This was reminiscent of my grandfather’s house. Not that it’s quite so loud, but he does love to raise birds and out of sight in this clip are bamboo/wooden cages that really reminded me of the ones he has at his home.

I never knew that FOX had a lot right off Pico until the HOME screening was held there! Check out their lot – there’s always something so staged and fake about these places (in a wonderful Disneyland sort of way).

Who knew that Sound of Music was produced by FOX?! This painting decorated the side of the parking structure and greeted us as we parked.

I saw a few G&E trucks along the way, which made me nostalgic for my Wristcutters* days.

I wonder if any shows I know are filmed here.

They were glowing so beautifully I had to pull over and take a picture before exiting the lot.

*My very first internship was with a production company that made Wristcutters: A Love Story (see my IMDB page). It was crazy hectic and an unforgettable experience.

At UCLA, students like to de-stress during finals by doing some silly things, like Midnight Yell and Undie Run. In case you feel like you’re missing out on the fun, here is a look at what it’s like to be a part of the Wednesday night tradition that grew so big it was banned. It would have been tonight (and I know a small group still showed up to do it – we’ll see how that went down when the Daily Bruin comes out tomorrow).

To start, there is a lot of cheering, singing, screaming, and all-around joy.

At the stroke of midnight, the crowd begins to move, hollering at the top of their lungs. Note the traffic lights that have been disabled – police took measures to ensure motor vehicles stay away from pedestrians overtaking the roads.

In the recent year or so, the route of Undie Run was changed to go through this tunnel, which actually makes it quite fun since it’s so thunderous in there.

Bruins enjoying themselves always shout “UC! LA!” and do multiple 8-claps (not captured).

The last “legal” Undie Run was re-routed once again so that it ended not by Powell Library and Shapiro Fountain, but on the IM field, where there were plenty of lighting and spectators, including this helo!

All in all, a great celebration that gives students a relatively innocent outlet for the intense studying that had taken over their lives for the past week or two. It’s a pity the university wasn’t willing to work out another revision to allow it to continue. I’m sure the students will continue to fight for it, until they either get it back or find a new way of letting out their tension.

It’s almost time for Kollaboration again, so here’s a look back on the winner last year:

See more performances here.

Been a long day, so a quick post for now…

I showed it in my video awhile ago; now here is a picture for posterity.  The wonderful cut I got from Panda.  :-P

When I was three and a half, I flew from China to meet my parents in Pennsylvania.  On the plane ride, I was with a family friend who had been tasked with babysitting me for the trip.  The one thing I remember from that time in my life was during the plane ride, when the lady had to go to the bathroom.  She took the airplane blanket we were using, opened it up, and draped it over me.  Hidden securely underneath, she told me not to move until she came back, or else the big, bad wolf would come and eat me.  Obediently, I huddled in my little cave, waiting for her to return.

A long time later, my little toddler self was getting antsy, but I was a good kid, so I stayed under the blanket.  As the minutes passed, I began to wonder if perhaps the wolf had gotten her.  What was  taking so long?  When she finally came back, I was so relieved to get my freedom back!  Turns out she’d gotten distracted talking to a flight attendant on her way back from her restroom break.  And here I’d thought maybe she’d forgotten me there.  Thank goodness, we were both safe and the wolf was nowhere to be seen!  :)

I love my alma mater. This is how we get into the spirit for sports games:

1. Get pumped up listening to the UCLA Bruins Marching Band.

2. Go to the Rose Bowl and be entertained as Red Bull parachuters wind their way down from the sky.

3. Cheer your team to touchdowns (and dance along with Joe and Josie Bruin).

4. Enjoy a lovely halftime show, including a showdown between some young’uns.

5. Celebrate a victory where the lights of the Rose Bowl are turned off just so we can do an 8-clap in the dark.

6. Round off the night with a firework show!

When I was young, I wanted to be a number of unusual things.  While other children were aspiring to be doctors, lawyers, artists, dancers, or some form of celebrity, I once had it in my mind that I wanted to be a school bus driver.  You see, I always had a penchant for sharing candy and snacks with my friends and I figured there was no better job that allowed you to give candy to kids than that of a school bus driver.  I wouldn’t have to deal with teaching and grading like teachers do, I wouldn’t have to clean up after messy kids like janitors do, and I wouldn’t have to deal with strange cafeteria food like the servers do.  All I’d have to do is pick students up in the morning and drop them off at night.  Meanwhile, I could have a lovely stash of treats that I’d give out for holidays and in certain special times like first and last day of school.

When I was in fourth grade, my teacher had an entire drawer of delicious candy.  When we got homework assignments and tests back, we’d find nickels, dimes, and quarters stamped at the top of our page.  Depending on how well we did for that assignment or test, we would find different increments of change stamped on.  We would  then tear off the stamped image and keep it in a bag or pencil case.  Then, one glorious day, Mrs. S would open up her fabulous drawer and allow us to “buy” the candy within.  Though I thought that would be fun to do, I didn’t like the other aspects of the job, like controlling unruly young kids and patiently teaching them a variety of subjects.  So, I decided that I would rather be the like school bus driver, who would give us candy on Valentine’s Day or for the winter holidays.  It’s all the fun without the grunt work!

Poinsettia.  A word I always dreaded come Christmastime as a child.  I distinctly remember in first grade when we were learning holiday-themed words in class to be tested on and I always struggled with poinsettia.  Christmas was fine, Santa Claus and reindeer and wreath and holly were all too, but poinsettia – that dreaded flower!  I mean, they’re nice enough to look at and all, but really, who came up with that name?!  Was it in their agenda to make my childhood December uncomfortable and awkward?  If so, they were quite successful.

I’ve always prided myself in being an excellent speller.  Not the best, but enough to win the spelling bee in my second grade class with the word chimney.  Though I wasn’t able to win the overall school competition, I wasn’t that crushed – I never expected to be a prodigy or genius of any sort.  I was just a natural at spelling, that’s all.  But oooh when I had to spell POINSETTIA the year before, I lost some of my confidence.  Perhaps it was because I always had it in my mind that it was “poinsetta” (and thus always got docked on my quiz).  In retrospect, it seems such a silly little thing that I should have been able to pick up easily enough, but then again it’s been 16 years since those days.

I guess I’ve learned something since then.  :-P

P.S. – Happy 50th to my mommy!  :)  As I told her, halfway there.  ;)

Whoa, I can't believe they've actually branded this!

About a year and a half ago, when I was living my final year on campus, I had a spectacular roommate who was an amazing musician (among many other things).  I had written a little post-it to myself that I stuck on my desk and one of our friends came in and read it: “I fiddle.”  Somehow, from there, Ms. Mariachi got the impression that there was a new product on the market called an iFiddle (must be her musical background).  The friend and I then proceeded to tell her this story:

Apple is coming out with a new product modeled after a real fiddle, which you can hold just like one, but instead of having strings, it has sensors that recognize when your bow and fingers are on it.  It can then play notes just like you would normally, but the great thing is you can connect your iFiddle to your computer and play background music to accompany your notes, or choose to have them transcribed into a composition as you play!  They’re coming out with a whole line of other instruments you can play with it as well, so you can get really creative with the pieces you compose.  You can also hook it up to your iPod to play back pieces you were working on, or use a song you have on there as the accompaniment for your work.  Then through iTunes, you can edit your compositions and share them as new songs…

We had this whole elaborate story going, both of us building off the other’s inventive descriptions until we got to a point where we just couldn’t contain ourselves anymore.  We burst into hysterical laughter that Mariachi had completely fallen for our ruse, which was neither planned nor rehearsed.  In fact, it was completely spontaneous and neither of us had a clue as to where it was going as we spoke!  That’s the beauty of improv!  And all the better that she believed us through and through, and was excited that such a product was coming out.  Just gotta love the random moments you have with your friends.  I just wish I could remember more of the fabulous details we were able to think up on the fly so that you could truly appreciate our brilliance that night.  ;)