A quick update

Back at school! I love fall in California; every day is shorts weather but you can wear pants and not burn up. I’m taking mostly project-based classes now, and I’m excited to see how they turn out!

I was gonna take this like statistical learning theory class but it turns out the professor changed and on the first day I realized I went from having all the prereqs to half of them!!! All the dick-swinging and self-validation in the WORLD is not worth the time I would’ve had to spend bootstrapping and self-teaching. It was also being taught by a new professor who’s like clearly a genius but got caught up in a lot of algebra and then would have to rush to finish the proof in time and like skip over something important; basically I could understand proofs for the most part form step-to-step but then he would make some kind of tautological argument in order to wrap things up and I’d be fuckin LOST. The content of the class was super interesting but you can’t chase statistical bounds with short legs!!!

So I ended up taking two lighter courses instead, and it’s been great! I’ve had more time to read and exercise and work on recruiting/securing the mf bag

I’m living in Crothers, which has a reputation of being kind of a shithole, but I really like it! The location is arugably the best on campus, and I’ve never lived on East Campus before and I love it. Also, it’s right next to a bunch of dining halls, and the rooms are like spacious enough. I’ve been thinking about it and I’m pretty sure the main reason people don’t like Crothers is because the word Crothers is nasty. It’s up there with like moist and pulp. It literally sounds like crud. But like, if it was called Hennessey (which comes with two added benefits of being named after a former university President AND having a cool nickname Henny), it would definitely be way higher in the housing hierarchy.

a quick aside

This kind of taps into the kind of wild idea of nominal determinism. I realized last year that since my middle name starts with J, I could have gone by AJ my entire life. Imagine that!!! I’d be a completely different person. How many AJ’s do you know that are, like, alright people (I know one). If I had grown up AJ instead of Andrew, I’d probably be a brother in Theta Apple Pie slapping a wine bag now.

I printed like a ton of screenshots from like Twitter that I liked and got them printed at Walgreens and put them up on my wall. They’re like 30 cents for a 4x6 photo, and there’s always like a 40% discount and you can bike down University Ave and just pick it up the same day and get like 30 photos for like 7 bucks and like buy toothpaste and school supplies too? s/o walgreens

I still want a tattoo! I want it to be like text in a foreign language that most people don’t speak so that if someone asks what it says I can literally say ANYTHING

Also!!! I got accepted into the study abroad program for Florence in the spring! Hit me up if you’re also gonna be in Europe in the spring!!!!

and here are the THINGS I’VE CONSUMED RECENTLY

Things I’ve Eaten

Ramen Nagi - University Ave!!! One of Tokyo’s top ramen chains, with it’s only North America location in Palo Alto. It’s fannnnntastic but you have to like get there like a half hour before it opens and the wait will be like 45-60 minutes.

Dal Grano - This one is in NOVA but it’s one of my favorites (thanks for the suggestion Bradford!!!) Delicious pasta, not too heavy, really fairly priced.

Haidilao Hotpot - Better than little sheep, but also pricier!! They also have free red bean soup which was really good

Arrillaga Dining - It’s actually like okay now? The meat is still dry but things taste way better

Things I’ve Read

Sour Heart, Jenny Zhang - Finally finished! It’s sooooooo good. Gorgeously written and refreshingly different content.

Stephen Florida, Gabe Habash - A writer that knows nothing about wrestling writes a book about an angsty wrestler! dank as shit

Conference Room, Five Minutes, Shea Serrano - Shea Serrano writing about The Office? Take my money! (and he did)

We Gon’ Be Alright, Jeff Chang - I loved taking his class, and it’s such a smart book on the current cultural climate.

The Cool Kid’s Philosopher, Nathan J. Robinson - A skewering of Ben Shapiro… must I say more

Michael Wang Didn’t Get Into Harvard. He Thinks It’s Because He’s Asian. - I think it was a really good take on the lawsuit! s/o Victoria for the link!!!!

Things I’ve Watched/Listened To

The Good Place - I love this show so much! The premise is wonky and it’s run by Michael Schur (showrunner for Parks and Rec and The Office) starring Ted Danson and Kristen Bell! It starts slowly but gets SO GOOD and continues its momentum like second half of first season all the way into the ongoing third season.

BoJack Horseman - It’s so good. Brutal, sharp critiques/takes on current affairs and celebrity culture.

How to Be a Human Being, Glass Animals - They came last year but I was slaving away in 110 :( Listened through the album for the first time, and it’s dank as shit!