What's your 10-word memoir for 2010?

"Living on Your Prayers. We'll make it I swear 08." -Tim Boardman

“Shiny Visa in my hand, chasing dreams with the band” -Kieran Ledwidge

“Running marathons, traveling abroad, family in the city, oh my!” -Katie Lawrence

“Times Square lights, NYC nights, many opportunities and no decisions” -Regina Lee

“The office, the weekend, the office, the weekend, the office” -Anonymous

"Rotating in the hospital is definitely much better than lectures" -Alana Arnold

"Anyone hiring?" -Grant Gittlin, after claiming that 10 words cramped his creative style

"New York -->; São Paulo -->; Rio. Confused: what's next? Where's home?" -Luke Cohler

Nick's '92 Bonneville

"Back at Old Nassau, now as an ill-regarded grad student." -Jordan Reimer

"`92 Bonneville at 95 mph on the Salt Flats—spinning."  -Nick Burroughs

"Moving on, moving out, moving in. Also: a pet rat" -Erica Duke

"Let loose during recession with an advanced degree, enough said." -Mischa Carlson

"Cambodian do-gooder; jobless intellectual; budding researcher."  -Adam Flynn

Nick Crumpton has three!
"Reunions.  Must invent time machine so every day can be."
"Acquired serious snowboarding addiction.  Side effect: 'real world' became imaginary."
"'Money for nothing and chicks for free.'  Yeah, as if."

"SE Asia. 14,000 kms. 100cc motorbike.  No home.  Changed forever." - Martin Jancik

"Los Angeles+Grad School (Comp Lit)= Fabulous Grad School? Yes!" -Maryam W Khan

"BP leaks to Wikileaks--things looked bleak, managed to eke." -Eugene Yi

"Growing pains while growing up. Nonetheless the year was bliss." -Roxy Schneider

"Sleep is for the weak. The hospital beckons, I listen." -Viola Huang

"Hellos and goodbyes, skyscrapers to beach, best family and friends!" -Anita Gupta

"Back to school: Basketball games more fun than problem sets." -Jana Holt

"India for 9 months. Korea and Thailand for the holidays." -Mackenzie Bushy

“Running a bakery beats consulting. Too bad I’m going back.” – Aaron Souza

"Microfiber cloth cleaning wash mitten gloves: dirt cheap this year!" - Ryan Kim

"Wedding bells, new beginnings, visits to Thar, Thailand and Dubai!" -Maha Qasim

"First half marathon, new job, great friends - sweet home Chicago!" -Claire Henderson

"Friends, family, travel, work...I love having to sprint again." -Caroline Brody

"Third year of medical school, working in the hospital full-time!" -Molly Kantor

"Concrete jungle. Sun deprived. Hopeful for no sleep and scrubs." -Lauren Bierman

"Lloyd soon to be Ari. Livin' and lovin'. Semper Fidelis." -Matt Kontos

"Buddhist temple life was way more exciting than law school." -Rob Bernstein

"6 months travelling. Now in grad school, making games." -Alex Limpaecher

Support Miracles of Modern Science in their Album Debut Campaign

Don't you want to donate to these guys?

The Miracles of Modern Science has just started a fundraising campaign through the website Kickstarter to raise $15,000 to fund the release of their debut album. The funding deadline is December 9 – and if they don't reach the goal by then, we won't receive any funding. Just think, your $5 donation could cover the mixing, mastering, pressing, packaging, distribution, and promotion of the sweet new album.

Miracles of Modern Science wrote the album’s 11 songs over the past six years, the seeds of certain tracks dating back to the band’s freshman year at Princeton in 2004. “At first, we considered approaching labels and producers about helping us record the album, and we did contact a couple, but we knew we’d be going to the bottom of their demo piles and might have to wait months to hear back from anyone,” says Josh Hirshfeld ‘08, Miracles of Modern Science’s mandolin player. “Instead of waiting around forever for a good opportunity to come to us, we decided to make one for ourselves.” Miracles of Modern Science spent the last six months recording on their own terms (and paying out of pocket for it) at Spaceman Sound, a like-minded studio in Greenpoint, Brooklyn.

Having used up their earnings from touring and merchandise sales, Miracles of Modern Science are looking to Kickstarter to push the album through to completion. Since Kickstarter’s foundation in 2009, several musicians have used the "crowdfunding" platform to produce and release musical recordings without the involvement of traditional record labels. Kickstarter empowers artists, filmmakers, journalists, musicians, and other creative types to appeal to fans to raise funds for large-scale creative projects. Each project has a fundraising goal and a deadline; supporters can make “pledges” online (as little as $1) in exchange for tangible rewards.


http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/moms/miracles-of-modern-science-release-their-debut-alb

What happened to Democratic voter turnout?

The vote tallies are rolling in and CNN correspondents have stated the obvious, “the democrats are being shellacked in the House.”  As I sit here on my couch in a state of moderate shock, I’m left wondering: what happened to voter turnout this year?

I spoke with 5 friends today who said that they weren’t voting because they never got around to registering.  A few of them made the classic argument that their vote didn’t matter because they live in the Democratic stronghold of New York.  Others said they didn’t feel invested enough in the local races for state senate and justice positions to merit a trip to the polls. Each person expressed a lingering sense of guilt when we talked, but nothing strong enough to get their butts out of bed to cast that paper ballot.

This ‘my vote doesn’t matter’ sentiment is extremely problematic because it has led to a collective action problem in swing states and counties that switched from blue to red today.  I would even argue that having high voter turnout in a state like New York is important because it creates momentum from an ideological and fundraising perspective that can create ‘political will’ for the ensuing months when Congress has to actually work together to pass legislation.

We – the young Democrats in America – should know better than to think that someone else is going to cast ballots on the issues that we care about.  We need to show up if we want to change the agenda on social and economic issues like promoting gay rights, reducing public debt and strengthening the healthcare system.  Let’s not forget that 63% of eligible voters showed up to cast ballots 2 years ago, ½ of which were Democrats.

My biggest hope in this election cycle is that the loss of the House to the Republicans coupled with the retention of the Democratic Senate will lead to a more centrist agenda that focuses on fiscal responsibility, education reform and potentially a more rationale immigration agenda. This presents a true opportunity for the parties to come together to tackle the likely conflicting challenges of stimulating the economy and providing jobs while balancing the budget.

Who said community service wasn't fun?



The dead-end parking depot where we began planting

Life often seems too busy to give back.  After 5 long days of work, the last thing I want to do is wake up early on a Saturday morning to do physical labor. I also find the concept of ‘community’ service projects to be confusing at times. I live in Manhattan and I don’t feel like I have a community. I barely know my own neighbors and we live on the same floor of an apartment building.

And yet, after participating in 2 community service projects with other Princeton 08ers over the last year, I have gained a new understanding of how we can form communities among strangers when we are all working towards a common goal. It can even be fun.

Carolyn, Micol, Colin, Irene and Me after planting the birdhouse

On Sept 26, a small posse of Princeton alumni ventured out to the Gowanus Canal in Brooklyn to take part in a garden planting project.  The goal was to create a lush viewing area of the canal in the midst of a dusty, industrial wasteland that most recently served as the depot for parked buses. The problem was that pounds of trash and asphalt stood in our way. The Princeton team took on 3 major jobs: collecting trash that had been dumped for years, spreading gravel across the exposed asphalt to serve as a drainable soil bed, and planting a bird house.  By planting, I mean digging a 3-foot deep by 2-foot wide hole to bury the base of the bird house so that it could withstand Brooklyn winds and not be tossed into the polluted Canal. 



Alma, Katie, Me, Jay, Jess and Liz after raking in Prospect

One of my favorite parts of the afternoon was getting to meet classmates who I had never met during my 4 years at Princeton, but who came together out of a desire to give back, or perhaps because they wouldn’t believe there are canals in Brooklyn until they saw them.  It was also incredibly interesting to speak with locals who were invested in cleaning the canal that ran through their neighborhoods but was so dirty that it could not support living organisms.  



 Last fall, a group of us also participated in a slightly different community service project in Prospect Park, Brooklyn.  We raked leaves for hours in an effort to preserve the grass and keep the park beautifully green. Though we would all agree that the labor was light, it was the first time that many of us Manhattanites had ventured into Brooklyn and set foot in Prospect Park.

PAW Column - April 7 - Superbowl and electric car dreams

BLAKE WILLIAMS AND TIM BOARDMAN (l.) stood on the confetti-covered Miami field just minutes after the game ended and held up a newspaper with the headline, “World Champions, the Saints win Super Bowl XLIV.” After playing football together for 4 years in college, they stood together on February 6th listening to deafening chants of Saints fans celebrating the 31-17 win over the Colts. It was also the first time in NFL history that a father/son coaching pair had won the Super Bowl together. “It makes it so much more special that we did it together,” Blake said of the victory with his father, Gregg Williams, who is the team’s Defensive Coordinator. Blake started working for the Saints in January 2009 as an Offensive Assistant and said that “the whole season has been magical. I’ve grown up in this business, and I’ve never seen a city and a sports franchise that are so intertwined.”

NICK CRUMPTON and Tom Brennan ’07 (pictured) also have been busy test driving the latest product from the all-electric car manufacturer Tesla: The Roadster Sport. With 300 lb-ft of torque from 0 to 5,000 rpm, the car rockets to 60 mph in a mind-bending 3.7 seconds. Or as Tom said after testing the car in Palo Alto, CA, “Hitting the accelerator is like entering Warp Speed.” Starting at $128,000, the Sport doesn't come cheap (and as the picture shows, it only comes up to Tom's waist in height). Nick is spending his time freelancing as a photographer - currently in Colorado - and he plans to launch his own online media company in the fall. Nick's media aspirations are actually what got them the test drive, as he pitched it as a feature for his upcoming site. Tom is working on his PhD in Chemical Engineering at Stanford.

PAW column - March 17 - From Cambodia to Belgium

MICHAEL SCHARFF is in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, on a year-long Princeton-in-Asia fellowship ending this summer. He is working as a researcher for the World Faiths Development Dialogue, a small NGO based at Georgetown University, with the goal of exploring the nexus between faith and development. His particular project is focused on better understanding the crucial, yet often under-appreciated, role faith-inspired actors are playing in the development of Cambodia. His team’s research is heavily-interview based, which has allowed him to meet with many people, including Buddhist monks, Kuwaiti educated Muslim leaders, Evangelical Christians, and Mormon Missionaries. Mike is also keeping a blog on the following website http://berkleycenter.georgetown.edu/blogs/index/dispatches-from-cambodia.

Taking Princeton's motto most seriously, SANDRA SCOSERIA KATZ is not just in the nation's service, but rather in the service of twenty-seven nations. Sandra has been working at the European Parliament in the newly formed Special Committee on the Financial, Economic and Social Crisis (CRIS). This job follows her year of "EU boot camp" at the IR Masters program at College of Europe in Bruges, Belgium. Sandra’s job with the CRIS committee is to investigate the impact of the economic crisis within the EU and help develop a long-term strategy to reconstruct a sound, stable financial market and cohesive society. Sandra also has enjoyed discovering Belgium, exploring its theatre and arts scene, and developing a chocolate addiction.

VICTOR AMIN is working as a bioinformatician at the University of Florida, running through more CPU-hours in a day than most use up in a year, even more than Facebook addicts. For those less tech saavy, CPU means central processing unit. He'll be attending grad school in chemistry starting this fall, but hasn't picked a school yet. What about free time? It's been occupied with building a website that helps web designers choose colors: http://hexpreview.com/

Photo Contest - Katie Lawrence is Feburary winner

"The Colonial Club squad utilized their patented "motorboat" offense to deliver a sustained barrage of shots and goals against their feckless opponents. The stonr gic eplay of Joe Ulerich '07, David Stopher '07, Tommy Curry '08, Dan Pall '08, Duncan Roberts '09, and Gordon Franken '09 was backstopeed by a wall-like effort in goal by Nathan Morrison '08. Katie Lawrence '08 and Maggie Orr '08 were co-recipients of the Tournament Superfan Award. The crew is looking forward to defenind its title at next yera's icy competition!"

-Nate

Also paraphrased as...

"After traveling nearly 1,000 miles per player, A Colonial Club reunion in DC outclassed the local college competition in DC to become undefeated tournament champions!"

-Joe

Photo Contest - Rob Bernstein is February winner

"Eating too much at Rocky-Mathey Sunday brunch again."


Real Caption: Two sumo wrestlers leave early morning practice from a sumo stable, right behind the temple where I was living in Japan. I was specially invited to observe the practice by the stable master.
-Rob

Saints Super Bowl win is both a personal victory and hometown pride

Blake Williams and Tim Boardman stood on the confetti-covered Miami field just minutes after the game ended and held up a newspaper with the headline “World Champions, the Saints win Super Bowl XLIV.” After playing football together for 4 years in college, they stood together on February 6^th listening to deafening chanting of ‘Who Dat?’ The two kept on celebrating through the night, first in the locker room, then on the team bus, and oh yes, even at the star-studded hotel after-party. Tim said “it was a captivating experience, one which I will never forget sharing with Blake just like when we won the 2006 Ivy Football Championship together. Blake gets to add another Championship ring to his collection.”

February 6^th was also the first time in NFL history that a father/son coaching pair won the Super Bowl together. “It makes it so much more special that we did it together,” Blake said. His father, Greg Williams, has been an NFL coach for 21 years, and each Sunday their family felt like they “lived and died” depending on the outcome of each game. The father and son pair started working for the Saints in January 2009 and lived what turned out to be an unforgettable next 14 months.

Blake says the Super Bowl was different than the last two decades of watching, playing and now coaching footfall. “The whole season was magical. I’ve grown up in this business, and I’ve never seen a city and a sports franchise that are so intertwined. You almost feel like Drew Brees and Sean Payton are elected officials, the way that they represent the people and the things that they do for the community after they both came in the year after Katrina.”

The city of New Orleans certainly came out to celebrate after the team came home from Tampa. There were about 1 million on the parade route down St. Charles Avenue. Blake described the smaller city feel as being similar to high school football. “It’s different down in the Bayou; it felt almost like high school in terms of how invested the community is in the team.”

Meanwhile, up north in New York City on February 6^th, New Orleans hometown boy Walter Hopkins hosted 35 people in his apartment to watch the game. “It is difficult to express my love for this New Orleans Saints team,” he said. “I was nervously stuffing my face with shrimp and sausage jambalaya moments before we intercepted Manning to seal the win.” Walter fails to mention that he slaved away earlier that afternoon to cook 3 huge pots of steaming jambalaya for his guests.

“All I could think was that this Super Bowl was so big I'd be telling my grandkids about it,” Walter said.

PAW Column - Feb 24 - Kyle and the Mag 7

KYLE MCHUGH is currently stationed at NAS Pensacola, Florida. He passed his one year mark as an officer in the Marine Corps in October and graduated from The Marine Corps Basic Officer Course in early November. He reported down to Pensacola shortly after and has started flight school.

Beyond Kyle, I didn’t receive any updates from classmates about your interesting lives, so I’ll take this opportunity to talk about my world in New York. I am part of the ‘Magnificent 7’ Princetonians working for Bain & Company in New York. The cast of characters includes (l. to r.), AARON SOUZA, ADAM GROWALD, MATT FIELD, LUKE COHLER, REGINA LEE, DAN JONES, and DAVID VALENTINE. As associate consultants over the past year and a half, we have worked with clients in a wide variety of industries to help them achieve strategic results. Some of our most interesting cases have included: Aaron doing a salesforce effectiveness project for a technology company, Adam helping to redesign the operating model of a global insurance company, Matt working on growth strategy for a major US IT company, Luke traveling to Belgium to work on a corporate re-organization case, me helping to improve the royalties pay-out process at a major entertainment company, Dan working on supply chain in the beer industry, and David analyzing what leads to consumer satisfaction at a major department store. Out of the office, Aaron leads our recreational soccer team, and David is often seen tearing up the basketball court as we play other companies throughout the winter.

PAW Column - February 3 - A Beijing wedding!

Another wedding announcement! OWEN FLETCHER married Zhang Chen on October 24, 2009 at Traders Hotel Beijing, an elegant hotel in the China World Trade Center complex. The ceremony mixed Chinese and Western traditions, and the banquet featured of delectable local dishes. Owen impressed Chen's extended family and friends with remarks delivered in skillful Mandarin. Tigers in attendance included ROSS LIEMER, ASHLEY JOHNSON, EUGENE YI, and MICHAEL ZHANG. Now, Owen is returning to his life as the bureau chief at IDG News Service’s one-man office in Beijing, where he covers technology issues.

ROSS has been studying Chinese language for a year at Tsinghua University in Beijing. He says the campus is vast, home to 25,000 students, nearly as many bicycles, and former imperial mansions. Ross often runs into Olivia Hamilton '09, who works as an economics teaching assistant, a position than MICHAEL KRATSIOS will take over this month. In October, Ross traveled with two friends to Xinjiang, in far western China. Highlights of the trip included eating Uighur lamb kebabs, touring the bustling markets of Kashgar, and spotting wild camels in the Pamir Mountains.

EMILY KOSTEN went back to school in the United States last fall after taking a year off to work in the Boston area. She is in the Physics Ph.D. program at Caltech, and her research focuses on novel geometries for solar cells. Emily also got engaged to Joe Zipkin '07 last year, and they are planning to get married this summer!

Keep sending me your updates, and check out our class blogroll to see the exciting things your classmates are doing.

PAW Column - January 13 - Wedding bells in Charlotte, NC

ELIZABETH BARNHARDT KIRKLAND and Jonathan Kirkland (’06 from UNC’s Kenan-Flagler Business School) got married August 1st, 2009 in Charlotte, North Carolina. They met almost 8 years ago at the Charlotte Latin School. Various Princetonians attended the wedding including (back left to right): SARAH PAINE, TAYLOR AULT, ALICE GARABRANT, AMARA SUEBSAENG, CHRIS WHITE, JULIA PEPPIATT and JANE YUM. As if planning a wedding weren’t hard enough, Liz is in her second year of medical school at UNC and plans to graduate in May 2012.

SHRIRAM HARID is living in New Delhi, India and working with the South Asia Human Rights Documentation Centre, a human rights watchdog affiliated with the UN. He is in the process of developing a civil rights primer for legal practitioners on various constitutional concerns in India, such as the procedurally deficient application of the death penalty and the pervasive use of preventive detention. On a lighter note, Shriram says that “Hindi has spontaneously sprung back to life and my previously non-existent haggling skills have improved exponentially.”

ASHRIT KAMIREDDI moved from Washington D.C. to Boston and started working at TripAdvisor. He is a Search Engine Marketing analyst, which means he specializes in paid acquisition of web traffic through Google AdWords. He’s gained experience writing ads that appear on Google searches, redesigning landing pages, and determining how much to pay for TripAdvisor’s traffic. Although Ashrit doesn’t get discounts on flights, some of his job perks include 30% off on any hotel through Hotels.com and free lunch every day!