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Monday, October 27, 2008

If I were a zombie, I'd feed off attention. Mmmm delicious attention.

posted by shine at Monday, October 27, 2008 0 Comments Links to this post

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Morning Sickness

It's almost 8am PST and I've been up since 6:30. It really sucks being sick, but what's worse is I feel like a walking germ. The most difficult thing about being sick is that I can't stay home in my bed. No one is going to do my work for me, and I have too many things going on to allow for a sick day. The only consolation I am getting from my sickness is my voice. Although I know it is a result of incessant dry cough (which eventually led to coughing out blood, but I won't go into details), it sounds pretty cool. I can sing with my raspy voice and I like it, but of course that's a price to pay for my deteriorating health. I thought I was getting better on Sunday (been sick since Thurs), but Monday morning I had coughing attacks and woke up ever hour or so. When I came to my field site, my supervisor felt so sorry for me, even my professors and classmates were concerned. I tried my best to suck it up and not make any noise. I guess that's what made it look like I was dying.

Yesterday I had a meeting with Shane (Martin), our dean, Brian (Leung), our program director, and two other professors I fail to recognize in the department. This was for a grant SOE was going for (one of which is the Bill and Melinda Gates grant). Dr. Leung wanted my friend and I to be part of the grant committee for one of the grants (I forget the name of it). I think he wants us to go for the $50k one and not the $500k, which is fine by me. The main reason why we became interested is for the experience of being part of a very large project. Definitely a resume booster, and even better if we get our names in print and the grant is accepted. I certainly never thought I'd be able to be a part of something like this, but it was definitely cool. Too bad Suzy wasn't there to back me. Luckily I didn't get grilled for my proposal and they were too heated with how to proceed and what to turn in. I did not realize the size of this project until I foundn out that one of the Professors I RA'd for is part of it and the project I was researching for her is going to be in the grant (weird), so I knew what they were talking about more than they did in that aspect since I did the freaking research for it! Of course I didn't say anything. I was too busy feeling uncomfortable with their argument and seeing our director not very happy (and he's always pretty happy and laid back). Plus I was holding in the most uncomfortable cough and I definitely did not want to cough in front of the dean and the grant committe in the freaking dean's' conference room.

All of this is pretty amazing. Even though nothing is set in stone, and everything may fall through, we still got our proposal accepted to CASP. That was what started the whole thing. That said, Suzy and I will definitely be presenting in March, and I'm sure we will be ready. Hmm I wonder what I should wear? lol. Anyway I don't have time to worry about that now. I have case studies to finish and need to concentrate on. I also have a Christmas list that I should begin to worry about now that I am beyond poor and so is the economy. I guess I should get to work.

Anyway, I'm just glad that mother nature decided to get me sick during the Porter Ranch Fires (ashes are reading Culver City/Marina) when everyone else seems to be kinda sorta sick too. So, I'm not alone. Plus Art is away on vacation, so he won't have to see me/potentially get sick from me or worry. I'm definitely not letting him know I'm sick while he's enjoying his time in Belize.

posted by shine at Wednesday, October 15, 2008 0 Comments Links to this post

Monday, October 13, 2008

Nokia eight mega pixel phone (concept phone by Nokia's eco-team)

http://www.treehugger.com/nokia-wood-phone.jpg

http://www.treehugger.com/nokia-woodphone-rear.jpg

Kinda weird, but cool at the same time. Looks you could play Jenga with it.

The original post had a picture from flickr, but the poster made it private. LAME.

So I went to the source of the original article which endgadget ripped off of.

posted by shine at Monday, October 13, 2008 0 Comments Links to this post

Friday, October 10, 2008

Burn After Reading

This is a comment I intended to post on a msg board I recently joined after the encouragement of my cousin, but I refrained since I knew being a new member and bashing their beloved movie would not gain me any points. I held back and decided to just post my comment here.


I saw this when it came out and had some mediocre expectations of it after seeing the trailer. The sad thing was, most of the funny parts were already exploited in the trailer.

On a positive note, the premise was pretty good, the characters were fairly well developed, and the execution of the story was well done. Yet, there were times when I felt that it was just beyond the quirky funny dark comedy and just became pure absurdity. It doesn't help that Brad Pitt's character is exceedingly annoying. Good thing he dies as quickly as he comes in. Ooops, did I spoil that for anyone? Sorry, you aren't missing anything.

We left the theater with a very numb feeling...probably a feeling of major dissatisfaction, or just feeling a little ripped off for wasting that much time on a movie that lacked any real substance. I was mislead to believe it was a good movie. It was more of an "ok" movie. Pointless, not that funny, pretty dark enough, but highly unsatisfying even with the whole point of it being pretty pointless.

I guess it doesn't help that I am not a Brad Pitt fan, nor George Clooney or Cohen Brothers fan. But I remember seeing the trailer and thinking ever so briefly that I wouldn't mind watching that movie despite Brad Pitt being in it. Come to think of it, the only movie I've ever seen either of them in is in Ocean's 11, 12 and 13--this is at the begging of my brother.

In the end, Burn After Reading has no real plot, no moral, no clear end. It just does. Personally, it's a forgetable movie that is very much a waste of time. It doesn't evoke enough of any one type of emotion, but it does allow you to feel depressed and detached. I guess it's a matter of personal taste. While I thought it was okay, I definitely wouldn't have paid to watch this had I known what I was getting into.

posted by shine at Friday, October 10, 2008 0 Comments Links to this post