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October 2004

First | Previous | Next | Current
Sunday, October 31, 2004--Happy Halloween!

On this day:
In 2003: In 2002: Unfortunately, I had left my cloak and glove at home, and I had EE120 homework to do (which Tracy was so kind as to remind me of doing last night), so I did. Then, I had some Music 26ac reading to do, so I did.

Dice Roll of the Day: (1, 4) Total: 5

MTG Mood Meter: All Hallow's Eve

Wow, today's entry is so long, yet so void of content. Eh, whatever, Good Night!
Saturday, October 30, 2004--
On this day: In 2003: "The only thing you need to know for your exam is--naked woman!" (Now one of Alan Watson's random quotes)
In 2002: Anyways UCSC Fencing Tournament Today! w00t!

Going in, I expected to get totally creamed, since I'm not that good of a saber fencer. So I set my goal at a modest "win one bout".

My first bout was against Tyler, a Cal cohort of mine who also wasn't that great at saber, but was doing both saber and foil today. However, he seemed to be on fire today, and he beat me 5-2 in the round robin pools. It might have been because we warmed up by fencing each other, and thus, I had ran out of steam and moves to use on him, but I won't take away from the glory of his win.

Second bout was against this girl named Irene, who had, incidentally, beaten Tyler, but somehow, I managed to beat her 5-3 using a series of beat attacks and my usual strategy. Now that I had reach my goal, my next goal was to win a second bout, so I did.

Next bout was against a girl named Mary, and we ended up 4-4 toward the end, but I somehow managed to get her with a point in line that she didn't even try to parry. How interesting. Now, with 2 wins under my belt (already my best tournament ever), I incremented my goal to a third win.

Then, against Sean (who would end up becoming Champion in saber, I believe) and against another guy who's name I didn't catch, I lost 5-0 both times, but I didn't care because they were both really good saberists.

The hours pass, and I watch Novice foil. Olek, Marvin, and Ricky all made it to top 8, so I watched the beginning of Novice foil electric. Congrats to Olek, Marvin, and Ricky by the way. They're doing really well, especially Olek, since this is his first tournament ever (and he's only been fencing for like 2 months).

Unfortnately, Olek lost to this other dude who was really tough, but it's all good, since he had already done so well. Marvin and Ricky beat their opponents and make it to the semi-finals--a pair of really intense bouts. Both of their opponents were from the same school (I actually dunno which), and the entire audience was polarized into Cal and non-Cal. After two intense bouts, Marvin and Ricky both win, which guarantees Berkeley the gold and silver prize in Novice Foil. Unfortunately, I had to go fence my first saber Direct Elimination bout at that point. Otherwise, I would have loved to continue watching the Novices.

In any case, I was seed 18, and my first bout would be against seed 15. I thought to myself, "There's only a difference of 3... I could pull off the upset." So I made that my goal. Unfortunately, I got started a bit slow, and my opponent (Jones) and I got to 3-3, and stuck their getting simultaneous after simultaneous after simultaneous. Eventually, Jones broke through and brought us to 5-3, where I opted to take a 30 second break. During that time, I rethought my strategy--one involving lower-line attack and attacks under the arm--and in the second half, I got 7 touches as opposed to his 1, sealing the final score at 10-6. Interestingly enough, my last touch was an amazingly clean one that just scratched the base of Jones's wrist, so quickly that the judge thought I had hit his blade instead and that the score box was malfunctioning before Jones politely explained that he had gotten hit and that I had won.

So now with an upset (although not really since the difference was so small) under my belt, I'd be fencing seed 2 (Dniel) next. I expected a slaughter, so my goal was to get one touch on him. Amber said to me, "You could do much more than that," which would later prove to be most correct.

So during my break, I decided to watch the remains of the Novice foil final--Marvin vs Ricky. Ricky won by a pretty decent margin. Overall not that exciting a match, but then again, matches are usually exciting only when you want a specific side to win. In any case, congrats to Ricky for winning gold and Marvin for winning silver.

Finally, my finale match began. It was one high-energy match, and every time Dniel scored a touch, I'd go and score another touch right back to tie up the score. We took a 30 second break with Dniel barely leading 5-4. Then, in the second half, I pulled up to 7-5. It was amazing. It was almost as though I weren't myself, but that some force had taken over me and fenced through me nad made me good. It reminded me of the quote from MGS, where Vulcan Raven says of Solid Snake, "He fights as though possessed by a demon." That was me today. Unfortunately, at that point, 2 things happened. One, I suddenly thought, "Oh shit! I might actually win this," and became over-confident. Two, he suddenly thoguht, "Oh shit! He might actually win this," and became more determined, more aggressive, and simply more motivated. I never scored another touch as Dniel scored 5 in a row and won 10-7. Still, it was quite an impressive match. My teammates personally congratulated me. I had personally said, "That was the best bout I have ever fenced."

So, yeah, I had gone from expecting myself to get creamed to winning 2 pool bouts, upsetting the 15th seed, and nearly upsetting the 2nd seed. Even though I didn't even rank in the top 8, I was happy with my result. This was my best fencing tournament ever.

I suppose now's the time to start training hard for the next tournament. I still have much to learn...

Dice Roll of the Day: (4, 2) Total: 6

Anyways, on our way back, we stopped at In-N-Out. It was Good Food, so I'll have to say Good Night!
Friday, October 29, 2004--CS61c Lab... Trivial... as was the new homework, but I couldn't submit it because they apparently haven't set up the submit function yet. Damn them!

CS61c Lecture...

EE122 Discussion...

Then, I bought a clock! Yay! Now, I know what time it is! Oh, see addendum for details.

Then, Kim showed up so I could play the piano for her. Actually, it was just to take pictures for my Music 26ac project, and she had to leave really quickly for some reason, which was disappointing, because I still haven't been able to play the piano for her for reals.

Anyways, I spent the next few hours catching up with online stuff that I missed, and that includes what I'm currently doing right now.

On this day:
In 2002: Dice Roll of the Day: (5, 6) Total: 11

No more words rhyme with "Good", but I can think of many that rhyme with "Night!"
Thursday, October 28, 2004--EE105 Lecture... I discovered that I hadn't accounted for the load resistance in the homework, but after looking at it briefly, I realized it was a trivial fix. Unfortunately, I would be unable to fix it until my triumphant return to the dorms after

EE122 Lecture...

After lunch, I made the corrections to my EE105 homework and ran the PSpice simulations. Then, I went to Cory and turned my homework in.

Music 26ac Lecture... During lecture, the analog on my watch stopped. A few hours later, the digital would die also. My watch needs a new battery. Now, I am completely oblivious regarding time.

CS61c homework was pretty trivial, too.

Halloween kids trick or treating tonight. It was Minjung's first time giving out candy in America. She made the mistake of letting the kids take the candy for themselves, and after the first group, she was all out, so she runs down the stairs, all the way down to Telegraph, and runs all the way back up the stairs, gasping for breath.
Me: Did you run all the way up the stairs?
Minjung: All the way to Telegraph.
Me: You ran all the way down to Telegraph and back? What's wrong with you? You weren't by any chance a professional track runner in Korea, were you?
Minjung: No.

A group of kids came, and I ran away. Later, I came back and discovered Minjung, Martha, Angela, and someone else playing with a weight scale of sorts.
Minjung: Ack! I gained 4 pounds!
Martha: Minjung, put down those books.

Oh, and fencing!

Dice Roll of the Day: (6, 3) Total: 9

Hood Tight!
Wednesday, October 27, 2004--
On this day:
In 2003:
Prof Hilfinger: You can submit Project #2 and we'll still run a sanity test for you.
Me: Sanity tests, huh? I still can't believe I haven't failed any yet.
Tracy: *laughs*

EE120 Discussion...

CS61c Discussion...

CS61c Lecture... I've noticed lately I've been falling asleep in CS... uh-oh...

EE120 Lecture...

Listening to the Music 26ac listenings in the Music library...

Yay! My absentee ballot arrived today! So I spent most of the night voting. Then, I spent the rest of the night doing my trivial EE105 Homework...

Dice Roll of the Day: (2, 3) Total: 5

Wood Flight!
Tuesday, October 26, 2004--*yawn*

EE105 Mudterm #2... it was easy, but other people said it was hard. WTF?!? I did take too long on it, though, but I'm confident that I broke 90%.

EE122 Lecture...

Lunch break...

Music 26ac Lecture...

Dinner at Foothill because I wanted to conserve time... Speaking of which, I've decided not to apply for Foothill next year. The dorm food was that bad. It automatically outweighs being close to the engineering sector.

TBP Meeting...

Then, I finished the EE122 project. It was pretty simple.

Dice Roll of the Day: (3, 2) Total: 5

And again, I must say to you Good Night!
Monday, October 25, 2004 - Addendum--Today's the real entry. Only, unfortunately, I'm actually writing this on Friday, and I've forgotten everything.

On this day:
In 2003: UCSC 2003 Fencing Tourney
In 2002: I read Jabberwocky for the first time.

'Twas brillig and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe.
All mimsy were the borogroves,
And mome raths outgrabe.

Beware the jabberwork, my son,
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch,
Beware the jubjub bird and shun
The frumious bandersnatch.

Unfortunately, that's all I know...

EE105 Discussion...

I clearly remember there was some reading I needed to get done... so I did.

CS61c Lecture...

I had meant to go to EE120 Lecture early, but because of the slow slow elevator, I got there far too late. How demoralizing...

Music 26ac... I finished my reading questions just in time.

Instead of doing the listening like I should have, I went straight back to my dorm to do my EE122 Project, which turned out to be trivial. I spent well into the night working on it, though, but I did take a break for

Fencing! Angela was there. I hadn't seen her in a while. Apparently, she had been going on all the days I had not.

Anyways, I've already said Good Night already, so I don't need to say it again... but I will anyway! Good Night!
Monday, October 25, 2004--I've noticed that the more I deprive myself of sleep, the more I think of her...

It's kind of funny. She's an EECS major. I've known her for a little over a year now, and I've always thought she was cute, but I never thought I'd fall in love with her the way I have. Last year, I did flirt with her a little, but she very quickly learned not to take me very seriously. Until recently, I had no intention of actually going after her.

In fact, over the summer, I had thought that when I got back to Berkeley, I'd meet someone new, on the All Girls' (3rd) floor. I had imagined her as a foreigner--as a FOB as some might put it--from some non-Chinese speaking Asian country, a shy girl with a foreign name that flows off your tongue, but you can never get it right. Interestingly enough, I met that girl during Welcome Week. For a while, I liked her, believing that she was the girl I had dreamed up.

Then, when classes started and everyone started closing their doors, I stopped seeing much of the foreign girl. Suddenly, the EECS girl came into the picture. It seemed so perfect: We had a class together, and I would always sit by her. She would always IM me and we'd talk about things both trivial and urgent. In fact, she is one of the four people who really talk to me over AIM, and of the four, she's the only one I'd actually consider asking out. In fact, in the last few weeks, she's been treating me especially well. I don't really understand it, but I can hope.

Or maybe it's just the sleep deprivation that's causing me to see things strangely. Either way, I pray to god that she's the one, and that I can finally stop wandering this lonely world.

End emotional-philosophical tangent.

Dice Roll of the Day: (2, 1) Total: 3

Good Night!

(NOTE: For the real entry, come back later. It will be on an addendum.)
Sunday, October 24, 2004--Happy Birthday Cindy!

(I don't even know why I say happy birthday to her, still.)

So I finished my EE120 homework and went back to Berkeley, and now I'm working on my website. Later, I'll have to do my Music 26ac reading and then finish my EE122 network simulation project.

Dice Roll of the Day: (4, 5) Total: 9

I said, Good Day!
Saturday, October 23, 2004--Whee! I'm at home! I like being at home!

On this day:
In 2003: Somebody writes "dwayne is so hot! I <3 U"... amusing...

Dim Sum for lunch, Hot pot for dinner, EE120 homework and shopping for clothes (because for some reason my mom thinks I need some semi-formal clothes for my interview, and we spent longer than we should have at Costco)...

Then, at night, we went to Kellie's, where Franklin played GTA:VC, which was amusing, and he's good at it, too. It must be his skills from driving in Initial D. Also, Kellie is a good artist.

Dice Roll of the Day: (6, 4) Total: 10

Good Dreams! Sweet Night!
Friday, October 22, 2004--CS61c Lab... it was trivial, so I spent most of my time working on EE122 Homework...

CS61c Lecture... I spent it doing EE122 Homework...

EE122 Discussion... I spent it doing EE122 Homework... finally, I get it right.

After turning in my EE122 homework, I go home and slack off so hard, it'd make you cry... if that makes any sense at all.

Oh, yeah, and I signed up for my classes. Heh, Tracy asked me to be her lab partner for CS150 next sememster. Haha, of course I agreed to it, but first there are some extraneous circumstances I have to deal with. Speaking of which, some one remind me about this later.

Dice Roll of the Day: (1, 4) Total: 5

Ah, I've had such a good day today... Good Night!
Thursday, October 21, 2004--I awakened the day to

EE105 Lecture, where I asked Tiffany to check my homework because my answers were disagreeing with themselves.

EE122 Lecture... I was almost falling asleep because I was tired, but the vending machine was not working, so I didn't get my much needed sugar.

Lunch break...

Music 26ac... Kim showed up late, so me, Kim's friend who's name I forget, and Vincent went and sat, and I sat between the two of them with a space on either side of me. Then, Kim shows up late and sits between me and her friend.

Kim: Whoa, it feels so cramped in here. I'm used to you [Dwayne] sitting one space away.
Me: *starts to move*
Kim: No, no, it's okay. I'm just not used to it, that's all.

Later, Brinner is playing some Chinese music, and Kim bursts into laughter...

Me: What's so funny?
Kim: Kim is easily amused today. *writes "amusing" in her notes*

Well, that's Kim for you.

Next, I go chill with TBP at their Resume Workshop, and then their General Meeting, where I engineer my name tag so that I'd be in Tracy's group for the "photo competition". Later, I stick my name tag on Tracy's arm. About 15 minutes later, I come back, and she's still wearing my name tag. (See yesterday's addendum for more background info...)

Me: You know, Tracy, I've noticed that I have a habit of taking my stuff and putting them on you, and you do absolutely nothing about it. You should resist. Take that stuff off and throw it back at me!
Tracy: Why would I resist? I mean, I like having my left arm named "Dwayne Jeng". I'm still deciding on what to name my right arm. And my legs, too.
Me: Haha! You're funny.

I also played poker (Texas Hold'em style) for pushups with the TBPeople. I really messed up my arms, 'cause I'm out of practice with the pushup, and I did at least 100 that night.

And to top it off, I followed it up with fencing, which I hadn't done in 10 days, so now my legs are jacked up, too.

MTG Mood Meter: Ow

Dice Roll of the Day: (6, 6) Total: 12

Apparently, sleep and sugar are interchangeable. Hopefully, I'll get a Good Night's sleep some day soon...
Wednesday, October 20, 2004--I had a dream recently. In my dream, I was talking to Jackie over AIM and she told me that Sarah (Tseng) had a boyfriend. Justin found it amusing, because Sarah could never get a boyfriend, especially since Sarah is anti-relationship or some shit I don't get... kinda like Kim!

On this day:
In 2003: Anika "wakes" me up after I fall asleep in the 7th floor (all girls' floor) lounge.

EE120 Discussion... I got slightly above average on the EE120 Mudterm, but I still did badly. Someone whom I will not name got an 84.

CS61c Discussion... dude, the mudterm wasn't that hard.

CS61c Lecture... Boolean Algebra... *sarcastically* yay! *sarcastically*

Lunch... saw Minjung on my way back to the dorms...

EE120 Lecture... During lecture, Tracy asked me what time it was, so I took my watch off and put it around her wrist. Of course, she gave it back at the end of lecture, but yeah, that's to be expected.

Listened to some music at the Music library. That last chinese song "Jehovah is Love" is good, despite being Christian.

Dinner... saw Minjung on the way back to the dorms... whoa! de ja vu!
And that brings us to the now! I am typing this sentence as I type it... if that makes any sense. Then I said, "Then I said, 'Then I said, "Then I said..."'" Yeah, that's one infinite recursion I shouldn't do again.

Dice Roll of the Day: (6, 1) Total: 7

I should stop wasting time coming up with a weird ending and just say "Good Night!"
Tuesday, October 19, 2004--Formulaic entree again...

EE105 Lecture...

EE122 Lecture...

EE105 Lab... long, but we just made our measurements and left...

Music 26ac Lecture... "Hey, Kim, you look really dry!" "Yeah, that's because I've stayed indoors most of the day... that and it's not raining anymore."

TBP meeting...

Upon getting back to my dorm, I slacked off on the internet, then watched Fight Club. First reaction: "WTF?!?" Second reaction: "Holy shit!" Third reaction: "This movie is insane!" Most recent reaction: "That character that Brad Pitt plays is a lot like Alan!"

I also went to Ben & Jerry's for some ice cream with Guillermo, Joyce, the RA Dorie, and a girl named Kat from the 3rd floor. No one else wanted to go. They suck! We could have had a Vermonster if we had more people.

Dice Roll of the Day: (6, 1) Total: 7

!thgiN dooG
Monday, October 18, 2004--I don't remember. Don't ask.

Actually, I do remember, but only bcause it's formulaic:

EE105 Discussion...

Break--chilled at the HKN office in Soda...

CS61c Lecture... Prof Garcia wanted all the kids to sit in the front, so we did.

Lunch break...

EE120 Lecture... I've decided it's high time to start taking notes and paying attention in class... so I did.

Music 26ac Discussion... I met a girl named Stacy, and we discussed Chinese Music because that was the topic of discussion in Music 26ac.

Listening to Chinese music in the music library. We had 5 songs, but they were long as hell.

Then, I ate dinner at the GBC, then went to the Evans Microcomputing Facility before heading over to my CS61c Mudterm, which I pwned. They gave us 3 hours to do the test. I finished in an hour and fifteen, then leave with an hour to go (after checking my work for 45 minutes).

Spent the rest of my night finishing an EE105 Lab... mmm... spicy...

On this day:
In 2003: "It looks more like a deformed Pac-man."

Dice Roll of the Day: (6, 5) Total: 11

Good SPICE! I mean, Good Night!
Sunday, October 17, 2004--Happy Birthday to IVY

And by IVY, I mean Irene.

In any case, I've got mail! (from my guestbook, actually)
Name: Albert
Message: And while youre at it, how about Amy, Johnny and Jamie

But... I don't know Amy, Johnny, and Jamie. I don't even know Amy, Johnny, and Jamie's names!

Anyways, today was the HKN Photo Scavenger Hunt. I don't remember the details, except
Me: Hi, my name's Dwayne. Nice to meet you!
Tiffany: My name's Tiffany, and you already know me from TBP.
Me: D'oh!

Also, we won! Yay! I won a stuffed Cal cow. It was a cow because HKN is the Mu chapter, so we have Mu cows. I was thinking of giving it away to [censored], but Alex told me not to, because traditionally, the girls don't appreciate my gifts. Kupo...

MTG Mood Meter: Gifts Ungiven

Then, I was plagued with a headache, so I started drinking lots and lots of water to flush it away, and you know what happens when you drink lots and lots of water...

Dice Roll of the Day: (4, 6) Total: 10

Bah... maybe I shouldn't have posted that thing at the end of Friday's entry... Oh, well. All that's important is that I get some Good sleep toNight!
Saturday, October 16, 2004--Happy Birthday, Alan!

Anyways, so today, I went to the Cal vs UCLA football game. What I thought was amusing was that our cheerleaders were wearing their longsleeved uniforms (it was cold today) whereas the UCLA cheerleaders went sleeveless. Also, the UCLA band knows how to play Britney Spears' Toxic, which reminded me of Daisy.

During the 1st quarter, we scored two touchdowns, but in the 2nd quarter, UCLA scored a touchdown. Then, during the kick reception, our guy fumbles the goddamn ball, and UCLA takes it and uses their position to score another touchdown. That's exactly what happened against USC. Man, why do our Special Teams suck?

Fortunately, in 3rd quarter, we scored two more touchdowns, and after that, UCLA's fate was sealed. We eventually won 45-28. I was bored during most of the second half, although the fans in the student section were hella cheering. I've never heard the stadium that loud before, other than Cal vs USC 2003.

Dice Roll of the Day: (3, 3) Total: 6

A concise entry calls for a long drawn-out ending. Thus, I cannot simply say "Good Night!" I must... ah, screw it! Good Night!
Friday, October 15, 2004--Ah, what a relaxing sleep I just awoke from...

On this day:
In 2003: Rubik's Cube girl--I mean Amy--solves a 5x5x5 cube.
In 2002: CS61c Lab... which I finished early, and it turned out there was no CS homework next week (thanks to a mudterm coming up next Monday), so I went to the HKN Soda office and chilled with Tanya until she had to go to class. Then, I just went to the library and looked at the Microsoft College Recruiting website to prepare myself for the interview.

CS61c Lecture...

EE122 Discussion... I had trouble focusing for some reason.

Lunch, then Microsoft Interview... I pwned! I went in feeling confident and came back out feeling confident, so it's all good.

For thy records, I've decided to take next semester. Plan accordingly. (I like bulleted lists.)

Tracy's sure been climbing fast on my AIM Buddy of the Month ranking. (For those of you who don't know, my Buddy of the Month thing is a cumulative thing, getting reset only 3 times a year.)

Dice Roll of the Day: (2, 6) Total: 8

God Knight!
Thursday, October 14, 2004--*zombie-like* Must finish EE105 homework...

Which is precisely what I did this morning. It was SPICE-y. And while I was at it, I went to EE105 Lecture and EE122 Lecture, then to my Telebears Advising session with Professor Gastpar, then finshed my EE105 homework, then ran to Cory to turn in my homework, then ran to Wheeler just in time for Music 26ac Lecture...

Speaking of which, I enter Wheeler Auditorium and am looking for a seat when Kim calls out to me, and awww, she saved me a seat! How sweet! That's Kim for you. (Not really.)

And in lecture, we had this dude named Hong Wang and his assistant something Jie Ma demonstrating to us Chinese instruments and music. It was amusing, to say the least.

Then, finally free, I slacked off the rest of the night and went to play board games with HKN. w00t!

There was a scrabble game, followed by a fake scrabble board with centered around "LEET" and "HAXOR" with a whole bunch of EECS related words scattered everywhere. It was amusing, to say the least.

Then, I joined a poker game, but lost quickly because I had only 25 chips while everyone else had on the order of 250.

Finally, there was a game of Risk that we played, and I had awful starting position because, for some reason, I decided to play disruption and put 2 men in each continent.

Dice Roll of the Day: (5, 1) Total: 6

Well, not much else to do but to bid thee all Good Night!
Wednesday, October 13, 2004--Last night on AIM...
Tracy: Should I go to discussion tomorrow morning?
Me: My discussion?
Her: Yeah.
Me: Yeah, you should go. If for no other reason than to boost my morale.
Tracy: Hahaha =p

EE120 Discussion... I prepared for the EE120 mudterm. Oh, and Tracy was there.

CS61c Discussion... I prepared for the EE120 mudterm.

CS61c Lecture... I prepared for the EE120 mudterm.

After lunch... I took a nap... then went to the EE120 mudterm. It was horrible. Out of 100 points, people are saying that even 50 would be a good score. Bah, in either case, I need to start working hard on EE120 to clobber my mudterm with the other one.

E190 Placement Test... it was trivial. I was thinking of writing either on Fourier Series or on programs as data and decided that programs as data would be a much more entertaining essay. While I was there, I saw Vincent, David, the other TBP dude, Melody, Tracy's roommate (more on that later), Abhi, Daisy, and that's all I remember.

Then, I went to the HKN general meeting. I entered the room, and the first word I heard was "band-limited". Gastpar was the guest speaker for today's meeting, and for some reason, hearing Gastpar say "band-limited" reminded me of EE120...

Me: Hey, Trace, at the the E190 Placement Test, I saw your friend, the Rubik's cube girl.
Tracy: Amy. She's my roommate.
Me: Ah, yes, I should probably remember that, huh? Or maybe not. I dunno, is it really that important that I know your roommate's name?
Tracy: Yeah, I only have one.
Me: I barely even know my own roommate.

Incidentally, most people who know Amy primarily and Tracy secondarily think of Tracy as "Rubik's Cube girl's friend".

On this day:
In 2003: Anika first appears in my Online Journal. In 2002: Dice Roll of the Day: (6, 4) Total: 10

I'm so tired... Good...

...

...Night...
Tuesday, October 12, 2004--EE105 Lecture...

EE122 Lecture...

Music 26ac... just before the mudterm, I meet up with Kim, and she's singing Roll, Jordan, Roll, and I say we should start a quartet, but there are only 3 of us (because Kim had a friend in the class), so that didn't work. Then, we take the mudterm, and I leave 10 minutes early because I got bored of double-checking my answers (because this is a humanities class, you either know it or you don't; there's no work to check).

After a long TBP officer meeting, I get back to my dorm and am tired. I should prolly be studying EE120 with Tracy, but eh, you know how these things are.

On this day:
In 2002: I talk to Diane over AIM for the first time ever, and she blocks me.

Dice Roll of the Day: (5, 2) Total: 7

You know, I'm tired, so I'll just assume that (even though it may not be) it's a Good Night!
Monday, October 11, 2004--Happy Birthday, Justin!

On this day:
In 2002: EE105 Discussion...

CS61c Lecture...

EE120 Lecture...

Music 26ac Discussion...

And interspersed throughout the day, I studied for my Music 26ac, because I'm weird like that. I can pass technical stuff with no problem but humanities and essay writing and shit like that?

Skipping dinner, I went fencing, and I don't remember the details, because when I came back, I slacked off, then did some more work for Music 26ac, that I went to sleep without studying. Good Night!

Dice Roll of the Day: (5, 3) Total: 8
Sunday, October 10, 2004--Incidentally, today, I will also be talking about football. However, this time, I'm referring to NFL Blitz, the old N64 game, which my brother and I played today. He was kicking my ass for the first 3 quarters, then somehow, in the last quarter, I make a comeback and win. o_O

We also played Soul Calibur 2. You can set Life handicaps in this game, and apparently, Frankie can beat me with 50% life, but not with 30% life, and apparently, I do better against Ivy (his supposed "best" character) than against any other character. Weird...

Anyways, after finishing up my EE120 homework, I began my triumphant return to Berkeley...

On this day:
In 2002: Back at Berk, I would be working on my Music 26ac homework, interspersed with some pointless slacking off.

Dice Roll of the Day: (4, 6) Total: 10

Well, as much as I'd like to stick around and chat some more, I got to go... um... slack. Good Night!
Saturday, October 9, 2004--Before the USC game, I got me a haircut... so now if you see some dude who has my face, but with short hair, that's probably me.

Oh, and the USC game... it was a good game. It was intense to the last minute (but the last minute itself sucked, but I'll tell you about that in a moment). So anyways, Cal came out with good offense and good defense, but man, our special teams just sucked today. During the first quarter, we fumbled a punt and gave USC the early touchdown. During the second quarter, we fumbled a punt return and USC jumped on it and got to start from our 12 yard line, and this was after USC had penaltied itself so much and we totally sacked Matt Leinart that they were 3rd down & 27. And then there was the fact that all of our kicks were short, and our team had trouble stopping UCS's Reggie Bush.

And then in the last quarter, with 5 minutes to go, the score is 17-23, USC in the lead, and we manage to take the ball back from USC, and we drive it all the way to the goal line, with 2 good minutes for us to make the touchdown. If we make the touchdown, we win. If we fail, we lose.

And we failed. With approximately 1:16, we failed to get the touchdown, and then USC just kneeled and ran out the rest of the clock... that sucks.

It was a good game. Granted, it would have been a better game if Cal had gotten the upset, but it was a good game.

On this day:
In 2002: Dice Roll of the Day: (6, 2) Total: 8

So I don't sound boring, I need to come up with something, 'cause it wouldn't be right to just say "Good Night!"
Friday, October 8, 2004--Free! I'm finally free! Last night, I finished my EE122 project, and now, for the first time in 2 weeks, I have a free weekend! w00t!

On this day:
In 2002: CS61c Discussion...

CS61c Lecture...

EE122 Discussion...

Then, I went home... not much to say... I'm at home, slacking off...

Good Night!

Dice Roll of the Day: (1, 1) Total: 2
Thursday, October 7, 2004--Last night, as I'm about to start my EE105 homework and my EE122 project, all the EECS servers go down, and since I don't have a paper copy of the EE105 homework and since my EE122 code was on the servers, I had no way of doing my homework. I stayed up until 2am waiting for the servers to come back up, but no, they never did, so I just gave up and went to bed. It's not like it was anything important.

So... yeah, this morning, I skip EE105 and EE122 Lecture, ironically, so I could finish the homework in those two classes. It turns out, thankfully, that EE122 project deadline has been extended by 12 hours, which is good, because that means I can go fencing tonight and still have a good 12 hours to finish it.

I did go to Music 26ac, though, and we had a bluegrass band performance. Kim told me that she had forgotten that there was going to be a performance today and wouldn't have come if she had remembered. Lucky me...

Ken Jennings is back on Jeopardy today, by the way, and he's still winning. Joyce brought over her new Totoro pillow and is talking to it like it's alive. How amusing... and gummy bears!

Lastly and most importantly, I got offered an interview with Microsoft! w00t!

Dice Roll of the Day: (3, 5) Total: 8

On this day:
In 2002: *shrig*

Uhh... yeah... *shrig* Good Night!
Wednesday, October 6, 2004--That's funny. I was under the impression that my website had no viewers whatsoever and that I was just recording all of my thoughts for my own personal usage. But then, I just checked my site stats just today and discovered that I get an average of 5-10 hits per day. Now, I hope these aren't just sophisticated webcrawlers who manage to set off my counter 5-10 times a day, because that would just be false advertising on Geocities' part. (Is there any way to tell the difference between an actual visitor and a web crawler?) In any case, if these numbers are correct, then I have a huge audience that I need to entertain, except that I suck at entertaining my guests... I need to work on that. Give me feedback! Oh, and post in my forums!

I skipped EE120 Discussion because I stayed up so late last night working on EE122 that I needed some extra sleep.

CS61c Discussion...

CS61c Lecture...

During my break...
Abhi: Should I take Math 55 or CS70?
Me: It depends. Who's teaching those courses?
Abhi: Uhh... "Christ" is teaching Math 55. And Clancy is teaching CS70.
Me: Well, you can't go wrong with Christ. Especially if your alternative is Clancy.
Abhi: Yeah, who should I go learn from: Jesus or the Devil?

EE120 Lecture...

Read at the Music Library, because one of our readings in the Music 26ac Reader was defective.

Tau Beta Pi Candidate Meeting! w00t! Tracy came, but left early as I was serving food. I wanted a beef enchilada! Oh well... In any case, I managed to salvage Tracy's name tag (after finding it being worn by Angela, who refused to give it to me). In the process, I lost mine own, to Leonard, from which it eventually disappeared completely.

Oh, and Heena was asking around what kind of challenge should she give, so I told her the one she used on me last semester--Indian Dance! It was amusing to say the least.

Dice Roll of the Day: (6, 2) Total: 8

On this day:
In 2002: I start saying Good Night on a regular basis!

Except I've become too brain-dead to come up with amusing ones... so today, I'll bring up a classic:
Good Night! Don't let the succubi bite!
Tuesday, October 5, 2004--EE105 Lecture... and then we got our mudterms back.

EE122 Lecture... apparently, Professor Stoica knows my name.

EE105 Lab... parts of it we could do at home, so we finished early so I could go hit the HKN EECS Career fair, where I passed out a bunch of resumes. The Microsoft rep (a Cal Alumni) was impressed, especially when I told him about my VidWorks experiences.

Music 26ac...
Me: Aren't you hot in that sweater?
Kim: No.
Heh...

On this day:
In 2002: Giant Abomination

After chilling with the leftover HKNers who were cleaning up in Bechtel, I went to the TBP meeting. Tomorrow will be the candidate meeting. Yay!

Dice Roll of the Day: (2, 6) Total: 8

Good Night!
Monday, October 4, 2004--EE105 Discussion...
Me: Apparently, the EE122 Mudterm scores are out.
Tiffany: Yeah. What did you get?
Me: ...I'll tell you if you promise not to tell anyone.
Tiffany: Oh, it's okay. I did really badly, too. You don't have to tell me.

Naive little Tiffany... hehe...

CS61c Lecture...

Lunchbreak...

EE120 Lecture...

Music 26ac Discussion...

On this day:
In 2002: Anyways, Dice Roll of the Day: (4, 3) Total: 7

The DCI sent me an e-mail back, saying I was approved for the Magic Player Rewards Program until 2278. Apparently, I'm going to stay in the program for 274 years... how... wonderful...

Good Night!
Sunday, October 3, 2004--So, as I promised Tracy, I worked on and finished my EE120 homework so that we could compare our answers. It took me all the way until 3:30pm, because I did the Fourier Transforms by hand because I didn't realize there was a table in the book. After that, I had to do my Music 26ac reading questions... Music 26ac reminds me of Kim for some reason.

On this day:
In 2003: The "Are you hot?" incident #2.
In 2002: "She said 'break up,' not 'break down'."

Anyways, between doing EE120 and doing Music 26ac, I decided to take a break by playtesting my Nezumi deck against my Relentless deck. Nezumi won 3 out of 3. In the third game, I even managed to get all three Legends out, but in order to do so, I had to refrain from attacking the Relentless Rats or else Stabwhisker's ability would kill him off too quickly. So building the rat deck wasn't a mistake after all. Just a bit more playtesting and fine tuning...

Anyways, so I was going to do my laundry tonight, and I arrive on the 2nd floor only to find that both washing machines were done and that someone had left their clothes there. After consulting with Ivan and his roommate (who lived just across the hall from the laundry room) and checking on the 6th floor (which were both still going for 20 minutes), I decided to throw the clean clothes onto the table. And just as I finish, Minjung of all people walks in. It was awkward to say the least...

Man, that would suck if she thinks badly of me after that. I mean, it's not like I knew those were her clothes sitting in the machine.

Dice Roll of the Day: (6, 4) Total: 10

Good Night!
Notice: The September 30 entry is now available.
Saturday, October 2, 2004--
On this day:
In 2002: Franklin makes his first appearance in my journal.

Cal MTG Club Draft

Today, I went to the Cal MTG meeting, where Philip, Zech, this new guy named Albert, and I played a quick 4-player round-robin non-DCI-sanctioned booster draft. For those of you who have read me for the last 2-3 weeks, I don't have to tell you what I drafted, but I suppose I'll tell you anyways: black-red. Unfortunately, I didn't get my signature Gutwrencher Oni this time. Oh, well. However, I did get lots of removal. In the first pack, I got a Yamabushi's Flame, Befoul, Rend Flesh, and Crushing Pain. In the second pack, I got another Yamabushi's Flame and another Befoul. In my last pack, I got a pair of Glacial Rays, so with 8 removal (a new record), I built this deck and dove right into the fray:
9 Swamps
9 Mountains
Sensei's Divining Top
Ashen-Skin Zubera
Wicked Akuba
2xNezumi Cutthroat
Nezumi Ronin
Rend Flesh
2xCursed Ronin
2xBefoul
Battle-Mad Ronin
Ember-Fist Zubera
Crushing Pain
2xGlacial Ray
Brutal Deceiver
Pain Kami (FOIL!)
2xYamabushi's Flame
2xAkki Coalflinger

Another interesting card that I drafted, but didn't play, was the black shrine. At another point, I had a choice between a Lava Spike and a foil Island. I took the foil Island. Lava Spike was just that bad!

Anyways, we were playing round-robin. In my first round, I played against Zech, who had drafted blue-white. I beat him pretty quickly, but I don't remember how. I seem to remember him having mana problems during the second game, though. Record: 1-0 Albert won his match against Philip, so we decided to save our "winner's match" for last, just to make it more interesting.

Thus, in my second round, I would play Philip, who had drafted green-white. The first game, he had mana issues, and thus lost. In the second round, Philip managed to use a Kusari-Gama, which I misread, to completely wipe my board clean. After that, it was me scrambling for some way of defending myself while Philip beat me to a pulp. Game three included some interesting plays, including when Philip played a Sachi and a Shisato. I Yamabushi Flamed Sachi at the end of my turn, and Philip, who had no other Snake in play, had to sacrifice Shisato to her own upkeep the next turn. Yep, Shisato is a bad card... She's evil, too. Anyways, eventually, Philip built up a massive army, thereby preventing all my attackers from breaking through except one: my Nezumi Cutthroat. So I was dealing 2 damage each turn, building up to my coup de grace--I had both Glacial Rays in my hand, and using my Divining Top, I had gotten out 3 mountains and 3 swamps. Finally, when Philip dropped to 6 life, I played my first Ray, spliced the second one onto it for 4 damage, then played the second Ray, dealing exactly 6 damage, ending the game. Record: 2-0 Albert beat Zech also, leaving him with a 2-0 record as well.

So in the final round, Albert and I played for the championship. He had a black-white deck, including the dreaded Oathkeeper, and the hated Kitsune Riftwalker. Other guests included Horobi (who made the Oathkeeper useless, but turned his Indomitable Will into a kill card) and Samurai of the Pale Curtain, who could not be saved by the Oathkeeper's ability, as she removed herself from the game when she died. In any case, in both games, I lost with the Divining Top in play when the card I needed to survive was 4 cards into my library, just barely out of reach. If I had survived for just one more turn, I might have been able to turn the game around. In the end, however, Albert was victorious. Record: 2-1 Philip would go on to defeat Zech for 3rd place while I got my 1 booster pack prize.

And in that booster, I got another Cursed Ronin, another Befoul, Initiate of Blood/Goka the Unjust, and Hikari.

Afterwards, Albert and I played with my Sliver deck and my Nezumi deck so that I could test my Nezumi deck. We each played with each deck once, and no matter who was playing it, the Sliver deck owned the Nezumi. I suppose it's to be expected. The Sliver deck, after all, has a lot deeper of a card pool to draw from. With standard rotating out, I no longer have my Oversold Cemeteries or my Smothers. I suppose I'll have to test my Nezumi deck (post-Kamigawa Standard) against my Relentless deck (pre-Kamigawa Standard) for a true comparison of power.

Good Night!

Dice Roll of the Day: (4, 6) Total: 10
Friday, October 1, 2004--CS61c Lab... they're showing us some pretty arcane stuff in lab. It isn't in the book. I spent about 1 hour 15 minutes (plus, I showed up 35 minutes late), so I didn't get the early checkoff and the 1 extra credit point.

CS61c Lecture... before the lecture, Prof Garcia was playing the Warcraft III cinematics on the display screen. I missed the first half of it, though...

EE122 Discussion... was cancelled, so I went to the HKN lounge and hung out with Ellen until she had to go mail a letter, during which I promptly left.

Lunch...

After a little bit of work on my EE122 project, I went to the booster draft at Games of Berkeley. Kamigawa Season has officially begun, yo!

In any case, apparently, I was drafting at the "easy" table, because (1) there were 3 kids at my table, (2) Dave was at the other table, (3) I have a low DCI ranking.

In any case, I decided to draft black-red, the same archetype I played at the prerelease, mainly because of all the removal available in black-red. I started off drafting a pair of Yamabushi's Flame and a pair of Rend Fleshes, which I lated complemented in the second pack with a Befoul and a Hanabi Blast. In the third pack, I drafted a Pull Under for a total of seven removal. And it turns out that there were three of us drafting black-red that day, and there still managed to be enough good black-red cards for all of us! That just goes to prove the power of Kamigawa black-red.

The guy sitting to my left was the only guy drafting blue. He managed to open The Unspeakable, and in the course of the game, managed to draft multiple copies of the Unspeakable combo. Needless to say, when there were no good black-red cards to draft (since there were three of us after all), I hate-drafted some half-decent blue cards that he might have wanted, but I missed a Hinder. I don't know if he ever summoned the Unspeakable, though.

Sean: Stop killing my creatures.
Me: But that's the whole point of black-red. Kill everything that moves. Ignore everything that doesn't.
Dude: I suppose that's one way of putting it.

My first round was against Sean. He played a mono-green snake deck, which I owned. The most amazing part was that in both games, I killed him with a Deathcurse Ogre, a self-proclaimed bad card. (You'll find out why it was in my deck later.) The first game, he forgot he about Sosuke's ability and killed the Deathcurse Ogre "on accident" when he was at 3 life. Whoops. (He actually would have lost that game either way.) In the second game, I knocked Sean down to 3 life, then Rended the Flesh of my own Ogre, again ending Sean's life. Record: 1-0

My second game was a mirror match against a kid named Matt, I believe. (He, too, had drafter black-red, and the decks were almost identical.) Our games were mostly slaughter fests included Zubera, Frostweilders, and the Brothers Yamazaki. We both had a Brothers Yamazaki, but we never both got him into play at the same time. At one point, neither of us had carefully read the text on Painwracker Oni, so I played it with no creatures out and he Rended its Spirit, only to find out that it would have naturally died the next turn. (Needless to say, I ended up replacing it.) He beat me the first game (although it was a really close one). Toward the end of the second game, he had me in a corner. I was at 7 life, and he had a Frostwielder, a Cursed Ronin, and another creature, as well as Blood Rites.
Me: You can kill me without attacking. In fact, I order you to kill me without attacking. That is your challenge.
Matt: Hey, I can!
And he shoots me with the Frostwielder and sac's everything to the Blood Rites for exactly 7 damage total.
Dude: Did you really have to do that? You could have killed him by attacking and pumping the Cursed Ronin!
Me: But hey, when you have a weird victory condition, you have to use it. (Kind of like when I killed Sean by Rending the Flesh of my own Deathcurse Ogre.)
Record: 1-1

My third game is againt David, who played a 4-color Shrine deck. (He had all but the green shrine.) In any case, in the first game, he got out the white shrine and gained 2 life per turn while I was dealing between 2 and 3 per turn. Soon, there was a stalemate. Eventually, he was at 14 and I was at 16, and I brought out my favorite Gutwrencher Oni (I have a foil one, too). It had been stranded in my hand for a while because I didn't want to discard my Rend Fleshes, but soon realizing that the majority of his creatures were Spirits, I decided Rend Flesh would do me little good. So out came the Oni (the good Oni), and I smashed his face. In the second game, it was played to a near stalemate. I brought him down to 2 while I was at 10, but using a Kami of Lunacy, a Kitsune Riftwalker, and a Wicked Akuba, he dealt me 8, bringing me down to 2, then used the Akuba's ability to finish me. We were on to game three with only 10 minutes left. I offered a draw because we undoubtedly had no time to finish game 3 and so that we could go home early, but David insisted, we play it through to the end, even if it was to be a draw. It would prove to be his undoing. I mulliganed twice, partially because I wanted to stall and force a draw, partially because I had a horrible hand, but it was still a relatively quick shuffle. Then, out came the Ashen-Skin Zubera, the Brothers Yamazaki, a Pain Kami (which served as an emergency removal on a 2/2 when a Masako came into play, and finally the lord of terror, the Gutwrencher Oni himself. I ended up killing him off in less than 10 minutes from 2 mulligans. It was the most amazing win ever. Needless to say, David got the good sportsmanship award. Record: 2-1

I ended up taking 3rd place overall and winning 2 booster packs--my best booster draft ever. Maybe I'm actually good at Kamigawa, like I had suspected/hoped. Maybe I'm just lucky. Or maybe I chose the the right deck to play, the uber-powerful black-red. On a supporting note, there were three players who split the black-red cards in our draft table, and we got first, second, and third. Yep, Kamigawa black-red certainly is powerful.

Here is my deck:
9 Mountains
8 Swamps
Lantern-Lit Graveyard
2xBattle-Mad Ronin
Ember-Fist Zubera
Pain Kami
2xRonin Houndmaster
2xBrutal Deceiver
Brothers Yamazaki
2xYamabushi's Flame
Hanabi Blast
Sokenzan Bruiser
2xAshen-Skin Zubera
Nezumi Ronin
2xRend Flesh
Befoul
Gutwrencher Oni
Deathcurse Ogre
Pull Under

As I said before, I won two booster packs. Interesting cards include: another Yamabushi's Flame, Blood Rites (which I got killed by earlier), Through the Breach (a bad Sneak Attack), Zo-Zu the Punisher, and a foil Devouring Greed.

I also bought a tournament pack, which includes the Novel, a player's guide (listing of all cards plus storyline descriptions etc etc), a 20-sided dice, a foil land, a foil common, a Tournament pack, and 3 boosters. Interesting cards I opened include: foil Rend Spirit, another Samurai of the Pale Curtain, Ghostly Prison, Sosuke, a Shell of the Last Kappa, Kodama of the South Tree, a foil Sire of the Storm, another Cursed Ronin, another Frostwielder, Blood Rites, the blue and white shrines, and Takeno (the last three cards were all in the same booster--it was a legendary pack), a foil green dragon, Kodama of the North Tree, Reweave, Ghostly Prison, Blood Rites, another Gutwrencher Oni, another Yamabushi's Flame and Befoul, another Kitsune Blademaster, Sift Through Sands, Reach Through Mists, and a Midnight Covenant.

Man, that's a lot of Kamigawa cards. At the Prerelease, I got a tourney pack and 2 boosters and won 4 boosters. At the draft, I drafted 45 cards and won 2 boosters. I bought a fat pack which gave me 1 tourney pack and 3 boosters. A tourney pack is about 3 boosters, so that's a converted booster count of 20. And after tomorrow's MTG mtg, I'll be up to 23. Man, I should lay off limited for a while, huh? Maybe a month, and sell my duplicates...

Anyways, I'll be off organizing my collection and making a Rat deck. Good Night!

Dice Roll of the Day: 8 (from the 20-sided dice in my tourney pack)
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