Day 189: Health Concerns

 

July 8th, 2011As dark and menacing as my picture of the day might appear to be, today was actualy more of a bright and whimsical day. In the morning, I encountered bus drama, using the 201 to bus to UTC, but getting strongly revoked by the driver of the 31. If you remember from two weeks prior, I was able to successfully use the 31 with my UCSD student ID card. Still, the bus driver was extremely rude in rejecting me – saying “SORRY. WE DON’T GO TO UCSD.” I told him about my situation requiring myself to be at work, and he was like “TOO BAD. CALL THE BUS DRIVER IF YOU DON’T BELIEVE ME”. Extremely frustrated, I used the 202 to bus back to my place, ran back, got some change, ran back to the 201 bus stopped, bused back to UTC, and subsequently used the 31 to reach Waigenheim (successfully on time I might add). I had to go extremely early and get there at 8:45 AM in an effort to get ready to go on a wonderful field trip.

Field Trip time. I got assigned my group of 8 random kiddies (mostly from Group 6), and we began boarding the buses shortly thereafter. The destination? The Fleet Science Museum @ Balboa Park, where we would an IMAX movie about Tornadoes (which was really boring, and I wished there was more destruction seen). Instead, the movie nearly put me to sleep, being more about the science and less about the disasters. I wanted to see a cow get caught in the twister. Afterwards, we explored the museum, me having to run around the entire time looking for my students in an effort to make sure they didn’t got lost. It reminded me much of my days at the Discovery Science Center in high school. The students got me to use a machine at one of the displays that would calculate what you would look at if you ate unhealthily for 70 years. I pressed the button and a gruesome image of me appeared on the screen, ultimately causing me to worry about my health concerns for the immediate future. We had lunch, where the program leaders were provided subway sandwiches, and jealous students were provided school lunch PB&J sandwiches. Gross. After lunch we explored the museum some more, me allowing the students to go wherever they saw fit, as long as they remained on the same floor as me. A few broke that rule and my trust, but in the end I got them successfuly back to snack, and back to the bus, and back to campus. Afterwards, I had Group 8, and I allowed them to play Boardgames, and they behaved for the most part. A girl and a guy were romantically sitting together in one seat, but I let it slide…. this time at least.

When I got back, I would go to EH&S in an effort to submit my timesheet for the two week work period. My boss wasn’t there though, but he emailed me to tell me he already did it, so I left, picking up Geetha at her place, and busing over to my place, where we got ready for a night on the town. After much debate between Pho and CPK, we ultimately decided the California Pizza Kitchen was the best option. So much for my health concerns, hehe. I got some Kung Pao Spaghetti which wasn’t bad, but which wasn’t great either, while she got pizza, and we subsequently shared, me ending up eating more than I should have. Afterwards we went to Marshall’s where Geetha looked at shoes and I somewhat looked at polos. We ended the night watching Bridesmaids, which was a hilarious and enjoyable movie for the ages. Rotten Tomatoes did not let me down. I thought the movie would be a chick flick catered to the masses of woman, but it was pretty funny that even an old man laughed at the jokes. Literally though, a woman in the back of the theater was screaming and dying of laughter because it was so funny. I highly recommend it. Wonderful Night <24.

On July 9, 1877, the All England Croquet and Lawn Tennis Club begins its first lawn tennis tournament at Wimbledon, then an outer-suburb of London. Twenty-one amateurs showed up to compete in the Gentlemen’s Singles tournament, the only event at the first Wimbledon. The winner was to take home a 25-guinea trophy. Tennis has its origins in a 13th-century French handball game called jeu de paume, or “game of the palm,” from which developed an indoor racket-and-ball game called real,or “royal,” tennis. Real tennis grew into lawn tennis, which was played outside on grass and enjoyed a surge of popularity in the late 19th century. OMG JOCKS.

Might future presidential debates feature candidates that voters can’t see, can’t hear and who answer questions in 140 characters or less? While televised presidential debates are far from political extinction, what’s certain is that more and more presidential-type forums are making significant use of social media or wholly being broadcast online. Cases in point: on Wednesday, President Obama became the first president to tweet when he answered questions on jobs and the economy via a Twitter townhall. The White House has its own Twitter account separate from an account designated for his re-election efforts. Tweets from the president are signed “-BO.” The Twitter townhall follows the president’s Facebook townhall in April. YAY TWITTER BATTLE.

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