Shame on Me!

Apologies for how transient (or invisible) I have been in the past few months. Trust me, it's not simply negligence that led to the incredibly low frequency of postings here--I've been extraordinarily busy. In order to make up for my lack of posts--and leaving you out of my college experience entirely--let me give you a short update on all that has happened.


-Aaron Pomis won the election to sit on the school board of the Charlotte/Mecklenburg district.
After canvassing three times and explaining to many people the pros of electing Aaron to office, everything paid off. It was great to know that something I worked on turned out in my favor. The experience with the Pomis campaign will help me next fall with Obama's reelection. I owe all of these experiences to JD and Aaron. Thanks so much, guys.

-Eco-Reps met its conclusion.
While the fact that the program finished brings me great sadness, I know that I gained a lot from the experience and I'm extremely excited to take what I've learned and use it in the future. I will miss the fellowship of the group, but I have gained friendships with the members. I know who to go to for help with certain issues that have to do with the environment, and I'm very excited to see what else Allison has in store for us. There is an internship this spring open to students interested in environmental issues, and I'm pretty sure I'm going to apply. I really hope that I get accepted because I know it would not only be engaging, but would also help me learn more about grants and planning.

-I met with Lindsey Graham's Greenville office.
I'm hoping to get a spot on Senator Graham's staff for the upcoming summer. I have been emailing a couple of the members of staff and finally went in for an interview last week. It was incredibly exciting to talk to them, and they even introduced me to other members of the office as their "summer intern". I know that I'm a Davidson College Democrat, but I am more than willing to work for Graham, a Republican, because he is not only the Senator from my state that I hold the greatest respect for but also because I agree with a lot of his policy.

-Finals are done!
Woohoo! This is the most exciting of updates, I must say. I studied so hard for them and nearly lost my mind in the process. I was satisfied with my grades on a few and disappointed in some others, but that's just how it goes, I suppose. My grades have inspired me to work much harder next semester and harder still for the semesters to come.


Well, I hope this post works as some sort of reconciliation for you. I'm sorry for the awful posting frequency, but you'll accept that as just my style from now on, right? (I know, posts apologizing about being late all the time get old very fast, so I'll abstain from the apologies from here on out.)

Have a terrific day!

Food for Thought

So I post rather infrequently, and I suppose I justify my transiency with the well-accepted phrase that "those who often talk the most have the least to say". I have plenty to say, I assure you, but I want to make sure I reserve your precious reading time (or precious clicks to other pages like facebook or NYT) for the most important or interesting experiences I have had thus far and into the future.

Today, however, an extraordinary speaker graced the Lily Gallery with his presence.

This man, Raj Patel, has a very impressive resume, and has a lot to say about big issues.

Novices, Furman Trip, the Apple of My Eye, and the Big Apple.

Wow. Long time no post. I've got three weekends' worth of exciting activities!

September 23rd I drove down to Columbia to stay with Amit and judge the USC novice tournament for forensics. If you are in high school, I HIGHLY recommend you do forensics. It's such a neat program, and will help you so much later in life. I only wish I had done it earlier than I did. I'm very thankful of Amit for letting me stay with him (and thankful to his awesome roomie as well), and glad I got to see Caroline and Faucette and all of my Southside buddies! It was so great to see everyone. There was also a girl there who saw my Davidson shirt and said she wanted to go there so badly. I recognized her as the girl who had the Skippy Jon Jones: Lost in Spice piece last year. Among my friends, the piece is infamous.

During that week, I went canvassing with the Davidson Dems for Aaron Pomis, a very qualified candidate for the upcoming School Board election. I enjoyed it a lot, even though most people didn't answer the door for me.

On September 30th, I drove to Greenville, and had a grand old time hanging out with Caroline. I woke up in the new month, and realized I was late to my engagement--a Furman tour with the Eco-Reps. I hopped out of bed, threw on some clothes, brushed my teeth, and dashed out the door. Unfortunately, there was so much road work going on, so my drive was a bit delayed. I finally made it to Furman, and we started the tour. We saw the Eco House on campus, featured in Southern Living and accompanied by an awesome garden. After a tour of some of the other facilities, we grabbed some lunch and went to talk with some Furman Eco-Reps (they weren't literally "Eco-Reps", but they did the same job as us). Furman has a really neat Environmental Science major, and a couple of the kids there said they were majoring--or double-majoring--in it.

After our Furman visit, we hopped in the car (and van) and drove to downtown Greenville. After illegally parking in a church parking lot (not very Christian to make your parking lot exclusive for church use only during all of the week, huh?), we scaled a small mountain and met our tour guide at the top of Falls Park. Quick aside: the city had dyed the water in the fountains at Falls Park pink. It looked so crazy. Alright, back to my story: the tour guide introduced himself, and was none other than my beautiful father, Russell Stall. He told us a little bit about his nonprofit, Greenville Forward, and started the tour. We saw the Liberty Bridge, Falls Park, South Carolina's Governor's School for the Arts and Humanities, Fluor Field (home of the Greenville Drive), the Kroc Center, A J Wittenburg, and the Swamp Rabbit Trail. Finally, we ended with something tasty at OCHA, a locally-owned tea shop.

Needless to say, I went home that night worn out.

But wait! I did more that night?! No way!

I had dinner with my parents and grandmother, and then had my really good friend, Neil, over for the night. The last time I saw this dork was before I left for college, so we were long overdue. It was very nice to see him.

The next day, October 2nd, I woke up early so I could go apple picking with that cutie, Caroline. She drove over to the house about 9-ish, and we hopped in the car to go to SkyTop. Neither of us really thought about packing warm, so when we got there, we were freezing. We scrambled down into the orchards, looking for Jonathons, Winesaps, Golden Deliciouses, and Fiji apples. Only Fiji and Winesap were in the orchards, so we quickly went to pick them. Unfortunately for us, most of the apples had already been picked. I saw apples at the tops of the trees, and took to the skies to find them! (Or just climbed a couple of trees). We ended up only able to find a basketful of good apples on the trees, and our definition of good was quite loose. We went to this weird little bamboo forest they have in the middle of the orchard, and then went to see a couple goats. Caroline freaked out at the goats (she looked like a kindergartener), and then we went up to buy the apples. We grabbed massive bags of all the apples we didn't have and loaded them in the car.

Next, the good part: eating the delicious apple-centered snacks that SkyTop has to offer. First off, a pumpkin-flavored homemade donut and a apple-cider flavored homemade donut--SO GOOD. Next, slices of apple with warm caramel poured over them--ALSO SO GOOD. I got some cider and Caroline got some hot chocolate. The girl who served us saw my Davidson sweatshirt, and said that she was planning on going to Davidson, too! That's like, two people in two weekends! Anyway, we finished our apples and grabbed a dozen more apple donuts and left.

Then, Fall Break!

YES.

For Fall Break, I drove to Charlotte to my grandparent's house. My parents and brother were going to meet me there. While I waited, I played my grandfather's PlayStation2, but we couldn't get the color to work. I played Enter the Matrix in black and white. It was awesome. We spent the night there (Harrison and I stayed up way too late) and woke up at 5 am (see why I said "way too late"?) for a flight at 7-ish out of the Charlotte airport to LaGuardia Airport in New York. We carried all of our luggage on, which is something I've never done and that excited me greatly. (It's really not that thrilling, I assure you.) We landed in NYC (with a massive bang, I might add) and took a cab to Penn Station. Gosh, I love New York. It's like the greatest city in the world. We made it to Penn Station, and waited on a train to Dover. I was still in awe of how wonderful it was to be back in the city. We hopped on our train, and rode it for a couple of hours to Madison, New Jersey. There, Ned was waiting on us with a car to pick us up. We went to lunch at a bar where we got our first taste of New Jersey.... I guess literally, too.

We got some cupcakes and left Madison to go to Ned's house on Lake Hopatcong. His house is awesome, and he lives right on the lake. Harrison, Ned and I all hung out for the two nights we spent in New Jersey and had much fun. We went out on the boat twice, and watched Signs with a projector and a white sheet by the campfire. I decided that I want some boots because of the visit. Early Monday morning, we woke to catch a train to New York. We got on the wrong side of the platform, but the conductor was nice enough to wait for us to walk under the tracks to get over to the correct side.

Back in New York, we dropped our bags off at the hotel and grabbed brunch at this really hipster eating place. I had porridge, and it was SO good. We were all marveling at the fact that a person could stop anywhere in NYC and know that the food would be fantastic.

We walked to 30 Rock and saw all of Rockefeller Plaza before heading to MoMa, which I swear gets better and better every time I go. Unfortunately, the contemporary art exhibit at MoMA was being redone, so I didn't get to see my favorite exhibit. After MoMA, we headed to Trump Tower. It was cool, but everything was gold looking. Next, we met up with a mentor of Harrison's, Steve Moss. He is a man from (a long time ago) the UK who works for a French bank and lives in New York. He is an interesting guy, and Harrison had a nice little meeting with him.

After the meeting, we were too tired for more, so we went to the hotel for the night.

The next morning, we headed to Wall Street to see the Occupy Wall Street movement. We saw all kinds of awesome signs and a big papier mache megaphone. It looked pretty cool. We then moved on to the 9/11 memorial and looked in their museum--"museum". Harrison and I bought a shirt and Dad bought a pen.

We ate one final lunch, and prepared to leave the big city. Waiting for us outside the hotel was a limousine to take us to the airport. We all felt so awesome riding in it, and it was a great way to end the New York trip. We all flew back to CLT, then parted ways.

I've had a very great past few weeks.

Have a wonderful week.

Blue Revolution: A Water Ethic for America

Last Wednesday I had the privilege to go to UNC-Charlotte with the Eco-Reps to listen to Cynthia Barnett talk about the water crisis in America. She was speaking a day after her newest book, Blue Revolution: A Water Ethic for America, was released for sale. Barnett has written another book on water crises, entitled Mirage: Florida and the Vanishing Water of the Eastern U.S. Her newest, however, takes a broader look at water crises, by including all of the United States and through references to practices used in other countries, like India and Australia.

There are 3.5 million miles of river in the United States, and 600,000 trillion gallons of water beneath our feet. This seems like a lot, but Barnett argues that it isn't.

Mocked.

I had a Mock Trial second round tryout last night. I ended up not making it on the team, but the experience of trying out was fun enough. The competition was really fierce.

I had my first meeting for the Freshman Eco-Reps, and I enjoyed it. Ellie and I are going to be writing an article to go in the Davidsonian sometime, so be on the lookout for that.

I'm considering using the time I would have used for Mock Trial to start making/editing YouTube videos again. Those of you who have seen my old ones, please don't express your feelings on the first round of Hamptonesque vlogs! These new ones will be better, more exciting, and smarter! (Also, Caroline and I [briefly] discussed doing a joint YouTube channel; think vlogbrothers style. I'm very excited about that channel, too.)

I think I may have found a topic for my first Ethics paper, and Dworkin (and co.) will be the topic. Dear readers/editors of my paper, be prepared for some smart-sounding trolling with some sound arguments. I'm pretty excited about the paper, especially since I know it will be a challenge, and one I can accomplish with a good grade.





Today has been good, and my tiredness-time completely flipped today. This morning, I was VERY conscious, and was trying to figure out what the heck my previous week's econ notes even meant. This afternoon, however, I've been SUPER tired, which will probably explain the scatterbrainedness of this post.

Have a wunnerful day, guys and gals!

Makin' History

Hi there, stranger!

Yesterday morning, I had to get up waaaaay early to go to an event with the College Democrats of Davidson. It was our first event (before a meeting, even), and was very exciting. We went to the Time Warner Cable Stadium in Charlotte for a very exciting event. Before I reveal what the event was, I first want to say a couple of things.

First, Davidson kids NEVER cease to impress me. I met a kid who looked like he wouldn't enjoy any sort of politics or speeches or anything, but when he and I started talking, he knew waaaay more than me in all of politics. I was very impressed, especially since he was able to not only keep up with me when debating policies, but (more often than not) surpassed my knowledge and understanding of the subjects.

Second, there was a freak switch in drivers for who I would be riding with to get to Charlotte, as my driver cancelled at 11:30 the night before. Instead, I was to be riding with Gerard, the President of the Student Government Association at Davidson. (Quite an important and prestigious role, if you ask me.) He was very nice, and I definitely look forward to talking with him more this year, and perhaps in the years to come as well.

Third, I should really stop judging people before meeting them. Back to the first point, I met like 4 other people who were REALLY informed and passionate about really interesting things, whom I judged wrongly about. I'm glad that they set me straight on the matter, but I will strive to get better in the coming four years.

Alright, now to the event:

DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL CONVENTION 2012 KICKOFF!


It was so exciting to be there, especially since I felt all cool and stuff being there with the College Democrats! (We got to go in an exclusive entrance, and were up front, able to TOUCH the speakers as they walked by!)

Not only did really interesting people speak, including Eliza Hernandez (president of the College Democrats of North Carolina), Debbie Schultz (DNC Chair), and Anthony Foxx (Mayor of Charlotte and Davidson alumnus), but the new 2012 DNC logo was released to the public for the first time. It was all so great.




Our hall had a Flickerball scrimmage against 1st (and a few from 2nd) Cannon, and it was a lot of fun. As of now, I am a wide receiver and a long pass receiver for special teams, but that could all change really soon. Our team lost the scrimmage, but it was fun nonetheless.

Also, last night, I had an interview for Mock Trial, which I think went pretty well. The four interviewing me seemed friendly and I think I spoke well enough. Only time will tell.

After the interview, I talked with Kara about the EcoReps, and I'm definitely getting really excited about the group.

All in all (repeating myself again here), this year is going to be great.

First Day of Second Day of Class

Wow, my sleep schedule is going to be so messed up.

Today, I woke up at 10:30A to a phone call and my roommate coming back from class and breakfast. The day was already really bright, and everyone else in the world was awake.

I stumbled out of bed, showered, and found some people to go to lunch with.

Not much of note in the afternoon until my Applied Ethics class. I got in right before the class started (the class starts at 3:05, and I probably slid in at 3:04-ish), so, of course, I was seated in the back. The teacher, Professor Goldstein proceeded to tell about the requirements of the course, and what would happen in it, and all of that good stuff. I noticed all kinds of awesome philosophers--ones I had read, at that!--and started to get really excited.

Right after going through the syllabus, though, the class got interesting really fast. He turned to us and asked us to debate the ethics of abortion--whether or not an abortion was immoral or moral. Nobody spoke for half a minute, so I explained what I felt the debate truly was and how the argument should be approached. Unfortunately enough, I had to take a stance on the issue at that point in time. It would appear that I picked the unpopular stance, too, as four or five students instantly raised their hands when the professor asked for more people to speak. Almost everyone in the class contributed, and a few contributed more than once. I'm so glad that participation at Davidson is such a big deal, and something that comes so easily for so many people. It means that our discussions will actually get somewhere, instead of the discussions just being between three people who agree on the same side of the argument, but don't realize that they do.

After class, I talked to the professor, and told him about Wittgenstein and Sartre and Russell and Mill and all of the other philosophers I read, and he seemed to be really excited, too. It was great to see a teacher who truly loves his subject and loves it when students are interested, too.

I had dinner with Graham, who had a pet furry caterpillar perched on his shoulder for most of the dinner, and had a nice chat with him about his experiences at Davidson, my experiences at Davidson, and his upcoming documentary. He and a friend are borrowing my Flip to record their documentary, and it seems like it would definitely be something interesting to watch/film.

I made a quick run through the Organizations Fair, signed up for the mailing list of the Eco-Reps, Mock Trial, and the Young Dems. Unfortunately, I had to make it to the library for a Davidson101 class, so I didn't have any time to shop around. I'm really excited for the Eco-Reps, and I think I will probably spend time in the Young Dems as opposed to Mock Trial for this year. Again, none of these plans are set in stone, and when it comes to picking extra-curriculars, I'm usually pretty fickle until a week before the commitment comes.

Davidson 101 - Library was alright. I learned how to find books in the library and where to search for scholarly sources within the library database. Davidson's got a pretty good library, though I didn't take that away from my first visits to the campus. I'm glad that Dav101 is able to change my mind like that. My next Davidson101 class is "Realizing Your Risk", and is on Thursday night.





Afterwards, I was able to talk on the phone with Caroline, and enjoyed the conversation thoroughly. Here's a shout-out.

Early night tonight after reading some more Epic of Gilgamesh, Economics, and Metaphysics.

Have a phenomenal preevening.