Her Morning Elegance

Really cool video:

Movies to see over break

I'm so excited for finals to be over... and I haven't even taken them it yet.

Up in the Air

George Clooney? JASON BATEMAN?? No other words needed.

Nine

I saw the Saraghina clip from the original Fellini film in my film class last semester. I'm pretty interested to see Fergie in that role. Also because I really like all the actors in this adaptation.

Sherlock Holmes

Guy Ritchie + Robert Downey, Jr. = win.

Not being productive at all

Three-hour lunch/chat/gossip session with Chuck today has led to me to overanalyze things. Facebook stalking is not helping. I need more guts. Either that, or more overt hints.

Really I should be focusing on studying for my (one) final which I've had over a week now to prepare for...

Fun with Illustrator

Way more fun than studying.


(op art tutorial here)


(swirly border tutorial here)


This one was just random.

Something A La Mode

Really cool French electronica band:

New toy + autumn pics in December

I'm super excited because my parents got me a Sansa Clip+ (8GB version) for my birthday!





Here it is compared to my 4-year old Zen Micro:



Woohoo! It's so tiny and awesome!

Also I don't know if Berkeley just didn't get the memo, but there are finally some good autumn scenes going on around campus (or at least north side). Here are a couple:

2 down, 2 to go

Just submitted my grad school applications to Berkeley and Stanford. I think that was the most dense essay I have ever written. Trying to cram proof that you're going to be a super awesome grad student into two single-spaced pages is not easy. (I cheated a little and narrowed the margins.)

Just MIT and UCSD left...

Caravan Palace

Interesting song:

Another sunset picture

from 10/27

Berkeley sunset pictures (10/26 and 10/27)

Version A


Version B


Panorama

In the Pocket

Pretty cool video:

Variations on a theme

i.e. playing with Photoshop


Original, unedited photo (taken 3/12/08):




Brightened, with more contrast:




Softened, maybe wedding photo setting:




Vintagey, possibly from an indie band's cd sleeve:




Something from the cover of a bad teen vampire novel:

Let's Go Sailing

Sather Gate at night

Not being very productive

Sunset from this past Friday:



Also I'm starting to listen to Wilco.

Applying to grad school is hard.

Crazy awesome advertisements

I stumbled across these randomly...







All works by Joe Gatti.

GRE-studyin'

680 on verbal
770 on quantitative

Not bad for a 2nd try.

Ridiculously easy bruschetta recipe

Now that it's after comp, I am on a plan to eat healthier and exercise more. One of the things that I've recently gotten addicted to is bruschetta, mostly because it's delicious and super easy. Of course, it would probably be more delicious if I put more effort into it, but I'm pretty lazy so I'll settle.

Ingredients:

Tomato(es)
Fresh basil
Mozzarella
Bread



I use potato bread because it's cheap and yummy, but I suppose it could be done with some fancy-schmancy baguette slices.

Steps:

1. Slice mozzarella, chop basil, and dice tomato.



2. Toast bread.

3. Cut toasted bread slices in half.

4. Add other ingredients on top.



Tasty! Ok I may have overdone it slightly on the basil, but it wasn't exactly high-quality so the flavor wasn't overwhelming. Next time I'll try adding some balsamic vinaigrette on top to see what that tastes like.

Also, here is a random bowl of cherries from home.

Dress Project Post #1

Here are the beginnings of the dress I'm making to wear to my cousin's wedding...



I have to go back to Jo-Ann to get more fabric for the top part. Here's a closeup of the pattern for the skirt part:



After cutting and pinning it, I realized that it may be a bit too busy from a distance, but that will hopefully be balanced out by the hems and the band around the waist (both will be solid navy blue). I was originally thinking about polka dots for the top, but now I think that might be an overload. So I might just make the top white.

And if all else fails, I'll just make a quick run to H&M and buy something.

Random thought of the day

Bradley James is almost way too attractive. Unfortunately he has a really pouty (cough girly) mouth.

I fail at studying

I have been sitting at my desk for the past 2 hours and I haven't done anything productive. [sigh]

Epic fail

Missed my review session today because I thought it was starting an hour later than it actually was. I've also been having problems with oversleeping lately. It's a good thing I don't have any morning finals this semester... or I would be worried.

Crazy awesome Swedish band

I really have no clue what they're saying... But their songs are so catchy!



Enjoy!

(source: http://aurgasm.us/2009/04/movits/)

Well this is an interesting twist

On the one hand, this guy is really cute and sweet.

On the other hand, it appears we have very little in common.

Or maybe I'm just too tired to try.

Confusion.

Freaking the fuck out

This is insanity. Holy shit. This is beyond cool.



Slightly bittersweet, because I had Button, Vettel, and Kubica on my fantasy F1 team. Damn I was close!

My favorite quotes of the night:

Reporter: "Jenson. Well, can you do this?"
Jenson: "...Yes."

Reporter: "Piquet outbraked himself and Lewis stuck himself into a gap that was only ever going to disappear."

Reporter: "You see Massa locking his fronts again... they'll look like 50-pence pieces if he keeps doing that."



Reporter: "It's like you can only drive for Toro Rosso if you're named Sebastian."

Freaking out

It's less than 2 hours until the Australian GP and I am way too excited. Last night was one of the most amazing qualifying sessions ever, made even more so because the BBC reporters were hilarious. Some of the highlights (paraphrased, since I can't remember things word-for-word):

Eddie Jordan: [after being asked what he would do if he were McLaren right now] "Well you know, you just have to keep him [Lewis Hamilton] happy and motivated. You have to put your arm around him and tell him that everyone's working hard and that it'll all be fine. You know, things that a parent would say to a child."
David Coulthard: [trying not to laugh]

(Patrick Head was being interviewed, but still one of my favorite parts.)
Patrick Head: [after being asked to comment on Williams' performance in testing/practice] "Well, it's true that we've been quick. But it's best not to be too optimistic, so you won't be disappointed."

Reporter: "Jenson Button is simply FLYING through Sector 1!" ...later... "Jenson Button is absolutely FLYING!" ...later... "And Jenson Button is just... easing off...? Interesting."

Reporter: "And Kimi Raikkonen might get a glimpse in his mirror... Of course the mirrors on a Formula 1 car are about as useful as an ashtray on a motorbike."

Reporter: "AND JENSON BUTTON HAS JUST GOTTEN POLE POSITION! UNBELIEVABLE! JENSON BUTTON, POLE POSITION! THAT IS INCREDIBLE! AMAZING!"
Other Reporter: "Well, we have to wait and see how the other drivers come in... There's still Sebastian Vettel..."
Reporter: [short silence] "NO, NO, JENSON BUTTON HAS TAKEN POLE POSITION!"

Also the part where one of the reporters gets cut off by them broadcasting a radio transmission, because he's way too excited to stop talking.

This race is going to be epic.

Side note... here's a picture from Jenson Button's website, basically congratulating him and Rubens Barichello for claiming front row. You can see that they showed no love for Sebastian Vettel, who got #3 for Red Bull:

Another great movie from Film 50

This past week, we watched Murmur of the Heart. One of my favorite sequences:



I love how this is pretty much the same as how students are today... Throwing parties and making a mess while their parents are out of town. This is perhaps one of the more innocent parts of the film. There were quite a few people in the audience who were shocked, disgusted, or some combination of the two. But I thought it was fantastic.

In other news, being at home is not doing great things for my productivity. Maybe tomorrow I'll actually do something.

Blogger shout out

I have thanked him numerous times already, but I'm going to do it again. Both of the washers in my apartment building were dead today, but I desperately needed to do laundry... so Eric let me use a washer and dryer in his apartment. Woo clean laundry!

Also, I am currently loving Jenson Button.



What a cutie. ;) We shall see what happens in two weeks...

In other news, I am dying of stress. I have reverted back to my day-by-day to-do list in an attempt to prevent myself from going completely insane.

Random band meme I found while Facebook stalking

(original photo here)

HOW TO PLAY:
1 - Go to "wikipedia." Hit “random... Read More... Read More”
or click http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
The first random wikipedia article you get is the name of your band.

2 - Go to "Random quotations"
or click http://www.quotationspage.com/random.php3
The last four or five words of the very last quote of the page is the title of your first album.

3 - Go to flickr and click on “explore the last seven days”
or click http://www.flickr.com/explore/interesting/7days
Third picture, no matter what it is, will be your album cover.

4 - Use photoshop or similar to put it all together.

I think I just have a thing for swooshy hair...

This past Wednesday, we watched The 400 Blows in my film class.



While I was watching it, I couldn't help but notice that Jean-Pierre Leaud was a pretty cute kid. I thought to myself, "I bet this kid grows up to be a hottie." Just look at this face:



Tres adorable!

So then I went home and googled some images, and can I just say... I WAS SO RIGHT.







Look at how perfect his hair is! I'd hit that, for sure.

I think I'm going to have to watch the rest of François Truffaut's Antoine films now, just so I can get more of this Jean-Pierre hair glory.

Side story... When I was in high school, I remember there was a guy from a rival Speech & Debate team with the most spectacular swooshy hair. It was hot. His hair, I mean. He himself was kind of mediocre.

19 inches of widescreen glory

Epic.

Ok self, just because a cute guy talks to you doesn't mean you have to go crazy over him

But he's just SO CUTE.

Gah.

My quest for a new computer

This weekend I went home for a dentist appointment (and also to appease my parents), and I figured that this would be the opportune time for me to buy a new computer. My old laptop died about 3 weeks ago, due to some sort of motherboard issue. Basically, the only thing that started up when I pressed the power button was the fan.

Seeing that this weekend was President's Day weekend, I guessed that there would probably be some sales going on. Unfortunately for me, I have not gone computer shopping in a long time, and therefore was not prepared for the pain and sorrow that I ultimately experienced.

On Sunday morning, I looked at the Best Buy ad which displayed an HP laptop for the low, low price of $399. Even though I was loath to purchase another product from the devils that are Hewlett-Packard (my old laptop was an HP and had a long string of problems before its untimely demise), I had to admit that it was a pretty freakin' sweet deal. Alternatively, there was also an Acer laptop on sale for $450. It had essentially the same specs as the HP, but was slightly smaller and more janky looking. But it wasn't an HP. But I also had no idea if Acer made good laptops or not.

Anyway, Sunday afternoon rolled around and I headed out with my parents. Alas, they were sold out of the HP's. This provoked some nagging from my parents about why I shouldn't sleep in. Then the blue-shirted guy told us that they had sold out within the first hour. Bummer.

The other option was to get the Acer. But my mother wasn't very happy that I was spending 50 bucks more on a computer when my only motivation to get it was that they were in stock. I could have gotten a better (and more expensive) computer, but frankly I hate laptops, and I probably won't use a personal laptop after I graduate.

Well then. I was in a bit of a quandary.

After a bit of skulking around the retardedly narrow aisles, I made the semi-impulsive decision to get a desktop instead.

Best Buy had a few deals on desktops around, including a couple tiny ones. The best deal was an Acer that had a tower about 1/3 the size of a normal tower. It had 4GB of RAM, 320GB of hard drive, a reasonably good dual-core Intel Pentium chip, and the $429 package included a keyboard, mouse, and LCD monitor. Awesome! We called over a guy to ring us up.

As we were waiting in line to pay, my dad noticed that the box for the computer had different specs than were advertised... it only had 3GB of RAM, 160GB of hard drive, and (worst of all) an Intel Celeron processor! WTF mates. Turned out that the package deal was for a completely different computer.

In fact, their website had the same misleading deal (which I looked up later that night). Here you can see the awesome package:



But when you scroll farther down, you see that the package overview is different than what it claims as features!



What a gyp. Needless to say, we backed out before we paid for it.

I wasn't really impressed by any of the other packages they had, so we decided to go home and look for something online. I ended up finding a good deal at Costco.com (which, by the way, is completely separate from the physical store). It is an HP, but I'm a little less picky when it comes to desktops. It is also a 1/3-size tower, and I am quite excited about it.

In conclusion, Best Buy sucks; I hate them. That's my story.

Second Annual Valentine's Day Self-Commiseration Post

Seeing that I am currently single, it would be quite the cliche for me to take this opportunity to complain about how stupid Valentine's Day is. Alternatively, I could talk about how much better off I am without having to worry about or deal with boyfriend issues.

But who would I really be kidding? Probably nobody. Being single is really effing boring sometimes, and in all honesty I would love it if some guy gave me jewelry for no other reason than having been guilt-tripped into it by the preponderance of department store ads.

So instead, I will skirt the topic altogether.

I've been listening to lots of catchy poppy music in a largely successful attempt to get rid of my semi-depressive state. I recently heard a song by a Brooklyn band Matt & Kim. I listened to some of their other stuff and was not a huge fan, but for some reason I found this one song awesome. Here it is:



I have also been trying to finish my scarf before the cold weather is gone. I'm predicting an epic fail, seeing that last year's scarf project didn't get finished until the end of spring. I have slightly more motivation this time around, though, because I have yet another scarfy idea poking around in the back of my head, begging for my needles to be free. It involves using this yarn (halo blue from Dollar Tree FTW) and this pattern. Woot I'm excited, dunno about anyone else.

Today was weird. My stress levels shot out the roof when I found out that the unsealed wheel bearing situation for FSAE was threatening to screw us in the ass. But then for some reason I was in a really good, almost giddy mood for the entire afternoon/evening. Maybe it was partially to do with the fact that we watched Meet Me In St. Louis in my film class today, which has a title song so annoyingly catchy that even one of the characters tells everyone to STFU. Fortunately, by some stroke of luck or heavenly blessing, I found out that we would not, in fact, be screwed. Oh happy day.

I have successfully procrastinated this entire week, such that I have two problem sets due Friday and I haven't started either. Go me! Now, time for sleeping.

Today was better

But don't ask me why.

Someone help me figure myself out

I'm trying to stay happy, but all of these wistful songs that Pandora keeps spewing at me are not helping. I like upbeat music too, ok? But if you keep feeding me Regina Spektor and Rilo Kiley and Stars and Coldplay (wtf I don't even like them that much), I think I might just drown. And no, the occasional Strokes song is not going to make it better, because it only reminds me of freshman year when I was naive and thought everything was fantastic.

If I could pinpoint the problem, it might be easier to deal with. But I can't. Everything is fine, great even. Objectively, I am completely satisfied with life.

I can't tell if I'm actually depressed or just chronically feeling sorry for myself. The former would be worrisome; the latter could be normal.

New semester, same pathetic diet

Yes, after a winter break filled with deliciously genuine Chinese food and homecooked meals, I have no shame relapsing back into my lazy eating habits...

(This post also doubles as an online rebuttal to all of Chuck's food posts.)

Here are some of my favorites:

Three Cheese Tortellini from Costco
You can get a double pack for seven bucks, stick it in the freezer, and it'll last forever. Well, more like three weeks when you eat it for every other meal. Buy a jar of your favorite $3 pasta sauce, and you are totally set. Takes 7 minutes to cook, and even less time to devour.

Cereal
Perfect for breakfast, lunch, dinner, or anything in between.

Frozen Pizza
Bake at 400 degrees in the oven for 15 minutes and satisfy those pizza cravings without having to leave the convenience of your apartment or dealing with weird pizza delivery people.

Toast and Peanut Butter
The peanut butter will fill you up, and the toast will give you that toasty goodness that is oh-so-satisfying.

Saltines and Peanut Butter
A variation of the above, but with the added benefit of getting rid of those saltines that you took home after the staff meeting.

Lasagna
A family size Stouffer's lasagna costs about ten bucks. Let it bake for three hours, cut into 8-10 servings, and store them in individual tupperware containers in the freezer. Then microwave each serving for five minutes to defrost. The perfect food stash for finals.

Grilled Cheese Sandwich
One of my all-time favorites. If you have a toaster oven, you can make one by putting a slice of cheese on a slice of bread, then toasting the entire assembly together. Make two slices and combine to make a sandwich. If you don't have a toaster oven (perhaps because your parents stole yours back after theirs caught on fire), then you can make one in a frying pan. Take two slices of bread and butter one side each. Place your slice of cheese in between so that it's contacting the non-buttered sides. Then pan-fry it over low heat until the bread is browned and the cheese is melty. A 5 minute recipe to yumminess!

Here is a fancy version of my frying pan grilled cheese sandwich, made with Jewish rye and pepper jack:



w00t

I'm back and kicking (literally)

I think the 10 days of walking, followed by the 10-hour flight home during most of which I sat in the same position, followed by the time zone change which I was not fully prepared for, have done something crazy to my leg muscles. Now I can't sit still for more than a few minutes without moving something or it will move itself. I also get involuntary full-body twitches when I'm trying to fall asleep.

Shanghai was, need I say, an amazing experience. The fact that it was overcast/rainy the entire time was the only thing keeping it from being gorgeous.





That, and the fact that it was dusty as fuck. After the rain, all the dust went on the ground and it became muddy as fuck. I think it must be from all the construction. They're doing a lot of renovation in order to get ready for the 2010 World Expo. This blue guy is Haibao, the mascot:



The night scenery, though, was more than spectacular. Because there was so much moisture in the air, my attempts to use the "nighttime" scene mode on my camera always resulted in little round blobs of light as the flash reflected off of the water droplets. So whenever I could find somewhere to rest my camera stably, I set my ISO to 80 or 100 and reduced the exposure to -1. (I don't really know why this works, it's just something that has worked for me in the past.)



Then of course there was the food! The previous time I went to China, we were on a tour, and for some reason they only took us to places that served food that wasn't much better than Panda Express. This time, thanks to the guidance of my aunt (who had been living in Shanghai for the past four years, although no longer) and the ubiquitous nature of street food vendors, I think I gained at least a couple pounds from stuffing my face.









That last picture was taken at the deli in a supermarket. Pretty awesome, even though I didn't actually eat any of the stuff there.

Anyhoo, now I'm back and I need to get back to FEA-ing and designing stuffs. I don't really feel like doing any work though. This trip has really gotten me into non-engineering mode. In fact, for the past few days I've been thinking about writing a short story. About what, I'm not sure yet.

I think I'll start working tomorrow.