Do you have any ideas incubating at the moment? :)

Black Eyed Pea concert experience or should we call it the non-experience? :P

Today we braved the heat,
the crowds,
then being drenched by the t-storms,
and more waiting while wet...
finally we were slowly let into the park,
bags were checked,
tickets scanned,
RUNNING towards the stage,
SO CLOSE
public announcement: concert canceled due to forecast of severe storms.

Waaah

Still we made the best of it by indulging our inner fatties -- nom nom sushi, ramen, and waffles with ice cream

I got a "Jennie's Special" :)

Thankful for great friends.

Look at the streets prior to the concert... chaos!

I miss this.

What great satisfaction it gives me to check off my to-do list. Check out this list from my Spring semester. 

Wheee... and now I am deleting the list from my computer. Onto a new list... 

I took this image from this blog all-that-is-interesting.com (the title of the blog explains its contents x) Click on the image to see the details!


Who wants to climb Mt. Everest? I want to make an attempt to!! 


"Also called Mount Chomolungma, Mount Everest is located in Nepal and is the highest elevation in the world. From standard climbing routes that pass through the “death zone” – altitudes higher than 26,246 feet – corpses can be seen in their unaltered positions."


Challenge accepted! 


The only difficult hikes I've been on were when I was abroad, leaving me sore and limping off the bus the next day.

Bush walking in Australia (a very steep climb to the top!)

My classmates and I climbed and slid down Mount Ruapehu. Mt. Ruapehu is the highest point in the North Island of New Zealand at a height of 2797 meters. Mt. Everest is 8,848 meters... 6,000 meters greater than the highest point in NZ. Wowzers!!

   

Positivity

Sing it Selena!!

"Who says you're not star potential,

Who says you're not presidential,

Who says you can't be in movies,

Listen to me, listen to me,

Who says you don't pass the test,

Who says you can't be the best?"

((psst.. guess what? you can be it all))

This week has been the most stress-free week in a long while. I'm feeling apprehensive about next week, when classes start again :(
I get so wrapped up with classes and work that I sometimes forget about the small promises I make to people, like going to yoga with Joy. If it wasn't for facebook keeping all our posts, I wouldn't have remembered :P

So to few more days of 

R - E - L - A - X - I - N - G and allowing for my holey mouth to heal (i.e. wisdom tooth extraction)

The Sakura Trees are BLOSSOMING!

Be soft.
Do not let the world make you hard.
Do not let the pain make you hate.
Do not let the bitterness steal your sweetness.
Take pride that even though the rest of the world may disagree,
you still believe it to be a beautiful place.

I loved New Direction's original songs!

So I throw up my fists,

throw a punch in the air

and accept the truth that sometimes life isn't fair.

Yeah, I'll send out a wish.

Yeah I'll send up a prayer and finally someone will see how much I care

Is your heart-garden gratitude full? :)

I went to my favorite cafe today after work to get some work done. While writing my paper, I glanced up and saw this little cute inspiration card on display

I like these words: "heart-garden, gratitude-seeds, glowing" How often do you need to be reminded to be grateful?

I snapped some photos while waiting to pay :)

They always have fresh flowers in the cafe.

I like the latte art~pretty, delicious and creamy. It got cold faster than I was able gulp it down =(

I received my Newsweek today featuring the 8.9 earthquake that hit Japan this past Friday, the 11th. The author wrote about how earthquakes tend to occur in clusters, --

• Pacific earthquake in New Zealand (Feb. 22.)
• 8.8 earthquake in Chile just a year before
• and now the one that just hit Japan

"All three phenomena involved more or less the same family of circum-Pacific fault lines and plate boundaries...Now there have been catastrophic events at three corners of the Pacific Plate-one in the northwest, on Friday;one in the southwest, last month; one in the southeast, last year. That leaves just one corner unaffected-the northeast. And the fault line in the northeast of the Pacific Plate is the San Andreas Fault, underpinning the city of San Francisco."
- Simon Winchester

Here's a visual for better understanding

So scary!

Anyhow, looking to see what I can do to help Japan with their recovery from my part of the world...
And I really admire the engineers who are working hard to cool the fuel rods at the nuclear plants. >_<

BEACH is on my mind

As of late.. I cannot stop thinking about the beach. I can't wait to go when it finally gets warm enough.

A while ago, I agreed to model for a friend's clothing website. I probably wasn't the best model for their t-shirts since I am so skinny (the nice way to put it), flat-chested (the mean, albeit honest way to put it)

Here I am

Cute plant, want one by my window sill, to pet every morning

Trash talk

Warning: This post is going to be a long one!

During dinner tonight I caught another interesting, fact full documentary on tv. This time it was about trash, ooh-la-la. I traveled along with Carl Quintanilla as he embarked on a trash-filled adventure around the world in Trash Inc. The Secret Life of Garbage.

As you may know, China's economy is growing extremely fast, about 11.9% in the first quarter from a year earlier (WHOA!). As Chinese citizens become richer, they also start to consume more, and the more they consume the more trash there will be. The landfills in Beijing can only take 70% of the garbage produced (I'm not sure if this is trash produced only in Beijing or throughout China), the rest has to go somewhere right? Anyhow with a little investigation, there were about 461 illegal dumps revealed (bet you there's more!)
And as the saying goes, "A picture is worth a thousand words" photojournalist Wang Jiuliang began documenting all the landfills he was able to find and document a whole bunch of landfills around Beijing.

Here's an image of all the sites he found surrounding the city!

Wang Jiuliang's photo journey on trash Click on this to check out some of his photos! I really admire what he is doing, documenting these landfills to enlighten people about the growing trash problem in China. So many people out there do not realize the consequences of heavy consumerism.

This is so nasty
The streams of garbage will eventually make its way to the oceans...

Click here for more pictures, there's one where this little child's hands are black from.. I am not even sure what... digging through garbage for his family for recyclables?

This documentary also featured businesses that profit from recyclables, yes the waste stream can indeed become a revenue stream. I learned that 10 plastic bottles = 1 lb. of flake = $0.50
This flake can be used to make carpets or clothing and more...

This one waste management company calculated how much their waste collected (per day) sells for === 10 billion dollars!!!

Here's a detailed journey of your plastic bottle, so cool right?
So my friend, put those recyclables in the recycling bin!!!!

This picture makes me feel happy, it's been a long winter.

It can kill you, but it can also save your life

So my mind was blown away tonight when I was watching a PBS special -- Venom: Nature's Killer. There are about 20 million toxins out there being produced by animals in nature. If they strike and their venom is injected into you, you might become paralyzed, scramble your brain signals.. aka you will be in lots of trouble. But at the same time, their venom is a great tool for scientists. The venom can be chemically engineered into drugs, in which doctors will use to treat heart attacks, cancer, diabetes and other illnesses.

Unfortunately, a lot of these animals are going extinct before scientists are able to study what's in them. One scientist said, the only way things will be preserved in nature is if they make money. That being said, these animals are worth lots of money! Though, there are other reasons why they're important/worth preserving besides being able to generate money. Now that's a whole another argument...

I wish I had learned more about this when I was an undergrad, I am so fascinated... These scientists are amazing, so brave when they are handling venomous creatures, I'm not sure if I have it in me to grab a snake like that.

From Animal Planet

CONE SNAIL: This pokey predator makes up for its lack of speed with one of the strangest hunting systems in the sea. Since it's too slow to chase down fish and other prey, the cone snail prefers to paralyze its victims with a poisonous "harpoon." The poison, or venom, is made in a long, tubular duct. The duct has a muscular bulb at one end and empties into the proboscis — a slender, tubular feeding organ. The harpoon — a hollow, spear-like tooth — is made in a cavity called the radular sac. When a tooth is ready, it is transported to the tip of the snail's proboscis and pumped full of venom. The cone snail detects prey with chemoreceptors in its siphon, or breathing organ. When a fish, worm or mollusk wanders too close, the snail extends its long proboscis and fires the venomous, harpoon-like tooth into its prey. The tooth is attached to the snail via a thread or filament, tethering the prey so that it can't swim away. The venom acts quickly, immobilizing the prey in a matter of seconds. Then the thread is retracted and the snail engulfs its meal through an opening at the tip of its proboscis

Fill up that red cup or cups!!

Having been given so many opportunities growing up.. it is only right to give back.
-------------
On another note, some thoughts on education
Do you see things through the whole picture? In my mind, it is usually complicated... Here's an opinion about the No Child Left Behind legislation (effective 2002)
Noguera: ...higher standards and more tests alone will not make low-income urban students any smarter and the schools they attend more successful without substantial investment in the communities in which they live to improve employment opportunities, housing, and health care.

For the goodness of our communities, we must work together, hopefully not for our own prosperity but for the communities'

We'll always make it through
As long as you've got me and I've got you

We will take the world in our stride
Anything can be possible by your side

A message from a 5-year-old

xoxo .i loveyou.i love unicorns.
dddddddddddaaaaaaarrrrrrrriiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.dddddddddaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrriiiiiiiaaaaa. love daria

31 days of beauty

From the blog:

Griottes, palette culinaire

In lieu of Valentine's Day I baked peanut butter caramel corn with cashews. I was kind of worried, never really baked anything like this before, but it turned out to be a success so I'm happy.

Late in the afternoon yesterday I was in so much agony, stuck in traffic on the highway from work to class. I drank a cup of tea before the drive. I swear, I know from past experiences how quickly tea passes through one's systems, yet I gulped that caffeinated tea down. I knew I wouldn't be able to make it to school without a stop to the bathroom. Once I exited I made a left turn into Pathmark. Did you know Pathmark has bathrooms for shoppers? I was so happy when I saw the black and white porcelain toilet.

Once in a while I see an elderly person pushing a cart of soda cans and bottles to recycle. And whenever I do, I feel a pang of sadness. They probably worked hard their entire life.. I wonder at their age, what makes them rummage through garbage cans in cold winter days like today.


>> beautiful voice!!

Story of the day

Yesterday I was contemplating how I'd have liked to study to become a school nurse, preferably grade school (the younger the kids are, the cuter they are!)

Then.. something happened. One student had a raging nosebleed, seriously torrential. I quickly grabbed some gloves and tissues and tried to stop it, but... it would not stop. He was freaking out, and I tried to calm him down whilst trying to stop the blood from flowing. Some of the blood went into his mouth and he instinctively spat, and it went all over my jacket. My desire to become a school nurse? Gone.

----

The other night, I had a really really strange dream. I dreamt that I got married to a friend of mine from college. The scene suddenly changed and we were in this palace. I was still me and he was still himself.. except we transformed into horses. Sadly, I was a fugly horse, he was a very cute horse. He was a subservient husband and gave me all the power to our kingdom. Unfortunately, seemed like I didn't know how to handle all this power and was hated or feared by my people. Great, not only was I an ugly horse, but I was also a terrible ruler. Thanks dreams.

Lol.

If you know me, you'd know that I am inspired by beauty. As for cooking or baking, I am inspired by the tasty level of a dish. Though I do limit myself by specific ingredients which I like ~ For example I love avocado, corn, shrimp, tofu, spinach... etc. Thus, if I were looking through recipes, I have the tendency to lean towards making a dish which encompasses one or more of my favorite ingredients.

So, it's almost Valentine's Day. I love all these Hallmark holidays, fall straight into their pretty little traps. I like to bake themed goods on Halloween, Christmas, Valentine's Day and Easter.. This Valentine's Day I have three things which I'd like to make---

a) Here's my heart gingerbread man cookies

Snapped a picture of this from a baking magazine that I didn't want to buy (lol)

b) peanut butter caramel corn with cashews (the recipe for this can be found here: peanut-butter-caramel-corn-with-cashews I like this recipe because boys usually likes nuts, unless they're allergic which is totally understandable if they will despise such gift.


c) I really like this one, the packaging, the presentation, so great!!
You can actually skip all the hard work and order these cookies at Pink Olive for $24.00
Totally worth it! Though I bet a girl would appreciate receiving such gift much more than a boy lol, the cuteness factor here is totally catering towards females ;P



But to be realistic and calculate the time that must be devoted to baking, I can probably only bake one of the three.. now which one am I leaning towards? :o)

兔年快乐！(Happy New Year of the Rabbit)

I was born in the year of the rabbit, glad too because it's one of my favorite zodiac animals, besides a man's best friend - the dog :o)

Wish you love, luck and prosperity!!!

-- This is a little off topic but I just wanted to comment on how beautiful it was today when it was rainy and cold, and the fog was hovering over the island. For me when it's foggy, it creates an atmosphere of quietness, mystery, and wonder. I considered stopping in the middle of the road to capture it.. but alas probably would not have been the best idea since I was driving on the highway.

Stole this from a friend who found this on YouTube:

"Green Day taught me that government's gonna fail someday.
Bruno Mars taught me to do anything for that one person I love.
Eminem taught me that life is hard but you can make it through.
The Script taught me how to move on.
Taylor Swift taught me not every guy is going to treat me right.
Michael Jackson taught me to always love the people around me.
Music taught me to live."

This song makes me happy :o)

My heart beats like a drum
A guitar string to the strum
A beautiful song to be sung

听着这首悲伤的歌曲，我心里便有凄凄之情了。

Maybe this is wishful thinking
Probably mindless dreaming
If we loved again I swear I'd love you right

Progress

At work I've been modeling appropriate pretend play with students. There's a student who used to scratch other students' in the face as a way of exploring.. This particular student had the social skills of a 1 year old. At that age, they will explore by touching and so when another student was crying or being loud, he would run up to them and scratch or poke at their faces. Hence for some time his assigned seating was further away from the rest of the class. However, it was decided that that was not the best option. Instead, if he approached other students aggressively, he was told, "We keep our hands and feet to ourselves and we are nice to our friends." He has improved a lot, there are few incidents now and is able to play in the same area as other students.

These past few days as I modeled pretend play with other students, he has become more curious and has more interest interacting with his fellow classmates. This makes me very happy, because he rarely engages in playing with others.

----------

I am so grateful to have this opportunity to work with children with autism! Each step of progress makes me so happy

Here is some background info for people who are not familiar with this disorder.

Symptoms

Most parents of autistic children suspect that something is wrong by the time the child is 18 months old and seek help by the time the child is age 2. Children with autism typically have difficulties in:

• Pretend play
• Social interactions
• Verbal and nonverbal communication

What I've witnessed while working with children with autism:

-- Routines are very important to them, it helps if they have individual picture schedules, so they know exactly what to expect.
-- They might have an attachment to specific objects, such as trains or buses or cars
-- They do not like to make eye contact
-- They prefer solitary or ritualistic play
-- intense tantrums

Hello, through my heart~

Recently, I've noticed how a majority of people do not recycle. It happens in my work building and on my university's campus. Where I work, there are recycling bins in every classroom and in offices. Yet, many people will put what is recyclable in the garbage can instead of the recycling bin. One of my co-worker even told me that he throws out re-usable tupperware because he thinks that it is gross to reuse them! It baffles me how wasteful some people can be without feeling any guilt.

As for my university, I haven't seen a recycling bin in any of the classrooms. They have them in the cafeterias... but who will actually take their papers and bottles with them to the cafeteria to recycle? I had one professor who would make a huge stack of handouts about one inch thick every week we had class. The problem was she would make mistakes and copy the same pages twice. And there was no recycling bin in the classrooms! Anyhow, I just looked up the environmental student club on campus and emailed the adviser. I wonder if she will reply.

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My relationship with my sister continues to remain at a unloving standstill. The only times she actually talks to me is when she wants something. I scolded her today for the tone of voice she used to talk to our mother, very disrespectful... Anyhow I'm hoping it's our age gap and eventually as she matures we will have a better relationship. I realize that everyone's bad moods will bounce off one another, my mom came into my room and yelled at me for wearing shorts when it's so cold. Her eyes went all crazy bugged out and the volume of her voice raised several decibels. Seriously? it's not that serious. I wish my family were more soft spoken.

“I’m not the silly romantic you think. I don’t want the heavens or the shooting stars. I don’t want gemstones or gold. I have those things already. I want…a steady hand. A kind soul. I want to fall asleep, and wake, knowing my heart is safe. I want to love, and be loved.” - Shana Abé

"For beautiful eyes, look for the good in others. For beautiful lips, speak only words of kindness. And for poise, walk with the knowledge that you are never alone." - Audrey Hepburn

"You always hurt the ones you love
The one you shouldn't hurt at all
You always take the sweetest rose
and crush it until the petals fall
you always break the kindest hearts,
With a hasty word you can't recall
And if I broke your heart last night,
It's because I love you most of all."- M. Buble