on roommates.

ince talking about roommates seems to be all the rage in blogs these days, i have decided to jump on the bandwagon.

today i wanted to go costume shopping with a couple of my roommates... but i couldn't because i had a meeting with two other people, one of whom is one of my other roommates. so i arrived at the meeting place twenty minutes late only to find that i was the first one to get there. not the sign of a very good group. ten minutes later, another group member arrived and we started "working". working basically consisted of me complaining about how the model the professor drew up was wrong and then me coming up a couple of axioms i thought should hold if our model was going to make any sense. i figured that would be enough for the night and ended our meeting.

as for what kind of roommate i am, i think i'm the kind of roommate that kate and kami seem to like to complain about. i stay up late and sleep in, play horrible music, and watch weird girly TV shows. for example, i've been banging away at my keyboard while my roommate across the room has been sleeping for about 4 hours now (i change the posting date/time so lauren won't think i'm a weirdo, but it's about 4:30am right now).

so, i guess the question is: should i change? should i appease the redtree gods and go to bed at a more reasonable hour? or should i stop watching SATC? intentions, shmentions. i want answers!

skipping class...

i went to my statistical quality control lecture at noon today... but since i had yet to eat a real meal (unless you count dessert) since lunch from the day before, i decided to sneak out to grab something to eat. my friend, reid, decided to join me as he does not particularly like this class. so i danced out of the room, leaving my belongings at my seat, giving the appearance of a bathroom break. reid followed a minute or two later, under the same pretense. so once we were out, we went through a rather tortured process of getting food. one place didn't have what i wanted, so i went to another place, which was closed due to the water shutoff, so i just grabbed something from the bookstore. anyway, after a rather uninspiring lunch, we headed back to lecture 10 minutes before the class ended. the perfect crime... unfortunately, it didn't go quite as perfectly has we had planned. apparently, the professor had ended class a few minutes after we had left, claiming that he was "tired". at least the professor wasn't there when we went to collect our belongings. i can only hope that he did not notice the two sets of learning materials missing their supposed learners.

(a victory for michigan)^2

today, the purdue chapter of IIE (institute of industrial engineers) came to ann arbor for the football game. the michigan chapter here set up a tailgate to greet them. there was good food, two kegs, and fun people. what more could you ask for?

before long, the purdue group challenged us michigan kids to a competitive game of flip cup. i had never played this game before, but having heard about it in another productive friday, i could hardly say no. so seven purdue IE's and seven michigan IOE's lined up at a table to face off. the premise of this game is simple. the teammate first in line must drink a given amount of liquid (preferably beer) and then place the empty cup face up, such that it hangs over the edge of the table. the player's task then is to flip the cup over so that it lands facing down. once this has been accomplished, the next player in line proceeds to drink and perform the same task. the team that finishes first wins. after losing the first round, the michigan IOE team notched several wins in a row. the final score was approximately 7-2 michigan (too many michigan wins to count in the madness).

the flip cup challenge was merely a preview of what was to come in the michigan-purdue game. suffice it to say that michigan stomped on purdue and i was happy and celebrated with victors cognac.

free dinner and free rides

this evening i went to a GM thing to grab some free dinner and listen to a guy talk about his career path. kinda interesting, but afterward, i was rather happy to see that they had brought a couple of toys for us to play with.

first, is the chevy SSR. i didn't think i would like this car very much. who wants a hybrid truck/roadster? but the sound of a 6.0 liter v8 engine soon put things into perspective. i was pleasantly surprised by it, though the styling is still way too funky for my tastes.

then came the cadillac XLR, a direct competitor to the car i want, the SL500. they actually let us climb in and play around with a running engine, so i hung out in the car for a few minutes. pressed the button that made the hard top unfold itself so i wouldn't have to deal with the stares of other people. very cool. interior was nice, as was to be expected, and i got to play with GM's "keyless-go" system. i'm not sure what GM calls it, but instead of a key, you have a key fob that just needs to be in the somewhere in cockpit before you can press a button to start the car. overall, i thought it was a nicer car than i had originally given it credit for, but again, i'm not a big fan of its styling other than the shiny metal grill.

so those cars looked pretty cool, but any car looks pretty cool if you've been using two legs for transportation for as long as i have. they haven't quite swayed me over to buying an american car. but it's nice to know that at least one american company is going to be able to compete.

"I'm lovin it"

i don't eat mcdonald's very often--a couple of times a year maybe. i'm not a big fan of their stuff and try to avoid it whenever possible. their food looks great on tv and in the pictures on the menu, but somehow i'm always let down when i get my real food. yet, in spite of all of this, i feel an urge to go out and buy a big mac.

why? because of monopoly of course! i know it doesn't make much sense. the likelihood of me winning anything big is practically nothing. but for some reason, i like to play the monopoly game that mcdonald's has. must be something about the little stickers that look like title deed cards. and this time, you also get a best buy gift certificate every time you get large fries. i even have a game board to stick all of my properties on! right now i have 4 properties, including park place, so if you have boardwalk, i'm willing to make a deal. i can offer you oriental ave & states ave, and will grant you immunity on dark blue into perpetuity.

i see rough times in store for my stomach...

corporate strategy: diversification

today i was struggling to stay awake in the library as i was reading a case study and some articles for my corporate strategy class. actually, i did fall asleep. so i hope i didn't snore and annoy anyone studying. however, i probably did end up annoying people when i started laughing out loud when i was actually reading. wise words from the authors on corporate diversification:

"Diversification is like sex. Its attractions are obvious, often irresistible. Yet the experience is often disappointing."

perhaps i should look to my business school textbooks more often for advice on sex.

speaking of corporate strategies... i believe i have made a serious corporate blunder. apparently, i don't quite know how to use this stupid interview sign up thing that michigan has outsourced to monstertrak. it seems as though i have missed out on signing up for a couple interviews. so much for finding a job... silly me for thinking that they would implement something easy to use. only took me 4.25 years to figure out.

SATC

i've been watching SATC recently... (for my less cultured readers, SATC = Sex And The City) it certainly helps to start from the beginning, so i kinda have a better idea of what is going on. i'm on season 3. i think i like charlotte the best. she's the most attractive girl of the bunch and just seems like a nice girl overall.

what i don't get is why carrie likes mr. big. yea, he's rich and good looking or whatever, but everything that comes out of his mouth sounds so trite. "absofuckinglutely"!??!?! honestly, would any girl like a guy who said that word in that context? maybe i should try to be more like him. of course, i still have to work on the rich and good looking part i will admit, but i can go around saying absofuckinglutely. of course, i don't quite have a car to be in when i say it either.

when i watch SATC with girls, the topic of carrie's clothes inevitably comes up. girls always comment on how weird her clothes look. now i'll be the first to admit that i don't know much about clothes... but i never really thought they looked all that strange. that is, until i started watching the series a lot recently. perhaps i have been watching too much SATC? can there really be such a thing?

(cut to clips of random new yorkers commenting on watching too much SATC)

on onions and watches.

this evening, i was making dinner and cutting up some onion when i started crying. i tried closing my eyes, but put a slight damper on the actual useful cutting. i took a break from chopping onions to wipe away the tears. then i thought, real men don't cry! so i stopped crying and took it like a man. which meant that i chopped them as fast as i could and leaned backwards away from them. though my onion chopping technique probably isn't the most elegant solution, it gets the job done.

in addition to making dinner, i also decided to buy my first ever mechanical watch. i've wanted a certain automatic watch for a while now. but before i go out and spend a ton of money on one, i can try this cheapo automatic watch out to see if i can live with the decreased accuracy associated with having a mechanical watch. the watch movement is actually pretty unsophisticated. there is a day/date feature, but that's pretty much the only complication. strangely, there is no hack feature, nor can i wind it manually. oh well, we'll see how the watch is in 2 weeks maybe. i'm excited!

advice time...

okay, i need some input from my friends. please post a comment or email me.

i've finally decided to be like bru and get my own real website. what i need to do is decide what it should be. here are some possibilities...
www.masteryao.com
www.yaocheng.com (about to expire?)
www.nihaoyao.com
www.yaosucks.com
once i get it, i'm planning on moving my blogg there, but only after i get the chance to have a similar comment system up and running. that will probably take a while since i will need to learn php first. given my current state of busyness, that would probably be sometime next semester. nevertheless, i want input on the domain name so i can go get it now. (who know's how long www.yaosucks.com will be available for!)

my next request is for those more financially minded. i have ~$3000 i just put into my IRA and i need to put it to good use. what should i buy? msft? intc? amd? normally i would just buy any old stock and let it sit there... but i'm kinda thinking of getting into derivatives to leverage the little money i have. after all, if i score big, the gains are tax-free. but then again, i could lose it all... perhaps a mix of 2000 in a stock, and 1000 in an option? help!

ode to a shoe

during my daily walk to class, there is something i have noticed recently,
every time i took a step, from my shoe i would hear a strange wheeze.
my heart sank and i wondered if this could really be?
the thought of buying yet another pair of shoes hardly put me at ease.

i took a gander at the sole and found a small hole,
from which, air would escape to make this strange hiss.
it seems that hundreds of miles of walking had taken their toll.
my trusty pair of boots--this pair of shoes i'm sure i will miss.

the fact that they are no longer waterproof i will admit.
and while noisy shoes does not the girls impress,
i must say that these boots have always been a comfortable fit,
and through the years have never caused me stress.

alas, to a landfill i must send these shoes on their way,
hoping that i might once again find such a nice pair of boots someday.

a "tremendous" night

wow. what a football game. michigan is down 7-28. my roommate leaves in disgust to take a walk. after his departure, michigan scores 2 quick touchdowns in about 2 minutes to make it 21-28. i'm jumping up and down screaming all by myself. then minnesota breaks out for a 52 yard TD run on a third and one. i punch wall. somehow, navarre pulls us back into the game with another 2 TDs. my roommate walks back in as michigan is driving with 2 minutes left. chris perry promptly fumbles the ball. thinking his presence hinders michigan's performance, he decides to go for another walk. michigan makes the field goal to take the lead 38-35. who knew navarre had it in him to run 40 yards for a TD? i hope the navarre critics will be quiet for at least a week now. leading a team from 7 - 28 to win 38 - 35 isn't a sign of a horrible quarterback. strangely, earlier this week, the colts were trailing 7 - 28 late in the 4th quarter, and also came back to win 38 - 35.

so i am quite excited about the comeback win. my roommate and i celebrated with some cognac. i've taken a liking to cognac recently, so it was quite a treat!

apparently, i also received an email from the company who gave me that test. somehow they made some sort of mix-up and have decided that i'm smart enough for a first round interview. i'm still not convinced that standardized tests are the way to go for a company's screening process. but hey, if i can pass, i won't complain.

so, exciting comeback win, cognac, and a possible first round interview deserve a loyd carr's "tremendous".

a sad day in the world of racing.

this past week was geek week: a week of competitions for engineers on north campus. one of today's events included the north campus tricycling invitational.

this tricycling event is an exciting, high speed race around the north campus diag where cyclists can reach speeds in excess of 5mph! a combination of lightening quick reflexes and nerves of steel is required for this event. here are the descriptions for this year's invited racers:

'Bad' Brad Belsky: an EGL hardened senior, brad has got the legpower to back up his trash talking.

'Magic Mama' Margie: margie is best known for working her magic in tight turns. her relatively diminutive stature may prove to be the difference in taking on the turns of north campus.

yao, 'the three-wheeled menace': no explanation required.

the race itself began with magic mama and the three-wheeled menace using the conventional technique of using the pedals for acceleration. bad brad on the other hand, decided to use the more direct approach of pushing the road with his feet. while magic mama was able to able to speed ahead by pedaling, the three-wheeled menace soon found that his longer legs prevented him from pedaling effectively and he soon fell behind. magic mama margie finished with a record setting time, bad brad followed in second and the three-wheeled menace finished dead last.

as a result of this disappointing finish, the three-wheeled menace has decided to announce his retirement from the tricycle racing circuit--at least, for now. it truly is a sad day for tricycle fans around the world.

if you want to keep up to date with the current happenings with regards to the three wheeled menace please visit: www.umich.edu/~cycheng

diversions.... of a sort.

tonight, i was in the middle of doing my homework or procrastinating, whichever you like to call it, when i sent an MSN message to a friend to try to get her to entertain me. i told her i was kinda bored, to which she replied with "maybe a little bit [of] porn could help u". not quite the diversion from homework i was looking for... but it's nice to know that people care. or something.

reflections on a twelve dollar sandwich

right now i'm doing a class project on zingerman's, a bunch of food-related stores here in ann arbor. they also make sandwiches, which one of my group mates always raves about, but i've never had one before because they are too expensive. they are on the order of $10 per sandwich for the small portion of fillings. today i went over, ordered a $12 corned beef and pastrami sandwich and start browsing their other wares. i picked up a couple of sweets for some nice girls and went to pay for my items. upon disclosure of my tab, my jaw dropped. but i had to go through with the transaction because i wanted the sandwich and these were really nice girls.

after receiving my sandwich (it takes about 15 minutes to craft one of these) i took it home and sat down. now normally when i eat, i turn on the tv, or watch something on my computer. but i felt that doing so might compromise my enjoyment of the meal, so i sat down and concentrated on eating. the result... was not too surprising. the sandwich was great. really nothing to improve on. so my sandwich experience lived up to the hype. but was it worth 12 bucks? i would say probably not. i don't feel that the marginal cost of 3~4 dollars (compared to other high-priced sandwich places here in ann arbor) was worth the relatively small increase in enjoyment. so i don't know if i'll be getting a sandwich there again. as it is, i can only afford the bread they make when it's on sale (but it's really good!).

as for if the sweets were worth it... perhaps to be continued?

corporate testing and other distractions

i've been pretty busy recently... various corporate events plus tedious homework makes for a rather sleep-lacking week.

so yesterday i took an exam for a company to determine if i am smart enough for them to bother with a real interview. i sometimes wonder if this is really a good means of screening candidates. i have actually taken these kinds of tests several times before. thus far, i have been somewhat successful with the standardized type of corporate tests, passing twice for barclays but unable to pass for some insurance company. actually, it wasn't so much that i failed the insurance test, rather, i was unable to find the testing location. so i guess i failed the initial test before the test. so anyway, i took this math/analytical test today, but i'm not sure i did all that well. the testing room was filled with asians, and you know how those crazy asians are always studying for standardized tests. i ended up with 6 questions left unanswered. and considering i got 2 out of the 3 sample questions wrong, i don't think i'll be getting a call back. several of my friends who took the same test also expressed their doubts that they would pass the test, so i guess i'm not alone.

my internet connection has been extremely slow lately. so i haven't been able to get my fix of redtree's journal or another productive friday. i actually read 3 blogs fairly regularly, but i will decline on mentioning the other blog lest someone will make fun of me. but i will say that the third blog has just recently split into 2 separate blogs, so i might have to bump my total up to 4 until the author decides to drop one of them. so maybe one or two people know the blog now. if you can guess what the last blog is, you get a prize!