Day 08 - A picture that makes me angry/sad

This is kind of a whacked question because it's not like I'd keep a picture on my computer that pissed me off, and it's not exactly like I want to go looking for a picture that pisses me off either. Nevertheless:





The first is a picture from a dance I choreographed my senior year of high school, and the second is me from one of my last dances en pointe. They make me sad because dance was such a huge part of my life for about fifteen years, and once I went to UCLA I basically stopped dancing entirely. I tried to take some classes from time to time, either through Wooden or through the WAC department, but they just became further sources of frustration because without dancing almost every day like I had been before, I just couldn't keep up with the level of difficulty that would have formerly been no problem for me.

I think now if I were to take up dancing again, it would be something that I have never really tried before, so that I could start fresh learning something and not feel like I have to compare myself to the way I used to be.

Day 07 - A picture that makes me happy

So I'm pulling a Tiffany and throwing up a cutesy boyfriend picture, but the truth is that I still think this picture (taken in 2005!) is probably one of the best pictures Casper and I have together. We're prom posing, but this picture was taken at a candid moment when we were laughing at something (probably something stupid) and I like that we both look happy. Especially since, Casper knows, I sometimes give him a hard time for not smiling in pictures.

Day 06 - Whatever tickles your fancy

Well, why not use this time for a general life update?

Since I last wrote, I finished my first year of grad school and started apartment hunting for a spot to live closer to campus, but not necessarily in one of the seedy surrounding neighborhoods USC is known for. Though we're currently shopping around in South Pasadena and the Los Feliz/Silverlake area, our limited budget so far seems to be yielding only some of the crappier apartments available to us. But we're hoping that someone will post a listing for a little gem one of these days and we'll snatch it up! What a fantasy, eh?



On the school front, it's been an interesting year. I've oscillated between varying poles of confidence - on the one hand, my moderate apathy about my coursework sets me apart from several of my classmates, who noticeably take more time to study and therefore tend to actually get that A. I, on the other hand, am content to just keep the 3.0 that's required of me and care more about the lab, but it still makes me feel like a slacker at times to just be shooting for the average.

On top of that, I'm finding that when I leave campus, I'm just not interested in talking about science. Does that make me a Bad Scientist? Does it disqualify me from being Someone Who Knows What They Are Talking About? I dunno - I'm just around it all day, and when I leave, I want to talk about something else. So again, I feel a little unworthy when I go out with some of my friends from the program and they're all talking about their lab stuff, and they ask me how it's going, and I'm just like "It's great."

That said, I got a huge confidence booster two weeks ago when my application was accepted to be a CIRM Fellow. (CIRM is the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, aka our state stem-cell initiative.) I didn't know how competitive of an applicant I was as a first-year grad student without any papers, but I knew that my research background was strong, and that the proposed project itself was awesome. But, I did it! This is such a huge relief to me and the lab - all of the funding (by which I mean, funding for the research materials and funding of my salary) are now covered by CIRM for one year - and potentially two based on progress of the project - and my PI mentor doesn't have to worry about scraping money together to pay me. So yeah, this is really kind of a big deal. And, by extension, since I'm using this as a motivator to actually believe in myself, I'm kind of a big deal. And I deserve to be here.

And that about sums that up!

Day 05 - Your favorite quote

I don't have favorite quotes, and I don't have role models. I try to be my own role model and live for myself, so my favorite quote is probably something awesome I've said.

Day 04 - My favorite book

I guess I'm kind of cheating because since I'm writing this after midnight, I "skipped" a day. Well, suck it, rules, because I'm still awake so it's the same day! Also this weekend was pretty busy, in between my cousin's wedding festivities and apartment hunting.

Anyway. This is going to be short.

So again - the problem of picking one favorite. It's still a problem. But I love it just as much as any other book I'd be likely to pick, and I've read it probably more.


Original hardcover before the film plastered their poster image all over it! Snap!

I just really liked the story.

Day 03 - My favorite TV show

This is a loaded question because I am of the opinion that there are few quicker ways to open yourself to judgment by others than to align yourself with or against a TV show. It would be really easy to pick a canceled-too-soon critical darling like "Arrested Development," "Firefly," or "Veronica Mars" to get some street cred. Conversely, almost everyone watches some sort of reality show, be it competition-based or the social-reality format of the "Real Housewives" or "The Hills," but no one really admits to loving those shows or calling them their favorite shows unless they're doing so with an apologetic disclaimer ("I know I have terrible taste but I can't help loving...") or a hint of irony.

Up until high school, I never watched much TV. That basically changed when my mom got tivo, but that wasn't even until mid-way through my junior year. After that, there were several shows that I tried to keep up with. Some were addictive even though I wanted to punch the participants (and host!) in the face - "America's Next Top Model" - some appealed to my high school sarcasm and cooler-than-thou affect - "House" - but, few were considered by those with taste to be quality TV.

I have some of those "good shows" in my must-watch list now. But I honestly don't know if they're my favorites, in the way that something that's your favorite is the thing you first thing that comes to your mind, the one that you know the most and can talk for hours about, the one that you're like "I have to watch it RIGHT NOW."

So what's my favorite? Honestly?





Yeah, that.

I love this show firstly because I love food. I also love competition. I love picking teams. Now, that competitive spirit allows me to enjoy a pretty solid heap of other competition shows (see the aforementioned ANTM, also "So You Think You Can Dance") but what sets Top Chef apart for me is the fantasy element. It is sometimes tough for me to watch SYTYCD and not get mad at it because as someone who danced for several years and has (admittedly) a bias toward technically-trained dancers, it frustrates me when trained dancers who excel in every style get voted out (or lose to) someone with a precious backstory or someone who basically floats through on charisma alone. Sure, sometimes the dancers at the end are pretty much all at a certain level and choosing between their proficiency is like splitting hairs, but sometimes there are obvious differences in ability and I just want to bang my head against the TV because America made the "wrong choice."

With Top Chef, the truth is, almost everything looks good, but I don't really know how it tastes. I have to trust the judges and diners, and therefore, even though I am emotionally invested in my favorites, I can't flip my lid and have a heart attack if they do poorly or are eliminated because I honestly have no evidence to suggest that they should have stayed or should have ranked higher. I like that there is that suspense, that I can't just look at what is there and know automatically that someone did better than someone else. I love the moment of anticipation before Tom Colicchio puts something in his mouth and makes ass face, because I don't know what the reaction is going to be. Even more, I love that the cheftestants don't know either, because they can't realistically taste every plate or take the time to make sure every piece of meat is cooked the right way. I love when one of them says something like "I know the judges will appreciate that my meat was cooked properly," but then they get to judges' table and it turns out Padma's was almost completely raw.

So yeah. It's reality! Out the window goes my street cred. But I'd like to think that because everyone loves and appreciates good food, almost everyone could enjoy a show like "Top Chef." Even the food-porn close-up shots of the dishes alone are enough to make me fall in love.

Day 02 - My favorite movie

I actually get asked this question a lot, for whatever reason. I love lots of movies, but my gut reaction, the first movie that pops into my head whenever I'm asked, is The Matrix.



There have been two movies in my life that completely blew my mind in an awesome way when I watched them for the first time. One was Star Wars Episode IV - A New Hope (and subsequently, episodes V and VI since they were on a TV marathon at the time) and The Matrix. I had never seen anything like these movies at the time that I watched them, and that's what makes them memorable to me, and also, arguably, what makes them stand up so well over time. The "bullet time" effect invented for The Matrix has been used about a gazillion times since.

I actually didn't even hate the sequels all that much. Neither really compared to the original Matrix, but I actually thought Reloaded (the second one) was a lot better than people gave it credit for. The car chase scene was epic and I thought the fight scene in the foyer at the Merovingian's place was pretty sweet too.

Actually, I even wrote a Matrix-based essay for my college applications. One of the questions was something like "What does leadership mean to you? Give an example of a great leader." I chose Morpheus, the captain of the Nebuchadnezzar in the film. I thought I wrote a pretty convincing essay, and one that would definitely stand out from a bunch of other people writing about boring historical figures. So yeah, the movie has been a part of my life in at least one unexpected way!

But yeah, it's probably my favorite movie. I never get tired of seeing it, and even though the first time was the best, I still get that thrill every time.

Day 01 - My favorite song

Let's start this off by saying that I'll never, in a million years, be able to select one single favorite song. I can't even select one favorite song from each of the (sometimes) vastly different genres of music I claim to enjoy. I once did a livejournal post that was something called "The Soundtrack to Your Life" and it was a series of instances that typically happen in young adult lives and are often represented in movies. You then would select a song that you thought would be perfect for that scene in your life. That was fun to do because it allowed me to utilize several of my favorite songs at the time based on the appropriate emotion they were supposed to evoke. So choosing one song? Tough.

That's why I think I'm going to reach for the absurd and choose a song that I love, somewhat ironically, from a genre that I generally have no interest in. But there is no denying that this song always lifts my spirits, and it's generally accepted at this point that playing this song will get me in a party mood in short order.



Yeah, that's right: Gin & Juice by Snoop. It's kinda my designated pimp song, inasmuch as I can be a pimp. I don't know all of the words yet, but I'm working on it.

BEEYOTCH!

Recapping Coachella - Day 3

Okay! So! My last post about this was in May for a festival that happened in April? Who cares! I still have pictures and videos and reflections, not to mention major nostalgia about the event and ANTICIPATION for next year. Seriously - I'm not missing another Coachella in my life until I die.

Anyway, Sunday started off pretty chill - we needed to relax after the epic-ness of Saturday. I started off the day back at the Sahara tent - where else? - to see Rusko. It's interesting now to remember his set, because since then he's released his first solo production album, O.M.G. (see the reviews? they're mixed. that's because this album is, er, mixed in terms of quality,) which was in some ways a lot like how he plays a set and in other ways not at all like how he plays a set. Basically, Rusko's main genre is dubstep. But, when he plays live, he doesn't just play all wobble dubstep. He mixes in d'n'b, some reggae-inspired dub, basically just big beats. That's what the Coachella set was like: insanely danceable for a genre that can be syncopated and even arrhythmic.



Much like the Bassnectar set from the night before, the bass blasted out of the speakers with all of the subtlety of one of those magic hammers from Super Smash Brothers (N64 edition, obviously.) And it was delicious. The album is mixed in a different way, a bad way in my opinion, but this isn't about that, so I'll move on. The set was awesome.

Next we mosied over to the Gobi tent for Florence + the Machine. I don't have any pictures of her, but she was one of my most anticipated acts before the festival, and I was not disappointed. Watching her live recalled some of the performances I've seen from veteran rock goddesses on VH1 Classic - a little bit insane, but overall demonstrating powerful showmanship. Not to mention that VOICE. Miss Florence has got some pipes on her, that's for sure - and not in that kind of generic heady pop voice way that we hear so much of these days; rather it's a solid, earthy, grounded voice that I feel like would be equally great for summoning pagan gods during a cultish ritual and for entertaining a crowd. Bottom line, she's great, buy her album, she deserves to have more people know about her. (And she was recently featured on So You Think You Can Dance, which probably means more publicity for her - yay!)

I next romped back over to Sahara for Infected Mushroom, followed by Orbital. Infected Mushroom played a live set rather than a DJ set, which was very interesting because detractors of electronica will typically bring up the point that there are no instruments so it's not like, real music man, but that's what makes their live sets so engaging: there are instruments. They're actually playing their whacked-out sound live. I'm frankly not sure what to call Infected Mushroom anymore - they used to be known for their wicked psy-goa trance sound (which regrettably has fallen almost completely out of style with trance today, but it was awesome) and they've understandably evolved since then since it's kind of dated sounding now. Nevertheless, they're still making their dark beats relevant, and performing them fantastically well live. A very fun set.

Orbital are just mind-blowing to watch, partly because you have to appreciate how much they've done for the genre, and partly because they've still got it. Their sound is distinctly Orbital, but updated, and allegedly they're putting together some new stuff? I can't wait to hear it. It was in the middle of this set that my camera died, partly because it was spent from the weekend, but also partly because I was trying and failing to get a million good shots during this set of the spectacle of lasers they had going on all over the place. Much like their music, the lights lacked the obvious punch of many sets before them in the Sahara, but instead the visuals opted for a darker ambiance with finessed projections of colors across the top of the tent. Some faceless guys along the side of the stage kept tossing out bucketfulls of multi-colored glowsticks, so that by the middle of the set the front half of the audience participated in the overall lighting effect - lots of colors in lots of thin straight lines. It was rather minimalist, and it was very complementary with the music.





So yeah, I'm glad I got to see them.

Finally, we headed over to Thom Yorke. I had no expectations for this - I had no idea what his solo material was like and half went in the hopes that Radiohead would make a surprise appearance. To my pleasant surprise, I found that I rather liked the stuff he was playing (and he even played a few Radiohead songs, though the band did not join him.) Unfortunately by this point my body began reminding me that I'm no longer a spritely youth that can subsist on about 8 hours of sleep in three days, so I was kinda unable to fully enjoy the set. But I was prompted to check out some of Thom's solo material when I got home, so I guess marketing-wise (if not experience-wise) at least his set was a success.

Blogging consistently - a work in progress

So I haven't written since my Coachella posts, and I didn't even exactly finish that! I'll try to get the Sunday recap up tonight (maybe?) so that even if everyone else stopped caring by now, I'll at least have it on record for myself :D

Anyway, what really brought me back was this post by Tiffany - the 30 Day Blogging Challenge. I know it's going to be a lot to go from nothing in several months to um, a post every day for 30 days, but I'm sure as heck going to try. This ought to be good especially since Week 1 promises to be particularly difficult - I'm hesitant to ever profess anything to ever be my 'favorite' of any category.

Day 01 — Your favorite song
Day 02 — Your favorite movie
Day 03 — Your favorite television program
Day 04 — Your favorite book
Day 05 — Your favorite quote
Day 06 — Whatever tickles your fancy
Day 07 — A photo that makes you happy
Day 08 — A photo that makes you angry/sad
Day 09 — A photo you took
Day 10 — A photo of you taken over ten years ago
Day 11 — A photo of you taken recently
Day 12 — Whatever tickles your fancy
Day 13 — A fictional book
Day 14 — A non-fictional book
Day 15 — A fanfic
Day 16 — A song that makes you cry (or nearly)
Day 17 — An art piece (painting, drawing, sculpture, etc.)
Day 18 — Whatever tickles your fancy
Day 19 — A talent of yours
Day 20 — A hobby of yours
Day 21 — A recipe
Day 22 — A website
Day 23 — A YouTube video
Day 24 — Whatever tickles your fancy
Day 25 — Your day, in great detail
Day 26 — Your week, in great detail
Day 27 — This month, in great detail
Day 28 — This year, in great detail
Day 29 — Hopes, dreams and plans for the next 365 days
Day 30 — Whatever tickles your fancy

Wish me luck!