dracil

I don't really make new year's resolutions but I guess I'll make an exception this year.

Though technically, I made the resolution a little while back and have actually started working towards it already so it's not really a new year's resolution anymore.

That said, it's off to a rough start. We'll see how it goes.

Currently feeling determined

dracil

All full of hope and promise.

But it doesn't really feel like it.

Currently feeling blah

dracil

A list of things I remember being called one way or another within the past year by friends...

Creepy
Stalker
Weird
Scary
Wimp
Pervert
Geek (in the can't get a girlfriend way)
Fat
Evil
Snob
Mean
Girly
Rude
Annoying
Untrustworthy
Lonely

I know some of them were said as a joke, and some of them are true, and some I'm trying to fix, but... I don't know. It does get to you after a while.

Currently feeling numb

dracil

Woke up to a power outage. Then my umbrella got damaged (the wind actually bent several of the metal stretchers). Winds were 40 to 60mph this morning. Some people's umbrellas got completely destroyed from what I heard. As one coworker said, the "weather gods are cross with San Francisco today."

Not sure power has been restored at home yet, so writing the entry at work before I leave just in case.

Ok, yay, power's restored and there was no rain on the way back. But apparently there are some parts of the city that's still without power, since there were Muni announcements about how people needed to take the shuttle part of the way for the Balboa Park lines.

Oh, so I guess one good thing did come out of the storm today. Because the umbrella was useless in this weather, I'd zipped up my jacket to try to keep the rain out. So that means the Cal logo was displayed prominently and our front desk temp noticed it and she asked if I went to Cal. Yep, she goes to Cal too. Yay, more Berkeley peeps! So apparently she has one more semester left but she's also taking a semester off. Dunno how long she'll still be here (I actually thought she was gonna be gone by the time we got back from the holidays).

Hmm... :3

Currently feeling wet (or expected to be)

dracil

I don't write about politics much in my blog, but... yay!

Anti-Game Candidates Do Poorly in Iowa Caucuses

Ok, I'm not happy just because of this video game thing (though people do bring up a point that anti-game candidates are more likely to also regulate other less-trivial matters, for those who care about that sort of stuff). I've actually been hoping Obama would win there.

I'm not sure why exactly, but I just do not have a good impression of Clinton. Maybe I feel she's just riding on the coattails of her husband. Paraphrasing a friend, if she does win, America really will have been under the rule of the Bush and Clinton dynasties for at least 24 years. Speaking of which: A possible timeline for Bush-Clinton to rule until 2056. And another one.

In some ways I'm not convinced experience is a good thing. It may actually make them less flexible in their ways, or just better at being a politician (in the what-can-i-do-to-get-me-elected-way) which is probably what I see in Clinton. Maybe I'm just young, so the whole grassroots campaign type stuff appeals to me more than the traditional campaigns.

For civil rights reasons, if either Hillary or Obama get elected, it would help break the barrier for others, though I think the impact may be greater if Obama was elected. Why? Well, unless I'm mistaken, I think white women were first truly allowed to vote nationally in 1920, and African Americans in 1965. Because it took America longer to accept a person's race than it took to accept their sex, I think him getting elected would have more effect on the electability of future women presidents than Hillary's getting elected would have on the electability of future non-White candidates.

Setting aside their actual platforms, I think Obama is more disruptive to what I see as a stagnation of the American presidency so it would pave the way for greater changes in the future, regardless of the short-term (4 year) effect of the win.

As for the Republican candidates, they mainly just seem to be the typical let's-appeal-to-the-religious fare from what I've read.

Just the thoughts of a bystander who's not allowed to vote anyway.

Currently feeling jubilant

dracil

4 degrees?!

You know it's too cold when you turn the shower to the hottest setting and you STILL feel cold.

It's getting harder and harder to get out of bed...
Currently feeling frozen

dracil

Since this topic has come up recently with several of my friends, this would be pretty timely.

National Academy of Sciences publishes 3rd Science, Evolution, and Creationism Book

It's pretty nice and addresses some of the more common PRATTs (points refuted a thousand times)

1) 8 page brochure
2) Read it online
3) Download it for free (just enter a random email address if you want)

Oh and while we're at it Flunked: Lack of Intelligence will be showing next month. Read the Controversy :3 (sorry for the bad crevo pun)


Currently feeling okay

dracil

http://www.cnsnews.com/news/viewstory.asp?Page=/Culture/archive/200801/CUL20080111a.html

Some sensationalist junk about how some alien/same sex/outside-of-marriage sex scene in a M-rated game (that means you need to be 17+ to buy it) is going to corrupt the children of the world. Hello, there's a reason it's M-rated (also note the M-rating probably has nothing to do with that minor non-explicit sex scene which probably had less shown than the average PG-rated TV scene, but rather with the violence).

It's time they grew up and stopped being homophobic prudes and realize that the average gamer is no longer a kid before the world leaves them behind.

And for their sake, I hope their kids aren't watching Grey's Anatomy. Or using the Internet. :3

Currently feeling sleepy

dracil

Article link

The unfortunate thing is I know people who have similar prejudices, and not just towards gaming.

Currently feeling thoughtful

dracil

People online seem to think I'm angry/annoyed/serious even when I'm not. Not sure, maybe it's just my writing style. Years and years of debating/arguing on forums probably has had some effect.

Though I think it's probably just a fundamental flaw of text conversations because I've thought the same of other people too even when they are not. This is also why we have stuff like Poe's Law. I guess humans, in the absence of tonal inflections and body language (including pseudo-ones like smilies), will probably view the person as being cold/hostile, because that's probably the correct assumption to make if someone was like that during face-to-face conversations.

Besides smilies, the only emotional content of text conversations I can really think of that does not involve the actual text content is writing something in all caps, which is decidedly negative anyway.

I wonder if I've kinda noticed this subconsciously and sometimes overcompensate with a very liberal usage of smilies. Though I think I tend to use more smilies in general if I'm in a good mood, but a lack of smilies doesn't necessarily mean I'm in a bad mood either.

On a related note, people often say I sound sleepy on the phone (like I just got up), even if I've been awake for hours.

Currently feeling groggy

dracil

Article link

Summary: Obama is the Wii, Clinton is the Xbox 360, and Edwards is the PS3

Currently feeling amused

dracil

No, that's probably not the right word though I guess the feeling's similar.

Aside from finishing up the last story arc in Higurashi (about 10 or so episodes), I haven't actually watched any anime for about 3 months, and I'm not particularly motivated to finish up my other stuff either.

This is weird.

Edit: Haven't really listened to Japanese music for a very long time either, which is why I don't really have anything new to sing during karaoke. Well, not that I've really been listening to much music anyhow, though the stuff I've listened to in recent memory has been in English, even if it's Cthulhu-themed or the Portal ending song.

Only thing left I really do for entertainment is games, but the turnover rate there is rather high (i.e. I get bored very quickly and need something different)

At least I've started reading a bit more.

Currently feeling odd

dracil

So I had an entry about something similar a few days ago, except this guy's much worse. He pretty much flat out lied. So obviously I'm not gonna link to his posts, but I will link to the Penny Arcade explanation of the comic.

Currently feeling okay

dracil

That was an eventful weekend.

Spent much of it (and actually part of today too) fixing Olivia's computer. Ended up just reinstalling, which was a good thing 'cause she wanted an English Windows instead of the Chinese Windows she had before. Viruses are fun.

The other thing of note is Dine About Town which I tried out on Sunday night. On the way to the restaurant, the first Muni didn't even stop (it slowed to almost a stop and then sped up as I was about to push the button to open the door, the button never even lighted up, which means the operator didn't stop) and the next one was late so I thought I wasn't going to make the reservation time. I mean seriously, this behavior is probably why last week some guy got dragged 3 blocks to his death while trying to board the Muni and the operator never even noticed! They need to hire more competent people.

Anyway, went to Cassis with Olivia since I still owed her a birthday meal from last month and she said she'd never been to a French restaurant before. Because DAT means the prices are fixed, we just picked the most expensive stuff from the menu so we saved about $15-$20 compared to ordering it normally, and that included a dessert that wasn't part of their normal menu. So the appetizer was "Filo dough wrapped goat cheese with ratatouille and olive tapenade". The dough was very crispy. Then we had "Duck confit and juicy duck breast, served with gratin duaphinois" which was very tasty in the I-know-this-can't-be-healthy-but-I-don't-care-way. Then dessert was some "Chocolate Bombe" thing which was basically a chocolate pyramid with mousse inside. :D No wine. Oh, the only thing that was more meh was the complimentary bread + butter that was given which is common in these types of restaurants. It's not that it's bad, it just wasn't nearly as special as everything else that followed it.

Also, other stuff of note. I liked how the waiter made it a point to ask and give everything to Olivia first. Also, we were the most under-dressed of all the people there, though the site DID say casual dress, so whatever.
Currently feeling content

dracil

How does one interview someone applying to be your boss?

Suggestions within the next 18 or so hours would be much appreciated.
Currently feeling curious

dracil

Gah, my photo's somewhere in the front cover article of a local weekly magazine. >_<

No, I am not linking to the article here.
Currently feeling surprised

dracil

Hmm, got up at 5:30, got to Lafayette Bart, then went to Sacramento first with Jenny. After that, went to the pizza place nearby which turned out to be closed, so we ended up just going to Carrows on the way down in Stockton. So, the clam chowder wasn't very good (Jenny said it was like cream of brocolli + clams, and I thought it was kinda like the microwaved clam chowder at Safeway) and it was ironic that it was saltier than the saltine crackers. She had shrimp carbonara which she didn't like but I thought was pretty nice, while I thought my blackened steak was a little too tough. I think they forgot to give me the cajun sauce for the crispy shrimp, which I didn't realize till after when I saw the menu at the front as we were leaving. The Dublin Carrows is definitely better.

We got to see snow in the grapevine, which was cool. Haven't seen snow in over a decade now. I also had my first frappuccino (non-coffee though) along the way. Probably should've gotten the coffee... maybe next time.

Got there around 8 and Jenny had to leave right after. Got In'n'Out (didn't realize they actually had animal-style fries so that was a surprise), and then we went to meet up with Aaron, Eric, David, and Sophia at the airport and then we all came back, played some Wii and went to bed.

Aaron complained about my snoring. =/

Saturday... we got up around 9:30-10:30 depending on the person. We decided to go to Maki Maki Sushi which turned out to be pretty unauthentic Japanese food given the large amount of Korean stuff they had there and the lack of certain Japanese staples. It was also kinda expensive and unorthodox. Their tempura came with absolutely nothing else, if I'd known that I would've just gotten the bento box which would be cheaper and had more variety. At least I was sharing with Sophia so I did get to try some fish.

We got some red envelopes at some bookstores as well as some boba. Then we went to Blockbuster since Charlie wanted to rent some Wii sports-type games as his brother refused to give him the games, but they didn't have it, then after that we went back to wait for Jenny before going to Ding Tai Fung.

Ding Tai Fung itself was... kinda aggravating. Poor Joyce waited almost 2 hours there. =/ David's group was late by an hour and the front desk lady was really really adamant about not seating us unless we had our full party. I mean, if, as they claimed, there were so much extra space that we didn't need to worry, then why not just let us at least sit and maybe order something? Anyway, they didn't have the tang bao again which was annoying since that was my only reason to even want to go back (it's not that the rest of the food is bad, but it's a lot of trouble for a meal). False advertising blah. At least they had the sense to not force the 18% gratuity for a large party on us.

Afterwards Jenny had to leave and the rest of us went to Yogurtland. Interesting serving style in there. The employees wouldn't let us take pictures though.

Then finally Sunday, we woke up even earlier since we need to get to the wedding. Saw Michelle there! :D But we didn't really get to talk too much since circumstances kinda forced us to be apart for most of it and she had to leave early to catch a flight as well.

We kinda did the table arrangements ourselves, since the original layout did not fit the actual layout at all. Hope we did ok. Food was good, didn't get to see the bride and groom as much as I'd hoped though. Everyone got a pair of custom chopsticks at the wedding too. Bridesmaids were pooped since they had to get up at 3AM to do their hair (which looked quite nice though). Fang herself only got an hour of sleep. Jason got up at 6AM, so... yeah.

Left with April and Catherine. We made really good time and go back at about 8:45, which was like 5.5 hours of driving. Had dinner there with Paul and Arthur who had made lamb + other stuff. Chatted for a bit and then left and got home around 12:15.

So I guess now I know what a wedding's like.

Congratulations Ms. McDowell and Mr. Hu. :D

Currently feeling tired

dracil

I feel sick (not 'cause of a cold or something like that).

I think it was the milk or something I ate.
Currently feeling nauseated

dracil

Haven't vomited in years. I think it may have been the falafel sandwich from lunch. Woke up several times in the night. I guess I'm supposed to drink only water until I feel better.
Currently feeling sick

dracil

Currently feeling still sick