I’m in my virtual Kaplan classroom, deep into Chapter 4, Arithmetic and Number Properties; I’m flailing through multi-event probabilities, and I come across this gem:
You might see the following on your test: 7!
You should not read this to mean: emphatically seven!
Now, I wasn’t aware that anyone associated with the Graduate Record Examination had a sense [...]
Entries from September 2009
September 30, 2009
emphatically seven!
September 20, 2009
[peace] is a process
Peace is not something you reach or don’t reach. Peace is a process. It’s an outlook, a way to live. You can never say that peace is lost, or that hopes for peace are lost. Peace is always waiting for us.
–Costa Rican President Oscar Arias, of Nicaragua’s momentous peace accords, signed by the Sandanistas and [...]
September 15, 2009
happy independence day, nicaragua
I’ve been researching Nicaragua and found this documentary recommended in the back of my old Moon guidebook. I couldn’t find it in any Los Angeles public library (obviously my first go-to source), so I Googled it, and lo and behold, some kind and wonderful soul has put all 82 minutes of [...]
September 8, 2009
people I encounter
I’m at Starbucks sitting next to a well-dressed elderly woman who is pushing five feet. She’s teeny tiny. She paid and then claimed her table next to me. She clonked down her giant old lady purse in a chair and pulled out a hardcover library book, which she placed gently on the table. She went [...]
September 3, 2009
house keys
: a letter from my grandmother,
: happy birthday, you’re so old now, I’m so proud of you
: a note from my Argentinean grandma named Argentina,
: megan tu comida está en la heladeria del comedor, chau (megan your food is in the kitchen fridge, bye)
: Clarion November 8, 2005 article: “‘Saw’ will frighten you to [...]
September 3, 2009
evacuation
My parents and I stood in 101-degree heat and gazed up at flames raging through the familiar mountains—our mountains—that rise behind our house. Mandatory evacuations moved closer and closer to our neighborhood, streets three, two, one block away. My mom and I went for a nighttime drive and ended up three streets away watching the [...]
