yeah, i'm in on a saturday at 11:00 pm. not in the mood for partying at all, but i did drop by ambika's birthday party for a wee bit. happy birthday to her =)

i went to chef chu's for dinner with my sib family today...definitely good food. i was wondering what the waiter was thinking though, when five asian students come in for dinner and don't order or speak in chinese at all. maybe something like, "kids these days don't remember their roots and can't even speak their language" or something along those lines. i'm just not confident enough in my shaky cantonese and mandarin to say anything =P i need to fix that...the only way to become more fluent in languages is to utilize and practice them more. ah well...maybe i'll make that my new year's resolution. i never had resolutions before because i never really saw the point--my pessimistic side keeps telling me that i won't keep to the resolution anyway, so might as well not make any. i've got to work on those goal-making skills =P

dave, henry, and i went to the stanford symphonic orchestra concert afterward. (i also need to work on calling henry by "henry" and not "trevor"...i have that odd problem for some reason >_< ) albert bought the ticket for me, so that was cool...he's an awesome trumpet player =) the first set was "chinese folk dance suite", which was composed by chen yi, who was actually in the audience. it was really interesting and original. the second movement had all the members in the orchestra singing syllables in almost a voice percussionistic way (i don't know if percussionistic is a word, but humor me) that created this really cool soft background sound for the violin solo. after intermission was mahler's symphony no. 5, which was great. maybe just a bit too long for me because i'm not too knowledgable about classical music...almost dozed off during the third movement, scherzo, which is ironic because that was one of the faster portions. but i controlled myself, and the fourth movement, adagietto, was incredibly tender and sweet. albert had some great solo trumpet parts too...during the funeral march beginning. the finale was quite rousing of course =) makes me wish i weren't so ignorant about classical music...but then again i wish i weren't ignorant about a lot of things =P i really love going to concerts of all sorts though. live music really gets you emotionally involved in the songs, and helps you appreciate it so much more.

i'm not as much fun these days anymore. =( it's probably the dark threat of finals looming overhead. must study, must study! and i definitely have the sniffles now. i always get sick sometime during finals...i think my immune system gets depressed and unresponsive during finals studying time too. oh well, "this time will pass" and winter break will be wonderful as always =)