Chocolate Dipped Strawberries & Casablanca: The Obligatory Valentine's Day Post

Now that prelims, lab reports, and résumés are out of the way, it's finally time to relax in post-valentine's day style.  This year that means Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, and, if time permits, Lauren Bacall.  Oh, and the biggest, fanciest strawberries I've ever seen:



These are so exciting.  YAY =) !!!

I like holidays.  Well, I guess I'd like any excuse to eat strawberries and watch movies.

But Ryan, that's not the true meaning behind Valentine's Day!  Do you even know who St. Valentine is?

No, I can't say that I do.  And it's easy to argue that all holidays have become so hyped and commercialized that they've lost all religious/cultural/historical significance.  But you don't have to be religious to express good will in December, you don't have to be an American citizen to be thankful in November, and you certainly don't have to have a relationship to feel loved in February.  If the general idea behind Valentine's day is an expression of love, whether through Hallmark greeting cards, heart shaped jewelry, or simply a platonic hug, how can that be a bad thing?

Well, for one, it puts unnecessary pressure on people to do something extra special just because the rest of society has jumped on the holiday bandwagon.  Also, it serves as an obvious and painful reminder to single people that, yes, they still are single.

Clichéd as it is, there's a lot of truth to the saying, "It's the thought that counts," and I hadn't really believed it until relatively recently.  Sure, your options increase with your paycheck, but if you're going to spend money, it should be for good reason, something better than "it was the most expensive item in the display case."  If your significant other is going to leave you over a missing Valentine's day gift, then it probably wasn't going to work out anyway.  I believe most of the pressure is self-induced; most people want to do something special for others, not the other way around.  The pressure isn't necessarily to be conventionally romantic and buy extravagant gifts (although that works for some), but to be specifically thoughtful towards your partner.  And if Valentine's Day forces us to put a little more time and thought into our love lives, then it's probably a good thing that this holiday exists.

Admittedly, the singles face a different world of pressures.  These seem not so self-induced, and the best solution for some would be to lock themselves indoors and wait out the day.  But I think everyone should fall in love at some point during their lives.  I'm not suggesting that people run out into the streets and start making out, but to me, at least, it's nice to be reminded that true love exists.  The fact that those close to me have found the best feeling in the world makes me optimistic.  It's when the world falls out of love that we need to start worrying.

Then if the concept of love is so grand, doesn't Valentine's Day reduce it to an uninspired celebration?  Hearts and roses are now nothing more than advertised symbols of artificial love.  True love is year-round; if people are in love, they shouldn't need a special day to remind them of it.

Agreed.  It's not a day when love needs to be proven.  It's not a day when buying a bouquet of roses provides amnesty against past and future infractions.  The point is, lovers don't need Valentine's Day.  Sure, in an ideal world there'd be spontaneous acts of love during the other 364 days of the year as well.  Truth is, the real world moves ahead at breakneck speed, and it's easy to take others for granted with the expectation that there will always be time later.  When Valentine's Day comes around, why not indulge in the romantic image?

Fair enough.  One last question.  You realize you've been arguing with yourself for the past hour, right?

...

Damage control.

My apologies for any phone related incidents during the early morning of February 2nd, EST.  Apparently, my roommate Nick is scared by sudden noises.  So when I went to bed, leaving him alone in the living room playing video games, I should have known better than to leave my cell phone on the coffee table.  It turns out, he was startled by a phone call and began pushing random buttons to make it stop (seriously, not making this up).  Also, my text message input is set to iTap, Motorola's predictive text technology, requiring you to press one button per letter instead of having to cycle through each letter (e.g. pressing 7926 for ryan instead of 777999866).  This concept confuses Nick.  So when his random button pushing brings him to the compose text message screen, he decides to write some messages.  Unfortunately for Nick (but probably fortunate for me), his unfamiliarity with iTap means that he doesn't manage more than a "Gigket" before he starts spamming random people.  Anyway, to sum up, sorry if I missed a call / prank called / random texted anyone.

Thank goodness for Nick.  He keeps me on my toes.

EDIT:  Grocery shopping today AKA stocking up on snacks.  Yogurt, fruit cups, mint milano cookies, cereal bars, kleeber sandwich crackers, cheez-its, popcorn, triscuits, and chocolate covered mint oeros.  =) !!!!!!

"If you ignore the math, quantum mechanics is quite simple really." - Professor Kan

My silicon electronics professor is crazy.  He began class on Tuesday by asking what rumors, if any, we had heard about the course and began to list them all on the board under the heading RUMORS.  The list included "very, very hard," "tons of work," "intensive," and "nightmare of a final project."  He then nodded and looked thoughtfully at the list.  Then he screamed, "These are not rumors, these are facts!" and crossed out RUMORS, replacing it with FACTS.

I later found out that he was a second lieutenant in the Taiwanese Air Force -- kinda makes sense now.  On the plus side, I really like the material (so far) and his research goals, probably to the point where I am really interested in joining his group.  He seems like a friendly, energetic guy, extremely passionate and knowledgeable about the field.  It also seems like he expects a lot from his students and can be considered a slave driver at times.  His past students have gone on to work for semiconductor companies such as AMD, Intel, Spansion, and Micron Technology, which is probably what I want to do as well.  I will visit him on Tuesday to learn my chances of working with him.  I think I have at least one thing working in my favor: apparently he was one of the people that reviewed my graduate application and believed that I would be a good match for the school.  Let's hope he hasn't changed his mind.

I had dinner with a bunch of M. Eng students, one of whom was Ukranian.  It was fun talking to him because of his accent and the analogies that got warped in translation.

For example:
<ukranian accent>"My engine was leaking more oil than a stabbed pig." </ukranian accent>

HAHA.