Today I just wanted to give a shoutout to the guy who so expertly maneuvered himself down De Neve Drive and then onto Charles E. Young Drive while sitting, not standing, sitting-- on his skateboard. While going really fast.
You probably maneuvered that thing better than I can even maneuver a car. Actually no. Better than someone who actually knows how to drive can maneuver a car... ha ha ha...
Anyway. You have inspired me for the rest of the day. Thank you very much!
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Sunday, January 4, 2009
past-time
August 19th (Happy Birthday Lenny!) 10:35 AM Dhaka Standard Time; Dhaka; listening to: last vestiges of the morning monsoon, hitting the ground as it drips from the rooftop--& Jack Johnson in my head; feeling: like I had too much breakfast. naturally. we're in Bangladesh...
I wear a rubber band around my wrist to snap every time I think of you. --snap
It isn't what it isn't. But we owe to what it is to see it for just that-- all the good that it is.
and how beautiful.
--snap.
Dhaka is a crazy place. It is buildings, cars, people, cars, people, rickshaws baby taxis, people, cars. --And lots of vendor stands, and standing men sardined into bus after bus (people, cars, people...cars), and lights,... and there's also KFC's. Streets are strewn with cars jammed into mosaical patterns, where somehow in a two-lane street there are three cars, and sometimes four. Oh. And the kids here ask me if I'm on Facebook. I think this is also why the power goes out so much more often here than in Khulna as well.
So as I am here, I feel strangely compelled to get a few things off of my chest that have very little (to nothing) to do with me being in Bangladesh.
This is not true. The last few things are relevant.
First of all,
Colbie Caillat has no business touring with Jason Mraz. She should tour with Jack Johnson and the two should get married. They sing basically the same songs, except Jack Johnson has a better voice, better career, and better credit from me, because he's performed with Ben Harper.
Next,
The best way to give yourself away as a complete RATATAT NOOB is by claiming ownership of their 3rd album --LP3. Oh actually. An even better way would be by saying you LIKE IT.
And lastly,
have any of you ever noticed how America doesn't tend to place themselves in competition with the rest of the world? I suppose as Baseball is to America, this would have to be Cricket to Bangladesh... and to India, and Pakistan, and Britain, and Australia, and Zimbabwe, and Ireland, and Kenya, and (I think you see what I mean.) The fact that the favorite national pasttime is shared by multiple countries goes beyond just the simple fact that all these countries love watching Cricket. They love watching Cricket-- against each other. Cricket games are played internationally, with each team being representative of their nation. I guess from an American perspective, it would be like describing it kind of Olympics-styled, with only one event: Cricket.
Geographically speaking, I guess it makes sense that America only competes within itself. It's practically it's own continent. Bangladesh is pretty much the size of Miluakee. I guess it has to compete with other state-sized countries around it...
but that is not the point I'm making here.
I am really intrigued by this international friendly competition, because I'm noticing how much more aware and even respectful it makes people in these countries towards each other. Maybe I'm being idealistic here, but it's as if finally I hear people having positive ties to countries besides the ones they are politically allied with-- even if it is something so simple or silly as to being a fan of those countries' Cricket teams. Furthermore, it increases knowledge of the world at large. Plain and simple.
This is similar for soccer in other countries as well, which compete against each other. I guess we have a soccer team..?
(I see I've made some note here on the actual journal about "Miss Universe" pageants and "East vs. West"... except I can't remember exactly how I was intending to expand on those ideas, but if any of you get an idea by all means please share-)
I really think that the first time many people back home heard of Cambodia was when Angelina Jolie adopted Maddox.
The last time I went to Bangladesh, I think in 1999, I got restless in my seat and so, as any normal person would do in a similar situation, I ripped off the edge of my napkin, wrote "Hi!" on it, and threw it over my shoulder into the lap of the person sitting in the seat behind me.
To my pleasure, this sparked a complete conversation played out on a number of small napkin scraps, between me and a little girl flying to Cambodia with her family.
So anyway. Despite that whole thing. I love this country. Land of the free.
I wear a rubber band around my wrist to snap every time I think of you. --snap
It isn't what it isn't. But we owe to what it is to see it for just that-- all the good that it is.
and how beautiful.
--snap.
Dhaka is a crazy place. It is buildings, cars, people, cars, people, rickshaws baby taxis, people, cars. --And lots of vendor stands, and standing men sardined into bus after bus (people, cars, people...cars), and lights,... and there's also KFC's. Streets are strewn with cars jammed into mosaical patterns, where somehow in a two-lane street there are three cars, and sometimes four. Oh. And the kids here ask me if I'm on Facebook. I think this is also why the power goes out so much more often here than in Khulna as well.
So as I am here, I feel strangely compelled to get a few things off of my chest that have very little (to nothing) to do with me being in Bangladesh.
This is not true. The last few things are relevant.
First of all,
Colbie Caillat has no business touring with Jason Mraz. She should tour with Jack Johnson and the two should get married. They sing basically the same songs, except Jack Johnson has a better voice, better career, and better credit from me, because he's performed with Ben Harper.
Next,
The best way to give yourself away as a complete RATATAT NOOB is by claiming ownership of their 3rd album --LP3. Oh actually. An even better way would be by saying you LIKE IT.
And lastly,
have any of you ever noticed how America doesn't tend to place themselves in competition with the rest of the world? I suppose as Baseball is to America, this would have to be Cricket to Bangladesh... and to India, and Pakistan, and Britain, and Australia, and Zimbabwe, and Ireland, and Kenya, and (I think you see what I mean.) The fact that the favorite national pasttime is shared by multiple countries goes beyond just the simple fact that all these countries love watching Cricket. They love watching Cricket-- against each other. Cricket games are played internationally, with each team being representative of their nation. I guess from an American perspective, it would be like describing it kind of Olympics-styled, with only one event: Cricket.
Geographically speaking, I guess it makes sense that America only competes within itself. It's practically it's own continent. Bangladesh is pretty much the size of Miluakee. I guess it has to compete with other state-sized countries around it...
but that is not the point I'm making here.
I am really intrigued by this international friendly competition, because I'm noticing how much more aware and even respectful it makes people in these countries towards each other. Maybe I'm being idealistic here, but it's as if finally I hear people having positive ties to countries besides the ones they are politically allied with-- even if it is something so simple or silly as to being a fan of those countries' Cricket teams. Furthermore, it increases knowledge of the world at large. Plain and simple.
This is similar for soccer in other countries as well, which compete against each other. I guess we have a soccer team..?
(I see I've made some note here on the actual journal about "Miss Universe" pageants and "East vs. West"... except I can't remember exactly how I was intending to expand on those ideas, but if any of you get an idea by all means please share-)
I really think that the first time many people back home heard of Cambodia was when Angelina Jolie adopted Maddox.
The last time I went to Bangladesh, I think in 1999, I got restless in my seat and so, as any normal person would do in a similar situation, I ripped off the edge of my napkin, wrote "Hi!" on it, and threw it over my shoulder into the lap of the person sitting in the seat behind me.
To my pleasure, this sparked a complete conversation played out on a number of small napkin scraps, between me and a little girl flying to Cambodia with her family.
So anyway. Despite that whole thing. I love this country. Land of the free.
Thursday, December 4, 2008
office hour
Lo Ling; listening to: myself saying "fail" repeatedly in my head; Dec 2nd, 08 --01:12 PM (thats 12 minutes too late); the benches off the grass in Court of Sciences; feeling: unopportunistic (and obviously creative because i just made that word up.)
Today
Today was my last chance to visit Professor McAwesome one last time this quarter. His office hours are taking place right now, as I speak...write. Whatever. Rm 2---, somewhere through Young Hall, down a few stairs, after turning a few corners...
But where am I? Not Room 2----. Not even in Young Hall for that matter. Just the bench. Outside. What a loser.
12 minutes ago (actually now it's 19); 19 minutes ago, (19 minutes too late), I was making my way down. Down that hall in Young, down the stairs to the right, soon turning that corner on the left, and making my way down. Only a few minutes before that, I had carefully been preparing the two questions that I would present to this guy, this celebrity, this GENIUS. Two questions that weren't just your average, "How do you do #2 on the problem set??" or "What's the answer to #1??" No. These questions, my questions, they would show him I could think. That I payed attention. That I cared.
So I made my way. I couldn't WAIT--but I also couldn't deny I was terrified. Terrified that I'd turn into a muttering mumbo jumbo as soon as I walked in. If I made it in. Maybe I'd run into the door. Maybe I'd run into the door on my way out.
I don't get it.
The theme of this class is overall how biology and the way that we have evolved have everything to do with the will or the need to constantly improve our "fitness". Fitness in this sense meaning your ability to produce a number or surviving offspring, moreso than the next guy. Examples of us having evolved in relation to increasing our fitness would be like in the way we love fatty foods, and foods high in sugar. Evolutionarily speaking, in the world our ancestors lived and evolved in, y'all never knew if you'd get food the next day or not. That's why the people that had a predilection for fatty foods and gobbled that up (fatty foods and carbs being our highest sources of energy) lasted longer than those that didn't "invest" in themselves the same way, and thus had more kids, and thus the gene for fatty is now prevalent in us simply because when we evolved this was significantly beneficial to our fitness. The same would be like with sex. Those that had the gene for not liking sex obviously didn't reproduce... didn't increase their number of surviving offspring (any offspring..) and thus their fitness was low and that gene didn't evolve in us and now we are all predisposed apparently to love sex. Maybe I made that part up but I think you get the point of how our antics are supposed to help us succeed in increasing fitness.
SO THEN MY QUESTION IS
I know I'm not the only one that gets nervous around this person I am completely smitten by. In fact I think it happens to a large MAJORITY of us around the objects of our infatuations. And my question is, what the HELL kind of evolutionary benefit to our fitness is there to completely FREAKING OUT around the person you wouldn't mind reproducing with!? (I don't really mean reproducing with, I'm speaking in evolutionary terms here. )
Right.
So. That wasn't either of the questions I was planning on asking Professor McAwesome by the way.
But with the two questions that I had so carefully prepared, I made my way down to that office. Down that hall in Young, down the stairs to the right, turning the corner on the left, follow through, keep going, past the bathroom, there's the storeroom,......crap I just made the wrong turn, take these new set of stairs, wave to that kid i know, down this hall, hey that was my Life Science 2 TA..., oh this poster looks familiar, I think I'm there, few more steps, yes I'm there, snaps there's his office-- aaaaaaaaaaand
STOP.
Didn't I say I couldn't wait, but I was terrified-?
Terrified all right. To my complete HORROR I halted about 10 feet away from the door of Rm 2---, only to see students. Students trailing into the hallway from that door, sitting crosslegged on the floor of the hallway, there were so. many. people.
Without taking another step closer I just stood there paralyzed. What the hell do I do now. Judging from the purple packets everyone was holding I knew it was a "How do you do number three??" fest.
Without taking another step closer I just turned around and left.
So now I'm sitting here on this bench outside feeling like a complete idiot because of multiple reasons. Some of them I just came up with after writing all this down.
a. I totally could have gotten there 12 minutes BEFORE instead of after. This is UCLA and it's best to assume everyone is a "pre-med whore" as I have a friend who lovingly refers to us as so.
b. Because I really had no GOOD reason for why I turned around and left, except probably to just be dramatic. Like... why wouldn't I go in there just because it was crowded and everyone was asking questions about the packet? Because I felt like I would be wasting their time? There was an entire HOUR. Seriously people. Learn from me. Don't let petty roadblocks get in the way of your goals. And don't put drama on your side. I didn't get anything out of dramatically "turning around and leaving" "without taking another step closer." Well, except maybe this blog. Hahaha. But well now I just feel pathetic but its okay. Never doing THAT again.
So. Of course I don't REALLY feel pathetic because hello. I'm Lo Ling. But my point is that I hope the same thing never happens to you and my further point being that I am in love with Professor McAwesome.
End.
Today
Today was my last chance to visit Professor McAwesome one last time this quarter. His office hours are taking place right now, as I speak...write. Whatever. Rm 2---, somewhere through Young Hall, down a few stairs, after turning a few corners...
But where am I? Not Room 2----. Not even in Young Hall for that matter. Just the bench. Outside. What a loser.
12 minutes ago (actually now it's 19); 19 minutes ago, (19 minutes too late), I was making my way down. Down that hall in Young, down the stairs to the right, soon turning that corner on the left, and making my way down. Only a few minutes before that, I had carefully been preparing the two questions that I would present to this guy, this celebrity, this GENIUS. Two questions that weren't just your average, "How do you do #2 on the problem set??" or "What's the answer to #1??" No. These questions, my questions, they would show him I could think. That I payed attention. That I cared.
So I made my way. I couldn't WAIT--but I also couldn't deny I was terrified. Terrified that I'd turn into a muttering mumbo jumbo as soon as I walked in. If I made it in. Maybe I'd run into the door. Maybe I'd run into the door on my way out.
I don't get it.
The theme of this class is overall how biology and the way that we have evolved have everything to do with the will or the need to constantly improve our "fitness". Fitness in this sense meaning your ability to produce a number or surviving offspring, moreso than the next guy. Examples of us having evolved in relation to increasing our fitness would be like in the way we love fatty foods, and foods high in sugar. Evolutionarily speaking, in the world our ancestors lived and evolved in, y'all never knew if you'd get food the next day or not. That's why the people that had a predilection for fatty foods and gobbled that up (fatty foods and carbs being our highest sources of energy) lasted longer than those that didn't "invest" in themselves the same way, and thus had more kids, and thus the gene for fatty is now prevalent in us simply because when we evolved this was significantly beneficial to our fitness. The same would be like with sex. Those that had the gene for not liking sex obviously didn't reproduce... didn't increase their number of surviving offspring (any offspring..) and thus their fitness was low and that gene didn't evolve in us and now we are all predisposed apparently to love sex. Maybe I made that part up but I think you get the point of how our antics are supposed to help us succeed in increasing fitness.
SO THEN MY QUESTION IS
I know I'm not the only one that gets nervous around this person I am completely smitten by. In fact I think it happens to a large MAJORITY of us around the objects of our infatuations. And my question is, what the HELL kind of evolutionary benefit to our fitness is there to completely FREAKING OUT around the person you wouldn't mind reproducing with!? (I don't really mean reproducing with, I'm speaking in evolutionary terms here. )
Right.
So. That wasn't either of the questions I was planning on asking Professor McAwesome by the way.
But with the two questions that I had so carefully prepared, I made my way down to that office. Down that hall in Young, down the stairs to the right, turning the corner on the left, follow through, keep going, past the bathroom, there's the storeroom,......crap I just made the wrong turn, take these new set of stairs, wave to that kid i know, down this hall, hey that was my Life Science 2 TA..., oh this poster looks familiar, I think I'm there, few more steps, yes I'm there, snaps there's his office-- aaaaaaaaaaand
STOP.
Didn't I say I couldn't wait, but I was terrified-?
Terrified all right. To my complete HORROR I halted about 10 feet away from the door of Rm 2---, only to see students. Students trailing into the hallway from that door, sitting crosslegged on the floor of the hallway, there were so. many. people.
Without taking another step closer I just stood there paralyzed. What the hell do I do now. Judging from the purple packets everyone was holding I knew it was a "How do you do number three??" fest.
Without taking another step closer I just turned around and left.
So now I'm sitting here on this bench outside feeling like a complete idiot because of multiple reasons. Some of them I just came up with after writing all this down.
a. I totally could have gotten there 12 minutes BEFORE instead of after. This is UCLA and it's best to assume everyone is a "pre-med whore" as I have a friend who lovingly refers to us as so.
b. Because I really had no GOOD reason for why I turned around and left, except probably to just be dramatic. Like... why wouldn't I go in there just because it was crowded and everyone was asking questions about the packet? Because I felt like I would be wasting their time? There was an entire HOUR. Seriously people. Learn from me. Don't let petty roadblocks get in the way of your goals. And don't put drama on your side. I didn't get anything out of dramatically "turning around and leaving" "without taking another step closer." Well, except maybe this blog. Hahaha. But well now I just feel pathetic but its okay. Never doing THAT again.
So. Of course I don't REALLY feel pathetic because hello. I'm Lo Ling. But my point is that I hope the same thing never happens to you and my further point being that I am in love with Professor McAwesome.
End.
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
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