Htam::Diary

This Saturday, I woke up early (0800, yes I know I used to wake up at this time, but last week has been finals and I got off track) and finished packing (all the stuff I could not do the day before). Then I said good bye to my friends and collegues and left Caltech. Hou-En and June came to pick me up and we had brunch at IHOP. Later they took me to a RadioShack where I fixed my own watch. It took me a while, but I got it, and now I am proud. We made it to the airport right on time. On the plane, I did some rubik's cube to pass the time. The total flight time was two hours twenty-one minutes and forty-four seconds (2:21:44).

Charley came to pick me up, we drove to UW and met up with other people from church small group: Joe, Dennis, and Bo. We had Mongolian Grill, which reminded me of the remodeled Chandler. I ate way too much. Back at Charley's place, we played the Sims for a while (okay, a long time) then went to sleep.

This Friday is the last day of the school year. I truly thank the Lord for all that He has done for me and for guiding me every step along the way, so that I did not have to walk alone. Today I finished most of the packing, except for the things that I need to pack when I wake up.

Later, ten of us from ABSK went to Ray's house for dinner, and then have games afterwards. It was very fun, though it cut into my planned sleeping time. We got back after midnight.

This Thursday, I took the Bi1 final in the afternoon. (Note I am posting this retroactively.) I thought it was quite easy. I was able to do it very quickly. Compared to the midterm, I have to say they were giving us a `happy summer' note.

At night, I played Citadels, the other game that I bought but have never played. I liked it. I think Scott also enjoyed it. A two-player game is certainly quite intersting with four characters.

This Wednesday, in the interest of completing everything a day early for packing, I decided to take a final in addition to doing the Ma3 set. I am not breaking my one final a day rule in any case. The Ma3 set is 3/4 easy and 1/4 hard. By that I mean precisely this: three (3) of the four (4) problems I was able to do in a fairly short timeframe. The other problem, however, no one in the class figured out! I wrote ``The proof is left as an exercise to the reader.'' I any case, I am done with Ma3 now.

Ec11 final is closed book, ponder. I did not really want to study for it, considering that I have precisely 100% in the class prior to taking the final. So I took it.

Earlier in the day my games that I ordered in honor of Don Shepard arrived. After the Ec11 final, I read the rules of the two games I do not know how to play, namely Citadels and Battle Line. (The other game I ordered was Bang!, which I played Bing Huo before.) After reading the rules I became excited and invited Scott Hsieh, whom I will be rooming with so was part of the decision as to how to spend the Don Shepard Fun Fund, and played Battle Line with him. It was very interesting, I think I want to play some more. But it was too late.

This Tuesday I studied for and took the Ph1c final. I usually do not study for open book exams, however, since I heard from professor Newman our TA that the test was going to be hard, I went to review session and studied hard. By study hard I mean I read all the sections covered this term that I have not read. I usually read the textbook since I do not go to lecture. I skip sections when I read when I judge that it is not important for me to know for purposes of the homework and when I do not have enough time (which is often the case). So I finished filling in sections from chapter 11 back to chapter 7. There are some sections in chapter 4 that I have never read, and perhaps whole chapters at the beginning. But I decided it is too far back that it will either not come up or would come up as something incorporated, which my knowledge would have been enough. With this preparation, I went and took the final.

This Monday is our last CCF meeting of the year. It was very long (four hours). We first continued our family business meeting, and then we had leaving seniors share on their experiences here. The sharing was very interesting, with honesty. At the end, we prayed together for the seniors, it was very good. We did not end up finishing all of the family business (Council position decisions), so we will have to finish that sometimes.

This Sunday is filled with little things. At church, the sharing topic was on dating and marriage. I thought the sharing was very good. I am not at the point of life that I am dating yet, but this probably will help in the future if the Lord provides. One very important thing that was stressed is that the two dating should be able to pray together every night. This basically ruled out Christians dating non-Christians. I think praying together is very, very good. Not just for romantic relationships, but for friendship and Spiritual companionship. I prayed with this brother on a daily basis once, we grew to become very close friends. I think we had to stop because once we became close friends, the phone calls tend to become too long.

Later I went to play ping pong at Caltech for the last time this year, not a lot of people showed up, probably because of a chamber music concert (that I did not know about) and also of finals week. Later we had Decompression free food for us to, well, decompress. Then I went to physics review, gasp, I heard the test was going to be hard.

This Saturday, Scott and I went out to get lunch at 1400. Apparently this gesture has something to do with the congruence class of my age modulo a year. Anyhow, it was a highly enjoyable meal... at that time. Later I felt really full. So I only ate a little bit for dinner.

After church, I played Tetris Attack with Wing Yung for 14 games straight! This is probably the longest I have ever played that game. Wing consistently play me at a higher level difficulty. I lost at first and then won all the 8:4 games but the last one. She won 7 games (including one 8:4) and I won 7 games (all 8:4). Yes, she is much better than I am. It was very enjoyable.

I was born at 09:52 in the east coast, I believe that is 06:52 here in the west coast. Hence this post.

This Friday is the last day of class. However, I had no class. I just spent the better part of the day (until 5 minutes before deadline at 1700) finishing my last physics set, this really took too long.

We had senior gifts tonight, it was crazy and kind of interesting. Of course I do not get a lot of the inside jokes.

At night, I talked to Mel right after the date change. Later I watched Spider-Man 2 with Brian Zhou and Pakpoom Subsoontorn for the second time, it was still quite good. What a day.

It is so late.

This Thursday, after going four (4) hours (insane!) of Bi1, I ate and went to ABSK. Afterwards, I played table tennis with Brian Zhou in the last PE84 this year. Then I came back and worked on the last Ph1c set. It took me such a long time. There were some questions that were kind of weird. I usually do not spend more than three (3) hours, four, five at most. This time it took me a lot longer than usual. I worked after ping pong from 2300 all the way till tomorrow 0200. Wow. And I was not done.

I just got back from Ruddock Small Group (yes this late). Today is the last meeting with the seniors. After studying Malachi 4, the last book of the Bible (a good way to the end the school year, eh?), we had a long worship time with lots of hymns (and some songs and, gasp, Christmas songs). Later we prayed for Michael Priolo and Theodore Yu (Teddy). It was a very good meeting. We also decided that we will let Ruddock Small Group live on, despite the (possible) changes in small group structure next year to be more along house lines, as we already satisfy the requirement and we are a pretty close knit group.

This Wednesday, I woke up and continued working on the last Ma5 set. Even though I did not finish, I still went to physics lecture as it is pizza day. I go to lecture twice per term: the first day and the end-of-term pizza day. Later, I worked on Ma5 skipping Ec11, and even was late to Ma3. I finally got it done. Yay.

After Ma3, I went to talk to my adviser, she thinks I am not taking enough math classes, despite the fact I am taking Ma108 and Ma121 already. I think that is plenty, my former adviser Professor Wilson also agrees. I am going to stick to my schedule. Which can be seen on my caltech page.

This Tuesday, I spent the better part of the day first working on my Ma3 set and then my last Ma5 set. The Ma5 set started out early but ended kind of hard. I was not able to finish the set before I went to sleep.

This Monday, we do not have school as it is Memorial day. I ended up studying a whole bunch. At night, we had CCF family business meeting again. I decided I am not going to be treasurer.

This Sunday, I finally returned to the sunday table tennis club after a hiatus of about a month. It was fun playing with them again.

I also looked at ways to utilize my fun fund.

This Saturday, Hou-En and I went to the Dengs for dinner before Bible study at church. I attempted to teach the kids math and science. It was actually kind of interesting.

This Friday, I was very tired. I am actually pretty glad that the school year is coming to a close. I think I am actually kind of burnt out. I need to sleep.

This Thursday, I went to table tennis class for the first time in a month! I am so excited that my back is healed and I may participate in this wonderful sport. I stretched a lot more today and played in moderation. I picked it up rather quickly from where I left off. I am not as good as before (especially my forehand). My stamina and agility are also significantly diminished from non-use. I think I will have to train a while before my bodily functions return to normal. Again, very excited.