Spring 2013

Mistborn - Brandon Sanderson

From http://sampaints.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/mistborn.jpg

Mistborn is a trilogy by Brandon Sanderson, and I really enjoyed it. There are several compelling protagonists in each book, plenty of philosophical questions, and an interesting world.

The setting is a broken world. Ash rains from the sky, mists shroud the world at night, and a tyrant of a thousand years subjugates some people and controls others. Throw in a group of rebels who can burn metals to use magical powers, and we have our premise!

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep book cover

I haven't seen Blade Runner, but "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep" is the book on which the movie is based. The protagonist's job is to hunt androids that seem very much like humans.

Dark Corners of C

Technology and Competitive Debate

I have been involved with competitive debate since 2004, and the last 9 years have probably seen more technological advancement in debate than the last 100 years.  When I started, most evidence didn't exist in an electronic form at all, so it was advantageous for debaters to go to different camps to get a wide variety of paper copies of evidence.  Then, most camps started having PDFs of paper files.  Then, most camps started having text documents available.

11 Disgusting Ingredients You Eat Every Day That Food Companies Don't Talk About

The article is from last year, but I read it the other day about some disgusting non-vegetarian things that you might not expect in your food.  A good read!

http://www.businessinsider.com/11-disgusting-ingredients-that-arent-advertised-in-food-2012-3?op=1

Debate team bids farewell to coaches

I've coached debate at Palo Alto HS since 2009, and now that I'm graduating, I'm taking my leave.  The director of debate, Jennie Savage, had some heartfelt words.  I have really loved coaching at the team, and I do hope to stay involved to some extent in the future.  

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Palo Alto High School’s Speech and Debate Team looks forward to next year’s season despite the loss of two debate coaches.

Sam King and Nadia Arid, Stanford University graduates, are leaving the debate team to pursue professional careers after four years of service at Paly.

Pathways for Service

I wrote a while back on the subject of different focus areas for service.  That answers the question "what must be achieved to help the world?" but it doesn't answer the question of what communities are involved in those struggles.  Thus, it  is useful to consider different pathways for service.  There are many frameworks in existance to help people think about different pathways, but I haven't seen any that help people think about similar communities.  The following is my attempt at such a framework.

Apparently, I'm the Beard Guy

A friend shared me this link: http://io9.com/study-finds-bearded-men-are-more-attractive-proves-my-493130473.  The study is interesting (and shows why it's perfectly logical for me not to shave), but I find it even more interesting that someone would share it with me.  I guess my beard is of some repute?

Spring Awakening

Stanford Ram's Head Society's promotional image for Spring Awakening

A friend was in a production of Spring Awakening by Stanford's Ram's Head Theatrical Society, so I decided to stop by. Spring Awakening is a broadway musical adapted from a German play written in 1890.

I was impressed with the play. There were a lot of things that I assumed were adapted in the Broadway production or in the Stanford production (such as a frank portrayal of a gay relationship) that were, in fact, present in the original.

Les Miserables

Les Miserables movie poster

Confession: I have never seen or read the original Les Mis. As a result, when the new movie came out, I felt compelled to see it.

It was interesting seeing it because so there were so many classic songs that I never realized were from Les Mis like "I Dreamed a Dream." It was also nice that they realized that people come to musicals for the music, and there wasn't too much dialogue in between the different songs.

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