A lot has happened in my life over the past 12 months. One year ago I was in Ann Arbor. I am here now as well. Between these A2 stints a bunch of stuff happened to me. I had the best and worst months of my life. Some relationships became much stronger, while others completely disintegrated. There are very few things I did that I regret, though those few things stick out like gaping wounds because of just how deeply I regret them. I only did like three stupid things, but they were VERY stupid, and they all involved women. Three is also the number of women involved in this time line, though the distribution of said mistakes was not even among them. I learned a lot I guess. Here's a brief recap in deliberately ambiguous bullet point form. I don't overtly name anyone, though it should be rather obvious to anyone who knows me who these people are. No one reads this anyways so it doesn't really matter.
August/September,
Moved to The Upper East Side of Manhattan!
Met Carter Page. You don’t know who he is because he doesn’t want you to.
Jogged in Central Park.
Had the most awkward, even painful interview of my life at www.priny.com They felt I handled it quite well and decided to hire me.
A poorly defined 3 year relationship ended over the course of five minutes or was it one month, or was five months? idk. I do know that over those five minutes it was clearly redefined as nonexistent going forward. This was my fault. I didn’t mind at the time. Maybe this was the problem? Maybe...
Watched my chosen industry unravel over a similarly bleak time scale. This was not my fault.
Talked to a lot of people in Nigeria over the phone.
Played a small role in closing an international deal worth hundreds of millions of dollars. On that note, I was completely unpaid (though I’m sure PRI, would argue not uncompensated) even though I feel I added real value to the project. This in contrast to my previous work at a law firm in Detroit where I was paid much more than the marginal product of my labor would dictate.
Found the Brooklyn warehouse party scene, and met a very smart and beautiful girl from Park Slope as a result.
October (Without a doubt the best month of my life,)
Had my first kiss with Park Slope girl here: ( Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Reservoir, Central Park) at sunset.
Spoke Chinese over the phone at work! Everyone thought I was so cool. I was thinking about how cool it would have been if they had given me money.
Met a bunch of members from the cast of Gossip Girl at a bar.
Was mistaken for a Hassidic Jew in Williamsberg.
Saw TV on The Radio play in Brooklyn
Saw Dan Deacon play in Brooklyn
Went to maybe 20 loft/warehouse parties
Met Bill Clinton on the street, and shook his hand
Was punched in the face on my birthday
Found Isaiah Berlin, rather, Joel Rosenthal found him for me.
November,
Robert Mugabe called my friend a witch, coming from a total asshole like him this is a badge of honor.
Saw Obama win the election at a bar in the East Village with my Canadian friend and a gay couple from Sweden who just had to apologize for anything bad that may have happened to my mother when she grew up there.
Remembered to eat lunch and dinner in the same day with Park Slope girl’s help.
Ran out of money.
Had Thanksgiving dinner with Park Slope girl at 11:55PM on the Upper East Side. We had steak, fuck turkey.
December,
Slept for more than 4 hours a day
Had my last Upper East Side brunch, for now...
Made the “mistake” of writing someone a letter of apology, the mistake of course was that everything in it was true...
Decided that said letter a was mistake
Decided that said letter was not a mistake, but that giving it to its recipient was.
Decided writing said letter was a mistake.
Didn’t mind writing that letter and finally decided that writing/delivering it was not a mistake...
January (without a a doubt the worst month of my life),
Went on a road trip, and was almost killed by a drunk driver. Douchebag. I almost died in Ohio on the highway, how boring.
Went crazy in Pennsylvania , like certifiably crazy. (no joke, I was a mess)
Wrote a very a stupid email. Like the dumbest, least coherent thing I’ve ever written in my life. Writing/sending this was a mistake. (I was CRAZY)
All the girls at Bucknell were quite attracted to me in my crazed state.
Drove home and was no longer crazy.
Woke up to hear Obama become president of the United States.
Saw Park Slope girl for the last time. Remembered how to properly break up with someone you care bout, and did so. It wasn’t as sad or hard as I had expected it to be.
February,
Fell in love with the smartest girl in the world. A very hot European law student. (She is so hot that the Croatian word for ‘sunshine’ is in her name) I’m in an astronomy class right now and we learned that the sun is very HOT. We ironically lived closer to each other in Manhattan than we did at Bard. But we never chilled in NYC.
Started coaching ice hockey. 33-7-2, something like that.
March/April/May,
Nothing unique happened at all really, I went to Puerto Rico, it was a waste of money.
I did start working for the Dutchess county legislature, Fighting corruption!!!!
June/July/August,
Moved to Ann Arbor, and like(d) it.
Found Ambrosia
Was asked for $600 from a drifter. At Ambrosia.
Saw someone get taken to the hospital after being hit in the head with a large stick, outside of Ambrosia.
Learned I don’t like astronomy, it’s all lies!!!
Found a useful sleep pattern (one that does not revolve around days)
Was asked to join a business venture in Eastern Europe, will I?
Finished reading Bonfire of the Vanities which I started last August.
Started reading Man in Full Maybe I’ll finish by next August.
It was an interesting year. To me anyways.
Alex
Thursday, August 6, 2009
Saturday, August 1, 2009
What's not to love
http://www.economist.com/blogs/freeexchange/2009/07/in_praise_of_immigration.cfm
It's very often that a policy or social view is so transperantly good for economic growth and moral conscience but liberal immigration polices managing to do both. All of this manages to ignore the balance of power gains from allowing a speaker of Egyptian arabic or say Albert Einstein into our country. Quality of life arguments against immigration seem to be catalyzed by purely xenophobic hatred for outsiders rather than sound economic argument. It may be true that These people would uncomfortable living with so called foreigners in Queens or Dearborn. I don't know why one should care much about their opinion, especially when its hurts our country in the long run. these people also seem to forget that their ancestors likely came here on boat a few thousand years after the original inhabitants of North America did anyways. They always seem to draw the line of when immigration became unacceptable to shortly after their own family arrived. How convenient.
It's very often that a policy or social view is so transperantly good for economic growth and moral conscience but liberal immigration polices managing to do both. All of this manages to ignore the balance of power gains from allowing a speaker of Egyptian arabic or say Albert Einstein into our country. Quality of life arguments against immigration seem to be catalyzed by purely xenophobic hatred for outsiders rather than sound economic argument. It may be true that These people would uncomfortable living with so called foreigners in Queens or Dearborn. I don't know why one should care much about their opinion, especially when its hurts our country in the long run. these people also seem to forget that their ancestors likely came here on boat a few thousand years after the original inhabitants of North America did anyways. They always seem to draw the line of when immigration became unacceptable to shortly after their own family arrived. How convenient.
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Immigration is much more than an economic issue
From a think tank where one my favorite professors is the president:
http://www.cceia.org/resources/journal/22_1/essays/001.html
"My goal here is twofold: First, I wish to make a plea for the relevance of moral considerations in debates about immigration. Too often, immigration debates are conducted solely from the standpoint of "what is good for us," without regard for the justifiability of immigration policies to those excluded. Second, I wish to offer a standpoint that demonstrates why one should think of immigration as a moral problem that must be considered in the context of global justice. More specifically, I will argue that the earth belongs to humanity in common and that this matters for assessing immigration policy. "
While I cannot hide that I am partially pro-immigration because I would not exist without it-My mother and three of my grandparents are immigrants- every economics professor I have had with one exception is also an immigrant.
From the standpoint of competitiveness one should note that a majority of this countries most successful technology companies such as Google were stated by immigrants. Ignoring all of that, immigration is in my opinion the single greatest contributor to world prosperity, development, and human rights in the history of mankind. The majority of arguments against immigration are misguided at best, and represent selfish xenophobia at their worst.
Read the whole article.
http://www.cceia.org/resources/journal/22_1/essays/001.html
"My goal here is twofold: First, I wish to make a plea for the relevance of moral considerations in debates about immigration. Too often, immigration debates are conducted solely from the standpoint of "what is good for us," without regard for the justifiability of immigration policies to those excluded. Second, I wish to offer a standpoint that demonstrates why one should think of immigration as a moral problem that must be considered in the context of global justice. More specifically, I will argue that the earth belongs to humanity in common and that this matters for assessing immigration policy. "
While I cannot hide that I am partially pro-immigration because I would not exist without it-My mother and three of my grandparents are immigrants- every economics professor I have had with one exception is also an immigrant.
From the standpoint of competitiveness one should note that a majority of this countries most successful technology companies such as Google were stated by immigrants. Ignoring all of that, immigration is in my opinion the single greatest contributor to world prosperity, development, and human rights in the history of mankind. The majority of arguments against immigration are misguided at best, and represent selfish xenophobia at their worst.
Read the whole article.
Monday, April 20, 2009
An odd silver lining
Pulitzers are being announced as I write:
Local Reporting -Detroit Free Press Staff "Awarded to Detroit Free Press Staff, and notably Jim Schaefer and M.L. Elrick, for their uncovering of a pattern of lies by Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick that included denial of a sexual relationship with his female chief of staff, prompting an investigation of perjury that eventually led to jail terms for the two officials."
no commentary necessary
Local Reporting -Detroit Free Press Staff "Awarded to Detroit Free Press Staff, and notably Jim Schaefer and M.L. Elrick, for their uncovering of a pattern of lies by Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick that included denial of a sexual relationship with his female chief of staff, prompting an investigation of perjury that eventually led to jail terms for the two officials."
no commentary necessary
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Hmmmm aka 87.5%
Last year I heard some kids at Bard were meeting to try to use our endowment's investment to draft a shareholder resolution to pressure a fast food company to use more environmentally safe practices. I thought this was a very stupid thing to do, so I went to the meeting. In no uncertain terms I told my contemporaries at Bard College that using our endowment to pressure McDonald's was a stupid idea that would not work.
http://www.suntimes.com/business/1504448,mcdonalds-program-reduce-potato-pesticides-033109.article
I was wrong,
Good Job guys.
-Alex
http://www.suntimes.com/business/1504448,mcdonalds-program-reduce-potato-pesticides-033109.article
I was wrong,
Good Job guys.
-Alex
Friday, April 10, 2009
What to think
compare:
http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/04/10/students-occupy-new-school-building-again/?hp
http://gawker.com/5159003/the-painfully-ridiculous-end-to-the-nyu-revolution
To this:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7989919.stm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flint_Sit-Down_Strike
Protesting for the sake thereof is not only pointless and stupid, but also insulting and embarrassing. I look at these kids in their Manhattan lofts who are not quite pleased with the $70k a year that their parents are paying for them to play around in the big city for 4-5 years. What are they complaining about you ask? Well the cafateria fro NYU's optional meal plan wont give them all the vegan food they want. And the "student free space" isn't open for them to do quite everything they wanted. Who cares? Go save some money and make your own vegan food, maybe go to some Brooklyn warehouse where you can do whatever you want, or drop out of the capitalist machine and move to some upstate village like Tivoli where scores of ex New yorkers pretend to live the real American dream, where everyone reads Marx and lives off the 'power structure' that treated them like adults for the first time in their miserable lives.
Especially sad is that these are the same kids I lived with on 1395 Lexington, who spend the first $20 dollars of their day smoking weed, and the next $50 eating at restaurants on Delancy, and the next $40 snorting cocaine, followed by another $50 at some shitty bar in the East Village. After wasting a few thousand dollars, and the first 5 weeks of their semester on an seemingly eternal drug binge. They wake up sober for the first time in months only to see that the world wasn't deigned to give them everything they want, and that no one cares about their pointless, and childish complaints. Worst of all, for all the yelling and breaking of things, they wont actually risk anything for their bullshit demands. Worst case scenario the very polite (and much poorer) police detain them for 3 hours and the administration suspends them for a semester, so they can do some bullshit 40 thousand dollar english language study abroad program at a chateau in Italy or a townhouse in London for 2 months, only to return back to their "oppressive" schools next year.
Why is it that these days all the marxist occupiers go to private schools and have corporate parents with million dollar stock options and six figure incomes?
Contrast this with Moldavia, where the protesters are asking for fair elections, entrance in to the EU. (IE liberal western system) And not to lose their sovereignty to a communist hegemon. Why do these kids and the workers who did sit ins at the GM and Dodge plants risk their jobs and often their lives for what they want? Maybe it's because they wanted something just and real, when all these NYU kids wants is bullshit, and their derivative art sucks too.
GM and Chrysler workers have plenty of reasons to be pissed at their upper management for lying to them for 20 years, and running their company, hundreds of thousands of jobs, and my entire home state into the ground. But yet they don't destroy the factory. Everyone in Southeastern Michigan has reasons to be pissed at Kwame Kilpatrick and the Detroit city council for continuously embarrassing us and doing everything they can to seal the fate of what used to be my favorite city as a ghost of the past that will never return. And yet they don't occupy city hall and waste the police force's limited resources and time with petty demands. Maybe these people, most of whom never went to college, are just smarter than the New School/ NYU set. They are certainly more polite.
EDIT: This doesn't apply to all or even most NYU/ NEW SChool students. In fact many of the protesters were at both schools 'occupations' Also Bob Kerry probably should resign. He doesn't have a PhD, which should be a prereq for president of a PhD granting institution. He has also shown failure of leadership, if most of your students and faculty hate you, maybe you should pull a Larry Summers and get paid seven figures to advice some nice Hedge funders for three days a week.
http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/04/10/students-occupy-new-school-building-again/?hp
http://gawker.com/5159003/the-painfully-ridiculous-end-to-the-nyu-revolution
To this:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7989919.stm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flint_Sit-Down_Strike
Protesting for the sake thereof is not only pointless and stupid, but also insulting and embarrassing. I look at these kids in their Manhattan lofts who are not quite pleased with the $70k a year that their parents are paying for them to play around in the big city for 4-5 years. What are they complaining about you ask? Well the cafateria fro NYU's optional meal plan wont give them all the vegan food they want. And the "student free space" isn't open for them to do quite everything they wanted. Who cares? Go save some money and make your own vegan food, maybe go to some Brooklyn warehouse where you can do whatever you want, or drop out of the capitalist machine and move to some upstate village like Tivoli where scores of ex New yorkers pretend to live the real American dream, where everyone reads Marx and lives off the 'power structure' that treated them like adults for the first time in their miserable lives.
Especially sad is that these are the same kids I lived with on 1395 Lexington, who spend the first $20 dollars of their day smoking weed, and the next $50 eating at restaurants on Delancy, and the next $40 snorting cocaine, followed by another $50 at some shitty bar in the East Village. After wasting a few thousand dollars, and the first 5 weeks of their semester on an seemingly eternal drug binge. They wake up sober for the first time in months only to see that the world wasn't deigned to give them everything they want, and that no one cares about their pointless, and childish complaints. Worst of all, for all the yelling and breaking of things, they wont actually risk anything for their bullshit demands. Worst case scenario the very polite (and much poorer) police detain them for 3 hours and the administration suspends them for a semester, so they can do some bullshit 40 thousand dollar english language study abroad program at a chateau in Italy or a townhouse in London for 2 months, only to return back to their "oppressive" schools next year.
Why is it that these days all the marxist occupiers go to private schools and have corporate parents with million dollar stock options and six figure incomes?
Contrast this with Moldavia, where the protesters are asking for fair elections, entrance in to the EU. (IE liberal western system) And not to lose their sovereignty to a communist hegemon. Why do these kids and the workers who did sit ins at the GM and Dodge plants risk their jobs and often their lives for what they want? Maybe it's because they wanted something just and real, when all these NYU kids wants is bullshit, and their derivative art sucks too.
GM and Chrysler workers have plenty of reasons to be pissed at their upper management for lying to them for 20 years, and running their company, hundreds of thousands of jobs, and my entire home state into the ground. But yet they don't destroy the factory. Everyone in Southeastern Michigan has reasons to be pissed at Kwame Kilpatrick and the Detroit city council for continuously embarrassing us and doing everything they can to seal the fate of what used to be my favorite city as a ghost of the past that will never return. And yet they don't occupy city hall and waste the police force's limited resources and time with petty demands. Maybe these people, most of whom never went to college, are just smarter than the New School/ NYU set. They are certainly more polite.
EDIT: This doesn't apply to all or even most NYU/ NEW SChool students. In fact many of the protesters were at both schools 'occupations' Also Bob Kerry probably should resign. He doesn't have a PhD, which should be a prereq for president of a PhD granting institution. He has also shown failure of leadership, if most of your students and faculty hate you, maybe you should pull a Larry Summers and get paid seven figures to advice some nice Hedge funders for three days a week.
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
This is how you do it
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/08/us/08vermont.html?_r=1&hp
I have to go get dinner, but read above, and read my post below.
have a good day
I have to go get dinner, but read above, and read my post below.
have a good day
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