some san fran pics

these are from my first week here...i finally got around to uploading the pics off my digital, some even from the summer. that cable car hill, powell street, is one HELL of a hill, let me tell you. my first day in san francisco, i'm looking at a map and fisherman's wharf doesn't seem that far away from where i got off the BART...i just have to walk straight on powell. unfortunately, maps don't offer any terrain information, and i had no idea that i was going to be walking on what seemed like the steepest street ever. seriously, the sidewalks had special treading on them so you wouldn't slip. but, yea, that was a fun day.

oh and speaking of maps, i've always believed that www.maps.google.com was the coolest map service. but now, i'm sure of it. their satellite images helped find roman ruins! FOR REAL!

that hill is ALOT steeper than it looks. 

telegraph hill, and there's frickin palm trees here too! 

the rock. 

i'm a tv addict.

monday night television is the new thursday night.
i am so excited.

first of all, arrested development is on. the season premiere was on tonight, and it was great. i can't wait until the season 2 dvd comes out and i can spend some saturday watching hours of the bluth family and their magical charm.

then, after arrested development on fox tonight, was a new show, kitchen confidential. i originally started watching it because i was trying to figure out what else the main character has been in (he was the bitchy boyfriend in wedding crashers! i figured out half way through), but i kept watching because the show was really funny! "boot and rally. its a chef secret" oh man, and it was so unexpected.. i thought it was going to be some shitty reality cooking show, so that makes this monday night tv find extra special. and besides the wedding crashers guy, there are a ton of other actors in the show who have had roles in other tv shows & movies, but aren't super famous, ie...harold from harold and kumar go to white castle, the little brother from freaks and geeks, and some random others that i recongized but couldn't figure out where they came from. anyway, i'm really excited about this show, if you couldn't tell.

then ofcourse, laguna beach is on. although this show is getting more annoying as the season progresses, i cannot stop watching it. mtv must have the secret to making what should be really bad tv shows into addicting ones.

allright, i should get back to doing some work, and stop blabbing about great tv. but the light in my room is really annoying now..after the power outage today, its been constantly flickering, even after its been on for a while. it could put me in to spasms or something, so maybe i'll just go to bed. night.

what the crap?

blog comments have gone to hell.
they can't get you with spam anymore, so they get you by "commenting" on your blog.
sneaky sneaky. or am i the one who actually reads other people's blog's comments?

so excited! T-12 minutes to the OC SEASON 2 PREMIERE!!
great tv is definitely one of the best parts of the school year.

inundated.

all at once.

i realized today i had more homework than i thought i had, and it was due this friday, not next week.

i realized today that i have to learn how to use matlab for one of my homeworks.
i have no idea how to use matlab.

i sat through an entire lecture today and understood nothing...
i hadn't realized i was signed up for an advanced materials course until today, a week and a half after classes started. hopefully i'll be able to change out of that class and into another one...
whoops.

so i'm sitting here, trying to do all this homework, trying to learn the bare minimum of matlab so i can finish my homework. and all i can get myself to do is blog or watch the USopen tennis (blake vs agassi, anyone? it better be a good one).

okay, but really, blogging was supposed to provide a reality check for me by listing out all the things i have to do. so maybe i'll try to do something about it.

b. update.

after our scrimmage this morning, a couple of the girls and i spontaneously decided to drive down to santa cruz to see the big santa cruz ultimate tournament on this weekend. i wasn't aware of it before, but i soon found out that there were a lot of top level club teams (umm, riot, schwa, condors, jam, fury, etc. etc.), which was awesome because i've never seen any top level club team play.
and wow.
it was pretty amazing.

but its nice to see that amidst all their giant hucks, crazy layouts, and superfast cuts that they are human sometimes too and throw the disc into the ground and drop it too, even if its only a rare occasion.

but so far the pie queens ultimate (thats berkeley women) has been going well. we've had our first week of practice and its been typical first practices with tons of rookies, and lots of explaining, etc etc....only multiply the columbia number of rookies by five to get an idea of how many people come out here. i'm starting to get emails from mara about columbia's orientation week and activities day, and i'm so excited for them...i kinda wish i was there to see it all go down. i hope they get as good and fun of a rookie class as we got last year.


annyway, first week of classes is over, and it, too, was a typical first week....no homework, lots of introductory talk. i'm happy with all my classes except my suistainable design class....i thought it was going to be a three credit class that i could take as a real class, but it turns out its only one or two credits, so i'll need to take a materials class instead to get the extra credits. damn suistainable design keeps screwing me over. last year, after getting really excited about it, i got kicked out of the class a week into it. and you'd think they'd be encouraging engineering students to learn about green buildings...well no, not at columbia, they kick the engineers out of the stupid class.

and i'm getting more settled in to berkeley..there are some cool people who live in my building that we've gone out with a couple times...they seem to know about all these random house parties. and my suitemates have opened up a lot too..i took a bus to best buy, bought a 13" tv w/vcr, lugged it back on the bus (encountering some minor harrasment and odd stares), and put the tv in the lounge. so now i sit out in the lounge watching tv (mostly tennis and hurricane stuff these days. can't wait till the season premieres start!), and pretty much force my suitemates to talk to me while they're eating or cooking or passing by.
see, tv does work wonders.

allright, i'm gonna go get some food...see if i can bother any more of my roommates.