going back to old haunts.

last week, had the chance to go back to philadelphia for the 137th annual American Public Health Association conference. The conference was exhausting, but at least I had time for some of my favorite philly spots! Of course, I had to go back to Eastern State Penitentiary — the prison that set the precedent for the majority of prisons around the world. It was abandoned in 1970, but is now a museum, preserved in the same state that it was in when it was abandoned. The inside also has a ton of installation art, although I unfortunately didn’t get any pictures of those. Also happens to be one of the most “haunted” places in the country, so i hear…

cell block 1

i really loved all of the shadows and highlights that came in through the old rusting skylights.

a creepy cell that doubled as the barbershop. the chair looks more like an electric chair than a barber chair. I got a really weird vibe from this chair.

amanda down one of the cell blocks

fall fall fall

it’s finally fall – almost winter.   i have added a new friend to my car… 小叮噹吃銅鑼燒… doraemon!

 

it’s a reminder of where i’ve been, and where i am going.

i have also found myself to be completely uninspired by school and it makes me depressed — so i have taken to sewing sewing sewing… sewing food friends to send far far away to my dear friends overseas.

right now i’m pretty sure the only thing that could make me happy is a beer and a hot bowl of 關東煮

frenzied textures

i’ve suddenly become very interested in texture.

dabbling in other cultures.

as a part of a qualitative research methods class, ND and I went to the Al-Farooq Masjid mosque in downtown Atlanta to sit in on one of the prayer services. it was extremely interesting… i of course could not understand any of the rituals and could not participate, but it was still very enlightening to be in the mosque in a service.

the men worship separately from the women.
the main rotunda where the men worship and pray is beautiful.

the women worship upstairs on another floor. the windows look downstairs into the rotunda. flat screen TV’s on the wall project the Imam into the room so we can see him, hear his sermon, and hear the call to prayer.

OMG

i do NOT appreciate being woken up at 2:45am by a GIANT flying cockroach in my bedroom. I also don’t appreciate chasing it around for the next 30 minutes trying to kill it.

i don’t like loud noises.

there is raging thunderstorm outside and i can’t sleep because it’s too loud. so annoyed. the one night i go to sleep somewhat early and i’m kept awake by a thunderstorm! the thunder is so loud i feel like my entire apartment just shook.

this little friend was lost the other day when I went to the botanical garden with Kiran.
He didn’t like me taking pictures of him.
He looks mean.

These mean things also fell from the trees and hit us in the head.
So i picked them up and threw them at Kiran.

Kiran is running away from me as I throw those prickly mean things at her.
Wimp!

Yeah that about sums up the fun I have on weekends. haha!
Ok. Storm is winding down… I should attempt to sleep.

movies and politics

woww. life in prison? totally did not expect life in prison. justice? i guess so… although i hate the man and what he did to taiwanese politics and the faith of the taiwanese people in their own government… but was life in prison really necessary? i can definitely name some KMT people that probably should be in prison as well, if we’re going after corruption here… but nonetheless… i’m glad he and his family are finally paying for his crimes and lies. but his poor grandkids…

A-Bian gets LIFE

some movies that i’d like to see…

my dog likes to skype

my dog likes to skype with me he is very confused in this picture because he can’t figure out where my voice is coming from!! hahaha. look at that face!

finally had a chance to go to the high museum of art. i love the diagonal ramps against the windows!

Had a chance to see a few gerhard richter pieces… but was disappointed because they only had 5 pieces showing at the time. But i really like this one.

For those of you who use Macs… hurry and upgrade to Snow Leopard! Everything runs so much faster and smoother, and the colors are so much more vivid and saturated.

*yawn*

1. i heard on TV today that the average american woman wears a size 12. really??? since when?? I thought it was a size 8? if that’s really true, then 50% of american woman can barely buy clothes at any regular store, because i don’t even know if i’ve ever seen anything above a 12 at GAP or J.Crew.

2. why is it that the best professor that i’ve had in grad school so far isn’t even a professor? but an extremely cool PhD student? Come on now, professors… you all could learn a thing or two from these super cool PhD students.

3. Our wall is finally decorated!! BLIK Re-Stik “Fly” stickers are now adorning our walls. Here is our wall… with my tiny tiny TV. looks so awesome in person. If you all don’t know blik…

WHAT IS BLIK

4. IKEA finger puppets in a vase. propped up with chopsticks. you know you want these. yeah.

5. let me say again how horrible the traffic is here.

6. I skyped with my dog yesterday. It was awesome. Oh i miss him. I’m debating if I need to put up pictures of this.

my idea of fun on a friday night

ok you know it’s time for some excitement when here i am, sitting at my desk on a friday night, thinking of SAS programming. i could have gone to Martinis at the IMAX, but i was waaay to tired. So instead, in the last 30 minutes, I sat here and solved the rubik’s cube twice in a row. yes, i have other things i should/could be doing, but nope, i decided to solve the rubiks cube.

see what happens when there aren’t 7-11’s everywhere for me to go shop in?!