Interesting Psychological Study (of sorts)

This past Shabbos I went up north to Pardes Chana with Yosef to visit a family friend, Yoni and Nina Tokayer (Medved). Their kids were a great deal of fun, the food was phenomenal, and needless to say, it was a very musical Shabbos. I enjoyed it immensely. This semester is wrapping up, it ends sometime in January but the classes are already slowing down. I took a look at what classes I'll be taking next semester, and although I'm going to have twice as many classes as I'm taking now, it's not going to be that much more work. There are a bunch of programming labs, a business ethics course, and two advanced math courses: calculus and linear algebra. Unfortunately, JCT won't accept my Calculus and Linear Algebra credits because their courses are heavily proof-based, and CCBC's classes were not. However, I know the material backward and forwards so I probably won't go to those classes and just submit the homework. Last Thursday I brought my cello to the Ben Yehudah area to make a few shekels. I noticed something fascinating, which is that if I made eye contact and smiled at people who were walking by, they were more than twice as likely to drop a few coins in my case. It didn't seem to matter what I played, or how well I played, but if I smiled at passerbys, they would drop coins almost twice as often. It seems incredible, but it was very consistent. I played for about 3 hours during which I alternated between trying to play the best I could without engaging with passerbys and making eye contact and smiling at those walking by, not worrying about how well I was playing. During the latter stage, I consistently had twice as many people drop coins. I thought that that is something worth sharing. I've been thinking quite a bit about what I'm going to be doing over the next few years. I have a bit more information now and I'm going to have to make a few major decisions within the next few months. As always, I'll be posting updates on this site on a (fairly) regular basis. All the best! Eliyahu