Week in Review 06/18-06/22

It's been a solid week over here at NYP-CWMC. A bunch of pharmaceutical companies sponsored a week long conference to update doctors here on progress in medicine. Of course they need pharmaceutical companies to update them on medicine. I mean, we're not at an academic institution with research and conferences going on all the time or anything, and no one's ever heard of viagra before. They gave us free food and post-its twice a day, every day.

In other news, I figured out the difference between balsamic vinaigrette and balsamic vinegar/olive oil. One tastes good and one tastes bad. It's really made a difference in my salad eating.

And finally, I finally got up the courage to try speaking in spanish to the people who work at the columbian cafe I like, and they said "ella parece como espanol, pero piensa como ingles."

23.5

Well, my half birthday is next week, 23.5 big ones. Looking back, I can think of three things to summarize my 23rd year so far:

~Awkward social exchanges~
~Awkward work exchanges~

and

~Celebrity crushes~

I have no idea why I was so impenetrable to them before. I just never really got that into anything about the entertainment industry beyond being entertained for the half hour I watched a show. Let me tell you, things have changed and my eyes have been opened.


Hello Hottie McHotness:

For those of you so unprivileged as to not realize who this is, you are missing out. Doug Murphy: I could rewatch those two seconds he has on camera every other episode over and over if I was willing to put in the time and effort it would take.

And Johnny Kastl, I registered for imdb.com just because it's the only website out there where anyone says anything about you ever. In sum, I registered just for you.

Seriously though, he's beautiful and funny. Mama has another reason to watch Scrubs.

Creepy

So, I sent my mom some flowers from 1800flowers for Mother's Day. Normally, flowers from 1800flowers are not my family's style but I felt guilty when I got a phone call from my mom saying she was looking forward to seeing me and I wasn't planning on coming home.

Anyway, I felt very 'The Net' ordering everything online, but I just got a phone call from my family asking how I'd managed to get a handwritten card mailed from Ludlow! I tried to explain how 1800flowers works, but they insisted that they know my handwriting and it is definitely my handwriting on the card.

Now here's a predicament, I can either admit that I was so impersonal as to send a card that I did not handwrite and admit to my family that they do not, apparently, know what my handwriting looks like. Or, I can lie.

So, I did what anyone would do and sort of mumbled that I didn't know what had happened and trailed off. We left it at that.

I can't wait to see this card.

The guy totally gets it

I'm jealous

of Stephen Colbert


he has achieved everything I want in life...
he makes up words that get recognized in the dictionary.
and he mainly talks about how awesome he is, which is also one of my favorite things to do.

But, what really breaks my heart, what I've been dreaming about ever since I first visited the Ben and Jerry's factory at some young impressionable age, he has his own Ben and Jerry's flavor!

I want my own Ben and Jerry's flavor! I've wanted this for as long as I can remember! What if I never achieve anything worthy of getting a Ben and Jerry's flavor named after me?

My Ben and Jerry's flavor would be named Mujamint. Maybe Diana Mujamint.

Diana Mujamint

It would be, no WILL BE, mint chocolate chip ice cream with Reese's Pieces in it, and maybe hot fudge and peanut butter swirls. What if by the time I do someone else has stolen my flavor? What if someone's reading my blog and steals my idea? I'll sue. And I'll be heartbroken.

In fact, right now I have a pint of mint chocolate chip ice cream in the freezer into which I have already poured a bag of reese's pieces. I should be eating it, not posting on my blog. I can't figure out how to end this blog entry so I can go eat my ice cream. This is getting very awkward.

I think I need to go. Yeah, I just need to go.

Yah!

Peter Petrelli You scored 54 Idealism, 58 Nonconformity, 16 Nerdiness

Do you ever... get the feeling that you were meant to do something extraordinary? Congratulations, you're Peter Petrelli! You are a compassionate, idealistic person, which is great. You're searching for your identity and purpose in life, and you have a strong desire to be special, and do something great for the world. You're a bit on the emo side, but you have the best of intentions. Your best quality: Empathy Your worst quality: EMO

My test tracked 3 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 99% on Idealism You scored higher than 99% on Nonconformity You scored higher than 99% on Nerdiness

Ok, I'm not really sure I understand why my answers gave the result that it did, especially the nerdiness part, but oh well, I like Peter Petrelli.

which hero are you?

Shopaholic tendencies

So, I'm realizing I really like raincoats. I almost bought one this weekend, and I had to stop myself and say "you don't need a raincoat, you already have three." I just don't think that's normal.

So I've instated a new shopping policy for myself wherein if I buy something, I have to get rid of something. So far, I bought a blue cardigan, and got rid of an old blue cardigan. If anyone wants a new raincoat, holla and I'll think about it:).

A Dream for a Dollar

My coworker and I went and bought lottery tickets today, it's up to $370 million or something right now. Daydreaming about what you would do with that much money (or half that much) is fun. Unexpected result though, I'm actually pretty happy with my life as it is. Very happy: when I really am honest with myself about what I would do if tonight I won a ton of money, there's not much I would do differently than I'm doing now. All the things I really want but am not sure I'll be able to achieve, I couldn't buy with money anyway (like fulfillment and a happy, healthy family). At any rate, thinking it over made me feel like I was doing pretty well for myself, so, thanks New York Megamillions, I'll stop complaining so much.

Here's my plan for if I win:

So, let's say, after taxes and other people's collecting their winnings you get $90 million.

I would set aside $3 million each for my sisters in some kind of trust fund deal, and give my brother $3 million up front to do whatever he wants with (he has a family now). Then I would also give my parents $9 or 10 million to do whatever they want with.

I would donate money for more programming in schools, I'm not sure what yet, but I would probably donate to LHS music since I really felt like it helped me out and maybe something for programming to encourage students to push ahead more. I know people might argue with me, and all this talk about genius kids not being pushed enough in public schools is annoying, but I do think it would be worthwhile to make kids feel like school is worth their time. Also, I would fund more bilingual education programs. I would also probably donate to st. jude's children's hospital in my mom's name since she donates a lot to them already. Then I would probably make a donation in my dad's name too.

I would invest a bunch of it in things like bonds and set aside a couple million in a high interest savings account for myself.

I would buy an apartment building somewhere that my friends and I could live in rent free and make look nice and then later if I don't want it anymore I could just sell it for a profit.

Then I would keep working at my current job until next february , and then try to get a science writing internship next spring like I want to do anyway. Then, hopefully after getting into med school I would travel the hell out of summer 2008. Then I would go to med school without having to worry about acquiring lots of debt.

And I would buy myself new glasses and a nice laptop because I need them. I'll probably buy myself new glasses anyway, and actually I bought a refurbished desktop yesterday because I really need a computer, so I guess I don't really need a nice laptop. I'm excited to get my new computer, it's coming this week! Then I'll have a computer in my apartment too and maybe I'll blog more!

Awesome conversations I've had this week

Cab Ride Home on Saturday night

Driver: "Where are you from if you don't mind me asking?"

Me: (No big deal, they always ask me this)

"Massachusetts"

Driver: "No, I mean, you know, I mean, you look like you're from somewhere else, you look like arabic or indian."

Me: (Fine)

"Arabic"

Driver: "Where, egypt, Jordan?"

Me: (Usually I lie, but I was surprised that he guessed Jordan)

"Jordan"

Driver: "Well are you a real Jordanian? Cause Jordanian's don't usually have black hair like that."

Me: (Again, surprised at his accuracy)

"Also Filipino"

Driver: "Ah, see? I know a lot of things. Can you imagine, our grandkids and great grandchildren, how awful they'll look?"

Me: (What?)

"What do you mean?"

Driver: "Oh you know, all this mixing, bleh, it will be horrible."

Me: "Well...you know, I'm mixed."

Driver: "I understand that."

Get over it Texas

I'm not normally much of a Connecticut fan (it's clearly the lesser of the New England states) but I thought this was funny.

Heroes Chapt. 12 Trailer

1/22/06

Uruguay, eh?

random guy in elevator: "You're from Uruguay right?"

me: "No"

guy: "Oh, where are you from?"

me: "Well, my dad is from Jordan and my mom's from the Philippines" (I usually just say MA, but I was being nice).

guy: "Oh, pffft, all you girls look the same, all you look like the girl from Uruguay"

makes sense (written unironically, it does make sense).

Why ya gotta waste my flava?

The truth is, with me being as awesome as I am, people ask me where I'm from all the time. Their conclusion always somehow ends up being that I'm from Jordan. And I understand that when you meet a really amazing person, you have to wonder what mix of culture and environment could produce such a person, was it the south, was it Canada? Maybe traveling as a young army brat created the personality that is me?

I also understand, that I'm very arabic looking and have a middle eastern last name.

But I can not understand why, if someone goes through the trouble of asking me where I'm from, and I go through the trouble of answering "I'm from America, but my father is from Jordan and my mother is from the Philippines" how that translates into "I'm Jordanian."

Time and time again, after going through the usual "where are you really from?" spiel with friends they will later see me and say something that translates roughly into "Hey, Jordanian friend! Come over and teach us arabic! What's going on in your country today?" And I don't know how to respond. If you're going to be ignorant and racist, at least permit me both of my parents in the incorrect identity you shove me into.

I don't mean to complain, but it's everyone and it's really weird. I had a friend tell me I should take it personally that another friend didn't know about the Jordan attacks that occurred during fall '05. I take it personally whenever anyone doesn't care about people in the world, not just the country my father is from, because I'm a person in the world. It's not a difficult concept. In response to a joke I made about pretzals being part of jordanian-filipino culture, people keep referring to the "jordanian-pretzels" I make. It's like I'm crazy, and I don't really have all these filipino relatives.

I write this blog entry, because I honestly don't understand why people have to simplify and categorize each other, and why everyone seems to put me into the same category. There are a lot of options; Jordanian, Filipino, Arab-pino, American? Why is it so easy for everyone to remember that I'm Jordanian and so hard to remember that I'm actually Jordanian/Filipino-American?

People do this with everything. I'm constantly being told I'm a science person, when in fact I'm sitting here right now writing because I like to write. I majored in anthropology in college, and people who I have told this to always seem surprised when they find out again that I did in fact major in something other than a science. I would like to find one person who's pure-blooded and has only ONE interest in the world. I'm not complex, or anything special. My dad is from jordan and my mom is from the philippines, just like someone else's dad might be from California and their mom might be from Texas. Get it right people, it's not that hard.

Left-handed people are annoying

They all think they're SOOO special. Well guess what left-handed people? I've decided to teach myself to be left-handed. Makes things at work a little more fun, and it'll show you all how special you really are.

I got new jeans

They teach me how to wear them.
I'm always impressed when I find that someone else has thought of a way of doing something I would never have thought of myself. Like whoever thought of conjugating a sugar to a radioactive substrate so we could scan the activity in a human brain, or Professor Yumus and his Grameen Bank; things I probably would not have figured out yet so obvious when someone else does them. Thanks for the help HINT jeans.

Write about something

One of my favourite teachers of all time gave us that as our first assignment for his english class in high school. I did really badly on it. I misinterpreted the assignment and just wrote aimlessly for several pages; handing in what in later years would be the equivalent of a really long livejournal entry.

He actually did want us to write about something, not write about nothing. And he'd wanted us to keep it short. So, with those two maxims I've set up this blog. I'm going to write about things, and I'm going to try to keep it short.