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The Admissions Director

Mon, 16 Jan 2012 20:30:13 -0500

Original work, college applications done. Enjoy. I will try and resume posting again.

Benjamin Kimball. Age 17. Senior at Waterloo High School in Waterloo, Minnesota. A tiny, backwoods, leaky public school if there ever was one. Hardly offered honors courses, let alone AP. Average ACT score - 22. Known around the immediate area for having a really high dropout rate, with most of the seniors staying only for the food. This kid was the first in his family to apply for college. He’d gotten a 32 on his ACT, and he had nearly perfect attendance. He had actually gone to another school in another town one day to take an AP test. He already had the beginnings of an activist record. His essay was a moving story that somehow connected catching fish and curing cancer.

Louis Peverell, a fat cigar perched between his fat lips, looked the application over. The scores were good, yes, and the essay was good, yes. But there was something that Louis just didn’t like. Running his fingers of one hand through his scraggly beard, he used the other to circle small grammatical mistakes in Benjamin Kimball’s essay. Mistakes like that show a certain carelessness, he thought, disregarding the going-to-another-town-to-take-a-test thing. As he looked through the boy’s application again, he liked the boy less and less. Grammar. Handwriting. Font. The kid seemed rather snotty and judgemental, if you asked Louis.

In the end, it was rejected.

Nikita Lai. Age 18. Senior at Millard Fillmore High School in Taylor, Missouri. Not as revolting a town as Waterloo, but still rather small and backwards. Louis was a bit more familiar with Fillmore. It graded hard and pushed its students to the brink and back. This girl had an almost-perfect transcript, appeared to speak five languages, and won a state award in debate. The essay was uncompelling and rather poorly-written, but she was still able to get her points across.

Louis liked his job as a senior admissions director. It was cushy. Comfortable. Unlike many of his colleagues, he enjoyed sitting in the fourth-story room for hours on end, thumbing through endless and endlessly-diverse applications from around both the country and the globe. He felt bad, of course, when he rejected somebody - who didn’t? - but he always felt a sense of power and stability when he held a student’s best shot of a future in his hands.

He remembered his own application to college. Different time, of course. All he needed was a good test score and a good essay and he was in. There weren’t many Louis Peverells out there then - most of the ones that did exist were too poor or were of the wrong race or gender to do much with their Peverell-ness. And there was plenty of room at the best universities for the ones who remained.

Now Louis had six applications spread out before him on the table. All of the applicants were ranked first in their class. All of them had a spotless GPA. All of them were leaders in at least three extracurriculars. All of them had produced outstanding essays, in Louis’s opinion. Gender didn’t really matter to him (at least, consciously). To Louis Peverell, all six of these kids were exactly the same. There wasn’t room for six exactly-the-same kids at his university. Poor them.

I will not be arbitrary, he told himself, but in the end he was. He told himself it was because one girl just shone more brightly than everyone else - seemed more promising - but it was really because he liked the font she used the best. It wasn’t arbitrary, he told himself again. But it was.

He’d be getting angry messages, he knew as he looked over Sarah Jester’s application, which he would ultimatlely reject because she was vice president of the debate club instead of president. He always did. Admissions is such a crapshoot, furious parents and students and media would complain. But it really isn’t, Louis thought. Because you’ve got people like me going over this stuff. People who know what they’re doing. Yes, people who deserve to get in don’t, but they’ll still do fine. They’re just not good enough for us. It’s not like we didn’t have to go through the same thing.

Louis Peverell did not.

"Either way, it’s time to accelerate your drinking consumption significantly!"

Sat, 21 May 2011 18:08:36 -0400

“Either way, it’s time to accelerate your drinking consumption significantly!”

- Blackeyed Susan vendor’s Rapture-inspired sales pitch (via baltimoresun)

Chua-ly Sheen

Wed, 23 Mar 2011 20:16:27 -0400

The showdown, #tigerblood v. the Tiger Mom. Amy Chua and Charlie Sheen. One is a Tiger Mom; one drinks Tiger Blood. But they both know how to WIN. Duh.

Sure, Sheen’s blazing self-confidence is probably the result of hypomania, but there’s a reason it’s so compelling. It’s a word, it’s a catchphrase, it’s a movement, it’s a T-shirt slogan, it’s a way of life, it’s an evolutionary necessity, it’s even a new parenting philosophy. It’s WINNING.

Chua sells us on the idea that we can help our kids win academically and win piano competitions, and ultimately, we’ll win their abiding love for believing they were winners in the first place. Sheen, well, without making light of his situation, which may indeed be dire, I have to say I kinda understand his appeal.

I’d like to have the best plan in the room, lambaste my enemies and burn with the fire of my own excellence and superiority. Parents became obsessed with Tiger Mom’s bold and badass dedication to her daughters’ excellence, the way she focused on getting the all-important “W” for her kids. Turns out, we like that quality in our insane, downward-spiraling TV stars, too.

In a world filled with participation trophies and a cloying, bogus focus on “self-esteem” that isn’t earned, there’s something satiating about this warrior attitude. Winners take all, so do warlocks, so do little girls who play the crap out of the piano.

Not to get too deep when talking about Sheen and how he’s kept the country spellbound, but there’s almost nothing more primal than the need to win.

Evolutionarily, our lives depend on it. We need to win strong, fertile mates, berries to eat, battles against predators and prey. If our sole biological purpose is to keep our DNA afloat, on some level, we need our kids to be winners, too.

That’s right, you may not even know why Tiger Mom and Tiger Blood have sunk their teeth into your world, but just think about the language. Blood. Tiger. This is brainstem stuff. It’s primal, like my need to win the McCarthy Middle School spelling bee back in seventh grade.

Say what you will about “doing your best,” but it isn’t winning. And anyone who has ever won anything, from a spelling bee to a sales contest to a spot on an all-star team, knows the difference. Winning is to self-esteem what nicotine is to Sheen’s lungs: deliciously satisfying.

There’s a timid, second-guessing, loser-like inner troll in me that responds deeply to the braggadocio of the tigers. Maybe I want a little of that swag to rub off on me. Just a little.

Photo

Wed, 22 Dec 2010 17:16:00 -0500

65-31

Sat, 18 Dec 2010 23:23:50 -0500

Congress: Thanks for bringing us into the 21st century.

On wikileaks

Sat, 11 Dec 2010 02:15:00 -0500

Sorry I haven’t posted much lately.

Ya’ll must have heard of wikileaks at some point recently, if you haven’t well… get educated.

The whole deal confuses me. We’re supposedly the land of the free, the land of free information. But it seems like that only applies when it’s convenient. Hell, it’s not just mere citizens who are hypocritical about this; even our government is. Hillary Clinton, 2009: “Even in authoritarian countries information networks are helping people to discover new facts and making governments more accountable.” Hmm….sounds like that should apply now, doesn’t it? Or so you’d think. Until the very same Hillary Clinton says the leaked cables “are an attack against the international community.”

I wonder how many people who are upset with the leaked cables are actually reading what’s in them. My guess would be, not many. I’ve read the ones posted in the New York Times, and I’ve got to say, there’s hardly anything shocking in them. In fact, the most shocking news to me is that many of them show our diplomats acting… well, diplomatically. That’s not good news?

One of the common objections to wikileaks is that the approach is random. The documents leaked seem scattered, unconnected, leaked without any sort of thought as to why or for what reason. Maybe, but that all seems a better description of our current national security culture, one which is obsessed with creating more and more things top secret. Often without rhyme or reason. I think we can agree that such an attitude is dangerous and problematic.

This also reminds me of the novel by Philip K. Dick, The Simulacra. The Simulacra tells the story of a totalitarian society ruled and centralized around a secret. As is described in the novel:

Any failure would have betrayed to the Bes [the underclass] the secret, the Geheimnis, which distinguished the elite, the establishment of the United States of Europe and America; their possession of one or more secrets made them into Geheimnisträger, bearers of the secret, rather than Befehlsträger, mere carry-outers of instruction. (p. 34)

One of the reasons that national security culture of making everything top secret is so problematic is that divides our society, those who get to know the secrets, and those who don’t. Those who do get to be the ones who set our policy, get listened to, have opinions that manage to shape and influence our foreign policy. Those who don’t know the secrets, don’t get to do that. We can’t even be listened to, because we those who know the secrets know we don’t, and therefore know we cannot know enough to be listened to.

This splits foreign policy off from democracy, off from reasoned debate and input of the demos. The obvious example here would be the Iraq war, which was authorized based on all the secrets that Congress knew, all the secrets we didn’t know and therefore we could not be listened on (though in fine Philip K. Dick fashion, those secrets turned out to be false, as well. And there was a secret within the secret, the secret that there was no secret).

I’m continually amazed at how hypocritical some Americans are regarding the WikiLeaks cables. We’re a country who won’t care when our own government uses unwarranted wiretaps on its citizens, yet we pee our pants at news of the leaked cables. I have yet to read anything that puts informants or our national security at risk, and am not sure yet entirely how I feel on wikileaks. I am not sure if I yet believe it is the right way to go about pushing back on these issues, but I certainly understand it and am sympathetic.

On being "two-faced".

Tue, 31 Aug 2010 23:57:00 -0400

Someone on my facebook News Feed liked the Marilyn Monroe quote ”If you are gonna be two faced at least make one of them pretty” which led me to think about it. Cheeky thought if you ask me but one that is deep, dark and true. Whoever reads this quote definitely smiles inside because they know it’s right.

But I found myself asking another question. Are we all two faced? Is there not a single person who is genuine and true? Have we all become hypocrites in one way or the other? Surely, this cannot be true right? In my mind, I for one know it’s not true. Everyone is not the same and not everyone is a hypocrite.

So what exactly is being “Two Faced”? According to me (and most of you will agree) being two faced is all about acting differently in different places with different people to benefit from it or benefit from them. On one side for example you will want to proclaim to the world that you are a good friend to someone and at the same time, you will want to backbite the same person you call your friends at the drop of a hat by gossiping, bitching or discussing things about him/her.

But why do people enjoy such a thing? Why do they indulge in it in the first place? Do we not care of what the other person will feel if he/she comes to know? Or are we too concerned about our “image” to not even care about our friends or family?

This is something I don’t understand and at the end of the day makes me think about people’s intentions. Maybe Marilyn was right, if we are going to be two faced, might as well make an effort to make one of the faces look pretty and good so that there is atleast a false sense of well-being. It may be a wrong thought but it’s something we have to live with today.

On "Life is short."

Sun, 29 Aug 2010 02:14:00 -0400

I struggle with this saying on the reg. Yes, life is short. Yes, you should do what you want and what makes you happy. Too bad it doesn’t work out this way all the time. It sounds simple, and it is a simple theory. But more often than not, you end up not doing exactly what you want, and if you do then god bless because you are one of the lucky few.

First problem with this saying. Most people don’t know exactly what they want. Second problem, someone or something insurmountable curtailing you from doing what you want. Third problem, you don’t know how to get what you want. Fourth problem, lack of ambition and hard work to get what you want… I think I’ll stop there.

Life is short.

Face the facts, you probably won’t get exactly what you want. Sucks doesn’t it?

On Quoting and Non-Believers

Wed, 21 Jul 2010 16:50:00 -0400

People will take a good quote, a real real good quote, post it on whatever social site they may have, and recite it to themselves continuously and tell people they live by those words, and not commit to it. People will look at something wise, they’ll be inspired by it, but 99% of them won’t apply it to their own life. They talk about how much they idolize whoever’s quote it was, and then not actually fallow the morals they pretend to have. And then, instead of making another brilliant wise person out of themselves, they sit and b—-h about how they wish more people were like whomever they’ve quoted and wonder why the world’s gone to s—t. Maybe if they actually took the wise words of their Idol, or their religion or philosophy, and applied them to their life, then there would be more people in the world like that. But no, words are all it takes to get anywhere in life today. All you need is a good knowledge of famous quotes and morals and you’re fine just telling people you live by your morals.

So many Christian kids “believe” in the bible. Drugs and sex are bad. Do you know how many “Christian” stoners I know? Do you know how many “Christian” whores I know? Too many to be “Christian”. No one lives by their words anymore. They want to grow up to be a rock star like Hendrix. They’re always talking about the great things Hendrix did, and their always quoting the brilliant things Hendrix said, but they’re not doing anything to better themselves to be like Hendrix. It’s too easy for me to win arguments, I truly find it sad. Having to use some one’s Idol against them to prove a point isn’t fun. That kid who likes Hendrix will be going against everything Hendrix has ever said, and then you throw it at them. You throw a quote of Hendrix in their face and they haven’t a damned clue what to say back because you’ve proven a very large point in everything they’re doing with their life. You can toss their religion and morals at them too. So many people who “believe” in peace and tranquility, are so argumentative and irritable. They live for drama and anger, but they “believe” in peace, so it’s fine, right? It’s all dandy when they say they’re Buddhist or some crap. Noo noo noo! It’s truly insulting to the real Christians and the Real Buddhists and the real hippies like Hendrix, who worked their ass off for their humble label. Those people deserve to be called what they’re called because they’ve proven that they live by the book, or whatever it is they chose to live by. They actually apply it to their life. People think they can just have a few books and a statue or poster to make them look Buddhist or Christian or whatever it is, but that doesn’t make you what you want to be! There’s no effort. You WANT to be Buddhist. You WANT people to think you’re peaceful and all that s—t, but you’re doing nothing but giving the monks a bad name. Stop. If you’re not going to commit to your word and keep a promise to yourself, then label yourself a lazy pitiful f—k, and get over the fact that you’re pretending to be something you’re not. Let the real spirits go, and stop bringing down the world with false labels.

Planet Earth as my body, and the wonders of life as my spirit, Peace, from an angstful adolescent.

This is my brother schooling the masses on the human...

Wed, 21 Jul 2010 09:49:34 -0400

This is my brother schooling the masses on the human body’s defenses. He’s six. And wicked smaht.

Some of the practical applications of philosophy.

Tue, 20 Jul 2010 13:59:00 -0400

Some of the practical applications of philosophy.

Inception Post-Dissection

Mon, 19 Jul 2010 09:49:37 -0400

Hey Everyone! I saw the movie Inception yesterday, and it was absolutely amazing. I strongly encourage everyone to go see it. It really makes you think for one, so if you’re not a fan, don’t see it. I think the cinematography was excellent, and the storyline was amazing. In a lot of ways, unsurprising since we’re watching Chris Nolan here (the genius behind Dark Knight). In a lot of ways, it actually reminded me of the Matrix. Anyway, this is my theory on what actually happened. WARNING: Spoilers ahead. So if you haven’t already seen it, go watch it now, and don’t read ahead! This was “extracted” (just a little pun for you folks who’ve seen it) from an IM session with my friend yesterday, so there may be some unfamiliar names.

In the beginning of the movie, Cobb wakes up in Saito’s limbo. If you remember, we saw Saito handling Cobb’s totem (which was that cool looking Dragon-Ball-Z-type top that he took from Mal while in limbo). Saito promised to give Cobb the one thing that he wants, and that’s to find the way back home to see his kids. How does he convince Cobb to do this? He tells him to “take a leap of faith.” (because he can’t guarantee nothing), which is what Mal told Cobb when she jumped off of the building. Ya’ll might not have noticed this the first time around.

Cobb seems to appear wherever he needs to go just like it’s a dream. When he was in Mombasa, Cobb gets chased by anonymous agents through a crazy action sequence where Cobb escapes the dream-like narrow tunnel and is rescued by Saito (who is BA by the way). Later, Cobb and Saito visit Yusef who brings them into a basement with all the old dudes connected to the dream machine. The idea was for Cobb to experiment with the deep sedative. He does, and when he “wakes up”, he tries to use his totem only to be interrupted by Saito. Cobb never does find out if he is in the real world or not, because his totem falls off the sink. In fact, he hasn’t been yet. He’s been in limbo ever since he got there with Mal. Ever since then, he’s been going deeper and deeper to the point where he created Saito as a projection to help him “get back home”. Do you really think Saito can just pick up the phone and make murder charges fucking disappear? No. But, Cobb believes it and so Saito is used to thrust Cobb further and further into a state of limbo – where at the end of the journey, Cobb truly believes he is with his children after confronting and getting over his projection of Mal.

While in the limbo, Cobb, using Mal’s totem, put the idea in her head that she was in the dream world. She was, she just hadn’t realized it yet. But Mandy, what you and I fail to realize is that everything we know about “limbo” comes from Cobb. To think that Cobb is 100% accurate about it is absolute bullshit. He wouldn’t know dream from reality – not in the limbo that he describes to people – and definitely not if inception were performed on him to believe that limbo truly was the real world.

Mal and Cobb never really left limbo at least, not that layer of it. When Mal jumped off the building, she gave herself the very same “kick” that Ariadne improvised later on in the movie. Mal was right about still being in the dream world. Cobb was still engulfed in limbo and didn’t realize it. When Cobb and Mal had killed themselves with the train, they simply moved one layer deeper just like Saito did when he was killed, Fischer did when he was killed, and so on (this happens again at the end of the film when Saito picks up the gun in front of Cobb).

Cobb, deep in limbo, unknowingly uses the projections of his team to keep going deeper and deeper until the idea of inception is performed on his mind, and he truly believes he was able to find a way back home. Saito’s promise to Cobb was kept - in the form of Saito (a projection from Cobb) making sure that Cobb ended up in limbo, so that he could live his “life” with his kids (who are in the same position as they were all throughout the film).

The team were projections in Cobb’s mind the entire time. That’s how he was able to go to Miles in Paris and find an architect named Ariadne who improvised the “kick” at the end of the movie the same way that Cobb had seen (but not accepted as a dream) Mal do previously when she jumped off the building. It’s how Eames happened to know of Yusef, and so on and so forth. Everything Cobb needed to make this inception work happened to work out for him. It’s even how Cobb’s lawyer knew so quickly that Mal had gone to 3 different shrinks to be declared “sane” and how he happened to have two tickets for Cobb to be able to get out of the country before the police would have arrested him.

The movie ended with Cobb appearing from place to place, going from limbo with Saito, to the plane where Saito magically makes one phone call to free Cobb from his problems, to walking through the airport, to meeting Miles who is with Cobb’s children. Cobb spins his totem and it spins just like it was a dream. He fixes his eyes on his children and the totem begins to lose speed – this is because inception has worked – Cobb truly believes he is in the real world. His totem will not spin like it did in the dream, not as long as he has his kids.

The title of the whole damn movie makes sense because it was really Cobb’s journey through his own mind: Inception. Like, whoa.

On the American Education System (Pt. One)

Tue, 13 Jul 2010 00:14:00 -0400

Hey ya’ll. Sorry I haven’t been posting in a while. I actually just got back from Kentucky National Debate Institute, which was quite the experience. It really got me thinking about different think, so I decided to drop my thoughts on the American education system in a few different parts. This’ll focus mostly on high school, so here goes. Now there’s a caveat to this. Primarily, everything I post is my own opinion, and should neither be taken as fact, nor as a reflection of me as an individual, but rather should be taken simply as some sustenance for your cranium. Some food for thought, so to speak.

The “machine” known as high school is simply that. A machine. Princeton Wordnet defines machine as “an intricate organization that accomplishes its goals efficiently”, and in it’s purest form, that’s what high school is. What must be evaluate is whether those “goals” (which in this case, would be instilling knowledge and values amongst us) are necessarily correct and whether the means that this “machine” goes about it is necessarily just (undoubtedly one of the many values it is trying to impart).

Let’s start off by exploring the history of the higher secondary schooling system. The national system of formal education in the United States developed in the 19th century. Thomas Jefferson was the first American leader to suggest creating a public school system. His ideas formed the basis of education systems developed in the 19th century. Jefferson believed educating people was a good way to establish an organized society, and felt schools should be paid for by the general public, so less wealthy people could obtain student membership as well.

“The objects of… primary education [which] determine its character and limits [are]: To give to every citizen the information he needs for the transaction of his own business; to enable him to calculate for himself, and to express and preserve his ideas, his contracts and accounts in writing; to improve, by reading, his morals and faculties; to understand his duties to his neighbors and country, and to discharge with competence the functions confided to him by either; to know his rights; to exercise with order and justice those he retains, to choose with discretion the fiduciary of those he delegates; and to notice their conduct with diligence, with candor and judgment; and in general, to observe with intelligence and faithfulness all the social relations under which he shall be placed.” —Thomas Jefferson: Report for University of Virginia, 1818.

Now, are the objectives of high schools in the present day really in line with that, or even close? I shall present this in the form of a case study of my own high school in several parts. Part Two shall be an examination of the ethical dilemmas that high school poses. Check back soon!

This is a track I wrote in Fl. Studio 9 (Fruity Loops). I t has...

Sat, 08 May 2010 10:51:00 -0400

This is a track I wrote in Fl. Studio 9 (Fruity Loops). I t has an orchestral feel to it, which is what I was aiming for.

Mix it, share it, do whatever with it, I don’t really care. Just let me know.

Thanks!

"They can bite, but cannot be us, They can come and pick up little slang but cannot see us, You..."

Tue, 04 May 2010 19:01:56 -0400

“They can bite, but cannot be us,
They can come and pick up little slang but cannot see us,
You ought to be ashamed trying to fit in my Adidas,
So Run like DMC like you don’t know you got no heater.””

- André 3000, from “Spaghetti Junction” on “Stankonia”

LeBron's pain... no gain.

Mon, 03 May 2010 14:43:45 -0400

LeBron's pain... no gain.:

James fears his elbow will still be an issue, that it has lingered too long to just go away. He refused to take a cortisone shot for the pain Saturday night, insisting, “I don’t like needles.”

Yet, he has two hands of tattoos… ?

There is a lot you can learn about life from watching music...

Sat, 01 May 2010 11:57:00 -0400

There is a lot you can learn about life from watching music videos. Since MTV no longer plays them I feel it is my duty to share with you what great lessons can be learnt from 3-4 minutes of video set to music. Here’s what I learnt from watching the video clip for Ke$ha’s hit song ”Blah Blah Blah”.

- Andrew Jackson would have been pissed if he got to that club and was unable to get in.

- Ke$ha, stop trying to make douche master happen! It’s not going to happen!

- Ke$ha chooses to add emphasis to her text messages through the use of a ridiculous amount of exclamation marks.

- Ke$ha always makes sure she has a roll of heavy duty duct tape on her at all times. Not only does it help ward off annoying guys - it’s great if any emergency plumbing or handyman work needs doing.

- The WNBA should look into Ke$ha - for a white girl she can jump extraordinarily high.

- She must have gotten in heaps of trouble for walking on the bowling lanes. Doesn’t she know you’re not supposed to do that?!

- Ke$ha really needs to work on her bowling - she’s terrible.

I don’t normally mention things from the song itself, I try to keep it all based off the video only, but I just want everyone to know that padlocks don’t zip; they lock. I just thought you should all know incase you buy a padlock someday and return it because it doesn’t zip. I’m always looking out for you guys…

Portugal Cut Two Steps to A- by S&P as Greek Contagion Spreads

Tue, 27 Apr 2010 19:06:00 -0400

Portugal Cut Two Steps to A- by S&P as Greek Contagion Spreads :

Greece cut to Junk (BB+) by S&P as well.

I believe this should provide some comfort. From European Central Bank Vice President Lucas Papademos:

The actions to be taken after the program’s conclusion will convince markets about the credibility of the fiscal adjustments and will contain potential contagion effects in the euro area.

I feel safer already. The contagion we are seeing now will be prevented, in the future. Time travel is awesome.

McDonalds Menu Items From Around The World

Mon, 26 Apr 2010 19:00:00 -0400

McDonalds Menu Items From Around The World :

Insane man.

The average New Yorker spends $3,333.79 a year on tips.

Sun, 25 Apr 2010 18:52:00 -0400

The average New Yorker spends $3,333.79 a year on tips.:

That is just plain ridiculous. No one tips me, why do I feel like I need to tip them?