Unimpressed

EXTREMELY UNIMPRESSED and DISAPPOINTED that the Final Four will be all number one seeds. Dull. That's not March Madness, that's just uninspiring basketball

Weekend was really tiring. I forgot my tooth brush on the sorority retreat, so that was kind of gross, but I was able to get some mouthwash

From Wednesday - Friday I will be in Northridge participating in the American Society of Civil Engineers Pacific Southwest Regional Conference. It should be fun! Will have pictures

Currently listening to: Mariah Carey, "Touch My Body", E=MC2

Another Goal Attained

As I go through my college experience, I often times find it crucial to make a list of "Things To Do Before I Graduate." Many parts of this list are added on the spot as they arise, but there are definitely some that I am determined to accomplish. Today I am proud to announce that I have in fact accomplished something on my list

Today I got a frat shirt

USC is teeming with Greek life - fraternities, sororities, the like. I am pretty indifferent to them, but I had decided last year that I was going to get a frat shirt some time before I graduate. Today in my class my friend was selling them as a philanthropy fundraiser, and I bought one hah hah. So I can officially scratch that off my list

Currently listening to: Mariah Carey "Touch My Body." If you haven't watch the music video. It's priceless. Has instantly shot to the top of my faves list, right behind Kanye's "Good Life" video. Also, saw the Alicia Keys music video today for her latest single, was pleasantly surprised to see my favorite artist Common in it wowow

I Am Wrong

Currently (re)listening to: Panic At The Disco Pretty. Odd. also, Ella

Okay, I was wrong when I said that PATD's new album is a sucker. I re-listened to it again (and again), and I must admit that the album grows on you. A lot of reviewers label it as PATD's Srgt. Peppers, and I can see where they are coming from. Good songs: "That Green Gentleman," "9 In The Afternoon," "Folking Around"

Hell yeah

San Francisco Outside Lands Music & Arts Festival

August 22 - 24

Lineup:
Radiohead
Jack Johnson
Wilco
Beck
Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers
Ben Harper & The Innocent Criminals
Manu Chao
M. Ward
Rodrigo y Gabriela
Regina Spektor
Matt Nathanson
Lyris Born
Goapele

Hooooooly shit

Currently listening to: Amber Pacific Truth In Sincerity

Lazy Days

Currently listening to - illegally obtained copy of Gnarls Barkley's upcoming CD, titled The Odd Couple; also, Panic At The Disco Pretty. Odd. (note the absence of the "!" from "Panic! At The Disco" of their debut album. this is a deliberate omission by the band to firmly establish themselves as a different brand of musicians)

Happy Easter! I know it's been a while since I've demonstrated any sort of doxology, but I am seriously considering returning to the religion circuit. As many know, I went to a Baptist middle school and a Catholic high school. I went to church pretty regularly during high school, staying for Sunday school even if the other kids didn't like me much or didn't act very welcoming to me. I am very familiar with the Bible. I think my religious side is starting to come out because of a certain decision. Several days ago, I decided that I was no longer going to consume either drugs or alcohol anymore. It's not really a big deal. I haven't done either in a pretty long time. I think everyone should be able to experiment because for most people, the stuff is not really for them anyways

Today was glorious. The weather was about 85 degrees. I picked up Lawrence from the airport, and we ate a nice lunch at Eat Street. Afterwards, I went home to watch some more NCAA basketball (Georgetown out - failed to reach the Sweet Sixteen after a Final Four last year, Hibbert not contributing at all; Memphis nearly losing but surviving - a common theme, Miami surprisingly nearly unseating Texas). Even though my bracket is very pulverized, all my final four selections are still intact. Ehh

Did I mention that today was the last day of Spring Break? Yes, it is time to return to the books, albeit for another eight weeks. I had a great time interning, gyming, swimming, and watching movies. It was the first time I lived by myself, and while it was a bit daunting at first, it was a beneficial experience. My biggest frustration was that I was not able to clean my car, even though I cleaned the house and got a lot of paperwork sorted. But my parents sent two rolls of quarters with my brother, so I will be able to go to a car wash and finally get the poor moto cleaned. I did all my homework yesterday, which is how I am able to swim today and leisurely eat lunch and watch the games

I think I watched approximately fifteen hours of college basketball between these two days. The number would be a lot higher had I not gone to work on Thursday and Friday, but during those days I "refreshed" the ESPN mobile on my phone over 200 times. Glorious

And last, but not least, I found this cute "Favorite" list from DJ info page on a local radio station's website. So, enjoy! (how did it feel to finally see something on this website besides damn college basketball?! hah)

Oh, before I forget, I hope you enjoy the new picture. It's a picture I found on flickr of downtown Los Angeles. I believe that is the 110N. My previous picture, while an amazing shot of a bridge's truss system, was not from Los Angeles. There was a conflict of interest: while I am involved in civil engineering, the picture wasn't an accurate LAdventurous portrayal.

Without further ado, my favorites:

Color: black

Scents: vanilla, chlorine, banana muffins

Flowers: lilies (surely you must have seen that one coming), the bird of paradise

Board games: SCRABBLE. and connect four

Sports to play: softball, basketball, dodgeball, swimming, and I'd rather be surfing

Sports teams: USC TROJANS, Oakland Athletics (thinly)

Outdoor activities: learning to surf this summer, "hiking," I can't ski or camp for my life

Bay Area hangout: Westfield San Francisco

(added) Los Angeles hangout: Westwood

Place to see a concert: on TV because I'm too short to enjoy the concert experience!

Music: Common, Kanye West, Sugarland, VHS or Beta, Gym Class Heroes

TV shows: Wonderfalls (cancelled, sigh), Futurama, The Office, Scrubs

Movies (all time): Amadeus, anything Pixar

Actors: John Krasinski (The Office!)

Actresses: Anne Hathaway

Magazines: New Yorker, Time, Modern Steel Construction, Reader's Digest......US Weekly

Books / Authors: The Stranger, Austen, The Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, Lahiri, Snow.....Kristin Gore (Al's daughter, wrote the Sammy stories)

Cereals: pretty much anything cinnamon. or with almonds. or frosted. or honeyed. NOT Trix

Fruits: mangoes, watermelon, oranges, honeydew. NOT grapes

Snack foods: cereal, carrots, yogurt......guilty pleasure - Cheetos and cookies

Cookies: pretty much anything from chocolate chip to M&Ms to snickerdoodles to gingerbread

Candy bars: snickers

Favorite animal: red tailed hawk, desert fox, box turtle

Pet's name: no pets!

Vacation spot: the South. or Arizona

Fluent in other languages: Chinese, four years of HS Spanish (I know, doesn't count as fluent)

If you were a spice, which one would you be: cayenne because I put it in everything heh

Hometown: DALY CITY

Your hero: anyone that's made a positive difference in someone else's life

Sparkling or still: I have no idea what this means. water? fashion style? I guess I'd choose still because sparkling kind of irks me. hah


In closing, the new Gnarls Barkley does not disappoint, but the Panic At The Disco severely does. Save its It'll-Grow-On-You single "Nine In The Afternoon," the album is a mess. Be prepared

My Bracket Is Destroyed

It's over. My bracket is done. With wins today by West Virginia over Duke (I should have known better after last year's VCU performance) and Washington State over Notre Dame (ND looked so good on paper!), my bracket lines have seriously asphyxiated. Now, for better or worse, I can watch each game pretty much not being forced to root for the team that I've picked to win. Such as tonight, in which UCLA narrowly defeated Texas A&M. UCLA is too....good. How I loathe them. And yet they are clutch enough to make the shots when they need to

And I hate to be a very wet blanket, but I was reading today in the Times and the sports section was discussing return scenarios of USC's biggest impact players: OJ Mayo (probably not), Davon Jefferson, Taj Gibson. I hate to say it, but if two of those three leave, then USC is not looking very good next year. A big problem we had this year is our lack of post players and a legit bench. It doesn't look as if the bench problem will be solved any time soon, as only 2 - 3 commitments look to truly be impact players. As a comparison, look at our bench versus UCLA's bench. SIGH

What happened to Washington State? How were they able to stifle the Fighting Irish? I had both teams picked, but I thought that Notre Dame's reputed high-octane offense would be able to overrun WSU and that since WSU is all defense, this would only detriment anything on the other end. Instead, WSU shames Notre Dame, winning by twenty points to easily coast into the Sweet Sixteen. That's not supposed to happen! Again, reducing me to "enjoy" each game for the game itself

I spent the whole day with the telly on CBS, watching each game, although I did fall asleep on the couch during the Purdue - Butler game to wake up to Stanford's clutch OT victory. Stanford I must begrudgingly admit is pretty good, but then again, any team with two seven foot post twins would be pretty damn dominant

I saw an excellent Gatorade commercial that featured black and white profiles of college teams of various sports practicing / performing their famous clutch plays, with the words "Cinderella doesn't exist" or something like that. I think the ad was trying to say that Cinderella teams aren't a fluke and that, for that one game, the "underdog" team turned out to not be the underdog team after all. The teams featured included Boise State practicing their Statue of Liberty Play and I believe George Mason and the Final Four run, though I'm not sure on the latter

I don't know who I am cheering for now. I guess for the "better team"? Of course, there are teams that I will always cheer against, such as UCLA and Duke, but I guess Kansas would still be nice to cheer for even if they are a number one seed, as I would still like my bracket to be vindicated with correctly picking the overall tourney champion

So today was a good day for college basketball, an extremely horrendous day for my bracket. And as today was such a nice day, I think I will go out tomorrow (90 degrees weather! crazy). But there are still plenty of epic games to watch, including the two 12-13 seed meetings for Sweet Sixteen Bragging Rights

Maaaaaaaaaaaarch On!

Upset!

What yesterday lacked in upsets today's round of games completely made up for it. As a result, whatever dominance I had in my pools completely disappeared as my brackets take their worst beating to date. My day's bracket successes were about.... 3 / 16. Dear lord. With both Drake and Clemson out, two teams I had projected to make the Sweet Sixteen if not the Elite Eight, I am looking at the bottom of the rankings in both pools, after staying in first and second place all of yesterday

Upset victories:
1. WESTERN KENTUCKY OVER DRAKE. Buzzer beater
2. San Diego over UConn. Yes, the same USD that beat Gonzaga to win the WCC Tourney
3. Siena over Vanderbilt
4. VILLANOVA OVER CLEMSON.

I had Drake and Clemson in my sweet sixteen! Clemson was fucking FIERCE in the tournament, beating Duke to play UNC! Damn it

But, yes, this is truly the March Madness that last year's was lacking. For the first time ever, there will be TWO 12-13 matchups in the battle to the sweet sixteen. Also, all these upsets took place in Florida. Man, talk about an upset city! My facebook status: "Lily is UPSET!" Of course, I was talking originally about USC's upset to Kansas State, but yes, Cinderella did finally decide to show up to the Big Dance after all

Best moment: the WKU bench (players and coaches combined) running onto the court, arms waving, papers flying in frantic madness over the game winning shot

Currently listening to: the entire Ella Fitzgerald discography

HOLY FUCK

HOLY FUCK USC LOST! We were upset by no. 11 Kansas State. Oh my god!

my bracket is busted. and up to that point I was doing so well too! I was 6 out of 7, tied for second place. UGHHGHGHGHG

currently listening to:
the entire Ella Fitzgerald discography

and in another twist of cruel fate my expen$ive ear buds, which I purchased at such price because I assumed they last until the second coming of Christ (or apparently until USC can start playing like a decent college basketball team), and around the same time as I started receiving wireless on my good-for-nothing-except-in-life-threatening-situations-such-as-these cell phone and began to witness the Fall of Troy, one of my ear buds stopped working. and I am one of those people who cannot listen to something only in one ear

I also need to get gas

Bracketeering

After forty eight hours, two paper brackets, three different accounts, the bracket is complete. I only make one bracket, and I spend an intense amount of time agonizing and scrutinizing possible match ups, weaknesses, and strengths.

ESPN.com and Yahoo Sports quickly became my most frequented sites (although I also visit the NY Times' "The Quad" blog fairly often). At work, I have a taped up printed bracket.

Thank god this is happening during spring break and not during the school year

My pick for the 2008 NCAA Men's Basketball Champions?

Kansas. It has been twenty long years

Let the games begin

Hrmph my gym woes continue

the Big Dance versus pretty much everything else

Here we go!

The NCAA tournament field of 65 was announced hours ago. Yes, USC is in, with a number 6 seed (we were expecting a 7 seed, but probably for the better). First round match up is versus Kansas State and another spectacular freshman, Michael Beasley. Mayo vs Beasley. Omaha, Nebraska. Midwest Conference. Also containing Georgetown and Kansas, who we almost beat pre-season. UCLA got a number 1 seed in the West. The Pac-10 got six out of the seven projected bids - UCLA, Stanford, WSU, USC, Arizona, Oregon - with Arizona State probably being left out because of one little Cinderella - Georgia, the team that only won four conference games, only to come back and win its tournament

Speaking of underdogs, we have Winthrop. Xavier. GEORGIA. And yes, George Mason

It is estimated that every year approximately nineteen billion dollars in productivity are lost as a result of the NCAA Final Four. Betting pools, water cooler talks, the works

I love it

I've been following all of ESPN's so-called "Championship Week," where all the conference tournaments were featured. Talk about Georgia. Talk about Hanesborough (and why UNC is the team to beat for the tourney). And of course, talk about USC. I haven't even started thinking about what to set for my pools yet. Tonight I'll be placing a preliminary table out, and then snipping and editing along the way until Wednesday, when it'll be sealed and fated for victory

I'll pretty much be thinking March Madness this entire time

Function Generators

MARCH MADNESS. MARCH MADNESS. THE BIG DANCE

I AM RETURNING TO THE FACEBOOK FOR THE BIG DANCE BRACKETOLOGY

Spring Break is here!!!

Analog To Digital Conversion

Listening to - the entire discography of Belle & Sebastian, Dallas Green aka City and Colour

Spring break is coming! It's the week after next, and I am NOT going home. Instead, I'll be in LA, interning, making as much money as I can. I figured that I might as well get the experience, since I'd probably loaf around at home anyways, without any gym fitness. I think one weekend I'm going to drive to Arizona though, just because I've never went there. I'm going to look into how much it costs to go to Tuscon for a couple of nights, maybe Friday and Saturday night

The splurge bug has bitten again. After being tremendously rejected by Free City Supershop for their $175 jacket, I've ventured to Nordstrom's, where I bought two pairs of pants. For about four hundred dollars

FTW

So I decided to finally "splurge" on my intern income and purchase a $175 Free City Supershop zip up jacket (for those wondering, yes, it is a mere zip up hoodie jacket costing one hundred and seventy five dollars). I got excited, only to find that it is out of production hrmph

Would YOU ever spend one hundred and seventy five dollars on a zip up jacket? I spend about the same amount on jeans!

Currently listening - City and Colour

1100100

I GOT A HUNDRED ON MY ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING LINEAR CIRCUITS MIDTERM!!!

Yes, the civil engineer. The first day of class, the professor went around asking everyone what majors they were, and most of the kids were electrical or biomedical. He asked if there were any other people whose majors he did not call and I raised my hand, saying "civil engineer." He asked what a civil engineer was doing in his class, and I told him that we had to take one of two courses, and everyone else took the other one. Needless to say, everyone in class knows who I am. "I'm the civil engineer" "Oh yeah! I remember you!" Well-known in a way

But I surprisingly pull off the 100 in the class, answering correctly questions on operational amplifiers, comparators, and Thevenin circuits

Currently listening to: Quietdrive "Time After Time"

Integrating Circuits

Currently listening - City and Colour, Bring Me Your Love

USC lost today to ASU, a team we beat at home. We just played awful. AND our starting five deliberately fouled out. Gah. Mayo was a BEAST, tearing up the court for countless times for something like 37

RECENTLY, my (white) friend linked me to this blog entitled "Stuff White People Like," where the (white) author humorously deadpans things that, well, white people like. Currently, he's blogged near 80 various things that white people like, and the list includes Barack Obama, recycling, and standing still at concerts. HOWEVER (and my brother showed me this), number 11 is fairly interesting and probably the most controversial. Stuff White People Like #11 is Asian Girls. Here I quote the blog entry itself

"95% of white males have at one point in their lives, experienced yellow fever. Many factors have contributed to this phenomenon such as guilt from head taxes, internment camps, dropping the Nuclear bomb and the Viet Nam War . This exchange works both ways as asian girls have a tendency to go for white guys. (White girls never go for asian guys. Bruce Lee and Paul Kariya’s dad are the only recorded instances in modern history). Asian girls often to do this to get back at their strict traditional fathers. There is also the option of dating black guys, but they know deep down that this would give their non-english speaking grandmother(s) a heart attack.

White men love asian women so much that they will go to extremes such as stating that Sandra Oh is sexy, teaching English in Asia, playing in a coed volleyball league, or attending institutions such as UBC or UCLA (please note that both schools’ colors of “blue” and “yellow” are intentional also the “A” in “UCLA” stand for “Asian” while the “B” in “UBC” stands for “Billion” try and figure out what the rest of the letters stand for). Another factor that draws white guys to asian women is that white women are jealous of them.

Take for instance the fact that asian women well into their 30s and 40s retain teen / college girl looks without the help of botox, yoga or a trendy diet (future posts). Asian women also avoid key white women characteristics such as having a mid life crisis, divorce, and hobbies that don’t involve taking care of the children (also future posts). Should white guy / Asian girl marry, they produce hybirds that are aestically pleasing, but are very annoying. This practice is also a means by which white people can catch up to the Asian peoples in the population race, as most of the hybirds often act white rather than Asian." (taken from stuffwhitepeoplelike.wordpress.com).

Hah hah hah oh man how do I even respond to that