Bits and Pieces

« February 2003 | Main | April 2003 »

March 26, 2003

I ripped off the top

I ripped off the top part of one my nails yesterday. Now what's left of the stupid nail is kind of soft and bendable. So me, being a complete moron, cannot stop playing with this nail. I keep chewing on it like it's going to make a difference in it healing any faster. I think I am driving myself up the wall. I'm trying to be all productive and stuff, but all I succeed in doing is playing with the nail some more. I'm so stupid *sigh*.

Yesterday Eno and I went shopping. I always think it's funny when it's the guy that is shopping around while the girl just sits around waiitng. The usual stereotype is where the guy is waiting bored out of his mind while the girl is shopping around. But I found since I've come to Pittsburgh, the opposite is happening a lot more. Maybe b/c I'm trying not to spend money, or maybe b/c the only place I look is the sale section (thanks to countless years of training by my mom...) in a store, but I sure finish a lot faster than any of my guy friends. So I didn't buy anything, but hell, Eno bought a crapload of stuff. Heheheh. Anyway, afterwards I made dinner for Jen, Scott, Eno and me. I just want to apologize to them for the small portions that I made. I wasn't really sure, I was decently full, but I don't think everyone had enough. I usually make enough for two people, so I guess I don't really know how to scale up the number very well. Oh-well. Next time is definitely going to be chocolate fondue...no dinner, just chocolate fondue...

All right, back to coding. You know, I complained about not coding earlier, but now that I am coding again, I have come to a couple of conclusions. A) C++ sucks ass when you don't know it, B) comments are useful, and when they are not there, the original coder needs to be taken out and shot, and C) My coding skills have deteriorated to nothing. *sigh* Kind of disappointing if you ask me. Bleh.

Posted by szujin at 03:40 PM | Comments (0)

March 20, 2003

Uh...I feel pretty sick today.

Uh...I feel pretty sick today. Ok, so I like the deep scratchy voice thing, but feeling congested and slightly whoozy is not as much fun. Yesterday I had the dry cough going on, and today I have the "let's have enough phelgm to last a life time" going on. Gross. I should probably go home and try to get some sleep, but instead I am at school trying to make my whole floor sick. Hahah...I'm so stupid.

Anyway, I got a call from my ex-boyfriend in Kuwait this morning. It's kind of weird, but I've never actually known anyone to be in the army before, and especially not during a war. As I was talking to him in a horrendous connection (imagine Sprint commericals where the guy says "Can you hear me now?" every second...), he kind of freaked out a couple of times b/c there were missiles going over his head, and then he followed it up with "It's nothing, don't worry about it." I'm sorry, how am I supposed to not freak out? It feels kind of surreal, how only half a world away there is a war raging on. I guess when you know someone who is in the midst of it, it's a lot more personal than when you know no one. I always wonder, do you think it's the people who don't have relatives in the army that are "Hell yeah, let's kick Hussein's butt"? I mean, when you don't actually care about the people there, or at least know them, they aren't really people anymore, just instruments necessary to reach a mean. I dunno, guess I'm just worried. I still think it's pretty strange how we go on with life like nothing is the matter, when there are so many people risking their lives every second of the day. Dunno...just thoughts for the moment.

Tonight is the ECE Open House Dinner for potential incoming grad students. I think basically every girl in the ECE department was invited to this dinner. I was telling Mike (the prof) that I feel like we are false advertising to these poor incoming grad students that there are a lot more girls in the ECE department than there actually are. And the worst part was that he actually AGREED. He was like "Yeah, well, we got to get them to come somehow" and then I was just sort of dumbfounded. I didn't actually think profs were allowed to say things like that. He was telling me how the ratio of guys to girls is actually increasing as the years go by, isn't that kind of strange? Thought as we advanced further into the computer age that girls would start liking this stuff, but he said that that the trends show otherwise. Sure sucks to be a guy in the engineering field. Hehehe...I'm so mean. But hell, I get to go eat at the Carnegie Museum, guess it's ok if they exploit us a little bit. =)

Posted by szujin at 12:18 PM | Comments (0)

March 19, 2003

Today was a pretty unexciting

Today was a pretty unexciting day. It's amazing how these days just come and go...and all of a sudden it's been a week, month, or year. They just kind of go by insignificantly. Today wasn't even an "ugly" day or any kind of day. Just a blah day. Yesterday was a more nerve-racking day since I had to present at the SRG meeting. I spent so much time preparing for that presentation, it was sort of crazy. Guess that's what happens when you try to present something that you literally have no clue about. But, I think Chenxi and Mike were pretty impressed by my effort. Hehe, Chenxi even asked me if I wanted to go the Oakland for some top-notch security conference. How exciting is that? Of course I'm not presenting, and I probably won't have a clue about anything, but it's still kind of cool to go to a conference in something that is related to your field. Hehehe. Maybe I'll meet crazy smart people who'll make me feel like a small insignificant peon. But hell, I already feel that way, so it's all good. It's still exciting nevertheless. Yay.

On the other hand, Saturday we went to Touch again (surprise suprise). The only thing different was that the club was really dead. It was pretty disappointing; don't think we'll be going back there anymore. Anyway, Jen invited some new people to come out with us, and there was this one guy in that group who would not leave the two of us alone. I think he was pretty drunk, but he couldn't keep his hands off me, and I had to get my friends to rescue me everytime he even came close!! It was even more frustrating than the guy from the other time we went to Touch. Hope I never see him again...

Argh...I have to cut this short. Boyfriend calls...sigh.

Posted by szujin at 01:09 AM | Comments (0)

March 14, 2003

Today is an ugly day.

Today is an ugly day. I hate days like this...where I just feel ugly. Kinda weird b/c I'm definitely not PMSing or anything like that, but hell...I feel like I look gross. Sometimes I think it's the hair. Dunno exactly what it is...but I was looking in the mirror earlier, and I was like "Man...I need some makeup like crazy" and then I went back to my cube and felt pitiful for a little bit. Man...I am such a girl at times. Bleh.

I'm listening to Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 5. It's SO good. I don't think it's actually a very popular symphony, but I played it in high school, so you know, I have a certain attachment to it. I still remember I used to have a crush on the bassoon player, and there is a huge bassoon solo in one of the movements(the third, I think), and so whenever I hear it, I get all sentimental. Too bad I never talked to the guy...and he turned out to be gay!! Man, high school is so long ago...kinda weird to think about it. Actually, one of my best friends from high school emailed me the other day, and he was reminiscing about the past too. We must really be getting old to be thinking about high school like "way back then..." But it's really true...we've come so far from five years ago. I don't think I would have ever believed that I would be where I am at now five years ago. Kind of crazy where life takes us, huh?

Posted by szujin at 12:22 PM | Comments (0)

March 12, 2003

Heading for full-blown panic mode

Heading for full-blown panic mode in about.....five seconds.... ARGH. I get back to Pittsburgh to realize that I shitloads of stuff to do *sigh*. My advisor actually guilt-tripped me out of going to the gym on Monday!! "You went to the Bahamas...don't you have a lot of stuff to do? If you have time to go to the gym, I'm clearly not giving you enough work..." Blah blah blah. Talked to Jim about our sensor network project and realized that we are totally crazy for deciding to the project that we are going to do. The worst part about that is that WE CAN'T START. Argh. Totally freaking out about a paper I have to present that I have no clue about...ohmigod there is so much math that it makes my head hurt. And the worst part is that I have to do well on it. The prof for my security class organizes this meeting...and I totally have to sound like what I am talking about b/c hell...I failed the hell out of his last test (the average for the test was a 32...standard deviation of 14 pts...is that not totally crazy??) And the paper I have to write...hmm...I hate writing. That's just going to be a bitch *roll of eyes* And I am totally bitchin' and moaning...hahaha...can't help myself. Plus, I can't motivate myself to actually really get anything done. Look at me, instead of working on stuff, I'm surfing the web, reading other people's blogs (Arthur...update your xanga site!! heheh)...and updating my own. I need to get crackin'. Geez. I suck.

Posted by szujin at 12:48 AM | Comments (0)

March 10, 2003

Wow...so I'm actually back in

Wow...so I'm actually back in Atlanta. This weekend was a total blast. The Bahamas, the cruise...everything was really quite perfect. So, I figure I'll just go on a day-by-day account of the whole experience. I can't believe it's already over...I'm slightly burnt and maybe a few pounds heavier, but hell, I'd totally go back if I got a chance.

Wednesday - So I wanted to catch an earlier flight to get to Atlanta, but when I got to the airport, I found out the earlier flight was already completely sold out (boo). So I stayed at ABP for like, four hours waiting for my flight. Get on the plane, it's delayed because they need to defrost it or something. We fly to Atlanta to discover there is a huge-ass storm, so we get diverted to North Carolina. We stay in NC for an hour or so, and then finally fly to Atlanta and land around one in the morning. So much for getting there earlier than planned...I friggin got there four hours later. Needless to say...I didn't get to eat any of the good food I wanted to eat *sniffle*

Thursday - Driving to Fort Lauderdale was a serious bitch. It rained like crazy for the first three hours...so it took us about an hour longer than it should have to reach Fort Lauderdale than it should have. Once we got there, everything was pretty good. The cruise ship was fantastic. We were on the seventh floor (as opposed to rock bottom like last time), and the room was actually pretty decently sized. They fed us about a couple hours after we got on...cruise food is always really good. Mike and I watched the sunset, watched some welcome show, watched "The Tuxedo", and then gambled. Mike lost $15 dollars in five minutes, I won $7. Go me.

Friday - We reached Nassau about 11 in the morning. Took lots of pictures. The water is really pretty there. It's so clear that you can see the bottom even if it's like a mile deep...kinda whacky. We decided to go on a shore excursion to "Discover Atlantis." That was the biggest waste of money. Atlantis is a hotel there, and basically we paid like $40 for them to show us their hotel, and tell us how great it is. I thought it was supposed to be some really exotic aquarium, but it was just a small aquarium in the Hotel. It was really kind of stupid. Anyway, we went to the beach afterwards. The beach there is nice...looking into the water, I always forget how salty the damn ocean is. So, we sunbathed there for a while, and then went back to the ship. We had a really great dinner there, some formal dress up stuff. Never knew, but people sure like to get drsesed up. Afterwards, Mike and I decided to try out the clubbing scene in Nassau. Apparently there is the whole Spring Break thing going on there, so we went out to some club that was supposed to be hosting "Girls Gone Wild" tapings...not that I really wanted to see that (which, happens on Saturdays anyway), but we figured it would be decently crowded. Ohmigod...it was SO stupid. The DJ was horrible, and the music was pretty high-school. Mike and I felt soold. Maybe I am used to the Midtown scene in Atlanta or something, but I actually felt overdressed. Is that not whack? People there seemed to be having fun, and I guess maybe if I were completely wasted and also a freshman in college I would think it was crazy fun, but goodness...it was a bit disappointing. So, Mike and I walked back to the ship after about an hour. It was pretty nice...about two mile walk...felt sort of like a workout...sort of.

Saturday - CoCo Cay is absolutely gorgeous. Mike and I got up pretty late (around 10:30) so we missed some of it. But we got to the island around 12:00, just in time for the lunch buffet, which was pretty decent food (notice the focus on food...). We laid out in the sweltering sun for about half an hour before both of us couldn't handle it anymore and had to make a mad run for it into the ocean. We went snorkeling and saw all these different types of fish. I wanted to feed the fish, so I told Mike to put a roll of bread in his pocket. That was probably the stupidest hting I asked him to do...hehe. He got about thirty feet into the water and then like 30 gigantic fish attacked him. You have to imagine him throwing his arms up and dancing around, freaking out. There were two other girls around him and they were totally scared out of their minds too. I think I almost fell over laughing. Anyway, we did that for a while, and then went back to the boat, sunburnt and crazy tired. We relaxed in the "Crown Lounge" on the 14th floor of the ship for a couple of hours, and then had dinner. Caught a comedy show, and then went to some lounge for a couple more hours. The ship had crazy turbulence that night, but it was fun anyway.

Sunday - Drive home was bitch too. Flordia drivers...YOU SUCK. There was no accident, nothing...just rain, but nevertheless, we went about 5 mph for about two hours. I thought I was going to go absolutely insane. So needless to say, the drive took forever, but we got home safely. Now, I'm back in Atlanta. And then tomorrow, I'll be back in Pittsburgh *ugh* But at the very least...I got a tan. =)

Posted by szujin at 12:05 AM | Comments (0)

March 03, 2003

I had this whack dream

I had this whack dream last night. I dreamed that I bottled up my friend, Ju, in a shampoo bottle and threw her out the window of a really tall building and basically murdered her. And then, Mike started talking to me about Sky, and I thought, "How could Sky be still alive? I threw him out the window too!" And it was kind of strange, because in my dream, I felt kind of guilty, but also glad that I had gotten rid of them. I don't even really remember why I threw Ju out the window, but I do remember that I "killed" Sky because I was annoyed with him. When I woke up, I was totally relieved that none of it actually happened. I wonder what this signifies though. My nightmares always seem to be realistic scenarios that I don't know how to extract myself from. And I panic like there is no tomorrow in them, contemplating what the hell I am supposed to do next. I know that they're not like, super duper scary nightmares that other people have where they are chased by ghosts or something like that. But, I still think that my dreams are kind of disturbing. Hmm...

Posted by szujin at 09:10 AM | Comments (0)

March 02, 2003

Tonight (or I should say

Tonight (or I should say last night) was the ECE Winter Party. It was pretty fun. The food turned out to be pretty decent, the decorations were fabulous, and I didn't embarrass the hell out of myself in Shuheng's dance, so that was a bonus. The Wizard of Oz movie turned out pretty decent after Tudor and Nick put in the music, so it didn't turn out really embarrassing at all, just funny. The dance music was pretty horrendous, so we went out to Touch afterwards. I swear, Touch is where we always go...But anyway, it was pretty good. We had a lot of people go, and the dance floor wasn't terribly crowded, so we got to dance with some room. There was some guy in our group that I didn't know, that kept wanting to dance with me. And although I am usually ok about dancing with other people, this person really really sucked. So, I tried to get Avi to save me by coming behind me and starting to dance with me. So, I turned around to start dancing with Avi, and this other guy just pulled me away. He literally pulled me back toward him! I was so surprised that I said that I had to take a break, but he wouldn't listen and kept on trying to dance with me. I finally had to just pull and make a run for it. It was kind of weird...I thought I was pretty rude the first time he tried dancing with me (I made a mad run for it then too), but then he tried again. I didn't even really know what to think afterwards *sigh*. Anyway, afterwards, we were going to go to Chenxi's place for omelettes, but she left her keys at someone's (who was sleeping) house, so we ended up going to Ritter's instead. Ritter's is all right, but it sure doesn't compare to Waffle House. So, now, at five in the morning, I am finally at home and trying to fall asleep. I think it was the rush from the night, but I'm not really tired at all. I just feel kind of fat for all the food I ate today...

Posted by szujin at 05:15 AM | Comments (0)