Living Solo

Discoveries I've made since living alone:

• I actually can kill spiders, given a heavy enough shoe that can be attached to the end of my swiffer. 
• I'm messy. That will shock no one I suppose, but I always thought I was just messy when I only had small spaces to work with (like my bedroom or my desk). Turns out the messyness just expands to fill the space. 
• I might not like the color green as much as I thought I did. I have a LOT of green stuff. 
• It becomes really easy to leave doors open when no one else is around...bedroom doors, bathroom doors...there's no one to separate from!
• I love yogurt and cheerios, together. That's been my dinner for the past four days. Still trying to get around to unpacking my kitchen.
• I need to take more pictures (I have so few to put up in my apartment) but I now have a lot less to take pictures of - I'm not going to take pictures of myself sitting on the couch, reading on my bed, standing in the kitchen....the solo apartment doesn't lend itself to exciting photographic remembrances. 
• I cannot tolerate sleeping in the heat. If I were on a jury and a murderer testified that he lost his temper because his bedroom was hot and that's why he killed the woman who cut him off on his way to work....I'd let him off.
  

The New Place and Some Old Places

Two of my favorite places in the world are Walden Pond (Concord, MA) and Central Park (NYC). My new apartment is nowhere near as cool as either of those places. BUT, I think there are some similarities.

• When Henry David Thoreau went to Walden Pond, he "wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if (he) could not learn what it had to teach." I came to my apartment for sort of less profound, but similar reasons. I was ready to be on my own. I aslo needed some separation from my parents, which apparently Thoreau did not - he still had his mother do his laundry.

• Thoreau was not completely isolated at Walden Pond, but he clearly had a lot of time on his hands to think...he wrote a 300 page book with chapters like "The Bean Field", "Solitude" and "Brute Neighbors". Since I've started living here, I've written in my journal almost every day. And in fact, one day I wrote about how much I like being alone (solitude) and yesterday I wrote about my neighbors! I don't plan on writing anything about a bean field.

• I live by Liberty Park, which has a pond. 

• It's a little harder to show similarities between my new place and Central Park. There's actually just one thing that reminds me of it, and that is the squirrel. When I went to Central Park I remember being really surprised by how many squirrels there were, and how they didn't seem to be afraid of anything, humans or otherwise. Well outside my living room window lives the most obnoxious squirrel in the world. Every morning I wake up to him squeaking away for no apparent reason. It took me awhile to find him, but when I did he seemed to be squeaking right at my neighbor, then he went to another tree and was squeaking at some bird, and on and on. I had no idea squirrels could be obnoxious, I don't even think I knew they could really make noise. But now....well I never understood the point of BB guns.

Betrayal of Jerry Sloan

What happened today between the Utah Jazz and Jerry Sloan is infuriating. I'm not going to talk about what I think of his coaching style or whether he'll win a championship, because I don't think that's relevant.

A coach who has been here for 23 seasons and over 1,000 wins should not be disrespected this way. I'm sure there was more to it than Deron Williams calling his own play in the game against the Bulls, but I'm also sure that Deron's attitude didn't help. Maybe Deron didn't love Jerry's style, but guess what...it worked for John Stockton. Stockton's stats didn't suffer because of Jerry Sloan, they were incredible...because of Jerry Sloan. Maybe Sloan wasn't going to take the Jazz to a title, but the current roster isn't going to do that no matter who the coach is. There are a lot of factors that go into a team's success or failure, and everyone involved knows it, which is why it is so disappointing that the Jazz management and the players would allow a storied, hall of fame career to end this way.


Jazz fans aren't going to like it, this is not going to help Deron's image, or Greg's image or improve loyalty to the team. Jazz fans don't buy tickets or watch games religiously because of any one so-called super star. The Jazz have always represented the down-to-earthness of Utah residents. We don't put up with diva players (the reason why players like Stockton, Hornacek, and Matt Harpring are the most talked about...not people like Boozer or even Malone). We value hard workers who are going to stick around and get the job done. Jerry Sloan represented the best of that, and for him to leave with anything but a standing ovation is a travesty.

Business Professional - Or Not

This week I had to take a one-day trip for work. . I've watched my dad travel for business quite a bit and I wanted to emulate his efficient travel style. So this morning I set out to play the part of an experienced business traveler.

Step one: pack light. I succeeded in this. I fit everything I needed into my computer shoulder bag. Toiletries, computer, clothes for tomorrow, I'm all set. More on this later.

Step two: don't waste time at the airport. I also succeeded here, sort of. I arrived at the terminal 15 minutes before my flight was supposed to board. No big deal, I had checked in online, had my boarding pass on my phone, no checked bags. I got through security, checked my gate and headed off towards my flight. The board had said B17 and I didn't think much of it until I was halfway through the trek to the B gates in the Salt Lake Airport. They are two people movers and one level away from security. I arrived at my gate, there was no where to sit but I saw some columns marked with row numbers so I went over and hovered near the one marked '6' because that was what row I was on. I waited until they were boarding and I went up to give the woman my boarding pass via phone. She didn't take it and scan it, she said "Uh...this is a Delta boarding pass." And I liked right back at here thinking "Yes....?" Then she explained, "This is a Southwest flight, not Delta." Then it all made sense, trekking all the way over there, the row numbers, almost no business-types around. Apparently when I checked the boards for my gate, I had looked at the wrong flight leaving for San Diego. What are the odds that there would be two flight leaving at almost the same time, for the same place, from the same airport? High apparently. So back I went to the C gates (which happen to be RIGHT in front of security). Thankfully I arrived before they called my zone. I was perspiring a little, and the two men sitting on either side of me didn't seem thrilled, but I didn't care. I had originally planned to read my Wall Street Journal finance book to keep up my appearance as the 'savvy business traveler' but that had pretty much gone out the window, so I played Monopoly on my phone instead.

Lesson: Double-check gates. 

Step 3: Move through the airport without slowing down (like you've been there a million times before and you know right where you're going) and get a cab. I did this just fine. Got in the cab, told him where I needed to go, and we were off. However, about 30 minutes in I looked up at the price clock thing and realized the amount of cash I had in my wallet was possibly not going to be enough. I remember thinking about that before I left, but also thinking, eh, the cab ride isn't going to be more than $40, that's how much it is in New York and there's no way it will be that much here.I quickly mapquested the directions to find out how much longer we had to go and realized that I DEFINITELY did not have enough cash to cover this.  And there was a little sign that said no credit cards. Bad news. So we arrived, and I told him I could give him what cash I had (enough to cover about 60%) when he pulled out a credit card machine from his glove compartment. He didn't exactly know how to work it so he was not happy but he got his money and I got to my hotel.

Lesson: Cab rides are based on distance, so don't assume the fee will be the same wherever you are.

Step 4: Get rewards points. I made sure the hotel had my rewards number when I checked in so I could get all my points. She called me Ms. West and told me there would be a shuttle to take me to my meetings in the morning. I felt that I had succeeded in making this woman think I was a savvy business traveler. She even looked surprised when she found out I hadn't stayed at the hotel before.

BUT THEN....I got to my room and realized I had forgotten two things in my effort to pack light. First, pajamas. Second....well, at certain times of the month, certain items are required. I required them...but I forgot to pack them. I literally ran to the hotel services book to see if they had a gift shop where I could buy them. They didn't, only vending machines with food. But they did have a section that caught my eye called "Forgot something?". It said they would provide toothbrushes, combs etc. free of charge as a service to guests. So I could call them and ask them, or ask my male business associate who I was going to dinner with, to make a stop at a store so I could buy them. I decided it was better to embarrass myself in front of strangers than colleagues.

So I called the front desk. To my chagrin a male voice answered. I just took a breath and said "This is an embarrassing question...but do you have any feminine hygiene products?"

Response: LONG PAUSE...Uhhh...let me check. ANOTHER LONG PAUSE. Yes...we have both....kinds.

Me: Oh great! So, should I....

Response: I can have someone bring them up.

Me: That would be great!

Response: Ok, um which kind would you like?

Me: Oh, uh, (awkward laugh) well..either one is fine.

Response: I'll have someone bring one of each.

Me: (To myself: One? Seriously one? Oh whatever I am not making this worse). Ok thank you!

So then I waited for the awkward exchange. Pretty soon there was a knock at my door, and I found myself being presented with a tray, the kind hotels use to bring room service food, lid and all. When I opened the door the man standing there lifted the lid for me, I took the stuff, and he walked away without saying anything. I'd like to think that they made it look like room service for my sake...but from the look on the kid's face...it was definitely for his.

Now I'm sitting here trying to force myself to call the front desk again to ask for a toothbrush, yet another thing I forgot.


Lesson: There are more important things than packing light.

Sharing the Joy

I am in my last real week of finals at BYU, sort of. Anyway, I'm attempting to find the joy in these last few (except the one that was at 7am - I literally felt like I could kill someone if they even looked at me wrong. Early morning=irritability to the point of psychopathy) and I thought I'd share the joy with you. (I fully expect this to be the least read blog post ever). Here are some gems from the week:


Philosophy of Law:  Today at 7am I was presented with five questions, including the following - our answers to each were supposed to be at least a page long - in total I ended up writing ten pages. Who needs coffee when you have this stuff?

• (a) Under the standard proposed by Estrich (p.875), what would a person be required to do to avoid being negligent regarding the consent of a sexual partner? (b) What problems does a negligence standard for rape entail? (c) In your opinion, what should be legally required to be guilty of rape? Defend your answer against possible objections.
• (a) Is the U.S. government morally obligated to provide remedies for past discrimination against African-Americans? Explain. (b) State arguments for and against using affirmative action as a legal remedy for past discrimination. (c) How does Justice Brennan in Bakke (p.594) argue that preferential treatment (affirmative action) should be subjected to less than strict scrutiny. Do you agree? Why or why not? 
  

Logic: Mostly proofs and some symoblizations. It's like math without numbers.

• I had to give proofs for give statements like the following:
• (x)(Cax→Dxb)
• (Ǝx)Cax                  C: (Ǝx)Cax→(Ǝx)(Ǝy)Dxy 

Philosophy of Language: Mixed bag, essays, short answer and memorizations.

• Essay: Drawing upon Kripke's theory of naming and the notion of a rigid designator, give a semantical account of the word "philosophy." Implicit in this answer should be an explanation of why "the love of wisdom" is a problematic answer. 
• Turn sentences like "The French king is not funny" into:
• It is false that: "x rules France" is sometimes true, "if y rules France then y=x" is always true, "x is not funny" is sometimes true.

• Memorize nine quotes like:
• Everything is what it is and not another thing.
• All these results were obtained not by any heroic method, buy by patient, detailed reasoning. I began to think it probably the Philosophy had erred in adopting heroic remedies for intellectual difficulties, and that solutions were to be found merely by greater care and accuracy. 

Philosophical Writing: Papers. Lots of papers.

• Excerpt from my term paper on Skepticism and St. Augustine: The Academics deny that knowledge is possible. They deny the validity of cataleptic impressions and sensory experiences because they are too easily duplicated in verifiably untrue ways (such as dreams), and they are too vulnerable to the errors of human perception. The Academics do acknowledge that truth exists but deny the existence of knowledge because our human modes of perception and reason are too fallible to access truth. They argue that while people may think they know some fact which actually turns out to be true, they have no way of knowing that they know it. Therefore, true knowledge, that is knowledge of our knowledge, is not possible (Klein).

Philosophy Senior Seminar: Very broad/general readings and another Paper.

• Excerpt from the paper on Ethical Egoism and Kantian Deontology: While it is true that committing to certain duties takes a degree of thought out of some choices, it does not take away one's autonomy in Kant's sense, or one's concern for self in an Egoist's sense. In fact, the adoption of these duties may  be necessary for us to truly conform to either system. If we always had to make hard choices in the moment of action, we would probably be much less effective both in choosing what is moral, and is choosing what in our own best interest.

Doctrine & Covenants: Multiple Choice and Matching - lots of terms like these: 

• Keys for detecting messengers (D&C 129) 
• Kinds of beings in heaven (D&C 129)
• Appearances of the Father, Son (D&C 130)
• Willard Richards
• John Taylor 
• Alvin Smith

Saturday, November 5th - Oy

Twas the hour before kickoff and all through Rice Eccles

All the fans had donned black and prepared their best heckles

The Horned Frogs were coming, ranked number three

We hoped the Utes would emerge victoriously

The crowd was in place, the fight song had been sung

We were ready for our team to tackle, pass and run

The ball was kicked off and the crowd seemed to swell

And then that dumb game went completely to…..

Normally I keep my sports thoughts to my sports blog...but this post isn't going to be focused on the game (because I'm still not really ready to talk about it). It's more a Philosophical musing about large sporting events and why we attend (like lambs to the slaughter in some cases).

The game last week allowed me to get a little perspective on the strange customs and rituals that are such a part of our sporting experiences. For example, by the end of the third quarter there was clearly no hope for a comeback (no matter how many bad habits I insisted I was willing to give up for a little divine intervention) and an interesting thing happened. The crowd seemed totally separated from the team on the field. Normally at these games it feels like we're all on the same team, willing the people who actually play on with our yells and dances and chants etc. 

Then, the 'Crazy Lady' (picture here) got up to do her dance that she always does and for the first time, she literally seemed crazy. I sat there and realized that this was actually just a woman, dancing in front of 40,000 people, just because she always does.In the context of a football game it always seemed like a cool tradition....sort of the older generation of fans (her) reaching out and showing the new kids (the MUSS) how its done. But on Saturday, by the time she got up to do her thing, there really wasn't a game going on, and I found myself sitting amidst a bunch of strangers watching an old lady dance. 

I suppose it was more realistic this way. Normally we have some illusions about our importance as fans, and our involvement in the wins, and we have a feeling of being a part of 'the team'. But in this game there were no such illusions. There was all this pent-up energy and nowhere to use it (except for booing our quarterback and yelling at the coaches and walking back to our cars).

Inkiversary

I was told it would hurt

And that I'd feel like dirt

And that it meant I was going astray

And that I'd regret it someday

However, on this date

One year late-r

I think

My ink

Rocks

And it puts me outside the box

I still love the quote

And I'll end on that note.