Procrastination: What North American Finance Centre Has the Best Weather?

So I was just looking at the Lazard website for more information on their recruitment cycle (Lazard is one of the few banks I think might be nice to work for) -- not that I haven't already looked at the same page every couple of weeks for the past several months, you know, because I love pointlessly worrying about future career stuff -- and I got to thinking: "I wouldn't have to work with them in New York. I could actually work for them in Montreal or Toronto (or a bunch of other gross cities that I'd not be interested in)."

Then, so you see how the thought process and wheels-spinning works (keeping in mind that Lazard doesn't even recruit at Yale School of Management, let alone the law school, and let alone people with NO finance experience) I was thinking things like: "Well Toronto is more developed and probably has better weather, but Montreal is more bilingual, and I could probably get more for my money there in terms of real estate and services." Then I got to thinking: "I wonder which city really does have the best weather? New York, Montreal, or Toronto?"

Well of course the next logical thing to do was look up the average monthly highs and lows for each, but I could only find them in celsius, so I first mentally made the high/low averages and then (learning a new Excel skill!) inputed them into an Excel spreadsheet and converted all the average monthly celsius temperatures with a handy formula so that I could graph them in fahrenheit.

As you can see from the graph I've copied, here, the exercise was (for more than just the obvious reasons) pointless lol. My expert analysis is basically that the weather in all three cities more or less sucks lol. I think when you factor-in general political progressiveness, respect for gay rights, and universal health care, I'd probably take both Toronto and Montreal over New York.

Oh Canada...

VC

PS: If you look closely at the graph you can see that I accidentally spelled Toronto, in the original Excel sheet, "Tontonto." Oops! Tontonto here I come!

How French Was Not Meant to Be Spoken

With a heavy Russian accent.

How English Was Meant to Be Spoken

With a gorgeous French accent.

The Feel-Good Shelf

Well the time has come for me to pack and clean everything (hence the Uno post) and I'm now cleaning out my last shelf -- the "feel-good" shelf that I've been in the habit of making ever since my first year of boarding school. The feel-good shelf is the shelf that breaks up a bookcase full of text books and other unpleasantness and contains ONLY things that I love -- usually cards or little trinkety gifts given to me over the course of the year. In boarding school, there was usually a shrine of some sort to my favourite Sanrio character, Pekkle (pictured rather provocatively in the image to the right), some Miss Saigon paraphernalia, and a couple photos of my cat.

Some things in the feel-good shelf (seen in the lower half of the photo, below) will go with me to New Haven (like my Turkish bowl, my Syrian box, a photo of my sister and her daughter covered in tropical birds in Maui, the large soup cup Dr. Juicy made for me for Valentine's day, my photo of Roger Federer with a personalized autograph made out to me!, and my rock from a river in Afghanistan's Hindu Kush mountains), but some things won't. For that reason, I'll memorialize them here (note how transitional justice mechanisms such as memorials have invaded my psyche!).

When I first moved back to NYC, Earth Ball made me a sweet care package that included a superman action figure (since I am superchunk, after all!), and cookie dough (long since eaten).

I'm also giving up some of my Christmas stocking stuffers and little things from my mom and sister, including a cartoon "secrets of life" calender. Here are some of the top secrets (the calendar included 16 months):

• A new year means you can put the past behind you and make all new mistakes.
• Always tell the truth...but have a backup plan.
• If at first you don't succeed...keep it to yourself.
• The best things in life are free. Everything else can be charged.
• In the true spirit of the holidays, help others...help them decide what to get you.

lol

I'll also be getting rid of my set of Dora the Explorer stickers, the various chicky things my mom sent me for Easter (of course I'm keeping the lapel pin! lol), a set of noisemakers, and a classic cartoons dvd singalong (don't ask where my mother gets this stuff!), as well as a note from Dr. Juicy that she left me one time when I was going to be at her house without her, which begins: "Just a reminder, check the expiration date on any food before you eat it!" looool

One of the more significant things I'm getting rid of is the token box of mints from my farewell dinner with Pookie (and a friend of his) at Brasserie 8 1/2 before I left for Egypt, back when we were still dating. I've had them with me for three years now, and taken them back and forth across the Atlantic, and I think it's safe to say that no amount of mints could change the taste that relationship left in my mouth (great guy, but really lame way to let a relationship die -- to his credit he did send me a nice Lichtenstein card on my birthday and has tried to be there for me this year even though we aren't in regular contact).

I'm also saying goodbye to the limited edition Cinnabon chapstick that Earth Ball got me :)

Going through all the cards and things I've received over the past year, the following rank in my top few:

• A gorgeous photo of the Swiss alps from the same friend who got me the Federer autograph (not Swissy -- just a friend)
• A funny card from my mom for Valentine's Day with an old 1950s add for hotdog buns and the June Cleaver figure saying: "Nice buns." lol (It's also adorable because you can see, inside, how the inability to draw hearts was genetically passed-down to me from my mother)
• Some REALLY cute puppy and kitty cards from my mom, including one that is a nice photo of a cat contemplating a goldfish in a bowl (I'm taking that with me to New Haven with the intent of framing it), and a funny photo of a dog sticking its head out a car window (wearing sunglasses) and on the inside of the card it says: "Hope you have a sun-in-your-face, wind-in-your-hair kind of day," but then she crossed out "sun" and wrote "clouds" since she knows I prefer it overcast -- that was for my 25th birthday.
• An ADORABLE kitty card from my mom with this cat that says "I think all people are basically nice. Except you." And then you open it up and it says: "You're basically wonderful." :)
• A really gorgeous 3D pop-up card of the Empire State Building (but all in white, and finely-cut paper, so really minimalist and not gaudy at all) wishing me a happy 25th from Earth Ball's roommate (also a friend from boarding school).

I also had to throw away two babies (stuffed animals), both puppies [UPDATE: It breaks my heart to see their little faces sticking up from the trash bag and now I can't throw anything else away in that bag!]. I'm only letting myself bring the walrus Curie got me for by birthday, and a chicky-ducky (I don't which it is!) my mom sent me.

There are too many cards and little things from the shelf for me to mention them all here, but I feel really thankful that I know such thoughtful people, and I'm happy that I can fill an entire shelf with "feel-good" reminders of the people I love.

VC

World Series of Uno, Summer 2006

All games are first to 500 (my mother and I tend to be gender normative when it comes to the personalities we assume, so the guys are me and the women are her):

7 July 2006:

Federico Mørgenstern d. Susan Vassiley, 701 : 264

8 July 2006:

Bailey Golden d. Annabelle Lee, 633 : 358

9 July 2006:

Cassandra Sommers d. Reginald Black, 527 : 244

10 July 2006:

Anthony Rothko d. Diedre Miller, 588 : 260

11 July 2006:

Florian Delapage d. Marissa Morgenstein, 523 : 223

25 July 2006:

Nathalie Bauhaus d. Johnny Metro, 437 : 399*
[*The final score for this match was not recorded because Johnny Metro had a seizure when it became clear that Nathalie Bauhaus's victory was imminent]

30 July 2006:

João Dossetti d. Manila Jordan, 528 : 206 (15 hands to 3)

4 Hot Miles

Well I did basically the same run as yesterday, except I didn't go back on the Drive, so the run back was on flatter ground (more like: barely graded upward the entire time, but not really perceptible). You can see today's route here.

It took me 37 minutes, which is 1 minute faster than yesterday (although since I'm not using a second hand, it could theoretically be as little as 1 second faster than yesterday, depending on how deep into the start/stop minutes we are for each day).

Anyway, if we figure I was *about* a minute faster than yesterday, then I'm at a 9:15/mile pace, which is certainly quicker than yesterday's 9:30/mile pace (and still more than a minute off my treadmill pace, although I've not run more than 3 miles on the treadmill in a while, so I was clearly going too fast, and that's all flat!).

I have to say that today's run was pretty hard, though, and I was so exhausted at the end that I didn't even get through my whole stretching routine, because it took too much energy (don't worry, I stretched while walking home AND in the shower, which is really nice).

Even though I ran pretty late, the conditions weren't easy, as it was 91 degrees out, and with humidity the "feels like" temperature was 97!

All in all, I'd say I've made really good progress, and running 4 miles at 9:15/mile for 37 minutes in 91 degree heat is pretty good in my book :)

VC

Ball of Yarn Theory of Business Management

I am totally cracking up right now, because what I'm about to post is so silly that you'll think it's fake, except I promise it's not lol.

I was poking around the Yale website looking for finance courses I might take in the Fall, and I came across the pdf of the Yale School of Management's new curriculum guide. It's totally innovative loooool. In fact, it's a ball of yarn.

You'll see the way Yale explains its new approach to the study of business management, but the point is: it's a cat toy. Take a look.

lol

VC

Bob Allen: Appalling Racist Who ALSO Gives Bad Head

I literally could not believe my ears, just now, when I heard Bob Allen (the Republican Florida Congressman who was part of McCain's campaign bankruptcy) explaining why, after he championed stiff penalties for public solicitations of sex acts, was himself arrested for offering an undercover cop $20 in a park bathroom so he could give the cop oral sex.

His excuse was that the undercover cop was a "stocky black man" and that the presence of other black men in the park instilled in him fear that if he did not offer one of them $20 and oral sex he might "become a statistic." Here's his actual statement:

"I certainly wasn't there to have sex with anybody and certainly wasn't there to exchange money for it...this was a pretty stocky black guy, and there was nothing but other black guys around in the park." He said he feared he "was about to be a statistic."

I could seriously wretch it's so disgusting.

VC

Real Running Progress!

I just got back from a run and it was even better than yesterday!

I ran a little over 4 miles with basically no difficulty, although I did do it over the course of 38 minutes lol so I'm DEFINITELY running slower than I would in the gym.

The speed really doesn't matter, though. The point is that I can run 4 miles and feel totally fine at the end (I felt even better than yesterday), and can do cardio for almost 40 minutes without difficulty. I think that's good!

You can see today's running route (through Riverside Park) here.

I've read some criticism about Gmap-Pedometer, which is what I use to monitor these runs, because it doesn't take elevation into account. It does have an elevation chart (not factored into the distance) that looks more or less accurate -- I know the long climb at the end of today's run was certainly accurate (although I don't know why it shows a drop at the end and a net loss in elevation when I ended in the same point that I started), but on courses like the Central Park loop and Riverside Park, too (especially when you run back on the Drive, like I did, and not in the park, which is flatter), there are LOTS of hills and not taking elevation into account can make a real difference. It's not wildly off, but the ups AND downs both add to the distance. All that is to say: I might be running a *little* faster than I think (and a little farther, too!).

VC

When the NYTimes Sucks

I can't believe this article from the Times, today, "Britain Asks U.S. to Release 5 Detainees from Guantanamo."


The article actually says: "The request is almost certain to be welcomed by the Bush administration, which has been working to reduce the number of Guantánamo detainees."

Not sure I'd put it quite that way. Aware of the international embarrassment that Guantanamo has caused the U.S., maybe, but "working to reduce the number of Guantanamo detainees?" Um, no. That could be easily done if they were, you know, charged and brought to trial.

How ridiculous!

VC

Over-the-Top CNN Headline of the Day

DRAMATIC HEATWAVE SPREADING MISERY ACROSS MUCH OF U.S.

Good Run Today

Just back from a nice run in Central Park (5 minutes longer than my last run!). I was able to create a map of my run and calculated that I ran about 3.11 miles in 28 minutes, which is about 9 minutes/mile. This is an entire minute per mile slower than I run at the gym, but it's also been a while at the gym since I ran for 28 minutes without being in misery (and today I was totally not in misery at all!), so I think slowing down is good for now. I then walked the rest of the loop and home, so running and walking combined today was over 7 miles :)

You can see today's run here :)

VC

Hingis Outreach

Martina I know you read my blog, so PLEASE READ THIS ARTICLE.

I'm not sure tennis should be your life (so I don't agree on the "determination" point), but I definitely agree on the "power" point. Your body can physically produce the same weight of shot as Henin. You just need to train it to do it!

VC

PS: Hingis totally doesn't read my blog (I don't think), but on a Switzerland note, I did have a weird dream last night that Curie and I were with her parents somewhere (I don't remember where, but I thought it was in the US) and then we got into this new used black BMW that they bought and her dad surprised us by driving us to this great museum, except the funny thing was that the museum was in Switzerland...like he surprised us by being like "here is some great art, and it doesn't matter where we are," but I happened to see a map in the parking lot that said, in German, "Western Switzerland," and the museum had a German name, but (true to real life, so my dream subconscious is pretty good!) everyone in the museum spoke French since Western Switzerland is francophone (see language map: the Germans took over everything!).

DO NOT READ IF YOU HAVE STUDENT DEBT

This post might make you throw up or die.

The Yale "entrance interview" (an online tutorial all schools have, in some form, that you have to complete in order to receive your loans) has the following loan calculator. I figured I'd have about $135,000 in debt when I graduate and here's what the calculator gave me (note that I'll probably pay it over a lot longer than 10 years and SOME of it has a lower interest rate, although some also has a higher interest rate!):

Debt Wizard
Question: How much salary do I need to support my student loan debt?
Answer: Based on student loan debt of $135,000.00 to be repaid over 10 years at 6.8 percent interest, my estimated monthly payment is $1,553.58. To support repayment of the debt, I should earn at least: $112.04 Hourly $19,419.81 Monthly $233,037.67 Annually

Yeah. Right.

VC

Really Tough Decision

Swissy invited me to come spend time with him in California the weekend before I start at Yale, and when I told him that I wanted to save my money and come to Europe later in the year, he was like "no I'm inviting you, it's just your job to find the ticket and I'll pay for you."

It might not make sense to some of you why I would let other guys pay for things but wouldn't let Swissy, but I finally decided to tell him no.

It was really hard to explain myself, and I wrote and deleted the email to him declining his offer probably ten times. I know for him it's not a grand gesture or loaded with special (or especially un-special) meaning, but for me it isn't neutral -- it's either a really intimate gesture between partners, or it's something business-like. I don't want it to be UN-intimate with Swissy, but I am also realistic about the fact that we are not a couple right now and we can't be at this distance. We're like...we are something akin to pre-boyfriends, but aren't QUITE there, and I don't want to mess up what we have because it's SO nice and so NOT messed-up.

I tried to explain to him that I know he is trying to share a special place with me, and that I am touched by the fact that he wants to share a place he loves with me. I just don't want something like that to NOT mean something with him, and I know we're not at a stage where it's feasible for us to make it mean what I want it to.

I'm probably going to drive him mad, so we'll see how he replies to my email lol

VC

VC on the IHT

I'm so excited! I just saw that the ICTJ website has been updated with two reports I've written on the Iraqi High Tribunal's most recent case, Anfal, dealing with the mass killing, dislocation, and use of chemical weapons against the Kurds in Northern Iraq during a series of military operations from 1988-1989 known as "al-Anfal" ("the spoils of war").

The ICTJ covered the trial from beginning to end, and was more or less the only organization on the ground monitoring the trial (since everyone stopped paying attention to the Iraqi High Tribunal after Saddam Hussein was hanged). Since it was basically the only regular presence in the courtroom other than the litigants and courtroom staff, themselves, the ICTJ's trial updates are pretty much the only information source on the trial other than intermittent coverage on Iraqi tv and news report and press releases commenting on the proceedings (that are themselves based on the spotty Iraqi tv coverage).

Before I came to the ICTJ there had already been one update released, in January, related to the first phases of the trial, and that update is here. When I joined I was told that I would be writing the third update, covering the latter stages of the trial, and that the second update, which was in draft form and badly overdue (covering the middle stages of the trial) had been prepared by the intern before me and only needed some touching-up. As it turned out the second update needed a LOT of work and was, in many ways, completely over-hauled. I debated whether or not I should make myself first author (not that it really matters in this context, and not that I even care about publication credit), because I am not sure, at this point, that the second update isn't actually mostly me, but the fact is that the other intern did at least get the skeleton out, and there are parts of it, writing-wise, that I don't like, so I don't want my name to appear first on it anyway! lol

It has been a weird process seeing people take my writing and change things, and I can't say I'm happy with every word of both reports, but I think overall that they're really important documents and I'm proud of how much work I got done this summer (especially because this is not all I worked on...not by a long shot!). It's also pretty cool that they're, right now, being translated into Arabic so we can get them out to the Tribunal judges themselves and Arab human rights and media groups ASAP. It's kind of surreal that I wrote something that's important enough to be translated lol We actually decided not to follow standard legal citation formatting because distinctions like small caps vs. italic don't translate AT ALL into Arabic, and we wanted the citations to be as Arabic-friendly as possible (which I'll have to explain to law people if I use them as a writing sample for the next NGO job I apply for).

Anyway, here is the second update (co-authored), and here is the third update. I won't feel bad AT ALL if you never read them. They don't make much sense if you haven't read the first one, anyway, and I don't think anyone (except my mom, who has read them already!) really wants to read like 60 pages on the Anfal trial! By the way, if you click on the links and they don't work it's because we are editing the URLs for the updates and I haven't yet updated my blog to match -- it's 10pm and I'm still emailing with the communications people (who have been wonderful) to make sure that each of the three links follow the same format (which they don't yet).

:)

VC

Intruders Legal Studies Seminar?

Ok so I already knew that Yale's "Middle Eastern Legal Studies Seminar" was held in ATHENS lol, because of security concerns over having it someplace that is actually in the Middle East. Check out the URL for the article about it, though. Does anything strike you as odd about the web address? Like maybe the use of the word "INTRUDERS" ?? lol

http://www.law.yale.edu/intruders/5313.htm

VC

PS: In all fairness, I suspect that "intruders" are webpage speak for marquis ads on a webpage for different parts of the site -- like the ones that change every time the page is refreshed.

Pablo Neruda, Love Sonnet XI

I crave your mouth, your voice, your hair.
Silent and starving, I prowl through the streets.
Bread does not nourish me, dawn disrupts me, all day
I hunt for the liquid measure of your steps.

I hunger for your sleek laugh,
your hands the color of a savage harvest,
hunger for the pale stones of your fingernails,
I want to eat your skin like a whole almond.

I want to eat the sunbeam flaring in your lovely body,
the sovereign nose of your arrogant face,
I want to eat the fleeting shade of your lashes,

and I pace around hungry, sniffing the twilight,
hunting for you, for your hot heart,
like a puma in the barrens of Quitratue.

MY NEW CRUSH

He's on John Stewart right now and I have the absolutely hugest crush.

His name is Lewis Gordon Pugh and he just swam the waters of the North Pole as part of his awareness campaign on climate change. Basically he is going around the world and swimming in all these extreme environments where he shouldn't be able to swim because they SHOULD be ice.

He swam in nothing but a speedo, goggles, and a swim cap -- no grease or anything that would violate the English Channel Swimming Association Rules, he says lol, and the water was -2 degrees celsius (28F), which is below freezing, but the salt content kept the water in liquid form.

His swim was "long distance" at a kilometer (he swam for nearly 20 minutes in the freezing water!) and he said afterward that he wouldn't wish the experience on his worst enemy!

Anyway, he is HOT, has a BEAUTIFUL accent (doesn't sound that British, actually -- his accent is VERY delicate), and he cares about the world!

It would be really hard to choose between him and George Clooney, and at this point I'd still probably go with George (he seems more ready to settle down, and I don't need to worry about him being eaten by a polar bear), but there will be some fierce competition for the Chunk!

VC

Apartment Day

I spent today taking care of apartment stuff, Yale stuff, and getting ALL my furniture from Ikea. It was a nasty walk, in the beating sun, along really ugly stretches of industrial road and freeway. Pretty gross. I ended up having to protect my face from the sun by using my sweatshirt as a turban (the photo is grainy because it's on my mobile phone -- no I do not have sudden horrible skin discoloration!).





















Here's the furniture for my apartment:

Bed

Dining Table & Chairs

Loveseat (not on the Ikea site because it's being discontinued -- mine is a bit different from this one because mine is more brown and has two large cushions rather than three small ones)

Side Table

TV Stand

Dresser

Bookshelf

File Cabinet/Printer Stand

Lamp (NOT from Ikea -- my super green energy-saving lamp!)

Now imagine them inside my apartment [as with ALL my blog photos, you can click on them for the full-size version...I really think the first two photos don't do my apartment justice -- it's really nice and the ceilings are literally about 20 ft. high) :)


VC