Journalism

Currently Listening: Bonito (Jarabe de Palo), Ai Wo Bie Zou (Chang Chen-Yue)

I wish I was better at reporting things and telling stories. When I was at the Exploratorium yesterday

with Teresa, we followed Paul Salazar's stargazing tour (using his amazing green laser pointer oft used by astronomists). He spoke about the stars so eloquently and so passionately, it made me realize how lackluster my expertise is in various areas of my life.

Therefore, I've made it my goal to start writing in this bog in a more journalistic fashion. It is difficult to blog about real topics outside of my emotions/thoughts/goals. There are only so many posts that I can write about that are relevant to my goals and career before it gets tiresome.

Being more of a journalist will help me articulate what I know better and force me to research in more detail the things I would like to be an expert in. Maybe one day I can apply to write for Synapse, UCSF's newspaper!

I'll start with a list of things I'll have to force myself to write about:

• Health tech, Cloud computing (What is it? How are we leaning that direction?)
• Health tech, Economic impact (Does health tech save the healtchare industry money or is it just another bleed?)
• Various meteor showers each year (What are the best ones to watch? Where should you go? How to prepare?)
• Ultimate fris culture (Why can't it be a pro sport?)
• Rehabilitation engineering (What is it? Why is it important?)
• Eye cancer, an orphan disease (What types exist? How rare is it? Why does it occur?)

Miss Galaxy's First Concert

Currently Listening: Mastermind, Do You Remember (Deltron 3030)

Last night, I was at the San Francisco Mezzanine for a concert titled "Scratch and Surf" featuring

You know what's great?
Rocking a crazy wig because you can.

Deltron 3030. They are an alternative hip hop group comprised of "Del the Funky Homosapien", "Dan the Automator", and "Kid Koala." Interestingly enough, it was the first music concert I'd ever been to (aside from orchestral shows, etc) and it also happened to be a fundraiser for "Surf For Life." The Surf For Life staff projected a surfing video promoting their charitable activities and mission before the main event, which was pretty cool. I'm glad my first concert was a charity event. (I also wish I knew how to surf...)

I suppose not many people know that I'm a bit of a hipster when it comes to hip hop... I had a phase back in the day where I listened to a lot of 'underground' stuff because of Samurai Champloo/Nujabes. So I guess my 'eclectic' taste in music has led me to a lot of great beats and Deltron 3030 is no exception. I just like to get funky funky funky

One thing I looked forward to at the concert was the opportunity to enjoy live music--really enjoy it. Having never been to a concert, I'd only heard of what a fun experience it is to be immersed in the music. With rap/hip hop concerts, especially, everything is very lyric and rhyme-centric surrounded by good beats and sound creation. Golden Age, the opening performance, was very good at getting the crowd involved and getting creative with his songs. Do Dat and Malicious Lee performed many lyrically powerful songs.

When Deltron 3030 finally came on, we were well-primed for what was in store. Lyrically, Del's rhymes were always on point, futuristic, and intelligent. Del didn't have the sort of stage presence of Golden Age but he makes up for it with his skill, which is key (definitely key!). The surrounding talent, Dan the Automator, who was basically drunk on the Giants' World Series championship, brought a lot of life and humor to the concert. His automator is also really bemusing. (We gotta have champaigne on stage. Let's go Giants!) And finally, they took a scratch break to highlight Kid Koala - sickkkkkk DJ. One of my favorite parts... for various reasons.

Anyways, at the end of the concert (after Deltron's encore performances of "Do You Remember" and "Clint Eastwood (Gorillaz)"), my new friends told me that, for my first concert ever, the bar has been set very high for future concerts. For one thing, the venue was not very crowded (I presume because the Giants world series was on and because they are more alternative/underground) and, overall, the venue was just really nice. Also, I had good company. My ears were ringing afterwards but I was so glad for the spontaneous invite.

 Bottom line: best. concert. experience. ever.

Meep thanks to this dangerous guy for inviting me <3

Favorites:

1. Kid Koala's scratch interlude :)
2. Gorillaz - Clint Eastwood (Deltron 3030 cover)
3. Deltron 3030 - Positive Contact

4. Deltron 3030 - Do You Remember

5. Golden Age (Do Dat & Malicious Lee) - Growth

6. Deltron 3030 - 3030

It was so hard to find the songs from Golden Age since they are relatively unknown. But I found a link to their bandcamp.com!

Sentimientos

Día numero uno de Duolingo: "No estoy borracha, sólo intoxicado por ti."

Casi no te conozco, pero me caes bien. Te vi en una fiesta y encontré tus ojos. No sé si tu se sentía el mismo pero yo quería conocerte mejor. Estoy frustrada porque tengo estos sentimientos. Esperando que me gustaría. Leo tus acciones. Malintrepreto tus acciones. Prefiero seguir confundida a tener la certeza de que no te gusto. Quiero hablar con usted más, pero yo no quiero asustarte. Usted es inteligente, motivado, y tienes el buen gusto musical - la combinación perfecta de "nerdy" y "badass." ¿Por qué eres tan perfecto?

Le sigh.

New Content

Currently Listening: http://www.noonpacific.com/

"When we are no longer able to change a situation - we are challenged to change ourselves."

It's been a very transitional past couple of weeks so I've been holding off on my weekly blogging goal. It's taken quite an effort to climb out of my funk. Life has gone from starting a new job to adjusting to the social implications of said job to restarting hobbies.

Recently, I conversed with a friend who rightly said that it takes more effort to "make things happen" when you start working. As a result, I've come up with a set of goals (and their respective sub-goals) to focus on for the next few months.

1. Reach a working fluency in Spanish. 

• Hold a conversation with Sofia entirely in Spanish by February (maybe visit her in Mexico City this winter break)
• Write every other blog post in Spanish (I will probably end up writing it in English, then using Google Translate extensively to translate it haha)
• Reach a Duolingo 100 day streak
• Learn to sing 5 new Spanish songs

2. Take up Mandarin again.

• Learn to sing 5 new Chinese songs by the end of February (one song per month)

3. Start swimming for fitness.

• Obtain a UCSF gym membership by November
• Be able to swim 10 laps without stopping

4. SEE AN ORTHOPEDIST.

• Set an appointment, get MRI, get a diagnosis. Seriously. Stop putting it off.

5. Become a sci-fi geek.

• Read 10 new books from the NPR "Your Picks: Top 100 Science-Fiction, Fantasy Books" (2 new books every month)
• Watch the old Star Trek series!

6. Reach Silver on League of Legends. (HAHA yes, I did just make that an official goal.)

These should keep me busy for a while! :)

Check out this awesome view from my office on Wednesday afternoons!

My friend is subletting a place on Panoramic Hill. And the view is also amazing...

Tried to go see NASA with Stellina. But we failed to get past all the parking traffic. :( Had a fun time hanging out with South Bay friends, though! Yay!

Mothers & Fathers

My mom's birthday passed last week but I didn't get to see her because she went home to the Philippines. On the day she was supposed to celebrate being brought into this world by her own mother, my mom had to take time off to deal with the loss of her mother, my grandma. She was already in her 90s, which is an age most people are lucky to reach, and had many of the health issues associated with senility. In some capacity, my mom was prepared for the loss as part of the circle of life. But still. My mom has spent more than 25 years in the USA, returning to the Philippines only on occasion.

In addition, the father of a friend/sister to me passed away. He was middle-aged - so it definitely felt more of a life cut too short. My friend was very close to her father and she was very much inspired by him - which, coupled with hard work, talent, and a bit of luck, culminated in the success she's had in her career thus far. She was in New York when she heard the news.

An overarching theme surrounding death has always been a sense of "lost time." My mom was in the USA when she heard the news of her last living parent. My friend was on the opposite coast. I never really realized how profound of an impact it had to not be present during a loved one's last dying breath. It's as if any chance you could have had for closure is stolen away from you; no matter how "prepared" you think you are, it's still all too sudden and all too much. The only comfort you really have is the last time you saw him or her; and even that can be a distant memory if you don't make sure to treasure it.

We never really treasure our time with our parents. We spend the first quarter of our life living in dependence of them and taking it for granted because that's all we've ever known. Eventually we become independent and we begin to live our own lives - find a significant other, more friends... We expect them to be there when we eventually have children of our own because they've told us all our lives "When you have kids..." or "I'll take care of your kids for you..." So I guess the cliche holds true. We should really try and treat every moment as if it's our last.