Htam::Diary

This Thursday, I went to the Graduate Christian Fellowship first meeting at night.  It was late at night, and I was really tired by the time it ended.  I probably will not be going in the future.  But I figured I should check them out at least once, since I stopped by their booth during club resource fair and signed up.  I will still be receiving weekly emails from them.  Perhaps I will go again some day.  Their "Large Group" reminded me much of my Ruddock small group.  It has a very free atmosphere, where everyone speaks freely.  On the other hand, it seems like they are taking turn leading every week, and going through a book about the Old Testament.

This Wednesday, I went to the Metro Purple line to pick up Christina Lee.  She is coming to UCLA to visit her cousin, who just came from Taiwan and is now pursuing a MS in computer science.  I first took her to my apartment (since I have to park here), and we sat around and talked for a bit.  It is nice being with her again.  And then we walked to her cousin's place, which is directly across from Po-Shen Loh's apartment.  Then we decided to walk to campus to eat.  Since I had to go to DMV to take my written test for a driver's license, I left early.  Christina and her cousin walked around campus, and eventually came back to my place.  I was back as well (difference about 2 minutes), having passed the written test.  The test was non-trivial.  If I had not studied, I would not have passed.  After talking for some time, we decided it is getting late and I drove Christina to the metro station again.  However, the traffic is bad, hence we were running behind schedule.  It is fine for her, but I have to get back because my former roommates John Shen and David Barmore are coming over to watch Heroes together.

Upon returning, I saw John outside.  In a few minutes, Barmore arrived with Kate Craig.  We talked for a long time.  After Kate left we had some sandwiches and watched the season 3 premier, two days late.  We only watch the first half, though, so we need to watch the second episode (shown back-to-back with the first) next week.

This Tuesday, I went to the "first" meeting of the UCLA table tennis club.  The word "first" is in quotations for two reasons.  One, I have already gone to their meetings before, yet it was before school started hence no officials were there.  Second, there are so many people that the official first meeting is split between three days.

In any case, I enjoyed my time today.  I played against several people, beating most of them easily.  The vice president Chen came to play with me.  He was rather good, and I lost to him the first game.  But then I won the next two.  I would say we are roughly the same.  This is great--I had not have people with roughly the same level at Caltech (undergrad).

I do not think I will be going to club regularly just yet, since these are late at night and so far I am still sleeping relatively early.

This Monday, I went to visit David Barmore, my multiplicity-two ex-roommate.  I got slightly lost on the way there, but eventually I made it to his place.  We basically talked for a long time, and did not do much else.  It is surprising that Barmore and I could talk so much now.  I always talked a lot, but Barmore did not use to talk this much four years ago.  Wow, four years.  Today I also talked to our mutual roommate John Shen quite a bit online.  The three of us decides that we will watch the Heroes season 3 premier together this Wednesday at my place.  I set my VCR to record the show, and I go to sleep.  Hopefully this season will be better than the last.

This Sunday, we went to a restaurant called 85 C.  When I first heard the name, of course I wondered what it is in F.  Steve pointed out (rather quickly, too) that 85 C is 185 F, without prompting.  Then I drove to Caltech and played table tennis.  It is not good to play table tennis after drinking lots of Chinese drinks.  Next week I shall not do this.

This Saturday, I got a haircut.  It has been 65 days since I got my last haircut, but I since I got it in Taiwan, perhaps it is 64 days. :-D  Anyways, after Bible study at church I went to Pasadena to look for plates at Target, get a haircut at my old place that I am used to, and get a car wash.  By the time I was ready to go, it was already 4 PM.  So I figured I could drive to IKEA, and have dinner there.  Steve and Tammy stopped by Thursday and discussed couch arrangements.  I am going to take a look at the chaises there to see if any would fit my needs.  My conclusion is that they mostly do not fit my needs.  Back to the drawing board.  This is the third week in a row going to IKEA on Saturday.  I must have gone there a lot by now, as I took a different Freeway exit just for fun, and drove local streets without looking up the map first.  By my intuition and knowledge of where the store was, I took some streets to get there and realized I indeed took a shortest path!  Yay.

This Friday, there is orientation on campus, so I went to the registration place to pick up my lunch ticket, went back to the math department, then went at lunch time to pick up free lunch, and then brought the box lunch back to the math department.  I did, however, attend some workshops in the afternoon--the John Wooden Center recreation open house, which made me late to the Student Health Insurance Plan workshop.  Since I was late, it was not helpful at all, though I did see Kate Craig and Xuan Luo.  Then I went to the resource fair and saw Tim Dong at the LCF table, and also talked to the grad fellowship people and signed up on their email list.  I need to decide how much I want to involve myself with them, though, as it may be that I do not do anything with them at all--we shall see.

Then I stayed up really late.  After dinner at 7:30, I went to Tori's place, where the first-year grad students are celebrating the conclusion of the entrance qualifying exam.  We talked for a bit, and then people started playing Hearts.  I think I ate some food, talked a bit more, and then left "early" at 9.  That is really late, though, since I usually sleep around 8 or 9.  I think I am starting to sleep a bit later.  That is okay.  I still wake up early enough for my morning obligations, without needing to use an alarm.

This Thursday, after studying in the morning, I went to eat on campus.  Then I checked out the testing room, and then rested in my office for a bit.  When the time came, I walked into the testing room.  Even though it is 15 minutes early still, half of the people already showed up.  When the test was handed down, I was immediately relieved.  Of the 12 problems, we need to pick 10 to do.  I immediately know how to do the first 9.  Some of them I have seen before, some of them are just so easy I figured it out within the first minute reading the problem statement.  So I spent the first 2 to 3 hours of the 4-hour exam writing down (carefully, as supposedly this test is partly a test of proof-writing rather than thinking up proofs) the proofs of these 9 problems I know how to do.  Then I spent the remainder trying to figure out one of the other 3 problems, but could not.  So I gave up and turned in the exam.  I should be okay.

This Wednesday, it is the last (full) day of studying.  I have been doing 6 or more hours of math a day.  This is quite tiring.  Today, Gene and I went together again.  But after we got to the 2007 exams, we gave up.  Those were extremely difficult.  I went out to buy groceries.  Banana, broccoli, bread, and bmilk.  Oh, I mean milk, but everything else starts with the letter B.  I think I plan to do some more studying tomorrow morning, looking up proofs of certain things that are repeated very often on the exam.

This Tuesday, I studied more for the test on Thursday.  I went to the math department in the morning and worked on the most recent test, as I am starting from the oldest exam with Gene and working to the newer ones, I figured I can start at the newer ones myself and work backwards.  In the afternoon, Gene came and we worked.  It was pretty good.  We did a whole lot.  Mainly, though, if one of us figured it out we would practice explaining to the other person (sometimes on the black board).  But if we both cannot do it in a while, we just skip it.  We will look them up later--they are usually well-known theorems or results that we already know, but know not how to prove.

Also tonight, it is the first time I sang KR since a long time.  The last time was when I set up my TV and tried out KR just to see if it works fine.  Before that, it was probably when lots of people came over to my place back at Chester to sing together.  I have not had much time to relax lately.  I wake up, do some things, read, emails, and then go to school.  In the afternoon when I come back, I cook, eat, and then rest a bit and then go to sleep.  My days are full.

This Monday, I started "studying" in the sense that I am doing very specific test prep work by solving all the problems in the old exams.  I have been reading books in related area for the past few weeks in class.  And now it is time to put it all to the test by getting my hands dirty.  I went with Gene to the math department and looked at the problems.  I am not sure how good is this "working together" deal, but I will give it a try.

This Sunday, I translated during Breaking of Bread.  This is the second time for me, and the first time of my regular schedule (the first "test" was a few months ago); I am glad to be serving in this capacity now.  After church, the young people cleaned up the church building.  Afterwards, I went to Caltech to play table tennis at 3 PM.  I picked up Michael Woods from his apartment and went to play.  Ran Huo showed up around the start, too.  It is good to play with them.  I also played with Yi and Chefung, ended up playing for about three hours.  That was not the plan I had.  I asked for 3 PM start time instead of 4 PM so I can leave around 5 PM instead of 6 PM.  Oh well, I enjoyed playing.  This is probably the highlight of my week.  At night, I finished the GALANT drawer, which took 2 hours and 30 minutes total.  It is a good drawer, the only place I can conceal things--I am putting my pills in there so it does not get too much sunshine on it.  All my other shelves are open.  I will have to figure out where to put this drawer unit, and how to best utilize it.

This Saturday, I went to IKEA for the second Saturday in a row.  This marks my fourth visit to IKEA.  The first time without making purchases, the second time with June and Steph for my initial purchase, and the third last week to return my bed slats.  Today I got screws that were "missing" from the package (I found them later underneath some wood, I am so careless!) and another pillow.

This Friday, classes are ended.  I study.  However, I also thought I should build my last piece of furniture from my initial IKEA purchase--GALANT Drawer unit on casters.  However, I am missing some screws.  I will go back to IKEA tomorrow to obtain these screws.  In the mean time, I build as much as I can.  One part requires some strength, so I brought it over to Steve when I went for dinner, and he snapped it in for me.  Today only Caleb, Esther, and Steph showed up.  We watched Gattaca.  I left in the middle since I was going to sleep.

This Thursday, I went to Bootcamp for the last time.  Of the 19 class days, besides the first week, I was always the one to unlock the classroom in the morning, and usually end up reading Bible there for quite some time before anyone else showed up.  To be fair, some other students like to come early too and go to the computer lab or the reading room or the lounge.  But in any case, I get some peace and quiet by myself for a good hour or so in the classroom before the morning class.  Now that classes are over, I can concentrate on studying more.

This Wednesday, I went to North Campus to eat primarily to use the ATM near the North Campus Student Center.  Josh Zahl, Brad, Bin, and Xie came as well.  After class, Brad and Josh walked with me to the bus stop.  Brad, however, decided to go back to the math department to print some stuff out.  Dom joined us at the bus stop, and we went back.  Afterwards, I drove Josh to Pavilions.  Since I went two days ago, and I only go today since I forgot to buy bread and I am in need of it, I also took a sheet of paper and wrote down a lot of prices of things I usually purchase.  This will go into my matrix of prices so I can optimize my spending.

This Tuesday, after my check being pushed back five times, I finally got my check for the summer.  Hopefully in the future nothing like this will happen again.  In any case, I will have more reserves so it will be less of a problem in the future I am sure.

This Monday, it is the start of the last week of Bootcamp.  I woke up early as usual and went to school around 8 in the morning, unlocked the classroom (as I have done for 11 times already), and read some Bible in the morning.  The classes are still pretty boring, so I study on my own in the back row.  I went to get my promised check, but neither of the secretaries for the grad division was in.  I will have to wait until tomorrow.

This Sunday, I went to Caltech at 3 PM and waited in the gym to see if anyone would show up early to play.  I sent out an email earlier regarding this.  No one came early, though, so I was just reading topology for an hour.  Afterwards, I went to Michael Woods' apartment and had dinner there with him.  He made some excellent sandwiches from ingredients he purchased at Bristol Farms.

Today I took the same route as yesterday, except I drove to the gym and to Michael's place, which were all very close.  However, the end result was that I drove 64.0 today, and 63.6 yesterday with a visit to IKEA!?  How is this possible.  Well, from Weyburn to church to Chester (via 405, 10, 5, 10) is about 29.6 miles.  From Chester to IKEA to Weyburn (via 210, 134, 5, 134, 101, 405) is about 34.5 miles.  And from Chester to Weyburn (via 210, 134, 101, 405) is about 30.7 miles.  The difference is about 3.8 miles, which with the difference of the two actual trips, means I drove for about 4.2 miles extra.  I do not think I actually drove that much in Pasadena, though it is hard to say.  In any case, the 134 segment is about 3.7 miles and the detour to IKEA is about 3.5 + 3.8 miles.  They form somewhat a rough equilateral triangle.

This Saturday, I went to IKEA in the afternoon after church and lunch.  Since IKEA is in Burbank, part way between Pasadena and UCLA, it makes sense for me to utilize the triangle inequality and string these trips together as one.  Tomorrow I will be more or less driving the same route, without going to IKEA.  Then I will know for sure how the distances compare.  Today I went to return my SULTEN LIEN Slatted bed base, as my bed frame comes with slats, I need not use these.  I looked around for quite some time, thinking about couches and couch alternatives.  I ended up purchasing GOSA VADD Pillow, stomach sleeper, a table cloth, and a carpet protector.  I am going to try out the carpet protector, so my chair can roll around.  However, I think I quite like the behaviour of my chair, which is it takes a lot of effort to make it move around (but still easier than without casters), hence I can lean on it with a lot of force and it won't move away from me.  I was going to buy more BENJAMIN Stools, but they were out of stock.  Consequently, I was unable to use my $40 voucher.