Allen Lew's Thoughts

Oddly enough, I got a letter asking me to donate to the class of 2005 Senior Gift Campaign, even though I’m class of 2006 (must be all those AP units or something). Anyways, I thought they had some nice things to say on their letter.

Italics-Means I did it.

Top 10 things to do before you graduate
10. Ride to the top of the Campanile
9. Learn the words to “Hail to California”
8. Pull one last all-nighter at the library of your choice
7. Fall in love with your GSI (ed. note: I didn’t think this would apply to me, what with all the male GSIs I’ve had here. Now that I’ve had more female GSIs, I must say they are pretty attractive.)
6. Nosh at Top Dog and La Burrita at 2 AM
5. Have a drink at the Bear’s Lair (ed. note: does a Coke count? 🙂 )
4. Experience the thrill of a Big Game win
3. Hike up to the Big C
2. Protest on Sproul (ed. note: does booing a protest count?)
1. Give to the Senior Gift Campaign (cheap plug)

Wow I’ve got a long way’s to go.

You won’t soon forget
-Freshman year in the dorms. (ed. note: for better or worse I suppose)
-Relaxing, tanning, or playing sports on Memorial Glade
-Being inspired by a brilliant professor
-The feeling of acing a test
-Beating USC in triple overtime (ed. note: they’re still talking about that?)

Somethings that have struck me from the headlines…

Identity Theft– Surprisingly, the Internet isn’t actually the major cause of this. “Identity thieves aren’t making a killing electronically — they’re picking through trash and thumbing through lost or stolen wallets.” In fact, the Internet with readily available access to your account information can be used to detect ID theft fast (instead of having to wait for your bank statement every month). Also, complete strangers aren’t robbing you build most of the time, but “Friends, family members and neighbors account for half of all known thieves, and on average cost a consumer $15,607. That compares with $2,320 for an online huckster.”
(Source: article entitled More Identity Theft Offline Than Online-Study –found via /.)
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Evolution-“Back in 1999, a conservative state school board attempted to downplay the importance of Darwinism by removing from the required statewide science curriculum references to dinosaurs, the geological time line and other central tenets of the theory.” (Source: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1019856-1,00.html)

You mean to tell me in Kansas that kids don’t know about dinosaurs? Something we have a lot of bones of and can prove existed?
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2004 in Music–Entertainment Weekly declared the best album of 2004 DJ Danger Mouse’s The Grey Album, a mash-up of The Beatles’ The White Album and Jay-Z’s The Black Album. Interestingly enough, it was never released in stores and was pulled from its website after the owner’s of the Beatles’ song collection told him to take it down. Just goes to show how far Internet distribution as come.

Finally, it’s not news, but it’s news to me. Guess who said this and what invention it was about?

“For this invention will produce forgetfulness in the minds of those who learn to use it, because they will not practice their memory.”

Answer

Oh man has it has been a tiring week.

I’m taking a bioethics class this semester. They talk about a lot of interesting ideas; my only concern about the class is the fact that law school students are teaching it. Something about that just seems wrong to me; I mean scientists are the ones working on these projects, not lawyers, and they understand what they work on best. Anyways, they’ve got some interesting things to talk about and I actually the books we’re reading for class. If you’re into science literature, check out Remaking Eden, a book about the future of genetic technology. One idea I thought was cool (not that I wish it would happen) is the idea that there would some people who genetically enhanced themselves so much that they could not have children with unaltered humans, as if they evolved into another species. Trippy. By the way, some of the girls in my class thought the professor was a cute guy. I don’t happen to agree, but you can judge for yourself (he does look better in real life though).

The last few days have been mad at ADPHI. It’s rush week, and while fun, it’s also maddeningly tiring. I mean having to run around and meet people (and having to show them the bathroom), having movie and bar nights, and all sorts of stuff wears you down; it’s only going to get worse to with Broomball and Ultimate Frisbee. Okay, I’ll stop complaining about having fun now. We’re already on our way to four pledges this semester, which isn’t bad, but we can sure use a few more.

Okay, I need to really get some work down. Going to see my old dorm friends and Sideways tonight .

Update: Well, we didn’t end up seeing the movie, due to Nick being overly tardy. We instead played Nor. Cal vs. So. Cal Taboo. Nor. Cal won.

Broomball was a lot of fun, though getting clocked in the face by Eric was pretty bad.

It’s been a little while since I updated. It’s the first day of class at Berkeley. I totally didn’t want to go to class today, but didn’t everybody?

Anyways, I think I may have found the easiest class in Berkeley: Information Systems 146, Foundations of New Media. Get this: part of the class involves reading a comic book (about making comic books), the computer programming portion involves a language taught to grade schoolers, and the last section of the class is about video games. Also cool are the (unlikely) possibilities of testing out a camera phone from Nokia and maybe even having Will Wright (creator of the SimCity games, as well as the Sims) as a guest speaker. And there’s still space if any one wants to join in (TuTh 2-3:30).

I had another class about Resources of the Earth. It sounded cool, but the reading sounds really boring and it sounds like a lot more work than it should be. I’m thinking I might drop this class if it really starts to bug me, but we’ll see.

Overall not a bad day.

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You’ve Got to be Kidding Me-http://danstheman.com/Jenny.htm- Ever heard the song “Jenny” (better known as 867-5309). Well somebody called that number. All of them. From area code 200 to 900, he got a variety of responses.

My favorite:
678: “Wow, you’ve reached this recording because you’re a loser and have no life. You must be one of the many who has dropped out of school and is living on taxpayer money. Please hang up the phone, get a job, and make a contribution to society. Goodbye!”

You Are 25 Years Old

25 Under 12: You are a kid at heart. You still have an optimistic life view – and you look at the world with awe. 13-19: You are a teenager at heart. You question authority and are still trying to find your place in this world. 20-29: You are a twentysomething at heart. You feel excited about what’s to come… love, work, and new experiences. 30-39: You are a thirtysomething at heart. You’ve had a taste of success and true love, but you want more! 40+: You are a mature adult. You’ve been through most of the ups and downs of life already. Now you get to sit back and relax.

Hmm, always thought I acted a little old for my age, but not to much. Good job.

I sort of wish I was posting about going to some cool New Years Party, but that’s not the case. Instead, I got sick with food poisoning or something earlier in the week. I’m better now, but it put a major dent in my plans. I was going to go to San Diego for the Holiday Bowl and hang out with Nick, Patrick, Vicky, and possibly Eric, but that couldn’t happen. Of course, after seeing the result, a 45-31 loss, that might have made me vomit more than the illness.

Now, I wait for the ball to drop on the new year, but it’s also good to reflect. I like those “looking back” pieces the press always makes so many off. Somebody managed to put together most of them here. My personal favorite is An annual compendium of ideas from A to Z from the New York Times Magazine. It’s more interesting than the typical one for sure.

Well, I thought I had more to say, but I guess I don’t. Here’s to the New Year.
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Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
And never brought to mind?
Should auld acquaintance be forgot
And auld lang syne?

Auld Lang Syne by Robert Burns

From http://www.newyearfavors.com/newyearseve.html

Well, I’m on a modem connection again. That neighbor I had been leeching (I mean borrowing) high speed internet from wirelessly seems to have moved his router or something. Drat. Oh well, minor inconvenience.

I got home at around Tuesday. I’ve spent a good amount of time trying to soak up all the changes since I last left. My parents finally replaced that old refrigerator with a new and bigger one, though it seems kind of weird to get one when both me and my brother spend most our time in college anyway. They also got an HDTV, which would be totally sweet if it wasn’t so darn confusing to set up. Geez.

On Friday, I saw some of my high school friends like koenma, thanks to some awesome planning by Matthew. We all had lunch down at Monterey Park and then played miniature golf (I sucked, but hey I got one hole-in-one). Fun time.

Sunday came the post-Christmas family lunch with uncles, aunts, and cousins. We don’t seem to talk much to each other, probably due to the age difference (I’m 20, most of my cousins are like 15 or younger) or the fact that we don’t get together much in the first place.

Alright, I’m done with the first half of the holiday update. Next time, Holiday Bowl and New Years? What does it all mean?

So I went out with Chihyon and Shoshanna tonight, the day after the easiest final I’ve ever had at Berkeley (Astrobiology: 60 multiple choice questions, took me 30 minutes to finish). I saw a few movies and I thought I’d share a few thoughts on them.

–Ocean’s Twelve: Good movie overall, but not as good as the first (one idea overall involving one of the actresses made the movie totally awesome). A little confusing, but does not want to make me want to see it twice like most people say.

–Big Fish: Been waiting to see this for a while. Rented it on DVD with Shoshanna; watched it at her place with Jacqueline. Started off a little awkwardly and there are a few plot holes in my mind, but had some awesome scenes that totally made up for it. It wasn’t nearly as weird as I thought it could have been (it beginning directed by Tim Burton and all), but still very interesting imagery.

–The Hebrew Hammer: I was seeing it on late night Comedy Central and all I have to say is “wow this movie is bad.” How it ever got made I have no idea. It has the stupidest plot, stupidest ideas, and so much bad acting. I didn’t know how bad movies could get until I saw this.

Anyways, off to bed I go.

Some people…

Jimmy Walter has spent more than $3 million (1.5 million pounds) promoting a conspiracy theory the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States were “an inside job” and he is offering more cash to anyone who proves him wrong.

The millionaire activist is so convinced of a government cover-up he is offering a $100,000 reward to any engineering student who can prove the World Trade Centre buildings crashed the way the government says.

(The story found via Fark)
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For all you people in Berkeley not getting enough news with the Daily Cal out,. there’s news on Calstuff and One.berkeley.edu. Both maintained by me.
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I found out Wikipedia listed me as one of its 2000 most active users. Out of how many users who use that site, I must say that’s astounding.
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Seth Godin again came out with some great posts on what people need to teach kids starting in 3rd grade and have mastered by high school (see The Top 1,000 things to know and Add to the List).

1. How to type.
2. How to speak in front of a group.
3. How to write clear prose that other people actually want to read.
4. How to manage a project.
5. The most important lessons from American history.
6. What the world’s religions have in common.
7. Evolution.
8. Formal logic.
9. The 15,000 most common English words.
10. Conversational Spanish.
11. How to handle big changes, with grace.
12. How to run a small business.
13. Basic chemistry.
14. Not arithmetic, but algebra.
15. A little geometry, a little calculus.
16. The most important lessons from ten other world cultures and their history.
17. Speed reading with comprehension.
18. How to sell.
19. Pick one: how to paint, write a poem, compose a song or juggle really well.
20. Understanding the biographies of 500 important historical figures and 200 fictional ones.
21. Basic understanding of electricity.
22. How to drive a nail, drive a screw, cut a board, build a box.
23. How to drive a car in the winter, how to pull a car out of a skid.
24. How to ask for help.

Probability.

25. How to read a table and a chart
26. How to read the media for spin and for insight
27. The importance of doing things for other people.
(yes, this one among others is mostly a parenting job, but yes, it can be taught)
28. How to work really really hard, sometimes on things that aren’t fun.
29. What it’s like to be in jail.
30. How to create an internal dialogue that makes you happy.

Interesting stuff. I know how to do a lot of this stuff (I think), but I wish I knew some of these things. Well, I’m still young; I can pick this up.

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