Happy Leap Day!

It's leap day! Yay! If you live say 100 years, that's 36,525 days! And only 25 of them are leap days! That's approximately 0.068% of the total days you hypothetically live. o_O I know! Do something awesome!

Well, my day hasn't been that exciting. I'm kind of exhausted! But nevertheless, it's leap day, and I can't not blog today. So what will grace this wonderful leap day post?

Well, it snowed today! I stuck my tongue out to catch snowflakes for the first time in the longest time, maybe years. Snowing, though, is very much typical February weather. Can you just imagine a weather forecaster trying to predict the weather today based on the past weather of leap days when there's only 25% of a normal day's data out there for forecasters to use? Oh, man, I can. I can just imagine him sitting there saying, "Ah, theres only been five leap days in the past twenty years. And most of this data is outdated, it doesn't take into account the climate acclimations of the recent years." Of course, forecasters don't predict weather based on what day it is. But can you just imagine? Okay, probably not, it's so unrealistic, but oh well.

So I am tired – that probably explains why I can imagine a forecaster predicting weather based on the day. I've slept very little this past couple of days, and when I did sleep, it was accidental, i.e. me just falling asleep out of exhaustion. But today's mostly over, and for the next day or two, I have moderate amount of work, so I get to catch up for my lack of sleep. It's kind of fitting, since today is the day Earth catches up with, well, time.

What else can I post?

Um, how about my current musical obsession? Lindsey Stirling! CHECK HER OUT! She's pretty talented and creative violinist. It's awesome! Here's one of my favorite: Electric Daisy Violin:

But really, check her other stuff out: LINK! She has dubstep, ZELDA, Lord of the Rings, Yiruma – just check her out.

Also here's a quick picture I snapped tonight:

I really tried to get something cool without traveling more than a block – I'm tired, remember. This was the best that I could do. It's more of showcase of how awesome cameras have gotten. This is only a phone camera, the iPhone 4's 5 megapixel camera, and already it's pretty impressive: I can see the rain droplets. Just imagine a professional camera. (I'm doing a lot of imagining right now.)

And a thought of the day: There's no doubt that our brains are incredibly smart. And there's definitely an unconscious. Something else besides conscious me is pulling the shots. I mean how else did I wake up today at 6AM without an alarm when I normally do not wake up that time, plus I was sleep deprived. I had accidentally fallen asleep last night without studying for my exam today or setting an alarm. And my brain woke up my conscious up at 6AM so I could study. I am impressed, Brain.

Well that's all I have to share. I can't really think of anything else interesting that I did today.

Happy Leap Day!

Blogger Note!

Hello Spring Weather!!! =]

I would like to make a note, a blogger note:

New England didn't really have a winter this year: we kind of skipped winter altogether. It's currently 45 degrees, and the forecast is predicted to reach a high of 57. That's nearly 60 degrees! And February is a prime winter month! Even the predicted low, 39 degrees, is high. That's just about 40 degrees! So unusual! Wow! Having lived in New England my whole life thus far, I expect frigid weather in February. So this unexpected Spring weather puts me in such a GREAT mood. I wake up to a flowing, not at all frozen, Charles River. I dress warmer than needed only to be met by Spring weather! It's great! I love Spring weather best. It's fresh! Everything is renewed in Spring! The other day, even the ground felt like Spring, saturated with water as if the "snow" had all melted. The birds and squirrels are out. I pumped my bike tires, cleaned and opened the window. It is fabulous. I just can't stop gushing over the weather! =]

*Fingers Crossed that I didn't jinx the wonderful weather! =]

(Oh, degrees are all in Fahrenheit.)

Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans

I can only imagine what Bertie went through in making these beans because he must have had to tried millions of recipes per se to perfect the taste of his beans. I've only had a few beans and am already afraid to try the next flavour . . .

The first bean I had was banana, which isn't my favorite candy flavour but it was tolerable. I then had earwax, which despite its taste, I was able to swallow. Next came vomit. My friend, on a dare once, had to eat 13 in a row, and now says she will never eat Bertie Bott's every flavour beans again. So I thought what the hell might as well try it, if my friend could suffer 13, I can suffer 1. Well, it wasn't that bad at first. Then, the flavour kicked in, and I had to spit it out and get some water. And you know how jelly beans kind of stick to your teeth for a while until they dissolve? Yeah, the taste lingered with me for a long while. It was gross. And then, I summed up the guts to try another one: booger. And that was by far the grossest. I spit it out as fast as I could. Blargh! Gross! Thinking about it just makes gag. So I was like no more. But curiosity got the best of me and I tied another: candyfloss. This wasn't too bad, I had thought it was gonna be Tutti-Fruitti though, as in they were the same color. Candyfloss made me feel like I had dental work done on me or something, which I guess is a good thing. I've also had grass and green apple since. The grass I had by accident because I thought it was green apple. And I think I will hold off trying the rest for now. I don't think anything will be as gross as booger though. But who knows, earthworm sounds pretty gross. Strike that, rotten eggs sounds very gross!

So yeah, it's no wonder Dumbledore wasn't fond of these. As he said in the Sorcerer's Stone: "Ah Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans! I was unfortunate enough in my youth to come across a vomit-flavoured one, and since then I'm afraid I've rather lost my liking for them-but I think I'll be safe with a nice toffee, don't you? Alas! Ear wax!"

Update: I just tried black pepper which taste exactly like straight black pepper. It also gave me a cough similar as if I was smelling black pepper. And lemon was fine. But no more beans for me, for real this time.

George of the Jungle

"George! George! George of the Jungle, Strong as he can be! AHHHH! WATCH OUT FOR THAT TREE!"

Remember when you were young, and you always had that movie you watched regardless of whether you understood it or not? Well for me that movie was George of the Jungle. I had it recorded on VHS and I use to watch it all the time. I don't even know why I enjoyed it so much. Maybe it was living with monkeys. I was such a fan of monkeys when I was younger. And climbing around everywhere. Anyways, today, I heard the song Dela used in a commercial today and I just couldn't put my finger on where it came from. Finally, I realized it was from George of the Jungle.

So "Dela" by Johnny Clegga & Savuka:

In hindsight, this scene had a great moral: the lame norms of our society. If we all were never embarrassed and never judging of others . . .

Video Games

The guys across the hall from me always play video games, and often times I can hear it through my wall. Usually, they are playing sports games and 1st-person shooter, which doesn't bother me because I'm not a big fan of those types of games. But recently, as in yesterday, they started playing the N64, Super Smash Bros. , Pokemon Puzzle League, and the likes. And that really does bother me. Those are games I used to play and it really makes me really sad that I no longer routinely play video games. (Those two games I listed, believe it or not, are the games I still play when I go home. Although, I don't own the N64 Super Smash Bros., so I play the gamecube and wii counterparts.) I really am tempted to just go home and borrow my sister's Nintendo DS and play a classic Pokemon game (a remake of course, since, although we still have the original games, we don't actually have the devices (portable version at least) to play them.).

Part of me just wants to go across the hall and join the boys in their video games. But I'm not going to. One, I don't want to intrude. Two, I'm not really friends with them. It'll feel awkward just heading over to play. And three, college guys seem to give off the aura that girls don't play video games, i.e. they don't invite you to play. I could be totally wrong though. At home, I grew up playing video games and all my guy friends played with me. I could play with the best of them. I had game systems and we would take turns playing at each others' homes. We would also borrow games from each other. I never felt awkward being a female gamer. But now in college, it's different. I am game less. I feel I have nothing to offer. I'm also not interested in playing the current video games, which I feel puts me in the stereotypical girl category that guys assume can't understand video games.

Oh well. It's not like I have time to play, anyways. The only video game I play nowadays is Tetris, and that's because it's really convenient, and sometimes I just really want to procrastinate. Someone I know once told me that college is usually where most girls stop playing video games. He said that girls don't make time to play like guys do, which I guess is kind of true. (This man by the way is damn smart, he did his master's thesis on how video games help kids learn math.) I have never thought I couldn't do something because I was a female. But now, although I still believe I can do anything, I wonder.

Also, is it a stereotype that engineer's play video games or is my RA just into video games? I ask this because for our bulletin board, we've had two themes thus far: Pac Man and Mario. Or is there a correlation between the two? Or maybe as my friend suggest video games does help students learn math, and as a result capable math students become engineers. *shrugs*

Princess Peach is at the top and the barrels that Mario is jumping over are courses we have to take.

I never got a chance to take a picture of the actual Pac Man bulletin board. This will suffice.

Moving Forward

I'm not a rain person. I don't particularly like getting partially wet and dirty. But I do like listening to rain. There was no rain in Boston today, however, nor do I want it. So I made my own rain sounds. You know by taking a shower: when you cover your ears in the shower, the shower of water droplets suddenly sound like a heavy rainstorm, and when you put your fingers in your ear, it sounds like a light shower. (Why? I'm not exactly sure. I should google it.) The sound oddly enough reminds me more of a rainstick than actual rain. Just the way it sounds, I guess, and what I associate it with. And suddenly I'm flooded with memories of my elementary school days when we would play with the rainstick in music class.

Just in case you didn't know what a rainstick was.

But no, rain is not the point of this blog post. The point of this post is moving forward. I am so comfortable with my life right now, and I know it. My education, housing, and dining are paid for by the university, my parents, me, and loans. I have pretty good professors this semester, so I'm learning. I am a grader, so I have a job and am making money. And I spend money and enjoy life. I live in the college bubble. It's all very fortunate. But I'm getting restless. But at the same time, I don't want to leave my comfort zone. I'm very hesitant right now about getting a research position or internship. I attended the Electrical and Computer Engineering Job Fair the other day because it was the ambitious thing to do. And I'm an ambitious person: I want to be a Disney Imagineer. But I was so overwhelmed, these research projects are real projects at the forefront of technology. I was impressed. But I was also conflicted. I wasn't completely there. The fair made me realize I was on the verge of the real world. So I didn't interact with the professors or put myself out there, on the market per se, as much as I should have for fear of the very, very slim possibility of entering the real world. But then again, I very much do want a research position, an opportunity to experience and contribute to innovation. I want and need to move on with my life, enter the real world. I ended up talking to only three professors. The three I was most interested in. There is also a Career Fair coming up next week that I will probably just scope out but not actually engage in. Another cause of hesitancy is that I really love working at Design Camp with kids, and if they would have me back, I would no doubt want to take it. But again, it's comfort. I can't be a camp teacher forever if I want to go into the industry. I need to move on. (The ideal would be to research or intern AND teach at Design Camp. But life isn't perfect.)

So, I took a long shower today because I just couldn't handle myself. Maybe I'm immature, but the slim possibility that I may entering the real world soon scares me. I needed to take a long shower and listen to rain because that's where I relax and think best – if by some miracle I won a noble prize or some equilivaent, the prize winning idea will probably have been conceived in the shower. I needed the shower to mull my life over and come to the conclusion that I can resist growing up, but I must move on in life.

On another note: I found this article I was mentioned in on the University of Massachusetts news site: an article about the Future Engineer's Center (FEC). I was interviewed a while ago, and forgot about it until today. So I just googled it and there it was.