Codec

Friends only.

3:00 AM. Something about this hour energizes me, I've noticed. If I am cramming on something, I'll produce utter crap until this hour. It's beautiful. I get this surge of energy. :D I haven't seen this hour with any important tasks in the last few months, but school is soon!

Sometimes I wish bachelor's degrees didn't matter and I wouldn't have to do the whole college bullshit part. Fuck, I'm pissed at this stupid assignment from my CS professor who honestly shouldn't be allowed anywhere near a college. He's horrid at teaching and at life. 

Bin ich Krank? weiss nicht. Wissen sie?

我是病了。

I'm happy here at Mason. I've been here a bit over two months and have had my ups and downs with Mason. But, overall, I must say it's a great school. It's a developing school, and I'm actually kind of glad it's not fully developed yet.

DC is a great city. I'd want it to be bigger, but oh well, it's big enough for me. I still want to travel and see as much of the east coast (north of here, cough cough) as I can before I depart. I don't think I'll stay here on the east coast. I don't know where I'll go after school. I definitely want to see NYC and definitely return to Boston before I leave this place. I hope to do that relatively soon.

I'm in the process of changing my major from Civil Engineering to Computer Science. I kind of saw the switch coming. Civil Engineering is a great career in theory. But the chances of getting the work I want would be slim to none.  At least with computer science I'd be using a tool I practically live on and enjoy the culture of instead of being stuck at some stupid drafting table. I don't know though. I feel like I could do a bachelors of arts so easily, but I like the challenge of CS. Plus, it feels so good when you get that "W00T, I just created an oval!".

Speaking of, I'm off to make my target program for CS in the library.

Ich will (nicht möchte) nach Berlin reisen.

Jetzt werde ich schlafen. Morgen werde ich von 10-5 arbeiten. Am dienstag werde ich mit Arisa-san und Jeincy nach D.C. fahren. Ich werde viel fotografieren. Diese Woche war es mir so langweilig. Hoffentlich werde nächste Woche mehr ereignisreich sein. Deutsch fehlt mir sehr. Ich soll mehr auf Deutsch sprechen, lesen, und denken *werft etwas nach Attie*.

One of our dogs is really sick right now. She can't use her hind legs and she's not drinking or eating.

We decided to take her to a vet today, but found that most of them were closed. However, we found one in Orange that was open. Great, so we hop in the car and find our way there. We wait a little bit in their waiting room before finally getting to go into the check up room. After another ten minutes, the doctor walks in and just seeing him at first is hard to describe. He's old (84-85) and has this bad southern drawl; his office looks like something out of the thirties. Then it starts to get irritating when he starts his "check up procedures" by using a metal wand and putting it around our dog to see if it oscillates. It does in certain areas, and he calls these "bad areas". I shrugged it off a bit since I figured it was just some really old way of practice.

After the wand treatment, the doctor diagnoses my dog with tick paralysis and will be giving it an anticoagulant. His assistant (who has maybe four teeth to count) brings out a "guardian machine" which she explains will be used to insert the anticoagulant. It was at this point that I realize, "Oh shit, this is some alternative treatment crap". The doctor comes back in and explains that the guardian machine will extract the charged electrons from the medicine and transfer them from a metal plate into our dog. After he does this procedure (in which you couldn't see anything happen and our dog did not react), he brings out a book titled Angels Don't Play this HAARP which explains the holistic view and the doctor explains the relation between it and christianity (note, we are not christians). The doctor then makes up a spray which has a base mixture of rum and water, that he "transfers electrons from the medicine" into and tells us to spray our dog's face with it twice a day. At this point we just wanted to leave. $65 to the Holistic People and we get in the car and run for our lives.

The doctor should be glad my mother was there, else I'd've bolted after the wand. I haven't taken the time to learn about Holistic medicine (and I haven't really had interest in it to learn), but when it's our dog's life, I'd rather trust traditional medicine. That brings me to my main frustration: not once was "holistic" or "alternative treatment" mentioned to us until the doctor brought out his book. We weren't warned or anything, because had we been, we'd've never even thought about bringing our dog there. I could tell the doctor was kind of "oh shit"ing when he found out my mother was a nurse.

This is the kind of backwoods crap I have to deal with here. Only a month and a half left until I get to move to civilization and never return to Orange, Virginia again.

Oh and here's an article about Doctor Tucker: Orange's Vet Prefers New Treatment.

This is definitely subject to change* in the future. Also, so I don't forget the textbook, I'm going to list the ISBN of each textbook next to the class.

MATH 113 Analytical Geometry and Calculus I, Flavia Colonna 9780321495754, 9780321226358
ENGR 107 Introduction to Engineering, [Professor unknown] 9780073191584
CS 112 Computer Science I, Heishmann 9781887902991
ARTH 201 Western Art History, Richardson 9780131991408
COMM 100 Public Speaking, Bogino 9780536432278

*Depending on AP scores, MATH 113 could become MATH 114. I may consolidate some classes for more free time too.

In my time of sit-at-home-ness, I have found the time to laptop shop.

These are my desires in the perfect laptop:
-Cheap Price: I just bought a new desktop in December, I don't need anything too fancy. Price range: $400-$800.
-Wi-Fi Capable: The only reason I even want the laptop is in order to escape the dorm room and still access the internet.
-Light: I don't want to have to carry around a boulder.
-Small: I'm not going to be using the computer to watch DVDs or play games, so size is no issue.
-Guttable: I'm going to want to modify my laptop. I need to make sure it's easily modable.

So far, candidates include:
-Compaq Presario C552US ($560 after rebate if I buy before Monday)
-Toshiba Satellite A135-S2326 ($550 after rebate if I buy before Monday)

This is my first possible draft of classes next year. Another variable to this schedule is that it assumes that I do not receive credit for AP Calculus. If I do get credit for AP Calc, then I'll skip calc for first semester and find something else to fill in the spot. Credit-wise, this schedule is for a 16 credit semester.



Course descriptions:
CS 112 : Computer Science 1 (4 credits)
MATH 113: Calculus 1 (4 credits)
ENGR 107: Engineering 1 (2 credits)
COMM 101: Intrapersonal and Group communication (3 credits)
CHIN 311: Modern Chinese Literature (3 credits)

Just uploaded a few pictures. There're a few interesting ones. 

Anyway, Click Here For Photos.

I'm at my Aunt's now. I'm full of sushi and chinese food. It's soooooo goooooooddd... I'm going to be 500 lbs. when I get back. I need to join a gym or something. Wednesday, I go up to my grandmother's for three days. And then the rest of my trip kind of blurs into obscurity. Do I come home on Friday and stay with my aunt until sunday, or do I come home on Friday, stay with my aunt and go to west sac on Saturday with Teresa and leave on Sunday? I'm not sure. I'm just full of asian food, that's all I know.

This about sums up Shopper's budget on marketing and packaging.



I just laughed when I saw it. And this is the second version, before it was an even worse blue cat. I'll have to look if they have that. It almost feels like they asked kindergarteners to draw it. And they couldn't even capitolize the C.

A feeling provoked solely from a mention of the Sacramento Public Access Television show Senior Spin: I miss my Sacramento immensely.

58 more days

Off to protest in D.C. will return with a review.

I think I want to take some Physical Education classes in college. Possibly even next year.

Classes I'm looking at taking for next year (both semesters), overall:
Definite Classes
GERM (German) 201-202: Intermediate German (both semesters). If I somehow find the immense energy I'd need to learn enough to test out of 201-202, then I could possibly start with 310 and a random elective, which would be nice.
COMM (Communications) 100 or 101: COMM 100 is a course on public speaking and 101 is a course on interpersonal and small group communicatoin. One of the two is enough to fulfill the communications general education requirement. I'll probably do COMM 100 since I need more work on public speaking as opposed to small groups.
CS (Computer Science) 112: First year computer science classes, taking this will help me decide whether I'd like to major, minor, or do nothing with Computer Science.
ENGR (Engineering) 107: Introduction to Engineering, this will help me decide the same as CS, but with more of a focus on Civil Engineering.
PHYS (Physics) 160: Physics I. Along with calculus, another friend who will be close to me for the rest of my college days.
MATH 113 or 114: This is Calculus I and Calculus II. Hopefully, I can pass the AP test this year and get out of taking 113, which would allow me to take another class. Calculus is going to be a fact of life for me in college, I've accepted that and I honestly enjoy calculus, so eh.
Electives
GERM 325: A German literature course. This would prove to be interesting and help me get closer to my goal of a minor in German and also satisfy the literature general education requirement.
PHED (Physical Education) 108 and/or 149: PHED 108 is weight lifting and body conditioning, something I'd be interested in doing just because it's something completely out of my comfort zone and would help me with being healthy. PHED 149 is Tai Chi. Same explanation for 108, except I think I'd like Tai Chi or at least would be interested by it enough.
GOV (Government) 300: A research strategies class which satisfies a general education requirement in IT.
CHIN (Chinese) 310 or 311: Two Chinese literature courses which will also help me in my goal for that particular minor. 310 is Chinese lit dating before the 20th century and 311 is modern literature post 20th century. I'd probably do 311 first. (Course taught in English, because Chinese language courses won't be started until second year.)
CEIE (Civil, Environmental, and Infrastructural Engineering) 100: An introductory course in Environmental Engineering that would help towards my possible major.

The Best Historical Halloween Article Out There.

My movies came in!

Now I'm graced with the likes of:
Lola Rennt (Run Lola Run)
Das Experiment(The Experiment)
十七岁的单车 (Beijing Bicycle)
Gattaca
I <3 Huckabees

So far, I've seen all of the movies beforehand except Das Experiment, of which I just watched and was amazed at how cool it was. I recommend every movie I now own :P. At least give them a rental.

Off to Personal Statementland.

A day off? Really? This is new.

Today, I'm doing homework, resting, and sleeping. It will be eeeeeeeeaaaasssssy.

I still like my job though, even if it does keep me awake and busy. I like the location of it. I don't like the location of my house in relation to it, however.

Heute bin ich fleißig. :D