Update: In the UK! (days 1-17)

I keep making these promises to myself to keep this blog up to date, since I've tried to start a couple before and always trailed off after not too long. I've even told myself that same thing when I first started this one, and lo and behold, I've let quite a bit of time go by between posts. However, I figure that as long as I'm abroad (i.e. for the next couple months) I may as well keep this blog up to date as a sort of journal of my travails and excursions. I'm pretty new at this whole "being abroad" thing, since this is virtually my first time ever being out of the United States for an extended period of time. I've been to Canada a few times, but once was on a school trip, once was for Christmas with my family, once was for hockey camp, and once was for New Years with a large group of friends from school. Up until now, each time I had been fortunate enough to venture outside the United States, I didn't really venture away from American culture. In that respect, at least, this is my first time experiencing a foreign culture. Now, after that long-winded introduction, onto my time in the UK so far!

I arrived in Manchester at the airport around two in the afternoon on September 20th. I had flown all night from JFK, connected in Paris, and then finally landed in England, which would be my place of residence for the next three months. I would characterize my first few weeks here in the UK as the exploits of a naive American tourist on his own. I've spent way too much money on travel expenses because I don't know any of the ins or outs of a different country. I've saved money on food, but mostly because I don't know what else to eat besides instant dinners, I'm not a very good cook, and I've missed many a meal already because my sleep schedule is so out of whack. As far as alcohol is concerned, I'd say it constitutes a fair portion of my expenses because, much to my amazement and liking, every night is a night when "Uni" (University = American understanding of college) kids go out, including Mondays...and Sundays! That being said, I've been partying it up pretty hard since being over, and classes haven't gotten in the way at all, as I was hoping. My schedule has been totally optimized for the lazy American student: Mondays from 10am to 3pm, then Tuesdays from 9am to noon and that's IT FOR THE WEEK!

As a result of my never-ending party schedule, I've met some pretty amazing people over here. Though I'm staying in York, attending York St. John University, I had a chance to see a little bit of London on my first weekend in the country. I had signed up to take the LSAT in September, and since the test date fell just after I was due in England, I booked a spot to take it in London at a venue called Ironmonger Hall, which I learned was used in at least one of the Harry Potter films! I stayed a few miles away from the test site, which may have been my first mistake, since this required me to depend on my ability to navigate the street/bus/Tube route of London in my first week in the country. Basically, I ended up hopping on the right bus going in the wrong direction, effectively making me late for the test. Thankfully, it started late, and they had waited for stragglers like me for a few minutes, so I did take the test in full the next day. That night, I stayed at a friend's flat in South Croydon who I had played lacrosse with two years ago in college. He graduated when I was a sophomore, and now he is in England coaching and playing lacrosse here - spreading the game to other countries as it were. We went into London for the night out and I had a great time, getting my first real taste of a kebab stand, which I have noticed are the UK equivalent of hot dog vendors in NYC.
I took the train back up to York from London, after snapping a picture of Platform 9 3/4 of course, and since then have been involved in many a shenanigan here at school (nothing against the law, of course).

My flatmates are awesome and have made the transition process much easier on me. My neighbor made me my first real cup of English tea within my first 10 minutes in the house! And it was great! The same can be said for the other students I'm here with from school back in the states, a good number of which I never knew as well before and am sad I didn't meet until this year. Apart from my English flatmates and American classmates, I have met tons of great people, guys and girls alike, who have expressed just as much interest and willingness to learn about American culture as I have to learn theirs. I'm too shy to try it sober, but when I've loosened up a little I find the liquid courage to attempt an English accent, which I have heard sometimes sounds "posh" and at other times "Scottish" - neither of which makes all that much sense or difference to me, since I have trouble distinguishing one from the other! On the flip side, I've tried to help some of my new English friends with their American "accents" (even though, to me, it isn't an 'accent' per-se) as well as teaching them catch phrases and slang.

I think that's about enough for this post, probably even a bit too much, but I had to squeeze it in somewhere (pause). I leave for Amsterdam on Thursday evening for the weekend, which I am really looking forward to and will be sure to write about!

Until then, call me Em.

Annapolis + Yes Man + Seven Pounds = a new direction in life

I feel like I just attended a full Tony Robbins seminar, or read a self-help book cover to cover, or something to that general effect. I watched the movie, Annapolis, awhile ago, but the message still resonates quite strongly within me, and having just finished watching Yes Man and Seven Pounds (in a row, during a 4 hour movie marathon), I can confidently say that I am, at present, in the process of reevaluating my life on a grand scale. I will say that I am someone who (thanks Dad) has an emotional disposition to feel very emotional during movies, even when the scenes playing out don't have a clear emotional focal point. That being said, I think that anyone, callous or compassionate, would be hard put to watch the three movies I have mentioned and not to feel some twinge of empathy, sympathy, or humanity coming out of them. I will chalk some part of this up to good directing, screenplay, and/or writing, but I think that the message each of the three aforementioned films combine to send is one that any real person cannot ignore. Is our world perfect? Absolutely not - far from it, in fact. But the next question the proverbial 'philosophe' would ask is this: are we doing all we can, as individuals, to push the world in the right direction? I will be the first to point out that, pertaining to Annapolis, our government (at least under the careful watch of George, Jr.) has left many people and peoples unsatisfied - despondent even - looking for some light within what has become of the glory and hope of our Constitutional ideals. However, reading into the ideals themselves, no one can ignore or remain ignorant of the fact that there is a sincere hope somewhere, buried underneath all the words, their discrepancies included. Annapolis, for all its poor acting and picayune plot-line, does send a positive message to the judicious and inquisitive viewer: this life isn't all about you, or what you want to accomplish - it's about something much bigger. Each one of us is a spoke in one giant wheel (says I - the optimist for humanity) towards progress, and once we realize that and leave our selfish natures behind, we can contribute something meaningful to humanity as a whole.
Seven Pounds, similarly, is not a movie about individual accomplishment. True, it is a wildly fantastic case study of what momentous change can occur in a small bubble in the world when one determined, resourceful, and competent person puts every ounce of themselves into an exceptional undertaking. However, the message by the end is clear - while our own lives may be important in themselves, mostly to us savoring the pleasures of living a life we enjoy, the effect that we can generate and project onto the world around us - changing other peoples' lives - is what gives each individual worth. That is precisely what makes a life worthy of being lived. We learn it in kindergarten for a reason: sharing is good. Sharing is what makes communities function, what keeps families together and nations indivisible.
Finally, on to Yes Man, which may seem to some not really of equal emotional/educational caliber of the previous two (okay, maybe just Seven Pounds). The movie centers around themes of self-help, personal improvement, and general psychology ideas as we get a typical performance from Jim Carey - hilarious and vulnerable at just the right moments (and somehow always managing to leave a smile on our faces even when we feel like grabbing the tissue box). Saying no may seem the easiest thing to do sometimes, and to be fair saying yes all of the time is not always the best, as the movie makes sure to illustrate. But the general thesis I came up with was this - and I ask for no credit pertaining to originality or even intelligence in formulating this thesis - you lose in life when you take no risks. It's rather simple. I'll refer back to a cliche poker saying, which is that you can't win what you don't put on the table. For those unfamiliar with the game of poker, this basically means that if you don't play your hands, regardless of what cards you may be holding, good or bad, it is impossible to win. Sometimes in life, you get thrown lemons, and you make lemonade, as the saying goes. But when life doesn't give you lemons, sometimes you just have to strap on your boots and go out into the world to go and get those lemons, so you can enjoy yourself some sweet lemonade! It's cliche yes, and it's also quite unoriginal I'm sure, but I've learned that sometimes the most obvious things are the things we miss. It's so easy to get caught up in the fast pace of today, with the constant stream of information coming at us in the media wherever we look, that we don't stop to think about what we're doing living our lives - it's almost like we stop living and start floating, coasting, drifting through life aimlessly and without purpose. It's been quite a long time since my last post because that is exactly what happened to me (plus I've been kinda busy, but excuses only bring more excuses, so that's neither here nor there). Anyone patient enough to read this entire post, I thank you kindly and hope you enjoyed it and maybe even got something out of it.

Until next time - call me em.

YouTube - rey mysterio

YouTube - rey mysterio
So I was searching online for clothing, specifically more edgy brands (a la Ed Hardy, etc.), and when I was looking for a brand called "The Rock" (which I SWEAR I saw while I was in California in March) and having zero success, I stumbled onto the WWE shop. This came as no big surprise, given the prominence of The Rock in the history of "professional wrestling" history, but I also came across a shirt of Rey Mysterio in the process. I remember sometime a few years ago having an argument with one of my friends from middle school about who the best WWE/WWF wrestler was back in our days of fanship, but I couldn't remember the name of the guy who always did crazy acrobatics in his fights. Rey Mysterio sounded familiar to me when I saw the shirt, and when I YouTube'd his name I realized that he was the wrestler I had so vehemently argued in favor of to my friend those years ago. I've been playing sports all my life, but I've never been the biggest, strongest, or had the most raw skill at the sports I played. However, I did find myself as one of the best players on whatever team I was playing for, in any sport, because of my speed, agility, and competitive intelligence viz. anticipating opponents' or teammates' moves or decisions. This is why I loved to watch and root for Rey Mysterio, because he reminded me of myself. Against the stronger wrestlers, in a "sport" that was dominated by the bigger, stronger men, he got by and defeated strength with agility and fantastic acrobatic displays, jumping off the ropes, spinning himself around in the air, countering moves with his pure athleticism. What I remember him doing for wrestling, for me, was making it less "fake competition" and more "athletic display," which salvaged the scripted, false showmanship of the "sport" for longer than it would have lasted in my mind without him.

In another WTF were they thinking installment...roping deer turns out not to be a good idea after all:

I laughed pretty much all the way through this story of a guy in the great state of West Virginia who decided to catch a deer by more humane means - using a rope (a la cattle), but was met by a formidable foe in his target deer.

WTF were these people thinking? [read: Bill Cosby - kids say the darndest things]

Stumbling a little while ago, I found a site that reminded me of this one Family Guy episode I was watching the other day - the episode where Stewie tries to bring his mind-control helmet to the masses by appearing on the Bill Cosby show, Kids Say the Darndest Things! except that that was a cartoon, and these are allegedly real responses given on driver education exams in California (must be something in the smog). Check it out.

most amazing beirut skills I have ever seen...

Please watch this video, if for no other reason than to appreciate the ability of these kids to spend countless hours, undoubtedly, tossing ping pong balls all over the place with the goal of making them into Solo cups (and one shot class). After watching the video, you might not believe the authenticity of the actual shots themselves, but these kids are pretty meticulous in their attention to video-edit detail nonetheless.


Masterful Beer Pong Skill Shots - Watch more Funny Videos

just some more helpful hints about blogspot template CSS...

In my late night insomnia, I went OCD trying to make this blog page look as aesthetically pleasing as possible, which involved a lot of tweaking and surfing other blogs for help editing the HTML code behind the template I'm currently using. This particular one is a simple, 2-column template, but it's a new one that I couldn't find a readily available tweak code for (as far as adding columns, etc.) so I tried to work with examples from the older tweak blogs. The one I used was the one I linked to about "adding a third column" to the sidebar, which did in fact prove quite helpful for the basic execution of the idea. However, for some reason I couldn't manage to move the main content (post) column away from the newly created left sidebar, and I tried in vain for a few hours before I finally gave up for awhile. Then I got an idea, which was to simply add another column beside the new left sidebar, make its background and border transparent, and see if that would finally move the content column "away" from the left side. After some minor HTML editing, I did finally achieve the effect of having two sidebars and a main content column with equal separation between, even though in reality, there is an invisible "middle-sidebar" in between the left and main columns (shh-don't tell!). So, if anyone else out there has been futile in their attempts to add sidebars to a new custom template, try this trick and let me know if it works for you, too. Enjoy!

OK, so here is my first post: a DIY book clip

I guess I'll start off this blog with something helpful for anyone who reads...which I suppose would by definition be anyone reading this post. I'm currently writing a long research paper, and I've got about nine books open in front of me piled everywhere I can fit them on my desk. While reading, I need to copy down important quotations and the relevant citation info from whatever book I'm using, but typing that out while trying to read out the quote is pretty time consuming if I have to struggle to keep the books from flopping closed. I remembered seeing an infomercial about a "book-clip" that keeps the book open while you read, have a drink, or do whatever else you'd like to be doing while you read with either of your hands. This gave me the idea (since I didn't have said Book-clip handy) to try and make my own DIY book-clip. So, here's a tip for anyone who likes to read without their hands holding the book open at all times: get a fairly stiff strip of metal (i.e. about as thick as a school cafeteria spoon handle) and a ruler (or something similar in shape/stiffness). The next step involves bending the strip of metal back over itself. Make sure not to make it so bent that it either breaks or is essentially a paperclip - you should be able to fit your finger in between without cutting off your circulation. That's pretty much all the manual labor involved in this little project. The last part is just using the bent metal as a clip to secure the ruler at the top of the book page, keeping its pages open without the need for your hands at all. Enjoy - read and do whatever else you want!

(I finally got around to uploading the photos - take a look right here...)