happy halloween! ^^

Let's see, last time I blogged was 23 October, which was last Sunday. Good stuff! That was a good day, I got a lot of work done, and that night I went to a friend's place and we made stir fry for dinner. It was fantastic!

Since then, not very much has happened, but life is life, so something is always happening, right?

Running regularly has been great, though I really have to make sure I put aside time for it, and get my work done super efficiently so that I have free time to go run for an hour a few times a week. It's too easy to let time get away from me and not have that hour available! When I do run, though, I feel great! Woohoo. ^_^

On Thursday 27 October, I went to go see Cirque du Soleil IRIS at the Kodak Theatre with a friend. It was legitmately so beautiful and fantastic, I could hardly believe it, as cliche as that may sound. People can do unbelievably wonderful things, with enough physical training and feats of engineering. My mind was legitimately blown away. I seriously think that was one of, if not the single finest masterpiece of theatrical art I have ever been privileged enough to witness. It was the perfect balance of dark and light, humor and seriousness, fantasy and realism. It was like crawling into the ear of an artistic genius and doing cartwheels in the shadowy recesses of his brilliance for two hours, before emerging from the other ear as a new person who has just seen a phenomenally new and wonderfully twisted paradigm of the world. I loved it. I loved it so much.

There were no cameras allowed into the theatre, understandably, but here's a trailer for the show... There are other youtube videos online, so check those out as well if you're very curious!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGVVypUMG3c

On Friday 28 October, I did some volunteer work at a local elementary school, where some teachers and students had set up a 'haunted house' in the school cafeteria... It was definitely really scary! I was told to wear a costume, but didn't have one to wear, so I just bought a hat for five dollars from the local grocery store, wore it with as much black as I could find in my wardrobe, added some face paint, and hoped for the best. One girl who came to the haunted house said I reminded her of the Mad Hatter as a zombie; so that's what I called myself.

Me:



The Mad Hatter:


Yes? No?

On Saturday 29 October, a friend came over to my place and we made some FANTASTIC Coconut Tofu Keema for lunch. It's so amazing! The best part of it is, we made a TON, so I had a lot of leftovers after that day. Ahhhh I love good food! And I love cooking! :D

That evening was the USC vs Stanford American Football game, which was a big game because:
a) It's Stanford!
b) Stanford is ranked fourth or something in the nation right now, and USC is down at 21st or something along those lines.
c) It's Parents' Weekend at USC, so everyone's parents were at the game watching!

Considering that Stanford is so highly ranked right now, USC put up an amazing fight. The score in the end was 56-48 Stanford, but to get to that score, the teams had to go into THREE overtimes, and the score was really neck and neck for the entire game. USC played so well, they've really upped their game from last year and the beginning of this season! I'm very proud of them. :)

A lot of people criticized the team for losing because of fumbling a relatively easy pass that would have led to a fourth overtime. However, I'd really prefer if everyone chose to congratulate them for the great game and they played and fantastic effort they put in against Stanford, instead of focusing so much only on the fact that they lost. Here's a video of the highlights of the last bit of the fourth quarter, and the overtimes (up until the fumble at the end of the third overtime), if you're interested:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9DxxvP-RtI

Today, I made a presentation in my Neurobiology class based on a super interesting research paper about what happens in the brains of zebra finches when they learn songs during their critical period of growth and development. When I was done, I asked the TA what she thought my score was, and she said I got a solid 19/20! YAAAAAAAAAAAAY that makes me really stupendously happy. Seriously. Good grades are a blessing!

Tomorrow is my registration date for making my schedule of classes for next semester! I'll let you know what my schedule ends up looking like... Hopefully the classes I want aren't filled up!

That's all about my life that I have to say for now... Now, two interesting links for you guys!

Silk
A beautiful way to create art, it reminds me of dropping ink into a slowly flowing river... Please try it out! It's so gorgeous and sensual, I love it.

Paper... Thing.
THIS IS SO AWESOME! Just watch, and see what kinds of things really creative people have done with a simple sheet of paper! :D

Alright, that's all for now, guys! Have a safe and happy Halloween!

best,
michelle. xx

i'm going to start running regularly!

Hi! I have lots of work to do this weekend so this will have to be a quick post.

Well, on Thursday 20 October, renovation began on the JEP house, which will last until next school year. So, everyone who works there, which includes myself, has been relocated to another building on campus called the Lot, which will be our temporary workplace until we can go back to the house next year. The house hasn't been renovated since 1976, so I'm excited to see how it's going to be when the work is done!

On Wednesday 19 October, I met with my academic advisor, who said it wouldn't be possible for me to graduate at the end of this year. Therefore, I have to take classes for one more semester after this year, and graduate in Fall 2012. Since my rent contract would be until August 2012, for Spring 2012 I'm planning on taking my GREs, applying for grad school, working/doing an internship, and applying for jobs for after that summer. Hopefully after that semester I'll be able to start grad school somewhere while working!

On Friday 21 October, I taught my first PHE workshop of the semester to students at a school called Health Sciences Academy, and it was great! The kids were really enthusiastic and seemed eager to learn, which I'm really thankful for. I love teaching them, and I love when they reciprocate that positive vibe. :D

Last night I went running, it was great, because I haven't run for the longest time. So I jogged for five miles and came back home feeling wonderful. :D I've decided to make it a regular thing, and run two or three times every week! My roommate and I are running tomorrow night too. Hurrah!

I need to go shopping for more sports bras.

For the moment though, I'm just sitting here doing homework and studying for midterms that I have next week. Woohoo!

And as usual, a couple of interesting links for you before I go:

I've been reading some stuff about the divide between the top 1% of society who holds 40% of the wealth in the United States, and the other 99% who have to struggle to live. It's interesting stuff, and I appreciate that that issue has finally come to light, after such a long time of people ignoring it or taking it for granted. The website whose address I put below has posts from people who belong to the top 1%, but stand with the 99% and tell their own stories of supporting redistribution of wealth. I know that practically, redistribution of wealth by greater taxation of the wealthy might not work so well, but I'm glad that people recognize the problem now.
http://westandwiththe99percent.tumblr.com/

And my second link is to a site where you can make your own beatboxing group, in a way, by choosing and layering sound effects to create an awesome final product... I can't explain it too well, just have a look! I promise you will not be disappointed! :D
http://www.incredibox.fr/

Well, that's all I have for you today...
I hope all is well with you! Stay happy!
michelle. xx

locks of love and the mumps

Hi!

I'm tired.

IN OTHER NEWS, I mailed my hair off to Locks of Love on Wednesday.

I hope it gets there okay! The address is all the way in Florida, so hopefully it doesn't get lost on the way or something...

Also, apparently there's been an outbreak of mumps at UC Berkeley! Normally, that wouldn't concern me at all... But this weekend also happens to be the weekend where all of the students at USC go to Berkeley for the USC vs Berkeley American Football match!!! They're all going to come back with the mumps! You can read about the outbreak here, and if you just Google search "UC Berkeley mumps", you'll get a ton of results from various news sources where you can read about the recent outbreak.

Thus, as a precautionary measure, today I went to the USC Health Center and got an influenza (flu) vaccination, as well as an MMR booster shot. Immunity from a vaccination can weaken over time, so I thought it would be good to make sure my body is up to par with antibody production against measles, mumps, and rubella pathogens. The last MMR booster I got was in 1994; it's been seventeen years since then, so I figure my body could use a reminder of what those three diseases look like! And the flu vaccination, well, that's just common sense.

The MMR vaccination costs $65 and the flu vaccination costs $25, but with student health insurance, apparently I only have to pay 10% of that cost; so for the two vaccinations, it only cost me 9 U$D! Best nine dollars I've ever spent in my life.

The lady who gave me the shots, well, she was pretty old and her hands were kind of shaky, so they hurt a LOT. The flu shot was intramuscular, so she just stabbed it into my arm and wobbled around a bit while depressing the plunger. Ouch. The MMR shot, though, is subcutaneous, which means it's injected right under the skin, above the muscle. That one hurt waaay more with her shaky hands, and I cringed pretty hard for that one. Usually I'm totally okay with shots, but that one was pretty bad.

Anyway, it's done now, and that's why I have those two little round band-aids on my arm in the photo at the top of this entry. Woohoo!

Now, it's finally the weekend, which means I get to sleep and eat a lot and study, yay! Off I go to do that now, I'm feeling pretty tired after the two vaccinations I had today.

But before I do, let me briefly share this coolness with you guys! It's an interactive scale of relative sizes of things in the Universe... Just drag the bar at the bottom of the screen from left to right and vice versa, and it presents a fascinating study of the size of everything compared to other stuff... I'm pretty terrible at explaining, so you're just going to have to go check it out for yourself. I promise it's pretty amazing! ...Or maybe I only think it's amazing because I'm a science nerd. ^^

And secondly, have a look at this, it's also interactive, but it's a view of the inside of the Sistine Chapel... Wonderful stuff! Really beautiful. Have a look!

Okay that's all for today...
Stay happy, world! (:
michelle. xx

hiking, jumping, and hair!

Wow, it's been such a long time since I've blogged! I guess this is what happens when you're doing 20 units and a job and two or three volunteer activities, huh? Oh well. Hopefully I remember to blog more often, it's actually nice to take some time to do this once in a while...

In any event. Last time I blogged was 19 September, a couple of weeks ago. Since then, a few things have happened. On 24 September USC Football played against Arizona State in an away game where we got thrashed 22-43, Arizona. Ouch.

The next weekend, USC played a home game against the Arizona Wildcats, and won 48-41, USC. I hear we barely won. Nonetheless, a win is a win, no? Unfortunately, I wasn't able to go to the game, because I was too busy HIKING!

So on that day, 1 October 2011, I went with a group of friends and we went on a ten mile hike. It was really beautiful...


I've discovered that I really love hiking. After my terrible experience with it in high school where I had five or six asthma attacks going up a mountain, I thought I would never hike again. Ever. Turns out once I had a rescue inhaler with me, it was all smooth sailing, and I loved it! I love California's scenery, could I ask to live anywhere more beautiful, with deserts, beaches, a big city, and fantastic mountains to hike in in the spring/summer, and to ski/snowboard in in the winter? I am really blessed to have been able to come here for university.

I'll just put some images here so you can maybe get a glimpse of the gorgeous scenery I saw that day in the San Gabriel mountains... Click on the images to see the full size photo! :)







... So there you go, if you ever get the chance to go hiking in the mountains of California... Do it! :)

But what was really the highlight of that day was the fact that in the middle of the hike... WE WENT BUNGEE JUMPING! IT WAS AMAZING!!!! Watch the video below to see my jump! You may have to turn your head 90 degrees to the left in the beginning because the person filming it didn't realize I can't rotate video... But yes. Enjoy!



... I absolutely loved it. The sensation of falling was beautifully blissful. I went down with the biggest smile on my face! I think the bungee supervisor people thought I was maybe a little strange, since everyone else screamed like a banshee when they jumped... Haha. Oh well! I definitely want to go back again before this year is over, there's no way I'm going to let that be a once-in-a-lifetime experience!

This week, I didn't get up to too much. Although, on Wednesday night, I was introduced to this ridiculously fantastic restaurant called
Souplantation in Beverly Hills, though it's a chain and they have locations in a lot of US States, apparently. It was all organic, mostly vegetarian all-you-can-eat buffet-style deliciousness! They had salads, soups, desserts, fantastic drinks, and wonderful hot foods. I absolutely loved it. I had so much wholesome, mindblowingly great food that I wanted to cry. ^__^

Yesterday, on Saturday 8 October, I went to get my hair cut! A LOT of my hair has been falling out recently, so much that my roommate even commented that it looked like my hair was thinning. So, I decided to cut it really short to hopefully make it less noticeable.






Tada! As you may have realized at this point, the photo at the top of this blogpost isn't how I look right now... Usually I take that photo as I'm writing the post, but I thought I'd be sneaky this time. Ehehe.

Anyway, this is what I actually look like at the moment...















So that's my new hair! I'm donating the part I cut off to Locks of Love, which is a great organization that makes wigs for children who have lost their hair for some reason, such as chemotherapy and radiation therapy treatment for cancer.

Let me leave you with a couple last things before I go:

1. Photos of dogs shaking off water.
SO CUTE!!! How can you get cuter than dogs photographed while shaking off water? Their faces are so hilarious, I love them. :D

2. Beautiful Underwater Art.
This is a truly brilliant concept. Essentially, this artist created cement sculptures of people and put them underwater, where they became part of the marine landscape, and life started to form around them. It's gorgeous, and I think you should definitely take a look... Enjoy!

...Alright, that's all I have to blog about for now, I believe. I hope you're having a most fantastic weekend, and will continue to do so for the rest of this lovely Sunday!

Until next time,
michelle. xx