Molecular Neuroscience

I'm not quie sure why I'm taking this class.. it has become a very tedious course that is designed for neuroscience majors.. some parts interesting, while other parts dry. Perhaps I wanted to learn more about the nervous system. I find myself reading and thinking about the course concepts for hours upon hours just to avoid falling behind. A class of more than 230 students, yet only 100 at best show up to lecture, half of that 100 falling asleep after the first hour.. I aced the first exam, and am awaiting to recieve results for the next.

All I hear is whining in that class.. little asians saying "omg this is so boring, I'm going to die"

I'm not sure where this guys accent is from.. its so strange and strikingly annoying at times.. his name is Lars and he looks white.. I should maybe ask him. He got his PhD from Harvard, and works in the same institute at UCLA where the PET scan was invented.. perhaps he is smart.

The classroom.. seems so empty. I snapped a pic during the 5 minute break as I was listening to my voicemails.

3:30am, midterm preparation at the grand library.. 20 minutes before I had walked over to the 24hour pharmacy called CVS and bought 3 food bars and some caffiene pills.

Relief.. I mastered the concepts, and the warm couch became attractive, as I began rubbing my eyes..

-m

Random trip to Las Vegas

^As we were driving home, beautiful hills and mountains covered in snow.

So it's 10pm.. I'm playing some harmonium and humming to myself a new tune I'm working on, and my front door slams open. "Dude we're going to Vegas!! Get out, lets go!!". I look at my friend and say "Are you kidding me?".

He said we'd go and come back tomorrow morning, he somewhow convinced me to go along on this ludicrous trip-- At first I told them to leave me alone, but eventually I thought to myself, sure lets have a little fun, what do I have to lose.

We get there around 1:30am.. I had not gone to Vegas for quite some time, and had forgotten how beautiful the main strip was, as I stared at the lightings and structures like a little kid seeing a roller coaster for the first time, wondering to myself wow sj would love this. We walk into ceasars palace, and I watched one of my friends immediately win $200 on russian roulette-- impressive I thought.

I put $20 on the roulette table, and after 15 minutes I lost. I thought what a ripoff that was-- and looked to the blackjack tables. Having played blackjack 21 with friends in high school, I was versed in its intricate workings. I put $10 on the table, kindly gestured to all of the players, and began. The dealer, an Asian lady with a very naughty smirk, handed me my chips. 10 minutes pass, and I am up to $50. I was feeling quite excited, wow I'm actually making 5x more than I put in. 20 more minutes pass and I'm up to $180, and at this time the scantily dressed waitress begins bringing me drinks (apparently if you stay at a game table long enough, they bring you free drinks). I'm not sure what the drink was, however I was quite thirsty, and gulped it down. I was feeling like James Bond in 007 as a strange lady came and started messaging my shoulder, and kept saying "Go champ". After about 5 minutes, I told her that I am fine, please move along. I realised the drink had an alcoholic taste to it, and thought whatever, one cup won't get me drunk. Apparently it was vodka, and 10 minutes later I start laughing my ass off and joking around with everyone near me as I continued playing-- I was drunk, and I was thinking to myself, wow I am so drunk right now, this is a very strange and funny feeling. Gambling and drinking, such a pious young man I am.

10 minutes later I had lost $30 and was at $150, and had even gained a small little audience cheering me on. Perhaps I was being very loud and attracting attention, not sure. Interesting now that I think back on it.

My friend came by the table, and I can clearly see that he is drunk as well, and pissed that he lost his money. At this moment in time, I'm laughing hysterically and am about to collapse on the table just looking at the drunken state of this bloke-- and security comes and stands near the table, just staring, and not saying anything. An older lady starts laughing as well, and says "you had too many drinks dear". I found that even more funny, because I had only 1 drink that looked like orange juice LOL.

We left the table and started walking around Las Vegas, and visited a couple other casinos and universal studios. It was freezing outside. The sun was coming out, and I realized I'm not drunk anymore. We were quite hungry so we found this place called "Fatburger"-- I ate like 3 burgers. All of us now were sober, and amidst burger eating an intersting philosophical discussion on economics and power ensued.

I decided I was going to drive us home, since I did not trust that they were sober enough. I gulped 2 bottles of RedBull, and back towards LA we drove. The mountains and hills were full of snow, I snapped some pictures as I was driving (see above).

^In front of Ceasar's Palace, I was no longer drunk (to the right).

^Trying to detoxify with redbull, green tea, and meditation-- in the middle of the street across from ceasar's palace (horrible pic btw).

-m

The Unibrow Artist

Apparently I have great skill with the tweezers.. yup. Gave me a whole new business idea: "M's Unibrow Removal Corporation".

So one of my roomate's friends, a Saudi raised interesting character had this abrupt and in-your-face unibrow, and everytime I saw him I could not help but ask "So you planning on taking care of that beaver on your forehead bro or what?"

He would always laugh it off, clearly feeling uneasy about my intrusion into his beauty affairs, probably wishing to himself that I would just leave such comments alone. "It's unique, I am unique, Rasul says don't remove the natural". Of course me being the blasphemous skeptical bastard I am, such comments of his would put him into a deeper hole with me lol. How amusing it was *sigh*.

Yesterday he came over, as I was minding my own business in my own world of thoughts and began talking about how he can't find a job. I begin my usual mockery of that hairy racoon on his forheard and tell him that so long as he maintains that unibrow, no one will hire him. He says "ok fine, how do I get rid of it". I said, come here.. I have tweezers... go wash your face with warm water to open your pours, and let M take care of it. Internally I was amazed that he agreed to such, obviously he was desperate to remove it.. he must be getting shit for that brow from all corners. This called for documentation, and I took out my phone camera. Above is the before pic, as I began working my magic with the metal tweezers. And below is the After pic:

-m

Eggs at 3am

Two days ago..

My eyes open.. After a one hour nap, it seemed I was fully awake. I stared intently into the darkness of the ceiling, as the sound from my roomate's nostrils invaded my ears with a sort of soft monotone. I feel a serious hunger pang, and think to myself why in the world I could be so hungry all of a sudden.

I got out of bed.. slipped on my slippers and walked into the living room. I look up at the clock and its past 3am. I decided I was going to cook some eggs.. for some odd reason I was really yearning eggs all of a sudden. I couldn't find the spatula, so I used a spoon instead. As I was cooking, I thought to myself how strange that I would get out of a deep sleep and suddenly begin cooking eggs in the middle of the night, am I dreaming? I took out my phone camera, and snapped a pic of this event in history.

I ate the 5 eggs I cooked.. they were so delicious, not too hard, and not too soft, just to the point when I poke the middle, the yolk oozes out. I put cayenne pepper (the red bottle in the pic) on it with a little bit of salt, and some canola oil (in the picture). I ate it with whole wheat tost.

I sat down, satisfied after my 3am feast of eggs and toast, and worked away on my projects till I fell asleep.

-m

No air..

If I should die before I wake
It's because you took my breath away
Losing you is like living in a world with no air

I'm here alone, didn't wanna leave
My heart won't move, it's incomplete
I wish there was a way that I can make you understand

How do you expect me
To live alone with just me
because my world revolves around you
It's so hard for me to breathe

Tell me how I'm supposed to breathe with no air
I can't live, I can't breathe with no air
That's how I feel whenever you're not there
There's no air, no air
You've got me in the water so deep
Tell me how you're going to be without me
If you're not here, I just can't breathe
There's no air, no air


-s

Impatience

I can't wait to wake next to you every morning.. to kiss you good morning and thank God for granting me another day with you.. to walk hand in hand with you through beautiful settings.. to travel the world with my soulmate.. to watch our children laugh and run before us.. to proudly watch you climb great heights, become someone big.. to watch the fruits of our seeds grow.. to pamper and cherish you.. to be your backbone, your rock, your shoulder.. to feel your warm protective embrace around me at the end of the day as we together enter another magical night of slumber deep..

Me and you baby.. we're going to be alright :)



-s

The day everyone turned into a kid

I woke up today at around 6:30. I dragged myself out of bed, tearing myself away with all my might. As I stumbled to the bathroom I glanced out of the window and noticed a lot of white outside. I walked closer to the window and to my joy found that it was snowing! Beautiful sheets of white covered the floor, blankets over the cars, over the roofs, decorating the trees.. breath-taking.. Excitement shot through my veins, I couldn't wait to be out there and dance in it. I ran to the bathroom and brushed my teeth with an urgency, wanting to be the first to leave my footprints on the snow, before the brats of the street discovered it and messed it all up. I dressed in my warmest, cosiest outfit and left the house for university.



My feet sank into the white sheets of beauty below me, making a crunchy noise, although mildly annoyingly reminding me of sinking into a large sheet of cotton wool (I have a phobia of cotton wool). It was the most snow I had experienced in London, it had to be at least 15cm deep. I trudged on down the street towards the bus stop, taking in every step with great appreciation as I stared in awe at Gods gift before me, snow beautifying everything it covered.

"No buses running today dear" smiled the shop keeper as I was topping up my Oyster card. No buses = can't get to the tube station = no uni = woooohoooo! I ran home and shook my brothers awake, much to their annoyance. "BUT IT'S SNOWING!" I screamed. Eventually I got them awake. Their school had been cancelled, so we decided to have a snowball fight :D We played for a while in the back garden, but I decided that their ganging up on me was unfair and thought I'd enlist the help of some of my neighbours!

Since my brothers refused to do it, I walked up to my neighbour's door, knocked and waited. "Can Sarah and John come out to play?" Their mum looked at me with a smirk on her face, obviously taken aback at the 21 year old girl at her door asking if her son and daughter could come out to play. I swallowed my embarassment and maintained my pleading smile. John was 16, a high-school drop out and a heavy smoker. Sarah was 18, known to be a little bit promiscuous, and a typical moody teen. Still, I knocked with the slight hope that for old times sake they'd swallow their teenage pride and come out to play with us. We had a close upbringing with them, they were our closest childhood friends, we would spend every waking moment in each others' back gardens, playing barbies, cops and robbers, water fights. But it had been quite a few years since we had started to drift apart - adolesence kicked in and I hardly saw them thereafter.

"They're asleep I'm afraid", said their mum, as she returned. I wasn't suprised at her answer, but thought I'd try anyway. I continued to play with my brothers, but after 10 mins saw both John and Sarah emerge reluctantly. I was glad that they had come out.. for old times sake. I threw a snowball at their direction, and was in return pelted with bigger, more painful ones. I shreiked with pain. I am a wimp.

Soon other kids from the street came out to play with us, many more, including some other distanced childhood friends, some of whom had multiple children of their own (with unknown fathers). It was good to laugh and run with them once more :) It was also a good opportunity for me to let some anger out on some of the little brats of the street. There's this one girl, a little bratty tomboy, about 10 years old, who for some reason has got a problem with my little Omie and is always bullying him. I managed to grab her behind a bush and pushed a huge snowball in her face, ahahahahaha. She walked off spitting snow out of her mouth lol. Revenge had been served.. sweet sweet revenge.. :D

Old and young had gathered in our usually ghostly street. Laughter echoed through the crisp cold air, and a kind of bond formed between us all - old enemies smiled and greeted each other as children meandered between their legs. Life was injected into B. street at that moment.. this fall of snow was a magical event..

^Miss bling bling snow thing

-s