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