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May 27, 2003
Memorial Day Weekend has not
Memorial Day Weekend has not been the most exciting for me. I actually spent most of today at work. The wonders of being a grad student. But I guess I can't really complain since we don't really keep 9-5 hours anyway. I mean, Friday I left work around 1:30 to go apartment hunting (which btw, was pretty fruitless since the one place I really liked my mom vetoed since she said it was too expensive) and didn't come back until Sunday *wink*. Actually, I told myself I was going to make up the hours on Saturday, but it was too beautiful of a day (weather.com is a big fat liar!!!) to actually spend inside, so instead I went to Animal Friends and walked dogs and played with cats. Procrastinating me. But yeah, I went Friday too. I walked a dog named Clair on Friday, and she was really energetic and cute, so I wanted to walk her on Saturday too. But apparently, around other dogs and people, she gets really excited. So as I was about to take her out of the building, another dog walker (and dog) came by, and Clair got so excited she ended up biting me by accident. It hurt like a MOFO. It wasn't until later that I realized that there was a sign on TOP of her cage that had changed her "ranking" to one that I could not walk. I felt sort of stupid. I said that she didn't break the skin when she bit me, but she did. I still feel sort of guilty that I decided not to go today....but I think I will have to suck it up sometime, and maybe I'll go tomorrow. Walking dogs is fun.
Umm...other than that...nothing else has been that exciting. Chenxi had a BBQ today (in celebration of Memorial Day I suppose). We got into a huge discussion where we talked about chick flicks. Apparently Avi doesn't believe that "Down with Love" is a chick flick. So we spent like 30 minutes trying to convince Avi that it was...and then diverted to other random conversations that involved every other aspect of gender generalizations. It was pretty fun. Of course, I don't make it sound very exciting, but it was pretty relaxing. :)
Posted by szujin at 01:59 AM | Comments (0)
May 22, 2003
Wow...so it's been like, forever
Wow...so it's been like, forever since I've updated. So I didn't really have an internet connection for a while, but I was a faithful blogger (is that the right word?)...and actually wrote stuff even though I didn'tpost. So, here are my last two entries. They are incredibly scary long. :)
Sunday 5/11
So, here I am at Austin airport (without internet access that is). I've been pretty bad about updating my blog for the last few days, so I guess I'll just go through the jist of it.
Sunday (5/4) - got my car towed b/c of the stupid Pittsburgh Marathon. Lovely that the police didn't bother to post the signs for "no parking" until two in the morning the day of the race. Tried to go get my car, four hour wait...I don't think so...
Monday - took my final, it wasn't as I expected (which was, not actually have one. I guess I was dreaming a little hard, what did you expect?). But it wasn't too bad, so that's good. I went to go pick up my car to find out that not only was there a $150 towing fee (what the heck...) there was another $50 ticket on top of it! Total jacking. And the police officer that was at the desk was a total dick. Ugh. He actually told me to hurry up when I was trying to read the forms that showed what the fees were for and all that crap. Jerk. Anyway, got my car (in the midst of all these beat up cars...it was kind of scary). And went down to traffic court to petition, and I got there to find out that even though they had hours at the time, they only did marathon tickets in the morning and that there was NO way that I could extend my time to come to traffic court (ten days) no matter the circumstances (meaning, me going out of town). So, needless to say, I left slightly pissed considering I was leaving the next day for two weeks. Anyway, afterwards Scott and I went to go see X-Men since all our other friends went to go see it over the weekend (while I was being a good girl and studying...). It was awesome. Hugh Jackman is
HOT. Hahaha.
Tuesday - Got up at crazy early in the morning to hit traffic court. I got the ticket reduced, but it was still a total jacking *sniffle*. Flew to Atlanta, ate a lot...not too exciting. I forgot to update my latest version of my research to my laptop...and so I've been screwed ever since. Chenxi's gonna gloat.
Wendesday - I did a lot today. I went to the gym, ate breakfast with my parents (doesn't happen very often...I get up a lot later than they do usually...). Met up with Eric, Grace, Jay, and Bert for lunch. It was pretty much same old...just talked like we'd never been apart. Then, I went to go get my haircut with some pretty "up there" guy at Toni and Guy. I'd never met any hair stylist that has been so gung ho about his work place. If he wasn't talking about "the company" he had nothing else to say. I dunno, I paid a lot for him, but I'm not like totally thrilled with my haircut. Afterwards, shopped for a present for Mike with Ming and Arthur. Ming gave me a lot of shit for not always calling back when he calls...but I have only one excuse, it's a blanket policy! I just suck at returning calls...I think I'm supposed to try to fix that...but I just haven't gotten around to it. Kehehe. Anyway, Went to dinner with my parents; I miss decent Chinese food like crazy. I think one of the things I miss most in Pittsburgh is Chinese food. Sad but true. Lastly, I met up with Tzu (and Matt) for some weird sugar-less cheesecake and espresso. The cheesecake was pretty good for the first few bites, but then it started getting this weird "nutra-sweety" taste, even though it didn't have that. But, besides that crazy cheesecake, talking to Tzu and Matt is always fun. :)
Thursday - Drove mad crazy 14 hours to Austin with Mike. I slept through like nine hours of it though. Hehehe. Got up to eat lunch (hmm...from now to the next sentence, just took a flight to houston...go me), and drove about five hours, and that's about it. the last hour of our drive was crazy stressful b/c we weren't sure if we were gonna make it to Mike's apartment in time to get his keys. But man, Mike's apartment is NICE. It's like living in at a resort (maybe that's why it's called resort living or some crap). But the pool is awesome, with fountains and all. They have free tanning rooms, a steam room, an xercise room (yay), and a sauna. They also have free breakfasts on Saturdays and a free business center too. It was crazy cool. Mike's place is nice too. Kinda wish I were moving to Austin too...
Friday - Went shopping for furniture. We ended up only buying stupid small "necessities." No bed or sofas, or even tables. I have to say though I like Pottery Barn a lot. Tried to do work, but alas, no Internet connection. Doh.
Saturday - More furniture shopping with no success. I really like the furniture store "Copenhagen." Too bad we can' afford any of it. I think I get depressed when I see furniture that I can't afford but I think is mad crazy cute, but Mike says it just makes him look to the future and strive to make more money. Man...what's good about furniture shopping when you find something you like but you KNOW you won't be able to get it, and when you can get it, it won't be there anymore? Pshh...future my butt.
And now it's Sunday morning and I'm on my way to San Francisco. Someone is eating something that is making my stomach grumble. Doh. I want to eat!! I think I am just too a) lazy to get my ass out of the chair and pack up my stuff to walk over to the breakfast place right next to me and b) cheap. Hahaha. I'm so hungry...someone come feed me...
Sunday 5/18
So now I'm in flight to Washington DC Dulles airport. Feeling slightly lied to since the lady at the gate told me we weren't getting food, so I bought some really expensive McDonalds, but now that I'm flight, guess what happens? We get food. Doh. Sucks to be me. Hehe. Anyway, this week was pretty good. The security conference was "ok." But I wasn't really sure what to expect. I guess it's kind of hard to be all "hardcore" about stuff when I'm not really doing security and the conference is on Security and Privacy. But, the Claremont was pretty nice. I had my own room (since my advisor didn't want to share, which is ok with me), and a skylight (is that what they are called?) in the bathroom. They had a spa/gym thing that was pretty nice. Of course being the crazy gym-a-holic person that I am, I went every day (except the first). The food was pretty crappy ( at the conference), but the dinner foods were pretty good. I had Ethopian for the first time. I'm not really sure if it was the fact that I had a late lunch or that we had to eat without utensils, but I didn't find it all that exciting (ie good). Feel like I was supposed to be totally impressed, but I wasn't. Oh-well. The people at the conference were pretty nice. I didn't really talk to that many people. I think the fear that I will sound like a complete moron has not left me yet. I actually went to some guy who was displaying a poster and talked to him for a while to discover that he was doing stuff related to formal methods, and that I hadn't a clue about what he was talking about. I felt pretty stupid. It was kind of like reaffirming that I am an idiot. But other than that, you know, the talks had their moments...some of them were good, some of them were really bad. Same old same old.
On Wednesday we went left Berkeley and headed over to San Francisco. We stayed in the heart of Chinatown (totally unexpected, but there is nothing wrong with that). I have to say though, the area we stayed around was pretty sketchy (ie lots of strip clubs and porn video stores). I don't think I've ever had so many people yell at me, "Come here. The girls are hot, and girls get in free!" But anyway, Wednesday night we went to some mad expensive restaurant that a friend wanted to go to that was totally not worth the money. It was kind of funnie b/c Scott and I had been talking about saving money (ie McDonalds), but then I felt that I really pissed off that friend, so we were required to do what he wanted. I can say fully that it was so totally not worth the $30 I paid for dinner. But anyway, afterwards, all of us went to get drinks at some random bar off of Columbus. We were there for a quite a while, it was cute, with couches and pillows and all. But yeah, we were there for a while. Scott drank a little too much, Avi apparently drank a lot too (although I couldn't tell), and then the five of us tumbled home back to the Holiday Inn. It was pretty good just chillin'.
Thursday - we went to see the Coit Tower, Alcatrez, and Pier 39. Coit Towere is a total rip off!! $3.75 for an elevator ride?? It was a pretty nice view of SanFran, but I had a pretty decent view on the hotel I stayed at on Saturday (more about that later) too. Alcatrez was really cool, albeit a bit expensive. I think jails make me a little claustophobic..We were allowed to walk into the cells, and everytime I'd walk in, I felt a little more nervous. I don't think I could imagine living in a jail cell 9x17 or something like that 23 hours a day. Damn...makes you not want to do things illegal. Then, we went to Pier 39 where the sea lions were. They stink. But they are mad crazy cute. Actually, it was pretty disgusting b/c this one sea lion decided to take a dump and roll around in it. And then he rolled off the side into the water where then a sea gull came swooping down to forage for food. The sea gull, with both webbed feet, walked in the sea lion's dung like nobody's business. He smeared it around, getting all in it to find whatever choicy piece of food you could find in a sea lion's crap. I think Scott and Avi were about to hurl. Mike and I thought it was sort of humorous. Ahh...sea lions...
Anyway, at night, Mike, Jim, and I met up with Josh (who I hadn't seen since December) at some random club off of Broadway (Red Dragon). Apparently Josh's friend had told him that this club usually plays trance/house, but that night they had rap. The DJ was pretty questionable actually. The only cool part was there for the first thirty minutes there was some guy freestylin'. Never seen that before, so I was kind of impressed. But the music was not so great, and the crowd was sort of sketchy. I totally wanted to leave, but I felt sort of obligated to stay since Josh came all the way out to see me. But joke was on me, Josh ended up leaving before us (b/c he thought the club was pretty lame too). And right when I was about to tell Jim that I wanted to go home, he started macking on some random girl!!! Argh...so Mike and I couldn't rain on his parade, so we stayed until the club closed while Jim danced with that girl. Man...Jim sure has the moves. Hehehe.
Oh yeah, and in the morning we went to see Matrix II at the Sony Metereon. That place is TIGHT. They have all the latest Sony technology/gadgets stuff and a whole store with Sony games where you can try them all out for free. Matrix II was sort of a disappointment. The love scenes that made me hurl in the first one, came back full force in the second. Ugh. So, the motorcylce scene was pretty awesome, but I dunno, I almost fell asleep during the first 30 minutes of the movie. Bleh.
Friday - For breakfast we went to get Dim Sum. It was so much cheaper than I expected. Maybe Dim Sum in Atlanta in just mad expensive, I dunno. But it was SO good. Too bad my friends are not really into shrimp/seafood much less Dim Sum. It was a little weird since everyone at the restaurant just spoke to me in Cantonese, and I kind of just looked at them like a deer caught in headlights. At least in Atlanta, they usually start off with Mandarin. I almost felt like a social outcast or something. Doh.
Anyway, afterwards we went to the Museum Of Modern Art. Stayed there for a while. Sometimes, I still don't know why it's considered art. So maybe that's why I'm not an artist. After that, Mike and I split from the group and went shopping. After I spent a butt load of money at Gap, we then walked like five billion blocks (ok, around 40 blocks) to meet up with Josh at Sushi Go Go. That place was AWESOME. Some of the best sushi I've had (albeit I didn't really have anything that could be called traditional sushi, but whatever). The wait was like 1 1/2 hrs even when we got there at 9:30, it was pretty crazy if you ask me. After dinner we were gonna go get coffee but got sidetracked by a club with no cover and mad amounts of people. There was some really freaky guy that wouldn't leave me alone. I dunno what his problem was, but even after I made it apparent that I was taken (ie, let me get up all on my boyfriend, well not really, but you kno what I mean), he still tried to get up all on me. I was majorly freaked out. Finally Josh, (w/o telling us at the time) went up to him and was like "if you come close to us again, I will stab you in the face". Needless to say, he went off stalking other girls after that (they promptly left the dance floor too). So overall, it was pretty good...
Saturday - Avi made a big deal about wanting to drive through some scenic highway, and Scott really wanted to go see some vineyards, so we rented a (mad expensive) car, and went driving up through Sonoma (County...I think?). It was one helluva long trip. The winery was sort of boring, and we only got to go to one. And the scenic drive back took freakin three and a half hours! But, it was nice, and I guess I have to say, it was sort of worth it, just to say a) I've been and b) that there is a nice ocean. Afterwards, Mike and I made our way to the Mandarin Orient to celebrate our two year anniversary (everyone else went back to Pittsburgh). The hotel is mad crazy nice!! We were on the 42nd floor and had this spectacular view of the city. The room was crazy nice, and the bathroom was freakin' the same size as the bedroom. And the bed was awesome (ie soft., maybe like a baby's butt...heheh). We had dinner at the hotel resturant, Silk. I think that was one of the best dinners I've had ever. So yeah, it was a bit expensive, but compared to all the places I've gone, this has to be either number one or two. Mike got me a new bracelet and necklace...one that supposedly won't scratch up my clothes, but I have my doubts (shh...don't tell him that...). I have yet to get his gift...I am such a bad girlfriend. Doh. Anyway...it was nice. Romantic and just really nice....
WHEW Aiite...that's it. Haven't really talked about much else. Life is going. Guess I'll prolly update again later. :)
Posted by szujin at 11:28 PM | Comments (0)
May 04, 2003
RoboCup was started yesterday (I
RoboCup was started yesterday (I think), they had semi-finals today, and tomorrow is finals. Man, those Sony Ibos are crazy cute. I watched the semi-final between GaTech and University of Washington today. GaTech kicked their butts. Kehehe. Kind of weird, b/c one of my good friends, Tzu, actually called me and told me to go (I wasn't really thinking about going). But her boyfriend is on Tech's team, and she made me deliver a Diet Vanilla Coke (eww...) to him. And then, I ended up watching their game. Those Ibos are really totally crazy cute though. They can't really kick, so you see these Ibos falling foward onto the ball to move the ball. And they're totally autonomous, so you can imagine some of the algorithms that they run don't do exactly what you want them to do. There was a moment in time, where all the red Ibos were gang banging this one blue Ibo. It was SO funny. I know they don't have any emotions or anything, but just watching them try to find the ball and move together...they're not very good at it....kehhehe. It's amusing. But yeah, I'm gonna go see the finals tomorrow. Apparently CMU's Ibos do victory dances. Isn't that kind of cute? I'm kinda torn for which team I should cheer for. Kehehhe...
Other than that...nothing much else to say. Should've gone out salsa dancing, but I didn't. Should've gone out clubbing tonite, but I didn't. I'm such a loser!!! *sniffle* All my friends are calling me up this weekend, mainly b/c I think they are done with classes (stupid GaTech people...so unfair!!!)...and so I end up talking to them, and getting nothing done *sigh* But then again, maybe I'm just using them as an excuse. Shame on me!!! Hahah...whatcha gonna do, right? I keep telling myself that hell, Jim (who is in my class for the final coming up), isn't really studying...so maybe I don't have to study too. Hahhaha...but I know that Jim is mucho smarter than me, so I don't know what I am thinking. I think I am just trying to console myself. *Roll of eyes* Anything to get out of reading fifty million research papers, I tell you. Anything. Won't I regret on Monday morning. But hell, after that...I AM FREE!!!!!! Dunno why I am getting so excited...it ain't happening yet. Sigh.....
Posted by szujin at 02:46 AM | Comments (0)
May 02, 2003
UGH....my brain hurts. We finished
UGH....my brain hurts. We finished taking our security final, and decided to go out and get lunch...and now I have this massive headache. I had a beer (which I never do at lunch), and now I feel like I have a hammer slowly pounding at my head. And I can't even take aspirin or anything for it. Bleh. I dunno, feel kind of like everything is over (since I was going kinda crazy with all the stuff I had to do), and now that this test is over, feel like I should kick back and relax. But my brain knows better. I'm supposed to study for my upcoming final, but the other part of me is like "whatever dude" and so instead of seriously relaxing or studying like a madwoman, i sit in front of my computer and contemplate which one I should do. I am so dumb. Sigh.
Plus...I haven't gone to work out in TWO days, and I'm about to go insane. Maybe I should go work out right now...but I feel like crap. Bleh.
Kehehe...complainy me. Sorry. =)
Posted by szujin at 02:01 PM | Comments (0)