Fart absorber--exactly what I needed

This baby here supposedly absorbs both the smells and the sounds that come from eating too much frank and beans. And the world rejoices at the freedom to fart at your desk. I cannot wait to try this out.

Polargrizz killed in the far north

Here is a pic of the first cross-bred polar and grizzly bear ever discovered in the wild. Legally shot by a sporthunter, no less.

Jet Li's Last Movie?

Click here for the newest trailer

I'll love Jet Li until the day I die, but if this is really is last movie, I so hope this movie showcases more of his WuShu (a la Fist of Legend) and less wire work.

Joy # 67 Dreyers ice cream dibs

Oh Dreyers ice cream dibs, how do we love thee? Let us count the ways. 1) You are yummy. 2) For us dieters, we can limit ourselves to just 3 (okay, maybe 8) pieces at a time. 3) You are yummy.

Pet Peeve #15

PEOPLE WHO TALK ALL IN CAPS!! YAY! Now, stop screaming in my ear.

Finals and my 1st all natural hallucination

Finals was painful for me. I was a bit overloaded this semester and was severely behind in my reading (300 pages of boring theory in one class). I paid for it with my sanity. For a week, I lived in a world where time existed in fleeting spurts, where crossing over into dreamland happened without notice, where living outside your body is possible.

All-nighter/Exam #1: The thing about Berkeley is that there are limited facilities for 24 hour studying. Here we are, right before finals, and there is only one room to study in past 2AM. Almost every chair is full and I estimate about 70 people. Oh, and we share 1 toilet. At around midnight, they ran out of toilet paper, and soap has been missing for weeks. Waiting 30 minutes to pee was unbearable so I went over to a friend's place to study. Her apartment has a few two-table lounges and plenty of bathrooms. Lounge 1: these 4 people come in and each one had a voice that would put Josh Groban to shame. Lounge 2: finally, some peace and quiet... an hour later, the fire alarm goes off. Everyone has to leave the building. Turns out my friend's neighbor had a little fire in their kitchen. I finally got into my groove at around 5AM.

All-nighter/Exam #2: Fairly uneventful. I'm starting to feel it now though. It's getting harder to stay awake. My hands are starting to shake and my eyeballs are bokko dancing.

All-nighter/Exam #3: The double expresso and Vivrin pills are kicking in. I'm awake but I'm a walking zombie. I have no idea what day or month it is. But, I'm able to memorize the fact that Piaget's theory of concrete operations states that coordinated mental actions that fit into a logical system creates greater unity of thinking... A bit after this, 6 naked white girls run through the library cheering and screaming. I'm awake now. Note to self, bottle nake girls, sell it and make millions. 4AM, I push on the bathroom door to find that it is locked. Who the #$@! locked the bathroom? I go back 10 minutes later. Crap, it's still locked! 10 minutes later, I go back again and it's still locked. I'm going to bust some caps! I then look down and noticw there is a damn doorknob. Ugh. I go in, wash my hands and go back to my seat to study. Shit, I completely forgetting to go pee....

All-nighter/Exam #4: I'm a walking menace. The double expressos and Vivrin have stopped working. All they do now is make my heart pound like a 120BPM techo rave. My eyes are shutting on their own and my thoughts are Owellian and paranoid. At 1AM, I have my 1st hallucination. I see a little mouse dancing out of the corner of my eye. It's brown with little white spots. It is not cute and not very nice. At 3AM I'm having trouble drinking from my Nalgene bottle and am spilling water all over myself. Hilarity ensues. Man, I am so not going to be able to read 300 pages before the final... All thoughout the night, I can feel myself floating out of my body to look down at myself sitting in a chair trying to study.

Moral of the story? Caffeine is some scary stuff.

Naked People and Finals

No time for a proper post, but I'm in the Main Stacks Library cramming my ass off for my 3rd final right now. About 2 minutes ago, 6 naked girls just ran through the library cheering. Hmm, nice tan lines.

I'm awake now.

All my base are belong to you

Geek love--not enough of it in this world.

The Joker gives Batman a boner!

Yes, this was really published and "boner" means a "stupid mistake." It's still ha ha funny though.

Semester Experience Essay for Educ 198

I love Cal! I just realized this a week ago. Prior to that, I was apathetic—almost indifferent. A number of years ago (how long is my secret), I dropped out of Cal a few weeks into the Fall semester. I just didn’t know what I wanted to do with my life. So, among other things, I went to work for Ebay. Here I am now, older, but not much wiser. However, I am more committed than ever to finish my psychology degree.

What does X years in the corporate world make you? Cocky. I envisioned myself joining a slew of clubs and making tons of friends. I’d get straight A’s and graduate Summa Cum Laude. I would just have a lot of fun. So, I joined six clubs and the RSF gym. I signed up for four upper division psychology classes and this Education 198 course. Needless to say, I was in for a rude awaking. I didn’t realize that I had literally forgotten how to study or even write a formal essay. I was reading twice as slow and absorbing half as much. I studied my ass off for my first mid-term and got a “B.” I literally spent most of the semester grabbing my ankles and trying to relearn how to study, how to write and most importantly, how to be a student. All I did was study and go to class. I never went to any of the club meetings or to the gym. I was lonely and too distracted to really make friends. I felt like an outsider. I couldn’t relate to any of the “kids” and they couldn’t relate to me. I have gone in to the bookstore twice to buy a Cal sweatshirt and twice I couldn’t bring myself to do it. I just did not feel like I was a part of the school.

Finally, towards the end of the semester, I started getting better at studying. I started to make a few friends. I stopped telling people how old I was. I just added my seventh friend on Facebook.com (how in the world do people get three hundred friends in their profile?). Just last Thursday, I was having lunch at the Bear’s Lair on a beautiful sunny afternoon. Someone rolled a piano into the plaza and started playing Beethoven. Shortly afterwards, they had a lady sing jazz while the guy continued playing. That was cool. On the way to class, I passed through Sproul plaza and there was a group playing Taiko Asian drums. Nice. I also stopped by a booth protesting civil rights violations in North Korea. Most of the interesting political issues are represented in this plaza. Amazing. Later that day, after running up the fire trail and catching the most breathtaking sunset ever, I was walking home and I came across a group playing Brazilian instruments and doing capoeira in the dark. I got goose bumps and knew at that moment that I was smitten. All of this had been going on right under my nose. It took me until a week before finals to appreciate it.

I am so excited about the fall semester. I’m going to do things differently. I’ve got my groove back now. I won’t overwhelm myself with classes and I will have free time to take in all that Cal has to offer. I’m in love with Cal and I won’t let anything get in the way again. As for advice, don’t overload yourselves, at least not in your first semester. Take the time to check out what Cal has to offer. You’re in college only once and I think Cal is special. Remember, grad schools want well-rounded people. Lastly, put your ego on hold and really take the information in the green reader to heart. All of it is important, but my favorites were the sections on how to study and how to manage your time. Oh, and I finally went out and bought my Cal sweatshirt. The cool new grey ones!