🧠 Creating My Philosophy 10/12/25

Hi Everyone!

I thought I liked in-person classes. You tend to have better discussions and become closer as a community. That being said, one of my classes was moved to a virtual format this week, and it was nice to be able to hop off my class’s Zoom meeting and plop down on my living room couch instead of having to endure my hour-long commute. It’s feelings like this that make me worried I picked the wrong grad school, and should have picked an option with a more online component. However, I had to remind myself (and Rylee for sure helped too) the reasons I picked an in-person program. Anyway, thanks for listening to my first mid-semester crisis. I expect there to be plenty more where that came from.

Now with that out of the way, let’s find out What’s Up With Will…

This week, for my pedagogy class, I had to create and turn in a teaching philosophy, which is kind of like a personal statement explaining my beliefs on learning and teaching. I’d say that even this short amount of time in school has radically changed my view on teaching and the role of an educator. Here is a snippet of what I wrote:

That’s right, I did just quote myself…

In other news, I have started a leadership development workshop hosted by the Career & Leadership Development Department on campus. It does mean that I am going to have to go to school on another day of the week, but in the end, I will get a leadership certificate, and I don’t think anyone looking at a resume is going to think a leadership certificate is a detriment. Lunch is also provided for every session, so take that all the economists who say there’s no such thing as a free lunch.

The Conservatory of Flowers has a free day every first Tuesday of the month, so I decided to check it out. 

The building was probably the coolest-looking greenhouse I have ever seen, and inside was mostly plants found in tropical rainforests. However, I was sweating like a pig the entire time I was in there. I get that these plants need particular environmental conditions to thrive, but they could not have made it more stuffy in there. The funny thing about the Conservatory of Flowers was that I think there were prettier flowers outside of the greenhouse, which was free to walk around. To the conservatory’s credit, though, there were some spectacular Lilly Pads. 

I also made a stop for lunch at the Arizmendi Bakery. Arizmendi is a worker-owned bakery with multiple locations in the Bay Area known for its pizza. Apparently, this is also Arizmendi’s 25th year open, so they celebrated with chocolate pecan rolls. Naturally, I got one of both. This bakery does phenomenal with their topping choices. I loved the chocolate pecan roll, and the pizza of the day special’s mixed greens, mushrooms, goat cheese, and Parmesan were wonderfully savory. However, my pizza crust itself was a little burnt, which was sad, as you would think if anyone could bake something properly, it would be a bakery.

Walnut Creek’s Lesher Center for the Arts started partnering with SF Jazz to host Jazz concerts, and it just so happened that I received a free ticket to the first show, featuring the Branford Marsalis Quartet. For anyone who doesn’t know about Branford Marsalis (of which I was included), he is a 3-time Grammy Award winner and was also at one point the leader of The Tonight Show with Jay Leno band.

While Marsalis is the Grammy Award Winner, all four of the musicians were incredibly talented, with each getting time to shine with solos. And like all good jazz, it was frantic and slightly anxiety-inducing, keeping you on the edge of your seat just waiting for what musical note you will hear next…

Also, this week, I got free tickets to the SF Zoo. Now I’m not the biggest animal lover. In an ideal world, I would prefer to observe most animals from a safe distance and ogle at how cute or how not cute they are. If we are being honest, I’m still a little scared of Cleo. I let her come to me, but I have only ever lifted her 2 or three times in the years that I have been a cat dad (and that has only been because of dire circumstances like a fire alarm).

With that being said, the zoo is a good space to interact with animals on my terms. I channeled my wild side, and became best friends with some giraffe, a rhino, a mandrill, and the most adorable Red Panda that you have ever seen. I might have a new spirit animal now.

This week started Rylee’s family beach trip, but due to her job, she would not be able to attend this year. For our date this week, I figured that I would bring a little bit of the beach to her, so we went to the infamous tiki bar, Trader Vic’s.

Trader Vic’s has a bit of pull in the tiki bar world, as it was the place that invented the Mai Tai. The story goes that after years of making rum drinks, Victor J. "Trader Vic" Bergeron felt that a new drink was needed. One day, he took a bottle of 17-year-old Jamaican J. Wray Nephew rum, added fresh lime, some Orange Curaçao, a dash of Rock Candy Syrup, a dollop of French Orgeat, and shook it up with a lot of ice. He gave it to his friend from Tahiti, Carrie Guild, and after one sip said, “Mai Tai – Roa Ae”, in Tahitian, which translates to “Out of this World – The Best”.

In addition to the fruity, full-bodied tiki drinks, my favorite part of any tiki bar is always the glassware, and Trader Vic’s absolutely delivers. Their collection of tiki mugs is truly impressive. Just look at the variety! I love the flamingo one.

It was also San Francisco Fleet Week. Fleet Week normally culminates in an Air Show done by the Blue Angels, but with the current government shutdown, they were grounded. Just when things looked bleak for an air show, the Canadian Forces Snowbirds swooped in to save the day, and Trader Vic’s ended up being a good place to watch the show!

Since no one told me not to, here is more pumpkin spice related content. Rylee and I generally wake up on the weekends, make breakfast, and watch an episode of Good Mythical Morning. When I saw this video, I knew this was the one we were watching that day. I love that while a few things overlap, most of the products reviewed in this video are different from the products reviewed in the previous video. It just goes to show the immense cultural power of pumpkin spice.