Random Update (1.31.13)

Sunday was full of activities. Pat and I had our first intramural basketball game. We played the defensive line of the Boston College football team and lost. I am not brave enough to mention the score publicly. Soccer was later in the evening, and much nicer. We won 1-0, although I took a direct hit to a sensitive area so I crawled off the pitch a few minutes early. All better now though. 

I had jury duty on Monday, the 28th, so I had to get up really early (for college) and go downtown. Basically, I waited in a big room with other people in the 'jury pool' until my number got called (227? I forget what it was) and then the group of 40 of us went in the elevator up to the court room, where a nice old judge explained what's important about being on a jury, why it's important, what sort of mindset one needs, etc. I was the first possible jury called up for the 1v1 interview with the judge, after the group questions were asked to everyone at once. He offered to excuse me because I was a student, which was nice. So I said yes, and barely made it back in time for Modern Physics lab at 5:00 PM. Overall a good experience, I got a good bit of reading done while I waited (it was a long wait!) mostly Kant's Metaphysics of Morals. It was kind of funny because he talks about 'duty' all the time, and I was on jury duty... maybe funny is the wrong word. 

Modern physics is cool. Relativity is really interesting and intuitive. And in lab, we get to measure most of the fundamental constants, like c, h, k, and maybe permeability and permitivity, I forget. Definitely the first three though. My lab partner is Olivier, he's an exchange student from Amsterdam, and he's a really good fellow. We went to a local bar with some other friends after lab on Wednesday to watch the Real Madrid - Barcelona game (Arsenal - Liverpool and Man U - Southampton were also showing).

The last few weeks I've been going to dance practice at night because my roommates (J.M. and Veb) convinced me to do the sophomore dance... so for example this evening (Thursday) we all went to a classroom in Gasson, moved chairs around, and practiced. Zach (another roommate) and Jonathan (soccer mate) are dancing too. There are 8 guys and 16 girls, it's actually more fun than I thought... I guess if anything I appreciate anyone who can make dancing look cool a lot more than I used to... it's hard. I imagine having nimble soccer legs helps, but still. I'm tall and white... not the best dancer gene combo there.

Tomorrow I have an early Spanish class, and then I'm done! Also hard to believe January is over. However, it's also amazing how it's only been half a month since we've been back too... speaking of relativity... college is definitely empirical evidence of its existence. 

Random Update (1.21.13)

It's weird to type "13" at the end up there. But as new years go, this was a pretty normal switch. I can't explain why, but I offer that opinion. 

After a good ol' "syllabus week" full of not too much work because people are still switching classes (until this Tuesday, I believe), I got to hang out with the roomies on Friday. Fridays are nice because I only have one class at 10:00 AM! Which is Spanish, if you're keeping score. This semester I've been inspired to go to the gym, known around Boston College as "the Plex," a lot more than I ever have. There is definitely truth in the shoe company ASICS, which stands for "anima sana in corpore sano." They must have sold a lot more shoes back then than they do now. No one speaks Latin now! Respect for sticking to your Roman roots, ASICS. Respect. Anyways, as I was saying, my head feels better when my body does, so I've been exercising more. And playing soccer, or at least kicking a soccer ball around, as much as I can. Everything is simpler when I have a soccer ball. On the subject of soccer, there may be a few Spring season games for the BC club team. Not quite sure yet. 

This long weekend had some american football games. Mi padre likes the 49er's and we ended up in Atlanta on Saturday, ready for the game on Sunday. Let's start from the beginning. Atlanta is a huge airport. My sources tell me it is the largest in the USA, which I believe. James and Mitchell picked me up sometime in the evening from the airport (they drove to Atlanta) and we went off to the hotel. Between the hotel, hotel parking, and the waiting staff at the Mellow Mushroom, Atlanta was found to be full of not incompetent people... but almost incompetent people... they're more like... frustrating people. The hotel was really cool. The inside plaza thing went up however tens of stories to the roof, and the balconies of the rooms I could see reminded me of Mos Eisley (think sandy).

Inside.

Cool art inside.

After dinner we watched 'Pawn Stars' on the History Channel. The music, the pageantry... wow, what a musical. The funniest moment was probably the (assuming here) drunken chants in the middle of the night from a poor 49er's fan... "Let's, go, Niners," which was occasionally answered by the odd other drunken 49er's fan. It was pretty hilarious, except I was kinda sleeping so it wasn't really that hilarious in the moment. 

The game was awesome. The Georgia Dome is huge and fits many people, most of whom scream very loudly at the top of their lungs whenever a non-Georgia team is trying to score or when a Georgia team scores. It got really loud, is the point I'm making here. San Francisco went down 24-14 first half, but shut out Atlanta in the entire second half to win, 24-28. Pretty amazing game, even for american football. Here are some photos.

Front of Georgia Dome. Adequately sponsored. 

Empty.

Still empty. Other side. 

A hero of ESPN. John Clayton (in HD, he is hard to watch...)

Announcing Atlanta's team with flare. 

Wow, America. Big ol' flag there. 

Coin toss.

Kick off. 

This is the "TV Timeout" guy. He signals to the referees when to take a TV timeout with big orange dish-washing gloves. I think that's hilarious. 

A play with Matt Ryan (BC graduate) at the helm of the attack. 

Random Update (1.15.12)

It's good to be back. Sunday I washed my sheets and blankets (starting the semester right) after saying hello to a few people and roommates and stuff. I had been up since 7:30 CST (central standard time? I have no idea if that's the abbreviation) to watch the Manchester United vs. Liverpool and Arsenal vs. Manchester City soccer matches on TV, so I was tired and went to bed around midnight (so early!). On Monday I had two classes: Spanish and Economics. I really like them. Actually I can probably describe/organize all this better, one moment...

Monday

Navigating the Nation: Cityscapes and Countryside 

10:00 AM - 10:50 AM

This is a Spanish elective class that covers literature and art in Spain from the 18th-21st centuries with the same professor as last semester who I really enjoyed. It focuses on the contrast between rural/urban identity in Spain. I just barely took up the last spot in this class because it is technically my "overload" or 6th class and I could only sign up by going to student services and getting an overload approved in person. 

Modern Physics Lab

4:00 PM - 5:00 PM

This starts January 28th. 

Microeconomic Theory

6:00 PM - 7:15 PM

The follow-up course to Principles of Economics, this class takes a closer look at a few topics from the intro course. The teacher is a part-time guy in his 30's who knows his stuff and makes the class really enjoyable. He's pretty funny in my opinion. Also, Pat's in this class with me. It's the first class I have ever had with any roommate, ever, besides Mike in Physics (but he dropped Physics so that doesn't count anymore). Also this class is in the new building on campus, called Stokes. It's an honor to have class there (but really it's so freakin awesome). 

Tuesday

Principles of Macroeconomics

10:30 AM - 11:45 AM

The second intro econ course after the one I took last semester. The teacher seems pretty normal, it's a big class though so it's always harder to be a compelling teacher in front of 200 seats. Unfortunately, when he talks for extended periods of time, his saliva froths up on his lower lip. Yes. I went there. The world needs to know. 

Modern Physics

12:00 PM - 1:15 PM

Relativity and basic quantum. Let's go. There was a little of a "thinning of the herd" effect this semester in physics, Sean, Matt, and Mike (and maybe another one or two people I don't know) dropped physics. So it's a little smaller. But the professor, like most physics professors, seems really great. 

Western Cultural Tradition

3:00 PM - 4:50 PM

Continuation of last semester's class, a few substitutions to the roster, but generally the same students. We are reading stories of the Hasidim (Jewish peeps) right now and later Brothers Karamozov. Started Brothers over break and I like it a lot. 

Wednesday

Navigating the Nation: Cityscapes and Countryside 

10:00 AM - 10:50 AM

Microeconomic Theory

6:00 PM - 7:15 PM

Thursday

Principles of Macroeconomics

10:30 AM - 11:45 AM

Modern Physics

12:00 PM - 1:15 PM

Western Cultural Tradition

3:00 PM - 4:50 PM

Friday

Navigating the Nation: Cityscapes and Countryside 

10:00 AM - 10:50 AM

There she is, my schedule. In other news, we have been playing a bunch of card games the last few nights, including but not limited to Spades, Hearts, Palace (or Castle), Cribbage, and Spectrum. I bought frozen strawberries and brie yesterday, but left "This is a Book" by Demetri Martin in the checkout line after I emptied my backpack to fill it up, so I went back to get it today. It's getting cold over here in Boston. Not too much soccer outside, unfortunately. But indoor 7v7 season is starting up, and I am liking me and my roommates' prospects. What else. Oh yeah. Marilyn came. 

Random Update (12.16.12)

The last day of classes was last Monday, which is followed by 'study days' until finals, with exams running from Thursday until the following Thursday the 20th. I had a Spanish essay due last Monday and an honors paper due on Wednesday which I have turned in. Earlier this morning (Saturday) I had my Spanish final exam, which was pretty easy. What I have been studying for the most is Economics. Rereading chapters, taking notes on them, reworking tests, etc. I'm about 65% done and have all of Sunday to finish up the more recent material, which I'm hoping is a little fresher in the ol' noggin. So I have an Economics exam on Monday at 9:00 AM, an honors exam on Tuesday at 9:00 AM (+ a talk with professor Cohen which counts as the final essay of the semester), and a Physics exam on Wednesday at 9:00 AM. I am a little scared of Physics, but after Economics I will basically only be studying for that for two days, and then I get to fly home! So it will be worth the effort. Oh, and I also have a 12 page history paper (1.5 spacing! Ah!) due Monday by midnight. I'm 9.5 pages into it, so no worries there. 

Midway through the non-stop studying and essay writing, there arose a need for a break. That break took the form of a 16-man FIFA 13 knockout tournament with a mix of roommates and intramural teammates (we lost in the quarterfinals in the intramural playoffs... maybe I forgot to mention that before). Anyways, the invitation was sent out, and 15 glory-hungry Boston College students arrived around 7:30 PM earlier this evening (Saturday) to duke it out (one of our Spanish-speaking roommates feared he would shame himself and his family by losing, and dropped out with little warning, giving Patrick a first-round bye). Attire for the event was suit and tie. Rules for attire were loosely enforced. After about three hours of yelling, Torres jokes, and quality simulated football, we arrived at the final match, staged in London's one and only Wembley Stadium. Barcelona (Frank) vs. Arsenal (me, somehow). After a quick two goals midway through the first half by Theo Walcott and Lucas Podolski, Arsenal was looking strong. However, even the home-field advantage could not hold back the silky goal machine of Barcelona. A quick goal before half, and two more in the second secured them more silverware, despite Gervinho's heartbreaking shot off the post and Walcott's late header over the bar. 

FIFA Formal, as we called it, was not a normal tournament. There were some added rules for football flavor, taken from the wonderful, creative playground of the internet. These are known as FIFA Apology Rules. They read as follows.

Lose by the following number of goals and face the following consequences:
5 - Write a Facebook apology to your opponent praising them for their brilliance. 
6 - You must kiss the feet of your opponent. 
7 - You must make your opponent a tasty sandwich. 
8 - You must be the slave of your opponent for an hour. 
9 - You must eat a tablespoon of various kitchen ingredients of your opponent's discretion. 
10 - You must send a Moonpig apology to your opponent 
11 - Winning player gets 11 minutes on the losers Facebook to do whatever they wish (No changing passwords). Whatever is put on there has to stay for at least 11 hours. 
12 - You must play the next game fully naked 
13 - You have to go to your next door neighbours and start describing the game in its full detail, minute by minute, and where fundamentally you went wrong; if they shut the door move on to the next house and pick up where you left off. 
14 - The person must wear a custom t-shirt, designed by the winner, it must have on the back, " I lost by 14 on Fifa 13 " on the front, it can have what ever the winner desires. The loser must then walk around town explaining to 14 different people why they have lost so badly and get them to sign the t-shirt. A picture must then be uploaded to facebook with the T-shirt on for further abuse. 
15 - You must send a letter to FIFA explaining in great detail why you lost by 15 goals. 
20 - You are not allowed to play FIFA, ever, ever, EVER again. 

Player Rules
Score a hat trick with Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink against someone else and they must refer to you as *your name* of *your town of choice* for a fortnight. 
Score a hat trick with Park Ji Sung and your opponent has to jog everywhere he goes, instead of walking. 
Score a hat trick with Andy Carroll/Torres/Moura and your opponent must go into a shop and insist on paying more for an item than it is worth. 
For every headed goal you concede to Aaron Lennon - you will have 2 slits shaved into your eyebrow. 
Score a hat trick with Dimitar Berbatov, and in the next game you play against your opponent, their striker cannot use the sprint button. 
Get a man sent off while playing as Arsenal and you must play the remainder of the match blindfolded. If Wenger did not see the incident, then neither shall you. 
Lose against Accrington Stanley with any top tier team, loser must reply with "Who are they?" to anything said to him for 24 hours, unless someone says "Who are they?" to which the loser must reply "Exactly". 
If you score with Phil Neville, your opponent must go to bed for the rest of the day. PENALTIES DON'T COUNT! 
Score with a hat trick with Emmanuel Adebayor against Arsenal - Your oponent must run the full length of the garden and powerslide, regardless of the weather conditions, while all others present pelt with rubbish and leftover food. 
Score With a Keeper Twice in One Game - Your opponent must buy you food from a take-out to the value of 7 quid under the name of "Fabianski". 
Score with Rory Delap - Your opponent must dry everything with a towel before use for 24 hours 
Score a hat-trick with Sotirios Kyrgiakos and your opponent must dress as a Spartan, go into their local supermarket, and shout 'THIS IS SPARTA' until thrown out. 
Be awarded 2 penalties in one game with Neymar/Busquets/Suarez - next time you are in town you will fall over dramatically 5 times when brushed by any passers by. If you wish you can scream REFFFFFFF while falling. 
Score the winning goal with Ryan Giggs against Arsenal and your opponent must replicate the celebration in your local street - swinging the shirt above the head is a must!

A brilliant bit of human creative genius, that. If you notice in the following photo, PSG lost to Barcelona 7-2. Here is what a FIFA 13 Apology looks like (an original creation!)

Dearest Frank, 

This past Saturday night, I did you the great disservice of wasting 10 minutes of your time in challenging you to a FIFA 13 match. It was with great hubris that I attempted to fell the mighty tree that is your FIFA prowess. Like the foolhardy Icarus, I ventured too near your burning sun of skill that gracefully sheds its warmth on us all. Gods should not be challenged, rather they should only be revered. So I, with a heavy heart, do intend to remain humble forever more. 

Sincerely, Airen [middle name] [last name] (esq.)

Final Bracket

Oh, and there was a big meteor shower on Friday night at 2:00 AM. That was cool.

Random Update (12.2.12)

Campus was pretty dead two Saturdays ago when J.M. and I got back from Thanksgiving in Maryland. So not that much happened Saturday night, and Sunday was a lazy day full of FIFA 13 and then some pesky Paradise Lost reading (it just takes so long... silly 17th century English epic blank verse). The truly exciting part of last week was meeting with my study abroad advisor on Tuesday afternoon. We went over studying abroad in Spain. I want to go for the entire year. The tricky part is deciding if being abroad for a full year is worth it, for example I'd miss a bunch of people at BC and family and club soccer, but also everyone I talk to who has been abroad says to go for a year if it's feasible. Which it is. I was leaning towards Barcelona for a lot of reasons. They have a great school for economics (Pompeu Fabra) they have beaches, they have unlimited soccer, and they have a ton of other stuff that I'm excited to go find. My biggest concerns are the size of the city I decide to go to, the quality of education there, and safety. I like smaller towns for the last reason, plus a smaller city is much easier to get to know quickly. However, not going to a school like Pompeu Fabra is hard to do as well. So, deciding what place for how long is the big issue. But the best thing is that I have options, it's all possible, and I'm flexible. Next year is going to be a blast. 

However back to this year, we celebrated Veb's 20th birthday this weekend, Friday night to be exact. That was a lot of fun; our 8-man suite was full of friends and everyone had a great time. Jim and I had a great photo, which you'll see displayed  below. Saturday evening, stopped by Sam and Matt's Christmas party they had in Ignacio, which they really did well. Unfortunately I couldn't stay for too long because I had to catch the last show that a school comedy group was putting on at 10:30. The group is called "Shovelhead" and a couple friends from Newton are in it. It was hilarious; I watched with Nick (roommate this summer) and some other folks. After that, I pretty much went to bed, after grabbing some food in Lower with Alex and Pat and people.

Today was a day for thinking. I read Paradise Lost for a few hours in the library. Then Christine invited me to a casual bible discussion with a few people she knew. So, I went to Cleveland Circle (a short bus ride away, CC has a bunch of little places for food and other little things like haircuts and CVS products). I got a haircut and then the four of us went to Chipotle for dinner. We talked for about 1.5 hours about Christianity, God, faith, heaven, Jesus, sin, love... you get the idea; we talked about a lot of questions to which no one has a satisfying answer. Then since Christine is losing her mind because her dreams are slowly becoming reality, she and some roommates watched the trippy movie Waking Life (2001). Oh! Also, my friend Lev had a little t-shirt project this summer, and it came through using kickstarter.com, here are the fruits of his labor. Also, it snowed. A little.

Synonymous T-shirts

Jim and I (Gemini). Frightening, I know.

Random Update (11.19.12)

Thank goodness Halloween is over, that is such a silly holiday for college. It's outstanding for little kids (free candy everywhere) but for college students it simply strikes me as silly. We can eat candy for dinner whenever we want! It was kind of funny how Halloween comes right before the presidential election. Let's chow down on some candy and wear costumes of gorillas and faeries five days before voting on who the most important person in the world should be. Seriously? America is so weird. 

I watched the election over in Edmonds hall with some friends from last years honors seminar. My friend Paul popped some popcorn (in a pot, on a stove, with oil) and it was very yummy. Boston College was pretty overwhelmingly democratic. Or maybe the democrats were loud. I'm not sure. But I was expecting more Romney-ers here. Also, Donald Trump is hilarious on Twitter. And by hilarious, I mean it's hilarious that what I read is actually what he thinks: "This election is a total sham and a travesty. We are not a democracy!". He's right about the second part. We're a federal republic!

Daylight savings time is always so awesome. Just so awesome. 

Unrelated to daylight savings time but related to daylight was the all-nighter I pulled on that Thursday to finish a Spanish paper. I always think those are much faster to write. But that's not correcto, I learn time after time. I did write the essay well, though. Hopefully that is returned tomorrow.

So I've been trying my best to use the services that Boston College provides, because they cost a good bit to have for only four years. There's this thing called "Sophomore Quest" run by the career center which was basically a bunch of programs to make you think about your career and then to help you get a move-on with what you might want to do. Also, if you go to these programs, you might win an iPad or some cash or something in a raffle. Surprising that not more people did it, but better odds for me! And so anywhos right now there is an overload of things I am looking to do. One of the programs was about Advanced Study Grants. These are summer grants for independent study on topics/research of the students design and fancy. Which looks awesome. I want to do something with the stars and physics in an observatory or something. But that deadline is early next semester. I also had an outstanding conversation with two of my soccer friends, Both and Ethan, about their time abroad during their junior year. Both went to Barcelona and Buenos Aires; Ethan went to Valencia. The stories and amazing experiences they had have convinced me wholeheartedly to try to go abroad for a full year. Ideally, I would be at Pompeu Fabra University all next year (my economics advisor holds it #2 behind LSE in Europe for economics). So I would fine tune my Spanish and take some Economics classes over there. I am meeting with the Study Abroad Advisor right after Thanksgiving break, and I am very very very excited to make this work. Finally, I would like to get some sort of internship at a small start-up business this summer and see how that sort of business works. I like the idea of starting your own business. Actually, finally, my friends JM and Alex both have a place to crash in Sao Paulo during the world cup in summer 2014. So that would be the icing on the cake if I can make some dough to buy a ticket to Brazil. It's a lot to plan and sort out, but it's exciting and worth it. 

Spotify is a great invention. I've been using the free trial, and it's great. Basically, I can see what songs my Facebook friends listen to, subscribe to playlists they make, and send them songs to listen to, all for free (with commericals) or for $7 a month (no commericals + iPhone app). I'm on the month of free trial stuff and it's great. I'm really into folky-chill stuff right now. 

And at last, I cannot wait for Thanksgiving. However, after getting back a physics test that I did well on and then realizing I have minimal work for Monday and Tuesday class, I'm enjoying these last few days before break immensely. Last night, I went with Angela, Alex, Christine, and Pat to "El Habibi", a hookah lounge (wow that sure was interesting!).  Blowing smoke rings and chilling on couches is fun, but light-headedness and nausea are not. I'd only go once a year maximum, and only if invited. Today we had a quarterfinal game for intramural playoffs... we lost (3-0 down at half, lost 3-2 after so much pressure! Angry we didn't pull off the comeback). Tomorrow all the roommates are going out to dinner at Fire and Ice (delicious Mongolian stir-fry cooked-in-front-of-you restaurant). And Tuesday I am watching all of season three of Lost before flying Wednesday morning with JM to Baltimore!

Random Update (10.31.12)

First, some catching up. On Wednesday the 17th I went to see a band called The Wombats with Jeff and Hannah, which was a blast. They're from Liverpool! And this was their last show before shipping off, so the opening band thought it'd be grand to dress up as the Ninja Turtles, Gandalf, and Robin, run onto stage after the encore, and have a ten minute alcohol-induced jam session. It was pretty crazy, I must say. Unfortunately I also missed out on an intramural derby match against some senior friends of ours, which we won, 1-0. We are tied for 6th place going into the post-season. And this is the big leagues, not the lily-livered freshman outdoor soccer league. It's very competitive. 

Two days later, around 2:17 PM, the BC club soccer teams departed to Downington PA (male and female teams, that is). It was a long ol' bus ride, full of witter banter, interesting and new smells, and sleep cycles that varied like sin and cos curves. We arrived late at night to the Sharaton or Hampton Inn, I forget which, to find out that we were playing the best team in our group at 8:00 AM the following morning! So we slept quickly after we settled into the rooms, and in the morning we got up and bused out to the fields at a local high school. We had an amazing start again UConn (6 seed), we scored off a free kick midway through the first half and went into halftime up 1-0. All our hard work went down the crapper with one mistake from our keeper, though. He came out to punch a lofty ball from a free kick, missed, and the ball trickled into the net to tie the game. We pressed to get the lead again, hit the post, had a lot of shots, and got counter-attacked to lose 1-2. That really sucked, I hated losing that game. We had worked really hard and now our chances at advancing from our group were slim indeed. Losing the afternoon game to Johns Hopkins confirmed our early departure. Bill and Sue showed up though! That was great to see them, they dropped off some food as well, which quickly disappeared. Unfortunately they had to watch my (and our) worst game this season! Men's co-champions: Navy and Harvard (we crushed Harvard 3-1 the previous weekend... so upsetting). Also, the women's BC club team were co-champions too. We had a long bus ride back.

Monday the 22nd was exactly what I needed to lift my spirits: Demetri Martin live-tweeting the presidential debates. My roommates and I were in stitches. He is so funny. Last weekend was the beginning of Halloweekend v1.0. Since Halloween falls on Wednesday, that is license to party in style for seven days and two weekends. People are funny. There were some costumes I appreciated a lot. Top Three:

1) Replacement Refs: referee shirt + blindfold

2) 70's Gameshow host: ugly plaid coat and tie

3) Elton John: swag red fuzzy zebra trim shirt + swag red fuzzy zebra trim pants (Pat's costume below)

This Monday a hurricane named Sandy hit the East coast. There was a lot of wind and water; I had purchased lots of Brie and smoothie materials so I was set. We played cards, played risk until risk-overload, watched terrifying movies (like Insidious), played FIFA 13 (fantastic game), and basically just had a good time on Monday, because classes were cancelled! It was great. I felt guilty for not doing school work... but not for too long.

Left to right: me, Erik, J.M. (coming to t-giving!), Veb, Jim, Zach, and Pat in the middle thinking he's cool