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April 03

SPRING BREAK!!

My first real spring break ==> 5 days of PURE dream in PUERTO RICO!!!

pictures are on Flikr:
http://flickr.com/photos/13ourne/sets/72157604289867548/

8:51 AM | Add a comment | Permalink | Blog it | 事情是酱子的

March 09

First Day of DST

DST in the spring is always horrible, all of the sudden, you lose a whole hour.

Bad Taste concert ended really late last night, so I didn't get home till 4AM. I haven't been to bad taste concerts for 2 years and I forgot how bad it is. NOthing was really memorable, other than having entirely too many Anna Tang jokes.

I broke my mug yesterday and now I have nothing to drink stuff with. I went to the mall in search of a mug. Turns out, no store sells mugs if it's not holiday season, and only gift shops carry mugs during regular time. So people can't buy mugs on their own? and u can only receive mugs as a gift? that's ridiculous.

Fortunately, there is still Starbucks that sells some mugs, so i bought one.

school is starting again tomorrow. stuff is due and test on Friday... just one of those weeks.

10:06 PM | Add a comment | Permalink | Blog it | The Daily Routine

March 05

I'M BACK!!

After a months of not being on MSN, i finally found the way to beat the FUCKING VIRUS!!! and hopefully it worked.

9:36 PM | Add a comment | Permalink | Blog it | 事情是酱子的

February 03

the FUN of Shopping

There are two kinds of stores that I can spend forever in without any specific item of interest:

1) Electronic stores

2) CVS

I went to the mall today thinking I can get my pants hemmed. Unfortunately, the tailors take a day off on Sundays, so I just decided to walk around in the mall for a little bit. THen i suddenly realized that I wanted to buy a bluetooth headset for my cellphone, so I ended up in BestBuy. Man.. i was like a kid in a candy store. Video Games, Cellphone accessories, Computer Accessaries, MP3 player accessaries, and that's only like half of the store. Too bad I don't have enough money. I only bought the bluetooth headset I came for.

Next Stop: CVS. All I needed was eye make-up remover. But the make-up section has other things too: eyeliners, eye shadows, mascara, and that's just for eyes. Too bad I am not rich as hell, so I only bought the eye make-up remover, ... and the cotton pad to use it with ... and some mouth wash....

Shopping is so much fun!

January 29

Be Assertive - Stop Whining

It's really sad when your friends don't even support your decisions and start calling you a dictator.

They try to warn me: you know people are going to think your decision was unfair, right? AS FUCK i know people are gonna say it's unfair. Of course, there are ALWAYS gonna be people who don't agree with your decision. That's the problem with trying to please 44 people all at once, IT'S NOT POSSIBLE! This is the best decision I can make. I've even tried to be democratic about it, I even asked people about it. Yet, that just backfired cuz now everyone wants to be happy, and I can't get that. What my friends don't realize is that I've been torn by this decision for the last month and this is the best I can do. Of course I've conidered all the circumstances. Fine, I guess they thought they are doing this with my best interest at heart, but that just makes me feel like they think i'm incompetent.

I talked to Ian... he said i need to be assertive. That is VERY true. I need to make better decisions so that I can say "this is why this is the best way to do this, you can criticize me all you want, but can you come up with a better way to resolve this? well? didn't think so....!"

January 28

New Computer!!

My new computer is finally here!! Took a while cuz it was sitting in a DHL station in Shrewsbury for like ever.

2 hours into owning this computer, I have already scratched the top cover. I'm a horrible person.

It runs Windows Vista... i'm not a big fan... gonna get it wiped tmrw and get XP Professional.

It IS faster tho.. i can watch stuff online much better now. it's also got a gigantic harddrive, so I guess all I have to do is hope it doesn't decide to crash one day and lose everything i have.

10:25 PM | Add a comment | Permalink | Blog it | Update

January 27

12 hrs of sleep, WhAT?

So woke up this morning... looked at the clock === 3 PM!!! well.. there goes my day.

yesterday was alright... worked desk for 4 hours in the morning. came home, slept till 3pm. ate, watched tv and played some cards. Significant events included:

1) got into this giant argument with 2 of my friends regarding the originality of the Japanese culture. I maintain that a large part of the Japanese culture is derived from the Chinese culture from the Tang Dynasty, which is manifested in the architecture, language and elements of traditions. I didn't say that all of Japanese culture is just a subset of the CHinese culture, but it seems like that's what my friend is accusing me of stating. And she's saying now the CHinese is emulating part of Japan's cultural elements such as manga, pop music and such. No doubt that those things are quite popular amongest Chinese youth these days, but I still think Japanese cultural, from a fundamental point of view, is derived and built upon part of the Chinese culture.

I haven't had an argument much with my friends for a while, I suppose it makes our lives more interesting when we don't always agree with each other.

2) Learned two new card games today, one called Durak (sp?), it's a Russian game, another one called Spades, an American game. Realized that my brain is gone and can't process information very well anymore. absolutely sucks at playing cards. But again, I was playing with some of the most brilliant minds in the school. so i'm okay not winning too often. I was partnered up with Mike during Spades and I all of the sudden realized that he's kinda cute, in the geeky kind of way, which is the way i like. Too bad he's taken... at least i think.

In other news, Djokovic won the Australian Open. He's all kinds of cute. but he's like 3 years younger than i am. since when did everyone become younger than i am!

6:37 PM | Add a comment | Permalink | Blog it | The Daily Routine

January 25

Weakest Link

Finally, i got shop trained today. The Waterjet machine is kinda old and rundown, but it's nice cuz all u use is water and sand. What's cooler is the Laser Cutter. it's just this desk-sized machine, u open the hood, put in ur sheet of material, acrylic or metal or anything, and u just push a button and it cuts the sheet however u wanna cut it. It's like magic. I love machines..... =P

The afternoon was really productive. I finally built part of the support structure. I feel like the dumbest person in the group cuz i am not good at designing things and haven't contributed so much to the group. Plus they are actually paying me, so I feel all kinds of bad. i need to put in some more hours over the weekend.

Tomorrow. I'm doing something that i haven't done very much recently: i'm going to the SUPERMARKET!! I realized how unhealthy I have been eating these days and I think I need to change that. I need to start cooking more and eat more vegetables. Otherwise, I'd literally be 200lb by the time i leave this place, and NO one wants to see that.

kk... Gonna watch the second half of Superbad now...

Have a great weekend.

9:02 PM | Add a comment | Permalink | Blog it | The Daily Routine

January 24

I have some good news too?

So spent about 6 hours in lab yesterday, nothing particular, designed a hip joint for the bear. The whole time I was feeling really frustrated cuz i SUCK at 3D visualization. Also, i think my brain had turned into pulp by now, it's not useful anymore, i don't know what I'm gonna do when I start working.

Got the new jump drive in the mail. It's 4GB, made by this Chinese company, it's really cute. Tested it out today, found out there is actually a reason why it's so cute, it's making up for the fact that it's kinda slow. oh wellz... i'll deal with it, it was only like $20. That's pretty good for 4GB. right?

Came to lab this morning, really late again, cuz somehow I have lost the ability to get up to my alarm clock no matter how much sleep i've gotten. Again, i suppose that has something to do with my brain turning into pulp. Jessie came to visit me. She's got good news, she got into Stanford grad school. I'm really happy for her, for she's is the smartest amongst us all and she deserves everything in the world. At the same time, I'm starting to feel like an underachiever cuz I'm going straight to the work force instead of going to grad school. So I tell myself, I'll come back in 2-3 years and do the MIT manufacturing MBA program, so I can be in the place again.

Now that I'm leaving this place in a couple of months, i'm starting to realize how privileged I am to actually have been in this place for 4 years. I'm sitting at the world's most famous robotics lab right now and I'm just another person. As soon as i leave this place, i'm NEVER gonna be able to be sitting in a place this important anymore. right now i just really hope I don't give the school a bad name by sucking at whatever i end up doing.

I'm not a very ambitious person, not anymore. but i need to suck it up and make something out of my life. i think... First step: getting up on time tmrw morning!

12:53 PM | Add a comment | Permalink | Blog it | Random Rant

January 18

最后一年了

Feels like ages since that cold day of December when I got home from school, checked my mail and got this giant envelope with a letter in it that said "Congratulations".

Flash forward, 4 years later, I'm sitting here, freaking out about graduation.

In a couple of months, I will no longer be immersed in an environment with the concentration of intelligence so high that the garbage can is full of knowledge. But before I do that, I must complete one very difficult task -- write a thesis. Good thing I already know what project i'm working on, but I don't have a specific topic picked out yet, I'm slightly worried about that. Good luck to me.

Also, I accepted an offer to join General Electric starting this July. YAY for all the discounted GE product i'll be able to buy. Hopefully they send me back to China soon.

8:47 PM | Add a comment | Permalink | Blog it | Update

September 17

Read a book

A friend recommended me to read an online Chinese romantic novel. Due to my inability to resist any excuse to not doing work, I started reading it.

It's about a girl who started having a crush on this guy, but the guy can't let go of his ex-girlfriend, who has been dead for a while. And she tried to make the relationship work, but he just couldn't let go. so the story ended up really sad.

I found CHinese people are really good at writing sentimental novels, and they express passion in a completely different way than the western people do. Chinese people are more indirect, like the author would show a woman's love for a man by her not wanting to take the medicine that he gave her just because she wanted to save it and she'd rather be sick than lose the one thing that her lover gave her. And the western people focus on a more physical expression of love and passion, which is a lot more direct.

Last night is when many of the fraternity houses have their begin-of-the-term formal dinners, so there are a lot of dressed up guys and their dates and lots of alcohol was consumed. I was walking home at 12:30am, and this guy who was about to walk pass me suddenly stopped in his track and said to me "catch", i got confused and sorta just stood there. And he threw a rose at me. i got further confused, but he just walked on by. I am prettty sure he was drunk but it was still pretty nice.

hum.... what could that mean??

September 14

Wait and See

Summer:

Summer has passed. It was a great time. Met a lot of people. ate in many restaurants. spent lots of money.

School:

This term has been fine. I am sitting here updating my space. I wrote a Java program yesterday, was very proud of myself.

other than that, nothing much is going on. I am living in this room tat has a GORGEOUS view.

I also have three laptops, two are loaned from the school. One of the loaned laptop is actually a DuoCOre Dell, I usually hate Dells but this one is actually pretty impressive.

11:02 PM | Add a comment | Read comments (2) | Permalink | Blog it

July 14