Saturday, April 26, 2008

Greetings from the middle east

Mini update. I'm at my friend Andrew's place in Jerusalem, Israel. It's gorgeous here, and I think I'm going to be spending a bit of time here during my travels of the future. I'm staying with the family in Tel Aviv, about 40 minutes away, and will be headed back there soon, but just wanted to post and say that I'll be trying to update more fully upon my return home. I have a ton of school work and will be bogged down for a couple of weeks until the end of the semester but will do my best to some worthy posts in.

Also, I believe I'll have my blog linked up to Deucescracked at some point soon. They take worthy articles from blogs of the execs and coaches, and consolidate them into the "articles" section at the DC site. They've been doing this for a while and there are tons of good articles, I highly suggest indulging in many of them. Anyways, look for that, and otherwise I'll be trying to throw another update out soon. Hope everyone is doing well and running good. Thanks for reading.


-Alex

Sunday, April 6, 2008

Drama bombs

Well, on top of the Pokerstars fiasco of the last several weeks (which has been temporarily resolved, I hope permanently soon...), a lot has been going on. Last week was one of the worst weeks that I've had in a long time. Physically, emotionally, psychologically. It all came down on me at once and I really had a lot of trouble getting through it, and I think the recent experiences have helped answer a lot of questions for me, and give me a bit more focus as to what I need now to help me figure out stuff later.

College is really a big strain on me right now....fake social relationships, my personal issues with the idea of contemporary America's 'big public state university' that has screwed me and thousands of others over for years running, my issues with my actual field of study and the occupational implications of the future. So many things. Sooo many things. It got to a point where I realized that I needed a break. School is important enough to me that I know I want a degree for freedom of choices later that might require one. I think the idea of today that people go to college just because it's convenient or considered standard or normal though, is completely insane.

People should go to college because it's right for their life goals and choices and what they believe is 'right' for them, however they define it. Intelligence is not and should not be defined by a college degree. Some of the most brilliant people ever had never even experienced formal education much less university/upper level education. It's just so insane that it has turned into what it is today. While it's certainly right for me to finish, it's not right for me to finish now. I need a break to ensure that I will want to finish when the time comes. I know that doesn't sound right but, if I stay and keep going the way things are, I have a strong feeling that I'm not going to be able to make it. I want to do this so that I can take some 'me' time, and also put in stuff that I think I need to do later in addition to the stuff I want to do now. I don't want to go into too many specifics but that's a lot of the general situation.

As for the next step...well, muscling out this next 6 weeks+ of school. I'll be headed to europe to see my sister and hang with family and friends in Greece and Israel for the holidays in the middle of April, and just trying to end the semester strongly before and after. After that....well, my first call after leaving my parents' house tonight to tell them of my plans was to my friend Rob (Bobbofitos) to book a room at Chet Bobbo for a single queen sized bed for 6 weeks in Las Vegas, NV. Thaaaat's right, VEGAS BABY! I'm headed back for 6 weeks this summer and going to make it an even sicker time than the amazing experiences I had of our month out there last summer (especially finally being 21!). After that, we'll see...I'm bouncing around some ideas :)

That's all for now- I'm exhausted and have an early wakeup and a somewhat full day tomorrow. Hopefully, at least starting after school ends for the term, I'll be updating this thing with more regularity. Thanks for reading.


-Alex