To extrapolate on "unhappy circuits", we have a 6.002 lab due next week that involves building an audio playback system. We have to design 4 of its components, and even though they kind of walk us through it in the pre-lab questions, it seems way over my head. This morning, I spent re-doing something I thought I had finished last night, so I'm not much further ahead.


In my spare time, I've been watching Naruto. I really like it. The hero Naruto is a kid fresh out of Ninja Academy; unlike most other anime hero/main characters, for right now is rather careless and clumsy and not such a great fighter. His special attack is "sexy no jutsu" in which he transforms into a woman and gives his victim a nosebleed. My favorite characters are Kakashi Sensei (his teacher--- hot!) and Hinata, a shy girl who has a crush on Naruto.


Thanksgiving--- which I thought would be a loooooong break, is already over. So much work ahead of me--- I have an interview test on Tuesday (I didn't touch Japanese at all this weekend) which I'm rather nervous about too.


So, I guess I better get back to work. =/

new layout. . . whee!

Tomorrow there will be a new layout. I'm sorry to switch layouts so soon, I rather liked this one (and I promise my feelings for Luffy haven't changed), but I wanted to commemorate something special. . . er, you'll see what that is tomorrow/today now.


Today has been filled with unhappy circuits. But I'll just wait to say more when the layout comes up. ^^

I used to come out of the shower smelling nice and sweet, but I've been trying Trader Joe's All-Natural Rosmary Peppermint body wash. Now I come out of the shower smelling. . . edible.

Most of my Thanksgivings have been spent lazily in the house with family, or last year, with friends, in my dorm. But today was a bit different. Max was kind enough to share his family with me, and we went to Plymouth (or rather "Plimoth"), where we saw the Plantation and the Mayflower II, with people re-enacting Pilgrim life. It was really interesting, and I think their little homes looked cozy. I have found my life's newest ambition: I want to be a blacksmith.


I think I would be a lot happier in general if I remembered all the things I have to be thankful for--- I have a whole lot, so much more than I deserve. And if I think this way, live in a way to be worthy of the kindnesses bestowed on me, I would live a lot better of a life. Sorry for the general sappiness--- (but what else is Thanksgiving for? Even I can put aside my cynicism and forget that I hate colonization and Imperialism on Thanksgiving ^^) Here are the things that make me happy, even in the face of my upcoming exams and work.


My family, who I love, and miss a whole lot (what would I do without you?)


The friends that I've made up here, friends that for the first time in my life understand me and put up with my idiosyncrasies and make me feel like a person ^^


My classes: I complain about them, but I know I wouldn't want to be studying anywhere else


My violin: argh, I've been so unfaithful to you, I know, but I enjoy my Tuesday and Thursday nights when I can spare a few hours to hold you in my arms. . .


"One Piece" and two-hour phonecalls for welcome distraction



Happy Thanksgiving XOXOX

A few updates. . . I forgot to mention that thanks to the anime showing on Friday, I am now yet further in the One Piece saga. . . And now Sanji is an official member of the crew. Lindy is excited because Lindy likes Sanji. More than she likes Luffy. She thinks Luffy is brainless. That makes me sad. Except that means I get Luffy all to myself.


I talked to a resume advisor. She made me feel better. I guess that's her job, but I'm still grateful.


As far as the site, I've added a dictionary of potentially confusing terms (including my classes that I always talk about), and one of the many pictures I've been promising (both under "girl"). It's a picture of me and Janet at the formal--- it's the only one because Jean has a digital camera, and the pictures that I took (of my birthday, Halloween, my room) are still waiting to be developed. I was a dummy and left my flash on the entire formal, so I should go get new batteries too. . . Don't look unless you want to be frightened. I smile too big. My smile is scary XD

When the leaves started turning, campus looked so gorgeous. But soon after, I had this awful, awful dream in which I was sleeping and woke up to find the leaves all gone to the ground and the trees bare. You have no idea how relieved I was when I actually did wake up from this nightmare and peered at the very much still ablaze tree outside my window.


Yesterday was Max's birthday, so Vikki, Sarah, Lindy, Vivian and I took him out to Dim Sum in the morning. 19 years a very long time to live without ever having had Dim Sum or egg custards, so I'm glad we got to change that ^^. The weather was so clear and beautiful, and we walked a bit through Boston Commons and the Public Gardens and through several streets lined with stately old buildings. I noticed that now the trees really are getting leafless. And somehow they still look beautiful. They've shed their festive garb and exposed their underneaths, but instead of being dejected by the lack of color, I can see now that their branches form wild, intricate, unpredictable patterns, like black lace. I can now sit and revel in the old gnarled tree outside my window. Because days like yesterday can make anything seem beautiful. Because life is beautiful.

We praticed the Glazunov Concerto with the soloist, Insoo, for the first time last night at orchestra. WOW! He plays soooooo well. Everyone should come to our concert ^^. It will also be the world premiere of "Through the Mines of Moria", written just this year by D'Acquilla, and inspired of course by LOTR.


As much as I'd like to go home, I suppose my Thanksgiving up here won't be so bad. I may go with Max and his family to Plymouth; otherwise, Brett has invited me to Thanksgiving dinner (he's cooking turkey in his apartment), and Adam and a bunch of Next house people are cooking turkey too. Thanksgiving foods: mmmmmmm! Turkey, gravy, stuffing, mashed potatoes, pumpkin pie. . .


The finals which are coming up don't sounds so yummy though ;_;

Stumbling upon this poem again (where? I don't remember exactly, but I'm thankful it happened) I find that I miss Engish class, as little as expected it to happen. Wordsworth is great! This weekend I am going to the Library to check out "War and Peace" along with a large anthology of poetry.

The world is too much with us; late and soon,
Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers;
Little we see in Nature that is ours;
We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!
This Sea that bares her bosom to the moon,
The winds that will be howling at all hours,
And are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers,
For this, for everything, we are out of tune;
It moves us not.--Great God! I'd rather be
A Pagan suckled in a creed outworn;
So might I, standing on this pleasant lea,
Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn;
Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea;
Or hear old Triton blow his wreathed horn.


---William Wordsworth

Happy Anniversary to my parents today, and Happy Birthday to Max on Saturday.

My parents' 20th anniversary will be on Thursday. 20th. Would I be able to love someone for that long? Would I be able to stay strong amidst everything that they've had to go through? Would I still love life as much as they do? Would I be able to put up with a kid like me? ^^ My parents are amazing <3 and they mean everything in the world to me.

You know what can make you feel small? When you are trying to write a resume for a job application, and realize you have nothing, absolutely nothing to write.


I want to go and cry.

Today at UCF, I had to install a new hard drive in the computer I was working on. Hehe, it was fun, although it ended up not working at the end. I'll have next week to try again. Computers are vicious though. I left with scrapes all over my hands.


The anime club was doing DDR, and I went with Lindy to check it out. I've improved a bit, (as in I made a B in the beginner's level, still rather sad). Maybe it was because the songs were better than the last time I played it. It's just as fun to watch other people play though, other people who actually know what they are doing ^^.


And I spent some time working on my 6.002 lab, of course, of course. . .


Hope you like the new layout! I'm sorry the text area is rather thin, but the only way I could have made it wider would have been to make Luffy and me wider. . . Maybe you can pretend you're reading a newspaper.

another poem is in the works, but I realized I never posted up this one.


[,]


your lips stop me, mid-sentence
you know my mind so well,
that, in the infinite pause between
one breath and another,
you finish it for me


[.]


heaven bends to touch.
the brow
of the earth.
and she blushes.
your embrace.
is the perfect ending.
to a perfect day.
to any day.
is perfection itself.


[!]


so pure!
is the confusion
(and so welcome!)
that your cranberry stained lips
bestow
on my little mind
which, where it knows i should be,
now sees you, only you


you kiss like a different punctuation mark
every time
yet never fail to leave me
speechless


((Disclaimer: I have little experience on the subject; this is mainly a product of my wild imagination.))

Anna: How to judge the goodness of a week: the proximity to the weekend.


Am I glad that, though this week just started for me, the weekend is not too far off.


I am always disheartened by tests just taken, and (usually) tests given back. How did school ever become such a chore? It certainly wasn't always so. A few weeks ago, when we were covering proofs of the first and second fundamental theorems of Calculus in Analysis class, my mind brought me back to a couple years before, when I took Calculus in highschool.


At that young impressionable age (er, 15?), you have no idea how much I was in love with Calculus. I was in so much awe the first time I had to compute the area under a segment of a parabola, that this area under this curvy thing could be found exactly. It was such a powerful thought, such a beautiful thought!


I have integrated far too often for me to even think that anymore. But why am I not doing anything that excites me so much? There must be much more profound ideas in the universe than Calculus. I must find new sources of inspiration for learning.


Two more quick notes: I forgot to mention that I saw my 18.100A TA at the formal; that was quite interesting. . .

And the Luffy layout that I've been promising is finished and will go up this weekend. . .

I'm worried about my 6.002 test tomorrow. . .

So, curiousity got the better of me, and I decided to go to the formal with a bunch of friends. The desserts were scrumptious, as anticipated. The dancing was fun. The music, though, left something lacking. . . One of these days, I want to go to a formal that plays J-rock and anime music.


What I love about MIT formals is that, if you feel like it, you can be totally formal. Or if you choose to, not so formal. Guys with just shirts and ties, girls with Sunday-ish sort of dresses. . . And that you can't be made fun of for how you dance ^_^


My dress looked like this, minus the flower, with a brown instead of black ribbon, and little brown polka-dots. It's very comfortable, and so are the little black shoes that go with it.

Ah, long weekends! Yesterday, I subbed in for Lindy as the anime club librarian. Now I totally admire her dedication, since I did it for one night only and was quite overwhelmed! It was fun, though, and I got to see the next 6 episodes of One Piece. They showed Roanoa Zoro as a little kid, cute and highly amusing.


Decisions, decisions. I've never gone to a formal before, and this weekend, there is going to be a free one (Cloud9). . . Should I go? Should I go just for the deserts, and maybe not even be that well dressed?

We had a DME staff appreciation dinner on Saturday at Vinny T's (one of the best Italian restaraunts in Boston, in my sheltered opinion), which I thought was more appreciation than I deserved. But Christina and Tim dropped by tonight to give each of the staff an additional little gift. I wasn't quite sure what to expect: not something expensive--- maybe a mug? a t-shirt? But I could not have been more tickled at their choice of present: a fancy 40 piece screwdriver set and a hot glue gun (such appropriate gifts from mechanical engineers)! I have been wanting a screwdriver since I lost mine at the beginning of this year. Now I'm feeling constructive (or perhaps being deconstrutive would make me happy as well).

Yay for the festivity that is Halloweeen!! I went to class dressed as a Griffindor schoolgirl, with a black skirt, white oxford shirt and red/gold tie, black v-neck sweater, knee socks and Mary Janes, and just sort of kept my outfit on the whole rest of the day. Max went as: Luffy from the anime One Piece! His outfit was perfect: red vest, straw hat, shorts and sandals. . . But he said no one recognized him in class. This is sad! *sigh* It means not enough people have been introduced to the humor and wonderfulness of One Piece. . .


After a very stressful day, the festivites started with an Epsilon Theta party, where there was a sacrifice of p-sets (uh, except the p-sets broke the knife). Janet, Vikki, and I went trick or treating in the neighborhood around. Then the ice skating rink had rentals for free. Was it the skates? Was it the fates being kind to me since I was skating in my costume (i.e. a skirt)? All my previous attempts to skate have resulted in a very sore bottom the next day. But tonight, I tried figure skates instead of hockey skates, and I didn't fall once! And I didn't have to be propped up on either side. That made me feel very happy. Lastly was the pumpkin drop: Pumkins going splat from the top of the Green Building. I was surprised how much they sounded like firworks.


I have pictures of all of us: Janet dressed in Gothy pink, Vikki as a medieval person. . . To be posted. . . soon? I love the way Halloween makes me feel like a little kid! Getting to dress up, getting candy, pretending I have no homework. . . The happy slight insanity and craziness ^^