Voting

This past Friday I filled out my ballot, and soon thereafter it was sent out. I won’t tell you who and what I voted for, but I will tell you how it went. Where I live in Colorado, the ballot is two oversized pieces of paper, with three sides of those two pages covered in things to vote on. In addition to the presidential choices, I had the privilege of voting on US Senate and House seats, various local government posts, the retention of individual judges, and a slew of state ballot initiatives and constitutional amendments. Much like tax returns, voting in America can appear rather daunting at first, but just requires a person to take it one piece at a time, and slowly grind through the form until it’s complete. With that in mind, I grabbed the official state ballot information booklet that came in the mail, opened up a web browser to research additional information, and then started the long process of filling in the ballot, section by section.

Late to the Party - Overwatch (Origins Edition)

Author’s Note: Today’s post is #400!

---

I love video games, but it's rare for me to play them right when they are first released. Normally it takes me a somewhere from a few months to a few years to get around to playing to a game. I've got a considerable backlog of games that I've been meaning to play and it hasn't been until recently that I've been able to start chipping away at the list. With that in mind, I've created a series of posts called Late to the Party, wherein I discuss the games that came out in the preceding years that I'm finally getting around to experiencing. Today's entry in the series is Overwatch.

More Thoughts on Game Reviews/Commentaries

Over the past several months I’ve written a fair number of commentaries on video games that I’ve been playing in my attempt to knock out a chunk of my gaming backlog. It’s been quite an experience doing so much writing on one of my personal passions, and one of the things I’ve gotten out of it is an appreciation of why major video game websites distribute game reviews across a group of writers, rather than having a single person write a lot of reviews in succession, like me. As much as I love video games, writing these longer pieces about them, one after another, can be quite draining, especially considering my desire to produce something that’s actually worth reading, as well as my habit of perpetually second-guessing and revising my work all the way up until the moment of publication. As I mentioned yesterday, I’m getting close to the end of my current gaming backlog, and when I reach that point I can’t deny that it’ll be nice to take a short break from writing commentaries. I’ll still be writing about video games during that period, but I won’t be doing any longer writing pieces with my detailed opinion on games I’m playing. Hopefully that time off from writing commentaries will get me reenergized and ready for the second wave of game commentaries that will no doubt come in 2017.

Gaming Backlog

With my recent completion of Mirror’s Edge Catalyst, a bit over a week ago, I am finally nearing the end of the list of games in my gaming backlog that I really want to play. While there are still a few games left on the list, and more naturally will be added with the passage of time and the release of new games, it won’t be too long now before I reach the place where I have to think about when I’m going to close down my Gamefly account. I anticipate this to happen before the end of the year, and at that point the gaming backlog will start growing again. Closing the account will also mean the end of the first season of my Late to the Party series of posts, which lately have made regular appearances on this blog’s Friday editions. Whenever that happens I’m thinking I’ll do some sort of short retrospective writing piece about that first season. At some point in 2017, when I have the time and I feel the backlog has gotten big enough, I’ll reopen the account, starting the process all over again.

Memorable Places, Part 11 (Finale)

A year ago I was in Europe and lately I’ve been thinking over some of the places that were the most memorable from that trip. If you read my travelogue posts from back then you already know the details of each place I visited, but I thought I’d do a series of short writing pieces over the next three or so weeks where I give my thoughts on particular cities or regions as a whole. I’m not going to talk about every location; just the ones that have been on my mind. The order that I write about them will be in the approximate chronological order of when I visited and each writing piece will feature two locations with a photo from the trip to accompany each of them. As a bonus, at the end of each writing piece I’ll note where I was, one year ago that day.

Today is the final entry in the series. Like the 2015 Europe trip, this journey must too come to an end.

Read more >>

You might have noticed that Friday’s writing post looked slightly different on this blog’s main page. The opening paragraph and first image were visible, but below that there was a Read more >> button and to read the rest of the post you had to click on that button. This is a new feature to this blog, and one I’ve wanted to add for some time, but Blogger, being the unwieldy beast that it is, doesn’t make it easy. There’s a setting in Blogger that is supposed to automatically do this for all posts, but despite being turned on for about a week, Blogger has done nothing. So, to make this happen I have to manually insert page breaks, which isn’t a big deal to do on an individual post, but there’s no way I’m going back and inserting page breaks for everything I’ve published up to this point. Going forward, nearly all future posts will have page breaks so that you don’t have to scroll down a lot to reach something from earlier in the week, and the number of posts displayed on the main page will be increased to ten, thus giving the reader two weeks worth of content before having to load more. The only posts that might not get page breaks are shorter ones like this, and the decision will be made on a case-by-case basis. As always, feedback on this new feature is welcome.

Late to the Party - Mirror’s Edge Catalyst

I love video games, but it's rare for me to play them right when they are first released. Normally it takes me a somewhere from a few months to a few years to get around to playing to a game. I've got a considerable backlog of games that I've been meaning to play and it hasn't been until recently that I've been able to start chipping away at the list. With that in mind, I've created a series of posts called Late to the Party, wherein I discuss the games that came out in the preceding years that I'm finally getting around to experiencing. Today's entry in the series is Mirror’s Edge Catalyst, referred to hereafter as just Catalyst.

Elihu Syndrome

I sometimes suffer from what I call Elihu Syndrome. The name isn’t accurate to the story of the person it is named after, but it’s the name that first came into my head when thinking about it and I’ve never come up with another name to replace it. Elihu is the name of a man in the Old Testament Book of Job. Although Biblical knowledge has fallen precipitously in America, a decent number of people have at least heard of Job and might even be vaguely familiar with part of the story. Elihu shows up in the part most people don’t know about. When you ask people to recount the story of Job, those that can often give a rough retelling of the first two chapters, wherein God permits Satan to bring trials upon Job’s life and Job proceeds to lose his property, his health, and all of his children. After that comes the part of Job that most people can’t tell you anything about, which is actually the vast majority of the book. Chapters 3 through 37 (out of 42) are a long discussion between Job and some friends of his who came to him after they heard of everything that befell him. They go back and forth about topics such as justice and the nature of God, but Job’s friends turn out to not be particularly helpful, or even friendly. With Job’s friends is a man named Elihu, who during the conversation has been patiently letting his elders speak, and in Chapter 32, when he sees that Job’s friends have run out things to say, jumps in and starts laying into Job with platitudes galore, though he, along with everyone else, is silenced when God speaks out of the whirlwind in Chapter 38. That was a lot of background info just for the sake of a personality quirk of mine. Anyways, what I call Elihu Syndrome happens when I’m in a group of people (usually who are older than me) and I feel like it’s never my place to talk. Like Elihu, I’m waiting for the wiser and more insightful people to finish, but unlike Elihu, I never say anything. I just sit there, mouth shut, allowing others to speak their mind, convinced that I have nothing worthwhile to say, even when that’s not true. I’m not totally sure where my Elihu Syndrome came from, and I’m hopeful that I’ll one day break out of it, but for now it’s something I have to contend with.

Memorable Places, Part 10

A year ago I was in Europe and lately I’ve been thinking over some of the places that were the most memorable from that trip. If you read my travelogue posts from back then you already know the details of each place I visited, but I thought I’d do a series of short writing pieces over the next three or so weeks where I give my thoughts on particular cities or regions as a whole. I’m not going to talk about every location; just the ones that have been on my mind. The order that I write about them will be in the approximate chronological order of when I visited and each writing piece will feature two locations with a photo from the trip to accompany each of them. As a bonus, at the end of each writing piece I’ll note where I was, one year ago that day.

Granada

My time in Granada was something of a second chance for the city. In 2012 I was there, but only for a very short period, so I didn’t see much beyond the Alhambra and a few other sights. In 2015 I came back and had the time to experience more of the city. Granada has become my favorite city in Andalusia, with a nice balance of history and modernity. Everything you could want in a modern city is there for you, and right within it are enough sightseeing attractions to keep you busy all day long. The crown jewel of Granada is, of course, the Alhambra, which is a monument to the last flourish of Moorish culture in Spain before 1492, when the Spanish retook the city. I visited the Alhambra both last year and in 2012, and I personally think it’s better than the Topkapi Palace in Istanbul. You could spend half your day up there, and when you come down there’s a vibrant city waiting for you. Whereas Seville has an older, dignified feel to it, Granada’s vibe felt younger and trendier, at least in the central part of the city where I spent most of my time.

Cordoba

Oh, poor Cordoba, you can’t catch a break. Cordoba feels like the least of the trio of larger cities in Andalusia, even though it’s actually bigger than Granada, and gets passed over by a lot of people. I myself only spent two nights there, and when I left I didn’t feel like I had missed out on much. The alcazar of Cordoba isn’t much compared to the one in Seville, or the Alhambra in Granada, and there’s much less to see and do in Cordoba than its sister cities. What Cordoba can claim to its credit is the Mesquita, a former Visigothic church that was turned into a mosque by the Moors, and then turned back into a church when the Spanish reconquered the city. Inside is a forest of columns and arches, which seem to stretch out to infinity. Near the Mesquita you can cross the old bridge and climb a small tower for a good view of the old city. I spent a little while up on that tower, staring back at the Mesquita, the alcazar, and the rest of Cordoba. Long ago it was the foremost city in all of Europe, but today it is a quieter town, and I suspect Cordoba is just fine with that.

On this day, one year ago, I flew from Istanbul to Madrid. Before leaving I acquired the legendary Umbrella of Constantine, and upon arrival in Madrid my first meal was a delicious serving of chocolate con churros. That night I also finally got to see Picasso’s famous Guernica, which I had missed the last time I was in Madrid.

Yearbook Signings

While adding labels to some of the older posts on this blog, I was reminded of that time at the end of my senior year of high school when everyone was signing each other’s yearbooks. Since I have my senior yearbook on my bookshelf, I was able to grab it and dive back into the memories of those days. I spent twenty or so minutes looking over what people wrote in my yearbook, with some writings making me smile, some having me burst out laughing, some weirding me out, some straining eyes as I tried to read the writing, and some leaving me trying to remember who exactly the author was. During that time rereading my former classmates’ writings, I also couldn’t help but notice that they fell into two broad categories—the generic ones, and the ones from people who had put more effort into writing something meaningful. The generic writings all said the same thing, though in different wording depending on the author, which was something along the lines of “it was nice knowing you, good luck with college, keep in touch.” I don’t blame anyone who wrote one of these, as I know my yearbook got passed around to a lot of people who didn’t know me that well, and I know it can be tough to think up something profound for each yearbook you sign. To be completely transparent, I did it myself to quite a few peoples’ yearbooks. But I also know that I wrote some meaningful stuff in other peoples’ yearbooks, and a number of my classmates did the same for me. Several of my classmates had known me from elementary school and wrote about our experiences growing up together. Others brought up how notorious I had become on campus for my paparazzi ways and unrivaled camera skills as the Photo Editor of the Yearbook. My dry sense of humor and commentary on the things we all did in various classes were common themes, along with the random quotes I would sometimes write on classroom whiteboards. The one thing that came up consistently, though, was people writing about how unique I was back then. I enjoy being complimented as much as anyone else, but those remarks left me wondering about whether or not I’ve still got that spark from high school. It’s been over a decade since graduation, and I know I’m not the same guy I was back then. Hopefully I’m a better person than I was in high school, but I do wonder if I’ve lost something in the relentless march of time. Perhaps, perhaps not. High school was a different world in a different era. As much as I enjoyed reading those old writings, I couldn’t stay in the past forever, so I closed the yearbook and put it back on my shelf. There it will remain, until one day I summon it forth again.

Memorable Places, Part 9

A year ago I was in Europe and lately I’ve been thinking over some of the places that were the most memorable from that trip. If you read my travelogue posts from back then you already know the details of each place I visited, but I thought I’d do a series of short writing pieces over the next three or so weeks where I give my thoughts on particular cities or regions as a whole. I’m not going to talk about every location; just the ones that have been on my mind. The order that I write about them will be in the approximate chronological order of when I visited and each writing piece will feature two locations with a photo from the trip to accompany each of them. As a bonus, at the end of each writing piece I’ll note where I was, one year ago that day.

Seville

Seville (or, Sevilla, as it is properly called) is the largest of what I think of as the big three Andalusian cities—Seville, Granada, and Cordoba. It’s probably the most iconic as well, drawing in visitors from around the world to take in that quintessential Andalusian feel. A decent analogy for Seville would be to say that it is sort of like a well-aged bottle of wine. It doesn’t have the pop and vibrancy of cities like Barcelona or Granada, but has an older and refined charm to it. Seville has a lot of things that attract tourists, such as the fourth largest church in the world and the Royal Alcazar, (palace) but my personal favorite spot in Seville is the Plaza de España (pictured right). I’m not that old and haven’t seen all that much of the world, but I’m fine declaring it to be one of the world’s most beautiful architectural masterpieces. Brick, stone, and tiles are laid out in splendid fashion, the likes of which I’ve hardly seen anywhere else. Seville has tried bringing in some modern art and architecture, such as the giant mushroom structure, the new bridge over the river, and the World’s Fair expo grounds, but I don’t think the city needs it. Seville is all about aged elegance.

Tarifa and Tangier

I have stood at the edge of the world. Ok, so Tarifa isn’t actually the edge of the world, but it feels like it. Down at the southern edge of mainland Europe you can see the Atlantic Ocean, Africa, and the Mediterranean Sea with a single turn of your head. The winds blow in strongly from the Atlantic, bringing in all the kite surfers looking to catch the air.  Across the strait is Tangier, which despite being only a forty-minute ferry ride from Tarifa, feels a world away from Europe. The narrow crowded streets in the old city are bustling with shops and salesmen. Nearby a series of high-rise apartments line the beach, with a new port under construction. Back in Tarifa I saw perhaps the most brilliant sunset of my life, with reds, oranges, and yellows reflected in the clouds and the small pools of water on the beach as the sun went down over the Atlantic. It was the edge of the world, and the sun was saying goodbye.

---

On this day, one year ago, I was wandering all around Istanbul. In the morning I ventured into the Grand Bazaar, and in the deep core of it I found a Turkish tobacco pipe shop from which I bought a friend’s wedding gift. For lunch I grabbed a meal with two people from my hostel at a restaurant near the Süleymaniye Mosque, and in the afternoon I went out to the old city walls and also visited the Chora Church. From up on the walls I strained looked around in every direction but couldn’t seen an end to the city.

Top Posts

UPDATE: Due to a surge in spam bots pinging this blog, the statistics of which posts have received the most views have been dramatically distorted and will likely forever remain so. The Popular Posts gadget on this blog has thus been rendered completely unreliable.

-----

On the lower right side of this blog you’ll see that I have a gadget, called Popular Posts, dedicated to listing the top ten most popular writing pieces that I’ve published here. It’s an interesting list, with some posts landing a spot for reasons I know, and some for reasons I don’t. Today I thought I’d go down the list and give a quick thought on each of those posts and their popularity. I’ll be going in order of least popular to most popular, so if you’re looking at the list yourself it will appear that I’m discussing them from bottom to top. If you want read any of these posts, just click on their titles, or go to the Popular Posts gadget on the lower right and click on them.

10. Final Preparations
This post has the distinction of being the second writing piece to be published to this blog. It’s just one paragraph of text and a photo of all the things I was bringing with me to Europe in 2012, and I published it a few hours before I left for the airport. Back when I created this blog I told family and friends about it, and I think I mentioned it on Facebook too, so it’s no surprise that it got enough views to crack the top ten.

9. Netherlands Recap
The fifth writing piece published to this blog. Most of my travelogue posts from overseas are fairly long, but this is a short one that I quickly typed up before leaving Bruges, Belgium. At this point in the trip the early excitement was still going and people were still keeping up with what I was doing.

8. Arrival in Amsterdam
This is the fourth writing piece published to this blog, and it’s very similar to #8. I had arrived in Amsterdam after a short flight from London, and was most struck by the number of smokers (both tobacco and marijuana). Also, in rereading this post, I found a typo that I had never noticed or fixed, so now the post is now slightly better than it was before.

7. 100,000
It was just last month when this one went up, and I know the reason it’s in here is because I made a big deal out of it on Facebook. The post itself is nothing more than me announcing that I had published over 100,000 words to the blog for the year, and giving myself a pat on the back. Originally I had a different gif in mind for this post, but I couldn’t get it to work with Blogger, so I settled for the one you see today.

6. Venice: Dream’s End
I really have no idea why this travelogue post from the 2015 Europe trip got so many hits (the same goes for the post on Lyon). That said, I’m kind of glad it did, because Venice is my favorite city in Italy, and I like to think that this writing piece in some way communicated my fondness for it.

5. Remembering Big O
I am really pleased that Remembering Big O not only made the list, but also is sitting at #5, as it is one of my favorite writing pieces I’ve ever done on this blog. Even back when it was first published and was plagued by formatting errors (that were entirely Blogger’s fault), I knew I had created something special and distinct from most of the other work I did on this blog. Whether or not it’s actually any good is debatable, but for me it’s one of my prouder writing achievements.

4. Lyon: Confluence
Like the 2015 Venice post, I am clueless as to why this writing piece got its spot on the list. I don’t think it’s anything particularly special, and there are a number of other posts from the 2015 trip that I think are better, but somehow, someway, it is the #4 most popular post on this blog.

3. Ricardo goes to London, AKA The Blitz, Part 2
This was the third writing piece published to this blog, and like numbers 10, 9, and 8, it’s on the list because I told people about this blog and for the first week or so people would come and read it (after that I think everyone caught on to the fact that my travelogue posts can be kind of boring). Probably the reason this post scores so high on the list is because it was my first report from my first trip overseas, which was a big deal at the time.

2. Late to the Party - Call of Duty: Ghosts
Though not my first game commentary, this writing piece is the very first in my Late to the Party series of video game writing pieces, and I don’t know why it’s the #2 post on this blog, seeing as how I never advertised it. This writing piece created the general format that I’ve followed with most of the other Late to the Party posts, and in my mind it’s one of the more generic entries in the series, but apparently someone took an interest in it.

1. Paris: Breaking the Record
Standing at the top of the pyramid is the first major travelogue post from the 2015 Europe trip. I think I mentioned this one on Facebook and to a few friends, so that’s probably why it got to the #1 slot. In it I attempted to detail my time in Paris, but at the end I conceded that I would need a whole second post to cover everything. Maybe one day this post will get dethroned as the most popular post on this blog, and I’d be curious to know what takes its place.

Memorable Places, Part 8

A year ago I was in Europe and lately I’ve been thinking over some of the places that were the most memorable from that trip. If you read my travelogue posts from back then you already know the details of each place I visited, but I thought I’d do a series of short writing pieces over the next three or so weeks where I give my thoughts on particular cities or regions as a whole. I’m not going to talk about every location; just the ones that have been on my mind. The order that I write about them will be in the approximate chronological order of when I visited and each writing piece will feature two locations with a photo from the trip to accompany each of them. As a bonus, at the end of each writing piece I’ll note where I was, one year ago that day.

Madrid

A friend of mine once described Madrid as the “Denver of Spain,” by which he meant it was just another city with nothing particularly remarkable about it. While I wouldn’t completely agree with him, I can understand why he would say that, as Madrid probably was the least unique of the larger cities I visited in Spain. Even so, I would never have an objection to coming back to Madrid in the future, and whenever I do, I will always start it the same way—with chocolate con churros. This very Spanish dish of pastry and warm chocolate can be found all across Spain, but for whatever reason I really go overboard with it when I’m in Madrid. Granted, I don’t eat it in anywhere near the same quantities as I eat gelato when I’m in Florence, but I did six or so servings during my time in Madrid last year. As for the city itself, Madrid reminds me of the sun, in that you have the center at Puerta Del Sol and the rest of the city seems to radiate outwards from that point. Walk west and you hit the royal palace, walk east and you hit the Prado Museum and Retiro Park, walk north and you hit Gran Via, and walk south you hit El Rastro. You can walk everywhere, to the point where the only time I use the metro is if I have to get to Charmatin Station, the far northern train station, or to the airport. But wherever I walk, I always wind up back where I started, at Puerta Del Sol. A similar thing seems to happen when I’m traveling around the rest of the country. No matter where I go in Spain, I always find my way back to Madrid.

Salamanca

Some people say Salamanca is the best city in Spain. The locals seem convinced of it. I really can’t say myself, partly because I was only there for two nights, and partly because my first concern in Salamanca was not assessing the city’s travel-worthiness. No, I was there to find a bench. A bench a friend of mine sat on years ago while being enraptured by the magnificent light he experienced back then. I couldn’t find the exact bench he sat on, so I just settled on a random bench in town and declared my search over. Perhaps it’s fitting that I was checking out benches, as I found Salamanca to be a place of rest while I was there. I slept in, kept a slow pace, and tried to not exert myself too much. It was late October when I was in Salamanca, so there weren’t too many other tourists, and it was midweek, so there weren’t many visitors from other parts of Spain. I stopped by the university, the cathedral, a few museums, and some other places in town, but unlike most other cities I felt no rush to get anywhere. Things were quiet at my hostel too, which was mostly empty, and in my own room there was only one other person occupying one of the beds. Maybe this relaxed pace is what people love of Salamanca, or maybe that was just my particular experience. If Madrid is the Denver of Spain, then perhaps Salamanca is the bench of Spain.

---

On this day, one year ago, I was in Sarajevo, making the most of my short time there. Among other things, I visited the street corner where Franz Ferdinand was assassinated, thus sparking World War I, and later that evening I ate some Bosnian food with two other people from my hostel.

Memorable Places, Part 7

A year ago I was in Europe and lately I’ve been thinking over some of the places that were the most memorable from that trip. If you read my travelogue posts from back then you already know the details of each place I visited, but I thought I’d do a series of short writing pieces over the next three or so weeks where I give my thoughts on particular cities or regions as a whole. I’m not going to talk about every location; just the ones that have been on my mind. The order that I write about them will be in the approximate chronological order of when I visited and each writing piece will feature two locations with a photo from the trip to accompany each of them. As a bonus, at the end of each writing piece I’ll note where I was, one year ago that day.

Sarajevo

I skipped over Sarajevo on my 2012 trip across Europe, which in retrospect was a mistake, but last year I made up for it and journeyed to the city. Sarajevo is a city of culture, history, and scars. It’s one of the few where you can walk in one direction and move through multiple distinct historical periods, and you’ll know by the architecture. Throughout central Sarajevo you’ll also see memorials to the siege in the 1990s, the longest urban siege in modern history. Among the most prominent are the mass graves, which were dug into parks and other open spaces in a disorganized fashion. But the city has rebuilt, to the point where if there were no monuments and you were historically ignorant you might not guess anything had happened, and with the rebuilding has come modernity. You can still purchase locally made wares, but western firms have moved in and staked their claim. Even McDonald’s is now there, and yes, I did eat at the Sarajevo McDonald’s. It was the best McDonald’s I’ve ever had. If you want something more traditional, there are plenty of local Bosnian restaurants throughout the city, though if you’re vegan or vegetarian you might have trouble, as the Bosnian diet is very meat heavy. Also be aware that there are packs of stray dogs wandering about in certain areas near the old city. They’re not a threat, but it’s not the sort of thing someone like me is used to seeing.

Istanbul

The great metropolis. Istanbul is one of the largest cities on the planet, to the point where it covers almost the entire strait between Europe and Asia. One day I took a cruise up the Bosphorus that went north for an hour before turning around, and I never saw the end of the city. And yet, somehow, despite overflowing with millions upon millions of people, Istanbul keeps running every single day. Traffic jams are terrible, but people still get to where they are going. Each day I woke up to the Muslim call to prayer at sunrise, which is projected over loudspeakers across the city. I wouldn’t call it culture shock, but more than anywhere else on the trip, Istanbul made me aware of just how far from home I was. Whereas in many European cities the skyline is punctured by church towers, in Istanbul it is minarets and mosque domes that stand out. You can also buy just about anything if you know where to look, and things are generally cheaper than what you’d pay in the West. In the old city you can visit places like the Blue Mosque and the Topkapi Palace, but if you take a walk north and cross the Galata Bridge in the direction of Taksim Square, you hit modern, western Istanbul. There Starbucks has your coffee ready and not as many women are wearing the hijab. Hagia Sofia was a definite highlight of my time in Istanbul, even with all the scaffolding from the restoration work being done on the inside. I also was able to purchase a Turkish tobacco pipe as a wedding gift for a friend of mine, thus completing one of the main tasks from the entire 2015 trip.

---

On this day, one year ago, I started my day in Mostar, Bosnia. I had a few hours before my bus to Sarajevo, and I spent it around the town’s famous bridge (I even got to see one a guy take the leap off of it and dive into the river below). Later that day I got on the bus to Sarajevo and arrived there in the late afternoon.

Old College Notebooks

While continuing the process of removing excess possessions from my life, I came across five of my old college notebooks. Having not used them a single time since graduation, I knew they were destined for the recycle bin, but before throwing them out I took an hour to reread much of my old writings. Each notebook contained notes and other things I had jotted down from at least two different college courses, with half of them being classes I took in the business school and the other half from miscellaneous other subjects. The vast majority of my notes were on things I’ve never used outside of college, like calculating single liability immunization and creating Value at Risk models, and as I was reading through them I started wondering how much of the information within the notebooks is now outdated, incorrect, or no longer viewed as acceptable by the current regimes in academia and student bodies. Some of my astronomy notes might have been overtaken by scientific advances in the last decade and who knows what is being taught these days in ethics courses. In two of my classes I was clearly bored out of my mind, as can be seen in the remarks I’d write on the pages, such as “Why do I bother showing up to this?” and “Maybe I’ll take some notes today.” One day I showed up ten minutes late for a class. The reason: Metroid Prime 3. There were also many amusing quotes and nuggets of wisdom that I wrote in the margins, which you can read below. Anything in quotes is a direct quotation from a professor of mine.

* Never commit a felony on tape
* If you make an error, you should try to catch it
* Always thoroughly inspect the terms of the mortgage provided by your broker
* Bermuda is a good place to hide wealth
* “Screaming hordes of Canadians”
* God invented wars to defend property rights
* “If you kids voted, then pot would be legal”
* Bank presidents wear suits and sail around in their yachts
* Q: What’s the difference between a bond and a snowboarder? A: The bond will eventually mature and earn money.
* Q: Tell me your weaknesses. A: I don’t respond to stupid interview questions.
* “Do you need to study the articles as opposed to read the articles? I don’t know what that means.”
* “Did you set your calculator to euros?”
* You can break the law and get away with it
* “Because I said so.”
* (Student) “How are you going to grade the projects?” (Professor) “Completely unfairly.”
* If you want to grow a bunch of weed, wear golf shirts
* You can only prevent conflict between two people if one of them is dead, and even then it might not be possible
* “This is something you were shown in 8th grade - millions and millions of beers and tubes ago.”

Memorable Places, Part 6

A year ago I was in Europe and lately I’ve been thinking over some of the places that were the most memorable from that trip. If you read my travelogue posts from back then you already know the details of each place I visited, but I thought I’d do a series of short writing pieces over the next three or so weeks where I give my thoughts on particular cities or regions as a whole. I’m not going to talk about every location; just the ones that have been on my mind. The order that I write about them will be in the approximate chronological order of when I visited and each writing piece will feature two locations with a photo from the trip to accompany each of them. As a bonus, at the end of each writing piece I’ll note where I was, one year ago that day.

Dubrovnik

Already popular with tourists before Game of Thrones brought in even more of them, Dubrovnik is the Venice of Croatia in that it’s the most expensive city in the country. Unlike Venice, however, there’s no point spending extra money to stay within the old city walls, as you can easily walk into the old city at any time. When I think of Dubrovnik, I think of stairs, toasty walls, and roof tiles. I think of stairs because the steep terrain means lots climbing. I think of toasty walls because the stone walls of Dubrovnik have almost no cover and can be like an oven in warm weather (bring water!). I think of roof tiles because if you look at the city from up on the walls you’ll notice the different color tiles, which are a result of the city being under siege in the early 1990s. The brighter, newer tiles mean that a roof took a hit from the shelling and duller, older tiles mean the roof escaped the worst of it. With the small size of the old city, there’s no escaping the tourist horde, which shows up each morning by the busload and surges onto the main thoroughfare before fanning out in every direction. It’s quite a sight to observe from up on the walls, but also means you can’t really find a spot of your own in the city. Still, there’s an undeniable beauty and charm to Dubrovnik, and if you ride the gondola up the hill next to the city at close to sunset you can get some spectacular views.

Kotor

Montenegro seems to be next in line to get thoroughly redeveloped for and invaded by tourism, and Kotor will be one the country’s star attractions when that happens. Kotor lies in the Bay of Kotor, which is a lot like a fjord you would find in Norway, but without any glaciers. I only got a few hours in and around Kotor, so I can’t say too much about it, but Kotor has earned a spot on my list of places that I really want to come back to. This is partly because of how scenic the area is and partly because I didn’t get any good photos due to really bad weather. The walls of Kotor run up the mountain behind the old city and remind me of the Great Wall of China, but on a much smaller scale. Had I not been in Kotor during a torrential downpour, I would have climbed them. Hopefully I can one day return to Kotor and get a better feel for it, and hopefully I’ll walk away thankful that I did.

---

On this day, one year ago, I took a day trip from Dubrovnik down to Montenegro and while there I visited Kotor. Seriously, I didn’t realize when I was planning out these writing pieces that the timing for certain ones would align such that I’m publishing on the exact anniversary of being there. Anyways, it rained nonstop from sunrise to sunset that day, so I got pretty wet, but it was still a worthwhile trip.

Late to the Party - Infamous: Second Son

I love video games, but it's rare for me to play them right when they are first released. Normally it takes me a somewhere from a few months to a few years to get around to playing to a game. I've got a considerable backlog of games that I've been meaning to play and it hasn't been until recently that I've been able to start chipping away at the list. With that in mind, I've created a series of posts called Late to the Party, wherein I discuss the games that came out in the preceding years that I'm finally getting around to experiencing. Today's entry in the series is Infamous: Second Son, referred to hereafter as just Second Son.

Memorable Places, Part 5

A year ago I was in Europe and lately I’ve been thinking over some of the places that were the most memorable from that trip. If you read my travelogue posts from back then you already know the details of each place I visited, but I thought I’d do a series of short writing pieces over the next three or so weeks where I give my thoughts on particular cities or regions as a whole. I’m not going to talk about every location; just the ones that have been on my mind. The order that I write about them will be in the approximate chronological order of when I visited and each writing piece will feature two locations with a photo from the trip to accompany each of them. As a bonus, at the end of each writing piece I’ll note where I was, one year ago that day.

Zagreb

Zagreb is the capital of Croatia and one of the country’s three major cities (the others being Split and Dubrovnik). It is the most modern looking city of the three and I remember it also having the largest population of young people of all the places I visited in Croatia. Zagreb seems to be for Croatia sort of like what New York City is for America—the place where young people go to find jobs and keep up with all the latest trends. Even in the old town that youthful spirit pervades, with new, trendy shops and businesses popping up. I don’t normally eat fast food too often, but in Zagreb I found myself trying out some new places that I had never heard of before, like an establishment that specialized in pairing french fries with other foods. There’s also an outdoor market near Zagreb’s tallest church that I like to visit, though I’ve never actually bought anything. When you’re done sightseeing in Zagreb, and to be honest, there’s not too much sightseeing to do in Zagreb, you can make use of the city’s transportation hub to visit other places, like Plitvice Lakes National Park (which I highly recommend).

Split

Split just might be the most appropriately named city in Europe. I don’t know what the name Split means in Croat, but it is quite fitting for a city that can’t seem to figure out what sort of town it is. A coastal resort town? A historic site? A modern city? An industrial port? Split is all of these things and more, but no single aspect dominates the city. This split personality (pun intended) does have the benefit, though, of allowing a visitor to easily do lots of different things in a single day. You can visit some old buildings in the morning, then have lunch by the sea, explore the modern part of Split in the afternoon before going for a swim, and after dinner you can hit the town for some nightlife. When I think of Split I also think of traditions, namely the ones that have developed from my two visits there. I always climb the hill west of the old town, I always grab a meal from a particular seaside restaurant, I always stay at the same hostel, and I always go for a swim at the beach near that hostel. Oh, and since this is Croatia, that meal by the sea costs a fraction of what it would have in Western Europe. I would never do such a thing in France.

 ---

On this day, one year ago, I was in Split, so how about that for a coincidence? I visited Diocletian’s Palace, hiked up to the top of the hill directly west of the old town, and even took a dip in the sea.

Memorable Places, Part 4

A year ago I was in Europe and lately I’ve been thinking over some of the places that were the most memorable from that trip. If you read my travelogue posts from back then you already know the details of each place I visited, but I thought I’d do a series of short writing pieces over the next three or so weeks where I give my thoughts on particular cities or regions as a whole. I’m not going to talk about every location; just the ones that have been on my mind. The order that I write about them will be in the approximate chronological order of when I visited and each writing piece will feature two locations with a photo from the trip to accompany each of them. As a bonus, at the end of each writing piece I’ll note where I was, one year ago that day.

Florence

Florence is sometimes referred to as the birthplace of the Renaissance. It is one of the most popular destinations in Europe, and for good reason. Michelangelo’s David, the Florence cathedral, and the old city hall are just a few of the many attractions people visit Florence to see. All of those things are great and I make sure to set aside time for them, but my first priority in Florence is just one thing: gelato. Florence is the holy land of gelato and when I come to Florence I’m guaranteed to eat a few thousand calories worth of it before leaving. You can hardly walk 100 feet in any direction without passing a gelato shop, but not all gelato is made equal. The best gelato in Florence, in my opinion, is on the south side of the Arno River, which can take a little while to walk to from the city center but is completely worthwhile. My personal pick for the best gelato shop in town is an establishment called La Carraia, but with such a large selection of shops I would encourage people to try lots of places and find their own favorites. Also when you’re on the south side of the Arno be sure to walk up to the Piazzale Michelangelo, where you’ll find a large parking lot with probably the best view in the city.

Venice

The city of dreams. Venice is my favorite city in Italy, which doesn’t make much sense considering how expensive and inconvenient it is. Everything costs more there, you really need a detailed map to find anything other than the most prominent of landmarks, the only public transit options are the expensive waterbuses, and during the day sections of the city are completely overrun with tourists. And yet in spite of all that, Venice has this almost magic quality to it. The canals, the architecture, the beauty of the city both during the day and the night; it’s not like me to get mesmerized, but Venice does it. Most people, however, only see a small part of Venice, since most people day trip into the city from the mainland or they arrive on a cruise ship. Staying on the main islands is very expensive, but it is one of the few cases in travel where splurging gets you something significantly better than the cheaper option. You get to see Venice when most of the tourist horde is gone, and if you stay several days you can get out beyond the tourist zones to really appreciate the entire city. Walk out east to the tail end of Venice (the main islands are shaped similar to a fish) and see the quiet residential zones, or take the waterbus out to the more distant island clusters. There is so much more to Venice than San Marco Square and the Grand Canal, and the more effort you put into exploring the city, the more it rewards you for your efforts.

---

On this day, one year ago, I arrived in Split, Croatia. I was staying at the same hostel I had stayed at back in 2012, and when I knocked on the door I found that the same lady was still running it. “I have returned.” I said. “So you have.” she replied.

Memorable Places, Part 3

A year ago I was in Europe and lately I’ve been thinking over some of the places that were the most memorable from that trip. If you read my travelogue posts from back then you already know the details of each place I visited, but I thought I’d do a series of short writing pieces over the next three or so weeks where I give my thoughts on particular cities or regions as a whole. I’m not going to talk about every location; just the ones that have been on my mind. The order that I write about them will be in the approximate chronological order of when I visited and each writing piece will feature two locations with a photo from the trip to accompany each of them. As a bonus, at the end of each writing piece I’ll note where I was, one year ago that day.

Cinque Terre 

Thanks to Rick Steves and other travel guides, the five small villages on the Cinque Terre have been thoroughly discovered by the tourist horde. Most visitors are day-tripping from other cities in Italy, so if you spend the night there you’ll find the place a lot emptier at night. Then again, there’s not much to do after nightfall. Hiking the scenic trails and exploring the quaint little towns is the name of the game in that part of Italy. When I was in the Cinque Terre I stayed in Vernazza, and it was the most expensive accommodations of the entire 2015 trip. My room costed $50 per night, but it was an absolute steal compared to all the other listings I investigated, which averaged $75 to $80 per night. My room was on the fourth floor of a hotel at the top of a ridge that slopes down into the sea, so every day I got some intensive stair climbing action, but on the plus side it had a small balcony with an epic view. My days in the Cinque Terre were spent visiting the five towns and hiking the trails between them, and each day ended with a dinner I’d prepare for myself in an open-air part of the hotel overlooking the sea. Fruit, bread, cheese, meat - the most basic of meals, but when you’re feeling that sea breeze and watching the sun go down, any type of food will suffice.

Siena & Nearby

I’ve described Siena to some people as something of an alternative to Florence. Both are major cities in Tuscany, but Siena is smaller, has fewer sightseeing attractions, and doesn’t get quite as many tourists (to be sure, it still gets a lot). The historic core of Siena feels much more stuck in the past (in a good way) than Florence does, and apparently we can thank the Bubonic Plague for that. Siena’s main square is one of the few in Europe where you can just take a seat on the ground and no one bats an eye. It’s almost like a beach, but made of brick and you’re expected to keep your clothes on. For me Siena also functioned as a launchpad for day trips to other towns in Tuscany, namely Volterra and San Gimignano, but if you read my travelogue post titled The Battle of Tuscany, you know I had some issues with the local bus system. San Gimignano is the famous town with all the towers that’s would die overnight if tourists stopped coming and Volterra is the lesser known town that hasn’t completely sold out to tourism because it doesn’t get enough tourists to be able to do such a thing. I don’t mean that as a disparaging statement about either town, and if you were in Tuscany I wouldn’t feel any regret in suggesting you visit either of them, but just know what you’re getting into.

---

On this day, one year ago, I was in Croatia and took a day trip from Zagreb, the capital, down to the land of lakes and waterfalls, aka Plitvice Lakes National Park.

Last Monday’s Debate

One week ago the United States had its first presidential debate between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. I really didn’t want to watch it, but feeling some level of civic responsibility, I fired up my laptop and tuned in to the one of livestreams being broadcasted online, and watched two people who have no business being president try to convince the nation that they’re not as bad as their opponent. I confess that did not get through the whole thing. After some time I couldn’t take it anymore and closed my web browser, saddened at the thought that one of these two candidates will be our next president. Since I didn’t watch the whole debate, and given the fact that I’m not a skilled political analyst, rather than dissect the debate itself I wanted to write about what I saw in its immediate aftermath.

I knew what time the debate was scheduled to end, and about thirty minutes after that time I decided to go online and see what people were saying about it. As expected, social media was abuzz with friends of mine in both camps furiously liking and sharing articles that spun the night’s events in favor of their particular candidate. Clinton supporters emphasized some of her talking points and savagely dismissed anything Trump said. Trump supporters did much the same to Clinton. The only thing everyone could seem to agree on is that everyone hated the moderator, Lester Holt. This social media blitz continued into the next day, and if you only listed to social media you might have walked away confused about how the night played out. Thankfully I don’t rely on social media for news, and the day after the debate I made sure to read and listen to a few cooler heads to get some perspective. From their analysis, I get the impression that neither Trump of Clinton can claim a major victory from Monday’s debate, and I don’t think anyone who was undecided prior to the debate got much of a push in either direction. Trump supporters are still voting for Trump, Clinton supporters are still voting for Clinton, undecided voters are still scratching their heads, and people like myself who cannot stomach voting for either Trump or Clinton are still throwing away our votes with third party candidates. Much like the trench warfare of World War I, the debate on Monday and the ensuing online rhetoric saw a lot of sound and fury, but the line didn’t move very much.

It is now October, so we are less than two months away from the election. There are still two more presidential debates to go before then. I really don’t know if I’ll watch either of them, but I might check out the vice presidential debate scheduled for tomorrow. If so I may have something to say about it next week.