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Thanks to my disgustingly jarring alarm clock, I managed to wake up at 12:30pm today as opposed to 3:30pm. Unfortunately, I didn’t feel all that well nor that motivated, thanks to a splitting headache, so instead I ended up doing… not much the entire day. Then again, it’s only 4:45pm, so the evening is still young. Yes, evening; the sun began setting around 4pm or so.

Things that did get done:

• Nearly all of my 18.01 p-set (one of the questions seriously has me stumped, but other than that, I’m good to go).
• Serious thinking of education plans - I now am fairly sure what I want to do with my degree and my life; blog post about this will be coming up in the near future.
• Beginnings of a new journal I will be keeping
• Some of the 8.012 p-set (and my “some” I mean nearly three problems)
• SnM Xmas colour-codings (except Carol of the Bells since that involves demo files)

Things yet to do:

• see “Productivity Report #2″, further up on the page

I know to-do lists are boring and such, but this is the only way I can relieve myself of stress, hehe. I’ve also recently (read: Friday) become accustomed to the beautiful thing of working in bed. I just lay there, with my pillows propped against my shelf, my laptop in front of me, papers and textbooks spread out on the sheets, pencils and highlighters on the windowsill, water and food available next to me on the desk, books to read within arm’s reach… it’s a very nice and comfortable position to work in. Unfortunately, it’s a bit -too- comfortable, and then I feel lazy, lethargic, and procrastinative. As such, I have sadly relocated myself back to my desk, with it’s rough wooden chair. I suppose it does force me to stay awake and alert, though, so it can’t be too bad. I’ll just relax and do entertainment things in bed (like colour-coding and such), while hardcore work (academics, web design, etc.) will be done at my desk.

I’ve also made a resolution to eat healthier… or maybe to actually eat decent-sized meals at the appropriate times. Chao and Hongyou and I went to Shaw’s Saturday evening, and I managed to buy a ton of cheap foods. For example, I got a box of 20 taquitos; since it only eat about 2 per meal, that box will last me ten meals. And how much did it cost? I wonderful, splendid $3.99, of course! I also got four cans of biscuits for only $2.99, and a carton of yogurt.. among other things =)

As I stated in my previous post, I decided that I needed a day to myself to refresh and enjoy life, so I made some [window]shopping plans and will be leaving soon to go have some fun! Here’s a list of some of the places I plan to go:

Central area:

• Cambridgeside Galleria (what else? department store browsing, of course)
• Sandy’s Music (music store)
• East Meets West (Asian-American bookstore)

Harvard area:

• Harvard Press Bookstore (known as one of the best bookstores in the area)
• Schoenhof’s Foreign Books (!!)
• Planet Records (CDs and DVDs)
• Tokyo Kid in the Garage (Japanese merchandise)
• CD Spins (more CDs and vinyls)

Beyond Harvard:

• Disc Diggers (CDs, again, for very cheap - Davis)
• Cambridge Music Center (music store; I want sheet music - Porter)
• Porter Exchange Mall (mall and Japantown)

Boston area:

• Chinatown (why else? It’s Chinatown! I want to see if they have Asian bookstores)
• Prudential Center (more department store browsing, and I still haven’t seen that glass staircase!)

As promised, I’ll be taking along my camera and taking some photos to post up later. I’ll have to be back by 7pm in time for KATwalk, so that gives me about 5 hours to go do whatever I want. Until then, see ya ;)

Finally a break after a rather hellish week! After taking a well-deserved nap after I came back from class, I decided to mimic Wei’s level of resolve and made my own list of goals to accomplish (albeit short-term) for this weekend. Without further ado, here it is:

1. Finish colour-coding all of the Sekai no Melody Xmas album songs and prod people for files (Su/M/T)
2. Send important stuff out for mixing (M)
3. Finish at least 18.01 p-set (M)
4. Finish some of 8.012 p-set (M/T)
5. Study extra for 8.012 and maybe 5.111 if time permits (T)
6. Blog a lot. And I mean a lot (all)
7. Relax and read a book (F)
8. Relax and watch a drama. (Sat)
9. Type out science fair guide for siblings (Sat)
10. Make plans to bring SnM and other performing arts out into the real world (M)
11. Design Next House website (T)
12. Start drafting design for next SnM site that makes it more “real world”-ly (T)
13. Seriously think about future plans – majors and minors and such (Su)
14. ^ due to above, remake 4-year plan (M)
15. Finish 21M.030 listening guide assignment and start on research paper (M/T)
16. Go have a day to myself where I journey into Boston by myself and have a photoshoot session! (Su)
17. Update discography section on SnM website. Seriously. (Sat)
18. Work up the courage to go and clear things up with an acquaintance (when possible)

I’ll be busy as ever, so don’t expect me to exactly be -social- this weekend ;)

As if the banner displaying “Hack or Treat” on building 10 today wasn’t enough, as I marched across campus I was greeted with a slew of the geekiest costumes ever, which was more than enough to bring a smile to my face. My roommates Mallika and Rebecca decided to go as DNA - one as 5′ and the other as 3′, and they had handcuffed themselves together with a double set that had the letters A, T, C, and G taped on, respectively paired. As if that wasn’t enough, one of my Physics classmates had put on a hat with arrows sticking out that read I, J, and K (note the pun on how we read unit vectors: “I-hat“, etc.) I also spotted various other garb, including a wizard with full beard, a devil, and a fairy. My friends also dressed up appropriately - Lindsey had gone full-out as Tuxedo Kamen, Lynda chose a dark and delightfully creepy gothic outfit, and Danny had an awesome pirate costume. As for myself, I had been hoping to go as Alice (from Lewis Carroll’s tale), but the costume had been three sizes too large for me. Instead, I got a similar country-lolita-esque costume in pink, put my hair in pigtails, put on my large pink hoop earrings and thigh-high stockings, and was the image of disturbing cuteness for the rest of the night.

After having dinner at Cinderella’s, Wei and the room 402 group decided to continue onwards to Spooky Skate, where we were greeted with a huge crowd in some of the most amazing costumes ever, like Sarah Palin, WALL-E, Mushu (who eventually won the costume contest), Aladdin, Alice, various insects, and more. While skating was pretty much a disaster on my part (and that of many others’), I had a blast tripping around on the ice for an hour or so (and only managed to fall once!) We then hopped on a bus to travel across the river into Boston (after a short raving session at the bus stop) to visit PKT (Phi Kappa Theta’s) Halloween party. After concluding that Wellesley and Berkelee girls can’t dance properly, our group took over a section of the dance floor and rocked it out, fall formal ‘08 style… which is to say we pulled out some real dance moves that did not consist of grinding or nonchalant swaying.

After growing bored of the humdrum-ness of said party, we walked back to campus, attempting to sing Disney songs a la style of “How Does She Know” from Enchanted, staging it so that each of us appeared to be random onlookers who for some strange Disney-esque reason know the exact song that the main character is singing and can easily join in and harmonize without trouble. After taking a ride in some abandoned shopping carts sitting nonchalantly in front of Burton-Conner (an activity in which I did not partake, preferring instead to take video documentary of this hilarious scene), we arrived back to Next House with aching feet yet content hearts.

From left to right: Vivi the Cute, DJ Wei, Steve the Nerd,
and DNA Girls Rebecca (3′) + Mallika (5′)