2010-10-31

I visited home for a doctors appointment last Monday. I left after my Calculus and Discreet Math midterms, which I felt I did well on. I'd come home by 6PM on Tuesday for my Calculus discussion and miss a chemistry class which I'd probably sleep through anyway. I took the 101 to Amtrak and Mum picked me up at the Santa Ana train station. Mum and I got Del Taco and I got two Macho Combo burritos with no taco meat in accordance with my pescatarian policy effective October 23^rd, 2010. The Poppet was happy to see me, but not as happy as I was to see her. And I saw my Pap and Sis too and watched them eat and it was good times all over again! My room was exactly how it was before I left and so was the rest of the house. There was a wad of puttycat hair on the towels I spread out on top of my bed for preservation purposes. The Poppet slept in my room. It was strange waking up in my old bed. Paap brushes the pool these days and dishes are done less often, and he says that Roxy is an older dog now that I have left.

Mum and I drove back to campus and she dropped me off by Transportation where I got a new sticker on my ID for using the buses for free. The old sticker wore off because I sweat on my ID card when I run, and I have to bring my ID with me or I may find myself locked out of my suite. Then she drove me over to Meteor and this wonderfully friendly Indian woman whose name comes not to mind but whose face I remember vividly helped me carry the box with my new bike to the top floor. I bought it on eBay for $250 and it supposedly has a $600 value (according to the seller). Later that night, Shimmy asked if we should assemble the bike right now (as if right now could possibly not be the right time) and we tore the box open and then I stood back as others stepped in and suddenly the whole suite was working on my bike. (The Special Thankses go to Shimmy Do, M.y. Pham and Zack Lee). We only lost two washers, put the wheel on a bit crooked, and couldn't get the wheel to turn when you turn the handlebars but what are you gonna do? Life is tough. Zack eventually discovered that the wheel was crooked (the original thought was that it was a problem with aligning the breaks), and the washers were for nonessential components that I have temporarily removed. As for the non-turning of the wheel, I went to register my bike and a guy there fixed it for me for free. Yay!

Midterms. Chemistry felt really easy, but there were quite a few tricky questions. I got an 83% on my Chem midterm, but I am doing fine on the quizzes and homework so I might still get an A, but I'm not going to pressure myself to do so because Chemistry is not contiguous to my Computer Science major. The Calculus midterm seemed really easy except for just one question (which I hope I got correct), and I felt that I (also) did flawlessly on the Discrete Math midterm, but it is not uncommon for people to do worse than they think they did.

It is indeed my 9th day as a pescatarian. A pescatarian is a vegetarian that eats fish. Protein comes from my daily bucket of scrambled eggs. The yogurt & fruit bowls are a must for me. Vegetable/combination pizza slices, bagels, hash browns, rice and random healthy Asian-looking foods work into my diet. Had rice and a bagel just now, as a matter of fact.

I would like to make it clear that it is not the death of the animals people eat that bothers me. It is natural for humans to hunt and eat other animals. Is that what you were going to say? Well good for you, but that is not an argument against vegetarians. The sight of a cow's head being chopped off does not bother me. Instantaneous death is the best kind! But it's not okay for cows to stand in their own poo and eat corn in confined spaces, and neither is it okay for chickens to be so fat that they can't stand up and be packed so tightly packed that they are living on top of each other. I don't know if I am accurately describing how things are, but they aren't as good as people think they are, and you can read all about how companies in the meat industry try to keep it a secret. But hey -- scope this. Yes, humans are smarter than chickens, and a human life is more important than a chicken life. But, when you are grabbed by your legs and tossed into a truck, does it hurt less if you are a chicken than a human? Sure their feelings are less complex than ours, but are they less intense? ((C) 2010, Alexander Taylor.)

Since the week I took off from running (which ended a few days before the Chancellor's 5K race), I have lost my appearance as the number one runner in Strides, but I am working to fix that. It's nice having competition again, though I wish competition would come from others catching up to me, not from me becoming presumptuous and lethargic taking time off and deteriorating until I can't keep up. Strides makes me rather [mentally] tired sometimes. Every time we stop at the top of a hill to wait for everyone else to catch up I want to sprint down the hill and scream "Suckers!! I'm ain't stoppin' for no one!" but at the same time I want to have friends and be taken seriously and remain on the team...

Yesternight, I, Carrie, Greg, Jordan, Shimmy, Vincent, Liwen, Joshua and Brian went to the Gaslamp district via bus and trolley. People were in costumes that ranged from Teletubbies to sex organs. We went to a Thai restaurant and I got soup and we bought entitlement to unlimited rice. It was good! My faith in Thai food was renewed (the Thai restaurant on campus does not represent). We went clothes shopping (woopiee....) and then went to the Ghirardelli chocolate square. I got a banana hot fudge sundae and took a metal spoon with me by mistake, and I plan on returning it next time I go to the Gaslamp district. This event is kudos to our Party Coordinator, Carrie McFarland.

Also kudos to the Party Coordinator was Mark's birthday party earlier this week at Islands restaurant. I had a splendid veggie burger there in accordance with the advice of my vegetarian hero, Carrie McFarland. Next time I am to try the Hawaiian vegetarian burger. Carrie also introduced me to soy milk, which is interesting, but we can't dwell on this matter because this paragraph is about Mark's birthday. Happy birthday Mark. Anyways. There isn't much else to be said. It was fun. We took pictures of each other... yeah.

I woke up at 11:30 today. The thing about taking a bus and a train to eat at a sit down restaurant and go clothes shopping is that it takes fricken forever, so no one went to bed early, per se, last night. I studied all day. Halloween is not a time for swarms of college students to attack nearby residential homes, but I am sure there are things going on. Many others are studying also. I've decided that in tonight's blog article, suitemate Zachary Hermundson needs to be recognized for his sense of humor. I ate breakfast with him today at Pines. First you have to get to know him. And then, you see.

Times are good. I've been effectively catching up on my work this weekend. For some reason I am still annoyed that I forgot my ID card yesternight and I had to pay $2.5o for the bus ride back (the bus driver on the way there was nice.) It's not that I had to pay the money - I am happy to support public transportation. It is, however, that I forgot to put my ID card back in my wallet after I went for the Saturday run. I left my ID card in my cubbie in the bathroom. I need to not set my ID down anywhere, for any reason. Always put it back in the wallet after use! And then, when removing the ID from the wallet, leave the Velcro detached until the ID is put back in. But this misfortune is a trivial matter to be upset about. If you think about the life of the earwig that died today when I discovered it in my laundry, stomped on it a dozen times (didn't work) and took the leg of my chair and hammered it to death, my life doesn't seem so bad.

But I mean... it's koo, because I get along well with others.

2010-10-14 Bicycle

The last memorable event that occurred since my last blog was that of my bike not existing where it was supposed to after my 10 AM class last Friday. It was a deceivingly sunny day on the day of 2010-10-08. After math class and after studying in the Geisel library, I cable locked my bike on the east side of Center Hall before I left for my one hour CSE 20 class. It was thought that the unwieldy but formidable U-lock was only necessary at night, and that a cable lock would suffice during the day. However, the void that filled the space that my bicycle once did at 11:05 on this particular morning proved otherwise. I walked up and down the row of bike racks just to make sure I wasn't hallucinating. A friend, Allen from Warren College, stumbled across me and he and his female companion stayed around for a while to mourn with me. But there really wasn't much mourning - don't worry. I called the UCSD police (858-534-HELP) to report the bike as stolen. Luckily I had already registered the bike, so if it is found I will get it back. I sent the police a very clear picture of the bike, which was one of me standing on top of Pops's hummer. (Contrary to popular assumption, I did not cry out of frustration or faint from angry thoughts.)

On Sunday, since Strides doesn't meet and since I didn't run on Wednesday, I went for a run on my own which was also a campus-wide search for the bike. As I told Pops, the run succeeded, but the search failed. I did a similar but less thorough search last Wednesday when, shortly before Strides met, I decided to take a five minute nap that lasted half an hour.

Today we had a fire drill at 7:15 and during attendance in the Plaza I told Lauren Waggoner that my bike was stolen and that I was going to buy a new one soon. A familiar looking bystander whose name I maybe should know but don't mentioned that her bike was also stolen. And get this - right outside of Center Hall during her class too! Then it dawned on me. Someone is up to something.

I have been playing Super Smash Bros with my suitemates frequently.

Checked my mailbox last night and I have a delivery slip thingy and at 12 I will pick up my chess clock in the mail! And soon hopefully the vinyl chess board and pieces will arrive too.

This weekend, all I did was study! Chemistry is annoying. Calculus (MATH 20C) is challenging but fun, as is Discrete Math (CSE 20). I shall from now on refer to the classes by these names.

Ate lunch with Simon in the Price Center after the chemistry discussion from 18-18:50. We had Subway. Simon is also in Strides.

Had Thai food (on campus) with Steven and Zack yesterday. I tried to get a Double Western Bacon Cheeseburger and a slice of pepporoni pizza, but they couldn't fulfill my order. So instead I got a beef sandwich which was actually a spicy vegetable sandwich but with beef on top.

Did a work project for Pops and will get a few more soon.

Will go to nearby Performance bike shop to buy a not-tempting-to-steal-priced hybrid bike. Hopefully today.

Studied chem with Petra outside of Clics (a very nearby study place.)

I use yellow kite string to tie the door to our suite open, because otherwise it gets stuffy. I wish Kevin didn't close the window at night either, but he gets cold and for some reason refuses to put the bedspread on his bed. He asked me to put it on for him and I said no, so we can only assume that he doesn't know how. Did I tell you he woke me up at 3 in the morning to tell me that he forgot to do an online quiz? At least he is better than me at Super Smash Brothers, which he takes way too seriously. I'm telling you, he beats me at a game and is cocky as shit for the remainder of the day. $^@$1ng Kevin!!! Oh well. He can actually be really funny sometimes, so it's okay.

I have a chem midterm on Tuesday!

Shimmy Do is a supa heroh because he let me borrow his bike when it was determined that it would be impossible for me to walk to my discrete math discussion. For the purpose of putting things in order and confusing the reader I will mention that this discussion was right before I ate the Thai food.

It is sad that Super Smash is so fun, because otherwise people would play chess and racquetball more often!

The partying has died down some around here, so it is actually feasible to sleep at 22:30 if you wear earplugs and a mask.

2010-10-07

Last night I played Super Smash Brothers on Zachary Hermundson's Nintendo Wii with Jordan, Mark, Steven, Vincent and Zack. It was difficult to pay attention in math today because I was tired so I took a nap between math and CSE 20 which I do every day. Wednesday is my busy day and today I was busy. I didn't run today because I was at the UTC buying a chessboard with Zack. All these event things happen but I can't think of anything interesting to write...

Here are my thoughts from yesterday which alone did not warrant a blog post:

"Look at that, there is a Chess club! How cool. http://chess.ucsd.edu/index.html

Hoang and Shannon are in my room right now [edit: and they are in my room again today!]. They and I constitute an iron triangle. Well they are moderately plus cool people. (moderately plus > moderately). umm okay, they are sexy beasts. wait, what?

Steven and I just finished math homework. He can do everything in his head and I can write everything out and make mistakes. All caught up on my homework!

Ran in the rain again today. Henry is a pretty fast officer.

Skyped my pop and called mis abuelos.

Bought oil for my bike chain at the UCSD Bike Shop!

Learned little in math and computer science math.

Getting along better with Kevin Park.

Made like 5 cheese quesadillas today."

Reader, I am trying to think of something deep to say, but I am having trouble. I guess I am just awesomeness. Thanks to Hoang and Shannon there is always a party in my room between the hours of 21 to 00. I seem to be cool with all of my suitemates, who are all cool. Times are good. I haven't any distinguishable and dramatic events to share with you. I do however have a spontaneous urge to mention that Jordan Marvasti is supa koo and is informally elected as our suite leader, and that Shannon and Hoang are ummm...like they say, "sexy beasts." Greg Kato is part of Shannon, Hoang and my iron triangle, which is now an iron pyramid.

2010-10-02

It is 00:52, so it's in a way still Oct 1st. Everyone is watching the Hangover in Jordon's room but I'm over movies. We recently returned from our ad-hoc shopping expedition at Ralphs which was thanks to the bus not stopping at Revelle. I bought a bag of tortillas to complement the cheese in my roommate's fridge, and a box of nature valley bars for eating during hours past the 20:00 closing time of the cafeterias. The bus was returning home from some mall that we went to for eating purposes only but at which we shopped for clothes too. The mall had an indoor food court with an ice skating rink. I didn't know the word rink until Jimmy dropped by just now and gave me the tip. Anyways, I ate at some steak place and had an extraordinarily decent sandwich - a rare occasion where I was happy I didn't order pizza. After we ate I walked sketchily with Shannon whom I met last night while studying chemistry. We were trying to hit up some security guards but we couldn't find any interesting ones. Going to the mall was Carrie McFarland's idea. Almost everyone in my suite and a bunch of other random people came too.

I've been running with Strides every day. Workout at 10:00 tomorrow. It may be difficult to wake up but I will take a nap afterwards. I've taken 3 to 4 hour naps every day for the last two (2) days, and I have been going to bed later. I project that the way things will work from now on is I will be getting 4 hours of sleep twice a day. This is actually thanks to my roommate who is so... okay well he is a cool guy and sometimes I like him and I think he is pretty funny and enjoyable to be around, and other times I can't stand him. I've been sick recently and have been trying to maximize sleep. (My sickness has not prevented me from doing anything - still running at 100% performance.) Well some words that describe a certain perspective of Kevin are clumsy and obnoxious. It's funny because he just came back and he sprained his ankle. He went to see a movie, so it figures he's sprain his ankle. He cannot help but bump into my bed 5/6 times he enters the room, which always wakes me up. It feels like an earthquake, and earplugs don't exactly help. He also has this habit of humming or talking to himself when he is under the impression that I am not in the room when I am in fact hiding underneath my covers. Kevin doesn't sleep until about 4 am. You know that survey I filled out to put me with a compatible roommate? "I go to bed at midnight or later on weekdays." Answer: No. "I am awake early each weekday morning." Answer: Yes. These questions were not honored. We have talked about this issue a couple of times but there does not seem to be a perfect solution. Hmm... I don't mean to make it sound like things are not okay, although at one point I was on the verge of deciding to find someone to switch roommates with. But I'm going to give my new style a shot, since it seems that nothing goes on during the day anyways and I would miss a lot going to bed at 22:00.

Random Thoughts of the Evening: Everyone is friendly. In general, people learn my name before I learn theirs, but my name is simple and easy to remember, and also I am one of two white guys in my suite. Girls aren't useless; they can be tough and even smart. Libertarians are superior to both Democrats and Republicans, obviously. My classes are not very difficult yet, but why would they be? It's just school - I've been in school for 13 years. That one is someone else's thought actually, but I like it. Life is good times. Should I wash my roommate's sheets and make his bed for $5? Earplugs help tremendously but are not perfect and sometimes itch. I decided that I am going to study in the library between my classes on MWF instead of coming back to my dorm. The U-lock on my bike is cumbersome; it is very difficult to attach and detach to the frame (when not in use). Updated the Foothill cross country website today. Okay. I'm going to sleep soon.