[2003]======================ram
15.janvier.2003:
mo' money
They say that potatoes are the food for the poor. The poor people in
Ireland couldn't have survived without the good old potato. They are
hardy and can grow in cold areas. Originally, potatoes were brought over
from the new world to the old not for their taste, but for their little
flowers.. It took awhile for the potato to be integrated into the European
diet. And so the poor people in Ireland (as described by Mr. Gallagher,
my old high school computer science/geometry teacher) ate nothing but
potatoes everyday..
Why am i talking about potatoes? well, recently, at Ralph's, the large
supermarket, I bought a ten pound bag of potatoes for 99 cents. I then carried
that bag back to my apartment, which took about 15 minutes. I recently
found out that i didn't fill out the financial aid form for this school year.
Apparently, they didn't send me one while i was in Hong Kong. The first
person I talked to (because i was going to apply for work study), said that
i didn't apply for financial aid, which i need to do before applying for
work study and that it is too late to get any money from them since it was
already the second school semester. oh! what shock!! A few thousand dollars
down the drain! No wonder i had so less money in my checking account. I had
trouble paying the rent every month.. that said, i realized that this
semester, i needed to be even more frugal than ever.. and like in "Civilization"
, the game, the luxuries given to the citizens are decreased to zero.
Then my dear cousin wrote to me that there is a chance of getting money..
I could still fill out the financial aid application. I quickly went to the
financial aid office the next day and found out indeed i could get some money!!
but i'd better fill out the application soon! So i am now doing that right
now.. .
in the meanwhile, i'd better start looking for potato recipes!
6.February.2003 -moku-:
guts and trematodes
2:00PM - 8:30PM = in the Parasitology lab searching for parasites
in fish intestine (anterior half) using a disecting scope and preparing
them for slides. Total found: 40 trematodes, tiny suckers.
Eyeballs : exhuasted
Nose : smells like seafood
12.February.2003 -sui-:
shenme ne. ...?
Its raining. Finally, the rain gods have answered the
farmers' prayers! I like the cold rainy days, but this morning,
it was raining so hard that by the time that I arrived to my
lecture, one-half of my jeans, front and back, was completely soaked
dripping.
Its been a quite busy school semester.. although i am just
taking 16 units, two of which are 6 units with lab. I just finished
two midterms this week on Monday and Tuesday.. Monday's one was the
lab practical exam for my vertebrate morphology class. It wasn't
easy to prepare for that one.. especially memorizing and identifying
the shark and cat muscles along with their origin, insertion, and
action. I spent many nights in the cold lab looking at the shark
and cat inhaling all good old formulin smell. Reminds me a bit of
my good old high school days in my anatomy and physiology class.
We also dissected a cat.. it was an ORANGE tabby female cat.
However, the vertebrate morphology class is completely different!
We have lab from 1 to 6PM once a week, and during that time period,
we finish dissecting. Memorizing and studying is up to us to do
in our free time. Sometimes i just wonder how can they just expect
us to know everything in a few hours! Its quite crazy, I tell you!
The cat I'm dissecting is a grey male tabby that seems to be
abnormally large and juicy for a cat!
Tuesday's exam was the lecture exam for my Parasitology class.
I didn't really have much time to prepare for the exam because the
vertebrate morphology exam was on Monday from 7:30-9:30PM!!
After the exams in the evening, I watched a movie with my Indonesian
roommate that she rented. It is called "S1M0NE". I never heard of
this movie.. It is about A director who is fed up with the actors
that demand so much luxories in order to agree to act in the movie.
After the actress left during the middle of the movie production,
the Director is in trouble on who to replace her. In other words,
actors and actresses have forgotten that their main job to be
making a good films, not making big money. THe directors and other
staff are always in the shadow of the actors. The media always are
eager to report any news and about the private lives of actors.
When about to give up on the half finished film, he meets a computer
software person who introduces his new program: a computer that can
realistically portray a human. The user can change the simulated
human's appearance, look, and voice from an included library of
all movies. Well, to me, it seems to be just some computer graphics..
But anyway, the director uses this computer character to replace
the old actress, and called the "new actress" Simone, from the
programme name "Simulation One".
I like the movie's theme since I find that many Los Angeles
citizens seem to crazed about movie stars. The news always have
some report about movie stars and the Oscars seem to be so important.
Realistically, it is not very high because no modern technology
can just do such a thing yet. But that doesn't really matter because
its all fiction anyway. One thing that confuses me is how
the harddrive for the Director's computer has a 5" floppy drive.
On top of that, he is given a 5" floppy disk. OK, so what is wrong?
Well, I don't think that anyone has the 5" floppy disk drive any
more. -ahem- -coughcough- At least anyone that i know.. .
I actually do have one right here in my computer!! for reals!!
but you probably know that my history with computers has been
THAT old, and more. Imagine using an audio cassette for storing
files for a computer.... well, maybe you can't! :D :D Its quite a
strange habit, but I even always associate Radio Shack with computers.
We even bought our first computer from there! These days, I don't
see a single computer for sale at Radio Shack.. What happened?!?!
I am quite curious.. .
I feel kind of guilty because I did not do even touch my homepage
in such a long time. Today, i just started writing again on the
Guangzhou section. Maybe I write too much? One day I *will* finish
the China page, really!!!! =_=. ...
14.february.2003:
molluscs, digenes and nematodes
Parasitology lab went way over time today from 2-10 PM. Yeah,
that is eight straight hours. I wanted to go to the anime club
today, but wasn't able to finish on time.
We looked for cercariae in marine snails today. We got a snail
(very small) and used a rubber mallet to crush the shell. Next,
we put it in a petri dish with salt water. There in the sink, BTW,
is a huge cockroach wandering around the steep sink unable to escape
but eating some fats on the strainer. yuck!! We then used the
disection scope to look for those worms in the snail guts.
I don't know if it is lucky, but after crushing 4 snails, i found,
in the last one, 3 nematodes and ~145 digenes. So you know what I
was doing in the eight hours separating those stupid digenes from the
tissue/junk.
Afterwards, i kept imagining seeing white worms all over the place.
Then at my apartment, my Indonesian roommate crazily wanted to watch
a movie rented at Hollywood video. It is called "Riding in Cars With
Boys".. I also never heard of this one. But it is quite a bit
depressing movie (for the most part), as it depicts the life of a girl
in Connecticut that accidentally got pregnant, which basically ruined
her dreams of going to college.. It is full of lost dreams, but also
of a few new ones. We finished that movie at around 2:30 AM or so..
crazy aren't we?
17.february.2003 -montag-:
late spring cleaning
Yesterday, my Indonesian roommate and I finally did the spring
cleaning in our apartment for the Lunar new year (although a few
weeks late). We vacuumed the floor, swept the kitchen floor, cleaned
up and scrubbed the refrigerator clean (bunch of brown and white
sticky substance was stuck under the drawer), swept the balcony,
and I cleaned and organised my room. Yup, its an unending battle
between entropy and order..
We finished cleaning up at around 6 PM.. then afterwards, I started
studying, and took a break to go to that new organic store in Westwood
called "Whole Foods market". The milk is cheaper there at $1.99!
Then the eggplants are 99 cents per pound, and lettuce was 49 cents
each. I got some of those "blood oranges" for 67 cents per pound.
They look like oranges, but are a bit red outside. Inside it is red!
Today I tried one, and inside was not red, but PURPLE!! What the--!?!!
:D :D Anyway, i don't know if it was my imagination, but i tasted a
bit of grape along with the orange taste.. hmmm... @_@ yum! I don't
know any other natural foods other than grapes, eggplant,and mangosteen
(outside only) that is purple coloured!!
On friday(?) I watched the movie "My Big Fat Greek Wedding".. Its
quite funny and crazy movie. I was pleasantly surprised because I
was expecting the whole Hollywood teenage/college crowd movie about
fraternities or something. That is usually what is "Greek". I'm
very glad that the movie is about real "Greeks", not some college
fraternities. I hate how Hollywood portrays the "typical" university
students in movies: partying, drinking, dating, etc.
Well, its a day off today for President's day, but I didn't even
go out except for grocery shopping. I have three exams this week, so
its going to be studying this whole week. I have to study parasitology,
vertebrate morphology, and biochemistry.. I only have a few days left..
maybe i should try "one subject a day" method.. @_@
2.March.2003 -suntag-:
da da saht saht
You know what chapped my hide today? well, first of all, one
of my roommates decided to have everybody contribute to buy a set
of stamps.. so everybody pays $2. I was handed the great
responsibility to buy the stamps, thus today I went to the UCLA
Ackerman Union for its stamp vending machine. I was very disappointed
by the given selection of the regular 37 cents stamps. My choices
were either "Antique Toys", which featured four different old tin
cars, or the "American Flag", which only showed one pattern of a
picture of the American flag. Perhaps you can say that I am picky,
but I am a stamp collector who does pay attention to the stamps.
Since I already had the "Antique Toys" $7.40 20 stamp set, I decided to
get the "American Flag" set. I put in $8.10 (yes, a rather stupid
mistake to put in 10 cents before seeing that I didn't have the
other 30 cents) and selected the "American Flag" set. I got my
change, and when I picked up the stamp set, I flipped it over only to
find out it is not the "American Flag" set that I wanted, but the
"Antique Toys" set!!!!!! grrrr~ I was rather upset and felt like
giving the stupid machine a good kick! But I controlled myself,
shook my head in disappointment and accepted the defeat like a good
knight. Well, I am aware that the two sets are of the same value,
but... sigh.. what ever happened to the old wet-the-back kind of
stamps? It seems like they are all the sticker kind these days.. .
lesson: don't trust the stamp machine if you want
to buy stamps for your collection! (But the machine doesn't really
have much selection anyway..)
OTOH, regarding that week's three midterms... I did quite poorly
(as expected) on the Vertebrate morphology one with a measly
56%, median is around 66%, however to lighten up the sober mood, I
got a good 81/100 on my biochemistry exam and even more shockingly
is an unbelieveable whopping 96/100 on my parasitology lab practical!
I even share the top score with someone else on that lab exam!!
@_@|| ?? I couldn't believe it! well, now i need to get studying
for the vertebrate morphology class.. :( :( :(
3.3.2003 (montag):
lok yu lo
Today is "hina matsuri"! I went to a potluck, bringing two
boxes of donuts from Ralphs.
Anyway, its strange.. but I got a comment that I dress like a
rock star. (sweat drop rolling down) haha.. that is the first time
someone said that to me... . I didn't know what to say.. but I was
just wearing the usual: jeans (bought in China), black shirt (from China),
jeans jacket (China), my "hook" necklace, and London Underground boots..
hmm.. wow. today's fashion sure is "made in China"! :D but gee, do
I really look so conspicious?!?!
That reminds me of the time when i rode the public bus from the
Santa Monica Library back to my apartment. Riding the bus is quite an
interesting experience because you see all sorts of characters:
Mexicans, students, elderly, homeless, etc etc. Well, the man sitting
the seat across from mines talked to me and asked me questions
(I can't really remember the exact questions, but they were somewhat
like this):
MAN: "Where do you come from?"
ME: "from Sacramento."
MAN: "What is your native language?"
ME: "English."
MAN: "Where were you born?"
ME: "America."
--of course i could see where this conversation was headed towards to..
but.. he kept on asking until I said what he was looking for..--
ME: "My parents came from China"
Then he asked me if i could teach him some Chinese phrases.. it seemed,
however, that he already knew of "ni hao". He later asked me what was
"konnichi wa".. and I said it was Japanese for "good afternoon".
So maybe I also don't look American..!! I went back to my
apartment with the conversation and these thoughts in my head and
asked my Indonesian roommate with the big question, hoping to figure
out some answers, "hey, Seirin! Do you think I look American?"
She laughed. hmm... I don't know if that is supposed to be a good sign
or bad one! :D Then she said, "No." I said, "Why not??" She said
something like, "Well, you dress conservatively.. and don't really show
anything" I replied, "I can't help it, I dislike the current American
fashion!"
American fashion: Calvin Klein. Tommy Hilfingers. Ralph Lauren
Polo. Gap. Nike. Billibong. Sketchers.
Girls: tight showy deep collar tanktops or tight shirts, short shorts
or low jeans that show off the belly button and stomach fats,
3 inch high sandals.
Boys: T-shirt (nike), shorts or jeans, tennis shoes.
(sigh) To tell you the truth, after coming back from Hong Kong, boy,
did it took some time to get used to the American fashion again. Girls
show off so much skin, wear too tight shirts! and boys.. ummmm.. they
haven't changed much from a year ago.. but still, why is the dragging
pants thing still in fashion?? So disgusting!
6.Mars.2003 -donnerstag-:
Today was supposed to be an "ordinary" day.. but it turned out not
so.
19.March.2003 -sui- :
".. and let slip the dogs of war!"
-Marc Antony
27.march.2003 -donnerstag-:
chun jie..
why am I so overwhelmed by a wave of lethargies??! (sigh)
Its spring vacation finally too! (sigh) well, these days I
really don't feel like doing anything. but i forced myself to
go out and walk around. ... hmm.. most of the time, i went to
Border's Books and read its selection of graphic novels. but
then i went there almost everyday.. and i felt that I was
overstaying my welcome(read, but don't buy!).. so I said to
myself, "OK, lets take a break or "cooling off period" on going
to Border's Books"... Then.. lets see.. I've been playing
"Madou Monogatari" on the computer using a genesis emulator.
I've been playing that RPG on and off(really!) since I moved
back to LA. I made quite some progress, if i do say so myself..
but don't underestimate the power of 16 bit gaming!! It sure
isn't an easy ride for kids. Some of the puzzles require some
thinking or imagination.... . and then there is this problem
of it being in Japanese.. but i have my trusty dictionary
with me!
oh.. on tuesday, i was waiting for the bus on Santa Monica
Blvd and Sawtelle.. then there is is middle aged man that was
sitting on the bus waiting bench. I was standing in the back.
That man later got up and asked me something about getting
change and exchanging for two strange looking coins. He wanted
$2.02 in exchange.. He kept saying that he is a veteran..
So i took out my wallet and found that i didn't have change,
but only a $5 bill.. but luckily, i had a $1 coin and enough
quarters to give.. so i gave him the money, and he gave me
the two strange looking coins. He then thanked me, asked me
my name, and then took my hand and kissed it!!! @_@||
(sweat drop rolling down) Luckily for me, my bus just arrived
so i said a goodbye to him, and he said more thanks and how
he would have wanted my phone number as i boarded the bus....
hmm.. well, i tell you, you meet the darndest people when using
public transportation in America!
28.March.2003 -jin-:
zou lu, mi lu
Today I started my adventure to downtown LA late at around
3PM and arrived in downtown LA around 4 something. On the bus ride,
I met a Chinese family also riding on the bus wanting to visit the
LA Chinatown and Japantown. They asked people on the bus how to go
there. Since I had a map, I let them look at the map. They spoke
in Mandarin..
I wandered around the Japantown area (or as the locals call it
"Little Tokyo") I wandered into Kunokuniya.. which, BTW, is so
small compared to the one in San Francisco! It has a good
selection of stationaries.. although expensive..
I went to the "Marukai Market", which sells cheap Japanese
foods and some cheap "made in china/korea" section.. Its quite good!!
I got a good deal of 3 boxes of curry for $3! Usually its about
$2 for one box! :D :D :D I also got some soba (buckwheat) noodles
(99 cents) and the soba sauce. I had an urge to eat soba. My
friend, the graduate student pig, makes soba so delicious!! I
remember he brought his soba to the party while we were in Hong
Kong.. I have to ask him for his recipe! Oh, it seems that he
is going to graduate (Finally!!) from graduate school, but I will
still use this nickname...! :D Once a graduate student, always
a graduate student!! :D
I went into the "Yaohan" shopping centre to find that the super
market closed already, but the bookstore to be open... I stayed in
the bookstore looking through some fashion magazines (Cutie, etc)
and then at the "Gothic Lolita Bibles" until I was kicked out
since the store was closing at 7 PM.. those "Gothic Lolita Bibles"
cost $18.20 at Kunokuniya!!! chi' crazy!! Here, i could at least
look inside of them!! :D not bagged! Now this is a good bookstore! :D
After that, I needed to take the bus back to UCLA because the
last bus is around 8 PM.. So i went to find the bus station and
along the way was so many "hidden" police cars parked in little drive
ways and three of them "hidden" in a parking lot facing the street..
hmmm.. I feel more safe, but in America, seeing so many police cars
usually imply something is happening! Not like in Hong Kong, where
police just casually patrol the streets!!
I finally found the station across from the City Hall, which is
a very tall and modern sky scraper architecture.. and sat down on
one of the three empty seats to wait for the bus alone.
Meanwhile, a big fat cockroach kept on crawling out of the garbage
can to the left of me and going back in. Behind me is a black
homeless man that says, "sir/ma'am, spare some change?" to passerbys.
31.march.2003:
kai shi.. .
Today, spring semester has started.. the warm summer sun
pour its light rays over the cloudless skies and I squint under
the bright sun. I saw quite a few familiar faces from last
semester in my classes. After classes at aroound 2:30 PM, I headed
to the UCLA store, read books and the Wizard magazine, then headed
back home around 5 PM for lunch.
Well, the one week spring vacation quietly slipped by as most
of the time I felt very lethargic, going to Border's books and
reading graphic novels or staying home and playing Madou Monogatari.
well, for graphic novels, I liked the Sandman Series by Neil Gaiman,
especially the character Death. She is a very cool character.
I recognise her from many many years ago when we used to collect
comics. All I knew was that she is from a comic from DC's Vertigo
line.
Oh, I also wasted so much time watching the poison, TV. Well,
actually, not really following any shows or anything, but watching
the news and some random things.. and also movies that my roommate
rented.. They cover the war with Iraq so often, that I began to
grow very tired of it. They keep on repeating the news...
Some movies I watched were:
"Maid in Manhattan" : so-so movie.
"Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood" : good! a touching story
about the relationship between mother and daughter.
"The Banger Sisters" : not so good, stereotypic characters.. .
"The Colour Purple" : good, very touching story based on Alice Walker's
book (I never read it yet!).
"Riding Cars With Boys" : good, but a bit depressing.. . makes you
think about what lies ahead of your life.. ..
"Irma Yep" : French artsy film that I didn't like. No recommendation.
"Renny Lola" (Run, Lola, Run) : my first German film, I like it!
"Mrs. Doubtfire" : OK movie, quite funny and ridiculous!
2.April.2003:
you wenti~~
ughh... . this semester isn't very easy to add class..
all waiting list without an end.. . been "shopping" around hoping
to be able to be added into a class.. but it doesn't seem like there
is much hope.. CHOICES: 1)Marine Botany: all about algae. waiting list..
probably more than #15...
2)Biology of Vertebrates: so far, its almost dejavu with my 6 unit
vertebrate morphology class last semester.. not to mention, the
professor is the same as my parasitology class, and the TA is the
same TA as my vertebrate morphology class (and was also a student in
the parasitology class!).. around #6. 3)Ornithology : study of birds.
hmm. with mandatory field trips.. bird watching I guess.. . I heard
that you need to be able to recognise the songs of birds.... . and
in the back of the course reader.. it has instructions with
illustrations on how to stuff a bird!!! @_@..... I will go to check
out this class tomorrow.
So, three choices.. but which one can i get in? now that is the
question!
The weather is getting cooler again! :D Its windy today!
Well, that is good. It was getting quite warm recently.
29.April.2003:
wo yin gai..
Haven't wrote anything for many weeks now!! How pitiful!
Well, I will address a major problem here. The fact is that
I haven't been able to log onto or FTP to the engr account
for many weeks now.. So I wasn't able to upload anything..
but I don't have much to upload anyway!! :D SO, the major news
is that I am signing up for a Fortunecity account!!!! Then I
can get back on track!! I was surprised that Fortunecity is
still around.. it was one of the "old ones" along with
Geocities. However, I don't really see people have homepages
supported by these two companies.. ANyway, Fortunecity gives
you free 25 megabytes (wow!) but with annoying ads.. However!!
My computer science brother found a way to change the code and
make the ad not show up!! :D :D Then my UCLA account will
expire after I graduate.. ah well.. That account is justs a
measly 5 megabytes!! See how stingy my school is!?! :D
Recently has been just school life. I just had two exams
today.. and they were surprisingly not that difficult... but
who knows? I've taken so many tests that even bad exams tend to
just add to my numbness.. so we shall see the results later.
A trend I see in my exam taking is that exams that I thought I
did "OK" or what I thought to be "not that hard" were the worst.
(sigh)
I'm taking this ornithology class this semester and had a few
field trips already to go bird watching!! My first experience
with bird watching!
May.14.2003:
Wings of Migration
I was confronted by a decision on Thursday:
1-->Go to the anime club and finally watch the ending of Witch Hunter
Robin, which I have been watching on and off since the beginning of
the school year.
2-->Go watch the movie, Winged Migration, with some of your classmates
and TA.
It wasn't a too hard decision. I mean, well, I wanted to see the
ending of Witch Hunter Robin. The anime club is always so slow to
show it that I quite gave up hope to actually *complete* any single
series that they show. I don't remember a single series that I saw
the ending to in the club.
I chose the second choice because... how many oppurtunities in
your life do you get to watch a bird documentary with a real
ornithologist and perhaps discuss the film afterwards? Ha! Well,
I really enjoyed the film. Although the ticket was a shocking $9.75
(no student discount) at the IMAX theatre for evening.
The film's scenery was simply stunning. The camera is set right next
to the flying birds so that you feel like that you are traveling with
them.. The movie is from a bird's perspective on the world!
I wonder how can they capture such unique moments on film?!
I've heard that this documentary (Its French, BTW) took about five
years to make! My TA's comment? "Lots of goosebumps!" hahaha!
Just to let you know, my TA (from Spain) always gets the goosebumps
(or as he says) whenever he sees his favourite birds: the common
warblers. His favourite is the Yellow Warbler.
25.May.2003:
catharsis
I watched one of the three videos I borrowed from the library:
"The Killer", directed by John Woo and starring Chow Yun Fat.
I don't remember watching this movie.. but before, I always watched
movies without knowing their names. I haven't watched any old Hong
Kong movies for a long time. I also didn't heard any Cantonese
for a long time.. so it was a very good break from current reality.
It also made me nostalgic about my time in Hong Kong and also my
childhood of watching Chinese movies.
It was a very good movie about friendship, betrayal, and honour,
and "good" (police) vs bad (assassin).
Of course, in the back of the VHS box, they advertise it as an
extreme gun and action movie. I also must comment on the rather
sloppy translations of the huge yellow subtitles. I couldn't believe
the terrible translations!! For example, the subtitles read "your
employer" while they spoke "The triads" (Black society).. hmm..
then, the translations describing their feelings and friendship
was quite limited to the feeling and depth behind the real dialog..
Very long dialogs were only loosely translated as short sentences.
Well, I admit that I am not really fluent with Cantonese, but for
me to even notice the differences and inadequacy of a hollywood
released film is bewildering. I feel sorry for those who do not
understand Cantonese.. for they will probably miss out some things.
Well, I wonder why they even bothered to resubtitle the movie in
the first place.. All Hong Kong movies are subtitled in Chinese
and English.. Anyway, after my year in Hong Kong, I can really
relate better to Hong Kong movies. As I watch the movie, I can
say to myself, "hey, this is in Central! I went here before!"
or "hey, its the tram in Central! I rode it before, and its very
cheap way to get around Hong Kong Island!"
26.May.2003 -getsu-:
gei neem
Memorial Day. I did nothing today but work on lab report,
cook, eat, watch tv, work on lab report, cook, eat, work on
lab report. (sigh) What a waste of my memorial day three day
weekend.. . Might as well tell you what I cooked then. I made
this pseudo Indian dish with coriander and yogurt sauce. Then
I was going to finally make the Beef Brisket that I bought a few
months ago, but it takes maybe 2 hours to precook it in boiling
water and then baking it for about 30 min. Well, I only got through
the first step. Since I had the water with beef juices, i decided
to turn it into a soup.. So I added tofu, carrots, 1 tomato, green
onion.
One of my goals this weekend as a break from studying was to
work on my homepage again.. but I only started just a little bit.
26.may.2003:
zui hou
Today was my last birdwatching field trip. Its sad.. I wish we
could go on more field trips. We went to the not so natural (IMHO)
Sepulveda Basin. It was a hot day and we saw many Red-Tailed Hawks
flying.. also one that was bullied by a few Ravens! The highlights
for this trip was the lucky "Green Heron", "Western Kingbird" drying
itself on the tree, "Blue Grosbeak", the male is BLUE!, and Lesser/
American Goldfinches taking a bath in a small stream (so cute!)..
I found that I was able to recognise some of the singing birds!! :D
:D Such as the Song Sparrow, Red-WInged Blackbird.. .
Jeune1.2003:
jibun ga kirai no koto
Its going to be the beginning of the TENTH week. So what did I
do? I did a major clean up. The huge piles of papers on my desk
are organised and put away. I wiped the thick layer of dust off the
surface of my desk and all the junk on my desk. Well, its quite
amazing to see the whole white surface of my desk for a change!
I also vacuumed the floor, scrubed the toilet, wipe the very dirty
bathroom mirror (dirty because people keep on splashing water from the
sink at a height that splashes water on the mirror.. . . it was almost
*foggy*!! yuck!), and wipe the sink area clean of accumulated dust and
other gunk. I still need to clean the inside of the bathtub and wipe
the kitchen floor. I usually clean up when I am nervous. When I am
nervous, little things amplify and tend to annoy me.
I watched "Shall We Dance?", a Japanese comedy about an ordinary
salaryman who joined a dance class. I liked it and it was quite funny..
Luckily I watched it with my Indonesian roommate. She learned dancing
before. She kept on laughing on how bad the salaryman dances, while
I don't see a problem!! haha.. (sweat drop rolling down) You know
that I don't really know how to dance. .. My dancing sense is very
bad!!
I also watched "Titus", which I learned to be an adaptation of
one of Shakespeare's plays. I had to listen very carefully to the
dialog because they speak in old English. The scenery, images, and
costumes were simply amazing!! They mixed the old Rome and gave it
a very unique look that looks surreal. It was so ... so much like
Shakespeare.. I was very shocked by the ending.. @_@ Go see it!!
(but it is not for kids, rated R!) I am still puzzled by the beginning
of the movie though.. hmm... . .
For dinner today, I made pasta. I mixed the instant canned sauce
with my very own experimental recipe of tomato, onion, garlic, cilantro,
hotdog, carrot, corn, and peas. It worked out quite well! In fact, I
think it is the best pasta I've made so far. I have to remember to
put the cilantro next time too! I also had some Twinnings Earl Grey
tea. I like this tea, it has this citrus fragrant.. but I still like
chrysanthemum tea better. You see, I've been looking for some cheap
chrysanthemum tea in American stores like VONS, RALPHS, RITE AID,
WHOLE FOODS.. but to no avail.. they don't seem to carry it. So I
settled for English Twinnings tea for a cheap 99 cents at Rite Aid.
English tea isn't so bad after all! I still don't understand why
there is among "Earl Grey Tea", "Lady Grey Tea", and "Prince of Wales
Tea".. and what exactly makes a tea a "breakfast tea"?! Oh yes, my
Uncle and Aunt told me that you should put the used tea bags to potted
plants. They are good for plants! I recently saw an OSH Hardware
Store TV commercial saying that the tannic acid in tea is good for
plants! I saved many of the teabags so I can try it someday!
Oh yes, today, while walking to school, I saw a Goldfinch (female)
that flew to a little crack in the street that is filled with water.
It was a hot day so it was drinking water. hmm. ornithology already
has some affect!! ALso, this morning, there is this annoying Northern
Mockingbird that keeps on singing. They sound like one of those
car alarms that keep on changing sounds every 5 seconds and have their
trademark "cheep cheep cheep cheep!".
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