Vudoodoodoo and bg
Lots of posts went out to individuals at various points in the guild. Like this one to Tickler and Eekz when they had to take a break, or this one to Lito, Cloude, Nikkei and Twin sadly hoping they would move to WoW with us. I never thought I’d write one memorializing someone who had, in fact, moved on. So when I learned that Vudoodoodoo, BG ’05 and brother of Twin, Lito, and Tengaar passed away last week, shock prevented me from putting anything in writing other than short consoling facebook messages and texts. Before this I had never lost a friend, and no one of the hundreds of people from the guild years, as far as I know, had ever passed away. Shock compounded shock; I am reminded of what is important in so many ways.
Vu first came onto my radar just by being one of the Lito brothers. Four brothers, four of the best people I have ever met, played together with us at one point. They were skilled, smart, sociable as hell, and funny. Most of all, they were loyal. Vu fit these traits but also had his own hilarious individual sense of humor and was a humble guy, a bit quiet at times. He’d always remind you of his knack for jokes though, particularly for me with the great Namierex ploy at the start of WoW.
He was great at the game, always brought us treasure hunter, never once complained about loot (or anything), and played as a team. Some people have jabbed jokingly that he would skip events to camp, but did he? Did anyone? I seriously regret that whole mismanaged phenom of scorn for people who went against the grain to camp. Vu’s passing should teach us what is important and what is trivial. All of what we did in game was trivial. Instead, that we knew each other and had the opportunity either to camp as a together or camp alone, always with the same tag and same opportunity to converse and socialize – that’s what counted.
I don’t remember much about Vu’s early days, only that his bros vouched for him and that was more than enough. Even when he became much closer of a friend, he kept a low profile and was a ton of fun to have in the group. When I lived in the same city as him last year, our paths but crossed once when he generously saved Tuanh and Tuhoa a trip on the T. These points at which I knew Vu are not difficult to explain; he was low key, knew his stuff, was super nice and willing to help, and always just got along with everybody. That surely translated into his rl dealings as well. At the wake this weekend, there were hundreds of family, friends, and coworkers there to pay respects. A few blocks away the funeral home, I overheard a few women chatting about “Vu” on the street corner as they walked there too. People came from all over. That too is when I realized that his proper first name was actually Vu. Just like we called him.
Nearly every guildie with whom I keep in touch, and even some I hadn’t heard from in a while, sent me along with comforting words of their own. I am glad that we have always had a tradition of helping each other out, and I hope that this support served as some measure of comfort to Vu’s grieving family. I also hope that this rare occurrence remains exceedingly rare, and I hope most of all that going forward Vu will do what he did a great deal of back in the day – bring us closer together.
May he rest in peace
Speakers in law school
One thing that has caught me by surprise about law school is the plenitude of amazing speakers that come ’round. Tomorrow, I will be missing Neal Katyal, former acting SG and litigator of Guantanamo – and other – fame, who teaches at GULC now. Spring Break bummer.
But I wanted to memorialize all the great speakers I’ve heard so far, hoping to remember their messages at least somehwat.
At BU:
Alan Gura, famed 2nd amendment appellate litigator
Richard Epstein, richard epstein
Michael Sandel
Stephen Reinhardt
Eugene Volokh
At NYU:
Fred Wilpon, Mets owner
Harry Carson, former Giant, hall of famer
John Walsh, Exec VP & Exec Editor at ESPN
John Kosner, Exec VP of print and digital at ESPN
Vint Cerf, Google Chief Evangelical Officer or something
Kannon Shanmugan, Williams & Connolly SC superstar
Bryan Stevenson, eji.org
No it is not alone worth the price, but yes it is a meaningful perk.
NES Zelda LP part 4 (…That day is today)
Who could forget this puzzle
going a little too wild with the red candle
these sort of hint drops beat whatever that weird codex(FF13)-like thing in skyward sword was any day
a sublime moment in zelda (<3's)
NES Zelda LP part three
Level 6, insanely brutal. Tips: (1) get blue ring; (2) get and keep magical shield cause it deflects wizzrobes beams; (3) get master sword if you can (i couldn't - need 12 hearts); (4) BRING MEDICINE
For another day..
NES Zelda LP part two (of ?)
Took me a while to find
Remembered everything from this part...
...and this part. New respect for speed runners who do this at the v. beginning.
Classes and work are starting to pick up, and I’ve had some awesome opportunities to go out lately, and level 6 was painfully hard, so this project probably gets shelved for a bit.
Doing this. (Zelda LP part 1)
After reading Saving Zelda the other day on kotaku, I was immediately inspired to LP Zelda 1 – which I beat as a child – and Zelda 2 – which I didn’t. Can probably manage with small bites at a time! Already logged about 6 deaths on the way to beating Level 2, and I think I was supposed to clear the impossible blue boomerang guy room in there instead of skipping it.
My review of The Grey
Hatchet and Jurassic Park have a baby.
Bulldogs and Frees
I’m nursing a bedtime shake and icing this weird cyst/cut feeling thing on my left knee while South Park plays on the backup as background noise. So spilling some random, quite meaningless thoughts.
Today I took the most euphoric nap in memory, crossing unwittingly from the dream world to the wakening land every 15 minutes or so, like something out of a horror movie. These transitions included both familiar and unfamiliar voices in really “crisp, high def” ways. Reminds me of this scene and movie for some reason. It followed – and was caused by – a high octane weekend, the kind that begins on Thursday, where all was lived hard and played hard, but sort of worked soft. I’m going to have to watch out for that this semester, as law school officially, dangerously, and unambiguously enters its downhill phase.
On any given weekend, moving around the city, 50% of all people wear Nike Frees and 10% of all people have bulldogs. These true facts have addicted me to Nike ID and make me want to steal Kona even more than before. Was thinking maybe this style, somewhat inspired by Ryan Hall’s national team race colors. But everyone asks me if I’m spiderman, so oh well, back to the drawing board. Anyway, I got to see the frees and bulldogs on this particular weekend with Gilbert. He just finished flying around for 27 interviews, on his own dime. I do not envy him, but he will be soon set.
And I’ll see him again when I go to the duke 5 year reunion in April. That’ll be fun. A little weird, but a lot of fun.
Frees, bulldogs, and this, at least. On par with the awesome rarefied Madeon production (live) from yesterday.
This place
There is no possible way to fit what you might call the “backlog” wrought by my longest-ever hiatus from this site in any sort of single, at least digestible, post, so here’s what I think briefly and then a quick instagram.
1) The size is unbelievable. I covered a few hundred miles in all sorts of directions training for the Philly marathon and maybe got half of Manhattan and 1-2% of Brooklyn and the Bronx each? Will not get to cover a majority like in Chicago or Boston – or Bham for that matter – no matter how hard I go.
2) It’s a lot more diverse than any other major city I’ve seen. There are predictable elements about people, culture, food, and what not everywhere but here. Could just be the numbers game, but I think it’s something more.
3) Like Chicago or Boston, but moreso, New York is the ultimate crossroads. I’m really in the best possible place to catch up with family, old friends, long lost lovers, you name it, in the place that the most people go.
Finally) School is amazing. I had a blast 1L and wouldn’t trade it for the world. 2L kicked off with some unexpected adjustments, “but they were made,” and all is well. Still, some things like professors, attitudes, and veiled personality have been a little bit of a let down since transferring. Multiple times more pleasant surprises though.
My little obit of Mr. Jobs
Threw this together on notepad one night after studying when it happened and in a flood of emotion. Kinda late, but better than never?
I admired the man deeply because when I was going through a tough time figuring out what to do in life, his 2005 Stanford Commencement applied almost directly to me. I can’t help but look back and ask whether I followed his advice to go headlong into what you are passionate about. Honestly, in some ways, I don’t think I did. But in others, yes, and I have the presumed luxury of a number of years left to work on that.
Jobs was not plainly liberal or conservative, and his tech philosophy (i.e. whether open-source, net neutral) was much nuanced. The groupthink that afflicts tech watchers, writers and even some leaders today did not constrain him. He was above it all because he created it all.
Some say that apple products are excessively expensive, consumerist, and tyrannical. See a ton of south park episodes. Maybe they expose some of the sobering realities of society and labor markets today, and those are important to keep in mind. I doubt protesting Apple or anything will really cure or affect the issues meaningfully though. I just regret selling my ipad.
Did Steve Jobs give me a job? I think he did.
Often I talked with my friends about apple and at&t’s deal, and how one of the largest once-monopoly juggernaut american corporations was for the first time in its history in such a terrible bargaining position. Back when apple’s market cap was somewhere around 150bn, we looked to the then existing struggle for apple’s to pass at&t’s and saw that tension which has since been resolved to the tune of a 180 billion dollar excess. Jobs was undoubtedly responsible for that and further responsible for the added value that at&t enjoyed – value that let them hire a lot more people and focus on new projects.
Cheers Steve. I should read your book.