home

I'm been home for a week now, and I feel like time can't move faster. I have this bad habit of going under the internets radar when I'm at home, which explains the fact that I haven't posted in a while.

It's nice being home, but I keep wishing I were still in my dorm room to myself playing WoW or something... I don't know, I like the idea of being home, but I just feel that I'm wasting my time here doing absolutely nothing, and in the process wasting my parents' time and money, especially during these times when time and money are in short supply. I feel a lot happier when I'm living by myself on my own terms, waking up when I want to, attending to what I want to without incessant nagging, doing what I want to do: going to get a slice of pizza, working out, or sit at my desk playing freecell all day while downloading huge torrents. I guess I come home only for my parents' and the house's sake: the first things that I did when I got home were straighten up the place, vacuum, wash the dishes, and sort through the junk mail, the stuff that usually gets forgotten because of work or stress. Oh, and tend to the plants.

And speaking of the plants: my very own are in the hands of good friends over the holidays; I hope they can thrive without me. As for the ones at home, some have died (namely the calamondin and orchid), but the rest are fine. My mom seems to be learning to take care of them, but I hope my dad gets into it too, since he's always so stressed all the time.

so, yeah, the semester ended. It wasn't as bad I had thought: a GPA under 3.0, but not as bad as a cumulative GPA under 3.0. an A (plus CCNP certification; hell's yeah!), a coupla B's, and the expected D's from organic chemistry, [shrug] but only because I didn't try; If I had, I actually would have gotten at least a C in the class and actually enjoyed it, too. (gasp!) But I did learn a lot this past semester, including to NEVER EVER take 21 credits again EVER: it was just *way* too much, not including pledging APO and joining more clubs that I can bear to count. but after this, assuming I don't fail, I'm pretty set: I can actually graduate a semester early if I only take the required stuff from here on, which is pretty awesome!

now, the only things I have to do until I go back are:
-monies, including tuition for next semester, taxes, gifts, and interest payments
-books
-possible new responsibilities for next sem.
-trying not to be fat
-finishing my resume to finally get me some gratuitous amounts of money
-my Christmas gift for this year: who to give forward to
-ACTUAL reading! yay!
-try to bring more plantstuffs to my room: calla lilies, spider plant seeds, other cuttings
-actually get some decent sleep (i.e., at least 8 hours, and waking up around 8 in the morning and do something productive)
-try to work on getting more of the a cappella arrangements done (a long shot, I'll admit)

and that's it for now, I think...

laters for now.
再见。

green thumb sunday

to commemorate the foot or so of snow that is currently covering a lot of the northeast:

a random snowy field. notice the random old scoreboard.

on the ground.

interestingly, these are pictures taken on my way home from taking the ONT exam near Albany Airport. the exam place is near a park/nature preserve and a Shaker settlement, both of which I walk by on my way to catch a bus from the airport.


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Green Thumb Sunday

I haven't done one in a while, so I think I should post something. how about this:


This is a closeup of one of the big rhododendrons back home, back last May, I believe. These were the ones that bloomed just in time for our housewarming back when we moved from New York City to the burbs in 2003. I don't know exactly what this is, can someone tell me? Until next Sunday, later.


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and in the end...

classes are finally over. no more waking up for lectures (only to sleep through them [sometimes missing them entirely] anyway), assignments, and such. the only things I have to worry about now are my ONT exam on Tuesday (!!!!!!) and the o-chem final next Monday... groan... at least I can sleep in as much as I want.

this ONT thing is becoming a big hurdle for the next 36 hours until the exam... I haven't read the book (which is puny, compared to the ISCW or the BSCI, but probably more intense) through yet, and it's already Sunday; to put things in perspective, I should have finished the book and the exam last week, and the one I just took, the ISCW, I should have taken at the end of October! I'll be pretty much this exam's bitch for the next 36 hours or so.

in other news, my woot! stuff came in this week! I received two packages: a rectangular box and a mailer bag; I'll discuss the former later. The bag contained three random woot! shirts, one of which is awesome ("bushido"), one of which is pretty cool ("sun of kabuki"), and the last, let's just say I regifted (some will disagree, but "squid bucket"). the random bag of crap turned out to be the box. It was obscenely heavy for its size (I'll explain). When opened, I found a nice no-name backpack and a veritable shitload of small torque screws (???; probably at least fifteen pounds' worth). let's just say that I got "screwed" by my "random bag of crap."

I really gotta start studying, so 再見你們.

the approach of the end (of the semester)

the past few weeks have been realy hectic and intense, but also in good and interesting ways. for a change, in true facebook note fashion... the return of the running-configuration!

Life# sh blips
generating blips...
!
limit, as remaining semester days approach 0, of sleep = 0.
!
after a hectic brotherhood week, I am now a brother of APO! yay! no trads of my own yet, but yay!
!
CCNP ISCW is FINALLY passed! one more to go...
!
getting/having lots of keys is nice
!
I still haven't gotten my woot! stuff yet... it's been at least two weeks now, seriously...
!
it's started to snow here, but I'm still goin' strong with me shorts an' slippers; I aim to follow in the flip-flopped steps of alum dave tu before me; let's see how long I can last!
!
classes end friday (tomorrow!!!), and there's still a buttload of work to do:
-all late chinese written homework
-the chinese skit, in lieu of a speaking exam (which, frankly, I prefer)
-ALL ONT labs, ALL DUE FRIDAY!!!
-tests in gen.psych and earth&sky TODAY!!!!
!
the AK-ification of my sleep schedule is well underway: I've had less than six hours total of sleep this week so far; let's see how long before I crash and burn into sweet, sweet slumber.
!
the pipes have their pipe-a-thingy on the same night as the RMA show; best of luck to them, but, seriously, the same night as ALL of the other music groups' performances?
!
currently looking for a plant babysitter for the winter break; want someone who I am confident will not kill all of my plants; maybe faculty/staff/someone living off-campus?
!
end

Green Thumb Sunday

I've been really busy not doing anything over the Thanksgiving break. I cleaned house, did some late fall cleanup of dead/dying plants, lots of raking, and some cooking, as well as lots of eating (obviously...), but, strangely, I didn't get to sleep much. Also, I've been completely offline since I left, which explains the lateness of this post. (not for folks in Central, Mountain, or Pacific time!) To make up for it, I'll post a few today!

With fall ending, I can't help but think of all of the dahlias that I planted this year, and how I had to let them go and start over. My mom, I found out, has always had a sweet spot for dahlias. She can remember them when she was a child in the Philippines: the only places that they could grow and be sheltered from the searing tropical heat were the cool mountains. For all their beauty and majesty, they are not hard to grow and maintain at all. a few:

I don't recall the exact name of this one; all I can remember is that I saved this one from last year, when it wasn't doing so well due to bad placement: I put this near the front of the bed, expecting to be able to prune and train it into a bushy form, but instead it grew like a sunflower, ultimately growing to be taller than me!

I don't remember this one either, but I really liked it: it was a lot shorter than the last one (which towered over everything else), and flowered prolifically; plus, it was already flowering when I planted it!

This one, however, I can remember: I believe this one is 'Checkers'. My mom had high hopes for this one: she bought it, expecting a black-and-white flower, as the name suggests; instead, it's red and white, which is not bad, but not the desired effect. It's a somewhat short plant, and it wasn't as floriferous as I had wanted. The pic is a bit fuzzy; it's my cameraphone again!

Here's to fall, and all that it brings! Now let's trudge into winter, with our heads already in spring!


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setting; overnighters

By now you've probably been wondering as to where I am. I am a student at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in historic Troy, New York. Never heard of it? Well, if it was up to our dear ol' President Shirley it'd be in your face daily. For those not in the know, it's an engineering school++ where the classes are tough, but the possibilities are many (if you work hard enough). You may think, "so what? it's not MIT." We at RPI say to that: screw MIT. It's only good for grad school; besides, we're basically MIT students who were too lazy to get in anyway.

I'm currently a sophomore biochemistry major, and neck-deep in more organic chemistry than most people would like to even have nightmares about. My taking five classes (technically seven, but I won't go there) this semester (all of which have absolutely NOTHING to do with each other) doesn't help things, either. All's I know is that I am soooooooo glad that o-chem lecture is over. I still have the lab to go through, but it's a necessary evil, I presume. Hopefully next semester will be less suicidal, but for now, it's mere wishful thinking.

It's now 5am on a Monday morning. I have somehow managed to stay up all night again, with the initial intentions of sending some e-mails related to pledge requirements and doing homework due the next day. Of course, this plan inevitably never saw itself to fruition. I wish I could stop these unnecessary all-nighters, saving them, for example, tonight, when I actually need to work all night doing o-chem labs or endless amounts of hand-cramping Chinese written homework. Then again, I really shouldn't rely on all-nighters: they allow for way more diurnal procrastination than is desirable: the "I have all night to do this" mentality keeps you from working during a daytime lull, which could have otherwise been productive (at least in theory). But what does get happen at night: read e-mail. get some coffee. take a nap. go on facebook for a while. check gocrosscampus before midnight. open the book. put some tunes on. all set for work, when suddenly a procrastination attack paralyzes you, preventing further progress towards the dream of completing homework, only to wake up and find that it's already morning and that class is in ten minutes on the other side of campus.

speaking of which, I really should get to sleep. zaijian for now.
~约翰

first Green Thumb Sunday

let's see how this works out. for now, I am restricted to taking pictures with the camera in the Motorola SLVR cellphone. not the best cameraphone out there (and certainly not the best camera), but it at least lets me take pictures. I'm currently saving my pennies to go buy myself a good digital camera; maybe I'll make it my CCNP certification gift to myself, yay!




anyway, this, if you can't make it out, is a gardenia blossom, specifically Gardenia jasminoides 'Veitchii', that was growing in a pot on my stoop back home. this picture cannot do it justice at all: it is way blurry, but mostly because you can't have its absolutely intoxicating perfume in your nose. (anyone who has had success growing one can attest to this.) this was taken after a rainy day (notice the water droplets). as to its whereabouts nowadays, I hope it's still alive: I'm the one who takes care of all the plants whenever I'm home; when not, my mom makes an effort to keep them alive, but this one might unfortunately be too much. I guess I'll be doing lots of plant triage and damage control (as well as schoolwork) when I get home for Thanksgiving!


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some really interesting and useful stuff

Just thought I might share some cool stuff that I found in my travels in the internets...

Death by PowerPoint

From: thecroaker, 3 months ago

| View | Upload your own

Fighting death by PowerPoint... How to make a presentation and not to bore your audience to death.


Link: SlideShare Link

I just found this today. I think we can all learn something from this, people.

I found another rule that is also, in the words of my CS1 professor, "perfectly valid." It somewhat contradicts what the above says, but it applies specifically to sales pitches and proposals. It is called the 10/20/30 rule: 10 slides, 20 minutes, with font size no smaller than 30 point. Convincing, and very true. Of course, there's the one rule about presentations: if you are not passionate and/or knowledgeable enough about your topic to give an oral presentation without powerpoint, don't present at all.

On a different note, if you have not heard about TED, you really should: it's one of the most inspiring things I've found in the Net. It is a conference with talks by the greatest people on the planet today, sharing ideas that can change the world. Of particular note is the Talks section, where you can actually watch videos of said talks; they can definitely get you thinking. It is probably one of the best ways to procrastinate online, in my opinion.

Finally, there is woot! For those not in the know, woot! is a rather unique site. It offers one, and only one, item for sale every day, at a fairly cheap price, though in limited quantity. They also offer one creative shirt a day. Now sometimes they have what's called a "woot-off", where lots of items are up for sale in a single day, especially the coveted "random bag of crap", which could be anything, from , well, a piece of crap, to whatever your imagination holds, all for the price of $1 each. I recently was lucky enough to get only 1 of these, which is a feat in itself (you really should get three), since it immediately sells out within mere seconds of its appearance: people around the world are participating in it as well, and when it appears, the site servers immediately flood with orders, to the point of almost overloading the servers and certainly overloading its bandwidth. So, yeah, it's all good.

I'll post more stuff later.

hell week starts!

oh, boy. this week is going to be hell. FOUR, count them, FOUR exams this week:

organic chemistry (I haven't been to lecture in weeks. so, yeah, I'm screwed)
observational astronomy lite (I don't mind this as much; it's actually fun, but I haven't been to class in a while)
general psychology (eh. I might be okay; I should technically have read the chapters twice, but I'll just review it the night before)
chinese (holy crap, my homework backlog is as extensive as the Great Wall. I'll probably end up doing the 2-classes-overdue homework to study)

plus the Cisco ISCW which I should be taking this week, but chickened out. I know there's a 92% pass rate, but I swear I could really be in the 8% of the world that actually FAILS this exam.

on top of all that, as aforementioned, pledging requirements are taking their toll on my time, sleep, and sanity (don't forget the serial comma!) on top of THAT, the a cappella group that I am in is having their show on Saturday, which means hectic rehearsals and ticket selling/heckling! So my week has me stretched out thin and flat like butter over too much bread. (mmm, bread )

I really should be studying now (astronomy and ochem are tomorrow at noon and 5pm, respectively), but I am just biding my time by spending it with you. Aww, don't you feel sooo special?



I'm getting back to work.... grumble...

more about me; gardening

I'll try to make these posts as regular as possible, but no guarantees (you'd immediately make this conclusion if you saw my schedule).

Anyway, life in college is a drag at the moment. The academic side is, as I expected it should, testing my limits of time, health, and sanity: I have four major exams next week, as well as the Cisco CCNP ISCW exam, which will come immediately after; that's what I get for taking five classes (technically six) that have nothing remotely to do with each other: astronomy, organic chemistry (lecture and lab), Chinese, psychology, and network engineering. In addition to that, I am a member of more clubs than I would like to count (and I am thinking of joining two more, believe it or not). On top of all that, I am pledging a fraternity this semester called Alpha Phi Omega, a coed service fraternity; the process can get quite hectic, physically, mentally, and philosophically, as there are plenty of requirements to fulfill. So, yeah, quite a full, ponderous plate have I on my hands this semester!

As for my spare time, I enjoy origami, photography, music, cooking, gardening, and video games, as well as reading about said pastimes. Each comforts me in its own way, and they all help keep me (relatively) sane and functional on my worst of times. Each will be expounded upon at a later date.

I'm only nineteen, but I'm feeling old already. I have been around to experience the collegiate revolving door phenomenon: people come in, and people get out, but most of us are still inside, looking out. It seems like freshman year of high school was just a mere year ago, but it's already been six years! Time really does fly when you're busy. And it really doesn't help that all this stress from college is aging me a lot faster, but, then again, that's college for ya.

Anywho, I like to think that my dorm room is a jungle. On sunny days, I open my blinds and put all my sun-loving plants on my intentionally south-facing windowsill, on a humidity tray: a magenta-colored geranium, basil, ginger, an apple seedling, and a cherry tomato plant, as well as a gardenia hiding in dappled shade, all of which are in pots way too small (plastic water bottles cut in half). The rest are on my desk: snake plant, pothos, spider plant, monstera, syngonium, dumb cane, and some mystery plant which (I think) is in the genus Tradescantia, each of them beautiful in their own ways. In case you were wondering, if I could start college all over again, I would be studying horticulture as well as biochemistry, but that arrangement is currently impossible: the nearest college offering it is an hour away, and the university with the state cooperative extension (in my case, Cornell; that's a hint on where I am) is another hour. I love where I am, though, and I would never trade this place for anywhere else, but I sometimes feel as though I were neglecting some part of me, that the experience here could never be as deeply fulfilling and satisfying as if I had gone to, say, Rutgers or Cornell (well..... I'd rather not go to Cornell, but just for the sake of my argument, I'm mentioning it). I know these shoulda/coulda/woulda's are useless to ask, and that I will go where I was meant to be, but I can't help thinking what could have been.

But I digress. (must be from the stress, I presume.)

I am called to this APO conference tomorrow morning (later today, but it's not THAT late yet...), and I must sleep, so... piu tardi.

first post!!

in true computer science fashion:

Hello World!

Call me Jones. This is my first foray into blogging. I am a sophomore in college, studying biochemistry, of all things (shock!). My tastes are many and varied, including cooking, gardening, music, languages, and nature, all of which will (hopefully) be greatly elaborated on in the future. For now, trust that I will post something in the near future. Zaijian for now!