04:38 p.m. Thursday, September 20, 2001

Todays theme: I hate my life.

... well, not really. ^^ I'm just frustrated, that's all. Once long ago, I used to be a very idealistic boy. I used to think people were, deep down, genuinely good and kind. As I grew up, I gradually stopped believing such things and eventually grew cold and cynical towards the world. However, recently, I've let myself slip back into that fairy-land dream where I believe that there is indeed some good in people, and that genuine friends are indeed not hard to find. Baka!!! I should've known better... *sigh*

Ah sheesh... well, this'll all blow over soon, hopefully. There's still lots of things I am thankful for, so I'm not going to let this get me down. Besides, I'm not exactly a "genuinely good and kind" person anyways, so why should I expect that from any other person? Grow up, Steve, grow up... -_-

08:28 p.m. Thursday, September 13, 2001

Okay, I find out today that Waine Tam and Teresa Cho are both fine. Waine actually saw the second plane fly past his window on the 50th floor of the GS building. After the second plane crashed, his building was evacuated.

Thankfully everyone I know is okay. Yet, I still can't fathom the depth of tragedy that has occurred. I can't believe this happened. It's been 2 days and I'm still in shock. I can't imagine how people feel who have lost friends or relatives in the attack, or people who still don't know what happened to their loved ones and are wasting away from the chilling uncertainty that covers every minute of their lives. I don't know what else to say, other than I'm truly sorry, terribly sorry.

04:41 p.m. Tuesday, September 11, 2001

Terrorist attack: 8:45 am, a hijacked commercial jet crashes into the north tower of the World Trade Center in NYC. 9:03 am, a second hijacked jet crashes into the south tower. Both towers collapse. A third plane crashes into the Pentagon in DC, and a fourth crashes in Pennsylvania. Unbelievable... unthinkable.

The first thing that took a hold of me was fear for my friends in NY, since I know a lot of them work near WTC or at least take the PATH train to WTC. Most frightening was worries about my cousin, Li Wei, who works in between Morgan Stanley offices in DC and NYC-- she has a company hotel room in the WTC for her use whenever she's at the NYC office.

Li-Wei e-mailed me saying she's fine (she was in DC today). Ted apparently got to work before the crash, and Rockefeller is far enough from WTC that there's no need to worry. Jon Keim got off the PATH train at WTC and left the station 15 minutes before the first plane hit. Andrew Farris arrived at WTC after Jon and was only 4 blocks away from WTC when he saw the plane fly overhead and hit the North tower. Eileen, Judy, Waine, Gene, Grace, Alex, and Arden, are all okay. Teresa Cho works at the World Financial Center, which is next to WTC and was evacuated; I believe she's alright. I can't imagine how Calvin must have felt... his dad was working at the WTC this morning and was just about to step out of the office to run some errands when the first plane hit... luckily he was able to safely leave the building. In DC, Jenn Lee and Donald Lowe are both fine. My relatives who were on their way from Taipei to Newark are now in Vancouver, BC (Canada), but at least they're safe.

Pray for those whose family or friends were killed or injured in the attack. Pray for the nation's leaders that they would make wise decisions in this crucial time. Pray that hate crimes against US-resident Arabs and Muslims does not rise up. Give blood, give blood, give blood.

12:43 a.m. Saturday, September 8, 2001

Well well, it's been 2 weeks since I've come back to the States. I think I've finally settled into my life here in Cleveland. I bought a Boston studio upright piano for my apartment, so now I'm substantially happier here. =) (My Boston grand at home was too big to fit into the apartment.) It takes about 15 minutes to walk to class from my apartment. Classes are okay... there's only one really interesting class-- "Advanced NMR Spectroscopy." The rest are kinda blah. I've been terrible at updating my homepage recently, and I've got lots of e-mails and letters I need to catch up on and respond to. Speaking of e-mails, today I got an e-mail from Jason Cho, a friend of mine whom I haven't seen much of since he left for that pithy school in Cambridge... ^^ So that was cool. And thanks to Brian Loh for giving me a deal on his Palm III. (Yes, I've finally succumbed to the evil handhelds...^^) Oh yes, and today is Troy Starr's birthday (well, technically it was yesterday, or 43 minutes ago). Anyways, Happy Birthday Troy! =P