BennyEast.Com/Blog The official blog of Kenny West

Curiosity

So, I'm continuing my "do lots of work at Starbucks every day for an hour or two".  I call it my "catch up on life" hour.

I just dropped my mom's old walker off at Goodwill, the second one she had apparently owned, that has been in her garage, now my garage (but really in spirit it's still her garage).  I actually first attempted to take it to the local ambulance place because one of my friends had suggested to check there and see if they have a "community closet" or loaner closet, for walkers/canes/etc. and such.  They didn't have one.

After Goodwill I went to Lowe's to get two quick little items, one to kill these random weeds that have randomly popped up in my lawn.  Dandelions.  Always those damned dandelions.

Better than real lions showing up on my lawn.  I wouldn't know how to deal with that.

"You've got lions on your lawn."
"WHAT?!?!  Not again!"
"Dude that sucks."

I also bought something to help make the stump decay faster.  There's a stump from a tree that my mom had removed, she had mentioned the summer before she passed away that she was going to have the sump ground and removed.  I was going to call the stump grinder people, but then a few people told me that there are these pellets you can use that are all of about 6 bucks at Lowe's instead of paying hundreds or thousands or whatever it costs for the tree guy to do it.

I bought the pellets for 6 bucks.

Anyway, enough backstory...

So, I'm here at this one Starbucks that I've come to before.  I'm curious to know the why.  See, both times when I've walked in, there have been groups of people who appear to be working on homework.

What's specific about the groups of people is that they are a specific... Hmm... I guess they appear from the aspect of making a first glance inference, that they are of the same... Let's say cultural and ethnic background?  I think that works.

It's interesting to me.  Not intersting in a Donald Turnip "get the frack out of my country" way, but in a Malcolm Gladwell, I'm interested from a data analysis and "why the world is the way the world is" way.

Malcolm Gladwell is pretty awesome.

I guess I'm just curious to know the origins of this gathering.  Are they friends?  Family?  Do they all attend some kind of organization together and then come after to work on homework?  It just has perked my attention.

I kind of want to chat with them and know more.

Maybe they are in an international language study program together and are here as a group?

I think it's mostly because of my exposure to the international camps that I've gone to as a camper and worked at as a counselor.  I'm always interested when I see people not from here.

I'm always interested in trends and the whys and hows.  I was listening to a podcast today while doing dishes and cleaning my bathrooms about data science and data scientists.  Looking at events, or data, and figuring information from it, trends, where it came from, where it's going.

I'm wondering specifically like the sort of tip of the iceberg type of deal... So, okay, for example, I used to see a lot of people that seemed to be of Indian origin when I would run in Valley Forge park.  I was curious.... Why is that?  Are people from India really into American history and visit Valley Forge park a lot?  Turns out it's mostly because that area from Ardmore up to Malvern has a lot of Pharma companies, and as well Vanguard is a large employer of international talent.

Fascinating stuff.  I like crap like that.

I ended up talking to one guy who works for Vanguard I think maybe 2 or 3 years ago for a whole hour when I was out.

It's interesting because it gives you a different perspective on the world.  Which is what Gladwell is all about.

See okay here's the thing that bugs me about any sort of "centric" view... It's missing pieces of the puzzle.

Anyone who draws a conclusion by walking in a room, is sadly void of the ability to make proper intellectual decisions.  At least in my view.

My thing is, you can't tell a damn thing about someone just by looking at them.  SO, if you walk into a room and see a bunch of people who seem to be from the same origin... In this case here in the Starbucks I'm currently at, there's a population of what appears to be students, and what appears to be from somewhere in Asia.

So, in my own curiosity... Why is that?  Is it like the case of Vanguard near Valley Forge park hiring employees from India?  Is it that there's a college nearby and that they are enrolled in a language program and this is the closest place to study?  Maybe there's a larger population on the whole in this specific area... For example, I recently watched a thing about how there's a large Somali population in Minneapolis.  I thought that was fascinating.  And because of that, there's some really good local spots with Somali cuisine... Things like camel burgers.  Who knew you could order a camel burger anywhere?

Crazy.  Cool.

Actually, it's fascinating how in specific places around the United States, or in general around the world, there are specific ways that the local cultures are influenced by populations who either settled there even hundreds or thousands of years previous, or even in the last few decades or last few years.

There's a book that I need to read on the subject that a friend told me about, it's called "American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America".  While I haven't read the book, I was given a little "crash course" on it by my friend.

Anyways, I like stuff like that.  To know what the driving forces are behind things.  I'm not here to judge, or say if something is good, or bad, or whatever... I don't subscribe to the rhetoric that our current turd in chief is spouting...

After all, as one post I saw said, there's an entire island of Americans currently without power and this guy is going on about how some players in the NFL won't stand during the National Anthem.

Which, if he actually took the time to understand what that movement is about, maybe he could help instead of just go on and on about his crowd size (read: penis size).  Another topic for another post.

Well, those are my thoughts for the afternoon.