Now what could they possibly need to stop and broadcast from there for?
It always fascinates me toponder why so and so got pulled over.
Sooo I SWEAR that's a Toyota Camry. Can someone tell me what language that is?! o.O
I, too, drive a Yerevan Aresh.
Facing our mortality is probably the most difficult thing for people to deal with. We all know it’s inevitable, but that doesn’t make it any easier. It’s even worse when you’re dying at an unnaturally fast rate because your body isn’t functioning the way it should to maintain your health. (I don’t believe in saying because you’re dying because, well, we all are, in a way.) The younger you are, the further thoughts of death are from your mind, until a tragedy strikes that reminds us all that we aren’t as immune to death as feel we are in youth. Diseases that strike in children are more horrifying because we feel they didn’t get a fair chance at life. Then there are others that are borderline, if not outright torturous.
Imagine what it would be like to be in Charles Sabine’s shoes: you know that the most likely cause of your death will be a deadly and incurable disease, Huntington’s. On one extreme, you could fear the oncoming suffering and death and let it take over your life. Day to day, you wonder when it’s going to start taking over. And when it does, you worry yourself more with how quickly it will overcome you. On the other hand, you could take advantage of every moment and go do the things you’d always put off. You can embrace every experience and truly start living and being, not letting it consume you. There’s nothing quite like a brush with death or knowing you have a disease that will kill you to get people to make some drastic changes to their lives.
Last night my mom told to be careful when I’m driving and be particularly wary of big rigs. After all, it’s pretty obvious that my little car counts for nothing against one of those. It turns out she said this because one of our family friend’s daughters had somehow collided against one hard enough to spin her car around 180 degrees so that she was facing oncoming traffic. Perhaps she passed out or she somehow didn’t get her foot off the gas in time – either way, she was hit by an oncoming car and did not survive the impact. It makes me wonder how it must feel to die without ever know it was coming, or have it come so fast that you hadn’t even really registered what was going on. Is a life suddenly taken more tragic than one slowly robbed by debilitating disease? It’s hard to say.
On one end is death by disease that you can anticipate and on the other end is death by accident that comes on suddenly. Neither is very pleasant, but it happens all the time and it’s always a reminder of how fragile life can be. I’d call these unnatural deaths, but technically diseases are a thing of nature, are they not? To me, untimely deaths are ones in which you die before your parents. There’s a saying in Chinese about how white-haired people should not ever have to bury black-haired people (aka parents shouldn’t have to live to see the day their children die). I think that’s a pretty widely-accepted belief in cultures around the world.
Stories like those make me think about my own life and how it will end. Of course I imagine and assume that I will reach a decently old age and have at least two generations of progeny for it really becomes more of a reality, but you never know. I guess I don’t really think about it because it’s a scary prospect to have my life cut short so early, before I can do all the things I want to do in this world. Besides, it’s not really something I can control, so worrying about it all the time won’t do me much good. But I do think it’s good for us to keep in touch with our own mortalities, if it creates the motivation to do more with our lives. And perhaps one of the best ways to respect life is to live it, truly.
I am blessed with good health and good luck, and I plan on making every bit of that work for me. I’m going to leave an indelible mark on this world, so long as I can live out the course of a “normal” lifespan. Even if I don’t, at least I’ll have been working towards it.
Each maker proudly showcasing his/her handicraft.
Oops, this one's leaking some meat!
This wonton got a little scrunched.
You can’t quite tell, but the wonton was very small and a strange sort of shape. 😛 Just as yummy though!
And to top it all off, we have cheesecake for dessert!
I’ve been speaking to a lot of entrepreneurs lately and it’s really exciting to hear all the fun, interesting, and innovative ideas they have! Most are still in early development, so I can’t share what they are, but I would like to say that there’s a certain theme running through it all – a need to make things better. Everyone’s focus is in their own area of expertise and passion, which makes for a lot of promising businesses to come! I think the great thing about startups is the drive that people have. You can’t survive without a deep level of commitment to the purpose of the company/organization, unlike in large and established corporations, where you can get away with a lack of interest in what the mission actually is.
For me, it’s motivating to see all the hard workers out there making their dreams come true. I’ve got a lot that I’d like to make a reality within the next decade and I’m going to start on at least one of them by the time I’m 30. That’s a promise to myself, and something to make myself accountable for. One piece of advice I got was to set real, concrete deadlines and that’s exactly what I’m working on. Too often I like to leave a way out by saying, “sometime around” or “in the next 5-10 years,” giving myself enough leeway to perhaps not quite make it happen. So I’m going to change my mentality and decide that I am and I will. No more of that I hope and I want business. It’s going to be how I choose to make it to be.
At times I was doubtful that I had an entrepreneurial enough spirit to be an entrepreneur, but now that I see those out there, I’ve got no doubt in my mind that I have the passion, drive, creativity, and intelligence to do so. The important thing is setting my mind to it and then going full force. That’s not a problem for me – I decided I wanted to start my own business when I was in middle school and that desire has yet to change. I’ve definitely gotten bitten by the entrepreneurial, if there is such a thing, and I’m excited to develop my plans over the years as I ready myself professionally and personally to handle the tasks I’ll need to for my aspirations to become real.
It’s been consuming my thoughts!
Why am I taking a picture?
To capture this bug flying around!
In case you were wondering what it looked like, here you go.
I’m working on a project now that is something I’ve thought of before, but never considered doing seriously until now. After speaking to some tried and true entrepreneurs, the one piece of advice that stood out was: just do it. Yup, Nike was right – you just gotta go out and get started! So that’s exactly what I’m doing on now, first producing some content to put up on the site that I’ll be launching within the first week of January. I spent the majority of today working on the more technical issues of getting the site up and with the help of a friend, I’ve got a decent framework to work with. It’ll start off simple, but I do hope the content is valuable to my target audience.
I’m excited for this fun distraction that I’m going to build into a great resource and fun reference. I don’t want to give too much away while I’m still working on it, so just keep your eyes open in the new year, especially if you’re a Bruin! In the mean time, if you or anyone you know is willing to help with writing content, doing some graphic design, or helping with the website, please do let me know! I’ll need all the help I can get. This will be my first “startup” (not in the sense of a company, but in the sense that I’m the one running the show based off of one of my ideas), so I’m sure there will be a lot to learn. I’ll try to document what I can as I grow from the experience. 🙂
From chaos...
...to what we dubbed "Sparta."
Fun times at ESLP (Education for Sustainable Living Program) during the lecture series.
Last week, the battery in my car key was dying and it chose to give out when I needed to unlock my car to get to a lecture. Though I could open the car manually, it would set off the car alarm time and time again, which did me no good. I tried to get in and just start my car, but it didn’t work and the engine wouldn’t react. I called up Panda to try to figure out a solution and eventually decided to go back to my internship to see if the guys there had suggestions (or could possibly take me to a local shop to buy a battery).
I got a screwdriver to open up the casing and at least see what size the battery was. One of the guys took it and decided he’d try something radical – he started to rub it vigorously on the carpet! Trying to work on the static electricity generated to create a charge strong enough for it to work for just one more push, he went on for a few seconds, then quickly replaced the battery. I pressed a button and the red light lit to indicate it was working, so he and the other intern started to yell at me to run to my car to unlock it. Nervous and anticipatory, I ran out as fast as I could and cautiously pressed it when I felt close enough for it to work.
Miraculously, I heard the double-beeping that indicated my car was unlocked! What a genius move! I was really excited about it, since it was such a great application of the physical sciences! It’s like when you take a potato to power something and it’s a really cool science experiment because it works and it’s so simple too. In this day and age of technology, it’s great to see that there are still some less high-tech ways of solving problems. It took a certain creativity to even consider the idea (which was borne of desperation). As my tagline says, “because inspiration doesn’t wait,” after all. Crazy, huh? 🙂
An exclusive version in early November!
A special flavor they only had in the back for Twitter followers: dulce de leche.
Mmm, chocolate cupcake with caramel frosting and chocolate ganache! 🙂
It’s one of my greatest pet peeves. Well, first of all I don’t like socks. I only use them when I have to because if you don’t with sneakers, they get nasty. Second of all, when I do have to wear them, they must be ankle socks. And perhaps that is where my problem lies. Those little things don’t get much clinging space when trying to hang on to your ankle without succumbing to gravity and friction. With wear, they inevitably get loose and then start to droop off my feet until I find them in a little scrunched ball at my toes. Hardly protecting my feet anymore!
What I need is ankle socks made from material that can stretch as needed, yet never get too stretched out. Those don’t seem to exist. When they’re new, they’re fine, but with use, socks get useless pretty quickly. I also don’t like them too thick, so the sturdier ones are out of the running. Guess I’m stuck with what I have now. Why do I have to be so picky about my feet?
