it was mild enough to think while i was walking today

I. this regimen makes sense, let's see if i can keep it
3 times a week: 1 cardio, 1 "beach muscles", 1 back/abs aka core.

II. on the fact and fiction of living at yale

"One of the earliest things I remember from freshman year is a classmate talking about how her family — a longish line of Bonesmen — liked to watch “The Skulls” for giggles. In one sense, this was intimidating: what had I gotten myself into? Moments like this proliferate in the canon of Ivy porn; humble students are forever meeting imposing WASPy families and wondering whether they themselves can possibly belong.

In a more important sense, though, it was sort of disarming: So we are all big dorks.

Our narcissistic fascination with pop portrayals of Yale betrays a deep vein of dorkiness. If we were cooler, smarter, more naturally elite, less striving, we wouldn’t care. But we do. Accuracy tickles our vanity; flaws give us the opportunity to nitpick and feel superior, which we also enjoy. Seeing Yale onscreen — however far removed from reality — reassures us."

the full article at http://yaledailynews.com/articles/view/27557 (emphasis mine)

the writer got it spot on. this is what it feels like to be a "Yale man" in the age of meritocracy and egalitarianism. you have the grand privilege of observing the blue-blooded elites up close - and maybe get to know one or two of them - but you sense the irony immediately. though you fit the label, you are not one of the ones. yet you're somehow grateful, because being separated by a glass wall is perhaps better than being behind a concrete one.

III. if it's not impermeable manners that distinguishes us, perhaps it's this

a friend visiting from penn this weekend commented,

"all four of you think very deeply. i guess i'm glad i didn't get into yale, because life at penn is so much simpler."

he meant two things. the first sentence is self-explanatory.

by the second, he meant that at yale, there are all these social booby traps to circumnavigate. there is a thin line between class and douchebaggery. people are sniping all the time. it's not enough to land a job at goldman - that just means you're a corporate tool. you must be able to land that job, wax lyrical about the intellectual roots of modern economic conservatism, talk about nietzsche and 3rd wave feminism in the same breath, speak chinese or arabic, and groove to T.I.'s "whatever you like" while flipping cups and playing beer pong, all at the same time.

IV. speaking of which



Anytime you want to pick up the telephone you
Know it ain't nothin' to drop a couple stacks on you
You want it you can get it my dear
5 million dollar home drop Bentleys I swear (yeah)

I want yo body, need yo body
Long as you got me you won't need nobody
You want it, I got it, go get it, l buy it
Tell them other broke nigga be quiet

You ain't neva eva gotta go in yo wallet
Long as I got rubberband banks in my pocket
5 6 rides wit rims and a body kit
You ain't gotta downgrade, you can get what I get

My chick can have what she want
And go in any store for any bag she want
And no she ain't neva had a man like that
To buy you anything your heart desire like that (yeah)"

RUBBERBAND BANKS IN MY POCKET! this dawg ain't just loaded, he's a poet!

V. from majority to minority

going from well-bred and well-schooled to "i'm from singapore" "singapore? how cool!" is possibly the biggest lesson i've learnt in four years.

it is a shell you learn to hide behind without even knowing it.

i wish there were some magical country where the blair waldorfs of this world could go to to learn what i've learnt. i believe in affirmative action, you know.