Here are the signs of another school year starting: increase of population in Davis, bikes going wrong-of-way, and random people stopping you to ask for the directions. The most common destination I've given directions to, as far as I've kept track of, is the Silo where students can go and, for five bucks, get the sort of fastfood you'd expect to find located near gas stations on interstate highways.
The runner up is the arboretum, but then, this is Davis. The Silo directions are more often asked anywhere on campus and the arboretum directions are only asked if you are near the southern part of campus, but the arboretum directions are harder because it's a larger place and the people who are inquiring about it usually can't tell you which part of it they wanted to visit (Is it the headquarters? The Redwoods Grove? Putah Creek Lodge?).
Here are the signs of another school year starting: backpack checkouts outside of the bookstore instead of tiny backpack lockers in the bookstore, freshmen traveling in packs (who said that civilization's removed our evolutionary instincts?), and fraternity/sorority flyers everywhere. The clubs and the religious groups have their own solicitors, of course, and I plead guilty to designing the flyers for Botany Club. On the long run, however, the clubs and religious groups are mauled down and forgotten behind housing ads and last-minute "roommate wanted" signs, while fresh frat/sorority flyers appear miraculously appear on top of the bulletin build up every other day. Their sort of dedication borders the fanatical, but those who had to deal with the drunk members - well, we already knew that anyway.
Here are the signs of another school year starting: the last minute construction designed to finish just the day before school started, on the spot peer-to-peer training at all stations from the library check out desks onwards. There are the few roller backpacks before the students find out that roller backpacks are not the way to go in Davis. There are the cranky students, me included, complaining about the cost of textbooks.
And here it is: just one more day before instruction begins.
20070925
20070921
The Monday of all Fridays
Davis, after arriving here from Santa Clara, was cold, wet, and a bit dismal. The odd thing is that supposedly the weather was fine a few days before yesterday, so I suppose it was just my luck. School starts next week, so the next few days (until the day instruction begins, naturally), will be the all-out hectic of getting ready for my classes. Kate has already gotten most of her books and her book budget makes me envious. Science textbooks, with very few exceptions, are always hard-covered and generally sells anywhere from 70 to 150 dollars each.
But then again, according to Kate, my books (or at least the cell biology one) can be used as a murder weapon, so I guess the extra dollars are accounted for by this extra use which, considering we're undergrads, doesn't seem all that useful unless, of course, it is right before the finals and those of us who feels the pressure too keenly start developing suicidal tendencies.
The run-on sentence. It lives!
I'm also waiting for Simba. Hippo has found another "home", and I'm not sure if this meant that he got adopted or that he'd found another foster home that really wanted to keep him (and the latter sometimes do lead to the former). Either way I wish him the best and wonders if shedding season's over yet, as that Simba's an orange medium-hair and orange shows up against everything.
Well, almost everything. He blends in well with our dining table.
And now it's off to errants...if anything else really interesting comes up I'll add to this post later. Meanwhile, try not to get too freaked out by the layout.
But then again, according to Kate, my books (or at least the cell biology one) can be used as a murder weapon, so I guess the extra dollars are accounted for by this extra use which, considering we're undergrads, doesn't seem all that useful unless, of course, it is right before the finals and those of us who feels the pressure too keenly start developing suicidal tendencies.
The run-on sentence. It lives!
I'm also waiting for Simba. Hippo has found another "home", and I'm not sure if this meant that he got adopted or that he'd found another foster home that really wanted to keep him (and the latter sometimes do lead to the former). Either way I wish him the best and wonders if shedding season's over yet, as that Simba's an orange medium-hair and orange shows up against everything.
Well, almost everything. He blends in well with our dining table.
And now it's off to errants...if anything else really interesting comes up I'll add to this post later. Meanwhile, try not to get too freaked out by the layout.
20070919
20070916
It's not logic
I think I should be posting more here, except there isn't a whole lot going on right now (books, books, computers, books, packing, books, repeat), so it hardly seems worth the effort to go and type up what I did each day since what I did each day is not much different from what I did the day before (and the day before that, and the day before that). There is a definite rhythm to life if you are a student, but I have to wonder what happens when you get, as the book GOOD OMENS had put it, "Game over, insert coin."
My guess is that you either hope that you have more tokens for this game or you move on to a different game, but I think I'm over doing the analogy now, just a little.
I'm currently trying to decide what plants to bring back to Davis, and whether or not I should bring plants with me at all now that I've taken plant physio, know about bromate poisoning, and understand why potted plants tend to die rather quickly in Davis. It doesn't seem fair to condemn a plant to what is surely a slow and torturous death. Maybe I should consider bringing just one plant and water it with DI water. Maybe I should get one of those plants that has a high metal ion tolerance, such as the ones they use to clean up the industrial areas. One thing's for sure though: all the seedlings that started dying in Davis are now flourishing in my backyard. Santa Clara, as it appears, has very good water. There is a plot in the student farm in Davis where I can, technically, grow things without the ions building up, but the plot needs a fence around it because everything that tried to grow there so far has been mowed down by the local wildlife within weeks of germination. Except the weeds, of course. The weeds will always remain in the end, cackling over the demise (there usually isn't any, since getting eaten usually takes care of things like that) of its fellow plant lives.
It suddenly makes sense why the farm coordinator guy hates Bermuda grass so much.
There was a piece of jello cake the other day which I dissected. It was the weirdest thing I've seen in a while and jiggle far more than its surroundings warranted. I didn't really want to eat it, but it had all these colored jello cubes embedded in a white gelatinous...matrix type thing, and my mom pointed out that I do eat the colored jello cubes and I pointed out that I don't eat the weird white stuff that surrounds it and so I ended up carefully trimming out all the colored cubes with a utility knife. It turned out to be an utter waste of time since all the colored cubes tasted exactly the same, that is to say, they all tasted like the white stuff. It was good knife-finger coordination practice though. And out of tune music will probably cause Nick pain.
My guess is that you either hope that you have more tokens for this game or you move on to a different game, but I think I'm over doing the analogy now, just a little.
I'm currently trying to decide what plants to bring back to Davis, and whether or not I should bring plants with me at all now that I've taken plant physio, know about bromate poisoning, and understand why potted plants tend to die rather quickly in Davis. It doesn't seem fair to condemn a plant to what is surely a slow and torturous death. Maybe I should consider bringing just one plant and water it with DI water. Maybe I should get one of those plants that has a high metal ion tolerance, such as the ones they use to clean up the industrial areas. One thing's for sure though: all the seedlings that started dying in Davis are now flourishing in my backyard. Santa Clara, as it appears, has very good water. There is a plot in the student farm in Davis where I can, technically, grow things without the ions building up, but the plot needs a fence around it because everything that tried to grow there so far has been mowed down by the local wildlife within weeks of germination. Except the weeds, of course. The weeds will always remain in the end, cackling over the demise (there usually isn't any, since getting eaten usually takes care of things like that) of its fellow plant lives.
It suddenly makes sense why the farm coordinator guy hates Bermuda grass so much.
There was a piece of jello cake the other day which I dissected. It was the weirdest thing I've seen in a while and jiggle far more than its surroundings warranted. I didn't really want to eat it, but it had all these colored jello cubes embedded in a white gelatinous...matrix type thing, and my mom pointed out that I do eat the colored jello cubes and I pointed out that I don't eat the weird white stuff that surrounds it and so I ended up carefully trimming out all the colored cubes with a utility knife. It turned out to be an utter waste of time since all the colored cubes tasted exactly the same, that is to say, they all tasted like the white stuff. It was good knife-finger coordination practice though. And out of tune music will probably cause Nick pain.
20070914
末
下周四该回DAVIS了.
看哈, 这几天有什么事发生来着....
周二妈过生日, 我们中午到外头去吃自助餐. 那应该算是一家韩国餐馆吧...但是它里面也有些日式, 美式的东西. 我在那吃了果冻 - 或, 不如说, 我在那玩了果冻, 捅了果冻, 琢磨了一下果冻的光线反射点数. 我的家长化验出我是个没救了的书呆子, 但这他们早已经知道了, 所以我不知道他们还有什么好惊讶的.
我和爸在大华给她买了蛋糕. 她晚上胃不舒服, 但是好像不是因为蛋糕.
还照相了, 但不知道什么时候去冲胶卷.
复习继续, 带着点无可奈何的味.
这周末打算拆烤面包机, 必须取绿卡, 护照, 和还图书馆的书. 后院里豆子发芽了, 我和爸扔掉无数只蜗牛, 蚂蚁好像在准备进攻进一楼.
夏天也就大概是这样了.
看哈, 这几天有什么事发生来着....
周二妈过生日, 我们中午到外头去吃自助餐. 那应该算是一家韩国餐馆吧...但是它里面也有些日式, 美式的东西. 我在那吃了果冻 - 或, 不如说, 我在那玩了果冻, 捅了果冻, 琢磨了一下果冻的光线反射点数. 我的家长化验出我是个没救了的书呆子, 但这他们早已经知道了, 所以我不知道他们还有什么好惊讶的.
我和爸在大华给她买了蛋糕. 她晚上胃不舒服, 但是好像不是因为蛋糕.
还照相了, 但不知道什么时候去冲胶卷.
复习继续, 带着点无可奈何的味.
这周末打算拆烤面包机, 必须取绿卡, 护照, 和还图书馆的书. 后院里豆子发芽了, 我和爸扔掉无数只蜗牛, 蚂蚁好像在准备进攻进一楼.
夏天也就大概是这样了.
20070906
Untitled
We went out to dinner the other night, since it was my dad's birthday, to a restaurant that is named after a city in southern China. For some reason the English name said Northern China, which confused me no end until my parents told me to stop worrying about it.
There was the customary pot of tea with three white china tea cups. I got a glass of water set in front of me, with a pink straw, and wondered if I should feel insulted.
Well meaning people can be entertaining.
Spent quite some time wading through the ATT website today, attempting to find out how to renew the internet service. The website has too many links and java applets but not enough site map / organization logic. Not to mention every time I want to browse the offers they had me enter the phone number and then a message would pop up that informed me that, they're sorry, but I've either placed an order already or am already signed up for service - which I know, of course - our current contract expires in September - but would I please call such and such number to inquire about -
And so I spent some time waiting in the automated message system, with mechanical voices which kept asking me if I knew ATT has a website that is VERY VERY HELPFUL (after a few minutes I was wondering if going deaf is too drastic a measure to take against this type of auditory assault - and why haven't the legislation banned THIS yet as a cruel and unusual punishment?) before I was answered by a man who - what was the description they used in the Hitchhiker's trailer? - Sounded like he was about eight feet tall and had been smoking cigarettes since he was ten?
The phone reception was terrible though, and neither he nor I could make out half of the things the other person was saying, so I had to hang up and try again using a land phone. I've decided, the second time around, to keep browsing the site with the vague hope that something useful would show up and then I would be done with the messaging system and well-meaning people who insistently mispronounced my name.
I am done, but I still haven't found anything useful yet and my, it's September already, isn't it?
There was the customary pot of tea with three white china tea cups. I got a glass of water set in front of me, with a pink straw, and wondered if I should feel insulted.
Well meaning people can be entertaining.
Spent quite some time wading through the ATT website today, attempting to find out how to renew the internet service. The website has too many links and java applets but not enough site map / organization logic. Not to mention every time I want to browse the offers they had me enter the phone number and then a message would pop up that informed me that, they're sorry, but I've either placed an order already or am already signed up for service - which I know, of course - our current contract expires in September - but would I please call such and such number to inquire about -
And so I spent some time waiting in the automated message system, with mechanical voices which kept asking me if I knew ATT has a website that is VERY VERY HELPFUL (after a few minutes I was wondering if going deaf is too drastic a measure to take against this type of auditory assault - and why haven't the legislation banned THIS yet as a cruel and unusual punishment?) before I was answered by a man who - what was the description they used in the Hitchhiker's trailer? - Sounded like he was about eight feet tall and had been smoking cigarettes since he was ten?
The phone reception was terrible though, and neither he nor I could make out half of the things the other person was saying, so I had to hang up and try again using a land phone. I've decided, the second time around, to keep browsing the site with the vague hope that something useful would show up and then I would be done with the messaging system and well-meaning people who insistently mispronounced my name.
I am done, but I still haven't found anything useful yet and my, it's September already, isn't it?
20070904
从见天日
情况还在好转.前两天我再次到外头去折腾后院. 玉米丰收完了, 后面的杂草基本上清了一遍. 薄荷之类的修剪了一下,还补种了些豆角什么的. 秋季正式到达后我有可能会买些球茎
今天已经付了电话帐单, 申请了新的信用卡 (因为美国银行的什么计划和什么公司合并了, 所以我有了一个新的信用卡帐户但没有新的卡) (原因看来在于帐户信息里把我的地址敲错了, 所以上次他们寄的卡被退了回来, 然后之后他们就在也没有是第二次) (新的卡应该这周末来), 把两个帐户号从妈的网上银行帐户显示上删掉. 帮妈从新录了我们家的布局(十月分她会带回北京), 把爸的生日礼物包装好, 然后审查了后院.
的确, 刚过完长周末的第一天是繁忙的.
这周末有可能跟同学去看电影去.
今天已经付了电话帐单, 申请了新的信用卡 (因为美国银行的什么计划和什么公司合并了, 所以我有了一个新的信用卡帐户但没有新的卡) (原因看来在于帐户信息里把我的地址敲错了, 所以上次他们寄的卡被退了回来, 然后之后他们就在也没有是第二次) (新的卡应该这周末来), 把两个帐户号从妈的网上银行帐户显示上删掉. 帮妈从新录了我们家的布局(十月分她会带回北京), 把爸的生日礼物包装好, 然后审查了后院.
的确, 刚过完长周末的第一天是繁忙的.
这周末有可能跟同学去看电影去.
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