Thursday 18 October 2007

Thank you all who remembered my birthday. Thank you all who made it special. Thanks to ooi who wished me really early, you're the 2nd one to wish me happy birthday, 1st one was the scholarship officers. Haha. Thanks to jac who stayed up late to be the first to wish me when it's 11 Oct PDT. Thanks to lao pei who remembered. Thanks to Carol who was the first one to call, thanks to her again for suddenly hushing everyone and giving me peanut soup with imaginery candle. Thanks to Sunny who called and pretended to not remember that it's my birthday. Thanks to housemates who gave me the orchid, sorry that 2 buds died.. thanks to stephen for coming over and to all for the tres latte cake. It was very interesting.. very ethnic. Thanks to the whole gang for bringing me to Corvette. That was an experience. Thanks Jason and Clinton for the wine. Thanks Jane for bringing the beach to me and for Islands. =) Thank you Assers and CBs. Thanks Kok Lim for the amazing cheesecakes, lao da's too nice. Did I miss anyone? Thanks to facebook for keeping everyone in touch.

Corvette's Diner was an experience. After waiting forever to get in, we got a table. And then straws came flying over our heads and landed on the table. Ok. So I guess food's going to be thrown at us as well. The waitresses had huge hairdos and loud screechy voices. The place was noisy, and there's a DJ playing 50s music. So every time a waitress sees someone on the phone, she'll announce to the whole world and tell everyone to keep quiet. And of course, everyone will start making as much noise as possible. Our table is very quiet in comparison. So food came, drinks came, weird stuff.. and I ordered a magarita. Just to use my ID. The waitress took my ID, studied it, did some calculations, and started shouting "Ladies and gentleman, there's someone here turning 21!". That was embarrassing.. There was a balloon man who made all sorts of huge structures and another lady who made humongous hairdos for girls using straws. When it was time for dessert, 5 of those waitresses came over and sang me a song that none of us could figure out what exactly they were singing.. even after we've heard it for a gazillion times that night, seems that every table had someone with a birthday.. It's just a place with its own special character.
Can't believe this guy. The things that he says are just appalling.
'In 1997, Britain's Sunday Telegraph quoted Watson as saying that if a gene for homosexuality were isolated, women who find that their unborn child has the gene should be allowed to have an abortion.
During a lecture tour in 2000, he suggested there might be links between a person's weight and their level of ambition and between skin color and sexual prowess.
"That's why you have Latin lovers," he said, according to The Associated Press, which cited people who attended the lecture. "You've never heard of an English lover. Only an English patient."
And in a British TV documentary that aired in 2003, Watson suggested stupidity was a genetic disease that should be treated.'
http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/europe/10/18/nobel.apology/index.html

That's taking unconfirmed scientific data too far.. They might be your hypothesis, but with all the social impacts they could potentially have, you should at least say them in a nice way, or if you can't, don't say it, since it's unconfirmed anyway.

Anyway, Watson just published another autobiography. It's on manners. Reviews are pretty positive. I wonder how much of manners you can learn from this guy. On another note, Craig Venter just published his first autobiography. Yet another controversial biologist. He's a very eloquent guy, so his book might be rather fun to read..

Saturday 6 October 2007

Think I've been taking many things for granted. I've been very lucky since I got to San Diego, having very helpful seniors, very helpful friends. Not everyone has friends who are willing to drive them to places every time he asks, not everyone has friends that they feel comfortable enough to ask for rides to the airport at 8 in the morning.. I don't know what I would have done without people like Desmond in my first year. Since my entry a week ago, many people have asked if i'm ok. Thank you everyone, I'm fine. Thanks for all the suggestions, thanks for all the analysis, thanks for trying to cheer me up. I still think it's very funny that I received a fan. Haha, it would have been very useful in the freakingly hot summer.

Talking to freshmen, and friends on exchange.. I realised that many times I don't have the power to help them. Many things which I experienced don't apply to them.. All I can tell Jac is, cook your own food, but then i also don't know how I could make my own food if, 1. I use a communal kitchen shared by the whole building, 2. there's no Ranch around, 3. there's no car to get groceries.. How do you survive in the middle of nowhere where you get everything you need from Walmart? Suddenly I love California for its huge Asian population, I love my apt, I love my housemates and friends..

Wednesday 3 October 2007