The Loquacious Barnacle

v2.0

2010-04-13T00:06:00.000-07:00

I have officially migrated to Tumblr:

http://loquaciousbarnacle.tumblr.com/

Folksy music post

2010-04-02T00:49:00.001-07:00

Lately I've been in major folksy music discovering mode, for some reason. Here are a couple of good songs I've found recently.

I also found out not too long ago that Reverie Sound Revue released a new LP last year. Lisa Lobsinger has one of the most amazing singing voices ever. Here's a track from the LP:

(p.s. Also debuting a wider layout on this blog!)

More new Broken Social Scene

2010-03-26T22:48:00.000-07:00

Loving these new tracks:

Spoon - "Written in Reverse" video

2010-02-23T23:13:00.000-08:00

They recorded this song live for the video, and they sound awesome. Spoon is one of my all-time favorite rock bands... super excited to see them in April!

Some recently discovered cool music

2010-02-19T23:36:00.000-08:00

Pandora is awesome.

Harvey Danger - "Wine, Women, and Song"

Spoon - "Tear Me Down"

Caribou - "Odessa"

The Whitest Boy Alive - "Fireworks"

And while I'm on a music-related post, Broken Social Scene has released a track from their upcoming new album:

Empty street

2010-02-07T17:24:00.000-08:00

A photo from the last time I was home:

Her Morning Elegance

2009-12-30T20:27:00.000-08:00

Really cool video:

Movies to see over break

2009-12-16T18:13:00.000-08:00

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

2009-12-16T00:55:00.000-08:00

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

2009-12-14T20:51:00.001-08:00

Way more fun than studying.

(op art tutorial here)

(swirly border tutorial here)

This one was just random.

Something A La Mode

2009-12-13T13:05:00.000-08:00

Really cool French electronica band:

New toy + autumn pics in December

2009-12-05T21:37:00.000-08:00

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

2009-12-02T02:31:00.000-08:00

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

2009-11-07T21:10:00.000-08:00

Interesting song:

Another sunset picture

2009-11-02T23:28:00.001-08:00

from 10/27

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

2009-10-27T22:43:00.001-07:00

Version A

Version B

Panorama

In the Pocket

2009-10-05T00:45:00.000-07:00

Pretty cool video:

Variations on a theme

2009-10-03T23:14:00.000-07:00

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

2009-09-19T00:11:00.000-07:00

Sather Gate at night

2009-09-14T21:30:00.001-07:00

Not being very productive

2009-09-14T00:14:00.000-07:00

Sunset from this past Friday:

Also I'm starting to listen to Wilco.

Applying to grad school is hard.

Crazy awesome advertisements

2009-08-26T00:10:00.000-07:00

I stumbled across these randomly...

All works by Joe Gatti.

GRE-studyin'

2009-08-15T21:50:00.000-07:00

680 on verbal
770 on quantitative

Not bad for a 2nd try.

Ridiculously easy bruschetta recipe

2009-07-29T17:12:00.000-07:00

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

2009-07-18T21:02:00.001-07:00

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

2009-07-04T00:28:00.000-07:00

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

I fail at studying

2009-05-14T23:56:00.000-07:00

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

Epic fail

2009-05-13T11:04:00.001-07:00

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

2009-04-20T00:39:00.001-07:00

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

2009-04-06T23:11:00.000-07:00

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

2009-03-29T01:17:00.000-07:00

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

2009-03-28T21:17:00.000-07:00

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

2009-03-22T00:28:00.001-07:00

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

2009-03-14T01:18:00.000-07:00

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

2009-03-12T00:26:00.000-07:00

(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...

2009-03-06T00:18:00.000-08:00

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

2009-02-26T01:08:00.000-08:00

Epic.

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

2009-02-21T23:44:00.000-08:00

But he's just SO CUTE.

Gah.

My quest for a new computer

2009-02-16T16:02:00.000-08:00

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

2009-02-12T00:45:00.000-08:00

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

2009-02-06T22:44:00.001-08:00

But don't ask me why.

Someone help me figure myself out

2009-02-06T00:45:00.001-08:00

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

2009-01-20T21:28:00.000-08:00

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)

2009-01-01T20:00:00.000-08:00

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.

I will soon be halfway around the world

2008-12-20T22:07:00.000-08:00

On Monday morning, I'm leaving for Shanghai! I'm going with my family, and meeting up with my extended family on my mom's side. I haven't seen them in a few years so it'll be fun.

I'll be sure to post a few choice photos once I get back. Happy holidays, everyone!

My laundry waits patiently to be folded

2008-12-14T23:08:00.000-08:00

Normally I don't experience strong emotional connections to places. But today when I arrived in cold, rainy San Francisco, all I could think was thank god for northern California. After enduring miles of walking, awful convention center food, and NHRA enthusiasts for three days, all I wanted was to be able to look around and see a mountain somewhere in the horizon.

I went to the PRI Tradeshow in Orlando with Ted & Nancy, which was a huge amount of fun (although the broken blister on my foot doesn't agree). One of the highlights was tracking down Claude to ask him a suspension question, which resulted in him learning my name (or at least my face) and promising me that he would remember me at comp. This may or may not be a good thing.

David talked to a whole bunch of people and got us tons of new potential sponsors, which is good because I'm not exactly the best at trying to convince people to help us out. We also went around distributing thank you cards to our existing sponsors, which they all seemed to appreciate.

Then there were the interesting people. At one point I was talking to somebody about possible sponsorship, and a few random guys overheard me and were very interested in learning about the FSAE program. So I ended up talking to them for a while and giving them my business cards. It was totally unexpected, but pretty cool.

Some of the guys from Auburn's FSAE team were there, and I ended up hanging out at their booth more than a few times. They were all really cool and super sweet. Nihal and I hung out with them after PRI yesterday night.

And of course I can't go without mentioning Pinstripes Guy. He was one of Claude's interns at OptimumG, and David was complimenting/making fun of his pinstriped pants after Claude's Thursday seminar. While it was mildly awkward and I didn't really participate in that conversation, Pinstripes Guy apparently remembered my face, because he said hi to me every time he saw me after that. It's one thing to smile, but it totally threw me off guard that he actually asked me how I was doing each time. It didn't help that his French accent was extremely attractive...

Now I have stuff from PRI strewn all across my bed, and a basket of laundry that needs to be taken care of. Time to get to work.

Taking a break from studying

2008-12-08T01:53:00.001-08:00

Tomorrow (today?) is my thermo final (or rather, half of it... it's a complicated story). I am very much not looking forward to it.

Today (yesterday?) my parents came by and we went to lunch at La Med for my birthday. It was really good and I enjoyed it a lot. Then they dropped me off at the garage (of course) and I finalized the geometry of the front rocker, which was satisfying.

But by the time I got home, took a shower, and actually started studying, it was 11pm. Ugh. I've finished my cheat sheet, but I still need to look through the practice problems and midterms.

I've been feeling kind of out of it lately. I don't know if it's end-of-semester stress, or my crazy dreams involving my best friends hitting on me, or the weird feeling that I'm being stared at, or some combination of the previously stated. All I know is that I've been waiting for this semester to be over, and I only have two more weeks.

Heh, it didn't take long for me to come back

2008-12-01T00:11:00.000-08:00

You'd think that after a month of posting daily, I'd be ready to take a couple weeks' break (especially with the semester wrapping up). But I just watched Juno and I have to say that I loved it oh so very much.

That is all... Now onto MATLAB.

Oh my, last NaBloPoMo post...

2008-11-30T21:21:00.000-08:00

It's the last day of November, which means the last day of NaBloPoMo... I know I haven't exactly been the most diligent when it comes to posting on time, but at least I got my 30 in! Woohoo!

I feel like I've moved on to a new stage of my life over the past month. It's funny, last November when I was doing this, I think I had a similar feeling. Oddly enough, it was also due to a relationship that had recently ended, although I was in a different post-breakup stage at the time. Maybe next year I'll actually meet someone during November. ;) Although now I've probably jinxed it.

I don't know if it's amusing or depressing that neither of my past relationships survived long enough to make it to my birthday, although they did make it through my boyfriends' birthdays. Actually, this is kind of disturbing... I think I'm going to stop thinking about it now, haha.

In any case, November has been a good month overall, and I am happy.

Yay for a real post!

2008-11-29T21:48:00.000-08:00

I am back in Berkeley! Hooray! So here is the story of my Thanksgiving break...

On Thursday we went to one of my aunts' house in Redlands for Thanksgiving dinner. It was good, although I decided not to eat excessively much. Then I went back to one of my uncles' house in Camarillo for the night.

Foodz, before being arranged nicely:

One of my cousins is a dessert chef and she made this:

On Friday morning, I was waiting for Eahab to pick me up, and I was playing with one of my cousins' dog. His name is Milo and he is SO CUTE!

So then we went to the LA Auto Show and met up with Chris and Nihal. It was fun, but it got boring after a little while. We did see the car from Cobra, though.

Then we went to Jared's house and hung out/BBQ-ed for a few hours.

All in all, it was a good trip.

:)

Text message post #2

2008-11-29T00:27:00.000-08:00

Ok so I fail at posting before midnight once again. Ugh whatever. I'll write tomorrow when I actually have internet.

Text message post #1

2008-11-27T16:25:00.001-08:00

Woohoo my first post via text message! I am currently at my aunt's house waiting for dinner to commence... In the meantime I've been steal

Farewell, Norcal

2008-11-26T15:06:00.001-08:00

In an hour or so, I will be on my way down to southern California for Thanksgiving break. It is sure to be eventful. On Friday I'm meeting up with Chris and Nihal to go to the LA Auto Show, and then heading over to Jared's house for a barbecue.

I probably won't have much access to the internet, but never fear! I've figured out how to post to this blog via text message. The only thing is that I can't title my posts, so I'll have to go back and title them after the fact.

Now, time to take a shower before the 6-hour car ride.

Last minute post!

2008-11-25T23:56:00.000-08:00

Oh no, I almost forgot to post!

Today I was cramming for my controls midterm, which turned out to be an hour and a half's worth of neck craning, hand straining hell.

Tomorrow I'll be heading down to southern California to visit my relatives for Thanksgiving.

One more week of NaBloPoMo to go... for some reason I'm feeling very unmotivated today. Oh I remember why now. It's because today sucked.

Last week of NaBloPoMo

2008-11-24T22:17:00.001-08:00

It's the home stretch! Normally I would think of something creative and insightful to say, but since I have a big midterm tomorrow, I will delay the spectacular post until tomorrow. Peace out.

Life is painful

2008-11-23T18:18:00.000-08:00

So is my mouth, currently. I have a wicked canker sore and it hurts like hell.

I have two midterms in the next two days. I'm going to go and die now.

Why is life so complicated?

2008-11-22T23:16:00.000-08:00

*sigh*

Ugh. I think I've really dug myself into a deep hole this time. I'm crossing my fingers that I can figure out a way to climb out.

Mad dash!!!

2008-11-21T23:57:00.000-08:00

Ha made it before midnight! We all went down to San Jose State to listen to a talk by Mike O'Neil. Then we were just hanging out with the FSAE guys at SJSU for a while. Argh I'm tired. Goodnight!

I have nothing interesting to say today

2008-11-20T21:31:00.000-08:00

One small thing though... A couple weeks ago I randomly bid on some fabric on eBay. It was a leftover scrap and I bid a dollar on it, figuring what the hell. I actually won the bid, which was cool. So today I got it in the mail!

The spots are about 3/4" in diameter. It's super cute, but it's polyester which means it'll be hard to work with. I haven't decided what to do with it yet...

Are you kidding me?!

2008-11-19T17:44:00.001-08:00

Today I was randomly browsing news articles about Formula 1. I was reading some boring article about Lewis Hamilton on the Times website when I spotted this little sidebar blurb:

What the hell, Ed Gorman (whoever you are)! I could probably think of five reasons why anyone would dislike him, just off the top of my head.

Here I go:

1. He's... um, how shall I say it... arrogant as fuck?

2. He is all but surgically attached to his father.

3. He has the most vomit-inducing winky face ever.

4. ITV insists on making their cutscenes before/after commercials out of his face with a tiny F1 car driving around it. (Ok I admit, that's more directed at ITV... But still. Wtf.)

5. Nihal likes him.

Hahaha ok that last one is just a display of my belligerance.

At least in that first picture he appears to have a 5 o'clock shadow. We were all convinced that Ron Dennis was putting makeup on him 24 hours a day so that he could maintain his perfect complexion.

I apparently have lost all motivation

2008-11-18T14:05:00.000-08:00

Two years ago I was so on top of my shit, it was ridiculous. Even one year ago, I did all my homework for one of my classes a week in advance (although this was so as to avoid having to go to class). Now look at me. I waste all my daytime messing around on Facebook or reading random articles, and then end up staying up really late to get homework done.

I came home between classes today fully intending to get some homework done in my 3-hour gap. EPIC FAIL. I am so not in the homeworking mood. Argh. I'm going to die from homework overload tonight. Well, I have another hour before I have to leave... I think I'm going to watch some Top Gear now.

My moods are oscillating like an underdamped mass-spring system

2008-11-17T16:31:00.000-08:00

In my previous post, I vented some strong emotions. I would just like to say now I have mostly recovered from yesterday's anger. Still, I don't think that my emotions are going to reach steady-state for a little while yet.

On Friday, I went with a bunch of FSAE people to see the new James Bond movie. It was pretty cool and I enjoyed it, although IMHO it was more of a general action movie than a slick Bond movie. After that, we went to a house party at Brian's, which was huge and crazy. It was also extremely awkward, as there were way too many people getting into my personal space. (Nihal later coined the term PSV - personal space violation.) There was also a guy there who kept hitting on me all night, which was extremely weird seeing that I was in no way remotely interested. Jaya seemed to get a huge kick out of it though.

In other news, I am incredibly stressed out. Although I guess that's not really news...

Someone please explain life to me

2008-11-16T21:28:00.000-08:00

I am in a really frustrated/depressed/stressed-out mood today.

I'm not going to say who this is addressed to, but you can go fuck yourself. I know you're probably not doing this intentionally, but it hurts me nevertheless. I should probably man up and get over it, but I tend to not be fully rational in situations like these. I don't know why things haven't clicked yet, even though my logical side tells me that I'm a fucking idiot. However, I feel like I have a right to be mad even if you've done nothing technically wrong. And I will exercise that right by ranting to a blog that you will probably never read. Ha I win, you fucking selfish asshole.

This post is pointless.

My weekend posts always suck

2008-11-15T20:05:00.001-08:00

Random hi from the garage! I'm always at the garage all weekend so I never have good posts. I will write about last night's craziness later.

A fake letter

2008-11-14T18:35:00.000-08:00

Dear boy who tends to sit behind me in class,

1. You are cute. You are also shy, so maybe you don't have a girlfriend.

2. I'm sorry that I've forgotten your name. I know you told me in the beginning of the semester, but I can't remember it for the life of me.

3. I would sit next to you in class, but I feel obligated to sit with my friends.

4. I will attempt to talk to you before the semester is over.

5. Maybe you've gotten into grad school here. That would be cool.

-R

I have no idea how to go about writing a music review

2008-11-13T21:33:00.000-08:00

I've just stumbled upon an awesome new band, called Jukebox the Ghost.

They have kind of a similar sound to Voxtrot (one of my favorite bands), but ten times sillier. Actually, they're kind of Weird Al Yankovic-ish, except with semi-serious lyrics. I think I read somewhere that they're very Bohemian Rhapsody, which makes sense when you realize the huge range that Ben Thornewill's voice has.

(By the way, don't be deceived into thinking that I'm so cool that I know names of indie band members off the top of my head. That's what Wikipedia is for.)

Their debut album, "Let Live and Let Ghosts," has a pretty ridiculous title. However, I can forgive them that since the contents are flippin' sweet.

Here is their music video for their song "Victoria":

There is hope left in this world after all

2008-11-12T23:19:00.000-08:00

Today after my staff meeting, one of my staff was telling us about this guy that she's had a crush on for a year and a half, since high school, and how they finally started dating. It was possibly the most adorable story ever.

It's interesting how some people can hold on to these crushes for so long, whereas I tend to get discouraged after more than a month or so. (Or that's what past experience tells me, anyway.) I think it's just a consequence of my inner cynicism.

Random thought of the day: Being single means that I still have a chance to accomplish my goal of marrying a businessman who will do all my taxes and investments and live in San Francisco with me. :D

And the lightbulb comes on

2008-11-11T18:22:00.000-08:00

I think I've pinpointed the cause of my recent gloominess. The revelation came about when I was lying in bed wondering why I seemed to be much less happy during the week than on the weekends. I realized that I feel better on weekends because I would be at the garage all day, with people I enjoy hanging out with.

And then I realized that I'm just lonely. Now, I'm not the kind of person who needs to be in a relationship to be happy, but I have to admit that it's nice to come home and have someone to talk to (even if only over the phone).

Six weeks and counting...

Toasty peanut butter sandwiches are oh so tasty!

2008-11-10T18:39:00.000-08:00

I bought a new loaf of bread today, and my, is it delicious!

I was in a really weird mood today. Some odd medley of sleepiness, stressed-outedness, restlessness, lackadaisicalness (is that even a real word?), and pensiveness. Here is the playlist that I just listened to... note the common themes of minor key and/or electronica:

"Short Skirt/Long Jacket" - Cake
"Do the Whirlwind" - Architecture in Helsinki
"Aerodynamic" - Daft Punk
"Never Win" - Fischerspooner
"Under the Gun" - The Killers
"Wake Up Call" - Maroon 5
"Help, I'm Alive" - Metric
"Take Your Mama" - Scissor Sisters
"The Comeback (Big Slippa Remix)" - Shout Out Louds
"You Me and the Bourgeoisie" - The Submarines
"Kids" - MGMT
"One More Time" - Daft Punk
"Dante & Corey War" - Social Studies
"Phenomena" - Yeah Yeah Yeahs
"Siamese Cities" - Metric

I'm really glad we have the day off tomorrow.

I have chips and salsa once again!

2008-11-09T22:33:00.000-08:00

Now I just need to buy some bread, get my tortellini from my parents, and buy another lasagna, and I'll be set for the rest of the semester!

One of my staff asked me to write a letter of recommendation for him. I have to admit, it's pretty cool to be asked. (Jaya: "That's how you know you've moved up in the world.") On the other hand, I really don't have any good idea of how to go about writing a good one. Oh well... time to get started.

I should probably post something before I run past midnight

2008-11-08T01:51:00.000-08:00

There is probably going to be some sort of movie night tomorrow and if I don't post now, I won't be able to until it's too late again.

I am extremely excited about the new album by Metric, which is due to be released in early 2009. One of the tracks, "Help, I'm Alive," is freaking awesome!

Here is a "video" of the song (i.e. a photo slideshow on loop).

A successful afternoon at the machine shop never fails to make me smile

2008-11-07T17:52:00.000-08:00

The machine shop was pretty quiet today, which was nice. Mick and Gordon were also being really funny as they were trying to figure out the best orientation for the new horizontal mill. There was one point where Gordon walked in pretending to be a visiting professor. I made two little brackets for the front pullrod mounts, the first of which took about an hour and the second of which took 15 minutes.

Later, as I was walking home, there was something burning in the middle of the street on Telegraph. I'm not entirely certain what it was, but I saw a fat red stripe so maybe it was a flag. I'm also not entirely certain why it was being burned, or why it was in the middle of the street. I saw a couple drivers switch to the other lane, but there were several who just drove over it. I have to believe that they're either oblivious or extremely confident that they don't have any leaks in their lines.

Today our head GSI in thermo gave the lecture. I don't know how he does it, but he manages to speak monotonously enough as to make any remotely interesting topic instantly sound boring and routine. He showed us a cool video of an 4-cylinder engine, but described in perhaps the dullest way possible. It's a good thing that I like animations.

Here are the videos for anyone interested:

Meh is hem backwards

2008-11-06T19:52:00.000-08:00

Today was a pretty blah-boring day. I wish I had more interesting things to write here.

Is it sleepy time yet?

2008-11-05T21:44:00.000-08:00

I feel like all of my stress is self-inflicted. Like the fact that I have two homework assignments due tomorrow (and I've only glanced at one of them) is because I decided to waste a whole lot of time on Monday, and then decided to not use my time between classes yesterday to do anything productive. Way to go, me!

Random thought of the day: I find it sad that I know not one, but TWO very awesome, funny, adorable guys... and both of them have girlfriends.

Today was an interesting day, I think. Berkeley is of course a liberal city, and so I shouldn't have been surprised by the number of conversations I overheard regarding Obama winning the election. And yet there was definitely an air of excitement buzzing throughout the campus. Maybe it's the nature of a university (and Berkeley in particular) to be politically charged. As a apathetic-leaning engineer who doesn't keep up with current events as much as a good citizen should, I'm more emotionally detached from things like these. And even I was feeling a bit of the tingle as I walked around campus. Or maybe that was just my toes being pinched by my new boots.

I conclude this post with something that everyone can love:

November has been a good month so far. :)

Today shall be known as the day that Raechel used a Mac

2008-11-04T13:37:00.000-08:00

Yeah, I have to admit, I'm not sure why I'm using a Mac... Usually the only reason I use the Macs at work is when I'm trying to get some homework done. This works because (a) the Macs don't have a tower (everything is integrated with the screen) and thus have more open desk space, and (b) I can't use the freaking things and thus have less desire to go interwebbing.

Today, for some reason, I decided to use a Mac just for the hell of it. Maybe it's because the screens are so huge and gorgeous, or maybe it's because I've subconsciously decided to go against all the principles I've striven for in life. I'm leaning toward the former, but it's entirely possible that I'm subconsciously leaning toward the latter.

All this talk about my subconscious is a little too liberal artsy for me, so I will segue smoothly into my next story... I voted today! This was the first time I had voted in a real election (since I didn't vote in the primaries). It was entirely uneventful, except for the part where I tried to feed my ballot into the electronic voting machine. Hellooo! I am officially a retard.

Today I'm going to a Sharks game! Woohoo! Jaya convinced me, Chris, Todd, Justin, and Tyler to go with her, so we're all going down to the HP Pavilion (apparently also known as the "Shark Tank") in San Jose. Also, on a random side note, I had to break out my extra blanket last night because it was so freaking cold. I believe this marks the official start of winter.

This is a long post to compensate for my lame previous posts

2008-11-03T17:21:00.000-08:00

This weekend has been crazy. Here I tell all...

Friday (Halloween) was relatively uneventful. My dynamics professor dressed up as Super Frat Boy, complete with beer bottle and musical bottle opener which played "Fight for California":

Jaya and I also invited the FSAE crew over to have an FSAE movie night. It was one of the better ones, particularly because we watched both Le Mans and Days of Thunder. Also from the fact that Chris got twice as drunk as Tyler, who had possibly twice as much alcohol.

On Saturday, my parents came by to bring Geoff and me to Kaiser to get flu shots. I then went to the garage in the midst of the rebuild of the rear subframe.

That night, I had one of my strange illogical dreams. I tend to get such dreams when I sleep more than ten hours. This time it involved Wendy (who works in the pro machine shop) leading a committee to relocate the waterjet to England from its current location somewhere in continental Europe. Then me going to a darker and more European version of the Unit 1 Academic Services Center, only to witness the shooting of three men. I'm not sure exactly what is going on in my head, but it certainly is something disturbing.

Yesterday Chris and I had a lengthy discussion of how the car was roughly a month behind schedule, and how we could easily be screwing ourselves unless we picked up some serious pace. A mildly depressing conversation, to be sure, so we followed up with our classic Sunday night dinner at Picante with the only people who were ever still at the garage on Sunday nights: me, Chris, Jaya, and Tyler. (We were missing Mark because he was studying for a midterm and/or writing a term paper.)

We then proceeded to invade Neil's apartment to watch the Brazilian GP, the last race of the season. It was by far the most exciting, boring, and heart-in-your-mouth thrilling race I have ever watched (in that order). My favorite part was when Neil threw off his sweatshirt to reveal his bright red Ferrari shirt, and Chris jumped up in excitement at the possibility that Lewis Hamilton just might lose the championship because of Robert Kubica randomly passing him.

Today I got my lovely boots! Here are some poorly taken pictures, mostly because of the low light in my apartment. Forgive my sweatpants... it was raining pretty hard today and I didn't feel like changing into jeans just for photos.

Side view:

Front view:

Back view:

Nifty side access panel... err, zipper:

I am quite happy about them, although I would have preferred a square toe. Still, I can't complain much since they were only $50.

That was my long post... It wasn't exactly a Pulitzer-worthy post. But I promise I'll have more enthralling ones this month. Tomorrow I'm voting and going to a Sharks game. Woohoo!

Argh, clearly I fail at life!

2008-11-03T00:43:00.000-08:00

OKOKOK... I know it's technically past midnight, i.e. November 3rd... but I haven't gone to sleep so this still technically counts as Sunday! Suck it people. Ok well I am once again tired, so I will once again have postpone my exciting stories. Plz 4give.

On a minor note before I shower and pass out, I just watched an incredibly boring/epic F1 race in which Felipe Massa won the Brazilian GP but Lewis Hamilton won the championship by 1 point. In the last corner of the last turn. Craziness!

Quick quick, before the day's over!

2008-11-01T23:55:00.001-07:00

Seeing that I'm writing this minutes away from midnight, this is a pretty lame start to NaBloPoMo... but I'm going to run with it nevertheless.

NaBloPoMo stands for National Blog Posting Month. Basically for those of us who are too busy/lame to participate in National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). The point is to post a blog entry every day.

Clearly today has been quite busy, and I am quite tired. I will write more tomorrow.

I feel like this accurately describes my current state of mind

2008-10-28T01:35:00.000-07:00

From "The Show" by Lenka

I'm just a little bit caught in the middle
Life is a maze and love is a riddle
I don't know where to go
I can't do it alone, I've tried
And I don't know why

I'm just a little girl lost in the moment
I'm so scared but I don't show it
I can't figure it out
It's bringing me down, I know
I've got to let it go
And just enjoy the show

Listen to it here: http://aurgasm.us/2008/09/lenka/

Things About Which I Am Excited

2008-10-26T23:02:00.000-07:00

(The convoluted grammar and proper capitalization indicate that this is Serious Business, indeed.)

1. Halloween! This is the first Halloween that I've had at Berkeley where I have not have a midterm or paper the following day.

2. S-video cable! Coming soon in the mail!

3. New laptop battery! Because my current one is dead.

4. A-arms! FSAE nerdiness ensues.

5. National Blog Posting Month, aka NaBloPoMo, aka November!

6. (Maybe) seeing Nihal over Thanksgiving break!

7. (Maybe) taking the welding class this summer!

Fabulous Quotes, Part I

2008-10-24T02:11:00.001-07:00

"Materials which have extremely high strength also tend to have very low toughness. They're brittle and they fail catastrophically. What you want is a material that has high toughness and takes a lot of energy to fail. All these people who are pouring their time and effort into researching super high strength materials are just shooting themselves in the head!"
- Professor R. O. Ritchie

"How many instruments are playing in this piece? Four? Five? Your ears are not trained... Probably because you listen to crap music."
- Professor F. Borrelli

And so it begins (again...)

2008-10-23T02:14:00.000-07:00

Hello, world!

I originally started this blog as a replacement for fanfiction.net and fictionpress.com, where I had posted several parodies and a couple original fiction pieces during high school. I stopped posting there because (1) the moderators apparently hated me, and (2) I ran out of time to write once I started college.

However, it is pretty clear that I haven't exactly been active on this blog for the past two years. Until (very) recently, I posted sporadically on my LiveJournal account. But I have decided to set that behind me and move on with my life... to yet another blog! (Oh wait, did I say I was moving on with my life?)

In any case, here I am. I've always liked Blogger better. The only reason I didn't use it was because it didn't have some sort of bullshit "friend network" associated with it. Well, I'm here to say SUCK IT to everyone. No more secret hidden posts, or "mutual friends" with "mutual interests". (I didn't really have many LJ friends anyway. The bitterness here is strong, clearly.)

This is my opening statement.

Pride and Prejudice: Condensed

2006-11-26T17:59:00.000-08:00

The result of mindless analysis in 11th grade English.

VOLUME ONE

Chapter 1: It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife. Too bad it’s not. Yet it somehow applies to Bingley.

Chapter 2: The Bennets plan to go to a ball.

Chapter 3: They go to the ball. A bunch of dialogue occurs. Darcy smites Elizabeth figuratively. He sucks.

Chapter 4: Bingley is infinitely superior to Darcy. Darcy sucks powerfully.

Chapter 5: The Lucases come over and talk a bunch. Darcy still sucks powerfully.

Chapter 6: Some stuff happens. Darcy starts liking Elizabeth. Everyone else still thinks he sucks powerfully.

Chapter 7: The Bingleys invite Jane over for dinner. Mrs. Bennet concocts a plan to make Jane stay overnight. She thinks it is oh-so-clever. Jane gets sick. Elizabeth goes over because Jane gets sick. Darcy is powerfully suckily silent.

Chapter 8: Miss Bingley tries to smite Jane but it doesn’t quite work because Bingley is oh-so-very-smilingly-amiable. They talk a lot and the reader gets oh-so-very-bored.

Chapter 9: Jane is still sick and therefore must stay. Mrs. Bennet thinks herself ingenious, but she is really just aggravating. More relatively pointless dialogue ensues.

Chapter 10: Miss Bingley makes several sycophantic remarks on Darcy’s handwriting. Bingley and Darcy get into a strangely uninteresting discussion about lampshades and masculinity. (Not really.)

Chapter 11: Miss Bennet and Elizabeth walk around pointlessly. Darcy reads a book. Darcy doesn’t like the fact that he likes Elizabeth. He still sucks ever-so-powerfully because Jane Austen wants to make her book as fat as possible by dragging out the plot.

Chapter 12: Jane Austen talks a bunch. Elizabeth and Jane go home.

Chapter 13: Collins writes a letter. Then he pops in for a visit. He apologizes a bunch. It is displeasing.

Chapter 14: Collins praises Lady Catherine de Bourgh extensively. Meanwhile, Mr. Bennet is laughing hysterically and yet silently. They play backgammon for no apparent reason.

Chapter 15: Collins decides he wants to marry Elizabeth. Wickham comes to town. He has a showdown with Darcy, which neither of them wins. Thus transpires Jane Austen’s attempt at plot thickening.

Chapter 16: Wickham hates on Darcy’s family, thus making Darcy not only suck powerfully, but excruciatingly as well.

Chapter 17: The Bennets go to another ball. Elizabeth accidentally dances with Collins, which sucks arbitrarily for her.

Chapter 18: Jane Austen decides to write a garrulously long chapter. Darcy dances with Elizabeth. They talk about talking. She thinks he sucks inarticulately. In fact, the whole chapter sucks like vespertine phlegm.

Chapter 19: Collins asks Elizabeth to marry him. She says no. He takes that for a yes. Collins actually sucks more exponentially than Darcy.

Chapter 20: Collins decides that he doesn’t want to marry Elizabeth anymore, thus confirming the contemplation of his sucking effervescently.

Chapter 21: Miss Bingley writes a letter saying that she and her family (i.e. Bingley) will be going to London and probably will not be returning. This is blatantly a last-ditch attempt to smite Jane demoniacally. Jane is saccharinely optimistic that Miss Bingley is not trying to get her brother to marry Darcy’s sister. This is, of course, a load of crap.

Chapter 22: Collins decides to marry Charlotte Lucas, who agrees. Elizabeth is effectively smitten down because Charlotte is one of her best friends. Not that Elizabeth really cares that much.

Chapter 23: Mrs. Bennet is super pissed.

VOLUME TWO

Chapter 1: Miss Bingley continues in her attempt to smite Jane. There is much dialogue. Wickham tells everyone that Darcy sucks superfluously.

Chapter 2: The Gardiners, Mrs. Bennet’s brother and sister-in-law, show up to visit. Other than that, nothing really happens.

Chapter 3: Mrs. Gardiner tells Elizabeth not to fall in love with Wickham because he sucks financially. Jane goes with the Gardiners to London. Wickham starts paying attention to some random girl who just inherited a butt-load of money.

Chapter 4: Elizabeth goes to visit Jane and the Gardiners. It is uneventful.

Chapter 5: Elizabeth goes to visit Charlotte. Collins talks excessively about Lady Catherine. Lady Catherine’s daughter walks by. Elizabeth laughs at her sickliness.

Chapter 6: Collins tries to brag to Elizabeth about all the fun stuff he has, but she doesn’t really care since he sucks swaggeringly. Miss De Bourgh is super sickly. Lady Catherine tries to smite Elizabeth’s family.

Chapter 7: Darcy and his cousin Fitzwilliam show up.

Chapter 8: Fitzwilliam says some things about Darcy that make him suck less ostentatiously.

Chapter 9: Darcy talks to Elizabeth, which is apparently intended to build up to the climax, but it doesn’t really work unless the reader lives in the Victorian era.

Chapter 10: Elizabeth “runs into” Darcy a lot when she wanders around in the park, but he is obviously stalking her. She thinks he sucks peripatetically. Fitzwilliam tells Elizabeth that Darcy saved a friend from an imprudent marriage, obviously referring to Bingley and Jane. This makes Elizabeth hate him even more.

Chapter 11: Darcy asks Elizabeth to marry him even though her sisters are dumb and her family sucks universally, because he has not been able to repress his feelings although he has tried with every milligram of his being, and so now she cannot possibly refuse him because of his oh-so-irresistible virility. Elizabeth says that she would not marry him even if he were the last living thing on earth, because he is mean and sucks grandiosely although she has never given him any benefit of doubt, and so now he should just go away because his presence is making her oh-so-nauseous.

Chapter 12: Darcy gives Elizabeth a letter, and then he runs away. Elizabeth reads the letter. It essentially says that he was not in the wrong for splitting Jane and Bingley up and that Wickham is a lying sack of poo. Signed, Fitzwilliam Darcy. The reader sympathizes with Darcy, but only because he has such an unfortunate first name.

Chapter 13: Elizabeth ponders the letter.

Chapter 14: Nothing really happens.

Chapter 15: Elizabeth goes to the Gardiners’ house. Then she and Jane go back home. Much yawning by the reader is the result.

Chapter 16: Nothing really happens.

Chapter 17: Elizabeth tells Jane that Wickham is actually a lying sack of poo. They decide that Wickham sucks mendaciously.

Chapter 18: The regiment of soldiers moves to Brighton, which sucks coquettishly for Lydia. However, Colonel Forster’s wife invites Lydia to go with them to Brighton. Elizabeth tells Wickham that he is a lying sack of poo.

Chapter 19: Mrs. Gardiner invites Elizabeth to tour Derbyshire with her and Mr. Gardiner. Darcy’s house is located in Derbyshire. This is blatant foreshadowing.

VOLUME THREE

Chapter 1: They look around at Darcy’s house and the housekeeper says a bunch of nice things about Darcy. Then Darcy appears spontaneously. Much plot development transpires.

Chapter 2: Besides some angst, nothing really happens.

Chapter 3: Miss Bingley shows up and tries to smite Elizabeth, but it doesn’t work because Darcy is oh-so-much-more-in-love with Elizabeth.

Chapter 4: Elizabeth finds out that Lydia has run away with Wickham. Elizabeth goes home so that she and her family can suffer collectively.

Chapter 5: Nothing is accomplished, although they are all running around frenetically.

Chapter 6: Nothing really happens.

Chapter 7: Mr. Gardiner writes to say that Lydia and Wickham will be married.

Chapter 8: Nothing really happens.

Chapter 9: Lydia spills that Darcy paid Wickham to marry her.

Chapter 10: Mrs. Gardiner confirms that Darcy paid Wickham. Elizabeth decides that Wickham sucks worse than a vacuum.

Chapter 11: Bingley and Darcy show up.

Chapter 12: Nothing really happens.

Chapter 13: Bingley tells Jane that he still loves her.

Chapter 14: Lady Catherine shows up randomly and demands that Elizabeth promise that she will never marry Darcy, because he is already practically engaged to Miss De Bourgh. Elizabeth refuses, which sucks matrimonially for Lady Catherine.

Chapter 15: Collins writes a letter suggesting that Darcy might like Elizabeth. It is paid absolutely no regard.

Chapter 16: In a brilliant twist of plot that nobody could have ever expected in ten billion years… Darcy and Elizabeth make up.

Chapter 17: Nothing really happens.

Chapter 18: Nothing really happens.

Chapter 19: And once again, nothing really happens.

FINIS

You'd think I don't have anything better to do with my time

2006-11-25T19:39:00.000-08:00

Who needs to study when creativity calls? Plus sometimes it's nice to have someplace to put my random thoughts that will never be fully developed. That is my justification in creating this.

In the next few days, I'll put up some of my old stuff. So be on the lookout.

Also, I don't know why the comments link won't show up. I've been trying to fiddle with the coding for about an hour now and yet the link still eludes me. [shakes fist] So I'll keep working on that.