Monday: October 23, 2006

ndss here i come!!!

Funny thing… when I was little, I wanted to be a writer. Hehehe… today, I can finally say that I got something published!!! This is also a milestone for me as a graduate student. My paper on spam got accepted to NDSS 2007! ^_^ I’m in such a state of euphoric disbelief right now.

I think I’m going to eat my duck, do my homework while I’m feeling productive and capable, and go to sleep early tonight.

In other news, security lab now has real voting machines to play with. hehehhehe

addition: hao pointed out that since this was my first submission as well, i currently have a 100% acceptance record. which later made me laugh because i remembered the CS soccer team’s “undefeated” status due to the fact that they’d won their first game. hopefully i’ll have better luck…

Friday: October 20, 2006

Protected: feeling… antagonistic

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Tuesday: October 17, 2006

a blissful weekend and the airline from hell

Before I start complaining, which, for the sake of everyone is going to be an optional read… here’s a recap of the weekend. :)

Thursday/Friday
I head off to Boston on a redeye flight and arrive at 5:40ish. Get my luggage and wait for Anita, who had previously offered to pick me up so Mimi could get some sleep. But lo and behold, Mimi and Max (M&M) came with Anita!! Needless to say, I am delighted. We go back to Mimi’s apartment, where I meet her chinchilla, The Chin/Snoopy, who is the most adorable rodent I’ve ever met. Mimi goes to work and Max goes to class, leaving me alone with the Mew. ^^;;

We head promptly to Harvard Sq. for a bit of preliminary shopping and then rush off to the movie theater, ignoring our grumbling stomachs, to watch The Departed. This is the Infernal Affairs remake. I was very impressed. It combined elements of #1 & #2 primarily, and a weee bit of #3. After the movie, we wander around Chinatown (which is featured in a scene in the departed!!) and finally get lunch (Pho!). Stomachs full, we walked to Downtown Crossing to do some seeeerious shopping. Filenes is still having their ginormous clearance sale, having been bought by Macy’s, and I discovered that Anita is in the beginning stages of Shopaholism. So we do our necessary rounds to the essential stores (I got me a fall/early winter coat from H&M!) and then we went to Barnes and Nobles for sitting and doing crossword puzzles. When it was time, we headed over to Penang to meet M&M for dinner. (mmmmmm)

Saturday
We (M&M, me, Nana, Mimi’s friend) went to Minado, sans the Mew, for sushiiiiiii. And stopped by a few stores in the mall. Then we headed to Max & Kohki’s apartment, along with Mew (who gave me a card with STITCH on it!! Stitch!!!). There, we (ok, it was everyone minus me & Anita) cooked curry & rice. Yum Yum. After dinner, we chatted with Gracie online for a while… when chatting ended, we played a game of Taboo at which, all modesty aside, I kicked ass. Then Anita and I amused ourselves with video games (katamari is sooo cute!!) while Kohki, M&M and Nana played Risk. (Max won.)

Sunday
We (the party of 6 from last night) meet up with Taline at Park Street to head over to China Pearl for some quality dimsum. Dimsum is awesome. Seriously. Then we went to downtown crossing and spent a few hours in So Good (jewelry store) where the guys were good sports about tolerating the shiny prettiness all about them. ^o^ We then headed to Cambridgeside Galleria for more shopping. I tried to find an Ipod Shuffle, but they haven’t been shipped yet!!!! Aaah!!! And then I nearly gave myself a heart attack, because I left a bag at the apple store (I know, i know) that contained some trifles and Taline’s card for me (which was a work of sheer genius). You should have seen me panicking, thinking, “What heartless bastard would steal my bday card???” I went around frantically trying to find it before we finally spotted it behind the apple desk. Phew.

For dinner, we all went to Super 88, where I kicked ass at Uno and had spicy noodles. And, as luck would have it, we ran into Liz (ekeoma) from my middle school/high school days. That, I tell you, was a very very very pleasant surprise. We then went to karaoke (a private room thing) which was So Much Fun. After two hours of silliness & belting out our favorite songs, we finally went our separate ways home. There was a game of Monopoly at Mimi’s which I lost, miserably. (No thanks to Max or Kohki and their Boardwalk + 4 houses or the green properties with 4 houses. Grr!!!)

Monday (nightmare begins)
Monday morning, at around 5am, I get a call saying that my flight’s been cancelled and they’ve rescheduled me for a 5pm flight. Ok, fine, I thought. This gives me time to hang out w/people. So I called up Anita and we walked around Downtown Crossing after watching some cute animals on Animal Planet. Then she helped me get to the airport, I checked in, yada yada… and waited.

( complaints ahead! )

Thursday: October 12, 2006

Being social…

Well, my 22nd bday in Davis was certainly loads of fun. A big group of us (i think think there were 17 ppl for dinner) went to Thai Nakorn for dinner. (I can cross another restaurant off my imaginary list.) I got spicy duck that wasn’t very spicy, but still good because it’s DUCK DUCK DUCK! Lots of fun stories were told, and at least one quote for Mu came out of it. Wahahahah!!

There was a deliciously rich dark chocolate cake (*sniff, sniff* they know me so well). I suggested going to Little Prague initially, but then remembered Till’s bday and we tried Sophias, which turned out to be just as anal about eating outside food. (Anna’s remark, “Because it doesn’t have glass in it.” She also suggested how we could eat cake at Sophias, which was really hilarious, but it’s one of those things that are difficult to describe, so I won’t.) We ate outside using utensils and napkins stolen from Taco Bell & the Hotdogger. It was some gooooood cake. The group then dwindled down, as Sophias was charging cover for $1 drinks and a lot of people weren’t going to drink. (They didn’t charge me because it was my birthday! weee!) I was “forced” to consume beverages, but most were yummy.

I’m so happy and grateful that people took the time to hang out with me. We haven’t congregated in such large numbers since my BBQ, and I do enjoy hanging out with the general group here in Davis. And of course it was awesome getting the messages & phone calls… :) Thank you all!!

And now… Happy Birthday to my dear friend Mimi, who I shall see over the weekend, because I’m off to Boston!!!

Wednesday: October 04, 2006

status quo

since my last post, SBC has managed to provide us with usable internet at the correct address. being back in davis is actually quite nice. Once the mess in my room was cleaned up, my room became … well, I could walk through it without tripping. :) I absolutely LOVE the townhouse. It’s wonderful… and this year’s off to a rather nice start because I’m heading off to San Diego for the Grace Hopper Conference later today!!

I went to Sofia’s tonight, but we were too late for Trivia Night. Booo! I wanted to win! Unfortunately, I don’t think we would have won, because there were questions involving sports and the Goonies. And … contrary to popular belief, minuscule IS the correct spelling. Ha. HA. HA!!! For a second there I thought my liberal arts training had failed me miserably.

That is all… and now off to bed so that I may wake up early to pack & catch my flight tomorrow.

PS. the missing deadly sin was GREED. yes. in addition to gluttony.