Clipped wings

I was going to go shopping today but it's yucky rainy weather out and I'm STILL not done packing. Oh no. That means I'll never get more clothes since I have to go pick my parents up from the airport tomorrow. AAargh. I hate being so busy.

Endless list

Of stuff to do.

Have to: see professors to ask them to open a dossier file for me, get my I-20 signed!, pack!!!, shop for clothes, mail rebate forms, books and other such.

You'd think after finishing exams I wouldn't have anything to do till graduation.. nope. too much to do. aargh.

Done.

I'm done with school and now, at the beginning of the monumental task of Packing with a capital P. How does one accumultate so much stuff?

The good thing is that the company will actually pack for me if I want to but I kind of like knowing where everything is.

By the way, does anyone have any ideas on how to disguise the wooden frame of my futon. It's actually a nice pine like colour but all the other wood in my house will be dark wood so I either have to stain the wood (which I have never done before and thus might go wrong) or I have to find some way to disguise it. It's mostly the two arms on the side that are going to be the problem. Ideas?

"the name of the word for things not being the same always"

I'm supposed to be studying for my linear algebra final (which incidentally I skipped 2 math course requirements in order to take AND skipped the entire second half of classes in order to write my thesis - leading to the conclusion that I'll be lucky if I can pull this off) so of course I'm craving anything that would be a distraction or reliever of stress. At the moment, I'm craving Pad Thai.... particuarly pad thai from Pakarang which is a couple of blocks down from where I live and incidentally is closed on Mondays - today.

Because I'm not really moving very far away (Boston is a 45 min drive away), and not even to any different culture (unlike people who are going home after graduation, I forget sometimes that it really is a large change. I'm stepping from college life into the working world with set hours, daily routines and an entirely different set of priorities. Added to that, near as it may be, I will be relearning the mental maps that make a place home. Over the last four years here, I have learnt bit by bit where to eat, where to shop, where to run errands. I have made friends with various restaurant owners (*grin* if you want free food at Japanese restaurants, go with me). I have I guess learnt a system, that in a few months is going to change. I'm not sure if it's going to be a good change or a bad change yet but it is as all large changes are somewhat exciting and yet terrifying.

Computer update

The current cost sheet for my computer is standing at $920. This is actually almost the same cost as building the same computer in Singapore. (Minus the shipping cost of items that is.. which is actually quite high being that computer parts are heavy). How do I know this? Well, my brother just built an almost identical system back home. (I have 40gb more of harddisk space and a one version more advanced motherboard, plus probably better quality memory) But other than that almost the same.

The lesson from all this? parts in the US are cheaper than parts in Singapore but the shipping costs more than make up for it - which explains why I had monarch build my barebones system and test it before sending it to me. The extra cost is a small cost to pay in return to not have to worry about shipping defective parts back and forth.

Also lessons from buying online? The places with the best customer service, prices and shipping policies are always computer parts stores. Not computer stores, mind you, but the part stores - the ones aimed towards geeks, technophiles and the like, perhaps because they're the ones that will write reviews on forums on them, price search online and reputation search online. In comparsion buying anything else is like a walk through a bed of roses - full of thorns.

Compare that to my camera buying experience - where one has to contend with bait and switch online stores, inflated shipping charges, slow slow processing and bad/rude service. Cellphones too... as far as I know, they have lost my order or something because 4 days later, my order number is still missing from their system.

Also - Amazon must do something to make their items ship really slowly or something because everywhere else i have ordered from has free shipping at much much faster rates.

Annoyance

I called my debit card bank to add an address to file a couple of days ago so that they could ship my computer to my home address and the idiots CHANGED my address instead. So now I have a different address on file and all the purchases I've made over the last 3 days I have no idea whether or not they are going through.

I HAVE TO CALL EVERY SINGLE COMPANY AND PROBABLY CANCEL MY ORDER AND REORDER THE BLOODY THINGS.

I want to shoot my bank. Actually maybe I'll switch banks once i get to boston just because I'm so irritated with them.

Clicked on the buy button...

For the basics of my PC, now just hoping that it will get to me on time for my brother to get it fixed before I have to move out.

Still missing: harddrive, graphics card, peripherals.

Also need to buy a digital camera, being that I need one deserately to take photos of my friends before we all part. However, here's the question. Canon has a really cheap camera and printer bundle that would set me back a light 80 bucks. However, canon also has a TERRIBLE reputation for customer service and faults with its cameras. My hardly used S45 broke down after barely a year. And do not buy an ixus because of something called E18 which basically renders your camera useless since fixing it probably costs more than a new camera. (*lol* on a slightly pokey note, good thing I'm talking about a corporation instead of a government body.. scully they sue me for *gasp* libel)

So the question is should I get a different brand instead, paying more on the assumption that it would last me longer. *sigh* The problem is paying more really means 3 or 4 times the price. And the camera plus printer thing seems like a good deal since if you think about it, I would essentially be getting either the printer or the camera for free. (Nevermind the fact that I don't really need a new printer)

Of course, deal or not if a new camera dies after one month or a few weeks I'd be severely pissed.

Techno-phile

I swear it runs in the blood. So I'm not sure I knew what I was getting into when I asked my brother to build my computer but now on my buy list is an AMD computer with 64-bit computing. For the rest of us normal folks, 64 bit computing hasn't even arrived yet, so 64 bit capability i may own but there's nothing that runs on it that needs it... yet. Which is the principle that my brother operates on - everything else is upgradable CPU isn't. So now I have to get dual memory chips so that my computer can run faster, casing that cools AMD fairly well since it overheats more than intels do, and a graphics card.

To be fair, I could have said no at anytime but the call of the blood is strong. How could I resist? There's something about really advanced computing equipment that is like a Siren's song. I even find myself getting a 200gb harddisk though god knows what I'd use it all for. (I'm planning to partition it into at least 4 and run seperate operating systems on at least 2 of them)

So now, my computer budget has definitely been shot. (To be fair it was a really small budget... I was going to spend 1000 on the computer without the monitor, but now its at 700 without harddisk, peripherials, drives and graphics card.) My total will probably be around 1200. 1400 with the monitor i already bought. I guess that's not bad for a fairly high-end computer.

My brother's response to all this? "you shouldn't ask me to build budget computers."

Just had another fight with my mum despite having a final tomorrow morning which I haven't studied for. If I fail my final, you'll know why.

I hate my life sometimes and sometimes I really wonder if everything I do is an attempt to get as far away from myself as possible. The only problem of course is that the only way you can ever escape yourself is to die and if you believe in afterlife, not even then.

Sometimes I don't even know why I bother to work so hard, or to acheive anything because no matter how hard-won or how amazing the acheivements are, I don't much care about them and my family is never proud of them, choosing instead on focusing on things I cannot change, like how I'm never pretty enough or thin enough for them.

Or maybe that's the reason why I don't want to change that about myself. I don't want to be prettier or thinner because that would be admitting that I need other people. Which leaves me to the question, if I don't sacrifice my social life and mental well-being to get good grades for the sake of my family or myself then what do I do it for? I really don't know.

Your brain: 160% interpersonal, 80% visual, 80% verbal, and 80% mathematical

Congratulations on being 400% smart! Actually, on my test, everyone is. The above score breaks down what kind of thinking you most enjoy doing. A score above 100% means you use that kind of thinking more than average, and a score below 100% means you use it less. It says nothing about how good you are at any one, just how interested you are in each, relatively. A substantial difference in scores between two people means, conclusively, that they are of thinkers.

Matching Summary: Each of us has different tastes. Still, I offer the following advice, which I think is obvious:

Don't date someone if your interpersonal percentages differ by more than 80%Don't be friends with someone if your verbal percentages differ by more than 100%. Don't have sex with someone if their math percentage is over 200%.

Okay so it is okay to have sex with me unlike with EE :-p. Actually I'm surprised because I didn't think I think that socially and I didn't think that the other parts of thinking were that evenly balanced. But then how accurate can a short test be :-

Math homework down.

Now if I can just edit and resend my thesis by today, I'd only have to madly cram and study for a Psych final Thursday....

In other news, commencement preparation involves lots of time trying to book restaurants (which people normally do months in advance), trying to book hotels (again see above), and trying to book and arrange stuff for the post commencement stopover in Japan.

I'm also erm... strategically using my brother to put together a desktop for next year when he shows up. I trust his skills more than my own. :-p