Empyrean's Blog: lozltov cocktailz.

[H] Advice: learning a new language

Empyrean — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 00:50:49 +0900

I'm just asking for feedback and suggestions on which foreign language to start learning. Right now I have three frontrunners, German, Russian, and Swedish. A little background: I'm perfectly fluent in English. I can speak and understand Mandarin Chinese (as well as Hebei/Shaanxi dialect, I suppose) at a native level, I can read fairly well (enough to get through a daily newspaper), but I'm ...

Where to stay in Shanghai?

Empyrean — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 11:01:35 +0900

Long story short, I'll be in Shanghai from late May to early August, and I'm wondering what options were available for short term housing. Googling isn't very helpful ._.

[H] Learning Swedish

Empyrean — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 15:43:32 +0900

Hey, so the title is pretty self explanatory. I'm basically trying to learn Swedish, as I've heard it's one of the easier languages for native English speakers to learn. I've looked online and have done the whole byki thing (and looked around websites). I was just wondering if anyone would perhaps be available for video gchat or something (no webcam, so I have to use a school computer for their...

IT'S OVER 9000?!

Empyrean — Fri, 07 Jan 2011 15:45:25 +0900

It's hard to believe I've made it over 9000 posts. (Actually, it's not so hard to believe, given the fact that I have to close all those terrible threads everyday...seriously, have you guys browsed the Closed Forum recently? Comedy goldmine. And I mean that in the most disparaging way possible ¬_¬). What I also can't believe is the fact that it's been over six years, and I'm still a part of t...

[H] Hypothetical: what would you do with 100k?

Empyrean — Thu, 23 Dec 2010 04:25:07 +0900

Title is pretty much self-explanatory. I was just wondering what you would do with it. Would you put it in an index fund of some sort? A more aggressive investment? Let's say you have approx. 100k left on your mortgage at 4.375%. Would you pay off the mortgage? Would you buy some cheap real estate and try to rent it out or something? Just wondering what you guys would do :O

Just for fun: cityscape quiz

Empyrean — Fri, 03 Dec 2010 14:03:51 +0900

Just a short quiz for fun. See how familiar you are with famous cityscapes; compare yourself to other forumers. Who's the most cosmopolitan? :D There will be pictures in spoilers. Try to name as many as you can without cheating. All the images should have some recognizable feature or landmark of the city in question. Some are easier than others, but I don't think any of them are too obvious....

[H] Choosing last class

Empyrean — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 04:32:00 +0900

I seem to have a lot of these, but yeah, I'm just looking for some advice on which fifth class to take. I currently have two substantive classes (statistics and physics), and two joke classes (introductions to geology and anthropology...lol). I'm looking for a fifth class, which would be a third substantive class. The statistics class is a graduate level elective on methods in modern statistics...

Generic Girl Advice Blog

Empyrean — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 15:17:59 +0900

So I pretty much went so sleep two hours ago, but half an hour ago I was woken up because one of my friends was calling me. Long story short, she's pretty high and saying things like "we should go to the beach, I really want to go to the beach with you" and "I really want to make out with you right now" and "would you be up for cuddling and stuff" etc. Which is all...

Apricot Chicken and Anne Frank

Empyrean — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 12:02:18 +0900

Long read. Be advised :< And a random aside: fireworks in North Carolina are awful.

[Q/H] Paranoia

Empyrean — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 10:22:51 +0900

Hey guys, so yeah, just a help blog about some recent paranoia I've been dealing with. Might be a long story, so yeah, any help is appreciated. Background: This summer, I had two leases. For the first half, I had a lease on a house that lasted until July 2nd. For the second, I was going to sublease a friend's apartment from July 2nd until the end. For the sublease, another friend was goin...

[H] Decide my minors

Empyrean — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 03:42:25 +0900

Hey guys, so I'm a rising junior in college, and I need some advice on deciding my minors. At my school, you can only have three "degrees" of any sort. I have one major, and since there's no way I'm going to finish another major (nor do I want to), I've decided to grab two minors. Anyway, I'm a statistics major. The minors I'm considering are biology, math, and earth/ocean scien...

ICCup thoughts so far...

Empyrean — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 09:07:10 +0900

So yeah. A little update on my ICCup adventure. Small rep pack on bottom. This is an update on this blog post: http://www.teamliquid.net/blogs/viewblog.php?topic_id=108321 So it's not Season 11 (wtf season is it, 14?), but yeah, I made that thread two weeks ago. I've played eight ladder games so far. Seven of them are in a .rar at the bottom, in case anyone wants to watch a random P...

Fun battlereport!

Empyrean — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 17:06:54 +0900

ohai guys :D You may have remembered me from my "what rank will empyrean get on the ladder if he actually ladders" blog. A few significant hurdles include my 110 APM, my utter lack of commitment, and the fact that I'd rather just play DotA. The following is a battlereport of one of my recent ladder games. It's against a C rank Terran who was moving up the ladder the same time I...

[H] Advice on classes?

Empyrean — Sat, 26 Dec 2009 15:44:09 +0900

Hey guys, I'm currently trying to decide a fifth class that I should take for the upcoming spring semester...just looking for some advice here. An advance apology for the somewhat longish thread :O My current situation: I'm a sophomore, majoring in statistics and minoring in biology and perhaps finance (when the department decides to stop making it "Coming Soon!" and actually have ...

Summer Internship Dilemma

Empyrean — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 11:38:26 +0900

So I'm in the middle of applying for summer internships....and I've run into a slight catch. It's not really a problem, and I think I'm reading too much into it, but here goes. When applying for PwC's internship, they want a non-school e-mail address. Currently, my non-school e-mail address is kind of lame/endearing. Should I make a boring e-mail for their application (something s...

Season 11 Pokebunny style.

Empyrean — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 14:30:41 +0900

Yeah, I'm going Pokebunny style for season 11 of ICCup. I've never actually laddered before, so I'm wondering how it will go. Does anyone have some tips? Should I cheese a lot? What should I watch out for? etc. I'm going to just play more than I usually do (aka more than what, 20 games a season?) and never reset and keep going. How far do you think I'll get :D? Poll: Rank at end of sea...

Fun probability problem (and your thoughts?)

Empyrean — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 02:06:37 +0900

Don't worry, this isn't a homework help thread. I have already solved the problem, being a statistics major and all ;). This was just an assigned homework problem in a first undergraduate probability course and I thought it'd be interesting to see if anyone else could solve it. (there are spoilered hints for you too!) The problem is as follows: Granny chooses an amount X according to prob...

[DRAMA] T-Shirt contest

Empyrean — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 02:33:53 +0900

Remember this? Well it turns out he didn't actually draw the terribly colored horse himself. He stole it from some geocities website called "Fantasy Artwork by Tsaiko". Source: http://www.geocities.com/joi-chan/Artwork/Fantasy/Fantasy.html Scroll down on the page: The image is here: http://www.geocities.com/joi-chan/Artwork/Fantasy/pokemon.jpg With the caption: ...

Small coincidences that make you smile?

Empyrean — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 13:27:52 +0900

Yeah, just a short blog asking people about small coincidences that make you smile. One that happened just recently to me: I had some time to spare, so I loaded up Pandemic 2, determined to win. I failed three times with my best strategy (Parasite>sell all symptoms>level 1 resists>infect the world>rofl here comes hemorrhaging!). Obviously, the culprit is Madagascar, home of clai...

r u for rela?

Empyrean — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 04:45:56 +0900

Roalf 1-5. I guess Pokebunny's offraces are better than mine :D (although I still have a better lifetime rec still. lowlowlowlozlzozla) EDIT: Rofl I time stamped wrong since it's actually July (that's the seventh month btw). My camera got it right though! One for two! :D TONIGHT The long awaited for grudge match of the century, Empyrean vs. Pokebunny, will be happenin...