What's mine is yours, and what's past is present.

Yosemite National Park (the first title image for A Lifetime in a Fist*)

I won't have time to update for the next week or two. But, since a couple new friends have started reading my blog recently (a fact that I absolutely adore!), I thought that I'd share links to my six all-time favorite entries - primarily for their benefit, but also out of personal nostalgia.

So, enjoy reading and click away (I tend to overload my entries with hyperlinks to interesting sites/sources). Hopefully you'll be well-entertained, or, at the very least, well-informed!

Atlanta Skyline (the previous title image for my once colorless blog)

Descriptions & Links to (Re)commendable Favorites [in chronological order]:

1. Humble beginnings (food, photos, and musical talent)

2. Pure debauchery in the form of personal commentary

3. 5 things that make me happy (more music, food, and artistry)

4. One entry, among many, from my travels in Paris

5. Money, savings, and more (tips, a movie rec, and a book rec)

6. Latest but not last or least (music rec, food fav, and health care)


*Original Yosemite National Park photo taken by my dad; click the photo to view it in its optimal quality.

Getting used to [my] Entourage.

In my meticulous quest to be fully prepared at all times, I often find myself drowning in a deluge of organizational applications and items - handwritten assignments and meetings in my planner, reminders and notes on the "stickies" on my laptop screen, and color-coded to-do lists and events on my beloved iCal.

A screenshot of my iCal for the month of September

While the advent of increased technology offers a number of brilliant benefits for those who in need of tools to balance their student or professional life (or, in my case, both), having too many different resources to check can become a bit unnerving and even counterproductive. You're bound to miss something important in the process of trying to simultaneously keep up with so much - it's inevitable. If only there were a way to streamline everything and have just one source for all your appointments and obligations - without walking around with a CrackBerry glued to your fingertips at all times.

For e-mail, a simplifier of sorts already exists: a few months ago, having three e-mail accounts became so much that I started using POP mail filters to have all my e-mail forwarded to one account. (If you're a Gmail user - or if you have almost any account - you can use this feature to simplify the number of e-mail accounts you have to keep up with on a regular basis.)

Unfortunately, a fourth, Microsoft Exchange-based graduate e-mail account - one that requires my daily attention, has extremely limited features on a Mac OS, and doesn't support the use of POP filters - was recently added to the technological mix. My new solution? Microsoft Entourage for Macs. It provides me the option to import e-mail accounts and organize practically every facet of my life.

It might take some time to get used to my Entourage, and I'd still like to find a way to import all the events and to-do lists tasks from my iCal so everything would be in one perfectly color-coded place; but the mere existence of a Microsoft-based program that has so many great organizational and e-mail features and runs so smoothly on Mac is enough to completely make my day (literally). I'm not a spokesperson for the company and I haven't even begun to learn all the odds and ends of the program, but it definitely has the potential to transform my general downpour of daily details and tasks into a more manageable trickle.

A pleasant update since the last post: With the help of my mom, I discovered the existence of soy nut butter, in its original, honey, and chocolate glory, and, more importantly, its lack of allergic-reaction inducing qualities (no peanuts, nuts, dairy, or gluten).

It's simple, really.

With grad school classes currently in full-swing and work starting soon, I haven't had many free moments to really "live" in my apartment - to cook a "real" meal (one that doesn't just entail microwaving or heating a package) or to properly entertain friends (unless it involves just sitting around on a random assortment of furniture & talking until the boredom becomes too much).

But now, I finally have cookware and grown-up, dishwasher-safe dishes (as opposed to the flimsy, brightly-colored dorm dishes I used to eat on) and more reasons to shed the college-student habits of my former life. And that's where my fascination with RealSimple.com comes in. (Admittedly, I bummed these cooking supplies and dishes from my older brother's house - with his permission, of course - but that's besides the point.)

My favorite source for handfuls of deliciousness & life finesse.

Some of my top picks from the site:

• 24 Great Snacks
• 28 Uses for Everyday Items
• What's the Worst that Could Happen?
  

And the best part is, you don't need to have boatloads of free time or the culinary skill of Martha Stewart to successfully implement most of the showcased ideas.

On a somewhat-related but completely personal note, I recently discovered that I am (and probably have been, for some time) allergic to peanuts, which is disappointing on a number of levels. I've known the fact that allergies can develop later in adulthood for years, especially since I developed a tree nut allergy in college. But, in part due to my false sense of invincibility and mostly due to my unfaltering love for eating anything and everything with peanut butter, I always hoped, that when it came to peanuts, I would be an outlier (<-- read Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell if you ever get a chance - it's filled with inspirational take-home points about success and society, but it's written in a refreshingly non-traditional way).

It's so much harder to let go of things when you know exactly what you're missing out on. The same goes from people. Tonight, I'll make sure to take 5 for everyone and everything that I miss about them.*

*The links in the last sentence will probably only make sense to a select few readers.

Econ 101, with a musical twist.

We might be in an economic recession of monumental precendent (check out Paul Krugman's NY Times article - it's been on the "Most Popular" list for the past 5 days), but some high school kids are still willing to pay exorbitant amounts of money for a concert ticket to hear their favorite electronica/pop band.

It's all about supply and demand.

Case in point: Tickets for the Owl City concert in Atlanta were sold out about a week ago. In other words, supply was limited. And, as common sense (and Graph 1 below) might tell you, when the quantity of a product goes down, the price goes up because people are willing to pay more to get what they want. In fact, it wasn't long before tickets started selling on $30 or $40 on Craigslist - even though the original cost of the ticket was only $12. In financial terms, that's called a price mark-up (though, in this case, it didn't really cost the seller anything to "produce" the ticket, so a profit was made without expending any services).

Graph 1: Relationship Between Supply & Price

By 8 pm on the night of the concert, demand had shifted to an all-time high (see Graph 2 below). Desperate, antsy teenagers were huddled in small groups outside the entrance to the venue, willing to pay upwards of $50 for a ticket. One kid actually offered my friend $70 (that's about 580% more than the original price of the ticket!), though my friend was nice enough to sell it to him for $40 - still a solid profit of $28. I'll omit the pseudo-verboten details, but a few of us (myself included) ended up selling our own tickets at a similarly substantial profit and we managed to make it into the concert.

Graph 2: An Upward Shift in Demand

Owl City's overall performance - and, in particular, Adam Young's unfiltered/unedited vocal performance - wasn't nearly as amazing as the ritzy recordings. By purely musical standards and substance, then, my first live U.S. concert wasn't quite what I'd hoped it would be. But the night itself was made memorable by virtue of my friends - the financially-loaded, ticket-seeking "friends" I temporarily made on the corner, as well as the more permanent, financially-savvy friends that I went to the concert with in the first place.

I'm beginning to see how my (currently limited) knowledge of financial accounting and health economics might actually be beneficial when combined with some street smarts; and with friends like these, well, who needs enemies?*

*"The Bird and The Worm", Owl City.

"The time for games has passed."*

May God bless sushi, and God bless the United States of America.

"The time for bickering is over. The time for games has passed. Now is the season for action. Now is when we must bring the best ideas of both parties together and show the American people that we can still do what we were sent here to do. Now's the time to deliver on health care."

President Obama made a markedly dramatic speech on health care reform tonight, one that drew cheers of both praise and disapproval. He promised that any plan wouldn't add a dime to our budget deficit and that spending cuts would be made in other areas to counteract the costs of the health care bill*. He promised to reduce "the waste and inefficiency in Medicare and Medicaid... [to] pay for most of this plan."* But, most of all, he promised to follow through.

Now the question remains, is Congress willing to do the same? Because all the speeches to constituents and all the promises in the world mean absolutely nothing if no one takes concrete steps towards action and change. For the health of each individual American and the health of America as a whole, let's hope for the best.

*Quotes taken from President Obama's Congressional Address on Health Care Reform, Sept. 9, 2009. Watch it here on MSNBC or read the transcript on CBS news.

A club worth joining.

I don't know who came up with this idea, but the fact that a site like this can be informative and entertaining is pure genius. Check it out here*.

My favorite is fancy parking method no. 4. I'm willing to bet that most drivers secretly (and, sometimes, openly) relish the opportunity to use this parking method, if and when the stars (/cars) properly align themselves.
Definitely much more fun than obsessing over "generally accepted accounting principles" in financial and managerial accounting class or understanding PPCs (product possibility curves) in health care economics any day. Though, don't try any of the fancy parking methods at too high of a speed, especially if you don't have health insurance.

Some additional entertaining (/entertainment) news - I'm going to hear Owl City perform live in concert tomorrow night!


Granted, Owl City consists of just one guy (Adam Young) on vocals and, well, everything else (though he occasionally features a female singer, Breanne Duren, on a few of his tracks); and most of the songs have super-artsy lyrics that deal with seemingly nonsensical topics that are generally unheard of in most mainstream music (like dental care) and/or rather conventional topics that are described in unconventional ways ("Cheer up and dry your damp eyes and tell me when it rains/ And I'll blend up that rainbow above you and shoot it through your veins").

But, surprisingly, that's part of what makes his songs so fresh and oddly compelling to listen to.

The real inventiveness in Owl City's music, though, is in its instrumental arrangements - the way that they have the ace ability to envelope you in an amazingly idyllic atmosphere wherever you are and transport you away from the commonplace. And, especially when you've been cooped up in your car during a painfully long commute or you've self-sequestered yourself in the stuffy stacks to study for hours upon hours, isn't that exactly what you want in the music you listen to? Feel free to let your own ears make the choice.

*Props go to the guy who commented on the most recent post in Ramit Sethi's I Will Teach You How To Be Rich blog.

A flu, by any other name, would make us retreat.

H1N1, a.k.a. the "swine" flu, is really nothing to freak out about. Just wash your hands, quit picking your nose so much, and keep your distance from others, especially if they're sick. And if you do have a fever or start feeling ill, skip the crazy Labor Day raves this weekend and stay at home instead, because the surest way to recovery is resting more and drinking lots of fluids. Seriously, what's new?



(And if, for some reason, you don't agree with my advice, hopefully you'll at least believe the CDC's credible health information.)

Whether you're staying in because a) you're already sick, b) you don't want to get sick, or c) you're somewhat of a social recluse and you actually read my blog, here are a few of my most-recent favorite things and a couple reading recs that might keep you occupied for the time being:

Boyce Avenue
I've been listening to their covers (and original songs) for almost two years, but I'm sure there are still tons of people who have never heard of them before. They're pretty mainstream as far as music goes, but that doesn't mean they're any less talented or entertaining than most popular artists on the charts right now.

• My favorite cover/acoustic medley of theirs (doesn't have the most views on YouTube, but I like it best, nonetheless)
  
• An original of theirs, Change Your Mind.
  

Chipotle Hummus with Sundried Tomatoes
Unless you're allergic to chickpeas (sorry, friend), there's something terribly wrong with your taste buds if you don't appreciate the amazing flavors in this recipe.

2 lengthy but insightful and well-written articles on patient care in the American health care system:


One lazy autumn afternoon, when you're semi-stealthily siphoning free Wi-Fi from a local coffee establishment and you happen to have some free time on your hands, start reading one of these articles. You'll not only be able to maintain a semblance of intellect & academic superiority, but you might also learn something that's new, interesting, and useful - a critical reader's trifecta.

• "How American Health Care Killed My Father" (David Goldhill, The Atlantic, Sept. 2009)

• "The Checklist" (Atul Gawande, The New Yorker, December 2007 - not as recent, but still worth the read)

... or, if you really don't have the time, and you still want to feign being knowledgeable about current health care issues in casual conversation, just read David Brooks' recent article in the NY Times, "Let's Get Fundamental".

In other, more personal news, I officially received my college degree about a week ago. I walked across campus in the sticky summer heat and picked up my diploma from the cramped registrar's office. Sadly, it was anti-climactic - no enthusiastic applause, cheering crowds, or pomp and circumstance of any sort, for that matter. At least my name was spelled correctly, though, and the lady behind the desk gave me a 3-second smile and a lukewarm "Congratulations on graduating." Not like it cost me $120,000 and 4 years of my life or anything...

Post-script/Update: If reading pages upon pages isn't your cup of tea, here's a documentary that Bill Moyers recently featured, based on Maggie Mahar's book, Money Driven Medicine: The Real Reason Health Care Costs So Much. Granted, one of my grad school professors showed a clip from it in class so it's not nearly as edge-y or controversial as Michael Moore's Sick-O, but it still does the trick and manages to hold a viewer's attention.