happiness is right over there...somewhere

...does not suit JJ

Is anyone else bothered by the really annoying and hard to close LJ popup ad? I am very annoyed.

Short summary of X-mas day:
10 hrs busgirl @ 7$/hr
Shirt splattered with oil after 6PM, then I didn't care nemore
Footsore. Hope they don't call back.
Didn't break anything, but dropped two tea mugs.
Stood around a lot until 6PM.
5 tables with 10+ppls each.
You do not want to order there today. 4 waiters/waitresses max(including me, except two of us can't take orders - me, b/c I'm new, and the other manager, who can't speak English). Result: 1 hr to order, 1 hr to get food, and 1 hr to get check.
More weightlifting/miles covered than a week @ Uni.
X.x

It was fun and interesting after a while of standing there. I didn't understand what they were yelling at me half the time, since I don't speak canto or can understand heavy canto accents and apparently only one understands English...The food they cook for us are pretty good, but some hygiene practices behind the scenes are somewhat questionable and you probably don't even want to know. (Hint: things aren't as clean as you think they might be). A very interesting X-mas. I think I can now claim that I was productive over winter break. :D

My roommate's officially moving out next semester. If all goes well, I get a double all to myself. *crosses fingers*

Also, need to figure out what to pack/bring back, besides presents. Suggestions?

And I need motivation to work on my two major class final thingies. XD

...instead of studying. One project, one exam, one day at a time. <3

Current playlist:
3 - Britney Spears
Banya - Alice in WonderWorld
Banya - Dance with me
Lady Gaga - Bad Romance
Banya - Toccata

JJ would like to learn how to make fried sunny-side-down eggs without making them scrambled.

AND SHE DIDNT COMPLETELY FAIL HER CS EXAM but jj still has to take out her calculator and calculate her grade for that class..

I'm making everyone's xmas presents this year. :D

Spent 6 hours around the mall/random stores looking for old-fashioned porcelain or glass salt and pepper shakers, the ones with a hole on the bottom. Got four, gave up, footsore, and my day went byebye. >.

I'll post my x-mas wishlist here. Might add more later. In no particular order.

Earmuffs. The cute & fuzzy ones. Kitty! <3
A nice, cute mug. So I don't have to clean my mug every couple of days...
Exotic/unusual craft supplies. Rubber/clear stamps, handmade paper, pretty print, linen, non-plastic/acrylic beads, etc.
An internship. For the next three summers.
Surgical steel studs. -.- That look pretty.
Hugs.
Someone to do all of my homework correctly for the next 2.5 years.
An acception letter to UCL for spring 2010. CS dept, plz.
A sewing machine. And not the handheld ones made by Urban Outfitters either.
A new laptop. With Adobe.
A jar of dirt.
A 4.00 GPA.
Feathery things. <3
Contacts
Knee-high socks. You wouldn't believe how fast socks go. That and bras. No, my closet does not stink.
Anti-weird-smell-in-my-dorm-room-that-I-never-notice
Anything unusual or cute. Handmade is good too. Like kitty-shaped bento boxes, kitty cell-phone charm, kitty lamp, a kitty backpack, kitty ears, kitty blingblings....you get the idea (no gangsta blingblings -.-||)
A fishbowl jar with a clear lid. Or other jars with interesting shapes, clear lids, and made of glass. <3 Who says sunjars have to be one shape only?? (JJ will make them eventually...)
Letters! <3 <3 <3 Postcards! In the mailbox, of course. <3 <3 <3
A furin! So cute! <3
Entertainment. With food, of course.
Friends. Need I say more?

12/5 Edit:
I found a hand-charged kitty flashlight at the paper goods store. And it's not made of paper. O.o
A job over Wintersession (i.e. most of Janurary)
JJ discovered her love of the container store and all the various different types of cute glass/porcelain jars, bowls, and vases in all sorts of different sizes and shapes and that REALLY CUTE ADORABLE CUP that looks like a panda when you store it upside down or those ADORABLE ceramic teapots. Like the FISHBOWL ONE that I've been looking for for FOREVER but unfortunately has a metal top. I want one with a clear one. -.-"
Those $60 sheepskin earmuffs (after discount) at Macy's. T.T SO FUZZY AND SOFT AND SNUGGLY! :(
A TokiDoki bag. In a cuter pattern than the ones Macy's have. -.-
Non-stiletto, round-toe, 1" ankle boots. Because knee highs take forever to put on.
Gel insoles. Because running around the mall for 6 hours in boots with wooden soles is *very* painful. I *think* I wear 6s, but it depends on the shoe....I can fit 5.5-6.5s
A sink in my room. And a stovetop thingy. I don't care if the kitchen is 4 doors down the hall, making 6 trips back and fourth just to get everything there is a *pain*.
A small honey pot with a honeycomb thingy. Since chopsticks don't work well for spooning honey.
Organic fertilizer that doesn't smell. And a jar of dirt. Unless my basil dies over Wintersession of course. 10 or so atm, but we'll see how many survivors there are after today's drought (I forgot to water them for 3 days...^^;;)
Flowers/plant bulbs. So I can grow them in my dorm.
SNOW!!!! <3 <3 <3
Lessons in how to frying eggs sunny-side down and not scrambled...

12/10
A desktop trash can. Very useful when dealing with lots of random craft bits on a small table.
Sharper scissors. That can cut through ribbon without much fuzz.
A tackle box for beads. Of all sorts. =.=

Too much stuff to do = not able to be sick

Making X-mas presents for people = excuse to spend money @ craft store. Yay JJ! XD

JJ had nothing better to do on Halloween than collect saltwater, build latrines, bathe the Overseer, and emancipate captured clams. (i.e. gaia)

Also went to a Vegetarian food festival in Roxbury earlier in the day and shop on Newbury (got a knitted dress and a bra from H&M). :) Food festival was iffy, loads of out-of-work/homeless people (free food) >> one woman almost got into a fist-fight because she shoved someone and that person shoved back...

New brand is becoming popular - Angry Little Girls. Lu got a totally useless but adorable red lunch bag of theirs from Chemistry and I got a tote. XD There's a cute drawn boy and cute drawn girl holding hands; the boy goes "Does this mean you love me?" and the girl goes "Only for today." The design made more sense on a wallet, but didn't like the functionality of the wallet (the coin purse INSIDE the wallet? nty)

yay for extra hour (of gaia)! :)

JJ would like to catch the pig flu so she doesn't have to get the shot. :(

Although JJ is maybe(?) developing a cough? Maaaaaaaaaaaaaybe? Hopefully it's pig flu? XD

Anywhos, apparently chestnut honey is good for minerals/vitamins/protecting/relieving sicknesses. And JJ has a bottle. And a HUGE stash of teabags. Maybe JJ should ditch it until after she gets the flu? XD It's pretty yummy, but careful opening it -- at least the bottle I got, the honey was very very watery and spilled everywhere...*sniffle* Didn't realize I got chestnut honey until I looked up "Ours Brun - Miel de Chataignier des Pyrenees". It's pretty sweet, but smells like some rather unpleasant parts of the barn. XD Do try it out sometime though, get the really really dark kind. Or the eucalyptus honey, which soothes scratchy throats (lemon + honey + hot water +/or milk). Only problem with the infused eucalyptus is that its really really minty and will overpower other tea flavors. :) Haven't tried the monofloral one though, but should be less minty.

But yes, drink lots of tea with honey and you'll get better soon. :)

Yay for small isolated campuses. XD

EDIT: JJ will never be thirsty for tea again. A full mooncake boxful, all standing upright, from the dining hall downstairs and previously purchased boxes from the convenience center. Not like anything else I buy there with my points...XD Oh, and not including the 100 or so bags in my closet, my most recent acquisitions (hey, they had flavors I wanted to try out...Om, lotus, berryblossom, refresh...and not including milk tea from Chinatown...) :P

Between that, two jars of honey, and a huge storage containerful of food, JJ is all set for winter hibernation. :3

So uncreative this weekend.

Saturday: Got up at 12PM. A la mode fashion show at 12. Sidetracked by ex-roomie in the dining hall and went to play piano. Slightly late for the show, but not like there was anyone there (Tishman was about 25% full, in contrast with last year's 110% or so...but JJ got an extra bag of free Body Shop samples and gave them away b/c she didn't really like the scent of hemp or olive..) The show wasn't terribly good this year. Straight horizontal catwalk, narration at the podium, powerpoint on the screen, and the models a. didn't have clothes that fit and b. didn't coordinate well with the narration. I *don't* know why there were guy models, did they expect the maybe two guy students to come or something? Both are exchange students I think, one from Dartmouth and the other one may be foreign? Duno.

Came back, did nothing for a while, went to dinner. Got sidetracked by Marie, who tried to convince me to declare CS as my major. After a while, we decided to both go to our CS professor's office hours on Monday and ask him to be our major adviser. XD She's planning on taking a semester off, me going abroad + econ major. She didn't want to be one out of two econ majors (she doesn't like the other girl). Yay? I already asked my econ prof to become my major adviser, so I need to arrange a time to see her...sometime ^^;;

After that, went with Lu to Roche Bros for groceries (which my fridge decided to freeze again last night...-_- and frozen eggplants are harder than Alison's abs, which I pointed out today at dindin with the analogy: "I banged those eggplants on the table and they went thud..." at which point Alison conceded :D) Came back, made hua-juan (green onion buns?) with Lu and Grace at Dower (the ex-barn-turned-into-dorm that I never visited). Went back at 1AM or so, XD. We watched "Hello Schoolgirl" while the dough was rising. Korean romance chick-flick, not my cup of tea but w/e. It was pretty cute. First time I got back & went to sleep after my roommate.

Today:

Up at 1. Did absolutely nothing, except make some phone calls trying to determine if the eggplant+ground pork was done (ended up overcooking + nuking it in the microwave). But if I die, you'll know why (I ate about 5 before nuking them). Pork came out hard but still delicious. Excellent contrast with the semi-cooked eggplants. XD And the stupid breaded coating sooooooooooo failed. XD

Did nothing for a while until dinner, when Alison and Annie came over to eat. :) Hope Alison didn't give me her illness. Made another batch of tomatoes&eggs. :) And ate a bunch of challah bread. Annie brought her work over, so I played the piano some more while she "worked." I.e. get distracted by FB, etc. Taught her how to play right-hand page one of Canon in D from my score. JJ needs to work on her piano. XD Finally worked out Mvt. 3 of Fur Elise, which I normally don't have a problem on (usually the second one gets me..) We watched an episode of XiYangYang, it was great. Got pulled into the adjacent room to critique LED's dance routine for LipSync show either tomorrow or the day after? They're trying to get money since they don't actually have any funding (they didn't get a budget proposal/consitution in before the deadlines, I thinks). Pretty good, after a bit more practice, methinks. :)

Oh, and cheers to 'Lisa and Jennifood for mailings! <3

Wow. I can't believe there are people at Wellesley who expect they can get credit without doing anything. She told me she could do editing and layout stuff. Unfortunately, she can't write very well and was like "I wasn't expecting this much work" when we were working on a two-page spread for the magazine.

I know it's an extracurricular and most people don't actually do anything in the "club," but that's still a pretty lame excuse. I divvy up the work according to what I think is fair and try to accommodate my team, so I expect stuff to get done and people to be creative. It's kinda implied in the title you know, "Creative Works Team." Whatever, I don't think she's coming back next semester, at least not on my team. No wonder this magazine is so lethargic.

There was a reason why I like doing things myself.

JJ's going abroad spring 2011, assuming one of the programs accept her. After that, she would likely travel around Europe over the summer, unless she manages to land an internship. Currently considering University of Manchester, University College London, and Queen Mary College (I think). As an Econ-CS double-major, assuming she has her forms filled out and gets major advisers.

Go apply for an UK program for spring 2011. Now. :D

JJ also thinking of applying to Wall Street or a French or Chinese language program for summer 2010. Any thoughts?

Also, JJ will be back Dec 22. until Jan 4th or 23rd. Make sure there are lots of parties during that time. ^^

So I finally found the artist behind the song Raver's fantasy -- the actual version, I think at least given that it has a music video, is a bit slower. It's by DJ Manian, who I found while youtubing Cascada songs. And it turns out that two of his songs, "Welcome to the Club" & "Sky" was the title of a song that a band was playing in a dream that I had a while ago. If that made any sense. One of his other songs, "Bounce," is one that I really like and matches my hyper mood a lot. Talk about coincidences. xD

I find that my playlist reflects my mood a lot. Current playlist:
Bounce
Raver's fantasy (DJ Spinback edition)
Welcome to the Club
Angel in the Night (Basshunter)
Evacuate the Dance Floor (Cascada)
Stronger (Daft Punk)
Fire Burning (Sean Kingston)

It makes JJ happier, especially since she has two assignment due Thursday (and her entire evening occupied...). Oh, and JJ's planning on going to England spring 2011 like almost every other Econ major. XP Why England? Because they speak English and have good econ programs.

JJ's sense of time is warping. Time seems to go faster. Thursday is much closer this side of Monday. XP

Cooked some eggplant, brought it over to Stone-D, ate rice and eggplants and preserved meat with Annie. She cooked the rice with the preserved meat in the rice cooker, pretty interesting. Chinese sausage, quail legs, and chicken. Very interesting. Apparently my rice wasn't compatible with her rice cooker, but that was totally okay. I mean, I had sushi rice! XD But they stuck on the bottom of the pot, even though the rice weren't really dry.

Went to Collins Cinema with Annie and Amy, watched Howl's Moving Castle. SO CUUUUUUUUUUUTE! <3 But the professor gave like a 4 page speech intro, which we thought made a bit too much over nothing, but that was okay. Didn't stay for Millennium Actress. Went to Amy's room and played this game of cards and I scored 147 (i.e. A++++++++++++) and the other two scored D's. So what if the goal was supposed to get the least amount of points, at least I got an A. :D

JJ feels fine. I mean, it averages out to what, about 8 per night, no? :P

Stupid CS pset.

Anywhos, just got off the phone with BofA canceling the credit protection plus plan that I was automatically enrolled in, which I didn't really need. Why?
1. JJ does not need its unemployment benefits since she's not employed anyways.
2. JJ does not want to pay monthly fees -- otherwise she'd just use her debit card.
3. JJ not expecting to get divorced, married, hospitalized, or die.
4. JJ not planning to fall behind in payments, and she can pay off even fallen behind payments with the amount of $ she has in her bank account.
5. JJ can check her credit report with any of the 3 credit bureaus for free, once each year for each.
6. JJ is not a stupid uneducated person who wants to give money away to rich people.

Oh, and of course, she explained this all to the phone operator who picked up her phone and attempted to convince JJ to not cancel the plan. Very sneaky too. "How's the weather over there?" in a very obviously bored and unconvincing way. "You do know that this plan offers ______" "you should keep it, you know, just in case.." Etc. None of which worked on JJ. Because you know that if the company hires people to try and convince you to stay on a plan, it's probably not good for you. :)

Lols. She probably got the sense that I actually knew what I was talking about in wanting to cancel an opt-out plan, read through the stuff, and really didn't need the thing, given that the entire transaction totaled about 6 minutes.

JJ should totally go to more econ lectures. The one she went to this week was totally related to this. If you make a plan opt-in, then less people will go for your plan. If you make a plan opt-out, then more people will go for your plan (since they're too lazy to cancel/change the defaults). And businesses want to make money, no? :P

Almost, right after my class tomorrow...Just have to do some readings.

Stayed up 'til 3AM for my CS pset. Stupid interactive loop. Finished it about a half hour before turning it in. Bleh. Big sleep tonight.

Apparently the chestnuts I was keeping in a plastic cup to seed had grubs (which had apparently decided to grow at the bottom of the cup). JJ hopes that stomach acid kills them all. (since she ate a raw one sometime last week, along with a half pot of boiled chestnuts).

So much out of practice. And the rondo alla turca doesn't get easier, especially if the room's cold and your fingers are freezing off (hint: if your fingers start losing their feeling while playing piano, stop playing the piano)

JJ has a ridiculous amount of teabags, both from the dining halls and from ones she "bought", ie. the ones bought at the campus store with the $50 that's on her student card and expires at the end of the year. Can't wait to try out the lotus flavored one...XP

JJ's basil sprouted. Yay! :) She now has about a half dozen basil plants in a tiny bag of dirt and sowed with green onion seeds. Lawls.

Crepes in half an hour! <3 Otherwise JJ's strawberries are gonna *all* go moldy..

Didn't do too badly on philosophy test (missed one date and didn't relate the essay enough to classroom discussion) but decently on Econ test. Not looking forward to getting CS test back tomorrow. X.x

I got a basil starter kit from Target the other day. I overwatered yesterday (as in, there was still a layer of water on the surface of the dirt this morning) so I thought the basil died. So I planted some green onion seeds in the same container. Except that JJ came back a couple hours later and found some sprouts in the dirt. X.x JJ also found some decently growing basil plants at Roche Bros the other day, after she got the starter set. /sniffles

JJ needs to get over to the greenhouse to get some dirt.

Speaking of which, JJ is going to start compiling a list of stuffz she wants from Santa. 'Cuz she's been reaaaaaaaal good this year. :) :) :) :) :) (santaplzcomeearlythisyrplzplzplzplz).

Current list:
A jar of dirt
A spherical jar (like a fish bowl) with a clear lid on top (no handles or any other structures on the lid), but with rubber stuff around the lid so it screws in tight
A fixed laptop (or a new one)
The Japanese shop at Porter Square + all of its contents

Yesterday was a day off. Went to explore Boston with Amy and Ila (for a bit). Went to Porter Square, and there was a Japanese shop and lots of decently priced Japanese restaurants (but the grocery shops closed) located in the Lesley University (or sumn). A one-building university with lots of Japanese restaurants. O.o But nothing opened until 11/12, so we stalkered the one Japanese gift shop for a while, before going to Radio Shack and JJ getting a tripod and 4G II Cf card for 25$. Went back, shop was open and everyone was happy and JJ gotz her origami papers (but would have liked to get the rest of the shop if she could -- bento boxes, pottery, mugs, kitty bowls, paper doll making sets, etc. etc. etc.) Slightly pricey, but oh well.

Then went to South Station with Amy, walked around a bit. Found the one and only fabric shop in the area and got some cloth. <3 Did not buy any linen, not at $9/yd. But some cotton and a couple of nice prints. For a bag, methinks. So pretty! <3 (was inspired after spending all Sunday afternoon making a lined pencil bag...) Then barely caught the bus at Comm. Ave. Yay for Exchange bus, lots of people went into Boston 'cuz the bus was free and on a weekday schedule (i.e. it goes into Boston in the morning/afternoon/evening, as opposed to evening/early morning).

Moved furniture (i.e. desk and rug) around yesterday, hopefully more light gets in (since my desk was right splat in front of the window...) Now it's facing my bed, which is perpendicular to the window

Okay, time to prepare Ila's b-day present. :) Then a couple of on-campus lectures, then GA magazine prep time (JJ is Creative Works editor and needs to meet a self-imposed-on-everyone-else-on-her-team deadline for tomorrow). Lols.

On a separate note, Campus store restocked so there are chocolates (albeit at $5/bar) and more Tazo tea flavors. <3

Made a pair of earrings yesterday for Ila's b-day yesterday, then a pencil bag with lining and zippers to hold my extra pens and pencils. JJ would like to get more mechanical pencils, given that the ones she buys in China are no good. XD

Fabric district tomorrow, hopefully, if Amy doesn't forget...:3