new plaza. It attracted four more legs than it expected. Ludwig enjoyed playing in the fountain with the students during the day and he went home promptly at 5:30 everyday. He became the unofficial mascot to the university from 1961-1965 when his family moved to Alameda. The regents dedicated the fountain in honor of the campus canine making Ludwig's Fountain the first place on campus to be named after an animal.

As I was saying, this is my favorite place to sit on campus. I either read the Daily Californian while eating breakfast or just sit and listen. THe fountain makes a great calm background noise of flowing water. Now, one may be asking why I would want to sit in a place with so much foot traffic. The truth of the matter is that I am rarely sitting at Ludwig's Fountain with anyone else. I feel like I can step out of time at the fountain and watch the world around me. I see dancing, hook ups, breakups, successes and failures. Just as the water reflects my image, I can reflect on life and where I am and where I want to be. Whenever I think of the history of the fountain I think of a more carefree time, when animals would come on campus and the students would play with it. Before the idea of having to make a six digit income after graduation planted itself into the mind of every university student. I enjoy Ludwig's fountain, I can look into Sproul Plaza around Sather Gate to see all the activism and think about changing the world or I can look out into the city and think of being part of something unique, or look out to the west side of campus and think about how I can escape life. It's a magical place, I invite you to come there with me.

My Thoughts

One week left of instruction. Two weeks until I come home for the much needed Winter break. I learned something my first semester here, something beside the fact that college kicks your ass or that I will never be able to know everything, I now realize I know close to nothing. What I do know is this: never take the relationships you have for granted. Enjoy every moment with the people you like, especially if you get to see them everyday. You may not have that forever. I don't regret not spending more time with you; I just miss seeing you everyday. It's a good feeling I have though, I feel good about everything.

Pick My Classes

It's time for everyone's favorite game show: "Pick Benji's Classes"! On Monday I go through the first phase of "Tele-bears" which is where I sign up for my first 10.5 units of classes. I don't sign up for all of them to keep it fair for those who haven't had an opportunity to sign up yet. One of the perks of a big public university. So first let me tell you what classes I am taking this semester:

Economics 1: Introduction to Economics
English R1A: Introducing Cultural Studies
Philosophy 4; Knowledge and Its Limits
History of Art 24: Seminar: Looking at Berkeley Buildings

Next semester I need to step it up a little and take some real classes, like that have to do with science. What I have as potential classes for next semester:

English R1B
Undergrad Business Administration 10: Introduction to Business Administration
Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Studies 20AC
Plant and Microbial Biology 40: Secret Life of Plants
Nutritional Science 10

Seems all well and good, but the problem is in those last two, they both fulfill the biological sciences requirement of the college. It would be an incredible waste of time to take them both at the same time, so I need your help in choosing which to take. Here's what I have been thinking and been told. Nutri Sci may be more applicable in life and I could probably learn a lot and since my mom is a health teacher I might have a little bit of an advantage. However this is a popular class and will be quite full. Plant and Microbial Biology is interesting because plants are just so beautiful and there is so much we just don't know about them and I would love to learn. I love visiting botanical gardens, but I am told the subject of plants may be boring and I don't know anyone currently taking this class.

So there we go, I need your help to decide which class to enroll. Also bear in mind that both of these are potential majors since I don't even have one yet. I could possibly see myself do those for the rest of my life.

The Bulk of the Curve

I got my second philosophy paper returned to me today. My class is based 90% on papers and 10% on participation. I have 40% of my course work completed and my grade is a very solid "B". In high school I would never have allowed for this. I was always in the top 5% percent of my class, never would I have settled for 40%. This is a new feeling on content for me, of course I would love an A and I will continue to strive for it, but I think I am good with the flow of B's. I don't quite know what to say, except for that I have changed a little. I am at the "best public university in the world" not just a random high school in the high desert in California. The people here are some of the best minds in California, I think I might be ok being average when it comes to putting me in a pool with "the best". (Ok not really, I want an A)

The New Cold War

I declare anarchy to exist. On this planet there is just one place where this form of government exists and unfortunately many of us experience this often. I am not talking about the ideal anarchy or extreme communism where everybody shares, but I am talking about riots, fires and disorder anarchy. This place is the public laundry room.

Mr dorm building has one laundry room which we share with about two other buildings and each building has around 100 residences. This laundry room has three washing machines and three dryers... oh wait one of the dryers is broken so make that two. Two dryers. I came to this conclusion while doing my laundry the first time and have confirmed it every week after on laundry day. Sunday is the busiest day for laundry and home game Saturdays are the least busiest. I do my laundry on Wednesdays because I like having clean sheets in the middle of the week for some reason, although I will probably switch to Mondays since my afternoon seminar class is over.

Anyway, each machine is on a timer, 38 minutes for washing, an hour for drying, pretty simple. Unfortunately people either Berkeley students have no concept of time or they are forgetful, I will go with the former to be a bigger jerk. I always like to check to see if a machine is open before i decide to drag my clothes two floors down to do laundry, usually there is one free so I grab my stuff and put it in the washer and set the timer on my computer to go off in about 35 minutes. When I put my clothes in the washer I realize there is about 20 minutes left on one of the dryers and about 40 minutes left on the other so I am sure I will be able to grab a dryer when I am done. Half an hour later I see that one dryer is done so I get ready to put my clothes in there, but oh wait, the person with 20 minutes left never came down to get their stuff so now I also have to throw their stuff in their laundry basket as well as put my stuff in the dryer. While I add my clothes to the dryer, the machine I was using to wash gets another load of my laundry and I know there will be a dryer for me to use since no one is using the washing machine but me and the other dryer has about 10 minutes left. I turn the timer on again.

35 minutes later I am ready to put my clothes in the dryer, but wait the machine I was going to use has 50 minutes left on it... apparently the person who was previously using it didn't think their clothes were dry enough so they put it back in for another hour. Now I have to wait at least until my current drying load is done before I can put my soggy wet clothes in a dryer, but I have to take them out of the washer because there is now someone waiting to use the washing machine. And also the clothes I removed from the dryer before I put my clothes in are still on top of the dryer. So I know there is about 20 minutes left on my dryer so I go upstairs and do some more studying and I go back down to collect my dry clothes and replace them with the wet ones from the washing machine incident just 20 minutes prior. Unfortunately there are now two people with wet clothes also waiting for the dryer who had their stuff in the washer with about 10 minutes left when I was removing my second load not too long ago. Now however I feel like an ass because they have also been waiting and I just show up to throw my crap in the dryer I was just using. Now I face a moral dilemma, do I give up the dryer to let the "patiently" waiting neighbors use it, or do I quickly throw my stuff in there and say "too bad, I get it"? I do what any anarchist would do. I take the machine for myself because I know had the situations been reversed they would have pulled the same crap on me.

And where the hell is the owner of these clothes on top of the dryer?

My Inferiority Complex

Apple introduced the Core 2 Duo MacBook Pros on Tuesday and as most of you know I have a MacBook Pro. I have loved my MacBook Pro ever since I got it, except for the whole dead on arrival thing from mid august, but that's another story. I had at the time of purchase the fastest Macintosh portable available and it felt damn good to be at the top, but now with the intro of the new MacBook Pros I feel somehow inadequate. These new models have the Core 2 Duo which sports a 64-bit processor (mine is 32-bit) at higher processing speeds. It also offers firewire 800, a bigger hard drive and more RAM for the same price I got mine. I mean I know technology has to get better, but why can't mine get better with it?

I guess this is just one of the steps of depreciation, it's quite sad really, how we invest so much in the best technology and four years later you'd be lucky to get $400 for that. It's worse than cars. The original Macintosh for instance sold at around $2,400 and that price today you could get something almost infinitely faster... Ah technology, it makes me wonder where we will be just a few years down the road. 500GB iPods, 2 TB laptop hard drives, Blu-ray (or HD-DVD) burners and wireless technology up to wazoo.

My Meeting

So as you may or may not know I met one of my all time favorite people yesterday at a rally in Berkeley. Oh who was it? Well I'll give you some clues, he won a majority of votes in the 2000 presidential election, his policies during his reign as VP helped to create environmental standards and helped to forge the technology which created what we know today as the World Wide Web, and now he travels the country giving a slideshow presentation about the effects of global warming (on a Mac of course where he sits on the board of directors). yup you guessed it, I met the Al Gore.

Yesterday at around 12:30 I was at a rally in Berkeley for passing proposition 87, on the CA ballot it is for taxing imported oil and using that revenue to research alternative energy sources for the future. He talked about why we must pass this if we want to help stop the effects of global warming and create a better world for our children. If you are so inclined you can watch the speech here http://www.yeson87.org/page/invite/TakeTheLead. I was right in the front and center. I arrived about an hour early to assure a good spot in line. In fact my friend Claire and I were first in line and by the end of the rally somewhere around 2000 people had shown up! Here's a picture of him after he shook my hand.


Photo Credit: Claire Viall

Ah it was really amazing.

On 'Weekends'

Weekends are a coveted thing here in college. They're worth their weight in boba. After a week of classes, papers, midterms, work, hall association, and Hillel the weekends are welcomed with open arms. A typical weekend for me is on Friday I work from 10:30-4:00. I love my work so it's kind of fun and enjoyable. Later on Fridays I go to Hillel for services and dinner, something to ease me into the weekend. After services I usually go out with Eric to get some boba, which I am I now an addict. I'll go back to my dorm at anytime ranging from 10:00-1:00 depending on what i do after boba. Either way I don't get to bed around 2:00 because I have to check and respond to my emails.

On Saturday I will wake sometime around 10:00 and sit at my desk for about an hour talking to people on AIM before getting my butt up to take a shower. I'll generally get out of the shower and around noon I'll head out to either the game or hang out with friends. Yesterday I hung out with Claire and Jena and we took in a movie (Man of the Year) instead of going to the game. In the evening it's anyone's game. I'll either go to Hillel for some activity or go out and eat which I only do around once a day on the weekends, unless there is free food where I might eat up to three times a day. Yesterday I saw the Afro Semitic Experience at Hillel as a benefit concert for Crones Disease, they were pretty awesome. Jewish dudes wearing traditional African clothing and big black guys playing the bongos while singing Eliyahu Hanavi. After the concert last night I went to get boba and watched Harold & Kumar.

Sundays are the worst day of all (excluding M-Th). I still get to sleep in, but I realize that I have homework/papers to write for classes that week. I then get my butt into the shower, procrastinate for about an hour, clean as a method of procrastination and finally I might crack open my textbook. On Sundays it's rare that I will go further than the dining commons less than 100 yards from my dorm room. However, I can get cabin fever easily and I might take a walk to Memorial Stadium which is awesome when empty. I then proceed to bed around 11:00 to get ready to wake up around 6:30 the next morning. It's all part of the routine.

However tomorrow I get to see Al Gore talk about Proposition 87. Yay!