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How to watch sports with guys. Turns out I've been doing it all wrong. I do wish I could still impress guys with my knowledge of sports, but the truth is I haven't had time to really follow anything since, well, since I started college. Damn classes getting in the way of my flirting.

(Link via The Agitator)

I'd been wondering how many Brandeis students had attended the protest in D.C. this weekend and how many were arrested. Well, now that it's Tuesday, my trusty school newspaper, The Justice, has come out and let me know. 30 went, none arrested. How disappointing.

While I suppose it's pointless to fisk a school newspaper article, there was one line that just make be laugh out loud:

Radical Students Association (RSA) member, Lee Tusman '04, said that the WTO acts to help finance projects in developing nations, but as a condition, they dictate restructuring of the economy, opening of markets, and a weakening of government social services.
The countries that get financing loans must pay them back.


Horror of horrors! Countries that get loans have to pay them back? Who would have thought? I mean, you would think that the word loan no longer meant the same thing as gift.

I usually enjoy reading Lileks every morning while I'm eating breakfast, but Jess Ventura is "a dead pinky toe that will fall off some day, and we won’t even notice until we shake it out of our shoe"? Ew.

Some thoughts on how to be happy. Seems like I've got a pretty good start. Born female: check. Go to church (well, synogogue): check. Country dancing: As soon as Nissa gets back from Scotland we're going again. Now I just have to work on that pesky marriage thing.
(Link via Quare)

Megan McArdle is appalled at the amount of cheating that goes on in public high schools today. I suppose we all should be, but the article she points to is a completely accurate reflection of what went on in my high school. Two years before I graduated, one of the valedictorians (yes, we had several) was caught cheating a month or so before graduation. She remained valedictorian.

With all the talk of bloggers running for president (here's two potential candidates I'd support) I was wondering. Are there any politicans with blogs out there? It would be a wonderful way for them to keep in touch with their constituents and publish their thoughts and views about issues. It would also help prove that they're actually doing something and allow them to easily get input from the people they represent. On the other hand it would mean that they'd have to be honest about what they thought and take definite positions. So maybe there's a good reason there aren't any politicians in the blogosphere.

I am, with rare exception, neither eloquent nor persuasive. Luckily, I have a blogosphere out there to learn from. This post by Stephen Green puts beautifully one of the many things I wish I could get across to my fellow students. This country has done things badly, yes, but we have also done many, many things well. Our past failures must be studied and examined and we must always question, but don't let mistakes of the past tie our hands in what we need to do today.

Buffy Blog Burst!


I am a come-lately Buffy fan, but I try to make up for that by being overly obsessed. I had seen bits and pieces of the show before, but come on: Buffy the Vampire Slayer? How can a show with that name not be stupid.


It all started last October when I sprained my ankle at dance practice on Thursday night and was hence unable to go to NYU and visit a friend as I had planned. I was rather depressed about this and so spent all of Friday night lying on the couch in the common room and watching TV. After the first-ever US episode of Iron Chef, hosted by William Shatner, a rerun of the musical episode of Buffy came on. I had heard a bit about it and I love musicals so I gave it a try. Instantly I was hooked. Even without knowing anything about the plot and very little about the characters I could tell that this show was something special. Luckily for me, at the time FX was showing two episodes a day so by January I had pretty much caught up on most of the show's backstory and mythology. I now own seasons 1 and 2 on DVD (I can't belive season 3 doesn't come out until January!) and am a regular reader of (though I have yet to post on) many online discussion forums.


Buffy is a show that infinitely rewards devoted fans and repeated viewings. The dialogue is always witty and intelligent and the amount of continuity throughout the show's seasons is amazing. It is a show that allows its characters to grow, evolve, and change like few other shows do. It allows you to escape into a fully formed world of demons, magic, and super heroes every week. And an all new season starts in just 3 hours!

Vodkapundit asks: 'Do they not teach economics in college anymore?' I can tell you, yes they do and even at a liberal institution like Brandeis the economics department is amazingly sane. I think the problem is that most students haven't had an introduction to basic economics. Most high schools require economics to graduate, but we all know how well the public school system is doing there. I learned more in 2 weeks of college econ than I did in an entire semester in high school. I would dearly love to have Introduction to Economics be a requirement for graduation. Maybe it's wishful thinking, but learning a bit about how the economy and markets actually work might combat some of the huge anti-free-market bias that exists in many of the social science departments(*cough*sociology*cough) and make for some less isolated, more realistic students. And maybe it would stop those damn hippies from trying to take away my EZMac!

Well, to go along with my post below about U.S. News and World Report's college rankings, apparently Seventeen magazine has ranked the top 100 coolest colleges. And surprise: Brandeis is number 77. Although this time there's no contest with the sister as Bryn Mawr is infinitely cooler at 32. A bit of home-town pride in here, though: Rice University, which is about 45 minutes from my house is number 1!

Yesterday there was a 24-hour peace vigil and "think-in" here on campus. This means that a bunch of wanna-be hippies get a chance to sleep outside for a night and think they're doing something important. Because by sitting outside and really thinking one of them is bound to come upon a hither-to-unrealized idea to achieve world peace. They had a piece of poster board set up where people could write their thoughts about peace. I wrote up a quote that friend of mine had told me once: "We will have peace with the Arabs when they love their children more than they hate us." ~Golda Meir. Yay for the little subversions. As I walked away I noticed the people at the think-in, who had been chatting when I first walked up, had gone silent and were reading what I'd written. I hope I really gave them something to think about.

The always controversial U.S. News college rankings have been released. My beloved Brandeis University is number 31. Unfortunately, I can't say if I'm better than my sister because Brandeis and Bryn Mawr are rated on different lists! One interesting point: University of Texas at Austin is number 47 this year. I knew it was a good school, I just didn't realize it was that good.

So, should I give credit to my blog parents? I think there are too many. Of course, Instapundit. Two others I should mention are Quare and The Agitator. Thanks guys, for inspiring me to create a new way to slack off on my work.

Possible explanation for out-of-body experiences. One day we'll have the explanation for everything. You know, if I had the patience for it I'd really like to do brain research. That kind of things always interested me in my pyschology classes, but there's no way I could through the hell of science labs and med school. I'll just have to marvel at it from afar.