Sometimes you notice things on the street that are different enough to catch your eye, or even downright peculiar.
Now that's a first! A hybrid taxi, yay. 🙂
Now that's just a disaster waiting to happen.
Yeah, seriously, thanks for the tip. Why would they allow this?!
Apparently this bus decided that it was going to turn the middle of the street into its stop.
I've never seen so many people cross the street at once in LA.
Yesterday my friend and I tried to go eat at a restaurant half an hour before its closing time, only to be turned away because they close the kitchen an hour early. What?!?! That is ridiculous. Most meals only last about 40 minutes or so. I absolutely hate when restaurants stop serving food way before closing time. I once ran down to a place I wanted to eat at and made it 20 minutes before they were supposed to close, only to have the doors pretty much shut in my face. And here I thought restaurants would want to maximize the amount of customers they serve, but I guess going home is far more important.
What really bothers me about this is that it’s so misleading. Do I always have to plan on showing up at least an hour before the listed closing time, even if I only plan on a quick meal? In last night’s case, we even called at 10:15 and asked when they close that night – they told us 11. Why didn’t they bother to tell us that, oh by the way, the kitchen is closed?! It’s not like we were asking when they usually close. We asked when they were closing that night. Hint, hint, we wanted to eat there TONIGHT. Those hours of operation are unreliable.
I think there should be legislation that forces restaurants to list their opening hours as when they stop serving new customers (and listing when they actually kick the customers out of their shop would be optional). After all, we’re going there to eat, don’t we have a right to know at what time we won’t be able to do so anymore? Restaurants should not get away with tricking people into thinking they’re open far more than they actually are. It’s like this one boba place that I’ve heard doesn’t even serve boba until at least half an hour after opening. They should have to note that on the door with their opening times! After all, much of the draw of their store is the boba. People don’t just go to get any old drink; they could do that somewhere else that’s probably open earlier anyway.
So if you ever open a restaurant, please take it upon yourself to do the responsible thing and let people know if your food isn’t served until half an hour after your doors open or if it is no longer served an hour before your doors close. It’s vital information that’s typically far more relevant than when those doors lock and unlock. Thanks.
It was a very zen moment, going down the escalator to the MTR and having this music and commercial playing all around me.
zen mont blanc commercial from Mary Qin on Vimeo.
Haha, check out the couple kissing. So random.
I’ve gotten so used to having Panda around that it’s been really weird this week without him around. He’s at home on spring break and now I struggle to find things to do with my time at night. Funny, it’s not like when he was around we were hanging out, but just his presence calms me. Now, I am on my own and the games I distract myself with aren’t as engaging, TV shows aren’t as interesting, and I don’t have the patience to waste my time online. I just want to be able to know that he will be here at the end of my work day. In fact, there’s really no motivation for me to leave work earlier rather than later, now that he’s away. Coincidentally, my boss is out of town as well, which means I’m not as busy with work either.
The good thing is that I’ve got a friend who’s around and we met up for dinner last night. We happened to run into a mutual friend, so the three of us can grab dinner together tomorrow night! That will keep me occupied until things pick up again. Still, I’m a little lost without Panda here to talk to and share my time with. I am looking forward to next week, when he finally returns. This will be the longest I don’t get to see him since I returned from Singapore! I’ve found that my pattern on my own is different from when he is around. Both are nice in their own ways, but I much prefer having him around than not. I’ve been excessively tired these couple of days, perhaps because I haven’t been taking care of myself as much. Even my train of thought writing this is all over the place… I suppose it’s time to call it a night and get some rest.
It’s just spectacular! I love the sub-shape cloud.
Don't look too long, it might hurt your eyes!
It's really cool how the setting sun tints the cloud and gives it a glow of its own.
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.
