📚Race To The Finish Line! 12/7/25

Hello Everyone!

In case you weren’t aware, the penny is no more. It had a good run, with the first such coin being pressed all the way back in 1793. That’s 232 years, which is quite a long time for the smallest denomination in U.S. currency. And while I think it is a sad occurrence, I do understand why, as the U.S. Mint stated, the cost of making the coin was 3.69 cents. The world will forever appreciate the lasting impact that it has had on tip jars across America.

In honor of the coin, Topps released a special commemorative trading card for the penny’s demise, and I decided to get one. I can’t wait for the future, when I can tell people that “Back in my day, there used to be a coin that was only worth 1 cent”, and they will be in complete shock.

Now, let’s find out What’s Up With Will…

I am in the thick of things with final assignments, and at this point, it is going to be a race to the finish line. I am not going to lie, but I have not been the most on top of things this semester, and the assignments and other work have been piling up. That being said, I have been power-typing away this entire week, a constant fury of click-clacking coming from my computer. I can finally say that I am back on track, for the most part. Since I have no final exams, my goal is to finish all my assignments before finals week, two weeks from now, so I can get one more week of winter break. Fingers crossed!

In other news, in my Intro to Communication Studies class, we had a citations workshop on APA citation, which was actually useful. In spite of Citation Machine and the Purdue Owl APA style Guide, I have been feeling like a chicken without its head. For the past couple of papers, I have definitely just winged it, but I am thankful to get a proper education on APA now. Better late than never…

In the COMM class that I am an instructor-in-training in, we have begun the final set of speeches, the special occasion speech. I am truly trying to mentally grade some of these students, as I might be in this position, actually grading speeches soon. I have a hard time doing so because I feel like this speech, or just any time you get up in front of an audience to speak, is a celebration of courage and finding your own voice. I know I want to give both positive and constructive feedback, but I also think back to a time when social anxiety ruled my life, and getting in front of a crowd is a difficult yet empowering act.

My teaching class got cancelled, so I decided to stop for a happy hour libation before heading back home at E&O Kitchen + Bar. I ordered a Tradewinds G&T, a mix of peaflower-infused gin and a housemade lemongrass tonic, making it this interesting, earthy yet slightly zesty cocktail. Then, harking back to the advice given to me two newsletters ago, I stopped at Koolfi Creamery to “eat ice cream, and then get back to hustling.” They had interesting Indian-inspired flavors like mango lassi and rose. I ordered a pumpkin pie and snaps because you all know that I am a pumpkin spice girly, but I also got the Klassic Koolfi, which is based on the Indian delight “Malai Kulfi,” a frozen treat crafted by simmering milk with spices and nuts for hours.

On my way into school this week, I made a pit stop at the Museum of Craft and Design, San Francisco’s only museum dedicated to craft and design.

In the first exhibit, SuperNatural, artist Judith Schaechter uses stained glass to push the boundaries of this historically devotional craft. Schaechter engraves and sandblasts flash glass, a hand-blown material with thin layers of color, before adding touches of enamel and silver stain. Each composition assembled reflects countless hours of work, and they are all stunning.

Beginning in the early 1990s, Susan Beech assembled works by leading international jewelers. The second exhibition, Wunderkammer, showcases that art jewelry collection. The exhibition takes its name from the German wunderkammer, or a “cabinet of wonders” used from the 16th to 19th centuries to display treasured natural and human-made objects. The pieces range from organic materials and sculptural forms, and place her jewelry within custom cabinetry.

I think this museum was interesting, as it focused on the actual creation and presentation of the art rather than just the artistic/moral/intellectual value of it. There’s an entire process in the creation of art that I am super curious about learning more about, especially on non-traditional mediums like stained glass. Also, it highlights how important curation and the display of works can be in showing off the piece itself.

We went into the city for a special early Christmas party. Rylee threw on her holiday Christmas sweater, I tossed on my Santa Hawaiian shirt, and we were off. Along the way, we made a couple of pit stops.

El Lopo is a Spanish wine and tapas bar that pours wine by the porrón, a traditional glass used for drinking and serving wine. You can pour wine out of it like normal, but if you’re really feeling crazy, you can take a sip directly from the glass itself via a thin stream of wine, as I demonstrate in the above image. You’ll be surprised to know that I only spilled a little!

Apparently, it was seen as a way to communally share a glass without spreading diseases (I was told this by our server), and how long and how far away you can pour from is a direct indication of how cool you are (I made this part up, but I imagine it could be true).

After getting our pour on, we stopped for dinner at Kuma Sushi + Sake. They make a mean gluten-free miso soup, and the sushi itself was extremely fresh. My favorite part, though, was that they gave me unlimited ginger. For those that don’t know, I love the ginger that is found at a sushi restaurant, and I’ll often eat it before I get any of my meal. What can I say? A disease hates to see me at a sushi restaurant. This time, however, when I finished my ginger, they just brought another one. And then when I finished the second plate, they brought a third plate! If you are a ginger fanatic like I am, you will love this place.

Then came the Christmas party itself. My friend and former fraternity brother, Sath, invited us. It was a perfect combination of tinsel and pong balls flying everywhere. I even got to play stack cup for the first time in years. It almost makes me miss the old days of undergrad.

Despite the extensive amount of work I still have for school, as I mentioned earlier, the end of the semester is quickly approaching. To celebrate making it this far, the COMM department threw a holiday party at Round1, a Dave and Busters-like paradise full of arcade and claw machines, bowling, and karaoke. The best news yet is that it is right next to SFSU, so I might be there all the time now!

It was great to hang out in a non-school setting with both my professors and fellow graduate students. And I might have scored a personal best in bowling with 110!

I have been listening to this music nonstop whenever I am studying. I think it helps me focus. Let’s finish out this year strong together!