I Miss China!

I need a vacation from my vacation! Here are some highlights so far from my trip:

1) Constantly on the move. Spend time in Shanghai, Hangzhou, Xianyang, Xi An, and Wuhan.

2)Eating seafood banquets that cost $1000

3)Saved an old man from the evils of the Chinese toilet

4)Chinese drivers are AMAZING! Traffic rules are for beginners. You're free to go wherever you please....as long as you don't kill anyone.

5)Yelled at three French dudes who were trying cut in line at the Shanghai Train station. Who do they think they are? This is China and I'm boss. English swear words came in handy to these idiots who didn't understand Chinese curses.

6)Bought my own jade life saver

7)Ate 5 bowls of noodles in one sitting. The last time I went back, I ate 9 bowls in one sitting.....need to work harder.

8)Got my own Chinese seal engraved by the award-winning stamp seal engraver 程迟生 (Cheng Chi Sheng)

9)Bought the entire Harry Potter series in Chinese

10)Drank two shots of 五粮液

Let summer begin!

I've finished one final this morning, and I've got another tomorrow morning at 8 am. I can't believe how fast junior year has gone by. Next year I'll be a senior, looking for work......so I have one last summer to indulge in my childhood. I will make the most of it!


Get this and other HP countdowns at LeakyNews.com

My Daemon

Finals Week

Rock Star

I gently placed the shoulder strap over my head. The touch of cool hard plastic greeted my left hand as it ran up the instrument. My fingers settled in place, slightly curved and flexed, like an Olympic sprinter at the starting blocks. The muscles in my fingers were tense and on high alert, waiting for the first note to pounce. My right hand settled on the strings, waiting in unison. A trickle of sweat slid down the back of my neck. Then the music started. First it was a faint murmur that was barely noticeable. Then it grew louder, hooting like an incoming train, signaling its arrival. This was it. There was no turning back. The track started rolling. With each passing moment, my heart rose from its usual position until it settled somewhere near my adam's apple. Then the notes came, tiny and blurry at first. As it raced towards me, its color and position came into focus. I had to wait, wait until it came to me. Thud! My index finger hit the green note while my right hand twang the strings. Too early! I heard myself curse in silence. I had failed, but it wasn't the end. The next red note flowed towards the edge of the television screen. I pressed down hard with my middle finger while I struck the roll of white plastic. Yes! I hit the note. But it was no time for rejoicing. The stream of inexorable notes flowed with rapidity towards me, challenging me to nail every single element. My fingers danced with the training of a ballerina, balanced and poised, hitting each position with a strong punctuation. The song was in full flight, and my ears twitched as I tried to catch its beat. For five minutes, I felt like a rock star, pounding out the next grammy winning rock single. The crowd roared with appreciation, and I was showered with thunderous applause. My glittering leather jacket shone like a starry night under the spotlight. My curls gave a springy bounce as I bowed to the crowd after the finale. I had finished playing my first song on guitar hero.

Time to meet E.T

This would be so cool if it were true! I hope to see this happening in my lifetime!

Earth-Like Planet Discovered!

Harry Potter Trailer

Will someone please go to this movie with me?

The Newest Racket in Tennis

If you still can't hit the ball with this racket, then I suggest just use it and swing it at your opponent's head. That's one way to beat him.

April Snow

Last week the temperature got up to 80 degrees. Today, it's snowing. It's also April 3. Welcome to Minnesota!

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Cover Art

A picture says a thousand words

Spring Break!

It's that time of the year again. You know the time I'm talking about....the time when you see women wearing next to nothing smearing whip cream on some guys on MTV. Or better yet, jingling their A$$ like jello. Well, that's what the cool people will be doing at least. That leaves the rest of me and my clan of nerds who call the CSCI/EE building "home". What will we be doing on spring break? We can't go to Cacun Mexico because we're terrified of the sun. In fact, the only interaction with any form of light we get is the radiation from our computer screens. It's amazing that not more of us get SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder). Maybe the flashes of color from playing WoW count as light therapy. Anyway, I've been thinking a lot about spring break, and about what I want to accomplish in a weeks time. I could

1) Read (many) novels that I have bought
2) Watch (many) movies I have from the hub
3) Get a start on homework
4) Catch up on readings from my textbooks
5) Do two extra credit reading assignments (I can't believe that extra credit still exist.....I thought they had become extinct with the end of middle school)
6) Sleep 12 hours a day
7) All of the above

I will choose lucky numero seven. Some people call me an overachiever, especially during break when no sane person would consider studying. But hey....since when did being a overachiever become a bad thing? After all, it raises my nerd-esteem.


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For the love of learning

Big money from liberal arts?

A liberal arts degree may be the ticket to a high paying job . If a liberal arts major can earn $100,000 a year......then count me in!!!! I do have to disagree on the point that "a degree in the liberal arts, some might say, is an education undertaken purely for the love of learning." You think IT degrees aren't taken for love of learning? Then people have never met my roommate...... If economic returns is all IT people cared about on their college education, then we should all become doctors or lawyers, or even business majors because they make a lot more than engineers. Seriously, sometimes the challenge of becoming an engineer is enough motivation to do it. My counselor once asked me: "Why are you studying computer engineering?". As a sophmore who had little idea of his direction in life, I answered: "Because it pays the bills...." Now after 3 years of work, I've come to realize there are lots of ways to pay the bills, but the true satisfaction that I will take away from my college experience is that I accomplished something that I didn't think I could.....

Robert Louis Stevenson said it best: "We must accept life for what it actually is - a challenge to our quality without which we should never know of what stuff we are made, or grow to our full stature."

Let it snow, let it snow!

You know you are Minnesota when weather is 80% of your conversation. When the weather produces 2 feet of snow, it becomes 100% of your conversation. On March 1st, it started snowing so much that the University decided to close all classes after 2:30pm. I was sorely disappointed because I had already finished my classes for the day. Nevertheless, I had high hopes that Friday classes would be canceled as well since it was reported that the snow would continue all the way until Friday evening. Alas, the University figured that 2 feet of snow was enough.

Always hold onto your racket

This is probably the most bizzare point in a tennis match I've ever seen.....and I've seen many. Watch the whole video to see =0)

Groenefelds racquet ! lol
Uploaded by stefff92

Somewhere only we know

Life is too hectic to include blogging....well, at least to blog regularly.....and that was certainly the case last week. Four exams in one week and two home assignments due. I love it how IT professors comment they like to spread these out every two weeks. What they don't realize is that when they space it out all into the same week, it does the students no good! So yeah, it sucked to be a computer engineering major during the week of Feb 19 through Feb 23. You were guaranteed a minimum of four test, or five, if you were taking biology this semester too. As good students, we would never cram for an exam (hint: sarcasm).....which only meant staying up until 2 am and getting up at 8 am the next day to study some more. When exams came, I was extremely disheartened to find them to be so long. My stats exams has 7 questions, each with parts a - d. There's no time to double check my work. I was so physically drained afterwards that I felt my knees were shaky. It is a condition called ITritis. If you want ITritis, just include a combination of the following into your life: 5 hours of sleep, empty stomach on exam day, onerous exams that ask you to decode 32 bits of hexadecimal opcode, and voila, what do you get? One exhausted person who's wondering seriously if he shouldn't become a Chinese major where he's genetically programmed to do well.

On an absolutely unrelated note, I enjoyed wasting four hours to watch the Oscars. It raised my IQ by many points to hear these fashion critics on E! whose only form of communication is of the following structure: Oh my god, (insert actress name) looks so (insert adjective: eg, hot, sexy, gorgeous, slutty, and the list goes on). The Oscars event was actually really good, and Ellen was funny, especially when she said: "And America did vote for him (Al Gore)....but it's complicated."

I was glad that Helen Mirren won for the Queen, because it was such a hilarious movie (although I'm not sure if it was suppose to be a comedy). I did, however, shout at the TV when the stupid announcer say The Departed was based on the Japanese movie Internal Affairs. Hello!!!!!!!!! It's Hong Kong!!!!!!!! Get it right, especially when it won best picture.

Achooooooooooooooooooooo!

Celebrity Look Alike

http://www.myheritage.com

I'll take it. Beckham isn't too bad, right? LMAO.