Observation from a bartender: Pepsi Clear.

The other week at a hotel restaurant bar on a Wednesday night, I overheard the (aging) (very light-skinned black) (male) bartender tell a patron that the *real* reason they made Pepsi Clear was so that it could be smuggled into the Soviet Union, and the people there could have their jacks-and-cokes in public without anyone being able to tell that they were drinking Coca-Cola.

He also said that the first week of January they closed the hotel bar for the 1st time in 40 years; occupancy was at just 10% due to a combination of very cold temps and the post-holiday lull, and it just wasn't worth it to keep anything open.

He said they usually have occupancy in the 80% range, which is best in the city for major hotels, and the only thing better you get is at small boutique hotels, many of which have average occupancy in the 90% range.

New prof I work for (2 of 2): Story from his youth.

Towards the end of the first class, the new prof I work for also brought up a small anecdote about how he used to be a translator at the airport, for people who spoke Creole.

He was talking about how there was this one guy with a tourist visa that customs was grilling, and the guy was trying to play rich, and he showed hundred dollar bills and said he came to spend money and tour.

"What sites?", they were like.

"The sites of Canada," he was like.  "The main ones."

Then they asked him for credit cards, and he said he didn't have any, he only spent cash.

They denied him entry, and sent him back to Haiti.

"I was required to translate," the professor was like, "So I look at him, and I cannot believe what he is saying, but I am required to say everything...  He had a college education and raised money from friends, but he did not how to pose, how to put borrowed money in a bank and take out credit cards and pose as a tourist.  I translated for many others, and they were in the same position as him, education and borrowed money, but they knew how to successfully pose and they entered the country, but he did not, because he did not have the knowledge.   I was so sad for him, but I was required to translate."

That anecdote floored me, the way the prof opened up like that at random, but I don't think any of the freshmen noticed.  They're too young.

New prof I work for (1 of 2): Advice on leading class.

The new prof I work for is a Haitian immigrant to North America at a young age, and has a pretty heavy Haitian accent.

His humor is funny...

He took over a class from last term, and pretty much right at the start of the 1st class he mentioned to the students that they likely saw him at the multi-class movie nights for the standardized course.

"I am the one who brought the pizza," he was like.  "Yes, that is right, I am the delivery man."

Then he laughed out loud to himself

(He's actually a pretty high-powered prof who's in charge of that section of the freshman program, though I don't think they know that.)

I had worked with the same group of students last term, and they just never talked, yet with him leading the class, they just opened up, surprisingly.

I mentioned that to him after the first day, and he told me 2 things:

1) Leading discussion is like "seduction", which I took to mean that you tantalize the students and bring them out (he was probably translating into English from French, his main language); and

2) Set an atmosphere of "sharing", not instruction.

What a cool person.

Turning 35 (2 of 2): Vistas.

I often feel like I don't have enough time to do the research and writing on academic politics that I want to do, and yet when I turn around and think about how my parents are now 70, I realize that if I live to be their age, I'd actually have 35 years of time to work on these issues, which is a lot.

It's odd to think of the years stretching out ahead of me like that.

That, and how the city has ceased to be new to me in many ways in the 8+ years I've lived here, and how I now have my routines and am content to stay at home more.

I wonder if thinking like that is what causes midlife crises.

Turning 35 (1 of 2): Bonus!

My favorite part of turning 35?

At the gym, the "Age" setting of the "Age/Weight" input on the elliptical starts at 35, so I just hit "enter" when it pops up, without having to hit the arrow buttons to adjust my age up or down.

I think I'm too hard on myself.

I think I'm too hard on myself.

My (Asian-Canadian) friend has observed this, that I tend to talk about what I have to do in very black-and-white terms, where if something's not perfect or not done on my projected schedule, I say that everything's wrong.

For example, lately I've felt like I'm not getting enough writing done on academic politics, though when I stop and think about it, I only got my first major pieces published in early summer and then fall, and the new request I got to write for an up-and-coming intellectual journal online happened along just 8 months after that.

Overall, that's pretty good, to think that I've become a known and respected quantity on this topic in less than a year!

I also have noticed that other grad students can be pretty lolly-gaggy, where they procrastinate on major projects and just take things one thing at a time, w/little attention to the long-term.

Compared to that, I'm pretty ahead of the ballgame.

I honestly think if I compared my CV to other people's, it'd be way longer with a lot more shit in a lot more categories, and I'd come off as way more intense, perhaps even frighteningly so.

My mantra these days:

"All I have to do is focus on work and be ready for classes when they come."

I tell myself that, to keep myself from being overwhelmed with all the teaching I'm doing this term.

It helps me to brush off my side projects and feel all right, because I'm doing all that I'm supposed to be doing.