stevesbets

I would first like to note that the blog in which I offered the freeroll generated a record number of comments, 35 so far, that’s very exciting even if some of them are shrew. Another exciting note is that my Aunt Mary found my blog (hi!!) she was probably the first baby boomer to ever read it and that means my mom won’t be far behind so be careful what you comment! I have narrowed down the freeroll to specific fitness goals. Now I know I will get criticized for these being too easy, but first of all you don’t know my baseline, secondly, remember that I hope to do better, these are simply the minimum objective goals so that I don’t have to pay out the freeroll. I will have to be able to do 10 pullups, 50 pushups and then run approximately 4 miles (I can take my time running but I cannot walk at any point). Whether I walk will be subjectively judged by my friend who will be doing the run with me. So now all you with the freeroll know what you need to root against, and if any of you can’t do these things you should get to work too just for fun.

Last Thursday and Friday I had orientation events. Upon entering Thursday morning there were a whole bunch of tables set up to encourage networking. I randomly joined one and thus the 7 people at that table were the first people I know at Fordham.  The most memorable event of the first day was a “survival” group exercise that went as follows. A scenario about surviving in a dessert was read aloud and then 15 items were presented. Our task was to rank from 1 to 15 the importance of each of these items for our survival. We did it individually at first, then as a group. We then compared our rankings with those of an expert who was deemed to have the “correct” answer and they had a complicated scoring formula. The goal was for the groups score to be better than the best individual score. For 8 or the 17 tables (including mine) not only was this not the case, but the group score was actually worse than the average individual score.  I don’t really wanna get fully into the merits and failures of the bizarre scoring system, but I did learn some interesting things about survival. Firstly, in extreme heat of 130 degrees, if you know you have 70 miles to civilization and you have no water, to try to walk those 70 miles means almost certain death. Secondly, the absolute most critical thing is warding off dehydration, in fact if water is scarce, you should avoid eating even if food is plentiful because it will further dehydrate you. Thirdly, a top coat for every person trying to survive is an invaluable tool because it blocks your skin from the sun and slows the dehydration process, very counterintuitive.

As a whole orientation was fairly entertaining. Much of it was a study of human interactions, not too much unlike that VH1 reality show “the pickup artist” but not related to dating. Apparently in your first interaction with someone you should always say something very positive (about yourself, the location, anything) because it makes a far better impression than saying something like “this orientation is sooo boring” or something of that sort. On the last day an entrepreneur gave a fairly inspirational speech on how all it really takes to start your own business is the drive to do it regardless of what your told. She called it a “hungry foolishness” which is a rare trait for most people.  Anyway, I’m off for this week and classes start on Monday. As a sidenote, Fordham accepts credit card payment, and they take Amex and Mastercard but not Visa! Who doesn’t take Visa?

I had some friends in town for the past couple days and we did a few activities. We went to Max Brennars house of chocolate in union square which I really like. I love chocolate and it is a really unique place. If you know of more unique stuff like this around NYC let me know. Last night we went to Dave and Busters which I haven’t been to since High School. I remember thinking it was an amazing place to go but just super expensive. This time in my “old age” I found it is still fun but not quite as amazing, and way less expensive than it previously seemed. We spent only 20 dollars each on games for a couple hours. In high school i used to love the games in which you pretty much just sat at swiping your card trying to win as many tickets as possible to redeem for prizes. These “slot machines for the underaged” must have appealed to whatever gambling urges I have in me that never got out before I got into poker. Now those machines no longer appeal to me and we spent our time playing the competitive sports games. I think of myself as generally good at silly games that have no real value, and we started betting 5 dollars on each competition just as incentive to try. Somehow I managed to lose every single competition I played and ended up owing something like 60 dollars at the end of the night. I no longer have faith in my skills at throwing things up oddly shaped courts into assorted holes.

So far I have the following thoughts on New York neighborhoods. Columbus Circle where I live is awesome, it is just crowded enough most of the time and there is lots of fun stuff around. Time Square is kind of surreal so it’s fun to be in once but walking through there is pretty brutal since you bump into ten people every step so I will try to avoid it. Union square is really hopping and unique, I like it there. I haven’t made my way down to the village since moving yet, I look forward to exploring more. Murray Hill also seems like it would be a fun place to live.  I suppose that’s all I have to say for now. I apologize as I reread this because I think it is one of my more boring entries, but people have been asking what I’ve been up to so it is easier to write it here than recount it over and over. (And also I already wrote it so there’s no way I’m deleting it!)