things that make me happy:
fruit
school
friends
requited love
sleep

things that make me unhappy:
conflict
the unknown
health problems
dishonesty
unresolved issues

After day one of yoga this quarter, my lumbar spine and shoulders are sore. Last quarter my muscles were sore after every single class; this quarter I expect the same. I guess my favorite thing about yoga is that it’s a constant thing and you can always get better at it. No matter what you can push yourself harder, and get more into the stretch.

I guess I’m a few days late but here’s my photo recap of 2011. Last year I said that I took the least digital photos ever, but I don’t think I really did that much better this year. I’m going to be doing a 365 project for all of 2012 though, so I’ll for sure be moe photographical this year. Another post on that when there’s a bit more to talk about.

1. I don’t have any pictures from January. The Lost Month.
2. February: Played with 50 and 80 mm lenses borrowed from research and decided to buy a 35 mm!
3. March: Dyed my hair orange/red/awesome. Pretty much the defining thing of the year.
4. April: Flew up to Berkeley, hung out with Heather and Sophie, and decided not to go there for my MS. I was diagnosed with rheumatod arthritis.
5. May: Took off a few days from school and Went to Greece with the family! This was also the month that 162E got crazy with our broken robot.
6. June: Graduated and Amara was born!
7. July: Drove up to Norcal with Stanley and Layla.
8. August: Moved into my very own studio apartment. Stacey also visited and we hung out with Phyllis. Started Enbrel.
9. September: Went down to SD to visit Amara with Je & Mike.
10. October: Made my own lo mai gai. Ate out a lot for dineLA. Flew up to Norcal for an surprise weekend o’ fun.
11. November: Allen & Han’s wedding!
12. December: Family portrait at my parents’ place in Seattle. Went to Vancouver in early December as well.

In 2012, I’m going to graduate (again) and job hunt and job find and job acquire. I thought I was going to grow up last year but turns out I was able to delay it with more school. Cheers to the new year, may it bring more exciting adventures and good times

Last weekend my family and I drove up to Vancouver from Seattle. It took about three hours to get there, including the half hour wait at the border crossing.

We spent a total of three nights and three days in the city, which I thought was probably a little bit too much time. The first day, we wandered downtown, checking out Canada Place and Gastown in the morning. We ate at Salt, which was a chacuterie and cheesery. The entrance to the place was a sketchy alley, but it was definitely a cool place to experience.

In the afternoon, the weather cleared up so we headed to Stanley Park. A lot of this trip felt like chasing the sunset, since so far north dusk started around 4pm. But it was nice to catch so many sunsets; I only wish we could’ve taken our time observing them. And that it was less cold.

The second day we headed out to Capilano Suspension Bridge. Definitely my favorite part of the trip. Even though the weather was gloomy and overcast, the forest really seemed to thrive in the wet weather, and I was amazing with the smells and atmosphere. I got some great portraits of my family on the bridge

After Capilano, we had lunch in downtown at The Keg, a steakhouse, then we headed to Richmond. I convinced my family to take a detour to check out the Gulf of Georgia, which was just a vista point on the coast. It was a really nice view but the winds were so strong near the ocean!! This shot was from Garry Point Park. On our way back to downtown we stopped by Granville Island to eat at Twisted Fork, which was a delicious, tiny French bistro. Hat tip again to Yelp

Using my camera so much during the trip made me really excited to start my 365. I also realized that I seriously need to get my sensor cleaned, or at least get a hurricane dust blower for when I change lenses. I also really loved using Yelp internationally, and was super happy to try so many well reviewed restaurants. Now that the trip’s over, it’s time to pay for all those impromptu desserts with hours on the stationary bike…

First time laundering since Nov 9th. Today is Dec 13th aka 34 days later. While folding my clean clothes, I counted 17 pairs of underwear. Which means I average two days per shower.

My PI told me yesterday that he’s been subscribed to JEB (Journal of Evolutionary Biology) since 1958. That’s the year my dad was born…

Passed my MS extra question exam for 250C which means I need to pass just two more to get my degree. Oh, and six more classes. Next quarter: 250A (Fluids) and 231A (Convection).

My favorite macarons in LA are the coffee ones from La Provence Patisserie. And my favorite macarons in Seattle are the orange ganache ones from Le Panier.

Yesterday Stanley and I decided to impromptu-ly go to Cheesecake Factory and get some cheesecake. But we also wanted to watch a movie. So we went to the restaurant in Brentwood and took two slices (Hershey’s and Kahlua) to go and brought them home. When I was parking behind the restaurant, I realized we were in the plaza where La Provence was, so I dropped by the cafe to get my macaron fix. I haven’t had them from there in a long, long time… they’re on the pricier side ($1.90) but also a little bit bigger than average. On our way upstairs to the place, I excitedly repeated to Stanley like six times how they were my favorites in LA and that they were sooooo good… and then after I bought them and he took a bite, he looked at me and said, “Wow, they are really good!” TOTALLY YES. Training my man, one bite of dessert at a time.

And then we got the cheesecake and came home and watched Gedo Senki. It looked familiar but I couldn’t remember the plot… turns out I watched it a long, long time ago. And the reason why I couldn’t remember the plot was because it barely has one. I think I said this before but Miyazaki-the-younger is not as cool as Miyazaki-the-older. And I decided that Cheesecake Factory cheesecake is totally not worth it. $8/slice, and not mouthwateringly delicious is a no-no.

I GOT As IN MY GRAD CLASSES! But ironically am still waiting for my undergrad math class, which I was the most worried about to begin with. But unless I failed way worse that I could’ve expected, I still have an above 3.0 GPA which means no academic probation for me! Yay!

Also I’m really excited to start my 365 project in January.

I was driving back home from Ian & Kevin’s apartment and at the corner of Sawtelle and Ohio there was a car with his left blinker on but in the center of the single lane. I was carefully squeezing by and I noticed that he was too far forward so that his car wasn’t above the sensor, ie the light would never turn green for him. I stopped next to him and tried to get his attention, but he was on the phone and didn’t look happy. I tried a small honk and got his attention, but he just looked at me like I was a crazy person and turned away, deliberately not opening his window. I stuck my head out of my window and screamed, “The light’s not going to turn green because you’re not on top of the sensor!” but no response. I sat for a second before moving on. I don’t know why the situation left me with a sense of sadness… Maybe because he looked so undescribably unhappy. I don’t know. But I hope he figured it out because I didn’t mean any harm and it’s no fun to wait for a light to change when it won’t.

• Archive leather wallet
• Simple emergency candles
• Newleaf 18oz Teapot Infuser
• California Coast T, M
• Trivial Pursuit
• Mozza cookbook
• Stamp pads of many colors
• Ugmonk Perception T, S
• MMJ Natasha Messenger
• La Mer Bali Wrap Watch in Navy
• Bodum double walled 12oz glasses

Photoshop crashed while I was trying to change the font of “dec 2011″ so I took a screen shot mid-crash hence the messed up colors. Also this took much longer to compile than I anticipated. Also I think all of these things are AWESOME.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I am thankful that RA is not fatal, and that I have money to pay for all my doctor’s appointments. And for being in a good place in all my relationships, with friends/family/Stanley. Also that those near and dear to me are happy, too!

I woke up at 4:45AM this morning to fly to Seattle and so I’m totally disoriented and tired. Also I think I have a cold (still? again?) so it’s making things difficult. Also food coma.

I have a lot of homework due and finals coming up and everything is happening so suddenly so I think I’m going to be crazy busy/stressed for the next few weeks… and then after that, FOUR WEEKS OF BREAK before Winter quarter!

This is a post in which I will Capitalize Things. It’s been a thought-heavy action-heavy day, so just bear with me. Or don’t.

This morning I woke up to find that my deadbolt lock was broken. What? Yes, broken. I was stuck in my apartment. The only way in and out was through my window… which didn’t really seem too convenient. So I accepted the situation as my First Test as a Mechanical Engineer. I unscrewed the lock, poked around and voila, opened the door! (“I shall go down in history as the man who opened a door!”) Sure enough, the mechanism (four bar!) had a broken piece. And so, having yoga soonish, I called my manager and had her send the handyman over to fix/install a new deadbolt. He came over and got to work, I left for yoga.

Today there were four people in class, way down from like 20 at the beginning of the quarter. I’m the only one who has been to every class so far, ie I have not seen someone every time that I’ve been there, which is every scheduled class so far. Is it weird to go to every class? I mean, I paid for the class so I’m going to it. Although I guess a similar thing can be said about academic classes, and those I have been known to skip in the past… But like, yoga is an extracurricular. You go out of your way to sign up for it, while classes are mandatory since we are Students. I don’t know. Whatever. But I think because I am a consistent class attender, My Instructor likes me.

I’m starting to really dislike my 182C class (Numerical Methods for Engineering Applications). It’s not that I don’t like the Methods, but the teaching style is rather dry. If I were to guess, about 80% of my cell phone’s battery life on Tuesdays and Thursdays is lost to playing Words With Friends and compulsively checking Facebook, Twitter, Reader, G+, Tumblr… on my phone. The other 20% is calling Stanley before bed.

After class, I dropped by research to see if my polymask.mat file was compatible with MATPIV running on MATLAB2011 (Yes! Mostly… kind of…) to find that I need to fix my coordinate system for it to work. One step forward, two steps back. But I didn’t have time to dwell because after half an hour I headed to my RA check up appointment.

Summary of the appointment is that yes, I am doing better! I mostly base my wellness as a linear function of N, where N is the Number of Times I Complain to Stanley About My Knees QWK. (“Q” or “q” on a prescription is shorthand for the Latin term “quaque” which means “every.”) Things are looking good, except if I don’t get better from this cold, or if I get a fever 100+ deg F, then I should skip my next dose of Enbrel. This is to avoid infections. But for now, I am doing a-ok! I got blood drawn (routine and research) and when the phlebotomist poked me, she messed up and said that the scar tissue near my vein/artery something something something. I think it was the first time I’ve ever heard the phrase “scar tissue” in reference to something other than the Red Hot Chili Peppers song. Anyway, she was nice, and she wished me a happy belated birthday when I confirmed my DOB. Except turns out she lost my research blood. So I need to get it drawn again… conveniently, I have an appointment with GI (Gastroenterology) tomorrow morning. No problem!

After my appointment, I went to Starbucks to get my Free Birthday Drink. I procrastinated it to the date of expiration (today) which also happened to be the day that Starbucks was having a BOGO Holiday Drink promotion. Which means that there were a ton of people! Like, probably a fire hazard number of people. But I got my first holiday Starbucks drink of the season: peppermint + gingerbread white mocha. (Honestly, I should have just let the coupon expire and not subject myself to consuming 500 delicious calories of sugar.) While waiting for my drink, I observed People and I think I need to get out more. I was overwhelmed by the number of Females in my vicinity. Something that doesn’t happen much in my day to day life. I was looking at shoes, clothes, bags, hairstyles … it was like window shopping. I decided never to buy TOMS shoes, and never ever to wear leggings as pants.

And then! I headed home, and came back to a nice looking new deadbolt in my door. I came in only to notice that It Didn’t Work. From the outside, it locked but the key could not be removed. From the inside, it was stuck. So once again, First Test as a Mechanical Engineer Part 2. Took it apart, figured out how it SHOULD be installed, and fixed it. A+! For me, and not for the handyman. I don’t really understand how he could have installed it and not checked to see if it worked. Or not follow the instructions that probably came with the lock closely enough to ensure that it worked. I’m annoyed that I had to fix it myself, because this is an apartment complex and not my own house. But at least now I get how it works…?

Anyway, basically this is a really long recount of My Day. The End.