Back Online
I'm set up to start posting again. My computer went down back in April and I haven't had robust equipment since then. I'm on a new computer now, though I may be out of access soon. I'll be moving to Taipei somewhat sooner than I expected.
Coming back I thought I would be staying here in Ming Jian for the rest of the summer. I've had to come to terms with expecting the unexpected. Moving to Taipei will present some good opportunities though. I can get myself situated before starting at university at the end of August. That includes finding a new job, finding an apartment, and finding new activities too. As long as I can get my work lined up, the other issues should get resolved fairly quickly.
My trip back to the States went very well for the most part. Visiting friends in DC was a blast. We had a cookout with burgers and salads - a good time was had by all. We traded war stories and future plans. I can't understate what an interesting group of friends I have. After that I went to my sister's wedding in Boston. It was a great success. Having never been to an Jewish Orthodox function before I was unsure of what to expect. Everyone was very welcoming which made me feel much more comfortable. The reception after the ceremony was about a joyful an event as I've ever attended. I had a lot of fun with the different ways we went about entertaining Reuven, my new brother-in-law.
After Boston, my parents and I went down to Naples, FL to relax for a week. That week went by quickly, but it was filled with sunny afternoons, good food, and good family. Together we returned to North Carolina, but after one day back I left for St. Louis on a long road trip. At this point I was couch surfing. Some friends from college happened to be staying in the very same apartment that I had lived in a few years ago. We caught up and had some wonderful St. Louis food. I revisited my favorite local study spot, Kaldi's Coffee. We went swimming and built a wooden rocking horse from a kit I bought here in Taiwan. My friend will give it to her niece and nephew. After St. Louis I was supposed to drive up to Cedar Rapids, but I had to cancel that leg of the trip due to the flood.
It's hard to overstate just how ridiculous the circumstances were that kept me from visiting my Grandma in Cedar Rapids. The day I'm supposed to drive up there, they had a 500-year flood with a crest 12 feet higher than anything in their recorded history (which goes back more than 150 years). That's right, 500 years! That about how long our continent has been known to western civilization. In theory, the two days I wanted to visit saw the worst flooding central east Iowa since before Cervantes and Shakespeare.
My outrage having been registered, I must note my skepticism over using these numbers. the statistical system used to categorize flood levels is based on the mistaken assumption that the risk of a flood of level X does not change from year to year. As the land changes, so does the risk of flood. Specifically, the intensity of the farming in the watershed can increase the run-off rate of the land and lead to accelerated accumulation in streams and rivers. The water that would have been slowed down by forest or grassland or wetland instead rushed off into the cedar river and it's tributaries. If all that water had been retarded it may have led to a longer duration of flood levels, but a lower crest. Calling this a 500-year flood may be accurate looking towards the past flood record, but it won't be accurate looking towards the future.
Instead of going to Iowa, I called another college friend in Ft. Wayne, IN. She was living with her parents there for a short while and they were kind enough to welcome me in. In fact they were extremely kind considering the circumstances of their weekend. The same day I arrived, their daughter came home from 6+ week stay in Italy. Additionally, the very next day they were throwing a big high school graduation party for their son. With all that going on, they didn't hesitate to welcome me into their home. I caught up with my friend and we swapped stories. I really enjoyed visiting with her parents too. I'd met them both during my time at Wash U. and they're very interesting people. After that, I spent a night in Kentucky with some friends I'd met in Taiwan. We talked and had dinner, but we didn't have time for much else. The next morning I left to drive home to North Carolina. 24 hours later I was flying back to Taiwan.
I should also note two great meetings I had with friends of my mother. I sat down with head of the philosophy department and we talked about the prospects for a career in academia. To be fair, they aren't all that bright. The profession isn't full of opportunities. There are relatively few journal spots for publication. Additionally, the publications system is organized in manner that often selects in favor of work that falls into step with a few popular schools of thought. There is a tendency to reject novel, challenging ideas. He didn't make the scene sound too inviting. But his honest assessment and his information will be a great help moving forward.
I also met with a local lawyer there who is a big supporter of the university and of the local democratic party. He had no shortage of interesting things to say. I expressed my concern that too many law school students were graduating just to find work in paper factories endlessly churning out legal documents. That doesn't interest me at all. But he had something really interesting to say about that. He admitted that he saw what I was talking about. But he broke the law school class down in to different parts. A few do terribly and shouldn't be in law school. A few are superstars and can pick out any future path they want. But the great majority of students are somewhere in the middle. Among them, many students go to law school without a strong idea of what they want to do with their degree once they graduate. Those people are the ones ended up a paper pushers he said. The ones who knew just what they wanted to do, and found the right programs and classes, didn't have that problem. The ones who wander through law school aimlessly often find themselves in those uninspiring positions.
Ok, that's enough for now. I'll put up some photos from the wedding soon.
Coming back I thought I would be staying here in Ming Jian for the rest of the summer. I've had to come to terms with expecting the unexpected. Moving to Taipei will present some good opportunities though. I can get myself situated before starting at university at the end of August. That includes finding a new job, finding an apartment, and finding new activities too. As long as I can get my work lined up, the other issues should get resolved fairly quickly.
My trip back to the States went very well for the most part. Visiting friends in DC was a blast. We had a cookout with burgers and salads - a good time was had by all. We traded war stories and future plans. I can't understate what an interesting group of friends I have. After that I went to my sister's wedding in Boston. It was a great success. Having never been to an Jewish Orthodox function before I was unsure of what to expect. Everyone was very welcoming which made me feel much more comfortable. The reception after the ceremony was about a joyful an event as I've ever attended. I had a lot of fun with the different ways we went about entertaining Reuven, my new brother-in-law.
After Boston, my parents and I went down to Naples, FL to relax for a week. That week went by quickly, but it was filled with sunny afternoons, good food, and good family. Together we returned to North Carolina, but after one day back I left for St. Louis on a long road trip. At this point I was couch surfing. Some friends from college happened to be staying in the very same apartment that I had lived in a few years ago. We caught up and had some wonderful St. Louis food. I revisited my favorite local study spot, Kaldi's Coffee. We went swimming and built a wooden rocking horse from a kit I bought here in Taiwan. My friend will give it to her niece and nephew. After St. Louis I was supposed to drive up to Cedar Rapids, but I had to cancel that leg of the trip due to the flood.
It's hard to overstate just how ridiculous the circumstances were that kept me from visiting my Grandma in Cedar Rapids. The day I'm supposed to drive up there, they had a 500-year flood with a crest 12 feet higher than anything in their recorded history (which goes back more than 150 years). That's right, 500 years! That about how long our continent has been known to western civilization. In theory, the two days I wanted to visit saw the worst flooding central east Iowa since before Cervantes and Shakespeare.
My outrage having been registered, I must note my skepticism over using these numbers. the statistical system used to categorize flood levels is based on the mistaken assumption that the risk of a flood of level X does not change from year to year. As the land changes, so does the risk of flood. Specifically, the intensity of the farming in the watershed can increase the run-off rate of the land and lead to accelerated accumulation in streams and rivers. The water that would have been slowed down by forest or grassland or wetland instead rushed off into the cedar river and it's tributaries. If all that water had been retarded it may have led to a longer duration of flood levels, but a lower crest. Calling this a 500-year flood may be accurate looking towards the past flood record, but it won't be accurate looking towards the future.
Instead of going to Iowa, I called another college friend in Ft. Wayne, IN. She was living with her parents there for a short while and they were kind enough to welcome me in. In fact they were extremely kind considering the circumstances of their weekend. The same day I arrived, their daughter came home from 6+ week stay in Italy. Additionally, the very next day they were throwing a big high school graduation party for their son. With all that going on, they didn't hesitate to welcome me into their home. I caught up with my friend and we swapped stories. I really enjoyed visiting with her parents too. I'd met them both during my time at Wash U. and they're very interesting people. After that, I spent a night in Kentucky with some friends I'd met in Taiwan. We talked and had dinner, but we didn't have time for much else. The next morning I left to drive home to North Carolina. 24 hours later I was flying back to Taiwan.
I should also note two great meetings I had with friends of my mother. I sat down with head of the philosophy department and we talked about the prospects for a career in academia. To be fair, they aren't all that bright. The profession isn't full of opportunities. There are relatively few journal spots for publication. Additionally, the publications system is organized in manner that often selects in favor of work that falls into step with a few popular schools of thought. There is a tendency to reject novel, challenging ideas. He didn't make the scene sound too inviting. But his honest assessment and his information will be a great help moving forward.
I also met with a local lawyer there who is a big supporter of the university and of the local democratic party. He had no shortage of interesting things to say. I expressed my concern that too many law school students were graduating just to find work in paper factories endlessly churning out legal documents. That doesn't interest me at all. But he had something really interesting to say about that. He admitted that he saw what I was talking about. But he broke the law school class down in to different parts. A few do terribly and shouldn't be in law school. A few are superstars and can pick out any future path they want. But the great majority of students are somewhere in the middle. Among them, many students go to law school without a strong idea of what they want to do with their degree once they graduate. Those people are the ones ended up a paper pushers he said. The ones who knew just what they wanted to do, and found the right programs and classes, didn't have that problem. The ones who wander through law school aimlessly often find themselves in those uninspiring positions.
Ok, that's enough for now. I'll put up some photos from the wedding soon.
posted by Jacob Gerber at
10:19 PM
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