Protest

Carter: I really want some police brutality

Kevin: There is some.

Carter: That's not police brutality

Carter: That is people attacking the police.

the undergraduate crossroads of political belief

Ben: Connie Chung, ten years from now, you are either going to be a die-hard Palin zealot or a MoveOn.org hippie freak.

Ben: I see both with about equal probability

I've been waiting for this my whole life

Mandy: Connie, you're so mature.
Mandy: You eat vegetables every day.

My right eye is ultra twitchy

I think that means I need sleep. I thought I've been getting sleep though. And it's only my right eye. Perhaps I've been unwittingly keeping guard all night.

Midnight mac & cheese

Carter: Do we have butter?

Me: Yeah. But it's in the upstairs fridge

Carter: Can I just use cream cheese?

Carter: It's in the proper location.

I have very few urges

I bought some Herbal Essences "long term relationship" shampoo at the beginning of the summer. Can't complain. It smells good, my hair feels fine. My only objection is that unlike my past shampoo-conditioner combinations, both the shampoo and the conditioner are the same, opaque tint of pink. So sometimes I'll be in the shower and have no recollection of if I've conditioned yet.

Early Thanksgiving

I am thankful that dollar bills can withstand both the washer and the dryer.

Pop tart

Someone left the toaster on maximum heat, so when I toasted my poptart this morning (Hmn. When I say "My," it makes it seem like this is a daily thing. I assure you that this is at most, a weekly event) it came out burnt.

Actually, it didn't come out at all, because the toaster's heat melted through the poptart, so both were stuck on the metal heating parts of the toaster and I had to pull really hard to get them out.

But I think losing the spring! of the toasting process affected the way the pastry cooked. It is, after all, a poptart. It's supposed to bounce up when warm enough. I think the endeavor was still a success though. The icing on one side browned and carmelized so I felt as if I were eating a marshmallow and a poptart at once.

I think I'll try this with a Smores poptart. Or would that be redundant. Also, I don't like Smores poptarts.

Things that I did for the first time this week

Fluffed my pillow. It was a new experience. A new, wonderful experience. Though after I fluffed, I lay down and took a nap. So I lost an hour and a half, and had to fluff it again when I got up.

There's hope for us yet

Arly-Lian:omg. i met this girl last night

Arly-Lian: thats a data analyst

for nih (natl institutes of health)

and she makes bank

guess what her major was

me: dag

whatttt

industrial engineering

Arly-Lian: eastern european history

Arly-Lian: THATS NOT EVEN THE GOOD SIDE

Those, and a batarang

Julie gave me an accurate assessment the other day: I am always trying to sell stuff to people. Not for monetary gain, but I think it's my personality to try and spread the word once I find something that works for me, and will probably work for everyone else.

My utility belt:

1. Next Bus text-
   You text "41411" with
   *Nbus (for Next Bus), *Your service (for me, 'AC'), *Your location (So, for example, one of your texts would be "NBus AC College and Durant")
   Then the number texts you back with all the bus lines at that location. You choose a line, and you'll get the next two buses coming to that location.
   My adoption of this tool probably changed my brother's life forever, as it eliminated my need for "Hey Carter, are you near a computer?"
2. Restaurant.com-Discounted restaurant gift certificates. The participating Berkeley restaurants are actually better that in San Francisco, and there's usually a price minimum (so, for instance, to redeem a 25 dollar gift certificate, you have to spend a $35 minimum). But this deal is best when they have their sales, and offer 80% off gift certificates. So you can buy a $25 gift certificate for $2.
3. Monterey Market-In my continued quest for adulthood, I've been trying to get a better idea of the price of produce. I generally use red bell peppers as the gauge of good prices, and Monterey Market is better than Safeway, Berkeley Bowl, and that one Korean place on Telegraph
   

Well. There goes all my conversation fodder. What are your little life tricks?

Carter

Almost eight years ago, I wrote my first blog post:

Tuesday, November 27, 2001

Right now I am chatting! Carter just walked up and wants to say something:"Join the navy!" Hmnnn, i wonder what that was all about

I think it set the tone for the next eight years of blogging.

I. Details on how I am being unproductive
II. Carter quip
III. Reflection

Sadly for me, (and anyone looking for interesting blog posts), this format is about to change. You see,

...my little brother is going on a mission. To the China, Hong Kong, mission, Mandarin speaking. He'll be reporting to the MTC in February. He decided a long time ago that he wanted to serve a mission, so the real question in the Chung household, was where.

He got a letter in the mail the Friday before last. Or, our housemate Kevin got the letter. We were 2/3 of the way to Los Angeles already. Carter wanted to leave early, with the full knowledge that the big envelope was probably already in the mail carrier's bag. "It'll be the same on Sunday as it is today," he said. But Brad couldn't stand the suspense, and on the phone, told me to relay the message: "Tell your brother I'll kick his trash if he doesn't open the letter." So Kevin scanned the letter, emailed it, and my sister and Julie printed it out (without peeking) and placed it in an envelope. Which Sister labeled "Carter's mission call."

So. Hong Kong.

We used to live in Hong Kong. From 1999-2000. We (kind of) know Cantonese from going to an immersion school in San Francisco, then a Cantonese-speaking school while we were there. So his basic Cantonese skills, plus whatever Mandarin he picked up from growing up in a immigrant household and high school, make this the perfect mission.

(I know, I know. They can all be perfect. Or they can't be perfect, depending on what philosophy you subscribe to)

The fact that he's going Mandarin speaking adds another element to the mission. Nancy's friend called his mission the frontier of the church. Because the rest of China (which is mainly Mandarin speaking) is closed to proselyting, so individuals interesting in hearing about the church would go to Hong Kong to learn and convert. So the scope of his area is practically all of China.

So he's leaving. For China. And I'm happy. The whole family is happy. Except for the occasional mental nagging reminder, that...

Carter leaving is going to be the...

WORST TIME EVER.

The thing is...I am fairly certain that there is no better younger brother than Carter. Up until this summer, we'd never been apart longer than two weeks. In fact, the first time I went away for a week, he saved every Datebook in the Chronicle for me so I wouldn't miss the comics. He is a dependable source of advice, a patient individual, witty as hell, and

Oh dear. This is starting to sound like a eulogy.

Sorry. He's not dying, but

It'll be a long two years without your oldest, best, friend.

Tempting

me: i'm tired of school

i hate failing

Nancy: You're not failing

10:54 AM me: i'm about to

let's brainstorm jobs that i can do without graduate degree

10:55 AM Nancy: My nanny

Big news

The Chung household is about to undergo some big changes. Hint: It has to do with one of these people:

I really just wanted to post this picture from this past weekend's UCLA trip. But I'll have big news soon, promise.

Sibs.

Me: I think that's why we have ignorant people. Because there are teachers who decide to just leave out pieces of curriculum.

Me: While I, on the other hand, celebrate Indigenous People's Day

Nancy: So I totally thought that Columbus Day was revoked too

Carter: Wait.

Carter: It wasn't?

Happy Day

The idea of Columbus Day disappoints me a little. For one, until I got to college, I thought that the day was abolished and replaced with Indigenous People's Day years ago. (Thank you, San Francisco Public School system, once again, for incorrectly instilling in me the perception that the rest of the world is just like us)

I'm also a little disappointed we had school. Why did we have school? It feels like everyone else got it off. Even the Obama kids.

And to make things worse, it's been raining uncontrollably on Columbus Day. And if it's raining, it should be Christmastime, or at least Thanksgiving, but not October.

So I just wrote this and realized that it's Tuesday, and no longer Columbus Day. That was weird. I'm sick. This may have been a delusion.