schools out
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hooray, schools out for the quarter....not sure how i did in the class because the final was so terrible...but it doesnt matter....school is over and i have a couple of weekends of fun now....hooray....lets just hope i break a B so i can get reimbursed

why was i not so disappointed with my final exam results? because i had an IM basketball game that afternoon...thats why! which brings me to my question of the post (btw, im going to have questions of the post from now on)

question
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if youre playing basketball with a girl, is it appropriate to play really hard? i ask because my team was playing a team of mostly girls, and i wasnt sure what to do....i ended up just running around and kinda half playing on defense....haha....i wouldnt care about playing hard if it was just pickup, because who cares...but this was a league game (hence, it mattered if we won kinda)...so any thoughts on this?

oh yeah, also, what about shaking hands of girls? its always a terribly awkward situation when im meeting a new girl because i dont know whether i should extend the hand o' friendship, or whether i should just do the little wave.....and so i usually use the wave as a fallback or react if she puts her hand out.....but cmon! there has to be some rules for this stuff.

marathon results
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hey, so remember when i signed up for the muir woods marathon on april 22nd? well, i have the results for me back already....how? because its an automatic disqualification, thats how....poor me....i spent so much time training, and then in the end, i stress fractured my leg (its right above the ankle this time....so at least its not exactly the same place as last time).....hooray, more bone scans, although i already know what it is because it hasnt healed in about 5 weeks and it pretty much feels exactly like last time.

anyways, i was able to run about 22 miles consecutively, so i guess thats an accomplishment.....although i wont really know if i couldve finished the marathon until next year i guess (mainly because it was supposed to be through the mountains)....i think i mainly broke my leg because i would play basketball every saturday morning, then rest a couple hours, then go running for > 15 miles each time).....that and the fact i barely ran during the week = broken leg time....so let this be a lesson, dont do that..haha

so i actually am quite disappointed, because if you remember from a couple xanga posts ago, this was one of my goals....and couldnt do it.....ill probably start training again in 9 months, so ill be able to run it next year hopefully

not sure if playing basketball in the lockheed league is smart with a broken leg, but i remember i was playing basketball at uiuc with a broken leg a couple years back.....if i was forced, i could actually probably run a couple miles, but nowhere near long enough to actually finish a marathon.

anywasy....im tired now....sleep time...maybe ill finish this post some other time

So, its midnight right now and I just cant fall asleep (probably because I stayed up till like 2am yesterday night doing homework)....anyways, time to update the xanga....and for ease of reading, ill break it up into sections like olde times

School Sucks
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after just about a month since school started, i already hate it...haha....life was so much more fun back before school started....i could play computer games all night, or go running till like 8/9, or just play basketball anytime i wanted....well, now that school assigns out homework like no other (it takes me pretty much the entire weekend to do each homework set), my life has taken a turn for the worst....and to top it off, i have a midterm this thursday that i feel like im going to fail (probably because i havent been able to follow the lectures for the last couple of weeks, no matter how many times i watch them)....oh woe is me..haha.....whatever though, if i get a C, ill just show the professor my muscles...then that C will magically turn into an F and i can officially give up on grad school after one crappy class..haha

having money doesnt suck
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yup...being able to buy stuff is pretty excellent....i did end up buying the bosu ball that i alluded to in my previous post....next time you see me, dont be surprised if im a balancing machine..haha....i also didnt buy the creative vision m, but opted for the creative vision w (pretty much a psp size video player)....the plan was for me to watch video lectures while on the treadmill....well, that didnt work because the stands on the treadmills that are meant for books wont hold my video player....note to self, dont be an idiot next time..haha....but the good news is, i can still watch them while im on the elliptical, so i guess its not a total failure...haha

i also waited in line a couple months ago and bought myself a wii.....its pretty fun, although you get somewhat depressed when your sitting in your apartment all alone and youre playing wii...haha....sounds like a dream come true for a third grader, but when youre a 22 year old, its pretty depressing..haha......i play only occasionally now though and for only about an hour at a time, just when im really bored, so its slightly less depressing.....also, the amount of free time i have to play is significantly less because stupid school is taking up all my non-work, non-basketball time..haha

oh yeah, i also moved into a smaller, more aerodynamic place.....it seems like i have more room now because i can actually put my stuff into the living room...so i dont need to have my gigantic swiss ball rolling around my bedroom....i can just keep it in the living room...hooray

living alone is different....i can get up and watch tv/do jumping jacks whenever i want..haha....and i can arrange it exactly how i like it, so i guess thats good.....just gets boring sometimes, so negative points there

oh yeah! the biggest change of my working life happened too.....drumroll...i bought a car...hooray.....its an 07 corolla sport....i chose the corolla sport because the corolla les are built for old people....im not old, hence, i had to buy the sport model..haha...also, maybe if i drive fast enough, the spoiler on the sport model will act like a gigantic wing, and my car will become a flying car.....yup, once i get the nuances of flying my car around, no need to ever sit in traffic anymore....not like those suckers in their non-spoiler cars

but anyways, having a car means no more running around everywhere....sooo nice to not have to do that anymore....i can go get groceries whenever i want, i can eat like a human being (as opposed to eating cereal crumbs because i would be too lazy to go run to a restaurant)....although, i definitely see a drop in my fitness level now that i dont have to run all over the place....haha....oh well, being able to drive is much better than being fit

losing my netfiles mildly sucks, but the amount of sucking is negligible that it doesnt affect calculations
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yup, i am officially losing access to all my uiuc computer accounts on the 6th of february....haha...so you have until tomorrow to harvest anything you want from my netfiles account (http://netfiles.uiuc.edu/ryhsiao/www)

not really sure what you would want from there because its mainly just my crappy engineering ethics papers or lab reports that i had to transfer to myself (this was before i got my beautiful thumb drive)....oh i guess if youre a student at uiuc, you might want to get some of htat stuff, but for the general public, that is all trash..haha

pictures make my post seem like it has more substance
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my new place (kitchen shot)....and if you read this ravi, notice how well im taking care of your mattress and metal chair..haha

tv corner of my apartment....notice the wii next to the tv and the hammock chair....thats how you know youre in a really classy place...when theres a bright blue hammock chair instead of a couch and a nintendo next to the tv

the bedroom shot of my apartment....notice how i was kicking the swiss ball around while taking pictures..haha...theres a bathroom area too, but i figured i took too many pictures of bathrooms at my last place, so you probably dont want to see more..haha

and finally, a couple of pictures of me at wild animal park in san diego (i went there during the holidays to visit friends...i would write more about it, but i think that would be a post in itself)....notice how happy i was back before school started!.....if you want to imagine what i look like now, just go into microsoft paint, invert the smiles into frowns, and there you go!

ok....time to sleep......stay tuned for my next update....it may happen tomorrow! (or maybe in another 5 months)

California is still fun

so today, i decided to make a new xanga post all by myself with no outside input because thats just how great a person i am.....definitely not to give some bored accenture people stuff to read..haha

anyways, things here have been going well for the most part....whenever potential drama arises, i just kinda ignore it and let it resolve itself...haha....its surprisingly effective, since i barely feel stress about anything now....working life >> college life.....on that note, i will be moving out of my current posh apartment and moving into a single apartment come december 20th.....the whole incident is too difficult to type into xanga, so ill just let you imagine what happened...haha (youre probably going to imagine something a lot worse than what actually happened...but keep in mind neither of us have girlfriends so it couldnt have been that bad..haha)

oh yeah! big news! guess who got accepted into stanford...yup, thats right, your very own roger hsiao.....ill be starting winter term, so it should be good stuff.....i plan on taking only one class per term (so i can still play basketball like crazy..haha)....and my first class will be ::drumroll ::....digital communications I...thats right, the class i dropped because it conflicted with all my interviews senior year...haha....

yup...speaking of basketball, i started playing every day pretty much after work.....its actually good because i can actually notice myself get quicker on the court and just moving and running the court better.....all thats about to change though because in a week im going back to IL (actually, leaving on friday for a one week vacation).

why is it going to change? because in IL, im going to eat at portillos, old country buffet, and of course, white castle.....its going to be epic.....overall, since leaving college, ive lost about 60 pounds (not that impressive since thats about how much i gained senior year too..haha)....but lo! im going to gain 10 back right there.....cant wait!

hmmm....i guess thats about it...haha....man! my life seems boring...but really, it seems like im always busy (not busy busy like school work, but more busy as in im always doing something....not just sitting and watching tv..haha)

oh wait! im also looking very seriously at buying a car now (haha....after 6 months of running wherever i needed to go, i finally broke and decided to get one)......im trying to decide between a 07 corolla or a prius.....the prius costs a bit more, but it seems like itd be cooler.....a lot of my downtime is spent reading reviews or reading how to negotiate with car salesmen.....definitely not looking forward to that experience, but i figure i can just waste their time until they stop trying to rip me off...haha....its not like i absolutely need a car now, just thought itd be cool to have.

and finally, onto stuff that i am thinking about buying now.....

(1) Creative Labs 30 GB Black Zen Vision: M
This would be cool mainly because my old mp3 player is starting to crap out on me....that and it was also 256 MB, bought when that was top of the line...haha.....but yeah, i did debate whether i should get the microsoft zune, but that and the ipod video both cant play xvid or divx videos, so that would be pointless for me.....ill probably wait around a little more before i buy this because i want to read some more reviews, but hopefully ill have it before next year

(2) Bosu ball
yup....ive played with these at the lockheed gym, and man! theyre pretty effective.....too bad theyre so expensive though (~100-150 dollars for one).....and id be more willing to pull the trigger if it was something that seemed a lot more complex, but its just half a ball on a platform....cmon!

hmmm....has anyone else noticed that my xanga entries suck now? haha....yup....no need to comment about it and tell me since i already know

Garmin Forerunner

  so today, the garmin forerunner 205 was delivered to my apartment and oh, how excited i was

i envisioned taking it out of the box and running with it immediately, but alas, i had to charge it

anyways....2 hours later, i decided to do a trial run with it (i didn't want to go all out because my toe still hurts quite a bit, and especially running with my nike frees....even though the nike free is probably my favorite shoe and it helps running a lot, it doesnt really provide much support, so if you try running with an injury...oh man, youll feel it)

so since my canon rebate check came in, i decided to go and deposit that in the bank of america, and maybe go to the frys thats right next to it....i ran to the bank, but because i only had like 30 minutes before it closed when i started running, i didnt have time to really play around with the forerunner before i went runnign with it....so sadly, i didnt set it to train for a certain pace, nor did i tell it to stop recording when i was stopped (at stoplights, etc)....anyways, i get there, deposit my check, and take the same route back (i wanted to see how well the two paths matched to kinda gauge the accuracy)

and i get home, and i plug it into its nice little dock (its got a USB dock which charges it through the computer USB port and also uploads all your data to its little program)

heres a screenshot of my analyzed run (or if you want a big version of it http://netfiles.uiuc.edu/ryhsiao/www/Running.jpg) :

so as you can see from the path, they line up perfectly, and it also shows where i cross the streets, etc....so its very accurate....and i likes it....and basically, you can scroll around on the little graph on the bottom to see how fast you were going at exact moments....and you can actually pinpoint where the traffic lights that i had to stop at are by just positioning at the pace peaks and seeing where they are on the map.....pretty cool stuff....also, you can kinda see where i had to hustle because the lights were turning yellow by seeing the areas where the pace goes to something like 5 minutes/mile, since i had to sprint

also, garmin acquired a website called motion based which uses googlemaps to make your run look nicer (as well as providing other information like windspeed, temperature, etc.)....so i made an account there and imported my data.....heres a screenshot of MotionBased (http://netfiles.uiuc.edu/ryhsiao/www/MotionBased.JPG)

pretty nifty eh? the paths line up all nice again.....MotionBased pretty much just gives the same information as the garmin training software on my computer, but i guess it makes it look nicer so its all good

so there we have it, this is what you get if you buy the forerunner....its probably a pretty specialized market that they cater to (people who want to run and get better, but don't have anyone to push them/run with them...or really nerdy runners)....but oh well

ill probably post some more pictures of me wearing it later...but i dont want to deal with my camera, etc now

update
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so since its been like 2-3 months since i last looked at my xanga, i decided that its time for an update

life is going pretty much as it has been.....not much has changed, but i think thats a good thing since im pretty happy with how things are going.....i have gotten busier lately because ive been reapplying to stanford and had to redo the application......but thats done now so all is well....im just kinda hoping that their eyes glaze over as they look at my transcript and they dont see the C in senior design..haha

work has been going well....im getting stuff done....and ive actually started to get more involved with work people....in that every monday i play basketball for a couple of hours (at least) and then i go do other things in the lockheed fitness center on wednesdays, thursdays, and every other fridays.....and then on the days i dont stay at lockheed after work, i usually just go out for a run (although, this is going to increase now that i have my forerunner...but more on that later)...oh, and ive started biking to work everyday too....so my bike is actually pretty useful.....on the days when i wake up and im extremely lazy, ill still take the light rail, but those are fewer now

also, ive kinda made some goals for myself to do before i turn 25....one for each year (somewhat all involving sports):
- before i turn 23, i want to have finished in the top 33% in a marathon
- before i turn 24, i want to have finished in the top 33% in a triathlon
- before i turn 25, i want to have gone skydiving alone (not one of those jumps where the instructor is also hanging onto you)

and if i get all those done, i want to compete in one of those insane 100 mile races (the ultramarathons)......right now, my limit is about 18 miles (but i usually injure something when i do those....like last time it was my toe....which still hasnt fully healed...but i think itll be fine)....i still have a long ways to go, but i also have a lot of time too

i also have a lot less admiration than i did before to people who talk about how much weight they lost like it was some huge accomplishment...haha....like my dad was always yelling at me and telling me how hard he worked to lose weight and how i had to too.....well, just like ive always said, if theres no homework to do all night long and you arent dying from sleep deprivation, dropping weight is ridiculously easy....and while i do run pretty hard and play a lot of basketball, its not like it was THAT hard (certainly not as hard or as stressful as all nighters in lab to do senior design...haha)

ok...but anyways, back to the running.....i officially ordered the garmin forerunner 205 (the newest product from garmins line of gps training aids)......its actually somewhat boring now to run, because i don't like to spend 2 hours running, but then i also dont think i improve....so thats why i finally cracked and bought the forerunner......i will be making much use of the virtual trainer, which lets me essentially race against myself (it saves your last pace and can make a "virtual partner" that you can race)....hopefully, this will let me get faster, which is good because i run relatively slow on my long runs and if i want to meet my age 23 goal, i have to get a lot faster.....it hasnt arrived yet (its scheduled to be delivered tomorrow!), but ill post a little review and pictures afterwards....ill also be going back to libertyville from nov 17-nov 25, so if you are from libertyville and want to try to run with it to see what its like, ill definitely have it then

and now, i bid you adieu because i am sleepy