Monday, January 11, 2010
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
LA Life- 12-31-09
Happy Holidays everyone! So, I am currently back in LA after a week in Vegas with my parents. My parents moved there recently and it looks like they will stay there for a while especially since my aunt, uncle, and grandparents moved there as well. So here are some elaborations of events that have happened to me this past quarter:
1. "Giving Dell some beef" to get a new motherboard- Success!
After emailing the Dell technical support team, I initially was rejected when I raised the issue of a defective NVIDIA video card. I was told that my warranty had expired. However, I was persistent in telling the person that he had made a mistake in identifying my warranty expiration date and that my friend had his computer fixed even though one year had passed. I also called Dell customer service and had gotten through to the right person who had scheduled for a free motherboard replacement. This was a relief since I thought the dell laptop was hopeless after Mason's help in "reformatting" it and in removing one of the memory sticks. After all was said and done, I am very pleased that this worked out and it saved me $ and revived a laptop that has gone through a lot. Thanks Mase for the key tip that sparked this journey.
2. LA traffic and riding your bike safely here- Doable.
I feel more stressed and more worries driving here in LA as compared to in SD or anywhere else. Especially since there are so many people and cars here and not that much space, driving here adds one or more stressors to your life. That is why I prefer riding my bike here. I don't have to sit in traffic and I prefer to be in the outdoor open air. I have mapped out a route to school that is both safe and saves me time. I ride to school because it gives me a reason to be out in the open (minus the smell of exhausts from cars) and allows me to exercise and still get to school in about the same amount of time as compared to driving to school. Actually, I think it saves me time riding my bike vs driving. My bike is finally equipped with all of the gear that I need to ride in the rain or in cold weather. There is something to being in the outdoors and connected to nature. It reminds me of a book I read before, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. A great philosophical book.
3. LA traffic/ driving= traffic ticket + car flipping over from hitting a parked car right outside my apartment... more details to come.
I have never seen a car flip over until one night when I heard a loud crash. I looked outside and saw a car on its side. Apparently the driver had hit a parked car and flipped over. Since it's a residential area with 25 MPH speed limit, I think the driver had ignored the speed limit and had driven faster than that to have the car flip over. The driver was unconscious and the fire department had to cut the car open to get the guy. Now on another note, I received a ticket for making a U-turn in a residential area. I contested the ticket and am awaiting my ruling on this issue. So if you are willing to go through with the process, you actually get two chances to fight your case: 1. You can contest through a trial by declaration where you submit your statement through writing. The citing officer has to do the same. Then if you are not satisfied with the result, you can do a trial de novo (sp?) and get a second chance by representing yourself in court. We shall await the results in the next couple of months. Laws in Nevada are much more laxed and apparently people who get speeding tickets can go to an attorney and get the ticket converted to a minor violation such as a moving parking violation (or something like that)! That's pretty crazy! I won't be as nervous if I am caught there, but I won't get as great of a reinforcement in not breaking the law in the future... I would take the former over the latter... Just one less stressor to deal with!
4. Some fun and nerve racking situations- battery in car breaking down in beverly hills and record time in finding someone to jumpstart car,
So I was driving my gf's Honda Civic when the battery died again! It was a warm day and I was waiting for my gf in the car. I did not have the engine one, but I turned the air feature on in her car. Apparently, this depletes the battery really quickly and I was stuck in a Beverly Hills neighborhood. Now, I paniced and thought, "what am I going to do?!" and "how can I fix this before I need to pick up my gf?" Luckily, I found this guy who had a rusty cable and a car to jumpstart. However, it took some time and I thought I was going to be out of luck this time. After many tries, the surge in electricity through the rusty cable finally overcame the threshold and voila, the car was saved! Overall, it took about 20 minutes and I got to experience LA in a different way. =)
5. school work and tidbits of life there
School has been going well. I am learning the nuts and bolts of our healthcare system taking courses in microeconomics and health economics, finance, biostats, and an intro course to healthcare systems. I am glad to learn from my classmates who have all sorts of experiences in life and am glad that UCLA has a lot to offer its students. I'm looking forward to my extracurricular activities next quarter (data collector for the WORKING project, representative for ACHE so-cal) and my internship for the summer.
6. reflection sessions
I believe that we are so bombarded with things in our lives that we don't have time to reflect. Reflection sessions are important for me to touch base with my feelings and thoughts and to rejuvenate for the week ahead. Therefore, take some time to really listen to yourself and to rest up for the challenges ahead.
A whole new spanking new 2010 year coming up! I need to work on a lot of things:
1. To learn to be comfortable with my voice and my body language
2. To not be selfish and to really understand people
3. To look into StoryCorps and record interviews with loved ones to keep and share as memories
4. To learn to be happy all of the time... it's a matter of changing your attitude and filters in your mind
5. To develop stronger relationships with people.
That's all for now, but I shall expand more on life here in LA in the future. Happy New Year everyone!
1. "Giving Dell some beef" to get a new motherboard- Success!
After emailing the Dell technical support team, I initially was rejected when I raised the issue of a defective NVIDIA video card. I was told that my warranty had expired. However, I was persistent in telling the person that he had made a mistake in identifying my warranty expiration date and that my friend had his computer fixed even though one year had passed. I also called Dell customer service and had gotten through to the right person who had scheduled for a free motherboard replacement. This was a relief since I thought the dell laptop was hopeless after Mason's help in "reformatting" it and in removing one of the memory sticks. After all was said and done, I am very pleased that this worked out and it saved me $ and revived a laptop that has gone through a lot. Thanks Mase for the key tip that sparked this journey.
2. LA traffic and riding your bike safely here- Doable.
I feel more stressed and more worries driving here in LA as compared to in SD or anywhere else. Especially since there are so many people and cars here and not that much space, driving here adds one or more stressors to your life. That is why I prefer riding my bike here. I don't have to sit in traffic and I prefer to be in the outdoor open air. I have mapped out a route to school that is both safe and saves me time. I ride to school because it gives me a reason to be out in the open (minus the smell of exhausts from cars) and allows me to exercise and still get to school in about the same amount of time as compared to driving to school. Actually, I think it saves me time riding my bike vs driving. My bike is finally equipped with all of the gear that I need to ride in the rain or in cold weather. There is something to being in the outdoors and connected to nature. It reminds me of a book I read before, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. A great philosophical book.
3. LA traffic/ driving= traffic ticket + car flipping over from hitting a parked car right outside my apartment... more details to come.
I have never seen a car flip over until one night when I heard a loud crash. I looked outside and saw a car on its side. Apparently the driver had hit a parked car and flipped over. Since it's a residential area with 25 MPH speed limit, I think the driver had ignored the speed limit and had driven faster than that to have the car flip over. The driver was unconscious and the fire department had to cut the car open to get the guy. Now on another note, I received a ticket for making a U-turn in a residential area. I contested the ticket and am awaiting my ruling on this issue. So if you are willing to go through with the process, you actually get two chances to fight your case: 1. You can contest through a trial by declaration where you submit your statement through writing. The citing officer has to do the same. Then if you are not satisfied with the result, you can do a trial de novo (sp?) and get a second chance by representing yourself in court. We shall await the results in the next couple of months. Laws in Nevada are much more laxed and apparently people who get speeding tickets can go to an attorney and get the ticket converted to a minor violation such as a moving parking violation (or something like that)! That's pretty crazy! I won't be as nervous if I am caught there, but I won't get as great of a reinforcement in not breaking the law in the future... I would take the former over the latter... Just one less stressor to deal with!
4. Some fun and nerve racking situations- battery in car breaking down in beverly hills and record time in finding someone to jumpstart car,
So I was driving my gf's Honda Civic when the battery died again! It was a warm day and I was waiting for my gf in the car. I did not have the engine one, but I turned the air feature on in her car. Apparently, this depletes the battery really quickly and I was stuck in a Beverly Hills neighborhood. Now, I paniced and thought, "what am I going to do?!" and "how can I fix this before I need to pick up my gf?" Luckily, I found this guy who had a rusty cable and a car to jumpstart. However, it took some time and I thought I was going to be out of luck this time. After many tries, the surge in electricity through the rusty cable finally overcame the threshold and voila, the car was saved! Overall, it took about 20 minutes and I got to experience LA in a different way. =)
5. school work and tidbits of life there
School has been going well. I am learning the nuts and bolts of our healthcare system taking courses in microeconomics and health economics, finance, biostats, and an intro course to healthcare systems. I am glad to learn from my classmates who have all sorts of experiences in life and am glad that UCLA has a lot to offer its students. I'm looking forward to my extracurricular activities next quarter (data collector for the WORKING project, representative for ACHE so-cal) and my internship for the summer.
6. reflection sessions
I believe that we are so bombarded with things in our lives that we don't have time to reflect. Reflection sessions are important for me to touch base with my feelings and thoughts and to rejuvenate for the week ahead. Therefore, take some time to really listen to yourself and to rest up for the challenges ahead.
A whole new spanking new 2010 year coming up! I need to work on a lot of things:
1. To learn to be comfortable with my voice and my body language
2. To not be selfish and to really understand people
3. To look into StoryCorps and record interviews with loved ones to keep and share as memories
4. To learn to be happy all of the time... it's a matter of changing your attitude and filters in your mind
5. To develop stronger relationships with people.
That's all for now, but I shall expand more on life here in LA in the future. Happy New Year everyone!
Thursday, December 3, 2009
blast from the past l.o.l.
long time no post, hopefully the blog machine continues haha
anyone remember this from high school i think?
anyone remember this from high school i think?
Saturday, November 14, 2009
Friday, November 13, 2009
must travel
Sri Lanka; from Venerata Noce di Cocco's flickr set. wish this picture was available in bigger sizes, but damn imagine seeing that in real life
