Valkyrie

No, not Berserk's wife, the movie.  I saw it last weekend, and I'd say it was pretty good.  It's all about one of the plots the Germans had to assassinate Hitler.  Although most people know the outcome (there was someone next to us who seemed surprised when Hitler didn't end up dead, and a few people had to pay for their "treason"), it's well done enough that I caught myself thinking, "they're actually going to pull it off," only to quickly remember that just isn't how history happened.  Anyway, it is certainly an interesting look at WWII, and does a pretty good job pulling you into the stress and tension of fighting against the Nazis from within their ranks.

to finish school, or not...

Contrary to how I previously thought I felt about continuing school, I now find that I'm thinking it might not be so bad.  I still think I would prefer getting a job and starting some kind of career, but I've started to feel like I'd miss doing research.  

Just to clarify, this is not the kind of research you do for classes, where you have to pick a topic, go to the library, find a bunch of sources about your topic, and write about what two conflicting or complimentary points of view, pointing out strengths and weaknesses for each argument and deciding which you think is correct.  If that's what I had been doing with my professors, I think I would have stopped quite some time ago.  

Anyway, I like the research that I work on with my professors.  I like that I'm actually doing something that someone wants to use (We work with a biologist at another university).  It also turns out, that my boss wants to use my research as part of a grant proposal.  That's pretty cool.  With research like this, I'd definitely have something I could use to get a masters.  I'd even have a good foundation for a thesis, or whatever it is masters students have to write.  

I suppose the problem is, that I keep going back and forth about whether I want to keep taking classes.  Anyway, it's something I've been thinking about, and talking about.  Just another option to consider.

In other news, I'm getting married soon.  We're getting ready to send out all the invitations, so those should be arriving fairly soon.  We think we've gotten most of the addresses we need, so hopefully we'll be sending them all out in the next couple of days.

wait...what class is this?

I just got out of my biology class and I feel like venting. 

First, why do I have to take bio100?  I've already taken, and done very well in, bio120 bio220, and inbio465.  What could I possibly learn in bio100 that wasn't covered in those other classes?  So far, nothing.

Second, why do they want us to write like we just came out of high school?  I realize this is a freshman class, but should that mean I should go back to the 5 sentence paragraphs and basic essay structure I learned in high school, ignoring what I've learned about writing in my technical writing class and from experience with the papers I've submitted for publication, which, before they are submitted, are checked by multiple professors, all of which have had papers published in some journal somewhere, which is certainly more than the ta grading my papers can say.  

Third, is there a reason why more points are given out for "proper" structure in papers than is given out for accurate biological information?  I thought I was in bio100, but it looks like I ended up in English 101, with a biological emphasis.

Fourth, since when is it normal for students in a freshman class to know more about the class topic than the professor?  I know my professor specializes in environmental biology, but shouldn't he know enough about genetics that he doesn't need to ask some random girl in the class, who did a report on genetics in high school, to explain the phenotypes of individuals born with an additional X chromosome?

Fifth, why is it ok for the professor to allow a conversation on genetics and inheritance of traits degenerate into a conversation of possible causes of body hair growth in humans and facial hair on women?

don't you know...about the bird?

So, my ta job has become suddenly boring.  The class I ta for is apparently one of the harder classes we have to take.  Something about building a proxy web server from scratch.  It's kept me busy most of the time, answering peoples questions, or crushing their hopes and dreams of finally being done by pointing out one or more bugs in their program, or just letting them know that it doesn't do at all what we told them it needs to do.  The class builds up the workload for the students fairly consistently throughout the semester, until right about now.  

Right around this time, they're done with the web server, except for a few slackers, who either will turn it in for 30% credit, or won't turn it in at all.  Either way, I'm likely to see them next semester.  From now until the semester is over, the majority of their assignments consist of working through a tutorial, then showing the results either to me or the professor.  Since most of these are done in class, I don't see many students.  The few that do come to me are done in less than a minute.  At least I can get my own homework done before I go home now.

Halloween in Salem

Yes, I know it's pretty far past my trip, but it's still worth posting about.

Massachusetts was pretty good.  The conference, at least most of it, was interesting.  There were a few speakers who stood out as particularly dull, and helped me catch up on some sleep.  I presented my research during the poster session, and had a few people come up to ask me questions.  The tried to feed us snacks every few hours, I guess to make sure we weren't getting bored and let us stand up and stretch, and they also fed us lunch.

One night, for dinner, we went to Legal Sea Food with a group from the conference.  That place was awesome.  Very fancy food.  We had crab cake appetizers, and calamari.  The calamari comes in four varieties, with different sauces or cooking methods, and all were pretty good.  I had swordfish for dinner.  That is one tasty fish.  I'm kind of making myself hungry now, so I'll move on.

For Halloween, someone at the airport recommended we go to Salem and see all the stuff that's going on.  Salem has the biggest Halloween party you've ever heard of.  People from all over the state come dressed up in the coolest costumes.  I think some of the people I was with got some pictures, but I'm not sure.  The party is so big, they block off the streets for most of downtown so there is more room for people.  We saw 4 stages for bands to play, not that I recognized any of them, but they were cool.  All the witch museums are open, and I think they sold tickets to spend the night in some witch's house, but it just looked like a really old house to me.  The streets are packed with people.  I saw a lot of Jokers while there.  I also saw a very well done beetlejuice.  It gets pretty crazy, so they've got cops pretty much everywhere, probably not a night most of them enjoy, but it's good to see them around.  Oh, they also get out some carnival rides and food stands for the event.

Since I went there with my professor, we didn't stay very late.  As we were leaving, cars were in standstill traffic all the way back to the highway, and probably farther back on the highway, though I have no idea where they thought they'd park.  People had already filled up any parking lots, most of the streets, and even some small fields.

On Saturday, we decided to go out and do some sight-seeing.  We saw the Old North Church, where the lanterns were hung to signal Paul Revere, the Bunker Hill memorial, and we toured the USS Constitution, the oldest warship in the navy.  It still floats and works.  They even take it out a few times each year, but I think just around the harbor.  

On Sunday, one of the others wasn't feeling well, so we didn't do a whole lot.  We went to church, where I ran into a friend who recently moved to Boston.  That was definitely awesome.  After church, we went to the airport, and I played psp until we got on the flight and finally went home.

Stan's is out, Greg's is in

I've got a new favorite restaurant. I still love Stan's, just like I still love Diego's, and I'll still go to either of them, but Greg's has something that neither of those does, and it is very fun to go to.

For anyone who hasn't heard of Greg's, which I'd assume is almost everyone, it is a restaurant run by the last semester culinary arts students, like my room mate. It's pretty difficult to find out about if you don't have someone tell you about it, and even if you know about it, you'll have to be sure you have time on Thursday or Friday, 5-7 or 7-9, because that is the only time they're open, and yes, you do need reservations. There are only a few tables, about 16, I think, but all of them are next to the kitchen, so you can see all the chefs cooking all the meals.

The menu changes every week, and I don't mean small changes. They change everything on the menu, and center each week around some nation's food, depending on what they can get fresh. So far, I've gone twice, once for Thai night, and once for French night. They've also had German, Italian, Mexican, and Chinese is this week.

When you go in, they give you a menu and you pick one of two or three appetizers, soups, salads, main courses, and desserts. While you're deciding what you want to eat, they'll bring you some kind of pallate cleanser. For french night, it was some kind of pumpkin sorbet. After giving your order, all you have to do is enjoy each course as it comes out.

planning, planning

So, I'm guessing everyone knows already, but I did give guildylocks her ring! It was pretty awesome, even if the plans I'd made didn't go exactly the way I wanted them to, it all turned out to be amazing. Everyone should check out her post, Carebear's post, and Wudan's post for pictures and stuff. It's all pretty exciting. There is definitely a lot of planning left to do, but I think there's enough time to get everything ready.

In other news, I should be going scuba diving this Saturday, which should be really awesome.

In other news, which is both more exciting than the previous news, but less exciting than the news previous to the previous news, I'm going to miss halloween here. Why? Because I'll be at a conference in Boston, presenting some stuff for the project I've been working on all summer, listening to some speakers, and finding out how my project did in MIT's DREAM3 challenge. I didn't really end up doing much with those other students, just kind of did my own thing. As of Monday, my results were submitted and I was registered to attend the conference. Also, my abstract was finished and submitted for acceptance. So, it'll be awesome to go to this conference, but kind of sucks that I'll miss halloween.

and so it begins anew

The new semester has begun. So far, there are several totally amazing things. First, I have a new job, sort of. I was working as a research assistant all summer. When school started, I wanted to keep going with the same job. I also wanted to work more than the 20 hours allowed by the university and take less than the 9 required credits that let you work on campus. Unfortunately, the department I work for doesn't really like to deal with the paper work created by such requests. Fortunately, the professors I work for came up with what is definitely a better solution.

One of my professors needed a TA for the class he's teaching this semester. For some reason, there have been a shortage of TA's throughout the department this semester. They asked if I would be his TA for the 20 hours the university allows me to work, while doing my RA work on the side. In return for doing the RA work, they are paying my tuition for 10 credits. Switching back to TA jobs also ended up getting me a $1 raise. Also, since I had to find classes to raise my credits from 3 to 10, I'm now taking my BIO100 (required for generals, and full of freshman) as well as Japanese, which so far has been awesome.

Another pretty awesome thing comes from my RA job. During my hours, there is a graduate class held in the lab, and I've talked to the class about my project and a few of the things I've been researching. Also, I'm working with a couple of the students in that class to submit answers to the DREAM3 challenge, which sounds totally lame, but is actually pretty cool. It's all about reverse engineering gene regulatory networks from microarray data, which is exactly what my research is doing, with moderate success. I'll probably be attending the conference where the results of the challenge will be announced out at MIT. It should be around the end of October.

The Dark Knight

My, my, my... I don't think I could adequately describe how much I loved this movie!!! I already loved Batman Begins, but this one definitely kicked it up a notch. Before seeing this, I thought Jack Nicholson was the best Joker ever. I don't think I've ever been so pleased to be proven wrong. I also love the way Gotham is set up in these movies, and there are tons of one-liners that I love. Amazing movie, and definitely one that I'd recommend to just about anyone. I'd also recommend watching Batman Begins shortly before seeing The Dark Knight, but that's not necessary. Once this one hits the dollar theatre, I'll definitely see it again, maybe twice, maybe more. It's just that good.

survey says...

since these seem to be the cool thing for now, but more because I kind of feel bored and think these might amuse me slightly, and because I like to amuse myself and tend to be quite good at it, which has almost always been to my benefit:

1. What were you doing 10 years ago?
planning my next decade of awesomeness.

2. Five things on my “To Do List” today:
- go to sleep, wake up & go to work, climb, swim, and play video games.
3. Snacks I enjoy:
salsa verde doritos, spicy cheetos, a sheet of sea weed lightly sprinkled with cayenne pepper.
4. What would I do if suddenly I was a billionaire?
first, wonder where the money came from. Then, devise an awesome savings plan, worry less about income, and probably buy several videogames I've been wanting for a while.
5. Three bad habits:
- showing up a little late for work(doesn't matter too much since I set my own hours), procrastinating schoolwork for classes I don't enjoy, going to bed too late.
6. Five places I’ve lived:
colorado, germany, california, utah, the computer lab :(

7. Five jobs I’ve had:
office guy, fire extinguisher maintenance guy, fire safety technician, CS236 teaching assistant, BioInformatics research assistant.

8. Five things that MOST people don’t know about me:
I've been the president of a Karate club for the last 2 years, I can do a decent beginner's routine in gymnastics on the high bar, I collect swords and currently own about 9, I used to shoot rifles for target practice and for NRA qualifications(I think I got up to sharpshooter 6th or 7th bar, at least that's what I tell myself), I am a certified SCUBA diver.

1. Name one person who made you laugh last night? Sarah

2. What were you doing at 0800? Sleeping

3. What were you doing 30 minutes ago? reading my brother's blog

4. What happened to you in 2006? college

5. What was the last thing you said out loud? I think I have some somewhere, but I have no idea where I put them.

6. How many beverages did you have today? 6 - diet mountain dew(gross), dr. pepper, fruit juice mixture(good), blended watermelon(good), blended watermelon with dr. pepper(gross), dr. pepper mixed with diet mountain dew(gross).

7. What color is your hairbrush? finger color

8. What was the last thing you paid for? awesome soap.

9. Where were you last night? home.

10. What color is your front door? don't care.

11. Where do you keep your change? in various tins.

12. What’s the weather like today? hail, rain and sun.

13. What’s the best ice-cream flavor? pineapple, or a good bannana.

14. What excites you? getting my new computer parts, playing games.

15. Do you want to cut your hair? maybe.

16. Are you over the age of 25? yar.

17. Do you talk a lot? no.

8. Do you watch the O.C.? Oh Crap!

19. Do you know anyone named Steven? yup.

20. Do you make up your own words? yes. in english and german, and the latter are generally accepted as being actual words.

21. Are you a jealous person? sometimes.

22. Name a friend whose name starts with the letter ‘A’.

23. Name a friend whose name starts with the letter ‘K’.

24. Who’s the first person on your received call list? Sarah.

25. What does the last text message you received say?

26. Do you chew on your straw? no.

27. Do you have curly hair? a little bit. gives me awesome spikes.

28. Where’s the next place you’re going to? bed.

29. Who’s the rudest person in your life? a horrible teacher from last semester.

30. What was the last thing you ate? frozen yogurt.

31. Will you get married in the future? eventually.

32. What’s the best movie you’ve seen in the past 2 weeks? not sure. kind of tired of thinking about this kind of stuff.

33. Is there anyone you like right now? yes.

34. When was the last time you did the dishes? maybe last week.

35.Are you currently depressed? no.

36. Did you cry today? no.

37. Why did you answer and post this? boredome.

so, you may notice this stopped amusing me. it was probably about halfway through the second one, when it started asking questions I had to actually think about. Totally not down with real questions.

Oh, that Final...

Well, the good news for the day is that I have another chance to take the final. The bad news is, it might not matter too terribly much. I've been so behind in that class on the labs and had to skip quite a few homeworks to try to keep up on the labs, which apparantly didn't work. Anyway, at least I get to try and pass, but I guess I'm not hoping for too much.

Final? what Final?

So, it's finals week. I did fairly well with my first presentation, which, because of the number of students in the class, amounted to a whopping 3 1/2 minutes. 3 1/2 minutes of pure brilliance. My first final exam went pretty well, too. My last one, which I'll probably take tomorrow, will most likely be horrible, but if everyone else performs as consistently as they have the rest of the semester, I should still do ok. So, what about the one in between my first and last? Well, here's how it's gone so far: ...Oh CRAP!!! That was tonight?!?!?!? Guess I failed that class. A pity, really. I have emailed the proffessor to see if he'll give me another chance, but my guess is he'll say something about university policy and blah blah blah I won't get to take it. Any guesses about what class I'll be repeating?

baseball

Normally, I'm not one for watching a lot of sports. I did get a little hooked on arena football, thanks to 잔 and the tickets he got from work. Generally speaking, baseball is at the bottom of the list of sports I'd like to watch. That all changed this weekend, at least for this one case. Some people from church acquired some tickets from the husbands place of work. The tickets he got were for a suite, and it was incredible. They have tons of really good food for you to eat and your own private balcony to watch the game from. It was just awesome. Definitely a step up from the cheap seats.

the dentist

I may be the only one who thinks this, but I find trips to the dentist pretty relaxing. It's a lot like getting a haircut, you just sit there, relaxing, while someone either cleans your teeth or cuts your hair. What could be bad about that? Anyway, my teeth are now shiny clean.
So far, the climbing thing is working out pretty well. 잔 should be coming to climb on Friday, so I'll finally get to climb more than the routes they have set up near the auto-belays. I'm looking forward to trying a couple of the overhang climbs.

trip to the desert

Well, the trip to the desert was pretty fun. So many people showed up for it, it was awesome. I got to see 모나 again, which was cool. Also, aunt 재니 was there, with a couple of her kids. I know I saw her sometime last year (I think) but it felt like I hadn't seen her for about a decade. It was nice to play around with 카선, one of her kids. Uncle 덥 was fun, like he always is. We went up into the canyon to shoot off some fireworks after the main show. In the main show, they kind of lit the mountain on fire, which was funny at first, then a little scary because of how big it got and how dry everything was, but they got it put out pretty quickly. I did the change thing again. Not many people can say their uncle has blasted them with a fire hose, but I can, and this time I came out of it about $5 richer. Granted, that's not a lot of money, but who cares? The other big news from the trip is 브리잿. She kind of took a spill on the quads, shattered the helmet she was wearing and twisted up her ankle a little, but she's fine.

In other news, I've begun rock climbing again. I've been going about twice a week, but I want to up that to 3 times each week. It's probably been 2 weeks since I started again, and I'm back up to doing 5.9's. I want to get lead certified this summer, so I better keep it up. I even bought shoes this time. The owner was pretty amused that I used to have a membership there, yet had never had shoes, a belay device, or a carabiner.

Oh, I also finally put away my stuff from the campout I went on a month ago. Probably, nobody cares about that, but It's a pretty big thing for me to have a clean room.

hmm....

So, I guess I don't update much. Anyway, I've been off school for about a month. I'll be repeating my Physics 220 this fall, but everything else whent pretty well. My brother got married, pretty cool time. Saw a few people I haven't seen in a while.

More recently, I went camping. I was totally excited that we were camping near some ghost town. Unfortunately, it turned out that the town was more like the ghost of a ghost of a ghost town. There were remains of two cabins, and a spot where a third cabin was likely to have been. There were some iron fens, not at all related to the rest of the town, which were also kind of cool. I had a pretty good time, mostly on the "hike" up to the cabins. We actually rode up in a truck, sort of off-roading, but still on a road, just a road in really, really bad shape. Seriously, there was a stream running down a decent length of the road. I'd have to say one of the big perks of going on this little excursion was meeting 애미. She's a really nice girl, likes doing outdoor things, and we seemed to get along quite well. I went with her and a few of her friends to a baseball game after we got back from the campout, one of which I met at the campout, another of which I knew from last summer. After the game, we went to see Disturbia. Honestly, it was a pretty good movie, although after watching it, I was left with a sort of creepy, sick feeling inside, which is odd considering the good guys win in the end.

So, what was the downside of last night? well, I kind of got the impression 애미 is interested in some other guy, though I'm not really sure about that. Also, she seemed pretty convinced I was bored at the baseball game. I wasn't bored, I just don't get particularly excited at any sports games, unless I'm playing. Even then, it's less of me being excited and more of me just playing. Otherwise, I'm kind of in a permanent state of relaxation. Let's be honest. I was kind of bored. Baseball sucks.

break

Christmas in the apartment wasn't really that bad, not that it was that good, either. It just sort of came and went. After I finally got home, I did some work for my boss and spent some time with my brother for a while, which was definitely cool. My other brother got engaged while I was home.

Now I'm back in school. I've got a gymnastics class and a swimming class this semester. They were supposed to alternate days, but because of scheduling problems, they are now back to back. It takes some serious getting used to doing 2 hours of gymnastics and then 1 hour of swimming, especially at 7 am. It gets even better with a car that won't start, making me leave at about 6:40 so that I can still get to class on time. If it sounds like I'm complaining, I kind of am, but all the abuse I put myself through in the mornings is totally worth it. Gymnastics has got to be one of my all time favorite things now.

finals

Finals are over, however I'll not be going home for a couple of days. The original plan was to leave tomorrow morning, way before anyone actually wants to wake up. However, a rather nasty blizzard has interupted these plans and it looks like I might make it home either christmas night, or second christmas. either way, I've got a few days of nothing in particular ahead of me. All my room mates and most of my friends are either already gone or will be gone by the end of tomorrow. Am I disappointed? I guess. It does give me a chance to do a few things I've been wanting to do, but haven't really had the time for.

tired

The semester is coming to a close. It won't be too much longer before I'm back home for the break. I only hope I'll have something to keep myself entertained with. Most of my stuff will stay in my apartment, and it's pretty much all the stuff that entertains me.

Gymnastics is going well, though I was pretty disappointed with my performance on the first part of testing. We did all our vault and floor exercises. I was just so tired by the end that I did really badly on the floor, especially the back tuck. I know I could have done much better if I hadn't been so sore and tired, but that's the way life goes. I should do better on the high bar and rings next Tuesday.

good day

Last saturday was probably one of the best days ever, despite the fact that I ended up taking a biology test that day. It all started off with Karate practice, a particularly good one. I didn't get to do any sparring, though. That's what happens when you come to practice with an injured shoulder. anyway, after that was done and the test was finished (which I scored a 92 on), I went to a movie with a girl I've been chasing. good movie + cute girl = good times. hopefully she'll have time to do something this week, too. In other news, well, there is no other news. I'm thinking of buying a couple more swords, but since when haven't I been thinking about buying a couple more swords?