Rohit's Realm - July 2008
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July 06, 2008
Almost two years ago, I wrote an impassioned article about the deplorable condition of the roads in San Francisco, Calif., imploring the incompetent many charged with the city's upkeep to do something—anything—about it. When nothing became of my cries for help (as nothing should, considering the trivial and marginalized existence that I lead), the disaffected boys of 1524 released the San Francisco Platform to rectify the gross injustices that faced our venerable city. The first priority was to pave the roads (assholes), followed closely by flushing the 'Loin clean of the failed human beings that currently inhabit it (Taking Back the 'Loin
), and privatizing the much-hated MUNI system (of which, more here and here).
Though our mayoral challenge imploded in a tepid burst of complacence and unplanned life events (no, no one impregnated anyone; both G-Unit and I moved across the country to go to graduate school), at long last, we have found vindication for all the blood, sweat, and tears that we expended. As P-Diddy pointed out today, our fight has not been in vain. The roads in SF are finally being paved!
July 07, 2008
The Wall Street Journal today reports on the 2008 U.S. presidential candidates' economic plans (subscription required). I could probably attempt to say something substantive about these plans, I suppose, but let's be real: given my worthless existence, chances that I add value
to anyone's life by my verbose and futile pontification are so low as to not warrant such an endeavor. Instead, I will focus on a specific quote from the article, viz., Mr. McCain's plans include doubling the child tax deduction from $3,500 to $7,000 'for every dependent.'
July 11, 2008
HFK recently pointed out that it was rather surprising
that my shared items were regularly appearing in his reader given that
I had excoriated the feature only months before with
characteristic vitriol and bitterness. Admittedly, this is quite an
about-face. To whom or what do we attribute this nontrivial change of
heart?
July 12, 2008
Since arriving in New York some four weeks ago, I have often heard the lament that Manhattan has lost its soul in the past ten years, becoming in the process some sort of amusement park
for tourists and the nouveau riche (those woe-begotten hedgefund-managing speculators
). Indeed, it seems to be the gripe du jour amongst New Yorkers new and old alike. The veracity of such sentiments I cannot confirm, for this is the first time I have spent any time in the Big Apple, but if the soul
of which they speak has migrated to Williamsburg, I fret that it all might be a farce—and a fedora-laden ironic one at that. What I can attest to, however, is that at least in some parts of New York City, the amusement park complaint is by no means misplaced, as my first—and hopefully, last—foray into the Jungle last night made all too clear.
July 19, 2008
With grades from the last quarter of my 1L year (finally) in, the dreadful journal competition (finally) complete, and the summer winding down faster than it began, I was already left poised this week for reflection (as though I need any help with that!). Surprisingly, however, it was a minor calamity involving my photo server (the noble autocrat.rohitsrealm.com) that ended up providing the catalyzing spark necessary for me to contemplate the perennial question that has come to define not only me, but more importantly, this blog: what am I doing with my life (and why have I not yet killed myself)?
July 29, 2008
As it has been some time since I last expressed disillusionment with anything but my own woeful inadequacy, I thought I might take the opportunity to disabuse cherished readers of the notion that I have abandoned the contempt in which I hold most of society to pursue hating myself full time. Nothing could be further from the truth, and today, I turn to a topic that never fails to dole out soul-crushing disillusionment to any who seek it: politics. Tomorrow's Times (brought to me today by the magic of the internets
) features an interesting article on Senator (and presumptive Democratic presidential nominee) Obama's twelve years as a professor at The University of Chicago Law School, and I highly recommend a read. While the piece covers a lot of ground, I would like to focus on one point in particular that is brought to the forefront: Obama never published a single piece of scholarly work while a faculty member at Chicago. My first thoughts: seriously? How is that possible?
July 02, 2008
As anyone who has ever suffered the gross misfortune of being forced to use the disgraceful San Francisco MUNI knows altogether too well, the number of trains that go by in the opposite direction while you wait impatiently, alternating between swatting away bums and staring at one's watch with an ever-increasing homicidal rage, is a decent proxy for one's frustration with that woeful system at any given time. Cody the Freak crystallized this concept as the MUNI Suck Factor,
which BChalk later modified to the MUNI Suck Ass Factor,
as I discussed earlier. While this conceptualization served me well in SF, it requires modification to properly reflect the state of affairs in New York City, as there are several more variables to consider in gaging anger and frustration.
July 28, 2008
Back in the joyous days of '06 (relatively speaking, anyway), I documented my top five most underutilized purchases, or in other words (if you strip the God-awful consulting jargon), the five most worthless purchases of my adult life, at least from a materialistic perspective. (Holistically, the most worthless purchase of my adult life has been health insurance, as purchasing anything that serves to extend my wretched existence is merely throwing good money after bad, but that's quite besides the point.) A couple objects that did not make the list in 2006, but easily could have would have been my not one, but two SLR cameras (one digital, one film—obviously!).
