I keep hearing the upcoming election is a big deal. While it is, I will be very happy when the phone calls, TV ads, radio ads, street signs, emails, and mailers stop. However, I will miss the entertainment of their misleading information and poking holes in their claims. Below are a few ideas for your consideration when voting.
Propositions
If you are looking for some comments about the California propositions, check out this voting guide James prepared. My votes will look very similar to these (except on 22) and for most of the same reasons. I was going to say some nice things about the politics of James, but after I read his next blog post I must hold off.
Ideology and Practicality
In looking at candidates running for office, one question has often come up. Is it better to support a candidate who is close to you ideologically but less likely to win, or should you vote for a candidate who has a better chance of winning but is ideologically only slightly better than the other leading candidate? I have two examples.
In the race for Governor I am voting for a candidate I do not like, Meg Whitman. She has some red flags and at least one position I want nothing to do with. However, I am voting for her because she is better than Jerry Brown, who has been in California politics for longer than I have been alive.
In the Lieutenant Governor race I am writing in a candidate who has no chance of winning. I will not vote for the nominee of my party, Abel Maldonado, because he has shown on many occasions his political values are far away from mine. For the past few years Maldonado's name has been a joke among my friends as someone who is in the wrong political party and a questionable character.
I am disappointed that in a state as large as California these are the candidates at the top of the ballot. However, I am excited to vote for a lot of other good people. Now back to the question I brought up before. Is it better to vote for a candidate who has a good chance of winning who is far from perfect ideologically, or a harder to elect candidate you agree with on many things?
I make my decisions on a case by case basis, but I am favoring the later. I have knocked on doors and made phone calls for candidates with platforms I was not thrilled with, only to be rewarded with policies I was less than happy with when they took office. However, if I vote for a third party or write-in candidate instead of one from a major party, I could end up with the worse of the two major candidates in office.
I do not have any easy answers. All I can suggest is that you look into the candidates you are voting for and realize what compromises you are making.
Sunday, October 31, 2010
Monday, October 25, 2010
The blue, the gold, and the red
This colorful story starts two weekends ago when I went to watch Cal play USC at the Colosseum. I was excited to watch Cal play, but it was terrible. Everything went wrong. It was the worst football game I have ever seen the Bears play in person. While I was saddened by the game, every time USC scored Sidney held me personally responsible for their actions. Their quarterback Matt Barkeley went to my high school.
Now on to the positives of that day. I got to see and talk to people like Juliette and Sidney. Melissa made an appearance, but she was staying with friends at USC. We had dinner at a Chinese restaurant. Since it was happy hour we happily ordered discounted items off the happy hour menu. I got to see where Melissa and Juliette live in West Hollywood. It is amazing how far money goes for housing when you get away from the Bay Area. They live in an interesting and colorful neighborhood; their building is across an alley from a brothel.
This 107.9 mile trip qualifies as a road trip. I took the 405 north, to the 605 north, the 5 north, the 101, stopped in West Hollywood then down the 101 south, to the 110 south to the Colosseum before starting back up the 110 north to the 101 north, then south toward home on the 101 and the 5.
More primary colors
As mentioned before, I have been representing UC Berkeley at college fairs. With the help of another person or two (or three), I answer questions about Berkeley, the admission requirements, programs on campus, and any random thing students or their parents can think of. Most high school students ask for the average GPA (4.39 weighted or 3.93 unweighted) and SAT scores (around 700 for each section) of the incoming class.
Last week I went back to my alma mater Mater Dei High School to work at a college fair for my other alma mater. When I checked in the person at the table recognized me; she was my former guidance councilor. A lot of things have changed. They have a new gym that can seat 9,000 people and a pool on campus. Since my graduation the basketball team won 3 CIF state championships and an alumnus won the Heisman Trophy.
Memorable moments
From the outreaches I did at a few schools I have some interesting moments to share.
Now on to the positives of that day. I got to see and talk to people like Juliette and Sidney. Melissa made an appearance, but she was staying with friends at USC. We had dinner at a Chinese restaurant. Since it was happy hour we happily ordered discounted items off the happy hour menu. I got to see where Melissa and Juliette live in West Hollywood. It is amazing how far money goes for housing when you get away from the Bay Area. They live in an interesting and colorful neighborhood; their building is across an alley from a brothel.
This 107.9 mile trip qualifies as a road trip. I took the 405 north, to the 605 north, the 5 north, the 101, stopped in West Hollywood then down the 101 south, to the 110 south to the Colosseum before starting back up the 110 north to the 101 north, then south toward home on the 101 and the 5.
More primary colors
As mentioned before, I have been representing UC Berkeley at college fairs. With the help of another person or two (or three), I answer questions about Berkeley, the admission requirements, programs on campus, and any random thing students or their parents can think of. Most high school students ask for the average GPA (4.39 weighted or 3.93 unweighted) and SAT scores (around 700 for each section) of the incoming class.
Last week I went back to my alma mater Mater Dei High School to work at a college fair for my other alma mater. When I checked in the person at the table recognized me; she was my former guidance councilor. A lot of things have changed. They have a new gym that can seat 9,000 people and a pool on campus. Since my graduation the basketball team won 3 CIF state championships and an alumnus won the Heisman Trophy.
Memorable moments
From the outreaches I did at a few schools I have some interesting moments to share.
- A parent asks "Do you know about the programs of this school?" I think, I am standing behind a table with a big Berkeley banner and a name tag from the school, so of course I do. I ask "Which programs are you interested in?" She starts to tell me about the programs the high school offers to its students. She says the high school should make sure all the college representatives are educated in all the programs the high school offers. This parent was trying to convince me to send my non-existent child to the high school instead of asking why she should send her child to my college.
- I told a high school student in very strong terms "If you do not get into Cal or any other top school your life will not be over. Your life will not suck. Have fun, enjoy what you are doing now."
- A parent asked me "What is the point of this? Students walk around and pick up a flyer from every table. What is the point of all this?"
- A panicked student really wants to go to Cal but got a C in AP Calculus. She wants to know what she can do to make up for it. I tell her I got into Cal and I got a C in AP Calculus as well. After we talk for a long time she walks away and later comes back to the table and spends a longer time talking to one of the other Cal representatives. It is good I did not tell her Cal did not see my C as I got it senior year.
- A student asks, "Is that guy next to you the chancellor?" While Doug is an alumni volunteer like me (who has a degree in physics like me) and not the chancellor, he looked very official with his suit and Cal tie.
Monday, October 18, 2010
Back in School
I just finished the third week of my class in digital signal processing. Like my earlier classes, this is online through extension with the anteaters.
First I will address a problem I had with the grading of exercises for the class. The syllabus dated for the Spring quarter said there were weekly homework assignments. A post in the online system said the homework was for our own practice. A third source implied the homework would not be graded and even gave a breakdown of how much of the grade would be the term paper and how much the final (these two numbers were different from the syllabus and added up to 100%).
A couple of weeks into the class, I noticed some of the other students had submitted assignments. I wanted to clear up this point so I asked the instructor. He said the assignments needed to be turned in and would be graded. To get all this work done, I have spent the last week doing three weeks worth of work.
I have been having other problems with the class. Z transforms are not my friend. I am supposed to understand them with little explanation, be able to do them, and then look them up in a table if I ever need to use them in the future. When the section on z transforms ended I was happy. Then I read the next section, inverse z transforms. It starts with a reassuring line, "The Inverse Z transform is a lot more complicated than the forward z transform."
The exercises and notes say to take the discrete Fourier transform on a signal, but then the fast Fourier transform function is called.
Remembering Things
Reading the textbook and lectures brought back many memories of my academic career. Some of the memories were less then helpful.
When I read about the Cauchy integral theorem I had flashbacks to Math 54 and the professor who often drew a big cat's paw on the board and sometimes made noises like a tiger or some other ferocious animal. He always wore a plain black t-shirt, black pants, and black shoes. One time I was in the restroom before class and as he walked in he made a joke how he must be in the most popular room on campus. Then a minute later he made the same joke to the people next to him when he was washing his hands. While I enjoy remembering this, when I hear about the Cauchy-Schwarz inequality all I can remember is it is important and I did not properly understand it.
When I saw δ(n) I first thought it was the Dirac delta function. I was wrong. It is actually the unit sample sequence or unit impulse function, which are similar but less exciting.
In the next week I have to come up with an idea for a term paper. I am lacking ideas and most of what I found on Google was either too far removed from the class or uninteresting. There are a couple of interesting ideas, but I need to see if they are feasible for an entire paper, my skills, and time.
First I will address a problem I had with the grading of exercises for the class. The syllabus dated for the Spring quarter said there were weekly homework assignments. A post in the online system said the homework was for our own practice. A third source implied the homework would not be graded and even gave a breakdown of how much of the grade would be the term paper and how much the final (these two numbers were different from the syllabus and added up to 100%).
A couple of weeks into the class, I noticed some of the other students had submitted assignments. I wanted to clear up this point so I asked the instructor. He said the assignments needed to be turned in and would be graded. To get all this work done, I have spent the last week doing three weeks worth of work.
I have been having other problems with the class. Z transforms are not my friend. I am supposed to understand them with little explanation, be able to do them, and then look them up in a table if I ever need to use them in the future. When the section on z transforms ended I was happy. Then I read the next section, inverse z transforms. It starts with a reassuring line, "The Inverse Z transform is a lot more complicated than the forward z transform."
The exercises and notes say to take the discrete Fourier transform on a signal, but then the fast Fourier transform function is called.
Remembering Things
Reading the textbook and lectures brought back many memories of my academic career. Some of the memories were less then helpful.
When I read about the Cauchy integral theorem I had flashbacks to Math 54 and the professor who often drew a big cat's paw on the board and sometimes made noises like a tiger or some other ferocious animal. He always wore a plain black t-shirt, black pants, and black shoes. One time I was in the restroom before class and as he walked in he made a joke how he must be in the most popular room on campus. Then a minute later he made the same joke to the people next to him when he was washing his hands. While I enjoy remembering this, when I hear about the Cauchy-Schwarz inequality all I can remember is it is important and I did not properly understand it.
When I saw δ(n) I first thought it was the Dirac delta function. I was wrong. It is actually the unit sample sequence or unit impulse function, which are similar but less exciting.
In the next week I have to come up with an idea for a term paper. I am lacking ideas and most of what I found on Google was either too far removed from the class or uninteresting. There are a couple of interesting ideas, but I need to see if they are feasible for an entire paper, my skills, and time.
Friday, October 8, 2010
Lies and What People Think
Recently there was some news about one of my friends.
He did something that almost everyone he knows will eventually see the effects of. However, he is not telling the truth about it. He is spreading a lie to cover the truth. When I asked him why he was not telling everyone the truth, he said the actual facts of the matter were a "juicy piece of gossip" people would love to get their hands on. I was too shocked by this answer to give a reply.
I will now explain a fundamental truth of how gossip works. Gossip is popular because it claims to offer a glimpse into a truth of someone's life that he is trying to cover up. If a person publicly tells everyone a piece of news about himself, it is not gossip; it is a statement of fact. Half the excitement of gossip is its secretive nature. If you want to prevent or stop gossip about yourself, explain the truth to everyone and answer their questions.
In this example, by concealing the truth and spreading a lie my friend is making the truth a piece of gossip.
Now why was this friend covering the truth? He did not break any laws nor did he do anything morally questionable. He did something he considers embarrassing. To be honest, if I did what he did I would be semi-embarrassed. However, I would consider the choices I made to get into that situation to be at least as bad as what I eventually did.
Now a couple of months later my friend is doing it again on a completely different matter. He is spreading a lie to cover the truth. He wants to lie to his friends and family about something I see no shame in. In fact, if it was me I would have written a blog post about what happened.
There is a good chance the truth will eventually come out. When it does the effect of the lies and damaged relationships might be greater then the response to the original news itself.
One phrase I hear thrown around a lot is "I will support you in anything you do." A better phrase is "I will support you and help you make the best decisions." People do not need to be told they are right all the time. They need to be corrected when they take wrong turns.
I think I failed this friend.
He did something that almost everyone he knows will eventually see the effects of. However, he is not telling the truth about it. He is spreading a lie to cover the truth. When I asked him why he was not telling everyone the truth, he said the actual facts of the matter were a "juicy piece of gossip" people would love to get their hands on. I was too shocked by this answer to give a reply.
I will now explain a fundamental truth of how gossip works. Gossip is popular because it claims to offer a glimpse into a truth of someone's life that he is trying to cover up. If a person publicly tells everyone a piece of news about himself, it is not gossip; it is a statement of fact. Half the excitement of gossip is its secretive nature. If you want to prevent or stop gossip about yourself, explain the truth to everyone and answer their questions.
In this example, by concealing the truth and spreading a lie my friend is making the truth a piece of gossip.
Now why was this friend covering the truth? He did not break any laws nor did he do anything morally questionable. He did something he considers embarrassing. To be honest, if I did what he did I would be semi-embarrassed. However, I would consider the choices I made to get into that situation to be at least as bad as what I eventually did.
Now a couple of months later my friend is doing it again on a completely different matter. He is spreading a lie to cover the truth. He wants to lie to his friends and family about something I see no shame in. In fact, if it was me I would have written a blog post about what happened.
There is a good chance the truth will eventually come out. When it does the effect of the lies and damaged relationships might be greater then the response to the original news itself.
One phrase I hear thrown around a lot is "I will support you in anything you do." A better phrase is "I will support you and help you make the best decisions." People do not need to be told they are right all the time. They need to be corrected when they take wrong turns.
I think I failed this friend.
Monday, October 4, 2010
Tabling & Transfer Students: Then and Now
Last week I represented Cal at a college fair at Orange Coast College, a local community college. As a representative of the University of California, I stood at a table and answered questions and passed out literature to students considering applying to Cal as transfer students. I was there with three other alumni volunteers.
I observed how the other Cal representatives interacted with students. One of them asked what their major was and then opened a flyer to point at the acceptance rate of students in that major. Another simply asked students if they had any questions.
I realized (in my own biased opinion) I am really good at interacting with students. I asked leading questions to engage students in conversation, highlighted great features of the university that were applicable to the students, and knew when to walk up to people near the table and talk to them. This reminded me of my earlier experience tabling. Now I will explain how I became so good at this, even though this was the first time I had represented Cal at a college fair.
BCR Tabling
At Cal I spent a lot of time tabling for the Berkeley College Republicans. It was a boatload of fun. From 10-2 on Monday-Friday there was a table and two people scheduled to be on Sproul, the primary student plaza. The main purpose was to inform students of the club, promote upcoming events, and recruit new members. Many people were surprised there was a thriving Republican club on campus. Some were happy we were there while other people were displeased if not openly mad we existed. People at the table endured insults, profanity, tiny rocks, spit, yelling, and a few dirty looks. However, the table grew to be more. The table was a social hub. Members would stop by and eat lunch at the table, hang out after class, or even be at the table instead of going to class. Students, local community members, and visitors to campus would talk to us about current issues, argue politics, or hear stories about the campus. Between the people stopping by, crazy people coming to the table to argue, and the random things that happened on Sproul there was a lot of excitement. From all these experiences, I became a very good tabler.
Transfer Students
Since the event was at a community college, it was focused on students transferring to Cal as juniors. I volunteered to work at this event because the transfer students I knew were interesting and dynamic people who had everything organized. They knew they had only two years at Cal and tried to fit in four years of activities. Some of my best friends were transfer students. The person I ate breakfast with at Crossroads everyday for a semester, the person I did Latin homework with, the girl I fell in love with, a person I hung out with and went on some trips with, my lab partner in physics who was also on a few teams at church; they were all transfer students. I have many fond memories of hanging out in Spens-Black (the transfer student dorm).
I liked working the event. The fine people at OCC came around and gave us water and a voucher for $9 at the cafeteria. I enjoyed an orange chicken bowl, Dr. Pepper, and some kind of pastry courtesy of the transfer center.
I observed how the other Cal representatives interacted with students. One of them asked what their major was and then opened a flyer to point at the acceptance rate of students in that major. Another simply asked students if they had any questions.
I realized (in my own biased opinion) I am really good at interacting with students. I asked leading questions to engage students in conversation, highlighted great features of the university that were applicable to the students, and knew when to walk up to people near the table and talk to them. This reminded me of my earlier experience tabling. Now I will explain how I became so good at this, even though this was the first time I had represented Cal at a college fair.
BCR Tabling
At Cal I spent a lot of time tabling for the Berkeley College Republicans. It was a boatload of fun. From 10-2 on Monday-Friday there was a table and two people scheduled to be on Sproul, the primary student plaza. The main purpose was to inform students of the club, promote upcoming events, and recruit new members. Many people were surprised there was a thriving Republican club on campus. Some were happy we were there while other people were displeased if not openly mad we existed. People at the table endured insults, profanity, tiny rocks, spit, yelling, and a few dirty looks. However, the table grew to be more. The table was a social hub. Members would stop by and eat lunch at the table, hang out after class, or even be at the table instead of going to class. Students, local community members, and visitors to campus would talk to us about current issues, argue politics, or hear stories about the campus. Between the people stopping by, crazy people coming to the table to argue, and the random things that happened on Sproul there was a lot of excitement. From all these experiences, I became a very good tabler.
Transfer Students
Since the event was at a community college, it was focused on students transferring to Cal as juniors. I volunteered to work at this event because the transfer students I knew were interesting and dynamic people who had everything organized. They knew they had only two years at Cal and tried to fit in four years of activities. Some of my best friends were transfer students. The person I ate breakfast with at Crossroads everyday for a semester, the person I did Latin homework with, the girl I fell in love with, a person I hung out with and went on some trips with, my lab partner in physics who was also on a few teams at church; they were all transfer students. I have many fond memories of hanging out in Spens-Black (the transfer student dorm).
I liked working the event. The fine people at OCC came around and gave us water and a voucher for $9 at the cafeteria. I enjoyed an orange chicken bowl, Dr. Pepper, and some kind of pastry courtesy of the transfer center.
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