Princesses of the MGM

laelene Posted in photo blog,Tags: , , ,
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When I went to Vegas for Christmas, we went to see David Copperfield at the MGM and came across these lovelies.  They aren’t in the best of shape for their kind, but they’re still fun to look at.  Where are the males?!  I was hoping to see some mane action, oh well.

lioness resting on clear

She's just chillin' as people stand below her and gawk.

lioness lying down, looks kind of like a pig

I'm sure they don't get as much exercise as the wild ones, which might explain why she kind of looks like a pig from here...

lioness stretching out against a tree

She's just stretching her aching muscles.

lioness with arms around a tree trunk

Aww look, she's a tree hugger!

lioness lying there, close to a human handler looking at her

The handlers mostly just hung out in there, occasionally handling the lionesses.

lioness looking over her shoulder

"Hey, you lookin' at me?"

lioness walking over another laying down

This is what I call "walking all over each other." 😛

iPod lost, lesson learned

laelene Posted in general blog,Tags: , , , ,
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When I was working at the Venice Whole Foods this past Monday, I was heading to get my car from street parking and bring it back to the lot so I could load up my equipment after my demo when I lost my iPod touch.  (More on this part-time job I’ve worked on and off for a couple of years in a future post.)  The last time I remember seeing it was when I was holding it in my hand walking to the car.  By the time I realized it was gone, I had driven the car to the lot, packed up in the store, and started to take my stuff out to the car.  It could have been anywhere along my walk to the car, inside the car, or in the store!  I retraced my steps again and again, hoping to see a little black pouch lying somewhere, but had no such luck.  I checked with Customer Service and nobody had turned it in, so I went around for another try, even checking my bag of used cups to see if it dropped in there while I was cleaning up.

I held out hope for a couple of hours, though I sort of knew that if I hadn’t found it by then, with my extensive efforts, it was probably already taken by someone or otherwise lost to me forever.  I spent quite some time looking up ways to track it down, but for all that effort it seemed that it wasn’t worth it.  Even if I were to track it, it’s impossibly hard to get back if someone really did take it.  By the next day, when I called to see if anyone turned it in, I pretty much knew the answer.  I also figured that it was pretty easy to figure out how to contact me if someone had it and intended on returning it, so if I hadn’t heard from anyone, it seemed a lost cause.   However, just to confirm, I also did a complete clean of the car to make sure before I committed myself to getting a new one.

Now I’ve ordered myself a brand new one, complete with engraving on the back that includes this web address, so anyone who finds it and wants to return it can do so easily.  I can happily use a passcode without worrying that the person would never be able to figure out how to get it back to me.  I’m also getting iHound, which will help ease my peace of mind in case I do misplace it again.  Now I just need to figure out how to make sure that if someone has my iPod, they don’t start using my accounts… so far no suspicious activity and no important information was stored in there.  Does signing in to an app on one device sign you out from the other?  If it’s that simple, I’ll just sign in to everything when I get the new one.  Whatever the case, I have now taken measures to be much safer with my information.  And of course, I will try not to lose this one… it’s the first electronic device I’ve lost!  🙁

Check out when I first got it… ironically, I ended up hardly ever using it to listen to music.

Suspended in time

laelene Posted in photo blog,Tags: , , ,
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water streams hitting each other creating big splashes

As some water comes down and hits the water stream being shot up, horizontal splashes form.

smaller splashes of water

Check out all the shapes that appear and disappear in a fraction of a second.

water droplets suspended midair

And as the water falls down, it rains down in many droplets.

Fish spas, the newest craze

laelene Posted in video blog,Tags: , , , , ,
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I don’t know if you’ve heard, but fish spas are the hottest thing to hit the beauty/skincare scene!  They’ve  been quite popular in many parts of Asia and I had been intrigued for many months before I finally got a chance to try it out when I was traveling in Thailand.  Singapore also has a fair share of fish spas, as does most of SE Asia.  I don’t know about China, since it seems they’re more caught up in the blind masseur thing.  But in case you were ever so curious about what in the world “doctor fish” are and why in the world people would go to a fish spa, here’s a little preview!

Fish spas are supposed to be great for your skin, because these little fish come and nibble away your dead skin cells.  They claim that people with skin conditions like eczema, psoriasis, and the like should get this type of treatment to help with breakouts.  At the very least, you sure do leave with soft feet and a unique experience behind you.  I’m sure you can read more about the actual types of fish and why it’s purportedly good for your skin, so I just wanted to share my own experience at the fish spa.

doctor fish from Mary Qin on Vimeo.

When the fish swarm at you, it really tickles! I couldn’t help but giggle out loud. 😛  After awhile you get used to it and occasionally there’s a little bite that hits a nerve, but overall it’s very gentle and immensely amusing. If you happen to know of one in LA, please do let me know! The only one in the states I found was in Virginia…

Phone preferences

laelene Posted in general blog,Tags: , ,
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I have a thing with phones.  First, I don’t really use them.  I don’t really enjoy spending hours on them chit-chatting, but I do like using them for business purposes (what can I say? I’m a customer service kind of person).  Besides, for the most part, my cell phone is buried somewhere in the depths of my purse and digging for it is not worth the effort.  (Especially considering the calls I tend to get – telemarketers and pre-recorded messages.)  I guess I enjoy landlines better because they’re easier to find and I don’t need to worry about a signal.  However, we had a whole slew of wireless handsets at the Opportunity Green office and they seemed to mysteriously get sucked away from the front room towards the back as the day progressed.  Eventually, we’d be at a loss for where the phone was ringing from!  It really was amazing and the fact that the stand rings too certainly made it harder for us locate them.

It also doesn’t help that I don’t like checking voicemails.  So many are unimportant and unsolicited calls and I usually have to listen multiple times to make out what people are saying, either because their connection was spotty or they spoke really fast.  Others can drag on when I’d rather call them back to discuss in detail, or get an e-mail with the 20 points they just listed out verbally.  It makes it easier for me to remember and review!  In that regard, thank goodness for Google Voice!  They let me go through my voicemails in any order, so I can skip the junk ones.  Plus, they transcribe the voicemails so I can read them and listen to the ones that look important.  Though it can ultimately save me time, their transcriptions haven’t been that accurate.  Ironically, the text message they sent me alerting me to my new voicemail was more accurate than the transcription I found when I logged in online.  What gives?

So, phones, though a great way to contact people, are not my preferred way to staying in touch.  I’m more of a get together in real life type of person.  I prefer to use phones to call/text people to figure out how/when we can get together.  Of course, if I won’t be seeing one for ages and e-mailing or Facebooking just isn’t doing it, a long phone conversation is nice.  However, it’s usually sufficient to stay in touch online while we can’t meet up, since most of the people I hang out with live in the same general area.  Also, it’s great to have a phone on you at all times in case you need to call someone to remind them of something, let them know you’re almost there, ask for directions, or other such things that you can’t do if you’re like me and don’t want to pay for internet usage on your phone.

Anyone else like to use phones for no-nonsense purposes only?  Or is the world addicted to their Bluetooth headsets as they chat away while on the go?  It still cracks me up when people look like they’re talking to themselves (or seem like they may be talking to you) when in fact they’ve got a little ear piece hidden behind their hair and they’ve got another person on the line.  Whatever happened to being more present?

Proud Chinese

laelene Posted in video blog,Tags: , , ,
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As the flag was raised for a Chinese gold medal winner at the Paralymics 2008, those around me proudly sang the national anthem.  Check out the exuberant boy!

chinese anthem from Mary Qin on Vimeo.

Advocacy

laelene Posted in general blog,Tags: , , , ,
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I’m an advocate.  Of what?  Well, anything that I like!  I’m not the type of consumer who happily uses products without sharing with friends and family.  In fact, I’m often selling them on certain brands and converting them to what I enjoy.  It ranges from free things to useful things to just plain cool things.  It’s often in technology or green products, but could be in anything that has caught my attention (take a look at my wishlist and sharelist).  In the coming weeks I want to start a series of posts showcasing some of these products and services I like best.  And perhaps, just perhaps, you’ll be convinced too.  😛  I’m just sayin’…

After the storms

laelene Posted in photo blog,Tags: , , , ,
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Now that the weather has cleared up in LA, things are looking beautiful!  Click on the pictures to see a larger size.

mountains covered in snow in the distance

All the rainfall meant plenty of snow those mountains!

green hills with snowy mountain range as backdrop

I loved the red-roofed set of buildings, the freshly green hills, and the snowy white mountain range beyond.

view over rooftops of snowy mountains in distance

From my backyard, without a zoom, this is the view you get.

frost on hot tub cover

The cover for our hot tub was covered in frost in the morning!

close-up of frost on hot tub cover

Check out the detail of the little ice bits.

I love when the air is crisper and cleaner.  LA without smog is fabulous.  Everything looks so much brighter now!

Phishing scams

laelene Posted in general blog,Tags: , ,
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I often get junk mail that tries to come off as legit, and half the time I have to laugh because their attempts are just SO pathetic.  Take this one I got:

phishing scam e-mail

Seriously?  You expect me to fall for that when you are using multiple fonts, no images, and don’t know more than two of the numbers in my account?!  Besides, those two numbers aren’t even right.  Ultimate FAIL.  Plus, when I hover over the link, I can see that the address it would take me to is complete bogus, seeing as it’s hosted on realdragonhk.com.  I’ve also never received such a plain e-mail from American Express, which always includes their logo (hey, every chance to build branding, right?) and uses HTML to create a nice layout that also shows me an image of the type of card I have.

I really hope that people are smart enough not to fall for things like this.  And if they somehow do, I hope their spyware is good enough to catch these ridiculous sites and redirect them elsewhere.  Honestly though, you’ve got to miss a lot of big, fat, and bright red warning flags to not notice.  The next time you receive one of these, I’d advise you to report it and then delete it.  Most sites have a fraud protection area where they give you an e-mail address you can forward it to – I know I’ve done so for this one, a fake IRS one, and I believe a Bank of America one.  Certainly most banks and credit card companies are well aware of this issue and have set up appropriate channels for you to go through.  That way, they can be alert of all the scams out there and get those sites flagged and removed ASAP.

Burrowing clams

laelene Posted in video blog,Tags: , , , , ,
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I am fascinated by sea creatures because sometimes I don’t think of them as alive until I see them in action (and even then, I’m incredulous).  Clams are definitely one of the mystery animals out there, especially considering they’re so shy and hide all the time!  So here I was, going paparazzi-crazy on the clams that covered the shore of Patong Beach in Phuket, Thailand. Some were teeny, some were huge, some were quick movers and other slowly dug their way…

little clam burrowing from Mary Qin on Vimeo.

slow burrowing clam from Mary Qin on Vimeo.

happy burrowing clam from Mary Qin on Vimeo.

three burrowing clams from Mary Qin on Vimeo.

Does this not fascinate you too? Is it just me?

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