任是无情也动人

Possible topics for the research paper for Hist13A:

贞观之治 (唐太宗李世民)
武周革命 (武则天)

sources:
Zi Zhi Tong Jian by Sima Guang
Jiu Tang Shu/Xin Tang Shu

http://www.travelchinaguide.com/intro/history/tang/emperor_taizong.htm

http://www.chinaknowledge.de/History/Tang/tang-event.html

http://www.chinaknowledge.de/History/Tang/tang.html

http://www.chinatoday.com.cn/English/e200311/p56.htm

http://nacrp.cic.sfu.ca/nacrp/articles/panyihong/panyihongtext.html

http://www.uglychinese.org/tang.htm

http://library.thinkquest.org/C004096/gfamily.htm

http://www.zhengjian.org/zj/articles/2003/6/30/7159.html

http://www.oklink.net/a/0008/0825/zgzy/index.html

Got my EE122 midterm back today. I did better than I'd feared, only 2 points under the mean. Of course, the mean was like 43 (out of 100). Then again, the standard deviation was 17.5 and the highest score was only 79 (which was just O.o since usually in EECS classes you always have some nutbar genius who blows the curve with a 100+ on every exam). So I figure I'm doing okay there, based on the looks of the curve.

My EE126 midterm... don't ask. I don't know. I'm not going to know 'cause I'm not planning on picking up my midterm. I'm even avoiding having to deal with the whole grade issue in that class by getting my advisor to change my status there to pass/no-pass, so all I have to do is accumulate enough points for a D- or above and not have to worry about the rest... cuz "the rest" is just not happening. Yes it was that bad.

Edit 2: Speaking of advisors, I got an email from my other advisor about sessions for telebears. It's that time already?! But the online catalogue for Fall 2005 isn't even up yet!! O_O

Edit to add: And the last chapter of Spring Fever will go up tonight. Not too late. I promise.

So one of our homework assignments for cs162 was to sign up for a day to take lecture notes, which are then posted on the class website (and graded too). Naturally, some people take better notes than others.

Some people also take notes by taping the lecture and doing a verbatim transcription.

The latter are more useful when studying for exams, though, so we like these overly/obssessively complete neat-freaks. But it also means that in the middle of some stuff on Network Protocols, we get stuff like this:

( cut for spacing )

Now that I think about it, I was actually there for that particular lecture.

Be amused, dammit. :p

So Saturday: worked on the stupid project from 4pm to 2am ish.

Sunday (was it only "yesterday"?): worked on it from 4pm ish to 10 am ish. Or would that count under Monday (today)?

Then slept for like 4-5 hours and then ran around campus getting errands run. Skipped all classes today. (For which I'm sure I'll regret in the future.)

Now: 6pm, and back in the computer lab.

[whines] Why meeeeeeeee!! [/whines]

Well, it's not as glaringly "I'm so dead" as other midterms tend to make me feel. But the more I think about it the more nervous I feel about how I did. Our professor should go in for Psychology... Psych warfare anyhow.

The worst thing is... it's not the memorize-facts part I had problems with. Oh if it were only that, I'd at least know where/if I got something wrong. The thing is, the exam is mostly stuff about theory. Y'know, stuff like "prove this" or "explain that". So it's basically me frantically writing down paragraphs and paragraphs of stuff, then erasing and rewriting for the Nth time, hoping I got the right idea/etc. And I have no idea how I did, after the fact too. It's going to be such a subjective test to score... I'm foreseeing a lot of potential for arguing with the Prof/TAs about this...

Incidentally, I'd like to thank cashew for introducing me to Neopets on Friday. (That was sarcasm, in case you can't tell.) I think I wasted all of Saturday and some of Sunday on that place. *facepalm* (Though, thank goodness, the exam isn't what one would call cram-neccessary as much as it's "if you get it, you're good, else you're screwed".)

Yeah, neopets... Got myself hooked on the NeoQuest game. Funnily enough, I was halfway through the game before it occured to me I could look up hints and maps online. *sheepish* Though, with the cheat info, it becomes a pretty sure-fire/no-loss way to get points. It gives you hundreds to >1000 points for each boss you off, and 25x points for each level (out of 50) you gain. So level 10 going to 11 you get 250... level 20-21 you get 500... anyone remember how to do sum of arithmetic series? Well, it's a lot, since I'm on like level 30-something going onto 40. Levelling is fun. Tedious, but there's something about watching your opponents smack themselves silly because you invested in Reflex that's just so satisfying.

Other neopets stuff... I've gotten quite a bit of random events and chance games wins. The wheel of monotony seems to work for me. I left it on while I went to take my exam and my results were in by the time I got back. Got an avatar thingy, which is at least better than nothing or less points than I paid that I usually get at the Wheels of Enchantment and Mediocrity. *shrug*

Ah well... onto levelling...

What, do they really expect us to do these 3-hour labs without someone here to shoot stupid questions at? :p

Anyhow, the administrative problems are almost over. I've got all my classes switched over. Dropped Philo25 and added the two decals. My advisor was nice enough to waive the $10 charge for dropping Philo, probably taking pity on me. I got the residency issue settled too and now my bearfacts profile reads Resident. The only question now is if I still have to pay the $2000 on the next CARS bill - yeah, that's one big "only" right there. Just watch me start stalking the billing office people now.

On the other hand, part 1 of my cs162 project is due Friday. I'll probably be too busy pulling nighters to be stalking any admin offices for the next few days. As for ee141... don't talk to me about ee141. *thud*

...and where the heck is our TA?!

The last three days have been the suckiest... well, they've been really really bad. Hence why I haven't been updating my journal for like a week now.

First of all, the first phase of my CS162 term project came out. This the class that required five people working overtime for two weeks just to get through the first *homework*. As you can see, we're kind of dying over there in that class. I predict that 75% of my time and energies are going to be devoted to that class this semester. And that's including sleep.

I can rant on more about the sheer "ugh"-ness of that class, but I think I'll leave that up for a standalone rant while the injustices accumulate.

So EE141... that's the class which I have to turn in the homework for tomorrow at 5. The same homework I haven't even started yet due to CS162 and other stuff. Yeah. Three guesses at what I'm going to be stressing over tonight/tomorrow morning and the first two don't count.

EE122. Dropped it like a hot potato. After spending Monday and Tuesday morning tracking down my advisor. Grr. Stupid EECS drop-in hours.

Philosophy 25A. cashew mentioned the problem with this one. Though if she was unclear, let me just reiterate. I found out on Monday that this class was also crosslisted under Classics 36, a class I had already taken. Crosslisting basically means that they're the same class, just with a different name. Which means that if I take the class, I won't get any units for it; furthermore, if I get a lower grade than the previous grad I got on Classics36, the lower grade would overwrite my previous higher grade. Needlessly to say, not a good thing.

The problem with dropping the class outright is that the College of Engineering requires all students to take a minimum of 12 units per semester. Right now I have exactly 12. I can't drop anything unless I find another 4 units somewhere, which is what I'm currently trying to do with decal classes. However, this being the fourth week of classes already, I think you can all see why I'm so freaked out about all this. (Incidentally, I've already gone to my first decal class tonight and obtained 2 of my needed 4 units. The class was pretty cool, but I think I'll need to wait 'til all of this is resolved before I can truly appreciate, not to mention write about, it.)

BTW - dropping two classes and adding two classes will be costing me another $30 before this is over.

Speaking of cost, there's still the whole residency issue. When I went for my appointment on Monday, they couldn't find my file. *bangs head against table* So I had to fill in another one, and this weekend I'll need to rush back home and get a photocopy of my dad's documentation stuff. The lady I made my appointment says she can directly handle my case once I get the paperwork, and I can only hope that the whole residency issue will be finished by next Monday.

And finally, on top of that... I didn't eat yesterday, beyond a can of coke and a few handfuls of tortilla chips. Today, I had beef jerky and an apple danish for lunch and I'm having chips again for dinner. All because I simply have not the time or energy to cook. Plus I need to go shopping for groceries again. *sigh*

So yeah. Not a good week. At all.

Gah, kill me now. -_-

Okay, I went up to Cal today to deal with the whole overcharging me for registration thing... And ended up getting the big runaround. *grr*

First I went to the Office of the Registrar at Sproul Hall. They told me that the reason I was being charged the Non-resident fee is that my actual residency status is still "Pending" (as listed on Bearfacts). So until they resolve the issue and actually process my residency thingy, they'll be going ahead and charging for nonresidency. So basically, yes I do have to pay the non-resident fee until they finally figure out I'm a California resident. And *then* they'll refund my money.

Now, of course I'm not gonna pay like $9000 up front. They told me to contact the Billing and Payments office, but when I tried the phone (before and after lunch), I keep getting the busy signal. So I ended up running almost all the way across campus to University Hall and to their offices to figure out the deferment plan thing - basically I pay 1/5th of the total amount for every month of the semester. The only bright thing about this is that at least I don't have to pay anything for this month's installment yet, because it's covered under my loan (the loan that's *supposed* to pay the entire registration fee for a semester >_< ).

Then when I asked about what the heck was up with my residency status process, and they referred me to the Residency office... which was back in Sproul. When I get there, I find a sign on the door referring all residency issues to the Registrar office... which, by that time, was closed. Why the hell are these offices closing at friggin' THREE? *stabs*

And the worst thing is? They make you pay a $40 non-refundable fee to use the deferment plan. Which means they're going to be charging me $40 that I'm not getting back for *THEIR* delays, even after they figure out the original charge was wrong. *the b------*

Oh yeah, in case I'm worrying cashew, you might want to check your status on bearfacts under personal profile. If your residency status is "Pending", chances are they're overcharging you too.

Okay... I dunno if it's just my computer, but my backgrounds seem to have disappeared today. Cal Webdisk is also not letting me login, I so dunno if there's something wrong with them (Bearfacts seems to work just fine, so they can't have discontinued my service). Maybe I've hit a bandwith cap or something? They don't tell me. Grrr...

Anyhow, so I've signed up for a free image hosting service elsewhere and moved most of my backgrounds there. So now they work fine for me.

Of course, ossian is also using a front page that's linking to a background on my webdisk account, so I suggest you change it as well. You can find the picture here.

My suggestion, of course, is to sign up for your own free image hosting service (these pics are too large to be uploaded to GJ's service), such as walagata.com, which I'm currently using, or villagephotos.com, or anywhere else that offers free image hosting.

Anyway, whereever you put the images, you can change the link in the journal code by going to the bottom-most text box and looking for the line "http:// webdisk.berkeley.edu/ ~Tanith/ Aragorn.jpg" (w/o the spaces, anyhow) that ought to be near the top, and replacing it with the new url.