3.16.04
The best mouse pads money can buy.
3.13.04
ECYS/Jon Nakamatsu concert #1 today! (For non-musicians and clueless people like me, Nakamatsu is one of the best pianists in the world.) Anyways, I waited about 20 minutes after the concert to get Nakamatsu's signature.
Meanwhile, still no college rejections yet. w00t!
3.12.04
English debate today on the censorship (e.g. violence, sex, drugs) of television programs. Until today, I've always thought that women, being the caring and nurturing mothers they are SUPPOSED to be, were always more moral and pro-censorship than men. However, every one of the "ladies" in the EWRT class chose to vehemently protest against censorship. It's interesting to see our women on the PRO-nudity side.
3.10.04
HeavySnarker @ UCB. The Berkeley tour today actually turned out to be interesting and instructional (at least when it comes to private dorm life *WINK WINK*). I still couldn't find a carpool since everyone else seems to be going on a different date. There was also a self-promoting Mission High School student with us who was always spazzing and bouncing around. People like him should really lay off the coffee.
Anyways, the roommate of my host is now burning me FMP season one. I think the guy owns at least 700 CD-Rs for anime. Hmmmm...
Also, best luck to the 4.0 Hill
3.04.04
We spent all English class discussing why Barbie's/Bratz's breast size is not a realistic expectation for 6-year-old girls, why GI-Joe is such a cheap toy because his limbs keep on falling apart, and why Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were sent from above by superior being, who also happens to be a master toy designer. We also found out that Superman is Jewish, this is, a Jewish alien from Krypton.
3.02.04
Some five months after downloading the first episode of Excel Saga, Kazaa finally finishes with episode 26, no thanks to the tons of people I know who seem to own every series except the ones I want. Well, I got more than I bargained for cuz episode 26 changes Excel Saga's rating from PG to rated-R. For some perverted reason, Koshi Rikudo decided to make the last episode a parody of gratuitous violence, sex, and gore. Amen.
3.01.04
Mike somehow resurrected from the grave after disappearing for over two weeks. He has a lot of catching up to do, but the first thing he did was present me a copy of Office 2K3. I'm glad that some people in this world have their priorities straight.
2.24.04
I finally found out why mircx wasn't working. Some idiot performed a DDoS attack on the server, and now mIRCx is no more. I hope he suffers for this.
2.23.04
Today was the first time in five years that I visited Stanford, and the first thing I saw was a woman (maybe a man, it was only a glance) blatantly putting on a bra in the middle of a parking lot. Some people definitely need more privacy.
Meanwhile, I revisited the first Jamba Juice I ever encountered. It hasn't one changed one bit. Except now, there's a Subway/Pete's Coffee next door getting all the customers.
Sleeping in the car is so relaxing. I can't remember why I stopped doing this several months ago.
2.20.04
It's been 1 week since I replaced the breaks on my Nissan Altima. The good news is that I no longer hear squeaks when breaking. However, the breaks feel like spongy bra pads now.
2.18.04
I just finished watching the ending, episode 14, of Kimi ga Nozomu Eien. Except for the first two episodes, the series was melancholy throughout -- in a way, sad and beautiful. Episode 14 was the happiest possible ending, given the situation among the characters by the last episode. The series was well-written, well-produced, and well-concluded, which makes it superior to nearly every other series I've seen.
2.16.04
Yo! I'm feeling great today. Genki da ne. I'm never going to play GunBound again (hopefully, fingers crossed). Ciao, all U losers who can't stop. Quit while you still can. w00t!
2.15.04
Hehe. I decided to disappear for 2 weeks. It's just been so busy lately that I've been allocating whatever time I had for homework and various fun activities to balance the workload. Anyways, I've still had time to download 20 new mp3 albums. However, most of the songs were disappointing as usual. Perhaps I'm just too jaded. If there's anything (besides badminton) that I've enjoyed these last too weeks, it's "Kimi ga nozomu eien." Go download the series from AnimeOne. From what I've seen so far, it's living up to its reputation as #1 on AnimeNfo.com.
2.02.04
Wow, my tutee is really trying hard to keep me. She buys me food at every meeting. I think I like this job, except that my salary won't even cover for the price of books. Stupid budget cuts.
1.31.04
No more college apps, plz. I'm sick and tired of filling out forms.
1.21.04
School is definitely going to kill my all-work, all-play lifestyle. I just got home after 10 hours of school, interrupted by nearly non-existant 10-minute breaks once every hour. It's 6:30pm and I still haven't had lunch. My eyes are red and my throat is sore. If I fall asleep, I hope that the drool doesn't mess up the keyboard.
Life sucks, but then, there's always Gunbound. It's time to kick butt again. Go team JD!! What, dinner?? Ehhhh ... not now, I've just respawned.
1.20.04
DeviantART just removed the entire anime section of its gallery and along with it possibly the largest anime art collection on the Internet. More importantly, half of my wallpapers are gone. This makes me very mad. Fortunately for DeviantART, I have college apps to worry about, but once that's done, I'll initiate project KILL DEVIANTART: VOL. 1.
1.17.04
Wanted: Ein Plush Doll. I've been wanting one of these ever since I saw them at FanimeCon. It's about $15 everywhere on the Internet. Now if I only had that much money...
1.11.04
Yay!!! I just bought a new computer, so finally I can use programs that require DirectX. After uninstalling all the useless junk that came the system and replacing them with my own programs, I noticed that XP is rather efficient at booting up. It takes about 30 seconds to boot, compared to the four minutes my multi-partition Win2K requires. Anyways, as I was playing around, I noticed that XP IE 6.0 didn't display this web page correctly, so I made a few changes. This web site should work for all browsers now (but Netscape users should still hit themselves on the head). =)
1.7.04
Wow, my classes this quarter are going to be crazy hard. I'm taking a full course load plus tutoring, which uhhh, leaves me little or no time for anything else. Even parking itself is a difficulty. I spent 45 minutes on Monday trying to find a space (that's like $5 of gas just in the stupid parking lot) before finally giving up. Fortunately, there are parking spaces in the church across the street, but they're not exactly legal. Oh well, desperation calls for drastic measures. It's sad how I can't find parking when one-third of the people using the De Anza parking lot don't even have permits. Grrrrrr... Need more ... cops to ... issue ... citations.
In all my classes, the poli-sci teacher is the only teacher who's half-normal. My badminton teacher is interested in taking bribes in the form of diamonds and gold for grades. The English professor is way out of tune with popular culture (even though that's our lesson topic). The physics teacher is even worse. As for Japanese, the Japanese professor acts like she's 20 years younger than she actually is. But then, a lot of Japanese women are like that. At least she's nice and treats us like children (kind of like Mme. Darwish, now that I think of it). She likes drawing large pictures of chibi anime characters that resemble those of Gunbound. Hen da ne?
Fortunately, these are only first impressions. I pray every night that my classes (and parking) will improve and that I will find free time for enjoyment. Hopefully ....
New Year´s Day
Happy New Year's Day from HeavySnarker!! And what better way to celebrate new year than to present Invasion Trigun 3.0 -- 100% stronger, faster, bolder, sexier, and devious´er than version 2.0. In fact, it's better than version 2.0 in every way (after all, 3 is bigger than 2, I think). Well, if you don't agree, hit yourself on the head and go to Invasion Trigun 2.0
For the smarter half of you, enjoy the new design
- HeavySnarker
Christmas Break
HeavySnarker is on Hiatus. If some pages on the site do not work, it's because I'm working on a new version.
12.23.2003
This is the last thing I will post before New Years: Fox Trot's Lord of the King Week. Ciao!
12.22.2003
Reinstalling Win2k and all my software took 6 hours today. Not bad for a record. The OS isn't running much faster than before. However, that probably means that my previous OS log was maintained extremely efficiently. Cheers!
Now, back to college apps. ~Sigh
12.20.2003
Windows is getting really unstable because of some viral adware I accidentally installed. The seemingly benign uninstall was actually a trap for installing more junk. Arrrgggg... Then, the stupid thing attacked my Lavasoft Ad-aware. So much for protection. I finally got rid of it by booting from DOS and deleting the registry. However, Internet Explorer is now a bit slower (about 5ms/open window). I think I'm going to have to euthanize the OS if IE keeps this up.
12.18.2003
Lord of the Rings: Return of the King officially makes the top of my all-star favorite movies list. It's one of the few movies that must be seen in the theaters or at IMAX. The graphics are just stunning, and there is nothing lacking in the story. Next time I watch it, I'll bring a camera along to take some snapshots for wallpapers. The scenery is just amazing.
Notable Winter 2004 Dates
December 10: School ends for me. As for you Lynbrook natives: I hope you enjoy finals week. MWAHAHAHA!! MWAHAHAHAHHAHA!!
Janurary 1: Invasion Trigun 3.0 release date. Happy New Year's Itrigun Day!!
Janurary 7: Hell-O Day. School opens again because opening just once a year isn't good enough.
Janurary 11: Bought a new computer -- code named: Puff2004
12.10.2003
La la la la la. Finals are over for me. It's time to chill out until my internal alarm clock screams "College Apps." Meanwhile, I gotta thank all the people who have made my school life worthwhile.
Thank you, Chris, for letting me beat you 4 times in a row in badminton on finals day. Hehe. Admit it, I was always better than you. Anyways, Shanghai kicks Hong Kongese butt once again. And who's that cute girl you're always with?
Thank you, loudmouth, cussing, Indian dude for not picking on me all the time. I'm sure Chris enjoyed all your shots as much as I did. Next time, try aiming lower! You might get lucky someday.
Thank you, Vanna, for supporting me throughout calculus, and updating me everytime I woke up.
Thank you, Perera, for not caring if I ever arrived to class on time or at all.
Thank you, class of EWRT 1B: Fall 2002 for providing my lunch once a week.
Thank you, Yonggoo, for being the tutor with the coolest Korean accent. If only I could tutor as well you, I'd be able to curse at my tutees and still look good. -"That's right, you better study and work your butt off if you want any help from now on."
Thank you, L(i/y)ndas, for lunch and the college advantage ads. Hey! What happened these last few weeks?
Thank you, Ashirina and Bryan, for being easy going throughout EWRT 1B. You found the perfect balance of talking and remaining silent (unlike some people. cough. cough. *nosebleed* selena). Group participation could really use people more people like you.
And Thank you, Yang, for not bothering me the last three busy weeks of school. j/k
12.7.2003
Our bathroom remodeling is finally finished!! It's amazing how we've survived 5 weeks of living without indoor heating, My toes were starting to turn blue at night. Fortunately, I don't have to go through that again. Anyways, the bathroom is awesome. We used thick granite tiles to cover the floor and shower walls. In front of the sink are two mirror cabinets and one gigantic center mirror. We also installed a 70-decibel ceiling fan. It's so quiet in there. And the toilet is so cute. Sorry, got carried away away. Well, the bathroom is the only room in our 50-year old house equipped with grounded electricity, so we can safely place the computer in there. Yep, extra stuff to do while sitting on the toilet.
I do have to blame my mom for playing with the lock. She got so excited about installing the lock that she locked herself outside. It took us an hour to get the door open again. ~Sigh.
12.5.2003
I got bored.
12.4.2003
English (a.k.a. Free Food Class) has been wonderful this week. We've had our last two group presentations the first two days , and today, Karen gave us some Keish. The chicken legs and boneless barbecue beef was so good. I kept on wanting seconds throughout the presentations. Fortunately, everyone's so nice me when it comes to donating food. Thank you, Bryan, Megumi, Tran, Ashirina, and anyone else who gave me their meals. Hehe.
The Kiesh was a bit questionable though; it tasted like Thanksgiving leftover. Many students didn't finish theirs. Oh well, that meant more food for me. It's too bad that this is the last week of English before finals. I'll need to buy my own food for lunch from now on.
Monthly Hit List (Nov)
1. College Apps
2. College app essays
3. Filling out college app forms
4. Sending college app forms
5. Licking college app envelopes when my tongue is already so dry from sending Thanksgiving rebate offers
6. College app ... ehhh. You get my point
11.28.2003
Post-Turkey Day @ Office Max!! Shopping season officially starts today 6am Pacific Time, so it's time to flex those credit cards and sharpen those pens for annoying rebates. Oh wait, pens don't need sharpening.
Khypermedia finally started selling 48x CD-Rs. It took them long enough. I think I spent over $300 today, but after rebates, the cost decreases to about $30. Nice deals! Mom still doesn't know what "Progressive Scan" means on DVDs, so I'm forcing her to go back to return the $80 Dual-Deck.
The lines were crazy long today. Office Max ritually has the shortest lines of all the stores. However, I went there 30 minutes before it opened and there were already about 50 people in line, compared to none last year. The economy must really be in a slump. And besides, there are waaaaayyyy too many cheap Asians here. I'd hate to think how long I would've need to wait in line at Fry's or Best Buy. Last year, it was over 4 hours long, almost as long as the line for Superman in Six Flags.
11.26.2003
I'm hopelessly addicted to talk radio. Rush Limbaugh isn'’t the only talk show host on drugs. Here's a look at Glenn Beck fans:
"It's just so invigorating to talk down those moron left-wingers. I mean, there has to be something wrong with those terrorist-huggers. Let’'s just ship the communist pigs to Afghanistan. Everything would be better if Glen Beck were president of this Savage Nation. Then, those greedy "gramps" could no longer freeload on our Medicare, unless of course, his first name is Rush. Even so, we shouldn'’t have liberal fat slobs running around in office. Just imagine all the damage Hillary would do as Queen #$*&! of the Universe. No wonder why Clinton cheated on her. Don’'t get me wrong. I hate that intern-molester with my whole heart. He can'’t even control his own wife. Be a true conservative: request a personal meeting with your local representative, and kick his sorry democratic butt out of office."
"With all those liberal swine out of the country and in concentration camps and Glen Beck as President of the United States, people will have to listen to Laura for family divorce counseling. Call in anytime! So what’'s bothering you? What? Your husband doesn’'t want to visit your family for Thanksgiving? What kind of man is he? Are you even sure that it’'s a man? No? Well, get that thing out of your house. Here'’s your problem. Women who live with things like that shouldn'’t even be allowed to marry. I hereby revoke your marriage license indefinitely until you can find someone who will cook and kiss up to you 24/7. Sheesh! Goodbye, and thanks for calling."
11.23.2003
Uncle's family came over today. It seems like my cousin, Christine, is also going to be a genius. Too bad she wants to become president of the US. I should have warned about dirty politics. Meanwhile, my parents are going to be disappointed of the only dull person in the family.
11.20.2003
The Siemens Westinghouse awards package came today. I arrived home just as the Fed-ex truck was leaving. They sent me some useless junk, along with a backpack, an umbrella, and a t-shirt--all with the Siemens logo. The package would've been better if the Seimens logo were prettier, or if they had sent in a laptop or some cash. Damn, I'm greedy.
11.19.2003
Puff's Test Theorm
Given:
1) You score P points out of a total of of T points on an exam
2) The teacher is letting YOU choose whether the exam will be weighed by (option i) adding x points to each student's score or (option ii) substracting x points from the total number of points, T.
Puff's Test Theorm states that it's to your advantage to
a) Go with (option i) if P+x is less than T
b) Go with (option ii) if P+x is greater than T
In the special case where P+x=T, both options are equally good.
Morally, (option i) is better since it helps other disadvantaged students. However, if you're a selfish prick, go with (option ii).
11.17.2003
Naruto is so awesome. Who needs Kenshin when Naruto's there to kick butt. Besides, Sexy no Jutsu could easily defeat Ouki Ama-Kakeru-Ryu-No-Hirameki anyday. Now, if I could only devise a new master technique to speed up bit torrent...
Meanwhile, despite my improved SAT scores, I still hate the ETS (aka Evil Testing Service).
11.12.2003
My house just went under cardiac arrest. The bathroom is gone and the living room is half-demolished because of reconstruction. We can't turn on the heater since part of the wall is missing. This month is going to be living hell--assuming that we don't freeze over.
11.6.2003
Tutoring takes up so much time. I think I'm going slowly to die of labor.
In case I die in the near future, here's my unofficial will: monetary debts will be evenly distributed among family. All my belongings can be sold -- I have nothing worthwhile to hang on to.
Past MBox Info
The Delinquency of an Adult -- Letter to PC Gamer from Dan Rogers
You people need to stop. No, really. Right now. I was happy with Army Operations. Then you showed me Battlefield 1942. I was happy with BF 1942 until you showed me Splinter Cell. I was happy with Splinter Cell until you showed me C&C: Generals. I was happy with C&C: Generals until you showed me the BF 1942 mod Desert Combat. Now you have shown me Grand Theft Auto: Vice City.
I can't take it anymore. My wife is leaving me. My kids don't recognize me. The dog bites me. Every time you write one of your preview or review for these games, I have to have it. I can't finish a game. My hard drive is begging for mercy. You people need to stop. I have to go -- I've just respawned.
11.4.2003
Big lunch today. Smores party + Pizza Hut. I'm going to burst if I keep this up.
11.4.2003
It's amazing how long I've lived with such a slow and inefficient hard drive (5400 RPM, 4GB, FAT). I swear that it was set up against me from the very beginning. After all, how come my dad gets the SCSI-320 10,000 RPM/NTFS partition? I think I'll just steal some of his memory. In fact, I think I really like Partition Magic 8.0. After spending 5 hours messing with the computer, let's say that I'll never run out of virtual memory again. Meanwhile, Yang acquires a new Sony Vaio Windows Media addition (value: 2.2 grand) just by asking his parents. -.-'
11.1.2003
Today sucked. First off, there was SAT II writing in the morning. I never do well on the essays. Then I drove 20 minutes to Redwood City of the ECYS dress rehearsal. Unfortunately, I forgot my oboe, so I had to drive back and get it, wasting 1 hour 30 minutes and $6 of gas. After rehearsal, there was the 3.5-hour long concert. Fun stuff. Oh, I forget, there's another concert tomorrow.
Monthly Hit List (Oct)
1. Anything that dares take time away from my sleep
2. College Apps
3. Physics: Electrical & Magnetics
4. Slow drivers
10.31.2003
After watching 5 episodes of Excel Saga, I can truly see that it belongs with my other favorite anime series, Cowboy Bebop, Kenshin, and Trigun. Even though Excel Saga is ten times more screwy than Fushigi Yuugi, it still include to have a plot. Watch it, watch it, watch it!!
10.27.2003
I am becoming more and more disenchanted by the way American society has become in recent years. America was a haven for our forefathers that was built upon capitalism, represented by democracy, and governed by the three branches proposed by the philosopher, Montesquieu, during the Enlightenment Era. And yet, the Land of Opportunity has lost its once grand prestige. Liberty is crying.
I sat there, gazing at the remains of food before me, hoping that hidden behind the label, I would find: happiness, freedom, opportunity. Should I look? Yes, I must. I peel away the label. In that moment, my dreams are crushed. Time grinds to a halt, and the air becomes stiff.
Park Place?!! How could I get another one after all these tries? This must have been my fifth one. And yet, I never found a Boardwalk or, now that I think of it, a Ventnor Avenue to go with my multiple Atlantic Avenue and Marvin Gardens. It’'s a sham! A complete sham to fool Americans to bear false hopes. McDonalds, you’ are going down!!
10.25.2003
Hehe, finally finished Senior Ad for College Advantage, thanks to both Li/yndas. It took nearly 10 hours, but it was worth it. Check it out -->
Btw, the service at the Kinkos near Orchard Supply Hardware really sucks. None of their computers (and brains) were working.
10.24.2003
SAT I: 1510. Grrr... Could've been better. Next time, I'll strangle the stupid Evil Testing Service.
10.15.2003
Sleep is one of the most beautiful aspects of life. It's definitely the most relaxing, unless you're in a car where the driver's sleeping.
10.14.2003
Our Math teacher is going nuts. She passed out cards with the names of animals written on them and told everyone to find their respective groups by quacking, neighing, clucking, barking, oinking, and mooing. Afterwards, she gave us this question:
Suppose you pay a visit to pig farmer Jones. Jones has 2 brown pigs, 3 black pigs, 1 pink pig, and 4 calico pigs. How many pigs can say that there is another pig of the same color on the farm?
Her answer
The reason for her giving us this problem: She was bored. Desperately bored. Math can have a deleterious effect on brilliant minds.
10.12.2003
Finished Harry Potter 5: Order of the Phoenix. Someone really has a hot temper. (Obviously didn't deserve Cho or Dumbledore's help)
9.15.2003
I've used the computer everyday since I came back from Russia. I'm hopelessly addicted to multitasking. It's a vicious cycle of email, games, downloading files, and organizing mp3s. The mp3 collection itself is a mess. With broadband, I download faster than I can organize, so by the time that I've gathered a 1 GB collection, I'm forced to listen to them one by one and rate them, all the while doing homework, IMing, and Photoshopping. I'm obligated to do this. I enjoy it.
I just finished Ender's Game yesterday. It took me two months to realize that I was never going to find the book on the library shelf so I put a copy on hold. After a month, I never received it. So I bought it instead. It was a good book, a fairy tale in a way -- somewhat depressing, but deeply moving. Even though Ender's Game wasn't as brilliant as Asimov's first three foundation books, I liked it better for its human aspect. We're all mortal.
The mp3 list will be updated this week. It's sad how I have to motivate myself this way.
8.29.2003
Gas prices are so expensive here: I spent $25 dollars on 10 gallons today. That's the equivalent of 750 rubles or approximately 150 cigarette lighters. In another two week, I'll have to do this again. I'm going to get a hybrid car in the future.
8.28.2003
Just finished Foundation's Edge by Issac Asimov today. That concludes the fourth, and so far, only disappointing book of the series. Actually, the fourth good was good, but the first three were just too well written for their own good.
I finally glanced at the college applications for UCs. Then I went to sleep because my head started hurting.
8.27.2003
Despite what I wrote about Susan a few years ago, she is probably not as bad of a driver as I thought she was. But for some arbitrary reason, she still insisted that I pick her up in my own car. I suppose it was for safety reasons.
I wish I had a paid internship over the summer. I feel so useless.
8.25.2003
"First day" of school. After registration, we had our class meeting and then visited each of our classes. Luckily I have only two classes this year, and the first of these two starts September 22nd. Sucks for everyone else.
Notable Fall 2003 Dates
August 24: School starts for losers, I laugh.
September 22: The gates of De Anza open
October 11: SAT I - *gasp* need air
October 31: Halloween!! The day that I start my college apps. Crap, they're due tommorrow?