memorial

washington monument = penis envy.

happy new years, happy birthday to my cousin chong chong. what a spoiled brat. but she's still cute, nonetheless. hopefully my other cousin kate will get a little cuter as she grows older.

resolutions?
be a better cook/student/son/friend.

the last two are going to be a bit of a challenge.

mmmm cantonese conversations. my cousins in texas were trying to ease my grandpa's boredom by playing mah jongg with them.

my parents are pushing me to get California residency if i want to go to a cali med school. Top choice? Used to be UCSF. Right now it's more likely to be UCLA, for many reasons. The Cedars Sinai and UCLA med centers, the food (I may say that New York rivals LA in terms of food, but I've never been there so this statement cannot be qualified.), the family, the weather, the laid back atmosphere.

one more day on the east coast. my aunt suggested eating at mcdonald's if every restaurant near us is closed. i suggested that i backhand her with the sole of my dress shoe.

guggenheim

happy birfday, isle. i only hope you don't sleep with inappropriate men when you're drunk.

ohhhhh my nose is so red.

more anxious about grades than about the new year.

resolutions? to better myself?

i made friends today at the smithsonian. 2 squirrels. one reached up to my shoe and knee once. i petted it. i hope i remembered to wash my hands before eating dinner tonight.

my aunt and i were going to buy sparkling cider to ring in the new year. the only problem was that, at cvs, people ransacked the aisle with the champagne and other goodies. it was as if a black hole appeared at that shelf at the most inopportune moment: right before we arrived at the store. ugh.

i'm drinking milk and calling it a night.

this officer at the pentagon was yelling at me from a distance not to take any pictures. it's not like he had to worry- the building looks like a piece of shit in the first place. i'd be surprised if anybody would want to immortalize their D.C. experience with flashes of a building whose architects lacked such creativity that they had to name it after a geometric shape.

tin woodsman

Blueberry muffins. The only thing wrong with muffins is the bottom half of it- the soft part. Talk about sticking a used diaper into your mouth. When done right, the crunchy half still tastes much better than the undercooked part.

I started reading Wicked, by Gregory Maguire. Not because I want to see the musical, although it IS playing in LA right now, I believe.

Day 4: Noontime lunch, and THEN? Sightseeing. Hopefully. I feel a little better today.

I had another dream last night where I was this middle-aged man about to have sex with this woman, who turned out to be some other guy's spouse(?), so I ended up running around the place avoiding gunshots. I ended up getting hit in the shoulder, but I managed to pry the fun away from the man and started wrestling him down. I grabbed both his hands and twisted them so that it would hurt, and he ended up whimpering and giving up. But then I woke up and saw that my hands were clasped together- one hand on top of the other. My right hand, on top, was probably "me" wrestling the "other guy," my left hand.

dixit dominus

I'M SICK. Everything's worse. I'm crankier, angrier, more tired. I hate the east coast.

My nose is leaky like loose stool. Or I should probably say a running faucet. I just happened to have watched this commercial for some pill that claims to be a "stool softener." HAH! Hilarious.

Back to my being pissed off. I was even angry watching Sound of Music on TV in the hotel room. I was waiting for Maria and the Captain to get it on, and they break out into song and dance! What the fuck?! Who the hell pauses before having sex to have a sing-a-long? Stop carrying that tune and start carrying Maria to bed and ravish her. JESUS!

My aunt switched the channel back to the 24 marathon, which eased my senses a bit.

Today: a rerun of Chinatown. My experiences here are best detailed with pictures. Oh the disappointments. The mark of a good northern Chinese restaurant is the ability to make a good steamed pork bun, or 小龙汤包（小龍湯包）. No soup. First mistake. Dry dough. For a bread steamed in water vapor, second mistake. The mistakes were endless, but I'll blog about them when I get back to L.A.

Speaking of LA, Janey's over there right now and so happens to return to D.C. when I leave. Guohoho.

In the past few days, I've been thinking about kids' names for children that I'm never going to have. Not sure why.

What IS making me feel better: The Reflections- (Just Like) Romeo and Juliet. mmm oldies.

bethesda

I think I went too far out of Farragut North and ended up in DuPont Circle?

Tried out some small empanada store.

Singapore Bistro. Take Two.

My cousin's leaving early to go back to UCSD for his friend's bday party. Snowboarding minus one, I suppose.

Tomorrow? Newseum. It's a museum. Filled with history about the news. Something my aunt in journalism would enjoy. Blegh.

singapore bistro

a few of my favorite things about staying at a hotel:
carpeted floors
large towels
maids
walking around with the large bath towel after taking a shower

even my uncle is calling me cynical about relationships.

Day 2: a tour around Farragut North

hit parade

what exactly is at the kennedy center?

I bought the 7-day short pass since I'm only going to be here for 4 whole days.

Day 1:
Getting used to the Metro (subway- yeah, that piece of information is important)
Walking around Chinatown (which literally took about 30 steps)
Logging in my PokeDex new species of hipster (black skateboarder, middle-aged European)
Trying out what I thought was a new place (Potbelly sandwich)
Realizing that there's a Potbelly sandwich shop right outside my hotel (DAMNIT!)
Finding out that my aunt wanted to have dinner with me

So here I am, right after having eaten and finished lunch by 5PM, waiting for my aunt to get back so that we can have dinner at 6/7 since she wants to sleep early. Note that I had two of their sandwiches, a bowl of vegetable soup, and a jar of Arizona lemon iced tea. Grade: B-.

PSH, don't leave mushy comments on my blog. Now I have quarantine and disinfect this entire page.

kennedy center

boy do I have another story to tell: my trip to DC, my getting to the hotel, my aunt not having clothes on when I opened the door.

Why is my life continually filled with awkward moments?!

People should know better than to wake me in the morning with absurd phone calls. I can't even remember what Janey was talking about as I picked up the phone. Understanding her warp speed verbosity is a difficult task in itself; understanding her plans in a semi-coherent state in the morning made it impossible.

That, AND my uncle woke me up 2 hours later to talk to my Aunt. This conversation I could not remember either.

The point is not to call me in the morning, as I am going back to bed and will most likely not remember it.

sampson delilah

someday we'll know that I was the one for you~new radicals

I suppose I listen to 80s music because it reminds me of the time when I used to be human and a sap for that "one true love."

I keep wondering what Kaiser Permanente is up to.

Re: Janey- hmm, perhaps it was just a dream retelling an actual event. I wouldn't know, with you two crying all the time around me. Actually, it reminded me of that time when you two were arguing about something at the apartment. You two got heated up over something. It was around the time when Pink Lady showed up to take my stead. It might have been something about Asians having an advantage in interviews(?).

Re: Nants- the only flow I contributed to the conversation was the flow out of my mouth as I threw up all over you two. The sentimentality was nauseating.

Re: Doerfy- Kurt Vonnegut may be gOd, but he is no gOOd. What a nOOb. I read three of his books under Drab's suggestion. First of all, suggestions by Drab= brad, I mean, bad, mistake. 3rd time was definitely NOT the charm. He even had the nerve (insert terrible neuro joke here) to recommend even more of his works.

My ballroom dancing books and BBC Planet series came in the mail. Joy in my pants.

Leaving for DC tomorrow. 4 days with Auntie T. Hmm.

The Asian markets and Asian foods down here are multiple times better than in SF.

I usually trust my Aunt to pick decent clothing that is acceptable to wear in public. Not until tonight did I realize that the 3-piece jacket she bought me for DC makes me look like a traffic cone. BRIGHT FUCKING ORANGE!

you cry

Ugh, I am NOT going to post up hipster pictures. I see them enough everyday, I don't want to have to see them on my blog.

Construction workers? Why don't I just film direct-to-video gay porn instead? Sheesh.

I had two dreams last night, but the last one left me with a smile on my face as I awoke. HAHA TOO GOOD!

First of all, I went to bed at 1:00 AM last night. In my dream, my aunt had woken me up 3 hours after I had gone to bed to tell me that her water broke. Mind you, she's 50 years old. I wasn't sure why she had picked me instead of her kids to drive her to the hospital, but I got dressed and got into the car, but as she was about to get in the car as well, she bolted back into the house because she forgot to do some household chore. There were also no keys in the car for me to start it. My grandparents were packing into the back seat and waited as my aunt kept going back and forth, back and forth, all while I was wondering whether or not the baby would pop out.

Second dream: I was at a dinner table with Nants and Janey. They were off to some serious topic as I was there listening/casually ignoring bits of their conversation as usual. They were talking about how long it's been since they saw each other. The topic ultimately shifted to something about volunteering, and Nants was noting some point about Asians not volunteering enough(?). Then Janey was quick to announce that all three of us had done so for selfless reasons, but Nants snapped back, "You did not! You only went that one time because your ex-boyfriend was doing it too!" That led to Janey getting upset and crying. While she was crying, she said, "Has it been that long since we've seen each other?!" She was upset and crying, yet happy to have seen Nants. Then Nants started crying, and both of them carried on with their female bonding/hug fest, saying ridiculous things about seeing each other more often, hanging out more, being honest to each other, staying great friends, blah blah blah. All this time that there was a downpour, I had my head lowered at the table, laughing so hard at them that I cried. I finally got up from the table to take my tray away and to leave the ladies to bathe in each other's salt water.

Need to buy food to cook Christmas dinner for the cousins! By the way, I was researching about what an American Christmas dinner would be like, but it just seems like a rehash/remix of Thanksgiving dinner: turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie. The only difference would seem to be the addition of alcoholic sweet drinks like eggnog and white Russians. BORING, but I'll make it, anyway, since I don't normally have those dishes with my parents around to control the flow of the kitchen. Now if only Nants and Janey could control their flows in my dreams.

Water Closet finally IMs me yesterday just to tell me that he misses me. I hate him, more than my normal basal level of hating people.

caviar wishes

"Now, I don't claim to be an A student, but I'm tryin' to be.
For maybe by being an A student, baby, I can win your love for me."

I'm a sucker for oldies- it could be the old school view on love. More honest, clean? Me listening to music = me not trying to be an A student. I don't even know if I've ever been serious about my grades after freshman year of college. Oh, where has the drive gone?

I've been using Safari 3.0 in conjunction with Firefox. Even though it's still slower, it has a few other perks that Firefox lacks.

There's a tap dance studio somewhere in downtown.

Multiple events signifying the end of the world:
Jamie Lynn Spears is pregnant at 16 years of age. And she's keeping the baby.
They're making a 4th Bring It On movie.
I keep getting drunk test messages from over yonder on the east coast. Yeah, I'm talkin' to you, Nilk and Dwarfy.

elvira

My vice: a 14 oz. bag of Swedish Fish, which I finished in 3 days. Remind me never to buy a bag this large again.

Still can't get the eyes right. Maybe my characters will all have helmets/hats. So that I don't have to deal with drawing their hair. Should I come up with a plot for the characters, or their design, first?

You THINK you know? Answers, please!



Facial expressions for my characters.
Top Left- definitely going to be Drab's neutral face. HAHA.
Top Right- Leigh-Ugh. Not sure why I gave her buck teeth.
The angry faces will be all me.
Middle Left- Crybaby. Clare.
Bottom Right- Depressed one. Nants.
Flirty one- either Janey or Isle. I haven't decided yet.

I would like to get a digital camera soon. To document my tracking down various species of hipsters, to present to you all the disastrous situations that have occurred to me in The City.

treatwise

My mother now haunts me on AIM in addition to QQ. I bet my aunt put her up to this.

Most likely to have sex with a friend.
Most likely to try to have sex with a friend.
Most likely to have sex with strangers.
Most likely to have sex with Asians.
Most likely to have sad sex.
Most likely to have morning sex.
Most likely to masturbate.
Most likely to have sex with a prude.

These all describe someone you know. Guess who?

One person actually complimented me on my Mega Man desktop background. Then he proceeded to talk about Sonic, chili dogs, gold rings, and Dragon Ball Z. I gave in and joined in the conversation. Nerdy old boys who haven't gotten rid of their childish nerdy ways. Sigh.



My abstract representation of a certain people, although I forgot to remove the text which clearly gives it away. Oy.

lincoln logs

Memory: throughout elementary school, I could never remember if you spelled Lincoln with an l or a capital I.

"Last night, I took a walk in the snow, couples holding hands, places to go.
Seems like everyone but me is in love. Santa can you hear me?" My only wish this year is to rid the world of those couples that hold hands in public. Shameless.

As per Mademoiselle Mareau's request: my recipe for the month. Not cooking frequently to make it a recipe per week.

At home, I'm usually not so fond of my parents' cooking, but they were able to make decent soups. Warm you right up, if not scald the taste buds off your tongue. Yes, my parents were always pushy about my brother and me eating food.

So there was this one soup with a tomato base, but a slightly sweet taste to it, that was/is one of my favorites. Here you go:
For every vegetable, buy in equal amounts, except for the potatoes, which you only want half as much. I personally like tomatoes, so i would load it up on tomatoes. You could also reduce the amount of onions. These recipes are always for 1 person: ME.

In-the-meantime nameless soup:
1 Tomato
1/2 russet potato
1 yellow onion
carrots
figs/dates
stalk of ginger
2 cloves of garlic
basil
salt
pepper
corn/olive/whatever oil
sesame oil
H2O

After the longest time, I finally figured out that my parents had been adding figs/dates to the soup to create that mildly sweet scent.

Anyway, add your water, then the oil, and heat it up to a boil. During this time, you should be able to wash your vegetables and chop them up into bite-size pieces. You want to chop up the carrots and potato first, since they will take longer to soften in the hot water. Note on the oil- you only need a sprinkling of sesame oil.

After leaving the carrots and potatoes boiling for a while, you can add the tomatoes and onions. You're adding these later because if you had put them in earlier, they would be mushier than your carrots and potatoes, and nobody wants to be expecting something soft and then biting into a tooth-splitting carrot while drinking piping hot soup. I didn't have any figs at the time, so I just put in sun-dried dates in the pot. Don't worry about these- they're only there to add that figgy aroma. They disappeared from my soup when it was done, surprisingly.

Now that everything's in, you can add more water if you don't think there's enough, but once you hold the amount of water constant, you can start adding the finely chopped garlic along with the stalk of ginger into the broth. For the salt and pepper, add a little at a time, tasting along the way to make sure there isn't too much to cause hypertension/cardiac arrest. Lastly, sprinkle basil or whatever herb gives you the desired high over the water's surface and mix.

Let it simmer for a while longer, and you'll be done in no time. If Yan can cook, you can cook! (as well as randomly shout indecipherable Engrish)

If you personally attempt to use my family's recipe for soup, and it turns out poorly, I will personally come to you, heat the soup to boiling, and throw it in your face. Enjoy!

swedish fish

Still practicing with the pen. Thoughts? A demonic Buddhist Mickey Mouse. His East Asian cousin.

Apparently manga artists do the penwork first before layering the pencil drawing over it. More of my fiddling about.

rod stewart

My landlords/ladies are useless. Here's how the conversation went a few days ago:

Me: "Hey, ___. I came into my apartment the other day, and there was this giant puddle of water on my kitchen floor. Seems there's a leak from the ceiling, and now another crack has appeared outside the kitchen."

Landlady: "OH NO!"

Me: "....."
Me: "Could you get someone to fix this?"

Landlady: "Oh, do you want me to give you some phone numbers, and you can call them?"

Me: "Fine."

Aren't THEY supposed to be taking take of their apartment complexes when there's problems with the infrastructure that weren't caused by me? USELESS I tell you!

I decided to glance again at my Google Analytics, and it seems I've been getting more visitors recently, upping my daily traffic to 10+ visitors per day. Yeah, nothing to be that excited about.

More decisions: my manga character will have a black trenchcoat. Or a tailcoat.

More thinking about characters to add: So a lot of manga has female characters with abnormally large breasts, and I thought, who could better fit that role other than Isle?

Recommendation for mainstream Christmas songs that will remind you of your childhood in the early '90s, when you watched such movies as Home Alone and the sequel: NOW that's what I call Christmas! I only recommend that because in my attempt to get that one Christmas song by Michael Bolton, I had to get the entire album.

I was wrong. My once-a-month dreams about Drab STILL continue. UGH!!!

bu rai su

Thanks for the quick reply, B-米, even if you were slow on the title.

Now, for my quick response:



What do you mean, lazy?! Yeah, I guess that is partially true, but I have a month's worth of Christmas break to realize my hate in kawaii manga illustrations.

Oh, I guess I just forgot to change my subtitle. It was during that period when I was randomly watching INOJ's "Love You Down" music video, and her name actually stood for "I know J." Her name's Ayanna Porter, so I still don't know who J is.

salmiak

Bamboo Fun! Preliminary drawings to get used to this tablet.

cellular automata

Outside of my family, I still haven't found anybody from high school, college, or here that would actually dare to eat the extreme food that I do. Extreme as in animal parts not usually in the American staple. Examples: pig ears, duck tongue, congealed blood, endodermal derivatives. I don't even think Janey or Nants would eat that stuff.

My tentative nickname for Clare and Nants if they ever started dating: Clancy. HAHA!

My first instinctive thought whenever I walk under a flock of pigeons in the air: Please don't crap on me. For those of you who, as children, have experienced this humiliation, you would understand.

3 finals and 1 project left. Apparently I have an A- for now in that one class I'm worried about. Hopefully I can A+ the test and get an A for all my classes this semester.

One of my random thoughts of the day: I was thinking about soft hair, and people in particular that have really soft hair. One person that came to mind was Isle, but only after she showers. I only know that it's soft from all those times that she catches me off guard and rubs against me in all these weird positions. That sounds kind of dirty. OH WELL.

Hmm, post recipes on my blog? I'll give it a thought.

My observations on some people that I talked to in recent months:
"So how are you?"
"Oh, I slept with so and so."
"Nothing I haven't heard before."

My observations on other people that I have talked to recently:
"SO, how are you?"
"Oh, me so horny/sexually frustrated."
"Nothing I haven't heard before."

In other news, I finally impulsively purchased a tablet sort of mouse pad with which to graphically manifest my fucked up thoughts. Stay tuned!

last supper

before Christmas, anyway.

Celebrating the end of one of my finals by eating three Banh Mi's = not such a great idea. I was stuffed and wanted to take a nap before seeing Drab for dinner so that my eyes would not look tired and puffy, but every time I would lay down, it would feel as though food were sitting in my esophagus. Not a very pleasant feeling. Perhaps I should have gotten trashed like the wayward Drab? Mm, but then the repercussions besides the hangover. Such is alcohol.

My first time out on the town in a while. And I spent it having dinner with Drab. Hmm, I should probably go out again. I cannot possibly end my journey in SF for this year with me having a drab dinner.

So Drab recommended earlier in the week that we go eat at Burma Superstar. It was on Clement, so I figured it wouldn't be so bad for an Asian restaurant, as the more favorable locales are most likely to be found along Clement or Irving. STAY AWAY from Chinatown, by all means possible. Any choice there would be even more disastrous than all of Drab's previous picks combined. Anyhow, what could go wrong? This restaurant has a smiling Buddha face for their logo.

What I didn't expect was for Drab to change the location on me the night of. First of all, I've gotten back into the habit of not showering when I focus on studying. So tonight, I finally took a shower, got dressed, and figured out how to get to the restaurant by bus. I had initially planned on taking the 28 up 19th, and then getting on a bus on Clement that would take me directly there. The only problem was that just as I had gotten on the intersection of 19th and Taradise, I saw my bus across the street leaving. I walked over to the bus stop, and it said that the next bus would arrive in over half an hour.

I pulled out my map to figure out another route to get over to this area close by Drab's neighborhood. I walked back 4 blocks to ride the Muni line to Forest Hills, and then I would take the 44 bus line up north to get to Clement and 6th, about 3 blocks away from my intended destination. Only, I didn't expect Drab to call me as I was riding the bus. He called because he wanted to eat somewhere else, for some reason, but I wasn't listening as I fumed over the situation. I immediately got off the bus, and luckily I got off one street away from Irving, where the N-Judah line stopped. I hopped onto the N-Judah, changing my route to get to Church station.

During my time on the bus, I was minding my own business, looking at my Muni map (much more useful than NFT, by the way, and for 1/3 of the price), and this old man in a navy captain's hat pops up right by my face, asking me if I needed any help. I had to dismiss him by saying that I was just looking. He talked to me even more, saying,"Well, you've got the right map there." Thank you sir, as if I didn't know that in the first place. San Franciscans trying to be helpful. Sheesh. If I need help, i'll ask for it.

Finally, I had made it to Church, but the problems never stop, do they? I ended up having to wait over an hour for Drab to arrive, all while fellow pedestrians ran into me or brushing against me. I suppose Bay Area natives are used to that crowded mentality on city streets. That must explain why they stroll along like cattle, not caring about whether they knock against each other.

Once Drab arrived, everything seemed like a blur- I can't quite remember what had happened up until the restaurant. OH, the restaurant! I can't remember the name. You don't want to either. It's just another Indian restaurant.

It would seem that Drab hasn't changed much, but the restaurant was dark, so I wasn't able to analyze him as usual. What I was able to analyze though, most importantly, was the food. I ordered a Mango Lassi and Lamb Bota Masala(?), a tandoori-like dish. The Mango Lassi, although amenable, lacked the chill that usually makes it a refreshing drink, but the taste was sufficient. My problem was the main course. The waiter had laid everything down on the table except my dish, but when he did, my visual field instinctively zoomed in on the placement of his hand on the fish. He had broken one of the cardinal rules of a waiter, which is to never stick your fingers into the food! His thumb was, no, he was elbow-deep in my sauce. I was just gawking as he took the other plates off our table while the red tandoori sauce dripped from his left thumb. UGHHH!!! Not only that, the meat was a bit dry for lamb, and the sauce lacked depth. It tasted more like those sauces you make from powder.

Drab said that I was too picky, which I can't really argue, since my entire family has called me that since I was young. My brother would always the the one to finish anything off my plate if I didn't like it. Maybe that's how he got fat as well, although we both ate pretty much the same amount, even up to now. I would say that I am rather a constructive critic. How can you expect the food to get better if everyone that goes in settles for mediocre quality? Grade for this place whose name I cannot even remember: B.

Memories of the night: "Enjoy me while you last," "my little whore," "Taste and Smell conference," and coming back with an empty suitcase. Ohhh that would be too good if that were to occur.
Drab had also asked if I had found Mi Gorengs over here, which I coyly implied that I forgot. Or maybe I just directly said I forgot and lied about? In any case, I may in fact know where to purchase them, and I may just be keeping the location of my treasure chest safe. He's after me Gorengs!

Lifelong dreams, hmm? One can only hope. I can only hope that I don't dream about Drab tonight. They usually occur after close encounters with that third kind. Adieu.

seahorse

The hippocampus looks nothing like a seahorse. Maybe the head of a seahorse.

Every time I try to enjoy myself in my tank and undies, the Russian lady knocks on my door, disturbing my peace. I was standing there freezing in my tank and pajamas, as she wanted to reclaim her chair, mixer, light shade.

Still, she said that she's contacted that neurosurgeon guy and would like to arrange a meeting with him. Things are looking up?

Oh god. After sending this email, I just had to let out this horrific shrill.

I nominate that the government immediately remove immigrant, decrepit, geriatic Asian drivers off the streets. I was almost rolled over by this one person taking a right turn in front of me when there was obviously this other lane behind me specifically constructed along 19th Ave. for right turns.

I'm either writing about sea otter feeding/sexual behavior, or I'm writing about social interaction/ecology in killer whale pods. This paper's going to suck. Whatever. Sea otter sex is so dangerous- for the woman and other species swimming nearby a male otter in heat. My marine bio professor has something against Australia. he says it sucks there because practically everything in the marine environment will either hurt, poison, or kill you. On the contrary, New Zealand is fine. Touch anything you want.

Becoming more forgetful as the semester winds down. I keep forgetting to put my wallet in my packet. As a result, I end up walking to and fro rather than ride the bus.

My aunt decided to buy a non-refundable winter jacket in HK rather than let me buy something here that I could return if it doesn't fit. She says that nothing's refundable in HK. Makes sense, i suppose.

Another conversation with Janey. Even more skepticism about her culinary aptitude. Oy. I would have to say, from experience, that cooking for someone you think you like (but not really) is not worth spending the entire day smelling like Chinese food.

Walking by McDonald's today reminded me of Clare. A disgust always arises because I don't know how ANYBODY could enjoy those $1 McChicken sandwiches. EGH!

omanta

That feeling of being behind never leaves.

Would you put your personal success over friendship, or would you rather keep your friends while accepting failure? How selfless is too selfless?

An invitation to an event without even the slightest mention of food. How long have you known me?

Talking to Janey recently. Thinking- why put ourselves in situations that we're not going to enjoy, even if it is just for others to enjoy your presence? Getting drunk and hung over to get over a tedious circumstance which you would otherwise not put yourself in.

My parents were very poor when they were younger. Looking at the 99 cent preserved bean curd in my fridge reminded me of that. Even though one dollar for a jar of bean curd is relatively inexpensive, they only had one cube out of that jar with one bowl of rice for lunch everyday. They were that poor back then. How far they've come to get where they are. I wonder if I could ever find drive like them, to do something grand. For them, it was economic mobility. walking 5 miles to and from school everyday, a family of 9 living in a 3-bedroom house.

I'm trying to avoid writing my marine biology paper. It's 2 AM. I don't know what I'm doing up.

Going to be in the city until the 22nd. Since I'm the only one who knows when I have free time, maybe I should put forth the effort to ask particular people out to dinner? But the effort's not there. And the prospect of an awkward, stomach-upsetting time. Hmm, decisions, decisions. I can't believe I care, even if just a little.

I'm drinking orange juice 6 days past its expiration date. Not sick yet, but the first instance of baked feta cheese- stomach virus for two weeks. Damn you, Colina's.

quantum

I hate that I get excited over doing a neuroscience problem set. Ugh.

3 dreams last night. Jesus.

1.) I was shopping at a Safeway along Irving/Judah(?) and walking out to the parking lot when I see this girl who looks like Leigh-Ugh in a green SUV talking to this bloated figure that looked like Clare. Once she stopped talking to Clare, her eyes moved until they met mine, and a huge smile was painted across her face. Noting that I couldn't dodge this meeting, I walked up to the car, looked inside, said my hellos. What was odd was that I couldn't see Clare's face in this dream, except his body was this rotund mass with a stomach the size of a yoga ball pressing against this tight white shirt. It was very disgusting, so Leigh-ugh and I walked off while leaving him in the car. We kept walking down this sidewalk and reminisced about what was happening with both of our lives.

- After I woke up, went to the bathroom, went back to bed
2.) I was at another supermarket, only this time my ex-roommate, the Lebanese Muslim, catches me, and we end up talking as we stroll down the street. He wanted to invite me to some party of his, except I was baffled because I didn't think he partied/drank. I think I asked him, "When did you get so many friends?" because, obviously, it didn't seem like he would have many to begin with.

3.) I was on facebook and stumbled upon Water Closet's UNT facebook profile, except his profile pictures were a slideshow of him naked and taking a giant dildo, attached to someone's body, up the ass, face-in-pain included. This was the shortest of the dreams. Gross.

So glad I don't try to intrepret any of my dreams.

festive feast

My inner and outer nerd couldn't resist- I already ordered the Planet Earth/Blue Planet series online. Eek. Or rather, GEEK!

I decided to go to Borders to catch up on magazines, comics, books, etc. What I didn't expect was there to be so many Asian people in the store pissing me off. While that episode on American Dad about stereotypical Asian parents humored me, the people in the store just pissed me off. Asian parents not keeping their loud, crying children in check. Old Asian men pushing their way through the magazine racks without saying, "Excuse me." Asians crowding the floor of the manga section.

I bit off more than I could chew. Again. Ohhhhh. 6 pieces of chicken, two servings of cole slaw, 2 servings of mashed potatoes with gravy, 3 tacos, and some tostada. I feel gross.

What does James Brown want me to get offa when he sings, "Get up offa that thing!"?

Foods that reminded me of people at the supermarket:
English muffins- Drab- white, doughy, turns bright red when exposed to radiation.
Colby Jack block of cheese- Janey- blockhead, cuts the cheese.
Gefilte fish- Leigh-ugh- Jewish.
Dark chocolate- Crassie- bittersweet, hard to chew.

2 reliable networks with which to watch shows online: Fox and ABC. Yes, still watching Grey's Anatomy and Private Practice. Shameless, I know. But watching them drinking and dancing made me feel like drinking and having a dance party. Not necessarily drinking tequila though. I don't know why tequila is their drink of choice on that show.

tubby

I feel embarrassed for myself.

This man behind me had garden vegetables, two baguettes, white wine, and other miscellaneous classy items for dinner.

Me? 4 tubs of cottage cheese, 4 packs of salami/bologna, 5 bottles of various vitamins, and a tomato.

Another dream last night:
I was sitting across the table from my ex-best friend of 2nd to 6th grade, and we were continuously handed plates of food to eat- you'd think this would be a great dream, but hold on- while filling out this sheet of paper that was a test/questionnaire. Behind me sat my brother with some other fellow. The course went on, smooth sailing, but when everybody was presented with a bar of chocolate on a plate, I proceeded to eat it by cutting it with a knife. I kept eating it until somebody spoke up and started complaining about why I was using a knife to eat a chocolate bar. I got angry to the point where I grabbed the last of the chocolate and threw it so hard against the wall on the other side of the room that it crushed into oblivion. Not only that, it hit a point on the wall between the judge and Chad, the R.A. I have no idea how Chad ended up in my dream- I have never spoken more than one or two words to him every time I saw him. Weird. Then he got miffed at the chocolate almost killing him that he went outside with the judge and started yelling, so loudly that everybody could hear him.

My back aches. I'm done typing.

wildlife

I forgot to bring my wallet with me. I had to spend half an hour walking to school and then half an hour walking back. Ugh.

I should publish a book for the Audubon Society, based on species of hipsters in California.

New species sighting: the plumber hipster. As I was walking towards a building, this hipster on a bicycle zooms past me. Lo and behold, this hipster's tight-ass pants squished his tight ass together and up past his low-rise jeans accumulating into this mass of an ass-crack which made me vomit a little in my mouth.

I had two dreams last night. In the first one, I was Miranda from Sex and the City, and it was basically me talking to Carrie as if it were an actual episode from that show. I was pissed off in that dream about something, other than the usual me being pissed off.

So 8 grams of fat is supposed to be about 10% of our daily fat intake. Does that mean I should eat about 80 grams of fat per day? Does that number sound a bit too high?

Here's to hoping that my ex-roomies go on to watch the movie without me. My back is sore, and my legs are hurting from trying to do the side/front splits in my living room. Plus I want to go buy a tub of cottage cheese and binge on that. MMM.

he said, she said

Tread lightly on Facebook- you don't know what you can find while trolling through profiles. Oh, why do I end up catching people in such awkward moments?

I always wonder what the people behind me in line at the supermarket are thinking when I place my food on the conveyor belt. 2 bags of chips, frozen pizza, and 5 pounds of baby carrots.

New obsession- cottage cheese with fruit jam.

It was raining outside AND inside my apartment. Fucking landlords won't fix the dripping water in my kitchen. There was a downpour in my kitchen today, although, it was partly my fault for agitating it. Can't believe I'm stuck here for 10 more months.

So far, most premeds I've known were the ones who drank and partied all the time. This makes you wonder whether your doctors were like that when they were in college. The entire nation is being treated by alcoholic party animals. And nobody has complaints about this? Which also makes me question the admissions process/committees for medical school. They want to take in those who hide incriminating photos of them in their shit-faced stupor.

We finally started Matlab in class, and yet I can't get this simple heat conduction program to work. Screw you, Matlab. What's so special about matrices, anywho?

cero

12/5
Oh the addictions.

I don't get it. Apparently December is the month to gay it up or something. I'm getting invited to some gay New Year's bash, in Dallas, of all places. Whatever.

A lot of missed opportunities. Not sure if I feel bad at all for not being proactive. Being an active member of society is overrated.

I just can't control my feet.
---
12/6
There was this old man at Safeway today who was trying to pull one of the carts that the clerks had rounded up to put back outside. He kept pulling on the end, but he couldn't manage to get a cart out because they were all tied together with that rope on top, yet he kept pulling and pulling, pulling the lines of carts a couple feet away from the lady who was trying to do her job and put those carts back outside.

2 more weeks and I'm done with the semester. I may have to settle for an A- in one class?! UGH.

Have you ever revisited a dream you had the other night?
Another night, this dream occurred: I found myself in a dormitory with an ex-friend from high school. Turns out I was his roommate in a suite of four. Back in a suite again?! This was more like a nightmare. I was stuck in this tiny room, but I had claimed my side of the room. That room led into the living room, where the other two were supposedly going to sleep.

Last night, my nightmare has come back. Except this time, I was in some warehouse next to the dorms where I was sitting in a desk waiting for the MCAT examination to begin. Taking the MCAT again?! Even more of a nightmare. Anyways, I guess I had forgotten something, so I quickly got up out of my desk and ran outside to get into the dorms next door. After climbing a few stairs, I walked into my suite and into my bedroom to find that my roommates had rearranged everything. They had bunked all 4 beds into that tiny space, and the desk that I had sprawled my stuff all over no longer had any of my belongings on top. I walked back into the living room to find all my junk lying there. Even my imaginary roommates piss me off when they mess with my things. Oof. To top it off, I was too pissed off to realize that the MCAT had started, at which point in the dream I started screaming, "NOOOOOOOOOOO~!"

And I woke up.

ATP

When will I be able to stop taking tests?

Birthdays- Yeshua and Nilk.

My ex-roommates want to watch the Golden Compass, of all movies that are out there. Maybe I should read the book first?

Dream last night.

Ever watch those eerie black and white horror flicks? My dream was in black and white. I was on this bus, alone, staring through the windows on the other side of the bus as the driver took me down this trodden path. For most of the time, it was just suspense building up, accompanied by that creepy orchestra music.

Then, I turn over to my right side and everything is instantly colored while the cutest little baby Asian girl looks at me from the arms of her mother/grandmother, and says, "You're cute!" I started laughing in my dream, so overwhelmed by her cuteness, and was thinking if only I could have a daughter like that one day. At that point I woke up.

Water Closet is trying to befriend me on facebook, through my fake profile. I hate him. Still.

downgrade

I decided to purchase the new Mac OS X Leopard because I don't have my startup disk with me, hence I couldn't install X11 to use for my comp sci class. Unfortunately, I should have known better than to have stayed on campus past 12:30.

Why? As I was walking up the street again, I notice this Muslim-looking gentleman wearing a jacket reminiscent of the Express label, reminiscent of a jacket that my ex-roommate used to wear. I thought it could be him, so I started taking out a folder from my messenger bag to stare down at my papers so that he couldn't notice my face. I started crossing the sidewalk only to find this dark figure alongside me walking towards the other side of the crosswalk. It turned out to be him! And I accidentally gave him my actual cell phone number because he and my other ex-roommates want to go see a movie this weekend. UGHAHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!

To top it off, it took ages for Leopard to install on my Macbook. If they were to more accurately describe this operating system with a feline, they should have named it Mac OS X Garfield, or some other chubby, voluptuous cat, because everything is about X times slower than when I was on Panther or Tiger, whatever 10.4 was.

What else was disappointing? The Mi Goreng. It doesn't taste quite right. Maybe the humidity in Houston had something to do with it.

alastair fothergill

ugh, always trying to one-up me. asshole. I would prefer it if we didn't nerd out on common threads. Yes, you may have dreamed of marine biology as a child, but those dreams have all been quashed. Move on, to something equally as nerdy, like Battlestar Galactica DVDs. Or something that appeals to your previously Christian upbringing, like A Christmas Carol, or Celtic Woman- A New Journey: Live at Slane Castle, Ireland? So much for tis the season to be giving. I hate you.

Learned about zooplankton today. Not much interesting about these critters, except that they support practically all life on the planet in some indirect manner. You also don't want to swim through an aggregate of them, as it will feel like swimming through a large blog of mucus.

HAHA! ohhh those Celtic Women. Watch the preview video of them on Amazon. Hilarious!

Christmas in the city- everybody's hanging up their not-so-grand scale decorations outside their apartments. It's quaint.

Sighting: new species of hipster today. The pregnant hipster. Tight jeans with an expandable waistline. Disgusting.

There's this girl working at a cafe. I may just have to apply for a job there. Just to see her, and the Asian music videos.

latrotoxin

ugh, quit copying me, drab. Since I'm already getting Blue Planet, you should ask your parents to get you BBC's Planet Earth, instead. That way we can switch when we're both done with our DVDs and enjoy twice as much violence.

Walking down my street back to my apartment, I was thinking about the loves in my life, and I could only come up with two true loves: lunch and dinner. Breakfast is one of those inconvenient flings I find myself having infrequently.

Anorexic girls- when looking at the hipster ones, in particular, you can see just how skinny their legs are compared to the rest of their body and wonder how all their upper torso's weight hasn't shattered all the bones in the lower segment. I felt as though I could snap her femur in two and use them as toothpicks.

Since I'm only going to be staying in D.C. for a week, it's probably not worth it to invest in any below-freezing attire. I might as well just buy an overcoat and wear layers underneath.

The sitcom about my life would definitely include a Jew. Jews on television are just too hilarious.

Tonight: another attempt at the omelette. 3 eggs.
Venture this weekend: Banh Mi. Going to have to stop by Irving to pick up the ingredients, although I don't have a toaster oven.

frenzy

That vital information reached my eyes a few minutes too late. I already made an omelette with 4 eggs. SO GOOD! That's what I would have said, if I had made it with 3 eggs or less. The filling was great. Eating 4 eggs is disgusting.

Perhaps I should just make omelettes for my weekend brunch, except using a different cheese besides mozzarella. Something about it doesn't quite fit.

So the plan is to stay in The City until I finish finals, fly over to LA and stay there for a month. Within that time, I'm going to be spending a week in D.C. doing God knows what while my Aunt goes to work. On top of that, I need to find some winter clothing. I tried asking Janey for advice about this, since she lives around D.C., but the only lesson that I learned from her was that wearing coats with fur linings would look feminine. Sigh.

Perhaps the temperature drop has also accounted for me wanting to stay in. Even though I don't turn on the heater, I have closed almost every window and added my Rice blanket on top of the bright blue Asian one.

Get off on this.

What am I getting off on? BBC's The Blue Planet: Seas of Life. And trench coats. What's enjoyable is the grand, majestic arrangement/accompaniment of an orchestra set against the carnage of killer whales ripping seals, penguins, and baby whales to shreds. Quite delightful, yes.

jager

hmm, being an otaku might not be that bad. Skipping over this awkward phase of my life, kingdom hearts manga, and dumplings. Nothing wrong about that except for the grease and the living in my parents' basement.

This body is getting too old. I slept for only a few hours Friday morning since I had a test then, but by the time it was evening my eyes were dried and irritated and my body was giving in to back pain. I decided to go to bed early that night.

I wake up Saturday morning, and the exhaustion still didn't go away. With the notice of just some graduate student party, the night didn't seem like it was going to be so promising, so I decided to stay in and recuperate.

Yeah, so I pulled a Kenji and flaked out/didn't return some missed calls. This was a bad weekend to try to reach me. I can't even drink a glass of water without pouring it all over myself, I'm that tired.

That, and I sank into a bit of a depressing spell. Didn't feel like living in the real world for a while, so I regressed even further into my hobbit hole. my 9 feet high ceilings, second story hobbit hole.

Other reasons could be my parents. All week long, complaining to me about what I want to do with my life. Frankly, I don't tolerate anybody that tries to talk to me about the future, particularly mine. It just annoys the hell out of me, being someone who just enjoys living in the moment. Last night when I was getting ready to go to bed, I was also thinking about this. It could be why I enjoy being around my cousins so much. We just enjoy each other's company, laugh and have fun without butting in to each other's lives. As in, we talk about what's going on, but we'd never tell each other what to do or give each other advice unless it is requested. My relationships with my cousins are just effortless, to say the least. Which made me think even further about the difference between my extended family and friends. A story for a different time.

Omelettes for lunch- kale, mushrooms, tomatoes, spring onions, garlic, mozzarella cheese, and turkey/bologna(?). How many eggs am I supposed to use to make one omelette?

5 pinkies up the ass. That was the most disgusting reply to an email that I've gotten in a while. First of all, an email without even the promise of food/dinner. Secondly, 5 pinkies suggests 5 individual hands from at most 5 different people. Very disturbing image. Drab manages to ruin my appetite even without having to go out and eat dinner with him.