quake

This from my friend C in the Bay Area.

A moderate earthquake occurred at 8:04:54 PM (PDT) on Tuesday, October 30, 2007.
The magnitude 5.6 event occurred 11 km (7 miles) E (88 degrees) of Milpitas, CA.
The hypocentral depth is 9 km ( 6 miles).

So what would you try to save (other than yourself) in the event of a small quake ?

Here's how it went down in her house (she's on a business trip in Atlanta but got the report from her husband back home):

C: i asked B if he ran to the doorframe
C: he said no
me: hahaha
C: he was holding onto the plasma...which is right by the sliding glass door
C: in his defense he said he was trying to save the souvenirs and pics on wall and then saw the tv

I guess with a TV that is close to the value of my car, I'd go and save the TV too.

active

So there is a joker in the class that I TA. He doesn't even appear to be enrolled in the class but he always takes the quizzes, this time using a bright green pen. We haven't figured out who he is since there are over 200 kids in the lecture, but he likes to entertain us with his quiz answers.

e.g.

Q: Please rewrite the following sentence in active voice:
"The ball was kicked by the boy"

Of course the correct answer was "The boy kicked the ball"

His answer "The ball kicked the boy in the face"

Awesome. I love it.

home

Reasons why I need to go home for a visit:

- I miss eating at izakayas and good affordable sushi restaurants
- I miss my awesome friends
- both parents have their birthdays in November
- lecture is canceled on some Fridays
- I have more shit to retrieve from home
- last but certainly not least I need to hook up a sling box at my parents' house so that we can watch hockey down here. HNIC is only on Saturdays and CBC doesn't air any games on other days.
I'm thinking to head back the weekend of November 9th, leaving Thursday afternoon, returning Sunday night.

captcha

So you know when you go to register on a web site and you get a bunch of letters all twisted up so that you have to use your imagination to interpret what the fuck it says. Well Denny tells me that is called a CAPTCHA which stands for Completely Automated Public Turing Test to Tell Computers and Humans Apart. It's one of those tests I often get wrong because evidently I'm not a human. I just installed Firefox so none of the sites that require login remember all my info. I was avoiding this for awhile because Firefox reveals all the code errors in my blog and web site and makes it look all jacked up because I'm too lazy to fix it. Anyways, that is not the point of this post. I'm writing because my CAPTCHA on Facebook was methadone and I thought that was cute. I would like my next CAPTCHA to be something along the lines of rimjob. I think that would also be cute.

match 2

Just thought I'd link to another blogger's commentary on lame match profiles because it made me laugh.
http://mamalikey.blogspot.com/2007/10/miss-matched.html

I have plenty more observations and have to admit I spent many evenings checking out profiles with my cousin when I was in San Jose in lieu of watching sitcoms. Far more entertainment value in poorly written profiles coupled with horrifyingly unflattering photos. But alas, I have a deadline every day until Thursday. So that post will have to wait... Until then, seriously guys, don't do the shirtless flexing in front of someone else's car thing especially with the tough guy douchebag expression in your profile pic. All I do with shit like that is circulate it among my friends so we can all laugh at you.

delete

I have an exam to study for, a lecture to prepare, and a research proposal to write. What do I do instead? Go through 4 years of blog posts to delete photos of myself so I can finally make this blog as anonymous as I think it needs to be. I also bought a new down comforter online to replace my crazy heavy Chinese one that is great on cold nights, but my apartment is always way too warm for such a heavy comforter.

Telling myself I shouldn't care about grades at this point in my schooling is actually sort of demotivating. I've tried for my entire life to worry less and be more laid back about things but I'm wondering if this is really a good idea when it comes to school. I think I need the pressure. At least a little bit. Someone kick me in the ass. I need it.

In other news, the Canucks beat Columbus today. Yay!

midweekend

So I'm finally getting over this little cold that I caught thanks to a couple days of rest at home. I spent yesterday studying and then headed over to a friend's house for a grad students assoc meeting and then to hang out. Headed over to Wallingford after that to watch Wes Anderson's The Darjeeling Limited. I had my reservations about this film because though I didn't see the Royal Tenenbaums, I really hated The Life Aquatic because I found the dialog pretentious in a ha-ha-if-you-didn't-get-that-joke-you're-not-as-sophisticated-in-picking-up-subtle-dark/humor-as-I-because-I'm-the-shit sort of way. I also realized that I just cannot stand the sight of Bill Murray. But last night I was pleasantly surprised even though I don't like Owen Wilson and Bill Murray had a cameo. It was actually pretty funny probably because it makes fun of super rich white people trying to find their spirituality. Good nuf.

Anyways, back to studying so I can head out. We're going to check out Common Market at Chop Suey in Cap Hill. I know...me hip hop? But this isn't the misogynistic commercial brand of garbage that I despise so I'll gladly go to take a listen.

gum wall

I went to Theatresports in Post Alley Sunday night and got to check out the famous gum wall. Yeah, it's exactly what it sounds like it is. I guess they used to not allow gum chewing in the theatre so people put their gum on the brick wall. It's kind of gross and interesting at the same time. I'll post a pic later. I'm too lazy to download it from my phone. The whole wall is covered and some people got creative and wrote their name.

I can't believe tomorrow is Thursday tomorrow already. I'm starting to come down with something but decided that I'll fight this with a 2 hour nap, echinacea, a multi vitamin, zinc, fish oil capsules, oil of oregano and grape juice. We'll see if this works. I hope it does. Ok back to studying for my stats midterm.

midwest

I don't know why it is that every conference I get accepted to is taking place somewhere in the midwest lately. I'm writing from the lobby of the Crowne Plaza in Kansas City, MO where I'm presenting at the Midwest Popular Culture Conference. My next conference, the National Communication Assocation Conference, will be in Chicago next month, and if I get into the Association of Asian Am conference (fingers crossed for that one) I'll be making another trip out to Chicago in Spring. As usual I have counted fewer than 3 Asians since I've arrived. And I'm totally exhausted. I present in 2.5 hours and I'm severely sleep deprived. I took a 1/4 of an Ambien CR which knocked me out but I woke up at 2:55am when the thunderstorm started. After that I was just dozing on and off until my alarm went off at 9am (7am my time). I'm not too happy with the set up of the room either. I went to a panel this morning in the same room and what they've done is divide one big room into two with a curtain. Yes, a CURTAIN. So we could hear two speakers speaking at once and it was pretty hard to focus on either one, especially when one of them started playing a sound clip. I don't know whose idiotic idea that was to use a curtain as a room divider. And since I'm complaining incessently I will add that they have this lectern thing set up that I don't think I'm tall enough to see over. Even in 2" heeled boots. Anyways, I need to get back to prepping for this presentation and trying to stay awake. I can't wait to get home. It's raining harder here than it is in Seattle.

match

I must share with you the most awesomely funny match profile ever from a guy who is quite easy on the eyes. He winked at me. I'm blocking him and don't really intend to login to that site anymore. Anyways, read on:

I get excessively drunk at inappropriate times, disregard social norms, indulge every whim, ignore the consequences of my actions, mock idiots and posers, sleep with more women than is safe or reasonable, and just generally act like a raging jerk.

I have to applaud his way with words. I love a good writer. Poor grammar is such a turn off even more so than disregarding social norms.

1408

1408 was such a disappointing movie. The alternate endings on the Blockbuster DVD were even shittier. It's hump day. I think it's funny that white people call Wednesday hump day. In my head I picture people having sex all over the place in public all day. Anyways...

So I'm doing a good job of planning social activities so that my life doesn't completely fucking suck. Heading to an 80s night tomorrow in Cap Hill, Friday I'm having the girls over for Guitar Hero and then I'm going someplace Saturday night with Denny, Justin and friends but I keep forgetting the name of it. Now I need to do a better job getting up on the right side of the bed so I can work on my paper. Next next weekend is my presentation in Missourri at the Midwest Popular Culture Conference.

foul

Why do people say "waking up on the wrong side of the bed"? It makes no sense to me. But yeah, I did that today. When you wake up and the first word you utter in that raspy morning voice is "fuck" you know you're destined to fall face first in shit or get run over by a bus or something spectacular that day. I think I'm going to print myself a t-shirt that says "misanthrope" so I can wear it on days like this. Only because my shirt that says "fuck you" would probably cause me to lose my funding. There is this wise cracking frat boy looking Phd student in Poli Sci in my class whom I wanted to throw my travel mug at today. Actually I would like to first fill it with rocks, and then aim it at his chiseled little jawbone. I am pretty sure of my ability to get vibes from people and his reeked of self-righteousness and conceit.

Alright so now that I got that off my chest, I'm off to watch Weeds on DVD. I cannot get enough of that show. Hopefully it gets me out of this foul mood hell. Although I have to say that my writing gets more colourful and that is at least one benefit of feeling like I constantly suck at life.