New Life

And by finally figuring out how anticipated disinflationary monetary policy would affect economic output in the Neo-Keynesian model (and subsequently learning my answer was incorrect), I officially completed my junior year as an undergraduate.

Despite my failure to comprehend intermediate macroeconomic concepts, life's good. But I'm not content. Though my favorite sports team is out of the playoffs (See: Pain Index), I'm not sure how my grades will turn out this semester, the economy is still sputtering, stuff being said by people waving teabags and the corporate enterprise that doubles as an objective news channel who sponsors and echoes said teabaggers is leaving me exacerbated, frustrated, and stressed (though often amused), I'm in the worst physical shape of my life, and I just got screwed and passed over for a position I have coveted for three years, I have a full summer ahead of me and I'd be goddamned if I let it slip away or be deterred by run-on sentences!

Today begins a New Life. It's much like the Old Life. And it lacks any experiential, epiphanic enlightenment that should come with such a proclamation of a renewed sense of self that I one day hope to actually feel. But it's a shedding away of my winter skin and an embrace of warmth, sun, the outdoors, the city, and the self-capacity that all of the above enhance.

A Few Things I'd Like To Do (In No Particular Order):

1. Purchase New Guitar Strings

For both of my babies, the acoustic and electric. This is long overdue; the organisms growing on the strings themselves have already mastered the intro to "Voodoo Child."

2. Purchase A New Bicycle
It's time. I have mourned. I have remained abstinate. I have exorcised the ghosts of grief and despair. It's time for a new bike. And thanks to Uncle Sam's lookin' out for me, I'll be able to stimulate the shit out of a DC bike shop.

2(a). Whip my ass (literally) into shape.

I plan on doing the full Capital Crescent run from Georgetown to Silver Spring via Chevy Chase and Bethesda. Followed by Alexandria to National Cathedral and Arlington National Cemetary to Soldier's Home via Oak Hill. I also plan on making a special trip to God's Country, West Virginia where I will be hitting the trails. More to come on these trips.

I also gotta hit the gym.

3. Purchase New Clothes

On a super tight budget.  But I can make it work.  I love finding clothes that look exactly like the clothes at J. Crew and Banana that are actually from Target.  And rock 'em.  And that's what I plan on doing.  I've got to buy some new dress shirts for work, some more ties, new kicks, a new watch, and new cool hip graphic T-shirts. 

4. Read

Dreams From My Father by Barack Obama. Because I haven't yet. More Esquire. Because it is a brilliant magazine. And maybe some sci-fi courtesy of my well-stocked expert roommate.

5. Manage Networks

Includes archiving Gmail (a sense of satisfaction unmatched), deleting unnecessary contacts in my phonebook (you're dead to me Joe Biden's Senate Office), unfriending unnecessary human beings on Facebook, linking in with working professionals on LinkedIn, and dropping annoying tweeters on Twitter due to superfluous twats while expanding my own followers (search iEshawn!)

6. Drink at more bars

I turned 21 in February but the burdens of school work have prevented me from sampling some of the great bars DC has to offer. This may be a difficult goal to accomplish since my internship with AARP is UNPAID (cheapass old farts) thus expendable income will be low without putting down for drinks. Gotta make use of happy hours! And I've got to get to McFadden's and make my GW rite of passage.

7. Initiate Trilogy Weekends!
On various weekends throughout the summer, I'm going to host movie trilogy viewing parties! Star Wars, Ocean's, Indiana Jones, Godfather, Lord of the Rings, Bourne, Mission Impossible, Rush Hour, and more!

8. Make Music
I'm serious about it. I'm ready for people to hear what I work hard to write. Get in touch with me if you want to write, practice, and play original music. Let's do this.

New Life. It starts now.

How I'm Celebrating Day 100

of the Obama Presidency:


I'm also avoiding pancetta and leather shoes.

Pain Index

I had to perform the Wake-Up Test first. You know, the feeling you get when you wake up the next morning and for a few moments as your brain reloads you've forgotten that your team was just eliminated in a Game 7 shocker that should never have happened? And then you remember, and your heart sinks. That's the Wake-Up Test.

Now with all the scientific evidence collected, I have concluded where last night's loss to Carolina in Game 7 in Newark ranks on the list of all time Painful Losses for a Devils Fan:

1. 2001, Game 7 vs. Colorado, Stanley Cup Finals
2. 1994, Game 7 vs. New York, Eastern Conference Finals
3. 2009, Game 7 vs. Carolina, Quarterfinals

When your team is leading 3-2 with 80 seconds left, you're fairly sure you're going to the next round.

Sigh.

This will take a while to get over. Cheers to a great season.





P.S. The Rangers still suck.

The Benefits of Chalk

I love chalk day.

Every spring, someone somewhere in some office in some GW building decides to shut down the corridor of H street between 21st and 22nd streets NW (which should become a permanent pedestrian walkway, but that's for another post I suppose) for the purpose of allowing students to express their inner-most exams-induced angst or offer a glimmer of hope in defiance of an exam-induced depression with chalk art.

Nothing can be more cathartic. I endorse more chalk days.


A little shamless chalk-based plug. I included the URL to this page (not shown). Hey, I'm no sellout. It's viral indie marketing.

Stay tuned to find out why Whoopi Goldberg is egregious. And it's not for reasons already well documented.

It's 3:34 AM

And I'm in my living room Google-ing about lost (and rediscovered) historical letters in the dark. There's a reason for this.

Blue Hen Battle: Reflection

POLITICO.com has a great piece on a recent event at the University of Delaware featuring David Plouffe and Steve Schmidt, the managers of the Obama and McCain campaigns respectively.

One of the healthiest exercises in our often cantankerous and blistering political process is that of retrospection that can only occur outside of the hyperintensive environment of an election such as the one the country was in last summer. It's only well after the victor is declared, the runner-up concedes, the campaign signs come down, and the field offices fold that we can honestly and openly reflect on the events of the election.

For example, Schmidt, a man who I am coming to admire more and more despite the fact that he was responsible for crafting and approving nearly every attack (both legitimate and entirely not) on my candidate throughout the campaign, described the Obama campaign as "the unfinished Bobby Kennedy campaign – the idealism, the passion, the inspiration he gave to people, it was organic and it was real and it wasn’t manufactured at a tactical level in the campaign.”

You would have never have heard this out of this man's mouth last October regardless of however many Jack & Gingers you bought him in a DoubleTree in Harrisburg.

What this reflection proves is a truth in politics, that people do their jobs, and they aim to perform well. But at the end of the day, it's just a job. And however passionate we may feel about winning, it's our ability to speak freely and frankly about this sport that is in the end tantamount to healing and progressing our democracy.

It also reveals how awesome UD is! Not only is our Vice President a Blue Hen, but both Plouffe and Schmidt, who both attended UD but never completed their political science degrees, will finally finish their course work and officially graduate soon.