I went to the beach today for a nice break. Perfect weather! Cool winds with sun shining... Squiggle toes in the sand, have the cold waves wash over my legs....aaahh... =)

I successfully downloaded and installed MiKTeX and learned enough of LaTeX to write homework solutions for my stats class in just half a day! =) That makes me a happy peppy person.

February 2002
==========
* 180 pounds
* first time blood donation
* first time stats class
* didn't know future plans after b.s.
* music by Jimmy Eat World, Travis, and The Strokes
* anonymous notetaker in class
* first favorite professor : DGK
* doing crap work for workstudy job
* Veteran apartment
* not so happy...

April 2004
=======
* 153 pounds
* will try to donate blood for 7th time soon
* taking my 5th and 6th stats class
* will be phd student in stats come August
* all kinds of funky music
* all my profs this quarter know my name
* second favorite professor
* not doing any work for workstudy job
* Tiverton apartment
* very happy...



=========================================
sorta frustrating that i can't find anything much online about dgk, haven't seen him in awhile again... after that last email, he must be scared off or don't care... i really didn't do anything!! i've kept a respectable distance all these years... and when someone tells you that you made such a huge difference in her life, wouldn't that make you sorta happy?? oh wells...

Having too much free time and no car has become a bane. I need work to keep me happy and useful. Don't even got much homework anymore... sigh... and my motivation to read scientific articles is waning. Watch movies? or what? Pooh pooh...

oye...my moods are on a rollercoaster.... is it because of the weather? not feeling as happy as i was recently... exercising is good...

1. go to berkeley
2. get phd
3. come back to la

Culled from conversation with Linda: if anyone contacts me out of the blue, I'm always pleasantly surprised and happy... so why shouldn't I do it too? Just start contacting people that I haven't been in touch with... I don't because I think they don't want to talk to me...

more happy thoughts when i rewatch pride and prejudice for the umphteenth time.... elizabeth and mr. darcy! whooweee

HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY! I had such a great time today.... too bad I can't really blog it in public, but if you are close friend, you are guaranteed to hear about it whether you like it or not! hhahahhahahahah......

I got GMAIL!

Lazy @$$ this quarter:

Stat 183
Stat 150

and that's it! Sorta being a pseudo TA for my prof. It's great...

I'm gonna love being a graduate student!!!! hahaha....

I had a great time today with my favorite prof.

I'm gonna miss the MS building here at UCLA so much..... going to be in "butt-ugly buidling" for the next 5 years:

from: http://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~atwu/firstcultural/berkeleyguide.html#evans

EVANS HALL
AKA: Fort Evans, Vertical Basement
Built in: 1971
Home to: Mathematics, Economics
Food: No

The mere mention of Evans rarely elicits a positive feeling. For those with the misfortune of having a classroom or office inside, the building's design worsens the boredom and sheer terror that is Math 1A. Even for those who are lucky enough (oh, and are they a rare and lucky few) to never have any classes held inside the second tallest building on campus, this eyesore at the top of Memorial Glade brings up memories of annual suicides, jokes in the Heuristic Squelch, and blame shifting from architecture students from Wurster. However, this building occupies an important role in UCB history. Not only was it the last building to go up until 1991 (1980 if you count Bechtel Terrace), it was the last building of more than 7 stories to be built at UC Berkeley. Guess enough was enough, eh? In addition, the CS department traces its roots to Evans, as does the computer infrastructure of the entire campus.

There has been much debate over which of the three Big Ugly Concrete Boxes (Evans, Barrows, and Wurster) is the ugliest Berkeley building. While many often say Wurster, which features odd and asymmetrical concrete formations and outgrowths, a quick visit inside each of these buildings will be sufficient proof that Evans wins the contest hands down. The layout of the building is the standard courtyard form, with rooms built around a rectangular hallway. However, there are more rooms where the courtyard should be. This means that the hallway and the interior rooms get no sunlight at all, making all but the basement, ground, first, ninth, and tenth floors feel like a basement.

The Ghosts of Evans Hall
Since its construction, numerous people have committed suicide in and around Evans. Here's a partial list. Please do not add to it.

Kevin Hogue, 1984 - 3:55 PM April 4, 2002. Junior in College of Letters and Sciences. Jumped off northwest corner of 10th floor.

Nicolai Rosen, 1983 - 3:20 PM March 11, 2002. System administrator in math department. Second year Cal student. Suffocated himself with plastic bag in 9th floor office after failing to transfer into Computer Science.

Duane Alan Matthes, 1962 - 9:30 AM April 10, 2000. Political Science graduate, class of 1985 from UC Berkeley. Self employed in financial industry. Jumped from north side conference room on 9th floor.

At least I'm leaving UCLA with little debt... I have over 12,000 in loans, but I've been saving, so it shouldn't take long to pay that back. Thanks to the government for making my education possible. I am seriously grateful, otherwise it'd been really difficult paying for it all. Whoohoo, I'm about to be the first in my family to get a B.S. and go to grad school! =)

I should be excited about graduate school, now I'm wondering whether I made the right choice.
Everyone told me to go to Berkeley and I figured they knew something I didn't. Maybe I shouldn't think that choosing graduate school is parallel to choosing undergraduate school. I chose undergraduate based on feeling, not on program. But in graduate school, you're already supposed to know what you want to do. I'm a person who likes to keep her options open. Why else would I have problems choosing a major and then finally settle on the only major at UCLA that lets me take everything? But that major became too general and made getting to graduate school harder, so I added another major to keep options open. Now it's the same way, I chose statistics over bioinformatics, because even if, for some weird reason, I lost interest in biology, statistics will let me work in other fields.

Now I'm just really hoping that I will be able to come back to UCLA in the future, after I get my PhD or not. It's been my world for 5 years, so it's time to see new things now. At least Berkeley has a GAP store on Telegraph, I've been missing the Westwood Gap since they closed. =)

Listening to: Outkast - Roses ..... "Carooooline!...."

Cutey easter chicks!

Thanks soooo much to Tammy who scored us tickets to see the world premiere of Jennifer Garner's new movie "13 Going on 30" Incredible!!! We saw Victor Garber, Michael Vartan, Tobey Maguire, guy who plays Dixon on Alias...etc. And we sorta saw Jennifer as she took her seat in the theater. She was wearing a white dress and waved to the audience.

Movie is a total chick flick but so cute! I liked it, though Tammy, Lien and I were sitting really close to the front on the way right side, so everything was severely distorted and I got a neck cramp, but nonetheless very exciting! 5 years at UCLA and I've never been to a single premiere until this one! What a way to leave UCLA! =)

Almost deja vu?

April 1999

UCLA - Undeclared : Life Sciences
Berkeley - Undeclared : Engineering
UCSD - Bioengineering


April 2004

UCLA - Statistics
Berkeley - Statistics
UCSD - Bioinformatics (within Dept. of Bioengineering)


Back in 1999, UCLA was on the bottom of my list, it didn't have a bioengineering department. Berkeley and UCSD did have bioengineering and UCSD would have been completely free. However, the visits were crucial to my decision to go to UCLA. Right after I came back from Cal Day, I submitted my SIR for UCLA and never ever regretted it. You can't ever plan things and I had no idea that UCLA would have the perfect major for me. It just felt right to come here and when I was a freshman, I said I'd stay here forever. Five years has been so short and long.

A Marine stationed in Afghanistan recently received a
"Dear John" letter from his girlfriend back home. It read
as follows:

Dear Ricky,

I can no longer continue our relationship. The distance
between us is just too great. I must admit that I have
cheated on you twice since you've been gone, and it's not
fair to either of us. I'm sorry. Please return the picture
of me that I sent to you.
Love,
Becky

The Marine, with hurt feelings, asked his fellow Marines
for any snapshots they could spare of their girlfriends,
sisters, ex-girlfriends, aunts, cousins, etc. In addition
to the picture of Becky, Ricky included all the other
pictures of the pretty gals he had collected from his
buddies. There were 57 photos in that envelope, along
with this note.

Dear Becky,

I"m sorry, but I can't quite remember who you are. Please
take your picture from the pile and send the rest back to
me.

Love,
Ricky

=======================================================
When I was an undergraduate at MIT I loved it. I thought it was a great
place, and I wanted to go to graduate school there too, of course. But when
I went to Professor Slater and told him of my intentions, he said, "We won't
let you in here."
I said, "What?"
Slater said, "Why do you think you should go to graduate school at
MIT?"
"Because MIT is the best school for science in the country."
"You think that?"
"Yeah."
"That's why you should go to some other school. You should find out how
the rest of the world is."
:
:
:
So MIT was good, but Slater was right to warn me to go to another
school for my graduate work. And I often advise my students the same way.
Learn what the rest of the world is like. The variety is worthwhile.
========================================================
~ Feynman

Maybe my problem isn't choosing a grad skool, but making the decision to finally grow up?

Graduate school : what everyone thinks:
----------------------------------------------------

UCLA Statistics PhD
Berkeley Statistics PhD
UCSD Bioinformatics PhD

Family
--------
whatever I choose is cool with them =)

Friends
---------
Tammy - Berkeley
Linda H - Berkeley
Cynthie - Berkeley or UCSD
Justin - Berkeley
Abe - Berkeley
Florence - Berkeley
Julius - Berkeley
Lien - Berkeley
Linda T - Berkeley
Kathy - Berkeley
Yat - Berkeley
Helly - UCSD
Candi - UCLA

* I know I haven't listed some of my very close friends, but I forget if you chose anything! Let me know! This is an evolving list! =)

Faculty
---------
Professor Christou - Berkeley
Professor Lew - Berkeley
Professor DiStefano - Berkeley

everyone at Berkeley - Berkeley
everyone at UCSD - UCSD
some at UCLA - UCLA

Car!! =)

Stuff

* New car is great and huuuuuge!! I've driven it and it's pretty smooth, picks up quickly, getting used to steering, was a bit hard when I first drove it... anyways, 8 seater, shoulder belts for all the seats...
white w/ grey leather, jbl sound system, lots of cool small stuff that comes standard with limited, fun car! but biiiiiig! but no problems in driving it.. i could back out of narrow curvy driveway same as usual... this car can totally beat up all those dinky civics out there =)

* UCSD called me today, I got the San Diego Fellowship... not sure how big a diff it will be since awards never stack up... it just replaces stuff so I still end up with usual amount, but different source, the bioinformatics dept benefits mostly, they don't have to pay me as much since UCSD grad division is paying a huge chunk of it... I guess a little something to stick on resume? ..... so why does UCLA not care?? got fellowships from both ucsd and berkeley now... and their original stipend amounts before fellowships were still better than ucla's offer

* Grades in for winter quarter 2004, unexpectedly got straight A's, which is weird since I never bothered to turn in a lot of hw because of school visiting in March. Oh wells, fun stuff! =)

* School starts again on Monday, yippeeeee! =) Taking Statistics 150 (Data Analysis), Statistics 183 (Statistical Models in Finance), and Biomathematics 208 (Neuromodeling for Mathematicians, this is a graduate course that I'm taking for fuuuun!) Actually, I'm taking all three for fun, since technically I'm done with all classes that I'd ever need to graduate with both majors. whooohooo, I love skool!