Attachment

I recently got a puppy for me and my girlfriend to take care of. He was a Bichon Frise, about two months old. He was a lot of fun, totes a cutie pie and had a lot of character already in him at such a young age. You recognize I’m using the past tense. We only had ‘Rocko’ for five days. We took him to the vet and were told he had a bad heart. That without surgery of some sort, he wouldn’t live past 3 years old.

What did we do? We returned him to the breeder.

Anyone and everyone will tell us we made the right decision. It was sensibly, financially, emotionally the right thing to do on our side. He was unhealthy, and that made him unfit to be owned. Some thoughts I had about this subject…

• We were honestly devastated. Even after five days, it’s crazy how attached you get to such a critter. I can’t help but think that we were selfish in our decision or the ‘what ifs’ that could unfold in the future. Thoughts that maybe he’s just a slow developer and he would grow out of his weak heart sooner rather than never. That I could pay for the surgeries, no matter the stress and pain that comes with taking care of the sick. It’s a struggle of the what ifs pitted against the sensibility within our actions.
• With all this said, honestly…dogs are not humans. Maybe it’s okay for us to be selfish when it comes to things like this. He will most likely live the best three years any dog can (to his capacity) with his parents. What’s it to him, or what benefit does it give him to live with us? He doesn’t know, he’s a pup…I doubt he remembers us…So then where’s the line? I guess the line is for most people, they would fight their hardest for their child, but for other things, sometimes we do have to be selfish…

So then…how long does it take to get over a dog? One thing I know is that we won’t forget him (I hope you’re reading this Rocko).

Small Talk Count

So we were discussing the other day, how many ‘small talk’ conversations occur each day? Thinking globally might be too drastic, so how about the UC Berkeley Campus? Something I thought of was that there’s probably an increase in the same sort of conversations after say, a holiday (winter break, spring break, etc) or after a midterm. Just some thoughts (this feels like Family Feud, like ‘Top 10 phrases in small talk!’)…

After a holiday, for-certain phrases/questions to be brought up:

• How was your break? Go anywhere?
• It was sooooo goood/relaxing.
• It was way too short!
• I didn’t do much, just chilled.
• You went to _____?!?! I’m so jealous.
• I drank so much.

After midterm season:

• Are you done with midterms yet?
• How were they?
• They were okay.
• Sooooo bad.
• Midterms?

And the top phrase from small talk?

…’How about you?’

Shoutout to you so-called politicians on campus. Please don’t give me some memorized speech of ‘what you will do if elected’. Why not talk to the students, instead of talking at them? Ever think of asking each individual student you’re asking to walk with what they’d like to see be done? Oh wait, you don’t have much power anyways, so why waste all of our time?

Campus elections=popularity contest. End of story. Why? Each of you give the same small talk answers. This is the only time of the season where you will care to talk to 95% of the people you will market your name to. Boom. Roasted. Lawyered.

ready set go

• on repeat: KiD CuDi (b/c that’s how he spells it) – Cudi Zone
• I wish I was lucky enough to say ‘IM DONE WITH UNDERGRAD!!’ on my facebook. Actually I think I like the situation I’m in academics wise. Ask me fo’ details.
• First night home and I have taco truck filled in my stomach. Side note: for once I saw one of the taco trucks not there! crazy!
• I think I’m only good at scrabble online, so I can help myself to making up words and being denied by the computer.
• Dare I re-watch BSG series during break? hehehehe
• Until next time!

Opportunity Costs

The other day I had a little chit chat with one of my coworkers. She asked me how school was going, and whether or not my classes were tough this semester. I said not really, they’re about moderate hardness, with one class that I’m emphasizing my time on. She gave me this puzzled look and began to lecture me about the purpose of college classes: to ‘feel the burn, so you learn something useful.’

It may just be my persona of calmness and stoic-ness, but it’s interesting how she said this to be of the essence of taking classes at prestigious universities. How else are we to learn not only the material, but of something useful we can apply to our lives, our jobs, our daily problems? It’s evident that when we’re interviewing for jobs, or internships, at least 80% of the questions will be about you. I guess when my coworker asked how I was doing, she was looking for a more frantic answer, that I’m always stressed like almost every other college student. Maybe that’s just not me? It’s not that I don’t ‘feel the burn’ when I’m completing multiple assignments for a week. It’s just I handle stress differently than her. So maybe I do feel a burn.

That ending was a tangent. The purpose of this blog post was to convey the meaning of opportunity costs. When you’re in college we should take advantage of where we are. It’s kind of sad that all college students try to take ‘GPA booster’ classes about a very minute subject. Maybe ‘feeling the burn’ means taking advantage of what’s in front of you. It makes sense, just hard to apply. I mean, who wants to take more biochemistry or linear algebra? I guess that’s where opportunity costs arise. You want more time to allocate to your social life, to your job, to other more important classes.

Should this apply to other parts of our lives? I’m trying to think of some. Help me out?

This is Foreign Territory

I haven’t done this in a while…maybe I have nothing to say? Maybe I’ve just been busy.

Nope. I think lazy would be more like it.

Have you heard Bill Evans? Check him out. And the album ‘Miles Davis and the Modern Jazz Giants’

My dad turns 60 in less than a week…

I’m seeing the Swell Season in concert this Friday.

Get ready for the giving season.