Empower yourself
A good thing about driving 7 miles a day is that you fill up about once a month. Bad thing is 15 mpg. That's almost the worst mileage I ever got, I got 13 once with that old rotary RX7. But eh, can't complain. Now I see even more reasons why people drive these behemoths. You feel very safe. Especially in this rainy season, I have confidence that I that those who hit me will likely suffer more than me. What about me hitting others? Well, I can see more of the road, so the chances of me hitting them are slimmer too. And when it only costs me an extra 15 a month. It's not that bad of a trade off.
Spoke to Kim the other day. It was just like old times again. Only, the warm bowl of noodles was unfortunately absent and she sounded a bit sad. Isolated even. But then again she was in the library so she was probably whispering. Spoke to Ying Ying today and she is just as somber. Moving and tackling school at the same time is difficult. I should know. Still, she's cheery enough to get rid of the clouds.
And I? I just feel peachy. Because I realize other people are in a sorrier state than me. Call me evil if you like, but comparing myself to people in more dire predicaments brings me joy. I went to a counseling workshop today entitled "Empower yourself." No, I didn't go there to stand next to the ugly people, I'm not that evil. I genuinely went in to see if there is some simple answer to how I can better tackle my studies. The simple answer was to understand that your problems are your own and don't blame others. Shit, been there done that. Now what. Nothing. That's it, once you do that you should be content. Hello? Me right here, blaming myself, not content. So he said some more stuff about feelings something or other, that went over my head. I think my heart is too much stone to understand. And so I walked out of there feeling better that some people could not keep their pants on and now have to go to school and feeding two mouths. That's what makes an evil man feel better.
Oh and rain prevented me from "borrowing" internet from the other side of the street. I now have really bad latency connection, but at least it works.
Words overheard:
Ciao Bella!
Goodbye to you...
"Goodbye to everything that I knew.
You are the one I loved.
The one thing that I try to hold on to."
My transitional new friend is moving out. And with her goes speedy broadband. It sucks how her side of the house is able to receive 3 wireless signals while my side gets none. But I have blown a kiss to internet. From now on, work will be done here at the computer lab where they still force ancient dot matrix printers to do manual labor. I swear, there's 6 in every lab and they print nonstop. You see, with 50 or so computers, there's bound to be a few people printing and when they print this loudly and this slowly...
.... this sucks. They print like a page a minute. Amazing how technology has advanced and how this school does not have the capitol to embrace it. That droning noise is driving my up the wall. Ok, I think I will talk about something else that drove me up the wall.
I got a phone call yesterday while I was in the library. I wagered the no cell phone policy vs my annoyance at how people can talk loudly on their phones right in front of a sign that says "No Talking" cell phone or otherwise. I decided to be a hypocrite because it was potentially an important call and to gather up my books and vacate the building would cost me too much time. Now, I was whispering quietly so I guess I have to factor that in.
"Hello?"
"Hello, I whispered."
Long silence because I am a jerk. I have this thing where you call me, it's your turn to talk after I greet you.
"Are you in class?"
Annoyance factor rising, if i am in class. WTF am I doing picking up the phone and talking to you. But I imagined that some odd people actually do talk in class so I said, "No."
"What?"
"What do you want?"
"What?"
"WHAT DO YOU WANT?"
Long silence again
"Are you in class?"
"TALK! WHAT DO YOU WANT?!?"
ALmost screaming now.
"WHAT? What are you saying?"
"NOTHING. What do you want?"
"What?"
"Alright, I'll talk to you later."
Even when I factor in that she did not hear a word I said. I just don't understand why she doesn't just talk and give me the info or ask me what she want. It's my annoyance and anal factor kicking in because when someone calls me, I expect them to talk and make me understand them. Not the other way around. Who cares what I am saying, you need to tell me what you f'ing want. Grrrrr.... I called her back later that night though and she didn't pick up. So I did my part at least. Yeah, I know, you're thinking I have too many hangups about the phone. And you are right, pun intended.
Word overheard:
"When I was 18 in college and I saw people there 22-25 I said, Oh my God, what are you doing there? Why don't you just go and die."
My Chem lab prof was telling me about how in Lebanon, it's really downhill after 20. Ah, the subtle differences between the US of A and the rest of the world. She got married at 22 and had a child right away.
Year of the Cock
Darn, I missed an A on my Calc midterm by one point. The only reason is because I forgot to study up on logarythms, crap, don't even remember how to spell it. But anyway, you need it somewhat in Calculus. If I had studied on some of the identies, I could have had a perfect paper. Oh well. The curve brings it to an A anyway, so I am satisfied.
I went to see my chem lab professor about a problem today. There were already 3 other girls there inquiring assistance. One of them asked, "What are you doing here? You don't need help." Heh, when she says I am smart I feel good not like the old man with BO in Calculus. Yep, that's how I am as you all know perfectly well. So I walk out full of myself, feelin' good.
I come home today thinking I might as well setup wireless security on the network I am piggybacking off of. In the mean time, I can ask my housemate what is going on with the landlady. I'll tell you later what is going on later. After I setup the security, she invites me to go out eating with her friends. Hey, I can stare at the wall and eat cup noodles or hang out with real people. I chose the road taken.
I ended up getting to know Jenny (my housemate), Patsy(her friend for 12 years), Tina(Patsy's friend for 11 years), and Hiro(The Chinese speaking Japanese guy). Jenny said I could hang out with her friends if I like. I might even be able to find a girlfriend out of one of them. Wow, she's already starting pimp me and she barely knows me. Can't have a GF when you're a starving student, but hey, I like friends. She said they usually go to lounges and drink. Damm, I sure hope I can enter this club. I didn't expect to make friends this early I just hope I didn't act too homely. Kinda hard to shake off 1 month of solitude. The hermit dust shows through a bit. But yeah, this is the way to start off the year of the Cock.
Words overheard:
"What are you doing on Singles Awareness Day.
You know it's February 14th."
Inflating the Ego
This is the third year in a row for commercial quality during the Superbowl to suck. From the erectile dysfunctions of last year to this year's breakdancing people, it's becoming a football occasion again. No doubt this year's tame response came from the wardrobe malfunction fiasco. And I don't want to anger any Paul McCartney fans out there but can the halftime show be any more boring? You got some ubiquitous fireworks and that was it. Just a guy playing his instruments and singing. Even if I were a fan, I'd be disappointed. Where are your dancers? If you can't dance, get someone who can. And variety flew right out the window. Changing the screensaver on the floor does not count. Yeesh, bring on the boredom. It's like they want us to watch the football game. It was a no brainer that the Pats won. It just came as a surprise at how much of a fight the Eagles put up. I am still angry that the talents of TO was traded away. Sure, he's a jerk. But I don't care. I'd rather have a winning team of jerks than a losing team that likes to blame someone else.
After weeks of cup noodles, I decided I would treat myself to a bowl of Pho. When the bowl was brought out in front of me, my eyes started watering. I remember when I used to stare at the steam rising from the bowl and see through it on the other side is Kim. We'd talk smack about our friends, complain about how much money we waste, and dream of exciting things we could do together. We had aspirations of mountain biking, traveling to exotic lands, and surfing. Well surfing is her, I'd like to but my water prowess isn't up to snuff yet. My Pho buddy is so far away...
Anyway, I failed my Physics midterm. I already knew it. I didn't need to see the test results. I'm gonna hide it somewhere and look at it when I ace the second midterm so that I have something good to counter it. I have no excuse for it either because it was extremely easy. I can tell. If I had just understood the concepts, I would have been able to ace it easy. It's sad that the average for the class was 23/60. That's an H average if there is such a thing. Incredible, that's a new low average for a class, I have ever seen. And he isn't going to curve right now. This sucks. He's gonna curve it at the of the class in a combined single curve. This sucks because the worst students would have dropped out by then, so I don't get the benefits of their incompetence on this test. Still he said only a few people made it above 90% so the curve should still be fairly positive. I badly needed a boost and luckily it came in the form of mistakes on the chem midterm. Count me in for 2 more points. Now I am an even firmer A.
Time to study my butt off.
More static ramblings...
Privatizing social security huh? Normally, I would say, hell yeah, give me my money! I want control of my money. But I know how people are. Remember, the average American family has $8000 of debt? People are just stupid with money, me included. Plastic is too easy to spend. This is something I believe we need hand-holding because it's everyone's problem when we are old and hanging out on street alleys. Besides, how does this fix our problem? Social security is going bankrupt and we want to take more money out?
So my stragedy of sitting on the other side of the room to avoid the harummpph girl is sorta working. I still hear her if I try, but normally it blends in with background noise. Sadly, though there's this Asian dude sitting behind me with too much leg. He seems to have a hard time getting comfortable in these liliputian seats and rests his feet on the back of my chair. And then the dude in front of me has really bad BO. But I think I can live with that. I just don't lean too close to the front and I am ok. And I asked the guy in back not to put his feet on my chair and he was really nice about it. I could still feel his leg though. He even sat a seat behind me the next day. There's nowhere else to sit except the back of the room. This side of the room for some reason fills up really fast. So I thought everything was fine.
Today, I come into class and the bad BO guy keeps talking to me thinking I am smart for some reason. Even though my answers to him were wrong the other day. I didn't really know how to do the problems. I just showed him what I did and it turned out wrong later on. But he still insists on me being a genius. Maybe it's an All Asians Are Good in Math thing. I try hard to concentrate on studying for the midterm. Then the guy sitting to the left of me of me forces a little pow-wow study session with me and and bad BO guy. Oh my gosh, his breath could kill plants. I try to lean back to see if I can politely exit the chat room. But then the guy with his long legs sits behind me and I could feel his knees on my shoulders. Picture that! Why in the world are his knees so high up? I look behind me and he really isn't trying to annoy me. There's nowhere for his legs to go. And he starts bugging me about questions too? You're sitting behind me again to ask me questions about the midterm huh? Why do you all guys think I am smart? Why do I attract all these guys? Where are the chicks who think I am smart? And I thought too soon. The harrummph girl takes the seat to the right of me. I'm boxed in. I think I might try the back of the room next week.
