Dio Is Changing The Style In Which News Is Written On Mondays

Also, capitalization is probably wrong at least for one word in the title, but meh, who cares enough?

So, news.

One, as Dio posted last week, Dio's roommate left. Dio's new roommate is Dio's previous neighbor whose roommate is a pig. Therefore, since Dio's roommate left, and Dio's neighbor is a close friend, Dio is getting a new roommate! More updates as the situation progresses.

Next, Dio's finals are coming up, and Dio is avoiding them, so nothing on that for a while.

Third, Dio and friends made a trip to Little Tokyo this past Wednesday. Little Tokyo is amazing. There are anime stores, and food places, and Daiso. Daiso is heaven, okay. Don't judge.

Fourth, Dio wishes everyone a happy Thanksgiving, and hoped they remembered to scream worship to the Brown Stone Spire in time. For those who didn't, well, sucks to be you.

Dio signing off.

(psst the other people don't forget to post)

Rin: Iiiiit's Break Break Break Break

Huzzah, I'm vibrating with happiness right now because break has officially started!

Sort of, I just emailed in an essay for tomorrow. We had a trip to museum for Design that took away an entire Saturday when we could have been doing homework, so in return for half the class bombing that week's 3D class, Spatial, we get tomorrow off. I am wholly unapologetic for posting nearly a week late because this was inevitable.

Geting Lethargic

I'm not sure whether it's because of winter and lack of heat and sunlight, something I'm not use to living in for extended periods of time, or because my endurance is whittling away, but I've become less and less productive lately. My recent homework clearly hasn't been anything to be proud of during critiques and even this week I've staved off of work until now. Thank goodness it's break or else I'd have nothing to turn in. Aha... ha...

Break and Homework

On a more pleasant note, I'm actually excited for my final in drawing class. Basically cover a wall with 50 drawings of 18 x 24 or whatever amounts to the same surface area. Of course there's a topic, basically anything that ties into our previous homework. I think it'll look pretty impressive when put up.

I'd like to say I'm on track but honestly break is a big issue. I can't exactly bring charcoal, wood, and paints to New York... and all of my teachers expect two weeks of work when we get back. I'll have to figure something out or else. I kind of regret going out for so long, but family time right?

Chore Outing

Today was a surprisingly productive day. A friend of mine and I basically ran around Providence doing chores, most of which I've been leaving off for way too long. Things like gathering scrap wood, sawing them down, buying more supplies for Design and Spatial. Along the way my friend got a background check form for getting a job in Rhode Island. Being that I tagged along I thought why not and got one too.

 Thanks to the fact some stuff was fifteen minutes west, east, south, and over a freaking hill from the dorms we walked a total of five miles and forty-seven floors for the next four hours. It was a productive day. Though I always forget stuff so I'll probably go out again tomorrow.

Mission Report 6: Dio's Roommate Has Abandoned Dio

So, today's mission report will, instead of being the normal, dry mission report, will be formatted differently and will consist of Dio writing "long" paragraphs, partially because Dio is done with formatting. Dio has to do formatting for freshman seminar, and it is horrible. The professors don't go with MLA formatting, or APA formatting. It's their very own style. Moving on.

First, Dio's homework load is insane. Do not speak to Dio of homework. Actually, if you do, Dio will probably suffer a small mental breakdown and disappear. And just do not speak to any of us about homework. It's killer. Literally, sometimes. This leads to my second point.

Second, Dio's roommate is taking a year-long leave of absence for mental health reasons. Dio's roommate literally had a two week long hospital stay recently. Dio is saddened by Dio's roommate's disappearance, of course, but will have one person in a double for the rest of the year, which is rather nice. Also, Dio has a friend whose roommate is a sloth and a pig mixed into one human being, so Dio's friend is considering moving in instead.

Third, Dio really should be doing homework/classwork so as to sleep at a normal time tonight.

Dio signing off now.

Blu: My Titles Are Longer So I Win But I Am Posting This Late So Who Really Is The Winner Here? Certainly Not My Academic Life

Today's actually Friday for me.

Next week I've got all of break off for Thanksgiving. I've been waiting all quarter for this week. I'm happy it's here. I'm unhappy at the finals I've got.



today:
finish my CS homework, watch and write an email response to the plenary on Danielle Allen from Nov 16, read through sources for research paper on charitable giving and higher education

tomorrow:
go into the outside world, finish reading sources, look for more relevant sources, cantor tour?, football game sometime in between,  look at spec for the last CS homework

Sunday:
go outside again to somewhere fun, or look at more sources for research paper, do CS homework, revise Spanish final presentation

Monday:
Spanish ODA and WDA, finish CS homework, more work on paper

Tuesday and Wednesday:
finish CS homework, finish first draft of paper, memorize final presentation for Spanish, maybe study for CS final?



Sounds doable? No, not really. It'll happen.

Mission Report 5: Dio Has Grown Tired of Writing Long Titles And Would Like To Withdraw From the Competition, If There Was One

Mission Title: Weekly Report With Nothing Much To Say

Mission Date: 11/10/2015 - 11/15/2015

Personnel: Dio

Objective: Weekly report.

Itinerary: Two midterms/exams this weekend, since teachers allow for take-home exams. Hackathon that gave out free boba and goodies. The breaking of yet another water-bottle.

Inventory: Broken water-bottle caps (2), free t-shirt (1), boba (2), candy (many).

Difficulties encountered: Staying awake, staying hydrated.

Dio signing off.

Rin: Laundry Screw Ups

Last time I tried to do laundry I washed my comforter cover with my clothes. And almost caused the machine to break, whoops.

The load was too heavy to properly spin the water out in the washer, so I moved several pounds of water logged laundry into the dryer. At least it beats the time I walked up three flights of stairs with a load of wet laundry, trying to find an empty dryer.

On the other hand I used the washer twice, one to wash and one to rinse out the suds that didn't get properly washed out. And the dryer thrice after the first time didn't work with a big load so I divided it into two machines. In the end I paid $7.50 for one laundry day.

Fridays are relaxing because I get the chance to clean up my room. Normally I would never say that, but a week of cutting paper, hot gluing dowels, and working with charcoal makes my side of the room pretty messy. Of course I could work in rooms made to be worked in, but that's three floors down and I'm too lazy to take my stuff up and down stairs. Now there's a large charcoal stain on the tile where I always work. I'll clean it at the end of the year.

One of my friends also has a messy room and, the other day, stepped on a piece of wire. She had to use tweezers to pull an inch of it out of her foot, Jesus. The next day I saw a red stain at the bottom of my foot. It was just some red pastel I stepped on, haha... I always worry the wire I cut will snap back and scratch my eye. It's gotten pretty close.

Blu: Okay I Think I've Screwed Up My Timing I Think But I Am Not Completely Sure I Don't Even Remember What I Did Last Thursday And I Don't Mean That In A Cool Way

College. Am I right?


There's a bus system that goes around campus that is so easy to hate on. But it did get us (roommate and I) to the right place.

Maybe it's just the app for the Marguerite that sucks.

The app is the worst.






Last Friday was Frosh Formal. The theme was Boogie on the Bayou. I still don't know what a bayou it or if a boogie is a type of dance? is it a more free form dance? is there more structure? is it even a type of movement? is it short for something? My impression of Frosh Formal was that it's like a high school dance but now it's college. So it is different. Clearly different.
It's one of those "it only happens once in the four years you're at this school so you better go for the experience" events. It's one of those "you all will dress up and it will be classy" times. It's one of those "just go it will be so much fun" happenings.

It also took place in the nearby gym on west campus.
The one in walking distance of our dorm and one of the only buildings on campus in walking distance of our dorm.
Which is useful because biking in a dress sounds like such a terrible, uncomfortable idea.








So roommate and I decided to go to downtown Palo Alto coincidentally on the same night. And we took the Marguerite for the first time.

I can't spell Marguerite. All of this was made possible by spell check. Help.

We took the SE line through the medical area to the Palo Alto transit stop. 

We huddled along the small street lined with little shops and trees wrapped in yellow lights.

I ate cookies and cream. She ate hella nutella with coconut. Ice cream in a waffle cone.

And then we watched "A Connecticut Yankee" with a bunch of old people in a proper theater. By that I mean there was an organist playing happy interim music that opened the movie. The theater had curtains the drew apart and architecture with style. 

I would so recommend this movie. It's about a guy who gets hit by armor and gets transported back to the time of King Arthur. It's also from the thirties. It's got good one-liners. What's not to like?

Taking the Marguerite back, on the N line. The bus driver randomly left both of us, mumbled something about another driving coming, and left. We could have driven off with the bus. We talked about driving off with the bus. We missed a golden opportunity.  

I'm sorry most of these "sentences" are not real sentences. I acknowledge that I'm not at that level of writing in which I can screw with grammar. I get that it just makes me look very unintelligent. English hard.

Dot: I'm still on time since the blog follows PST

[111015]

Since I don't have any interesting events to share today, this post will be collection of small news.

1. Mouse?
Today, my roommate saw a mouse in our room. I was not surprised.

2. Library
Library is always full of people. I think the school should expand the library; I know Harvard had to kept on digging underground for more space because they couldn't rebuild the facility due to some regulation. We should do that, too.
Our library has such a terrible floor plan as a library. I like high ceilings, but it is terrible idea for a library because the sound echos. The noise from first floor travels all the way to fourth floor.

3. Group project
In psychology, the scholars use the term 'social loafing' to describe group project.
They say this happens less so in a collectivist culture, but, as a person from so called collectivist countries, I can tell you that it is not true at all. This is why I feel like psychology is somewhat bull shit and creates prejudice.

Zay: For a change...

Hello!

This is Zay, just the plain old, human Zay. I've decided to toss my typical university structure aside for a while and see where this takes me. I'm not sure how to begin. It's actually quite terrifying.

It's important to note that this feeling of terror is not entirely harmful. Terror is just a word and the feeling of terror is, similarly, just an experience. People don't generally go their whole lives haunted by a word; similarly, people should not generally go their whole lives afraid of an experience. After all, in the end, words are all we have in sentences; experiences are all we have in life. We may decorate our life with punctuations and talk, but our substance is in our experiences.

It is okay to feel terrified.

In the few months that I have attended college, I have had a lot of, personally, terrifying experiences and it has been all the more terrifying because I instigated them. Nothing that I have done has been life threatening and I would never casually recommend partaking in life threatening risks. However, in the moment, they definitely felt world ending.

Just to keep an ongoing list, as I do plan to keep this trend of taking risks going, I'll list a few:

I chose to attend UC Berkeley.
Grade deflation, huge class sizes, actual work loads, and diversity of people/opinions/living styles galore.

I chose CS.
Not sure, yet, if CS will chose me too.

I attempted to be extremely social.
"Attempted" because now I have realized that interacting with people, in the most generic sense of the word, takes a lower priority on my list of values than learning does. It's really all about personal preference and balance. Through, basically, throwing myself off my, perceived, deep end of social interaction, I have been able to strike a balancing line between how much social interaction and how much alone time I need.

I asked someone out.
Yup. I, Zay, asked someone out for the first time in my life. I was rejected. So...that happened.

I decided to write this post.
It's definitely a huge information leak, a personal security breach, and way outside my comfort zone, but I needed this to be honest.

That concludes my list, and my post, for now.
Until next time.

Bye!

Mission Report 4: Dio Senses Blu Trying to Start "The Longest Title" Competition And So Will Play Along, Willingly, Every Time, But Does Not Know Who Will Win; Also, Dio Posted This Right Before Lecture

Mission Title: Much Ado About Midterms

Mission Date: Sometime in the recent past

Personnel: Dio

Objective: Midterms, Round 2.5 are over. Midterms Round 3 coming up, as well as a hackathon. Good luck to Dio, surviving (hopefully) the next two weeks.

Itinerary: Midterm. Sleep. Homework. Midterm. Oh dear, Dio is getting a cold. Midterm. Illness + homework + tea. Copious amounts of tea.

Inventory: Copious amounts of tea.

Difficulties encountered: Expending effort to write this.

Dio signing off.

Rin: Color Swatches

Howdy!

MAN, I was a miserable, depressing can of jello last week!

Especially after panicking for an entire week about color swatches. And the following week, too. I guess stuff like that just happens. I was getting way too anxious about being unable to reach my teacher's standards of making perfect, brush stroke free color swatches and using so much expensive designer gouache paint (a three inch tube of Brilliant Yellow was a lovely $17), so I didn't work on it as much as I should have. But hey, at least we got another week to work on it. Seriously though, if that happens to you guys talk to family. Even if it doesn't change the facts, talking about it out loud makes you realize how much you're blowing up the situation. And yeah, parents always seem to know what to say...

Lovely, lovely color swatches. So fucking proud.

On another note, I realized caffeine is the key to productivity. It is my fuel. And now I have a headache from too much tea. If I can overdose on two tea bags, you could imagine what coffee does to me.

Blu: It's Getting Cold And Biking Is A Pain But Not The "I'm Getting Stronger" Kind Of Pain, Rather The "Nature Is Too Powerful I Can't Control Anything" Pain (That Sounds AP English-esque)

I'm still finding my purpose.

Why am I writing these posts?

Maybe when I figure that out for me, the purpose will come clearer to me. 

Compared to the others here, I honestly feel like I've got the easiest college life. 

I mean, I post pretty consistently and I haven't gone too abstract (if those two things are any indication of sanity).

The quarter is almost over and I'm so glad. Maybe I shouldn't have taken 17 units. Maybe I would have thought similarly if I had taken 12 units. I don't know.

I'll be taking things from my notes app now. This might get disjointed.

Correction Frames

French toast for breakfast at Stern

Don't let school possess you, take control of school

Check: phone, ID card, keys, bike light

Library book checkout is 1. unlimited 2. for 4 weeks 3. returnable at any library

Library computers print for free not anymore, $0.10 a page :(

Do laundry on weekdays/early in the morning

Do things early in the morning to avoid people

Take a wild card class every quarter

Thinking of a major? Physically go to that department building

You can try to herd the hares/frogs. It's okay; it's dark outside.

No you cannot browse the movie collection. Write the call number on a piece of paper and give it to the nice person at the desk.

I've not added things to this list. A bit more on the negatives list, I suppose. Either that or I've not been exploring around the campus lately, which is also true. 

Evidently, I can't write properly anymore either. So many needed and unnecessary words. 

Dot: Since I have time to spare

[110415]

I'm a day late again. My apology.

Bathroom:

There are two types of dorms: traditional and suite/ apartment style. Traditional style is a typical dorm that you can think of - a single room with nothing but beds and desks with a common bathroom for the whole floor. Suite style, on the other hand, is like an apartment - there are two rooms usually and a common area with a common bathroom for the suite. I live in the traditional dorm right now, so I'll only talk about that one.

Our bathroom consists of following:
Three toilets
Four sinks
Four showers (but forth one is altered ver. for disability use)

Sinks:
They are usually in acceptable shape but some times people do their dishes there and leave whatever that was on the plate on the sink. Tragic, very tragic

Hair:
Both sinks and showers suffer from this. Some people simple leave right after cleaning themselves. It gets quite disgusting. I don't want to see whatever parts from other people's body. Why are they doing this to other people, I wonder.

Shower:
Some people play music while taking shower which I found interesting.

There are three options you can take.
1. One in far inside which gives you more privacy but the water pressure is shit and you're right next to window (not transparent) and the wind is seeping in.
2. One in the middle which gives you more warmth but the water pressure is still shit.
3. You're right next to the sinks, but it has best water pressure and warmth.

Which one appeals to you?

A lesson that I learned in college is that you have to give up privacy for some comforts.

Mission Report 3: Dio, for the first time in a long time, is on time

Mission Title: Introduction to Night Vale

Mission Date: 10/22/2015 - present

Personnel: Dio, friend KYC, friend SEA, friend CGP, friend C

Objective: Introducing Dio and friend SEA to a small desert community where the sun is hot, the moon is beautiful, and mysterious lights pass overhead as they all pretend to sleep.

Itinerary: No specific itinerary. Sporadic stretches where Night Vale was commonly heard, five or six episodes at a time, then nothing, then Night Vale again.

Inventory: A bloodstone circle. Librarians. The flesh-eating summer-reading bacteria.

Difficulties encountered: Staying awake through twenty-something minutes of CGP's sonorous voice.

Mission Findings: STAY AWAY FROM THE DOG PARK. Librarians are deadly. Do not approach. If you have troubles, consider the Brown Stone Spire. The Whispering Forest is more than it seems.

Summary: Goodnight, Night Vale. Goodnight.

Today's proverb: If you don't see Night Vale everywhere after you start, then you might as well start again. And again.


Mission Title: Brief Description of Midterms

Mission Date: 10/5/2015 - 11/5/2015

Personnel: Dio, teacher-enemies

Objective: Passing midterms. And surviving them.

Itinerary: One midterm after the other. One day Dio will fall to them, but... this is not that day.

Inventory: Textbooks. Paper (lots). Pencil and pencil lead. Victims. Suffering.

Difficulties encountered: Surviving. Though, as Dio has put pen to paper (in a metaphorical sense), Dio has, obviously, survived.

Mission Findings: Please, not more.

Summary: Midterms. Five. Death.


Mission Title: Integrating Dio Into Modern Pop Culture

Mission Date: 9/1/2015 - ongoing

Personnel: Dio, friend KYC, friend SEA, friend LZ, friend PS, friend CMS

Objective: Introducing Dio and friend LZ to modern pop culture elements, e.g. BOTFA, the LOTR extended editions

Itinerary: Friday night, Saturday night, Sunday late afternoon, every week. One movie a day.

Inventory: Speakers. Laptop. Popcorn. Couch.

Difficulties encountered: (should i really start posting memes here) A strange, pulling feeling in the empty hole where my so-called heart used to exist, a long time ago.

Mission Findings: Tony Stark is a russet potato, flying above the clouds. Thor is Pikachu. Steve Rogers is a Cinnamon Roll. Thorin calls Thranduil "English pig-dog". Boromir: "Tis just a flesh wound!". Frodo is rather silly at times. Making Sam cry is like kicking a puppy, hard. No one listens to Elrond, so he decided to pass into the West and is now the Red Skull, aka "evil elf-daddy" (quote from friend PS, who came up with a lot more of these as well). Tumblr will destroy lives.

Summary: Do not Tumblr if you value that thing you call a heart.