Entries for June, 2004

Keys
POSTED AT 11:39 PM in General

So I went down to Ace Hardware to make a copy of the mailbox key, but they didn't have the right kind of key, so they suggested I go to Rex Keys down at MLK and University, but it was closed for Memorial Day! ARGH! Now I have to go back again tomorrow.
Currently feeling blah




Key, hanging out
POSTED AT 11:39 PM in General

Finally got that mailbox key made. Decided to go to safeway afterwards, and saw Aimee on the bus.

At night, Karen invited me to go have dinner with people at Naan'n'Curry. Anderson, Shawn (sp?), and Brenda, her high school friend, were there too. Food was good, although I felt a little sick of the curry by the end. Not enough naan I guess, so I had to eat a lot of curry with little bits of naan.

Then they came over to use my internet and play some games, namely, San Juan. First game, I had 43 points, Shen had 39, and Karen+Brenda had 33. Second game, Shen won the tiebreaker at 36 points, and Karen+Brenda played really badly and got 23 points.

Oh, and I think I have officially decided that my favorite Bible chapter is Romans 14, since I seem to be quoting or referencing it the most often in debates.
Currently feeling okay




Blah
POSTED AT 11:06 PM in General

I think my pace has picked up a bit in the reading, which is good. Partly because I'm starting to understand what's important and not important in the readings.

Ended the night with three games of San Juan with Shen and Chester. First game Chester won nicely while Shen won the tiebreaker with me again. Second game, I eeked out Chester by one point, and third game, I crushed them both with three 6-point buildings.

Meanwhile, one roommate situation fell through, so I'm looking for a new roommate again. Blah.

Got an Xbox live starter kit.
Currently feeling mixed




What did I do today?
POSTED AT 11:52 PM in General

Not much really. Look for new roommates (already have responses), clean up my room a bit, and plan for the big hang out day on Saturday. Yeah.
Currently feeling okay




Lost button
POSTED AT 09:22 AM in General

Bah, just noticed I lost a button on one of my new shirts. Must be lost somewhere in the YMCA washing machines.

Anyone know where single buttons of many varieties are sold? Need to look for a button that looks similar (metallic, 1.1 cm diameter) so I can sew it back.
Currently feeling sad




More Housing stuff
POSTED AT 12:35 AM in General

Got FSW, and someone came to look at my place, but no go.

On the other hand, rent was reduced to $1500.
Currently feeling mixed




Day out at Jack London Square
POSTED AT 11:46 PM in General

Long day.

At 2:30 went down to find David talking to some guy who'd scratched his car. Then saw Catherine inside David's parking lot trying to get out. We drove the guy to the bank so that he could get some money to reimburse David then we picked up Aaron.

We got lost on our way to Jack London Cinema, but got directions from Jenny, but we got there almost before the movie for Troy started. Then we found out that Harry Potter had been sold out, so we all had no choice but to watch Troy, although David had already seen Troy so he watched Shrek 2 instead.

Afterwards, David and Aaron went home, while the rest of us just wandered around Barnes & Nobles for awhile until 8pm where we had dinner at Yoshi's with really slow service. Atmosphere was nice though, and I think the Dinner Combinations are really worth it there. They also had *really* good wasabi. The dinner chatter was mostly on food and what people considered wierd or didn't like to eat.

We rushed to Ben & Jerry's afterwards only to be stopped at the door. But when we finished the ice cream and went in, it still hadn't started, but we found 4 guys at the table that was supposed to be reserved for us. We went back to the door and got one of the people to move them away. Our spot was nice, it was essentially the 2nd row from the stage. The jazz show itself was rather interesting, especially looking at the interactions between the members (they'd mouth/talk/make faces at each other throughout the performances).

Really fun day out.
Currently feeling content




music, gmail
POSTED AT 10:54 PM in General

Hmm, last night after my entry, spent quite a bit of time trading songs with Jenny, so slept late.

Back to normal today, and we also tried to test how Gmail does its conversations for emails. Current results seems to be, it doesn't work with Hotmail, but does work with Yahoo and Gmail (obviously).
Currently feeling geeky




Housing, internet radio
POSTED AT 11:19 PM in General

One person came by for housing today.

Went to scan the housing application for the other person.

Tested some internet radio programs. Of particular interest (and what started it all) is http://www.mercora.org. Still, too much time spent on this. Bleah.
Currently feeling blah




Gmail invitations
POSTED AT 10:02 PM in General

Yay, I got the three gmail invitations that everyone else has been getting. Two are to my parents, and the third one is being returned to the I want a gmail account community on Orkut.

Other than that.... for today, went to a really good Japanese noodle place with Karen at University and Shattuck, opposite of Taiwan Restaurant. It's probably one of the most authentic restaurants I've been to in Berkeley. Heck, over half the menu is not even translated from Japanese! They also have manga in there for you to read, as well as some tapes that I think you can play on their TV there. Thomas came by near the end. Then we went to look at some comics before Thomas went home and Karen came to my place, where we watched Tokyo Godfathers. Then Linda came by to burn a copy of Juon 2 and then they left.
Currently feeling happy




Burden of proof
POSTED AT 12:58 PM in Philosophy

More thoughts on the supposed difference (or rather, lack thereof) between theists and atheists.

If I were to write a number, either 0 or 1, on a piece of paper, and then burn it, and I said that I wrote the number 1 on the piece of paper. The theist would go ahead and believe it. The atheist would say no, it's 0, because the burden of proof is on me to show that I wrote the number 1. On the other hand, if I said that I did *not* write the number 1 on the piece of paper, the theist and atheist would both turn around and take the opposite view. The theist would say that I wrote the number 0, and the atheist would say I wrote the number 1.

Just a little demonstration on the problems of asking for "burdens of proof"
Currently feeling contemplative




Arguing for piracy, and our rights
POSTED AT 11:33 PM in General

Made some rebuttals to people who think piracy is bad and is stealing. It also included advice to a woman who couldn't play burn and play music she bought at Walmart.com. Basically, don't buy anything with DRM! Vote with your wallets! You can buy them and say "YES! I want to be put on a leash!" or refuse to buy them or buy from an alternative source without the DRM and say "NO! I will not put up with this crap!"
Currently feeling annoyed (at RIAA & co.)




OS Girls
POSTED AT 09:40 PM in General

http://heika-love.cool.ne.jp/troubled_windows.html
http://www.globetown.net/~ostanflash/zall01/index.html
http://www.globetown.net/~ostanflash/zosp/index.html

Some cool flashes. The first one is interactive! Those are supposed to be a mock opening and ending for a fictional anime about OS Girls. What's that? Check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OS-tan

I was fascinated enough to change my desktop to a picture of them. ^_^
Currently feeling amused




Random excursions
POSTED AT 10:03 PM in General

So soon after waking up, I got a distress call from Catherine. Apparently she'd dropped some flowers at the BART Station, so she needed me to go try to find it. I did eventually find it, although I only found 2 of them, and only one was wholly intact. =/ Also got Sophia's present during that time.

Later, at night, went to Fentons Creamery with Sophia and Diana, and then to safeway. Naughty naughty, making liberal use of her legal status. One of the employees was talking to them at one point, saying how if Sophia got that big bottle she wanted, she would probably disappear for a month.
Currently feeling okay




A+ reaction
POSTED AT 10:37 PM in General

Oh, forgot about this.


I did it in 9 seconds.
I deserved an A+!!
Take the How Dexterous Are You? Quiz!!
Currently feeling amused




Runebound, Sophia's dinner + party + drunk people
POSTED AT 02:00 AM in General

Drunk people are fascinating to watch. Sorta like traffic accidents. Sorry about the analogy. I'll explain why later.

So got Runebound today, played with Shen. Nice, but long game. I managed to eke out the win over Shen. Needs some balancing with allies.

In the meantime, another housing person came by. I like this new guy, although he's still looking at 3 more places. If he likes my place by Monday, I think I'll take him.

Afterwards, I went to Manga Manga, a Japanese restaurant for Sophia's birthday dinner, and got stood up for 30 minutes! I was about ready to leave! >_< BAH. Let people know beforehand if there's gonna be delays like that. =/ So Diana and Sophia arrived first, then Aaron came soon. Then we called David and found out that somehow he'd snuck into the restaurant without any of us noticing each other. That was really weird, since we were right ouside the restaurant too, maybe a meter away from the door. The food was ok. We had lots of fun making fun of Aaron for choosing to hang out with some girl instead of going to Sophia and Diana's house warming party later tonight. Singing happy birthday got Sophia free Green Tea ice cream. Eh, perhaps we could've given a little higher tip, although we'd already paid by then. I was inclined to give lower tip because of the slow service (waitress kept not noticing us).

So at night, David drove me to Sophia and Diana's new place. Lots of people there. Lots and lots of alcohol. Jello shots, vodka, beer, wine coolers? And other stuff. Sophia kept trying to get me to drink anything alcoholic, including eating the jello shots. Didn't succeed, and I had my fun making use of her attempts to tease her. Sophia is such a temptress/seductress/succubi/siren/whatever.

David succumed to one jello shot, but was able to keep dry for the rest of the night. The other drivers, and one other girl also kept dry. Everyone else... yeah.

Played Mao with the people there, that was fun. David knew how to play, so it worked out a lot better. But we ended up quitting and playing Mafia just as it was starting to get really interesting. So... no one new who played tonight still really knows the complete rules. I did play a lot more leniently this time though, since I was a little rusty.

With Mafia... that was... rather interesting. People kept drinking and getting more and more drunk throughout the multiple games of Mafia. Eventually we got tired of it. I played a simple rock, paper, and scissors game with David that included hitting each other. Each time you lose, you put one hand on the table. The last player with free hands gets to try to hit everyone else whose hands are still on the table. Some of the people saw that and started playing another game of their own that included hitting people on their forearms with two fingers as hard as possible. Ow?

Yeah, and this is where the traffic accident analogy comes in. Especially Diana, who ended up crying twice, but still refused to not get treated any easier by this guy who practiced Wushu (which no one was able to really hurt, although his fingers did get pretty damaged by the end). That lasted for at least another hour. Tomorrow, when they wake up and they feel the full effects of their actions, they'll probably regret it.

And man, Sophia can *really* drink. Frat girl! All that alcohol probably cost a pretty penny too... Anyway yeah, tongiht was probably an affirmation for me that I probably don't wanna get drunk, despite how amusing it might be?

Edit: Since apparently it wasn't clear enough. No, I didn't drink.
Currently feeling fascinated




Reading
POSTED AT 12:13 AM in General

Back to reading... about time to start making my own thing.
Currently feeling blah




Gmail invitations, MX510, housing prospectors
POSTED AT 11:14 PM in General

Hmm... more Gmail invitations.

My new mouse finally came today.

More people came by to look at the place.
Currently feeling tired




Firefox, Runebound, Driver's License
POSTED AT 10:34 PM in General

Mozilla Firefox 0.9 has been released. Go get!

Played another round of Runebound with Shen and his friend. I had bad rolls tonight, but even so, by the end of the game, I was actually the most powerful player, capable of auto-killing anyone, despite me being 2 levels lower than Shen and his friend. Unfortunately, Shen's friend had the Teleport Rune, and won with that.

Begun studying the DMV handbook, in preparation for the first phase of my quest to get a Driver's License.
Currently feeling okay




Ok, everyone's doing it, so...
POSTED AT 11:07 PM in General



How to make a Dracil
Ingredients:

5 parts pride

3 parts brilliance

3 parts
Method:
Combine in a tall glass half filled with crushed ice. Top it off with a sprinkle of lustfulness and enjoy!


Username:


Personality cocktail
From Go-Quiz.com










Hmm... 3 parts nothingness?!
Currently feeling amused




Dinner, tech support
POSTED AT 12:03 AM in General

Catherine took me out for dinner tonight, as thanks for my recovering Fang's flowers for her (she also found a flower head in her bag, so 2/3 of the flowers were recovered!). Went to Tako Sushi, where I had Tonkatsu + sushi combo as usual. She just had Tonkatsu.

After that, decided to go to her place to fix her internet connection, which had died. When we got there, there was already another guy called Andrew (I think) whose service had already been enlisted by her roommate. So then, the two of us set off trying to fix the connection, which ended up being a 4 hour ordeal. During that time, Andrew went back home twice to get a router (which ended up being a dud) and cables. Eventually, we went back to the old router, which at least we could use. Then I eventually came up with the bright idea of having Catherine re-type her DSL password into the router, and it worked! Well, briefly. Then Catherine decided to unplug everything, which usually worked for her, and everything was fine after that. So apprently, her roommate did change the DSL password when they'd called SBC for help when their internet had died earlier, but they hadn't realized that they needed to change the password inside the router too.

Oh yeah, looks like my light bulb died again. My current light source comes from my desk lamp. Need to buy light bulbs again.
Currently feeling happy




Bored
POSTED AT 09:58 PM in General

Sleepy. I think I should go to bed earlier tonight. Not much happened today besides grocery shopping.
Currently feeling bored




Still bored...
POSTED AT 11:14 PM in General

Yeah... more reading and memorizing America's traffic laws.

In other news, the Mafia forum game has started at Protag.
Currently feeling blah




Karaoke
POSTED AT 10:46 PM in General

Karaoke with David, Aaron, Charlie, Catherine, and Diana. We had lunch at 168 sans Diana first. Tried to sing some more different songs this time. Did ok. BOA - Valenti was the only one that really went bad so I just cancelled it.
Currently feeling okay




Radio Alice's Summerthing (concert)
POSTED AT 12:22 AM in General

So, got up rather early (8:30), to go to "Alice's Summerthing," a free concert at Golden Gate Park. Jenny picked me up, and then Catherine, who was amazingly able to get up, after coming back from clubbing at 5:30AM and only sleeping two hours. O_o

We arrived and parked at around 10:30, and walked straight to the concert area and set up Jenny's sleeping bag. It was.... cold! Chilly day for the first day of summer, although it actually got warmer towars the end, and I think I got sunburnt. Managed to get food from Jenny's friend + her friend's friends. But we forgot to pay them at the end. Doh!

I actually recognized quite a few of the songs played during intermission, as well as by the bands.

Well, Catherine was having a grand ol' time with the guy she'd met while clubbing last night. In fact, he even called her, and came by to the concert thing, where she promptly hung out with him.

After the concert, I became half-deaf (but since recovered) from having the good, close-to-front spot. Catherine was gonna have dinner with the guy, and we all ended up going to Japantown with her to eat with him and his friends. I like Japantown, they have a Kinokuniya bookstore!!! Almost completely in Japanese, and their CDs there are actually of reasonable price for imported goods, (around $13-$14). At least I think they are... I forgot to check what their original pricetag in Yen was.

So we ate at Izumiya. Most of us ordered Okonomiyaki + Tonkatsu. Their wasabi was actually not green, but tasted good. Their okonomiyaki was different from what I was expecting okonomiyakis to taste like for some reason. Then again, I haven't really eaten many okonomiyakis before, so I can't really comment on that.
Currently feeling happy




Sex is Zero, Runebound, music
POSTED AT 12:00 AM in General

Watched Sex is Zero, aptly described somewhere as a Korean American Pie. I'd say the description is correct, albeit with more nudity and sex scenes.

Played a game of Runebound with my roommates. Used my own house rules this time, and the game was fun. Lasted till the Endgame and I won that. Shen gave up halfway through the game. Chester did pretty well for his first time, and wanted to play again immediately after. But I think one game/day is enough 'cause it's so long.

Also came aross Mehdi's instrumental music, which sound quite nice. Found it 'cause Han had a song called "Song from a Secret Garden" playing in her blog, which was linked to an Amazon listing, which had a few references to Mehdi's stuff. I think Mehdi's stuff is classified as New Age.
of the Moment: Eastern Sunset - Mehdi
Currently feeling okay




Housing deadline looming
POSTED AT 11:57 PM in General

Eck, close to rent, hope these last few applicants accept the housing.
Currently feeling worried




Bathroom leak, San Juan
POSTED AT 02:06 AM in General

So there's a leak in the bathroom, so the landlord tore up the floor to fix it.

Then had a marathon run of San Juan with my roommates at night. 14 games.... ick. I won 11 of the 14, and Chester won 3. Shen won 0.

The two most hopeful housing apps were dashed again. Gah.
Currently feeling tired and worried




Bathroom fixed, Karen, more San Juan
POSTED AT 02:20 AM in General

So they finished fixing the bathroom today. Looks good.

Karen came by to watch the Rowan Atkinson Live show, and some other stuff. Then Chester and us played some San Juan and went to get boba/dinner. Then another marathon with my roommates. Gah.
Currently feeling tired




GRE studying commences
POSTED AT 11:40 PM in General

Yeah, going through vocabs now. Then make sure I didn't forget my math, and then whatever other stuff I need to study for.

One more person came by to look at housing.

Only 2 games of San Juan today. Too much in the past few days, so cutting down. Won both of the games though.
Currently feeling okay




Harry Potter 3
POSTED AT 11:19 PM in General

Jenny came by and we first went to the Farmer's Market to get the bonus points for Radio Alice, and then we went to Orinda Theaters to watch Harry Potter 3. The theater we were in was small. There was only one aisle, with 3 seats on the left, and 2 seats on the right. Never been in such a small theater before in my life. That was disappointing. The movie itself though, was good, albeit somewhat predictable, even without reading the books.

Afterwards, Jenny went to some get together with Diana and David and people that I don't know supposedly.
Currently feeling okay




Housing situation (looking better)
POSTED AT 11:22 PM in General

So, my housing situation is finally settled, after two long months. Just in time too. Having that rent check at hand makes me feel so much better. Now for the other one to arrive by mail...

In related news, my former roommates have moved out today. Although they're still coming back to cook for the time being.

Just labeled all my mail in Gmail. Now to create filters...
Currently feeling relieved




Not much happening today...
POSTED AT 12:00 AM in General

Although the place feels empty. Except for my roommates still coming over to cook.
Currently feeling lonely, sort of




Mozilla Firebird 0.9.1 is out
POSTED AT 12:12 AM in General

Oh look, Mozilla Firebird 0.9.1 is out! Just noticed the update in the bottom right corner and promptly updated. Hopefully the bugs that appeared since 0.8 will be gone now.
Currently feeling geeky




Dead Tabulas, Dream, IE vulnerability/video concept, Rent Check
POSTED AT 11:05 PM in General

Ugh, Tabulas was down all day. Had wanted to post some of this earlier, guess I'll do it all now.

Had a really odd, long dream (technically, it should be several dreams that I somehow managed to link together into a semi-coherent piece in my mind) last night. Details are sketchy by now, but from what I remember, I was with some guy and girl, who were a couple I think, but anyway, we were trying to escape from something, which I don't think we ever saw. The setting seemed to be at some campus (based off of Berkeley?), and it was at night for the entire thing. Eventually we got back to some 1-floor dorm where there were other people, but there was still a sense of urgency. Had a fitful sleep though. I know I woke up several times. Eventually I was woken up permanently by a call for my roommates.

Someone's comment on Slashdot about a new IE vulnerability
Unfortunatly this describes 90% of people out there. The only way I can think of to overcome that kind of pervasive ignorace is a public service campaign like the anti-drug campaigns.

[joke]
"This is your computer.. this is your computer on Internet Explorer"
-or-
"Friends don't let Friends use Internet Explorer"
-or-
"Just say No to Internet Explorer"
[/joke]

Seriously, there needs to be a TV campaign or even public service banners on high traffic sites like google or CNN.


Actually, that wouldn't be a bad idea. Just need someone with the video skills to make something like this, and distribute it on the net. We all know how fast these things spread, and a lot of them are bound to be IE users.

Lastly, Leatha's rent check finally arrived. Yay!
Currently feeling okay




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BlogMad Dracil/Male/16-20. Lives in United States/California/Berkeley/UC Berkeley, speaks Chinese and English. Spends 80% of daytime online. Uses a Faster (1M+) connection. And likes Anime/Gaming.
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