Welcome family! I am sure you are all thinking to yourselves right now, why is this entry late? The answer to that will come later. Today we have planned out a very interesting blog post, much of which is an Op-Ed written by a contributor known as Schrödinger’s Dog. To start out, however we will announce the results of the survey that many of you decided to skip. It’s okay if you missed it; attached with the newsletter is a video about how to take the survey (WATCH IT).
You may be wondering why this blog entry is a few days late. After some discussion among ourselves, the editing team decided to push back the publication until Tuesday, so that we could wish everyone a Happy Diwali and Saal Mubarak! We hope all of you will indulge in something sweet to celebrate.
The survey was not taken by as many people as we would have liked, but there is a sufficient amount of data to analyze. The first question was “Will Josh continue with Political Science or Switch to Air Traffic Control?” To my surprise, by a vote of 4 to 3, Air Traffic control won. Apparently more people think that Air Traffic Control is Josh’s passion... we will see in time. Other responses were “Josh will become and Abstract Artist”, and “Whatever his Passion is.” Next, we have the question that asks, “Will Shayla choose pre-law or pre-med?”. With a vote of 4 to 2, Shayla, the people have decided that Shayla will do pre-law. Other responses included “Vet”, “Both”, and “Shayla will join the peace corp”. I’m actually surprised, because I thought people would choose definite money over possible money and the chance to argue for a living. Next up, the family seemed pleased with Meirra’s choice of anthropology. As expected, almost all of you voted yes, while one person was undecided. I wonder who that was... There were no other responses. When the family was asked about who they were worried about, 2 people said all of the older kids, 6 people said none of the older kids, and the only vote for a specific person--for Mr. Josh. Hopefully, Josh won’t be an issue in the coming years.
The next question, about where Shayla should go to college, was one of my personal favorites. Coming in first, with 4 votes, the University of North Carolina -- Chapel Hill. Next, Columbia with 2 votes. Third place is a tie between the Ohio State University and Oberlin, both write-in responses. Unfortunately for Shayla, nobody voted for Brown. The next question actually had a correct answer, which nobody besides me voted for! The correct answer was yes, all this statistics are correct, I’m sure Josh can testify for this considering I showed them to him like 20 times! Anyhow, 1 person said "no", I said "yes", 5 said "Some yes, Some no", other responses being “Total Nonsense”, and “42.3% of all statistics are made up on the spot.” The next question asked, “Do you think this post was too long?”. 8 people said no, while one other said “Not long enough”. To that one person, sorry to disappoint you, we won’t be writing a post longer than that anytime soon.The last question dealt with general responses to the blog, as well as suggestions and comments. Most responses consisted of positive comments, both on October’s entry and the blog as a whole. On behalf of the entire editing team, I must say that we really appreciate the feedback, and will do our best to continue making each blog entry better than the last. I would like to highlight two answers in particular. One suggested that it would be neat to hear some stories from the oldest generation, if they can be convinced to tell stories. We are considering doing this in an upcoming blog entry, probably in the form of interviews, but possibly as a series of op-eds. There was also another suggestion about rotating editors and giving each a different month, We are pleased to announce that we did just that for this blog entry, and depending on the feedback about it, we may continue to do it in future blog entries.
This month, we decided to feature an opinion editorial written by the pet dog of Austrian physicist Erwin Schrödinger. We were in no way anticipating this feature, but we received an email from Mr. Schrödinger with the article, and couldn’t resist including it. We thoroughly enjoyed reading it, and hope you enjoy it as well:
Since I read the blog last month, I've been living with an undercurrent of fear. This has not been helped by the fact that Hurricane Sandy wreaked havoc on the east coast of the country, or by the fact that I just saw an article on the internet highlighting America's Outrageous Burgers. There were 8 burgers mentioned, including the "Hot Fudge Sundae Burger", and the "VooDoo Doughnut Burger", but I think the scariest one was the "Double Coronary Burger", originated at the Vortex Bar and Grill in Atlanta, GA. In addition to the burger, this sandwich had two fried eggs, 4 slices of American cheese, a bunch of bacon, and (if that wasn't scary enough) two grilled cheese sandwiches replacing the buns. For those of you who are not faint of heart, I look forward to seeing the vegetarian version of this masterpiece the next time we all get together at the beach house. I think Nimisha's veggie burgers would work really well in such a culinary masterpiece.
But let me get back on topic. The blog was an amazing examination of the younger generation of the family, and one of the things I found myself thinking while reading it was: I'm glad I'm not young anymore! Although I'm sure there's something to learn from such experiences, I'd hate to have to have all of my choices scrutinized (and in some cases ridiculed). (I'm sure that this contributed to the feeling of fear I mentioned above.) Having said that, the world has changed since I was growing up, and I might as well accept that. To that end, I have the following thoughts, advice, comments:
I'm glad I got all of this off my chest. I feel better now (even if you don't!).
Thanks!
Schrödinger's Dog
This month’s blog post was a bit of a short one because the Patel Family Blog staff was rebounding off of the lengthy October post. Luckily we got great contributions from Schrödinger’s Dog, whose name is a parody of Schrödinger’s cat. If you don’t know what Schrödinger’s cat is, its really quite an interesting way of looking at things. It is an experiment done by Erwin Schrödinger in 1935 in which he put a cat in a sealed box with a vial of poison that will open at any moment, leaving that cat dead. Because you don’t know when or if the vial has opened, the cat can be thought of as alive and dead at the same time, and you will only find out when you open the box. Think of how Schrödinger’s cat can pertain to our guest writer, I dare you...
In further exciting news: we have a new survey! With an interesting variety of questions, some of which pertain to the Winter Beach Vacation (more on that in December’s blog entry). Please click here to take the survey, and be sure to CLICK THE SUBMIT BUTTON after you have responded to the last question. We would really appreciate it if EVERYONE did the survey, as it gives us content for future blog entries, and helps us analyze the views of the family when it pertains to particular issues. Thanks, and see you next month!
You may be wondering why this blog entry is a few days late. After some discussion among ourselves, the editing team decided to push back the publication until Tuesday, so that we could wish everyone a Happy Diwali and Saal Mubarak! We hope all of you will indulge in something sweet to celebrate.
The survey was not taken by as many people as we would have liked, but there is a sufficient amount of data to analyze. The first question was “Will Josh continue with Political Science or Switch to Air Traffic Control?” To my surprise, by a vote of 4 to 3, Air Traffic control won. Apparently more people think that Air Traffic Control is Josh’s passion... we will see in time. Other responses were “Josh will become and Abstract Artist”, and “Whatever his Passion is.” Next, we have the question that asks, “Will Shayla choose pre-law or pre-med?”. With a vote of 4 to 2, Shayla, the people have decided that Shayla will do pre-law. Other responses included “Vet”, “Both”, and “Shayla will join the peace corp”. I’m actually surprised, because I thought people would choose definite money over possible money and the chance to argue for a living. Next up, the family seemed pleased with Meirra’s choice of anthropology. As expected, almost all of you voted yes, while one person was undecided. I wonder who that was... There were no other responses. When the family was asked about who they were worried about, 2 people said all of the older kids, 6 people said none of the older kids, and the only vote for a specific person--for Mr. Josh. Hopefully, Josh won’t be an issue in the coming years.
The next question, about where Shayla should go to college, was one of my personal favorites. Coming in first, with 4 votes, the University of North Carolina -- Chapel Hill. Next, Columbia with 2 votes. Third place is a tie between the Ohio State University and Oberlin, both write-in responses. Unfortunately for Shayla, nobody voted for Brown. The next question actually had a correct answer, which nobody besides me voted for! The correct answer was yes, all this statistics are correct, I’m sure Josh can testify for this considering I showed them to him like 20 times! Anyhow, 1 person said "no", I said "yes", 5 said "Some yes, Some no", other responses being “Total Nonsense”, and “42.3% of all statistics are made up on the spot.” The next question asked, “Do you think this post was too long?”. 8 people said no, while one other said “Not long enough”. To that one person, sorry to disappoint you, we won’t be writing a post longer than that anytime soon.The last question dealt with general responses to the blog, as well as suggestions and comments. Most responses consisted of positive comments, both on October’s entry and the blog as a whole. On behalf of the entire editing team, I must say that we really appreciate the feedback, and will do our best to continue making each blog entry better than the last. I would like to highlight two answers in particular. One suggested that it would be neat to hear some stories from the oldest generation, if they can be convinced to tell stories. We are considering doing this in an upcoming blog entry, probably in the form of interviews, but possibly as a series of op-eds. There was also another suggestion about rotating editors and giving each a different month, We are pleased to announce that we did just that for this blog entry, and depending on the feedback about it, we may continue to do it in future blog entries.
This month, we decided to feature an opinion editorial written by the pet dog of Austrian physicist Erwin Schrödinger. We were in no way anticipating this feature, but we received an email from Mr. Schrödinger with the article, and couldn’t resist including it. We thoroughly enjoyed reading it, and hope you enjoy it as well:
Since I read the blog last month, I've been living with an undercurrent of fear. This has not been helped by the fact that Hurricane Sandy wreaked havoc on the east coast of the country, or by the fact that I just saw an article on the internet highlighting America's Outrageous Burgers. There were 8 burgers mentioned, including the "Hot Fudge Sundae Burger", and the "VooDoo Doughnut Burger", but I think the scariest one was the "Double Coronary Burger", originated at the Vortex Bar and Grill in Atlanta, GA. In addition to the burger, this sandwich had two fried eggs, 4 slices of American cheese, a bunch of bacon, and (if that wasn't scary enough) two grilled cheese sandwiches replacing the buns. For those of you who are not faint of heart, I look forward to seeing the vegetarian version of this masterpiece the next time we all get together at the beach house. I think Nimisha's veggie burgers would work really well in such a culinary masterpiece.
But let me get back on topic. The blog was an amazing examination of the younger generation of the family, and one of the things I found myself thinking while reading it was: I'm glad I'm not young anymore! Although I'm sure there's something to learn from such experiences, I'd hate to have to have all of my choices scrutinized (and in some cases ridiculed). (I'm sure that this contributed to the feeling of fear I mentioned above.) Having said that, the world has changed since I was growing up, and I might as well accept that. To that end, I have the following thoughts, advice, comments:
- Somehow, I was thinking about the blog while I was watching the TV coverage on election day. In general, when I watch election returns, I need to be alone, so that I am not distracted from analyzing what is going on, etc. (My family is sick and tired of me "shushing" them all the time, so I can hear the various talking heads on CNN drone on and analyze the exit polls.) But I found myself thinking about Ravi with respect to this election. I mean: 100 kids! Would he support a second term for Barack Obama? (Better access to family planning resources, etc.) Perhaps Romney would be his choice. (Perhaps Romney could hook him up with the multiple wives required to reach the goal.)
- Josh: Political Science or Air Traffic Controller. I hope this works out however you like. However, remember that there is no room for diplomacy as an air traffic controller.
- Shayla: Don't let Ben (or anyone else) give you grief about your choices of colleges. They are all good. The most important thing is what you do when you get there.
- Mierra: I think the most important thing you can do is something you care about. This might be the most controversial thing I say in this blog given the fact that I suspect most people will advise you to focus solely on college as a means to a job, but to support my position here, I will quote my pal, Confucius, who said "Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life". Note that loving your work will also make it easier to tolerate some of the BS that comes with every job.
- Ben: Nice use of statistics. Also, do your job and focus on your courses. (It doesn't matter what your mom says about your grades if you did your best to get them!)
I'm glad I got all of this off my chest. I feel better now (even if you don't!).
Thanks!
Schrödinger's Dog
This month’s blog post was a bit of a short one because the Patel Family Blog staff was rebounding off of the lengthy October post. Luckily we got great contributions from Schrödinger’s Dog, whose name is a parody of Schrödinger’s cat. If you don’t know what Schrödinger’s cat is, its really quite an interesting way of looking at things. It is an experiment done by Erwin Schrödinger in 1935 in which he put a cat in a sealed box with a vial of poison that will open at any moment, leaving that cat dead. Because you don’t know when or if the vial has opened, the cat can be thought of as alive and dead at the same time, and you will only find out when you open the box. Think of how Schrödinger’s cat can pertain to our guest writer, I dare you...
In further exciting news: we have a new survey! With an interesting variety of questions, some of which pertain to the Winter Beach Vacation (more on that in December’s blog entry). Please click here to take the survey, and be sure to CLICK THE SUBMIT BUTTON after you have responded to the last question. We would really appreciate it if EVERYONE did the survey, as it gives us content for future blog entries, and helps us analyze the views of the family when it pertains to particular issues. Thanks, and see you next month!
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