After a sickening (literally) night and morning and tylenol, I think I'm back to normal and shall attempt Death Valley this weekend. I'm pretty sure I took the wrong type of medicine that day, cos I felt terrible after taking it, but then it could be that I feel terrible anyway.
So cos I was sick, I skipped my regulation class in the morning... and the one time i skip class, got caught. Prof asked Sheng after class, so.. why didn't that girl in our lab come to class today? Hmm..

Dicty is such a cute name. It sounds like this cute little round animal thing right? Want to know what it is? Google dicty.

My professor was Krebs' assistant for a week. How cool. He said he said things like Geez you know, I really like your cycle. It's real cool.

Had the most amazing Hum discussion today. Ran out of stuff to talk about 30min into class. So TA said, ok, you guys can come ask me about questions on the paper topics or anything else, if not, we're done. So normally if I hear something like that, I'll just turn in my homework and leave. But then no one moved. Like we just can't believe that Hum discussion ended early. Come on, John never had enough time for discussions, he was Always dragging class.. Anyway, Dan came over and we started talking about paper topics and stuff.. and he's so smart.

Freud. Still looks like fraud to me. I should read this guy before I condemn him as a fraud but I really think he's so non-scientific. Dan made this comparison today. He said that Freud is like Hubbard. His id, ego and superego is like scientology. A whole bunch of terms and classifications without scientific evidence.

http://tw.news.yahoo.com/article/url/d/a/070420/2/d6pm.html
Last paragraph is scary

Smart Chimp
http://www.pri.kyoto-u.ac.jp/ai/index-E.htm
Watch the videos, esp those on Ai, amazing.
Apparently the grad students can't beat Ai on the number memory thing

What is wrong with the world? Why do people bring a gun to school and shoot schoolmates and professors? How did the world allow a person like the shooter develop to what he is? Why didn't anyone help him out of this crazy mess? There was this episode of CSI where passengers in the first-class cabin of a plane mobbed, beat and killed this guy who was being ultra irritating because he had a terrible headache. Absolutely irritating. After the CSIs found out what happened, they had a discussion of whether the passengers are justified in what they did. People were split both ways and Grissom said, if only someone asked if the guy was alright, if only someone tried to find out what was wrong with the guy, none of this would have happened. If only someone tried helping this shooter before he turned desperate, brilliant minds wouldn't need to be lost.

What is the point of philosophising without action? I think we're doing too much philosophising and not enough action. I wonder what life would be like if I try, say 1 philosopher's philosophy every month. Live exactly like what the philosopher thinks is the right way for humans to live. Could be pretty fun, great learning experience, but would be real tiring.

Really, I'm too busy moving through life to live it, understand it, feel it. Philosophy reading only makes sense when I need it. Right now I just feel bombarded, too much hum.

Why must humans always look upwards? Who decided that the goal of humanity is to improve and progress? What if we were made to be stagnant?

I need a lot more discipline and get work done, or I'll be screwed very soon.

Politics. It's my 2nd week in the exco and this ugly thing has to come up and forces me to take a side. I hate this. I know that I'm being inactive, fearful of showing individuality, fearful of being different, Mill and Nietzsche will never approve, but this is who I am. Nietzsche found the fire burning within him and Schopenhauer was the way to guide that fire. I, like most in the world, am just living, no fires. M has a point, no doubt about that, and it takes a lot of guts to make a statement like that. But it was way too belligerent, if I were the 'official stand', I would stamp her down too. Honestly speaking, I don't agree with the first words of either side. M puts it across too bluntly and the officials are taking it too hard. Alternatives are available, I don't think it's an all-or-none event and the rationale and consequences of decisions ought to be made known to all. It'll take more time to reach decisions, but that's the drawback of democracy or any kind of non-monarchy.

Cabaret. It was a great show. "Here, life is beautiful. The girls are beautiful. Even the orchestra is beautiful." I truly agree with that. Had a great time playing with these wonderful people and hanging out with the cool talented theatre kids. They are just amazing. This Nazi dude, I don't know his name, he's such a great speaker, everything that comes out of his mouth sounds like something that was scripted, well-planned out. Every break, the winds will go look for him and ask him to tell stories. The pineapple guy is also fantastic, can't believe he's just a freshman, he's a fabulous actor, he'll come over to the orchestra and mime to us how great we are, and he just makes Herr Schultz so lovable. MC, undoubtedly the most talented actor in the whole show, talk about stage presence, when he's on stage, you know it. He might be a little freaky but he sure has a sense of humour..
Even though the mics probably didn't work as well as they should and didn't pick me up, well whatever, it was fun.
The 2nd act was dark. Very dark. Nazis coming to power, politics changing the happy lives that the characters finally found. "Aren't you forgetting something? No matter what happens, you'll still have each other." "There was a war and I survived, there was inflation and I survived. If the Nazis come I will survive, if the communists come I will still be here, renting out these rooms."

I need to work on some social skills.

Passed driving test! So I'll be getting a license soon, though I still won't have a car, or the means to get a car. Interesting how latinos can pronounce my surname much better than whites, the test guy, who wears a lab coat, i don't know why, could read my last name perfectly. Anyway, the lady at the counter was black and when she heard I passed, she held out her fist, and I stoned for 2s before I realised that I'm supposed to hit it.. hmm

Got my clone! Yay! Even though it took 2 weeks for me to finish 1 cloning try, I got successful clones. Progressing slowly.. estimate the final construct to take another 2 weeks to be completed, then hopefully i can get my knockout strain before I collapse in this quarter.

It's week 1 and I'm already behind in work.. 100pages/ week to read for Hum, 1 paper/ class for Gene regulation, pd homeworks, discussions to prepare, why am I doing all these? Spring break was too short.. I need a longer break to recuperate.

Cabaret. That's the musical which I'm playing in next weekend. It's going to be a great show and it's been fun playing for it. Rehearsals are going crazily and I feel obliged to go cos I've missed all except 1 last quarter and 2 out of 3 this week. So, rehearsal till late every night. I wonder how I'm going to get home on Sat and Sun..

I forsee a total collapse in the middle of the quarter.. Should I just drop a class and heck my GPA?