Life's Small Pleasures

I've got them, and I know you do too.

The sound of a fresh can of tennis balls being opened.
Spicy beef Pho.
Brand-new socks.
The smell of a hot, summer day.

What are some of yours?

Optical Illusion

So I know this will be hard for you to believe, but the two squares marked "A" and "B" below are exactly the same shade of gray.



This illusion occurs because our brain does not directly perceive the true colors and brightness of objects in the world, but instead compares the color and brightness of a given item with others in its vicinity.

Here's some more.

Famous

Wow. I just found out that I'll be flying with Craig on his private jet for his upcoming College Tour in October. So I suppose this experience will, in part, make up for the fact that I'll be traveling and working on my birthday, October 8th. We'll be hitting 5 universities in 5 days: Princeton, NYU, U of Mich., UC Berkeley, UC San Diego.

Good times! I love my job.

This is the one.

Door Ding

Yesterday I did a terrible thing. I felt really bad afterwards, and had to pray and ask God to forgive me.

You think I'm joking, but I'm not, and I would like to confess my sin to you.

I had a site visit at the University of California San Diego yesterday. The PR person and I stopped by a Jamba Juice after the meeting at the University was finished up. When I went to get back into the towncar that was driving us around, I swung the door open and it popped open much easier than I expected and bumped into the rear door of the car next to me. "Oops," I muttered, and got into the towncar. As I looked at where the door where it had hit, there was a definite ding mark. I thought, I should leave a note or something, but this PR person was in the car, and the driver was already talking and ready to pull away. Then I noticed that there was a guy sitting in the driver's seat on the phone! He was looking back at me through the tinted window and gesticulating, talking on the phone, probably saying something like, "Dude, this guy just smacked my car with his door and now he's taking off!" I felt mortified, and as we backed out, the guy was getting out of his car to check out the damage. Then I could see that it was actually a pretty good little dent, and a skosh of paint had chipped off. It was a Volkswagon in decent shape. But I still didn't say anything, and we slowly drove out of the parking lot.

And I had that sick feeling in my stomach.

Why didn't I get out and give him a business card, offer to pay for the repair? Why did I just remain silent?

So there it is, and I had to work through the bad emotions and guilt and ask God to forgive me, because I have absolutely no way of getting a hold of that guy now.