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Monday, December 31, 2001 I'm sitting around waiting until midnight and the new year hits. It doesn't seem very exciting. But seeing Dick Clark in Times Square on TV is kind of scary. He has that preserved look that I thought was originally reserved for mummies. I wonder if the post office is open tomorrow. [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 8:57 PM : Sunday, December 30, 2001 White as Snow by Tanith Lee was a depressed ball bearing disguised as a rewritten fairy tale. Sure, the whole thing makes you think twice about Snow White and the myth surrounding Persephone but in the end, it was more an exercise in discovering literary allusions then actually getting immersed in the story. If only the protagonists were a little more likeable. Out of curiousity I also got my hands on Open Season by Linda Howard. I guess I was misled since all the suspense I was expecting fell quite flat and instead I got pages and pages of "relationship" (i.e. romance) type stuff. I didn't find the main character very sympathetic even though I once was also a librarian. It would have been much more interesting if the author kept the illegal alien at the beginning rather than conveniently killing her off for the sake of a blotched plot. [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 7:32 PM : Saturday, December 29, 2001 Yikes! Too many days missed. It must be the slower connection combined with my lack of motivation to even turn on the computer. Break sort of does that to my brain. But I haven't been sleeping the days away or vegetating in front of the television that much. Instead, I've been working what I usually do during break--writing. Unfortunately most of the stuff ends up as fragments of ideas or really bad first drafts. Most of my better stuff seems to emerge during the rest of the year when I'm under pressure. Lately, I've been to another used bookstore, this one called Book Attic. There's a sizeable collection of sci-fi and mainstream fiction. More than half of the store though is based on non-fiction which is where you'll find some really cool treasures like sheet music. The only lamentable fact about all these bookstores is that they don't have a database online where you can browse beforehand. Yeah, there's sites like Bookfinder, but those only cover the more larger and well known stores. [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 12:02 PM : Tuesday, December 25, 2001 Merry Christmas! The temperature is fluctuating between just below freezing and just above freezing--a real wide range, I can tell you. The forecasters are predicting "flurries" after Christmas although they're as reliable as a random number generator. I'm just looking forward to tomorrow. The chaos of gift returns, sales, and hectic traffic lend an altogether different atmosphere than the previous days when people are actually buying things. So to make up for yesterday, I have two (yes two!) things which I'm going to blab about, er review. The first is a movie based on a video game, Tomb Raider which I had initially ignored when it came out in theaters to see Atlantis. Scratching my head, I still can't really find much of a plot. It's more like a fan boy's wet dream come true--gratuitous shower scenes, boob shots, and cheesy dialogue with blatant come ons. Will I see it again? No. Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman, on the other hand, is a book based on a BBC television series. And it shows. The novel reads like a brief script. The action passes too quickly despite the brief spurts of macabre humor that tries to hold it up. Gothic fantasy? Perhaps, after it's been chewed and vomited back out for the masses. Gaiman should stick to comics and leave gothic fantasy to the genre masters Angela Carter and Tanith Lee. [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 12:18 PM : Sunday, December 23, 2001 I've been watching too much TV lately even though they're only documentaries and news. But for some bizarre reason, this particular site was mentioned: People Cards. People can get their own collectible card. But somehow I sort of feel sad that some people may be resorting to this to get attention. [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 6:14 PM : Saturday, December 22, 2001 I can only compare Bookman, a used and rare bookstore located on 21st Avenue just past Vanderbilt University, to the fictional library in Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose. Its shelves are brimming, virtually bursting, from all the books that were stocked. They need a whole other store to hold all of them properly. The store itself is a labyrinth with winding passages, alcoves, and hidden cubbyholes. It's certainly something worthwhile for further exploration. [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 3:29 PM : Friday, December 21, 2001 Once again, the evidence of suburban sprawl (or in this case industrial) was evident as I headed off to my latest random find. A large GAP distribution center sat in the middle of pristine grassland. Despite my general distaste for farmland and its herds of grazing cattle, it's even more worrisome that our last vistas of "wilderness" or undeveloped land is being converted into a mechanic's idea of utopia. But enough of that--I'm sure the next time I come home for break there won't even be a hint of grass left. Just desolate parking lots. As for my latest random find, it is a used bookstore called The Grapevine located in Gallatin, Tennessee (home to various country music stars like Reba McEntire and Johnny Cash). It has an adequate sci-fi, fantasy section although their section of trashy romance novels was three or four times larger. As for it's organization, as expected of most used book stores. [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 8:15 PM : Thursday, December 20, 2001 I hate to think that I am a product of mass media. Are my preferences, notions, and opinions shaped by how the media and thus the corporations spew out their "information"? Am I just one person in a mindless mob programmed to buy this or that, think a particular thing, feel a particular thing? I'd like to think that I'm original that what I do is not mediated in anyway else to what some CEO in some big conglomerate wants me to do so that he or she can profit. It almost seems hopeless--that I can't escape any of this even if I don't watch television or listen to the radio. [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 8:30 PM : Wednesday, December 19, 2001 Like other fans, I went to see LOTR: FOTR on opening day (today!) and was quite impressed and perhaps slightly surprised by Jackson's interpretation of Tolkien's work. I won't spill all the secrets of what was cut or added, but I'll say it's quite effective in keeping people with short attention spans in their seat. And did I see masses of people eager to see the movie? No. But you have to remember, my hometown is filled with hicks in self-denial whose idea of a good time is cow-tipping and gossiping. Fantasy with a Christian slant deep in Southern Baptist territory? If the church minded people knew, they would be violently urging people to boycott. No wonder the only LOTR commercials on TV around here are for Burger King. But give them something like The Bridges of Madison County and they'll be mobbing the theaters. [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 7:20 PM : Tuesday, December 18, 2001 On Saturday, I headed to LAX to fly back home. Sure, security was a lot more strict than the last time I hopped on a plane, but somehow I didn't feel all that safe. There were long lines of passengers, completely unarmed and defenseless. There were guys in uniforms toting automatic rifles--but they were probably as likely to shoot an innocent bystander as a terrorist. [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 11:16 AM : Saturday, December 15, 2001 Now this is a strange article I stumbled upon: Man finds dead burglar in his home. How many times has this ever happened? Some techer blogs: Caltech Peaceful Justice Coalition (PeaceBlog), green gabbro, and Hesitant Firmness. NoMoPoMo - The science equivalent of this must be the squirrely grad student moldering in a corner of the lab. And sombody's attempting to write a whole novel during the month of January. Best of luck. You'll need it. Yet another test: The Obscure Website Test You are most like http://www.eiu.org. You are a very tongue-in-cheek person. It's often hard to tell if you're being serious, and you have almost a kinda spooky vibe. You're also very inquisitive, and like to question what most take for granted. [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 8:44 AM : Friday, December 14, 2001 I rarely look at my "snail mail". I hardly get any as it is. But guess what came today? The second (and belated) issue of CURJ which publishes undergraduate research. There's some excellent technical writing in there, and I know most of the writers (at least in passing acquaintance) in the journal so I can vouch that it's talent and not extensive editing skills. However, I find it sort of odd that the first time I've seen the guy who founded and is the editor-in-chief of CURJ on campus in months was today lurking around the student mailboxes. He's brilliant, but weird. [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 4:08 PM : Whoa. The King of Spoons beat me by three hours for the longest timed final. 9 hours. He said he spent most of his time banging his head on his desk. I'd imagine. I spent my six hours wishing it was just some twisted nightmare and that in actuality I was asleep on some hammock in Tahiti. Anyway, I'll be going home soon for break. Slower connection, yeah, but that's not the only thing that will be slower. Traffic will be slower. Life will be slower. Ahhh. But people will also speak slower. And the twang that permeates their speech! I know I'm getting pretty spoiled out here in California with people who can actually enunciate correctly. When someone asks me where I'm from, they're always rather astonished at first because I have no southern accent whatsoever. I don't have any other accent either which gives people a heck of a time trying to place me. I blame my speech on moving around a lot and my parents (who learned a bunch of other languages before English). I like the fact that people can't automatically categorize me. But still, there's something to be said for a quirky accent. So finally the NaNoEdMo site is up. Supposedly there will be a message board for writers to get help and critiques on their work, but I haven't visited yet to make sure. Viking Name: Dagr the Apocalypse Cereal Name: Sugar-Coated Peanut Butter Balls Hillbilly Name: Billie Sue Carter but everyone calls you Mabel Exotic Name: Busty Terri Berri [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 12:35 PM : The final day of finals, 7 AM started with Wagner's The Ride of the Valkyries (a.k.a. The Ride). Today's Ride Chasers: (1) something by some Russian composer (can't remember his name right now) (2) an awful country/western song (3) sounds like rock but never heard it before. [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 8:59 AM : Thursday, December 13, 2001 I feel out of it. People are getting duct-taped to the ceiling and the Hawaiian shirt is becoming a ubiquitous symbol of freedom (for bad taste?). Somebody's a toynapper, what used to be a normal bathroom has been transformed into a 'gentlemen's club', bad music abound, voices are lost, and people want to buy a flashy new car because they are in a mid-life crisis. Wait a minute. Nobody's in a mid-life crisis. They just want the new car. Bizarre. So everything I heard about him is true. Will Wheaton has a blog. He sounds like a normal guy though. I guess it's just the media that hypes everything up to make everything look surreal. I found this creepy thing while browsing through Harmonica Curiosities. Some other things: The Virtual Toilet Paper Museum that is part of the Unusual Museums of the Internet Web Ring and a Glossary of Folk Instruments. [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 6:56 PM : No sleep. Which means finals week is finally catching up to me. It's not a good thing when you start seeing things. I'd better conk myself out for today before I start hallucinating. From personal experience I can say that hallucinating is a bad thing. Third day of Finals and what do we hear at 7 AM? The Ride, of course. Today's Ride Chasers: (1) a rap/alternative song that kept on having the refrain "sweet as gold" (2) a reggae and pop mix that brought to mind the opening song for Cowboy Bebop (3) something that sounded suspiciously like Aerosmith. Sorry I can't tell what the songs were exactly. My brain's been getting fuzzy around the edges lately. [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 7:48 AM : Wednesday, December 12, 2001 So housing says that they're just going to enter all our rooms and stick insert slips on the backs of our doors. What the hell are insert slips? People e-mailed housing asking, but so far, no response. Speculation was that it was akin to exit signs. But my room already has exit signs above the door, both inside and out. Perhaps it is the evil res-life director's scheme for getting back at us for the little stunt we pulled this afternoon. [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 8:26 PM : Solidarity I was getting ravioli from the cafeteria. The chef was babbling about disgusting fake meat he saw at a food convention when the Yellow Biker burst in yelling, "Come outside! Down with the patriarchy!" Well, he does tend to be a little extreme when roused. Outside on the lane that runs through the cluster of student houses, a horde of students had gathered despite the edginess of finals still hovering in the air. There was perhaps over half of the undergraduate student population present. A bunch of amplifiers and a mike was set up and a lot of people took turns voicing their opinion. Why are they making us pay for things when there was a recent $600 million endowment for research? Why strike down our traditions when the administration doesn't even know what they mean? Why did they not consult our opinions earlier? Who exactly are these people who say they're representing the students on these committees? This was not a rabid protest with signs and banners, shouting and ranting. There was an attempt at civilized dialogue between the students and the administration (although more than half of them didn't bother showing up when invited) which proved that we're responsible adults. Perhaps they had sought to avoid such related "shenanigans" by selectively picking "passive" students. Certainly nothing of this magnitude ever occurred the past twenty years at this institution. Trying to crush the students? Maybe academically, but surely not in spirit. [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 1:37 PM : I got a piece of weird news in the mail. Something about archaeologists and historians arguing over the location of an 18th century French village that no longer exists. At first I was sort of incredulous since how can an entire village just disappear? But then again, it's over two hundred years old. Time enough to have it completely obliterated. Here's the beginning of the NaNoEdMo site. The owner says that the domain name will be active in a couple of days. Forgive me, but I've become addicted to them the past couple of days. More test scores: How British Are You? I am 47.5% British, just like Catherine Zeta Jones. A true English rose, but you know where the money is. Lord of the Rings Character Test: Celeborn What Kind of Frog are You? I'm a Common Toad. The second day of Finals started with a bang at 7 AM with guess what? The Ride. Today's Ride Chasers: (1) techno remix of some Celtic ditty (2) "Sweet Hoe Down" by Renner Skinner (3) something by Rage Against the Machine (4) Mars: The Bringer of War from Gustav Holst's The Planets. Brought to you by the guy who convinced the registrar that DDR was a legitimate PE class. [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 8:30 AM : Tuesday, December 11, 2001 Wow, I found Neil Gaiman's blog. I'm probably the last one to find it given my general ineptitude for not discovering interesting things first. But I must admit that I've never read Gaiman's stuff except for rifling through a few Sandman comics at the local bookstore to look at the art. It's actually my roommate who's the real comic junkie (she knows that the worst color for a green superhero is yellow whereas I completely goofed on that trivia question). Sandman is to comics as The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is to sci-fi. Cult classics that everyone's encouraging me to read. Well, I had followed up on the Guide, but I got sick of the whole series after the third book in the five book "trilogy". But maybe I'll catch up on some of his stuff during winter break, after I've finished An Instance of the Fingerpost, To Say Nothing of the Dog, and The Amber Spyglass. Here's an odd little site I stumbled onto: Not Martha. This is just like watching those domestic television programs about cooking and making crafts and doing home improvement projects. Strangely mesmerizing. [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 8:19 PM : Students are understandably concerned with the recent administrative decisions that will severely curtail and possibly destroy existing student life. Raising tuition, severely cutting the budget to prefrosh weekend, eliminating student parking to make way for staff, tearing down the current student houses--just a few of the things that I've heard about. As far as I know, they've never asked the student opinion on this. I doubt the paper pushers even considered cutting funding to their own department. And God forbid cutting research money. What exactly are they trying to do, dispose of the undergraduate program altogether? Techers are generally an apathetic lot. The majority don't vote in the annual student elections let alone attempt to run for office. They don't go to class if they think they can learn it better on their own. If their presence is not going to affect the general outcome, why bother going? But this is something people really should care about. I hope a lot of people will participate in the "sit-in" tomorrow afternoon. I've added the decoder section today, a hodge podge list of every day things. Also I've noticed that Blogback is no longer accepting new users. I guess I'm glad I found it before November 16. [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 7:17 PM : Ruminations on Techer Sociology I am particularly mystified by the pairings of Asian females to white males. Usually I don't give a crap about who goes out with who (I'm usually the last one to know) but this is particularly odd since there are also available Asian males and white females (as well as a plethora of other ethnic and "racial" groups). It's not a phenomenon entirely confined to Tech either. It's elsewhere, in the media, in popular culture. Is it because white males are considered more "desirable" in western society? Is it because they are "more aggressive" than Asian males in pursuing a mate? I'm pretty sure somebody has done a sociology thesis on this. I once asked Canadian Boy of his opinion on this problem and he just gave me this look. "Don't even go there," he told me. Evidently this seems to be an unspoken sore spot in the male community. Perhaps their sentiments are more aptly described by a comment by the King of Spoons: "They're stealing our women!" And the normal festering is probably exacerbated by the dysfunctional ratio at Tech. My analysis so far? I'm not sure what to think. However I can say Asian guys are certainly not passive. Asian guys are just as likely to be stalkers. Perhaps it's more accurately described as glomming when a gaggle of them flock around an available female who begins preening from all the attention that she gets. Others may point out that it's an outgrowth of academic competition into the social arena, but I call whole affair a delayed high school complex. [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 3:23 PM : I find it amusing that some people think they are the expert, the authority, on everything and anything and as a result, must tell others about it. And the others be damned if they don't agree with it. This is particularly true for a subject as volatile as politics. For instance look at the comments on political posts on Metafilter. Or on any political minded blog/site. But of course, this is online so a reader can either take it or leave it. However, in real life, it's not so easy to get out of a debate. Wouldn't it be so much nicer if reporters could just lay out the facts and let others discern their own opinions from it? You have no idea how scary it is when a Republican starts mowing you down simply because you think George Bush is an idiot. Finals week officially begun at 7 AM sharp with: The Ride. Today's Ride Chasers: (1) some cartoony song (2) techno remix of some guy I should have remembered (3) a skit from SNL. [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 8:23 AM : Only four particularly defined topics of conversation have popped up recently. Problem sets, politics, sports, and gossip. What happened to those head-spinning insomnia-induced chats at 4 AM in the morning? It's as if everyone just went sane. Here's a very funny site: The 8 Simple Rules for Dating my Teenaged Daughter. I'd say my dad had it easy. I was pretty bookish and didn't care too much for boys, especially those weird ones in the black trench coats with their nipples pierced. I also took another test. Are you a prude? 120/200 Face the facts, you're a sex maniac. (Huh? Most of the questions seemed innocuous or silly. Maybe the fact that I'm a scorp contributed to my score.) And some things that are just plain wrong: Frank Sinatra Day Pink Hello Kitty Laptop The Simpsons Archive (Rabid Techers would burn me at the stake for this.) Written by Steve Martin [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 12:24 AM : Monday, December 10, 2001 Who cares about students suddenly going crazy for Elvis Presley or the resident cactus suddenly sporting a pirate hat and stuffed parrot? I finally got my pictures back from those wishy-washy Graphic Arts people who probably decided to give up making excuses after my insistent pestering. Well here's some links that I found interesting. All pretty self explanatory. Worst Q Titles of All Time Photoshop Tennis An intelligent article on blogs Hacker Sociology Cigar Diary Christmas Lights May Contain Lead And my favorite of the day, Inkblot, which absolutely tickles the writer in me. And if you haven't noticed already, I updated the about me and gallery sections. I now have Calvin and Hobbes which is a Tech comic favorite. [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 4:33 PM : The longer you live with people, the more annoying they get. Perhaps it's just that over time you get to notice their annoying little habits--the twitch of their head, their high frequency voices, their nasally laughs. I don't dislike my friends. It's just that more often of late, I wish I could just get off campus and have a change of scenery. There's something bizarrely satisfying about immersing yourself into a sea of unknown people. But unfortunately, that idea must go out the window. I don't have a car. More test scores: Art Test: Piet Mondrian's Composition A James Bond Villain Personality Test: Blofeld Utterly Surreal Test: Minimalist Cow Sculpture Which online personality test are you?: 86% for the James Bond Villain Personality Test Money Personality Test: Balanced Intergalactic Explorer Personality Test: QEHT - medic Soup Personality Test: Purposeful Traditionalist Personality Disorder Test Disorder: Rating Paranoid: Low Schizoid: Moderate Schizotypal: Moderate Antisocial: Low Borderline: Low Histrionic: Moderate Narcissistic: Low Avoidant: High Dependent: Low Obsessive-Compulsive: Low What cat are you?: cutie kitty Fruit Quiz: Strawberry: 30/100 Pear: 60/100 Banana: 30/100 Tomato: 0/100 Lemon: 5/100 [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 8:11 AM : Sunday, December 09, 2001 Decompression. The first thing I noticed was the biting air and wished I had put on an extra layer of clothes. The sky occasionally streaked a brilliant white, but no rain came. The wind was strong blowing brown leaves into the smoke the two grills generated as they churned out semi-burnt burgers and hot dogs, but the wind wasn't as strong as the repetitive beat that kept drumming out of the room--the band they hired seemed more monotonous than imaginative. Most people were practical, with jackets and caps and gloves. Others were under the delusion that they were strutting down the Paris runway in their short skirts, biker pants, bright red t-shirts with "crack" painted on it, and feathered boas that probably kept out as much cold as a spaghetti strainer. I might as well had a sign plastered on my forehead proclaiming the line breaking point. People kept shoving their way past me as if in place of me, there was a hole in the line. [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 8:04 PM : I probably subscribe to too many writer's mailing lists. Sort of hard to keep up with after a while, especially when I'm busy. At any rate, I read a post this morning of a writer who recounted an instance in her writing group. They were all friendly until she brought in her piece for critiquing--that was when all the poison started flying around. Turned out that her work didn't jive with the other writers' religious convictions. This sort of thing probably happens fairly often and it's sad that it does. Who knows how many excellent pieces of writing have been trashed simply because of a narrow world view? Which brings another topic to mind that is almost always the subject of my ridicule and derision. Elitism. Now, you can argue that it may be my secret jealous urges that spur me on, but then you'll have to account for the fact that I have no desire to be part of any "clique". For instance, the giant congregations of Asians on campus who voluntarily mold themselves into a separate (student) body. I have plenty of Asian friends, but they're not the only people I associate with. It's irritating when they start talking in Chinese thinking that I don't understand them (for some reason, I seem to appear to be one of those people who doesn't understand anything except English--the same thing happens with French people). Reminds me of those "snobby" people back in high school. Except I think they're all married with kids by now. [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 1:41 PM : Saturday, December 08, 2001 Oooo. Just visited Raymond's journal for a little catch up and look what I found, more tests! Since I have so much copious spare time today, I think I'm going to go ahead and take them all. [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 10:08 PM : Okay so I think I've finished changing the layout to something a little less eye straining. And I've also eliminated the fiction link. You can find Peasant Lore (the short story that used to be in that section) in [ R I I ]. [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 9:44 PM : What is it about online tests and quizzes that are so appealing? I mean, I take enough tests for my classes as it is--but still. Is it the silliness of it? Curiosity? Perverse masochism? Maybe the very latter. Otherwise, how on earth could you explain my presence here? Yeah, I know some people cheat on them. You get suspicious when people start screaming that they got 20% on the purity test--especially when you know within 99.99% certainty that they never got laid in their life. However, here are some tests and results that I took today: Are you as interesting as your weblog? I'm just as interesting. Pyro Purity Test I'm 9% pyromaniac (or 91% pyro pure). Romantic Personality Test 22 pragmatic (i.e. not romantic at all so don't expect kisses from me) Keirsey Temperament INTJ (mastermind) And no, I will not take an IQ test or anything related. They're inherently flawed. Or it must be my bias when I got rejected from advanced reading classes when I was in elementary school. I knew something was wrong when people dumber than a jar of mayonnaise got in. [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 7:13 PM : Is everyone wearing too much of the same brand of perfume or did someone spill it in the hallway? Actually, I only notice it when people pass by me so it must be them. Or is my nose becoming defective on me? [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 1:57 PM : Friday, December 07, 2001 Trust me, it is a bad thing when your college is beginning to look like a glorified high school. Cheerleaders selling baked goods? Cheerleaders dancing to boyband music? On another note, the res life director is banning our end of the term party even though we're only serving milk shakes, not alcohol. And yeah, this is the same res life director who's a radical feminist who hates men and got herself artificially inseminated for twins. When the Page boys got wind of it, they decided to become sperm donors. [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 1:44 PM : One would think that Pasadena is relatively crime-free. But no, the rich kids from neighboring San Marino who've never heard of Tech's unique honor code invade campus--stealing bikes, passports, and Little Mermaid CDs. There's even a rapist at large on one of the streets bordering campus. But security doesn't inform us of this with their "security bulletins". Instead, they cruise around in their cars, being lazy, and telling you to call somebody else when you have a problem. They don't even carry guns. I think I'll feel safer with one of my friends who's an expert at nunchakus. [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 12:26 PM : Organic coffee anyone? This is the first time I've heard of it. Yeah, there's organic tomatoes and other such goodies that can be discovered in a health food store but coffee? Normally I don't drink coffee. The high caffeine content makes me feel like somebody's tightening a vice on my head. Tea and coke I can handle fine. Coffee--no--unless it's been diluted with something else. [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 9:09 AM : Thursday, December 06, 2001 They said the photos would be ready today but they weren't. So after sitting through a lecture on applying to graduate school, flame-throwing methanogens in a stinky pond, passing water-gun enthusiasts, being showered by candy by a delirious guy who's happy that ME 72 is over, a heap of food surveys, and my roommate ranting about getting rejected from some UC med schools--I'm just tired. I don't want to hear bubblehead girl whine about GPAs and grad school app committees and the latest on dit on house politics. I don't want to hear people objectively talking about their own relationships as if it could be dissected and smeared on a microscope slide. I'm tired. I desperately want to believe that there is some meaning, something "greater than the sum of its parts", besides these cold, dirty statistics. [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 7:34 PM : Supposedly humans can require a minimum of 3 hours of sleep to keep functional. The average is 5 hours. I got 4 hours of sleep and still feel a bit woozy. That's what you get when you leave work until the last minute. Anyway, I'm way too busy today with finals and deadlines galore coming up next week. Too bad I can't go see the ME 72 contest. Pathetic really, I'm in my fourth year in this hell hole and I still miss all the cool stuff going on. [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 11:23 AM : Wednesday, December 05, 2001 Maybe I whine too much. But maybe not as much as the King of Spoons who keeps on asking me whenever he sees me, "When are you going to paint the mural?" It gets dang annoying when he starts going around with his squeaky ducky saying it over and over again. Well, here ya go, more distrubing things I've noticed today: Redecoration of the practice rooms with famous contemporary art. Flems singing the "12 Days of Christmas". Blasphemy of Klimt's most famous work with Steel's new trashy novel. Rubbery looking dessert. Competition on guady Christmas decorating. Lack of sleep causes anti-social behavior in humans. Lack of sleep kills laboratory mice. [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 8:23 PM : Some things I noticed today: Catwalk girl is wearing a leather mini-skirt instead of baring her mid-drift. Scary lights (not Christmas lights) are on top of the biology building. Vroman's does not stock The New Yorker. Some people smell weird several feet away. Professional graphic arts photographers are lazy bums. [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 5:47 PM : Tuesday, December 04, 2001 Came across this interesting critique site. I don't mind looking at other people's writing, but unfortunately, I know too few people who want to critique my work in return. [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 11:16 PM : Tonight was Cuban Invasion Dinner. That is Dabney House randomly came (with all their Cuban paraphernalia including cigars, the Cuban flag, and their house president trussed up like Fidel Castro) and ate dinner with us while tangoing and blasting Cuban music on the stereo. We were at first confused, then amused but one will have to wonder if our house president stayed away because he actually knew what was happening. Notes on other houses Dabney has invaded: Fleming with their Canadian mounty getup (why? Fleming's house color is red). Notes on other houses Dabney will invade: Ricketts, possibly with a crusade from the Vatican (why? Ricketts is into pseudo satanic rituals). And why did they invade Lloyd House today? Because we had the same dinner time. [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 7:05 PM : No! Don't use frames! I cringe every time somebody advocates this method of website creation. If not done right, it just looks hideous. [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 9:40 AM : Monday, December 03, 2001 I've been revamping my fiction site [ R I I ] which had been on hiatus for the last two months. I have new fiction there, sort of. It's all in the archives because, well, I'm not currently working on them. Later, I'll have more stuff on there, including poetry if you're into that kind of thing. [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 10:06 PM : My sweater is the same color as MacConkey agar. I only noticed because it's what I use in one of my lab classes. [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 4:47 PM : Sunday, December 02, 2001 Looking through Nanowrimo journals, wordcounts, messageboards, and whatnot, I got a little depressed at how many people didn't finish. Or even start. But at least they signed up. At least they tried, right? And I'm also feeling a bit of self pity--no one visits this site, or signs the guestbook. Not even e-mailing me. My real life social life isn't much better. What do you call slaving away at lab and then coming back only to sleep? Plainly put, I'm lonely. I want somebody to talk to me. [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 11:21 PM : I got real dizzy trying to navigate the crop circle maze. But make sure you try to find the alien and his crossing sign! (He also got his spaceship parked elsewhere in the maze.) So where on earth did I dig up this link? Well, I found it by looking up info on crop circles. I think they're all hoaxes. They just haven't caught the perps yet. [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 10:41 PM : Whoa, look what I found. LOTR playing cards. Marketing people should be hung. This deluge of merchandising must stop! Tolkien must be rolling in his grave by now. [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 6:20 PM : Saturday, December 01, 2001 Just got back from an orchestra concert. It's exhausting. It's a workout. If you don't think so, either you've never played in an orchestra or you're the guy holding the triangle. And I have more links concerning AIDS. Go read! Yahoo! The Body The U.S. Centers for Disease Control The NAMES Project Gay Men's Health Crisis Avert Pediatric AIDS Foundation North American Syringe Exchange Network Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS AIDS 101 HIV Education Prison Project United Nations AIDS Project National Alliance for Hispanic Health [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 11:02 PM :  So check out the Link and Think page which I guess is raising awareness on AIDS. I personally don't know anyone who has AIDS but I currently work at the Baltimore Lab. So what's so important about David Baltimore? He's the guy who won the Nobel Prize for discovering the mechanism in which tumor viruses replicate--which turned out to have a huge relevance on understanding HIV. Here's some helpful links for the latest AIDS research and news: AIDS.org AIDS News on the Net NIAID Nature JAMA [posted by S. Y. Affolee on 2:21 PM : |
