Part Three

Farewell, 2011

2011-12-30T22:59:00.001-07:00

Greetings. This blog has been neglected throughout 2011 in general. Here are some highlights of the second half of 2011:

Participated in the Colorado Dragon Boat Festival with the Raytheon Rowing Racers. Got to eat festival food such as beer-battered jalapeno rings just hours before our championship race in the adult recreational division, which we won by a fraction of a second. Also bought a bottle of Dragon Fire Sauce (made with ghost chili) from a hot sauce vendor.

Went to the Taste of Colorado festival during Labor Day weekend with family and relatives, and got to eat food such as alligator bratwurst, rattlesnake bratwurst, and cactus salad.

Mentored a high school robotics team for the RMBEST Robotics competition. Got to do things such as teach students how to use a band saw, soldering iron, and Microsoft Word.

Traveled for work, and followed that up with a trip to New York City to visit some bros. Got to eat all sorts of fancy food in Old Town Alexandria, and played the tourist role for four days straight in New York City.

Played entirely too much Magic. Under the new Planeswalker Points system, I ground my way to the top 4733 in the world for the Fall 2011 season, which is good for all of 1 bye at Grand Prix events next season. Also, since the old ELO rating system will soon no longer be available for viewing, I shall capture a screenshot for posterity's sake.

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May the new year bring happiness and prosperity to all.

Tournament Report: SCG Denver 6/12/11

2011-06-28T23:10:00.003-06:00

Since I actually took notes during my matches throughout the tournament and while it's still semi-fresh in my mind, I thought I'd make an attempt at writing a tournament report from the SCG Open in Denver. I only played in the Legacy Open that weekend as I had Dragon Boat practice that Saturday morning, and made somewhat of an attempt to repeat my Top 8 showing at last year's SCG Open in Denver.

The tournament venue this year was Invesco Field. After spending my Saturday morning paddling on the lake and getting splashed on repeatedly, I battled my way through weekend traffic on I-25 and arrived at Invesco Field mid-afternoon to play in the Legacy Challenge to test the waters for the big event. During the weeks leading up to the tournament, I playtested decks such as Team America, TES, Merfolk, Zoo, Burn, and Deadguy Ale, but that Friday night right before the tournament I playtested with a guy piloting Hive Mind, and it seemed like a solid deck that was also crazy fun to play. As a result, I decided on a whim to play Hive Mind that Saturday. I looked up Eleyet's list from GP Providence as a basis, and modified it a bit to suit my tastes (-2 Misdirection, +1 Slaughter Pact, some sideboard changes). After hitting the dealer booth to trade for the cards I needed for the deck (which happened to be most of it), I took Hive Mind to a 3-1 finish in the Legacy Challenge. I used the same decklist the next day for the Legacy Open, and can be seen here.

(Note: Being the terrible player that I am, I failed to use Pact of Negation on my own Pacts correctly throughout the tournament, and didn't realize it until after the event. This misplay will become evident in the feature match coverage that I was in, and I may have blew my shot at Top 8 because of it)

ROUND 1: Belcher (2-1)

I win the die roll. Game 1 he takes a Serum Powder mulligan, and after checking with a judge regarding if I could see the cards he exiled (the answer is yes, they are face-up), I recognize he's playing Belcher before I take my first turn. Turn 2 he plays a Tinder Wall which got Mental Misstepped, and follows up with a lone Lion's Eye Diamond. I had the turn 3 Show and Tell to put Hive Mind into play with multiple Pacts to kill him during his upkeep, but he had the Goblin Charbelcher to deal 68 damage to me before my turn ended. Oops.

Game 2 he takes a Serum Powder mulligan, followed by a Paris mulligan, but things became awkward when he accidentally drew 7 cards on his Paris mulligan and picked up his hand. The judge ruled that two random cards from his hand gets shuffled into his library, and the game proceeds with him having 5 cards in hand. After we keep our hands, I had turn 1 Ancient Tomb into Grim Monolith, turn 2 fetchland into Hive Mind into Pact...the stone cold nuts.

Game 3 was more interesting. He keeps his original 7 while I mull to 6. He tries to combo off early (maybe turn 2?) with Chrome Mox imprinting Elvish Spirit Guide, Tinder Wall, and Rite of Flame, but I Force of Will his Rite to keep him off of the 4 mana needed for a potential Empty the Warrens. All he has left was another Chrome Mox imprinting another green mana source and rebuilt his hand slowly while I feebly attempted to sculpt my hand with cantrips turn after turn. Eventually I stuck a Hive Mind in play with nothing to follow up, and he stuck a Xantid Swarm and Lion's Eye Diamond. When I built up to 5 mana, I cast Pact of the Titan, giving us each a titan and forcing him to break his LED and discard his hand (which had a Charbelcher and no Empty the Warrens) in order to stay alive. I place a die on top of my library as an upkeep reminder, which was the only reason I didn't lose to my own Pact (I untapped, reached for my deck to draw my card, saw the die sitting there, and then remembered to pay for my Pact). I rip a Pact off the top to win the match.

1-0

ROUND 2: High Tide (2-1)

He wins the die roll. Game 1 started with some cantrips for both of us, and a Merchant Scroll for High Tide for him, but the next turn I had the Show and Tell into Hive Mind with a Pact to kill him.

Game 2 he combos off and fights my permission with his superior permission. Eventually he cast multiple Meditates, multiple Turnabouts, 3 Time Spirals, and 5 High Tides with 3 Candelabras in play before killing me with Blue Sun's Zenith for 60-ish (with 20-ish mana floating). I figured my only chance once he started to combo off was to draw the nuts (read: permission up the ass) every time he Time Spirals, but unfortunately on that last Time Spiral I draw all sorts of combo pieces but no permission.

Game 3 began with a single-digit number of minutes left on the clock. On turn 5, my opponents untaps and time is called. He proceeds to combo off (interrupted briefly by a Pact of Negation war, which he "won") with 2 High Tides, a Time Spiral, lots of Brainstorms and Ponders, and a Blue Sun's Zenith for 9 targeting himself in an attempt to recharge his depleted hand. At that point, I had a Volcanic Island, Grim Monolith, and 2 Ancient Tombs untapped. I decided that I needed to fight that Zenith, so I tap my Volcanic Island for 3 blue mana and Brainstorm into the absolute nuts: Force of Will, Mindbreak Trap, Mindbreak Trap (comment from spectating judge after the game: "best Brainstorm ever"). Putting some combo pieces back on top, I Trap his Zenith, which got Pacted (his second one that turn), so I Trap his Zenith again with Force of Will backup. His 2 Spell Pierces can't stop it, and he concedes the match. Interestingly, he decided to eschew the Brain Freeze line of play entirely due to me having Emrakuls in my maindeck, but I actually sideboarded them out for games 2 and 3.

2-0

ROUND 3: Budget Zoo (2-0)

He wins the die roll and starts Game 1 with a fetchland into shockland into Steppe Lynx. My opening hand wasn't the nuts, so I had to find the combo real quickly with cantrips. Turn 2 he fetches up a shockland again and bashes for 4 before sticking another Steppe Lynx. All I have is City of Traitors to join my turn 1 Island. Turn 3 he fetches another shockland and bashes for 8, putting me at 8 and dead next turn (Kird Ape joined his team). I Intuition for a combo piece during his end step, and Show and Tell a Hive Mind into play (he puts in a land). Pact of the Titan almost sealed the deal for him, except he had a Path to Exile during my end step to find that 5th land he needed to stay alive, but Pact of Negation on his Path killed him.

Game 2 he starts with Forest into Wild Nacatl. Then turn 2 he plays Mountain into Stoneforge Mystic, getting Batterskull. It wasn't until turn 3 when he tried to sneak Batterskull into play that I realized he didn't have white mana to play Stoneforge in the first place - I had always assumed that the Zoo player has access to all colors of mana at all times. One judge call and 2 issued warnings (1 for both of us) later, he Lightning Bolts me and attacks me to 12 before I Intuition for Show and Tells to put Emrakul into play the next turn. He scoops.

3-0

ROUND 4: Dredge (2-0)

As we were chatting before the round began, I find out that he was the Standard Open finalist from the day before. We also talk about the prevalence of Dredge in the room, with me saying how I think it's a good matchup for me.

I win the die roll. I had a turn 1 cantrip, while his turn 1 consisted of draw, discard Golgari Grave-Troll, go...awkward. I didn't have much action on turn 2. His turn 2 dredging put a Cabal Therapy into the graveyand and a Narcomoeba into play, and he Therapies me naming Trinket Mage. Seeing my hand full of Hive Mind combo pieces: "oh, THAT deck." Ancient Tomb the next turn allowed me to Intuition for a combo piece, and after his next dredge didn't hit any Therapies (but I did see a Woodfall Primus hit the 'yard), I put Hive Mind into play and Pact him to death.

Game 2 I start with a Leyline of the Void in play. He starts with Undiscovered Paradise into Putrid Imp, which got Mental Misstepped, even though I probably should have let that resolve and save the Misstep for the potential Nature's Claim, which is exactly what he used to get rid of my Leyline a few turns later (slow combo deck on my part, eh?). Shortly afterwards, I find the 3-piece combo. I play Show and Tell to put Hive Mind into play, and he asks a judge a rules question regarding enters-the-battlefield triggers (Woodfall Primus, anyone?). He puts Primus into play, targeting my Hive Mind with the trigger, but instant-speed Summoner's Pact will still get there.

4-0

ROUND 5: Merfolk (0-2)

This was my first feature match of the day, which wasn't anything more than us playing in the feature match area - no coverage nor cameras. This was his first Legacy event ever, which he will go on to Top 8. I win the die roll, and know he's playing Merfolk by watching him play during the previous round. Unfortunately, I mulligan to 4 before leading with Ancient Tomb, go. 5 turns later I died to a school of fish, and all he saw from me that game was a single Ancient Tomb - I drew all sorts of colorful Pacts with nothing else.

Game 2 we both mulligan, except he kept at 6 and I went down to 5. He missed his second land drop, but Force of Willed my turn 2 Grim Monolith and played fish after fish after resuming his land drops while I attempted to cantrip my way to a combo or a Llawan. A few turns later, with lethal on board, he attacks me and I Slaughter Pact his fully-leveled Coralhelm Commander to buy me a turn, even though I knew there was nothing that I could draw to save the game.

4-1

ROUND 6: Blue/White Control (1-2)

This was a feature match that is covered here (note: typos aplenty in that article). Game 1 is an example of my misplay with Pact of Negation (hint: he had 9 lands in play that turn). Game 3 was probably the most fun game I played all day, even though I lost. The tension at the end was epic as I played cantrip after cantrip to no avail.

4-2

ROUND 7: Combo Elves (2-1)

I win the die roll and start Game 1 with a cantrip. His turn 1 consisted of Windswept Heath into Forest into Fyndhorn Elves. The next turn he resolves Birchlore Rangers, and I immediately recognize how awkward this match will be for me. My hand consisted of Show and Tell, Intuition, and far too many colorful Pacts, but when he went for the Glimpse of Nature, I had to Intuition for Mental Misstep and counter it. With a Priest of Titania and Gaea's Cradle in play alongside a table full of elves, I recognize that my two lines of play (Hive Mind and Emrakul) are both useless, and my only chance of winning this game was if he fails to pay for his Summoner's Pact, which got Regal Force. Mirror Entity and random elf put me from 17 to 5 life before he remembered to pay for his Pact the next turn and attack me for near-infinite damage.

Game 2 he assembles a few elves before going for Glimpse of Nature again, except I had the Intuition for Mental Misstep again. He then plays Birchlore Ranger and gets the beatdown going to put me at 7 life before I Intuition (putting me at 5 from Ancient Tomb) for Pact of the Titan/Pact of the Titan/Slaughter Pact (he wisely lets me have a Pact of the Titan). I put Hive Mind into play, followed by 2 Pacts of the Titan and a Pact of Negation. He only had to pay 7UUR during his upkeep due to my Pact of Negation misplay, which was still too much mana for him.

Game 3 started as time in the round was running out. He had the turn 3 Glimpse of Nature with a great board position (Nettle Sentinel, Birchlore Rangers, Wirewood Symbiote, Forest, Horizon Canopy), but I had Island and Ancient Tomb to cast Intuition for Mental Misstep yet again (third time this match!). The next turn I cast Ponder, trying to find Show and Tell. I find it and keep the cards on top, drawing Show and Tell. "So you like them, eh?" my opponent asks nervously. "Oh yes. Actually, only one of them," I replied with a smile, as I crack a fetchland and go for the win via Show and Tell for Hive Mind, and he puts a second Birchlore Rangers into play. Analyzing his board position, I think that he can generate only 3 mana, 1 of which being off-color, so I cast Pact of the Titan followed by Pact of Negation without passing priority like a noob, and he ends up needing to pay 3UU during his upkeep or loses the game. He untaps and says he can pay 2UU due to Wirewood Symbiote's ability (I facepalm), and spends the next 5 minutes agonizing over how to pay that last mana needed to stay alive while a crowd gathered around to watch our game. After being asked by a judge to proceed the game state, he decides to convoke Chord of Calling for 1 to see what he could find, as his board position couldn't pay the upkeep. Unfortunately, his library couldn't get there either.

END RESULT: 5-2 matches, 11-7 games, 12th place out of 117 players

PROPS: Playing Hive Mind on a whim - it really is a fun yet solid deck to play. I don't think I've ever had as much fun playing a deck as I did that day. Maybe it has something to do with killing your opponents with Pacts. Also, SCG for coming out to Denver for their Open Series. It's unfortunate how there's no Legacy scene here, but SCG brings that with them, albeit for one weekend out of the year.

SLOPS: Me not knowing how to pass priority when using Pact of Negation on my own Pact all day long (told you I'm a terrible player!). Also, mulliganing into oblivion during the critical Round 5.

One Year

2011-06-05T21:51:00.000-06:00

One fourteen-hour drive later with my parents, I moved to Denver one year ago on this day. Clueless as I was at the time and despite the relative low points along the way, I think it's been a good time overall so far. I feel fortunate to have family in the area (even if I didn't know about them until after I decided to live out here), to have met some cool and nice people around Denver, and for old friends from far away - I'm grateful for those. Thanks everyone.

So yeah, having people in your life turns out to be a good thing, regardless of how introverted one can be.

Blue Valentine

2011-02-08T21:50:00.000-07:00

This may be shocking, but I actually watched a movie by myself in a movie theater. Decided to leave work a little early in order to make it to the 4:30 showing of Blue Valentine through the treacherous snowy roads. This would be the first theatrical movie I've seen since living in Colorado. I chose to watch Blue Valentine because the description seemed like a movie that I would enjoy, despite the silly trailer.

To be blunt, Blue Valentine is a brutally honest movie that doesn't sugarcoat anything it portrays. I could tell that the old couple sitting behind me were startled at certain lines in the movie. If you're looking for some laughs, action, or to have fun, then you probably shouldn't watch it. Sure, there are times when the movie elicits a chuckle or two (from me at least), but overall Blue Valentine is the kind of movie that leaves you reeling and thinking introspectively. At first, I wasn't sure what to think at the end of the movie, when the credits started rolling much earlier than I expected - it was like I had a "that's the end of the movie already?!" moment. However, I realized that the entire movie is a portrayal of life in today's world, both the glorious highs and the ugly lows, and it could be anybody who experiences the events in the movie in their own life.

The acting was solid, and seemed very much like real life. The interweaving between present and past in the plot also keeps the viewers on their toes. Free help-yourself-to-popcorn-and-drinks at Landmark Theaters was also nice, even though I didn't have any drinks and only half a bag of popcorn, which turned out to be a good thing because I really had to pee near the end of the movie.

Overall, I give Blue Valentine two thumbs up, but I know that my taste in movies can be strange sometimes. I wouldn't recommend watching Blue Valentine as a Valentine's Day activity though.

Happy Holidays

2010-12-24T18:30:00.000-07:00

...from somewhere over Nebraska, probably.

I'm up in the air!

Remnants of the Fat-Off

2010-11-30T20:54:00.002-07:00

Greetings. Well, I lost. Until next month...

Big Red Ambition: 44 Things This Cornellian Did

2010-10-21T21:59:00.001-06:00

(Note: An article in today's Cornell Daily Sun inspired me to write this blog post)

There's a list of 161 things that every Cornellian should do. Now that graduation is over (nearly 5 months over, actually), it might be a good time to reflect and comment on items of that list from my personal experience. So, in numerical order:

11. Go sake bombing in Collegetown (for the over-21 crowd only!).
I was wearing a red Dragon Day shirt that day too. Ironic for an Asian person going sake bombing.

12. Order ice cream at the Dairy Bar.
One day, our ENGRG 150 class walked to the Dairy Bar and ordered ice cream for everyone out of the course budget.

14. Listen to a full chimes concert from the clock tower and guess the songs played.
Well, I have listened to 3 chimes songs from the top of the clock tower. I'm not saying that they're bad at playing music (quite opposite that, in fact), but I don't recognize most of the songs they play, likely due to my lack of popular culture knowledge.

20. Play frisbee on the Arts Quad.
Quite a common activity, especially during junior and senior years. An equally-viable alternative location would be the Engineering Quad.

25. Bomb a prelim.
Yes. Especially if final exams count too.

31. Enjoy Ithaca's two months of warm weather by spending a summer here.
Summer after freshman year. It was really warm during the summer.

33. Watch the AAP students parade down East Avenue on Dragon Day.
To tell the truth, the AAP dragon >> ENG phoenix.

34. Enjoy corn nuggets at the Nines.
I have had corn nuggets at the Nines on more than one occassion, and I have enjoyed them thoroughly.

35. Build a snow penis, or count how many you see around campus.
Both, actually. I'll omit pictures here.

48. Have dinner at a professor's house.
During junior year's ENGRG 1050 class, as a peer advisor for the class of freshmen. We had chicken parm at the professor's house, and listened to cool stories all night long.

49. Get wasted at a professor's house.
Not really "wasted," but had some dranks at a professor's house, along with most other people in the class.

62. Go to Wegmans on a Friday or Saturday night.
What can I say? Food is important.

66. See the brain collection in Uris Hall.
Arriving too early for class in Uris Hall, I'd wander the halls and stare at brains in jars behind a glass display.

69. Take part in a psychology experiment.
Quick and easy way to make $5 at a time.

73. Ace a prelim.
I think "ace" is a universally-agreed synonym for getting 100% or higher. Only three instances of this though.

76. Eat in the Risley dining hall.
Ate there once for dinner during freshman year. It was meh.

77. Play at least one game of Texas hold-'em.
Does online count? During sophomore year Taylor and I played on Facebook often.

84. Go bowling at Helen Newman Lanes.
Fun physical activity, just like frisbee on a quad.

85. Hand out quartercards on Ho Plaza.
Thanks CSA for giving me several opportunities to perform this envious task.

86. Take an unplanned nap in the library.
I think this speaks for itself.

90. Boys: Get thrown out of Balch Hall.
Fun fact: if you are unaccompanied by a female resident inside Balch Hall, the RA's will escort you out the door. Literally.

93. Walk to the Commons and back.
This was usually done during university breaks or for the law school's Trial Advocacy Finale that I had to videotape. I did walk past the Commons to Kinko's to print CSA membership cards on more than one occassion though.

96. Eat pizza at the Nines.
It's difficult to surpass the excellence that is Nines pizza.

98. Drink bubble tea.
Countless times. Usually on a whim too, like when someone randomly suggests "wanna get bubble tea?!" while walking home from class or studying. It was at Cornell that I learned what bubble tea is (freshman year fall break).

99. Eat a Pinesburger.
I did eat a Pinesburger once, which was followed immediately by three more Pinesburgers, my photo on the wall, and a Glenwood Pines t-shirt.

100. Walk to a fraternity party with your entire freshman floor.
It actually wasn't my freshman floor, but once upon a time I did go to a frat party with Mickey's freshman floor.

106. See a concert at Barton Hall.
It was a free concert, so it wasn't anything like All-American Rejects or Maroon 5. It was a concert at Barton Hall nonetheless, and it was pretty cool.

108. Eat brunch on North Campus.
This was a frequent activity when I lived on North Campus.

109. Do your Freshman Reading Project before you graduate.
I did the freshman reading project before freshman orientation, back when I tried to be a good student.

112. Go ice skating at Lynah Rink.
My only time ice skating, ever.

118. Make a chalking; weep when it rains that night.
Thanks again CSA for the opportunity.

120. Meet Bill Nye '77, "The Science Guy," and give him a hug.
Well, I didn't actually meet him nor give him a hug, but during fall break junior year I spotted Bill Nye from across an empty and dark Upson Hall.

121. See how long you can go without doing laundry.
This was another frequent activity, although unintentional. It was usually no more than 10 days I can last without doing laundry.

127. Go to the Pyramid Mall, realize it is severely lacking, then drive to Carousel Mall in Syracuse.
The only times I went to Pyramid Mall was to buy stuff at Target or to watch a movie. Carousel Mall was pretty cool, especially watching Stephen build a Lego tower at the toy store only to have to come crashing to the ground. Don't worry, we cleaned up the place afterward.

128. Eat mongo at RPCC.
Probably the only reason I'd ever eat at RPCC after freshman year.

129. Attend Cross Country Gourmet at a dining hall near you.
These did not live up to their hype and characteristic long waiting lines.

130. Complain about your writing seminar to no one in particular.
I complained during the fall semester, but little did I know that writing seminar was nothing compared to the one during the spring semester.

136. Go to a coffee house in JAM.
Went to one of these when Mickey lived in JAM. Watched people play music in a room.

138. Watch people play Dance Dance Revolution in Appel.
Usually, I also participaed in DDR in Appel.

146. Wake up at 6a.m. for CoursEnroll, realize that it is still better than waiting outside Barton.
Who would have guessed that waking up at 6 AM in college was near-impossible, even though I did so everyday in high school?

151. Take the BASICS program.
What a joke.

153. Walk to class in the snow, uphill both ways.
Story of my life, especially during freshman year.

156. Eat at each dining hall at least once.
Appel, RPCC, Risley, Cook, Becker, Bethe, Rose, Keeton, Okenshields, Jewish Living Center...did I miss any?

161. Climb all 161 steps to the top of McGraw Tower.
Well worth the climb, in my opinion. Great photo opportunities at the top.

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So, that's something like 44 out of 161 items. At that rate I'd need to be at Cornell for ~16 years before I exhaust the list.

Brobots

2010-09-30T22:29:00.001-06:00

Recently I began "mentoring" a short-term (6-week) robotics project for a local high school (Southwest Early College, in downtown Denver). The project is organized by Rocky Mountain BEST. This would be the first time that I've worked directly with inner city high school students. I had another potential chance to work with inner city schools with Teach For America, but at that time I wasn't sure about working such a job.

So far I've attended the local RMBEST kickoff meeting and two of the after-school meetings with the students, and I think the teacher leading the project said it best: "these students have character." Sure, most of them aren't gunning for four-year colleges after graduation, but that doesn't make them any less interesting as people and fun to work with (albeit challenging at times). Sometimes, it's worth it to see "the other side" and experience it yourself.

Bytes of News

2010-06-26T23:31:00.002-06:00

Some things never change. During the winter break 2009 rush for CUSat, I volunteered myself as "food lead," gathering everyone's dinner order everyday, then calling in the order for delivery. I think we tried every delivery restaurant in Ithaca over the course of 2 weeks. Yesterday at work, we decided to order Chinese food from down the street, and once again I went around the office asking people what they wanted, then called in the order. < / coolstory >
After a 4-year hiatus of reading a book for fun (last book I read for fun was Message in a Bottle, back in 2006), I've picked up reading again, starting with In the Lake of the Woods. Like what many of the reviews say, the story can become quite chilling at times, but is very well-written and tends to keep you guessing and reading. Then there's the fact that the author leaves the central mystery of the story unresolved, and instead offers a few different hypotheses for what might have happened, with plenty of evidence to back up all hypotheses while simultaneously not refuting any of them. I must say that I thoroughly enjoyed the book, especially its ideas regarding human nature.

I'm starting to realize that I can relate to more and more of the media that I immerse myself into (movies, books, etc.). It's like a wake-up call for myself to recognize my perceived shortcomings and do something about it.

Before Sunrise/Before Sunset

2010-05-22T00:05:00.000-06:00

Ever since classwork has finished (since Tuesday 5/18!), I've been watching movies more frequently than I usually do. Those who know me well know that I (usually) watch so few movies during an entire year that I can count them all on my fingers. Maybe on fingers of one hand.

Among the movies that I watched (and convinced some friends to reluctantly watch with me) were Before Sunrise and Before Sunset. I first heard of the two movies shortly after the latter was released (on NPR en route to 6 AM swim practice before school one day, and again in AP English class). Now, to lots of people the movies are rather boring and cliche, but personally I really liked both of them, and after these recent viewings I like them even more (last time I watched them was maybe 3-4 years ago).

Now, what do I like about these movies, you might ask? The premise is pretty cliche I must admit, but these movies revolve around dialog and conversation between two people (literally), which I think is the interesting part and what makes Before Sunrise and Before Sunset unique. The topics that the conversation hits are interesting, with viewpoints that I can relate to personally, especially the cynicism that was explored deeper in Before Sunset.

Happy Slope Day

2010-05-07T18:50:00.002-06:00

"What this means to me is more than I know you believe

What I thought of you now has cost more than it should for me

What I thought was true before were lies I couldn't see

What I thought was beautiful is only memories."

Lawl school stories

2010-04-18T17:57:00.002-06:00

I've been working various part-time jobs at the Cornell Law School during the last 3.5 years, including library assistant, Interlibrary Book and Copy Service, A/V tech support, and computer lab consultant. I don't think I ever fully knew my way around the corridors and stairways of the law school until this semester. There are so many secret shortcuts you can take through doors and stairs.

One perk of working with the A/V team is filming all-day law school events. Of course, you're stuck in a room for most of the day, but they have free food (usually breakfast and lunch). This weekend and next weekend are the Trial Advocacy finales downtown in the real courtrooms.

The mock trial cases are interesting sometimes. Today's was interesting in particular. In the beginning of the trial, it felt like the objection rulings were always in the defense's favor (despite the numerous objections that the plaintiff's team threw out), but at the end of the trial when the defense called up their last witness to testify as an expert, they were unable to have her admitted as an expert. Three times the defense tried to lay foundation questions for expertise of their witness in a different (but related) field, and three times an objection against the defense was sustained. It must be very frustrating to prepare questions for a witness that you couldn't actually ask because they could not be identified as an expert, but it was impressive how calm the law students were.

I think that watching mock trials for the Trial Advocacy class for 4 semesters has familiarized me with some legal jargon, but if I use legal jargon in my everyday language, I'd be talking about stuff that I know nothing about. I feel more comfortable sticking with cameras and projectors.

Random facts

2010-04-08T06:58:00.002-06:00

Here is a list of things (not exhaustive) that I don't care about, in bullet form and in no particular order:

Luxury
Class
Drama
MAE 4180

Victory Burgers

2010-03-27T23:54:00.002-06:00

Today, we went to Glenwood Pines for dinner. On a last-minute whim (and under peer pressure), I decided to go for the Pinesburger Challenge to eat 4 Pinesburgers in under an hour (vegetables are optional). This is what 4 Pinesburgers on 1 plate looks like:

First burger was finished at 7 minutes. Second burger at 15 minutes. Third burger at 28 minutes. Fourth burger at 49 minutes. Thanks to Kevin for keeping time with his iPhone. Here was the aftermath:

(Also included in the aftermath was 1 t-shirt and my picture on the wall)

Happenings around campus

2010-03-14T00:07:00.001-07:00

Two (2) Cornell engineering students committed suicide via gorge bridge jump 2 days apart from each other this past week. Also, a month ago another student jumped the bridge, which brings the campus suicide rate to 3 within the past month. As I understand, in the past there is an average suicide rate of n per year here, where n is between 0 and 1.

Why have campus suicides spiked in frequency lately? I wish I knew, but may never know. It's disheartening, for sure, even though I did not know any of these students.

Airports

2010-02-24T22:57:00.000-07:00

In the news today was a study of large North American airports and how travelers like them. I found it interesting how Detroit and Denver were listed as the top two airports, because I had the opportunity to travel to both for a job interview earlier this year. They are definitely some of the nicest airports that I've seen, both in appearance and facilities. The blue tunnel at Detroit was spectacular, and the airport train at Denver plays a cool tune every time the train stops and goes.

I also had the opportunity to travel through Philadelphia several times for interviews, and it was a pretty run-down airport compared to the others. Also, the food selection wasn't that great (especially at the C terminal), and moving between terminals isn't very convenient either.

Lightening Up

2010-02-09T21:41:00.000-07:00

"Hans, you need to lighten up. You look so tense."

That's what one of my AEW students said to me today at the end of class. To tell the truth, I am excited about AEW. We have a lively and fun group of students this semester, and I foresee a great semester of differential equations with them. I was lightened up.

To tell the truth again, it seems that I am pretty good at hiding my emotions behind a stoic facade. Whether it is healthy for me or not is another story.

Winter Break Weight

2010-02-03T22:07:00.002-07:00

I weighed myself every morning during winter break. Below is a plot of my weight (in pounds) versus date, up until the Fat-Off Weigh-In Day:

It appears that prolonged lack of sleep leads to significant weight loss, as seen around the New Years period in the plot. I consciously ate more throughout the days after the New Year, which can be seen in the rise in weight following January 4. I hope to continue this upward trend for the Fat-Off, as well as for my own sake. We'll see when Spring Break rolls around.

You

2010-01-27T22:01:00.003-07:00

I have been falling for you for quite some time now. You might not feel the same way towards me, and you might know who you are, but alas, I cannot tell if you do or not. I wrote this to let out some of the many things that I keep bottled up inside, in an effort to purge what keeps me restrained.

DC Highways

2010-01-26T15:35:00.002-07:00

From my trip to Springfield, Virginia, I learned that it's really easy to take the wrong exit near Washington National Airport and wind up in the parking lot of the Pentagon. I did it twice, once upon arrival in DC and again before departure from DC.

Soap

2010-01-11T12:21:00.002-07:00

Does soap actually kill germs like they claim, or does it simply force you to run your hands in water longer in order to rinse off the lather that you put on your hands, resulting in cleaner hands due to longer washing time in water?

All Day Games 2009

2009-12-30T22:59:00.006-07:00

I went to my first All Day Games last night. Even though I did not stay for all 24 (or 27?) hours of the event, it was still insane and fun. Many of the games that were played at All Day Games were new to me. Here were some highlights from my gaming experience:

Mario Kart 64: We did 4-player match race on all tracks in Special Cup and golf-style scoring with the place you finish in to determine the overall winner. Going into Rainbow Road, I was tied for first place with 5 points (a 3rd place finish and two 1st place finishes). Still leading halfway through final lap on Rainbow Road, I lost it after getting lightning-bolted and run over, then hitting a chomp.
Rack-O: Going into the last round, I was leading by 55 points. However, an epic topdeck from the draw pile gave the runner-up player a 3-card straight and the Rack-O, resulting in him leapfrogging me in points despite my huge lead.
Sorry!: It was a race between me and another guy for who can get their last pawn home. We both had 3 pawns in home already and 1 pawn en route to home. After I got my last pawn into the safety zone, I kept drawing 4's so I had to back it up out of the safety zone, making it vulnerable to attacks. However, the lucky topdeck of an 11 put my last pawn straight into home first for the win.
Guitar Hero 3 Tournament: Played Even Flow on expert difficulty. I hit 52% of the notes. Needless to say, I got knocked out after that.
War Tournament: Somehow I managed to win 4 games of War to end as the tournament winner. The final match lasted about 10 minutes, which was really fast for a game of War. There were several instances where I came back from having only 8 cards in my pile.
20-man Cutthroat Darts: I was one of the last two players standing at the end. We both had sections of the dart board right next to each other, and I managed to knock myself out by hitting my own section for the event loss.
15-man Cutthroat Pool: Luckily, no one went for my ball until the later part of the game. After playing defense with the cue ball for a few turns due to a lack of good shots for me (3 players left in the game at that time), I sunk the other 2 players' balls one after the other for the event win.
16-man Shy Guy Says (Mario Party): Teams of 2 players control 1 controller each for Shy Guy Says. I was paired up with the eventual All Day Games 2009 winner. Twice I failed to press the B button in time due to poor reaction time at 3 AM, which cost us a round win twice. However, twice I got lucky when I preemptively pressed the B button when Shy Guy raised double flags and dropped the A flag.
Super Mario Bros. High Score: The objective of this event was to obtain the highest score in 1 life or 5 minutes, whichever comes first. After learning that the easiest way to rack up points is to finish levels with lots of time remaining (50 points per second remaining on the timer), I sprinted each level and used no warps, with some close calls to death. I died in level 2-2 by hitting a squid while swimming underwater as my time was about to run out, but 99850 points edged out 2nd place to win this event.
TI-83 Uncle Worm High Score (medium difficulty): Not having played this game since high school, I was a little rusty at first, but had the winning touch with 431 points.

Epic week

2009-12-06T20:31:00.004-07:00

Last week was a pretty eventful week.

We won the 2009 Mechatronics competition (first place out of 40-something teams) with our Roomba motor-driven robot. Our record for the competition was 7-0, with 2 match losses and 1 match declared a rematch after our epic comeback from what appeared to be a loss. The Roomba motors gave us unparalleled speed and torque, with some matches won in ~4 seconds. Our opponent in the final round was very similar in design (structure, algorithms), except they used the stock motors provided in lab (I think).
Our MAE 4300 final presentation was on the same day as the Mechatronics competition, except the presentation was at 8 AM. I was up until 6 AM working on the Mechatronics robot, and intended to get up at 6:45 so I could get ready for the presentation (shower, put on a suit, etc.). Unfortunately, I somehow missed my alarm, but magically woke up at 7:35. Still mostly asleep, I walked into the bathroom about to take a shower. That's when I realized that I had a final presentation in 25 minutes. Good thing is that the professor was very impressed with our presentation, even though I was still mostly asleep.
Wednesday night I stayed up figuring out microcontroller code for the robot, and slept for 2 hours. On Thursday I took a half hour nap in the afternoon, and slept 1.5 hours at night. This brought my 2-day sleep total to 4 hours. Friday night I slept for 16 hours, and it was awesome.
Fluids/Heat Transfer Laboratory is over. The course consisted of 6 labs and 6 lab reports. Lab report page counts: 23, 19, 48, 43, 45, and 22.

Mandatory Monthly Update

2009-11-13T19:37:00.005-07:00

Bullets seem to be an appropriate way to express myself:

Lung Collapse, Part IV: Happened approximately 1.6 weeks ago. This time, it's not that bad because my right lung is only half collapsed, thanks to the previous surgeries. As a result, it only bothers me when I walk uphill carrying my backpack and when I lay down to sleep. No surgical operation planned as of now, just going to see how it plays out.
Cornell Server Room: I got to visit the server room at Cornell the other day, and it was massive. Apparently so massive that they're having cooling issues now. It was pretty sweet inside though.
Rubik's Cube: I haven't really cubed on a regular basis since 2 summers ago. I brought my cube into fluids lab to put into the wind tunnel, but instead we put a toy truck inside to see wake interference. My best time of 22.69 for the 3x3 Rubik's Cube has not changed in 27 months or so.
Hughes Dining Pancake Stack: I finished the 3-pancake stack again. However, I must admit that the size of the pancakes were smaller than before.
Where did the time go? I feel like this semester has gone by so fast, and there's still too much to do before it ends. FFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUU
I need to revert back to my lifestyle last fall and reprioritize. Some things just aren't worth the time and effort right now.

First snow

2009-10-15T20:05:00.003-06:00

Today it snowed for the first time this school year. Being mid-October, this is pretty early for first snow. If I remember correctly from the 10 years I lived in the Rochester area and the 3 years that I've been in Ithaca, it usually starts snowing in early November.

In other news, the "short stack" does not exist anymore. It is now just a generic "stack of 3 pancakes." Somehow I finished 3 pancakes yesterday. I used to have trouble finishing the 2 pancakes that the short stack consisted of.

Senior year

2009-09-27T23:25:00.003-06:00

Why is this semester crazy-busy for everyone I know? For me, it might be because I've overcommited myself with various activities/classes/etc. I also need to take 5 classes next semester in order to graduate in May...joy.

Also, I think that some people are natural-born leaders, and I'm not one of them. That's usually been fine with me so far, but when the occassion comes to take matters into my own hands to make things happen, my attitude needs to change.

Epic story

2009-08-26T00:43:00.004-06:00

We were sitting at a table in a bar, and Nick decides to tell a story from freshman year involving "Big Rob." Literally just as he mentioned Big Rob in his story, the real-life Big Rob walked down the stairs by our table and introduced himself in front of us. Nick's facial expression and reaction was beyond hilarious after he saw Big Rob suddenly appear out of nowhere right after he mentioned him during his story. This is like something that you wouldn't believe unless you were actually there when it happened.

Back to school thoughts

2009-08-17T11:47:00.004-06:00

During our drive to Ithaca, we encountered several toll booths. When the toll amount required change, we would pay part of the change in pennies. We observed that female toll collectors would always count the pennies before letting us move along, whereas male toll collectors would look at the handful of pennies and let us proceed without counting them.

When buying textbooks from an online source like Amazon, it probably doesn't matter much if a seller is "just launched" or a veteran seller. If the new seller plans to continue selling from their account for years to come, then they would probably want to ensure their first few ratings are good in order to build a solid reputation as a seller. This applies only if the seller plans on selling more items in the future.

Wrapping things up

2009-08-14T15:10:00.004-06:00

Today is my last day of work. Some statistics:

Helpdesk tickets 3 weeks ago: 16
Helpdesk tickets 2 weeks ago: 18
Helpdesk tickets last week: 19
Helpdesk tickets this week: 40

Yes, this last week was pretty busy. I'd like to thank everyone who helped me learn stuff and made me feel welcome during the summer. It means a lot to me.

Also, saying farewell is one thing that I don't like to do at all. I suppose most things in life aren't static.

Some Cool Music Videos IMO

2009-07-17T20:33:00.004-06:00

I feel like I've been watching a lot of music videos lately. Here are some music videos that I think are pretty cool, and I've grouped them into categories. Without further ado, and in no particular order:

STORYTIME

The Smashing Pumpkins - 1979 and Perfect
These two videos are actually like one in that they portray a group of friends and what they grow up to be a few years down the road. How all the different people cross paths through a series of events reminds me of the movie Crash.

Muse - Knights of Cydonia
This video is arranged like a Western/kung fu/sci-fi/fantasy movie, complete with titles and end credits. Interesting concept.

Stabbing Westward - Shame
This video tells a story (or so it seems). There are even dialogue subtitles. The video is so full of twists and turns that it's hilarious.

Everclear - Brown Eyed Girl
Similar to the previous video in that it has subtitles to describe what's going on in the video. However, this story carries a much lighter mood, is also hilarious, and you'd probably get caught off-guard with the ending.

Massive Attack - Angel
This video is kind of surreal. I don't know what it means, and the ending makes you ponder what's going on.

COOL VISUALS

Muse - Stockholm Syndrome
This is what Muse looks like through thermal cameras.

Korn - Freak on a Leash
Some cool animation work with the projectile.

Thrice - Digital Sea
This video looks like it's shot from the perspective of a grocery store security camera. The part in the middle where the store items move is beyond awesome. Beware of seizures during the night scenes.

Royksopp - Remind Me
This one's for the enginerds out there (thanks Myra).

MOCKUMENTARY

Korn - Twisted Transistor
I guess what makes this on-the-tour mockumentary even funnier is that they got four big-name rappers to play the four actual band members in the video.

MISCELLANEOUS

Collective Soul - Listen
This video basically portrays the story of my life I think. Also, I really like the stop motion.

CONCLUDING HONORABLE MENTIONS

These guys are all on a boat (T-Pain not included, sorry), these people have secrets to tell, and this video is probably everybody's favorite by now.

Gmail Housekeeping

2009-07-12T12:35:00.003-06:00

I just cleaned out my Gmail mailbox a bit. I went from 893 MB to 620 MB by deleting a bunch of messages that I sent with picture attachments. Usually when I send mail with large attachments, I like to keep it in my mailbox in case I need to access the attachment later, but after a while (like a few years later) I realize that I don't need them anymore, so I delete them for good. I guess in the future I could just send and delete from my Sent Mail box. Also, I guess I should look into archiving mail next so my inbox doesn't look so cluttered.

Dilemma

2009-07-11T18:41:00.003-06:00

I was about to drive out to the store to buy some beer because I'm out of beer and I feel like having some, but then I saw our neighbor's kids (all 4 of them?) riding their kiddie bikes across the road, up and down our driveway, back across the road, up and down their own driveway...repeated indefinitely. They looked like they were having the time of their lives, so I decided to let them do their thing and not go out to buy beer. Guess I'm staying dry tonight.

Reflection

2009-07-05T12:15:00.002-06:00

I recently figured out how to link images in Blogger to Flickr, so I have an urge to use it liberally in this post. Here I will babble about some of my favorite pictures/memories from over the past 6.5 years (an abbreviated life story, if you will).

That's my brother waiting for my slow ass to get out the door and drive us to swim practice after school. I thought this perspective was pretty cool - a silhouette in the bright doorway.

This is a picture of a window in our home in Fairport, New York. During the winter, frost develops on this one window and totally covers it, and it doesn't go away until springtime comes.

This picture shows a view of the woods behind my friend's backyard in Fairport. I took this picture by holding the camera just above the water surface - a tip from my friends. The woods were all flooded (either because it just rained heavily or it's from the melted snow), and you needed a pair of waders to walk around without getting wet.

We had some LAN parties during the early years of high school. Bawls kept us awake and tasted good at the same time...something that isn't quite true with beverages such as Red Bull.

...and here's an image from one LAN party.

We had a tradition during high school where we amassed school papers during the year and burned them at the end in the woods. On a sunny day, sunbeams that shoot through the treetops reflect off of the smoke and dust in the air from burning papers, and the resulting scenery looks pretty cool.

The morning after FHS junior prom, some friends and I went to Riki's for brunch. While waiting for our variously-filled pancakes (I think I ordered chocolate chip), one of us started building a castle out of whatever was available on the table. An intrigued senior citizen sitting at the table next to us walked up to us and proclaimed "the moment you stop playing, you grow old." That memorable quote sort of stuck with us.

The summer before moving to Minnesota, I went on a bike ride along the Erie Canal path with two friends. We decided to stop by a small cliff. The previous autumn, a bunch of us biked there and climbed to the top to find a huge open field with short grass on which we set off some "Works bombs" (household cleaner + aluminum foil + empty soda bottles = loud harmless explosion). This particular summer day, we climbed to the top to find the grass on the field grown up to our shoulders. It was a pretty cool sight.

Also from the summer before moving to Minnesota, during a camping trip in upstate New York with the usual group of Asians. This is one of my favorite sunset shots, with the reflection on Lake Ontario.

Being at the right place at the right time helps with taking interesting pictures, but being with spontaneous people also helps. Neither of us planned this (I was sitting inside a van), but I like how this picture turned out - peering through the window. This was during my last outing with the Fairport Area Swim Team (USA Sectionals in Maryland...those were the days when I could actually swim) - less than one week later I would be in Minnesota.

This is a close-up on my friend's scarf, while it was sitting on a table. I like the texture and color in this picture, and ended up using this picture as the background on the CSA membership card design for 2007-2008.

It seems like my high school friends in Minnesota enjoy playing cards during breaks (specifically a game called 500), whereas my friends in Fairport enjoy doing random fun stuff like Works bombs and blowing up mountains of school papers in the woods. Whatever, it's all good fun either way.

My favorite part of graduation parties is the food, and this is probably my favorite picture of food that I've taken.

I miss garbage plates (sooooooo good). The next time I'm in Rochester I'm definitely going to pick up some garbage plate(s).

This was taken during a flight home from Rochester the summer after high school (those are clouds down below). I like how the color turned out in this picture.

Freshman year Dragon Day/snowstorm combo. Myra has a priceless expression on her face.

I like this shot of the bird sitting on the signpost in the Badlands National Park.

This is one of my first pictures taken with the white balance set to cloudy for a warmer feel. I like the greenness here.

The Cornell Law School reading room.

This picture could have been better (like less exposure), but it's quite difficult to time a shot of lightning perfectly. I still like this one though.

Fireworks display during Maple Grove Days last summer. This was the first time that I tried taking pictures of fireworks.

This is from fall break last year. I like the flows that I got here.

This is what the Engineering Quad looks like at 2 AM. We were on the Thurston Hall rooftop testing CDGPS for CUSat until 4 AM because the Pre-Ship Review was at 8 AM the next day.

Cornell Fail

2009-06-23T20:05:00.003-06:00

Excerpt from an email that I received today:

"Last week, we learned that a Cornell-owned computer that was stolen earlier this month contained your name and Social Security Number. Please accept our most sincere apologies for this unfortunate event."

Suboptimal Urinal Design

2009-06-18T19:42:00.010-06:00

I began working on Monday (IT stuff like helpdesking, just like last summer). Today, I went to the restroom to take a leak in the late afternoon, and I discovered that whoever designed the urinals in the restroom could have designed it better. Usually when go to the restroom to take a leak, there are small puddles of water on the ground around the urinal. I used to think these were due to people peeing on the floor (though I'm not completely ruling out that possibility), but I saw today that the urinal itself pees all over the floor.

Here's what happened: I went to the restroom to take a leak. A dude before me just finished and hit the flush button above the urinal (perfectly normal and intuitive). He then walked away and proceeded to wash his hands (also perfectly normal and intuitive), while I kind of stood there and watched the urinal flush so I can pee in it afterwards. Now, these urinals are just like those in Cornell's first floor Upson Hall: automatic-flushing but still have the manual flush button. When you hit the flush button, it flushes, but then it flushes again after you walk away from the urinal. At work, the unintended second flush apparently causes a water overload in the urinal bowl, so water starts pouring over the edge, resulting in small puddles of water on the ground around the urinal. This is equally uninviting to wade in compared to the hypothetical case where people pee on the floor.

Now, I understand that a manual override is necessary (and probably a good idea) to automated systems. In fact, there was some discussion about this and flak sent in Airbus' direction after the recent mysterious Air France flight disappearance (apparently Airbus didn't have a manual override in the automated flight system? Or so I read). However, in my opinion, optimal design would automatically shut off the automated system when the manual override is engaged. In the case of the urinal, this would mean one flush per pee session, whether you flush the urinal yourself or let the motion sensor do it.

One last thing: having Dyson Airblades to dry hands in the restrooms would be awesome. Just my opinion.

Three Unrelated Thoughts/Stories

2009-06-01T10:47:00.005-06:00

** Yesterday I was driving to a graduation party, and I ran over a chipmunk. I came to this conclusion as follows:

I saw the chipmunk wander into the road as I was approaching it.
I heard and felt a thump-thump as I drove by the chipmunk at 60 miles per hour (it was a country road in the middle of nowhere).
I looked back via the rear view mirror and the chipmunk was not moving.

My apologies to said chipmunk.

** When I go home from school and sleep in my bed at home, I find that my feet dangle over the edge of the bed. The beds at the dorms at school are extra-long twin size, so my feet don't dangle over the edge on those. However, before going to college, I never felt that my feet dangle over the edge of my bed at home.

** Last night, I was kind of lying around in bed for 2 hours not able to fall asleep (partly because of my dangling feet I think). As a result, I started to reflect on my life story, partly because seeing friends from high school kind of reminds me of past years of my life. Now, I like to think that I have a pretty good memory (especially for things like numbers), so I remember quite a lot about my life story. Now, I am not familiar with many other peoples' life stories, but after a while of reflecting, I came to the conclusion that my life story is pretty fucked up. And to that, I laugh. What else can I do?

Summer

2009-05-31T10:36:00.005-06:00

In an effort to keep my blog-updating frequency to at least once per month, I shall update today. However, I don't really know what to write about.

I went to a high school graduation party yesterday. It was fun to see people who I haven't seen in a long time and hangin' with them and stuff. It was also kind of cool to see everyone grow up and stuff, because this year's graduation class consists of all the people who were high school freshmen on the swim team back when I was a senior on the team, and they were all smaller than I was back then but now they're all bigger than I am (and more ripped than I am, of course).

Pandora just played Take a Picture by Filter, which made me happy.

Springtime Weather Woes

2009-04-24T21:42:00.002-06:00

I'm not a big fan of springtime weather throughout the day. It's mainly the fact that it's usually around 30 degrees outside in the morning when I head out to class, and at midday it gets to be a comfortable 70 degrees. This usually poses a dilemma in the morning when I decide what to wear for the day. Ideally, I would wear a coat for 30-degree weather, but later in the day when it's 70 degrees outside, it's quite awkward wearing a coat or lugging one around. However, if I decide to start the day dressed for 70-degree weather, then I will probably catch a cold or something and get sick, which is also not desireable.

Last night

2009-03-28T14:24:00.004-06:00

We were walking from West Campus to Collegetown, and behind the law school my friend and I find a small purse lying on the edge of the path. We figured someone lost it accidentally and is probably going to look for it sooner or later, so we took a look inside to see if we can get the person's name. She had her ID card in there. We then decided to be technologically savvy (and a little creepy I suppose) and look up her name online via my friend's Blackberry to see if there's a phone number we can call and get the thing returned to its righteous owner. Just as we were about to call the number, she walked by us going the other way and recognized her lost purse that we were carrying, and all was good.

Ok, this was a pretty dumb story. She was kinda cute though.

Spring Break Commences

2009-03-13T13:49:00.019-06:00

After three weeks of exams, labs, projects, ridiculous homeworks, CUSat babysitting, trying to find a job and such, spring break is now upon us. Since I haven't updated in over a month, I'm going to try something new and do this in pictoral form.

CUSat testing at Cornell has ended, and the satellite is now at Kirtland Air Force Base in Albuquerque. Launch is currently slated for February 2010.

I finished the short stack at Hughes again yesterday morning. The pancakes were filled with bananas. However, Nicole is still a beast because she arrived 15 minutes late and still finished the short stack first. As seen in the picture, the pancakes are as big as Nicole's head.

Today was Dragon Day at Cornell, where the architects try to show that they're better than engineers. The dragon looked like a dragon this year. A major disappointment was the lack of large fires (aka burning the dragon). Apparently Cornell is trying to be more environmentally friendly or something like that.

Short Stack

2009-02-06T08:55:00.004-07:00

I finished a short stack of pancakes at Hughes Dining for the first time this morning. You might think that 2 pancakes are nothing, but these pancakes are as big as the paper plates that they are served in, so they are huge like Snorlax. I've had the short stack at Hughes several times before, but I've never finished one before today (usually I'd make it to around 70% completion). I think a major factor in me finishing the short stack this morning was the banana filling.

CUSat - Part II

2009-02-05T19:03:00.009-07:00

We are currently in the third week of classes. I've found that I'm busier this semester so far than I was last semester, even though I'm taking less classes. This could be because the pre-ship review for CUSat is approaching, and there is lots of work to be done in preparation for that. So, here are some more highlights of things that have happened during the past month in CUSat:

More GPS receiver tests on the roof of Thurston Hall (and out the window of Upson 205, but that's not very exciting because it's indoors and the window has to be open during the test, which makes the room super cold)
Ordered 1 meal per day for the team before classes started. Because I took everyone's orders everyday, I now have an idea of what everyone on the team likes/dislikes in their food, which I'm sure is something that not many other people can claim.
Ran a hardware test in the clean room. This means wearing the clean room coat, hairnet, gloves, and electrostatic discharge wrist strap for 4 hours. After the test, I took a very satisfying leak.

CUSat Testing and Debugging

2009-01-09T22:12:00.006-07:00

This year, I decided to cut my winter break short by going back to campus 2 weeks early and helping out with the CUSat work (I was bored at home anyway). The work has consisted mainly of testing the flight code on the simulator(s) and debugging any quirks that appear (debugging can get quite frustrating). Here are some highlights of my CUSat winter break experience during the past 5 days:

Pouring liquid nitrogen from a metal pail into a kitchen-sized plastic funnel because we forgot to refill the supply tank in the lab on time. I wasn't the guy who actually poured the liquid nitrogen, but apparently his gloves weren't very good at insulating. Don't worry, no one froze their fingers off (but came kinda close).
Testing the GPS receivers on the rooftop of Thurston/Kimball Hall in a single-digit wind chill. We were outside for at least 3 hours, and my toes were not very happy about being outside for that long. The GPS test failed to work correctly due to then-unresolved (and hopefully now-resolved) software bugs, but being on the roof was pretty cool.
Patrick Conrad's visit. He really knows what he is doing, and that is a very good thing. I have had the opportunity to meet both Kris and Patrick now.
1 free meal per day (starting today). I volunteered to place the food orders.

More to come later? Possibly. We'll see how things turn out over the next 7 days. The flight software gets loaded onto the satellite next Friday.

Greetings 2009

2009-01-01T21:07:00.003-07:00

Farewell 2008. It was nice knowing you...not. It was not the best of years, for various reasons (but it could have been worse).

Happy new year.

Makeshift Movie Theaters

2008-12-22T19:33:00.003-07:00

After living in the 'trols room with the right nut and the seabass for 12 days, final exams and final projects have officially ended for the Fall 2008 semester (and grades are being rolled out as I type). Occassionally there was a study break that involved a movie on the big screen in a classroom somewhere in the Engineering Quad. Personally, I have not seen a movie in all of the rooms discussed here, but here is a brief review from personal experiences and word-of-mouth of the available options in case you seek a similar study break:

OLIN 155 - This is by far the best option. This lecture hall has a very large screen, a projector that doesn't flake out on you, and comfortable seats. The only drawback (and this is a significant drawback) is that the room is locked after 9:30 PM. Also, at the time of this writing, there is some construction (renovation) work in Olin Hall, so it can be rather noisy at times.
THURSTON 205 - This room is a very good one. It's not a big lecture hall. The equipment (projector, seats, etc.) are all in good working condition. Nothing spectacular, but it works.
OLIN 255 - This lecture hall has insane stadium seating. Insane meaning that this room alone looks like it takes up 2 floors due to the steep incline of the stadium seating. The equipment is in good working condition, but if I remember correctly some of the lights stay on in this room.
UPSON B17 - The home-away-from-home for mechanical engineers like us. The projector turns off after 40 minutes of inactivity, which gets very annoying.
KIMBALL B11 - Pretty much the same story as Upson B17. The projector goes off every once in a while, forcing you to get up and turn it back on.
PHILLIPS 203/219 - The projectors here work well, but the drawback it that not all of the lights go off. Either that or we haven't figured out how to kill all the lights.
PHILLIPS 101 - First you must find your way from the back of the room up to the front podium in the dark in order to turn on the lights in the room. After that you realize that the audio cable is frayed, so this room is no good for watching a movie on the big screen (unless it's a silent movie).

Good Morning, Elevator

2008-11-21T23:24:00.008-07:00

Every morning as I head out to breakfast/class, I take the elevator down since I live on the 6th floor. Occassionally when I'm not feeling lazy I'll take the stairs down. There are 2 elevators in the building, and one is faster than the other. Obviously people want the fast elevator because the elevators aren't that fast to begin with (compared to, say, the Statler Hall elevators), and time spent in the elevator is kind of like sunk time because there's not much one can do in the elevator. The elevators are so slow in general that people manage to hold conversations on the posters in the elevator by writing on them.

Anyway, I've noticed that 99% of the time, the fast elevator comes up to the 6th floor to take me down in the morning, which is a good thing and makes me happy. I figure this is the case because in the morning, everyone goes from high floors down to the bottom floors to head out and begin their day. This means that in the morning hours, chances are both elevators are sitting on floors 1 and/or 2 (where the doors to the building are) unless someone pushes the elevator call button, in which case the elevator shimmies up and then goes back to chillin' on floor 1 or 2 after dropping the groggy student to the door floor. When both elevators start on the bottom 2 floors, the fast elevator always beats the slow elevator in traversing to the 6th floor. The fast elevator is that much faster than the slow elevator, but the slow elevator usually has elaborate handwritten conversations on the posters in them.

It Was Nice Knowing You, Subway's Chicken Pizziola

2008-11-15T09:21:00.007-07:00

-- Last night the fire alarm in Cascadilla Hall went off again. This time, it went off at 3:30 AM, which was 2 hours after I went to bed. On top of that, it was wet and cold outside because it was raining a little.

-- Last weekend was APEX, which was a series of performances by popular Asian-American artists such as Randall Park, Hsu-nami, Magnetic North, and (of course) Wong Fu Productions. Since I volunteered to be a bouncer, I got a free show while I kicked out other people who wanted to steal a free show. It was a pretty good show, especially Wong Fu's short videos. Wong Fu visited Cornell 2 years ago, when I was a lowly freshman, and showed their first full-length movie. For some reason, whenever I see Wong Fu when they visit Cornell, I'm always inspired to make a short movie by myself.

-- I actually enjoy working the 5-hour Friday night shift at the Law School computer lab. Most people would opt not to work the Friday night because...hell, it's Friday night. However, I like Friday night because the computer lab is usually near empty (if not completely unoccupied), it forces me to at least do a little homework, and to tell the truth I usually never go out to crazy parties on Friday nights.

-- Apparently Subway's Chicken Pizziola promotion ends today. It was a pretty good sub for the price. From an Asian point of view, it's a very good deal because you get a lot of meat (chicken and pepperoni) for a $5 footlong sub. Basically it was a chicken pizza, with marinara sauce and tomatoes and whatever else you want on it.

Fire alarm

2008-10-18T08:28:00.003-06:00

The fire alarm went off at 9:00 AM this morning. This was irratable for several reasons:

-> It was early in the morning, and I wanted to sleep in, as I went to bed at 2:30
-> At first I thought it was someone's obnoxious alarm clock set too loud, but then my roommate told me it was the fire alarm so I had to get up
-> The alarm was mad loud
-> I had to take the stairs from 6th floor to 2nd floor (which I do normally sometimes anyway)
-> It was cold outside (like 30 degrees)
-> I took the stairs back up to the 6th floor
-> I tried to go back to sleep afterwards, but couldn't

The Science Guy

2008-10-14T13:41:00.004-06:00

Fall break is now winding to an end. The weather was rather phenomenal - no rain and plenty of sunshine.

This morning I went to Upson Hall to do some work for CUSat. After a while of trying to get the satellite simulation working, I decided to step out into the hall and get a drink of water. After I get my drink of water, I see Bill Nye walk out of the stairwell. I heard he came to visit Cornell this weekend (why he chose fall break, I don't know...there sure aren't a lot of people on campus during break), being a Cornell alumnus and all that I guess. I didn't say anything because I didn't have anything intelligent to say. Plus, I figured he's probably tired of his publicity stunt on campus, so it's all good.

Fall break is on

2008-10-10T21:13:00.003-06:00

It seems like most schools don't get a fall break, but we do. It lasts for all of 4 days (including the weekend). As I was walking back to the dorm after work tonight, Collegetown seemed more like a ghost town compared to a normal Friday night, as most people have already gone home or gone elsewhere fun for break. I, on the other hand, have opted to stay on campus like I have for the past 2 years and bum around. Actually I have work to do over break, which is good so I can be kept occupied with meaningful stuff to do.

I've always been hearing how people commit suicide on campus by jumping into the gorges, but I've never actually been around when it happened until this week. I guess it is pretty freaky when someone decides to call it quits on life and jump the bridge, especially when it happens in broad daylight and people actually saw it happen. And now I know it's not just a rumor...it actually happens.

Asians do get sunburned

2008-08-31T14:57:00.004-06:00

...believe it or not. Wednesday I was outside in the sun for 4+ hours and I didn't even know I was sunburned until I got back to my room and realized I looked like a ripe tomato. It looks a little more normal now, except the skin's starting to peel around my forehead, nose, and neck.

I guess I'm writing this to keep track of the last time I got sunburned, because I seriously do not remember the previous time I got sunburned.

Road Trip Back to Cornell

2008-08-22T21:12:00.006-06:00

I actually tried to keep a count in my head this time through the 19-hour drive (while I was awake, that is).

-- Construction zones: 16 (there were maybe 4-5 on I-86 through the middle of nowhere in New York state. The middle of nowhere in New York beats the middle of nowhere in the Midwest because in New York there are things like hills and trees that you can look at)

-- Police stopped alongside the road looking to nab speeders: 9

-- Police stopped alongside the road who already nabbed a speeder: 6

-- Roadkill: 4 (rather low number it seems. Maybe mating season is over, and animals don't have any reason to get lost on roads)

A Few Words From The Hospital

2008-08-17T12:06:00.005-06:00

Greetings from my 3rd hospital stay for the same spontaneous pneumothorax. Today is my 8th day (and hopefully last day if they release me later this afternoon after a check-up from the surgeon - I got the chest tube pulled out this morning), which makes this hospital stay slightly shorter than the 11-day duration 2 months ago, and a breeze compared to the 21-day marathon I had 4 months ago. Speaking of marathons, at least the Olympics were on TV this time, so I wasn't quite as bored out of my mind. Now, if the hospital wireless network wouldn't block 50% of my oft-frequented websites, then I wouldn't mind so much being in the hospital. What follows now will be some random thoughts from this most recent hospital stay (in no particular order).

-- FOLEY CATHETER
Yes, the dreaded urinary catheter. For lung surgery this time, I specifically requested no catheter because I didn't seem to have any problems at Cayuga Medical Center without one. However, it seems like the anesthesia they use here at Mercy Hospital always renders my bladder useless, so they had to use the catheter the day after surgery. What made this catheter experience even worse was the fact that it took TWO (2) tries before they got one into my bladder to drain the urine away. Having a catheter shoved up your dick and then pulled back out is by no means a pleasant experience, so I worked hard to prove to the nurses that I didn't need a 3rd catheter after that 1-for-2 experience.

-- "YOU'RE BACK?"
...is what most of the nurses said to me during the past week. Even the ones that didn't have me under their care before, but saw my name on the roster previously. I stayed on the same 4-Heart floor post-surgery as I did 2 months ago, and as a result the staff here recognized me (despite the haircut I got that threw off everyone at work). Even the dude from wheelchair transport recognized me this morning as he wheeled me downstairs for an x-ray.

-- TAPE
While the Foley catheter and the twice-a-day heparin shots still rank at the top of worst hospital experiences so far, they are joined now by pulling-tape-off-from-skin. This tape pulling is done frequently when the nurses have to change the chest tube dressing daily.

-- VICODIN
In an effort to wean me away from IV drugs for pain relief, they decided to start feeding me Vicodin yesterday. The nurse decided that the full dose of 2 pills was adequate for me, so 2 pills went down, and I was knocked out cold in broad daylight. I literally passed out on the bed after lunch and woke up when dinner came in 5 hours later. After that, they decided to feed me 1 pill at a time when needed. However, I still prefer the IV drug Dilaudid. It packs a more subtle knock-out punch as well as an all-around numbing sensation immediately after injection. Good stuff.

-- FLASHBACK: MY CLOSEST ENCOUNTER WITH A FUTURE OLYMPIC SWIMMER
3 years ago (in 2005) I qualified in 1 lone event for the Speedo Champions Series (also known as USA sectionals) in Long Island, so I got to travel with the team down there for 5 days and swim my 2 events (you get a bonus event for each qualifying event, because otherwise people like me would only go to the meet to swim 1 event, and that's no fun). I DFL'ed (dead fucking last) in my qualifying 100 breaststroke, and got 2nd-to-last in my bonus event 200 breaststroke. Despite that, it was a fun time. Anyways, back to the story. It was at that particular Speedo Champions Series meet where a 12-year-old girl was pulling off victories (literally winning events) over high school and college swimmers like us. And if I remember correctly, that 12-year-old's name was Elizabeth Beisel. 3 years later as I'm watching the Beijing Olympics on TV in the hospital, the 15-year-old Beisel (apparently the youngest member of the USA swim team at the Olympics) made it to the finals in the 200-meter backstroke and placed 5th. How cool is that?

-- MICHAEL PHELPS
That man can swim. Those were some fun races to watch. Congratulations.

Farmers Market

2008-08-09T15:52:00.003-06:00

Today I went to the Minneapolis Farmer's Market. There are 2 anecdotes from the visit that I will share.

Firstly, as I walked by a counter of potatoes that were being sold by an Asian-looking family, something caught my attention and immediately made me think of ex-vice president Dan Quayle. You could probably guess where this is headed. "Potatoe" was the spelling on every sign that referred to the potatoes there.

Secondly, I saw a little kid less than half my height carrying one of those balloon sculptures, and I had a Superbad moment. I assume it's meant to be a sword, but it looked very much like an object of the phallic type. Probably because both sides of the guard of the sword were circular in shape due to technicalities in creating the balloon sculpture.

Longest day at work (so far)

2008-08-01T20:02:00.004-06:00

Yesterday was officially the longest day at work that I've experienced so far.

Some background information: Infinite Campus (where I work at) has literally outgrown the rented office space that we used to call our home, so now we are moving into a newly-constructed building that should give us plenty of room to breathe in and for future expansion. This weekend is the official transition (a.k.a. move-in weekend), and by Monday morning everyone will be starting work in the new building. Well, as most large-scale construction projects go, this one went way behind schedule early on (I hear we are currently 1 month behind schedule, but nothing can be done to delay moving in, so...), so now we're in an extreme clusterfuck of working around all the different construction and moving crews in the last-minute rush, getting stuff set up in an attempt to minimize the number of complaints directed towards us IT staff come Monday morning.

Yesterday morning started with me walking into the building/construction site at around 8:30 AM. I ended up spending the entire morning on my hands and knees (this is where knee pads really come in handy) pulling up the carpet and floor tiles to reroute the power cables underneath because they were put in all the wrong places all over the building. The good thing is that we had a handful of volunteers from the office who came to help us, otherwise we would never have gotten that task of mythic proportions done. Lunch consisted of lots of pizza (thanks to our CEO/benevolent dictator, who ordered them for us). Then I spent the entire afternoon helping the fellow IT staff install wireless access points onto the ceiling, which required extensive use of 12-foot ladders (I stayed on the ground to hand off supplies when needed). Dinner was at Taco Bell across the street at around 8 PM. After dinner we headed back to the building to plug data cables in a systematic fashion all over the office floor. By that time the 3 of us peons and our dictator were the only people left in the building. Finally, at around 10:12 we decided to call it a night after patching in the entire upper floor, but it wasn't until 10:30 PM that I was on the road driving home.

Recurrence

2008-06-20T19:41:00.007-06:00

^ No, I'm not referring to solving differential equations by using power series methods. Here, I will share some personal experiences from my recurring spontaneous pneumothorax, also known as a spontaneous collapsed lung. I will be covering approximately 11 days worth of hospital anecdotes in this post, so it probably won't be quite as detailed as those posts back in April 2008. In fact, I might actually skip some lackluster days and just divulge the highlights. Anyhoo, here goes...

-- DAY 1: Monday, June 9, 2008 --

It was Oxymoron Day (the great 6/9 of 2008) and I was at work as normal. Sometime in the afternoon, while I was trying to teach myself some Microsoft SQL Server stuff on the computer, I started to feel the same sqeezing feeling in my right chest area, much like the feeling I had at work at the Cornell Law School back in March when my lung started to collapse. Actually, the pain comes from blebs on the lung popping, which results in the lung collapsing if the bleb was large enough.

Weird, I thought. I had a pleurodesis on my right side 2 months ago when my right lung collapsed for the first time. A pleurodesis is where they go inside the chest wall and scrape it up, resulting in an inflammatory response which allows the lung to sort of stick to the chest wall upon full expansion. This will help prevent future pneumothoraces, because the lung shouldn't be able to collapse while stuck to the chest wall. I guess I'm one of the lucky few to have my lung recollapse post-surgery.

Later that evening (I refrained from telling my parents about my situation until they came home from my brother's PSEO orientation at the University of Minnesota), I went to the ER at Mercy Hospital of Coon Rapids, MN. After waiting around in the waiting room, being interrogated briefly, and a chest x-ray, I followed a d00d into the ER where I sat myself onto a bed and watched various ER nurses hook up a heart monitor, an oxygen supply, and an IV for me. Based on reactions from ER personnel during IV insertion for me, I guess my veins "roll around," the needle "goes through my veins," and my skin is "very tough," all not desirable qualities when inserting an IV into a patient.

Plan A for my hospitalization this time was to have me on constant oxygen supply until the next day (Tuesday), when the doctor will re-evaluate my lung collapse and go from there. If a chest x-ray shows things worsening, then surgery will ensue. The ER doctor told me that I had around 15-20% collapse after 7 hours or so, which is not quite as bad as 100% collapse after 2 days like last time.

After the plan was drawn out, it was another hour or so before they found a room for me to stay in. Room 361 was a single-occupancy room, and enough space for me I guess. I actually didn't see any double-occupancy rooms in the hospital this time.

-- DAY 2: Tuesday, June 10, 2008 --

Today I just sat around and watched CNN on TV (yes, I actually turned on the TV during this hospital stay). I ended up watching CNN for most of my waking hours in the hospital. After the chest x-ray today, the surgeon told me that they'll do another pleurodesis the next day (Wednesday) as an add-on patient, so at what time was unknown. Whatever, I thought. It's not like I have much to do in the hospital anyway.

It turned out that nutrition services canceled my dinner order this day as a mistake (in preparation for anesthesia for surgery). I ended up having a dinner of cold turkey sandwich, ice cream, and the such.

-- DAY 3: Wednesday, June 11, 2008 --

Today I ate my last solid food at 8:30 AM. Later, they let me take a shower (w00t), but had to cover my left arm in waterproofing plastic because of my IV. This would be the last shower that I have taken so far.

At 2:45 PM, they took me down to the surgery waiting room, and I guess at 3:30-ish the operation went under way. I remember the following: being told "this injection will make you feel relaxed," being wheeled down the hall from the waiting room to some operation-looking room, and waking up in the recovery room with a nurse sitting next to me, staring me in the eyes.

After this operation, there were a few differences. Most notably was the use of multiple chest tubes (by that I mean 2 chest tubes). It looked like as if both tubes were inserted through 1 incision, but it was actually 2 separate incisions placed closely together. Along with 2 chest tubes, other appendages I had attached to me included the continuous IV fluid into my left arm (probably to stave off hunger and keep me hydrated, as I was on the NPO diet immediately post-surgery), a heart monitor (probably why I ended up on floor 4-Heart), leggings that squeezed my legs periodically to keep the blood flowing there (since I couldn't stand up and walk quite yet), and worst of all...the Foley (urinary) catheter. Apparently I couldn't stand up and pee into the bottle, so they put the catheter up my dick so it can drain urine from my bladder. I guess having the catheter in wasn't quite as bad as putting it in nor taking it out while fully conscious, which I will elaborate on shortly. Oh yeah, and they brought me back not to Room 361 as I was in previously, but into a very spacious single-occupancy H4019, a room on the "heart floor," presumably for patients who have heart problems and need a heart monitor. I then joined my fellow senior citizens on the 4-Heart floor (I didn't see any patient who wasn't a senior citizen up there...)

The nurses came by every hour to inject a dose of morphine...I guess through experience they know pleurodesises hurt like hell, and morphine is fun. Also, I had to get a shot of heparin every 12 hours in my stomach while in the hospital to prevent blood clots in the chest tube. I never got used to that. In fact, I dreaded the heparin shot at 7:30 AM and 7:30 PM everyday. By the time I got out of the hospital, one can see numerous brown spots around my stomach, probably due to small amounts of bleeding from the heparin needles. I think at one point the nurse hit some organ in my left side with a heparin shot, and my left side was really sore ever since (now at home it's much better), preventing me from standing up straight.

The nurses also gave me a shot of ibuprofen-type drug (I forgot the name of it...began with a "T" I think) through my IV periodically to keep the inflammation down around the chest tube area. However, this was discontinued after a few hours as the doctor determined its effects would counter that of the pleurodesis. An inflammatory response was desired in the chest wall so the lung can stick to it post-surgery.

Sleeping at night with all the various appendages squeezing my legs and such and the "babbling brook" sound effect from the water seal vacuum on around me was rather difficult, but I managed I guess. Also, during the night there was an unexpected power outage (probably due to the storm that rolled by). Everything went dark for maybe 20 seconds, then generator power kicked in, and I continued in my attempt to sleep.

-- DAY 4: Thursday, June 12, 2008 --

This day was full of activity. Not the getting up and walking around activity (though I was able to get up now).

It started with getting the Foley catheter taken out sometime in the morning. Apparently the catheter holds itself in the bladder with a small air bubble. After letting the bubble pop, they told me to take a deep breath in. I've learned that when doctors/nurses tell you to "take a deep breath in..." usually something rather unpleasant is about to happen. Taking the catheter out through my dick was...kinda painful for about 4 seconds. After it was out, everything seemed fine.

Later in the day, the surgeon reviewed the chest x-ray from the morning and decided that one of my chest tubes needed to be pushed farther in by about 1 inch. So they came in, gave me some local anesthesia, and pushed the tube farther in. No biggie there I thought. The painful part was the needle of anesthesia going into my side.

It was this day that I learned I could have been getting regular doses of Dilaudid rather than morphine. Both are basically the same thing (IV pain medication), but different patients feel various levels of effects from the 2 drugs, and I happen to feel the Dilaudid much more than morphine. So they switched me off the morphine and onto Dilaudid, and I was happy.

Even later in the day, the shit hit the fan. I felt like I had to take a leak really bad every 15 minutes or so, and everytime I tried, I couldn't pee. Actually, I could, but it was only a few drops at a time (and it really burned at first - probably a side effect from the Foley catheter. I guess the painful urination was comparable to that of having gonorrhea, but I wouldn't really know due to lack of personal experience with STDs). The nurse came by with a bladder scanner, and found that I had 800 cc of urine stuck in my bladder (that's 80% of 1 liter). Having the Foley catheter in for over half a day probably messed up my bladder's valving system, rendering it unable to release urine. The cure was to insert another Foley catheter, have my bladder drained, then have the catheter taken out and hopefully I can then pee normally. I would say having the catheter stuck up my dick was more painful than having it taken out. Foley catheters suck royally, and here ends my rant about possibly my worst day in the hospital (the repeated Foley catheter tops the list of shit times).

-- DAY 6: Saturday, June 14, 2008 --

I guess the only thing I wanted to say about this day was that the nurse I had spoke very much like the band camp girl in the American Pie series (just the way she talked, not what she actually said). I was amused. She made me take a stroll through the floor, which I managed well I guess (didn't faint or anything upon standing up for extended periods of time).

-- DAY 7: Sunday, June 15, 2008 --

Well, as the days roll on, it's mostly just sit and wait, rinse and repeat. The interesting story I have for this day is that I asked the night nurse for dilaudid, and she shot it through my IV in one fell swoop instead of slowly injecting it in. I think my entire left arm went numb for about 3 seconds shortly thereafter. It was a fun experience in my opinion.

It was also sometime today that they moved me out of my room (H4019) and into a different room down the hall (H4002) because they needed my room for a new surgery patient. My new room wasn't quite as spacious as the old one, which is ok because then I don't need to walk as far to get to the bathroom. The thing I didn't like about my new room was the drastic temperature fluctuations throughout any given day. This was probably due to my massive window view of the hospital's parking lot and the trees surrounding it.

-- DAY 9: Tuesday, June 17, 2008 --

I learned that the hospital actually had a wireless network available, so my parents brought my computer. I read before that they didn't want wireless and cellular devices interfering with heart monitors, so I assumed I would have to live computer-free in the hospital. Guess not. Unfortunately, Mercy Hospital's firewall was much more aggresive than Cayuga Medical Center's, so I couldn't hop onto AIM or anything like that. I watched plenty of movie trailers on Apple.com.

-- DAY 10: Wednesday, June 18, 2008 --

Today they decided to take out chest tube 1 of 2. Once again I was told to take a deep breath in and hold it, but it wasn't too bad. I guess I can attribute this to a number of things such as a dose of dilaudid right before chest tube removal, or this chest tube not hitting as many ribs and/or nerves on its way out as the Ithaca one. Actually, the Ithaca chest tube removal wasn't too bad either, but what feels really uncomfortable is the pressure that the surgeon applies after taking the tube out (to stop the bleeding while preparing the dressing I guess).

-- DAY 11: Thursday, June 19, 2008 --

They let me go home with a Heimlich valve attached to my remaining chest tube instead of water seal. They also put a bag-like thing on the end to catch any drainage, which right now has a small amount of blood-like substance in it. Today I actually looked at the chest tube incision site while the nurse was doing the daily dressing change (previously I didn't want to look at what the chest tube site looked like). It actually didn't look too bad from my vantage point. The site where they took the tube out the previous day didn't seem to be spewing anything, and where the remaining chest tube went in has what looks like a pretty tight seal of skin around it, supported by some stitches around it. It wasn't quite what I had expected, but I still would rather not look at it if I don't have to. The most painful part of dressing changes is taking the foam tape off my skin. There are a few battle scars on my right side from where the tape tore off some skin. Sometimes it's because the nurse went a little too happy on applying ointment to the dressing gauze, resulting in foam tape + ointment that oozed out onto the skin, which makes the tape extra sticky and difficult to remove.

-- EPILOGUE --

Well, there's the lowdown on Round 2 of lung surgery for me. For now I'm just chilling at home with an awkward setup hanging out of my shirt draining blood and stuff. Hopefully when I go back for a follow-up on Monday, they can take this last tube out so I can shower again. I haven't showered in 9 days now.

I guess the surgery part of pleurodesises isn't too bad. It's just being chained to the wall in a hospital room for days and days that really sucks. Some of the doctors and nurses compare my situation in the hospital to being in a prison, but I'm sure the situation in a hospital is far more favorable than being in prison.

Thanks to all you loyal readers out there, and thanks for the support and concerns once again.

Home

2008-05-17T21:45:00.007-06:00

Hours I drove: approximately 8 of 19 total
Construction zones I drove through: maybe 6 or so
Police vehicles parked on the side of the highway looking for speeders: maybe 11 or so
Police vehicles parked on the side of the highway already with a speeder: maybe 7 or so
Animals already as road kill: lots
Animals about to become road kill: 1 (a squirrel was trying to cross a highway in Ohio, except the highway was separated with a median, so the squirrel was kinda stuck and ran back and forth in the road trying to dodge cars)

At one point it was pouring while I was blinded by sunlight - that was rather weird.

Hospitalization (last post, try 2)

2008-04-20T18:58:00.003-06:00

DAY 17: Thursday, April 17, 2008
Today I decided to start doing some work for school. I decided to start with the 212 project that was due on Tax Day. Other than that, there was nothing new for the day.

DAY 18: Friday, April 18, 2008
Ditto to the last sentence above. Basically, the day started with me waking up at 6 AM when the nurse's aide comes by to get vitals, followed by me trying to sleep in the sunrise. The doctor then comes sometime before breakfast, makes me do some coughing, then says "nope, still leaking."

Listening to the Muse song Stockholm Syndrome kinda makes me think of my current situation. Of course, I'm not a hostage or prisoner (I think), only a hospital patient, but I'm still stranded in my room via the suction cable. Even when I'm unplugged and free to move around the hospital, I never actually ventured outside of my room. I just didn't really care I guess...I would rather be in my room. Some other people (like my last roommate) seemed grumpy while in the hospital and ready to get the hell outta here as soon as possible. I'm just chillin' on a tether, not really caring (although worrying about what to do about this semester in school), smile when someone walks into my room, and just like an overall "meh" after 2 weeks of just waiting and wondering if I'll ever get out of the hospital. Good thing is that the nurses here are nice, and I actually get to choose what I eat (as opposed to being in prison), so Stockholm Syndrome doesn't really describe my situation, but it kinda got me thinking about a connection.

DAY 19: Saturday, April 19, 2008
Still the same news regarding me, the chest tube, and the Pleur-evac. Still the same situation - tethered to the wall suction.

I guess doing sudokus from the newspaper everyday was good practice in doing sudokus. I took the 4-star sudoku today and did it in maybe 10-15 minutes while eating breakfast. I remember the first ones I did took me what seemed like forever.

Also, there was a visit from campus today. It was good to see people drop by for a visit. It was also good to clip my nails after 3 weeks, so now typing feels much better. Thanks guys.

DAY 20: Sunday, April 20, 2008 (a special annual holiday...)
Finally the doctor detected no air leak in the morning, so they unplugged me from suction for the day. It was exactly 1 week ago when they did the same thing, except they kinda jumped the gun, which resulted in a re-collapsed lung for me. This time, the nurses tell me that things seem to look and sound better. As a result, hopefully I can wake up tomorrow morning and get the green light to get the hell outta here.

I finished the MATLAB part of the 212 project today, as well as part of the user manual. Thanks everyone for the help.

Well, hopefully I will see everyone soon enough (and not in the hospital again), but I'm not going to count on anything at this point. It's been too long. Anyhoo, thanks again everyone for the help, support, etc.

Hospitalization (yeah, that's right...)

2008-04-16T17:47:00.003-06:00

DAY 14: Monday, April 14, 2008
This morning I woke up hopeful of getting out. After a day off of suction on Sunday, they wheeled me down to radiology to get an x-ray. Unfortunately they found that without assistance from the suction, my right lung re-collapsed. So they hooked me up again, and I stay here for now.

DAY 15: Tuesday, April 15, 2008 (Tax Day)
Well, today was no different from Monday. Still on suction all day long. I managed to shoot out another round of emails to group members, advisors, professors, and TAs giving them yet another heads up of the failed attempt to get me outta here. I think I've spammed their inboxes quite a bit in the last 2 weeks now.

Sunrise every morning gets earlier as the days go by. Now it's around 6:15 AM that I see the sun peek out over the trees/horizon. For some reason, the blinds to my window are enclosed in glass from the inside, so I can't really see how to close them. No matter...I even told the nurses not to worry about the blinds on my window. I don't really mind it, except I usually have no choice but to stay awake after 6:30 AM, when the sunlight comes in full force and I can't even see my laptop screen on the brightest LCD setting (I think my window faces the east). Also, around midday it gets quite warm in my room (I'm too lazy to fix the thermostat), so when the aides come by at 2 PM to get vitals, my body temperature's always around 99.4 at that time (as opposed to 98.4-ish at 6 AM).

I'm really bummed that I'm missing the above-average weather outside. They tell me it's around 70 these days (and apparently quite sunny too!). I remember the day after being in the ER it was around 50 and cloudy outside, and I walked to Gannett that morning for the follow-up that sent me straight back to CMC for an unprecedented 16+ days.

DAY 16: Wednesday, April 16, 2008 (1 year after Virgina Tech)
Today I woke up hoping to be off suction again so I could maybe leave tomorrow. Guess I still had a small air leak when I cough, which is no good. As a result, today was the same as the previous two days - tethered to the wall suction all day.

I think the TV hanging on the wall has been on for a total of less than 1 hour in the past 16 days. I just don't watch TV for some reason. I also can't believe I'm still meeting new nurses, aides, nursing professors, and nursing students, but I think I've been here so long that it won't be much longer before I meet the entire crew here at CMC and TC3. The people who have met me before keep saying how they're surprised I'm still here (I am too). I still haven't showered (I do try and bathe with a basin of water and towels!), shaved, nor cut my fingernails in 16+ days, so I really hope I get out soon enough. Lastly, I think I had a record 700 cc of urine in one sitting (or standing, rather) today (that's 70% of the urinal's capacity). That was in the afternoon when I woke up after an after-lunch nap.

...and I really hope everyone's right when they say things with classes can be worked out for this semester, because at this point I'm kind of clueless as to where to start or what to do. After today, I've missed as many days of classes as there are days of class left in the semester.

Thanks again everyone for your continued help, support, encouragement, etc. I really appreciate it. There's nothing else like it when you're in a situation like this. I should probably listen to happier music while I'm here or something...I dunno.

Hospitalization (hopefully the last post)

2008-04-13T17:57:00.003-06:00

DAY 13: Sunday, April 13, 2008
This morning I awoke to find that the air leak from my right lung has stopped. Good news. The doctor then unplugged my tether to the wall (the suction) and said if all goes well I can peace out tomorrow (after course enrollment at 6:30 in the morning, of course). I got my IV pulled out today with no replacement IV, so no more morphine. I guess that's a good thing.

Today I realized that I haven't clipped my fingernails in 2+ weeks (I have no nail clippers here in the hospital), and typing on a keyboard feels somewhat awkward with such long fingernails.

The doctors, nurses, aides, student nurses, and staff in general here at Cayuga Medical Center have been great. Food was good too, except my appetite was somewhat shot for most of the time due to foreign objects inserted inside me.

Once again, thank you everyone for everything. Hopefully I will see you all soon enough.

Hospitalization (cont'd yet again)

2008-04-12T18:09:00.005-06:00

DAY 10: Thursday, April 10, 2008
Well, today was just like any other day here in Room 343-2. Wake up in the morning, eat breakfast, try and wash up (I haven't take a shower since last Monday), eat lunch, take a nap, eat dinner, try and do some work/email/sudoku, go to bed. Except today I took a shit, which was rather painful cuz the pain medication causes constipation, but I managed I guess.

Since I don't have much to talk about, I'll talk about the view out of my window. Since I'm on the third floor, most of the surrounding treetops outside are approximately eye level. Straight ahead is a patch of woods, except there aren't many leaves right now. To the right is part of a parking lot, and to the left are about 3 picnic tables and part of Cayuga Lake. Since there are no high-rise buildings right outside my window, I feel comfortable peeing into my bottle while facing the window (away from the door).

DAY 11: Friday, April 11, 2008
Normal day again, except Tim Rooney (from RIT) popped in for a visit. He came in just as my dad called in the evening. Tim was in Ithaca for the evening with his family. We talked about college life, music concerts in the future, etc. It was quite chill, and good to see friends from home.

DAY 12: Saturday, April 12, 2008
I guess I haven't really gotten into pain meds and resulting constipation. I spent maybe 2 hours on the crapper in the morning trying to drop a deuce. I knew it was there, but it just wouldn't come out, so at lunchtime the nurse gave me a thing of milk of magnesia (that stuff tastes weird) and a stool softener (which I've been taking for 5 days and doesn't seem to help much). I proceeded to walk with my Pleur-evac to the toilet maybe 4 times in the afternoon. I must say it feels better, but that milk of magnesia really tastes weird (and has a weird texture too...)

JD popped in for a visit this afternoon just as the nurse was popping some pills for me. He drove home from Clarkson to Fairport for an interview today, and decided to drop by Ithaca while down here. It was nice...we talked about college in general, electric cars, and Aaron called in the middle proclaiming he was at the beach down in Cajun Country for geology class at Tulane. Lolerskates. Good to see/hear from them.

Well, at this point, I just wanted to thank everyone for their continued support, encouragement, news from campus, news from elsewhere, visits, offers to drive me home, etc. The doctor told me this morning that hopefully I can get outta here within the next few days. We shall see.

Hospitalization (still cont'd)

2008-04-09T19:06:00.002-06:00

DAY 8: Tuesday, April 8, 2008
This morning I woke up and ate nothing, drank nothing. After sitting around short of breath for an hour or so due to being unplugged from wall suction in the waiting room for surgery, they drugged me for operation, and to tell the truth I remember nothing. Not even being wheeled into the operating room nor into the recovery room. Good thing is I didn't feel very nauseous afterwards - I understand that is a common unwanted aftereffect of general anesthesia. The surgery went well I suppose...the doctor, surgeon, and anesthesiast all seemed happy about how things went. I continued the day eating broth and jello, and drinking juice and water. They also moved the chest tube to a lower location along my side, and now it hurts a bit more. During the night I asked for 3 doses of Diaudid (morphine), and I still couldn't fall asleep for real until 1:30 AM after going to bed at 8:30 PM. I guess I was stressing out a bit over catching up with schoolwork once I get back, which I managed to resolve a bit by emailing professors.

DAY 9: Wednesday, April 9, 2008
Recovery day after surgery. I ate a fake breakfast of broth, jello, and juice again, but the doctor said that I could have real food so they trayed in a real breakfast at 10:30 AM. This resulted in me pushing back lunch and dinner by about 2 hours each. Plus, my appetite with the tube shoved in a uncomfortable location has been shot down a bit.

Today I got a new roommate. This guy appears to be a 28-year-old guy who just had surgery for his tonsils. He seemed a bit grumpy at first, but now he seems a bit more cheery. The nurses said he'll probably be discharged tomorrow. In other news, during these past 10 days of having foreign objects inserted into my right side and therefore hindering my right arm movement, I have gotten pretty used to eating, brushing my teeth, and putting on socks with my left hand, as well as urinating in a bottle (the nurses like to call it a "urinal"). I even try to write with my left hand when I fill out each day's menu, but it seems like the only thing successful with that is circling menu entrees with my left hand. In order to get my proper amount of time on my feet, I've been eating and using the computer while standing up. I feel sometimes standing up is more comfortable for some reason. I know sleeping in a semi-sitting position during the night kills my tailbone in the morning, but I need to semi-sit up because the drainage needs to flow down the tube.

It's kind of funny - now that I'm in my second week stranded in the hospital in the same room, I'm starting to have the same nurses and aides for the 3rd and 4th time so far during my stay. Some were surprised to see me still here yesterday and today after meeting me for the first time early last week. Oh well. At least the people here are nice, especially when they give me my dilaudid/morphine. Dilaudid is awesome.

Hospitalization (cont'd again)

2008-04-07T18:02:00.002-06:00

DAY 7: Monday, April 7, 2008
1 full week sitting in Cayuga Medical Center. Since the air leak in my chest cavity has not improved after putting the mega chest tube in 5 days ago, the doctor and surgeons have been talking with my parents about surgery. Turns out tomorrow morning they're gonna do surgery. Should take about an hour, and involves putting 3 holes in me to do 3 different things, including stapling my lung together after finding out the culprit location with a camera.

About halfway through the day, they stuck a roommate in my double-occupancy room, which was all to myself until now. Apparently he's a 64-year-old guy who just had surgery for enlarged prostate. After hanging around the room for the afternoon and watching TV while I was chillin' on the aftereffects of Percocet, they discharged him at dinnertime, so now I have the room to myself again. The nurse took out my IV, which was in my left arm since the day I got here (7 days ago). I started to get worried about that when small red bumps started appearing on my left arm from the tape used to hold the IV in place.

Well, at this point I would like to thank everyone for their care, support, visits, calls, donated food, getting my textbooks from my room (although I couldn't really concentrate on studying with the chest tube), etc. It really means a lot to me, and I appreciate it. You guys are the reason I keep on keepin' on.

Hospitalization (cont'd)

2008-04-06T17:29:00.002-06:00

DAY 4: Friday, April 4, 2008
This is the second day with the mega chest tube. Again, it hurt a crazy lot so they shot me with the IV anesthesia in the afternoon (after lunch) and at night before hittin' the hay. I finished a 4-star sudoku in the newspaper today after giving up and coming back to it later several times. I got a surprise visit from a bunch of people back on campus, and we joked around for an hour or so before the nurse said visiting hours are over. We think the patients next door didn't find our conversations very tasteful. I must say I really appreciate the visits, even from the people who couldn't make it due to not enough room in Brian's car. Thanks guys, it means a lot to me.

DAY 5: Saturday, April 5, 2008
Today my parents made it up here via car. Apparently they drove all through the night and made it here at around 11 AM. By this day there was still a little air leakage from the chest cavity as seen from Pleur-Evac. Today there was no need for the IV anesthesia - only Percocet pills at night. It seemed to knock me out equally though.

DAY 6: Sunday, April 6, 2008
Today for dinner I ate cottage cheese (or tried to). Taylor said since I never had it before, he thought I would like it, so I decided to give it a try. It wasn't that great - sorry Taylor and Mikki. I know you guys are avid cottage cheese fans. Today there was also no improvement in air leakage. The surgeon told me before she left for the weekend on Saturday that if by Monday the leakage still persists, then we'll have to talk about surgery. I guess we might have to talk about surgery tomorrow, as I don't feel any better during this past week. My mom went to Wal-Mart to buy some boxers because I've worn the same pair for literally 6 days straight (shudder). Well, hopefully I'll get back soon enough so I could take regular showers instead of washcloth+basin baths with no-rinse-needed soap/shampoo.

Hospitalization

2008-04-03T10:15:00.002-06:00

This is currently my first visit and stay at a hospital. Venue: Cayuga Medical Center. Reason: pneumothorax.

DAY 0: Monday, March 31, 2008
I got up on Monday, took a shower, did all the normal things that I would do in the morning (except hit up Muffinland for breakfast). I was still feeling shortness of breath and funkiness in my right chest area, so I figured I'd go to Gannett after turning in the dynamics lab report along the way. I got to Gannett probably around 9:45 AM, out of breath from walking maybe a quarter mile from my room.

They set me up with an appointment at 10:25 AM with a doctor, and he decided to send me downstairs to radiology to get a chest x-ray and blood work done to see what's wrong. After the chest x-ray, I sat around in the radiology lobby for maybe half an hour, waiting for word to begin blood work. However, word came in that the doctor called off the blood work and they told me to head upstairs to see the doctor again. At this point I figured they knew what was wrong.

The doctor told me that my right lung had completely collapsed, a sign of pneumothorax. Apparently pneumothorax is common in "tall thin males," which I precisely fit I suppose, and could happen spontaneously. And it did happen spontaneously - I remember it was Saturday at work in the Law School when I first felt short of breath, but I thought things would get better if I waited a bit, except things stayed the same by the time Monday rolled around.

Anyhoo, the doctor told me that he had already called an ambulance to take me to the ER, and to the ER I went, in an ambulance. It was strange looking at all the people in the lobby from a stretcher, and I guess it was strange for them to see a completely conscious guy in a stretcher being wheeled out. On the way out, the receptionists at Gannett said that my x-ray was famous, and they were surprised that I walked in to get checked out that morning.

Being in the ER was a completely new experience for me. There was a TV which I had no interest in watching, but other than that there was not much else to do. The surgeon came in to insert this small chest tube in the upper front of my right chest so that air surrounding the lung can be sucked out via a Heimlich valve, hopefully expanding the lung back to normal. So I waited an hour or two before they x-rayed me and found out that the valve wasn't working, so they hooked me up to suction to assist in pulling the air out. That took another few hours, during which Michelle paid a visit (I was completely surprised). After another x-ray at around dinnertime, they told me my lung should be ok but I'll still need the valve connected to me for the next few days. They told me that I could go home, except when I stood up I almost fainted, so they gave me a boxed lunch to eat (this was the first thing I had eaten all day long - at 6:30 PM). I then proceeded home via bus (and fainted on the bus but I woke up after a while) and went to bed after emailing about 32983403 people telling them I'm lame for the next few days.

DAY 1: Tuesday, April 1, 2008
I got up and walked to Gannett for a follow-up chest x-ray. After seeing that my right lung had re-collapsed overnight, they decided to send me back to the hospital as an admitted patient. I now have a patient room to myself (double-occupancy too, except I'm the only one in here for now). They now have me connected to wall suction 24 hours a day (except when I have to go drop a deuce - then they unplug me temporarily). The hospital food is ok, but after a while it seems like the same thing over and over again. This first day I spent just chillin' and sleeping. There are a lot of student nurses here in Cayuga Medical Center.

DAY 2: Wednesday, April 2, 2008
My second day as a resident in the hospital. They gave me the Ithaca Journal in the morning to help keep me occupied, seeing that I brought literally nothing with me because I did not foresee the need to come back to the hospital when I went for a follow-up at Gannett. I spent the day trying to read the newspaper, sleeping, and doing the sudoku in the paper...and I actually finished it (my first one - 3 stars, hehe). At around 7 or 8 PM, there was a surprise visit from Brian and Michelle, who drove down here to bring me some stuff and pay a visit. It was very nice (and surprising) to see them. Now I have a computer to check email and such (the hospital blocks Facebook for some reason) and my phone charger so I don't have to keep my phone turned off to conserve battery.

DAY 3: Thursday, April 3, 2008
As usual, I awoke at around 7 AM to get a chest x-ray done, except this time they wheeled me downstairs instead of using the portable x-ray machine in my room. After the x-ray came out, the surgeon came in and told me that they'll have to take out the thin chest tube that I've had for 3 days and replace it with a "real" chest tube - larger and more aggressive in sucking out air. This would involve a small operation in which they make an incision in my side and stick the tube in. This was not good for a few reasons - things were not getting better (namely, the lung re-collapsed the night before), and this tube fucking hurts to have inside you to say the least. I had the operation at around 10 AM, had lunch at normal lunch time (although my appetite was shot to death), and agonized until about 2:30 before the nurse decided the pain pills weren't working so they gave me some anesthesia through my IV. That knocked me out for the remainder of the afternoon until dinner came in on a tray. However, I guess the powerful anesthesia causes me to feel lightheaded and faint after sitting up for a while, so I ate dinner periodically sitting up and lying back down for the faintness to go away. I tried to do the sudoku in this morning's paper in the evening, but I kept feeling nauseous and dozing off. That kept up until around 9 PM, when I decided to actually brush my teeth and go to sleep, but not before the night nurse knocked me out with the anesthesia again. I think I woke up at 2:30 AM to take a leak. The tube really kills.

Happy Pi Day

2008-03-14T13:10:00.002-06:00

And happy Dragon Day, except I didn't go to Dragon Day this year, nor did I purchase a Dragon Day shirt. And happy spring break!

Happy Leap Day

2008-02-29T13:57:00.001-07:00

Today is Leap Day.
That's all for now. Thanks.

Rice

2008-02-22T18:59:00.002-07:00

Have you ever wondered how many grains of rice an average Asian person consumes in a lifetime?

20

2008-01-24T20:18:00.000-07:00

I guess Heath Ledger was found dead on my 20th birthday (and typing on qwerty keyboard is rather difficult for me now).

Cubing

2007-10-10T11:32:00.000-06:00

For some reason, today (being the first day of class after Fall Break) I decided to pick up my cube that's been sittin' in my drawer. After a clunky start of 46's, I managed to average 37.70 seconds. Between June 28 and today, I probably picked up my cube a total of 5 times. My fastest recorded average was on June 26 (34.03 seconds).

2007-09-29T09:16:00.000-06:00

3.3 months later, I have finished listening to all 219 hours of music that I have.

Naps of power

2007-08-30T20:44:00.000-06:00

Today was the 6th day of classes this semester. Even though I have not skipped any classes so far, today I did fall asleep for the first time this semester. That will probably set off an unstoppable chain of events of the power-napping-during-class type (damn, Schwartz Auditorium becomes sweltering hot during physics).

"35W is no more"

2007-08-01T20:26:00.000-06:00

Shortly after I signed onto AIM earlier this evening, Jimmy IM'ed me to tell me to turn on the news. Being a n00b at televisions in general, since I don't really watch tv, I said that wouldn't be plausible at the moment. Eventually, he told me the Interstate 35W bridge over the Mississippi River in downtown Minneapolis had literally collapsed (and I was like "Holy. Shit."). A few minutes later, it became "breaking news" on cnn.com. I do remember seeing that section of I-35W closed for large-scale construction of some sort when I went home earlier this summer, and apparently it was still under construction as of today. Quite freaky, having a bridge suddenly go out like that.

Cinematics

2007-07-28T15:03:00.000-06:00

Before this year, I rarely went to watch movies at movie theaters. I think I saw literally between 0 and 3 films each year until now. Looking through my stack of ticket stubs that I've saved since 2005, there are 3 from 2005 (all during the summer), 1 from 2006 (from the summer as well), and 7 so far from this year, the most recent being The Simpsons Movie from last night. I thought The Simpsons Movie was a great movie---full of satires and stuff that normal Simpsons episodes have (or as far as I remember, seeing that I haven't really kept up with the Simpsons since 9th grade or so). On top of that, the Regal Cinemas here in Ithaca just got remodeled and opened last weekend, and it's quite nice. Really spacious and comfortable theaters.

Confabulation

2007-07-24T21:48:00.000-06:00

2 days after my 19 1/2 birthday, Frank (formerly known as Frank the Tank) has inspired me to hop onto the Blogspot/Blogger bandwagon. This marks the 2nd occassion of me switching blogs. The first such occassion was sometime shortly after 10/9/04, although I am unable to find out which day exactly due to a massive power outage in the vicinity of LiveJournal's datacenter.

As for these days, I actually enjoy working at the law library a little. Sure, I can zone out for a large amount of time because the work isn't the most interesting there is, but doing work in the stacks means I get to be a number-cruncher, which I enjoy. Of course, I also get to listen to music while I work at the library, which I also enjoy.

I really need to visit Rochester sometime soon. If there is one thing that my summer is missing, it will be a visit to Rochester. I miss Rochester.