Summer 2010 Ch. 2

I took one class at Cal this summer--Chinese 155, Journey to the West. It was actually session A, so it started at the end of May and went for six weeks til the end of June. I probably should've talked about this earlier, but o well. I'll just bring up whatever comes to mind.

The class is actually Chinese lit, but I got them to approve it for my reading/comp requirement (win!). And I'm so glad that I did, because it was way more chill and interesting than any other actual writing class. We had readings each day, but they were actually doable (since it's summer) and interesting. Obviously, we're reading the novel 西遊記, but there were also other readings, like related works, commentaries, supplements, and stuff like that. Most of the stuff was in English, though there was always the Chinese version of it for reference.

Oh yeah, so forgot to mention that since this was in the Chinese dept, a reading knowledge of classical Chinese was desirable though not required. It might as well have been anyway since all like 12 of us were at or around that level. For me it was definitely a challenge, since I never had that much literary Chinese (okay Chinese school really doesn't count. Seriously.). Thankfully, our professor was very enthusiastic about the material, and knowledge of Chinese wasn't as important as the material itself. And I had my fair share of preliminary knowledge from history classes and just what I learned on my own up to this point. Honestly didn't realize that humanities build up on what you learn from other classes to the extent that technicals do--no offense here.

Grade was based on participation and three relatively short essays. Participation was no problem; no one wanted to participate (no arrogant students in the small class), so I often felt bad and spoke up when the situation looked hopeless. One essay every two weeks, and they were just two 4-5 page and one 6-8. They were also open-ended, which made writing them that much easier. I chose topics that were relatively easy to talk about, and one interesting one with which I wanted to experiment. Grade in the end was a solid A :D

As for the content itself, we looked at background readings, different episodes and different themes in the actual novel, commentaries and criticisms, and finally supplements and modern adaptations. In addition to reading the abridged translation by Wiley (which only includes a few episodes plus beginning/end), we had a couple of (rather nice) readers with other episodes and texts. Background readings were interesting; my historical knowledge helped a lot here, esp. Tang politics and religion from the spring semester. Commentaries were a bit tedious, as the Chinese at this point became more difficult to comprehend. As for the text itself, it's always great to read about Monkey and his group's exploits, as well as following the translation in the original Chinese.

Naturally, this class also contained film screenings. One was Stephen Chow's A Chinese Odyssey, 大話西遊. It was pretty awesome, I have no idea why I haven't seen it before. We watched it in mandarin, because their faction won out (lol), but I borrowed it afterward to rewatch in cantonese. If I had watched it outside of class, I probably would've missed a lot of the things that we discussed afterward. Definitely worth it.

The other film we watched was The World, 世界 by Jia Zhangke (apparently really famous on the mainland, I had no idea). This wasn't explicitly about the Monkey King, though it also pushed the theme of undertaking a journey. It was also cool to be able to watch a film that I probably wouldn't have otherwise. It's one of those bittersweet post-modernist mainland films that are pretty good if you follow. Check it out.

Oh yeah, we also had a "field trip" to the Berkeley Art Museum to look at hell scrolls and demonic art pieces. Overall this class was awesome, definitely worth my summer and >$1k, and a great addition to the list of classes for my Chinese Studies minor. It also got rid of my R&C requirement :)

OK I haven't posted all summer so I'mma split things

WOW where the hell should I even start. Like my new layout? I just noticed that Blogger put out new templates and stuff. It's kinda cool. Don't worry bout it if you read my posts in another reader. Most of you probably do anyway.

Ok, let's get the boring stuff over with first. So "research" with Salahuddin and his grad students didn't really get anywhere this summer. I sorta learned how to use the program PETSc, which is used for solving differential equations in C++. Not that I actually used it for anything--I was supposed to study one of the examples and then write another one based on it, but it never happened. I went into the lab a few times, though I stopped going recently, both because I honestly don't have any interest in it and also because I was busy anyway. Ehhh, there'll be other opportunities...

Other thing is I'm still somewhat employed at the SSL from last summer. Or to be more accurate, I've been "volunteering" since the campus won't let me get paid for over 40 hours a week. O well. I just go up occasionally to work with my supervisor and other engineers on finishing the boards from last time (yes, the process can be extremely slow). It was just a bunch of repetitive tweaks and fixes, with the mechanical details constantly changing and forcing me to adapt. Of course, in the real world things are like this all the time, and engineers of different focuses often have to work closely with one another.

At the SSL I've also been able to put my awesome mandarin skills to use a couple times. I was asked to teach one of the Chinese engineers there how to use the program that I've been using and answer her questions (she's from Shanghai). Here's a snippet of one of our question-and-answer sessions:

Her (mandarin): Ok, so I was wondering why I couldn't import the board outline from this dxf file.
Me: Uhh, 我想这个 file probably 做得不好。我没 encounter 过这个问题。。。
Her (mandarin):  How do I edit the layers on my board?
Me: *pause to digest* Oh, 你先去 Setup menu, 然后 click "Layer Definitions." 你看 by default 全部都是 on 的，所以你要把不用的 close, ok? 你该 click 这个 button...


As you can see, my poor mandarin combined with such a tech-heavy context made for some amusing answers. Afterward, she asked me about my school life and the usual stuff, which was a bit better though still slightly embarrassing. "我是三藩市来的。这个summer 我在 campus 教课, uhh.. introductory circuits. 这个是我第三年，last year 开始在这儿做工."

Life sure is fun.

Helloooooo summer!

Technically, break started last week, but there wasn't anything happening last week so yeah. Or well, all I really did was visit Lowell a couple times (Chan's bbq and then Kermesse) and see some teachers. I've also been driving my sister to school. Waking up at 6:45 am (that's right, AM) daily again is extremely painful, but thankfully they're finishing up soon.

In other news, my free time now consists of Pokemon HGSS (HeartGold & SoulSilver if you're a noob that doesn't know what HGSS stands for =P), FMA Brotherhood (Fullmetal Alchemist if you're a noob that doesn't know what FMA stands for), and various HK films that came out recently. HGSS are the Generation IV remakes of the classic Gold & Silver versions, and they are Hella fun. Not to mention the soundtrack, which is awesome. Everyone should play them, no kidding.

The current running FMA is the second anime of the same name. The first came out years ago and distanced itself from the manga halfway in. It was interesting to watch, but this one (which will finish in a couple weeks), strictly follows the manga and is great to watch. Since I didn't have time to watch anything over the semester, I am catching up now by cramming in as many episodes as I can each day.

I am still following Bleach (both anime and manga).

HK & Chinese films--I still have yet to watch Mulan, but I recently finished Confucius (孔子) and 72 Tenants of Prosperity (七十二家租客). The next ones I plan to watch are Just Another Pandora's Box, 14 Blades, and Little Big Soldier. Look them up if you're interested--most of them have historical allusions and will probably be hard to understand if you don't have the context. YesAsia.com is a pretty nice resource. In fact that's how I found out about them. =D

Okay, so how'd the semester go? Grade-wise, I have a 4.0 (so far). EE, History, and Legal Studies all A's, and Physics was a nice A+. The one thing missing--and it's taking an awfully long time--is CS. I have a bad feeling about this, since it'll probably be the class to kill my GPA. Will update as soon as it comes out. About that--I literally check BearFacts every day right after I wake up, hoping that it got updated the night before. I even had a dream about this, and in it I got a B in the class...

Enough about that, no one gives a damn about grades. Summer plans! I said nothing was happening last week, but this week and onward is a whole new story. Today was the first day of my class. It's 4-6pm M-R, but it seems that it'll be one worth taking: Chinese 155, Journey to the West. This will go until July, at which I start my second class, Philos 153 (Chinese Philosophy). I'm glad you see the theme. I've pretty much decided to finish the Chinese Studies minor this summer, while I still have time and while classes are good.

Though the class is late, I plan to continue live at home for the time being. During the day, I'll hopefully start on the research that I should have worked on last semester (and hence received an Incomplete for that unit because of my lack of effort to do so -_-). Dunno what exactly it involves yet, but I met with my professor today. Something about using a simulation program that involves C, parallel computing, and equation-solving. Apparently I'm solving equations that involves QM (since we're operating within the 45nm scale on transistors), E&M (Maxwell governs the electron density & field they create), and thermo (dynamics of atoms within the transistor). However, the task is very difficult, as hundreds of thousands of matrix elements can easily be generated because we're dealing with many atoms at the same time. I'm lucky enough to be able to barely understand the physics and math behind all this...

Anyway, this pattern should continue until mid-June. Then I start on something else, and hopefully I can do all 3 things at the same time. At that point, I'll probably start living at Cal again, since more of my time will be eaten up.

This third activity will be my job and main source of income this summer. What I'll be doing is... *drumroll*... ok, it's not that impressive, but I'll be TA'ing at $20 an hour for 20 hours a week. The class is EE42/100 (basically circuits for non-EE's). Whoooo. Teaching is going to be interesting--for one, I'm glad it's a class/material that I'm really comfortable with. I just filled out the paperwork today, and I'll probably know more as we get closer to the start-date of that class (6/21).

This summer is going to be fun. It's a shame so many people won't be coming back to SF though =/

Positive Derivative

Thanks to everyone for all the comments and advice from the last post. I am very happy to say that we (I and my apartment-mate) ended up talking about our issues and working things out. The situation now is much better than it was a week ago. And as a result, most of the tension and bad feelings that were just hanging around have disappeared. Hopefully, we can just put all this behind us and move on.

It's been a month or so since I got sick. I honestly do not remember the last time I've been sick for this long, but I think I can confidently say that I'm almost fully recovered. A small cough still bugs me now and then, but give it a few more days and I should be good. With good timing too, because the good weather lately has been encouraging my allergies. (I just used "good" 3 times.) So in comes Claritin to save the day! I've just been taking one pill a day, as it suggests, and it's working great.

Today was Cal Day, the open house for all prospective students (as well as anyone who just wants to come to Cal and see what it has to offer). I spent most of the morning to noon in Cory giving tours and answering questions from incoming freshmen and their parents. It's pretty fun; I feel good about sharing my wisdom (lol) and giving advice, and I'm sure they like to get a student's personal perspective as well.

I finished up at around 2, and afterward Dustin and I went to walk around for a bit. Huge crowds at Sather Gate, and the atmosphere was just lively and full of energy overall. It was a nice break from the monotony of classes. Only two more weeks to go too, can't wait til then.

Finally, apartment hunting has picked up its pace. I'm looking for a one-bedroom place on southside, preferably with a price ceiling of $1600. Hopefully will finalize and just settle on one this coming week or so.

Oh yeah, I've been craving a good game of mahjong lately. By good, I mean with people who can actually play (well). I've also been watching Akagi, an anime based on Japanese mahjong, so that probably helps. In any case, I want at least one good mahjong session before the summer arrives.

Another Downer, Yayyyy

So recently I feel like I've been at a low point, probably one of the lowest within the past couple years. Academically I'm starting to blow things off--it's been a long semester, and I'm starting to lose interest in classes and grades (though I'm sure I will care about grades again come finals). I think that's one disadvantage of the semester system, in that it's sometimes too lengthy and tedious toward the last few weeks. I just finished my last midterms, so I'll probably care even less. Also, the social life is pretty much stagnant / going down the drain, whichever way you want to look at it. I didn't see a single person over break thanks to my cough, and back here it always seems that people are either busy or just have conflicting schedules (including me). I do see HKN people sometimes though, but the committee work is a drag, especially when those that you're working with are seniors who are always busy.

Ok, the real reason why I'm so hateful right now--roommate problems. I won't name the person, though you can ask if you don't know and want to know. It's pretty obvious anyway from my descriptions. It started off benignly; a couple months back, I would get annoyed that he never cleaned up after himself or washed the dishes. But that's virtually nothing compared to what I'm dealing with now.

He then started living on the couch. That probably doesn't sound like anything, but it annoys me. He has his own room and own desk, but he's always just on the couch in the common room with his laptop. Why the hell are you taking over the common space when you have your own? Not only that, but he literally lives on it, as in leaving his stuff and mess on it when he's not here, as if the couch were his. So basically, the rest of us never use it anymore--we can't invite guests over to sit on it, nor can we sit on it to watch TV or play games. My couch, which I donated to be our couch, became his couch.

Let's keep going (how can it get any worse?). After he took over the couch, he started to play his music. Loudly. Enough that I can hear and get distracted by it down the hall in my own room. You see why I don't like his living on the couch? Why can't he just stay in his own room and play his music there, or just use earphones like normal people? And his tunes are horribly annoying too--he plays the kind of music where the beats just don't go away and repeat over and over again.

Ok, now what? He gets speakers. Fucking huge and bass-boosting speakers. And he starts using them. Now the music is even louder, and what's worse is that even with my own earphones on, I can feel his fucking bass. It's not so much a problem when I'm working (relatively), since I just turn up my own music to block it out. But his sleeping patterns are horrendous, and recently I've been having trouble sleeping because he keeps it on after I go to bed. Oh, but wait, there's more!

He started inviting his friends over recently, maybe a week or two ago. Example of problem. Two nights ago, he had three people over. They talked loudly the whole time, so loud that I could clearly hear what they were saying with our door closed. What's worse was that they were all drunk, so what could we do? They stayed up, talking, with the music blasting, until past 4am. And then guess what? A fight breaks out. I don't know the details, but according to Jeff (who also woke up), punches were thrown, things were knocked over, and they ran out of the apartment. In the morning, everything was a huge mess.

Ok, so you ask me, why don't I talk to this roommate about these problems? Obvious solution, but I've tried again and again to no avail. We no longer talk, save for my occasional "Turn down your music, I'm trying to study." Not only does he usually just outright ignore me, but he often retaliates by doing the opposite of what I ask. From my point of view, I really do not understand this immature passive-aggressiveness, nor do I understand such disrespect for others. The other two living here just deal with it, though they don't say much to him either.

For the time being, I find solace during the time that he's out and not here. I've also lost all motivation to stay over on weekends to do things such as attend HKN socials. At this point I am looking forward to the summer, which comes in a month. Then I can finally get out of this place and leave this all behind.

Sickness

Has made this officially my worst break ever. It started a couple days before break started; I woke up on Wednesday morning feeling a bit woozy, with that shit-i'm-gonna-be-sick feeling. I was tired for most of that day, and the night following was pretty bad too. I had a horrible stomachache, and when I went to relieve myself I not only failed but collapsed on the floor, unable to move while just sweating for 10 minutes or so.

The next couple days (I was still at Cal) kinda just stayed the same. During the day I felt a bit fatigued; at night, sleeping was a nightmare, as I woke up every hour needing to go to the bathroom but also needing water. Also, both my head and body were aching like hell.

I was finally able to come home on Friday, but it actually just got worse from there. I stopped getting fevers and chills, but now the cough took over. I don't ever remember coughs being this bad. Once I start, I go on until I feel my lungs give out, or I get the feeling I want to puke. I sometimes even have trouble breathing properly.

Initially, my coughs were dry but hacking--as of now, it feels that my respiratory tubes / lungs have been inflamed, and there is mucus. It gets especially bad at night; I just start coughing a lot more, and they don't stop. I haven't been able to sleep lying down, so I've moved to sleeping by sitting on the couch outside. That's also really annoying, that I can't even sleep on my own bed without dying.

I've been lacking appetite this whole week as well. For lunch and dinner, I have had to force myself to eat what little rice I can. It's as if this illness is purposely preventing me from getting sufficient rest and nutrition to get better.

The only thing I can do is drink fluids. And I've been drinking so much water--I always have my cup with me. I've been taking medication too, though I'm not seeing any effects. My doctor even prescribed me a couple of inhalers to ease the breathing a bit.

Otherwise, I have managed to get some work done. I regret that this break is almost over, and yet I did not see a single person this whole week. I am also afraid of what will happen if I don't get any better before Monday. If I don't, my life will become that much more of a living hell.

UPDATE: I went to my doctor again today. He mentioned the possibility of mono and prescribed me some even stronger medicine. If I don't get better within a week, I'm to go back for blood tests and a lung scan. Seriously people, I really hope I don't have mono. I can already see my GPA spiraling downward.

First One of the Year

Well, it's about time, I guess. The last post was so long ago, and so much has happened between then and now, hummm.....

Let's see. Well, long story short for fall 2009: success. It was an awesome semester. For one, classes were great. The finals week was a bit hellish and somewhat oppressing, but hey the grades speak for themselves. As for the major question, I am still steadily shifting toward the EE side. We'll see where next semester takes us.

What else? HKN and TBP. They filled up my calendar and made it full. There were rarely any blocks on my calendar where I had more than two days without an event. Although sometimes hectic and sometimes stressful, they provided the means of getting away from all that studying and schoolwork. This past year would really have been a waste if it weren't for them.

Oh hai I just went through the Bent and there I am standing triumphantly behind it.

Friends, both old and new. This is when I am glad that so many Lowellites went to Cal. It is great to go through new experiences like this with people that you know so well. The 09ers too--they really made this semester worth it. And not just for the free meals with the meal points. Can't leave out the Cal & EECS people here. Who would I have turned to for help or discussion without them? Finally, people that don't go to Cal but have still remained in touch. I really am grateful to everyone.

Now for 2010. Looking forward to another memorable year. Winter break is also ending soon, along with horrible sleeping schedules and watching anime with no end, which means the start of another semester. Currently I am signed up for 24 units (6 classes); I have been elected as a Tutoring officer in HKN; I am also supposed to continue working on my project for work. I am 99% sure that I will have to drop Something. But it'll be fun--I look forward to the first couple weeks of experimenting.

Speaking of anime (I'd talk about music but that's been done by so many other people), I managed to finish Code Geass and Ouran High School Host Club. Also, currently watching Fullmetal Alchemist. I know that I'm pretty late on watching these, but they made my break That much better.


Oh, I am also completely ecstatic about Windows 7 and its desktop slideshow function. Now I can fill it with awesome wallpapers like these.