The 20s...

So I had a Stern Scholar reception today and got my 2 minutes in with the dean of my school, who is moving to be the dean of Kellogg Business School. She is one person that I really admire, simply because I think she is very intelligent. I remember hearing her speak when I was considering NYU for college and her speech won me over. (Along with the many times I heard J. Sex, or John Sexton speak). I think Stern was an incredible place for underguate business because of her strategic direction and leadership.

Anyway speaking to her today, she imparted these wise words upon me: The 20s are just as difficult as the teen years.I didn't think so, at first thought but as it is lingering in my mind, she may be right. My previous post is a blantant representation of how confusing my teen years have been. But really, growing up and finding yourself as an adult is even more important than finding yourself as a teenager. The former has an impact on the rest of your life.

I'll elaborate more the next few days.

Insanity

Ok so sitting on the train going home conjured up some funny incidents I have had with bus drivers which make me think I used to be an insane little teenage girl.

So one time I was waiting for the bus at the second stop. The bus came but wouldn't stop even though he saw me because it was moderately full, about 70%. I waited for the next one, and again it didn't stop, with even less people on it. This got me really upset since I had been already waiting 45 mins. The next bus that came slowed down, but didn't seem to have an intention of breaking. My crazy ass self got in front of the bus and just stood there. I just wouldn't move. Some other people waiting for the bus with me were screaming telling me to move. I think one looked moderately amused. So I stood there while the bus driver wouldn't open the door. Mind you, this is an one lane street, so traffic was pretty backed up for 20 minutes. I heard sirens and I was pretty sure the cops were coming but that really wasn't going to make me move. What made me finally move was when another bus came behind it and let us from the stop on the bus.

Another bus driver incident was in London. I wanted to get off at Oxford Square an the bus wouldn't stop at my stop so I kept pressing the bell. Unlike buses in NYC, buses in London will ring every time the bell is pressed. I was right next to the bus driver, who sit basically in this enclosed glass cubical. He called me a bitch and I got mad so I hit the glass. He proceded to open the glass door and hit me with it. Then, he made everyone get off the bus and called the police. When they came, the bus driver said I assaulted him... What? He's behind his glass cubical. If anything he hit me with his door. That's when I realized I could be in pretty deep shit if they believed him and be deported, considering I was on a student visa. I wasn't too worried because CCTV caught the whole thing, but who knows right? I didn't even know if people had constitutional rights in England. So I started to cry, saying how everyone in England is so mean. There were two cops, one a maternal type, and one tall black cop, whom I was pretty sure was into me. The maternal one kept telling me I shouldn't do things like that. The tall black one kept giving me hugs and shit. Creepy much? Anyway they eventually let me go on my way. (which by the way ironically was the police station, since I had my camera stolen the day before)

So I guess question for myself is why do I do such things? How do I even get myself in such situations? I guess the common denominator in both stories is that I won't let things slide. If I know I am in the right, I'm going to be very adamant about it, to the point I will jump in front of a moving bus. I guess I also take things to extreme measures.

Looking back on it, I guess I am a bit embarassed about my behavior. I guess not enough considering I am blogging about it. Would I act the same way if today in the same situations? Definitely, no. This implies that I did grow up and mature as hard as it is for myself to believe. Besides, I just don't think I have the teen angst anymore to do things like that. I'm also too old to cry myself out of situations where I am close to being arrested.

Privacy is dead

So my friend got a phone call last week on her Sprint cell phone from a random international number. The lady said in Chinese, "do you speak Chinese?" Being smart, my friend responded "who is this" in English and refused to say anything. She told me about this and I thought it was a scam artist employing Chinese girls $1/hour calling every single phone combination until someone who spoke Chinese answered and will try to scam the person some money. Something along the lines of, hi I live in China, and I have a bank account but can't access it. Send me a money order and I'll give you the $10g in that account.

I was wrong. It wasn't a scam. I got the same call today (AT&T network) and I kept asking "who is this" in English as well. I wasn't about to give out personal information like that without knowing who the person is. Turns out, she answered in Chinese that she is a tech company (I think) wanting me to take a survey.

So my issues with this: Where did she get my number in the first place. How did she get my number and my friend's number, both of us being Chinese. My theory about the $1/hour girls calling every phone combination is probably wrong. She probably accessed somehow the customer database of AT&T as well as Sprint and went down the list to see if the customer name is a Chinese sounding name. How much of my information then, is really safe? How did a random company in China, or perhaps the US, get our phone number and the name on the account? Does this mean she has my social security number as well?

Which leads me to conclude that privacy is dead. Thanks to indexing of information on search engines, everything is public. Forgot what I was googling one time, but came across an excel spreadsheet with customer information. It's a shame that most companies with online business transactions don't understand how to use the Internet or the implications of data privacy. Also, with the likes of zabasearch.com, spokeo.com , and pipl.com, and best of all intellius.com, you can find out everything about anyone.And thanks to archiving and showing cached links, nothing is ever deleted. Ever. That means that the really embarassing website I made when I was in the 7th grade may come back to haunt me one day.

Leading me to another issue, facebook. I know I previously blogged about how keeping your facebook employee and auntie and uncle friendly is pretty much common sense. I retract this statement. This was before facebook going through massive changes, to the version now: users being unable to control what information is shown to people you are friends on fb. ie, my wall post on my sister's facebook is on the feed
of all 900 friends I have. I read that facebook is rolling out with a new version where brands that you "like" can see everything about you, including your wall posts, pictures, etc.

Now, I'm obviously not a fan of anonymity, just look at this blog. I'm also not the type to not write any information or show pictures on facebook because of paranoia of divulging information. I just would appreciate it if I am able to CONTROL and MANAGE the information about me. What makes me angry about those people search sites is that I never signed up to be put in those databases. What makes me angry about the new facebook is that I don't have control over what is shown ABOUT ME on other people's news feeds. I have no problem, however, keeping a blog and sharing my thoughts, with my named signed at the bottom.

Mirror neurons

Mirror neurons are basically neurons that internalize the behavior of other people through observation as if you were doing it yourself. For example, if someone is happy around you, you will also be happy. So positive energy is contagious, and so is negative energy. In light of this, I'm going to write about some of the good personality traits of people that are close to me. These are traits that I admire, so definitely things I'm striving towards. Some I have down cold, but some not so much (Borat voice). I'm not going to mention names, so feel free to stipulate if I am speaking about you. Pronouns can be clues.

•  Never being superficially judgmental, no matter who it is. The ability to have a conversation with anyone, without looking down on the person's occupation, social class, or appearance. This one seems simple, but I rarely see it in people. A lot of people are PC, but disingenuous about it, which shows. A genuine heart of accepting also shows, which translates into people enjoying their time around you. I have a few friends who are like this, but one friend is always talked about in the highest regard whenever people talk about him.
• Treating friendships with delicate care. Whether it be a promise or something said in passing, this friend always lives up to her word. It doesn't seem much, but it shows the amount of energy and thought she puts into the friendship. Even after we have dinner, she's thinking about the fact that I said I want pinkberry and will bring it for me next time time we meet.
• Wisdom beyond her years, a sense of precociousness. The ability to take a situation and semantically decipher it breaking it down into the heart of the matter. This is a trait that adults love, and her ability to win people over because of it.
• The ability to dedicate himself to a specific goal and not let anything alter that. Determination, in short.
• Being able to see through people's motivations. This one is especially important to me because I care about people's intentions rather than actions in friendships. A lot of times, I'm not so good at understanding peoples' motives which always lead me to being surprised and hurt.
• Being a vegetarian. Haha because I sure can't do it.
• Not being persuaded by what others do and staying true to her preferences. I agree with one friend that going out to clubs is kind of lame and we would rather have substantial conversations with people. Except, I still go out and she rarely does.
• Again, dedication to friendships. But this time, remembering small details of trivial conversations and then later asking about it.
• Boldness to call people out on bullshit.
• Being incredibly down to earth with a great sense of humor and a really caring person, despite how hot he is.
• A general sense of, it's all good. Like I said, the positive energy is contagious and it just puts people around her at ease.
• Lack of inhibition to tell others that he loves how much they mean to him. Being very open about emotions to friends, without a fear of appearing too forward.
• Knowing everything about everything. He is the most-well read person, reading everything from The Economist to French literature.

Saks and Bloomies

Saks Friends and Family Sale, completely useless to me because everything I want to buy is excluded:

FRIENDS & FAMILY

ENJOY 20% OFF*
(10% off cosmetics and fragrances)

Online Only: April 20 - 21
Online and In Stores: April 22 - 25

For saks.com orders, use Code FRIEND3 at checkout.
For in-store purchases, click here to print your invitation.

** Designer Exclusions include: David Yurman, Chanel, Bugaboo, Fendi, Dior, Gucci, Prada, NorthFace, Hermes, Graff, Cartier, H. Stern, Pomelatto, Buccellati, Garrard, Bvlgari, St. John, Miu Miu, Balenciaga, Marni, Loro Piana, Akris, Azzedine Alaia, Bridal Salon, Chado Ralph Rucci, Doo Ri apparel, Dries Van Noten apparel and shoes, Erdem apparel, Giambattista Valli, J Mendel apparel, Piazza Sempione apparel, Brian Reyes apparel, Escada apparel, Etro apparel, Brunello Cucinelli, Ralph Lauren Women's Black Label and Collection, Ralph Lauren Men's Black Label and Purple Label, TSE apparel, Celine shoes, Oscar de la Renta, Commes des Garcons, Jil Sander, Loro Piana, Marchesa Couture, Marc Jacobs apparel, Mario Schwab apparel, Marni, Junya Watanabe, Peter Pilotto apparel, Vionnet apparel, Zegna, Givenchy, Alexander McQueen, Christian Louboutin, Manolo Blahnik, Jimmy Choo, Bottega Veneta, Versace, Yves Saint Laurent shoes and handbags, Valentino, Lanvin, Ugg Australia, Sergio Rossi, Moschino, Donna Karan shoes, Dolce & Gabbana, Alexander Wang apparel and handbags, McQ, Opening Ceremony, Under.ligne by Doo Ri, Ann Demeulemeester, Derek Lam, Tod's shoes and handbags, Roger Vivier shoes, Camilla Skovgaard shoes, Charvet, Kiton, Maison Martin Margiela, MM6 Maison Martin shoes and handbags, Roger Vivier, Isaia, Mikimoto on saks.com only, Marco Bicego on saks.com only, Jude Frances on saks.com only, Ippolita on saks.com only, Charbonnel et Walker, Giuseppe Zanotti shoes, Peter Shoiket, John Allan Men's Grooming Salon, Louis Vuitton, The Fur Salon, Watch and Jewelry Repair.

Bloomingdales Private Sale, April 20-22. This sale is "bomb", to coin a term from my friend. All regular merchandise is on sale 15-40%, sale items are 40-50% off, and you get to use $25 off coupons for every $100. On top of that, you get $15 certificates for later to encourage even more spending.

Sabrina the Teenage Witch vs. Wizards of Waverly Place

Being unwilling to grow up and having two cousins in grade school, makes me too familiar with the Disney Channel. It always amazes me how entertainment for kids and how the generations have changed.For example, let's just compare Sabrina the Teenage Witch to Wizards of Waverly Place. Two shows about a girl with magic powers, the former from the 90s and the latter from 2000s. I'll also make some general differences about the children's entertainment industry when I was growing up vs today.

• Alex Russo on Wizards is a lot younger than Sabrina. Target audience for Wizards is also a lot younger (with myself as the exception of course). Alex, I believe is in middle school, while Sabrina the teenage witch is in high school. Sabrina was 16 on the first pilot episide and gets older as the seasons go by.
• Selena Gomez, who plays Alex is a lot younger than Melissa Joan Hart, who plays Sabrina. Selena is also closer in age to her character than Melissa's character. In the 90s and 80s, you always had 30 year olds playing high schoolers.
• Melissa Joan Hart was stuck in her role and did not really have a career other than Sabrina. Drive me Crazy does not count as a successful career... Selena Gomez, however, is selling records off the shelf. The marketers are building an empire out of her.
• Growing up watching Sabrina, it was less of maniac obsession with the show. I knew that it was TV and I lived in reality. Kids watching Wizards today pick up on everything from the show, mannerism, sayings, personality, etc. More clear example would be Hannah Montana and the craze around it a few years ago. Second example, the 3 year old girl on YouTube crying over Justin Bieber
• Celebrities have a direct way of connecting with fans. When I was growing up, we had fan mail (via snail mail). If you were lucky, you would get some kind of letter back from their PR agency. Now, kids get to track their favorite celebrity's every move via Facebook, Twitter, etc. When Selena Gomez updates her facebook status, within a minute, she gets thousands of responses.
• Marketers target younger children than before. They are selling these children a complete package, a lifestyle, not just limited to the show. It goes beyond just lunchboxes and Halloween costumes. A lot
  of this is attributed to the rise of social media and the widespread use by children today.
• "With your parents' permission, log on to disneychannel.com." When I was younger, obviously, websites weren't broadly advertised or used widely. Also, the dangers of the Internet had not yet been explored and discovered. Today, Disney channel has 2 minute cartoons teaching kids about the dangers of the Internet.
• Toys are a lot cheaper today than they were when I was younger. I couldn't afford many toys growing up. Most of the mainstream toys were $20+. Today, I see commercials for really cool toys for $5. (Not even inflation adjusted)

I think kids today have it much better in terms of both quality and quantity of entertainment. They are also immersed in it a lot deeper than the kids when I was growing up. However, is this really a good thing? I just think it will produce a bunch of smart alecs running around, thinking they are Miley Cyrus, with ADHD. It also takes away from reading, and school seems much less appealing. It's definitely a good thing for companies, as they have successfully harnessed the change of generation to capitalize on the changes.

Cold-brewed iced coffee please... black

I used to drink coffee because of the milk and sugar. More specifically, with cream, and 10 packs of sugar. I had perfected my ideal drink: fill half of the cup of coffee with cream, and take 10 sugar packets and rip them open together, in one seamless motion. Then stir. I was quite the pro at this and was proud of my shameless intake of sugar. Also, it didn't really matter how bad or good the coffee beans were, the coffee tasted like really sweet milk anyway.

I am no longer that person. Having to wake up at 6am every morning this semester due to commuting, part-time internship, and full-time classes, has made me somewhat of a coffee connoisseur. OK not really, I don't even know the difference between the beans and origins. BUT, I do know that I love cold-brewed iced coffee.

Cold-brewed iced coffee has a better taste than coffee through a hot coffee machine. Cold-brewing relies on time, rather than heat, to transfer the coffee flavor to the water. The cold-brewed coffee isn't bitter or sour; it's almost sweet in a strange way. So, it tastes good enough to have black (skip the calories, and speed up your metabolism).

There are several ways of preparing iced coffee, which is NOT cold-brewed iced coffee listed below:

• Caffe Americano, which is adding expresso and water, with ice to make it cold
• Hot-brewed coffee, put into the refridgerator. UGH this is the worst. O'rens does this and I don't understand how they serve the hipster NYU community yet can get away with this. Goes to show that hipster NYU students that queue up for coffee from here on Waverly Place, don't really know what good coffee is.
• Hot-brewed coffee, with ice. This is pretty bad too. This is worse than the American because the coffee gets watered down when the ice melts.

So how is cold-brewed coffee made? It's actually quite simple. Ground coffee is soaked for 12 hours (or 24 hours), and then filtered. It's usually done in a mason jar or French press.

Right now, Think Coffee is my favorite place for cold-brewed iced coffee, spurred on by my sister. AND best of all, it's coming to NYU Bookstore, which means students can use their declining dollars on good coffee. Too bad I'm graduating. I hope coffee is good in LA. I would shoot myself if the only thing available is Starbucks.

NYmag has an article on iced coffee in NYC, as they are probably more of experts at coffee than myself. The article is from 2006, and sure most of these places are not even opened anymore.

Hilarious protrayal of bankers @ clubs in NYmag

Talking about the hiearchy of table service.... Full article here

The floor people, they are just to fill the place up. The celebrities and the athletes and the tycoons are the ones for whom this world is zealously designed. A rung below in after-work pinstripes are the money guys, the Deutsche guys and the Goldman guys and the no-name hedge-fund guys—the “whales”—guys like that one over there in a Boss suit and John Lobb shoes, standing beside the table that cost him $3,000. Standing very close to it, like a Little Leaguer who wants to steal second but has never done it before. This gentleman’s not dancing, but he’s thinking about it. Soon Beyoncé will call all the single ladies to action and they will channel toward him in a centripetal swoosh.

Best professors/classes at NYU

As I am wrapping up my last semester at NYU, I feel inclined to write about some of the professors I have had during my 4 years here that I really respect and had an impact on my education. I typically choose my classes on my work schedule and not on how good the classes/professors are. I got really lucky because I still had classes with some top-notch professors. Below are some of the classes that have been very impactful on me, not in the order of preference but in the order of sailence to me.

1. Global Macroeconomics with Prof. Roubini
   
   I was super excited to take this class, since I took the class a year after the fall of lehman. Dr. Gloom just had become a household name, although I had been following his writings in the newspaper for quite some time. I want to say that although this class could technically be taught in just a 3-hour lecture, I learned more economics from this class than all my other classes, from reading the Economist for the past 6 years, and from my internship at Morgan Stanley.
   
   I respect prof. Roubini because of his desire to teach what he knows. He may be repetitive at times, but he has no problem explaining the material until everyone understands. The class gave me a very good solid understanding of economic crisises, the unstainable nature of certain current account deficits, monetary policy, fiscal policy, and how all this relates to past financial crisis. It was very practical, which was helpful since most macro classes are not.
   
   I also studied a lot for this class, to the point where I was hoping for more and harder questions on the final. I don't typically study very hard, but combination of stuck up stern kids and renowned professor really forced me to study. I ended up gaining at the end.
2. Economics of Global Business with Prof. Foudy
   
   The class was very theoretical, but I learned economcs very well in this class. Prof. Foudy consistently does really well in student reviews and that is not without reason. He does expect a lot, but it just makes one learn more. He provides literally hundreds, maybe thousands, of sample questions from all his previous exams. As he would like to put it, It's all about transparency. If you are not naturally smart, doing those questions WILL help you learn the material.
   
   Another perk of his teaching that I really enjoyed is his ridiculously lame and corny sense of humor -- which corresponds to my sense of humor. In a lecture of 600 people, I find myself laughing maniacly at his jokes in the fourth row. People think I'm sucking up, no I am the last person to do something like that. I just really appreciate his humor.
   
   One thing I really respect about Prof. Foudy is his alacrity at responding emails, even 3am before the midterm. Like I said, the lecture has 600 people, and he personally responds to each question with ridiculous respond time. It goes to show his commitment to the course and care for his students' education, despite the fact that he may not know anyone's name.
3. Law and Society / American Constitution with Prof. Harrington
   
   These are two politics class I have taken with prof. Harrington. She believes that the political system, government and law should be understood by everyone. Therefore, there was no prereq for her classes, which I benefited from my being able to take American Constitution with no politics background what so ever. I managed to do really well in a room of lawyer wanna-bes. I also studied really hard for this class and read and understood many instrumental court cases, albiet before the exams.
   
   Law and Society is a requirement for my minor, coincidentally called Law and Society. I throughly enjoyed the class and believe that the pursuit of this minor is the single best academic decision I have made in my college career.
4. Writing the Essay, with Luke
   
   This is more about the class than the professor. Writing the Essay is the one class I have most abhored in my academic career. Reason why I hated it so much was because I was bad at it. I was never good at writing, and nor am I good at it now. I don't think my writing improved throughout the course of the class. The problem was, that I didn't really understand the point of the class. It's not a writing class, it's a "thinking" class. It teaches us to be introspective and understand ourseleves, as well as our thoughts through writing. Even at the end of the class, I read my paper and was embarassed. Really? Is this how I felt? The experiences and the ideas that I thought was so central to my personality and character seemed so immature. So mundane. And just plain pathetic.
   
   The class was about learning to think. I think that NYU should have an expository writing class at the end of the four years. To see how we matured, which comes out through the writing. Contrarily to myself, my sister is so good at the class, not only getting an A, but handpicked out of the thousands of incoming freshman to take Spectrums of Essays, a class of 16. It's because her semantic thought process are very well developed, and she has a very clear understanding of herself -- neither of which I had my freshman year.
5. Freshmen Honors Seminar: Internet, Media, and the American Corporation
6. Issues in Contemporary British Politics and Culture
7. Elementary French
8. International Studies Program: Buenos Aires
9. Law, Business, Society
10. Architecture in London
11. Conversation of the West with Prof. Mineck (minus that crazy bitchy TA)

So I wrote this entry while I was on the elliptical last night. I have more to come and will be adding to this list soon.