Most Random Solution Ever

Of all the people on my AIM list, there are only a handful that I talk to on a regular basis. One of them is DvF-M, who is one of my roommates this year (hurray for move-in tomorrow, or now today, since it's past midnight). We have such interesting conversations, always late at night. He's rather conservative whereas I'm more liberal than perhaps I'd like to admit.

Anyway, here's a brief snippet of an AIM conversation we had on the death penalty, which we are both against for different reasons.
-----
DvF-M: but how can a serial killer pay the community back
DvF-M: and of course what you suggest is "cruel and unusual" under the constitution
. . .
Me: i think the death penalty kinda falls under cruel and unusual though
. . .
DvF-M: the worst offenders you couldn't ever let out of prison, if they escape the public will be after your head
Me: they could knit for homeless people inside the prisons!
Me: there
Me: there's your solution
DvF-M: I'm good with that one
Me: we will teach all prisoners how to knit
Me: and basically run a gov-subsidized sweatshop
Me: and produce very very cheap/free goods
Me: it benefits everyone
-----
Okay, so the whole point of this is, prisoners just sit in prison doing nothing and are a drain on society. So they should repay their debt to society somehow. They could build parks, build clinics, plant trees, clean oil spills, knit stuff for the homeless, etc, SOMETHING. I mean, I just read an article in TIME Magazine about people wanting a national service system like military service, AmeriCorps, Peace Corps, Teach for America, etc. Well, why not "force" prisoners to the more manual public works? And here's my friend's suggestion later in the AIM conversation:

DvF-M: no i mean they can participate in prison public works projects, donate organs, knit for the homeless or anything else thats reasonable
DvF-M: you just have to have some stuff like hour ratings, say knitting is worth an hour per blanket, certain projects are worth 1 hour/hour, harder and more complex ones are worth more, kidneys etc are worth several hundred
DvF-M: and then the judge sentances you in hours, and you stay behind bars until you have done your share

What a Day

So I feel like talking about my day, as I found it somewhat amusing.

-----
1. Getting to the university
I carpooled with a family friend because he does research at the university. I woke up at like 5:45am and got to his house around 6:30am, as he had a lab meeting today at 8am-ish. He drives like a madman. It's not very reassuring to know that his driving hasn't improved in the last 2 years, the last time I rode in a car with him. I must admit though, I'm quite impressed that (to the best of my knowledge) he never got a ticket nor ever got into an accident. So yeah, got the university at 7:50am or so, with nothing to do until I took my Chinese placement exam at 1pm.

2. The morning
So I wandered around central campus for a while, just enjoying being back (however briefly) and appreciating campus with almost no one around. As I approached the heart of central, I ran into a friend (I'll call her AG-F) who just so happens to be working in the med school lab I also worked in (this lab is different from the lab I work in during the summers, as that's at a different university). So AG-F was apparently on her way to that lab actually (at 8am?!). She works with a really nice Chinese grad student whose lab bench is right next to my researcher's. We'll probably be working next to each other at times throughout the year, and I'm excited about that.

Then after she left, I wandered around a bit more and took 2 pictures of campus; I was going to take more but didn't get around to it. I really do love how the campus looks in the early morning, though I'm almost never awake that early to enjoy it. I love the way the sunlight floods across the grass, and there's a deep golden glow with long shadows. Also, the cool morning air is refreshing, and only serves as a harbinger of autumn - one of my two favorite seasons. I can't wait till the trees start changing colors and everything will be in hues of red, orange, and yellow. It's really pretty, and kind of poetic; apparently, autumn is a very poetic season in literature (especially in Chinese poetry).

3. Visiting a friend
And after 2o minutes of that, I got bored and went to a friend's apartment (I'll call her SR-F). Her apartment is actually quite nice for two people. Though SR-F and her roommate, JW-F (who vehemently professes atheism), are both Jewish, they have more Asian stuff in their apartment than I ever intend on having in mine. They have a Japanese fan hanging from the corner of the ceiling, bamboo mats, a bamboo screen, a sake set, two bottles of sake, and a sushi set. And a rice cooker larger than mine, granted I'm really the only one in my apartment who'll use it whereas they'll both be using theirs.

After the run-through of the apartment, we sat down on her couch and watched some episodes of the animes "Bleach" and "Naruto Shippuuden" that I had downloaded onto my laptop. Then we went out to see if we could buy some of our books for classes. I got my book for my journalism class that I'm taking to fulfill our university's stupid upper-level writing requirement. The book is quite small, so I was surprised that it costed $14.95. Price gouging!! Ugh, I hate buying books at campus bookstores. Oh well, at least I got my 2 biology books for my 2 biology courses online for much cheaper.

Then we went to Borders and walked around, commenting about our "some day list" of books to read. I kind of want to read "The Tales of Genji," the world's first novel. But it's huge and like many books, probably requires knowledge of either the folklore of the area and/or the historical time period. There were some other books that we encountered that looked interesting, or books that we had read and either hated or liked. After that, we went to eat lunch at Potbelly's, a sandwich place that I think is only in the Midwest (if not only in my state), and Starbuck's after that since I had a strange craving for coffee the last 2 weeks.

4. The Chinese placement exam
At about 12:50pm, I went to the designated lecture hall to take my placement exam. The place was packed, almost entirely of Chinese students, but there were also some Caucasians and Koreans. The proctor of the room was quite funny to listen to. He was like, "Everyone who is taking the placement exam for 104 or 204 should get up in a moment and go to a different room we set aside. You are taking that placement exam if you can speak Chinese, but maybe can *barely* read and write, or only a little." He was going to say "can't read or write" and the brief hesitation caused everyone to giggle. Then he said, "Everyone else stays here. You'll stay here if you can't speak fluently, but can read and write some. This includes people whose parents are Chinese but can't speak, read, or write but still call themselves Chinese." This elicited an uproar of laughter. It might be an inside joke of sorts, but you're not really considered Chinese if you can't at least speak the language, even if you're ethnically Chinese.

So the 104/204 exam wasn't nearly as hard as I thought it might be, nor as long. The reading passage was doable, and the first translation from English to Chinese was not overly difficult, though I forgot many characters. The second translation was impossible, so I just turned my exam in and took a number for the oral interview.

The oral interview was amusing and surprisingly short. The interviewer had me read a sentence or two from the beginning of the 104 book (which I could read like 90% of), a sentence from the middle of the book (maybe 70%), and a sentence from the end (now down to 40% or so). She was like (in Chinese), "Clearly your level is higher than 104. But not high enough for 204, though you've already learned most of the characters in 104 but just can't remember them. I suggest you take 104 and if you find it too easy/waste of time, drop it, self-study the book if you have the motivation, and we'll give you an override into 204 next semester." In my head I was like, "I knew my level was right here. And easy works for me, I'm NOT dropping 104."

5. Turtle tank
After the exam, I went back to my friend's apartment as I left all my stuff there. We went to a pet store to buy all the stuff for a turtle tank, since JW-F got 2 small turtles for their apartment. We went outside and picked up rocks for the tank; that must've looked weird to all the people driving by as we took rocks and put them in a bag. I arranged the rocks and gravel in a Zen rock garden-like arrangement. It was really cool and was terraced on one side. But when we added the water, we realized that it was too low so we added more gravel, which covered up my nice rock arrangements. Then the water filter was noisy as it wasn't fully submerged, so we added yet more water. Then just a bit of tweaking after that. I hope the turtles will be happy in their new tank. I love turtles.

6. Visiting brother's dorm and dinner
Some time after that, I visited my brother's room in his dorm. He was all over the place with friends, as he knew a lot of people from our city who's going to the university, as well as people he met during orientation. His dorm room is smaller than mine was, but it's certainly not small nor bad. I love his hallways, they're so wide and spacious. And clean. If his dorm wasn't so far away from many of his classes, I might've been jealous.

My parents came down to drop stuff for my brother and to pick me up. Honestly, my brother is really book-smart but very not street-smart. He just doesn't know how to interact with random strangers and forgets random things, like a towel, laundry detergent, and his alarm clock. It kind of sucks being the oldest, as my parents expect me to watch over him and check up on him so he isn't completely lost and overwhelmed on campus. I'm of the opinion that he'll be just fine, if not better off than me, but my parents have their worries.

So then we all went to dinner at this small Chinese restaurant that we ALWAYS go to when my parents are in town. I first went there freshman year with some friends and recommended it to my parents. It is good Chinese food, and now we've been there so often that the waitress that almost always takes our order has memorized what my parents usually order. My parents have also become friends of sorts with the owner. They recognize us instantly when we go there. Once the chef himself personally came out and talked to us, that was pretty cool. Personally, I'd love to have this kind of relationship with a place some day, that'd just be sweet.

Back Home!

I'm back home from California. The first thing I noticed when walking out of the airport were clouds and the smell of recent rain. Ah, the Midwest. California was really nice, but I do miss the "wetness" in the air, clouds, and green lawns. And also the lack of smog, or visible air pollution, that's always a plus.

On the plane home, I was typing 6 damn essays for my secondary applications (at least these are the last of them, for now . . .). There went 2 very unpleasant hours. After a while, my essays tend to become "Franken-essays," or basically parts of other essays stitched together by transition sentences and such. It actually works pretty well when the prompts are similar. Oh, I already got rejected from Chicago-Pritzker. Oh well, I don't think I expected to get an interview from them anyway. But it would've been nice . . .

Two more days before I return to college! I'm so excited, but alas I'll miss the first football game of the season. Oh well, at least I gave my ticket to my brother's roommate, however crappy that consolation is. But before I can move into my apartment, I need to take a stupid Chinese placement exam tomorrow so I can (hopefully) keep my seat in a class I enrolled in. At least I'll get a chance to hang out with a good friend of mine that I hadn't seen since school ended in May. That ought to be fun.

San Francisco's Art Museums

So I've been to 3 art museums in San Francisco in the last 3 days (or rather 2 days, since we didn't spend yesterday at any art museums). I'm getting kind of sick of them and I'm constantly reminded why I'm not an art history major (no offense to art history majors, I'm sure it's fascinating . . . to someone). The 3 we went to were the Asian Art Museum, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA), and the Legion of Honor museum.

-----
Asian Art Museum: I actually really liked this museum on the whole. It exhibited pieces of art spanning several thousand years from several Asian countries such as China, Korea, Japan, Indonesia, and India. It's interesting to see how all the oriental art looked a little similar to each other (evidence of heavy cross-cultural sharing) and yet at the same time, quite distinct. I'm glad I took a course on Chinese culture, history, and art last semester. I just really liked the diversity of the art displayed.

Then we got to the section on Buddhist and Hindu art. They were mostly sculptures. It was cool at first, but it was evidently religious art, and not very creative and original after a certain point. After a while, all Buddhas looked similar, all Brahma's, Vishnu's, and Shiva's looked similar. Although, I must admit I really liked the sculptures of Ganesha (my favorite Hindu god), even if they got a bit repetitive. Ganesha's just really awesome, I mean he's a happy-go-lucky god who frolics around with his favorite bowl of sweets. He's also the Hindu god of wisdom and knowledge or something.

SFMOMA: Okay, I really don't like most of what's considered "modern art." I just find it hard to understand, much less care about. I can, however, appreciate it for what it is. Even if an artist just has a painting of pure white paint and nothing else, it can be appreciated because while anyone else "can" do it, only that artist actually "did" it. That's what one of my 9th grade English teachers emphasized to us: that we shouldn't criticize something because we think it's simple and something that anyone can do, because while that may be the case, only that artist actually did it. And that says something.

Legion of Honor: This was mostly Renaissance art. Hence, 90% of it was religious (Christian) art. Like all religious art, it's cool at first. Then it seems to get repetitive and rather uncreative really fast. I mean, all nativity scenes look similar. All paintings of Christ being impaled on the cross look rather similar. Even the non-religious art, such as a still-life of a bowl of fruit, looks the same after a while. This isn't to say, however, that I didn't find works of art that I really liked.
-----
All in all, I found things that weren't religious to be more original and (to me) better. Religious art just seems like the same things over and over again, regardless of religion. I also began to notice how violent and militaristic a lot of Renaissance art was. Angels and armies wielding swords, demons devouring people, Christ bleeding from multiple wounds, it gets vicious. I think sometimes these works of art may inadvertently send a wrong message to "non-believers."

It was also interesting how peaceful and calm Buddhist art was. All the sculptures were unarmed, holding mostly bells, drums, flowers, and sitting on lotuses. It's rather laid back, as far as religious art goes. Only thing is, a lot of them also had more than 2 arms.

Testing Something with YouTube

Hmm, just an attempt to see how to post YouTube vids to a blog. I really like this vid, particularly when I was taking biochem last semester. It's called "The Inner Life of the Cell" and yeah, I'm a dork. But it's so cool.

Next Phase of Summer

I finished my research at the lab on Thursday. It's kind of hard to believe that I've been working in that lab for the last 4 summers, how quickly time moves. I'll finally have my name in 2 scientific papers (when they get published) and that's really exciting. The only annoying thing is that I haven't been paid in full yet this summer, grrr. I hate that university's administration branch, so slow and incompetent. I need to send an email to this guy to make sure I get paid however much I'm supposed to under the undergrad program I worked through. Sigh.

Every time a person leaves the lab, the entire lab goes out to lunch. This time we went to Buffalo Wild Wings. One of the post-docs didn't come in for work and met us there. He was "preparing," haha. The other post-doc was fasting to see if he could bring his cholesterol down before his next doctor's visit, and he was so torn between going and not. He didn't end up going. The rest of the lab convinced our PI to go since he wasn't originally too keen on it.

So there we were, at Buffalo Wild Wings. It was pretty good, it's only the second time I've been there. The post-doc was trying to break the record of 36 boneless chicken wings, but he only got to 20. 8 of them had to be the hottest wings they have, which are Blazin. But the Blazin at this place was rather mild compared to the Blazin I had in another city. The other undergrad who goes to my university ate 19, and I ate 18 without anyone noticing until hours later. As they said, I "flew under the radar." I tend to be good at doing that, most of the time. But yeah, lab lunches are always loads of fun. The lab paid for me and the PI (that's how they convinced him to go, though he forgot about that by the time we got there). Food is truly one of those things that can bring people together.

Of course we went back to the lab afterwards and felt completely unproductive from being so full. That always happens too. Leaving that lab for perhaps my last time felt really strange. But it was a good ending. The 3 undergrads in the lab (including myself) left at the same time, so we took the elevator down together. I remember leaving for my car with nothing more than a wave goodbye and a laughing smile (at what? I wonder). In a way, it was almost like a cheesy movie ending.

What's weirder to think is that the lab will probably have a complete turn-over in a year or two. I'm leaving the lab this summer and so is the other undergrad who goes to my university. The last undergrad will stick around for at least another year. One of the two grad students will be graduating by next May, so he'll be gone. And one of the post-docs, unless he can secure a grant very soon (best of luck to him), will probably have to find a new lab next year as well. So that really leaves the PI, one post-doc, one grad student, and maybe one undergrad. The size of the lab will be cut in half, and that's kind of depressing.

But everyone at some point will go their separate ways, and life moves on. While this is sad, it's nice to think that each parting is a good one, and I don't believe in true goodbyes. And with each ending there is a new beginning, so onto the next phase of summer for me.

A few days of limbo at home, filling out applications like crazy. Apparently I'm getting snappy, so clearly I've been at home for way too long. It's okay though, because in a few days I'll be visiting other relatives in CA with my family. I love CA, it's great - great weather, great food. The only thing about the Midwest that I miss when I'm in CA is the lawn, which is kind of weird to think of. I don't think I'd miss snow too much, since in my state the weather's so fickle anyway that winters are more just cold than snowy. And I don't like the cold much, I don't think I'm evolved for it. Anyway, I'll be in the Bay Area (Milpitas, San Jose, San Francisco, etc) of CA for 8-9 days. But as soon as we come back, my brother and I will have to move back to the university. Basically, we must pack not only for CA, but also for college right now.

---TANGENT---
I'm really happy about people commenting on this blog. It's one of those things I suppose (I'm so easily amused). Anyway, since I don't know if this blog thing has a reply function to comments, I'll probably just post my replies to questions I see in the comments. So if you post a question in your comment, look for my answers there too sometime later.
---END TANGENT---

Masks of Sexuality III

I don't really know what to say in this one, but I said I'd do a set of three. I guess I'll start with a comment from Pete of Falling off a log.

It seems in the first post of this series, Masks of Sexuality I, I forgot to mention maternal effect. Biologically, maternal effect is where certain things (transcription factors, hormones, etc) in the mother's womb (or eggs in non-mammalian species) can/do influence the outcome of the children. Pete mentioned studies where increased hormone exposure (I think it's increased estrogen) was correlated with a male child being gay. And another study where fraternal twins, specifically one girl and one boy, can influence the sexual orientation of one or the other to be homosexual.

Personally, I don't like to take these kinds of studies at face value. I like to think that with behavior, there are different mechanisms of control than just maternal effect. Of course it can and probably does play a role, but perhaps not as much as the studies tend to make it seem. In science there's an important difference in understanding a correlation (however strong) with cause-effect, because really only cause-effect can be tested. Correlations might be interesting, but they can also be false. Hurray, I actually remember something useful from my stats class (most boring class EVER, so thankful for the invention known as coffee)!

So now, what else to write. I think I'll write about what I "think" my attractions are to either girls or guys. Yeah, I've spent way too much time in analyzing such things about myself. Alright, so, girls first. The order of attraction goes sort of like: face, personality, body. The face is a big thing, and a good funny/amusing personality is a must. Intelligence is also a must. A hot body is nice but not absolutely necessary, just "good enough" will do. I'm actually rather attracted to fairly average-looking women for some reason, might be their attitude though. They tend to not be as snobby or think they're "all that." There was this really hot sophomore in a study group I led - perfect breasts (not too big, not too small), flat stomach, toned arms and legs, nice face, good attitude - alas she has a boyfriend (again? I fall for the wrong people). I'm also attracted to Asian women more, but I think that goes with the cultural atmosphere I was raised in. But there are also various other cultural reasons that I won't get into here.

My attraction to guys is somewhat different. Again, the face is perhaps the first thing I notice. But then the body - slim and toned, not too muscular but not bordering anorexic thin either. Personality-wise, I've never met a guy who I think "matched" mine. That's kind of weird I guess, perhaps I'm looking for something I haven't found yet, I don't know. Anyway, one of the most appealing things about guys over girls is the anatomical knowledge. You know what feels good on you and you can bet it probably feels good on another guy too. Like when a guy orgasms and ejaculates, you know how good that feels and you can visually tell when that happens. There's something very appealing and arousing about that. With women, who knows, they could be faking it the whole time for all I know (and that's annoying to think about). This is also why I prefer male porn to female porn, because in male porn you know when he orgasms but with women, you never really know (if someone can tell, please teach me to figure it out).

So like the other posts, where does this leave me? It almost seems I'm more emotionally attracted to women but I'm definitely more physically attracted to men. But I think in any long-lasting relationship there needs to be both emotional and physical attraction. This leaves me more confused and uncertain, but more clear about where I stand. Which is to say, somewhere between worlds. So yeah, definitely the most disjointed conglomeration of thoughts pieced into a single post thus far, for me.