I consider myself a person who is capable of much self-restraint. I've never been addicted to anything, and I can savor a chocolate bar for over a week or so, eating one piece at a time.

I bought a can of Pringles to test whether "once you pop you can't stop" is really true. I found my weakness. It's REALLY hard to eat just one. I don't know what other snack food out there is like that. They should be banned as an addictive substance. I think I still have higher self-restraint than normal though. The Pringles have lasted 8 days, and I've been having some nearly every day. I think there are people who finish the whole can in one or two sittings.

I'm not a snack-food junkie, by the way.

If everyone in the United States bought the most efficient vehicle in the class they'd ordinarily buy, the total savings would be 1.47 billion gallons of gasoline every year.
- Earth Day Network, 4.28.04

Have you ever leant your mouthguard to someone?

When you get really experienced and good at something, you learn less while you're engaged in it. Is it then time to move on? Or should we stick with it and strive towards perfection? Would things start to get mundane after a while if there are no new challenges, or no new concepts/techniques to incorporate? I enjoy learning and seeing myself improve, but at the same time, it's nice to have some mastery. In my case, I think I'll try to find a happy medium. For some, they know it's their destiny and so they devote themselves fully to it. For others, they like to dabble, so they won't be so committed in the first place.

"To teach is to learn twice."
- Joseph Joubert

Under everything, people want to be heard, understood and appreciated.

I turned 24 last month. Every now and then I think I'm starting to look older, that I'm ageing. But then someone conveys that I could pass as a 16 or 18 year old. Being told I look younger than I was used to bother me when I was younger. But society has become very youth-obsessed, so now I view looking young as an asset.

Why do I look young? I think it's mostly due to genetics. My parents look young for their age. They haven't had plastic surgery, botox, hair transplants, etc.

Mentoring
Where did the practice of mentoring come from? The answer is Greece - too much came from the Greeks if you ask me. In Homer's Odyssey, Odysseus left his son Telemachus in the care of his friend, Mentor, when we set off for a journey (or war, I'm not sure). Thus, today mentors don't teach, but they try to substitute what a parent would do.

Interviewing
A 22 year old Princeton graduate was asked at a job interview what his strengths were. He rattled off a few. Then, the interviewer asked what his weaknesses were. The guy answered, "Kryptonite". Isn't that nuts?! Some people are really full of themselves. The interviewer told the kid to get out of his office. Other interviewers may like something cute and different like that. I think a good answer for someone young is "I don't know, but I want to find out" - since in this culture people are always going on about what they know and not what they don't know. However, many interviewers would probably find that answer weak. The answer I'd give is "I lack experience" (which is true). It's a strategic answer, we're not expected to tell the truth. We're encouraged to find a way to allow the interviewer to see the weakness in a positive way (so in my case, it's eagerness to learn and get experience).

I discovered a small spider in a small web inside one of my shoes.

It's interesting to think about how we have to pay rent while insects don't. To start with humans didn't have to pay rent. In many places in the world there are people who don't - ascetics, squatters, nomadic people, slum dwellers.

What has become so different about our lives? We've concocted such elaborate games for ourselves.

I've left the spider there. I'll evict it tomorrow.

When you're an intern and someone in the company says that they keep hearing your name everywhere, and that they think that one day you'll be running the place, how are you supposed to react?

My response -
"Wow, that's nice to hear"... then I asked about the art on the walls of her office.

I'm holding off asking whether or not the're thinking about giving me a job offer.

A year has come and gone since you passed

A quarter of me comes from you
I don't think I ever thanked you for that

You surprised people by holding on for so many years
I can't imagine how you did it
What endurance

You were dreaming the last time I saw you
I remember the last thing I said to you
"Bye Dada, enjoy your sleep"

Ripples you made continue to travel around

Yesterday at a meeting myself and a few others were planning an event. I suggested that we could "kill three birds with one stone" (i.e. meet three objectives by having it a certain way). Immediately after I said that I felt bad. In spite of people agreeing that that was how we should hold the event, I felt bad about the idea of killing birds. I don't know if there were any vegetarians in the room, but I don't think they would have liked it. Is mentioning killing birds bad karma? I think there should be a more politically correct and culturally sensitive cliche to describe achieving multiple goals with one action/strategy. Perhaps there are and they just aren't coming to me right now...

I've been wondering where all my free time has gone. The search was different than for a lost physical possession. I contemplated what I do in a typical week and started jotting down the main activities. I estimated the number of hours I spend doing each activity. I started deducting the times from 168 (which is the number of hours in a week) and was able to really see where my time goes. While it was an amusing exercise, simultaneously it was sad to see that I have no time for leisure.

Burnt sponge smells like popcorn. Why?

Following the advice of others, I've been sterilizing my kitchen sponge in the microwave. However this time it was rather dry before I put it in. I think that's why it started smelling smoky-popcorny in my kitchen.

Today I became certified for adult CPR by the American Heart Association. In spite of what they told me about no one ever being arrested and convicted for doing damage by trying to help (because of the Good Samaritan Law), my doubts about getting into trouble aren't alleviated - especially in light of how much people in this country love lawsuits. I'm sure though that if the time comes for me to use my CPR knowledge, I won't be thinking about legal ramifications and I'll be focused on helping the person who's unconscious or choking...

By the way, the number one food that adults choke on is red meat. Grapes are pretty bad too in this respect, but more so for children.