UCLA: 108 Championships, but No One Cares

UCLA recently got its 108th NCAA championship from the women's volleyball team, although I'm sure no one really cares. That's because UCLA needs to get its revenue sports (basketball and football) back into the realm of winning. Especially after the 50-0 rout from USC, drastic actions need to happen. Hopefully Jim Mora Jr. can achieve this and Howland can salvage whatever is left of our hoops season.

My Final Wishes

After watching a particularly gruesome American Greed on CNBC where mortuary owners removed bones and other parts from bodies without permission to make some extra coin, I got the idea that I should make my final wishes before it's too late. Originally I was thinking cremation is the way to go, especially since I could make instructions to sprinkle my ashes in various, hard to get to places.


But that's a little passe.


You know what's not passe? Throwing your lifeless corpse out of a helicopter.

Engineering and Math = Low Grades? Duh!

This article does not surprise me one bit.

How can a student stay motivated if the the class average for midterms is routinely below 40%? Most math, physics, and engineering professors do not teach to the regular student, nor do they care: their target is the hardcore nerd who will eventually get a PhD in math/physics/engineering. The remaining 90% of students are there because their majors force them to take these ridiculous prerequisites.

Does a civil engineer really need to prove the convergence of a limit? Do computer programmers need to know how to do triple integrals? Do any doctors know about invisible numbers?

No, no, and no.

The moment when your linear algebra teacher spends the entire fifty minutes of lecture talking about useless concepts, with you walking out of there with glazed eyes, a headache, and no retention of what he said is when you seriously reconsider what the hell you're doing with your life.

Metro Expo Line to UCLA BBall Soon?

The Expo Line has been plagued by delays (originally set to open to Culver City last year), but it might still be on track to start revenue operations in a few months. According to this Curbed LA post, the most recent plan of opening it to La Cienega is still current.

It better be, because I want to take it to see UCLA play some basketball at their temporary home in the LA Sports Arena!

And, Howland, your new twins better take the Bruins to a championship soon.

100th Concert!

It took nearly fourteen years, but I finally saw one hundred concerts. That's right, one hundred. Even though I'm sure many people out there have seen way more than me, according to my friends I am amazing. (In seeing concerts, nothing else.)

What's even more amazing, though, is the 100th show itself. It was a band that I never thought I would see: Erasure.

Kindle Gets Libraries

Back when I was talking about e-readers/tablets,  I said the main reason for getting the Nook over the Kindle was the latter's lack of checking out ebooks from libraries. Well, Amazon finally caught up.

Soundgarden!

Well, my 97th concert was a good one. (Missed seeing Anthrax and Megadeth at Big 4, which would have made it 99.) I never saw Soundgarden back in the day, so I was pretty pumped to see them finally. Were they kind of old? Yes. Are they as good as they were back in the heyday? Probably not. Did they have ridiculous pyrotechnics like Rammstein? No. But did Chris Cornell scream like it was 1994? Yes.

Better late than never.

The Cell Tolls For Thee Part II

(Originally posted August 8, 2008)

Once again, no one is going far enough with cell phone restrictions. Recently a congressman introduced the HANG UP Act, which would ban cell phone use on planes over 30,000 feet. This proposed law does not even come close to protecting everyone from everyone else.

We have to have these extreme measures, because look over there in Europe: those liberal people are doing the opposite! Imagine the consequences of having to listen to loud talking on a quiet plane flight!

So I am proposing a new law (similar to the old one) that would curtail cell phone usage in other places.

First though, let's make airplanes a better place to relax and conduct business.

Carmageddon

Seriously, what are free train rides going to do for an area without trains?

New Data Plans

Verizon Wireless recently confirmed rumors about their new data plan with tiered pricing. This new system imposes restrictions on bandwidth, thereby exterminating anything "unlimited". Is this a wise move? Probably not, for I have seen my own data usage jump since the realization of how cool the Netflix app is.