Pumpkin Panda

Hola, cheese curls! It is time yet again for the long heralded monthly update! Although my proposition to update once a month has lagged behind to the end of the month, I shall try to be quick on the uptake for the remaining months of November and December, in preparation for my 2014 New Year's resolution of updating TWICE a month! Lo, ho! Though hast not heard of such glory!

Dare I say that my trend for being pleasantly surprised at the city of Richmond has continued to the point where I believe this may be a permanent sort of glee (let's not take it as far as "glee," although it has been positive so far). After revolting from the college bar scene, yours truly decided to immerse her Panda self in the artistic ways of Richmond. Sitting in on an arts leadership course with an awesome professor (shameless plug in the event you or anyone you know needs a great interior designer!) has let me gain exposure to the finer side of design and creativity in the city. I explored the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, saw the play To Kill a Mockingbird, and got season tickets for the Richmond Symphony, the first of which was Verdi Requiem. Although I would have enjoyed it more, intermission was not offered that one fine Saturday evening and I was therefore forced to catch myself from falling asleep toward the latter end of the performance, however mesmerizing it had been.

In addition, I have made a new friend! Walter Braxton, truly the definition of a starving artist/misunderstood musician, sat down next to me at Starbucks last Sunday afternoon and started dining on a can of Vienna Sausages. Immediately I knew we would become great friends. After exchanging some pleasantries, I read about him while he was sitting next to me (thanks, Google!), and eventually we agreed to meet again so he could give me some of his music. Walter Braxton is a composer of classical music! I have not yet gotten the chance to go through all of the music yet, but I have heard enough and had enough classical music training on the piano as a wee youth to appreciate the challenge of writing music! Falling into some difficulty recently, Mr. Braxton has not been able to compose and perform/conduct as he has wished. I have even thought about holding a class where he can teach crude laymen and layPanda about classical music, so I can act more distinguished the next time I attend a networking event!

Two former lab homies drove up this past weekend to attend our football game. We got to visit University of Virginia, which is apparently a public university even though all the men wear bow ties like private poodles. Notwithstanding, the football stadium had an interesting layout with part of the stadium cut out and replaced by a grassy knoll for frolicking in dismay when they lose at their homecoming game, as was the case this past weekend. In addition, the weather was absolutely delightful, following a week of dismal frigidity that had me breaking in my new CUggs (Costco Uggs - the adult version!).

Books have been a' galore in the Panda household! Thanks to Amazon and one cent used books with $3.99 shipping, I have been able to accrue a significant number of books that I shall probably not be able to finish anytime soon. After joining the library, I started requesting books and have now a book that I need to finish within the next two weeks. At least that gives me a deadline, although the other books on my shelf have started to get lonely without my prying Panda eyes. With The Economist also vying for my precious time and attention, along with the new Lady Gaga tracks in anticipation for her album release, I have been torn apart deciding what to read/watch/listen. Thank goodness for RapGenius, so I can listen to songs once (or not at all), and understand what "Pirelli" means.

There has also been a secular church dinner group (I am aware that the entire aforementioned phrase was an oxymoron...can oxymorons contain more than two words?) that has also accepted me for dinner each Wednesday. After two free dinners, I feel the need to contribute something, and am finally on a mission to prepare some green tea cheesecake for hungry diners! I have not really been baking after the CHEESECAKE FIASCO! this summer, where I made a different cheesecake every week and had to eat all of them by myself because everyone in lab decided to go on a diet (alright, I admit that I enjoyed every last bite...like I said, FIASCO). Welcome back, cheesecake! You will be a dear companion to the four tubs of Haagen Daz ice cream in my freezer that will eventually end up in my salivating Panda mouth!

I have two co-author manuscripts in the pipeline, one that should be submitted very soon, and the other pending revision from Dr. Zebra (which may never happen, at this pace). I have also started looking at other opportunities to become involved, even if not in the city of Richmond. Should you have consulting opportunities for a PhD Panda, please do contact me!

Happy Halloween, cheese curls! Unfortunately, I did not have enough time this year to create my own cheese curl costume. However, in order to stay warm and be able to stuff pillows into my costume, I have decided to dress up as as pumpkin! Of course, this will be a homemade costume, with an orange t-shirt, permanent marker, and some pillows! These Richmond folk will be blown away by the caliber and creativity of my masquerade, indeed!

Updates soon, my friends! Revvin' the frequency!

Panda (tentatively) Survives the Semester

Hello my dear little cheese curls! I have finally lived to see the day when I'd have time (or patience) to update my blog yet again! I finished my finals on Thursday of last week. The weekend was a blur due to my celebratory festivities, although I will try my best to recap the highlights. Although this week should be my most productive in lab since I don't have any classes, the equipment I need to use is currently down, and I have no estimate as to when it will be usable again. Thus, I am stuck at my desk, trying my best to concentrate on reading papers and The Economist. Unfortunately (or fortunately!) I have decided instead to update my blog! Usually I reserve non-school/lab work to be completed outside of the 9-5 block of time, but as of late I have just been going home and making Youtube videos instead.

To curb this inefficiency in the abode, I have decided to force myself to complete work RIGHT THIS SECOND as I sit here, otherwise I will be tempted to go on Facebook, which is another no-no between 9-5. Plus, my efficiency has risen dramatically over the past month or so, so I deserve a break to write this.

This is certainly an improvement from my first summary of negative efficiency some time ago.

Also, about a month ago I washed my Ipod nano that I received for Christmas from The Boyf several years ago. It has served me well; but alas, I had to be an incompetent fool and forget to check my jacket pockets before throwing it into the washer. And of course, the Ipod has not worked since then, even though I have been plugging it in every day to check if it charges. I stopped trying altogether about a week ago because I am hanging on the verge of hopelessness, although I did have a dream last night that it ended up charging. Let me try it now...

Nope. I'm screwed.

And because I am so stubborn, I refuse to buy a replacement Ipod. Perhaps I will take this to the Apple store and claim software malfunction. I never thought I would be able to survive without listening to music on my walk to and from school every day, but I have before and I am starting to get used to it again. Although sometimes I do really miss it, it is nice listening to the sounds of REAL LIFE: birds chirping, cars beeping, the garbage truck, drunk people at happy hour, some homeless guy asking me for money...I digress. And I think I really miss listening to music. Usually I go on Billboard 100 to stay up to date with and download new music, but I have just been so busy lately that I haven't had time to do that. With 4 classes and even a minimal amount of labwork, I still manage to find myself sitting in lab 10-12 hours a day, and also on the weekends. At least it is better now, since I no longer have classes. And this weekend I finally went out, which was a good way to wind down after a crazy semester. Anyway, I am in love with this "Good Feeling" song by Flo Rida, which is apparently originally from Avicii, but it really THE BEST remixed by Skrillex. LISTEN TO IT. NOW. I am. And I keep having to resist the urge and start flinging my body around in the vicinity near my desk. The poor Muslim lady sitting next to really has to put up with a lot, although she reminds me a lot of Yashmak, my roommate from college, and I really like them both. 

On to the weekend! On Friday, we had "Girls Night" at one of our labmates' house. I highlight the title because it was not completely accurate. Although almost all the attendees were female, Papa Ray was also invited to "babysit" her son, although we all know better. Every woman in our lab, single or not, is vying for Papa Ray's hand in marriage because not only is he a great guy, he is well educated, a mean chef, and is really good with kids. And somehow STILL single...ah, the perks of academia... So on Friday, we had delicious homemade Korean food. Then a few of us met up with a few others, and went to the CLERMONT LOUNGE! It is a strip bar for old people - as in the strippers are old, not the crowd. We talked to "Porscha", a 65 year old stripper who has two children, aged 25 and 40, and offered to give one of our guy friends a lap dance. We politely refused as he ran to the bathroom to throw up. But in all seriousness, it was actually a very fun time and the people were very chill. The best highlight of the night was the CRUSHING OF THE BEER CAN IN BETWEEN A STRIPPER'S BUTTCHEEKS! Yes, I never thought I would type that sentence either. But believe me, once you've seen the sight, you will always be hungering for more. I have also heard that one of the strippers ("Blondie"?)  crushes the can in between her breasts. So glorious. Afterwards, we were so enthralled that we ordered a dozen doughnuts from Krispy Kreme.

The next day, I had to finish some work in the lab (surprise, surprise). But I also managed to sneak some time in to visit the local doughnut shop with two other friends in lab (do the doughnuts ever end, you ask? "the answer is nooooooo..."). Although they didn't have penis doughnuts, the selection was otherwise great and very delicious. In the afternoon, I headed over to the opposing lab's Kario Mart party, which is basically Mario Kart but with drinking. Although I was the only non-lab member present that also was not someone's significant other (um, awkward turtle?), it actually wasn't too turtle (yes, I just said that). We had a lot of fun and went to dinner at a pizza place nearby. On Saturday night, a bunch of us went to Opera, a nightclub in the area. I am not sure what the deal is with nightclub/bars that are named after random things, like Church, which is a bar but often gets mistaken for a CHURCH because, well, you know...turtle. 

Anyway, we parked to go to Opera in a $3 lot after much debate and evasion of the $10, then $5 lots. I kept opting for free street parking, but was overturned by a vote of 4-1. It turned out that we didn't have $3 in cash between the 5 of us. So we just left and figured we would come back afterwards and pay, or not pay (probably the latter). However, when we came back roughly 4 hours later, there was A BOOT ON OUR CAR. Which cost $75 to get off! In retrospect, we should have just googled "how to get a boot of your car" and found out that all you have to do is deflate your tire and it slips right off, but of course we were being ignorant fools. I'm still pissed about the situation, although I suppose it was our own faults for not paying. BUT STILL. Apparently there is a "real life superhero" in England called the Angle-Grinder Man that goes around cutting boots off people's cars. Because I'm slightly less apt with heavy machinery, I am considering just handing out print-outs of the previous website so that other people with boots can get rid of them without having to pay the ridiculous fine. 

But talking about real-life superheros, THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO movie is being released TOMORROW!!! 

Last summer, I read all three of the books in the trilogy by Swedish author Stieg Larsson. Then I saw all three of the Swedish movies. I even went as Lisbeth Salander for Halloween. Now the movies are being remade in Hollywood, and I CANNOT wait to watch them! As of today, the wallpaper on both of my computers are of a tattooed Rooney Mara. 

She is so badass.

I've posted this on Facebook and may or may not pass out before I make it to the theater to watch the premiere. It's even got a 90% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, which you KNOW is near impossible (Fine, it is 85% now, but as of last night it was still 90%, and I'm sure it will go back up! Haters gon' hate...). I think I'll have to wait to see it with The Boyf when I go home after Friday, so I don't know how I'm going to contain my excitement until then. 

This week, apart from the dreadful wait for the contact angle machine to go back up, is filled with exciting things! Tomorrow I am going to see the Atlanta Ballet's The Nutcracker, showing at the Fox Theater right next to my place. Then Thursday night I am going to the Atlanta Brewing Company to finally use my Groupon. Then Friday night I am going HOME! So home. In college I hated going home. But now that I've finally told Padre about The Boyf, he is finally giving me a bit more freedom and it's actually nice to go home now. Also, today at 6pm I find out if I passed MASS TRANSFER (passing with a B, that is - still reminiscing over the days when I could get by with a D in fluids). So wish me luck! 

I just received an email that the contact angle machine should be back up soon. EL KHEMDULLILAH! (I know it's spelled wrong, deal with it). 

Happy holidays! More updates to come soon (hopefully)...

Panda Is Sad

Right now the Georgia Tech vs. Clemson homecoming football game is playing, and I can hear the announcer from my open window. It’s also Halloween weekend and most people are dressed up in silly costumes and having a fun time. However, Panda is sitting at home, mourning the departure of a dear friend. 

Dr. Tittens left this morning to return to Germany. After 9 months in the States and only a little more than 2 months knowing me, he managed to have eight people take him out to dinner and the bars last night, and three see him to the airport this morning. Although I have known only him for a little more than 2 months, I have to admit that Dr. Tittens is one of my best friends. I think that has a lot to do with his character; some people just have good overall character and make friends with everybody. Plus a lot to do with this is that we both lived in the same apartment building, so we got to hang out almost every day. 

On a scale from 1 (mild irritation, aka when I run out of Sriracha sauce) to 10 (physical pain/high emotional distress, aka when The Boyf and I “broke up” this summer), I would rank Dr. Titten’s departure as a 7. Usually I am fine with not seeing people for a while because I move a lot, even my best friends. But my friends are all in the US, so even if it’s a few years, we can still keep in touch via Facebook or whatever. This is a really different situation because Dr. Tittens really isn’t in the same field as us (he is a medical doctor and we are in research), and somewhere deep in your heart you know that you will probably never cross paths in life again. I’m sure at some point I’ll be able to visit Germany or whatever country he ends up in, and maybe his kids and my kids can end up being GENERATION II BEST BUDDIES, but for now it seems highly unlikely. I guess I’ll get over it in a few days and hang out with the other best buddies in lab, but it really just won’t be the same without the funny German accent screaming “I know that you are UGLY” to LMFAO. 

I have been trying to console myself, but there is nothing to do. My internet is especially shitty tonight and I can’t even send out an email, The Boyf is away at some Halloween party (no doubt with terrible hair but he is a cowboy so at least the hat will cover it), I finished the last of the ice cream last week already, and to top it all off, there is a cockroach (I say ONE but there are probably more that I am remaining in denial about) in my kitchen that I tried to starve to death last week by not opening the cupboard, but I had to open it tonight to get my Nutella (you KNOW I am eating it right now with a spoon) and the damn bugger crawled right out. Actually, last night I randomly saw a guy with whom I had Chinese class back at Penn State while we were out, so we might end up hanging out tonight if I can pull my wits about me. But really, sitting at home eating Nutella by yourself on a Saturday evening is not the best spirit booster (although still delicious). Even the music on Itunes is starting to get depressing. 

So I decided to write this blog post to make me feel better! I know I haven’t updated for a few weeks, which is usually the case. But now that Dr. Tittens is gone, I have much more time to myself and therefore am back on the productivity scale. Let’s recap!

Previously I had been going on about getting my belly button pierced. Well…I finally did it! BY MYSELF! Holla back HARDCORE PANDA! And as predicted, I knew that no one would believe me. So here is video documentation. For real.

And also, my panda ring came in! I know I’m supposed to wait 6 months before changing the original piercing ring, but then again I DID pierce myself. So it was likely that I put the panda piercing in less than 10 days after the piercing. There was some swelling at the beginning, but luckily I am a HARDY PANDA and my body quickly recovered. Here, my tribute to Dr. Titten! The joke is that he is old enough to be my grandpa. Then when I have kids, he will be the crazy uncle running around, aka Papi Deustch! The ring is SO AMAZING. The bottom part is only partly attached to the head of the panda, so when I walk the bottom JIGGLES! SO. CUTE. 

Exhibit A: Panda on Panda!

Exhibit B: Panda Belly centered

Exhibit C: Panda Belly Jiggled! (the line was from my pants)

Alright, I am back! So I did find something to occupy me after all. Playing music always makes me feel better. Here’s a cover of “Domino”, originally by Jessie J, now by PANDA! It took me forever to figure out why I look retarded in most of my Youtube videos. It’s because I’m look down when I should be looking straight at the screen. Anyway, it should be good now. I wish I had a piano because it would be better for certain songs. But once I move out of here I’ll get a nice upright. 

Also I put in some chicken to cook! I had gotten a bulk pack of chicken two weeks ago and had it in the freezer. So I put some seasoning on it and it’s been cooking for an hour. But forgetful me, I didn’t get up to stir it and the sugar coagulated on the bottom and started to burn the pot. So I resimmered it with more water and now it’s good again. Now I am making rice to go with it. 

Food is done! Bulk packaged and ready to go to lab tomorrow morning. I am feeding cells with another best buddy at 10am, so I’ll have to make the 9am church service...so I should probably stay in tonight. Although I did had a FANTAZMO nap earlier so I feel way better. 

Happy early Halloween! I bought an “Alice in Wonderland’ costume online but don’t think I’ll be wearing it this year, although “the night is still young”. But my REALLY COOL costume is coming on Monday…I don’t want to ruin the surprise by showing you now, so I will try my best to post a picture of it on Monday when I wear it.

Okay little cheese curls! I feel much better now. Thanks for listening to me moping. I’ll get back to work now! And hopefully I’ll get some ice cream tomorrow in case I start feeling sad again.

Panda Enters the [Cell] Hood

First off, I AM SORRY! I know these past few days have been jam packed with new and exciting things in my life as a graduate student, but I keep putting off updating. But here I am now, ready to divulge all details of my official life as a PhD student.

So where to start? Last Monday I started my first day in the lab of Dr. Barbie. I have come to like her more and more, especially when compared to the co-advisor of the lab, Dr. Zebra. Dr. Zebra is an international traveler and flies to and from our lab in monthly-ish rotations. He is in charge of approving our experiments and laying down the law and cracking the whip on lazy grad students. Dr. Barbie is the diva and has her personal golf cart with plastic door flaps that she drives around campus. They are both so different and I love it when they argue. It would be the best reality show.

I haven’t done anything with the grad students outside of the birthday outing I talked about in my last post, two weeks earlier. It is kind of weird because no one seems to recognize anyone else when they are in lab, but apparently everyone hangs out on the weekends together or something. I have no idea. Although I am getting multiple offers to go grocery shopping from people in the lab, so at least I won’t be hungry. Last weekend the biosciences grad club had a party (the pirate one that I talked about earlier), but The Boyf were so exhausted from walking around all day that we fell asleep before we had a chance to put on any eye patches.

So I met with Dr. Zebra last Tuesday, who basically told me nothing about my project but led me on a wild goose chase around the lab trying to find out what it is. Luckily, the chase wasn’t too hard, although at some point I did get entangled in prosthetic penis research (I SWEAR it came up in a search). Anyway, I am working with a 5^th year PhD student, which is nice but also super intimidating, but not really because he is pretty cool and plus it is better than Dr. Zebra beating me like an Amish horse. My project deals with surfaces and its effects on stem cells. It is pretty neat and really similar to what I proposed for my NSF project. But for now, I am stuck at my desk (which is starting to look pretty homely, thanks to a free whiteboard and an excess of mugs) until I complete all the safety training necessary for me to use the lab equipment.

The Boyf arrived last Tuesday night and stayed until Sunday. We had a fun time eating at different restaurants, which is basically the meaning of my existence. I had a great burger at The Vortex, so many free samples at Mary Mac’s, a mediocre country fried plate at Chicken and Waffles, and even sampled chocolate wine! We also visited the world’s largest aquarium, of which I am now a member (although I was kind of disappointed – I guess we will just go to the Coca Cola factory next time, and you KNOW I’m getting a membership there too). We went to church across the street from my apartment on Sunday. Oh, and The Boyf’s friend Danto works in Atlanta, so we all went to Sweetwater Brewing Company for a great/cheap beer tasting. I was designated driver – SO PANDA.

I’m kind of upset that I NEVER go out dancing with The Boyf. I think we have been twice before, but it was like three years ago and he didn’t even dance. I don’t know why he hates it so much. I even sent him a Youtube video of “how to dance in a club for white guys” (or something along those lines), but only offended him (who’d have thought?). I am considering finding a gay boyfriend just so that we can go out together and fake grind on each other. If you are interested, please reply to the ad below:

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WANTED: Faux Boyfriend for Panda Cheng

Qualification 1) Must look like Jude Law

Qualification 2) Must be homosexual

Please email alicethepanda@gmail.com with “Gay Jude Law” in the subject so I know you are not the real Jude Law. If you are the real Jude Law, you can bypass the email and just show up at my apartment instead. I’ll let The Boyf know “something came up”.

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I have finally put my new Beats by Dr. Dre studio headphones to use! Today I decided to boil water for tea, and while I was waiting, listened to some crazy music on the headphones. Unfortunately, I loved it so much that an hour later, I was nodding my head to the burnt smell of my nonexistent tea…To compensate, I had a bowl of white chocolate-raspberry-chocolate chip frozen yogurt instead, with life cereal, almond milk and nutella on top.

Now I’m back to listening to music again! I love these headphones. Oh, and speaking of music, Adele is performing in concert in October, right next door to my apartment building! Tickets are only $75 but have been sold out for a while, so I can only find them on Stubhub. I don’t know if I want to go by myself or coerce someone to go with me who doesn’t want to go…I might just go myself if I find anyone. Everyone in Atlanta is so friendly anyway that I’ll probably find a best friend before the chorus of “Rolling in the Deep” starts.

Tomorrow is my first day of class at Emory! It is weird that Georgia Tech and Emory are on different schedules, so even though it is super cool that GT has “fall break”, I technically don’t get a break because I still have an 8am class that day at Emory. And I’ll probably be in lab anyway since I have already become enslaved to Dr. Barbie and Dr. Zebra. PANDA WANTS TO ROAM FREE! Oh, and on a totally separate but quite related note, I ate bamboo tonight!

Deuces.

Pirate Panda

 I tried to go for a run at Huffnagle Park this morning, but there were PEOPLE there (what do they think it is, a park?!) and I had to run around Quarryville instead. Which is worse, because then 100x more people can see me. Although I did find out that there are a lot of mini creeks and bridges in town, which is something I should have already known earlier. Quarryville is so quaint…I wish I had time to just walk around and see the…quarries?

Last night a customer (young, male, attractive? – who are you? Please come back!) deposited SIX DOLLARS in the Peking tip jar! That’s only a dollar less than the tip Hair and I gave to our waiter at Applebees the night before! It is also two dollars more than the black, leather, pointed-toe Nine West pumps I purchased at the consignment shop next door that are a size too small (it was just such a good deal; I’ll fit into them somehow!) I don’t think anyone has ever given six dollars as a one-time tip at Peking, so I am assuming he was drunk or extremely wealthy (young, male, attractive AND single?  The Boyf better get his game on). Padre says he kept raving about our chicken lo mein and dropping the Washingtons into the jar. So the moral of the story here is: ORDER THE CHICKEN LO MEIN! I’ve had the lo mein, too, and it’s good! 

Today was also egg roll frying and roast pork day! My favorite day of the week! Every Tuesday, Peking makes roast pork in the oven, and it is so delicious. I always cut myself a slice when it comes out of the oven. I wish more people knew that we make everything from scratch…I mean EVERYTHING! There is so much prep work that goes into the food, even/especially the fried foods. I kept telling Hair that we needed to advertise more, since business is terribly slow during the summer. I wanted to make t-shirts for us to wear and perhaps to sell (it works at Penn State, but then again the median age of Quarryville is probably 72, so t-shirts might not sell so well). Hair had an ingenious idea of putting himself on the tshirt, riding a horse, and marketing it as the Polo Ralph Lauren brand. He said that we would make so much money because people would love the great deal of buying a Polo shirt for only $10 that we could retire from the restaurant industry and live off tshirt profits alone! 

Our idea for a promotional Peking tshirt – you can’t even spot the difference! What are your thoughts? Maybe I’ll get some done for the holidays!

I came home in the afternoon in order to start reading chapter 9 (the last chapter!) for BLOCK 0, but instead got caught up with packing and making a cover of Adele’s “Someone Like You.” I repositioned the camera so it is further away from my face (so you don’t have to see me scrunching when I try and fail to hit the high notes) and I think it sounds better this way, although The Boyf thinks it still sounds the same. In my head when I’m singing, I think I sound great, but when I listen myself recorded, my voice is always so whiny and high-pitched. Sad panda. =(

Packing is almost done! I fit the clothes that I wanted to bring into two large suitcases, and a bunch of shoes into a carry-on roller. I’ll need another suitcase or large roller to fit my binders and books/laptop/other miscellaneous items. I’ve also been siphoning off some old clothing and stuff in my room to donate to the consignment shop. I ran across a bunch of old cards and letters from many years ago while I was cleaning out my room. Among them were a graduation card from the pastor of my old church, a thank-you card from my high school hall monitor, a 19^th birthday card from The Boyf’s little siblings, and tons of letters from my penpals B-dog and Mona Lewis. I’m also starting correspondence with a new penpal, Weather Ballin’, so I’ll be keeping busy!

I did read about 6 pages into chapter 9, so I’m not THAT far behind. I might read a little bit more tonight before I go to bed…I should at least make it to page 10. That leaves about 24 pages tomorrow, which will take 2 hours if I’m lucky (the text is so small! 10 pages per hour is so excruciating), and then I can start typing up the answers to the end-of-chapter problems. Also, I need to pop into the library to print out the (NOT coupons this time!) flight confirmations for Padre’s and my flight to Hotlanta on Saturday. 

Tonight I was also invited to my first party at graduate school! I am really looking forward to starting school now – it seems like a very social bunch of students. It is a PIRATE PARTY! I wonder if showing up as a pirate panda would be too overwhelming – I wouldn’t want anyone to call animal control on me the first week of grad school. Then how would I update this blog!?