September 2003 Archives

i've been in a relatively foul mood in the past few days... things pretty much have sucked in both my research and personal life, and it hasn't helped that my neighbor upstairs has been stomping around *every single night* for the past two months at 3am (and 5am, if he's doing laundry), and noise complaints don't seem to fix the situation. miraculously, he wakes up at 9am to go to school or whatever, which means i have to wake up at that time. maybe i'll start sleeping in my office from now on :/

fifteen days from now marks one year from the death of my step-mother, and its been weighing heavily on my mind. my father's birthday is coming up soon, and i know for certain he's been in a reflective mood in the past couple weeks, so i've been overworking myself to make time to go up to see him. this past year has been an extremely trying one for me, and has definitely been testing my tolerance to juggle all this shit that comes way. i've been able to manage pretty well, all things considered, probably because i'm able to easily set aside my personal wants and worries for more pressing matters.

anyway, i'm doing alright for anyone reading this. just a little irritable and dragged down, but everyone's allowed that once in a while, right? :)

Watch this movie, then sing it all day long!

relearn them the fun way! thanks, alkulukuja paskova karhu.

a song i've been listening to a lot recently

From my bro's place in norfolk during Isabel (it used to be his parking lot and the brick wall in the back two or three feet tall)

as part of the requirement to complete a PhD in electrical engineering, the department makes their potential candidates take a qualifying exam. it's an extruciatingly painful five hours of written questions from everything you _should_ have learned as an undergraduate (key word here is "should", which can be easily replaced with "didn't" in my case).

the exam is divided into five sections: computer engineering, electromagnetics, solid state, signal processing, and controls. that's a whole lotta crap to (re)learn! needless to say, the next couple months are going to be hell for me, and i can't help but think back to my junior year when i took the MCATs, only then it was physics, biology, analytical and organic chemistry.

anyway, i think it should be fun! no, seriously! i had a lot of fun studying for the MCATs... there's something about cramming in all that info in my brain i find quite appealing (i think its called masochism)

Hahaha, you gotta check out Dokaka - Smells Like Teen Spirit. Don't worry, it's a freely distributed mp3, so stay away RIAA!

hurricane isabel sucked. as she made her way toward the coast, headed straight to my door, she decided to veer right, leaving us with more than enough wind/rain to make it annoying to walk through, but not enough to shut down duke. power was gone for most around durham for about a day and a half, so the aftermath wasn't bad at all. i even stocked up on yoohoo, bagels, and pastachios (not a very appealing emergency plan, i know, but that's all i bought the day before). thank god it wasn't another hurricane fran, though. i wasn't here when it happened, but supposedly it had rained for two day straight before it came, so when fran finally rolled around, she just ripped trees right out of the ground since their roots were all mushy and loose. then, for about a week with no power, the weather got to be 90+ degrees.

oh well, there's always next year...

weather's getting too cold for sandals and shorts, and hurricane isabel is making her way to the coast... i have a feeling i'm going to be drenched on the way to my elementary korean class in 50 degree weather cuz my umbrellas never seem to want to stay with me.

on a happier note, i had a blast this weekend at a duke/unc asian american medical student association social (say that five times realy fast). my original intention on going was to vent all my frustration against asian american medical students (since i'm the brother of two of them, and friends of many many more) by pretty much mocking them (you know the sort, the ones who just can't seem to keep their minds and mouths off med school). actually, i think i succeeded a bit in fooling first and second year med students that i was a third year resident in interventional radiology. "you are? how come i've never seen you around (sir)?" they would ask embrassingly. in surprising actuality, most of them weren't the typical med studentness i dread so much, and as atypical as an asian american med student can be, i ran into a really cute one (name with-held). i had actually run into her almost exactly two years ago at a club in downtown Raleigh, and remember our conversation quite clearly. i recall asking her for some contact info, but alas she gave me a faulty IM address, unless i was too drunk to remember it correctly... and that was the end of that. but now, who knows, there's now a huge mailing list of all the duke/unc asian american medical students that i would normally care to deal with, and i think her name is on it *grin*, as well as mine *sigh*