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!
I give it another try…
blowfish attempt from Mary Qin on Vimeo.
Finally, a little swipe! 🙂
blowfish petting from Mary Qin on Vimeo.
Yesterday 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! 🙂
How cute! I wonder how they taste though...
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!
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.
I can’t quite tell if she’s a Pek A Poo or a Shih Poo. What fun names though! If she’s the Pek A Poo, she shares my birth date! 🙂
Wow, check out that near right angle her forehead and nose make.
Aww, a quiet little one laying down to rest.
It’s the time again, when people’s sinuses get the best of them and somehow spring brings with it no shortage of colds. I got sick last week and coughed my way through many days before the temperature of the office was thankfully brought up to less than freezing. Interestingly, the guy sitting next to me was out sick the second day I was ill, then when he returned the following day, the guy next to him was out! Must have been passed on between us. 😛 One of the guys at a company we work with told me he got sick and was out yesterday too. Yeesh, the bug is getting around. Have you gotten it?
Now this week I’m not sick, but my nasal cavity is still not at its best. This morning I lost my voice a bit and this week Panda has been borderline sick as well. I joked that since I probably gave it to him, I’m not going to get it back from him – no tag-backs, right? So I’m not afraid of getting sick again, but I do need my throat to cooperate before I’ll be back to normal again. It sucks when you sound like you’ve just woken up throughout the entire work day. I’ve been drinking warm water and wearing two jackets all week, but obviously that hasn’t worked as quickly or effectively as I had hoped.
So all you healthy people out there, beware! Eat some extra fruit, drink some extra water, and stay warm. Before we know it, this will all be over and summer will be in full swing. I can’t wait!
In the wee hours today, just past midnight, this helo just wouldn’t leave the area. In fact, I’d even say it was circling frantically. Or maybe it just felt so because it was traveling in tight, fast circles as its spotlight pointed straight at the Strathmore Regency. A friend who lives there told me that the police had their guns pointed at a guy and they were told to stay away from the balcony. The noise above lasted for about 15-20 minutes before I presume they apprehended the man and the police presence subsided.
helo circling westwood from Mary Qin on Vimeo.
And the view from our porch:
helo overhead from Mary Qin on Vimeo.
Stop...
...and go!
Haha, I was amused that the bird was following the signal, staying still with the red light and moving with the green. 😛
I am greatly amused by how fitting the avatars generated for my commentators tend to be. The girls get “prettier” ones and the guys get more bold ones (not to gender stereotype, but personality-wise these people tend to fit those profiles). If you want to see what yours is, just comment on my blog and the little square picture that shows up is your avatar. If you see a picture, that means you created a Gravatar, so you’d either have to comment using an email different from your Gravatar, or go deactivate your picture for a bit to see what would have been generated for you.
I don’t know what type of algorithm is used to translate an email address into an avatar and it’s probably completely random, but I do feel that you’ll like get an image that you like and/or seems fitting for you. Perhaps it’s all my imagination, but I can’t help but think that! If you don’t believe me, try it for yourself and see what you think! The style I chose is called “Identicon” and all images are single-colored geometric patterns. There’s also a set called “Wavatar” and another called “MonsterID” – the former I’m not very familiar with and seems to be little geometric creatures, while the latter is a bunch of fun little monster cartoons.
Go ahead, give it a try and let me know if you like what you get! 🙂
