Yesterday, I finally learned the difference between an egg cooked sunny side up and an egg cooked over easy. Just prepping, you know.

The only reason that I got an A in high school chemistry was because I read the teacher really well. That is, before she got cancer and had to be admitted to the hospital. Then somehow I couldn\’t read the substitute teacher that well. I got a B+ in Honors Algebra 2/Trig, because teachers in high school don\’t fail people who are at the bottom of the class.

Now, my mom\’s coworker evidently thinks I am smart for attending UC Berkeley. Thus, she is hiring me to tutor her daughter who supposedly was a good student, but suddenly got bad grades. A C in high school chemistry and a barely breaking B in her honors algebra class. When I talked to my mom\’s coworker on the phone, she asked me for what I expect as my hourly pay. I didn\’t want to say $10/hr as I did when I first tutored in high school when I found out my competitors asked for $15/hr. Inflation rate! So being very conservative, I said that people doing this kind of work usually are paid $15-$20/hr. So I am being paid $20/hr starting tomorrow at 10 am…and every day for the rest of winter break. I guess I\’ll be doing something productive…finally.

Anybody who is reading this is most likely not anti-blog, but I have one dear friend who is. ALEX. Listen to him on screwthoseidiots.com as he defends how blogging deprives society of its innate personal touch as well as suppresses our creativity.

In idle procrastination and in spirit of holiday cheer, I present my THINKGEEK wish list and my Amazon wish list. I think my sister is getting me something cool from amazon. :D

And now go take a look at my User Interfaces semesterlong project. I was the one who put that website together (from a template) which took longer than it should have!

I am returning my laptop to the cs department tomorrow and so here is the AIM logs recount on trillian since 9/25 to 12/15 today (previous recount here)

WHO HAS TALKED TO ME THE MOST?!

1. Cheez 222k (from 11/16. Of course, we haven\’t talked that much lately.)
2. Tanner 109k (he who has disappeared off the face of this earth, never goes on AIM anymore! HEY HE IS THE ONLY ONE WITHOUT A BLOG BWAHAHAHAHA)
3. Rekuytn 94k (yeah!)
4. Lele 75k (I think it was because of our repeated drama. Especially when I was in a final review session and she was blabbing to me online about 2 girls and a boy.)
5. Cat 63k (I never knew we talked that much!)
6. my sissy! 62k (YO LADY!)
7. Alecky 56k (that boy who inadverdently took up lele\’s space)
8. Seth 46k (I don\’t know how it\’s possible we talked that much)
9. Stacee 37k (ditto)
10. Juanie 37k (DITTO. it must have been my inner fantasies/dreams that caused this)

Other runnerups include people I don\’t talk to anymore and people who sporadically appear online. One runnerup is AOL System Msg that tells me repeatedly that I am online in TWO locations. Thank you for telling me that AOL System Msg!

Are instructors as lazy as students? Or perhaps most people are just apathetic?

I seriously expect people who are graduate students…who have earned their PHDs to be more on top of things. The posts to the newsgroup of both of my CS classes go unanswered except by fellow students. Surely, we don\’t want the blind leading the blind. I worked on the website presentation for 10 hours straight that was due last Monday that is supposed to be online now, but it\’s not. I have sent e-mails to my TAs, questions about the finals and they have yet to respond. What pisses me off is how one TA says he is going to hold a review session tomorrow at 3 pm. Earlier, he said that he was going to post on the newsgroup where it was going to be held. So it\’s 11 pm the day before the review and I still do not know where it\’s going to be held. For my other class, I have realized how much BS there was in the review. The TA was obviously unprepared. The instructor that graded our assignment gave us a reduced grade (an A to an A-) based on the fact that we put a period outside of quotes rather than a period inside the quotes (as if this is an English class). The entire teaching staff isn\’t sympathetic to a students\’ misgivings, but this is Berkeley, right?

I am getting irritated that I make so much effort to do things for some people and it does not get reciprocated. At least, I can laugh most issues off with a kick and smile.

After our massive studying at Dennys, Aaron and I went over the Bay Bridge to San Francisco…accidentally. The intersection between the 24, 580 and 880 is too confusing for the driver who has better things to think about.

But going across the bridge (with high winds pushing the car left and right) reminded me of how I always have perceived big cities. Is there any other city in the world where you have to enter it from a bridge…or a tunnel? Maybe New York City.

Ever since I was young, I always thought of the Big City as the city that was across the bridge. You would have to pay some toll to get across the bridge. A long tortous journey across the water. But to be greeted by the massiveness of the city. The tall buildings and the bustle uncommon in the suburbs. It seemed strange to me when I was with my relatives entering Grand Rapids for the first time. We were on the freeway and suddenly there was the big city. It seems as if a city is not complete without a special entrance. Some kind of bridge that you have to cross from the every day mundane to the spectacular life on the other side.

It\’s like taking your first breath of fresh air, after being cooped up in a room with no circulation.

So apparently, the place where I work has been underpaying me for the last few months. Fortunately, I am not living from paycheck to paycheck since they owe me approximately $300+

Last year, the pay rate was $10.60/hr Then they decided to give everybody a raise to $11.97 beginning in August. Mostly because a lot of us were complaining that RCCs in other campuses get paid more. (UCSD RCCs get paid upwards to $12/hr!) For me, because I am a returning RCC, I get an additional raise of 25 cents.

So ever since August, I have been paid only $10.85/hr Big difference considering how much dedication I give to certain girls on the job. How can I resist when a resident comes into the center with a whoops-my-computer-died-i-think-i-need-to-reformat and dollar signs appear because I know it will be an easy two hours. How can I not!

It seens like every day I come up with some food item that overtakes my entire day. During my idle time, I can\’t think of anything else besides buying this food item.

Today it was a strawberry smoothie, Hershey\’s Skors, then ice cream with toffee bits, then spaghetti, then a egg danish, then cheesecake, then a baked potato with a huge mound of butter.

In the I-house cafe today, I got up from my seat nearly five times just so that I can look at the pasteries and menu…without buying a single thing.