In the Immediate Future

Still procrastinating while packing, but here’s what to expect:

• More tech stuff in the next week; CES 2012 is here (and I’m not there, ugh) and so naturally I’ll be scrutinizing everything related to digital cameras, ultrabooks, and Android tablets and cell phones of all kinds. No, I will not look for a 3D TV for you.
• More food stuff…for instance, did you know that the Cici’s on Archer closed? yep, that it did. I’ll also take a stroll to The Smokehouse (occupies the former Rue Bar on Main Street), and I’ll FINALLY get a chance to go to Leonardo’s 706 with SOMEONE. (I don’t know who, but I’m dragging them there with me).
• More food stuff will be happening at the same time that I try to lose weight….god help me. I’ve already lost 5 pounds though so that’s a good start I think. But I gotta do better.
• I have parted ways with my Nikon D40…truth be told, I loved it…but not enough. It has served me well, but will go to much more deserving hands. The iPhone 4S will take over as my ultra-portable shooter and the Canon PowerShot S95 will take over as the “main camera”. Have to admit, though, I’m definitely eyeing the T3i soon enough.
• A friend of mine and I have made a pact to make sure we go out as often as possible. I’ve made this claim many times before…but hopefully this time it actually works. Maybe, sort of.

Looking to the finale

(I could’ve chosen some different title, but I’m lazy).

If I told you there was something that just felt different about this semester coming up, you’d probably say to me “well duh, Sey, it’s [most of] our final semesters of school”. And while that’s true and all, there’s already a bit more heaviness to that thought than I, well, thought.

I’ve been more than fortunate enough to still keep in contact (or at least keep tabs) with people from as way back as elementary school (shoutout to all my Keeth Cougars who read this blog). Granted, Facebook and Twitter help, but people could very well have just ignored me if they wanted to do so. The same sentiment applies to those in middle school (shout out to my Indian Trails peeps). And as for my Seminole High peeps, well, let’s just say college for me has been like the sequel to Saved by the Bell for the most part, haha.

But naturally, whether I end up staying in-state or going out-of-state, whatever my plans may be, other people have big plans too. We’re all, as surprising as it may be to imagine for some people, going to have lives, careers and families to take care of. While college still meant a return home, for the most part, the real world doesn’t afford that opportunity for some now. And while that doesn’t mean an abrupt end to communication by any means, it does mean a marked decline in that communication.

Honestly, I don’t know how I feel about that. And maybe, maybe just for once I have realized that I should stop thinking about it. After all, I can’t stop it right?

Humans welcome and sometimes relish familiarity, but they also crave adventure. We covet consistency, but desire for a metamorphosis and transformation.

And that’s what makes this semester so difficult…I’ve learned so much about myself, others, and the world at large in just these past 3.5 years alone (and I can argue that it’s really just been this past year). Most of what I’ve learned has been positive, but a sizable minority of it has been not necessarily negative but rather than disappointing. All experiences, however, have been invaluable.

It makes this semester that much harder because it puts me in an uncomfortable mind. Do I try and get myself to change now, and risk putting myself in a different light? Do I remain the same and just wait until my new start to go about these changes?

To put it in completely geeky terms…in other words I can’t decide between whether I want to do a beta version of Sey Hee 3.0 (I consider 1.0 up til beginning of high school and 2.0 high school til now), or just keep 2.0 around until I start the next phase of my life.

Of course, again, there’s always that part of me that says why you overthinkin, man? And it’s true, I really am overthinking it. So what I hope for, ultimately, is that this final semester of mine goes as smooth as possible.

That, my friends, is my ultimate wish. I know it won’t come true…in fact, it’s already hit some moments from almost right when the year began. But those have been set aside…and I hope that no more really happen. I wish for amends to be made, scores to be settled, and misunderstandings to be reconciled. These are bold wishes, at best, and are probably impossible.

But humans dream of achieving the impossible. And, as far as I know, I’m still a human.

Resolution(s).

I’ll just get right to it.

• Lose weight (20 pounds in a good few months…already lost 5).
• Make sure to be more open about my feelings rather than being so passive-aggressive.
• I refuse to be a pushover (kind of related to above resolution).
• I resolve to be more social and not clam up so easily in social settings where I’m not the most comfortable.
• At the same time, I hope to spend more time to myself, because I’ve learned the importance of self-reflection and, in general, the serenity that comes with alone time sometimes.
• Medical School. Enough said.
• An ongoing one: I’ll try not to take everything so personally…although I can’t help it sometimes.
• I resolve to be more confident about myself, confident about the things I do and the decisions I make.
• Blog more…I’m not blogging nearly as much as I used to. But the posts will be more informative AND will be more scrutinized for accuracy (or at least backed up with verifiable facts).
• In general, I’m going to be more on top of my shit….I’ve realized that I’ve been really prone to giving misinformation unintentionally lately and that’s gotta stoppp. Even in this crazy world of communication, misinformation and miscommunication are still as rampant as ever.
• I’m going to finish my book. No matter what.
• Take more pictures.
• That’s it.

Review: Civilization

(image taken from Civilization’s website).

No, this isn’t Sid Meier’s Civilization that we’re talking about here. Civilization is a quaint little restaurant that is situated almost in the middle of nowhere. I could tell you it’s on NW 2nd Street in Gainesville, but it would take you probably forever to find it (its address is 1511 NW 2nd Street though, if you must know).

Civilization is very unique in that it is the only co-op restaurant in the southeast United States (or so it claims). What does this mean? Basically, the community (or some members of it) own the restaurant and make decisions about it democratically. Investments are also made by the community, thereby removing all influence and dependence of banks. (for more info: http://iml.jou.ufl.edu/projects/fall09/white_j/index.html)

But enough about co-ops, let’s get down to the restaurant level. Parking is ample, and makes the restaurant seem bigger than it actually is…because, I’ll be honest, it’s not that big. It has very high ceilings, which makes it all the more inviting (unlike the Jones, which seems dark and damp), but the actual square footage seems about the same. You could be waiting some days for a good 20-30 minutes…but we managed to get in with no problem around lunch.

For our office group outing, we went off the lunch menu. The specials board is nice and centered in the dining area, and there was a soup that probably a good third of the table wanted (cream of portabello mushroom).

As nice and centered the specials board was, it wasn’t very much updated. The soup was already sold out (can someone enlighten me how soup sells out by noon? yes, this place is open for breakfast, but it still doesn’t quite make sense to me). And to think I was gonna get a bowl of it.

So, anyway, I “settled” for the flank steak sandwich. This is from their website:

Broiled marinated flank steak topped with caramelized onions,
white cheddar, and habanero mayonnaise on a baguette

Awesomeness, in picture form. (Also, I love my iPhone 4S).

What they should have added was “it’s a chockful of awesomeness”. Seriously, the description doesn’t do it justice…granted, looking back, maybe there was more cheddar and more mayo than habanero, but there was still a bit of spice in the whole sandwich. The steak was cooked wonderfully, and the meshing of the baguette + onions and everything else was just immaculate.

The sandwich also came with “fried potatoes”, to which the smart-aleck might go “uhh yeah french fries, ever heard of them?”. But  no, they were like french fries but with a homefry twist, if you will. Golden/orange-brown fried goodness surrounding fluffy potatoes = whee.

My friends/office workmates had an avocado melt (was deemed alright, but not sensational), pumpkin and garlic soup (two thumbs up), Florida Cobia burritos (great) and an egg salad (a regular ordered this one, so it’s good). I should also take the time to mention that everything made is from local and organic products.

The only turn-off was the price…$10 for a sandwich never seems fair, even if it was 1) flank steak 2) local/organic 3) with a side of (frickin awesome) fried potatoes. Other than the restaurant being situated in Gainesville-nowhere, I can see the price being a turn-off for most students too (definitely recommend coming during lunch rather than dinner). I understand it’s a co-op, so prices need to be a little more reflective of this fact, but still it seems a tad unsettling.

I will say that they have a nice selection of drinks, including Cheerwine for all you Southern folk (although this is not new, Cheerwine is slowly making its way into UF as well).

Also, service was alright…it wasn’t the best (we’d go sometimes 10-15 minutes without servers realizing I was out of water 20 minutes ago), but it wasn’t the worse. They do have a rule where no more than 4 cards can be presented at the table, but the guy was nice enough to handle all of our cards. I wouldn’t call it attentive service, but I’d call it passable. If you’re a stickler who wants to be the center of your server’s attention, however, you will be pissed.

Grade: A-/B+

Pros: Damn good food, need to try more of it.

Cons: Bit expensive for lunch, not very punctual in updating availability of menu, service is flaky.

A BBQ joint (or two), Tex-Mex place, and Sunday drinks all walk into a bar…

And a bad joke results.

No, but seriously, by the time UF students come back to Gainesville, the restaurant landscape will become somewhat different, and every restaurant is going to be affected.

First off, Smokehouse, a new “Gourmet BBQ” place on Main and 2nd, will be formally open to the public by the time we all come back from break. Just looking at this Gainesville Sun article, I can tell why it’s called a gourmet BBQ place (“white cheddar mac with pecarino romano”??? really? I almost expect truffle oil at this point). Entrees range from $8-18.

If cheaper, more down-to-earth BBQ is your calling, David’s BBQ is opening another location on (nearly the extreme) east part of town, right near The Jones Eastside. While it’s still somewhat far out from campus, it is definitely closer compared to their first location (located in the middle of a forested nowhere).

Tijuana Flats on Archer is finally shaping up to open in Late January. While parking around that area is still always atrocious…at least there’s parking available (unlike the Tijuana on University where you basically have to be on campus to eat there in the lunch hour, since parking is either metered or city-sticker only).

To top it all off: The blue laws regarding alcohol and liquor on Sundays are no longer in effect. That means, starting this Sunday, Sunday
Fundays are for real this time; it’s up to you to take advantage of them.

On a blog-related note: to the asswipe who keeps on rating each blog post as one-star lately, just stop. I am genuinely trying to run a respectable blog here and it’s obviously alright if you don’ t like some posts…but I know when someone’s genuinely not happy with a post versus when someone is just putting one star for the heck of it. If you really don’t like the posts, leave a comment.

Med/Vet/Law/Dental Applicants are like Girl Scouts

Allow me to explain.

Why I went iPhone

I know what you’re thinking.

“It’s no frickin’ surprise he went iPhone, he’s an Apple fanboy.”

And yes, you’re right. I am an Apple fanboy. But you also have to consider that I’m really just a geek at heart. I love all electronics as long as they do their job and serve a purpose that I need to have served…another semi-prerequisite is that they have to be affordable, which sometimes excludes Apple products for all I care.

Should we necessarily hate Urban Meyer?

First of all, I hope everyone has a Happy Thanksgiving…I’ll hastily type up a post about the things I’m thankful for tomorrow (and trust me, it’s a list you’ll want to read). Also, yes, my blog is still alive…on life support, but alive. Getting lazy in every aspect of my life, and it’s kicking my ass right now.

Let’s get down to business though (and not to defeat the Huns): Urban Meyer‘s definitely taking the job at Ohio State. No ifs ands or buts around it….I don’t care how many times he denies it, he’s going there. In some immediate sense, I understand his denial because it will, at least somewhat temporarily, keep the press out of his home for a few days while he spends some time with his family.

Which gets my next point: family. One of the main reasons he “decided to leave” was because of his family (which stemmed from his big Kahuna reason being his health). I still believe him, but I don’t like how he made it seem like he was taking an extended period of time to be with his family. We all knew he was going to come back to coaching some day, even if not in Gainesville. But he made it seem like he wanted to settle down for a bit longer to be with his children and his wife. But let’s be real though…if I’m not mistaken, I think both daughters are now in college? When your kids go off to college, we should know better than to think he’s going to “spend time with them” heavily. Yeah, sure, his daughters are involved in collegiate sports (at least one of them is) and yeah, maybe he wanted to go to their games and such. I’m not saying he’s not a loving parent, not at all. But I guarantee you that no matter what, he would do his best to make it out to his daughter’s games even if he was coaching at UF. If he didn’t, well then maybe that “good parent” claim can be more scrutinized. My point is this: whether it was one year or five years later, we’d still be giving him shit about the family excuse.

Where I’m having issue with some people is everyone knocking him by saying he was lying about health issues…especially with him coming back so early. Now I don’t have any inside information about his real health issues…but assuming what we did hear is true, let’s be real: he had some chest pain/minor heart problems that were greatly exacerbated by stress. I faced these similar issues when I was hospitalized senior year of high school with what we’ll call a hypertensive crisis (220/160 blood pressure, if you must know). After being put on medication (still on it to this day), and learning ways to reduce stress (I know that seems impossible, but believe me I’m better this time around), I got back to my normal routine. If anything, we should’ve smelled something funny in the water when he took a travelling ESPN analyst job. I don’t think being a commentator or analyst is THAT much easier than being a head coach…sure there’s much less stress in one sense, but there’s a different kind of stress that exists in the TV world too. But my point is this: health problems can be recovered from with time, medication, and certain management techniques. Don’t knock him because you think he’s lying, knock him because of the way he exited, and the way he had to be sneaky about it. I understand that there’s confidentiality agreements and galore about this stuff…but kind of like how Lebron handled Cleveland, I felt like Urban could’ve handled this situation better.

Don’t portray Urban as necessarily a big fat liar…be thankful for the fact he brought two National Championships to our doorsteps (even if he may have done it with Zook’s recruits). But you can call him a quitter…that’s the more appropriate term, I think.

And at the very least, he’s not going to a school in the SEC. Be thankful for that.

Rambling Rumblings about Student Government, Football, and Food.

It’s been so long since I’ve posted in this thing, and even though I have a midterm coming up, I know you all miss me so damn much…so I’ve decided to calm the masses by posting again. OK, that last line is so much bullshit, but whatever, there’s a good bit to talk about, and all in random order.

• The libraries seem to be a little more packed than usual, even for an exam week. Which leads to my next subject…
• …I don’t care about SG elections anymore. If the opposition doesn’t want to put in a full-fledged effort, then they don’t deserve the 1.5 hours I spend actually looking at platforms and seeing which are more viable. If you really must care, it’s the same old song: extended library hours, some weird new platform issue, yadda yadda yadda. I haven’t seen a “Student Party” person outside Turlington…and anyway they just stick to themselves. I’ve seen Unite people actually go up to people and at least try to carry conversations and shake hands with people. You might not like Unite, but they still at least are trying to make it LOOK like it’s not a monopoly. Here’s a hint: approach some people. Most of them don’t bite, I swear. Heck, if you actually approached some Greek folk, they might actually warm up to you too.
• Speaking of which, what kind of f**king name is “Student Party”? Obviously originality isn’t in what I’ll just generalize as “the opposition”‘s repertoire. Here’s a thought: CHANGING NAMES A MULTITUDE OF TIMES WITHIN A FEW SEMESTERS WON’T GET YOU SHIT. Students, at best, get confused. If I hear one whine come out of any member of the opposition, you’ll hear my lovely response here mainly because you guys didn’t put in ANY effort (not even a dog). (mainly because noone will see it).
• And by the way, you’re not fooling anyone with your logo. While it’s not a direct rip of UF’s current logo for their Facebook page, your logo is obviously as original as your name.
• In fact, I hope Unite wipes you clean. You guys were doing so well two years ago, you just had an immature candidate. Then last year you had a great candidate but the most discombobulated front ever. And now you just plain suck.
• OK enough election talk, I obviously still care about it…only enough to go on such a tirade. SushiCHAO, the next brainchild from the people who made Mochi and Bento, will be coming in October. This restaurant is basically the marriage of the Mochi ounce concept (seen in other yogurt places around the country obviously, but I’d like to think Mochi started it here) + Bento’s great (or mediocre) food. You pay a set amount per ounce of food…and there are take-out windows, and it’s open late. It’ll be the only late-opening Asian place on University, and will go head-to-head against other late-night eateries. I’m excited, to say the least.
• I’m anxious and nervous for the ‘Bama game. Our pass defense still looks anemic, although we have at least done a decent job containing the receivers…but they were against either cupcake teams or not-high-caliber SEC teams. ‘Bama is the obvious first major test…if we can pass them, then I truly think the sky’s the limit.
• With regards to the rest of college football…UCF, I have simply three words for you: you screwed up. You screwed up your only chance to join the Big East in a very convincing fashion by 1) losing to FIU 2) losing to BYU the way you did. I don’t think this means you WON’T get into the Big East…but if you do get in, it’s more of a desperation call from the conference rather than a “we’re impressed by you” call because the Big East, like every other conference minus the SEC seemingly, is hemorrhaging right now. As much as I hate to admit it, USF deserves possibly better.
• That’s really all for now. ::yawn::

9/11

I visited the Observation Deck in the South Tower when I was probably 7…not quite sure of the exact year, but definitely in the late 1990s. I had just returned from a trip to Korea and was excited to go to one of the tallest buildings in the world. I wasn’t really enthralled, however, by the constant popping of my ears paired with the high velocity of the elevator taking us all the way to the top. I never felt entirely safe, but I never felt entirely threatened either. It was just the normal fear of being ridiculously high up in a building, a fear that’s different from being in a plane. After all, I was still only 7.

Fast forward to 6th grade in middle school. My mom was still taking me to school even though we definitely lived at least walking distance to Indian Trails. I got there at my usual time, around 8:55; first bell was usually 9:15 so it falls perfectly in line with me being way too early as usual. When I got there, I went up to the second floor of building 6, just to go to my locker. When I get at the top of the stairwell, however, I run into my good friend Andrew and he tells me that something happened at the World Trade Center…an explosion of sorts, possibly a plane. I remember thinking to myself “oh it’s an accident, I’m sure everything will be fine”.

By the time I entered homeroom, however, I knew things weren’t going to be OK. Another plane had crashed, and you could start to see the worries in teachers’ faces. The morning anchors on all the major networks started to speak in a tone you rarely hear: shock, horror and great anxiety. All of us were glued to the TV; not a single person was doing anything else otherwise.

There they were…these two towers, the towers that, along with other skyscrapers, help symbolize New York, completely damaged and seemingly helpless. The usual questions raced through my mind: how? why? An incredibly scary thought then raced through my mind and stayed constant for the rest of the day: my uncle sometimes had to work at WTC. Was he alright? Would 9/11 be the day that he unluckily entered WTC and possibly not come out?

I don’t remember the exact timing of this next paragraph, but I”m pretty sure it was early in the morning (or before lunch). My math teacher, Ms. Bratton, was already known by this time in school as one of the strictest teachers in all the land (and, in fact, I still consider her one of the strictest teachers I ever had, second only to my AP/IB chem teacher Ms. Brennan). But she did something that, at the time, all of us found extremely controversial: she did not turn on the TV. She did not even make a mention of anything going on. She simply started teaching. Noone dare ask her directly, but it was definitely a focal point of discussion upon leaving the class that day.

A lot of people might be asking, “my God, that’s so anti-American”. And at that time I would’ve agreed with you. Looking back, however, I think she did what she thought was the right thing: to take our minds slightly off the events of that day and to try and maintain some sort of order as much as possible. She was already doing what President Bush, then-mayor Giuliani, and countless others implored us to do a few days after 9/11: resume our normal business and show these radical Islamists that nothing will stand in our way. In retrospect, she should be commended for her patriotism and perseverance.

The day boiled on and my worry increased for my uncle. When my mom picked me up, I asked her immediately about her brother and she told me that he was fine, that he didn’t have to go into work there that day. With that out of the way, actual fear started to creep in. What about an another attack? When would these guys, who I had never seen or heard of before, stop?