Out on the water enjoying a gorgeous sunset in Hong Kong. There’s something really cool about watching the sun setting while surrounded by water.
Posts Tagged ‘experiences’
Hong Kong sunset
laelene Posted in video blog，Tags: beauty, experiences, hong kong, nature, videos
12
May
2010
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Apple outing
laelene Posted in general blog，Tags: experiences, habits, panda
11
May
2010
Tonight, like many other nights in the past month or so, Panda and I went to the Apple store to play on the iPads. We’ve entered a couple of sweepstakes to try to win one, but in the mean time we’ve been going every week or so to play Flight Control HD on the devices there. It’s fun to play a game we both like that we can work on together, plus it’s nice to get out at night. Share experiences strengthen our bond and give us nice memories to look back on.
And so, week after week, we will go out and play that game together. Today we managed to get 100 planes! On my own I can get over 200, but as a team it’s far harder and it forces us to try harder. 🙂 Now if we do win an iPad, we’ll spend more time playing together at home. Today I tested it and I we can play the game with one person on an iPad and the other on the iPhone, so I’m excited. Just gotta win one now!
Dessert gone wrong
laelene Posted in photo blog，Tags: experiences, food, learning, panda
10
May
2010
This week, Ralph’s has strawberries on sale for only 99 cents a box, so Panda got some for his mom. We had a box and tonight, Panda and I attempted to make chocolate-dipped strawberries. We were optimistic, but soon found ourselves with an unmanageable mess. This is how it all went down…
We had the chocolate -
- we had the strawberries.
The strawberries got washed...
...and the chocolate got melted.
Then the strawberries got dipped.
Even with lots of swirling, the chocolate wouldn't quite stick right.
We had to resort to using chopsticks when it started to get harder.
The very first one! Not too shabby... right?
Mmm, looking good!
Oh no, what happened? It's getting all dried up now.
We give up and decide to try microwaving.
Panda wanted to try salvaging what apparently was burnt chocolate by adding water. Didn't quite work out as we wanted.
Giving up on the milk chocolate, we decide to start using the white chocolate.
Somehow managed to mess this up too... I swear everything went wrong after we started to accidentally get some water in the bowl.
One last chance to try to make it right. Going back to how we did it originally.
The chocolate solidifies quickly when it comes in contact with the cool, moist strawberry, so Panda ended up working on them with his fingers.
And to think, we wanted to dip those pineapples too... Next time, I'm getting fondue chocolate!
Thoughts into action
laelene Posted in general blog，Tags: business, entrepreneurs, experiences, future, opinion, panda
04
May
2010
Today I met with a couple of like-minded people to talk about entrepreneurism and one message seemed clear: start early. All of those with experience are mostly in their 20’s and certainly not over 30-something. They started in their teens or 20’s and have been living the startup lifestyle for years. It seemed to be the consensus that the best time to start is when you’re young and still in college. That’s when you don’t have to worry about supporting yourself financially – there are parents, scholarships, or loans to help you. And once you gain traction, you can graduate and hop right into it with more confidence because you’ve been working at it for awhile and you can convince family, friends, and investors that your business will succeed.
Well, that’s not the plan I have. I’m taking a more “safe” route, I suppose, working first, gaining that experience, taking it to learn in business school, and finally branching off on my own. Of course, the most difficult part will be letting go of a steady job and living off of savings to get my company going. But I trust that I can and will do it. I don’t want to end up being the type who just talks about big plans and ideas and never goes and does them. I’m not going to be that type.
So though I will be older, more experienced, and have more to lose, as they say, I fully intend on staying my path. I guess that’s exactly why I’m confident in my plan – because I’ve had it since middle school. Sometime around 8th grade, I believe, is when I decided I wanted to go to business school. I can’t remember when I added starting my own company as the next step beyond that, but little has altered. I have changed my ideas enough to strengthen my plan, but the overall framework has never faltered (like how I now want a green MBA because I want to go into the environmental field). And after dedicating so much of my thoughts and time to my plan, how could I not follow through?
No matter how daunting it might be to do so, when the time comes, I’ll have to take the plunge. I even told Panda to be prepared. In the mean time, I’m not going to get too comfortable working a steady job so that when change comes, I can embrace it.
River fun
laelene Posted in video blog，Tags: amusing, experiences, fun, interesting, nature, thailand, travel, travel tales, videos
26
April
2010
Taking a tour outside Bangkok and it’s time for lunch on the river, literally!
floating restaurant from Mary Qin on Vimeo.
Then we zoomed upriver to the bamboo rafts awaiting us.
motor boating up the river from Mary Qin on Vimeo.
This looked like a fun party!
floating river party from Mary Qin on Vimeo.
And a peaceful ride back down to our floating restaurant/hotel.
bamboo rafting from Mary Qin on Vimeo.
Festival of Books
laelene Posted in general blog，Tags: experiences, festival of books, friends, ipad, los angeles, panda, prizes, ucla
25
April
2010
It’s that time of year again! This weekend was the LA Times Festival of Books and I went with some friends. This year they had a mobile scavenger hunt with the prize of an iPad. Panda and I decided to participate and we invited our friend, Houdini, to join in. Saturday, Houdini and I spent a good 4-5 hours running around the UCLA campus answering clues to the hunt. I unfortunately took a hit when I got a question wrong, but that allowed Houdini to get a perfect score on the hunt… let’s just hope he gets enough bonus points for pictures to outdo the competition! That’d be awesome, considering it’s his first time to the fair!
The focus this year really centered around the scavenger hunt, which was really a nice way to check out most parts of the event. From the poetry corner to the kids’ stuff to the cooking stage to the news booths, we saw a lot! It was also nice to get out on such a beautiful weekend rather than lazing around all day like I usually would. I do need to get (and stay) more active and though my back hurt and my legs were aching after the first day, it felt good to be outside moving around. I also ran into some random people, which is always fun.
I found that this year I didn’t really have an interest in checking out the booths like I have in previous years. Perhaps it is because there were so many people there that anything I might have wanted to do would have taken up a lot of time standing in line. Plus, I wasn’t out to buy anything, so none of those booths interested me, and I’ve never been one for book signings or readings or cooking shows. It’s nice to just hang out and enjoy the atmosphere and catch bits of performances as I pass.
It has found a nice home over the fireplace.
Oh, and then today we got word that Houdini won the iPad from a raffle we entered on Saturday! Pretty awesome, especially considering we were really donating money to help homeless people when we bought those tickets. I remember seeing it was a 32 gig one, which is better than the one the LA Times has up for grabs from the scavenger hunt! That one seems out of our reach though. And as Panda and I were going through completing the hunt for him today, we were able to snag a really nice poster and a button, which was great for him since he has empty walls to fill and collects buttons. 🙂 All in all a great weekend, no? If only I could have won that iPad so I could feel better about the iPod Touches that I no longer own… 😛
Chirping memories
laelene Posted in video blog，Tags: animals, childhood, experiences, hong kong, memories, travel, travel tales, videos
22
April
2010
This was reminiscent of my grandfather’s house. Not that it’s quite so loud, but he does love to raise birds and out of sight in this clip are bamboo/wooden cages that really reminded me of the ones he has at his home.
along the bird market from Mary Qin on Vimeo.
A very special treat
laelene Posted in photo blog，Tags: cupcakes, experiences, food, los angeles, social media, sprinkles, twitter
21
April
2010
Sprinkles gives away free cupcakes daily, if you follow them on Twitter and get to their shop in time to be the first 25 to say the secret word of the day. Sometimes, that free offer is a flavor not sold at their stores – a much coveted prize (for me, anyway).
This day, it was this lovely chocolate cupcake with chocolate ganache and marshmallow filling, which isn’t a special flavor, but came in a very special way. I was surprised to get it so fresh that the ganache hadn’t even firmed up yet; now there’s a rare occasion! It was just about the last one left too. Beautiful.
On the left, the chocolate marshmallow with fresh ganache. On the right, the classic red velvet.
Pink dolphins
laelene Posted in video blog，Tags: adventure, animals, experiences, hong kong, travel, travel tales, videos
19
April
2010
After hours of searching, we finally came across them! Read about the entire adventure that led up to these videos, then check’em out:
pink dolphins spotted! from Mary Qin on Vimeo.
pink dolphins swimming from Mary Qin on Vimeo.
pink dolphin emerges from Mary Qin on Vimeo.
Lunch buddies
laelene Posted in photo blog，Tags: amusing, animals, behavior, experiences, food, interesting, los angeles
17
April
2010
Sometimes I like to sit outside and eat my Quizno’s, with the traffic on Sepulveda whizzing by. And every time that happens, curious and hungry birds are there, waiting for me to share some of my food. These two were particularly bold in demanding I feed them!
He sat across from me, carefully watching for his potential lunch.
A bit of a model, eh? Check out the classic over-the-shoulder glance. Perhaps he was trying to impress me so I'd feed him. 😛
I decided to share some of my bread and he nearly got within arm's length.
He made it very clear what he was waiting for. Quite persistent!
