.05 minutes of fame

my tip made it into the west coast gossip blog defamer (for those of you that don't know, i'm ridiculously addicted to trashy celeb gossip and spottings) which i think is pretty cool:

http://www.defamer.com/hollywood/diary/sightings/hollywood-privacywatch-tom-hanks-dines-out-037705.php

· I ran the LA marathon on sunday and my fiancee spotted halle berry around mile 3 or 4 on the corner of Exposition and Vermont. She was with some normal people, her family maybe (?). She was extremely well kept, great hair, looked hot and stood out even though she was wearing sweats.




she's the one with sunglasses, shading her eyes from the sun, and wearing a long sleeved white top and gray and pink striped track pants.

sleep deprived

daily routine in college:

5:45am: wake up, dress, head to gym
6:00-7:00 am: work out
7:00-7:45 am: get ready for school
7:45 am: walk to class
8:00 am-4/5pm: classes, using breaks in between to study in the library
5:00-8:00pm: school extracurricular activities, dinner with friends, etc
8:00p.m.-1/2:00a.m.: study

repeat.

average hours of sleep: 4 hrs

last night i went to bed at 11pm. this morning i tried to wake up at 6 a.m. to go to the gym. it buzzed. i turned it off. slept for another hour.

average hours of sleep: 7-8 hrs. i must be getting old.

ode to chapstick

i am addicted to chapstick. chapstick lipmoisturizer mint vanilla flavored. almost any flavor of lipsmacker (except for gross stuff like bubblegum and cotton candy). the skinny french vanilla chapstick (brand?).

i dabbled with the potted kind but they are too bulky for pockets and the stuff gets stuck under my nails (gross, i know).

i never graduated to the fancy, liquid stuff in glass or plastic tubes.

in the past three weeks i have bought three new chapsticks. and each and every one of them have disappeared. . .i tried to hold out of buying a new one, hoping that my new babies would reappear. alas, i broke down at target and bought a new one. lipsmakers vanilla cream.

this evening, when i was unloading the dryer, my fiancee found two liquified chapstick cases. cocoa butter cream from the bodyshop ($5) and dq frosted vanilla ($3).

i wanted to cry.

i wish i had . . . a laundry machine??

today i was chatting with one of my grad school friends. . . i was talking about my weekend plans and how sat nite is going to be devoted to doing 4 weeks of laundry . . . i'm very particular about which laundromat i got to. in my first year of grad school most of the laundry was done at my apartment complex which had 3 laundry machines and dryers. when i moved last year, the apartment only had 1 washer and dryer (which was quite subpar).

so the boy and i started trying out laundromats. we had a horrific experience with a random laundromat we stumbled across on colorado ave in pasadena. there was a middle-aged crazy woman running around talking about how she was in the middle of giving birth and had been impregnated by some doctor, and by the way, could be spare a dollar??

then we ended up being referred to a place in sierra madre. it was very clean and the owner was friendly. they had a t.v. and good magazines to read. . .unfortunately they shut down a few months ago. . later, we found out about another laundromat, "drop a load" (yes, that is in fact the name!). it has amazing triple and double loaders and industrial strength dryers that can handle our 3-4 week loads of laundry.

anyways, i digress. it becomes a pain doing laundry, lugging all your stuff to your car and then driving to some laundromat, going during off-peak hours (sat nights). so basically, my ideal first luxury purchase after i finish my degree and get paid a real salary, i plan to buy a washer and dryer (unless we move to new york in which case i'll send the dirty clothes to the cleaners).

my friend laughed at me.

i asked her what her first luxury purchase would be. she said a fancy recliner (can't recall the name). and wistfully added that it is too expensive and may have to wait. i laughed and suggested a lazyboy. this, is what lowly phD students think about. sad.

the joys of proctoring

i have to proctor an exam today, the second time this week. ugh. today's is to return a favor to a friend (why oh why was i too honest and not make up an excuse about being too busy???). three hours of standing around a classroom and watching undergrads taking their exams. if the prof is really strict, the proctors do not get to sit down and have to vigilently walk up and down rows, checking aisles to make sure no one has cheet sheets or notes open, and hovering over students that are suspiciously looking around or gazing away from their test booklets.

monday's proctoring wasn't so bad, there were three of us with the prof and he didn't mind us sitting down or talking to each other. sometimes i make it into a game and try to characterize the different students:

(1) the overachiever: obviously prepared, moving along at a decent pace. (smilingly because he already knows the answer but still) asks a lot of questions about the test maybe to demonstrate how knowledgable he is about the subtleties of the question. at the end of the exam, he shakes the prof's hand and thanks him for giving the exam (what??!!!) and for all his time.

(2) the slacker: for the first half of the exam time he's answering as much as he can. but after writing down everything that's he's memorized in the past 12-24 hours, he starts staring off into space. . .rather than turning in that test booklet, he just sits. pondering. hoping that something, something that the professor had said in class will come back to him. because he actually went to that class and was not sleeping through the entire thing, what was it??? this is the same student that writes a novel when one or two answers would have answered the question sufficiently (oh and by the way, the right answer wasn't embedded in the paragraphs and paragraphs writeen, arg!!) this is the same student that tries to write so sloppily or just ever so slightly circles two answers rather than one, hoping the grader gives him credit anyway. (note to undergrads: if i can't read it, you will probably not get credit!)

(3) the flirt: dressing up to take an exam (maybe going out afterwards?). after getting the prof's attention for a question she looks up at him through her lashes and gives him a coy smile and asks him her question. ( i never get this, do they do this with female profs too? do guys do this with female profs?) she has an array of colored pens and highlighters to beautify her graphs and answers. she leaves little notes apologizing for being too messy, or directing the grader where to find the remainder of the answer.

*disclaimer: obviously these are stereotypes (and most people are not at these extremes). i have nothing against undergrads having been one myself, i'm just a grad student finding ways to amuse myself! * okay, i have to go proctor. . .

rainy LA

my sister called this morning asking what the weather was like. . .rain forcasted for the rest of the week. . . she was surprised. . . its a common misconception -that it is 70 degrees and sunny all year long in LA - held by people on the east coast, and that is often perpetuated by people from southern california. . .so much so that even los angelenos often forget about the winter bouts of rain and june gloom where it the sky is so thick with fog/smog.

it's amazing how we adjust to whatever climate we are in. . . i wear a sweater in LA whenever it dips below 60. but on visits to nyc, 40 degrees feels warm and pleasant!

these trips to nyc for wedding planning have solidified my love for manhattan and i would be very happy to move there for work. it has an incredible energy, a plethora of restaurants from around the world, great mass transit system, and a vibrant culture. the only drawback is it is so d**n expensive!!! a tiny 2 bedroom in alphabet city goes for approx 2G's

.nonetheless, i had a wonderful time hanging with my family in the city. ate a lot, walked a lot, window shopped a lot. the highlights:

1. pizza at rosa's near f.i.t. and the best bagels at any local bagel joint (LA really can't compete when it comes to bagels and pizza).

2. seeing robin williams walking around in soho (he ever so slightly smiled back at me after i caught his eye and smiled at him!)

3. watching a chinese women being handcuffed by an undercover cop for selling (a) counterfeit goods or (b) without a license near the outskirts of chinatown.

credit fraud

usually i get 4-5 solicitations from credit card companies in the mail and usually they are immediately tossed into the recycling after i've torn them into several pieces.

but this morning i decided to actually read the letter. it turns out that someone had applied for the credit card in my name and they would continue the enrollment process unless i called them. first i thought it might be a marketing trick for the company (i.e. we'll give you a credit card unless you turn us down) or some type of scam to get my personal info.

so i decided to call to see what was going on. . i told them what happened and they asked for my name, birthdate, and last 4 digits of my social security number. . .part of me hesitated as i did not want to give any personal info. but it turns out that the applicant listed another birthdate. when the rep advised me to call the credit fraud bureau and told me what to do to place a fraud alert i decided she was legit. ( i followed up by calling the phone number on chase's website and it was legit) anyway, the numbers she gave me for the fraud bureau were right so i placed a fraud alert on my name.

i am not sure how my personal info got out, it's kinda scary . . . in any case, i highly recommend requesting a credit report once a year (it is free for one annual report) and being cautious about your personal info.

anyway, there are three credit bureau fraud departments, and i know if you call equifax they will notify the other two: 1. transunion- 800-680-7289 2. equifax- 800-525-6285 3. experian- 888-397-3742 for more info, check out this website: http://www.fightidentitytheft.com/flag.html

tired headache

so i woke up at an ungodly hour this morning. . ..i think it was the spicy korean food i had last night (kobawoo in k-town). . .anyway, tried to go back to sleep but didn't succeed. . .i cleaned my kitchen, went through the mail, and set up the coffee machine and am now posting.

maybe it's the excitement for the week ahead that is keeping me up. i'm leaving for san diego this afternoon for an american chemical society conference. you might be wondering, now THAT sounds like fun, hanging around and listening to a bunch of chemists. it'll actually be very interesting and pertinent to my research as i am studying the effects of implementing pharmaceutical patents in china- so getting the pharma industry's perspective will be useful.

after the conference, i'll be headed back to the eastcoast for a long weekend to take care of some wedding planning stuff and chill with the fam. . . good company, good grub, can't ask for much more! p.s. i may not be able to post as frequently this week since i'll be away from school (and the free wireless internet at my apartment- ahh freeriding on the neighbors).

bride and prejudice

i saw "bride and prejudice" last night and loved it!!

in spite of/because of (?) the bollywood cheesiness, it was visually pleasing with the plethora of bright colors and just a lot of fun to watch! it's the same director that did "bend it like beckham" and although some of the themes are the same "girl from a traditional indian family falls for a cute white boy", "strong independent woman", etc., stylistically it is quite different from b.i.l.b.

here's the trailer: http://www.brideandprejudicethemovie.com/trailer.html

the screwing a lightbulb and petting a dog is the FUNNIEST! now. . .

back to my role as research rat, programming at my cubicle in a windowless room. . .hmm. . now that i think of it, this room does resemble a rat maze. . the lack of windows can be quite depressing. . .especially when i get to school before the sun rises and leave after the sun sets. . .

"Mile 27"

completed my first marathon this past sunday. i'm still recovering, but at least i can walk up and down stairs without having to grip the rails.

nevertheless, i was excited that my results were posted in the latimes http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-marathon-women,1,2024858.special - scroll way down.

it was a surreal experience. . .you are running in the middle of downtown los angeles, there are 25,000 people running beside you, tons of peeps cheering you on, handing you water/gatorade/gels/oranges/bananas not to mention beer/corndogs/crablegs!!!! guys taking a leek on the sides of streets and litter everywhere, but the police aren't doing a thing. chaotic and organized at the same time.

maybe b/c i have mild OCD and the strict training schedule suits me or i am just sadistic- i'm planning on doing the marine corps marathon in october. . .i heard it's fabulous! crowds the whole distance, running around the monuments, and it's pretty flat terrain.