Posts Tagged ‘experiences’

Lonely

laelene Posted in general blog,Tags: , , ,
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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.

A fabulous sunset

laelene Posted in photo blog,Tags: , , , ,
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It’s just spectacular! I love the sub-shape cloud.

a bright sunset illuminating the clouds

Don't look too long, it might hurt your eyes!

sunlight frames strip of cloud

It's really cool how the setting sun tints the cloud and gives it a glow of its own.

Riding a ding ding

laelene Posted in video blog,Tags: , , ,
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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.

Elephant ride

laelene Posted in photo blog, video blog,Tags: , , , , , , ,
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A short clip of an elephant ride I took and some pictures to go with!

elephant-riding from Mary Qin on Vimeo.

elephants approach mounting area

The elephants coming in so we can hop on for a ride!

elephant reaching out trunk

Aww, I was tempted to try to "shake hands."

the youngest elephant driver was only a boy

This little boy may be young, but he's an expert elephant driver!

the elephant I rode arrives

Here comes my ride, ready for a spin.

sitting atop the elephant

I joined a mother-daughter pair on our elephant.

butterflies mating high up in a tree

We were so high up I got a close look at these butterflies!

view of the skin around the ear of the elephant

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.

happily enjoying the elephant ride

Check out how cool it is. 🙂

elephant standing peeing, with riders

Oh dear, he just decided it was time and went for it.

hacking off wood from tree trunk

Those hooks were used to get pieces of these trees for the elephants to eat. Apparently they find it very tasty.

field where elephants walked around

We had a nice field to roam around and at one point, it looked like the people were floating in the trees.

heading back to the loading dock

And after our little spin around, it was time to return to the loading dock and head off to the next adventure.

Technomary

laelene Posted in general blog,Tags: , , , , , , ,
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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…

Finals tradition

laelene Posted in video blog,Tags: , , , , , , , ,
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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.

undie run from Mary Qin on Vimeo.

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.

Motorbiking in Phuket

laelene Posted in video blog,Tags: , , , , ,
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A beautiful sunset along the Thai coast as I hitched a ride from Patong Beach back to Phuket Town. You can read about that story here.

along the thai coast from Mary Qin on Vimeo.

Zebra days

laelene Posted in photo blog,Tags: , , ,
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When I was a kid, I used to call the days when rain would come and go very quickly “zebra days.” Much like the stripes of a zebra, the dark would quickly be followed by light and then dark again. This spotty weather fascinated me, so I just had to take some pictures when it happened again. We’ve been getting a lot of little storms coming through, apparently due to El Nino, as I’ve been told.

sun shining through stormy clouds

Dark trimmed with glaring light.

droplets of rain fall even as the sun shines brightly

Got some precipitation even in seemingly clear patches.

clouds through moonroof

The view through my moonroof.

dark storm clouds and others bright from sunshine

Quite ominous, isn't it?

white clouds resembling cotton balls

Some poufy cotton ball-looking clouds in the "white stripe" zones.

Where are the good Samaritans?

laelene Posted in general blog,Tags: , , ,
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I’m feeling really disheartened right now. My iPod Touch was taken yesterday. Though I’m bummed that it’s gone and this coming within 5 weeks of losing my first one, I’m more disappointed that it was not returned, even though it has my name and this website engraved on the back. It should be easy enough to find me, what with a name and website to go by, but I guess whoever took it never intended on returning it. After all, I’d say it’s pretty easy to find me, if you were trying. Whatever happened to nice people who return things to their owners?

I can’t help but hold out hope, but I have received no e-mails, no Facebook messages, no nothing. It’s sad to think the world isn’t as full of good people as I always expected. I’ve grown up sheltered from a lot of the worse side of life and this is a bit of a blow in the face towards my rose-colored glasses view of the world. I guess I will have to dim it a bit now and recognize the reality that there are people in the world who steal and blatantly lie and hurt others.

Thankfully, the information on there isn’t lost since I have a backup on my laptop – I just hope they don’t hack in and get any sensitive information.

Kollaboration 9 winner

laelene Posted in video blog,Tags: , , , , , ,
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It’s almost time for Kollaboration again, so here’s a look back on the winner last year:

kenichi ebina’s performance at kollaboration from Mary Qin on Vimeo.

low battery! from Mary Qin on Vimeo.

See more performances here.

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