The Global Color Line strikes again...

Oh, dear.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6186808.stm

"We've got to understand that all of us were in that car." ~ Rev. Al Sharpton

The rally outside the hospital reminded me of Professor Brown's favorite scene from Malcolm X (well, one of her favorite scenes).

Happy Birthday Alison!

Happiest Birthday wishes to our dear friend Alison!

May you drink coffee, be merry, and discover a new book on TEL on this day!

I would also like to take this opportunity to remind everyone reading this--especially you, Alison--that coffee will only lead to smoking, prostitution, and genocide.

PS How's world domination going for you, Alison?

You say it's your birthday...

Friends, comrades, breathren in Telluride, we gather today to celebrate the births of not one, but THREE of our own.

Leonel, Kathryn, Tyler, I hope you enjoy being old.

That is all.

(but not really because I haven't even posted terrible pictures of you all yet)


Dear Tyler,
What if TASP were a Lutheran system of theological ethics?


Dear Leonel,
You're not just interested in female siblings, you're interested in all siblings. I believe you, really I do.


Dear Kathryn,
You're skating on shaky water here. But I have to agree, the pond of racial discussions, it must be crossed.

(okay, now I'm done)

P.S. I'm just sayin'...
<-->

Same birthday, same haircut. You can't argue with the truth.

ALSO, I must add as a final PSA that the Bobby Kennedy movie comes out on Thanksgiving. See it. Love it.


Over and out.

ATTENTION

If you are reading this and are from the Wash U TASP, PLEASE comment on Tracy's post below with what colleges you're applying to. This is no time to linger and stay hidden in the depths of blog-readery without blog-commentary.

Also, I think we should e-mail around a college list eventually, as I'm not sure we get a really high read-age of this blog, sadly.

POST PEOPLE! POST and COMMENT! and stay in touch.

this ends the interruption of your regular programming

Scientology, seeing TASPers, Salk

Gosh, I haven't written here in forever! Well, here's a rambly, random, somewhat incoherent update on my life...

Haha, by the way: today in Art History (by the way, having a 7:30 lecture in a dark room with slides is not conducive to general alertness... achh, it's always an excruciating two hours) we were told to pick a religious structure in San Diego, visit, and write a report on its architecture. I'm strongly considering the Church of Scientology.

I saw Ruben two weekends ago! He came down for a band tournament, and our meetings involved a lot of running and frantic phone calls and buses JUST about to leave. So sadly, there wasn't time for much TASPy reminiscence, it was still cool. And apparently, his band is, like, totally kickass!! (Haha, that was for you, Miranda.) My other friends who were there said they did not sound like a high school band. So: congrats to Ruben on taking first place!

People in really cool band costumes and HATS and capes. No seriously, band hats are amazing! This is the awards ceremony.. Ruben is somewhere down there in the middle-ish.

Ruben and moi.

What are you guys's Christmas/Thanksgiving travel plans? Anyone coming to SOCAL? :D I found out that we're going back to China (Beijing) after Christmas. This'll be my first time back in... wow, six years. All my relatives are there, and I look forward to seeing them again. I just hope it won't be awkward, and I won't be that American girl who knows nothing of her roots. I don't think that'll be the case, but it has been so very long since I've seen them all.

In other news, my mentor of more than year at the Salk Institute left for Singapore-- she completed her PhD and is going back where she grew up. Right now, I'm taking a break from working there, partly because Eetsin is gone, and partly because of the insanity of college applications. I'm not sure if I will go back there, actually. I would very very much like to finish my project, get final results, possibly publish something, as the principal investigator has suggested, but there are a lot of issues involved with who will support me, etc. And in short, I'm not sure I made the right decision a year and a half ago to come to this lab, for many reasons.

I'm thinking of working for Dr. Ancoli-Israel, a sleep researcher in SD. She had offered to take me on (without pay) last summer, and I think sleep psychology is the field I've always been really interested in, maybe more than the molecular bio I'm doing now. So right now, lab things are kind of in limbo, and I'm content to leave it at that til apps are done.

Speaking of which, we should make a WashU TASP college list! Where are you applying, thinking of applying? Comment with your choices!

Here's mine:
Harvard (EA)
Yale
Wash U
Duke
Princeton
Stanford
Johns Hopkins
UC Berkizzzle (err... Berkeley)

...

I love and miss you all. Summer now seems so far away, we can now count our time away from St. Louis in months, not weeks, I'm talking with people who are applying this year... but thinking of TASP still makes me smile, and probably always will.

Love,
Tracy

Non-member posting, yay!
So who's reading this of the non-WashU TASP variety?
do tell, do tell.

Some of my quizbowlling associates went to see a Borat film yesterday and, in an effort to enlighten a certain, rather culturally backward, coffee-swilling Alison as to who Borat is, directed me to the Wikipedia article concerning one Sacha Baron Cohen. According to said article, Cohen read history at Christ's College, Cambridge, and wrote his dissertation on the role of Jews in the U. S. Civil Rights Movement. (Was that the topic of someone's third essay at TASP? I seem to remember Professor Brown discussing it...)
Anyway, I still do not understand much about the Borat phenonmenon. I have been assured that it is quite harmless, even if some of Mr. Cohen's methods are most distasteful, but I raise the eyebrow... What do you, oh much-missed TASPers, think of this fellow? (I have never seen any of his work.)

As far as the recent elections go: I think TEL should be instated as dictator of the universe with all deliberate speed.

the election

Results are in.

Wisconsin voters, despite electing a bunch of Democrats, have decided to ban gay marriage and civil unions (binding) and to reinstate the death penalty (non-binding). Progressive, I know.

Funny how my memory skips when looking over manuscripts

This morning I was reading the paper and reflecting on the election, thinking about the races here in Colorado and how I think they're going to turn out and all that. Then I went upstairs to clean my room, and I found a notebook I used in the second grade. I was flipping through it and came across this letter I wrote to Bill Clinton. It must have been an assignment; I have absolutely no recollection of the situation. That said, the letter is sufficiently entertaining that I thought I'd share it (spelling errors and all).

So without further delay I present, the political musings of a seven year old. Make of it what you will.


October 9, 1996

Dear presedent Clinton,
I hope you win the election. I would like to meet you some day. My name is Ryan. my full name is Ryan Lenora Brown. I am seven years old and I love to read. My parents are voting for you. I hope you can stop vilence. I almost forgot to tell you I think we should spend millions of dollars on exploring mars because it would be neet to see if anything is still living on mars and if anything ever did live on mars. If any thing ever did live on mars I would like to see what it is. OK, good bye!

Sinseerly
Ryan Lenora Brown

It's worth noting that I used to be absolutely obsessed with astronomy. In elementary school I was in the Rocket Club and subscribed to Astronomy magazine. Seriously (and you think I'm nerdy NOW). In any event, it seems my rigorous political advocacy has paid off, what with the Mars rover and everything. You do good work, seven year old Ryan, you do good work.

stuff

I'll be brief.

I took the SAT this morning, and was pleasantly surprised that there were FOUR math sections. Christmahannakwanzikah comes early! And also, the essay--thank goodness it's at the beginning, unlike the ACT, which does it the stupid way (and also has a terrible science section). I managed to work the TASP seminar topic into the essay. In fact, it was a small reincarnation of my final TASP essay. Convenient, I know.

The physics club at the university where I take classes is hosting cool physics speakers throughout the year. At my last class, I had the pleasure of listening to a physics prof from MIT who won the Nobel Prize a couple of years ago. Excellent, I know. The Bose-Einstein condensate and energy curves, etc. Needless to say, I loved it.

The End--I'm reading it. Also known as Book the Thirteenth in A Series of Unfortunate Events by the genius Lemony Snicket. "Books for kids," says the world. "Screw you, they're freaking hilarious," I say back. Highly recommeded. The first several in the series seem boring and repetitive, but believe me, an overarching story does develop. Especially recommended on audio, so you can casually listen to the author's hilarious, sarcastic, witty, excellent writing style.

The end for real this time.

The appearance of Barack Obama Kathryn attended was mentioned on the BBC! Whut! The rest of the article brings up some interesting issues we touched on in seminar...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6112124.stm

Meeting the man who might be president... Kathryn, one is awestruck.

BARACK!

I met Barack Obama today when he came to campaign for Jim Webb ( Democrat For Virginia Senate)

by audz213