The best of the best is right here

My first impression of Penn was good and the vibe I have gotten from here has only gotten better. I’ve spent the last two days just walking around campus. As lively Case is during the First Week (i.e. Rush Period), Penn is that lively during the summer time. There are street vendors here (I’ve counted 20 on campus so far) that sell all kinds of funky foods. I don’t think there’s a single vendor on the Case campus. I’m not hatin’ or anything like that, but it sure would add to Case life if there were food vendors.

Anyhow, living with Manoj has been a lot of fun. We talk, study, goof off, eat, and have fun together; he’s been a fantastic host and I’ll definitely find a way to pay him back somehow.

Philadelphia is general is a really nice city. There are a ton of black people here, especially in Center City. Definitely a lot of diversity in this whole city, for sure.

The campus has a small garden in the middle which covers about a half of a square mile, so it’s nice and accessible. In addition, there’s a full-fledged cafe inside of the library which I am typing from.

I just really like it here. I can see myself, despite my fears about the academics here, really liking the environment here.

Sometimes, first impressions are very good.

If any of you ever visit Philly, please let me know. I’d be happy to show you a good time!

I probably realized that the last post was crappiest thing I have ever written in my whole life, but it doesn’t matter, because I’m writing this now, and that was then.

I’m going to see the Dream Theater concert with Shrenik, Archit, and my dad.  I am very excited but not-as-much as I would have been if I wasn’t so damn tired.  Getting up at 6 AM each morning, and this week, 5:30 AM, has its consequences.  I just want to sit in my new apartment and watch NFL games.  Unfortunately, that will not happen until September.  However, one can imagine

In other news, I just got word that I will be TAing a lecture course and NOT a lab course.  You do not know how unbelievably happy this has made me.  I do not like labs so I could not imagine TAing a lab course.  I get to be myself in front of a lecture group.  This will be so much fun.  They even give out $300 for the best TA at the end of the year.  I’ll gun for that, but I know I’ll earn that only if I earn the students’ respect and they are able to have fun with me at the same time.

In the world of politics, not like my single vote matters, but I am becoming increasingly torn between Dennis Kucinich and Barack Obama.  But enough on that.  If you’re interested, you can ask me in the comment area or ask me personally.

I also looked up the top earnings of hedge-fund managers in 2006 on Wikipedia.  These morons raked in $1 billion a piece (at least the top few did ; the other members of the top 25 earned in the hundreds of millions…ooh…big downgrade there).  I honestly wonder what they hell they do.  I could do what they do in my sleep.  Well, not the deal acquisitions and takeovers and all of that, but putting money in the right places in order to invest.  It takes a moron to make a million.  Now I’ve found out it takes a moron to make a billion.  Grr…why did I go into science again…oh yah ; because it requires brains.  I’m not trying to downplay economics / finance.  I think the study of it is fantastic.  But if people in one of those industries is making in a day what I would be happy to earn in 10 years, then I think that’s ludicrous.

I start school next week.  It’s going to be an interesting journey.  I don’t know whether I’m tapping my toes into the water before I slide in or whether I’m diving head first into a shallow pool.  Time will tell, but I know through everything, I will have the most support ready and honestly, people can cheerlead in my life and tell me what’s good for me but I am fortunate to have people with real backbone that whenever I take an unpopular position or decision, my back is taken care of.

Wow, I’m tired.  Ridiculous.

Oh yah ; I was lambasted for my GChatting during work time.  It became the butt of many a joke at the intern ice cream party at my company.  I was like, wtf, why are all of you joking about this in front of the top level people.  But I had no control over that and frankly I do not think anyone cared.  It earned a good laugh and I just shrugged it off.  

Damn it…why does the last paragraph of everything I paste from MS Word onto this blog always come up in a different font.  Piece of crap.

Good times

Ah. Blogging on company time. My favorite. Anyhow, I hope everyone is doing well. Summer sure went by in a hurry. I have a lot of work to get done before the end of this internship. Of course, I’m continuing to work for the company in the fall in order to develop my knowledge of the ethically responsible investing arena and in order to generate some additional cash.

My parents don’t know about this and would probably kill me if they found out. But I’m sure there is lots of other stuff they would kill me for. I won’t begin to list those ways. Many of you know them all too well.

I am definitely excited about the prospects of a tight Red Sox-Yankees race down the stretch. Imagine how boring the Sox would be if they had actually maintained their enormous lead. Then, people would have actually focused on the Patriots instead of the Sox. But the real sport of New England will start to peak right about the time its about to bring out the shovels and snow plows.

I have decided to enter the 2008 Presidential election. Asking why in the world I would do that, the answer is because I’m not Rudy, or Romney, or Richardson, or Clinton. I am doing this exclusively for myself. And I might even vote for myself too.

Wow, this has a waste of your time, brought to you by yours truly. Truly. I just hope that you are in an internship where you are actually able to make a difference. I definitely think I am doing so, and it would be a waste to use the energy of college-aged kids at an internship where your brain is not utilized.

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I basically sleep-typed this whole entry and then spell-checked (not content check, as you can figure out) what I wrote basically with my eyes closed and falling asleep. You never know what could come of it. Some of my best writing has come from sleep-tying. Not this time. But maybe next time.

Some of you did not think I would make it past two entries. Okay, I really did not as well. But, that being said, thanks for reading so far!

Here is a fun quiz. http://www.animalinyou.com/survey.asp

I ended up becoming a baboon. Here’s a little guide for my girlfriend: Yes, baboons are a little loony, but they’re also a barrel of fun and a relationship with a baboon is like having a personal guided missile. Give it a spark and point it in the right direction and family life will be dynamic and rewarding. However, allow the projectile to get off track and you’ll find yourself hurtling down a nightmarish road of argument and turmoil.

I think she knows that above bit quite well and she’s handled my baboon-like qualities better than anyone else could have

I did the same thing for her (as if I were filling it out for her), and she ended up becoming a dog. Dog personalities feature many of the characteristics of the canine family and are some of the kindest, warmest creatures in the animal kingdom.

Definitely true, and I love her all the more for it.

And just in case we ever doubt our compatibility for whatever reason, here is some good assurance. Baboons are naturally well suited for relationships with dogs. I’m just kidding about the assurance part. I would hope that our relationship (or anyone else’s) would never devolve into, ‘Let’s turn to a ‘Which animal are you?’ website to fix things up.’ And I’m sure it never will. [We'd never turn to a website. One of us would use a Magic 8-ball instead. Genius.] Okay, enough with the jokes. I love her and don’t want to scare her than I’m sure I already have many times, either in this entry or throughout the almost two years we’ve been going out

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In other news, I have a caffeine addiction. No, I do not need to be hopped up on four Mountain Dews or caffeine pills. But if I do not have the morning tea that my mom makes me, my head starts to pound. The best example was today. I woke up. A regular Saturday morning. Did some stuff. Then, BAM, 11:00 AM, my head starts to explode. I’m like, wtf mate, and then I realize that it must be the chaa (it’s chaa in Gujarati, not chai, as it is in other languages and often referred to in the US) that I hadn’t had. Weird. My mom made some when she came home from work (yah, I’m a lazy bastard) and the headache went away.

People that are good.  My girlfriend. Tom Brady. Josh Beckett. Posh Spice. Arianna Huffington.

People that are not so good. Eric Gagne. The Republican Party. Toshiba. Their DVD players are not user-friendly.

Ha. Hope everyone’s having a great day. Much love to everyone.

I love Dennis Kucinich. He absolutely dominated the debate tonight. I don’t care if he is polling at around 1%. His answers were straightforward. He cited previous policy experience, answered ‘yes’ or ‘no’ questions, and gave a direction as to what a Kucinich presidency would look like. He was genuinely happy. And he related to the audience members. None of the other politicians answered the questions straightforward, and none really appealed to the Chicago crowd as much as Dennis.

Of course, the home crowd was rooting for Barack Obama. The themes that would most clearly resonate with the crowd were domestic issues. However, Barack was weak on domestic issues, botching the first question about infrastructure of highways, bridges, etc. His foreign policy vision was totally baller, even as Chris Dodd and Hillary Clinton continued to batter him on it.

Clinton didn’t actually answer many questions but instead kept citing her experience. Edwards did really well but I guess Chris Matthews did not seem to think so afterwards. I mean, this guy is rich as heck, so his credibility about knowing the plight of the working person might be true, but he sure sounded like he knew what he was talking about.

Richardson is a great guy but just does not know how to debate. Sorry Bill, it’s not everyone else that would make a great vice president for you, it’s the other way around. Err…this is enough…

I’m going to an Obama meeting tomorrow to see what the campaign’s all about. But really, does it matter, because it seems as if all of the candidates have a pretty good vision? I wanted to get a black man into office, but now people know Barack is a force to be reckoned with, his time, or another black man’s time will come. If nothing else, he has elevated the status of minority candidates to a new high.

I was turned off by the sorriness of the lack of answers to Keith Olbermann’s questions. This was the best and most informative debate by far. There was a little banter but a lot of stumping. Candidates all got their time to shine and I do not think any misrepresented their positions. All of them got a chance to shine and all of them did. The Democrats are taking back the White House.

That’s about it.

In short, Kucinich really impressed me. I wish he had more of a shot. The frontrunners stayed the course, while Joe Biden needs to learn to answer a question about coal mining by answering it, and NOT talking about Iraq.  Chris Dodd was an angry man but stood tall amongst the union pandering-fakers (Clinton, Biden, et al.)…but I hear they’re all friends off the stage

I don’t know what made me want to create a blog again, but it’s summer, so I’m a little bit bored.

I’ve been caught up in the 2008 election shenanigans.  Yes, I’m a political junkie.  I try to keep it to myself, but there are many times when I just can’t hold it in.  (Part of this entry being one case.)

I know many people have been turned off by Senator Barack Obama’s remarks regarding the possible invasion of terrorists in Pakistan.  However, I would to remind those people that surrounding the one or two ‘famous’ sentences where he states that upon confirming actionable intelligence and receiving a non-response from President Pervez Musharraf that the United States would take action if he were President, there are pages and pages of statements about diplomacy.  Conditional aid for Pakistan.  Conditional aid for countries that need our assistance.  Military and civilian training.  And (gasp), he spoke about peace.  Yes, peace. 

Go ahead and read the entire speech. http://www.barackobama.com/2007/08/01/remarks_of_senator_obama_the_w_1.php

The man has many faults and as someone interested in these matter, I’m prone to overanalyze them.  But it’s an interest, and it keeps me reading the news, so well, I like doing it.

By the way, my vote is still up in the air.  If the difference between Senator Clinton and Senator Obama were a small percentage, then I would vote for Senator Obama.  But if he’s getting his rear end handed to him, then Dennis Kucinich has my vote.  The guy’s practical.  Has a plan for healthcare and Iraq.  And he’s vegan.  Word.

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In other happenings, I’m off to grad school in a month.  UPenn for my PhD in Biochem/Molecular Bio.  It’s scary.  Fun.  Initmidating.  All wrapped up into one sandwich.  A friend who shall remain nameless (cough cough, Todd, cough cough) put my chances at getting out with a master’s as higher than my chances of completing my PhD in biochemistry or another related field.  (I know he’s just trying to fire me up :-))

That’s all.  I’ll try to keep these short so people actually read them instead of taking one look and being like, “Damn, this is a long entry, I’m not reading this.”

Hope all is well with everyone!