I’m always fascinated by law enforcement/public servants (or whatever police, firemen, and paramedics are categorized as). The firefighters work to fix things after an underground explosion and the helo flies overhead to scan for something. All protecting us in their own way.
reeling firehose from Mary Qin on Vimeo.
helo overhead from Mary Qin on Vimeo.
Hey, you can make a side business out of anything!
Ah yes, it’s that time of year again. When our cross-town rivalry reaches its peak right before and during the UCLA-USC game. This year, the students were back at it again, pulling pranks on each others’ campuses. First ‘SC struck early in the week with a prank from years past: dying our fountain water red. Then UCLA retaliated with some redecorating of ‘SC’s field and gave them nice blue and gold UCLA lettering. The student bodies have tied 1-1, so now it’s up to the football teams to straighten out the score with their game tomorrow!
In the mean time, I attended an alumni mixer tonight uniting us rivals with a UCLA-USC gathering. I met a lot of people in a lot of industries from all over LA (and from both campuses). I even ran into a few familiar faces and exchanged business cards with others. All in all a productive night – in fact it went by so quickly I didn’t even realize it was nearly 11 when I left! No wonder my back was starting to ache; I’d been standing for three and a half hours! It was a great way to kick off the weekend and now I just need to find a place to watch the game since I have no TV…
Ok, I get it, people (especially Americans) love their holidays. But really, do you have to clog my commute on the rare occasion I get off of work early? It would have been great getting off work today at 3 except for the fact that I had to drive for three and a half hours to get home! Seriously?!?! I mean, I was grateful when my morning commute was only an hour (compared to the typical 1.5-2 hrs), but that was MORE than made up for at night when I still didn’t manage to get home before the sun set.
I fully went through two bags of Veggie Straws & Chips, a huge bottle of water (from my KOR ONE hydration vessel), and my handy dandy tea mug. And that was still with an hour and a half to go. By that time I had to urinate so bad that I couldn’t bear to pull out my final “bottle” of water (it was in an anti-bottle, actually) to drink. I was crawling at about 2-3 MPH for a good 3-5 miles as the 405 merged into the 5. It was absolute insanity! Why can’t people commute to their families tomorrow during the day, when I’m not exhausted from work and driving?
I’m definitely going to rest as much as I can this long weekend after that ordeal!
I really enjoy eating at Buddha’s Belly in Santa Monica because of the atmosphere, the Asian fusion food, and the chocolate fondue dessert! The last time we went, Panda got one of the ever-changing specials and I tried a classic dish.
Mmm, a succulent pad Thai dish.
It's pineapple fried rice, in more ways than one!
The ginkgo leaves fade from green to yellow to brown as the season changes and they begin to die.
The Halloween Haute Dog parade of dogs! Part 1, pictures from my phone. Click to see a larger image.
Bruins understand that Westwood is a crazy place to try to find street parking at, but this summer, it got out of control with construction and special groups arriving. Did they really need FIVE signs here?!?!
Ok, seriously? Isn't this a bit overkill? Might as well just put one sign that says NO PARKING except 6-8 PM Sunday.
Los Angeles is not a city that goes dark. Unless of course parts of it get a power outage, as we did this night when there was an underground explosion (read more here and watch the aftermath here). Here are some videos long after the explosion, when everyone’s power was turned off so that crews could work to fix the problem.
darkened westwood from Mary Qin on Vimeo.
Tilt your head to the left and watch this…
blinking elevator from Mary Qin on Vimeo.
It’s hard to tell since it goes by so quickly, but it’s an elevator with the doors open and lights flashing periodically. I guess it’s the safety measure during a power outage, so people don’t get stuck inside.
It’s stormy here in SoCal and there are some great shots being captured of this weather, courtesy ABC7’s photo gallery.
This is my favorite - not only do you have a landmark and two seemingly contradictory weather indicators, there's also that one random helo in the middle of it all.
Wow, that is one intense bolt.
I call it rainbow birthing lightning.
Reminds me of those globes that create this effect.
