One more day
Blame rising gas prices on Katrina. She knocked down 9 oil rigs in the Gulf. It still has a ways to go before we stop buying these SUV's.
My next car will probably be the new 2006 Honda Civic coupe. standard mp3 player, 40 mpg hwy for the 5sp auto, 140 hp 1.8 liter i-vtec, auto up/down windows, standard side airbags, standard ABS. Why not the Si? Because it seems to be a slower version of the RSX Type-S. Not sure how the LSD will change things though.
I just received a pair of new phonebooks. #130B is written on the bag so it's definitely for me or rather my room. Who the hell has been paying for my phone line the past 3 months?
Couple of Days
Opera is giving out free registration numbers to their Opera browser right now. I thought I might give it a try. So far it isn't bad. Seems to be faster than Avant and IE. Doesn't block ad banners like Avant. But its interface is a lot cleaner, less cluttered.
Watched the premiere of HBO's Rome. First episode isn't that bad. The acting is superb. They must have paid top dollar for real actors. And of course the production sets and background visuals were simply breath-taking. The two female antagonists in the show bared all. Does that mean good girls don't show bush? Notable line in the show was when a senator criticised Caesar's war in Gaul calling it an "illegal war." I wonder what else the writers are alluding to. I like how the nobles call the peasants "plebs." I'm guessing it's short for plebians. Overall, there is nothing laudable in Rome that is compelling me to come back for a second episode. The haphazard story-telling had me lost most of the time and I saw no reason for showing Pullo draw a phallus on a rock in prison. But I'll be there for episode two because:
1. The women are just gorgeous.
2. I want to see that spoiled brat Octavian get beat up some more.
Summer Finals
One more to go.
Earlier this morning I took a 2.5 hour final in Chemistry. When time ran out I was like, "That sure seemed like the quickest final I ever did. Those 2.5 hours just flew by and I'm not even close to finish."
Later in the afternoon in my "gender in religion" class I got the following final:
1. Are all religions the same? (One word)
2. Do all religions stay the same? (One word)
Optical Illusion
I found this optical illusion while blog jumping. It's driving me nuts just like the person who's
blog I found it on. A and B are both the same color but it's hard for me to believe it. I try to cover up the green cylinder with my hand and I can almost see the color changes.
The solution doesn't really help me see what's going on.
Edit: It looks like the green has something to do with the illusion. The green background of my blog template ruins the effect. You'd see it better if you click on the link. My eyes are "trained" now and I see what's going on even on a white background now. Heh, now this illusion doesn't bother me anymore.
Looks like
blogger.com acted pretty quickly to the new comment spam going around. There's now a
word verifier you can enable to leave comments. I hope it works well. Jack and I used to have trouble reading the letters on some sites.
How things come back to you
I was talking to
Her a while back about relationships and stuff. It seems to be her favorite topic of discussion so I always try to oblige her. Inevitably, the center of attention arrives on me and my lack of a girlfriend. She seems to have it in her head that I am in desperate need of one and she would do anything in her power to help me find one.
"What do you think of my cousin?"
I try to politely edge her away, "Well isn't she older than me? And she lives in San Jose and I am here."
"You come up and down all the time, and aren't you born in January? She was born in December, only two months older."
"Still, I don't think I need a girlfriend right now," I plead.
"Why? You don't think my cousin is pretty?"
Now let me sidetrack for a moment. The girls I like vary greatly. Some are goddesses and some are mutants. Some have great intellect and some are dumb as a bat. Some are super ambitious and some are lazy as me. Some are fashion conscious and some are just plain dirrty. That's why when people ask me what type of girl I like, I can't give them a straight answer. All I can say is, I get "
that feeling" from them and then I like them. But there is one overall attribute that none of them have. Allow me to be a son of a bitch for a moment. None of them are FAT. You know how they say girls have two ladders for the men in their life and guys have only one ladder for women? Well fat chicks never get on my ladder.
The reason I feel this way is simple. Fat people usually only have one problem. They're fat. All they have to do is put down that donut and get on a treadmill and they'd be pretty. The rest of us ugly people can't do anything about it. We're ugly to begin with and perhaps plastic surgery will help, but that's about it. There's little else to do but photoshop or find good lighting. But here is a group of people who are willingly choosing to be ugly. Of course, "willingly" and "choosing" are up for debate but I stand by my opinion. Fat people are the bane of my vanity pursuit of beauty. They're basically wasting their beauty while we ugly people work and work at it. "Fat is beautiful." "Obesity is a disease." "I can't help myself." Whatever. You eat less you lose weight, it's very simple. I have no compassion in this area. If I ever get fat, feel free to criticise me.
So from that rant, you have an idea of the general shape of the aforementioned cousin. Now, I'll illustrate more clearly my predicament. Here is a good friend of mine who is trying to help me out. Although I didn't ask for it, I wouldn't want to offend her. What can I say to a question like that? "She's fat, she's ugly." Right, who's gonna take that about one of their family members without getting mad?
So I meekly answered, "She's pretty I guess. I like her dimples."
Fast forward a few weeks and
She is feeling down now. Feeling like she's not attractive to men because of this and that. It's a bunch of stuff, even I can't bear to listen to or bother to remember. I did the requisite uh-huh's and oh really's. As I understand it women have a basic need to feel that they are beautiful not only to their man but to the world. It's a basic necessity like food and shelter. If a man doesn't flirt with you every once in a while, it means you are total dog. So right now her man is not paying enough attention to her and the only reason for that she is no longer attractive. I try to comfort her as a man would comfort a woman in this kind of sorrow.
"Don't think that way. You're pretty. I think you're very pretty. Like up there. Like an 8 or a 9. If you weren't my sister's friend, I'd like you," I said trying hard not to laugh.
And she replied, "Oh but your standards are so low. You think my cousin's pretty so I can't trust what you say."
Shhhiiieeetttt...
Comment allez-vous?
Sylvia wrote me an email. How to reply, how to reply.
Pak, Jack, Kim, Nam, and Ky went sky diving.
So upset that I missed out.
Ying-Ying wants to go to Yosemite and raft.
She needs to find more people to go.
Cabin for 4 for 55 bucks.
Kevin of course didn't return my phone call again.
Did better in Calculus midterm.
Worse in Chem midterm.
Seesaw action annoys the crap out of me
Perfect again on Religion midterm.
Religion professor played hookie again last week.
He informs us:
Since we're behind two days, I am canceling the final midterm
and there won't be class on the final meeting.
?
Pizza party tonight by RA's.
Physics final tomorrow.
Can't make it to Newton Exhibit tomorrow.
Stargazing party tomorrow night.
Battlestar Gallactica remains my sole(or soul? hmmm) purpose in life.
For the time being anyway.
Underworld Evolution.
IM Chat with Nam and Kim.
Nam is happy.
Kim is a little less than.
2 more weeks and I go home.
My thighs are whiter than rice.
Computer Addendum
Kevin finally called me back this morning. I last called him on Tuesday and he finally returns my call. Oh yeah, if no voicemail was made then of course, protocal states that you may disregard the missed call. However, I did leave a message to call me back so we could go workout. He calls me 8 times in succession this morning leaving a voicemail in the process. Apparently, it was urgent but I was too groggy for conversation. He tells me he stayed over at his brother's place the past few days and that's why we couldn't go work out. Thanks for telling me, I guess, even though it's a few days belated.
"Anyway, I need to do a group project using Microsoft Power Point, I was wondering..."
Ahah!!!! the meat of the conversation. Your overwhelming need to call me was to help you with a homework assignment due tomorrow: Monday morning. 9 months later, 350 miles away and my repressed side has caught up with me. Although I didn't do much to hide it as I helped set up his DSL connection. This was an easy one to deal with. I know nothing of Power Point
Oh my! Thank you HBO! This movie blew me away. I absolutely loved every minute of it. It has made my top 10 list. It got a little sappy near the 2 hour mark but still highly enjoyable. Who would have thought a movie that takes place entirely within an airport could be this good? As of July 15, 2005,
Mehran Karimi Nasseri, of which the movie is loosely based on is still living in an airport terminal in Paris.
Smile
Below are animations of how my teeth moved the past 18 months. I'm wearing my last set of aligners right now so it's almost time to say bye bye to nasty teeth. Press ctrl+r or refresh to see the animation start over. Ahhh... oh gosh, oh gosh....
Front
Lower
Upper
Et tu, Kevin?
It's a good thing my renewal for 24 hr fitness hasn't come up yet. If it had, I would have most definitely paid it merrily. That's a terrible sentence, way too much redundance. And this one too. Oh well. Kevin has proven the elusive fox, as I have only been able to go work out with him twice in this 3 week period that we've started. I hate working out so I thought having him might help motivate me. But it's not like I am asking for devotion. I just need him to be there when I call. But he's MIA for the last 3 phone calls I've made. And we keep head butting into time conflicts. He works at night. I school the mornings. So perhaps next quarter when he gets a bigger school load and works less, maybe then we can get on a more usual track. I'll hold up my renewal decision until October.
Nam and I used to go to Johnny Rockets after workout to eat a greasy plate of chili cheese fries completely negating our exercise. Smart huh?
Waiting for Rome to start on HBO so that I can say, "Damm, I waited anxiously to watch this piece of crap. Nice eye candy, but terrible story?" At least that's what I said about Troy which has been airing on HBO for the last couple of weeks.
Where's the beef?
I took a tray of ground beef out of the freezer to let it thaw in the refridgerator a couple days ago. Last night I go looking for it to make my spaghetti and it was gone. Dammit, my roommate must have thought it was trash and thrown it away. I thought nothing of it. No reason to bring it up to him since I see him like once every couple of days. "Hey, what's the big deal throwing away my meat?" See how that sounds? It's more drama than it's worth. It's no big deal. He made a mistake, let's move on. Today, I realized I'm missing two of my tupperware trays. Last I saw them was in the sink. The one time my roommate did the dishes he must have thrown them away. BASTARD! I've never thrown anything away that is his. Ok, I might have but it's unlikely. My first day here when I went on a rampage through the fridge and cupboards tossing things, I only threw away things that had a clear expired expiration date. So I did him a favor if I threw it away. And from then on, I threw away things in the fridge only if it's been in there for more than two weeks. Things go bad in much less time than that, but I wanted to make sure I didn't throw away anything they might want. My tray of meat might have looked unappealing and old but it's only been in there 24 hours, dammit! And when I wash his tupperware, I don't throw it away, I put it in the cupboards and the stack has been growing. I don't think he reuses his tupperware. Which makes me wonder why he bothers to put dirty ones in the sink. He buys those Glad ones like I do except his is the big trays and mine is the sandwich trays. I'm quite a bit disturbed right now but it's still not enough to bring it up to him yet. I'll take it as kharma pay back that I threw away some stuff that he might have wanted before. I have to start labeling my stuff in the fridge and not to leave tupperware or anything that remotely looks tossable in the sink. G-U-I-L-T is gone.
Today was a great day. I knew it as soon as I woke up. No sun shone through my window, just the gray gloom that hangs onto typical winter mornings. I put on a sweater, an exercise 5 months in waiting, and danced to class. Thunder and lightning rolled through LA last night and the remaining chill pricked excitement on my skin. There was a lot of work to do over the weekend but of course I didn't do any of it and crammed my ass off this morning. Somehow I made it through. Positive attitude equals positive results. Worked out with Kevin later on and added him to Deepak's Fantasy Football league. Watching Howard Stern right now and there is a girl who wanted to have sex with Seann Williams Scott so they invited her onto the show. Turns out she exaggerated her physical attributes just a tad. It's amazing how they got her onto the show. She was so nervous knowing full well she had lied to Howard. They asked her how many knobs she's had. What the hell is that? I have a guess at what that means but I'm not sure.
This is an interesting site that shows how English has changed across America plus there's a picture of Sarah on the cover. It made me think about what Jack supposably said a while back.
My favorite section is the one with the ways to properly pronounce 100 sample words. Very elitest indeed. But highly informative like:
Salmon SAM-un.
L silent, a as in ham. Anything else is beastlyYes, it is very beastly how I have to spell my street name to phone operators or else pronounce the L in order for them to get it right.
Anyway, I always thought the word ketchup was just a mangled form of the word catsup. Imagine that it's actually cantonese.? I didn't even realize it myself until I read it. But here's a cantonese word that every 10 year-old in America knows. I wonder if in 25 years "nuk mum" becomes the norm as Pho 54 and Beef Noodle #1 replaces McDonalds and Burger King. You can always dream in John's pho world.
Ketchup KECH-up.
“The word, however spelled,” writes Evans (1959), is “an attempt to present in English the Malayan word kechap (sauce), which, in turn, seems to have been an attempt to present a Chinese phrase in Malayan.” The Chinese is ke-tsiap or ketsiap, which Shaw (1972) translates as “pickled-fish brine” and Random House II (1987) says is akin to Chinese words for eggplant and juice.I always thought "ke" means tomato and "tsiap" means juice or sauce. Effectively tomato sauce.
What good is mining nose gold if I can't share it with the towns people
Round two of Summer 05 midterms will conclude on Monday. Same drill. Of course, this explains my absence the past few days as I plow my way through weeks of undone study work.
Thuy is flying home to bury her mother in Vietnam. The lab teacher calls her "tweet" or "tooey." We all have a good laugh. Hey, my name is Dung. So if anyone can laugh at other people's name, it's me. She is a good lab partner. Luckily, Kristina is still a damm fine partner so I won't be alone in class. Had lunch with Thong today. I plan on calling up Kevin later in the day to go workout but we'll have to see if I can wake up on time. I need some sleep since slumber was unavailable last night. I eagerly await another installment of BattleStar Gallactica. I am so low on cash. I actually went down to $4 in my bank account. I plan to get another fish when Fall quarter starts over again. There's gonna be a lot of shuffling around the next two months and I don't want acclimate a new fish under such rigorous conditions. Ying-Ying promised me a name. Prancing is gay. Tony has been especially cool the past couple of days. He gave up on me buying the trash bags and went ahead and got them instead. Then he got a huge bag of paper plates and said I could use some if I want to. That way there will be less dishes to wash. Can you spell G-U-I-L-T? Diana came by to check up on us bachelors yesterday but I pretended to be asleep. Putting pants on for girls is the pits. It sucks how Nam is making so much money but it's still not enough to buy a decent house in this place. It's just wrong. Dawit says not to worry about taking Physics 410A even though I haven't taken any Physics 300 series yet. He'll help tutor me if I need it. I would like to take him up on his offer. Nothing new on the chick who sits in front of me because some other girl stole my seat so I took her's instead. I had to pay attention to the teacher instead of her back. It made class really boring. So I will leave this blog pondering. What can I buy for community use in my apartment so that I don't seem more deadbeat than I already am?
I'm gonna eat your nose
The Chinese girl who sits in front of me has really nice smooth porcelain skin. She wears no make-up at all. Well, if she did, I can't tell. I can see dandruff in her hair. She needs some selsun blue. She was late to class again and missed the quiz.
I did my homework for physics last night. That was the first time I did it early this quarter. So I was able to do the quiz correctly today. I should really do homework on time more often.
Kevin called during class. I called him back afterwards to let him know I am good to go workout. He didn't pick up. And now it's almost 8. Nam called to remind me to go but that only woke me up. So it's been a whole week since I've gone. Oh well, I have a lot of homework to do anyway.
Very few people showed up in Chem lecture today. The professor was starting up a new section: nuclear chemistry. I thought it was very exciting hearing him tell tales of how the nuclear atom was theorized through many different experiments and scientists. He told it like a story. No formulas to memorize. No new idea to comprehend. Just sit back and listen. It's a breath of fresh air from doing stoichiometric calculations and theory.
The fire truck can consume 8 times it's body weight.
List of my favorite songs in no particular order and the person who introduced me to it.
01. Janet Jackson - Where are You Now? (Sister's CD)
02. Filter - Take My Picture (MTV)
03. New Order - Bizarre Love Triangle (Frente in Kevin's car)
04. John Lennon - Imagine (TV commercial and Quantum Leap)
05. Lisa Loeb - Try (Wrong internet download)
06. Michelle Branch - Goodbye to You (Buffy: The Vampire Slayer)
07. Sarah Mclachlin - Angel (Radio)
08. Weezer - Island in the Sun (Hot Australian tour guide)
09. Bangles - Eternal Flame (Ling's tape)
10. Jennifer Lopez - Waiting for Tonight (Napster)
11. Michael Jackson - Smooth Criminal (Sega Genesis game)
12. Dido - White Flag (Nam)
13. Madonna - The Power of Goodbye (Felicity)
14. The Other Two and You - Tasty Fish (Random internet download)
15. Electronic - If You've Got Love (Phong had it on repeat in his car)
16. The Cardigans - Lovefool (At a party)
17. Jewel - Jupiter (MTV)
18. Tori Amos - Silent All These Years (Faye Wong's Chinese version)
19. Saint Etienne - He's on the Phone (Kevin)
20. Erasure - Always (Kevin)
21. Brandy - Have You Ever? (Radio)
22. Kylie Minogue - Love Affair (Nam)
23. Avril Lavigne - I'm With You (Radio)
24. M2M - The Day You Went Away (Napster)
25. Norah Jones - Don't Know Why (Radio)
26. Debbie Gibson - No More Rhyme (Had the album)
27. Gilbert O'Sullivan - Alone Again (Naturally) (Maison Ikkoku theme song)
28. Eagles - Hotel California (Ky's karaoke)
29. Don Mclean - American Pie (Elvin's tape)
30. Smashing Pumpkins - 1979 (Radio)
31. Paul Davis - I Go Crazy (Leon Lai's Chinese version)
32. Paula Abdul - Rush Rush (Sister had it on repeat)
33. Boys II Men - End of the Road (Radio)
34. Eagle Eye Cherry - Save Tonight (MTV)
35. Sugar Ray - Someday (MTV)
36. Queen - Bohemian Rhapsody (Wayne's World)
37. Debbie Gibson - Lost in Your Eyes (Had the album)
38. Hungry Lucy - Stay (Jack)
39. M2M - Why (Jack said it had interesting lyrics)
40. Oasis - Wonderwall (Chung)
41. Celine Dion - It's All Coming Back to Me Now (Radio)
42. Donna Lewis - I Love You Always Forever (Radio)
43. Venga Boys - Boom Boom Boom (Radio)
44. Pet Shop Boys - Don't know What You Want But I Can't Give it Any More (Banana Republic)
45. Cranberries - Dreams (Kevin and Faye Wong's Chinese version)
46. Robert Miles - One and One (Phong's cd)
47. Frente - Girl (Kevin)
48. Atomic Kitten - Whole Again (Hot Australian tour guide)
49. Anything Box - A World Without Love (Kevin)
50. Alice in Wonderland - The Cheshire Cat Song
The last one isn't a song per se but I love it nonetheless.
Who's Knee?
Been feeling a little underwhelmed lately. Things are just too quiet. I'm being too casual to the people and things going on around me. One of my good friends/lab partner is not coming back in the fall. He's going to UCI. He isn't happy about it though. It seems his parents are making him go. He's been at CSULA for 2 years and he likes it here and wants to finish his education here. I find that kinda hard to believe. I'd kill to go to UCI. Maybe he'll be leaving someone behind. Anyway, I'll miss him. He was a good person to talk to class about. He was very closed in so I found it a unique challenge to crack him open like an egg. I didn't have enough time to discover his secrets though.
There's a little Chinese girl who sits in front of me in Religion class. I always sit forward peering over her shoulder. Partly because I am bored and want to look at what others are doing and partly because the lady behind me has major bad breath. Anyway, she never dresses nicely or anything, just the standard FOB look. She has some really ugly writing. Usually, the small Chinese girls have beautiful writing so it seems out of place. She has a little electronic translator that I often see her using from what the professor is saying or what she is reading. I just thought to myself, here is someone who is working hard to learn in this country. She doesn't even understand all of the words. And I am here just slacking off trying to find new ways to twirl my pencil. Oh yeah, she is really good at spinning her pencil, I'm trying to copy her. After class, she is often asking other students questions about things that she didn't understand. Me? I just don't care if there was something I missed or didn't understand. Makes me wish I could be more dedicated to school.
Currently hooked on
Sudoku. Simple game. 9x9 square grid. Object of the game is to get 1-9 in every row and column and in each 3x3 box.
One-line events
Last Tuesday, Chemlab was canceled so my lab partner and her two friends went to go eat, play skeeball, and shop at a mall.
Mandy called later in the day and we went to Noodle World.
On Friday, I received a disturbing phone.
Later in the day, I went to a pinata party at the campus housing game room.
Kevin and I went to Footlocker afterwards to buy a pair of Nike Free Shoes.
I went home.
It was fun going out with Ying-Ying on Saturday.
Had seafood dinner for Lorraine's birthday at night.
Watched over Andrew on Sunday.
Had some good food for my dad's birthday.
I went home.
Oscar died Monday night.
Went out with my lab partner again when Chemlab was canceled again on Tuesday.
Went to workout with Kevin and Ricky at 24 Hour Fitness.
This morning I woke up at 6 AM to register for Fall classes.
Tony, again, throws q-tips into the toilet.
Schedule conflicts solidifies my Physics future.
Memoirs of a computer guy
I tell you, I was that close to cracking over the weekend. I almost caved in to the pressure. I almost picked up my things and headed on over. And you know what, if I had my car with me, I probably would have. As it were, I'm ashamed of myself. I refused to share something I had in abundance. And yet I didn't because the only thing that stopped me was transportation.
I had resisted the temptation. I had resisted the overwhelming sense of "pushoverness." I fought down my urge to always want to help somebody , to always want people to think that I am more useful as services rendered than as a person. Because God knows my personality isn't going to win any affection. Is it selfish to hide my talent, to hoard it and keep it to myself? Is it my duty to look over spamware and perform system upgrades? In the past the answer was a clear affirmative. I took on the duty of free computer tech support to all those willing to accept me into so-called friendship. I took on more than I could chew and as the customer base increased, my patience waned.
As is normal human behavior those who received, departed, those who want, remained, but only long enough until their thirst is quenched. Value and friendship called upon past experiences. A little peek or two on your homework equates to companionship at recess. A piece of your candy means I will talk to you for the rest of the day. Latter relationships took on the roll of automobile excursions. I've always cheapened myself like a whore. Nothing more. A decision was made in my 2nd decade to displace myself from goods and services. No, I didn't embrace "People will like you the way you are." I'd like to say I got some revelation that people will be genuine to you when you are genuine to them. But simply, I was fed up and the role of a hermit became a strong attraction. The nothingness replaced friendship. But unlike "The Neverending Story" I wanted the flying dog dead.
Months of BSOD's, lockups, and power failures culminated into last weekend's climax of final confrontation. My physical body in close proximity to the affected client yielded hard to deny propositions. The will melted away and the logical fallacies entered. Something that will take me a few minutes could save hours of frustration. Something that will take me mere moments in life could save hundreds of dollars in equipment. I thought about consequences and friendship. And I ultimately chose to pity myself in utter desperation; hands tied yet freed to decide the fate of a long-time-gone computer guy.
P.S.
As I write this, a ridiculous idea that I should toss this very computer and use the dated laptop given to me so that new technology never seeps into my awareness, emanates. Just as I would never change your brake pads, so shall I not install your Windows XP 2007. But how can I turn away from the increased speed of DDR2 and SATA hard drives? How can I say no to the range of 802.11n? Who can turn their backs on the increased bus speeds of PCI-Express and 64-bit processors? My will is but a tender spark to the raging inferno of computer soliloquy.
Summer quarter midterm results
Not exceptional but surprisingly good for the amount of work I didn't put in.
General Chem 103 97/150
- only 12/60 people got higher than 90, should be an A.
General Physics 203 39/60
- Average was 30.3, works out to a B-
Gender and Religion 335 102/102
- Memory test, I have excellent memory
Math 208 55/100
- Average was 50. Works out to a C, need to pick up here.
