This World I'm In

Technical ignorance

2006-02-06T19:57:00.000-05:00

http://www.wymsey.co.uk/wymchron/cooking.htm

You can not cook an egg with cell phones. The antenna do not radiate that much power, , its not the same frequency as a microwave oven, it communicates to the cell tower first before "talking" to the other phone. Yadda, yadda, yadda.

How long do people have to use cellphone before things like this goes away? Don't even get me started on RFIDs.....what do people have to hide anyway? It's not Big Brother, sheesh, its just something to make people's life easier.

California

2005-09-24T20:43:00.000-04:00

Oh, I guess I won't be getting a digital camera yet...can't take pictures of any of this grass, and trees, and yellow buildings..... It's like a corn field without the corn. I really do miss Tech. I still find myself typing in gtg512a and checking the Tech e-mail first on impulse.

Things are going well. Campus is way bigger than I'm used to. Got a bike today, these things are sooo dangerous--like car but without all that protective metal ~.~

School remains yet to be seen.

Going Insane!!!!!

2005-09-13T16:54:00.000-04:00

Don't know what to bring with me!
Don't know how to pack my stuff to take it with me!
Don't know my mailing address in CA!
Don't have a single clue of what class to take!
Don't know how to write a bike!
Don't know how I'm going to do grocery shopping once I'm there!
Don't know! Don't know! Don't know!

And Damn! Why do I have so many freaking DVDs?

Photobucket

2005-06-21T11:39:00.000-04:00

This is a test post from Photobucket.com

Zero Respect for Firefighters

2005-06-16T14:48:00.000-04:00

Left over from the last adventure, I had some motor oil/gasoline hybrid fluid that I had to dump out of the lawn mower. So today, I took it to Vavoline to dump the oil, but they refused to take it on account of the gasoline. The guy told me to take it to the fire department. And so begins the adventure.

Our heroine (me) braves more driving with oil/gasoline hybrid in an open trashcan going as slow as she could on the road to avoid spillage. Oh why couldn't the trail of cars behind me understand that I was suffocating under the fumes as well as driving one handed to keep the bucket from overturning.

I finally reached the fire station. Finding no one readily outside, I went inside--into the den of a group of 5 or 6 firefighters sitting in a dark, ACed room. Let's just say the distinct reaction I got was: 'Hey, female, helllllooooo nurse'

For the record, I'm an engineer. I'm used to a room full of guys and few females. But I've never, ever, been in a situation where I feel I was more oogled than with the company of the friendly neigborhood fire department. Then they proceed to tell me how they also can not take the oil/gas devil child. One went on to proceed to tell me that I should 'LIE' about the content of my mixture and take it to the nearest oil change shop. After all, "I'm female. What do I know about oil."

It is indeed the dawn of the end of civilization. Oh, for now its oil and gas. But I shudder to imagine what other kind of creative, and hazardous chemicals people are conocting in their backyard with few guidance/location of proper disposal. Certainly, the ones who should be responsible for the safety of society are too busy oogling random females that walked into their mist.

Despair, oh people for this is the world we live in.

Not the sharpest needle....(However that expression goes)

2005-06-15T12:27:00.000-04:00

I must have pissed off some deity or other this summer....My latest string of stupidity involves my lawn mower. In my defense, I've probably mowed the lawn all 3 times and I've never filled up the tank before. So since my mom is away for the moment, I had to mown the lawn.

I did a pretty good job mowing the front, if I do say so myself (I do!). But the thing stopped when I was mowing the middle of the side lawn. So..AHA, I said to myself, it needs gas! There's a big nob on the top of the engin that reads oil. Ergo, my application of collequial english: gas<=>gasoline<=>petroleum<=>oil
And yep, before my brain caught up, I dumped half a gal. of gas into the oil well. Then when I tried to start the thing, I noticed another tiny (read dirty) nob that has the picture of a gas pump on it, and has the words 'unleaded only' beside it.

At that time, the brain stopped.

So I called Home Depot (because they are smarter and I'm from the suburb. The garden guy told me to just dump it all out, but someone else said that I should flush the well.... (I'd prefer flushing since: mower running=>heat=>gasoline=>not happy mower). But I don't know with what. And on top, I have about a gallon of motor oil+gasoline hybrid in my garage that I don't know what to do with.

I mean, it can't be good for the environment to just dump that stuff in the gutter.

Also, I must be the only person I know who feels like she has cheated a small business owner when she tried to get her car oil changed. (The brain did not make the connection between oil for car and oil for lawn mower, why do you ask?)

So its $18.95 on Lady's Day to get your oil changed (girls rock!). But then, this guy started telling me about additional fluids to clean the piston ($5) and some air inlet thing or other ($9.95). Looking at my complete hopelessness with car, he said that he'd give me $3 off the oil change. My brain: $19-$3+$5+$10=$31. He goes, it'll be $22 plus tax. AHA, He made a math mistake says I!

Then they came with a bill of $32. Apparently, the $22 estimate he gave me was for the oil change only. Silly me thought that he meant the whole thing. So, they had to take off the inlet thingy (2 seconds), and I got that $5 engine fluid thing for free. Truth though, I would have paid that extra $5.

I feel like I cheated them out of their money some how....

Beating the Odds

2005-05-23T16:13:00.000-04:00

While, it had to happen one day....I just wish it didn't have to happen now!
I got into a car accident! Completely, my fault! I guess I ran a red light or something (I don't really remember, and I wasn't on anything). There's a car going horizontal, and the rest....is history.
The goods is that nobody got hurt. The bad is that my car is not drivable at the moment. And I now have to live with my SHAME! This kind of thing is not suppose to happen to me. I'm suppose to above all this! So, yes, SHAME and complete object MISERY. Oh Ye Gods!

Me :)

2005-02-01T01:37:00.000-05:00

Because useless quizzes are always fun!

You are a SRDL--Sober Rational Destructive Leader. This makes you a Mob Boss.

You are the ultimate alpha person and even your friends give you your space. You can't stand whiners, weaklings, schlemiels or schlemozzles. You don't make many jokes, but when you do, others laugh out loud. They must.

People often turn to you for advice, and wisely. You are calm in a crisis, cautious in a tempest, and attuned to even the finest details. Yours is the profile of a smart head for business and a dangerous enemy.

You have a natural knack for fashion and occupy a suit like a matinee idol. Your charisma is striking and without artifice. You are generous, thoughtful, and appreciate life's finer things.

Please don't kick my ass.

MHahahahahahahaha

Stereotyping and Racism

2005-01-27T21:25:00.000-05:00

Got into an argument with a friend today that's making me a bit upset. We had a conversation over lunch sometime ago where I kinda carelessly threw out something along the line of that I would not date Asian guys, but would rather date white guys. My friend being an Asian male.

Anyway, he bought it back up today before some people and I got really embrassed that he said that. So we got into an argument.

There is a definite trend in society for Asian girls to prefer to date white guys rather than Asian guys and my friend finds this insulting. Of the reasons I wouldn't want to date Asian guys are: they're chauvinistic, uncaring, lazy, not independent, weak willed, selfish, etc... (As he had pointed out, they are the negative traits exibited by the male figures of my life but does not represent the whole of Asian male). Intellectually, I think that he is right. However, just because he doesn't consider himself possive of these negative qualities, doesn't mean that the whole of Asian male (AKA Nebulous!Asian Male) does not.

I am of the belief that stereotyping, while carried to the extreme (aka racism) is wrong, has logical and meaningful reasons for existing. I'd almost classify stereotyping as common sense.

However, I can't help but question myself and all the other Asian females out there that maybe I am/we are being closed minded. (One point being that we are influenced by main stream cinema to prefer caucasian standard of beauty

Though as I pointed to my friend, the existence of this stereonegativity against Asian men also calls for them to evaulate themselves in term of personal, emotional relationship, etc.

Fall 2004 Finito!!!

2004-12-15T14:33:00.000-05:00

Yay, I've survived!!!! Finals, 4 NSF essay, and 3 grad school application. Take that!!! Trust me, 2 week time is aplenty enought to accompolish all this!

Nothing interesting is happening. Atlanta is decently cold, enough that I don't want to get out of bed every morning anyway.

Apparently one can build a crude motion detector by having a transmitter and receiver antenna. None of this laser crap that one has to go through to trigger the alarm. What it is is that objects in the environment all cause multipath fading. So when something is moving somewhere, you get a distinct movement on the fading profile. Also, you can vary the frequency to detect large or small object/movement. I think this is very cool esp since you can't see radio propagation and it would be easy to hide transmitter and receiver antennas.

Break is good, but 3 days into it, it's already kind of boring.

Poem

2004-11-18T21:17:00.000-05:00

Wow, I was so annoyed by these new glasses that I was inspired to write this poem over lunch. My muse sang to me...sang

Upon getting new glasses
I see
the world utterly different than before.
Everything stands out
in high contrast
in complete relief
SHARP
like a knife, my vision now
CUT
through my consciousness.
Everything clear and
brittle color
crisp shapes.
I can tell all.
Upon getting new glasses
I see
the world utterly different than before.
Why should I miss my old pair of lens?

Dragon Con photos

2004-10-05T21:03:00.000-04:00

Sheesh...after like a month, I finally found the time to resize my Dragon Con photos and find a free image hosting place. Here's hope that it works!

Coolest table ever!!!

Edward Scissorhand and I

Never meet nicer stormtroopers you'd want to bring home to your mother.

Master Chief (HALO) has a very big head. It's very hot and stuffy in that helmet as you'd imagine.

Neon halo rules!!!

That's me and Ray Park. He was Darth Maul in Star Wars Episode I. Such a nice friendy guy who didn't charge us for photos! *YAY*

Isn't the person who took the photo the best photographer ever!?!?! It was me!

This guy had the best Jack Sparrow costume complete with fake gold teeth and swagger!

I think I freaked the freaks out with my Asian, glass-wearing, anime otaku routine!

Rain and MORE rain

2004-09-16T20:39:00.000-04:00

Ivan and chums are currently going through the Southeast like knife through melted butter. I guess nature is still something fearsome for man to be weary of. Best to other states. It's just rain, rain, and more rain in Atlanta thus far.

Let see, what have I been up to. School...test...so much stuff to do and not enough time to care! I attended Dragon Con (Southeast's premier SciFi and Fantasy convention) earlier this month. Had a GREAT time but then I caught a cold that lasted for all of last week and had to do makeup stuff all of this week. But yeah, Dragon Con was cool. One doesn't know the meaning of fan until one has seen normal looking people (well, kinda :) dressed up as the Flash, Dr.Octapus, Edward Scissorhand, Stormtroopers, Master Chief, etc... Yeah, there were alot of stormtroopers!!! Enough for those people to fight a small battle.

I ended up with a couple of things, some books, an autograph of David Caradine, and signed comic from Mark Schultz. It's a weird feeling to realize that you're actually in the prescence of someone who's work you adored so much...I mean, before then, all the authors and artists are just like disembodied voices you know. One never really makes the connection between creator and the actual medium.

That's all, right now. Stay Dry!

The Grill, AKA school

2004-08-29T13:29:00.000-04:00

Where is this mysterious free time I'm suppose to have with 4 classes? I'm studying like mad for the GRE vocab right now. 2 chaps a day means that I should be done with my little book by mid-Sept...plus the math section, writing, LSAT??? And I have to worry about thinking up a project for the NSF, and grad school application, can't forget about that.
Japanese is very very cool. I guess I could technically sound out all the Hiragana section of the manga without understanding what ever the heck it all means. The only thing I've really learned is that Japanese are weird. But then we all know that to begin with. For example, at the end of class, the sensei (teacher) would say Sayoonara whereas the student would say Shitsureishimasu, which basically means sorry for taking up your time. SORRY!?!?!?! Teachers should be apolgizing to me for wasting the best years of my life with they're silly drivel!!!!!
Next weekend is DragonCon Yay!!!! But I'm also annoyed that I won't have a weekend free. I've been looking forward to free times to buy stuff and keeping in touch with people. So far, all I have to show is a wasted SGA weekend and yesterday, where I spent 3 hours buying 8 pieces of clothe. Is it scary if I say that there is actually a pink skirt that I wanted to buy???
SGA (student government) is a very different experience for me. I.e. being all caring about your school and environment and things. Our first meeting was 3 hours spent appointing Secretary, etc. and allocating $10,000 for a bill that we all know was going to pass. Heavy clounds weigh in the future for any free time on Tues night for June. Alas, I have more to say but must do Telecomm hw.
Sorry, also do not have time to proofread all this ~.~

Currently reading: The Mating Season (really, its not how it sounds)
Listening to: L'arc En Ciel (no really, Hyde has a good singing voice, really)

School Seriously Cut Into Free Time

2004-08-17T08:54:00.000-04:00

It's that time of the year again, kiddies!!! Let's just say that Tech faculties are eager beaver at starting the year with a running start. I'm kinda dissatissfied with 2 of my classes (Intro to DSP and Antenna Engineering) and can't decide which one is the lesser evil. I'll prob drop them both....
My apt is okay, but I think the AC vent is broken. It's very humid and musty inside and I have to open the window except the fly shield is broken and I have this major ant problem.
The apartment on my side has some serious bass and I had to complain to the CA on this floor to get them to stop. It's funny cause I was trying to find the source of the bass and was walking down the hall with my CA when the girl who live opposite to the bass people came out. We ask her if she can tell if the bass is coming from the room across her. She said something like, 'the guys there watches Star Wars, they wouldn't do that...' When did Star Wars fan and good audio system become mutually exclusive to one another?
I think this is just another misconception the greater population has toward us geeks :) We (the ones who can afford it anyway) get the best gears. And since 98% of the adult population has seen Star Wars, are we all geeks?

Home Again, Home Again

2004-08-09T12:29:00.000-04:00

Yay! +90 temperature and 26400 bps dial up service. Why oh why??? Plus my public library has this stupid filter thing on the internet that prevents proper viewing of Javascript websites (i.e. my GT e-mail). Gahhhhh!!!!! 1 week, and its back to school. Isn't life ironic?

I GoogleWhacked!?

2004-08-04T10:07:00.000-04:00

Check out:
D55342 datasheet

Exactly 1 hit baby! Uh, it's not really 2 words but D5542 is a well known spec so its almost like a proper noun :)

Presentation Faux Pas

2004-08-04T08:11:00.000-04:00

Ahh...what can I say, the stars were apparently not aligned yesterday. First off, I had my presentation on 3 different medium: floppy, special format RW CD, and the web. I think, NASA's fairly technical, they must have lots of equiment in conference room. And what did the conference room end up having kids: a iMac!
WTF!!!! Of course, the floppy wouldn't work, the special IBM formated CD wouldn't work, and the damn thing wasn't connected to the Web!!! AHHHHHHH!

Long story short, I had to wait out of turn. Not a good start but I did go. So I was going, and going, and going. And the head of the main division suddenly popped out a technical question about GPS receiver and high altitude. I was FREAKED!! So I told him I didn't know and went right on my presentation. At the time, I was only pissed that I didn't know the answer to the question. It was only after the presentation when my friends were like, 'Dude, you told him off!' Which was so not my intention! that I realized my faux pas. And after that, I gave terrible answers to all the questions cause I was feeling extremely prickly and defensive.

I could live with my technical inadequency but not being rude... But apparently, it wasn't that bad. Alot of people tells me that it was normal cause he interrupted me in mid-thought and that I was very focused on giving the presentation. The other thing to have done if I didn't know the answer was to say that then pause and see if he'll respond...but I didn't.

And in retrospect, the question was overly vague anyway.

But apparently from people who knows, this sort of things (Murphy and Qs)happens all the time in technical presentation. In fact, people will specifically try to make an idiot out of you. The standard answer would be, "I'm sorry I don't know the answer. I could find out and get back to you."

But I think, the ultimate fault is still my own because I didn't really have the correct atitude this summer and for the presentation. I've been complaining so much of how I dislike my work that I never really focused very much on it. I am ashamed :(

And a wiser and better June will hopefully rise from all this-->if only I could find out what I want to do with my life.

Stomach Aflutter

2004-08-03T12:43:00.000-04:00

Presentation today at 3PM. Yuck! I don't mind giving it, its the waiting for part that I hate the most. Palms sweating.

Lesson in Humility

2004-08-02T08:12:00.000-04:00

I'd like to apologize to the world at large for my facetious tone regarding J-rock in general and the band l'arc en ciel in particular.

It's never a good thing to make fun of something, kids. Something always comes and bits in the rear in the end. So yeah, I started listening to some of their music and its...hmm, its actually pretty good. In fact, they kinda wrote some of my favorite anime themes. Anyway, long story short, Friday (7/31), 3pm in the afternoon, I found out that l'arc en ciel is getting ready for their first ever US tour after being on hiatus for a year or so. Jap bands touring US, most likely in California I say to self. Here's the venue: 8/1 5PM in Baltimore for the Otakon Anime Convention.

Self: I am currently residing in Maryland DC area for possibly my last summer ever
Self: I am a fan of anime and even *shudders?* the band
Self: Baltimore is within viable Taxi distance from here
Self: It's on a Sat.

Anti-self: I found out too late about the convention and the pre-registration is closed.
Anti-self: It's way too spontaneous for me to pay $50 for taxi and try to buy ticket there
Anti-self: I don't even know where the heck it is in Baltimore.

So, I didn't/couldn't go. But I moped to anyone who will listen for the entire Friday night and part of Sat. The lesson of the day:Never, ever, ever use a tongue in cheek tone, reality has a way to transmogrify that simple innocent tongue into a snake that will bite you really hard in the end. Ehh, that didn't make too much sense.

P.S. Does it creep anyone else out that snakes swallow their prey whole (fur, feather, and teeth) while the prey might conceivably still be alive?

Appeal of Androgyny

2004-07-30T08:51:00.000-04:00

I feel like my blog vacillate from vacuous to almost meaningful discussion. If you can't tell from the title of this one...while, lets just say that it is definately of the former nature and you're more than welcome to skip.

If you have never heard of the J-Rock phenomenon, then you're a)A Western devil :P, b)Not a girl, or c)Been living under the rock.

J-Rock is Japanese Rock essentially (boy bands most of the itme). In a nut shell, its usually a bunch of skinny Japanese boys dressed like 80s glam rocker crooning out songs about lost love and whatnot to a tune more suitable for Metallica or Manson in broken English and Japanese. Well, they could be more mellow I guess. You can find more info from people who actually like this type of music here.

But the mass appeal of J-rock bands, fortunately (or unfortunately) is in the mass of crossdressing members and the "pretty" faces. One of the more popular bands last millenium was called L'arc~En~Ciel (Arc in Sky). They made a alot of hit songs but I couldn't name them or anything. But my interest in them at the moment, is solely in the vocalist, Hyde. Here is a picture of Hyde.

Well, the more cynical of us immediately think of 10 layer makeup and false lashes, go browse the other pictures. He looks just as girly in the rest of them. The thing is, J-rock is actually a very popular, almost global phenomenon among teen girls. You can find French blogs on the web that squee in French. It's weird. And I oddly enough, actually likes looking at him as well. So the question on the mind is, WHY?

Why would straight (or bi~.~) teenage girls be attracted to such an androgynous man? Are boys around that age attracted to equally androgynous woman? Not likely (or atleast, not as likely to be so opened about it). Is it some sort of brain chemistry difference between boys and girls? Or is it an artifical preference made more visible by the unequal treatment of male and females (heehee, feminism can be applied to anything).

One could say that while an androgynous man can publicize his face and be adored for it, an equally androgynous woman will be shuned because femininity has always been associated by society with appearence and "prettiness"; therefore, only the physical appearence of the man is judged leaving the internal personality unscathed. Whereas, the male, is judged on a more holistically. Thereupon, an androgynous woman will not only be judged by her appearence but assumptions will be made concerning her character "deviances" as well.

Or, maybe everyone knows that women are better than men and that its a good thing to look more like a woman. :p

FYI, Hyde is married and I'm over my 10,000 words limit! That' 10,000 of absolute drivel baby! *YAY!!!*

Overblown, Inflated, Bombastic, Grandiloquent Language

2004-07-29T08:24:00.000-04:00

Right when 9/11 happened, I read a very interesting editorial in the New York Times about how the media has basically cornered the market on adjectives to describe the horrific event. It kinda goes on to criticize the usage of language because we tend to use inflated words to denote average events so that there are really no words left to convey the emotional ramifications of things that are out of the ordinary.
I confess, I have not been following up on the Democratic National Convention (yes, its happening this week ;) on TV like an "intelligent" voter, but just from looking at the news headlines, I don't think I'm missing much except personal demeanor/charisma.

Open up the web browser to MSNBC, large window, nice and centered: "Edwards Proclaim 'Politics of Hope'" Okay, Politics of Hope, and what has the Republican been sprouting about the last 4 yeas, the Politics of Despair??? What the fuck is a Politics of Hope? This is the exact waxy lyrical language I expect from my poets, not my politician. And I'm sure the Republicans will be no better in Sept...

But Edwards, how can you say this line with a straight face: "you — the American people — you can reject the tired, old, hateful, negative, politics of the past. And instead, you can embrace the politics of hope, the politics of what’s possible because this is America, where everything is possible.” I'm sorry, I didn't know that Republican and Democrat polsci/pubpol degrees meant different things. It would make a more truthful statement if he added, "...possible, if you have money, lots of it. But we[democrats] are working on that, during our lunch hours."

But ultimately, its not the content that I object to, but the language they use. Languages which are vague, flowery, and definitely sound damn nice, but couldn't stack up to a 5 minute cross examination in the court room. I want candidates to give speeches that are intelligent but not littered with farcical expressions. I want to hear their language, not their expression. I want eloquence with content, not Hollywood tear-jerkers, I'm-a-phrase-straight-out-of-Independent-Day.

Or maybe I'm rationalizing for not watching the convention. My 2 cents.

Globalization...Good

2004-07-28T11:39:00.000-04:00

Had argument with friend over the effects of globalization with me starchly in the camp that although there are bad effects, globalization is generally a good and welcome-y thing. But I'm too tired for philosophical/political discussion. Anyhoo, due to utter mind-numbing bordem, I've gotten quiet adapt at surfing the internet for movie reviews and what not to fill in the hours.

Here is a little gem of a list of reviews done apparently by a Bulgarian national who write perfect english and has a penchant for Asian cinema. I ask you, is globalization not a great and wonderous thing?

I didn't even know that they made chinese films in the 70s ;) Who the hell is Ti Lung? And why am I so clueless on Chinese cinema?

While I don't agree with all his reviews, I did find some particularly striking. Although he is under the mistaken impression that Lord of the Rings is a great thing, he knows that 28 Days Later and Spider Man are utter crap.

The following had particularly scathing reviews that's quiet funny
Pearl Harbor
Fahrenheit 911

List of movies that I know want to see: Battle Royale, Blue Spring, Butterfly and Sword (have I seen it before?), Contempt, Days of Being Wild, Dersu Uzala, Dreams, Full Metal Yakuza, Ikaru, Memento Mori, The Mystery of Rampo, Red Beard, Swordsman II & III, The Talented Mr.Ripley, Tokyo Story, Ugetsu

Cold and Wet is My World

2004-07-28T08:24:00.000-04:00

It's been raining here, alot. There's pratically a flash flood warning on TV every night for somewhere in Maryland or other. It's really depressing to wake up to a grey and cloudy day cause I really wanted to stay in bed then instead of getting up and get dressed for work.
I also have to prepare for this paper and presentation on what I did this summer and I'm not looking forward to doing them cause I feel like I didn't really do much these past weeks. It's more like, they tell me to do this, I do it. Then I go do something else when no bother is around to explain things to me. It was really, really fustrating.
Other the other hand, I've amassed some useless WWII POW trivia and a long list of movies and books I want to check out when I get back home and have my glorious 1 week break. I wonder if this is what working is really like: this daily struggle to get to the next day so I could come in, check e-mail, go to lunch, go home, watch TV. It's really discouraging. I miss the endless things to do when I'm in school! When I couldn't afford to take 2 hr lunch or lounge in front of the TV for 4 hrs a night or something!! And there is always something to learn or study for for class!!! So then it really all comes down to if I'm really suited for engineering. I want to say yes because I've spent the last 3 years of my life studying for it and its kinda cool... in the sense that I'm learning something new. But do I really want to apply all that or know how to apply it?

I like drawing and stuff cause its something that I can do and come out with a product. But engineering? I can't "engineer" anything by myself. It's not like I could build my own cell phone or router or anything. So I'm feeling kinda "powerless" and unable to compete. Computer programming is different because that's a skill that you can take with you and do in your spare time (if you really like that kind of stuff). But no one (hopefully) does RF circuit design in their spare time.

Want to see all the movie with this actor:Ryuhei Matsuda

It Doesn't Rot the Mind

2004-07-26T08:38:00.000-04:00

Quiet frankly, there's not much to do here in College Park without a car. I had a friend come over from Baltimore. Believe me, we tried to get to a theater, but it was so much trouble. So I think it's quiet understandable that I am spending a good deal of time infront of the TV this summer (to make up for all my TV deprivacy during school).

I like (eh, ok love?) my roommates. They're nice gals, mistaken about their rice (2 of them), but nice. However, the one thing that is kinda difficult about having to share 1 TV among 3-4 ppl is what programme to watch. So due to roommie influence, I've been watching channels/things that I would not touch with a pole usually, namely VH1, E!, and 1 episode of Outback Jack... Remember, still loving? roommates here. But the scary thing is, over the summer, I've grown accustomed to the celebrity gossips and the pop culture humor/reference. It's like crack I tell you, crack!

Thank God for public television!!!! No matter that I now tend to automatically tune to VH1 for shows, I can be shown the path of light. Ladies and Gents, I am raving about PBS' Mystery Theater. Namely, a superb British (are there any other :) mystery programme called Foyle's War (part 2)! The show takes place at the beginning of WWII in southern England. The titular detective character is named Foyle. I was as skeptic as one of the characters in the first ep: who investigates murder during a time of war? But it's more than that! Of the 2 eps that I've seen, the first one deals with an American commiting the murder but they couldn't prosecute him because of his contribution in helping England secure American ships. The second ep I saw last night invovles a petroleum racket. It's amazing how well-written the show is and how well acted.

Hey, I love the main female lead. She's a strong, capable woman without exuding any cheap sexuality vibes that male-heavy shows tend to write for female characters. When I finished the 1.5 hr viewing, I can see the light again. It's not that channels like VH1 and E! is not entertaining to watch, but it lack the poignancy, the sophistication, and intenisty of drama.

Of Being Envious

2004-07-23T08:25:00.000-04:00

I pride myself on being fairly honest to myself about myself. There are 2 particular qualities I don't like to see in myself: apathy and envy.

It's the second qualitiy which I want to touch on. I think that there is a difference between jealousy and envy. Jealousy is a much stronger emotion for one and to me, it implies an active emotion. If one is jealous, one is likely to do something. Envy on the other hand, I think it's a passive emotion. One is clearly desirous of someone else's situation for whatever reason because (this is important) one is dissatisfied with one's own state for whatever reason; a dissatisfaction that could easily be remedied by the other person's position.

Invariably like all people. I would feel the touch of envy and it is often very hard to squash such a thought. I hate feeling it because it reflects my dissatisfaction with my life, which I don't really have any reason to do so. I'd like to think that when everything balanced out, I was lucky in the grand scheme of things but its rather hard to do that sometimes especially when the short term future looks rather abysmal. Maybe envy stems from an overly competitive nature which coupled with a sense of self-inadequancy catches us at our most vulnerable times.

One thing that really gets me is when people are apologetic about their own good fortune. It sort of put a clinker on any sort of righeous envy trip I feel its my right to embark on when I hear about such good fortunes. Maybe I am being petty, not an unreasonable self-characterization since I'm not perfect (YET ~>~)

Do I get brownie points for sharing this with everyone? :)

35th Anniversary of Apollo 11 (Attempt Deux)

2004-07-22T15:02:00.000-04:00

Thanks Zoia! I think I've calmed down enough to try again on this piece of---

Anyhoo, I ended up going with a friend who got invited to the 35th anniversary of Apollo 11, the first manned mission to moon, at the National Air and Space Museum on July 20. Another long story short since I'm still annoyed enough to forgo any witty comments, we got into the IMAX theather to hear the 3 original crew of Apollo 11 (Armstrong, Collins, and Aldrin) speak. Armstrong and Aldrin got to walk on the moon. Collins was in space waiting to pick them up, hence the lack of mythical press surrounding him

Aldrin gave the best speech but he praised Bush's new Space Initiative:Earth, Moon, Mars, Beyond, a bit too much for me. Let's go back to the moon, yay, the place we were 35 years ago! He joked (maybe)about carrying a black notebook where he would write down what everyone was doing July 20, 1969. Collins' speech was really short. Basically he talked about how we should take care of Earth first before space and that our ocean is getting too polluted. Armstrong though, he of the famous catchphrase, was kinda boring. He basically delivered the expected speech about exploration, importance of space, etc.

It was a pretty cool night though! I got to breath the same room air as Armstrong!!!

But Bush's space initiative. I'd kinda like to see a real gungho attitude at exploring further, not, let's go back there again! What good would that do? Maybe this time we'll pick up the trash we left up there in the last millenium!

So yeah... this sucked as a recount. SAVE YOUR DRAFTS OFTEN!!!!

Count down to Atlanta: 16-ish days

35th Anniversary of Apollo 11

2004-07-22T08:24:00.000-04:00

Ahhh!!!!! I am so pissed off!!! I just spent the past 30 minutes typing up my recount and the stupid blogger lost it all when the stupid web server got an error return!!!!
Damn it!!

"Worst Humanitarian Crisis in the World"!

2004-07-20T08:32:00.000-04:00

What the heck is wrong with this world? Read this article on the atrocities in Dafur.
http://www.egypttoday.com/arttemplate.asp?ArtID=6&IssueNo=07&IssueYear=04&MagID=ET

I'm fairly cynical and accepted of the general evils that plagues the world of men but I'm so pissed off at the inhumane treatment of women depicted in this article! What make these people think they could do this to other people, especially girls and women?

Gaaaaah!

Why Don't They Speak the Same Language as Us?

2004-07-19T14:37:00.000-04:00

Okay, here's me, your typically Type A personality, high strung Asian and I'm like kinda worried about graduate school. So I'm surfing on the Web at all these prospective schools and finds a program (unnamed) at a decent university (unnamed) that I'm interested in. I dig a bit deeper and dug out an interesting research group (unnamed) doing something that I think is cool. So after about a week of angst, parents, and asking another professor (unnamed) for advice, I finally composed an e-mail to this professor (unnamed), whom I want to work with a year from now, that I think might put me in his/her good grace.

Then I get a reply back the same day that's about 5 lines long. It runs around the line of here's the website to apply to our school (unnamed). And I go, Duh!, I already know this. This link to this site that I already know is not worth the week long angst fest. I had kinda expected a longer than 5 minute thought process to take place and a bit more info on what I could be doing. So I e-mailed my advice!Professor (unnamed) about the relevancy of the message cause I thought it was something like a blanket statement much like xeroxed signatures that everyone hands out, and what to do next in my little stalker spree. The e-mail I got back from him/her rans along the line of something like that was a good reply (2 line).

*ORO!!!!!* Are they (unnamed) reading things into 5 line messages that I'm simply not getting? Cause I'm thinking that neither are telling me the thing that I really want to know. Namely, what do I do next? Should I keep hounding the research!Professor (unnamed) or what? Can anyone else see how this kind of vagueness is destroying the fabric of our society?

Techie Ice Breakers

2004-07-19T09:09:00.000-04:00

It never cease to amaze me that although Techies (Self Included) are well-known as a bunch of introverted, possibly Schizoid bipeds, we always seem to be inventing technologies which facilliate communication with strangers. For example, telephone, e-mail, online messenger, blogs :). Latest idea riding on the growing popularity of mobile phones is bluejacking. Yes, some resourceful journalist have coined the term for communicating (i.e. pinging) strange mobile phones via BlueTooth, the headache of many a BestBuy/Circuit City shoppers. So basically, Techies have found yet another way to create technologies for extroverted people who aren't too shy (read delusional) about their appearence/personality to try to hook up with the girl/guy across the train platform.

Yay!!! Why not another device for the inner-stalker in you?!?! In all seriousness, for some strange sort of self-masochism, I adore wireless communication technology (though still not a cell phone owner, YET). What worries me is the future of the bluejacking technology. Apparently there has been several success attempts to spread benign (FOR NOW, MHAHAHAHAH) virus from cell phone to cell phone via bluejacking. Curse you, digital technology and your easy to manipulate binary sequences!!!!

I'm afraid that the backlash of such news would make people afraid to use the technology before it has been truly accepted. Then where would we be? We'd actually have to be in the visual scope of the person we are trying to talk to! Although in all seriousness, when was the last time any of us used all these wonderous "annoymous" technologies to broaden our social circle? I can't remember the last time I AIMed a stranger (course I'm online an average 2 minute/year). I think that all these technologies doesn't make us "better" communicators. It just makes it easier for us to annoy our same circle of friends incessantly ~.~

For those who are interested, here's a link to ettiquette of bluejacking+infos http://www.bluejackq.com/codeofethics.asp

P.S. Bluejacking. Blue as in BlueTooth. Jacking as in Hijacking. Hey, advertising that's actually true!

The Nature of Our Folly, the Folly of Our Nature

2004-07-16T08:06:00.000-04:00

Caught a MPTV programme Niagara Falls last night. How I've miss thee, public television--curse you DIRECTV!

Apparently, the falls' water is so powerful that it eats away the crest of the falls over a period of time. Today's Niagara Fall had began 7 miles downstream and given 10,000-ish years, the fall will eat its way to Lake Erie in which case, it will cease to exist. Also, the more traditiona/spectacular view of the Fall is on the Canadian side rather than the American side. The commentator talked about the treatment of each side as being reflective of the country. The Canadian side is more manuicured and cared for and is the center for a bursting tourist trade. The American side on the other hand, is sloppy and doted with electric generators and industry. His theory was that the Niagara Fall is truly the "front door" to Canada and therefore is treated with respect whereas Americans, used to the idea of America as a endless land from sea to shining sea,is threatened by the barrier posed by the Niagara Fall. When they were talking about the natural attraction people has to the fall, I was reminded of American Gods by Neil Gaiman. There was one scene in which it was explained to the main character there there are location in nature, other than churches, which are natural "worship" spots and that people are drawn to them with little to no explanation. A waterfall its just alot of water going over a cliff after all!

The more fascinating part of the programme I found was how people have ultilized the fall over the years. The first AC power plant was designed and built by Nikola Tesla to use the hydroelectric power of the fall. The story goes that when Tesla was 8, he saw a picture of the Niagara Fall in a book and concluded that he wants to harness the power of the fall. Anyhoo, cheap power from the fall (on the American side anyway) means a boom in factory building. The US had went so far as to temporary stop the fall to see if the water can be diverted or something. But apparently, the cliff of the fall was too fragile to dynamite so they had to reflow the water.

Because cheap energy and booming tourism is attractive for national governments, the US and Canada have signed agreements to try to stop the erosion of the Niagara Fall by limiting the amount of water. During the day time, only 50% of the actual water available flows down Niagara Fall, the rest are diverted to hydroelectric turbines on both side of the fall. At night, when there are no tourist, only 25% of the water flows down the fall. This way, erosion of the Niagara Fall can be kept to can be kept to a couple of feet per decade.

I'm an engineer and I usually say, if it can be built, let it be built. But I thought controlling a waterfall like this is a bit too extreme. It's amazing to me the level of technical achievement that man has attained, but it also scares me a bit as well. I wonder if environmental groups had made a big stink about this. It's diverting waterfalls in the 20th century and planetary shaping in the 30th! Why are man so keen to discover technologies to re-shape nature to our design? Furthemore, it only seems to be particular group of man. Native American didn't go try to build electric plants around the fall. It was said that when the first European behold the fall, they were terrified of the wildness and seemly untamed nature of the Niagara Fall. All that power must have been an irrestible allure for European engineers to try to harness for themseleves. I guess nobody thought that it was better to leave it to itself.

Secret Agent Man

2004-07-15T14:51:00.000-04:00

Most people I know have a fascination with the espionage world. I, myself, am a devoted follower of the Original!Bond, Man from UNCLE, and even Mission Impossible I. However, I have enough common sense to know that the "real" world of spying includes a lot of useless data gathering, horrendous hrs pouring over said useless data, and drinking bad coffee much like overpaid and geekier cops. Not so, apparently. In the news currently, it seems that New Zealand have imposed political sanction on Israel after discovering two Mossad agent (allegedly) were caught trying to obtain illegal New Zealand passports? *Oro? You mean spies actually try to sneak into friendly territory on passports they have to steal for themselves? Coo!*

Everyone knows of CIA, MI6, and KGB. But apparently, the Israeli Intelligence service, Ha-Mossad le-Modiin ule-Tafkidim Meyuhadim (known as Mossad), should be feared (and fascinated) as well, much like the fabled Israeli mafia?!?!

Mossad has been known to conduct assassinations using fake Canadian and Jordan passports. Thererein lies the danger of being known as a "friendly, polite" country. Gun, what gun, he's Canadian, there is nothing to fear! Mossad has also been responsible for various retributions against Nazi, assassination of German politician plus terrorist leaders, and kidnapping.

So yeah, they're a valid secret agency in my book. At a time when the CIA and MI6 are riddled with criticism of inefficiency and ineptitude, the KGB seeming like a big fluffy kitten compared to their former Cold War self, Mossad is the espionage service that is providing the back plot to many an amateur attempts at Tom Clancy.

Byproduct of Popular Culture

2004-07-14T12:55:00.000-04:00

Life pretty much on hiatus right now. Work=inane, sleep=much lacking, future=headache. Do I worry too much about my future? My mom tells me I'm "thinking" too much. I just want to be prepared. Why do I always have a nagging doubt that I made a wrong turn or something somewhere back? I contribute it to inherent Asian-ness and a high-stress type-A personality.

Most exciting thing in life right now is VH1's "I Love the 90s"--> me and roommate are addicts. I didn't think I'm a byproduct of American popular culture considering I didn't came to the US until 1992 and didn't understand english until a couple of years after. But sure enough, I can relate to "Silence of the Lamb", the "Barney" craze, the "X-file" craze, the "Power Ranger" mistake, "Vanilla Ice", "Where's Waldo", "Nirvana". But I don't relate to the "snap-on brancelet" at all, 'k. Masochistic, not trendy!

I guess there is no way to dodge popular culture except living under a rock regardless of how much I want to think of myself as an "independent-thinker", "bohemian", "artsy", "indie", etc. But its kinda weird to see a pop-culture analysis for the decade you grew up in cause they usually do this kind of things for the 60s, 70s, and 80s. And one watch it so one can laugh at the ridiculous fashion/hair style of all the people back then. I mean, I look at the flashback for 1990 have the same reaction as I would for a show for the 80s. Is a decade really such a long time?

I wouldn't have even considered that the 90s has its unique identity as all the other decade but seeing it lay out like that, I have to same that some pretty messed-up, pop-culturey kind of thing did came about in the 90s. I guess, people of my generation, we do have some sort of generation identity. Afterall, we saw the Gulf Conflicts, Clinton serve 2 terms, rise and fall of inlines and scotters, and utlimately voted (kind of ;) Bush into office.

Reducto Absurdum

2004-07-12T11:39:00.000-04:00

Was feeling a bit dry from the ole muse this morning. But work is still boring/inane/so incredibly complicated that I have no idea where the freaking box is so I/my creativity can be cooped up in it and never escape from my self-replicating conservatism forever and ever!!!

Then I came across this little gem in my aimless drift on the WWW.
Googlewhacking The most inane activity outside of trainspotting that I have ever heard. In case anyone is too lazy to actually read the article. Googlewhacking is trying to find a combination of two words which only result in one and only one search result from google. And its freaking hard! It's easy to try to come up with something that has no result or 10 million hits. Also, it prob. is frown upon to build a page of you own and fill it with nonsense words

Of the 2 "supposively" googlewhacked term that I have encountered: Hottentot Antigony and Succotash Galvanometer, both generates more than 1 hit since the act of reporting a googlewhack word on the web means that it will generate more than 1 hit from google--> Hence the absurdity of the excercise. Some of the more enlightened minded might argue that it is not the ultimate result but the quest that is the most fruitful...I say, so basically spending hrs and hrs looking at the computer in addition to the hrs and hrs already required for work to think up of a combination of words that very few number of people in the world (6 billion-ish) bother to address/write down is fulfilling?!?!!?!?!
Technology is not absurd, what people do with it is, and being neurotic is the result of reading about it!

That $100+ Pillow

2004-07-09T14:31:00.000-04:00

To tell the truth, I was kinda skeptical that such a pillow exist. But I have found it.

Premier Down Pillow
Premier White Goose Down
100% cotton down proof sateen piped cover
Size:- 19"*29" (48*74cm) Care Instructions:-
Daily plumping and regular airing will be
beneficial for lasting comfort
Dry Cleaning Professional only
Washing Hand Wash or Large Capacity Washing Machine
Spin-Dry and hot air tumble dry
Always ensure filling is completely dry

Price: £75.45 ($135.81) Including VAT at 17.5%

Hot Damn!!! What the hell are in these things! But they are very very soft and fluffy! Would you ever splurge that kind of moola for this pillow?

On Being Conservative and Politically Ill-informed

2004-07-09T08:25:00.000-04:00

I was going to write about materialism but someone *LOL* accused me of being conservative because I am politically ill-informed in his comment. I'm feeling defensive and want to play the Devil's Advocate a bit this morning. I know that I am politically ill-informed cause my studies tend to make me focus on things that happened decades ago. However, while a Political Science major might read more current news, I think they are more biased in their opinion than I am and therefore equally as dangerous to the democratic system as an ignorant person such as myself would be. Someone once told me that democracy works because it is the most inefficient political system ever (unlike authoritarianism which is very efficient); ignorance plays a large role in creating such an inefficient government system.

I was told to read this : "Congressional investigators said Wednesday that 15,000 children with psychiatric disorders were improperly incarcerated last year because no mental health services were available." Basically, Democratic Staff of the House (politically motivated) compiled this report about how many mentally-ill children are sent to detention centers instead of getting the help they need. I read it and was abhorred by it. Therefore, I completely disagree with my friend's next statement : "If you're a conservative, then you believe these kids belong in prisons rather than in places where they can receive mental health care."

That's not true. A conservative (if I am truly one?) would approach the problem like so: It is unfortunate that many mentally-ill children are sent to detention center due to a lack of publically available mental health institute. However, simply building more mental institute on tax money is an incomplete solution. Instead, the problem need to be attacked at the root. Why are there so many mentally-ill children in society? Surely most of them can not be due to physical brain damage but must be attributed to instable family structure, societal violence, lack of education, etc... Therefore, a more complete and permanent solution is to promote family stablity, education, and decrease crime. Of course, this would be an infinitely more daunting task than just build a couple of buildings and staffing it with people who don't really care--the quicker and easier solution as preferred by those who are used to the easier road in college (read liberal art) ^.^ *Sorry!!! Heeeee! I sound like postergirl! for Rep and Techies*

But having been through high school and puberty like everyone else, I can empathize (to a much lesser degree) the depression/fustration in these children. I think that basic Psychology class would help children in better understanding the source/reason for their anger. Basically, like most other Asian, I think that the root of society's woo is our lack of a solid education system for our youths; like most Techies, I think that rationalization is the order of the day!

Currently Listening To: Tatu (faux Lesbian Russian chicks)

How June is Seduced by the Dark Side

2004-07-06T13:05:00.000-04:00

Note: Really wish I had a digital point-shoot. I'm kinda bad at giving details about trip. All my writing gift went into bitterness and sacarsm

7/3, arrived at Oakland International Aiport at 9:15AM. Paid outrageous amount of money for 2 spoon-full of Chicken Noodle soup that was too hot and too salty for me to finish.
Waited outside to be pickd up in our rental car for 3 days. We're getting the lowest and cheapest of them all so I was expecting a Neon or Corella or really old Ford--until I got a first look at our pick.

2004 Chrysler Sebring convertible LX!!!

Squee, squee, squee! And that was when I knew that no matter how terrible CA turns out, I'll have some fun burning rubber! Apparently, Enterprise ran out of the Neon that we were suppose to getting and some guy was returning a convertible at the right place and time.

Ha! Did a quick driving tour of San Francisco. Wonderous! I have never seen so many houses packed like sardines outside of the National Geographics photo. Very hilly city which makes me glad that we're driving a rental and not my Mazada protege clunker which would probably make it half way up and decide to give up. Up hill means down hill as well and I got the same apprehension going downhill in a car as I would going down the peak in a rollercoaster :)
Drove down the windiest road in the US (I think). It's basically a hill so steep that they had to put several curves in so ppl don't slip down or something. Either that or a tourist trap. It wasn't really a "road" because it was one way only and paved with brick rather than asphalt.
My friend is currently renting a room in the Nicest Trailer Park I've ever seen . California is apprently not only the land where actors can become governors and expensive gas, but also a place in which only millionaires can afford houses much like us lowly middle-class enjoy out in the Southeast with a price tag of $500,000 and above or so. Therefore, mobile homes are the next best thing. Lets just say I've never seen so many Mustang, Lexus, and Corvette sitting in car ports before.

The rentlord is very nice. The attached pet dog (a terrier of some kind?), Webster, was an unpleasant surprise at first but one which I soon took to stride when he didn't try to jump on me to lick me in the face or something. Our mutual friendship became strained on Monday cause he started growling and pinned me down with a paw under his 30ish lb weigh--> I had been feeding him dried apple and I was eating one that day.

Day 2 consisted of driving the car down Highway 1 from San Jose down to Santa Clara. It was a BEAUTIFUL drive along the coast with the top down on the convertible. Let's just say that it was the first time I kinda got road rage cause someone was going to slow infront of me. My attempt at passing someone on a 2 lane road resulted in something which WE WILL NEVER EVER MENTION AGAIN . Stopped by random beach, tidal pool, and closed down light house. Picture will be provided soon.
Gasped at sights like tourist and I found my pet rock, whom I named Jerry.

Santa Clara (right?) was actually kinda boring. Apparently, contrary to popular belief, Downtown Santa Clara is actually a specific geographic point because we couldn't really find it. Also, it has the first coffee house I've been in that doesn't have a restroom. Boardwalk Santa Clara is like every boardwalk. Should anyone ever find themselves there, avoid the pink colored restaurant. Apparently, there is a good reason to avoid a restaurant on a boardwalk when its not jammed packed like everywhere else.

Day 3 I got to the closest I'll ever get to Stanford campus. *Snobs :p * They don't lock their bikes or anything. Just leave it on the sidewalk. Went to Fishermen's Wharf in San Francisco. I swear the weather channel said that it was 67F there that day. Took a boat ride to the bay. I had conveniently forgotten that I had white-water rafted before and therefore a trip around the bay should not be scary :\ But I quickly got my sea legs back. Went under the Golden Gate Bridge ($5 toll) and around Alcatraz (decommissioned).

Day 4 ChinaTown!!! There's like one main tourist street to Chinatown and the other streets that branch off it shall hence forth be known as "Hardcore ChinaTown". I'm afraid we couldn't eat in Hardcore ChinaTown because my chinese does not extend to reading pure chinese menu. I do anime Chinese, okay?!?! Didn't really get excited until I found a bookstore. Later went to the Cable Car museum. I'm so dis-illusioned now. Apparently, cable car works by being pulled by cables across the city. What do you mean it doesn't use electricity? How backward is that? *Hmmm... who knew Cable Car actually required the usage of cables*
Then I flew back to D.C. once again reminded how bloody big the US is. Although its faster to fly eastward cause of the airstream or something.

I'm afraid if my trip had taught me anything is that wealth is important because, damn it, that $100+ goose down pillow just feels better!

Day One (AKA spending the night at the airport)

2004-07-04T13:25:00.000-04:00

I had a 6:45AM flight out of Washington DC and I knew that I was going to be cheap and spend in the night at the airport by taking the Metro on Friday night. I prepped to the extent of borrowing blanket, pillow, tupperware, loaded up on CDs and books, and even searched on the web here and figured out the best and worst of Dulles airport.
In my usual efficient asian fashion, I caught the metro at 8:50ish and after two stops to change lines, arrived at West Fall Church (right after East Fall Church) to catch the Washington Flyer shuttle to Dulles. I was rewarded for my pre-planning by merely having to wait 10 minutes for the bus. As I approached Dulles aiport as the sole passenger on a 30 seat shuttle, I noticed the full, orangish, harvest moon looming on the cloudless sky. Cool I said to myself and forgo the useless impulse of wanting to take a photo of the damn thing with my Minolta (note Canons and Nikons would also be useless at this point because the moon is too dim and human light pollution is too much)
I managed to make it to the airport at 11PM, looking forward to spread myself on the carpeted ground of my departure gate for the next 7 or so hours. After much sign reading and dragging of suitcase, I found the check-in terminal, every station deserted like it was the day after doomsday. But no worry I said to myself, I have an e-ticket and therefore can forgo useless human attendent and have a one to one exchange with the kiosk. But I was rewarded for my kindly attitude toward the electronic ones by getting several slips saying that I could not check in and need to see a "human" attendent for help.

Doh!!!

So my ever resourceful self aimed straight for a payphone (note. cellular technology would have helped somewhat) and called Jetblue banking on the fact that their number is 1-800-JETBLUE. Apparently, I was informed, the check-in kiosk only allows for checking in 4 hrs prior to my actual flight. But I could have checked myself in at their websit 24 hrs prior. Is this an usual thing with check-ins? Was I the fool or was JetBlue using the really-fine-print-Jedi-mind-trick?
So I set afoot on the airport looking for an Internet access station and was rewarded for my good behavior by the kindly (read uptight) security lady that there are Internet stations at the departure gate but that I could not get to the departure gate because I could not get through security check without a boarding pass. Thank you Dulles for assuming that people arriving at airport and waiting around for late arrivals wouldn't want to use the Internet and thank you sacarsm and absurdity for keeping my life interesting!
I was stuck on the terminal side of the airport w/ hard floors and leather chairs that have unmovable metal bars specifically for the purpose of keeping people for sleeping on them. I spend my time until 2:30AM listening to music and reading. I did earn my keep by providing my fellow man (who was waiting for a friend from Atlanta) with laughter at my various antics to try to fall asleep.
The scene: me in chair with legs propped up on my carry on luggage covered with a white blanket liberally sprinkled with cutsy teddy bears clearly meant for the single digit age group, pillowed by an errily red jacket, 80s clip-on wore to reduce the glaring light and to hold up a piece of paper that reads "Please wake me up at 3AM" infront of my face for maximum attention getting and maximum derision. I was told that people looked at me funny. But that scheme ultimately failed because I didn't like breathing through paper.

Fast forward to 3AM, got my boarding pass. Was informed by helpful security people again that shuttles between the main airport to departure gates do not run at night. So the name, Dulles International Aiport, is just euphemisim for Dulles US Eastern Time Airport. I couldn't care less because anything was better than sitting there listening to music and try to fall asleep. Therefore, I went through the shortest security check ever at 3AM and into the unknown.
Note future traveller, Dulles has a really nice shuttle waiting area past the security gate. There is carpeted floor!! Horray! I said and spread out my teddy bear blanket on the ground and cat-napped until 4AM when the shuttles start running for airport personnels.
I arrived at my departure gate to find it carpeted for napping pleasure. And 20 feets away are the elusive paid Internet access terminals! Things went smoothing from there until boarding.

The Flying: JetBlue is cheap, JetBlue has gray leather seats and maybe extra leg rooms that I didn't really need (5.5 okay!), and JetBlue has DirectTV with 25 channels but not BBCA for every seat. JetBlue however, didn't have an empty seat on the plane nor a policy that kids under 10 need not fly JetBlue because they can fly cheap elsewhere anyway. It was those 6ish hours on the plane that I realized what a freaking giagantic country the US is. Nothing is more dishartening to know that you're flying at about 500 MPH but it still takes hrs to fly across Nebraska. But the flying was very smooth and we actually arrived 5 minutes earlier than predicted (when has this every happened?). So yes, I would recommend JetBlue for any future traveller.

Total sleep accumulated in process: 4 hr at 45% comfort level

I'll save my reaction for CA and subsequent happenings for a later post. But for advertising sake, I'll title this trip as "How June is Seduced by the Dark Silicon Valley Technocrat Side of Living (AKA Money)"

Happy July 4th!!!

The End of It All

2004-07-02T14:03:00.000-04:00

My co-worker for my summer internship who is only 25 just bought a house in the area with his girfriend. See the scene, a bunch of engineers ranging from mid-20s to 30s gathering around to talk about cabinets, homeowner association, and (God forbid!) lawn care!
What ever happened to the carefree youth? What kind of society is it that people in their mid-20s need to be concerned about property values and equity?
Financially, I know that buying a house makes more sense than renting. However, from my perspective, it is the first step in admitting one's public responsiblity to society as an ADULT. Yes, it might be easy to sell. Yes, it will accrue value. But when should 20-something years old worry about their financial status 30 years down the road?
I'm hardly the most well-travelled person I know. But even my imagination can supply me with an aerial view of Australia, backpacking across the Alps, and the majastic calmness of the Serengeti Plain: perspective changing, self-rediscoverying journeys rather than a quick weekend get away.
Shouldn't being in your 20s mean an additional decade of semi-irresponsiblity and trying to fit yourself into society's context rather than balancing your profolios?

What the Kids are Watching Now

2004-07-02T08:54:00.000-04:00

Though I am in the 2nd decade of my life, I profess that I still watch cartoons on regular basis and not just anime, but cartoons like those that run on Fox and Cartoon Network. Cartoon, contrary to popular belief, can be a valid literary expression of reality through a medium in which reality need not necessarily be taken into account. I think the success of anime is because it is hyper-reality (e.g. deformed human figure, superpower) that enable people to relate their lives to those they see on the screen. Why are anime characters always so freaking young and superpowerful? Because their target audience are teens and young adults and seeing people their own age group duking it out with giant robots is empowering. Younger people relate to it because it reinforces for them their perception of empowerment being equivalent to growing up. Older people watch it to relate to a time that has past for them.

American cartoons such as Loony Toon, Scrooby Doo, Courage the Cowardly Dog, came into existence however, purely as a source of comedy. While it might provide equal or more amusement than the aforementioned hyper-realistic cartoon, it does not seek to establish a referential bridge between the audience and its universe. Certain American cartoons however, has crossed into the hyper-realistic theme. One of my favorite show currently on Cartoon Network is Code Name Kids Next Door. In the show, children are the protagonists defending the world from adults and teenagers. I found the show really interesting because I can't be sure whether the kids are daydreaming they're saving the world and we are seeing things from their perspective, or if that is the reality of their universe. Though injury and death does not exist in this fantasy world, the one fact that looms over every kid agent is that as soon as they turn 13, they will be fighting for the wrong (e.g. dark) side of teens and adults. It is an entertaining take on the complexity of growing up.

Despite popular beliefs, I don't begin my morning with cartoons now. But I do tend to flip to Cartoon Network when the news gets repetitive. So I caught my first 5 minutes of Transformer Energon this morning at 6:55. I was a fan of the original Transformer in the 80s in China. However, I could not get into any of the newer variation on the theme: BeastWars, Tranformer Armada, etc. But the 5 minutes I caught looked promising.
Here's a very bad recap: Megatron, leader of the Decepticon (BAD GUYS) decided to tie some hapless robot to the outside of his giant space ship to try to gain entry into a planet or something. Apparently, the hapless robot is friend to some robot/higher entity/planetary defense system (don't know and whose name I forgot). However, as the ship approaches the planetary defense system, we hear voices debating whether its worth it to save the hapless robot, thereby allowing the bad guys entrance or blowing them all up. The last scene is of the ship blowing up. This impressed me because it is exactly the kind of moral ambiguities that I'd like to see in cartoons more often: Blowing up friend to save the world, etc. However, because it is a "kid" cartoon, you can prob. bet that the hapless robot gets saved>> side note on Transformer, why would giant mechanical robots have teeth?
What comes after Energon however, its trash. It's called Rescue Heros and its a pile of rescued crap. It's one of those shows that you know the producers are looking/weighing each character based on their gender/ethinicity/etc so they can have a "well-balanced cast." Every line out of their mouth is some sort of dumb moral proselytizing or other. With names like "Jake Justice" and "Rocky Canyon",it's too embarrassing for me to watch but I bet 5-6 year olds who worship firemen (are there of them any anymore?) just eats it out. I'm afraid my greatest joy at seeing it(really boring news channel) is to pick out which one of the character is gay or alcoholic or something ~/~

So my whole point is, am I too bitter and complex now in my dotage to enjoy most cartoons anymore or is there something to the hyper-realistic scenario I propose in which skilled craftsmen can inject into cartoons to make them enjoyable to kids and adults?

My Bubble Expanding

2004-07-01T13:52:00.000-04:00

I'm the first person to admitt that I've lived a fairly ordinary (read sheltered) middle-middle class life. I feel that I am a better person now for knowing how TTY phone system works (phone using to talk to deaf people) :)

TTY (I couldn't resist the urge to google this) stands for Teletype. I believe there is actually a gray TTY terminal in my public library but I've never seen someone use it before.

Basically, the way it works, and I was explained this by the operator, is that the person on one end would type (there's a keyboard) what he/she wants to say, the operator would read the message to the other person. The other person would tell the operator what they want to say back and the operator would type it and the message would flash on the screen. I believe this would give a whole new meaning to the phrase "middle man":) I wasn't sure who to address or if I should preface everything I say with a "Would you please tell..."

Anyhoo, its different and its cool!

Tribute to Edwardian Fiction

2004-07-01T08:18:00.000-04:00

In dual reflection of my obession with Wodehouse and how inane work is right now, I actually googled in a search for 1920s slang .

It's interesting to see that some of the slang we uses actually originate from the 1920s like:

sap: a fool, an idiot
says you: a reaction of disbelief
What's eating you?: What's wrong?
crush: infatuation
doll: an attractive woman.
hard-boiled: tough, as in, a tough guy

Then there are ones whose meaning has been modified or taken on a different connotation:
bimbo: a tough guy--> How did this word manage a gender change within a century?
gigolo: dancing partner--> Prob same thing now with a more "flamboyant" connotation
screw: get lost, get out--> We have "Screw You", which is probably meant with a more painful intention to the directed party than to get lost

Lastly there are the slangs which are lost through the ages:

bushwa: a euphemism for "bullshit"--> The euphemism is need for?
Butt me.: I'll take a cigarette.--> I wish we still use this one :)
Bank's closed.: no kissing or making out ie. "Sorry, mac, bank's closed."--> Very gangster era
futz: a euphemism for "fuck." i.e. "Don't futz around."--> Another euphemism? People in the 20s were prudes
Jake: great--> Maybe the American Association of Jakes sued for copyright infringement
zozzled: drunk--> No idea
flivver: a Model T; after 1928, also could mean any broken down car--> I can see why this one died

One thing as you have noticed, 1920s people had a fair never of euphemism for cuss words which kinda defeats the purpose in my opinion. But we have words like "darn" so I guess every generation have people who's speech are more careful than others.

Another thing I noticed is that there tend to be more slang for girls than guys.

Girl (14):

baby vamp: an attractive or popular female, student
bug-eyed Betty (1927): an unattractive girl, student
chunk of lead: an unnattractive female, student
choice bit of calico: attractive female, student
dame: a female
doll: an attractive woman.
dumb Dora: an absolute idiot, a dumbbell, especially a woman
gold-digger (1925): a woman who pursues men for their money
Jane: any female
necker: a girl who wraps her arms around her boyfriend's neck.
sheba: one's girlfriend
skirt: an attractive female
tomato: a "ripe" female
vamp: (1) a seducer of men, an aggressive flirt (2) to seduce

Guy (10):

baby grand: heavily built man
big six: a strong man
bimbo: a tough guy
cake-eater: a lady's man
daddy: a young woman's boyfriend or lover, especially if he's rich
dewdropper: a young man who sleeps all day and doesn't have a job
drugstore cowboy: A well-dressed man who loiters in public areas trying to pick up women
Ethel: an effeminate male
lollygagger: (1) a young man who enjoys making out (2) an idle person
sheik: one's boyfriend

Does this mean that guys tend to use more slang than girls? Is this still true today or only a reflection of that era (I can't think of that many gender specific slang)? For instance, girls at that time were meant to have the appearance of breed and propriety. Has this changed due to the sexual revolution in the 1960s? Also, many more of the slang for girls tend to do with appearence whereas male slangs deal with his character and his industriousness. Is this another reflection of society's unequal treatment of male and female?

Lastly, why did some slang die out but others survive? Some, I think is due to the fact that the slang can only refer to that era. For example, flivver. However, I think that the lifetime of slang has to due with not only the number of people using it but also the different groups that is using it. Maybe slangs used almost exclusively by students tend to spread faster but have a shorter lifetime because students would graduate and move to a different social environement. Does the length of the slang, the pronounciation effect anything. Too long,fewer people would repeat. Too hard to pronounce for ppl with accent might also undermine the survive of a phrase.
And to the effect of ultimate geekness, can there be a mathematic function to describe the propagation rate and life time of slang like rumors :)

Not bad for 5 hr of sleep.

Count Down: 2 days!!!!

Ahhhhhh!

2004-06-30T14:45:00.000-04:00

Work is SO BORING!!!! I finally made some progress on my schematics but now everyone is too busy to look over my design. How the heck am I ever suppose to finish anything if nobody is here to approve/double check it. It's not like I could say, screw this I'm done, and go waste a couple thousand $s and hours. Who the heck ever said that work is suppose fun?

Current mood: EXTREMELY FUSTRATED

Nothing Meaningful, Nothing Gained

2004-06-30T08:09:00.000-04:00

I had meant to write something deep and meaningful about happiness and stuff, but it's too much for an early morning I thought. Okay, one thing.
Would you (AKA me) want to live a life that is full of struggles and stress but can allow you to reach or extend beyond your full potentials? Or would you want to live a life that is content, secure, and relatively stress free but only allows you the movement within a confined realm? Or are these terribly simplistic and superficial views of the world?

How much a geek am I.

2004-06-29T14:30:00.000-04:00

So yeah...me

You are 32% geek

You are a geek liaison, which means you go both ways. You can hang out with normal people or you can hang out with geeks which means you often have geeks as friends and/or have a job where you have to mediate between geeks and normal people. This is an important role and one of which you should be proud. In fact, you can make a good deal of money as a translator.

Normal: Tell our geek we need him to work this weekend.

You [to Geek]: We need more than that, Scotty. You'll have to stay until you can squeeze more outta them engines!

Geek [to You]: I'm givin' her all she's got, Captain, but we need more dilithium crystals!

You [to Normal]: He wants to know if he gets overtime.

Take the Polygeek Quiz at Thudfactor.com

Though I should probably add or subtract 2% from my score depending on your point of view because I did't know who the actress is and am offended that I ended up being a blond :) Oh yeah, and I can go through HTML tags to fix the spiffy
background color problem.

Promoting Literacy through Littering

2004-06-29T08:32:00.000-04:00

To my roommate's credit, I did discover a very cool book with a very cool organization associated with it when I was compelled, conscripted, constrained, contrived, enforced (etc.) to see F9/11 with her and Co :)
Anyhoo, I found Coraline by Neil Gaiman on the book shelf in a dingy little coffeeshop full of people who most likely didn't go to Tech when we were waiting for the movie. Imagine my surprise when someone told me that I am welcome to take the book out of the coffeeshop and read it at my pleasure. I had just "caught" a book released in the wild curtesy of BookCrossing
It's a very cool organization!!! See, you have this book that you finished reading. So instead of it gathering dust on the shelf for ages to come cause like most people, you don't tend to re-read books, or this particular book in this instance, you tag it with a BCID number you get from BookCrossing, paste a bunch of BookCrossing stickers on the book, and leave the book whenever the heck you want or think it has the best chance of surviving for a little while atleast. Then, the next lucky person(me!) who finds the book will go "Cool!", take the book for free, log onto the BookCrossing website, input the BCID and write a little journal entry about where the book had been, what one think of it, etc. Best idea ever!!! I got tons of required high school reading that's just filling up my room. Things like this makes me want to travel more and randomly leave books, much to the irritation of law enforcement people everymore I'm sure, at airports all the time ~.~

I think my serious quota for journal entry is up, so we'll go back to our regularly scheduled girly gushing now:

Most Gushed about Actor Currently: Hugh Laurie
Most Want to See Movie Currently: Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow starring Jude Law
Most Want to See US TV program Currently: House starring Hugh Laurie coming on CBS this Nov.
Most Want to See UK TV program Currently: Sherlock Holmes starring Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie coming sometime soon I hope
Most Want to See non-movie, non-TV program Currently: remake of Brideshead Revisited starring Jude Law and Paul Bettany
Most Pressing Reason for Wanting to go back to ATL: my Jeeves and Wooster DVD boxset, that and family, friends, blah, blah, blah ^.^
Most Desired Book to Read Currently: City of Nets by Otto friedrich
Weirdest Food Heard so Far: white rice with salt and oil, frozen banana *crazies*
Most Success Cooking Attempt so Far: Hot and Sour soup with Shitake mushrooms

The Best Thing About Tech....

2004-06-28T11:01:00.000-04:00

Just had a little chat with my boss' boss. I think one is made if your boss tells you that you are an overachiever, and too overworked and overstressed. I'd like to thank Tech for making me think that real life is about 12 hr work nonstop and that results must be shown to those higher in the hierarchy every 24 hr or so.

Fahrenheit 9//11, for the masses

2004-06-28T08:14:00.000-04:00

I was coerced by circumstance to see the movie by my roommate and her physicist chums. Truth be told, I'm not particularly political. Also I consider myself a fiscal conservative and a social liberal. So, yeah, technically I wouldn't vote for Bush because of his stands on abortion, religion, gay marriage, etc. come November. But I am also a byproduct of communist China, so certain degree of "leader" bashing tend to make me uncomfortable nevermind the Bills of Rights and all. In fact, I would often contribute Americans' rather negative (currently) global image due to the fact that we (US citizen) tend to be more critical of our administration than anyone else. I mean, why would anyone want to watch a parody of the man they accepted as President (the 2000 election theft is a whole new issues I don't really want to tackle, cause seriously, would Gore be better?).

That said, Fahrenheit 9/11 was better than I expected. First the goods, I liked how Moore exposed the business connection between the Bin Ladin and the Bush family. Though understandably, there aren't very many big rich families in the world and their financial interest prob. would intersect at one point or another. At least we can be grateful that neither family is tied by marriage, unlike most of Europe's aristocracy. I had not known about the Carlyle and Halliburton connection because I am a typical apolitical young adult (THERE!). Also, I liked Moore tackling the economic and class issue of military service. And I applaud him for his initiative to try to enlist Congressmen's children. On a side note, the little theater I was in apparently had a really good audio system because every explosion on the screen sounded like the ceiling was going to collapse on us at any time.

The bad however, I didn't want to watch a movie to laugh at my leaders. So I thought the opening scene of Bush&Co getting ready for the camera was just gosh-chee-darn ridiculous. It's like Candid Camera for US leaders. Guess what people, they're just like the rest of us with bad complexion and bad hair days! Fahrenheit 9//11 was already infamous before it came out because IFC and Moore tried to change the movie from a R rating to PG-13. There were two scenes in the movie in the involving burnt corpse which I think no children need to see. The last time I had seen burnt corpse on TV was when Chinese television broadcasted some of the damages done by students during Tiananmen in 1989. So I'm glad they kept the R rating.

In the end, my reaction to Fahrenheit 9//11 reaffirmed my hopelessly complicated political leaning. Some parts I liked and some part I was offended by. I distinctly remember that the theater was packed and that most people were definitely democrat/liberals. On VH1 Best Week Ever (not it has any authority on anything really), there was a crack that seeing Fahrenheit 9//11 means that you are a upper-middle class yuppie. Is this true? I mean, I know I'm from a middle class background and so are the people I saw it with. Maybe we (the middle class) go to see reactionary films like this because we lack the daily struggles of the poor and the frivolous abilities of the rich and therefore need in a certain respect, the masochist-voyeuristic-reactionary outlets to make fun of our leaders.

My 2 cents.

Pessimist for Life?

2004-06-25T13:49:00.000-04:00

Mood: Stuffed, just got back from Tex-Mex lunch (spare me, just give me Asian). I could feel my arteries hardening from the salt, oil, and cheese and all I had was a Caesar Salad.

Stuffs tend to come out of my mouth without much consideration from my brain. So I think that while I say alot of pessimistic things, I am really a good, ole optimist at heart. I like to think that my pessimistic view on life is an affirmation of my positive outlook, that no matter how difficult my life becomes, I will still view it very much the same way as I do now. Though I think sometime I try to be difficult when I talk to ppl just because.

I happen to like bitter fools

Inauguration

2004-06-25T08:33:00.000-04:00

At last, I am starting my own blog. Though I am of the math-science-technical persuasion, I have always shied away from flashy technological trends such as blogging and cellphone. Yet at this point in my life, I am starting a blog and desperately looking for a suitable cellular plan for myself.
It has always felt a bit silly for me to be writing down my thoughts in first person. I am rather found of projection techniques and writing in 3rd person; therefore, I might start changing persons and such on later posts.
Admittedly, my attitude toward the Internet has always been one of Sci-Fi ideal. Where informations are exchanged without boundries on the "Information Superhighway" (when's the last time you heard that term used). However, the reality is that as much as the Internet is "free" many of the information it offers are not. For example, paid encylopedia service, paid research service, paid e-mail account, paid internet streaming, heck, paid blogging. So real life is far from the pseudo-Marxist, information-revolution utopia I had imagined. Even more devestating is the current trend of the music industry suing P2P users. Although it is legally wrong for people to download copyrighted materials, I think industry have to realize that as technology changes, so must their marketing strategy. Therefore, instead of simply distribute music as streaming codes, music industry has to find a new niche to deliver their music or to deliver it beyond just the duplication of sounds.

Ahh,it's early and I need to start working.

Current Location: Washington DC

Maybe I'm Full of It