after_alex

OK, so it’s been two weeks and I’ve gotten sucked in pretty good into the corporate routine. Wake up before 7, have my daily battle with traffic, then sit down and begin the next 4 hours of my life in front of a computer screen. Get up, eat lunch at the company cafeteria, then sit back and charge away another 5 or 6 hours of my life.

Weekends I see Victoria, nights I spend wondering where my day went. I wake up the next morning only to wonder what I did wrong with my schedule, and why I can never seem to enrich my life outside of work.

Ah, post-college life. At least now I can spend more at restaurants than I do on the bus. But is this what the next 42 years (probably more, considering the fate of Social Security) of my life? At least work is cool –

Silicon Valley. Palo Alto. The birthplace of the hi-tech revolution. And depending who you are, this could also be your worse nightmare.

I’ve driven through Stanford and Palo Alto many times (my brother and other friends have gone to school here), but I didn’t realize that it was such a god-awfully developed suburb. I can’t explain what it is, but coming from a place like Berkeley – where I had to watch my back when traveling by night and navigate the notorious local bums by day – Stanford/Palo Alto just seems too washed out.

Indeed, leading up to my final Berkeley days I complained like an injured cow ready for euthanasia. The streets, the bums, the non-sensical city regulations, the crazies, the students, and on and on…

But now that I’m in the land of Berkeley’s ideological opposite – Stanford/Palo Alto – it’s like I’m trapped in no-man’s land. Weird. I think that means that Berkeley has grown on me, and frightening enough, I’ve gained some kind of enjoyment – maybe even pride – in my own abilities of self-defense and toleration of Berkeley-esque craziness! Snaps. But at the same time, Palo Alto is starting to grow on me. Things are just way too accessible here to be any good. So that makes this place TOO GOOD.

Yesterday I went to the biggest Safeway I ever encountered in my life. I didn’t know they could make regular supermarkets that big (without fooling itself into transformation into a Costco or Walmart). That Safeway is the one in Menlo Park on El Camino.

And whoa. So many luxury cars. Isn’t this supposed to be a college town? Oh ya, that’s right…it’s THAT kind of college town. Anyway, work has started for me, I’m slowly being schmoozed into the lifestyle of the corporate tech-yuppy…and that’s kinda what I expected. 401k’s, expense accounts, and tax deductions…here we go.

I’ve moved so many times in the past year I can’t even remember how many times it’s been. Musta been at least 4 or 5 times. And I mean not just moving to a new hotel or a new apartment. The kind of moving I mean is the sack-up-and-go…to a different state, a different coast, or a different continent.

So at about this time I’m absolutely disgusted by the idea of moving. However, duty calls, I must respond. And so, I got a new job up in the Bay Area. I’ll talk more about it later, but for now, you’ll be able to find me either packing or driving on the I-5 on my way to Palo Alto, California…

It’s 24.5 C (~77 F) in my room tonight. It must be something like 20 C/68 F outside. I’m in shorts and a tank-top. Back in Afghanistan I only dreamed of wearing stuff like this – true, Afghan summers are hot enough to sport the “California uniform” (i.e. shorts with wife-beater), but I would advise against doing so in public. Actually, it’s against social norms to show the skin on your legs. Who knows, maybe you’ll get hanged or something.

But geez. It’s the middle of winter and I’m in shorts/wife-beater. I dunno how many other places I can count in the world where people would just cry upon hearing how comfortable California is. Hmm. I dunno. Global Warming is starting to sound pretty good actually. Just don’t force me to lie on Southern California asphalt in the middle of our blazing summers…

Is it me, or do you also think it’s weird that we can re-use our calendars every 4-years or so.

Actually, I think it’s a stroke of genius on my part to realize that I’ll never have to buy new calendars after 2008. I already have 2005, 2006. Just need 2007 & 2008. I believe the daily calendar cycle resets every four years…so Why is there such a need to make a new calendar for every year? I mean, I like the one I have now, so why not just save it for the next 4-year cycle – that would be 2009 for my 2005 calendar…and I would have saved some trees, and celebrated my own silly habits in the 2009 New Year. Is there anyone else in the world that stashes their calendars for every 4-years? Trust me, it works! It even accounts for Leap Years.

However…according to this article, it will not account for “Leap Seconds.” Well then again, it wouldn’t need to. One second doesn’t make that much of a difference in the way I view daily calendars. Ha!

Nevertheless, reading such articles brings to mind the fact that I have probably lived several seconds more than the average terrain-bound person. If you’ve studied Physics and Relativity, you probably heard of time slowing down for people (and monkeys and other things) that undergo large accelerations. See this article. What this article basically says is that if you fly in fast-moving airplanes and that kinda stuff, time will actually PASS SLOWER for you. Crazy huh? Call me a nerd again, but I just think it’s crazy that I could actually be able to extend my life by hopping on airplanes and flying around the world. This year I’ve flown many places far and wide, including a trip around the world. But to tell you the truth, I don’t feel 1-second younger. = (

However! I did keep track of time during my flights back to the US from Afghanistan (at an avg speed of 500-something mph), and indeed the theory is true!~ My watch REALLY did slow down! By being on those several flights from Afghanistan to LA, I actually gained about 2 seconds! Can anyone verify the calculations on this? I think I just found the next cure to aging! Haha. I hope I don’t sound like some crazy cult leader now…but anyway, if you find yourself on a VERY long flight anytime soon (“relatively” speaking), check out the Theory of Relativity yourself! And see how much time you actually gain by flying at high accelerations over the rest of the world!

[please excuse/correct me if my physics is incorrect here]