Uprisings

Without the benefit of hindsight and admittedly without being very educated about everything that happened in 1968, I wonder if we're in the midst of something similar. Will we look back on 2011 in a similar way? The pundits have already written about this, I'm sure. But think about it: Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Bahrain, Iran, Yemen, Algeria, and to lesser degrees, Syria, Sudan, Iraq, Lebanon, the Palestinian Territories. Plus China. That last one, while minor, make one think about things on a global level...

In other news, I'm off to India for a couple weeks.

In case you missed it...

... Happy 209 Day. (Blueberry, banana, and chocolate chip pancakes to celebrate).

No smartphone

I spent a good part of last weekend not using my smartphone. Instead, I tried to focus on the people I was with.

It was great, it was a welcome break, and I highly recommend it. And it reaffirmed for me everything's that's written about how much we're slaves to our tech devices.

Ad from last summer

I ran across this commercial from last summer and it brought me back to all the games I watched during the World Cup. It's a Coke commercial that shows a medley of different goal-scoring celebrations.

There were very few ads shown during the games while I was in Africa (perhaps a dozen in rotation in total) so I saw this ad several times each game. The song is catchy and given the continuous playing everyone knew it. Credit to the ad makers at Coke, I think they got me, as I wrote in July. Here's the ad.

I'm not clear on whether the video and/or song were played at all in the U.S. Did anyone here see them? Below is the full music video from the Somali-Canadian artist. Yes, it's pretty fluffy pop music, but like I said, I heard the song a lot.

Back to school

I'm wrapping up a couple weeks break from school. The trip was great, I caught up on sleep, ate lots, and saw lots of people. Highlights included:

• two birthday cakes!
• a new year!
• seeing lots of family!
• seeing tons of friends!
• dim sum!
• tacos in the Mission!
• a cool "I'm AOK" t-shirt!
• visits to a ton of cool companies, including Tesla!

Now it's back to school, back to the snow, and back to work!

KC

I'm off to California after a brief stay in Kansas City where I saw a cool museum, saw a great movie, and had some BBQ that was truly amazing. Thanks to my aunt and uncle for hosting me!

Done with exams

The fall term is done!

I'm a quarter of the way through this thing. Does that mean I'm a sophomore now?

Thanksgiving

I'm back from Thanksgiving in Paris. A couple close friends can count as family too.

...playing a game on a cold Saturday in a park

Done with the photos

That's it for the photo-a-day. There were many more obviously. Dublin clearly had much more to see than just signs on walls. London included the requisite photos in a bright red phone booth, in front of Big Ben, Tower Bridge, etc. Sierra Leone was bigger than photos can show.

But that'll do for now.

Photo: Another sign

From the side of an old stone building. Not sure what it's for.

Photo: More street art

Some more street art from Dublin. "I'd rather trust a dealer on a badly lit street corner than a criminal in a three piece suit." Nice and anti-capitalist.

Photo: Dublin

The last stop on my trip home was Dublin. I really loved the city and the countryside that I got to see. This was on an unassuming wall in a quiet part of the city.