Watching SportsCenter and reading things like the New York Post you’d think the Yankees were already swept. You’d think that the New York baseball season was officially over. Well, I don’t think so. I think in a season of crazy and unbelievable things there is a little more crazy still to come.

We just had a baseball season where truly amazing things happened. A season where everything wasn’t as it was “supposed to go.” The Red Sox and Phillies were two teams many expected to be playing in the World Series next week. Both are currently sitting at home after awful seasons, so awful that both traded away big players in the middle of the year (Hunter Pence from the Phillies, Adrian Gonzalez and Josh Beckett from the Sox) and the Red Sox fired their manager, Bobby Valentine, after only one season.

This was a year where teams that spent little money in the off-season (Orioles, A’s) had dream seasons, while teams that spent fortunes (Angles, Marlins) had nightmares. We’ve seen players many considered to be washed up, such as 37 year old knuckleballer R.A. Dickey of the Mets, turn back time with remarkable, Cy Young-worthy performances. Heck, Miguel Cabrera of the Tigers gave baseball it’s first Triple Crown winner (where one player leads the league in homeruns, batting average and RBIs for the season) in 45 years. Heck even the Mets were considered a possible playoff team at the All Star break.

So in a season of the seemingly impossible, whose to say that the Yankees can’t do to the Tigers what the Red Sox did to them at this same time 8 years ago. Both teams were in 0-3 holes, both had big players struggling (Johnny Damon of the Red Sox was in a 1-13 slump through the first three games of the 2004 ALCS with 5 strikeouts, and of course it’s well known how A-Rod and the Yankees lineup as a whole is struggling today), and both had their local media and fans saying their season was over.

In a crazy baseball season why can’t one think that it will get a bit crazier. As Yogi Berra, the Hall Of Fame Yankee catcher once said: “It ain’t over ‘til it’s over.”

Considering that i’m going to a business school and hoping to pursue a career in business finance, handling money and maintaining a budget is a skill i should possess. Maybe for others in terms of giving advice, but for myself i don’t think i possess one ounce of intelligent money management. Earning hasnt been the same since summer since i only work one day a week now. However, spending most of my time in the fashion capital of America New York City, resisting myself has been harder than ever.

Money just seems to stroll in and then poof! leave with twice the speed and still my shopping list never looks shorter. It’s safe to admit that i have a serious problem. Regardless of what it may be from new trending boots to eye catching scarves to the delicious lingering smell of cart food and sudden thirsts for starbucks. I guess i’m just too weak. Popping my debit card out and swiping it feels like the easiest task in the world until i notice the pathetic digits next to the word “account balance” at night (which do act as my reality check) but then the cycle start all over again the next day :/ fml

Having spent an absolutely ridiculous amount in the city over the past month and a half or so has made me realize how expensive living in the city really can be. With long days and all of the 1-3 hour breaks that we have in between as an LC it is almost impossible not to get hungry. Personally I eat every like 3 hours so that’s even more of a problem for me but even for someone who doesn’t eat that often during a 9 hour day on Mondays and Wednesdays it is impossible not to get hungry and the easiest thing to do is go and buy food.

The first few weeks of school I didn’t realize how much food cost and I was surrounded by so much good food for the first time that I went nuts and just bought food every time I was hungry. I probably spent over 100 dollars on food in the first two weeks alone, and having no source of income for the winter that’s not a very frugal decision. So I guess this post is more of a pledge to myself that I’m going to restrict my spending and not be broke, mainly by bringing food from home and if i need to buy food its going to be dollar pizza. That is all.

A few weeks ago I was scrolling through my newsfeed, which is depressingly congested with pointless, uninteresting, boring posts, and I stopped when I came across a picture of a blonde girl posing with her skateboard. The caption was what really caught my eye because it was a quote from the girl saying that she wanted to get a group of skateboarders together to deliver food to the needy some day. I saw that the photograph had come from a Facebook page titled, “Humans of New York”. So I decided to visit the page and see what it was all about.

If you haven’t heard of, or visited this page before, you definitely should! The page is run by a photographer who wanders around the city taking pictures of people that catch his eye. The blurb that explains what the page is about reads, “The photographic census of NYC. One street portrait at a time.” Visiting the page is kind of like being sucked up by a webpage vacuum. I can, and have, fallen into many “Humans of New York” holes where I scroll through all the interesting pictures and read about the individuals that also inhabit this city.

I love this page so much because it’s not at all like a normal census! Not only do you actually get to see the amount of variation that surrounds us, but you also get a feel of what the peoples’ personalities are like because often times the captions will be quotes of the photograph’s subjects, or observations from the photographer. This is one of the best ways to get a feel for who people really are because it’s just random captured moments of peoples lives’. It’s very raw and there’s no room for pretending to be somebody you’re not. It’s incredible how New Yorkers are such a large collection of characters.

https://www.facebook.com/humansofnewyork?fref=ts

HI all–

A reminder that tomorrow, Thursday, October 18, we will have our first LC activity–a screening of a Nova Program & dinner.

We’ll convene at 5PM in Room 404 (17 Lexington Building).

EJK

One of the most famous electronic dance music festivals in world, which takes place in Miami during Miami music week in March has just added another weekend. This is huge news to electronic music fans. Ultra, the record label who produces this music festival kept the second weekend a secret until they released the news on their website a view days ago. The additional weekend will take place on March 15,16 and 17 and the original weekend will span from March 22 to the 24th. This is exciting for music fans everywhere but has some electronic dance music lovers annoyed.

Adding another weekend has people annoyed because they feel as if adding another weekend will take away from the music festival which has traditionally been one weekend for the past 10 years. People are wondering if artists will be performing on both weekends or just one. Taking into account that Ultra tickets are released before the release of the artist lineup people are nervous in buying tickets for a weekend that might not have as good artist as the other one.

Ultra’s release of another weekend for their hit music festival is big news for the movement of electronic dance music as well as big news for its fans. Check out this to give you a better idea of Ultra Music Festival:

I am having a lot of trouble with trying to incorporate my interests and apply them to what we’re doing in class. Everything we did last week I felt was true and that somehow we need to make these blog posts much more interesting, but at this moment, I have no clue what to do. By my next post I hope that I can do a bit more, but as of right now I’m still trying to sort out how to do this. This wil be a challenge for me, but I accept this challenge and will accomplish it.

For now though, I’m gonna talk a bit about Henrietta Lacks so this post has at least a little bit of bioethical material. I found it really interesting that someone else had a similar situation of Henrietta, as discussed in chapter 25. John Moore was also taken advantage of when he had a form of cancer, but he was still alive and could fight it. What I found interesting was even after about 30 years, the same methods were still taking place by doctors, how they continue to take advantage of patients without their knowledge. Its a scary thought that not until recently has ethical procedures been followed, but not without drastic effects on the people before this method changed. The next chapter was even more powerful because it tells of the ill effects of these methods on the many people that were affected by it, mainly Henrietta’s family. Its a powerful chapter that really puts sympathy into the reader but also a mistrust in doctors. Its a scary thought if we cannot trust some of the most highly educated people in our society.

This blog was probably kinda boring, but I accept the challenge to try and make it better in the very near future.

When I first purchased the book The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, I didn’t know what to expect. I assumed it would be just another boring book. But as I continue to read I’m drawn to her story. Her journey, her struggle’s, and her strength amazed me. Henrietta remained very strong from what I’ve read so far. It was also interesting reading about the difficulties she faced due to her race which made this whole process so much harder.

A main aspect of this book is the idea that her cells were taken without her consent. Henrietta wasn’t given credit for this discovery until much later on and well after she died. This is something that’s enforced today that the patients knowledge of what the doctors doing to their body, which is why consent forms are presented to each person. I think this was a huge step for medicine and the patients rights. This rather new documentation makes sure the patient is fully aware of whats happening to him/her.

I think