Posts Tagged ‘ucla’

Festival of Books

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

festival of books poster on wall

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…  😛

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.

A beautiful evening stroll

laelene Posted in photo blog,Tags: , , ,
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UCLA has a lovely campus and Los Angeles has quite a skyline.

blimp floating over UCLA campus

I spotted a blimp and immediately went chasing after it for photos. Turns out the first one was to be the only one. Those things are deceivingly fast!

walkway leading from Bunche Hall to Broad Hall

The wide pathway taking us to the edge of North Campus.

view of westwood from atop Broad Hall

From Broad, we looked over YRL to the areas of Westwood beyond.

view from Bunche Hall looking towards Pauley Pavilion

Further to the west, you can see the lights of Pauley Pavilion nestled amongst the shadows.

view facing the residential halls

And nearly directly to the west are the res halls upon the Hill, with the ocean somewhere in the distance.

cluster of tall buildings along wilshire blvd

On the east are some buildings that line Wilshire Blvd going towards Beverly Hills.

trees lined up neatly, with lights

The gently-illuminated trees create a nice walkway.

palm trees in the dark

These palm trees stand watch in the courtyard by the North Campus center.

Making waves

laelene Posted in video blog,Tags: , , , , , , , ,
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Ok, rather unrelated, but both have to do with the word “wave.” First, a wave that went around the Rose Bowl. Fifteen (maybe sixteen) times!

the wave around the rose bowl from Mary Qin on Vimeo.

Then, wave boarding afterwards! The wave board I got in China had light-up wheels, which was just plain fun and awesome to play with in the dark.

waveboarding from Mary Qin on Vimeo.

UCLA squirrel

laelene Posted in video blog,Tags: , , , ,
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You know you’re at UCLA when the squirrels are absolutely fearless and rather ODD.

fearless squirrel from Mary Qin on Vimeo.

The “near attack” part was far scary in real life, I tell you.

Difference in perspective

laelene Posted in general blog,Tags: , , , , ,
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to-go ware chopsticksAs I was getting lunch at Kaya today, I noticed their chopsticks resemble the pair I have in my To-Go Ware set.  It reminded me of the day when Panda saw them and asked me why they were warped.  Months later, when another friend came back from grad school in the East Coast, he saw them and asked the exact same thing.  -____-  Whereas I and our other friend, a history major, saw them as artistic, they saw them as warped.  Wow.  A lesson in the differences between North and South campus majors!

to-go ware chopsticks with twisted ends

See the gentle curving to give them more character?


At UCLA, North campus houses most of the humanities and social sciences and South campus houses most of the life sciences and physical sciences.  The School of Theater, Film, and Television is as north as you can get, while the School of Engineering is in the southern half.  We often joke about this separation, but in this case, there truly is a disparity between the way we interpret things.  North campus majors recognize the beauty and elegance of a twisted shape; South campus majors recognize a purposeless deformation.  Ultimately, we’re looking at the same thing, but our differing opinions of the chopsticks’ design would easily lead to a scenario where I buy them, only to have Panda return them as he wondered why I bought them at all. It’s funny, isn’t it, how differently we view the world?

Gettin’ in the Bruin spirit

laelene Posted in video blog,Tags: , , , , , ,
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I love my alma mater. This is how we get into the spirit for sports games:

1. Get pumped up listening to the UCLA Bruins Marching Band.

how far we’ve come, bruin style from Mary Qin on Vimeo.

2. Go to the Rose Bowl and be entertained as Red Bull parachuters wind their way down from the sky.

redbull parachuters from Mary Qin on Vimeo.

3. Cheer your team to touchdowns (and dance along with Joe and Josie Bruin).

ucla touchdown from Mary Qin on Vimeo.

4. Enjoy a lovely halftime show, including a showdown between some young’uns.

little footballers from Mary Qin on Vimeo.

5. Celebrate a victory where the lights of the Rose Bowl are turned off just so we can do an 8-clap in the dark.

rose bowl dark from Mary Qin on Vimeo.

6. Round off the night with a firework show!

rose bowl fireworks from Mary Qin on Vimeo.

Glenrock explosion? Yeah, I was there.

laelene Posted in photo blog,Tags: , , , , ,
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Well, what an intense night it was, what with an electrical transformer exploding underground, shaking the buildings in the Glenrock meets Levering intersection.  Panda and I were happily enjoying our dinners when I swear, the entire building swayed a few feet and then snapped back to its normal position.  For some reason, I thought it was something like a dumpster that got rolled off the roof.  It certainly sounded like it, but the movement of the building only made sense in retrospect, when we found out that it was due to an explosion.  The boom was louder than the sonic boom we’d experienced back in August or so (then again, that sonic boom came from veeery far away).  At first we weren’t sure what to do and I peeked out the porch to hear car alarms going off.  Panda called up a coworker and then reported it to the police, who’d gotten wind of it just minutes earlier.

As Apartment Coordinator, it was his duty to make sure his residents were alright and go find out if we needed to be evacuated or anything like that.  So, we headed out to see what the commotion was all about.  I went straight outside to take pictures, hoping to practice my photography skills in the dark!  Out on the street, people were all gathered staring at the steam (and smoke?) rising from a manhole in the ground.  Let me tell the rest of the story with pictures… (click pictures for full size)

firefighters and trucks gathered around manhole where electrical explosion occurred

This is the scene we were greeted with not long after the explosion. The steam is rising from the manhole that got blown off.

crowd gathers on the street to watch the manhole spewing steam

You can see across the street all the people who gathered before we were all chased away.

an ambulance takes up the span of the road after the Glenrock explosion

The ambulance quickly found that nobody was injured, thankfully.

firetruck makes its way down Glenrock after the explosion

The ambulance soon gave way to the firetruck, which lent its hose to the efforts. Apparently there was a bit of a fire going on underground.

police cars parked across the road to prevent cars from driving by

The police came and blocked off Levering at Midvale so cars wouldn't drive down towards the mess.

police cars parked to prevent traffic from passing by as people stand around wondering what happened

People kind of just stood around dumbfounded as they talked to each other trying to figure out what happened.

firefighters stood around in the middle of the street, deciding what to do

After the people were cleared, the firefighters huddled up to plan what to do.

firetruck parked in the middle of the street

The firetruck served a dual purpose of providing a hose and blocking off traffic.

hose from firetruck reeled out

I never saw what they used this hose for, but I guess they needed it underground to fight the fire the transformer set.

firehose winds its way down the street to the manhole

And so it wound its way down to the scene of the action.

policeman standing guard across the street, near the firetruck

A policeman on scene as watch guard, probably to keep pedestrians from getting too close.

part of city skyline as backdrop to the commotion going down in the streets

I loved the backdrop of the skyline juxtaposed against the bright lights below.

a floor-to-ceiling glass panel broken in the explosion

Residents nearby were startled not only by the boom of the explosion, but their glass breaking!

huge crack across entire width of window

Check out that massive crack, yikes!

shards of broken glass outside on the porch

The shards of glass that fell from above.

shards of broken glass that landed inside the room

The bits that landed inside the room. Thankfully it was pretty concentrated!

firefighters gather around the manhole

The troublesome manhole, just a rectangular hole in the ground.

car lights shining on manhole in the ground

That's where all the trouble originated from...

bright lights from a firetruck light up the street at night

Those lights were rather glaring, as they shone on the intersection.

lights went out in our apartment complex

We went back to the room after the hubbub and things were quieting down until the lights went out for us too (buildings on another street over had lost power with the blast)!

city skyline with no bright lights on streets now

The firetruck with the bright lights seemed to have retreated and we were offered a darker view of our surroundings.

city lights fade into darkness

I thought it was cool how the lights faded away into near pitch-black darkness. You don't get that much in the city!

emergency lights lit up the stairwell

The emergency lights kept people from tripping in the dark.

parking enforcement lady stands by her vehicle

The parking enforcement lady was brought out to guard this part of the road and redirect all traffic.

emergency supply closet held some hatchets

We went to get some glow sticks from the emergency supply closet and found some hatchets and axes!

bag full of glow sticks for emergency use

We got the bag of glow sticks and began to distribute them.

glow stick placed on top of fire hose

We placed the glow sticks in strategic places in stairwells and hallways.

news truck parked outside

It looked like a news truck, but had no logo and nobody was reporting outside...

cars driving down Glenrock found themselves turning around at the roadblock

Cars not knowing what went on came down Glenrock only to run into the road block and have to turn around.

the entire road dark after the blackout

This is what Glenrock looks like when all the lights on the block are out.

a building thrown into darkness from the blackout

One of the many buildings that found itself enveloped in darkness.

the neon 555 Glenrock sign was dark for once

That glaring red sign that most people know about was dark for a rare occasion.

What a night it was!  I have concluded that I should definitely get a tripod to go with my future DSLR… but these night shots turned out so much better than they would have on a normal point and shoot.  🙂

Check out the Daily Bruin article that came out just an hour after the event, then the one written after more information was gathered.

Holiday cheer

laelene Posted in photo blog,Tags: , , , ,
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parking meters covered for the holidays for free parking

UCLA spreading some love!

(It says FREE Metered Parking, in case you were wondering.  And let me add that parking is LA is not cheap, so this is a rare wonder… probably only because all the college kids are gone for break!)

“Concealed” snails

laelene Posted in photo blog,Tags: , , , ,
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I randomly noticed these while standing around one day.  So cool!

I randomly noticed these while standing around one day. So cool!

Note the one in the far back too!  I was going for a sort of artistic angle.  😛

And then there was this guy, tucked away.

And then there was this guy, tucked away.

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