Song I Composed for Music Class

Yep... it wasn't played as well as I would have liked it so I used Sibelius and recorded the computer playing it.

In the end... I guess I ended up naming it "A Leaf's Wavering Path" but I don't really think the name's that great... suggestions maybe?

Here's the sheet music:



The video/what it sounds like is currently being uploaded onto youtube-- stay tuned

[Edit: yay it's done uploading :)]

English Fictional Story

This is the English fictional story I wrote for my fiction project senior year. I can't find the final version, but let's just say it was really bad >_< [according to Stephanie and Irene at least]. So here's one draft:

[Insert Temporary Title]

<926261>>: Unleash DV27.
<362867>>: Now?
<926261>>: Yes now.
<362867>>: But we’re not finished.
<926261>>: Unleash her now Doctor, we can’t hold on any longer.
<362867>>: But General, you know the risks of releasing her now… We’ll be done in 5 minutes.
<926261>>: Five minutes then. Transmit me when you’re done.
The doctor knew DV27 was going to take at least 15 more minutes to wake up, but the general and his troops were dying out there from the attack. He had to force her to wake up. He took AED shockers out of a drawer in his laboratory and walked up to the stretcher she was laying near the exit of the lab. He shocked her where a human heart would be and surprisingly enough, she woke up fine and his devices monitoring her were showing normal results.
<362867>>: She’s ready.
<926261>>: Release her in 5…4…3…2…1…
The doctor gave her a katana and told her to only defend and fight against the American troops wearing black uniforms.
<362867>>: DV27 has been released.
The doctor walked around his lab, looking at the piles of data piled on his desk, and his laptop stored with data that only a few megabytes of memory left. He called his assistant to clean the lab up, and he packed his laptop and data, getting ready to go home for the day. His project of 15 years had finally been successful.
Just as he was about to leave, he heard a beep from his transmitter.
<926261>>: Stop her. She’s killing civilians and our troops
The doctor looked back at the monitor screen. The screen showed no malfunctions. Everything was normal. Why had she disobeyed him? He had programmed her to obey everything he said. “Stop DV27, Stop killing troops and civilians.” he said to the microphone, attached to her ear. The monitor displayed back “ERROR.” He heard another beep on his transmitter.
<926261>>: Stop. Turn her off.
The doctor knew he couldn’t turn her back off. She was a real life human being now. She’s probably angry from waking up ten minutes early. He told his crew of scientists to go over to the battlefield and check what was wrong with DV27. They left immediately.
<362867>>: We can’t just turn her off. She’s a real human being now.
<926261>>: She’s killing our troops. Stop her.
<362867>>: I can’t. She’s out of my control. Kill her.
<926261>>: We can’t. She’s too strong. Stop her. She’s coming this way.
<362867>>: I sent people over.
<926261>>: Those guys in red lab coats? They’re dead.
<362867>>: They were wearing white lab coats…
<926261>>: They’re dead. Everyone else is dead. She’s coming.
<362867>>: Run.
* * *
Oogiku (Chrysanthemum japonicum): Yellow-colored plant considered a vegetable. Used as spices in cooking. The flower is a symbol for the month of November.
Why couldn’t he have gotten an easier plant to find and sketch? He thought he was lucky to draw the flower of the month during biology class today, but he never expected the flower to be this hard to find. He had been looking in the woods for hours. The sun was already beginning to set, and the forest was getting colder. This is a waste of my time. I could be home beating Scarlet Mist, getting enough money for the 42,000 gold boomerang I need to defeat Akuma. It’s getting dark…I need to go home and make dinner. I’ll just tell Akai-sensei1 I couldn’t find it. As he turned around to walk home and he felt a tug on the back of his shirt. He turned around and saw a girl, around his age with long black hair, holding on to the back of his shirt.
“Let go.” She held on.
“Let go of my shirt.” She wouldn’t let go. He started running back to the apartment he moved into over a year ago, but the girl, still holding onto his shirt, followed him home. He had no choice but to let her inside. He led her into the dining room, and told her to sit down and wait. He got up, went into the kitchen, and cooked some rice with the leftover shrimp dish he had for dinner the night before. He gave her a bowl, and questioned her as she was eating.
“What’s your name?” he asked the girl.
“Deeveenijiunana”
“Uh…Dee-chan2 then… I’m Yuki, Akan Yuki.”
“Okay.”
“Why were you in the woods?”
“I don’t know.”
“Where are your parents?”
“I don’t know.”
“Where are you come from?”
“I don’t know.”
“How old are you?”
“I don’t know.”
“What do you know?”
“My name.”
“How long have you been living in the woods?”
“Maybe… 10 years.”
“Oh… Well I guess you can stay here for now then, until we know something more about you.”
He took her upstairs, and prepared a sleeping bag on the floor next to a desk for her in the extra room where his dad usually stayed when he came to visit from Hokkaido. The walls of the room were covered in pictures of his mom. His dad had taped pictures from family trips, family reunions, and other events all over the wall after his mother died from tuberculosis last year.
* * *
<773743>>: Did General Yamamoto get out?
<436725>>: Probably not. No one survived that.
<773743>>: How many people dead?
<436725>>: 2104.
<773743>>: Where’s DV27?
<436725>>: Asleep.
<773743>>: What’re we going to do with her?
<436725>>: They secured her in an antichronolytic cell for future uses. They need to find out what went wrong first.
<773743>>: I thought Doctor Akan quit.
<436725>>: Yes, Doctor Itou will take over.
<773743>>: Does he have the files?
<436725>>: What files?
<773743>>: DV27’s files... the files needed to create more. They’re stored on the doctor’s computer.
<436725>>: There were files?
<773743>>: Itou doesn’t have them?
<436725>>: No.
<773743>>: You mean he doesn’t know anything?
<436725>>: He did work with the doctor on DV27…
<773743>>: He cleaned the Petri dishes…
<436725>>: Doesn’t anyone else have the files? What about the other scientists who worked with the doctor?
<773743>>: No. They were all killed by DV27. Do we have enough people to prevent America’s next attack?
<436725>>: No. We need the clones.
<773743>>: … Find the doctor.
<436725>>: Where is he?
<773743>>: I don’t know. Just go find him.
<436725>>: You know he’s not going to come peacefully.
<773743>>: Kidnap him. Torture him. Blackmail him. I don’t care. Just find him.
* * *
The alarm clock rang at 6 am the next morning. The girl who followed me home last night was all just a dream. Yes, it must’ve been a dream. Yuki got up, put on his school uniform, and went to pack his backpack. Then he remembered he had a math test first period today. He took out his math textbook and a notebook, sat down in front of his desk, and tried to study for his test. After half an hour, he gave up and went downstairs to make breakfast.
Just as he got into the dining room, he saw the girl sitting in his chair in front of the dining room table.
“I’m hungry,” she said, staring at him.
Yuki stared back at her.
“I’m hungry,” she repeated.
When he came to his senses, he hurried over to the kitchen to make breakfast: omelet and pancakes. She refused to eat the omelet and pancakes, so she searched through his fridge for something she wanted to eat. She took out a bag of shrimp. She handed the bag to Yuki and said “Cook.” Yuki took the bag, opened it, and stared at her, and then went to make Tofu Shrimp. She picked out and ate all the shrimp, leaving the bowl with only tofu left.
Yuki looked at the time; it was 7:30 a.m. School started in half an hour, but he had to get there early to register Dee for a class. He grabbed his bag and headed next door, where people sold Transmitters. He bought her a Transmitter and registered it under his name. On the way to school, he showed her how to type out words on the transmitter and gave her his code number: 985525. She followed him to school, but she didn’t have a school uniform, so he took her to the principal’s office.
“She’s my cousin from Hokkaido. Her name’s Dee, Akan Dee. She’s a 1st year student3, one grade below me. Her parents suddenly fell ill, so she came here to live with me instead. Please give her a school uniform and put her in class,” Yuki lied to the principal.
After school, he went to class 1-C to pick her up and noticed a crowd of people around her. He got closer and heard:
“Join the astronomy club; you’re really good at science.”
“No, join kendo. She’s really strong. You should’ve seen her during gym.”
“No, join…”
“I’ll join kendo,” she finally said. She saw Yuki walking towards her, but told him to go home first. Kendo practice was till 6:00 pm.
Yuki turned around and began to leave, but a crowd of people held him back. They wouldn’t let him leave without questioning him. It was a tradition in their school to question anyone who knew anything about new students.
“Are you really her cousin?”
“Er—“
“Are her parents really sick?”
“Um—“
“What programs on the Holographic Displayer does she watch?”
Yuki pushed through the crowd and ran home. He got home, turned on his computer, and played Scarlet Mist. He finally found the correct passageway out of the scarlet-colored mist. He looked at the time. A new record. He recorded the time in his notebook and started a new game. The time to beat was 6 hours.
* * *
<436725>>: We’ve lost her.
<773743>>: What?
<436725>>: DV27, she escaped.
<773743>>: When?!
<436725>>: Last week.
<773743>>: And you Transmit me now??
<436725>>: Sorry. We were busy looking for her and I forgot.
<773743>>: How’d she get out?
<436725>>: The antichronolytic cell reacted with her hair and blew up, waking her up, but apparently causing no damage to her, since she was able to escape.
<773743>>: What happened to security?
<436725>>: They got killed in the explosion.
<773743>>: Where is she now?
<436725>>: We don’t know. The explosion blew up her tracking device.
<773743>>: Are her powers still dormant?
<436725>>: We don’t know…
<773743>>: Tell your troops to stop looking for the doctor and look for her.
<436725>>: Yes, Mr. President.
* * *
Profits for today: 726,000,000 yen4. Takeshi looked at the time. 11:30 pm. His son had left four and a half months ago in August. He laid out a blanket in front of his house and stared at the stars, listening to the cicadas chirp. Fog started covering the skies. There isn’t supposed to be fog today. What is this? He suddenly felt himself get sleepier and sleepier, until he finally closed his eyes.
* * *
Dee had stayed at his house for a month and a half now, and he still hasn’t found out anything about her. He went on all the search pages, searching DEE, but only found sites about Diplomatic Environment Engineers, Dexterous End Effectors, or Disjoint Eager Executions. Yuki asked Dee to write her full name on paper. She wrote “DV27.” DV27? What kind of name is that? A code name? Was she some secret agent from the JSA? He went on Google and searched “DV27,” but all he found were pages of different models of DV27 DVD Players.
* * *
The moon and stars shined brightly over the old building, making the building glow like a candle in. The building that used to be a teahouse where people went during family reunions is getting demolished the next week and turned into a store that sells different kinds of electronics. The building was surrounded by yellow caution signs, and a “DO NOT ENTER” sign painted in red paint on a wooden board in front of the entrance of the building. Two men stood on the roof of the building, one of them just stirring awake.
“Takeshi…I haven’t seen you since 2643. 10 years ago? We spent almost 10 years looking for you. Itou took over right after you quit, you know, but he hasn’t been able to accomplish anything. We’re still short on soldiers.
“Draft.”
“It’s against the new Japanese laws and they’re refusing to change then.”
“You’re the President.”
“I know, but I can’t make any changes. They’ve vetoed all my amendments. Japan has changed…”
“Yes, it has.”
“We’re going to lose the war if you don’t help. The American Army is one of the strongest and China is refusing to help because they said some terrorists from Japan bombed Tian An Men Square 30 years ago. I hear you have a son now. Where’s your wife?”
“Dead. Why’ve you brought me to this deserted place?”
“Owning an amusement park now?”
“Yes I am. What do you want?”
“I wanted to talk to you. I’m sure you know why. They secured DV27 in an antichrololytic cell, but it appears that she’s escaped.”
“You need to find her…”
“We know. It’s another reason why we’ve brought you here. Who knows where she is now? It’s been 10 years. ”
“You used halothane?”
“Would you have peacefully come with us if we hadn’t?”
“I won’t help you Mr. President.”
“It’s not like you have a choice.”
“You can’t kill me. The information will be lost if you do.”
“We know that. We weren’t planning to kill you.”
“I won’t tell you the password.”
“We will get it from you, Doctor Akan. We’ve located the whereabouts of your son.”
Takeshi fled from the building, running down one set of staircase after another, until he finally got to the entrance. He looked back at the building and recognized the place immediately. He ran to the closest train station and bought a ticket for the next ride to Okinawa. It was in 10 minutes. He had to get there first.
* * *
5:57 pm. Dee should be home soon. Yuki waited for Dee to return in the living room. He had already thought of what to make for dinner tonight. He finished preparing the shrimp dumplings half an hour ago, and now sat on the living room couch, watching his H.D. All he had left to do was to heat the dumplings in boiling water for a few minutes anyways. He can do that after Dee comes home. He heard a knock on the door and ran to open it. It wasn’t Dee.
“Dad? Why are you here?”
“Urgent…news…they’re…coming…for…you…”
“Who?”
“The…President…and army…”
“Dad, did you run here? Sit on the sofa and take a rest.”
The doorbell rang again. It was probably Dee coming home. He ran over to open the door. Dee took off her shoes and went inside.
“DV27! So this was where you ran off to.” Yuki’s father stared her.
“Wait you know her?”
“Yes I know her, but I don’t think she remembers me yet.”
“Dad, how do you know about her?”
“I’ll tell you after she’s gone. I don’t want her knowing everything yet,” Takeshi whispered.
“Hey, Dee… Can you go upstairs and finish homework first?”
“I’m hungry.”
“Yeah I’ve prepared the dumplings already. I’ll start cooking them now. Can you go upstairs and wait.”
“Okay.”
“So dad… How do you know her?”
“I created her.”
“Created?”
“Yes, created. American’s bombing of Japan sparked the start of World War III. I was experimenting with artificial life, sponsored by the government. They asked me to create an artificial life whose sole purpose was to fight during the war, since Japan was short on soldiers. I refused at first, but they threatened to stop my research. I gave in, in the end. DV27, the artificial girl I had created, got out of my control, and killed thousands of civilians and Japanese soldiers. Recently, the president contacted me and told me DV27 had escaped. If she had regained her powers, then the world would be in danger, but thankfully, she hadn’t yet.”
“How come you’ve never told me any of this?”
“I wanted to forget how stupid I was to ever experiment with artificial life forms. Anyways, this is bad that she’s here too. We need to hide her somewhere. We can’t have the government get a hold of her and study how she was created. Stay here and do not open the door for anyone while I got hide her.”
“Where are you going to hide her?”
“I shouldn’t tell you, in case they come and torture you for information. Here’s my transmitter. Keep it turned off. I don’t want them tracking my texts.”
“Are you coming back after you’re done?”
“Yes, I’ll be back.” Takeshi walked upstairs, and told DV27 that he was going to take her to an amusement park. She agreed to follow him, so they left the house and started walking towards the train station. They arrived at the station twenty minutes later. The next ride to Hokkaido was in half an hour. Takeshi hadn’t eaten dinner yet. He asked DV27 if she wanted anything to eat. Dee hadn’t eaten dinner either, so she told him she wanted shrimp. Takeshi left Dee on a bench inside the train station. The station was crowded, so he thought it’d be okay to leave her there without being found. He went around outside to look for something to eat. He saw a booth near the station that sold shrimp dumplings, but the dumplings were made after the person ordered, so the dumplings would still be warm. Takeshi had to wait another twenty minutes before the dumplings were done.
* * *
Dee was bored. She looked around the station and saw a man wearing a black suit, running towards the next train to Tokyo. She wondered why the man was in such a rush. Then she looked around and noticed many people in the station running towards their trains. Why were humans always in such a rush? She heard a woman yelling, so she turned around to discover the perpetrator of the noise. She saw the woman yelling at her toddler son. She moved a bit closer to hear what she was yelling about. “How can you not get top 3 in your class on this test? I was always first when I was your age. How can you get this easy division problem wrong?” Dee went back to the bench where Takeshi told her to stay. Takeshi had been gone for more than ten minutes, and she got tired of observing people in the station. She put her hands in her pocket, and found the transmitter Yuki had given her. Yuki’s number was 985525. “I’m Bored”, she typed to Yuki.
* * *
The shrimp dumplings Yuki had prepared for him and Dee were ready. He sat down at the dining room table, getting ready to eat. He heard a beep from his transmitter.
<<333733>>: I’m Bored.
333733 was Dee’s number. Why is Dee messaging him? Doesn’t she know—oh wait she wasn’t there when Dad explained why he had to leave his Transmitter here, and obviously Dad wouldn’t have known that Dee had a Transmitter. They’re going to get tracked unless Yuki did something to distract…
* * *
The traffic was bad at this time of the day. The President was taking a while to get to Takeshi’s son’s house. He should have taken the train; Takeshi is probably already there. He’s probably taken his son and run away, so the only thing he could do was track his Transmitter. The President turned on the computer in his limo and tracking devices. It showed that the Transmitter was still in their house. Why hadn’t he run away yet? Maybe Takeshi left the Transmitter there. Twenty minutes later, he got a report of a signal from a new Transmitter. He looked at the number: 333733. He looked up the history of the transmitter. It was said to have been bought by Akan Yuki: Takeshi’s son’s transmitter. Aha… so Takeshi did leave his Transmitter at his son’s house, but now the President could track his son’s transmitter. He opened the message to read. “I’m Bored.” It said. Why would Takeshi write that sort of message? He looked at the receiver of the message: 985525. He looked up the history of that transmitter. It was under the name Akan Yuki. Why are they messaging themselves? He looked at the whereabouts of transmitter with the number 985525. It was still at Takeshi’s son’s house. Takeshi hadn’t taken his son with him? Or did he make his son run away by himself? One of them was still at their house, so either way, it was worth going there. Few minutes later, he got a report of a signal that came from a transmitter with the number 362867, Takeshi’s transmitter. “Come and get me, evil government.” the message said. So they knew they were being tracked. Does that mean Takeshi made his son run away and he stayed that the house? But Takeshi would never use the words” evil government”, and why does Akan Yuki have two Transmitters?
* * *
Dee heard a beep from her Transmitter. She looked at the screen. “Come and get me, evil government.” Dee didn’t understand what it meant. Then she saw Takeshi coming back, carrying two brown bags, probably with dinner inside. Takeshi handed her a bag. Dee looked inside and saw a lunchbox inside. She opened the lunchbox and saw the dumplings. Takeshi told her not to eat the dumplings yet; their train was coming in a minute or so. Once the train had arrived, Takeshi and Dee walked to their seats: 23A and 23B. Dee poured open the soy sauce bag and dumped it over her dumplings. She broke open the chopsticks and started eating the dumplings.
* * *
Yuki had to run away from the house. He opened the door and there stood the president in the doorway, looking as if he was just about to knock on the door.

Procrastination Fall 2010

So I have a physics exam tomorrow at 7pm, a bio exam Monday at 4pm, and another bio exam tuesday 8:30am. I have given up studying for physics and is currently really distracted. I was looking around and found the witty college app essay for the "who are you" question for Tufts... The directions said to go "beyond your boundaries"... yep, that's what I did. So brace yourself, here it is:

I am an artist who draws gothic art for the school literary magazine. I am an engineer who made a bean-moving robot that moves Lego’s instead. I am the captain of the school’s tai-chi club. I am a hacker who hacks calculators and destroys them with viruses, and I am the hacker who hacks iPods during lunch. I am the Terrible Trivium who has no pointless tasks to do and the Senses Taker who has no senses to steal; I am the person who can escape Plato’s underground den, where humans have been since birth. I proved Tom Robinson’s innocence, but Harper Lee decided not to include that part in her book. I am the lawyer who sued the farmer’s wife for cutting off the tails of the three blind mice. I am the inventor of artificial life, but my test subjects ran away and are now wondering on earth. I made the elixir of life, but my pet ferret drank all of it and ate the research. I am the architect of a life-size gingerbread house, but my colleagues couldn’t resist and ate it all. I am a doctor; I am an astronaut. Or simply, I am a writer.

Hahaha... I want to write another one... but med school isn't something to joke about so... guess that's not going to work :(

Potential Spring2011 Schedule

This schedule is like empty. Of course, I haven't added independent research course times yet, or volunteering times, or tutoring times yet, but this is just classes without research. All the linguistics classes I'm taking are just for fun. This will be an awesome semester.\

Fall 2010 Schedule - Updated

So I realized I forgot to post up the actual updated version of my Fall 2010 schedule. Green is class, red is volunteering, yellow is badminton, and light blue is tutoring. Tutoring times aren't really set, so I just found three random hour slots and added those.

Linguistics- field work

So I'm in linguistics class right now making this post on my iPod touch. Paauw was talking about how field linguists, when aliens come to the world, will be extremely important for determining if aliens speak, what they use to speak and their language. That got me thinking about communication between animals (since I'm studying for the animal behavior test next Friday). Then I thought "Aren't behavioral ecologists in a sense, field linguists?"

He's talking about a really good scientific short story written by Ted Chiang (omg azn!) and he said the author is the only science fiction author he's seen that knows linguistics. I'm looking forward to reading the short story, since I'm a fan of both made-up languages and science fiction. I kind of want to write my own short story... maybe for NaNoWriMo lol though I don't know if I'll have the patience to do that or to make up my own language.

Interview-ish

I went to talk to Doctor today [not going to mention any names, just in case so the doctor's name will be Doctor] at 8:00am. I was afraid I was going to be late, so I left my room at 7:20, knowing it'd only take me around 10-15mins to walk there. I didn't know where her office was, so I had to ask the service desk in the main lobby of the hospital. Her office was on the top floor and it was kinda creepy because the when the elevator opened, it was all dark. She was talking to someone when I first got there at around 7:40 and I didn't want to disturb her, so I waited outside. After they left, I walked into her office and she called her student over, the student whose job I'll be taking over if I decide to take the offer. She told me a bit about the job, but it was mostly the student talking. He graduated last year and is applying to medical school this year. He basically said he was Doctor's assistant and does both administrative and research work. Apparently, you need to pass a test to conduct research on humans. They're into web design, and Doctor is in charge of their residency program, so I may get to interview residents, which would be lots of fun. They also said they just came up with a new idea called the Confession Box, which started with the residents writing confessions and them reading and analyzing them. Then it turned into a hospital thing, so now there are confession boxes around the hospital. This jobs seems like lots of fun because it's a bunch of little projects, so I won't get bored, and research with human interaction.

I'm actually really interested in this job right now, but I've also emailed that surgeon that my dad's friend's friends with and am still waiting to hear back from him. I'm leaning more towards this job though because it's a job I've found on my own, or at least did the networking myself to get it. A lot of people tell me how lucky I am because my parents are in the field and that I can only get a job because of connections. It's pretty embarrassing to only be able to get a summer intern position because my mom is there or because my dad knows someone, because then it's not because they think I'm qualified, it's because they can't say no. This job, I can proudly say, I got myself, and no one can say anything about connections. Doctor said to keep in touch and of course I'm going to email her tonight and say how thankful I am for her giving me this opportunity. I probably didn't seem impressive in today's interview because I was kind of nervous and sick. I'm starting to think my coughs are stress-induced because I couldn't stop coughing during the interview and she kept asking me if I needed something to drink. Doctor seems like a really nice and cool person and the student said the environment is pretty relaxed, but lots of work.

Another reason I'm leaning towards this job is because I want to stay in Rochester and near University of Rochester. The people here are all really nice and I like this environment, despite the cold, which reminds me... I wore like 3layers of jackets and 2layers of pants today because it was freezing cold when I was walking there. It was still dark when I was walking. I also want to stay because I don't want to leave all my friends here yet. I also want to play in the Rochester Open again next year and I don't want to leave Badminton Club yet either. I'll see what the other doctor says and decide from there, but I really am leaning towards this job right now after hearing her and the student talk about it so enthusiastically.

Reclassification

I got the letter I've been waiting for Friday Nov. 29, 2010.

Dear Ms. Wang:

I am pleased to inform you that the Administrative Committee has approved your request to be reclassified from the Class of 2010 to the Class of 2011. All appropriate offices will be notified of this decision.

Yep, I am now a senior :D. Maybe I should make a new word for people graduating early, but like... you can't really mix junior and senior... it'd be like... jenior or sunior... jusenior...? Yeah that fails... so I'll just be "graduating early". It actually took me a while to come to this decision. Sure maybe if I can stay I can get a leadership position in Badminton, and maybe I'll get research, but like what classes would I take? My counselor recommended me to get a bunch of minors, but that's just a waste of time and I really don't see the point in getting minors, or even another major. So basically, I tried to think of reasons for me to stay and found that the benefits of graduating early succeeded the benefits of staying, and thus I decided to appeal to graduate a year early. What am I going to do that year? I'm looking for clinical research right now and if I can't find any, I'll hopefully get to volunteer for a nonprofit organization of some sort.

I have an "interview" tomorrow, which I was very lucky to get. I went to the alum networking night and waited like an hour or two for a one doctor in anesthesiology who said was going to show up. After a really long time, he finally showed up and by that time, most of the premeds probably left already because it was all engineering, business, and public health. Anyways, so I basically got to talk to him by myself for a long period of time. As I was telling him/asking him to reaffirm my graduating early plans, I was hinting that I wanted clinical research. I asked him whether he did research himself and he said he didn't. By the end of the conversation, he basically said "email me and I'll recommend you to some people I know who does research". At that time, I didn't let myself get too excited because I wasn't expecting anything. I wasn't expecting him to actually try to find me a position, but I emailed him anyways because I had nothing to lose. About three days later, another doctor of anesthesiology emailed me and said she might have a position open and wanted to talk to me. It was scheduled for last Thursday, but she said she needed to be in the OR all morning, and was rescheduled for tomorrow. My dad's coworker apparently is a good friend of a surgeon here in Rochester and I need to email him (the surgeon) really soon to ask for a position too.

I actually have a music quiz in 15mins, so I'm going to start walking towards Todd Union now. Bye~

Classes Fall 2010 [Junior Year]

I'll start out with my major courses, then premed req courses, then random courses.

1. Evolution [BIO205]: Hutch 473

It's a pretty interesting course so far. It's a lot more math than I had expected. The math is a bit confusing, but things work out after you put some logic into it. I haven't really done much for this course except the weekly p-sets [there's been 3 so far]. The first two psets were pretty easy and the third one was a pain... I spent like an hour working on it and I ended up getting like two or three questions wrong.

The teacher (Dr. Fry):
First thing I noticed was that he has a lisp. He's a bit boring when he's just talking in lectures, but he does random activities for the class to get the class a bit more engaged. I think there's been 2/8 classes so far where he's let us out on time. The other 6/8 times, he's let us out of class after 12:20, so I always need to fast walk to physics.

2. Animal Behavior [BIO260]:Dewey 2162

This course is probably the course I look forward to going to the most because I really like the subject. I would enjoy it a lot more if the class wasn't so much work. We need to find and read an article about a topic he gives us and then summarize/criticize the article like at least twice a month. There are also lots of readings. I just got my first exam back for this class like an hour ago and T_________T when I first saw the grade. It made me feel a lot better after I heard the average was probably in the 60s [Apparently there was 1 90, 5/6 80s, rest were below. The range was 30s-90 for this exam].

The teacher (Dr. Werren):
I like the teacher as a person and as a teacher, but as a testmaker and grader... he is MEAN. He makes the lectures very interesting so I really like going to his class, and he has a sense of humor [and we watch cool animal behavior videos], but his tests are sooooooooo ambiguous. They're fill in the blanks and "short answers" with word limits of like 30words, definitions and examples, and "long answers". He also tests on things that he didn't talk about in lecture, but that are in the reading. Maybe half the test is in the reading and the other half are in his lectures so it's a lot of material he tests us on. He also wants short and detailed answers on his tests, so he takes points off if it's not exactly the way he wants the answers to be [missing key words, small details, etc]. Oh he also obsessively sends and checks his emails, so now I have a tag just for him in my email.

3. Animal Behavior Research [BIO261W]: In the Lab and HH486A

The class is basically a directed independent research course; there are a total of 7 of us because a few people dropped the course. We choose our own projects to do on the behavior of Nasonia [parasitic wasps]. My project is determining the QTL for the strong female mate discrimination in Nasonia oneida against Nasonia vitripennis. This course is really time consuming because I need to be in the lab around 10hours a week and I need to read many papers about Nasonia. I need to come in during the weekends because I don't have enough time during the weekdays, but because of that, I have a key to Hutch now :D [and one to the lab].

The teacher (Dr. Werren):
Yes same teacher. Like I said, he emails obsessively and wants us to email him obsessively. He emails us assignments like a day or two before it's due and expects us to get it done. We have to email him when we arrive in the lab on weekends and when we leave. He's very strict about us spending enough time in the lab and will email us if he doesn't think we've spent enough time.

4. Physics [PHY113]: Hoyt Auditorium
This class is basically what it is. I can't say I really like the class, but I don't hate it either. The pace of the class is very fast, which is a good thing since I took AP Physics in high school, but on topics we didn't really cover in AP Physics, it's like what?

The teacher (Dr. Bodek):
If he didn't have some accent [people think it's German, but I can't tell] and if he didn't mumble, write badly, and go through the material so fast, he'd be a great teacher. I think he's a really nice guy, just can't speak English, or speak at all. I don't really pay attention in class anymore since he does post up lecture notes and the test is in two weeks. I need to start studying... but evolution exam is next week so that's my priority right now.

5. Music [MUR101]: TODD 202F

The class is a bit interesting, I guess. I think it's boring, but it goes by really fast, so I'm not sure if I think it's boring or not. I don't know all the material lol. Yay I learned rhythm, meter, and basic conducting. We're doing pitch right now and I know all the notes, but I don't know any music terms.

The teacher (Prof. Hanson):
He's a really nice and cool guy. He's extremely enthusiastic about the subject too so he's what makes the class interesting. He seems very young, like maybe our generation-ish and he's really modernized.

6. Linguistics - Morphology: MEL 208

This is probably my easiest and yet most interesting classes. It's 70% homework, 10% participation [which includes going to class] and 20% final project. Yes, no tests or quizzes or a final, just a final project. The subject is really interesting and we get into class discussions about random topics that has anything to do with linguistics.

The teacher (Prof. Paauw):
I took this class because of Paauw. I took LIN102 [Linguistics and Social Identity] with him. I thought LIN102 was going to be a boring class, but I was def wrong. Paauw makes the subject very interesting with his enthusiasm about the subject. Even though he's old in age, he's very modernized and a cool guy. I didn't think morphology would be an interesting class either, but the things he tells us is intruiging, especially about the weird languages [in New Guinea and the Caucasus].

OTHER STUFF

So aside from my 6 classes [24credits again], I have lots of "other stuff" I need to do.

Volunteering

I have to volunteer at the hospital, which reminds me, I need to call Occupational Health to make an appointment before I can start volunteering [I should have called Monday and it is already Friday omg I thought I'd told myself to stop procrastinating D:]. The program I'll be volunteering at is the Enhanced Elder Care Program in Strong Memorial Hospital. It's basically like working at a senior center, but in the hospital so these are the elderly with more severe medical issues. I'm actually looking forward to this program, even if it means waking up early on the weekends.

Tutoring

So after I came back from my first interview for volunteering, I got an email from LAS [Learning Assistant Services] saying I need to tutor four kids. I was like O______O no, so I emailed them back and was like "give me two". They gave me two kids, one CHM203 [Orgo] and one BIO110. Last night, I just got another email saying my BIO110 tutee switched subject and doesn't need a tutor anymore. So now, I only have one tutee and they're looking for another one for me. My orgo tutee hasn't contacted me yet, probably because they just had an exam yesterday morning. I just signed my tutoring contract like 2.5hrs ago, so now I can get paid [$7.50/hr]! Yay! That's like less than half of what I got paid over this summer x_X.

Badminton

I've been trying to take badminton a bit more seriously this year. I've stopped playing in jeans and I have my own racket [which is in a bag with my tennis racket and all three have my name and phone number written on them in case I lose it again]. There are sooooo many freshman this year... but thankfully a lot of them have stopped coming now. There weren't courts to play at for like the past few weeks and no birdies to hit either [they just ordered some so now it's fine]. I forgot to bring my Badminton shirts :( When I go back during winter break, I'll make sure to bring them here.

In Conclusion

So yes, this will be the activities for Fall 2010, the first semester of my junior year. I've been pretty good so far at waking up early. The latest I've woken up is 10am, but for the past two weeks, I've been getting up around 7:15am and getting to Carlson Library at 8am when it opens and doing work then. I have just realized this year that I can't do work at night and that I'm so much more productive in the morning, and that I function pretty well with 6-7hrs of sleep. So I've been sleeping around 12-1 and waking up at 7:15. I slept a bit late yesterday, so I wanted to wake up a bit later today [7:45] but I naturally woke up at 7:00 and couldn't go back to sleep after trying for 20minutes, so I just gave up, got up, and made it to Carlson at 8. Yes Carlson is officially my second home, if not my first. I probably spend around the same time in Carlson as my dorm lol. Okay, hopefully I will update when something new comes up or when it's a week I have three exams and I need to complain about something. Otherwise... it may be a while till my next update since I'm pretty busy this semester, but we will see.

Flora and Irene owe me money

This is a note to myself that Flora owes me $4 and Irene owes me $3 >:[

Two weeks before...

It is like exactly two weeks before school starts. YAAAAAAAAAAAY!! As you can see, I am very excited to go back to school :D! What am I doing for the two weeks before school starts? EAT >_<.

So basically tomorrow, my mom's friends at AstraZeneca are taking me out to lunch because I usually eat lunch with them at work.

Friday, my manager and supervisor are taking me out to lunch because it's my last day. We'll proabably go out to dinner either Friday or Saturday because Friday is my bro's and my grandpa's bday and Sunday is mine.

Sunday, after hospital shadowing [yes I'll be spending half of my birthday in the hospital ><;], I'll probably go with Kyumin and maybe others to porter to eat TAKOYAKI :DDD [Can't wait to try it].



Tuesday, TJ is coming and we'll probably eat lunch at Minados [sushi :D :D :D], and maybe take him porter/Chinatown or something for dinner or for lunch Wednesday because we'll probably all be too stuffed from Minados.



Thursday and Friday are going to be packing days and we're going to drive back to Rochester Saturday~




Then Sunday - Tuesday is like Shengji/Mahjong/Badminton/Tennis days.



Yep, so those are my plans for the next two weeks. Wow I sound too happy in this post, it's even making me feel weird.

Tentative Schedule for Fall 2010

So this is my tentative schedule for next semester, at least, if I get everything I want [work and volunteering]. The blue represents work and volunteering. The yellow represents sports/exercise. More yellow may be added later depending on how busy I am. Because my BIO261W, Animal Behavior Research Course, has just been changed from 2credits to four 4credits, I am no longer in the class because I have to go back and add this course as an overload. Yeah I'm going to be busy next year... T__________T. I was hoping to have a relaxing year too... but I guess that's for second semester. This is like senior year in high school. First semester was like really busy and second semester is like empty, or rather, I didn't really care about second semester, so I didn't do anyhting about it even though it was still busy. I have random slots throughout the day that I'll hopefully be using to do homework and I'm free usually after 8/9PM. Yeah I don't think I'll have too much socializing time next year... I still need to find a time to go do groceries >_<; or Linda and I will starve on the weekends and Linda will die. I'm fine with starving or eating random crap, but Linda will die... Wahhh it's so crowded :(. Just endure it for one semester..... then it'll all be good...

Another Slight Change w/some Reflection

I changed my background quite a bit because the black was starting to annoy me. Maybe this change symbolizes the change from depressed/gloomy me to a lot happier me compared to high school, so it would be a change for the better, I guess [Yes, I disagree with Chinua Achebe's book Things Fall Apart. Change is for the better!].

People change a lot in college and I guess I've changed a bit, hopefully matured a bit compared to before. Of course I'm hoping to change myself even more because even though I've gotten more open with people and I've attained the ability to talk to someone seriously without sarcasm or attempting to crack a joke every few seconds, I'm still my awkward self.

That's the part, I think, that needs to change the most... I need to learn how to communicate with people without being too "shy". I realize I need to get out of my comfort zone, which consists mostly of Chinese people my age and maybe even start talking to white people some day :O. I've never felt comfortable making what I thought a "fake conversation" with people, like asking people about themselves when I know I really don't care about the answer. Some times, I need to tell myself to pretend to care for the sake of the other person, but I can't help feeling like I'm lying to them and I'm hiding something from them. You know, those conversation starters like "How's the weather?", "How've you been?", "I like your [insert article of clothing]" sort of things. I especially can't see myself doing the last one. I've been trying to attempt conversations like "What've you been doing over summer?" but usually people answer with just "nothing" and the conversation goes nowhere and once again, I am at loss for words. I'm always amazed at how my mom can be one person at work and a completely different person at home. It annoys me, sure, to hide yourself from others, but now I think some times this is necessary to survive in this community. Being too honest is a bad thing now, but I still have this thing called guilt that keeps reminding me to be honest and it's hard to just ignore it. Maybe I'm just too lazy to do anything to change myself. I need to change that too. I've been answering too many "Why" questions with "Cuz I'm lazy" and I realize that's just an excuse to not do something. I've been forcing myself to not be lazy and actually maybe cleaning the house, doing the laundry, even when my parents don't tell me to do those things. It's hard to break out of those lazy habits of just sitting in bed with my laptop on my knees and watching dramas, chatting online, playing games all day, and never leaving my room [which I did during most of the Sundays at Rochester]. I was even too lazy to get out to buy some food... I had a bag of chips and a bowl of ramen the entire day Sunday. I've been trying to get out more and playing tennis every day [Sorry about bothering people about tennis like every day, but I really do need to get outside more and run around/enjoy nature more, plus tennis is awesome <3].

Next thing I should change is my study habit. I will attempt to try in school and see how that works out. Studying a lot for me in school is like sitting down for one hour and focusing for one hour. I don't understand how people [-cough- Linda -cough-] can lock themselves every night and study for like 6hours straight, sleep at 4/5am and wake up at 10am... I am amazed at people who are able to do that every single day... If I put in even a quarter of the effort they do, I'll feel proud. Right now, I'm putting in like an hour a week... while they're putting in around 40hours a week... next semester's schedule will be busier and hopefully I'll be able to manage my time well, along with cooking, cleaning and grocery shopping. Hopefully I'll spend less time watching dramas, playing games, chatting online, and spend those hours studying, playing sports [hopefully I'll have enough time for badminton and tennis next semester] and going outside more and hanging around with real people rather than just talking to them online.

Yeah so those are my reflections and what I think I should do in the future. I'm currently waiting for my manager to get his air condition fixed. He isn't sure how long it's going to take so I'm just waiting for him. He had to drive all the way back home and he says it's around a 30min drive without traffic and he left at like 11:30, so we'll see. AZ has been great. Working in chemistry made this summer go by really fast. I was just thinking, only four more weeks before my job here ends and only four more weeks before I hit two decades, five or six more weeks before I'm back at school and back at that other life in college with no restraints and freedom. But is it really freedom? With courses, work, and MCATs, I don't think it'll be too much different from now control wise, I just need to exercise some self control in order to carry out my future plans. That's it for now, I'll hopefully update this blog a bit more than I have been.

Grease

So I forgot to advertise on this blog about the musical by LYST [Lexington Youth Summer Theater] which my bro was in. He wasn't a main part but w/e he said he still had lots of fun. I went to watch it Saturday and it was pretty good. These kids are pretty good at singing and acting...

Well, here's my bro's banner/advertisement:


[Christopher Wang all the way on the right side :D]

There are like no asians in these things... He's the only Asian kid in his group. I saw three asians total: my bro, Alina's sister, and another azn kid I don't know

Organic Chemistry at AstraZeneca?

I haven't posted in a while because I've been busy with work... It's actually a lot more interesting working in Chemistry this year as an Intern compared to Biology. Sure it's so much more tiring [I'm in the lab 6/8hrs of the day while last year, I was in the like maybe 1/8hrs of the day >_<.] but it's quite interesting... or at least so far. I feel like things might start getting repetitive again because a lot of the techniques are the same, but in another way, it's not really repetitive because you need to figure out different ways to deal with each compound. I went to my first chemistry meeting today... but didn't understand half of what was going on. So many pharmaceutical company terms like PD, BID, MTD, etc. They're like all abbreviations... I could probably figure out what things meant if they said everything out loud, but hey... people are getting lazier and lazier.

Speaking of lazier... I haven't read my MCAT book in a while >_< and I had wanted to get through a chp a day at first... yeah that's not happening at all. Work is tiring me out and mom makes me go everywhere with her these days so I don't have much time to do what I want D:.

Okay, I'm going to go watch Wo Ai Hei Se Hui Bang Bang Tang now. I'm interested in the new people, esp Teddy. I wonder if they'll be on this one...

Haven't posted "in foreva"

So I made a formspring a few days ago [] because I thought answering some questions would let me reflect on some things and maybe get to know myself better through questions... Any interesting questions usually get me thinking about some things. So I figured I should learn a bit more about myself and created one. Also, that's probably why I decided to post because I just got a question on formspring about an hour ago that asked "how come you haven't updated your blog in foreva?" so I guess I'll update it [btw I'm pretty sure I know who asked this based on the spelling of "forever"]

I haven't posted in a while because this semester has been kinda bad so far especially orgo and biochem. I haven't done my routine "what do I think about my teachers" post yet, so I guess I'll do a quick one here.

Linguistics: Paauw [I had to look at the syllabus to figure out how to spell his name]
The class is actually pretty interesting so far and he really loves the subject so he's extremely enthusiastic in this class. I would pay attention more if he didn't just read off the slides and the posted the slides up later and if I didn't have other more interesting things to do in class [Like writing this blog... he's talking about Normans and Vikings right now... something about the history of English...] but I guess this is a nice relaxing class where I can do whatever I want and still do generally okay in the class. This is probably the only class I'm not failing right now... because it's my only non-science class.
Oh how to argue against linguists: "Well in my idiolect... "
lol right now he's talking about "It's OK to murder people you don't like" he's like technically... that's linguistically correct... but not really morally...

Physiology: Dietsche [Yes I had to look this spelling up too in the blackboard site...]
Dietsche is a funny guy... He says the randomest things and goes on random rants during class. I remember the first two classes, he was supposedly talking about the Scientific Method [is a way to solve a problem~ (7th grade Mr. Waldeck made us listen to that song...)] but he ended up going on a rant about how aliens can't possibly be seen on earth. He says if they have high enough technology as to come to earth, then we wouldn't calling them aliens, we'd be worshiping them like gods. Then he says aliens can probably bend light too so we can't see them... "IF YOU'RE IN HERE, YOU BETTER BE AUDITING!" Aside from the rants though, he's a bit boring because he just stands up there and talks, since we're in lower strong and we don't really have a board, so I need to record lecture.

Organic Chemistry: Frontier
Frontier's an awesome teacher and she's like young so she can relate. Like today in class, she said for us not to worry too much about our grades because we still have ~75% of our grade left, since the final's worth 50%. She says as long as you do well on the final, you should be fine in the class because she said when she was in college, she failed her 3 tests, but got one of the top scores in the class. She still ended up with a B in orgo and was really pissed off about that, so she's going to be different. That made me feel so much better because I'm like failing the course right now and her saying that gives me some hope...

Biochemistry: Culver
Everyone seems to hate her except I don't mind her teaching too much, it's just her grading. I have no idea why she takes points off. Someone in my workshop asked what we needed to know for the test and my TA literally said "Everything". I'm probably failing this class the most right now because she doesn't drop anything and the first test was really really bad.

I guess this post ended up being a bit long instead of a short post... I guess I'll try to update more because now I have formspring to inspire me and give me ideas to write/rant about...

Happy New Years! 新年快乐！

2010年好！哇，我好长时间不在我的部落各上写东西了。不知道为什么，我特想用中文写。。。像那种台湾艺人在他们的部落各上写一样。。。我应该用繁体字写：P

上个学期的考试成绩都出来了。。。考得不好T___T 我的GPA降了很多，恐怕进不去医学院了。。。 下个学期的课早就选好了。 我的星期二现在没有课^___^ 最早的课还是10:00.

我今年要的目标是。。。要考好成绩，下个学期去医院帮忙，还要夏天挣很多钱。 这三件事可能是目前最重要的三个目标，没准儿较多点朋友？不要打那么多的牌？

哦，我这几天又回去玩游戏，跟TJ和和晨晨玩儿。我觉得这张照片很可爱，所以要post在这上面。



左边是TJ，中间是我，右边是晨晨。

好，我不知道还要写什么了，下次见,拜拜~