Moon Hike ...

Last night was a full moon, so it was time for the Caltech-Y moon hike.The hike was limited to 8 people, and there was a long waiting list. Not everyone showed up and the organizers were not happy.

I've done this hike before, but never at night or during a full moon. The hike was actually pretty easy (5 miles), and I am certainly in much better shape now than the last time I tried hiking. The views from the top were great. I really love L.A. I tried to play around with my camera (exposure settings and whatnot) but my pictures didn't come out that great. I need to learn ALOT more about photography. Nonetheless, here is one of my favorite pictures from the hike:

I got to meet a couple of interesting people. It was nice to once again be in a group that likes discussing dispersing particles. It was not nice to be in group that reflected the Caltech male:female ratio.



The rest of the pictures are HERE.

Interesting Reads/Stolen Content ...

Here are some links to some interesting news/articles I have read in other blogs in the last couple of days. I will now shamelessly steal their owner's content.

First, the law students over at The Shark wrote up a top ten list of law school related Facebook groups:

1. Dear Law School: High School Called, They Want Their Drama Back

2. I’ve Thought About Dropping Out of Law School At Least Ten Times Today

3. 1Ls Against Gunners (Or the more crude, but maybe more appropriate: Keep Your F—king Hand Down In Lecture and Shut the F—k Up. No One Cares.)

4. You Might Be In Law School If...

5. If You Come Back Here and Let Me Love and Pet You, I Will Fix Your Clock

6. Law School Is Making Me More Stupider

7. Chuck Norris Lays Down The Law...School

8. If Law School Was Easy, We’d Call It Your Mom

9. I Remember A Time When I Was Happy, Before Law School

10. Dear Law School – Thanks For The Drinking Problem

They also reiterated the need for professionals, professionals-in-training, and really anyone looking for a job to clean up their profile and ensure that nothing inappropriate appears. Old people know about Facebook.

LINK

Second, The Shark also has a posted about some drama going on at Berkeley Law. Apparently somebody associated with their student government set up a secret meeting to encourage minority students to run for positions in the student government. An email announcing the meeting was sent out to a select few. Somebody else caught wind of this and photocopied the email and distributed it to lockers around campus. On the back of the photocopied email, the anonymous person wrote up his aversion for secret student government meetings and demanded transparency.

Sounds like something that would happen on some random teen drama show (is the OC still on?), but I guess all places have their drama (SW included).

LINK via The Shark

Lastly, my friend Joe posted a link to a really good opinion piece in the Economist about the recent market turmoil with Bear Stearns. It analyses what happened and suggest ways to fix it. Maybe I will reconsider that $80 subscription.

LINK via Joe

Tupac Conspiracy ...

I love Tupac. I have every single one of his songs on my computer. I think I play at least one of his songs every single day. I feel like rap/hip-hop took a dive after the 90's. I like true rap because it's a form of poetry. In fact, Tupac has a poetry book, you should read it.

"The Rose That Grew From Concrete" (Tupac Shakur)

Anyways, new article from the LA times describes how in 1994, Tupac Shakur was ambushed, beaten and shot at the Quad Recording Studios in New York. He insisted that friends of Sean 'Diddy' Combs were behind it. New information supports him.

This was the first shot in the East Coast/ West Coast rap rivalry. An interesting read. I guess I won't be buying any P-Diddy brand things anytime soon.

LINK: LA TIMES

Beauty and the Geek: Season 5....

With a midterm and people visiting, I didn't get a chance to watch the first episode of Beauty and the Geek until now. The main reason why I am watching it is because I tried out for it, made it to the in-studio interview, but got rejected. In fact, the show was one of the reason I started this blog.

Nine geeks and nine beauties all playing for some money. One of the contestants, Tommy, is a law student and certainly is not that much of a geek. He almost got kicked out on the first episode because of this. That could have been me. Oh well.

I wasn't very impressed with the cast or this new geeks vs. beauties format. Not sure if I will continue watching.

View From My Classroom ...

IMG_0644
Originally uploaded by me

Today I was wishing I could fly somewhere exotic. However, sometimes I should take pause and realize that I live in L.A., one of the most exotic places in the world. Proof of this came to me when I looked out the window in class today and saw the Hollywood sign. Living in the same city as all the movie stars makes me happy.

Becky Visit ...

Becky came to visit this weekend. This was part of her west coast grad school visit tour. Sadly, she was only able to stay for a single night before heading back home.

We went out to dinner to one of my favorite restaurants, Green Street Restaurant. I once again had my favorite, fattening Monte Cristo sandwich. We then took off to the Hotel Cafe to see Dave Lowensohn from the Speech Writers LLC. We were way too early!

Since I needed cash and we had plenty of time before Dave came on stage, we walked around LA/Hollywood to find a Bank of America. On our way back we played with a fountain (see picture below) and went into the Amoeba Record Store. I was looking for a Low vs. Diamond CD, but they were sold out.

Right before we made it back to the Hotel Cafe we saw two interesting things. First a store that sold only a handful of t-shirts (see picture below). This was the entire store, just a few t-shirts. Our guess is that they only way that this store keeps in business (at a high rent location) is that each t-shirt must be ridiculously overpriced.

Second we saw a pirate. A guy posed as a pirate statue by standing still as we walked past him, only to scare us later. Fun times. Ask Becky for pirate pictures.

We finally made it back, still a bit too early. We caught the last few songs from Anahita. Her voice was beautiful, but I really could not get into her music. This was a her record release show it had a good turn out. After she was done, not many people stayed to watch David. Below is a short video I was able to take before a staff member asked me to put away the camera.

Since Becky was tired we did not end up staying for the last person on stage and went back home. We were in bed by midnight. It was had been a long day.

Around 3am I heard the wind hollowing outside and then heard a huge crash that woke me up. I got up and looked out the window and saw nothing and went back to bed. Early in the morning as we were getting ready to leave, my landlord knocks on my door asking me to move my car to allow for cleanup. Confused, I stepped outside to see this:

Apparently that crash I heard last night was the wind uprooting this tree and and crashing into the adjacent brick shed. Luckily no apartments were damaged.

I blame Becky. That tree has been there for decades and the one time she stays over it falls over. Without her twin, her destructive power unleashes.

We took the train this morning to Union Station and she took the LAX Flyway Shuttle. I was this close to ditching class and leaving with her. Now I'm in class blogging about my wishes to escape somewhere exotic. Sad.

More pictures from the show and the tree damage can be found HERE.