Blogging during my conference

I'm sitting through hour 3 of the second day of my conference and sort of zoning out. Conferences are interesting (get to hear a lot of current science, get to meet a lot of people, etc) but 8 hours a day of talks can get really tiresome. Like one of my postdocs said, "Even if I wanted to hear all the talks, I definitely wouldn't want to hear them one after another." Hear hear.
Anyways, today I'm working on my medical school secondaries and listening to the talks with half an ear. A lot of the talks today aren't particularly pertinent to my field anyways.
But the point of my post is to say that I'm conflicted about Gov. Schwarzenegger. Yes, he's a republican and a lot of people voted for him because it would be "funny" and he doesn't really have any politcal merit other than marrying an heiress, but I sort of like how he flagrantly goes against a lot of Bush's policies--and even against his republican constituents. Just today in the news, he's apparently involved in a plan to reduce greenhouse emissions, which the White House refuses to address. I consider myself really ignorant politically, so I'm not sure if he's actually doing a good job, but I appreciate the gesture.

Off to SD

Tomorrow I'm going to San Diego until Sunday. I'm spending Wednesday through Friday morning at the Automated Function Prediction Conference at UCSD, then I'm going to stay with Katherine from Friday to Sunday evening (hopefully seeing Angela for awhile also). Going to the flea market and the wild animal park! Also studying for the GRE and doing more work on my medical school secondaries...

Following the Doritos truck home from work...

Yesterday, I was following a Doritos truck down El Camino, and between random cravings for Doritos (and a crazy plan to ram the truck with my car to see if Doritos would spill out) I had to stare at the sign painted on the back of the truck, which said "Frito-Lay: Food for the fun of it!". Which clearly is an acknowledgement by Frito-Lay that "yes, we fuel the wave of junky snacks that makes two-thirds of Americans overweight, but what the hell, it's FUN!".
If you go to their website, you see a different (maybe newer?) slogan, which reads, "Frito-Lay: Good food for the fun of it!". Hmmm... sneaky. Are they implying that the food is good for you? Or just good as in tasty? Either way, I think it's a bad slogan and I'm glad I didn't end up ramming the Doritos truck, because although it would have been pretty FUN eating those chips, I don't think I want to consume anything whose manufacturer openly admits is crap.

Lab outing

On Sunday, I went to Malibu Grand Prix with my research lab for our annual "day of fun". I think the last time I went there I was seven or eight years old, which explains why I thought it was next to the Century Park 12 movie theater and had to call people for directions when I couldn't find it. I guess I wasn't paying attention that last time I was there... We raced the go-karts around the track, played mini golf and arcade games, and then went back to Russ's (my professor) house for a barbecue.
Am I the only person who hasn't driven the racecars around? I feel like I was super conservative when I was racing because I had never done it before, my car handled like crap, and I don't like driving that fast anyways. Overall it was pretty fun, but at $5.00 for ONE trip around a half mile track (which lasts from a minute to a minute and a half), it's a little pricey. I did, however, get the sweetest car ever:



I'm the highway patrol. Oh yeah.

And I wasn't here to see this, but apparently my professor was playing DDR (these aren't my pictures, my camera battery died in the middle of racing the cars).



After the barbecue, I went with Matt, Angela, Terry, and Robert to see Snakes on a Plane, which was of course awesome. Other than that, I've been having a really boring week. Just studying for GREs and contemplating starting medical school secondaries in between doing research. Matt's going away camping this weekend, so I'm probably going to spend most of this weekend sleeping and shopping (both of which I need to catch up on!).

Two things that made my day:

1. Some POS blue van in front of me sprayed winshield wiper fluid in all directions (literally--forwards, to the sides, all over) when they turned on the cleaning/wiping function, and they were doing it all down the road and laughing their heads off about it.

2. The weirdo next to me in my final brought a towel and actually was wiping his face off every 15 minutes.

"My life needs a rewind/erase button"

("and a volume control" -- here's another obscure quote for you all)

So I was definitely bad-mouthing someone I know (who happens to be a fat ugly whore, but that's another storyyyy), and as the words "he only likes her because she puts out" were leaving my mouth, my PI (Principal Investigator--the professor and head honcho at my lab, not Private Investigator) walked into the lab. Oooohhhhh sh*t. Good thing he ALREADY turned in my letter of recommendation for medical school, huh?

Snakes on a ... Do I even need to say it?

On Sunday, I was at the beach studying for the GRE when I saw a propeller plane flying along the coast. It said "snakes + plane = 8.18.06". Apparently Keenan (Matt's roommate) was in SF the other day, and he saw it also. Is the studio really trying to hype this movie up so much that they'll hire advertising planes to fly around? This movie has gotten such ridiculous buzz that even though it sounds retarded, I sort of have to see it now... I think I'm going with Robert after he takes his MCAT, and everyone else should come too!

By the way, good luck to everyone taking their MCAT on Saturday. I won't be enjoying my Saturday either--I have a final in the most retarded/boring class ever.

Am I really that silly?

Today I was complaining about how my huge lab issued laptop is hurting my back to carry it around, and one of the postdocs asked me, "why don't you buy a new one?". I'm definitely going to buy a new computer (about 99% sure it'll be a laptop) when I graduate, but it never occurred to me that I would ever get one before then, especially since my desktop works fine. I answered, "I don't know... a laptop just seems like the last thing I want to spend money one right now." Because a fast, small one is what, like over a thousand? To which he replied, "what, clothes are more important?"
Hmph! Do I really come across as someone that obsessed with my clothes? Everyone should know that (besides the $5.00 skirt I found at American Eagle two weeks ago), I haven't bought clothes for months. I got a skirt at Abercrombie but got grossed out by the idea of shopping at Abercrombie (and the fact that the store smells like B.O.!) and returned it. I suppose my mom bought me khakis, but I didn't ask for those.
Of course, I'm not half as good as I'm making myself out to be, because I still have a major weakness for shoes and accessories. But those are NOT clothes. There's a difference, so THERE.

On the bright side, I'm graduating from a fledgling nerd into one who knows enough to be a useful nerd. Somehow the wireless got messed up at Matt's house and I sucessfully "hacked" their wireless router and re-set it up so it didn't keep kicking people off the internet. Now everyone in that house thinks I'm a computer science major or something. Because I fixed the internet.

Also, if you want to know where I spend all my time (besides TJ Maxx, of course.. or maybe not..), here's a picture of my spectacularly messy workspace in lab:



To be more fair to myself, a lot of that electronic clutter is not mine. I just sort of moved my linux box onto a desk which was already becoming a dump for all the electronics that no one wanted anymore.

EDIT: Now I am just realizing that my laptop definitely has weboggle on it, instead of work. I really do work... a lot... when I'm not ... blogging... or playing boggle.

I have a funny cat

Ever since my parents went to England for two weeks, my cat has started the habit of coming into my room late at night and sleeping on my bed for an hour or so. Sometimes if I've gone to bed already he'll come in anyways, and try to wake me up so I can pet him before he goes to sleep. Imagine waking up to this:



It's sort of scary.

And shoot, I need to get my rear end into gear and start filling out those med school secondaries :-(.

NOT?

What does this mean???

Campus rumors

So I was tutoring Manuel (the Stanford janitor.. do I need to elaborate more on this or does everyone know already?) this night (although during the summer we're more chatting in Spanish than anything, since I'm not disciplined enough to really steer us towards constructive learning), and apparently there's a Cantor Arts Center ghost! Has anyone heard about this? I feel like more people would know. Anyways, he was saying that after they had a party in Cantor another janitor was assigned to clean it up at like, 2 in the morning, and he made Manuel come with him because he's too scared to go in there by himself. Apparently once he was in Cantor cleaning and he saw a girl walking around, asked the security guard outside if anyone was let in, and the guard was like "no, I didn't, but there WAS this girl who died here a long time ago..." and you know the rest of the story. Also, some woman was cleaning there at night also, and heard people talking to her, and of course there was no one there.
This is really cool/creepy... I was wondering if anyone else knew anything about this?
You learn the weirdest things when you get to know the janitors. Like, which professors are messy... and which buildings are haunted.

"You see a lot doctor.."

... " Why don't you turn that high-powered perception at yourself and tell us what you see, or, maybe you're afraid to."








(Respect if you know the quote without looking on Google)

Awk...ward?

I try to go to all my classes. I don't think I've consciously skipped a class (as in, just decided not to go because I didn't feel like it) more than twice in my three years at Stanford. It's just a habit I have, mostly induced by a subconscious fear that, if I do poorly in the class, it will be because I missed material in lectures, and then I'll feel guilty or stupid. I also just like to make a habit of doing things, and if I start missing class, then I might get into the habit of doing that, which wouldn't be good. Where's the stupid stat that every Stanford class missed is a waste of five hundred dollars?
I also always sit in the front... mainly because I can't see the board that well from the back, but also so I can hear better and have more incentive to not fall asleep.
This summer I'm taking a class which, besides having all the lectures posted online, is filled with rather stupid/lazy people (who I assume are not Stanford students but just here for the summer course. This includes the old people and the girl who brings a different, $1000+ handbag to class every day when she comes to class). So I must look sort of weird sitting in the front of class every day, diligently taking notes. I've gone to office hours a few times, so the professor knows sort of who I am. Anyways, today I was sitting there and at the end of class he comes up to me and says "So..., it's been nice having you come to all my classes this quarter..." and trails off. Hmm... okay. I was like, "Oh. Thanks. I try to make a habit of coming to class."
I'm glad that he appreciates my presence in his class... but it was sort of weird/awkward having him say it to me, especially since I don't think this is even the last week of class. And even if it is, it's not the last day of lecture. Is he on one of those twelve step rehab programs where you have to go apologizing and thanking people or something?

Alright, I said I was going to bed at 12:00. I'm an hour late, thanks to the stupid people on Weboggle who wouldn't let me win until now. It's actually their faults that I'm still up this late. Goodnight, everyone.

Two random pictures

I'm at work...

..and I need a nap.
I'll give anyone five dollars if they write my program and start my structural alignment so I can go home two hours early and sleep. I feel bad about napping here because the other day I conked out at my desk and when I woke up, someone walked past and was like "good morning" in that stupid snarky adult voice some people get when they catch you sleeping during the day. I really hate that.

I'm getting the parrot movie tonight, I think. I like parrots... I think I'm taking my mom to see them next time we go to Chinatown.

Trip to SF

On Friday, my car finally died (it was the battery, so my parents took it in and got it fixed). Unfortunately, it died just as I was about to go home so I could pack and leave for San Francisco for an overnight shopping/eating trip with Matt. I was planning on taking the train up there Friday afternoon with Terry, hitting up some shops around the train station and Union Square, then maybe going to Chinatown before meeting up with Matt and eating dinner somewhere. Fortunately my mom was around to drive me home and to the train station, but I got sort of a late start.
Shopping was fun, although neither of us bought anything... I had a nice time in SF (although apparently on Friday night there was a night market in Chinatown that we went past by a block). With Matt, I mostly went to Chinatown to eat buns and shrimp dumplings, and walked to Telegraph Hill to look at the feral parrots that live there. The parrots were really funny (now I want to see the movie about them), but unfortunately I couldn't take any pictures of them because they kept pretty high in the trees and my camera's zoom wouldn't have been strong enough. After we looked at the parrots, we walked back to the train station (just as the train was pulling out, so we had to wait an hour for the next one), came back to Palo Alto and had dinner at Tacos el Grullense, then came back to my house where I slept for 14 hours (on account of sleep deprivation and exhaustion from walking a billion miles over Friday and Saturday--cabs and muni are for losers: I'd rather spend my money on food!).

I only took a few pictures:


We stayed in this weird little hotel near Union Square, with totally cheesy decorations... yes, the room came with an ugly little stuffed animal. I almost died laughing when I opened the door.


Matt bought a banana in Chinatown and here he's really excited about eating it.. I should have gotten a picture 30 seconds later, when he's throwing it away because it tasted terrible (must have been a cooking banana).


Funny Tsing Tao billboard.




A huge and awesome kitty that was sitting outside someone's shop in Chinatown. It's name was Mimi! It was HUGE!

Apparently I'm not a criminal

Today I went to get myself fingerprinted and scanned in the FBI database. It's this new Stanford policy, that anyone who works with children under 18 has to get a background check done. It was actually kind of interesting, and they have some really sweet scanners for fingerprints that are really easy, fast, and not messy like those gross ink rollers I remember using when I got fingerprinted a long time ago. So that's all good, and now we can know for sure that I'm not a child molester or kidnapper or serial killer!
One annoying thing that happened while I was there was my car started acting funny. I drove there fine, but when I tried to leave the place it made spluttering sounds and wouldn't start. I called my mom and when she came over to check it out it was acting normal, but I'm still suspicious. Hopefully it won't die because it's still a good car (1997 Camry) and Toyotas are supposed to last forever.

I never thought about the claws...

Gucci is selling these shoes:



They are made of ostrich claws. WHAT THE HELL?

Yikes. How many claws does it take to make one pair of shoes?... This might be one of those luxury items (along with gloves made of baby panda bear noses) which might sort of justify the huge price tag?

EDIT: This is the sort of thing I think about too much. Maybe that's why I was up until 3 again last night.

RE-EDIT:



Sqawk. Please don't kill me and take my claws.

Getting a clue

Some people don't get it. When you think someone was your friend and then they suddenly start ignoring you, it's probably not because they decided to suddenly be mean or something, it's because you did something weird, stupid or offensive to piss them off. So take this guy who I worked with TWO YEARS ago... I thought he was a nice guy, someone fun to hang out with--until I read his blog and found all these creepy references to me, and mean things he wrote about Matt! Okay, you can write whatever you want in your blog, but if you're going to go dissing people you don't even KNOW or ranting about how Asian girls who go out with white guys suck, then I'm sorry, you're losing my respect right there.
And now to top it off, two years later this loser is STILL writing cheesy and bitter things about me in his blog. For your information (if you read this... I admit I looked at your blog after my sister pointed out that you were still talking about me) I happen to have a life outside of my boyfriend, plus, if you were ever lucky enough to be in a two year relationship with someone, don't you think a big part of your life would involve that person? Otherwise, it would be a pretty pointless relationship. Your snide comments about my boyfriend only reveal how jealous you are of anyone and everyone who can actually be mature enough to enter a steady relationship. ALSO, I DID see you that day, and I CHOSE not to talk to you, because you've offended me with your ignorant comments on my life and inability to stop harping on the past and I simply don't want to deal with it anymore.
Plus, the shopping bag was for HIM, he needed shoes because his old ones had holes! Yes I have a lot of clothes, but if I bought something, do you think I would make my boyfriend carry it for me?
Ugh, now I'm all pissed off. I hope I've offended the right people and confused everyone else. So much drama--I feel like one of those lame Xanga girls now.

Another f***ing standardized test

Yup, I'm taking the GRE in the middle of September. I've lost my standardized test anxiety, though, because after the six hour ordeal that was the MCAT, nothing seems terrible anymore. I mean, a 30 question verbal section? That's nothing.

By the way, I was adding up all the money I've spent on this whole application thing. MCAT was about $230, GRE subject test was $80, GRE general was $130, and my actual medical school applications were $700. If I'm not careful, I'm gonna max out my credit card!