It's like magic!

http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/fold.php

Ani's teaching award

The instructor I TAed for last semester won the Distinguished Teaching Award this year. Photos and video here. The guy in the video actually quoted a line from the letter I wrote for her!

“The times were hard, but they were modern"

San Francisco International Film Festival

Play

Chile; Alicia Scherson, director
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Deep down, we all crave human contact; yet we isolate ourselves further and further, in our own little world outside blocked off by iPod earphones, locked in lives online, inundated by modern gadgets that prevent the need to face others in order to communicate. The world is getting smaller, but are we getting anything deeper than before?

In some ways, I understand what the poor girl in this movie, Cristina, is feeling. She gets a hint of another more materialistic way of life when she finds the stolen briefcase of a middle-class construction supervisor, Tristan, who has just lost pretty much any important in his life; his wife left for another man right before he got beaten up in an alley.

Cristina starts wearing Tristan's iPod and smoking his cigarettes while stalking him and his ex-wife. By doing so, she sees a part of Santiago, Chile that was never in her reach as a lower-class mapuche girl. She wants to be a part of Tristan's world. Towards that goal, she follows both of them so closely as to be able to sniff them on buses. She breaks into their fancy modern home, sits on their toilet naked and "borrows" Irene's black dress, shoes and even makeup. One hilarious scene is Irene being unknowingly followed by a drunk Tristan, who himself is being unknowingly followed by a still curious Cristina.

When Tristan and Cristina finally meet, it seems as natural to him as it is to her, even when he hadn't known about her the way she found out about him. For both, a simple hug in a hospital is the perfect culmination of her intense fascination with him and for him, the missing love and contact that had been absent from his ex-wife.

Simply a beautiful movie that just is.

Getting the royal treatment

at Baja Fresh 

quote of the day

"and you might as well go with us stat nerds since we're not gonna be after sex"

Red Hot Chili Peppers - Dani California

something interesting i'm missing?

In one day, the number of unique visitors who have been to my blog has doubled.

(and no, the number of visitors is NOT zero, nor one, nor two, nor three, etc... this is a significant change in numbers by my standards)

Did I inadvertently post porn? Free iPods? Once in a lifetime deal? Exclusive interviews?

I have no idea what happened.

Who the heck is stalking me? =P

re: Kasper's inquiry

Cynthie is the third one from the left. I'd have preferred to put up my favorite pic of her, but me thinks she will kill me if I put up a huge one of her by herself. =) 

potential girlfriend

Unexpected call from Nicolas at 2:30am.

One of his students will be coming to Berkeley Stats for a masters in the fall.

I'm

so

happy!

This will be great, someone who knows Nicolas and UCLA Stats! She took Stats 100A, 100B and 100C. I only took Stats 100B, 100C, 183 and 19 from him. And to think I didn't even want to take any stats back then.

Fall 2001.

I loved Holroyd's class in probability.

I signed up for another of Holroyd's class, also in probability.

Cybernetics counselor emails me to say that I can not take that class.

I am forced to drop Holroyd's class and enroll in statistics.

My first stats class ever.

And now lookie where I am. Stats everyday! Oh boy...

However, I did take another of Holroyd's class AFTER that stats class. So woohoo!

(and for non-Berkeley peeps, remember my prof who sounded like Austin Powers? That's Holroyd, who happened to advise my office neighbor Richard, after he left UCLA for UBC!)

margaret in my office

 

allan and moorea at filippo's

 

kasper and me at filippo's

 

malignant kiwi

a whole population of such kiwi at monterey market

feels like kiwi
tastes like kiwi
does it want to be a baked potato?

happy people

some people just make me happy no matter what i'm doing at the moment they see me

you know who you are, keep it up!

When I wake up in the morning, love
And the sunlight hurts my eyes
And something without warning, love
Bears heavy on my mind
Then I look at you
And the world's alright with me
Just one look at you
And I know it's gonna be
A lovely day

gossip whore

Due to certain conversations held today, I just have to note that there is a huge difference in knowing celeb gossip ("when's katie's baby ever gonna dare come out into this sad world?") and knowing gossip about people you know and like.

Gossip in general is fascinating to some of us because we need a little excitement in our lives, and without having to divulge any secrets in our lives, we can share secrets and comment on other people's lives. Thus said, I'm all for celeb gossip, despite obvious complaints on how stupid it is to care about or waste any second of life to know the sordid details of people who are not even worthy of such attention and the millions they receive for portraying personas that few of us will ever achieve.

However, the riskier something is, the more you can gain from it and the more you can lose. Gossip about people you personally know is, of course, much more interesting than a ludicrous publicity attempt by Teri Hatcher and Ryan Seacrest. But there is so much potential pain and loss involved. You start to think whether someone who gossips to you about someone else is already gossiping about you to others. You are not there to defend yourself when rumors go awry and spread. You have no idea who knows what about you when they are talking to you with a smile. Perhaps knowledge of the gossip about you would do much good, but if no one is going to tell you something that is obvious (to others but not yourself) and most likely correctable to your face, all this rampant gossiping does is just perpetuate this negative aspect of you that will override any of your wonderful qualities that no one bothers to spread news on. And perhaps, it's just too scary to know the truth of what people actually think of you. Who wants to cater every second of life to what people think you ought to be anyhow? Is the goal blissful ignorance as we go through life assuming that no one gives a shit about you?

I had assumed for years that I would hardly be a topic of anyone's conversations. Wallflower, shy girl who did no harm and made no impression. Now I don't even want to think about the extent of bad press I probably am getting. Because like I said, you gossip about people, and they will gossip about you. Fun stuff eh?

Perhaps I should just get back to reading about "Moses leads flocks of springtime births".

indoor spring picnic

pics here

me, irma, moorea, and charlotte

 

dave, me, and cathy

 

gelato milano

tiramisu
nutella
creme caramel

happy bday brad

security device for the prevention of office attacks by fellow male grad students

 

phd students working on a friday afternoon

my beautiful officemate

 

Wonton

Wonton is our fish.

Things in the tank make a circular route through his body. 

First Ave, Arcadia

The view from parents' store 

Can anyone tell what's cookin?

 

ask shankar about what this pic is of

 

Where's Frances?

Can you find me on a flyer on Deb's (the chair) bulletin board? 

Richard: the 12-yr-old girlie of the dept

Her favorite color is pink. 

This is the "Calvin is way cool" post.

Calvin is way cool.

Yep. 

Random pic : April 24, 2005 : berkeley stats spring picnic, this years picnic will be this saturday, so i'm sure you'll stay tuned for my mass of pics and videos of course... =) 

Random pic : May 4, 2004 : the last time I ever donated blood, i've tried donating twice in berkeley, but it's so hard, have to make an appointment and then all the times are taken up, and i have no car to get to a hospital, at ucla, it was so easy, i wake up, decide "ooh, i wanna give up some blood today" and then just go directly to the ucla medical center, woila, two hours later, i'm one pint less of blood and i got diddy reese cookies... so... i gotta keep an eye out for the next drive 

Random pic : November 2, 2003 : Yep, that's a Mac! 

Random pic : June 11, 2003 : sculpture at City of Hope, Cynthie: have you figured out how they're attached? 

Random pic : June 9, 2003 : Weyburn Ave 

Random pic : November 7, 2002 : my first pair of contacts ever... i ruined them in a day when i dropped one and it stuck to the other, i tored them while separating... sigh...