dracil

Missed part of The Red & White Singing Competition again. It started at 5:30 PM, but we didn't arrive at our grandmother's place (for dinner) till 7PM. Arrived in time to catch the end of ZONE's song. It ended at 9:45PM (Japan is 2 hours ahead of Bangkok time). The White team (guys) won by a landslide. I don't think the Red team (girls) won any of the votes at all, and for the judge voting, all 10 votes were to the White team. SMAP made an appearance for the last song... I thought they'd disbanded. Kuraki Mai sang at a temple this time.
Currently feeling lethargic

dracil

Went to New Year's Mass today, first time ever. Quite a lot of people too. Those two girls from last time were there again. Makes me wonder... if they were really only checking it out, last time should've been enough, so perhaps they are Christian (but perhaps not Catholic). There were refreshments afterwards too, cake and chocolate/tea/coffee.

Then went shopping for way too long. Clothing for when I start looking for work. Feet still hurt.

Meat buffet for dinner later.
Currently feeling tired

dracil

So, the meat buffet last night never happened. Instead a big family fight occurred. The past just refuses to die. And now my parents also know about my journal... although this wasn't the reason for the argument.

As for today, went to a bunch of tourist locations with my parents, an uncle and aunt, and my grandmother. Went to Buddhist city, a church with the Shrine of Nicolas Bunkerd Kitbamrung (a priest martyr who was deliberately infected with tuberculosis after being arrested as a spy during WWII), the Rose Garden, and then a Buddhist temple. Lunch was Vietnamese food, and dinner was Chinese food.

Oh yeah, my dad has a Toyota Wish, not a Toyota Matrix. Also, the free education at my mom's university may only apply to undergrad, not grad school.
Currently feeling tired

dracil

The Wedding Guy was on the news just now. His girlfriend accepted his proposal.

Went to Neil's Tavern for steak today. Expensive. But good. Bought more clothes and snacks. Also finally picked up my suit.

Leaving tomorrow. Visiting my grandmother's tonight. Tomorrow is also her birthday.
Currently feeling okay

dracil

I made an antipixel button for Christian Forums, although it's not that spectacular. I can't upload it to the forums though 'cause I don't have 100 posts yet.
Currently feeling accomplished, sorta

dracil

Flight's at 12:35, so I'll probably be leaving within the hour. Came with a half-empty luggage bag. Leaving with so much stuff that not all of it fits.

Hope I don't have trouble entering the US.
Currently feeling worried

dracil

The sound of the computer starting up was dreadful. Sounded like it was dying, but it's sounding normal now.

So at the airport, there was a woman that cut in front of us. We moved to a different line that was moving faster because it was next to the group check-in counter, but there were no groups, so occasionally they let people from this line go over. The woman then decided to go straight to that counter, only to get herded to the back of the line.

At the airport, I decided to buy a gaming magazine, but it seems like the Taiwanese gaming market is taken over completely by online gaming (or maybe the store just has a very poor selection). Only one of perhaps six magazines talked about things other than just online gaming, and even that magazine (which I bought) was 50% online gaming, and the rest was split between the computer all the different consoles, so not too much substance. Furthermore, apparently Lineage 2 is the Next Big Thing in Taiwan, as every magazine that was offering demo discs all had the Lineage 2 install disc, and nothing else! The only good thing is that the prices have gone down.

The flight from Taipei to San Francisco was overbooked, and they were offering $150 and free hotel if you chose to go for the next day's flight. I think later they even offered to upgrade your class, but I don't think anyone took their offer. If they offered the class upgrade earlier, a complimentary Diamond Card, and perhaps more money, I might've been tempted to accept. But otherwise, what am I supposed to do at the airport for 24 hours?

As for the actual flights, from Bangkok to Taipei, they actually ran out of one of the menu choices, so I was stuck with spicy curry. They gave me an extra piece of bread though, but still... From San Francisco to Taipei, I slept only for perhaps 2 hours. But not really suffering from jet lag.

At the airport, they've become even more paranoid. Now, they fingerprint and photograph you too! Sheesh, we're not criminals you know...

Oh, and the replacement cards for A Game of Thrones arrived! They sent a complete replacement deck too.
Currently feeling blah

dracil

Came across this little interesting tidbit showing that the early church fathers believed in transubstantiation.

From The Epistle of Ignatius to the Smyrnaeans, under Chapter VII.-Let Us Stand Aloof from Such Heretics, "They abstain from the Eucharist and from prayer, because they confess not the Eucharist to be the flesh of our Saviour Jesus Christ..."
Currently feeling thoughtful

dracil

Downloaded this thing that was on some Bittorrent sites, not knowing what it was. It just talks about the Final Fantasy series. Still not sure that's the best translation for it. The Chinese title is Final Fantasy 典藏紀念. While searching for info about it, I came across Final Fantasy Memorial. Yes, it's a dating sim based on Tokimeki Memorial.

Also saw that someone found my site looking for "Baldr Neko Force". Did some research on it and found that it's part of Nekoneko Fandisc 2. More info here and you can get the trailer here. It's the one that's 53.4MB.

Came across this site Scouter. Type in your URL and it gives you your site's attack/defence rating. I think the "scouter" may be in reference to that thing some people wore in Dragonball Z that let them determine other people's power.

Oh, in case you need some translating.
The first line's words say "'s test results"
The second line's words say "attack power"
The third line's words say "defence power"

http://www.tabulas.com/~dracilの測定結果

攻撃力：8811
防御力：9287
Currently feeling amused

dracil

Yay! Looks like I can watch the parts I missed now! You can also get it at www.jpop.com/jpopbt (need to register). Only 1.9GB!

Oh, and http://www3.nhk.or.jp/kouhaku/index.html has a list of the singers and songs.

Also found http://bunko.theppn.org, which has even more Jpop stuff. Whee.

Meanwhile, looks like I wasn't completely free from jet lag. Woke up sometime after 6AM today, which is really early for me here (only slept 6 hours then). It's also really cold here, but the heater helps a lot. Used a matress and a cushion to block off the living room, and with the other room and bathroom doors closed, my room is warm in minutes, and stays warm for a couple hours after I turn it off. If I had a fan, I could even blow the warm air from the corridor straight into the room.
Currently feeling happy

dracil

They actually found Weapons of Mass Destruction! And guess what? It was in Texas! Owned by a white supremacist!

So my question is, when do we go to war with Texas?

http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/1229/p02s01-usju.html
Currently feeling amused

dracil

I just uploaded SMAP's 世界に一つだけの花 ( シングルバージョン ). Remember, you can always find the songs either under the Media Files category or under the Content page. Anyway, this song was sung at the 紅白歌合戦 (Red & White Singing Competition), and some people believe it was one of the key songs that helped the White team win its landslide victory. Pretty ironic, considering the song is talking about how we shouldn't be competitive since we're all unique.

Got the following lyrics translation and notes from here.

A Flower Unlike Any Other in The World

There's no need to be No. 1
you've always been a very special only one.

I saw many kinds of flowers lined up in front of the flowershop.
everyone has their favorite kinds but all of them are pretty.
Without competing to see which was the best among them,
they were standing straight up proudly inside the bucket.
So why then do we humans have to compare ourselves to one another?
Eventhough each and every person is different,
why do we want to be number one?
Yes we are each..

a flower unlike any other in the world
and each and everyone of us carries a different seed
We should focus all our efforts on trying to make that flower bloom.

There are people who are constantly unsure of what they want,
as they laugh a little put out.
It can't be helped, all those flowers,
that did everything they could to bloom, are pretty.
when at last that person comes out of the store,
they're holding a colorful bouquet
and I see them smiling happilly as they go by me.
I never knew their name but
that day they made me smile.

we too are like flowers that bloom in places where no one pays any attention.
Yes we too are each...

a flower unlike any other in the world
and each and everyone of us carries a different seed
We should focus all our efforts on trying to make that flower bloom.

Small flowers and big flowers, none are the same as one another.
There's no need to be No. 1
you've always been a very special only one.

Translated By: Brian Stewart & Takako Sakuma

Translator's Notes: We were tempted to translate "Only one" into more workable English which would have been, one-of-a-kind. Often times in translating you'll find English lines that don't fit well with the translation. Sometimes you have to bite the bullet and leave it alone, but every so often you have to change English lines. Not much else to be said here, but in counterpoint a line from Fight Club You are not a unique and individual snowflake erm..flower. =P
of the Moment: SMAP's 世界に一つだけ&
Currently feeling lethargic

dracil

Whee! Just found out something important about Tabulas! If you change the url so that instead of "attach" it says "fullsized", you can get an untampered image! Now I can free myself from OCF dependence for my images! Well, almost. The server won't accept PNG files...

Also added a Blogroll button.
Currently feeling content

dracil

Finally, no more dependence on OCF! The pngs were uploaded without any problems through IE.
Currently feeling happy

dracil

Eggs make sandwiches taste much better. Been eating egg/ham/cheese sandwiches for a couple days now. Probably gonna go back to just ham/cheese/sandwich spread 'cause I wanna do boiled eggs or maybe egg/chinese bbq squce/soy sauce/seasoning rice.

No longer setting off the fire alarms. I think it was because I had the heat on way too high in the past.

If I get the classes I want this semester, at least 2 of my classes will have no books at all! Although there may be readers... but still, this would be the cheapest semester in terms of books.

And I'm running out of CDs... specifically, the 700MB CDs, which are what anime episodes are sized to fit nowadays. Need to get some more somewhere cheap.
Currently feeling bored

dracil

Got the following pic from here.

Let's just say that I'm glad I'm in California.


Currently feeling pleased

dracil

Did some massive cleaning of my room. A lot more room now. Took out about 5 bags (grocery-sized) of trash (mostly paper). Amazing what a single box for stacking paper can do to make things look more organized.

I also finally hooked up the phone Krista gave me in my room.

Must remember to return my library book tomorrow. It's overdue since the 5th.
Currently feeling accomplished

dracil

I made a new Christian forums as the old was was a bit too non-descriptive.
Currently feeling okay

dracil

Bah, this is just great! I left my keys in the apartment, and Rilene's not home so I can't get back. So instead I'm at the library right now. Can't go grocery shopping anymore 'cause if I can't get in, food might spoil.

I actually had the keys in my pockets, but I decided to switch pants just before leaving. It was when I was outside that I realized I didn't transfer the keys over. >_<
Currently feeling frustrated

dracil

What a day to be locked out with the rain and all...

So one of the other reasons I went out today was to search for the books at Bookcrossing.com. This wasn't the first time I've done this, but this is the first time I actually caught something! And two books too! You can see the books at my bookshelf there. Now that it's not so empty, I'll probably be adding an antipixel button for this, once I manage to get home... I wonder when I'll get around to actually reading the books though...

Also saw Krista when I went looking for lunch! Haven't seen her for quite awhile.
Currently feeling happy

dracil

So I managed to catch Jenny as she was coming home. Her attitude about my lost keys was rather... patronizing. It seemed as if she were suggesting that I had left my keys at home on purpose! Anyway, she couldn't find the keys to the apartment, but then chose to go to her friend's place. Since she obviously didn't trust me to just sit on the couch and read, I had to sit outside, freezing, starving, and dehydrating (not to mention my hunching over to keep warm couldn't have been good for my back)... all the while thinking that she might be back soon. It didn't help that not too long after she left, I heard the phone ring in the apartment with a message by Rilene telling her where the keys were. Not that it did a lot of good since I couldn't get in to get the keys.

Eventually, after over 5 hours of waiting, Rilene showed up, and thus, my ordeal was finally ended.
Currently feeling grateful, but also vexed

dracil

As I said I would earlier, I added the bookcrossing.com button after coming home.
Currently feeling okay

dracil

So last night around 3AM my internet went dead. Then I found out my phone line was dead too. Called SBC several times today to try to figure out the problem to no avail. Hope Petr (the landlord) comes by soon to check the wiring so I can decide whether I need an SBC technician to come by and fix the wiring. Till then, updates may be sporadic (late entries will be backdated). But the lack of entries doesn't mean something's happened to me.
Currently feeling aggravated

dracil

(backdated)

Oh, forgot to mention my last entry was written at Rilene's place. I also got the colorful Goldfish Wallet which I'd won a long time ago. Spent rest of day watching stuff on my computer. Watched Juon, which was... actually a bit scary. Well, the fact that I'm pretty much alone probably made it scarier. So did playing Fatal Frame earlier in the day... However, the story is really really confusing, and I'm still not sure about the order of events.
Currently feeling bored

dracil

(backdated)

So Petr came by today to check the phone. Couldn't solve the problem, so arranged to have the SBC technician come by. Played bunch of Baldr Force and watched anime.
Currently feeling blah

dracil

Ok, so the SBC technician just left! Spent the whole day basically waiting for him to come, since it was anytime from 8AM-7PM, and without a phone, I wouldn't know when he arrived. When he finally did arrive, around 3 I think, he was locked out of his van, so he asked for a clothes hanger. One hour later, he finally managed to pry the lock open. Then it was another hour or so trying to figure out the problem. The short circuit would appear and disappear. Eventually he narrowed the problem down to some faulty wires, and the problem went away after he replaced it. Total bill came to $109. $45 for the initial visit, and $64 for the extra hour. According to him, the law states that our landlord has to pay for it and he left with a receipt saying that the bill would arrive shortly and I should show my landlord the receipt.

In the meantime, tripped on the stairs, and broke a connecting piece of the wristband part of the watch. A piece of metal that holds it together has been bent out of shape, and although I can put it back together, the bent shape means its loose and not soon after it just falls apart again. Need to hammer it straight again perhaps... I think I have some curse with watches...

Edit: I think the watch is fixed now. Bent the piece straight and stuffed it in (it has a spring, so it was easier than I thought).
Currently feeling mixed

dracil

Updated the Geourl button to one that looks nicer.
Currently feeling sleepy

dracil

http://www.nra-kkk.org/ps2.html - Yes, accept Jesus Christ and you can get a free PS2, as well as some Biblically-inspired modified games. :D

Ok, for those who don't know, the Landover Baptist Church is just a parody site, so don't take this too seriously.
Currently feeling amused

dracil

Flashed my router with the latest firmware, conveniently wiping out all the configuration settings. Thus I had to make a trip to campus to check my account to find out what those settings were. Anyway, hope the upgrade improves the router stability.

Dropped off tuition check while at it. Seems like there's something going on with books in my classes this year... no Philo 133 books at Ned's books. ASUC has a lot of them saying "temporarily out of stock" online.
Currently feeling blah

dracil

Finally finished this anime series! It was pretty good. Also found out while watching the credits that Tateishi's seiyuu is Yui Horie (Naru from Love Hina). Didn't even realize it.
of the Moment: 一青窈's もらい泣{
Currently feeling sleepy

dracil

Just migrated from Bearmail to Calmail. 100MB of space + probably on faster servers, and filter settings!
Currently feeling excited

dracil

Finally split the CSS stuff into its own separate file. Makes the rest of the template much cleaner. The reason I put this off for so long is because the way Tabulas is designed, you can only create a CSS file if you're using one of the default templates, and I didn't feel like switching stuff around just for that. Meanwhile, I cleaned up the code a bit and I think I may have fixed some problems my site is displayed on old IE browsers. Won't know till I check it with one of them old IE browsers though.
Currently feeling accomplished

dracil

Made a Tabulas antipixel button. Well, more accurately, it's the button on the Tabulas Fanlisting modified so that it's size was 80x15, with some adjustments on the text so it's more spread out.
Currently feeling okay

dracil

Updated to Trillian 2.01 today.

Downloaded GIMP, a free open source graphics program that provides a nice alternative to Photoshop if you don't wanna don't wanna pay $169 for Photoshop CS and you don't wanna get the warez version of it.

Traffic Cop - funny clip, but understanding of Mandarin required. It's an episode of Taipei Girl from http://www.miluku.com

More - Academy Award nominated animated film.

Lion_seul - a funny animation of two animals singing and dancing

Oh, and study shows that internet users are actually socially active
Currently feeling okay

dracil

http://deepimpact.jpl.nasa.gov/sendyourname/index.html - Sounds fun, and it's quick and easy.
Currently feeling amused

dracil

Not much to report for today. Just lazed around at home playing games I got off the internet.
Currently feeling blah

dracil

http://page.freett.com/y1041/purifedaioh.htm - Yes, another one of them parodies! Once you're there, you can use http://big.freett.com/y1041/purifedaioh.swf to download it.

Just for convenience, here are some other flash files from the past that are similar in design

http://www.sfu.ca/~dchiang/ciel.swf - Tsukihime/Gundam Flash OP
http://paveu.hp.infoseek.co.jp/oouso3_nami/rbo/rbo.swf - Ragnarok Battle Online (similar character design to the Tsukihime/Gundam Flash, but it's not an anime OP like the others)
Currently feeling entertained

dracil

Doh, can't believe I missed this one while I was on the site. http://page.freett.com/y1041/purifeseed.htm. Once you're there, you can use http://big.freett.com/y1041/purifeseed7.swf to download it.
Currently feeling entertained

dracil

http://www.pockethouse.com/comics/ - nicely done, and these situations really do happen in Gunbound!

In other news, I forgot my Gunbound password and their password retrieval system doesn't work.
Currently feeling amused

dracil

Played some board games with Shen and his friends. Two rounds of Bohnanza. Won the first one, then second round, no one would trade with me, so I lost that really badly. Then we played Puerto Rico where with 6 Corn plantations, I ran away with the lead at 58 points. Would've had up to 70+ if one of his friends hadn't stolen my Customs Hall.
Currently feeling okay

dracil

http://pc.watch.impress.co.jp/docs/2003/1218/sony_06.wmv - got this from my dad. They actually showed them off at the NHK Red & White Singing Competition too. I wonder how they teach it to dance, since it's supposed to be customized. It can also sing too. The name of the model is QRIO if you're wondering.
Currently feeling amused

dracil

http://www.cgnetworks.com/story.php?story_id=1901

Personally, I'm really disappointed that they changed the names.
Currently feeling blah

dracil

So...... long day today. Got up at 8:30, fooled around till 9:45, showered, realized at 10 that the BST meeting was at 10:30, so I was gonna be late. Quickly boiled some eggs, but was still 15 minutes late to the meeting at Diana's place. Fang, Sophia, Catherine, and Diana were already there. Eventually Joyce also showed up. We didn't actually stop for lunch till 1:30. And by the time we left, it was 3:15. Then we went to Catherine's place to check out some BST stuff. After that, they kept trying to convince me to go to karaoke again. And all the way back to 1 block from our apartment, Sophia kept trying to convince me to go. But I wanted to go to Gaia to get my stuff. She gave up by then, I got to Gaia, got my CD, teased David Chu, and went home. During that time I decided, eh, why not. It's the last day before school starts, so might as well do something fun, assuming they hadn't left already. So I did manage to make it in time, much to their delight. That meant 6 people in the car (me, Sophia, Diana, Catherine, Charlie, and David), which was a tight fit at the back.

So once there, most people sang Chinese songs. Catherine sang English songs, and I sang my Japanese songs. Only sang 5 songs this time. They had a new system in place, so I had a hard time trying to find all those songs I know and used to sing. Eventually I found out that they had new books, and that there was a way to switch to the old system (but never got the chance for that, would've been too disruptive). So anyway, here are the five songs I sung in the order I sang them, along with thoughts.

SMAP - 世界に一つだけの花 (Sekai ni hitotsu dake no hana) - 1st attempt. I either sing too high or too low for this. Too high simply does not work. Too low sounds a bit weird. Need practice.
ZONE - 証 (Akashi) - 3rd attempt. This song I actually sang pretty decently. I guess ZONE songs are around my voice range, and this is my favorite song from them.
平井 堅 (Hirai Ken) - 大きな古時計 (Ookina furudokei)- 2nd attempt. Ok, WAY too high for me. I don't think I'll try to sing this one anymore.
ZONE - 一雫 (Hitoshizuku) - 2nd or 3rd attempt. Eh, passable. Not nearly as good as the other song though. Would need practice. if I wanna sing again
Porno Graffitti - メリッサ (Melissa) - 1st attempt. Pretty good for a first attempt. Still fast, but nowhere near as bad as Sauda-ji.

BTW, just found out that one of the ZONE members, Takayo, has left, and is being replaced by Tomoka.

So anyway, afterwards, we went grocery shopping, I didn't buy anything. The only thing I might've wanted were the salted duck eggs. Brought back one of those card sign up things though. Then we went to eat at Carrows. Pretty good I guess. Filling, and then we returned. For Chinese new year's, we're going back to Ranch 99 to eat hot pot at Coriya.

So yes, very long day, out for literally half the day. One thing though... it turns out I'm doing more stuff for BST than I had originally intended... especially considering that I'm not actually pro-independence...
Currently feeling tired, but content.

dracil

Saw the following on Fang's tabulas, so took it myself.


I'm pretty sure I used to be an INTJ... although reading the descriptions of it, I definitely lack the strong self-confidence exhibited by INTJs. Hmm... although the ISTJ is aka The Inspector, which would fit the Enneagram test I took awhile ago that labeled me as Type 5, The Investigator.

Ok, so about this dramah that's going around. It was brought to my attention (first by an IM, and then I saw it just now on someone else's tabulas), that some people have been complaining about people's blogs for being too shallow and superficial. Well, besides the obvious superiority complex being exhibited there... our writing on our blogs are a reflection of who we are. If we changed our writing style to become more "deep" and "meaningful", our writing would actually become more shallow and superficial, because it would no longer reflect the true us.
Currently feeling thoughtful

dracil

And it's sucking already. Surprise sections added, so now I have to juggle my classes around again. I like good balanced schedules, since less time is wasted running around, which may not be possible this semester. So many people I know are in that class, including Krista (which was really surprising).

I should probably get books now between classes.
Currently feeling blah

dracil

Bah, realized I'd forgotten to sign the sign-in sheet for Philo 133. Then found out my emails to the prof got delayed. Then I forgot my card in the ATM machine again today, but got it back without incident. One of these days my luck is gonna run out. Gotta stop doing this before that happens.

Saw Tam in my CS182 class. Haven't seen her since CS61C. We'd already forgotten each other's name, although she actually remembered that I use "Dracil". She's probably not gonna stay in the class though.

I also ransacked the newspaper bins for Daily Cals so I could get a bunch of them Fat Slice coupons. I now have 35 coupons!

Then instead of reading my books, I noticed that David Chu had participated (well, sorta, he's still on Level 1) in something called the Resistor Challenge when I was searching for his sn. It's basically a bunch of hacking challenges. Managed to get to Level 3, but now I'm stuck on the MS IIS Server exploit. Need to find the right exploit...

In case you're wondering what I was doing googling his sn, I was interested in seeing how strong of a net presence various people had. He has 14 hits to his name.
Currently feeling tired

dracil

So I didn't get into that Japanese Films class. The social psych course seems ok though. But then, do I really want another psych course? Daniel came by to get my CS188 book for $45. Went to find Han to copy the readers, but she didn't have the keys to the copy machine room, so that's been postponed.

Oh, and bills are up. ((144.15 - 109 = 35.15) + 30.66 + 84.16) / 3 = $49.99 + last month's $51.35 = $101.34.

Just got off the phone with my landlord about that $109 repair bill, and looks like there may be a legal battle in the works. Need to make several calls and/or emails to get information for my landlord. Till then, we aren't being reimbursed for the bill, depending. Landlord's hoping that we can get SBC to remove that charge.
Currently feeling stressed

dracil

Happy Chinese New Year!

Spent my lunch lounging around with BST people who were tabling. Then we went to Coriya Hot Pot City at Ranch 99 tonight. Was good. For once, my meal did not consist of 90% meat. Actually approached 50%. Partly 'cause the people were also not mainly interested in just the meat, unlike previous hot pot visits. Curiously, this also means that this is the most amount of veggies I've had in a single meal for quite awhile.

No class tmr, so I can do some more tabling if I want. I also got most of the info my landlord requested through a couple calls in the morning.

Oh, as for the song I'm listening to at the moment. Yeah, I don't generally listen to Chinese music, but this song was sung at karaoke and it got stuck in my head today for some reason. Then Diana was requesting the song too during dinner. So yeah.
of the Moment: 蔡依林's 說愛你
Currently feeling content

dracil

http://jouko.iki.fi/~type

Your score: 573 keys per minute ~ 114 words per minute
Language/mode: en
Ranking: Excellent.
Comparison: 1% of registered TyperA users using this language have typed a better result; 99% have a lower or equal result.

You typed: In the beginning there was only one kind of Mathematician, created by the Great Mathamatical Spirit form the Book: the Topologist. As Beren looked into her eyes Within the shadows of her hair, The trembling starlight of the skies He saw there mirrored shimmering. My soul is crushed, my spirit sore I do not like me anymore, I cavil, quarrel, grumble, grouse, I ponder on the narrow house I shudder at the thought of men I'm due to fall in love again. For the love of phlegm. Of course it's possible to love a human being if you don't know them too well. Filthy Rich and Catflap, 1986. Ether bunny be back next year! Trying to define yourself is like trying to bite your own teeth. Indeed the winters are fierce. In earlier days, virgins were often selected to beta test volcanos. Years later, I went back to the same hotel. If one tells the truth, one is sure, sooner or later, to be found out. No man is an island, but some of us are long peninsulas. Of thought is death, Am not I A fly like thee? This way tens of thousands of people will spend a few seconds scanning over and ignoring your article, using up over 16 man-hours their collective

Mistakes:

Those typing competitions I used to do with my friends back in middle school and high school really paid off! :D
Currently feeling accomplished

dracil

So, tabled for BST from 10:30-2PM today since I didn't have any classes today. Not too many people took notice.... most of those that did already knew people from BST. Although we did get a Taiwanese professor of (British) History stop by and a father of a girl seemed to have been interested. Lots of Taiwanese being spoken, which meant I couldn't really respond.

Laura came by later with food. Although I had promised to go to IV with her, I got another invitation to Gaia to watch movies with some friends. So a compromise was made where I took Laura to IV and made sure she saw someone she knew, then I headed over to Gaia. We watched A Better Tomorrow 2, then we played some Bohnanza. Karen won with 19 points, while Anderson and I tied at 2nd place, and Dave and Michelle tied at 3rd place. I don't think anyone had expected Karen to win.
Currently feeling content

dracil

Got Michelle and David's card from Las Vegas today. Also got some tax info in the mail. I shall be able to recover $675.23 that was wrongfully taken away from me by this foreign government. Don't even get interest. Hmph. I also finally got the physical Silver Card for Eva Airways.

Went out today to see which section I got into for Philosophy, but they locked the building! Then the book I needed was out of stock too! As such, I've just caught up for CS182 reading, will be caught up once I read 3 chapters for Philosophy 133, and have 0 reading done for Linguistics 105. *grumble*

Stuff to worry about: Philosophy, Linguistics reading. CS182 assignment. Career Fair. Laundry. URAP learning contract. CalJobs.

Karen came by today and watched a bunch of music videos/shows and some anime.
Currently feeling sorta stressed

dracil

Spent a good deal of today learning about PHPBB so that I could work on BST's forums. Now, if only people actually used it regularly...
Currently feeling productive

dracil

Woke up early, thinking I was going to Karen's place before noon. Ended up going there by 1 'cause I forgot she had church. While there, unsuccessfully fixed her computer. From the description, I had thought she had a hard drive problem, but that doesn't seem to be the case. Replacing the hard drive was easy, but when I tried to boot up, the monitor couldn't detect any signal, so it might be a video card problem. Or it might be the motherboard even. So going to lend her my old video card tomorrow. Did get some food while there though.

Afterwards, went to the library to print some lyrics out in anticipation of karaoke later. At 4:15, I went to Bancroft/Telegraph. No one was there. Waited almost 15 minutes, then went to library to check. Yep, last email said Bancroft/Telegraph. During this 5 minute period, they actually came by to Bancroft/Telegraph to see if I was there, so we just missed each other. I went back, waited till 4:45, still no one. Then decided to go check the Underhill Parking Lot (which some people had suggested), and found everyone there. But I wasn't the last person there, since Charlene had not arrived yet, so I guess it was ok. I could've gone to the bathroom first though.

Once at Karaoke, didn't actually sing much. Just 3 songs, although we actually stayed longer. Most of the time Charlene was singing, who's leaving for Taiwan next Monday. She can also sing really well. Here are the songs I sang

1) いつも何度でも (Itsumo Nando Demo) from 千と千尋の神隠し (Spirited Away). 2nd attempt. Eck, couldn't hear the melody so was singing it wrong half hte time. Need to really listen to this before singing it next time. I haven't actually listened to the song for many months now.
2) Zone - 証 (Akashi) - 4th attempt. Didn't do as well as last time though. Wasn't able to keep up several times.
3) 宇多田ヒカル (Utada Hikaru) - Automatic. 2nd attempt I think. Sang with Fang. Forgot the melody somewhat, and Fang didn't know the kanji as well as I do. So we sorta had to try to help each other out.

Anyway, I'm still annoyed that the songs that I *really* know aren't in this new system. Like L'arc-en-ciel's Blurry Eyes. Or Neon Genesis Evangelion's opening theme. Need to learn the Rurouni Kenshin songs instead, since they have a lot of them (but they don't have Heart of Sword! WTH?!). They also don't have BoA's Duvet. Hmph.

Afterwards, we had dinner at 168. Food.... wasn't that great. Sesame Oil Chicken with Thin Noodles = bad. I should've gotten their Chicken Steak on Rice instead. Catherine ordered it and it looked good. Or maybe the dry noodles that Andy got.

Anyway, let's see if I can finish the readings for my Philosophy class before I sleep.
Currently feeling tired

dracil

What is with all these people searching for ways to hack Gunbound? Are they seriously that lame and suffering from such low self-esteem that they don't think they can win without cheating? Sheesh. Stupid script kiddies.
Currently feeling amazed

dracil

More tabling today... and flyering. Some American came by the table to debate, and Fang was happy to oblige. She did pretty well I think, and the guy eventually gave up.

Bah, stressed about tomorrow's career fair. Can't wait for Friday.
Currently feeling stressed

dracil

Bah. Career fair sucked. Too many sales positions. The only thing jobs that I was remotely interested, which was Kaplan's International Student/Program Coordinator/Director, were not available there. Instead, they told me to go online for that. Gah. Hopefully, tomorrow's will be better (more technical stuff). Then again, I'll probably feel woefully unqualified.

There was a lot of people who showed up for the BST meeting today. I'm hoping that part of it had to do with my getting the officers to say they're going to the meeting on http://live.berkeley.edu, making our event look more popular. Flyering brought a couple people, and tabling also brought quite a few too.

Afterwards, we all went to get free boba at Boba Cafe using coupons we got from TSA (Taiwanese Student Association). More boba tomorrow for free. :D Then I went over to Sophia's place to remove spyware from her computer and get Acrobat Reader 6.0 to work properly.

Oh, for the first time ever (AFAIK), the Daily Cal actually posted a front-page article about the outrageous tuition out-of-state students have to pay to come to UC Berkeley.
Currently feeling better than yesterday

dracil

Career fair went slightly better today, but not much. Most told me to just go to CalJobs.

My Philosophy "GSI" is not a GSI, she's more like an actual professor between jobs. But I guess that's good, since she made the material so much more interesting than Searle does...

More free boba today.

Karen and her roommate Linda came by an hour ago to pick up some anime (Inuyasha), and whatever else that could be scavenged.

New version of Notrium out! Woo!
Currently feeling okay

dracil

Hmm, so it appears I've been bumped up to Intermediate class instead. Hope I survive. Now I just need to get my CS section changed.

Went to the OCF general meeting today. So now I'm officially on staff again, except... the OCF labs may be closed indefinitely this semester... At least there are still BoD meetings to attend.
Currently feeling happy

dracil

You saw that right! In Japan, you can get a 45Mbps/3Mbps ADSL connection for only about $40/month!

And I thought the US had pretty good deals!
Currently feeling shocked

dracil

So, trying to get into classes with friends. I think being in the same class as people I know (and not just acquaintances, but people I know rather well) tends to help me do better. For example, I'd be more comfortable speaking up in class.

Watched Battle Royale 2 today.... MEDIUM SPOILERS. DON'T CONTINUE READING IF YOU DON'T WANNA BE SPOILED. Was certainly not as good as the first one. Too many deaths, and there wasn't all that psychological trauma of killing your friends that was in the first movie. They were actually united against a common enemy, so you didn't feel nearly as bad about them dying (since you expect deaths in any war). What *really* irked me was the fact that all those soldiers that were sent to kill them died so easily. So much for all that military training. Oh yeah, they also took some swipes at the US's history of bombing other countries. Will probably result in another US ban on the movie.
Currently feeling tired

dracil

New blogs! All by the same person (Jenny!). Yes, I am procrastinating.
Currently feeling giddy