Thanksgiving, Finally

Hey all,

Still alive . . . somehow.

Micro virology exam: check.
Laundry folded: check.
Things packed: check (mostly).
In bed before 12:30am: evidently not.

Anyway, this is perhaps the last chance I'll get to blog until I get back from Thanksgiving break. Not much to say, really. Did alright in my micro exam. I didn't do as well as I wanted, but not bad either. The class average better not be higher than my grade (of 86%)!!

I finally finished watching Top Chef: Just Desserts. Not as good as the original Top Chef, but entertaining nonetheless. I must admit, I partly watch it because of Yigit Pura. God, his desserts on that show are as delicious-looking as he is! Okay, that just sounds weird, but whatever.
Here are some links to more pics of (several shirtless :-P) and info on him: Project Q, Bravo TV, The Advocate.

And here's his YouTube blurb for the It Gets Better Project:


Lastly, for anyone who's ever played the game Pokemon, listen to this. You will be blown away.

Alright, that's all for now. Kind of a random post. Happy Thanksgiving!! :-D

5-Day Weekend

I'm now done with primary care pediatrics in the inner city, and I'll be starting pediatric rheumatology tomorrow. No idea what it's going to be like, so this'll be interesting to say the least.

Because the primary care pediatrician I've been with the last 2 weeks only works Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays (albeit, from 8am to 8pm), I got Thursday and Friday off. I also got today - Monday, July 5th - off as well. So all this translated to a 5-day weekend for the 4th of July. :-D

I've been taking it easy the last few days - hanging out, cleaning a little bit, and working out a little. I don't remember if I talked about this, but apparently I lost about 6lbs during my 2 weeks in pediatric infectious disease, and then gained 3lbs in primary care pediatrics, and now lost those 3lbs again (until I gorged myself during lunch today, alas). Curious. Since I'll be in the hospital for 4 weeks, I'll probably lose more weight (here's hoping?).

Anyway, on Saturday, I saw the new The Karate Kid movie with a friend. I actually thought it was a pretty good movie - I thought that the acting was great and the music was good; Jackie Chan did a really good job. It would've made more sense and been more aptly titled The Kung Fu Kid, but I read somewhere they changed it to The Karate Kid later on. According to my friend, they apparently call it The Kung Fu Kid in China, or something like that. And today, I watched the original The Karate Kid with some friends, just for comparison because it's been years since I last saw the original, and didn't remember it well. Honestly, I thought that the new remake wasn't bad and didn't do a disservice to the original - other than karate having absolutely no role in the remake. Ah well. It's still a movie I think that's worth watching.

Later on Saturday, I went to a outdoor live music festival by the lake with a friend to watch the city fire off fireworks. I've rarely been close to seeing fireworks, so it was really nice to see them go off by/on the lake. :-) The local fireworks were today, so a few of us got a good view of them. However, there were also LOTS of mosquitoes out, so we were all pretty much doing our mosquito-be-gone dance. I really like fireworks.

Yesterday, I watched Infernal Affairs and The Departed with a friend at his apartment. The Departed is an American remake of the Chinese Infernal Affairs. There were certain scenes, plot elements, and even lines that were almost verbatim translations. That was amusing. I personally liked Infernal Affairs better because the exposition at the beginning is shorter, the good guy/bad guy distinction is a bit more nebulous at first (adding to the mystery), and the two main characters were easier to sympathize with. Also, in seemingly classic Asian style, the movie was a bit more psychological and there was more display of high-tech/using wit scenes (if that makes sense at all). The movie had English subtitles, and it took me a little while to get used to them while hearing Chinese. I translate Chinese differently in my head, so the English subs messed with my head a little for a few minutes, haha.

Lastly, Jake (my best friend from undergrad), is now in Beijing. I meant to call him before he left, because I needed his counsel. Alas, I missed my window of opportunity. However, he told me that about a week ago he proposed to his girlfriend and now they're engaged!! Their wedding is about 1 year from this Saturday. I'm so happy for them!! And I'm soooo not missing their wedding, even if it means a lower grade on a rotation (though, I "shouldn't" be on service over a weekend . . . maybe on call? I really need to somehow figure all that out . . .).

Spring Break, Part 1

I returned from visiting my friends in Washington DC last night. It's been a great Spring Break so far. :-) I think I'll make this post in 2 parts, this part being the long picture-heavy post of my brief visit. So without further ado:

-----
March 15th (the Ides of March):

My friend, Jake (formerly JW-M on my blog), and his girlfriend picked me up at the airport. We stopped by their apartment where I dropped my stuff off and lounged around for an hour or so. Then his girlfriend dropped us off at a metro station (they live in Alexandria, VA outside Washington DC) which we took into DC.

We first went to the National Archives, where Jake's roommate, DJ-M (who I'll call Don here), works as an unpaid intern. We got in the line to see the Constitution and that was pretty much all we looked at (we also did see the nigh-illegible Magna Carta as well).

Then we went to visit Jake's campus, George Washington University (GWU), where he's doing his PhD in political science. There we also met up with Don who just got off work. Upon meeting, Don proclaimed, "A stranger arrives at the capitol on the ides of March, but Caesar's in the provinces today." I must say, their campus is far inferior to where the 3 of us went for undergrad. :-P

Lastly, we walked to a Chinese restaurant in downtown DC for dinner. Jake's girlfriend met us there. It's been a while since I've had good Chinese food (there's no really good Chinese food within a rather large radius of med school here, alas). Then we all went back to their apartment and played Warcraft 3 (WC3) for a couple hours before bed.
---
March 16th:

Don took the day off work (and the following day as well) to hang out with me and Jake. :-) We planned to get up early and go to the Supreme Court for a tour or something, but they woke up too late. So we just decided to quickly walk through the Supreme Court instead.

Then we went to the Capitol Building. Apparently, they recently built a visitor's center.

After that, we went to the Library of Congress. I wouldn't mind studying there . . . if there were no tourists wandering through that is.

Then we walked along the National Mall, enjoying the nice weather.

We walked quite a ways to get to Chinatown (btw, the fakest Chinatown ever), where we ate Italian food at a place called Vapiano for lunch, lol. It was good food though, and the ambiance was nice.

Leaving the fakest Chinatown in the world, we walked through the Sculpture Garden near the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History (where we went next).

That concluded our day, so we took the metro back to Virginia. We order pizza for dinner and played more WC3, and discussed our excitement over Starcraft 2 coming out this summer. :-D
---
March 17th (St. Patrick's Day):

This was one of the most epic days ever for me, lol (and certainly the most exciting St. Patrick's Day for me thus far). We took the metro to Rosslyn, VA (which I think must be the deepest station in the system), where we walked to the Theodore Roosevelt Island National Memorial Park, only to find it closed. So we walked along the Potomac River, enjoying the nice weather, until we reached a bridge that spanned the river.

We walked across the bridge and went to the Lincoln Memorial.

After that, we walked countless blocks through GWU campus, through downtown DC, to DuPont Circle, where we got delicious cupcakes from a place called "Hello Cupcake." I got a Bailey's Irish cream cupcake which was really good - though I'm not entirely sure that it's worth $3/cupcake.

Then we got on the train to Adams Morgan, where we got off and walked uphill to the National Cathedral. Our feet were hurting well before this, but we just kept trudging along.

We sat outside the National Cathedral for a while, resting our feet. At which point, I saw a little kid dressed up as Superman and that totally made my day. :-)

The National Cathedral was beautiful on the inside - pictures cannot capture the beauty that my eyes saw. Also, it had surprisingly amazing acoustics.
Also, I saw a rainbow on the floor of the National Cathedral. A sign perhaps?

We trudged back downhill to the Adams Morgan station, which we took to DuPont Circle again. We were going to try this Indian restaurant there, but decided it was a bit too pricey for us. So we walked the many blocks through downtown DC back near GWU campus, where we ate at another Indian restaurant, lol. It was most delicious and filling. All that had sustained me (as well as Jake and Don) all day until then was a bowl of cereal and the cupcake we bought at DuPont Circle.

Yes, I'm aware that DuPont circle is like the "gay district" of DC, but there was no way I'd be taking two straight guys to a gay bar/club with me (on St. Patrick's Day no less!) - also, I don't really like clubbing and our feet desperately needed rest.
---
March 18th:

Jake's girlfriend and Don had to work. But Jake and I got up late, and just chilled in his apartment for a bit. We had a late lunch at a Chinese restaurant nearby where they served "northern Chinese dim sum," and it reminded Jake of Beijing (where he studied abroad all of last year) street food.

After that, we wandered around the Chinese store next to it before heading back to his apartment, where we played a game of WC3 before I left DC.

Year of the Tiger

New Year's card 01 by ~LouieLorry on deviantART

Happy Chinese New Year! It's the year of the tiger, a second 12-year cycle is completing itself for me; meaning I'll be 24 this year. -_-

I'm determined to (and hopeful that) this year will be my year. And I made the most of Valentine's Day/Single's Awareness Day considering I was all by my lonesome for most of the day.

I started my day by making some banana pancakes for 1. They were pretty good considering pancakes aren't my forte. :-) Then while washing the dishes, I sliced my right thumb while cleaning the cheese grater. Pretty much bled all over the kitchen - didn't leave a mess though, except the blood smear on one of the hand towels . . . that hurt. What a way to start off a year, eh? Red for Valentine's Day, kind of morbidly ironic. Just another reminder of why I'll never be a surgeon.

Anyway, I had lunch with 3 friends at a Chinese restaurant. It was okay, I've had much better Chinese food before. It's sad how this place is called "the most authentic" Chinese place in the area. Next time I really crave Chinese food I may have to drive the 2 hours or so to Chicago's Chinatown. Then I came back to my apartment, chilled for a bit, and then made some stew. It's surprisingly difficult to cook when one of your thumbs is out of commission.

I also made rum cake. What better way to celebrate Single's Awareness Day than with an alcohol cake? Lol. My roommate came back to help me finish the glaze on the cake (which is like, half butter and is soooo bad for one's health). The rum cake turned out very well, and my roommate and I fully enjoyed it. I swore I felt my heart skip a beat once from the fat and sugar in this cake, heh. I told a friend of ours on gchat about the rum cake and he was like, "Wow, for the effort you put into making that cake it had better be delicious. Otherwise it'd be like med school - putting in so much effort only to just pass."

I called some relatives to wish them a Happy New Year, the typical "新年快乐，恭喜发财，身体健康!" It was nice talking to my grandparents, their laugh always uplifts my mood. I think I've got it pinned down why though. My grandparents are just coasting on life now. Pretty much everything they needed/wanted to get done in life has already been accomplished. They can just relax and enjoy things slowly, because everything else has already been taken care of. I want that one day - to look back and have no regrets, to sit and laugh at the small joys of life, and to look forward and not really see something that has to be done.

Hmm, a thumb out of commission kind of precludes wanking, if only there was someone here to do it for me . . . TMI? ;-)

Anyway, happy Valentine's/Single's Awareness Day/Chinese New Year everyone! It's pretty rare for these days to all overlap. I hope everyone enjoyed their and didn't slice a body part accidentally.

Two Birds, One Stone

Finished my last exam of this block!! Soooo glad to be done . . . for now. It went alright, not as good as I'd hope but I think I did just fine.

Anyway, after the exam this morning, my awesome lab group from anatomy, Table 6 (now Team Dendrite Storm), went out to have breakfast. We went to this nearby bar/restaurant place that had really good mimosas - a kind of drink that somehow I hadn't known about until now. Jon, the future surgeon in our group, took the opportunity to invite us all to his wedding this July!! :-D
-----
Status update concerning Jay. We had been chatting late into the night several times this week. The following snippet occurred a couple days ago:

Jay: We should get together sometime soon
Me: hehe, yup yup :-)
Jay: To be honest, you're by far the most interesting boy I've come acrossed for a while
Me: oh?
Me: i'm flattered! ^_^
Me: what makes me so interesting?
Jay: I wanna lick your mind
Jay: You're an intellectual
Jay: and your knowledge base is fascinating
Me: LOL
Jay: I could probably pick your brain for hours
. . . later . . .
Jay: It'd be nice to see you again soon

He had wanted to meet up for a few drinks tomorrow night, but alas I've other commitments. I had agreed quite a while ago to host poker with my roommate at our apartment tomorrow evening, and Sunday is of course Super Bowl Sunday. So it looks like this weekend doesn't work for either of us really well. :-/

BUT! I asked him if he was doing anything for Valentine's Day. He said he wasn't, only working until about 6pm. He never really liked Valentine's Day because he always spent it alone. Well, because this year Chinese New Year (which is one of my favorite holidays, btw) is on the same day, I asked him if he'd like to go out to a Chinese place for dinner. I had heard great things about this one Chinese restaurant in town but I haven't had the time to check it out yet.

He agreed to that. :-) So I'm kind of hitting 2 birds with 1 stone, holiday-wise, lol. It'll be nice, this way he won't be alone on Valentine's Day (likewise for me) and I'll be hanging out with someone during Chinese New Year (I usually go home, but home is rather far now). We just have to figure out the time we're meeting each other at the restaurant, but we've got a week to discuss that.

Speaking of discussing, we've had some interesting discussions lately. Somehow, his smoking pot got brought up (by him). We talked about it a little, and he thinks it's fair that I'm not interested in smoking pot and don't want to be around him when he is smoking pot - or any pot that's in his possession, for that matter. So I think we've reached a decent agreement in that respect. I think he doesn't want to "contaminate" me, lol. He calls me a really good guy who's really well-behaved, and he thinks he might be too naughty for me. He did describe in some graphic detail how he's an awesome top and how guys he's been with kept wanting to come back for more; I suppose I'm curious now . . . o_O

Well, perhaps I'll see for myself one day. ;-)

Mid-Autumn Festival

Today was the Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival (中秋节 - zhong1 qiu1 jie3). It's also more colloquially known as the "moon festival" because one of the highlights in celebrating this holiday is eating so-called moon cakes. I love Chinese holidays because they all center around food (well, almost all). My two favorite holidays are Thanksgiving and Chinese New Years (I think I might've blogged about that before . . . a long time ago).

Because the Chinese calendar is a lunar calendar, the dates of all the holidays change every year. This is annoying as I didn't know today was the Mid-Autumn Festival until a friend IM'd me yesterday reminding me of it. So this afternoon, a friend and I made a special trip to a nearby Vietnamese store to specifically buy a box of moon cakes. And it was totally worth it. Too bad it's cloudy today and I can't see the full moon. :-/ *curses the Midwest*

Also today several of us met with local Hmong leaders to discuss the Hmong Health Education Program that an out-going M4 secured a 4-year grant for. The Hmong are a minority group within the Asian population in the US; they're a minority within a minority. Many of the older generation being refugees from Vietnam that the US oh so carelessly didn't treat well once they were on US soil. Holy crap I never thought it'd be such a daunting task! I mean, I had learned about this special population in my medical anthropology course in undergrad, and I had assumed things had improved for them in the last 30-40 years. Apparently not - they're still just as marginalized, the barriers are still up. The difficulty extends beyond "just" translation obstacles, there are fundamental communication barriers in reaching this population that we as med students are just not equipped to handle.

The M4 kept mentioning all these organizations that we might be partnering up with, but the task of communicating and coordinating all those groups might largely fall to us. And I don't think any of us - the M1s and M2s - expected to be given such a large responsibility. We had thought our main role was to develop culturally sensitive material to be used in radio broadcasting and in handouts/leaflets. Even this is easier said than done, as none of us on the committee (or probably in the entire med school) can translate into Hmong. We'd have to work really closely with specific Hmong community members at length to make sure the material is at an acceptable level of comprehension and accurately translated.

It's annoying that the M4 made many of the initial contacts, so they're familiar with him but not us. And since he's outgoing, that means he's not likely to have a direct participatory role in what happens. That bastard, lol. I think all of us M1s left the meeting feeling like we're in over our heads and the whole "What have we gotten ourselves into?" mentality. But, if we make this work (and we CAN make this work), it'll be an amazing achievement. Truly something worthwhile.

Disenchanted Summer

I remember the days when I longed for summer, practically dreaming of it. I remember the excitement of the last day of classes - those days were filled with joy and laughter. I would go home and play in the backyard with my next-door neighbors. Those were long enchanted afternoons of fun, of running outdoors, of make-believe games and adventure. Each day felt like it dragged on and our play was extended with the growing hours of daylight.

In middle school and high school this waned, but summer was still a time to look forward to. Usually there would be a vacation planned - some relative to visit in another state, or a road trip within the state. Days passed slowly but that was alright. Things began to change senior year of high school. That summer was the summer of disenchantment. This was it - the last summer of our childhood, possibly the last summer that I would see all my friends concentrated in one place.

Every summer since then has progressively gotten worse. While each day seemed to crawl by time still flew. Summers were spent working in the lab and I didn't have much time to see old friends. Heck, I didn't have much time to do what I wanted to do personally. Whether in the lab or at home, each summer has been a constant reminder of the forward progression of time. That there's a "next step" after this summer, and another after that. Summer has become a pause between breathes.

In effect, summers have slowly lost their allure and luster. Last summer was pretty bad, as I said farewell to many graduating friends and anxiously awaited my fate in placement into med school. This summer is worse. To have my last real chance at travel taken away from me, with little to do at home without a car as a means of transportation, and few friends in town - the days become a stupor. And yet, even in the past I've always begged for summer to end, I want this summer to drag on just a little longer. Because once med school starts, I will become indentured to the system for at least the next 7 years.

Disenchantment, it's a bitch.

---TANGENT---
Many blogs have disappeared or gone inactive of late. I wonder, what's the "shelf life" of a typical blog here? It seems that few last little more than a year. I wonder, since I started my blog in 2007, are my days numbered here?

Anyway, farewell to the following, as their blogs are removed:

coming out (on the net)
gay+teen+sydney
Minding the Heart
A Bi Boy's Pic Blog

And the following haven't updated in a long time (please update and let us know what's happened to you):

Life of one gay/bi boy
Life On The DL
---END TANGENT---

I'm So Outta Here

I'm so done with this week. I'm so outta here.

2 exams done, 2 papers done, and a group project well under way. Now time for Spring Break (yeah, I know my school has Spring Break freakishly early). I'm off to China in less than 12 hours. That's crazy!!

I'll keep a journal of some sort, and I'll be sure to take lots of pictures. :D

Now, if you would excuse me, I'm going to let the fuzziness of exhaustion claim me now.

Good night. I'll see you all in a week.

Happy Chinese New Year!!

Happy Chinese New Year!! :D

新年快乐，恭喜发财，身体健康！ (xin1 nian2 kuai4 le4, gong1 xi3 fa1 cai2, shen1 ti3 jian4 kang1!)

The above means: Happy New Year, may your year be prosperous and full of good wishes, and may your body be healthy!

I went home for the weekend for Chinese New Year. Ate. So. Much. Food. It's going to take a while to work all this off, oh well. I said the above Chinese to my grandparents before I left for school again. It was nice hearing my grandparents' laughter - it's so full-bodied and full of life, just ripples through and puts a smile on your face. I truly mean the words above when I say it to them.

One of my primary life goals is to be like my grandparents - to be healthy (my grandparents have VERY few health problems, *knocks on wood*) and happy in my old age, and surrounded by family. All else is pretty secondary.

Oh, and I got the traditional red envelop (see example below) with about $100 inside from my parents. I'll put this in the bank in a couple days.

---TANGENT---
So, my youngest brother is getting a B/B+ in his English class. My parents are annoyed that he got C's on two of his essays. To which my other brother remarks, "It doesn't matter if he gets a B or a C, it's failing anyway." This obviously refers to the Asian benchmark that if it's not an A, then it's failing. We got a good laugh out of this. My youngest brother already got into the school of engineering here, so my parents don't actually care that much about this class (unless he gets less than a B).

To be fair though, my youngest brother is only one of 3 guys in his English class. And his teacher is apparently a huge feminist and they have to read feminist books, short stories, and articles all the time. In all honesty, if I had to read what he reads, I'd be bored out of my mind and probably get a B as well.
---END TANGENT---

Passing on the Torch

I'm back at my university now! I start classes on Wednesday. -_-

Break was a bit too short, and yet at the same time too long. I can't stand being at home - sharing a room with my brother (long story), colder temperatures than in my apartment, sedentary as a barnacle all day, feeling lethargic . . . it's just not me. I also gained 6-7 lbs over break, fuck! It's okay, that weight isn't "real," it'll disappear in 2-3 weeks of subsisting on my own food and working out regularly.

So I come back to my apartment in the midst of my old Japanese roommate leaving and my new Korean roommate settling in. The first thing that hit me was the 80-85 degrees F. It was way too warm, especially in my room where it's an additional 2-5 degrees warmer. So I turned the heat down "back to normal."

I'm not sure if I said this, but my old roommate decided that the commute to his classes was too far (about 30 minutes by 2 buses). So he wanted to live in an apartment closer to central campus. My new Korean roommate (from Korea) is a material science engineer in his senior year, so he'll be much closer to his classes than I'll be to mine. He's here from January until July, which is conveniently when our lease ends. For a Korean (from Korea) he speaks remarkably good and unaccented English. He seems nice and pretty laid back. We'll see. My old roommate's still lingering around, as he still has some stuff left in the apartment that he hasn't moved out yet.

The apartment is in that chaotic transition state right now. I'm waiting for the dust to clear before I vacuum, sweep, and dust. I can't stand a dirty apartment (I'm not so anal as to require a spotless apartment, I just like to be able to walk barefoot anywhere in my own apartment), so I'm hoping things settle down pretty fast so I can clean a bit.

I have a GSI training session tomorrow from 8:30am until 5:30pm. Gross! At least we get free breakfast and lunch. After that I'll probably go see what books I need to buy. My friend should be back in town by the time I'm done so we can catch dinner and go grocery shopping. My financial aid situation's been all up in the air somewhat in the last few days, as I see random money being given and taken away from me. It's kind of odd. I hope things clear quickly so I know what my billing statement is by Wednesday, when the tuition bill is due.
-----
A quick note on something before I forget (and I'm sure I'll do a more in-depth post on it later). I don't think I can come out to my parents any time within the next 4 years. In other words, I'll need to be done with med school and in residency somewhere else. The ridiculous new proposal of some southern state (Alabama or Louisiana) where single parents and gay parents aren't allowed to adopt came up. My parents don't see what's wrong with that law. My brothers and I kind of argued that there are no studies that support that law logically. Yet my mom still believed that kids raised in such an environment would grow up to be not-quite-right, not gay themselves necessarily, but not quite right - as if they'd get messed up.

Gay marriage also came up briefly and my parents don't see why gay marriage should be recognized legally (granted, they didn't argue against gay marriage, but still). Their thinking (and specifically my mom's) is that both partners would be working, what's the big deal with joint benefits? I think if there was ever legislation in my state to ban gay marriage (too late, actually), my parents would probably not vote on that issue. I'd like to think that, while they're personally against it, they don't have a good enough reason against it. I know that if I come out as bi or gay to my parents, they'll think it's their fault. They'll think either they raised me wrong, or there's something genetic about it, or that there must've been some bad karma (something like that) in either their or my past lives.

I think there are two conditions that must be met before I will think about coming out to my parents. The first is that I am completely independent from them, so after med school. The second is if I'm madly in love with a guy who's "worth fighting for" and who I can see spending the rest of my life with. As of right now, neither condition is met and so I continue to bide my time. I get a cold chill when I think about some of the things they've said.

---TANGENT---
Okay, enough of my boring-ish day and pseudo-parental issues. I've caught up with 2 new-ish blogs. They are:

Life On The DL
Writing Fiction

I'm sure they're no strangers here, but head on over and say hi! :D
---END TANGENT---

Winter Break!!

ZOMG, I'm done with exams and Winter Break has finally arrived for me. I don't even care what I get on those exam, haha. Now that I'm home, it's going to be a pretty chill break with me not going anywhere really. This break I hope/plan to (in no real particular order of importance):

• hang out/catch up with a few friends in town
• catch up on several blogs and link them
• sort my blog list
• sort my pics on my laptop
• sort my music on my laptop
• sort my bookmarks on my internet browser (I've way too many bookmarks)
• watch TV shows, anime, and movies I have on my USB
• watch, sort, and delete porn off my laptop (too much that's just there and that I don't watch)
• finish reading The Spanish Bow by Andromeda Romano-Lax
• read The Life of Pi by Yann Martel
• watch all of the Planet Earth series on DVD
• draw the pic "commissioned" by my friend, SA-F (like 2 years ago, lol)
• draw the pic "commissioned" by Hish of Minding the Heart
• draw the pic(s) "commissioned" by James of Just me
• play my piano
• master DDR (or at least get to 5-feet/5-star solidly)
• finish the game story plot for the Neverwinter Nights module my friend JW-M and I are making
• write 2 chapters of my story (I'm not the only blogger out there writing a book, though this story's not meant to be a published book)
• do my "homework" for public health (I know, right?!) and other online "errands"
• come up with a workout plan and "diet" that I'd actually follow next semester (and hopefully lose 20 lbs - I only went to the gym like 4 times between Thanksgiving and now)

I think that's about it . . . If I can get through all that it'd be pretty amazing, honestly. And now, some Lolcat. :D

Thanksgiving Thoughts

A belated Thanksgiving thought. I went to bed a couple nights ago with a random smile, as I thought of how my grandpa will be 80 in about 3 months and how he's still so ridiculously healthy (no medication of any kind). I'm thankful that he's in amazing health, that he wakes up with a smile almost every day, that he's still enjoying what life has to offer.

In a different vein, I'm thankful for all the e-friends I've made through this blog. I'm thankful for the (seemingly) handful of readers that come my way. While it hasn't felt like I've changed much or grown since I started this blog, I know that to be false. The bigger question is, what's the next step?

I want to make a massive overture to a particular subject that I'm thankful for. Those with access to it probably don't think much on it, but rather, just expect it. My next post, the one on this, may be a while from now. I'm considering taking a mini-hiatus for a week or so (somehow I don't think I'll be misssed) to finish my term paper and study for my 4-5 exams. In the mean time, I hope these random thoughts below amuse you.

1. So, for the last few days, I kept thinking I had an appointment with my adviser at 2pm tomorrow (Monday, Dec. 1). But I knew that I'd have to miss my pathophysiology lecture about 30 minutes early, and that's my favorite class. I agreed, and she was meeting with all her advisees at once I think, somewhere on the 6th floor. I realize now that it was all a dream. There is no appointment meeting. Now I wonder how much of my other scheduling events are the result of a dream. Hmmm.

2. I had a dream last night where I was traveling to Beijing, China. My dad was with me for some reason. We drove to the airport, where we got on a plane but we had to transfer to another plane for some reason in Chicago or something. My dad got in a fight with the pilot and was then handcuffed to his seat. So we're on this plane to San Francisco (my dad handcuffed to his seat), where we stop before arriving in Beijing. For some reason I was really anxious and/or apprehensive about flying, which I rarely am. There were storms expected ahead and I wasn't sure if the pilot was going to attempt to fly through them or go around. Anyway, I woke up mid-dream and I tried forcing myself back to sleep to finish the dream. I hate waking up mid-dream. Anyone else do that?

3. Some Lolcats pics. From this site, of course.

I love this site, haha. It's the most addicting distraction I've come across in a while. My friend and I just kept sending each other links for about an hour.

4. Last, but not least, I'd like to introduce (who haven't come across it yet) the blog Equal Eight. It's rather hilarious, so go over and say hi! :D

Happy Halloween!

So I realize it's about 2 hours past Halloween for me here, but that's okay. This would've been a drunk post had I actually been of constitution to down alcohol tonight. As it is, I have a cold and am exhausted, so I'll try to keep this short.

In short, this week sucked. My two exams went okay, though the exam questions for my 2-credit class were far more difficult than what should've been for a 2-credit class. My left eye had this tendency to go out-of-focus every now and then throughout the week, not sure why. I've been lightheaded all week, not entirely sure why. Been feeling really down for about half the week. And now I've a cold so the back of my throat's a little sore. As a result of all this, only went to the gym once so now I feel like I gained 5-10 lbs and feel quite bloated (probably not true). At least my Western blot worked - I would've been really pissed if it hadn't because that experiment takes 7-8 hours to do.

Today was fun though. RZ-F is visiting for the weekend and is staying with SR-F. It was good seeing her, a bit nostalgic. And yet, every time I see her, I wonder what might've been between us. Sigh.

Her old roommate, CM-F, who's a med student here now, stopped by. The three of us (SR-F doesn't drink and doesn't like to party like that) went out. We stopped by a med school frat first. It was alright. My first time doing jello shots. They were weak. Med students (::rolls eyes:: lol). But there were tons of people in constumes there. One Asian guy was dressed up as a native American Indian, so he obviously had no shirt on. Wow, so lean and hot. It's now my goal to lose weight and get nice abs so I can dress up as something shirtless next Halloween. Halloween's been really nice and warm this year. Usually it's cold and drizzling around here.

We then went to a bar. En route I found a $20 bill on the ground. We used it to pay for almost all of what we got at the bar, haha. No one drank much because we ordered food - it was more food than we thought. If I had drank any more I would've thrown up, not from being drunk, but from being too full. More hot guys about. Some slutty and really attractive women about too. Usually not attracted to people that dress up as sluts, but some of them . . .

Apparently I'm considered an Mo.5, lol (1st year med students are M1's, 2nd years are M2's, and so on, so I'm an Mo.5 or M-half). On the way back to SR-F's apartment, RZ-F was complaining about there being a "dying breed" of nice guys in the world and generally hinting heavily at her guy problems. If only she could see what's in front of her sometimes.

Apparently Not Quite Over

It's been an interesting weekend, and now that I realize I have an exam in 1.5 weeks, I'm going to go into hyper-studying mode this week.

Anyway, on Saturday SR-F and I went to see RZ-F, who with her parents was staying at her cousin's house about 40-45 minutes away from campus in another city. RZ-F's old roommate, CM-F, also came by to visit. RZ-F's in med school at Case Western whereas CM-F's in med school here (not telling where here is XP). Much of the conversation was RZ-F and CM-F comparing med schools and complaining how they're just dying. Well, I contend it's entirely their fault. RZ-F decided to do a Master's in Anatomy on top of med school, adding like 12 hours of classes a week on top of it all. And CM-F is training to run a 26.6-mi marathon in October.

We went to Olive Garden for lunch. I got so full that I didn't finish my meal and had it boxed to go. That ended up being my only meal of the day because I was so full. Afterwards we had the brilliant idea to go to Coldstone Creamery for ice cream. No, not a wise decision. I swear my stomach's still bloated and overly large from Saturday lunch. But at least the conversation was interesting, again medical stuff (hey, what else would 2 med students, 1 public health student/future med student, and 1 pharmacy student talk about?).

Oh, and RZ-F loved my head massage present, haha. It needs a bit of loosing up from being in the box, but when it is, I'm sure it'll get quite a bit of usage. RZ-F commented how it looked like I had lost weight (no, actually I had been in the same 5-lbs range for about a year now). It must've been my new jeans - they fit a bit closer. Interestingly, the jeans are a bit loose about the waist yet hug my thighs a bit; I must have overly muscular thighs from running or something, sigh. Anyway, it seems RZ-F's parents ask about me sometimes. Why, I have no idea. Last time I met them, I was nice, but I didn't give the "proper greeting" as it was at graduation and the whole day was a whirlwind. You know, the whole, "阿姨好" (translating roughly to "Hi Auntie"). Forgot to say that, and I thought they'd think I was some terribly rude child whose parents didn't bring him up with proper manners. It seems that wasn't the case, as they actually thought I was really nice because talked to them in Chinese at all. But! This time I was all polite and proper, haha. At least to her mom, as her dad stood far off washing the car.

So as we were parting ways, I realized I haven't quite gotten over her. A good part of me still wonders the "what if's" if we had pursued a relationship. It hurts a little that she's pining away at some guy in China who she doesn't know that well, while in med school, dying under her inane courseload. At least she gave me a mooncake for the much belated Mid-Autumn Moon Festival like, 2 weeks ago.

So I spent most of Sunday at the library with AG-F. She was dying of a cold, the second one she's gotten in a week and a half. Poor AG-F. :( She sits there with her accusatory eyes wondering why I haven't gotten sick yet in all this time. I feel like her stress is partly self-imposed in that she tends to stress out about her courses a lot more than she needs to. She always does well anyway. SR-F and I have had to drag her away from her homework and lab to hang out just once a week, and take her mind off academics. She needs to get drunk or something.

After I left her at the computer lab, I was walking to the bus stop to get back to my apartment. On the way I encountered ES-M! It's been a while since I've mentioned him on this blog, but he was the Chinese Malaysian I had a crush on all of last year. It seems (yup, you got it) I'm apparently not quite over him either. He was walking with his friend, Tina (don't know her last name, so not going to code her name here :P). I suspect they might be boyfriend/girlfriend but I'm not sure. All I know is I felt a tiny twitch of jealousy. Well, Tina's nice and they'd be a nice fit if they were boyfriend/girlfriend. They have the same matching happy-go-lucky/bordering on bubbly personalities. It was good to see him. He still owes me a lunch date.

Damn. ::pines::

Just Another Day

It was Valentine's Day? What? Lol, it felt like just another day. Though I must admit - for as long as this week has been, for as long as this day has been - it hasn't been that bad.

In Chinese class today, we watched part of a Chinese movie called “天下无贼” which translates to "A World Without Thieves." Apparently it's the Chinese version of "The Italian Job," but the two movies are not similar at all - except for them both being about thieves. Now I really want to see the rest of this movie.

I went to my next class, Great Books of China discussion. We talked about Zhuangzi's philosophy of life and death - but particularly death. Haha. After class, I was accosted in the halls by the Valentine's Day ninjas - people dressed in pink sweatshirts and sweatpants with ninja hoods who gave out candy to random strangers. It was amusing, to say the least. I know not what university group they're affiliated with, but they have my support.

But by far, lunch was the highlight of my day. I was finally able to attend SBS (Society of Biology Students) for the first time this semester! Okay, I know it sounds incredibly dorky, but first hear me out. There was free pizza. Who can say no to free pizza?! And the speaker was this amazing EEB (Ecology & Evolutionary Biology) professor. His topic: the evolution of sex.

He was a very entertaining speaker. I now wish I was able to take on of his courses (particularly Bio 116: The Biology of Sex). Grr, graduating. Anyway, he talked about how people choose mates who have a MHC (multi-histocompatibility) complex that's different than theirs. Basically, people tend to choose mates whose immune systems are most different than theirs. This is correlated with natural male and female body odors as well as the symmetry of men's faces.

He then moved on to the mystique of the female orgasm. These 2 guys had to go to class and when the professor mentioned the female orgasm, they were clearly torn. Admittedly, I would've been torn too. Apparently, about 29% of American women ever get orgasms from vaginal sex, although over 95% of these women are able to attain orgasm when masturbating. That's somewhat telling. And we went through all these theories as to how the female orgasm may have evolved or been adaptive. So apparently in some non-human primates, the males suck so bad at vaginal sex that the females "get off" only by stimulating each other. Facultative lesbian primates? Hmm.

Lastly, someone asked him about homosexuality. What he said isn't too far off from what I know/believe. Of course there are genetic and factors in the womb. According to some statistic, if one fraternal twin is gay, there's a 25% chance that the other's gay too. And among identical twins, that probability increases to 50%. This clearly suggests that there's a genetic component to homosexuality, and some studies suggest that certain hormone changes in the womb at the right time can influence the sexuality of the fetus. But even with those numbers, it's also clear that there are external post-gestation factors such as socio-cultural aspects. Lastly, I also appreciated how he said that sexuality is obviously not determined by a single gene, because that's too simple, and that sexuality is multigenic (aka, affected by many genes). Oh yeah, and he bashed Huckabee as a moron. His reaction was priceless.

The rest of my day was a blur, of sorts. I went to research, did what I had to do, and then went to work. At work, I helped people understand genetics. I'm somewhat impressed that people showed up at all, but hey, their genetics exam is next Monday - so studying trumps Valentine's Day. For the second week in a row, I actually felt productive and useful. Hurray!

Now, for some amusement/humor:
http://xkcd.com/382/

This Wang Leehom song has been stuck in my head lately.

Eventful-ness

So much to update about, so where to start?
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1. 新年快乐! 恭喜发财, 身体健康!! Translation (roughly): "Happy new year! Have a prosperous year, and good health!!" It was Chinese New Year on February 7th.

Chinese New Year is one of my favorite holidays. It's up there with Thanksgiving. So much food, and a holiday that revolves around food is always good. Too bad I didn't get a chance to go home this year - it's the first year I haven't been home at least for a weekend near Chinese New Year. That was a little sad. It means I didn't get my 红包 (red envelop/red packet) of money. Oh well, that'll come later I'm sure.

The night before new year's, I went out to dinner with RZ-F, SR-F, and JW-F instead of going home. We went to this Chinese restaurant that I hadn't heard of, but RZ-F said was good. And it was. Apparently, when SR-F and JW-F walked in, all the Chinese people there stared at them for a brief moment (SR-F and JW-F are clearly not Chinese, haha). The waitress gave us forks and glasses of water instead of chopsticks and tea. I was amused; JW-F was not. The waitress also tried to explain what was in some of the dishes on the menu, obviously directed at JW-F and SR-F, and JW-F found this insulting as well. Sigh. I mean, it's clearly not intentional and some of the dishes would need some describing to a non-Chinese person (and even to some Chinese people too).

All in all, it was good food. I ate at another Chinese restaurant for lunch the following day with RZ-F and her roommate, SN-F. And that evening, I got pizza with JW-M and others. So much eating out! >.<
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3. I went to two concerts this weekend. Yesterday's was a double quartet/octet concert. The first several pieces were "modern contemporary" pieces. So they sounded horrible. It's like horrible abstract art that the general population finds difficult to appreciate. Instead of being an eyesore, the music was auditorily painful. It sounded like some amorphous cloud-blob of dissonance, without melody or proper harmonies, and united only by random rhythms.

But the Mendelssohn octet easily made up for all that. To think, Mendelssohn composed such a masterpiece at age 16! Who does that?! I heard a brief segment on NPR this morning about Mendelssohn, and they mentioned his octet. There's something eerily apt about all this. Anyway, his octet piece had direction, it had melody, and the players were clearly enjoying it. It sounded like suspended joy - purposeful, directional, refined.

Today I went to a pipa and shawm band performance. They played mostly traditional Chinese music, and it was really really cool. A part of it resonated with me, like a nostalgia I never knew existed. It was kind of weird. But whereas the Mendelssohn octet the night before represented joy in a Western and highly refined manner with linear direction, the pipa and the accompanying instruments played with unadulterated and raw happiness. It had this habit of building up to a climax, then backing down, then building up again, over and over. The music was almost cyclical, like it was trying to describe something or tell a story. The styles between the two concerts were worlds apart, but that's not surprising at all.
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That's the highlights for now. Right now I'm in the library, studying for the first time this weekend, haha. It's really cold today. According to the weather.com, it's 1 degree outside but it feels like -15 degrees. It was also really icy yesterday, could've slipped all over the place if one wasn't careful. Is it spring yet?

---TANGENT---
Hmm, something happened to #2 in this post. I don't know what, but a large chunk of it seems to have disappeared. It had something to do with my "social experiment." I'm too lazy to go back and re-type it all in, so this'll suffice. And suffice to say, my roommates will only clean/run the dishwasher only when things are practically all used up.
---END TANGENT---

Happy Thanksgiving!

I was going to write a post ranting and raging about something that happened on Tuesday. It was pretty bad, and it caused me to rage inside for almost all of Tuesday and part of Wednesday. But you know, it's freakin' Thanksgiving, so no ranting here.

Thanksgiving is awesome and one of the most underrated holidays, in my opinion. Thanksgiving is never really advertised much. Things tend to bypass Thanksgiving on its way from Halloween to Christmas and that's sad. While I pretty much love all holidays, my two favorite are probably Thanksgiving and Chinese New Year, partly because of the sheer volume of food involved.

To me (particularly in the last 4 years or so), Thanksgiving is a time to just get together with my immediate family and not really do much. After the food's made, it's restful (usually). It'd be cooler if my uncles, aunts, cousins, and grandparents could all get together with us as well, but they live in Chicago, IL, and in Milpitas, CA, so that's not going to happen. Also, my brother's birthday is always within a few days of Thanksgiving (he was either born on, the day before, or the day after Thanksgiving) so it's almost like a double celebration. It's pretty sweet.

It's late so that it for now. At the very least, I'm thankful it's Thanksgiving. There's really too much to be thankful for to be fully expressed concisely in words.