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.

Why Is It That

My Ipod Touch is continuously on fail mode. This is the gazillionth time that I've restored it. I tried every available trick in the book, but it just wouldn't turn on. All it does is show the Apple logo, which then disappears after a few seconds. And no, resetting and knocking it did nothing. SSH'ing into it was not possible either, since there was no way for me to get into it while it was being retarded (not that I knew its path either).

Whatever. I've decided that I'm done with the jailbreaking. Every single time I've done it, I wasted too much time for something that I never took advantage of starting a few days after I added all the new illegal stuff. All I use it for is music anyway, which makes me regret not getting a simple Nano. Oh well, I'll live, stupid Apple...

Why Hello There

Over another month since my last post, and we're already looking at the last instructional week of the semester. First, for a quick update on things since then (the important stuff anyway)...

Classes all going fine, or so I like to think. All these problem sets finally coming to an end (until next semester anyway), as well as new material and lectures. The second round of midterms went okay--I don't care so much about my P/NP history, since it's just for interest; the EE curve was much lower than last time so my 86 was good enough. CS70... yes, the average was like a 58%, although how that justifies my 45/60 I'm not sure... even if it is good enough, it just feels kinda retarded. Well, that's what finals are for.

TBP--finally done with candidate semester! Finished all event and miscellaneous requirements and turned them right before Thanksgiving break. For the most part I'm glad I decided to initiate this semester. Busy as I sometimes was, it was cool to meet new people and go to fun events. Besides, I will probably just get busier as I go on, and there are so many HKN people initiating with me this semester that this semester was probably my best chance. And the free food is Always a plus.

On the other hand, HKN got to be a bit too much in the last couple weeks. The first weekend of the month I had to go to Costco and buy loads of food--that means > $250 worth of cookies, muffins, and juices, enough to feed > 1000 people. What for? All the lower-div EECS food runs that would take place the following two weeks. I had to take charge for most of them (except for 40 and 70, since I'm in the classes), and that sure sapped a lot of my time and energy, not to mention coming back with sore arms each time for carrying the shit back and forth across campus. Even with candidates' help, it was not a very fun job by the end of it all, and it's probably because of that reason that I don't want to do StudRel again.

The last thing on the agendum for HKN was Engineering Sports Night last Friday. Finishing the reservation wasn't too tricky; I just had to pry the money out of EJC to repay us for the field reservation. During the days leading up to it, we had fears of the event getting rained out, and it sure rained hard during the day. Luckily for us, it stopped by afternoon, and joint HKN-TBP event turned out moderately successful (the cold probably didn't help).

That Friday, 11/20, was also the day of the massive protests against the fee increases. For the tl;dr version, my opinion is thus: I obviously don't like the fee increases, but I feel that they are necessary at the time; the regents and administration could be run much better and more efficiently, but it's not something that we can control, and we are better off reforming the political process in Sacramento first. As for the protests, they were just appalling--it's wrong to prevent other students from attending classes and receiving education by blockading a building and pulling fire alarms. Those protesters got what was coming to them by doing what they did. If they wanted to show their opinion, there were so many more responsible and peaceful ways to do so. Instead, one of my classes got canceled (thanks to them) and another one was kicked out repeatedly into the rain (thanks to fire alarms).

That rain and cold, plus the stresses from HKN the past couple weeks that left me feeling exhausted each day, was probably too much for my immune system to take in the end. I got sick for the first time in a while on Saturday, which incidentally was also the day we (Chan, Lixia, Wilson) celebrated Fifi's birthday by going to Cheeseboard. I was not feeling my best (and dying), though Fifi was nice enough to make me chicken soup after getting back. I recovered almost fully by the next day though; that was the fastest cold I've ever had.

Work has been relatively boring this month--I haven't felt much incentive to start anything new, and my last project is finishing itself up slowly. I've been mostly going up there and just studying or whatever while doing work-related stuff on the side. The rains and cold, plus the fact that it's getting dark earlier, somehow seem to be sapping my willingness to do much. Hopefully I'll pick it back up this December.

Social situation is static, as usual. No big changes, though I sometimes wish I had more free time to spend with people (or that I had more people to spend it with). Still very much into K-Pop in my free time, though I've been catching up with the latest everything else as well. Animes again soon, probably after finals? I want to start watching Bleach...

Thanksgiving break's been uneventful so far, save for EE project meddling and family dinners. Today I managed to get a new pair of shoes after unsuccessfully searching for a new wallet. Hopefully these shoes are rain-proof, unlike my current pair.

There seems to be a question which I'm obligated to answer at this point--what am I thankful for? My response is why should I be telling you what I am thankful for today when I don't do that any other time? I'm thankful for the stereotypical stuff that everyone else is--friends, family, how lucky we are, etc. Anyone/anything special? If there is, you should know it already (if you are one to read this)--I won't need to name anyone in particular.

I should probably get started on my homework soon, as well as study for my early final coming up on Friday. I apologize for still not having any pictures, though in the future I will try to have shorter posts if that happens. Yup, peace (I need ideas for a closing word).

Busy Busy Busy

Hooray for the end of the first round of midterms (which was a week ago). This past week has been as busy as ever though. It's hard to see how I managed the time to do something every single day since last Saturday (with the exception of Friday) for either TBP or HKN. Not that I really had much of a choice; they were either required or something I had to do eventually. It's been fun, but I'm starting to burn out.

Last Saturday was Photoscav for HKN. The clues were much tougher than last semester's, though it was pretty fun. Some of the traditional stuff included biggest phallic symbol, breakdancing, rolling down 4.0 hill, etc. Other miscellaneous items were things such as most kinky, most recursive, most masochistic, etc. We found a lot of stuff, and of course, my group won again, just like last semester. Overall a tiring but enjoyable day. =D

Sunday was volunteering for TBP at the Blue Angels booth. Since there were so many people, it became more of a "enjoy the show" type of event, but it was nice nonetheless. Before the show we ended up walking around the pier for a bit (me and some other candidates--I showed them around). The planes themselves were pretty cool, and it was the first time I actually watched them for real down at the pier.

Monday was Game Night for TBP, which was okay. Didn't really do much, though I did play a couple games of MJ. The next couple days were general meeting for TBP and HKN, respectively. Free food ftw here--the first was Gypsy's and the second was Chipotle. Although I have to admit, by this time I was getting a bit tired of the Wozniak Lounge, which was where all three events were held each day. At HKN's GM, we met the candidates for our committee--damnit, I just remembered I still hafta plan committee dinner for that.

Thursday was K'Nex Night for TBP. It was pretty fun--we had a bridge competition. It turned out that our opponent's was longer but not very durable--it was way too rigid and collapsed easily. Ours being a suspension bridge was much more flexible and was therefore able to withstand more weight. I think this should be something every engineer should know, and considering how TBP IS the engineering honors society... Ah well, all in good fun.

I finally had a break to catch up in my work yesterday. Which reminds me, I got back all my midterms already. All went relatively well--absolute-wise they all could've been better (mostly B+/A- range), although I guess I have no excuse to worry, seeing as they're all curved anyway. And besides, history I'm making P/NP anyway, so that's another burden lifted.

O yeah, I'm home today after volunteering at the Food Bank with TBP. It was pretty cool, we boxed apples and packaged oats. First time there, so I guess it was somewhat worth it for the experience. The upcoming week looks almost as busy as this one was--I have something planned for almost every day of the week again. Hopefully they'll be less intensive; for once, I'm not ahead on my physics homework. Thankfully, there is no second midterm for that class. Yup, I should probably start doing some work now!

I LIVE

It has been like a month and a half, but I am still alive. School has been in session for over a month now, and I am currently in the midst of midterm season. Which is why I am blogging, but let's not talk about that.

Lots of updates--first up, classes. Some of you may know I started off the semester with 19 units, 23 if you include the waitlisted Philosophy 115. Well, it just so happened that was the first one to go after the second class--it was either that or History 105B, since they actually conflicted with each other. I just wanted to shop around, but it was pretty clear that, as interesting as Political Philosophy is, the professor's accent plus the bitchy GSI just totally turned me off from the class.

On the other hand, the history of the Hellenistic age (Alexander the Great through the rise of Rome) has been extremely fascinating. Frequently I am able to parallel the course of history there to one of my favorite historical periods, the Three Kingdoms era in China some couple hundred years later. Anyway, I just had a midterm for the class a couple days ago, and I feel okay about it. Depending on how I do, I may change it to P/NP; it doesn't really matter to me, since I just want to learn the material. I don't even do most of the readings for the class, instead opting to save money and time on the primary sources. But yeah, it's all good.

The next class I dropped was CS/Physics/Chem C191, one on quantum computation. That was done the following week. As great as that stuff is, I was feeling pretty lost from day 1. I tried my best to comprehend, but I didn't feel like the refresher on quantum was sufficient; it really did seem like it'd be much easier after I take Physics 137A (quantum mechanics), even though it's not a formal prereq. No worries though, I still have a lot of time to take it later, and at this point I still had 16 units.

After I dropped 191, I decided to add CS9E, the self-paced UNIX course. I am glad I did so, as I finally becoming fluent in the OS, and not just the measly few commands that almost everyone else knows. The only bad thing is that I'm a week behind (oops), but I will catch up (one of these days...). As for the assignments and quizzes, they're not too bad, and the readings are also stabilizing, so that I don't have to read too much a week.

My other physics class is 110A (E&M). I am enjoying the class for the most part, as it forces me to basically relearn and constantly use Math 53 material, mainly in vector calculus. At this point we are also learning new concepts and ideas as well, in addition to the stuff that I'm learning for like the fourth time in my life now (honors, AP, 7B, and now 110A, yay). I'm still not entirely sure on the physics minor thing, but I'm working on it. =P

The last two are EE40 and CS70. 40 is fine--basic circuit theory isn't too hard; we just had a midterm, and I feel that I did relatively well. Our professor is a little strange, although I love his very stereotypical Chinese accent. It's just the labs that are annoying. As for 70, the material is getting tougher, but still interesting--we swept from logic to proofs to stable marriage to security algorithims, with some other stuff in between. The main professor, Rao, is not that great; I only look forward to when the other professor, Tse, takes over. Midterm for that plus physics is coming up next week (I should really get studying).

So yeah, that's a total of 17 units. My Monday and Tuesday afternoons are pretty free, so I am still continuing to work up at SSL. As of now, my previous project is at a standstill, waiting for Steve to have time to review my boards. So I am working on a new project, in which I am actually supposed to design a board rather than just reimplement one. It is definitely intimidating--more details to come when I actually start next week.

Social life I'm pretty satisfied with. On the first weekend of school, Eta Kappa Nu had a retreat--we went to Bodega Bay, some 1.5 hours north of here. It was okay for the most part, somewhat boring at times but enjoyable. Learned some new games, met some new people, and froze at the beach, and the usual stuff. Speaking of HKN, I am pretty glad I'm a StudRel officer, or else I'd have a lot more work to do. Trying to reserve the stupid field for Engineering Sports Night is trouble enough on its own, and we have to start organizing food runs for EECS undergrad midterms pretty soon. In other news, we just had our candidate meeting and a Ben & Jerry's Night yesterday; it's pretty cool to meet all these new people, and I've even given out a few challenges already.

Oh yeah, forgot to mention I'm also going to initiate for Tau Beta Pi this semester. It seems pretty fun as well, and I don't see any reason not to (well, there's the membership fee, but I guess it is lifetime). The only weird thing is that I have completely opposite roles with people who are in or initiating for both. That is, I'm an officer for HKN but a candidate for TBP, and I may have to interact with people who are just the reverse. It can be pretty awkward.

What else... the apartment is fine, as well as the apartmentmates. While the place could be cheaper and bigger, I won't deny that it is nice to have work-order services right there. People came up to fix our leaking toilet and clogged sink within the next day of our requesting it. The other thing is that the place has pretty poor ventilation, so it's usually very warm in there. On the bright side, the weather seems to be cooling down, so that's good. Also, having SSBB around isn't always a good thing, but it's useful for stress relief.

How quickly time flies--the fact that the schedule for next semester has been out for almost a week now just reminds you that college speeds through more quickly than any other time of your life. Well, I certainly look forward to whatever may be ahead, so bring it on.

VICTORY

Ok not really, but for the summer yes. On Wednesday I went in after lunch to finish going over my files plus some PADS basics with Jim. We then spent a couple hours with Steve discussing what to do next with the boards and the MAVEN project. Apparently, it is a rather low-priority project right now. For now it looks unlikely that I will continue to work part-time during the semester--I have 19 units right now, 23 if you count waitlisted units. At the least, I'll go in like once a month to stay on payroll.

And as for next summer, we'll see. Jim said that things will really pick up next year, and I'll definitely get hired again, maybe even work with a new undergrad, since I already know the workings of everything. Unless I find a Way better opportunity somewhere else, I'll probably stay on and move this project along. In the meantime, my files will have to be cleaned up, whether by me or by Bruce.

Something else I forgot to mention last time--the Lawrence Hall of Science! It's just below the hill, and it's kind of like an Exploratorium. Lots of different exhibits for kids to explore. I often see school buses taking schoolkids there. There're a fountain and killer whale in the front too! Here are a few pictures:

The last thing that's kinda cool is the radio telescope in the woods a short walk from the SSL. I think it's pretty small, but it's this first one I've seen in real life. This is a shot from the top of the Addition building:

And here's one from behind, except it's on the other side of a fence that I can't cross. -_-

But yeah, there we go. I think that about sums my summer up (on the Berkeley side anyway). Not sure if I'll keep posting, but yup. I'm definitely not done with the SSL yet, so we'll see you guys again soon!