Posts Tagged With: Personal

How to Be A Successful Freshman at Penn

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The Quad If your friends are all wearing City Sports t-shirts, buy a City Sports t-shirt. You are, as a freshman and right out of high school, most likely a stranger in a strange land, and it won't hurt to blend in as much as possible. If you are planning on joining a fraternity, start investing in Ralph Lauren. Get a fake ID. Get a good quality one that scans and blacklights, which will set you back around $120. You will need it to get into the clubs and bars around Philadelphia. Keep your room clean. If you can, stack your beds. It's hard to socialize in a small room. Buy alcohol. You will be popular with your friends if you can supply alcohol to them. You will always be able to do schoolwork. Go out. Be generous with your money. If you have money (and if you go to Penn, I am guessing you do). Smile. Nobody likes a grouch. Enter your room with a purpose: Use your room to change clothes, to pick up or drop off schoolbooks, to sleep, to drink with your friends, and to hook up with sloppy drunk chicks. You will not be social in your room. Get off your damn computer. If I had a nickel for every hour I spent checking Facebook, or walking by people's dorms seeing them staring at their computers, I would be rich enough to donate a building. Don't eat alone. Going down to the dining hall and trying to find people doesn't count. Meals are a great time to catch up with people that you don't see every day. Make your habits social habits. If you really like playing basketball, find friends to play basketball with. Reading and playing online poker are nice habits but you will not make friends doing them. Then again, I write a blog and have Google Reader as my homepage.

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The Right Question To Ask About Iraq Is…

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I can imagine President Bush at home thirty years from now wishing he'd started the war later in his presidency. Imagine, living with five years of decreasing public opinion polls! It would take five years before someone else could shoulder responsibility for his beast. In the history of the United States though I doubt that any presidents have started expensive foreign wars late in their presidency.

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Last Night in the NCAAs

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I correctly picked all 4 results in last night's NCAA Tournament action, which I thought was pretty good until I realized I simply picked each #1 and #2 seed to make the Elite Eight. As usual, my bracket would be looking much better right now if I'd just picked every higher-seeded team to win every game. Tonight I have Florida, North Carolina, Georgetown, and Georgia Tech. Seven out of eight Elite Eight teams wouldn't be bad, even if it's just picking all the favorites to advance.

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Keyboard Shortcuts

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I really like using keyboard shortcuts - they save time and you don't have to move your fingers from the keys to the mouse. Not that much time-saving on a laptop, but on a desktop computer it can be really nice to learn the key shortcuts. Most programs have keyboard shortcuts for the common options. Two programs for Mac you may want to download are Quicksilver (do anything on your computer by pressing Cmd + Space) and Witch (switch between open windows, not just open programs) I've gotten a lot better at forcing myself to use the keyboard with Firefox. I simply took out the navigation bar and the bookmarks. The bookmarks are still there, I just open them with Quicksilver.

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February Madness – Penn Basketball’s NCAA Tourney Chances (Or, Oh God, I Hope They Give Us Washington State And Not Memphis)

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Penn is in control of its own destiny after a Yale loss last week to Cornell and a victory last night over Cornell. Five games left - at Harvard and Dartmouth, home to Brown and Yale, and at Princeton. In all likelihood the title will come down to Penn vs. Yale at the Palestra. A win there means we can lose any other game and still have 2 losses against Yale and Cornell's 3. A loss likely spells a playoff against Yale for the Ivy League title. I will be rooting for every single possible upset over the next few weeks besides my dear old Penn. I hope Winthrop goes down in its conference tourney, I hope Appalachian State loses, I hope Nevada, Gonzaga, and Holy Cross, lose, I hope Boston U wins the CAA tourney and Iona wins the MAAC tournament. The more upsets in the one-bid conferences, the more at-larges get eaten up and the more teams get seeded below Penn, giving us a better shot at winning against our first round opponent. In Penn's range, here are teams I'd love to play and teams I'd hate: Memphis: I have better chances of getting action on a Monday than Penn has of beating Memphis. The same can be said for Kansas, who beat a not-terrible Nebraska by 53. Texas A&M: Big, strong, athletic, we're screwed. Butler: Butler is a very good team that for the large part will beat inferior opposition. Even if they did lose to Illinois-Chicago, who we beat. Clemson: I would not be that happy about playing Clemson. A very athletic quick team that will expose our lack of defense and frontcourt. However they have struggled lately. Washington State: A team that plays grinding defense and runs the clock 35 seconds a possession. Sounds familiar, except these guys can win every now and then. We can beat Wazzu, especially if it is a low scoring game. Air Force: I am dancing inside if we land Air Force. They will underperform in the NCAA Tournament. Duke: Duke sucks, plus they rejected my application last April. I am also dancing inside if we get to play Duke. Ibby Jaaber will rip Greg Paulus for 10 steals. Paulus will never be able to show his face again.

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Random Steve Donohue Sighting Last Night

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Last night I went out with my dad after Penn beat Cornell. At New Deck Tavern I saw Steve Donohue, the Cornell head coach and former assistant to Fran Dunphy, out with Vince Curran, Brian Seltzer and some other Penn guys. I guess he was not taking the bus back with the team to Cornell; either way that's interesting. Mark Zoller was also there, having dinner with his dad.

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