Daily // November 2006
November 30, 2006
Well..did november past quickly.
I'll be back tmr.
November 29, 2006
It's been very tireless lately. Meeting homework deadlines every single day is so stressful and demoralizing.. I wish I have the time to work slowly on these assignments.
I'm also starting to close myself from the outside. Sometimes I just feel that I need space..
For now, enjoy a song I really like from Gigi's album.
November 27, 2006
Much to my distress, I couldn't finish my java homework tonight. So, bye.
Firstly, I'd like to say that thanksgiving was very pleasant. It's always nice to meet different people and experience a different lifestyle.
Well, now that I'm back, I have tons of work to complete. May it go smoothly, and may whatever you have to do go smoothly as well.
November 25, 2006
I want to stay.
November 23, 2006 Happy Thanksgiving!
Today is by far the best thanksgiving day I've had. I woke up at 11:30, had a big piece of pumpkin pie, then headed out for a short walk around the neighborhood. Then, Nick drove around Clinton and Hookstown, where we visited his high school and the nuclear power plant nearby. I've never been this close to a nuclear power plant before..good thing I didn't come back with an extra finger.
After the tour, we came back, played some board games together with Abbey and Christina, and had a sumptuous thanksgiving dinner. I enjoyed the desserts most - chocolate cheesecake and pumpkin cheesecake. Yum..
Later in the night we watched The Usual Suspects. It was a good movie. Anyway, tmr we're shopping early..we'll see how crowded it gets. Good nite.
November 22, 2006 Touch down..
Every time I get off a flight, I miss the HK airport. I miss the spaciousness of the baggage claim area, the blue carpet and modern chairs, the restaurants above the gates etc. Maybe I miss the city so much that I even miss its airport. But HKers have always been proud of their airport, right?
Well, after a short but very bumpy ride, I arrived in Pittsburgh this evening around 7.30. Before getting on the flight, we had two hours to kill so Nick and I watched V for Vendetta, which was really good.
It's nice to be at 'home' for thanksgiving. I think I do miss my family a bit and maybe I should have gone home. But who wouldn't want to try a taste of something different? Like..having three cats appearing and disappearing in your room at the most unforeseeable moments? (They have names: Tiger, Inky and one-that-I-have-yet-to-identify.) Anyway, it's been a long day and I think I'm beginning to ramble. So, good nite and see you tmr.
November 21, 2006
Just like Joe, I'm in holiday mode. No classes tmr, leaving around 3pm to Pittsburgh @ Nick's place. Yippee!!
November 20, 2006
Happy 20th Birthday, Wilson!
Woke up at 7 to register for classes today, and pretty much got what I want. But that also means that I'll have 10-2 classes on MTW. I'm seriously considering about dropping expos so free up a lunch hr. What should I do?
Meanwhile, to celebrate my performance in econ midterm, I had lunch @ Carma cafe, the coffee shop opposite to Eddie's. The food was really good..meatball panini, corn chowder and blueberry scone. Yum.
Two days till thanksgiving! Yeah!
November 19, 2006
Well, I really dislike disappointing my readers, so sorry for not writing anything yesterday.
Yesterday was quite fun. Besides drawing for Secret Santa at the HKSA bring-a-long dinner (which was delicious), I watched Le Nozze de Figaro (The Marriage of Figaro) in Peabody Institute with Vivian, Joe and James. It's my first real opera experience, and it was a great one, since the performance was superb and somewhat exaggerated to enliven the jovial, frivolous theme.
So, today is one of the more relaxing sundays I've had so far. Anyway, I think I'll wake up tmr to register for classes. Hopefully it won't be too jammed. Good nite.
November 17, 2006
Weekdays can be fun at Hopkins, if everything happens the way it did today, that is. Well, firstly, my calc midterm turned out pretty well. This time our class grade appear more normal - instead of having 26 as a passing grade and above 50 as A, we have 60 as pass and >90 as A.
For lunch, Roger, Vivian, Amy, Nick and I went to a Korean restaurant downtown. All five of us ordered Kalbi rice bowl, which was really good. I was also supposed to meet with my mech e design group at 2, but since a group member was sick, 1/3 of the team couldn't attend the meeting so it was disbanded.
So around 6, we got on the collegetown shuttle to Inner Harbor. Upon arriving at Cheesecake Factory, we were told that we'd have to wait for an hour. What's better than window shopping Bestbuy then? We did so, and got our table around 7. Guess what I ordered this time? No, not filet mignon (thats what Kevin ordered), but Cajun Jambalaya Pasta, which was quite good. Lihan ordered the famous Bang-bang chicken dish..I think I know what to get next time.
After main course, we had a mouth-watering tiramisu cheesecake. I wish they have this for dessert at ffc every night. I wouldn't mind paying so much for a meal plan then.
Being so pressed for time, I didn't get to watch Babel with Joe and Victoria. But I heard from them later that, while the cinematography was good, the storyline wasn't. But anyway, the bottomline is that I definitely won't miss the opera tmr night!
November 16, 2006
Happy Birthday, Kevin!
Despite all the rain today, it was quite fun. For lunch, Derek, James, Sunny, Kevin and me ate at Niwana (again). Their lunch bento boxes are quite good - they're only ~8, which equals a lunch at FFC. THe reason I said "again" is that I went there yesterday after my calc midterm. For what reason? I was celebrating alone actually.. But it didn't turn out that way because the moment I ordered food, I realized that I didn't have my wallet! *!*@(!((*$)
Thankfully Amy came and rescued me.
But today I also forgot my wallet..so this time Derek rescued me. Forgetting my wallet is almost like how I don't like to wear watches.
This weekend should be fun. Tmr night we have a belated birthday dinner with Kevin at cheesecake factory and I might watch Babel with Joe. Saturday night we have a thanksgiving potluck and after that we're watching an opera. Oh, should I get a haircut?
November 15, 2006
Calc midterm wasn't too bad either. I just hope that those crazy people in our class won't get 100s and destroy the curve. Actually we don't have a curve. According to Wilkin, our grade will be determined by "the level of understanding of the materials taught". I wonder how he determines that..
Anyway, I feel like a free person again. Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!
November 13, 2006
Economics midterm wasn't too bad. Maybe I subconsciously expected that and thus invited Amy to lunch before the exam. We went to Nolan's, and though the food is generally quite expensive, it really isn't if you get a combo meal. We each had salad + soup + drink.
After classes, I went to the health center and waited for 1.5 hrs to get my toe looked at.. The doctor said it'll take a good 2-3 weeks to heal. Sadness. Does that mean no shoes and no tennis for 2 weeks?!
I need to get a good grade in calc midterm this wednesday. Good luck to me, and good nite.
November 11, 2006
Bloody hell.
Somehow I managed to hurt my toe really badly when I was playing table tennis after dinner today. It ruined an otherwise perfect day. ><"
Well anyway, this morning around 10 we walked to farmer's market, which is 10 mins away from commons. It's just like any other farmer's market: there were home-grown/home-made fruits, vegetables, flowers, ice cream, coffee and even soap. After that we walked to Giants and bought more things. Then we had lunch at Pete's Restaurant, which is a traditional American breakfast place where they serve in bar tables.
Tmr will be busy.. Sleep now. Bye.
November 10, 2006
Happy 18th Birthday, Michael!
Tonight I went to a series of functions, namely the WongFu Production (which showed "A moment with you") and the coffee ground at Charles Commons. "A moment with you", the 2-hr movie, was very deep and moving and touches the audiences' hearts. I sort of underestimated what they would show when I saw their "Yellow Fever" (you can search on YouTube) clip, which was funny but sort of frivolous.
Coffee grounds was equally fun. We got free donuts, coffee and even t-shirts.. The sad thing is that I was targeted all the time when we played Sorry! (boardgame). But it was good times.
Farmer's market, here I come!
November 9, 2006
對人歡笑, 背人垂淚.Firstly, Happy Birthday to Irene and congratulations in IPIP's success! (don't beat me up)
Today is like..a roller coaster ride. But this roller coaster does not have the tallest track or the fastest speed, but it's downward-sloping track has a very deep slope so it gets you from the high to low quickly and the lowest point of the track is well-underground. In other words, I think I experienced the lowest low in Hopkins life.
I wish I could turn back time.
I wish..
November 8, 2006
做人唔好憎人富貴, 厭人貧.Sometimes I need to abide more to the above comment. It's just easy to get jealous of those better than you, and look down on those who aren't as good as you are. It doesn't solely apply to wealth, but to knowledge and many other things as well.
I've had quite a few awakening these days. One of which is that I think I'm studying something my brother would be studying. "Why?" you ask. Well, he always enjoyed anything related to cars, and mechanical engineering, though not a study of vehicles itself, is closely related to mechanics in systems that include cars.
Another awakening is that I've devoted too much of my thoughts, time, energy and basically my entire mind to one person. Is this friendship? Is this love? How do I differentiate between them anyway? Please return some rationality to my mind and let me survive this and next week..
Oh, Martina Hingis fought a tough battle against Nadia Petrova today in the round robins of the Year-End Championships (held in Madrid) and won! See how ecstatic she is!
November 6, 2006
I realized that by skipping math class, there are infinite infinitely-funner things for me to do in that free hour. For example, today I went to Mattin Center and checked out a piano room for 30mins. All the piano rooms have grand pianos..isn't that unbelievable? I also had time to fill up my starved stomach and read (and digest) the JHU Gazette.
Oh well, I didn't think that java hwk would be this hard.. But I guess it'll take me the whole day to finish it tmr. Good nite for now.
November 4, 2006
After a good amount of sleep, I woke up and headed to MSE library before going to Jesse Wong's (the name of the restaurant) in Columbia, MD for dimsum. The food was quite good - it tastes like an ordinary 茶樓 in Hong Kong standard. Hopefully it will linger and satisfy my wants until january (which is extremely unlikely).
When I got back, I paid a visit to see Hercules (aka 肥肥dei) and went to The Book Thing with Joe, where I got a bunch of interesting books. What a satisfying day.
I've updated the feature music. Have you not heard of Maksim? Well, he played the theme song of Athens 2004 Olympics two years ago. Something different this time..enjoy!
More.. Sometimes I just don't know how I survive in a place like this.
November 3, 2006
It's getting very cold here. Since I can no longer walk to the cafeteria or to class without going outside (which was possible at Taft), I have to endure the cold. But I'm the kind of person who easily feels warm in heated indoor areas, which means I can't wear that many layers. How should I dress to keep myself warm but not too warm?
As I was walking towards Shaffer 3 for Stepping Stone service tonight, I saw an ambulance and a security van outside of MSE library. The workers all crowded in a circle, possibly around a victim. In curiosity and sympathy, I walked up and asked "what happened?" The person turned to me and said, "the class is having a drill". Well, that was quite unexpected - I was expecting someting more like "this guy carried too many books as he was ascending the stairs from D-level and tumbled all the way back down and broke his jaw" or "this girl was getting four cups of coffee latte for her study buddies but accidentally spill all of them over herself". I guess God was urging me to be unassuming and more optimistic.
Dimsum trip tmr! Enough said, good night.
November 2, 2006
Thursday is now defined as math-day in my dictionary. I just wish that I finish up my math requirements asap.
Weekend is approaching again. It is always a good thing..except that I have a mechE lab report, econ problem set, design project presentation and more to do. Maybe in my freetime I'll squeeze in some tennis. I think I have "tennis fever" lately.. Why? I've played consecutively for three days. But a good sport is always worth doing, right?
November 1, 2006
Besides an exceptionally lazy morning, today could be sum up in one keyword: extraordinarily fun (sorry, inside joke). The "laugh-out-loud" index, especially during small group, was heightened to historical level. Wait..am I still laughing now?!
Anyway, after sg, I finally visited Joe's apartment. His apartment has the most interesting things..like a huge collection of National Geographic journals. He showed me a "shiny" issue, and discovered that he has two! What's better than to give one to me? Well, that's what he did..and I'm really grateful for obtaining such an interesting souvenir.
Tmr will be another math day. Hopefully I'll get through the problem set with relative ease.
P.S. The visit cut for October is 13003 - 13533, and the average daily visit is ~17.1. That's slowly improving. Thanks for your support.
November 26, 2006
[kevin in hk]: Hi[me]: hi
[me]: don't tell me you're msging me on a cell phone
[kevin]: I am
[me]: don't tell me you're at school
[kevin]: I am
[kevin]: Since when have you become a fortune teller?
[me]: since when have you become such a bad student?
[kevin]: Since sitting w/ you in f.3