things that i've learned

Saturday, December 29, 2007

Airport fun

Back from the BVI and way too tired to write a full post tonight. One piece of airport news, though. The TVs at the baggage claim at American Airlines get the NFL Network. We can't even get the NFL Network on Time Warner. With Giants-Pats going on, tonight marked the first time ever I've actually not rushed to leave an airport.

Labels: sports

Permalink • 0 comments •

Post a Comment

Friday, December 28, 2007

Goodbye BVI

My time in the BVI has come to an end, and while I'm looking forward to getting back home, I'll miss the beauty of the sea, the warmth of the people, and that certain je ne sais quoi that makes my hair look much better here than it does in New York. It's a shame that I spent more than half of my time here indoors writing b school applications, but if I had to be stuck somewhere writing these essays, I suppose this is just about the nicest place I can be.

Labels: crap

Permalink • 0 comments •

Post a Comment

Thursday, December 27, 2007

The Points List

Like many people, I sometimes respond to things that I like by saying "that gets points in my book." In lieu of a book, here's my first attempt at a blog post of Things People Do That Get Points from me. Bear in mind that there's no point value or scale to these, just the ambiguous "Points" or "Slightly Fewer Points."

– Being able to play Ultimate (slightly fewer points: being able to throw a Frisbee)
– Ability to drive a tractor and willingness to teach me
– Love of rock music, particularly live
– Being on Twitter (slightly fewer points: knowing what Twitter is)
– Voting
– Displaying an interest in the history of American presidents, particularly Teddy Roosevelt
– Passion
– Having a blog
– Reading mine
– Liking the film Slackers
– Excellent abilites with building sandcastles and/or snowmen
– Harboring a belief that any of the following bands represented the most significant musical movement of the last twenty years: Nirvana, Radiohead, Beck (slightly fewer points: being able to articulate an eloquent argument why you disagree with that statement)
– Insightful debate
– Demonstrated interest in web2.0 services
– A paid subscription to Salon.com (slightly fewer points: regularly reading Salon.com)
– Smiling at strangers
– Avid readership of any of the following journalists and/or blogs: Bill Simmons, Chuck Klosterman, King Kaufman, Whitney Matheson, Deadspin, 100% Injury Rate)
– Daydrinking
– Excellent grammar, particularly with semicolons
– Being a fan of the Buffalo Bills
– A desire to attend events simply because they seem odd, unusual, or totally random
– Laughing at my jokes
– Getting my jokes and laughing at how not funny they are
– Genuineness
– Enjoying ice and/or rock climbing
– Possession of a bartending license
– Ownership of your own bowling ball
– Knowledge of any martial art, particularly the type where you can break bricks with a bare hand
– Cooking skills
– Knife skills
– Foosball skills

Labels: blakestuchin

Permalink • 0 comments •

Post a Comment

Wednesday, December 26, 2007

Clemens steals page from OJ

Forgive me for presuming guilt here, but Roger Clemens' latest announcement following the announcement in The Mitchell Report that the 7 time Cy Young award winner used performance enhancing drugs is perhaps the most outlandish yet. According to ESPN, Clemens' lead attorney has announced that they will be hiring a private team to investigate the findings themselves in order to clear Clemens' good name. I'll admit that The Mitchell Report reads like a document straight out of Salem, but what's next? Rocket playing the OJ role, going to every golf course in the country in search of "the real steroid user?" Should we expect the next ten years to produce increasingly bizarre behavior from Roger Clemens? Be careful who you steal from Rocket, I hear OJ takes his stuff back.

Labels: sports

Permalink • 0 comments •

Post a Comment

Madison's treasonous act

Yesterday I spent a few hours at the beach, where I learned that James Madison committed an act of treason by attempting to rescind the Articles of Confederation and ratify his newly drafted Constitution. The ducks in the water at Little Dix Bay didn't seem quite as impressed by Madison as I was, but then, I don't really value the opinion of ducks much on issues pertaining to our our fourth president. If I was reading a book called "Sticking My Head in the Water and Catching Fish with My Mouth, a Duck's Manifesto," then perhaps I'd take the opinion of the ducks more seriously. But I digress...

Madison needed to gather a group of leading Americans in order to drum up support for changing the Articles. While we now call this the Second Constitutional Convention, it was at the time actually an anti-Constitutional Convention, since the Articles of Confederation were the Constitution. The act, therefore, of rewriting the Articles was therefore tantamount to treason. So Madison had his men meet in secrecy and with great controversy and debate. That they eventually passed was a triumph in dealmaking and compromise, and was Madison's greatest work to date.

Labels: history

Permalink • 0 comments •

Post a Comment

One post a day

In an effort to re-find my blogging voice now that I'm out of the woods from GMAT-land, my early New Year's resolution is to write one post a day. I'll begin with my journey into the life of James Madison, a founding father about whom I know very little.

I finished The Accidental Investment Banker this afternoon so I've started my James Madison biography that I got from The New York Times. Through 6 pages, I've learned that Madison was short even by standards in those days (he was 5'4, literally about a foot shorter than Washington, for whom he ghostwrote many speeches and letters during our first President's two terms) and that he was terribly shy and not good at public speaking. What I know already is that the guy was maybe the most prolific legislator of his day, if not ever, not to mention the person probably most responsible for the creation of the three branches of government, so I'm eager to find out how he was so effective if he had neither the capacity to speak up nor the ability to be heard should that capacity have been developed. Should be a fun read.

Labels: history

Permalink • 0 comments •

Post a Comment