Thanks Pepsi! (and Alison + Team!) I look forward to our formal introduction in June!

So basically I love this song and this guy’s voice. It is too good.

So, apparently AP tests are coming up soon. It’s been a while since I’ve even thought of what an AP test is. Somehow my mind got shifted over to SATs and whatnot. Yes, I actually went onto www.collegeboard.com and signed in to look at my old SAT scores. I just discovered that they post what school you sent scores to. Let’s take a look at what they sent to Northwestern, shall we?

NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY

We sent the following scores on November 23, 2005

hahahahahahahhahahaha how the hell did I get into Northwestern.

A. Granted I got 800′s in math and chem. I was super proud of them too! Except now that I think about it, it means nothing because I basically went through Northwestern Math and Chem with a C average. And I had to repeat classes in both departments. Ohhkay.

B. OK for real, I took bio twice, and I applied as a BME and those are my lower two subject scores. I’m still a BME. You’d think I’d have figured out that I kind of suck at this biology business.

Whatever, I’m sure I come off as a huge prick complaining about scores that don’t matter anymore. I guess I’m still trying to figure out why the hell I’m still at NU.

PS. Just to add some more douchebagginess  since you probably hate me by now – I had a 3.65 GPA in high school. Ha! Not even in freaking top 25%. Therefore, for anyone who wants to come to NU, you have a chance! It’ll just be a sick joke for NU though. They kind of have a shitty sense of humor.

Tina was a juggler.  She could juggle 4 balls at one time with some level of comfort but a fifth ball always overwhelmed her.  Tina was juggling the balls of death, depression, divorce, loneliness and low self-esteem.

Tina made friends with Kathy.  Kathy gave Tina the ball of death.  Kathy’s husband died suddenly of a heart attack.  So whenever she was in pain, she turned to Tina.  Tina was a loving person who was compassionate.  She did not mind helping Kathy.  Kathy had been through so much.

Tina also made friends with Tim.  Tim gave Tina the ball of depression.  Tim had been suffering from depression for years.  Tina was a loving person so she was there for Tim and gave him someone to turn to when he was down.  Tim could call Tina at any time of the night.  Tina would listen as he cried.  Tina knew Tim’s depression took him to great lows.  She wanted to make sure someone was there for him.  Tim totally depended on Tina’s friendship.

Tina was able to juggle both balls at the same time.

One day Tina met Karen.  Karen gave Tina the ball of divorce.  Karen was going through her divorce.  Karen’s husband left her for another woman.  Karen was devastated.  Tina saw her pain and was there for Karen.  Karen depended on Tina to keep her life going.  She would call Tina during the day.  She would sometimes call her 10 times a day.  Tina was a good friend.

Tina was friends with Julie since middle school.  Julie gave Tina the ball of low self-esteem.  Julie was beautiful.  Unfortunately, Julie always had men in her life that made her feel horrible about herself.  Julie was physically and emotionally abused in relationship after relationship.  Julie was critical of Tina’s appearance but Tina knew that Julie just felt bad about herself.  Julie needed someone like Tina to make her feel better about her appearance.  Tina would always compliment Julie.

Tina could juggle 4 balls at one time with some level of comfort but a fifth ball always overwhelmed her.  So Tina dropped the ball of low self-esteem.  Julie was furious.  She knew that Tina was letting her down and was not there for her when she needed her.  Julie knew that Tina was like all the other men in her life and so she cursed at Tina and told her she did not want to be friends anymore.  Tina was devastated.

Tina met Tom in college.  Tom gave Tina the ball of suicide.  Tom had constant anxiety attacks.  He also thought about suicide.  He had thoughts of giving up the fight.  Tina was the person who could always distract him from those thoughts.  She always left him feeling better.  One day Tom killed himself.  Tina missed three of his calls that day.  Tina felt responsible for his death.  She let him down.

It was not long until Julie forgave Tina.  She told her she wanted to be friends again.  So Tina began once again to juggle the ball of low-self esteem.

Tina could juggle 4 balls at one time with some level of comfort but a fifth ball always overwhelmed her.

via http://thetheologianscafe.xanga.com/

I’ve decided that I’m actually very afraid of buying things. I oftentimes get buyers remorse to a large degree. Therefore, shopping takes a long time. When encountering a shirt or jacket that I like, I have to inspect it, look at it, and think extremely hard about if the purchase is worth it, if I’m willing to buy it. It goes through a series of tests.

1. How much do I need this? If the item under consideration is something that I haven’t seen before or been able to research/learn more about, chances are slim that I will actually consider making a purchase
2. Is this item discounted? I dislike purchasing items at the retail price, solely due to the fact that I know that the item will be on sale at a later date, when I can return and consider it for purchase again.
3. Is the price right? This is where most purchases occur. If the item passes through the first two steps, it comes to this final test. Unfortunately for me (but not for my wallet) this is also the most difficult test. I am frugal, to the point of being cheap. However, this cheapness does not also translate to lower quality. Instead, I lust over expensive things but continually wait for the price I want, which invariable never happens.

Therefore, I tend to buy not many things over a large span of time. Unless it’s for others.

When it comes to gifts, I never really worry as much about the price or the value. This is likely due to the fact that I have no idea how the other person will judge a gift in terms of use, value, or how much they want it – unless I specifically ask them. Therefore, it’s much easier for me to drop money on a gift with an extremely short consideration time.

Nah, my haiku’s don’t need to be related to what I want to write about.

Finally, I find some time to update my blog. After spending several hours trying to fix up the blog, I am able to find a short while to post a few words. I looked at a few of the comments people had about the blog layout, etc., and pulled out another layout that seemed to work.  Twitter is integrated in the sidebar, contact information and other web presences are linked on the other sidebar.

I think that today, a short reflection is in order. This past week was Thanksgiving. Most students go home for break, because Thanksgiving is a time for being with family, a time to be thankful for the things we have. Though I would have loved to partake in the festivities, I stayed in Chicago this year, as I had since my freshman year. This and last year, I remained in my dorm, where I did some studying and generally relaxed. Thanksgiving break is yet to draw to a close, but I think I am able to say that although I still am worrying about the numerous assignments yet to be done, I am satisfied with my current state of mind.

As mentioned previously, people go home during Thanksgiving. This means that I stay in a very sparsely populated dorm. Every year, I mockingly complain that it irritates me that everyone is leaving, only half joking. But after this and last year’s breaks, I was happy. Why is this? I’ve decided that it’s because I have me time.

I spent the first day of my vacation (Weds) finishing up my classes. Nothing was due, and many classes were canceled, thus bringing a sense of calm from the knowledge that there was nothing that urgently needed to be completed. Thursday was Thanksgiving, and I allowed myself to arise later than usual. I moved slowly, not hurrying anything, because for the first time in a while, I was not in any rush. The afternoon was occupied with studying and working, and the evening was capped off with a movie. Friday ended up being fairly similar. I woke at the same time as the previous day, and prepared for my stroll around Evanston. I intended to pick up lunch, get several necessities from the drugstore, and generally see if any sales had appeared in Evanston. I spent three hours downtown, and bought nothing but some food and contacts solution. On the way back to the dorm, a stop was made at Peet’s, and I continued my journey back with a cappuccino. Did more work, watched another movie, and went to bed. This morning, I read a book, did more work, and relaxed some more. Later on, I met up with a friend for dinner and we chatted for several hours. All me time. Sure, some time was spent working on homework, and some other time was spent with other people, but that doesn’t matter, because I did it for me.

Currently, I am relaxed. I can finally find some time to sit back and consider my current life, and live it. It really makes me realize how good life is. Many things have transpired over the quarter that have made me irritable, moody, and quite depressed. However, the fact that none of those feelings came up over these past few days causes me to believe that the good outweighs the bad, and that i do enjoy how things are going.

How was your break? Did you get some time to sit back and enjoy life?

Things are just piling up.  Even when I don’t have that much work to do, I feel swamped.

Anyways, on to happy things.  I have decided that music is the best thing in my life. Unfortunately, that really only extends to famous people music.  A cappella is driving me a little insane.  I guess that wasn’t really happy after all.

I feel like a lot of things are changing this quarter, for the better and for the worse.  I’ve met a lot of people who I like a good deal, and I’ve also been reintroduced to others who I knew from before.

I’ve also decided that appetite is a fickle thing.  Sometimes, if I’m in an irritated mood, I’ll just pick at my food and not eat it.  Other times, I’ll just eat and continue eating.  Guess things are weird like that.

Perhaps I can discover a method to keep blogging while not getting continually pummeled from not spending time to "wisely" study.  We’ll see I guess.

So it’s basically floating around 55-60 degrees here everyday.  I’ve had to bust out successively warmer clothes day after day, and I’m already wearing the heaviest jacket I have at school.  All that’s left is to wait for it to start snowing and get colder, when I will start combining the jackets together to form more super-jackets that in theory will be able to protect me from the elements.

Things are going OK, I suppose. I’ve met a lot of new people that I find are pretty cool. These people are really diverse, and I’m pretty scared of them too since I feel like they’re all too smart for me =(. Northwestern’s average SAT score went up like 20 points since my year.

So for those who don’t know, I actually have an internship at TechCrunch, where I volunteered for the TC50 conference.  It’s a pretty nifty internship.  I work on their CrunchBase product and moderate, and they pay me.  It makes my life a little busier than it would normally be, but it’s nice to have a job and to earn a little money to offset my spending.

Classes seem to be reasonable this quarter as well.  I’m registered for two EECS classes, one Chinese class, one BME class, and one voice class.  So far they all are moving along at a decent pace.  It’s pretty quick, and I’m working to keep up with it.  I’m hoping that the experience I had from summer orgo will affect me in a way to realize how I should be studying during the year.

My social life has been a little more down than usual.  I feel like I’m falling more back towards my life freshman year.  However, its not necessarily a bad thing.  Sometimes you need to go back to the past to remember why it is that you do things the way you do in the present.  People change, and things change, and sometime you don’t realize it until you step back and take a look.

Currently, I seem to have caught some sort of illness, but I’m trying to fight it off by chugging herb tea, orange juice, aleve, dayquil, and nyquil.  However, since everyone knows that I’m really smart and take care of my body, I went out to Old Orchard, a nearby outdoor mall and went shopping.  It was rather chilly, but I was bundled up fairly well.  Bought a new shirt, ask me about it and you can see the new green stripes.  I think its actually one of my favorite purchases I’ve made in a really long time.  Hopefully I’ll find some occasion to wear it.

Hope things are going well in everyone else’s lives; let me know what you’re doing!

Well new student week is now over, and classes start tomorrow.  Granted, I don’t have a class until 1:00 PM but i still have some other things I need to do prior.

Anyways, there are so many freshmen here, it’s kind of crazy because I don’t know any of them.  Well, I do kind of know them, as in i asked them their names and their places of origin, but I seem to have forgotten most.  Except for those I facebooked.

I have realized that the best way to remember a person is to facebook them right after you meet them.  You have a quick and easy connection then, and can look them up for whatever purpose you may have.  Facebook really makes life easier.

Don’t want to write too much since I would like to sleep well before classes.  I also start my job tomorrow.  I’m now interning for TechCrunch, the blog site that I worked the conference for.  I will be working on their CrunchBase product, editing and moderating the pages.  It looks like a good deal of work, but the pay is good and the company isn’t extremely strict about getting x number of hours in a week.  Best case scenario is 10 per for me, but we’ll see how the quarter goes.

Luck to the rest of you who are starting school this week, let me know how things are going.

Well I’m finally back in Evanston on Northwestern’s campus.  I’ve got a room facing the east, and my window just happens to look right in between two buildings so I can see a little bit of Lake Michigan.

I got to school yesterday, with only a suitcase containing food and clothes.  The rest of my stuff was in storage.  This "stuff" consisted of the remainder of my clothes, random things, and most importantly, my bedding.  Due to a lack of sheets, blankets, towels, and other, I was forced to improvise.  I borrowed a towel from another friend in order to take a shower (which I really needed, I felt super gross. I also wore to bed jeans, a jacket, and socks, since those were the warmest things I had.  Unfortunately, they were things that I could wear during the day; therefore they were not warm enough.  I basically froze for a long time and ended up falling asleep at maybe 2 am, and then woke again at 3 AM.  Woke up again at 5 am and couldn’t sleep.  Did get to see the sunrise, which happened to be very beautiful, even if I was bitter about freezing.

John’s birthday today.  Happy birthday John! Hope your everything is perfect and fun and life is good.

Watch this spot for pics of room.  On the idea of pictures, i think i need to start taking more of them.  I have a camera that is going to waste.