one year later!

oh my goodness, i'd forgotten we had this last summer! can't wait to see you guys soon. LOVE.

Why Jackie Needs to Learn Spanish

emailed this to Liz b/c i though it was so hilarious. But then i remembered this blogger thing... =P

Incident #1
Jackie to a Spanish speaking child (who is SOOO cute!): How old is your brother?
Child: A circle!
Jackie: Are you sure he’s not a square?
Child: No. Circle!

Incident #2
Jackie: Who do you love?
Child: Bubbles!
Jackie: No no… Qui? (that was French…whoops)
Child: Aqui? Aqui!
Jackie: No… um. Te amo madre?
Child: Bubble!

top ten reasons to work in a fly lab...

in no particular order:

1. You get to enjoy such cutting-edge technology as paintbrushes for probing flies, a large plastic tube for sucking up and moving flies (yes, with your mouth...), old jam jars for holding autoclaved microcentrifuge tubes, and paper towels for just about any imaginable emergency scenario. Oh yes, and gotta love the carnivorous plants sitting on the window ledge to catch escapees in the fly room and the alternative wine bottle traps.

2. Wanna be a neurosurgeon one day? Dissecting fly guts teaches you all the finesse and dexterity you'll need for the task-- one tug too hard and gut bacteria explode everywhere! After working with tweezers on the same miniscule fly for half an hour, you'll have enough patience to deal with anything in the oh-so-large human body.

3. Unlike those crazy chemists/molecular biologists/biochemists, you can enjoy a nice coffee/tea anytime on your (reasonably safe), hood-less bench.

4. Flies don't need Viagra, and as any kitchen owner knows, they seem to multiply exponentially overnight.

5. With Drosophila gene names like Spatzle, RING (really interesting new gene), and Eater, who can resist joining the fun??

6. No stinky E. coli cultures, no rodent feces or fishwater aroma. Instead, relax in the nice ambient temperature and inhale the warm and homey smell of fly media.

7. Hungry or thirsty during work? No problem-- just grab some of the bananas/fruit juice slated for generating fly food.

8. You instantly gain free pets at home. A LOT of them. Party in your room, anyone?

9. Now you can tell whether that annoying fruit fly you just squished was male or female (and make a decent stab at its genotype).

10. Mwhahahaha. So much power over the swarming masses. An entire generation in your hands. Think Lord of the Flies, or Beelzebub.


I hope you guys are partying it up in the other regions of the world =).

Happy Independence day!

HAPPY JULY FOURTH!!!

blueberry pancakes are yummy.

Father's day!! I made blueberry pancakes and my brother's gf brought chinese dim sum!!!

oh, i also made a poster. hehe

and my mom bought me ginormous grapefruit.

the end. (the rest of my pictures are all of chris and you guys are probably not that interested in his face)

just a note

i haven't taken any pictures even though i should have... because i have suspended myself from my camera before i end up with 200 photo albums on facebook. alice... did you make that map of the world/food?!

an early valediction.

First off, happy birthday Hann! Hope you've partaken of something yummy that looks like this (which I'd gladly attempt to make in secret while "taking Latin dancing classes"):


Anyway, I promise I'm not always up this early, although I've paradoxically been getting a lot less sleep at home than at school (but no all-nighters yet =P). At school, I felt like sleeping all the time; here, I never feel like sleeping. There's too much fun stuff to explore, and no psets or exams to worry about. Oh man, la vida loca indeed. The reason I'm conscious at this hour, though, is that my cousin and her kid JonJon (Jonathan) had a 6am flight today. Since she's pretty much my favorite relative, and he's definitely the cutest child I've ever seen, I'm already missing them lots.

It's weird-- you guys know I'm not as easy with kids as say, Jackie and Liz, but JonJon's been a welcome anomaly. Even when he was a baby, it wasn't hard to tease him or get him to laugh; this time around, he was always running to my brother ("Dinny!") or me ("Aa-shu!") for entertainment. The kid's a natural showman: usually, he'd end up amusing us at least as much as we amused him. He's two-and-a-half now, speaking a hodgepodge of Mandarin, Taiwanese, and English and often breaking out into spontaneous dancing or singing. My cousin taught him to imitate different emotions (e.g. angry, sleepy, scared) and animal sounds as well, and he's a very very good actor. For some reason, he likes pink a lot (Jackie you've got a follower!) and kept asking to try on pink dresses and skirts at clothes stores. Perhaps it's because his four-year-old girl cousin made him pretend to be her bridesmaid and watch too many princess movies in Taiwan. Man, I wish I'd gotten videos or something because I can't even start capturing his hilarious performances in words... He's also fiendishly smart and knows how to read people-- he'll plead for help from bystanders if his mom is trying to punish him, and he often complains that "Mommy 打, Mommy 捏" when she's not there (she doesn't, really) and denies doing so when she asks. He'd spout "oh man oh man" and try to hide in the closet when his mom got super-angry. Ah, clever kid =P.

In any case, he's basically been a big part of my past three weeks at home (has it been that long already?!) and probably helped me establish a normal routine for working/playing. Mornings were for rapid and semi-focused studying, until the point when JonJon woke up to 吃包包. Then, my cousin'd tell me stories about how JonJon had nightmares about geckos and "bad men" coming from the ceiling. The early afternoon was frolicking-with-JonJon time, a.k.a walking around Barnes and Noble or Walmart/Target or TJ Maxx/Marshall's for a few hours. After JonJon's mid-afternoon nap, we'd all head to the park, where JonJon had fun sliding and swinging and my brother and I ran around playing tennis, frisbee, or ping-pong. Cooking for dinner commenced at sundown, when the playground grew too dark, and my cousin supportingly sampled my concoctions. We had fish every night for a while because JonJon doesn't really eat beef or pork yet. He had this especially funny habit of chirping "好吃嗎?" numerous times at my brother, and for some reason, he would randomly scream "走開啊!" (go away!) at my mom. The night then concluded with my friend Anthony coming over for extended board gaming -- Settlers of Catan, Speed Scrabble, GrabScrab, Trivial Pursuit, chess -- preluded by extreme romping with JonJon ("tickle Ninny!", "飛高高", "玩犀牛"). I think Anthony turned out to be one of JonJon's favorite people; JonJon'd always yell "Annie, Annie, Annie!" when he came, and scamper to perch in Anthony's lap. Come midnight, JonJon'd retreat to bed with a "goo-nigh!" to everyone, and roughly two hours later, I'd collapse in my bed to read until I passed out. Rinse, repeat.

But now for some pictures =).

And voici, the results of my sketchy kitchen experiments (I left Chinese/Taiwanese dishes to my mom, who's way better at making 'em than I am):


Oh my goodness I am confuddled by html!