| good day |
[May. 27th, 2009|11:42 pm] |
today was a good day. i'm trying to get into a routine for the summer where i can be really productive, and if things keep going like today, i think it will be a SUPER productive summer.
this morning i woke up and practiced clarinet for an hour, after which i went to the lab to do research. after that i went to the gym and played basketball. i got super hungry so i had some dinner. then i went to the music building and practiced clarinet for another hour. that took care of the three things i want to do a lot of this summer: practice, work out, and do research.
i think i'm going to play clarinet for a pit orchestra on campus this summer too, which should be neat. amazingly they only need someone to double on bass and Bb clarinet. they were originally looking for someone who could play sax too, which i cannot, but they decided to go with two people. also, i ordered some music and got my own copy of the copland concerto, which i've been wanting to mess around with all year.
also, i've felt surprisingly fit recently, even though i haven't worked out very much this semester. i decided two run two miles the other day (on a treadmill), which i haven't done in many years because i generally prefer to run a mile at a time at a faster pace. but it was really easy. i also felt really good when we played ultimate frisbee on monday and today playing basketball. for some reason my endurance is pretty high right now. haha it's like when i found out i'd lost 5 pounds during the time i had been eating lots of dessert and not working out. can't complain i guess.
hopefully research goes well too. harder to gauge that, but at least i am getting stuff done. easier to do so when i don't have class and homework getting in the way. weird to think that period of my life (multiple classes simultaneously) is over. but that's ok. i'm really excited to be focusing on research.
anyway, summer is off to a pretty good start, at least for one day. hopefully it continues to be that way.
oh yeah, i've been gettings TONS of super cheap furniture for my apartment next year. w00t! |
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| damnit! |
[Apr. 10th, 2009|07:49 am] |
i didn't get any of the fellowships i applied for. guess i'm not special. boooooooo
this just means i'll have to go through that horrible application/essay writing/letter gathering process again next year -__- |
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| (no subject) |
[Apr. 9th, 2009|11:51 pm] |
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i aggravated my tendonitis (wrist) by practicing the clarinet too much. this is extremely frustrating. -__- A of all because i would like to be practicing a lot right now while I have the motivation. B of all because i would like my tendonitis to go away period. |
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| the end of an era |
[Apr. 6th, 2009|06:47 pm] |
i asked my advisor today how vacation worked and he said i could have a week or two at most. and i said oh so maybe a week at the beginning of summer and a week in the middle? and he said yeah, but in that case he would expect me not to take any vacations at all next year, eg at christmas. wtf!
so lame. i guess this is what it's like to be a grown up? welcome to the real world, eh? also, i guess i really am a resident of princeton now, no matter how little i like it.
-__- |
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| (no subject) |
[Apr. 5th, 2009|09:07 pm] |
i like "Ghost Train". i dunno that i would say i am in general a fan of really programmatic music (i think that's the word...) but this one is really good. i miss the colors a wind ensemble makes. the princeton wind ensemble plays pretty hokey band music, not contemporary wind ensemble stuff. and the orchestra is good, but it's definitely not the same. lame-0.
i think this is like the 4th time i've listened to ghost train today haha. maybe 3rd. and by today i mean in the last like 3 hours.
also, is it opening day tomorrow? crazy! i think a bunch of us here at princeton are gonna go up to new yankees stadium to watch griffey and the m's when they come to town. w00t! |
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| (no subject) |
[Apr. 5th, 2009|12:53 am] |
today i played basketball for the first time in a month, due to various things like being busy and having tendonitis in my wrist. i forgot how much i like it. it's funny. it used to be that i didn't have any friends who didn't play basketball (though this admittedly was during grade school, when most of my friends (all?) were boys, and most boys played basketball), but now i have very few friends who play basketball. what is the world coming to? we need more ballers!
where you at, my baller homiez? |
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| (no subject) |
[Apr. 1st, 2009|09:28 pm] |
becca visted me at princeton yesterday into today, which was a ton of fun. luckily i didn't have anything but an early morning class today so we just spent the day sitting and talking. it was really nice to catch up w/her and hear about what neat things she is doing and all of that. it reminded me that i should try to keep in touch with my friends, something that i don't always make time to do.
then she left for new york and it was back to princeton again. which unfortunately felt just like when i come home from seattle. LAME! i felt lonely and homesick for all my old friends and a sense of belonging/ownership. it's weird to live in a place that i really have no connection to. i mean i have school and i love that part of my life here, but i don't feel like princeton is home, just a 5 year stop along a greater journey. a journey that will hopefully lead me back to seattle.
it's funny cause the place i want to end up living is seattle. but if i had to pick a place to end up teaching, you'd have to think i couldn't turn down a post at a school like caltech, princeton, or mit, right? (not that i have any inkling that i would be good enough to teach at a place like that.) i'm sure it will work itself out as i find out where i am qualified to teach.
becca's right. we are getting old. thinking about where i want to end up. weird. grumble grumble. she said she also sometimes thinks of health choices in the sense of "i should do this healthy thing so i'm not broken when i'm old" as opposed to perhaps when we were younger when it was just a good idea in general. i def. do that too. weird. |
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| what a week |
[Mar. 30th, 2009|09:29 am] |
last monday, after meeting with my advisor, i spent the rest of the day preparing for a talk i had to give at my group meeting about research i did during undergrad.
tuesday, i spend the little free time i had trying to do the homework due on thursday, which was on material we only briefly covered in class.
wednesday i gave my group meeting talk, which went pretty well, though my advisor was dozing off hahahaha. i spent approximately TWELVE more hours that day teaching myself the material to finish my hw due the next day.
thursday afternoon i took a midterm. then i went home to start a take home midterm. this midterm was supposed to be a 24 hour take home, starting at 5pm and due at 5pm. WTF?!?! who assigns a 24 midterm starting at night? this practically forces you not to sleep. luckily after some people complained we got it extended to a saturday morning due date.
friday i spent the day working on said midterm
saturday i turned in the aforementioned midterm, and started ANOTHER take home 24 hour midterm. WTF
sunday i still did hw. and i probably will today too, because i don't know how to stop working -__-
but tomorrow becca comes to visit and that will be a super awesome break from the craziness. :D |
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| back in princeton |
[Mar. 22nd, 2009|02:04 pm] |
man sometimes i hate it here. and by sometimes i mean every time i come back from seattle. i love going to school here and i have a lot of friends and stuff...but there is so much that princeton is not. i miss the water and the trees and the mountains. i miss my family and my friends. i miss big time college and pro sports. i miss the city and driving.
last time i came back it wasn't so bad, but maybe since i'm not sure when i'll next be going back to seattle i miss it more this time. booooo |
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| snow |
[Feb. 3rd, 2009|11:41 pm] |
it was like 50 degrees here yesterday and today it snowed all day. weird. it made it hard to ride my bike. booooooooo
however it was still way faster than walking everywhere. go bikes! |
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| vacation summary |
[Feb. 3rd, 2009|12:22 am] |
so the last week has been pretty busy for me. it was yet another princeton vacation, this time to give us a week between semesters. kami came out to visit, and seeing as how princeton is SUPER BORING we did a lot of minor traveling to fill our time.
on her first night here we went out to a nice italian dinner, so that was fun. there was a nice two-man cover group doing classic rock covers, which was funny because it was a fairly fancy restaurant, but they were really good so it was good.
i also spent a lot of saturday cleaning because i had been told chinese new year was on sunday, which it was not. this turned out to be good because i wasn't done with laundry by midnight. but i got my room all clean for new year and we decided to go to new york on sunday to visit chinatown, get some food, and be around other festive feeling asian people. we had thought there would be a parade too, but that turned out to be scheduled for the next week. it turned out to be a lot of fun anyway.
we got to chinatown and walked all over looking for some dim sum, which probably wasn't as good as what i'm used to in seattle, but it was amazing to eat more realistic chinese food again. also, it was SUPER COLD. i even bought a scarf from some random chinese booth. this is the first scarf i can ever remember owning.
after walking around for most of the evening, visiting times square and soho, we went to get dinner at a nearby chipotle (don't ask) and ice skated at bryant park. then we went out to the east village to get a drink or two. our large party (of 9) had split up because some of the people had to go home early and skipped the ice skating. we tried to find them but there was a big fight at their bar i guess, and they were able only to tell us one of the streets the bar was on, and that "it is red in color". we managed to find them, with the fight still on and off outside. they were understandably ready to go home, so we went to a blues bar half a block up the street.
it was pretty sweet there. the band was really good and i had a good time. we tried to get a round of buttery nipples for my friend (inside joke) but they didn't have any butterscotch schnapps, not being a crazy college bar or anything. then we went to another blues bar next door, where they had a lot of neon colored drinks called things like "bootylicious", "one night stand", and "flirtini". they also had the two ingredients necessary for buttery nipples.
after being there for a while we tried to catch the last train home but were late by a minute. rather than spend the night in nyc we got a car back to princeton, which was pretty pricey ($30 each for 4 people) but it was good to be back.
on monday we were tired and i can't remember what we did...sleep a lot i think. tuesday we went back to new york and went to the metropolitan museum of art, which was fun. we had dinner in little italy, which was tasty, and went "bakery hopping". well it was only 2 bakeries, but it was good. the first was an italian pastry place, which is always good, and the second was a wine bar/bakery, which was interesting too.
the next day we went skiing in the poconos, which was my first time ever. turns out i picked up the balancing part of skiing pretty fast, but not the speed control part. this resulted in my being able to go real fast down the mountain without falling too often, but my crashes were pretty spectacular, occuring any time other people were around. i figure crashing is better than crashing into little kids haha. but yeah skiing was pretty fun, and i slowly learned to control my speed. also, there was night skiing there, which was fun. it was rainy and foggy at times thoughout the day, but at night the conditions were pretty good.
thursday kami went to visit rutgers, which is one of the schools she is applying to for grad school. i met her there afterwards and we went to a mall to do some shopping, but no one found anything good. too bad, because there is no tax on clothes in new jersey.
friday was another lazy day...i can't remember what we did but we probably went to the d-bar down in the basement. we did that a lot of times hahaha. actually i think saturday was that way too. we did go grocery shopping and tried to get a fish for my room, but the guy told us we should have the tank filled with water for 24 hrs before putting a fish in. i bet the fish would have been ok no matter what, but we decided to put off the fish buying for now.
sunday we finally went to philly, which we had been planning to do all break. we wanted to get home in time for the superbowl, so we didn't stay that long, but we managed to get to the old city part of town, where we saw a church that george washington, ben franklin, and others had attended. we also saw ben franklin's grave, a house that betsy ross had once lived in, the liberty bell, independence hall, where the first and second presidents were inaugerated (whoa that is hard to spell...) and the declaration of independence was signed. also we managed to find a cheesesteak to eat, though this was more difficult than expected.
finally today kami had to leave, which was sad. luckily i didn't have any class today so i was able to spend time with her and go with her part of the way to the airport.
now it's back to the school grind. i'm taking only 3 classes this semester instead of 4 so i can start doing some research, so at least that should be exciting. aight, that's it for now. i'll try to write in this thing more often this semester, heh |
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| clarinet |
[Jan. 25th, 2009|10:10 am] |
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i am listening to some brahms sonatas right now, and i must say, the clarinet is by far the most beautiful sound in the world. i know i am biased, but what could possibly match.? other things are beautiful in certain contexts, as i really enjoy the piano (usually in conjunction with other things), the flute at times, and the french horn at moments, but the clarinet is the BEST |
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| today is a good day! |
[Jan. 21st, 2009|05:57 pm] |
man i am so pumped right now. i took my last final yesterday so that is good, and i did a lot of work on my presentation for tomorrow, which is my last obligation of the semester. that was all expected though.
but then later i had a group meeting with my research group, after which i had scheduled a 1-on-1 meeting with my advisor. we talked about possible projects and there was one i am really excited about, which just got funding for 5 years, which is perfect, because that's how long i expect to be around. moreover, the project is one that my advisor is really excited about, which is great because it means it's a big deal, and also that he'll be extra interested in the work i'm doing. also, i personally am really excited about the project because it's something that's pretty new, and who doesn't want to be working on something cutting edge?
anyway, i don't really want to get into technical things at all, but suffice it to say it was the perfect storm. i have a project to start work on and focus my studies, the project is exciting, and is one that my professor has a huge interest in. couldn't ask for anything better.
also, after tomorrow morning's presentation i'll be done with my first semester. wooohooooooooo
also, kami is coming to visit this weekend! yayyyyyyyy
last, and this is a PSA for everyone else, Southwest airlines is having a sale on all flights to and from Seattle for the next few days, so if you are going anywhere...go check it out. |
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| almost there |
[Dec. 9th, 2008|04:14 pm] |
i just finished my math hw. that leaves only my controls hw to write up (i already did most of the work) before vacation, and i am done! flying back to seattle on friday. w00t!
i have some studying to do over break, and 3 (aghhhhhh) more fellowships to apply for during that time too, but overall it shouldn't be too bad. i'm ready to be back in seattle.
on another note it was high 27 degrees, low 24 degrees yesterday. ie it was FUCKING COLD. especially riding a bike. daaaaaaaaamn |
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| thanksgiving |
[Dec. 1st, 2008|09:22 pm] |
everyone else seems to be posting about their big weekends, so why not me?
i went home to seattle for thanksgiving, which is always good. i didn't do as much hanging out w/everyone since i was only in town but i saw a few people and that was good. thanksgiving at my house was more thanksgiving-y than normal. we had a hot pot lunch, which we've done before and that was really good. some extended family came over so we actually had a bunch of people there, which isn't usually the case, and that was nice too. later my parents and other relatives went to the (new?) snoqualmie casino to see some singer from hong kong, and i guess it was good, so i'm glad they had fun. i stayed at home and watched movies w/my little bro. later that night we went out to chinese food (where else would be open?) with the same relatives. again pretty low key, but good times all around.
uhm, that is about all i did of note last weekend haha.
strangely i am heading back for winter break next friday haha. that's a lot of flying, but it'll be good to be back for an extended amount of time. i am done with my classes as of then, and have finals after break. i'm not really worried about it. i'm slowly getting used to the fact that grades don't matter, so i feel like as long as i am comfortable w/my knowledge of the material, i don't care what my grade is, and won't worry about it and cram or anything. a nice feeling, indeed. |
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| guess who is procrastinating? |
[Nov. 23rd, 2008|02:17 pm] |
so i have no hw due before thanksgiving, so this week will be nice and relaxful. it seems like everything productive thing i do is above and beyond, though it's not, because i have a bunch of assignments due right when i get back. in any case, i am procrastinating, so i thought i'd update this here little lj.
it's been pretty cold here. often 30-something in the day atn 20-something at night. sometimes the temperature says it's the same temp as seattle, but i feel like the wind is a lot colder here for whatever reason. maybe because it's drier? the other day i saw some flakes of snow. it's really funny to be around so many people who have never seen snow. i mean, i know we don't have REAL winter in seattle, but at least i know the difference between snow and frost hahaha.
as for yesterday...i will forego any specific apple cup comments, but man what a HORRIBLE year for seattle sports. the sonics LEAVE TOWN, the mariners suck, the seahawks suck, UW bball sucked last year, UW football is historically bad...it just goes on and on. i also can't figure out if i want OKC's nba team to suck or what. i followed the team so closely and am still invested in some of the players, but also i hate the team and city in general. in a funny note, after only 13 games, the OKC fans are already booing their own team. TAKE THAT, clay bennett!
actually on an even funnier note, notre dames players were pelted by snowballs yesterday thrown at them by...THEIR OWN FANS. hahahhahahahah amazing.
i'll be home on wednesday night. sweeeeeeeeeeeeet. i love seattle. |
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| rumor has it |
[Nov. 19th, 2008|01:11 am] |
that it snowed here this morning? i was definitely asleep at 6 or 7am when this was rumored to occur. oh well.
also, in my first experience with lame Princeton undergraduate elitism...
there was a comic in the school paper that had a picture of a street with leaves on the side, and the caption said something like "when i walk through the leaves littered on the sidewalk during the fall, i can't help but think of all those applicants who didn't get into princeton"
wtf. lame-o.
also the school paper is mostly (actually completely) full of articles like "this guy from princeton did this" which is cool, cause obv there are lots of famous people from here, but still. kind of weird. |
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| hectic week |
[Nov. 15th, 2008|01:12 am] |
well, due to nsf applications, this week was a bit more hectic than usual. also, i had a dynamics homework assignment due tuesday, which usually doesn't happen, and so i had to do that before my math, which i usually do way early on sunday (it's due thursday). thus w/nsf apps due on wed, it made for a hectic few days, especially since there were many errors in the math homework that made the questions turn out to be impossible to do. grrr
but overall it wasn't really that bad, especially compared to so many of the nights at UW. yup yup. i hope i win one. that $30k is a lot. also, it'd be nice to have an nsf fellowship on my resume. i also applied to the hertz and we hear back from them about the next round, which is interviews, mid-november. any day, now, i guess.
in other news i finally went to the store and now i have cereal and milk and crackers etc, which means i can sleep an extra 15 min in the morning because i don't have to go to the dining hall for breakfast, hahahaha. |
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| comedy tidbit |
[Nov. 9th, 2008|01:00 am] |
so today there was a comedy show at the dbar (which is located in the basement of my dorm, in case you forgot). it was really good, except for the lame hostess who was not funny at all. in any case, a few of the six comedians made references to the election, but i wanted to share this tidbit with you all. maybe i remember because it was one of the first jokes told.
...
i attempted to write down the joke but it was not nearly as funny. let me instead just sum it up. he suggested that obama was like the marijuana of presidents. a gateway drug that will lead to all sorts of crazy minority presidents. little chinese and indian kids can dream of being something other than an engineer or doctor. HAHAHHHA
hahahahahha |
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