You're Asian, you must be smart, right?

Whoo! Two midterms tomorrow! Well, I did well on the practice Chem midterm, so that's good. On the other hand, my math abilities are not feeling so hot. So I guess I will just study quite a bit both tonight and tomorrow morning/afternoon, and see how it goes. Things will feel a lot better once the midterms are done with, this weekend should be pretty decent. Not sure why I say that, but I hope it'll be a good weekend anyway. We will see, after the midterms!

# posted by Yann : 00:43  0 comments

My mother brought me some cheesecake today. I think all my mom's friend's think I'm some sort of cheesecake fiend or something..., whenever they drop by and want to give me something, they either give me money, or cheesecake. I'm not complaining, but it's just kinda weird.
I spent like an hour today helping Mark with his names sorting program, made me feel all productive and stressed (programming tends to do that to me) even though it wasn't my program. Makes me look forward to next quarter though, not having programming is weird, though I think I already said that. At this point in time, I just want chem to be over, once I'm finished with that, I will stay as far away from the subject as possible. And I think I also decided I won't be selling my vid card, I'll wait until Radeon releases the 10500 or whatever they'll call the new one (even if it's not coming out for another year, since it's not even in development yet -_-;), and then buy the 9700 or something. In the meantime I'll treat myself to some IHOP, some RAM, and a new HD ^_^.

Today (yesterday) was yet another interesting day. I think I've decided the guy from Marin in my Chinese class is a bit of a stuck up ass. That's ok though, it's not as though I have to talk to him all the time and he doesn't do stuck up things too often, just once in a while, and it's like, "What was that?". And also, (I think this may be just because it's rather late and I'm kinda tired), I think my classes are going to stress me out a lot in the next week. Not knowing if you're going to pass a class is not a happy state of mind to be in, . Oh well, I'm looking forward to next quarter 'cause then I'll have ECS 040 which I think I'll enjoy. I'm missing the whole programming thing, even if it's stressful a lot of the time. I'll feel a lot better once I'm out of chem I think.
Also, on another note, the people living next to us in 305 have a dwarf hamster. Old news, but apparently it's been surly lately and so last night after Adam woke it up, he kinda poked at it and it bit him hard enough to make him bleed. Izza washed his wound with hydrogen peroxide and bandaged it. Then Brian, wondering what was wrong with the hamster, started poking it as well. It bit his nail, and his reaction to that was to stand up, yell, realize he wasn't actually hurt, then kick the cage -_-;. Anyway, after that he was about to start poking the hamster again but Mark and I decided to stop him. Either way, I think the hamster may need a new home soon, especially since it's kinda against housing rules to keep non-icthyoid animals in the dorms (as though that really stopped anyone from doing anything before).

# posted by Yann : 03:16  0 comments

So today was an interesting day. First off, I woke up, and then went to my house house 'cause my mom came back from Korea on Friday and she was having friends over and she wanted me to see them and shiet, especially since one of her friend's daughters was gonna be there, whom I knew since I was an itty bitty kid. Anyhow, it was interesting, we were going out to coffee and study, so we dropped by my dorm first so I could grab some stuff. As we went back to the car, she noticed her rear-right tire needed air. Then she saw there was a fat nail in it, so she called her mom, and her mom said we should just call AAA and have them put on a spare and stuff. So she did, and she was worried 'cause the guy on the line said that there weren't any body shops open to replace the tire, and she had to get back to Berkeley that night. Anyway, after some issues with an expired insurance card, the guy comes, tells us there's a 76 station on 5th that'll repair the tire, and takes us there. While there, I see Kevin O'Neal, an old friend from high school, and yeah. Talked for a bit, then the tire was fixed, so we went to Starbuck's. Did some reading, played some GBA, then went back to the house to eat the cake to celebrate my mom's friend's b-day. After that, I came back to the dorms, and just caused general mischief. All in all, it was a good day, and I'm dead tired. Good night everyone.

No bike isn't so horrible. The bus system is pretty decent, although my impatience does not make it easy for me to wait for the bus. I called and left a message on the machine about my bike, but I don't think my dad or bro got it, so I'll wait 'til my mum comes home and tell her about it. She's coming back either tonight or tomorrow I believe, and I'm supposed to go home tomorrow and see a bunch of old family friends, which can be fun. I still think it kinda sucks that I was not able to go to Korea with her, but it makes sense since I have school and all that stuff. Oh well. Maybe she'll bring back some of the weird drink in the green bottles called "tsaida", pronounced kinda like, "cider", but different. I asked her if she'd bring me a case, but she kinda avoided answering my request. Oh well, we'll see.

So I awake to Diana walking in the room and saying, "Were you planning to sleep more today? 'Cause if you are, I think I'll let you sleep before I tell you some bad news." So the news turns out to be that sometime during the night, my bike lock was cut and someone stole my damn bike. I mean.., as most people could vouch, it was not a great bike, it wasn't horrible either, but it wasn't exactly top of the line. Why the hell would anyone want to steal it? Now I have to go buy a new one, argh... People have once again proven themselves to be jackasses, thank you, and have a good day.

The experiment was fun, which was a good thing. And on top of that, the experiment paid well, 25 dollars, booyah! And all I had to do was sit around and solve anagrams for an hour ^_^. It's just a pity I can't participate again.

OOooOOooOO, I get to go to a weird "Group decision making experiment" in about 30 minutes or so. I'm not really sure what it involves, but the e-mail the guy sent me says I'll be there anywhere from 15-75 minutes, and depending on the decision I come to, I can get from 10-15 or so dollars, which is pretty good I think. I still kinda need to find a job, somehow I don't believe that the police station will be calling me back to come work for them, . I think maybe I should lower my standards, maybe working in a restaraunt again won't be so bad..., for now, I'll concentrate on not failing my classes this quarter though. I can really worry about getting a job later.

# posted by Yann : 14:20  0 comments

So while walking back from campus today, I saw an old friend from high school and he stopped for a bit and we talked. Not long, because I kinda had to get back to the dorms to finish my hw, but we had a nice little conversation and I walked away feeling pretty good. Then as I go through the tunnel, I see another friend, and I would say hello, but she seems to avoid looking at me, so I don't really get the opportunity. Hrmm..., well, it's not that it bothers me so much, friends come and go, but she could have at least said "Hi" or something, or waved, it's just the nice and polite thing to do, right? Ah well, life is good and I'm not going to let that bother me for the rest of the day. However, my chem lab and Chinese homework may very well ruin this day for me, blech.

I just looked at Ave's Japan pics, http://karniph.msspro.com/karniph4/jpics.html, and yeah, I wanna go back to Japan now. It's quite sad. Although, I think the saddest part is, that even if I went back, it wouldn't be the same as when we first went, it will probably be a quite different experience, although still fun. The pics make me all nostalgic and reminiscent and such, I think I need to go get my own Japan pics from home and scan them. Either way, I really need to head back to Japan with friends sometime soon, hopefully next year during summer, but we will have to see I think...

Today I earned 20 dollars for 10 minutes of work.
I was picked up at 2 to go tutor and such, and so we got there and I sat down, and then she sat down, and I went over the section of the SAT prep book she was working on. I circled the wrong answers, and started to go over the first one with her, but then she was not really listening, or cooperative, and kinda sat there being annoyed and antsy and such. So I decided maybe starting the next section in the book would help her, so I told her to do the first two pages of the next reading section. She kinda started, and then said something like, "I can't concentrate, I'm going to get all of these wrong!", then ran up the stairs, physically ran. So..., I went up, as I went her mother asked, "So, have you had a student like this before?", and I replied, "Not yet". I went up, saw her father on the computer, asked him if he saw where she went. He wasn't sure, so I went back downstairs and asked the mother what she wanted me to do. She went up, talked to her daughter, and came back down. She explained that her daughter had a busy week and weekend, lots of gym practice and a dentist appointment and things like that, and was probably very tired and such. I understood totally, and she said that it'd be best if I just came back next week then. So then, she paid me the whole amount I was to be paid for 2 hours of tutoring, (20 dollars), even though I didn't actually do much. I tried to give some of it back, but she wouldn't accept it. So yeah.., she was awfully nice, and then the father gave me a ride home, which was actually kinda cool, 'cause he's an electrical engineer working with fiber optics, and he told me a lot about getting a job as an EE major and stuff, so not only did I get cash for little to no work, I also got to meet someone in my field and learn some stuff from him. A decent day I think.

So ummm.., yeah, I'm stupid. Allow me to explain, or rather, add another entry to the long list of stupid things I tend to do.
This time Diana and Joanna decided they wanted to exercise and such at the mini-gym that their apartment has. Because I happened to be there, Diana decided that I had to go, and then Ave decided he wanted to go too. So we went, and exercised and worked out a bit and such. I then noticed they had a pool and hot tub, and all of a sudden felt the need to go in them. Stupidly, I decided that I would go in with just my jeans and boxers on, which doesn't seem that bad, but it was kinda raining at the time, and jeans don't dry very quickly at all. Ave didn't have that problem since he had nylon pants, which aren't quite so bad to be wet in, I think. So, yeah. It was fun at the time, but afterwards it was kinda bad. Not bad, but annoying, I think it was kinda worth it though. The worst part however, was having to walk back in boxers, because my jeans were far too wet to put on and walk in even remotely comfortably. But..., yeah, kids, don't swim in jeans if you don't have a change of clothes nearby.

Just finished watching "My Sassy Girl", and it was actually a decent movie. Sad, and very cutesy, but a good movie nonetheless. Kinda makes me wanna see "My Left Eye Sees Ghosts" again, but Ave's asleep so it's not as though I can drop by and borrow it from him. Quite a pity. It's quite nice that the 3 day weekend is finally here, I can take a break from studying for a bit. Although, after the hours I've spent studying Chinese and doing calc hw, I actually feel a lot more confident in my abilities for those classes. I think I might actually get a C on the Chinese test we just did -_-;, I'll cross my fingers and hope >.< In the meantime, I'll enjoy my free time and be happy and rejoiceful and a little less stressed ^_^.

I went through pass 1 and got Engineering 6, Math 21c, and Ecs 40, which is all in all what I wanted to get. However, the 11am Chinese 3 Bilingual course was filled, so I think I'll wait it out and hope someone drops it during open registration, 'cause I sure as hell don't want to take an 8 am course. It wouldn't be healthy, I'd shrivel in the morning sun or something. I also found out what that last part in "A Day In The Life" was talking about. Potholes in Blackburn, who woulda thought? I'd always kinda thought it was talking about like.., bulletholes. I mean, c'mon, "four thousand holes", "and though the holes were rather small, they had to count them all". I guess now that I know he says, "four thousand holes in Blackburn, Lancashire", it makes a little less sense, oh well. Good song either way.

So our suite fish died today. His name was apparently Lazarus, although I just thought of him as Mark's fish. Mark pulled the fish out of the pool one night after some assholes from down the hall thought it'd be funny to toss him in the pool. Apparently everyone was standing around the pool looking, but not doing anything, so he grabbed a mug, jumped in and fished it out. Hence the name Lazarus, because the fish sorta rose from the dead, or almost dead, since the chlorine would have killed him. But yeah, the other day or so I was helping Mark empty out the fish's tank, (A 2-liter soda bottle with the top cut off), and he filtered the water before he put it back in another tank, (another bottle). He noticed the water was a bit warm, but he both thought it'd be ok. Apparently it wasn't. Minnows are cold-water fish and so, they woke up this morning and saw that the poor guy was dead :(. He was then flushed down the toilet, and now will live forever in our memories.

Lazarus
1.25.2003-2.12.2003

It's now quite late. I'm really tired. Stayed up late working on linux, figuring things out. Actually, a lot of the work was being done by Mark, my suitemate, while I observed. I don't know too much in the using of linux and such yet, still a novice, but it's something I defintely want to learn, nevermind the likelihood that if I ever get hired to do computer stuff, I'll probably have to learn how to use it. Looks like tomorrow I'll have to wake up at a somewhat normal hour and do homework, but if I do finish that homework, then I only have one other assignment to do, which sounds kinda like, "duh", but yeah, it makes me feel all accomplished and stuff. So..., on that note, I'm going to sleep, because I'm too tired to type anymore.

Yay, another day of boring classes. I actually only had two, and only the first was incredibly horrible. My Chinese teacher went on for something like 25 minutes about a small nuance of the language, how to use "ba" in a sentence. And I guess it made sense he was spending this much time on it, 'cause apparently it's not familiar to Canto speakers, but.., he went on.., for like.., a really long time, and I wanted to cry. The guy behind me said, "at least he's funny to look at". Some day I should bring a camera to class and take a picture of him just to show how much he looks like the "Iron Body" guy from Shaolin Soccer.
On another more interesting note, I got the sVCDs for LotR:TTT and James Bond: Die Another Day. Got it working finally, although it'd be nice if I had a dvd playing prog, since sVCDs only play in those. Well, off to watch the Helm's Deep battle for a third time. Yes....

Went out to lunch at the new Japanese place in town. It's called Jusco. Last time I went there was not a good eating experience. Good company, and the food was not horrible I suppose, but yeah, it's owned by Chinese people who can't spell, at least I think they're Chinese. The sushi buffet there isn't too horrible though, not quite as many things as at Fuji's, but it seems to taste a bit better. And of course, I managed to make an idiot out of myself. I was playing with chopsticks, closing one eye and touching the tips, and then Ave was trying it, and then we played around with that for a bit. Then he looked up away from the chopsticks and did it, and I said something like, "Augh, no eyes!", and then did the same thing except more stupid-like. Of course, as I go "Augh, no eyes!" in a very weird voice while thrusting my two chopsticks against eachother, the owner-lady walks by and gives a glance and walks off. Oh well.
The supermarket near us is going out of business and everything is 30% off. You can even buy the displays and stuff, maybe I'll buy the "Wooden Wagon Display Shelf" for $1200, that'd be tight.

# posted by Yann : 14:31  0 comments

Alright, first blog entry, for what reason I'm starting this? I'm not entirely sure. But to start with, I'm a first year at UC Davis, I'm an EE major (for people not in the know, this is Electrical Engineering). It's painful, I hate integrals, and yeah, school is somewhat stressful right now ^_^;. Other than that, things are ok. This is my first entry, so I'm trying to make this long and meaningful or something... I spent part of tonight reading about the Pope John Paul II and his thing with the Theory of Evolution. Interesting, a fence-sitting kinda remark that he made, but it made me feel happy all the same. Also speculated on what a moron Bush is, but everyone's been talking about that forever. However, have any of you thought about the parallels between Star Wars and the state of our current government O_o. Creepy huh? Ok, maybe not, maybe just kinda funny to think about, and if you're really mean, it's really just stupid, but it made me laugh for a little bit. Anyhow, I'm starting this blog and a weird multi-person blog thing at http://juniorhighsucked.blogspot.com/ with two guys I'll probably never be able to get away from. In a non-homosexual sense at that. So yeah, expect updates, not often, not regularly, but updates all the same, eventually.