Like Lele, I also received a Tarot Card reading. Ever since reading Michael Crichton\’s Travels (there was a short chapter on his experience with psychics), I wanted to see if a psychic could read me. When I was into the AOL thing, I ventured into a chat room titled \”PSYCHIC AVAILABLE\”. So I went inside and in my doubt, I barraged the poor woman with demanding questions such as, \”What time will I go to bed?\”

But so yesterday. The online tarot reading through AIM (I don\’t know how it\’s really possible though if the guy can\’t see me – all the information he got from was that I was asian, from California, and a gemini) was…interesting, but not as enlightening.

There most interesting parts were when he was describing a present obstacle in my life (slightly edited):

\”Card 2 is your next major obstacle…Turns up an upside down Ace of Pentacles. You want to go somewhere and explore… travel in some fashion, but lack the means and the gear to do so. Well, so far I\’m seeing that travel and movement might not be a good idea. There\’s no sense of structure here in these two cards. Card 3 is the best possible outcome…I pulled out the King of Swords… I\’m seeing this guy as a rival or an obstacle to be overcome. And if you\’re to get what you want, you have to go through him…King of Swords normally represents a darker skinned or dark eyed man, one with a lot of personal power, but with very little emotional power. Much older, too. Not the future, the most probable event for right now, in the way of your goals. He\’s not unbeatable, but there\’s some growing up to do to get around him. He might be a father figure, I really dunno.\”

What I gathered this was that he was describing my plans to study at CMU in Pennsylvania. Most likely the man is my dad, who isn\’t that optimistic about me moving across the country for a $60,000 degree that does not assure a future career.

But oh so curious!

Sorry, but your room smells like pee (to some resident in the guys\’ dorm in Berkeley).

The worst thing is that…the most persistent memory is that of a scent. I am trying to wash myself of the unpleasant scent by eating my pasta, wafts of tar from the new roof on our apartment (mind you, the construction is annoyingly loud and there\’s nothing I can do about it because its within public hours).

But back to my thought. Awhile ago I saw Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and a recent blog brought up that question: If you had a horrible breakup and/or horrible relationship, would you want erase all memories of that to ease the pain?

Obviously, for me, it would be a no. It\’s not that I relish the pain. It\’s more that without these memories, I wouldn\’t be able to figure out what I like or don\’t like. What things never to repeat (thus the saying of George Santayana – those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it) To remember the happy memories…for what it is. Most of all, something to make me more insightful and to inspire my memoirs!

ASUC Web Site Hacked After Accusations of Plagiarism

Apparently the guy who created Berkeley\’s Hot or Not got very fussy. Apparently, the student government site was stealing his information without appropriate credit. And as a result, he took over the url and directed to an accustatory page. But would you really want to hack the competitors site to \”make a statement\”? I guess anger overtakes some people sometimes (including me too) and makes them do drastic things.

Copy my site and you shall die. Not that you want to copy my electric mice in the first place. And a messy layout!

MERRY EASTER!

Somehow nowadays, that holiday doesn\’t evoke much of the egg-hunting images that it used to. I spent the majority of my day studying for my psych class\’ midterm. Mundane stuff really. I studied with a friend at the FSM who stole my cell phone for a 30 minute call. Yeah.

Usually around this time, my neighbors in Lafayette throw a block party–a Easter party or for the non-religious a basic rite of spring. Because I had a midterm, I skipped. But last year, I went mainly for the \”free food\” and surprisingly, I was able to reconnect with another neighbor who my sister and I \”hated\” when we were younger. This boy (more than 5 years younger than me) used to be irritating, annoying…to say the least. Last year, I was surprised that he had matured and it was a surprise to have a pleasant conversation with him. Surprises abound, just like that.

What software do I need for my new powerbook? (It\’s going to arrive in 5 days!) I still need to buy the mini-dvi to video adapter (which I found is not cheaper anywhere else, oops — only nineteen dollars anyway).

The last few days I have been thinking what would happen…if I never had gone to Berkeley. What if I got rejected and chose to go to UC Davis. Or UCSD? Would I have a blog? Would I still have met all the people I know now? Would it have been…better or worse? Who knows, but I chose the path I take. And the chances come, opening many paths.

It\’s interesting that if I had never joined protag boards and stay committed…that I probably wouldn\’t be a blogger. I would not have made some choices I made — an urge to blog, an urge to write. A few months ago, I thought joining RBJ would magically open thousands of opportunities. Oddly enough, it wasn\’t. Perhaps orkut is it. But then ultimately, it\’s what I make of…every opportunity I receive.

I got a gmail beta account today! :D

Yes a gmail account by google…thanks to April. It was released on April Fool\’s Day. To some, it seemed like a prank. That google, just a mere search engine, was going to create a web-based e-mail service with 1000 mb of space. But…it\’s true! The gmail interface is great. I don\’t know what to use it for though…since I already have my school account, 3 yahoo accounts, 1 hotmail account…but oh so cool. I like the way they thread all the messages so it looks like a conversation rather than a list of \”Re:___\”. A simple easy-to-undertsand interface. An interface obviously designed with the user in mind.

Edit: gmail screenshots – not mine though (because too lazy to create screenshots since nobody is really e-mailing me yet!)

EDIT AGAIN: a more thorough discussion of gmail

When I was into penpalling, I used to \”spam\” approximately 5 people a day, looking for new friend requests. With the popularity of orkut rising, surely I can start those habits again?

But today is so much different than the time 10 years ago. We are more paranoid. We distrust most people. When we used to look through our mail slowly, appreciating every word said…today we quickly glance at the subjects and delete those that are spam-like. We get an e-mail, but we would rather spend 30 seconds reading it than taking our time to read and taste every single word. A sudden realization that a fellow person on orkut likes the same movie doesn\’t cause you to msg that person. It\’s so different now.

This argument against friendster was striking. Mostly, because it addressed clearly the issues I found with FOAF networks. Relationships are inherently undefinable. Peace remains, because we have the ability to be ambiguous about relationships. When I say you are a friend in one context, you may not realize that I don\’t call you a friend globally. Friendster and orkut forces us to define explicitly all the boundaries, certainly a weakness of the social networks. And for me, all these labels of friends change rapidly.

But the social networks are nonetheless interesting. Where else can we find the ability to find similarities. The kind of similarity of knowing the same person. The communities. And karma indicators?

A few days ago, I handed Seth a $1200 check for the 12\” powerbook. For more than 2 years, I have been fantasizing about the perfect laptop. Yet, I was undecided between a mac and a windows machine. Since I got accepted to CMU (the campus with wireless everything), a laptop is a must for me. I chose a mac for its qualities as a stable system. Besides, I already have my windows desktop, which should satisfy my desire for a PC.

But but but the first EVER macosx trojan has been discovered! Is this the first downfall of the \”perfect\” OS?

Edit: alert update

If I am an INFJ, I am ridiculously disorganized sometimes. I have a 3 page paper due tomorrow that I haven\’t started. Mostly due to the fact that I didn\’t know it was due tomorrow…until yesterday. Bad me! It seems that the professor for my human machine systems class is disappointed in the undergraduates. The undergraduates who get to class late (like an hour late) or don\’t show up at all. The undergraduates who gossip in the back of the 20 person class. The undergraduates who randomly walk in and out the room as if the professor is a television. That\’s not me! And so we get a week for our assignment rather than the usual 2 weeks.

The paper is about visual limitations in certain activities. Interesting stuff. But the motivation to do it is…disappearing.

I put my name on the graduating seniors list yesterday. Then today, I bought 10 tickets to the commencement. Apparently, the UCs are so…underfunded that they are charging admission to the commencement. Three bucks a pop. So whoever wants to attend, get a ticket from me! :D