将来该做啥？ El futuro no está en mis manos.

I'm at the point in me life where everyone seems to expect me to have my life all figured out. If I had a dollar for every time some has asked me about my post-graduation plans then maybe I'd have enough money so that I wouldn't have to graduate, haha (well, I probably wouldn't have that much money. Maybe if I had a thousand dollars for every time someone asked me about it...).

I wouldn't mind the friendly interrogations so much if I had a better response, but I usually just end up mumbling something along the lines of, "oh... I have no idea; maybe this, maybe that... blah blah blah..." That answer is only partially accurate though because while I don't actually have any sort of plans nailed down yet, this answer makes it sound like I haven't even started thinking about it, but I have. In fact, I think about it a lot and I have a lot of ideas floating around in my head. So here are all of the current potential post-graduation candidates (in no particular order):

• I could stay in Boulder and bum around for awhile, find a place to move so I don't have to stay in Grandma's basement, and probably keep the job that I have now at Infoture. I like Boulder and I wouldn't mind staying here, but I probably won't end up staying here because I have other options that won't require paying rent.
  
• I could try to find a "real job" somewhere, maybe move somewhere, anywhere... but I don't know how much of a rush I really want to be in to get one of those "real jobs." One potentially "real job" I'm thinking about though is to try to get a job with Google in China (Beijing, specifically). But I'm thinking that even if I decide to try to get a grown-up job, I probably won't even start applying for anything until next summer at the earliest, and maybe not even until the fall.
• Currently the most likely plan is to move back to Mom's house and get a winter job up there. I might also be able to keep my current job at Infoture (since I work remotely anyway), but I think I want to get a different job that I enjoy a little more even if it pays less and won't help my resume even a little bit. This includes jobs like being a ski instructor, or possibly a shuttle driver either around Beaver Creek or maybe between the Vail area and Denver, or something along those lines. I think it sounds like fun.
• There's a remote possibility that I will move into my Dad's house if he ends up getting a job that he applied for in Austraila.
• I suppose I could try to find a scholarship or something to go somewhere to study Chinese (or any other language for that matter)... but that doesn't sound very likely.
• If I am able to sock away enough money over the next few months, I might just take some time off to do nothing at all, maybe travel a bit. But I doubt I will really be able to save that much money, and I would just be bored after a few days with nothing to do.

Some things that I'm trying to keep in mind as I contemplate my near future:

• I'd like to try to take the GRE's in the spring.
• Dad and Raissa and I might try to plan a fairly long trip (like a month or two) to Europe around April or May, so I need to save up some money and keep that time slot open.
• I should probably start looking for a good way to either start learning a new language to stay on track with my ten-languages-by-fifty goal, or to improve my Chinese before it gets too rusty. Maybe I'll look for a job in Brazil; or maybe Chile; or maybe some other interesting place.
  
• I've got MINI Mania on the brain making me want to get a job, earn about $30k, and buy one of those dang minis. Other things I want to purchase include... well actually, now that I think about it, I don't really feel the need to purchase that much stuff besides the mini. Maybe some clothes. And some bicycles. And more cars. And probably a comfortable bed.
  
• Whatever I do, I want it to be something that I'll look back on with fondness in 5, 10, or 30 years.
• Is there anyway I could work a girlfriend into my life somehow? I sure would like a girlfriend...
• I don't want to get trapped in a boring rut. Avoid ruts...
• Maybe get an MBA? Or perhaps go to grad school for something else, like linguistics? Grad school of any kind is probably at least another year or two or three away for me though.

So that's about where I'm at. Still, that hasn't got me any closer to an intelligent answer to the, "so, whatchya doin' after graduation" question. Maybe I should just apply the Napoleon Dynamite line and answer with, "Whatever I feel like! Gosh!" Haha, yeah, that would be sweet. Really though, I am a lot more interested right now with just making it through this brutal last semester that I've signed myself up for, and I'll start thinking about my post graduation plans just as soon as I graduate.

Maybe I should just turn into this guy in this video. The song is "Desaparecido" by Manu Chao. The song has some fun lyrics about how people call him "the disappeared" and "when they look for me I'm not there and when they find me I'm not the one in front of them because I already ran off the other way." Hmm, that would be an interesting sentence for some semantic logic analysis...

Viva Colorado!

Colorado is not only the nation's slimmest state, but apparently in some parts of Colorado, we also have the longest lifespans at 81.3 years! Although the state as a whole only ranks 12th for life-expectancy, 7 counties in Colorado are among the top ten counties in the USA with the longest expected lifespans, including the county where I sometimes claim to have grown up in. Go CO! Yes, Colorado is a pretty cool state. If you aren't from Colorado then you should be jealous.

In honor of that, today's video will be "Feelin' Good" by Muse. Where M.I.A. was my #1 big musical discovery of the summer, Muse was #2 only because I had actually heard of them before and so this was more of a "re-discovery". But I have been listening to them A LOT lately and I'm pretty sure they are my favorite rock-ish band ever now. They are especially good to listen to and to sing along with by yourself when you're driving in the car. Most of their videos are just as awesome as their songs and I have 9 Muse videos on youtube, all of which I would like to post here, but alas "Feelin' Good" seems so appropriate. Also, I like this video because I love the black and red colors. Someday if I ever have my own place, I think I want to decorate my room in colors like this. This song is less epic sounding than some of their other songs though, so I'll probably have to put up another Muse video or two in the future.

Gasolina o Quesadilla?

I've been thinking about how great it would be if there were a version of this song "Gasolina" by Daddy Yankee where instead of "gasolina" they said something like, "quesadilla." Here's the video:



The chorus goes like this:
Daddy Yankee: A ella le gusta la gasolina (She likes that gasoline)
Girls: Dáme más gasolina (Give me more gasoline)
Daddy Yankee: Como le encanta la gasolina (Oh how she loves that gasoline)
Repeat

I think it would be a lot funnier if every "gasolina" were replaced with "quesadilla." But then I realized that there is actually a really long list of femenine nouns that would also work pretty well:

• sopapilla: a delicious fried doughy dessert item.
• hamburguesa: hamburger.
• carne asada: roast beef.
• papas fritas: french fries.
• papas frias: cold potatos.
• cocaína: cocaine.
• frutas y verduras: fruits and vegetables.
• casa blanca: white house.
• aceituna: stuffed olive.
• librería: bookstore.
• salsa verde: green sauce.
• mini-falda: mini-skirt.
• zanahoria: carrot.
• calabaza: pumpkin
• and the list goes on and on and on...

What would be your preferred replacement?

In other news, I converted my bike to a fixed gear about two weeks ago and I LOVE IT! Not only does my bike look cooler/cleaner/sleeker, but it also weighs less and is in some ways actually easier to ride than before. In most situations you really don't need to use the brakes because pedal-braking is sufficient. You can really only brake as fast as you would normally be able to accelerate though (which is not very fast), so sometimes regular brakes are still necessary; so I think that anyone who has a fixie without a front brake is plain crazy. I think my favorite thing about the fixie coversion, however, is that the thing is practically silent going down the road. With no derailers to thread the chain through, it is just so quiet! It is a really neat sensation. Hopefully someday soon I'll get a picture of it post-conversion. I suppose the only downside to it is that it makes me feel more smug and superior to other cyclists when I pass them on my superior bicycle. That and steep hills are hard to get up.

What else? Well, classes are going well, work is okay... yeah, I guess that's it.

Fun with Dreams

It was another night filled with strange dreams

• In some sort of McCarthyistic anti-communist era, Amanda got arrested for spreading communist propaganda door-to-door. I think Chewbacca got arrested too. Then I was gonna go help her get out of jail, but when I got to the jail to bust her out she was mad that I hadn't brought her any coffee and so she refused to let me bust her out. I think Chewbacca was there too, and I think he was trying to help convince Amanda not to worry about the coffee for now, so maybe he wasn't arrested in the first place after all... In the end I told her that she could just stay in jail if she really wants to, but to at least lock the door so strange people won't come and bother her.
  
• I was riding in the back seat of Grant's car and Jess was in the front seat and we were driving really fast down some dirt roads at night and he was doing a bunch of really insane maneuvers with the car, like spins and flips and stuff. The whole time I was talking on the phone to his dad trying to figure out if it was THIS weekend that they were going to Philly, or NEXT weekend. Then Grant got all worried that if it was THIS weekend then he would miss "Italian Weekend." This realization made him drive a little slower. We didn't crash, and I didn't get nauseous.

I have such a long list of videos that I want to eventually put on here that it's hard to choose which one to actually post. A few months ago my sister had asked me for some more reccommendations of good music in Spanish, and I forgot to get back to her. So, today's video is a song in Spanish for the movie Take the Lead. I think this looks like a stupid movie, and this video is kind of dumb too, but I like the song (especially the part from 0:54 to 1:19).

Cereal Bar

After my miserable International Affairs senior seminar class (that's the last class that I had a suspicion I wouldn't like, and it turns out I was right. It sucks), I was hungry so I went up to Qdoba for a quesadilla (as if I don't make enough quesadillas myself at home). While I was there, a guy comes in and introduces himself to the manager saying that he owns the space next door and wanted to introduce himself. It turns out they're opening... are you ready for this?... a CEREAL BAR on the hill. They will offer all kinds of cereal, milk, toppings, extras, etc. and they will be open from 6am to 2am. When I heard him say this I couldn't help but turn around and listen intently. I don't eat as much cereal these days as I used to, but cereal still has a fond place in my heart.

I remember telling Amanda once a couple years ago that I thought it would be a great idea to open some sort of cereal restaurant and she told me that it was a stupid idea (actually, she probably said it was the stupidest idea she'd ever heard in her whole life). I told her that she was wrong, though. I told her that people would dig it. I would dig it.

So I'm glad to see that someone else has stollen my idea and is going to make it a reality. I hope they prove Amanda wrong. I hope they have a line out the door all day every day. And then one day I will make her go there with me for lunch or dinner or breakfast or something and she will see just how wrong she was.

For today's video, I have a video by M.I.A., who is probably my best/biggest musical discovery of the summer. I have to give my friend Natalie all the credit for turning me on to M.I.A. when I visited her in Phoenix earlier this summer. I don't think I like the video very much (too 1980's, even though it's only a couple years old), and this isn't necessarily my FAVORITE song of her's, but it will suffice. It is Bucky Done Gun.

Delirium

I wish I could think of something interesting to blog about, but I can't.  I started writing this whole long blog about how busy I am and such, but here's the much more concise version: I've been busy busy busy with school and work.  There, that was easy.

Raissa and I took Dad to Cirque du Soleil: Delirium in Denver last thursday.  It was, for lack of a better word, amazing.  The last time I saw Cirque du Soleil I saw Varekai, also in Denver and it too was, for lack of a better word, amazing.  While there were some common elements to both shows, they were also quite different from each other.  They both have great music, great visual effects, and great acrobatic performances.  This one, set inside the Pepsi Center, featured a large, long stage that went the length of the arena.  It was set up in the center of the center and people sat on both sides of it.  In front of the stage on each side was a retractable semi-opaque sheer fabric curtain onto which images were projected, but you could still see through it to the performers on the stage.  It made for a real feast for the eyes.  I think that whoever works on designing these shows must have about the coolest job in the world.  Everything is just so creative and imaginative.  If you have never been to a Cirque du Soleil show, you need to go to one.  Tickets aren't cheap, but I think they are worth every penny.

And for today's video, here's Crazy by Gnarls Barkley.

Obligatory start-of-school blog

I told myself I wasn't going to write an obligatory start-of-school blog; and even if I was, I wasn't going to write it until at least Thursday because by then I will have been to every class twice except for one. I almost bowed to the temptation to blog yesterday, but luckily I got side-tracked. But after today I am just too excited about my classes to wait any more. I still have one class tomorrow that I haven't been to yet, but I'm pretty sure I'm not going to like it very much anyway, so we'll just start with what I've had so far:

Semantics - This is a pretty standard-issue linguistics class that all linguistics majors have to take. As far as I know so far, semantics is basically the study of how meaning is coded into languages, specifically how it is coded into word units. I think it will be an interesting class merely because I find linguistics in general interesting. I think it will probably only be my second-to-last favorite class though not because it will be a bad class, but rather because all my other classes will probably be so GOOD.

Portuguese for Spanish-speakers - I am excited about this class for several reasons; 1) I love studying new languages, and Portuguese is no exception; 2) Because this class it designed for people who already know Spanish, we will learn a lot more Portuguese in one semester than in a semester of a regular Portuguese class because the grammar and vocabulary are quite similar; 3) I will get to use some Spanish too.   It's hard to tell from just the first day, but I think I'm really going to like the teacher too.

Morphology and Syntax - Another linguistics class which is required for linguistics majors. Our professor said today that this class is often called "typology" at most other schools, and from what I can tell it is essentially the study of grammar. I am not as excited about the content as I am about the professor who I have heard wonderful things about, and after today's introductory class, I think I will really like being in his class. And really, it's better to have a good professor and a subject that you are less interested in, than to have a bad professor in a subject that you love (like the two Chinese teachers from hell that I've had, for example). So this should be a great class too.

Spanish Phonetics and Phonology - I'm not sure if I should count this as a Spanish class or a Linguistics class, because really it will be both. In this class we will be learning about different sound structures of Spanish. We will be learning about all sorts of different Spanish accents and dialects. It's really a Spanish Linguistics class! I don't know what else I could possibly want in a class. I've also heard nothing but fantastic things about this professor. I think that either this class or my Portuguese class will be my favorite.

Beginning Russian - As if 15 hours of class wasn't enough, the other morning I decided on a whim to go and add another class. I was going to sign up for Arabic, but it was full, didn't fit into my schedule, and is a 5-hour class meaning that I would have had a crazy total of 20 hours this semester. But then I found Russian which had seats available, fit into my schedule (not very conveniently though), and was only 4 credit hours, meaning that I now have a slightly less-crazy 19-hours of class this semester. It is a 2-hour evening class that meets twice a week and the teacher is this jolly little Russian linguist lady. Again, I'm excited to be taking another language, and this class has some cute girls in it too... Spanish and Portuguese are in a tie for my favorite class, and this class is in a tie for second-favorite with whichever one of those ends up not being first-place-favorite.

So, those are the classes. I still have one class tomorrow, my International Affairs senior seminar, which I'm not really excited about, and I'm pretty sure it will be my least-favorite class, but we'll see. Overall I am REALLY excited about this semester though. I think this is the most multi-lingual semester I've ever had. If only I were taking a Chinese class, then I'd have classes in 5 different languages! I am a little bit concerned that I will be taking 19 hours, and I told work that I would do 20 hours for them... but hopefully it'll work out and I won't die.

And for today's obligatory start-of-school blog, here is the obligatory YouTube video. In the spirit of multi-lingualism, here is one my current favorite Arabic songs. It's called Amulet by Natacha Atlas.

Fixie Freaks

Kristi O. had impeccable timing when she sent me an email telling me about an article in today's Daily Camera, Look, Ma, no brakes ..., about fixed-gear bikes in Boulder. It's a good article that explains pretty much exactly why I want a fixed/single-gear bike. Because they are elegantly simple and unique.

Her timing was impeccable because her email came in the five minutes between an email from eBay confirming my purchase of a new set of fixed-gear wheels, and the email from Paypal confirming my payment for said item. These babies have black Mavic rims and black spokes and a black filp-flop hub that can be set up with a fixed-gear on one side and a free-wheel single speed on the other for when I want to be able to coast.

I'm still going to have to buy a few more things for the fixie conversion, including tires for the new wheels, two new rear cog wheels, and a new chain. For tires I'm planning to buy these sweet Michelin Krylion Carbon tires in red. They last forever, are good and grippy (for added safety, ma), and they are super resiliant to puncture flats thanks to several layers of puncture protection technology. Yet they are also reasonably light-weight and have a respectable rolling-resistance rating, meaning they are still pretty efficient tires, and you know how I love efficiency.

Gears and chains are less exciting to think or talk about, but I've been doing some reading about gear ratios too, and I think I'm gonna try a 40 x 14 gear setup which when calculated with crank length and wheel size comes to a gear-inch length of 75.1 which is kind of a medium-high gear, but I don't think it'll be too high (the highest gears on most road bikes are somewhere around the 100 range, whereas the lowest gears on mountain bikes are around the 20 range). I've been riding around town on this gear ratio for the past day or two and I think it should be just right... but it might take some experimenting to get it just right too.

Of course the fixie conversion is just the beginning. Next I think I will be buying some better brakes, then probably a better seat, and then probably a new handlebar and brake levers, and finally some new pedals. But all those things can wait and be added later.

So, good timing with that article Kristi!

As for other news, I've just been working a lot. I don't care about John Karr and JonBenet, not even a little bit. And I guess that's about it. Today I wanted to leave you with a youtube video of some Chinese pop music. I had a hard time choosing between one of the many pretty cheesy Chinese pop songs, or one of the less-abundant moderatly decent Chinese pop songs. In the end I chose this song, Shi Mian Mai Fu 十面埋伏 by S.H.E., in my opinion one of China's better pop bands. Maybe next time I'll give you guys one of the cheesier songs.

Soapbox Time

Hmm, maybe this is too much soapboxing lately, to have two consecutive posts telling people to watch movies and get excited about them, but here it goes anyway.

The other night I went and saw Al Gore's movie, An Inconvenient Truth, and I think that every single carbon-emitting human on earth (basically everyone) should see this movie. Aside from making people even more upset than they already are about Al Gore losing the 2000 election, this movie is supposed to wake people up to the undeniable truth of global warming.

In this film he presents a lot of different scientific evidence that all demonstrates very clearly that in the last 50 years humans have had an unprecedented impact on the earth's climate. I had actually seen all this same data and evidence in a class called Climate Change that I took through the geology department as a sophomore, but it is always good to be reminded of it all again. And for those who have never taken that same class, I think that some of the data might be fairly shocking to some people.

Also, in case you weren't already upset about the 2000 elections, this movie will probably make you wish that there had been a different outcome to that florida re-count.

But anyway, unless you are an expert on global warming and climate change, you should probably see this movie, and then tell your friends to see it too, and tell them to tell their friends to see it too. As important as 9/11 conspiracies are, this movie is far more important because climate change could (and probably will) have a much greater impact on the lives of people around the world. SEE IT!

Ok, for today's video here is an interview with Al Gore about his movie. I haven't actually finished watching it yet, so it might be kind of bland, but at least you can see the trailer for the movie at the beginning of the interview.

Charlie Rose - Al Gore

Ok, I'll be getting of my soapbox for a bit now.

Makes You Think

I'm not usually much of a conspiracy theorist, but I came across this video today on Google videos. It is a documentary that provides a lot of compelling evidence that the 9/11 terrorist attacks were not actually terrorist attacks, but instead were carried out perhaps by our own government. In the documentary, they provide evidence that a plane did not really even hit the Pentagon, that flight 93 did not actually crash in rural Pennsylvania, and that the World Trade Center towers were not brought down by the airplanes that crashed into them, but rather that they were brought down by explosives in a controlled demolition.

Like I said, it is kind of long, but I think it is well worth the time to find an hour and a half and sit down and watch this and then decide for yourself what you think. I personally think that I will have to look into it a little more before I make my own decision about what happened that day, but I think that this is certainly important to consider. If what this documentary says is true, then it means that a lot of people are getting away with the crime of a century.