How To Study for a Midterm

(I'm sure I've posted blogs with similar titles back at UW. But, guys, this is 'how to study for a midterm' grad-school style. Not fooling around here.)

1. Repair your toilet. The toilet's been leaking for months now; somehow it didn't bother me until this morning. Was about to call the repairs people when I thought... maybe google has something to say about this. Sure enough, it did -- in the form of some great DIY websites. Spent a good while studying up on refill valves and flush valves and finally realized that I needed to repair the flapper. $4 and a trip to Home Depot later... my toilet is fixed! (Also did a thorough cleaning of the entire bathroom while I was at it.)

2. Fix the chair that has been broken for over a year. While at Home Depot, I decided that I should also buy the screw that's been keeping me from assembling one of my dining room chairs. Because Home Depot didn't have the correct model, they referred me to Ace Hardware. To Ace Hardware I went. Came back, assembled the chair... dining table is now symmetic with two chairs on each side!

3. Redecorate your room. I bought a gorgeous little flower print about two months ago and never got around to framing it. This morning, I felt it necessary to hit up Aaron & Brothers, Target, and Rite Aid to find the perfect 5 x 5 pewter picture frame. I also dug around my closet and found my favorite Kandinsky poster that I never got around to hanging up since moving to San Diego. Also, re-arranged all of my photos that line the top of my desk, made my bed, vacuumed... My room is now much prettier.

4. Go online shoe shopping. I recently discovered Zappos.com. Having spent three months scouring for a pair of nice, black pumps at a non-ridiculous price, this website was heaven. The selection is huge, prices are decent, all orders = 2-day shipping = much more efficient turn-around time for buying/returning, shipping is free *both* ways (i.e. returning too), 365-day return policy, etc. The best part, however, is that the website is terribly easy to browse, with nice filters that even a CS person finds semi-satisfying (in particular, IT LETS YOU SEARCH BY HEEL HEIGHT...UUUGHHH SO SATISFYING). Found my shoes after about three tries... (!)

5. Pick up a new musical instrument. I ordered my first guitar online! It came today! Pranced around in front of the mirror for a bit with the guitar slung across my shoulder. Someday I might actually be able to play it. But in the meantime, it does make my room look prettier...

6. Invest in a CD. My lovely online bank account makes this type of thing so easy that I feel like I am actually playing a game of Monopoly.

7. Blog. Of course. How else would you, the reader, be entertained at this very moment?

So, that's what I've been up to in the last 8 hours with my ECE midterm pending in half a day. Pretty productive, if you ask me.

Black Thursday

Thursdays should have been glorious. But now, they shall be black.

:(

Vegas Is More Than Just _____

Last week, Jie and I took a roadtrip to Vegas for ICASSP 2008 where we presented a poster on our work with the Sight-Reading Tutor. A funny place to hold a nerdfest, I know... Throughout the week, we would play our own version of "hot or not" -- which effectively translated to "ICASSP? or not" as it was amusingly easy to identify clumps of ICASSP attendees on the crowded Strip.

This marks my fourth time in Vegas. List of hotels I have stayed at: The Golden Nugget, MGM, Luxor, Excalibur, and The Stratosphere. Now, I get to add Caesar's Palace to that list (thanks, ICASSP!!).

I have great respect for Vegas and I think it's a shame that some people know it only for its sensual side. Of course, I won't deny its rampant promotion of adult entertainment and shameless plug for some not-so-virtuous values. But even as a kid, I was far more inspired by Vegas than Disneyland/Universal Studios/Sea World combined (why my parents took me to Vegas for the first time as a middle-schooler... I dunno).

My first ride through The Strip felt more like a parade into fantasy land -- everything is supersized, magnificent, showered with glitz and glory. Ordinary lodging spaces are transformed into whimsical pyramids and castles and palaces and ships, a three-ring circus, famous cities (New York, Venice, Rome, Paris). Ginormous statues line hotel entrances, roller coasters weave in and out of skyscrapers. You don't check in at some counter with some nice flower arrangement on the side -- you check in at the atrium of a PALACE where the registration counter seems to run like a quarter-mile long against a backdrop of grandiose paintings that stand two stories high. Everything -- design, architecture, lighting, decor, aura -- every inch of these monstrous structures is covered in perfect, amazing detail.

And the shows... They are always hyped, but probably never over-hyped. This time, we saw Cirque du Soleil's KA, an intricate weave of art, acrobatics, theatrics, and mechanics that achieves such perfection that it was literally unbelievable. It was 90 minutes of pure eye/ear-candy and they don't even give you the chance to blink.

I don't think I'm the type to enjoy what Vegas is stereotypically known for... but more than anything, Vegas appeals to the (visual) perfectionist in me. It might boast something as superficial and trivial as 'entertainment', but I've got great respect for anything that's of extreme, high-caliber, and Vegas definitely does entertainment like no other.