Oh the hatred!

My final schedule for Spring 2007 is as follows:

PHY373 Quantum Mechanics
BIO277 Undergraduate Research
CH369 Biochemistry
ME337E Radioactive Waste Management
JPN325L Advanced Conversation II
BIO206L Biology Lab

My physics book cost me $0, Biochemistry cost me $28 (list $115 :D), RadWaste cost me $45 and the most asinine of all classes, BIO206L cost me $100.02 + some other BS fees. If you notice, the book costs of all my other upper division classes put together would be less than how much I paid to take this course.

And you ask why I hate the Co-op so much...

Fortitude and Rebirth

I was in lab today and I needed to obtain some ant samples from the nest. The nest is a plastic, transparent box with a removable lid. Every time you touch it, or jostle it, or remove the lid, the ants come screaming out of there, looking for new territory to populate.

Today, I decided to try something new. I got a green tray whose inner walls were specifically designed to be slippery and put the nest-box inside this tray and opened the lid. As expected, the ants scurried out of the nest and started to explore the tray, slipping off the sides without a hint of experience.

'Great!' I thought, I'll just scoop them up and dump them into the nest, cleanly close the lid and no ant shall be harmed in the process, except the ones who are going to fry tonight in the CHELEX buffer. I finished up and realized that they were still scampering around, still amnestically exploring the tray. How troublesome.

Then I remembered someone talking about how the ants slow down in the freezer (or any temperature less than 30deg. C). I took the long green tray and stuck it in the freezer for 10 minutes. After dawdling on YouTube, I took the tray out and all the ants were motionless.

Today has been an interesting day. Biochemistry was fun and even though a lot of it was review, there's a peculiar charm to taking notes in OneNote on a T60.* Yin made quite a few mistakes in lecture today, though. For example, Cystisine doesn't bond with Guanine, that's Cytosine. Even still, I know that in the near future, I will receive a couple of fated letters which will send me in a downward spiral of depression and despair. Anyway, I've still got to rally up the troops like a warrior and push on with life. Fortitude.

O shit! I killed off a colony! But they're ANTS! They can't die so easy. FORTITUDE! COME ON! I took an ant and cupped it in my palm, gently blowing hot air on it for it to revive. After a couple of seconds, the antennae start moving, then the legs, then I start regretting picking up this creature and throw it back into the tray where it finds its friends frozen (or cryogenically hibernating).***

They'll wake up. I took the nest out, banged on the tray at an angle until all the ants were in a corner, then emptied this corner of ants into the nest**. Working on another nest, I did the same. 30 minutes later, both nests were bustling. Rebirth.

I went to dinner with some (strange?) people and due to some reason (...) I didn't eat much and spent most of the time cooling the maelstrom. This caused me to become hungry and I bought some leanpockets for later consumption. Getting back to my room after lab, I decided to bust one out and eat it, except my room was (as usual) incinerating. I opened a window, sat on the ledge and started thinking. While the spinach, turkey and cheese were being mashed into a bolus, the bushes were only 10 meters or so below me, 10 meters to.. rebirth.


*: I believe this is a kickaess charm.
**: First time I showed emotion towards these..creatures...
***: This scene reminded me of, I could be a doctor, somehow. Replace ant with patient, 'blowing hot air' with defibrillator and palm with operating table. CLEAR!

Trough

I was going to Wendy's today to get something to eat but half way there, I realized too many people would look at my in my pajamas, especially blue plaid pajamas, which look odd, so I went to Jesta' Pizza.

I don't like pizza. It gets oil all over my hands and fingers and is impossible to eat with utensils.

In the days where it snowed in Austin - what only 1 foot? - I missed some important things - 2 classes of biochemistry, one quantum, one waste management.

Almost everyone I knew was happy that class was cancelled - yet you'll just get more work later? Most of you are in upper division classes, i.e. the first class is not a "reading of the syllabus".

If you hate it so much, change your major. Not much to say today.

Futility. Again.

I shouldn't constantly complain about things, but there are things to discuss. For example, I have yet to receive a departmental scholarship from physics even though my grades are ok. Jeez! What's going on?

I hate that everyone looks at need versus how much a person actually deserves it. I feel like I'm getting the short end of the stick. They probably look at me and say "Oh T60? WTF. You get nothing". It's not like I think it's this great thing (even though it is). I guess for me, having these things is "normal". You wouldn't be any different if you grew up like I did. Hence, I'm getting the short end of the stick?

This criteria needs to be changed. Anything but "financial need". Why is that even a concern these days? Either you have [school + work] or you have [school + something else]. Sequencing and writing papers that will never get published are probably harder than serving out fries somewhere. AND I have a job.

\\

Group work. It's not that I dislike it, it's just that I dislike it. Most people don't take consequences seriously. I'm not expecting some kind of perfection from you, just do your job with some kind of respect for it.

I was at Wendy's the other day ordering a chicken sandwich, and the manager tells me it's going to be 3-5 minutes. Yeah, I can wait. Then what do I see? A bunch of people standing around chit-chatting about family issues. What are you doing? Go make my sandwich, damnit.

So finally, I get my sandwich and trot over to Jonny's room only to discover they forgot the meat in it.

...

So I ate this disgusting veggie sandwich. What a crappy day that was.

In another incident, about two weeks ago, I showed up at the Greyhound station to get my ticket 15 minutes before the bus departed. Now, I'm not expecting airline-level efficiency, but there were 15 people in line and one teller with 2 other employees dawdling around. Even American Airlines is better and I have a strong dislike for American Airlines and TWA*. "Hate" is reserved for other things.

So I didn't get my ticket and I had to take the 8pm bus instead of the 630pm bus, delaying by trip by two hours. I took out my computer and 20 minutes later, it was back in my bag, after quite possibly one of the most uncomfortable 20 minutes of my life, with half the station staring at me. Ironic, because I got the extended battery life so I could work away from outlets longer.

*: TWA because they told me they'd stop the plane and let me off if I kept changing seats. Well fix your windows, fools!

Yeahh

Yesterday we find out that Breeding got engaged. Congratulations, Breeding. Of course, this begs the question- When?.

Without doubt, everyone starts feeling a little weird, almost as if they're falling behind somehow. When does the time come? Thus, the search begins.

2007: Initiation. This initiative came well before Breeding's announcement, the fleet is being upgraded for long-range travel, Deangelo is speaking and I'm working on my heart-piercing eyes. Yes. Whatever.

All this comes at a significant price however and the initiative is, at any time, bound to failure or annullment. There is a special word that signifies "carelessness when something is on your mind" and whether it be Shiva sitting atop the mountaintop mumbling "anyamanask" or Amaterasu screaming "ばか！" atop her lungs, these things cannot be avoided. For example, I forgot to put water into the gel run today and Hans Gruber asked me if I was running a dry run. How embarassing. You'd think that a 9th grade concept would stick, but not running PCRs for 3 months really screws with your head.

I'm sure there's more to come.

WC apparently apologized today for his doings. WHAT does this apology mean? No idea.

[13:03] XXXXXXXXX: whats the dark and white boxes
[13:03] Me: white = DIT open
[13:03] Me: black = DIT closed
[13:03] Me: jeezus christ
[13:03] XXXXXXXXX: I WANNA CLICK ON BLACK
[13:03] Me: YOU LIKE IT BLACK

[12:55] XXXXXXXXX: oh man
[12:55] XXXXXXXXX: what a shitty day
[12:56] -------------Me: oh mwan
[12:56] -------------Me: what's up booyan
[12:56] -------------Me: still sick?
[12:56] XXXXXXXXX: no
[12:56] -------------Me: awesome
[12:56] -------------Me: we'll be over tomorrow
[12:56] XXXXXXXXX: so i get to the bus stop at 10:35
[12:56] -------------Me: to be kickaess
[12:57] XXXXXXXXX: and i'm still 10 minutes late to class
[12:57] XXXXXXXXX: wtf
[12:57] XXXXXXXXX: two Red River busses pass the stop
[12:57] XXXXXXXXX: before one stopped
[12:57] XXXXXXXXX: ok...so now i'm 10 minutes late
[12:57] XXXXXXXXX: apparently within those 10 minutes our prof said no lab today
[12:58] XXXXXXXXX: so i wait on campus till 2PM
[12:58] XXXXXXXXX: and get to lab, only to find out that there's no lab
[12:58] XXXXXXXXX: and i have gotten hit today countless times by falling ice
[12:59] -------------Me: lololol
[12:59] -------------Me: me too
[12:59] -------------Me: F**K ICE
[12:59] -------------Me: i'm like

[12:59] -------------Me: WTF WAS THAT
[12:59] -------------Me: o
[12:59] -------------Me: ice
[12:59] -------------Me: not pigeons
[12:59] XXXXXXXXX: dude...if pigeons were shitting shit of that size
[12:59] XXXXXXXXX: then...they were constipated for a long long time


And finally, a good Ted Rall cartoon:

Two days of confusion

I've been sitting around waiting for school to start for over a month yet today and yesterday, when school was supposed to be in session, Nature decides to take a white dump on Austin. (In Plano, this would be known as a "gentle flurry").

I suppose you can't understand how confused I am, but there are more amusing things to hear about.

For the next couple of days (or weeks or months until someone moves or dies), I'll have a segment entitled WC's Carousings. So let us begin:

WC's Carousings

For example, a certain friend's roommate (hereafter, WC) went to sleep (apparently high and drunk) with a sprite and a kitkat in his hands and woke up at 3AM and turned on the lights, much to the surprise of two people. After carousing through the room looking for food (increased appetite after drugs), he finds some oatmeal and spills it on the floor, then asks his roommates if they were "boosting his s**t". The next morning, they found out that all WC wanted was a cigarette.

During the day, WC asks _____ if CVS takes Bevo Bucks (it does) and runs to the nearby CVS to buy some cigarettes. My inclination is that these episodes will continue and increase in magnitude until UTPD is involved.

And WC, if you find this, don't hate me. Hate your roommates.

Dude, California is floating away cuz WC blew up last night
-Jonny

I hope there's school tomorrow. I'm bored, my internet connection here is shoddy at best and I still miss 3 questions per verbal passage.

:'(

The other day, I decided to take Greyhound to get to Austin. Greyhound works like this - you buy an online 'reference' number and get your actual ticket at the station. Sounds fair? It is.

I showed up 15 minutes early to get my ticket and there were 20 people in line and only one teller in front of me, so I just.. missed my bus and had to take the 8pm one instead of the 6:15pm one.

In the meanwhile, I decided to bring out my laptop and read something, since the only thing else to do was to watch Glenn Beck impersonate Alan Greenspan. You know, it's the most uncomfortable feeling ever, trying to use a laptop in that environment.

I kept getting stares from people. Finally, I put that thing away and just sat there. Then I noticed this overweight black woman tell her 4 year old to get something, so he runs to his bag (which is.. 10 feet away - I don't know why) and pulls out this box of Tampax pearls and runs back. In plain sight, she takes one out, gives the boy back the box and uses her assisted-walking device to go to the bathroom.

Enough! Out comes the T60; I'm better off reading Physics.

-_-

All the King's men and all the King's horses cannot put Iraq back together again.
-Some guy on MSNBC

I've been super-sick (relatively) in that my gums are swollen and I have a sporadic headache. Some might say my wisdom teeth are coming out.

Others, such as wrongdiagnosis.com, using their "Interactive Multiple Symptoms" system, think I have Leukemia. Try it yourself!

http://symptoms.wrongdiagnosis.com/cosymptoms/headache/swollen-gums.htm

Possibly, I may also have Ebola, African Sleeping Sickness and Cocaine abuse symptoms. Simultaneously.

wrong diagnosis indeed.

\\

Tomorrow, I'm scheduled to go back to Austin and live at Smriti's place for while. Just as you hope the armpit-of-a-town doesn't get any worse, some prankster decided to poison some innocent birds (http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-6331509,00.html). The British are probably jeering in their own pretentious way.

It's bad enough that the sidewalks are broken and homeless roam the drag, but now there aren't going to be fewer birds to lighten the scene. Disturbing when you look down, disturbing when you look around and now, disturbing when you look up.

Hence, -_-

短歌

血が変わった
目を使わない
どこにいる
あの最愛の
姫様の女

Elegance

Today I was feeling weird. Most of the time, I'm all right. Unwavering, mentally strong*, direct, blunt at times and overall I take a vested interest in your life (or whoever's).

In fact, most of the time, I'll have an answer, or at least direct you to an answer. Sometimes people are down and I usually don't know what the hell to say, so I say something about balance, which is something I personally believe in.

I'd say (and this completely makes sense from my empirical standpoint) that just as lower order things like mass/energy are balanced, it is not completely inconcievable that higher order things sport some kind of balance as well.

In most cases, this is directly visible. Do something bad, and something bad happens to you. Of course, everyone I know will summon "Karma" when something bad happens to them, or at least agree if someone mentions it. But Karma is usually never brought up when discussing virtue. So start believing in it wholly and I know most of you don't (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Abraham_Dharma.png), so most of you need to shut the f*** up about it.

I digress. The ubiquitous Law of Action should (and does) apply everywhere, but humans are weak and unfortunately, I happen to be one. Every once in a while, my unwavering belief in balance fades, and despair sets in.

Oh but doesn't everyone have their down moments? Bulls**t. Stop culling excuses. Shouldn't one try to be better. So what kind of despair are we talking about? Coursework? Not really. Career? A little. [Everything - Career]? Yeah, pretty much. Need more meat? Talk to me and I'll give you an analogy (or 2.. or 3..).

This despair is different. This time, things will change. I'm wading through 25-40 pages each night just to make sure of it! Let's see what happens. I used to worry that TPTB (pretty much anyone that controls any aspect of my life) would be "tipped off" to the maelstrom that brews within, but I'm sure either 1) they know or 2) don't care, so I'm hoping to make 2007 full of posts with more details.**

By now you're wondering- What does Elegance have to do with above? Nothing. The intended post starts here. Out of despair I started taking it out on my car, which is a V6 so the engine is hard to break, but anyway, I've been pulling 0-40 in 4 seconds all day today and it felt awesome. Then I started thinking- I need more power. The first thing I thought was..airplanes are.. freaking.. awesome.

YES. Solid Rocket Boosters have more power. YES, all man-made space-crafts travel much faster than your commercial airliner, but there's nothing appealing about a bug:
Look at that thing! So ugly with its antenna sticking out. Let's find something better..
Nah.. There's.. something wrong with this. It's probably (definitely) because the manufacturer name starts with "B" and ends in "oeing". How about...YES. This certainly tickles my fancy.*** The A340-600. What an elegant looking airliner. Sorry Boeing, you tried well with the 777, and it was good, but unfortunately it's too fat, just like most of your employees. Maybe that's the reason....

I've always had this dream to... pilot a take off sequence for an aircraft. Max out that throttle and scream down that runway.

But anyway, airplanes in general are.. so.. so.. well designed. So elegant. Man conquers the skies. What a great idea. I always find myself on Wikipedia reading about airplanes. I found this article fascinating (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gimli_Glider). I urge you to read it, it's not the usually geeky material I like to read.

*: Usually about everything except the future.
**: Censorship rules will probably still apply.
***: Phrases like this should not be used often.

So bored

When is school going to start?

I watched this Korean drama My Girl, and I've been depressed ever since. Watch it and you will understand.

Today I didn't go to class. Tomorrow, I think I will but it will be painful. Let's see what happens tomorrow. :-\

First post of the New Year

Yes. It's a little late. I'll make it interesting.

Need for Speed: Carbon

Generals. Over and over and over again.

It was.. a notch below good.

Good.

Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory
Very fun.

What's been going on? That.

Well, let's get to the point.

Resolutions:
1. perfection
2. find this thing called emotion
3. try to be less elitist.
4.