Pheww

So, phew, another busy week after another long weekend had passed. It was all good.

After walking around in my monkey suit for days, often wearing it for the entire day, to classes drawing stares, and to interviews answering and asking questions, I finally got done with my 1st round interviews (all 8 of them) today. Some interviews went well, where the interviewers were just so nice and friendly, and the interviews went by just like an informal chat sessions, where I got to learn about their job and working environment. So, thanks a lot to all interviewers for making these interviews, and also for your time. Whatever the outcome is, I believed I learned a great deal from all these sessions.

So far, I have some good news to share, but it's kinda pre-mature for me to say anything yet. So, I'll keep u guys posted.

Listening to the State of the Union now, it's kinda weird for me to type this, but well, I can multitask pretty well.

Last Saturday, my buddy Dane turned 21, and on Friday night, we went to Ashley's, where I got a Cider sampler flight, a Great Divine IPA (Indian Pale Ale), and an Irish car bomb. It was amazing.

Anyway, so, it's been crazy with everything, companies coming in having information sessions, going to almost every one of them, eating pizzas for 3 or more nights a week, to the point that I can remember the smell of pizzas by just imagining them in my mind. So, no more pizza for weeks or months to come.

So, I've decided to move out of dorm, and moving in to apartment (Northwood III) next year. Seeing how I'll have more free time, and more freedom with staying in an apartment, I'll be doing more cooking(hopefully, I won't be tired of it comes the time I've to cook every day, or eat out).

Also, I've decided that I'll get a car for next year if I were to get an internship this summer. :) We'll see how that goes.

Also, I'm starting my series viewing, with currently 24, American Idol, CSI, CSI:NY and ... on the list, and more to be added to the list (Lost).

And, I'm working close to 20 hours a week, but I've been dropping one shift or two for my interviews and all, so, it's all good so far. Classes have been going, just that I'm considering, and still have 24 hours to do so, whether I want to pass/fail Econ 431 (Industrial Organization & Performance) so that I can afford to miss some late Thursday classes.

So, I'm all nervous right now, trying to learn more about table manners, and also, being comfortable with being myself. I'm just afraid that I would be too nervous in front of prospective employers/colleagues and making a fool of myself.

Moving on, I'm still searching for a topic (more like searching more articles to confirm my topic) for my Econ 495 proposal. I'm looking at the social program of training inmates to help them re-entering the society. Either that, or I'll be evaluating the program of bringing health insurance to the poor. Pretty interesting...

Well, i'm getting a blog diarrhea, better stop here...

also, I'm attaching 'my' cheesy tuna noodle casserole' recipe:

1 (12 1/2 oz.) can chunk light tuna in water
1 pkg. frozen mixed vegetables (optional)
1 (12 oz.) pkg. wide egg noodles
Season to taste (Garlic salt, chopped garlic, black pepper, salt...)
1 can cream of mushroom soup (very important, main part of the gravy)
1 1/2 c. milk
1 (8 oz.) container sour cream (optional - but will be great to have it)
1 1/2 c. grated Cheddar cheese
1 1/2 c. grated Mozzarella cheese
1 SWEET Onion (i love these...)

Microwave the frozen mixed vegetables. Cook and drain the noodles separately. Heat soup, milk, and sour cream. Blend until smooth. Mix all ingredients together with tuna(make sure the tuna is well-flaked and 3/4 cups each of Cheddar and Mozzarella cheese. Pour into a baking pan. Top with remaining cheese and bake in 350 degree oven for 20 to 25 minutes.

(I googled this. And did some modifications to it. Add some hot pepper if you like it to be spicy.)

Enjoy!!!

Also, QOTD (quote of the day) : One of my Econs professor, while lecturing: Take this sucker here, and put it into that sucker there. And you will get this. Now this sucker...

Funny Video: Pachelbel Rant

Another funny video I came across on YouTube.

Title: Pachelbel Rant
Summary: "A comedian rants about how much it sucks to play Pachelbel's Canon in D on a cello. Recorded live at Penn State, this piece by comedian/musician Rob Paravonian has been a favorite on the Dr. Demento Show."

A meaningful video on Youtube!

Thanks to Chang Yang for the video link to this gem among thousands of videos on Youtube. Meaningful indeed. It definitely had me thinking about what's life is all about and what chasing dreams means.



Really, it had me thinking, whether the moral of the story is to really chase our dream, or, just to say that some dreams are unattainable that we should really just dream about it, and not try to achieve it... whatever it is, i think it's really a simple plot that has great depth in it.

My new year resolutions....

Hey guys, it's been really long since I last updated my blog with a real update. So, my new year resolution is to update my blog more often, lead a more care-free life (yeah rite), run more miles (hopefully 15 miles a week) and well, just be happy and healthy.

So, on new year day, i pretty much started drinking as soon as I started watching college bowl in the afternoon. Jack & Coke is really good. I pretty much had 3-4 drinks of that. I stopped drinking Jack & Coke and switched to Bud Lite(R) because I was out of JD. So, by the time Rose Bowl kicked off, I was feeling 'elated'. But, as the game took a bad turned, I chugged like 2 beers in a row, and was feeling awful. Naively, I thought Coach Carr would change a game plan, and we would come back from behind in the 2nd half, but, it was worse, we just stood there, contented, and took a hell of a beating from USC. It was outright embarrassing, and shameful, and plain ugly. Even the 7 Whitecastles (assortments of bacon, Jalapenos, cheese, plain) couldn't help. Another beer, still not doing any good. It was just a nightmare. Fortunately, I didn't make a trip to a nearby bar to catch the game, or else, it would be even more so disappointed. Also, because of the leftover Whitecastles burgers, we started playing card games (Big 2), and the loser had to eat half a burger. It was pretty fun.

The night before, we actually celebrated the New Year with a good dinner and champagne and all, (mimosa actually), and we played the card game, Mafia, which was pretty fun.

On the 2nd of Jan, early in the morning, I moved back to my room, thanks to Ren Jie. It was great to be back in my room, and to be able to sleep on my bed again. But, I actually didn't sleep on it much. There's laundry to do, and also, some cleaning, and also, putting my lamp from IKEA together. After all that, it was about 3 pm. I skipped lunch because I was just too lazy to walk 15 minutes and pay for a meal. Took a nap, and it was 4pm. Then, I went to the gym and clocked in 4 more miles empty stomach.

When out and had dinner with the bunch at Saigon Garden, and then, met up with Eric at Zola, where we had dessert, while Eric had his dinner.

The next day, Wednesday, the day before school reopened, I had an early appointment with my Economics advisor, where I declared my Economics (Honors) major. Yup, don't ask me why would I want to do that extra crap. Actually, I think that writing a thesis is an important part of an undergraduate degree. So, I just feel like it would serve the purpose of dotting the i's and crossing the t's of my undergraduate degree.

In the afternoon, I worked, and I was actually pretty serious about my job this semester. Maybe of foreseeing that I would be spending obscenely for my Spring break, I'm working close to, maybe even exceeding 20 hours a week.

So, I had a full day of classes on Thursday. Really a full day, from 9am til 10am, I had this Geological Science minicourse : Global Warming, then, from 10am til 11.30am, I had Life Contingencies II class, then from 11.30am til 1pm, I had Financial Mathematics, then, a 3-hour break, then from 4pm til 5.30pm, I had Industrial Operations class. "Unfortunately", the professor for my last class only introduced himself, and pretty much, gave a 5-minute talk about the class expectations and all, and let us off. I felt cheated(yeah rite).

I don't have any classes on Friday, so, Thursday was the only day I had class for my first week of class. However, I had to work, from 6.30am til 3.30pm, with break in between. That's 9 hours, without break, so, depending on my break, it would definitely be a 7.5+ hours of work on Friday for me. At night, I went to Chris party, played a game of drunkball, which I lost my touch totally. Out of 6 shots, I only made 3, but I made it up with my chugging skills. However, I still lost the game. It got kinda too crowded at about 1am, and I left.

The next day, did nothing much, other than the nice Ethiopian feast we had at the Blue Nile restaurant to celebrate Eric's and Jin Ye's birthday. It was fun. At night, did some light drinking, at watch Little Miss Sunshine (my 2nd original DVD purchase - so proud!!!).

Sunday, more work, and then, had this company's presentation, which I screwed up for not having the right keycode. How bad did I look? Extremely bad, hopefully, it would not affect my internship application with that company. Really, it was so ugly.

So, forgot to mention it's interview season for actuarial majors here at the University of Michigan. I've 5 interviews scheduled this week, (had 2 - 1 on Monday, 1 on Tuesday, and 1 on Thursday - that's tomorrow and 2 more on Friday), and had 3 more(or probably even more than that) in upcoming weeks. So, basically, I'll be walking around campus in my monkey suit. And, what's better, it's finally snowing and cold outside.

So, interviews, information sessions, work, classes, and running, quiz, homework, readings, I really wish that I have a couple more hours to sleep, really, it's tiring and demanding, but I want it that way (sounds like that backstreetboys song now).

Also, I got a new cellphone last Friday, a Samsung t509, a pretty sleek phone, with camera and bluetooth and all, but, too bad, I don't have a bluetooth transceiver on my laptop, and I don't have a data cable for my cellphone, so, the camera on my phone is not that useful after all. And then, Apple announced their amazing iPhone yesterday, which really pissed me off, seeing how I need to wait 2 years before getting my hand on the iPhone (I signed a new 2-year contract to get my phone). How sad.

Wanna see how cool and amazing iPhone is. Check this link out:
http://www.time.com/time/photoessays/2007/iphone/

The price, $499 for 4Gb, $599 for 8Gb (good job in price discrimination there), and that's the 2-year contract price, if you don't want the 2-year contract, add another $100 or $200 to get the retail price. Kinda to pricey for my blood... but a to-die-for phone...

So, I'd been running around busy, and hungry. Hopefully, I will be able to get use to this, and don't fall sick. Getting sick sucks...

So, take good care of yourself, and have fun!

Priceless...

This is definitely one of the classic commercials on the Priceless Mastercard (R) commercial spoofs.