I'm sitting here thinking that it's rather nice that the Ethernet in my dorm is finally up, although I feel bad that my roommate is still having problems with her computer. She has an IBM Aptiva and it seems that the wireless Ethernet card just doesn't agree with her system. I staring at my philosophy book in front of me, and I think that drug legalization is an interesting subject. I've never considered drug legalization before. I always thought that drugs were bad and that was the final end to the case. However, all these philosophers (who aren't all that old and ancient) think that legalizing drugs might be a good idea. Not that they want to promote drug use and make it easy to obtain for everyone, but legalized in a restricted fashion like cigarettes and alcohol. I also need to write some letters to my friends and stuff back home after this assignment since I haven't talked to them in such a long time. I can't decide which sort of stationary to use since I collect stationary and stickers, so there is a wide variety to choose from. I miss them greatly since I don't have as many friends in Austin as I do back in Houston. I haven't been here long enough. There are my roommates, though. As a matter of fact, I'm curious about whom my roommate is calling right now since he seems like a close friend. She's talking about food since she didn't get any before she came back, and that makes my stomach respond slightly. I only had 3 slices of pizza for dinner, and that apparently isn't enough since my stomach rumbled when my roommate mentioned food. She also asked me if a friend of ours was 21 or not, but I don't know. He's a nice guy since he helped me with my phone jack. I couldn't plug in my phone since the jack had been painted over to the point where the wires can't even register each other. I think I'm running out of things to say since I can't imagine what else might be of interest to occupy my mind. I've nothing to look forward to this evening except reading assignments from all of my classes. I realize that reading is essential to the learning process, but all these long chapters are tedious. There isn't too much of great interest in reading these heavy textbooks. I wish we had textbooks like they do in Japan. Their textbooks are really small and light so they don't get backaches and have to lug around huge backpacks. Perhaps people in America will slowly grow shorter since the weight of backpacks stunts the growth of young people in this country while Japanese children grow taller with the freedom of light backpacks. It would also be nice if international music from Japan and other countries would be more accessible here. It's hard to find Japanese popular music in Texas. You have to either order them off the Internet, or look for the small stores that specialize in importing these types of CDs. It is rather expensive, too, but it is kind of ironic that Japanese CDs also cost about $30 in American dollars in Japan. CDs are cheapest in Taiwan since they only cost about $5$10american dollars there. It would be nice if I could visit Taiwan often, but I don't have the time and plane tickets cost more money than I have to spend on leisure travel in a year. I think that is a pity since I would like to see my uncle and my grandmother more often. And the fruits in Taiwan are of a much greater variety and sweetness. The same type of fruit here is much smaller in size and a great deal more expensive. They don't taste the same either. I think my dad misses Taiwan the most, although he has made many friends in Houston. I miss having Chinese food every night, too. It feels weird not using chopsticks for two weeks in a row. I have to remember to bring some the next time I went back to Houston. I really miss my dad's cooking. He cooks really well. And he knows where all the good Chinese restaurants are. It's hard for me to order food myself since I don't know the names of the dishes. The names I do know are in Chinese, so sometimes I pronounce them wrong and the waitress gives me this funny look. I think the food I like best at this particular time is Vietnamese noodles, dim sum, and this chicken steak with rice. I think I can get Vietnamese noodles here, but dim sum is something best eaten in a big city because it's a specialty that only some cooks can get right. I am not sure about the last one since I am unfamiliar with the Chinese restaurants around campus. It is something I may do during the weekend, exploring the nearby food places to see what is good to eat around here. I really talk about food a lot when I'm hungry, it seems. There isn't much in my room's refrigerator since I haven't gotten anything as of late, and it would be rude to eat everything that my roommates bought. I shall have to go to the store in the morning or after school to obtain some snacks for when I am hungry like I am now. The cafeteria here closes at 7 PM so I can't do anything about being hungry at the moment. I have a screen mate program that creates little lambs to wander around my computer screen. There are five of them wandering around right now, and one of them just sneezed. I think it is funny since I just sneezed recently. These lambs are very adorable, and they don't take up much computer space. They sleep and jump around, basically entertaining me while I'm doing my homework or just when I'm surfing around the Internet. I love being connected to the Internet at all times since all of my classes post important information on the web, and because I like to do personal research of my own into the subjects and hobbies I cultivate. It is also good for multiplayer games, but there seems to be a firewall in my dorm network that prevents me from hosting such games. It aggravates me greatly, but at least I can participate with a steady connection unlike when I used to use AOL.