One more post

Funny, funny, funny.
Don't read this unless you're a CS major. It won't make sense. If you ARE a CS major, then this is probably the best thing you've seen all day.

These are the lyrics to a rap song by monzy, a CS grad student at Stanford. CS + rap = brilliant.

So Much Drama in the PhD

"I run gmake and gcc,
And I ain't never called malloc without calling free.
I'll beat your ass until it's colored like a red-black tree
'Cause there's so much drama in the PhD."

Settling into a routine

Past few days have been uneventful.. I've started going to class (at 9 am, no less--I hate early classes) and then going to work at my lab--same research job I had last year, only now I have my own snazzy new project. I've also been working on my medical school application quite a bit, although lately I've been coming home, having dinner, and falling asleep at 8:00 and then waking up and wasting time doing god knows what on the internet. I seriously have to ban myself from the internet or something, I feel like hours of my day get sucked away looking at ebay or my friends' blogs, or whatnot. This weekend I vow to hang out more with friends, starting with Friday night when I'm taking Terry out to dinner at Tofu House (long story, but basically always wants to go there and no one else does), and then on Saturday I'm going to a barbecue thingy with Mike.
Also, on Monday my parents are going to London. Their friends got them some tickets for Wimbledon, so they're going to watch tennis for a few days and then go see some shows in London, and maybe travel around England a little. I'm sort of jealous but then again I hate watching tennis and I'm having a good time here.
What else--on Saturday my high school friend Angela is getting back from a year-long stint in Europe. I'm pretty excited about seeing her... she'll definitely have some crazy stories to tell.
And, the other day someone was talking to us about their summer plans, and they were like, "Oh, you know, I'm just doing research, studying for the MCAT," and when they said "MCAT" I seriously had this freak-out moment and started panicking about how I didn't remember organic chemistry, etc, and it took me a few seconds to realize I've already taken it. Talk about a traumatic experience.
This post is sort of long and rambly and boring... so I'm going to let it die off right here....

Small Victories

Today I made a grown man read "Crictor." And he loved every minute of it.

(Okay, so this man was Manuel, and I'm teaching him English. But still, I'm glad he liked the book.)

Chloe

Chloe is Matt's parent's cockatiel. They got him after his dad's parrot (of 35 years!) died. Matt's dad loves birds, and I didn't realize they were such awesome pets. I never got to meet Little (the Amazon that died), but even this little bird has a ton of personality and is really smart. Oh, and if you're wondering why a "him" is named Chloe, they didn't know the sex of the bird when it was little, and by the time they figured it was a boy (the face turns yellow after the first molt), he already learned his name.
Anyways, he was pretty awesome, and liked to hang out. He was always on someone's shoulder during dinner. I think he liked me because I wore a necklace and sparkly things intrigued him (which is why I'm not wearing my necklaces in any of these pictures--he kept pecking them so I had to take them off).





And, speaking of funny birds, we saw these guys at the Eureka Zoo (which actually isn't as bad as you'd think--and it was free).


There were also a pair of monkeys who were eating mealworms out of a jar. Man, I could have stared at those guys for hours. I don't know why I didn't take a picture--maybe because I was too busy watching them. I'm serious, Matt had to drag me away from them.

And, here's a picture of the famous cheese log. I've already made a nice dent in it.

Humboldt Animals

This is actually really exciting!
When we were driving through the city to Humboldt, I saw a horse trailer with something weird in it. Thought it might be a horse or a llama (it was sort of far away in traffic so I couldn't tell). Then we pulled up next to it and it was a camel! It had an open-backed trailer and it said in cheesy letters "Hi, my name is Kazzie the Camel". Funny!


And then, while we were driving up north about 3 hours out of SF, we saw a sign that said "Elk Crossing". Matt said, "that's stupid, who ever heard of elk around here," but then we looked out the window and saw a bunch of elk! You can't really see them in the picture, but oh well. They were Tule elk, I think, a big group of females, but we couldn't find the male.


Finally, when we went to the Arcata marsh (a working sewage treatment plant! neat!) we found a night heron! It was just sitting there right off the path, so still we weren't sure if it was real. I admit, we actually threw rocks in its general direction to see if it looked over (it did).

Sort of hard to see, but it's the white/dark blue spot in the midde of the picture. This is what they look like up close (not my picture):

Starting work and school

Booooooo on work and school and all that. I start work tomorrow, school on Tuesday. I wish I had annnnnother week of relaxation. Oh well, work pays the (nonexistent) bills, and I'm actually looking forward to taking this class (Stats 116) which is also a requirement for my major. It'll be something to keep me from going crazy.
Today I checked out a book from the library (Tristram Shandy) which hadn't been touched since the library got its computerized cataloguing system. By this I mean, I tried to check it out and got an error that it "didn't exist" and the librarian told me that no one had bothered to enter it into the system when they switched over to computers (probably a good 10 years ago!), and no one has checked it out since then! Poor English literature, no one cares about you any more!

I'm going to slowly post pictures from Humboldt, since I'm probably not going to be doing much interesting in the next few weeks. These photos should tide me over until I do something besides sitting on my butt all day.

People are stupid sometimes

Yesterday I met a girl who said she read about a study where people who didn't floss had a higher rate of heart disease, so skipping flossing is bad for your heart. When someone pointed out that not flossing was part of a lifestyle that made it more likely for you to be unhealthy/have heart disease, she went "oh..." like she had never thought of that before.

Yeah, yeah, I'm back

I'll post more pictures later. Right now I'm just enjoying my last few days of utter laziness.

Craigslist Adventure

So all my friends buy a ton of stuff on craigslist. Matt has gotten about 3 pairs of speakers (one pair of 1,000+ speakers for $50!) and a lot of wine, and Will got a Vespa (also for $50, when the market value for those things is around $800). Craigslist is full of a lot of people who don't care as much about getting money for their stuff as much as just getting rid of it. I had been poking around craigslist, and I decided to give it a try.
Of course, you have to know your stuff when you buy online. So of course, what do I know best? (Embarassed laugh) Need I say it--I went for the handbags. Hey, this was an instructive experience, ok?
First step: check obsessively. This was easy because I was studying for finals and would often get really bored/burnt out. So I would go to the website and check about once a day for Dooney, Coach, whatever. Most of the stuff is fake or overpriced, but sometimes there's a decent deal.
Second step: make sure the thing is real, and see if it's a decent price. The only way to find this out is if the person posts a picture, which about 75% of the people do. I can "tell" if things are real quite easily, so this was no problem for me. I found a nice Dooney sac which was pretty cheap--won't go into embarassing spending details here, but it was a good $30 less than anything you could ever get on ebay. Plus, the person didn't have weird spelling in their ad (or in e-mails that they sent me) and they lived in a nice part of town which was one sign they weren't a strange serial killer.
Third step: see if it's reasonable to pick up. I was heading to Humboldt and driving through SF, and this person lived in the area, so it was very reasonable. I would never drive more than 10 minutes (and certainly never get on a freeway) to buy something like a handbag unless I was going there already. This actually worked out perfectly and I think the fact that I was headed up there already and willing to pick up made the seller want to sell to me.
Fourth step: arrange a time. Very easy, just e-mail the person and set it up.
Fifth step: meet up. This was fun! It was like meeting someone from a personal ad, except you never had to see them again, or worry about them bothering you. Plus you got something cool at a discount, and they got rid of something they didn't want any more.
Final Verdict: Craigslist is good if you already wanted it, are going near the pickup site already, and are sure you know your stuff. It's really easy to get ripped off because a lot of people are selling fakes or probably want to get you over to their house to kill you. (Ok, maybe not so many) I don't know if I'll buy anything else on it again, but I like it more than ebay because the prices are way lower. The thing is, on craigslist you can tell someone "I'll buy it" and then they're stuck at the price they offered. On ebay, everyone has a go at it and prices shoot up for things like designer handbags. I probably made a silly purchase, but at least I can say I did the bay area thing and bought something on craigslist...

Humboldt Update

Hellooo everyone, I'm in Humboldt right now. I'm having a great time, just sort of bumming around and doing random fun things like hanging out with Matt's friends, eating a lot, and running around Arcata (town he lives in). Yesterday we went to the tide pools and found a bunch of gumboot chitons, and I have lots of good pictures. We also made mead last night, and went out to dinner for Father's Day (not my father, but it was still really nice). Today we're going to run more errands and then go to the Eureka Zoo (apparently it's pretty fun and they have a really old chimpanzee?). Oh! I got a big cheese log, it's like, a foot of wonderful goat cheese that's going to last me the summer... mmmm Cypress Grove goat cheese is the bestest.
Alrighty, well I should be back either Tuesday or Wednesday, depending on whether me & Matt's mom can convince Matt to go to the river on Tuesday. Then I'm starting my thrilling summer of research, classes, and hopefully EPGY tutoring. I think I wrote earlier, that if Rick Sommer needed someone, he'd wait til the last few days to contact me, and sure enough he did last night. Yay disposable income!
Oh, and I bought something off craigslist! This was really exciting, maybe I'll write about it later. Overall I'm pretty impressed with the quality of stuff/prices on craigslist, and I really think if you're good about checking when new things get posted, it's way cheaper than ebay.

This Is A Public Service Announcement

It's 2:10 pm, folks.



Do you know where your giant sea snail is?

Pre-emptive Woohoo

So finals are over, but there's still this 12 page term paper that I'm only half done with... and I'm supposed to move out tonight. Oh well, it's technically due on Friday so I'm in good shape, right?
Summer plans are official: Going to Humboldt for about 5 days (starting Thursday), and then coming back and taking a class + working in my lab for the summer. I tossed around the idea of doing drop-in tutoring for EPGY, and I actually talked to Rick Sommer about it (director of EPGY), but he hasn't gotten back to me, and frankly if he does it'll probably be the day before I have to start. Hmm... it would be nice to work some kind of random job this summer... would be nice to have some more money for the 'ol handbag fund.
Oh, and if Matt doesn't get into this stupid stuck up business person crappy thing (I mean super important business school program) that's for a week before school starts, we might go on another super exciting vacation!
Anyways, I have to write my paper now, and then start packing. Hopefully when I get back from my trip I'll have some kind of large post with pictures.

First one done

Obligatory post to say I'm done with my first final! Two more + a paper, but I'm not too worried about anything but CS 107. That final will be brutal. But luckily I can't study for it as much as I studied for physics. I studied my ass off for physics. You should look, my ass is definitely smaller.

Speaking of asses, I'm sort of worried about next year's eating situation at Lag. I've eaten there twice this weekend, and both times I was totally grossed out. I just lose my appetite. It's not like Ricker is fine dining either, but I remember why it felt so tasty at the beginning of this year: Lag was the only dining hall I'd eaten at before, and it sucks! I'm glad I have a car next year, or else it'll be a repeat of freshman year when I lost 10 pounds and got sort of sickly looking. Anyone up for pad thai next year?

Dana and Elinor Visit!

I had a nice study break (or should I say, a break from not studying?) today when Dana & Elinor came for lunch! I got to hear a whole bunch about their European adventures (Elinor spent a year studying abroad in Greece, and Dana went to go visit her and they both went frollicking around Europe) and be super jealous. Oh well, I'll get some time to travel when I'm... 50. Staying in your chair and playing weboggle and pretending to work is underrated anyways.
Here are some pictures:
Me & Elinor...


And Elinor and Dana, who apparently has a pathological fear of having her picture posted on the internet (but not of having pictures taken.. interesting). As a joke, Elinor covered her up when I was taking pictures, and she consented to have this one posted:

I think that's funny for some reason.

And today I swear I am going to work, because yesterday I was decent about working but really didn't get that much done considering I had nothing at all to do in the afternoon except one short meeting with a prof. But it's like, you get home and you have an hour before you have to leave, so you fuss around and check your e-mail, half an hour goes by, and it's like, I can't work in this measly half hour. Then when you get back, it's the same routine and suddenly you've wasted the whole day.
And then there's the napping situation... I've been taking massive naps constantly. Yesterday I took three naps. And yet was still able to fall asleep at night. I'd say it was sleep deprivation.

Finals week

I think I post more when it's finals week. Frankly, I'm getting sort of burnt out and tired of studying...

So earlier I bought some beautiful shoes (I mean, like 3 months ago), and I never posted a picture. I DO realize that these shoes = bunions, etc, and I would never actually walk more than 10 feet in them (i.e. from the car to the restaurant). But they are still beautiful


And besides my shoes, here are two strange pictures of Matt. In the first one I told him to puff himself up so that he looks all big. He just looks constipated... Sorry Matt, you're not as buff as you were freshman year!


And if I saw something like this on the street, I'd give it a quarter.

What's up with those penguins and that creepy stoned/drunk face? Ha ha.

It's the fashion police!

I've finally turned my obsession with designer handbags to a "useful" pastime! My current pastime consists of trolling ebay and reporting the fake designer handbags that people are listing as real. But I'm not THAT bad, I'm only reporting the ones listed for over $50, because if you want to spend 20 bucks on some fake crap, that's fine with me... I'll just have a terrible opinion of you.

Applying for Medical School Sucks!

So... I've finally decided that I want to go do Md/PhD after college, unless I get terrible MCAT scores and decide that I have no chance of getting into my top choice. We'll see, they get here in the middle of June so if I mysteriously start talking about applying for "grad" school and not "med" school you know I flopped! Right now it looks like I want to go as FAR away from here as possible, so although Stanford and UCSF (hehe, dream on, right? those are super hard to get into) are going to be applied to, I would rather go somewhere on the east coast. Get away from Palo Alto for awhile, you know?

Anyways, I've been busy writing my personal statement.. and I really hate it (the process of writing it). What the hell am I going to say that's different from the billions of other people who are applying? "I want to help people, I like the idea that I can make a difference in people's lives, blah blah". I mean, it's all the same, and I feel like I'm trying to dance around these few statements and imply them but not actually say them.

And finals are coming up. This year has sucked in terms of work.. I hope next school year I'm going to have more time to be a real person, instead of sitting in my chair all day.

In happier news, I'm leaving on the 14th with Matt to go to Humboldt! I'm going to eat cheese, go to the (cold) beach and maybe the (warm) river, and pet his mom's friend's donkey.. it will be fabulous. And everyone shut up about pot, because I know everyone in Humboldt grows/smokes pot but that's NOT the reason why I'm going there.. humph.

Don't worry, I didn't buy it!

I love you. Sigh... so much unrequited love... from a handbag.

Roble!

Yay, I'm living on 1C next year! Wonderful single, near a lot of friends. There are like, 12 people from Roble freshman year, I'm totally excited!!!!
Ugh, and the other day I got FLEAS in my room. How gross, right? So I had to call my mom and she put boric acid all over my room. Yuck yuck... hey I'm not THAT dirty, I was just running around in the fields a bunch and I probably got one attached to my pants leg or something. Matt was taking me to see a really big thistle (it was really big, like twice the size of me)...

Random picture of me after I vacuumed my room. I forgot to get a picture of the vacuum--it was this super-old funny cannister vacuum.


EDIT: I don't know why I just put that picture up. I think I just feel like I should post with pictures more often, but I don't have any new pictures except this one.