RIght now I'm babysitting for Li and Em, since it's GA's birthday today and Laszlo took her out to dinner.
Li informed me upon arrival that she is henceforth and forthwith to be referred to as "The Seashell Princess", and Em is to be referred to as "The Flower Princess".
By the time I got there and Laszlo and GA left for dinner, it was basically already bedtime for the two of them. They weren't giving off much of a I'm-ready-for-bed vibe, so I busted out a favorite game of mine: "Let's see how fast we can run around the entire house!"
It's a great game, because I only have to do it twice, and then I can say I'm too tired, but I'll count while they make the next lap. Then, I can say: "Try it again and let's see if you can go faster!!" It helps that Seashell Princess is competitive like her daddy. Because after about a dozen iterations of the game, they don't protest when I say it's time to go to bed.
Yup, I'm totally daddy material.
Laszlo and GA had done all the various pre-bedtime rituals except for The Reading of the Stories, so I had us all race upstairs to Flower Princess's room for Story #1. Flower Princess picked "If You Feed a Mouse a Cookie..." which isn't half bad, and at least isn't about princesses. Come to think of it, this may be the first bedtime story we've ever done that didn't involve a princess.
After her story, we all trooped over to Seashell Princess's room for Story #2, which was "There's a New Kid in School" (or something like that- I already can't remember). It's by Katie Couric, and the reason I can't remember it already is that it's not very good. Seriously, Katie should stick to TV news. Though, these days it's not even clear she should stick to that.
The storyline itself was fine, and the new kid, who is basically shunned and taunted by the other kids, is named Lazlo. The story ends with all the girls deciding to be friends with Lazlo. No word on what the other boys decided. Though, the book does teach an important lesson that gradeschool soft power is concentrated entirely with the girls. The boys are just helpless pawns. I was in a daily fight for existence through most of 7th grade, but in 8th grade, when Andrea, the cutest girl in school, decided she liked me (not enough to want to "go with" me, which would have squandered too much social capital, but enough to not want to see me with a permanent bullseye on me), all the predator boys instantly backed off. 8th grade wound up being the most peaceful year I had from 5th-10th grade, when I finally went into the skater punk orbit. For whatever reason, rejecting the conformist social culture of my high school made people leave me alone more.
Anyway, we read Story #2. The storyline, as I said, is fine- it's the hamhanded attempt to make the lines rhyme in couplets that makes the story suck. First of all, rhyming in couplets makes anything sound retarded, but if you're going to do it, for God's sake find a rhythm and stick to it.
After Story #2, I said goodnight to Seashell Princess and took Flower Princess back to her room to say goodnight to her...
Flower Princess: "Will you sing me a song?"
Me: "Uh, well, um..."
Flower Princess: "'Cause mommy always sings me a song. And daddy does too."
And then she fixes me with that Look- the same Look that Puss-in-Boots uses in the Shrek movies. It's uncanny. So, I blundered my way through Annie's Song, and said goodnight. Fortunately, the point at which they'll be old enough to tell that I'm haphazardly lurching through 3 different keys per word is also the time at which they'll start to think it's pretty lame to ask grownups to sing them songs.
About 0.0003 seconds after I left Flower Princess's room, I hear:
Flower Princess: "Uncle Gus?"
Me: "Yes sweetie what is it?"
Flower Princess: "Can I have a cup of water?"
Me (out loud): "Yes of course sweetheart."
Me (internally): "Seriously? Are we going to use every cliched bedtime delaying tactic ever?"
So I got her water, watched her drink it, tucked her back in, and switched off the light. Again.
Downstairs, I scrounged around the refrigerator to put together a sandwich for dinner. I had just enough time to find bread, meat, and cheese, and then I heard the pitter patter of tiny Princess feet approaching...
Flower Princess: "Can I ask you a question?"
Me: "Sure."
Flower Princess: "Why aren't _you_ going to bed now?"
Me: "Well, it's Princess bedtime, not Involved Uncle bedtime. And somebody's got to be awake when mommy and daddy get home. Besides, the broader question is: Why aren't you going to bed now?"
Flower Princess: "Can I ask another question?"
Me: "Ye-e-e-e-e-s..."
Flower Princess: "I... came downstairs to ask you... can I stay up with you?" (insert Puss-in-Boots look here)
Me: "Aw, that's so-o-o-o-o sweet honey... but no. It's Princess bedtime, and you, my dear, are a Princess, so off we go."
And so I walked her upstairs to her room, tucked her back in, and switched off the light. Again.
Fortunately, third time seems to be the charm. No Princess foot patter since then. I think the running game finally caught up to them...
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Monday, September 29, 2008
Election '08 by Gus, Part 10
My thoughts on recent developments:
The Bailout
Personally, I wouldn't have done the bailing out that's been done so far, much less do the $700 billion super duper deluxe bailout, for the following reason:
Live by the market, die by the market.
For oh so many years now, we have been subjected to shrill conservative complaints that government is always the problem, that regulation is always bad, etc. etc. Well, here is a great example of what happens when you don't have smart regulation. And by the way, I don't much blame the i-bankers. They do what they do, which is make as much money as possible within whatever set of rules are enforced on them. So, if we have a decent set of rules that are reasonably enforced, the i-bankers cause minimal harm, and we the people reap a non-trivial benefit of having a lot of freely flowing, pretty efficiently allocated capital.
Of course, without rules, or with rules but without enforcement, i-bankers will still make as much money as possible, but now they'll invent crazy ways to do it, and then we the people will bear the consequences when the crazier ideas start wrecking the financial system. I-bankers are like corgis- I don't know if you've ever spent significant time around a corgi, but if a dump truck dumped a metric ton of dog food in front of a corgi, the corgi would try and eat literally the entire pile. Long after its stomach had burst, the poor corgi would, with its last few breaths, keep eating. They just don't have an off swtich. I-bankers are like that- they'll just keep making deals, or selling crazy derivatives, or whatever, even if it means that they're endangering the health of the whole financial system, which includes themselves. So you have to have smart, enforced regulation in place to productively channel their impulses and to protect them from themselves, and by extension, to protect the rest of us from them.
But, with conservatism in ascendance at least since Reagan, we've seen a systematic dismantling of a lot of sensible regulation. Not all of it is sensible, but a lot of sensible things were trashed, typically under Republican leadership, with Democrats either powerless to stop, or too scared and weak to put up a decent fight. So now I say, let it all burn. Let all the banks that are going to collapse as a result of all this subprime nonsense collapse, and let the domino effects happen. For one, it'll speed up the process of economically readjusting everything that needs to be readjusted (i.e., ripping the bandaid off all at once instead of trying to pull it off little by little, which just increases the total amount of pain you end up experiencing), and two, it will help to underscore to more people the total failure of that extreme brand of economic conservatism that got us into this mess. Extremism in anything is to be looked at with great suspicion, in my opinion.
BTW, I'm a huge, huge believer in the power of capitalism and markets. Most of the world's innovation has come since the development of the joint-stock corporation, and over the last 20 years or so, globalization and the spread of capitalism to places like China and India have lifted hundreds of millions of people out of poverty. The problem is the people with black-and-white views about it: people, typically on the right, who think capitalism is somehow inherently good, and people, typically on the left, who think globalization/capitalism is somehow inherently bad.
Folks, it's neither. Capitalism is just a force, neither inherently good nor bad, but which, like any force, can be harnessed and made to produce a lot of good things when done with skill and foresight. So, I'd like to see the bailout never get passed, and then let all the fallout happen, and then rebuild the system with smarter regulation. Hopefully, by the time most of the effects worked themselves out, and it was time to start rebuilding, we'd have an Obama presidency. Which brings me to:
The Debates
Joel and I watched the debate from the Obama campaign office in Palo Alto. It was a lot of fun. It was nice to be in a place with a lot of other people who think the prospect of a McCain-Palin administration is just as terrifying as I think it is. I agree with what seems to be a general sentiment that the debate was pretty much a draw, but all that really matters is what the undecided people in about 10 states thought, and I hope they thought, as I did, that Obama looked more thoughtful, and had a more compelling long-run vision.
This Thursday I'll be in New Haven, so I won't get to watch the Biden-Palin debate live, but thankfully we have the magic of the internet to catch up on it later. Palin is doing her best to lower the bar for herself, managing expectations, saying Biden's such a great debater, he's so confident, blah blah blah. Lord knows, she desperately needs the expectations to be low.
All I can say is, I hope that whoever is prepping Biden stands over him every night while he sleeps whispering "Less is more" into his ear all night. He only has to speak a little to demonstrate that he has command of all the issues. Aside from that, let Palin talk, because the more she talks, the more it is apparent that she's totally clueless. Not stupid, but another George W. Bush- someone who isn't stupid, but has no intellectual curiosity and has made a life out of intellectual laziness. And I think it ought to be pretty clear that the world is complex enough that you can't have intellectually lazy people running the show. That will buy us another 4-8 years of what we've just experienced for the last 8. So don't go after her too hard, Joe, or everyone will start feeling sorry for her. And she doesn't deserve that- she could've said "no" when John McCain called and asked her to be his running mate.
As for us, if we as a country do end up electing McCain and Palin, we will absolutely deserve the 4-8 years worth of crap we're going to get. But I'm still optimistic that people do get it, and that in the end we will see an Obama victory. A smaller one than it ought to be, but a victory nonetheless.
Yes we can.
The Bailout
Personally, I wouldn't have done the bailing out that's been done so far, much less do the $700 billion super duper deluxe bailout, for the following reason:
Live by the market, die by the market.
For oh so many years now, we have been subjected to shrill conservative complaints that government is always the problem, that regulation is always bad, etc. etc. Well, here is a great example of what happens when you don't have smart regulation. And by the way, I don't much blame the i-bankers. They do what they do, which is make as much money as possible within whatever set of rules are enforced on them. So, if we have a decent set of rules that are reasonably enforced, the i-bankers cause minimal harm, and we the people reap a non-trivial benefit of having a lot of freely flowing, pretty efficiently allocated capital.
Of course, without rules, or with rules but without enforcement, i-bankers will still make as much money as possible, but now they'll invent crazy ways to do it, and then we the people will bear the consequences when the crazier ideas start wrecking the financial system. I-bankers are like corgis- I don't know if you've ever spent significant time around a corgi, but if a dump truck dumped a metric ton of dog food in front of a corgi, the corgi would try and eat literally the entire pile. Long after its stomach had burst, the poor corgi would, with its last few breaths, keep eating. They just don't have an off swtich. I-bankers are like that- they'll just keep making deals, or selling crazy derivatives, or whatever, even if it means that they're endangering the health of the whole financial system, which includes themselves. So you have to have smart, enforced regulation in place to productively channel their impulses and to protect them from themselves, and by extension, to protect the rest of us from them.
But, with conservatism in ascendance at least since Reagan, we've seen a systematic dismantling of a lot of sensible regulation. Not all of it is sensible, but a lot of sensible things were trashed, typically under Republican leadership, with Democrats either powerless to stop, or too scared and weak to put up a decent fight. So now I say, let it all burn. Let all the banks that are going to collapse as a result of all this subprime nonsense collapse, and let the domino effects happen. For one, it'll speed up the process of economically readjusting everything that needs to be readjusted (i.e., ripping the bandaid off all at once instead of trying to pull it off little by little, which just increases the total amount of pain you end up experiencing), and two, it will help to underscore to more people the total failure of that extreme brand of economic conservatism that got us into this mess. Extremism in anything is to be looked at with great suspicion, in my opinion.
BTW, I'm a huge, huge believer in the power of capitalism and markets. Most of the world's innovation has come since the development of the joint-stock corporation, and over the last 20 years or so, globalization and the spread of capitalism to places like China and India have lifted hundreds of millions of people out of poverty. The problem is the people with black-and-white views about it: people, typically on the right, who think capitalism is somehow inherently good, and people, typically on the left, who think globalization/capitalism is somehow inherently bad.
Folks, it's neither. Capitalism is just a force, neither inherently good nor bad, but which, like any force, can be harnessed and made to produce a lot of good things when done with skill and foresight. So, I'd like to see the bailout never get passed, and then let all the fallout happen, and then rebuild the system with smarter regulation. Hopefully, by the time most of the effects worked themselves out, and it was time to start rebuilding, we'd have an Obama presidency. Which brings me to:
The Debates
Joel and I watched the debate from the Obama campaign office in Palo Alto. It was a lot of fun. It was nice to be in a place with a lot of other people who think the prospect of a McCain-Palin administration is just as terrifying as I think it is. I agree with what seems to be a general sentiment that the debate was pretty much a draw, but all that really matters is what the undecided people in about 10 states thought, and I hope they thought, as I did, that Obama looked more thoughtful, and had a more compelling long-run vision.
This Thursday I'll be in New Haven, so I won't get to watch the Biden-Palin debate live, but thankfully we have the magic of the internet to catch up on it later. Palin is doing her best to lower the bar for herself, managing expectations, saying Biden's such a great debater, he's so confident, blah blah blah. Lord knows, she desperately needs the expectations to be low.
All I can say is, I hope that whoever is prepping Biden stands over him every night while he sleeps whispering "Less is more" into his ear all night. He only has to speak a little to demonstrate that he has command of all the issues. Aside from that, let Palin talk, because the more she talks, the more it is apparent that she's totally clueless. Not stupid, but another George W. Bush- someone who isn't stupid, but has no intellectual curiosity and has made a life out of intellectual laziness. And I think it ought to be pretty clear that the world is complex enough that you can't have intellectually lazy people running the show. That will buy us another 4-8 years of what we've just experienced for the last 8. So don't go after her too hard, Joe, or everyone will start feeling sorry for her. And she doesn't deserve that- she could've said "no" when John McCain called and asked her to be his running mate.
As for us, if we as a country do end up electing McCain and Palin, we will absolutely deserve the 4-8 years worth of crap we're going to get. But I'm still optimistic that people do get it, and that in the end we will see an Obama victory. A smaller one than it ought to be, but a victory nonetheless.
Yes we can.
Monday, September 8, 2008
3 trips to the city: part 3
6 days later, I once again got on a plane to NYC, this time for the annual Director's meeting for work.
I flew in early Sunday morning, and spent the day hanging out with Keiko's family in Jersey. Her family is remarkably chill, especially given that in less than one year's time Keiko has jumped out of a plane at 13.5 thousand feet, and nearly drowned in the Pacific as a result of dating me. Contrast this with the families of previous girlfriends, which have featured family members going to church every sunday to pray for a breakup so that my GF of the time could "find a nice white boy to date", family members comparing my looks to those of Middle Eastern terrorists, and family members refusing to stay under my roof or at a hotel at which I got them the employee rate by calling in a favor from a friend, because they didn't "need any of [my] charity." That's 3 different examples from 3 different GFs, by the way.
After a day of hanging out in Jersey, we headed back to the city. The next day began the 2 full days of Director's meetings. Mostly, that's a lot of super glamorous stuff like presentations and going over memos and stuff, but it's nice to meet all the other Directors. And, my first 2 quarters were the 2nd best first 2 quarters in company history, so my results were decent. But we always go out to a nice dinner, and we did this time too. And at the end of the second day there's always a dinner and party with the administrative staff in NY, which coincidentally includes Keiko.
This year it was in one of Manhattan's few bowling alleys. We had pre-assigned teams and did a whole tournament. Since some teams had 4 people and some had 5, games were decided on average score. As luck would have it, our team won it all! We rolled through the tourney obliterating all comers by sticking to failsafe strategy: consistent, unwavering mediocrity. I had the individual high score on our team by bowling a 118. I also had the second lowest individual score, in a different game, by bowling a 92. Everyone else bounced around between 95 and 105. Other teams had individual higher scores, but also had terrible scores- 40's and the like, which kept their averages down. Consistent, unwavering mediocrity won the day for us; it's like we were running a political campaign.
Me and Keiko. She's had a few too many at the company picnic, if you know what I mean...
The next day, I hung out with Keiko on her lunch break, and then had to high-tail it to the airport. Somehow, I'm not really sure how, I ended up missing the bus I needed, so I had to catch the next bus, and hold my breath to see if we would make it in traffic in time for me to make my flight. Fortunately, this time the bus driver did not get lost, but with all the traffic I barely made it, and had to run for my gate. And sure enough, I made it on the plane, and the plane took off and landed on time, with no problems. Yet another data point proving that I'm meant to go to the airport this way.
It's science- I can't help it that the universe works this way...
I flew in early Sunday morning, and spent the day hanging out with Keiko's family in Jersey. Her family is remarkably chill, especially given that in less than one year's time Keiko has jumped out of a plane at 13.5 thousand feet, and nearly drowned in the Pacific as a result of dating me. Contrast this with the families of previous girlfriends, which have featured family members going to church every sunday to pray for a breakup so that my GF of the time could "find a nice white boy to date", family members comparing my looks to those of Middle Eastern terrorists, and family members refusing to stay under my roof or at a hotel at which I got them the employee rate by calling in a favor from a friend, because they didn't "need any of [my] charity." That's 3 different examples from 3 different GFs, by the way.
After a day of hanging out in Jersey, we headed back to the city. The next day began the 2 full days of Director's meetings. Mostly, that's a lot of super glamorous stuff like presentations and going over memos and stuff, but it's nice to meet all the other Directors. And, my first 2 quarters were the 2nd best first 2 quarters in company history, so my results were decent. But we always go out to a nice dinner, and we did this time too. And at the end of the second day there's always a dinner and party with the administrative staff in NY, which coincidentally includes Keiko.
This year it was in one of Manhattan's few bowling alleys. We had pre-assigned teams and did a whole tournament. Since some teams had 4 people and some had 5, games were decided on average score. As luck would have it, our team won it all! We rolled through the tourney obliterating all comers by sticking to failsafe strategy: consistent, unwavering mediocrity. I had the individual high score on our team by bowling a 118. I also had the second lowest individual score, in a different game, by bowling a 92. Everyone else bounced around between 95 and 105. Other teams had individual higher scores, but also had terrible scores- 40's and the like, which kept their averages down. Consistent, unwavering mediocrity won the day for us; it's like we were running a political campaign.
Me and Keiko. She's had a few too many at the company picnic, if you know what I mean...
The next day, I hung out with Keiko on her lunch break, and then had to high-tail it to the airport. Somehow, I'm not really sure how, I ended up missing the bus I needed, so I had to catch the next bus, and hold my breath to see if we would make it in traffic in time for me to make my flight. Fortunately, this time the bus driver did not get lost, but with all the traffic I barely made it, and had to run for my gate. And sure enough, I made it on the plane, and the plane took off and landed on time, with no problems. Yet another data point proving that I'm meant to go to the airport this way.
It's science- I can't help it that the universe works this way...
3 trips to NYC, Part 2
Four days after arriving back in CA, I got back on a flight to NYC. This time the primary purpose was to see my original student-Alex- whom I'd been tutoring for nearly 5 years, graduate from the United Nations school.
The festivities started on Friday night, when we attended Shabbat dinner with Alex and her whole extended family and friends, at a family friend's apartment on Central Park West. It was a gorgeous apartment, with an amazing panoramic view of the park. I was a little nervous, because my record with Jewish meals is not good.
My all-time low with Jewish meals is the first time I ever attended a Seder dinner, at Laszlo's mom's house during college. There was no guide or anything, and if you've ever experienced a Seder dinner, there's all this praying and stuff that has to happen before you can eat or drink anything. Coming from a background where we struggle at family dinner to pass things to each other, rather than reach over each other (which drives my mother nuts), I wasn't accustomed to having so much awesome food sitting right in front of me, with no one actually eating it.
I held out as long as I could, and then thought perhaps I could surreptitiously pinch a small piece of bread without interrupting anything. I was wrong.
"What are you DOING?" asked Laszlo's mom.
"Uh, I was just nibbling" I said.
"You can't eat that until we say the [insert named Hebrew prayer here] prayer!" Laszlo said.
"Oh."
So I tried to wait it out. The praying went on. I decided I could mitigate the suffering by taking a sip of water.
"What are you DOING?" asked Laszlo's mom.
"Uh, I was thirsty" I said.
"You can't drink that until we say the [insert named Hebrew prayer here] prayer!" Laszlo said.
Now totally frustrated, I put my chin in my hand and plopped my elbow on the table, right on top of my napkin.
CRUNCH!
All praying stopped, and everyone turned to look at me.
"What was that?" I asked, and llifted up my napkin. Underneath were a bunch of cracker crumbs.
"YOU CRUSHED THE HIDDEN MATZO!!!" exclaimed Laszlo.
"WHAT'S THE HIDDEN MATZO?!?" I asked, "And why is it hidden under the Goyim's napkin??"
So, apparently Elijah or whoever wasn't going to have anything to eat when he came around, thanks to yours truly. I'll be the first to admit I'm a pretty lousy Catholic, but it turns out I'm an even worse Jew.
Given this checkered history, I was a little nervous about Shabbat dinner, but it went pretty well, and anyway I stayed hidden at the back as much as possible. People gave little speeches, and Alex's dad gave a very nice speech in which he devoted a small piece to thanking me for being pretty much all of Alex's science and math education in high school. The UN school, in my experience, is very good at teaching languages, history, and to some extent art. But it's in pretty sad shape when it comes to math and science. Not that that distinguishes it from most other schools.
The next day we went to the U.N. for the actual ceremony. Part of the fun of seeing the UN school's graduation is that they actually conduct the ceremony in the main hall of the United Nations, and they have the reception on the back roof of the building overlooking the East River. I heard one of the most affecting speeches ever, by Ishmael Beah, a young man who had come to the UN school after being a child soldier in Sierra Leone. He has since written a book about his experiences.
The General Assembly room of the U.N., from my seat way in the back, presumably where Tonga sits.
Although it was not rhetorically the best speech I ever heard, it really touched me. He spoke with great honesty and passion about the importance of education, and the impact it can have on a person's life. Hearing Alex's dad's words the night before, and hearing that speech that day, reminded me anew of why being a tutor has been so much more rewarding than any other work I've ever done.
Me and Alex
Me and Alex at the reception overlooking the East River.
After dinner with the usual NYC crew, we called it a night, since I was once again determined to get myself to the airport at a responsible hour. After all, surely this time it would pay off.
Wrong.
I took the usual 540am bus, got to the airport, and within 15 minutes of arrival our flight was canceled due to "weather". I don't know where the "weather" in question was, but it wasn't in NYC and it wasn't in CA. The woman behind the counter had the look on her face that I would have if I were hiding behind a convenient, unassailable excuse and just wanted you to shut the fuck up and deal with it.
Sadly, the evening flight was all full, so I ended up booked on the Monday evening flight. That meant having to cancel all my Sunday and Monday meetings, which was annoying. Plus, I'd gotten up super early _and_ avoided hanging out the night before in an effort to be responsible.
The lesson is clear: folks, don't try to be someone you're not.
The festivities started on Friday night, when we attended Shabbat dinner with Alex and her whole extended family and friends, at a family friend's apartment on Central Park West. It was a gorgeous apartment, with an amazing panoramic view of the park. I was a little nervous, because my record with Jewish meals is not good.
My all-time low with Jewish meals is the first time I ever attended a Seder dinner, at Laszlo's mom's house during college. There was no guide or anything, and if you've ever experienced a Seder dinner, there's all this praying and stuff that has to happen before you can eat or drink anything. Coming from a background where we struggle at family dinner to pass things to each other, rather than reach over each other (which drives my mother nuts), I wasn't accustomed to having so much awesome food sitting right in front of me, with no one actually eating it.
I held out as long as I could, and then thought perhaps I could surreptitiously pinch a small piece of bread without interrupting anything. I was wrong.
"What are you DOING?" asked Laszlo's mom.
"Uh, I was just nibbling" I said.
"You can't eat that until we say the [insert named Hebrew prayer here] prayer!" Laszlo said.
"Oh."
So I tried to wait it out. The praying went on. I decided I could mitigate the suffering by taking a sip of water.
"What are you DOING?" asked Laszlo's mom.
"Uh, I was thirsty" I said.
"You can't drink that until we say the [insert named Hebrew prayer here] prayer!" Laszlo said.
Now totally frustrated, I put my chin in my hand and plopped my elbow on the table, right on top of my napkin.
CRUNCH!
All praying stopped, and everyone turned to look at me.
"What was that?" I asked, and llifted up my napkin. Underneath were a bunch of cracker crumbs.
"YOU CRUSHED THE HIDDEN MATZO!!!" exclaimed Laszlo.
"WHAT'S THE HIDDEN MATZO?!?" I asked, "And why is it hidden under the Goyim's napkin??"
So, apparently Elijah or whoever wasn't going to have anything to eat when he came around, thanks to yours truly. I'll be the first to admit I'm a pretty lousy Catholic, but it turns out I'm an even worse Jew.
Given this checkered history, I was a little nervous about Shabbat dinner, but it went pretty well, and anyway I stayed hidden at the back as much as possible. People gave little speeches, and Alex's dad gave a very nice speech in which he devoted a small piece to thanking me for being pretty much all of Alex's science and math education in high school. The UN school, in my experience, is very good at teaching languages, history, and to some extent art. But it's in pretty sad shape when it comes to math and science. Not that that distinguishes it from most other schools.
The next day we went to the U.N. for the actual ceremony. Part of the fun of seeing the UN school's graduation is that they actually conduct the ceremony in the main hall of the United Nations, and they have the reception on the back roof of the building overlooking the East River. I heard one of the most affecting speeches ever, by Ishmael Beah, a young man who had come to the UN school after being a child soldier in Sierra Leone. He has since written a book about his experiences.
The General Assembly room of the U.N., from my seat way in the back, presumably where Tonga sits.
Although it was not rhetorically the best speech I ever heard, it really touched me. He spoke with great honesty and passion about the importance of education, and the impact it can have on a person's life. Hearing Alex's dad's words the night before, and hearing that speech that day, reminded me anew of why being a tutor has been so much more rewarding than any other work I've ever done.
Me and Alex
Me and Alex at the reception overlooking the East River.
After dinner with the usual NYC crew, we called it a night, since I was once again determined to get myself to the airport at a responsible hour. After all, surely this time it would pay off.
Wrong.
I took the usual 540am bus, got to the airport, and within 15 minutes of arrival our flight was canceled due to "weather". I don't know where the "weather" in question was, but it wasn't in NYC and it wasn't in CA. The woman behind the counter had the look on her face that I would have if I were hiding behind a convenient, unassailable excuse and just wanted you to shut the fuck up and deal with it.
Sadly, the evening flight was all full, so I ended up booked on the Monday evening flight. That meant having to cancel all my Sunday and Monday meetings, which was annoying. Plus, I'd gotten up super early _and_ avoided hanging out the night before in an effort to be responsible.
The lesson is clear: folks, don't try to be someone you're not.
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