This is going to be a crazy and adventurous blog posting. Be prepared!

An Epic Battle – Man vs. Vending Machine
I learned a nice little secret at school last week (though its actually fairly intuitive). If you want to quick and easy access to the student health office, just show them a lot of blood. I found this out by getting into a fight with a vending machine (and losing). For the second time that day, it STOLE a bag of chips from me. The first time I was able to hit the front of it and my chips fell down. Not so for the second time.

I tried hitting the front of it and the side of it. Finally I climbed on it to try and shake it, only to find that it is bolted to the floor! Evidently, while I was trying to shake it, my pinky finger caught an exposed sharp edge of metal along one of the corners and cut me deep. I didn’t realize it at first. I was scratching my nose, trying to figure out what my next move was, when I noticed out of the corner of my eye that my finger was red. I look down to find a healthy amount of blood oozing out of the cut (only then did it start to hurt of course).

I ran to the bathroom to wash up and ran down to the student health center and showed the people at the front desk. They rushed me to a back room, washed the cut up and patched it with some weird sort of super glue and tape stitches. It left me with a nice deep cut though. Here is a nasty pic of it the next day. 😉 Thankfully, it didn’t get infected at all and is well on its way to healing.

A Bad (But Good) Week!
So as far as academics are concerned, last week was rotten. I’m really not having fun in chemistry, despite the fact that I love all sorts of science. I am just not understanding it and not enjoying it. My lecture grade is going to be less than stellar unfortunately. The final is next week and I’m pretty horribly prepared. That’s what this weekend is for!

As far as the chemistry lab goes, the class can be interesting and I love the people. It’s a great group. Unfortunately I sometimes feel that I have NO CLUE what is going on in the class, despite studying and preparing for quizzes and lab practicals. A lab practical we had last week absolutely destroyed me. I really thought I was doing everything right. Then it came time to test the pH of our solutions, and not a single one matched up with what I calculated! Gah! So that put me in an amazing mood, as I spent the weekend thinking about how I was probably in danger of failing the chemistry lab.

However, I briefly talked to the instructor today and she said I currently have a B+ in the class. I am not sure how I have managed to pull that off (given the grades on the practicals and some of my quizzes), but that has put me in an amazing mood! Now if only my chemistry lecture professor would tell me the same thing (hah!).

Computers Suck
Alright, it’s embarrassing to admit, but my computer got a virus. Yes! I’m crazy vigilant about that crap, but this one was totally my fault. I tried to run some crack to unlock some software that I didn’t pay for (hey! I’m a poor college student…). Unfortunately, it turned out to be a trojan! I watched in horror as 10 icons suddenly popped up on my taskbar. I went to close the install program and run Ad-Aware and the computer locked up!

I figured it was nothing serious and just rebooted. Of course now my computer won’t even boot into Windows! After trying some various things, I just pulled out the original WinXP install disk and ran a repair installation utility. However it locked up in the middle of it and then prevented me from running it again (since the installation was now damaged)!

I pulled out an older hard drive, reformatted it and got everything running. Then I pulled the important documents and such off the old hard drive. So now I’m back in business, but what a waste of two days.

And now for some good news!

New Zealand
My New Zealand trip is now fully paid for! It kind of makes it official now. In less than three weeks, I will be off gallivanting around the countryside. I still need to book a hostel/room for the last three nights I am in New Zealand however. Our field camp ends February 7th and I’m not flying home until February 10th. So I’ll be spending a few extra days in Auckland, New Zealand before I come home. (Though from a few Kiwis I’ve recently spoken with, they find Auckland to be one of the more annoying cities to travel in).

I also received my passport last week as well! Of course I think it might
be the wrong one…

Hah, I kid. I really did get the right passport. For some reason, we have a passport from Iran lying around the house. I need to actually turn that in.

Also, a fellow geology student from SF State is going to the New Zealand field camp as well! She just signed up at the last minute. That’s quite cool, since there seems to be blocks of 2 or 3 people from different schools going. I think the number of people going on this trip is about 13.

As far as gear goes, I think I’m pretty much prepared. There might be a few more things to pick up before I leave, but I’m pretty sure that I’m set. All I have to do now is just hang in there for THREE MORE WEEKS! School is out in two weeks though (finals are next week). So close to being done.

Alright, I’ve finally completed something that I came across last year and thought was quite interesting. It’s called the “Photographic Interview” and was a project that was posted on sh1ft.org.

Anyway, here it is! Enjoy. 🙂

Question 1: Who am I?
Question 2: Who knows Me Best? (My sister)

Question 3: How old am I?

Question4: The most important thing in my life. (My Family)

Question 5: I always carry…

Question 6: Something I always do…

Question 7: I’m happiest when (I’m with my friends and making others laugh)

Question 8: On a Monday morning, you can find me…

Question 9: My favorite mode of transport.

Question 10: My eyes are…

Question 11: My favorite material posession

Question 12: To relax, I like to…

Question 13: The town I live in is…

Question 14: My worst habit

Question 15: My guilty pleasure

Question 16: When I look at someone, the first thing I see is…

Question 17: I think _____ is beautiful. (Sierra Nevada Mountains)

Question 18: One thing I can live without.

Question 19: One thing people don’t know about me. (Punched through a window in 7th grade and have a small scar on my wrist. Ouch!)

Question 20: My life is… (About taking the road less travelled)

I went out on Wednesday night to meet up with an old roommate and some of her friends to a place in Nob Hill. I haven’t seen her in AGES, so that was great. Hanging out with her definitely puts me in such a good mood. It’s crazy. It was good to see her though… we’ll have to throw more cooking parties together.

Anyway, the most interesting part of the night happened on the way home:

I managed to catch the last possible outbound train and I got off the subway at Forest Hill Station. From there it’s roughly a 1.5 mile walk to my house (since the buses were no longer running). About half of that is on a two-lane road that has a sidewalk on only one side. Next to the side walk is a 20 foot tall concrete wall. On the other side of the street is a small lake (but no sidewalk).

I walk out of the subway station and immediately smell a rancid smell that I haven’t smelled in years! It’s a damn skunk! I laugh and feel sorry for the poor soul who was nailed. I start to walk home and hit the beginning of the concrete wall. Up ahead I see a little furball scurring along the sidewalk.

“Hey look! A raccoon! How cute!” I think to myself. But upon closer inspection (and when I got too close, the bastard stood up on his front feet!!!!) I realized that it wasn’t in fact a raccoon. It was a skunk!!!

So I started talking to him and making some noise and he scurried along… towards the FAR end of the wall! Uggghhh! This was going to be a long walk.

Every time a car came, he stopped, since he was scared. And he wouldn’t cross the street (smart move actually), he just stayed on the sidewalk. If I got too close, he would stand on his front legs with his tail in the air… threatening to spray me!

At one point, after a car came, he started running back towards me! I panicked and started yelling at him, clapping my hands and making all sorts of noise. Finally he turned around and continued scurring along.

Eventually (thankfully it only took 15 minutes), we got to the end and he scurried into some bushes, never to be seen again. I was able to continue the last half of the journey home.

Crazy!

David and I decided to go as the video game characters, Mario and Luigi of the Super Mario Brothers! We got quite a few kudos for our costumes. That was awesome. 🙂

Things are starting to get in motion in regards to my 6-week long excursion to New Zealand during winter break for geology field camp. I thought I would go ahead and put together a list of links and just what the heck I am supposed to be doing for my friends and family who aren’t entirely familiar with my plans come Christmas.

Field camp runs from December 28th to February 7th, though it literally takes 2 days to fly there (~18 hours in the air, plus crossing the international date line). So I will end up leaving in the afternoon / evening on Christmas day (not sure if I’m flying out of San Francisco or LAX just yet). I’ll arrive in Auckland (North Island) on the morning of the 27th and take a small commuter flight to Nelson (South Island) where we will begin our trip!

We start our trip off on the South Island and end it 6 weeks later on the North Island in the city of Auckland. The schedule sounds intense… 6 days a week of working, with 1 day off (but all field camps are like this). 3 meals a day are provided for us as well!

We’ll be checking out things such as the Franz Josef Glacier too:

Anyway, I’m getting more excited as December approaches. My passport application has also been sent off and I should receive that the first week of December! This will be my first ever trip abroad and I’m definitely looking forward to it.

I decided to update the list of In N Outs that I’ve been to. Added a few in just 3 months! People seem to be sympathetic to my cause.

My sister and I decided to drive home this past weekend on a whim, to visit our parents and see how our mom was doing after having surgery on her wrist. It was a nice weekend to relax for a bit and get away from the hectic school life. The drive wasn’t all that bad either, at just over 6 and a half hours each way (I must have been speeding!) and the car performed flawlessly. To that I say, “Up yours Saturn of Colma!”

Anyway, some highlights from this weekend:

*Went to a bar with Dan, my sister and some of her friends. Here I am, nearly 500 miles from San Francisco and I ran into a girl I met *in* San Francisco, who used to be a roommate of one of my geology friends.

*Dan is getting rid of some of his musical gear, so I was able to pick up two of his electric basses. Sweet! On the way back home, I dropped one off at David’s since we were both talking about getting a bass recently. Now we both have some to play around on. I decided to break it in by recording a bass track for the last song I wrote, entitled “Out of Life.” Check out the new version here! The old version is here for comparison. 🙂 Thanks a lot Dan.

So it was nice to relax (in terms of no school work), even though we were only able to stay for two full days (which caused me to be quite exhausted and flake out on a few people as well).

Walking Home

Changing up subjects… I decided to walk the 3 miles home from school tonight after I got out of a class at 10PM and there was just something completely spooky about tonight. Maybe it’s the fact that it’s a full moon. But all sorts of various things combined to make it feel weird tonight.

Walking down some of the side streets to my house, there wasn’t a single person around or even any cars driving. Most of the lights in the houses were off too. It’s a clear night with a full moon and a light wind blowing. The only thing I heard as I walked down the street were the rustle of leaves and some window shutters rattle (scary).

Of course there are a few houses around under construction and have some large tarps over their roofs. Whenever I walked by them, the wind would convienently pick up and catch the tarps, causing them to make loud snapping sounds as they flapped in the wind.

It’s weird to try and explain it. Just an odd night I guess. Maybe it also has to do with the fact that Halloween is just around the corner?

This is completely awesome news I just found out today. My Geology News blog (warning: tons of nerdiness) is gaining recognition and has been posted on the front page of About.com’s geology section!

I read this funny story a few weeks ago about someone’s experience on the SF Muni. After last night, I believe I have my own interesting “Muni Street Theater” experience.

My sister and I left late last night from a friend’s party in the lower Haight area and hopped on a bus to take us home. The bus stops at a fairly busy cross street (Fillmore I believe) and a rather wasted guy gets up from the back and tries to get to the door in time.

The bus begins to leave and he shouts “Back door!” The driver stops and waits for the man to exit. However, in his drunken state, he doesn’t remember to step down to open the back door of the bus. The bus driver figures no one is going to get off, so he leaves again.

This time the drunken man shouts “Hey!!! I said back door! Stop!” and the driver ignores him. Drunken guy stumbles to the front of the bus to yell at the driver. The driver pulls over at the next stop (only 2 blocks away) and asks him to get off the bus. The guy leans over to roll down his sock and pull up his leg, evidently showing the driver his knife and saying, “you see this?”

The driver unbuckles his seat belt, stands up and gets right in the guy’s face to say “I don’t care about that! Get off my damn bus!” The guy admits defeat and steps off without another word, which causes the whole bus to breakout in cheers and clapping.

It was definitely an awesome sight.

I received a HORRIBLE grade on my recent Chem II midterm. To sum it up… I never knew the grade scale went that low! I thought I did alright too right after I took it. I was WAY wrong.

So to make up for it, I’m now spending quite a bit of extra time doing my chemistry homework and studying. Almost finished with an assignment. It’s kinda crazy to admit… I’m having fun balancing random equations such as:

And many more (which explains why I’ve been at this since 8PM). Anyway, time for bed.