9 posts tagged “berkeley”
Tonight, after Obama was announced as the president-elect, thousands of students started pouring out of dorms, cafes, and libraries across Berkeley and started running through the streets of Berkeley. At the time, I was sitting in a cafe studying for a midterm. However, after some encouragement from my friends (thank you guys, I really owe you one), I sprinted home, grabbed my bike and camera, and rode/ran with the thousands of students for the next hour or two.
Now, imagine this entire crowd you see to your right screaming and cheering for Obama. And imagine every car you see holding down their horns and waving. These people were ecstatic. People were genuinely happy about our president. The police in the center of the crowd weren't violent, they were calm and waving. The cars were high fiving every pedestrian they could squeeze by. People were climbing telephone poles, buses, and buildings. Everyone was having a blast. This is what should happen when a president is elected. This is how it should be done. I've never had a lot of love for the political scene of America but I feel like this is a bold step in the right direction. Why? Because thousands of fucking people were running in the streets HAPPY about politics, for once. This man is a leader, and people believe in him. And for that alone - I'm ecstatic.
Another amazing thing about tonight was how the UC Berkeley police managed this crowd.I had a chance to speak with one of the officers and he had told me that they had anticipated this and planted officers on nearly every major intersection. All of the officers were calm and in control - and some were even cheering and smiling with the crowd. When I hopped a gate and climbed up to a balcony I definitely shouldn't have been on to take some photographs they were extremely civil and polite in asking me to leave. It was definitely the safest happy-riot I've ever experienced.
So, well done America. You've actually made Berkeley happy and excited about politics. I didn't think it could be done.
The rest of the photos are on my Flickr page.
I'd like to say I'll do this again but who knows.
My day, in photos:
Studying Linguistics at the Free Speech Cafe:
Finally taking photos of this spheroid thing on campus:
Going climbing with Julia, eating a damn good mission district burrito and listening to an awesome band:
Went out riding the other day with my camera and snapped some of the gorgeous work out by the train tracks of Berkeley. Even though these colors are bright they don't quite the do the work justice.
Higher resolution on flickr.
I've mentioned in the past how Berkeley's streets become littered with abandoned furniture, computer components, etc as semesters wax and wane. I usually examine the computer components but ultimately leave them be. I really just don't have a use for 256mb of PC133 ram anymore.
A few nights ago I saw a Laserjet 1020 just chilling on the side of the street. It looked like it was in really good shape, and I figured I'd pick it up once I was finished with my errands. I ended up picking it up later in the day and it's been sitting around in my place for the past few days. I just got around to plugging it in and testing it, since I realized I need to print 30 some pages of articles to read for tomorrow.
I presumed, when I saw it on the street, that it was probably out of toner and abandoned. I was wrong. It works flawlessly.
Hi free laser printer. Thanks for letting me print out my 10 page articles for class without worrying about paying for ink, you're the best!
In other news, tonight was the first UC Berkeley football game. I think we won? I don't know. I forgot to buy tickets and the group of guys I went with last year aren't really down for going this year. I'm a bad fan, what can I say.
Regardless, as a slightly-seasoned Berkelian, I came up with a few things I've learned from my first year here regarding game days:
1) Never. EVER. Attempt to drive. I made the mistake of forgetting today was a game day and heading out to walnut creek. On the way back, it took me 45 minutes to get from the Ashby exit back to the campus area. The freeway offramp was unbelievable. Cars would get tired of waiting, drive across this huge dirt patch and attempt to merge back onto 24. I had my camera phone out, ready to record any accident, but (thankfully) nothing happened. This post would have been way more interesting if I had a video of a car attempting to merge from gravel (tire spin) with traffic going 70mph and getting hit in the process.
2) Never. EVER. Go out to eat and expect good food. Lines are ridiculous, crowds are loud (and drunk), and rival fans keep staring at each other in rival like fashion. In addition, food quality suffers because of the ridiculous crowds and rushed cooks. They know you're drunk and won't complain. I highly recommend restaurants not near campus.
3) Do not, under any circumstances, wear the other teams' color on game day. If you think it's a game day just wear blue or gold (or white or black, I guess). You'll be safe and won't get stoned to death. I wore a green shirt out to the local corner store once, neglecting to realize the rival teams color was green that weekend. Not smart. Do not recommend.
As a bonus, if you're sight seeing in Berkeley on a game day, here are some fun things to look out for:
1) Blackout drunk freshmen/women unable to focus their eyes or walk in a straight line attempting to gain admittance to the game. At 9am. Extra points for witnessing the police pulling them aside at the gates and revoking their tickets for underage drinking/etc. Hilarity ensues.
2) Blackout drunk men and women unable to focus their eyes or walk in a straight line attempting to drive into Berkeley, park, and attend the game. At 9am. This goes hand in hand with "do not drive on game day"
3) Angry rival fans attempting to cause a ruckus.. neglecting to realize they're outnumbered about 50 to 1. I saw a few rival-fan fellows throw a half empty beer can onto a frat house's porch and drunkenly yell something about how Berkeley sucks and their team was better.. only to have the entire frat party on the porch stop what they're doing, rush over to these poor guys, and start insulting their team, their mother, etc. We're talking thirty or more drunken frat-folk yelling at about two or three rival-folk. I laughed.
Anyways, I did a quick google check and it looks like we won. Hurrah. Go Bears, etc.
Just as I sit down and get comfortable, before I turn out the lights and to go to sleep, I'm greeted with the sweet sweet sounds of some chap wretching all over the place just outside my window.
I mean this guy is really fucking suffering. This is like half yelling / half wretching bad. Repeatedly, too. Really painful stuff to hear. I almost feel bad for the guy. Almost.
I like SF, don't get me wrong, but there's just a certain charm to Berkeley that I'm just not ready to give up. It sort of feels like where adolescence goes to die. This constant influx of eager bright minds who find bottles of vodka and end up like 'ol Wretchy out there telling the pavement of his tales. It's like this horrible drama that just never ends.
Anyways, in less than 6 hours I'm up and out the door, so I best get to it.
I'm no stranger to moving, so it's becoming a pretty ordinary affair for me. Last night marked the beginning of my 10th place of residence, which feels like it should be some sort of milestone. I moved from my 150sqft studio to about a 200sqft studio within the same building. We students live like kings.
It was by far the easiest move I had ever (and probably will ever) do. With Lola and my friend's help I was able to get the entire place moved over (and the first place cleaned) in about five hours.
It's strange how accustomed I became to a lack of natural light and cramped living quarters. I now have a window that doesn't face the bottom floor of a parking garage but instead faces the sun! Astounding!
So tonight I take the huge stack of objects in the center of my room and place them where they belong. I'm looking forward to this immensely.
It's no secret that Berkeley has monumental population fluctuations as it's student population moves away and back again during summer. What strikes me, however, is just how dead the streets can get. Here are two photos of Telegraph Ave at night. Typically speckled with wandering drunks (even at two or three in the morning), during summer the street is literally barren.
This semester I took a seminar taught by the RADLab which focused on agile development with Ruby on Rails. It was a project based course where a group of students (numbering two to four) brainstormed an idea and took the application from thoughts to a working prototype to demonstrate to the Lab.
The RADLab offered to 'take on' one or two of the best projects for a fall internship so that they could further develop the application and possibly deploy it. My group and I worked on an online classroom toolkit designed to help students contribute as much to the classroom experience as the professor. We presented today and were well received both by the students in the course, the RADLab, and a professor I personally spoke with. In the end we took the award for "People's Choice" (student vote) as well as being awarded an internship from the RADLab.
All of those long nights in Soda Hall finally paid off. If you want to check it out, it's semi-polished and definitely usable in it's current state. Click right here to check out Calentopia, the fruits of my free time for the past semester.
