A Procrastinator’s Musings

Today was awesome. I seriously need more days like today.

The day really began with Brian’s surprise birthday party. We started at the ice skating rink and then went over to Rubio’s before I had to leave. Ice skating was fun, especially because it’s been so long, although it gave me a couple of nasty rashes on my leg. I only had enough time to get my food from Rubio’s before I had to say goodbye to everyone and head off.

As much fun as Brian’s party was, the day really began after I left there.

Paul and Tiff picked me up from my house at about 3:20pm to go to the Rose Bowl to work on rose parade float decoration. It was part of NHS volunteering, although community service was hardly the aim any of us had in mind. We’ve done it for the last two years and we decided to do it again owing to the fun times we’ve had with it in the past.

It was supposed to go from 4pm to 10pm. After I got picked up, Paul stopped to get gas. We ended up leaving Aliso around 3:40ish. In absolutely no hurry to get there, we hit relatively little traffic and entered the Pasadena area around 4:45. At this point, Paul declared that he was hungry and that naturally meant a detour to the nearest In N Out. About 30 minutes and a full stomach later, we decide that it’s probably best for us to head over to the decorating. Of course, we had a plan ready to escape!

As soon as we got there, we were greeted with a randomly yelled “youuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu!” It was awesome and hilarious. We were assigned flower cutting duties, which happened to be the same flowers we cut last year. Boring. Then we put our plan into action. We asked Annie (who was in charge of organizing the event) if we should go get pizza for everybody. She agreed that it was a good idea. So Paul, Tiff, and I were off again!

We got to the Rose Bowl at 5:30. We left again at about 5:45. We returned at 7:30. In between, we ordered pizza and a sundae at Costco and went to Vons and got drinks. Upon our eventual return, the volunteers descended on the pizza like hawks, wiping out every slice and soda can in existence. Of course, we had to clean up for those bastards.

As a bonus, the float organizers let us off early and let us go at like 9:15! Paul, Tiff, and I got out of there as possible, having worked for barely an hour and a half. Now THAT is what I call a job well done!

Anyway, the awesomeness of the day really wasn’t in the details. It was in the constantly sarcastic and cynical remarks exchanged. It was in the people we talked about and made fun of (if we know you, you were probably one of them). It was in the intersection of California Boulevard and California Street that we found (will upload picture one of these days). It was in all the inside jokes that we created and the many more that we brought up. It was in the fact that we managed to turn 6 hours of community service into 1.5 hours of pretending to work. It was in the fact that we drove over a hundred miles and probably laughed for over 60 of them. It was in the utterly random and totally hopeless music that we laughed at. It was in the traditional visit to Denny’s at midnight because everything else in Orange County goes to sleep at 10. It was in hanging out with Paul and Tiffany, who refuse to get out of my head.

It was a fun day. I’m really glad I went.

I want this guy’s job…

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Credit: Wizard of Id.

I made, in my opinion, a very profound realization this week. I figured out that I’m not all that bad at prioritization or organization or time management as I thought I was. I have figured out, or at least decided, that I’m just interested in too many things.

I thought about it and realized that I have too many hobbies, too many things I want to learn about, too many books I want to read, too many people I want to spend time with, and just a whole lot of too much to do.

I want to be a challenged student, I enjoy serving on the newspaper, I dedicate my life to JSA, I want to pursue a career in foreign policy, I find economics fascinating, I am reading and enamored by a book about the Supreme Court which has led to my new interest in constitutional law, I am spending a substantial time this Winter Break learning about video editing, I subscribe to Newsweek and try my best to keep up with the news, I have tons of friends and spend hours every week hanging out with them, I have friends across states and continents that I try to keep in touch with over Facebook, I am a geek and like messing around with software, and I am applying to more colleges than any of my friends at school. I think you get the idea.

As much as it makes sense for me to cut back on my activities in order to regain a little bit of sanity, I have also realized that I like being crazy and being interested in such a variety of subjects and just following my inherent curiosity to learn. It defines the person I am. It makes me Mohit.

These pictures do a better job of explaining the divide between Eastern and Western culture than words ever could. I couldn’t stop laughing…

Blue = Western | Red = Eastern

Opinion

Way of Life

Punctuality

Contacts

Anger

Queue (Line) when Waiting

Sundays on the Road

Party

In the Restaurant

Traveling

Handling of Problems

Three Meals a Day

Transportation

Elderly

Moods and Weather

The Boss

What’s Trendy

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Credit: Wizard of Id.

This is seriously scary. Terrifying, I tell you.

It involves the government, the FBI, and our information. Are you scared yet?

So I was watching a UC Berkeley lecture on YouTube (don’t ask me how I ended up there). Here’s a quote by the professor:

As you can see, we’ve got a lot of different ways to organize the course. So I decided not to organize it.

I can’t wait for college!

If only we had less “fat-free” and “diets,” and more of this, Americans might just figure out how to solve their obesity problem…

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Credit: Wizard of Id.

The article attached to this post provides a very interesting perspective on the role of the American public in the Iraq War. It’s a slightly long but decidedly interesting read.

Credit: Foreign Policy. (The article was available online for subscribers only. I got it from my library database and pasted into a Word doc.)

Oh how I love jabs at incompetency…

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Credit: Dilbert.