while grocery shopping

i saw a girl who looked like she stepped out of a catalog.
she looked slightly european with mussed dirty blond hair
gray boots, gray tights, some sort of skirt and shirt combination with an open wool coat that ended at the same length as her skirt.
she looked casual
she looked autumn
she looked so beautiful!
i stared, looked away, and stole another glance as i left.
i liked how she stood, tall but askance.. holding a shopping cart, and looking at an apple.

i like it when my aesthetic eye gets its fill. :)

HI ALICE!

My (only?) faithful reader
and SOLE commenter.

HIIIII



anyways, in other news

here are some things that affirm why i need to go back to norcal

socal:
- hair extensions
- accessories like crazies (dress up a tshirt with a floofy neckerchief)
- "detox"
- speed limit is too high (i'm an old lady)
- no pedestrians
- no bikers
- .... um i just realized, i haven't seen a single black person here.....  o_O
- beach is not close enough without a car
- traffic
- traffic
- traffic
- BAD ASIAN DRIVERS!
- IT'S COLD! WHY IS IT COLD DOWN HERE?
- everything is just a little over-manicured
- fuzzy NPR
- fuzzy Country
- no fake sushi rolls :-(
- every sushi joint i've been to serves more tuna than salmon
- no good soup/salad bars
- EVERYONE USES PLASTIC BOTTLES
- UCI DOESN'T PROVIDE DOUBLE-SIDED PRINTING!
- NO ONE RECYCLES




but i'll miss So Cal because some AWESOME people call it their home, yogurtland is yummy (but i think i'm weaning myself), Irvine actually has some awesome trails, AND it reminds me of Taiwan!!!!!

PS it also has an awesome spanish music channel.. no cheesy mariachi music, but some bonafide awesome spanish alternative rock / folk rock, yeah it rocks... ALSO i think the radio stations generally have LESS commercials than up in NorCal.

OH and i don't have to worry about getting mugged





Yesterday i was driving and i saw a yellow light. (oo Socal has LONG yellow lights).. i was far away, but i was like "oh it will be yellow forever".. so yeah, i ran a red.  and then a block later, A POLICE CAR APPEARED OUT OF NOWHERE .. and drove next to me, then in front of me, then took a left turn and left.  *whew*  I was seriously .. amazed..  i NEVER get that 'lucky.'

random

so the clock on the wall perpetually says 12:43am.. or pm i suppose.  it's an analog.
last night i dreamt of my GCA kids.
i was looking for them around the school.  it was a little panicky.

um i took a 6 hr nap waking up at 11pm with no homework done.
so i reluctantly started it..
everything in me was crying NOOOOOO because i don't want to cultivate my bad habits.

anywhooz after reading the Aeneid, i felt a strange sense of satisfaction.. and i was hungry.

and yet all i had were carrot sticks.

so instead, i surfed yelp.  dude i love yelp.

food is SO COOL you know?  how amazing it can be?  it's CRAZY.
i love service too.

when i was a kid, i didn't mind being rough n' tumble..  but after being pampered a bit.. MayUnn.. i likez it! hahaha

even though i don't feel like laughing right now..

i saw this "it has matapoles.." and burst out giggling.

thank you tom, for always make me laugh.


(he was writing about a poem; he meant "metaphors")




(in other news feeling really discontented about my current life path. maybe i shouldn't watch movies about young upstarts hard-core practicing to be the future performing artists of today.. and then look up the actors/actresses and realize that they are either my age or younger.  it's a strange feeling to watch movie stars and know that they're not older than me)

in my head versus really

whenever i see "chick-fil-A"
I think "chickafila"   really.  i do.

whenever people said stuff like, "I can't wait to eat Chick Fil-A" (coworker), I think in my head, "Chick filet."

Today I put 2 and 2 together..

the weird thing is though when i hear "chick fil-a" i know people mean "chick fil-a" but when i read it to myself i think "chickafila" and when people say "chick fil-a" i think "chick filet."

did i just totally repeat myself?


YES.  but this.. hmm.  THIS BLOG POST HAD A SEMI-CHIASTIC STRUCTURE,  yes?  yes???

will it always be like this?

I had a random, frivolous conversation with a student today about Lady Gaga.
I think he was just trying to stall class, but at the end, he told me I should be an artist.  I told him to sit down and get ready for class.

I'm reading Reading Lolita in Tehran and it's been awesome in many ways.

1) Learning about Iran (and the start of its Islamic government; something I never knew about)
2) Just.. reading her.  and her take on literature.  it's this mix between literary criticism and a class, and I enjoy hearing what she says about literature, and experiencing the power of stories.  I like it.
3) I'm shocked that someone can write stuff like that and people will read it... (okay this was incredibly vague but steeeelll!)

I sometimes think of "great things."  Sometimes I want to just becoming a professor.  Sometimes I want to be a painter.  Sometimes I wish I had taken up swing dancing in college and become a mad hot ballroom-esque dancer.  Sometimes i wonder what it would be like to be a real artist.  I really enjoy teaching.  You get to wear many hats, and.. in a small sad way, encourage others to pursue what you didn't.  And make a difference.

Why am I talking about this?

I don't remember.

DANG IT.

THERE WAS A POINT TO THIS THERE REALLY WAS. ARGH!

you know what would be a good present?

An ear.
Then I can talk to it all day.
Instead of.. not.

Like i feel like i'm ALWAYS bursting with something I want to say.
My mom and dad say I don't have to share everything.
I know.
And I squirm when I see other really really talkative people.
It's rude, or mooshikhae, or stuff.
but right now, i just want to talk through my opinions of the professors and what classes I want to pick.

and for me, talking through something helps me to make up my mind.
so i don't need anyone to advise me.. just to listen.
so i can talk my way through it.
hehehehehe

6:47am FAIL

But Sort of not too bummed out about it because it wasn’t a faile of sleeping through 18 alarm clocks… rather I left my alarm clock at home, and then Kathy turned hers off.
So yeah.
But it felt strange not having “enough time” when just last week I’d roll out of bed a little past 7 and barely eek it to school.

At the airport with the wifi that doesn’t work. (hence typing on micro-word to copy paste over later)

You know you’re Junia at the airport if you…
- Have a passport/boarding pass + bathroom mishap.
EVERY TIME. Seriously. And it’s by God’s grace that I remember and come back. Today I didn’t even have to come back, I went to the bathroom to change into some comfy pants feeling very pleased with myself that I have this whole flight-thing down…. And I decided to take a picture and realized I didn’t have my camera because it was in the STALL (that was unfortunately quickly occupied by a number two-er). I waited patiently and went in afterwards(holding my breath) and retrieved it. I thought I was smart about it too this time because I had secured my passport and boarding pass with my camera! Because LAST time the mishap wasn’t forgetting it but my boarding pass FALLING INTO THE TOILET (passport narrowly missed). Gross.

And I realized the boarding pass is made out of like plasticky paper – because it was easy to just wipe off the water and then good as new.
TMI I know.

- If you THINK you’re somewhere and then get an “oh” moment…
Let me explain; I thought I had arrived at the gate and I’m waiting and waiting and waiting and THEN I see people going through the “gate” door down the stairs to what I would presume is the actual boarding area. Then I go “oh!” and hurry on after.
This happened twice today, but I don’t remember the first “oh!” moment except for the fact that it happened.

Some advice: taking a taxi to Taipei Main Station takes JUST as long as taking the MRT and costs 7 times as much. It’s REALLY sad. Especially since my smart card is loaded with money waiting for the MRT to take…. And my wallet was only semi loaded with money meant to be changed into Bahts. Boo.

ALSO another thing: Taipei Mainstation --> Taoyuan Airport changed stations! So I was SO confused. Like “didn’t that used to say Taoyuan?” how come it says DaSI? Because it CHANGED! And so I walked over and it was fine. ^_^



*****

GRE:
Confession, I'm not very prepared. Kaplan suggests the day before not to do anything; a racehorse always rests 24 hours before a race (I was amused at that example). But I don't think I will. I think I might take a practice test tonight.

I felt very empty last night. You know how WHILE you're on a course, everything makes sense, and right when you finish you realize ALL the things you could have done and how you miscalculated and misjudged and misprioritized?

Yeah. and I felt .

Anyway, today I'm feeling cheerier because I finally looked up THREE things that i ALWAYS miss on my practice GREs

Permutations/Combinations
Writing the Essays
Exponent/Radicals

And I learned (or relearned I guess) a trick!

permutations: when order matters. N! / (N!-R!)
while combos: when order DOESN't matter (hence a larger denominator since we don't count the order so ABC = CBA) = N! / R!(N-R!) and you can CANCEL CROSS.. or CROSS CANCEL?

OOH talking about that here are some tricks

multiples of 2 = even numbers (knew this)
multiples of 3 = digits add up to a multiple of 3 (knew this)
multiple of 5 ends in 5 or 0 (knew this)
multiple of 10 ends in 0. (knew this)

NOw.
HERE comes the COOL part

Multiple of 4: last 2 digits end in a multiple of 4
multiple of 6: digits add up to a multiple of 3 and is even
multiple of 9 : all digits add up to a multiple of 9
multiple of 12: digits add up to a multiple of 3 and last 2 digits is a multiple of 4.

COOOLLLLLLL

ANDDDD

if they ask you for the average of a sequence of consecutive numbers, you just add the smallest and largest number and DIVIDE BY TWO

if they ask you for the SUM you multiply the average by the number of numbers in the sequence... i think, actually I don't know if that makes sense... it should.


ALSO finding common factors between 2 numbers: find the common prime factors of each number. And THEN multiply all possible combinations.


to find common MULTIPLEs... I forget; I'll go review.


Anyway number tricks are cool.

I will talk about my gRE testing techniques some more later.


Or now, because we're late...


Basically in the beginning I'd finish all my practices with 5-7 minutes to spare.
Now, I don't finish the math.

My score got a LEETLE better or worse.

So I don't know.

but I'm thinking knowing the permutations and multiples will be helpful. unless i get confused.


and i'll stop identifying every little thing wrong with me after the test is over. I'm so glad I can count on that about myself. Once it's over it's OVER. no matter how crappy it was! (unless it's a race where i came in second .. and then cried.. and random nights it creeps back and i think about how I could have been in the olympics if only I hadn't stopped after that... makes me think of that lady that Benjamin Button had an affair with... She in the end ended up swimming thru the channel after all!!!! )




seriously... this is mind vomit.