Author: F C

On the Q train, a young Chinese woman faints on the train. Everyone rushes to help her up on to the bench seat. As the train enters Pacific street, she revives and manages to get off the train. She waits again on the R side of the platform with a couple of the other riders from the Q train. She turns white as a sheet and slowly slumps to the ground again, wound down. MTA workers are called for – after a few moments being examined by a female worker wearing an orange construction vest, the woman recovers and jumps into the just-arrived R train, against the advice of the platform crew. I hope she’s OK.

Shook hands with Ismail Merchant yesterday at my college’s alumni dinner near Grand Central. He actually was a MBA student, and was exposed to literature and film by osmosis. I have to be honest, I have never watched any of his films (I’m sure P– will fill me in on them and catch me up). However, I know about his Indian food – he’s a great chef and he is such a foodie, it is not funny. That is worthy of honor.

The college president reported publically for the first time that the that arms of the Mars explorers are made from steel taken from the WTC site. The college brokered the arrangement between NASA and the authorities here. I feel a whole array of emotions. Wow, that was am amazing, spectacular deal they pulled off that shows the college’s high guan-xi (connections) quotient. On the other hand, why does everyone want a piece of the wreckage? There is a thin line between memorial and morbidity.

I’m going to meet my friends from Newport Beach that are flying in on a 2 hour layover from London. Let’s see what kind of food I can find for them.

‘All or nothing’ gamble succeeds’, BBC News http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/3618883.stm

Thirty-two year old Londoner Ashley Revell sold everything he had, including his apartment, his car and his clothes, went to Las Vegas in a rented tux, and bet it all on red on roulette, and won. I don’t know if he did it for a dramatic Spring Break stunt, the adrenaline rush, or just to see who his true friends and family were. I’m just happy it worked out for him.

I think that is actually the lesson of Easter — that perhaps we should be prepared to give up what we are comfortable with in order to take advantage of new opportunities in our lives. I am sure that is what YC is up to in going to Taiwan.