in silico

SiboL.in is open

2006-06-14T01:37:00.000-04:00

This marks the end of seebojump.blogspot.com . I enjoyed my time with Blogger, but it's time to move on to greater things. Please visit my new website at http://SiboL.in

Five Buck Club

2006-06-07T12:53:00.000-04:00

Now this is cool. Google it, sign up, and let's go see "Thank You for Smoking"

In Honor of Jean Grey

2006-05-31T13:42:00.000-04:00

The lab was too hot today. Robert said a fan broke. So I headed off to the nice, air-conditioned library. Back in elementary/middle school, I loved the library. I could pick up any book--from the Hardy Boys to dinosaur books, from Goosebumps to American history books. Today, as I was browsing the computers' shelf, I happened to see an unshelved book on the opposing shelf, The Science Behind Psi or something. It reported experiments conducted in the early and mid-90s that supported the idea that psyche (or psi) is separate from the brain, and is not restrained by the laws of spacetime. I admit, at first I thought No way! This stuff can't happen outside of the Star Wars Universe. In one experiment, a volunteer picked a card from a deck and tried to telepathically "send" the card to another volunteer in a different room. The receiver was wrong most of the times, but was still an order of magnitude better than random guessing. Then, they tried this with a robotic shuffler instead of a human sender. And the receiver was actually worse than random guessing by an order of magnitude! I think that experiment had some flaws, so I remained skeptical. But then I remembered my own psi experiences. Have you ever experienced deja vu? Because I think I have several times. I'll be eating at a restaurant I've never been too, and bam! Whoa! I've been here, eating this exact dish before...Did I dream this? Or have I eaten here before? Science and rationality argue that humans are essentially primates with larger, but not magical, brains. Science and rationality largely dominate my thinking process these days, but a shred of intuition lives on in my mind. Science has biased my mind against the feasibility of those phenomena that I wondered and read about as a kid. ESP? Telekinesis? Some god(s)? The Loch Ness Monster! Santa Claus?! Leave your thoughts; you can try sending them through telepathy too, but I can't promise that I'm a good receiver )()()(

Yo hablo un pocquito del español inglés

2006-05-20T13:34:00.000-04:00

I don't really follow politics anymore (unless Stephen Colbert is involved), but one issue that's caught my attention is immigration. It's so hard to legally immigrate here--my aunts in China have yet to receive US family visas. I'm guessing that everyone (except Patsumii) has heard of the Guest Worker provision that's being thrown around. I'm not sure what the perfect solution is, but hey, they're just immigrating here for opportunity they don't have in their original country. Sure, they're illegally immigrating--but that's because the immigration law now is so much more severe than it was back when the Statue of Liberty would greet boats of Europeans coming to look for work. A more recent issue has been making English the official national language. This has become a hot issue since the release of a Spanish version of the Star Spangled Banner, "Nuetro Himno", was released, anb Bush commented that the anthem should be sung in English. I feel more mixed on this issue. I'm definitely not as passionate as this guy or este hombre. I think, though, that the song is a beautiful song--why not let other cultures remix it? I'm not sure what an "English as the official language of the USA" amendment would entail, but if it criminalized singing Nuetro Himno (literally, Our Hymn), I would emigrate the heck outta here. But hey, let's top this all off on a bright note...with the Colbert Report! I'm interested in hearing what you think of the above issues.

Humans, chimps...what?

2006-05-18T09:18:00.000-04:00

This is pretty crazy... Chimpanzee Tae Kwan Do Followed by this story, which is sure to knot Creationists' knickers: eep

I thought...

2006-05-17T19:26:00.000-04:00

...with school over, I could get to bed earlier. Boy was I wrong. Seems like the opposite's true. I'm going home to take a break next week.

Intelligent (web)Design

2006-05-15T13:38:00.000-04:00

I've been learning all out intelligent webdesign recently. If you're interested, here are some neat articles (some of which have affected decisions I'm making on the upcoming layout for SiboL.in) Color Palettes ** Contrast in Context **** Designing a Guided Tour *** Color in Nature *** Contrast, Repetition, Alignment, Proximity (C.R.A.P.) **** Contrast Checker*** On the other hand, I'm beginning to also think that sometimes designers think too highly of their craft--as if violating a "rule of design" is akin to running off any webbers who Google upon your site. Google Redeux Speaking of which, I think Google took their ads off their search results page...yay! I for one think Google's page could be cleaned up a little bit, but even adding a blue background for the footer would make it look less clean than it looks now. Regardless, I'll be following most of the design tips I've read about for the upcoming redesign. I don't want to reveal too much, but suffice it to say that the layout is very nerdy. Yes, like JunY.in nerdy :)

What's the big deal?

2006-05-11T21:49:00.000-04:00

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060512/ap_on_sc/zebra_mussels RICHMOND, Va. - An infestation of zebra mussels in a Virginia quarry has been eradicated, marking what biologists and environmental experts believe is the first successful extermination of the notoriously invasive species in open waters.

Just whip up some delicious dish with the zebra mussels. We'd fish them into near-extinction in no time.

Summer sublet

2006-05-06T11:29:00.000-04:00

Is anyone looking for a cheap, convenient summer sublet? Contact Asian American Association! $350/mo, 1br, 1bath, AC, great ONcampus location, safe, quiet. Furnished, even utensils!. Electricity, water, and heating all included in rent. Free parking after midnight!

Nothing special

2006-05-06T03:30:00.000-04:00

More vectors of random people's facebook photos...guess who this is really and win a cookie! Hint: she went to Sig. (yeah, I'm just trying to cover for the fact that I can't do facial details yet)

Vector art

2006-05-05T17:24:00.000-04:00

Vector art was probably born around the same time I was, with the development of Adobe Illustrator in 1986. My personal project for the summer is to get proficient at Illustrator, and maybe even make a decent flash movie (my first flash movie wasn't great, but hey, I was in middle school). I think I've overcome the initial barrier--getting used to the Bezier Curve Tool. (See vectored image of Nirav on right) I feel like I can do bigger and better things with graphic/web design :) Gotta pack. More on that later.

Finals finally finished!

2006-05-04T19:48:00.000-04:00

Well I had 6 finals this year. Chinese, Orgo II, and Linear Algebra finals went really well. Comp Sci, PChem, and Orgo I Lab didn't go so well. Now--this is weird--apparently I got A+ in Orgo I Lab and Comp Sci...that leaves one more bad final I have yet to find out my grade for... For now, enjoy this snippet from Robot Chicken:

The Return of the Sig

2006-04-30T22:51:00.000-04:00

Signature School was ranked by Newsweek as the 54th best public high school in the nation. Not bad! (Next Indiana school is North Central, at #301) It's actually an increase from how we would have ranked my senior year. Congrats to the teachers, faculty, and students at Sig for this recognition! Why are AP scores the main criteria for making this list, you ask? Well, there are valid complaints that "teaching to the test" occurs. But in my opinion, knowing the material on the AP test well enough to get a 4 or 5 usually means knowing the subject well enough to excel in an equivalent non-AP-focused classed. Further, as Newsweek points out:

AP and IB are important because they give average students a chance to experience the trauma of heavy college reading lists and long, analytical college examinations. link

Haha. I like their choice of the word trauma hehe....oh memories... But there are recent trends away from academics. In Asia, many parents who want their kids to more "balanced" lives make sure that their kids grow up in America, Canada, or Australia. In Cupertino, many Caucasian parents pay for their kids to attend a private school (WSJ), safe from the fiercely competitive (predominantly Asian) public schools. Sure, academics can be overdone. But in the case of Evansville, Southern Indiana, "too much academics" is a nice alternative from the standard "don't mess with the teacher, and you'll get a diploma" system that most of the students go through.

Make a wish!

2006-04-30T10:24:00.000-04:00

My friend Patti has folded 1000 cranes, as a gift to her mom's upcoming wedding. That's absolutely amazing. I am a casual origamist, but I've only folded...maybe 50 cranes my whole life. 1000 cranes is absolutely extraordinary! For those of you who know Patti, make sure to wish her and her mom happiness (you can click the first link in this post to get to her blog). Society's obsession with frivolous papers (diplomas, contracts, certificates) is counterbalanced by the beauty and hope in origami. Sorry Trees, even when the world's textbooks are fully digitized, you're still going to be harvested for origami purposes.

Finals Feeding Frenzy

2006-04-29T12:05:00.000-04:00

It's time once again for the Finals Feeding Frenzy, Monday, May 1, at 10 p.m. in the lobby of the Herman B Wells library. Deans, faculty and staff offer free nutritious snacks to hard-studying students

I'm loving [fast food salads]!

2006-04-25T15:34:00.000-04:00

I am always amused by McDonalds attempts to improve it's health image--like on its cups, there's a picture of a soccer player saying "I like to stay fit by playing soccer!" or something equally ambiguous. Heck, there's even a cartoon on the bottom of the cups that reminds us to properly dispose of trash, by having Ronald McDonald running to a trash can. And then today I heard about the Asian Salad that McDonalds is now marketing. It sounds pretty healthy. What makes me laugh is this:

[Chief marketing officer, Bill] Lamar says that [the upcoming movie, Fast Food Nation,] has nothing to do with the salad — or launch plans to promote it as part of a "Go Active Happy Meal for Adults." That includes a bottle of Dasani water and a workout DVD — for $5.29. link

I'm loving how it's such a good deal! I'm going buy 30 of these salads when they debut at Read! And 30 DVDs!

Lara Logan, predator of hawks

2006-04-23T02:37:00.000-04:00

This totally reminds me of when I got crushed in LD debate by Emily Kendall.

Little 500 Weekend

2006-04-20T23:02:00.000-04:00

Last year, I think I stayed in my dorm and watched anime for Little 500 Weekend. I had no idea what was going on outside. This year, I've realized that beneath Bloomington's patina of serentiy, on Little 500 Weekend, things get cARAZy. CRAZY! But I am being a good boy and getting some expeditious studying in. Well, I did hang out with some friends, and drop by some cookouts to grab free food (a caveat: food-scavanging is apparently considered impolite? But everyone's too drunk to hold a grudge against us vultures anyway). Maybe next year I'll let it all hang out and get crunked and pardyhardy 3 or 4 days of the week. Probably not though. I'm picking up a math major, and math classes are notoriously implacable--they want your soul, every weekend, even/especially the weekend before "dead week." Sigh. Maybe I should take it easy and have some more fun. I love being in school, but sometimes it gets a bit stressful. I feel like some itinerant, floating between schools, homes, whatever. I need to bond with IU. Time to switch majors to East Asian Studies and Exercise Science!

Sibo meets an Ogre

2006-04-17T10:47:00.001-04:00

Last night, passing through the dark forest of Linear Algebra, heading towards the land of Nod, I was stopped by a giant ogre. Not knowing what to do, I politely greeted him. "Hullo there. I'm Sibo. What's your name?" "You can just call me Numberone Dee," the ogre replied without a smile. "Pleased to meet you Mr. Numberone Dee. I'm terribly sorry, but I'm late for a date in the land of Nod. Would you kindly let me pass?" I inquired. "No," Numberone said again. There was no hostility in his features, but no kindness either. "PLEASE!!!" I exhorted in an hortatory tone that I hadn't used since I begged the admissions board to let me into college. "PLEASE!! I'll give you a quarter!" "No. To pass, you must solve a riddle. Let A equal the mirror image of the four-by-four identity matrix. What is the Jordan Canonical Fo..." I considered trying to wait until he fell asleep, and then sneak past him, but there wasn't the slightest trace of tiredness in his nature. And Numberone's being greater and stronger than me, I resigned myself to answering Numberone Dee's tedious question. No amount of choler could have helped me in that situation. Not only was I late to the land of Nod; because my commitment there was 8 hours, I was late to my next destination as well, the great Tower of Ballantine. [To Be Continued...]

alarms

2006-04-14T04:38:00.000-04:00

The tornado sirens are going off. The Read intercom is now advising that we take shelter in the basement. Screw that. I need sleep like Pooh needs honey. No, this is worse. I am barely functioning. Perhaps this will be my last blog post ever. If so, then you'll know that the tornado got me. At least I'd die in my sleep. -sleepyhead sibo

Linear Algebra

2006-04-12T02:15:00.000-04:00

I started sitting in on S312 (Linear Algebra) after Spring Break. I'm hoping to take and get at least a B on the final, which would let me exempt the class, if I decide to pursue a Math major. So far, I've been too lazy to buy the textbook. I just found an online textbook today that is amazing! It's so professionally done, but 100% free. If anyone wants to look into linear algebra, here's a pretty good book: http://joshua.smcvt.edu/linearalgebra/

Chinese Yo-Yo video

2006-04-10T10:42:00.000-04:00

This guy is really good. I also found some good Diabolo videos online from the "Mad French Posse." I was so inspired taht I actually ordered a Chinese Diabolo from Chineseyoyo.net!

Useful programs

2006-04-09T02:23:00.000-04:00

Here are some useful programs that I use. Several of these are Mac-only, so you Windozers can just drool. Adium - Chat program that lets you sign in on with multiple screen names on different networks (AIM, Yahoo, MSN, GoogleTalk, ICQ...), and keeps all your chats in a neat, tabbed interface. aMule - Ok p2p program...I think I used it to download some movies that I couldn't find on bittorrent. I uh, had the permission of the copyright owners to download that movie, of course. Automator - Great for doing repetitive tasks for you! Like, I take a bunch of photos, and Automator will make them all 480 x 400, and produce thumbnail versions of the images for me. Cyberduck - FTP program with SFTP capabilities. Best ftp client I've come across (beats the pants off of MacSFTP, which IU recommends). DrJava - lightweight IDE for programming Java. Firefox - there are a slew of good browsers, but I love FF's extensibility. I have the ForecastFox, Copy Image, Tabbrowser Preferences, Web Developer, DownThemAll!, and StumbleUpon extensions. I could go into them all, but explore for yourself. Gmail Notifier - if you use gMail, this makes it much better to use. It not only notifies you when you receive new mail, it also lets you chose gMail as your default email "program." So when you click on an email address, instead of Outlook or Mail opening, a browser window in will load with gMail. Handbrake - Easy DVD ripping/encoding program. I don't think Windows has an equivalent. OurTunes - Let's me download songs from people on my local network who use iTunes (which, in dorms, is ubiquitous). Of course, I had the copyright holders' permission to download their songs. Roxio Toast - Although Mac OS X has decent built-in cd-burning features, Toast lets you do more, such as create VCDs :) Transmission - nice, lightweight and fast bittorrent client. Used to download only legal materials. VLC Player - plays all videos. MPlayer OSX - VLC can't play anime releases by the fansubbing group Dattebayo. MPlayer can. That's the only thing I use it for.

Taste of Asia video

2006-04-07T23:53:00.000-04:00

Taste of Asia - yousendit download--active for 7 days Wow, what an awesome show. It was really hectic helping organize, but I'm glad that I did it. This is one of those experiences that I'll never forget.

secrets of successful students

2006-04-05T21:30:00.000-04:00

1) sleep 2) concentrate in class. your life is crazy, but focus on the teacher for 50 minutes, think about that other stuff whenever you want to, outside of class 3) take notes only of the interesting points. mindlessly writing down everything on the chalkboard does no good. I am currently not doing 1 through 3 nearly enough

The perfect world.

2006-04-04T01:37:00.000-04:00

Imagine! No more world hunger! Quality public education and no children left behind! No more diseases! With plenty of food, would the world become as obese as America? With money and education, who would want to clean the toilets? That's a really important question there. When in doubt, always ask, WATT? -- What about the toilets? And with no diseases (and thus, increased life expectancy), what would we do with the already broken Social Security system? It takes some true absent-minded wondering to thing of these things. I work hard to bring you guys the best random thoughts ever. One more. What if dogs were as smart as humans? Dogs would demand better food, but wouldn't get it; then some dog in China would die, but all the other dogs in the neighborhood would think it got eaten, and a specicidal world war would erupt.

sony bravia advertisement

2006-04-02T19:30:00.000-04:00

As far as tech companies go, Sony is probably one of the ones that I admire most, up there with Google. In addition to having great technology, they market their products effectively. This time, they've done great, in their advertisement for Bravia, some kind of LCD Television. I really recommend watching the high-rez extended version from the official site, but for those of you without high-speed internet access or Quicktime, here's the low-quality version of the commercial: *props to Kyrie for sending me this

Why I learn Chinese

2006-03-31T00:57:00.000-05:00

So I can understand bits of songs like this one: 阿牛《桃花朵朵开》

Saving the Sioux language

2006-03-28T13:51:00.000-05:00

你學中文的目地之一，是什麼？ What is one reason why you are learning Chinese? When asked that question in Chinese class, I can't come up with a good answer. I am not sure if I will study abroad in China or not. I don't particularly like talking with my mom in Chinese (or English). I don't think it'll help my career as a chemist (English is chemistry's lingua franca). On the plus side, I can understand Chinese movies and songs better now than before. And Chinese is more fun that Spanish was. But in the end, could I have been just as satisfied studying any other exotic language? Probably. Some second-generation immigrants feel obligated to learn their family's language. And they want to pass that language on to their kids. I don't feel the same way. If the language isn't useful, then there's no reason to force feed it to kids. One of the Chinese grad students in my lab just had a baby. He plans on moving back to China so that his kid can learn to speak Chinese. The Sioux Native American Indian tribe is struggling to maintain its language. They came up with the idea of Sioux Scrabble, which sounds fun...but I still don't see the point in all of this. New radioblog rotation up. Taste of Asia went swimmingly well. New AAA website will be up shortly, followed by a Taste of Asia page. Won a summer research scholarship, so I have to devote 10 weeks of the summer to full-time research. I also won two more scholarships, which are nice, but one of them was this software package that I don't think I need (or can run on Mac).

restaurants

2006-03-24T21:15:00.000-05:00

Come enjoy and eat. This Sunday. (As if I haven't been haggling all of you enough)

Courses

2006-03-22T12:02:00.000-05:00

The snow is sprinkled with diamonds. Perhaps this view is unique to my land, where the weather is as temperamental as an old female Chemistry student. Perhaps this view is universal. Open your eyes wide and take in the beauty. Not too wide though! Or you'll go blind! I think I'm going to go for a math major. The bulk of those classes will be taken during my senior year. Right now though, I have to decide on some Arts & Humanities classes. What annoys me about this general requirements system is that for areas such as biology, chemistry, and computer science, liberal arts majors can choose between Nature & Mathematics classes that are surveys (History of Medicine) or applied (Molecular Biology). For science majors looking at English courses, however, applied classes (Poetry Composition) don't count as A&H. Only surveys (Elizabethian Poetry) fulfill the A&H requirement. Any suggestions, IU people?

busybusybodybody

2006-03-20T23:44:00.000-05:00

Spring Break - Went to Garden of the Gods with Alex and Phuc, rock climbed (humped the camel), got poison ivy - Watched movies with my mom. She didn't like any except for Grave of the Fireflies (she cried!) I liked that movie, Closer, and Casino (which has the record for third most number of F-words per minute) - Went with Sig Speech team to districts at Carmel. Some people who I didn't expect to have improved much made it to nationals. Congrats to Ashley Tinnell (whose ballot record looks like a record of what Burkey rolls in Risk), Sarah Waninger (Reitz), Rachita Navara (double qualifier!), Tyler Yezbick, and Aaron Guzzo. This week - Chinese Oral Midterm - Orgo II Midterm - Orgo I Lab - PChem Midterm!!!!!!!!!! - !!!!!!!!!! - Presentation for research group - Chinese Yo-Yo for Taste of Asia (which all you IU people must come to) - Organizing other performances for ToA

Happy π Day!

2006-03-15T02:55:00.000-05:00

It's March 14! Happy Pi Day! This day originated from when Archimedes discovered that he needed an irrational constant to do math with circles. He couldn't come up with a value for the constant. He looked at the calendar and realized "Hey, its March 14th, 314 BC!" and thus the first three digits of pi were born. To this day, the ghost of Archimedes continues to find random numbers and add to pi. Thus, pi extends for practically forever, and no computer can find a pattern in the digits of pi. Now you know. Time for me to go eat some cake!

spring break list

2006-03-11T00:15:00.000-05:00

- write 2006 Research Proposal!!!! - review other group members' proposals - read all of The Organometallic Textbook - practice Chinese yo-yo - review Quantum, write up a QChem cheat sheet (not for actual cheating!) - develop a rough layout for sibol.in - learn how to vector, a la patticakes - reset my sleep cycle Is that too ambitious? Hopefully I'll get the research proposal done on time (Tuesday) and be able to review quantum chemistry. Those, and resetting my sleep cycle, are the most important. The other goals are just for fun.

The economics....

2006-03-06T00:03:00.000-05:00

...of prostitution. Interesting article about a controversial paper. Tangentially related (ok, not related at all), I just wanna ask, what's with US patriotism? Nationalism is like crack for the masses. I mean, I love the freedom and opportunity that I have in America, and I want to contribute to society here somehow, someday. But why is there such a fuss made over US having to be the best? Olympic basketball. Space technology. Overall economy. The US has to outperform its competitors. But why? Why do we care so much? It's not enough that America has to be a great place to live, but it must also be better than everywhere else in the world? I'd say America is tops for entrepeneurship, freedom, and fatty foods. Not necessarily in that order. God bless America for those. But would I care if France had another revolution, and an ultra conservative (in the traditional sense) constitution was written to guarantee French citizens liberty rivaling ours? Last year I took a course on globalization, and I thought, why are these such big problems? Why can't everyone just see others as humans, instead of as people from other countries? Why does it matter that Indians are hired for tech jobs from American companies? At least someone is getting paid, either way. What's the deal with tariffs? If someone makes a better product, they ought to reap the benefits, regardless of which nation they are based in. I realize the issue of nationalism is much deeper than what I've ranted about. I'm just saying--America is going to have a rude awakening, I think in my lifetime. Companies will move overseas (why stay in America? Go to China, where the labor and taxes are cheap!) -> Americans will be poorer -> America won't be the world's largest consumer market -> America won't rule the world economy or politics or basketball. All it'll have left is the freedoms that it were founded upon.

The future of sibol.in

2006-03-03T16:29:00.000-05:00

The domain that I bought a few weeks ago, sibol.in, in addition to having my resume, will be site where I post informative articles about things that I'm learning. This will include but is not limited to: - Cascading Style Sheets - Chemistry - Chinese - Chinese Yo-Yo - Computer Science ...and that's just the C's on my list. It'll be a random collection, perhaps, but there's a chance that it'll help a few people who google upon my site. Also, because I'm googling about things that I'm learning, it'll be like studying! I won't feel so bad about spending my time blogging if it's actually productive instead of random whining. Any topics you want to request to be included?

holy heck

2006-03-01T02:48:00.000-05:00

Do you want a free USB jump drive? Microsoft is giving them away! You have to register a Microsoft Passport account if you don't already have one, but hey, you get a free USB jump drive! 我最進非常忙。 -Chinese for Recently, I am so busy that I don't even have time to blog! Aiyaiyai! The past week or so, I've been in lab late...often past midnight. What is going on?? What happened to my resolution to get to bed earlier this semester? OH NO I'M STAYING UP LATE AGAIN! Ok time to study Chinese/write prelab. Bye.

Chinese Yo-Yo videos

2006-02-27T01:08:00.000-05:00

I'm collecting online Chinese Yo-Yo videos for performers to get ideas from. The internet is a grand thing. Whereas before, one had to find a Yo-Yo Sifu to study under to become a yo-yoist, now, anybody can pick up tricks! First part is bunch of synchronized tricks. Then comes the mind-blowing solo part. Although there are only two performers, the tricks are very advanced. (Bad choice of background music though, IMO) Why is the audience so passive in this one? The performers are really good but it sounds like only one person is applauding ^^; From the University of Illinois but performing at Northwestern--"The House of Flying Yo-Yos" start out mediocre then they go into the solo section...they have amazing leg orbit tricks, and watch the guy with the black gloves! He does stuff with the wooden part of the sticks that I've never thought of. I am fairly certain I actually have met that guy with the black gloves before... This video has a performer who's relatively low-level (but still much higher than me). It also has a rowdy audience. So you can pick out do-able tricks that are the most popular to perform. This is the most elaborately choreographed video I've seen thus far. More prodigies showing off their stuff. Makes me feel so clumsy in comparison. This is the video to look for if you want some group performance ideas! This is the viral Chinese yo-yo video (as viral as any Chinese yo-yo video could go, at least) of the Texas team. The program uses live guqin music, and has a long string segment. Advanced synchronized tricks make this video a source of inspiration, but not necessarily a realistic source of new tricks for a novice like myself. A bit hectic. Tricks are relatively low level. Holy crap. How can kids so short be so good? Holy crap agaiN! Relatively low level--but very good use of a third-party. The tricks are original and creative. Plus, I think this is the only white performer in all of these videos, so bonus points to him (affirmative action). This video has the best girl performer in all these videos. Again, bonus affirmative action points.

Waaaa! This is so cool!

2006-02-25T00:58:00.000-05:00

This is an amazing short film of sand animation. Sit back, cuddle with a loved one, and enjoy. It's about 5 mins long. Props to ayame for finding this, and, of course, to Ilana Yahav for sharing her art with the world.

Good ol' fashioned Disney

2006-02-20T08:41:00.000-05:00

At just about every college, there's a "Old School Disney Rocks!" or "They just don't make cartoons like they used to..." Facebook group. Is thus widespread sentiment just nostalgia? Or did the old cartoons really have something that's been absent since Lion King/Mulan? Watching Cinderella over the weekend at Connie/Cassie's reminded me of a few fine points that have been missing in even recent hits such as Shrek and Finding Nemo. - Full orchestral arrangement. Cinderella has an orchestra to provide all the sound effects! - Tons of singing! Watching Cinderella was like going to the opera. The characters sometimes even converse in rhyme. - unPC comments such as when Gus, one of the male mice, brought over a needle Gus: I can do the sewing! Female Mouse: Leave the sewing to the women! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA. I put that song on my radio.blog if you wanna hear. If they were to release such a beautiful, elegant movie again when we're all adults with our own kids, Disney will make tons of $$.

coming soon

2006-02-17T18:30:00.000-05:00

I just registered a domain over the weekend: sibol.in (.in is the extension for India). Right now, it only points to my radio.blog, but I hope to develop a dummy layout for it this weekend, and then start having content on it in the upcoming month. Don't hold your breath. In looking for design inspiration, I found an article espousing the beauty of nature, and its applicability to webdesign. And this all makes sense! Beauty is hard to define or explain, but nature certainly is abundant in it. Why do so many corporate websites use a blue navigation bar with a white body? That's like asking why the sky or oceans are blue! (literally...hehe) However, if the nature => beauty theorem is true, then why haven't there been many green-infused websites? Green is in the trees and grass; it's hidden in tropical waters; it colors many lizards and insects. Or why aren't brown (earth-colored) sites very popular? I'm looking at photos on sxc.hu and flickr for inspiration right now, and I think a non-corporate blue layout that comes off professional is very attainable. Let me look at these a bit longer and meditate. *leave any suggestions for sibol.in's layout, content, or structure*

Blurbs

2006-02-13T13:34:00.000-05:00

Here are some topics I've pondered over the last week or so, and considered blogging about but never got around to doing so. The public nature of Facebook. Note: if I ever start hardcore drinking, leave the pictures off Facebook. The messy combination of Facebook with the congressional race in the "Bloody 8th" district of Indiana. I went to school with Andrea Ellsworth, and she was really nice. I also have indirect ties to Joshua Claybourn (Evansville es pequeño, no?), and he seems like an upstanding guy. What gives? China has a one-child policy, but exceptions are made for multiple child births. Wealthy couples have taken advantage of this by taking fertility drugs. Birth of twins and triplets are rising! Where can I download old episodes of Captain Planet? All the torrents seem to be inactive. Should the Danish government at least pretend to apologize for the cartoons of the prophet Mohammed? I say those cartoons are well within the limits of free speech (and actually, in context highly relevant to current international relations), but they can be taken offensively. Why not apologize and defuse the international situation a little bit? Yahoo vs Google. I started out with Hotmail/MSN. Didn't like that. Then I became a Yahooligan for a while. Then when I found the power of Google search. Then I started using gmail when it came out. And while Google is still steaming ahead, Yahoo is catching up. Yahoo bought del.icio.us (which I use to bookmark my class homepages) and flickr, which if I had a digital camera, I would probably use (Facebook's picture system is pretty nifty too though). What the heck really happened in the federal response to Hurricane Katrina?

Farewell Michelle Kwan

2006-02-13T00:11:00.000-05:00

Michelle Kwan announced her decision to withdraw from the Olympics. While she didn't seem to say if she was retiring from the sport altogether, one can only assume that she will no longer compete in ice skating. There is nothing left for her to prove in her long and fruitful career, and her body is already on borrowed time. My family watched a lot of figure skating, but I didn't attach names to any faces until Michelle Kwan came onto the scene, maybe because I had a crush on her, haha. Anyhow, her skating was beautiful, and I remember going slackjawed when they announced that she didn't win the gold in 1998 (anyone still remember Tara Lipinski?). But Michelle Kwan has had a great career and provided great art for the world for more than 10 years. She will never read this in all likelihood, but thanks Michelle. Thanchelle.

Oh, the weather outside is fright-beautiful

2006-02-12T13:08:00.000-05:00

Not quite the desolate serenity of winter Nor the beautiful cacophony of spring The days flip-flop back and forth Like an ambivalent customer at Shanti Chicken Nan or Curried Beef? Snow or sunshine? Or both? I can't decide!

H He Li Be B C N O F...

2006-02-08T23:23:00.000-05:00

My current side-project is to memorize the periodic table. According to an online quiz, I answered 55 correctly, 0 incorrectly, and left the rest (~54 blank). Time to get cracking on those transition metals... Scary Ticks View Crazy Mongeese as Fearful, Cold, not Nice nor Cute Zenmasters! Actually, I remember a book I got in 4th grade that was a giant picture book that helped me mnemonically memorize all the presidents of the United States within a few days. Someone needs to write a periodic table version of that book! To think, how I wasted my young time memorizing names of dead people when I could have memorized the elements...AND THEIR ATOMIC WEIGHTS! Haha. Ok, I'll admit, this is Mookie's idea, not mine. But hey, I'll do my best to memorize these.

Look Around You and Andrew Bird

2006-02-05T18:24:00.000-05:00

This weekend had much fun...I'd say Virgil and Jun's introducing me to Look Around You was great. Look Around You is a comedy program produced by the BBC that is unbelievably nerdy. I have Season 2 now, so if you wanna watch, let me know :) Here's two programs: "Music" and "Water". The other highlight was going to see the Andrew Bird concert with Kyrie. Andrew Bird is absolutely amazing. Ok, so he's a pretty good songwriter, violinst, guitarist, vocalist, whistler, and even dabbles in the xylophone. That makes him one in a million. But the fact that he can so seamlessly mix them all together ON THE SPOT makes him one of a kind. He can blend his voice with the violin or the xylophone accents his whistling in ways I've never seen before. AND he writes intelligent songs...I haven't heard another songwriter successfully use the words "sychophant" or "aldehyde." Add that all together, and I saw a mind-blowing show! I admit, I wasn't very impressed by his album beforehand, but I went to the show anyway cause I heard he was great live. He is. You HAVE to see him perform, if you ever have the chance!

Get Happy

2006-02-02T02:20:00.000-05:00

I really think I've got into a good groove with my classes and research so far. And although I still haven't answered the ancient question, "What is happiness?" I suspect that happiness is NOT being bored. I'm not bored now, that's for sure, haha. Past that, happiness is really hard to define. I recently came across this short film by Mark Osborne, More, that confronts this very same question. What is happiness? What is bliss? Hehe. Watch More, then leave your comments and thoughts here.

Chinese New Year

2006-01-30T02:12:00.000-05:00

Xing nian kuai le! (literally: "may you have many children with 10 fingers and 10 toes") This weekend was Chinese New Year, and wow! I was so busy running around campus. Chinese Yo-Yo Club performed a bit, the Taiwanese group had a nice shindig, the Chinese group had a better-funded shindig, and I grazed on huo guo foods for 3 hours this afternoon, helping out with the Asian Culture Center's event (I cooked food and ate--er--tested it to make sure it was cooked). Needless to say, my free food binge turned out unimaginably successful. Phuc and Alex came down for the Chinese New Year program. $20 worth of gas for some free food. Totally worth it, haha. Phuc and Icey have nice summaries up, so I won't rewrite what's already been published. After the Cranium game at Andrew's, Brett, Lisa, and I trekked through the freezing rain to try to find Brett's car. "Where is it?" "I don't see it!" "It was right here!" "Hm, maybe it got towed" "Sign: Permit Parking Only" "Crap." At first, the towing company didn't even answer the phone. They were probably all too busy out towing cars to answer the phone. Eventually, they answered, and we got the car back. After paying $95. Ouch. Poor Brett, it seems like someone's out to get him be "towing" all his possessions. His bike, his jacket, now, even his car! Predatory towing really pisses me off now. It's up there with speedtraps on my list of things to abolish when I rule the world. Interestingly enough, NYT published an article on predatory towing not too long ago:

In one case here, a church's pickup was towed from its own parking lot; in another, a 4-year-old boy was towed away in his mother's car after she went inside her apartment for a few minutes to drop off groceries and a younger child. And a man who ran alongside a tow truck, pleading to get his vehicle back after it was towed from a fire lane, died when he slipped and was run over by the truck and then his own Chevrolet Suburban.

Chinese New Year and F... (you know)

2006-01-25T23:42:00.000-05:00

This upcoming weekend is Chinese New Year. Back in Evansville, all I did was attend the Tri-State Chinese Culture Association's event, maybe grab a red envelope or two, and eat a bit, and leave. Now, in college, I'm going to go on a free food binge starting today. I had free Dragon Express tonight from the AAA callout meeting :) My goal is to get 3 free dinners and 1 or 2 free lunches starting tomorrow, through Sunday. Yay for IU student groups throwing multiple Chinese New Year celebrations! I find that in college, I treasure Chinese food more and more. It's *relatively* healthy and very tasty. I miss having my mom's food every night, so this is the closest I can get w/o having to cook myself. Bring on the beef and broccoli!

Gogglygoogle

2006-01-25T00:59:00.000-05:00

The sum of all human knowledge at your fingertips, and you're searching for "Britney Spears". Google is now taking the lead in an area outside of search: the workplace environment. Google allows dogs at work. From their investor relations public release:

The presence of dogs at Google has been a unique, and to some a treasured part of our workplace culture. Dogs can be a valued and important part of employee's lives and their ability to keep a dog in their workplace may enhance the quality of their work life.

Cool! I have never had a pet, but cool! Just to drive the point of how cool Google's workplace is, here's more:

The campus, as they call it, has everything workers need or could ever want — free massages, free use of a gym, free snacks, free laundry service and a barber shop. "We try to provide a really comfortable environment here, and also we make it playful to create creativity," said Brin. "We think we get better products out of it by letting our people be more creative." Doug Banks, a Google software engineer, even enjoys a game of volleyball during work. "Get to work at 9:30, see if anyone wants to play volleyball, come out here at 10:30 — in between do some work," he said.

Google's power is really scary. But with joyful employees like that, how could Google ever turn evil? Working at Google sounds like paradise on earth. I wonder if they're thinking about expanding into pharmaceuticals...

Trading Spouses

2006-01-22T19:54:00.000-05:00

From the same minds that brought us the likes of "Temptation Island" and "Who Wants to Marry a Millionaire?" comes a new reality TV show pushing the limits of entertainment. Fox presents: Trading Spouses I don't know the details of the show, but in the video clip below, I think one family's mom is returning after spending some time with another family that she--uhh--didn't take kindly to. This is highly entertaining programming, I must admit.

Super-Drink Me

2006-01-21T15:19:00.000-05:00

This woman spent 30 days binge drinking for a documentary. In the process, she went from being a healthy 39-year-old to looking like a grandma. There are just some things in life that I don't think I can sacrifice. As my Chinese book puts it (for my Chinese book is full of Chinese wisdom), "Health first, [grades, money, prestige, whatever] second." Oops. I guess I forgot about that when I ate that gi-normous Chipotle burrito for lunch today. Ugh. Gotta go exercise it off.

Eclectic radioblog, Chinese yo-yo, and photo booth

2006-01-17T18:51:00.000-05:00

This rotation is a wide mix, and it's pretty representative of the music I'm currently listening to. Some some pop/rock and some Chinese alternative/pop. For anyone who can understand Chinese, yes, that first song mentions something about racing black people o.o;; Andy Lau - Gong Xi Fa Cai (Congrats on your riches) The Pillows - Sinners of Rock 'n Roll The Apples in Stereo - Signal in the Sky Flickerstick - Got a Feeling Come Back My Daughters - Pink Triangle (cover) Cai Qin - Shi Shei (Who is it?) Also, here's a video of two Chinese yo-yo performers that look 30 years too young to be that skilled. o0 And to close this post, here's a clip from The Tonight Show about what people will do to get a free photo from a photobooth

You'd better, or else...

2006-01-15T01:56:00.000-05:00

Hey, you! You'd better click on my ads to the right! Or else I'll have my flunkies (e.g. Burkey) whack you! And my hitmen wouldn't do anything fancy like using sharks with lasers. Those elaborate executions give people too much opportunity for escape. In fact, after seeing A History of Violence tonight, I wouldn't let them do anything but snipe you from a nice, long, safe distance. So you'd better start clicking those ads. NOW. Or else. *a dramatization of returning to Read from AHOV* "Man, I'm going to have weird dreams again. I had some after watching Sin City," worried Joe. He inserted his key into the lock and opened it. "Really? What kinda dreams?" inquired Sibo as they walked through the doors, welcoming the relative warmth of Read. Joe thought of the best way to describe those dreams. "Disturbing dreams..." A fleeting image of Sin City popping into his mind, Sibo curiously asked, "...So, do you dream in color or in black and white?" "Color--" Both Joe and Sibo stopped. On the floor by the elevator was a splash of dried, red blood. Joe looked at Sibo. Sibo looked at Joe. *The End*

Just say no. I mean, yes.

2006-01-13T17:07:00.000-05:00

From Newsweek

Maria Dahvana Headley grew up listening to the "Just Say No" anti-drug campaign of the 1980s. As a student at New York University in the late '90s, she applied that advice to her love life, turning down most men who asked her out and dating only intellectual, literary types. Frustrated by those guys, she reversed course, resolving to spend one year responding positively to all flirting and saying yes to literally anyone who asked her out. The ensuing 150 dates included a homeless man, several non-English speakers, 10 taxi drivers, two lesbians and a mime.

Read whole article That's really interesting. Maybe I'll stop turning down all the liberal arts girls who fall at my feet left and right.

Classes are back

2006-01-11T10:40:00.000-05:00

So I've been to all of my classes at least once already. Initial impressions are generally very good. I think this semester will be more enjoyable than last. Then again, what semester wouldn't be more enjoyable than the semester I took C361, M343, and M312 all in a row on the same days? C342 - Orgo II - I like Dr. Pellerito a lot, she somehow got me motivated on Monday C362 - PChem II - Ugh. Well, I have to do this class sooner or later C202 - Chinese II - I always like this class. This semester will also involve more acting and dialogue! C212 - Operating Systems - I think this class is more just about learning Java than messing with operating systems. Which is fine with me, as long as I learn some new stuff. S343 - Honors Orgo I Lab - Looks like fun. And lots of work. I'd like to check back on these impressions during midterms and see how they'll have evolved.

Behavior differences observed between male and female monkeys

2006-01-05T23:28:00.000-05:00

This really did come as surprise to me. I've always been one to believe that female and male humans behave the way they do because it just occured that way some time back in prehistory, and society preserved those traditions. How do you think the insane concept of owning 10 pairs of shoes came to be? It sure as hell wasn't natural selection--just the overwhelming force of herd mentality. But hey, the study says that male monkeys like playing with toy cars and balls while female monkeys prefer dolls and cooking pots. That last female preference is really suspect... But if we assume that this study is correct, what does it mean for gender equality? Are men and women genetically and evolutionarily destined to strive for different joys and goals in life? Think of all the disputes that will re-arise as society upheaves with this powerful, raw study. Should both sexes work? If not, then which one is the homemaker and which one is the breadwinner? Who drives the car? Who can be polygamatic? Toilet seat up or down? Read about it if you don't believe me Tangentially related: On George W. Bush and Monkeys

嘻唰唰

2006-01-02T14:57:00.000-05:00

I got some Chinese cds from my aunt for Yedanjie, and I like them a lot! I'll have to thoroughly update my radioblog soon. I wonder if anyone actually listens to my radioblog since it's updated so infrequently. This is my favorite Chinese song of the moment. It's very catchy! The video is a bit weird (I don't think it's the actual music video...), but you can also just grab the mp3 if you want. [mp3] 嘻唰唰　嘻唰唰　嘻唰唰　嘻唰唰　嘻唰唰嘻唰唰　嘻唰唰　嘻唰唰　嘻唰唰　嘻唰唰　1234 嗯…冷啊冷　嗯…疼啊疼　嗯…哼啊哼　我的心　哦嗯…等啊等　嗯…夢啊夢　嗯…瘋啊瘋　請你拿了我的給我送回來　吃了我的給我吐出來閃閃紅星裡面的記載　變成此時對白欠了我的給我補回來　偷了我的給我交出來你我好像划拳般戀愛　每次都是猜嘻唰唰　嘻唰唰　嘻唰唰嘻唰唰　嘻唰唰　1234 嗯…傷啊傷　嗯…晃啊晃　嗯…裝啊裝　多可惜　哦嗯…想啊想　嗯…藏啊藏　嗯…嚷啊嚷　請你拿了我的給我送回來　吃了我的給我吐出來閃閃紅星裡面的記載　變成此時對白欠了我的給我補回來　偷了我的給我交出來你我好像划拳般戀愛　每次都是猜嘻唰唰　嘻唰唰　嘻唰唰嘻唰唰　嘻唰唰　1234 唉……天天猜　愛……夜夜呆唉……時時怪　愛……已不再

Finding the route to Asian entertainment

2005-12-30T01:58:00.000-05:00

Some of my more-recently acquired guilty pleasures include reading Japanese comics (aka manga) and watching Asian movies/cartoons. Finding and attaining manga and Asian movies is a lot more time-intensive than getting American equivalents at the library or local book store. Sometimes I feel like I'm wasting time by watching all these movies in languages I can't understand. I am, however, getting more efficient at this. The best source for recent Japanese media is Tokyo Toshokan. The best source of manga is StopTazmo.com. And for Asian movies, I usually google for an "ECHiZEN" version of the movie. ECHiZen is the name of some guy who rips, encodes, and subs Asian movies and posts them on the forums at AsiaFinest.com. He is a one-man machine! When I get a job, I need to send some PayPal donations to him! This is all an evolving process, however. I remember when I first got into Asian entertainment a year ago, it was extremely hard to find online sources that were not dead. Mostly this was due to an anime series getting liscenced by Cartoon Network here in the US, and then the online sources having to shut down to comply with copyright laws. So who knows, in another year, maybe all those sources I listed will be dead links. Sorry in advance to anyone to found this post from googling for anime/manga/jpop/Asian movies and found that situation true. There is hope, however, that the quest for a route to Asian entertainment will become easier. Manga has completely overrun a section of every Borders and B&N store (right next to the sci-fi section, so us geeks are contained and don't scare off the people looking for the latest Oprah Club-approved book). Manga is even finding a place on newspapers' comic strips pages. And as many of you know, the world is getting smaller (globalization, teehee). The chances of you having a relative or friend going to China is increasingly larger, so you can ask them for $2 pirated vcds of Asian masterpieces, such as Star Wars 3: Backstroke of the West.

Long movies

2005-12-26T21:10:00.000-05:00

Over break I've relaxed by watching several movies. Lover's Concerto (that was weird), A World Without Thieves (yes, again. It's that good), about 95% of Mr. and Mrs. Smith, and today I watched Sleepers. I thought Sleepers was excellent. The film was spliced so well, I don't recall the last movie that held my attention that well. Then I realized that I had only played the B-side of the DVD, watching only the last 48 minutes of the movie. I decided to not go back and watch the initial half of the movie because the part I watched painted such a moving picture that I didn't want to muddy it up. Which makes me wonder...how much could movies be condensed? I like eye candy in movies, but some of it could easily be cut out. The last few Harry Potter films I've had to struggle to stay awake. Even Lord of the Rings, majestic as it was, is a movie that could have benefited from a little condensation. And as for the new King Kong (which I haven't seen yet), who wants to watch 3 hours of a story that's already been told and is no longer inventive? So how to make longer movies shorter without cutting out content? I remember speech coach/demigod Brandon Cosby when working with Interp performers would always stress the power of silence. Silence at the right moments can say more than minutes of speech. Like the ending of The Graduate, which, one of my friends noted, leaves so much unsaid. However, silence shouldn't be spammed throughout any serious movie. It's gotta be at the right places, with the total amount of silence varying according to tone and subject matter. Similarly, repition is a valuable tool but is overused in many movies (and anime series)! Cut the crap, condense the content, and make the DVDs cheaper or free!

Typorganism

2005-12-20T03:15:00.002-05:00

Generate your own ASCII self! This kind of reminds me of those stories where your mirror self (literally, in the mirror) jumps into the real world, shoves you into the mirror, and tries to trap you there. Was that a Goosebumps story? Anyhow, this typogranism clone looks just like me! I doubt my parents could tell the difference.


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Great White Shark Predator Hot Sauce

2005-12-13T22:59:00.000-05:00

Whoa! I'm a fan of spicy food, but I have my limits (i.e., a level-4 spicy plate at Shanti). Apparently, in the world of extreme spiciness, I'm totally inexperienced. I haven't tried Tabasco sauce (mostly because I saw a bug in a bottle once at Steak and Shake), and that's at the very bottom of the list of the hottest sauces in the world. Mama mia! All this talk of spicy foods...makes me want to try cooking some curry stirfry over break. Mmmmmm. Curry is a true delicacy that I've loved ever since I tried the sunshine-yellow chicken curry at Taste of China back on the ol' west side of Evansville. I think Bloomington needs a curryshop, because what's better than a spicy bowl of curry on a chilly winter day? Whoever actually executes this plan will be a zillionaire. LAVALAVAOHSOGOOD!

The beauty code

2005-12-11T13:37:00.000-05:00

I was reading yesterday about how beauty--physical attractiveness--of the human face can be modelled by computers. Research found that "average" faces were consistently found to be more attractive. By average faces, they mean mathematically averaged, not common, faces. See here for more. That study only took into account Caucasian faces. That filter on the test sample probably simplified the averaging algorithm. Now, in all seriousness, does this average beauty code hold for a pan-racial beauty contest? No one has researched this yet, and no one can say for sure. All we could assume is that the mathematical average of all the women or all the men in the world would either look quite Asian or look like one of those racially ambiguous anime characters. Now this is really interesting, because today I read in Xinhua about the Miss World Pageant that just concluded this week in China. Miss Ireland won! But look at the above picture--doesn't she look quite Asian? Haha...food for thought. [EDIT: Oops. As Bryan comments, I incorrectly identified Miss World as Miss Ireland. She's really from Reykjavik--Miss Iceland! And with a name like Unnur Birna Vilhjalmsdottir, I'm not sure how I could have been mistaken.]

New layout: Impact

2005-12-10T11:22:00.002-05:00

This layout was thrown together last night when I got tired of the Back Dormitory Boys playing every time I loaded the front page. It's less css advanced than the last layout, but I like the simpler layout. The "blogspot friends" on the right will be automatically updating as soon as the freepgs.com server goes back up. They're using a wireless connection for their server until their T3 line gets installed =/ So most of the time, my site does not load. My radioblog is also hosted there, so sorry, no Chinese music for now. I think my webdesign skills are pretty limited because I'm still exploring photoshop's abilities and because I'm not very artistically minded. Perhaps the orange is a bit much? Or the color of the links on the side is too distracting? I dunno Anyhow, happy finals week everyone!

Testing Castpost

2005-12-08T12:02:00.000-05:00

Back Dormitory Boys

2005-12-06T07:49:00.000-05:00

These guys are called 后舍男生 in Chinese, or "Back Dormitory Boys" in English. From www.tian.cc:

The Back Dorm Boys are 韦炜 (Wei Wei, height 189 cm or 6'2") and 黄艺馨 (Huang Yi Xin, height 173 cm or 5'8"). They are university students at 广州美术学院 (Guangzhou Arts Institute) majoring in Scupltures.

I'm actually really surprised--I just read that these guys are Chinese. I mean, they are students in China, not some crazy Californian-Chinese students. Their videos are just so off the wall that I guess I didn't suspect actual students in China would spend time doing this...I wonder what the Back Dorm Boys' parents think of lip syncing as a career, haha. But they truly have a talent for entertainment. Apparently, their performances are being used as commercials for Motorola China, haha.

Christmas wish list

2005-12-05T20:30:00.000-05:00

What do I want for Christmas? Well, I'm really not a fan of wish lists because I think the giver gets a lot of joy out of giving "the right gift," and pre-selecting the giver's choices limits his or her creativity and your surprise. Omigosh! I can't believe it! THANK YOU SOOO MUCH!!!!! I didn't think ANYONE would have bought this off my wish list! Yes, Phuc, that means you probably won't be getting that $120 chess set you've been oh-so-subtlely hinting at, haha. I personally have enjoyed selecting all the gifts I've given this year. I don't know whether or not the receivers liked their gifts too (haha, Meredith got a drinking bird), but hey, it was fun for me, and that's what matters, isn't it? The giver feeling happy, I mean. That said, my mom is pretty clueless as to what gifts I enjoy. The last few years I think I've received chocolates and sweaters. They were gifts, so I won't complain, but anyhow, this year she wants me to make a wish list for her to select from. I'll compromise; instead of giving a list of specific desired items (e.g. "iPod Nano 4GB white"), I'll list what kinds of things I do not need more of. She can go ahead and give them to me, but I might not necessarily wear them--er, I mean--use them. Things I do not need: 1) another jacket--thick, light, whatever 2) more chocolate--all this free food is not good for me 3) a pen 4) a pencil 5) an iron and/or ironing board 6) socks or ties There. That's all the hints I'm giving. Feel free to override these general guidelines. If you see a pencil with built-in spinning action or socks that serve double function as air fresheners or something cool, do what your heart knows is right. Thanks.

Korean music video and movie

2005-12-04T23:04:00.000-05:00

Here's a music video with some group I've never heard of. They're ok. But the video also features BoA and The Trax, solid performers all around. Give it a dl. Dong Bang Shin Gi feat BoA & The TRAX - Tri-Angle.avi I watched The Classic yesterday at the CC apartment last night--wow! It's quite beautiful. A little cheesy at points, but for some reason, K-dramas know just how to tug your heart strings. Random correlation of this post: both the music video and The Classic remix Western classical music. I can't remember the name of the piece used in the music video, but it's about as well-known as Pachelbel's Canon, which was used in The Classic. This intercultural sharing of music is awesome! I wonder if Asian classical music will ever hit it big over here.

Chinese radioblog rotation

2005-12-04T16:11:00.000-05:00

Featuring all Chinese (Mandarin) music, I present my radioblog rotation for Dec 2005 1) Liu Rou Ying - ???? 2) Jay Chou - Fa Ru Xue (Snow-like Hair) 3) S.H.E. - An Quan Gan (????) 4) Wang Leehom - Nü Peng You (Girlfriend) 5) Faye Wong - Jiang ai (Persevere to the end in love) You can always open the radioblog by clicking on the play button on the left, or just clicking here!

File extension quiz

2005-12-02T01:58:00.000-05:00

For the true geeks out there: Which File Extension are You?

AAA Website

2005-12-01T12:01:00.000-05:00

Ok, scratch what I said earlier about getting the AAA site up and pretty, haha. That will take a while. It's not just designing the layout, coding the layout, and adding the content. Now I also have to template the code for the layout...which is something I'm not very experienced at yet. You can preview what I have done at www.indiana.edu/~aaa/wordpress BUT! I have finished coding the photos gallery for AAA. It's a variant of the China House script. Go check out the photos page!

Happy "turkey" day

2005-11-24T04:11:00.000-05:00

I put turkey in quotation marks--because you don't HAVE to have turkey, do you? Turkey isn't even that delicious. Thanksgiving has succeedly largely due to the effectiveness of the large, unseen turkey farmers' propaganda machine! So instead of turkey, we're having hot pot and bulgolgi tomorrow! I guess the rest of the time I'm home, I'll need to work out a new layout for the AAA website and read up on P.Chem. Alas, even on vacataion, school chases me around. Oh! Go to Fashion Show website! It's up and running with photos and a video of the fashion show. I have a compressed version of the video, but the internet connection here is tooooo slow. I can upload that when I get back to school on Sunday. Happy food day!

Fashion Show aftermath

2005-11-17T01:19:00.000-05:00

WOW! That was really fun! The Fashion Show went so much better than I could have imagined at the beginning of this year. Last year, as just a spectator, I thought the FS was kinda boring. Now, I don't know if it's because I was part of the show, or because it was just a better show this year, but the FS rocked! It was really fun, and I'm proud of the two runs that I was in. That's not to say that the show went off perfectly. I think most of the acts could have benefitted from more practice, since only the Break Dance and Multicultural walk went off without a hitch. The kids' walk had messups, but those were cute, hehe. And the multicultural walk was a bit long. I'm sorry because this post only makes sense to 2 or 3 readers of this site. But I'm going to compile a digital scrapbook of sorts, soon. It'll have an explanation of the fashion show, along with photos and videos for you guys! So then all 4 of you can see what Indiana tinikling looks like.

Love thy neighbor, love thy panda, love wordpress

2005-11-09T14:58:00.000-05:00

So recently, missionaries have been picketing and demonstrating around Woodburn Hall. They seek to show us the way of Christianity and to save us from damnation. It's not really that big a group of missionaries; rather, the annoyed crowd that they arouse becomes rather large around 1 in the afternoon. Now, I can understand protesting abortion. But showing blown-up, full-color pictures of dead fetuses? How does that contribute to the abortion debate? I can understand (just barely) trying to show others the way of the one true God. But slandering other religious leaders seems to be immature and unnecessary. "Muhammed is in hell. Buddha is in hell" or something like that was on a sign last year. At a protest against a restaurant that displayed a gay pride flag, that same group also had a sign that read "Fags die, God laughs," reports the IDS. Love thy neighbor! How should the non-Christian extremist portion of the student body respond? We could just ignore them and their fetus fetish pictures, and eventually they'd get tired of accomplishing nothing and leave. But that inaction precludes any dialogue. Who knows, maybe with some debate, one of those missionaries will change his/her views! Or, I suppose, a socially liberal student could be swayed by the brimstone/fire persuasion. Right now, I just ignore them. I guess that may not be the ideal solution, but it's the most practical. On to happier love issues, the title of this post promised panda love, and panda love you shall receive.

"Start making children soon. Don't let me down," Chinese Consul Peng Ren Dong told a couple dressed as pandas - which are notoriously difficult to breed in captivity - during a colourful tea ceremony which is part of Chinese wedding rites.

And I'm installing Wordpress on the AAA website, so it'll be looking smooth in a week, I promise!

Racial discrimination

2005-11-03T14:10:00.000-05:00

AAA has gone on on a "crusade" of sorts ever since the Facebook issue. That culminates tonight with a discussion at BH103 at 6:30 of casual racism. I am a fan of jokes that make fun of race in a tasteful way, a la Russell Peters, because...well...I can't help it if I laugh haha. But there are interesting questions that arise...an Indian comedian can make fun of his dad's horrible English accent, but could a white or black comedian make fun of Indian's accent? On the Facebook, is it ok to have a group "I am Asian...and yes, I'm good at math"? I really don't know. On a related note, today the NYTimes had a story headlined, "5 Praying Muslim Men detained at Giants Game" or something. "We felt like outsiders," said one of the men. My initial reaction was ouch, that's awful! Then the story explained at the men were reported to authorities because they prayed next to a ventilation vent and food-preparation area in the stadium of 80,000. Well...for some reason, the circumstances seem to make the detaination more justified, I think. Take it to the extreme. What would you think if 5 men with long beards started praying onboard your airplane? I'm not saying that racial discrimination in these cases are right, because I really have no idea. I'm merely noting that I think we'd all racially discriminate--in response to more extreme cases for some of us than for others.

Male mice sing when females near

2005-11-03T00:51:00.000-05:00

So reports Xinhua. I find this news funny, insightful, and comforting. I'm going to totally redesign the AAA website sometime....very soon I promise...I hope to make good use of graphics and css. I'm getting inspired by sites such as The Bravern - I like the consistent navigation and effective branding Bellacure - Again, the branding is superb. Also, the use of faux columns by vertically tiling a background image is ingenious CSS Zen Garden: Chess - The graphics for this are just cool CSS Zen Garden: Japanese Spirits - Ditto CSS Zen Garden: Zen City Morning - The graphics for this layout are very artistic! CSS Zen Garden: Zenfire - This layout is very powerful for some reason. I could see an actual celebrity/company using a site with this layout.

Tinikling crunch time!

2005-10-31T02:02:00.000-05:00

Guess what's on my mind. More videos: http://move.lost-socrates.com/mt.mov http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7207918680759362362&q=tinikling

bulgogi!

2005-10-28T18:29:00.000-05:00

Jiao zi...make room! Bulgogi, a Korean beef dish, is here! Man, all I had for breakfast today was coffee and a PBJ sandwich. So when I was treated to some bulgogi at the Asian Culture Center tonight, I was happy for any food. But I got more than just any food...I got heavenly splendid delight! And it's easy to make! And it's healthy! And so I'm posting the recipe here so I can make this over Thanksgiving or something. Bulgogi


1lb     thinly sliced sirloin beef
1Tbs    soy sauce
3tbs    minced garlic
1.5Tbs  sugar
1.5tbs  black pepper
5Tbs    wine
2tbs    sesame oil
1/2     carrot
1/3     onion
1bunch  green onion
1tbs    sesame seeds
some    mushrooms

Mix sliced beef with soy sauce, wine, sugar, pepper, sesame seed, and sesame oil
Allow beef to marinate for at least 2hrs
Cook beef, marinade, and vegetables in pan on medium-hot setting. Cook until beef is no longer red.
Itadakimasu!

The demonstrators didn't really follow the recipe, so the ingredients can be varied, omitted, etc. Thinly sliced sirloin beef is available at oriental grocery stores as "bulgogi beef" or it may be requested sliced at a regular grocery store. Brown/white sugar, white/shittake mushroom, it's all good.

zupload.com

2005-10-27T00:45:00.000-05:00

I really loathe megaupload.com because it makes the downloader wait 45 seconds before they can start downloading, and the flash-heavy site is slow to load. Yousendit.com links expire too quickly. Jade found me a new service to try though, zupload.com. I have uploaded SweetS - Love Raspberry Juice to try this out, so download this and let me know what you think of the tasty song and zupload.com!

Am I lovin' it? Maybe. I'm not sure.

2005-10-26T22:24:00.000-05:00

I am a busybusyboy. So when I run into McDonalds for a quick #2 (value meal, that is), I expect fast, tasty, cancer-causing food. But recently the service at McDonalds is so poor that it's infinitely quicker to go to the Cafe and get the Mac-and-Cheese that they serve everyday. It gets old quickly, but at least I get my food quickly. There has been some discussion recently on whether the Residential Programs and Services will renew its contract with McDonalds or not. At first, when I heard that RPS was considering replacing McDonalds, I thought it was a horrible idea! Blatant abuse of monopoly! Free up the dorm food market! But thinking about it more, McDonalds as it is run in Read would not survive in the free market anyways. This is not your typical McDoanlds. Here I list my grievances: 1) I never win the Monopoly game! And not only because they keep on hiding Boardwalk from me, but also because they ran out of game pieces for the fries, the chicken selects, the chicken sandwiches, and now, even the drinks! But they still advertise that they have game pieces. GRRR.... 2) The cashiers, more than half the time, don't know how to correctly input the McPick option (swapping fries for a fruit and yogurt parfait). But the hassle of fixing this problem is sometimes balanced out by incompetent baggers that give me fries AND a parfait. 3) The root beer seems to be 95% water, 25% of the time. No, that does not balance out. 4) The service is slow. I waited at least 15 minutes tonight. Maybe they were a little overwhelmed with customers, but the two cashiers kept on taking orders and/or joke fighting with each other instead of shifting over to food bagging. Arrr. So, bring on a new restaurant. Subway, Quiznos, or Wendys! Something faster!

Roméo et Juliette

2005-10-22T15:00:00.000-05:00

So the opera wasn't that hot...I dunno if it was just because I was more tired, or if the plot of R&J just bothers me that much, but I fell asleep quite a bit haha. Just thinking about it makes me drowsy now. On the upside, it has helped me consider new halloween costumes for the Halloween Party. The plot really seems dumb and straightforward. I can't tell if Shakespeare was writing about the tragedy of love or if he was making light of the comedy of teenage angst. This is easily seen by the accurate flashization of Romeo and Juliet, Tales for the Leet: Romeo and Juliet, which, my English teachers have commented, hits the horniess of the main characters right on the nose. R: Kiss me J: I dunno who u r R: Kiss me J: OK, lol --KISS KISS KISS KISS KISS-- hahahahaha

5k, no way!

2005-10-16T23:45:00.000-05:00

For your amusement, my results for the Jill Behrman Run for the End Zone 5k Run/Walk: OVERALL PLACE: 438 PLACE IN AGE DIVISION: 24 # OF FINISHERS IN YOUR AGE DIVISION: 36 FINISH TIME: 31:47 PACE PER MILE: 10:14 That was followed by the lock-in at the ACC which was really fun. But the lack of sleep was not good for me or my legs. I'm gonna get this diff eq homework out of the way, and then I'm going to crash.

radioblog down

2005-10-11T22:44:00.000-05:00

In case you haven't noticed, this blog has died down--I don't have the time to put up interesting posts, but you should still check this site out for A) the linkblog on the side managed jointly by Ayame and I (and..."Jennifer"?) B) the radioblog (press the play button on the ipod to the left) The linkblog has some of the best links that we find on the web, and since we collectively probably spend an alarming part of our free time on our computers, rest assured that only the cream of the crop will be on the linkblog! Did you know? In Japanese, they call watermelons "Godzilla Eggs." My radioblog is currently down because (from lvcs.net): Important News: The data center that housed our FreePgs and Plesk servers burned down 10-Oct-2005. We have lost all files as well as all hardware at that location. Patis and Vivian's whole sites are down =o The only real negative impact I have is that I can't post Chinese Yoyo songs and the Tinikling song. I'll live, somehow. In the meanwhile, the latest link on the linkblog is this video of a footballer. Joe, I think if you can learn to juggle like this, you could major in Latin, Spanish, whatever; and you could make a living by street performance in Chicago :) Events this week: Chinese Business Etiquette Dinner Wednesday (tomorrow!) 7-9PM Forest Greenleaf Dining Hall AAA Fashion Show 2005 Callout Friday 5PM BU211 Jill Behrman Run for the End Zone 5k Run/Walk Saturday 9:30AM (warmups start) Mellencamp Pavilion Lock-In at the ACC! Saturday 7PM Asian Culture Center (I really want to get a formal IU events blog where I keep track of all the free food opportunities...I think that'll be tricky though...)

YES!

2005-10-08T20:24:00.000-05:00

Last night Tony, Joe, and I performed Yoyo in the homecoming parade for the Asian Alumni Association. It was pretty horrible and yoyos dropped left and right as we had to half-run-half-walk while performing tricks to not slow down the parade. My yoyo actually broke and Tony's got a decent crack in it. Oh boy... Right after homecoming, we went to Chinese Night for MBAs. There were so many people! First they had a lot of middle-aged ladies from Indianapolis do some traditional dances. Then, some MBA students from Taiwan performed Chinese yoyo! I was really afraid they would show us up hahaha. But it all turned out ok when we started performing. I almost hit the fan on one throw, but the rest of the performance went really well! To show their appreciation, the organizers of the event gave us each an IU whiskey/cocktail-type glass. Maybe one of my friends can would appreciate it as a gift, haha.

How do you do it Patis?

2005-10-06T02:56:00.000-05:00

I am in awe of your ability to operate funky hours Patis. How do you do it? Is there a secret? My epiphany for tonight: I need to get the heck into bed. Sleep is very important to my completing my homework and my doing well on the Friday CalcIV test.

Tinikling, the War on False Fire Alarms, midterm self evaluation, monopoly

2005-10-05T14:53:00.000-05:00

I really have too much on my plate--not literally of course. With actual food I could just wrap it up and sneak it out of the cafeteria. But when I have so many different things to do, there's no way to just put things on hold and throw them into some Tupperware. I just gotta manage. I'm learning tinikling! Tinik....wha?! you ask? The picture on the left shows it, and the first song on my radioblog is the music. The music really helps you visualize the slamming of the bamboo sticks together. Yes, I'm scared that my feet will get mashed. But right now I'm working on the steps without the sticks. When the fire alarm at Read went off at 8 today, I was pissed. Beck 6 is going to declare a War on False Fire Alarms. We're going to line every fire alarm with super adhesive, so the next person to pull the fire alarm will be stuck there until the authorities can nab him or the firemen can extinguish his clothes. We can't show any weakness to those fire alarm terrorists! I've gotten some midterm grades back, and I can imagine my midterm grades in the other classes. Things aren't looking pretty, but they never do for me...all I can say for sure is that I haven't been able to keep up on class reading like I wanted to at the beginning of this semester. Finally, McDonald's is starting it's Monopoly game up again! Once again, I propose that we have a pool. Post whatever pieces you have up here, and we'll split the prize if we collectively get a monopoly. How else can we compete with those people who buy 2 large Chicken Selects Value Meals for lunch? We have to pool our resources guys! I currently have: Marvin Gardens B&O Railroad

Alcohol and women

2005-10-01T18:12:00.000-05:00

At the Chem Picnic, the topic of conversation got to how Asians can't metabolize alcohol. Or, more specifically, they can metabolize the alcohol to and aldehyde, but can't further metabolize it to a carboxylic acid, like most non-Asians can. I was skeptical about this at first, considering the nastiness of tsinghua or whatever brand of Chinese beer. If the beer tasted awful and people got drunk before they got a buzz, why would they drink beer? But apparently, it's true. Surprising! We went to the opera tonight. This was the first time I knew so many people there! And that certainly helped to make it more enjoyable, but the opera itself (Cosi fan Tutte) was also amazing. I can honestly say I did not fall asleep or get groggy for even a bit of it! Maybe it was the good singers, but I think I was kept interested mostly by the hilarious plot. It reminded me of Phuc and myself in high school. (cosi fan tutte is Italian for "Women are all alike" hahahahaha) Without ruining the plot for any of you, there are two guys who are total pimps and know how to make the ladies swoon. That should be enough of a description to pique your interest. *Radioblog update: Currently, Chinese Yoyo performance soundtrack candidates are up*

"Quotes are nothing but inspiration for the uninspired."

2005-09-29T16:44:00.000-05:00

-Richard Kemph Long time no blog! I don't have any topic in mind to write about, but I felt this unbelievable urge to update. It must be the procrastinator in me, trying to put off the M312 homework. One cool thing that happened this week was that a lot of the people in my lab were trying to get a visiting professor drunk with them. Alas, I am a minor (although they had to ask if I were of age...haha). I've noticed that when talking about the friendship-dating-engagement-marriage love continum, we have a very limited vocabulary consisting primarily of various cliches that all are just euphisms for... Well....I'm not sure how to define them without using more cliches...but here they are, The Words That Are Repeated Over And Over Again When Talking Or Singing About Love: - get more serious - take it to "another level" - be more than just friends/lovers/fiances - ask/pop "the question" And well...that's all I can think of. But imagine a conversation about two friends who are considering dating w/o using those 4 phrases! A: So I heard Sally is thinking about...spending more time at Harry's B: Really?! That's great! They were practically best friends before; I always thought that they should...er...be bestestest friends, you know what I mean? A: Sally is actually going to...inquire if Harry's itinerary is open this Saturday's Eve and so on. I just got back from the Hillel Center's "Diversity Dinner." Delicious! And very educational. I am glad my tax dollars are supporting me and my education :)

My submission to the Rice Paper

2005-09-29T16:42:00.000-05:00

Sibo Lin Chemistry 2008 AAA The 2005 Bradford Woods Retreat will not be forgotten by any of its participants. However, if you ask any of us what exactly happened on the retreat, we’d probably start talking incoherently about shooting fireballs, getting stuck in a gigantic spider web, or juggling marbles. The inside jokes and details of that weekend are trivial. I had fun that weekend. I made lasting friendships. But what pleased me most was that I took home a new view on how to live life. I signed up for this Asian leadership retreat with low expectations. Honestly, I just figured some of my friends were going and it was free. Why not go? Once we arrived, we were split into random teams. I knew some of my teammates, I recognized a few more, but I had never seen most of them before in my life. Some of the strangers rubbed me the wrong way. Yet Carmen, our counselor, gently stripped us of our masks. Somehow, we began to laugh and sulk together for our activities. We slowly bared some of our inner thoughts and ideas to each other. And by nightfall, our group felt like family. The next morning, we said our goodbyes and headed out of the woods, promising to keep in touch. Although I had started the weekend with a bad impression of some people, I began to believe that humans are all inherently good underneath their masks. I know I just glossed over the details of what happened, and this story sounds unbelievably corny. Yet despite the “corniness” of the whole situation, we simply lived in the moment—and we enjoyed it! And that’s my take-home message: I learned to enjoy myself with total strangers by taking off our masks and living in the moment. If this opportunity is available again next year, I encourage you to go. Thanks to Carmen, Team Wa, all Bradford Wood Retreat participants, the ACC, and the spider that wove that giant web.

Music to my ears!

2005-09-22T00:02:00.000-05:00

I updated the radioblog...with all English songs! I dedicated to no jpop for this rotation because I scare myself sometimes with how Asianified I've become since middle school. Also, there's only so much jpop one can handle in a certain amount of time. I think if I could browse someone's whole music library, I could distinguish if they were white, Asian, or thug. You might think that I'm just stereotyping and being racist or something. But from my experiences, only Asians like jpop. If I see an Ayumi Hamasaki song in someone's iTunes, chances are that he/she is Asian. Next, if there is no jpop/cpop/kpop/whatever, and there is the Hives or Keane or the White Stripes or any number of certain bands, the owner is probably white. If the music library does not have any of the above, it probably belongs to a thug. Try this test on your friends' playlists. Freaky, no? On a more "unifying" freaky note, we discovered today that the word for "mom" is very similar is many, many languages. We covered all the Romance languages, Czech, a lots of Asian languages. I must find out how they say "mom" in African and Native American Languages!

The covers of this book are too far apart

2005-09-21T08:28:00.000-05:00

- Stephen Ambrose, The Devil's Dictionary I can't cover all the details of what's happened since my last update, but I'll hit on the highlights. Saturday was constant business until after the TWSA moon festival, when we goofed around with calligraphy pens, yoyos, helicopter sticks, and then DDR. I think that makes 3 or 4 weekends in a row that I've been DDRing. Scary thing is that it's not even always with the same people o.0 Then, two board meetings were on Saturday. I need to come up with a new site structure and layout for AAA soon. Also, here are some plugs for events: Chinese Culture and Language Club Callout! Friday, Sept 21 6PM Read Dorm Game Room All invited! The board will introduce themselves, Chinese board games, and their ideas for this coming year. Make sure to come, so you can help shape our events for this year! Of course, there will be free food and bubble tea. And of course, Asian American Association's 2005 Fashion Show! November 12 We are currently looking for choreographers for cultural and modern dances. If you are interested or know anyone who would be, please leave a message with me so I can get you in contact with the Amee and Alice. Lotus Fest THIS WEEKEND! DOWNTOWN Bloomington! Lotus Fest is B-town's best kept secret...http://lotusfest.org. This is a once a year event! Come visit me at the Monroe Bank stage at 4th and College Friday night!

Comic

2005-09-16T18:43:00.000-05:00

By reading a few of his strips, I decided Stephen Pastis is a pretty funny cartoonist. His cartoon is being considered for syndication by the Indy Star. So if you read the Indy Star and like this cartoon, then vote for Pastis!

To Do List

2005-09-16T08:22:00.000-05:00

/*UPDATE I didn't get these done: - Update CCLC site - Plan AAA site future - Homework in Diff Eq, P Chem, Calc IV - Practice Violin - JSA BBQ maybe END UPDATE*/ To do lists present tasks that you still need to do in an orderly and managed fashion. This helps organize your time and efforts...usually. My weekend list is too full. I don't even know where to start... - Prepare Research Meeting presentation - Go to Chinese Culture and Language Club Exec meeting, publicize the callout meeting (Next FridaY!!!!) - Go to AAA Exec meeting - Update CCLC site - Plan AAA site future - Homework in Diff Eq, P Chem, Calc IV - Practice Violin - Laundry - Lotus Festival Training - JSA BBQ maybe Oh geez......this is not looking good. I'll edit this post with an updated list at the end of the weekend, so I can see how much actual progress I made. Until then...no more updates.

Taking a step back...

2005-09-15T12:04:00.000-05:00

Unlike in the game of Life (Milton Bradley), taking a step back in real life is not always a waste of time. In fact, sometimes a step back will get you on the right path. Such was the case this past weekend at Bradford Woods. Grouped with other Asian leaders at IU, I did not have access to a cellphone, laptop, or any means of communication with the outside world. I know this sounds like the beginning of a cheap, slasher-in-the-woods, Hollywood thriller, but it turned out more like Garden State or the Shawshank Redemption. By which I mean, the experience seemed so perfect that it must have been scripted in a good movie or something. I don't really want to bore you all with the details, but basically we split into 3 groups, and then did leadership-building challenges and activities for a day and a half. These included the name bashing game, the respect game, the reveal-a-paradox-about-yourself game, the Filipino martial art of Wa!, mute communication on a log, an intricate blind maze, a spiderweb, walking across molten lava with 3 wooden planks...and so on. The activities were pretty fun. But my take-home message of our picture-perfect weekend was that people are naturally good. Our group (Team Wa)'s counselor, Carmen, was unbelievably nice. She seemed like an all-powerful elementary school teacher. She had the abilities to grab our attention without raising her voice, to tell us when to stop without putting us down, and to get us to laugh at the world without laughing at people. And when our group was together, we acted as Carmen acted. We shared our feelings, we laughed together, we trusted each other...It was an experience that I can't compare with any other in recent memory. I don't know what I can do with this lesson, but I do want to help spread it somehow. Maybe Chemistry isn't the way to do it. I may have to take another step back and see. Maybe I won't get to Millionaire Estates and collect the 5 extra "Life tiles" at the end. But I might have a better idea where I'm headed.

What should I do, oh Magic 8 ball?

2005-09-13T23:39:00.000-05:00

I was going to blog about something happy, then I considered blogging about some more sobering things, then I got tired of thinking and figured screw it. I'll let the Magic 8 ball decide what I should write about. "What should I do, oh Magic 8 Ball?" Dang. I forgot, you only answer yes/no questions. I think my best bet is to just not blog at all, and go study for another half hour.

Is this drama or what?

2005-09-09T00:42:00.000-05:00

I stand on the verge of reconsidering my stance on gender equality. What stance is that, you ask? That guys should never have to pay for girls' food. Ok, I guess to be more specific, my stance is that I should never have to pay for someone else's food. I don't really care if millions of girls out there tempt guys to pay for their food, as long as those guys aren't named Sibo. And in general, I stand firm on that issue--rock solid. But recently I've been letting the meal points flow 'round, and sometimes I even feel guilty getting a free meal. What's happening to me, Doc? Why am I turning normal? How much money am I going to spend this year? Haha. That said, I'm still a cheapass, I still stuff myself at the buffet and sneak food out. I still shop around on Thursday nights for the events with the best free food. And this paying-for-others'-food is not what you may think it is...it's just a lot of little events that have coincided and are making me reconsider my position. My position might not change at all, haha! But ever since my cheapass era (~8th grade to present) started, I've never had such a test of faith. I pray I do not end up like my parents, who argued for 10 minutes with other people about who would have the honor of paying the dinner bill. Ramen.

I'm so full

2005-08-29T16:49:00.000-05:00

- of food from the read cafeteria. omgomgomgomgomgomg. I didn't even want to use my tubberware to sneak out cookies. - of half-assing my classes. Maybe I'm "smart" because I am good at reading and interpreting what questions are asking on a test. That would make me no better than the wild Vietnamese kid I tutored last summer o.0 I need to take school at least 3/4 seriously for once. - ridiculous book prices. $390. My bank account is NOT full. - more ideas for China House. I still want suggestions though! - of staying up late. Going to bed hopefully around 11 tonight.... - of joy for being back - of (usually correct) directions to give to lost freshmen - of food still. Ugh...

From the Signature School yearbook

2005-08-22T13:24:00.000-05:00

I found the "with an audience" 2003-2004 yearbook today, and found the tennis team page funny.

Signature School boys' varsity tennis team had a dismal season this year, suffering losses at the hands of Reitz, Anderson, Highland, and Columbus North. The junior varsity team had a more positive season, winning their match against Reitz, but losing their match against Memorial High School. The team seniors, Adam Grimm, Phuc Nguyen, and Sibo Lin will leave vacant positions as team leaders and top players. Sophomores Andrew Nejad and Joel Fine will have to step up next year to fill the holes that the senior-dominated team left after this year.

Of course in retrospect, we now know that the tennis team went the way of the dodo bird. Haha.

walmart, microwave ramen, bloody go, stumbleupon, blogger comment spam, more jpop

2005-08-18T17:11:00.000-05:00

Looking at what kind of blogs I like to read, I found that the ones that are updated less frequently but in bigger chunks tend to be more interesting than the diarrhea-of-the-keyboard style blogs. This is my first conscious attempt at the "high-fiber" blogging style, haha. Ok. No more disgusting jokes, I promise. First, to relieve this blog's recent constipation, today at Walmart, I realized how good of an idea Walmart is. I know they take advantage of child labor, poverty wages, Mexican immigrants, cocaine-smuggling profits, ties to the international Triad Mafia, etc. but looking just at their marketing skills, I have to admit that I'm very impressed. Everything in Walmart is ordered in a logical, intuitive manner. I love Bloomington's Target like my own child, but for the love of me, I couldn't find a freaking pencil sharpener or overhead projector sheets. Also, Walmart has a very strong "store brand" system. The idea of a store brand in itself is ingenious. Walmart can copy the formula of any drug, label it as Equate, and sell it for cheaper w/o R&D or advertising costs. Same goes for Sam's Club labelled foods. In 20 years, threatened by the Internet, Walmart declares war on the Microsoft/Google/Apple alliance. MGA pools their computing power together, only to inadvertently create a sentient supercomputer that then goes on to destroy human civilization. You heard it here first. Also at Walmart, they now sell microwaveable ramen! "Chow Mein" is just a block of ramen in a plastic tray with dried shrimp and powdered and liquid seasoning. I bought a package for $.87 "EIGHTY-SEVEN CENTS??? FOR RAMEN??? BOBO??? WHAT"S WRONG WITH YOU!?" you ask? Well, I bought one package for the microwave instructions. Now, I can buy $.15 ramen rectangles and cook them in the microwave! And any of you college readers are lucky, because I'm sharing this Walton family secret recipe with you as well:

Open container. Remove Liquid Seasining, Powder Seasoning, and Shrimp packets.
Open Shrimp packet and pour content in the space between Noodle Cake and Container. Pour 1 cup of water in the container.
Cook in Microwave oven (UNCOVERED) for 6 minutes or until noodles are tender. Let stand for 1 minute. DO NOT DRAIN: Some water remaining in the container after cooking is desirable.
Pour content of Powder and Liquid Seasining packets on cooked noodles. Stir noddles thoroughly. Ready to eat.

Now you know. I made a Go set! Major, HUGE props go to Kyrie and Lynn for the materials, expertise, and advice. The board isn't perfect, but since I didn't have to go buy a bigass board at Lowes, I'm not complaining! When I redid the grid, I didn't have clamps so some of the lines are a lil crooked, but still the board looks very nice. And the red and clear pieces are gorgeous. I would marry this go set if that were legal. Right now, my mom and I are working on needlework containers for the go pieces. I've spread the StumbleUpon gospel to Patticakes and Ayame, now it's time for the rest of you! What is SU, you ask? It's an extension for Firefox that "let's you channelsurf the best sites on the web." The best thing is that as you rate sites that you stumble upon, SU can figure out what kind of sites people like you enjoy. All of the links that I contribute to the linkblog (see left sidebar) are from SU. Try it now. (What is Firefox? Are you SERIOUS...go to http://firefox.com and talk to me after two weeks. You will be a changed person) Blogger blogs hosted on blogspot (say that 10x fast) are getting attacked by comment spam! See the entry before this one for some examples. Agh. I hope this doesn't become too prevalent. My gmail account has also been recently spammed a lot. Maybe I'll have to rush developing that php blogging script. And for a cool Jpop site, check out J-Revolution ("All Japan, All The Time"). I'm hoping that the AAA and China House sites can be a useful as J-Rev. China House is coming along. The content is 70% up. I need to work on layout a bit more. That's it for now. Wow, that was a craplo...I mean, that was a lot to spew ou...I mean, that was a lot.

radioblog: asian music rotation!

2005-08-14T03:21:00.000-05:00

The latest radioblog rotation (click on the scrollwheel at left) has a mix of jpop, krock, mandopop, and anime music. If you can name all of the songs that are in animes, and which anime's they're from, you get a cookie! skoop - happy people ai otsuka - honey ai otsuka - momo no hanabira cyndi wang - love's sailplane .hack//Sign - a stray child coco lee - step in david tao - bu ming bai yu quan - tian shi the pillows - scent of sweet dream - get over no regret life - nakushita kotoba I also found a very nice collection of anime songs with direct downloading at Gendou's Anime Music. You have to register, but it's free and well organized.