No-Shave November

"Is that kid wearing a fur coat on his face?"
"Can he see out from behind that thing?"
"...Is there a bird living in there?" (Yes, there was.)
"He must have to blend all his food and suck it through a straw to get it into his mouth...."
"That man must be from OREGON."



These are just a few of the varied whispers which have followed me and my new beard around campus during the month of November. It has proven a noteworthy, if heavy, addition to my face and to the university as a whole.

The occasion for my brazen disregard towards facial tidiness is, of course, No-Shave November. In case you are unfamiliar with No-Shave November, it is a bi-annual celebration of all things beardly during which participants forgo shaving their facial hair for one month. And what a glorious, monumental, life-changing month it is. Believe me, I speak from a position of considerable expertise at the moment; a thick, healthy beard has the power to bring you up a few notches in the world. My first day with a beard, a local restaurant paid me to sit inside and eat their food all day (they posted record sales). On my fourth day with a beard, a woman stopped her car in the middle of a crowded intersection just to shake my hand. On my tenth day with a beard, the USC sorority houses had a bidding war over which group of ladies were to be permitted the honor of cleaning the lustrous locks on my countenance (it took fourteen bottles of shampoo). Nowadays, my face is so warm that I have to bring several water bottles to school in the morning just to replenish all the sweat emanating from my golden beard. But it's all worth it. My vivacious beard is the gift which keeps on giving. It saved a cat stuck in a tree last week, and I think the cat is still in there somewhere. Yesterday, I found twenty British pounds buried in it. Needless to say, I was a little confused: doesn't my beard know we're in America? But I think it's best not to ask questions. At this point, it accounts for about 40 percent of my total body mass, so I'd like to avoid any type of serious confrontation because, let's face it, it could get pretty hairy.

I think I've made it glaringly obvious by now that I don't have anything important to do tonight. I haven't written as often I would like to, but believe it or not, this nonsense takes time.

But life is good. Despite my pathetic attempt at facial hair, my days have been happy. School is going well. I'm looking forward to my big Thanksgiving trip, and can't wait for Christmas. Mom and Dad, I'll see you before you know it.

DA BEST BIRTHDAY EVAR!!!!!!!!!11!!!!1!!!!!!!!!!1

As indicated by the title, this post will be regarding my best birthday ever, namely the one which occurred yesterday at whatever time I was born 21 years ago. It will be difficult to write this post because my typical blog voice doesn't allow for any genuine emotion. I usually cast my experiences in such a way that I can deal with them from a standpoint of amused skepticism and flesh out the irony in my experiences. But since I really do think this was the best birthday ever, I am forced to alter my speaking voice for this post, so please don't be surprised if I write honestly and directly, instead of my typical style of circuitous cynicism.

This weekend, I went backpacking as a guide for my outdoor adventure group, SCOutfitters. We went to a mountain called San Gorgonio, the highest peak in Soutern California at 11-something. At least I think it's the highest. I guess it depends on what you consider Southern California. Anyway, it's not important. It was a mountain. Laurenne was planning to come visit, so on Friday night I drove to Union Station to pick her up. I called her and told her where I was, and as she walked over I got out of the car and gave her a big hug. We loaded her stuff into my trusty red truck and were about to leave when she pointed to a guy nearby wearing a hat, a big pair of sunglasses and a scarf pulled up over his face. I agreed he was a funny-looking guy, and got in the car, ready to go, as the guy walked slowly over towards me and stopped in front of me. I was apprehensive as I stared at him. In a moment I don't clearly remember, I reached up towards the scarf and pulled it down to see Nick's grizzled face smiling at me. I immediately jumped up and gave him a big hug, laughing and shaking my head as they explained that Nick decided to come down from the Bay Area for the weekend to come backpacking and help celebrate my birthday. I could not have been happier to see him, and will remember that happy, blurred moment of recognition for a long time.

I brought them back to my apartment and invited a few friends over for a small birthday gathering. It was a really spectacular night; I have a lot of very good friends here at USC. We splashed in the pool and played video games and had general good times. At one point I believe I climbed up on the roof. Near the end of the night, Jeff, Louie, Michael, Brian and I decided we needed some donuts from Spudnuts, a shop nearby. But I had a problem: Laurenne and Nick had already gone to bed in my room, and I didn't have any shoes. (It was a pretty weak argument. I'm pretty sure they weren't asleep. And my shoes might have been in the living room, I don't think I actually looked.) Nevertheless, no shoes. And so, in an act of fraternal love rarely seen outside of the Greek system, Jeff and the others offered to carry me the two blocks to Spudnuts on their backs. The trip there went pretty smoothly, though Jeff told me he has bruises on his body from carrying my heavy, pointy frame. We got to the donut shop, bought some donuts (pretty typical thing to do at a donut shop, actually) and continued on our way. Brian took a turn right off the bat, and I fed him some donut because I was very appreciative of his hard work, and then I was on Jeff's shoulders, and the details are a little bit blurry but I don't think it takes much of an imagination to figure out what happened next. That's right. A homeless man jumped out of the dumpster, grabbed my donut and ran off down the alley with an alacrity which, at the time, struck us as profoundly remarkable and rare to see from a dumpster-living man. No, that didn't happen, that's ridiculous. I fell off of Jeff's shoulders in the alley behind our apartment and scraped up my elbow. It's not fair to blame it on Jeff, I think I probably wanted to fall, or else I was too mentally weak to resist the obvious, captivating danger. Either way, I was bleeding on the ground in a filthy alley, laughing my head off and wielding a half-eaten donut, which miraculously endured the fall unscathed. Good night.

The backpacking trip was an experience. My good friends Louie and Emma signed up for the trip as participants. With them, Laurenne and Nick, the other two guides Simon and Warren, and Simon's girlfriend, I knew seven of the eleven other people on the trip. Obviously this contributed to my enjoyment of the trip, but I certainly don't think I was the only one who had a good time. Every person on the trip had a positive, upbeat attitude. It seems to me that people who like the outdoors tend to like each other. This has certainly been my experience with SCOutfitters thus far, and this trip was no exception. We had tentatively planned to summit the mountain, but for a few different reasons, this didn't happen. Instead we stayed up late playing Taboo and speaking truths in a very cramped tent late into the night, taking a nap in the morning after breakfast, and enjoying a leisurely hike down the mountain on Sunday. I don't think anyone had a problem with the situation, we were all just happy to be outdoors. Everyone got along really well and we were a tight-knit group. I'm proud to be part of the group which enables this to happen, and I hope to continue bringing this to USC in the future.

I forged new friendships with Ben, Hans, Chelsea and Christine, all of whom are very cool people I was glad to meet on the trip. I definitely strengthened my friendships with Louie and Emma during the night we spent together in a hot, steamy tent. Emma told us before we went to bed that she gets very cold and was willing to permit mild molestation in the night if it kept her warm. At one point Emma climbed in my sleeping bag and whispered "Happy Birthday," which holds a spot in my top five birthday presents, though I suspect she was more motivated by the cold than rampant sexual attraction. It must have been about two hours before dawn when we all realized none of us had slept more than twenty minutes the whole night, each staring at the roof of the tent thinking the others were asleep. It would have been funny if our neural receptors for humor weren't frosted over. We spooned for the rest of the night, periodically rotating to keep an even heat. And we promised nothing which happened that night would ever leave the tent (but I think there was a clause at the end about detailed blog entries being 'ok').

During this trip it once again became clear to me how special are my friendships with Nick and Laurenne. They are both astounding people; I feel lucky to know them. Their presence, their energy, was infectious for the whole group. I felt we were very attuned to each other, in our thoughts and in our actions. It is very rare to find such good friends. At times during their stay we were all involved in complex arguments about the nature of self and reality, and at other times we were throwing temper tantrums, or tackling each other. Their visit was unspeakably enjoyable, and relaxing, and just plain wonderful. Thanks, guys.

When I got back yesterday from the camping trip and reconnected with the world, I found I had an absurd amount of birthday greetings and I'm very lucky to have so many caring people in my life. I've gotten birthday cards in this godforsaken hellhole of a city (just kidding) from many members of my extended family, each of whom devoted time to making sure I had a good birthday and to let me know they were thinking of me. The quality and quantity of relationships in my life is truly astounding, and I am sincerely grateful to everyone who took some time out of their day to wish me happy birthday. I don't like to speak so honestly, so you better appreciate my thanks. I'm most thankful to my family, each of whom called me to check up and see how things were going. I had good conversations with all of them and am very lucky to have such a supportive family. My grandparents and Aunt Maxine all got in touch and let me know they were thinking of me. All in all, there was a lot of love thrown in my general direction, and I'm all covered in it now, and it feels nice.

Whew! That was quite a blog post. Very long. Very touchy-feely. Especially the part about Louie and Emma. Lots of touching and feeling. I need to do some work now. I'll try to write again soon.

The Inner Circle

My roommate Jeff works for the Daily Trojan, the on-campus newspaper. Over the past few weeks, he has shared with me glimpses of his access to the coveted inner circle of college football. As I mentioned earlier this year, I got to go to a football practice with him and hold the recorder in front of Matt Barkley while he talked about how relaxed and carefree he was about taking over the starting QB position. Yesterday, as I was climbing into bed around six pm, Jeff had a media conference call for an interview. I sat up as he punched in a secret password and was allowed access to the call, and listened in awe as he became quick friends with his interviewee Jahvid Best, the starting runningback for Cal. (The article from this interview ended up on the back cover of the Daily Trojan, with a picture. In color!) And today, he brought me the greatest gift of all: chicken wings from the football team's private catered dinner, served every Thursday before an away game.
Technically Jeff wasn't responsible for getting the leftovers. My other friend (yes, I have two) works as a manager for the football team, so he brought the food home and gave it to Jeff. Apparently each week a different senior gets to pick a pre-game meal for the team, and Taylor Mays chose chicken wings from Wing Stop. And now they're in my kitchen.
Hmmmm. When I say it like that, I feel a little bit creepy. I'm not trying to stalk the football team (though today I did see Pete Carroll parking his car. And I accidentally memorized his license plate number). But it just so happens I've had some cool connections with people and events which have made national news this year, and it's neat to be so close to the action and see things unfold. Especially when it's seen through that tiny grate above the racks for the shoulder pads in the football locker room. That's prime viewing area.

Respite

I made it! Four midterms later, I have the rest of the week ahead of me with no tests, no homework due, no responsibilities. No showers, no sleep, no laundry. No going to class! No brushing my teeth! NO LEARNING!

No, just kidding. It won't be all fun and games, but it is definitely a relief to be done with those tests. I celebrated by eating zucchini bread, peanut butter and an apple for dinner tonight. Every combination of those three foods was a winner.

As for my tests....Two of them went pretty well. One went kinda well. And the last one...let's not talk about the last one. But really, it was awful. I haven't gotten the score back yet, but I'm expecting the worst. But it's ok, I'll just study extra hard next time.

This weekend, I printed out a bunch of quotes and pictures and equations and random things, and taped them all around the apartment. It is my first (in my life, I think) concerted attempt at decoration. I've always kinda had the idea to tape quotes and things to my walls, but this idea was especially encouraged this year by my General Education course, in which we're discussing the significant impact your environment plays in the shaping of your personality, your character, your thoughts. Essentially, everything about you is shaped by the environment in which you live. And I don't just mean how much money you make or your geographical location, but every little thing with which you interact during the day, like a teacher or a television show you watch, or even a doorknob. It's important be be aware of what goes into your mind, otherwise you might not like what comes out. It was this idea which spurred the quote-taping. Some of my favorites:

"If you smile when no one else is around, you really mean it."
"When angry, count to four. When very angry, swear."
"love the world you find"
"Any emotion, if it is sincere, is involuntary."
"The only way to keep your health is to eat what you don't want, drink what you don't like, and do what you'd rather not."
And I taped Coulomb's Law and Gauss's Law onto my door under a picture of each of these physicists in order to help me remember these concepts. And because they're damn good-looking men.

Down to Business

Three midterms! I have three midterms in one day! It's ridiculous!

This Thursday, I have a materials science midterm at 8 am, which will cover four chapters in the book, analyzing different crystal structures, defects, diffusion rates and a whole bunch of other stuff I haven't studied yet. Later, at two, I have a midterm in dynamics which will be over some hardcore kinematics and Newton's Second Law applications. Finally, at five, I will have a physics midterm covering electric fields and Gaussian surfaces and some other stuff I'm about to start studying.

College is very busy, but I'm enjoying myself. Time is passing very quickly. I'm sorry I don't have time to write as much as I would like. But I brought some pictures to show. They are of the banana bread we made the other day, and a meal I had a couple days ago which was really big, and the pool this morning at seven when I got up to go running. It was very foggy and eerie, so I took a picture.

Back to School

My computer is broken at the moment. I don't know how it happened, but I can't boot up into Windows Vista. Luckily, I can access a Rescue and Recovery section, which allows me to access the internet, but not to use any applications, so I have limited abilities. I can get to my email, I can't get to Facebook, and apparently I can write blogs. I called Lenovo Support yesterday and ordered a Recovery CD for 50 bucks. It should be here sometime this week, and hopefully it will fix my computer.

I haven't blogged in a very long time! There have been plenty of things I wanted to write about since I've been at school, but I simply haven't had the time. I'm happy to be back going to class and apparently doing something with my life, but it does make it more difficult to do the things I like, such as keep in touch with friends and practice my many hobbies.

Anyway, school is going well. I'm in five classes: four are engineering courses, and the fifth is a general education requirement. I like all my teachers, and the workload is not as heavy as I expected for this type of schedule. Typically, I have homework due once per week for every class, and the material has all been within my grasp so far. Time has passed quickly; it always seems to when I'm at school. I have two midterms next week! It is definitely hard to believe, but I've already been here for over three weeks and am well into the semester.

My living arrangement is very good. My roommates and I get along very well. Jeff and I were worried about the roommate assigned to live with us this year by random selection, but we definitely lucked out. Our third roommate, Moises, is a very cool, friendly guy who has taken on more than his fair share in keeping the apartment clean. We couldn't have asked for a better roommate. And the pool! We have a pool! I can't upload any pictures right now or my computer might explode, so you'll have to trust me when I say the pool is the size of a football field and forty feet deep. That might not be technically true. But it definitely fits into the category of 'pool' rather than 'bathtub' or 'puddle.' I've swam in it almost every day since getting to school. It has been great for making friends, since it provides a reason to hang out in the common area in our apartment complex, and we've had a couple parties in which it has played an integral part. Our apartment complex (called Stardust, I should have mentioned. Isn't that a weird name for an apartment complex? Especially one that's not imaginary?) is very close to Figueroa, a busy, commercial street lined with tons of fast food restaurants and businesses. I live just down the street from a Bank of America, where I can closely monitor my plummeting bank balance, and one of my favorite restaurants, Pasta Roma, where I can buy a twenty-dollar pizza to assuage my monetary woes. It's a pretty great setup. The only downside is our distance from campus: probably a fifteen-minute walk. I've learned how to ride my longboard enough to get to class and back without any major head trauma or other fatal injuries, so it takes me about seven minutes to get to campus.

The longboard was a good purchase overall. It looks very nice when I walk around campus cradling it in my arm when I'm too frightened to try to ride it any more, and on those occasions that I do ride it, I can feel it is a benevolent spirit and doesn't really want to throw me at the ground. But throw it does. For a couple of reasons: the trucks are very narrow, making it super tippy and difficult to balance, and the wheels are a bit smaller than normal longboard wheels, so it hits bumps in the sidewalk pretty often and stops in its tracks. It did this most notably a few days ago while I was with my friend Louie. He said I flopped like a fish as I hit the ground. I wasn't very scratched up though, which, as engineers, we attributed to the fact that a large surface area of my body struck the ground all at once, preventing the force from concentrating at any one point. Thank heavens for that. I'll stick it out with the longboard until I can afford to buy something better. I would like to stick with boarding, but I think I want to get a regular skateboard, rather than a longboard. That way, I can jump over curbs and stuff instead of stopping to get off and lift my board onto the sidewalk. I've seen guys ollie the curb, and they are by far the coolest guys on campus.

My roommates and I made banana bread yesterday. It turned out really good, and I don't know why. I really expected to mess it up, but it tasted delicious, so I'm going to try again today and see if I can't achieve more typical results.

I'm running out of money, as I mentioned before, so I think I'm going to return to my old job setting up banquets at the University Club. It pays pretty well and I get a free meal every time I work.

I'm joining the Marathon Team.

The SC Outfitters trip to Sequoia a couple weeks ago was really fun. The first day we learned a bunch of handy stuff about tying knots and reading a topographical map. A few of the guides are trained as Wilderness First Responders, and they want us all to go to a camp over Winter Break so we can become WFRs (called Woofers) too. The second day, we went on a 14-mile hike to the summit of Alta Peak at 11,204 feet. On the way up, we found an abandoned campfire smoldering on the side of the trail. It was on top of a ridge, in sunlight. I think if we had left it, the wind would have picked up in the afternoon and it could have ignited a fire in the dense forest below. We stayed there for about 45 minutes to mop it up. It was a good opportunity for me to share my knowledge with the group. I gave a short talk about how it's not enough to bury your fire, since that doesn't put it out, and how holdovers can last for a very long time. Since we didn't have enough water to spare on the fire, we each had to pee on it in order to extinguish it as much as possible. I peed on it first, then mixed it around, and spread it out to let some heat escape. Ten minutes later, we pushed it all back together, and peed on it some more, and spread it out again until there were no smokes left. I didn't feel completely comfortable leaving it there, but it was right near the path, which was pretty busy with hikers, so we figured they would help out if it sparked back up again. On the way down, there were no smokes again, so I think we did a pretty good job.

I've become a weekday vegetarian this year. I want to feel lighter (not necessarily be lighter) for climbing and running and general health, so I've decided to only eat meat on the weekends. Or special occasions, like when we go out to dinner. Or when I have some pizza left over from the weekend which has meat on it, like today. I'm the worst vegetarian ever.

Yesterday, I went out to the Santa Monica Farmer's Market with a friend of mine. We ran on the beach and shopped for produce. It was a pretty splendid time. We also wanted to adopt a dog, but neither of our apartments allow pets. We are both super bummed.

I'm continuing my work with Professor Stephen Lu on the World Classroom and iPodium this semester, and applied for a 1500 dollar research fellowship to continue this work. I'm excited to see it get off the ground, and I think I am part of a pretty strong team to make this happen. I'll tell you more about it later.

I think this is a pretty long blog. I'll tell you about the rest of my life at a later date and time.

Football Practice

My first week of school has been quite enjoyable. My professors all seem very nice, I have had almost no homework, and I have a swimming pool in my apartment complex. Life is good.

Today, I went with my roommate Jeff to the USC football practice. I was curious to see the practice of such an elite team, and since I was on Jeff's journalism squad, I was allowed entrance to the field. I was struck by how similar the practice was to those of my high school. Granted, our defensive ends couldn't crush rocks with their bare hands, but the structure of the practice, and even the guidelines the coaches yelled at their players were very familiar. I really miss the game.

After the practice was over, we rushed in with all the other journalists to speak with Matt Barkley, a freshman who was recently named the starting quarterback over sophomore Chris Corp. As we walked over, some of the other players tried to tell us they were actually the new starting QB, and the D-line broke for the locker room on a chant of, "Leave Barkley alone!" Nevertheless, he was surrounded four or five deep with pushy reporters. I held the recorder and got jostled by other perturbed reporters trying to get in on the action. It was interesting to be in such a locus of national attention.

We went to speak with Pete Carroll afterward, and Jeff was able to ask him a few questions himself, which was pretty neat. Pete's a very nice guy. He was taking pictures with people and signing things for a long time after practice ended. We also talked to a wide receiver about his thoughts on Matt Barkley. All in all, it was a pretty raucous good time.