One of Time Magazine’s Cartoons of the Week-February 21-27
Personality Tests #3-Grammar Gods
I think some people might be curious about how good their English grammar is. These are kind of fun ways of finding out. I think in particular siobhan06 would like them.
Random Thoughts #2
-First off, Berkeley’s rugby team is awesome. I don’t know a thing about rugby, but me and a couple of frat guys played rugby with them. Man that was intense (and very tiring). I can see why these guys are such a national power house team.
-I think I’m gonna stay away from talking about politicians for a while. I like talking about politics the differences in liberals and conservatives, but the actual people behind them, I don’t keep up with any more to make informed decisions. I don’t just mean on a national level, I mean on a state, local, and even college level.
-This didn’t happen to be that often when I was in high school. I actually felt pretty informed about the issues. Then, I turned 18. It’s rather ironic that I felt more prepared to vote when I couldn’t vote.
-Oh man, the March Madness tournament game scores look impressive, but with no Cal or USC or UCLA or even Stanford in the tournament, I can’t watch. There’s no team for me to root for. On the plus side, at least I didn’t participate in some bracket pool and lose due to all the upsets (but then again, I doubt anyone will be getting a perfect bracket this year).
-So I was checking out the syndicated feeds and seeing if there were any good ones to subscribe to. For those of you who don’t know, you can have news updates, comic strips, or when some of your favorite sites on your friends page by adding one of these syndicated feeds. To my surprise, one of the most popular feeds was on for brivvlin’s Xanga Site, my friend Sandy’s Xanga site. Gee I wonder if naming it xanga probably had something to do with it (sarcasm intended). I wonder if she knows that 35 strangers are subscribing to her site (or for that matter, if she even knows if that account exists).
-You’re right Le, it is cool that I found someone on Friendster who I haven’t seen in like 10 years. If you don’t know, Friendster is a social-networking site where you can look up people to be your friend, keep track of your friends, or track down old ones. If you haven’t checked it out, here’s an invite or if you’re already on, add me.
-Personally, I think Livejournal is actually a better social networking tool. I mean there are plenty of people making friends over the net through it (I myself included). That’s what makes livejournal better than most blogging tools; it’s designed for community with the friends pages and the community journals.
-I’m starting to actually learn practical things in my classes which I think is cool. Not practical in the sense that they help me in my everyday life (though, I am taking Econ 2 and that is pretty applicable to everyday scenarios), but practical in the sense that these are skills that can come in handy in future careers. In Bio lab, for instance, I learned how to transform bacterial DNA with plasmids and electrophoresis. Then again, they say it’s so easy to do this now, it comes in kits.
-Apparently every bio professor I’ve met is a Star Trek fan. (I don’t know why I put that in there, just seemed interesting)
-In my dorm last year, a bunch of the people (about 10 or so) who lived there were from a Foothill High School in Tustin, California (in Orange County, So.Cal). Today, I live in a frat house with about 10 or so people who came from a Foothill High School in Pleasanton, California (in Nor. Cal).
They tell me that 10+ people from each of their schools come to this school. Hmm, that makes up like 20 or so people each year who come from a Foothill High every year. And admissions is making Cal diverse this way, how?
-To make matters more complicated, there’s apparently Senator Christine Lee from the one in Tustin (she lived in my floor last year) and current Asian American Association President Kristine Lee from the one in Pleasanton. Freaky.
-Finally, you people with the songs playing on your website, take them off please. It’s a cool little trick, but it gets annoying.
Wow that was a long one.
Featured Website–Adtunes.com and Songtitle.info-While watching TV, you may hear a song on a commercial or something that makes you go, “What is that song?” You might find the answer in any of these two websites.
Beauty and the Beast
|
Beauty- Nectarine Blossoms
 The tree outside my front yard in LA. It made me realize that beauty can be found anywhere if you just look for it. |
The Beast-Arnold
 A poster I saw on Bowditch and Channing. It scared the crap out of me. |
What does juxtaposing these two images together mean? Nothing really. I just wanted to post both of these pictures up. Hehe.
Extra, Extra, Read all about–h = Q.(12+3s/8) keeps you upright, say scientists-Ladies, some good news. Apparently, there’s now a formula for knowing how high the heel of your shoes can be without you falling over.
The Funnies #1-Isn’t almost good enough?
Spring Break 2004 #1
Last Friday, March 19, Steve and I went to meet our old friend Chihyon. She came over from Korea and she’s going to be in the states for the next three months. Yay. The three of us had dinner at the Berkeley Faculty Club. They serve good food, but it was expensive to eat there. I loved how Steve endlessly compared how the students are forced to eat poor cafeteria food at the DCs and yet they serve food in such elegant meals to the faculty. Then we decided to check out Henry’s bar for drinks. Steve blamed me for the waitress carding him, as look far younger than 21 (then again, I look far younger than 19), but I don’t think she believed “I’m an international student waiting for my ID to come in the mail.” Chihyon then left us for home, and the two of us went to see Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. I thought it started off a bit poorly for my taste, but as it progressed, the movie got a lot better, though the ending was something to be desired. Recommended viewing (if you’re seeing it with you’re significant other, and no Steve did not count as my significant other, highly recommended).
I ran into a high school friend, Pedro, on my way to the Airport on Saturday. I met his wife, whose name I can’t spell. She apparently recognized me from this picture. They live over on Shattuck and Bancroft, and she’s enjoying her first year at Cal and Pedro works over in San Francisco to support the two of them. It’s scary; he’s only like a few months older than me and she’s probably younger than I am, and they’re married.
So it’s Spring Break now. I had to go back home for a little family reunion on Sunday, March 21. Nice getting to see some family again, though I had to see them over at Rose Hill over my late grandfathers plot. Well, it was still nice, not really as somber as it make it seem. On a more positive note, I got my new digital camera that day. It’s nice, but I really don’t have many pictures to take. Well, that should hopefully change soon. Alright, well there’s not much that’s happening to me so far. Talk to you later.
Funny Quote-Some people I passed by on the way to the BART station: “He choked on pop rocks. How do you choke on pop rocks?”
(Editors Note: How do you choke on pop rocks?)
A Little Bored
There seems to be nothing else to do right now, but write. I got down with my last test, the Bio 1A lab exam, about 4 hours ago. Man was that brutal. Coupling with a chem lab and an 8 AM lecture, and you have a recipe for problems. Good news is I finally talked to that cute girl in my bio lab, but all I did was explain part of the exam to her (and not as well as I usually do either).
It’s a little weird making first impressions on people in general. Depending on the situation (time, place, mood, and a whole mess of other variables), people can form so many judgments about you in a rather short time frame. I sometimes wonder how well I make a first impression. I know people think of me as helpful, nice, or funny, but sometimes I’ve heard people describe me as arrogant, mean, and serious. I just wonder when and where each of those characteristics take place. Oh well, no sense worrying about things like that, but first impressions are still important.
I’ve noticed though I’ve been trouble even making the simplest of conversations. The other day I was talking to my friend Shosanna and usually we can talk about a lot of things, but for while we actually didn’t have anything to talk about. Perhaps, it was because we were tired, or just didn’t feel like briefing each other on every detail of our lives, but still, we used to carry on and on about things that weren’t important or anything. Well I guess that just happens to some people though. I mean sometimes you’re mind just goes blank, but then suddenly it just comes to you. Like it’s on the tip of your tongue and then all of sudden it bursts out at the weirdest time. Kind of like that. I also realized how little I talk to people in general now. I used to walk around parts of campus and just talk to people I see for long periods of time, but now all I do is wave and say hi. It’s kind of the same way at home too, as I don’t think I’ve had a conversation about anything that’s not business related in the longest time. It sure gets a little difficult sometimes.
Wow, there’s like no one to talk to on AIM or anything. Talking to someone could sure ease the boredom right now.
Making a Splash
You know I realized it’s not the 8 AM classes that are bugging me, it’s the back to back labs. It means I actually have to go to class and hand something in, in order to get credit for it. Not only that, but spending 4 hours in one class certainly doesn’t make things any easier. Oh well, part of the job (though not exactly the part I enjoy).
So I hosted an improv comedy night over at my frat, last Friday. It was pretty funny at times, particularly the drinking games (and the jokes made about me). Perhaps putting in more of those two will make the night go better next time.
The next day was construction day, where we decided to fix up a lot of the house. Granted a lot of the projects weren’t done, but it was still a bonding experience and very rewarding. The reward came in the form of a pool party the next day, where everyone (except me) swam and enjoyed themselves on a hot day. I find it weird that it’s mostly my friends who seem to be enjoying what the frat has to offer, as they come over for events like this and the improv. That’s pretty cool.
Speaking of water, it reminds me that I met a varsity swimmer from MIT last week named Chris Lucas. He was visiting and stayed at our house for a while, interviewing for a graduate position in psychology. He’s hoping to do some research involving language learning and computers. I hung out with him for a while and I hope he gets in. Personally, I think it’d be cool knowing a grad student in the psych department in Berkeley.
Finally, I got back from a little get together at David “Lucky” or “Flipper” Singer’s new apartment. It just occurred to me that he’s switched addresses in between every fall and spring semester, so I always have to see his new place. I hope that trend doesn’t continue, as it’s getting harder and harder to come over.
Extra, Extra, Read all about–See Astrophysicists in Captivity: Do you know what an astrophysicist does? If not, head down to New York and see them on display at an exhibit in the American Museum of Natural History.
Movie Reviews
I don’t get to see a lot of movies and when I do see them, I rarely write more than three sentences about them in my journal. Well I thought I would make an exception just this once (yeah I don’t really have much to write about). With that, here are my thoughts on Kill Bill, Volume 1 and The Passion of the Christ.
–Kill Bill, Volume 1: Yeah I know it’s been around for a while, but finally saw this movie over at Wheller Hall a few weeks ago. I must say it does impress. First off, a side note, I never thought of a mace as a cool weapon until I saw this movie. I personally loved how they told the story of this movie, as it goes in an order that isn’t exactly chronological. There is one main problem with the movie is that is a lot of action and not a lot of story telling. However, there is plenty of style with an awesome sound track and killer moves. A great movie for people who enjoy the action more than the story.
–The Passion of the Christ: I will say that I didn’t find the film anti-Semitic at all, but then again I’m not Jewish. I saw this on Saturday with some of my Christian friends, and I must say I had a bit of a different feel for this movie than they did, though I’m not sure exactly how it was different. This movie is a good one that I will recommend if you’re not scared of blood and punishment. There is a lot of it in this movie and plenty of it so that you may want to look away and definitely makes you not want to pay for admission. If you’re not afraid of gore though, it’s worth seeing, but I expected The Passion to be a better film than what I saw.
Extra, Extra, Read all about–Mark Fiore columns: The internet’s own set of liberal political Flash animations. I particularly like The Rovers, a rather amusing take on the race to be the Democratic candidate for president.
California Voice
While checking out Calstuff the other day, there was a link to a publication called California Voice. It’s a small publication that comes out ill-frequently (there are no regular distribution dates), which I believe is either caused by the magnitude and scope of the magazine or just laziness of the creators. I tend to believe the former, as the magazine tends to go quite in depth into an issue it discusses. However, the infrequency of its publication maybe why their readership is so small, and why the latest issue is online only. Not exactly the best thing to do when you’re a fairly unknown publication. It shouldn’t be that way though, as I’ve read through a couple of the articles and feel that it has got to be one of the better publications at Berkeley. Check them out.
Funny Quote-“God forsaken smack”-Me when things don’t go right(don’t ask me why that’s funny)