I see your 4 units and raise you 10

So I am taking a new class at Stanford called Global Entrepreneurial Marketing. I have been in the class for 2 weeks now and have had more homework than I had in my entire college career... well, not really. It's supposed to be a 4 unit class, but the prof dishes out assignments left and right until you can't do anything but go to work, do homework, and then sleep. But no, you can't get away from it in your sleep because you have to have dreams about getting your Powerpoint slides just right and getting cold called and having something meaningful to say lest you be marked down for being stupid. I guess I can view this class as a rite of passage, and struggling with my project group until the wee hours of the morning makes us great companions. These are the good things... hopefully I learn something too.

Multiple Handshakes

So, I was at a party and meeting lots of new people. You know how it goes. You introduce yourself and then shake hands. You might repeat the name several times because you didn't hear it because of the loud music or everyone was talking in the background. Then you promptly forget the name of the person you just met. Well, this happens to me sometimes, and sometimes I like to ask again, "What was your name again?" Usually, the person happily obliges, but what I don't get is that it is almost compulsory to redo the handshake. It's almost as if my hand pops out subconsciously for that second handshake as if it was going to make a difference in remembering the person's name this time. It didn't make one bit of difference the first time. Also, if I can manage to resist the temptation to do the handshake a second time, I often get the hand offering from the other person. He or she wants the reaffirmation as well, and you can't leave someone just hanging like that.

Photography

Do you ever see a picture someone took and think that it has such a unique and artistic perspective that you can't imagine how they saw it or how they figured out that this would look cool in a photograph?

I have found that I still have a lot of learning to do before I can have a good eye for artistic photography. I am sure that there are rules that people can learn and follow to make their pictures look interesting, but people just have to have talent, right? People who are great photographers are able to capture an ordinary scene in an extraordinary way. I am always fascinated by how they discover these unique points of view.

Whenever I am in the situation of taking pictures, I always find myself torn between capturing the moment as it really was, trying to get as much detail and memory packed into the picture, and, on the other hand, trying to make the photograph as visually appealing as possible. In viewing photos of people who choose the latter method, I find the scene much more memorable even though I wasn't there. It is almost like a dream that I can live or imagine. In viewing my own photos, I find it hard to feel the same way, and desire to relive the memory as it was. I bet that other people who view my memories are completely bored, as I would be with someone's uninteresting photos lacking unique perspective. I think that going forward, I would like to share my memories with others in a unique and artistic way so that they can imagine my memory for themselves.

Guitar Hero Addict

Lately, I have been interested in becoming far more musical than I am. I figured Guitar Hero was definitely the way to go. You can easily rock out to great songs by just pushing one or two buttons at a time and strumming on the old white switch where the strings are supposed to be. I could become an addict very quickly unfortunately. After a few hours of being a hero, my eyes were blood shot (since you can't really blink during a song lest you miss a dot) and my left pinky would never forgive me for straining him so hard. That night my dreams were filled with colorful dots coming right for me. It was fun and I was wired.

From GuitarHero2007

More on a musical note, I did want to learn how to play the guitar. My girlfriend loaned me hers for a while and I started learning some chords. My progress was a little rougher than Guitar Hero, but it was a lot of fun. I would love to become addicted to it. I wonder how I get there.

The Headset Accessory

When you get up in the morning and jump into your pants and pull on your shirt, don't forget to put your bluetooth headset over your ear. You can wear it all day long without ever taking it off. It seems to be the fashionable thing to do these days, however I have to see it in US weekly before I start wearing my glued together beat up chipped bluetooth ear piece. Maybe I'll invest in a nice red one, which could match the color of my side burns. That would be nice. Perhaps I could even sleep with it so that I don't have to put it on early next morning like I have to do with my contact lenses. Hell I might even get one permanently installed on my ear.

Halloween

Ah, so are you wondering what I was this year. Well, I was Ernie, from Sesame St., and Liz was my faithful rubber ducky. At the Boogle event, I just had to get up on stage and sing about my favorite friend in the whole wide world and how she makes tubbie time the bestest time ever.

Jane Fonda and her little dog too

Jane came to work today to talk about feminism and women's rights. I
was surprised to see her stride in with a mini palm dog of some sort.
The little guy didn't say a word and pretty much stayed whereever she
placed him. This reminded me of Paris Hilton and her K9 companion.

What I am wondering is, does this bode well for the image of feminism.
I always seem to take people with palm dogs a little less seriously.

Off to India

I just wanted to plug my India blog for the next month, as I will be going to India until sometime in September. Check out http://indiabeans.blogspot.com to stay updated.

Angel Island

These are some of my first pictures from my new camera, taken at an offsite to Angel Island. A short description of the people from left to right, back to front: intern in other group, me, 3 people in my group, 2 guys in other group, my manager, girl in red in other group, the 4 interns in my group

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Sweet picture of the fog rolling over Marin.

The Angel Island dock.

 

Discovering Halo

Since my new roommate is a total gamer and has every video game under the sun, I have been introduced willingly to Halo, and I am letting myself become addicted... at least until I beat it. Video games have become a lot better since my old Nintendo system. I pride myself on investing some time to get up to speed with the latest gaming developments.

My friend Shane made a funny comment the other day. He described us in 20 years, when we are going to be so out of the loop when it comes to technology. We will ask our kids how to work the TV, "Do you push this button?". The upset honory teenager will exclaim, "No Dad! God! You just think it and wave your hand". And we will be left to ponder how difficult technology has become.