god, why can't i be motivated to work? this is impossible.

i tried to go see toni morrison tonight at fanueil hall (how in the world do you spell it?!). yeah, but got there on time and successfully did not get in because it was too crowded. ah wells, travelled all that way for nothing. but then i did accomplish something tonight. i made two batches of lemon bars. i ate one and i'm done. i've decided to bring them to a class and then i decided to make enough for everyone, well almost everyone.

sorry, random post. i'm watching will & grace on tv right now. i love this show, it's awesome.

quick question: does anyone read this? what would you like to see on it? i'm trying to get my hands on a digital camera so you guys can see the wonderful fall colors here. also, so you can see how silly and wonderful my friends are here.

also, does anyone (hint, hint - Tim) know how to make it so i have a photo gallery?

come on people, feedback here!

ah! now med school is catching up to me. i hate studying. maybe i should have realized this before i decided to go back to school. oh well.

i was reading some newspaper articles that my dad had sent to me after Arnold was elected governor and it's rather interesting. I won't dwell on it too much, but I was fascinated in that the Democrats managed to lose their base voters (Latinos, women, and union households) to Arnold. However much I'd like to criticize Arnold or the voters, I think that part of the blame goes to the Democrats themselves for losing touch with a use-to-be solid base of voters among those populations. It's sad.

And isn't it a sad, sad world when Scary Movie 3 breaks box office records?

And the Marlins win the world series! How wonderful is it when the underdogs win something so grand? Though I don't even know where in Florida they play (from Orlando to Miami to South Beach), it's ok... all I know is that it's great when the team with money loses. Will this finally make Yankee fans quiet? I doubt it, but it's nice that the Red Sox fans aren't too loud anymore since they lost. It's like a different world here.

On another note, I was doing laundry today and managed to sort of run into a wall, while carrying my laundry basket in front of me, effectively getting it rammed into my stomach. Yeah, genius at work.

"She's terrific," Schwarzenegger said on his way into a meeting in the state Capitol. "She's the best."
- Arnold - commenting on his new chief of staff (source: SF Chronicle)

Could he be any more enthused about his new staff? Gosh, does he have any words in his vocabulary larger than 3 syllables, other than his last name, which no one can spell or pronounce anyways? ok, so maybe I'm not giving him as much of a chance as I could be, or as I said I would, but give me a break. When you introduce your first staff appointment, you say they're wonderful, play up their wonderful features, and how they will compensate for your lack of vocabulary. Though I do give him some leeway, as SF Chronicle may have only taken a little piece of his speech and printed it as his first quote.

oh, it's supposed to snow tonight and tomorrow morning. We'll see if it materializes, and how it goes. I'm not excited. I checked the temperature in SF - it's only 70! whatever.

gosh, can i ever get any work done? internet at home is a mixed blessing. get me away from this thing!

what should i be for halloween? i was thinking a pregnant housewife, just to throw everyone off.

any other suggestions?

so, nothing too big is going on right now. i'm just rather tired and sick of reading over biochemistry, so i'm taking a break.

while eating lunch today, i was watching the new whoopi goldberg show (i taped all of thursday night on nbc, hoping to get a new er, but it was a rerun). let me tell you, this show sucks. i'm not even very picky about tv, as i can get addicted to anything, including the OC, but whoopi just sucked. it was uninteresting, the characters are not believable in the least, and all the jokes are cheap shots about race, gender, or politics. i didn't even smile when watching it. it's rather disappointing.

oh, i also forgot to relay a story about my experiences with dell technical support. so, when i bought a new laptop, i was all excited, but also paranoid about it getting stolen or broken. so, to thwart some thieves, i put in a security screw to keep my cd/dvd drive in. well, when i tried to take it out to put in my floppy disk drive, it wouldn't come out. the screw was dseriously stuck. i tried everything, but what happened was the cap in the drive that the screw screws into came off and wouldn't let go of the screw. if you can picture that, read on. so, then i called dell tech support, expecting wonderful dell tech support. well, my first tech support guy was a piece of sh*t. sorry, it made me angry. when i told him that i couldn't get the screw out, he told me "are you sure you know how to unscrew it?" yes, of course i do. i have put together several dressers and a desk in my time and i hope that i know how to use a screwdriver. then, after i said that i knew how to use a screwdriver, he continued to say, "why don't you get your brother or your boyfriend to unscrew it for you?" what a bastard. right then i was flaming. i don't get very angry often, or even at all, but that comment just made me go over the edge. i then berated him and told him that i do not need a man to unscrew something for me and i do not need some idiot tech support guy to tell me to find one. then, he said that dell can't do anything about it because it's not their fault (though it is because it's faulty manufacturing that made the cap come off to begin with). then, i just hung up.

however, that didn't solve my problem. so, i called back after half an hour (the amount of time it took for me to calm down) and a lady helped me. she promptly said that a technician would call me within 48 hours and i should get it fixed, no charge. then, i filed a formal complaint against the guy who had "helped" me in my first call. dude, if i paid this much to have a computer with the support that comes with it, i better get good support.

so, overall, dell tech support is nice and good, if you get a good person. otherwise, you're screwed. the technician did call, though it was a week later, and it was promptly fixed, new cd/dvd drive and all. but yeah, my experience with a chauvinistic bastard. don't you just love them?

ah, enough angry tirade. the cubs lost right after i said they were up. i really should stop watching baseball as every team that i root for ends up losing. and the red sox losing to the yankees in game 7 was enough to keep red sox nation quiet. it's amazing. no baseball talk!!!

but my choice for the pennant: marlins. yeah, they have a smaller payroll and are playing the most popular team in baseball, but hey, the yankees aren't unbeatable. but i promise to not watch or follow a single game in hopes that will not give them bad luck.

i think that's it for now. back to biochemistry and cell, tissue, and organ biology (yeah, TWO tests tomorrow morning). feel the excitement of glycolysis and the tricarboxylic acid! it's happening right there, in your liver right now. why don't you give it a nice pat (it's in the right ab region) as a thanks. now doesn't that feel good?

so margaret left this morning. i'm sad. we had so much fun this weekend. for recapping purposes:
* we went to legal seafoods, a big seafood restaurant here in boston, and managed to get a free meal. when i opened my roll, there was something green and mushy inside. i picked it out and margaret and i started to pick with it. the waiter saw this whole event and came over, asking if anything was wrong with the roll. i told him and then he took it away. when he came back, the manager came with him, apologizing for it and our food was on the house. pretty awesome. however, i'm hoping that the green thing was a bean, otherwise, it coulda been something much worse. ah wells. i did eat the rest of the roll.
* i took margaret to see the arnold arboretum . it was a beautiful place, if it weren't for the fact that it was raining like crazy. in the end, we spent about an hour there, not seeing much as we were covered by our umbrellas. then, instead of going into downtown, we decided to bake an apple pie instead. yeah, we're smart. turns out the next day was beautiful.
* went to this wonderful dive bar called wally's in downtown where my roommate is a bartender. it's so cool. it's TINY (smaller than my apartment, and trust me, that's small) but wonderfully cool because there aren't any white guys there. oh, and live jazz every night. awesome stuff.
* duck tour! it was so much fun, and you're even allowed to quack in public. and i never thought people would quack back, but they do. i tell you, boston is one odd town. i found out lots of cool stuff, but totally forgot everything as that's how my crazy mind works.

ah, we did lots of other stuff. margaret freaked a second year medical student at a club (which she called 'an intellectual meet market'). we went apple picking at honey pot hill farms. i wrote a public health paper (sorry, not fun, but significant part of the weekend).

but alas, all fun has to end sometime and she left me this morning. i'm sad. it was wonderful having her here and i'm hoping she had fun. we had quite a whirlwind weekend as i don't think we sat down at all without doing something or planning to do something.

and this is an open invitation for all the other people out there who want to visit boston! come on out! i can take you places! especially if you don't come when i have tests!!!

but yeah. oh, cubs are up. and red sox lost. life can't be that bad.

sorry, i just had to write.

so, schwarzenegger wins the election. god, could it get any worse?

like what margaret said earlier today when she told me to check the exit polls: it's a learning experience. ironically, that's what we said when bush was elected president. and trust me, i'd rather be learning from someone else.

though it will be interesting to see if schwarzenegger does make a difference in california. i doubt that he will. however, if california does greatly improve beyond what's expected in the next three years, i will give the man credit. but as of now, he has to work his way up to get my respect as a politician. don't get my wrong, i respect the guy as a hard-working person. however, becoming the governor of the largest state in the nation without any major political experience will be quite a task. i don't doubt his abilities to be likable and charismatic, but i do doubt his political abilities to make positive change. plus, if he touches any issue anywhere near first amendment rights, that's it, i'm declaring conflict (since, in America, we no longer declare war as that means you have to go through that pesky thing called Congress).

so what happens now? i'll register in massachusetts. i'll vote in massachusetts. and darn it, i will make this state lean true left, instead of this "east coast liberal" stuff they throw at me.

sorry, i'm still in shock and my brain's dead. plus, i should be writing a paper critique for epidemiology on exercise and heart attacks. loads of fun.


oh, i'm a cubs fan as of now. anything but the red sox or yankees.

so the a's lost... i'm sad. now i have to write two papers. i'm even sadder. this sucks.

i watched the last inning, which is a curse upon the a's, i swear. any game i watch, the a's lose. it's a rather sad thing. it's all my fault. but i can't say i didn't expect it, given their record the last three years, losing in game 5. but this time it's especially depressing because i'd like the boston red sox baseball fanatics to calm down a bit. they are crazy here! everything is red sox. i even see old asian men wearing red sox hats... it's rather odd.

so, now it's the red sox against the yankees. i don't know who to root for. the yankees have beat the a's too often in post season and the red sox, well, they're too well-liked for me to like them. they wouldn't appreciate it. i think i'll root for the cubs. i'm glad they won. i mean, they have somewhat of a chance if they beat the team with the best regular season record.

gosh, what am i doing spouting off baseball stats like i know what i'm talking about? i really don't. i just do it to impress guys. yeah, whatever. if i wanted to impress the guys here, i'd say i was a red sox fan, but that's going too far. i've been going to games since the days of canseco, henderson, steinbach, etc. so i can't betray them now.

well, that's it for now. i really should start writing my paper on the public health care system in the 1930's. gosh, was there a system? everyone was poor. even now when we're rich we don't spend on healthcare (blame Bush). ah wells, not another tirade is what you're thinking.

good bye for now!

So, I took my first final today. It just seems wrong to have a final a month into class and just two weeks after your midterm. But I guess me thinking it's wrong won't change anything. Ah wells.

so, CNN reports that there's no "smoking gun" to prove that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. Is that really a surprise to anyone? I guess it's a little bit of a surprise. Though I am a little bit of a pacifist and would like to think that people don't lie, we are talking politics here and anything's possible (even my dad, a registered Republican, saying he's voting for the Green party candidate in the recall). But then , on the other hand, we lie too. I'm sure that there may have been some evidence of WMD, but I doubt that it was non-refutable, concrete evidence. Plus, I have moral issues against pre-emptive strikes. Why don't we go out and burn our neighbor's house down because we think ten years down the line he might want to do the same to us? Ok, weird situation, but you get my point (or if not, then ignore the previous few sentences of babble).

I watched President Bush's speech at the signing of the first appropriations bill for the Department of Homeland Security. Gosh, can we get more kiss-ass with the military? Can we get more paranoid about all the dangerous people "out there"? What about the dangerous people in our country you're letting roam free with automatic rifles used for "hunting"? Ha, gosh, political tirade in the happening. I actually didn't listen to much of the substance of his speech, or any of his speeches for that matter. I just can't bring myself not to hate him if I listen to what he's actually saying. I just pretend that I'm listening to people think that I'm a fair observer, but to tell you the truth, I'm not. However, I'd have to say that I still stick to what I said when he was first elected: "Bush being president will be interesting to watch as a political scientist, though I think I will disagree with nearly everything he says or does."

Meanwhile, the A's squeezed by with a win against the Red Sox last night. I missed the game, and as Eric pointed out, it was too late for me to be watching anyways (though I was up til 1, unfortunately). Here, I have to be a loyal, but reserved A's fan as it's a dangerous place for non-Red Sox fans, especially if the team you're rooting for is playing them for a title).

Greatest thing I saw yesterday: Boston Herald flier with "Kick A's" on the side of a newspaper stand. I stole it, but don't know what to do with it. Any ideas?