I don\’t have a TV in my apartment. Sometimes I tell people that I don\’t own one. They seem so shocked.

But when I first got an apartment, I was adamantly against the thought of getting a TV. Since I already waste so much time on my computer, I don\’t see why I should get another device to help me waste more time. Furthermore, I don\’t have anything to watch on basic TV.

So I found myself at home, watching TV mindlessly. And how irritated I became when someone interrupted my TV watching (despite having seen that movie almost 3 times). That\’s not want I want. I am never going to be grounded to a weekly Thursday 8 pm watching of Friends. Nor am I going to be biased by shows that don\’t really show the truth.

Wherever I live next year, I hope that my roommates will not own a TV. At least…own a real live conversation.

In one episode of Sex and the City, Carrie is shocked and hurt when she sees her first bus advertisement pass by…with a hand-drawn penis on her picture. She puts her hand to her mouth, an exasperated shocked gasp. Her friends immediately make a joke out of it and try to comfort her.

Today (after grueling hours of removing the Beagle/Bagle worm from computers), I walked into the computing center and in the back room, I found a defaced rescomp CIB. Now this rescomp CIB (basically a poster with latest annoucements) has pictures of all the RCCs (myself included – a sucky picture too). Apparently someone (most likely a guy according to the handwriting) doodled all over our faces. One of my coworkers\’ name was crossed out and replaced with Gretel. Another was left with a mark on his forehead (the Asian Indian tradition). Another\’s description said gay instead of friendly. And even worse, my coworker\’s head was drawn to look like a penis. My own demarcation was an Asian hat with a large label VC and some unreadable writing.

Racist, sexist, lewd…but I was amused. Someone took their time to deface a poster! I thought I didn\’t look Vietnamese at all. Furthermore, I didn\’t think I looked that communist. Who knew.

Someone said blogs are ruining their life. (Props to Jason)

On the contrary, I think it allowed me to have a life. I found a way to express myself when I did not know how to express myself vocally. Most people I know in Berkeley don\’t blog (hey now, I don\’t call Xanga a blog, do you?). When I wore my I am blogging this shirt, everybody asked me what a blog was. When I was a major participant in the campus Blogging club, many thought it meant…FLOG THE LOG. No unfortunately.

Unlike some bloggers, I am not out to create hits for myself. I don\’t google for myself (mostly because I don\’t want most people I know to find me easily – yes I like to make life that hard). I like comments, but all it does is assure me that someone is reading. I do have, however, acquired a haughty approach to some blogs – I know which blogs suck, I know when to complain and create DRAMAH, but I also know how to compliment and praise. But I use blogging to keep in contact with people who live…so far far away.

Yet, one thing that the author forgot to mention is that all of us…often censor our blog. We don\’t always write what actually happened. We don\’t write the devastating, depressing parts of our lives. We don\’t write who we\’re crushing on. We don\’t write about how depressing we really are staring at a computer for 10 hours straight. Rather, we strive to find a life…so that we actually have something to talk about. Maybe I seek dramah just to have something to blog about.

It\’s the first Wednesday of the month again. Along with the monthly noon fire drill (that sounds a \”test test\” grumpy voice across campus), protestors gather in Sproul Plaza to show deathly pictures of…abortion. It\’s bothersome that these anti-abortion people come to campus just to show pictures of dead (bloody) babies, simply for the purpose of inciting fear in those who are still impartial to the issue. This time around, there were some other pro-choice protestors. But we know pictures often speak 1000 words.

So do actions, right? During a chat room incident last weekend, I felt so hurt and injustified that I decided to leave RBJ (well okay, stop posting — not sure if I will still rescind my RBJ profile yet). Not that they will notice (there are too many members that fade in and out of the boards), but the act itself speaks words for me. Why stay in something that will cause me to go only in one direction? Down? Those faithful followers, however, probably will try to lure me back, saying that they do value opinions and they want impact of individuals, but well good for them. But as always, actions always speak louder than words.

As I was walking back to my apartment today (for supposedly a quick rendevous, but instead I got to writing in my blog…agian), I suddenly realized that I was ready to get out of this town. It\’s the beginning of March and I am graduating towards the end of May. Slightly more than two months. In the last four years, I have created so-called relationships and demolished them, often all in one year. The history sort of lies invisible…a burden. Sure, I am often amused by the radical protestors (see: happy happy guy who should have more to say than a huge sign hanging on his body). I do love the high Berkeley style academia. But the people? Time to start anew.

Yesterday (because I hadn\’t been reading my work e-mails about virii too thoroughly) I received an e-mail with the subject \”Hokki\” from Berkeley\’s Hawaii Club mailing list. It looked legitimate albiet a bit fishy since the body of the message was just \”WEAH, i don\’t like plaintext\” and a password of numbers. The attached file was Letter.zip Because I was at work and on a Macintosh, I simply opened the attachment. Not once, but twice hoping that some amazing thing would happen. Nothing. :( I couldn\’t infect the Mac.

Turns out that attachment was the Beagle worm. Today, I received several more similar e-mails with the same attachments. From various campus mailing lists. At my work e-mail, I received several from residents. The worse case was when a former Rescomp employee (RCCs are supposed to be very tech geeky and are supposed to be very WARY of opening attachments) sent an infected e-mail the work mailing list. Embarassment, anyone?

What made this worm so easily spread is the way it\’s distributed. Once the user has opened up the file, entered in the password to unzip it, and run the executable…the program installs several files on the computer. One of which scans the entire hard drive looking for files that would contain e-mails. Then it creates a primitive mail server and sends out e-mails with this very attachment to all the addresses it found. But I must say, the e-mail body makes it very personable. How often do you hear a person say weah with a smilie face?

~~~

For my Industrial Design/Human Factors class, we have to create a design notebook. What we have to do is find objects in our daily life that reflect the design concepts in class. I chose the urinal for one of my ten required objects. Then I realized I didn\’t know how a urinal worked and I looked at this powerpoint presentation on how to use a urinal to help me. I never knew there was so much involved!!!

I got accepted to Carnegie Mellon MHCI program! :D The best HCI program in the world! Like my friends who are surprised at getting accepted to the top universities, I am….so surprised too. If I asked myself last year where I would think I was going, I would have just said San Jose State for a so-so CS graduate program. Ah, the contrary!

The tuition is more than $40,000 for the entire program. But it\’s the most \”wired\” campus in the US (I think). Hmmmmm!

The following quote made me laugh aloud last night:

But to charge the film with being anti-Semitic is like saying those who oppose the Bush Administration\’s Iraq policy are anti-American. (from Time\’s review of the Passion of the Christ)

I remember last year how the debate soared on the war. I remember the miniscule war protest in Sproul Plaza. Most people in Berkeley were indifferent about it. And I was too. Yet, when I surfed into a message board, the bloodletting started. I spat out my anti-war beliefs. People called me anti-american. That makes me wonder, why do I want to stay in America? There are better opportunities in England for my field. Beyond my fear of not speaking the language, the world is so vast. Moreover, I am attracted to the starting-anew-leaving-past-behind appeal of a brand new place. Furthermore, I just want to live in a country where \”how are you\” is not a gesture of politeness but rather a question of true compassion.

I am now the proud \”owner\” of http://idontlikepeoplewhoannoymelike.alecky.com!

CONGRATULATE ME!!!!

The domo-kuns return!!!

Sometimes I just want to be a little alien (that looks so cute) who has a permanent look of anger and passes WIND when upset. Life would be simple that way, huh?

Last week, I had been in anxiety about my philosophy paper. The first philosophy class I took at cal (two years ago) was surprisingly difficult. It was one of those classes which I entered (almost pompously) thinking that the class would be ridiculously easy. Unfortunately, it was quite the opposite. It was the only class I have ever taken that I almost fell into the C range. So my current philosophy of language class, I was fretting about whether my \”tips appreciated\” paper would get that mark as well. And…to my shock (and delight), I got an A! :D

It reminds me of my \”friend\” paper from last year\’s Mind and Language class…

I had a practice videotaped interview today. Apparently, I am so critical of myself that most people didn\’t agree with the majority of my self-criticisms. I believed that I slur my words together too much but others didn\’t.

One of my friends was doing the workshop with me and when we were watching the video of someone who (obviously) didn\’t interview well. She kind of made a noise (almost like she was laughing). Bad manners! The guy didn\’t make that much of an acknowledgement. But the only reason I am blogging is…is because my friend was quite embarassed and I just want to put it somewhere where it\’s PERMANENT..FOREVER!!!

I always mean half of the time I joke. Maybe even more than that.

That\’s why I take people\’s joking partially seriously. They must have believed their joke enough to say it.