If you receive something like " *****'s invitation," please do not attempt to click on the link and sign up for the service.
SMS.ac is vicious!!! I got the same sort of email from more than 3 people I closely know, so I thought that was the newly developed popular service, but but but, it sent out email to EVERYONE on my old Hotmail addressbook without my knowledge. I really didn't see any warning or notice about it. I'm just glad that I used my old Hotmail address which addressbook included many many expired adresses. Don't just sign up for SMS.ac. I'm mad at them!

***** I found out the reason why it might have sent out everyone on my old addressbook. => see the comments window below.

Another internet catastrophe:
Viewpoint is an adware, and Wild Tangent is a spyware.
Since October, I have known that these are in my c:\Program Files, but I didn't do anything about them until tonight. *sigh*
When I found these suspicious-looking programs in my hard-drive, I searched for information about these and found out that these came with a system upgrade of AIM.
AIM, the name of this major chat program made me think that any files associated with upgrades of AIM couldn't be spywares. That's why I let them freely play on my hard-drive. I guess these are not really harmful, but I permanently deleted every single associated files tonight. Yeah, they were acutally worse than I thought. I had to dig in several places to get rid of all the files.

This refreshing post-removal feeling is the same as I get rid of an annoying piece of crap in my ear at times.
yare yare... sukkirishita.

I guess I've been too lazy to write something here...

As soon as I arrived at Urbana at 12:30 AM on Saturday morning, I felt the difference between Berkeley and Urbana-Champaign. You cannot walk outside alone late at night in Berkeley!!! Urbana appears so much safer. Since I had a big duffel bag, I thought about calling a cab, but I ended up walking home. :) I didn't see any shady people on the street. That's why I love the Urbana-Champaign campus! Shady people in Berkeley are inherently different from those in Urbana-Champaign. They just look so harmful to even pass by on the street in Berkeley. Those shady people can be pretty funny, though, when they suddenly shout out funny things, but still most of them look scary and I tend to turn away from them. Shady people in Urbana-Champaign are just wierd, but not scary or dangerous. It is more appropriate to say they are unharmful. You can observe those wacky people on the Quad and at Espresso Urbana.

Today I finally started working on the paper assignment I had postponed for a long time. It looks okay after one day of thinking.

Winter has come. I was surprised to see snow in the Chicago area on the bus. I like winter better than summer because I can wrap up my body with warm clothes and enjoy hot coffee drinks. Speaking of the bus from O'Hare, I hate to take those shuttles because they stop at malls to pick up some people and take forever to get out of Chicago area. I am so gonna rent a car next time.

20 more days, and I will become a proud college graduate! Gambare, atashi!

In the cable car, San Francisco

deep in thought about what to write on the paper I'm working on

Came back to Urbana.
I had a great time in Berkeley. It was really nice to see EMB after 3 months. :)
I failed to write a draft for a paper assignment, though...

While I was away, I received the employment authorization card from the immigration service. :) The card allows me to work legally *anywhere* in this country for one year after the graduatioin date. Since I am guaranteed to work part-time at Beckman next semester, I don't have to hunt for a job, but the card verifies my legal status. :)
(For those who are not familiar with student visas, F-1 student visa allows international students to work only on campus for up to 20 hours a week.)

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Got a gathering with bunch of Berkeley chem people.
Anita and Fei flew in here yesterday and staying with Soojin.
Can't believe it's snowing in Illinois!!!

the famous tower at Berkeley. it was the "Big" game special. says "Go Bears" on the left side.

in the cable car

Yummy hot squid at Asian Ghetto

I'm in Berkeley again!
I flew in here last night and had the largest dish I have ever had in a Korean BBQ place in the Asian Ghetto (I guess Soojin knows what I am talking about). I usually don't leave any food on the plate, but they gave me soooo much food there. It was worth $6.50. :) :) Today EMB and I went to San Francisco downtown and saw around mainly Fisherman's Wharf. Too bad we were too late to join the Alcatraz tour.

I love Biore pore strips.??
I bought a pack of the pore strips and cleaned my dirty pores today!
feel so clean. :)
Everyone (yes, including guys) should use this every 6 months or once a year.

so happy to finish GREs regardless of scores !!!


I took GRE Psych subject test today. Yep, I am all done with standardized tests. :)
I hope I don't have to take any more in my life. After GRE, I worked on applications all day and submitted them to all schools!!! Some of my scores don't really reflect how hard I work, but I hope they see my strong motivations and workaholicness from my statement. I believe in myself, and my dream will come true.

11/14/04 at 10:20am: MISSION ACCOMPLISHED. STATUS PENDING.

Bye Bye GREs !!!

My folks went to Hawaiian BBQ L&L for dinner.
I had no idea what would be good, but I remembered Kanako (the owner of Blue Sky) mentioned Loco Moco in her blog, so I had Loco Moco. It was pretty good. :) I will go there again.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, mochacream!!!
It's been 23 years since November 11, 1981.
I feel old. special thanks to EMB for the package!
and thanks to those who called or sent me a heartwarming card!

Karuna also made my day because she came out to moonstruck and treated me a piece of Tira Mi Su. :) :) :)

Lindsey, the guy...
I recently learned that there are female versions of Jordan and Gabrielle (what are the spellings for female versions?).
I didn't think there would be a male Lindsey until this evening. Lindsey was an ERP subject today. I was expecting a girl, but this guy showed up to the lab and I was totally puzzled. For a second, I thought he was supposed to be at a different ERP lab... Then I asked, "Lindsey?" He said "Yeah." (me: oh wow! English names can be so confusing!) He was a nice guy with neat brade. ;) It was my first time to have a subject with brade. Thought I was worried that it might take me a lot longer to get low impedances, it went just fine.

Thought you could get rid of me from Urbana soon? Nope, I will be here for at least 7 more months. It looks like I will be able to earn coffee money next semester by working as a lab maintenance person. :) yeay.

I used to dislike Am-ko because the lady owner was friendly to only Korean people.
But now I don't mind going to Am-ko because a new lady has been taking over the chashier, and she is really nice to any customer. :) She makes me willing to say "thank you" with a smile.

Yippie~ I might go up to Ann Arbor, MI a few times next semester to assist the postdoc I've been helping. The postdoc is based at UMich, and she comes down once or twice a month to do some work at U of I. It's merely a possibility, but it would be awesome if I could go on a research trip for real. :)
I started doing artifacts rejection of the ERP data in Kara's lab today (remember, i am a gunner. this lab is different from the lab mentioned below.). Artifacts rejection is the initial step to process and analyze data. It's really neat and I love going through fresh raw data. yum! I know it sounds so nerdy, but it is very rewarding to be able to see and process the waveforms I collected. It makes me feel I am truly involved in the project.

Tofu jigae craze:

I had a craving for Soon Tufu Jigae for 3 days. It was soo yummy tonight after being so hungry while running subjects (too bad hoenita couldnt wait until 8). By the way, my lab has been facing a tough luck because of amplifier problems. We thought we lost half of the channels, but the problem was worse... For some channels, signals from the same channels were duplicated on the existing signals. Ouch! So... the grad students and postdocs in my lab has lost a sabstantial amount of data... One postdoc seemed so devastated at the loss. I also feel pretty bad about the problem. It's a sad situation because I contributed so much time and effort to collect data for them... I wouldn't say my time was wasted, but this problem is really hard on the lab where brainwave recording is primary.

I have submitted applications to 2 schools. Application fees are so expensive!
All the costs add up. I don't want to see my credit card statement for the next bill cycle.

Today was election day. I didn't like how Bush handled 9/11 and Iraq situations, but Kerry's political philosophy didn't click with me, either (I don't know their political stands in depth, but I did skim through Predidential Campaign sections on Newsweek every week!). hmmm We have only two choices. I guess we should try Kerry for a change... You know what, I don't have a right to vote even in Japan... Something is wrong... I am old enough to vote and I should be able to cast an absentee ballot. Where do I belong???

On the way out of the Union tonight, 3 couples were kinda making out around the vending room! I had to take a detour to avoid them. Does this gloomy November weather make people cling together?