dracil

Went to Joyce's place to do HW today. Took 2.5 hours to do 2 questions. It's not that we weren't being productive... it's just that some stuff are so hard to categorize!

After that, I went to Karen's place to buy her unused hard drive off her. $70 for Western Digital's 80GB 8MB Cache is pretty decent.
Currently feeling okay

dracil

Oh yes, forgot to add last night. Got the Cantonese DVD rip of Turn Left Turn Right to finally fulfill the birthday present from several months ago, but turns out Rebecca had already bought the actual DVD. =/
Currently feeling disappointed

dracil

Reiner Knizia's Samurai been reprinted! Should I get it before it goes out of print again? At the same time, I haven't had much time for games recently... Oi, dilemma.
Currently feeling okay

dracil

9:30 mass meant lack of sleep, and I ended up napping during the afternoon while reading. Did get quite a bit of reading done today though, much of it during the Superbowl ironically. Read during the game, and watch the commercials.
Currently feeling tired

dracil

Whoops, where'd the time go? Spent day doing hw with people and doing a bit of gaming. Sort of relaxing... compared to tomorrow. Tomorrow's gonna suck.
Currently feeling blah

dracil

Ok, I'm going to write my entry before I'm too tired to remember what happened during the day.

Had a mixup at Subway today where I thought I was exchanging the chips for the cookies as part of their combo meal. Apparently, I can only exchange for two cookies, not three, so I was wondering why I was being overcharged. They let me keep the extra cookie at the lower price. And before I forget, I've noticed that behind the sign next to the entrance, there's a large cache of books stored there. I wonder if it's some homeless guy's place for keeping his books.

Taiwanese Decal was not as bad. I guess I really can understand more Taiwanese than I thought I could. Now I just need to be able to speak it.

Then BST meeting! That was rather fun, especially AFTER the meeting, when we kept trying to get Fang to say Jason's name in a very girly way. Heck, even I could do it. Eventually she was able to do it, especially when we left Dwinelle and saw Charlie and David. Poor Charlie then became the target of our girlish practice. :D Really funny, lots of laughter. This part took a full 30 minutes.

After that, Joyce lost her umbrella, but picked up the one that someone else had left in the room, so no real net change (well, loss of some sentimental value perhaps), then we did Philosophy HW, which sucked! Can't these philosophers just say what they mean in a clear and concise manner? I mean seriously, it's like they're following the saying, "If you can't convince them, confuse them".
Currently feeling content

dracil

Lunch with BST peeps today at Durant Food Court. I really hate Steve's Korean BBQ when it's crowded. They get the orders wrong half the time (the part about no kimchi, and I want it here, not to go).

Made use of my pirate card again after a long time. So current savings is $5.55/$9.49 (mine/total).
Currently feeling blah

dracil

OCF is open again! Which means I have to actually go in there one hour per week now. =/ But it also means that I can get my 250+100 pages of free printing now. :D

Taiwanese decal was a bit scary today, since they did it all in 95% Taiwanese. And I could understand maybe 90-95% of that. The ice breaker was the worst, since we had to ask questions in Taiwanese. I wrote down the questions and answers in a phonetic language I created on the fly made up of a combination of English, Japanese, and Zhuyin. Gah. 5 minute presentation... can I seriously do it in Taiwanese? Or will I give up and just do it in English and submit the 2 page paper with it...

OCF meeting in 45 minutes. Dinner beforehand sounds good.
Currently feeling stressed

dracil

Just came back from the OCF Board of Directors meeting. Ended up cleaning a bunch of computers, and after words, we went to Naan 'n Curry for food, although a bunch of us didn't eat since we'd already eaten already. The whole thing took 3.5 hours. Yah.
Currently feeling content

dracil

Karen, her roommate Linda, and Linda's boyfriend Andrew came by to watch Juon, the theatrical version. I think the proper timeline was Juon 1 and 2 tv movie versions, then Juon 1 and 2 theatrical versions. So we probably should've watched Juon 2 tv movie version first. But anyway. Linda was the only person scared during the movie, but her fright made up for the rest of our non-fright.

After that, I showed them a bit of Fatal Frame, just to show how Japanese horror tends to be similar, no matter the medium.

Anyway, bedtime before I can no longer wake up for that leadership symposium tomorrow.
Currently feeling sleepy

dracil

Microsoft has released the source code for Allegiance! Now the people at http://www.freeallegiance.org can do all the stuff they wanted to do and more! Once they can get the thing to compile...

In other news, Soldat 1.2 has been released.
Currently feeling excited

dracil

That was the big thing for today. Arrived at 9:30, saw Anne of SOID (and other stuff), and Frank of ASES showed up too. Fang, Sophia, and Diana of BST eventually arrived close to 10. Apparently they had waited for me, not realizing that I'd already gone. -_-; Anyway, breakfast was rather blah. Kept nodding off with the speakers from my lack of sleep. The Marketing your Leadership Experience was almost the same as another workshop I'd gone to that was also hosted by the Career Center people. Lunch was pretty good, and we left right afterwards, since the afternoon workshops weren't as appealing. So yeah, free breakfast, lunch, and a t-shirt. :D

Took a 4 hour nap after I got back. When I woke, it was dark, and I'd actually forgotten that it was a nap, so I thought I'd woken in the middle of the night. Good thing I got up, or I might've slept for another several hours and then be too wide awake to go to bed for real.
Currently feeling okay

dracil

Left at 10:25 and got to Catherine's place by 10:35. The rest slowly trickled in, and we cleaned the 2-28 signs for an hour. Heavy stuff. Then we practiced our skits for Tuesday and then they spent many many hours trying to add information about the referendum to the signs. By the time we were done, it was around 4:30.
Currently feeling tired

dracil

Later, my roommates wanted to play some board games, and they invited a friend called Maurice over. We played Puerto Rico, where Shen won with 48 points, Chester was second with 45. I got only 30 points (damn Shen for getting all those Corn planations and ending the game before I got my 4 point building). Maurice had 29 points. At least, Chester is no longer winning now. Thoughts.... factory is not nearly as good as some people claim it to be.

Then we played Wiz War, which dragged a little bit, but I eventually got the win by messing up the board with a relocate sector and a rotate sector.

Had a severe headache by the end.

Karen and Linda just came by a few minutes ago to borrow more Inuyasha from Shen.

Urk, headache's back, but no sleeping till I finish my reading. Thank goodness for no class tomorrow (but I need to meet a professor at 2 tomorrow).
Currently feeling tired

dracil

Firefox (formerly known as Firebird) 0.8 is now released! Get it at http://www.mozilla.org
Currently feeling geeky

dracil

No classes today. Went to see Lucia Jacobs briefly about the URAP stuff. Not starting till at least next week. Bleah, buncha stuff due in the next couple days.
Currently feeling a little stressed

dracil

Had a harrowing experience in the morning when I thought I'd lost my wallet. Turns out it was under one of my readers, but still wasted 10 minutes. So much for a leisurely walk to class. I think I need to clean up my room again.

Saw David in the Soda labs around lunch. Teased him as usual.

For our BST event today, 8 non-officers showed up, which was.... ok I guess. Was rather humorous because of all our bad acting. We all had ramune afterwards, so that was good. Haven't had that for a long time. I still have the bottle. :D

Afterwards, Sophia, Joyce, and I went to Crossroads for dinner (thanks Joyce, for swiping me in!). The last time I went was the beginning of last semester. Food was ok. My ice cream cone skills have deteriorated though. Throughout most of dinner, Joyce and Sophia kept telling cold jokes. We probably scared people away from the table because of our constant laughter. I especially like the rice joke, but you'll need to understand Chinese to get it.
Currently feeling happy

dracil

Whee, there's a lot of communities on Orkut! Created a bunch of communities myself.

ISB
Nekomimi
Global Nomads

I would've created more, but some people already beat me to it.
Currently feeling geeky

dracil

http://www.christianforums.com/t85721&page=5

I think the poll on that thread speaks volumes about which side is open-minded and which side is close-minded. It also demonstrates the fundamental difference between science and religion and why evolution is not a religion, no matter how many creationists try to claim that.

Ugh. *shakes head*
Currently feeling disappointed

dracil

So according to this test, this girl would be my type.

(Click for my detailed information from the test.)

My thoughts on the results: I don't really think I'm *that* picky. Although I did find stuff that turned me off strongly on a lot of the pics. Perhaps I'm less picky about Asian women (the pics were predominantly Caucasian women), which would make sense from a genetic point of view (basically, generations of picking looks within a certain ethnicity might start to bias the descendants towards certain looks that are more common in that ethnicity, although certain looks from other ethnicities might still be attractive. I don't particularly buy the exoticity idea).

Faces... I found the "Girl Next Door" pic a lot more attractive than the "Cheerleader" pic they put up. I'm still not really sure what counts as end/ecto/mesomorph faces, so I can't really judge there. Give me a list of each and I can make a better judgement.

Body and breast size... um. No comment.

Eye color - brown. Um, I already know I'm biased towards Asians. Nose stuff seems right, same with hair. Although I also like *really* black hair on top of the darker hairs. Glasses, I can actually go either way. Lips and smiles, seem about right too.

Oh, and as for the pic of the girl they said is my type. I think she's cute. At least, she's among the better looking ones from that test.

As for my thoughts on physical attraction and superficiality in general. People *are* attracted by physical appearances, whether or not they admit it. You don't even have to be consciously aware of it for it to affect you. There are several studies that demonstrate this. So basically, it's pointless talking about how all this is superficial. So unless you're some rare superhuman, it affects you just like it does the rest of us.
Currently feeling fascinated

dracil

Kept bumping into Krista today. First time was not that surprising, since it was not that far from lecture. But several minutes later, she walked into Subway where I was eating. Chatted for awhile. Then bumped into Jenny at the OCF lab. Didn't even realize she was there until she noticed me when she was about to leave.

OCF BoD meeting today. Oh yes, good news for all you OCF people! Your webspace and home directory quotas have doubled! Yes, that means 120MB webspace and 200MB home space. Mail is still 10MB, mainly 'cause the mail server is out of space.

A bunch of us went to Gypsy's afterwards for dinner, where we chatted about a range of things, from movies and shows, to people who participate in eating contests. So yeah, first time I've eaten at Gypsy's! The pesto calzone is pretty good.
Currently feeling content

dracil

Oh, here's some more info I didn't post up in my last entry about this.

(Some more features that I'm supposedly interested in (some were already mentioned before in the other parts).)

I find it interesting that they took it for granted that I would find Caucasian women attractive, and only gave details of my interest for the other categories. More reason that this test is biased towards Caucasian people. Their age thing though, is definitely wrong. 25+ is too old...

I also took their personal attraction test. Don't feel like copying and pasting, so just click here if you wanna see my report.
Currently feeling still sort of fascinated

dracil

Is this an ill omen for all the couples out there? I mean, what worse day to have just before February 14th? But then again, we should not be using the V-word around here, for tomorrow is SAD, aka Singles Awareness Day!

Anyway, was trying to finish my reading, hence me being up at 3AM when I have class at 9AM. Meanwhile, I created 3 new communities on Orkut.

Tabulas - for all you Tabulas users out there!
Theistic Evolution - for those of us who understand that evolution is not incompatible with Christianity and the Bible
ZONE - for all the people who like the JPop band, ZONE!

On a related note, I am now part of 34 communities on Orkut.

Ok, definitely going to bed now, before I conk out.
Currently feeling not sleepy

dracil

Yes, today is SAD! Finally!

Anyway, Friday the Thirteenth was actually pretty bad for me. First, I was late to my econ experiment so I couldn't participate (they should make it a rule that they can never NOT start on Berkeley Time). Second, it rained and I didn't have an umbrella. Third, I sucked at Gunbound today.

Anyway, I met Rebecca by chance today at IB Hoagies. She gave me a card for her fellowship's Coffee Nite next Saturday. Did a bit of HW with Joyce during lunch, but ended up mostly not doing work. Saw Jenny briefly while we were in the OCF. So not going to the econ experiment did allow me to go to the little How to Write a Philosphy Paper thing that one of the GSIs held.

Anyway, headache.
Currently feeling that my head is throbbing

dracil

So.... did not really do much for Singles Awareness Day today. Got my rest by waking at 12. Worked on my Philosophy paper, almost done. But still stressing about the fact that I've forgotten so much Java, so I'm dreading doing the CS assignment.

Did go out to Safeway for a bit of food. Two guys approached me while I was waiting at the bus stop trying to sell me some magazine subscriptions so that they could get out of their high crime area in Oakland and go to college. I told them that I felt they were being used by the corporations to sell products for them. From the number of subscriptions they needed, the corporations would be getting a lot of money. They countered that their sponsor doesn't actually get any of the money and that it was better than simply going around and asking for donations. Um, yeah, but the money goes to the corporation that gave money to their sponsor to sell their products, yes? Well, dunno. Maybe I'm just too cynical. But thankfully, the bus came, so that was the end of that.
Currently feeling blah

dracil

Karaoke with BST people today again.

Finally managed to sing the songs on the old system. Almost every song I sang today was from an anime, or related to one. Actually sang quite a bit this time too. Anyway, the songs I sang in approximate order are:

1)Heart of Sword - T.M. Revolution - Rurouni Kenshin - bah, neither Fang nor I could really sing it.
2)Blurry Eyes - L'arc-en-ciel - DNA²- The mic I was using was broken so I couldn't really get sound out, and people were talking really loudly at the time. People were still too hyper. Bleah.
3)Melissa - Porno Graffitti - Fullmetal Alchemist - better. Also got Fang to try to sing this one.
4)You Give Love a Bad Name - Bon Jovi - (music for an Excel Saga anime music video) - this was actually a song I prepped before my first time going to Karaoke, but they didn't have the song back then. I sang this 'cause Jenny insisted I sing an English song.
5)Invoke - T.M. Revolution - Gundam Seed - first time trying it, was a little hard trying to keep up.
6)Ikkyuusan - Ikkyuusan - amazing that I still remembered most of the melody for something I haven't listened to for many many many years (this was a childhood show). Then again, the song's rather simple.
7)Cruel Angel's Thesis - Neon Genesis Evangelion - was actually pretty good. Sang this with Fang. Music video was crap as usual though.

Wasted the rest of night playing some adventure/puzzle games. Specifically, the following.

http://www.datacraft.co.jp/takagism/index_e.html
http://www.albartus.com/motas
http://www.kingscall.com
Currently feeling unproductive

dracil

Spent day working on HW. Went to Aimee's place at 10 to watch the Mel Gibson interview. During and after which I had some minor debates with the people there about Evolution/Creationism, Christianity, Faith, etc. Got back after 11:30.
Currently feeling blah

dracil

I mentioned this Orkut community a couple entries back. Been debating a bit in there recently. Apparently, people seem to really like my writing style (or at least, my ability to get my points across). I find that interesting because my GSIs over the years often complain that I lack a clear thesis (even when I think I have one) in the essays I write.

Well, I hope what they said is true, and that my years of forum debating have allowed me to develop a real skill that will help me write my philosophy paper (which the philosophy GSIs claim is different from papers in other fields).

It also appears that a lot of the people in the community are wondering why the heck I'm not an atheist. Or as one guy puts it, "You are obviously very passionate and articulate - what compels you to squander those gifts defending fairy tales?"

Oh, and it feels *very* weird having strangers calling me by my real name online. I'm too used to my identity as Dracil online.
Currently feeling thoughtful

dracil

From the IV mailing list.

To Whom IT May Concern:

I am interested in getting connected with those who believe in a literal
interpretation of the the book of Genesis, from a scientific standpoint. I
would like to set up a "support network" on this topic between individuals
on different college campuses. Please give any interested parties my email
address so that they can contact me.

Thank you so much for your help,
Dr. Glenn C. Jackson

drjxn@bellsouth.net

In response, I sent off a quick email saying why I *wouldn't* join.
Currently feeling blah

dracil

Oi, I continue to be overloaded with stuff, even though I turned in two pieces of homework today. We have a "quiz" for Linguistics, and we'll undoubtedly have more assignments for philosophy due next week, and there's that most annoying of homework, my CS project. Argh. Seriously, if I didn't have this CS project, everything else would not seem that bad.

Stupid wind and rain today too. The bottom half of my pants were actually soaked through.

Oh, I also have a quiz for my Taiwanese language class on Thursday too. Ugh. But my team did win the game today in class so we get 3 extra points on the quiz.

I also currently have two websites (OCF and BST) that will need to be redesigned once I get a bit of spare time.

After BST today, went to DC with Joyce and Sophia again. So that's 2 meals I now owe Joyce. Fewer cold jokes this time. But still funny. A big chunk of time was devoted to discussing and making fun of our names. Mmm, yeah.

Now to finish the Searle part of my philosophy homework due tomorrow.
Currently feeling mixed

dracil

So here's yet another point I disagree with Searle about. At least according to my TA, Searle believes that while we may have unconscious beliefs, intentions, etc, we are able to bring them up our consciousness. This goes against my theory about people's faiths. Basically, I believe that pretty much all conscious actions we do are works, including claiming that one is a Christian. Not everyone who claims they are a Christian is actually Christian, and conversly, not everyone who does not call themselves a Christian is not a Christian (let me rephrase the second part more clearly. Even those who do not call themselves Christians [indeed, they may say they are of another faith] may actually be Christian in reality).

This leads to an interesting discovery, humans do not really know what they believe! Of course, up till now, this is still just speculation, but there are some studies that lend credence to this idea.

If given two identical socks, and asked which one they prefer, as a rule, people are more likely to choose the one on the right. But if questioned, they will come up with all sorts of rationalizations for their choice that simply aren't true! Our brain is great at filling in the gaps for us (another reason why it's so easy for us to have false memories). This itself, is a fatal counterexample to Searle's claim that we can really access all our unconscious beliefs, as in this case, it is clear that people do not always know why they do what they do!
Currently feeling thoughtful

dracil

I am starting to understand Java a lot better now. Especially the thing that was really frustrating me about not being able to access object fields. Gotta cast it, and then bracket the cast as well as thing I'm casting again. Missed that part last night, so it didn't work. Thanks to Kaisen for pointing that out. Now I hope I don't screw myself with not knowing when it does pass-by-reference and when it does pass-by-value.

The Taiwanese quiz was relatively easy. The hardest part was trying to understand what exactly what the instructors were saying for the phonetics part. The 2 point bonus (I'd thought it was 3, but I guess it was only 2) from winning the game helps too.

OCF meeting tonight, lots of talk, but not much done (no real voting). OCF's a *really* nice alternative to Soda, except... it's not open on weekends. Hope Jenny's cardkey works this weekend.

Had a long argument with Jenny on AIM about the 2-28 commemoration in Taiwan based on the contents from my mom's email about her thoughts on the event. In the end, we agreed that it's part commemoration, and part political stunt by the DPP (it's election year).
Currently feeling tired

dracil

So I finally noticed I'd somehow messed up when I was talking about my family history. For some reason, I'd confused it and taken my mother's grandfather and grandmother to be my grandfather and grandmother.

So really, it was my great-grandparents (the parents of my mother's father), my grandfather, and granduncle who'd moved to Taiwan from China. They were also originally from Fuzhou.
Currently feeling interested

dracil

Day was pretty relaxing. Spent day in OCF working on CS project among other stuff. Went to URAP meeting, I'll be beginning next Wed, and looks like I'll actually be the only person working on it! Then went to Ace to get supplies for BST. Some milling around then went to the dinner with BST peeps at Mario's La Fiesta. The portions were good. I might go more often.

Then it was to Eastbay Christian Fellowship to hear the pastor there speak. Was disappointed, but I sort of expected the result. I couldn't help grinning at the things he was saying... Here are some of the flimsy arguments and mistakes I heard there (some paraphrasing):
* Atheists are silly because they have only finite knowledge about the world and cannot really prove that God doesn't exist, so when they say that there is no God, it's plain stupid.
Problem: That's strong Atheism, not weak Atheism. By his logic, it would be silly to say that there are no invisible pink unicorns. I mean, it just so happens that you keep missing them! His arguments then really become an argument for agnosticism.
* Confusing abiogenesis with evolution
Problem: abiogensis is not a requirement for evolution.
* Made an argument based on CS Lewis that our brain could not have evolved from randomness, or else we couldn't have thought, and thus atheists are committing "intellectual suicide" by denying that their brain was designed.
Problem: Evolution is not "random," as there is actually selection going on. But this statement made me want to throw him and Searle in the same room and watch them duke it out.
* Socialism/communism/marxism/lenism bad. Capitalism good. Then he goes on to say the evils that occur from capitalism are really not the fault of capitalism.
Problem: Can you say, double standards? Then later on, he urged the people in the room to share with one another because it's Christian-like. Oh wait... that's socialism.

Enough of him for now. There was a girl called Christine who I've seen around before. She was *really* intrigued because she'd seen me around campus a lot with Joyce. She thought I'd gone to the same high school as Joyce... but, turns out she's a CogSci major too, so that's probably why. Interesting how the human mind works.

Oh, yes. My apologies to poor Eugene, a junior, who I chatted with while I was waiting for a chance to talk to Pastor John (I never got a chance to talk to him, as he started the freshman bible study afterwards). But yeah poor Eugene had to answer a ton of questions about Pastor John and what sorts of things he was teaching, as well as Eugene's own beliefs. This delayed him from his Junior bible study for awhile.

But yeah, I suppose most people there did not expect that there would be this sort of reaction from a new person.

Some thing I noticed there though is that people do know about theistic evolution, and the distinctions between weak and strong Atheism. People also said that they didn't agree 100% with Pastor John, but they generally had positive thoughts about him (including Frank, during the BST dinner, who said he was better than most of the pastors he'd heard, although he was into "conspiracies"). They also felt that I should argue with him directly. And perhaps I shall. If Joyce goes again in March, I might check him out again, but next week is the 2-28 stuff.
Currently feeling predatory

dracil

What a useless day. 6 hours or so in Soda and just 1 page of Linguistics hw. So yeah, originally was supposed to be there at 2:15, then Joyce rescheduled so she could meet with her accountability group, who ended up as a no-show. Once there, we were basically distracted by the internet. Joyce by AIM and me by an argument with Jenny on Fang's tabulas.

Afterwards, Joyce's high school friend, Jeff, came by and we went to Southside for food.
Currently feeling unproductive

dracil

So compared to yesterday, today was a heckuva lot more productive. Just spent the entire day in front of my computer, but I actually did not get distracted too much. So in all, I probably had 12 hours of coding for CS done. Which also means I'm almost done, and I would be done, if it weren't for my network being unable to learn SAME (it works for AND). Argh. But then again, even on TLearn, the results are iffy, and doesn't always work. But I think I'm not going to bother anymore. No matter how many times I look, I can't see where my calculations differ from the backpropagation algorithms, so tomorrow, I'm just going to remove my debugging code, and add in the proper documentation.

After that, I can finally concentrate on my Linguistics quiz-turned-homework-turned-paper.
Currently feeling very productive

dracil

Ok, now I feel much better. CS and Linguistics over. CS done in afternoon, and went out for a little discussion with Han and Gabor at Cafe Strada at night for linguistics. Then it was finishing the homework.

Also tabling for BST today. And for the first time, people actually gave out flyers.
Currently feeling relieved

dracil

Some tabling today. Tabling next to TSA is good, as it gives us opportunities to steal their members from their events to ours. :D

After the BST meeting today, we had the traditional DC gathering again, with Diana this time. Most of the conversations was about how guys keep harassing the girls, as well as the purity of people's minds. You can read Joyce's blog for more info about that part. Oh yeah. SOPHIA, THE SNOW EMPRESS, HAS A DIRTY MIND! ^_^ Even after we left the DC, and Diana had gone home, we were still standing there telling various jokes. Heehee.

Hmm, stuff to remember for tomorrow.
1) Bring Jenny's chocolate for BST tabling
2) Print out Philosophy HW before tabling
3) Return library book to avoid fines
4) Ash Wednesday mass
5) URAP experiments
Currently feeling relatively content

dracil

http://www.okcupid.com/personality?type=DGLD&g=1&o=1&h=162

The Slow Dancer
Deliberate Gentle Love Dreamer (DGLDm)

Steady, reliable, and cradling her tenderly. Take a deep breath, and let it out real easy...you are The Slow Dancer.

Your focus is love, not sex, and for your age, you have average experience. But you're a great, thoughtful guy, and your love life improves every year. There's also a powerful elimination process working in your favor: most Playboy types get stuck raising unwanted kids before you even begin settling down. The women left over will be hot and yours. Your ideal woman is someone intimate, intelligent, and very supportive.

Your exact opposite:
The Hornivore
Random Brutal Sex Master

While you're not exactly the life of the party, you do thrive in small groups of smart people. Your circle of friends is extra tight and it's HIGHLY likely they're just like you. You appreciate symmetry in relationships.

ALWAYS AVOID: The Battleaxe

CONSIDER: The Maid of Honor or The Sonnet
Currently feeling amused

dracil

Well, from standing around a bit during URAP today. I dunno, I think standing around in one place is a lot more tiring than actually walking... Didn't actually do much for URAP today, just built some of the objects we need for experiments.

Also did some flyering. Kinda bad since the rain makes everything wet.

Hmm... what else... oh yeah. My Philosophy TA said that my paper had a rather different point of view that she liked. I think this is the first time I've actually been complimented on a paper at UC Berkeley? I don't know if I can sustain that, especially since I haven't been keeping up with my readings, thanks to that evil CS project. But yeah, I wonder if it has to do with my constant forum debating... being useful for philosophy papers...

Speaking of which. Today's Ash Wednesday, and also the beginning of Lent. Ended up not going to the 12:10 mass on campus and instead went to the 10PM mass. Was supposed to meet with Michelle and Judy, but they were late, so that didn't work out.

As for what I'm giving up... I'm still not completely decided. No buying snacks (especially chips), and/or no debating on forums about evolution/creationism. That second one was an idea I got from a couple people on the forums. That's what they're giving up.

Oh, last thing that happened today was an online BST meeting... that lasted like 3+ hours?
Currently feeling blah

dracil

Yep, it sucks when you're out tabling. Even if under a tent. The side flaps kept getting blown apart, and the wind actually knocked the boards down too. And apparently the staple gun I got is not that good. Hope tomorrow's better.

Went to 168 with Taiwanese Decal people. Was nice. Got to see the other types of stuff that was there. Some stuff seem pretty good for cheap.

Note to self: Go home before 5:30 to get Sophia's laptop and tea to bring to 110 Barrows.
Currently feeling tired

dracil

Well, it's now 2-28 here! Firstly, today is my mom's birthday! Happy birthday mom if you're reading this! ^_^

Secondly, today is also the 2-28 Massacre in Taiwan! Last night (or several hours ago), BST had a panel of speakers. Some interesting stories... although I may or may not fully agree with the views of some of the speakers. We had a big cloth map of Taiwan that we waved up and down at the end. It also went severely overtime! Was supposed to end around 8:15, but ended at 9:00, which was when I was supposed to leave with Rebecca and her roommates for Safeway. So I rushed to her place, only to realize I didn't remember her room number. So I went home, contacted her, then they picked me up and we went to Safeway.

Lots of food! Decided to have some of the frozen chicken I bought for a late dinner.... took forever to cook, and some tater tots. Also bought soy milk for the first time, since I had soy milk at the DC on Tuesday and decided I wanted more of that.

Hmm, as for the rest of the day. Some tabling and flyering for BST in the morning. Good weather today. Then the CogSci discussion with URAP and other people today. Was fighting *really* hard to stay awake. Really bad in such a small setting if I fell asleep. Perhaps I have narcolepsy? Or maybe I just need to sleep more.

Then it was the actual URAP experiment today. Had to get the hang of things again, so some minor things went wrong. Next experiment should work better.
Currently feeling tired

dracil

Urk. Seems like I can't escape it. I'm not really debating evolution on forums, but I'm still debating in general.

Another thing that happened was that I saw a sign saying answer 2 questions and get a free cookie (of course technically it's not free then, since it requires some effort). I went on over (it wasn't for the cookie! I swear!). Sure enough, as expected, it was a Christian group, wanting to know my answers to two questions. Where am I going after death, and why, or something like that (not sure of the second question). Gave them an answer I knew they wouldn't like (although I do believe it). Basically, I said that it can't be known. Even for Christians, which they of course, disagreed. I basically said how it was the Sin of Presumption (which on second thought, is a little more specific, although still somewhat related) to think that you will necessarily go to heaven just because you say, think, or believe you are a Christian. They said no, that's not true, and gave some line about how Jesus saves us all. I countered with a verse that I didn't fully remember about how not all who proclaim him Lord can enter heaven (quick search now says it's in Matthew 7). I asked them about a few more stuff, like views on evolution. They were actually not hardline Creationists, and actually open to evolution as a mechanism through how God created. How very refreshing.

Then just awhile ago, got into a debate on same-sex, incestuous, pedophilic, and polygamous marriage. I do not think that incestuous, pedophilic, and polygamous marriages should be banned either. Of course, someone responded thinking that I was using the slippery slope argument to say that same-sex marriages should be banned. I was actually going for a more subtle point. Basically, people will clamor for the tolerance and rights to do what they want, but at the same time, they will be intolerant and deny these same rights to other people in similar plights. This was demonstrated when the person complained that incestuous and paedophilic marriages were "violent" and the same as murder, and rape. Never mind the fact that other people say the same about same-sex marriages.

But is it really? Incestuous, pedophilic, and polygamous marriages have all at one time been (or are currently) legal in certain cultures and countries. The same goes for same-sex marriages. But the same people who say that same-sex marriages are not morally wrong, will do a 180 and say that incestuous, pedophilic, and polygamous (although this person only said the first two) are morally wrong! Ok, so now the hypocrisy of the moral argument is out of the way, let's look at some more specific arguments.

Incestuous marriage - Is it wrong to marry relatives? It's good for family relations (less of that in-law-from-hell stuff). It may be bad genetically, but if that's a reason to ban marriages, we should ban anyone with genetic defects from marrying too!

Pedophilic marriage - A note about my definition of pedophilic. I'm using it to describe any relation where one person is of an age equal to the lowest legal age of marriage in any country in the world. I think this is as young as 12 or 13. My point here is, why should the legal age not be that low? Is it because they are not emotionally ready? Well, obviously, there are certain cultures that disagree, and thus allow the lower age of consent (both sex and marriage).

Polygamous marriages - hey, more love is good right?

Oh yeah. The person also kept saying how some of the above are illegal in a lot of places as a reason that they are bad. Um, HELLO?! I thought that was the whole point! How come you get to change the law you don't like, but these other people can't?

Anyway, I shall retire now.
Currently feeling argumentative

dracil

So got up at 9:30 today to go to Rebecca's place for lunch. I first went to the movie theater to get tickets, but they weren't open yet. Got to Rebecca's place at 11:10, and I was the first one there. Eventually Michelle also showed up at 12:30. We had pasta (with mushroom and corn, and I added parmesan cheese), hot dog sausages, fries, chicken nuggets, and apple juice for lunch. After lunch, we headed over to the movie theater and arrived at 1PM. Hung-Tzu and David were there. The theater people didn't like us bringing the leftovers, so they told us to keep it behind the counter. Then some guy asked me for my leftovers. I decided to give it to him.

So... thoughts on the movie. Reminded me a lot of Lord of the Rings. Like in the Elvish sections, since I didn't understand what they were saying. Probably helps that the people had the general dishelved, bearded looks too. Yah, it's graphic like people say. But I'm desensitized enough to that. That's not to say I didn't get emotional a couple times in the movie though, but I didn't cry. I never cry at movies. Only get emotional maybe. Hung-Tzu didn't cry either, but she did come close. Rebecca and Marisa both cried. Michelle and David both refused to comment on the question. There were quite a few people who were sniffling and blowing their noses at the end of the movie though.

Oh, the other thing that really caught my attention was not the movie itself, but the previews! Shows marketing at work. First, it began with the foreign language films (since the movie's also in foreign languages). Then it was the slew of Christian-themed movies. And it ended with "Jesus would turn off his phone" just before the movie started. And sure enough, someone's cell phone still rang during the movie.

On a slightly related note, there are currently 140 seeders, and 5909 downloaders for The Passion of the Christ at http://www.suprnova.org. The closest second is The Matrix Revolutions DVD rip with 118 seeders and 2945 downloaders.
Currently feeling okay

dracil

Urk. the images have suddenly been moved to a new server. Dunno how to access the full-sized pics now... Temporarily using the resized and mutilated images. Which is why the background now looks weird.
Currently feeling surprised

dracil

Looks like my roommate just went off and insulted all the girls at Berkeley again. I don't think it's intentional... more like a lack of tact. It would probably have come across a lot better if he had not singled out girls for this study.

Anyway, read the comments for some of the reactions. http://www.livejournal.com/community/ucberkeley/198505.html.
Currently feeling blah