The cheapest way to get around Hong Kong (other than walking, of course) would be these ding dings. They’re also a great way to watch the city go by you and enjoy the outside weather. They can be quite jerky and get too hot in the summer, but it’s fun to see the bustling streets pass by you.
riding a ding ding from Mary Qin on Vimeo.
I find that most of the successful blogs out there seem to adhere to some sort of theme. People brand themselves as an expert in a subject, or at least stick to writing about a specific topic, and those interested in that particular area come and read about their opinions, thoughts, ideas, etc. For me, however, something like that doesn’t quite work. I’ve got too many interests to just focus in one area (and not enough time to create separate blogs for each!). I’ve always liked my theme to just be me. All my interests, all the experiences in my life, all the random things that go through my mind. I guess it’s a good thing I’m not out to be a professional blogger!
A short clip of an elephant ride I took and some pictures to go with!
elephant-riding from Mary Qin on Vimeo.
The elephants coming in so we can hop on for a ride!
Aww, I was tempted to try to "shake hands."
This little boy may be young, but he's an expert elephant driver!
Here comes my ride, ready for a spin.
I joined a mother-daughter pair on our elephant.
We were so high up I got a close look at these butterflies!
They've got this crazy coarse skin that feels really cool. Also note how their ears are used as racks for the hook used to cut up wood.
Check out how cool it is. 🙂
Oh dear, he just decided it was time and went for it.
Those hooks were used to get pieces of these trees for the elephants to eat. Apparently they find it very tasty.
We had a nice field to roam around and at one point, it looked like the people were floating in the trees.
And after our little spin around, it was time to return to the loading dock and head off to the next adventure.
When I was up in Ojai for a lovely weekend away, my boss from the internship with Opportunity Green called me “Technolo-Mary” during dinner, which struck something in me. He had been referring to how I seem to know all the newest gadgets and services out there. It made me realize that I really am a great resource for many new technologies that have come about in the past couple of years. I liked that someone as techy as he (he got a degree in engineering and is awesome at all things related to building and maintaining websites) found my knowledge useful enough to consider me a valuable go-to person.
I do like to stay on top of things, whether it’s things like Google Voice, Dropbox, and reQall or more of things like new social media forums, mobile technologies, and many more. I’ve always loved to learn more about technology, so anything new captures my attention and I like to spend time learning more about it. If I like what I see, I’ll usually go on to become an adopter and even spread the word. That’s what I’ve been doing with CauseWorld, which is a great app for your smartphone that allows you to choose where sponsors’ money is donated.
I really enjoy troubleshooting (for the most part) and solving problems through logic and trial and error. Also, it’s rewarding to discover the best technical solutions for everyday issues, like streamlining processes. Whether it’s organization, documentation, or retrieval, there’s probably a better way to do it than the one you’re doing now. I’m all about efficiency and effectiveness, which is probably also why technology fascinates me so much – it solves a lot of our problems and saves us a lot of time and effort!
Perhaps I should start a help line called “Technomary” – not “techno Mary,” but “tech-nom-ary.” A play on technology and Mary AND -ary as a suffix that means “having to do with.” It’d be a fun name for a tech blog, if I were to ever write one. It could be a cool place to get answers for your “Dear Abby” type tech questions like how to convert a scanned JPEG into a PDF or what type of free phone services there are. Hmm, now there’s a thought…
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.
undie run begins from Mary Qin on Vimeo.
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.
through the tunnel from Mary Qin on Vimeo.
Bruins enjoying themselves always shout “UC! LA!” and do multiple 8-claps (not captured).
spirited undie run from Mary Qin on Vimeo.
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!
helo checks out undie run from Mary Qin on Vimeo.
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.
There are just so many entertaining spottings! I can never get enough…
Imagine driving along, then seeing this guy pulling up behind you. I don't know if I'd just laugh or actually move.
What they mean is they are hiring Class A licensed drivers...
Now that is some major low ridin'. Plus, what's up with the lime green?
I'm not sure if it's meant to be cute, funny, or morbid. To me, it's a little bit of each.
More to come, for sure. I’m running out of post titles, I’ve had so many noteworthy encounters on the road.
It’s been awhile since I’ve read some of the blogs I used to follow loosely, so today I took a look at my Google Reader. One of the ones I’d stumbled upon had written its last and final post at 999 or 1000, over the course of five years. So often, people start a blog fresh and excited, then it wanes into a duty before it fizzles out after a few weeks, months, or years. Blogging hasn’t really been around for people to do it for decades, but I doubt many would ever make it that far anyway. What is it about maintaining writing that is so difficult? Many a time I’ve been told by people that they once kept a journal or diary, only to have it fade away after awhile. (This is after I told them I had been keeping a daily journal since 4th grade.)
Even I haven’t lasted forever and 13 years into writing those journal entries, I have stopped to take a breather (nearly 50 volumes in!). It is always in my heart to go back and fill in those missing days, but as the days go on, the feasibility goes down. Nevertheless, I still faithfully document my life in one way or another – via photos, blog posts, e-mails, tweets, and random memos to myself. It’s a habit I don’t intend to kick, this need to have a record of my life, my past. I guess it’s easier for me because I took it when I was young and made it a habit, a need. Even now, not having a written journal keeping track of my life doesn’t sit well with me.
People go through a lot of changes in their lives and it only makes sense that this is one of those fluid things that comes and goes. For me, the need to remember details of my life remain, but the medium through which I do that depends on how I develop as a person. Makes me wonder how long this will last…
Well, that’s the first time I’ve seen them done like that!
jagerbomb line from Mary Qin on Vimeo.
You know, I never understood people who honk. Other than the occasional toot to let someone know you’re there when they look like they’re about to merge into you, I don’t see much of a reason to use that feature. Yet, I see people who hold down their horn like madmen just because they’re driven crazy with road rage. I see people who honk at you to get out of their way when sometimes it’s impossible and other times you weren’t going in their way anyway. It seems that they need an outlet for their anger, which is all too easily incited.
Perhaps horns should be designed to be loud enough to make the same impact they do now, but somehow sound friendlier. The blaring ones these days are annoying enough to make anyone hearing it grumpy. Why do they need to sound so upset? Sure they’re meant to be a warning, but warnings can be a loud enough volume without having to sound like someone’s yelling or screaming at you in a bad way. I wish drivers weren’t so “trigger-happy” when using their horns. It puts everyone in a foul mood and makes for worse driving. Certainly not setting the right tone there.
Maybe it’s just because of the drivers in LA. You’ve gotta be pretty aggressive to get around in this city, so perhaps that has put everyone in a poor mood, stressing them out. Whatever the case, the driving experience would be a whole lot better if drivers refrained from using their horns so much. That’s like walking around with a megaphone, blaring it at someone whenever they do something that ticks you off the slightest. I feel that horns should be used sparingly, if at all, and better driving would be a better way of preventing the need to use it. Save it for the time you actually need it for your safety, and not for whenever you feel like it.
In Manhattan Beach, there is a lovely cupcake shop that my boss owns…
Aren’t they just irresistable?
