exercise, brain cells and more interviews

i read in an article in newsweek that vigorous excercise promotes neurogenesis (the growth of new brain cells). upon reading the title of the article - "can exercise make you smarter?" i thought that perhaps the studies were looking at factors other than physiological. for example - an athlete can test smarter because they are used to discipline. many athletes who are of olympic caliber go on to study at really good colleges. my theory is because they understood the rigors of competing and they are able to make personal sacrifices to attain their goals. eg - don't go out to party when you know you have a huge exam to study for and study many months before the exam. i have also read elsewhere that about 30-40% of all CEO's run marathons - which is as much of a mental race as it is a physical race. exercise can improve mental strength - overcome the impulse to sit and be lazy to go out there and run a few miles.

anyways, i digress. the newsweek article actually discussed some studies of students who were subjected to a few weeks of rigorous exercise and then tested and compared to students who didn't exercise. also with today's technology, we can measure the amount of neuron growth in a subject. interestingly enough, the exercise actually showed increased neuron growth. however the effects are not long lasting. meaning - you can't just exercise a few weeks and thing you will be smarter. all the effects are lost after a month of inactivity. so what does that mean? you'll have to keep going to that gym. but hey, you'll get a lot of positive effects. you'll feel happier (higher levels or seratonin), you are smarter (new brain cells) and you are healthier.

on that note - off running i go...

oh yeah one more thing. interviews! i am moving ahead in the process with another phone interview with that BD job i really liked. woo hoo! i really really hope i get that job. it's really cool! wish me luck. i've also applied to a number of other jobs through my network and online. hopefully i'll be hearing more about further interviews soon. one of them would be at google. you guys know how much a science geek i am. (evident above). but if i were to work at tech companies, i would only work for apple or google. i've always been a huge fan of their technology.

wmc

i wish i could have gone. all the people are back from the trip to miami and are all telling me about how much fun i would have had. darn it. i looked at tickets early and at the time, it was bad to leave becuase of work. then when there was no more work, the tickets were too expensive. argh!

i'm listening to trance now, daydreaming i was there. i hope we can do a trance nite in sf soon. i still remember when sab, diana and i were at the oakenfold concert in NYC for thanksgiving. that was awesome.

tv rant

ok, is it me or is spencer from the hills completely annoying and manipulative?! he annoys me even further with every word that comes out of his mouth and every lame thing he does which he deems cool. what was up with ushering the waiter carrying their food in with that weird arsenio arm wave thing? and then claiming that heidi is not serious about the relationship if she's not ready to move in with him after dating a few months? ugh...what a slimeball.

ok ok...i know it's junk tv and tv will rot my brain.

i can't wait until heroes comes back.

GO BRUINS!

while hanging out with jon, sabrina, jimmy, and caroline, we were watching the UCLA game. UCLA is in Final Four! woo hoo!!! GO BRUINS!

i'm a doofus

you can hear me laughing like a doofus in almost every video i take! =P

human tricks

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so brandon is showing the group how to squat and rise on one leg. much harder than he makes it look! ted, wayne, viv and i all tried but couldn't do it. well actually i think ted was able to do the one leg squat and rise later. we were at nadeem's house for his surprise bday party. here is a video of the surprise. notice how i jump up first BEFORE everyone else and stand there looking like a dumbass for 5 seconds before everyone else jumps up. nadeem was wondering "why is mel in my kitchen??" haha. it was his first surprise party ever and he noticed the pepsi (nadeem loves pepsi) before he noticed his mom sitting on the counter with a huge camera. nadeem's wife azmina really did an awesome job planning everything and decorating the house. it was a bball theme and the whole place was decorated with kings themed items. even the flowers were purple and gold! i really like her and i can tell she's really good for him.


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saturday hunny and i had some dimsum and then i went to meet up with sabrina, jimmy and caroline for wine, cake and cookies at Sabrina's sister Felicia's house in san jose. I got to see her engagement ring in real life on her hand for the first time. so pretty! we talked about engagements, weddings, jobs and life in general. Jimmy was saying how his sabrina would just sit and gaze at her ring adoringly. haha. so funny. I wonder if i will do that when i get engaged - i think i would feel silly staring at my hand. later that nite i met up with hunny, had a fabulous dinner at his parent's house. his dad cooked some large shrimps (with the heads on. yum!), a large steamed fish, steak, chicken, and other various chinese veggies. i peeled the shrimps for hunny and took his heads because otherwise there would be a bunch leftover! those kind of shrimps are not good the next day.

saturday night we were supposed to meet up with people at suite 181. however hunny was suddenly hit hard with allergies and i had to bail on my friends last minute even after i was already fully dressed and made up. at first i was a little mad since i hate flaking last minute when i already said i would go. jyan was up from LA and was going to meet us there and it was also alyson's bday so aaron's whole group of friends were meeting us there also. however i took one look at his pitiful face - red watering eyes and large red running nose. i knew he was feeling horrible and if it were the other way around, he would cancel on his friends to take care of me. so we stayed in and watched old episodes of Lost while lying in bed.

sunday we met up with park and his bf aidan at crepevine in berkeley. i'm kicking myself for not taking pics. i even had my camera in my purse!! park is doing great and is now looking to start his own optometry practice. of course park is still the same as i remember him in college. stressing on the details. i still remember him in college stressing for hours on the imperfection of his hair before we would go out. haha. but of course attention to detail is a good thing when running your own business. i really enjoyed meeting his bf. aidan seems like someone who really cares about park and helps to balance the relationship.

after crepevine we headed over to dublin to meet up with jyan for a little bit. i watched as all the boys tried to see how many pull ups they could do at the nearby park. haha. they got up to 14 pull ups and 4 one armed pull ups each. i didn't even attempt since i've already tried to do a pull up recently and could only get half way up. haha. i'm weak sauce! then later we listened to the songs that jyan and minshu recorded that weekend and i gave my feedback. the second song was quite good but they need to have more than just ballads. i think jyan's natural register is lower and would lend better to rock songs. but hey, gotta give props to two lawyers who can actually sing and play music. i know i would suck at writing my own songs.

after such a busy weekend you know what i'm most thankful for? my hunny who is willing to attend all the different social events with me. i heart hunny.

and so the week has begun and i had an interview today for a strategic alliance BD position. i really like the company and the job. i really really hope i get it! next step is to talk to the director.

actions speak louder

people who say they spent 50+ hours designing a simplistic financial model which is wrong annoy me. of course there are also people who have legitimate accomplishments. but it still bugs me when those types of people show off as well. the way i see it, if you really do great things, you should never have to brag.

actions speak louder than words. this goes for so many different things...

interviewing

well i just had an interview today with a consulting firm. tomorrow i am talking with the COO of another consulting firm. I met him at a random panel that i decided to attend last minute. when i met him i thought - this guy looks young and i've never heard of that company. we'll see. after the panel he asked to grab coffee after he found out i just finished a position and was in transition. it seems they have some possible projects for me.

so i just did a search on this guy's bio. apparently he was the heading up global strategic alliances for pfizer. and the ceo of the company was one of the key players for BIO - which is THE place to get updated on partnerships for biotech. I am meeting up with the COO tomorrow to discuss some of the projects available. maybe it will turn into a fulltime gig. we'll see. either way the other consulting position will be a slow interview process. even if everything goes well, i wouldn't start until may. that's wayyyyy too long for me to sit still. i'm already going stir crazy. speaking of stirr, there is another event tonite. network network network.

life is like a box of chocolates...

shanghainese food, museums and picnics

twas a wonderful weekend. started out with meeting auntie linda with the whole family and the SO's. we all went for shanghainese food at Jade Dragon in Daly City (2368 Junipero Serra Blvd, Daly City, CA 94015) for some real authentic shanghainese food. they had things which are really hard to find elsewhere. being that my mom is shanghainese, i can appreciate authentic shanghainese stuff. we're talking pork shoulder, special types of vegetables which i don't even know an english name to. jon's best friend christine and hunny were also invited. we also met auntie linda's god son who will be starting bschool at stanford in the fall. right now he is an ibanker in NYC for UBS.

pork shoulder

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special fish head soup - sounds gross but it's really good!
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special shanghainese veggies
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hunny and i also went to the Stanford Cantor arts center to check out the artwork. they had Rodin sculptures (reminded hunny and i of our european trip wehre we saw the real sculptures) and various oil paintings from impressionist to contemporary artists. did you know that there were quite a few European major artists who were huge collectors of eastern art? i saw a few paintings with asian influence...quite interesting to see the resulting hybrids.

after the museum we had a picnic at the stanford oval. it was a gorgeous day watching all the volleyball players and just eating and napping in the grass under the sun. we could feel the warmth of the sun and the slight cool breeze...kids were scooting around on their razors all around us on the paved areas towards the center of the oval. all types of languages were being spoken by all the different people there...french, chinese and german were the ones i picked out. we also had a lot of fun spying on a couple that was studying there. there was a really really geeky looking guy who was studying with this cute girl. later we saw him put is arm around her so we assumed they were a couple. go geek boy! hahaha

later that day we went gymming and watched ucla beat indiana for the finals as we were on the cardio machines. go bruins!


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trees and running

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i am now running again now that i am home during daylight hours. running is beautiful at my house. there is a trail by the creek with birds and animals. cherry trees are blooming on every street. life is good.

from nice baby to screaming banshee

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sandy's baby erin is just like a live cabbage patch doll with huge cheeks and dimples. although she looks more like her caucasian dad than her asian mom. however man, that girl has LUNGS. she cries all the time for no reason at all. I spent a whole day hanging out with sandy and erin - erin was crying every 15 minutes. it didn't matter if she was fed, had a chnaged diaper, and sandy has tried holding her in all sorts of dif positions. for some reason erin just likes to cry....all the time. when she cries, it's so loud and shrill that it sounds like the cry of a banshee. and she's very finicky on everything - noise, light, etc. she even starts crying when farts. she hates farting. haha... sandy's first baby ethan didn't really cry much at all!

looking at this video makes me definitely want to wait for kids.

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flu and cold - everyone is getting sick!

everyone is either getting sick, sick, or was sick and recovering. almost everyone i know has contracted a really bad cold or flu this season. i've been stuffing myself with vitamins and washing my hands constantly to stay healthy. i almost thought i got that nasty stomach virus jon had last week. luckily i barely ate anything and let a slight fever burn it out of me in 1.5 days. i was almost going to get a prescription of tamilflu since i was feeling achy. just talked to diana last nite and she feels like she is coming down with something.

i've been doing a good job of staying healthy so far. getting enough sleep, exercising, taking my vitamins, washing my hands constantly. hopefully i escape the major illness this season!

blog lagging

yes yes i know i've been lagging on the blogging. what have i been doing?

well diana, teddio and about 4 other people decided to plan a boarding day trip to tahoe. there was a cancellation and diana asked me to join. all these years we have never gone boarding together!

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also had some notable eating experiences. recently went to Saizo in sunnyvale to catch up with john. yummm! although it's definitely not a place you want to go to if on a diet. the grilled pork belly is delish but very fatty. also tried out Bistro Vida in Menlo Park. frensh bistro. i had the escargot, coq au vin (chicken in red wine stew) and the bread pudding. the escargot was in pesto sauce which i have never tried. I also tried some duck pate - very rich and tasty.

in other news, i am no longer at my company. cest la vie. although it was really interesting in the beginning, i have already been looking around for other positions. only now i can look for other positions and have severence! :) so now i'm actively on the job hunt again. all last week i got my network on. we'll see where i end up.

rain rain go away!

it's been raining for three weeks now. i know we need water but rainy days just make me so lethargic and depressed. i'm solar powered.

anyways, i ran out of milk this morning. ugh - just fyi - oatmeal made with water and powdered creamer is just not the same. good thing i loaded it with blueberries to overcome the bad taste.

so what are your feelings on the house market? i've been doing a lot of reading on it since i was on the market for a house. right now i'm just sitting on the fence waiting for the opportune time. i was surprised that with listings only slightly lower, people are still buying. I thought houses would sit around a little longer as there were a bunch of homes listed after dec. however - many homes have sale pending or sold and the townhouse in mountain view that i was looking at went up 40K already. Not a huge jump, but still, it's the first phase! most of the indicators show that the housing market will dump down even more with all the bad loans that were made. with all the stuff i'm reading, it's better for me to buy in 2008. that's so far from now...