Alright, so this site didn't 404, like I mentioned it might last month. I actually renewed my subscription to eNOM before it expired. What a load of crap. I shouldn't have to pay just because the the DNS can't change properly. Right, whatever.

I haven't paid my electricity/gas bill since I got here. It's all because my account in the system wasn't set up properly by the utilities provider. I just called and faxed them what they wanted and now I'm just waiting. What I DO know is that this bill will assrape me in the ass... redundantly. My guess is that it'll be in the $200-300 range, if I'm lucky. Hoo-boy. Can't wait for that to come in. It was a big mess. Back in Seattle, I sent them everything they wanted and I found it suspicious that Brandy received two energy statements while I was still waiting for my first. Then I decided to call them and they managed to lose one of the pages I faxed in months ago to set up my account, yet they didn't bother to call me and let me know there was a problem. Yeah, if you're missing a bill, you might want to get to the bottom of that.

Pumpkin carving on Wednesday turned out to be pretty fun. That morning, we learned we couldn't donate the pumpkins to the hospital. They said that they would need 54 of them and they couldn't be carved. I was half-expecting this. It was a hospital and the moment pumpkins are carved they start to rot. Since the pumpkins weren't going to the pediatrics ward of the hospital, we could go for broke on our designs, like the fabled 'Cack 'O Lantern' or a brutally maimed somebody by something. Well, onward to the pictures.

This one's an older picture. I bought the pumpkins from a nursery in Camillus for $3 each. It was raining that day and the nursury was actually closed. There was an unguarded coffee can sitting there for payment. So I left $30 and took ten pumpkins. I hope nobody looted the can of my pumpkin money.



I readied my living room for the pumpkin-directed carnage it was about to face. I basically put a bunch of newspapers on the floor under the table and rolled up the rug and put it away. I also had my room and the study ready for some carving action but several people ended up MIA, so we didnt' use those rooms.



The calm before the storm. Jessica, Justin and Renee waiting for the green light to start mutilating pumpkins.



Jessica, Brandon and Renee readying their tools.



Amber looking real excited.



And we're off. The slaughter begins.



Prying the 'lids' off the pumpkins.



AD in the red. We were starting to get worried about him. He got really lost on the way to my place and it was a mad scramble to find out where he was so we could get him here. He also said he has never carved a pumpkin before. We believe he's lying.



Gutting the bastards.



Brandon just cut out a huge nose for his pumpkin for some reason.



Jessica and her spider.



Renee cheating!! What's this? A stencil? Aw, hell naw.



My pumpkin looks retarded. I don't know why I did this, but I waited until the last minute to scoop out the seeds. Since the mouth was already carved out, it looked like it was puking out the seeds as I was scooping them out. Yeah, I was the messiest. It's ok, because it's my apartment.



AD's pumpkin. He was so lying.



My retarded pumpkin next to Renee's candy corn pumpkin.



Amber's butterfly pumpkin and Justin's angry pumpkin.



Finishing touches.



The carved collective.



Renee's pumpkin #2.



Candy Corn.



AD's first pumpkin ever... Whatever.



Brandon's pumpkin.



Jessica's spider-turned-pirate pumpkin.



Brandy and her pumpkin.



Justin's confused 'BioChem' pumpkin.



Justin's angry pumpkin.



Amber's pumpkin.



The other side is a butterfly. It's like two for the price of one or something.



Me and my retarded pumpkin with its eye shot out.

And Justin's ashamed to know me.



My shrunken head pumpkin.



All lit up.



My 'tard pumpkin again. Funny thing was that I wasn't trying to make it retarded. I was rushing through this one to get to the smaller pumpkin.



Shrunken head lit up.



I used twine marked with a black Sharpie to get it to look like this. I was getting a little impatient in the end with the mouth stitches as they don't follow a straight line. Oh well.. they're not supposed to look perfect anyway. This is the design I was thinking about for a while so I put more effort into this one. It looked a lot better in my head, though. I can't cut in a straight line. Heh.



Brandon's pumpkin.



Jessica's spider pirate. The right-hand eye was supposed to be a spider, but when that got messed up the pumpkin was ghetto-rigged into a pirate.



Justin's angry pumpkin.



Justin's confused 'BioChem' pumpkin.



Hey, it's the retarded one again. It truly looks retarded.



So I didn't make the dreaded 'Cack 'O Lantern'. Oh well.. there's next year. I threw these pumpkins out two days later. I was keeping them in the apartment and unfortunately, room temperature is the ideal temperature for breeding fruit flies. I came home Friday to an orgy of fruit flies. The pumpkins had to go. That sucked.


The more I read about it, the more interesting it seems. The game Stubbs the Zombie for Xbox is what I've been looking at. It's definitely a different game. The concept of eating people's brains and massing a large zombie army is intriguing. Just check out the trailers. How do you NOT want to play this?

I meant to get this done last week, but I finally got an eye appointment through my insurance. The weirdest thing was that the receptionist was way too perky. I'm used to the droning operator that doesn't give a rat's ass. She was alll giggly and chatty. To be honest, it was a little awkward. And when I gave my birthdate for insurance verification, she giggled and said 'happy belated birthday'. Oh well, I get to see her next Saturday at 2:30. Since that's my appointment. This may be weird.


Last night, Brandon and I went to Amber's for a couple of drinks. He was making Mudslides and I was making Dirty Bananas. I've never tried a Dirty Banana before and I was in the experimenting mood. They're alright. A little weak on the alcohol, but it tastes like banana coffee. It's different, but it's not bad. We had two blenders going and were ready to rock. Soon we learned, spur of the moment things don't end up as big as planned. We ended up watching Monsters Inc.. I brought the game Bust a Groove since Amber has a PSone. I haven't played that in forever. Still got it though. Oh yeah, you betcha.

I just saw Charlie and the Chocolate Factory today. The new one, that is. It's different. I didn't think they could make Oompa Loompas any creepier, but they managed. Instead of magical midgets running the factory, they have shrunken, dirty old men. And it's the same dirty old man. Yikes. Oh well, I still liked it. "Don't touch the squirrels' nuts! They'll go crazy!"

music Gorrilaz - Dare
It's comin' up, it's comin' up, it's comin' up...

your pumpkin makes me sad
-Chan - 051017 - 0654EST



"And when one little panda puts his furry little willy in another panda's ear, that makes me a very sad panda."
-SHP
-rich - 051017 - 0843EST



your pumpkin is bad and you should feel bad.

... seriously what's up with the mass-pumpkin carving craze? funny how it never came up the 5 years everyone was still together in seattle.
-ben - 051018 - 1505EST



Ben, relax dude! It's ok, we always resorted to alcohol every halloween! That's why we never had the craze for pumpkin carving.

It was always like this:
"Wanna carve pumpkins for Halloween?"
"Nah, let's have a party and drink!"

By the way Mango, nice pic of Grand Central. You're making me more anxious to go back up there. I miss NY already!
-Brian - 051018 - 1747EST



My pumpkin is retarded and I should feel retarded.

I don't know about the carving craze. I was carving to release some pent-up sex- uh, academic tension. It felt good, real good. Brian's right, I'd rather get drunk with you guys than carve a couple of love holes into pumpkins. Yeah.

Hey Brian, are you referring to the empty terminal or the pay phones? The locals here don't understand how I was able to empty a terminal of Grand Central Station. Yelling 'bomb' works out nicely.

However that may come with some immediate, serious repercussions.
-rich - 051018 - 2319EST



So it was you that made the bomb threat to the Subways when I was there! haha, j/k dude.

I was referring to the empty terminal. You were just too sexy for all of them to handle. (Note: train going in tunnel. Ooh yeah!)
-Brian - 051018 - 2327EST

I don't really feel like updating, but I guess I'll just go ahead and do it. After today, I don't know when I'll get a chance to get back to this thing. Anyway, if you're wondering about the picture of me on that shirt I'm wearing.. the source picture is here.. Yeah, I'm holding my coffee and passing stink eye. And this is how I'd look if I still had that pink hat from the NY State Fair. Now that's class...

There's a story behind that picture. It's a weird convoluted story that's really not that funny, so here's the abridged version. In class, there's construction going on right outside of the classroom. There's this lady who's taking the class and always, always sits in the back. And then she always has to complain that she couldn't hear anything. Um, well... the average rational-minded person would decide to sit a little closer to the lecturer. Uh, duh!! Anyway, after days of hearing her complain about not hearing, the class started complaining about hearing her complain about her not being able to hear the lecturer from sitting in the back of the classroom. I told you it was convoluted. So, then my contribution to the class' argument was that I should turn around one day and give her a solid minute of stinkeye (a la Monkeybone). It was just one of the many random things I blurt in class, trying to 'fit in' but not really. Anyway, a couple of days later Jess tells me that she wanted a picture of this 'stinkeye'. I was hesitant to comply, but a couple days after that, I found myself essentially cornered coming back from the cafeteria with my coffee by Jess and Pavi. Camera out, armed and ready and demanding stinkeye. Fearing physical harm, I gave it to them and they took the picture. I was told it was going to be sent to cousins and such. Yeah, the fear kicked in at this point and I was pretty weirded out. So then a week later, I'm wearing the picture on a shirt made for me as a birthday present. Fun.

Friday night, I went out with the third year grad students again. This time it was for Thien's birthday. We started out at Outback Steakhouse. He's a fellow UW alumni, so we cliqued like that. The only way the following would make any sense is knowing that he, like me, suffers from the asian curse. Meaning, we look like we're 17 until we're 30 years old. The funniest moment of the night was after Thien's third beer and was indecisive on the next one. After inquiring the waiter on which beers were good, he ended with "Well, I don't know. I'm only turning twenty." The waiter hadn't carded any of us and the look on his face was hilarious. And that, was the play of the night.

We then ventured out to Armory Square, namely Syracuse Suds, PJ Dorsey's and finishing it off at Ambrosia. Good stuff.

Saturday was spent mildly hungover at Amber's place. She wanted me to bring chairs and instead I brought chicken. I totally forgot the chairs. My bad. But.. I brought tasty chicken. We sat around, sang karaoke and talked. Good stuff. It was a real annoying hangover. I only felt headaches while I was moving around. If I was sitting still, I was fine. Weird.

On Monday, I went back to the Waterloo Outlet Mall with Pavi and Anandita. The last time I was there, I was with my mom and Brandy. Holy crap, I went nuts. Since it was Columbus day, there were some crazy sales going on. In addition, Banana Republic and Old Navy both opened their outlet stores that day and everything in those stores were 30% off. I came home with a asston of swag. There were $3 shirts at Aeropostale, buy one get one free long sleeve tees at The Gap. All this stuff only added up to $154. Big shopping day.

Dropping off Pavi at the Clark Tower dorms, I saw a lot of flashing lights and activity outside. I parked the car and joined the people outside the building. It turned out the fire alarm went off because somebody doesn't know how to cook. I ran into Justin, Brandon and Jessica. I decided to hang around for a bit. Ever notice that whenever Clark Tower's burning down I'm in the area. Coincidence?

Today I got my second BioChem exam back. I'm so glad it's all over. Now the course is on Cell Biology. Cell Bio seems a lot friendlier than BioChem... so far... I also got to help inject thirty or so mice with estrogen or olive oil control. Fun stuff. I'm actually starting to get real stuff to do in lab. Oh yeah.

Tomorrow... actually this evening, I'll be hosting a pumpkin carving contest for the grad students. I've already bought some pumpkins and tools. Others said they're bringing their own pumpkins and tools... fine by me. Justin had the great idea to donate the carved pumkins to the pediatrics ward in the hospital. That'll be awesome. I was just going to smash the damn things, but this is much better. I guess the designs have to be tasteful now. I can't make that "Cack 'O Lantern" I was hoping to make. Anyway, pictures will be up.. eventually. I'm hoping to get some inspiration from here to make something truly awesome. Anyway, catch ya laters yo!

(This one's for CarLo.)

music: Green Day - Brain Stew
I'm having trouble trying to sleep
I'm counting sheep but running out
As time ticks by
Still I try
No rest for cross stops in my mind,
On my own, here we go...

Interesting last couple of days, I admit.

So Sunday night was another restless night. It was the night before the second BioChem exam. Saturday night's insomnia was caffeine induced. Sunday night's was inexplicable. I needed to wake up at 7:30 in the morning and I couldn't sleep. I tried to sleep at midnight but I was overwhelmed by two strong feelings of anxiety. I couldn't help but feel I've forgotten something and something really bad was going to happen. I couldn't shake it and I found myself staring at the ceiling until 4:30 am. I don't have words for whatever was keeping me awake. It was a pure gut feeling something wasn't right and I was worried and I don't know why. Strangest thing ever.

Anyway, I painfully forced myself out of bed at 7:30am. I did my standard morning routine with a little extra last-minute cramming thrown into the mix. I made it to the classroom and waited anxiously to get my copy of the exam. It doesn't help when you see a faculty member flip through a copy of the exam and decides to give us two hours and forty-five minutes instead of the planned two hours and a half to finish the exam. He said it looks like it's going to take a while. Great. So then I get my test, all 16 pages of it and I quickly realize that none of the systems and schematics I've meticulously studied in detail were in the exam. From the electron pathway in Oxidative Phosphorylation to the individual functions of the eukaryotic Transcription Factor II components. So basically, I totally studied the wrong things. Yay. However, I managed to leave an answer for every question. That's not something I can say about every test I've taken at UW.

So I got done with that and went to the 9^th floor cafeteria to regroup with any other survivors. Oh man, we started bitching hard on this exam. Before I threw my hat in the ring, I noticed that one of the professors who contributed in writing the exam was sitting a table behind us and was surely taking in every word we were saying. Yikes. So that killed the conversation quickly. I wonder what he thought about our ambitious incoming class from the conversation we were having.

After lunch, I stumbled into lab tired and defeated. It turned out the PI is still out of town as well as the grad student I'm supposed to be working with. Things won't get back to normal until Wednesday at the soonest. I stayed to read a couple of papers and left for home after a couple of hours. I promptly fell asleep and stayed out until 7pm. Woke up, got a snazzy haircut and ate dinner. Then it was time to hit Marshall Square to get liquored up at 9.

Brandy kept insisting she drive me to the bar. This was strange. Brandy doesn't drink and she's likely to want to go home early from these things. I would rather drive myself so she wouldn't have to worry about me staying late. Still, she insisted. Strange. So then we park in the school's daycare parking lot and we started walking towards Marshall Square. Judging from the way Brandy was walking, it seemed she knew where Faegan was. She's never been there so that was strange again. After almost missing it, we were greeted by Jess at the door, she walked us into the room behind the bar and then it all became clear. A surprise birthday party. Wow. I had a feeling something was up but I wasn't expecting this.


This is the cake. Rocky Road ice cream cake. Awesome.



This is a good chunk of the class.
(At the table: Anandita, Jessica, Brandon, Justin, Amber, Jeanine, Meg, and Matt
Standing: AD and Brandy)



A couple of third year students started to filter in. That's Adam, Jon and Erik in the back. Pavi and Heather are to the right of Matt.



Yes, I'm wearing a shirt with me on it. It was a gift, I don't go out and make these things.



Justin holds a knife to unsuspecting Jeanine. Strangely, we all get along fairly well. At least that's what I keep telling myself.



Jess was the mastermind behind this, or at least I assume. Yeah, it's not a good picture, but it's the only picture she didn't have a chance to run away from the camera.

I have more pictures of everybody but most of them have bad red-eye in them. It was epidemic.


This was all too overwhelming. I thanked everybody for coming out and celebrating the twenty-third anniversary of me coming out of my mom. The night didn't last too long, however. Since most, if not all of us lost sleep over this test, many of us wanted to get home and pass out for the night. I still can't believe it. I thought I was just going out to cope with my loneliness through alcohol and out of nowhere, a birthday party. So I sent out a 'thank you email' the following day:

Oh, wow. I'd like to thank everybody for last night. I wasn't expecting
everybody to come out and throw a birthday party for some jerk in the class,
but I really appreciated it. I don't think I could have planned a better
surprise party for myself, but that defeats the purpose. Well unless I have
anterograde amnesia or multiple personality disorder then it just might
work... maybe. Thanks again for everything. There were some signs that
something was happening behind my back, and thanks to this I'll invest more
time into analyzing my deepest paranoid suspicions. mmm, conspiracy. I
swear I didn't cry when I got home.

Of course, I would also like to thank everybody who emailed, messaged, left a comment to, text messaged, left a voice mail or tried to get a hold of me on my birthday. I tried to get to everybody individually but, that too, got overwhelming real quick-like. My eight-year-old cousin called to sing 'Happy Birthday'. Wow.

So I recall two songs that refer to twenty-three. One from Yellowcard and one from Jimmy Eat World. Both refer to the age as being rather regretful and unsuccessful, relationship-wise. Unfortunately, both these songs fit me all too well for comfort. Oh well, it's a passing phase. I can't be bummed forever now... can I?


music: Yellowcard - Twenty-three
We're almost twenty-three and you're still mad at me
So much that I said to you and I want to take it back now
Twenty-three and it's so sad to me
You tell the world I'm dead to you
But I know you want me back...

music: Jimmy Eat World - 23
I felt for sure last night
That once we said goodbye
No one else will know these lonely dreams
No one else will know that part of me
Im still driving away
And I'm sorry every day
I wont always love these selfish things
I wont always live
Not stopping...

happy belated birthday!

i need to remember these kind of things...
-aron - 051005 - 2002EST



遅かったけど　お誕生日おめでとう！
-�)ルコ - 051006 - 0446EST



HOW COOOOOOOOL Rocky Road ICE CREAM CAKE! Richard you're so lucky!!!!!!! =D
-Joysha - 051006 - 1729EST



Thanks guys. I also not really good with these dates... ugh. Maybe I shoud write these things down.

I'm lucky that my class is pretty cool with each other and we're all getting along.

Thanks again!!
-rich - 051007 - 1251EST



Ha, that knife pic reminds me of that stupid DOOM movie preview. Happy Belated!
-Carlo - 051010 - 0929EST

So, maybe I drank way too much coffee. I had four cups not too long ago and the half life for this stuff is 5 hours. I think I'll be up for a while.

So, that movie thing on Friday didn't fall through. People freaked out and wanted to study on a Friday night. Gonna move it to next Friday. ::sigh:: Anyway, instead I went out drinking/dancing with a couple of third year graduate students. Yep, I ditched my class. It was Thien, Catherine, Nikki, Greg, Jesse and myself. First off, we started at Ohm. It was still a little early, about 9:30pm. We quickly decided to switch venues. It was a raging sausagefest in there and the majority of us weren't interested. I don't remember the name of the bar we went to next. Well that doesn't matter, we kept barhopping around Armory Square... BAR, FUEL, PJ Dorsey's. That was fun.

Yeah, there's actually a bar in Syracuse named 'BAR'. Real creative. And the third year students kept buying me drinks. I didn't pay for squat that night. Yeah, I'll have to get them back next time. Well, now I know a couple of places where to go when I want to go out. PJ Dorsey's, the last place we hit that night, was packed. I could swear it was a fire hazard. I got home around 2am.

Remember that lab I started talking about earlier. I kinda stopped going to it this week. I decided that I'm just bugging the other grad students in the lab since I don't have a project yet and they have their own stuff to work on. I'll just be coming in on Monday when rotatons are supposed to start. Hopefully, I'll have some kind of project by then. Gotta stay busy.

So, I caved and got me a MySpace account. I'm still not sure why. Might have been the caffeine.

Richard, I feel like such an ASS. I made a mental note this morning to wish you a happy b-day, and tonight I actually talked to you on aim and I completely forgot to do so, even after you mentioned a birthday party! I'm so sorry....I'll buy you a drink when you come back to Seattle. Uh, or roast pidgeon, if you like doing an azn binge ^_^;; Anyhoo, according to Seattle time I've still got an hour left so......HAPPY BIRTHDAY RICHARD!! ^__^v
-Gina - 051004 - 0203EST

ginajun@gmail.com

I'm on Eastern time though. heh

It was fun talking to you yesterday. I was thinking "Oh man, I'm like totally talking to a girl. This must be how 'cool' feels like." Thanks for the well-wishing. I know I'll be needing that here in grad school.

And I'll call you up when I'm in Seattle for that 'azn binge' I totally made up the other day.

Anyway, get a Myspace account. Join us... It's bliss....
-rich - 051005 - 0107EST