It's going to be another year!

Hey everyone! I like to read the end of the year reviews whether they are serious like NYT or not so serious like VH1's best year ever! Anyway, I ran across this photo from the NYT in Congo. The guy is wearing a white Cal hat looking at the camera while army dudes in the back are firing missiles at rebels in the valley. I wonder how he got it? Click on the picture to get a better view.

Hit by a Train

I almost got hit by a train yesterday due to a fault in the railroad signs not going down. Hm... let me say this. Your life doesn't not flash before your eyes. Instead you're thinking "Holy Mother of --- SHIT---AAGGHH!"

HAPPY HOLIDAYS

I hope you guys are all doing well! I really do miss you guys! Sorry for being so not online. My online life has drastically shifted to IRC... it's kind of weird, but I think I can now say that I "meet" with my online friends more frequently than my real-life friends.

So no one *Kicks Yuri and Mel* has updated, so I'l update a little. The holidays were okay. It didn't snow any of the time I've been home, then all of a sudden it started snowing. Which was cool, except this morning there was black ice, which is not so cool as far as driving conditions go. >_<

Now I'm at home, baking goods. I've mastered the Cheesecake (Cheesecake Factory style), the carrot cake, and banana nut bread. Much to the help of my adorable Kitchen Aid. Those things really rock when it come to preparing food. I've also managed to make my own pizza dough and experiment with that. The only problem now is that there's not enough people in my house to eat the things I make.

So the card I was going to send you had these cartoon penguins skiiing. There were four penguins. They were cute. Too bad. I'll find out your address next year and then I'll send them then. Or send them now and be early for next year's Christmas because I wouldn't want to say I'm late for this years Christmas.

Abstinence only works for the unattractive

Jamie Lynn Spears is pregnant at 16 by her met-at-church-boyfriend. She's keeping it. In an interview with OK! Magazine she says that she advocates that people wait to have sex, but she says she obviously cannot comment on it because she's put herself in this situation.

I haven't entirely decided if she's really brave and responsible for keeping the kid (having lots of money probably doesn't hurt) or an idiot for getting pregnant in the first place. Despite all the fertility issues seen on daytime tv, it seems that most women are fertile myrtles. I understand that no form of protection is 100% effective short of sterilization. It's perfectly possible that what has happened to her is just an accident and a malfunction of whatever preventative methods she was using. 

Given what pregnancy has done to her sister, I would have to assume that getting pregnant at 16 wasn't intentional. Every time unexpected pregnancies come into the news, I always think about the status of sex education in this country. I think a lot of people are faced with situations where abstinence only education is inadequate. 

Lynne Spears, Britney's mom was going to write a book about how to raise a daughter, specifically Jamie Lynn, because she was the model child. If a supposedly good and responsible girl could find herself pregnant at 16, clearly abstinence only education isn't ebbing the flow of sexually active teenagers. I think Jamie Lynn is a model for supporting that wholly informative sex-ed isn't a going to make our schools into whore factories.

Good Riddance!

I'm finally done with that stupid magazine I've been working on. I don't think I want to do an upaid project like this EVER AGAIN. Totally hard. Really hard. :( Ugh. Not fun. I'll post a link once I figure out how to merge the PDF pages which should be relatively easy.

Done :)

The finals are over now for me. No more studying for me at least...for two weeks. Starting in february, my cumulatives start, and I have to pass 5 out of 10 of those tests to stay as a graduate student. It is every two months, so I have one on February, April, June...etc.

Because of that cumulatives, I don't think I'll be able to go anywhere next summer...or maybe next winter as well, depending on how fast I'll pass these tests. So this winter is it, if you want to see me :)

There's been a huge snow storm lately, and the snow is up to my knees right now. There is supposed to be another snow storm coming in tonight/tomorrow morning, so there will be more snow on the ground.

Other than the semester being over, there's really not much news. I'll be in California in a week!

Nothing Nefarious

So I guess I have a handful of stories to tell, but I'll just talk about one until later.

Las Vegas was interesting. I was supposed to visit SF b/c I had a plane ticket to use but family in LV decided they wanted us to visit. I haven't seen this particular cousin in over 5 years so I was like okay. We get there and they're like, "Something's happened. We changed our mind." Great, except we had planned nothing because we expected to be hanging out with the family the entire time. So what do you do? You hit the strip and explore.

Hm... I was very disturbed by the Mexican guy on the street who seemed to be trying to solicit his family member as a ...yeah... The hotels were okay. Not nearly as cool as I'd thought they'd be - having watched all of the Travel Channel's coverage of the city. The shows are AMAZING THERE. And cost an arm and a leg. The discount tickets are the ones that normally cost $400 that are going for half off- which to me defeats the purpose of a discounted ticket. I was the most impressed by Bellagio's art exhibit and the Wynn's interior design. Caesar's Palace was okay and Mandalay Bay was an absolute dump. So was Excalibur and Luxor --- that pyramid--- it literally makes you feel like you're in a tomb when you go into it.

Food is on a whole other level in LV. The buffets are good - probably the best as far as buffets go and the prices are reasonable. The restaurants where you sit and order are good, but not nearly as good as SF's best, or Portland for that matter.

I was surprised at how many people wanted to see Chip n'Dales and the other topless revues. Some of the topless women in the ads pasted around town were just downright saggy. And as far as the male stripping went, plenty of males were waiting outside in line for the Australian Revue Thunder Down Under or something like that. The Spice Girls were in town and so was Celine Dion. Too bad it's her last year. I say instead of paying for $90 in the nosebleed section, just buy the Costco DVD of Celine Dion Live in Las Vegas for $12.99

I was so looking forward to the Sirens of TI but the place was shut down for construction. The old hotel off the strip owned by that billionaire whose name I can't remember is being rebuilt with about 6 cranes at the moment. To give you an idea, renting one of those cranes is $2,000 per day and they've been in construction for over a month.

Slot machines. I can't believe how many slot machines are everywhere. Although yeah, the smaller hotels off the strip offer machines that actually let you win... so I guess that's cool.

I'll put up pictures later. I haven't downloaded off the camera yet. Oh yeah so I ended up seeing Ka by Cirque du Soleil and the set design was cool.

I'm having a pretty baller day.

Yah so I dropped massive cash today. Yoz! 

I finally got a new computer. 

I got a 24" IMac much to the chagrin of everyone. But you know what? It's really nice to have your own computer. It's like finally having a home again. I can't describe to you how happy I feel about it. It's like on par with not ever having to share your underware. Not that I ever did. But sharing computers is like that. It's gross, unhygienic, and should be socially frowned upon. I know this is going to come off sounding really bourgeoise, but I have my pompous middle class moments. I also taught myself how transfer data from my old computer. I know I know, should be a no duh thing. But you don't understand! My laptop was messed up. The video card was kaput. Plus having a mac really makes you duh. I can give you examples, but they're hard and boring to describe. Needless to say, if it doesn't involve drag and click, it'll be over my head. (Confessions of a Middle to Low End machead)

Did I mention that after I dropped said dough, my laptop miraculously resurrected? The process is way too boring to explain. With 25MB left, clearly it's been well worn. I've had functional use of that computer for approximately 3 years so far, that means roughly $570 a year for a computer. Based on the cost of this computer, I better have it for 4 years or more. Fingers crossed. My dad angrily said something like, I could have gotten a computer for $300. 

Can't wait until the break.

That does sound like an awesome beginning of the story. You should go on with it.

For those of you who don't know, I decided to create another blog on blogger exclusively in English just to update on my life. Since none of my friends know the existence of this blog, and I'd like to keep it that way, I made sure that this blog doesn't show up on my profile. So, if you just want an updated on my life, go to that blog. This will be just for us :)

Nothing much going on in my life. I'm going to the holiday party tonight, and apparently, it's a big deal. I was told to wear a dress. I don't know if I am. I might just wear a nice top and a skirt or something. It's super cold though....so we'll see. Hopefully, one of my nice friends will give me a ride.

Alright, back to lab reports. You guys need to update this!

So? What was it?

That sounded like the beginning of an awesome story. Don't just stop there!

Random Occurrences

So yesterday a FedEx trucks pulls up to my house. Drops off a package and leaves. I go to the door, see it says "Roche" and a sign that says "Refrigerate Upon Arrival." I'm thinking, "Great. A bio-sample somehow went to the wrong place and ended up on my front doorstep."

First Snow

it snowed for the first time since I came here. The temperature wasn't that cold, but i was surprsied that it snowed enough that we could build a snowman. here are some pictures my friends took. The first picture is me and my friend, Naveen. He moved from India so it was his first time seeing snow. The second picture is Tappi (The german guy on the left) and Nick (He's from OHio). The third picture is the snowmen that we made...it's kind of deformed but I think you can still see it. The last picture is the view out from our polymer building :)

Reminds me

So I see this thing on Marie Digby because I'm quite taken with her cover of Rhianna's Umbrella song. Much better than the original in my opinion, but probably because I like acoustic. Although, I am a Rhianna fan.... Hm....

http://youtube.com/watch?v=IGVgLZ--R5o&feature=user

This girl reminds me of Mel a little. She sings, song writes and is half Japanese half Irish-American. Okay, so maybe it's just the latter part that reminds me of Mel.

Highlights of recent:
1) Got Darkhorse (the Sin City publisher) to come to a program I coordinated for the library.
2) Planning trips
3) Cracked open that BP project AGAIN. I think I'm obsessed.

Thanks A Lot

So if my reading skills are still intact, it would appear that the last time I updated the blog it was October and I was ranting about my phone. I'll spare you the phone rants (although I still have them), and I'll do my best to dig up something a little more interesting than that.

Top 5 Things Going On In MeL's Life

5. As always, I may be getting old(er) but man I still love those concerts. Last one I saw was Jimmy Eat World (often referred to as JEW, but not the Anna Jew), next one will be Hunter Revenge.

4. Sad as it may be, I'm in love... with a plastic guitar and color fret buttons. AKA Guitar Hero III

3. With the oil spill that happened in the bay, concern for our friends of the sea have peaked. I haven't been up to Pt. Reyes to do any sampling, but I hear the oil has made it's way up there.

2. Trying my best to catch up with everyone, whether it be through email/phone/food/casually running into them. Oddly enough, I find that the latter works pretty well.

1. As always, my little ball of pride and joy comes first.

As usual, I hope that you are all doing well with your respective ongoings. If I don't update before then, I wish you all a very happy Thanksgiving holiday. Eat it up!

-MeL

and the weekend begins.

You guys are all slacking with the updating. I really doubt that I'm the only person who can update on the weekend.

This week was kind of boring to me. I wasn't feeling well the whole week, so getting work done was kind of pain. The advisor selection is also coming up, and the professor I want to work for is the most competitive choice. There's 6 of us fighting for 2 spots right now. I really hope I get it though.

Today, I'm going to go watch "Wild Party", a musical hosted by our school with my friend. I guess after that, our plan is to play monopoly with some people. I've had this urge to play monopoly for the last couple of days, so it will be fun. Tomorrow, there's a big party going on at my friends' place....so, that should be fun.

I hope everyone else is doing great. keep me updated :)

Grapple

The future is here, but I'm not. My sister comes home and tells me that she's tried something totally delicious and she wants us to go buy it. What is it?

Louise: it's an apple, that tastes like a grape
Me: what do you mean?
Louise: on the outside, it's like an apple, and on the inside it's like a grape
Me: you're probably confusing it with a plum
Louise: no it's called a Grapple [Grae'ple]
Me: wtf?

So I looked it up and officially it's a fuji apple that is dipped in artificial grape flavor. I cannot grapple (the verb) with the idea of a Grapple (the fruity noun).

below freezing.

For the last few days, everyday has been below freezing. It is getting pretty cold here.

So here's my update on my life:
-I have a presentation today on Raman Spectroscopy. Wish me luck.
-We just finished all the midterms last week, and we got two of them back. I did bad on one of them and okay on the other. I'm expecting worse on the last one since it was a synthesis class.
-We are deciding on our advisor soon, and I really hope I get the one that I want.
-Thanksgiving is coming up and I will be stuck here. Consequently, I will be cooking turkey with my good friend Nick, and will be eating them with the Germans.
-This weekend will be exciting because I'm going to a tailgate party for a football game (I know, it's not like Berkeley, but apparently, they are not that bad), and then I will be going to my friend's recital for his Indian dance group.

I think that's about it. I also need to clean my room and do my laundry. It's a mess.

On a deeper note, I've been thinking about how our lives will be in the next 10 years or so. We should have made something like a time capsule to encapture the moment of our college years!

stay black

...that's my favorite line from snakes on a plane.

well now it is the 5th of november, do you remember :)

i'm sorry friends that i have yet to post for so many months! i'm not too good at the blog thing. i tend to either write nothing or write my whole life story with embellished details. then when the ending seems anti-climatic, as a wise friend taught me, i end it with "then i fell down the stairs and found $20". its good to read through october and hear bits and pieces though of your lives. i will try to be better at it.

so i'm still at the same job that i started 2 days after graduation. oh vacation where are you!? but its been overall a really good learning experience. i'm working in a social worker type role with low-income families of preschoolers enrolled in the headstart program in oakland. what am i learning that i should have already known before? (1) i have soooo much more to learn about people, myself, organizations, etc. etc. (2) people can be poor/have a lack of resources for a lot of different reasons and life ain't fair. (3) i see people with very little who are very content with it and less obessessed with economic advancement than a lot of people with a lot more. (4) kids are adorable. and they soak everyyything up and spit it back in their own way. (5) 4 year olds act surprisingly like big people. (6) big people act surpisingly like 4 years olds.

...well none of that is any great revelation, but i guess its different to experience it first hand than just hearing it from others.

future wise i'm tryin to figure out next year, and when to apply for law school. my hope i think is to go abroad again for perhaps a year, then law school. but we'll see. i need to start makin some decisions and see where they lead, so i'll let you know when something exciting happens (or when all my plans fall through, and have to start over hehe).

on the side of work, i go to bible study, tutor a guatemalan family in english, pretend to write my personal statement, wash dishes...you know. this week, when i went to tutor, the family had gone to ranch that morning. and they used to have a ranch. so it was perfectly normal for them to have a sheep head and four sheep legs in the sink, shaving the hair off. and a pot to the side with the rest of the sheep. wow. there were chickens out front too, still alive, but i think not for long. before i left i tried lamb for the first time in prolly over a decade. fresh....

over and out friends.
love, anna

Remember Remember the 5th of November

Well, we're not quite there yet. But I like that phrase.

Since Liang updated me with her halloween night, I guess I'm going to as well.
Yesterday was part 3 of my midterms, but it started at 5pm, ended at 6pm.
It sucked because we didn't get home until like 7pm to get dressed for the halloween.
I was an evil cupid this year, wearing all black and holding a bow and arrow. It worked
out okay except I think my makeup might have been too scary :P

As for the party, it went alright. A bunch of people were just getting drunk and high...
you know, the usual. My friend Brent got REALLY drunk and ran into a parked car and
cut his forehead. That was probably the highlight of the night. I got home safe, but I had
to study for my quiz today, so didn't get too much sleep.

The funniest thing is that I completely fell on my face today and now I have scrached and
bruises on my hands and legs. I haven't fell like that in the last 3 or 4 years or so. At least
I had friends who laughed with me when I fell. it wasn't so much embarassing...just painful.
We were just talking about going ice-skating this weekend, so I don't think that's going to
happen....seeing my history and all ;)

I discovered this week that I am actually second to shortest girl (and by default, second to shortest person) in the entire class. I really don't think I'm that short, so my guess is that people who study polymers are just tall ? O_o


Alright, i'll update again when theres more exciting stuff going on.

Happy Halloween

This is the second year in a row that I haven't celebrated Halloween. I guess I'm too old to go trick-or-treating and too living-with-my-parents to party it up in a loin cloth and be sexy. Ohs!

So what am I this year? An unemployed college graduate. LOL. I probably scare middle class parents more than rapists or serial killers. Maybe not...Still looking for jobs. But there are only a few jobs I want to take, and I don't want to get a job I don't want just for the sake of a pay check. But that will come to an end soon. My dad is kicking me out by the end of this year. Who knew my parents were such republicans.

My dad has taken up watching soccer. Soccer you ask? No one plays soccer in the US. Nope, but you know what? Everyone in Mexico does and thank god for HD Telemundo or whatever the hell this is, my dad watches spanish soccer. Once again, capturing the prize for most gringo in household is Liang.

My sister is going trick-or-treating this year despite our persuasions against it. It's becoming like when you got an older relative that dresses way too sexy/young for their old age or something. It's kind of embarrassing and we told her to come back through the side gate. My sister, in case you guys don't know is a 6 year old trapped in a 12 year old's body, but she's really 14. Yah take a minute to take that in.

So this is basically what's happening on Halloween Night at the Song household. HOw are you guys doing?

Rainy days

I feel bad that I haven't updated this these days, so i'm going to do a really quick update.

So far:
-I've had one midterm
-There was a bomb threat at our campus, which I think is kind of funny because the campus is so much safer than Berkeley.
-I'm dying here, since it's so cold.

I think that's about it. I think Anna should update this soon. She hasn't written anything in a while and I don't know what's going on. I'm glad that you're safe, Liang. Mel, what are you up to? Linli, will I get to see you this winter?

Alright, I think that's about it. I will be in Berkeley from 12/21 till 1/3, although I might be in Fresno around the Christmas time. Hopefully, I get to see most of you. I miss all of you guys :)
Take care and I'll update again after my two midterms are over....oh, and happy halloween!

And I'm back

I hate sleeping cars. Ash in your eyes with your contacts in is also no fun. But everyone in San Diego was really generous. People donated so much food, bedding, cots, toiletries, it was all really appreciated. Despite my misgivings about their conservative stances, I really do like these people.

Stay Safe!

Well for fear of blocking your phone lines, I guess I hope you get a computer at some point and read this. If I were religious I'd say "I will pray for you" but since I'm really not, "Stay safe and I hope it turns out alright for you and your family" will have to suffice. :( I've been watching the fire coverage for the last few days. I didn't realize you lived in the area that was affected >_<. So far on TV they've only shown a few sections of counties and said that a lot of the fires are happening in the canyons and now just hitting the suburban neighborhoods.

It looks quite scary. The Governator was also interviewed quite a few times and thank God the government is acting better and cooperating better (with each other) than they did for Katrina. Now we just have to wait for the devastating SF earthquake that is predicted to happen in the next decade or so to see if we can respond to disasters in a coordinated fashion.

So far the news says that there's been 20 hospitalizations and only 1 death.

Take care and let us know if you're doing okay!

Evacuating Now

I'll try to get in touch with you guys when I can. All right talk to you soon.

Ash Days

As you all know, kiddies living outside of SoCal and Florida often have these awesome days called snow days. Well southern californians have ash days (slightly more toxic, and definitely hotter, but that's how we like it in SoCal). My sister is pretty happy that she isn't going to school today. She's asking if the house burns down can she paint her room. _-_



So here's the deal, yesterday there were 2 large fires that broke out in the east county (off the map) and that place burns like crazy because there aren't that many paved roads, lots of open shruby places. As of last night, the winds really picked up 30-70 mph, the upper end of which is hurricane strength. So one of the eastern fires started blowing west and at 4am this morning they evacuated the area in pink. This area is now considered a fire spot as well. There's fires jumping around neighborhoods and while the entire area isn't ablaze, whole blocks have been burnt. My family has been up since then waiting for the call, but luckily for us the winds have been in our favor. Although they change quite eradically, especially during dusk/dawn. So I don't know how we're going to do in the end. Winds are going to be the strongest tomorrow, and will probably die down by Thursday. Currently they're pushing the fires west. They say it'll reach the coast by today, where there's even more things to burn. Humidity is pretty low as well, which doesn't help. It's pretty much in the single digits and while I might not be able to make jerky in these conditions, i'm going to exaggerate and say that I can.

I can totally identify streets where my friends live that are now on fire. It's really freaky. Especially because the fires are pushing through a very densely populated area.

On a morbidly upbeat note, these are very affluent communities and after seeing what happened in New Orleans, I'm sure most of these families will be ok if they've escaped with their lives. Every home owner in california is required to have fire insurance. And although no one wants to say it, today is good news for the construction business.

Anyway, I'd call you, but they told us not to jam up the phone lines. So this will have to do.

Dumbeldore is Gay?

You must read this article. Well... only if you read Harry Potter.

http://popwatch.ew.com/popwatch/2007/10/rowling-outs-du.html

^_^

Okay, it’s been way too long. I should really update more. The past few weeks have flown by really quickly for me. Between LSAT practices, job applications, interviews, reading up on copyright/patent laws and, of course, manga… I’ve just totally lost track of time.

Mail? I will check my mail. ^_^ BTW, loved the ouran host club images you put up. Although I didn’t read this post until today b/c I spent yesterday editing in Photoshop so I think I missed some of those pictures you put up.

I guess highlights would work the best so you can finish reading the message in under 30 minutes. Think of this as 30-minute updates with Linli Bee. (Like with Rachel Ray…)

*Grandpa went to the ER for a week. There were some issues with doctors coercing him to sign informed consent for a surgery he didn’t need. I’m writing an op/ed on it and submitting it to the Oregonian (local newspaper) sometime next week, I hope. Right now, I have a narrative. It’s about 6 pages long… and that’s about it.

*Screenplay. I started off writing half of “It Started With a Click”… but then kind of tapered off and never finished it. Dear goodness. I have three half written screenplays. Now I’m trying to figure out what to do with them. Ugh. It’s annoying. I want to have a completed project. I tried letting my parents read segments of it and got responses of “I don’t get it” or “Where’s this character going?” It’ll be so much easier once I can systematically finish what I started and get feedback on the whole.

*Job Interview. OMG, I want this breast cancer research job. The PI blows me away. And there’s so much work that reminds me of running a manga group, except running a research lab. I really liked her personality. She was super fun and the best part is, she sings a cappella as well! She asked me about that during my interview. It was the most relaxing interview I’ve had so far. But it was two hours and it wasn’t until 3 hours after that I realized I had a blast doing it. Things move so slowly in Oregon. It’s nice to have a breather but yeah… now I’m missing the fast lane.

*Birthday was simple. I went out with my family to Macaroni Grill (I’m in love with their salads.) Then we also went to the Cheesecake Factory (love the Kaluha cheesecake). We also went and saw “Elizabeth: The Golden Age.” It’s not worth $7.50. The characters are all underdeveloped, though I admit the soundtrack is fantastic and the costume designs are noteworthy. Movie consumption fell by 27% in October. That’s sad. I’ve noticed that On-screen → DVD time is getting much much quicker. But I think that just makes pirating DVDs much much quicker. Now people don’t have to go into theaters to pirate… they order Netflix or Blockbuster. On one hand, I see it’s the way to get more movies. On the other hand, I feel horrible for the grips guy who gets paid jack to stand there for shooting.

*Shoe shopping. It’s murder. I have big feet. I can face that. But geez!!! I went shoe shopping with my mom. She has tiny feet. I saw the cutest shoes and I’m like “Damn, I don’t fit in these.” She slips her feet in and she’s like “These are great.” Now imagine this happening about 10x successively. Yeah… I’m so jealous of smaller feet.

*TV: Sonny and I have been talking about TV shows. We’ve come to the agreement that WB has a horrible Fall line-up. Dirty Sexy Money is the best new show. Big Shots is a sex-in-the-city masquerading as a guy show, but really for the gals. Pushing Daisies could do without the over-narration and Lemoney-Sniket feel. And I am the only person I know who religiously watches Dancing With the Stars!

I think that’s all. Actually, it’s all kind of a blur. Tomorrow I’m going to Hood River to pick up fresh fruits! I miss you guys and I’m hoping to plan a trip to Cali in December. Not sure how I’ll make it work yet :D

Internet! Internet! (you have to say it like a chant)

I've come to vent about my phone. Yeah, that's right, phone #174. So it turns out that every other phone call that I make, no one can hear me. I can hear the other person perfectly fine, it's just that when it comes to my turn, nada. Zip. Zilch. Damn I need a new phone. March seems so far away....

Anyway, the reason I'm posting... I have come to wish a certain someone a certain happy something. Although, I should have been a better friend and called (see above message for excuses). Well, to that certain someone... I hope you enjoyed your special day. If not, well, I think you should check your mail. You may find a special something.

As for the rest of you, Yuri, Liang, Anna... wassup?

Addiction to Addition Games

http://shingakunet.com/special/10054301/0285/index.html

Unemployment has made me a freak for puzzles. The website above will direct you to a game in which you create a society based on which industry you choose to develop and in what order. Each additional turn/addition of industry may improve the industries already present. Only the right order will max out all the other industry levels. Yah it's fun if you're bored. Although the solution to this puzzle makes me some what doubtful about my degree.

O_o

I'm happy for Liang for having boobs. Although size 9? Are you sure?
According to your theory then...I must have grade D average...haha, that's horrible.
I must pass all the courses here in order to stay.

As for my life here, it's going alright. I feel like I've been here for ages though. Since we, as a first year, spend soooo much time together inside and outside of class, we're sort of like a family now. I seriously feel like they are my sisters and brothers. But, there are definitely more guys and girls, and last night, it was just me and like 5 guys drinking beer, eating pizza, and watching Team America lol I totally fell asleep, but I sort of remember them laughing hysterically and making rude comments. I guess it's okay because at least they feel comfortable around me?

The school work is going okay. I'm getting ahead of everyone by having meeting with professors and trying to get a hold of advisors. Technically, we don't have to decide until the end of november, but I really wanted to secure a position before the competition gets too harsh. So far, I've gotten a good feed back from the professors that I want to work for, and I have meetings with them next week to talk to them about what I did in undergraduate years.

It's kind of weird because all the professors ask me about UC Berkeley professors in chemistry or chemical engineering department and I have no idea who they are, since I was in engineering. They talk to me like I should know them, and I think the only ones I know are the ones that Liang have mentioned it to me, and that's even iffy. Maybe I should study all the professors at UC Berkeley chemistry department to be able to have a conversation with them.

I'm enjoying my lab courses as well. We just had a TEM/SEM lab, which was really interesting. That's more close to materials science, so I feel a little bit more comfortable in that class. I also had a synthesis lab where I got to make nylon 6-10. How exciting. I also had a quiz given by a professor in his office. He asked me bunch of questions, but he said that I passed....so, I hope that means I get a B lol

Alright, that's about everything that's going in my life. Nothing really exciting. Still trying to decide on my winter break. I really want to go to NY!

Ask your physician about Shitty Life Syndrome today!

This post brought you by the American Society for Shitty Life Syndrome:

Do you hate your job? Do you feel a disconnect with some of your coworkers and friends? Do you have trouble finding the courage to wake up in the morning? You may be suffering from Shitty Life Sydrome or SLS. SLS symptoms include night sweats, itching, flaking, nausea, tingling, rash and general sense of discontent. There is NO CURE for SLS, but there are treatments that you can ask your doctor about. It is possible to transmit SLS to your partner even if there is no outbreak, but treatments can lessen the frequency of outbreaks. Side effects include wanted and unwanted hair growth, pregnancy, greasy stool, bloating, headache and dry mouth. Side effects similar to placebo. In rare cases, death and liver failure were reported, in that order. Ask your doctor today!

So my co-worker and I keep hearing these big-pharma ads about various drugs, and we were commenting how all of it culminates in basically what is, a shitty life, hence the birth of SLS. Lesson to be learned? 1. Side effects often are worse than the actual problem itself. 2. Medications are more theraputic than curative. 3.Dry mouth is always a side effect. So something to think about next time you watch those ads.

I'll admit i'm being some what disloyal by writing about this while working at big pharma.

In other news. I went to the mall a few weeks ago to buy pants. Why you ask? Because my pants no longer fit. Guess what size I'm at? 9 (Nine) Yup. Well you heard it first. Oh, I'm also up to a C-cup. Thank god I'm no longer in school. For those of you not in the know. I suffer from a horrible correlative disease called Cupsize induced GPA (side effects include dry mouth). When I had an A cup, I had an A average. When I had a B cup, a B average...and etc.
Well this means one thing. Must go back to an A cup before contemplating more schooling! Dude breasts suck. They get in the way of every day things. I'm not really flexible with my legs so to clip my toe nails I kind of just move my knees up to my chest, with my feet on the chair i'm sitting on. I press my chest to my knees so I can see my toes. Well the extra cushion makes it hard for the pushin'. I find it difficult to see my toes because I can't get my face past my knees very far. Thank god I can still wipe my ass!

Anyway, I don't think any of us really has to feel too guilty about not contributing to the blog, I mean Anna hasn't said a thing in ages!

Slow Going

So for fear of being the only person not posting, this shall be my post. I've always been bad at posting constantly... I mean... dude, just look at my facebook. It's blank. Nothing extraordinary has been going on. I get to engage in family drama and do my own thing.

I guess you can say I'm sort of socially isolated at home. Not for so much a lack of opportunity, but more of a choice. You'll seldom find me out of PJs and in normal clothing if I can avoid it. I'm probably more politically and economically tuned in than I have ever been in my life, which I find disconcerting at best and awkward at most.

So sorry if this is short, but I have nothing new to report! ^_^ Looks like you're all doing well and that's what really matters!

Jews are my secret friends

funny enough, I don't remember having many close jewish friends, but we (anna, dararith and I) seem to talk about them like we know enough of them to make fun of them. San Diego doesn't feel right because there aren't a lot of jews I know of. It's weird isn't it?  I miss them even though they weren't a huge part of my life. Oy!

I'm kind of getting to like SD more and more. Recently, our mayor came out and supported the amicus brief to the court to overturn the ban on gay marriages. For that I'm really proud of our little city. No longer are we the second largest city in CA and the biggest redneck city in CA.

I miss you guys so much. I feel so emo (ick!!!) when I'm without you guys. It's hard not having people to share your life and thoughts with you know? I feel down.

I should really call one of you up, but lately i hate talking on the phone and have resorted back to those awkward middle school/high school aim days. I'm socially retrogressing as they say. I even accidently had one of my break downs directed towards Frank (a.k.a Jesus). I think I freaked him out. Afterwards I promised I'd never let it happen again. Which means frank is probably good for another go. I can fool frank at least 2x. 

My chemistry is finally working!! Yay. But my internship ends in a week. Boo. Unemployment is defined as 4 weeks of searching for a job while without a job. and so unemployment is 5 weeks away. I refuse to be classified as unemployed.

All of my high school friends have left SD (with the exception of Frank and Charles), although charles probably doesn't count. I feel ambivalent towards some of them though. I'll see them when they get married or knocked up, and thank god, because I'll have something to say to them!

Ok I hope this is enough. I didn't want to get too emo on your ass. I'll write back when I got something interesting to rant about ok? I'll make you laugh the next time.

yay, it's the weekend.

I seriously feel like this is a diary between Mel and I lol Oh well. It's at least a way for me and Mel to communicate, I guess.

So it's Friday. yay. I actually don't have any class on fridays other than the seminar at 3pm, so friday is actually very relaxed. I still ended up waking up around 6am just because the people living above me gets up around that time. I have a lab report to write on small angle light scattering, which seems to be tougher than I thought. I've been staring at it since wednesday and I only have about 5 pages done. That will be what I have to do this weekend. I also do want to have fun though, so I'm trying to get as much done today.

Oh yeah, did any of you guys watch all of the Saw's that's been out? I think I'm finally going to dive in, suck it up, and watch saw II and III before the IV comes out. I just want to know how it was and how much I should prepare myself...because you know, I really don't want to have a heart attack.

Alright, I will update this again soon. I'm going to lunch now ;)

Help! My canoe is sinking!

Hollaz to all the peeps up on the plane!

Churro, I have come to join you on this journal, because as much as I love reading from you, I do not feel that you should have to be alone in posting. Thus, here I am.

So Saturday I didn't really have much going on, so I agreed to go canoing with DJ and Diego at Russian River. Sure, the canoe flipped over once, or twice, or thrice times, and yeah there was no current and therefore most of the travel was manpower, and of course since this was my first time going (since the trek down Anna's little river by her house) I wasn't as skilled as others, but sure enough, four hours after departure, we reached the endpoint.

Work has been eating me alive. I still love it, but for some reason, recently it's really started to kick into gear. I mean, within the past week, I've had my lab flood (totally not my fault, honestly), had a mercury spill, almost got blown off the pier and into the ocean while collecting oysters, extracted fur seal urine samples, and stayed at work late enough to see the iron gates close. If that isn't exciting as hell, then honestly, I don't know what is.

Alright my homies, as usual, I hope that you are all doing well and continue to do so. Copernicus says hi and that "alls y'alls bitches needs to swing by to shoot me a holla". His words, not mine. For reals yo.

-MeL

class got cancelled

I know you guys are slacking on this...because I've been updating about twice as much as any of you guys. But that's okay, since I know some of you guys still read this. I am living at the farthest end so far, so I guess it's fine.

I don't know if I mentioned it to you guys but Jason Lin messages me on msn messanger and apparently he goes to RPI (some place in New York). We were saying that it's very ironic that Jason and Eli are living so close to each other now...haha.

Other than that, nothing much is happening in my life. I have class everyday. Either lecture or labs. Yesterday I had my first characterization lab and even though the only thing we looked at was optical microscope, we got to look at the crystallization of polyethyleneoxide. We are supposed to learn SALS (small angle light scattering) on wednesday, so that sounds a little bit more excitinig. As for the synthesis lab, I have no idea what's going on since I haven't had chemistry labs in a looooooong time. At least it's like chem3A where we have to use a sand bath. We have an oil bath and I think that's a little bit more manageable.

So far, everything is going smoothly except for the fact that work is piling up on me....like a lot of reading. I'm more of an audit learner, so I hate reading textbooks. meh.

I guess i'm going out to all you can eat buffalo chicken wings tonight...I think that sounds kind of shady, but since everyone else is going, I decided to go. I guess it could be fun. I have a relaxed day on Tuesday so maybe I will get some reading done tonight as well.

Oh yeah, I wanted to ask you guys. When do you think you can take off winter break? I'm going to take mine such that I can meet most of you at the same time. I know Kenta's been asking me this because he wants to do like a get-together and I have no idea how you guys' schedule are like. Could you let me know if you find out???

It is so cold.

The weather here is killing me. One day it goes up to like 80 degrees and the next day is like 50 degrees with rain. I never know what to predict. I check the weather forecast but it is never always right.

I know it's Saturday morning. I know it's 7am in the morning here. I have no idea why I woke up so early aside of the fact that I'm going to IKEA. Am I really that excited about going to IKEA? I think not. I don't know. It's about an hour and a half away from here, so it's quite a trip.

Since I'm already up, I decided to fill you guys in on nice little things called "grad-school" social phenomenon. There are 31 of us, so there naturally will be little "clicks" although most of us seem to be nice to each other face-to-face. What I find weird is that I've already heard about each other's crap fro various people behind each other's back. These people are getting PhD...so, I find that kind of weird.

So far, I've been pretty close with Christine, Kristof, Toni, Kins, Henning, Joe, Brent, and Kathleen. The first five of them are from the Germany. Christine is the only girl and she's dating Toni. She's really cool and I've come to hang out with her more than anybody else for now. Toni is really sweet, kind of quiet, but seems very smart. Kristof is this guy I thought he was gay because he dresses super nice and looks really good. Apparently he's not, and now I feel bad about thinking that, because he is really good looking. Kins is this super smart guy "theoretically" but sort of the genius guy and kind of weird. He sort of reminds me of Roman, except he doesn't talk as much. But then come to think of it, I guess Roman never really talked to me. Henning is this tall guy with long hair. Joe, Brent, and Kathleen live together in a town called northampton about 15-20 minutes away from Amherst. Joe is from New Jersey and Brent is from Colorado. They seem to be a partner in crime, and they are really funny together. Kathleen is from MIT and she's really down to earth and cool. She likes musicals and singing, so it's pretty fun to talk to her about that. I went to see a movie with all of them plus this girl named Katrina yesterday (minus Kins) and I had a lot of fun. Katrina is this girl with very pretty eyes. I haven't really hung out with her enough to know what she's like but she seems really sweet. Maybe she's a little bit shy. We saw "shoot 'em Up". The movie wasn't too great, especially because there are a LOT of carrots in it (Brent kept laughing at me and telling me that I'm going to be screwed up after this because there were so many carrots in the movie). If you are confused, go watch the movie. You will see why.

As for the rest of the crew, I could name them all but I'm scared that someone will find this blog like last time *cough cough* and somehow start a bitch fest, so I'm going to stop here. There's really no one that I don't like though. There are people that I'm trying to stay away because of various reasons, or people are staying away from me because of various reasons? lol I also befriended a chinese girl named Pei-Wen and Jun. Since they live in my apartment complex, I see them a lot. Pei-Wen actually showed me where the chinese grocery is, so I don't have to starve. yay. The problem is, even I have a hard time understanding their english. No wonder everyone has their own "clicks" because it's really hard to undrestand each other's english sometimes. Most of the time, I'm okay understanding the Germans and the chinese speaking english, but I have a hard time understanding people from Turkey or India. I'm getting used to it, but sometimes I have to second-guess myself and you know I'm not good at guessing what I heard. There were a couple of times that I wanted to burst out laughing because I had no idea what they said and my understanding of the sentence was so funny that I couldn't contain myself.

Today, I think I'm going to IKEA with Joe, come back, and have fun with Kathleen and Christine? Katrina is having a cranium night, but Christine wasn't so sure if she wanted to go because she's worried that her English isn't great. I told her it's not like mine is much better but she's convinced that she wouldn't be good at the game. The guys (Germans+Brent+Joe) are having a guy's night out, so we were going to do girl's night out. We'll see what we're going to do later in the night.

So yes, I am having fun here. But of course, I miss all of you guys dearly. I wish I were back in California, because that's definitely my safety corner for me. Maybe I will see you guys during christmas break? I'm not so sure. I guess Anna and Mel will probably in the bay area, but what about Liang and Linli? Are you guys coming back to the bay area or leaving to somewhere else?

Life is Simple

Life is pretty routine right now for me. I get up, do some job hunting (which I don't like doing because half of the jobs I'm qualified, I'd hate doing and half of the jobs I would love doing I'm unqualified for), write an app if I like what I find, eat/make breakfast, read the news, turn on the tele to see stock numbers and trends, go online to check e-mail, watch some stock trends, sit down and do lsat practices, read a few hours, play the piano, work out at the gym (where I've seen this one korean dude working out for 6 hours straight- just on his calves too!), work on my story and story boards, and now, I've finally gotten my act together with bp and I spend a while re-writing and reading up on new developments. I guess I'll have my magazine laid out by next week. That's pretty much all I'm doing. Quite boring, but at the same time so utterly needed.

I'm happy that Yuri got a chance to fill me in on her birthday! The pictures are... flattering? At least they're filled with smiles. I've yet to get my Arnold memorabilia, so I suppose I'll either have to send an order in or fly down and get it. Maybe. Applied for one job in SF. Don't really know if I'll get it because it's really not my field. ;) some people might argue that it is...

Your friend sounds intrigueing Yuri. More like, maybe he's the wrong crowd. But I'm sorry that the other races are exclusive. That's really no fun at all. In fact it's less than fun! Down with Exclusivity!

Rock concerts sound great Mel. So they had this article today in the news which was all the indie-rock recording in Portland studios. So yeah... had no idea what singers from DeathCab for Cutie looked like until today.

Back to school!

School started this week....and I am definitely not enjoying it. Although this week has been pretty easy-going (provided that we don't have labs yet), it is still tiring to meet all of these people and pretend to be social.

Since I don't have internet at my place, I have been religiously going to school 2 hours before my class starts and going online in the air-conditioned nice cubicle room in the graduate library. It is quite nice, considering the face that the floor that I go to almost has nobody ever around and it's fairly quite. You could probably watch porn,even, if you wanted to...not that I would though.

As for the classes, I really have to review or rather learn Organic Chemistry...since I didn't pay attention too much the first time around...you know, the IUPAC rule and all the stupid nomenclature. What's worse is that there's a whole new set of them for polymers on top of the single molecules. So...it's going to be tough. That will be my challenge over the weekend.

Other than that, there are parties for the new kids like almost every night. I went to the closest bar last night with a couple of my friends and had some fun, although I didn't drink. I'm still having bad flashback memory from my birthday when I threw up., so i'm trying to keep my alcohol intake very low.

As for the people, some of them are quite fun to hang out with. I got to know the girl from Germany pretty well, so we talk a lot now. There are a couple of people that I'd rather not hang out with too much because they party and drink too much for their own sake. Actually, the first guy I hung out with when I came here, Sam, seems to me the bully of the group (he's also the one that openly told me that he takes Adrelle). He's already talking shit about people and seems pretty arrogant. I don't really like to be around him anymore, so i'm keeping my distant. I guess I belong the "white" kids group, since I don't understand chinese nor korean and they tend to keep the circles very tight knit anyway. I guess i'm the odd one out, but so far, it's working alright.

There's 30 of us, and I think about 10 or 12 are girls, so it's a pretty good mix. There are really no cute guys though. I feel that most of them are already in a relationship anyway. I guess I have to fly back to California to find any remotely cute guys...

Aaahnold signs my diploma

It is a good day to get my $12 paper with a gold sticker.

Labor Day without the Labour

Alright party people, let's hear it... What did YOU do for Labor Day?

Thursday
Okay, so I started the Labor Day holiday a little early... like Thursday night. What? were in town and I wanted to get my dance on man! Anyway, I went to to watch them play one heck of a set, filled with good ol' keyboards and record spinning, followed by dancing the rest of the night away (or until I got too tired... which was around 12)

Friday

Friday night started with some dinner with Dian, Rosana, Rita, and Canh at Flavors of India? You know, I really don't remember what it was called. All I know is that it's on Lakeshore, the food was good, but not worth the price, and the waiter took FOR-EV-ER. Dinner was followed by a little movie called , accompanied by DJ and Diego. The movie was followed by a stop at The Alley, where DJ got TOTALLY WASTED and then he.... I'm joking, I'm joking (Yuri, don't kill me!)

Saturday

I decided that I hadn't gotten my full fix of music from Thursday, and thus, attended the festival in downtown to catch (aka that band that's Mel's ringtone). Anyway, they put on an awesome show, regardless of the fact that it was >90 degrees and they were wearing all black. That my friends, are called rock stars.

Monday

Okay, so I skipped Sunday because I basically just did nothing that day. So let's get to the fun stuff! Monday = trip to the San Francisco Zoo! Yes, they were open on Labor Day, and yes, I was super stoked. Penguins! Here I come!
(photo courtesy of "Patrick" from his blog)
We made it just in time to see them feeding too! We also saw: giraffes, zebras, rhinos, hippos, bears, lions, tigers, gorillas, birds, otters, guinea pigs, rabbits, antelope, etc, etc.

So that was my fantastic voyage this weekend.... what was yours?

-MeL

Berkeley re-visited!

So...since no one is updating, i'm going to update.

I visited Berkeley for a week and a half. Since some of you guys were there, I don't know what to say, but thanks for being there and I had sooooooo much fun. Special thanks to Mel for spending a LOT of time with me. I'm sure you were sick of me by the end.

Anyway, since Linli was not there, i'm going to explain. I stayed at DJ's place for a week and a half to visit Berkeley again. It's strange to visit the place that I had lived for four years. I almost felt like I was just coming back to school and everyone would be back any minute. Except..there were so many freshmen and new students that I really really felt old...almost like I was 80 or something.

I also celebrated my birthday there (refer to facebook picture since i'm too lazy to update the pictures here and it takes really really long time to do so anyway). Mel, DJ, and Dj's roommate Diego took me out to this teppan yaki place called Hana Japan by the marina. It was really fun and the waiter was kind of funny. I was sort of drunk so I don't remember the entire detail. Mel and Diego also bought me this pudding/cake called "sock it to me pudding" which I thought was pretty funny. I got a sweatshirt that says Pixar from Diego (Diego works for Pixar), a pair of shoes and a DVD from DJ, a hand-made sweatshirt (Mel, Eli, Ming-Hay, Kenta, and I made our own clothing line and a logo) from Mel, an address book from Mel's parents (with a huge fat cat on the front), and a necklace from Anna and Liang. Thank you everyone!!!! I loved all the gifts and I'm going to treasure them all.

Okay, enough about my birthday...People need to update this because while I know mostly what's going on in Mel's life since I was there, I have no idea what's going on in other people's lives....like Liang in SD, Anna working in Berkeley, and especially Linli!!!! What's going on with you? Are you still in Oregon? Are you coming back here for work? Are you studying for pharmacy school? Tell us, please.

Alright, I will update this again once the school starts to let you in on the peepz in my department :D

Miss You GUYS!

Ah, I'm not sure I welcome the thought of my own stalker, but Evan is a good friend of mine! Not a stalker! *sigh of relief* I had that happen to me on facebook once. After that, I just took all my info off.... like ALL. It's a white page. Clean board. I think. I should actually check it instead of just logging in long enough to check messages.

I think you should try out for a reality show. :) They pay quite well for that. Like seriously. Mel, remember Ankur. Yeah. He got dough for that. And a Chem prof did survivor. He made it to the final four and he got $ ftoo. Good $ for the short term, but considering intellectual property rights and the ability to keep using your footage, well, I guess it's sort of worth it and it's definitely fun looking. :)

Man, I really miss you guys. I miss being able to be like, "let's go study together!" Or "let's go grab food." Or just being able to be like, "I'm too damned busy." I'm still busy, but in a totally different way now.

BIG DIGITAL IMAGINARY HUG

Ohz Yez hezhezhez!

Linli, the guy asks for your blog? One word: Stalker. Congrats though! A fan club has to get started some where.

Yuri, I will be there in august to steal the o-chem book back. JK! Your bf's been calling me. I'd kick his ass. You know how it is.

So my internship ends in a month, which means I'll be looking for a new job soon. JnJ just went through a "efficiency cut" and eliminated 4280 jobs by the end of this year. =( The entire bay area R&D division was cut. They're also currently at a hiring freeze so I don't think they're going to hire me on until at least the end of next quarter. As much as I like it here, I don't think I like it enough to be doing temporary work until past Christmas.

Anyway. Still using the family computer. I can't wait until the new imacs come out and I can go out and spill 3K on something that will only inhibit my social life even more. My parents want me to put my money towards a car, but when I think about it, i feel like a computer and a good internet connection will bring me more joy. San Diego makes me so antisocial it's scary. I should drink more. There is some what of an inverse relationship between my alcohol consumption and my computer use.

With upcoming unemployment, I've come up with a new plan:

Step 1: Get famous
Step 2: Celebrity Jeopardy
Step 3: profit!

Yup. That's about it

Still in UK

After so many weeks of not updating...i'm finally doing it. I guess I will follow the styles that everyone has been doing...with the bullet points.

-Still in London. I have so far been to Birmingham, Cambridge, the London vicinity, and Greenwich.

-I will be returning to USA next Saturday. Fun ride on the airplane for me...not to mention all the terrorist threat that has been made to the airports....

-I will be re-visiting Berkeley 8/18-8/29. Is anyone from this blog (aside of Mel. I know you will be there for me) will be around? I know for a fact that 8/24 and 8/25 is Caltopia and everyone of us knows that means free stuff.

-Semester starting in less than a month, and I only went through half of the Ochem book that Liang kindly gave me.

-I just realized that I have to buy like....$500 worth of books for just the first semester. I don't know how i'm going to manage myself financially.

Yeah...so that's my life right now. I've been keeping busy by playing with my cat, studying with my Ochem book (sort of), and taking nice long walks in the wood-sy area in England.

Eh...

Ah, sorry. That would be my bad. I was talking to Evan (friend in another state) who asked what I had been up to and whether or not I had a blog. I just copied and pasted two of the blogs I still somewhat write in. I wasn't thinking at the time- just typing rapidly and copying and pasting links. So I said I was bumblebee and that those were my posts. Was this blog supposed to be private? Sorry. I shan't give out the link again. I only ever sent out this link to Evan since he's the only person to ever ask me if I have/had a blog or participate in one.

Oy! Oy!

Who is this Evan character who commented in the last entry?

Updates

I feel like I haven't blogged in a while and that's probably my fault. Instead of going on my usual long-winded verbal rampage, I'll do bullet points too.

1. I got CPR & First Aid certified by a three time war veteran amongst a crazy funny crowd of peop.e

2. Signing up to see the Body Worlds 3 exhibit (yeah!)

3. Reading a lot. As in four hours of day. I feel like I'm getting stupid at home.

4. Moving grandpa out completely. FINALLY! YEAH!!! Crack open a bottle of champagne!

5. Stopped doing manga for a while *TEARS* got distracted by other stuff.

6. Shedding that fat.

7. Watching the news and stock market every day. Makes me feel a bit stupid at times.^_^

There. That's an update.

My Fellow Bears On A Plane....

You know... "borrowing" your neighbor's Internet seems like a good idea.... for about a day and then you realize that they sometimes (or most of the time) turn off their modem/hub/etc. So I finally caved and am awaiting the arrival of Comcast Digital Cable ONLY because ATT doesn't offer their cheapo DSL in my neighborhood. Psh... that's just so.... ugh.

Catching up on this thing I realize that I haven't written in this in what feels like eons and considering that so much has happened since, I hope that you guys are up for a little reading. If not... no I'm too lazy to put pictures up to describe it all, so just suck it up and read it. Oh fine... I'll make it a top five list... lists are easier to read right? FINE! I'll even number the sucker to make it easier.

1. Department of Health Services - For the past four weeks now I have been working at DHS and to be honest I've been having a pretty good time. I'm working with marine toxins, primarily PSP (paralytic shellfish poisoning) and ASP (amnesic shellfish poisoning). I also get to work with a little radioactive material, which is always a cool thing... as long as it's not TOO much. No worries though, I wear this little detector thing that measures my amount of exposure. Clive, the guy whose job I'm taking, said that for the last check, he had the highest levels in the department... that's assuring.
   
   
2. Ma Crib - Well I live in Richmond now, so I've better be gettin the lingo right... you know what I'm sayin? Yo it's a pretty tight place (saying "tight" will always remind me of Mike Kurylo) located on the third storee. I've got a killer view of this, um, hill that I can see from both my balcony and my makeshift meth lab.
   
   
3. Extracurricular Activities - Well it doesn't hold a candle to trivia night at Pasand or roaming the streets of Berkeley on roller blades or a skateboard at all hours of the night, nor does it surpass just hanging out at 1815 Spruce Street with my friends, but I've been keeping busy. I've seen Dararith a couple of times to eat of course, Canh's stopped by, I've been meaning to grab dinner with DJ sometime, and although most of my co-workers have kids who are my age, I've managed to befriend Clive (24) and Roger (30), the youngest members of SRL and the coolest kids in the cubicles. We've hit up Applebee's "happy hour", In and Out's secret menu, Taco Bell 49 cent tacos, coffee runs during lunch rush, and played the Wii. That's how we hang here in the 510 (but wait! weren't we 510 in Berkeley too? Hmm... that's how we hang in the 94806?)
   
   
4. Still Rocking Out at 22 - So, what I consider and deem exciting, I won tickets through Live 105 for their "Punk Rock Weekend" ie tickets to the Honda Civic Tour with Fall Out Boy and the Vans Warped Tour. Let's just say the Warped Tour was MUCH better than the Civic Tour.
   
   
5. Copernicus - My little bundle of adrenaline... and fat.
   

As always, everyone keep safe, keep living, and of course, keep blogging.

-MeL

Music - Bad Religion "Honest Goodbye"
Book - Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (must finish before movie comes out!)

I'm 22 and I live with my parents....

Ohs! I'm so cool. God no wonder I have no life. And to make matters worse, I still have acne! Damn I'm never going to get laid! Lols. 

Nah, saves for the parental nagging and the weird requirements to have me go to bed at like 11, living at home is pretty sweet, I don't pay for internet, cable, food or rent. But then again I haven't been paid at work either. I don't get paid until next week, in the mean time though I've been going shopping to buy new clothes because being in San Diego, (well just being out of Berkeley) makes me realize how slobby all my "professional-casual" outfits are. Anyway, hoping that my pay check catches up with my credit cards.

How's work you ask? Well I get discount swag that's made by Johnson and Johnson. So if any of ya'll need acne cream, neutrogena products, other skin care products, or procrit to dope your blood the next time you run a marathon, I am your go to woman. My Boss just had a baby (his wife did) and he's busy writing a paper so he's not in lab much, thank god I've done this before. Everything is pretty sweet. I do the same thing that I did in Berkeley except I get my own hood, I get paid, I get access to more instruments, I don't have to wait in line as long and SOMEONE ELSE actually washes my glassware! OMG. I told my friend at Princeton this and she's like, you had to wash your own glassware at Berkeley? -_- GD Princeton!!! Everyone's super nice, all the cool kids are doing grad school, you should too... lols

Today I got a belated graduation gift in the mail today--the entire New Yorker collection, as in every magazine from 1925 to 2005! At first I was wondering what I would do with all this. I'm not that prolific of a reader and judging by the font size of that magazine, I always assumed it to be above my reading level, and above my patience level (i.e. attention span).
But I'm really touched that someone thinks i'm cultured enough to read this. 
I feel like someone could think you're smart and just give you a subscription to the Economist, 
but the New Yorker implies you know the stuff in the Economist and you still have enough brain 
power left over to process non-essential and sometimes abstract fiction. 

My friend from the Australian (OZ) trip came to visit me. We went to Pacific Beach (PB, the white, hence party center of the UCSD undergrad experience). We went to this Australian pub to find some Ozzy beer. They had one and it was sour and over carbonated, it was like drinking bad Sprite. Ohz. Ran into another friend from OZ, ended up crashing a party. I really hate doing that because I don't know anyone and I always feel self consciously asian whenever I'm in SD and big white dudes scare me (especially in large numbers). We got kicked out. Thank god, really. Oh it was also almost a full moon so we went streaking on the beach. Hah. Yup.

Whenever people ask me what I've done since being home, I always say nothing, mainly because these things never come to mind, but I sat down and brainstormed for you guys.

In other news, I fell asleep on the couch and lost one of my kangaroo earrings. I really hate living in a large house, I can't find shit.

Fly away!

So...as you guys probably know, I am going off to japan tomorrow. Very heightened security at Heathrow airport right now...and that is making me slightly worried.

With my update, I really havent done much. Just spending some time with my parents and my cat, going off to see some castles...you know, the usual. Nothing much I can do here in London when the weather is all gloomy and rainy all the time.

I just talked to Kenta via gchat, and he seems to be getting on a rocky start. In Japan, there is always this hierarchy of those who just started and those who have been in the company for a while. Usually it involves making the new-comer really drunk to the point that they cant function anymore (I know, sad). But, since Kenta will be working in Osaka, and Osaka is the place to be for comedy in Japan, he has to do some comedy show at the party...I know it sounds fun and all...but the bad part is, people from Osaka are very very hard to please in terms of laughter, and they would be very harsh on Kenta...and to top of it all, they are going to make him drink...and you guys all know how much alcohol he can take.

So lets cross our fingers that he will live past tonight (well, I dont know what the time difference is, but for him, tonight) and that he will be okay. I feel so bad for him....but seems to be the tradition in Japan...a very bad trandition indeed.

As for other people, it seems that everyone is quite busy in US. I guess I am the only one having so much time to myself. Well, it wont be long. I will update more if I get internet acess in japan :)

last (but not least?)

hey friends! sorry i didn't get on this before...thank you yuri for bringing it up or the invitation email would still be sitting in my gmail inbox. so i just started reading your entries and i see i have some catching up to do.

a very brief update (because its after midnight and i have to get up at 6:30 every morning now, sad!) ... i've been working, speaking lots of espanol, playing with preschoolers, trying to keep 4 year old Pedro from calling 4 year old Fransico a "beaner"...you know, the usual. its quite strange to be graduated but still living in berkeley. telegraph and haste, closer than i've ever lived to campus (i know liang, technically we were only 1 long block away). its def. a sudden transition from student, to no student. like having to go to bed early. sigh. so anyway i'll be back soon to read up on you all and then ask some good questions about what you're doing, and hopefully tell you something interesting about myself hehe.

miss you all! wish we could randomly bake brownies or something (no, not those kind of brownies).

mel, we must have dinner....twice, b/c we missed june.

love, anna

So long as I'm not the last one to write on this...

Thank god I beat Anna to this. (Reputation SAVED) Granted I'm just sitting at home doing nothing, and Anna's out there helping the socially underpriviledged.

Yuri I'm sorry to hear that you're sick. Eat the rest of the *herbs* Laura got you.

Linli, I hope you've been sleeping, because god knows you haven't since 2003.

Mel, I hope you're not still commuting from Hollister. Well who cares, you're in the money now. Besides the worst of global warming will hit our kids. Real easy to shrug and not give a crap. See how good weather has made me complacent? Damn you San Diego

I'm pretty sure Dylan in 100 Degree fresno is thinking global warming is bad. Speaking of Dylan, he left last friday and since then I've been truly vege-ing. While he was here we did get to go to Sea World and ride Atlantis 5x. Can't wait until Magic Mountain. You guys should come, It'll be sweet. We also went snorkeling at La Jolla cove and took the BUS in SAN DIEGO to get there. I've seen the buses in SD, but I've never seen them stop. The bus is pretty good. Saw some guitar fish.

We went to go see Jackie. So this is how the shit went down and how we almost avoided total embarassment. So Jackie doesn't know that Dylan came to SD with me. So we walked to Jackie's house and at first I didn't remember just which house/street it was. I called Jackie and asked if she were home, she said yes.

I told dylan that jackie's dad always parks on the street, and if I can find the car, I can find Jackie's house. We walk up and down these streets and I can't find his car, but what if Jackie is home and her dad isn't? So I call up Jackie:

Me: what is your house number
Jackie: 2XXXX

Me: uh (looks at street numbers, all are 1XXXX) What street is it?
Jackie: are you drunk?!! Haste!

Me: oh, I thought you meant you were home in SD!

Anyway as we're walking to leave jackie's dad pulls into the driveway. Imagine if we wandered around a little bit longer (by the time Jackie's dad got home) and then sent dylan to knock on the door of Jackie's house. Dylan would probably have to make up some shit about selling cookies to get out of that one.

I got to drive by myself (got the car) on Tuesday. So I went to visit Frank (now to be refered as uncle frank, UF) and his niece, mother and sister. We didn't have enough in common to hang out so we grabbed Anna Jewett, she's still as bubbly as ever. What a funny person. While we were gone Frank's mom got a chance to change UF's sheets. (because he wasn't there to guard them). Good times good times. I got UF some sun and enforced hygene! WAhoo.

Thunderstorm!

So....let me tell you what i've been doing for the last couple of days...

As you already know, I'm basically here alone. As a consequence, I think I'm at a point to really truly understand how the bums on telegraph feels like. I pretty much talk to myself in Japanese and make up my own theme songs when I'm cooking. Either way, I've been pretty sick for the last two days, due to something I ate or the water, so I had this really high fever and horrible stomach-fluish symptoms. Anyway, I got much better today, and took this line 31 bus from one side to the other to see parts of Amherst.

Basically, Amherst is just grass and flat lands. I've never seen flatter lands before. Berkeley is so hilly and many ups and downs. Amherst is flat. with nothing. just grass. and trees.

On the brighter side (or not), there are tons of different kinds of bugs. And I hate bugs. So, i'm running around frantically running away from bugs.

Tonight was the first time I experienced thunder storms. The rain was amazing. I live on the ground floor right now, so I'm half into the ground. I can see the rain hitting the pavement from my window pretty much at my eye level, which is really cool. The lightning was really cool too. I've never seen lightning before. That was amazing.

So no picture this time. I've been slacking. But one day, I will post some pictures of lightning if I can.

E-mails as a Nonchalant Passing

I looked at my inbox and distraughtedly waved away the 200 in my inbox. I just don't have the heart to sit through at my desk and weave through all the countless messages - most of which are from things that I subscribe to.

I made Baos last night (you know those dim sum things with the fluffy white bread and the meat filling). They were pretty darned good if I say so myself. I feel relatively optimistic that things will work out at the moment and I hope you all are doing well. I can't say I'm terribly sad at the moment just because I have so much to do- even still. I feel that I might be where Santa Monika is in a few days, but I'm trying to keep it cheery.

So outside my room is basically a mini-forest. At least that's what it looks like according to the landscaping that my neighbors did. There's a blue jay's nest at the top of the Hawthorne tree and I have a "bird's-eye" view from my bed. It's pretty cool.

I was really excited to see squirrels, but had forgotten that only in Berkeley are there weird squirrels that come up to you that can be handfed. Which reminds me, I was reading a Smithsonian article about a professors who had become quadriplegic and had shifted his research from animals in the Amazon (because he could no longer take trips there) to squirrels. Apparently squirrels are not animals that should ever be handfed because of the high likelihood that they will bite you. *Mental Picture of Squirrel eating Mentos*

In other news, quite literally, I was reading up on the JFK Airport "crisis" and the Libby trials. Geez, I feel so out of touch with the world. It's weird having a TV and having ... cable. I was watching TV and realized that the MPAA or whomever is in charge of cenorship on TV has really laxed on what can be shown and said. It used to be that naked (topless women) was not an okay thing to show and now it is admissable. Maybe it's because of the TiVO box parental controls or the Comcast box locks. I don't know. Any opinions?

Ah, time to unpack again. It seems like it took a week of packing and it'll take two weeks to unpack. I'm so thankful that my parents are generous with space.

Sun-derland

Is where I am now.

For some reason, when I saw the toaster that Mel took a picture of, I became really sad. No more of those times that we would laugh about random things like that. sadness.

So around 7:00PM eastern time, I finally arrived to Bradley International airport, after flying through Midway (Chicago). I took the shuttle and about an hour later, I was at the doorstep of my new home sweet home...well, at least for the summer. I found out that half of my packages had arrived that morning, and my roommate has kindly carried them into my room for me. She has also cooked (her name is Preema by the way) me indian food. I think I can get along with her very well.

But for some reason, I have this feeling that I will never be able to act stupid and laugh about random things like I used to do with you guys...and I guess that's how growing up feels like. When everyone graduates and start working/going to graduate school.

Aside of everything that is making me sad (Like I said, everything is hitting me right now. I'm sitting in my room all by myself, surrounded with the boxes I had packed), my toes have been numb since this morning. I don't think that's a good sign.

Okay, enough with lamenting about my situation. I'm going to the campus tomorrow, so I will take some more pictures and update here.

June 5th 2007 = Most Popular

Wow! Who would've thought that Tuesday, June 5th 2007 would be a popular day for blogging? Not I. Although (currently) my schedule hasn't been nearly as exciting as getting whisked away on airplanes to distant lands or as perplexed as watching Chinese Martial Arts dramas, here it is (complete with pictures for those of you too lazy to read it all):

My home! The ONLY good thing about H-Town. I swear, if I couldn't find sanctuary in it, who knows what I'd do. As you can tell by the white sky, it's been overcast with a ton of wind.

*sidenote: I find that the contrast between the sky, the roof, and the house works well, as well as the symmetry of the trees and the architecture of the house. What do you think?





My room! I have been making an effort to clean it up a bit... it had accumulated quite a bit of... um... stuff. I'm getting there though and right when I finish cleaning.... there will probably be more stuff to shove in it. Sigh. Room cleaning is a job that NEVER ends.

*sidenote: Um... I like blue! Can you tell from the curtains and the bedspread?





My toaster! Um... it toasts bread! Yeah!

*sidenote: It's white with gray detailing.










So that's about it. Thursday will be a big day for me. The Santa Cruz branch of my work called to let me know that they'd be processing paperwork this Thursday, my application for the apartment that I really like is due on Thursday, and I think my last day of work at the EPA will be on Thursday. It's just too bad that everyone's so far from each other... it would've been a hell of a reason to party.

-MeL

Book: House of Leaves - Mark Z. Danielewski
Music: Music from Regions Beyond - Tiger Army

Back in the Flow of Things

So who's on this blog anyways? I have no idea?!?! In any case, I think I'll make my first update.

So the last few days have been a whirlwind of moving things. At some point in the moving process I decided that I had too much stuff and started throwing things away or just giving it away. It was mostly stuff like cleaning supplies (I had three brooms, one mop, two vacuums and a swiffer sweeper upper).

I stayed at a Holiday Inn with my parents during the whole moving out process. It was actually pretty nice. I had no idea that HI offered continental breakfasts- gratis. The rooms were also especially nice since they had chosen a city outside of Berkeley- next to a Casino. I never really gave it much thought, but having my parents there was really helpful. It made the moving out process faster, albeit a bit more complicated at times when we disagreed on the most efficient methodology.

The drive back was a little more interesting. I had forgotten what Oregon looks like. And passing Lake Shasta made me reminiscent of high school when my friends would go there every summer and camp out. The foliage definitely changes as you head up north. Good-bye to the Eucalyptus tree (which I'm not too fond of anyways) and hello big firs, snow-covered mountains and oaks.

So I hadn't realized how used to California I was- or if you wish you can say "entrained." In fact as I was driving out of the Bay Area, I was disappointed that the first thing to noticeably go is the music. The Bay Area Hyphy music that I love so much was gone and so was the nice Deathcab for Cutie song ...something something "I'll follow you into the dark" and the White T's "Hey there Delilah." When I hit the border of California and Oregon, the music became religious and country. I was so disappointed that my tape deck was refusing to work and when it finally started working, all I could listen to was Sting's Desert Rose song and that album.

It was bearable, but I needed something to keep me awake and let me tell you- neither Sting, Country or Gospel do a good job at that even cranked up. :( By the time I got home the second day (we stopped in Ashland) I was totally spent. I became a couch potato and watched some Chinese Martial Arts dramas (Wu Xia Stories). In my absence, my parents had become Wu Xia DVD collectors. So traditional Wu Xia stories can take years to finish and over 100 books. Luckily, most of htese TV shows don't last for anymore than 48 episodes per season and no more than five seasons. I started watching a newer one called "The Patriotic Knights." While watching this, I started simultaneously watching another one. Unfortunately, even thought the series were filmed some 4 years apart, they utilized the same actors. We all know how bad I am at Asian recognition. Yeah.... we'll leave it at that. I finished watching the Patriotic Knights today. I'm happy to discover that I can read the subtitles okay and that I'm doing better as far as learning Chinese goes.

Yesterday was mostly unpacking. Man. I have a lot of stuff. 'Nuff said. Let me put it this way- I was worried that the weight of my room had increased so much that it might not be structurally stable.

Today, my locker partner of three years in middle school randomly called me up and invited me to her graduation party. It was so random. I politely refused. I'm kind of anti-social right now because I'm so exhausted but didn't think I could use that as a good enough reason. But it would be interesting to meet all her Oregon friends and see if she made friends with some of my friends. We had gone to rival high schools but most of my high school went to Oregon State. :) I think I'll get another chance to see her.

Well that's about it for today. Off to exercising I go!!!!! Whee!!!!