Commencement: Part II

Graduuuaaation!




The only other time in life that this many flowers are bestowed upon an individual is probably at a wedding...maybe the Olympics. Ni's second graduation took place on a warm sunny Sunday afternoon in the Greek Theatre. What a proud moment.

Here's the new grad herself! Sharply pulling off the robed look. If you follow my tweets you may have noticed that I commented that people in their graduating regalia look like HP wizards. Well, in that case, I saw a guy stroll through the library with his black gown over a collared shirt, slacks and a striped tie. Need I say more? Alas, I have no photograph of it.

But Ni's graduation was an exciting day. The weather cleared up beautifully as if had been overcast in the days prior. Mei Yee also flew into town for the occasion. The speeches were inspirational, the occasion joyful. What's not to enjoy! After the ceremony, we walked around campus finding the landmarks to take pics.


cheese, cheers, and congrats! with that marks the end of spring and the beginning of summer! :) ...read on!...

Commencements. Part I

I enjoy going to graduations. I've been to three so far and it hasn't gotten old just yet. I find them all to be especially inspiring. It's a rare moment for reflection and anticipation in our hectic lives. it's a moment that combines the past, present, and future and provides a summary of the knowledge one has accumulated both academically and personally.

Commencement ceremonies span two dimensions. The sea of people in black robes sends a message of unity. But it also overwhelms the existential mindset in that graduation doesn't really mean much at all. Hundreds of people graduate within a short span of two hours. So what. What makes the difference.

6 hours of graduation-fare and plenty more of post-grad celebration has showed me that the individual makes the difference. What the degree means to the person and what the person does with the degree is what matters. Most of the grads that I spoke to said that they didn't feel any different whether their tassel was on the left or on the right. That's because change is a gradual process, not an event. Graduation is just a marker of the change, not a signifier of the change itself.




So congrats Class of 2010!! I'm so proud of you and your journeys. People have told me that it doesn't matter where you start--it's where you end up that's important. But I've come to learn that each ending has a new beginning. So let this not mark and ending but a beginning of a new chapter in your lives. ...read on!...

Nearing the End

Let's see, the last two months were filled with conferences, ginger, and crazy class. But to sum it up in three short words I'd say: just toooo fast. In feeling, the time went by really quickly. But if I were to actually systematically think back to what has happened since March...a whole lot! Not only in events but also in the things that I've learned.



Hence the slide on Monte Carlo: the ultimate method to find order in randomness. It's just part of human nature to impress the notion of order or significance (p) in the idiosyncrasies of everyday life.

So what have I tried to systematize in my random life? Well for starters, I get a lot of stomachaches. Might be due to stress, might be due to internalizing issues that causes me to develop somatic complaints (loong strech but hey!) So I bought some delicious ginger syrup from Cost Plus World Market. I put it on EVERYTHING from toast to sandwiches to marinades for meat. Yum. :) and yay.

I also like to fidget with my hands when I'm a bit tense. so I also made turtle bolopaos. Forgot a couple of ingredients but at least they look cute. Melobelo liked them. But I think from now on, I'll leave the bolopao making to the professionals. The bakers in Chinatown (especially in SF) are phenomenal. It's a real art to be able to make bread. I admire those that can.

Oh and the conferences. Great for developing public speaking skills and great for learning new things. Ni and I both attended two separate ones in the last month.


Here's Ni telling kiddies how great Cal is. (and it is!)

I presented a poster. ...read on!...

Pink PINK

Back to Berks and stuck in a pink house. Of course the latter was by choice. A fun spring break is necessarily met with a pile of work to do. This included two papers and a midterm to study for. However, the hours of confinement have paid off! I finished 1.5 papers and reviewed all the lectures. As a reward for myself, I went on a nice long walk.



Not too far down the road, I spotted another pink house. I thought it was cute and very much "spring-like", especially with the nice tree in front of it. The weather was absolutely gorgeous--sunny but not hot.


Continuing down the road, I saw these nice pink flowers and thought, "hey! I see a theme here!" So I took a picture of my shoes and bag as well. :)






I walked for a good two hours and passed by several shops. One of which was a flower stand and they had lovely bouquets on display



oh Spring is in the air and so is pink! Admittedly, pink isn't one of my favorite colors but I suppose there is an exception to every rule!


...read on!...

It's a Jungle out there!

I really like my sister melobelo :). And I'm glad that I was able to spend some goood quality time with her over Spring break. We did a lot of things actually--we had mini "sleep overs" and pretended to be sushi (I was the rice and she was the eel); we watched The Princess and the Frog and Ponyo (multiple times); played Wii together. Fun


This is us on our hike to Point Pinole. We actually got lost along the way. Ahh the blind leading the blind. She said that she had gone on the trail several times so we veered from the path that our parents were taking and decided to roam a bit on our own. We ended up completely missing the pier but no worries--we ran into little baby goats. They were cute





The fence was an electric one so Melobelo tried to stay away from it. But she still wanted to pet the goats. Solution? "Here goat-y goat-y. Baaah Baah". She preferred shocking the goats instead of herself. :)Melobelo makes me feel young and carefree inside. I like how she makes me feel really alive and appreciate the moment. Underneath her silliness, she's a wise kiddo.



Now she and the parents are off to NY, scouting Tyra and the JoBro's. Jealous! While I'm back in Berks writing papers and studying. Speaking of which...the financial market is calling!
...read on!...

Spring Sushi

The last time that I recall having sushi was in China over the summer. Not a pleasant experience. And since then, I haven't really been able to even stomach the idea of getting sushi. However, my mom did find a sushi-making class as part of the adult continuing education series at the local community college. It sounded like a lot of fun and a good activity for mom and sister. But...in a tale similar to gift of the magi, only Ni and I were able to go. Nonetheless, it was educational and fun. As an extra bonus, we were able to share it with the rest of the family for a sushi dinner!


Our instructor was a cute Asian American woman and I think my favorite part about her was her spunk! Although the authenticity of the techniques are questionable, she gave us a lot of neat tricks and tips on sushi making like how to cool down sushi rice without using a fan or how to prevent the rice from sticking to the bowl.



These are the products of our class experience. We took that and transformed it into a sushi dinner!

Although there was a class fee, there was hardly any real sushi. One lady in the class was surprised to find out what sushi was!



In our variation, we went ahead and did the sashimi and roasted eel. YUM!


...read on!...

muffin fail!

This week I've been having crazy cravings for something dense, chewy, sweet, bread-y. All in short: muffins or some sort of quick bread. I absolutely love my mom's banana nut bread and zucchini walnut bread. The cinnamon, the cake-iness of first bite, and the taste that comes with aging. So good. We also have a mini loaf baking pan so sometimes we make them into individual loaf servings. Bread-making is usually a summer thing though especially because fruit ripen a lot faster than can be eaten!



So I decided to whip me up a batch of cinnamon pear muffins, recipe curtosy of a mixture of my own and something I spotted on tastespotting. Let's just say that the one of tastespotting, which was just a basic muffin recipe, was probably better. haha

But I think I started off with a pretty good Saturday morning. I made myself a cup of ginger coffee to prepare myself for the paper I'm about to tackle and had a little muffin. It wasn't sweet and actually a little bland save for the ripe pear chunks. Our oven was kind of hyperventilating though because it was kind of dirty so the high temperature just made the dirty bits cook and smoke. So my muffins also had a "smokey" taste to it ;). hehe oh well. I topped it off with some cinnamon sugar so hopefully that will balance it out.

OK! onward paper ho!
...read on!...