4 more years of this?  

I'm coming back to Irvine in a few.  I wonder if it'll be different. 

I'll miss the people here =(.  The best time to get to know people is on breaks, but I won't even be here since I have absolutely no obligations because of my kick-back advisor, Olson, the MAN OF STEEL (in an iron carbide sense).

I truly did enjoy the little of the Chicago Christmas that I did experience.  Evanston Christmas tree and lights, walking downtown, lights and decorations along State Street, Millennium Park, the ice skating rink, German Christmas boutique (and the way-too-cool for anyone Christmas boot mug), chilly walks with occasional large gusts of wind, "Santaland Diaries," sushi off of Belmont (yum!), hanging with the guys =P.

All said and done, I miss home.  I miss friends and family and Mochi.  I miss warm fuzzy feelings.  I decided not to take Bunny home with me.  I'm 22 now.  That makes me sad =( but I think I need to do this.  This is a BIG step for me! 

My cousin's wedding in SF was this weekend.  I stocked up on Chinese food...in my TUMMY.  Yum.  I realized after seeing family and relatives again, that I missed them!  I'm sad that I don't get to see them more and it always makes me think about how much easier it would be if I stayed in CA.  I know, the stupid What If game.  Someday I'll stop wondering what my life would be like if this happened or if I had done something differently, but for now it's not.  If I had stayed in CA, everything would be way more convenient, especially traveling.  I've been on the plane so many freaking times and wasting so many hours just WAITING.  Waiting for the bus, waiting for the plane, waiting for the El.  I wouldn't have to fly 2/3 the way across the country to see my cousins =(.  Life here is NOT convenient.  It's cold (13F during the day) and my room is 10 degrees colder than the rest of the apartment.  No car is a drastic change.  I love riding my bike, but you can't be lazy if you want to get things done or go places with a bike.  Still, I love my new big coat and I can still bike with it since it zips up from the bottom. 

I hope Christine comes and visits me soon!  I can't believe we've been friends for so long.  She was the meanest and brattiest little girl in 3rd grade.  I always remember thinking how I would never want to be friends with that girl.  But lookie here! 

Since all this wedding stuff is fresh from this weekend, I can't help but think about my wedding.  I think I'm going to cry walking down the aisle, although I'm a pretty publicly emotionless person for the most part.  (I've only cried in 2 movies: A Walk to Remember and The Breakup.)  But as my now cousin-in-law walked down the aisle she was tearing and it made me all teary-eyed.  I realized how big of a deal this whole thing was!   Now that we know a lot more people who are married it's not as exciting to hear about engagements...but really, it's a HUGE thing.  I can't wait to get married.  Whenever that is...

I decided to quit grad school and become...a GUITAR HERO ROCK STAR.  haha

I like pig.

And duck.

Oh yeah, I love my family.

Guess who showed up to my cousin's wedding - The Grinch and the Cat in the Hat!

That is all for now.  Back to studying...Bessel Functions, Fourier Series, etc...

so pretty! 

[pictures coming soon]

We won our football game against those darn Chemists so now we're in the Elite 8.  Next game...MATSCI RED VS. MAT SCI GREY.  I think we're going to win (Mat Sci. Red).  Well, I'm not so sure.  Those other gals are pretty tough.  Anyway...be there, next Sunday 10 a.m. Lincoln Lauhon Field.  haha (minus the Lauhon - one of our MSE profs.)  I know, I'm a dork.

Believe it or not, I do believe that we had warm weather this past week (66 and 68F).  Yes, I really did feel warm!  Sadly...those days are coming to an end.  It is now starting to get cold and as I sit here in my room (which is 10 degrees colder than the rest of the apartment) I slap myself in the face for not getting up earlier this morning (when it was >40 F) and installing this window insulator.  This window insulation stuff really is a new concept to me.  It's actually plastic wrap, like Saran wrap, and you put it over your whole window.  How come I've never heard of this before?  Yeah, because I lived in the perfect city before...anyway, I'm going to make a big deal out of this trivial matter just because I can and it really is intriguing to me.  Back to the story...I was considering putting it up right now (2 a.m.) and I read the instructions and it reads: "Do not apply tape to surface whose temperature is 40F or below."  Not good...Weather.com reads "35F, feels like 26"  Why can't I put this stuff up below 40F?  35 is only 5 below 40, do I still put it up?  And if the weather report says it feels like 26, does that mean the window feels like 26 too?  These #'s are too low to work with.  When do I put the window insulator up?  Tomorrow's weather report reads: High 37, Low 28, AM snow showers.  That is not above 40.  I need help...

...IM FLAG FOOTBALL.

MatSci Red had a stunning 24-0 win vs NavyROTC with star players Krejci, Q, Somona, and Derrick landing some stellar plays to put those suckas in their places.  Captain Q scored half of the team points while playing D, intercepting not once, but twice and running it in for 2 touchdowns.  Krejci and Somona had some pretty sweet catches shhyyeaaahhhh, but conversions were robbed of us not once, but twice.  Grrr.........she had it!  bollocks!  Either way, WE WON!  =D

Anyway, next week is Chemistry.  That's gonna be a tough one.

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?chanID=sa003&articleID=AAFCC579-E7F2-99DF-33CF444CDD8F7AAF

November 02, 2006
Overfishing Could Take Seafood Off the Menu by 2048
In 1994, seafood may have peaked. According to an analysis of 64 large marine ecosystems, which provide 83 percent of the world's seafood catch, global fishing yields have declined by 10.6 million metric tons since that year. And if that trend is not reversed, total collapse of all world fisheries should hit around 2048. "Unless we fundamentally change the way we manage all the oceans species together, as working ecosystems, then this century is the last century of wild seafood," notes marine biologist Stephen Palumbi of Stanford University. Marine biologist Boris Worm of Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, gathered a team of 14 ecologists and economists, including Palumbi, to analyze global trends in fisheries. In addition to data from the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization stretching back to 1950, the researchers examined 32 controlled experiments in various marine ecosystems, observations from 48 marine protected areas, and historical data on 12 coastal fisheries for the last 1,000 years. The latter shows that among only commercially important species, 91 percent have seen their abundance halved, 38 percent have nearly disappeared, and 7 percent have gone extinct, the majority since 1800. "We see an accelerating decline in coastal species over the last 1,000 years, resulting in the loss of biological filter capacity, nursery habitats and healthy fisheries," notes team member Heike Latze of Dalhousie University. And across all scales, from very small controlled studies of marine plots to those of entire ocean basins, maintaining biodiversity--the number of extant species across all forms of marine life--appeared key to preserving fisheries, water filtering and other so-called ecosystem services, though the correlation is not entirely clear. "Species are important not only for providing direct benefits in terms of fisheries but also providing natural infrastructure that supports fisheries," explains team member Emmett Duffy of the Virginia Institute of Marine Sciences. "Even the bugs and weeds make clear, measurable contributions to productive ecosystems." Although the trend is grim, the study of protected areas offers some hope that marine ecosystems can rebound, according to the paper presenting the analysis in the November 3 issue of Science. The 48 studied showed an overall increase of 23 percent in species diversity and a fourfold increase in available catch. "It's not a miracle. It's something that is do-able, it's just something that requires a big chunk of political will to do it," Worm observes. "We have a 1,000-, probably 10,000-year habit of taking the oceans for granted and moving from one species to the next, or replacing it with a technological fix like aquaculture. To me, the major roadblock is we have to change our perception of what the ocean is." Should we fail, we may lose the ocean's bounty entirely. --------------------------------- Also something that strikes an interesting note and what I've been trying to say all along.  The internet will lead us to our doom...or close to it.  DUN DUN DUNNNNN.  I wonder what their studies will show...

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2006/11/02/europe/EU_GEN_Britain_World_Wide_Worries.php

I'm tired.  I have a sleeping problem.  I just can't wake up earlier no matter what.  Blah.

It was really warm today, 68 degrees, but really windy.  I almost fell over riding my bike.  haha.  I also rung my new bell the whole way home *ding* or is it *rriiinnggg*?  Not sure.

I think our Thermodynamics professor spoonfeeds us too much and it's kind of annoying.  Also, the homework he assigns isn't of much depth.  It's just algebra or plugging something else in for something else.  Prof. Mumm did a better job, and it was more challenging, and it was undergrad!  Which brings me to the next point, about prestige of schools and what really is in a name?  After much discussion and observance of classes/peers/thought processes, I've concluded that the only real difference in education between big name schools and non-big name schools is the type of students that attend.  I think yes, some classes may be more difficult than the same class at other schools, but maybe some class at that school is more difficult than the other one.  Ya know???  And you basically cover the same things in each topic if your prof covered everything he/she should have.  And a lot of the time you end up learning things on your own/teaching yourself, too, right?  So...I conclude that the quality of learning is not that big of a difference and people shouldn't be so into NAMES.  But, sadly, this is not always how it works out and you really can do things like drop the "H bomb" and people will be intimidated (omg...).  haha.

Drives me nuts...

Can't wait for break.  I get a long long break.  Yup.  I have such a chill adviser that he doesn't care.  Hope some friends will be around/available, even though we're all working people now with 8-5 schedules.  I still wanna go snowboarding!  There's no mountains around here, so I don't think there's much skiing or snowboarding, except for Canada.

In one week I was in 5 different states!  Illinois, New York, Indiana, Ohio, and Michigan.  The last one was completely unplanned.  Dani and I were coming back from Cedar point and we encountered the end of 280N and were trying to take the detour, but somehow ended up on the 75 N and realized we reached Michigan when we passed a sign that said, "Welcome to Michigan".   So now I can say I've been to Michigan.  It really is unfair here because all the states are so much closer together than in California.  You can cover 4 states in 6 hours.  Probably even more in the East Coast.  6 hours from Orange County will lead you to Nevada, Arizona, or Mexico, but not all in the same trip.  Thus, when people ask how many states you've been to, you shouldn't be impressed by the # all the East Coast people have been to.

I've been trying to cook better meals, but it just ain't happening.  Cooking good meals for 1 person is way too difficult unless you want to waste a whole lot of money and food.  Are there cookbooks about cooking for 1?  and doing it economically.

Nothing else exciting in my life.  Maybe get a haircut?