The phone in my house has been set to low volume ringer and the answering machine kicks in at 2 rings. This is because of the numerous unnecessary calls that this house gets for no apparent reason. Plus, my dad sleeps irregularly, so the phone going off is a distraction. If the caller feels like his/her call is important enough, then he/she will leave a message. If I think the caller is important enough, I will pick up or return the call. Simple as that.
My day today fit the adage of "getting up on the wrong side of bed." This morning, I had to find this message I scribbled down on a piece of paper that had a phone number and a reference number. I'm usually a very organized person (using my own method of organization) and have never lost a phone message. But for the life of me, I couldn't find it. So that got me rather enraged at myself this morning. However in the end, I found it because the paper was taken to another room. But then, my dad didn't feel like calling the number (it was for a vehicle donation...we're donating our old van) so *I* had to go and inpersonate my dad and make arrangements for the car to be taken away.
Now, if there's something I don't like to do, it would have to be pretending I'm someone else. It's not like I don't want to get the job done, but I really really hate the feeling of being caught red-handed doing something inappropriate. And when you inpersonate someone, it's pretty easy to get caught. And on top of that, I'm a pitiful actor.
I had my brush with lo-tech at the government building today while I was looking for my parent's property deeds. I also found out how much information is available to the public. The Recorder has records of all property deeds. However, prior to a few years ago, all those deeds were bound in books. I guess in their attempt to modernize, they put everything on microfilm. If you've never used microfilm before, let me tell you, those things are a pain in the ass to use. Even though the machine they had there were pretty modern, I still had to use the knob and speed through to find the correct pages in the microfilm. I think they should upgrade their system for digital documents. It would make life so much simpler, but I guess they have better things to do with their money, such as tearing down that hideous River St. sign.
The Assessors office also keeps records of who owns what, including the cost of the property. I don't know why that would be public information, but it is, and I find it kinda scary. If I bought a house, I don't think I would be comfortable with someone else knowing how much I spent on it.
Ah the joys of encoding music from CDs to MP3s. I'm going through and I have to change the file names, such as "Track 01" to more understandable names, such as "Catch You Catch Me." Rather tedious, because of my limited Japanese. I have to find a page with reasonable translations for the track names, and then, I just verify to see that they're correct. Tiring, but necessary for neat/organized geek like me.
Today was the second time I got something from Crushlink.com saying that someone has a crush on me. Strangely enough, it's to my Cornell account, which if it was anyone I cared about, would have known that I no longer use that as my primary account. Plus, Crushlink.com requires me to register on their site to find out who sent me the email. Unfortunately, I'm not the type of person to give a dotcom company the honor of selling my email address, so I have to say no thanks. Too bad for the supposed person who has a crush on me.
In Saturday's newspaper, it featured a front page article about how Lex, a Santa Cruzian who was one of the last 4 candidates on the most recent "Survivor," was cheated out of possibly being the winner. Lex himself however, doesn't feel bad because "that's life." Same thing goes for the Olympic figure skaters. Russia made a hub-bub about the whole incident about how they were cheated, but the skaters themselves don't mind. I just think it's a growing trend about how other groups of people seem to demand justice over a situation that they weren't directly responsible in. If it doesn't bother the people involved, just let it go.
Fat. That's what I'm becoming. Those of you who know what I'm going through right now probably can understand. I haven't gotten out much now. And if I do go out, it's only by car. At least at school, I got to walk around NYC to the various places. But here, I'm stuck at home. I'm thinking of getting at treadmill for myself, but then again, they're very expensive.
I finally got my order from CD Japan. Well, I guess I should say finally, since the order was only shipped two days ago. Rather incredible. Amazon doesn't even deliver that quickly.
When I was in NYC, I had a phone line in my room. I also had DSL (which goes through the phone line). Both are from Verizon. I leave Jan. 31st, and called them to cancel phone and DSL service for Feb. 4th (just in case I had left a little later). I get my final bill for my phone service. And I find out that I got charged the monthly fee for DSL service on the 14th of February despite having called them to cancel. DSL needs a dial tone to operate. My NYC phone has been disconnected since the 4th. Humans are so unreliable.
Oooo...alumni mail. I got a ballot as a Cornell alumni to vote for a new member on the Cornell's Board of Trustees. Of course, I'll pick through the info guide with a fine tooth comb and read everyone's platform and personal statement (which reminds me, I should read up on the March elections too, which includes some propositions for the state of California). But first, there are a few prerequisites. Strike out the guy who went to Hahvahd after graduation (traitor!). No lawyers, 2 more get dinged. Bias against the Hotelie. And that leaves me with one guy! Looks like I have my work cut out for me! =)
No, I haven't slept yet. Yes, it's past my bedtime. No, the sun hasn't come up. Yes, my biological clock is messed up. I spent most of the night configuring a computer. With my current situation, my parents allowed me to inherit their computer, which is a Sony LX910 (whose successor is the LX920). It's not a fast computer, but it comes with a neat feature. The ability to use a stylus directly on the screen. I went to Fry's last night to beef up this little computer, which is named "Sakura." It now sports 512 megs of RAM and a 120 gig hard drive (7200 RPM!). Now, I shall go back to software installations and soon sleep.
Alright, I think my dream is trying to tell me something. In my dream, I had an argument with a Starbucks manager. The story starts with my ordering a mocha frap. (a typical order of mine). However, the blender was broke while they were making it. They told me that they could give me half for a price of a small, but I requested that they make a new one. The Starbucks people wouldn't, so then I got in this argument with him. It's quite peculiar though, since if that had happened in real life (which I doubt, since it probably costs them pennies on the dollar to make that $5 dollar drink), I would have just walked away instead of getting in an altercation.
Software Etc. is a great place to buy anime DVDs. Just like Fry's, they usually sell it at $5 bucks off MSRP (which is what Suncoast sells it for). Heck, it's even cheaper than Amazon.com. I got DVD #13 to Kenshin and am watching it now. The lady at Software Etc. was rather rude though. I guess she was just tired, but at Software Etc., they take the disc out of the case. So when I went up to the counter with the empty case, she looked for it on her cabinet of unopened DVDs and couldn't find it. So she went to her drawer which housed the DVDs that came with the case. However, she was having a hard time finding them, since there's already 14 Kenshin discs, and she had to match every one. The nice thing though is that she showed me the bottom of the DVD before selling it to me to show me that it wasn't scratched. I don't really mind if it's opened, as long as it isn't scratched. And for $5 bucks off, what the heck. Back to the show. The series is now at the end of the Kyoto Arc.
Some people are so dense. I drive my dad to the hospital and parked outside the emergency entrance (it wasn't really an emergency, but we were told that that entrance was the closest one). There were three spots over there, all in a row and empty. Two of them had a metal signpost that said "Ambulance Only," so being the courteous citizen that I am, I proceeded to park in the third space, which was unmarked. And then, this guy who looked like some technician (no even a security guard or nurse), said I couldn't park there. I was almost going to challenge him, but then decided not to and parked in such a way that the back of my car was right near the door, which was even more convenient for me. But in this position, my car was parked perpendicular to the parking spots, and in fact, I was blocking the parking spaces so that NO CAR could park, ambulance or not. Strangely, the guy didn't complain to that, even though my latter action was much worse than the former in terms of emergency deliveries. DF.
UPS finally delivered all my packages from NYC, which consisted of 6 rather large boxes (3 of them were 18"x18"x18" and the other was like 12"x18"x24") plus my desktop, which is huge and heavy. But it's all back, and my network is set up again, which means that my web site is operational again.
I couldn't watch the ending of the Men's curling event tonight. It was the US against Norway, and it came down to the very last few stones. Nope, I couldn't stand the suspense. Funny thing is though that it was shown on CNBC, which is usually a financial news station. I don't know if it's good practice when two channels usually completely devoted to news (CNBC and MSNBC) begin showing Olympic events. It doesn't seem right.
Quick fix notice. Since I'll be staying on the west coast until September, I changed the code so that the time shown is in Pacific Standard Time rather than Eastern Standard Time. This should explain my seemingly nocturnal nature on my recent journal entries. I usually don't stay up past 2am.
The beast is back! In renovating my bedroom, I brought back the 17" CRT monitor I had when I was a freshman and sophomore (it was the monitor that accompanied Desktop Luna). I've been using a Viewsonic LCD monitor from Junior year. This thing is huge! I've been using it for the past 15 minutes, and I think it might go back in the closet. After using LCDs as my primary display for the past 3 years, it's really hard to come back to a conventional monitor. Even though I have the monitor set at 85 Hz, I can still sense the flickering (try turning your head so that your peripheral vision views the monitor and then blink...you can tell). However, the colors on the monitor are so much better than the LCD screens. It seems much more saturated, and doesn't change when you look at it from the side.
I got my DSL connection today! The activation date wasn't until the 15th, but the PacBell guy came today to check out the connection. I just hooked the thing up and I was all set with my Internet connection. It's pretty neat how I can use my laptop around the house now with the wireless connection. Bad thing is though, that the wireless connection is very very limited. It can *barely* reach the furthest end of my house. At first, I was worried that a neighbor or someone might want to freeload, but I don't think it's a problem now. Now that I have my DSL, I should start responding to all the long emails that I've gotten. Can't hide behind the excuse that I only have a modem connection.
Did you see the women's curling event? Incredible. I still have to figure out the scoring system. But it was neat how I could understand a bit of what the Japanese team was saying too.
I should have been a systems administrator. I love doing this stuff! I'm currently setting up a wireless network in my house (cuz I don't want to be couped up in my room all day). Don't know why, but I love doing the research to find the best products, buying and then setting up.
I admit it, I did watch a bit of the olympics. But who would have ever thought that the curling event would BE SO EXCITING! I mean it! Those guys are crazy out there with their ice scrubber-thing-a-ma-jiggy. The news was that USA upset the defending champions Sweden. What I like most about the game though is that the opposing team is allowed to "scrub" during a move. If the stone is sliding out of the circle, the opposing team is allowed to "encourage" it to slide out by scrubbing. Very neat!
However, the Olympics had to let me down again after the exhilarating aftering watching those curlers. It had to do with the ice skating championships. I didn't watch it, but according to my dad, the gold medalists, the Russians I believe, had noticeable flaws in their routine. The silver medalists, the Canadians, executed a perfect performance. However, they only got the silver. Pretty uncool.
I finished cleaning everything out of my room. My technique of cleaning is to just move everything out to another room and then filter the stuff back into my room. I did a lot of dumping of a lot of old stuff that I had. In fact, I found a 8x10 photo of the senior prom that I went to. Any normal person would have thrown it away if he knew about what eventually happened with my date and I, but I decided to keep it. I looked sooo awesome in the photo. HEY! A little narcissism never hurt anyone! =)
The anime, "Hand Maid May" is a series that suits my style. I just finished the 10 episode (11, if you count the encore) yesterday. If it didn't have the gratuitous underwear shots, it might have beat Magic User's Club as my favorite anime. But it got negative points for being a little excessive. Still a great story though, and the intro song is unbelievably addicting. While a less cute that the ending to Mini-goddess (XXX - Kiss Kiss Kiss), it's really upbeat and a great "feel good" tune.
Dreams are a strange thing. When you first wake up from one, you think your dream has some significance, but later, you always forget. I had two strange dreams when I was staying with my dad at the hospital a week and a half ago. The first one was this really strange mystery story that I was living though. It actually unfolded like a movie and had a conclusion too (i.e. the mystery was solved). When I first woke up from that dream, I thought it was one of the most spectacular stories I've ever experienced, so I told myself to remember it. But now, the dream hardly makes an impact on me. I do have notes though because I had my pencil and paper journal with me, so I jotted down as much as I could remember. Then my second dream was one where I was arguing with a family member, but not in my immediate family. I remember getting so huffed and puffed about it that when I woke up, I was already exhausted, like I had already lived though a day and was about to go to sleep. I wonder if I made noise when I was sleeping. But it probably didn't matter. I was in a hospital, so they probably just thought I was another crazy patient.
I'm cleaning my room now since I'll be here until early June. It's kinda strange because the room has hardly been touched since I left for college 5 years ago. I'm cleaning out my desk and I find this printout of something I found on the Internet back then about going off to college. Let's go through the list:
1. Get a local checking account at school.
* Yup, M&T Bank all 4 years at Cornell, and then Citibank in NYC.
2. Get calling card for long distance calls.
* Nope. My very first college phone bill was $250 bucks. Mostly because of a defunct long distance relationship.
3. Memorize your SSN
* Couldn't agree more, but it was also printed on my CU ID.
4. Err on packing too little.
* There's no reason to pack once you find the local KMart/Walmart/Wegmans.
5. Leave winter clothes at home if you start in September.
* Ha, winter at Cornell can start any day of the year.
6. Get an accordion file to store important paperwork
* A hanging file folder works equally well.
7. yada yada yada...there are about 50 things mentioned, so I won't list them all. But in retrospect, a lot of them didn't apply to my experience in college (especially the one that said "Get in a habit of studying in the same place at the same time everyday").
Ah, memories.
Anyone watching the Olympics? While it's intentions are good, I really don't have any respect for the people who run it. I don't know how long your memories go, but remember when they were selecting the location of this year's Winter Games? Salt Lake City and the Olympics people were busted in a scandal because the city spent an exorbitant amount of money to woo the Olympics committee. And even with that, the committee had beef with the displaying of American patriotism and the tattered US flag because they claim that they were "non-biased and nationally neutral" or whatever euphemism they used. What a crock. It's a corrupt institution.
No, this is not the promised journal entry from last time. I have a lot of it written down, but just haven't typed it up. However, I am still around, but velly bisy.
Finally home after spending the past few days again at the hospital. But this time, it's home for good. I don't know if it was the spirits of those who have been at the hospital or what, but I had two nights of dreams in a row. One was actually rather interesting. I'll write about them later after I dig through my 130+ emails.
Wow, I don't check email for two days and here's the mail I get: 14 to my jupiterstar.com account, 53 to my cornell.edu account, and 2 to my columbia.edu account. Of course, most of it might be mass mailings and junk mail, but that's still pretty incredible. I don't have much time to write journals since they don't have a journal at the hospital, but I did manage to write some stuff during the day. Call it a time-delay journal.
February 1st, 10am
Stupid keyboard. At school, I attach a separate keyboard to my laptop, but now that I'm home, I have to use the laptop's keyboard, and the "k" key on the keyboard is very unresponsive. So I always have to go back and check whenever I have a word that contains a K.
So much for aiport security. I had two luggages when I came home yesterday. However, my baggages and I got separated on the second leg of my flight (isn't this against the new security policies?). The first leg flight was late, so when I got off the first plane, I had to run to the second plane (with fortunately was just the next gate over) and get on. They had already closed the gate since they thought everyone was on. When I was presenting my boarding pass, I asked the guy if my luggage would make it on time with me. He reassured me that if I was able to get on the plane, my luggages would get on the plane too. Liar.
I'm without Internet access right now, which is probably a good thing. I've spent my time here in my dad's hospital room taking care of him.