Last weekend, I headed down to San Diego with my family to attend my cousin Gina’s (very) small wedding ceremony/reception. There were only 24 attendees, the majority of whom were my own family members. As the youngest in my generation on my mom’s side of the family, I’m used to being babied, but this time might have been the first time I really felt as if I was taken seriously by my aunts, uncles, and cousins. It was good seeing everyone together again, as the last time we were all in the same place was probably the summer before I started college (almost two years ago), when my other cousin Sara got married.

Even though I don’t have any experience with event photography, I was enlisted (rather than hired, haha) as a photographer for my cousin’s wedding. It was good practice, and a good excuse to bust out the ol’ D40, but seeing how the majority of my photos turned out was a bit disappointing. I’m proud of only a few of them, so I figured I might as well share. The wedding took place at Trattoria Acqua in San Diego. It was set to begin at 5 o’clock, but was delayed due to a few important family members being stuck in traffic. While we waited for them to arrive, my dad (as wine connoisseur) perused the restaurant’s wine collection to choose which white and red wines would be served during the reception.

I wandered around shooting portraits and candids. Here’s my uncle (the father-in-law) and my dad. Both of them legitimately tied their own bowties. Note: I hate the internet for tinting my photos cold.

Of glass-clinking there was a-plenty, and hence so too were photo opportunities. This was my favorite shot of the many. Congratulations, G&G!

And onto other things in my life… I was looking at my Wordpress dashboard today, and realized that a third of the blogs that I post on Thyme are private. I blog much more rarely now than I used to, but whether that’s because of how busy I am or lack of things to say, I’m not sure. I guess things have fallen to such a pattern that don’t feel the dire need to share my experiences, or maybe, I just don’t deem them important enough to be archived. But there are a few thoughts I’d like to write down and save for a less rainy day.

I’m not one to really think about my future, when it comes to career, education, or family. The only permanent goal that has stuck with me throughout the years has been to find happiness, and of course, I’m constantly taking steps towards it, or towards finding out how to reach such a dreamy goal. At each moment in my life, what I’m doing is who I am, and the future? Well, it’ll get here inevitably and eventually, so I don’t trip.

School and academics are, of course, at the front of my mind day-in and day-out. Classes at UCLA have consistently kicked my butt, and I often end up questioning my major. Today, I talked to my friend Anna, a third year Electrical Engineer major. Curious, I asked her why she chose to study EE. She answered exactly how I’ve heard myself respond to others, with a “Why not?” We talked about it for a few minutes, and well, I realized that even if it’s difficult, and even if the best I can do is a C in each of my classes, it’s worth it because I’m doing it. Anticlimactic reason, maybe, but well, it’s true. I’m getting through it, barely, but I am. The Mechanical Engineering department hasn’t scared me off yet with failure, just a handful of “average” grades. And in all honesty, I should try to do better to keep in mind how well “average” is, when one is studying a really, really difficult subject at a really, really good university.

The second major thing that comes to mind when I look at my life right now is what I do for BruinLife yearbook. Because of the Pledge Referendum that recently passed, a helpful sum of money is going to be added to our (ASUCLA Student Media’s) monies. I’ve been meeting with the Communications Board alongside the Editor-in-Chiefs of the Daily Bruin, other newsmags and General Manager of UCLA Radio to discuss our strategies to most effectively utilize this new income, and well, I’m surprised to learn about how the other publications run. The few meetings we’ve had so far have taught me to really appreciate the organization and structure that BruinLife retains as a serious publication of UCLA. I’m proud to be the head honcho of BruinLife again for next year, and I’m excited for the challenges I know I’ll get through. No doubt I’m afraid of how much it’ll hurt me, but by now, it’s become so big a part of me that my responsibility to see things through is nothing short of the moral thing to do. But I think this is a topic for another blog, for some other time.

For now, it’s time for a nap. After that, EE100 homework and my last Physics4AL lab. Rejuvenation, here I come!

Finally, a blog with pictures! But something is really tripping me out, and I’m not sure if it’s because I’ve been editing my raw photos on Photoshop, or if it’s my laptop. Things seem much grey-er and washed out after I upload them, but when I open them with PS or Preview, they look totally fine. On my desktop monitor, they also look fine. Does this mean I need to calibrate the browsers I use? I’m so confused! Maybe it has to do with the web settings of the pictures when I edit them… (Also, things look totally fine on my desktop where I use Chrome…?)

Stanley took a picture of me while I was working on my impromptu art project in my dorm room. This is my little corner - I never realized how colorful it was, covered in pictures and doodads and memorabilia. My space is so comfortable looking

Danny gave me these cloth paints after we graduated from college, and I only used them once, on one of my throw pillows. I’m glad I finally dug them out, though. Due to lack of table space, I resorted to working on the ground. Which resulted in me spilling paint (see first photo) but whatever. (Photo also taken by Stanley.)

End result, modeled by Layla! My own design on an New Silver Fine Jersey Tank from American Apparel.

Original designs. I think the aces are the only ones I’m totally sure about. I have some tweaks to make with the rest of my deck, not to mention the creation of the backs. I’ve gotten a bit of inspiration, but nothing concrete yet… The order I chose (yes, I considered it) was the order of the suits in the card game of Bridge. I recognize that many people use the order of diamonds, clubs, hearts, spades for alternating colors, but colors don’t really apply to my design, anyway. Plus, Bridge is awesome. So clubs, diamonds, hearts, spades wins. It’s also alphabetically ordered. Ftw.

My stamp on the back - I used fabric markers for this instead of paint. Haha I forgot to do it until the last minute, hence it’s messiness.

What else have I been up to? Eating lots of chocolate. My friend Sean sent me this chocolate ages ago, but I never got around to eating it. So I finally did. 70% is like, almost the perfect percentage of dark deliciousness. I decided to melt it down and make chocolate covered strawberries so I wouldn’t feel so guilty about downing pure chocolate. Note to self: Must use wax paper next time.

Deliciousness! Im really good at it. I guess my slight bit of perfectionism kicks in when I do things like this - so simple and pretty! I bought strawberries from Ralph’s, and happily picked the box with the smallest, cutest strawberries. I think that small fruit is often tastier than it’s ginormous counterpart.

I’ve been using my wide angle almost exclusively since the quarter started, and it makes me feel a bit guilty. I love the distortion at 10mm and intense depth of field it brings even at 24mm. But alas, I know I’ve got to step back into reality with my 24-120mm eventually.

I didn’t have wax paper, so I placed them directly on my (awesome square) plate. Cons: Chocolate got stuck on the plate. Messier. End result was uglier :(. Pros: I got to eat the chocolate that fell off the strawberries :).

This is from mid-March. I just wanted to show off my skills at writing backwards.

I’ve got a few blog ideas stored in my “drafts” folder, ready to be dug up and shared. But first, I’m going to study for my EE midterm, and my MAE 103 midterm (I studied this morning, and somehow, things just started to fit together…), eat a mango, and deal with school. I’m sad that I havne’t had time blog lately, but at least this is a competent update.

North campus classes are so life-y. In my Japanese class, I wrote/gave a speech about the time I moved to China. It allowed me to reminisce a bit, and tell part of the story of my life. I also wrote an essay about how although I’m an engineering major, I’m much more interested in art. I expanded on the fact that although I have less time to dabble in practicing art, I still retain my interest through simple projects, research, and photography. I guess I’m mentioning this because this blog in particular touches upon that part of my life, right? Art is so important to me, and although I’m nearly drowning in physics, I still let myself take time to stop and eat strawberries. Nomnomnom.