Election Day

Taken out of my physics notebook:

So, I'm currently sitting in my physics class paying attention with half an ear and reading The California Aggie, UC Davis' newpaper. Now, today is election day so there is quite an assortment of articles telling people go vote and some articles hinting at which candidate who should vote for. (Considering that I go to a public school in California and we're pretty much liberal, I think you know who I'm talking about). There are even ads by big name food corporations like Ben and Jerry's or Starbucks giving out free food for voting (though, I think the marginal cost of standing in line negates the marginal benefit of free ice cream, but then again, I'm not the typical Asian. I think there will be a lot of Asians... and freeloaders).

Anyways, I had already submitted my ballot in the mail a few weeks back so I don't really have to worry about the polls. I don't fancy waiting in line and then standing in a booth trying to decide if I'm making the right choice. I could be there for a loooooong time considering how hard it is for me just to decide on what I want to eat in the morning (even though I have like 4 options). This is the first time I have ever voted and I was so nervous because I keep feeling like I made some mistake. I had to read the instructions like 5 times even though the process was so simple that anyone could do it (who can't draw a line? well, maybe if you had no hands..)

By the way, I am now totally lost in this lecture... I can't really help it. The professor is nice and all and he reminds me of Christopher Knight (you know, Peter Brady from the Brady Bunch? The him now, not the him when he was Peter) with a Russian accent, but he's kind of boring. A lot of equations and stuff. Most students just either fall asleep or play sudoku (since the newspapers are distributed outside of our classroom, people just grab one for the puzzle, which also explains why I had a newspaper on me in the first place.)

Anyways! I diverge from the topic a lot. Stream of consciousness sure is fun and distracting.

I've always been saying that I don't care about politics. It was like "Oh, Bush is bad." but not really caring to look at exactly what he was doing wrong. Even when I was supposed to research this stuff for American democracy, I didn't really care all that much. But this election seems so exciting. Almost like one of those reality game shows. Like America's Top President. Oooh, we should have a TV show like that where McCain and Obama live in the same roof and battle it out in little minigames. And then winner will get a nice white house and power to destroy the world. Oooh oooh oooh! Wouldn't that be fun?

But putting aside the fact that Barack Hussein Obama has a funny name and the fact that McCain is incredibly old and resembles a white raisin, how much do people really know about the candidates. I mean, I tried to be a responsible American and looked at the facts, but every now and then, I get sucked into a vortex of lies or sometimes even truths and I get confused. Of course, I have to be honest, I think Obama is MUCH more attractive than McCain and McCain looks like he's just about to croak (which I don't wish on him. For pete's sake, his MOM is still alive. That is quite a feat) and he's black (at least half black) which makes him infinitely more cooler than an old white guy. Image has a lot to do with this game. And while Joe Biden is obscure under the limelight of Sarah Palin, that publicity sometimes does more harm than good. I would have considered McCain a little more if he had chosen a better running mate. I mean, if he makes such an important decision and, in my opinion totally fails it, I don't know how I can entrust the country to him.

The facts and accusations from both parties have become muddled and unclear. Instead of addressing the issues, the candidates debate about each other. But I don't know. In the end, I would rather have Obama become president because that lisp that McCain has is just not cute.

Disclaimer, the ending of this entry is totally different from the one that I wrote previously. Things change as you write and edit stuff that you wrote, so yeah.

Rice for One.

Well, it's been a month since I last updated, much apologies. I've actually had plenty of blog ideas that I wanted to write about, but I've just lacked the incentive and motivation to write. I think I can attribute this to the fact that I only have math courses this quarter. :<

Anyways, I decided to blog this down as I washed the dishes from the rice that I made last night.

If you don't know already, I'm Chinese. Born in America, so ABC or whatever. But I'm first generation ABC so my family still eats a great deal of rice. In fact... we only eat rice for dinner except for rare occasions where mom is tired and just cookies rice noodles. But in any case, I've always cooked rice for 6 people or more. Therefore, when I got to college, I, of course, contributed to Asian stereotypes and had a rice cooker in the dorm (even though technically we weren't allowed to) and made rice. As a side note, I heard that the Asian-American dorm floor always smells of rice. No surprising.

I diverge. When I make rice now, I realize that it's not worth the effort of making it. First of all, I'm used to making big portions and when those portions, there are unwritten rules/guidelines as to the water/rice ratio. So far, I've heard of three methods:

1. If you stick your pinky on top of the rice, the water level should hit the first knuckle.
2. Put your whole hand in flat over the rice and the water should just skim the top of your hand.
3. Put in an extra cup of liquid for every cup of rice.
(If you have other methods, feel free to comment them and I'll add to the list)

The 3rd one doesn't really count for Asians since Asians don't use measuring tools. They always eyeball it and it's enough when it "feels enough". So the third method is for our non-Asian friends who can't feel secure without precision.

But those rules only seem to apply to bigger batches of food. Perhaps it's because Chinese people like to make big batches and save it up since they would waste electricity if they just make a bunch of smaller batches. Or perhaps it's because Asian families outside of communist China seem to be so there's always a hungry mouth to feed. Remember, there's always that freeloading neighbor who just "happens" to visit around dinner time.

So when I tried to apply these rules my little portion of rice for one... it was really soggy. Imagine my shame... failing at cooking rice? That's like failing to recite my multiplication tables. But yes, I was sad that it came out somewhat soggy, but I ate it anyways because I didn't want my boyfriend to have pockmarks. (Funny story actually. One of my Chinese friends once told me that his parents got him to eat every little grain of rice because they told him that the remaining grains would be the number of pockmarks his wife will have in the future. As a naive child, he believed them and made sure he ate everything.)

It wasn't too bad actually since I ate it with Korean seaweed and some Japanese sashimi soysauce without the sashimi. Hit every East Asian country since my rice was from China. Crystal actually commented on how I should have eaten it with spam. Here's how it went:

me: I just had three packets of Korean seaweed...
me: I feel so ashamed...
me: And filled with MSG.
Crystal: hahaha
Crystal: isn't it just salt?
me: And like oil. Hahaha
me: I had it with rice though.
Crystal: ooh
Crystal: shoulda had some spam too
me: Didn't have spam. :<
me: I'm too poor to afford meat, hahaha.
Crystal: hahah
Crystal: true spam is a bit pricey for what it is
me: Hahah, mechanically pulled parts.

Yeah, I actually really couldn't afford the spam. Spam is expensive, man. Last I checked it was like 3 bucks a can. I always thought they were like 50 cents...

Anyways, you know what really made the one-portion rice not worth it? The fact that I had to clean it up. In true college fashion, I didn't wash the dishes the day I finished eating the food. In fact, if my roommate didn't keep telling me to wash the bowl and rice cooker, I would have just left it there until I needed the bowl again. Yeah, I know, gross... but what can you except from a college student? If it was a stack of dishes, I would be more compelled to wash them, but one bowl? Seems like a waste of time.

But you know what? It takes forever to clean up that bowl to rice and the rice pot. Since I made it somewhat sticky, it was a pain in the buttocks to scrape all the little pieces of rice from the surface. I actually had to use a sponge and detergeant and stood there for 10 minutes washing a bowl, a rice pot, and a spoon. Way too much effort for the two bowls of rice that I ate.

They should make self cleaning rice pots. That would be neat and then I don't have to worry about cleaning them anymore. Haha.

But despite everything, I can't give up my rice. And I can't trust the dining commons to cook up decent rice so I have to do it myself.

Working Out and Weight Issues.

Every since college started, I've been gaining weight from eating too much or not eating enough. A few months back, I weighed myself and realized that I had gained 20 pounds from just a few months. That was pretty shocking. I know, stereotypically, girls are constantly watching their weight, always needing to be reassured that their body size is perfect ("Do I look fat in this?" or "I'm voluptuous, not fat.") and up to college, I was okay with my weight. I used to be really skinny as a kid since all I did was act like a monkey around the playground, but after middle school kicked in and puberty hit, I began to eat more and become less active (I discovered the joys, or in retrospect, pains, of the internet) and started to gain weight constantly.

After the first two years of high school, PE was no longer required (though, I did a semester of swimming) and I just never really broke out of the habits of eating a lot and fell out of habit of just playing around outside.

In any case, even then, I was okay with my weight. Maybe I had a little chub, but I know that people weren't going "Omg, she's so fat." behind my back. Then college came. After the first two weeks, I was so surprised at gaining around 5 pounds. At first, I didn't really think of it. "Oh, it's only 5 lbs. What's the big deal?" but those five pounds ballooned to 10 lbs, which ballooned to 20 pounds.. I was gaining weight exponentially.

I didn't really work out for the first two quarters. Maybe once in a week or twice a week and then stop for a while. I don't know why it was so erratic, but that was just how it was. Also in the second quarter, I spent most of my time in the basement of Kemper programming 10 hours at a time and would often skip meals. I am so not proud of that. Basically when I got back from finishing up, I was staving to the point that I would eat way too much way too fast and pass out from food comas.

I never realized how important it was to eat regularly. I had always been eating at home and you know, food was provided for you so I didn't have to worry about getting up or going out and getting stuff to eat. But at college, it was so easy to have time pass and forget about eating. I'm not stupid, I know that starving myself will inevitably make me gain weight, but it was hard getting even two meals a day in.

So, right now, I'm making a pact with myself. I'm gonna try and hit the gym every day (at least for most of the week. Maybe skip a day if I'm really sore or have plans) and eat at least two meals with a snack. I've already lost the love of pizza and burgers so I eat those sparingly now.

Anyways, does anyone know what kind of running shoes are good (and painless on a college girl's budget)? My shoes are totally worn out. The heel is pretty slippery...

Biking (accidents) in Davis.

I had handwritten up a blog entry today and I'll type it up now. If I can get Michelle's scanner going, I'll scan in the real copy (if you can even read my handwriting). Excuse any grammar mistakes. Any edits/additional comments will be in [].

---

Sometimes, I feel like an airhead. In class right now, 20 minutes earlier than I need to be. So, I guess I'll write an entry for my blog to post later.

Let's see, something funny, well not really funny, happened to be while getting to class just a few minutes before. I was riding my bike, pretty slowly since it was a nice day, and I was about to cut into Wellman (a building) and there was cross traffic since it was a two-way. Now, I had already started to turn and there wasn't really a turning back point so I slowed down to a near stop and some girl rammed into my front tire making me bounce off my seat and landing on my toes.

The girl however wasn't so agile and flipped over her bike... well, more like slid off my bike and fell. At that moment, I was feeling really guilty and was kind of panicky. [You know, when you know you did something bad and didn't really want to face the consequences?] I asked her if she was okay or not and [she] didn't answer me till someone else came and asked her. She was like "I'm okay. Jesus Christ. [Are you serious? Are you serious?] You can't do that, you just can't do that."

After heard that, the tone that she said it in, all the guilt went away and I almost laughed in her face. I mean, "Calm your ass down. It was an accident." I didn't get mad when some guy crashed into me and I sprained my wrist. [Right before a midterm no less.] All you go was probably a scrape, though I didn't see. Anyways, it would have been extremely insensitive to laugh in her face so I had to hold it in. But seriously? You don't have to be a bitch about it. I know I was wrong and unlike some people, when I say I'm sorry, I really do feel sorry. Like, I have the actually [LOL, weird adverb injection] guilt and regret that it means to be sorry. But if you're just gonna blow off an apology and then try and tell me what to do? [In hindsight, it sounded more like a mom reprimanding their kid. Wtf, I'm not a child.] That's just not cool.

There's only 4 more minutes to class and there are only three people in this classroom, including me. Oh god, I hope I'm not in the wrong room or something because that would be a stupid thing indeed...

Well, I guess I'll just continue writing because just sitting here looking like you don't know what the fuck is going on isn't that great.

---

At that point, I decided to grab my stuff, call Michelle and ask her for the room number. Turns out I was in room 106 instead of 126, which was only on the other side of the wall. Yeah, big blonde moment. What do you know, even Asians have those moments. Anyways, what a first day. I'm sleepy. :3

I love shopping.

Usually, I try and dispel stereotypes with girls and show that I'm not a typical girl, but I have a confession: I really love shopping. It's such a bad habit that I picked up during puberty. When I was young, I didn't care what I wore; most of my clothes were stitched together by relatives who knew how to sew scrapes of fabric together to make jeans. I wore things bought in thrift stores, things from other families whose child didn't fit the clothes anymore and just some random shit around the house. And when I was done with them, I would give them to the next person in line. It was a big chain of hand me downs. That's how Asians roll.

So when I got to the age when people actually give a shit about what clothes you wear, I was really confused. I would see these girls wearing things from American Eagle, Abercrombie and Fitch, and Hollister and I would wonder how I would look in those clothes. And then I realized that I couldn't afford the clothes; so I basically survived on department stores and places like Ross or Marshalls. But now that I think about it, I'm glad I didn't buy into the name brand clothes. They're nice clothes and all, but I don't want to be wearing advertisements along my chest.

Anyways, my shopping evolved when I got a shiny credit card. It's like +10 convenience -credit limit. I've been really tempted to go shopping online. All the shit that I couldn't get online, I now have the means to get. How dangerous. Even those stupid infomercials like the magic bullet and bowflex, I want to get all the stuff, even if I don't need it.

Being a girl is hard. So many things to buy, so little money to buy with. :< Any rich guys willing to fund Teresa's Shopping Fund? Hahaha, jk sorta.

Despite wanting to buy a lot of things, I'm usually pretty good at restraining myself from buying too much since I kind of need to eat as well. Ah college.

Bras are too expensive.

One of my least favorite piece of clothing is the bra. I hate buying bras; they're so expensive. For something that covers so little of your body and to cost a quarter of my paycheck, I think they need to find a new, cheaper way to make our boobs look better. I wish I was one of those people who didn't need a bra, but without one... well, let's just say that's not pretty.

The bra industry is totally fucking with us. I don't want to throw down 40 bucks for a strip of cloth. :O

A misconception: Girls are always PMSing.

I'm tired of everyone (meaning guys) thinking that girls are always PMSing. Girls, how often have you gotten mad and then a guy would just go, "Oh, don't worry about her. She's just PMSing." What the hell? Since when does our menstrual cycle happen every day? Why can't girls just be mad for a illegitimate reason? I hate how it makes girls seem like they're not allowed to be mad; they're only mad because their bodies are fucking with them.

Though, can't put all the blame on the guys. Girls tend to use PMS as an excuse a lot. For example, "Don't talk to me, I'm PMSing." or "I can't play basketball, I'm PMSing." or "I can't lift this fork, I'm PMSing." I have to admit, it's great to use something we have no control over as an excuse to ignore responsibility, I do it sometimes.

Anyways, we're not ALWAYS bleeding.

Dorm Bathrooms.

I love living in the dorms. My floor is probably the BEST floor to live on. There are all these really cool people and we're just one tight knit group. Unfortunately, it would be so much better if the bathrooms didn't suck. One of the reasons why I didn't want to live in a typical dorm floor was because I didn't want to share the bathroom with 25 girls as opposed to a suite that has a bathroom for 6-8 people.

And on the first week, I had my horrors confirmed. The floor is one big party floor, so it's kind of inevitable that something like this would happen, but there was vomit in the sink. Yes. Vomit. You can only assume that someone tried to drink more than they can handle and they thought the sink was a perfectly fine place to hurl their load. Disgusting. When I tried to brush my teeth that day, I kept getting gap reflexes and almost choked on my toothbrush.

Girls, it is so hard to throw up in the toilet, trashcan, or even the shower? At least I don't have to see it. Throw up in the toilet/shower, I can use another one, but at the sink, I always see it. Ugh, gross.

Whoever made that myth about girls being clean and their bathrooms being the best is a fucking liar... or haven't experienced a real girl's bathroom.

Seriously, the bathrooms are disgusting. The showers have hair ALL THE TIME. Girls, you know what I'm talking about. We shed hair like a dog sheds fur. And it's gross. But of course, we don't put it up because the floor is disgusting. By the way, for the first week, I made the horrible mistake of not wearing shower shoes... OH MY FUCKING GOD. My toenails started to PEEL off. It was so gross. I was immediately scared into putting on flip-flops in the shower. Wtf is in the shower that would make my nails PEEL off? *shudders*

Guys have it easy. For the most part, guys have short hair so no one notices when you guys shed your hair. But for a girl's long hair not to be noticed to to not see a giant tarantula crawling on your arm.

Another big problem about the bathroom is that it STINKS. It's not even "OMG, POO" stink, it's some kind of permanent stink. It's like something is wrong with the pipes and the smells is permeating through the tiles. It's disgusting. Why isn't housing doing anything about this? I'm paying $3000+ on a bathroom that permanently smells like shit? At least hang some air fresheners or something! I'm sure that $3000 can afford you a few!

In any case, it takes a lot of willpower to even want to use the stupid bathroom. I only go there to shower and to brush my teeth. Everything else, I would have to be needing to go REALLY badly or I just use another bathroom. By the way, the bathrooms in Kemper (engineering building) is really clean. Probably cause there are hardly any women there.

If it weren't for the people and the proximity to campus, I would totally nix dorms.

Doing Laundry - A love/hate relationship.

I just did my laundry. I usually put off doing laundry as long as I have clean underwear because paying for laundry is major suckage. Being a cheap college student that I am, I usually hold off doing laundry until I get home and make my mom do it (well, she ends up doing it before I even say it. Love you, Mom ♥), but I'm stuck here so I have to do my laundry or something is gonna grow on my clothes... that said, I'm writing this as I wait for it to finish.

I love... using my roommates detergent and dryer sheets.
I'm a major cheapskate. So whatever things that I don't have to buy, I'm happy. I don't think she minds anyways. It's way better than having a pile of dirty laundry in the corner stinking up the room. Of course, my laundry doesn't do that. But it does pile high. Boy, did I get a work out carrying it down the long ass hallway.

But I hate... paying for my laundry.
You probably noticed already. I hate paying for the laundry, especially when I can do it at home. Why buy it here? Drive down to SF, have my mom do the laundry at home, AND get a sandwich. I mean, hello? Perfect. I mean, it's not that expensive. It's only $1.75, but what pisses me off is the add value machine. It only accepts $5 or higher. Which means, I'll always have an odd number of money until I do 20 freaking loads of laundry. But you know what that means? I have shelled out 35 bucks to do LAUNDRY. That I get for FREE at home. If the stupid machine accepted dollars, I would have only needed to shell out 7 bucks and got 4 loads, which is PERFECTLY fine for someone who hardly does laundry anyways. I hate being the type of person who can't even left a quarter on the card go... but it'll probably end up happening, because there is no fucking way I'm gonna do 20 loads.

I love... waiting for laundry.
This only applies in the dorms because I can go back to my room and do whatever while the laundry is going on. Beat a few people on tetris, clean up the room, dance foolishly around my room. I love it.

But I hate... waiting for people to GET THEIR FUCKING LAUNDRY.
I HATE it when people leave their laundry just sitting there. I usually check the time and make sure that I'm going back to get the laundry within 5 minutes of it being done. But going to the laundry room every 10 minutes to check if the laundry has been picked up so I can throw my stinky shit into the washer and the washer is still occupied? OH HELL NO. That pisses me off. What makes people think that they can just leave it in there? Next time, I'm gonna throw their stuff into the dryer and squirt ketchup in it.

I love... sorting out my colors.
So, the only times I ever do my laundry is when I have a SHITLOAD OF LAUNDRY. So, I usually have enough clothes to do two loads. Which means I can choose what colors to put into the machine. Of course, blacks and colors go together and whites and pastel colors go together. I think I have some OCD because I sit there and wonder if the loads will be equal and take clothes out one pile and put it on another, even if it's not totally matching in category. "It's sorta dark..." But whatever, I'm weird, this is fun.

But I hate... dropping my fucking clothes.
I tend to be impatient when transferring my clothes from the washer to the dryer. So I grab a big ass pile of wet clothes and try to shove it into the dryer asap. But it usually ends up too big for me to handle and I drop something, like a sock or a shirt. PISSES ME OFF. I just got it clean and it fell on the fucking floor. Of course, it's my fault, but whatever. Still pisses me off. I end up just throwing it into the dryer. Haha, lazy.

I love... putting on warm clothes.
You know what I'm talking about. The clothes right out of the drying, smelling so clean and fresh and WARM. Every time I do laundry, I always put on an article of clothing. If I'm out in public, I put on a sweater or a shirt over my shirt. If I'm in private... OMG, I take off everything and put on nice warm clothes. Seriously, strip down and put on every article of clothing. It's like heaven.

I hate... burning.
Okay, so I realized that putting on every article of clothing is really bad. Especially if it starts to BURN. I just did it not that long ago, and omfg, the metal parts of my jeans (the little rivets and stuff) started sizzling against my thigh. It's not a fun feeling. I start sweating and making my clothes dirty again. I can't imagine what it would be like for a guy. I suggest you don't put on hot underwear on if you don't want your girlfriend to laugh at you. A burned peen is hilarious.

Alright, my laundry probably has been done for like 10 minutes. Oh well, it only pisses me off when OTHER people do it. I don't care if I do it. Do as I say, not as I do. Peace.

Edit: Blogger's HTML is an epic fail. I spent more time changing the HTML to make it look right than writing the actual post. I have a slight perfectionist personality. :[

What? Again?

Yes, again. I need a new blog. Well, I don't need one but, I've decided to make this blog because I don't want to mix up personal entries with random things that I just feel like posting. So! Look forward to random shit that I'll be posting. :D