Concern for others

When I was in KBY, the guy who sat next to me in the Beis Medrash, Moshe*, got married. Sitting next to the guy for hours a day, I was pretty close to him, so I of course went to the wedding. It was an amazing wedding, with my favorite Jewish band, and everything was awesome.

Well, I had my pencil in my shirt pocket (where I always kept it) during the dancing. Well, dancing isn't so good with keeping things in your shirt pocket, so it fell out. I only realized when the groom, right in the middle of the dance set, found me and gave me back my pencil that he had noticed on the ground.

That concern for someone else, even at a moment that any person really has a right to be self-centered, continues to inspire me to this day.

* This blog post sat for a long time waiting to be posted because I couldn't, and still can't, remember Moshe's last name. Honestly, I always just called him "Moshe" or "Reb Moishe" or "Moshe Hakohen" so it's not all that bad that I can't remember his last name, but it's still embarrassing.

Blogging about Economics

I'm sitting in ECON now, and need something to fill the other half of my mind.

• My professor is actually pretty good. He has a tiny bit of an accent, but not so much that it affects comprehension at all. He speaks clearly, makes clear points, and turns to face the class often, even while making a graph on the board. He is speaking from a powerpoint, but it looks like he's using it as a tool, not a crutch.
• However, it's 20 minutes into class, and already I'm blogging. A 0-hundred level class is bound to be easy compared to the 400-level and 500-level classes I've been taking. I should take that as an opportunity to get an A, and put the effort in to get that A (yes, it will take some effort), rather than slacking off because of the easiness.
  
• The trick is (I think), finding something to do during class that occupies half my mind, so I can still listen (and pay attention) to lecture, without getting bored and losing my attention entirely. In the past I've tried reading the textbook, and that's probably worth another try, but I doubt it'll work. Right now, blogging seems to be working, but I don't know if I can really spend an hour and a half a day (or ~45 CPU minutes :-) ) blogging. Working on code or the like is usually an all-or-nothing activity that consumes all of my attention while I'm doing it, so that probably wouldn't be a good choice for an activity during class.
  

Psychology of a Mouse

"Hmm, there's a yummy piece of cheese sitting on the countertop. Let me nibble at it."

"Hmm, there's another piece of cheese on top of a black thing on the countertop. Why don't I make some squeaky noises so the human will think I'm caught, but I'll stay away from that cheese."

If only us humans were able to see the consequences of our actions as well as that mouse can....