high noon

october 14th's astronomy picture of the day!

china quotations

vicki constantine croke - the lady and the panda: the true adventures of the first american explorer to bring back china's most exotic animal

"if god lets shanghai endure, / he owes an apology to soddom and gomorrah." - a christian evangelist in the early 1920s

chiang kai-shek said that "the japanese were a disease of the skin, but communists--who had targeted the enemies of the suffering masses, the landlords and tax collectors--were a disease of the heart.

connecting

apparently i can get people to share things with me. i'm not sure why this is. a friend told me: "i think u connect well. and i think u have a way of making everyone feel very comfortable." but it's so weird. someone else i was talking to the other day said that "well, you do know me a bit better than most". i was surprised as hell because we literally only talk like two or three times a year for only a couple minutes, at both lb tournies and at ti. the only reason we were talking this time was because he tried to donate for haiyan disaster relief. but he said that "our conversations are on a separate tier, i think. content-wise."

i wish i knew what it was about me that makes people comfortable enough to want to share with me because i think this is actually a great "gift" and i'd like to use it more (for nefarious reasons of course, mwahahah! ...no). i don't feel like i'm a particularly good listener, or that i give good advice. and i always forget to follow up with people about their problems! :( a long time ago i read in reader's digest that the author was tired of trying to vent to someone only to have them commiserate by one-upping her. so when i remember to, i try not to do that. other than that? i try not to judge people. i don't feel like i'm terribly judgey anyway, so this is a natural one for me. i honestly believe that it's okay that people approach things differently. i try not to give advice on what i would do in your situation, but what i think you might be happiest doing. i think it helps too that i'm a constant over-sharer myself. maybe people are so weirded out my lack of boundaries that they get confused and over share also? hahah, maybe this is the one. :)

andromeda on the rocks

september 27th's astronomy picture of the day!

haiyan paddlethon

typhoon haiyan, you must've heard of it. my db club, scdbc, put on a 12-hour paddle marathon yesterday to raise money for haiyan disaster relief thru the tzu chi foundation. i only did two hours because i'm hella out of shape. but seriously, those two hours were enough. sheesh. did four laps total: two steering, two paddling and omg i nearly died. paddling was actually better than steering, tho i paddled after. hahaha. i wasn't even sure i could paddle at first cause my left bicep was sooo tired. crazy! later that night i was sitting on my bed cross legged, and i tried propping my head up with my hand while my elbow was on my knee and i couldn't. haha, my arm was shaking too much to hold up my head!

in the 12 hours we ended up doing 28 laps total and raised well over $5000. i think the first couple hours had extra boats. stronger teams can generally so a 3mile lap in 15-20 minutes but since this was a bunch of random paddlers doing non-stop paddling, we were averaging about half an hour per lap. ray, of areodragons, signed up for 8 of the 12 hours. 8 of the 12 hours!!! but ultimately he "only" ended up paddling for 6 of the 12 because he was too tired. he's amazing. seriously incredible. wow!

anyway, i gotta say tho, of my sponsors, i'm surprised at who donated and who didn't. i won't go into names here, but only one of my best friends donated. and besides rip and my parents, it was a kind of random mix of people i'm friends with. special mention goes to b, who pledged $20 a lap tho i only asked for $5 a lap. what an amazing guy! i'm lucky to have such generous friends. :)

time lapse video of our paddle. i show up steering just after the 2:15 mark. if you can't be bothered to watch the whole thing (honestly, i haven't either) after 3:30 you can see them paddling while it gets dark. towards the end someone has a glow bracelet on :)

cali quotes

simon winchester - a crack in the edge of the world: america and the great california earthquake of 1906

the city of stockton, ca is "named for the commodore robert stockton, who, in 1846, captured the mexican military outpost of los angeles and four days later formally annexed the mexican province of alta california in the name of the united states. stockton is, essentially, the founder of american california."

"how tightly san fransisco appeared to cling on to its hillsides: one could imagine knuckles whitened, sinew straining, teeth gritted."

"the west i like best. the people are stronger, fresher, saner than the rest. they are ready to be taught. the surroundings of nature have instilled in them a love of the beautiful, which needs development and direction. the east i found a feeble reflex of europe; in fact, i may say that i was in america for a month before i saw an american. - oscar wilde, quoted in the st. louis daily globe, february 26, 1992"

antares rocket launch

september 21st's astronomy picture of the day!

quotations

the other day i was reading thru my posts tagged "quotations" and i was surprised at how many good ones i'd completely forgotten about! i also stopped posting them on this site and will start up again. :)

from alan richman - fork it over: the intrepid adventures of a professional eater

"you should not look for the spots of the sun but the light that it gives."

"nobody is more close-minded than me when it comes to vegetarian cuisine, regardless of whether it's vegan, macrobiotic, or vegetarian... i find vegetarian restaurants both smug and culinary unsuccessful. still, i have always been inclined to allow vegetarians to go about their business without interference from me. but i don't feel quite the same about vegans. what infuriates me about them is their self-righteousness, their insistence that we miscreants give up our enjoyment of food and eat what the eat."

omg, the last one. t keeps telling me i'm a picky eater. and yeah, i'm the first one to admit it. but isn't she also? she doesn't eat a few things she doesn't like (goat cheese, blue cheese, lamb) but she doesn't eat tons of things because they're "unhealthy", like cow milk, especially not whole milk. it's just so annoying because i'm not pretentious about my dietary habits but she totally is. ugh! you're not better than me just because you eat healthy. we just value different things. oh, right, and i'm not an ass.

potter's wheel

crossing "use a potter's wheel" off my bucket list!

earlier this year we got a groupon for a two hour class to clay on first, a pottery studio in long beach. i went on sat oct 26th with t and some of her friends. it was both harder and easier than i thought it would be. turns out using a potter's wheel takes a lot of arm strength to do correctly and quickly.

we each got four lumps of clay with which to make four things. the instructor walked us thru the first one and was there to help with the rest. i wish we had more time tho since we really only had enough time to make 2.5 correctly. we all ended up rushing the last two. i came away with one misshapen thing, one complete bust, a cup, and a squat little vase thing. you can buy your creations for $5 a piece and they'll fire and glaze them for you in the color you choose. i bought my vase thing and i'll update this post with pictures later. i do kind of wish i'd bought my cup as well, but it was pretty easy to make so i'd probably be able to recreate it next time (if there is a next time).

some of our creations. tallish cup in the upper left corner is mine

overall i had fun and i'm really glad that it lived up to my expectations. :) if i have the chance to do it again i probably will.

launch streak

 

september 11th's astronomy picture of the day!