A friend asked me, "What’s for dinner tonight," while we were haphazardly running alongside the Strawberry Creek from Koshland to Brancroft after attending a seminar about plant pathogen given by Alexander M. Jones.

I quickly replied, "Bruschetta."

She stared at me for two quick seconds and innocently asked, "But didn't you have bruschetta for Thursday's and Wednesday's AND Tuesday's dinner?"

I laughed and responded with, "Yup. I'll take it one step further. Bruschetta was on the menu for Thursday's, Wednesday's, Tuesday's, Monday's, Sunday's and Saturday's dinner AND lunch."

"Uhhh... no green smoothie?"

"Is there a need to ask that question?"

"OF COURSE."

"Green smoothies complemented the bruschetta during some lunches. LaraBars were for breakfast."

"Wow... dude Amelia, you are one strange girl."

"Hahaa… Thanks buddy. I'll take that as a genuine compliment."

To make matters more interesting, this 5 minutes conversation took place while fierce rain drops were relentlessly pelting every CAL student in sandals with no umbrellas like us two girls. And I mean PELTING. To illustrate, let's just say I was completely drenched (hopefully not in acid rain) by the time I unlocked my apartment door this afternoon.

So why bruschetta you may ask.

To thoroughly answer this question, I would need to talk about the Terry's Lab Thanksgiving Potluck last Saturday. As my two lab mates and I were harvesting our Puccinellia distan plants the afternoon before our potluck, the topic of what dish we were planning to bring came up. Being the person who is always eager to teach my friends how to make simple and easy foods (e.g. green smoothies); I eagerly explained a bruschetta dish I had in mind. Their interest quickly increased as I basically assured them it only takes three steps to make this easy dish. By the end of the hour, my girlfriends gave up trying to research for cooking recipes and asked if they could bring bruschetta to the potluck too. I enthusiastically said, "Definitely!"

To be fair, I actually did not know such goodness existed before my boyfriend shared his brilliant bruschetta recipe to me. With his permission, here is the abridged version of the email he sent me regarding how to make bruschetta:

You’ll need:

Bread: Olive pugliese [trust me, people at Berkeley Bowl will know what type of bread this is]. Remove ends, slice 1 inch thick and coat with....

hummus - Berkeley Bowl has generic humus. You could even get the garlic one.

For the topping:
4 LARGE RIPE tomatoes.
Couple of basil leaves
Olive oil
Olive tapenade - ask them about this. They know what I’m talking about. This stuff is salty so be careful with it.

Here's a pretty good recipe:
http://vegetarian.about.com/od/vegetarianappetizers/r/easybruschetta.htm

Pugliese and hummus would be more than enough. Add to that some olive tapenade and you’ll have people smiling.

Next we gotta’ teach you how to make the topping. In short, chop up the tomatoes into think 'cubes'. Put in a bowl and throw in a healthy splash of olive oil and some sliced basil and bam. There you have it. IMPORTANT: DO THIS ONLY A FEW MINUTES BEFORE SERVING.

Healthy additions: Into that simple mix I've also throw in cabbage [believe you a big fan of!] and avocado to make a tomato-slaw kind of thingee.

Since one lab mate was obligated to go to SF the morning of the potluck and my other lab mate lived ten minutes from UC Berkeley by car, I offered to make the bruschetta for all of us. They at first protested but I assured them that cutting up a couple more tomatoes won't be a big deal at all.

So after we finished with our harvest, we stopped by Berkeley Bowl for the ingredients. Before we entered the store, my lab mates basically told me that I need to tell them exactly what to do since they did not have the foggiest idea how to make bruschetta. Thus as their blind friend leading two blind helpers, we started a 2 hour shopping spree at 5:45 pm on a Friday night.

To save you the boredom of reading about our exhausting search for some strange Olive tapenade ingredient and the agonizing trouble we went through to choose perfect tomatoes, let’s just say that we left Berkeley Bowl with:

5 loaves of bread, 15 large (unripe) tomatoes, 3 bundles of basil, a 34 oz of extra virgin olive oil bottle (WHY Berkeley Bowl needs to carry A GAZZZILLION different kinds of EVOO is beyond my comprehension), 3 glass jars of questionable tapenade wannabes, and 3 family sized hummus containers.

I know I know. NOW you’re probably thinking that I’m one loco girl for suggesting that we buy so much food for a potluck of only 12 people. I have to admit, the art of shopping for groceries and clothes is just way too difficult for me to understand. In my defense, I figured that more is always better. I told myself that it would be bad if I risk the chance of letting people down by not having enough bruschetta. Just in case my lab mates end up falling madly in love with my bruschetta and ask for thirds, fourths or quite possibly sixths. Unfortunately, I never stop to think that Professor Terry will make sure sure there is going to be a plethora of food at the party. Or that everyone is planning to bring food...

It quickly became apparent that my ambitious bruschetta ‘cooking’ frenzy was a tad bit on the excessive side. But that was perfectly okay since I spoiled myself silly with delicious hummus and questionable tapenade wannabes for practically a week now! =)

Since Thanksgiving is just around the corner, maybe you too could whip up some bruschetta and share the goodness of this vegan dish with your family and friends!
.

Continue reading "Bruschetta" »

Posted by Amelia Nguyen at 8:44 PM | Permalink

Recently, I was pleasantly surprised by Alex Tellez's spontaneous comment on my blog about my daring attempts at drinking green liquids for lunch. It was quite an honor that he took time out of his busy schedule to read my random- most oftentimes crazy- posts! Since he was the sole person responsible for motivating me to change my sodium enriched canned foods and take outs eating habits, I felt he deserved a long detailed explanation of the many times I stared at my revolting green smoothies- thinking how in the world am I going to force myself to swallow another cold vegetable soup?!?!

As you can imagine- or will after you see the pictures I took of my first few smoothies- I was more than eager to discuss the seemingly endless mistakes that I made during my love/hate experience with my first couple revolting vegetable drinks. Thankfully, I quickly discovered that the secret to blending DELICIOUS green smoothies was to disproportionately add more fruits than vegetables. I thought you might find the green smoothie narrative I wrote to Alex an interesting read. Thus I am going to take the liberty and share an excerpt to you:

Before I start listing off the bizarre combinations of greens I used to make my smoothies, let me just admit that my first couple smoothies required so much determination and focus to finish. I need to thank my compulsive obsession to increase efficiency in all aspects about my life with assembly lines and mass productions for the pain I endured when I first started my green liquid diet. Instead of just an 8 oz [I actually think the cup is 16 oz now] drink of THICK fibrous clumps of purple and green cauliflowers, celery, bok choy, spinach, cabbage, bananas, avocados with milk and water, I had to finish about 40 oz [okay this was a serious understatement on my part!] of this stuff. Here are some pictures of my “masterpieces”:

My roommates’ inability to get pass their first two sips of my concoction was a testament to the biting bitterness I overcame. You probably would understand the immense DELIGHT that I felt when I finally finished this tub full of greens:

For the past couple weeks, I have been really good at drinking a green smoothie at least once a day. I quickly learned how to mask the intense bitterness with a plethora of fruits. Instead of a 1:5 ratio of fruits to vegetables, the ratio increased to 3:1 sometimes even 5:1. My best green combo so far was:

avocado + banana + mint choc chip ice cream + bok choy + milk + water

Additionally, after one of my more intense running session, I decided to use papaya as a base ingredient for a smoothie. Such an awesome decision! Hopefully you would think the combination of papayas + bananas + celery + cauliflowers + avocados to be as delicious as I did!

I usually don’t take photos of my drinks, however the ones I’ve shared above were extraordinary in some way or another. Hope they entertained you!

Just this past weekend, I fell madly in love with raw cacao nibs, raw-eos cookies, almond butter and especially COCONUT CREAM PIE LaraBars! Words cannot describe their delightful taste and texture on my eager taste buds. And as you probably have guessed, these four new loves of mine blend extremely well in green smoothies :) Eating is finally FUN again!

At the moment, I am slowly trying to influence everyone around me to try my new diet. Although, the resistance is quite strong, it makes me happy to know my parents are becoming more aware about different healthy eating choices. I totally won my dad over by pulling the “but I want you to live forever daddy” trick =P. Not to put my parents on the spot, but my mom's enthusiastic picture text message regarding the spanking new blender my dad bought for her anniversary gift seriously made me GIDDY like a silly school girl!

Posted by Amelia Nguyen at 5:22 PM | Permalink

Before skipping school to attend the SFO Breast Cancer 3Day, I spammed all my Professors and GSIs with emails excusing my absence from class and to make up any work that I will miss. Let me just say...Boy was that a stressful process!!! Juggling the workload I had at that time with deadlines meant for two weeks later is something I never want to repeat. Without the accommodating and understanding responses from my Professors and GSIs, I would have forfeited about one fourth of my final grades. So THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU Berkeley teachers.

As part of our agreement, my Japanese sensei requested a written email from my team captain for proof of my involvement with the 3Day. Faren Shear's beautifully articulated emotions and ideas perfectly explain the essence of the Breast Cancer 3Day cause. If you have the time, please read her email and visit her site!

On October 2-4, 2009 Amelia and I will be just 2 of over 300 crew members supporting the walkers on the San Francisco Breast Cancer 3 Day. It’s a 60-mile walk over three days to raise money for breast cancer. The net proceeds will support the combined efforts of Susan G. Komen for the Cure and the National Philanthropic Trust (NPT) Breast Cancer Fund in their mission to fund access to care and find a cure for breast cancer. We’ll be serving as crew members on a Pit stop team, giving our time and service to the walkers for three days.

When I heard that one in eight women in the U.S. will be diagnosed with breast cancer, I knew I had to do something about it. I don’t have a lot of money, and I can’t find a cure for cancer, but I found that this was something that I could do. About 40,000 will die from the disease. That’s why I’m doing this - to do something bold about breast cancer.

I am very thankful that Amelia has decided to give her time and effort to this cause, I could not do this job supporting the walkers without her. She has already been working hard planning for the weekend and also fund raising for the cause. I know she will miss her commitments at school, but this is a life experience that I look forward to sharing with her and know from my past work with the 3 Day that there are always many important life lessons to be learned in the service of others.

I am now officially not a 3Day "virgin" anymore. I want to come up with an eloquent entry to express my sincere appreciation for the memorable Breast Cancer experience the SFO 3Day blessed me with. Unfortunately with the stress of school and research, I am short on time to reflect and analyze all the complicated emotions that surfaced in my head during the closing ceremony... I do not know when I can fully understand their significance. However when I do, I promise I will share with you. The 3Day is seriously both physically and emotionally draining. But the life's lessons and experiences I picked up are invaluable! Thank you Breast Cancer 3Day for showing me that the goodness in humanity still exists in a world filled with greed and contempt.

In the words of Mark Henderson, one of my fellow Pit Stop 4 teammate:

[I am] feeling so blessed to have been able to support the almost 1,500 walkers who tromped, limped, and staggered through SF and Marin county the past 3 days. I laughed with them, hugged them, and even cried with them. I am so grateful I could do that. I also worked with some totally awesome ladies in my crew - thanks girls! Great day to be alive!... [I am] thanking God [that] I was blessed to work with such an awesome group of "strangers" that came together and became the most righteous, the most rad, happenin', bitchin', groovy, loving, caring , and hardest working groups on the road.

Echoing Mark's comments, I too was grateful for the opportunity to laugh, hug and cry with the ladies and GENTLEMEN at the 3Day. As I sat along the curb at Crissy fields waiting for my ride back to Berkeley, I realized that I unknowingly interacted with thousands of unnamed heroes that weekend. For four days (not three since crew members spend an extra day before the walkers arrive preparing for the event at Cow Palace), we lived in a bubble full of optimistic hope and compassionate love while basking in the 'hearts of grace' of survivors, walkers, crew members, staff administrators, volunteers from the community, family members and so many more people.

It is disheartening to know that these people are affected by breast cancer in some way other another. Cancer really does not discriminate against race, culture, age, gender, or social status. With odds like 1 out of 8 women developing breast cancer, there is an urgency to discover a cure. I can confidently say that my life changed after participating in this 3Day with my mommy.

Please help me raise awareness about the Breast Cancer cause.
Because…
Everyone deserves a lifetime.

Continue reading "Breast Cancer: Everyone deserves a lifetime" »

Posted by Amelia Nguyen at 7:51 PM | Permalink

Just 5 minutes ago I finished knitting my first sock! I’d probably have to say this is my main accomplishment this week. After all, I have been working on it on and off for a few months. I know, it took me a few months to knit just ONE sock, but it’s my sock and I made it. The best part is that the sock actually looks like a sock AND IT FITS on MY foot (I’m wearing it right now)!

Continue reading "A Sock" »

Posted by Leighna Baxter at 12:04 AM | Permalink

Everyone's probably sneaking their last days of fun before the crunch starts. Many, including me, are panicking. Cable internet was installed in the wrong place and my father was unable to come through with a router, so dear readers, just for you- I am standing on my balcony, freezing my buns off in order to record my thoughts before the next day begins.

Profs are coming through with bspace, decal classes still haven't been joined, free stuff was had at Caltopia, iceblocks were ridden down a hill and all apartmates are accounted for. Free food fills my belly, a won raffle bag stands at my desk empty of spoils and a grim, light bank account sits---

Who the heck is vacuuming at 11 at night? Be quiet neighbors!!!!!!

Dang it.

Posted by Josephine Wong at 11:01 PM | Permalink

If you plan on going to grad school or anywhere else after college than something that would be very helpful to ones application would be research experience. Since Cal loves us dearly they made URAP! Yay URAP! Well URAP basically is a website with a bunch of descriptions for research positions offered by professors and to get the position you have to fill out a URAP application, which includes a statement of purpose that is around 400 words each. In order to minimize shopping they restrict you to applying to 3 internships, which is bad for me because I have to pick 3 out of the 4 I want. Since URAP is open to all UC Berkeley students than the turn out tends to be really good for bio spots with some openings receiving up to hundreds of responses. So check it out!

http://research.berkeley.edu/urap/

Posted by Fabian Collazo at 5:05 PM | Permalink

So summer for me was filled with math and genetics, but I still managed to squeeze in some fun before school starts. After buying some of my books, I have been trying to review my physics from high school to only discover how bad I am in the subject. I’m taking 8A with Deweese so I’m hoping that I can do well if I study enough, but physics is such a strange subject that has always eluded me. The past couple of days my roommates have been bringing stuff from home so now it feels more comfortable with furniture, but I feel lazy since I rarely clean.

Continue reading "The start of school….grrr!" »

Posted by Fabian Collazo at 4:44 PM | Permalink

Green liquid for lunch or die trying. Yup, another one of my many crazy random summer goals. Not that I want to sound dramatic, but this diet is really difficult to maintain!

Let me back track.

At the beginning of summer, I promised myself that I would actively engage in activities that would help me get back into the same physical fitness I once had. I told myself if I could train for badminton and tennis 5+ hours a day, 6 days a week in high school, I could definitely go to the gym and eat healthy on a regular basis.

So when my friend sent me a vegan/running blog that his freshman college dorm mate writes to share about his progress and feelings, I was so excited! Inspiration comes in the oddest shapes and times.

I probably read Alex Tellez’s entire blog, http://yhprunning.blogspot.com/ at least three times to note for tips on which vegetables to purchase and how intense my work outs should be. After careful deliberation, I decided to aim for the ability to run nonstop for an hour and to do…. ONE pull up by the end of the summer in addition to maintaining a semi-vegan diet.

Don’t laugh at my somewhat pathetic sounding goals. PULL UPS are surprisingly really taxing. I started working on my arms with the 2.5 lbs free weights at the beginning of June. By the end of July, I could easily handle the 5 lbs weights. When I told my brothers my progress, they would not stop teasing me for being such a weakling. UGH. This supposedly manageable goal was beginning to turn into such a drag.

Fortunately, I accomplished greater progress with my running. I started the summer being able to handle running 20 minutes before needing to slow the pace down to a brisk walk. Thankfully, I could manage a 45 minutes run by mid July.

About my green liquid diet. Let’s just say that following through with a goal is never an easy feat. Blending many exotic combinations of vegetables and fruits to drink as a smoothie was quite enjoyable--at first. I mean, I am always down for new adventures. Unfortunately, I lasted for three days before I downgraded to a salad for lunch or die trying. I think I am more of a chewing person than drinking person. At first, this second new "diet" seemed good. I convinced myself that salads were so delicious. I concentrated on how the crisp, succulent tomatoes, butter lettuce, and celery made me feel really happy. I added in mushrooms for good measures too!

However by day 5, my constantly hungry stomach kept screaming in pain for curly fries, pad thai, ice cream, and every delicious food that I love. Or was it my mind playing tricks on my stomach? I eventually made an executive decision to add a teaspoon of peanut butter and one Fiber One granola bar as a side dish to my salads in order to keep my sanity. I told myself that this move is not an acceptance of defeat since I did need the proteins and more fiber is always a blessing.

It is now nearing the end of August. On my low days, I berated myself for possessing this habit of tormenting myself with unnecessary goals and challenges. The endless list of excuses I made to avoid the gym seems so ridiculous now. Nonetheless on my high days, I often caught myself feeling complete that I had a purpose to fulfill.

At the moment, I am quite satisfied with my results. These summer adventures taught me a valuable lesson about life. One can definitely discover inspiration about dedication, perseverance and patience through the most bizarre goals and people. People just need to keep an open mind about outlandish ideas like green liquid for lunch.

Posted by Amelia Nguyen at 1:24 PM | Permalink

So as summer is coming to a close I am preparing for fall 2009 and all its difficulties grrr. I’m currently planning to take Bio 1A/L, Physics 8A, Near Eastern Studies 18 and EALC 105. I’m pretty scared for Bio as I have heard plenty of rumors about the labs and professors and as a Bio lover I’m freaking out. Even though I want to take physics I am not enrolled and am like hawk status checking the schedule every minute to see if anybody has dropped. Haha its’ even on my favorites for maximum speed. NES 18 is about ancient Egypt and I have heard is a rather chill class and the material seems rather interesting. EALC 105 is a film class that I am taking with a friend purely for fun and it is suppose to be easy and who doesn’t want to learn about movies?

Continue reading "Plans for Fall" »

Posted by Fabian Collazo at 5:26 PM | Permalink

So after finals I did what almost every Cal student does and left for home. So during my first month of summer I worked part time as a cashier to make some money and pretty much became lazy while at home. However, around mid-June I came back to Berkeley because not only was I bored from home, but I had signed up for summer classes and had chosen to take Math 16A and IB 141 (Human Genetics). Yah I know the two classes are really different.

Continue reading "Class Review!" »

Posted by Fabian Collazo at 1:26 AM | Permalink

Please support me as I take an amazing journey in the fight against breast cancer! The Breast Cancer 3-Day is a 60-mile walk over the course of three days. Net proceeds benefit Susan G. Komen for the Cure and National Philanthropic Trust, funding important breast cancer research, education, screening, and treatment.

Our Story

My mommy's best friend, Laurie, is a breast cancer survivor for more than a decade. Since the day of the diagnosis, their lives have become intertwined with the national breast cancer efforts to prevent and possibly cure this cancer. Along the way, they bonded with hundreds of new friends, but also lost many precious buddies too. This year, I am finally old enough to experience what they see and feel at these 3 day events! Please support our cause with any kind gestures; either through raising awareness of breast cancer or with monetary donations. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

History

Here is a list my mommy wrote about her 3Day history:

I began by 3 Day journey in 2000 walking the LA 3 Day with my friend Laurie, also Pit 4 crew this year. We started off with a bang as it rained buckets that week-end, in fact, we did all 22.47 miles of day 3 in the pouring rain! What a way to start!
2001 I walked in San Francisco with my cousin
2002 Laurie and I walked San Diego
2003 Laurie and I did lunch crew in San Diego
2004 Laurie and I did sweep van for LA what a blast that was!
2005 walked San Diego met Mette training.
2006 walked San Diego again
2007 lunch crew in San Diego with Laurie & Mette
2008 walked Seattle with Mette, we grew bored with the flat, warm, ocean views of San Diego;-)
2009 rocking Pit 4 in San Francisco with Laurie, Mette, all of you and for the first time my daughter-Amelia- who lives in Berkeley.

Intense huh? I am so excited to finally be able share this part of my mom's life with her!

http://www.the3day.org/goto/amelia

Continue reading "Join me in the fight against breast cancer" »

Posted by Amelia Nguyen at 12:46 PM | Permalink

For the first time ever in life, I'm blogging! I'm excited but also a little nervous, so bear with me; if I'm not good the first few times don't worry, I'll get better. promise.

Let's jump right into it...
Briefly, I'm an incoming senior this year and ofcourse I'm really excited to graduate! However, that's not what I'm writing about today. I wanna chat with you all about summer sessions. grrr. Although I am a senior this year, this is my first summer here in Berkeley and it's a little stressful. As someone who is a native of Los Angeles, used to clamor and crowds the serene environment here on campus was definitely alarming at first. Never did I think I would walk down Sproul and see virtually no one! I'm taking on eleven units this summer, and although it is below the campus minimum of 13 during the regular fall and spring semesters, it is no cakewalk. Classes are two hours minimum and for the most part, pretty small. I don't know about the rest of you, but I live for large lecture halls filled with people (it seems to make each lecture a little more special), quirky professors that encourage attendance just because they fill each day with a laugh. Also, I have the unfortunate opportunity of class everyday which makes me feel like I'm stuck in a language course; another thing that does not sit well with me is the gravity of the courses, missing a day in summer session is like missing a week and a half. However, I will say, you get the almost impossible luxury of experiencing the one-on-one attention from most classes aaaaaaaaaand you get to meet new students. For those of you who have not given up on your college romance, summer sessions lends the possibility to meet incoming freshman before they are consumed by the larger population in the fall, you also get to meet guest students who are taking classes at Cal for the summer only. I'm running late for class so I'll leave you all with this, summer sessions, from my viewpoint, SUCK! lol BUT THE POSSIBILITIES ARE ENDLESS!!

Posted by Jante' Pruitt at 1:49 PM | Permalink

Today, about a week after I have received my logon info, I have finally decided to create my first post. First, I would like to introduce myself. I'm Jade, and I am currently about to be a second year student majoring in nutritional sciences. My first year in college was filled with experiences that I shall hold dear, perhaps for the rest of my life. As I post more entries onto Fresh Faces, I will seek to share much of my experiences and intakes. I am sure that they will be very unique.

Now, I would like to give a heads up on my life in Berkeley for the past year. During the fall semester, I was primarily occupied with the marching band, which took up more time than I had anticipated. Through interactions with college students such as those in band as well as my floormates, I came to know what life may be like outside of my childhood as the only child of a widowed Chinese immigrant. I did not like what I found, and I became disillusioned at the importance so many people placed on social life and the differences between their values and my traditional ones, but as the spring semester approached, I began to find my niche. I found it in academics. That's the semester I decided to take on 23 units, plus University Chorus, which I wasn't doing for credit. I found that my place is wherever there is structure, wherever someone definite is in charge, wherever I can talk to others without socializing in its strictest sense. I know this is different for most people, but I do not regret anything.

That's it about my school life for now. I may go into more detail later, but now is not the time. This summer, what I'm doing, besides taking quite a few summer classes, is learning to drive. I've been postponing it long enough. So long, in fact, that the only reason I'm learning at all is because of parental pressure. Sigh...I've always denounced automobiles (it used to be televisions and computers too, but I've grown out of that). Automobiles give off too much stinky fumes. It's almost as bad as cigarette smoke, though not quite.

Well, it's very late now. I try to be conscious about my sleep schedule, but it doesn't always work. This has been quite a lengthy introduction. And now, I bid farewell.

Continue reading "Introduction" »

Posted by Jade Liu at 10:55 PM | Permalink

So a couple of weeks ago I was pretty sad about leaving the dorms, but then the realization of having my own apartment set in. YESSS!!! While the apartment has rules I feel like I have more freedom to do what I want in the apartment. I still live near campus so I will still enjoy having the opportunity to wake up at 8am and still make it to class…oh wait my earliest classes next semester are at 9:30 on Tuesday and Thursday. A much needed improvement from last semester where I had class 3 times a week at 8am and 2 days when class started at 9am. When I move into my apartment in a month or so for summer school my first order of business of having my own place is probably get a hamster…yes, for me, this is thinking big.

Posted by Fabian Collazo at 3:56 PM | Permalink

As much as I don't like going to commencements to say goodbye to my senior friends, I have to recognize their hard work and patience going through all those all-nighters, 20 page or more papers, and all sorts of school work. I eventually had to say, "Congratulations!! You made it!! YAYY! "

Graduation gives me these mixed emotions.

Continue reading "CONGRATULATIONS CLASS OF 2009 !" »

Posted by John Cortez at 8:47 AM | Permalink

Dear UC Berkeley,

It's a bit sad that our time together has come to an end. I passed by RSF today, but things felt different. There would no longer be a "next semester" (at least for undergrad)...I'm not entirely sure when I'm officially "done" being a student (i.e. when the semester is over), but I wanted to thank you for the good times. I still remember the first time I set foot on campus as a student. I had an early Geography class and can still feel the excitement. You've helped me grow and expand my mind but, more importantly, you've helped me find ways to be a better person. You didn't just tell me how to do it, you gave me tools to find my own way. You were hard but, thinking back on it, fair. You challenged me and made it possible for me to realize more of my potential. Every time I'll walk through campus, I'll always feel a special connection. Thank you for the memories and for the opportunity. Go BEARS!

Sincerely,
Juan S.

Posted by Juan at 4:27 PM | Permalink

So my Phase 1 has passed and Phase II should come up in a couple of months meaning that I have to start preparing for Fall 2009 and so far my plan is:

Chem 3B – So I heard that this is a killer class that challenges those who completed 3A and frankly I am kind of freaked that the guy who wrote the book is teaching the class. I was really considering taking Pederson in the spring, but his class tends to be at 8am and apparently he refuses to post up his notes. Event though I heard Pederson is a better teacher there is no way I can function that early in morning and I can’t really learn if I am sleeping.

Continue reading "Fall 2009" »

Posted by Fabian Collazo at 11:39 PM | Permalink

So as of Thursday morning at 9:30 am the fact that I was done with my first year at Cal seemed to come to me in small bursts of enjoyment. The real reason I was happy was that it would be a while until I would have to use my mental capacity to study and do other stressful activities. The joy that I felt, however, was stained with the deep sadness that I felt knowing that in a couple of hours I would have to say goodbye to my dorm for the last time.

Studying for my last final was really difficult because my Toxicology final was on Thursday, which is the last day of finals, so a great majority of my friends have already been finished with finals a long while before I had finished. While studying many floor mates began to leave and pack which really distracted me, as I would find myself even starting to pack while studying.

Continue reading "End of Freshman Year" »

Posted by Fabian Collazo at 10:50 PM | Permalink

Wednesday, April 29 2009.

After my EEP152 lecture, I headed to Gypsys to get a combo calzone to go. I have work at Moffitt at 12pm, so I only have an hour to get food and go to my Poli Sci adviser. I went to my adviser a week ago asking how I would sign up for Poli Sci upperdivs in case my academic profile does not get updated before telebears. While waiting for my calzone, I realize that I shouldve went to my advisor first!!—her lunch break is at 11:30! I got my calzone and then headed to Barrows. Luckily, I made it on time and was able to sign up for advising. BUT, there were two other people waiting and I only have 25 minutes left before I had to walk to work!

I started eating my calzone knowing I won’t have time to eat after my advising. Bored, I took out my laptop to check Bearfacts. BAM! Finally after waiting for two months, my profile was finally updated right before my Telebears! Now officially declared for EEP and Poli Sci!! YAAAAAY! Seems like I didn't need advising at all. Haha! Off to work.

Posted by John Cortez at 11:31 AM | Permalink

So way back in November of 2007…WOW that seems like such a long time ago O.O! Well anyways that was when I was applying for colleges and at that point my focus was more on essays and SAT as I knew pretty much that I was only going to apply to UC schools. Well when the day came when I actually had to submit my application I was confronted with the idea of what was I to major in college. For me I knew from the get go that I wanted to study biology so on all the UCs that I applied to I marked “biology”….well until I got to Berkeley. After looking at all the majors I was shocked that there was no generic and straightforward “biology” and there was no way I was going to do MCB because honestly cells bore me. I was pretty distraught but decided to apply under CNR as undeclared because I was not sure what I wanted to major in but there seemed to be plenty of science majors. Now that I think about I guess it was a good thing that I wasn’t thorough in my search because If I did carefully search I might have applied as an IB major in L&S which would not be good.

Continue reading "Don’t get it twisted…Its MEB not MCB!!!" »

Posted by Fabian Collazo at 2:57 AM | Permalink

I have one more year before graduating, before the culmination of my educational career thus far. And much like many of my high school class of '05, the concern is what to do once that phase of life is over. For most people it's either find a job or grad school. But for me, I don't see either of those as an ideal option. I want to explore...not only the world but primarily myself. And that is where the Peace Corps comes in.

How hard it is to answer the question "Who am I?" Let alone, what I want to do with my life. I may acknowledge my passion for the environment but what to do with that passion is another question. And I don't feel I can take a step forward without answering that. Thus, I have concluded that the best way to find myself is by getting lost.

What exactly does this entail? There a number of routes I can take but it's the Peace Corps that won me over. What better way to get lost than to leave my world of familiarity and predictability for a world completely strange to me. Full of unknowns and nothing for me to depend on, at least immediately. A world where all I have a familiar sense of is myself. Yet as fulfilling as this experience potentially is, I find myself terrified of committing to something so beyond me. Of leaving everything and everyone that I hold dear and comforting. Of not having the sense of security of being able to predict almost everything in my current world before it happens. On having people, situations, outcomes that I can rely on. Leaving it all and bringing only whatever scrap of personality I have developed. Leaving it all for a world that may not accept me. And, most importantly, leaving it all to find myself.

A good friend of mine told me that if it's scary, it must be good. The thought of this terrifies me incredibly, almost to the point of debilitation. I'm going through the motions of committing to the Peace Corps yet I feel that with each step I do it with force upon myself. A big part of me is so scared of it that I don't want to go through with it. Yet, I feel that such a step is necessary for me to progress in my own personal development. And it is by this logic that I continue to push myself towards commitment.

It still scares the shit out of me.

"Strength and Independence"

Posted by Maria at 10:30 PM | Permalink

What's with this?? (this is just some from 2008 that went through) http://www.cagw.org/site/PageServer?pagename=reports_pigbook2008

$245,000 by Senate appropriator Patty Murray (D-Wash.), Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), and Rep. Doc Hastings (R-Wash.) for construction of the Walter Clore Wine and Culinary Center in Prosser, Washington. According to its website, the Culinary Center’s purpose is to educate and promote the areas of viticulture, enology and culinary practices, showcase the quality of Washington’s wine industry, and increase the state’s tourism industry. The website also states that wine in Washington is a $3 billion industry. Taxpayers should not be soaked for a new wine center.

$295,470 by Senate appropriator Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.) and Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) for renovations to the International Peace Garden in Dunseith. Spanning the border of North Dakota and Manitoba, the International Peace Garden boasts 150,000 flowers, terraced walkways, and the 120-foot Peace Tower. In September 2007, Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) offered an amendment to eliminate this earmark from the Senate version of the transportation bill. Sen. Coburn argued the money would be better spent on road repairs, calling it “morally wrong” to spend money on wasteful projects while citizens are dying on the nation’s roads. Unfortunately, the amendment failed by a vote of 32-63.

$328,300 by Sens. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) and Jon Tester (D-Mont.) for the Big Sky Economic Development Authority, for historic preservation of the Cobb Field facility in Billings. Home to the Minor League Billings Mustangs, Cobb Field was built in 1948 and is currently undergoing modernization, including a new scoreboard all paid for by taxpayers. A September, 2006 article in Satisfaction Magazine noted that owning a Minor League Baseball team can be quite profitable: “But a well-run baseball operation can turn a net profit of 5 percent to 10 percent a year, according to interviews with team owners and consultants. Then there is the equity play: Minor league teams have been appreciating in value by 3 percent to 5 percent annually in the past decade, with some instances albeit rare ones of owners selling for 10 times their original investment after holding the team for just five years.” According to the Mustangs’ website, 95,309 people attended a game at Cobb Field in 2007. An increase of $3.45 per ticket would have removed the burden to the taxpayers.

$49,000 by Rep. Michael Ferguson (R-N.J.) for Woodbridge Township for construction of a Woodbridge Historical Museum.

$3,000,000 added by the Senate for the Kimberly Process. According to the Global Policy Forum (GPF), the Kimberly Process was initiated in 2000 to set up “an internationally recognized certification system for rough diamonds and establishing national import/export standards. In November 2002, 52 governments ratified and adopted the Kimberly Process Certification Scheme, which was fully implemented in August 2003.” The GPF called the system “flawed from the beginning ” because it is voluntary and self-regulated. Both the Word Diamond Council and governments that signed on to the certification process have failed to monitor and regulate the diamond trade, according to the GPF.

Posted by K. Lee at 10:23 PM | Permalink

Do you like Table Tennis? Do you think you're good at it? Then check this out and see if you're good enough to beat Bruce Lee at it. ^^

Awesome Bruce Lee ping pong match/a>

Posted by K. Lee at 2:47 PM | Permalink

Here's some reasons to be excited of another semester of college life at Berkeley

1) See friends again and share stories about winter break.
2) Some of us will miss our parent's cooking, but I do miss Berkeley food! (Though I feel sorry for those who have to deal with dorm food again. Also, hopefully some of you folks who have kitchen learned some recipes during the break =P )
3) Exercise. I like walking. I've been sitting almost my whole break playing video games, it's sickening!! Now I can also play tennis more often since my schedule is not as hectic as last semester.
4) Do something productive like internships or simply doing homework.
5) I usually don't read by myself, now I'll be forced to learn something!
6) Squirrels.
7) Meet new people ( but I think I have to go over facebook and review my friends' names. )
8) And whatever else may happen

Good luck and have a fun semester everyone!

Posted by John Cortez at 6:24 PM | Permalink

Even though I have been done with school since last Wednesday, I did not leave for home until Saturday morning in order for my parent’s pick-up of me to be more convenient. Well I don’t regret leaving late because I had an awesome time with my friends who had their Math 1A final on Friday night. After they finished their final we all immediately went around Berkeley and hit up at least seven shops and feasted upon ice cream, burritos, frozen yogurt and plenty of doughnuts. Later that night we watched plenty of youtube until 3 am and it was all a blast. Early the next morning I packed and having a couple of hours went to the street fair on Telegraph and bought a fossil for my little brother and just toured around the place. Back at my dorm, I had to defrost the fridge and unplug all the appliances and just stared outside my window and glared at downtown Oakland and the Bay and felt an uneasy sadness about leaving behind Cal even though it was for only a month. My farewell was pretty somber since I was the last to leave my hall so I just left my dorm with the only noise being that of my ipod.

Continue reading "Leaving the dorms and Break" »

Posted by Fabian Collazo at 12:28 AM | Permalink

Few things I want to fix before Spring 09 semester starts.

1) Sleeping schedule from 11pm-7am. I was able to do this when I lived in the dorms last year, but when I started commuting everything has been shifted 2 hours later. I'm not sure if this has anything to do with me feeling sleepy and needing more naps this semester.

2) Eating schedule. No more 11-2pm classes, so now I can eat lunch at noon.

Now for my winter break plans.. nothing that much since it has been raining a lot recently. I might probably just stay at home and

1) Play World of Warcraft (sigh... why am I playing this game again.. anyways I am on Dunemaul (A) and Frostmane (H) )

2) Watch Rurouni Kenshin/Samurai X

3) Be a driver for my mom when she visits from my home country

4) Tennis.. but the rain!!!

Posted by John Cortez at 6:44 PM | Permalink

Ever since my girlfriend and I volunteered at an event for The Organic Center at Clif Bar in Berkeley back in September, we've been a bit endeared to the latter's famous--at least in our world--products. (The former, by the way, has lots of good information on, duh, organic food on their website.)...

Continue reading "A Treat" »

Posted by Juan at 8:11 PM | Permalink

Sigh, everytime my brother or I cook my room starts smelling like food. My room is directly next door to the stove, about 2 feet away... yes, that close! My room doesn't even have a door either since it is actually meant to be a "den" as they call it (or just lounge). So whatever is cooking in the kitchen goes to my room =/ .Food does smell good, but it gets annoying after a while.

Continue reading "Food in the house" »

Posted by John Cortez at 2:03 PM | Permalink

Well today I just had my in-class midterm for Chemistry 1A and to tell you the truth it went pretty okay. Currently I have a “B” in the class and I plan on staying at a “B”…hope for nothing lower and probably not going to get higher. It seems kind of ridiculous however that the final is in one week and on top of that it is on a Saturday night…ahhhh. But oh well it will soon be over and break will begin. Just relaxing until reality slaps me back into craziness in the form of o-chem. Right now I am just worried about telebears, which I have on Monday.

Posted by Fabian Collazo at 6:07 PM | Permalink

Happy December! It's pretty incredible that there's only about 10 days left of actual classes before Finals. Most of us have a lot to think about: school, family, friends, and the holidays. I was thinking about this last point today--more directly, about gift ideas. Many of us, though, being students, are short on cash. Given this, I started to think about what gifts have meant the most to me and what gifts I would most like to give this season. Sure, there are books, electronics, and video games that I really enjoy. In addition to these, however, there are gifts that I've enjoyed even more because they were meaningful to me.

Look into adopting an endangered animal, a plot of land, or tree, for example, in the name of someone you care about who cares about these issues. Some organizations include: Defenders of Wildlife (I adopted a Dolphin for my girlfriend here a couple of years ago and had someone adopt a Panther in my name last year!), the World Wildlife Fund (we adopted a Polar Bear for my girlfriend's sister), and Adopt a Tree.

Being socially conscious individuals at Berkeley (for the most part), another great idea is to gift in someone's name to a non-profit that works for a personally--from the perspective of the recipient--salient issue. One local non-profit I found is Seva. They're located in Berkeley and have programs in 10 countries and Tibet that range from sight restoration to women's empowerment. They also focus on healthcare and education--two particularly important areas in development. Check out Seva's Gifts of Service page.

So this holiday season, give a meaningful gift if you can! Your recipients will enjoy them. I know I did! If you have any other gift ideas, post them up. I'm always looking for useful, relevant, and purposeful ones.

Posted by Juan at 1:29 PM | Permalink

This article http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081129/ap_on_re_us/toy_worries talks about how parents are writing to toy companies to try to get the companies to strop advertising to the children and to switch the target to parents. These parents say that it is unfair of the companies to make the children have the desire to have something that the parents cannot afford. Also, the parents are loathe to let their children feel different at school because they lack an item. I believe that these parents are strongly misguided. If the children are being made fun of at school because they don't have something, they should teach the children that its okay to be different. By simply delaying this lesson, the kids are only going to have a more difficult time adjusting when they hit puberty when life becomes so much more difficult. If the children are being made fun of because they don't have something, society should be stepping in and teaching them that material wealth is not what makes happiness. These parents are just as misguided as their children and believe that material things will being their kids real joy over the course of their lives. In the article, there is a example of a mother being willing to prostitute herself in order to afford certain toys for her child. What in the world!??!!! That's just teaching her child that prostitution is alright...indiscriminate sex is alright...for the sake of instant gratification. What happened to teaching about delayed gratification? It's... sad how our society is completely warped. Somehow...I just don't feel sorry for these families who can't buy as many toys for their children as before. They can still afford toys. If you're able to afford these excess items, you're still doing pretty well in comparison to the rest of the world.

Posted by K. Lee at 12:23 AM | Permalink

Sigh...

I lost yet another match. When am I ever going to win? =(

My tennis life makes much more sense now though. I lose not because I don't have enough desire to win. I lose not because my opponents are way better. I lose because when a game starts I can't find my usual strokes and serves. I can't seem to hit the ball well and my serves won't go in. How do I deal with this?

I need to play more sets instead of just rallying (I was playing rather quite well with another friend right after my match today). Most people tell me I'm pretty good for someone who's been playing tennis for just 1.75 years. I think I should stop demanding too much and give myself some credit. For now I'll give myself a break, but win or lose I don't think I'll never stop playing this sport (as long as my body permits) =D

Posted by John Cortez at 9:35 PM | Permalink

I'm not even at the courts, yet I already feel nervous for tomorrow's match!!!

It's been a year since my last tournament. I've been horribly losing my matches recently (actually I lose pretty badly most of the time). Probably because I don't care enough about winning, I lack practice, or I've been playing against better people. Possibly all three.

It's weird, but I feel guilty of winning 0_o
It's really awkward that I feel bad for beating my opponents
(maybe that's why I keep losing, -_-" )

Anyways, I'll post again tomorrow after my match =D

Posted by John Cortez at 9:47 PM | Permalink

Our 44th's president has been elected. =) . I guess we have an interesting 8 years to look forward to. (and I say 8, because as long as I can remember, the president's has always been re-elected. .. I guess that also shows my youth. hahah)

Posted by K. Lee at 12:45 AM | Permalink

Some of you may not like coffee (I'd be in this category). Some of you may not even like Starbucks for a multitude of reasons. I assume, however, that you do like free stuff. This being the case, I came across an add and figured you might want to know about it.

Presuming that most of us will be voting tomorrow, if you like coffee (especially not paying money for it) here's your chance for a free fix.

[Update]....

Continue reading "Freebie!" »

Posted by Juan at 12:50 PM | Permalink

I confess: I've always had a soft spot for graffiti (the two exceptions to this would be the recurring graffiti that appears on my neighbor's fence; and gang-related graffiti, because gangs just don't conjure up soft spots in my heart). One of my friends in high school used to draw the funniest (and slightly vulgar) graffiti all over our bathroom stalls, and it was awesome and entertaining.

But I have to admit that Berkeley's bathroom graffiti steps it up a notch, just because it's such a collaborative effort.

Continue reading "Berkeley's Bathroom Graffiti" »

Posted by Katarina Makmuri at 2:31 PM | Permalink

I found this article, It's Time, on The Economist website (www.economist.com). I thought many of you might enjoy this. You have probably (hopefully) already made your decisions regarding which way you'll vote next week, but this is a good read nonetheless.

Continue reading "" »

Posted by Juan at 1:36 PM | Permalink

Now that the second round of midterms is upon is, I think we all feel a bit like hermits, trapped in our apartments or the library with our study materials. I remember after the first round of midterms, I literally squinted against the sunlight, thinking, "Eek! Sunlight! It burns!!!"

I really wish I could take a break this Friday for Halloween, but I really can't afford to slack off from studying. Anyways, while studying for Chem 3B, I came across some interesting facts that might amuse you guys:

Continue reading "Random Facts from OChem" »

Posted by Victoria Eng at 4:01 PM | Permalink

This comparison is strictly in retrospect to my personal experiences both at Ohlone College and here at UCB.

1. Opportunities
This is one of the first things that hit me. There are so many opportunities that UCB has to offer, which quite honestly I find overwhelming. They have everything from independent research to study abroad to classes about pretty much everything there is to have a class on. But as a junior I feel at a slight disadvantage simply because I, ideally, only have 2 years here which doesn't give me enough time to experience everything I would like. So my suggestion to people coming into to Cal as freshmen is to take advantage of as many of the opportunities as you can because you have no idea at how much of an advantage you really are.

Continue reading "University vs. Community College" »

Posted by Maria at 10:27 PM | Permalink

It was my last school-year in the Philippines (senior, high school) when my "Values" teacher showed me this quote in response to my paper about my dissatisfaction in politics--the "leaders" and the people specifically back home. Luckily I was able to find it again online and thought I might as well share it. Changing myself into a better person is already a struggle to me, but at least this quote reminds me where to begin.

"When I was a young man, I wanted to change the world. I found it was difficult to change the world, so I tried to change my nation. When I found I couldn't change the nation, I began to focus on my town. I couldn't change the town and as an older man, I tried to change my family. Now, as an old man, I realize the only thing I can change is myself, and suddenly I realize that if long ago I had changed myself, I could have made an impact on my family. My family and I could have made an impact on our town. Their impact could have changed the nation and I could indeed have changed the world." -Unknown Author

Posted by John Cortez at 10:30 AM | Permalink

More time to study?
Or...
More time to waste?

So as I mentioned in my last blog, I dropped one of my classes. As a result my Mondays are completely blank. 3 day weekends, yay? My friends are quite jealous about it, but I somewhat dread about it.

As for a commuter this is great, that's $5.70 right there plus the food I would spend on campus. However, I never find myself doing anything productive during my extra day. It's always been that time management issue I am having difficulties with--probably harder to get over with than any class, but also the most important. I believe so because if we master our time management skills, everything else will get easier. But if we finish a class, it doesn't necessarily mean our future classes are going to be easier. In my personal perspective, the biggest thing we can learn from college is not what's on the lecture slides, but rather personal and social skills; personal skills such as time and stress management and social skills such as networking, group work, etc.

Posted by John Cortez at 10:25 PM | Permalink

So last week I decided to drop a 5-unit class.

It was a challenge to drop the class because I felt like a coward running away from school work. Worst thing is it says on my Fresh Faces profile "Interests: ... learning Japanese". But deep inside, although I really want to learn the language, I have to face the truth that I can't handle the course load.

I was taking 18 units, 6 of which were Japanese1A and a supplementary listening class. I am also taking Env Econ100, History 14, and PoliSci 1. My course load from the other three classes are minimal, but J1A was a little too much for my "fun class"--class that fulfills no requirement. I thought it's quite off to stress over this class than my major requirements--so I decided I will just focus on my three classes this semester. Probably play more tennis and spend more time in ASUC.

Posted by John Cortez at 9:32 PM | Permalink

Like I've said before, college totally changes your eating schedule. You eat when you have time, and in my case, I eat whenever I'm bored. Anyways, right now I'm sitting in my studio and craving vegetable tempura. My roommate and I went to CU Sushi for dinner. I had spicy tuna rolls and vegetable tempura...but yes, I'm still craving vegetable tempura. I'm actually craving the veggie tempura from that one Japanese restaurant in the South Side Asian Ghetto. CU Sushi was ok. They have this 1/2 off menu that's pretty reasonable, but their service isn't the best. My roommate went there for dinner about a week ago with some friends, so she knew that they give you a bowl of edamame as appetizers. Our server didn't give us any, so we asked for some.

Continue reading "Midnight Cravings" »

Posted by Victoria Eng at 11:43 PM | Permalink

Ever since I have arrived here my eating habits have become out of whack and plain unhealthy. I love living in Unit 3 because it is so close and very social, however, our residential dinning does not offer breakfast. So what do most of us college kids do? Simple, just skip breakfast. I know this is bad but the excitement and nervousness of college kind of overrides your hunger. For lunch, today, I had a strawberry shortcake ice-cream and a V8 juice (100% juice). I love how the Bear Market is really convenient, but seriously …. the prices make you want to cry. I remember that I bought cereal, soy milk, energy bar, chips and a fruit/cheese plate and the grand total came to little less than $20. Good thing they use meal points and not real cash or I would have gone crazy. And on top of that they didn’t even bag it, they just gave me the bag and told me bag it myself. This awkward eating cycle has caused me to lose quite a bit of weight so whenever I walk I have to pull up my pants or they will fall, but who knows the freshman 15 could pounce at anytime.

Posted by Fabian Collazo at 2:07 AM | Permalink

But noooo to money responsibilities >.<

It's one of those day when I get a huge lump of money in one day. It's tempting to use it to buy stuff I don't really need (eg another tennis racket). I have to allocate my money properly each month, if not I'll be broke before semester ends (that'll be so horrible to have no cash for Thanksgiving/Christmas).

Good thing I have an online-only HSBC account. It's quite a hassle to withdraw money from it, so once I put money into my savings account I just don't want to get anything from it. It also has the highest interest rate, 3.5% right now. Now I just have to make sure I don't "oversave". It makes me wonder though how much I should be saving because some people say to "just spend it, what's the point of working for it if you don't use it?"

http://www.us.hsbc.com/1/2/3/personal?home=personal

Posted by John Cortez at 1:42 PM | Permalink

Sigh...

Can't seem to concentrate during this summer semester :(

I wanted to keep myself busy this summer (which did happen), but having to worry about grades is no fun! Poli Sci 3 and Stats 21 have been interesting and fun, but I had this mindset that I should be having fun--so I didn't really focus studying. I like taking classes and I don't mind doing the schoolwork, but grades.... tsk tsk

But I guess I'm just having time management issues again. Anyhow, I gotta get studying and get over with Stats 21 so I can start memorizing Hiragana for my soon-to-be Japanese1A class =D

Posted by John Cortez at 9:55 PM | Permalink

I've been asked what year I was several times just after the 07-08 school year. I was not sure what to answer--well I'm not a sophomore yet because 08-09 school year hasn't started and maybe I'm not a freshman either because I just finished my first year! Not so seriously, when do Freshies become Sophomores?!

Whatever. I just checked my Bear Facts, and I'm no longer "Fresh".

Now looking at my first year grades, I see some good (and bad) patterns. Hopefully recalling what happened to my grades would help find my strengths and weaknesses and what I can do in the future (my sophomore year to be specific).

Continue reading "Not So Fresh Anymore" »

Posted by John Cortez at 9:51 AM | Permalink

I never used to have such a bad addiction to junk food. I think it all started in college. For most people, once they get to college, they're free from parental control...which can be good and bad. No one nagging you about cleaning your room...no one reminding you not to overdo it on the cereal...

For some odd reason, many college students are addicted to cereal, but why? Is it because of the sugars or the munchiness and convenience of this "breakfast" food? I don't eat cereal for breakfast anymore; I eat it all the time. There were days at Berkeley where I would go through

Continue reading "Junk Food Addiction" »

Posted by Victoria Eng at 10:06 PM | Permalink

Today, I helped a friend edit his presentation for work. While talking, I learned that his major had been Political Science. It turns out that he wants/wanted to change Japan and open it up more. I asked him why he was working as an ordinary worker instead of being involved in politics. His reasoning was that he didn't want to run against his cousin who is the politician in his district. His granduncle had been Keizo Obuchi, a past prime minister of Japan. He explained that politics is a sort of family run affair where there can only be one heir. On a similar note, I've been watching a drama called CHANGE which is about this guy running in the elections in Japan. ^^ Educational. Watch it.

Posted by K. Lee at 7:20 AM | Permalink

I was chatting with my organic chem professor over at International Christian University where I'm currently studying abroad. Somehow, we got onto the topic of alcohol, and he asked me I like sake (Japanese liquor). It turns out that a graduating student of his gave him a high quality bottle, and he doesn't like sake. He prefers good old German wine. ^^. Anyways, he ended up giving me the bottle of sake for me to take home and drink with my father. ^^ He made me promise to drink it with my dad. ^^ We'll see how good it is in a month or so when I finally see my family. Yay! I'm heading home in a month! It does sad to be leaving Japan. Maybe I'll be back in the future. Who knows?

Posted by K. Lee at 2:43 AM | Permalink

There are two digital book reader devices out there: Sony's Reader Digital Book and Amazon's Kindle. Amazon's device is much better marketed than Sony's. Since Amazon is where one tends to go for books, it is a natural extension of Amazon. When we think books, we think Amazon. Sony's audience is more tech based. From its website down to its design, it is designed for the more digitally inclined group. While Sony allows one to load ones own personal files onto the device at no extra charge, the device requires hook-up to a computer to manage the digital library. Amazon allows this all to happen directly from the device. Sony's is more a a peripheral device for the computer while Amazon's is a stand-alone device. Yet the extra charges that Amazon loads onto its device are annoying. It makes things so easy to do because it snips charges away from at every step. Amazon also has a larger capacity for book storage and for battery charges. Sony's advertising isn't great. During the video explanation, the advertiser says that the device costs around $300. The actual pricing is $299.99. By saying $300, they lose the pricing advantage that they had. People realize that $299.99 is basically $300, but it doesn't hit the pricing point when it is $299.99, which makes it seem more affordable.

This, and other marketing mistakes really hurts Sony. They may win with the Blu-Ray, but they're definitely loosing on the digital reader device.

Posted by K. Lee at 9:08 AM | Permalink

My first year at Cal was full of both good and bad experiences. For the most part, most of my bad experiences (academics) were avoidable. But for now, I have to recall what I have done wrong this school year and learn from it.

Continue reading "Lessons to learn" »

Posted by John Cortez at 5:52 PM | Permalink

went by so fast.

It seems yesterday I was just moving in. All of sudden, now I'm packing up.

I just can't believe my first year is over.

Continue reading "First year at Cal" »

Posted by John Cortez at 11:19 AM | Permalink

We're almost there! Well, for some people, finals are already over. I still have one more final on Tuesday morning.

Advice: Know the location of your final before you get there. Always head out to the location of your final about half an hour before it begins.

My first final was on Thursday at 12:30. Instead of going to Haas Pavilion for the final, I actually went to the classroom. Luckily I headed out early around noon...about 12:15 I walked into Dwinelle and realized that that wasn't the location of the final! I ended up semi-sprinting to Haas. It was really stuffy in there! Hot day + sweating people + people without tissues + final = complete annoyance. Let's just say I tried to get out of there as soon as possible.

Continue reading "Almost....." »

Posted by Victoria Eng at 2:31 PM | Permalink

Permanently for seniors not going to grad school. Three months for people not doing summer school. And two weeks for me.

Also, Congratulations to the Class of 2008!

Now the school year is almost over (well for some people it is already over, lucky for those with no finals), It is time to plan out for summer! Actually let’s talk about that later. Let’s ace our finals first :)

Continue reading "No more classes..." »

Posted by John Cortez at 4:39 PM | Permalink

Everyone's probably studying for finals, but summer's just around the corner!!! Even though I'm supposed to be concentrating on studying for finals, I keep daydreaming about what I'm going to do this summer. I know I should try to be productive and volunteer or work somewhere doing something that's related to the medical field, but...staying at home and getting a fun summer job sounds so much more appealing.
A few months ago, I applied for volunteer positions at some hospitals near home, but I haven't heard from any of them, yet. Even though you probably think you have to do something productive every summer of your college career, some experts say you should just take it easy summer of freshman year. You still have a few more summers to show those graduate schools how productive you can be. Why not take a well-deserved vacation? Or get a fun summer job?
If I don't hear back from any of the places I submitted applications to, I'll probably just get a fun summer job and hang out with my friends and family all summer long.

Continue reading "Last Minute Stuff" »

Posted by Victoria Eng at 1:28 PM | Permalink

http://makerfaire.com/

Pyrotechnics, robots, explosions, lasers, tesla coils, solar powered Arnold Schwarzenegger chariot.

I spent this past Saturday at the Maker Faire in San Mateo. The Maker Faire is a huge overwhelming spectacle of the most creative people in the bay area. I spent 10 hours there and still did not see everything it had to offer. I will try to recap some of the highlights:

This nightmarish thing:

An armada of cupcake people:

Some hotdogs cooked using lightning coming off a 25' tall tesla coil. Sorry, no video for this one just imagine lightning striking a hotdog and jumping from hotdog to hotdog down a 20' pole. As it got more intense the lightning began vaporizing the hotdog - this vaporization pulled hotdog bits into the arc and the color changed from brilliant purple to a vivid orange!

Posted by Eric Thurston at 3:00 PM | Permalink

Well, I don't know about all you readers out there, but I can say that ever since my arrival here at UC Berkeley, I've spent more time playing super smash brothers than I have in the rest of my life combined. If you play smash, you might understand these next few paragraphs, but if you don't then you probably wont get a lot of the terminology I'm going to throw at you. Anyway, here's my take on the subject:
It started out last September, when my RA invited me and a few floormates over to his room for a good ol' game of classic smash on his old-school n64. I used to play every once in a while back home, so I figured "oh hey, this sounds like fun. I can try to play Kirby again!" So i grabbed a controller, sat myself down on his couch with a few friends, and played my first collegiate game of smash. Little did I know that within only a few weeks, the game would take over an unprecedented amount of time in my waking hours.
After that first game of smash, I began to play whenever I was bored in the dorms. I was terrible at first, but as I kept playing, I kept improving, and as I improved, I became determined to play more.
Before I knew it, i was playing smash three times a day; it even took priority over my schoolwork at times! And to make matters worse, my roommate decided to bring over her gamecube, and with a game counsel in our hands, all our studious endeavors were lost.

Continue reading "super smash brothers!" »

Posted by Angela Hsu at 10:51 PM | Permalink

If I were you, I'd get me some Sockbaby. It's a trilogy of short films made by some Modesto community college students. These have everything you've ever wanted in a quality film experience: a 1960's kungfu guy imbued with the power of James Brown, a sock-puppet messiah, some fedora wearing aliens and a cyborg named "Burger." It will change your life... perhaps not meaningfully or for the better, but still.

Posted by Eric Thurston at 2:46 PM | Permalink

Chapter 2: Control, or Get Controlled

As I mentioned in Chapter 1, I was controlled by video games. That was two years ago. Now is time to strike back.

Continue reading "Temptations, temptations... part 2" »

Posted by John Cortez at 9:43 PM | Permalink

So yesterday I took my first parkour lesson. For those of you who don't know, parkour is a French sport which combines running and gymnastics in urban environments. The underlying idea is that our bodies can do much more than just walk around on a horozontal plane as we do everyday. Instead those who practice parkour, called "traceurs" try to find the most efficent way to interact with their physical environments.

This video shows David Belle - the founder of the sport - performing some really advanced and showy parkour for a BBC commercial:

Continue reading "Berkeley Parkour Club" »

Posted by Eric Thurston at 3:55 PM | Permalink

So there's this guy in the Netherlands named Theo Jansen. He's a kinetic sculptor which means that he builds huge moving pieces of art. His sculptures are strange mechanical interpretations of the biological world. Watch this video to see an example of his work in action:

Continue reading "Theo Jansen's Biomechanical Sculptures" »

Posted by Eric Thurston at 3:32 PM | Permalink

So today was the ESPM Ice Cream Social. I was planning on making an announcement here sooner, but I totally blanked on it yesterday. Sorry about that. For today, the ESPM department was giving away free cones of Ben & Jerry's ice cream to anyone who stopped by outside of Mulford. Some of the professors were scooping cones for people; it was pretty cool get a cone from Keith Gilless, acting dean of CNR. I wasn't able to stay for too long (I had to go to class), but just getting the chance to enjoy the beautiful weather and talk with some friends was great. The Strawberry Kiwi sorbet was pretty good, too. This event reminds me of why the ESPM department is pretty cool (and CNR as a whole).

Yeah, CNR is a pretty chill place to be.

Posted by Joel Kim at 3:02 PM | Permalink

To every hard-working college student shaking their head in the wee hours of the night, rock on. Rock on :)

To every college college student procrastinating while shaking their head in the wee hours of the night, get busy :)

I everyone who slept tonight: I envy you.

www.pandora.com -- Free internet radio from the Music Genome Project.

Posted by Tay Feder at 2:06 AM | Permalink

It's nearing the end of April, which means for me, it's almost time to sign up for classes via telebears -.- It's a pain in the butt for a lot of people, especially those who have no idea what to sign up for when that vital 24 hour period comes around- the one they call "phase 1." I remember people telling me "don't worry about what classes you take your first year. it doesn't really matter as long as you get your prerequisites them done eventually." And to those people, i say BOLOGNA!! Of course there's some breathe room to take some "just for fun" classes, but I recommend by all means to figure out some sort of plan to figure out when to take your prerequisites.
I'm an undeclared student, and for the last 2 telebears appointments I've had (fall 07 and spring 08), I've ripped out a lot of hair when the stressful time comes around to choose what classes to take. After a (almost) a full year here at berkeley, I highly recommend you to check out your college advising center.

Continue reading "some tips for incoming freshies :)" »

Posted by Angela Hsu at 6:39 PM | Permalink

You ever feel like there just isn't enough time to just sit down and relax, especially when finals are coming up so soon? On top of that, you are apartment hunting for next semester, which isn't easy, trying to still keep in contact with your friends, trying to go to lecture and STAY AWAKE when you've had 4 hours of sleep, and other random unneeded friend drama that always seems to pop up in the most untimely fashion? yes. Well, I figured out my way of de-stressing! obvious, one is writing in this blog, but other ways, little ways that help me, since I have 3 more years to go, are : chewing gum( to keep awake), go to the library( you can concentrate more), eating at least 2 meals a day( so you aren't' preoccupied with hunger when you are supposed to be studying), and dinner appointments with friends from time to time, study groups( help each other and maintain a balanced social life), walking around Berkeley at 7 am( quite peaceful), going to the Big C or botanical gardens. Other than that, i'm doing fine. Feel free to reply back or share your methods of de-stressing in Cal!

Posted by Casey Wang at 4:18 PM | Permalink

Can you believe that this will be the only break we have until the end of the semester!!?? It's ridiculous. Now, we have 5 more weeks until finals.... time sure does fly. Spring break was fun- I went to San Francisco and it was actually WARM! My friends and I went to City Light Bookstore and it was really cool because we got to read books written by the owner of the bookstore! I never knew I would love poetry so much until I went here. Then, I went to Pier 39 and walked around looking at all the shops there. Oh my gosh!!! There was this cute musical box store that had hand made italian made music boxes that were so lavish and intricate and beautiful!! but everything in it was like 800 to 1000 dollars!!!! It was mental anguish i tell you...:(

Continue reading "Spring Break" »

Posted by Casey Wang at 11:47 AM | Permalink

i know it's a day late, but i was reading online some april fools jokes that made me laugh. so, i decided to share them with you :). it's amazing how clever people can be, and wow you'd be surprised of how big-scale some of the pranks are...check out the website: http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/hoax/aprilfool/
Here are a few of my favorites:
#1: The Swiss Spaghetti Harvest
spaghetti harvest In 1957 the respected BBC news show Panorama announced that thanks to a very mild winter and the virtual elimination of the dreaded spaghetti weevil, Swiss farmers were enjoying a bumper spaghetti crop. It accompanied this announcement with footage of Swiss peasants pulling strands of spaghetti down from trees. Huge numbers of viewers were taken in. Many called the BBC wanting to know how they could grow their own spaghetti tree. To this the BBC diplomatically replied that they should "place a sprig of spaghetti in a tin of tomato sauce and hope for the best."
#4: The Taco Liberty Bell
Taco Liberty BellIn 1996 the Taco Bell Corporation announced that it had bought the Liberty Bell and was renaming it the Taco Liberty Bell. Hundreds of outraged citizens called the National Historic Park in Philadelphia where the bell was housed to express their anger. Their nerves were only calmed when Taco Bell revealed, a few hours later, that it was all a practical joke. The best line of the day came when White House press secretary Mike McCurry was asked about the sale. Thinking on his feet, he responded that the Lincoln Memorial had also been sold. It would now be known as the Ford Lincoln Mercury Memorial.
The April 1998 issue of the New Mexicans for Science and Reason newsletter contained an article claiming that the Alabama state legislature had voted to change the value of the mathematical constant pi from 3.14159 to the 'Biblical value' of 3.0. Before long the article had made its way onto the internet, and then it rapidly made its way around the world, forwarded by people in their email. It only became apparent how far the article had spread when the Alabama legislature began receiving hundreds of calls from people protesting the legislation. The original article, which was intended as a parody of legislative attempts to circumscribe the teaching of evolution, was written by a physicist named Mark Boslough.

Continue reading "april fools!" »

Posted by Angela Hsu at 10:12 AM | Permalink

When considering where I wanted to go one of the things people told me about Cal, was that professors rarely teach, most classes are taught by grad students. This in my experience is not true. I've had a GSI (grad student instructor), give a lecture once sometimes twice a semester but it usually was planned for a professors absence. I know many high school students are deciding about which college to go to. Don't let silly rumors about different colleges shape your decision, I'm glad I didn't. I highly recommend taking a tour of campus and asking the tour guides about them, they'll have a better idea of what classes are really like instead of your high school counselor. Here is the link for information on free tours of Berkeley so you can come check it out for yourself. http://www.berkeley.edu/visitors/free_tours.html

Posted by Marissa Ponder at 3:57 PM | Permalink

So this afternoon, I went to my first RPP appointment. For those of you who do not know this, RPP is the Research Participation Program that gives undergraduate students a chance to participate in some of the research being conducted by graduate students and faculty researchers in the Department of Psychology. Since I am taking Psychology 2 this semester, I am required to participate in research experiments for a total of 5 hours.

I didn’t want to sign up for those experiments that would require putting wires around my head to measure some kind of brain activity, because what can I do if something goes wrong?! So I was trying to find survey-based experiment from the list of available studies online. Finally I decided to give a try on Experiment 73.

The experiment was scheduled in Tolman, and it was specified that the experiment would start right at the hour, not 10 minutes after. Tolman is that strange building that you can never figure out where you are. As I wandered around on the fourth floor, I thought that it would be such a good idea to just let us search for a room that does not even exist and record how long it takes us to figure that out! Anyway, after spending five minutes wandering around on the fourth floor, and I finally found room 4105.

Continue reading "My First RPP Experience " »

Posted by Yang Cao at 7:42 PM | Permalink

No, this entry isn't about paramedics or anything remotely as exciting. Just noting that, since I got into Berkeley, I've walked around a lot more than I ever did in LA. The very nature of the city lends itself to bipedal transport, I suppose. Everything is in convenient walking distance away (or at least is reachable by bus), so there is no immediate necessity for a car. Indeed, sometimes owning a motor vehicle in Berkeley is supremely trying, since there are the draconian parking laws and unintuitive road structures to manage. It seems that the city of Berkeley actually intentionally discourages driving; how else can you justify those large barricades in the middle of the road that divert traffic in only one direction?

Continue reading "Ambulatory Adventures!" »

Posted by Joel Kim at 11:58 PM | Permalink

Isn't home the best? Even though some people tell me that I'm going to start loving Berkeley more than SoCal because I'm going to Cal, I find that highly unlikely. Right now, the sun's streaming in through the windows and it just makes you want to jump right out of bed at sunrise, or a bit after. Back in Berkeley, my alarm rings, and I hit the Snooze button...three times...it's just so grey outside that I want to stay under the covers for as long as possible.

Besides the weather, Socal is just home. I love being with my family and some of my friends from high school. Even though people at Berkeley are awesome,

Continue reading "Home Sweet Home" »

Posted by Victoria Eng at 9:00 AM | Permalink

Fret fret freezing cold, fret fret freakout, fret fret fret fret.

Wake up late? Rush, run faster, catch a random bus, and make it to class earlier than you usually do.
Get an exam back? Hit the books again and maybe worry some more until you improve your grade, or, alternatively cheer!

Today was one of those fret fret freeze fret fret CHEER!!!! days, which makes it significantly better than average.

Posted by Christina at 2:48 PM | Permalink

It's St. Patty's Day!
You know what that means - a massive celebration of Irish heritage!

Green, green, everywhere. Most everyone wears green. In elementary school, you'll pinch your classmates if they're not wearing green. Usually the university crowd isn't going to pinch you if you forget to sport a clover.

So, yeah, you can wear just about any color you want on St. Patrick's Day - just don't wear orange!

Why not?

Protestants (represented by the color orange) have been oppressing Catholic Northern Ireland (represented by the color green) since 1509, when Henry the 8th was King of England, but especially since 1690's Battle of the Boyne when Protestant William of Orange defeated James the Second. source
According to my friend of Irish Catholic heritage, wearing orange is"...like wearing a KKK hood on MLK day." He cringes whenever he sees someone sporting orange on his happy holiday. So, as we in Berkeleyans strive to be sympathetic of all cultures, let's remember to wear something other than orange as we celebrate this snake-chasing, green-wearing Saint.

Happy Saint Patrick's Day, Everyone!

Clover image from:
http://www.co.bay.mi.us/bay/home.nsf/public/BE2FEDCC7EDDC47885257346006800F6/$file/four-leaf_clover2.jpg

Posted by Christina at 4:45 PM | Permalink

So this semester, I've decided to get more involved on Cal campus and spend less time studying! It's been a great goal. What have I done differently? Well, I've been swimming at least 2 days a week now(yay me, even though it seems pathetic!), joining more clubs, and signed up for a DeCal. This one decal is amazing- Relay for Life Decal! In the two hours on thursdays that I spend time there, we get to listen to a different speaker each time speaking about cancer, typical job professions in the health field. Then, we split up into our committees and plan for the much anticipated upcoming event: Relay for Life. For those of you who don't know what relay for life is about- it's a 24 hour event held( for cal, behind the RSF on May 3rd) where participants, people, volunteers spend one day to fight back cancer- hosting games, teams( where we walk for 24 hours straight), entertainer- make aware of cancer. Not only have I learned much more about different types of cancer, I've taken an active role in preparing for this event and I know it's going to be lots of fun!!! So, all you reading this, come!!

So, after I joined this, I became involved in CAC(colleges against cancer) club and we've been doing many fund raising activities to bring awareness about various cancers and going to volunteer events. The other club I joined was PILLS- it's a club for interested pre-pharmacy students. It's a great club in that it advises you on the classes you should take to get into pre-pharm grad school, the various opportunities that you can get involved in right now that involve this field, and just networking with other like-minded people. I find that making the choice to get more involved has created a great balance so far- academically and socially. Anyway, my next goal is to find an apartment for next semester, although I'm quite reluctant to search for one since I've heard that it's quite difficult?

Posted by Casey Wang at 4:34 PM | Permalink

About five years ago, I thought to myself: why don't networks stream their shows online? Don't they want more viewers? It took them a while, but they're doing it now. Most stations, FOX, NBC, ABC, CBS, have started to offer their content online with ads. One site that has episodes and movies from multiple studios is Hulu.com, which just recently finished its beta testing and is open to the public. Netflix.com, also offers online viewing. If you or your parents use Netflix, you can log-on and watch some TV and movies online ad-free. Their content isn't as great as Hulu or content providers' sites, but the video quality is top-notch. In my mind there's no need to download illegal torrents / files from p2p apps and risk getting 'the letter' when there's a free and legal alternative...

--

Continue reading "TV, online & legal" »

Posted by Tay Feder at 8:23 PM | Permalink

So as some of you may know, I work as a Hydration Technician at the stadium. Basically, I give football players water, which also involves setting up the water coolers on the field before practice, then taking them out and cleaning them after practice.

This last Friday we had one of our 4 morning practices at 6:30 AM. I woke up at 4:45, washed up, and had some cereal before heading to the stadium. By the time I got there, it was already 5:45, and one of my coworkers was already setting things up. That morning, all 4 HydroTechs (myself included) showed up, as well as the 7 Sports Medicine Interns (SMIs).

Just as practice got underway, it started to drizzle. Pretty soon, it was pouring rain, just pouring! Standing around on the football field at 6:30 in the morning holding racks of water bottles in the pouring rain was not fun. I was lucky to have a waterproof jacket on, but everything still got soaked.

I was impressed by the football players, though. Despite the fact that they were out practicing in the early morning rain, they didn't complain or make a big fit. They just practiced through, and almost seemed to enjoy it. They had a very practical attitude about it; they had to practice, and so that's what they did, in spite of the rain.

After practice was over and everything cleaned up by 8:30, I went home, washed up, and got ready for the day.

Posted by Joel Kim at 3:12 PM | Permalink

I used to hate the thought of using the microwave, everything always turns out rubbery or just odd. But last night changed my mind...

I didn't want to wait to heat up the oven, but I really wanted sugar cookies. Found this recipe at www.cooks.com decided to try. It turned out delicious! Cakey, fluffy not-too-sugary cookies.

MICROWAVE SUGAR COOKIES

3/4 c. butter
1 c. sugar
2 eggs, beaten
1 tsp. vanilla
2 2/3 c. flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt

Soften butter (15 seconds in microwave). Cream butter; gradually add sugar. Cream until fluffy; beat in eggs and vanilla. Toss flour, baking powder, and salt to mix; add to creamed mixture and combine well.
Chill dough 1 hour until firm. Roll out to 1/4-inch thickness. Cut in shapes. Arrange 8 cookies in a ring on waxed paper. Cook 2 minutes on HIGH. Yield 3-4 dozen.

This experience has opened my mind to the fact that yes, sometimes microwaves can help you make things that taste good.

Posted by Christina at 9:51 AM | Permalink

HI EVERYONE!

So this is my first blog and before I can start providing advices I will introduce myself first. My name is John Cortez and I'm a freshie studying Environmental Economics and Policy (geez such a long name). I am also planning to double major in Political Science because I am mainly interested in policy making and solving public issues. Actually, I thought I was going to become an engineer, but...

Continue reading "Introduction" »

Posted by John Cortez at 6:46 PM | Permalink

For Berkeley students, Spring Break isn't much of a break. While the other UCs have their spring breaks right after 3rd quarter, Berkeley's spring break is smack in the middle of semester, right before round two of midterms. I can just imagine my spring break...studying for organic chemistry and toxicology. However, even with all the studying I have to do, I'm still going to spend some quality time at home in SoCal. Hopefully it's sunny there over spring break. By the way, it's going to start raining in Berkeley sometime soon and rain for the whole of next week. Just perfect. Berkeley has such odd weather.

Continue reading "Spring Break..." »

Posted by Victoria Eng at 5:12 PM | Permalink

Interested in all organic? Organic foods have limited amounts and types of pesticide residues. Although they're priced higher than non-organic foods, organic foods can be quite appealing to some people. Whole Foods Market sells mostly organic foods and it's only a short bus ride away. Simply take the 1R that goes along Telegraph and you'll go straight to Whole Foods Market. Another appealing aspect of Whole Foods Market is that they always have plenty of samples. They also have a large selection of granola, cheese, and breads. So, if you're interested in organic foods or if you're hungry, you should go visit Whole Foods sometime! :)

Posted by Victoria Eng at 5:01 PM | Permalink

Have you guys noticed that mini laptops are becoming quite popular? Just the other day, I saw this woman with this adorable white mini laptop and I really wanted to ask her for the model number, but she went inside the library and I didn't want to seem like a stalker. Later, I found out that the mini laptop was none other than the Asus Eee PC. Ranging from about $300-$500, the Asus Eee PCs weigh around 2 pounds with a 7" display screen. These mini laptops run on Linux operating systems but are Windows XP compatible. I read in some articles that they're used in some schools since the small keyboards are a perfect fit for little hands. To learn more about the Asus Eee PCs:

http://eeepc.asus.com/global/

Continue reading "Mini Laptops" »

Posted by Victoria Eng at 4:42 PM | Permalink

Daylight savings came up on me unexpected this year. Isn't it supposed to be the first weekend of April? Sunday morning, I looked at my watch, looked at the clock on my computer, and realized one of them was probably wrong.

Then I looked it up - starting March 2007, the United States changed Daylight Savings permanently, extending it one month.

What's the point? I mean, people tell you that it's saving money, and that it's worthwhile - but has anyone actually done studies to prove it? Today I found this article by National Geographic, addressing these questions. Figured you folks might enjoy it, too.

Extended Daylight Saving Time Not an Energy Saver?
Brian Handwerk
for National Geographic News

March 7, 2008
On Sunday people in the United States will roll their clocks forward an hour at 2 a.m. and begin the country's second consecutive year of extended daylight saving time.

The change, adopted into law last year, was touted as a way to save energy. But some studies suggest the move actually has consumers using more power—and paying bigger energy bills.

Hendrik Wolff, an environmental economist at the University of Washington in Seattle, is skeptical of the purported savings.

Wolff and colleague Ryan Kellogg studied Australian power-use data surrounding the 2000 Sydney Olympics, when parts of the country extended daylight saving time to accommodate the games.

The pair compared energy use in the state of Victoria, which adopted daylight saving time earlier than normal, to South Australia, which did not.

"Basically if people wake up early in the morning and go to bed earlier, they do save artificial illumination at night and reduce electricity consumption in the evening," Wolff said.

"Our study confirmed that effect. But we also found that more electricity is consumed in the morning. In the end, these two effects wash each other out."

Continue reading "Daylight Savings" »

Posted by Christina at 4:08 PM | Permalink

So this past week marks the second time in a month that I've been pretty sick with a cold. Do you remember reading that book "Alexander and the terrible, horrible, No Good Very Bad Day" ? I read it back in elementary school and it was one of my favorites. Anyway, my point was that I felt like I was having one of those the day I got sick. See, on thursday morning at 8:00AM, I had a lab report for Chem 1a to turn in (a FORMAL lab report, might I add). So, I set my alarm for 7:10 because, well, 50 minutes is PLENTY of time to get ready for class right? Yes. But no, not if as soon as your alarm rings, your subconscious decides to pull a sneaky "lets turn off that darn noisy wake up call and go back to sleep"

http://www.kennedy-center.org/programs/family/alexander/

Continue reading "sick." »

Posted by Angela Hsu at 9:18 AM | Permalink

After church at Berkland Baptist Church, Tokyo, I went to the park behind Korakuen with some people. For only a 300 yen ($3) entrance fee, we got to tour the entire park. It's plum blossom season and it was beautiful. After, we left and went towards the Korakuen Department store. Parked outside was a bike with a kid in the backseat. No parent to be seen. We stood there for 25 min before we decided to get help. Two people went in to ask the station master what to do. He said it wasn't his jurisdiction and to get the police to handle it. (Closest police station is a 7 min walk down the street). Meanwhile, the kid's dad finally came back. He unlocked his bike, patted his kid's head, and rode off. It was like.. hum...
Tokyo's safe, but not that safe. There are often kidnapping reports (according to the Japanese people-church-friends).

Posted by K. Lee at 11:59 PM | Permalink

It's been one and a half weeks into my lovely vacation. Japanese universities have March off....and some even have February off too. I only have March off [International Christian University]. During this month, I've moved in with my cousin who is located in central Tokyo. The apartment is near Tokyo University [a.k.a. Todai].
Yesterday was quite productive. I finished my HTML final project for the UC Berkeley Extension class Creating Websites with HTML. http://www.unex.berkeley.edu/ Since I could do everything online, I had started in October. One has 6 months to finish an online class. Haha.

Continue reading "A month of Vacation" »

Posted by K. Lee at 5:39 PM | Permalink

One of the hard things about "going off to school" is growing apart from people that you used to be close to. It's something that I've had to adjust to this year. It's sad because it makes you realize people you were close to were only your friend out of convenience. The effort it takes to call someone once every week or two really isn't that hard. I've done my best to keep up with friends that have moved and gone to other schools. But when someone doesn't reciprocate those actions it can be hurtful. However the silver lining in the cloud is that there are so many amazing people at Cal. I met a girl this semester and became friends based on the fact we had a class together last semester even though we never talked before. ESPM classes are great because even though it's my 2nd semester I recognize 5-15 people in each of my classes.

Continue reading "Growing Apart" »

Posted by Marissa Ponder at 11:18 PM | Permalink

...come again another day....and it sure has...

It rained for about two weeks straight after Winter Break. Then, we had about a week of wonderful sunshine. I was so surprised! I've been asking some NorCal people and they all say that it gets warm around here in April. So I was extremely happy about the warm weather. I'm from SoCal, so I absolutely love the sun and warmth. I was actually in shorts that week. Alas...it was not to last...

The rain came back and it's as gloomy as ever in Berkeley. Doesn't rain just make you want to crawl back into bed with a cup of hot chocolate and watch tv or read all day? That's what I want to do instead of sloshing through puddles to get to class everyday.

Continue reading "Rain Rain Go Away..." »

Posted by Victoria Eng at 8:21 PM | Permalink

Did you know that CNR is selecting a new dean? There are four candidates this time and you can eat lunch with them! Three of the luncheons have already passed, but there's still one more! This Wednesday is the last luncheon with the last CNR dean candidate. Not only will you get free pizza and soda, but you get to voice your questions and concerns to the candidate. What are his or her goals for CNR as Dean? How will he or she increase student enrollment in CNR? Can he or she make sure classes stop getting canceled at the last minute? Ask the candidate anything that concerns you about CNR!

Continue reading "Have lunch with CNR Dean Candidates!" »

Posted by Victoria Eng at 8:12 PM | Permalink

Thursday, February 21, 2008

Time: 7pm - 9pm.
Location: Ecology Center, 2530 San Pablo Ave, near Dwight Way, Berkeley.
Cost: Free.
Info: 510-548-2220 x233, erc@ecologycenter.org, www.paksbab.org.

Rebuilding with Straw Bale in Earthquake Affected Pakistan
Berkeley architect Martin Hammer recently returned from Pakistan where he has been working to bring straw bale and other sustainable building practices to the mountainous region devastated by the 2005 earthquake, which was responsible for over 80,000 deaths, and left millions without permanent shelter. He'll give us an update on the work he presented last year, as well as provide details about straw bale construction. Straw bale construction is earthquake resistant, energy and resource efficient, and an affordable solution to northern Pakistan's enormous reconstruction needs. Martin Hammer has been involved with the design, engineering, and construction of straw bale buildings since 1995, and is the lead author of the proposed straw bale building code for the State of California. In 2006 he co-founded Pakistan Straw Bale and Appropriate Building (http://www.paksbab.org ). Come join us for this informative talk and slideshow.

Posted by Christina at 9:50 AM | Permalink

Would you believe this beautiful earthquake-proof California home is made of hay?

You can find more pictures of that beautiful Berkeley home here:
http://www.2339ninth.com/

Straw home construction started in the sand hills of Nebraska, when the European settlers couldn't find building materials, and made do with straw. Now desired for its incredible ability to insulate, and its safety against strong winds and earthquakes, straw is starting to move up in the world, beyond hobbyists and into the mainstream as a sustainable building method. Even this conference and retreat center, the Presentation Center in the Santa Cruz mountains, has chosen straw for construction.

Straw construction is reinforced with steel and framed by wood. Compressed hay bales make up the bulk of construction, which is later covered with several layers of plaster. Not only are these homes earthquake safe, they are esentially sound-proof with their two-foot-thick walls.

(photo from http://www.redfeather.org)

An organization called Builders Without Borders is making a difference with straw home technology in earthquake prone countries like Pakistan. Straw has become one of the most practical and economical methods for common folk to rebuild their communities after earthquakes. Since hay is grown locally, costs are reduced in all areas of construction, especially with transportation. Here is a link to an organization that promotes and educates the people of Pakistan with hay building: http://www.paksbab.org/

Here's a story from CNN about a straw house in Santa Cruz:
http://edition.cnn.com/2007/TECH/08/10/straw.bales/
Website for the Presentation Center in Santa Cruz:
http://www.presentationcenter.org/

Websites of interest:
http://www.strawbale.com/
http://www.strawbalebuilding.ca/strawbales.shtml
http://builderswithoutborders.org/
http://www.redfeather.org/programsStrawBaleConst.html

Posted by Christina at 8:29 AM | Permalink

Monopoly is coming out with a new world edition. You can help vote to put cities on the map..

Go nominate Taipei, Taiwan at http://www.monopolyworldvote.com/en_GB/world !
You'll have to register for an account, but... just do it!

If you look at the countries, they don't even list Taiwan. So go out there and nominate Taipei, Taiwan...then starting on the 29th of Feb, vote for it!

and.. yay! Kosovo has independence!

Posted by K. Lee at 6:30 AM | Permalink

I decided that since I know exactly what I want to do, might as well declare early. In addition, rumor has it that if you declare your major you can have some sort of priority during tele-bears and get other perks over undeclared students. The process would have been a lot easier except I had to declare a simultaneous degree in Microbial Biology in CNR and Arabic in L&S. First I met with my CNR advisor and filled a form with my complete plan for the rest of my semesters at Berkeley. After my advisor signed off on my paper and double checked my schedule I made an appointment with my L&S Arabic advisor so she can sign off on my separate packet that had my plan for the rest of my years at Berkeley. Both advisors had to sign BOTH packets from BOTH colleges. I then made copies of both packets and turned in the CNR packet at Mulford and the L&S packet at Campbell. A week later I got my final approval from CNR and then two weeks later I got my full approval from L&S and now I am officially a declared Microbial Biology and Arabic Major at Berkeley...something feels really satisfying about that.

Posted by Rola Abduljabar Rabah at 8:44 PM | Permalink

Today Dr. John Francis came to speak to my American Cultures & Natural Resource Managment course.

Experience of a lifetime.

He's the one who spent 17 years not speaking while he crossed the United States by foot. He currently spends 6 months every year walking around the world to raise awareness of environmental issues.

He's a UN delegate, and writes environmental policy.

Check out his website (his photo came from here):
http://www.planetwalk.org/

Posted by Christina at 3:55 PM | Permalink

The Berkeley campus is a "dynamic center of scholarship and of cultural and political activity," according to the Campus page of the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism's website. I read pamphlets extolling Berkeley's virtues as an ever-changing, constantly shifting forum for ideas and activity. Berkeley has a very dynamic campus, and in more ways than one.

I'm referring, of course, to the construction projects all over campus.

With changes in the school's structure come changes in the physical campus. Increases in student enrollment lead to an increased need for student housing and dining facilities; in other words, more dorms and dining commons. The Bioengineering building (Stanley Hall) was just finished, and the new Chang-Lin Tien Center for East Asian Studies should be finishing up soon.
All these new buildings are integral to Berkeley's progress as a premier educational and research institute.

Continue reading "Dynamic" »

Posted by Joel Kim at 1:53 PM | Permalink

Today is such a warm, relaxed day. The sun is shining so bright on the green Berkeley campus. A soft breeze blows. Students are walking around in T-shirts and shorts. Yes, it is a perfect summer day...in February.

One of the many things about Berkeley that shock people who come from outside the Bay Area (or indeed, outside of California) is the weather. It is just so warm and so beautiful here. As my friend from Massachusetts put it "You guys don't have seasons out here! Everything is the same!" She said that caroling during Christmas was frustrating, especially during songs like "Winter Wonderland."

Continue reading "Warm Days..." »

Posted by Joel Kim at 1:36 PM | Permalink

What do you call an animal that is a hybrid cross between a lion and a tiger? Well, that depends on who you ask. According to me, it's called a liger- a real living animal... but according to my hallmates and some other skeptics out there, it's a load of bull.
Recently, I've been going through a bit of a "liger obsession phase", which was sparked a week ago by my roomate's boyfriend who was watching a liger video on youtube. He seemed pretty impressed and showed it to other people on the floor(including me)...who welcomed it with varying reactions. Half my floormates thought it was cool, and the other half thought it was all made up. "What proof is there?!" they would ask. Now, I know that googling is not the most completely credible way to find scientific articles, but in order to prove their existance I found some pretty legit sites including national geographic, wikipedia (a little more questionable),

Continue reading "what the liger?" »

Posted by Angela Hsu at 2:25 PM | Permalink

I know it's a bit early to worry about my plans for this summer, but I just can't seem to decide what to do this summer. I've created two options for myself:

(1) Stay at Berkeley and take a summer course (maybe Chem 3B/L, Physics 8A, Bio 1A/L, or Bio 1B/L...any suggestions?), continue working at Moffitt Library, and maybe find a clinical positon...

OR

(2) Go home to SoCal, take Spanish somewhere, and find a clinical or volunteer position

Continue reading "Summer Plans?!" »

Posted by Victoria Eng at 10:00 AM | Permalink

I love my little bath sponge. I love it even more now that I know where it comes from.

I bought a new loofah sponge Saturday, since mine died a sorry death in French Polynesia months ago. As I pulled it out of its packaging, I noticed a seed. Then I stared at the placentation. I thought, "This is Curcubitaceae." And I wondered why I hadn't noticed that about my last sponge.

This image shows the placentation:

Always a curious sort, I put it on my list of things to look into. Did you know that you're scrubbing yourself with xylem? Here's a great step-by-step how to prepare your own loofah article written by Aaron Newton, who grows his own Luffa :http://www.groovygreen.com/groove/?p=689 In this article, Aaron describes the simple process of "milking" the Luffa fruit, to remove the fleshy fruit and seeds, leaving just the fibrous xylem that makes the exfoliating sponge we all love.

Here's a Luffa gord dried out on the vine:

Many species in the genus Luffa, within the Curcubitaceae, are grown for use as sponges. This is the same family as cucumber, melon, and squash. Luffa cylindrica, Luffa acutangula and Luffa aegyptiaca are a few of the species that are grown for this purpose.

Here's a flower with a bumble bee:

Click on "Continue Reading" to see references for further reading, and my sources for all of the photographs of this entry.

Continue reading "Loofah Explained!" »

Posted by Christina at 7:42 AM | Permalink

We all get one for free, as long as we're enrolled in classes at Berkeley. It's the AC Tranist bus pass. It goes on the front of our ID cards, next to our picture. Most of the time, students just use it to ride around campus on the Perimeter, Reverse Perimeter, or Hill Line.

But there's an awesome resource that few students know about. The online trip planner:
http://tripplanner.transit.511.org/mtc/XSLT_TRIP_REQUEST2?language=en&itdLPxx_homepage=secondStep

Just type in where you're starting, and where you want to end up. It'll tell you the best way to get there. If you scroll to the bottom "4. Transportation Options", you can choose Only Buses.

Some enticing places to visit, via AC Transit:

- Tilden Park
- Tilden Park Botanical Garden
- El Cerrito Plaza (Trader Joe's, Barnes & Noble, Lucky's, Ross, PetCo)
- Michael's Crafts in Emeryville
- Home Depot in Emeryville
- Office Depot in Berkeley
- Oakland Animal Shelter (to pet bunnies)

Continue reading "Getting the most out of your bus pass" »

Posted by Christina at 9:20 PM | Permalink

Do you like bunnies? They're soft and fun to pet.
Well, even if you can't have one in your apartment, I know of a great place to go and visit them in the afternoons. The bunnies at the Oakland Animal Shelter will welcome your pets and affection, even if you do have to put them back in their cages and go home without them.

At the Oakland Animal Shelter, they take care of a couple dozen rabbits. With their no-kill policy, excellently trained volunteers, and plentiful healthy hay, they take great care of their rabbits. Unfortunately, they're trapped in little boxes in a back room for most of the day, with tons of hay and good sanitation - but still, not much room to hop or folks to cuddle with.

If you find some free time, you should definitely go to keep them company!

To get there from campus with your free bus pass, take the 1R line (#1lx/1) from Telegraph Ave. in the direction of the Bayfair BART station.

Here's a website that tells you all about the available dogs, cats, and rabbits in Oakland:
http://www.oaklandanimalservices.org/index.php?z=4

If you live anywhere in the United States, here's a great resource to help you find your new companion. With Petfinder, you can search all of the animal rescue centers nationwide, by zip code or city name:
http://www.petfinder.com/

Posted by Christina at 8:56 PM | Permalink

When the sun peaked out from the clouds the other day, I decided to pull out my camera.
Hope you enjoy!

Posted by Christina at 8:13 PM | Permalink

I think a common feeling here at Cal is always feeling unprepared. No matter how many hours I read, study, or go to class there's always a moment of unpreparedness (my new word). For example there is guaranteed to be one question on your final that has no relevance/random/impossible. I realized today that there will always be those moments in life beyond Berkeley. I always have an umbrella (no this is not a random tangent), in fact I have two, just in case I lose one. Well of all the days to forget an umbrella and wear a thin sweatshirt, today was not the day. As I walked way across campus in the pouring rain, I got soaked through my sweatshirt and shirt, I started laughing. Yes this was my moment...when it all made sense. Even the weather in Berkeley has it out for me. I'm always prepared for rain...except for today when it poured! I know all my scheming professors were responsible and wanted to remind me that I'm always be unprepared at Cal, even when it comes to the weather.

Posted by Marissa Ponder at 11:34 PM | Permalink

Yes I am still alive and I am still blogging on this site. How long has it been? Forever has it? Well as long as they keep letting me sign on I'll still be blogging. I wonder when I'll finally go to the page and find out they changed the password. I can see it now, "Jonathan, give it up. You're not a fresh face anymore. You've been here for two years. What more can you say?! Please stop!"

It keeps my brain young and limber to write like this anyway. I spend so much of my day writing lame stuff like, "The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dogs."

I am taking an economic demography class. Now I've used this punchline a million times before but I'm still refining it for maximum hilarity. This could take years. In this class they really like to talk about demographics of our industrialized nations and how our more industrialized nations have aging populations and that eventually that population will slowly decrease in size because of plunging fertility rates. Now I'm a pretty normal guy (or so the voices in my head always like to insist) but every time I leave lecture I can't help but feel this need to go and reproduce. Like if I'm being compelled to have hundreds and hundreds of Asian babies to replace all the ones in Japan not being born. If it turns out that there are no Asians in Asia anymore, then it's my fault for not popping out 2.1 babies to keep replacing the population. Sigh.

If you are reading this then you are bored. No question about it. Why don't you cheer yourself up by heading over to UC Berkeley's Wikipedia page and feel awesome at going to such an stupefyingly awesome school? I do it all the time.

Posted by Jonathan Yu at 9:14 PM | Permalink

Studying abroad means that one ought to take all the opportunities possible to improve one's language skills. One way that I do this is my watching dramas. I prefer to watch them once without subtitles, then once again with subtitles to catch the meanings I didn't get the first time. If the episode was fascinating, I might watch it once more without subtitles. For proper language skills, I would recommend that one not watch anime (Japanese cartoons). Many Japanese people mention that those to avidly watch anime talk oddly. They have a comic accent.

On an awesome note, as I was watching a drama, this guy with this shirt pops up.

Go UC System!

Posted by K. Lee at 12:17 AM | Permalink

A girl in my dorm is taking an English class on Bioethics presented me with the following case.
A scientist/doctor in Japan has transplanted 42 cases of kidneys into patients on dialysis. The issue with these kidneys was that they were previously diseased but had the diseased portion cut out before transplantation. In none of these cases did complications arise. Due to the situation in Japan, the scientist was unable to present his findings/paper in Japan. Yet, he will be bringing the paper to present in the USA this month (or perhaps he has already presented it this month).

She asked me about my thoughts:
Q: Is this more acceptable in the USA? The USA is probably more open about presenting abnormal, groundbreaking, cases. However, this does not mean that the situation would be more acceptable in the USA.
Q: Would you give your diseased kidney to someone? No. I don't want to deal with liability issues our legal system makes it easy to sue. Even with liability waivers, it is still possible to sue.

Continue reading "Bioethical Issues on Kidney Transplants" »

Posted by K. Lee at 7:24 AM | Permalink

The yuletide relaxations have been concluded and now our hero set forth to smite his final semester at UC Berkeley. Last semester was a mind bending decerebrational dropkick of sub-epic proportions. This semester he will surely be transformed into a photo-phobic corpse of the benevolently peering sort. Yay philosophical zombies!! Speaking of which you should all submit to Jonathan Coulton's Re: Your Brains.

Posted by Eric Thurston at 3:03 PM | Permalink

I've never seen it snow before! It's 1 AM and my UC Irvine buddy texted me. I went outside to see for myself. Holding my hand out, tiny white droplets fell. Snowflakes!! They only lasted a second.. but.. SNOWFLAKES!!! As you can see, I am excited. :)

Posted by K. Lee at 8:00 AM | Permalink

Hi Guys!

My name is Amy Lin. 4th year MEB major currently studying abroad in Singapore! I was one of the CNR peer advisors and I thought it's be nice if I can share my experiences abroad with you guys! I'll be updating some pictures and my daily happenings on this blog. So stay tuned!

Today was the third day of school in National University of Singapore, NUS, where I study Life Sciences. I can't believe I've lived in Singapore for 10 days already. I spent the first part of my winter break in Taiwan and then I went to Singapore straight. Upon arrival in Singapore, the EAP program provided us a week of touring from Monday to Sunday last week. Everyday we woke up at around 8 and got home around 10 at night and we still have not yet finished touring and exploring Singapore! No, it is actually not that small, surprisingly.

There are 30 UC students studying abroad in NUS for Spring 2008, mostly are from UC Berkeley. 9 of us did not get assigned to the on campus housing and thus we live in the apartment- Boon Lay Block 190- arranged by the school. I live with Tiffany Berkeley, Cindy from UCLA, and Katherine from Hong Kong. We've met international students from many countries around the world, Canada, India, Malaysia, Poland, France, Brazil, Germany, England, Japan, Australia, China, Taiwan, Japan... No country, however, tops the 30 people we have from the UCs, California =)

Posted by Amy Lin at 2:16 AM | Permalink

Today I visited with a large portion of the Botany faculty at Miami University of Ohio. This is one of the schools to which I have applied for graduate school. You can visit their Botany website here: http://www.cas.muohio.edu/botany/

Tom toured the little town and took photos while I met with faculty.

My schedule for today:
8:45am - Hotel pick-up by Dr. Prem Kumar (Post-doc in Dr. Kiss' lab)
9:00am - Dr. Linda E. Watson (Botany department chair)
9:30am - Dr. John Kiss (NASA-funded space Botany)
10:30am - Dr. R. James Hickey (fern systematist)
11:00am - Dr. Mike Vincent (herbarium curator)
11:30am - Dr. Quinn Li (genetics)
noon - Lunch with Prem Kumar (Post-doc for Dr. Kiss' lab) and Neela Kumar (PhD student Dr. Kiss' lab, vegetarian)
1:30pm - Dr. Richard Edelmann (electron and light microscopy specialist)
2:00pm - Dr. Nik Money - (Mycologist)
2:30pm - Dr. Beth Schussler (Biological sciences education researcher)
3:00pm - Dr. David Gorchov (Ecology)
3:30-5:15pm - Meet with Tom and discuss day.
5:30pm - Driving tour of campus with Dr. Kiss (Tom, too)
6:00pm - Dinner with Dr. Kiss (Tom, too)

The weather was cold, but not at all unbearable. Dreary in the morning, clear blue skies in the afternoon. People asked me often my impression of the weather. It was pretty. I liked watching the little flurries of snow caught up by the breeze.

Impressions of the program:
Well-established Botany program. Knowledgeable staff. Focus on teaching. Kind people.
Dr. Kiss is my favorite faculty member. His research is fascinating. The folks in his lab are kind and fun.

Drawbacks of the program:
May not be easy to petition into PhD program. Many encourage you to complete your master's, then move on to PhD.
Described by one graduate student as having "low expectations" (challenged by other students I met, who found it quite difficult to juggle teaching, their own coursework, and research)

Pluses:
Excellent funding
Diverse coursework offerings
Gentle people
Fun, fairly isolated college town, but driving distance from Cincinnati and Dayton.

I like it.

Posted by Christina at 5:46 PM | Permalink

It's still vacation for Berkeley, but I'm in the middle of my second trimester here at International Christian University, Japan. Thus far, I've learned about international representations.

When I think about America, I think about immigration. It's a soup bowl of people. It may be a melting pot or a salad, but either way we're a unique culture of combinations. There is truly no uniting force in the USA except that we are ... here by accident or by purpose (whether our own or some other force). Going overseas, we represent this conglomeration of cultures. Yet, because it is a glop of cultures, when we represent, we are unable to represent the entirety. We do not have a common history, ancestors, or thoughts to bind us together. The question of what is an American is a difficult question.

Continue reading "Representing" »

Posted by K. Lee at 12:59 AM | Permalink

In the recent California storm, some of my family and friends went without power for up to four days. If you went without power for more than 48hrs, you qualify for some cash from PG&E. It's not much, but there's no reason not to take it -- is there? Also, if you lost a lot of food in your fridge or freezer, you can submit a claim requesting reimbursement for food spoilage. Check it out:

Food Spoilage http://www.pge.com/includes/docs/pdfs/customer_service/claims/claimform_santarosa.pdf

Safety Net The program provides a special, customer service staffed outage hotline, 1 (888) 743-4743 or 1 (888) PGE-4PGE, so you can speak to someone about your particular outage. Call and request a Storm Inconvenience Payment, which are provided in increments of $25, up to a maximum of $100 per event. Payment levels are based on the length of the customer's outage

* 48 to 72 hours $25
* 72 to 96 hours $50
* 96 to 120 hours $75
* 120 hours or more $100

Posted by Tay Feder at 7:42 PM | Permalink

It's hard to believe, for me anyway, that the beginning of the Spring semester is fast approaching. I've been out since December 15th and although I know I get a month off, it certainly doesn't feel like it. It's gone by way too quickly! I feel like I have so much more I need to do and although I love venting on Fresh Faces, I'm feeling pressured to keep it short! So I hope you all have had a great break and get everything together before the 15th! I'm going to miss just hanging out at home and not worrying about readings, problem sets, or anything else, but I am looking forward to being back at school. 'Till then, then, take care!

[edit]
Hmm...it seems that in my haste (from looking at a particular website, and for other reasons which will be touched on shortly) I was under the impression that classes began on Tuesday, January 15th. I feel foolish, very foolish (lmao). It must have been while looking at this (yes, I admit I only glanced at it and then proceeded to close it) that I somehow got the idea that the semester started on the 15th. I mean, it is in bold! And another thing: why the "heck" (substitute appropriate word here, lol) aren't the dates listed on either the schedule, BearFacts, or Tele-BEARS?! I think it'd be helpful having that information available! Anyway, lesson learned though. Next time I will definitely make sure to look for the "instruction Begins" date. Yeah, how about we bold that one instead?! :-P

Continue reading "Less than a week...SIKE, or Psych if you prefer" »

Posted by Juan at 3:32 PM | Permalink

The UC Riverside Biological Sciences Graduate Division has officially lost 2 of my transcripts, GRE scores, supplementary application information, check, fellowship application, and 1 (of 3 total) letter of recommendation.

5 separate envelopes. 2 of which sent from outside the state of California.

They tell me it's all lost in the mail. "If you sent it certified, we might be able to track it."
I didn't.

Let's have this be a lesson for all of us:
Choose to mail everything certified.

Oh, and... Don't plan on getting small-school attention from UC Riverside. No matter how small the program is that you're applying to, the school is massive and you can still fall through the cracks.

Posted by Christina at 3:09 PM | Permalink

This was my favorite super hero when I was a kid! He still is!
Stopping sugar-eating criminals in the act, Captain Vegetable convinces all of us that eating veggies is cool.

Posted by Christina at 1:52 PM | Permalink

I try hard to monopolize your attention. This time my new tactic is to write during vacation when I assume that nobody else is writing because their lives do not revolve around school like mine does. Yes. Today I am going out to buy lead for my pencils - this day is rife with excitement and pregnant with pungent anticipation. I am very picky about my pencil lead. I only use 0.7 mm 2B lead because it gives me the darkest line and the strength to hold up under my hard pressed hand.

Being on semester schedule is unusual. All my other UC friends are on the quarter schedule so their classes start today. This essentially leaves me with more reading and eating time. I wonder if this semester thing is a plot from Berkeley to deliberately isolate itself and its students from the rest of the system. The chess club in my high school did this too and it lead to two things: 1) Unparalleled chess genius-ry - I mean seriously. They'll win even if they give you their queen and let you continually beat them over the head with it. and 2) They danced with only themselves during the school dances.

My search for peace, purpose and good TV reception on CBS continues. I HAVE to watch the Patriots game on Saturday even if it means me wrapping myself in aluminum and sticking my arms out of a 2nd story window.

Posted by Jonathan Yu at 4:18 PM | Permalink

So check out what popped up on my TV when I was playing Super Paper Mario:

Click to view

B-)

Continue reading "School Spirit!" »

Posted by Juan at 10:06 PM | Permalink

This semester has been...short and bittersweet. My classes were wonderful: ESPM 118, EDU 114AC, PP101, PP190 (Negotiations), and ESPM 163AC. I would actually recommend all of them to others.
policy memos, the impact of garden programs on school children and hot to build and foster a successful garden within one, slow foods, the multi-dimensional, multi-modal meaning of literacy, the right to fair treatment and conditions to everyone regardless of race, class, ethnicity, gender, or preferences, how to negotiate, and adaorable and intelligent fourth and fifth grade students like Marky are just a few of the things i've learned, experienced, and worked on/with this semester
I managed a class of interns and an Asian American Field Studies course - which I was still writing evaluations and reading reflections for and from even after my finals were over. I completed a whole (gut-wrenching) semester as PASS' assistant director of internal affairs. ha! I sound like i'm reading from my resume.

It all sounds great now...but man was this semester stressful! I don't think i've had another year go as quickly as this one did. Besides school and the incessant group projects that plagued me this semester, there's also family back at home. So many things happened at home: my mom tripped and was in crutches for a while, my brother sick, and my sister was once again a basketball star-starter/team captain. You miss a lot when you're away from home...even if you're still in the same state. But you know? I think for me it was sometimes a good growing and learning tool. I had to learn to balance it all and try not to let things influence your school life. It sure is good to be home though!

Posted by Nikki Fernandez at 10:26 AM | Permalink

On Christmas day, my brother and I were alone in the house. My mother was still at work at the hospital, and my father had gone to the meditation center for his afternoon session. Dale was working on AP Bio homework, and I was just lounging around the house, looking for something to do.

Bored and a little edgy from spending so much time indoors, I decided to go for a walk. After a moment's thought, I took my brother with me. No sense in keeping him locked up indoors, you see, and I figured he would enjoy some fresh air.

We bundled up as best we could and soldiered into the night air. The Santa Ana winds were blowing something fierce, and the shrieking winds brought a strange eeriness to our friendly evening street. We headed for the park, my brother on rollerblades, myself on foot.

After a brief excursion onto the tennis courts, where we played tag and whacked each other with sticks, we arrived at our destination. The playground. A modest ensemble of plastic, metal, and sand, it had served us well in our youth in amusement and sport. Seeing it now, after such long years at college, brought some comfort. There was no one else around; no one else was foolish enough to come out at this time of night to a playground beset by such winds.

Continue reading "Sand, Steel, and Swings: Christmas at the park with my brother" »

Posted by Joel Kim at 12:35 PM | Permalink

This happens every semester, the hold-my breath, knots in my stomach feeling that I get NOT when taking finals, because those are over, but when I go to "current term grades" on Bearfacts. One of the longest parts of the semester can sometimes be waiting until your grades get posted onto Bearfacts. This is especially true if you have those type of teachers that don't give you too much feedback on your other works, isn't too good at updating the bSpace gradebook, or if your professor missed the technology train and is stuck in the era of manually issuing and posting your grades. So now that Christmas is over and I have less and less distractions, I will be waiting by my computer for my grades and in a few of my classes, it's a tossup...I guess I'll just have to wait and see how it goes!

Posted by Nikki Fernandez at 8:59 AM | Permalink

For those of you who are crazy about geology, here's a great article from the National Geographic. It focuses on the formation of the moon, through analysis of moon rocks.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/12/071219-moon-collision.html

Earth-Asteroid Collision Formed Moon Later Than Thought
Richard A. Lovett
for National Geographic News

December 19, 2007

The moon was formed from fragments of Earth after a collision with a giant asteroid relatively late in our planet's formation, new tests of moon rocks show.

The finding upends many of the prior theories for how the moon came to be, researchers say.

Scientists have long believed that the moon was formed by a collision between our planet and a Mars-size object.

Computer models have shown that in this scenario 80 percent of the moon's material should have come from the asteroid, with only 20 percent from Earth.

But the new study of moon rocks collected three decades ago by Apollo astronauts, however, found that Earth and the rocks were too similar for that to be the case.

Continue reading "Moon Rocks" »

Posted by Christina at 2:03 PM | Permalink

I guess the title of this post has already revealed what I want to share with you guys. And here it goes…

Even though I finished my last final last Friday, I didn’t get to go home till yesterday since I still had to work. Everything before Tuesday was good, because I did not have any finals left and grades were not out yet. However, when I got back Tuesday night, I found out that the wireless network at my place was not working. I tried and tried, but I still could not get my laptop connect to the network.

I was not that willing to go to sleep early. So I decided to go to a place where there is Internet. But then I was too lazy to go out in such a chilly night and I stayed in my room. So what could I do?

I first organized my room and recycled all the scratch papers I had used when I was reviewing for my ochem final. After I clean my room, it was barely 9:00 pm and that was still early for me to go to sleep. So I borrowed magazines from my roommate so that I could have something to read. Even though those magazines were not the ones I would read, I still sat there and read them word-by-word, line-by-line, paragraph –by-paragraph and page-by-page.

I thought Wednesday would be better but I was wrong. The wireless network was still not working. So I spent that night reading the papers I have written for my English class this semester and went to bed really early.

Continue reading "What can I do without Internet?" »

Posted by Yang Cao at 11:29 PM | Permalink

The No. 1 thing people would warn you when you are about to enter college is: “Oh, be careful about ‘freshman 15’!” For me, I was really careful last year keeping a healthy lifestyle and consequently, I did not get my ‘freshman 15’.

But this year, it has been difficult. First of all, I moved out of the dorms so I am basically on my own for meals. As a result, I eat out much more frequently than I did last year. Secondly, I have developed bad study habits as I start to stay up late much more frequently than I did last year to finish my papers and cram in for exams. Consequently, I have to eat snacks (unhealthy ones) to fight away the hunger! Thirdly, since my vigilance toward ‘freshman 15’ has diminished, I do not go to do exercise as frequently as I should.

Here are a few tips I am going to give a try:

1). Go for vegetables and fruits whenever you can
2). Try not to develop the habit to drink sodas because once you get used to them, you would have one almost every meal.
3). It is hard to push yourself to go the gym on a regular basis. So you may want to find things to do with friends that are “hidden exercises”
4). Don’t put too much pressure on yourself to “diet” because this may make you feel left out when you are hanging out with friends who not are not dieting. Have some unplanned days when you can eat whatever…
5). Try to maintain regular eating and sleeping times!
6). Never skip a meal, especially breakfast!

That’s what I have so far. Any suggestions?

Posted by Yang Cao at 1:00 AM | Permalink

As the semester winds down, I remember why the last few weeks after Thanksgiving come and go so quickly. Aside from course wrap-ups and professor and gsi evaluations, there are also end of the year/semester events all over campus. I remember when I was a freshman we got booted out of the dorms the last day of finals and couldn't get back in until welcome week. That wasn't actually a problem for me because I was packed and ready to go back home well before finals even started- and I brought home about 3 check-in luggages as well as my 2 carry-ons. As I sit here, I'm thinking, when will I really have time to pack, what I really need to pack anyways besides maybe a few essentials to last me a few weeks...and how did I do it back then?

All this random thinking comes of course only because it's time for finals, time to "buckle down" and study. I think this is true for every college student but I feel like we all need a study place, where we are motivated to work. For some it's the library (but God knows I DO NOT want to fight for then fend my spot in the library from all the troopers who call it "home" for the duration of finals. I think i'm getting old, I need my sleep. That's why I stay close to home. My favorite places to study? It's a tie between Royal Grounds on Shattuck and Starbucks on Oxford, the places where I tell myself I have to work.

Posted by Nikki Fernandez at 4:48 PM | Permalink

Over the Thanksgiving break, I went home to Granada Hills and relaxed with my family. I drove down with a few friends on Wednesday and got home around midnight. Some things had changed; my brother had put in a big mat in the middle of the living room to practice his break-dancing. My family greeted me with a hug and sent me off to bed. However, even though I was really tired, I stayed up until 3 AM playing Lumines on my brother's PSP. I guess some things don't change as much.

Continue reading "Provision of Gratitude" »

Posted by Joel Kim at 2:13 PM | Permalink

So I've been MIA for pretty much this entire semester. I'll try to make up for my absence in these next coming days. Luckily my final exam schedule is relatively free, so I have more time to write.

Thinking back over this semester, I wish I had spent more time on this blog. I've recently rediscovered the joy in keeping a journal or diary. I get to take time to relax and unwind after each day, writing down my thoughts on the events of the day. Sometimes I would remember a joke someone told me, and laugh a second time. Perhaps I will think on what I learned that day, or things that I wanted to do, but didn't. Keeping a journal gives me space to relive the day, and to get a little perspective. I wish I did it more often.

This semester went by so quickly. There is so much I wanted to do, so much I wanted to be a part of. Dinners to attend, happy birthdays to wish, books to read, thoughts to think...Well, there's no time for regret. That's why I like having a journal of sorts, so I can look back and remember.

Thanks for reading this, and hopefully it gets you thinking too. Take a second to remember today.

Posted by Joel Kim at 1:46 PM | Permalink

Hey! I hope everyone isn't drowning in studying for finals and finishing papers! As for me...I still need to revise...more like, rewrite...my research paper for english. I always get so stressed writing papers. LOL. Ever wonder why I'm a science major? I'm only taking english to fulfill pre-med requirements...but after this semester, I'm going to take a break before taking another english couse. The professor was really good, but writing papers just stresses me out too much.

Anyways, still wondering about the title? Well, I live right across from Tolman Hall, so I can get the Airbears wireless internet connection...until now...On Monday, my internet just died and I haven't been able to use the internet at my studio ever since. I know I sound like such a modern college student, ever so dependent on internet...

Continue reading "Crashing Down..." »

Posted by Victoria Eng at 2:58 PM | Permalink

Only two and half weeks til Thanksgiving Break!!! Or...about 15 days...whichever one sounds shorter! So, anyone have plans, yet? I know I do! I can't wait to go back home to SoCal! I mean, Berkeley's awesome and everything, but I do miss my family. So...here are my plans:

I'm gonna fly back to SoCal on Thursday, Thanksgiving Day, yes...cuz I didn't know that I wouldn't have some classes on Wednesday...but I actually end classes on Wednesday at noon...I guess I'll just try and get some work done and just hang out with friends. Anyways, by the time I get home, it'll be mid-afternoon...and I plan on eating a lot, watching a few movies,

Continue reading "Can't wait 'til Thanksgiving!!!" »

Posted by Victoria Eng at 10:33 AM | Permalink

Yes, as hard as it is to believe, I am still alive and well. I have not posted here at all since the semester began. I thought that I was too busy to type anything worthwhile, but I realized that I was not as busy as I thought. I just was too lazy to write anything here. May that be a lesson to all of us.

I just spent the last hour reorganizing my email inbox. I had let my GMail mailbox fill up to a ridiculous degree, and so had to wade through it to pluck out the relevant, important emails, and dump out the rest. What's worse is that I should be studying for my midterm later today...but I just could not rest until I organized it. As it is, I have whittled down 1000 emails to about 700, and I will take a break until tomorrow.

I apologize if this entry appears scatterbrained or ill-planned, for I am (unsuccessfully) multitasking at the moment. I just wanted to check-in and let everyone (anyone?) who reads this blog know that I'm still around, and I will post more frequently (after this week).

At the least, let this entry be an encouragement to all those students thinking of entering Berkeley. As prestigious as this university is and as intelligent and talented as its students are, we are still human (mostly), and still fall prey to common human pitfalls, such as lust, greed, and SLOTH.

Posted by Joel Kim at 11:46 AM | Permalink

Again. The busyness of my life consumes me like a fire consumes a bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken. I hope to be able to clear my life up a little more so that we CAN talk a little more. Again, to the like three people out there who actually read my words, I apologize.

So what's been up with my life? I took an internship in San Francisco. This means that every Monday and Friday I have to take the BART to SF. This usually takes 22 minutes and usually I end up just staring out the window because the people inside glare back at me and they aren't anything to really look at anyways. If I were sitting in a trainful of America's Next Top Models, maybe I can think differently. Until then, yeah not really.

What bothers me about riding to San Francisco all the time? First the cost. It costs me 3.25 one way between the great City and Berkeley. It adds up, dude. I can go buy an iPod Touch with that cash and I do want an iPod Touch sooo badly. Also, what bothers me is that the world seems to take the train at the same time so there are never any seats. This bothers me less because standing burns calories but my legs are old and my butt never misses a chance to plant its face somewhere.

How is class? Somewhat fun. I am taking an interesting addition this semester: Play writing. This means that I have to write a whole bunch of plays and submit them to criticism from 15 people, including my instructor - Mel Gordon - who is a funny guy but he pulls no punches. I haven't written my first script to be presented as of yet, so I have no idea what's coming. I hope ...

Posted by Jonathan Yu at 8:57 PM | Permalink

I try to keep writing from time to time but there are just so many more bloggers here now. It is amazing that they still let me write in here. I am waiting for the day I get that email telling me, Please Jonathan. No more. We can't take anymore of your insane rants. Have you checked yourself recently for any mental illnesses?

The voices in my head tell me that I am fine but I think I should resort to a second opinion.

So how is my year so far? I have started an internship in San Francisco recently and I commute there every Monday and Friday and work there from 9 to 4. The hours seem to be a bit overkill but let's see how they work out first. I got some nice stamina so let's see if I hold up. If I don't write here for a couple weeks, it's not cause I don't care about all two of you who read my syphilic rantings, but it is because I am coming straight home and then straight to bed. Exhaustion is my new wife and I sleep with her all of the night.

Posted by Jonathan Yu at 9:35 PM | Permalink

The typhoon is coming so we have canceled classes tomorrow. yay? It would be yay...except we're trapped inside...and that also means more work next week. Well, it's interesting at least. heh.

Posted by K. Lee at 12:58 AM | Permalink

So here at Cal we have these things called DeCal classes. DeCal is short for democratic education at Cal and the classes are really a lot of fun. This semester I’m thinking of taking two DeCals: archery and swing dancing. I going to get course credit for swing dancing and practicing archery! I went to the swing class last night and more than a hundred people showed up but the class only seats 50. Wish me luck. I think I’ve got a good shot at it because I’m a lead with 9 months of Ballroom experience. Alas, there are about 5 girls to every boy, seems like I've got a moral imperative to dance with these girls. How very hard my life is... ;{p

Decal classes are nice ways to round out a schedule and take your mind off mind bending academic loads and because decals are only 1-2 units pass fail they can help you meet Cal’s semester minimum of 13 units. Three academic classes and one decal makes for a manageable and non-psycho semester. Learn more at http://www.decal.org/

Posted by Eric Thurston at 2:16 PM | Permalink

Hey everyone--all the Fresh Faces authors, readers, and stragglers to this site!
I'll begin with the compulsory 'first post' type information.
My name is Juan and I was conceived on...hmm, not one of my best ice breakers lol.
My name IS Juan though and I'm a Junior Transfer to CNR at Berkeley. It's taken me a while to set everything up (it was actually Eva's fault, j/k ;-)) but I'm real glad to be here! A week has gone by already and life at Cal has been fast paced...even now, I should be reading for Stats20 and EEP100, but I'm here instead! ;-) It's been fun and challenging so far and I'm looking forward to the next 15 weeks (I'm sure that tune will change at around week 10 maybe, lol).
Well, I don't have much time to write a whole lot, but will certainly be back to ramble on a bit more! Go BEARS, Go CNR, and definitely...GO EEP!

Posted by Juan at 10:52 PM | Permalink

Going where no seeds have gone before - On the space station! My friend Tori sent me this great article from NASA's website: http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2007/16aug_basil.htm?list728615
Basil Orbits Earth
Authors: Lori Meggs, Tony Phillips | Editor: Dr. Tony Phillips

August 16, 2007: You'll never guess what was in Barbara Morgan's pocket when she blasted off from Kennedy Space Center last week onboard space shuttle Endeavour.

The teacher-turned-astronaut carried millions of basil seeds into orbit and onto the International Space Station. Basil ... in space? Well, you never know when the ISS might run into some bland spaghetti sauce.

Seriously, basil in space is cutting-edge research. Astronauts on future missions to the Moon and beyond are going to want to take plants along for the ride--for food, oxygen and even companionship. It's important for NASA to learn how seeds endure space conditions and germinate in low gravity.

Continue reading "Space Basil!" »

Posted by Christina at 8:06 AM | Permalink

This really brightened my day.

Dr. Zhivago is one of my all-time favorite films. That's where this song comes from. This guy does such a spirited rendition of it on the accordion, I can't help but to smile.

Posted by Christina at 9:18 PM | Permalink

The often over-looked, cheap, and incredibly delicious Lentil: I had my first lentil soup while living here at the CO-OP in Berkeley, and now it's my favorite. So today I decided to do a little research into the lentil.

What are lentils?
They're a legume! Like peas, or beans.

Its Latin name is Lens culinaris


Where are they really from?
Their origins are believed to be in northern Syria and South-West Asia. Lentils were found in Egyptian tombs, dating back to 2,400 BC, but there's archaeological evidence of their cultivation as early as 6,000 BC.

Where do they grow best?
Sandy, nutrient-poor soils in warm climates.

Why do I feel so good after eating them?
Lentils are filled with good-for-you stuff, like anti-oxidants, iron, fiber, and tannins. They have no cholesterol, fat, sodium, or sugars.

Here's a rundown of their nutrition facts:

Continue reading "Lentils" »

Posted by Christina at 3:49 PM | Permalink

Ever wonder what the weather is like in Berkeley in August?

It's cold.

When I returned to campus the other week, I laughed as Tom and I drove by someone who was putting on a fuzzy winter coat. When I stepped out of the car, I no longer laughed.

We've had a couple of days where we've seen the sun. Usually that's at about 2pm, after the world has had ample time to heat up. Today it's 61 degrees with 73% humidity. There's a mist that covers everything in the mornings and evenings, plus a constant drizzle of rain throughout the day.

Posted by Christina at 10:50 AM | Permalink

Saturday morning, bright and early, I walked through the house and realized that everyone was glued to the new Harry Potter book. They were sitting tranquilly on the couches, reading. Relaxing. One guy got up periodically to play the piano.

It was a big project weekend for the CO-OP, other than the whole Harry Potter craze. Sarah helped Tom and I refinish the wood paneling on the spa. We sanded it down, then put the new finish on Saturday, then Sunday we put on the first coat of Polyurethane. By next weekend, it's going to be beautiful!

this used to be faded light blue-gray.

What a great weekend. A quiet house, and plenty of work completed. If only this would happen more often!

Posted by Christina at 12:04 PM | Permalink

My family and I flew to Irvine, California for a family reunion/ Grandpa's 90th birthday. It was fun trying to speak Mandarin, actually, butchering and stuttering in all my broken sentences. It's actually only my second reunion and the first consisted of my other grandpa's funeral reunioness. So, anyway, it was fun... we gotta eat like 500 dollars worth of dinner and my cousins and uncles/aunts were very fun to be around. The most memorable experience during those three days though, was when we had to take pics. The place we were at was sooo hot and suffocating.
Apparently, I wasn't the only one. My dad suddenly started breaking out into a sweat and feeling numb everywhere. We all thought it was a stroke. Lost, we called for an ambulance. Now, I know that a stroke only occurs on half side of the body, not the whole. Hint hint.He's fine now, thank goodness. Anyway, I hope that we'll have another reunion soon.

Posted by Casey Wang at 9:08 AM | Permalink

We had an earthquake this morning! Just a 4.2, at 4:44:22 am, how odd that those numbers are so similar. The epicenter was in the hills beyond Oakland, so we're within 10 miles. Living on the 4th floor, it definitely jolted us out of bed. Some neighborhoods lost power, nothing happened here. A couple of things fell off a couple of shelves.

Posted by Christina at 8:28 AM | Permalink

A funny new adhesive! Thought up by some wacky scientists at Northwestern, and Berkeley's engineers are helping to make it happen.

Link: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/07/070718-geckel-glue.html

Gecko, Mussel Powers Combined in New Sticky Adhesive
John Roach
for National Geographic News
July 18, 2007

Give your tape some real "mussel"!

So might go the ad campaign for "geckel"—a next-generation adhesive inspired by the legendary stickiness of geckos and mollusks—if the product is successfully brought to market.

One of nature's greatest clingers, geckos have long fascinated scientists with the tiny hairs on their feet, which allow the tropical lizards to scurry up walls and across ceilings.

But tapes made by a number of research teams in recent years lose most of their adhesive strength underwater.

Phillip Messersmith, a biomedical engineer at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, was intrigued by the problem.

He has been making liquid glues for several years based on the adhesive proteins of mussels that allow the mollusks to hold on tight to rocks and docks in even the roughest of waters.

"I thought, Well, what if we try to combine the mussel adhesive proteins ... with a gecko type strategy, which has its own set of properties?" Messersmith said.

"We might have something new and interesting and useful."

Continue reading "Geckel" »

Posted by Christina at 12:21 PM | Permalink

I was in a discussion recently about how often parents (moms) expect to hear from their new college students. One friend complained that his mom just had to hear from him every single day, which seemed a bit excessive to me. But maybe with cell phones and free long distance, it’s not excessive? Another friend is just tired that her dad would call her cell phone whenever he felt like it, since he was paying the bill for it. Another friend is comfortable with his mom calling him every day as he walks to morning classes. For me, I have the expectation that I would check in with my family every Sunday afternoon.

I guess it is not easy to strike a balance between having independence while still keeping the lines of communication open. Maybe means of communication like IMs and email are the best bet? What do you all think?

Posted by Yang Cao at 12:26 AM | Permalink

Most people, if they've heard of Chomsky, think of his political theories and commentary. He's also a big name in the Linguistics world. Took a few classes in linguistics at my old school, considered majoring in it for a while. The big draw-back of that program for me was how the professors seemed to idolize certain theorists, Chomsky among them. I didn't like his theories. Always cringed whenever they mentioned his name. Now they've proven one of those theories to be flawed. Thank goodness there are people out there doing real research these days. Check out the article from the New Yorker:

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2007/04/16/070416fa_fact_colapinto?currentPage=all

Dan Everett believes that Pirahã undermines Noam Chomsky’s idea of a universal grammar. Photographs by Martin Schoeller.

The Interpreter
Has a remote Amazonian tribe upended our understanding of language?
by John Colapinto April 16, 2007

One morning last July, in the rain forest of northwestern Brazil, Dan Everett, an American linguistics professor, and I stepped from the pontoon of a Cessna floatplane onto the beach bordering the Maici River, a narrow, sharply meandering tributary of the Amazon. On the bank above us were some thirty people—short, dark-skinned men, women, and children—some clutching bows and arrows, others with infants on their hips. The people, members of a hunter-gatherer tribe called the Pirahã, responded to the sight of Everett—a solidly built man of fifty-five with a red beard and the booming voice of a former evangelical minister—with a greeting that sounded like a profusion of exotic songbirds, a melodic chattering scarcely discernible, to the uninitiated, as human speech. Unrelated to any other extant tongue, and based on just eight consonants and three vowels, Pirahã has one of the simplest sound systems known. Yet it possesses such a complex array of tones, stresses, and syllable lengths that its speakers can dispense with their vowels and consonants altogether and sing, hum, or whistle conversations. It is a language so confounding to non-natives that until Everett and his wife, Keren, arrived among the Pirahã, as Christian missionaries, in the nineteen-seventies, no outsider had succeeded in mastering it. Everett eventually abandoned Christianity, but he and Keren have spent the past thirty years, on and off, living with the tribe, and in that time they have learned Pirahã as no other Westerners have.

“Xaói hi gáísai xigíaihiabisaoaxái ti xabiíhai hiatíihi xigío hoíhi,” Everett said in the tongue’s choppy staccato, introducing me as someone who would be “staying for a short time” in the village. The men and women answered in an echoing chorus, “Xaói hi goó kaisigíaihí xapagáiso.”

Continue reading "Linguistics - Chomsky debunked" »

Posted by Christina at 11:59 AM | Permalink

Ooo - little sea creatures! Looks like Berkeley's doing some interesting research.
Link:
http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2007/07/05_anemone.shtml
Anemone genome gives new view of multi-celled ancestors

By Robert Sanders, Media Relations | 05 July 2007

BERKELEY – The first analysis of the genome of the sea anemone shows it to be nearly as complex as the human genome, and researchers say it provides major insights into the common ancestor of not only humans and sea anemones, but of nearly all multi-celled animals.
mouth of scarlet sea anemone

A view into the mouth of the starlet sea anemone, Nematostella vectensis. The anemone, only a few inches long and endowed with between 16 and 20 tentacles, lives in the mud of brackish estuaries and marshes. It is becoming a popular laboratory subject for studies of development, evolution, genomics, reproductive biology and ecology. (Nicholas Putnam/UC Berkeley photo)

Continue reading "Anemone genome - say that 10 times fast!" »

Posted by Christina at 9:28 PM | Permalink

The campus is flat and wide. Well, flat except for these two lumps of hills in the middle of campus called Baka-yama and Aho-yama. (Stupid mountains) People who cut class tend to go there to sleep and hang out when they're cutting. There are lots of large tall trees. They're right outside of my window so its quite nice. My window faces the east which allows me to wake up with the sun on my face at around 8AM naturally! Isn't that amazing? Or maybe that's the jetlag waking me up. hahaha.

Ah, and the free bike. There was a drawing for 4 free bikes and I won one. yay! Now I have a bike to get around and I don't have to buy one. I was planning on buying a bike to get around for the year, but this is much better. Now I can spend the ~$100 on food. Food is expensive. It's not more expensive than UC Berkeley campus food, but eating that everyday adds up. I went grocery shopping a few days ago so I've been cooking for myself mostly. Thus far, I've spent 10152 yen (~$88). That's not too bad as a week in itself, but I've actually only been spending money for 2.3 days. Now it gets scary.

A nice thing I've noticed is that my skin feels nicer. It doesn't feel dry and scaly without lotion anymore. yay.

Posted by K. Lee at 7:58 PM | Permalink

Today I went to see Elegant Garden Nurseries in Moorpark, California with my mom.

She's been raving about this nursery for months and now I see why!

So much variety! With 12 acres of plants and landscaping materials, there's no reason to not love it. Also - their prices are cheap but their plants are super healthy. Another plus - kind of rare to see, but they didn't have any black-market cycads. They had good horticultural stock of everything, including Gingers. No greenhouses, but dang - everything that you can think of they have it.

I can't believe how much fun we had riding around in a golf cart with one of the hort guys, roaming from one side of the nursery to another in search of hibiscus and daylilies. We picked up a bromeliad, too! I convinced my mom that a drought-tolerant pink was a good idea for our little hill.

Photos from their image gallery:
http://www.elegantgardenscom.superpageshosting.com/gallery/

Posted by Christina at 1:19 PM | Permalink

I have a friend who's friend interns at Google. God knows how she got it. God also knows that I am jealous as hell. Anyway, my friend (the first one) was invited to go and have dinner at the Holy GooglePlex and she got onto the bus so she can get to the BART. On the way she decided to call me. The BART leaves at 5:17. She calls me at 5:03. I live at Unit 2.

"Hi Jonathan."
"Hi. What's up?"
"I'm headed to Google. Wanna come?"
"Sure!"
"Okay, meet me at the BART at 5:13."
"Wait a second. It's 5:03. Should I take the bus?"
"I'm already on the bus."

This was as the movies call it, an "oh-god-no" moment. I threw on some clothes, rushed down the elevator and somehow managed to run to the BART from Unit 2 in 9 minutes. If you are even slightly familiar with the Berkeley campus, I know you are applauding right now. Carl Lewis couldn't have made it any better.

Google was great. No words to mash about. It feels just like another Berkeley - alot of casual wear and a lot of relaxed environments. Gotta love it. Gotta want to go there. I liked especially how my friend's friend's friend kept saying stuff like, "yeah these people are all really nerdy" and "Look, these are people who were beat up in their high school." Gotta love how the green eyed monster makes her appearance.

Oh by the way, the huge numbers of elementary kids are a bit on the short side for me. Considering what they feed these kids nowadays, and my own puny size. I am waiting for the day they will swarm me in a back alley and take all my food/money/possessions. Kids in packs are dangerous, yo!

Posted by Jonathan Yu at 10:01 PM | Permalink

Want to find a lily that will survive without water? Want to start a native garden but don't know where to start?

Here's a great resource to help you learn what grows in your part of California. It even includes photos like this one!

California Native Plant Link Exchange:
http://www.cnplx.info/index.html

It's easy to use. For instance, my parents live in Ventura County and they'd like to plant something that will flower year after year without replanting. So they click on "Ventura" in the county listing. It takes them to a new page that lists native plant nurseries in the area. If you scroll down on that page, they'll see a topographical map of the county, and just below that is a listing of native trees that grow in the county. They can then click on the "Perennials" link and that list will change to a massive list of native perennials that will do well in their county. Click on any plant and you'll see everything you could want to know about that particular plant, including a photo, common names, links to other sites with photos, and what nurseries should have it in stock.

Here's a link to the entry on a native lily:
http://www.cnplx.info/nplx/species?taxon=Calochortus+venustus

Posted by Christina at 9:30 AM | Permalink

Diversity is everywhere. People are generally polite. Lots of homeless
people, which is a shock at first. The few white people you meet
on campus will most likely be from some unexpected country. There's this
awesome grocery store called "Berkeley Bowl" (odd name) that has tons of
cheap produce. 2 botanical gardens within jogging distance: Tilden and UC
Bot Garden. Redwoods all over campus, Eucalyptus all over the hillsides.
Tons of nice places to go hiking: Huckleberry preserve, Redwood Park, and
5 others within a 10 minute drive of campus, and you can usually catch a
bus to most of them. Crime definitely catches people by suprize. Don't
leave your backpack sitting unattended in the library or sometone will
snag it. Get a secure lock for your bike. People ride bikes like crazy
everywhere around here. Tons of little cars, hardly see an SUV. Expect
to see people wearing clothes you thought people stopped making in the
1960's. Sensible Asians, burnt out hippies, artists selling their work on
Telegraph and bums harassing you for change at every intersection.
Incredible selection of international food. Every kind of food you can
think of, you'll find, and it'll be reasonably priced. North side of
campus: "Holy Hill" with a representative church or educational facility
for every religion and denomination that has had contact with the Western
world. Calm, peaceful streets that are steep. Sidewalk cafes shaded by
trees, an insane number of copy shops.

Posted by Christina at 8:19 AM | Permalink

So I just got back from Vegas...and I must say that I loooooove the bay's cool foggy weather. Yes it was nice to be in 110 degree weather for about five minutes, but that’s about my tolerance. It was my third official mini vacation of the summer. I rode around Lake Tahoe (yes the whole lake) right after school was out, and then I went to Palm Springs. I love having 4 day weekends (thanks work!). But so yah Vegas was fun I went to go visit my boyfriend’s family. I didn't really do anything exciting except over eat at buffets and climb (indoors, it was way too hot out)..so to my point.

Continue reading "Viva Las Vegas" »

Posted by Marissa Ponder at 2:57 PM | Permalink

Another great article - this one's about animal habitat-change research going on at the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology. Link: http://sciencematters.berkeley.edu/archives/volume4/issue28/story1.php

As Director of the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, Craig Moritz is in charge of more than 710,000 animal specimens such as this albatross. Photo courtesy of Museum of Vertebrate Zoology.

We've all heard the news—climate change is altering the world as we know it. Seas are set to rise and glaciers to melt, drought to parch some lands and scorching temperatures to desiccate others. The effects on us humans are grimly predictable. We'll have to scramble to develop new cars to drive, lands to farm, and sources of water to drink.

But the fate of the birds and beasts who share our planet remains an open question. Will chipmunks and salamanders weather this latest shift in habitat and climate conditions by adapting, or might they fade into extinction? How did they respond to climate change over past millennia, and what can we learn from this?

Continue reading "Animals & Climate Change" »

Posted by Christina at 10:52 PM | Permalink

From the UC Berkeley press release:

http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2007/06/26_jbei.shtml

DOE awards LBNL, UC Berkeley and partners $125 million for biofuels research

Robert Sanders, Media Relations | 26 June 2007

BERKELEY – Berkeley and the Bay Area cemented their position as the nation's center of alternative energy research with the announcement today (Tuesday, June 26) by the Department of Energy of a $125 million, five-year grant to Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), the University of California, Berkeley, and four other partners to develop better biofuels.

Energy Secretary Samuel W. Bodman announced in Washington, D.C., research grants totaling $375 million to establish three Bioenergy Research Centers in Oak Ridge, Tennessee; Madison, Wisconsin; and near Berkeley, California.

The California center, to be known as the Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI), involves six partners: LBNL, Sandia National Laboratories (Sandia), the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), the UC campuses of Berkeley and Davis, and Stanford University.

"The selection of JBEI is a major vote of confidence in the Bay Area's growing leadership in the national effort to develop new and cleaner sources of renewable energy," said Jay Keasling, UC Berkeley professor of chemical engineering and JBEI's chief executive officer. Keasling also is director of LBNL's Physical Biosciences Division.

UC Berkeley, LBNL and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign were selected earlier this year by oil company BP to receive $500 million over 10 years for an Energy Biosciences Institute to investigate future technologies for biofuels and ways of using the new tools of biology to enhance oil recovery and to sequester carbon. That research contract is due to be signed in July.

Continue reading "Berkeley's at it again -Renewable Energy!" »

Posted by Christina at 10:49 PM | Permalink

My scholarship loves doing scholar gatherings so that we do not feel that they are just another source of money for school but a community instead. So, my scholarship decided they want to hold a huge retreat, all expenses paid, 4 days 3 nights, for all scholars in the beautiful Asilomare in the Pacific Grove area 120 miles south of San Francisco. I have never really heard of this resort so I went online to explore and let me tell you, it is absoloutly beautiful. The resort is surrounded with nothing but trees, rivers, lakes, open green areas and just pure natural beauty. In addition, the resort has no TVs, internet, or telephones so that vacationers can truly depart from their everyday busy lives and enjoy their time off. I must say, no TV or internet for 3 days does scare me a tad...I am going to miss my midnight Friends and Sex in the City reruns...ahh! I guess the trees and the birds are going to have to substitute for the weekend. The best part of this retreat is that we get to go horseback riding, whale watching, attend a carmel city festival, and go on a 3 hour hike...I am REALLY excited about this retreat considering this will really be my only vacation this summer. The retreat is from July 13-July 16th...when I get back I'll be sure to post some pictures up!

Posted by Rola Abduljabar Rabah at 5:07 PM | Permalink

National Geographic is at it again - excellent reporting on a complex issue.
Link:
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/06/070620-argentina-water.html

Wine Boom Threatens Native Argentine Water Source
Lorne Matalon
for National Geographic News
June 20, 2007

The underground water table in central Argentina's Monte Desert is falling, leaving the fate of the centuries-old indigenous Huarpes culture hanging in the balance (see pictures).

Demand for high-quality and still relatively inexpensive Argentine wine, combined with an abundance of land to grow grapes, has become a problem for the desert-dwelling Huarpes.

(Image caption: Cecilia Villegas, an indigenous Huarpe living in Argentina's Monte Desert, said she would have to move if the water level sank further.

About 2,000 Huarpes live in the desert. Others have migrated to Argentina's cities, where they often face bleak economic opportunities.

Photograph by Lorne Matalon)

Vineyard owners are diverting increasing amounts of water from a network of channels and streams originally crafted for irrigation centuries ago by several of Argentina's indigenous groups.

The Monte Desert, where the indigenous people live, is separated from the Andes by Argentina's piedmont region, which has become the center of an expanding wine industry.

Continue reading "Against Argentine Wine" »

Posted by Christina at 7:27 AM | Permalink

CNN reports that a skull was found of a smaller giant panda.
Link:
http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/science/06/19/panda.skull.ap/index.html

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The first skull of the earliest known ancestor of the giant panda has been discovered in China, researchers report.

Discovery of the skull, estimated to be at least 2 million years old, is reported by Russell L. Ciochon in Tuesday's edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Ciochon, an anthropologist at the University of Iowa, and a team of U.S. and Chinese researchers, made the find in a limestone cave in south China.

The animal, formally known as Ailuropoda microta, or "pygmy giant panda," would have been about three feet long, compared to the modern giant panda, which averages in excess of five feet (1.52 meters).

Previously this animal had been known only by a few teeth and bones, but a skull had never been found.

Judging by the wear patterns on its teeth it also lived on a diet of bamboo, the main food of the current giant panda, the researchers said.

Other than size, the animal was anatomically similar to today's giant panda, said Ciochon.

The work was funded by the Chinese National Natural Science Foundation and University of Iowa.

Copyright 2007 The Associated Press.

Continue reading "Pygmy Panda!" »

Posted by Christina at 8:16 AM | Permalink

Here's a book review that stands out. Not because it has anything to do with plants, but because it mentions moms who are PHDs. I hope to have a PHD someday, and being a mom doesn't seem too far out of the picture. Seems like all the women researchers, professors, and curators I know don't have children. It's good to read about how having children can affect a career in academia.

Article from the Berkeley news feed:
http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2007/06/12_moms.shtml
New book outlines discrimination against moms

By Yasmin Anwar, Media Relations | 12 June 2007

BERKELEY – Three decades after women began breaking into male-dominated professions, their numbers in top academic and corporate echelons remain flat, according to Mary Ann Mason, graduate dean at the University of California, Berkeley.

Continue reading "Fast-Paced Moms" »

Posted by Christina at 7:42 AM | Permalink

Yesterday afternoon Tom and I drove down to Target to pick up a fan. Saturdays at Target in Albany are CRAZY busy. We parked far away, walked quickly, found the fan section on the second floor next to home improvement. We then looked at all the fans. Tons of fans. So many different kinds of fans. Air-purifying tower fans, window fans, swivel-neck tall fans, high-velocity desk fans, multi-colored children's fans. There was a fan for everyone. Wedged in the corner on the top shelf is where we found a supply of box fans. "Hawaiin breeze 20 in box fan." It happened to be the cheapest fan, at $11.00. Its features: 3 speeds!

We decided on the box fan. We brought it home. It's narrow, white, and fits in our big-ish window nicely. We turned it on. Now we understand why they chose to call it "Hawaiin breeze". Speed 1 is a hurricane. Speed 2 is a tsunami. Speed 3 is... well, make up your own word. I don't quite understand how we managed to get the strongest fan possible for the cheapest price in the store, but hey - we're happy.

Posted by Christina at 8:25 AM | Permalink

I am back at Berkeley after an amazing four weeks at home. I really did not want to go back at the end of it and i am still kind of bitter at my past self for screwing with my summer by deciding to take me to summer class. Even though that past self really wanted to help my future by taking a couple classes and keep me from rotting my brain. But really what else is summer for but fun fun fun?

I am taking a full plate here at Berkeley. I am taking Chinese 1, which is a combination of Chinese 1A and 1B. Brutal set of courses. As we speak I am repeating line after line of chinese characters. I doubt I will get an A in the class. I am honestly freaked out.

And as if my life could not get any harder, I piled on Math 54 and summer URAP research on with that too. Sigh. Woe is me.

I am going to try and keep my lives up with y'all. After all, you read me before, I bet y'all are really interested in what I have been doing right?

Day1: Character writing, pronounciation repeating, chinese
Day2: rinse and repeat
Day3: rinse and repeat

Oh don't worry there are more interesting things around that I am sure will make for wonderful bloggerfluff.

Jonathan ... signing out. May the Fours be with you.

Posted by Jonathan Yu at 7:28 PM | Permalink

That's a common response I got yesterday when I went to visit my old high school. Even though I graduated two years ago, I wanted to go back and see some of the teachers, as well as some of the students that I know. It's always refreshing to go back and see familiar faces again; it reminds me that things haven't changed as much as I think.

I will say that I have no idea how I was able to wake up at 6:15 AM every morning to make it to class on time. Since coming to Cal, where classes before 10 AM are considered early, my sleep patterns have become decidedly lax. Somehow, I was able to drag myself out of bed and make it to school.

I went around to different classrooms, saying my greetings to different teachers. To their credit, nearly all of them were pleased to see me. Even my thorny philosophy teacher, Mr. Linn, was relatively congenial, chatting about what he was teaching. My calculus teacher, Mr. McGrath, pulled me into the class and made a 5 minute speech about how I did so well and that he was so proud of me and considers me to be a hero. Quite the flatterer, Mr. McGrath is, but I knew that he was speaking with sincerity.

Continue reading "You just left. Why are you back here?" »

Posted by Joel Kim at 2:48 PM | Permalink

Seems like when you leave the country for a couple of weeks, people assume that you spent your time on vacation. They expect you to return all rested and happy. Well, that's not so much the case. Especially when you go to Europe for research. Jetlag is no fun, either. So what do you do when people say, "Welcome home, now get to work!" I haven't figured it out yet. I just kind of mutter, "I never stopped working in the first place."

It's been non-stop since returning from the weeks at various European herbaria. I arrived home, spent a day with my family, drove back to Berkeley, threw my bags in my room, and made it to work at Starbucks - just in time for a 4pm shift. Closed the store, ran home on my own two feet, fell soundly to sleep, and woke up in time for the 8am class Monday morning. Except I didn't know what room it was in - so I showed up at the wrong place, found someone who knew what room it was in. They failed to mention the building so I wandered the wrong building for a half hour, then showed up late at the proper room. Learned the first few steps for making microscope slides. Went home at 6:30pm. I had 20 minutes for lunch in there somewhere, in between paraffin steps and not at a usual time at all.

People at the Co-Op seemed to think that I was just back from a wonderful vacation. They wanted to hear about all the places I saw in Europe. When I explained that they all looked about the same - shelves or cabinets with dried, old plant samples on acid-free paper - they figured out that I just wanted a bit of a break.

In a way, last week was a break. Microscopy is fun, and I realized that I was actually decent at it. On top of the fun I was having with the course, I wasn't running to Starbucks every evening to help with the close. Class got out too late to work a normal shift, so I just spent more time making perfect slides, then coming home to eat dinner, crash, and maybe watch people play a game of poker before sleeping. Saturday I was supposed to have the day off, but I made a horrible decision and took someone's morning shift at work. An eight-hour shift starting at 5:15am is not the best way to end a stressful week of slide-making. I slept all day Sunday, when I wasn't walking a love-able dog named Otis, who I happened to be pet-sitting. So, Sunday was my break, until I went to work at 4pm, that is.

This week I'm spending time in the Specht lab, learning new skills. Yesterday I spent my time extracting DNA from some Cheilanthoid ferns, the start of my SPUR project for the summer. I don't work at Starbucks again until Wednesday - thank goodness. Working while going to school is a rush. Unless you're crazy like me, I don't recommend it.

Posted by Christina at 8:44 AM | Permalink

The search for another non-crappy, non-slummy, sunny, amazing apartment continues and things are looking good for our heroes! It's as if some mighty god of craigslist finally saw fit for there to be more than a scant few apartment listings posted each day.

While Jason and I scramble around to extricate ourselves from a less than amazing roommate my brother Eriq has been globe trotting! Points to anyone who can guess where these pictures are from!

Continue reading "Rent Quest and UCB vs. UND Round 2 " »

Posted by Eric Thurston at 12:35 PM | Permalink

My parents and I went to the Reagan Presidential Library today. Both of my parents were off work, so we decided to have some quality time together. My brother unfortunately was still at school.

The library is perched on a hill that overlooks a gorgeous vista of shrub covered hills and suburban homes. The grounds are well-kept, clean, ordered. The library itself was built with elegance and simplicity in mind. It was a nice place.

I had a good time, surprisingly. One hears "presidential library," and the mind gears for tedium and vapidness. But the presentation of Reagan's life was rather interesting. After all, this is a man who was for a time responsible for one of the most influential nations on this planet. He grew from humble origins to movie actor to President of the United States. He was one of the key figures in the Cold War. Certainly a very interesting figure.

Continue reading "Reagan Presidential Library" »

Posted by Joel Kim at 10:10 PM | Permalink

I am proud to say that as of today, I accomplished my first feat of summer! Score!

So a couple of months ago my parent called me to tell me that I had to show up to jury duty or go to jail, because apparently I had "ignored" my other notices. When I contacted the guy I tried to explain that I was a student in Berkeley and could not give up a week to fly to Los Angeles and how I was living in a different city at the time, and of course - because I'm sure he's heard many of the same "excuses" to get out of jury duty, he told me that I had to honor my obligation and serve. This guy definitely was not messing around. So he rescheduled me for this week and I had to come home right after finals so that I could fulfill my summons.

So I am officially done with jury duty.
...Granted, all I did was call the the juror hotline the every weekday night (this week) to find out that "you do not have to report for jury duty..."

I guess I just lucked out this time. I'll just have to store those "excuses" for the next time i have jury duty.
haha just kidding.

Posted by Nikki Fernandez at 11:10 PM | Permalink

My family went to Santa Barbara today. We took the Amtrak train this morning from the Chatsworth station to SB, which took a good hour and a half. It's been a while since I've ridden the train, so it was pretty cool. I had only gotten about 5 hours of sleep the night before (since I stayed up to 3:30AM reading Sherlock Holmes stories). So I spent most of the train ride either asleep, reading my collection of stories, or bugging my younger brother.

When we arrived, it was much colder than we had anticipated. The sky was overcast, and there was a light breeze. Both of my parents and I were adequately dressed for the cold, but my brother was only wearing a T-shirt and jeans. We wandered around the Stearns pier for a bit, and had lunch at a delightful seafood restaurant. I had the Pasta Primavera in Marinara sauce.

Continue reading "A Day in SB with the family" »

Posted by Joel Kim at 9:12 PM | Permalink

So right now I am in a dorm room in UCLA. Since Berkeley finished a week or so ago, I decided to come to UCLA to visit a couple high school friends. I spent the night on the floor of my friends' crowded dorm room.

Seeing old friends is an interesting experience. To come back together after such a long separation can be a bit awkward. Sometimes, if you've been separated long enough, you don't know what to say; the common foundation for conversation that was there is gone. Still, it is good to catch up with friends. I mean, we may not be as close now as we were before, but that's alright. Just knowing that they're doing well, that they're thriving, is good. I know people who bemoan this change, who try to hold onto relationships as they knew them. But sometimes, you just have to let things go.

So I basically spent last night watching The Office for the first time (such a wickedly funny show!), and watching people play Smash Bros. Typical college fare. We talked about future careers, about global warming, about changing our world. Again, typical college conversation.

Ah, idealism~ Ah, youth~

Posted by Joel Kim at 2:03 PM | Permalink

It's pretty strange to be back home in sunny Southern California. Actually, it hasn't been all that sunny since I came back. In fact, it was overcast these past couple days. Still, it's good to be back home.

Today I went to see my younger brother Dale compete in the City Finals in high school swimming. I was a swimmer in high school too (butterfly was my stroke), and I remember my City final meets. The tension, the nervousness, the excitement. To see this from a spectator's point of view, rather than from a participant's was rather odd.

Still, it was exciting to see members of my high school swim team go the distance. Varsity boys got first, while varsity girls got 4th. My brother's medley relay team did really well (except for the fact that they were disqualified for a false start).

All in all, it was a fun meet. Go Cleveland High School!

Posted by Joel Kim at 9:14 PM | Permalink

I had my last final on the 14th and I returned home on the 15th. There's been many changes since last year.
1) The mailperson is now different. The lady that was there ever since I was a weee lil tot is gone. Postage is up to 41 cents.
2) The Los Altos Garbage Company has new trucks. They have this claw that can go in all 8 directions. It comes forward, reaches out, angles for your garbage bin, clamps down around the sides, moves it up and over the top, and replaces it. How's that for really nifty? The guy doesn't even need to get out of the truck...unless he accidentally tips over the bin. Be careful to not put your bins too close to each other, or he'll have a hard time.

Posted by K. Lee at 10:07 AM | Permalink

As the garden manager for the Ridge House Cooperative, I find every now and again that I need a little inspiration when it comes to figuring out what to do around the garden. Here are some websites and magazines that I have turned to throughout the course of this semester, to make my life a little easier:

Organic Gardening. Here's a page on their website that gives you links to articles on growing techniques: http://organicgardening.com/subchannel/1,7513,s1-5-19,00.html

Sunset Magazine. Every gardener has a copy of the Sunset Garden Book, but their magazine has a checklist each month with what to do in your garden. Here's a link to their advice for May: http://www.sunset.com/sunset/garden/article/0,20633,1181031,00.html

Better Homes & Gardens. Now here's a good source for landscaping ideas. It won't help you so much with the day-to-day care of the garden, but it'll help you make heads or tails of what you want your garden to look like overall. With so many beautiful photos of gardens on their website, it's enough to inspire you to build your own breathtaking garden. http://www.bhg.com/bhg/gardening/

Posted by Christina at 9:54 AM | Permalink

Wonder where the trees end up that fall down in a storm? Well, wonder no longer. These folks find it a new home:

http://www.greenwasterecycleyard.com/index.htm

Not only do they have mulch and lumber, but they also have flooring, bio woodfuel, landscaping retaining walls, step blocks, and furniture!

Continue reading "Green Waste Recycle Yard" »

Posted by Christina at 12:22 PM | Permalink

Also known as Asterids by APG II (Angiosperm Phylogeny Group). This is the grouping of plant families that spans a huge number of Eudicots. Here's how the main groups and families break down:

Cornales - Cornaceae
Ericales - Polemoniaceae, Primulaceae, Theaceae, Ericaceae.
Asterales - Asteraceae (Compositae), Campanulaceae.
Apiales - Apiaceae
Dipsacales - Adoxaceae, Caprifoliaceae (opposite leaves).
Solanales - Convolvulaceae, Solanaceae (both of these have a plicate corolla).
Gentianales - Rubiaceae, Apocynaceae, Gentianaceae.
Lamiales - Oleaceae, Plantaginaceae, Acanthaceae, Lamiaceae.

Posted by Christina at 11:27 AM | Permalink

So it was my birthday today. Well, I am writing this at 2:30 AM on May 9th, so technically my birthday was yesterday, but that's splitting hairs, really. Happy birthday.

My day was not really a birthday to end all days. I woke up late to class (missed my final judo class of the semester), took a final for Korean, and sat through an hour and a half of presentations. I had only gotten 4 hours of sleep the night before, since I was working on a paper that was due. As you can probably guess, I was pretty tired the whole day.

After my final class of the semester, I went to get some gelato (which is free on your birthday), and went to my friend's apartment to take a nap. At 5 I went to the Bean Feed, which is a Forestry Club social event with good food and good people. At 6 I went to a Bio 1B review session, after which a couple of my friends took me out to dinner. After dinner, I trekked up to Bowles (the all-guys dorm across campus) to work on a video for a banquet tomorrow night. We finished just now. The video is not done; two guys are still working on it.

This birthday was not the most spectacular or exciting. I remember last year, when a bunch of my floormates surprised me with cake and ice cream, and a group of guys from my church surprised me with cake. This day was filled more with little things, little gifts; people saying happy birthday as they passed, friends giving me little gifts. It's definitely been a good day.

Oh! So, as I was walking home, three of my friends called me up and gave me a cake. As they were driving me home, we got pulled over by the police. Evidently my friend's brake light was broken. While we were waiting, one of the cops asked what the cake was about. When we told him that it was my birthday, he said "Happy birthday!" Yeah.

Posted by Joel Kim at 2:35 AM | Permalink

Thank you to Bianca Knoll and Bruce Baldwin for these wonderful descriptions.

Myricaceae - Bayberry Family. Trees or shrubs, aromatic, commonly with peltate yellow glands; leaves alternate and simple, oblanceolate; stipules present or absent; flowers unisexual, generally monoecious, flowers generally aggregated into spikes, axillary; perianth extremely reduced to subtending bractlets; stamens typically 4; superior ovary composed of two fused carpels, style present with two branches; fruit a drupe.

Moraceae- Fig or Mulberry family. Mostly tropical, but found worldwide. Trees and shrubs, milky sap or latex present in all tissue; leaves simple, may be alternate or opposite; stipules present, leaving a circular scar on twig, many with conical stipules covering apical bud; inflorescence axillary, flowers densely packed on thickened axis; flowers tiny, unisexual, monoecious, radial; perianth composed of 4-5 tepals; stamens 1-5, opposite tepals, with explosive pollen release; overay superior or inferior; 2 carpels, one ovule, 2 styles; fruit usually fleshy, drupelike achenes (often aggregated into multiple fruits).

Polygalaceae- termperate and tropical. Herbs, shrubs, trees or vines, leaves alternate, simple, entire. Venation pinnate; stipules lacking or spines present; inflorescence a panicle or raceme; flowers bisexual and bilateral; sepals 5, often with 2 fused, and two larger and petal-like, petals usually 3 (5), adnate to staminal tube; stamens typically 8, anthers usually opening by apical pores; style often with one fertile and one sterile branch, the sterile one ending in a tuft of hairs; fruit various.

Images from these sites:
http://biotech.tipo.gov.tw/plantjpg/Myrica%20rubra-3.jpg
http://www.forestryimages.org/images/192x128/1367013.jpg
http://www.mobot.org/MOBOT/paramo/images/75Monn_cras_small.jpg

Posted by Christina at 8:36 AM | Permalink

These two give me a headache! Mainly because there have been huge changes in the taxonomy of petaloid monocots over the past 30+ years, and my first plant identification course went by an outdated system.

So here's a few pointers:
3-merous? Could be either.
Inferior ovary? Always Asparagales.
Spotted, not an Orchid or Iris? Liliales.
Fruit blackened & crusty (Phytomelan crust) ? Asparagales.
Fruit not with Phytomelan? Liliales unless Orchidaceae.
Extrorse dehiscence of anthers? Could be either.
Introrse dehiscence of anthers? Definitely Asparagales.
Nectaries at the base of the tepals or stamens? Liliales
Nectaries on septae of ovary? Asparagales.

Orchid (Asparagales)

Narcissus (Asparagales)

Allium (Asparagales)

Lilium (Liliales)

Phytomelan crust (present in Asparagales, except Orchidaceae)
NOTE THAT THE CAPTION ON THIS IMAGE IS INCORRECT!!
Allium is no longer in the Liliaceae, within the Liliales. Recent genetic data has moved it to the Asparagales, Alliaceae or Asparagaceae.

Photos from these websites:
http://www.botanique.org/IMG/arton24565.jpg
http://www.theflowerexpert.com/media/images/mostpopularflowers/narcissus/narcissus-jonquilla.jpg
http://www.touchofnature.com/Fall%20Pictures/allium_gladiator.jpg
http://www.hillkeep.ca/images/Lilium_speciosum_2004-08-14_019xx.jpg
http://www.oardc.ohio-state.edu/seedid/images/Allium_porrum_2.jpg

Posted by Christina at 7:28 AM | Permalink

The cooperative that I live in, Ridge House, is throwing a big, fancy dinner. It's Rainforest/Cinco De Mayo themed. We're looking forward to all sorts of deliciousness - and the exciting decorations.

The one draw back - I have to work tonight.

Even so, I'm making dishes. Yummy.

Flowers & Greens Salad - including Nasturtiums, rose petals, fennel, red bell pepper, baby spinach, and mixed baby greens.

Peach, Banana & Coconut Cobbler - it's delicious. Made it up a couple of weeks ago, and it was a hit. Can't wait to make it again. This time, it's going to be Vegan since I'm making the only desert option that our house's two vegans might eat.

Other items on the menu (not made by me):
Carnitas
Fajitas
Somosas
killer fruit salad
some other stuff, just can't think of them.

Posted by Christina at 10:44 AM | Permalink

Today I went to 99 Ranch, in Richmond, where I purchased some delicious tea-type stuff.

"Honeysuckle Flower Beverage" The majority of the packaging is in Chinese characters, which of course looks beautiful but... well... I only took one semester of beginning Mandarin.


I love 99 Ranch.  Incredibly inexpensive deliciousness.  A Chinese grocery store - easy to get to on BART, or from campus just hop onto AC Trainsit bus #43/El Cerrito Bart and get off at Pierce St. & Pacific East Mall.

Posted by Christina at 9:30 PM | Permalink

All of us have friends or family who have spent some time in Iraq, or maybe are there right now. Some of them might even be geeks. Well, here's an awesome event that any military geek wouldn't want to miss.

The website: http://www.gamegrene.com/node/790

Ziggurat Con - The World's First War Zone Game Convention?
Category: News
By aeon | Thu, 2007-04-05 02:12

Which Con are you going to this year? GenCon? Origins? Dundracon? How about Ziggurat Con? The latter is brand new this year, and is being held at Camp Adder/Tallil Airbase on June 9. In Iraq.

When President Bush ordered troops to Iraq, he probably never imagined that he would be ultimately be responsible for what very well could be the very first D&D convention/game day ever held in a war zone. Ziggurat Con, being held June 9 from 1200 to 2100 hours at Camp Adder/Tallil Airbase, is open to all allied military personnel and civilian contractors in Iraq.

"Here in Iraq, we do many things on the different Forward Operating Bases to help keep our spirits up," said SPC David Amberson, the Con's organizer. "Here at Camp Adder/Tallil Airbase, we have lots of sports activities -- baseball, football, dodgeball, kickball -- and we work with many marathons across the US like the Boston Marathon. This is a great way to improve morale among the troops, but what about those who prefer Role-Playing Games?"

The Con's historical landmark "mascot" -- the Ziggurat that gives the Con its name -- can be found on the post, and hails from the ancient city of Ur. Nearby is the house where it is believed that Abraham (a large figure in the Bible, the Koran and the Torah) was born. Cool digs for a Con -- if not for the fact that there's a war going on. Amberson, however, emphasized the need for soldiers to relax and kick back with enjoyable activities from time to time.

"There is a deeper sense of camaraderie in a war zone than you see back home," said Amberson, who is a supply soldier with Alpha Company, 86th Signal Battalion. "You eat with these people, work with them on a daily basis, and can even share a tent with the same people. When work is over for the day, we can sit back, relax, drink our favorite sodas, eat our favorite snacks, and play a bit of D&D. This helps us relax in a very stressful environment. We found a place where we can go somewhere far away from the IED's, mortar attacks, and gunfire, without ever leaving the safety of our camp. The next step was only logical."

Miss Joy Brown, an employee with KBR who works with MWR (the army’s Morale Welfare & Recreation Department) has graciously allowed service members to use part of the Community Activity Center to hold the Game Day. The Ping Pong room will be set up for RPGs (Role-Playing Games, not to be confused with the rocket propelled grenades which share the same acronym), and the DVD Movie room will be playing Anime Movies all day in support of the event.

"Miss Brown has expressed her support of the soldiers who are planning this event, and who keep her in the loop," said Amberson. "In many events, MWR does the running around, trying to get supplies and support; however, in this case, it is the service members themselves who are contacting the publishers and manufacturers. This makes it a real event for the service members, by the service members."

The largest problem with running a Con in Iraq, of course, is that there are no local stores or game publishers, and few game books on the post. Even dice are in short supply, with many soldiers breaking the unwritten taboo held by many gamers and (gasp!) sharing dice. Thankfully, many game publishers have also lent their support, and have agreed to supply game products to help the Con along. aethereal FORGE, Sovereign Press, Final Redoubt Press, Goodman Games, Paizo Publishing and Steve Jackson Games are among those that have thrown in their support for the convention. But Amberson indicated that the soldiers could definitely use more.

"This convention is currently in drastic need of prizes and giveaways for the troops," he said. "Everything donated will go directly to the troops, or to MWR to use as loaner books for the soldiers."

For more information, contact SPC David Amberson at the following address: david.amberson (at) iraq.centcom.mil

Donations can also be sent to SPC Amberson directly at the following address:

SPC David Amberson
A Co 86th Sig Bn
APO, AE 09331

"We thank you all back home for supporting us, and we promise that we will try to come back home safe and sound," said Amberson.

Con organizers pictured above:

Standing: SPC Jerrel Barber, Mr. Jeff (JB) Brown, SPC Christopher Watkins, PFC Samuel Dennison, SGT Gary Decker, SPC Kathleen Hirsche
Seated: SPC David Dennison, SPC Konrad Schlarbaum, DPC David Amberson
Others not pictured: SPC Matthew Joslyn, PFC John Gilbert, Mr. Raymond Knapp, CPT Andrew Heymann, Miss Joy Brown

Posted by Christina at 8:32 AM | Permalink

When I got into UCB, Eric took me for a flight over campus.

You can see my house and the CNR building in this shot.

San Francisco from high above the East Bay...

"Oh, I have slipped the surly bonds of earth,
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunwards I’ve climbed and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds – and done a thousand things
You have not dreamed of - wheeled and soared and swung..."
-John Magee

Posted by Eric Thurston at 11:21 AM | Permalink

I never thought about racism until I came to Berkeley. I never saw it at home. Most everyone was white, and we were happy for the diversity when they weren't. Dunno. It shocked me when I came here to Berkeley and in my Organic Chemistry course there were 3 other white people: a Sweede, a Russian, and one American. When people asked me where I was from, I'd say California. I'd talk about the city that I was raised in - the place that I call home. But that wasn't enough for most people. They asked where my parents were born, where their parents were born. They couldn't get over the fact that I couldn't point to a single specific ancestor that wasn't born in the United States. They couldn't believe that I was a focused student, that I got into Berkeley or even care about school in general. Their experience had been that every white person whose parents were raised in the US was lazy, and didn't care about school. Making assumptions is bad. The university environment is where you learn to get over stereotypes.

Berkeley is full of diversity. I can't walk down the street without seeing it. I rub shoulders in each classroom with incredible representatives of culture and kindness in the people that surround me. I'm happy for it. What an enriching opportunity!

Posted by Christina at 3:20 PM | Permalink

What a great article from the New York Times! I just had to post it.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/17/science/17angi.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

By Natalie Angier
Published April 17, 2007

Show somebody a painting of a verdant, botanically explicit forest with three elk grazing in the middle and ask what the picture is about, and the average viewer will answer, “Three elk grazing.” Add a blue jay to the scene and the response becomes, “Three elk grazing under the watchful eye of a blue jay.”
What you’re unlikely to hear is anything akin to, “It’s a classic temperate mix of maple, birch and beech trees, and here’s a spectacular basswood and, whoa, an American elm that shows no sign of fungal infestation and, oh yeah, three elk and a blue jay.”
According to Peter H. Raven, director of the Missouri Botanical Garden, many of us suffer from an insidious condition called “plant blindness.” We barely notice plants, can rarely identify them and find them incomparably inert. Do you think that you will ever see a coma as vegetative as a tree? “Animals are much more vivid to the average person than plants are,” Dr. Raven said, “and some people aren’t even sure that plants are alive.”
But the antidote to plant apathy is at hand. As an unusually cool, sodden April edges toward May and spring’s cheeky blooms can be bridled no longer, botanists urge everyone to venture outside and check out the world through nature’s rose-colored glasses — and the daffodil, cherry blossom, dogwood and lupine ones, too. If this view doesn’t move you, you’re pushing up daisies.
As it happens, plants are not only alive in their own right. They are also the basis of virtually all life on earth, including ours. The core feature of planthood is autotrophy, that is, the happy ability to make one’s own food. Plants essentially eat the sun, transforming solar energy into sugars and starch through the stepwise enzymatic stitchery of photosynthesis. Animals, by contrast, are heterotrophs, defined by their need to devour other organisms — the hard-won fruit and fiber of the suneaters, or the once-removed flesh of herbivores.
Moreover, because plants release oxygen as a byproduct of photosynthesis, plants also give us aerobes leave to breathe. Our atmosphere is currently about 20 percent oxygen, all of it the bounty of the planet’s green-skinned autotrophs. “The most important chemical reaction on earth is photosynthesis,” said Robert DeFeo, chief horticulturist for the National Park Service. “We are all parasites upon it.”
Essential though plants may be to our survival, Dr. Raven emphasizes that they are a radically different form of organism than are animals. Plants and animals have evolved along separate paths for hundreds of millions of years, ever since single cells began pooling their talents into multicelled beings. “Plants have evolved their multicellularity completely separately from animals, and any direct comparisons between the groups are wrong,” Dr. Raven said. “It’s as if plants evolved on Mars, and animals here.”
In addition to their caloric self-sufficiency, plants can be envied for their eternal youthfulness. A plant elongates itself through constant cell growth in two zones of its body, at the very tips of the roots, which grow down into soil or other surface to which the plant clings, and the outer tips of the shoots, from which new leaves, flowers and fruits sprout. Whereas an animal, upon reaching maturity, has almost no young cells left in its body, Dr. Raven said, “in plants the ends of the roots and shoots are always juvenile, always growing, always babies.”
A plant is also always drinking, slurping water and nutrients the only way it can, through its roots. Everything needs water to survive, but another radical difference between the faunal and floral crafts is that while we can drink water and keep it circulating through the body via the bloodstream, water moves through a plant’s body in a continuous stream, entering through the roots, crawling up the stem and evaporating out through little openings, or stomata, in the leaves. In fact, the upward tug of evaporation is what pulls more water up from the soil, as the clingy water droplets follow each other skyward through the hollow capillaries of the plant’s stem and leaves, shinnying as high as 300 or 400 feet above ground in the case of the giant redwoods.
No, there’s no rest for the weary, especially if you’re immobile. Beyond feeding style, perhaps the biggest discrepancy between animals and plants is that animals can move, but plants are of necessity stuck in place. Unable to defend themselves by running away, plants have instead become crackerjack chemists, evolving a vast armamentarium of insect repellents, fungicides, microbicides, ultraviolet blockers and other defensive compounds that human chemists have just begun to tally.
Rootedness also complicates a plant’s love life, which brings us back to the blooming bounty of spring. Plants, like everybody else, want to spread their seed around and diversify their genetic stock through sexual reproduction, but it’s hard to meet fresh faces when you don’t have legs. A number of plant species like pine trees, oaks, cottonwoods and grasses rely on wind to blow their pollen around, with the hope that some of the male sperm contained therein will land on receptive female parts of their far-flung kind. Or if not the same kind, at least something in the same general group: the boundaries between plant species are far more porous than they are in animals, and different species and even genera of plants cross-hybridize with each other surprisingly often.
Nevertheless, wind sex is highly iffy and inefficient, and many species of modern plants, the angiosperms, instead manipulate members of the animal kingdom to serve as yentas in a more discriminating style. The plants offer up brilliant blossoms to entice a specific pollinating insect or bird, which gets drunk on the blossom’s nectar and wants more and so seeks out other blossoms of similar shape, color or scent. And as the bee or hummingbird flits from one favored flower to the next, it incidentally delivers pollen pockets to just the right spots. “We say, isn’t that beautiful, but the precise forms and shapes of flowers are adaptations to attract individual pollinators,” Dr. Raven said. When we eat, we are parasites on the foundational labor of plants; and when we “say it with flowers,” we are plagiarists, too.

Posted by Christina at 2:58 PM | Permalink

Since I've had a bit of a frustration working out the details separating these trees in my mind, I figure it'd be fun to write a blog about their differences and similarities!

Just what's the difference between Elm, Alder, Hazel, and Birch?

Continue reading "What's the difference between these 4 trees?" »

Posted by Christina at 11:09 AM | Permalink

Spring break has ceased on April 1st. What a cruel joke. ><

I spent spring break back at home on jury duty. I was on call for the entire week. Calling in twice a day and being unable to go anywhere is un-fun. Not that I have any complaints about doing my civic duty, but it would have been nicer if they could divide the group up into two and have them call in on alternate days instead of having everyone call in twice daily. Well, its over now and it'll be at least 12 more months until jury duty possibilities.

Midterms commence tomarrow. whee~~~~
Allergy season seems to be hitting particularly hard this week.

Posted by K. Lee at 5:56 PM | Permalink

With fog, comes fertilizer? What a great artilce, from California Magazine's current edition.

California Magazine

Praxis
Feeding the forest
by Erik Vance
Researchers find fog brings more than just moisture—it brings fertilizer, too.

feeding the forest
Cay-Uwe Kulzer

It's morning in big basin State Park, Santa Cruz County, about an hour after sunrise. Ten miles away, on the Pacific Coast Highway, drivers alternate high beams and low beams, trying to see more than 20 feet ahead of them in the thick fog. Deep in the redwood forest, it's dark, silent and damp. One quiet hiker listens to the drip of water on leaves.

Today that hiker is Professor Todd Dawson, visiting one of his research plots in the park. Dawson is a botanist with the Integrative Biology Department and he is looking for redwood fertilizer—but as he walks through the forest he's not looking down at the ground, he's looking up.

In the plant world, nitrogen is a rare and precious commodity. The air we breathe is mostly nitrogen, but very few living things can use it. California strawberry growers spend millions to inject nitrogen into coastal soils through artificial fertilizers. Yet giant redwood forests nearby seem to grow on just the bare minimum.
Biologists say it is better to pee on a plant than on bare dirt or rock when you are in the woods. The nitrogen in the urine's ammonia will be quickly absorbed.

"'Where does that nitrogen come from?' then becomes the question," Dawson says. "In this case, we find that a significant amount of it is definitely coming through fog. And that's a new twist in the story."

Dawson and his students discovered that Pacific fog is dripping with usable nitrogen. California fog forms over cold ocean water and is blown onto land. Tiny bacteria on the surface of the ocean capture nitrogen the same way microbes do on a peanut plant, which farmers use to recharge the soil. The bacteria pull out the nitrogen, inject it into the water that becomes fog, and the trees absorb it through their leaves.

"What it means is that the ocean is feeding the forest, so to speak," he says.

A few years ago, Dawson helped show that fog is a crucial source of water to redwood forests. Now, early results show that a third of the nitrogen passing through the coastal system comes from the fog. And it's not just nitrogen. He has found other important nutrients such as potassium and phosphorus in fog as well.

The discovery has wide implications for fog ecosystems around the world, such as the cloud forests of Central America. In ultra-arid places such as Chile's Atacama Desert (where it rains perhaps once in 50 years), most of the nutrients may come from fog.

Dawson says now that he's measured the nitrogen, he wants to know how the forests will be affected when stripped of their fog by global warming.

"What happens if our land use or our climate ends up changing?" he asks. "How will that influence the water and the nitrogen inputs? And then in turn how will that affect the forest?"

Posted by Christina at 9:26 PM | Permalink

Here's agreat article from the November 2006 California Magazine. I love transposons - this article brings a crazy spin on the concept.

California Magazine

Praxis
Interspecies love
by Nathanael Johnson

You get your genes from your parents — that principle is the foundation of current evolutionary theory. But what if genes could jump from organism to organism in passing, like a contagious disease? More and more evidence suggests that this sort of thing happens regularly. Most recently, a team of Berkeley scientists has shown that totally different species of plants have exchanged DNA.

When genes jump out of one organism’s genome into another’s, it’s called horizontal transfer — as opposed to vertical gene transfer from parent to child. Mostly this happens among bacteria, but the Berkeley team, led by microbiologist Damon Lisch, has shown that genes moved between millet and rice plants — millions of years after the families of those two species could no longer breed. It’s the first well-documented case of this sort of interspecies hanky-panky: specifically, the movement of outside DNA into the nucleus of a plant’s reproductive cells. How do the genes move? That question makes Lisch’s eyes light up. "We’re talking about a section of DNA here, but it acts more like a parasite," he says. "It would seem like science fiction if it [weren’t] reality."

Gene illustration
Illustration by Carin Cane

Scientists have been tracking these jumping genes — or transposable elements — since the 1950s. They already knew transposons moved around on a single genome, creating variations such as striped kernels in corn. These jumping genes also have been tracked in bacteria. But scientists didn’t realize these genes could leap from one species to another until now.

Humans share 99.4 percent of their DNA with chimpanzees, 85 percent with dogs, and 70 percent with slugs.

Transposons make copies of themselves from one section of the double helix to another, sometimes wreaking havoc on gene function. In other cases, they have conferred useful abilities—such as antibiotic resistance — to their hosts. The implications for evolutionary theory are immense. Instead of each species having to develop adaptations on its own and pass them on through offspring, they can pick up genes—and the traits that go with them—from the organisms around them. That’s how bacteria often develop resistance to multiple antibiotics: They swap their defensive tricks. These findings could revolutionize our understanding of human evolution as well: The mapping of the human genome shows that about half of our genetic code is derived from transposable elements.

Posted by Christina at 9:08 PM | Permalink

I try to update frequently, at least more frequently than I did last semester.

I love walking through the CNR campus. One of my classes last semester, PMB 39A, was in the Warren building and every MWF, I had to run from Etcheverry down through the CNR campus to take my one hour seminar. Quite a dash and the first time I was late by ten minutes but afterwards, I had the day to myself. I just remember walking through a pretty campus that reminds me alot of home. It's just so unlike the other Berkeley buildings.

The buildings are clean and nice to look at, especially the GPB and its wonderful cafe. It's not like Sproul and such with the thousands of people passing through like every hour or so. It's calm and serene. The right kind of place to sit and just figure a plan for your life.

I remember a time when things weren't going well for me and after class instead of marching off back to the dorm and sitting in the dark typing at the computer, I decided to feed the squirrels and take in the nature. While sitting on the curb and watching the squirrels eat the peanuts I give them, I got my mind off academics for a while. And well ... I don't know ... I felt so much better afterwards. Things turned out okay. Yesterday is different today ... but I want to have that feeling ... calm ... again. I wonder where I had left it that time I sat on a grassy hill behind Warren watching the wind stroke the treetops.

Posted by Jonathan Yu at 6:34 PM | Permalink

Wow, I cannot believe it is already the middle of the second semester. Don't get me wrong, I am excited for summer but I am also a little scared. What happened to my first year at college? Where did all the time go? Has it really been close to two semesters? Well I can't say it hasn't been fun, tough, and interesting but I definatly now know what all the seniors mean when they say "before you know it, you'll be graduating in a month". What's the lesson here? Don't take things for granted, enjoy the DC foods, go to one more review session, and visit your professor in office hours.

Have a good week!

Posted by Rola Abduljabar Rabah at 8:21 PM | Permalink

The day breaks with a cackling snort from the snortling, flaring nostrils of my slumbering roommate. Fool, he should have wakened me. After all, midterms don't come along every morning. Name's Jonathan. And I'm a student. Words don't complete the profile I made for myself in my head. After all, I'm special.

Tiny cracks of a fearful light peek at me from behind fat folds of polyester curtain. They spider into tiny flacks of magenta and emerald, cutting my room into fourths. This morning is going to be a bad one. I could smell it in the sky. It was one of those mornings that tell you in advance the beating they're going to fist out on your face, like one of those bad oafs that screw up your day by snatching you off the streets, giving you a good crack up of the molars, and then set you up back on the corner like so much any piece of four day old newspaper rolled fly flavored fish.

God I hate midterms.

The door slams open and the morning day flicks my eyes. Damn! They started early today! I reached for my good friend, Mr. Alarm Clock. He's a real ball buster, all bust. No ball. He's a digital clock and damn proud of it. And he's real prouding me with his little announcement. His breath is reek with plastic and cold with reality. It's 9:45, and you got a test in fifteen minutes. I suggest you move your warm little fanny.

I give myself five seconds to compile my thoughts. No time for a Windows boot up. You gotta go Mac. The carpet is warm under the soles of my feet. I don't get it. What's wrong with this picture? Quickly I robe myself with the closest pair of pants and shirts I can find. Can't register the cold now. I leave embroiled in a swirl of body flavored profanities.

The sun is hot. And strong. Damn this thermo. I can't take it anymore. I thought I was through this by heading up North. Can't think. A brown furry squirrel slits down the tree beside me. Bad squirrel. Didn't Momma BushTail tell you not take your chores too seriously? I give it a sideways kick while on my way down the stairs. No time for cookies, Mr. Nature. I got a midterm to take.

The Auditorium is fifteen minutes away. Fifteen tiny ticks on the clock flicked away by that unstopping arm of the thin dark line. Move it, legs. My heart starts to pick up the pace as it shakes off the morning eye dust with a Mexican Tango. The stomachy pit in the cull of my belly ripples with the grip of a hungry pain. Damn you, he says. That time we got tripped up down South in the California bayou of a city? I got you through that. Feed me. No time I say. I got a midterm to take.

I push my vein encrusted hands through an oak brown, axe carved recepticle. The air brushes my sleep sculpted hair. I hate bed hair. My sandals are ill fit for the environment. It's like trying to ride a motorcyle with a monkey hanging from your jaw. It's just not right at this time. They all send a tiny citation of notice to my brain.

I tell them all to shut up. It's time to take the test.

I delegate my gravity onto a nylon encased chair. It squeals like a slit pig on Hannukah. Or doesn't. Not sure about that metaphor. I shake the sleep from my eyes and its metal taste off my tongue. I don't got a problem at all. My hand darts into my right pocket. It wants something and if it wants something. It gets it. Then it hits me like a locomotive barrelling down an ungreased aluminum track at fifty kilos a second.

I'd forgotten my pencil.

My molars are starting to hurt.

Posted by Jonathan Yu at 1:03 PM | Permalink

The Newts are going crazy mating in the Botanical Garden. They're all over the lily pond in the Asian section.
Aren't they cute?

Check them out here: http://botanicalgarden.berkeley.edu/program/temp/newt.shtml

Posted by Christina at 12:32 PM | Permalink

Looking for photos of plants in a certain county of California? How about every plant legitimately recorded in California, searchable by family, genus, species, county, resource... etc?

Here's the ultimate search page. http://www.calflora.org/occ/ CalFlora searches an incredible array of herbaria, land surveys, Forest Service records, and other literature. Here's another search that they have with photos and distribution maps for each plant name you type in. http://www.calflora.org/

Posted by Christina at 12:45 PM | Permalink

As a former produce buyer for the USCA (University Students Cooperative Association, made up of 17 student-run houses in Berkeley) I've seen what goes into buying all organic from local farms. When purchasing in bulk, the costs are less than traditional commercial sources - and the produce is far fresher - more flavor! I wish that we could convert entirely to organic methods, but while grocery stores continue to sell non-organic produce, and marking up the organic, we're not going to see much change. Maybe the 2007 Farm Bill will encourage smaller, local farms. Maybe it won't. The following article takes a unique perspective on the condition of the current US farming systems, by showing us how Africa is affected by current US policies.

Here's a quote from the following article: "Negotiations will soon begin on the 2007 Farm Bill, the 5-year legislation that governs US food and farm policy. Terry and others will join the efforts of Oxfam America to mobilize people and lobby key members of congress to significantly reduce the subsidies that encourage overproduction and redirect those resources to programs that will help small businesses and non-commodity organic farmers build rural infrastructure and create conservation programs that encourage farmers to better care for the environment."

Continue reading "Agriculture and Policy" »

Posted by Christina at 12:31 PM | Permalink

Oftentimes as I'm studying plant families, I wonder what their evolutionary relationship is. The Tree of Life web project compiles the phylogenetic work from biologists around the world. Its user-friendly format makes it easy to see genetic relationships.
http://tolweb.org/tree/phylogeny.html

The Tree of Life includes phylogenies of:
Land Plants
Animals
Anthropods
Terrestrial vertebrates
Fungi
Eukaryotes

It also is an incredible resource for kids! Plenty of biology-related activities to keep your child's mind active with scientific goodness:
The Treehouse for Kids

Posted by Christina at 10:56 AM | Permalink

I was just ruminating today on the different people I run into around campus. I constantly see people that I know walking on the way to class. Even outside of class, I see people I recognize in the library, at stores, or in restaurants. I suppose this is all the result of my willingness to go out and talk to people and be actively involved. The huge campus of Berkeley seems less daunting when you know other people in it. So for those of you reading this in lecture (and shame on you for paying more attention to the internet than to the professor!), take the effort to get to know the person next to you. Who knows, you might just make a new friend.

Addendum (to tie this into CNR): I find that this is especially true in CNR. I walk into Mulford Hall (which is one of the halls for the college), and I run into people randomly. They may be people in my (soon-to-be) major, people in my classes, or people I just meet randomly in the area. I'm starting to feel more at home in CNR, just as I'm meeting new people and finding my place in our little college.

Posted by Joel Kim at 9:54 PM | Permalink

Just to remind you ... there are other wonderful bloggers on this blog. If you come here and disappointingly find that I have yet to post, don't panic! You can read some other interesting posts too. For example, I loved the elephant seals one by Nikki Fernandez. It made me think of wild things to do with wild animals.

Totally unrelated note but I saw Marshawn Lynch at a party once and I felt the urge to tackle him. Run right across the entire lawn and take him down so I can say I tackled Lynch. Yeah didn't do it. Luckily enough for him. Muhaha.

I did fairly well on my midterms. I have said enough.

I feel that teachers must get really nervous up in front of everyone. Or at the very least they get hot. Conclusion: Deoderant.

My last entry I got a comment. I don't know how to activate comment usage but if I could get comments, I would do it. I used to want comments all the time when I wrote in my Xanga. Comments are nice. Unless they're bad comments. Then you destroy them.

My random thoughts are over. Back to work. Maybe next time I'll be able to assemble enough thoughts to give you a coherent story. Cross your fingers!

Posted by Jonathan Yu at 3:02 PM | Permalink

I love Star Trek.

Posted by Christina at 11:44 AM | Permalink

Seems like I'm always being asked "Will this do well out here?" Well, there is an ultimate resource out there that will tell you just that. It's the USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map. Growing up, I just assumed that everyone had one of these, and would consult it regularly when planning their garden. Well, now everyone (at least those who read this blog) will wonder no longer. Here's a site that outlines the zones:

http://www.usna.usda.gov/Hardzone/ushzmap.html

When you look up information on a plant - when buying it online or just looking in a catalog - they always mention what zone it will do well in.

Posted by Christina at 11:39 AM | Permalink

Even since being accepted into the study abroad year program in Japan, I've vibrated between excited and worried. I'm a detailed oriented person, so I've been trying to figure out and plan for when I go abroad. I'm not impatient, I'm just focused. There's an orientation meeting for Japan study abroads in April. That's a couple months away and many things need to be planned for in advance. For example, money exchange. It's forecasted that the dollar will weaken against the yen in the coming months--in fact, it already has. Where it was 120.+ yen to the dollar, now its at 119.+ yen to the dollar. Sure, what's a yen difference. It makes quite a bit of difference when you're talking about the USD$20,000 estimated cost of the trip. While a portion of that is paid directly to UC Berkeley to pay to ICU (International Christian University), much of that will become Yen (the Jpn currency).

Continue reading "Preparing for Japan Study Abroad" »

Posted by K. Lee at 5:09 PM | Permalink

When we moved into our apt, one of my roommates found this small table the size of an ottoman. We never used it because it was too short. It was sitting in my closet taking up space. Finally, I asked my roommate if we still needed it. She said, "No, you can throw it away." Immediately, I grabbed my keys and took the table outside. As I was walking back into the apartment building, I hear a squeal, "Ooh, this table is so cute!" I look around and there's this girl walking to the table. She pushes on it to make sure that it doesn't wiggle (it doesn't, it's quite sturdy). Then she picks it up and walks away. Golly, it didn't even last five seconds outside. =)

So yup. You get most of your student furniture from the streets.

Posted by K. Lee at 2:35 PM | Permalink

I decided to take a couple minutes out of my Econ studying to tell you an interesting story that happened to me yesterday. Essentially this is what I focus on when I am out of the books.

I was eating dinner at the DC when I saw across the room, a pretty girl sitting at the table. Eating alone. While shoveling corn into my mouth I wondered why she was sitting alone. She wasn't stunning or anything but she was certainly good looking enough not to warrant a companion.

I switched off the corn and then moved on to the beef lasagna (some Italian ditty started playing in my head at the same time). I asked myself first, why didn't this girl get take out if she was going to dine alone? She wasn't reading anything or looking at anything just other than her food. She was staring at her food and eating it.

Maybe, she was going to meet up with someone but that someone stood her up and now she is sitting sadly staring at her food and unable to lift her sad head up from underneath the sagging weight of her sadness. Maybe this guy was her best friend since like elementary school and they finally fell for each other during junior year of high school during prom and they planned their colleges together and decided to pick Berkeley so that they can go get an awesome education and become rich so they can buy a small cabin up in San Luis Obispo where he would teach students in security analysis.

I like to think up stories for people that I see. Especially the weird ones. Then the story got even weirder. She smiled. Randomly. Wasn't listening to anything or looking at anything other than her dessert of a lonely pineapple (ugh that fruit sucks) slice. Just smiled. I was like what in holy pigeon pooping marginal benefit tarnation was that about?

I revised my story. She's just like that guy in A Beautiful Mind and is talking to people who are not really there. Then she'll go back to her dorm and scribble genius equations on the board marrying the male version of Jennifer Connelly once she gets out of college and find before long a book written about her. A smile, I wondered to myself, what the heck was THAT about?

She left soon after and I never got to talk to her and figure out the true story but most of the time the stories that I get from people are never as entertaining as the ones I make up in my head. And who knows maybe I get right once and a while?

Next week's fun fun fun topic, poker chips that are made of clay and not plastic.