Hummingbirds are the most fascinating birds… they’re like the helicopters of the plane world. I’d never seen so many at once, and in the middle of the UCLA campus nonetheless! Out of all that concrete and brick, they were able to find these feeders. Cool, huh?
flitting hummingbirds from Mary Qin on Vimeo.
The Tiger Temple in Thailand is pretty amazing. There’s a certain awe surrounding creatures so magnificent and powerful. When you go, there’s an area where the adult tigers hang out during the day, with lots of keepers around who take you around to get pictures with the tigers. Each person who goes to take pictures is paired with two keepers – one to lead them and one to take pictures. I put my camera on video mode so I could get a little live footage before the photographer keeper figured it out and switched it to camera mode. Here’s that footage:
petting a tiger from Mary Qin on Vimeo.
I then noticed one of the tigers pacing around as the keepers tried to calm him. Nobody was allowed to take pictures with him while he was in a mood.
pacing tiger from Mary Qin on Vimeo.
And then in another area, two baby tigers were playing with the monks who take care of them. They’re so cute! But don’t be fooled, these suckers are strong!
playful baby tiger from Mary Qin on Vimeo.
baby tiger playing from Mary Qin on Vimeo.
Early in the year, an electrical explosion underground rocked Westwood and created quite a mess when much of the neighborhood was blacked out to fix the issue. Here it is minutes after the explosion.
leafy sea dragon from Mary Qin on Vimeo.
Maybe it’s just me, but I always love plane rides and it was fascinating when one of my flights had a camera installed underneath the plane. Here’s what it looks like to take off from LAX and land in Narita as I did on my way to Singapore over a year ago.
takeoff from LAX from Mary Qin on Vimeo.
landing in NRT from Mary Qin on Vimeo.
On Sentosa Island, there is a Dolphin Lagoon where I went to watch the pink dolphins perform. Afterwards, I took a picture with Squirt, who only liked girls! 😉
squirt the dolphin from Mary Qin on Vimeo.
I volunteered for a few hours and in exchange, got free entry into the concert!
killers concert from Mary Qin on Vimeo.
It meowed at us first! So of course we had to meow back until it meowed for the camera…
meowing parrot from Mary Qin on Vimeo.
Funny, I was just thinking about how I always seem to be the exception and never quite fit into a category. One such case is in eating habits – I’m not a “true” vegetarian, but practically am most of the time. Then I come across this video, talking about breaking down the idea that you either have to be a vegetarian/vegan or a crazy carnivore. I consider myself neither, really. In fact, I like to say I’m a pseudo-vegetarian. I don’t eat meat much but I do have some periodically. And so now, a new breed of vegetarians can emerge, treating their eating habits sort of like a job… meanwhile, I think I’ll stick to my own brand of “vegetarianism.”
los dos performing “our youth” from Mary Qin on Vimeo.
