Work

So, as you know, I came to STX to work for the Superior Court of the U. S. Virgin Islands. Too lazy to write about my life at the moment. So here are some pictures! Not hard to guess what these are pictures of. Driving to work, my office, the parking lot, and the view from the parking lot.

Music

Music that I have recently enjoyed:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129754791

HT: A. Crisci

Welcome to STX

So, I am resurrecting this blog, and using it as a venue through which I plan to discuss my experiences, both good and bad, on St. Croix over the next year. My friends know that the past year has been incredibly difficult for me. After going to college, grad school, and then working so hard to be either unemployed or underemployed, it has been psychologically taxing, and emotionally draining. When I was offered the opportunity to spend a year on St. Croix, well it was obviously too good to pass up. Not only because it was a chance to have a unique and exciting experience, but also because it was a chance to do something that isn’t completely Vanilla. I’ve never really felt good about my experiences. Westchester --> the right university --> the best law school in Brooklyn…Where’s the stories? The drama? The achievement? I didn’t work so hard so that I could be so unsatisfied. I definitely needed a journey, a place to find some stories, some danger, a (mis)adventure. After living on STX for almost a week, I’m pretty sure I’ll find at least some of that here. This is a very interesting place. Over the next few weeks I’ll write about my opinions of work, race relations on the island, driving, shopping, partying, my first experience as an American living in what is essentially a “colony” (I shudder at that word).

Let’s start my story at the beginning, day one, arrival day, a.k.a. September 5^th 2010 at 7:00 a.m. Atlantic Time. I left New York the night before, at 11:25 Jet Blue flight to Puerto Rico. The plane was basically empty, maybe 35 people in a plane with 150 open seats. I got my own row to myself, and tried to sleep. Naturally, I ended up having a nice long conversation with the flight attendants about my new job/Freakanomics/the airline industry/how awesome that slide opening flight attendant was. But you know me, I never shut up. I then arrived at San Juan Puerto Rico at 315 a.m. Apparently, airports are closed in the middle of the night. I walked around a completely empty airport for a while, chatted it up with this lady for a while, and eventually at 6 a.m. the airport opened back up and I could start the second leg of my journey to STX. So I check in at the counter and the lady asks me how much I weigh, and then weighs my carry-ons. The plane was about as big as two minivans. A ten-seater, and there were only two other passengers. The pilot was cool, I got a little tour of the islands around Puerto Rico, and St. Thomas. Very beautiful; unless you live here, it is a once in a lifetime experience. I regret that I didn’t have any of my cameras with me, but visit me and experience it yourself!

Shortly after my arrival to STX, I went to a BBQ at the friend I’m staying with mom’s house, and met some of my new coworkers, and grilled up some veggie burgers. J. This is one of the nicest houses I’ve ever seen, I think they could charge admission to tourists if they wanted to. (see videos).

And that is the story all about how I came to STX.

keep on keepin on

So at the gym tonight. I am back to where I was in early August, strength wise. I guess thats good considering how badly I let myself go last semester.

I've gained 35 pounds since college ended. Its been atrocious. I've never been thin but there was a time when I had cheek bones. I like having cheek bones and it is my mission to make them visible once again.

I came across a piece in the NYTimes today about the "fatosphere" and how overweight bloggers are blogging about how it is ok to be overweight. First of all, I went to some of these blogs. The bloggers are not "fat" they are just "healthy" and any reasonable person knows the difference. There is also a difference between a healthy, normal person being happy with their bodies and a fat, obese person pretending to be. These blogs, by well meaning health conscious individuals, give dangerously overweight people an outlet through which they can avoid resenting what they have let happen to their bodies. Fat, overweight, obese, big mofo, whatever you want to call it. It is UNHEALTHY and it should not be promoted.

Society would not approve a website by a cigar enthusiast that chain smokers visit and feel okay about what they are doing. The bloggers are healthy individuals on the high end of the BMI scale. The people who visit their sites are usually obese people on the wrong side of the bell curve. We should not have websites to allow "Fat" people to feel good about themselves we should instead promote websites that promote healthiness and feeling good about one's body. But feeling good about a grossly unhealthy body is the oppositte of what anyone wants. We dont want to let overweight people (and i am an overweight person) feel righteous in accepting their weight. Because heart disease, diabetes, bad knees, all these things are negative consequences of unhealthy living. The NYTimes article was dangerous because it gives people with vulnerable self images the wrong idea of what to work for. We don't want unhealthy people happy with their unhealthy bodies, we want people working to become healthy and living longer, better lives in the process.

Fatosphere NYTimes Article

Gymrats

Tom Cruise got some heavy criticism a few years ago for saying some pretty stupid stuff about psychiatry. The link: here

While I personally think that psychological/psychiatric assistance is over-subscribed, I certainly do not agree with criticizing people who are seeing a specialist in the hopes of bettering themselves. I do agree with Cruise, however, regarding his statement that exercise (ex. jogging) do more for mental health than most drugs.

Senior year of college I would run 6-8 miles at least four times a week. I was lifting regularly, eating healthy, doing well in school, and feeling good about my body. Over the past year and a half I have barely run, certainly not eaten healthy, am mediocre at best academically, and I am definitely not feeling good about my physical condition. I am pretty sure I hit rock bottom on Christmas when I was appalled at the humongousness of some shirts.

Since then I have been going to the gym every day and eating fairly healthy. I really do feel a lot better. Its so amazing how putting a couple of hours in at the gym can change you disposition for the other 22 hours in a day.

My favorite part of the gym, is the mirrors. No, I do not say that because I enjoy looking at my body, I do it because I like looking at my eyes when I am lifting. Over the past week I have gotten that aggression back, that passion that I used to apply to the gym during my last two years of college. They force inside of you that makes you push your body to its limit that evening. When I leave the gym I know that I pushed my body to the limit and that gives me a lot of confidence.

That's what all of this is about, the gym, feeling good, professional success, trumping your insecurities, all of these hurdles are conquered through confidence. That is why I partly agree with Tom Cruise. Also, A Few Good Men was AWESOME.

Happy New Year?

I enjoyed this article and I think it applies to a lot of minorities, and other pejorative terms like "foreigner". I think also, that it reflects the unaddressed and unconsidered bias that is now and--at least in the new future--will stay prevalent in the US: http://www.jewcy.com/cabal/muslim_now_available_insult_form

I took some time off after finals ended. Here is a Synopsis of the time between my last post and today.
Friday: Dick around
Saturday-Sunday: dick around, shopping, watched Indiana Jones and the last Crusade for the heck of it
Monday: Dick around the night before Christmas
Tuesday: Christmas
Wednesday: went to work for half a day, worked on my paper
Thursday: went to work, and got mad good deals on after Christmas items at the mall
Friday: went to work, worked on my paper all night
Saturday: went to CVS, went to the gym, finished my paper END OF THE FALL 2007 SEMESTER WOOOOOOOO
Sunday: went to the gym, went out to eat with old friends (spent way too much on dinner), partied like a rock star (minus the mad biddies...sigh), and got home at 7am.
Monday: went to work after only 1 hour of sleep (ouch), stayed home for New Years
Tuesday: went to the gym, hung out with my old roommate in the city (I hadn't seen the man in a year and a half)
As you all can see, you didn't miss much.

I got forwarded an email a while back. The purpose of the message was to remind Indian-Americans that we should not observe 1/1 as "New Years" because Indians have their own calendar and our new years is on Diwali. Western society has become more aware of the unfairness of creating a system where the world measures time based on the death of one religion's messiah. The "common era" designation is much more PC and a positive step in the west becoming more considerate of its religious minorities.

Western society and standards have permeated through the world. I agree that it is unfair that the way I measure time is determined by the death of Christ. I have nothing against Christ as a person or god as a thing or time as a constant, but I prefer to measure time as the Indian calendar does. Unfortunately, the Indian calendar is complicated. The fact is that I, like my Indian brethren, am acclimated to the western conventions of measuring time. I have a western calendar where someone who knows what they are doing wrote down which western day Hindu holidays fall on. This is totally fine as long as Hindus keep observing their holidays in accordance with the Hindu Calendar.

I think that you can separate Hinduism from its calendar. For example, the Hindu Calendar is used in Pakistan, a Muslim country comprised of Hindus that converted to Islam several hundred years ago. I use the Hindu way of measuring time as my religious calendar and the western method as my practical calendar. I think this is illustrative of the balance an observer of a foreign religion must strike in a country comprised of practitioners and descendants of a different faith.

The main problem I had with the gentleman's email: India has already acquiesced to western conventions, otherwise it would not be as successful as it is today. One does need not go father the Ethiopia to see how a recalcitrant state refusing to accept the global conventions can be left behind economically. India had to adopt the western calendar, just as she had to adopt the western notion of a "nation state".

We send our taxes in according to when Uncle Sam says that they are due. We have a western birthday on our driver's licenses. Hinduism is about a lot more than the calendar, and Hindu philosophy and ideals are what we need to pass on to the next generation. We can have pujaris who know how to read a calendar and still observe our holidays at the proper time. Us lay Hindus, however, are charged with the task of raising a generation of Hindus that appreciates the significance of the calendar and the holidays.

When we make comments imploring followers of our faith to do something like reject New Years, we are asking them to commit to the impractical and by doing that, you make your religion impractical. Hinduism needs to find its own niche in this country, and we won't do that by rejecting something as innocuous as the western new year.

do they know it's Christmas time at law school?

Disclaimer: this post is different than other ones in that I don't have a "point" instead it is merely a recounting of what I did on Friday.

My last final was, well, a lot better than my second to last final that's for damn sure. But I have been finished with exams for two days now and i REALLLLY don't want to relive it just yet.

Yesterday (Friday) was everything that I could ask for. I woke up at 10:30, worked out a bit, and then went to the city to eat Paneer. I went out to dinner/lunch/linner? with a friend of mine from college. I guess shes not just any old friend (which is as far as I'll take it in this post) but shes pretty cool and since I hadn't seen her in a year and a half, I'm glad I did. In fact, I'm REALLY glad that I did.

We went to see the tree, It's amazing that when I lived in Boston I'd see the tree at Rockefeller every year. However, now that I live in New York, I never seem to have time to do "new york" things. So I'm really glad that we got to do that.

Afterwards I hung out with my old roommate and and a couple of other friends from college. My roommate is awesome--easily one of my best friends ever--but the dude is a cross between a really thoughtful person and Todd from "Scrubs". It was fun though because I missed hearing about the man's "exploits" and by exploits I mean him conflating the time he danced with a pretty girl into something that you would talk about on a late night MTV show. At my friend's house we watched Jeopardy. I'm really good at Jeopardy and I usually watch alone; I forgot how much I annoy people by yelling out the answer.

But regardless, It's always good to finish off a case of Corona with old friends. I don't see my college friends nearly as much as I ought to; I know that if I did the pressures of Law School would seem a little bit more remote and insignificant (as they should be). I have some awesome friends in Law School but there's something to be said about the people who knew you "back in the day", and it's all good things.

As a last vignette, on the train home last night three high school girls were in the row in front of me and I was sitting by myself. I made a couple of the obligatory time-passing phone calls but eventually I just relaxed and listened to those girls gab about their incredibly suburban lives.

Why are there so many stops on this train!?!" one of the girls asked. She saw my reflection in the window and she saw me shaking my head. She giggled, embarrassed. "You know, it is the express train," I responded. They didn't seem freaked out so I figured talking to them was as good a way as any to pass the time on the train. "It's your fault for living so far up north," I said. And then she went on complaining about how her parents make her live in Westchester. I wasn't surprised by that, the "boringness" of your town must be the number 1 Westchester complaint. We went on, and I told them that going to the city every day makes me appreciate the calm of the suburbs (if not the two hour commute). When we got to my stop I got up and said "alright you girls have a good night, get home safe and don't talk to strangers." I thought that was pretty slick...