Disturbance in the force
I saw my landlady working outside my room the other day, so I thought I might casually ask her about the little surprises I found in my bathroom.
"Did you come into my room while I was gone?"
"Yes, I had to close the windows because of the painting."
Alright, that's a barely acceptable excuse, I wasn't here afterall and the roof had to be painted.
"Did your dog come in also?"
She then laughed and said, "Oh did he go to the bathroom in your bathroom. I'm so sorry."
What the heck is that? The way she says it, so nonchalant. It's as if he's done this before and/or she doesn't think it's a big deal. This is just unnacceptable. I am just so disgusted, I don't know how to vent. I'm moving out as soon as my lease is up. This is just wrong. Your dog does not have to come into my room so that you can close the windows. And certainly you should notice if he does something in my room. Ack....
My biking adventure is starting to get a little better. I huffed and puffed the first day. I had a hard time breathing the second day. And the third day, I just sweated. The ease at which this is coming to me is at least comforting after the incredibly tiring first day I had. I'm getting to school in about 20 minutes which is double the time it takes me to drive. I'm confident I can get it down to about 15 minutes average and maybe even 12 minutes if I get all green lights. There are a few caveats.
1. I already told you about the lopsides tires. The reason for this is because it seems the bike has been left out in the sun too long and the threads on both tires are coming off on the tires. I heard them breaking as I pumped up the tires.
2. The forgot to bring some bungee cables. So although my panniers are installed I have nothing to secure my bags to them.
3. The screws that came with the lights did not fit the bike so I am unable to install it. I also don't have the necessary tools to install the generator to power the lights. So, I might get run over by a car.
4. For some odd reason, I can tackle a black diamond with a less than 40 degree angle, but even the slightest downhill is sending fear through my legs. Fear of falling on asphalt and then getting pummeled by a vehicle behind is the motivation for this.
My honeymoon with easy lab instructors are now over. My Physics lab book is now due one day hence from class instead of the following Monday. A Chem lab book is now requisite instead of nothing from before. Late reports are now halved in score instead of, "I'll let you go this time, but don't make a habit of turning it in late." This isn't really harder per se, it's just more work. Work that is pretty much required if you're someone who doesn't catch on easily. But for someone like me who wings it all the time and for some odd reason usually understands, this is a total bummer. The only unfair thing is turning in your lab book in one day. One day is Thursday. I don't have class on Thursday. I'm not gonna bike to school to turn in my lab book. So I must finish on the day of the lab. And the physics department closes at around 6 PM. Giving me about 2 hours after lab to finish. That used to be my naptime.
Spring Break Epilogue
The past two weeks were quite eventful full of ups and ups. I finished most of the tasks I set out to do and more. I'll list them in chronological order as they come.
1. Finals finished with flying colors. I not only squeaked by Physics but I breezed through it with a B. It ends my 3 year reign of straight A's but hey, I'm not complaining especially after what I had to go through to (I want to say earn but I really earn it) get it. So 1st quarter away, I received a 3.69 GPA. Not bad at all.
2. Put together my new computer. It's not completely finished yet. My sister's BF, Jeremy had an extra Athlon XP mobo and 2000+ CPU sitting around and gave it to me. I based my computer around that and put in a TV tuner. That way I don't have to lug an extra TV with me down here.
3. The latest Tsan family round robin of cars is complete. I cough up the Frontier for West. Phung reliquishes the WRX to mom. Mom transfers the Corolla to me. Quynh hands down the Rodeo to Phung. And a new Prius or Mini Cooper enters the lineup as Quynh's third new car purchase. One caveat though. My car problems are supposably over. Notice the spelling, Jack. But the Old 87 Corolla my dad had been driving breaks down on him. Luckily, I didn't take it with me to LA. The car didn't even make it to San Jose. So I may be carless again depending on that outcome. But it's ok because it item number...
4. I purchased the necessary gear to refurbish the bike Mandy so kindly lent me. It only cost me $35 bucks to get the pannier, pump, and lights. A helmet is not required for people 18 and over. What joy. I get to gamble my life and not get ticketed. This morning, however, was met with a few setbacks. It rained, my rear wheel is wobbly and both tires seem to be breaking at the seams. I'll have to do some more work on it tonight.
5. Taxes should be completed soon. My uncle opted to pay to get them completed for me. And in turn I do a little online test for him.
6. I met up with a multitude of friends and we bonded and reminisced and gossiped. I missed out on a lot but everyone kept me up to date. Now I know what is really going on. And it seems just about everyone is for the better.
7. Finally got Jade channel setup at home for dad. It's a project I had been working on for the past 10 months. I finally bit and called in to order and they came out 12 hours later and set it up. No problems at all. Why am I such a lag? So easy to do.
And finally in LA, I met problems. Of course the aforementioned rain and bike problems. Did I mention I puffed and wheezed my way to campus? I am such an out of shape old man. I decided to save electricity and pulled the plug on my fridge. I debated leaving the can of opened condensed milk. I wagered that since it is cold all the time here, it would be ok. Yep, I opened the fridge to a puff of mold and a stink to lay down a few grown men. The growth was horrible. Now, I know.
But the most disturbing thing is, thusly. A couple of months ago, I noticed a yellow spot on my white bath rug. I figured I must have accidently spilled some chicken noodle soup there while I was throwing the cup away. I put my trash in the bathroom. I thought it couldn't have been the landlady's dog. It did run in there one time while I was talking to her. So I let it go.
Last night I find 3 additional yellow spots. I had just cleaned the rug prior to going to home so there shouldn't be any. I also found two little brown surprises on the bathroom floor. Now it was already dusturbing enough to find my windows closed one time since I leave them open all the time. And now this. I called the land lady but she did the quick hang up jig. Must be sleeping. What do I do. Leave it there and show her what happened tomorrow? I can't just leave doodoo on my bathroom floor. I cleaned it up. But I am so sicked right now. I don't know what to do. I have no proof to show her now. But someone or something went into my bathroom and I am pissed.
When in Rome
You know you're in LA when the first sunny day appears and people start going to school in bikinis. Isn't there a school code for how you can dress? That cute chick, blond of course walked into my physics lecture and started knitting. My naked Northern California eyes saw a girl in a bikini top and a towel wrapped around her waist walk into my toughest class, sit down and knit. Odd doesn't begin to describe the situation. But today's class has plenty of drama to keep my attention off her chest.
You know how I told you the average for the 1st midterm was 23 out of 60. the lowest I have ever seen for any class. I got 23 so I guess I have a C in the class. I thought there was no way I would ever see a lower average. I also vowed to take advantage of the situation and ace the next midterm. Well, today he returns a scorcher of a midterm number 2. I can talk on and on about the unfairness of the test and how hard it is but I'll only sound like a bitter student who got a bad grade. Again I got the average. I'll try a different route of complaint.
1. 3-4 people got question 1 correct. There are 5 word problems and over 40 students. Do the math. This sounds like monkeys typing out a Shakespearean novel. You may think I'm saying unfair when I just stated I wouldn't but we're talking less than 10% of the people got it right. I think statistically you would get that when people guess. And when it's worth 20% of the midterm???... come on.... COME ON!
2. Class average was 21/70. That's right, it's a lower average than before even though there are more possible points. Highest score was a 56. That's 80%. So the smartest person in the class barely got a B. Here's a relevant comment a fellow student angrily brought up in class. "There has got to be something wrong here."
I could have studied harder, but I think I know the material pretty damm well. Much better than in the first midterm anyway. had this been a regular class, I think I would have gotten a B, a C at the lowest. This teacher... he's just awful. Throughout every lecture you see people getting up and leave. Is this normal? Because where I come from and from other classes here, people who show up, stay. People don't just come and go. They either cut or they don't. Basically, everyone is learning out of the book like I am it seems and trying to get any outside help they can like from a lab teacher. My lab partner who has an A+ grasp on the subject, able to tell me things about the chapters and equations as if he wrote it, scored a 26. How is someone who has superior knowledge in the subject score so similar to me.
The dude with his knees up to my back strikes again. He's been bugging me nonstop about things he doesn't understand. Normally, I wouldn't mind but he does it so often. Sometimes I miss out on the new stuff the teacher is talking about when I answer his idiotic questions. That's strike 1.
He leans his head really close to me and his breath is consistently kicking. Now, people have bad breath every now and then. It's expected. You'll see them tomorrow and it'll be gone. But this guy is everyday. Strike 2.
He's forgotten that I don't like it when he puts his feet on my chair. I thought I had him too. I stuck my book in the cubbie hole under my chair. He wouldn't stand on my book would he? No, he wouldn't. But he wedges his feet in there so that it doesn't touch my book. Alright, I'm game. I'll get a desk that doesn't have the cubbie hole under so he has nothing to stand on. Nope, he rests his feet on my chair leg. Now his feet keeps sliding off it since it is slanted. Strike 3 dude.
Final solution is I sit in another row right in front of someone so that he can't take the seat behind me. Bastard has the nerve to ask. "Why are you sitting over there all of sudden?"
So anyway, I'm walking out of class and he starts telling me he's a Junior in HS and the man pays for his single class here. I hate nerds. Ever since that showoff freshman showed up in my Algebra 2 class. He always had an A without breaking a sweat. Mrs. Garcia didn't even mind that he barely showed up. And here is another young punk. He towered a full head over me. Reminded me of Ky. And just like Ky, this is what he said about my educational plans.
"Physics? You'll probably have to get a MS and you're already 26, you'll be an old man when you graduate. And NASA? I thought you need to graduate from Berkeley or Stanford to get in. Not from CalStateLA."
Damm immature kids.
MORE ANNOYANCES
Did I tell you about the time I was in computer lab and I heard fingernails getting clipped? Here I am in a clean hightech public place and someone is cutting their fingernails? I turn around and it's a Vietnamese fob.
Current annoyance is the girl sitting next to me doing text messages. She has decided that turning off the message tone is not important. Now if you guys know anything about cell phones, you know the message alert tone is much louder than the average ring tone. So every couple of minutes we get jolted with a noise. Great, now her phone rang and she is talking on it completely ignoring the no cell phone sign behind her. I am gonna leave now before I get any more urge to hit her.
Withdrawal symptoms
It's been about a week since I haven't had internet at home and I am going through intense withdrawal pains. This kind of suffering is intolerable. Oh, I just heard that SBC has lowered their dsl price to 20 bucks a month. Damm man, I can setup a connection here for like 35 bucks a month now. Totally worth it, but I can't sign up for a year contract and pay setup for the initial phone line. But at this price, when I do find a more permanent place like the dorm, I just might order it. I'm sure I can find someone to share the cost. It would be nice. I've missed a lot of episodes of tv shows since I haven't been able to download any. Tivo is a very nice appliance indeed. But oh well. obenkyo obenkyo...
I have a few new revelations but since Ihaven't eaten in over 24 hours, I think I am gonna go home and launch an attack on my tiny fridge. I would normally reward myself right now with some good restaurant food but my teeth hurts again. This is the most it's hurt ever for a new aligner. All worth it for my bright smile in the mirror.
SPAM sending software has improved a lot lately if you haven't noticed. There were a few factors that junk mail blockers used.
1. bad or no return address
2. keyword in subject field like ex: pron, viagara
3. no name or garbage in the from field
I'm starting to get more and more spam that has an actual heading and return address. Even has a specialized subject and name field. Looks like a real email except I don't know the person. Unfortunately, I am inclined to open the mail because it could be someone from school or an aquantance somewhere. And after about 4 years of ownership my email account has finally succumbed to 1 daily. Not bad huh? maybe I should start using my calstatela.edu account. I'll look cool with a school email account. It's just so hard to login. The pw is crazy and they make you go somewhere in person to change it. So much hassle.
Words overheard:
"Do your best! Just think about all those people who are f'ed up and they are trying, why aren't you?"
In response to my laziness in putting effort in much of everything I do. I don't challenge myself. I like to take the easy way through life. I admire this man who takes about half a cup of pills everyday to get by while I lounge around in youth and vitality. He tries so hard to overcome his disease while I waste my good health. Hey, he's telling me to feel good when I compare to those less fortunate, sorta. So, is this gonna encourage me to succeed? We'll have to tune in and see.
