I spent 5 minutes in a very crowded costume shop in Pacific Beach and came out with a leather corset, a red tulle skirt, fishnets and black feathered wings.
I've also failed to achieve anything with my Imaging midterm project so far. BAH.
In the US, people ask you what you're going to be for Halloween about 4 weeks ahead. In that period of time, I thought of going as a leopard, given my dominant obsession with leopard print.
The novelty of such a costume is non-existent.
It struck me this morning as I was reading material about the Hodgkin Huxley and the quadratic integrate and fire models:
I woke up extra early this Monday morning to finish off some homework at the library with a few groupmates. Same old crap, different day. So I hopped on to my bike and rolled down the hill, past the usual red STOP sign (without having stopped), and also past a cop car who flagged me down instantaneously.
Yeah, the same rules that apply to cars apply to bikes too.
How I know. In Malaysia everything works a little differently i.e. you can openly bribe cops, jump red lights, jay walk freely, cut queues, talk on the handphone, etc.
I said I didn't have a Californian driver's licence and that I'd only been here a month, to which he replied, "Wow your English is very good". $10 he doesn't know where Malaysia is. He let me go after an uneventful 5 minutes of me just standing there on the steep hill holding my bike looking extremely bored. "Okay, well, I don't usually issue tickets to bikes and I'm just concerned for your safety because a lot of people get knocked down at this corner".
This scenario may be compared and contrasted with a previous encounter I had with a polis some 3 years ago in KL. He caught me for speeding at 92km/h on a 80km/h highway. I argued that I had exams and was very stressed and didn't look at my speed limit and called him "Uncle" out of respect. I also slipped him RM20 - no more, no less (the going rate is about Rm50 for a Merc) because I didn't have anything else in my wallet and I was clearly a probationary driver.
I miss home!
To add to my Monday morning blues, I overzealously overwaxed my upper lip on Saturday night and the scars are beginning to show. A part of my face resembles a moon crater.
ETA: I fell off my bike and bruised my hip. YAY MONDAY!
I kinda spent the whole day on and off Gmarket while cracking my brain over some very exhausting homework. I'm tempted to buy a really odd sweater with a tree and owl and stripes on it ($30), but it costs some exorbitant amount to get it shipped here ($18).
Somebody give me a Western alternative? Preferably in red/white or blue/white? I probably won't be able to fit this anyway given my non-Asian body frame. Meh.
I cannot express in words the feelings I have for this burger joint (found only in California, Utah, Arizona and Vegas, might I smugly add). It was my roommate's birthday and we decided to head out to In N Out for a hearty greasy all American burger meal. And because I'd never been, I insisted we go after hearing so many stories about this place.
A 35 minute bus ride, the dismissal of the scent of 15 foul smelling hobos, their deranged comments and a 10 minute walk later, we reached this godsend of a place in the middle of bloody nowhere (Pacific Plaza, 2910 Damon Avenue. Next to some car dealership, if you really want to know).
I have given up caring. I must've consumed about 2000 calories that night.
Double double (i.e double patty, double cheese) with a side of animal style fries (melted cheese with fried scallions atop freshly made french fries)
It's moments like these where I feel it's appropriate to quote Stewie Griffin: "There's an orgy in my mouth!"
This Friends and Family 2009 (FF2009 - US residents) sale is slightly insane. I have been logging in and out of my account for the past 3 hours trying to purchase Philosophy products, a Kat von D palette, some brushes and Juicy Tubes.
It's that time of the year when I want to do something radical to my hair, but it is far too short at the moment to do anything drastic to it. And I feel that my disc-shaped face does not permit me to have a mohawk. I may end up looking like a fat boy, thus R will feel like a homosexual after looking at me for 5 minutes. Oh, trivial Saturday morning predicaments.
I don't care if I've been posting too many awesome songs, but R showed me this (we are both avid fans of Seether. I turned down his invitation to a Seether/Staind gig back in January but that's a different story for another rainy day) not 5 minutes ago:
Hi from atop a small stack of dirty tissues. I am a slob.
N.B this leopard is entirely an entirely "legal" purchase by someone who goes to school there; I am not a random person who simply purchases MIT paraphernalia for fun. It pisses these sensitive and very overworked people off when people who don't go to school there wear/buy MIT paraphernalia.
Homage to the man who literally took over my life from a young age.
Lobster sandwiches @ Alive and Kickin' . That's all they serve. Along with their own brewed root beer/grape soda (which I LOVE). I walked out a happier person, as did R.
We established that you should never ever bring a potential partner to a lobster joint on a first date after watching a date on the next table slowly fall apart as the man pried open the lobster with his grimy chubby hands and the woman looked on in much dismay. I wouldn't mind, to be honest, but does it signal an inability to perform horribly in bed or be a terrible boyfriend/girlfriend if you attack your food with relish?
And.
I FINALLY GOT TO WEAR MY ZOE BOOTS!
(And slowly wearing all the awesome crap I bought from the AA flea market sale)
I walked into LF (completely by accident after I saw a slew of Jeffrey Campbell shoes in the window) and all three salesgirls consecutively told me, "OMG you have THE Zoe boots?"
My heart swelled with pride and a certain degree of smugness.
After about 2 years and a lot of heartache later, yes - I have finally pwned the Zoe boots.
I don't understand why the man failed to win American Idol Season 5.
I've been looping this song all day and on a very bloaty 6 hour flight back to CA, during which I felt compelled to pore through scientific papers because I was in between one diligent economics professor and one computing student. I love the strangled tone of this song.
More soon. Am in the process of homework. At my age, too.
In less shallow news, Barack Obama has just won the Nobel Peace Prize. I saw this watching CNN on the plane.
Re: "I worry for the future of humanity" - I shall take a less skeptical and less Chekhovian view on things, and hope that he will somehow change the political landscape. Not sure what he can do about the mindsets of jackasses and overindulgent freshmen, though.
I'm currently bumming at JFK waiting for my flight to Boston to take off at about 9AM. I am never ever taking another red eye again; I do not function well on about 2 hours of sleep. Urgh.
I had a productive day yesterday. American Apparel came to UCSD and I had class from 8AM - 2PM. So, I was only able to go from 2PM onwards. Fair enough. I was gutted, but still. The thing ran from 9AM to 8PM. Anyway, I decided to try my luck at lunchtime, hoping against hope that there'd be no queue. Suffice to say that when I got there, there was a queue that sort of looked like this:
This photo was, however, taken when I eventually and painfully got to the front after about 1 and a 1/2 very hungry hours later.
I was quite pleased with the choices. I wasn't lucky enough to snag the dresses, but I got myself these things:
Not quite what I got. I got a blue and purple cardigan that I think may be reallly old. Anyway. The girls went fucking insane over the women's version of this cardigan. The split second the poor AA sales staff unleashed the rack into the crowd, about 384 girls swarmed around the rack and took about 10 pieces per person only to throw about 9 or 10 back onto the rack. I worry for the future of humanity.
Blue chambray jumpsuit with a few holes in it. Whatever - I'll rock it. It was only $12! As opposed to $48.
Coral bandeau bodysuit. I love this bandeau style, it's the most versatile piece on the planet.
SHINY SATIN JACKET! It looks a lot better on a person than it does here, trust me.
3 of these. Just because they were 3 for $12.
I would've spent something like $250 had I bought it all in store. But the grand total came up to about $60 for all these things ^^ They sure know how to please broke students.
One of the main reasons why I dislike school is that I keep eating (nuts, Cheerios, oranges, bananas, tortilla chips) while I do work. Or - as I am right now - watching TV shows. I'd say my course load is pretty demanding, therefore food intake will be exceptionally high this quarter and possibly the rest of the academic year. And I'm in the US of A, Land of Reese's Pieces, Lucky Charms and burritos that are bigger than your face. This does not bode well for my hips, chunky arms or sausagey legs. And no, I hate the texture of gum. Why can't there be like a zero calorie, awesome tasting, aspartame free, fat free, bloody awesome whole food (note: I said FOOD, not liquid) that you could just eat and eat and eat. Maybe I will work on this after I graduate; I will enslave some 293 million teenage girls with this Uber Food. Mwaha.
Lest I came off as a manipulative, gold digging spawn of the devil in my previous post, I shall say the following: I cannot and may never be able to capture the essence of everything that he has ever done for me, when I have comparatively done none for him. I am flawed, trivial and sometimes downright callous. I am not a different person when I am around him. Scratch that, I am; he makes me a better person, trite as that may sound. They had forgiven each other the things they were ashamed of in the past, they forgave everything in the present, and they felt that this love of theirs had changed them both. He knows that I am a cantankerous sort, the type of girl who will stop at nothing to get what she wants, the type who will cry wolf shamelessly and incessantly, but still he persisted and insisted for 8 months when I did nothing but treat him like I would any other friend, sometimes more cruelly out of this odd need to spite those who wish to come close to me.
No, I do not reciprocate out of sympathy or pity, but out of pure - dare I say it - love. We knew we were going abroad, the both of us, but we sought comfort in the fact that we would at least be in the same country - just 3000 miles apart. A year ago, I wouldn't ever had even thought of being in the situation that I am in now. The thought of long distance would stir convulsive emotions in most people, but I don't mind. Not at all. Dare I think of the future? For once, yes. Isn't that the cornerstone of any functional relationship; the ability to think ahead without throwing up?
Everyday, I go about doing my business, attending classes, but always my brain is geared 3 hours ahead, and I wonder what he is doing. 5 minutes later, my phone vibrates and hey whaddya know: he's studying again.
He and Anna Sergeevna loved each other like very close, dear people, like husband and wife, like tender friends; it seemed to them that fate itself had destined for each other, and they could not understand why he had a wife and she a husband; and it was as if they were two birds of passage, a male and a female, who had been caught and forced to live in separate cages. They had forgiven each other the things they were ashamed of in the past, they forgave everything in the present, and they felt that this love of theirs had changed them both.
And it seemed that, just a little more - and the solution would be found, and then a new, beautiful life would begin; and it was clear to them that the end was still far, far off, and that the most complicated and difficult part was just beginning.
I am glad I came here for my final year. I haven't done any actual work (yet), but Friday nights are always guaranteed to be awesome. I think, anyway. I made Malaysian curry for them lot last night, while Alys and Jade concocted other delicious things. But, F my godawful tendency to expel everything I eat after 1 tequilas 2 tequilas 3 tequilas. TMI? Probably.
"Haha, you're all red! ASIAN GLOW!"
Blazer: Topshop; Top: AA; Skirt: Topshop; Shoes: Office (thanks to Zara :]); Bag: Mango; Scarf: borrowed from roommate so I could blend in with the Bollywood theme at the party
I absolutely loved how he showed up at the party. All the girls went positively gaga over the man.
CW direction: Meatballs, white rice, bruschetta, curry, brownies, salads, wild rice salad & pasta with bacon. I hadn't eaten brownies in ages 'til last night. After 1 tiny but heavenly piece, I felt like what I imagine a snake who'd just swallowed a person whole would feel like.
I have been eating horrendous amounts ever since school started, prompting the age old question, "Will I ever look good in a bikini?" But soon after my stomach begins to growl and I let loose the reins of control and eat an entire plate of pesto pasta with garlic and mushrooms (soo good). Social eating occurs even when you're not the least bit hungry. This love-hate relationship with food has always been a omnipresence in my life. Will I or will I not eat carbs for dinner? This question is often cut short by the fact that our dining hall serves only carbs and vegetables are completely overpriced. Full fat milk is totally out of the question when it comes to ordering my coffee. And no dressing with my salad - unless it's balsamic vinegar.
Having said all that, Cheez-Its is an incredibly tasty Saturday morning breakfast choice. 27 biscuits = 150 calories and 0 trans fat.
Re: The UO Deux Lux Drawstring Bag -- I WILL get it. Not this week, though; am going to wait another 7 days ^^ Thank you for the sudden influx of responses - no thanks to Liya :) I love it when the general consensus votes a big resounding "yes" - excluding the more skeptical and disapproving crowd on Facebook.
And I am so excited that American Apparel finally have the Disco Pants in Rich Purple now! Just the colour I've been looking for so I can walk around campus looking like a shiny eggplant!
And did you know that American Apparel is having a flea market sale next Thursday at UCSD? A-fucking-mazzzingggg!
By the grace of Cat and her boyfriend I finally managed to install MATLAB on bloody Snow Leopard.
If you're a worn out engineering student using Snow Leopard and wondering why the fuck you can't install MATLAB on your oh-so-amazing MBP, read on.
If you see that error cropping up about 56 times, then the solution is right here:
You'll need to go to Utilities --> Java Preferences --> Change the settings to 32 bit. Because somehow the MATLAB activation doesn't work when the Java is running on 64 bit. By default, Snow Leopard is using the 64bit version of Java.
Yeah, like I knew that from before, because, really, it only took me 5 hours and $100 to figure the problem out. Not a big deal. No, not a big deal. As opposed to about half an hour and $0 later. It would've worked for the bootlegged version too had I known earlier. Knn.
I couldn't install the bootleg copy of MATLAB 2008 - even after about 10 tries and 2 near breakdowns later. I caved in and spent $100 on the official legal version. First time I've ever done such a treacherous thing. Sob.
Soul train-ing it on a Friday night. 
This Friends and Family 2009 (FF2009 - US residents) sale is slightly insane. I have been logging in and out of my account for the past 3 hours trying to purchase Philosophy products, a Kat von D palette, some brushes and Juicy Tubes.
Not quite what I got. I got a blue and purple cardigan that I think may be reallly old. Anyway. The girls went fucking insane over the women's version of this cardigan. The split second the poor AA sales staff unleashed the rack into the crowd, about 384 girls swarmed around the rack and took about 10 pieces per person only to throw about 9 or 10 back onto the rack. I worry for the future of humanity. 
SHINY SATIN JACKET! It looks a lot better on a person than it does here, trust me. 
"What's my shopping budget for this weekend?"
I absolutely loved how he showed up at the party. All the girls went positively gaga over the man.
Yeah, like I knew that from before, because, really, it only took me 5 hours and $100 to figure the problem out. Not a big deal. No, not a big deal. As opposed to about half an hour and $0 later. It would've worked for the bootlegged version too had I known earlier. Knn.