"YOU LEARN
SOMETHING NEW
EVERY DAY"

DEC 29TH, 2008- JAN 5TH, 2009

My goal is to examine over the span of one week what new knowledge can be acquired "every day" in a non-educational environment, and also weigh the value of knowledge gained in 2008 to the value of knowledge gained in 2009.


Knowledge Acquired:

Monday, December 29th:
Riding BART to SF from the Fremont/Dublin/Pleasanton direction
1) Some devout Christian youth are against premarital sex but for unsupervised underage drinking.
This is actually a rather entertaining story: I was sitting across the aisle from a group of seven or eight fifteen to sixteen year old girls, all Caucasian, all very manicured and wearing department store clothes. They were engaged in a very loud conversation (perhaps 'gossip' might be more appropriate) about their friend Trent. I was trying not to be rude and eavesdrop, but these girls were very insistent on making their business pubic. Apparently, Trent engaged in premarital sex and now regrets it. What made this all very hard not to laugh was their VERY serious comments about how "it's against the bible" and how he "felt he turned his back on Christianity for a while" followed almost immediately about how at whoever's family gathering they took full advantage of the availability of drinks along the lines of rum & coke. Don't get me wrong, I think the drinking age in America is ridiculously high, but who seriously allows their children to get wastey-face at a family function?
God Bless American Morals.


2) If the BART transbay tube were to be ruptured in the middle of the bay, water would flood out all the way to 16th St/Mission station.
No joke. Actually heard a BART Mainline Technician (according to his uniform embroidery) explaining to the previously mentioned Christian girls (while in the transbay tube, of course) the ramifications of a possible serious water infiltration. The tube itself is 3.6 miles, and once it reaches SF it continues at a depth of at least 45ft below the city. For water to flood out from 16th St and Mission, it would take at least a 9.0 magnitude earthquake causing serious damage to the tube at the very depths of the bay.
Tuesday, December 30th: 12:13am outside of my friend Jordan's house
My good friend Paul learns that Catnip is an actual living plant. I was quite surprised he was not aware of this.
Wednesday, December 31st: near midnight of the new year
I had my palm read by a very wonderful neighbor lady whose brother actually hopped the backyard fence (from his garage roof) to the new years party I was attending, and learned I have relatively deep palm lines - indicating I am more self-aware and more set in my ways than others in my age group. (me with tattoo, next in line)
Thursday, January 1st: between 2am and 4pm of new year's day
Back at Jordan's house he made us wonderful tasty homemade sauteed chicken tenders while my friends and I relaxed and watched his helicopter pilot's training video (probably from 1992). From this highly informative video, a few of the things I learned: Gyroscopic Precession, Dis-symmetry of Lift, and that low frequency vibrations indicate a main rotor problem, and that medium frequency vibrations indicate a tail rotor problem.
Friday January 2nd: various locales
1)There are such things as "Mex-icatessen"s. with that exact spelling. regrettably, i couldn't get my camera out fast enough to capture it driving by.
Mex-Icatessen
2) Apparently Ed Hardy (who my ceramics professor is good friends with from elementary school) has a line of temporary tattoos.

3) White people can get away with fake I.D.s that only look vaguely like them. I knew two of my friends have had fake I.D.s for the past few years before they turned 21, but little did i know that both of their I.D.s look almost nothing like them beyond hair color, and even despite this they were never turned down in purchasing alcohol or getting into bars. jelus. when you're mixed, it's a little more difficult finding fakes that even vaguely match your visual description! Saturday, January 3rd: around the corner from my house
Dirigibles are back in style. I looked up into the sky to see this: and I've been seeing at least two a week since then.
Sunday, January 4th: Mission St, and Happy Nails for my mother's birthday!
1) Amnesia Bar in the Mission is totally rad. it was msquared's 21st birthday extravaganza in the Mission, and she totally barfed in the street like, four times.

2) Happy Nails Salon in Alameda is also totally rad. Rarely do I indulge in mani/pedis, but I treated my mother to her very first one for her birthday! they have awesome flat screen TVs where you can watch the food network, which brings me to the next thing...

3) Gourmet aged cheeses are best aged in sandstone caves. This was on the Food Network program that we were watching as we got our pedicures:
Maytag Dairy Farms


Monday, January 5th: The Nature of Love.
Basically, Joseph Campbell is even more one of my favorite people, ever. An acquaintance of mine published a note on Facebook with quotes of Campbell's about love, and it was very encouraging to hear his wise words at this time. I already admire him for his work in the field of comparative mythology, but now I admire him for being one of the greatest Americans of the past century.

Romantic love involves constructing unrealistic idealized love in your mind.
Living in your head in this way is a recipe for frustration and disappointment.

True love resonates in your heart when your meet eyes and recognize yourself in the other.
This is when courage is paramount, but you can help stymie your fear by acknowledging that love is not a feeling that evaporates at the end of the day.

Conclusions:

All things considered, I'm actually considering the knowledge gained in 2008 and 2009 are on fairly equal footing. Each are equal parts personal discovery, quirky anecdote, amusing musings, and quasi-scientific discovery. However, just barely, I consider the information I gathered in 2009 ever so slightly more engaging than what I gathered in 2008. Man, this took a long time to gather and evaluate. But so, so worth it.

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Other potential proverbs I considered:
useless wisdom is double foolishness - Iceland

The sun at home warms better than the sun elsewhere." albania

One's own simple bread is much better than someone else's pilaf. -

Cheap meat never makes a good soup. - Azerbaijan

The trees with most leaves will not necessarily produce juicy fruit. - Brazil

The blind person never fears ghosts. -Burma

Nothing seems expensive on credit. - Czech Rep.

A lazy boy and a warm bed are difficult to part.

A single bag of money is stronger than two bags of truth. -Denmark

A beautiful thing is never perfect. - Egypt

Ignorance doesn't kill you, but it does make you sweat a lot. - Haiti

The cobra will bite you whether you call it cobra or Mr. Cobra. - India

You can't see the whole sky through a bamboo tube. - Japan

How beautiful it is to do nothing, and then rest afterward. - Spain

Bald people can always find a comb. - Thailand