8.23.2003
After faithfully updating the site almost daily during the summer, I dropped out for a one-week ECYS band camp and a one-week sleep secession. I hate getting back to life. School starts very soon. I think it's next week, but I better check the web site to be sure. Mom has been really nice to me recently. Not only did I receive a new Sony Ericsson cell phone and the family Nissan Altima, but she also gave me open access to both computers. Well, kinda. I guess I'm on my own from here.
I barely "passed" the driving test on Tuesday. Actually, I didn't even pass. (Bribes help in situations like these. Mail me + send $10 for more info). Oh well, the DMV should know better that we won't be driving like that once we get our licence. Anyways, I no longer have to sit with Mom in a car, which is a sign of good fortune from God. Unfortunately, I nearly ran over two people yesterday. Serves them right for sneaking across the road while I wasn't looking!
Because I'm taking college advantage next year, I won't be seeing many of my friends, at least not at school. De Anza starts on September 22nd, so I won't actually start classes until then. College apps are due very soon, and it's all confusing to me. SATs coming up for one final battle against the ETS (Evil Testing Service). My head hurts. I'm going back to sleep.
8.5.2003
The bus that was supposed to bring us to the airport was late, and there was no way that I was going to make it. Luckily, one of the people on the bus who was travelling executive class got the ticket for me and I barely made it.
I think I'll get a cell phone today.
8.5.2003
I finally returned from Russia, but I don't feel that I'm back home. Elena cried as we enter the security gates and waved goodbye. Sad. I'm really not in the mood for writing.
I'll miss everyone, especially my Russian friends.
8.3.2003
GTA3: Vice City is one spiffy toy. I found out a neat trick using the Rhino tank. The Rhino has the special ability to fire cannons that affect its momentum. By rotating the cannon 180 degrees and firing while accelerating forward, the tank can reach a very fast speed (>70 mph). Because of this, the tank is probably the fastest vehicle on the beach, where sand causes other cars to slip and slide. I also found out that when the tank is flipped upside down, it can still move if the cannon is firing. I was driving the Rhino on the beach when it flipped over a dune. I kept on firing the cannon and the tank remained at a speed of about 50 mph even though it was sliding upside-down. The tank actually performed several stunts while upside-down.
8.2.2003
Ravi turned 15 years old last week, but he still acts as if he's 8. The kid still swears all the time and makes vulgar comments. However, I have to admit that he's been treating me nicer now. I think it's because Christina rejected him and not because he turned 15.
We had prepared a special birthday present for Ravi. At 3 AM, we sneaked into his room via the balcony door and poured 5 buckets of icy water on him while he was still asleep. We then locked him outside on the balcony for half an hour.
8.1.2003
We just received the strawberry/GFP imaging photos that we developed in California yesterday (California is the name of a store in Puschino). They don't look bad, but I can't say too much about how they're supposed to help give insight to the next project. I signed up for a free web site at www.FCPages.com. They provided 100 MB of storage, but I doubt I'm ever going to use over 10 MB.
Monthly Hit List (July)
1. The Darkie
2. Followers of Darkie Side
3. Russian body odor.
4. Valentina, when she forgets to do OUR laundry
7.28.2003
I'm finally back from our four-day excursion to St. Petersburg. Drowsy ... not enough decent sleep. Elena told us that the bus ride was going to be 8 hours one way. She obviously needs to enroll in remedial arithmetic. We sat in tiny (even smaller than those on American Airlines!) seats from 5 pm to 9 am in the morning. That's 16 hours, Elena. (I think she purposely deceived us to get us to even go on such a trip.) Every three hours, the bus driver would wake us up by blasting oldies music before forcing us out into the chilly air for a bathroom/smoking break. The main "highway" from Moscow to St Petersburg consisted of only one lane in each direction, so we spent half of our time during traffic hour on the opposite side passing cars. It was a boring, cramped 16-hour drive.
St. Petersburg was actually more interesting than Moscow. The palaces (Grand Palace, Peterhof) were simply amazing in the amount of detail that was put into the architecture. The only way to understand their magnificence is to visit them. The Hermitage was also wonderful, but it is easily dwarfed by the Louvre in Paris. I didn't buy any souvenirs in St. Petersburg, but I did manage to buy several American cds because they were cheap ($2-3 each). I should have also bought T3: Rise of the Machines (US version) DVD for $6, but I wanted to save money for souvenirs. Darn, I should've grabbed that when I had the chance.
The biggest concern of St. Petersburg are the mosquitoes. Everyone was bitten at least 10 times during the night (except for Elena, I don't know how she managed to escape). I was bitten around 20 times (luckily, since some people were had over 40 mosquito bites) since I spent 3 hours killing mosquitoes before going to sleep. Also, I don't kick off my blankets at night when it gets hot. Eugene had an allergic reaction to the bites and by the next day, looked as if he had contracted small pox. Each bite swelled into a lump that contained puss. Next time, I'm bringing Bug-Off.
7.22.2003
Strawberry Man decided to leave early today. He won't be back until Thursday since he's going to Moscow tomorrow. So it's up to Wheat Man to save my project.
The tobacco and kiwi results have been strange because only the pNOV 35S-GFP plants have shown GFP expression. I hope the strawberry plants will be more successful.
7.21.2003
Masha showed me one of her friend's apartment today. She told me that the building was cheaper than hers, but it definitely looked more fancy than Masha's house. The floors were covered with expensive carpeting, and the beds with fur blankets. I found out that Alesya has a washing machine. If Valentina doesn't have my clothes by tomorrow, I'll have Alesya do my laundry.
Masha's friends are quite interesting in that they all know karate and never have the slightest misgivings of testing their new moves on me.
7.20.2003
WHERE IS OUR LAUNDRY!!! The brochure stated that we would be able to have our clothes washed every week, but I went on the safe side and packed enough clothing for 12 days. However, some stupid lady forgot that two weeks have already passed. I am wearing the same stinky socks and shirt that I wore yesterday. I think I'm going to strangle the director.
I met Masha's parents today and aunt today. They are very kind.
7.19.2003
We spent another day in Moscow eating terrible food at a terribly expensive restaurant. Our table ordered two pizzas, one of them labelled as "a dish that you must absolutely have." Unfortunately, we quickly found out that the pizza contained only cheese and spinach. Everything we ordered was disgusting. There were sheep testicles and some plate said to be the "gourmet equivalent of Viagra." For dinner, we decided to go to McDonalds.
7.18.2003
We were going to have a BBQ today, and everyone had already invited his or her scientist to come. Strawberry Man (My scientist) was so disappointed when he heard that it was cancelled. The reason why it was cancelled was that three of our students were being interrogated at the police station for the theft of a laptop. But what about my BBQ ribs?! This stinks.
7.17.2003
I just finished transforming a new, improved version of transgenic tobacco plants. This one glows in the dark (green fluorescent protein). The Russian have serious problems when it comes to smoking. Even though the legal smoking age here is 18, people of all ages seem smoke. I've seen several kids younger than 12 years smoke right in front of the hotel. One of my Russian friends told me that her father was going to force her to try cigarettes when she turns 18. Freaky, but then, a pack of 10 cigarettes only costs 5 rubles here, which is 1/6 of a dollar. In America, the same pack would cost 5 US dollars.
7.16.2003
Masha, Alesya, and I went mushroom hunting in the morning. We found several large mushrooms, but only one of them was a Bielli (white mushroom). Masha says that she'll cook some for us. [First time, don't forget today.]
7.15.2003
I just found out that the copy of Warcraft III on the lab computer is a no-cd hack version. Hehe. Why am I even wasting my time writing this when I could be doing something better?
7.14.2003
Happy Bastille Day in Russia! The computer is finally working! I just came back from visiting Moscow (a.k.a. Mockba) for two days. We visited the Kremlin and saw Lenin's tomb. The the castles, cathedrales, and palaces within the Kremlin walls were amazing, but we were more interested in shopping. The tourist shopping area that we visited was extremely expensive. At one Italian restaurant we went to, everyone ordered water (expecting to get free tap water) but ended up paying $5 for a small bottle of mineral water. The tab for the meal equalled all one's weeks money spent eating at the hotel. Rip off. Anyway, I ran out of my first 100 US dollars. Time to exchange for more.
7.4.2003
Russia is not as bad as I thought. I haven't gotten killed yet. The only person who swore at me (in Russian) so far has been a small kid. The food is edible. Tap water turns clear after letting the water run for a minute or two. I think I'll actually be able to survive for five weeks.
The hotel service is excellent, even thought the rooms are quite old. Each room has two beds, a chair, two desks, a table, a balcony, and most importantly, cable TV. Channel 11 is Russia's MTV and shows only MV's while leaving out sub-programs (No Chewy Gomez either). I must admit, the Russians have good taste in music. In fact, almost all Europeans have good taste in music. Americans definitely have a problem with following too strongly with "Pop" culture, even if it sucks.
I also realized that Russian sounds like French. The accent is exactly the same, and many of the words sound alike. I often find myself mistranslating what I hear. It drives me nuts.
6.29.2003
DDay -1:
I bought a PNY Attaché 128Mb USB drive today. Like the packaging of all electronics (CD players, calculators, memory), its packing was impossible to open. It was enclosed within two layers of plastic. I started hacking at it with scissors until my hands hurt. After several tries, I finally found a soft spot in the packing, but it was still hard to cut. When I reached the inside, I realized that I had cut through the instruction manual, the security tag, UPC code, and the driver CD. No wonder why it was so hard to cut through. Who designs these packages anyways? (Luckily, I could download the driver online, but the CD was dead)
6.27.2003
Three days before I leave for vacation. I finally watched the Two Towers on a badly subbed, Chinese DVD.
They called 1) Gandolf: Gandofu 2)Orcs: half-b****h men 3) Dwarfs: low man race 4) Gollum's "My precious: "My baby" 5) Isengard: Axcelge 6) The Home of the Horse Lords: The Horses' Mother 7) Forest: Office.
Every letter following a space or a punctuation was capitalized. Phrases like "Gandofu Won'T Hope We Walk In This Way. He Don'T Want A Lot Of Things Happened San" (San==Sam) were extremely annoying. Gollum called Frodo and Sam "the f**king steal" instead of "the filthy theives." Where do they even come up with these translations? So, after ten minutes into the movie, we turned off the stupid subtitles.
6.25.2003
How come everything Karen sends about badminton is titled "URGENT!!!"? It's probably another request for McDonalds.
6.21.2003
FanimeCon 2003!!! Wow, it was nearly full this year. I shouldn't have spent all my money during the first 1 hour. Oh well, $100 bucks down the drain. Many of the posters that were being sold for $15 could have been bought in China for 25 cents. So after regretting not leaving any money left for food, we watched "My Lucky Star." Tony Leung Chiu-Wai and Miriam Yeung are so cute together. Anyways, the AMV's were great also. I admit that the Der Cosplay was a bit slow, but it was worth waiting for in order to see:
1) Girls dressed as Sailor Scouts kissing
2) Someone from Fushigi Yuugi repeatly use and dance on a toilet
3) Fushigi Yuugi characters cross dressing as Sailor Scouts
4) Dante from Devil May Cry strip while doing pole dancing (I should've offered him money)
5) Cosplay contestants being criticized even worse than singers in American Idol (Simon would be jealous)
6) 2003 Fanime AMV awards.
6.21.2003
France picture section added. I really need to have it open in a new window.
6.5.2003
Two concerts. Learned Adobe Premiere. Spent 12+ hours working on French video final. Finished writing music composition and performing it after school today. I'm so tired, I could eat an elephant. Sorry, my mind isn't working right now.
5.27.2003
Ropes Course today with fellow Vertigans. Yahoo! Climbing to the top of 40-foot tall telephone poles and then jumping down <-- Fun stuff, not to mention being the only pair to reach the Giant's Ladder.
5.26.2003
The Animatrix official is released on DVD on June 6th, but I've already finished watching all seven episodes. Most of the episodes contain rather shady and depressing messages concerning "our world" since everyone dies at the end of most episodes. Although the episodes provide useful information pertaining to the Matrix, none of it was absolutely vital. Only "Flight of the Osiris" and "The Kid" relate to "Matrix: Reloaded." However, The Animatrix is still a must-see for all true matrix fans.
5.10.2003
CMEA concert today: Unanimous Superior!!! Yep, we're too good. Nantero, Inc is developing a new type of RAM: NRAM. Check it out -->
5.7.2003
Two AP's down, three/four more to go (depending on whether I feel ready to take Environ. Sci.). The first two started at 12:30, were SUPPOSED to last three hours, but ended up going past 4:30 PM. For Music Theory, everyone drew raffles to determine the order of test takers for sight singing. Luckily, I got #7 and was able to leave at 6:00pm. The guy who got #50 probably didn't go home until 8PM. So much for a three-hour long test
5.5.2003
Our guest conductor for Wind Ensemble today was Mr. Psycotic Murderer Harris from San Jose State. While conducting Symphonic Movement, he would scream, "I NEED TO KILL! I NEED TO KILL!" He'd then jump up and make stabbing movements at the flutes and clarinets. Fun stuff.
In other news, Carol is being really incessant on reminding me that I owe her ice cream. I think the whole badminton team knows by now.
4.23.2003
Staying at home during break is always tough for me. So far, I've had cereal for breakfast, lunch, and post-dinner snack. I'm beginning to run low on canned beef stew and instant noodles. Somebody, please buy me some real food!
4.21.2003
Karen is forcing us to sell magazines subscriptions and candy to raise money. Warren's already sold 20+ magazines! Me: zero, nothing, zilch, nada. I tried the bubblegum-flavored Airhead and ended up chewing on for several minutes.
4.10.2003
The systems engineer I shadowed at Caliper was awesome (DNA, PCR, electrophoresis, ~drools), not to mention that he also coaches track and field for Gunn High School. After the job shadow, I asked him to drop me off at the nearest restaurant since my dad wasn't there yet. He left me at the Veritas Corporation cafeteria, where an employee walked up to me and offered to buy me lunch. We ate together while we discussed his job. It turned out that he was also a systems engineer! It was like having 2 job shadows in 1. The strange thing is that my dad used to work at Netscape, who used to own the Veritas cafeteria.
On a lighter note, I realized that I'd been putting down all the 2003 entry dates as 2002.
LOG 4.5.2003
I received my Puschino packet today, and it seems like I'll be visiting Russia this summer. With all the anti-American sentiments, it's a great time to go abroad.
LOG 3.25.2003
If you haven't already done so, check out WhatIsTheMatrix. While you're at it, download the 1st two Animatrix previews.
LOG 3.23.2003
Junior Prom was wonderful--dancing, eating, and even some really bad karaoke. Thanks everyone!
Only 3 things that could have made it better:
1) Could have been longer (I missed have of prom because of an orchestra concert)
2) There should have been more slow songs (There was only 1 from the time that I arrived, and that was the last dance)
3) They could have chosen to have prom on a later date.
LOG 3.17.2003
Woke up at 6:45 A.M. for Ano Nuevo field trip to watch 500-lb Elephant seals mate on the beach. There's nothing better than the smell of fresh extra credit in the morning. We strayed within two meters of the sleeping seals. One of the newborn ones growled at Daphne and she screamed.
Mr. Babb went in the second group, so we waited an hour in the car for him to come back (to call roll). Collin circled the Civic around the parking lot because he got bored. Finally, Babb came, and we sprinted after him, but all he did was tell us to drive back. Grrr ... waiting in the car an hour for nothing. Yemen got lost and ended up driving from Santa Cruz to Half Moon Bay. It took him half an hour to get back and join us at Carrol's for lunch. I still feel sorry for giving the waitress a two dollar tip for a $43 meal.