I am currently sitting in a resident\’s room, fixing a computer. I was able to boot up from Knoppix (a fantastic recovery utility that also allows me to go on the Internet). But of course this is the resident that wants as much as possible from her corrupted hard drive. (Read: 5 gigabytes of music and videos). Transferring data never felt so horrible.

Funny thing was that the resident squealed outloud when she wanted to use her roommates\’ computers, \”WHY DO PEOPLE HAVE TO HAVE PASSWORDS!\”

To keep people like you out? Maybe. Even in my apartment with one other trustworthy roommate, I keep my computer password protected. Just in case.

I slept only 4 hours yesterday. Not only were my neighbors being loud (apparently some people really need to shout when they\’re having sex) but I was struggling with allergies. With the onset of warm weather in the Bay Area, comes the immense flow of pollen. *sneeze*

I think I need flonase.

~

Any place you leave. Even for a day. Or a week. You walk away missing some people more than others.

My spring break starts…now.

Being a freeloader, I went to Sproul Plaza and swung by the Seniors Only tent. And just for showing up, I got a Krispy Kreme donut. A pen. Some handouts for ordering grad packs (expensive grad packs, mind you). And I was ushered into a line to get a photo with Oski.

If you can\’t tell, my eyes are closed. The photographer caught me in a bad time as I took off my sunglasses for the picture. But I got to stand next to Oski, the funny walking mascot…bear (the identity of the person of Oski is protected by the secret Oski committee)! I didn\’t shake the polaroid picture despite how many times Andre 3000 has told me to do it in the last few months. But for that lunch hour, I felt like I was feeling like a graduating senior. First hit of nostalgia.

Happy St. Patrick\’s Day!

I think the layout is GREEN enough, don\’t you think?

Recently, one of my friends told me how she would miss Berkeley a lot when she graduates this May. In response, I said that I was ready to get out of this town, this campus, this world of people. But as I was walking through the main street in Berkeley, I heard one of the bums (didn\’t seem homeless though) cry, \”That ladies and gentlemen is not Bank of America. That is Bank of Daddy.\” As several other people passed, he repeated again loudly, \”That is Bank of Daddy!!!\”

Little things like that. How often will I get to hear such cries of protest in Pittsburgh, a city of cold gray weather.

On Monday, I was talking to the graduate student I research with about how I was wary about the cold weather I would face next year. That there would be…SNOW! The other students in the room were commenting, Only in California, do you go to the snow. The snow does not go to you. Jason the graduate student is well-travelled, to note. He then asked me, \”What\’s the farthest north you have ever lived?\”

Very naively, I said, \”Hercules.\”

\”Where\’s that?\”

\”It\’s up north…12 miles,\” I responded.

He laughed. Snow snow snow!!!

Also, because I am one of those indifferent students, I am reluctant to respond to this survey about the decision to move the drop deadline to the 3rd week of classes instead of the 8th week. It\’s not going to affect me, so why do I care? Maybe for the future students? All I know is that I dropped my stat class and I sort of regret it, because it\’s one of the prereqs for the CMU program (I dropped it because I didn\’t think they would accept me). But I digress, I don\’t care about the drop deadline ultimately!!

It\’s interesting that I don\’t need a quiet environment to study, but I need a quiet environment to sleep. Too bad construction next door starts at 7 in the morning and there\’s nothing I can do, except complain here (apparently, the city ordinaces allow them to start construction work at 7 am!) Spring break for me is almost here…almost…

Yesterday was PI day and I didn\’t even know it! While walking to class, I noticed a big chalk 3 in front of Evans Hall, the math building. Then I saw all the numbers trailing after it. Apparently, the line didn\’t end until it was across the street and at Soda Hall, the computer science hall. Awwww…isn\’t that cute!

HOLY BUCKETS! It has been exactly one month since Valentine\’s Day. And exactly one month since HE and I spoke on the phone.

I think I have too much attached to periods of time.

For the longest time, I always remembered the 20th of the month because it was the \”anniversary\” of my first boyfriend and me. The first 20th after we broke up, I made my good guy friends take me out to San Francisco. Three guys and one girl (me) went to see a movie at the metreon. We made jokes about how everyone looked stupid. We acted immature. By the end of that day, I had forgotten that it was the 20th.

When someone asks you, \”How are you?\”

How do you normally respond?