Letters from Iwo Jima

I saw this movie last weekend, I had heard about it when it came out and wanted to see it, and I finally did. It's a very intense movie in many ways and deals with a very harsh battle towards the end of WW II. It is all in the Japanese perspective of the battle. I really like when war type movies are able to portray what it was like for the individual during the battle. While watching is at times rather depressing I wouldn't say the movie is a downer, the english dubbing is done rather well.

Harvard Style Update

I really don't have much to post here---Since I wrote last I went to Boston and visited the Harvard Business School (HBS). I went to Boston for a day last year and blogged about it, I think Boston is pretty cool town, especially for going to school. HBS has a very nice campus with nice buildings that are well maintained-- and with the most billions of dollars of any business school, it should. So many leaders in Business and Government have gone to Harvard (I can think of atleast 4 presidents)

I am pretty big fan of the Case Method in which students read a case about some type of business problem for each class and come prepared to discuss and argue what the protagonist should do given the information outlined in the case and any other research or theories each student can come up with. I was in a last semester class of 2nd year students, so most of their ideas were well developed and articulated with a high degree of fluency.

I also had lunch at the Kennedy School of Government- They are dealing with issues related to students taking jobs in the private sector which is contrary to the school established mission which is educate leaders to go into public service. Not sure where I stand on that issue, but I do believe the person who assumes the heaviest individual debt should have a say in what career path they ultimately choose. Tuition is around 30k per year, and international students need to have 60k per year

...And the clam chowder is good in Boston...

feeling 15

Listening to the Silversun Pickups in my ipod makes reminds me most of that feeling of being a teenager listening to alt-rock in the 90's. But the music has this sort of fresh feel to it that seems to set it apart from so much other music.

finally finished it

I got a book called Team of Rivals-- about the Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln- for Christmas. I just barely finished it. Written for more of a broad audience (ex: no footnotes on the pages) in a very comprehendable voice. It focused on the inside story of Washington D.C and more specifically the inner workings of Lincoln's cabinet during the Civil War.

Nearly everyone in Lincoln's cabinet was very intelligent, had studied law and had experienced tremendous amount of loss during their lifetime. The author paints Lincoln almost as a miracle worker in getting the most out of the people he appointed to assist him in cabinet positions.

On the final page it summarized Lincoln's ambition to achieve based on his disbelief in an afterlife and his desire to accomplish something his fellow men could remember him by.

Although it generally doesn't go very deep, there is a lot of information there to really digest and internalize to understand the timeframe and thought process of the President and Cabinet. It really makes life in Washington seem pretty swell.

Gelato, Panini and Rome

From top: 1) Colesseum, 2) Fresh Gelato closeup, 3) Inside the enourmous St. Peter's Basilica, 4) Trevi Fountain

St. Peter's Basilica-- very very large.

This place is where the Roman Senate and Government

headquarters was located, Ceasar was cremated around here.

Also it was all underground until the 1930's, when Mussolini used

dynamite to excavate it to what it looked like at the time of Christ.

Oahu

My favorite comment I overheard in Hawaii was while I was down by Waikiki, it went like this:
Woman: "No, I like Hawaii"
Man: "uh huh"
woman: "I would just like to change the people of Hawaii..."

Unfortunately I didn't catch the rest. But here a couple videos from last Saturday in Oahu:

These are what they use to practice with for when they twirl fire. I had it for a little while, it was pretty fun while a bit frustrating to balance the stick on your thumbs just right.

Sunset Beach-- Great for surfing, the sand pebbles were huge and so soft.

Viral comments

Alot of the comments I get to my posts lately appear to Spam or possibly some other type of virus. I thought the strange looking letters you type in to make a comment would prevent that.

Not shy to be unshy

I have seen a lot of people labeled as shy. Some of these people who had just had a unpositive encounter will be protected later by friends or aquaintences by simply stating that "that person is shy" as an excuse for there ungracious or even somewhat rude behavior. While I believe many people are shy, I also believe that people often mislabel people as shy who simply don't like talking to people in general or more specifically don't like or want to converse with or associate with certain people. Maybe even this consistent behavior has led to people to lose social prowess they may have otherwise had, had they been interested in meeting people.

The Obaminator

So Obama has been recieving a bit of criticism for 'borrowing' some words and ideas in his speeches, most notably from the current Gov. of Mass. Deval Patrick with whome Obama openly admits they exhange ideas and phrases.

But here is another phrase which has been central to his message lately and I believe I have the approximate source. He stated recently "the problem that we face in America today is not the lack of good ideas. It's that Washington has become a place where good ideas go to die." reference here. Now one year ago I was talking with a roomate about the Univ. of Chicago where Obama was a lecturer (I will let you check Wikipedia). My roomate said that his friend who attended school there said that people at the Univ. of Chicago called it "the place where fun goes to die". Of course the Univ. of Chicago and Obama are not the first places or people to have this statement attributed to them, but I found it very interesting given Obama's time at Univ. of Chicago, and especially with the claims from the Clinton campaign that he is borrowing ideas.

Really politicians in my opinion, very rarely 'create' ideas, they are more often the messengers who synthesize and communicate most effictively a certain message to the right audiences, and that is really what makes all the difference.

San Francisco

I just shot both of these yesterday in San Francisco at the Martin Luther King Waterfall (right by the Museum of Modern Art) and at Fisherman's Wharf with Alcatraz in the background. I noticed the video angle isn't very good in one of the videos. I could blame the person who shot the video however I did watch them film it so I could have taken more notice of this.