Larger than life

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a large version of a soda bottle in the background of the actual soda bottle

In my hand, the actual soda. In the background, the blow-up version!

Birds in the wall

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About a month ago, I started to awake to noises that sound like wires being dragged along a wall (you know, like when you have cables dangling behind a desk and you’re adjusting them).  A few days of that and we began to wonder if it was the neighbors getting up early each day and moving things around.  However, one day it became distinctive scratching.  So I posited that it was rats in the wall.  Which seemed to all make sense as the noise continued, until THIS happened:

birds chirping in the wall from Mary Qin on Vimeo.

And that is how we came to learn that it was actually birds.  I suppose they were building a nest and then when their young hatched, they started to chirp.  So a good two weeks of this goes by and we had enough.  Time to move the bed.  The next morning, peace.  Then the day after that, I heard them again.  Less loud, but still there.  Maintenance had been informed, but I guess they hadn’t gotten a chance to extract the nest.  It got really annoying being woken up (usually around 7) by these noises, which included chirping, scratching, and even the thud when the birds flew in from the entrance of the air vent.

birds scratching in wall from Mary Qin on Vimeo.

Television news magazine

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I love to watch 20/20 and 60 Minutes, which until today, I didn’t know how to describe.  So I looked it up and thanks to Wikipedia, I now know that they are referred to as TV news magazines.  They’re in-depth enough to provide good background on a story, but don’t cover every little thing going on in the world.  Perfect for when I want to hear about some of the interesting things going on in the world.  Unfortunately, there aren’t many of them (the Wikipedia article says they lost popularity to reality shows – what a pity), so after only a few hours, I’m left with wanting more.

To try to compensate, I’ve taken up shows like Dateline and 48 Hours, which pretty much only cover murder cases.  It’s starting to get tedious as I hear about death after death… what happened to things like profiling notable people or digging into recently significant events?  And since it’s news I crave, TED.com just doesn’t cut it either, with more of thoughts and looks into the future.  What am I to do when there aren’t enough Barbara Walters out there?  🙁  I wish I had the patience for other types of video media, but all I want to do is watch my two favorite shows – 20/20 and 60 Minutes.

Arcade win

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Out one night with some friends and our group played Deal or No Deal, winning quite a bit!  Here are our tickets coming out:

arcade tickets dispensing out after a big win

And they just kept coming…

arcade tickets from Mary Qin on Vimeo.

Finally, it was done and we were 500 tickets richer. 🙂

a pile of 500 arcade tickets

And what did we do with all those tickets?

playing air hockey with over-sized sunglasses on

Oh yes, we got ridiculously large sunglasses and then played air hockey until all our coins were gone. That is a sweet victory. 😛

Lookalikes

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I’ve been noticing a lot of people who look like people I know.  Most recently is Steve Nash (Panda’s had basketball running every day, so this guy kept showing up), who looks like one of my former roommate’s boyfriend!  Or perhaps it is the other way around.  Nash, after all, is older.  And on an unrelated side note, every time I hear Nash I can’t help but think John Nash, the mathematician.  But back to lookalikes, when Yeardley Love, a college senior from University of Virginia was murdered, the picture of her they used in the news reminded me of a high school classmate.  A few months ago, I went to a concert with Panda and the second chair celloist looked just like a futuristic version of a middle and high school friend from New York!

Thanks to mobile technology, when I noticed that lady, I pulled out my phone and got on Facebook to find a picture to show Panda.  Indeed, he agreed, she did look like my friend if she was only 20-30 years younger.  I also used Facebook to find pictures of my other friends with lookalikes in the news and perhaps Panda is just humoring me, but he nodded that they did resemble the person of interest.  Is it just that when you see enough people in your life, you will inevitably come across those who look eerily similar?  Or maybe it’s just the way I am, looking for patterns and similarities.  But I really do think they look like they could have been the same person.  I’d share the side-by-side comparisons for you to judge yourself, but I don’t want to violate their privacy.

Winning the trust of a blowfish

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There is a touch tank at the Underwater World on Sentosa Island in Singapore and when I was there I attempted to pet a blowfish in the tank. It was a skittish fellow!

blowfish from Mary Qin on Vimeo.

I give it another try…

blowfish attempt from Mary Qin on Vimeo.

Finally, a little swipe! 🙂

blowfish petting from Mary Qin on Vimeo.

Geocaching

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geocaching logoYesterday Panda was feeling a bit antsy and wanted to move around.  Knowing that I needed the exercise,  I decided to go on a walk with him.  I had mentioned awhile back that I wanted to do a treasure hunt on campus, so he suggested we go do that.  You see, there’s this iPhone app called DreamWalk where you go to various places and either collect a stamp or get an instant win prize.  Each stamp is a letter and if you get all the letters to a word, you can win a prize, like an Amazon gift card or movie ticket.  Instant win prizes are some form of food that you can eat when you are in that area.  Well, the only spots on campus are for stamps for the Victoria’s Secret gift card or a movie ticket.  I wasn’t particularly interested in either, so we opted to try out the Geocaching app I had also gotten (and never really used).

There are quite a few on campus, so we headed to one near the IM field and John Wooden Center.  I had no idea what exactly to expect or look for, so I felt rather silly standing next to a bike rack, trying not to draw attention to myself while searching.  After taking a look at the hints, I was able to find it and was surprised at the huge water bottle full of little goodies!  There was nothing I wanted/needed, so I left it as is, but there were some cool items.  With our first find under our belt, Panda and I found another one to locate.  This time, he saw it and we sat there as two guys on a bench nearby probably wondered what we were sitting on the ground for.

On our walk to the next site, we came across a Star Wars photo shoot.  Darth Vader was hanging out around Broad Hall and two Storm Troopers were near the parking structure, one posing in front of a vent and one posing in a tunnel.  Amused, we stayed out of the way until people started to walk into the shots, then continued down the tunnel and into the parking structure.  There we found our next geocache, cleverly hidden (but unfortunately rusted shut!).  I spent a good 15 minutes prying the thing open because I’m stubborn and would never allow such a thing to foil me!  😛  Finally, we headed over near the Chancellor’s residence for our final one, which was in an area most UCLA students are probably not aware of.

After that, we headed back, proud of a good day’s work.  It was great to get out, enjoy the day, breathe some outside air, and be active!  In the future I definitely want to have more of these adventures with Panda (I don’t think I’d have as much fun alone – plus, it’s a perfect way to spend time together).  We even decided to do some team building along the walk back and gave each other piggyback rides, then took turns guiding one another as one person kept his/her eyes closed.  Yeah, yeah, cheesy, but we had a lot of fun bonding in so many ways!  🙂

Apples transformed

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candied apples in the shape of pandas and monkeys

How cute! I wonder how they taste though...

Police “chase”

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On the drive home on the 405 and suddenly there are flashing red lights glowing around me.  A glance to the left found a police car advancing to pull a car over.   I slowed to let him pass and wondered if I was allowed to drive past him once he got the car to the far right lane and was just waiting for it to pull over.  Unsure, I just drove slowly until he exited.

I’ve definitely noticed a lot more police action lately!   In fact, earlier this week I was at McDonald’s for lunch and saw two cops on motorcycles pull over a car, then saw two cop cars in the parking lot, and as I was leaving, another one on a motorcycle had pulled over a car.   They must be short on money and really looking to fine people!

police chase down from Mary Qin on Vimeo.

Financial intelligence

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My mom lectured me about smart financial moves today and though I was tired and didn’t really want to think about it, she makes a good point.   I can save a lot of money if I take advantage of tax breaks, save and invest wisely, and limit my spending.   At this point, I don’t really want to think about it and plan for it, but it really is the time to start as I get a steady paycheck.  Unfortunately (and despite one of my majors being Economics), I’m not really interested in the financial field and have little patience for all the complexities of it.   At the same time, I can save a lot of money by knowing how to handle my money smartly and not pay a financial advisor to figure that out for me.

It’s a bit of a dilemma because I just don’t have the interest, but the stakes are pretty high and the ultimate benefits do warrant a closer look.  As of now I’ve been letting my Roth IRA money sit there, whiling away, but what I need to do is invest it in a somewhat aggressive mutual fund or index or something.  There are many other things to do, such as figure what areas of tax avoidance I can take advantage of (note that that’s not the same as tax evasion, which is illegal).  I need to put in a lot of time and effort into this area, but I just don’t have the interest.  I wish I could just let someone else handle it, but why spend good money on something I can learn myself?

At least if I start early in my working life (like now), I’ll be setting myself up for a better future that will be able to ride out the periodic financial downs.  I just wish it wasn’t so complicated.

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