Frances and Calvin at some Chinese restaurant

Linda and Frances at Applebee's

Cynthie and Linda (in the car)
Frances, Ellen, Shelly and Justin (in the store)

Advisor on the phone : "Never ever in a million years do you give more than one significant digit for a p-value."

Yeah, me being somewhat paranoid, I never think to chop off unnecessary digits and instead, opt to unload a mess of numbers onto advisor who also then tells me to stop at 2 digits for correlations. Since I have a feeling I've done this to him before, I must remember to never do this again! Hopefully my forgetfulness won't lead me to have to tattoo this onto my arm someday.

abe was right: old people keep farting in the library, geez a lou

thank you to cynthie, floey, linda and tammy!
thanks for understanding my situation and never giving up on me, you guys are the best!

Eugenia and Frances at Phoenix Food Boutique, Arcadia

Cynthie, Frances, Linda and Tammy at California Pizza Kitchen, Arcadia Mall

UC Trivia

Three UC schools have carillon towers: UC Berkeley's Sather Tower, UC Santa Barbara's Storke Tower, and UC Riverside's Carillon Tower.

According to UCLA's Daily Bruin campus newspaper, UCLA is so well-known in Asia that the university has licensed its trademark to 15 UCLA-branded stores across East Asia.

Every UC campus, except for Merced, where build-out has not been completed, has a Sproul Hall, named for the former UC President, Robert Gordon Sproul. In the case of San Diego, it is in the form of a research boat, the R/V Robert Gordon Sproul.

M FQDB HHLD P'L NAMPJ EGCJU CDOESS.
H WMBK CJ SV LVFL XR UOMNDLLA. =(

Calvin bought a HD tuner. Now we get an extremely clear view (think people's pores...) and an excess of Christian channels. I don't watch any of them though JCTV has some mighty good music videos. A song came on that was really familiar and then I realized I'd heard it on Brad's CD.


Switchfoot - Stars

Maybe I've been the problem
Maybe I'm the one to blame
But even when I turn it off and blame myself
The outcome feels the same

I've been thinking maybe I've been partly cloudy
Maybe I'm the chance of rain
And maybe I'm overcast
And maybe all my luck's washed down the drain

I've been thinking 'bout everyone,
Everyone you looks so lonely
But when I look at the stars
When I look at the stars
When I look at the stars, I see someone else
When I look at the stars
The stars, I feel like myself

Stars looking at a planet
Watching entropy and pain
And maybe to start to wonder
How the chaos in our lives could pass as sane

I've been thinking 'bout the meaning of resistance
Of a hope beyond my own
And suddenly the infinite and penitent
Begin to look like home

I've been thinking about everyone
Everyone you looks so empty
But when I look at the stars
When I look at the stars
When I look at the stars, I see someone else
When I look at the stars
The stars, I feel like myself.
Yeah!

Everyone, Everyone feels so lonely
Everyone, yeah everyone feels so empty
When I look at the stars
When I look at the stars
When I look at the stars, I feel like myself
When I look at the stars
The stars, I see someone...

I went to the Arcadia mall for the first time since March when Tammy and I got holes. One bad (or good?) thing about the Arcadia mall is that you're always bound to bump into someone you know there. And that's usually someone that you haven't seen since high school (can it be 7 years already??) Now I have other people to worry about, namely, my former students. Recall when Linda blogged about the time she was eating a lot at Hometown Buffet while unknowingly, her student was in the next table?

Anyways, what the heck am I even typing? You were expecting that I'd start talking about someone I bumped into yesterday right? Well, I didn't, so I'm not sure why I started talking about that except that's how I always feel when going to the Arcadia mall. Man, all these Asian kiddies with their gabby friends and limitless credit cards.

Okay, off topic once more. I walked into a store there and found a nice jacket very cheap. Then I go home to find out that store caters to teens. I shoulda known, but in any case, hopefully you can't tell. Am I getting to old to shop in teen stores? Or does it even matter as long as it's sensible and tasteful? And since I never got into the whole teen clothes craze when I actually was a teen, does that give me any license now to start dressing like one? =) Hoochieville here I come! (Okay, just kidding, get rid of that awful image from your mind now...)

And obviously I couldn't really enjoy the fact I have a new jacket when it's 80-some degrees outside yesterday. Back to Berkeley it goes!

What colors should I wear anyhow? I've been buying blue for years cuz that's my favorite color and there has just been an excess of days where I'm dressed in blue head to toe. Not a pretty sight, I tells ya. And then I got into a pink phase/craze. Pink pink pink! As if it'd make me more feminine somehow, heh... I doubt orange will do it for me though and wearing black on the days I taught section was a huge mistake. Bleh, well, it's almost a new year and I welcome all nice/nasty comments on changing myself for the better/worse. I'm gonna make Cathy and other such peeps my personal trainers so I can be all happy peppy healthy and whatnot next year. Heck yeah!!

Having read an article about the film's writer and director Alice Wu months ago before this movie even hit theaters, I thought it seemed like a very good story. I didn't have time to find it in theaters, but I came home and find out my dad had rented it! I watched it last night and yes, this is a movie definitely worth seeing.

In one word, you could say this movie was about lesbians. But it is so much more than that. It's about finally breaking free from what your family expects of you and being true to who or what you love. Oh gosh, that sounds so cliche, doesn't it?
Anyhoo, whatever the message that you're supposed to get from this, the bottom line is that it's a darn entertaining comedy. So just watch it for the laughs, eh?

The main character is Wilhemina Pang (Michelle Krusiec) who is a surgeon, a dutiful Chinese daughter and all that and... gay. So what? Well, it seems the Chinese community are less willing to accept that your child being gay is not having somehow raised your daughter wrong or it's punishment for something you've done. Her mother, Mrs Pang (Joan Chen), is a widow and because of stupid Chinese traditions of her father, she is not allowed to remarry or be with any other man. However, this is shot to hell as everyone finds out that she is pregnant at 48. And because she won't give up the name of the father, her own father throws her out of his house. It's hilarious once Wil's mom has to move in with her since she, as a traditional Chinese woman, can't live on her own. Wil's neighbor comes over to dinner and since he happened to be black, Mrs. Pang puts out paper plates for him instead of regular dishes, "easier to throw away"... She also forbids Wil to eat so much soy sauce as she might turn darker like the black man who is drowning his dinner in soy sauce.

Wil gets awkward as her boss's daugher, Vivian Shing (Lynn Chen), tries to seduce her. They end up together, but Wil is not ready to show the outside world that she is gay. The love scene is nice; it shows a different side of Wil that she does not display to the outside world.

Anyways, I'm about to bore you enough to not see this great movie, so I'll just say that the ending is just great for Mrs. Pang. (hilarious! think May-December)

The actresses are also quite beautiful, especially Joan Chen. I've also seen Lynn Chen in something and I had mistakenly thought it was that asian teen movie, Better Luck Tomorrow, but nope. She is quite pretty. And Michelle Krusiec! No makeup or very little of it in this movie and then when I google her, completely different person with all that makeup on. I think Michelle won some prestigious award for this movie.

Apparently, Michelle has been in a lot of movies I've seen, but of course, being the token asian girl in some sort of very side role, she is always forgotten. So when are we gonna have movies where people can remember an asian actress in a movie that's not asian-oriented with an asian ensemble? (Joy Luck Club, Memoirs of a Geisha, etc...) Where are the romantic comedies that don't have just the latest white american sweethearts in the lead roles?

Thanks Florence, this video almost made me laugh out loud in the Arcadia library. Man, so true for all us Asian kiddies... though I don't think my mom would have been like that. But that's probably because I didn't get a B in high school, already ingrained in us that we can't get any B's?? Nowadays, if I pass a class, then wooohoooo!! =)

Organization of my snap-happiness

Instead of doing work, I've improved a bit my pet project for the department:

http://www.stat.berkeley.edu/~photos/

For all my good buddies not in LA, it's going to be 85 degrees Fahrenheit on Saturday (that's 30 degrees Celsius, and yes I had to use a converter for that...). Low is 55 degrees. Yeehaw!

The women's restroom has been a great place for me to meet good friends or to bring friendship to another level (get your mind out of the gutter, guys...).

Cynthie
8th grade

I knew Cynthie existed in 7th grade, but it wasn't until one day in 8th grade that she started discussing something before we went to the girl's restroom together that I realized that she trusted me to be a closer friend. (keep getting your mind out of the gutter, folks...) High skool was great with Cynthie around, but then I still have yet to really be with her much as we were apart during undergrad (UCSD) and then now apart during grad (City of Hope). Darnit, still haven't talked to her; apparently we highly skilled at playing phone tag... now she's in Vegas without me...

Tammy
11th grade

I knew Tammy existed in high school, but it wasn't until I happened to have AP US History 2nd period and Tammy had AP US History 3rd period that we kept meeting in the restroom during the break between 2nd and 3rd that we became good friends. Such good buddies that she could stand being my roomie for 4 straight years at UCLA and deal with my kind of crazy. Now Tam Tams has gone off to med skool without me...

Florence
UCLA freshmen year

Floey lived on the same floor first year in Hedrick Hall. Go 4 North! I had not noticed her at all until we kept seeing each other in the bathroom on our floor. (Oh the days of sharing 5 toilets with 50 girls...) Then one night we had a long and deep chat on the couch in front of the elevators on our floor and I knew then that, pardon the cheesiness, we were something like kindred spirits. The next year we were neighbors on Hedrick 6 North (the north side had better showers...) and then roomies at the Love Boat on Veteran and then roomies at Tiverton Court. Now all I need is for Floey to get into pharmacy school in NorCal and we can go shopping in San Francisco every weekend! (Great thought indeed, too bad we won't have any time or money)

December 21, 2005 : Julius and Lynice

December 21, 2005 : Linda, Jeff and Abe

December 21, 2005 : Linda, Frances and Tammy at Souplantation

December 21, 2005 : Florence and Robert at Souplantation

December 16, 2005 : California coastline from 30,000 feet

hot

I encountered such a rude bank teller today, this petite asian girl who had this "I'm such a princess" attitude, as if it were a royal error that we unforgivably asked her for the enormous favor of processing a cashier's check. So, the question is: how do people like this go through life with such a sour face? How can they be so mean and selfish? I can't get it through my mind why people would choose to be such a thorn in other people's lives. Wouldn't it be better for her health that she be a bit happier and nicer to everyone? Oh wells, as long as I don't have to interact with her that frequently, but can we all say "HIGH MAINTENANCE" to the poor guy who thinks that his purpose in life is to please her?

Instead of blogging, RSS feed to my mind? Too scary... who would want to know what I think about?

OPERATION CYNTHIE STAKEOUT


CYNTHIE! I know you check this at around 8am! =) If you get this, then make sure your cell is on, cuz me and Tam Tams are supposedly gonna stalk ya tomorrow. We would have made it a surprise; however, silly us, our brains went on vacation. And though I swear your PI's last name is Chen, I'm not about to google 20-some Chens to figure who it is, when my mind also thinks it could be one of the 30-some Li's on the directory or perhaps any other of the long list of Asiany names... hehe... but my fault ain't as big as Tammy's as she actually visited you before and now she can't remember!! harharhar, anyways, we call ya or you call us tomorrow! We loooove you! Well, don't let us bug you if you have research to do, however... me and Tam Tams can always have fun at the library. ;o)

August 29, 2004 : some of my books at home?

So far, the best song of the ones I've heard on Brad's cd is
Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings : How Long Do I Have to Wait for You

the very weird thing is that i can't seem to find the lyrics anywhere! and you guys know i'm somewhat good at googling... sigh...

so, i give you whatever my ear heard :

how long do i have to wait for you honey
before a girl like me can move on
ooh baby tell me how long do i have to wait for you honey
i can say that you're gone

every hour seems like a day
every day is like a year
and every week is an eternity

well i get lonely baby when you're not here

to me, it's such a happy song with a great rhythm (fantastic drums and trumpet)

Despite huge temptation, I refrained from pulling out my camera tonight. Aren't you all proud of me?? Anyways, since I have no pictures, I have to actually write.

Went to Mel's with Brad, Cathy, Irma, Moorea, Nancy and Ron. Twas hella fun. That's it. (I'd rather have had a group pic, but eh...)

The time when I REALLY need to pull out my camera is when I see Brad again next year after his makeover. Ooh yeaaah...

New influx of good music! Thanks to Brad! Happiness!

I'm tired.

It's been a long week. And even though I may whine a bit now, I do quite enjoy having something to work hard for and having events defined each day. Once I get home, I'll get bored and then miss the hectic lifestyle I've been leading recently.

- finished a poster and paper for my probabilistic graphical models class
- finished proctoring and grading stat 2 final

Hmm, that doesn't seem like a lot, but it was... it definitely was. I'm so out of sleep now that I don't even think I can make it up during winter break. (because I don't tend to sleep enough if I don't have anything to do...)

And I even felt a bit of sadness today when my students handed me their finals. It was like the end of an era or something! Hahaha... anyways, teaching has been fun this semester albeit time-consuming and at times troublesome.

Last night was fun. I had had office hours from 3pm til whenever the students leave. So I had prepared. I had brought headache medication, plenty of water, energy bars, carton of rice milk, chicken burrito and chocolate-covered almonds. Yes, I was expecting to get into the long haul. I survived; a total of over 25 students came and the attrition rate increased after 6pm and then I was doing one-on-one with the last student for the last 45 minutes til 7pm. Not too bad... after that, I went to get Ben and Jerry's with Margaret, Shankar and AJ (Margaret's ex). And then it was Margaret and I for a showing of King Kong. Twas very entertaining. Man, life-sized bugs freaked the heck out of me! Movie could be a bit shorter (3 hours!!) But it was a good break last night until I got home to find a mass of student emails. Did they actually think I was gonna email them back immediately and then they could actually understand everything a few hours before their final? Oh wells, I did the optimistic thing and answered all their questions fully until 1:30am. Went to bed finally and woke up at 6am to proctor a 3 hour stat final. Life be good eh? =)

Thanks guys for asking! But you keep forgetting which day! Hehe...am I not that special to ya? J/K!

I'm a coming back! So what's planned dudes?

Friday, December 16 - OAKLAND CA(OAK) to BURBANK CA(BUR)
Depart OAKLAND CA(OAK) at 11:00AM and
Arrive in BURBANK CA(BUR) at 12:05PM

May 30, 2003

Launch sucks ass

Dear LAUNCH,

Just in case you're wondering how I'm enjoying My Yahoo! Music Experience, well, I'm not. All I want to do is watch a video interview on your site, but I can't because it keeps saying "We're sorry, but you must use Netscape 4.7x to use this application on a Macintosh." and pointing me to a page of archived software.

If you seriously think I'm going to take the time to switch my OS to Classic, install an outdated piece of shit and then restart my computer just to view your content -- especially when I already have four perfectly functional browsers in OS X -- then, and I say this with love, you really need to pull your head out of your ass.

Hugs and kisses,
Lia

December 12, 2005: Margaret and her poster on estimation of normalizing constants through bridge and path sampling

December 12, 2005: Fabian and Kasper

December 12, 2005: Dave and Cathy

December 12, 2005: Me and da poster

December 12, 2005: Poster for Stat 241 - Probabilistic Graphical Models

December 12, 2005 : Dinner at Barney's with Margaret and Shankar

Stat Dept Holiday Party
http://www.stat.berkeley.edu/~photos/holiday_2005

December 8, 2005 : Irma and Margaret!

December 8, 2005 : Margaret and I in my office

"Best GSI in existence" ??

Today was the last day of class for both my Stat 2 sections (1pm and 2pm). It was as I expected. Lots of clapping from my 1pm section and nothing from my 2pm section. Everyone had told me before about how sections can act wildly different from each other. All semester, I joked with my students in 1pm; they answered all my questions thoughtfully, they paid attention... Then 1 hour later, I'd be in my "zombie" section : 2pm. All I'd get are mostly stares at even the easiest questions. It didn't matter that I had practiced my spiel in the previous section to perfection; I felt like I was talking to myself a lot and smiling like an idiot while I waited for someone to say something, anything!

Anyways, I do love teaching. I love my students. I never heard a complaint.

* One student on Monday ran and gave me a hug to thank me, thinking that Monday was the last day. And then I told her, "See you on Wednesday." But it was very nice nonetheless.

* One student gave me some candy and the nicest message in a thank you card! Apparently and from my own personal experience, sometimes the little things that a TA does to or for you will make the biggest impact on you but the TA himself/herself doesn't even realize. So I usually bump into a lot of my students (most of the time when I eat at the dorms...), and I'm always very happy to see them. And I guess this one time I bumped into one of my students and I just casually chatted with her, but to her, it made such an impact that it made her comfortable and encouraged her to come to section more often. heh... I had no idea other undergrads would have been as weird as I was as an undergrad.

Some notes from this semester of teaching:

* I always wrote my name, email and office hours on the board every section. This comes from what David did.

* I told them what I was going to do, I did it, and then I told them what I just did. I hate it when anyone just plugs and chugs and out pops a number that no one knows where or why it came about.

* I replied to all student emails ASAP; one of my students exclaimed today, "She emailed me back in only 4 minutes!" (and 4 minutes doesn't even beat the current record of 1 minute...)

* I'm never late to section; in fact, one of my students got annoyed a little cuz I showed up to quiz day too early.

* I never (hopefully) make them feel stupid when they come to office hours.

* I try to make them feel better about grades and perhaps give them a more enlightening perspective on them.

* I let them know that I'm just a regular person who can't even do basic math. Yes, that was me who pulled out a calculator to find 71/.1 or told a student that square root of 1000 is 10.

* My blackboard organization is terrific, if I may say so. =) I always write the page and problem number. I organize all the data from the problem neatly and move in longitudinally before laterally on the board. I divide all problems with separator lines. And if I'm not hurrying too fast, I have neat, huge handwriting.

* I remembered all their names (~80) early on, even if they never showed up to office hours or talked to me in person. You give me any first name and I can give you a last name. One girl had attended my very first section ever and then decided to switch to another lecture entirely. After a few weeks, she showed up to my office hours anyways. She told me her first name, and I immediately responded with her last name. Boy, did that freak her out; it sort of freaked me out too. I can be so scary sometimes...


That's all I can think of for now... must keep improving; the first time will never be the best time. One thing I have been guilty of is:

* Erasing the board with sideway motions instead of vertical. Berkeley never trained me on that regard though UCLA TAs have often told me not to. Hopefully no one is looking. ;o)

August 22, 2004 : Sproul Hall (NOT the Sproul Hall at UCLA!)

June 19, 2004 : Tammy, Eugenia and me in front of Royce

June 11, 2004 : SEAS Lab

May 23, 2004 : Home, Car, Frances and Camera

June 9, 2003 : Janss Steps

I thought this is very sweet and hopefully I can be a person that someday someone will feel that way about me:
http://www.craigslist.org/about/best/sdo/111973284.html

eDiet nutrition tip of the day:

Avocadoes are nutritional powerhouses! The American Diabetic Association even touts them as nutrition superstars and America's answer to the Mediterranean diet's olive oil. Avocado is one of the best sources of monounsaturated fat, known to lower "bad" LDL cholesterol, raise heart-healthy HDL cholesterol and help stabilize blood sugar levels.

I ate my avocado today, have you?

Random pic : June 9, 2003 : The building that David works in

Random pic : May 11, 2003 : Floey's drawing (by friend) on her closet door

Random pic : March 20, 2003 : protests against the war in front of the Federal Building on Wilshire

Random pic : October 18, 2002 : Gonda building for human genetics and neuroscience research, where I spent many hours for three years...

Random Pic : June 10, 2002 : what I saw during my walk home from 2002-2004, in front: Tiverton, to the left: botanical garden, to the right and behind: ucla medical school and hospital

No more deep-fried twinkies!
(or at least until June 2006)

Having found out that that sundae I downed last nite could possibly have been around 1500 calories (around what some people eat in a day), I'm in a quandary as to how I'm going to neutralize what I just did.

Anyways, at least I'm trying... Recalling that I used to run the beautiful perimeter of the UCLA campus, I attempted the Berkeley perimeter just now.

June 3, 2004
UCLA perimeter
9:17-10:15am
~ 4 miles
15 min miles
4 mph

December 4, 2005
Berkeley perimeter
3:10-3:37pm
2.9 miles
9.3 min miles
6.4 mph

Back to square one...

I never bothered to seriously figure out who sent me those flowers two weeks ago since I felt that most signs pointed to __________. However I'm now believing him when he keeps adamantly denying he had anything to do with the flowers. This is becoming a bit scary now; someone out there sent me flowers and still hasn't come forward to accept responsibility... So why did that person do it in the first place? To freak me out?? And I can't imagine who could write such a thing that was on the card... I can't even begin to see myself as what that person suggested.

So I figure whoever sent those flowers probably reads this blog? Or not... Maybe I should just forget about them, if the sender doesn't even want me to know. I'm surprised that everyone else in the department seemed to take much more of an interest than I did. I still can't believe anyone would waste that kind of money and time on me... hopefully not a disturbed person... =P

Yes, I failed miserably in keeping my quota of only two instances of deep-fried twinkie sundaes a year.... However, at least I beat Jasmine in this contest. =)

Me and Kristen at Mel's

Jasmine at Mel's

i want to go home

bancroft and telegraph

matt/mark? on bart

dave and me on bart :: last train back from sf at 12:14am

The Secret Garden

Thanks to Dave who took action and found out about a pretty nice lounge to study and work in an ignored part of campus close to Evans, I'm typing this now in one of the comfiest chairs I've ever sat in near Evans. It's in the middle of campus such that I don't feel like I'm completely away from all the hub-bub but secluded and quiet enough to hopefully do some good work in. It's well-lit, has a restroom, microwave, and couch. If it had just a bit more, I'd have quit my lease on my apt already. Anyhoo, I'm defeating the point of waking up early and working out to start a great work day if I continue to write crap here. So ta ta!

[Unrelated note: typing "Anyhoo" just now reminded me of the time I sent out an email to a lab mailing list with the wrong url (I meant http://www.anywho.com) and when I realized my mistake, I went to the page I had suggested (http://www.anyhoo.com) and found it was porn! All I can say is I hope my PI didn't think of that when he wrote my letters of recommendation for graduate school...]

[10:58am : note to self : bring some toilet paper and towels tomorrow...]

joke in my email:

Still living at home, bored, and expecting to inherit a
fortune when his sickly widower father died, Robert decided
he needed a woman to keep him company.

So he went to a singles bar, and he searched until he
spotted a woman whose beauty took his breath away. "Right
now, I'm just an ordinary man," he said as he walked up to
her, "but within a month or two, my father will pass away
and I'll inherit over 20 million dollars." The woman went
home with Robert that night.

And four days later, she became his stepmother.

Some men never learn...

This is what happens to me all the time!!

Congrats to my berkeley stat friend who just got engaged! =) Woohoo! Happy happy happy!