the mind, it wanders a lot

1. this month's income: $141 from selling stuff in a garage sale and on craigslist. hooray for money!

2. goodbye SC2, for a few weeks...

3. sitting behind 2 kids on an airplane made raising them very unappealing. both of them were tired and antsy, and one of them could not stop crying throughout the ~4hr flight. the poor parents said they had another 4hr flight and 1.5hr drive ahead of them...

4. i'm having second thoughts about the whole move-to-a-new-town thing. there are definitely nice parts about madison and good friendships, all of which i would have to rebuild, substitute, or find again in a new town.

5. that said, i just came back from my first onsite interview! it went ok, could have gone better. they will contact me next week. but now i have motivation to take technical classes too...

6. i am still not a fan of poppyseed in my breads

7. my communication skills are getting dull - i can imagine and hear the phrase i want to use, but i have trouble saying it eloquently

8. i have read more books in the past month than i have in the past... 5 years? and i think the reading streak will continue. hooray! currently reading the gods themselves (asimov) and ender in exile (card)

9. filtering your speech and actions is something that should be done regardless of how well you know the person. any action can be damaging to a relationship, even if they know that is the "real you"

10. when i volunteered to clean some critters' cages today, the little rat drew blood and the guinea pig kept running away from me. it made me a little sad. sorta like keanu sad.

six four one oh

these knives look really cool

is it just me, or does gmail load messages very slowly now?

i'm starting to purge things from my closet and room. yay. much needed since... a long time ago. i found my clunky old iriver, plus a bunch of stuffed animals i will be giving away. bye bye nostalgia.

latest intrigues

we made takoyaki today. now i smell of fried and burnt oil. the balls are harder to shape than i thought.

i was also surprised by a sink hole in guatamala... seeing something like that is not very comforting.

SC2 beta was extended until 6/7. i'm getting slightly better at it. once beta's gone i'll be sad until 7/27.

i'm almost done reading all books from the ender series (ender, bean, and the newer ones). now to find another series to catch up on...

lots of time to think nowadays

i'm hitting another mood swing where i don't know what i want to do with my life. my mind is going all over the place, which means another time to unclutter.

1. i have been quite impatient with everything nowadays, mainly my life direction. this is not good, as it takes time to build social relationships, and ultimately that seems to be what makes me happier with life.

2. sc2 beta is quite fun, though i pretty much suck at it. i'm also sad that beta goes away 5/31... not much time left to play =(

3. i'm reading again. yay!

4. i'm spending again. noooo...

5. i am now at 150 of 1000 paper cranes. this total includes ~100 i made in childhood, plus 50 that i made the past couple of days. this won't be an active hobby... but 5% progress is pretty significant.

6. my job search is sorta going, but sorta not. it's kind of discouraging.

7. warmer weather has finally arrived! however, my tolerance to heat has gone significantly down. i'm not sure i could survive texas heat anymore!

8. someone wrote that modern romance is looking for one person to spare the need for other people. my emotional side seems to agree, but my logical side says this is unhealthy and has to change.

9. still haven't planned out an international trip. too focused on little things in front of me, too timid to take the bold step forward.

10. unemployment fosters lots of bumming around. i need to start having weekly goals and fulfilling them, else i will spiral into complete uselessness.

starcraft 2 beta

i got a sc2 beta test invite this morning. wuhoo!!! so far... it's very pretty. i have a lot to learn though. so many new units and buildings and strategies... i actually wish i could play single-player version first to learn them. still fun though =D

i'm sad though that i only have until 5/31 until blizzard closes beta... then another 2 months before the actual release.

oh well. more sc2 then.

ah, the great outdoors

went camping at devil's lake with a fun group. i always forget that i really do like nature walks. photos here.

now i need to figure out what to do with myself. the excitement of the weekend makes my week look so boring.

as of today...

these are my current interests:

star trek (2009 movie)

wall-e

ender books

downtown batsu games

sakamoto maaya music (recently bought shounen alice album)

prince of persia flash game

castle age on facebook (sad i know)

farscape. sorta

home sweet home

here ends my NY trip to meet with a friend, explore the city a bit, visit niagara falls, and do some shopping. photos here.

it was good to see my parents. they seem to be doing better physically and mentally. i also ate way too much food, but it was all so delicious... *burp*

small inspiration to update

first substantial post to this blog. rejoice, my nonexistent readers!

in attempts to unclutter what my friend calls "mind chatter", i am going to use this blog to list out my goals, desires, emotional swings, current interests, etc.

so... a list of 10 current thoughts to unclutter:

1. i need to find a job. my previous job made me realize that the paycheck is not everything, that i need to actually enjoy what i'm working on so as to maintain a good life/work balance.

2. i need to get more active. i've never been very athletic, but my body is not very happy with me right now. my first goal is to swim 800m, all freestyle and/or with fewer breaks in between (right now i rest every 100-150m, and swim breaststroke half the time)

3. i need to decide where to go in july once my lease is up. right now the choices are stay in madison, upstate NY, or bay area CA. each has their pros and cons.

4. i need to be less critical of myself and others.

5. i am debating on preordering starcraft 2 for a beta key. however, depending on the answer to #3, i might not have a computer to play it on at the end of july.

6. i need to save money since i am not making any. this means less spontaneous spending on material things that i really don't need, less eating out. trips are still exempt.

7. i should read more novels. i just got a library card, but so far all i've done is checkout dvds and a book of idioms.

8. stop being so socially awkward and shy. also quit being so stubborn. let go of what's lost, hold on to your friendships.

9. i should finish watching farscape. the dvds have been sitting here since christmas...

10. i should start planning out my international trip. start by picking between asia or europe, then pick out the individual countries.

oh one last note. using blogger means an official farewell to my xanga and livejournal sites (they have been stale anyhow). i will continue to use twitter for the short 'n sweet thoughts.

i have a blogger?

wow forgot i set this up.