Learning From What Isn't
The extras included with the first season DVD of "Lost" include the casting auditions by the actors and actresses reading from the pilot script. While I was watching them, something didn't quite sit right with me. Sure, it's intriguing to see Matthew Fox up there reading for the part of Jack Shepard...but I realized that while seeing the actors who landed the roles on the show was interesting, it would be equally interesting and insightful...
I Bet You Can
A friend of mine on Facebook posted something rather interesting recently: "Guy at work just bet me $1,500 that I couldn't go a year with no diet coke, no coffee, and no red meat." I've heard bets like this before. and I dimly recall being offered a couple of these during my college years. I never took anyone up on them, but if the opportunity came up again, no matter what the stakes were, I...
These Kids Today
As I reach 30, I'm starting to realize it's probably a very slippery slope to developing the attitude of a curmudgeon. Granted, I don't consider myself very old, but technology has grown by leaps and bounds since I was a teenager. When I was in high school, cell phones were far from ubiquitous. Smart phones were the stuff of science fiction and a book Bill Gates was wrote at the time. Naturally, we're now living...
Spider Cup!
(Does whatever a spider cup does?) This seems like a somewhat common problem: woman sees spider in her house and, since she cannot bring herself to kill something "icky", traps it under a cup. That leaves her with a small dilemma: the spider is still alive, and she either has to let it starve or asphyxiate, or she can cross her fingers, pull up the cup really quickly and whap the space under it with...
Watching the Exceptions
If you're a recovering alcoholic, it can be easy to talk yourself into one drink (or two) with friends at bar one night. If you're self-employed, you have the luxury of being able to take an afternoon off during a workday to go hang out on the beach, if you so choose. If you resolve to save money by brewing your coffee at home and taking it to work, it can be easy to skip...
Thanks for Responding
In the movie Thank You For Smoking, tobacco lobbyist Nick Naylor goes into his son's classroom to talk about what he does for a living. After talking a little bit about questioning authority, he concludes his speech with, "So perhaps instead of acting like sheep when it comes to cigarettes you should find out for yourself." At this point, the teacher politely interrupts him by starting to applaud and ushers him out of the classroom....
Professors Who Take Notes
I had one professor in college who used to take notes based on what his students were saying. I can't say for sure, but it didn't seem like he was making notes in order to refine his future lectures. Instead, he seemed he was actually making an effort to collect ideas from his students so he could reflect upon them later. I had lots of professors that used the Socratic method in an effort to...
Hey You, Your Car Alarm Is Going Off
It's on my bucket list to drive to the house of the guy who invented the car alarm at three in the morning, bring lots of people with me, and we all hit the "panic" button that sets off our car alarms. (It's low on the list, but it's there.) Most websites have a system administrator, whose role is to maintain the servers that are hosting the site and make sure that if anything goes...
"Good Morning"
I was hiking in the mountains yesterday morning, and on my way down, I passed a guy on a bicycle who was riding up the trail. Now, riding up this trail is no small feat; it's incredibly taxing. You pedal furiously, and for every twelve pedals your feet put in, you move forward maybe 12 inches. When I'm up hiking during the day, I offer a friendly "Hello" to everyone I pass. Some people give...
I was discussing the joys of Quants with a friend of mine, who was ranting and raving about how speculators on Wall Street don't really do any real work. He felt that they were responsible for getting us into this whole mess, and that none of them were really being held responsible for the trouble. After a few minutes of this, he took a breath and then thoughtfully remarked, "Although, they're probably doing more important...