My very first YouTube video

For Eng 201, I made a video about Murphy (the cat). I played it today in class, and a copy is on YouTube, but it's not showing yet.




To all the people who saw the video in class today, the video was taking in my room, and I am sorry about the mess. The video was taken during spring break, and I just had a shopping spree then, that's why there are so many bags in the room...

One more step towards Graduation

I sold my car today. It's another step towards leaving Madison, but I am consoling myself with the fact that I am coming back next March to visit my friends. The funny thing was, when the buyer came to get the car, he found a shotgun shell in the backseat and he asked me how it got there. I have absolutely no idea...

On Saturday, my friends organized a farewell dinner for the 7 of us who are graduating. I thought it was a casual get-together among friends, but I was persuaded to dress up for the dinner. So I did, and then I went to the venue of the dinner. Just as I was feeling self-conscious and over-dressed, I saw surprise number 1 of the night. I met the grad student that I am working for in the lab outside the dinner venue. I thought it was a coincidence, then he told me he was invited to the dinner, but he's not sure what's going on. When I went inside the place, surprise number 2 was my academic advisor and his family. They were invited to the dinner too.

There were more surprises as the night progresses. My friends (those who are not graduating) made a few videos reminiscing the good times that we had. It was sad and touching at the same time. Then the organizers of the evening revealed that they invited my grad student and academic advisor because they know that I will miss them after I leave. It was very sweet of them, but at the same time, it was was a bit strange because my grad student and advisor has never seen me out of the school setting. In school, I a always dressed in t-shirts and jeans, but that day, I was decked out in a short skirt, boots with heels and a shirt that was just the teeniest bit revealing. Still, I am glad they came and it really was a night to remember.

I'm almost leaving...

I got a mouse for my laptop a few days ago. I have always been using the touchpad on my laptop and while it was functional, the touchpad is not as effective as using a mouse. Say, use the touchpad to play Diablo II, or WoW...that would be a nightmare. After I got my mouse, I spent the first 2 hours playing solitaire and freecell. It was much more fun using a mouse to play.

I checked my calendar today, and realized (with some horror) school is ending in 2 weeks. I still have so many assignements to do, and since I am leaving Madison, I have to start selling my stuff as well. I am most worried about selling my car; I'm not sure I can find a buyer for it. Then I have to deal with all the books and notes accumulated from 3 years of classes, throwing them away seems such a waste. So many things to do, so little time. At least I've already booked my air tickets...

I am going to miss Madison after I leave, afterall I have called this place home for the past 3 years. I am just hoping I can come back here for grad school.

Undergraduate Symposium

The Undergraduate Symposium was at Memorial Union on Wednesday. I was scheduled to present my poster during the second session. When I went for my time slot, there weren't many people around to look at the posters displayed there. I was expected to stay there for 1.5 hours, but since there was no one looking at my posters, I started walking around to look at other posters. Some posters were quite impressive, and it seems like the presenters have managed to do a lot of work. Others were a bit more simplistic.

A few of my friends came to MU to support me, maybe because they knew there wouldn't be a lot of people around during lunch time...

When I looked at my poster, I find it hard to believe I have done 2 years of research. What is surprising is that I have results to show for my 2 years of work, because I remember a lot experiments not working, machinery not working , funny results etc...


Me with my poster

GRE!!!

I took the GRE subject test on Saturday. Considering that I am definitely applying to graduate school, I should take this test at this time to make it in time for applications, even though most grad schools don't make them compulsory anymore. Just optional, or strongly recommended. But still, I thought I should just try the test.

The one I took was Biochemistry, Cell and Molecular Biology. I had to dig up my notes from some of sophomore science courses. I only started studying on wednesday, cos I had an exam on tuesday...so cramming 2-3 years of notes in 3 days was a challenge.

The test had a lot of questions, not that hard if you know your facts at the back of your hard, extremely difficult if you have not been working consistently and crammed for it instead. Yeah, so I was overwhelmed by the amount of questions. When I walked out of the test center, my thoughts were...I can't believe I paid $130 to go through that...

Archery and Memory Loss

Last week, I decided to try my hand at archery. My friend was from the archery club, so he managed to let us into the place early to try a few rounds. It was at the barn near Babcock. The bow was so cool, but getting the string on required more strength than I have. When I finally got the bow ready, and everything setup (it took almost 35 minutes), I kept missing the target by a few inches. It's frustrating, but shooting arrows at a target board is fun too, haha...

The most amazing/freaky thing happened to me on Sunday morning...I sort of lost of memory, and I wasn't even drinking before that. I fell asleep on Sunday morning 3 am after doing some reading, and I set my alarm clocks to 6 am. I wanted to wake up early and start working on my assignments. When I woke up, it was 12 noon. Definitely later than I wanted myself to wake up. I checked my alarm clock, it was turned off. My second clock was turned off too. When I called my mum to tell her about it, she said she called me at around 8 am, and I picked up the phone. The scary thing is, I have no memory of either answering the phone or turning off my alarm clocks. I thought things like that only happen to people who were drunk the night before??

Open Media Project

I am excited about the Open Media Project. I had a few ideas for it, but finally decided on doing a video clip. I was inspired by the numerous pet videos on YouTube, so I think making one of my own would be an interesting experience.

To make a video, of course I would need a video camera. In case anyone needs one, College Library can loan one to you for 3 days at a time. If you intend to keep the physical copy of the MiniDV tape, you would need to buy a tape to replace College library's.

Then I need a pet to videotape. Getting a cat to cooperate for a video is near to impossible. He stops whatever he's doing to stare at me whenever I turn the videocam on. So now, I have a large deal of footage featuring a cat staring at the camera and not moving.

However, I think the hardest part is editing the footage to piece together a video. I haven't exactly started on that yet. I tried using iMovie, but it's challenging for someone who doesn't know her way around a mac. Does anyone know of any easy-to-use video editing program that can be used on a PC?