That was really odd

You may have all just been spared of my ceaseless ranting by a weird error that prevented my accessing all blogger-hosted sites. (And this affected only me.) I tried everything, and now have mozilla as a result so at least it wasn't a total loss.

--C.

Update: Go here for the story of what happened.

Ah, Stanford

I'm just about to go to bed, when all these people come online. Only in college does prime chat and hang out and be awake time happen to START at 11 PM.

I'm making a list here of things I wanted to blog about but didn't. If I remember I'll type stuff up tomorrow.

Stanford in the Winter
Existentialism
Politics (ack, not again?) and alerts

A wave out to the world, and have a great new year.

--C.

I'm a blue fish!

More things culled from other people's blogs yeilds a pointless quiz that tells me:


What Finding Nemo Character are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

I'm a dork.

--C.

Or, I should clarify, I meant that I was a letter shy of a dork

Yum!

I love cooking for myself. Right now the fact that I live in the apartment of people who obviously don't share (or at least have time for) this passions is obvious. There's a lot of ramen and a serious lack of decent sized mixing bowls. All the same, I braved the rain, went to Andronicos and tossed a salad, baked fresh garlic croutons and warmed some cream of broccoli. All in all delicious (and surprisingly quick).

--C.

Rain

There's something about being soaked to the skin biking in the rain that makes you feel better. (At least I don't feel sick anymore.)

--C.

Guilty Pleasures

I've arrived at Mark's place in EV. And sad as it is, I must admit that I spent the last half hour updating the blog, reading other people's blogs (see links, right) and catching up on e-mail. I should have been doing more important things like unpacking and showering.

I'm a dork.

--C.

As we decend

In about an hour, we'll be landing in San Francisco international airport, I don't know why I'm as excited as I am; I've flown into SF a dozen times already. However, there's something to be said for leaving Hong Kong at midday and landing, the same day you arrived, at 8 in the morning. With a whole long day ahead that I'm probably going to be very tired through.

It'll be a few days yet before I can see my room again, and see if any damage happened during the Pasa Robles earthquake. I didn't exactly leave my room in an earthquake friendly position, with stemware and bottles neatly stacked on a narrow shelf.

This flight, to answer the traditional question of "How was your trip?" was pretty miserable, although it would have been much worse had I not had my laptop. I always hate travelling when I'm sick, and since I'm getting over a headcold, I've had an awful time trying to sleep through a dull headache and an uneven ear pressure. Plane flights always seem to exacerbate sickness, as you may or may not know. United, in its infinite wisdom, decided not to provide the in-seat entertainment screens now ubiquitous on long-haul flights with other carriers and thus my only source of entertainment has been this laptop and a well-worn copy of The Stranger.

My cold has prevented any real thinking (hence, only political rants) but I may, when I get better, do a closer analysis of that live-in-the-moment philosophy known as Existentialism. I've never really understood it myself, in spite of being very interested in the works of Sartre and Kierkegaard and having written a rather long essay in high school on the subject. I was all for it upon finishing the essay and for a little while hence, but it's surprisingly difficult to live in the moment thusly, and while I was enamoured of the idea of living an existential life, the reality of doing so proved to defeat me. My current philosophy now falls under the generalized category of "No damn clue", where it's sure to stay for a few more months, if not years.

Philosophical musings quickly dispatched, I'm left pondering, as I glance at the tiny blue screen telling me that we're at 37000 feet and have yet to begin our decent, just how much longer it'll be before I'm on the familiar campus again. And whether the Margarite is running. . . little prosaic things like that.

Well there's the call to put away electronics, expect another post today.

--C.

Mile High Blog

There are certain conviniences to having a laptop, one of which is the ability to blog while at 35000 feet. Yes, I am a dork. My cramped middle seat in Economy class doesn't allow me enough room to maneuver a mouse to play Warcraft and I don't have enough charge left to watch a movie, so blogging it is.

I again have nothing to say, nothing much having changed from a few hours ago. I'm actually pleasently surprised at airport security, or the lack thereof, that I encountered (or failed to do so) on my way to the airport. I'm not saying that Hong Kong has lax security, by any means. Nor am I saying that it should be placed on the priviledged list of airports from which flights are banned. However, I was expecting, in light of recent developments, that there would be extra security for my flight to the US relative to the other ones. Last year, they inspected checked suitcases of people going to the US, and yet this year, with the terrorist alert level upped a notch, they didn't inspect mine. As such, I was breezed through security, after handing them a clean health declaration that I was free of SARS. I am on a United flight, so I'm saved from some of the extra scrutiny that accompanies international carriers.

In some respects, and here I'm borrowing ideas developed at the dinner table (thanks Mom), the US is setting itself up perfectly for a fall. It's getting harder and harder, what with homeland security, to travel and do business in the US. Everywhere, everyone is being examined microscopically. At the same time, these extra precautions are costing the US government billions. With a tax cut having reversed the already slim budget surplus, I haven't a clue how any of this is being paid for save with more borrowed money. Not that I'm one to harp about the National Debt, being neither economist nor even particulary attune with current affairs. Even so, the US market is definitely tightening.

The US is also feeling the poetic justice of having not only the tables turned but also the entire tea service thrown in its face. With the whole Mad Cow affair (I told you that only two pieces of news really interested me), its draconian policies of banning beef imports from countries with BSE has come around to haunt it. With American beef exports halted at over thirty ports of call, the US is probably regretting the huge fuss it made over importing beef from other nations.

As a way of retaliation, as I see it, the US is restricting international flights, to only those with air marshalls. It's a very dangerous game that they play, with the terrorism alert. The current move is one step closer to an all out ban on international flights, forcing travellers to use (or at least favor) American-based carriers or those of its allies. On the one hand, this is one of the ways that the government can demonstrate that it still has international power, by turning everything into an issue of terrorism and the exercise of soverignty, on the other hand, there's a definite limit to the amount of abuse these other nations will take.

Of course, in the world of international politics, of which I know nothing, things are much more subtle. But as I see it, the US government has been keeping itself in the world spotlight -- always at the center of attention and always making the decisions that make the rest of the world react, for a long time. In fact this decision making and acting as international arbiters, judges, peacegivers and bankers, has probably cost the US dearly financially. However, it ensures that everyone pays attention. Eventually, however, I don't know if all this talk will eventually exhaust the international listeners and the US will lose its power. (Ok, I'm not that much of a pessimist, but it seems that every piece of international news these days is US-tinged, and I'm getting a little sick of it -- and perhaps the rest of the world is as well.)

While the government is playing international loudmouth, domestically, it's acting more in the role of trash collector. Actually I know nothing about US domestic affairs, except that the government is lying about the spread of BSE and making a needless amount of fuss about the terrorism alert (OK, it may be the media's fault). Perhaps, they're trying to divert attention away from news about the upcoming Democratic primaries by keeping the government on the front page, I don't know. The world of American politics is even more mystfying than that of international politics. So, I lie.

Anyway, I'm sick about ranting about politics, it really isn't my style and I don't know what I'm saying half the time... my fingers just keep on typing.

I appreciate any and all suggestions of newer and better topics to discuss. It's very hard to find things that people want to hear me talk about that also has meaning. Ok, this is definitetly getting pessimistic, I'm going to shut up for a while and try to get some shut eye. I'll probably blog again before I land, so this may come as part of a double post. (Being as the way Blogger arranges things, the second post will be above, and you may quite possibly have already read it. Hopefully, it was more optimistic.)

--C.

Sleepless

Current Hong Kong Time: 5:20 AM

I can never seem to sleep the night before a big flight. It's as though my body knows in advance to prepare for jetlag. Anyway, here I am before you, blogging. In 8 hours I'll be on a plane to San Francisco.

At home, nothing much has changed. I've been sick and in bed. Mom and Dad are great and made all of my favorite dishes, yesterday for dinner. It was the best dinner ever, and I ate until I was near-exploding. This may or may not have contributed to my sleeplessness.

That said, I still have plenty of time to blog. . . and little to blog about. So, I thought I'd comment on a few news items. I've recently become addicted to Google News which, as with all of Google's other projects has yet to disappoint. I've also been reading a lot of commentary from the Cardinal Collective, which is fantastic. Anyway, I've been following two items of interest: the whole BSE scare and the terrorism alerts lately and have a few comments.

On BSE. As a biochemist, I have a lingering academic interest in what happens with the whole mad cow scare. It's not that I am interested in the epidimeology of the disease, but that I'm interested in how the US government is responding to a medical crisis and how much information about the disease they are actually passing on to the lay public.

Like the human version of the disease, vCJD, bvCJD can be a spontaneous occurence in the nervous tissue of affected cases. This fact is however less than reassuring to the American public as they bite into their umpteenth McDonald's hamburger. In fact, along with consumption of tainted feed, the cow may have been exposed to the infectious prion in other ways as well. That the disease takes years to develop and the rates of tranmission are dreadfully low makes the whole scenario a nightmare for epidimeologists. Instead of simply telling the public that they have no damn clue what's going on, the government persists in telling the public the best news it can. It's tracing back the lineage of the affected cow, to Canada, and playing a classic game of kindergarten point-the-finger. It, when the news first broke, insisted that the meat hadn't entered the food supply, now an obvious lie. The only real affect that all this posturing has, however, is to make the public more worried about eating beef than it really should be. Admittedly, the disease is a very frightening one, that turns your brain to mush, but unless, as one friend put it, "you eat cow brains as a delicacy", the chance of becoming infected is absolutely minimal especially if you eat non-CNS tissues (which is very likely). You're probably more likely to get salmonella from your Christmas eggnog. It makes for great media coverage, but what wouldn't?

The second thing I wanted to comment on is this whole orange alert thing. Now that the US has required some foreign carriers to host military, I'm not even sure I want to fly. Again, this is a case of the media making something sound bigger than it really is. It's sad that the US is such a major world power that the rest of the world must kowtow to it's demands.

OK, I have to go pack now. I'll say more later.

--C.

There's never been a worse time to be sick

I've got a cold, nothing more, I'm pretty sure. But with the SARS case in Guangzhou and the US taking any excuse to down a plane and search your luggage, my flying to Stanford 2 days from now is in jeopardy. At least I'm getting LOTS of sleep now.

Also in the vein of Bob's remark, this Christmas season, I've put on a fair bit of weight (at least fifteen pounds). Oh well, when I get back to Lag food and overstressed schedules, I'm sure it'll be a good backup source of energy.

--C.

Merry Christmas

Current Hong Kong Time: 7:15 AM, December 26th

I know I promised to blog as soon as I got back, but I've adjusted to this new time zone now and I haven't been getting up as early, which leaves precious little computer time before my parents wake up. Precious little time, in which I still need to catch up on e-mail and other mundane tasks. I'll try to do this as quickly as possible.

Home
Home is fun, I guess. Living in a household where everyone pretty gets up at 6 on weekdays and 7 on weekends, doesn't really give me a chance to sleep in or reduce this sleep debt in any significant way. I don't feel like I have any privacy at home, nor any free time. All day, I'm kept busy with chores and other tasks or dragged around the city with my parents. I love going around the city, don't get me wrong, and going around with parents does have the benefit of their buying me lots of things, whether I want them or not. However, it's just not fun. As for the lack of privacy, I feel like I'm constantly being searched or watched. My parents look over my shoulder when I read my e-mail and have empty all the pockets in my backpack and questioned the origins of each item. A number of things have then been annexed for my little brother (not that I begrudge him the use of things, but it's rather unfair). A blue book from a past midterm that I'd left in the bottom of my backpack was opened and examined and I was quizzed on the questions I got wrong. I brought home my digital camera and my laptop and have to some degree regretted both decisions. The first day, my dad had a hissy fit because I'd gotten such a nice laptop and "wasted" all that money. Anyway, I'm not even allowed to use it most of the time, at least not without people looking over my shoulder or calling me off to do chores. As for my digital camera, it's become my dad's new toy. I'm constantly being asked how to do this or that or to Photoshop some image he took to make it black and white, darker or lighter; to remove little mistakes and stuff. I personally don't think he composes photos that well and I'm forced to crop them and adjust around it as he expects the finalized picture to be perfect. Of course, every time I protest, my mom brings up some other person's college age kid who is the model of filial piety. That old Asian parent syndrome, to forever be compared to other people and made to feel inferior.
Christmas Eve, my little brother had a mini-concert and played a number of recital pieces he'd learned. He's really getting quite good. Actually, that's an understatement. In Hong Kong (and the UK), piano grades go up to grade 8, before you're recommended for study at a Conservatory. My brother's only 9 and he's already grade 6 and playing grade 7 pieces. He's also learning some pretty advanced music theory and has already composed a few short pieces for piano. As part of his education, however, all we ever listen to is classical. Not that I don't like classical music, but I could do without Czerny on repeat. I don't think anyone here has heard of jazz piano. When my brother practices, also, he expects to have an audience (usually me). One that will turn the pages for him and offer words of encouragement as well as one to whom he can gloat and challenge to spot his mistakes. Sigh.
I've been doing some reading, nothing at all difficult, to the great chagrin of my parents, but novels that I'd loved when I was little. Really early SciFi by Jules Verne (and I'm still searching for the original French), Jack London, Susan Cooper. I've always been able to be quickly absorbed in a book and lost to the world -- a sort of escapism that's coming in handy again.
I really miss Hobbes. Actually I miss someone I can talk to without having to guard everything I say. Thankfully, I can't seem to get onto the January 4th flight and I'm going to fly back on the 30th. A lonely New Year's maybe, but at least I'll be home. I'd also like to see the last Lord of the Rings movie but I'd probably have to wait for school to start. I've not seen any former friends since I've been back -- partially due to that I'm not online nearly as much, so in all, while I've been kept preoccupied, it's not been terribly productive.

China
So, I went to China a few days ago. The technical details bore you, but we went and met up with relatives, I did the usual grin grin nod nod and act preoccupied with my little brother. Thankfully, less than a day later we went and joined a tour group and went around Wuyishan (a quite scenic area in Eastern China). With temperatures ranging from -1 to 12°C, it was bitterly cold by Hong Kong standards, chilly by Stanford's and positively balmy by Michigan's. I have photographs, some of which came out quite well. I'll post them here, in thumbnail format, when I get a fast internet connection again. Wuyishan is quite a beautiful place with the steep rock formations that are particularly liked by the Chinese -- the ones you see in all sorts of ancient water-colorsr paintings. We even got to climb one -- up stairs of course, the Mainland government would never trust anyone to scale the rock face. For a brief moment, it felt like camping trip I'd so enjoyed years ago. And then people started whining about how far up we had to go and that illusion was shattered. In an American tour, they'd talk about how the rock formations were formed, the type of rock it was and what the various layers mean. Here, they tell you that this rock looks like the sinking Titanic and that one like three pregnant sisters and you'd have to squint and twist your head around and nod like you understand. Definitely don't argue, these impressions are sacred and passed down through the generations (ok, maybe not the Titanic one, but that one I actually agreed with... sort of.)
A definite highlight was riding rafts down the main river. Whereas in the Americas, the native people drew pictures on the walls of caves, the ancient Chinese carved poems. All along the edge of the water, and in some places quite high up, were poems and lines carved into the sheer rock face. It was all done in painstaking detail to look like brush calligraphy. The rafting in and of itself was fun, as we slid through rapids and floated along. These were traditional bamboo rafts that were amazingly stable. I'm not sure if I should blog this somewhere else, but my mom got into a lengthy political discussion with the farmer poling our raft and it was quite surprising how in tune with World politics he was. He had opinions on Chinese government, the war in Iraq and what he thought of Saddam's capture as well as the state of peace in Israel and the West Bank.
Another highlight was this really narrow passage between two caves. It's called "A thread of sky" literally and it's basically two rock faces that jut against each other that you squeeze between. If you look up there's this very tiny sliver of light that seeps through. It was actually just fun to squeeze between the rocks in the near darkness.
Part of going on trips to China with a group, however, is that you're dragged from one "museum" to another. Each time, there's a very fast educational experience in a room -- one on how they make tea, for example, and then they try to sell you stuff. In the nicest possible way -- with what appear to be staggeringly good discounts. Except they don't let you go -- in the nicest possible way -- until you buy some. I'm sure the tour guides get a kickback from this, but having gone to four in four days, it was definitely tiresome. We ended up getting some really nice mushrooms from one, that I may try to smuggle into the US. My mom got a jade bracelet at another place, for what amounts to 98% off, although I didn't see anyone there who actually bought things for full price. The way jade bracelets work, too, is that they really can't be removed except with a lot of pain and soapy water, so my mom didn't really have a choice. I should be glad they didn't give one to me.

Christmas
It just occurred to me a few days ago that Christmas has become the most un-Christian of holidays. Back when I went to school (and it wasn't even a Christian school) we sang traditional carols about the birth of Christ and Mary and Joseph. Stuff like "We Three Kings" and "Coventry Carol". These days, all that plays in the malls and shops and what my little brother sings in school are Americanized Christmas carols. Stuff about shopping and getting presents and playing in the snow. "Santa Claus is Coming to Town". Santa was a fabrication whose current image is based a lot on "Twas the night before Christmas", a poem from earlier last century. While I'm not Christian, I like my religious holidays to have religious significance, thank you very much. So if you are celebrating Christmas, and you are Christian, sing something a little more traditional (even if the only one you know is "O, Come All Ye Faithful"), for Christ's sake.

Anyway, the folks are awake. Got to run. Have a great Christmas evening/day after. If for you it's just a big secular holiday to American Consumerism, have a good one. If you celebrate something else, Hanukkahh (spelt however you like), Kwanza, Winter Solstice I hope it goes/went well and you had fun.

--C.

Overbearing Parents

Current time in Hong Kong: 3:02 PM

It's only been a few days and already I'm sick of my parents. Oh well. I'm off to China now without internet. Great. I feel so cut off. Oh well... I'll say more on my return.

--C.

PS, Google Ads have become the new personality test of the internet. I get ads about sleep aids, not that surprising, I suppose.

Hong Kong

Hong Kong current time: 3:52 PM

I have a lot to talk about, it having been a very eventful few days since my last post-of-substance.

Let's get started.

Finals are finally over, an obvious fact, given that Friday was the last day of finals week and I'm home in Hong Kong already. I'm already blocking them out of my mind and overlooking just how much pain they really caused. Thus I can be considering taking a just-as-heavy, if not heavier, workload next quarter. I swear, I do this to myself. That said, I don't think that any of my friends would let me do such a thing. To paraphrase, friends don't let friends commit academic suicide twice. I know some of my grades are out but I can't seem to access any of them on Axess being that my connection seems to be too slow to make it through the weblogin screen. Oh the joys of a 14Kps modem.

The flight home was interesting. We sat on the plane for almost two hours after boarding while the crew worked on a "computer issue". After a few reboots, (let me tell you, the rebooting of an entire 747 is a really funny thing, all the lights, the cooling and just about everything goes out), numerous wisecracks about Microsoft, and some rather poorly translated apologies in numerous languages, the plane started lurching forward. I promptly fell asleep. Soon, to wake up again to: "Barbeque chicken and rice or Beef and mashed potatos" (Translation: rubbery brown stuff and grainy white stuff or stringy brown stuff and mushy white stuff). I took the former and once I was convinced that it was actually edible, scarfed it down, hunger supressing any gag reflex that might usually have happened. I survive Lag food, I'm sure I can survive this too. (That would be a hit T-shirt: I survived Lag food.)

Hong Kong is amazingly efficient. From the time the plane hit the ground to the time I was sitting at home could have been no more than 40 minutes. From the plane, we were scooted along to a mini-tram-like thing, and rushed over to the main terminal. Immigration was a breeze, a single card swipe and you're in, no passport needed. Hong Kong is coming out with a smart ID card that will store everything and allow access to libraries and various other government services. From there it's a few quick steps to the baggage claim, where there are people who's entire job is to hand you carts from a rack so that you don't have to lug around a heavy suitcase looking for one. The cart can be taken striaght to the door of the train. Another swipe of a card and you've paid for the train ride home. Even at the train station, there are people who are paid simply to hand you a luggage cart to make your life just that much easier.

However, I suppose the first thing I noticed about Hong Kong is that it's still a city gripped by the ghost of the SARS epidemic. As you walk through immigration, they have the infrared temperature checks. About one person out of every ten is still walking around with a mask. Elevator buttons at home are covered with a sheet of plastic and marked "Sanitized every hour". Almost all buildings have a "Sterilization station" where you can get rinse-less hand sanitizer and spray disinfectant. There's a bottle of disinfectant by every piece of gym equiptment and as you enter they hand you a towel that's been sterilized for you. Busses and many rooms also have air purifiers going, filtering out any potentially airborn bacteria. It's pretty frightening. I'm glad I didn't have to live through it.

More blogging to come.

--C.

Sigh

I'm leaving for the airport in 3 hours. I'm about halfway through cleaning the room and this will be my second all nighter in 2 days. Not ideal.

--C.

Currently grooving to: Stanford Talisman - Going Home

Woah.

The bells of doom are ringing... I can hear them. Then again, I'm on 5 hours of sleep where I only dreamt about what would happen if Mario were 3D and first person... Trippy.

--C.

Currently grooving to: Brave Combo - Jeopardy (Schottische)

Exhaustion

So tired. Must sleep. But I have 3 finals and half a case of frappuchinos to go.

Hobbes!

I've decided to name my new Homocidal Psycho Jungle Cat after my favorite comic animal: Hobbes, in spite of being quite the wrong color. I've already been told many a time that he makes me like act like a five year old kid... which I can't quite decide is a good thing or not.

Anyway these were snagged on my webcam about 20 minutes ago.



--C.
[EDIT: where has my grammar gone?]

CONGRA­TULA­TIONS YUNE!!

I'm going to use this space to congratulate Yune on becoming an aunt, and to her sister Yoon (meep!) for giving birth to a baby girl! I'm kind of confused as to exactly what I should be saying (other than congratulations). I guess best wishes for the future are definitely in order, as are comments about getting a little rest (for Yune, Yoon, various family and of course the new little girl). Requests for pictures have been made but I'd suggest checking out Yune's blog as she's sure to rave for a good while... (which is more than proper!)

--C.

Safety School

I've decided to give Googlebombing a try. So I can go around telling people to Beat Kal... and that they're just weenies.

That is all... just a little twisted experiment of mine.

On the note of twisted experiments... having all my stuff due Friday... I can see just how much I can procrastinate before the stress kills me.

--C.

PS, I'll post tiger pictures as soon as I bother.

Currently grooving to: Dixie Chicks - Some days you gotta dance

I have a tiger!

I'm a sucker for impuse buys at Walmart and now own a 5 foot long tiger. It's the best thing EVER!

That is all... finals are killing me.

--C.

Charity and the Season

This is such a great idea, I'm sure someone must have had it before. Charity Christmas Amazon Wish Lists. So much present giving is now decided with Amazon wish lists, why not set up a sort of Giving Tree-like deal where you buy presents for children. This one benefits the Seattle Children's Hospital.

--C.

On procrastination.

I just spent an hour reading other people's weblogs (links on the right). It's amazingly effective procrastination. If you're here for that same reason, I suppose I must deliver on unspoken promises to entertain. With this in mind, I link to: procrastination.

Also, I've found that I can now include a line saying what I'm currently listening to automatically with my posts.

--C.

Currently grooving to: Barenaked Ladies - If I Had a Million Dollars

Who says you don't learn anything...

I'm sick right now and the sad, dorky fact is that all I can think about is how my immune response is progressing, whether I am building up a predominantly cell-mediated response (Th1) or a predominate humoral response (Th2) and whether this response is the right kind to fight the pathogen I'm infected with. I also have this cartoon animation of a cytotoxic T cell destroying a virus infected cell in my head on permanent repeat. However these thoughts come in bouts of fevered thinking and doesn't help me actually finish my immunology final or write my paper on drug delivery.

I realize that yesterday, I was unually weepy and melodramtic but I suppose that was my mood. It is one of the beauties of blogging that the development of your thoughts moods and feelings could be preserved in time like that.

--C.

On friends and pasts.

This week has be a weird one. Two of my friends whom I have not spoken to in at least five years decided to strike up conversation again. Although I have so many years of events to catch up on, it's almost as if there's nothing to say as the conversation has definately lagged. I guess my life is really not that interesting. Apart from schoolwork, majors and getting trashed by Notre Dame last Saturday at the game, I have nothing to talk about. This is pretty sad. One my friends is married -- a fact that is only just starting to sink in. I'm not sure if I'm supposed to be disturbed or resigned to inevitable progress that aging has. Where is Peter Pan when you need him?

However, these conversations have been good for indulging in memories of my past. Of high school years and all those half-forgotten friends and aquaintences, faces that I probably won't forget but didn't think I'd ever see again. Of a summer spent at Harvard, enjoying Cambridge and roommates that became best friends in the space of 10 weeks. And sadly, of promises to write stacked like so many other misshelved books -- filed under dropped obligations as opposed to missed opportunities.

Sigh.

--C.

Music Take Two

Go here. If you have any program that can take Shoutcast streams, it'll link to music. (Translation: Winamp/iTunes) This links to the webpage where you can decide what you want to listen to next. It's pretty self-explanatory. My AjooBlast server is coming down.

Enjoy!

--C.

Last Matrix Comment, promise.

Just a question... don't you think the Matrix would be a heck of a lot cooler if it were done to techo rather than new age classical crap?

Ok, just so you know I'm not alone.

Here are some quotes from other reviews:

"This film is even "talkier" than the second--the difference being the second film's dialogue had meat to it. This time around, we're given nothing but third-rate overwrought "heart felt" garbage, with none of the philosophy or banter that makes the series function."

"Three plotlines, overlong movie--where I saw providence, the editor...well, must have fallen asleep. If you want to see the FX, wait for the DVD, advance to the middle sequence, watch it, and then return the damn thing to Blockbuster."

-- From needcoffee.com

"It's called "Revolutions" maybe because as it spins, you see the original story repeating itself - there's this guy Neo, people think he's a savior, but he's not sure, and then there's this big battle, and then...."

-- From the Philadelphia Daily News

"It's basically an action-adventure war movie decked out with a full battery of eye-boggling fantasy images. Plus a sort of New Age philosophical sauce poured over the stew to make you think it's more substantial than it really is."

"Much of the picture is devoted to sci-fi mayhem splashed all over the screen"

-- From the Christian Science Monitor

"Seems like every time you leave one of these "Matrix" movies, you're left with a swarm of brain-scratching questions buzzing around your brain, and the latest offering, "The Matrix Revolutions," might just be the most puzzling entry in the trilogy. How, for instance, could Morpheus go from being a cool, leather-clad guru to a doughy dork wearing a distressed J. Crew sweater in just a few months? Why devote a movie to the Machines' siege of Zion when what people really care about is Neo's search for the truth behind the Matrix? And if Neo is indeed Jesus, do we have to limit our prayers to one-syllable words?"

-- From LA Daily News.

"As for the story, it's exactly what you probably expect, more or less. Han Solo and Princess Leia struggle to help Luke Skywalker confront his shadow side in order to ... um ... whoops, wrong decade. Make that: Morpheus (Lawrence Fishburne, flat) and Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss, flatter) struggle to help Neo (Keanu Reeves, goes without saying) confront his shadow side in order to, you know, save the world. "

"But for a cyberpunk/anime Tron knockoff in Blade's duds following The Omega Man's path toward a Hulk-like aura of self-discovery climaxing with a middling showdown stolen from Superman II, it's a reasonably enjoyable ride."

-- From SF Weekly (This review is actually REALLY funny... The movie is almost worth the review)

"A brief subplot awkwardly attempting to shoehorn Hinduism into the "Matrix" mythos comes across like a hurried high school student's cramming of unnecessary footnotes into a term paper to give it a feeling of being extensively researched."

-- From azstarnet.com

"The sibling masterminds abandon all humor and most invention for a series of Mr. Wizard cosmic cliches ("There is no action without consequence . . . ." "The power of the One extends beyond this world . . . ." "Captain, these lights are crawling with calamari!" OK, OK, sorry) and a murky pastiche of Alien, Star Wars and, worse, Star Trek ("The dock is breached!") that creaks along like a junk heap heaving through hyperspace."

-- From The Philadelphia Inquirer

""Will Neo wake up?" "Will humanity survive?" "What's for tea tonight?" "Gosh, is that the time?" are all questions you may ask during the first mind-numbing 40 minutes, with its rambling conversations and snoreful philosophical noodlings."

-- From the BBCi

"My admiration for "The Matrix Revolutions" is limited only by the awkward fact that I don't much give a damn what happens to any of the characters. If I cared more about Neo, Morpheus, Niobe and the others, there'd be more fire in my heart."

-- Roger Ebert (and this was one of the most positive reviews too!)

The Matrix 3 Game

Just went and saw the Matrix: Revolutions

I was fantastically amused and loved the movie... but that's because when I'm not engaged by a movie, I have a tendency to switch into MST3K (Mystery Science Theatre, 3000) mode.

Anyway, if you find yourself bored, try these fun activities that will keep you entertained (otherwise that cell-phone game will get pretty inticing). Any of these can be turned into a drinking game with a very minor addition of "and take a shot". Don't blame me for repercussions.

1) Reference spotting. Images and visual effects in this movie often echo scenes in such geeky classics like StarWars, Lord of the Rings, the Wizard of Oz, X-men and Atari video games and of course B-rated kung-fu. Can you spot them all?

2) What will Keanu say next? Remember those toys you had as a kid that when you pulled the string, it would say a short random phrase? Well Keanu is precisely that. He pauses for a some long time before saying anything, giving you plenty of time to guess the one-word that comes out his mouth. "The Neo goes.... 'Choice""

3) Who dies? Every time you see a character for the first time, major or minor, guess whether they die by the end of the movie or if they live. Lots of fun. Great betting game, especially with the minor characters. (Although, to be honest, I did really badly at this game... maybe your predicting skills are better)

4) Shakespeare could have said it better. One of my personal favorites. Every time someone says something that is poorly written, see if taking a famous line from Shakespeare would fit (in a MST3K kind of way). Quite predictably Hamlet's soliloquy and Romeo and Juliet (and even a little from Julius Ceaser) all work well, although a few of the Bard's comedies also provide excellent fodder.

5) Geek-and-a-half. Like the second matrix, this one is full of computer lingo, subtle references, or even not so subtle. Spot them and mock them. Then look for places where they will make a video game out of this movie. It's so fragmented that it would make a very good mission-based video game.

6) Philosophical musings. For the seriously bored. As in previous Matrix movies, the W- brothers try really hard to introduce thought-provoking questions. In the first one, there was the central one (do we exist and are we entirely self-aware) and at least it was integral to the plot and was pretty subtle. In the second Matrix, the idea of reincarnation and non-linear time was introduced, questions about our perception of time and space etc etc. This time, they decide to end the subtletly, take the big bludgeon of "look at me, I'm a thought-provoking question" and bash you, the veiwer, across the head with it... repeatedly. Even Waking Life was a little more subtle with it's philosophies (and that movie was a large number of philosophy professors and other random people talking about philosophy). Try to find them! A partial list below:
Questions dealing with, the nature and purpose of love; purpose, choice, fate and destiny; life and death; the fine line between reality and perception, consciousness and unconciousness and what happens when that line blurs; religion vs. science, faith vs. facts; control and power (are you the God of what you make?); language and definitions; balance ... just to name a few. I definately felt rather bludgeoned when I got out.

If doing all that is too hard just sit around and spot all the logical incosistencies and evidences of bad writing. That's plenty to get you hammered.

The funniest line from the movie for me was "Jesus H. Christ!" I can't explain why but it cracked me up.

--C.

I'm totally wired...

And I wanted to harp on how wonderful caffeine and theobromine are.

That is all... go back to your lives.

--C.

Ah debates...

The chatlist has again produced the wonderful thing that is a political debate. What can I say? It's starting to liven up already. This week: the old evolution vs. creationism debate. Or God-directed evolution, or God-initiated evolution, or the evolution of God (Ok, so I made that last one up). I'm not really in a mood to rant right now, and I just wanted to say how much I love these debates.

Also if you have color scheme suggestions, please note them in the box to your right.

--C.

If you need to read a dictionary...

This is definitely the dictionary to read. Here's the link to Amazon. It's the New American Dictionary of Cultural Literacy and contains terms (sorted by discipline) that any truly literate American should know... stuff that comes up in everyday conversation and shouldn't make you confused. From Latin terms to American politics to a Biblical overview. From World history to famous book/art references to the physical sciences, this book has it all. And of course, there the listing of common idioms and proverbs. Nothing is oblique or seems too obscure for the layman but it's all terms that come up in the media ("embryonic stem cell" is included, for example but "CHO cell" is not.) Well worth reading and memorizing. I was able to get almost all of the ones in the Life Sciences and Physical Sciences sections but in the American Politics section, I was floundering.

Valuable procrastination... but then again "Procrastination is the thief of time".

--C.

The "Asian" mentality.

Ack, ack, ack, ack, ack! The "Asian community" is up in arms again because of some comment some stupid non-PC Austrailian golfer made. This is annoying. Here's the link .

I'm annoyed for many reasons:

1) As an Asian American, I recognize that the community doesn't really do much in the way of speaking out when it publicly discriminated against. I agree with a lot of the commentary that's flying over the lists about how we keep getting trampled on because we don't do anything. This time (unlike the time with the Abercrombie T-shirts) I actually think this woman made a real racist comment. I don't think she actively hates Asians as much as she was venting frustrations and picked a convenient scapegoat, but her comment was undeniably racist. However, the community response is really annoying. We're going back to that old debate of why aren't we speaking out? why can't we have more of a spine? why do we let this happen... talk talk talk talk. Well talk fizzles quickly. In fact the "analysis" of why we have such miserable traits is pretty weak too, floating more along the lines of "we're boneless, that sucks" rather than "we're boneless and need more goddamn calcium". Instead of speaking out we talk about speaking out as though it were some specimen that had to be analysed. And then as what could have been a mass public outcry fades, we get all indignant that our issues are being ignored. Yep, it's a tough world boys and girls and some people need faster reflexes.

2) I can't stand that people feel the need to WHINE about being discriminated against. Like it's something they can't help and that by telling their own little comfort group that it's the case they get over their own little upset. Well that's all well and good but it doesn't do anything. And that sort of uselessness is aggravating to me.

3) The damn people who think that Asian Americans are the only minority actively discriminated against are amazingly frightening. Just because affirmative action actually acts against Asian Americans (who get on average better test scores than their white counterparts) doesn't mean that we should be weeping. For crying out loud, we want a balanced playing field, not one skewed in our favor. If we have an economic advantage, we're going to have to sacrifice some of it if we want a higher social standing. It's a tendency of self-righteous bigots who think that they are the most important people in the world to think that the only person who is ever insulted is himself. Well, to be quite honest, that's not true.

4) Really, people. She was a participant in a sport that people barely knew existed, ranting because she wasn't happy. People get worked up over the simplest things. I understand that feeling but then brooding over it is really annoying. And feeling the need to wave it in everyone's face like "hey look at this, people actually do discriminate against Asians." I think it makes us look like big crybabies. But hey, we're spineless... that's our job!

Now, I posted something to the chat list to try to explain why I think Asian Americans are so easily trampled on... less of a way to go forward as a pretty insightful explanation (OK, so it really wasn't that insightful but still). I've copied and pasted it below:

Honestly guys, it's not because Asians don't speak out... it's because they
speak out to the wrong people and they don't speak out soon enough and as a
collective. They will e-mail and call each other, talking only to people
in their little comfort groups but no one will confront the public. Why?

It has a lot to do with an indecision in the political stance. After all,
the Asian American community isn't a community in any real sense of the
word. Sure at Stanford there's Okada and the A3C but really, outside,
there's hardly unity among the Chinese American crowd, much less between the
Japanese and Koreans. What does that mean? Well no one's going to stand up
in defend the rights of Asian Americans. Why should they carry the burdens
of such a large group, most of whom they don't even identify with? Secondly
the different groups have entirely different political agendas so they don't
even vote as a collective. So the politicians don't give a damn. We all
know from the 1960s that the black community is now a community and vote
together... and the Latino community is unified not only by physical
proximity but also by language (I can't wait to see Bush try to speak
"Asian" to please the Asian vote).

Furthermore, it's hard to even show we're being discriminated against. It's
like Asians are the anti-minority sometimes... the stats don't show
discrimination against Asians as far as test scores and college admissions.
Workplace discrimination is hard to prove, especially since having an accent
is a perfectly good excuse not to hire someone... and I'm not even sure if
there's workplace discrimination at all. So the only place Asians get
discriminated against is in little things like T shirts and snide
comments... and then people get all confused because they got the impression
that Asians don't care about discrimination or that we shouldn't care
because we're about as nondiscriminated against as can be.

Couple this with an unwillingness to speak out, and you've got the
impression we're always trampled on. But I think the response is not to
rant and rave about these little things in our little communities. The
answer is to write an angry letter and then to stop brooding over it. It
only breeds hard feelings. Maybe if we teach the Asian community to make a
swift early and bold strike (and then to STOP mulling over it), it would be
better. After all, you MUST realize that it was a white man (or non-asian
at least) who noticed this blatant racism -- he was the observant one.
Maybe if we were a little less reactive and more proactive; if we could
express collective disapproval as opposed to having it sent out across
e-mail lists and mulled over like academics, we'd get further in the world.

My rant is running a little low on steam so I'm going to stop now.

Good night.

--C.

Color Scheme take 3

While red is not my favorite color, there is definate pressure to obey the callings of school spirit. Voila, here it is.

--C.

Listen to my music... please!

With a superfast internet connection, I'm now able to stream music constantly and I'm running a server. Basically, here's how you get some fun listening:

Go here and download and run AjooBlast in player mode. The server is cheng.stanford.edu, the port 8800, and IM me for the password. You'll get a list of music folders... just click through until you find a song you like and click it. It'll start streaming.

Oh, and if you want me to serve your music, too (running low on HD space?) ... just tell me.

--C.

New Resolution

I don't know why I make resolutions, given a history of general disregard for their importance. Nevertheless, I hereby resolve to use more complex sentences in my blog and to stop sounding like I have no native grasp of the English language. One of my pet peeves in others is the use of pointless abbreviations (UR2L33T, for example) and yet, instant messaging and blogging have degraded my own use of the language as deplorably. Towards this end, I feel it may be necessary to pay closer attention to the diction that I employ in these posts. Having not had a real writing-intensive class in over a year, I find myself victim to the following lazy habits. With constant prodding, I should be able to tighten my language and hopefully sound more intelligent and coherent.

I've been using more empty modifiers and pointless hyperbole in recent writings. This is worrisome; words like "extremely", "absolutely" and "really" should be reserved for when the situation is extreme or absolute. "Really" needs to be erased absolutely from my future vocabulary. I know enough English to conceive of specific and accurate modifiers. Furthermore, hyperbolic comparisons have crept into my linguistic rut and taken up residence. While the odd, odd simile perpetuates my image as being only partially stable mentally -- something I don't mind, stale comparisons and outright exaggeration only cripples readability.

Overuse of parenthetical phrases is also a problem. Parentheses, ellipses and dashes usage will be severely limited henceforth. A parenthetical notation is the lazy man's way of including an idea in a sentence without the necessary transitional phrases. While I will confess to all accusations of laziness, I can't allow my writing to suffer that same fate; it's unacceptable.

I do not claim to have more than these two flaws in my writing. That would be both arrogant and false. However, fixing these seems like a reasonable goal for the next few months. Should I slip up, as I have undoubtedly done so in this post, please correct me. It would be very helpful.

Thank You.

--C.

[Edit: Spelling could also use some work]

Skipping class.

Yep, I'm doing it again. Skipping class. I really need to keep track of when my midterms are so I don't skip those inadvertently.

Doing waltz in social dance... horray for spinning fast enough to feel absolutely sick and dizzy for hours afterwards!

Today, one of my friends told me that I'm the randommest I've ever been. I was going to say something about that, but I got sidetracked. I'll say something later. I'm writing like a fourth grader; complex sentences, dammit!

--C.

New site design and chatbox

Let's see how this works out... Just click the links on the side. If you want to say stuff just type it. It may take some time to refresh and don't click on the links below, they generate popups.

Ok. Off to lunch.

Gratuitous good link: Webpage Design for Designers.

Enjoy.

--C.

There's nothing like...

Looking at your past blogging to jog your memory as to what you're supposed to be blogging about.

4) Scavenger hunt. If you don't know what it is... you don't go to Stanford. My sympathies. Anyway it was LOTS of fun but in the furor, I ended up somehow with my head shaved. It's been quite a week with funny looks from old friends... and the full range of comments from: "What the heck did you do to your hair??" to the neutral but cautious "So what inspired the new look" up to the "Damn, you look way better now". Incriminating photos, as is the norm, to follow... as soon as I find some storage space online for them.

5) Ropes course. A FroSoCo tradition: the sophomores get a not-quite-all-expenses-paid-but-heavily-subsidized day on a ropes course. Of course, as with any sort of climbing (and a number of other exercises -- like broomball) your muscles hurt in all sorts of odd places afterwards... but usually there is a definite positive correlation between the amount of creaking the next day and how much fun you had. It's something like the corollary to the old "no pain no gain" adage. "No fun, no pain". Well I definately had fun... and it did hurt... although not as much as two years ago when I had to try everything. Again, there will be photos... although none of me. I have a tendancy to be the one holding the camera at these events.

Ok bed for real now.

What a week.

Tired and sleepy but I did insist that I would at least blog before going to bed. First off, excuses: 5 problem sets. 'nuff said. Ok, so while this is printing my problem set, I'll blog -- simple enough. I had a few quick points that are on my list of things to blog about. In historical order:

1) Vegan week was a success... but it was definately very nice to eat cheese and meat again. Now that it's been a week of being more omnivorous, I can say with certainty that I do enjoy having the option of eating anything... but that I could definately go back to veganism without that much pain and suffering.

2) Busywork is terrible. I don't understand why professors think busywork is somehow useful to your further eductation. Copying pages from textbooks and lecture notes is not a way to get me to understand the material... it's a way to get me to hate it. I wish they'd put weight on the "inspires interest" section of the evaluation forms... then professors may actually try to do so.

3) On a lighter note: if you are reading this, you REALLY should look at this link. Wirte 50,000+ words in a month. It sounds like so much fun! Now if only I had the time for it... maybe when I get a real job. So that is my recommended link of the week.

4) There was definately a fourth thing but my printing's done and I'm too tired to remember it.

--C.

zzZZZ

Dancing plus Halo means no progress on the to do list but lots of fun. Scavenger hunt tomorrow... Sleep now.

C.

One of those days.

Yeah, it's like that. Computer is starting to burn out and I went to Fry's to get new memory but that was worse. Giving up on my tireless companion of 3+ years. I'm getting a new faster system online... should arrive in 2-3 weeks. In the meantime I have a homework list of 6 items on the back of my hand. I'm also speaking like a news anchor... the choppy sentence syndrome.

Vegan week last day: Discovered Fry's has vegan candy, definate bonus points for an electronics store. Also Sarah gave up a day early on the whole vegan thing: her downfall, Chicken Caeser salad. I'm going to start eating normally tomorrow, but Christina is still at it. You go girl! Although I really don't feel like eating a huge steak or anything... but some chocolate would be nice. All in all, a success... from near failure at the beginning, I'm starting to see how it can just be routine and nearly subconcious after a while. Although it is much harder than I remember from when I was vegetarian, as I expected really. I may try other restrictive diets in later weeks (I find you learn a lot by trying to experience what other people do): no gluten, highly limited phenylalanine, low sugar, low sodium, no casein, no leaven, no caffeine or alcohol. I'll be sure to document extensively all observations.

Ok, sleep, for the weak but I suppose not sleeping weakens you to the point when you can sleep again.

--C.

Was about to go to bed...

But I did promise to update this.

Vegan week, day three. WIth only one day left, I now am in a sort of routine... and feel like I could keep this up for longer. Sometimes your friends are hardest to deal with since they are the ones that will wave a buttery pastery or a steak in front of your face just to see what sort of rise they get out of you. But I supposed I expected that from the start. I think my body is starting to adjust to eating food of a lower energy density since I no longer feel hungry 2 hours after meals. I've found it surprisingly easy not to give up on veganism even when outside the dining hall, too. At our meeting tonight, there were cake and cookies galore (all non vegan, of course) as well as sour cream & onion chips and spinach dip... and I didn't eat any of it. I feel this must be an amazing diet plan: eat anything you want, when you want... as long as it's vegan. And it could even come in the mail-order with a video of murdered cows oozing with bacteria and spurting blood. Double whammy: not only do you reduce calorie intake by eating no meat/dairy, you lose your appetite after watching those videos.

C--.

PS. I'd like to point out that I'm trying very hard to be positive and not cynical in these posts... yet.

Ha! Titles now... Google is nifty.

So, now I don't have to do silly HTML tags for titles... but anyway, I'm going to pimp a really cool website: HERE . You may have heard of it, DeviantArt -- it is THE premiere online artist community. Mostly, however, people on it have some of the best design sense or technical ability or drawing ablility or just WOWness, ever. But since it's an open forum for displaying your art, there is some bad stuff but you have to search really hard to find it. Plus they design skins, wallpapers, themes (damn I sometimes wish I had a Mac) etc etc etc. Cool site of the day. For more "WOW" but solely 3D computer generated graphics (I personally don't like this as much as Deviant, but Mike is all for it) go to the Internet Ray Tracing Competition

I am not giving up... yet.

Vegan Week day 2: Friends are the best things in the world. It really was the handfuls of vegan chocolate that got me through the day, thanks to Kelsey and her selfless run to Safeway. I managed to get through the whole day without eating a single banana, as opposed to 8 yesterday. (Having 2 peaches helped... sugar is a wonderful thing... I would NOT survive an Atkins diet).

Phi Psi is a great group of guys but we somehow end up spending so long talking at meetings. We even talked for a long time about why we talk for a long time about who we should let talk. It's almost as bad as voting to vote on a motion to entertain a motion to close debate on a motion to vote so that we can vote on it.

Losing your keys sucks. A mad hunt through the house ends when I realize I had them on me all the time... it still sucks though.

--C.

Veganism and blogging.

Blogging again. I'm going to try and put up a really short short bit here every night instead of long passages,

Day 1 of Vegan week: ate lots of good food... realized how much more careful I have to be. Was craving chocolate after less than 5 hours. All in all... I don't think I can be vegan for any really extended period of time.

Feeling burned out already. I have a ton of e-mails to write, too. But I'm going to bed now.

--C.

Blogging again. Finally.

So I'm here at my first day of work and it's pretty sweet. I mean I have my own cube, my own desktop and my own inbox which is already full of papers to read and stuff. The joys of working in an office, I don't understand why people ever want to leave.

Let's see... the last few months of my life... terribly exciting. Yep. Couldn't have wished for more... Um... yeah.

A quick recap of my last quarter as an undergrad:

LOTS of classes. No lab, however... but this could get me in trouble.
RA interviews and Phi Psi rush... lots of awesome pledges, now brothers. Road trip to LA, tons of sand surf and good fun. I'm not an RA, but that's now a lot opportunity I don't plan to think about now. Isn't self delusion grand? Failing finals... far more stress than I could handle. Graduation and not-quite-getting my undergrad diploma. Then moving to summer housing, a great debacle with roommate issues but the current situation where I have this huge room all to myself suits me grandly.

Um... I'd go into the rest of this in greater detail but that part of my life is behind me... maybe I will... who knows.

Let's see... fun things to rant about:
Had this 2 hour MASSIVE arguement last night over why I dislike "pop" music. She insisted that she "won" but I don't agree. Oh well, I don't even see why we were arguing but I was feeling rather spiteful/sarcastic at times and that's when I'm at my most quoteable. Most of it isn't suitable for publishing on the web. And anyway, my log files are at home... maybe I'll extract funny things later.

Ok... its nearly 6 and maybe I should go eat.

--C.

OK... finally a blog.

As you may know I've joined a fraternity. And it's rush. We had a lot of fantastic guys come out to our event Monday night and we're hosting Monte Carlo night tonight so it's been a blur. My calendar is getting crammed with goodies... like RA interviews and meetings with advisors as well as Phi Psi stuff and numerous beginning of quarter errands. On top of this I'm hosting extra participants for the Democratic Partner's conference in my room so I've moved out into the Phi Psi house which while fun is a little more time consuming.

I'm hoping to be an RA next year since it's going to be so well... FUN! Staffing this year was a blast, although I really could have been around more. At the same time I really want to live at the Phi Psi house next year since it is such a great group of guys. It's going to be a tough decision...

Off to fun PhD level classes. YAY!

--C.

Wow... haven't blogged in a while.

--C.

ARG! I need to rant. I have issues with incompetents in positions of power. And I'm not talking about President Bush either.

1) My professor for thermo this quarter is seriously mindnumbingly stupid. I'm sure he's actually really not ... but he just can't teach worth beans. Firstly he makes us take a quiz at the beginning of every class, which has GOT to violate some kind of honor code. Then he proceeds to lecture the material in an order that hardly makes sense.
He uses a model on a system that OBVIOUSLY does not fit it. So I sit there for 10 minutes trying to work out what he's trying to achieve... and then at the end of this long and lengthy process tells us that it doesn't work and that all we did was wrong. Why couldn't he tell us this in the first place, then proceed to work in the hypothetical case of "if it did work" instead of lying to us.

2) Why can't people proofread? Or at least sort things out in their head before they say it. When you write an equation, please make sure it is correct. I'm spending most of my mental capacity correcting errors in the textbook (excusable) written by the TAs (less excusable but still ok) and points made by the prof (very not excusable when you proceed to defend yourself.)

3) The next time I hear someone pronounce French names and phrases the way he does... I might just kill them. "Voilà" is pronounced "Wahller" and Antoine as "An-TOE-in". And the names of the other famous chemists are horribly mangled as well. And even his normal speech sends chills down my back. I'm sure it's an accent thing, and that I'm particularly aware since I still prefer English English, thank you very much... but still. (Side note, I wonder if there is an inherent speech bias, where Austrailian is considered vulgar and English (and not American) is considered upper class.) Anyway I find myself in a pissy mood when I'm in the class... I'm pretty sure it's also a factor of how much he actually cares about us and the material. It's a subtle thing but it's actually really easy for a student to tell when the really doesn't like the class, and if the prof doesn't want to be there, why should the students bother?

4) I think I have a need to learn something in my classes. Otherwise I don't go or sleep through them. I do a subconsious cost-benefit analysis and if there is no cost to sleeping, I just go ahead and do it. This is also why I tend to get low grades in lower-level classes while I'm doing really well in my graduate level classes.

--C.

So I wrote up the following rant on the plane. I've been meaning to type it up but obviously haven't gotten around to it until just now.

I am sitting aboard an Asiana Air flight to, well, home and I'm constantly impressed by the insane difference one class upgrade makes in the level of service, comfort and let's not forget, food. (I suppose it makes quite an impact on your wallet, too... or your dad's or your dad's corporate account.) I'm not currently able to sleep due to the disturbing staring by some kids in the seat in front so some current musing instead:

Being old enough in most countries to drink, I've availed myself of this right before shortly losing it in the next 9 hours upon passing through immigration into the US. However, upon arrival on campus, I suppose my drinking can recommence uninhibited (well, as long as I don't pass out... and I don't intend to). -- Not that I drink much at all... (honest!). So anyway, after a (small) glass of wine with dinner, I've become rather verbose in a non-verbal, pencil-paper sort of way. Hence this rant. (As an aside, my handwriting is quite awful at this point, not sure if it's the alcohol or the fact that I was writing really fast... I suspect the latter... and general untidyness on my part anyway.)

As I was just served a multi-course dinner, I decided to see how far I could get on pure formal western upperclassness. While I know (thanks largely to my dad) which forks and knives to use, and how to hold them (prongs down, fork always in left hand) -- I was baffled by the many other choices I had to make. I was offered wine with dinner (a choice of five) and having decided previously to partake, I couldn't decide which would go (formally) with the steak I'd ordered. I did remember the old rule, red with red meat and white with fish and poultry but there were three red wines to chose from. In the end, I opted to hold off on the alcohol until the fruit et fromage course.

But come that course, the options for alcohol had expanded to include, port, scotch, rum and some cocktails. It was agonizing trying to make a decision and still look like I knew what I was doing. I'm sure there are books on stuff like this... I guess I need to do some background reading.

And the cheese course in itself was a whole other (pronounced, "nother") adventure. Having expended the Edam to go with the apple slices and the other hard cheese (I'm not sure what it was) on a couple of a rather interesting cracker, I was left with with a slice of pumpernickel and a generous serving of Brie. Now it felt wrong on so many levels to combine the dark German bread with the light French cheese but the alternative was dry bread or some leftover German butter that came with a toasty roll a few courses ago. So, in the end an ironic recreation of the last few hundred years of European history won out. All downed with a glass of American wine to complete the metaphor.

--C.

I'm in Korea and let me tell you it is a really cold place. Getting here was nice in the sense that I was flying Business class for the second time in my life and I always forget how awesome the service is each time... Linen tableclothes and a 5 course full ... lunch. (and really really good cheesecake.). But I have a cold and that makes flying miserable... always... as well as leaving my passport on the plane when I got off... which was a little adventure.

But more about Korea... the people seem really nice, although I can't speak a word of korean. Ah well... that's the way it goes. The Technology here is incredible... but you expect that...

Let me give you a few examples of what I've noticed in the oh... 20 minutes I've been here. This will be quick.. my flight boards in 10 mins. The escalators are sensor controlled. The computers come with Natural Keybaords... and are TINY... and have HUGE LCD screens... and the elevators have cool displays and all... fun stuff... OK... boarding call... Talk to you all at Stanford.

--C.

I'm at the airport enjoying 15 minutes of cybre cafe fame. Woot! I'm going home. If you read this, within the next ... oh ... 2 hours, send me e-mail since I get access to the business class lounge at Seoul and I'll pop in and say hi again probably.

I'll see all you Stanfordites soon!

--C.

I'm going home (to Stanford). I'll be really busy but I also keep my promises... This will be done... even if it's going to be short.

--C.

Ok, for the sake of completeness, I'm going to finish the philosophical musings... (again, a continuation from below)

I was going to do it now... but IM conversations got in the way... oh well...

--C.

"the rest of this stuff on this kind of stuff " Geez... I need some major help... so much for coherency.

I had a rant in mind for right now but I've been opinionated enough for today.

I'm going to try and exercise self control and stop blogging... For 5 hours. Ok...

Stopping now.

--C.

I'm no longer in a philosophical mood so the rest of this stuff on this kind of stuff will have to wait.

I'm posting here, if blogger will let me a conversation I had with Dave over AIM after posting the below...

ok... nevermind, blogger doesn't let me.

I'd like to make one last thank you to Dave, Jim, Mike and everyone else who helped me sort things out in my head.

--C.

(continued from below... )

3) My views on existence ARE consistent with a J-C God (Judeo-Christian-Islamic). They are also, hopefully, consistent with a number of other religions, and even atheism. They probably aren't consistent with a number of more interesting philosophies, including existentialism (which I must admit, I really really liked at one point until I couldn't stand it anymore). I'm not saying that they aren't true but they aren't how I chose to live my life. You may all be figments of my imagination but I don't chose to live like you are.

4) A remark. I've been criticized (by my parents) for not using complete sentences. I'm sorry if that annoys you and I'll try to do better.

That said... next installment on moral philosophy soon.

--C.

I slept well last night for the first time in DAYS. So I guess this ranting is helping... thanks again to all my supportive friends for reading this.

Now that I've had a chance to mull over what I said in previous posts, I'd like to make a couple addenda (I think that's the plural for addendum) and a few remarks.

1) None of what I'm saying is fantastically new. Please don't think that I'm somehow making terribly insightful observations about the world. I'm just selecting points that I've read and forgotten the source to.

2) I don't believe that the only purpose that religion serves is to offer a support or somewhere you can put your faith... It serves a multitude of others, many of which are not as relevant in this day and age, and many which are more so (and the degree to which these purposes are currently relevant determines the success of the religion). For example, religion is sometimes a way of explaining the world (How we got here, why is there a sun... stuff like that), it is (was) a way of controlling behaviour and introducing ethics (If you're bad you have bad things happen to you.), it serves, through ritual, as a means to unite the community and to bring order and discipline to one's life (Islam is a prime example), it also served as a vehicle for the transmission of history (especially so for the Jewish), it was a way (sorry to be cynical) of creating society by enforcing absolute leaders (priests, brahman, ... back in the day, the pharoh), it offered congregation points for the community and lastly it inspires self-reflection (to a certain degree). I'm not saying this list is complete either but you get the point. Contrast this with modern day, where a lot of these functions are split up... the government provides the leaders, science provides the explanation of the world, more and more learned people transmit stories, education provides a good part of the other duties of religion, law provides an enforced ethics. I'm not saying that religion is entirely not relevant these days, only that a number of its original roles have been taken over (especailly by education and science). Religion is still here to serve as a support for those who need that kind of support, a source of community and a basis for ethics (which is sorely lacking sometimes.) But these roles are no longer crucial to the functioning of society and so thus the decline of religion.

-- rest killed by blogger... next post! --