I wish I knew any of the appropriate adjectives for food. It will have to suffice to say that it was peanut butter with some crumbly brownie thing on the bottom. Very light overall. I ate 4 of these today in fear that they would never have them again.
Showing posts with label Food. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Food. Show all posts
Friday, February 12, 2010
Dessert
New favorite dining hall desert:
I wish I knew any of the appropriate adjectives for food. It will have to suffice to say that it was peanut butter with some crumbly brownie thing on the bottom. Very light overall. I ate 4 of these today in fear that they would never have them again.
I wish I knew any of the appropriate adjectives for food. It will have to suffice to say that it was peanut butter with some crumbly brownie thing on the bottom. Very light overall. I ate 4 of these today in fear that they would never have them again.
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
2010
California's recent storms have coincided nicely with our discussion of weather in German. Almost immediately after my professor began to teach some weather vocabulary today came a roar of thunder - particularly loud because the classroom door was open.
Yesterday we waited about 30 minutes in similar weather outside of the Griddle Cafe in Hollywood, which turned out to be quite worth the wait. We ordered a giant pancake filled with Oreos, which was incredibly tasty, and so large that two of us could only finish about 2/3 of it. The issue was not so much its size as its sugar content. I would like to know precisely how many Oreos I consumed yesterday, because I have never been so repulsed by the thought of sweet food as I was after that pancake. I have now gone nearly a day and a half without eating anything sugary, which is a little unusual for me.
And now for a discussion of an eternally evident trend: that frequency of blog posts varies inversely with the blog's age.
Over the void of the past few months I have developed an admiration for daily bloggers - this is something to work towards. (Side note: Blogger.com's spell check insists that "blog" and "blogger" are not words.)When you've just started a blog the words come effortlessly: in 2007 I posted 17 times in November and December alone. You might not suspect writing a few sentences each day to be difficult - it certainly sounds simple to me.
But I have some chronic writer's block. I've attributed it to a lack of motivation: the same deficiency which prevents me from picking up a book and reading it, working on a large-scale programming project, or actually getting the music in my head onto paper. Instead I find myself watching movies and television, presumably due to their minimal brainpower requirement.
Case in point: this weekend I watched all three Bourne movies, which were quite enjoyable, though a bit formulaic:
Bourne, to self: Who am I?!
Some CIA division head: I want all eyes in (European city) on Bourne! Give the asset his location!
Bourne, on the phone with division head: Send (CIA employee) to meet me at (crowded European city square). Come alone!
Some CIA employee: That place is a surveillance nightmare!!
CIA division head: I want snipers on the rooftops! And all eyes on Bourne!
Bourne: You didn't come alone! I'm out of here!
(car chase in which Bourne escapes and then travels to another European city)
Intellectualism has been pushed to the sidelines. Although recently Frank told me he might be able to show my clarinet sonata to a clarinetist and a pianist, which prompted me to make some revisions. Since I finished the piece last summer there have been a few unsatisfactory spots: in particular a stale restatement of the main melody of the first movement down an octave. I've since replaced it with a passage in which the clarinetist refuses to play, to the pianist's dismay. They proceed to musically mock each other until the pianist flips out and begins to play discordant variations on the clarinet's themes. Of course, this probably sounds much more interesting in words than in reality.
This has only confirmed my suspicion that I need some incentive beyond personal satisfaction to actually accomplish things. School is never an issue because it entails its own deadlines and provides immediate feedback. But I worry that when I lack the motivation to do what I consider my hobbies, there might be a problem.
What motivates you?
Yesterday we waited about 30 minutes in similar weather outside of the Griddle Cafe in Hollywood, which turned out to be quite worth the wait. We ordered a giant pancake filled with Oreos, which was incredibly tasty, and so large that two of us could only finish about 2/3 of it. The issue was not so much its size as its sugar content. I would like to know precisely how many Oreos I consumed yesterday, because I have never been so repulsed by the thought of sweet food as I was after that pancake. I have now gone nearly a day and a half without eating anything sugary, which is a little unusual for me.
And now for a discussion of an eternally evident trend: that frequency of blog posts varies inversely with the blog's age.
Over the void of the past few months I have developed an admiration for daily bloggers - this is something to work towards. (Side note: Blogger.com's spell check insists that "blog" and "blogger" are not words.)When you've just started a blog the words come effortlessly: in 2007 I posted 17 times in November and December alone. You might not suspect writing a few sentences each day to be difficult - it certainly sounds simple to me.
But I have some chronic writer's block. I've attributed it to a lack of motivation: the same deficiency which prevents me from picking up a book and reading it, working on a large-scale programming project, or actually getting the music in my head onto paper. Instead I find myself watching movies and television, presumably due to their minimal brainpower requirement.
Case in point: this weekend I watched all three Bourne movies, which were quite enjoyable, though a bit formulaic:
Bourne, to self: Who am I?!
Some CIA division head: I want all eyes in (European city) on Bourne! Give the asset his location!
Bourne, on the phone with division head: Send (CIA employee) to meet me at (crowded European city square). Come alone!
Some CIA employee: That place is a surveillance nightmare!!
CIA division head: I want snipers on the rooftops! And all eyes on Bourne!
Bourne: You didn't come alone! I'm out of here!
(car chase in which Bourne escapes and then travels to another European city)
Intellectualism has been pushed to the sidelines. Although recently Frank told me he might be able to show my clarinet sonata to a clarinetist and a pianist, which prompted me to make some revisions. Since I finished the piece last summer there have been a few unsatisfactory spots: in particular a stale restatement of the main melody of the first movement down an octave. I've since replaced it with a passage in which the clarinetist refuses to play, to the pianist's dismay. They proceed to musically mock each other until the pianist flips out and begins to play discordant variations on the clarinet's themes. Of course, this probably sounds much more interesting in words than in reality.
This has only confirmed my suspicion that I need some incentive beyond personal satisfaction to actually accomplish things. School is never an issue because it entails its own deadlines and provides immediate feedback. But I worry that when I lack the motivation to do what I consider my hobbies, there might be a problem.
What motivates you?
Sunday, October 18, 2009
Apples
Hypothesis: How good an apple tastes is inversely proportional to how good its name suggests it tastes. For example: Red Delicious. They have "delicious" in their name - how bad could they taste taste, right? WRONG. Red delicious apples are revolting. Then there's Fuji apples. I have no thoughts or feelings one way or the other on Fujisaki, Aomori Prefecture, and sure enough, they are pretty standard apples. Finally, Granny Smith apples. Granny Smith - really? That sounds like the name of the most boring woman on the planet. But taking a bite of a Granny Smith apple is like taking a bite out of heaven.
In other news, it's difficult to believe it has already been 4 years since junior year of high school. That year possessed some spectral grip over us; the killer year, when everyone took the most difficult classes simultaneously, braved those oh-so-important standardized exams, which would determine our future. In other words it was the exact opposite of now, which feels less important than ever. Maybe it's just that I've become accustomed to the rituals of college. I enroll in classes, put in minimal but satisfactory effort, they end. Recently it occurred to me that I lack any real incentive is supposed to be to get good grades, but I do it anyway out of habit.
And now to perpetuate the mundanity I will describe my classes, like I always do:
German 1: Elementary German
A few days in this class were sufficient to remind me how much I feed off of introductory language classes, and by that I mean I think I should take them forever and ever. They're a major self esteem boost. They force you to meet people, which I don't exactly do often. And expectations are so low that I honestly can't imagine how anyone could struggle with the material. After taking Spanish and French I can say this class feels even slower than usual, but that may be due to the flagrant incompetency of our TA, who never quite seems to understand what he's doing. I thought about keeping a log of exactly how he fails each day, but then I realized that would take more work than the class itself.
Scandinavian 50W: Introduction to Scandinavian Literature and Culture
I can't say I particularly enjoy what we've read so far - three Sagas of Icelanders and the Volusunga Saga, which are just about the least-compelling reads I have yet to experience. Fortunately we're quickly jumping towards the modern era, which means I may be able to read more than a few pages without nodding off. The professor is good, our TA is funny, and the class feels quite personal, which I suppose is how a writing class should feel. Whether it will actually improve my writing is yet to be determined. We did a bit of peer reviewing essays on Thursday and all I can say about is that I really should have not taken the humanities program at Northwood for granted, because most people's writing is just atrocious.
Geography 7: Intro to Geographic Information Systems
Honestly I have not put much thought into this class at all. Lecture has so far been completely self explanatory, which I suppose is a good thing. The professor spends half the time showing us cool websites like Photosynth. Lab has been basically a giant computer literacy test.
Math 134: Systems of Differential Equations
This class has emphasized graphical problem solving so far, which I appreciate. Hopefully I am developing some mathematical intuition, which I have really lacked since high school. I had actually been avoiding this particular professor, because she substituted for Rogawski one day back in 32B, and came off as incomprehensible. But in this class it didn't take long to realize I was completely wrong about her - she is completely straightforward, thorough, clear professors I have had to date. She has yet to truly confuse me - which every teacher I've had since pre-calculus has managed to do on a regular basis.
In other news, it's difficult to believe it has already been 4 years since junior year of high school. That year possessed some spectral grip over us; the killer year, when everyone took the most difficult classes simultaneously, braved those oh-so-important standardized exams, which would determine our future. In other words it was the exact opposite of now, which feels less important than ever. Maybe it's just that I've become accustomed to the rituals of college. I enroll in classes, put in minimal but satisfactory effort, they end. Recently it occurred to me that I lack any real incentive is supposed to be to get good grades, but I do it anyway out of habit.
And now to perpetuate the mundanity I will describe my classes, like I always do:
German 1: Elementary German
A few days in this class were sufficient to remind me how much I feed off of introductory language classes, and by that I mean I think I should take them forever and ever. They're a major self esteem boost. They force you to meet people, which I don't exactly do often. And expectations are so low that I honestly can't imagine how anyone could struggle with the material. After taking Spanish and French I can say this class feels even slower than usual, but that may be due to the flagrant incompetency of our TA, who never quite seems to understand what he's doing. I thought about keeping a log of exactly how he fails each day, but then I realized that would take more work than the class itself.
Scandinavian 50W: Introduction to Scandinavian Literature and Culture
I can't say I particularly enjoy what we've read so far - three Sagas of Icelanders and the Volusunga Saga, which are just about the least-compelling reads I have yet to experience. Fortunately we're quickly jumping towards the modern era, which means I may be able to read more than a few pages without nodding off. The professor is good, our TA is funny, and the class feels quite personal, which I suppose is how a writing class should feel. Whether it will actually improve my writing is yet to be determined. We did a bit of peer reviewing essays on Thursday and all I can say about is that I really should have not taken the humanities program at Northwood for granted, because most people's writing is just atrocious.
Geography 7: Intro to Geographic Information Systems
Honestly I have not put much thought into this class at all. Lecture has so far been completely self explanatory, which I suppose is a good thing. The professor spends half the time showing us cool websites like Photosynth. Lab has been basically a giant computer literacy test.
Math 134: Systems of Differential Equations
This class has emphasized graphical problem solving so far, which I appreciate. Hopefully I am developing some mathematical intuition, which I have really lacked since high school. I had actually been avoiding this particular professor, because she substituted for Rogawski one day back in 32B, and came off as incomprehensible. But in this class it didn't take long to realize I was completely wrong about her - she is completely straightforward, thorough, clear professors I have had to date. She has yet to truly confuse me - which every teacher I've had since pre-calculus has managed to do on a regular basis.
Thursday, April 16, 2009
Beefless
Starting this quarter, every Thursday the dining halls are beefless - which basically means all of the beef is replaced with turkey or chicken. I guess the die-hard beef fans are upset about this but I welcome anything that begets a little variety. Though I'm not entirely sure they're accomplishing much when it's only one day per week, and they're just substituting meats.
It's almost fourth week already - I think I've got midterms coming up but I don't know when. I haven't written about my classes yet so I guess I will:
Math 151A - Applied Numerical Methods - I love this class. If you've ever become disillusioned by your math classes then you ought to take some numerical analysis. For example, after elementary calculus you know how to integrate a few pretty functions in a few special cases - that's great, but real life rarely works out like the questions in your calc textbook do. In real life, you don't get functions, you get data. Or approximations of functions - and even if you have these there's a huge chance you won't be able to manipulate or analyze them by hand. Numerical analysis is all about how to cope with this sort of problem - in particular, with computers. I'm not the hugest fan of the professor, nor the TA, who spends most of his time advising us about programming in Python. Which would be nice and all if only this were a programming class - but it's not and I wish he'd discuss the actual numerical analysis a little more. The programming required is rudimentary at best, especially since we can use MATLAB.
PIC 10C - Advanced Programming - I find it funny that inheritance and other fundamental topics in object-oriented programming are taught in a class with the word "advanced" in its title. I suppose it's not that necessary in C++, but with Java these are always the first things you talk about. Fortunately this has permitted me to tune out a little, and made this class very relaxing so far. This week we switched to C# - I guess we are working towards making some nice little Windows applications, which should be handy. But of course we have to start with basic syntactical issues - and lucky for me C# is even more similar to Java than C++ is. It amuses me that writing one program in Java ever allows me to breeze through so much of this class.
Physics 1C - I hate this class. I come in every day and tell myself: "Self, this is the day you will stay awake through an entire lecture" - but it never happens and within five minutes I'm out cold. My notes are consequently a little disjointed - fragments of the second half of the past few weeks' lectures. Incidentally, I strangely recall saying most of this about 1B - physics classes must not be my thing. We'll see how the midterm goes...
Math 131A - Analysis - Another theoretical class in the same vein as 115A. This one starts with everything we've taken for granted since elementary school; for the first three weeks we have been building up from simple set theory into constructing number systems. Like defining what it means to add integers. Proving things that we have used without thinking for 75% of our lives. The professor insists that the actual analysis will start soon. I have grown to appreciate this type of material much more through 115A - it's nice to see where all of this came from.
It's almost fourth week already - I think I've got midterms coming up but I don't know when. I haven't written about my classes yet so I guess I will:
Math 151A - Applied Numerical Methods - I love this class. If you've ever become disillusioned by your math classes then you ought to take some numerical analysis. For example, after elementary calculus you know how to integrate a few pretty functions in a few special cases - that's great, but real life rarely works out like the questions in your calc textbook do. In real life, you don't get functions, you get data. Or approximations of functions - and even if you have these there's a huge chance you won't be able to manipulate or analyze them by hand. Numerical analysis is all about how to cope with this sort of problem - in particular, with computers. I'm not the hugest fan of the professor, nor the TA, who spends most of his time advising us about programming in Python. Which would be nice and all if only this were a programming class - but it's not and I wish he'd discuss the actual numerical analysis a little more. The programming required is rudimentary at best, especially since we can use MATLAB.
PIC 10C - Advanced Programming - I find it funny that inheritance and other fundamental topics in object-oriented programming are taught in a class with the word "advanced" in its title. I suppose it's not that necessary in C++, but with Java these are always the first things you talk about. Fortunately this has permitted me to tune out a little, and made this class very relaxing so far. This week we switched to C# - I guess we are working towards making some nice little Windows applications, which should be handy. But of course we have to start with basic syntactical issues - and lucky for me C# is even more similar to Java than C++ is. It amuses me that writing one program in Java ever allows me to breeze through so much of this class.
Physics 1C - I hate this class. I come in every day and tell myself: "Self, this is the day you will stay awake through an entire lecture" - but it never happens and within five minutes I'm out cold. My notes are consequently a little disjointed - fragments of the second half of the past few weeks' lectures. Incidentally, I strangely recall saying most of this about 1B - physics classes must not be my thing. We'll see how the midterm goes...
Math 131A - Analysis - Another theoretical class in the same vein as 115A. This one starts with everything we've taken for granted since elementary school; for the first three weeks we have been building up from simple set theory into constructing number systems. Like defining what it means to add integers. Proving things that we have used without thinking for 75% of our lives. The professor insists that the actual analysis will start soon. I have grown to appreciate this type of material much more through 115A - it's nice to see where all of this came from.
Thursday, November 27, 2008
The Vandal Strikes Back
Monday morning the vandal struck again - this time on the front of the Physics & Astronomy building. Unfortunately by the time we got out of History of Rock the graffiti had been hosed off so I was unable to photograph it (It's interesting how much longer chalk stays on Humanities than on the PAB - but I digress). Instead my vivid description will suffice: orange chalk, written vigorously but legibly, the following: Gravity cannot be held accountable for two people falling in love! Naturally I assumed it was some crestfallen soul struggling to cope with an abrupt and traumatic breakup, sparked by the sudden discovery of the infidelity of his former lover. But then I realized it was on the Physics and Astronomy building - so it must have just been some guy who was mad at gravity.
In the dining halls there are always three kinds of pizza: pepperoni, cheese, and funky. I always like to eat funky pizza to escape the monotony of my existence. While usually a common flavor like Alfredo, spinach, chorizo, or the lovely margherita pizza - the funky has on occassion assumed more adventurous flavors such as Caesar salad and PB&J. Wednesday in Covel was a pizza whose most spectacular component was its name - Egyptian Pizza. Think to yourself for a moment what ingredients Egyptian pizza should have - I guess at first you have to somehow convince yourself that pizza can in any way be Egyptian - but at least make an effort.
If you guessed anything Egyptian, you are wrong - it had peppers and onions. Maybe those are sort of Egyptian, maybe. But I was completely unprepared for the final ingredient:
Hot dogs. Take a good look at that picture. One good look. Now take a look at Egypt:
I think a strong argument can be made that hot dogs are probably the least Egyptian thing on this Earth.
Such a striking juxtaposition.
In the dining halls there are always three kinds of pizza: pepperoni, cheese, and funky. I always like to eat funky pizza to escape the monotony of my existence. While usually a common flavor like Alfredo, spinach, chorizo, or the lovely margherita pizza - the funky has on occassion assumed more adventurous flavors such as Caesar salad and PB&J. Wednesday in Covel was a pizza whose most spectacular component was its name - Egyptian Pizza. Think to yourself for a moment what ingredients Egyptian pizza should have - I guess at first you have to somehow convince yourself that pizza can in any way be Egyptian - but at least make an effort.
If you guessed anything Egyptian, you are wrong - it had peppers and onions. Maybe those are sort of Egyptian, maybe. But I was completely unprepared for the final ingredient:
Hot dogs. Take a good look at that picture. One good look. Now take a look at Egypt:
I think a strong argument can be made that hot dogs are probably the least Egyptian thing on this Earth.Such a striking juxtaposition.
Thursday, June 12, 2008
Weekend in Irvine, Spring finals week
Last Thursday was a bit hectic because I had my French oral final and my AUD 10b final. My last assignment of the quarter was the 9th homework for PIC10b. My printer had run out of ink the previous night, so I wanted to finish the written part of the homework during discussion (It was held in the PIC lab on Thursdays, so I could use a printer there.) It didn't take much time at all to finish so I printed it and left early to go "study" for AUD which I had immediately afterwards.
The next day was the last day of class. (As a side note, the only one of my teachers who received applause this quarter was my French teacher, who ironically won't be allowed to return to UCLA next year.) I turned in the written part of the PIC 10b homework and then realized that in my haste on Thursday I had neglected to place the homework's programming part (C++ files) into the submit folder by the Thursday, 6 PM deadline. Needless to say I couldn't pay attention in class. At 10:50 I hurried to the PIC lab and submitted my homework - I was going to talk to the professor but then I saw on the syllabus: No late homework will be accepted for any reason.
I pretty much gave up hope until I woke up this morning and checked MyUCLA to see that I have received normal credit on the assignment. I guess they didn't collect the files until the reader graded the homework. This pleased me.
Later I went back to Irvine so I could watch the Northwood Philharmonic play some of my favorite pieces:
My brother likes to eat entire cans of pineapple at a time:
I had to return to UCLA Sunday morning so that I could take the PIC 10b final exam at 3 PM, which was relatively easy. They handed us a sheet with the solutions on it immediately after the exam. My algorithms for many of the programs we had to write on the exam varied from those on the solution sheet, but I'm confident they work just as well. Except for one, which I later realized would be an infinite loop (oops).
My next final was French, on Tuesday night - at least that's what I thought. I ate dinner and walked over to Rolfe Hall and became a little uneasy at the lack of anyone I knew there. However, all the French 3 finals are held in the same room at the same time, so this was only somewhat unusual. Then a girl a few rows in front of me asked another girl "You're in French 2? Oh, the French 1 and 2 finals are at the same time?" So I concluded that the French 3 final was at the same time as well. Then a bunch of French teachers entered, including mine - except it was mine from last quarter. So I left the room and took out the syllabus: Final Exam: Wednesday, June 11. Oops.
The actual final was easy as expected - except it seemed to neglect over half of what we learned this quarter. I guess that benefited the majority of people in the room.
Last night I went to bed around 2 AM and was having a wonderful dream until someone in my dream started hacking at my guts with a giant ax. Then I woke up and realized it was just the fire alarm going off, though these have basically the same effect (my ears are still ringing). I put on a sweatshirt, grabbed my key, put on my shoes and trudged down the stairs half-asleep. As usual the Hedrick Summit staff was whining at us to cross the street, and then to get out of the street. This time there was a cranky police officer telling us the same thing ("What part of get out of the street do you not understand?") We were slowly herded into Parking Lot 15 as usual until 30 minutes passed and they told us we could go back into the building. Unfortunately for Summit 4, someone had set off a fire extinguisher and they weren't allowed to return there yet.
Everyone was pretty pissed off and pretty asleep throughout the whole incident but I couldn't help but feel a sense of unity. We were completely screwed over the night before our last finals, but we were all in this together. One of the more memorable experiences of this year, to be sure.
Today was the Linear Algebra final, much easier than expected. It basically mirrored the practice Final which we got last week, except with slightly more irritating problems. Even checking my work, I finished in under 2 hours. I may actually get an A in math this quarter.
Now I've entered that awful limbo between the end of finals and actually receiving grades for them.
The next day was the last day of class. (As a side note, the only one of my teachers who received applause this quarter was my French teacher, who ironically won't be allowed to return to UCLA next year.) I turned in the written part of the PIC 10b homework and then realized that in my haste on Thursday I had neglected to place the homework's programming part (C++ files) into the submit folder by the Thursday, 6 PM deadline. Needless to say I couldn't pay attention in class. At 10:50 I hurried to the PIC lab and submitted my homework - I was going to talk to the professor but then I saw on the syllabus: No late homework will be accepted for any reason.
I pretty much gave up hope until I woke up this morning and checked MyUCLA to see that I have received normal credit on the assignment. I guess they didn't collect the files until the reader graded the homework. This pleased me.
Later I went back to Irvine so I could watch the Northwood Philharmonic play some of my favorite pieces:
- Maurice Ravel's Tzigane - Ian did an absolutely fantastic job with this. The orchestra did quite well too, considering it was Ravel.
- Samuel Barber's Adagio for Strings - I think a lot of us were spiteful about this one because we all wanted to play it after sightreading it last year. I thought it was amusing that the high parts (including uncomfortably high treble clef passages for the cellos) were much more in tune than the low one. But this allowed them to pull off the climax very successfully - quite good overall.
- George Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue - A pretty difficult piece and the orchestra did alright. Ellen played the solo piano part well too, although there were balance problems between the orchestra and the piano (I'm not sure if it's her fault or the piano's - I had previously only been on the opposite side of the piano)
My brother likes to eat entire cans of pineapple at a time:
I had to return to UCLA Sunday morning so that I could take the PIC 10b final exam at 3 PM, which was relatively easy. They handed us a sheet with the solutions on it immediately after the exam. My algorithms for many of the programs we had to write on the exam varied from those on the solution sheet, but I'm confident they work just as well. Except for one, which I later realized would be an infinite loop (oops).
My next final was French, on Tuesday night - at least that's what I thought. I ate dinner and walked over to Rolfe Hall and became a little uneasy at the lack of anyone I knew there. However, all the French 3 finals are held in the same room at the same time, so this was only somewhat unusual. Then a girl a few rows in front of me asked another girl "You're in French 2? Oh, the French 1 and 2 finals are at the same time?" So I concluded that the French 3 final was at the same time as well. Then a bunch of French teachers entered, including mine - except it was mine from last quarter. So I left the room and took out the syllabus: Final Exam: Wednesday, June 11. Oops.
The actual final was easy as expected - except it seemed to neglect over half of what we learned this quarter. I guess that benefited the majority of people in the room.
Last night I went to bed around 2 AM and was having a wonderful dream until someone in my dream started hacking at my guts with a giant ax. Then I woke up and realized it was just the fire alarm going off, though these have basically the same effect (my ears are still ringing). I put on a sweatshirt, grabbed my key, put on my shoes and trudged down the stairs half-asleep. As usual the Hedrick Summit staff was whining at us to cross the street, and then to get out of the street. This time there was a cranky police officer telling us the same thing ("What part of get out of the street do you not understand?") We were slowly herded into Parking Lot 15 as usual until 30 minutes passed and they told us we could go back into the building. Unfortunately for Summit 4, someone had set off a fire extinguisher and they weren't allowed to return there yet.
Everyone was pretty pissed off and pretty asleep throughout the whole incident but I couldn't help but feel a sense of unity. We were completely screwed over the night before our last finals, but we were all in this together. One of the more memorable experiences of this year, to be sure.
Today was the Linear Algebra final, much easier than expected. It basically mirrored the practice Final which we got last week, except with slightly more irritating problems. Even checking my work, I finished in under 2 hours. I may actually get an A in math this quarter.
Now I've entered that awful limbo between the end of finals and actually receiving grades for them.
Friday, January 25, 2008
Picture Post
Some odds and ends from the Ruby's trip near the end of Winter break:
Here are two prepubescent children eating at Ruby's together while simultaneously talking on their cell phones to completely different people. Not pictured: A third boy doing the exact same thing.
We returned to Claire's house and played our usual game of Scrabble:
Left: The final board. Yes, we played upside-down, we are retarded.
Right: The final score. Needless to say, I won.
Left: The story of everyone's lives.
Right: My foot picked a strategic moment to strike. Only Claire foresaw the doom that would befall them all.
Jerel was sifting through the clutter residing on top of the drawers by the TV. We were aware there was a lot of junk there but nothing prepared us for this decrepit banana:
This discovery posed several questions:
1. Who nonchalantly discarded this banana here?
2. Why didn't they eat it before it was a revolting putrid mess?
3. How are we going to transport this to the garbage can?
None of us remember leaving the banana here (but judging by its age this is not too surprising).
Several days later Cassandra was eating from a can of mixed nuts and Phillip decided he wanted some. They were lying lid-side-up on the floor. He grabbed the can but unfortunately it was upside-down and all of the nuts fell onto the floor:
Cassandra of course does not remember inverting the can, but how exactly can one set a can of nuts upside-down on the floor without everything spilling out anyway? Fortunately, this created the perfect opportunity for Phillip to vacuum the floor and me to be unhelpful and take pictures. Of particular interest was the knob on the front which enabled us to adjust the level of shag:
Using my new camera I finally managed to take a picture of a lovely commercial played often on GSN:
I can't speak for everybody but I was a huge fan of Alka-Seltzer before it came with mucus and congestion! Now it's like three in one! Awesome!!
This Tuesday I was walking up the hill to De Neve when some Asian guy started yelling "Fusion lunch!! FUSION LUNCH!" at me. Impressed by his assertiveness and intrigued by the prospect of Fusion Lunch (the next generation of dining) I took the little paper he was trying to hand me. Glancing over the paper quickly I discovered he was actually saying "Free lunch!" or maybe something involving Quiznos, and I inevitably thought of Phillip and Cassandra who are devoid of the willpower to resist free food. Then I looked a little closer:
Yes, you read that correctly. This can mean only three things:
1. To some people applying for a credit card is as casual an affair as eating a toasted sub.
2. Credit card companies have reached the least common denominator of incentive possibilities. Furthermore, they have to limit it to UCLA Students only, as if without this restriction they'd have too many applicants.
3. Fusion lunch will have to wait :[
Two new faces have been discovered:
Left: Remnants of way too many baguette sandwiches.
Right: A hilarious orange.
And let's not forget the two faces of Claire's purse thing:
We have started to see how many desserts we can smuggle out of the dining halls. Today's spoils included the aforementioned hilarious orange and thirteen delicious cookie bars:
Here are two prepubescent children eating at Ruby's together while simultaneously talking on their cell phones to completely different people. Not pictured: A third boy doing the exact same thing.We returned to Claire's house and played our usual game of Scrabble:
Left: The final board. Yes, we played upside-down, we are retarded.
Right: The final score. Needless to say, I won.
Left: The story of everyone's lives.
Right: My foot picked a strategic moment to strike. Only Claire foresaw the doom that would befall them all.
Jerel was sifting through the clutter residing on top of the drawers by the TV. We were aware there was a lot of junk there but nothing prepared us for this decrepit banana:
This discovery posed several questions:1. Who nonchalantly discarded this banana here?
2. Why didn't they eat it before it was a revolting putrid mess?
3. How are we going to transport this to the garbage can?
None of us remember leaving the banana here (but judging by its age this is not too surprising).
Several days later Cassandra was eating from a can of mixed nuts and Phillip decided he wanted some. They were lying lid-side-up on the floor. He grabbed the can but unfortunately it was upside-down and all of the nuts fell onto the floor:
Cassandra of course does not remember inverting the can, but how exactly can one set a can of nuts upside-down on the floor without everything spilling out anyway? Fortunately, this created the perfect opportunity for Phillip to vacuum the floor and me to be unhelpful and take pictures. Of particular interest was the knob on the front which enabled us to adjust the level of shag:
Using my new camera I finally managed to take a picture of a lovely commercial played often on GSN:
I can't speak for everybody but I was a huge fan of Alka-Seltzer before it came with mucus and congestion! Now it's like three in one! Awesome!!This Tuesday I was walking up the hill to De Neve when some Asian guy started yelling "Fusion lunch!! FUSION LUNCH!" at me. Impressed by his assertiveness and intrigued by the prospect of Fusion Lunch (the next generation of dining) I took the little paper he was trying to hand me. Glancing over the paper quickly I discovered he was actually saying "Free lunch!" or maybe something involving Quiznos, and I inevitably thought of Phillip and Cassandra who are devoid of the willpower to resist free food. Then I looked a little closer:
Yes, you read that correctly. This can mean only three things:1. To some people applying for a credit card is as casual an affair as eating a toasted sub.
2. Credit card companies have reached the least common denominator of incentive possibilities. Furthermore, they have to limit it to UCLA Students only, as if without this restriction they'd have too many applicants.
3. Fusion lunch will have to wait :[
Two new faces have been discovered:
Left: Remnants of way too many baguette sandwiches.
Right: A hilarious orange.
And let's not forget the two faces of Claire's purse thing:
We have started to see how many desserts we can smuggle out of the dining halls. Today's spoils included the aforementioned hilarious orange and thirteen delicious cookie bars:
Tuesday, January 1, 2008
Winter Break
One initial purpose of this blog was to prevent me from forgetting all the little things that I do that break the monotony of everyday life. I am displeased to announce that over winter break this blog has miserably failed to do this. So now in a bleak effort to remedy the situation I will write as much as I can about everything I can remember doing in the past few weeks.
On Friday, December 14 I attended my brother's orchestra concert. As always they gave an absurdly good performance for a middle school orchestra, though the experience was somewhat dampened by the middle school kids hiding in the back of the theater who think that it's okay to be loud during a performance.
Wednesday the 19 and Thursday the 20 were Northwood's winter concerts, which opened with a great example of Mr. Case's eloquent speech: "Hello, my name is Mr. Case!" (But we still love him.) The lower ensembles Wednesday night sounded better than I can remember them ever sounding prior, leaving me quite impressed. Thursday concluded with a suite of music from Home Alone which put me to sleep, though more likely the fault of the music than of the performers. The Philharmonic also played relatively well the second set of Malcolm Arnold's English Dances, which I am fond of. Other highlights of the evening were a gorgeous arrangement of O Come, O Come, Emmanuel by the Chamber Singers, and six movements of Vivaldi's Gloria by an alumni choir. But the most memorable segment of the evening was a wonderful performance of David Maslanka's Give Us This Day by the Wind Symphony, which unfortunately came first on the program. The concert series was fantastic overall and it is reassuring to see that the new instrumental directors are living up to the legacy of the first few.
Starting December 20 I was blessed with the task of caring for Claire's cat Shako while she was in Northern California. Being responsible for the sustenance of a living thing for an entire week and not seeing it even a single time is a bit odd. The only evidence I had of his subsistence was the gifts he left for me in the litter box.
Christmas Eve, which was held at our house for a much-appreciated change, lacked the extravagance of previous years. Only two of my relatives came to eat dinner with us. Dinner itself was a feast on Costco lasagna, a testament to the changing trends of modern life...
Christmas #1 was a triumph: I received a new camera, which is why the rest of this post will actually contain pictures. Other spoils include these lovely band scores (Not pictured is Samuel Hazo's Exultate). Though you probably cannot read it in this photo, a disturbingly hilarious disclaimer adorns the front of the Rhapsody in Blue score: "GERSHWIN is a Trade Mark of Gershwin Enterprises. GEORGE GERSHWIN is a Service Mark of Gershwin Enterprises. All Rights Reserved."
Christmas #2, which was at my Aunt's house, began with the horrors of the Electric Snowmen Holocaust. The rest consisted of sitting on a sofa for two people with three people, listening to my uncle talk about Japan, listening to my cousin talk about The Beast, and watching Nolan in his native habitat.
We then proceeded to my Grandma's for Christmas #3, which consisted mainly of taking pictures of people taking pictures and a dinner which was basically Thanksgiving #3. I also wound up with a hilarious abundance of Reese's Fastbreaks and Sun Chips:
My arteries thank me daily for having only scratched the surfaces of these.
On December 28 I went to Phillip's house. He had a giant cookie that said "Happy Birthday" except it wasn't anybody's birthday so we can assume that it was half price on the reject rack. The picture to the left shows the cookie's remains after Charles and I cut some fun shapes out of it. The main entertainment was Phillip and Cassandra sorting through his ridiculous mass of coins (yes, those are all quarters), 
which Austin and Charles did not consider to be entertainment and consequently left early. After this ardor our boredom was cured by our discovery that Phillip gets the Game Show Network here in Irvine. We saw a lovely commercial with a horrendously terrible CGI fox who was allegedly good for small business. Dinner was Round Table's new monstrosity, the Meat Ulti-Meat pizza, with a name so hilarious that we could not resist making Phillip burst out in laughter as he ordered.
On Saturday, December 29 Claire and I took the train and the LA Metro to see Wicked at the Pantages. I made the mistake of making eye contact with the hobo on the subway and he asked me for money. The theater of course was very nice and the sets and performance were amazing but it is definitely not my favorite musical. Afterwards we ate dinner at this place on Olvera Street whose name I still do not know.
I spent New Year's Eve with Claire; we watched Amélie, a wonderful film we watched in French last quarter, which I had given to Claire for Christmas. I ate this amazing See's Candy with butterscotch, and I demand more.
I think I have almost reached my limit in terms of how much I can rip out of myself at the moment. I am resisting all the cliché within me, urging me to write some grandiloquent ode to the new year, but I will relent enough to say this: as Claire said to me last night, it will never be 2007 again. But I have yet to decide whether this is a good thing or not. The timeless inner conflict: "Yes, I've had enough of this, let's move on" against "what I wouldn't give to do it all again."
On Friday, December 14 I attended my brother's orchestra concert. As always they gave an absurdly good performance for a middle school orchestra, though the experience was somewhat dampened by the middle school kids hiding in the back of the theater who think that it's okay to be loud during a performance.
Wednesday the 19 and Thursday the 20 were Northwood's winter concerts, which opened with a great example of Mr. Case's eloquent speech: "Hello, my name is Mr. Case!" (But we still love him.) The lower ensembles Wednesday night sounded better than I can remember them ever sounding prior, leaving me quite impressed. Thursday concluded with a suite of music from Home Alone which put me to sleep, though more likely the fault of the music than of the performers. The Philharmonic also played relatively well the second set of Malcolm Arnold's English Dances, which I am fond of. Other highlights of the evening were a gorgeous arrangement of O Come, O Come, Emmanuel by the Chamber Singers, and six movements of Vivaldi's Gloria by an alumni choir. But the most memorable segment of the evening was a wonderful performance of David Maslanka's Give Us This Day by the Wind Symphony, which unfortunately came first on the program. The concert series was fantastic overall and it is reassuring to see that the new instrumental directors are living up to the legacy of the first few.
Starting December 20 I was blessed with the task of caring for Claire's cat Shako while she was in Northern California. Being responsible for the sustenance of a living thing for an entire week and not seeing it even a single time is a bit odd. The only evidence I had of his subsistence was the gifts he left for me in the litter box.
Christmas Eve, which was held at our house for a much-appreciated change, lacked the extravagance of previous years. Only two of my relatives came to eat dinner with us. Dinner itself was a feast on Costco lasagna, a testament to the changing trends of modern life...
Christmas #1 was a triumph: I received a new camera, which is why the rest of this post will actually contain pictures. Other spoils include these lovely band scores (Not pictured is Samuel Hazo's Exultate). Though you probably cannot read it in this photo, a disturbingly hilarious disclaimer adorns the front of the Rhapsody in Blue score: "GERSHWIN is a Trade Mark of Gershwin Enterprises. GEORGE GERSHWIN is a Service Mark of Gershwin Enterprises. All Rights Reserved."
Christmas #2, which was at my Aunt's house, began with the horrors of the Electric Snowmen Holocaust. The rest consisted of sitting on a sofa for two people with three people, listening to my uncle talk about Japan, listening to my cousin talk about The Beast, and watching Nolan in his native habitat.
We then proceeded to my Grandma's for Christmas #3, which consisted mainly of taking pictures of people taking pictures and a dinner which was basically Thanksgiving #3. I also wound up with a hilarious abundance of Reese's Fastbreaks and Sun Chips:
My arteries thank me daily for having only scratched the surfaces of these.
On December 28 I went to Phillip's house. He had a giant cookie that said "Happy Birthday" except it wasn't anybody's birthday so we can assume that it was half price on the reject rack. The picture to the left shows the cookie's remains after Charles and I cut some fun shapes out of it. The main entertainment was Phillip and Cassandra sorting through his ridiculous mass of coins (yes, those are all quarters), 
which Austin and Charles did not consider to be entertainment and consequently left early. After this ardor our boredom was cured by our discovery that Phillip gets the Game Show Network here in Irvine. We saw a lovely commercial with a horrendously terrible CGI fox who was allegedly good for small business. Dinner was Round Table's new monstrosity, the Meat Ulti-Meat pizza, with a name so hilarious that we could not resist making Phillip burst out in laughter as he ordered.
On Saturday, December 29 Claire and I took the train and the LA Metro to see Wicked at the Pantages. I made the mistake of making eye contact with the hobo on the subway and he asked me for money. The theater of course was very nice and the sets and performance were amazing but it is definitely not my favorite musical. Afterwards we ate dinner at this place on Olvera Street whose name I still do not know.I spent New Year's Eve with Claire; we watched Amélie, a wonderful film we watched in French last quarter, which I had given to Claire for Christmas. I ate this amazing See's Candy with butterscotch, and I demand more.
I think I have almost reached my limit in terms of how much I can rip out of myself at the moment. I am resisting all the cliché within me, urging me to write some grandiloquent ode to the new year, but I will relent enough to say this: as Claire said to me last night, it will never be 2007 again. But I have yet to decide whether this is a good thing or not. The timeless inner conflict: "Yes, I've had enough of this, let's move on" against "what I wouldn't give to do it all again."
Thursday, December 6, 2007
Club Sandwich and Shostakovich
I was going to attend the UCLA Symphonic Band's concert at noon today but ended up just going to lunch instead. Normally I would be feeling guilty about this, but today De Neve had the most amazing club sandwiches on thick bread, which I ate two of along with the remains' of my friends'. Another exciting development in the world of UCLA dining is that desserts are now labeled; finally we know (at least vaguely) what we stuff into ourselves twice daily. Time will tell if this is a permanent change and whether or not it is exclusive to De Neve. Today there was a dessert called "Chinese Chew," which I found to be a misnomer because there was nothing Chinese nor chewy about it. However I have no idea what I would call it myself; apparently the dining hall staff don't either.
Last night was my first concert as part of UCLA Symphony. The program included:
Mozart - Overture to Don Giovanni
Rheinberger - Concerto for Organ no. 2 in G minor
Shostakovich - Symphony no. 5
It was probably one of the most enjoyable performances I have ever given, deeply reminiscent of my first concert with the NHS Philharmonic and Tchaikovsky's 4th symphony in Fall 2004. Something about Shostakovich's 5th is immensely moving to me. It doesn't quite connect with me on the same personal level that Tchaikovsky's music does - but what it does do is create sympathy, perhaps because it is so difficult to imagine a more perfect way to capture the suffering of millions at the hands of Stalin than with this symphony. I suppose Shostakovich is more difficult for the modern audience to understand than someone like Tchaikovsky, with over-the-top crowd-pleasing lyricism beginning to die out and modernism setting in. Plus there were a few bumps and bruises in our performance, namely at the end of the allegretto, where a missed clarinet entrance nearly resulted in a trainwreck. Despite this I believe we succeeded in conveying the proper atmosphere. The largo in particular is just absurdly tense throughout; and our director did such a fantastic job conducting it and drawing us into the music that it seems impossible that a single person in the audience could have not felt it.
Last night was my first concert as part of UCLA Symphony. The program included:
Mozart - Overture to Don Giovanni
Rheinberger - Concerto for Organ no. 2 in G minor
Shostakovich - Symphony no. 5
It was probably one of the most enjoyable performances I have ever given, deeply reminiscent of my first concert with the NHS Philharmonic and Tchaikovsky's 4th symphony in Fall 2004. Something about Shostakovich's 5th is immensely moving to me. It doesn't quite connect with me on the same personal level that Tchaikovsky's music does - but what it does do is create sympathy, perhaps because it is so difficult to imagine a more perfect way to capture the suffering of millions at the hands of Stalin than with this symphony. I suppose Shostakovich is more difficult for the modern audience to understand than someone like Tchaikovsky, with over-the-top crowd-pleasing lyricism beginning to die out and modernism setting in. Plus there were a few bumps and bruises in our performance, namely at the end of the allegretto, where a missed clarinet entrance nearly resulted in a trainwreck. Despite this I believe we succeeded in conveying the proper atmosphere. The largo in particular is just absurdly tense throughout; and our director did such a fantastic job conducting it and drawing us into the music that it seems impossible that a single person in the audience could have not felt it.
Sunday, November 25, 2007
Thanksgiving Weekend
I missed our usual second Thanksgiving today because of the Oregon game. I turned on my phone after the football game and received a bunch of picture messages from my uncle. He photographed everything they ate. And I don't mean a picture of the dinner table, or the dishes filled with food - they were pictures of individual foods laid out on a napkin. Unfortunately they take up most of my phone's memory and I will probably have to delete them soon.
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
Game Show Network
Recently we have begun religiously watching the Game Show Network. Unfortunately we are basically alone in doing this is so advertising there is quite cheap - and it is painfully evident. Not only is every commercial for an obscure untested medicine (though assuredly praised by the elderly) or for Fruit of the Loom underwear, but after sitting through a single half-hour block of programming you will have seen the same set of commercials at least three times.
However, one of the rarer commercials has captured our hearts:
Basically it is about some people who love Alpacas - But I'm not sure why this needs to be advertised because I'm usually too enthralled by their splendor for any auditory comprehension to occur. The website itself is worth a look as well.
The Game Show Network's afternoon lineup is generally consistent: an hour of Family Feud, a half hour of Chain Reaction followed by Lingo and then by Whammy. The Weakest Link and Who Wants to be a Millionaire are occasionally thrown in later in the day. I am sure you are familiar with most of these but some might be foreign:
Chain Reaction is a word game where you basically try to create two-word phrases from one word to another. It's actually pretty entertaining. In the final round two members of the winning team have to alternate saying one word each to ask a question to the third member. Today the answer to a question was "Al Gore" and one girl was trying to ask the question "Who was the president who ran against George Bush?" But her idiot teammate either forgot Bush's first name (or perhaps she really is a complete moron) and she wasted a few seconds before saying "John" instead of George.
Lingo is another word game where you basically have to guess 5-letter words. It's not particularly interesting - but the worst part of it is this stupid woman who incessantly vomits babble about the players and the host. Today there was this dumb couple who would kiss each other on the lips literally EVERY TIME they got a word correctly (which was often). And the camera crew was sure to catch it without fail. I may watch this channel for completely brainless entertainment but this isn't exactly what I had in mind.
Whammy is the worst game show of all time mostly because it is 100% based on luck, aside from the absurdly easy trivia questions thrown into the second round. They emphasize "pressing your luck" and still have the audacity to tell losers that they played well. The game revolves around pressing a button over and over and hoping you don't land on a Whammy, who, accompanied by horrendous CGI, steals all your money and prizes at once, making the game even more of a waste of time than it already was. To make matters worse the contestants are literally encouraged to be as irritating as possible; while spinning, they shout "BIG MONEY BIG MONEY NO WHAMMMMIESSS!!!". Females do this in their highest-pitched voices. The host then berates them (hypocritically) for being so annoying.
Today there was a Star Trek episode of The Weakest Link. William Shatner was unfortunately voted off very early on. The winner was definitely deserving - except he actually said that ten squared was five hundred. It's bizarre when someone knows literally every piece of obscure trivia but has no grasp on elementary mathematics.
I ate a fortune cookie today:
As awesome as this would be, trusting this cookie means expecting my dream to come true. Which, according to this cookie, cannot occur while I am expecting it. Therefore I must reject the fortune: my dream will come true when I am expecting it. But I will not expect it unless I trust the cookie. What a sad existence.
Needless to say, it is fun to pretend sometimes.
However, one of the rarer commercials has captured our hearts:
Basically it is about some people who love Alpacas - But I'm not sure why this needs to be advertised because I'm usually too enthralled by their splendor for any auditory comprehension to occur. The website itself is worth a look as well.
The Game Show Network's afternoon lineup is generally consistent: an hour of Family Feud, a half hour of Chain Reaction followed by Lingo and then by Whammy. The Weakest Link and Who Wants to be a Millionaire are occasionally thrown in later in the day. I am sure you are familiar with most of these but some might be foreign:
Chain Reaction is a word game where you basically try to create two-word phrases from one word to another. It's actually pretty entertaining. In the final round two members of the winning team have to alternate saying one word each to ask a question to the third member. Today the answer to a question was "Al Gore" and one girl was trying to ask the question "Who was the president who ran against George Bush?" But her idiot teammate either forgot Bush's first name (or perhaps she really is a complete moron) and she wasted a few seconds before saying "John" instead of George.
Lingo is another word game where you basically have to guess 5-letter words. It's not particularly interesting - but the worst part of it is this stupid woman who incessantly vomits babble about the players and the host. Today there was this dumb couple who would kiss each other on the lips literally EVERY TIME they got a word correctly (which was often). And the camera crew was sure to catch it without fail. I may watch this channel for completely brainless entertainment but this isn't exactly what I had in mind.
Whammy is the worst game show of all time mostly because it is 100% based on luck, aside from the absurdly easy trivia questions thrown into the second round. They emphasize "pressing your luck" and still have the audacity to tell losers that they played well. The game revolves around pressing a button over and over and hoping you don't land on a Whammy, who, accompanied by horrendous CGI, steals all your money and prizes at once, making the game even more of a waste of time than it already was. To make matters worse the contestants are literally encouraged to be as irritating as possible; while spinning, they shout "BIG MONEY BIG MONEY NO WHAMMMMIESSS!!!". Females do this in their highest-pitched voices. The host then berates them (hypocritically) for being so annoying.
Today there was a Star Trek episode of The Weakest Link. William Shatner was unfortunately voted off very early on. The winner was definitely deserving - except he actually said that ten squared was five hundred. It's bizarre when someone knows literally every piece of obscure trivia but has no grasp on elementary mathematics.
I ate a fortune cookie today:
As awesome as this would be, trusting this cookie means expecting my dream to come true. Which, according to this cookie, cannot occur while I am expecting it. Therefore I must reject the fortune: my dream will come true when I am expecting it. But I will not expect it unless I trust the cookie. What a sad existence.
Needless to say, it is fun to pretend sometimes.
Saturday, November 17, 2007
Mexican Food
Yesterday night in Rieber was amazing because it was apparently Mexican food night - Tostadas, beef tamales, Spanish rice, and limitless churros, which I ate five of and can only assume were a gift from the gods. The scene was complete with horrendously stereotypical and horrendously awesome mariachi music, unsurprisingly the best music they ever play in the dining halls. I have never really felt any connection with my heritage but something about this atmosphere made me feel utterly at home - perhaps it was the frijoles refritos.
Incidentally Rieber is now my favorite dining hall, despite its ruthlessly brutal massacre of my rightmost toe last Monday morning, a trauma from which I am still recovering. Who wants to see?!
My mom always used to tell me that we learn something new every day. Today I learned never to come home again unless I am sure something is going on. Yes, this is a desperate plea for you to entertain me.
Incidentally Rieber is now my favorite dining hall, despite its ruthlessly brutal massacre of my rightmost toe last Monday morning, a trauma from which I am still recovering. Who wants to see?!
My mom always used to tell me that we learn something new every day. Today I learned never to come home again unless I am sure something is going on. Yes, this is a desperate plea for you to entertain me.
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