2010 in pictures

Last year I did this pictures post. Thought I'd do it again this year, since I haven't been posting that much. It's been a good year... this marks the tenth year I've been living in the United States. Finally got citizenship too, woo!

It's hard to believe that ten years ago, I wrote this three-page list of reason why California sucks. That was when I was 12 and thought snow was the best thing ever. Now, I'm glad it never gets below like 40 degrees here. Fahrenheit. Oh how things have changed.

1. January

I turned 21! Here is dinner at Zabu Zabu, where Jeremy attempted a 3-layer cube cake :)
I had a few firsts this month. Not all of which I will detail here. But I got my first guitar, I got my ears pierced, etc. Pretty good month.

2. February

I went to the pillow fight in SF for Valentine's Day! Although the fight was fun, walking around outside on V-Day really isn't. Would not do again.
Other highlights include a trip to Reno at the end of the month, where I gambled for the first time.
(Sorry for terrible pic quality. They'll get better...)

3. March

Trip to the Berkeley Botanical Gardens! On assignment for Berkeley's Caliber magazine.
In 2009 my March was pretty good. It was pretty good this year too. Hopefully 2011's will be even better!

4. April

Second time to the Cherry Blossom Festival!

5. May

Here's a pic I couldn't leave out. End of May we had a massive sewing party in which we made Pokemon trainer costumes for Fanime. See Facebook for said embarrassing pictures of me dressed as a 10-year-old. I also saw Wicked for the second time! Got better seats. Felt it was better the first time, but still worth.

6. June

This was a pretty cool day we had. First we were at Theta Chi for The Pack's filming of Wolfpack Party. See me in the music video here (grey striped shirt on right). Then we went swimming at Strawberry Canyon. Then to Trader Joe's for sandwich supplies --> Berkeley Rose Garden --> secret waterfall for picnic! This was also after a night of epic.... fun.

7. July

Impressionist exhibit at the De Young museum!! Monet!! Degas!! Renoir!! This month I also saw Idina Menzel perform with SF Symphony!! I also became an American citizen.

8. August

Cubers on a subway in New York. In August we had our Boston/New York trip. Cubers at Nationals. Cubers everywhere in Boston. Cubing all the time.

9. September

Beginning of my senior year at Cal. Was in denial and ran off to San Francisco food festival. Where there were many noms.

10. October

2nd Cal football game ever! We beat UCLA, I went with lovely roommates, pretty good day in general.

11. November

I saw Robyn live! Free tickets! Plus we had really good tri-tip salad for dinner. Also she signed my CD. Maybe I should've taken a pic of it and posted that instead.

12. December

I went snowboarding in Tahoe and went on a scarier green hill, on which I actually turned and carved a few times without falling on my face.

Happy 2011! This is going to be a scary year for me. Whee.

*some pics are credited to Justin and Esther.

How You Know You're Getting Old

(Note: these may or may not be things I've personally experienced)

- You feel annoyed when you see other people being young and happy.

- You hate going out at night time because there are always hooligans out causing a ruckus.

- You'd rather stay at home and watch old TV shows on a Friday night than go to a rager.

- You look at teenagers and think that you know so much more than them.

- You start saying things like "When I was young..."

- You feel sleepy after just one beer.

- You feel sleepy around 10pm.

- Your limbs start getting sore and you think they're predicting the weather.

- You start enveloping yourself in oversize sweaters and grandpa cardigans.

This is what happens when you start growing up and having Real Life experiences and understanding the crazy things adults believe in. My parents were so right about my teenage self. Damn it.

Protip: Being Tired is a Good Excuse

How does one get out of doing something they don't want to, and yet decline in a polite manner? You don't feel like getting food with that guy - tell him you're broke. You don't want to go over and hang out - say it's too cold. The best and most vague reason though, in my opinion, is to say you're too tired.

No one can argue with being too tired. Say, for example, it's summer and you're working - can't use the "too broke" or "too cold" excuse. You can't even say you have homework to do. But anyone can say they stayed up till 5am and are now too tired - even if they were staying up playing Plants vs. Zombies.

People feel sorry for people who are tired. Everyone can relate to being tired. There is no cure for being tired other than sleeping or being lazy in general. You can even say you don't believe in caffeine or don't want to chug a Red Bull after 2pm.

The best part is that you can instantly go from "tired" to "not tired."

"Well I was tired but now I'm excited let's do it!"

"Oh wait, I feel tired again."

You're welcome.

Being an Adult comes with Expectations

For about a week or so I have felt quite like an Adult. I drove to work, I made monies, I came home and made dinner for the hubby and kids... I slept at a decent hour and got up when it was still a little dark outside.

I have discovered that being a grown-up comes with many unspoken expectations. When you do something wrong no one is next to you telling you not to do it. At work, no one teaches you how to make coffee. No one says stop when you open up a new window for Farmville. Once you get hired, you are trusted to always do your work and not mess around! You are expected to stride into the office with an air of belonging and knowledge and even if you sneak out to chase deer, people assume that you're doing something productive.

When you're young, parents consistently remind you not to do "bad things," to be polite and courteous, to do good things for other people. Eventually these admonishments are supposed to turn into your conscience. That is, when you are about to check Facebook for the millionth time that day, a little parental voice in your head should say, "Hey, don't do it."

But everyone has a different kind of little voice. How do you know what you have is good enough and above the normal threshold? What if your coworker believes in a healthy 10:90 facebook-to-work ratio and yours is more like 40:60? How are we all supposed to judge the same way, and how do we know exactly what we should be doing? How much is enough and how much is too little?

Ultimately these judgey decisions we made only affect our own lives and our own future. It is hard because you are making the most important decisions for your most important adult self. Because when someone tells you the broken car bumper is secure you're the one who's at risk if it fails and you have to trust your judgment.

Throughout my life I have always done things at just above the accepted level. I get by with being pretty good at tennis, decent at violin, above average at drawing, and better than other people at being smart (lol). But now as I become an Adult I have to get my act together and start being above average. Which means being better than other people who are already Adults and already above above average. This is difficult when I look 15.

In the end we all screw up a little, lose focus for a moment, make some mistakes. But isn't it nice to know that when this happens my parents are still willing to come to my aid, clean up my mess, and tell me I won't become a failure at life. I guess I'm still not quite that Adult.

On asking questions, Part II

As we approach the end of the school year and another batch of seniors go off to graduate, here is the question that I've been asking them the most:

"So what are you doing after graduation?"

Although common, this can be a dangerous question to ask. On one hand, it is necessary to know where they disappear off to if you never see them again (except on Facebook). On the other, you can probably expect that they've been asked this a couple million times, and if they don't have a better answer than "bumming around" then it is probably also painful to answer.

If you've read the first part, On Asking Questions, you'll remember that it's annoying when people ask the same repetitive generic questions over and over, and you are continuously obligated to provide the same mundane answers. However, in this case I feel that the graduation question is an important boring question that must be asked. Perhaps it'd be better if you asked it in different ways:

"What are some plans of yours for the upcoming future?"
"Where do you see yourself in five years?"
"What are you going to do with your life???"

Or maybe it's easier to answer if you ask it in a more short-term fashion:

"Anything fun planned for the summer?"
"Where are you living next year?"
"What are you doing tonight??"

But all in all, as much as I hate getting asked the graduation question, I think the ask-ee should simply think of it as a silent plea: "DON'T LEAVE ME PLSPLSPLS." When I ask this question, that and other similar thoughts are probably going through my head - "LET'S HANG OUT DON'T GO FAR AWAY I DON'T WANT TO MAKE NEW FRIENDS."

Yea. So hopefully now you'll feel a little more flattered when I or anyone else ask you this. Or better yet, don't even wait for me to ask! Just tell me! Don't leave! Pls.

Things to Rely on that Begin with 'M'

In Real Life, there are so few things you can consistently and regularly depend on. Places change, the weather varies, people come and go. You can put all your faith into something only to have your hopes dashed against a very sharp object, leaving it bleeding rivers of crimson.

Throughout all of this I thought I'd put together a small compilation of things I can always trust and believe in, because "some things never change."

1. Manga
I just read the 107th chapter of Full Metal Alchemist, a much-loved manga of mine. For a while it has been building up to this epic fight between the God-like evil antagonist figure and our heroes, Ed and Al and their friends. Of course it only follows that at the apex of the fight, when people have their eyes shot out or are impaled on the ground, that Al sacrifices himself for his brother. And because of his brother's undying love, Ed reaches into his deep reserves of emotional strength and begins to WIN.


Ed and all his friends. I wish I had this many friends.

As most fantasy fiction goes, in the end you win because of all the friends you made, supporting you, believing in you, filled with your heroic and selfless love. Then it turns out the antagonist's personal weakness is that he wishes he had such good friends as the protagonist. I can always trust this to be true and that is why manga is so satisfying in its EPIC-NESS.

2. Money
One can probably also count on money to be a definite universally influencing factor in our daily lives. This is probably why many people become workaholics and disregard others - they feel like people only disappoint, but money can always buy you what you want (if inflation isn't too high)

3. Music
Music is a great medium to channel in all your faith, because it won't run away from you, turn into something else, or stab you in the back. The same old song you loved a few years ago can help bring back the same good emotions when you listen to it again. How lovely.

4. Memories
Good memories cannot be ruined or taken away. That is why I keep a diary, to write them down and make sure I don't forget. Or take pictures. Now would also be a good opportunity for me to make a comparison of good memories to some sort of delicate and enticing chocolate desert, but I haven't thought of it yet.


What a Good Memory looks like.

For some reason all of these happened to begin with 'M'. These are all the ones I could think of.

Do your work. Be responsible. Don't be a potato.

It's about the end of the semester, about that time where you reflect upon the past few months and think, "How did I manage to accomplish so little and why do I not feel like doing anything except mope around about how I didn't do anything?" Well, I know exactly how you feel.

In the beginning of the semester, you are all pumped about how this will be THE semester, the BEST one, how EVERYTHING will change, how you will actually LEARN in your classes. You will make new friends, find that close-knit group of friends, get promoted at a job, and perhaps discover a new cool hairstyle.


This is basically how my level of productivity/motivation has trended this semester.

In the beginning you are filled with hope, because you have all the time you need ahead of you. You attend every single class or activity rapt with attention, just imagining all the glorious knowledge you will gain. When people ask how your classes are, you say "They're really interesting! I'm excited." (True story)

But as time passes, you begin to miss one class, and then suddenly you've missed it twelve times. By then you're so behind on the material that there's no point in going back to class. You realize that the super-fun class that you were taking for fun used superb advertising materials to entice you in.

For me, at some point I just get so overwhelmed that I become incredibly lazy, not even bothering to go out to hang with my new group of close-knit friends. Learning becomes memorizing names for tests, fun classes turn into tedious useless work that I try to finish as soon as I can. I haven't gotten a better job, and I even got the same haircut I've been getting for two years. noes.


Don't become lumpy and boring and lazy like a potato.

But not to worry, kids! I am here to remind you that, however late it is in the semester, you can still decide to up your motivation and productivity. You can still decide to pay attention and go to class and get your work done. Don't flake out now - there is hope yet! For example, just today I stayed awake for 2/3 of a 1.5 hour class, when I only stayed awake for 1/3 of it the week before.

While for some things it may be too late, like joining a club, there are still a few weeks to the semester, and I challenge you to make the most of it! What a cheery and cheesy message - but it's true! Suck it up, be a man, be responsible. Sit down and think about all the things you want to do and all the things you still can do, then find the union of the two lists. Then do it.

Here's a motivational poster to get you started:

"When I get sad, I stop being sad and be awesome instead. True story."

Emo Blogging is Interesting Blogging

Having had my Livejournal account for quite a few years (since July 2003, to be exact), and having been members of various online publishing/blogging sites like Twitter, Tumblr, Blogspot, and the like, I have made this sort of conclusion.

People only care about what you write if it's emo.

Now I may be (and probably am) exaggerating, but hear me out. The reason is that misery loves company, and when you start ranting about your sad excuse of a life people read and relate and provide feedback. No one cares when your life is going awesome because then you will just make the emo people more emo.

"My girlfriend just dumped me."
"This guy I thought I was exclusive with flirted with other girls."
"Well my boyfriend is great and caring and just bought me a horse."

Then you feel terrible and bad but it's not your fault you're happy! Because when you talk about how crappy the feeling of rejection is - everyone can relate. Other people feel the need to support you and "be there for you" because you "need" them. They think that if they are available when you are feeling sad and down, you will form a closer bond because they're opening themselves to you when they're vulnerable blah blah.

Maybe the train of thought is that happiness is easy! You can take substances to induce endorphins and make you feel good. Loneliness and sadness is a more substantial feeling, one that requires deep thought. Strangers can party together but you can only be emo to close friends.


Emo-tinted coloring is artistic and deep.

Well I say, this is totally not fair. I am happy and I have nothing to blog about. Friends being happy should be able to induce happiness into their friends, not the other way around. Although there is still a limit. People (including me) don't want to hear cheesy cheery posts filled with happy faces as I'm talking about serious issues. But of course, that is not the point of this blog. The point of this blog is to not be emo and sad but instead be... thoughtful. Or funny. Or laugh and be happy about other people's sad issues. (Just kidding on the last one). Sometimes I forget just what I made this blog for and now that I'm relatively happy the posts should be flooding in.

What is a happy but not cheesy topic to write about? Suggestions welcome.

Pet Peeves: Cropping out other people for your profile picture

As an amateur photographer, I totally understand retouching photos or enhancing them or manipulating them to make them better. What I don't understand however, are people who upload pictures on facebook with their friends cropped out.

What does this say about them? Here are some of my hypotheses.
-My friends are too ugly and I don't want them ruining the picture.
-My friends are really good-looking and I don't want them to look better than me.
-I think this facial expression of mine is really cool and I think I look great.
-I have no sense of what constitutes the right size for a photograph and I must butcher it.
-I don't want people to know I have friends.

Here are some examples. To avoid hurting peoples' feelings I am only using pictures of myself or random strangers.


here is a perfectly nice (albeit a little blurry) picture of some nice happy girls. I decide - this is a good picture of me, let me use it for facebook!

But instead of using that version on my facebook...

I will instead use a 10x10000 version of the picture, complete with some random hand sticking out of nowhere. Nothing is centered right, but at least I get to be the main focus point.

The best ones are when it's a picture of you and one other person at a special event.

You are my special friend because I came to your graduation and we have a special picture together.

But then when this goes on facebook -

Random hand? - check
Weird picture size? - check
Deciding your friend is not good enough for your profile picture even though you went to their graduation? - check

So yea. Every time I see one of these I just chuckle silently to myself because it's so obvious. Actually I admit, I am also guilty of this. But only once! A cookie if you can figure out which one.

How to Model

Part 1:


How to not model:


How to model, part 2:

Learn from the hair.

101 in 1001

Another resolution, the 101 in 1001, basically 101 tasks to be completed in 1001 days. I'll come back to this and cross things off as I do them.

Start date: Jan 13th, 2010
End date: Oct 9th, 2012

Completed so far: 30 out of 101
In progress: 11 out of 101

1. Get an interesting job Buck Institute
2. Learn Python CS188 Spring 2011
3. Learn more about web design (PHP) In progress
4. Learn Javascript In Progress
5. Work at a big biotech company
6. Program/Code something for fun
7. Take a dance class Lindy Hop, Feb 2011
8. Take a singing class Spring 2010, Music 20a
9. Apply to grad school In progress
10. Live on my own Mission in SF
11. Take a more involved photography class
12. Learn Japanese
13. Learn Latin
14. Take an art/drawing class
15. Get promoted at a job
16. Get an A in a Bio class
17. Go to Magic Castle at night
18. Spend a day at the beach
19. Learn a cool magic trick
20. Learn how to snowboard toeside and hillside
21. Take a long walk on the beach at night
22. Attend a wedding
23. Attend a formal dinner party
24. Go to a black-tie event
25. Go to a rave Etd.LOVE 2011
26. Get a pedicure
27. Get a massage
28. Go to a club Mel's bday
29. Get my hair done for a special event
30. Go to a New Years' Eve party
31. Have a picnic Bluegrass Festival 2011
32. Donate my clothes Buffalo Exchange
33. Donate money to a charity Heifer International
34. Host a party Apt party March 2011
35. Go to a Big Game (Stanford vs. Cal) Fall 2010
36. Meet Orson Scott Card
37. Take pictures of street style in Berkeley 9-20-10, Looks on Campus for collegefashion.net
38. Take studio pictures
39. Cook a meal for someone
40. See the Phantom of the Opera Las Vegas, Jan 2011
41. Watch another musical
42. Watch Cirque du Soleil
43. Go to a professional tennis match
44. Go to a concert Voxtrot, 5-28-10
45. Ask for a guy's phone number
46. Go on a blind date
47. Go on a double date
48. Buy a drink for someone Thalassa, 3-11-10
49. Fall in love
50. Kiss in the rain
51. Pierce my ears completed, June 2010
52. Dye my hair a different color
53. Get a cat
54. Get a dog
55. Finish my current journal
56. Send someone a letter sent two letters, 3-24-10
57. Work out regularly for 3 months completed Core Conditioning, 5-6-10
58. Be able to run a mile easily
59. Be able to do 20 pushups easily
60. Get a super comfortable bed
61. Bring a friend home for the holidays
62. Visit my grandparents April 2011
63. Make a foreign friend
64. Decorate my room
65. Learn how to use a steamer in progress
66. Get a blunt haircut
67. Go on a trip with friends (that doesn't involve a competition) Las Vegas, 2011
68. Fly first class
69. Travel to Europe
70. Travel to Japan
71. Go to Vegas Jan 2011
72. Go to New York City August 2010
73. Travel with only one other person (that isn't family)
74. Take a road trip Reno Winter 2010
75. Drive somewhere far (few hours) Tahoe 2011
76. Go back to Toronto
77. Go to World Championships for Rubik's Cube
78. Get a sub-20 average for 3x3 18.56s avg at Stanford Winter 2010!
79. Get a sub-30 average for one-hand
80. Go to a Rubik's Cube competition in another country
81. Write a short story
82. Write a good fanfiction
83. Buy a designer handbag
84. Read the Silmarillion in progress
85. Buy another lens for my camera Tamron 17-50mm
86. Shoot a photoshoot for a magazine
87. Finish a drawing 5-3-10, History of Middle Earth project
88. Go to SF to take pictures 7-18-10, DJ Smoke photoshoot
89. Learn how to knit
90. Learn how to sew clothes
91. Learn a new pen trick
92. Shoot a wedding
93. Reread LOTR trilogy
94. Paint something on a canvas
95. Blog more regularly (once every 2 weeks)
96. Learn how to play the guitar In progress
97. Buy a piece of art
98. Have a photoshoot with another photographer Caliber assignments
99. Read a book for fun In progress, The Black Swan
100. Buy flowers for someone
101. Learn to cook an exotic dish

On asking questions

You've probably all encountered those questions that are repeatedly asked over and over, to the point where, as much as you appreciate the concern of the asker, annoy you to death because it's the 10th time someone has asked and you've given the same boring answer every time. Usually these questions are some form of "How are you?", but in a more attentive way, like "How have you been?" or "What are you doing during break?" or "How is [insert name of school here]?"

By adding little details, the asker prides themselves on seemingly knowing what is up and happening in your life. In some ways this is pretty considerate, but if it goes wrong the conversation may go like this:

"So when are you going back to school?"
"Um... I graduated five years ago."
"So... how's work?"
"...I'm unemployed."
"Now would be a great time to travel!"
"I have no friends."

At this point you both feel extremely embarrassed and you have failed to be considerate about your friend. In my opinion, the reason most people ask these mundane questions (myself included) is that they do care (however little) about your life and wish for you to tell them something cool about it. Thus, keeping a few interesting stories at hand would make the encounter go a lot smoother.

Since I am not as fast-thinking in actual person-to-person interaction, I cannot come up with the eloquent prose you read on the blog in an instant. So when people ask me these questions my brain interprets it and I answer them literally. A second later I realize I probably should have said something more interesting. But doesn't "how" imply an adjective?

"How has your break been?"
"Good."
"How's Berkeley?"
"Hard."
"How are you giving me the lamest answers?"
"Dunno."

Maybe if they had said something like, "What is the most fun thing you did that was illegal in 48 states?" or "What is the coolest thing you bought exceeding $200?" I would have thought longer and come up with something more appealing. As such, I need to teach my brain to interpret questions like "How's school?" as "Tell me about that time you tried to study for a test but was interrupted by a slew of naked people."

Of course, these interpretations would vary with audience. With anyone older than the age of 30, "How's school?" would interpret into "Tell me your greatest academic achievement so I can go home and tell my kids and compare them to you."

So it is up to both the asker and the askee to make something more of general vague questions. As I proved above, the askee should think of some interesting stories beforehand. The asker, depending on how much facebook stalking they have done, may choose to ask more personal questions. This depends on the extent to which they want to reveal the level of their stalking. Such questions can range from "How do you have so many presents in Farmville?" to "Why is there a picture of you passed out with hieroglyphics on your face?" to "Why do your wall-to-walls with so-and-so go all the way back to 2005?"

Having said all this, I don't want you to get the wrong idea that I'm silently seething while you're making small talk about the weather. It'd just be nice if both parties deferred a little from generic question/answers, because we all know the answer to "How's home?" is "Sooo relaxing and sooo much food it's sooo awesome." Because you know what you get when you have an actual conversation that's not about how hard school is and how bored you are and what you ate for lunch? SECRETS.