Top 50 albums of 2010 (so far)?

Posted on NPR's All Songs Considered:

1. Gorillaz: Plastic Beach
2. The National: High Violet
3. The Black Keys: Brothers
4. Broken Bells: Broken Bells
5. LCD Soundsystem: This Is Happening
6. Vampire Weekend: Contra
7. Beach House: Teen Dream
8. Mumford and Sons: Sigh No More
9. Spoon: Transference
10. Sleigh Bells: Treats
11. Local Natives: Gorilla Manor
12. Yeasayer: Odd Blood
13. The New Pornographers: Together
14. Flying Lotus: Cosmogramma
15. She & Him: Volume Two
16. Band of Horses: Infinite Arms
17. Jonsi: Go
18. The Knife: Tomorrow, In A Year
19. Broken Social Scene: Forgiveness Rock Record
20. Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings: I Learned The Hard Way
21. MGMT: Congratulations
22. Joanna Newsom: Have One On Me
23. Josh Ritter: So Runs The World Away
24. Janelle Monae: The ArchAndroid
25. Frightened Rabbit: The Winter Of Mixed Drinks
26. Surfer Blood: Astro Coast
27. Dr. Dog: Shame, Shame
28. Caribou: Swim
29. Dead Weather: Sea Of Cowards
30. Crystal Castles: Crystal Castles (II)
31. Gaslight Anthem: American Slang
32. Hold Steady: Heaven Is Whenever
33. Massive Attack: Heligoland
34. Freelance Whales: Weathervanes
35. Charlotte Gainsbourg: IRM
36. Jakob Dylan: Women And Country
37. Laura Veirs: July Flame
38. Four Tet: There Is Love In You
39. Blitzen Trapper: Destroyer Of The Void
40. The Flaming Lips: Dark Side Of The Moon
41. Ratatat: LP4
42. Erykah Badu: New Amerykah Pt. 2, Return Of The Ankh
43. Owen Pallett: Heartland
44. Quasi: American Gong
45. Kings Go Forth: Outsiders Are Back
46. Corinne Bailey Rae: The Sea
47. Sade: Soldier Of Love
48. Laura Marling: I Speak Because I Can
49. Bettye LaVette: Interpretations: The British Songbook
50. David Byrne: Here Lies Love

Spoon! Ratatat! LCD Soundsystem! The Flaming Lips! MGMT! Albums I'll definitely have to hunt down and take a listen to... Might as well do the whole list. Yum.

Nom, nom, nom, all the way home.

I have heartburn. What? It's that dull warm feeling in my upper belly right at the point where my ribs part ways.

And, why would I have such a thing?

It might be because I went to bed right after eating a big bowl of ramen.

The culprits:

Shredded pork rice bowl. Chopped up green onions, pickled ginger, sweet glazed pork on a bed of white rice.

Daikoku ramen: delicious broth made from long simmered pork bones, an egg, egg noodles, bean sprouts, bamboo shoots, and green onions.

Did I mention that it had delicious, delicious pork in it? Melt in your mouth, delicious.

All this, I ate starting at about 11:30 pm. My parents and I were watching Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations in Shanghai. This was a bad choice considering that they showed many shots of amazing dumplings. So, we wanted dumplings. In my search on Yelp for a dumpling place aside from Din Tai Fung (any place closer to me, pls?), I found this ramen place: Daikokuya. 4 stars with over 1500 reviews, I thought it could be good. I wasn't very hungry even at 9 pm, given that we had a late lunch, so we decided to head over at about 10:15. With a 45 minute wait, we finally got a booth, even after they violated one of their "Golden Rules" (no seating additional members of a party if people have already been seated). Anyway, I got a combination of the Daikoku ramen and shredded pork bowl (bad choice simply because it was so much food). I did not finish the pork bowl (took it home and had it for lunch---YUM), but I did finish my ramen. And it was delicious. We got home a bit after midnight, and I was sleepy with such a full tummy, so I went to bed. And woke up with heartburn, which has been on and off for the whole day. Yay for chalky chewables to quell the burning fire within.

Today, we headed over to Gardena for more delicious noodles (yamakake udon: cold udon noodles with a mound of grated mountain potato on top) and Japanese food shopping. I found this:

PoleStar brand tonkatsu sauce. Now, if you ask me, the last thing I'd want to buy is stripper sauce.

It's late, and I'm going to try to go to sleep despite having taken a 2 hour nap at 5pm.

Puff the magic... delicious yummies.

Mom (with one in hand): Oh I shouldn't overdo it, I've already had three of them!

Me: Oh, don't worry about it, you're taking statins.

Later...

Dad: I might need 2 statins tonight.

Mom: How many have you had? 5?

Dad: I don't know, who cares?!

Welcome to my repertoire, gougères. A fantastically buttery, cheesy, creamy pastry. Perfectly listed under the category of "With a glass of wine," gougères are crispy on the outside and custardy on the inside: eggy and cheesy. My dad just arrived from work and opened an amazing bottle of wine to pair with these magnificent creations: 1999 Beringer Cabernet Sauvignon, Quarry Vineyard.

I burned myself in the course of making these, but you know what, it was worth it. In the process of mixing in the flour to the boiling milk/butter/salt mixture, I was a little too overzealous in my mixing (HEY, the recipe said to "stir vigorously"), I spilled some of the boiling liquid on my arm. Yay! Anyway, I'm fine... and here's a photo-journal to track the progression of this delicious creation.

Salut, pâté à choux! This is in the process of making a simple puff pastry. Post-burn. Boiled milk and butter (and a little salt) with flour vigorously mixed in.

This is after eggs have been added-- nice and shiny dough.

After this step, I mixed in thyme from our garden (which had dried out since it has been so hot... but it was still very fragrant!), gruyère cheese, and black pepper.

Spooned out onto the baking sheet, with a light egg wash and gruyere cheese sprinkled in.

THEY ARE READY TO BE EATEN! YUM! Nice and browned and poufy and cloud-like. And cheesy.

A gougère ready for my tummy.

Paired with that glass of wine, as suggested by Tartine.

Here's what it looks like inside... LOOK AT THAT AIR POCKET! Mmmm. So poufy.

Anyway, if you couldn't tell, I love them. They're not very round and beautiful, but we spooned them out onto the baking sheet as opposed to piping them out using a pastry bag, so I'll try that for next time.

I'm going to continue to enjoy my wine. À plus!

To read:

The Anosognosic's Dilemma

And a whole slew of other things to read and reread.

Feasting and creating!

So, since I'm home, I've been eating such that I hardly feel full. I graze and munch, and it's pretty rare that the words "I'm hungry" emerge from me.

Here are some peeks at what I've been eating for the last bit of time...

Strawberry papaya. Aren't the seeds weird? They look like fish eggs...

Yesterday (Saturday), the fam went down to Orange County to visit the relatives... had soondubu (spicy tofu soup) which is always delicious. Tried something new-- a soy bean porridge, which was very textured and almost sweet. You can add soy sauce, which adds a nice degree of savoriness. It's also delicious hot (as it comes), or cold (the next day).

Here's what I had for breakfast this morning (happy father's day!):

Crêpes! We were inspired by an episode of Throwdown with Bobby Flay that we had watched where he challenges crêpe makers in Austin, TX. He made a blue corn crêpe... what's he makin', TORTILLAS? No, sir, that is NOT a crêpe. My mom made them the good ol' fashioned way. We put in fresh strawberries, Nutella, and whipped cream. Lovelove.

Then, for dinner, we prepared a special dinner: lamb chops with curried rice and cherries and basil.

I halved and pitted the fresh cherries myself!

Here are the goodies cooking... curried rice on the left and the lamb chops on the right. According to the recipe, it only should have taken 25 minutes... and it was about right! The meat cooked really quickly, as did the rice while we were preparing the meat.

Here's the final product... yum! The meat was super tender and went really well with the lightly curried rice. The cherries were surprisingly good (I was a little skeptic, too), and the basil was amazing with the gamey lamb.

We also had balsamic glazed brussel sprouts, or as I like to call them, B. sprouts. Who says they're gross? Broiled in the oven, they're nice and firm and sweet... with the balsamic, it cuts whatever bitterness there may be. Yumyumyum. If you don't like B. sprouts, let me know, and I'll try to change your mind.

Went for a walk after dinner, since we were all thoroughly stuffed... and came back to bake.

Using the Tartine cookbook again, I decided to try out the Almond-lemon tea cake. The recipe called for almond paste so it HAD to be good...

I'd never worked with almond paste, so that was pretty interesting. It's pretty solid, something I wasn't expecting. It smelled divine (and tasted pretty good too...), but it took a while for my mixer to break it up; it kept sticking to the paddle and to the sides/bottom of the bowl. If the bowl/room were warmer, perhaps that would have helped matters? Anyway, the dough came out really beautiful: super fluffy and light. The cake flour was sifted twice, adding to that. Tasting the dough, I was a little worried that it'd be too sweet, but it ended up being ok!

Here's the final product! Sigh, they're certainly not pretty... They stuck to the bottom of the pans despite my buttering and flouring them. So, note to self for the next time: MORE BUTTER. MORE FLOUR. Despite their appearances, they're delicious. One of them has a glaze (orange juice, lemon juice, sugar), so we'll see how that tastes once it cools completely. But, the cake itself is so yummy. Moist, sweet, ALMONDY. Sigh. I love almond flavor. I'm excited to see how it tastes tomorrow... breakfast, anyone? I can see this being perfect with a cup of dark tea, no sugar but maybe some cream.

OK, it's get ready for bed time, and time to do a bit of work before sleep time.

Bonne nuit!

Found fortunes in an old wallet

You have the attitude of a winner.

This person's love is just and true, you may rely on it.

A routine will turn into an enchanting escapade.

Forget about the lottery, you are lucky in love.

You will be successful through innovation and determination.

Accept the affections offered to you they are sincere.

Your presence lives up any conversation.

Life is like a dogsled team. If you aren't the lead dog, the scenery never changes.

Leisurely Thursday

In the process of uploading pictures, I realized I forgot to post this one, which is a nice sunset on the drive home--

Moving on, today was busy busy. Lots of moving clothing around and organizing my room. I woke up really early despite not getting to bed that early. Nevertheless, I was really productive. The house has fewer bags laying around, and my clothes no longer litter the walkways.

For dinner, yum. My halmoni had made a summer kimchi for my mom, and it's so deliciously light, fresh, and vinegary. Actually, the use of the word fresh is the opposite of what kimchi actually is: fermented cabbage. Mmmmmmmmmm.
For dinner, we had red quinoa with bell peppers, chicken, onions, and basil. Certainly looks pretty... and it was just as delicious.

I decided to try my first recipe in my delicious Tartine book: chocolate-oatmeal-walnut cookies. They ended up being really good and chewy, when fresh out of the oven. Molasses was used instead of brown sugar, and while I thought it was a nice substitution, my mom didn't quite agree. Cookies can be quite controversial...

Very fluffy butter and sugar.

Folded in chocolate and walnuts into the dough.

Ready to go! Smart tip: wet fingers before shaping the dough, and less will stick to your fingers! It's true!

All baked... so gooey and rich. They spread a lot, so I had to cut into them, but they ended up being pretty flat. Not the prettiest cookies, but definitely yummy. I'm curious to see how they'll turn out tomorrow. One of the reasons I love oatmeal-choco-chip cookies is because of the chewiness that is retained even after the day of baking. Some of the cookies felt a little crispier, probably because of the flatness, so we'll see.

Goal for the summer is to hone my food photography. I've been taking and posting a lot of pictures that I've taken with my phone camera, for simplicity's sake. I figured that people would enjoy getting the idea of what I ate or saw, plus it's a lot quicker to upload the pictures... but it's just prettier if I take nicer pictures, no?

OK, work time then bed time.

Good night, kits.

My displaced life

I sit here on my sofa at home in my striped pajama bottoms (white, lime, french blue, magenta and grey... interesting color combination choice, Victoria and her secret, but a comfortable one nevertheless) wondering about how much life has changed, and yet not at all.

The computer I stare at is pretty much the same as the one I was using a few days ago, while sitting on my sofa at school. I'm still working on my manuscript, something similar to the one I saw on this computer about a week ago.

The bathroom floor beneath my feet is a cool green tile, not a far cry from the greenish linoleum in the bathrooms outside my room... though my bare feet never got the pleasure of feeling that floor; they always rested upon a pair of pink floral flip flops (so maybe they're really different the more I think about it).

The glass bottle of Burt's Bees Garden Tomato Tonic that sits atop my bathroom counter is still the same as the one that was sitting on my bookcase. It's still next to the bag of organic cotton balls I was conned into buying, since it was the only type they had at Whole Foods. The top is just as red as it was before, maybe more red now that it's not lit by fluorescent bulbs.

The array of clothing that sat in my closet now hangs upon a newly constructed rack (courtesy of Ikea), pretty much in the same order I remember seeing it in, in that white wooden box in the middle of my room. Now it's exposed, on a dark metal bar. That little build-it-yourself project made me wonder why I wasn't a mechanical engineer or something, I could have been good at this kind of thing after all, look at me build this rack so efficiently, up until I realize that I've managed to switch the orientation of the vertical bars and have to undo the screws, rotate, and redo. Yay for Human Biology.

The ticking of a clock sounds the same as the sound made by my little yellow bobbly head guy, except this is at night, and there's not enough light present to make my guy's head go side to side.

My mind wanders. Refocus time, then bed time.

Good night, world.

Question: when does Facebook change my Stanford '10 status to Stanford Alum '10?

Greetings from a graduate

Salutations! Now that I've graduated, I am more mature, sophisticated, and wise than ever before. Henceforth, this shall be reflected in my style of writing.

Not really.

Hey friends, I've left campus and am now at home, relaxing relaxing. Here's a bit of reflection on the last crazy few days...!

My immediate family arrived on Friday late afternoon, and we had a lovely dinner at Red Lantern, a mainstay in our rotating repertoire of restaurants. The brosky was able to join us, which is always a fun time. Since we were too full, we wandered around. I soon returned to campus and finished work on the escargot theme (making the S), and went to bed soon, as it really was a full day.

Saturday was a big day. Met up with the family in the morning, we went to the shopping center to find the bro an appropriate shirt. Leave it up to him to be unprepared for the weather :) I managed to sneak out with a lovely pair of shoes: delicious strappy flat sandals in a patent tortiseshell. Perfect with anything, really. Since I hadn't had breakfast, I grabbed a spicy Italian sausage from a little shop before heading back home to get changed for the awards ceremony. I got into my new suit (yay for business attire in 90 degree weather...), and we made our way to the auditorium where I stood on a platform for about 2 minutes and received a bomb medal, which is now proudly displayed on our mantle. We then headed over to my advisor's home for a fantastic relaxing afternoon gathering. Delicious hummus, beautiful garden... it was the perfect lull in a busy weekend. Bocce ball was played, and the bro and I beat Lily and her cousin, but not without a valiant comeback by the opposing team. We headed over to the President's reception where the food wasn't good... and it was far too crowded. Luckily, we got a VIP golf cart ride back to our car. To be honest, we went over to the reception only for this privilege :) Then, we headed out to dinner. To avoid the crowds immediately surrounding the university, we went to Vivace, a restaurant in Belmont where pasta was much needed. The family began to trickle in, for a party of 13. I was feeling a little under the weather at this point, so minestrone soup was in the cards for me. We also got yummy appetizers: fried risotto balls stuffed with mushrooms and pistachios in a spicy tomato sauce; beef carpaccio; mussels in a creamy white wine sauce... yum. For entree I got a seafood pasta, which dommed me. I was so full, so I was only able to eat about half of it... still yummy. Went home, and since I was feeling under the weather, went to bed early.

Sunday was THE big day. Commencement! We left our house around 8:20 (SO EARLY), and walked to the stadium. With our shells in tow, we waited in the hot sun to walk into the stadium at 9:30. I made it onto the big screen (yay, my 10 seconds of fame!) with the glittery S and my glorious shell (seen below). We processed, I found my family up in the stands, and we found seats... and proceeded to bake in the sun for the next hour and a half or so. Susan Rice, the US ambassador to the UN, was our commencement speaker, and she was pretty good; she tried to make it a bit more appealing to us young'uns, talking about her experience as a graduate (including her first "romantic moment" with her husband at her graduation and using the phrase "asking what they were smoking"). But, it was so hot... eek. Spent most of it hiding beneath the big S we had made to stay cool, still managed to sweat up a storm.

Once the big deal was over, we ditched our shells (bye!)...

The one on top was mine, the one on the bottom was Lily's.

We then made our way over to the main quad for the Human Biology ceremony. Since we're the biggest major, we get the nicest, biggest venue. We sat more in our caps and gowns, but with 211 of us, they sped through the awarding of the diplomas. Now, I have a beautiful piece of paper, albeit an expensive one haha.

From the quad and lots of pictures, we went to our grad lunch at the Mayfield Bakery...

I designed the menu:

Entrees: Spring greens with warm chevre; burger with onion rings; chicken salad

Desserts: Meyer lemon tart with huckleberry sauce; strawberry shortcake; palmiers

The burger was delicious. The bacon you could order with it was about a centimeter thick... the onion rings were delicious, and oily :)

Hi, lemon tart! At this point, it was too much, too much. Sooooo full.

I changed out of the dress I had been wearing all day, and I did some packing up until we ate again. Sushi take-out this time, but I was feeling pretty awful, so I went back home for an early bed time. Unfortunately didn't get much of a chance to celebrate, but I didn't want to die on my way home.. which I sort of did anyway.

Monday was the move-out day, kind of stressful given that I had to move things out (thank goodness for the fam) and clean up the house. I was not very emotional, since this is a weird time. I'm going back to campus, but never to live there again. I'm going to be seeing a lot of people who will still be on campus next year, but neither live with them, nor see my friends who have moved on. I picked up Ry at the Caltrain station, and we drove on from there. By the halfway point, I got so sleepy that he took over and undoubtedly saved both of our lives in doing so. We made it home safely and soundly, and I promptly fell asleep once he left.

Today was relaxing. Woke up in the 10 o'clock hour (yay for sleeping in and no more 90 degree room at 8 am), and sat around for a bit, eating homemade chicken soup to ward away my cold. I later took a nap, so needless to say, I'm catching up on sleep. I perused a new cookbook from my dear brother Conan and made a list of things to bake... croissants... almond-lemon tea cake... YUMYUMYUM. So many delicious things with almond paste, almond extract... my favorites. I can't wait! First things first, though, need to get application and manuscript writing out of the way.

Thanks for bearing with me in this information dump. Had a lot to say, not really reflective, but I'll get there.

On a more nostalgic note, I'm definitely missing.

Construction zone

My blog is undergoing changes! Sorry if things may be hard to read or just plain ugly, I may have to leave things as they are from time to time as I try to figure coding out (CSS..?) or get distracted by kitty cats and food.

3 days left continued...

So now, there is even less time left than in the last post...

Anyway, continuing on with senior dinner on the quad-- overall ridiculousness.

I opted not to go straight to said sketch club, but opted to be driven there. That was far preferable, as was the first stop, my favorite bar off campus. Their raspberry mojitos are ridiculously delicious... Mmm Nola.

My feet by the end of the night were dead. They still are, about 24 hours later. My waist down feels every step I take. Boo on heels.

So, as you noticed, my parents arrived in the middle of my posting. This morning (Friday), I had brunch and watched the Uruguay-France soccer match (0-0... what. Our La Mais games were more exciting than that one). Then, before I knew it, it was family time! Took a nap at my parents' hotel until the brosky came. We headed to dinner at Red Lantern, where Asian fusion is delicious, ranging from a Singaporean pancake stuffed with curried ground lamb with mango chutney, to duck and mushroom samosas, to clay pot sea bass. We walked around Redwood City for a bit, checking out the scene... yay for middle/high school hipsters! Ah, what it must be like to be young, hanging out outside of a movie theatre with nothing better to do. Came back, worked on Wacky Walk costume (S-CAR-GOS!... aka escargots), and here we are. I'm exhausted and ready to go to sleep. I wonder if I'm going to look back on this and wish I went all out-- partying etc, but frankly (this is addressed to the future me who may or may not regret this decision to go to bed), I want nothing more than to be refreshed when hanging out with my 23948098 relatives tomorrow and meeting people. The last thing I want to be is a total zombie when I have to smile for pictures.

Otherwise, I have been cleared for graduation (yay), and all my grades are in. An official goodbye to classes perhaps to come later.

On the agenda for tomorrow, day 2 of graduation festivities:

Hang out in the morning with the p-rents and bro.

Ceremony in the afternoon (business attire).

Garden party afterwards (cute dress time).

Dinner with 23049830 relatives.

Hang out time.

Sleep time.

Ciao kitties.

P.S. You may have noticed a new layout on this page... I was messing around with new design options on the Blogger page, and couldn't revert back to what I had, so this is a preset one that I rather like.

3 days left.

This is my last weekend on campus! People have moved out, are moving out, and are preparing to move out. I fall into the last category, as the cars should be packed up and ready to go back home on Monday. Right now, I'm waiting for the arrival of the parents... they should be here shortly!

Last night was our senior dinner on the Quad. The Alumni Association packs the quad full of tables, heat lamps, chairs, and hats, and we seniors all congregate around free-flowing wine, not so free-flowing food, and free hats. Needless to say, catching up with friends was fabulous and made the event. Everyone got dressed up (some more than others) and made the rounds... hello here, hug there, big smiles everywhere. What a cheerful way to start the weekend!

Apparently, it's senior tradition to walk from there to a pub just off campus, a place known for its sleeziness. Overrun with students, it didn't get any less sketchy, just younger.

Ah, the parents have just arrived! More update to come later...

Take a moment.

How about we try to appreciate the world and everything that comes with it without "A Scare, a Scar, and a Silver Lining"?

Be grateful, be graceful.

This morning, for breakfast: 2 pita pockets, one with hummus, capers, and lettuce; one with half chunky almond butter and marionberry jam. Yumm.

Take a moment.

How about we try to appreciate the world without "A Scare, a Scar, and a Silver Lining"?

KEWL!

A little test for you...if you're not totally tired of them, here's a fun one to test your concentration.

Test Your Focus

100%, what up.

Surprising, considering the way I multi-task.. I guess I'm that 1337.

Also, check this out... LA is so beautiful without cars:

Running on Empty from Ross Ching on Vimeo.

The guy who made this video took enough stills without cars that he could overlay shots of the street as the clouds and lighting changed. Plus, the song is great. Enjoy!

I don't know why you say goodbye, I say hello

Good morning!

This post is a celebration...

First off, this is the 201st post! Thanks to everyone for sticking with me! It makes it more fun to write when I hear feedback and that people actually enjoy good ol' OBWN. Please keep it up!

Secondly, I write to you from my new baby. Its name has yet to be determined. Any ideas?

It is wonderful. It's so smooth it makes my hands sweat. It's so fast that it probably gets bored waiting for me to take action as opposed to the other way around. Few things I'll have to get used to: volume on the right hand side, Spaces, Snow Leopard (I had Tiger... :/), and much more that I have yet to discover. I also have tons of files to transfer, which is a little overwhelming. I hope I don't overlook something important and lose it in the hustle and bustle to get move things over. It's like physically moving, hah. Which, I'll have to do soon... yuck.

Next on the agenda, let's celebrate delicious food!

Miso Chashu ramen from Himawari, in San Mateo. This was absolutely delicious, despite the fact that the weather was hothothot and the restaurant itself was also super hot and stuffy. By the time I finished, I was sweating up a storm.... but it was so worth it. The pork was nice and tender (although I tried a friend's stewed pork, which was EVEN better... it had been premarinated in a sweet-salty broth and had layers of fat. It was like eating bacon, but in big chunk form...). The noodles were nice and chewy, and they were fantastic with the miso broth. It was nice and salty enough, but not too salty, and the miso was perfectly savory. Yum. Would love to go back there again... a big upgrade from my delicious Shin Ramen :)

Afterwards, we went to Sweet Breams, which is a place that makes and sells taiyaki, a fish shaped waffle/pancake. It comes with a filling of azuki (red bean), vanilla custard, nutella, or chocolate custard. I ordered a "school" (12 fish) of a variety of the first three, and my favorite was the vanilla custard... Mmm. Definitely yummy when they're fresh, but they can get a little soggy when they've cooled off... A cute little treat!

Last night, I also went to see Babies, the movie. It was very cute (especially when there were cats.... meow!), but I eventually got tired of reacting to every adorable thing they did. The Mongolian baby was definitely my favorite (this also seemed to be the consensus amongst the people I went with... either him or the Nigerian baby). Indeed, we've come a long way from those silly little creatures who can't string a sentence together, and can't walk.

So, today? What is on the agenda for today?

Going to have a get together, and we'll watch Sleepless in Seattle, as part two of a Meg Ryan/Tom Hanks marathon.

After that, maybe climbing?

More computer, that's for sure.

I'm hungry. Eggs? Pho? Unsure...

And if that mockingbird don't sing...

...actually, it does. And it starts at 12:20 in the morning.

Apparently, a mockingbird that sings by a lamp post (which I believe this one to be doing) is a bachelor who has yet to find a mate.

My dear mockingbird, of course you aren't finding a mate. All the ladies are sleeping while you are singing, and most likely when you are sleeping (considering that you sang all night) the ladies are flitting about having a grand old time with their new boyfriends. None of which are you.

Time for a lifestyle change, I think.

The second of many farewells

I turned in my honors thesis officially, to get cleared for graduation.

I'm really going to miss research. It was something I looked forward to doing, even those PCR plates over and over and over again. The idea of collecting data that could mean something great is exciting.

Thanks fish for your enormous dedication to my project.

Now, moving on... two finals tomorrow.

Rock it and rock out.

The first of many farewells

Dear undergraduate classes,

We've had an interesting time together. You've taught me about world religions, the spanish language, how to make oil that smells like bananas, how neurons migrate, how we see, hear, touch, taste, and smell, and so many other topics that I can't recall, but trust me, they've made an impact. But beyond that, you've refined my tastes: I don't like chemistry. Nor am I interested in modern physics (perhaps conceptually I appreciate it, but not much more aside from that). I love the brain even more than when I first arrived.

You have also taught me more about what I am like. I am not a book learner. I learn by example. I cannot take a class between the hours of 2 and 3 and always expect to stay awake.

While I will take so many more classes in my life, no other experience will replace you. From here on out, everything will build upon what I have learned from you. You gave me that solid foundation necessary for further growth and development.

Thanks, undergraduate classes, for everything that you've taught me and tried to teach me. As stubborn as I might be, more may have gotten through to me than I let on.

With gratitude and fond memories,

me.

Today was my last day of classes. I started out my day by running tons of errands. I met the love of my life. Her name is Ellie, and she's a 15 week old golden lab. She has ears like velvet and a smile that warms your very soul and that dissolves your brain into mush so you're only capable of ooh-ing and aah-ing and cooing.

Moving on from the cute animal realm, final thoughts from my last class ever:

1) Even though it's complicated, you've got to do something.

2) There's no difference between being scientific and being compassionate.

I walked through the quad and heard music coming from the church. I sat in it for a while, listening to the organist play, and I marveled at the sound (it's impossible not to): the bass notes vibrated the benches, sounds would linger for seconds (a long time, acoustically), high notes would carry through clearly, and the middle was muddled but would all resolve itself into beautiful chords that carried through. It's a nice metaphor of sorts for classes. There are ones that stick out - the ones that are not so good and borderline awful, the ones that are fantastic and great - and there are ones that get stuck somewhere in the recesses of my brain. Nevertheless, they all eventually come together in some culminating, resonating chord, which is this time, this very moment. I am preparing for my last finals, and using everything that every class has taught me maybe not in actual content, but arguably the more useful elements of taking classes-- how to be a test-taker, how to study, how to relax. Like the music notes on paper, looking at the equivalent - my transcript - will illuminate for me those middle-of-the-road classes and remind me of the highs and the lows, but nothing is as perfect as this moment now to reflect upon everything that I've been taught. It's sad moving on, even from some inanimate, amorphous thing, that appears only in my memories, on paper, and in bits and bytes. I guess that makes it easier- I don't need to hug it goodbye, no formal salutes or thank yous, it's just... done.

Hopefully my open letter will suffice.

After slamming my finger in a drawer, it's funny how much warmer it is compared to its neighbors.

Afternoon Tea

Sometimes there's nothing quite as enjoyable as a hot cup of darjeeling with a buttery shortbread cookie on the side.

The 2 o'clock hour always seems to demolish me- put me in a dark room for 15 minutes and my default is to have glazed over eyes, ready to fall asleep. No matter how much sleep I got the night before, if I'm not doing something active (taking notes doesn't count), I'm ready for naptime. Sigh for circadian rhythms.

So, as I mentioned, a break with a little pick-me-up is perfect. Today is a little breezy and not as hot as this weekend was, so a hot cup of tea isn't stifling.

It's been a little depressing to read the NYTimes, with the oil spill, North Korea, and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict dominating the front page. Such information reminds me of how imperfect this world of mine is and can be, which is incredibly jarring. With things like tea time in the two o'clock hour, it's hard to imagine anything else. But, I suppose real life is going to be far from perfect, and for that I am incredibly excited- make a difference, have an impact, do some good. Make some mistakes and figure it out along the way.

Anyway, welcome to June! I hope it's a wonderful month for all of you~