April 2008
39 posts
Six Cal players get chosen; Stanford gets ignored →
Wow, best headline EVER. Go bears: Only three colleges - USC with 10, Virginia Tech with eight and LSU with seven - had more players drafted this year, and all three finished ranked in the top 10. Better yet: As prominent as Cal was in the draft, Stanford was a no-show, having no players drafted for only the second time since 1962. And for the best part: The first Cal player taken Sunday - and...
Dollar's fall forces new standard of frugality →
An article from the SF Chronicle that does a good job of summarizing what is happening with the economy. While it doesn’t go into too much depth, it touches on all the main points. One conclusion I’ve come to is that this recession looks like it will be great for the environment: Consumer purchases of items other than food and gas have fallen this year, according to the Commerce...
Attack!
I’ve gotten bit five times tonight by at least one rogue mosquito—and that is just on my left arm. The past two weeks I have had one mosquito every night bother me during my sleep. He/she waits patiently throughout the entire day, and then the second my head hits the pillow, it comes out with a full assault. Sometimes it will fly into my ear and wake me up, but it always seems to...
In Spain...
The ground level of a building is floor zero. Up the stairs and you are on the first floor. Down the stairs and you are on floor -1. I think this is much more intuitive than in the States, where you enter on the first floor.
Salad always comes sprinkled with salt. It doesn’t matter if it is a side salad, the main course, or garnish, it always comes salted.
Kids drink when they are...
New Photos
Since I am alone in the residencia this weekend, I figured I would use the freed up bandwidth to upload some photos. I finished three albums tonight, and you can find them in link on the right. The new albums are: The hike to Mulva (Roman ruins!) Semana Santa (Holy Week) Gibraltar More to come tomorrow!
Radiohead Goes Green for Live Show (BBC) →
This is cool—I hope we see more of this. They chose not to fly to NY for a live show and instead broadcast via satellite because of “concerns over global warming.” The band opted to record a live version of House Of Cards in London rather than fly over to the US for the one-off performance.Frontman Thom Yorke said the band avoided leaving a carbon footprint equivalent to driving...
Spain's Pregnant Defense Minister →
Here’s a TIME article about Carme Chacón, who was appointed Defense Minister by Prime Minister Zapatero, who won reelection last month. The race for PM was very close in Spain—campaign posters/stickers were everywhere, speeches and debates were on TV every night, and they filled the front pages of newspapers for weeks—not unlike elections in the US. Chacón, one of many women in...
This weekend...
Eleven of my housemates in our residencia went to Lagos with Discover Sevilla, a company that organizes trips for Americans. I had originally planned on going, but decided to stay in Sevilla instead. This leaves me with myself, my housemate Keith, my host parents, and their two kids. Yesterday I had lunch with just my host mom (I call her Mama Rosa). Usually there are 13 of us at meals, so this...
Credit Card Readers on Personal Computers
They should have that. When you are about to buy something online and have to fill out the credit card form, it would be nice to just swipe you card on the side of your laptop/desktop. It sure would save time. Small businesses could run their business with just a laptop.
1 tag
Why Bother? →
Here is a good NYT article by Michael Pollan, who wrote Botany of Desire, Omnivore’s Dilemma, and In Defense of Food. He is also a professor at Berkeley, and lectured in my PoliSci 179 class last year. Last semester I saw him walking on Sproul and had a chance to say hello. Here is an excerpt from the article, after he poses the question, “Why bother?” about changing your habits...
Top 5 Industries That (I Think) Won't Be Around in...
I’ve been obsessed with lists lately. Here is the list that got me started. I thought about these while I was in finance today learning about futures markets. Payphones Fax machines Camera film Cable boxes CD’s The list should probably be called “Products” instead of “Industries” but oh well. Payphones are pretty obvious, although in Europe I have seen a lot...
What Warren Thinks... →
An interesting interview with Warren Buffet in Fortune. Here is an excerpt, when asked about his first job: Well, I worked for my grandfather, which was really tough, in the [family] grocery store. But if you gave me the choice of being CEO of General Electric or IBM or General Motors, you name it, or delivering papers, I would deliver papers. I would. I enjoyed doing that. I can think about what...
Sevilla 1, Almeria 4
We just couldn’t get anything going. It was raining the entire game, and for most of the first half it was a torrential downpour. When we got to our seats we realized that we were in the Almeria section, so we moved to where our beloved Sevilla fans were sitting. I think when you buy tickets at the ticket office they put all the Americans in the visitor’s section. Anyways, we were all...
Sevilla futbol!
I am just about to leave for the Sevilla vs. Almeria soccer game right now. It should be a good match—they are both close in the standings, and this is the last home game of the season for Sevilla. I am going to wear the jersey that I bought in Morocco and the poncho that my mom gave me before I left—it is supposed to rain like crazy tonight. Luckily the poncho is clear, so I can show...
Rain!
It’s raining in Sevilla right now (at 4 in the morning). It was nice earlier in the day, but it started to get windy and it led to this. It isn’t too cold though—it’s pretty refreshing. Even a bad day in Sevilla is nice. Just like southern California.
“If you’re not living on the edge, you’re taking up too much space.”
– One of Rich’s favorite lines.
Casualty Visualization →
This is a compelling display of the number of casualties in Iraq (make sure your sound is on). I would be interested to see Afghanistan on the map as well (or Iraqi civilian deaths). It goes from March 20, 2003 until October 5, 2007 when the project was last updated. After a while of watching this I thought, “Okay, this should end soon.” But it kept going. After a while I can’t...
Masters Prediction
This year’s Masters has been a good one, but not only because Fred has been providing non-stop coverage. This year’s leaderboard is ripe with relatively unknown players. Trevor Immelman definitely isn’t a household name. Neither is Brandt Snedeker (my buddy Freddy and I call him Burnt Snickers), Robert Karlsson, or the 25-year-old Sean O’Hair. Almost all of the guys can be...
I'm a Berkeley student again!
I got my Telebears appointment today, which is scheduled for next Wednesday. Thanks a bunch to Juliana for filling it out and turning it in, and my parents for answering some rediculous questions on the forms (what date did you first register to vote?). Because Berkeley’s study abroad program (EAP) doesn’t include Sevilla, I had to withdraw from Berkeley and enroll in Universidad de...
New photos!
I had some time to add photos today. They are in: Bus ride to Fes Barcelona DoñanaBarcelona was a great weekend trip, but I think I would still prefer studying in Sevilla. They speak a different language in Barcelona (Catalan) and it is a much bigger city. It doesn’t have the same Spanish vibe that Sevilla has.
Update: I AM WATCHING THE MASTERS RIGHT NOW!
Thank you Fred! Fred reminded me tonight that he has Slingbox, which lets you watch or record all TV programs, including the 2008 Masters (yes!). I am going to watch the replay of Friday’s round tonight, and then watch Saturday’s round live. Oh, how I love technology. This is probably the only good thing about Comcast. Update: Comcast doesn’t make Slingbox—it is its own...
Back from the Dam
Rich, Justin and I got back from Holland at 4am this morning after a whirlwind public transportation experience/nightmare. I will explain later. What I really want to express in this post is how lame it is that the top golfers in the world are playing in the Masters and I can’t watch! I haven’t missed the Masters since I first began playing golf when I was 9 years old—my Grandpa...
Greetings from Holland
After 14 hours of travel, including a sleepover at Madrid’s airport, we made it to the town of Lent, where we will be staying until Thursday. Case’s apartment is in Lent, which is just over the bridge from the city of Nijmegen. Nijmegen was a post for American soldiers protecting the city’s bridge during WWII. The city is amazing—it is the oldest in the Netherlands and has...
Can you name the elements? →
Try it. I gave up after 21. I got the two that are named after Berkeley. (via kottke)
Feria
AKA Spring Break #2 began today after I finished my quiz on nonverbal communication in international business. Feria is a weeklong celebration in Sevilla, and is only two weeks after Semana Santa, AKA Spring Break #1. To start Feria off with a bang, we are going to the Extremadura region of Spain, which is in the western, landlocked part of the country. There, we will be embarking on a series of...
Bullfight!
I’m leaving in 2 minutes for my first bullfight—can’t wait.
