today is the big day.

the 36 hour case competition starts in a couple of hours and all i have been doing to prepare is play solitaire (i won for the first time, finally), minesweeper (i finally beat steve yuen's score on expert level, so i can reclaim my computer's honor), freecell (0-5), counterstrike (did pretty well for an old man), and blogs.

there is some speculation on who this year's sponsor is within the team, and i am guessing it is some form of entertainment/media related company with the decorations and also the fact that Echostar is doing a surprise round of interviews today, in which i got rejected from. i think that everyone in the school knows who the sponsor is except for the team members themselves. ironic. they are also all at school right now prepping for the competition, and i'm sitting at home.

one of the schools that we are competing against happens to be berkeley. i guess it's going to be cool going against them, but we'll see how they feel about me. so, speaking of berkeley, steve yuen told me about this week's american idol and how there was a Cal student on this week, who happened to be the worst. i don't know HOW a BERKELEY student could be the WORST on american idol! HOW?! (please note sarcasm) oh yeah... it's because they're all fugly... even the playboy model from our school is ugly... well, not aileen of course. she's hot... but not as hot as pj. that pj... he's so hot right now.

in any case, she bangs!!! (go bears!!!)

one of my new ways to stay awake during class is to play microsoft solitaire. i've already become addicted to diet pepsi, so i needed something else to keep my eyes going. i must have played at least 100 games and i have yet to win once. that was in the 3-card shuffle mode. so then i downgraded to 1-card shuffle, and i still can't beat that freaking game. it annoys the heck out of me because the game is so basic, yet i know there is something i am not doing right. i remember my sister playing solitaire in her room winning almost every time when we were really young. geez.

i got a newsletter from my department from berkeley today (molecular and cell biology). the title of the newsletter is "MCB Transcript." the two words i would never want to hear together.

pretty or annoying?

school was cancelled for tomorrow because of today's snow/ice storm. it has been a long time since school was cancelled because of weather. even though it buys me extra time to get my work finished (final paper, presentation, interview, quiz, on top of my normal homework load in the next 3 days), i still find snow a nuisance. some people love it and get jealous, but i find it as bothersome and annoying. i guess living in new jersey does that to you, since whenever it snowed we had to shovel the driveway and sidewalk which took a real long time... never really had the chance to enjoy it much since by the time i was done, i was really tired (it was also really early in the morning). sometimes, i had to shovel multiple times in a day so that the snow wouldn't freeze over. also, when it snows a lot, you're trapped inside and when you are with your parents, that doesn't necessarily bode well. it also doesn't help now when i live alone with no access to TV or a video game console. instead, i spent the whole day in front of the computer (from before noon to now) working on my presentation. i went outside to clear off my car with my jacket sleeve (i keep forgetting to get a snow brush for my car... but i know that as soon as i get one, it will stop snowing) to get some fresh air, but that was boring too. i probably looked stupid, especially when my neighbor said hi and i replied "good morning!" it was actually past 4pm. that was a weird and awkward moment indeed. at least i got to eat in today for lunch and dinner which is a first... but still continuing my pizza streak at 6 days. yes, i've had pizza every single day the past week. sometimes, my chest hurts, and i swear it's because of clogged arteries.

on another note, Korean Quarterly contacted me earlier this week concering a submission from over a year ago. they want to put one of my essays in their next issue with a picture of my grandparents. it's always been one of my dreams to get published... i've been published in a poetry book and an internet magazine site, but i think this is probably the biggest thing for me yet.

how weird would it be if i worked for a womens' underwear company?

i think my friends from back in jersey might appreciate this. some guy i know from california is programming this.

This... is very scary. It's amazing what the Japanese have done.

we just got a copy of "Ghandi" in DVD in class today. we have to watch it and do an assessment on his leadership style. it sounds pretty interesting to me, since i know the movie did a good job depicting his life... especially with ben kingsley (sidenote: doesn't kingsley look so different in real life?). anyways, the movie brings back memories from 7th grade. every year, the whole 7th grade has to watch the movie, and as we were all messed up kids, school tradition was to laugh at the scene when Ghandi gets assassinated. "Oh God" he says, and the class bursts out laughing. i'm not sure if the teachers having to stop the movie and yell at us for about an hour was school tradition too, but our teacher ms. gibbs was so pissed off about it. my guess was that it was because she was sick and tired of people laughing at that scene every year and probably just lost it... but now that i think back, i'd probably do the same. i have no idea why that scene was so funny to us... yet i still chuckle when i think about it. dave, do you remember?

dave.... how the heck does 'robotman' suit me.

should i get a new screenname? i've had it since '96... and no, not dashiizniit.

is it so wrong to work for the tobacco industry?

i thought i was going to die today.... twice. during the landing in greensboro airport, the plane started shaking and wobbling left and right. about 3 seconds before the landing, the plane was at about a 25 degree angle before the landing, then suddenly the plane jeered right and we landed. i thought it was turbulence, but nope, just a newbie pilot... female, i might add. the only thing that kept my sanity - and a lot of other people's sanity - was that there was a pilot sitting as a passenger and he didn't look worried at all and was just chatting away. if he had suddenly jumped up or grabbed onto his seat, i would have crapped my pants. even people in front of the pilot was turned around looking for his reaction. i'm sure the pilot knew what was going on.

on my way back home from the airport, my driver decided to ignore 'road closed' barricades on the road. the first barricade didn't cover up the whole street so he just whizzed right by it. in my head i was thinking, 'oh, he must know a shortcut since he knows the area so well... that sign must be old or the construction crew forgot to put it away or something.' then the second sign came up, and that covered about 80% of the road. mind you, i was in one of those big 10 passenger vans and there was no way this van was going to squeeze by. the driver didn't even slow down, and drove on the median with the edge of the barricade just scratching the side of the car. i repeat, HE DIDN'T EVEN SLOW DOWN. that's about the time i got really scared. then the third barricade came, and that covered 100% of the road, both lanes including the median. he wasn't slowing down until it finally clicked in his head about 20 feet away from the barricade that he wasn't giong to make it through. i literally braced for an impact by holding on to the seat infront of me while my eyes were as big as golf balls (that's pretty big considering the size of my slanty eyes) and my heart stopped beating. images of dukes of hazard came to my mind. a part of me was scared and another part of me was excited - i really thought we were just going to bust through the barricade and it just seemed like something i wanted to do but never had the courage to do it. but the old man slammed on the brakes and stopped about 2 inches from the barricade.
the old african-american driver says to me, "hey, what's going on here, i guess they blocked the road!"
i reply, "i guess you're not going to bust through this one."

i guess i shouldn't have given him a tip for driving like that, but i still did. it was definitely entertaining.