skydive the ranch

friday was my last day of work... and to celebrate my freedom, i jumped out of a plane from 13,500 feet. AHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!! the euphoria one feels is indescribable. it is the ultimate extreme sport because within a matter of a minute you go from one extreme sensation (ripping through the air so fast you can't even hear yourself scream, let alone think...) to another (peacefully gliding down with your parachute deployed, amazed at the world below, slowly and sadly returning to the reality that you are a terrestrial being).

i'm addicted. let's do it again!

goodbye hem-onc

i've noticed myself giving the thumbs up to people lately. like instead of waving hello or goodbye, i just give them the thumbs up. or when i agree with somebody, i say "cool," "yup," or "sure", while simultaneously shoving my thumb in their face. this is really dorky, and needs to stop. so this blog is going to be a personal contract with myself (one of the tactics i used when i decided to downgrade to social smoker). so... to me, from me: no more thumb-upping.

also, today was my last day working for the hem-onc division (i'll be working till the end of the week but for a different division). i didn't have any responsibilities today other than a meeting with my supervisor, bidding farewell (not a goodbye-forever farewell... more like an amorphous, send-me-a-postcard, good-luck-in-your-future-endeavors, business eitquette pleasantry), and one last time donating my blood as the control for a clinical experiment. so while passing the time, i decided to read the science section of the NY Times (warning: deep thoughts ahead).

archaelogists discovered that there was a culture of Indians in the Andes mountains that had a completely different spatial perception of time from our own society. conceptually, they considered the future to be "behind" them and the past to be "ahead" of them. their reasoning: since you already know the past, then it must be in front of you so you can see it. but since the future is unknown, it must be at your back, since you can't see it. interesting... but i wonder what this must have meant for them psychologically. if the past is ahead and the future is behind, does this mean that as a society they thought more about their past instead of their future? unlike our own society (which is obsessed with the future, planning ahead, and crazy fortune telling schemes), maybe to this culture the past was something you constantly faced... something that should be constantly examined and re-examined; while the future was something to turn your back on and accept as something you simply walk blindly into... and as a result, did they have more or less mental health problems?

ok, it's obviously been a long day at work. enough philosophizing... time for capoeira.

An Inconvenient Truth

The "amazon crew" was in town this weekend, and we decided to see An Inconvenient Truth, Al Gore's movie about global warming. everybody needs to check out this film. some of the graphs and science talk used in the movie might be dull and boring for some people, but gore actually had some funny moments. i liked when he used a cookie monster voice to talk about yummy gold bars... "Mmmmmmm!" but mainly, i think everyone should see the movie because i think its message is extremely important and inspiring...

Anna, Erin, Ben, and I met in the amazon rainforest as part of a Cornell summer research program. Anna is getting her PhD in nutrition. As I'm typing this, she is on a plane to Costa Rica where she hopes to do her thesis. Erin works for an environmental urban planning consulting firm. And Ben just came back from his Peace Corps service in Niger working on sustainable agriculture projects. As always, we spent a lot of time hanging out and just bouncing ideas off each other about one day starting some kind of organization (possibly an international development consulting firm) that combines all of our interests. We decided that we need a friend in politics or maybe just someone with a lot of capital to help us launch our organization. So yeah... all you corporate lawyers and finance people, keep doing what you're doing... and for starters, go check out that film!

my last nyc weekend

wow, this weekend had so many layers of occassions: memorial day, my sister in town, my last nyc weekend... i am sad that it is over...

friday nite, had a small capoeira (plus rachel) party in my apartment and ate a whole medium-sized domino's pizza (per person), with chocolate cake for dessert, while watching Grandma's Boy. errr yeaa... read between the lines...

saturday, went to capoeira and had to run up and down 5 flights of stairs 10 times each. maybe that's why i can feel my calf muscles bulging out of my skin. ate dinner in chinatown with capoeira buddies (plus adam) and people-watched in union square.

happy belated birthday and welcome home to my sister! and what better way to celebrate both of these things than to eat our way through nyc: NY-style muzarella pizza, cuban food at Havana Alma de Cuba, lunch at the Williamsburg Cafe, funnel cake and candied apples at Coney Island, good ol American McDonalds, and we even got to throw in a little Cali-flavor Jamba Juice. yes, we stuffed our faces and we salute the obese man in Brooklyn wearing an "I beat anorexia" T-shirt.

also, just saw X-men. i remember, one critic calling it something like "a movie for all who are oppressed". wow, that's deep. but, screw that... my question is where was gambit? he was my favorite character and not even a cameo in the movie. oh well, it was a good movie.

i am still in denial that i am moving out of nyc next weekend... so let's not talk about that...

Jazz, capoeira, and Laos... a tribute to my worldliness (haha)

I'm listening to a web-streaming jazz station at work (while blogging). Cool song title: "The Shoes of the Fisherman's Wife Are Some Jive-Ass Slippers" by the legendary Charles Mingus. "Jive-Ass"... I'm gonna try and use that in a conversation sometime this week. If you pick up on it (and thus admit to reading my blog), I'll give you a prize.

By the way, thanks to everyone who came out to Forbidden City last night to watch my second public capoeira appearance. Luckily, no bystanders suffered any injuries despite having to watch us play in a cramped, dark space.

One of these days, I will have a digital camera and will be able to post pictures for all 3 of my blog readers. I lost my last digi cam (and all my backpacking pictures) in September 2004 while in Laos sharing a tiny, canoe-sized speedboat with 4 Japanese backpackers zipping down the Mekong River. I can't believe I've lasted this long without a camera, but then again it's nice not having to document life through snapshots.

Kuh-nish

Reasons I cannot focus on my work today:

1. Civil disobedience. It's Friday, and I am silently protesting my right to a three day weekend.
2. I am craving a knish. Don't ask me how these classic-NY, jewish potato patties infiltrated our Filipino household, but I remember I used to eat these things for breakfast everyday when I was in elementary school. I have rediscovered my childhood addiction to them, and I am looking forward to eating one after work today.
3. I'm browsing the CNNmoney website for "best jobs in America". "Professor" was rated #2 best profession based on growth, pay, stress level, flexibility, creativity. Go team go! The only thing bad about being a professor is that it got a C for "ease of entry". It's the publish or perish culture of academia. But hey, once you have tenure, you're set!
4. I'm looking forward to the Center for Complementary and Integrative Medicine's free lunch today, complete with powerpoint presentation on psychology experiments and gourmet foccacia-bread sandwiches.
5. I am actively "guiding" my custom-made radio station on www.pandora.com.
6. Now that we have been mandated by the Health/Safety Office to keep our doors closed (for fire safety reasons), I have decided to take advantage of my newfound privacy by practicing capoeira headstands in my office.
7. The sun has not been out in 3 days. I feel incomplete.
8. Related to #7. I refuse to have a cup of coffee today. Therefore, I cannot work.
9. Leon's slope day pics are funny.
10. It's my Mommy's Birthday and I'm going home to L.I. today for her bday party!

Birthday week recap

Friday, Apr 28 - Karma Lounge with the capoeira birthday trio for hookah and hip hop
Saturday, Apr 29 - Carla's housewarming and White Castle
Sunday, Apr 30 - church... awww
Tuesday, May 2 - birthday roda, basically means my whole capoeira class stands around me in a circle while i fight each person, one at a time, until i'm wheezing and ready to collapse
Wednesday, May 3 (my real bday) - calamansi juice with vodka, lychee martinis, and dumpling sampler at Forbidden City... YUM!
Thursday - kamikaze sake bombing in Collegetown, Ithaca
Friday, May 5 - Slope Day at Cornell U (my sixth one) and Cinco de Mayo in the Ithaca Commons
Friday and Saturday, May 5 and 6 - Wings over Ithaca, spam, corned beef, and chicken adobo for Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, and Breakfast... burp... oo parmesan garlic
Sunday, May 7 - parents in town... dinner at Nobu, Next Door, siopao in Chinatown, and dessert in Little Italy

basically, turning 24 consisted of drinking, smoking, dancing, repenting, getting my ass kicked, eating, smoking, drinking, drinking, eating, drinking, and eating.... i guess that pretty much sums up nyc tho... haha... anyway, all i want to say to everyone is, thank you thank you thank you! it was a lot of fun, but all of this has made my body feel like a wasteland. i bought aronia juice from trader joe's today. it's time for some serious detoxing.