berkeley app is done.

We have received your submitted online application on December 15th, 2005 at 23:59:40, PST.

made a request

Hrmm no updates lately. I must be busy. :P

Last week of school, now worried about finishing graduate applications. Maybe I'll sleep over the break. Oh wait, no.

But I did fill out the contest at 1077 the end, for my 5 minutes of fame. They have you choose 3 songs from their 14 years of alt rock, and if they choose your set you set it up on the radio. Even if I don't win, they should play more of

Deftones Be Quiet And Drive
Smashing Pumpkins Disarm
Radiohead Karma Police

Because its Seattle! We're supposed to have good rock around here, right? Right? Man I hope they stop playing hick metal and emo "rock" on the radio grrrrr. Man invented mp3s for as reason, I suppose. ><

What 3 songs would you implore your radio stations to play?

Monthly update

Hello again. What on earth has happened lately??

-- Went to California for the "Berkeley EDGE Conference", another minority recruitment program for their graduate school. Meetings with Dr. Zakhor and Ramachandran went well and I learned Dr. Eklund wanted me to produce a paper for ISBI 2006 and that Dr. Bajscy would like to have me as one of their graduate students. Now for the application, continued hard work, and crossed fingers! Got to see friends Melissa, Garrett, James, and Hector. Reminds me how much I miss my summer experience but also solidifies my resolve to get accepted for next August. Time for "the next chapter."

-- Saw **FREE** preview screenings for the movies "Stay" and "Jarhead". They were both great and wouldn't mind paying to see either again! Online, "Stay" was panned for being too hard to understand. My own dad had a hard time following it. But I thought it was excellent and strongly reminded me of Mulholland Drive (btw both movies have Naomi Watts). "Jarhead" was very good and I loved seeing Jake Gyllenhaal in such a poignant role. His DD character was uncomfortably engaging whereas his JH character had an aura of silent strength. The Jamie Foxx scene backlit by the burning oil fields was extremely haunting and is my strongest memory from the movie.

-- Saw Sean my old friend from high school. He is doing well at Ashmead college and is living in Ballard. We may play a "Hengeyokai" game in which I'll bring back my "Jonas" character in Khan form. Hoping to see Sean when my schedule permits. And have been talking more with both Brians. Both are busy with school. Woo told me about seeing Viggo Mortensen in LA, but I bet Viggo was just tired of asian tourists.

-- Driving to school and using the gym little by little. These things certainly mean I'm making the most of my precious hours and minutes. Which is important since I fell behind in school because I was sick for a few days then went to Berkeley. Downtime estimated about half a week ... haven't been sleeping too well since. Oh and RDR of course! Time management is key.

Las dos semanas pasados

What on earth have I been up to!?

School:
-- Comp Lit 301 Film Analysis) Looking at movies in an analytical way. Narrative, character development, frame composition etc. I love it. This is what I ALREADY do when I watch a movie.
-- EE 416 Random Signals) The math behind cell phones, radar and the internet. Will be learning much more in graduate school
-- EE 447 Control Systems) The math behind controlling things like robot arms, computer hard drives, and biological cell motion. Fun!
-- EE 499 Indep Study) My project on brain signal analysis. How does our visual cortex respond to changes in environment?

RainyDawgRadio: UW radio station that I'm trying to get on board with. Didn't make the cut for DJ but hope to still work with them and maybe eventually convince them to let me on the air!!

The Bus! 556 and 271.

So thats what I'm up. Long days ... and sleeping. Not too much activity but a lot of work. And I actually went to the gym. I count the days till the weekend but they evaporate all too quickly after homework is done and I get some much needed rest.

Berkeley here I come!

pictures

got pix up at MSN Space. Go check em out. (link)

college radio online

hey all. my school doesnt have a real radio station but they do have an online one. genres span indie, world, altrock, metal, industrial, and more. best part is u can stream any previously broadcast show. its like having another hard drive of mp3s. (link).

kmfdm* - control

... Another decade gone terribly wrong
Effectively afflicting generations to come
We only buy into what we can sell
We only want to protect you from yourself

Falling on your face from the media hype
We're busy creating a new stereotype
Amending the story to keep it intact
And make sure that vision accomodates fact

Do you know who owns and controls the station you're watching?
Does the truth you know rely on something?
Does it matter? ...

politicking

You exhibit a very well-developed sense of Right and Wrong and believe in economic fairness.

You are a Social Liberal (65% permissive) and an... Economic Liberal (20% permissive) You are best described as a: Strong Democrat Link: The Politics Test on Ok Cupid

kmfdm concert

does it seem like you have the most fun when its unplanned? when things seem to spiral out of your control but you realize this is what makes you the most happy? i did not expect that the show would go how it did ... and i'm grateful.

originally, thad and i discussed attending the show. i know he and i are the most vocally devout about KMFDM amongst our friends and he was gonna burn me a buncha music, so he was the logical one to take with me. this would be great, right? see our fave(?) band and have a blast!!

well that didnt happen. he had something to do early in the morning and for some reason, he valued getting a good nights sleep over seeing the show. this logic completely baffled me and still does. but ok. another friend, paul, wanted to go but turned out to be unavailable. he hadn't seen them before and i figured that it would be a good opportunity. pleased to finally bring this ambivalent ticket ownership issue to closure, i spoke with nick and he was eager and ready! away we went to seattle. phew!

we got there at 7:30PM. doors scheduled to open at 8:00PM. we ended up staying there for an hour, waiting in line outside the club on a sidewalk adjacent to the pier (i.e. near the waters). however we chatted with some different people, a youngish man and woman and a mom/son looking pair as well. im not sure but i may not have been as open if i hadnt been with nick there. started to sweat when i realized i hadnt brought the confirm number ... but all was well when they simply accepted my credit card and id. once in we realized it was probably 2-3 hours till KMFDM started (there were 3 or 4 opening acts scheduled).

making a beeline for the bar, i got MY FIRST GUINESS EVER and nick got his first rum+coke of the night. we sat down with the man and woman from the line ... and got to known them a little better!! Ian and Chris(tina), they lived in Tacoma and Carnation respectively. they werent an item as i had assumed. both in their mid 30s, they seemed to have a lot more experience than i did (in all respects ... sexually, professionally, socially, ...) and were happy to share some great funny anecdotes. they were both programmers but neither had completed a college degree. chris plays WOW ... so of course we discussed that for a bit. but all in all they were really nice people ... who would have probably preferred more the company of people their own age. many drinks and bands later, kmfdm took the stage. omg.

sascha and lucia are the backbone of modern kmfdm. yes sascha is the true spine but lucia is quickly becoming a fulcrum for much of their sound. jules, andy, and bill accompanied and of course are all total rock stars. omg x100. raymond watts is gone from the lineup and so is tim skold(sniff).

the set was a great mix of old and new. eras included Nihil, XTORT, Symbols, Adios, Attak, WWIII, and lots of Hau Ruck. standouts were "Hau Ruck" & "Professional Killer", "Last Things", "Drug against war" and "Power" & "Inane" & "Son of a Gun". OMG THE ENCORE WAS PERFECT. WWIII & Megalomaniac ... and then D.I.Y. (.... destroy what destroys you .... ) (the request i had shouted the entire night). the sound sucked for the first half. sascha and lucia had mikes that were not being played nearly loud enough and were drowned out by the bass and guitar distortion way too much. but they fixed em for the encore which sounded SOOOOOOOOoooo good. these guys form a soundscape that sucks you in and you know that all is good and right within the folds of the ultra heavy beat. "RIP THE SYSTEM ... BLOW IT AWAY".

in the pit it was fantastic. the ultra heavy beat stopped my heart a few times but brought it back online pretty quickly ;). nick, ian, chris, and i pushed our way to the front in the beginning and i stayed up there the whole time. nick and i "met" some 20yo-ish girls as we were being jostled around by the moshers behind us. basically nick ended up being smushed into the brunette and i into the blonde ... we apologized to them. of course there were drunken large sweaty bald guys that belong more in the pit of a metallica show than KMFDM. their elbows spinning and sweat flying, i tried to protect the blond girl from them a few times. she helped me with a nudge and it seemed to work. chris showed up soon after and i tried to protect her too ... to no avail!! apparently i'd been stabbing her with my elbow accidentally for most of the show, ohnoes.

i stayed at the stage after most people left, in hopes of an autograph from sascha or lucia. someone mumbled "oh u just missed him ... hes walkin ..." and i took off. found the KAPN quickly thereafter, walkin behind us. got some currency signed by SASCHA and he kept the pen (you can have it!!!!). damn i wanted to get my UC Berkeley shirt signed ... but it was very sweaty after being worn under my Dickies cover shirt. doh. "plz sign this sweaty rag ... ;)??" hehe.

saw ian and chris after and i learned about my elbow poking chris in the chest repeatedly ... ::blusH::. oh yeah and ian says see u at Ministry in May. OK see u then! waved goodbye to the other girls and we left

ok so i had a great time. we met lots of people and i got to watch everyone drink. this was the first time id done anything like this in a long while and it felt so great to just hang out with nice people and see a fantastic show. only regrets? that we had more friends with us, that the UC Berkeley shirt hadnt been sweaty, that they would have played Jihad, that i wasn't DD, that i didnt have stress for friday's GRE, and that we drove a 4 seater so we could have invited our new friends to hang out. ian and chris were really nice and i would have liked to get to know the girls at least a little.

remind me to do this more often.

Back to California

Dear Andrew,

Congratulations! It is my pleasure to invite you to the Sixth Annual Berkeley Edge Conference. The conference will be held at the University of California, Berkeley, October 27-30.