dracil

Saw Rebecca and some of her friends on my way. They were going to some salsa dance. Karen and Michelle went, but left afterwards. Burritos or some plates of food and some drinks. People kept talking at the back and were too loud. And the acoustics in there sucked, so for most of the time, had a hard time telling what they were singing. Rock band was too loud, especially with me close to front. Magnetic North... thanks to bad acoustic, the only song I really liked was their first We Will Not Be Moved song. The songs sound better though, from the downloadable MP3s on their site.

Afterwards, was able to get a plate of leftover chicken.
Currently feeling okay

dracil

Played a game of San Juan with David Chu online. Lost 33 - 43. Then Chester, Shen, and their friends came by, so we played a game of Bang! Sheriff/Deputy won. The other two outlaws got themselves killed too quickly. Then I gambled and gave myself away. So close... one more turn and Shen would've died and Outlaws would have won.

After they left, my roommates and I played another game of San Juan. I got three end-game buildings (Triumphal Arch, City Hall, and Guild Hall), and so ran away with 48 points. Chester had 40, and Shen had 34.
Currently feeling happy

dracil

Probably the worst one yet, because of events outside the show. First, the people were supposed to go ended up not going, although Peter did show up to my surprise. The second is the people who were cutting in line and the general hypocritical nature of the people in Theatre Rice. When I went there, I was 2nd in line, by the time it was done, I was 8TH in line. Peter went from 4th to 16th. All the while, the Theatre Rice people just ignored it as it was happening right under their noses. What, did I miss the memo saying that there was a policy change? Furthermore, once inside, they basically stated that you should not reserve seats. Yet, just before, while we were waiting outside, one of the Theatre Rice person actually told the people who had cut in front of me to reserve seats. WTH.

The actual skits I guess were interesting, but a bit too long. Comedy Troupe provided more variety.
Currently feeling annoyed

dracil

Haven't uploaded anything for a long long time, so I decided to upload this song, just 'cause I like it, and I think they could do with a bit of promotion. Asian-Americans should be able to identify with the song more I think. Oh yeah, they're both UC Berkeley students. ^_^

Get it here, or on the Contents page or Media Files category as usual.

Lyrics:
WE WILL NOT BE MOVED

Verse 1:
I'm sick of silence, sick of being voiceless.
They stigmatize us, the bitterest of poisons.
We gotta fight it, no living in avoidance.
Ain't you sick of suffering the bitter disapointment?
"Hell Yeah!"
Then join us, trust in our tactics.
Prove we ain't moving like rush hour traffic.
I've had it, the madness, I literally shook
hearing tales never told in a history book.
Caught in misery's hook, seeing, faces screaming.
fathers getting slaughtered, daughters raped and beaten
while they are weeping, mothers sitting stunned
clutchin on to dog tags that belong to her son.
See the fight has begun, but the silence is over...

This is for our culture! This is for our soldiers!
This is for the lives sacrificed on the road ta
peace and prosperity, its theirs to redeem.
Shattered, broken battered, the American Dream...
nonexistent, we living in a system, consistent
with prisons, restrictin our wishes and visions.
So listen, we had enough, we had it rough
it all added up and now we rattled up, so

CHORUS:

WE WILL NOT BE MOVED
Take us to the brink, call us chinks and gooks.
WE WILL NOT BE MOVED
I refuse to live my life so confused.
WE WILL NOT BE MOVED
Detachment or action you've got to choose.
WE WILL NOT BE MOVED
Generations overdue now we got to prove.

Verse 2:
Sometimes I don't know who I am, maybe I'm a freak,
cuz even Asians, man, they be giving me heat.
Cuz you see, I'm Chinese, but Chinese I can't speak.
I only know English, I guess that makes me unique?
Cuz I get no love, from my own people,
I'm a disgrace to my race, a culture-less individual,
Plus, i ain't the typical, model minority
Being a scholor intellectual aint my priority.
That's me, an ABC with no future.
My grades are shitty, even if I had a tutor.
I ain't good with books, that's just my nature.
But being Asian and all, must mean I'm a failure.
Cuz yo, that is what is expected
If u don't follow the trend, you ain't respected.
See even though I'm good at writing tracks and spittin raps,
I still get down played, for not being black.
As a matter of fact, yo, aint my skin yellow?
So what am I doin rapping? I should be playin the cello.
But really though, this is the kind of shit that I fuckin get,
Impressed I speak English without an accent.
Cmon, I'm getting sick, to my dick, with these stereotypes.
But I'm goin keep my head up, and just carry the mic.
and spit rhymes, til i'm dead, despite if it's right,
cuz this is one chink, that aint gonna follow the hype.
So follow me and fight and let me hear you say...

CHORUS

see, I don't know all the answers
but i have hopes.
Don't act like you dying from cancer, tied in ropes
you want shit to change, rearrange your mind first
then we can begin to lift this curse, cuz we..

Faceless, people living on the
basis, that we evil in this racist
place where we taste this
discrimination.
Damn, do I hate this,
Man just erase this,
constant complacence.
We constantly facing
a storm that's been raging
inside these rib cages.
And why?
Cuz we asian
we die for this nation
and cry for salvation

for lifetimes and ages..

Also really like the instrumental for their Price of Perfection. Go to their site at http://www.magnetichiphop.com
Currently feeling okay

dracil

http://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/975211/posts

Hello, hypocrites!
Currently feeling amused

dracil

Wah, did a ton of reading today. Stress, stress over too much work due prematurely (first time I have 4 finals-level things (for 3 classes) due BEFORE finals week).

And I think the rechargeable batteries in my mouse is dying... time to get those higher capacity rechargeable batteries... even after a night's recharge, it starts blinking low battery after just several hours of usage.
Currently feeling stressed

dracil

Saw a game pavilion on Lower Sproul today by accident. I think I saw flyers for it, but I must've forgotten about it. Only interesting thing there was Samurai Warriors, which plays essentially the same as Dynasty Warriors. No slowdowns was nice, but it had crappy draw distance. Seems like it had a different upgrading system too.

So BST elections was today. People were all so.... non-committal. Got a little annoying. After that, we also had quite a bit of trouble deciding where to eat. Eventually, most of us ordered and ate at Steve's Korean BBQ.
Currently feeling okay

dracil

Yay, we can use our slip days for our CS final paper, so it can be pushed back 3 days. Finally, don't have a ton of stuff all due the same day.

Went to Wendy's place for the Taiwanese decal final presentation preparation. Somehow... I could tell that the people living there were Christians... or maybe had something to do with the "Love Wall" they had... on which I left a cynical definition.

Meanwhile, looks like it's not the batteries, but my mouse is actually dying... -_- Bah! I'd open it up and see if something's the problem, but it'd void warranty. Gonna see if I can wriggle a replacement mouse from Logitech first.
Currently feeling blah

dracil

Taiwanese final presentation went without any incident.

While at OCF waiting for BoD meeting, the girl sitting next to me apparently was reading the stuff on my screen (I was replying to a post on Orkut about what I thought of intercessory prayers), and commented on it (how I think about how the roommate of someone in her small group had her legs of different lengths suddenly become the same length after a pop). Her name's Edna and she's a 2nd year intended Mass Comm major who goes to Campus Crusade for Christ. Got into some more discussions after that... another Creationist... At least she doesn't believe in a global flood.

And apparently, it was Jimmy's birthday today! When we went to the meeting, there was a lot of food there to celebrate. Yay, free Church's Chicken, mashed potatoes, coleslaw, pie, ice cream, and soda. That saved me a meal.

Afterwards, went off to work on the take-home final with Han, Joyce, and Sarah at Sufficient Grounds. But on my way there, I saw the fire alarm had gone off at Wheeler, and shortly after, people were streaming out. Tonight was supposed to be the free pre-showing of Troy, and since that was at around 8:50, and doors opened at 7:30, it looks like all those people could not finish their movie!
Currently feeling generally amused

dracil

Hey, look! I can create dramah too! This happened on Orkut's Christian community. Apparently, some people really hate having their beliefs (which they seem to equate as The Christian Belief (ah, what Pride!)) questioned. They couldn't handle the constant stream of cognitive dissonance I was causing them. So instead of adjusting their beliefs, they left for a safer haven, where they talked smack about me.

From the "Biblical Christian" community where they fled to:

1st guy: "Some even claiming to be Christian yet debating the very principles of the bible. [...] In fact... I think I will be un-subscribing to the community Christian. [...] I consider the Bible Holy. That is torn apart all over the place over there."

2nd guy replying: "i already did... and it wasn't the atheists/agnostics who got me to leave. there is one particular person whose take is actually VERY destructive to the Christian community and i wish to not be further a part of it, giving attention to it. leaving was more to keep me from adding to the fire..."

I guess I'm too much of a veteran to forum debates. I even repeatedly offered to move the discussion to an actual forum such as http://www.christianforums.com but they just kept ignoring it, and now that they paid the price for it, they complain about it. *roll eyes*

In other news, went to the Econ Experiment, but it was full! So I got $5 as compensation. $5 for 40 minutes (of walking)? Eh, not really worth it. Unless I count the exercise as a benefit...
Currently feeling amused

dracil

Ooh, I have a headache...

So, today was the BST banquet, and we ate at Tanaka. The food was actually pretty good I think. Definitely better than Unicorn for the portions. Afterwards, people came to my house briefly, and then everyone migrated to Sophia's place, where we just chatted and teased each other until around 11.

Oh yeah, I now have $1 coins! 'cause Connie used them to pay for dinner. Apparently, you could get them at the post office easily, but I've never seen one, so it was really cool (I took as many as I could by trading in paper bills). Just hope I don't mistake it for a quarter.

As usual, Fang brought food for everyone at the banquet, and gifts for organizers. Mine was a book called "Even a Stone Buddha Can Talk..." which is a collection of Japanese proverbs. Thanks Fang! We also gave her a card and got the restaurant gave her a "birthday cake" (Green Tea Ice cream in a Tempura Shell).

Sigh, and with that, we have our last BST event.

And Laura came by in the meantime to pick up the skates that I proxied for Michelle, and also brought me some edibles. Thanks Laura!
Currently feeling tired

dracil

Review session today. Sorta helpful, I guess. Worked on my take-home final most of the day. Finally got around to putting up my housing ad up (I was holding out, hoping I could find friends' friends to live here instead), and already got two responses. Not bad.
Currently feeling blah

dracil

For a good time, call 315-859-2077 (valid for the next 2 weeks).
Currently feeling amused

dracil

After studying all day, I decided to do something fun. Since Lele was trying so hard for a random person to call her randomly without her knowing, I decided to follow up on it. BUT I decided to have some fun while doing it. I searched around her blog for names of people in her class, and pretended I called the wrong number. Basically the scenario was that I was gonna call someone else in the class but mixed the numbers up and called Lele by accident. But I would also do it in a really suspicious way. :D

Anyway, eventually, Lele IMed me about the incident, and I had a good laugh. :D :D :D So yeah, that's the reason for her comment in my last entry (since it's Daylight Saving Time, the timestamp in my blogjournal is one hour behind).

I'll be nice and do a cut.

(Read chat transcript)

Yes, I'm evil!
Currently feeling very amused

dracil

So turned in my Linguistics final today, and skipped the class (since I can't see how we'd be doing anything useful considering we just turned in the final), and prepared for my CS final, which... eh.

Later, went to karaoke with David, Charlie, and Aaron, Catherine, Fang, and Sophia. The guys went first, and we had dinner at 168, then David left to go pick up the girls. Did manage to sing quite a few songs this time, and all would have been good, if Aaron/David (it was one of them, David had the remote, but Aaron seems more like the one who'd object) did not cut off my 龍的傳人 midway 'cause Aaron felt it was propaganda. That's just plain rude. Got really pissed off for a while.

Left Charlie and Aaron at Ranch 99 when we left, 'cause there wasn't enough seats, and David was supposed to go back and pick them up after dropping us off. But when I come home, I see a note, as well as several emails and tagboard comments from my parents saying that they'd received a notice from the IRS saying that they needed more information from me. Ugh. I looked over my forms and I couldn't see any missing information, so I'm wondering if it was because I had forgotten to attach my W-2 form, but I can't find it anywhere, so it would seem that I should have sent it already. Ugh. What could they be possibly missing?!

Gonna have to call them bright and early tomorrow, and clean up my place for the people (well, person) coming by to check out the place.
Currently feeling aggravated

dracil

So today was the Freeborn reunion. Saw lots of people I have not seen in a very long time, like Steve and Jennifer. Iris was a no-show, and some dramah between some other people meant that two people who showed up left. We ate at the Great China, and because of the number of people, we ordered many different dishes, which meant a lot of variety, which was good. Like 9+ dishes.

Afterwards, Peter, Catherine, David, and I went to McDonald's to get Dippin Dots, but they had just closed (we arrived a little after 10). So instead, we went to The Place Formerly Known As Mondo Gelato. Then we all went home. Yeah, anti-climactic.

Gotta get my cap and gown tomorrow and attend the convocation. Also have to finish up my CS paper.
Currently feeling content

dracil

Eck, I got preteen lolita comment spam on my Livejournal (can't wait for the search engine referrals for posting that... -_-)

So, today was the convocation ceremony! Went to get my cap and gown 1.5 hours before the ceremony, then went to Catherine's place to walk there together. David and Michelle also showed up eventually so we all sat together. It was... hot under the sun. It also sucked that the sun was in our eyes, so we came up with all sorts of creative ways to block out the sun. Our speaker was a Ted Koppel, who.... I didn't like that much.

Afterwards was a nice reception where I got full from the food. Lots of people were trying to get pictures with Ted Koppel. I tried half-heartedly, but didn't manage to get one.

Afterwards, Catherine and I went to McDonald's again to try to get the dippin dots. But guess what? They didn't have it anymore! Doh! Catherine did get the adult happy meal for that stepometer (properly called a pedometer) that came with it. Then we went book searching for a present for her mom. After 5 bookstores, we still failed to find it (it also appears the book I wanted wasn't out yet, so I bought a magazine in the meantime) and her parents had arrived, so we parted.

Then I finished my paper and relaxed for the rest of the night. After which, I find that I had an invitation to Gmail! Woohoo! Joining that "I want a Gmail account" community on Orkut really worked! :D
Currently feeling happy

dracil

Yeah, went to that. Kinda interesting. Lots of references to affirmative action, which I still disagree with. Food was not as good as yesterday's. Just studied and did stuff for Philosophy, and did some more room cleaning up.
Currently feeling tired

dracil

I did nothing really productive today at all. Well, except maybe clean the bathroom. Temi came by to look at the place. She seems interested.

Laura and her boyfriend also came by today for a brief while to sort of eat dinner.

The Shen and Chester's friend, Catherine, came by and played Puzzle Fighter the whole night. I joined in eventually. I think I like Ken's pattern the best for big combos. Using it, I won almost constantly against Catherine. I suck at level 5 speed though. Then since Chester and Shen had gone to bed, I had to walk her home.
Currently feeling unproductive

dracil

Leatha came by to look at the place, also looked really happy with it. So I think I'm set. Just need contracts now...

Watched Tokyo Godfatheres today. Nice movie. Same people who did Millennium Actress and Perfect Blue.
Currently feeling okay

dracil

Heckuva lot of studying today. At Sufficient Grounds from 3:30-6, and then from 8-10. Eek. Still not sure if I'm prepared. At 10, Catherine arrived to pick me up for the "boba run" with BST peeps, where we hung around for another 1.5 hours, before going home.
Currently feeling semi-stressed

dracil

So I'm done with finals! It was... icky. And my parents arrived today. So that seemed to work out right. However, I do need to go to SF with my parents tomorrow to settle some family business stuff. Eek.
Currently feeling relaxed

dracil

So had to go to SF for some bureaucratic stuff. Then it was off to the piers for tourism purposes for my parents. It was going well until my parents kept bringing up my housing situation over and over. Ugh.

Saw the anti-inauguration protest going on while we were there. Got a flag from them and took pictures, which I may put up later.

Feet hurt really bad from all the walking.
Currently feeling tired

dracil

Plans falling apart suck. So many various things that were planned keep getting delayed and delayed and delayed. Rather frustrating, because each delay causes uncertainty, which causes other plans to get delayed. >_<

Anyway, today went to the Econ graduation. Charlie, David, and Cindy graduated today. Spent about 4 hours there, which includes the reception.

And... I'm tired, and I should go to bed, so I can wake up early for my early graduation. Gah.

Feet hurt again today. 10000+ steps? Based on the pedometer I was wearing...
Currently feeling tired

dracil

So.... first it started with the rain... and then things went really downhill after the ceremony was over. Mom got upset about stuff, and... yeah. *sigh*

Thanks to Jenny for talking to me about it tonight, as well as for the mini-plant during the graduation.
Currently feeling mixed

dracil

Was gonna go to SF, but instead, we decided not to. Washed some clothes at the YMCA instead, and then we went to take some pictures of me in my graduation clothes. Then we tried to catch the Engineering reception, but we missed the place! Thought it was also at the Campanile... but guess it wasn't. In fact, it was at several different places. Which if we had only walked North a couple minutes more we would've found it... >_< Afterwards, I showed them Newman Hall, where there was a wedding going on, so we left shortly after.

After that, there was some hasty arrangments for dinner, especially after Jenny suggested that I get friends and my parents together for dinner. It worked out, although we didn't get a table for the longest time. I think a lot of people were not used to the food my dad ordered, mainly the spiciness of some of it (it's not that spicy!) and the sourness. But yeah, that's Thai food for you. Too bad there weren't any mango and sticky rice left for dessert. Oh, so there were 5 people that made it. Fang, Jenny, David, Joyce, and Aaron. We brought the ramune (that Fang had brought with more BST stuff) there and split it. And David also had some Taiwanese food that he shared afterwards.

Need to wake up at 6 for Las Vegas tomorrow. Icky.

So all in all, today made up for yesterday, although... now I feel lonely, especially when I was dragging my parent's bigger suitcase to my place. That and having a flight tomorrow = the loneliness feeling of leaving, or of people leaving. *sigh*

Anyway, probably no entry tomorrow, unless I backdate an entry when I come back.
Currently feeling happy, but also sad

dracil

(backdated)

Got up early at 6:05, then went to find my parents at the BART station. Except... the BART station was closed, and wouldn't open till 8AM. There was a girl there who was also going to the airport, so she called for a cab, who promptly got a ticket for parking at the bus stop. $250 ticket. My dad felt bad so gave him $40 and the girl gave $10 at the end. I personally wouldn't have done that. Even worse is that, halfway to the airport, we realized that she was going to the Oakland airport, instead of SFO. Doh! She missed her flight, but helped us get a shuttle to the SFO, which cost $59. -_- So yeah, we spent $100 just to get to the SFO. Should've called Bayporter...

Anyway, the plane trip to Las Vegas was smooth enough. Never been in such a small plane though (6 seats per row).

Thought Circus Circus was a bit dark, and slightly out of the way, but good enough. My parents lost $60 to the slot machines. I won $0.25, and stopped after losing $0.20 (net gain of $0.05). I also demonstrated how the 20 line slot machines worked to my mom at the cost of $1.

Afterwards, I started playing Blackjack, where I managed to rake in $77.50. Actually I think I'd made $82.50, but I think I lost a $5 token when I accidentally put it in the coin machine, which incidentally, did not accept $5 tokens. Doh.

Lunch was pizza and we had a buffet dinner. We walked two miles along the strip before deciding to go back on the bus.
Currently feeling happy

dracil

My dad went on a helicopter ride to the Grand Canyon in the morning, but I didn't want to go, since it was really expensive, and you had to get up *real* early (my dad got up at 5AM). I got up at like 9:40.

Breakfast was Krispy Kreme donuts, and then I was off to the Blackjack table, where I lost $30 and decided to stop. I'd actually managed to make $22.50, and if I'd stopped, I could've said I won $100 at Blackjack, but I wanted to make one more $5 so I could make >$100 (still had -$0.95 in slots), and that cost me big. Also, "Lady Luck" wasn't there. She was a woman who gave me advice on what to do yesterday when I was playing, a big reason I had done so well. Too bad I hadn't seen this before going to Las Vegas. It would've helped a lot. But yeah, the woman's advice was correct, according to that chart (stay or double if dealer has 4, 5, or 6).

Flight back was uneventful.
Currently feeling okay

dracil

Spent the day shopping around Berkeley with parents. Last chance to show them the stuff around here. They left by BART at around 8pm for the SFO.
Currently feeling okay

dracil

Didn't do much today. Started doing job search more seriously.

Did play a game of San Juan with my roommates at night, where I beat them 46 to 39 (Chester) to 30 (Shen), and also in a game of Illuminati.
Currently feeling blah

dracil

Started reading PHP/MySQL books in an effort to learn it so I can confidently put it on my resume and say I actually know how to use it, which should open up a couple more jobs.

Also started watching the piled up collection of unwatched anime/movies on my hard drives.
Currently feeling okay

dracil

Went grocery shopping again today. While on the bus back, I was reading the manga my mom brought from Taiwan, and a woman sitting besides me started talking to me. She was intrigued because it was in Chinese, so she asked if I could actually read it, or if I was just looking at pictures. She was impressed that I was reading it, as well as the fact that I could understand some Taiwanese which was used in the manga. Talked more about her son, Taiwan, education, etc. But it was a short bus trip, so didn't get to talk to her much. But it was a nice experience.

Then Karen came by to watch stuff, so we watched Ping Pong Club and Puni Puni Poemi. Then Thomas came by and we went to dinner at Tako Sushi. On the way back, I found a chair and a nice but heavy drawer left on the road, so I brought the chair back. Then... I introduced them to Soul Calibur 2, and amazingly they got really into it, and we played the whole night. They kept telling me not to use Mitsurugi 'cause I was too good with him.
Currently feeling relaxed

dracil

Got up kinda early to go to Solano Avenue with Jenny for the Chocolate and Sidewalk Art Festival. We arrived a little past 9AM and then we signed up for chalking. Took us about 1.5 hours I think to do the chalking. It was the Cal logo with Taiwan underneath it all on a blue circle. We decided to title it "Go Bears!" in alternating light blue and white letters (we used up all the dark blue for that circle).

The Polaroid pictures didn't do it justice though, since it couldn't capture the part in the shade properly.

After that, we went around trying the chocolates and had lunch at Zachary's Pizza.

Afterwards we went back to my place to watch Shrek 1, and then we went to Emeryville to watch Shrek 2, where we had Fuddruckers, who messed up my order but fixed it and didn't charge me for the difference. Then we went to Circuity City to look for a mouse I wanted, which they didn't have, but I bought some CD-Rs and lucked out 'cause although the price listed $19.99, it was really $9.99 for 50 CDs.

As a result, didn't do much else, but it was a really fun day.
Currently feeling happy

dracil

And back to studying again... progress is a bit slower than expected. Perhaps because the book is bigger than expected...

Lots of people coming by today.

Got Hung-Tzu's giveaway sleeping bag. Diana came to drop keys off. Sophia came to get keys back. Neighbor came by to borrow and return glue. Petr came by for.... something, forgot what.
Currently feeling blah