NY Times magazine: Profile of Columbia’s Manhattanville expansion, in case you don’t prefer to get your expansion-related news from the Spec.
Archive for May, 2006
NY Times: Columbia to launch $4 billion fundraising drive. I look forward to the spam.
on the way home…
I checked out the Fifth Avenue Apple Store opening, which turned out to be a mob scene, so I snapped a few photos and left.
I passed a group protesting the premiere of the Da Vinci Code movie this weekend. Church groups badly want the movie publicly branded as fiction.
The preposterousness of the plot isn’t enough of a signal, it seems. But, then again, we’re talking about an audience who already believes in burning bushes and saviors nailed to crosses as fact. They’re suspectible to believing anything, I suppose, and the Church knows it.
Lastly, a bonus photo for all my heretic friends.
like a civic
Added a tagline randomizer so I can use more than one pithy subtitle.
Notice the sidebar; it now displays a dynamic list of songs I’m listening to via Scrobbler using data from AudioScrobbler. (inspired by kottke)
how to become CTO
- Wear a suit
- Say “I am not a micro-manager”
- if actually a micro-manager, say “I am hands-on”
- Mention Joel Spolsky
- Mention “Web 2.0″
- bonus points for mentioning “Web 3.0″
Y’know, I am not that far off. I predict that given 6 years, and in an alternate universe without law school, I could be CTO.
Update: also…
- Refer to technology that was around “before you guys were born”
- bonus point for addressing interviewer as “young man”
Over the weekend, after the 3rd round of sake, I tried to use “turbidity” in casual conversation and my friends: 1) did not let me get away with it, and 2) would not let me forget it for the rest of the night.
“Hey crab, another drink for you? or turbidity?”
“Oh yeah, you should talk to her some more. Get her number. Turbidity or something.”
“3:00 am, last call! It’s turbidity.”
in summary
- I am a deflated balloon
- I am the sales rack at Banana Republic
- I am the master of aborted lists
now i can freak out
I’m trying out Google Analytics. I really want to try MeasureMap, but this is the best I could do. Now y’all are being tracked. And now my ego corresponds to actual metrics.
progress
change is a constancy
change is a constancy
change is a constancy
change is a constancy
overheard: class day
Scene: Reading / stumblings of names during Class Day ceremony. Heard over the PA.
Reader: [mispronounced latino name]
Girl (into mic): I’m sorry, can you say that last name right?
Reader: Which?
Girl (into mic): [correctly prononounced name]. I worked too damn hard…
class day comments
The hubbub over Senator McCain’s graduation speeches is fairly silly. How polarized and politically intolerant have we become that a fairly moderate Republican senior Senator can’t give a boring ol’ graduation speech without people complaining?
Columbians won’t pass up a chance to protest (oi, especially not this year), so gatherings and flyer distribution prepared for morning of Class Day. Don’t miss the nicely-designed website: mccainatcolumbia.com (was .org taken?) or the stunning discourse of its discussion board.
If you’re looking for other people to protest on Class Day, you can check the full list of Columbia graduation speakers. Highlights:
- Law: Governor Pataki
- Journalism: Jim Amoss, editor of The Times-Picayune, New Orleans (multiple Pulitzers this year, Hurricane Katrina etc etc)
- P & S: Atul A Gawande, Harvard School of Public Health, The New Yorker contributor, author of Complications (highly recommend)
- SIPA: Karim Aga Khan (wikipedia)
People tell me good writers constantly rely on their old writing, so: last year’s graduation ceremony tips.
Update: well, his speech was less turning-point and more I-am-practicing-for-2008. Everything I have to say, Irina said already.
last.fm
Another day, another user account. I got a last.fm account. Holla if
wanna be my virtual friend.
In November, an anonymous donor gave $100 million to Yale school of music who, in turn, makes attendence free for all admitted students. Applications double. Quote most applicable to ol’ blue:
“Eliminating tuition may reduce a sense of entitlement that he has seen among some students.”
‘If someone has paid a lot of tuition, they pretty much feel like, I’m the customer and the customer’s always right and I better get an A.’”
Fuse TV has a new show called Pants Off Dance Off, a show of everyday people dancing and stripping in front of a music vdeo. Harmless, campy fun.
Man charged with bilking woman for $600,000; met through Columbia University alumni magazine. Who says we don’t connect alumni? (month-old article, I know. Had been meaning to blog about it)
Who knew NY Times editors were such fanboys? This article about WoW adding a new race features a paragraph I never think I would see in, y’know, a real newspaper:
The Draenei are the remnants of a once-thriving culture there that was mostly destroyed by orcs after the orcs were corrupted by the demons of the Burning Legion — the big bad guys in the game, who oppose both the Alliance and the Horde.
In a twist, the Draenei are descended from the same demonic race, the Eredar, that produced some of Warcraft’s most fearsome foes, like the demon Archimonde.
Um, okay. And what’s journalism without a prize quote:
“They have these cool forehead features, and one of the customization features is switching around these facial features and the tendrils hanging beneath the chin and so on.”
Did they just paraphrase a press release for this?
Vipers
edge theory
One of several gems squeezed out of march’s Montreal road trip:
Female Friend #1: Sammy’s so nice. Why can’t you two be nice like him?
Adham: Huh?
Crab: Did you just include me in the same lot with Adham??? He’s a bonafide dick.
Female Friend #2: Well, you used to be nicer, but you’ve changed.
Crab: Awesome.
Indeed, I let a little cruelty creep in. I enjoy provocative statements. Racy jokes rulez; “just kidding”’s are copouts; and rash yet assertive decision-making is the only kind of decision-making.
And this is great news! Every guy needs an edge, an element of danger, a little tinge of corroded personality. Edgy behavior is interesting; it’s thrilling; it’s unpredictable. If you are a plum-diddly nice guy, well, gosh, you’re out of luck. In the eyes of fertile women, you are a fucking eunuch. And nobody dates (or fucks, for that matter) eunuchs. They will only befriend you because you’re safe. You’re a safe little oval; and nothing gets caught on an oval. You need an edge.
This is not “nice guys finish last”-rehashed. It is okay if you are a nice guy. My assertion is that you just need to add a supplement of risk, danger.
Consider that to be the Selfish Crab’s Game Tip #1: if you are a nice guy, develop an edge. I consider this so revolutionary, I went ahead and created a new page for it on the side there. If you have your own tips you would like me to plagiarize, comment below.