I just ate a bowl full of fresh blackberries. . . mmmm. . . Have you ever read "Walk Two Moons"? It's a really good children's book (Newberry Medal Winner) about a girl with an American father and an American Indian mother. Her mother was eating blackberries and walking around a forest, and all of a sudden, she kissed a tree. The girl, who had been watching, kissed the spot after her mother and it tasted like blackberries. The girl noted that every kiss after that tasted like blackberries. . . That's what I think of whenever I eat them. . . It doesn't go the other way though--- I don't think of blackberries when I'm kissed (which is not too often anyway; I've only kissed one person outside of my family in my entire life, once).


Today I went to Chinatown with Max and a girl he met (at Simmons?) The Dim Sum place was closed because there was a big banquet going on T_T. But we wandered around and found some restaurant which sold Dim Sum, just not in carts. Problem was I didn't know any of the names (since I'm used to pointing and saying--- yeah, that one), so I ended up with one plate of stuff I really didn't mean to get. . . Oh well. I will have to go back and get real Dim Sum. And drink Bubble Tea. And go to the Pucca store.

My birthday was a really nice day. In the morning, Sally and I went to Haymarket to get lots of fresh fruits and vegatables. Janet, Sarah, and Cynthia made me a chocolate cheesecake in the seventh-East kitchen, and Sally and Max came over to have some too. It was nice to spend the afternoon (and evening--- the cake took until 11:00 until it was ready) just talking and hanging out with friends.


Mum and Daddy called to tell me they had gone to church and prayed for a wonderful 18th year. . . They sent up a package of my favorite things: chex mix, yogurt raisings, cheese straws. . . and a sweater and a newsboy hat. . . And elf ears. They're a bit too big but opening the packing and seeing them put the biggest smile on my face---- I can't believe they went and searched for them, I can't believe they remembered how I swooned over pointy ears ever since watching LOTR, how Lindy and I made an exhaustive trek through Boston hoping to find some--- so the thought meant a lot to me.

Lalala. . . It's my birthday. As of today, I can by cigarettes and lottery tickets, vote, and go clubbing. Also, as of today, I have to remember when people ask me, to tell them that I'm eighteen, not seventeen. I feel so old, and at the same time so unready. I'll never be mature and responsible. . . I'll never be like my mom. First of all, I can never pick fruit like she does. She just walks down the produce aisle, lifting various fruits to her nose, prodding them with her fingers, puts some in the bag and some back in their baskets. And her judgement is impeccable--- we always have the sweetest fruit for breakfast on Saturdays.


Tonight (er, last night? days and nights run in together for me) LSC was showing the Matrix, so I went and saw it with Max. It was actually the first time I had ever seen it. I had heard lots of good things about it (that's putting it lightly--- most of my friends are obsessed) and I was far from disappointed in my expectations. I recognized the fighting style from Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. And I looooove the clothes ^^.


Plans for tomorrow (no, today): possibly go shopping for food since Sally's making lambchops (mmmm!), possible trip to Borders bookstore so I can drool over their manga. . .

Forgot to mention the other inspiration for this version of the website, besides Ai Yazawa. Pocky! I've gotten sooo hooked to Pocky, since in Mississippi it's so hard to come by and thus a luxury. . . and here it's so easy to find. I'm trying out all the flavors (Even LaVerde's stocks a bunch of unusual kinds), and I particularly like Milk, but Strawberry is good too. . . This layout, needless to say, is Strawberry, and the Pocky in "24 things about me" is good old plain chocolate. And I finally made the blog Netscape viewable. . . I should go to bed early today--- I have to be at Pappalardo Lab at 8:30 tomorrow. Which would have been nothing over the summer, but now that I'm back at school, I've gotten in the habit of waking up at 10:00 am or so. . . What ever inspired me to volunteer to help clean up? lol.


I wanted to help out with Concourse Open House (Concourse is a program for freshmen that lets them have smaller classes, and get to know professors and students better. . ) since I'm here anyway, and see the other Concoursers from last year that I haven't seen since spring semester and may not see around all too much anymore since we're all taking more and more classes in our major. But I totally forgot that it was yesterday. . . Nothing I can do now except scold myself for being so forgetful and make myself swear to write stuff on my calendar from now on.

New template. . . You like? I wanted something up here that I had actually drawn myself for once. It's based on the style of Ai Yazawa, sort of pop-art-ish. Sally cooked for me again last night: mackarel. . . it was absolutely delicious. . . We've worked out a system, since she hates washing dishes, and I don't mind at all (oh, alright, I do mind washing dishes when I cook, but only doing one is just fine with me).


I got my books, and an absolutely beautiful journal yesterday. If I could only get in the studying mood. . .

I got up at 9:00 today and headed on over to the Pappalardo Lab to help clean up our DME mess. Only Tim and Matt were there, until after lunch when Jean and Aparna and another Matt showed up. We all went to dinner afterwards at Middle East. I tried Kibby (my Lebanese friends at home tell me it's good. . .) but it really wasn't what I expected. Oh well; dinner was still nice.


This is ridiculusly ugly! Sanrio has made a hamburger character. . . Dokidoki Yummychums! Aaak! What is the world coming to? T_T

Who's your Pucca Character? Take the quiz! Brought to you by Lovepucca.net!


I looooove Pucca! She's soo cute! I have a Pucca pencil case that I carry in my backpack all the time, and she's on my AIM icon too. Er, but I don't really think that personality test was accurate on me, because she sounds quite agressive, ne? ^^


Today I met the frosh who'll live in my old room (room 409). Her name is Aparna, and she's really sweet. I think she'll love it, because her neighbors will be Jacque and Maithilee, and Vasuhda and Abby. Gosh if I would have known, maybe I would have just stayed in my old room. . . But I don't think it's as fun for a freshman to have a sophomore roommate, just because they can't study together for classes, and because sophomore's can't afford to have as much fun ^___^.


Sally (my next door neighbor) and I tried to make cream puffs today. They didn't work out, but it was okay because we had Godiva Dark Chocolate icecream to eat with them. Sally cooked dinner too: steamed bass and string beans with beef. It was soooo good. I'm so lucky to have such a next door neighbor. We saw Sana in the kitchen today. I guess she got moved because I didn't know she would be on my floor. Sana, Sally, and I were in the same advising group last year, so it'll be like an advising group re-union ^^.


Oh well. I guess I have to go practice the violin and get ready for my audition. . .

Today was WONDERFUL!!! It was the day of the actual robot competition of the program and the freshmen had sooo much fun, and it reminded me of the competition last year. But I was soooo totally tired out.


And there were lots of surprises along the way. The poster that I spent an hour last night painting got rolled up for easy transportation to the Museum of Science (where the competition was held). And upon unrolling, we discovered that the paint had cracked, and were showered with bits of dried paint. Soon there were more bits on the ground than on the poster. What is a mechanical engineer to do? We found some electrical tape and redid the poster with that.


I had gotten appointed as "official Publicity chair" (read: getting up at 6:40 to come to the museum of science early and set up posters, flyers, etc.) and then got designated as the score keeper during the tournament. Lots of fun!!!!


Christina turned on music during the halftime of the tournament and had everyone dancing. Like swing-type dancing. It's actually really fun ^^. Aparna was teaching me to do the cha-cha.


Oh, yeah, so on Thursday, the aforementioned website graphic got put on the MIT website. I was silly enough to not make a screenshot, or save the file. . . and it's changed already, since it was just a one day spotlight.


It makes me really sad though, because this week is over, and the new freshmen have already been pre-oriented!!! Lots of the staff I'll see again (since they live in my tower, and were my good friends to begin with) but lots I won't, except randomly around campus, and I don't know how often I'll see around campus. If I were actually a mechanical engineer, it would be a different story. Why do good days make me sad? I don't know, I'm just like that.

Vikki and Janet managed to procure a spotlight for the "Discover Mechanical Engineering program on the main MIT site. (MIT's website changes graphics and spotlights on it's main page every day) Janet, Vikki, and I have been staying up designing a graphic for it. Hopefully it'll be on the MIT website soon--- that'll be exciting. . .

I finished poster #2 out of 3. Tomorrow is Wednesday. And Blue Man Group day.

Why is it so hard to sleep? Argh. 2:44. I should have slept earlier. Goodnight ~_~

*yawns* I'm surviving on 5 hours of sleep a night. Today was the first real day of DME. The freshmen learned how to use power tools and started on their robots. I've just been taking care of random organizational things, like the permission for the drop posters (wow! And I should also get started on the posters for the Museum of Science. . .) and meals. . .


After lunch I gave Max a sort of tour around MIT; first all the way east to the bookstore, then all the way north to Star Market.


The frosh were teaching a group of the staff how to play 10 fingers. I had never played it before. . . it's such a fun game! I won the first time--- thanks to "I've never seen the Matrix," and "I've never had a driver's liscence" and a couple others. I guess I've just had a comparativly sheltered life...


For info about DME, look at dme.mit.edu. There's a picture of me and the drill press, and a quick-time video of our year's DME (2002). Ah, the memories.

Meeting freshmen is fun! So, DME started today and we have 40 or so freshmen. All the freshmen seem to come from the same places: Pennsylvania, Calfiornia, and Florida. . . They all seem really happy and excited, so that's good! They've been working on a K'nex roller coaster, and finished it. It looks really pretty, but it. . . doesn't work. The car that came with the kit is lost, and the makeshift one just kept falling off the tracks. What a shame. . . hehehe. . .

Max also came up today (1 of the 4? people from Mississippi this year, and the only one I've met). His program (Discover Nuclear Engineering) doesn't start until Tuesday, so he's just been moving in and hanging around. I got to look at his dorm room--- it's really nice. I hope he's liking it up here ^^


Okay, now to work on the horizontal drop poster. . .

So I spent from 8:00 pm to 12:00 am yesterday working on my Lobby 7 poster. It's huge! But it's finished. Without noticing, I grabbed some glittery paints, so it's glittery too! *pants* Only 2 more to go. . .


DME begins today. . . yay! We're having dinner with the Freshmen tonight.

new template up

I'm back up in Boston. You know the view isn't all that bad from my room. The courtyard is rather pretty and I have a tree right in front of my window. I thought it would be unbearably hot in my dorm, but as the courtyard design somehow traps wind, I get a sort of pleasant breeze every now and then.


I finally got my computer up. . . And all hooked up. . . and I'm just in awe of how fast everything is. And I'm so happy to have my lovely 17" flat screen back. . . hehehe.


So, I'm helping out with the "Discover Mechanical Engineering" program for incoming freshmen. Mainly as runtime staff, to be sent on random errands, and also on the Arts committee. I have to make this drop poster for Lobby 7 to advertise the event, and I hope I'll be up to it. The thing will be twice as tall as me. {{ rough draft }}


Eh, we're not going to Six Flags. I heard that it was half of the entire budget last year. Instead we're taking the froshies (I call them froshies, but they're probly all older than me) the the Blue Man group. I guess that's exciting enough.

my little brother was telling me about this thing he read about called the "magic treehouse". You climb up in it, holding a picture of where you'd like to be, or who you'd like to be with and as soon as you say, "Oh, I wish I were there." you are.


Wouldn't that be nice?


I don't want to leave yet. Tomorrow I'll be posting from my new dorm room. How ghastful it will be tomorrow night to open up my window and face, instead of the river with its glimmering reflection of the Boston city skylites like I did last year, the other dormitory tower. It would be a bit easier if I knew I could be back home sometime soon, but Christmas does seem so far away.

nice weekend. . . Saturday went to Albert's and he played the piano for me and gave me a tour of his neighborhood. . .


played at church on Sunday. Pat and Bethany came over and had un-birthday cake (my mommy baked me some cake since I'll be in Boston already for my birthday. . .) and watched Harry Potter 2. . .


Today I'll be packing. I went to the dentist and had noooooooo cavities! I'm soooo happy. Only a tonight, Tuesday night, and Wednesday night left. Gosh. I don't know if I'm more sad to leave or looking forward to seeing Boston again.

I always feel apologetic towards those who stumble across my blog really looking for something else. Those of you looking for Kenshin scanlations---- I especially feel your pain. Viz has bought the rights to it, it won't come out until November, but all the scanlation sites have already shut down. What the heck? Urgh. If you e-mail me, I'll send you a zip file of the first chapter. And once I get to school, I can send you the first 15 chapters zipped. I at least got to Chapter 15 before the Viz's announcement.


Now about these other visitors, who are searching for "Sailor Moon loves Harry Potter" (uhhhh. . . are you expecting fanfics?) I'd like you to think about it a bit. Do you think Sailor Moon would like Harry Potter? Harry is described as having messy hair that won't lie flat on his head, not exactly dashing like Mamoru, Darien, or Tuxedo Mask. Sure, he has dark hair, and a tragic life (both of his parents died, though not in a car crash). . . but those are the only similarities to Darien. As far as Harry Potter liking Sailor Moon--- not exactly likely either. Harry liked Cho Chang. Cho Chang was very smart (being from Ravenclaw) and quite athletic. Of course Harry and Bunny's tastes could vary slightly, and I like both of them greatly, but in all I think Sailor Moon and Harry are really not well suited. Or perhaps I just have no imagination ^________^

I'm in a really glum mood today. It was the last day of work; obviously that isn't the cause of my distress. The cause of my distress isn't tangible, I can't really put my finger on it. If I have no reason to be sad, I should be happy, but I'm not.


Summertime ending. . . there. That's understandable enough. And so many other things ending with it as well. I doubt I'm coming home next summer. There aren't any satisfactory jobs in town. I want a challenging job, a satisfying one. . . but, ironically enough, I don't know if I actually got the internship job that I'm eyeing, would I actually be able to handle it?


So, anyway, I made a desktop wallpaper with Miki on it, from Marmalade Boy, once again, with some Nora Jones lyrics:

"Summer days are gone too soon
You shoot the moon
and miss completely
and now you're left to face the gloom
of the empty room that once smelled sweetly
of all the flowers you plucked if only
you knew the reason
why you had to each be lonely
was it just the season?"


so, the background is summery, and the lyrics capture my feelings right now so well. Your compensation for listening to me ramble: Here. I've put up the wallpaper for your downlaoding pleasure.

My wishes come true in weird ways. I remember writing in my diary when I was eleven about the perfect date. I said it would be in a small quaint cafe, and then next we would go to the bookstore. Well, I've still never really been on a date, but my senior year of high school I couldn't make it to prom, so I went with my prom date (a good friend) to a small quaint Japenese restaurant, and afterwards, he said, "Want to go to Barnes and Noble?" I didn't really notice the connection of the two until weeks later.


I also wrote (in another diary, perhaps earlier) that my life was awful and boring. I had just read E.B. White's "The Trumpet of the Swan", and I wrote, "I wish my life could be like Sam Beaver's." Sam Beaver had the fortune to find a Trumpter Swan family in the Canada woods and save the life of the parents, making them friendly towards him, and they got to be really good friends.


Well last week, my brother was reading the book for the first time, and he asked, "Amy, what's a watercress sandwich?"
I explained them to him, and also told him how I had eaten some at the Ritz Hotel in Boston ("Tea at the Ritz" is an annual a WILG sponsored outing).


My brother was wide eyed. "Amy, that's where Louis ate his sandwich!!" Louis was the trumpeter swan and main character along with Sam.


"Hehehe. . . Louis at the sandwhich at the Ritz?" I asked. "But I bet it wasn't the one in Boston."


"It is Amy, it is," he said with a really wide smile.


Oh well. I'm not Sam Beaver, but I guess I'll be content with being Louis the trumpeter swan. And Wally went on to read the next chapter, "Philedelphia".

Today at work's been great!!! I'm putting together cables for a tele-conferencing system, and learning the art of soldering. Soldering is so much fun!!!! Seeing the shiny lead, feeling it melt as you push down on the wire, watching the swirly fumes. . . Hehehe--- it took me the entire day to finish one cable.

You represent... naivete.
So innocent and trusting... you can be very shy at
times, but it's only because you're not sure
how to act. You give off that "I need to
be protected vibe." Remember that not all
people are good. Being too trusting will get
you easily hurt.


What feeling do you represent?
brought to you by Quizilla


*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*


I've finished the 5th Harry Potter ^^. It's interesting to see another side to James Potter; and I just knew that Sirius had to have been handsome when they were young ^________^. I liked Ginny showing up a bit more too.


Oooooohhhh. Now I can continue my discussion of who Harry should end up with, b/c it's just so much more confusing now, isn't it! Or maybe I should wait until more people have read it just so I don't spoil anyone's reading. . .

Oh, dear, oh dear, oh dear. People keep coming to my site searching for Marmalade Boy scanlations or Sailor Moon scanlations. (And me using those words right now in such close proximity probably doesn't help the search engine, eh?) I'm terribly sorry, but I can't offer any such service. . . especially if you're from a non-English speaking country as these poor souls seem to be. I would suggest Barnes and Noble or Amazon.com if you are looking for the English manga (sigh, yes, manga is expensive, I understand your plight).


The confusion stems from the picture of Miki at the top left of the blog, my Sailor Moon website and my obsession for Sailor Moon in general, and my complaints that Viz just bought the rights to Rurouni Kenshin and so all the scanlation sites are gone and I won't be able to continue my reading of it until November. Sorry again if you were brought here accidentally, but hopefully you'll be able to find something here to sustain your interest? *crosses fingers*. Nah, my life just isn't as exciting as Miki's or Bunny's.


Today Albert and I went to the Coca Cola Bottling factory in town. (This was what he always wanted to do around town that he's never gotten around to doing--- mine was watching the "Gold in the Hills" melodrama). It was awfully small, but had lots of pretty vintage ads (I love vintage ads ^^). And then we had ice cream floats from the fountain machine ^^.


I have to go to work again tomorrow =(. URRGGGG. And back to my old office where there are no females besides me and the secretaries, and only 1 other person my age.


I'll head back to school on Aug 14. School won't start until September, but I'm helping out for a freshman Mechanical Engineering Pre-Orientation program. (Helping incoming Freshman build soccer robots--- fun, fun!!!) How would I ever imagine that it would be so hard to go back to school??

2. (con'td) More old friends: There was a friend we ran into that had changed a bunch. He used to go to church with us when the Abbey was in Boulder, CO. Not only in looks but demeanor. Wow--- I remember him as a mischievious and carefree little boy (maybe all little boys are that way) and he's really quiet now. He'll be a senior in high school next year, and he really wants to go to MIT (my school . . . ^^)

Meeting friends you haven't seen in 8 years is weird. With both him and Natalie, I imagine if I went back to Boulder, to church or school, I would still find the 8 or 9 year olds I knew years ago, not these people who look sort of like them or bigger. Maybe it's because I'm so egocentric that it seems that the people I encountered were the "real" them. But perhaps they think the same of me.

2. Old People (Old as in length of acquaintance, not age)


I tried to call an elementary school friend but she was never at home. I did however run into a friend at the Abbey. (We stayed in an Abbey located in the Rocky mountains for a week. . . more to that later). She happened to be on retreat with a friend around the same time. It was sooooo weird. I wouldn't have recognized her if the nuns hadn't mentioned her name, but at the same time she was so much the same that I wonder why! Just taller of course, but the same proportions, the same hair, the same way of walking. I tried to talk to her, and it was great to see her, but it's so hard to think of things to say when the last time you've talked to each other is 4th grade. . . I tried to think of her interests back then. . . But I don't think, "Hey--- do you still play with pound puppies?" would go very well. . . Or, "Do you still believe in Santa Claus?" One of the few things I remember about her was that I took it upon myself to convince her of the non-existance of Santa Claus. Mean kid I was, eh? But still, it was the 4th grade. . . I thought she should have known by then. =)

Back from my two week vacation. Wow. It was a really long drive to Colorado, comprising two whole days on the road. I guess I'm not too sad to be back home, but I'll be terribly sad to go back to work.


Well, I guess I'll split my story into 3 parts: Old Places, Old People, and The Abbey.


1. Old Places:
Most of these places my parents and I visited countless times while we lived in Colorado. That of course was about 8 years ago. My brother, born in MS, has never been to the pretty touristy places that we always went to, and my parents wanted to make sure that he would. So our first stop was Pike's Peak. It's a really lovely train ride up to the top, but the train goes too fast in my opinion. The tour guide waved her hands at a group of rocks or trees or a waterfall as the train whizzed them by, and I think they could be better enjoyed in the course of a few minutes rather than seconds. One day, I will hike up the mountain and get to see and touch all those things myself.


We also went to Cave of the Winds, Garden of the Gods (a park with huge sandstone formations) and Rocky Mountain National Park. It was amazing how little of these places that I remembered. Perhaps not a bad thing, because I was just as excited as my brother. I did remember one thing about Rocky Mountain Ntnl Park--- the chocolate. At the summit, I remembered gift shop that sold chocolate covered huckleberries, and I used to get one piece and eat it on the way down the mountain. The gift shop is still there, but sadly the chocolate covered huckleberries have been replaced with chocolate bars with a thin ribbon of huckleberry syrup. Ah, the un-recoverable past. We were lucky to be visiting the mountains that particular week. We were told that the wildflowers only bloom for 3 weeks in the entire year, and we managed to be there on one such week.