Mahavishnu Orchestra "Birds Of Fire"

Jean-Luc Ponty "Ethereal Mood"

The Whitest Boy Alive "Fireworks"

40 Fingers feat. Andy Summers "Bring On The Night"

When the teacher wrote "see me after class" on your paper, what did they say to you?

[Answered by Ralph Cordell via Quora.com]

From the other side of the desk -

I once wrote “see me after class” on an exam paper I handed back to a student in a university Intro Biol class I was teaching. It was in the South shortly after 9/11 and based on his name and appearance, the young man was obviously east Asian or Middle Eastern. He had also done an outstanding job on the exam - getting by far the highest grade in the class - for the second or third time. He seemed a bit of a loner and I just wanted to check in with him. see if he was okay and be a friendly face. I told him it was obvious that he was not a local southern boy, that I suspected he was from a part of the world that was not particularly popular in the area at the time and that I hoped he was doing okay. He told me that the treatment that he was getting was nothing compared to what he received in his homeland, that he was a Bahai from Iran and left his country to avoid all the religious persecution. I congratulated him on his excellent performance in my class and asked about his other classes and goals. He said he was getting A’s in all his other classes and hoped to become an engineer. The university where I was teaching is good school and very strong in some areas. However it was not particularly strong in the applied physical sciences and engineering. I suggested he consider transferring to a school where he would be more challenged. When he asked me where, I said “Oh University of Chicago, Stanford, Princeton, MIT - someplace like that”. I am not an engineer but tried to name off a few schools that I thought would be good.

Several months later, he emailed me - telling me that he had taken my advice, checked all those schools and found that MIT was the only one that would accept transfers at that time. Would I write a letter of recommendation for him? The young man had done what I suggested so I had no choice but to support him. Now, I am a pro at LORs and wrote one of my killer letters of recommendation for him. I shot straight but included all the info I would want to see if I were on the other end- telling what I knew of the young man, the nature of our relationship and my opinion of his abilities and performance - all with factual examples. I concluded by saying if they were half as smart as I thought they were, they would take him into their program.

A while after that, he contacted me to say that he was transferring to MIT. Several years later I did a GOOGLE search on his name and found that he had received a masters in electrical engineering from MIT.

Some “see me after class” notes may lead to dark places but most are written to get a better understanding of a situation. I tend to think that they indicate that an instructor/teacher cares enough about the situation to try to resolve it. I was fortunate to have had some really excellent mentors and have tried to honor them. I also respected my students. Most were in school because they wanted an education. Some took my classes because they had to - others because they wanted to. Some faced major obstacles in their lives including rather weak educational foundations. Still most came and tried. This is one of several that stands out.

Are some people invisible?

[Answered on Quora.com by Bill Otto]

Not in a literal sense.

But it has often been said that middle-aged women are perfect spies because they are invisible. No one notices them.

I was once invisible. I was a very young loan counselor at a credit union. Some people had trouble seeing me because they were expecting something else.

People who work as extras in Hollywood try to be invisible. They manage to keep you from seeing their faces, or any other personally identifiable features.

The more you look like you belong in the environment and behave exactly as expected, the more likely you are to be “invisible”.

Huge Achievement

What did you do that was a huge achievement for you but very insignificant to the people around you?
[answered by Jordan Yates via Quora.com]

This morning, I woke up to a text from my bank.

“Unusual account activity— call this number”.

I called and the automated machine said it would read back my last five transactions to check for anything weird.

“Video entertainment— $65. California.”

“Video entertainment— $10. Declined. France.”

“Video entertainment— $10. Declined. France.”

“Gas— $30. Colorado.”

“Gas— $30. Wyoming.”

I was pretty sure I hadn’t been to France or California recently, so I checked my account summary and noticed I had -$50 in my account.

I’m taking poor college kid to a whole new level. I’m negative poor right now.

So I called their fraud number and the woman on the other end walked me through securing my account and getting a new card. She asked a few questions, told me my card was on its way, and hung up.

The achievement was not that I got my card number stolen. It wasn’t that I managed to put my account $50 under.

It’s that I made a phone call.

That sounds awfully small and to everyone around me it is, but I have been known to have panic attacks when forced to make phone calls. I hate ‘em. They make me anxious and uncomfortable and incredibly stressed.

I struggle with hearing on the phone (and in general, really), which exacerbates my social anxiety and makes phone calls some of the worst interactions I can have.

But today, I did it. The woman even had an accent and I think I understood her and responded correctly.

It’s a small thing, but when it’s one of your biggest fears, it can feel like the greatest thing in the world.

COIN "Chapstick" (Official Video)