In the spirit of it all, 20 random facts about myself:
1. I'm a huge fan of different cheeses, coffees and teas.
2. I didn't buy my first cd until 9th grade and now I can't get enough of music.
3. I've been skydiving where tandem skydiving was first started and bungee
jumping at the very first site for the sport. I hope to do both again,
but bad weather has stopped me so far.
4. When I started rock climbing, I started looking at every
structure around me in terms of whether or not I could climb it.
5. I hope to travel to every single country (yes, every single one) someday, because I feel each one has a unique story to tell.
6. I try to be respectful of most people's opinions and attempt to see
where they are coming from because I feel that everyone has a logic or
reason for why they do things that is typically appropriate, but often misinterpreted.
7. I can be extremely optomistic sometimes to the point where it seems like I'm naive, but I am also very much of a realist.
8. I've found that I often relate better to people that are older than me or from different cultures.
9. I'm great talking to people in small groups but tend to be less
talkative when groups are larger. Conservely, I'm great when talking to
hundred people or more at once.
10. My brother is almst my polar opposite in terms of look and personality but we get along great together.
11. I'm currently deciding whether to be a photographer, architect, designer, biologist, engineer, or some combination of the 5.
12. I've been in fewer than 5 big agruments in my life and feel like maybe there's something wrong with that.
13. I'm able to interact with many different social group but have never really felt fully a part of any one group.
14. Planning parties in high school was sometimes difficult considering than many of my friends couldn't stand one another.
15. I'm disgusted by how much is wasted in this world (space, resources) and want to do all I can to reduce that waste.
16. I enjoy nothing more than gazing out from a mountain top after a
long hiking seeing nothing but natural, undeveloped surroundings as far
as the eye can see.
17. My parents were hippies and were married by an Indian guru at a California ashram.
18. If I had the choice, I'd volunteer for the rest of my life.
19. I constantly need a complete change of environment every few months and feel bogged down if I don't get it.
20. I'd love to join the Peace Corps
Archive for October, 2005
Monday, October 31, 2005
Sunday, October 30th, 2005Wednesday, October 19, 2005
Tuesday, October 18th, 2005
1) I was very chubby until 4th or 5th grade.
2) I cannot sleep with a normal bed sheet and I can *never* sleep in a bed where the sheets are tucked in; I sleep with a down comforter year round.
3) I had "shark teeth" as a kid where I had two rows of teeth on either side. I had to have braces twice, once with my baby teeth and once with my adult teeth. I've had 4 normal teeth and 3 wisdom teeth pulled.
4) I am quite superstitious in some ways: I've tried to use the same pen for all applications I've filled out since my applications to college.
5) I've played the cello since I was 4; my first cello was a "Romanian half-size" which, as a kid, I always thought meant something, specifically that it was bigger than a normal half-size cello. Since then I've never heard of a Romanian half-size cello.
6) I've been to a lot of places in Europe but never to Canada.
7) I am intermediately skilled at the Flying Trapeze.
8) I rode a razor-like scooter nearly every day in Switzerland as my primary mode of transportation because such scooters aren't necessarily associated with 5 year-olds there; I've gone over 35 mph on such a scooter using nothing but gravity.
9) Summer thunderstorms are awesome. The smell of rain when it's sunny in half the sky and black in the other half makes me very happy.
10) I drive way too fast.
11) I was raised as a semi-Jew but I have mixed feelings about religion and identify with Judaism for ritual and not ideological reasons.
12) I've had the same permanent address my whole life.
13) My parents were engaged within two weeks of meeting each other on a blind date. November 21 will be their 34th anniversary. I used to think the whole two weeks thing was really cool; now I think it's stupifyingly crazy. I mean, WTF?
14) My sense of humor is often misinterpreted as being mean; I rarely am truly angry at people.
15) I love to cook and I love to eat. Fixing elaborate meals for myself or a group of people has made me consistently happy when I've lived outside of Olin (summer jobs, Switzerland etc.)
16) I often wonder what we think is perfectly normal/safe today will become tomorrow's DUH! (bloodletting etc.)
17) I frequently get the urge to try a running front flip but chicken out when I know how stupid I'll feel if I paralyze myself.
18) I've broken both wrists and one elbow: getting chased by a girl and punching a snowball are the two culprits.
19) I've run 30% of a marathon in blue jeans.
20) I'm terrified that I will lose my remaining three grandparents (to either dementia or health) before I can listen to their stories. I've made an active effort to get them to write down anything that comes to mind but I don't think they've done anything. I know nothing about one side of my family because the majority of it was killed in the holocaust.
2) I cannot sleep with a normal bed sheet and I can *never* sleep in a bed where the sheets are tucked in; I sleep with a down comforter year round.
3) I had "shark teeth" as a kid where I had two rows of teeth on either side. I had to have braces twice, once with my baby teeth and once with my adult teeth. I've had 4 normal teeth and 3 wisdom teeth pulled.
4) I am quite superstitious in some ways: I've tried to use the same pen for all applications I've filled out since my applications to college.
5) I've played the cello since I was 4; my first cello was a "Romanian half-size" which, as a kid, I always thought meant something, specifically that it was bigger than a normal half-size cello. Since then I've never heard of a Romanian half-size cello.
6) I've been to a lot of places in Europe but never to Canada.
7) I am intermediately skilled at the Flying Trapeze.
8) I rode a razor-like scooter nearly every day in Switzerland as my primary mode of transportation because such scooters aren't necessarily associated with 5 year-olds there; I've gone over 35 mph on such a scooter using nothing but gravity.
9) Summer thunderstorms are awesome. The smell of rain when it's sunny in half the sky and black in the other half makes me very happy.
10) I drive way too fast.
11) I was raised as a semi-Jew but I have mixed feelings about religion and identify with Judaism for ritual and not ideological reasons.
12) I've had the same permanent address my whole life.
13) My parents were engaged within two weeks of meeting each other on a blind date. November 21 will be their 34th anniversary. I used to think the whole two weeks thing was really cool; now I think it's stupifyingly crazy. I mean, WTF?
14) My sense of humor is often misinterpreted as being mean; I rarely am truly angry at people.
15) I love to cook and I love to eat. Fixing elaborate meals for myself or a group of people has made me consistently happy when I've lived outside of Olin (summer jobs, Switzerland etc.)
16) I often wonder what we think is perfectly normal/safe today will become tomorrow's DUH! (bloodletting etc.)
17) I frequently get the urge to try a running front flip but chicken out when I know how stupid I'll feel if I paralyze myself.
18) I've broken both wrists and one elbow: getting chased by a girl and punching a snowball are the two culprits.
19) I've run 30% of a marathon in blue jeans.
20) I'm terrified that I will lose my remaining three grandparents (to either dementia or health) before I can listen to their stories. I've made an active effort to get them to write down anything that comes to mind but I don't think they've done anything. I know nothing about one side of my family because the majority of it was killed in the holocaust.
Tuesday, October 18, 2005
Monday, October 17th, 2005
1) I really want to think about 20 random things about myself
2) I'm not going to right now.
I woke up yesterday and opened my eyes and looked at my alarm clock 5 seconds before it was going to go off for the third or fourth consecutive day. That blew my mind. Those days didn't have the same alarm time either.
Music [playing the cello] makes me totally and utterly happy. If I sit down and "practice" which I rarely do and really should do more often, odds are I will sit and play whatever comes to mind for over an hour. I might then look at what I sat down to do but I usually don't and I don't know why.
I am blown away by the people at this school constantly. In our overly hectic lives I am sad that I don't often get to know people better. This is especially true because I am terrified of what is going to happen after graduation in terms of friends.
Going back to the music thing, I don't know why I didn't/don't focus on music for a career. I love it and it makes me *truly* happy and that's why when my cello teacher asked me so many years ago if I wanted to prepare to be a professional cellist I said no. I said, "I like it too much to have it be what puts the bread on my table." I remember honestly believing this statement. I look back and it ... doesn't make any sense at all. Now, it seems like the exact opposite of what should be true. I've kind of set in motion plans to do something with medicine and research for the rest of my life and I don't get it. I really enjoy solving those types of problems, but I would never design an experiment to relax. Perhaps music would become a chore and it would no longer relax me if I devoted my life to it?
There is a staggering number of big thinkers in our student body and I wish there was a way to hear what they have to say more often. This seems like a glaring hole in our curriculum. How to take a step back. Not just from the problem one is solving, but from the reasons why the problem should be solved in the first place.
I spent 40 hours a week this summer "learning" organic chemistry. Gag. I might as well have slept during those hours; yesterday I took a practice exam for a big exam I'm going to take in April which has a section on organic chemistry. I think a third grader could have guessed and bettered my score.
I'm going to go play my cello.
2) I'm not going to right now.
I woke up yesterday and opened my eyes and looked at my alarm clock 5 seconds before it was going to go off for the third or fourth consecutive day. That blew my mind. Those days didn't have the same alarm time either.
Music [playing the cello] makes me totally and utterly happy. If I sit down and "practice" which I rarely do and really should do more often, odds are I will sit and play whatever comes to mind for over an hour. I might then look at what I sat down to do but I usually don't and I don't know why.
I am blown away by the people at this school constantly. In our overly hectic lives I am sad that I don't often get to know people better. This is especially true because I am terrified of what is going to happen after graduation in terms of friends.
Going back to the music thing, I don't know why I didn't/don't focus on music for a career. I love it and it makes me *truly* happy and that's why when my cello teacher asked me so many years ago if I wanted to prepare to be a professional cellist I said no. I said, "I like it too much to have it be what puts the bread on my table." I remember honestly believing this statement. I look back and it ... doesn't make any sense at all. Now, it seems like the exact opposite of what should be true. I've kind of set in motion plans to do something with medicine and research for the rest of my life and I don't get it. I really enjoy solving those types of problems, but I would never design an experiment to relax. Perhaps music would become a chore and it would no longer relax me if I devoted my life to it?
There is a staggering number of big thinkers in our student body and I wish there was a way to hear what they have to say more often. This seems like a glaring hole in our curriculum. How to take a step back. Not just from the problem one is solving, but from the reasons why the problem should be solved in the first place.
I spent 40 hours a week this summer "learning" organic chemistry. Gag. I might as well have slept during those hours; yesterday I took a practice exam for a big exam I'm going to take in April which has a section on organic chemistry. I think a third grader could have guessed and bettered my score.
I'm going to go play my cello.