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[200 4 ] -sotsugyou no ato de=====================

7.august.2004 -saturn-: ku ya shii

.. For some reason, I woke up at around 5 AM and wasn't able to fall asleep.. After rolling around until 6AM, I decided to just get up. Nothing to do, I turned on the tele and saw nothing but news and those inframercials.. On PBS though, there was this programme for babies.. my gosh, its similar to teletubbies, but those.. aliens (?) are so horrifically disturbing!! Each one are a huge blob of a colour (red, yellow, blue, purple, green).. and their heads can retract down so you can't see their face! They are constantly dancing.. and there are lots of repetitive scenes played over and over. After watching this show in awe, I tried to go back to sleep.. but couldn't.. so I finally brushed my teeth and everything at around 6:45AM. Turns out that cartoons don't go on air until around 7 AM.. nothing really good.. there seems to be lots of shows that imitate the Japanese animations in terms of artwork and how the characters are animated. One show that made me laugh is "Winx Club".. It looks like a Sailor Moon imitation cross over with the art from "Neopets". quite ugly. they even have similar "transformation" sequences to Sailor Moon! @_@|| I also watched some of the edited "Shaman King". Well, I listen to the dialog and can't help but cringe. Americans just love to trade back and forth smart aleck remarks.. . So anyway, I ate breakfast early.. but tried again to sleep.. but couldn't.. did sit ups.. sat around.. went to bed again.. but couldn't sleep. Finally, by the time I went to bed again, I found my Indonesian roommate to be up!.. and there was an annoying electronic alarm somewhere that someone left on!! So terrible noise.. so I just decided to wash my hair and get up.. .

BTW, yesterday i watched a free movie showing of "Y Tu Mama Tambien" at the UCLA Hammer museum.. WELL. . . It wasn't exactly what I expected at all.. and I found out at the *FIRST* scene.. *cough* *cough*.. Its kind of an oldish movie.. and was out in the theatres during my stay in HOng Kong (2001).. I've read about it, but still wasn't prepared for it.. =_=|| Anyway, despite that it should be getting a Category III rating or maybe rated X rating, I kind of liked it overall except for _all_those_ parts.... The movie shows many scenes in Mexico that sort of remind me of China's countryside in a few ways, but much more dangerous!

8.august.2004 -suntag-: sunday--!

yesterday, I finally went to downtown LA after so many months. I spent too much time in the Central Library though.. (looking at books and walking around) So, I finally walked around Japantown at around 6PM.. it was still very bright because sun sets around 8 PM now. ANd there was a festival of celebrations, Nisei week. Many booths were set up and they even closed San Pedro St. However, most of the booths were already empty.. =_=|| MY first thing to do is to go to the little bookstore.. . I walked there.. and oh, where is it?! Instead of the bookstore, there is a "Marukai 98 cent store" instead!! It also read "Grand opening" on the sign! @_@ my goodness gracious!! Why is every bookstore closing down? Last time I went to Japantown, I found out that the huge Asahiya book store gone out of business.. So the only bookstore left is a small sized Kunokuniya.. . (sigh) Well, at the 98 cent store, there is a large selection of Japanese ceramic plates.. I bought a large bowl with Sakura and uzumaki pattern inside! So cool! I also bought a plastic A4 size plastic case for papers and finally, the calligraphy paper.. So now I can get busy with practicing the Chinese watercolour paintings using paper that is somewhat more close to the rice paper .. not like the American thick paper the kit came with.. Lets see.. I went to Kunokuniya and found the July issue of "Kera" magazine. It is 460 yen, which translates to a eye popping $7.10 US!!!!@! $(#@$*&! That is nearly twice the price, dude!! NOT only the price, but the magazine is *SHRINK WRAPPED*! So, I can't get a sneak peak of whats inside before deciding whether to buy it or not!! chi' I really hate that.. Ohh... I went to ANime Jungle.. and they have some large poster binders of 99 cents posters on sale! I looked at those binders and bought 3: one is game advertisement for "Aquarium Age II", which CLAMP's artwork, another is game advertisement for ESP's "Gun Griffon II" for Sega Saturn (but it is a bit wrinkly.. :D), and finally, some random cute poster of a blue-haired girl and a pixy sitting on the desk. It is kind of a rip off since the game advertisements are supposed to be free.. but I just figured that 99 cents is worth it for the "import" fees. :D :D Most of the 99 cent posters are those simulation game ads.. such as tokimeki memorial, doukyusei.. etc.. lots of cute girls.. however, I saw a young kid that bought a poster of a sexy girl in bikini.. . (sweat drops rolling down) haha.. . Other than that, I went to Mitsuwa Supermarket and bought some Kusagai Roasted green peas (89 cents, *not* wasabi flavoured!), some pink shredded fish for putting in sushi, some Holland cream filled cookies, and green onion. After that, it was around 8PM. It was getting dark.. and all the bums are out making their shelters... it was somewhat nerve wracking to be the only young Chinese girl walking in an area full of homeless ( mostly blacks and hispanics).. I saw one white guy just laying on the curb.. half of this body was out on the street! hmm. hope he isn't on drugs or anything. Its nothing but quiet and empty, I tell you.. They play lots of loud music. One guy riding his bicycle used duct tape and taped a large hi-fi on the handle bar! wow.. and it was so loud music blasting out.. :D So lucky nothing happened to me once again!!

Today, I had a delicous lunch of Ralphs rottiserie "herb de province" chicken sandwich. yuuum! with sheepherder round bread, egg, lettuce, tomato, cheese.. :D :D I ate two sandwiches.. and afterwards, I decided that I had to clean up this week. I spent the next 5 hours or so (or at least until around 6PM) cleaning up. whoah, what a major clean up! I cleaned the kitchen sink, the range stove (changed the aluminum foil lining the fire area), quick wipe the kitchen floor area, wipe the table, kitchen counter tops, scrub the brown substance between the tiles.. then I cleaned up my little corner of the living rooM: throw away or recycle old papers and newspapers, clean out the many stacks of paper hanging around(drawings, notes, scratch papers.. ), put away lots of paper and organise them into bags.. now that took a very long time.. I admit that it was quite an ugly mess. I also found some long forgotten drawings! I had to take out lots of garbage/recycle bags before vacuuming. then vacuuming wasn't too easy because we have so many things around the living room... especially because my Indonesian roommate is preparing to move her things into boxes.. and also, her brother still has his large bags of belongings since some months ago. So I had to move out lots of things lying on the floor to vacuum it properly! I was so exhausted already while doing my paper clean up.. even breaking a sweat! So, I had to move out the chairs, roommates' bags, shoes, and things.. my books on the floor.. roommate's bag of food on the floor.. then I could finally vacuum it good! After vacuuming the floor, I also vacuumed all the gross loose hairs all over the little sink hallway and the bathroom.. and Finally, I vacuumed our bedroom. Whoah, i was so hot and exhausted. I rewarded myself with some bit of ice cream and a popsicle. :D I'm quite proud of the temporary cleanliness.. it'll be undone by tomorrow.. (sigh)

11.august.2004 -sui-: dreams and cheesecake

Well, these couple of days, I haven't been sleeping well again.. I also had some kind of weird dreams. I dreamt that somehow I found out that my bloodtype is very special and rare.. and people with that blood will have changing eye colour as they grow older.. ! (well, my roommate that day was telling me that she was thinking of donating blood.. and my other roommate is planning to buy contacts.. =_= ) This morning, I dreamt that I was in my "backyard"... it is quite huge.. and had lots of those automatic sprinklers.. We turned on the sprinklers, but none of the sprinklers worked; no water came out. So I went to each sprinkler and tapped each one so they all worked.. Afterwards, the backyard was getting flooded with water!(maybe 2 feet high water level!) For some reason, I began to swim in the water in the backyard.. (sweat drops rolling down) I know it seems quite silly, but it didn't seem strange during the dream! :D Later on, the dream evolved into a dream where a wife is plotting to poison her husband.. I woke up at around 7AM.. :(

Well, these days are the last days of my new friend Giselle before her returning to Puerto RIco. She was in a summer research programme here at UCLA and worked for my roommate! SO basically, she was my fellow undergraduate lab partner.. :D :D So many things to do, but with so little time. She had to do a presentation of her work today among 5 other students. So, yesterday I had to listen to her presentation over and over agaain and again.. woow wee-- I was so tired.. and I kept on thinking of some the words over and over again.. they were all echoing in my head: phenyl sepharose, q-sepharose, chorismate mutase, prephenate dehydratase, prehentate dehydrogenase, Archeoglobus fulgidus, .. aaaaAAAAA----!! it was only a 7 minute presentation too.. we went over the presentation a few times again today.. thank goodness its over.

So, Giselle wanted to try out the food at "The Cheesecake Factory". We waited for about 30 minutes until we got seated. Then we looked at the menu.. whoah.. $10 hamburger, burritoes, pizza..pasta.. they also had steak and sandwiches.. most things were over $10!! I got a pasta for $13... @_@|| ugh.. My roommate and I were quite disappointed with the terribly overpriced food. THe pasta came.. and it was dry, a bit cold, and has turned a bit hard!!! Not worth the money at all!! We later also tried two slices of cheesecake. and we were too full to actually enjoy it.. however, it didn't taste very different to other cheese cakes in a supermarket.. So, it came up to a whooping $20 dinner!!!! That is almost half my monthly grocery bill!!! (sigh..) To summarize, "The CheeseCake Factory" is not really recommended. THe menu isn't very special. As you read, it contains American fast food (hamburgers), Mexican tacos and burritoes, pizza, American chinese orange chicken, steak, sandwiches.. and all these can be found in other restaurants. The waiting time was also very long. It was a long wait for us to get seats and it was a long wait for the food. There is jjust too many people. However, if you want to see movie stars, perhaps you would want to come and see because one of my old roommates saw Arnold Schwartzenegger there some years ago. (Cheesecake factory branch in Brentwood--> Arnold lives in Brentwood) :D $$$$$

13.auguste.2004 -friday-: come on! bad luck!

Friday the thirteen!! fu fufu. come on and do your worst! Well.. I got another phone interview! zowie! However for an "entry level purification chemist" position.. =_=

This morning's dream was kind of disturbing. I dreamt of our old family friend John. He passed away some years ago already.. It was a weird dream in that it was before he died.. and something about being partly our fault or due to some radiation poisoning... I can't really recall what happened.. but.. :( :(

This morning all the Puerto RIcans here for the summer research programme at UCLA has returned home. So yesterday, I came up with a rushed drawing of my friend Giselle as DJ Giselle and gave her a bag of Kasugai roasted green peas (no wasabi!). We ate at the Indonesian restaurant Ramayani. It is my second time eating there.. we ate lots of good food! Such as the lamb stew, coconut rice, and others. Giselle was curious about the Durian ice drink.. so my roommate asked for a sample.. and when she took her first spoonful.. WHOAH! it was a look of disgust on her face! What a funny facial expression! :D :D here is my sketch:[click] Only my roommate and I liked it. I thought it was quite good except that it is too sweet. Its interesting that they put some coffee in it.

Next, we stopped by that "famous" cookie shop called "Diddy Reese" because they wanted to buy some to bring back to Puerto Rico! Afterwards, we went to their dorm room in Sunset Village. It is like a hotel! THey even have housekeeping personnel bringing in fresh towels every few days! @_@||| Since they are moving out, they gave me lots of items.. such as shampoo (oh yeah! I was going to go and buy some!! :D) cotton swabs, hangers, laundry detergent, soap, etc.. .

BTW, right now my roommate is watching this ridiculous show on Fox channel: Man vs Beast. They show many competitions between a human and a beast. For example, the world fastest eater (who is a small and thin Japanese guy! @_@) competes with a 1,000 lb Alaskan bear! not a very even match.. and the ravenous bear beat that guy by a lot.. The second match is a tug of war contest between a 300 lb sumo wrestler and a 180 lb orangutan.. The orangutan won with out much strain! THen, they had a sprint run between a guy and a giraffe (the giraffe got distracted and slowed down in the middle of the race, but they still call it the guy's victory), and that guy with a zebra (the zebra won by a full second). Next, they had a army guy compete against a baboon in one of those military training courses. That army guy won. The last competetion was pulling a large aircraft. One 8,800 lb elephant vs 44 midgets! THe elephant won by a large amount. Lots of these competetions aren't really fair.. how can a human compete against an extremely large hungry bear? ... .

15.august.2004 -suntag-: summer olympics, go!

Yesterday, my cousin Fung Leeens called and I found out that the 2004 summer Olympics in Greece already started on friday!! I didn't know!! So I was watching "Man vs Beast" instead!! ARGHH!! I can't believe it! I have always watched the openning ceremony every time except for this year.. watching that darned stupid competition between human kind and animals.. ughhhhhh kuyashii!

Well, right now, my right pinky toe is black coloured. It was a dumb accident! The telephone rang and I scrambled to get it, and kicked the wooden chair with that toe.. It hurt so much that I can't really wear my sandals all the way in.. now it is Blue-purply-BLACK! disgusting!! I hope it gets well so I can walk to places..

Lets see.. Today, I got another phone call from Ngeen Ngeen. I knew she would call again! Its every week on sunday just to check up if I found a job yet.. sigh!! Afterwards, I try to prepare for the job interview by looking through my organic chemistry lab book to remember the equipment that I used before.. . And then I basically used the computer ALL day loong. Poor computer! I hope he doesn't overheat or something!! WEll, I used adobe photoshop 5.5 to edit lots of scanned pictures.. Last night, I got too carried away colouring a sketch that I slept at 2 AM! I also made myself update my homepage.. I have lots of pictures that I haven't updated.. also, I had to do lots of reorganisation of the file directories.. I made new directories so that all my drawings are much more organised.. now I have directories such as pso art, puyo art, fan art, the year 2004, sketches.. misc art.. ahh, much more pleasant! So now, I'm trying to upload files.. but the fortunecity connection is very weird.. it keeps on cutting me off in the middle of uploading a file! So annoying.. so its taking lots of time..

18.august.2004 -sui-: oh, I'm walking again!

I stayed at home for three days straight- not going out anywhere because of that dumb accident of bumping and injuring my little pinky toe. Its still magenta and blue.. but it feels much better now. I guess that i don't have much common sense because I learned that you are supposed to apply ice within 24 hours of injury. This is to stop the blood flowing there and to decrease swelling. After that, you are supposed to apply *heat* to the injury so that the blood can flow away.. finally, today, its recovered enough so i can put on my shoe and slowly walk to the school computer lab!

So at home, I finally started practicing the Chinese watercolour paintings again!! However, that calligraphy paper does turn out to be not good for painting. it is not very absorbant.. I've been copying the paintings out of that "walter foster's Introduction to Chinese watercolour painting" book.. and boy, I must say that my paintings quite look sucky! I just can't get the strokes to look good.. Maybe its not only my fault, but the paper's! :D :D I brought lots of photos from home to scan, but the scanner connected to this computer seems to be broken.. it doesn't work properly.. and all the other scanners are taken.. I don't think i can wait any longer for some guy to get off a scanner station.. so maybe another day.

21.august.2004 -saturn-: off off and away.. .

geez, too many things happening this week.. Well, I have to move out of my apartment by August 31st, so things are getting hectic.. Last week, I accidentally bruised and injured my toe so I couldn't walk for many days.. and it still hasn't fully recovered yet.. Then the manager needs to changed the carpet in the living room into hardwood floors (which is a good thing!), so I had to pack up all my things in the living room including the computer, papers, junks, food and temporarily put it into the bed room.. I have too much food! However, last night, my eyeglasses sort of broke and I desparately tried to fix it using super glue.. but to no avail.. So, I am buying train tickets to go back up north for a job interview.. and hopefully my glasses can bear all the pressure and not completely fall apart before then.. It wouldn't be funny to attend my first job interview with taped up eyeglasses! ;_; Then, I found out that I don't exactly have a good outfit for the job interview.. so I have to quickly go and buy a shirt now!

I finally went to sleep at around 4 AM.. and woke up to finish moving the boxes into the bedroom at around 9:15AM. .. I couldn't really sleep! In summary, everythings a mess now.. the corner of my bedroom is completely filled up with my boxes and things. I wonder if i can sleep today.. But I have to get up early to take the bus to the train station tomorrorw. . it takes about 1 hour to get to the slummy downtown LA..

Hopefully things will get better!! After that, I have to take the bus back down to LA to finish packing my junk, and temporarily move into my roommate's new apartment.. that is if her new roommate agrees to it. Then for another job interview. ..

Sigh~~ honma ni mukatsuku!!!

24.august.2004 -feu-: the day comes!!

Well, I managed to safely arrive in Sacramento and now Berkeley on Sunday night. You know, i was a bit nervous because the plan was that since my cousin fung leeeens and friends are visiting Los Angeles on Saturday and Sunday, it is a great timing so I can hitch a ride back up north! Well, the plan has some problems.. The car is full of people. If I go, then that would mean 4 people sitting in the backseat.. and also, they are driving a rented car.. However, one of the friends will be dropped off in Bakersfield (about 2.30 hours away from LA) , we decided that I will find a way to get to Bakersfield and we will meet there.

SO i found that taking the Amtrak to Bakersfield is $17.00 compared with the Greyhound ($17.50).. So i bought a ticket online (no tax or any extra service charge like Greyhound!!) .. Since I never used Amtrak or went in the station before, I was a bit nervous if I can do everything correctly.. Using the Metro Rapid bus to go to downtown LA from here, I would need to walk around 1 mile to the Amtrak station.. which is about the same distance to the greyhound station. So, I bought the 1:15PM ticket and left my apartment at around 11AM.. In downtown LA, i was a bit early, so i took a little time to stop by a few places. Well, walking by Broadway, i am once again transported to Mexico. whoah wee! I've seen some what I think are some strange shady dealings.. small groups of Mexicans gathered around a guy with a tall cardboard box. On the box, are three jar caps.. and the people were cheerfully laughing along.. I'm guessing that it is some sort of gambling game to guess which jar cap contains an item under it!! you know those kind of games where they put a coin under one of three cups and then the guy would so quickly switch around the cups while you need to keep track which cup contains the coin.. . hmmmmm~~

So i went to "Marukai" market, the cheap Japanese store selling food and other things. I got a small bag with a cute picture on it for 98 cents.. I also got my meal of some pastry.. then I went to Kunokuniya.. and they had an open Kera magazine (no shrink wrap!! @_@), it seems to be a good issue.. . hoshii na~ demo $7.20 wa chotto takasugiru jya nai ka?!!! ne!? They also have the new Range murata artbook!! @_@|| so bloody expensive pumped up prices!!

After that little shopping spree, I walked to the Amtrak station.. printed out my ticket .. and found out it wasn't a train ride!! It is a bus ride!! Sighhh-- I was quite excited on getting the chance to ride on an American train.. However!! The train station was quite impressive.. The architecture is spanish colonial style with the brick roof shingles.. Inside, whoah,.. it reminds me of UCLA's powell library 2nd floor.. very tall ceiling decorated with many fancy design paintings.. with chandeliers similar to the library too!! Then, I don't see any homeless peoples hanging around.. its very clean!! Then the bus was quite clean and roomy too. The station is a thousand times better than the Greyhound one.. and its located at a much better environment. How surprising!

So I arrived at Bakersfield at around 3:30PM.. and waited for my cousin to pick me up.. she finally came aobut an hour later.. . The rest of the car ride wasn't too interesting.. lots of cows, hills.. beautiful blue sky with white cotton puff clouds.. . I was staring out the window wondering if i can soak the scenery in and paint it one day. I finally arrived in my home at around 8PM.. to the complete surprise of my grandmother! Originally, the plan was to stay in Sacramento for 1 hour and then depart for berkeley, but cousin fung leeeens was way too tired to drive any more.. so she decided to leave early morning the next day.. Things again changed in the house. Gone are one of the desks in the computer room, the old leaky no good refridgerator.. Now there is a black Ikea bookshelf in place of the desk.. and we have a new white shiny Whirlpool refridgerator. It is the type that opens like two side doors and has an ice maker.. and inside was so empty, i couldn't beleive my eyeballs!! :D However, in the garage, i found pops to buy and add so much to his collection of second hand goods.. such as these ceramic bunnies and deers.. and whatever they are.. and this huge stack of car stereos/cassette players.. aaaaghh! The cockroaches seem less.. but the same amount still creep out at night when everyone is sleeping.. yuck!

So, today, I had my first ever in person interview in Dublin. I was so nervous the past few days, that I didn't have much appetite. I tried to practice answering questions.. I had my interview clothes: blue 3/4 sleeve length button shirt, black pants, sort of high heeled shoes (ouch!), hair in a pony tail. and my plan was to take the BART (train) to the Dublin/Pleasanton station and then follow my copied down map to walk 1.6 mile to the company Synpep. Everything seemed to follow to plan. I was surprised on the ticket system though.. you buy the ticket according to how much you want to put in it.. It costs $3.60 one way. I got confused a bit on transfering to a different train, but I got it done correctly. So I reached the Dublin/Pleasanton station all right. I had around 45 minutes before the interview.. I was nervous because I didn't know how long it will take to walk there.. and my little pinky toe isn't fully recovered.. and kind of hurts a bit in the high heel shoe.. . I didn't want to take the taxi.. So, as I was walking across the street out of the BART station.. ::ping!:: my glasses broke!! ARGGGHH!! I can't see the signs and things!! I felt so defeated.. The side bar of the eyeglasses broke off, so I can't fix it. I didn't bring my old huge glasses either because I didn't have a purse.. ;_; So I decided to wait a while and take a taxi to go there. Well, the city seems very recently developed and hardly has anything! There were only 2 taxi cars, and one drove away.. Afraid that that taxi will drive away, stranding me there, I decided to just take it when it was around 2PM. (The interview starts at 2:30PM).. The taxi driver was actually working in the biotech companies such as genentech before! She quit because she couldn't stand doing so many presentations.. She also didn't exactly know where Synpep was and so I showed her my map.. =_=|| I arrived there at around 2:15.. and the taxi lady told me the price is $7.. I asked if i needed to pay tips.. and she said that is OK... The building seemed very tiny.. only ground floor.. . I entered the building and the lady said that I am 20 minutes early and the person i'm meeting isn't ready to see me (obviously!! =_=|| ) I had to sign in.. and i flipped back a few pages to see that all the people before me was also meeting with the same person !! Looks like there will be lots of competition in getting the job!! I sat down and waited.. finally, the person came and led me to a conference room and told me to wait again.. In the center of the large conference table is a vase full of flowers (lilies et autres).. so the room smell reminds me of a funeral home.. =_=.. I waited a while and finally, the person who interviewed me on telephone came to meet me. well. it was strange. She seemed to not have much to say since I already talked with her on the telephone!! So she said the job salary will be $32,000 and the first three months will be probation period, where you don't receive all the benefits.. she then asked me if i had questions!! (um.. at this point, i hoped that I didn't come all the way from LA just for a few chats like this!).. then she said that I will be meeting Dr. Yen.. but he isn't in right now so I have to wait. I waited for what seemed to be quite a long time. Actually, there are lots of Chinese working there.. Lots of people are walking back and forth.. and i hear lots of Mandarin and Cantonese conversations.. maybe I waited for 10-15 mins.. when I heard outside in the hallway phrases "betty fong.. ucla graduate.. resume.. " ha! noisy chinese.. >_< and that guy came to talk with me.. he asked me similar questions as in the telephone interview.. such as relating to my resume... how long i went to school, when I graduate, gpa.. career plans/goals short and long term.. how long do i plan to work.. what have I been doing after graduating.. then I think I messed up on the last one which is "when can you start working?". I said "around mid-september".. and he seemed to give a little chuckle (which didn't seem like a good thing!!!) and asked something like ,"and why is that? so many people would be willing to work the next day!" I replied that I had to finish packing up in LA.. etc.. and he asked if i had any questions.. to which I answered that I already had my questions answered by the other person.. . Well, why did i say mid-september? Remember, I have another interview scheduled sometime the week of sept 1st at ucla.. then I also applied for that wildlife biology internship.. I would like to have more choices.. but what if I didn't get those options?! and miss out on this job.. ooohh,,. i don't know how I feel.. I feel stupid again. mad at myself.

So after that, I walked out of the building.. and walked back to the BART station with my aching feet wearing those killer shoes. There doesn't seem to be many stores.. lots of car dealerships.. . empty.. long stretches of empty space and parking lots.. . I would explore more places, but my glasses broke and my feet hurt.. so I just took the BART back to Berkeley.. and I went back to my brother's apartment.. . and was a bit hungry. Perhaps an empty feeling.. . :(

At night, it seems my cousin wasn't in a good mood once again.. but I watched the anime Jyuunigokki (not sure about romanizations), or"Record of twelve countries". Its very different from other animes I've watched.. So much dialog.. perhaps even more so than what I thought to be king "Legend of Galactic Heroes"!! then the stories are split into three characters, a la "Deep Space Nine Style" says my brother, where at the end, they finally meet. I missed out on the first 20 something episodes.. but my brother explained some confusing points.. The English translations are so terrible and at times confusing and hilarious.. I'll just say these terms that will cause people who watched the good fan subs laugh at our own little vocabulary based on the anime.. fetus, pilot, fairy, fairy land, winter weapons, etc etc.. @_@ and lots of the names are romanized from Chinese!! I really hate it!! its annoying too.. But the anime is surprisingly quite good! I've never heard of it before..

31.august.2004 -full moon-: ooohhooh moving

I haven't been updating the log lately because of the "deplugation of the computer". I pulled out the plugs and wires from my brother's pass me down computer and felt like I'm yanking out my own veins! =_= I guess I've gotten too attached to the computer! Knowing that I don't have computer access at home makes me feel quite uneasy for some reason. Well, I can't help it, but its nearly the end of the month , and for the past days since the brief trip up north, i've been cleaning and packing my belongings since! I take a lot of time putting everything into boxes. soo..

OOOOHHHHHHH---- I made it.. ALIVE!!! Yes, so yesterday, I went to rent the cargo van from Budget Inc. costs are: $19.95/day, $0.77/mi, + fill up gas tank. Luckily, i hitched a ride from my moving out Taiwanese roommate and got there around 3PM. Oh, btw, outside of the place were a bunch of what I call "mexican homies".. they hang around and try to sell their services such as doing yard work I think.. I don't exaactly know for sure... but when my roommate's sister's car pulled up into the drive way, those homies went wild excitingly saying things and trying to get their business!!!! @_@||| So I had to sign lots of papers .. etc.. and whoahhhhh~ that cargo van is HUGE.. My height is still shorter than the side mirrors!!! eeeEEEKS!! I was so nervous.. . when I had to enter the car.. I felt like a king because I was looking down at everyone!!! There are NO REARVIEW MIRROR!!! aaaAA!! nanka kowaii ze--!! I slowly drove back to my apartment and parked it in our neighbour's driveway. it is 3:30PM when I arrived in one piece. and I started moving my boxes into the van by myself. I don't have any friends to help me! and my roommates aren't there.. I made so many trips and that hallway's short stair case is quite annoying. I finally put all my boxes in the van at around 6PM. but my indonesian roommate (who i will be staying with temporarily) still has so many things to move.. despite already having rented the u-haul truck a few weeks ago.

I filled up less than 1/2 of the van! so afterwards, my indonesian roommate packed up more of her things and put it in the van... it was quite full. It was around 10PM when we finally were ready to leave. It was dark. and since we had to return the van, we decided to have my indonesian roommate drive her car too. And I was even more scared driving in the night!!! Behind me is complete darkness of the interior of the van! I also wasn't familiar with teh car.. the lights seem to be automatically on, but the panels don't light up! also, i am not familiar with the roads. My eyeglasses broke, so I'm wearing my old ones, which isn't that clear!!

I tried to follow my roommate to the new apartment.. however, whenever i put acceleration, there is lots of clanging and banging behind me.. . and i couldn't see how fast I was going either. I even stopped at this red light, fiddled with how to turn on the panel lights.. and forgot to see it change to green.. and there was a guy waiting behind me.. so embarrassing!! I was lucky that he didn't honk his horn at me! Indeed, after the whole day of packing and moving boxes, my brain is mentally tired.. so i sort of lost my roommate for a while as I drove gripping the large steering wheel tightly for my life!! I had to drive slowly so i lost my roommmate many times, espcially over yellow lights.. I was scared driving down the street because I was looking for Venice Blvd.. I couldn't see the signs clearly because it was dark and my eyeglasses are not good enough. I passed Venice, managed to turn back on to it, and tried to look for the new apartment.. went at least 5 blocks past it, turned back and finally parked the car on the sidewalk. I wasn't sure if that was the place, but I was planning to park, walk to the street sign and see if it is teh right street.. and luckily it is! My poor roommate must have been waitiing for some time for me.. After driving that van, my hands and legs were shaking.. . scarrryyy!!

We two didn't have any other help in moving the luggage.. so we went back and forth for about 8 times total.. and we finished unloading the van at around 12 PM.

Afterwards, I had to drive that monster of a van again!! we stopped by the gas station and fillled it up $5 (~2 gallons) and safely made it to the truck rental place. i was so glad to be rid of that monster van!

The new apartment btw, is university grad. student housing. 2 bedroom/2bathroom for $1100. The other roommate is chinese psychology major.. a weird thing is she seems to have a thing for beds. In her bigger room, she has a twin *AND* a queen size bed. and in the living room is another bed!! ???? I'm so confused why she has so many beds.. bed-fanatic is my initial impression so far!

Oh, so last night, i didn't have my bed to sleep in. I shared this thin homemade open sleeping bag which my indonesian roommate, but it was about the same as sleeping on the carpet. then, i moved out my thick blanket and had this flimsy cloth blanket cover to use.. it was so cold in the morning, i had to wear my jacket and wear socks.. ! didn't get good sleep.

So today is the day we move out of the apartment. its a bit sad because I've grown attached to the place after 3 years. the new place isn't that comfy. and as you know, just temporary. Fare thee well, 519 glenrock ave apt#303! for now, bye to college campus life! its so drearily empty at the new apartment..

BTW, the ucla staff research associate I job interview is this thursday 2 PM. nervous!