| 6 dec 2001 i'm feeling pretty good today. despite the fact that i couldn't get out of bed until 2pm. but i got up, had some korean kimchi noodles (ramen-type, not like i actually MADE something from scratch), and saved my appetite for a medium al bundy pizza that should be coming just over an hour from now. but anyways, i finally got off my ass and worked on the stanford taiko alumni newsletter. fellow alum kris was supposed to work on is way back in like february, but he never got around to it, so this summer, i took over the ownership. but being the incredibly adept procrastinator that i am, it's taken me months and months to finally start doing the layout. and probably the only reason why i'm doing it now is because i promised emi that i'd get it out by the end of 2001. yup. the last issue was just over a year ago, and this thing was slated to be a bi- to tri-annual publication, so i guess kris and i have collectively failed miserably. but anyways, i finally started doing the prepwork after watching what is now my can't-miss show of daytime television, espn's pti. like i said before, it's two outspoken loudmouth sport nuts ranting about everything from randy moss to the backstreet boys. well, it's not as fun when they rag about pop culture, because their expertise is really in sports. but anyways, i just turned on mtv, and with TRL in the background, i started prepping for the publishing effort. dishi did a great job with last year's issue, using some fancy schmancy tool. but i used simple plain old MS word, layout out text boxes and just playing with the borders and font sizes until the articles fit. but anyways, i finally finished it, and it feels like i actually did work. yup, i did work. maybe it wasn't terribly brainful stuff, but still... for a while, i actually concentrated on a task. and it felt REALLY good. so i think i'm quite ready to work at a company. i need to get my brain back in gear. but anyways, i have like dozens and dozens of copies of this newsletter to send out, so that's going to be quite a pain... buying envelopes, addressing all of them, going to the post office and shit like that... but i'll be quite satisfied and fulfilled once i get it out. and the most satisfaction will come from making good on a promise i made to emi. last night, i finished reading _harry potter III_. it was REALLY good! i actually think that the books are getting better and better. i mean, they kind of follow the same formula... building up until some weird twist at the end... but it's still really fun to read. this is probably the only book out there (well, because it's a KID'S book) where i can read faster than a page a minute. see, my problem is that i'm a terribly slow reader... and the reason is because in order to understand the words, i actually have to SOUND OUT the words in my head... so i'm basically reading aloud, but silently. and that makes me a snail when it comes to reading. but _harry_ went by in a flash. i read the last three chapters in about half an hour while sitting on the toilet taking a dump... ahhh. it reminded me of the old days when i would read entire beverly cleary or judy blume books on the crapper... i would disappear into the bathroom for hours at a time, and my parents would wonder what the hell i was doing and why i couldn't read in a normal location. so i said earlier that reading _entertainment weekly_ ruined the twist in this book. and it did. that whole conversation between (i'm not going to ruin anything for you guys here) black and harry did nothing for me, because i knew what was going to happen. but still, luckily for me, other plot points came up, so it wasn't like the entire climax was ruined for me. i'm going to hold off on reading book IV until the paperback version comes out. hm. did i talk about that before? anyways, i'm going to start on _the fellowship of the ring_. despite the fact that i've read this before, it's going to take a while. it's hella denser than _harry potter_. but hopefully i'll finish it before the movie comes out. jay comes back tomorrow. i'll be very happy when that happens. he asked me when he left whether i could pick him up from the airport, but i said that i'd probably be working by then. well... i guess that's not true, and i would go and pick him up, but i have no idea what his flight info is. that's too bad... i hope he and margaret survived the trip together without killing each other. i have this "download" folder where i put the files i pull off the web... i was looking through it today, and i found out my emacs "sent mails" file from autumn of 1994. i was a junior back then. man. i don't really understand a lot of my e-mails. my language is all cryptic and very scatterbrained. it's weird, because i don't think i was _that_ weird back then. but apparently, looking back, my brain must have been scrambled or something. sheesh. i felt really bad, though, after a few minutes of scanning my mails, because i saw the shit i used to write to kristie. man. the best way to describe those e-mails is "pretentious yet STUPID bitterness." yup. i was a dick. thanks for jeff for showing me how to solve that laser game i was talking about yesterday. i haven't taken a peek at the next level yet. i'm actually afraid to. my brain has been lazy lately, to the point where if i can't figure out a problem (brainteaser) in, say, 30 seconds, i just give up and ask for the solution. but this game is one of the rare times lately that i'll actually sit down and try to grind through the problem. like i said, i spent over an hour on level 10, with no luck. i was even thinking about it for a bit while i was sleeping last night. it really bugged me. so i don't want to be in that state because it really sucks to have that hanging over my head. shit. caspian hasn't called me back yet. i was really planning on making my decision tomorrow. yet another employee from cisco called me today. in a way, it's really flattering to have them seem to want me... i always thought that cisco was just this huge juggernaut of a company, and people kind of get lost there... it's like i thought they were just one of many. so this treatment seems kind of cool and special. we'll see... i really want to start working next week, so i really want to make my decision tomorrow. i'm craving indian and korean food. haven't had both in a long time. maybe when jay gets back, i'll convince him to go with me. he loves food possibly more than i do. well, i eat more than him, but he's got some pretty worldly tastes. ok. time to wait for my pizza to arrive. *drool* |