Htam::Diary

This Sunday, after church, many of us walked to Tea Station to get, well, some tea.  I ordered some milky green tea thing, but while ordering, the waitress told me it tastes bad and suggested that I change.  So I got a taro drink instead.  We were too numerous to fit in one table, so I sat with Doris, George, and Steph.  We started folding origami.  Doris taught us how to fold a crane, I taught how to fold a crow, and Steph taught how to fold a heart.  We gave the three hearts (George was drawing the whole time) to the three girls at the other table: Jen (visiting Dan!), Esther, and Priscilla.  I told these folks a few months ago that once grad school starts I will spend time with them more, instead of always leaving right after church with my parents Hou-En and June.  Now I am fulfilling my promise.

This Saturday, besides picking up Alex for Bible study, I also gave Steve and Tammy a ride.  Their car is at church, so I am giving them a ride there and they will drive back themselves.  We were running a bit later than planned, so I thought, I probably won't be the one unlocking the church building today.  But I was wrong.  Anyways, after Bible study, Hou-En helped me pump my tires using his electric pump.  My tire pressure warning lights are no longer on whenever I drive, yay!  Then most people had to leave, so I had lunch with Alex and Johnson.

By the way, I posted 13 photos dating back to Sept 9.  These can be seen by clicking on the "PHOTO" theme on the top of the page.  This is an incentive for those of you who are reading via RSS to visit my site once in a while. :-D

This Friday, the usual Friday Fest was canceled because neither Steve and Tammy nor Dan and Chris can host it.  I talked with Alex and decided we should meet anyways, so I sent out an email a few days ago.  Steph and George decided to come over.  So the four of us went out to Mr. Noodle (the other time I was there was with June) for dinner.  Then we came back and we sang some Karaoke Revolution.  It was quite fun, albeit late.  I should go sleep soon.  Tomorrow morning I have to wake up early.

[Photo: George did not want to be in the photo with my sister, Steph and Alex did not mind.]

This Thursday, I should be preparing for the topology quiz tomorrow, or the combinatorics reading group.  However, I was unable to focus and consequently did not do a lot of work.  Of course I still worked, but just not as much as I usually do per day.  The last time I had this feeling/problem was October 26, right before the algebra midterm.  Hmm, is there a correlation?  I hope not.  I will find out in two weeks when I have my second algebra midterm.

[Photo: This is the same thing I used to cook, my "pot."  However, now with corn starch!!]

This Wednesday, besides doing the usual, finishing homework, and the like, I additionally looked at NDSEG material.  I think I may want to apply to this, having applied to NSF (unsuccessfully) last year and again this year.  The essays are already written, I just need to modify it a bit.  I talked with my dad and decided this would be a good thing to do, but we shot down another funding source that was not as good fit at this time.

[Photo: Yeah, I am eating same stuff twice in a row, but newly cooked nevertheless.]

This Tuesday, I woke up at 5:30, and started doing math soonafter.  I was late in starting the algebra homework this week.  So I worked hard in the morning.  I solved two out of the ten problems in four hours.  That's a lot of time.  Then I cooked lunch and ate.  In the afternoon, I went over to Josh Zahl's place.  We talked for a bit, including some math, and then did some trivia.  I came back and continued working.  I worked for about seven hours today, slightly less than my average of eight hours.  At night, Joy and I went to prayer meeting.  This is the second time we have gone, we have both been very busy.

[Photo: The tofu dish has pineapple in it this time!  Yay, variations.]

This Monday, my ex-roommates John Shen and David Barmore came over to watch Heroes again.  Last week Barmore was out of town so we did not watch.  Indeed, since the start, we have only watched three episodes.  Today they came over a bit earlier, and since I do not have class tomorrow, I agree to watching two episodes.  I usually do not like watching so much TV at once, but on the other hand, I have watched only roughly two hours of TV in the last week, down from the 10 hours or so I used to watch per week.  I feel I have indeed `saved up' some TV watching time.  This is fine if I get to spend it with my friends.

Before John arrived, Barmore arrived early as usual, and we sang KR for a bit.  I had a perfect score on true duet song Always with John before on medium, but I never got an easy perfect (I know it is easier :-D), so today Barmore and I did that.  I enjoy singing KR, but I have not had the time to sing by myself for sometime now.  The last time I sang was when Barmore came over two weeks ago.

This Sunday, I picked up Steve and Tammy (in addition to Alex) for church.  Steve and Tammy left their car at church yesterday to carpool with me to Priscilla's and back to LA.  During the message, I taught the high school group for my first time.  Today the topic was finding God's peace.  I had quite real experiences about this so I was happy to be able to talk to them about this.

After church, I went to buy a hands-free device from 99 Cents store, which I visited so often during Ditch Day prep.  The device does not work with my phone.  Oh well, I tried, and it was only a dollar anyways.  Then I went to Tom Mannion's place, where Caleb Ng is house sitting.  I talked to him for a while, and then walked over to Ramo to watch the TACIT production Rocket Girl.  Out of the cast of 17, I know 12 of them, having been on stage with 11 of them.  This was one of the main reasons I went back to support the production--past involvement.  John Sadowski flew back from Harvard to see the play as well!  It's Cleomines and Dion reunited.  After the play, I talked to some of the cast members for a while, and then went back to Mannion's.  I had dinner with Caleb, and then headed home.

While driving, I realized a warning light came on.  So I drove over to Hou-En's place, and read the owner's manual.  It is the tire pressure warning light.  I called June to see if Hou-En is back, but he is not.  She happened to be at Joanna and Sara's place, and Chris was there too, who told him I should be able to drive home without problem, so I did.  On the way back, I really needed to use the restroom, so I took a random exit and drove random search patterns until I found a gas station.  Then it took me a while to find my way back to the freeway.  Today it took me probably an hour to get home.  Oh well.  Things like this sometimes happen.

[Photo: Some of the cast, Caltech president, the playwright, and the playwright's father.]

This Saturday, I picked up Alex for church as usual.  After Bible study, we went to a burger place to eat.  Since it is Priscilla's birthday today, we are having a party at her place in Arcadia.  Therefore, it does not make sense for us to return home.  Steve and Tammy decided to stay at church to study; so Alex and myself did the same.  We were the only four from UCLA area who went to Bible study.  I started and finished doing my topology for the week, including reading the textbook and doing the problems assigned yesterday.  As usual, it is due the following Friday.  It feels good to be done so early.

At night, Steve and Tammy left their car at church and I drove the four of us to Priscilla's place.  We were the first to get there.  They started watching football so I started falling asleep.  After dinner, I was really tired, but I stayed for a game which preceded desserts.  I really want to try dessert made by June--so I ate one bite after the game, and then left.  Since I was so tired, Steve drove my car back.  It is good to be driven when tired.

Photo: This was taken at Priscilla's home.

This Friday, I took the math department language exam this morning.  The math PhD students need to translate a math paper from French, German, or Russian, into English.  Since I took German last year (in preparation for this), I opted for the German exam, despite most people (all but me) taking French.  We were given three articles to choose one to translate.  All the French papers were two pages, whereas all my German ones were roughly six pages.  I chose one about prime numbers, starting with the proof that there are infinitely prime numbers, and then going on to Legendre stuff.  In the two hours provided, I was only able to translate 5.5 pages out of 6.  Hopefully that is good enough to pass the exam.