Jess, now Simon’s fiancé, was in town and so a Rains 205 apartment reunion was in order. Luke and his fiancé, Dora, offered to drive us up and so I caught up with them after the Social E-Challenge event. We chatted for a while then drove up to the City. Our destination: Radio Africa Kitchen. Simon and Jess found this place, which describes itself as a ‘nomadic’ restaurant. The chef, Ethiopian native Chef Eskender Aseged comes to what normally is a daytime coffee house and turns it into a restaurant for just two nights a week. The menu changes each time, depending on what Chef Aseged found at the local farmers’ markets that morning. The cuisine has inspirations from all over, and the quality of the food very high.
It was nice to get the old apartment back together. We talked about the Red Sox, Jess’s on-going fight to convince the US pharmacy board to allow her to take the competency exam (they are refusing to let her practice pharmacy here despite having more years of overall science schooling AND years of actual practice in Australia all because her college transcript says 3 years, not 4), what’s going on at YouTube, photography, and food. Ah yes, food.
For some reason, my end of the table with Dora and Simon turned to the topic of heirloom tomatoes. These tomatoes were extraordinarily popular last summer, and were the best tomatoes I’ve ever had. The kind even Greg would like – raw. Dora recounted the time that she and Luke went to go pick vegetables with their community garden group, and they got 30 lbs of these tomatoes. Simon told us why he loved them: his grandfather (back in Ukraine, I believe) had a farm where he grew all kinds of vegetables, but his pride and joy were these tomatoes called ‘bull’s heart’. They were pink, with one half larger than the other to resemble a heart, and were more fleshy than juicy. Simon loved those tomatoes, and biting into a heirloom tomato reminds him of his grandfather’s prized tomatoes.
It may sound silly to wax eloquent about tomatoes, but isn’t that the level that fine food strives to attain? That’s why Simon is such a strong force in the kitchen.
You must listen to Obama’s remarks at the National Academy of Sciences. Seriously, listen to the whole thing. I could start writing about it, but then i’ll be pages long and no one would read it.
Last Friday the Social E-Challenge held its 2nd Round event. 17 teams spanning the whole spectrum of social enterprise gave their pitches to judging panels chaired by prominent Bay Area thought leaders in the social entrepreneurship and investing space. And wow what a day it was!
Despite the events feel-good vibe, karma was not on our side. It was Admit Weekend at Stanford, so the campus was jam-packed with prospective freshmen (ProFros) and their parents. As a result, our parking plans took a severe hit. We also dropped the ball frankly on effectively handling how to direct judges to the event location after they had parked. Michael discovered his car dead in the parking lot as he left to get lunch for the judges. Being the resourceful logistics go-to-guy that he is, he commandeered a roommate’s car and sped off to Whole Foods. Later he started shuttling judges from their parking spots to the venue. Salina’s reliable printing location failed (I love how Stanford locks the paper trays for its printers…thus if it runs out of paper you can’t do anything but wait for someone else to refill it) and she ended up hitting the labs in 6 different dorms to get her stuff printed. We had split the teams into 4 rooms, each with a judging panel. With 30 minutes until showtime, we found that one our rooms was double-booked — and the prof refused to make room. Our VP’s seized an empty room on the same floor and quickly got it prepared.
Despite the hiccups, our team responded strongly and things got underway without too much delay. I was present in one of the rooms and got to see five presentations. It was very interesting to see the teams and listen to the sheer variety of their pitches, even though I had to play the timekeeper. I saw good chemistry with the judges, and I was so impressed with the amount of preparation they came with — unlike a lot of the VCs on Sand Hill Road, they all had read each teams’ 20 page business summary!
By 4:45pm, we all were waiting anxiously as the last judges deliberated their decision. I munched on some leftover cookies to make up for skipping lunch all together. We moved downstairs and hosted all the teams for a mixer. The Social E-Challenge team each got to chat with the contestants, but it was really nice to see the various teams talk to each other and exchange ideas and connections.
Unfortunately, I had to bounce early — apartment reunion at Radio Africa City up in the City!
Last Thursday evening, I joined a group from Rains to the Nightlife event at the California Academy of Sciences. It had been a good day — lunch with a friend and an afternoon strategy session with the WaterPLUS team. Nightlife is where the Academy opens its doors, brings in a DJ, and scatters tables serving drinks and cocktails throughout the museum. To our surprise, there was quite a long line outside waiting to get in! The crowd skewed young – the 21 to 34 group – which made for a great atmosphere.
Eco-Dome at Nightlife, by Eric Lew, 2009.
It was my first time at the newly renovated Academy of Sciences. A new landmark in the City, it is a LEED Platinum building with an enormous living green roof. It has a rainforest eco-dome, a planetarium, and a large aquarium. There was some people who bailed at Rains, so I grabbed tickets for my friend Simon and a friend of his, Jozefina. It was nice to meet Jozefina, who works at the World Bank offices in the City looking at woman and gender issues. She graduated from Stanford in 2002 and went to the Kennedy School for graduate studies. We wandered throughout the museum, enjoying the exhibits. Didn’t get to go inside the Eco-Dome. That’ll be something for a next trip.
It started about two months ago. Despite having this song for some time now, I’ve found myself playing it more and more recently. And more. And more. And more.
Given the content, the urgent and repetitive rhythm, the anxious calling out at the end, I can think of a lot of reasons why this is. But could it be more than that?
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Chetan: The GRE sucked.
Prasanna: Yeah, the vocab….what crazy words. you know what pugilism is?
Chetan: Tell me.
Prasanna: Boxing
Me: C’mon, you’re kidding. Pugilism?
Prasanna: No really.
Random guy walking out the door with us does a half turn.
Prasanna: Hey, do you know what pugilism is?
Random guy: Yeah, boxing.
Me: Jeez, seriously?
Random guy: Yeah, the word pugilist is more commonly used. For a boxer.
Me: Wow, I fail at life.
Man, what a busy awesome few days. On Wednesday morning I met with a group of MBA students from Oxford. They were visiting the Bay Area, and a mentor of theirs is from Stanford who told them about BASES. In particular, these MBA students were very interested in social entrepreneurship, so officers with the Social E-Challenge met them for breakfast along with Parul and Peter (the leaders of two semi-finalist teams in this year’s competition) to talk about social enterprise, what BASES does on campus, etc. Great group of folks coming from a variety of backgrounds, who asked good questions and we got to learn about some neat programs that Oxford has.
In the afternoon, I had an opportunity to chat with Steve Baker, a writer for BusinessWeek (and author of The Numerati). Steve was visiting Stanford to learn about what entrepreneurial minded students were up to these days amid an economic climate, and BASES was a natural place to start. I also invited three other Stanford entrepreneurs to give Steve a diverse look at the kinds of ideas people are pursuing…with a bent towards social ventures of course. Steve was wonderful to talk with — easy going, perceptive, and curious. Props to Eli for making the intro.
On Thursday I was to have coffee in the morning with a colleague of a VC friend of mine, but it fell through. But in the afternoon, Nick Anderson from UNC stopped by campus. Nick is a remarkable senior at Carolina – interested in development, energy issues, and social enterprise. I had worked (only marginally, admittedly) on a solar installer idea that Nick was submitting to the Carolina Challenge, and we have several mutual friends. Nick was actually admitted to Stanford as a senior, but chose Carolina. We did a walk and talk around campus and talked about future plans.
On Friday, I had a lunch discussion at the Mayfield offices. I was invited by a recent Stanford colleague who works there now, and he gathered some other Stanford students to talk about opportunities in power and smart grid space. It was an engaging discussion – I was impressed at the level of knowledge around the table, from the business case to the engineering. I was the one with the least experience there…I’ve got to match my passion and interest in this space with some actual projects and experiences.
Back on campus, I spent the afternoon talking with Mark and Jennie. Dr. Johnson was in town for the Materials Research Society conference in San Francisco, and they had come down to visit Stanford. We had coffee at the Cantor Art Center then spent the rest of the time walking around campus, taking advantage of the superb weather. It was so great to catch up with them — we talked about NC State, about smart grids and energy opportunities, about the FREEDM center, about schools, etc. Mark is truly into energy research now and is very well connected. I always learn a lot from talking with him and Jennie.
After they left, I went over to White Plaza where they had a big art exhibit going with live music. Met up with Amit there, and we ran into Kamal, Jimmy, Nader, and even Jonathan. Buca di Beppo was being catered in so we scored a free meal too. Afterward Amit and I hit up the ‘energy social’ gathering at the Sigma Nu house, and I got to meet three new people – onewas a Stanford student working at the Hewlett Foundation and interested in climate change policy and social enterprise (she knew Josh of FrontlineSMS:Medic, Nathaniel Whittemore at Northwestern, Acumen Fund, etc); one was visiting Stanford Law School from ASU and is a Truman Scholar interested in public policy and politics, and the other was a Sigma Nu in in economics & math and MS&E who did a summer at McKinsey and will be joining their SF office after graduation. Good times.
Even at a place as out-of-this-world as Stanford, you don’t get a lot of days like these, at least for me.
Safeway had a sale on fruit preserves and I tried peach. Turns out, it’s not so good on toast. But what to do then with a whole jar of peach preserves? Serendipitously, I ran into Mary and Matt at the grocery store and who better to ask? Mary recommended that I get some brie and pastry puff to use with the peach preserves.
Why I chose a school night to actually go through with it, I’m not sure..it turns out to be a lot more involved than I expected. Never worked with puff pastry before, and so my wrapping was amateurish to say the least. I used a whisked egg as an adhesive and made each pastry puff with a cube of brie and a spoonful of preserve. I borrowed some of Charles’ rasperry preserve too.
After 10-13 minutes in 360 degF oven (or GBD), they came out like this:
Jam had oozed everywhere. I let them cool and brought the batch to Hindi class (where I typically bring the food that I cook). Overall they came out pretty darn well! Thanks Mary for the suggestion!
CCRMA, the Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics, is a major research lab on campus with a storied history — the frequency synthesizer that was later licensed to Yahama was born out of this lab, and this alone made an enormous impact on digital music. The lab iteself is housed in what I think was the old president’s building — it feels like an old mansion. On the 2nd floor there is a computer lab awkwardly placed in the middle of a formal dining room — crown moulding and large bay windows galore.
But the gem of this place is its 3rd floor lounge, with a balcony that looks out at the foothills behind Stanford, the Big Dish perched on the hill.
The picture doesn’t do it justice. You can sit at a table there on a nice day…and it feels great. Inside, there are couches and a foosball table, with large windows showing a view out over campus:
Click on the photos for a bigger view. Too bad you need to have taken a music-related course in order to get access to the building..but once you’ve taken a course you get entrance priviledges until you leave Stanford.
This past Saturday afternoon, just as I was sitting down to do some work, I get a phone call from a friend alerting to me to an open showing of Tesla’s new Model S sedan, which made its debut two weeks ago in Las Vegas. The window was closing fast, so I quickly headed over to the Tesla dealership just next door in Menlo Park. It was the same Model S that was in Las Vegas.
The cockpit of the car is um, bright. The speedometer area is a computer display. And there is that giant 17 inch haptic display with a huge Google Maps readout, the music player, and the HVAC controls. Other than that, it feels like any other sports-styled sedan. Keep in mind — this car isn’t set to start mass production for another three years, so a lot can change.
The dealership has a view to the rear hanger, where the mechanics treat and prepare the cars for delivery. So many Teslas…
I sat in the main roadster, and the steering wheel is like a go-kart!
Another thing that I thought odd was the cheap plasticky covers on the taillights.
One would think that if you’re going to plunk down over $100,000 for a car, you could get some nice glass covers for your taillights, because let’s be honest — if you’re driving a Tesla, you’re going to be showing your taillights to people a lot.
Met up with Michael last week for lunch and then we checked out the Cool Products Expo, where you can a whole gamut of interesting things. A friend of mine, Peter Frykman, was going to have his innovative low cost drip irrigation system on display, so I definitely wanted to come by and see it.
Peter has started a venture called Drip Technologies to bring this device to market, and is a semi-finalist in the Social E-Challenge competition.
Inside, there were all kinds of products, from an ultralight carbon fiber guitar, to portable handcrank chargers and building materials, to Cooliris’ crazy touch control projected image wall to rival John King, to an interesting spill-proof coffee lid piece for disposable coffee cups. Anybots was there too with one of their creepy robots too.
Menaka, friend of mine in Hindi class, invited us to the Stanford Law School Musical – an annual event produced by students, with special appearances by law school staff and faculty. Menaka graduated from UNC in 2005 and so she’s a 3L — just a month away from graduating. Amit and I joined her at Old Pro to watch the Carolina game before leaving at the half to Kresge Auditorium.
I knew pretty much no one there — the law school and engineering school are so far apart — and even from a housing standpoint the law students seem to be characteristically clustered much closer together. Overall, it was an eye opening experience. There was a good mix of 1Ls, 2Ls, and 3Ls, but clearly there was a party atmosphere. The Stanford Law School is on a semester system, so they finish in a month. For the 1Ls and 2Ls, its just about finalizing their job. For the 3Ls, they are done with school but the bar exam is still too far to worry about. Combine that with the very recent shift towards a High/Pass/Fail grading system, you could sense the mental burden on most of the students that night (ie, little to none).
The musical itself exceed all expectations — easily 5+ months in the making. Featured a large cast of around 30 people, though there were about a dozen main characters. The plot revolved around the idea that the Stanford Business School was closed due to the recent economic crisis and because the 2Ls aren’t graded anymore, they have nothing to complain about so they all left the Law School. One student getting a joint JD/MBA (in real life he hangs around a lot of B-school folks and wears the preppy popped collar) suggests that the MBA students move to the Law School. Being good B-school students, they promptly take over the Law School, causing a band of law students to go on a quest to find some way to kick them out and save the Law School. They discover a cryptic note written on the Stanford Law School charter that turns out was a note by Benjamin Harrison, one of the Law School founders. They seek the counsel of the portrait gallery (which really exists on the 2nd floor and Menaka says features all these old white dudes that no one knows who they are) and the talking portraits (ala Harry Potter) point the students to a secret note hidden in Harrison’s secret archive. When the law school heroes finally track it down, they find it speaks to the law’s role in ensuring justice in society and how love of the law is required….something the B-school gang found repulsive so they left in disgust.
Peppered throughout were jabs that are to be expected — poking fun at certain professors, common experiences of all students, current events, etc. There were cameos from a well loved professor, from the dean of the students, and even from the head of the law school himself, who giddily recounts how he decided to do exactly the opposite of what the law school faculty council suggested he do. All throughout the show there were cheers and applauses — the crowd was absolutely into it. The 3Ls we were sitting by were gone by the intersession….as the show ended I saw an near empty bottle of Maker’s Mark and several empty wine bottles.
The writing was terrific — these guys really knew what they were doing. There was a whole scene with the 2Ls on their Oregon Trail upon leaving the law school, complete with references to hunting buffalo, fording a river, and dying of dysentary. There was a hilarious scene featuring the original Willy Wonka and three oompa-loompas (representing Google search servers), with perfectly recreated oopma-loompa dances too!
Between scenes as the stage hands got the next scene ready, the band would cover songs from the last decade that had nearly the whole audience singing along to — the real iconic songs that everyone knew. Practically everyone in the audience is 24-29 years old, so both pop culture and music references were common experiences — really smart production there. Throwbacks to classic rock were done really well too, like this one with Journey’s Don’t Stop Believing.
Just a State school boy
did undergrad at Illinois
he drove a piece of shit car to Stanford Law
Just an Ivy girl
on the way to rule the world
she flew a private jet out to Stanford Law
[famous professor signs a girl's arm]
Sitting in the Law Cafe
it smells of weed and Tanqueray….
…read their books, it goes on and on and on and on
1Ls, no grades, spending all their nights at Rudy’s (a bar)
…. so much potential, they got the world in front of them
but they’re all in Vegas and Tahoe!
Even for someone like me with an interest in law issues and with only a passing understanding of law school (thanks to Win), I was laughing constantly during the show — which is a real testament to the writers.
As a parting note — it was eye opening to see the level of community and camaraderie on display in the auditorium. It was just tremendous — really stirred the jealously pot. The law school class size is ~170, but at least for a year it seems that the curriculum is mostly the same for everyone — it gives you a chance to get to know so many people in your class and you’ve all got common experiences to share and draw upon. With the engineering graduate program, everyone ends up rapidly specializing and very quickly your pool of ‘comrades’ shrinks to one or two dozen, at most. And in EE @ Stanford, this starts happening by your 2nd quarter. I hear that the GSB tracks closer to the law school in that regard. And judging from what I know with medical school, it’s probably like that too. Is this something unique to ‘professional’ schools only? Is it the type and age of people who attend these professional schools?
For the life of me, I couldn’t imagine what I saw happening in an engineering school…and that’s a shame.
