urgh

The End.. or the Beginning..

2008-07-02T10:03:00.004-05:00

Geo 660 is over!!! I leave you with the last photos of my undergrad life. Gonna start a different blog for Penn State. Cheers.. it's been a great trip.

SUV #3: Me, Radha, Julie, Lauren, Nick and Josh
in Arches National Park, Utah

Hydro kids: Steph, Radha, Tyler, me in Hecla, Montana

Nabiel's tent on the shores of Jenny Lake facing the Grand Tetons, Wyoming.

Mesa Falls, Yellowstone, with a rainbow. We saw lots of rainbows!

Pushing #3 out of the mud in Idaho

Summer Daze

2008-06-01T21:53:00.008-05:00

It was a warm summer day today, and nothing goes with warm summer days better than a free concert in the park by the Austin Symphony's String Ensemble, courtesy of the Hartman Foundation. Natasha and I sprawled out on the grass at the new Long Center for the Performing Arts and listened to the sweet soft sounds of summer. Other summery things I did today included climbing up the trunk of a fallen tree (which ironically had fallen during the hailstorm 3 weeks ago) and eating watermelons.

Drove 914 miles to New Mexico and back in the department vehicles last week as part of our Hydrogeology Field Camp (Geo 376L). Bunked out in the Valles Caldera, west of Los Alamos. We analyzed the geochemistry and physical hydrology of a creek that runs through the Caldera. Apart from one of the vans' oil hose exploding in Albuquerque it was a smooth trip. Some people were very excited to have Los Alamos analyze our samples for us and even more excited at finding high levels of trace metals in the water (caused by fulvic acid destroying the feldspars in the volcanic rock). I am very slightly disdainful of research that doesn't really have any relevance to improving the human condition but whatever. Leaving for Wyoming on Friday to catch up with the general Geology Field Camp (Geo 660).

At an Anasazi (Publeo) ruin in Bandelier National Monument.

The drinking club with a hydrogeology problem.

Another thing I haven't mentioned is that graduation was on May 17th! Although I don't technically graduate till August, the school lets us walk in May because there is no August graduation ceremony. Spring graduation rocks because there are fireworks!

My homies Elena, Rebeca, Marta, Lexi, Nat and Hannah

My posse Amelia, Chelsey and Lily

Geo 376L and 660B
Summer '08: Where the hell am I ?
May 14-16 Hornsby Bend Center for Environmental Research
May 17: Graduation
May 18-22: Barton Springs, Waller Creek, Hornsby Bend
May 22-28: Valles Caldera, New Mexico
May 28-June5: Austin TX
June 6-9: Driving to Grand Teton National Park
June 10-14: Yellowstone calderas, Idaho
June 15-21: McCartney Mountains, Montana
June 22-26: Hecla, Montana
June 27: Snake River Plane, Great Salt Lake
June 28: Arches National Park, Rio Grande Rift
June 29: Return to Austin. Last day as an undergraduate. I predict I will be extremely unhappy on this day.

July 7 - ? Singapore

August ??? Move to Pennsylvania

At the end of the day if I could start all over and choose my major again, I would without a doubt still pick geoscience and geography. I will say, however, that I did not learn nearly as much from actual classes as I did from fieldtrips, fieldwork, working as a research assistant, interning for Schlumberger, studying abroad, and, last but not least, the relationships I developed with people.

2008-05-14T19:50:00.002-05:00

So... apart from today being the first day of Hydro field camp, which we spent at Hornsby Bend, I checked my grades online and found out I got a C for M427K. That is the first and last C ever of my undergrad career. Oh well, it just shows that I slacked off completely this last semester. Getting a C implies I didn't work hard enough, which I thought I did! What on earth did I do if I didn't study?? Come to think of it, I did skip town thrice. I went to Mexico, Pennsylvania and Florida while school was in session. Hmm. I think that's enough to cut it for anyone.

Graduation is on Saturday, if I don't get eaten by a gator, bitten by a snake, stung by a fire ant or fall into a patch of poison ivy this week!

Three cheers!

In other news, we went to Krause Springs over the weekend. Which is why I now feel like I have no time to do all I need to do!

2008-05-09T22:03:00.005-05:00

I wrote this poem with two people in mind. Two people I thought were my friends.

You call them friends because
They smile at you
An acknowledging hi when you walk past
They help you with your homework
And talk over meals about the day
They ride with you downtown
To dance. Laugh. Drink.
And engage in whatever strikes your fancy -
Whatever makes you happy.
They will not care about your life in a few years
When you are seperated by miles
An inner indifference emerging
As they go on with theirs.
In the cold and sorrow
Only then will you realize
You were a passing cloud
A drifting breeze
A wafting scent
They would never die for you.
Does my friendship mean nothing?

The beating of young hearts

2008-04-26T00:13:00.005-05:00

I spent the first half of the week working on this horrendous geostatistics project for GIS, and the second half studying Laplace and Fourier transforms for my M427K exam on Friday. After a torturous Chemical Hydrology (aka Aqueous Geochemisty) lab where I failed to model groundwater recharge, I was finally able to relax at the Dean's outdoor dinner event with my geo buddies. By the time I got home at 8pm I was pretty tired, and not having any social obligations I decided to take it easy, even though there were several events going on, such as the University Fashion Show and an Open Mic Night at 21st Street. Here are more photos from my fast-paced action-packed (*cough cough*) life

Chett and Marta whizzing around on his quad bike
Pretty cool photo from Justin's cam, no?
We were at his parents' farm on the outskirts of Dallas

My turn to take Rebeca on the monster

Toasting smores in Chett's backyard
Rebeca, Ash, Justin, Elena and me

Marta had her 22nd birthday last week. We went to Mandola's, an Italian place, for dinner. Around her are Marisol, Paul, Carlos, Elena and Chett.

Marta and the guys, who look like gangsters.
Carlos, Paul, Chett, Phil, Matt and Justin.

Chett, Elena, Paul and Phil

Ash, Rebeca, me and Marta at Cain and Abel's after dinner

Paul and Elena working some magic

Chett decided everyone should spend the weekend at his place after his 3rd beer. Justin and Phil after exchanging glances immediately agreed.

Rebeca and me. She looks really happy but I look like I'm plotting to kill someone. Like my ex.

Totally unrelated; this is a photo Phil took at the 21st Street Coop carwash. Paul, Thomas, some guy and the other Paul.

2008-04-22T22:51:00.006-05:00

Spent the weekend up in Dallas with some coop friends.. good times. I drove all the way back just to prove to myself I could do it. Chett's mum didn't have space for 10 of us so we camped in his yard.

Chett, Justin, Marta, Matt and Elena on the plaza outside the Old Red Courthouse in downtown Dallas. I took this photo and really like it - it looks like a GAP ad.

This is what trying to find your way around the DFW area does to you.

It's the last 2 weeks of class! I have to do a lot of stuff! Cringe..
Chem Hydro Project
GIS Assignment
M427K exam on Friday

Was just thinking of all the software I've used in the last year:
Petrel - GeoDa - Ensight - Paraview - ArcMap - VisIt - VTBuilder - PhreeqC - NetFlow and last but not least MS Access...

Arggh I'm really tired now. Been trying to work some Laplace Transformations. Going to bed.

2008-04-14T18:35:00.002-05:00

You may be on the right track but you'll get run over if you just stand there.
John Wayne

That's exactly how I feel right now. It seems like I'm headed in the right direction, but for now I'm not acheiving anything, I feel useless, and nothing exciting is happening.
________________________________________

I was just reading this article yesterday:

Riots, Instability Spread as Food Prices Skyrocket

Riots from Haiti to Bangladesh to Egypt over the soaring costs of basic foods have brought the issue to a boiling point and catapulted it to the forefront of the world's attention, the head of an agency focused on global development said Monday.

Why are people starving?
Because food prices are too high.
Why are food prices too high?

...the price of oil -- not corn prices or ethanol production -- has the greatest impact on consumer food prices because it is integral to virtually every phase of food production, from processing to packaging to transportation.

And just out today -

Oil breaks $113 - new trading record
(AKA Why the market is good for geoscience majors)

The latest surge in crude prices is partly due to weakness in the U.S. dollar, analysts said. As the dollar has dropped versus the euro, many investors have flocked to commodities such as oil and gold to preserve the value of their assets.

_____________________________________

In other news

Should guns be allowed on campus? Students want chance to defend themselves

Cincinnati student is leading advocate for college kids to be armed
At least nine states are considering legislation to allow students to carry weapons
Police chief: "I don't think the answer to bullets flying is to send more bullets flying"
"I see carrying a concealed firearm as a kind of life insurance policy," professor says

I think there is some sense in this. If someone were to open fire on our campus, I'd shoot them without hesitation if I had a gun. I'm sure many of us have already been running through in our heads the situations that could happen and what we'd do if that scenario did come up. The problem is that allowing guns to be carried on campus would allow gun access in other situations where gun-use may not be as justified, such as a drunk student being able to shoot anyone who offends him. The objective here is a solution that unfortunately brings other problems with it.
__________________________________________________

"You might be smart, but are you good?"
Roderick P. Hart
Dean, College of Communication
Honors Day 2008

A Week In The Life of a Lazy Geoscience Student

2008-03-21T11:25:00.010-06:00

Monday
9am Wake up and eat breakfast. Skip GIS(Geographical Information Science)Lab.
9.30am Cycle to the bank, cycle home, jump in car, drive to north campus and drop off Ocean Science meeting material at research supervisor's house, go to Walgreens and buy toiletries
11am Lunch - baked potatoes. Read sports magazine. Journal.
1pm Cycle to school. M427K Applied Calculus
2pm Meet Molly and Mickey to talk about life, God, etc.
3pm Go for haircut
4pm Wander around coop. Boring.
6pm Dinner. Penne, salad.
6.30pm - 10.30pm Very boring and excruciating attempt at teaching myself Higher Order Linear Equations : Variation of Parameters

Tuesday
8.15am Wake up, make breakfast and lunch sandwiches
8.30am Take West Campus bus to school. M427K Applied Calculus tutorial session.
9.30am Sit in GIS Lab and attempt to complete 6 GIS modules. Didn't even finish 1.
11am GIS class
12.30pm GRG 374 class; eat sandwich in class
1.50pm Walk down 24th street with Whitney. Talk about her spring break in Hawaii. Go to TACC (Texas Advanced Computing Center) Scientific Visualization Lab in ACES building.
2pm Work. VisIt software. WTH is a silo?
3pm Big thunderstorm outside
5.15pm Get off work. Thunderstorm over. Take bus home. Very cold.
6pm Dinner. Lemon chicken with rice and peas and corn.
6.15pm Dinner interrupted; thrown into swimming pool (myself, not dinner) as belated birthday activity. Very cold.
7pm Very bored but weather is lousy outside. Sit around doing nothing. Will regret this on Wednesday night. Wander around coop sporadically, not much going on. Email people. Surf CNN.
9pm Call from mum
9.45pm Call Chelsey
10pm Journal.

Wednesday
8.30am Wake up, eat breakfast.
9am Drive to UTIG (UT Institute for Geophysics. 9 miles away at Research Campus).
9.15am Walk into lobby, see Jamin and Brad (PHd candidates; polar ice & hydrogeology), sidetracked by donuts and coffee. Eat donut. Talk to visiting Japanese lunar scientists.
9.45am Jamin introduces me to Ginny, his research advisor. Talk to Ginny about glaciology in Antarctica and Greenland for long time.
10.15am Ginny introduces me to Jack Holt. Talk to him for 10 min about ice on Mars and geophysical methods of studying karst.
10.35am Talk to Jamin for 5 min about grad school.
10.40am Talk to Matt Hornbach for 10 min about seismic acquisition cruise in summer. 8 cups of coffee = very excited Matt.
10.50am Say hi to Sabine.
11am Drive back to coop
11.15am Try some lunch. Taco Salad. Supposedly do lunch server labor.
12pm Meet Derek and Julia, PSU grad students who transferred to UT with their advisor, for lunch at O's Cafe in ACES building. Talk to them about PSU vs UT. Very interesting.
1pm M427K
2pm Meet Ana and James, back from Honors trip to Chile, and Andy, long lost Masters' candidate, at Texas Express at the Alumni Center. Talk about life, God, etc.
3pm Geo 476M. VERY BORING AQUEOUS GEOCHEMISTRY.
3.40pm Make note of time.
3.50pm Make note of time
4.15pm Finally class over. Arrange with Megan, TA, to meet tomorrow at 9.30am to make up for missed recitations (Mexico, Penn State visit).
4.20pm Go to TACC lab in ACES building, check email, send emails.
4.45pm Cycle home.
5.30pm Sit around wait for dinner with Jermaine, Jessica, etc
6.05pm Dinner. Mannacotti and salad.
7pm Coop Wednesday night meeting. Anthony's pool-and-grounds officer review. Talk about Saturday's art party. Expected turnout: 600.
8pm Go to Elena's and Jenn F's room and sit around. Borrow nailclipper. Clip nails.
9pm Back in my room. Attempt to do Series Solutions of Second Order Linear Equations: Near an Ordinary Point, Part I. Don't get very far. Think about skipping quiz tomorrow. Decide to blog.
10.57pm Decide to hit the sack.
11pm Change mind, go downstairs and make veggie burger. Say hello to Holly and watch her make oatmeal raisin cookies. Go upstairs and say hello to Laura who is reading. Sit around with Laura and Rob, who is eating leftover mashed potatoes. Eat veggie buger.
11.45pm ZZZ

Thursday
8am Wake up. Make breakfast, take some oatmeal raisin cookies, make lunch sandwich (veggie burger).
8.30am Get on West Campus bus. M427K tutorial.
8.50am Walk into class late. Peer over shoulder of guy in front of me. Try to see how he solved Series Solutions of Second Order Linear Equations: Near an Ordinary Point, Part I.
9.10am Quiz.
9.20am Walk to GEO building, meet Megan, TA. Learn how to use ionization fractions to find concentration of compounds.
10am Walk to GRG building, sit around in GIS lab. Wonder how I am going to finish 6 GIS modules by Sunday.
11am GIS Class
11.15am Contemplate walking out of class to take a nap on the grass in the sun.
11.40am While Dr Miller talks about how the Sims games are examples of geovisualization, contemplate buying the Sims 4 Deluxe. Wish I had the computing power to run Sims games. Contemplate buying a new computer.
12pm Draw an orange.
12.30pm GRG374 Class. Listen to Dr Zonn, Chairman of the GRG Department, talk about how he graduated with an undergrad GPA of 2.33. Great role model for anyone disheartened by poor grades.
1.45pm Give Radha and Whitney souvenirs from Mexico (rocks!) and Orlando (pens!). Walk with Whitney to Geo building.
1.55pm Drop off Honors Day rsvp card. Walk to TACC lab in ACES building.
2pm Work. VisIt software.
5pm Get off work. Stay in lab and complete GIS module 2. Sort of.
5.30pm Walk to bus stop. Notice weather is very nice.
5.35pm Feel kind of warm
5.36pm Regret wearing black
5.37pm Where is the bus?
5.38pm Where is the bus?
5.39pm Hide behind information kiosk in the shade. Take some flyers.
5.45pm Get on West Campus bus. Notice a bunch of Asian American girls taking photos on bus.
6.04pm Arrive home, late for dinner. Pork chops and potatoes and salad.
6.08pm Am taking a helping of potatoes when an army of 21st Street Coopers charge into the coop and attack us with water bombs.
6.10pm In kitchen hiding with a bunch of people. Matt M very soaked. Chelani half soaked.
6.15pm Damage assessment. Entire commons area wet.
6.18pm Sit poolside, the only dry area, and eat dinner.
6.20pm Very angry Arbi commands cleaning up gang.
6.35pm Finish dinner. Dinner Clean-up with Hannah, Judy, Jon, etc.
7pm Notice a large group of Pearl Streeters, more than attended last night's meeting, in the commons area, probably discussing retaliation. Start cleaning grill.
7.30pm Eat pineapple sliced by Paul.
7.45pm Finish dinner clean up.
7.50pm Decide to go to school and work on GIS modules. Notice bible study group in mezzanine; all non-coopers except Ashwin. Downstairs, notice hostellers in study room. Tell Matt P lots of non coopers around.
8.12pm Walk to school. Full moon. Realize I haven't walked outside at night at UT for a very long time.
8.13pm Walk past band playing at the Texas Hilliel Center for Jewish Life.
8.15pm Walk past University church. Sign outside reminds me today is Maundy Thursday.
8.30pm Arrive at ACES building, realize access card for TACC lab is at home. SHIT. Walk to Flawn Academic Center.
8.32pm Walk through Main Building/UT Tower. Entertain thoughts about how more people should be working/studying right now so I can feel good about my sloth.
8.36pm Arrive at FAC. Decide to blog instead of work on GIS.
9pm Work on GIS modules
10pm Kicked out of microcomputing lab because it closes at 10pm. Go one floor down to central study area. Buy bag of chips on the way.
10.43pm Somehow miraculously finish all 6 GIS modules (but cut more corners than a chinese construction company). HOORAY!!!! Weekend can now be focused on next Friday's M427K Exam.
10.50pm Head over to the Texas Union Patio to check out Resweek 2008 show and band performances.
10.53pm Get there in time to watch Kim perform her last song. Say hi to her and Andre. Meet some people, buy a t-shirt, get free hot chocolate.
11pm Listen to a song.
11.10pm Walk home with hot chocolate.
11.13pm Walk past what seems to be a concluded party at the Texas Hilliel Center for Jewish Life. Lots of dressed up happy young people milling around.
11.14pm Walk past the Chabad House. Older people seem to be having a party inside with strobe lights. Jews know how to party. I don't mean that in any bad way, I have some Jewish friends; in fact, my GRG 374 class has a Jewish guy who has been to Israel and a Palestinian guy who has been to the Middle East, both Americans, and there's the rest of us who gave it away when Zonn asked who goes to church every Sunday.
11.20pm Back at the coop, Taryn gives me some coffee cake she brought back from work at Starbucks. Bunch of French-speaking people sitting around. Jermaine cleaning fridge. Jessica making vanilla butter cookies. I never stay up late enough to eat any cookies. Walk upstairs, pass recently concluded weed party.
11.33pm Blog. Foresee imminent nightmares involving visualization and GIS software.

Friday
4am Seriously regret eating coffee cake 5 hours ago.
9am Bike to TACC lab. Eat granola bar. Eat chocolate.
9.10am Work. Try to figure out why SRTM (Shuttle Radar Topography Mission) data cannot be read by VisIt even though .hgt files should load like DEM (Digital Elevation Model) data using GDAL (Geospatial Data Abstraction Library).
10am Try to find out how to convert .hgt files to .bil files. What is a shell script?
11am Give up. Email boss. Print M427K quiz solutions.
12.05pm Brandt comes in. Says he is going to backpack around Europe for summer after graduation for 3 months. By himself. Sweet.
1pm M427K
1.45pm Go home for lunch. Spaghetti and garlic bread. Joe tells me I have a bruise on my forehead - it's from hitting my head during DCU last night.
2.20pm Walk next door and turn in contract to office, after short discussion with Regina over valid reasons for cancellation.
3pm Back to school; Geo 476 Aqueous Geochemistry Lab. ARGH. Plot a bunch of graphs of components of well water.
5.20pm Cycle home.
5.30pm Arrive home; dinner is served - chicken casserole. Walk up to Bart's Landing; chill with Jill and Lexi and do some Geochem/GIS homework.
6.05pm Lily comes over, eat dinner with Lily.
6.30pm Sit around with some other coopers for a long time in the commons.
7.20pm Think about what to do. Realize haven't been in town on Friday for the past 3 consecutive weeks (Mexico, Penn State, Spring Break).
7.30pm Walk to campus with Lily; check out the Turkic Spring Festival. Eat Turkish Delight. Lounge around in Yurt/Yurd.
8pm Walk back home, switch on computer.
8.40pm Computer finally running. Mapquest some directions.
9pm Drive to Tanis' house (2222 & Mopac) with Lily, Elena and Marta. Knock on the wrong door for 5 minutes. Eat Tanis' ice cream, disturb his housemates, then leave.
10.15pm Back at coop. Lily leaves for Ruta Maya first.
11pm Drive to Ruta Maya coffeebar for Oxfam Benefit Jam. My car : me, Elena, Marta, Kyssandra, Mark W. Matt P and Paul Y go in Matt's Z3. Or E3. Whatever it is, it's a cool convertible. Lose Matt at a traffic light = very angry Matt at final destination.
11.20pm Arrive at Ruta Maya. Moderate crowd. Interesting coffeeshop in sort of new looking complex at Penn Field. Bold color murals; interior bland floor, lots of empanadas. See thick wad of flyers advertising Love'In party at our coop tomorrow.
11.30pm Matt and Paul arrive. Matt makes angry throttling actions.
11.45pm Lily meets us. Find big couch in corner and sprawl out on it.

Saturday
12am Band plays
12.40am Leave Maya Ruta.
12.45am Drive to St Edwards to see it at night. Nice view of downtown city lights.
12.50am Face adverse difficulty finding way out of St Edwards campus. Drive around parking lots in circles.
12.55am Back on Congress.
1.01am At 5th Street, see large crowd of people spilling out of a club. At 6th Street, see huge army of cyclists being cheered on by fans.
1.10am Back at Pearl Street. Extremely quiet. People gone home for Easter? People gone out?
1.15am Take a bath and a sleeping pill.
11am Wake up. Thankful to be up later than normal.
11.45am Ask Jermaine where Chett is. Walk to Brownes'. Walk around Judges Mansion neighborhood.
12.30pm Eat "brunch" in the courtyard with people. Nice bright day.
1.15pm Throw out trash.
2pm Wonder what I did in the last hour. Drive to Mozarts, coffee shop on the river. Drink iced chai. Very bright day. Sit in shade of boat dock. Tackle some M427K problems.
3.40pm Wonder what the other guys are studying. Watch police boat pull over some boaters. Listen to the sound of water slapping against hulls.
4.50pm Drive home. Realize 15th Street/Enfield is a very nice main street to drive down because it is residential. Remind myself Austin is much more diverse compared to State College, PA.
5pm See bunch of Artopium people hanging around poolside. Foresee more topless people will show up in due time. Sit around.
5.45pm Chelsey comes over. Drive to pick up Amelia and Gillian. Drive to County Line BBQ on the Hill - take Mopac S, FM2244 past 360 and take a right.
6.30pm Fantastic house, awesome view. Sit on the patio watching the sun go down, good way to wait for a table.
7.15pm Lily arrives, Mitch & Meg soon after.
7.30pm Get our table.
7.40pm Sun sets.
9.15pm Finish BBQ!! Brisket, sausage, ribs, mashed potatoes, beans, etc!!! Drive home, dropping off the gang on the way. Great drive!
9.50pm Arrive at coop. Party much smaller than expected but also much more artsy than expected, lots of paintings, exotic music, massages, flowers, henna, body painting; arrive in time to watch Laura fire-twirl. Move between balcony, rooms, etc; Chett finally comes back from Dallas with him brother who does not look like him; have 6-way backrub train on balcony couches; give back rub to Chett, Summer and Chett's bro's friend Will, etc., empathize immediately with my bro; we have a lot more in common than he knows. Big group of coopers kicks out a guy who hit Elena at the last party; Ferdinand pooled because it's his birthday; Michael (i think) pooled because he gets pooled everytime he smokes.

Sunday
2.30am Decide to call it a night.
2.35am Journal.
3.15am zzz
9.45am Wake up. Wander around. Eat cereal. Say hi to Tim and Laura, who are awake. Put leftover daisies from last night's party in beer bottles.
10.30am Pick up Amelia and Gillian.
11am Easter service at HPBC. Wow! Good times.
12.30pm Lunch at HPBC. Wow! Good food.
1.30pm Drop off Gillian, Amelia and Dan. Nice breeze outside but a tad cold.
2pm Waste time online.
2.30pm Work on M427K problems.
4pm Stuck stuck stuck
5pm Walk around
6pm Dinner. Very bad. Mushy eggplant, carrots, lamb chops, rice. Ian usually is a great cook but somehow uninspired today.
6.30pm More M427K
8pm Give up. Hang out with Rebeca and Elena in computer room.
9.30pm Feel sleepy. Go to bed.
10pm Take sleeping tablet.
10.55pm Highly annoyed to be still awake.

Monday
8.30am Highly annoyed to be very sleepy.
9am GIS Lab. Turn in homework, get new homework, check email.
10am Cycle home. Eat breakfast (veggie burger) with Mark W and Matt P. Sit around. Lie on couch. Sleepy.
.
. class, etc
.
5pm drink a can of pepsi
6pm dinner
7pm work on math, etc in commons with justin elena, matt p, marta
11.30pm call it a night

Tuesday
4am seriously regret drinking that can of pepsi. kenny and travis, the only 2 other coopers up at this time, laugh at my hyper-sensitivity to caffine. i think last night i took the sleeping pill with a can of Sierra Mist, which is supposed to contain NO caffeine!!
6pm Back from work and visiting Brad to give him Mexico photos. Dinner. Dinner clean up.
8pm Finish dinner clean up. Chat with Jermaine.
9.15pm Walk to Tap House with Paul and Philip. Buy bubble tea; go to Tiff's Treats and visit Steven who is working night shift.
10pm Back at coop. Hang around with Sandra, Mike, Jenn F, Philip.
At great risk to myself decide not to do math tonight.

2008-03-01T20:34:00.002-06:00

I am sitting in Lily's bed in her friend's house somewhere in south Austin and am kind of grouchy because of the 3 flights I took today to get from Pennsylvania to Austin. Yes, Pennsylvania, because the nice folk at Penn State flew me up to visit their department, play in the snow and eat hibachi. Want to make the ultimate sell to a pacific islander? Show them that your college town has fantastic asian food. PSU does it right. Life is quantitatively great but qualitatively I don't feel over the moon. I was in Mexico last week on a hydrogeology snorkeling trip and am going to Orlando, Florida next week to participate in an Ocean Science Meeting, which means there's a whole lot of work I'm behind on but.. wth..life is short and this is my last semester anyway. Well, let's hope it's my last semester, considering all the work I'm missing. There's a techno party at the coop tonight that I'm probably going to leave early. I'm kind of sleepy and am gonna go over to the B's.

Lily put some rankings of Austin on her blog. Let me give my 2 cents on some of these rankings.The 2 major assumptions that are involved with rankings selling Austin as a great city to live in are
1. You have lots of money
2. You live west of I-35

Here we go -

How Austin Ranks as Best Place to Live
Rank * List * By

1 Best Big City Places to Live; MSN House & Home
yeah right, BIG
1 Best City for Hispanics (2004); Hispanic
DNA
2 Best Large City for Relocating Families Worldwide; ERC & Primacy Relocation
what? generalization on an international scale!
3 Cool Cities; Kiplinger
Well.. wouldn't you consider anywhere you enjoy living cool?
3 Great Places to Live; Life 2.0
This is another weird statement that ranks up there with the ERC one
4 Fastest Growing Cities; Men's Journal
Now if only our 3 lane highways would multiply asexually at an equally exponential rate.
4 Smartest Cities; Men's Journal
Do I considre myslef smrrt? I suppose so, but if we really were the smartest city we would be building more underground parking garages.
5 (2006) Most Educated Cities; MSN Encarta
ER??
10 Interesting Neighborhoods; Travel-Leisure, America's Favorite Cities
I know one of these! West Campus, home of the autobots. You'll find this area interesting if you like construction and wish to brush up on your civil engineering skills.
11 Best Places for Singles; Forbes
Best Places for Singles to what? Cook pancakes? If this really was the best place for singles to find themselves an s/o, then it wouldn't still be one of the best places for singles, would it?
26 Brainiest Cities; American City Business Journals
Brainiest? 26th??
27 Best Cities for Families; Child.com
Best city for families to hide in their houses. I see squirrels more than I see kids, and I see dead squirrels more often than I see kids playing in playgrounds at night. Then again I live in the interesting neighborhood of West Campus so the deceptacon cranes, cement mixers and trucks must have got them.
27 Best Cities for Seniors; Bankers Life and Casualty
I actually happen to know quite a lot of seniors who seem to really enjoy life here, as well as Westwood Country Club. You can always move into that retirement home on Mopac and 38th street.
28 Large Kid Friendly Cities (2004; grade: B+); Population Connection
True without a doubt, most kids eat more than they need to.
35 Best Places to Live; Men's Journal
This must be because it is one of the best places for singles.

Just Because I Felt Like It

2008-01-21T01:25:00.001-06:00

"Rebecca, you're just jealous of me." - Chett (on the floor)

Not helping.

In case you missed it (you know you did):

Franklin Mountains, El Paso, Texas

More mountains, this time in Colorado.

Breckenridge

Sole Purpose

2007-10-12T16:19:00.000-05:00

This ad makes Austin seem a lot cooler than it already is.

Fall Semester Update

2007-10-04T23:41:00.000-05:00

I'm having a pretty good time. I haven't blogged for a long time. Well, I'm taking the liberty to blog now, because I'm planning to skip tomorrow's 9-10am class. This evening we had minced meat rice in green peppers for dinner. Ashling was head cook and she let me sneak a sample when I got home at around 4pm. It was delicious! We went out to play our first intramural soccer match and we won 5-0. It is a lot easier than practice because the matches consist of 2 20 minute halves, and we substitute for each other often, whereas our usual practice goes non-stop for an hour. Came back, had half a pint of ice cream and cracked down on 60 pages of my GRE book. I actually brought it along to practice and Matt, my Vietnamese pal, said, "Why are you bringing your book around when you're not going to read it?! Typical Asian!" Carlos, who plays on the real UT soccer team, came along to support us and help out with strategy. He was wearing his polo shirt, shorts and cap unlike the rest of us who were wearing red, and he really looked like our coach! It was so funny.

Anyway, school has been keeping me extremely busy. How did I get myself into this? I only need to be taking ONE class this semester! I'm taking 19 credit hours (including one graduate class and writing my geography honors thesis) and working 20! I work as a research assistant in 2 different labs; one is the Scientific Visualization Lab in the comp. sci building, the other is the Quaternary Paleoecology and Biogeography lab in the geography building. Every day when I'm biking to school thinking about the day ahead I remember that it's really a blessing to have all these things on my plate. Hard work pays off; they're sending me to the American Geology Union's Ocean Sciences Meeting next year in Florida.. it's the week before spring break, which means spring break starts early for me! Yay. Unfortunately I think it means I won't be able to slack off next semester. Speaking of meetings, Radha and I went to the Society of Exploration Geophysicists (SEG) Convention down in San Antonio one Monday and partied it up with Halliburton at the Hard Rock Cafe that night. It took me days to recover from all the time I lost that Monday! We are trying to get funding to go to Colorado for the Geological Society of America (GSA)Convention at the end of October. If we can't fly.. Keith and Radha said we're gonna drive.. it's all Jack Sharp's idea.. "We don't have much money left. I hate to tell students this but it's only a 20 hour drive to Colorado." He's the President of the GSA this year... so the Convention is full of hydrogeology sessions.

I turned down my $60,000 job offer because I guess I've decided to go to graduate school. Hey, nobody gave me a definite "yes, take it up!" It's so ridiculous now that everyone is reacting like I'm crazy for giving it up. Granted, I appreciate the fact that I don't have any immediate need to support my parents (although my dad was like, "boo hoo hoo" when I told him). It's not a matter of paying for graduate school at all - not a lot of people know that UT pays full tuition for graduate geology students. I didn't know that till recently, and almost got swindled by recruiters who say their companies will pay for grad school. I'm already getting an entirely free ride this year. I would like to do something that involves paleoclimatology and hydrogeology that can still get me a job in the oil and gas industry. I've sent out some prospective letters to professors at other universities and have gotten some good responses. Thing is, I don't want to go just anywhere.. I turned down that job offer so I had better get into a super grad school! Argh. Mr Browne told me I should think about where I want to be in 5 years. Well, ideally I want to either be a geologist somewhere in the Caribbean or with a particular so-and-so who seems to have lost all interest in me, but since those 2 possibilities seem kind of far flung, I'd like to be in the exploration division of a major oil company OR working on some fantasmic scientific research. There's no point doing research if it's not going to change the world (or at least get you sent to a convention somewhere exotic). We'll see.

I've had 2 interviews so far as part of fall recruiting. I didn't take the Anadarko one too seriously and forgot to send the recruiter a thank you letter! My Hess interview had 2 interviewers, and they were both pretty cool. Blair said hi on my way out and told me I should try for a short internship for after summer field camp and before grad school, which is a pretty good idea IF I can sort out my work visa issues.

I'm glad I'm living in the coop this year. I am very comfortable with most of the people here. Even though I have really big school commitments, my classes are not homework intensive, which is what makes a big difference. My classes last year were very homework intensive - physics, math, field methods - and I would have been badly distracted if I had been living here last year. This year it's good; I've been able to go to parties almost every weekend since school started, and I enjoy being on the soccer team. Even though I'm not good at soccer at all, I get to learn from other people, and it helps me take life a lot less seriously.

This weekend is the OU-UT game, and it's held up at Dallas. The Singaporean group made it to our first football game ever a couple of weekends ago when we played against Rice! I was there with both the SSA folks and geology folks. Well, I have to say that I would probably have been more impressed as a freshie, even though I found the game pretty cool. My Structural Geology class is also going on an optional field trip this weekend to Oklahoma, which ought to be fun, except I already RSVPed to an old friend's wedding invitation. Ana told me I should go for the field trip because it'll "put me on Dr Cloos' radar" but.. heck! As Calvin said back in summer - "Dr Sharp told you to go for hydro field camp but you were like, heck! I'm going to Toronto!" So I'll be heading off to Houston tomorrow night, thankfully in someone else's car so I don't have to drive 3 hours there and back alone. Nathan has kindly swapped labor with me so the Saturday morning brunch crew will be pretty mixed up, since our head cook Gill is going to Dallas for the big game.

My grannie has been trying to call me. Well, that's kind of why I decided to blog. There's really too much to say over the phone. I looked at a couple of photos from Lily's 20 birthday and I have to say I think I may have looked better when I was 19 than how I do now. UH OH. It's time for bed so I can wake up in time for my 11-5 shift at the VisLab! Tata.. I can't even remember who reads my blog anymore. Excuse the bragging, it's all for my grannie!! Oh banana, I hope I'm not getting cocky.

ARGH

2007-08-27T20:12:00.000-05:00

Thank the Lord I have great friends who help me move and unpack and even decorate my room. I feel kinda flustered now that school is starting. My greatest battle has always been with social anxiety, not academics. Please! Somebody! Send me back to the Caribbean!!

Pirates!!!!!

2007-08-26T19:30:00.000-05:00

I'm back from the Caribbean. It was a day's rest after driving back to Austin from Houston, then we jetted off to Curacao. Got back last night at 9.30 after a gruelling 14 hours trip involving too many layovers and missed connections, and immediately hitched a ride from Ana and James to Radha's house warming party.

Photos from my all expenses paid trip courtesy of the Jackson School of Geosciences(hey.. they even paid me extra to go!!!):

School starts on Wednesday.

2007-08-18T17:49:00.001-05:00

urrrrm i just plowed my car into the back of a cute guy's truck.
shhhhheeeet.

A Brief Respite

2007-08-17T17:09:00.000-05:00

So.. for whoever cares to know, I've spent most of summer interning with Schlumberger in Houston. Houston is by far more entertaining than Austin, though most people I meet beg to differ. In any case I drove back to Austin today after Tropical Storm Erin caused the roof of my apartment in Houston to cave in, doing the highway stretch in 2 hours (in my fully loaded 1992 Honda Civic which I decided not to trade in, thank you very much), and am gonna chill out for the rest of today and tomorrow before heading out on Sunday with Dr Wulf to join Dr Mann, Matt and Will (and Hurricane Dean) in Curacao for the week. Then it's back to schooool.. nooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!! Last but not least, my plans to prepare for the GRE over summer failed to materialize.

2007-07-27T14:56:00.000-05:00

urghhh
my coworker took me for a super sushi buffet for lunch
It was $15 and included a sushi buffet, dim sum buffet, salad buffet, main course buffet, dessert buffet, udon/soup/noodle buffet, sashimi buffet. And I didn't pay.
!!!
I think im going to explode
Its so cloudy and drizzly outside too i wish i could go home and sleep, or at least curl up somewhere.. oh.. the 18th floor!!

Summer Storms

2007-07-06T15:06:00.001-05:00

Okay it's 3pm Friday and we are in the office wondering if we are all gonna spend the weekend here cos it is raining up a flood outside. I didn't realize moving to Houston would require me to get myself a pair of rain boots. I hope it stops raining soon cos even though I live down the street I'm contemplating hitching a ride in someone's SUV. It's all dark outside and all. It's been raining this whole summer. I don't really care though because our office is really nice, so it's bright inside even if it's dark outside. We need a boat or a raft or something. Should have brought my air bed to work and a pair of paddles.

Ahh 87F/30C

2007-06-01T15:49:00.000-05:00

Phew! it's really hot today and our apartment's air conditioning unit is broken! So Gail, Lorissa and I are camping out at JP's Java coffee shop, which is 5 minutes from our place. We've never really bothered to hang out here, primarily because I don't drink coffee (but today got an iced latte). Their coffee selection is really lousy though. I guess people come here cos it's near campus. Gah!! I drove to the Brownes today and was glad to see Stormy and Mrs Browne. Their house is so nice, it's like time hasn't changed since I was a freshie. Yeah after my trip I feel like Austin is like the hobbit shire. A nice place, small though. I drove around a lot today cos Lily, Lorissa and I went for lunch at Central Market. Then we drove to some bookshops. Aiyoh it's nice to be on holiday.. I remember last year whenever Lorissa and I ate out on Friday lunchtimes we'd have to rush back cos I would have some class to go for. I changed my car plates today, man it was tough cos they were bolted in, but fortunately Gail and Lorissa stood in the hot sun to sweat it out with me.

In Toronto checking my grade report

2007-05-19T12:39:00.000-05:00

Anhua and her roommmates are so nice, and Toronto is such a lovely city in summer. I love this city! Yesterday I took her bike out for a 3 hour cycle through the city. Yes I got lost around the Overlea/East York area. BUT I found my way back. The number one thing I like is that the walkability and safety of this city is so conducive to being independent here. Granted it's summer; the girls say winter is a bitch.

Goodbye for Summer!

2007-05-15T14:24:00.000-05:00

May the road rise up to meet you.
May the wind be always at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face;
the rains fall soft upon your fields and until we meet again,
may God hold you in the palm of His hand.

Yay

2007-04-26T12:10:00.000-05:00

I think this has been the best semester since my first semester! It's been non stop awesome :) Although at the drop of a hat I can feel extremely bored, I'd I'm extremely pleased with the way this semester has turned out. Surprisingly I've hung out with XYZ the least this semester! I think in an attempt to force myself to develop my own exciting life apart from XYZ I've really succeeded. Working on my Geog honors thesis really got me driving around Austin interviewing people I'd never have talked to otherwise. Looking for an internship also got me off my butt in terms of visiting local hydrogeology firms and talking to the geologists (being bought lunch is a bonus). Geo 420k, my field class, is just great, absolutely shoik, I only wish we could go on more fieldtrips! Working in the Quarternary Paleoecology Laboratory with Dr Wulf and my lab friends has been a good use of my afternoon time. We had our end of semester lab party yesterday and I felt a tinge of sadness that it's over! I've made a whole lot of new friends from that lab as well as Geo and Grg Society activities, and my classes. A big contribution to my enjoyment of this semester has been the friends I get to see in school everyday. At the same time I've been trying to stay in touch with old friends. I've been going downtown a wee bit more since turning 21. Chris, Arlena and Gillian have been inducing me to spend money on food - we've been going out for dinner on Wednesday nights to try different restaurants, mostly downtown. It hurts the wallet but the novelty is great. I'm not going to complain - it's hard to find people who are willing to spend money to eat at more expensive places. We ate at a greek restaurant yesterday - no matter how much I like Austin, I'd rather be eating McDonald's in Greece than eating greek food in Austin! Haha :)

Photos from last weekend's camping trip to Llano and Mason Counties. This is the best spring for wildflowers because it's rained so much. This is the best spring ever!

One last thing - I'm taking 20 credit hours this semester! Haha you need permission to take more than 17 hours. Feels GREAT cos I'm doing pretty well at it (except Dr Kyle's class). No stress at all. Which kinda reiterates my point that the things which actually do strees me are more often than not social situations.

urgh!

2007-04-19T21:02:00.000-05:00

I have not been this busy in at least a year!!! Man... I've been getting up at 6.30am for the past 3 days to attend 7am resume and interview workshops and pulling more than 12 hour schooldays.. like.. not that I stay in school all the time, since I live 3 minutes from school, but, like doing work continuously non stop from 7am to 8pm or later, all because this weekend my geology field trip is an overnighter, meaning Sat & Sun, and Monday I have a Physics exam and Tuesday a geology exam. AHHHHH!!!!!!!!!

Being so busy doesn't stress me out but it does make me very scatterbrained. For instance, I sent my geology resume in for a geography internship app related to transportation studies! -doh!- But.. yeah.. ARGHHH!! And I absent mindedly left my USB Drive in the FAC computer lab and it's gone!! This is the 3rd time I've forgotten to take it home (1st was in the geo lab where Blair found it and told me, 2nd was in the chem lab where the manager emailed me) so I guess I deserve it but ARGH all my information is on it, and all my photos!! I hope nobody blackmails me!

I'm not sure if I've mentioned it before but this is probably the peak of my college life. I have so much coming and a lot that I've already done and am getting appreciation for (sort of). So my conclusion is that the end of junior year is probably the best part of college. Besides all this business! Watch me change my mind..

2007-04-16T19:12:00.000-05:00

If it was in your ability to achieve something great, but no one would ever know about it, would you still do it?

I think in this question lies the answer to differing ideas about self-fulfilment.

(Yes, that's an accepted spelling of fulfillment. It's one of those words that if you look at too long seems funny.)

UT Tower Flash Mob (not my video)

2007-04-07T16:32:00.000-05:00

Talk about getting too comfy in school. It's the weekend (Saturday to be precise) and Costas and I were having lunch at Marco Polo after dropping my car off at the autoshop. Who should tap me on the shoulder to say hi but Patricia!!! AHHH!!!! Well I was quite happy she came over to say hi :) She had gone to check out the REI camping gear sale earlier, but a lot of early birds / kiasu people had already gotten all the bargains. Guess who else was at Marco Polo? Andre's sister and her boyfriend! I saw her boyfriend first, wearing his trademark beanie.. then I looked around and saw her. She was on the phone though so I didn't go say hi.. If you go to the Asian hot spots you're bound to meet people you know. Yeah. Last time I bumped into Pat off campus was at Madam Mam's Thai noodles. Ha ha.

The temperature dropped 40 degrees overnight.. it's 37F/2C out, and rainy and sleeting!! We were standing in the parking lot and our breath was condensing. Unbelievable. Happy Easter all! Easter is good, a lot of people gave me chocolate on Thursday. Friday is a floating holiday for most people (ie we just skip classes even if they're not cancelled). Lorissa and I had lunch at Veggie Heaven because Friday is no-meat day for Catholics, and boy was it packed! They mixed our orders up so I ended up with 2 milk teas and had to call the calvary (ie Camay) to help finish them.

Oh dear. The 3 classes I really should take in Fall clash!

Edit: Just came back from eating dinner at Sao Paulo's with Gills, Chris & Arlena. We shared a big tres leches cake for dessert. This is really freaky weather - it started raining ice pellets when we stepped out! Good thing I live around the corner. Why is it pelleting in the middle of April?! Just last Sunday I was canoeing on town lake with Andrea and Gills using full force spf 60 sunscreen!

More thinking

2007-04-05T23:46:00.000-05:00

Heh I was really bored on Tuesday night. Shoulda gone to the Seay's with Katherine. Wednesday was Anna's PGST presentation. Lots of people in her batch whom I know showed up. James told me I should go see Dr Carlson. For QP lab, Dr Wulf took us to chat with Dr Gardner about preparing tephra microscope slides. Kala appeared out of the blue in front of the library - yeah old roomie!! Around the corner I found Ashley rushing to finish the 420k lab, and on the 5th floor we bumped into Corinne. Later I took Whitney to talk to Dr Sharp, who is w/o a doubt my favorite Prof (don't tell Dr Doherty that! he'll give me a B instead of an A for my thesis!). She's thinking of switching to hydro and Sharp was really cool even though I banged on his door and demanded an audience. The guy is like the grandpop of hydrogeology. That evening, Chris' dad was in town and cooked a huge dinner for us Singaporeans.

This morning I woke up and one of the tires on my car is flat! Costas is going to put the spare on for me tomorrow. Kim and I just watched 9pm screening of The Pursuit of Happyness at the Texas Union. I saw Yezhi there, she brought her whole wing down to watch it! The theatre was packed!! Going to school nowadays is very awkward. I keep seeing people I know all the time. That's a good thing! But it gets weird. "Hey so-and-so! This is the 3rd time I'm bumping into you today! Man, you are having a really bad day!!" I feel uncomfortable getting comfortable with people whom I've known only distantly for a long time. But they're all good folks, which is the important thing, and I guess I have a responsibility to keep the good faith and trust.

As we walked out of the theatre I decided that this is a good point of college to be in. The second half, or near end, of junior year. Simply because there is still much in the coming year to look forward to, my social network is extensive and pretty comfortable, and I've already accomplished so much. Haha!! Not like the start of junior year, when I had no direction, nothing much to be proud of, and felt like I had been in school for so long already and still had so long more to go! Quite a change.

2007-03-28T11:52:00.000-06:00

i am in school n having a tummyache
ow :(

Dr D : So, what are you going to do after you graduate?
Me : I dunno.
...
Dr D: Well, you've done splendidly, in any case.

Splendidly is an adjective. Success is a noun.
The journey is more important than the end.

oww owww

Traaaalalala

2007-03-15T16:54:00.000-06:00

I have found the most beautiful spot in central Austin.
It is on the bench next to the ridgelea neighborhood swift chimney beneath the great oak tree along Shoal Creek, near the intersection of Jefferson Street and Pete's Path. From that bench in the springtime you can make out, through the fresh green buds of the trees lining Shoal Creek, the river itself running around the bend, and hear from all sides birdsong accompanying windchimes in the oak further down the gravel path. Smaller trees bursting in pink blossoms adorn the creekside and on the other bank, lush leaves shield honey colored homes on the hill from the afternoon sun.
When I think of central Austin, I think of downtown, north lamar, guadalupe and burnet. It is simply unimaginable to me that such a place as the one I found today could exist, after years of being used to only the flat urban landscape of north central Austin.
Barton Springs, of course, could tie with it. But not much else in central austin. I'd go as far as to say that Barton Springs is in South Austin.

----

I think my life is probably better than what I think it is.
I always think I have a pretty loserly life, which is why I try so hard to make it more interesting.
But maybe I just need to change my viewpoint. It's hard to change your viewpoint when I don't see how I can do that. I suppose I have a set idea of a good life involving popularity and outings, the kind of which I never really found in the past. In any case, here's a quote from a book we're reading in history. It's Jane Addam's account of industrializing Chicago. Page 37-

"We were also early impressed with the curious isolation of many of the immigrants; an Italian woman... said that she had lived in Chicago for six years and had never seen any roses, whereas in Italy she had seen them every summer in great profusion. During all that time, of course, the woman had lived within ten blocks of a florist's window; she had not been more than a five-cent car ride away from the public parks; but she had never dreamed of faring forth for herself, and no one had taken her. Her conception of America had been the untidy street in which she lived..."

Increasingly I ask myself how different things would have been for me had I just been able to experience this or that earlier in my life, and if it would have filled in the various gaps.

----

Spot me! It says graduation but it's just honors day. That's last year's photo.
http://www.jsg.utexas.edu/graduation/honorsday2007.html

This ain't your momma's business school

2007-03-09T23:07:00.000-06:00

So.. it's been a while

I've been really busy

These are my classmates

This is our classroom

This is our backyard

Ain't no better life

You know, SPRING BREAK is here!! This morning I overslept my physics class, and it was the first morning in a while that I've woken up WITHOUT having to start doing work immediately! I think 20 hours keeps me pretty busy but I'm really enjoying this semester more than last semester, probably because I feel more productive. Actually I didn't realise how much I've been enjoying it until I put up those photos. Although I might have to change my Geo 341 class to pass/fail because Dr Kyle says the whole class failed the mid-term.

2007-03-06T12:42:00.000-06:00

So.. for the past few days the tap water has been giving off a weird smell, and last night in the shower I noticed it too. Today someone finally brought it up on Lj and here's what someone posted:

For immediate release:
March 2, 2007

Some Austin Water Utility (AWU) customers may notice an unusual taste or odor in their tap water as the result of odor-causing algae growth in Lake Austin and Town Lake.

The algae growth is likely due to recent warm weather and low flow through the lakes. AWU officials emphasize that any unusual taste or odor in the City’s tap water is harmless to consumers and that the water is safe to drink.

AWU is using powdered activated carbon to neutralize taste or odors as much as possible. The Utility is monitoring and testing the water throughout the treatment and delivery system, including monitoring levels of the odor-causing algae. Austin’s tap water continues to meet all regulatory standards, and AWU officials stress that the Austin Water Utility water is safe to drink despite taste or odor fluctuations.

Contact:
Laurie Lentz, Austin Water Utility, (512) 972-0151

2007-02-26T17:38:00.000-06:00

"Also hiring Research Assistants for summer...
Requirements: Must have rabies pre-exposure vaccine and recent titer check, and willingness to work alone at night where encounters with venomous animals and large carnivores are possible."

The death of the cafetaria craze

2007-02-15T20:01:00.000-06:00

MMMM Hello my dear FAN CLUB
Well blogging on this public blog has just lost its novelty for me. But I just had to write this down -
Today Camay, Chelsey, Lily, Mitch, Raphael and I had dinner at J2. Man, at first I didn't even feel like going. The novelty/magic of the dorm cafetarias has FINALLY, after 2.5 years, WORN OFF!! Eeks! Last year I remember I loved eating at J2 or Kinsolving with my friends who stayed on campus. Now??

It was freezing freezing freezing today. I've never been so cold. Or have I? I'm sure I've never, because when you're biking through campus you're exposing yourself to a much greater wind chill than everyone else. Anyway, been filling in the new scholarship applications. For the last 2 years I've been recycling my essays, but this year I could actually have written some new, insightful stuff. Just shows how much the last year has changed my opinions and perceptions. But.. too lazy so I just did the good old cut & paste!

It was freezing yesterday too but I had a yummy dinner :) Miso soup, a korean beef bowl and 2 sushi sets! and strawberry ice cream and toilet paper with hearts on it.

URGH!!!

2007-02-10T10:10:00.000-06:00

I need to stop doing this.
I am such a klutz.
Been showing up to the wrong classes (showed up an hour early for a Advance Calculus for Applications class I wanted to audit; it turned out to be Intro to Algebra), driving on the wrong side of the road (saw the huge empty road in front of me with the concrete divider and thought – safety first! So let me make sure the road completely is clear before making a right turn across the closer lanes) .. even failed to recognize one of my friends I sat next to in class (who then accused me jokingly of acting cool)

and last night.. it takes the cake…

Showed up a week early for a party.

“Hey becks! What are you doing here?”

a quickie

2007-02-07T17:46:00.000-06:00

howdy! I just realised I get out of school AT 5PM EVERY SINGLE DAY!!

although.. that doesn't really mean anything because I have a big snorting gap around lunchtime. Some days I eat lunch with friends, some days I go home to chill, and once in a while, I drive around Austin and interview people for my senior thesis. But usually my Mondays to Wednesday are packed.

This is the busiest semester I'm ever going to have at UT, and I know it.

Fireworks!

2007-01-24T22:02:00.000-06:00

Edited version of article by Scott Ott
(2007-01-19) — The Chinese ambassador to the United States today apologized for what he called “a roman candle gone awry”... The Chinese, famous for their fireworks, were apparently testing a new type of roman candle destined for American store shelves in time for Independence Day 2007. The new firework hit an orbiting Chinese weather satellite. “We wanted something spectacular so the Americans could celebrate their democracy,” the statement said. “It turns out that the prototype had a range of some 537 vertical miles, and was inadvertently mounted with a kill vehicle that took out one of our aging satellites with astonishing precision.” China immediately promised that the U.S. will “never see such a mistake again.”

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAA!!! Don't make me laugh.

Ruimin's post

2007-01-22T15:21:00.000-06:00

Ruimin posted this on her blog. She's in her second semester at Columbia.

okay. now i'm getting the really vague down feeling again... it's funny. after i mention places i've visited recently or things i've done over the past week i always feel like i'm obliged to post photos and elaborate, or just somehow prove that i'm happy and that being here in new york is the best thing ever and that i'm living, i mean, livin' it up like i'm supposed to. i was talking about it with a last weekend and together we even made a list of the purported cool stuff i've done in my first semester here. i guess it's funny. it's a really vague sort of feeling, like i said at the start of the paragraph, but one that exists nonetheless. he says it's because i'm subconsciously trying to deal with having left singapore. i think it's because i'm always trying to second-guess myself. but how does that work? showing people my awesomely happening life = justifying my own choice and its consequences?? really wonky equation, i don't know, instinctively it feels like there's some truth to the statement though.

I think she's not alone.

Anyway, emails from friends - dropped back down to the 30sF today.

Dear Rebecca,
I'm back. I think it was warmer in Russia than it was here. Talk to you soon.
Paula

Hi Rebecca,
yes it's cold right now, but you won't believe it: it's warmer in Germany!
Sabine

Blog blog blog

2007-01-21T19:42:00.000-06:00

I feel powerful again.

Today I woke up, noticed it was brighter than usual and looked outside to see the first sunny day since I got here! Woohoo. Not a cloud in sight. It was 36F, still under 10C, but the sunshine made it feel great, just like the weather we had in the fall of 05 when I really enjoyed lazing on the grass listening to good music. I did my laundry, drove to church, had lunch (we had two visiting girls, one of whom is the girl I sat with on the bus back to school from Dallas with all the way back in my freshie spring!), drove to Ana's house to get physics stuff from her, decided to go to the park since it was great outside, went to get Gail, drove to Zilker Park, walked a lot, waved to all the small kids on the Zilker Zephyr park train, saw swans, taunted canoeists, sat on a big green bench, avoided mad cyclists and joggers - everyone was out enjoying the weather! We met James & Lucy on the trail, and a couple of geology girls! - had a good time, then I dropped them off and went to the coop to get a physics lab notebook. Parked on the 3rd floor of the coop garage, went in, bumped into Magan, got introduced to her husband, got my notebook, contemplated calling 'my friend', didn't, came home around 5. Made dinner, watched Deal or No Deal.. Yep.. One thing that surprised me was how green Hancock golf course is! I have to drive past it to get to Ana's, and unlike last year the grass was green! Last spring.. it looked like cowpat.. It must be because we had a wet fall this time round.

Well.. actually I felt really good when I parked my car at church. I think one of the things I really could not stand about being back in Singapore was not being able to do anything myself. And.. yeah I was happy to be back at church! :) Because I had waited for my laundry to dry, I was late, and couldn't sit with my friends, so I sat by myself right up front overlooking the choir and orchestra and pastor and all, and it felt just fine and dandy. No matter where you sit or who you sit with, it doesn't matter. By yourself doesn't mean alone, and it felt really good to hear the choir on my right and see the congregation standing with them on my left. Made me wonder how you'd see things from up there.

See, even though I've been to Town Lake & Zilker Park $%#$^#$^!$ times, it was good going with friends.

Town Lake Hike & Bike Trail 2pm

Gail and Ana. Note we are wearing T-SHIRTS. (Okay, you can't really tell). 62F weather. This morning it was 36F.

If I was less experienced and more naive, I'd say the whole town had shown up at Town Lake to enjoy the sunshine(10 different people every 5 seconds), but having experienced Zilker Trail of Lights - NOT!!

Lamar Bridge

Pedestrian Bridge. Red building in background is Whole Foods.

View from the shore

Friday night : Amir, one of the Malaysian geology students, bought me dinner and showed me around the spanking new Almetris Duren Hall. It was drizzly but he was nice and walked me to my car. Then it was off to Kim's surprise birthday party. I went with Jerry and met a couple of new Singaporean students. It was good to see everyone again. Chris wants to go to California for spring break. Uhr.. yeah let's see if this materializes. Saturday morning I had Macs for breakfast. Love it. Stayed in cos it was overcast and drizzly. Will Tran came over so life was a bit chirpier. At night, I went for dinner with Ryan, Calvin and Caleb at this Korean Mart restaurant. It was cool - a homely section of the grocery, just like the McNeil Asian Mart and food corner. I was quite tired so I got them to send me home instead of going with them to Unc Jon's place. See.. I like having a car, but I also like having people to drive me around.

Winter Storm Day 2

2007-01-17T21:52:00.000-06:00

Just got home from an extended shopping trip. School was cancelled today so I spent my morning deicing my car. Good lord.. it was a veritable ice block, with the ice layers reaching 1.5 cm to 2 cm on the hood! Chris smsed me and told me to get my ass over to Kim's cos the SSA bunch were having happy time there, but I decided to keep working on my car.

In the late afternoon Shaun came over and helped me with the windscreen, then he, Lily, David and I went to Costco, HEB and CompUSA to get much needed supplies. The highway there was a dirty sight of slushy ice, sand and salt, and it seemed like we were travelling through some wintery land, with the trees mere sticklike shadows tinted with ice, and the sky above a slate grey without warmth. Although in previous years I have hated winter bitterly, this time round I actually felt excited looking at the harsh landscape, because, hey, rather than some half-baked shitty winter, why not have extreme weather? Live a little..

At HEB, some racks - especially staples - were empty, a sight I haven't seen since Hurricane Rita threatened us more than a year ago. This time it wasn't overdemand, but undersupply - I presume the supply trucks were unable to make it all the way to Austin in the ice storm. The guys helped us bring up our stuff then we dropped them off and drove home. Although it's the first time I'm driving my car this year, my first drive was back in LA, where dad's friend let me drive his armoured jeep around and about the morning of my flight, and I drove myself to the airport.

Hmm. The thought of Geo 420K reminds me of how I should have taken this class last year. BUT I know some of the people in my section and ought to be looking forward to some fun. Sigh. Overdue..

2007-01-16T10:47:00.000-06:00

IT'S SNOWING!!!!!!

edit .. 4.50pm .. Lily and I just came back from an hour and a half's worth of walking around in the freeze! 30F/-1C and ice pellets on the way home. We walked down 30th to Toy Joy, then to Taos and the coop, then back through school. I enjoyed it initially - I remember I hate winter, but today was fun, I don't know why.. I guess I hate winter when I'm in a car looking out at it, or when it impedes my progress towards class, but when there's nothing else to do and you're walking around in it, wrapped up well, it's fun! Of course I was wearing my parka.. haha.. so not cold at all.. Walking through campus got boring. there were few people around and there was snow on the ground so the place looked devastated. surprisingly, Madam Mam's, Kerbey Lane, Moe's and some other joints were open! Guess the dorm/west campus kids are bored too, especially since we stayed in yesterday as well.

School is closed Wednesday too!! WhooHooo!!

first day of school

2007-01-16T06:07:00.000-06:00

Yay first day of school is cancelled! Not that I wasn't looking forward to school, but I wouldn't want to be outside now. Granted we're wussies compared to the northern folks.

Nowcast as of 5:08 am CST on January 16, 2007
Winter Storm Warning in effect until 12 PM CST Wednesday... Cold and breezy with occasional light freezing rain mixed with sleet through 800 am. Precipitation amounts near to less than a tenth of an inch. Temperatures in the mid 20s to near 30...with the wind chill index 15 to 20. North winds 15 to 25 mph. One quarter to one half inch ice accumulations is expected.

Shawn Comments on my Boredom

2007-01-11T09:01:00.000-06:00

This is what my good friend Shawn says -

"Becks, your previous 10 posts on your blog have the word bored and its derivatives in them.. maybe theres a more deeper problem."

Me : $#^@#$!!

Shawn : no no your boring thing.. you have become desensitized. you need to lead the hermit life for a while. you know...stop going out stay indoors and study or something.

My first reaction was I felt like killing him. But I think he makes a lot of sense.

urgh

2007-01-09T23:29:00.000-06:00

This is the lousiest vacation ever.
Absolutely boring/pointless and my grandfather died yesterday. Not the one I live with, the other one.
!!
Life sucks.

Turn

2006-12-31T19:21:00.000-06:00

My posts have turned into a redundant repetition of "Been There, Done That."
While I have had a good many adventures this semester which I have scribbled in my more reliable offline journal - due to the high risk factor involved in having a mac with a semifunctional power connection port - the sense of accomplishment in doing new things and seeing new places is rapidly diminishing with each encounter outside the ordinary I take.

Happy new year.

2006-12-06T12:26:00.000-06:00

I'm in the library eating Camay's food AGAIN
We are pretty bored

A boring Monday afternoon

2006-12-04T16:17:00.000-06:00

Okay.. so .. i AM BORED once again
this time it is because my core lab has been cancelled for the rest of semester since it's the last week of class
i recall the very reason why i started working there was because i was bored earlier on this semester

(author's note : this post was interrupted to go poop)

i poop a lot nowadays
must be too bored

here's a photo from Lily and Joy's 21st birthday party on Saturday night. Actually it should also have been Allison's, but she came late. I didn't even know she was coming.

I was supposed to study this past weekend but didn't do anything. Basically on Friday night the girls had a KFC party cum bitchfest about Lily's boyfriend.. then Saturday was the birthdays and Sunday after church Gillian and I went to Paula's house down by William Cannon for lunch.. it was a really nice house. Surprise surprise, who's driving who to where now, eh, Paula? Anyway I do acknowledge that we really should not be bitching about Mr T behind his back... which is why I specifically termed it a bitchfest to include the negative connation. Sorry Mr T, we'll keep it down from now on, hopefully. Lily and I went to visit Mr and Mrs Browne - they've put up a Christmas tree and rainbow lights on their front porch. All pets were present - Stormy, Moonbeam and the grey cat with no name! Their neighbors' 3 little boys were busy helping their dad rake all the fallen, crispy brown leaves into big black trash bags. The squat little kids, tightly bundled up in puffy windbreakers, cut cute figures as they tottered around in the fading light dragging the bags, which were as big as they were, from the lawn to the garage.

If things work out right this weekend will be another party weekend.. S/MSA Christmas Party and a couple of graduation parties.. oh, not forgetting that today in sex class we had a sex toy party!! But since it's Texas, it should officially be considered a "Personal Massage Therapy Workshop" because sex toy are illegal. I invited Lily along for fun and she probably found it more amusing than I did. The final exam for that class is on Wednesday. But I dare say.. I'm probably going to ace it. Hopefully I can get my act together for the geology lab final on Thursday, and our Groundwater Hydro final on Friday (I'm calling the 3rd exam a final because I know I'm not going to need to take the final to get an A - yes, a very daring thing to say but hopefully I'll be justified.)

But I would really rather just have some one on one time with aCorn than go for so many parties. I feel like there is nothing much between us anymore.

2006-11-29T20:23:00.000-06:00

almost fell asleep doing calc homework. immediately went to the ESPRIT website.

partial derivatives involving multiple variables is the most BORING thing i have done in a while!!!!!

Imagine, if you have an equation with 5 variables, and have to differentiate each variable with respect to two other variables, and have to multiply each differentiated variable with two other differentiated variables, and have to do twenty such problems, how many times do I have to differentiate tonight, huh?!!?! I don't even think I'm describing that correctly. Well instead of wasting time I should be differentiating!!

!!?!??!?!!??

2006-11-28T18:29:00.000-06:00

This must be
the most boring semester ever!

It's also, oddly, the semester I've skipped the most classes, taken classes for fun that don't count towards my degrees, and done the most entertaining stuff on weekends!

I can't believe it! These guys have made a video about how I feel my life is!!

Thanksgiving Starts!

2006-11-22T13:06:00.000-06:00

Yep.
Never thought it would happen but today I woke up 10 minutes before my calculus exam! Fortunately I live 2 minutes from school.

Hooray! I'm in a holiday mood! This semester has been really good I think. I feel bored but that's because my classes aren't stressful.. so that's a good thing. And I don't have any classes I don't like this semester. So yeah, that's good.

Woohoo! Going to Houston this afternoon. :P

Still have some centuries-old mud under my nails as a result of helping out in the core lab yesterday.

2006-11-14T12:31:00.000-06:00

I'm really bored.

if you're reading, click here .

2006-11-09T15:30:00.000-06:00

In the FAC computer lab.
Was doing very well until Camay appeared and offered me cookies and sushi she made.
DANG

Photolog

2006-10-29T22:43:00.000-06:00

Fall = Pumpkins

Wheat Maze

Fall = BBQ

I LOVE TX BBQ

BBQ is the s**T!

Jan & Bob in town for BBQ

Fall = Austin Cave Fest

Fall = Halloween

He was drunk long before I took this photo

2006-10-23T20:16:00.000-05:00

Wednesday is the deadline to change a class to pass/fail instead of letter grade.
Now I'm taking 2 bullshit classes that I don't need.
If I get any B's they are going to pull down my GPA.
So should I change them to pass/fail? Just to avoid pulling down my GPA? Cos I might get a B in one of them - the other should be an A.

This seems quite ridiculous. What is the point of your GPA? To get you into Grad School, or perhaps help in scholarship apps or an entry level job. Why are bullshit classes even given grades?

SO, my no-B/S opinion is that I should take them for the grades, even if it means getting Bs and pulling down my GPA because to take them pass/fail would be fluffing out.

BUT it seems, in the pragmatic sense, that these classes are really just quite useless and I don't need them for my major, so I should take them pass/fail. But if I'm going to just take them pass/fail then I won't really take them as seriously as I do now (not that Lying and Deception and Human Sexuality can be taken very seriously).

But COME ON!!! HOW RIDICULOUS CAN I GET?!! !! Thinking about this when I have HYDRO and MULTIV CALC exams on Wednesday!!!!

2006-10-17T13:35:00.000-05:00

School is so boring!!!!!!!!!!!!
I want to kill something!!!!!!!
Or dissect!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I just found out to my shock and horror that I have an exam tomorrow.

WHHHYY?!!

Hopefully the weather is good this weekend, cos I am planning a trip with the girls (well, no particular reference this time round) to Sweetberry Farm..

Halloween has snuck up on me again! Extra credit next Tuesday if you dress up for geology lab!!

Higher Education

2006-10-16T12:43:00.000-05:00

I think this is a really interesting article.. just happened to stumble across it.

The Chronicle of Higher Education
Personal experiences on the job market
Tuesday, September 28, 2004

Ditch the Boyfriend
By Elizabeth Fleer

"Rule number one: Don't talk to the media," a senior faculty member told me as I prepared to attend a meeting of science journalists last spring. As the date for defending my dissertation fast approached, he and other faculty members at my institution were concerned that I hadn't landed a job and were showing an increased interest in helping me out with the rest of my life, too.

"Any other words of wisdom?" I asked with a smile, since he knew full well that I tell my story of water resources and climate change in California to anyone who will listen.

"Rule number two: Don't teach. Rule number three: Don't fall in love."

"And what about children?" At this point, I was egging him on.

"Definitely not! As a female scientist with the potential to do real research, you cannot have children. My wife stayed home with my children, but you can't afford to do that. You need to focus all your energy on publishing peer-reviewed papers."

He was serious. I've been hearing such words of wisdom for the past six years as a young woman studying in the male-dominated fields of meteorology, hydrology, and physical oceanography. While the proportion of female professors in physics departments has been increasing, that's not the case in meteorology, where women account for only about 10 percent of the faculty.

Articles in Eos, the weekly newspaper of the American Geophysical Union, have called on professors in the field to encourage promising female students to pursue research and tenure-track positions. The male faculty members in my department have taken that advice to heart. But as I consider my future career, their advice makes me question who I am and what I truly value.

I talk to the media. I teach. I'm in love with a fellow student who just completed his Ph.D., and is also on the job market. And someday, I want children.

But I have a bad track record. I've already put my career before my personal life. After only a year in graduate school, I became a runaway bride. My fiancé got his bachelor's degree a year after me, and our troubles began when he wasn't accepted into my graduate program.

When I queried the admissions committee about his lack of acceptance, I was told to "ditch the boyfriend."

"If you think the two-body problem is bad getting into graduate school, think of how bad it will be when you both want jobs," a committee member told me.

At first I rebelled against that career-first attitude and made plans to switch programs to a university that would accept both of us. But none of my coursework would transfer, and my first year of work would have been a loss. Initially, that seemed inconsequential in the name of love.

In the end, I couldn't do it. The strain was too much for our relationship, and with only three months before the already-paid-for wedding, I returned my engagement ring and stayed put, managing to secure a position on a research cruise around Hawaii for the entire month when my wedding was supposed to take place.

I can't say that I regret the decision. I've thoroughly enjoyed my time as a graduate student. In addition to several research cruises and a part-time job teaching oceanography at a local community college, I've managed to develop a research project that allows me to spend my summers living in the high country of Yosemite National Park, hiking and wading in snow-fed streams.

On the personal front, I have a number of good friends and a boyfriend whom I adore. It's hard to imagine that life could get much better. But nothing lasts forever and this past year, I haven't been sleeping so well.

Ultimately I would like a job that combines both teaching and research. So last December I started applying for both postdoctoral and tenure-track positions. Because of the nature of my research, I focused on universities in the mountainous areas of the West.

By March I had four rejections, and my boyfriend had two job offers: both on the East Coast. He was quite distraught over deciding which to accept, and I was unable to generate any sympathy. Somehow the situation seemed oddly justified considering my last career-vs.-relationship dilemma: Now I was the one who wasn't wanted.

I begged my two advisers for help, asking, "Don't you know anyone on the East Coast whom I could work with?" They both specialize in Western water resources, and after a brief query about why I would possibly want to go to the East Coast, one replied, "We can find you a new boyfriend a lot easier than we can find you a job on the East Coast." That was not what I wanted to hear.

While my hours of restful sleep dwindled, I applied to every job opening I could find, and as the rejections accumulated, I started to hate the question, "What are you doing after you defend your thesis?"

Finally in May I got a call from a small liberal-arts college in Southern California. After an all-day interview, the college decided I was perfect for a tenure-track position in its environmental-science department. I could teach oceanography, hydrology, climate change, and meteorology and would be able to take students on field trips to Yosemite.

It was nice to feel wanted, but in my department, my job offer was not seen as an accomplishment.

From my advisers: "You're not going to accept it, are you? Teaching will suck you dry. You'll never do real research again."

From my boyfriend: "You can do whatever you want, but I don't want to teach, and I don't want to live near Los Angeles."

I deliberated, and I cried a bit. In the meantime my advisers started calling their colleagues, trying to scrounge up a research position that would save me from the "dark side" -- teaching.

In June, on the day of my defense, I got a call from a university in the West, offering me a two-year research position. After a visit there, I decided to accept. Colorado is a bit closer to the East Coast than California, and I have two years to continue searching for a permanent position. I still want to do both teaching and research, and I want a family, too.

Am I dreaming too big? Will my boyfriend and I manage to find permanent positions in the same town? Or will the strain be too much for our relationship?

Should I have listened more closely to the words of wisdom that say, "Don't talk to the media, don't teach, and definitely don't fall in love"?

http://chronicle.com/jobs/2004/09/2004092801c.htm
Elizabeth Fleer is the pseudonym of a Ph.D. in oceanography. She will chronicle her search for a tenure-track job this academic year.

2006-10-14T19:14:00.000-05:00

You know you live too close to campus when

-on a school day you wake up at 8.15am, brush your teeth, have a bowl of cereal, check your email, change and make it into your 8.30 tutorial on time
-you start skipping your 8.30 tutorial because you wake up later and later since you live so close to campus
-walking back from the minimart someone on Saturday afternoon one of your classmates from last year screams hello at you as he walks into the pub next door (yes I live across the street from one of the more well known campus area pubs..)
-you can hear the crowd and the entire commentary of the UT vs Baylor game even though the stadium is out of sight and at least a 15 minute walk away. Oh btw McCoy to Number 16 TOUCHDOWN! Oleh!

I am so lazy
Today
The sky was overcast the whole day.. it's like winter..
I wanted to go to sweetberry farm this weekend but the weather did not cooperate

Hydrogeology

2006-10-10T11:34:00.000-05:00

Woah I looked at that and thought it was very hard.. but actually.. after some serious studying I figured it out and it's quite easy.

2006-10-04T18:08:00.000-05:00

2006-09-26T15:19:00.000-05:00

It's already a month into school and I am still getting this. So I run into Mike in the geo building.

Mike : Hey, how come you aren't in any of my classes?
Me : I'm taking Sed Rocks
Mike : What? Hahahaha!!!
Me : Don't laugh at me! You're the 10th or so person who's asked!!

And then I walk out and Prof Sharp comes up to me at the bike rack and says, "Hey, you did okay on the exam!"
Which means.. average?!?! :(

Photos

2006-09-22T16:37:00.000-05:00

So.. since my photo machine is back..
here are some shots..

My new room (well, my half of it)

Rotimi ironing my clothes. Gail folding them.

Our new roommate Gail. She's from Dubai. That's from lunch at Momoko's (well, technically, Sushi Nichi.. but Momoko's sounds more fun).

New bunch of Singaporeans. Not that Jerry's new.. that's from the SSA dinner at Mandarin House way up north on Lamar

Chelsey and Camay's new apartment down south in Riverside (Campus Estates).. They live with Jing. She has a pet snake.

Item #1

Item #2

Spiderhouse. Down the street. Much more accessible now with car.

ooh!!

I love Friday

2006-09-22T14:49:00.000-05:00

To explain my erratic posts - I have not had my laptop since school started. It's either been in the repair shop or with some friend who offered to take a look at it. I think it's working now, and I just got it back today, but I've gotten used to not really having a computer to use at home. Gail has her laptop but her keyboard is broken, and using a click and type interface is not very exciting.

In the geo lab. Waiting for a 13-page paper on Sulfide Deposits from the East Pacific Rise near 21 degrees N to print. I'm hungry. I had a big lunch (curry chicken rice) with Lorissa at Coco's but I'm always hungry. Last night was Oxjam at the Wheatsville Coop parking lot.. Camay and I had dinner at Zen's, a Japanese joint that gives students 30% off on third Thursdays each month. I had a rice bowl with beef and veggies. The last 2 times I've eaten at Zen's I wasn't able to finish and made Costas and Jonathan eat my leftovers, but last night I was really hungry I finished the whole bowl. Yum yum. I saw Keiv at Wheatsville; his mum and brother are in town! He was taking them for dinner at Zen. Emily and Claire were there too, apparently the Oxfam-UT vice prez, Anna, lives at Pearl St Coop! I also found out that Kaci lives a street behind us - I've passed her twice biking to school already.

Ok now I have to wait for Seabed Minerals and the Law of the Sea to print. This hydro class is quite complicated. It's all math but involves writing a big research paper as well. Hmm. We had our first exam today. aha, I remembered that the units for intrinsic permeability are [L^2].

There's an SSA bbq tomorrow but Camay and I already decided to go for the TiSA bbq. I am going to be called an unloyal traitor! Haha. If it rains it'll rain on both bqqs.. AND the football game against Iowa State..

2006-09-20T17:26:00.000-05:00

kevin k., if u r reading this u better tell me how u found my blog
haha

2006-09-14T13:54:00.000-05:00

ahahhahah siao liao
facebook is going to ruin my life

2006-09-11T18:36:00.000-05:00

i hate school

UT vs OS

2006-09-09T19:41:00.000-05:00

Today is a bigger day than New Year's, Independence Day or Christmas or Thanksgiving!!

It's the Ohio State vs UT game!!!!!!
The Nation's #1 vs #2!!!
Bleed Orange!!!

40,000 Ohio State supporters are in town for the game...

I had to wake up at 7am because I had an 8am hydrology field trip! School was dead but by the time we got back at 2pm, cars were parked everywhere back to back, tents were up and the smell of BBQ filled the air... throngs of people packed Guadalupe St, with Longhorns in orange and Buckeyes in red, and traffic was as heavy as the mid-weekday lunch traffic...

Onion Creek sinkhole

Prof Sharp very excited

State of the Coop when we got back

The Stadium

The atmosphere is electrifying
This is the game of the year! If not, the decade!

2006-09-05T20:24:00.000-05:00

Let's think about it.
I told Lily that maybe I feel unsatisfied because I don't "have it all".
Maybe having a car has led me to wonder just what else I'm missing out on.
I want enjoy life. Not persuade myself that I'm enjoying life by listing all the events and activities I go to and trying to boost that number. Maybe I felt starved of human contact in the past - even though I had group/organization meetings 2 to 3 days a week (dinner included!), perhaps those people just weren't like me. It's like being thirsty and surrounded by seawater.

Or maybe I feel unhappy because I wasn't this happy last year.
Because I am happy about the way things are going this semester. And I had a great summer and like our new place. Maybe I feel I should have been happy like this last year and in that sense I've wasted a year I could have been happier.

I think I've just been seriously bored. For a year and some now. I think I got bored the 2nd semester of freshman year.

We can't live in the past, no matter how bad it was. (Or have seemed to be). It wasn't bad. But it could have been better. Is that a bad thing to say? I need to start living the way I want to, now, and not wishing I had a different lifestyle. Argh. Don't know what I'm thinking.

Guess what? I'm in the PCL/FAC now and it's gonna be 8.30pm soon - dark outside. I haven't done this (been in the FAC/UGL at night) for a year (with maybe a couple of exceptions)! Living on Red River made it.. not feasible. I did however use the Fine Arts library pretty often at night! Haha now that I recall.. since it's right next to the RR bus stop. Sigh. Now we live quite a bit closer but it shouldn't make that much of a difference. I don't know, it seems like I zoned out from reality last year. :(

If I could start all over again.. I'd change a lot of things. I just realised it this week. There are so many things I could have done differently that would have changed my college experience. For better or worse I don't know, but the choices I've made have let me to see this now. For instance, I could be graduating this semester. I could have a lot more friends. I could have had more fun last year. Not all based on the same decisions of course.

But yeah, I guess that's the way the world spins. Can't do anything about it now. Have to live for the present.

4th Day of Class

2006-09-05T14:51:00.000-05:00

OKAY

I wish I could travel back in time and kick my stupid self in the ass.

It's as if I've wasted an entire year! Although, as Camay told me when I met her at noon to eat my cereal and bits of her sandwich outside the library, I obviously haven't, but I ought to have be done with a lot of things by now.

Point interjection back to the start of Fall semester 2005.
Note that everyone who knew me back then recalls (even though some need to be reminded) my unhappy breakdown concerning the transitions I was going through (50% apartment adjustment and 50% course schedule, maybe some other stuff too that I can't think of right now). I tried to take Calculus, Chemistry, Physics, Computer Science and Geology in one semester. Technically that IS possible but humanely for me NO it was not going to work out and it did not work out. The problem, that attached itself to this series of events, like an unwanted appendage from hell itself, is that I didn't realise I had to take a particular class (GEO 416M - Sedimentary Rocks, which I'm now taking) alongside 416K which I took last Fall in order to procede in the sequence of my Geology degree. So while Costas and everyone else I knew in that sequence progresses on and get to graduate next year, I have to stay my full 4 years. I know some of you are saying (I meant that rhetorically, I don't know who reads this and no one knows that much about me) that "Oh ho, but 2 degrees in 4 years is impressive!" But NO! While it's true it is only the start of my 3rd year in school, I feel like I have been here FOREVER!! Walking past the SAME OLD buildings going to the SAME OLD classrooms - it's just getting boring!! And guess what, I just went to see my geography advisor to ask her to write me a recommendation letter for something and she went through my degree plan with me, and I already have 127 hours under my belt - YOU ONLY NEED 120 HOURS TO GRADUATE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

THIS IS PISSING ME OFF for unknown reasons!!!

Furthermore, on hindsight, I could have really benefited from having a car. Life was SO INSULAR living in an apartment without a car. I know everyone who doesn't and has never had a car will probably have thought the same way I did - "oh, I don't need a car". True, but IT WOULD HAVE BEEN EXPONENTIALLY BETTER if I did. ARGH I feel like I wasted a year of my life living on the fringe of society (well Red River is technically next to I-35 so we were on the fringe of central Austin and campus) being insular, (for example, not going to dinner meetings on the other side of campus because I felt it was inconvenient in winter), not having a car (exploring Austin in summer with Jean was awesome, could I have added that to my fall 05/spring 06 experience if I had had a car?)

yadda yadda yadda yadda!!! Last weekend I wrote out a long and detailed rant on my social circle as well, complaining that I don't have enough friends to hang out with. Do you know how ridiculous that is? On my wall I have 5 of my favourite group photos, and each of them has a different group of friends in them. But as Aunty Shirley, whom I was ranting to online on Sunday, says, it's the quality, not the quantity, that counts! The fact that there are 5 different groups is also part of the complexity - I only see certain so's and so's on a certain day of the week. In the end the people I feel comfortable to call impromptu to hang out with or chill with is less than 10!! Would you consider anyone else a real friend? And yes, so what if on Sunday I went to Whole Foods, Town Lake, Church, Camay & Chel's place, Janet & Yasu's place, and Spiderhouse with Lily & Xiaobei? For some damn reason I still feel like I'm not having as much hair-raising fun as I should be, and let's not forget that everything I did on Sunday would have been undoable with my lazy mentality (besides Church, which is easy to walk to) had I not had a car?

I'm sure on hindsight I could easily have planned out a 3.5 year duo-degree plan and executed it with much more brevity than the long drawn out path I seem to be taking now. I don't know how I let this happen, why it's happening and what on earth I'm going to end up with. All I do know is that everywhere I go (and this has been the case ever since my 2nd semester of college) there seems to be a grey cloud lurking in the background hovering over my shadow trailing me around and making me grumpy/irritated, and even though i have had my good fun times in school the thought keeps coming back - something is bugging me, and I don't know what it is.

I feel like this has been such a BITCH of a post/rant. Let me end off by saying that yes, I also have a Presidential Scholarship from the Geoscience College that makes my tuition for this semester less than what my car costs - but still!!! There is this shadow, cloud, haze of despair clinging to the extremities of my everyday experience.
It has been ever since my 2nd semester of school. It's just that when school gets into swing I manage to ignore it, or not think about it, but this feeling somehow lingers and surfaces periodically, like last week. It's not as bad as last year but I still feel odd.

My plans to go to the Mental Health Center were thwarted because they're fully booked till next week. I don't think I'll feel any need to see them next week.

What the **** is going on?

My only goal for this year is to finish my calculus and physics requirements by May 2007. I HAVE TO DO THAT and STOP PUTTING IT OFF. I talk to FRESHMEN and SOPHs in my classes and today I told this girl, "I feel really dumb cos I should have taken this class last year". And she was nice about it and all but I don't think she really knew how it feels to sit in a class and realise you could have and should have taken it an entire year ago, and wonder how different your life could have been.

Reboot

2006-09-01T15:58:00.000-05:00

Fall semester has started after an awesome summer!

This new school year has started off MUCH, MUCH better than last year did.

Well, as Aunty Lucy says, don't look behind and keep pressing forward.
(Not that we should look for death in the cradle, but still, you know what I mean.)

Have a car is incredible.

It is also incredibly hot.

Too hot, perhaps, to do anything!

And I have been sick.

I'll leave it as that.

brief flying summary

2006-07-04T09:31:00.000-05:00

Some days ago Jean stayed over and I sent her to the airport before the crack of dawn. It was a Sunday morning and the streets were dead, so on the way back I did the stretch of MLK between Airport Blvd and I-35 in just over a minute. Then I went to McDonald's to get a hashbrown! Yay :) There were lots of people at the airport at 6am.. It felt weird not to feel weird because airports usually give me a kind of feeling, but I think it's cos I'm normally the one flying off. That morning it was just like.. ok normal.. this place isn't what country music makes it out to be. Couldn't think about that the last time I dropped people off because I had company on the way back and we were preoccupied with making it back in one piece. On Sunday night Cheekin, Sinsin, James and I went to Brick Oven on Slaughter to eat dinner, and then went to James' house (YES He bough a HOUSE for himself.. it is huge) to watch Last Holiday, which I found really funny. Zheng Da came too. All of them except James are leaving, and I think that was the last time I'll be riding in Cheekin's car. So weird. I was just thinking on Friday night as I drove back from Welsey House alone that not having a car means people take care of you and drop you off, while having a car means dropping people off and driving home alone. Anyway. Sunday night Calvin came back from 660 field camp and crashed overnight. He somehow plied my computer power cord back into position (the part Lily dropped last year). We almost freaked out cos it had refused to connect and there were only 3 minutes of battery left. School yesterday was pretty empty. I only had to go for one class. On the bus home I met Sarah, Karen and their friend Hara. They were going to take the bus to the mall. I was pondering offering them a ride but didn't. When I got home it made sense because I'm not sure how they'd have reacted to me having a camper in my living room. Anyway I finally figured out Cheyenne is pronounced shy-ann. Everytime the Prof said her name I thought he was saying XiaoYan or something and that her parents gave her an Asian name.

Well today is the 4th of July. It is overcast outside and might rain, but hopefully Delm's bbq will pull through. Last year I spent the 4th in Boston.

2006-06-30T17:42:00.000-05:00

however
life is pretty good
just.. not achieving much.

Lil Becks

2006-06-30T17:29:00.000-05:00

ARghhh!!! I feel so useless and insignificant.

Shelby is in D.C interning for Advocates for Youth, lobbying at Capital Hill and all that. She has been since spring. Let's not forget she's already had a PBS documentary made about her. Kevin skipped class last Friday to represent the US at UN-Habitat's World Urban Forum in Toronto. I just found out the Mayor of Houston declared March 30th last year "Kevin Kalra Day" because of all the work he's done in sustainable development!!! Ana is interning at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History in D.C investigating trace element variation in beryl pegmatites!!! Oh oh, let's not forget Kim, who finished her year as Station Manager of the campus TV station. Camay is working at Walt Disney World and me?

I've been burning batches of snickerdoodle cookies.

@_@

Wrapping it Up

2006-06-28T10:18:00.000-05:00

Well... Lots of time has passed since I last blogged. Minute things, nothing on the scale of adventureously outrageous. Been driving around, doing normal stuff.. Dad was in town and said I have a speeding problem. Ah. Had a great meal last night at Sue's with her and Paula. This morning I woke up at 6am, left my place at the crack of dawn and drove to Far West to get Jean. I saw the sun rise like a hug ball of fire over North Austin as I turned into her place. Drove back downtown and dropped her off at ACC Riverside (via Hancock Dr, Lamar & Riverside) so she could take her final exam and drove home (via Pleasant Valley, 7th & Red River) in time to catch the 7.51am bus to school for my 8.30 class. NyahhhhHAHAH.. Good times. I hope she catches her 9am flight!! She has to take a cab to the airport. Crazy girl was gonna do her final in 15 minutes then run for it.. she should be off by now.

Well I am gonna head off now. Am in the Geo Lab - Decided to print out my blog and bind it up. Mark's gonna come over and help me move stuff to his place tonight. Even since Lily left the apartment's been a big mess.. but I'm doing good :) Weather's been hot but today's good.. in fact, I was planning to go for a run!

The 31st Annual Hyde Park Homes Tour

2006-06-18T16:34:00.000-05:00

On Saturday Jean and I went for the Hyde Park Historic Homes Tour. Great idea, becks. It rained in the morning but cleared up by mid-day, so at 1.15ish I drove over to Far West, got Jean and drove back to Hyde Park. The tour was more like 6 open houses, but there were lots of docents in the houses to tell us all about the homes. We started at the Elizabeth Ney Museum on 44th street. It's a fort-like building with a sprawling lot surrounded by short stone walls.

Inside, the docents told us there were lots of secret passages to explore.. Jean and I found one!

A bookshelf that opens out!

Revealing an inner door

That leads out to the roof!

Being on this tour was like being in Wonderland

Now the thing about Hyde Park homes, as well as homes in the downtown area, is that they look really small on the outside but when you walk though the doors, the walls explode outwards and hello, welcome to intergalactic Deep Space 9..

Take, for instance, Hurt House.

An ordinary, pleasant looking home from the front.

From the back, a modern zen villa..

The Hodnette-McKessen House, looking FLW-ish from the outside..

With this huge thing in their backyard.

Cute boy's lemonade and cookie stand

All aboard.. we didn't notice this huge train till the Kopperl House gardener told us about it!!

We took about 2.5 hours to finish all 7 homes. On the way we got free rides from Pedicabs! That was fun :) I liked the fact that all sorts of people went on the tour - I even saw the woman who works in the geology library! Visiting people's homes is really fun, especially in Hyde Park cos you know you are going to see something very different from the usual ghetto student apartments. If only we could go visit every single home in Hyde Park. After we got done, I drove Jean to the HEB near her place and invited myself over for apple pie :) Haha.. Caleb asked me to go for Unc Jon's friend's house-warming dinner party with them all but I didn't feel like going.. so I went home, ate a tv-dinner and did readings. Nice day. Made even better when I got home and realised I missed aC's message. I had gone online to ask people whether you could still eat rice that had rice weevils in it and forgot to log out :P

Will end off with a photo of my neighbor Mr Eldriud's 53rd Birthday Party

------\\\\\\\------------

At the end of semester meeting last month, many people were talking about reaching far and beyond the monotony of school.. like, everyone goes through it.

eg, as someone said,
Here I am going to class AGAIN
Here I am going to the library AGAIN
Here I am doing homework AGAIN

And there are other things I feel repetition in too, which are probably much better -

Here I am at Delm's eating dinner AGAIN
Here I am at Wesley House eating dinner AGAIN
Here I am at church eating muffins AGAIN

It's funny.

Nick G sent out a good email

It goes,

I am thankful:
FOR THE PARKING SPOT
I FIND AT THE FAR END OF THE PARKING LOT
BECAUSE IT MEANS I AM CAPABLE OF WALKING
AND I HAVE BEEN BLESSED WITH TRANSPORTATION .

FOR THE MESS TO CLEAN AFTER A PARTY
BECAUSE IT MEANS I HAVE
BEEN SURROUNDED BY FRIENDS.

FOR THE LADY BEHIND ME IN CHURCH
WHO SINGS OFF KEY BECAUSE IT MEANS
I CAN HEAR.

FOR THE PILE OF LAUNDRY AND IRONING
BECAUSE IT MEANS
I HAVE CLOTHES TO WEAR.

Just that I don't iron my clothes and when I drive to church I park a block away. Oh. That reminds me. When I drove to Freshplus to buy something on Friday afternoon, I drove through the area of Hyde Park where church is, and it was almost unrecognizable! Because whenever I've walked/biked/driven to church on Sundays, there have always been cars parked all along the streets in the neighborhood, but that day the streets were pretty much empty!

Caleb wanted everyone to watch a movie at my place tonight, but I was like, NO.. My idea/habit of Sunday night does not involve that.. even though it may not be a bad thing.. but I just hate watching movies at home. Certain activities are complete wastes of time. Please.. leave me in peace to waste my time in peace.. rather than waste my time with other people.. ouch mean comment to make..

Anyway I heard this on the radio. They have a lot of these, but I liked this one because I've done all of them!

Austin is
Going to the Pecan Street Fest
Eating a hamburger at Dan's
Watching a movie at the Alamo
Waking up with the JB & Sandy Morning Show

I miss last year when Susan and Joe used to take Lily and me to church, and grocery shopping.
Now they have a baby and I drive myself to church. Nyah nyah. Fun.

2006-06-17T12:39:00.000-05:00

Grannnyyy!!!!

I have rice weevils in my rice. I threw them out and boiled the rice. Can I still eat the rice? Well that's a stupid question cos I am going to.. I asked a lot of my friends and they said its okay.. since it's boiled.. and the eggs will get cooked..

But what to do ? There are some crawling around in the rice bag..

Okay you better email moi..

becks

summer bee

2006-06-16T14:52:00.000-05:00

What is up with long tanks/tees being the fashion this season? They only fit skinny people!! Yingying has gotten a job at Guess at Highland Mall, so Caleb and I went to visit and were window shopping on the side, and he got an earful from me about the state of this summer's clothing trends.

Summer school is going great. I like my classes a lot. Summer session is So Much Less Stressful (tm) than regular long semester, both academically AND socially! I am gonna get As for both my classes or kick myself in the teeth (impossible).

Question on a quiz:
"I have trouble being alone unless I make a point of keeping very busy."

Highly thought provoking. In fact, when my sophomore year just started, I panicked at the thought of dropping 2 classes, because I was scared I wouldn't know what to do with myself and get depressed. Even the prospect of having nothing to do got me uptight and worried. But now? Now I slack away the afternoons, which is what I would have done last year if I hadn't volunteered at the Sierra Club, and I don't mind it one bit. True, I don't like wasting time, but here I am doing productive stuff during school time, and it's just after school time that I'm free to do as I please. I suppose it also requires an environment where you're comfortable and happy not doing anything in.

Some people like to keep themselves busy. Some of these gain self-fufilment, while others do it because if they have nothing to do they could get upset and miserable.

Is this the fear of being alone?

There is a difference between being alone and being lonely. When I lived in Boston last summer, I thought about how useful it would be to have my "Living Alone and Loving It" book to read. But this summer, the book is sitting in my closet unread.

I think I have a paradox of personalities.

My answer to the question?
Never True.

Jim's Theme

2006-06-15T16:03:00.000-05:00

I am a question to the world
Not an answer to be heard
Or a moment
That's held in your arms

And what do you think you'd ever say?
I won't listen anyway
You don't know me
And I'll never be what you want me to be

And what do you think you'd understand?
I'm a boy, no, I'm a man
You can't take me
And throw me away

And how can you learn what's never shown?
Yeah, you stand here on your own
They don't know me
Cause I'm not here

Chorus:
And I want a moment to be real
Wanna touch things I don't feel
Wanna hold on and feel I belong
And how can the world want me to change?
They're the ones that stay the same
They don't know me
Cause I'm not here

And you see the things they never see
All you wanted I could be
Now you know me
And I'm not afraid

And I want to tell you who I am
Can you help me be a man?
They can't break me
As long as I know who I am

Chorus

They can't tell me who to be
Cause I'm not what they see
Yeah, the world is still sleepin while I keep on dreaming for me
And their words are just whispers and lies that I'll never believe

Chorus

I'm the one now
Cause I'm still here
I'm the one
Cause I'm still here
I'm still here
I'm still here
I'm still here

Riding With The Worst

2006-06-10T23:37:00.000-05:00

Yeah, well, Caleb and Zheng Da both agree that I drive like a nutcase who just escaped from the madhouse.

According to Caleb, today I made so many traffic violations that I should be locked up for eternity in jail, and if I was back in Singapore they'd probably publicly flog me. Zheng Da, who was sitting in the back, was clutching on to the front seat for dear life. The following is from our outing to watch the Austin Civic Orchestra perform at Zilker Hillside Theatre this evening.

Firstly, on the way to ZD's place, I didn't know I was in a NO left turn AT ALL lane and I was waiting to turn left and everyone behind me was honking (24th street at Lamar).
Secondly, when Caleb and I realised that, I sped forward and veered like a maniac into the next left I could take without looking first to see if there was oncoming traffic AND turned into the wrong lane. These two problems got me quite flustered.
After we got Zheng Da we made it okay to Schlotsky's and then to Zilker Park, though the journey there was frought with many turns done way too fast and breaks done way too slow.
After the show in the carpark I got the windscreens down and a passing cyclist hollered at me to turn on my lights. Turns out the last time I drove at night I drove with only my parking lights on. Which means... that on Tuesday when I detoured through Hyde Park because of the fallen tree, everyone was flashing their high beams at me, and not because it was really dark. Caleb and ZD made sure I got that issue sorted out. I'm sure they were looking forward to the hair-raising ride back.

It is a good time now to interrupt and say that driving brings out our true inner nature.. or at least a very different side of us.

While we were leaving ZD's place, we were at a traffic light intersection, and I was really going to turn the wrong way into a major one way road (namely, 6th street), when Caleb saw my indicator ticking away like a time bomb and spouted a panicked "WHAT are you doing?!" which saved us both from untimely demise. Then, after driving on edge up Lamar we made it to Caleb's place and I somehow got into this weird psychotic position where the car was cornered up against the garbage bin and it was touching my windscreen at a perpendicular angle..

I'm sure both Caleb and ZD were extremely relieved to be out of my car.... what a night!!! I can imagine them going, "PHEW!" the same way Jean did the first time I drove us all back to her place from HEB on her birthday..

Man I really appreciate Caleb being willing to sit in my passenger seat. He was constantly reminding me that he didn't have an air bag. He is VERY BRAVE!!

Hopefully word has spread around Austin about the really bad driver in the green car.. so people will avoid me on the roads!!!! I am confident that God has been keeping me out of trouble..

Yeah after getting home I had to madly dash around, drop my suitcase off at Kim's since she's leaving, come back, grab the present and run downstairs to Mr Eldriud's 53rd birthday party. I was very very late (10.45pm is not exactly 6.30pm) but he was so happy I came he gave me 4 cans of soda and 3 big platefuls of food to take back, along with a huge handful of candy. And all his relatives and the other New Orleans neighbors were there. So at least I show face, know what I mean ;)

Alamak.. I'm so sweaty..
There's more to my day that that..

This morning I woke up early, went to the Browne's to get my mail, then drove to Pemberton Heights to see Pemberton Castle! It's in a really rich neighborhood where all of them could build their own castles if they wanted to.. I like that area a lot cos it is very beautiful with lush trees. I drove down to Shoal Creek and this sporty woman was pushing her 2 babies in a stroller up a hill and she smiled at me - that made me really happy. I drove back up 24th and went to HEB to get groceries. I was itching to explore more of Pemberton Heights and the area between Shoal Creek & Mopac, but it was kind of hot so I stayed in, watched an episode of Desperate Housewives online and basically surfed the internet till Sue came and got her vacuum around 3.30..then Lydia called me cos she was in school and it was hot so I drove down and picked her up and sent her home. That's fun.. and odd.. she's very hardworking, she's a music major and goes to school to play every day!

I love how Austin contains so many different neighborhoods, diverse in architecture, building structure, vegetation and layout. You can walk just 2 blocks and be in a whole new world. It's funky, but you can get stuck in a funk if you stay in the wrong place for too long. Our place right now is pretty good.

And I am really sweaty, smelly and need to take a bath.

Food

2006-06-09T22:12:00.000-05:00

Today was hot! After school I took the bus straight home, and in the evening went for both the Christians on Campus cook-out on the LBJ Lawn and the usual Friday Night Wesley ISC meeting. I originally planned to drive to both but ended up walking.

In the face of a seemingly overwhelming situation, I emerged triumphant by choosing to eat only dessert at the CoC cookout and my main meal at Wesley House. Yeah baby, stir fry that fish and pile on the fudge and tarts! Cliff let me take home all the left-over fudge! Ah man..So I avoided eating twice. This reminds me of early in Fall semester when we would go to the TiSA dinner meeting at Kinsolving, stuff ourselves with the buffet, then walk over to Wesley House and eat AGAIN. Well! No I am not going to get fat this semester, so I am watching it.. however, at the Wesley House, I ended up sitting next to Sheng's mum and dad who are visiting from Taiwan. They had brough these sticky black crispy peanut rice cake thingys and his mum asked me to try one.. well it was not to my liking, to say the least, so I ate it extremely slowly and when she wasn't looking stuffed it in my pocket!!! AHAHHA!!

My TA from physics lab, Jason, jumped out of nowhere at me during the cook-out. He also immediately said, "Sorry I couldn't give you an A last semester, regulations are regulations!" Haha.. it's okay.. I'm not a grade-scrounger.. On my way to the cook-out, I passed these two girls who were joking around with each other. When I passed them one of them went, "I don't know that person!" and I laughed and they were laughing and teasing each other. Seems like my entry is going chronologically backwards. Haha!

Karolilna and Rotimi sent me back at the end of the night.. Karolina is going back to Colombia next week, I didn't think I would feel anything but now I know I will miss her.. she is very nice to me. Hmm I want to go to Latin America.

2006-06-09T13:00:00.000-05:00

This is a really depressing piece of fiction on the future of Sporeland. Reading it makes me feel like not going back in the future. It's not very well written though. Style is pretty bad.

Life of an Ordinary Singaporean in the Future

I Love Summer School!

more daily notes

2006-06-07T23:00:00.000-05:00

I don't really understand what I did today. Again, there were other places to be and people to be with. Aunty Leena invited us over for dinner. The Christians on Campus group was having their start of semester dinner as well.

I decided to go to the gym.

What I do know is that that is what I wanted to do.

When the gym class was over, I kinda reminisced about the few times I did Tex last semester and then went over to eat dinner at J2 with Camay. Good times. I stopped by the geo lab and printed out my grg readings. By then it was 8.30pm and still light outside, and on my walk out of inner campus I met a friend who was waiting for the bus. We walked to my place together (I walk to the gym and back) and then I drove her to her home on 45th street.

When I got home I felt quite accomplished. Yes, I know it's just a passing feeling and counts for nothing in the big schemes of God. ☺ But it’s an interesting thing to be able to walk to back to school in the evening to use the gym, with the sun still up (it would be dark already in winter at 6, and the class was at 7 so I left at 6.15), and at night to drive people home. I dipped my feet in the pool while waiting for my dinner to boil and water in the tub to fill. The water was warm. On the news they said it was 98F today, and that it might hit 100F on Friday. All as well I'm not planning on getting the Texercise pass. It was still very hot when I was walking to school.

This reminds me of how much I hate winter.

Anyway, it's quite nice to have my own place.

I also like sleeping.

Yesterday I went to Delm's for our home meeting. Sue and Paula both offered to pick me up but I decided to drive for fun. We had a good time and there was a new Korean girl with her mom, as well as a visiting alumni who's attached to a pharm company or something in San Antonio. So there were 11 of us. Including baby Isaac. Who is not really a baby. It was nice to meet the sisters again. We are missing Vicky and I hope she'll email me once she gets back to Taiwan. On the drive back a fallen tree was blocking the road, so had to detour through unlit Hyde Park. Just followed the cars in front.. Sue lent me her vacuum cleaner. I've been wanting to vacuum for ages… I molt a lot… well I got done with the living room.. when I got to my room the vacuum bag exploded.. fortunately in the vacuum cleaner so not that much dust got out.. but it sure smelled pretty bad. Gotta go get a new bag. My grannie called me too.. she wanted to buy lotto tickets with my license plate number, but Chris only has 2 numbers on his plate!

Met Beth in school yesterday after class, and she invited me to her usual Thursday night dinner meeting. I think I will go for that. I go occasionally, mostly when she reminds me. It's not that I forget.. she has it every week and I enjoy it.. I just only go when she tells me to… haha.. Although the rationale behind that decision is not very clear to me.

Caleb called and helped me with Physics. He sounds a lot like Chris.

I am really tired now. ZZZZ Time

Contemplations

2006-06-05T21:13:00.000-05:00

Today presented a means to evaluate just how much I've changed since freshman year -

I pangseh-ed (Singlish for abandoned) the S'pore gang's impromptu dinner at Rudy's BBQ to go work out at the gym.

I think I have developed quite an insular personality. It's not that I'm antisocial, like aCorn likes to say I am. Yesterday evening Caleb and Jerry asked me to go watch a new movie with them. I declined..partially because I didn't want to spend money, but also because I just didn't feel like it, even though I didn't have anything else to do. I know back in freshie year I would have been jumping through the roof at all these social opportunities.

Considering the events of the past weekend, though, it's no surprise I'm not craving social events.

To be honest, I had been looking forward to Whitney's 7-8pm Total Body Sculpt class since I decided to go for it on Sunday. I had been thinking about how she's a great instructor.. about how I was gonna walk to the gym, work out and have a great time. And yes, I think it was absolutely worth giving up BBQ for. Also considering the extemely copious amounts of food I've consumed over the weekend, it just made NO sense to go eat BBQ. If I do not exercise (pun intended) some self control my spare tire is going to inflate. Goodness, I just remembered that the last time we ate at Rudy's, I had an eating competition with Andre that was left unresolved - okay he "won" but that's cos I thought we agreed to a tie and had popped a mint in my mouth just before he started to eat again - so all the better I didn't go! Eek..

Btw, today in Lit we studied Ann Bradstreet's poem, Contemplations. How apt. So now I have an adventurous, yet insular personality. That doesn't seem to make sense.

I can't believe it's been only just a week since aCorn left. So many things have happened since then.

Yingying came over at lunch to kill time before her job interview. She tidied up my apartment for me, how nice. Good things come to those who wait. I waited a year and Thiago offers me his bike. I wait another year and Chris offers me his car. And now Yingying cleans my apartment for me. Now all I have to do is wait for a vacuum cleaner and the perfect man to fall out of the sky.

Karolina's Farm, Austin Nature Center, Unc Hang's BBQ, Cheesecake Factory

2006-06-04T16:40:00.000-05:00

Upon getting my car I posted in the Austin Community LJ forum asking for suggestions on places to visit. I also put up a list of place I've already been to, so I wouldn't get the standard entries. Someone replied and included the following comment:
"You sound nuts by the way, like you just woke out of a coma and are trying to see everything! haha. That's just the way I am all the time."

Friday : Karolina's Farm
Karolina invited the ISC bunch to her cousin's farm in the evening. I invited Caleb to come along, since he's looking for a bible study to join. It was fun :) The farm is just outside the Austin city limits, and to get down to the riverside we took a long walk through dinosaur and cow-poop land.. I made every single person who brought insect repellent spray a coat on me.

Josh - currently my favorite little boy in Austin - with his mum Susan

Mark, Amy's dad and Kurt playing badminton

Kurt waiting for people to start getting hungry

Sheng made a new friend after dinner

On the way back, Mark, Caleb and I decided to check out the source of the lights that we could see shooting up into the night sky from the heart of Austin. We found out it was the movie premier of Ride Around the World, a new IMAX film about cowboys. Yeah even though we didn't have passes they gave us free T-shirts and I took a photo of a longhorn.

Saturday : Austin Nature and Science Center
Woke up at 9 and found out I had to send Calvin to school for his last day of class because the buses don't run today. Without breakfast first??! I was hungry man on the way back. I also passed so many cops while driving today! It must be because of the Texas Motorcycle Rally this weekend. Anyway since I firmly believe Saturday mornings are not for sleeping in, and because I am a die-hard explorer, I ate a sandwich then picked Jean up from ACC, and we drove to the Austin Nature and Science Center next to Town Lake to check it out. Free parking under the Mopac Bridge, and free admission = worth checking out. It is a great place to bring small kids! They had a dino pit, animal exhibits and hold summer kids' camps, which made me wish I was a kid! :P

We found a bone pit and dug up dinosaur bones.

We went into the Zilker Nature Preserve and explored Medicine Wheel Creek, which is partially altered by humans so it seems like we were exploring ruins!

Me and undercut limestone. Reminded me of all the fun nature places I went with aCorn when he was still around.

We also hiked up a cliff and discovered this gorgeous outlook that has a view of downtown Austin! Freak out man.. you can see UT, all of downtown and even ACC Rio Grande from there! It should be up on the hotspots list with Mt Bonnell, since it is so much closer.. I'd just suggest going in the afternoon so the sun isn't in your face. And a clear day when it's not too hazy would be good.

By the time we made it back to the other end of the Center, we were sweating buckets. Oh and a ladybug tried to bite me. As I was driving out from Stratford and going to turn left onto Barton Springs Road, when this woman on the main road slowed down to turn in, and I know she had right of way, but she stopped moving!! So I decided to go, and when I looked to my left I suddenly saw this car (that she had obviously seen) so decided to I step on it instead of breaking! Jean was like.. woah!!! Fortunately there were no police cars around. I spent 20 seconds debating about whether I had just broken multiple traffic laws. We went to Scholotsky's next to Dobie for lunch, good, and then pulled up next to Dobie for Jean to get ice-cream. As we got back into the car I told her it was so weird! I used to live in Dobie, and now we're just.. stopping by... Went home and chilled cos it was quite hot outside.

Saturday : Unc Hang's BBQ & Cheesecake Factory Trip!!!

So at around 4pm Kim came over, and around 5pm Calvin came back, and turns out they know each other! Shocking, what a small world. We went up to Unc Hang's place in Spicewood Springs to stuff ourselves!!

Kim looks super cute in that photo! Jean is going Yum Yum Yum..

Now Baby Andrew would have a chance of rivalling Baby Josh for top spot IF he didn't have such a bad haircut

Victor and Wesley playing a duet for us

Yingying's idea of, uhm, fun

Later at the Cheesecake Factory for dessert, Nick decides as midnight nears that since no one else is going to eat the bread, he might as well eat it the way he likes to eat it.

I think I have great potential to get into trouble because of speeding. When Kim was driving into the Arboretum on the way to Cheesecake Fac, I felt highly thrilled when we did a speedy turn into it from the other side of the highway. Step on it woman! Beepbeep.. Got home at 12.30am. Went to sleep quick. I think Calvin came back later and threw up in the toilet but I wasn't sure. He was okay in church today so I don't really think I'll ask what happened.

doing new things

2006-06-02T15:11:00.000-05:00

I'm quite happy with both my classes so far.
Yesterday, in the name of doing something different, I went to try my hand at copy-editing with The Daily Texan. They work in the CRM basement, and you have to walk down a flight of damp, dingy unlit stairs... sort of like walking into a tomb.. but inside it's all lively and bright. I found it a doable job, but you start around 6pm and work till 11 or midnight, and I didn't really like that idea because I have to get up at 7.15am for class and last night caught the last bus home. I got back around 11.30ish. Granted I could drive and park near school and drive home.. but I just thought nah. There was a big contrast between the quiet deadness of campus late at night and the activity that was going on in the basement. Stepping out the door was like stepping through a portal. When I got home I felt rejuvenated - odd - and attribute it to having done something different on a school night. It was pretty interesting to be in that environment. So even though I've decided not to take that up for summer, it was fun to do something new. Also.. I didn't find it to be a particularly enjoyable thing for me.. it's something I could do, like managing the Sierra Club database, but not fantastic. Although the experience was fun.

Calvin is now living in my living room because he has 2 more days of hydrology classes to go and his apartment lease ran out yesterday. He was out in the field for a week so he took a really long bath yesterday.. I've been seeing a lot of people I know around campus, which is odd..

Today's Geog class was fun, we had discussions. And the people I was with were really talkative. Actually, on Wednesday when I was over at Unc Jon and Aunty Leena's for dinner, I told Yingying that I felt kinda anxious about school starting again, due to unpleasant memories from my boring geography class last semester and hydro.. but it's gonna be alright..

This afternoon Caleb and I worked on the website for our bible study group at church.. I am quite out of touch with graphic manipulation..

Tonight we are going to Karolina's farm! Yay..

2006-06-02T12:04:00.000-05:00

I usually don't do blog quizzes/lists, but this one I found to be quite interesting.
What you do is post the first image that appears when you use Google Image Search with the answers to the statements.

1. Age on your next birthday

2. Favorite color

3. Your middle name

4. Last meal

5. bad habit

6. favorite veggie

7. favorite animal

8. town you live in

9. name of your pet/last pet

10. your nickname

11. closest red thing to you

12. what you're listening to right now

13. your current job

14. something you are wearing right now

blah summer school

2006-05-30T22:01:00.000-05:00

Today

First day of summer school

Rainy soggy damp cool humid windy
78 F
:(

Wednesday
Stayed at home and did nothing. Kept telling myself, "I'm sure there is something I can do that I am just putting off" and "better enjoy your last day of freedom". Well it was perfectly boring. I sat around, played with my laptop, looked at photos in my photo album and wondered what I did in the Browne's basement last summer - it did not seem as boring. I think because the basement was quite nice, and you could be oblivious to the outside world and just.. I dunno.. read/surf the net/watch dvds.. but here I hear the road traffic all the time and its not cosy enough to be a refined slacker.. sounds rubbishy but I don't know how to phrase it. I think the basement allowed me to not care about the outside world, especially when it was scorching.. I was bored on Monday too. I went for a walk around the block after the rain stopped. I've lived here for almost a year and have never walked around the block to I-35, how ridiculous. But I did it. And boy was it different.. like a big mess over there.. absolute light years away from what living in Dobie was like. Woot. Caleb called to tell me Unc Jon invited us over for dinner, so I walked to school and met him at 5.20pm at the East Mall. We took the Parker Lane/Burton Drive ie Peanut Butter bus to Yingying's place. I didn't want to drive cos it was rush hour. It took us 20 minutes, standard I guess.. we had yummy un-name-able asian food. Unc Jon made us listen to some motivational tape from a power lunch he went to. To sum it up it argued that if I don't have a goal I'm not going to be anything in 4 years. :( Uh oh. Unc Jon drove us home at 10ish.

Tuesday
Today Jean and I drove to Capitol Plaza! Heh I have a sneaking suspicion that the Cameron Road shuttle goes there but I've never been free enough to examine that possibility. I've wanted to go there for a while! Actually I think there is a thrift shop that we missed, now that I think of it! I picked her up from school and we drove down Duval, took a right on 51st Street, passed Airport Blvd (where you'd turn left to go to Highland Mall) and found it neatly tucked to the left after crossing over I-35. We went to Target first, then to RadioShack, MattressFirm, Rainbow, and had lunch at Cici's pizza buffet before going to Ross! Yay I finally found the Ross Yingying has been talking about. I drove Chris from parking spot to parking spot so we didn't have to walk so much. After I demolished the ranks in Ross (only got 2 things) we decided to drive to Whole Foods, so we took 51st and Duval down to 6th Street. On the way I drove through school and the guy at the security booth didn't seem to care that we didn't have permits.. in fact he started engaging me in small talk, so I guess I can drive through next time! Haha.. but everything's slacker when school's not in session. While driving through downtown I was surprised at all the people on the streets and the traffic on the roads! Usually I'm in school so I don't get to see much of downtown during busy hours.. and those sleepy saturdays in freshie year when Kristal and I would catch the bus to Barton Creek mall downtown were never filled with the bustle of the office crowd..

suffice to say we were in a jam on 6th street.. so my plan to park in the Whole Foods parking garage was thwarted! instead, thanks to rushing a light at the last moment we filtered right and I turned up Lamar and parked at Book People instead.. where we hung for a while then popped over to WF, where there were some nice samples, including carrot cake with icing. yum yum I went back for seconds. Dropped Jean off at the Far West shuttle at 3.15ish and came home to do my own stuff. Chris now has a spot in the parking garage so he doesn't have to be in the hot sun.

It is quite surreal to be driving to all these places.. ha :)

Very Eventful Sunday

2006-05-28T22:48:00.000-05:00

Today made me realise just how MISERABLE my spring semester Sundays have been. Besides church, Sunday =ed Physics!!!
Anyway highly eventful day.

Sending Off aCorn
aCorn has been pretty sick. I woke up a bit earlier and went to get him some snacks from HEB at 8.30 in the morning. I wasn't sure what to get for someone with food poisoning so I got him crackers, a can of Red Bull and some of Aunty Lily's electrolyte solution. Also brought some of my own cereal, minus the strawberry yoghurt covered ones which I picked out. He stopped throwing up but started having diahorrea, and he had a really bad fever last night. I tried to force him to down Aunty Lily's lacteoforte but he wasn't in the mood for it, so I stuffed it in his travel bag. We packed up his place and at 10.15ish I drove him to the campus bus stop where he got on the airport shuttle. Oh well that's the last I'll see of aCorn for a while. :/ I felt kinda bad for him. Yesterday though, while he was knocked out on his bed after throwing up for the third time, I went through his computer.. and read some highly interesting stuff..

Church
After dropping off aCorn I drove to church. The first time driving myself to church! I parked a block north because all the parking lots and spaces on the roads were full. The pastor is talking about the Da Vinci code. Quite interesting since I saw the movie. We had lunch as usual with the Chinese congregation, and it was Alice's last Sunday! She's leaving on Tuesday for a 3 month internship in California. Her mum seemed.. er.. like she wished the 3 months were already over..

Mozart's
After church Jerry suggested going to Mozarts'. An idea which did not appeal to me in itself, but the opportunity to drive a new route was too good to pass up. I made Caleb sit with me and we drove to my place, his place in West Campus, and then took Guadalupe and 15th street all the way to Mozarts'. Caleb says I really need to work on my turning. Yeah. We hung out for quite a while.. till 4.50pm I think.. Jerry brought his laptop and showed us his competition photos. He is a grad student in kinesiology and also a competitive body-builder, and man he is eXtremely buff. He is the most ripped person I know. Which is why I had no qualms walking around 6th with him last week at midnight. Yingying and I went to sit outside for a while. It was beautiful, cos it rained last night, and although it was hot, it was not searing, and air was clear so we could see the mansions on the hills across the river very well. (OK sudden thought - maybe it was very clear because I was not having any allergies!!) She also ordered a delectable fruit tart that came with rich vanilla ice cream - yum.

Petrol Station Woes
So yeah, Jerry got hungry near 5pm (the guy has the appetite of a wolly mammoth) and we left. I drove Caleb back to West Campus and made him follow me to the gas station.. I think my car did 1100 miles on the 7 gallons aCorn put in for me on Monday.. er yeah.. Caleb got his license in California and hasn't pumped petrol before (what is this.. Chris also has been driving but didn't know how to buy insurance) and I got STUCK cos nothing was coming out, so I had to ask this guy with a sports car to do it for me (excuse to talk to guy with flashy sports car) and it worked! I put in 5 gallons for $14?? Can't really remember. Dropped Caleb off, had brief prayer session with him concerning my driving, and drove myself home. BTW at the gas station Yingying called me and out of the blue told me she and Kim were going over to my place.

Friends for Tea
Well my sandwich making skills are not good.. but Kim and Yingying came over and hung out for an hour or so. Fortunately I did my grocery shopping earlier this week so I had orange juice to offer them. First time seeing Kim in a skirt. She looked very prim. Oh I thought it was cool that each of us 3 girls have cars. It was refreshing to have them over and just talk.. well they started talking about boyfriends.. yeah they had some funny stories. Mark called me and reminded me we were going biking. I completely forgot about that.

Biking at the Veloway
At 7.15ish Mark came over, so Yingying and Kim went home and we drove down to the Veloway to bike! Yeah stopped at a gas station on the way and Mark showed me how to pump gas.. I dunno I think I will just have to try it for myself again.. The biking was GREAT because I think previously on all our previous bike trips I've had allergies, the symptoms of which I always thought were due to my stamina. But today we did 6.3 miles and I felt awesome! Woohoo.. It was a sunset ride kinda thing.. we biked till 8.50pm and the daylight was almost out of the sky. We saw 2 rabbits and a DEER!!!! He took a different way back than normal which left me wondering if Austin is as big as Singapore.

Which Wich?
After we dropped my bike back at the apartment we went to have a late dinner at Which Wich. Awesome place - they have crabmeat! Subway used to have crabmeat but I was the only person to order it so they took it off the menu. I had a big sandwich with all sorts of odd stuff in it. The concept of the joint involves you picking whatever you want in the sandwich.. and I make a really bad sandwich designer. Anyway the drag when we left at 10pm was completely dead.. but it's also Memorial Day weekend, which probably explains it.

Mr Eldriud
As I was walking back upstairs after Mark dropped me off, I met Mr Eldriud, our downstairs neighbor, walking around. He was like. "what are you doing walking around at night?" cos they are changing the ceiling so the lights are out. He was like, "if anybody try anything funny with you, you yell and I'll come get them!" He is really funny and nice.. He's an evacuee from New Orleans and last I heard from him he's trying to make a living selling pecan candy at fairs.. he's turning 53 this Sunday and invited us to his birthday party. He is rather scrawny, always gives us candy packs on all the public holidays and has an entire set of fake teeth. Lily Meng, if you're reading this, he told me "I met Lily's boyfriend, the one with curly hair!" WAH LAU.. He told me he had a dream we got him a nice birthday present. I think he's a bit absent minded, because he actually told me that when I was on my way out to go biking :P or maybe he's hinting he wants a nice present. But he's repeated himself to me before.

Calvin
Calvin is on his Geology field trip and was looking for somewhere to stay because his apartment lease runs out next week. He called me and left a message asking to stay over and when I called him back, he told me he was at Dobie, and I was horrified because I thought he was sleeping/camping out at Dobie - the Dobie food court is where the homeless people or bums hang around and I thought he had resorted to that!! But he didn't.. he just went there to watch TV..

Friend's Problems
Yeah.. anyway one of my girlfriends called me just now to talk. She is having a very hard time with her parents, because her mum hates her boyfriend of 3 years. Why? Because he's not Asian.. I knew she was having this problem for a while because she told me about it last year.. And her dad is not so hot about him as well.. Her problem is that she lives with her parents (they all live in South Austin) and I think they are just hassling her too much.. They are very conservative.. I think she would be happier if she moves out.. They need to stop prying into her stuff.. I know they are just concerned about her, but her mum blew up and didn't even go to church today cos she was so angry. I think that is er.. well anyway she was so unhappy she is even considering getting a summer job, saving up and moving out. I told her, since my roommate and I are on good terms with her, that she could stay in our living room in Fall for subsidized rent if she wanted. Yeah that's tough man.. Understandable though.. my dad is like... anti-men.. hyiak... Argh got mosquito bite from biking...

YAWN.. Life without school is superb. Unfortunately.. school starts on Wednesday... :P

What a Day Ouch ouch ouch

2006-05-27T20:04:00.000-05:00

Uh.. today at aCorn's place I backed into this big waste disposal unit and cracked Chris' left tail light. Sorry Chris! *Sheepish*
Well.. among other things I managed to drive to Far West and back by 2 different routes without taking Mopac.. and it took like 20ish minutes.. boink boink

In brief -
aCorn had bad food poisoning so I went to visit him. Wait! Earlier on at 8.30am I drove to the Brownes' house and dropped off some of my stuff. MLK was as clear as an uncut block of butter. Ok bad comparison. Anyway that's Saturday morning for you. So I stayed at aCorn's from 11 to 1.30. The poor guy threw up while I was there and was basically knocked out. Then I drove to ACC Rio Grande to pick up Jean and we drove to Highland Mall, where we had lunch and Jean got a pair of jeans that she needed. haha.. Jean's jeans.. at 3.30 we left to go to HEB so she could shop for groceries, then my place, then went to aCorn's to bring him some toast and soup, then Jean's place in Far West!!! and I drove myself home. Oh I am so glad Jean wanted to go shopping because it made me figure out how to get to the mall and actually drive there, and Mark didn't answer my voicemail requesting him follow us on Mopac, so I figured out how to get to Jean's place in Far West without taking Mopac and I drove myself back after that. What an adventure! I am happy that God took care of me and Jean. And again, me. On the way home, I got lost somewhere trying to make the connection over Mopac, had to make a lightning veer into Horseshoe Bend when I saw this huge sign above Perry Lane saying "Loop 1 Straight Ahead".

Yeah the boo boos I made today :

Going too fast on turns
Not indicating early enough on those turns
Not thinking through early enough when I was going to turn

Yup.. that's mostly it.. I think.. Apart from breaking too fast and oh
I went through 3 orange lights
I don't count getting lost as a boo boo because I un-lost myself.

So.. have to work on that.
Yeah no seriously, God was really good to me. I prayed that He would clear the way for me, and the entire stretch of Hancock Lane from Mopac to Burnet going my way had no traffic except for me and a lone van far behind me. The neighborhood where I got lost was clear of traffic too.

And after all that, the church gang wanted me to go have dinner with them at Nick's place in Pflugerville and watch X-Men 3 at Tinseltown. Nick called me at 6pm and Jean picked it up cos I was doing the corner at Northcross Mall.. so I called him back when we got to Jean's and I knew that no way could I make it back in time.. so I just told them I'd skip it.

What is it with folks here that make them like to go into the boonies for retreats? Arkk.

Gotta rest now.. after I made it home i called Jean and we were like HOORAY!! I was relieved.. man I went for a swim after that, and had a nice bath. Gonna wind down, eat dinner and call it a day.

Becks out.

2006-05-26T10:01:00.000-05:00

I just came back from a drive to aCorn's place. My first drive on my own! Akk!! :P
2 booboos - I tried to change lanes in a one-lane road, and I got stuck in a left turn only lane when I wanted to turn right.
But traffic was very light. I took Duval and 53rd street instead of the main roads to get there, so not much cars. Yay! Prayed too.

Mid Week Madness

2006-05-25T21:00:00.000-05:00

By the time I woke up at 6.40am on Wednesday morning, Lily had already left. The number of pals I have in Austin is dropping rapidly.

The past few days have been pretty entertaining. Tuesday was Jean's birthday. She is living alone in a sublet apartment up in Far West without a car, so Lily, Vicky, aCorn and I went up to take her out for lunch. I was planning to drive but decided to let aCorn drive the highway Mopac stretch because there were too many people in the car. We had a pizza buffet at Rockin Tomato. Good deal. I am so stingy.. I approve of buffets, only buy clothes that are on sale, and go out to eat with the intention of bringing home leftovers. We hung out at Jean's for a bit then went home. Oliver came round to get all of Lily's stuff, then Mark came over and I made him and Lily sit in the car with me for a night drive to HEB. Fun.

The past week I've also been doing some driving with aCorn. We went to get Chris inspected, and cleaned him up pretty good at Genie self-service carwash. Yesterday, I was very happy because instead of aCorn driving me around, I drove us to lunch at Central Market, dropped off my mail at school, and drove home. This is all about me really having to do everything myself once the remaining stragglers leave town for summer. Well.. I make it sound really bad but actually as I've said before, the older folks like Sue, Delm and Unc Jon and Leena will still be around, so technically I could still get along without a car. Especially since school starts next week and the buses will start running again.

At 6pm Sue picked me up and we had a farewell dinner at Madam Mam's for Vicky, Katherine and Rebecca Beh, who were going back to Taiwan, Indonesia and Korea for summer. Dinner was great.

Vicky and Rebekah

Vicky and Sue

I was happy to see my cell group friends again. Vicky was first going to California to travel around, and was taking an Amtrak train to LA (I think she is still on the train, and Lily would have landed in Beijing some hours ago). Sue and I waited with Vicky at the Amtrak train station from 8 to 10.30pm because her train got delayed. After that Sue came over to check Chris out and he got her approval.

Chris

Since Lily left I went to stay over at aCorn's place. It's a really nice place with a really nice pool. I felt more like I was on holiday. We watched copious amounts of anime and went swimming. Today aCorn made a big pot of chilli for lunch.

Am at home now. I just had a nice dinner made of 3 different leftovers.

Tomorrow Mark is gonna drive with me to get the title transferred. But I have to drive to school and pick him up first. x_X

2006-05-23T23:13:00.000-05:00

I had a sudden thought. Since I'm going to be living by myself this summer, what if I suddenly die? Will anyone notice?
I mean I'm not as concerned about safety, because I know my neighbors, so if anything bad happens I can always seek their help, but we don't see each other routinely, so if I actually expired they wouldn't really know. Until the smell hits..

I suppose once my Tuesday and Friday night meetings start up again people will know if I miss them.

HMMM.

Oh yeah, there is of course church and my church pals, so I shouldn't worry about that.

HMMM. Argh, this is complicated. Need to shoot off some emails.

Cindy and Annie flew out today. Lily and Vicky are leaving tomorrow. Jean will be around but she is stuck in Far West without a car. Cost is leaving on Sunday. But church pals will still be around. And summer school starts next Wednesday.

So not so bad. Just need to.. keep myself in one piece.

What I did this weekend

2006-05-22T12:28:00.000-05:00

A whole truckload of stuff happened this weekend. To avoid compromising my roommate's reputation and to save myself the hassle of dividing up my blogging I'll blog it all in my other blog. But generally, for my part, I

Congratulated graduating people

Ate copious amounts of asian food

Shot stuff. Nick's AK47 and Joe's 1944 Mosin Nagant.
Recoil was painful! 7.62x54R..aCorn said that packs a lot of punch..

I also happened to find myself on the bustling corner of 6th street and Red River at midnight between Saturday and Sunday with Jerry and Jonathan. Just one of the many many oddities of this weekend.

2006-05-19T13:23:00.000-05:00

This is really funny.
Reading through my old entries. In one for 23rd November 2004, there is the line, "Lesson #2 : Never pack bananas in your bag. They will explode." Fast forward a year to November 12th 2005 - I pack bananas in my bag on the Lost Maples hiking trip and they explode.

Just transferred 2.55 GB of photos to my portable hard drive and deleted them from my laptop.

Thursday's events, mumblings, etc.

2006-05-19T00:49:00.000-05:00

On hindsight, I feel this year I have been quite antisocial. Like when people invite me to go out or there's a social opportunity (yes, with people I know well and am comfortable with) I will sometimes choose to skip it. Hmm. It's not that I'm a homebody - definitely not. I think it's just that when it comes to the hassle of being able to leave and get home when I want to that I just have a preference to pass on activities which I foresee I might get bored with early on. Especially with night activities.. that's partly also the sad result of an indoctrination of being cautious from childhood. Furthermore, the stuff most people do to kill time I just find pretty boring. I'm really hard to keep entertained. Like, I find activities like pool pretty meaningless. Killing time is just ridiculous to me. Alright, Lily just made me verbalize my feelings on the matter. I find it much easier to write than talk. It's not that I don't like people. I just have slightly skewed entertainment preferences compared to other people. For instance, unlike many of the people I know, I don't exactly like sitting around idly at coffee houses drinking coffee and chatting. How boring - especially when, firstly, I don't drink coffee, and secondly, coffee houses are always overpriced! This leads us to the fact that spending money on eating out in America is absolute overkill. Next Fall I am going to buy one of those huge $5 bags of frozen brocolli, a big bag of frozen meatballs, and make egg porridge with them and live off that. Arrggh. I've gotten several free meals this week (church lunch on Sunday, Delm's home meeting on Tuesday, dinner at Mr and Mrs Browne's house yesterday), but on Saturday my ISC peeps are gonna watch the Da Vinci code and they wanna eat dinner before that, which means spending more money. Sulk. I hate spending money. :P I'm probably gonna spend more in summer, like last year, because summer means going out and having fun, whereas winter = staying at home and studying.

Anyway enough of that. I spent the morning baking 2 pies for the SSA potluck. In the afternoon Costie took me to the post office to mail my super big 28 pounds $50 surface mail box back to Singapore, then we went swimming. After that I went for the SSA potluck.. fried chicken!! Oh my gosh, I have not had real super fried fast food oily chicken since.. Singapore?? Last time I went to Churches' with CK doesn't count cos that was lousy.. Man after eating just a bit of it I felt weird!! No yucky fast food for me.. We had pasta, curry, meatloaf, my potato-siam pie (yes I used Mee Siam gravy for it.. it got mistaken for pumpkin pie because of the color), bee hoon, wings, rice, tofu, chocolate covered strawberries, ice cream, yum! Lots of people went.. we went bowling after that. Actually I didn't bowl cos I didn't want to spend money, so I just did my job as SSA webmaster and took lots of photos to upload. Surprisingly the place filled up after we got there - the dorms all closed yesterday. Hmm Kim has a new car which she got really cheap. Hmm.

Just today I read an article about how it's not our everyday spendings that bust our budget; it's our once in a while big spendings that bust em. Like today - $50 on postage!! Just like that!! *urgh* *makes strangulated noises*. I'm glad I put some money in a CD account. Grow grow grow!! Heh. Maybe I should buy Texas Lotto. Or put more money into the CD account so I can't spend it!! AH!!! I am so thankful I got a tuition waiver for this summer. Hopefully the Geoscience College will give me more $$!

I'm kinda tired now.. well think I will go sleep. Some quick photos

Pie Crust is the hardest to make. Oh but people seemed to like the pie crust the most. That's cos I used a dessert pie recipe. Also, you will notice we don't have a rolling pin.

Looks bad tastes good

Everybody at Jan's apartment

At the Union Underground bowling alley.
To quote Andre - "Team Good Looking is better than Team Good!"

Lastly, I finally met Zing's sister Xiaomin after all these years of reading her blog and tracking her down.

Tuesday

2006-05-16T22:57:00.000-05:00

Had a good day today. Very pleasant weather. 80F at midday.

Got up early and biked to check out the apartments we're moving to in Fall. We like our current place, but Gail wants to live with us and she wants her own bathroom, which requires a floor plan that our current place doesn't have. After that we biked to Cheekin's house, 2 minutes both ways between campus and the new place. It was good to see him! My big korkor. It felt like visiting a troll who lives under a bridge, because he lives in this ghetto alley behind a line of restaurants whose hind walls are sprawled over with graffiti and puckered with steam vents. Ok, he doesn't live IN the alley, but his front door faces it. His parents are flying in on Thursday and they'll be going to New York for fun. Lily and I then cycled up Duval to 43rd street and chilled at the Dolce Vita cafe. Just lovely cos it was around mid-day.. such a relaxing simple pleasure that can't be enjoyed when school is in session. Then we biked back for lunch. I have really been making the rounds in the Hyde Park neighborhood! Last night I accompanied Lily to visit a friend's apartment on Speedway and 32nd, and we walked there around 10pm-ish. It was cool and quiet. The kind of quiet that is nice in a neighborhood, but after awhile the city kid in me complained that it was too boring and unhappening! Haha. Arranged to take a car for a spin and Costas happened to be driving past the bus stop where we were waiting to catch the bus to campus and gave us a lift. So I drove Chris, Costas and Lily around West Campus for a bit, during which I almost turned down a one-way and turned into the wrong side of the road but that was because there was a maintanence van blocking my lane. Haahaha. Ahhh!!! God is good. By the way, I found out this morning that the Geoscience College is giving me a tuition waiver for summer! I have been praying about that for a while, and am so tickled that God has answered my prayers. Thank you God! :) I am very appreciative. Anyway, I dropped Lily off on Guadalupe, then we drove back to the coop. I hung out with the guys in Chris' room and investigated insurance. Xia showed up out of nowhere, and for a sustained period of time the 3 guys just talked about first cars, then tech-gadgets, then monitor screens, then finances. I was SO BORED. Goodness gracious. Eek!!! Hee hee. Followed Chris to Eastwoods Park where his Hope Group was having a BBQ then walked home.. Sue picked me up at 6.45 to go to Delm's for the usual home meeting. I am glad that I have people whom I can treat as mentors here. And also good friends to inspire me, like Caleb, CK and Alice. Caleb is really nice. He has been helping me with my physics. BTW I passed PHY 301!! Woo hoo.. Unfortunately I took that class as "pass/fail" so I need to retake it for a Letter Grade.. which I am doing now thanks to the Distance-Ed center.. which is what Caleb has been helping me with. He's doing his masters in Electrical Engineering and has been very helpful. He's also one of our discussion leaders in Sunday School, and he's got his act together pretty much in terms of what really matters. Very inspiring. Alright. Guess I have to go sort out some other matters now.

Year in Review

2006-05-15T20:37:00.000-05:00

Ahh so another year of school ends, not with a bang but with a whimper.
Today I walked home at 7.40pm and took a detour to look at the creek that flows 8 minutes from our apartment. It was so quaint. I realised I never made time to go do that because the semester was just so atrocious - having schoolwork to do everyday and all that. Glad it's over.

Despite reality being the contrary, I feel like I haven't accomplished or done anything significant this school year.
But I think I have.

In the past few days, I have been having fun meeting a lot of the people I need to say goodbye to before they leave for summer. Good. A number of friends whom I just realized I treat as good friends are graduating. It's quite a different feeling from the graduations of da-jies (big sisters) and da-gers(big bros) from Singapore. Lily started packing yesterday. It was odd. Life is fun when there's no school to go to, but without school there's no reason for all of us to be here.

Let's do a recap blog! Half-heartedly.. haha..

Ok the year started out pretty badly because I had to get used living off campus. On hindsight, when you are used campus activities being your main source of entertainment because you used to live on campus, feeling disconnected once you move away, even a 10 minute walk away, is reasonable. Fall semester was very airy-fairy compared to Spring; I had so much free time in Fall I signed up as a Sierra Club volunteer. CS projects soon took whatever time I had left. Spring, as I have already stated, has been trying, with academics pervading all aspects of my time.

I wasn't very active on campus this semester. True, I was in two social groups that took up 2 nights of the week, and occasionally dropped in on the Asian Film Club screenings, but I didn't really make much of a ripple in the fabric of the university. But.. all in all, I definitely do more here than at home. Here, I strive to make every weekend count. Alright it's only been several sentences and I'm tired of doing this whole year-in-review write-up thing. So forget it, lemme spam some photos yah!!!!

I just got up to get another helping of porridge. Ate like a pig during lunch at Kinsolving with Lily and Joy. And I realised that YEAH!! I don't have any work to do!! Hooray!! Lily is making Chris' graduation scrapbook. It looks good. Cindy came over last night to watch movies with us. It's so atrocious that she lives 4 doors down and we never hang out cos we're always so busy during the semester!! Baka..

Photos of me and my pals! I never post photos of myself.. but today I just feel like it.. Of course, first we will start with a photo of my great ass.

My ass is bigger than your flipping ego, YO!
Camay, Emily and Lily seem to be taking it quite well.

Lily, whom I would not see at all if we weren't living together!!

With Jean outside Jester dorm

My favorite cute girl Camay! At Pease Park during Eeyore's Birthday Party

Miss Kiss-Me-I'm-Irish Chelsey & I down at the river for the Austin Dragon Boat Fest

Lil' Anya

YingYing & Me at Mt Bonnell

With Alice and Lily, again..

Giving Chris a good bashing..

;)
I need some other people's photos too!

Musings

2006-05-14T09:29:00.000-05:00

The past few days have gone by graced by wall to wall sunshine. Under such vast clear skies that seem to transcend human activity, it really felt like we were living in a story book world. With an untainted blueness that was deep, unsearchable and unreachable, just looking heavenwards gave one the sense of being a character within the finite, limited pages of a book. Leaving us with the sense that we did not know what was truly going on in the big wide world out there. The sky's influence on the thinking and feelings of people in a place like this must be vastly different from the role it would have in a more untamed and unruly city. Here, uninhibited by cramped buildings nor smudgy pollution, it oversees and overrules. Would it even be noticed elsewhere? This led to the question, on a sunny morning walk, with the hint of oak in the air and streams of blossoms in all cotton candy shapes and sizes lining the roadside, of how such a beautiful, seemingly perfect world could be fallen. The answer lies not in any human creation visible, but in the unpleasant and ignorable fact that elsewhere in the world, people live in poverty, in filth or in misery. That is where the imperfection lies. Trying to find fault in what is already good will not answer anything. It is where goodness is lacking that a comparison can be drawn, and the answer simply, how can an imbalanced world, where some enjoy perfection and others not, be perfect?

2006-05-12T15:39:00.000-05:00

Finals are FINALLY OVER!!!!!!
I CAN FINALLY TAKE A BATH!!!!

I think I'll go take one now.
This semester makes the record for # days in a row w/o bathing.
More than once.

End of Spring Semester : Weekend Recap

2006-05-07T22:55:00.000-05:00

becks --

[adjective]:

Extremely flatulent

'How will you be defined in the dictionary?' at QuizGalaxy.com

You don't know how happy I am to not have to go to class tomorrow!! In fact, I think this is the lightest finals season ever - I only have 2 finals, physics and hydrogeology. Yum. I had a really great weekend. I think.

It started on Thursday with the termination of the hydrogeology and environmental hazards exams. Yum. I walked to Beth's house for some delish dinner and caught up with her, Sarah, Karen and some others. The sky was CLEAR when I walked there. Around 10.15pm, an hour after Beth sent all of us home, a really severe thunderstorm started the power failed and didn't come on the whole night.

I was quite happy because my laptop was charged and uncle paul gave me that useful super torch for Christmas, so I just bummed around fliming lighting and stuff. It rained really really hard.

The next day town looked pretty trashed.

But it was okay. Ahhh sweet liberation. I took the RR bus about 8 times!!! As you know I live between school and the HEB supermarket on the RR bus route. After geology I went to HEB and then came back, dumped my stuff, picked up my textbooks that I'm mailing off for cash and went back to school, where I had lunch with Paula and 2 Graces, mailed the box, then put my bike on the RR bus and went back home. As I took it off the bus rack my front wheel swung round so my handlebar whacked me in the face and split my lip. That was frustrating. But anyway I chilled a bit then hauled some extra stuff back to campus to give to the salvation army people who were collecting donations. Then I went back home and cleaned the toilet!!! That's a first since we moved in!! OK it is nice and sparkling now, so is the kitchen. I took the bus back to school and walked to west campus for ISC! Haiyan made a truckload of chicken wings in like 18 difference sauces and we had a great dinner. We also had cake for all the people who are leaving. Nina is going to New York, Carolina is going back to Columbia, Ricardo is going back to Venezuela, and Dr Haifang is going back to Taiwan because he is now a Dr!! Haha so funny.

Wings

After discussion ended at 10pm Alice dropped me off at Pearl St Coop and after some *ahem* extraneous delays, Lily, Camay, Costas and I found ourselves at Kim's end of semester party. Mmmm we just sat around eating cheese because we didn't know all her other friends until thankfully Wenbing, Jan and Laura showed up and we played some rounds of Indian Poker with a bunch of other people. It's a very easy game. You just do what you have to do. Ha. Cheekin, Joanna and Jane showed up later too.. Andre was there too.. there were a lot of people who came and went. Ah I was quite worried it would storm but it only stormed after we got back home around 2.

Camay stayed over. Lily left for work early. I got up at 10.30am and made 2 fantastic 9-inch seafood quiches. It took me forever to knead the pastry pie crust but it turned out really well because I used a dessert pie crust recipe!! YUMMI-LICIOUS!! Camay woke up around mid-day, so we ate 1 of them for lunch. I don't know why pastry crust requires so much butter though. 1.5 cups??

Around 3pm Sue picked me and Vicki up and we drove to Elgin for the CoC end of semester meeting. We went canoeing on the small pond they have, and glided on the kids' gliding thingy, checked out ponies, had BBQ for dinner, and had a nice meeting! Unfortunately it RAINED after dinner and all the cars got stuck in the mud, and around 10 to 12 guys pushed everyone out!!!! Kudos to them..

I got home around 9.45pm and Emily called to ask if Scott's aunt could stay over at our place. Uhrm, fortunately for Lily, who was at the time out at her CSA Formal at some fancy hotel with her date, Scott's aunt changed her mind. Indeed, Lily's nightly activities have become very exciting all of a sudden. I feel like an old hag because nothing escapes my attention.. shall blog about all that in my other blog.

Today went to church! Lunch crew again! I like being on lunch crew! I don't know why though. It's fun. After church, Yingying was gonna drove Caleb to HEB cos he needed groceries - the moment she asked us if we wanted to go to Fiesta instead I *knew* what was going to happen - Caleb went off into Fiesta while Yingying, Lily and I went into Payless Shoe Store!! HAHA I *knew* that was going to happen.. Quite fun. Lily and I went to the PCL to study.. I did, COUGH COUGH, make that attempted, Physics, while Lily decided she had to sleep instead. At 6.30 Yingying picked us up again, cos Uncle Jon and Aunty Leena were going to treat us - Yingying, Lily, Alice, Caleb, Calvin and me - to Cici's pizza buffet!! AHHHHHH
Terminated
2 salads
Macaroni in tomato sauce
5 slices of pizza
1 cheese stick
1.5 brownies
1 mini cinnaroll
1 apple strudel pizza

Yum Yum Yum
Then we drove around campus taking photos. Oh well. Got home at 9.45pm. Whee.

I suppose I should study. ARGH. I really feel like taking the bus to the mall tomorrow.
Do you know that when I flew into Austin in January it was a Sunday, and Sinsin was driving me around to try and keep me awake, and one of the places we stopped by was Book People. I really liked how people would spend their Sunday afternoons cosying up to a nice book in Book People and thought that if I was bored this semester I would do that. However, what have I spent most of my Sunday afternoons doing since?? HOMEWORK!!!!! #$@%^$^##$^!!!

YESHHH

2006-05-04T20:51:00.000-05:00

AHH!!! 2 more classes (not counting the 2 finals I have to take next week) to the end of the semester!!JOY! For once I can spend Thursday night slacking around!!! All the classes I can't stand are over!! I went to Beth's house for dinner after a prolonged absence!! AHHHH!!!! AHHH!!! AHHHHHH!!!! YAYYYYYY!!! It's not that I disliked the classes, it's just that there were some people in some of them that I didn't really feel comfortable around.

Sundae mmm ice cream

2006-04-30T21:39:00.000-05:00

AKK!!! My dad visited today and he put the charsiew buns Yingying's grandma made for me in the freezer!!!! I guess they can still be eaten. :P Dad's pretty funny. We had lunch at Central Market after chuch, then Unc Raymond and him drove back to Houston. I think Aunty Lily is in the country too.. somewhere.. with Juliet.. Lily ate all the ice cream my friend got me so she bought me a new tub!

Dragon Boat Fest & Eeyore's 46th Bday Party

2006-04-30T17:29:00.000-05:00

Yesterday was a fun day. I woke up early and took the 8.16am bus downtown to meet Dawn at the Hilton Hotel. To my good fortune the bus was on detour and dropped me right in front of the Hilton, instead of going down Congress Avenue - I was expecting to walk. We had breakfast at the cafe on the first floor. At 9.30 Chris picked us up with Camay and Chelsey and we drove over to Fiesta Gardens at Town Lake to watch the Austin Dragon Boat Festival Race that Lily was participating in. Professor Mok was there helping to run stuff.. The weather was beautiful. After the races Chris dropped us off. I did some work at home, then biked to campus around 3.30 and hung around with the Kinsolving girls. Camay's friend Katy came with 2 of her friends at 5 in her big SUV and drove us to the shuttle pick-up for Eeyore's Birthday Party at Pease Park. I have never seen so many people in Pease Park at once! We stayed for an hour then had dinner at Pappasitos Cantina. Had to wait for a long time to get seats. Oh well. Fun day all in all.

Austin Dragon Boat Race at Town Lake

Eeyore's Birthday Party

Mead and his gang