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.