February 2, 2000

As some people pointed out, today is Groundhog's Day. Not like there is any cold weather where I'm living right now...besides, today I decided I hated the font I had started out with and managed to change everything to Helvetica! And yes, I'm going to post more S.Y.A. stuff. I just haven't gotten around to do that yet...

February 6, 2000

Unfortunately, I find myself in a slump today. Too bad I don't know how to use a defibrulator (yet). It's also too bad that you can't yell "clear!" when you are about to shock someone. Well, you can, it's just that the machine tells you to. The dang things are all automated these days. Maybe if I threw all my homework in the fireplace I could lighten up. Nah. Starting over is a pain and I'll probably jump off Millikan before I was through. And speaking of Millikan Library (which is the ugly tall thing in the background of the picture) the elevators don't work half the time. Basically it's a darn eyesore on Caltech campus. Most people who I've talked to speculate that the architects who designed it had dirty minds.

February 14, 2000

This page has been revamped! (along with a bunch of other stuff) This is no longer called "Rants" but rather "Daily Angst." Not that I'll be keeping regular tabs on this anyway. And of course, you ask, do I have anything to rant about on Valentine's Day? No, not really. Just lots of pity for the people who are really bitter about the whole holiday. (Though I wish school was out...) Ask the guys on campus about the ratio and they'll say it's really rotten. (i.e. translation: they can't score)

February 18, 2000

You know what I wish right now? A good night's sleep with sleeping in. The college administration may think college students have too much free time on their hands, but that is not true! Also, sleeping at really odd times which your body is not used to contributes to disorientation when waking up. Or is this just me?

March 1, 2000

I suppose every occupation has its hazards. Take for instance biology. You're liable to inadvertently mutate some strain of virus and infect yourself. If you're a chemist, one careless mistake could make your lab blow up (as evidenced by some close calls in first term's lab class). For any type of engineer, a machine could turn on you, or just fall out of the storage closet onto your head. Just say "radiation" and "super-colliders" in the same sentence and you have the occupational hazards of a physicst. Now, I'm not a math hater (because some of my friends are mathematicians), but what's the deal with math and smoking? (If you're a Techer, you know exactly what I mean.) I just guess those mathematicians are fed up leading the chum life and decided to take some "risks" for once (or maybe serveral times a day).

March 8, 2000

Not too much to gripe about cause it's the end of classes for second term! Anyway, I was thinking I should revamp the whole site (again) but then said, nah, too much of a hassel anyway. I might tweak some stuff (i.e. bigger fonts for easier reading), but I really should be putting up new stuff. That will come in due time. Just bear with me and in a week, there'll be new stuff (I know, I know, I keep saying that).

March 16, 2000

The truth, ladies and gents, is that old women wearing guady clothes and blabbering about nothing scare me. Oh yes, they may seem cute, adorable, and harmless, but not if they whack you on the head with one of those monstrosities of umbrellas. And crowds of any sort, whether they are a crowd of upperclass yuppies or homeless people begging for change in exchange of their ukelele talents, could turn into mobs in a flash and trample you to the floor. And oh, it's all about the bus drivers really, they're wackos when coming to think that they own the road. Now this does not apply to all bus drivers. Only the bus drivers where I live.

March 19, 2000

AHHHH! If I just see one more wedding photo session on campus, I'm going to gag...Tech is notorious for these wedding photo sessions, normally there's about seven to eight of them per weekend. Just go ahead and check the Caltech Events Calendar. I'm not kidding. Sure, the campus is beautiful (if you're not too busy grumbling about the insanely hazardous-to-your-health course load or working your butt off in some cluttered lab), but surely, there are plently of other places in Pasadena, let alone California, that would be a bit more appropriate for such a "happy event." Besides, all these dressed up people all over campus with those crazy photographers...you can't get anywhere without getting into the picture! But then, of course, just walk right through and let them get a picture with a carelessly dressed student walking "unobtrusively" in the background. It serves them right to believe this place is "happyland."

March 21, 2000

Do I understand why people keep strange hours? No. And I understand it even less when it's spring break. I mean, I woke up around three in the morning because people were making a racket and I was very annoyed. And then these people sleep until one or two in the afternoon. Figures. And they say I'm the one who keeps weird hours because I wake up around 6:30 in the morning. But hey, the hours I keep are normal people hours (not college kiddie hours).

March 25, 2000

Strolled downtown today and overheard a father tell his young child that "having fun is the most important thing in life." Yeah right, when you're two years old. Then of course, I bumped into an old lady in a pink jumpsuit who claimed to be a genie. She said she could grant me three wishes. So I told her:

1)I wish for all those wedding people on campus to vanish (because lately they have been multiplying faster than a pair of horny rabbits)
2)I wish for all the crazy drivers in the world to vanish so there will be less traffic accidents, and
3)I wish for a gigantic blizzard to blanket Pasadena so spring break could be postponed indefinately.

And guess what she told me?

1)I think all those wedding people are cute so I'm not going to get rid of them.
2)I myself am a rather reckless driver, so I don't think I'm going to get rid of myself, and
3)I cannot do the impossible.

"Sorry dearie," she finally said. Then she looked at her watch and remarked, "Oh bother, I am late again." And she vanished. One word of advice to everyone out there who ever encounters an old lady in a pink jumpsuit: if she says she is a genie, do not believe a word she says! Call the psychiatric hospital immediately!!

March 26, 2000

For any of you who have ever signed more than one guestbook, you will understand why I am irritated over this rather troublesome glitch. When someone signs the guestbook, the times indicated are never the exact time that was supposed to be indicated. Perhaps I am not exactly clear. Sometimes I sign a guestbook and the time is precisely what my time is. Sometimes it is not. For instance, I have signed guestbooks that said I had signed it tomorrow. I do not believe I have traveled into the future to sign a guestbook! So perhaps the servers holding these guestbooks are in a different time zone. Yes, perhaps that is the case...

March 27, 2000

Yep, today I beheld more evidence of the incompetence of cafeteria staff. A very unfortunate fellow student found a label stuck inside his piece of cherry pie. The label was from the pie filling. At least it wasn't a bubblegum wrapper or something worse.

March 29, 2000

What do waterfowl and bacteria have in common? Nothing...(heh heh heh)except that I saw both within a fifteen minute time frame. Yeah, that means I saw that sacred white crane. It comes on campus every once in a while to stand around in the ponds. Very boring. Oooo, but it's so beautiful! It signifies the tranquility and serenity of this revered institution! NOT. I believe it is a conspiracy concocted by the administration to lure people here. But once they arrive...boy, is the illusion brutally ripped away.

April 15, 2000

I don't know whether to be angry or annoyed. Probably both. I heard someone remark that biology was a "girl's major," more specifically an "Asian girl's major." Stereotypes are...I don't know...simply wrong although I admit that there are a lot of Asians who do take biology...and then this person went on to say that math and physics are "guy majors." What the heck?!!! Well, at a tech school where most of the student population are male, yes, there are more guys majoring in these areas...but not necessarily elsewhere...right? And then of course I've heard of other nerdy stereotypes like mathematicians can't count or speak English and the such...arg! I'd just like to hit the person who made up those generalizations. But I know, yea, violence doesn't solve anything. And I had something else to gripe about but I've forgotten...I promise I'll gripe about it next time.

April 16, 2000

Most people would believe that a tech school would not have cheerleaders (you know, those bouncy girls who kick up their heels, shake pom poms, wear short skirts, and whom guys drool over for some reason). Most people would believe this is the case because tech schools don't have good enough sports teams for it to be necessary for cheerleaders (that is, tech schools "stereotypically" attract geeks and nerds who wear glasses taped together, plastic pocket protectors, and pants that are too short and who are far better at programming a computer than tackling a 300 lb running back).

But there are cheerleaders at my tech school! It started out innocuously enough with a bunch of advertising flyers around campus. At first people were snickering about it because they all though it was some sort of joke. But now...there have been sightings! I saw two at first...but later I had the fortune/misfortune of sighting six of them! I think I'm a little afraid of my next sighting...what if the whole campus was overrun with them? That would be worse than those wedding photo ops!

And of course, I've got another thing to complain about--flabby middle aged women. Usually, I have nothing against them, but when they start wearing trendy clothes meant for teenagers....well, you get the picture. Not a pretty sight, eh? My advice to aging women who want to stay young...YOU AREN'T GETTING ANY YOUNGER!! Don't wear clothes you aren't meant to wear, and for God's sake, do that "age gracefully" type stuff. Same thing for aging men...old guys in tight pants look even worse...if you want to pick up some younger women make sure you've got a lot of money in the bank. (Whew! That was a lot to gripe about!)

April 26, 2000

Gossip is inane. Especially when it has no relevance to me...and especially when I'm stuck in the middle of nowhere with nothing but my pack and inadequate sunscreen. Yeah, all you Techers know about the trip to the San Andreas fault. The very epitome of no man's land. Anyway, back to the gossip. Do I want to hear about what so-and-so did whatever-it-was to some-other-guy? NO. And I hate walking around in the middle of nowhere with only a "crack" in the ground to guide me. (But at least it's better than the stars...they all look like meaningless dots to me...no offense to the astronomers out there.)

May 10, 2000

Despite waking up early, going to morning classes are a pain...especially if you've been up the previous night doing work. I'd say do away with morning classes altogether. Classes should be in the afternoon when you're more awake. And speaking of classes...have you ever attended a lecture where you have this intense feeling of deja vu every time the prof opens his mouth? I do! It's as if he is a broken record, repeating things over, and over, and over, and over again...

May 11, 2000

Search engines are fickle things. Sometimes they give you what you're looking for...sometimes not. I liked "The Electric Monk" but that search engine is now gone (actually, it's been gone for some time). Too bad I guess. And who hasn't tried their own name as a search keyword when surfing the web? I'm a little more obsessed by my own name than most people so I went around looking to see if I could find any info. I found a search engine bearing my name although it's in Greek and I doubt most people who visit my page knows Greek. Certainly I don't, but I wasn't surprised that it is a "Greek" search engine because my name has its origins in Greek.

Previously, I had only known a couple of other people with my name (and thus thought it extremely uncommon) such as an obscure classmate in elementary school, an actress/commedian, and a composer. But lo and behold, when I typed my name in the search engine it came up with accountants, technicians, kids, people who was born on the same month as me, people born in the same city as me, even people who played the same instrument as me, singers, business women, transvestite dominatrixes (weird huh?), record company producers, professional models, authors (yeah!), housewives, and even a couple of "cutie" pets that have been stuck with my name. I have even read somewhere about a book that had my name as a title, but so far, I have been unable to track it down. Of course, if you are indeed reading this and you know something interesting about my name, don't hesitate to let me know.

May 26, 2000

I do not like sauce...especially the goop they say is sauce in the cafeteria. And when I tell those "chefs" that I don't want sauce, they look at me funny as if I've got horns on my head! He he, the weather has finally turned overcast! We'll just see how many wedding photo ops we have on campus this weekend (which is also a three day weekend, hooray!). Last week was also Ditch Day at Caltech. I thought it was fun. Especially when my group and I were pretending to perform druidic rituals to "prevent the Dean from destroying the universe" in the middle of campus when some old people (alumni) were walking by. He he, it's hilarious when you see old people gawking. And wasn't it a coincidence that Alumni Day was the same day as Ditch Day?

May 27, 2000

I apologize beforehand that the following will not make a bit of sense.

Yeah, yeah, I risk sounding like a spoiled brat...but I'll rather rant in writing then let a bunch of people pity me. I WANT A GLOWING THING! And since I'm not socially-inclined, I can't have one. For those of you who have no clue what I'm talking about...I spent my whole time cooking for a party and what do I get? Nothing! By the way, I was coerced into cooking...and I don't even like parties! And those wedding people are at it again, I can hear them still partying away (a not so small downside in living at a "beautiful" college campus). I wish so badly that this will be a normal weekend...but with an extra day, wishes can just go down the drain.

May 31, 2000

Paperwork and wacko cats. Enough said.

June 6, 2000

I'm in the midst of finals week and I just decided to take a break by writing here (approximately 9:15 PST). And since it's finals, I'm going crazy trying to do everything. But after this week, I will still not be relieved because I've got to move all my stuff in preparation for the summer (I can't believe I'm stuck here doing research of all things!). It was sort of annoying that I found out that both a short story and a poem were rejected for publication. *sigh* That means I have to work on them more. And then maybe I'll post them later just to satisfy my ego. And no, I still have not forgotten about the Official Grendel Postings. More episodes will be forthcoming once finals are over!

June 7, 2000

Whew, the worst part of finals week is over...but finals week itself is not over yet! I envy the people who got their stuff done early. They get to lounge around doing nothing except talking (boring!) or if they're really industrious they practice juggling. Or some people, if they're really smart, sleep the whole day.

June 16, 2000

Hmm...I thought I would have plenty of time during the summer but it turns out otherwise. Since I have a job (or more accurately, a research project) in a lab I find I still do not have much time (even if the atmosphere is much more relaxed). And did you know that E. coli smells really funny? Strange little critters, those E. coli.

June 19, 2000

Some seminars are pretty deceptive. One would think that it would be something pretty boring in which the lecturer drones on and on....but in other cases, there is the group participation! Then it's the "arg! get me outta here!" In fact, that was exactly what I did. I fled.

June 25, 2000

Ever played the board game Risk? It's about taking over the world. And about military strategy. It's obvious that guys love this game...fights and guns galore without the actual fights and guns. There's also tons of arguing and grudges and eliminations. Personally, I'd prefer a more covert style of taking over the world rather than using brute force (which in effect, kills a lot of people who otherwise would be alive).

July 10, 2000

I am too lazy at the moment to find out what causes motion sickness even though I suffer from it. I know I get sick on moving buses, cars, boats, planes, and possibly any other vehicle that can go. Isn't that a pain? Maybe my equilibrium is just screwed up in general. And I have also found out that the name "Joseph" (and not as the diminuitive of the name Jospehina) is more common female name than my name. What is up with that? (And who on earth would want to name a girl Joseph anyway?)

July 15, 2000

Yes, indeed, I did go see X-Men last night (also see the Recent Reviews), but it would have been even cooler if I had seen it at the Mann's Chinese Theater (it's the gaudy red pagoda thingy where all the movie stars sign their names in concrete). One of my friends had valiantly tried to get tickets to see X-Men there, but it turned out that they wanted to play The Perfect Storm (probably some lame "freak of nature vs. the stupidity of man" movie) for another week. I do not see the appeal of such a movie (for every one of us laughed our heads off when we saw the trailer) but I guess public taste just runs counter to mine.

July 24, 2000

Darn! I was sorely disappointed when I went to all the bookstores in Pasadena (both used and new) and did not find the books I was looking for. One would assume that they would stock at least one...by this rather prominent sci-fi/fantasy author...but no! Or perhaps no one in Pasadena reads any of her books. What a shame :(

August 20, 2000

Arg! All I can say is that yesterday was a headache. The traffic to LAX (Los Angeles International Airport) was absolutely horrific, possibly due to the ending of the Democratic Convention. But what do I know? I never read or see the news. The lines were unbelievably long, and the airport, as always, was replete with gaudy travelers, screaming kids, and couples who couldn't get their hands off each other (honeymooners, *shudder*).

I was also constantly slightly more than ill during my flight to BNA (Nashville International Airport)--especially during descent when I could swear some malign force was tightning some vice on my head and I was on the verge of vomiting on the person in front of me. All due to my unfortunate tendency for motion sickness, of course (see July 10). And don't even mention those screaming babies that seem to be required for almost every flight.

And since I'm now back home, I have to contend with a slow connection (phone modems *double shudder*) and the realization that there are script errors on my page when I view this site on an AOL browser. Maybe if I bury my head under a pillow, everything will go away.

September 24, 2000

It's been the week between things for me lately...just sort of bored and lethargic. I'm wondering where everyone is and also pretty disappointed that my culinary skills haven't improved in the last month. I also dislike religious recruiters. They're annoying and symbolizing a lot of the things that are wrong with religious institutions today.

October 27, 2000

Arg! Too much work and too little sleep. Last week was extremely bad. This week, it's midterms (for the most part) and it might get worse. I promise I will eventually get my abstract online soon. You can see when I did the presentation on the SURF webpage at Caltech. I'm fortunate that I didn't make a complete hash of it and at the moment, I'm glad it's over. On a completely different note, it's extremely annoying when someone knocks on your door at 6:30 in the morning and you're still asleep. Oh, and since I'm a Lloyd House historian I'll eventually get some cool Lloyd pictures scanned in and maybe get myself a link on the Lloyd webpage.

November 2, 2000

Down with P-chem! P-chem is EVIL! Evil homework equals all-nighters and making me miss Caltech's Annual Pumpkin drop from the top of Millikan Library.

November 17, 2000

Once again, I am complaining about P-chem. P-chem is the bane of my life! And this course is not just making me miserable, it is also making everyone else in it miserable. Even the prof is upset about it. And it is all the fault of the evil TAs (teaching assistants). I also intensely dislike people who want to have the only high grades and to make everyone else suffer and really annoying people who have no cause to complain. The only justice in this world comes when the prof openly makes fun of these annoying people in front of everyone else (yeah, yeah, I'm just being petty now) and finding out that the people you find annoying are also annoying to other people. *Sigh* I definately need sleep.

December 5, 2000

Yes, I'm taking a break from finals to write this rant before I completely go insane (although sleep would be a very good remedy for impending insanity). But when I do attempt to go to sleep, the people next door are blaring Backstreet Boys (or other pop sensations that I detest just on principle) until around 4 or 5 in the morning. Then, of course, the Caltech tradition of playing The Ride of the Valkaries (sp?) at 7 AM wakes me up. And of course, studying and finals.

I'm definately not a "troll" (somebody who works ALL THE TIME to get high grades *and generally dispised*) but I do want to pass. And I am still lamenting the fact that this site still has a non-functional counter. As soon as the pain of the end of the semester is over, I will try to rectify the problem. Also, my fairytale archive site seems to have completely disappeared due to gojasper.com's renovations. I have no time at the moment to attempt to rebuild the site, but I will try my hardest during the winter break.

And speaking of winter break (isn't this rant getting a bit long? no...shut up), I hope to do something with the Ruptures, Inc. site...like changing the name and sticking stuff about my current obsession neopets.com on it. If anyone has visited it lately (which I know no one has), the guestbook is also non-functional. I hope to get a working one soon...which actually brings me up to the point...when are these particular sites ever going to fix their services? That also goes for the webrings...as for the ones on my site...as I said before, I currently have no time to fix any of them.

December 10, 2000

Yeah! Finals are already over and most people have gone for winter break and I am in a less grumpy mood. But if I'm not as cranky, what do I have to rant about? Plenty! I still hear the incessent racket next door at unholy hours (lots of Backstreet Boys and horrible dance music with a little Beach Boys thrown in *shudder*) and more racket at the other next door (if you're going to play the guitar, can't you just play the whole piece through instead of abruptly stopping in the middle?). Of course, I don't have to worry about any of those people reading this.

Hardly anyone visits this little corner of the web anyhow. Also, I am getting pretty anxious that I have to wait a whole year before the first movie in The Lord of the Rings comes out. It's probably due to me reading too much LOTR in the meantime and almost religiously checking out the spy reports on the LOTR fan site TheOneRing.net which has a whole slew of information (maybe more than you ever wanted to know) about the filming of LOTR currently going on in New Zealand. I also have some issues with a misbehaving CD burner...but that's another story.

December 14, 2000

I am currently under the sordid business of completely overhauling this site. But I'm sorta enjoying writing all the code, so it's not all that bad. Besides, the term's out and I have nothing else to do (except, perhaps studying for some inevitable exams, but that can wait).

I was rather annoyed two days ago when I had to fly from LAX to BNA...the ride to the airport was not great (because I got motion sick, again) and the wait was very long even though the line was short. Everyone around me was going to Dallas (and it figures, cause DFW had a kazillion delays because of weather and many people were both frustrated and stranded).