What's in May?

i got up at around 7.50am today and went biking around the polo fields. it's kinda boring riding around and around, but i need to practice. apparently it was the day to water the field, so the gardeners were firing up the sprinklers. some of the sprinklers face the wrong way and shoot off onto the concrete path around where i was biking. first the sprinklers appeared in the middle of the field, which was fine. but then they started to shoot onto the track. i would either stop and wait for them to pass or bike on the dirt path beyond the reach of the sprinklers. but i kept biking on the concrete track, expertly avoiding the sprinklers by speeding up, slowing down, or veering off to the side. then i think the gardeners started to play a little game: spray the biker. soon i began to notice that the sprinklers were suddenly start to squirt as i approached or as i passed. the gardeners were trying to get the timing right. but i kept going around since i really wanted to practice. anyway, on the straightaways i usually go fast and take the turny part a little slower. as i was speeding along as fast as i've ever been on the bike on my last lap, i reached the end of the straightaway and i wanted to use my momentum to carry me thru the turn. well, the sprinklers ahead suddenly burst forth with their liquid expression and i was going to fast to stop in time. so i decided to ride through the spray. well, i was drenched. not only that, i was now caught between a bunch of sprinklers that were cutting off my escape routes on the track. so i stopped there and wiped the water out of my ears and the sprinklers stopped. they stopped because the gardeners finished their game--they splashed me. as i slowly walked around the track to leave via the tunnel, i didnt see any more sprinklers spraying the track anymore. then i knew for sure that the gardeners were playing a prank on me while at the same time amusing themselves. anyway, i was about to approach the gardeners and congratulate them on their sucess but i was wet and decided to head home. on the way home, i got to go up some semi-steep hills. it's not too bad in first gear, but since i had to do the same thing for four blocks in a row, i had to get off and just walk the bike up the hill. biking is fun. but i must get better tho. i need to get a bike for myself.

"I believe in the therapeutic value of the bicycle." - Mrs. Councillor Nugent from KUA

today is the wednesday of my week off before i start work next monday. this week has been good. i've had the chance to just relax. i haven't had much sleep, but i found that if i get up early then it sort extends my vacation since i'm awake more. and plus, there's not much to watch on TV in the morning, so i end up doing other things, so i'm more productive. tomorrow, i think i will wake up early and go biking. yay! on monday i went biking and it was fun. i'm still sore from it tho. and i still need a lot of practice since i tend to lose my balance very easily. tomorrow will be my chance to practice more. i love the early morning, like right as the sun is rising and the hour or two after sunrise. it's so calm and peaceful. there's hardly anyone in the street and the air is cool and crisp. sometimes you can tell what kind of a day it is going to be by tasting the early morning air. it's a great feeling. the hardest feeling is getting up tho. but if i'm motivated (like to go biking), then i usually get myself out of bed. i also have a bit of a sore throat, so i'd better take care of myself and get enough rest.

ok about graduation. sunday went as well as expected i guess. i arrived on time and the beginning of the ceremony was disorganized. some of the speakers were boring (but Jesse's speech was cool!) and i got my fake certificate and stuff. my fellowship came out to cheer me on. it was very encouraging. but i didn't get a chance to see some of my CS buddies afterwards because there were so many people around.

warning...what i am about to say is gonna make me sound arrogant and pretentious...here goes: well, i was a little disappointed that they didnt mention me as a phi beta kappa initiate even tho i am one. in both graduations (cog sci and cs), they forgot to put that little star next to my name to tell everyone that i am in PBK. it's an honor that i was chosen and am very lucky to be part of that honor society. but when the moment of glory came for this honor to be acknowledged, they forgot. i was a bit miffed and felt inferior to the other students who got awards after awards. i cant be the best in everything, can i? well...overall in retrospect, i am glad i went to the graduation.

"people who just pretend they're superior make it just that much harder for those of us who really are..." -hb

with finals over, i had the chance to just chill and do stuff that i wanted to do but didnt have time to do it. the main page of my website was boring and too cluttered, so i redesigned it and make a cleaner and slightly more contemporary design (je pense). that means i'll have to redo the other parts of the site to match it. i don't really know how to use CSS that well, so i'm kinda just learning it as i go. but i wanna write code that is "good" and like w3c compliant or whatever. that means i have to read what i need to read what makes good code. too lazy to do that.

so this morning i got up and went to the UGIS graduation. it was actually pretty exciting for me even tho was just an audience member. i watched the cog sci people walk and some of the people i knew. i kinda wish i did it. but i'm glad i didnt since my parents werent there and i'm gonna do it on sunday anyway. i left after the cog sci people. the reception had fortune cookies and strawberries. [aside: i think strawberries are overrated...they sure do look pretty, but i dont think they taste all that great. i'd prefer a nice piece of apple, orange, pear or peach over a strawberry. to each his own, i guess.] i felt i was allowed to partake of a few fortune cookies since after all my name was in the program but i just didnt walk. one thing that got me a little steamed was that i wasn't listed a phi beta kappa in the program even tho i should have been. they never told me that i needed to tell them that. oh well, im just being arrogant. but i like having that little star next to my name... oh well. that's ok. no one cares except for me. no need to throw a hissy fit or have a cow, as it were. i hope they get my info right in the computer science program. then i went to meet with jen about being a reader for 160 next semester. we chatted and stuff. and i need to grade a few sample assignments to show her my style of grading. doing that right after this. then i came back to the apt and worked on redesigning my website. i think it looks a lot better than before. oh i still have to plan for fellowship lesson tomorrow too.

i just wrote a lot about Opera (a web browser) but somehow the changes weren't saved. So I dont really wanna repeat it. it's a browser that has neat features like the tabbed interface (like mozilla) and mouse gestures which eliminates the need to move your mouse to the back button to go back. anyway it's fun. you should try it. the best thing is that it's a fast browser! it loads sites really quickly, especially those that are graphics intensive. one drawback is that the freeware version of it has an ad banner built into it. i don't find it that annoying since it doesnt change that much (so far it's only been showing one sbc ad the entire time). i dont plan on "customizing" it so that it gives me ads that are taylored for me. so type "opera web browser" into google and download it and try it. it beats Mozilla and IE in my opinion. it's now my favourite browser.

i get a kick out of strange (mis)uses of language. so here's one that made me giggle: "[people who blog] use xanga as a median to express their feeligns..." median?....median? ha! lol

I tried to get a prescription filled today and it was a nightmare. Apparently my prescription billing info isnt printed on my medical card, so I had to go home and get info by calling them. They gave me the info and told me i could get my prescription filled, so i scootered back down to walgreens only to find out that my account has expired. so i called the prescription coverage people to check and they basically said, "oh...yeah...your account was terminated on 3/31/03." why didn't they tell me that at the beginning...instead of giving me the impression that everything was hunky-dory? anyway, so now i need to talk to the benefits people to get them to send the prescriptions people updated info. i am still without my prescription. hrmph. this brings to mind why it is so important to have a good database. it appears that someone's database is not enforcing some integrity constraints when it should.

Interesting weekend. but first a little rant about xanga. there's just something about xanga that doesn't quite agree with me. maybe it's the rampant commercialism (pop-up ads and banners). or maybe it's the online community that it creates. in terms of hits and # people reading blogs, i think xanga would definitely guarantee you a larger audience. it's nice when other read what you write. so does that mean that i go to xanga and have a blog there instead? no...i think i'd rather stay in my corner of the web, waiting for super-bored people to surf on by. no pop-ups on my site! for others who dont have webspace, i think xanga makes a lot of sense. but i give props to anyone who does it my way: manually editing HTML code when writing a blog and posting changes yourself. xanga is automated. they make a business out of your journal. i dont like that idea. they are kinda selling you (through pop ups and banner advertisements) the privilege of expressing yourself. that should be something you ought to do on your own--without rampant and almost excessive commercialism.

the weekend was interesting. i went to see the cornerstone academy musical on sat with the hs fellowship. i got to see a bunch of old faces. the musical was interesting. i think it definitely appeals to young people. i'm not a big fan of hip-hop (since i dont understand what they're saying...plus hip-hop often sounds "angry" grrr!) but i think that was the most popular song. the dance moves were cool though. i wish i could move like that (i wish). in the car to and from silver, i was trying to annoy donald. i think i was successful. then went home and then had dinner at grandma's house. after that we went to visit other grandparents. i gave my grandma a massage and she was very grateful (i was being a good grandson). i also massaged my grandfather's legs gently and he really liked that. i can't imagine the constant pain he is enduring. must pray more for him. after that i went home, did some hw, and then watched television the rest of the night. i watched "coupling" a british version of "friends" but only a bit more riske and more about people hooking up. it was funny, but it was very british. after that i was enthralled in watching one and a half episodes of globetrekker. the first was vietnam and the second was japan. watching programs like those REALLY change my perspectives of the world. i had no idea that vietnam was such a struggling country. it is also a country with many distinct cultures with different tribal groups. it was amazing what the travel host did. i wish i could go do stuff over there and be adventurous too. but i doubt i will be able to travel there any time soon. even if i do, i'd like to travel with a friend around my age rather than travel with family. as the 'rents get older, our interests tend to differ and our staminas differ. at any rate, globetrekker is a really cool show. i love watching it. i learn so much. public television is cool.

today i intended to take a 30 min nap from like 5.00 to 5.30pm. well i ended up getting up at 7pm. so i lost two hours of valuable time! i really need to stop sleeping so much. it's not like when i was at oxford and could sleep all the time (well kinda...) during my slumber, trillian set me to be "away" and i received a IM from someone who says he's "eric". he welcomed me to the "light side of IMing" since he used trillian too. which eric is this? the sn was some anime character name, so i doubt it's my brother, eric. and i doubt it's eric roller, my former cs61b proj partner. i doubt it's eric tso, since i've never exchanged IM's with him, although it might be him since he enjoys anime. could it be jeztek eric? i've never IMed him either, although we did exchange screennames, but his AIM sn is diff from the person who just IMed me on trillian. hmmm...dunno who this person is. don't be sad if i don't remember who you are. i'm forgetful...either that or i know a lot of erics or both!

i dislike the new "typing indicator" feature on the latest version of AIM. it tells you when the other person is typing or has "entered text". why do i need to know that? with this information, i tend to stare at that "cOOlaZnSN is typing..." waiting for the person to finish typing and sending the message. instead, i rather alt-tab to another app and do something else while waiting for a response. i'd rather not know that the person is typing. why do i need to know? after all, AIM will make a sound and flash when the message is received. the same goes for "cOOlaZnSN has entered text..." why do i need to know that? that just confuses me. does that mean that i should stop typing and wait for that person to send the msg? or does that mean that the other person is waiting for me to send something? in that case, why did that person type something in and not send it. i think the most annoying thing about it is that others can see when i am typing. i often type out slowly or erase and start over because i want to say the IM differently, but that makes me look like i am fickle and dont know what to say. it's annoying. i wish there was a way to turn it off. i can't find out how. tell me please! for now, i have restored a previous version of AIM that doesnt have this feature. i can't see any benefit in this feature. from a UI perspective what task does this feature faciliate? i don't get it. i know other IM programs have it too. why? je ne sais pas!

finally, something worthy of telling the world. today a friend of mine taught me how to ride a bike. yups, i never learned how to ride a bike when i was small, and i've never really had the chance to learn. i warned my friend that i am bad at balancing and not very coordinated. but undaunted by my caveats, he was eager to teach me. when i first mounted the bike, i tried to take off by just pedaling. but obviously that doesn't work because you can't balance if you're not moving. so he demonstrated how to "push off" and start pedaling. so i tried it and it worked! so there i was, i was pedaling a little and moving. then he gave me a push and helped me balance while going in a straight line. pretty soon, atfter one run with his correction, i ventured to go it alone and i did. a mutual friend was walking out of soda and noticed us and asked us what was going on. he was surprised that i never learned how to ride a bike. so i biked up and down the little walkway between soda and echeverry, it was nice and flat but wasnt too wide. it was ok since i mainly wanted to learn how to go straight. while practicing, i flagged down a couple of other friends and they watched me do it and they took a few turns for fun too. we did this for about half an hour total. i was impressed with myself. i actually could go! now i need to get a bike and practice somewhere safe. pretty soon i'll be able to "promenade en velo" just as good as every one else! it feels good to catch up on a little lost childhood. maybe this summer i will go and get a bike (not too expensive) and just go out and practice a bit everyday. we'll see what i can fit in. i'm excited!

i've been taking naps in the afternoon/early evening. after the naps i would be really unproductive since i would feel sluggish and not really alert. by around 10pm, i am wide awake again and ready to do some serious studying (well, usually). i try to limit myself to at most 30 mins of nap but often times because of my subsequent unproductivity, the 30 min nap turns into 2 hours of "do-nothing-ness". so since i kinda sleep in the afternoon anyway, i think i will sleep a little later than normal at night since the hours right before i go to bed seem to be best hours for me to study. in the afternoon, i am usually sleepy and the in morning i have class (in which i often fall asleep anyway). so night is usually when i study the best. so i will reclaim the lost time by using the late hours of the night to study. sounds like a plan...

when i went to oakland today to get a drug test for my summer job, afterwards i looked around the neighborhood there to see if there was anything interesting that i should check out. lo and behold, there was a grocery outlet there. since i had time, i went in to check out the many inexpensive items for sale at the outlet. i also do enjoy the grocery shopping experience since its so fulfilling to walk into a building where you can basically find any food you want. anyway, i took my time browsing through the aisle looking for any bargains i just couldnt pass up. i ended up buying a block of cheese, a few boxes of crackers and a bunch of cadbury creme eggs. the cadbury eggs were definitely the best deal i took advantage of. since it's past easter, no one in the states are gonna wanna buy these things, so they were on sale for 15 for $1. i bought 10 for the grand sum of $0.67 snap! mind you, i don't plan on eating any of them (since im avoiding chocolate temporarily). i think i will give them away to friends. while waiting for the bus back to berkeley, i saw a lot of dealership service people driving new MB E-classes and nissan Z's around. i wanted to drive one! oh well. when i got back, i enjoyed by cheese and crackers. how classy!

This weekend was interesting. Sunday was a bit more thought-provoking that usual. One thing from my relationship with Christ is that I learned to be interested in other people's lives. And the way I usually make my inquiry is by asking "how are you?" however this method of inquiry, i found to be ineffective. therefore i will change my question to "how's life?" from now on. it tends to connote a deeper interest rather than a superficial small talk level interest. so if you ever bump into me (well figuratively and/or literally) then that's probably what I'll ask you. let's see if it works.

in sunday school today we discussed a few questions that i had about the christian faith and some things in the bible. the discussion was good and i learned some viewpoints that i did not think about before. there is still a lot of think about. but somehow, i am left with a bit of an odd feeling. the first question that was presented in sunday school was one of mine and it kinda ended up a debate between me and the class. i was ok with it, but i think people might think that i was a being a "hard-one" as i would called it. was i making a mountain out of a molehill? was i making something simple more complicated than it should be? i don't think so but others in the class might not agree. i dunno what they think. but hey, whatever. i really need to stop dwelling on what other people think of me. i think i'm just paranoid. hey! who's that watching me????

Already, we're in the month of May. Graduation is on the 25th. I'm not particularly looking forward to it since it's really just a formality. I still have another semester after that to finish up. But I'll do it for the parents and for grandma and grandpa. It's a short three weeks away. One more week of classes. One week of studying for finals and the last week of finals. I remember when I remarked to my friend "it's already week 5 of the semester!" earlier in the semester. now i can't believe that it's just about over.

Some other things on my mind include my housing options for next semester. I think the best thing to do is just to grab the studio available in this complex and live there. There's the thing about internet connection. I need some sort of connection for just checking email and reading newsgroups. I need to explore my options. But since I'm just one person, paying $50/mo for DSL is costly. Then again, it's only for four months, so I might just bite the bullet, like I am with getting a studio. I'm also a little worried about having an empty studio. I don't really need anything besides a bed, desk and storage stuff. The place should be big enough for me just to toss stuff on the floor. hey, i'm the only one living there, so i can do whatever i want. i guess i'm just tripping about the empty apartment if people come and see that all i have is a bed and a desk in this kinda big room. the pragmatic side of me says that i dont need anything else, so why spend the money and also spend the time to move it in (like a couch or something like that)? what will i do with it afterwards? i won't need it. but the otherside of people that's always bothered by social pressures wants to deck the apartment with stuff. anyway, i will figure things out. i need to work out the details about when to start my tenancy and etc.

i'd rather live in berkeley rather than commute since i like being close to campus in case i need to work on group projects with others students after hours. anyway, it's more flexible. probably the main factor to move back home and commute is the cost of renting in berkeley. it is costly. but i need to see what my parents are willing to fork out to do it.

i hope next time the blog entry will be less mundane. we'll see. oh i think i'll get a haircut tomorrow. i'm actually a little worried because i don't know how i want my hair to look. i'll probably walk in and ask them to make it neater and nice looking. i havent cut my hair since november of last year. wow, that's over 6 months. yeah my hair is long, but it was a nice change from what i was used to. overall, i've gotten positive responses from people (well except from parents, but that's to be expected...) people tell me not to cut it. but i need to since it's getting in my face all the time. i actually wouldnt mind letting it grow longer, but graduation is right abound the corner, so i dont wanna look like a slob for that. i think with another month, i think i can get the front to grow long enuf so that i can stick it behind my ears to keep it out of my way. but i don't have the time to do that. anyway, the bits growing down my neck and around my ears is messy, so i need to tidy that up for grad. tomorrow's haircut, i wanna keep it long-ish, but i want to have it cleaned up so that it looks ok for grad. geesh...the things i worry about. i think my haircut is what i am most worried about tomorrow. go figure...