It's a beautiful weekend......

Yes! It sure is a beautiful weekend, but unfortunately I don't really have time to enjoy it. When you are a college student, you have two choices:

1) don't study and be doomed in the future

2) study hard and still possibly be doomed in the future

Either way, there's no win-win situation. After all, the college will own you no matter what, and you have no way to escape. Being in San Diego is a luxury to me, but I just can't really enjoy the nice weather or beautiful beach because I'm either at the library or in the lab all the time. Right now as I'm typing this, I'm in the lab. Yes! The lab that I did this in.

I gotta say it feels good when you can have the entire room by yourself and no one's gonna yell at you when you talk too loudly. At the same time it feels really lonely being here when you know some people might be at a party or at the beach or whatever. Well, at least there are some people in the next room so I don't feel too bad.

Every time when it's close to a weekend, I tell myself that I can finally get away from all the school work and rest a little. Well, guess what, weekends do not mean anything to me actually. I'll end up studying somewhere anyway. The only difference is that I don't have classes on weekends, but that's just an extra 1 or 2 hrs each day. How does that help, right?

Being an engineer means that all your work will take a tremendous amount of time, and that doesn't include reviewing notes for tests. True, we might only have one midterm for each class, but we have other things like projects that can take up to 3 or 4 weeks to finish, assuming you work hard everyday.

my life, or I should say all the engineers' lives are pretty boring (fine, all the engineers I know). A typical conversation of two engineering students is like...

A: hey, did you study for *** (code for a class)

B: no, I was studying for %%% (another class)

A: gosh! I wish I had more time! ### (yet another class) is totally killing me

B: well i still have a project due next week for $$$ (and yes, this is a class too)

A: crap! we're doomed.

What? You say this is a typical conversation for all students? Fine, how about this one...

A: dude, when can we finish this crap? I still have matlab assignment to do.

B: well, assuming we can finish this today you have all tomorrow.

A: gosh this is hard.

B: That's what she said!

A: ......... I'm bored of this. I wanna do something fun

B: Well, there are some NMOS's you can play with.

A: What am I gonna do with those?

B: I don't know. Build a current mirror or something

A: that requires BJT you dumb ass

B: Well, MOS can do the job too

Well, you get the idea. You may find this entry really pointless or something. Yes, it's supposed to be pointless. I just wanna whine about things. That's all.

But yea, my weekend can be summed up with four words: working in the lab.

Fun? I don't know. You get to be the judge.

Sometimes Your Effort Just Doesn't Pay Off

Today I got my midterm back and noticed that my score was incredibly low. I asked myself: "WTF!? What is going on?????" As I went through the test, I noticed that all the points I lost was an accumulation of little mistakes. However, this is not my point.

Afterwards, I started thinking: "Am I just careless or is it meant to be?" Few days ago I got another test back, and yes it was like kamikaze. I was pretty pissed off and thinking of how much I studied for the test. I get pissed off easily when it comes to academic stuff such as scores, grades, stupid prof's, etc. I just don't show it in front of people and try to be cool and happy with what I got. The fact, however, is that I'm never happy with what I get. Someone called me having a standard that is way too high, but I think it's about right. Judging from the fact that I came from an Asian high school where people compare scores and grades all the time, having standards like that does make sense, and I'm very used to having high standard (to me it's not really high, but to other people it is.) My mom once told me that I wasn't in high school anymore so things will definitely get harder, so don't think about getting good grades all the time. I agree with her, but I just can't stop setting standards like my high school standard. Throughout the years of college I learned one thing: getting A's is not easy, especially when it comes to engineering classes. yet getting A's is still like a must-achieve thing to me.

That's why I study all the time. Okay, I need to clarify one thing. Of course everyone studies, but I'm pretty sure no one studies until like 3 everyday including Fridays and Saturdays (I admit I don't do it all the time though.) However, every time when it comes to a test, i get all nervous and my thought just goes like "phew"----completely blank, so I kinda have to go through my own thought process and try to grab that slim knowledge that remains in my brain. Of course, the result is never pleasant, and this always makes me wonder: is it really worth studying so much?

On the other hand, my friend once told me: "Jon, you think you studied so much but always failed on tests. Well, I say it's because you don't study enough, so you fail." True, I agree with him to certain extend, but I only have 24 hrs in a day after all, so how much time do I need to commit to studying to get what I want?

I learned that the world is not fair and humans are not equal after all in my first year of college. I see someone who never study, sleep in classes, and don't even buy the textbooks getting A's, like, solid A's. Compare to them, I'm like a total nerd, but the scores do not show that.

I feel like one day I'm just gonna give up on everything and go take like 10 shots and pass out. I know I'm probably going to have a huge hangover the next day but, o well, who cares. I hope this will never happen, but I have a feeling that the threshold is near......

Well, it's sad that things do not go the way you want, but I guess this is life. At least toughness makes us appreciate the happy moments we have.

But I still want good grades......

The Big Bang Theory

I just noticed that I haven't posted some good stuff for a long time. Of course, my whining is definitely not good stuff. Therefore, I decided to share another awesome shows with you guys. Most of you probably already knew about this show, but just suck it up and read it enjoy what I want to share with you.

Big Bang Theory is a show about 4 very intelligent people (either Ph. D or Master degree) who many people define them as "nerds." Indeed, they show every possible stereotype and have ever possible characteristics of nerds in the show. Though some people may find it a little exaggerating, they do perform very well to make us laugh. However, a story about 4 nerds would probably be very boring after a while, so the staff adds in a girl who is tagged as "the blonde girl" who is supposed to be all looks and no academic knowledge.

When these two totally opposite kinds of people collide, sparks do show. :)

Characters:

Leonard Hofstadter:

Leonard is an experimental physicist whose IQ is 173. He is, of course, tagged as a nerd/geek who plays Halo, Guitar Hero, WoW, and all the games that geeks would play. He has no style about his dressing and has no idea about anything but physics, Star Wars, Star Trek, and all other SciFi movies. Something to be noted: all four of the guys share the same interests, but Leonard somehow is the most normal one out of the 4. Many episodes of the series is about him and the neighbor, Penny.

Sheldon Cooper:

Sheldon is Leonard's house mate who has absolutely no idea how this society works. Although he is a genius who received his Ph. D in his 14, he does not know anything about non-academic stuff. This is why many jokes are evolved around him from his manors. For example, he cannot tell when people are being sarcastic (though he learned a bit as the story goes on :) ). Sometimes he can be really annoying, however, because of his characteristics. Even when people do realize that this is part of him, they just cannot stand how he does things in the show. I personally stopped on one episode simply because he's way too annoying. Whether he's good or bad, he is a unique character.

Howard Wolowitz:

Howard is a the only guy out of the four who does not have a Ph.D, and people sometimes make fun of him for that. Besides his smartness, Howard is known for wanting to get laid. He has many "interesting" pickup lines that will never work on any of the women, yet he does not realize this fact and constantly wonders why he cannot get laid. He lives with his mom and is seen as a little boy by his mom disregarding the fact that he's 27. Howard's fun point usually comes from his stupid pickup lines and tricks to get women. However, some people do find it a little disturbing.

Rajesh Koothrappali:

Raj, the 4th guy of the group. He cannot talk to girls with the influence of alcohol. However, once he's drunk, he becomes a smooth talker. We do not find out about it until later in the first season when Penny tries to take the bartender's job and mixes him a drink. Raj talks to his parents often through webcam. His parents live in India and are apparently pretty rich, but Raj often talks about how he was raised in poverty in India. Although Raj has this distinctive symptom that makes him special, he does not really talk much in the show for the same exact reason.

Penny:

Yes, the blonde girl is here. Penny moves into the same building and becomes Leonard and Sheldon's neighbor in the very first episode. Penny works at Cheesecake Factory as a waitress, but she has a dream of becoming an actress in movies or tv shows (ironic, huh?). Unlike the four guys, Penny possesses good street knowledge but is usually confused by the guys. She has dated many guys but eventually broke up with all of them. She and Leonard have this friend/lover relationship that develops throughout the story. Although she does not know much academic stuff, she eventually learned a lot (well, not only academic stuff but also Star Wars, Star Trek, etc.) by simply hanging out with the guys.

Right now it's on its third season. Each episode is about a different story, but the relationship of the characters do develop throughout the story. If you are interested and have some free time, try this show. It's very funny. :)

It's one of those days......

Midterm weeks have officially started as I have two of them this week and tons of hw following after. You know, after every summer I've always wanted to tell myself: Jonathan, try to enjoy this year. It will be much better compared to the last one.

Well, guess what, an illusion is called an illusion for a reason, and self-hypnosis does not work on me.

Oh yea, btw, I'm supposed to be studying right now for my really important midterm tomorrow, and you all know what I'm doing right now. I just don't have the energy and mind to study now, but I will have to eventually. My rainlender just reminded me that I have a midterm and a MATLAB assignment due tomorrow. Thank you rainlender, but I don't really need this right now. I wish I could be watching espn and enjoying my quiet night right now......

I'm not trying to complain here, but wtf, why does my major have to so hard? And in case you guys don't know, I hate the name Fourier. This name makes my life really really miserable. Actually not just this one, but there are also Laplace, Maxwell, and maybe Gaussian alone with it. Sometimes I wonder why people cannot just chill and not think about all those math problems so we do not have to solve and memorize all the laws and formulas.

My professor made a joke saying that engineers only view this world in two perspective: things that need to be fixed, and things that will need to be fixed. Well, guess what, I think my life needs to be fixed right now. I seriously want to just take several shots and crash on my bed so I don't have to worry about anything after today. Sadly this will never happen. At the end mister Fourier still has to punish me with his transformations, and Gaussian still has to torment me with his laws. Isn't the world wonderful?

I guess this is the price you have to pay after enjoying a nice weekend celebrating your friend's birthday. Wait, I actually spent most of the Sunday studying, so it's more like one night of drink-all-you-want-and-don't-think-about-anything. I gotta say it was pretty fun, except the fact that I slept on a really soft couch so my back started hurting the next morning.

I think I should go back to playing "who blinks first" with my heavy textbook. It always owns me pretty badly for some reason. I guess I can never beat it because I'm just not smart enough to play the game right.

Last words for you guys: living the lab is not fun; living in the library is not fun either, but when it comes to your grade, the words "lab" and "library" are better than the word "home"

Good night guys. May you guys have a wonderful night and may you never have to face what I have to face right now......or more like after finishing this post. Ah......I wish I could watch some How I Met Your Mother or Big Bang Theory right now......

Another sad news? Or should I call it normal?

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=4532106

There were injuries after injuries last season, and this may be a sign that it's repeating this year. I'm not saying that this is the only reason why Warriors sucked last season, but it does play some role in it. Now I just hope that this won't affect the rest of the team that much. Oh well, not like they can make playoff this year, so it doesn't really matter. They have a lot to do for the coming season, and the first would be......

FIRE EVERYONE IN THE FRONT OFFICE AND GET CHRIS MULLIN BACK!!!