Today and yesterday I spent cleaning up my room and car. I’ve dumped all the packaging I have accumulated in the car and room, sorted all the paper, and brought all the bottles and cans in for recycling. Got more than $5 for the bottles (5¢ each).
After recycling, I went to the Toyota dealership where I bought my car for a 6-month service. Because I only drove 2,900 miles, the service included only an oil change and general inspection. However, they took a long time to perform the service, so instead of paying $28, I got the service and materials completely free.
Now I’m back the office. Later today I’ll go to another boardgaming session in San Jose (30min drive from here).
March 29th, 2008 at 02:04
Posted by
epsalon |
USA, General |
one comment
That’s it. The final countdown. I have less than a month left till I leave for Stanford. So, what am I doing these days? I’m sick and tired, that is, I’m ill and fatigued. Probably the common cold. It started mildly, but now I really can’t do anything useful, like grade exercises or write papers.
There are still many things to be done in the upcoming month. My parents will return from China next week and will help with the non-academic organizational matters. Until then, I’ll remain in bed until I feel better.
August 18th, 2007 at 11:18
Posted by
epsalon |
USA, General |
5 comments
Yesterday I paid and got a letter confirming that I have completed all requirements of my degree and faxed that letter to Stanford.
I am not used to not having dorms nor an office, but having a car, so I didn’t bring all that I needed. Specifically, I didn’t bring my laptop. As I had an event that evening I had to burn most of the day. I decided to go to the pool (even though I forgot to bring my pool card) and swim a bit.
After the pool I went to the CS faculty hoping to meet some friends. Which I did. Then, I joined him to the games night (I forgot to bring my games with me, but there were lots of games there). I especially liked the game Dork Tower, with all the cute illustrations, 3D tower, and interesting gameplay. So, I played it twice (with two different groups). I didn’t win, but it was fun anyway.
August 14th, 2007 at 12:21
Posted by
epsalon |
Academia, General |
one comment
Yesterday I have passed the most difficult exam in all my PhD: The cleanliness test for my dorm room. And I did it all by myself.
I have always avoided doing cleaning work due to lack of know-how and experience. I usually opted for easier solutions, such as getting help from my parents or hiring a maid.
At start, this task was no different. My plan was to ask the maid that regularly cleans the dorm apartment on Wednesdays to clean my room as well. However, it turns out that she works every other Wednesday, not including this one. Moreover, it turns out that if I return the dorm room starting from August 1st (Wednesday) I need to pay for another half-month. To make matters worse, I discovered all this only on July 30th and could not find a maid in such a short notice.
My backup plan was to have the maid clean the room next Wednesday and pay the extra half-month fee. However, I decided I can try and avoid this expense. I tried to handle the task on my own. Using information I gathered from watching others do this task, and online how-to sources, I managed to clean the room enough to pass the cleanliness test required to return the room, and yesterday at noon it was all behind me.
This is the first time I have passed a cleaning test all by myself and I feel proud. Some people used to tell me “You don’t need a PhD in order to clean your room”. Well, now that I (almost) have a PhD I can tell you that I might not need a PhD to clean my room, but I probably need to be able to clean my room to get the PhD…
P.S. You may have noticed the new Google ads I have on my blog. According to the terms of service I am not allowed to encourage you to click on this ads in any way. However, I am allowed to inform you that I get money based on the number of times people click on the ads. If you do not like these ads, I recommend installing adblock on .
August 1st, 2007 at 13:15
Posted by
epsalon |
General |
3 comments
