77 - The daredevil club π
Hey there, !
This is a story of the week that I was part of the π Daredevil Club π ...in Year 2. How frickin' badass does it sound?
Being cool in primary school is really hard. Especially when you're a short asian kid who's already been bullied for having the name 'Vincent' and everyone somehow already knows the story of Vincent Van Gogh (?!).
Even at a young age, I knew that being impulsive and rebellious was cool. I was a nerd who did Kumon on the weekdays/weekends/any time (and I was freakin' good at it fyi) so I was always curious about the rule-breakers, and disruptive kids of the class. I was an obedient, kind, happy asian kid - it was abhorrent to even think about breaking the rules.
I tried hanging around those kids a bit, to fit in and bask in the glow of other people's coolness. It rubs off, right? The halo of coolness?
I can tell you with certainty that it does not.
One day, at recess, some of my friends decided that what would be really cool would be to be "daredevils". It was a challenge to break the rules and dare each other into doing things that were stupid, reckless, and - above all - cool.
We came up with some hektik dares such as:
- Go into the chapel/hall at recess when we weren't allowed to
- Climb some trees and just...hang out together
- Step foot outside the school gates and run to the other gate on the corner without getting caught
- Climb up on to a balcony and sit there all recess
Yep, that's right, I peaked in Year 2.
I distinctly remember the one and only dare I did was to go into the chapel during lunch when it was supposed to be closed. The mix of emotions was an ugly combination of thrilling adrenaline and rising anxiety - it was so cool for me to do it but what if I got caught and all my schooling would have been for naught, my parents would disown me, the teachers would be so disappointed and I-
- chickened out within 3 days and promptly left the Daredevil club, resolving that I'd be a square my whole life.
The boy grew up and graduated from uni and actually got a job so it wasn't all bad, right?
I'm still working out how to channel that daredevil energy again.
Chat soon :)
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βοΈ Real Life Recommendations
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Reply All - a podcast by Gimlet media that's been recommended to me multiple times over the years. It has a few really interesting recurring segments - 'Super Tech Support', where the hosts try to help listeners with different problems (e.g. an American Uber account was getting charged from Russia; a Snapchat account was stolen through sim-swapping), or 'Yes Yes No', where the hosts' boss brings them twitter posts, and asks them to explain it (e.g. QAnon, Jake Paul memes etc.).
One of the podcasts that hooked me in to listen to more was Long Distance - the story of an Indian telephone scammer who calls one of the hosts...and the host tries to find him in India. A fascinating story!
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Smiling Sesame Balls (η¬ε£ζ£) - a delicacy of Chinese New Year - these deep fried pastry balls look like they're smiling, which makes it an auspicious snack! I might try to make these myself one day :D
π Adventures on the Information Super-Highway
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The Caltech Sweepstakes Caper - in 1975, a group of students from Caltech used a computer to enter a McDonald's contest that had a clause: "Enter as often as you wish". Maccas vs the power of C O M P U T E R S!
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Citibank can't get back $500m it wired by mistake - oopsies big bank accidentally sent $500m to its lenders and wants it back - court says NO. Also this hilarious interaction that came out in evidence:
DFREY5: I feel really bad for the person that fat fingered a $900mm erroneous payment. Not a great career move . . . .
JRABINOWIT12: certainly looks like they'll be looking for new people for their Ops group
DFREY5: How was work today honey? It was ok, except I accidentally sent $900mm out to people who weren't supposed to have it
DFREY5: Downside of work from home. maybe the dog hit the keyboard
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Wall Street begins trading water futures as a commodity - don't you love when human necessities become tradable commodities? All hail capitalism.
βWhat this represents is a cynical attempt at setting up what's almost like a betting casino so some people can make money from others suffering,β Basav Sen, climate justice project director at the Institute for Policy Studies, told Earther. βMy first reaction when I saw this was horror, but we've also seen this coming for quite some time.β