Boys are like soap. You feel so good after using them. Yet if you drop them, they keep slipping away beyond your sight.

My special pencil of 3 years has…died. I guess mechanical pencils weren\’t supposed to last that long under the intense pressure of writing…from me. Recently, this pencil has been leaking oil from me squeezing the plastic rubber grip so hard. So I bought a new pencil yesterday (along with an expensive very-thin textbook for $50). This one has lifetime warranty. Note to self, if pencil breaks, send request (postage paid) to attn: QA Department, Pentel of America, Ltd., 2805 Columbia St., Torrance, CA 90509

Hey isn\’t that where my former BF was from?

Yesterday, my friend (easily) convinced me to attend the data auction for the Movement (yes, the dance organization of Berkeley that sent 6 girls to dance with William Hung – see my Google-popular post). So reliably bidded for him when he went on the stage. Twenty dollars for cleaning! :D It\’s amazing how generous I am when a friend asks me to donate to somewhere. But it\’s even more amazing how stingy I am spending money for myself.

Rainy day! Last night, I couldn\’t sleep well due to the heavy rainstorm. Since my bed is right next to the window, the heavy rain drops woke me up. Pouring!

Yet by the time I woke up for class, the rain had only become a trickle. And by the time my class was over, rain had stopped completely. So it goes right?

Went to the career fair today and I only returned with a small cylinder of…blue PLAY-DOH (and about 10 different pens splattered with a company logo). I fumbled my way through Microsoft (again), Amazon (again), Informatica, Ipsh, Mann Consulting…but this time more prospects than the previous fairs I have attended. There is something seriously wrong with the campus recruiting system since they won\’t allow people like me (graduating in may but attending graduate school in the fall) to find a summer internship. How annoying.

Three for three! I got accepted to RPI.

RPI, however, is one of my least favorite schools. They don\’t offer much research for the IT program I applied to. In addition, my dad is trying to encourage me to go…just because RPI is a private school (and may give endowments???) Finally, I am reluctant to even try to go to RPI for the fact that my supervisor last year (whom I had a \”conflict\” with) currently attends that school for his graduate studies.

I feel…lost.

I really want to redo my site. Just so that I don\’t look like another tennybopper who designs a site that isn\’t great to the eyes, small text, and annoying animation (although I still love the idea of my blinking cursor *BLINK* *BLINK*) There\’s always my stolen layout or the no-frills layout I made specifically for Rekuytn.

Today, I went for a walk to the Ed-psych library intending to finish my assignment due on Tuesday. (I would just like to say that one of my friends messed up my procrastination by telling me it was due this Thursday…) The air was somewhat refreshing, but not. I dropped by a campus bookstore to finally buy the text for one of my classes. Unfortunately, they only had new copies which was upwards to $40 for something that was ridiculously thin. I walked around the book for about 5 minutes, fingering the clothes they had on the rack. Five minutes until closing time, I put the book back on the shelf and walked out the store, empty-handed. And going back to my apartment, past a couple that was trying figure out where to eat and past a group of girls giggling over the latest event in their life. A homeless bum calling out, \”Ladies, spare a dime?\” And walking past the well-lighted dining commons full of gaggling freshmen.

It seems as though my life is going toward the quarter-life crisis phase (or drain). I have watched so many movies. I am a drama queen. I know how to start things and I know how to end things. Yet how do you manage what goes in between?

Without any homework assignments or project deadlines approaching, I always feel compelled just to sleep early. There\’s nothing stopping me. There\’s nobody keeping me up to talk. No forums to check. No new blog/journal entries to read. Just that there is nothing to do.

Four years ago, I thought 11 pm was a late time to sleep. Now it\’s early. And I go to bed feeling that I still have unfinished business, but I don\’t want to keep moping about something that can\’t resolve itself that easily.

Tomorrow is the last episode of Sex and the City! I have only been recently getting into that show. And unfortunately, I realized how unrealistic it is. Surely, the display of sexual appetite is not enough for a real relationship. To this day, I have yet to see someone act that suave as trying to pick up someone. Maybe I am in the wrong town?

I CAN\’T BELIEVE THIS. I HAVE BEEN ACCEPTED TO UMICH. :D :D :D

My list of schools (in order of preference)
1. CMU (one year program, I really hope to go here!)
2. SIMS @ Berkeley (two year program and I wouldn\’t have to move! and I will get in-state tuition instead of the out-of-state tuition I am going to get at every other school…)
3. Gatech (their admissiions agenda was ridiculously complicated and I don\’t think I fulfilled all their requirements correctly – the hci page had broken links and incorrect information, maybe I shouldn\’t have spent money here)
4. UMICH (I got accepted YO)
5. Indiana (I got accepted, but I am not sure how strong the program is here…)
6. RPI (not likely going here, because I don\’t like their hci program which is too technical for me)
7. Iowa (never heard of their hci program being that prominent…so yeah)

From a salary survey in 2001:

Usability is a well-paying profession these days: A usability specialist in California with five years\’ experience has an estimated cash compensation of $90,118 a year, not counting stock options or other benefits.

I look forward to buying the prerequisite environmentally-safe geek car, a Toyota Prius (almost every silicon valley professional I have met owns a hybrid or…they own an apple powerbook). Not to mention a house with integrated computing technology…hey why not ubiquitous computing–the wonders of my research (the paper I wrote–okay, a graduate student kindly included my name as a co-author–on privacy issues in location computing was recently accepted at DIS2004 conference) with me knowing where everyone in my house is located at that very moment, the ability to get real-time directions, the ability to go into my cabinent and have a computer figure out exactly what I want to eat based on my previous weight-gaining snacking habits, the ability to perfect my stalking skills with a gesture toward the wall…

Oh and…I would like a house with glass walls. The walls that can be chemically tinted with a touch of the button and revealed like a fishbowl during the day!

And now I produce the WILLIAM HUNG photo! I was sitting on the wrong side of the volleyball net and got this dark photo. :(

Nobody wanted to go with me to see his act. So I went alone. I walked in behind a group of giggling girls. Free admission for cal students of course. One of officials asked one of them, \”You know he\’s really overrated. Are you here to see him or the volleyball game?\”

We knew the answer to that. The last time I had been to a volleyball game was when I was meeting my first online friend in person. I was 15 years old I think and couldn\’t drive yet. My online friend lived a close 15 minutes from my place but I had no way of getting to his school. I somehow convinced my mom one night to drive me to a nearby high school to watch my friend play volleyball. This was the start of my first pseudo lying spree. So that was my volleyball experience. And here I am watching volleyball just for the sake of seeing William Hung…sing.

Cal fortunately didn\’t disappoint and was leading the game over San Jose State. To put it lightly, the team members of San Jose state looked much more \”attractive\” than that of Cal. One SJ state VB player looked like Justin Timberlake, but maybe it was because I was sitting too far to tell the difference. I had chosen to sit on the bleachers near the floor, where at the beginning of the game…tv crews were going back and forth, asking people for their opinions on William Hung.

Eventually when he did come out, the crowd broke out in cheers. Apparently, someone had gotten the great idea of pulling 6+ girls from Berkeley\’s dance group The Movement to perform She Bangs. So as William sang, the girls did their oh-so-lusty moves.

And then, after he finished. William got a surprise. A representative from a new music channel (Fuse I think) came out and handed William an enlarged $25,000 check for a record deal, saying \”When I first saw him, I fell in love with him.\” It was sad to witness all the laughter that came along with the cheering.

It\’s sad that most people just came to watch him sing and not to watch the game. But hey that\’s how fame works.