Girl on the moon

I was feeling dreamy and inspired and wanted to practice some digital illustration using Procreate on my ipad air.  This girl in a red dress is sitting on the moon, while holding an umbrella. It's a midnight dark sky with constellations and stars throughout the night. I chose a red dress to contrast the night. Red is a bright color- it is full of emotions- passion, compassion, happiness, sadness, very powerful. The color blue is always a serene color to me- It could be a mysterious pensive night-- thinking about some good dreams or maybe just some strange dreams.

AOA Annual summer meeting (Boston 2016)

This past summer, I went to my first major optometry conference as an optometry conference. Every year in the summer months, the American Optometric Association hosts a national meeting. In 2016, it was held at Boston, so me and some optometry friends went there this past July 2016. Here are some clips of what we did! It's expensive to attend a conference because depending on what school you go to, most schools don't give you a stipend to attend a conference as a student. There is usually a registration fee (ranging from $50-100, which is a good deal because as an OD, I hear you pay around $300 per day of conference, at least for the bigger conferences). However, if you look out for smaller conferences in your area, there may be cheaper, smaller scale conferences to go to on the weekend for the networking experiences.

At the conference, you can attend as much Continuing education events as you want and get to meet other practicing optometrists and get a feel for what your future will be like. The conferences also have networking events, lunches, and dinners to meet other optometrists and optometry students around the nation. Sometimes groups at the conference will also host evening socials which are fun to attend to. And of course, being in Boston for the first time, I had to explore the city~~

Wednesday 6.29
Cafe
dinner- Giarcoma (lobster dinner in Boston)

Thurs: 6.30
attend CE event at convention in the morning
Boston Tea Party
Bon mi restaurant
evening- quiz bowl event. This is a student event held annually with AOA. It's a great way for students from optometry schools in U.S. and Canada to cheer on their fellow classmate as they complete in "Student Bowl", which is basically an optometry trivia competition. We get to learn and refresh some optometry facts and "trivia", as well as mingle and network with other students.
After part/social at Hard Rock and bar .

Friday: 7.1
CE event in the morning
James Hook - Lobster rolls for lunch
Attend the residency forum at conference
Walmart reception and ICO reception inside Westin Hotel
attend the after party luxoticca live at royale and after party with other optometry students

-AOA also hosts an after social after the student bowl. This year it was at Hard Rock cafe/bar in Boston. It was cool because it was a silent disco so we were all given headphones to wear, with 3 different types of music to listen to. So when we put the headphones on, everyone can jam to the music of their liking. At the same time, if you wanted to be social and talk to other people, you can take off the headphones and still be able to hear people.

Sat: 7.2
Bee Hive- brunch
Newbury street shopping
Attend scleral event at conference at 3:30
Dinner- Myer Changs
Top of the hub bar

Sun: 7.3
USS Constitution museum
Freedom trail bunker movement
Pauli's-lunch
Beacon hill
Ned Divines pub - clam chowder
Quincy market
Ferry cruise at Boston Harbor

Mon: 7.4
Biking at esplanade
Thinking cup
Paddy O's- lunch

2019 Videography

I wanted to capture the essence of life experiences in 2019 from beginning to end of the year.
 Painful growth allows you to grow and become a better person/“adulting" It's hard to see it in the moment, but all things will pass, painful times and good times. So when you are feeling pain, whether physically, mentally, emotionally, just know that it will pass. Experience it, live through it, try to make yourself feel happier and focus on other things in life, but know that it will pass with time. And when you are experiencing a good time, really enjoy and cherish it. because it too will pass.

Beginning of 2019 was a rough patch and I def felt like I reached rock bottom at the time, but after moving to a new city and making new friends and getting a new job helped me move on into better times. But that experienced made me stronger and I know I can get through it next time a rough patch happens.

Chinese Tomato and Egg Stir Fry Recipe

Happy 2 weeks of social distancing during this time period end of March 2020.

It's been a while since I made a recipe. After personal stresses dealing with grad school, finishing clinical rotations, and finding a new job, and then figuring out work/life balance has occupied most of my time, but I want to go back to making videos and blogging again.

So here's my attempt to vlog Ep 1- cooking sesh.
Here's the link to the video I made! 

This chinese tomato and egg stir fry recipe is something I ate as a kid growing up. My mom would make this for dinner and it seemed so simple. I looked in the fridge and I had all the ingredients so I decided to give it a go.

Ingredients: (makes 2-3 servings)

- 3 eggs
- 3 roma tomatoes
- salt
- pepper
- soy sauce
- 1 small scallion (or another other onion, green or white or yellow). I wanted to use up my scallions.

Method:

1.) Crack eggs in a bowl and whisk together until creamy and smooth - as one consistency. Sprinkle salt and pepper and mix- to taste.
2.) slice tomatoes into smaller pieces.
3.) Dice onion.
4.) Prepare stir fry pan by heating pan on medium high. Sprinkle your choice of cooking oil in the pan and heat it up.
5.) Once oil is heated, add in the scallion and let it caramelize a little.
6.) Then add in the eggs and scramble them in the pan.
7.) When the eggs are a little more solidified, put the rest of the tomatoes in the pan and stir fry until soft and cooked.
8.) Add salt, pepper, soy sauce to taste.
9.) Put in a plate and serve!
10.) I served with rice and a side of raw baby kale. :)

Bon Appetit!

Passion

Find your passion. I guess passion is something you can spend hours doing and lose track of time.

- Today during this government mandated "social distancing" because of coronavirus pandemic, I went out to Lookout Mountain for a short hike. It was probably less than a mile upwards, slight incline on the way up, but wasn't too bad.

- After that, I went to Hobby Lobby because when I drove by the store earlier, I found out the store was still open during this time when all recreational businesses are recommended to close to prevent spreading of germs and increase in incidence of coronavirus to relief healthcare workers.

- Spent 2 hrs at Hobby Lobby looking at items, including fabric, glue guns, industrial stapler, and other home decor/basket inspirations. 

- Went back home and started my DIY projects. Been wanting to paint my black floor lamp a gold color and somehow convert my black lamp shade to white. I managed to find a white canvas fabric at Hobby Lobby which I thought was perfect to turn into a lamp shade with some super glue.

- After giving the lamp pole 1 coat of gold acryllic paint, took a break from project 1 to let it dry before putting on a second coat. I proceeded to project 2: making a new fabric top for my ivory white ottoman because the faux leather on the ottoman lid is rubbing off and creating flaky deposits that fall on the floor.

- I guess my passions would be video making, photo scrapbooking, anything artsy like sewing or other crafty ambitions I have. I also like hiking and rock climbing in the gym, because that's two things I always try to do no matter what city I am in.

- In terms of work, I guess as long as I don't think too hard about optometry as a career and just focus on other things like investments, saving $$ and buying a house, home decor, arts, working out, outdoors activities, I can live a lot happier. So that's what I'll do, fuck trying to go back and doing a residency so I can fulfill my dream of working in the "medical" field in the hospital. Just treat optometry as a revenue seeking job/career and pursue other passions and life improvements and goals.

Matcha sugar cookies

On this pre-new years eve day, I decided to try and make some of those matcha sugar cookies today! Thought it would be a good dessert to make if I master it as a good gift to give to people.
So, let's get on to it.

I mainly followed one recipe here.  Turned out pretty well. You can adorn the cookies with frosting, chocolate, but I decided to go for a plain matcha sugar cookie first.

Ingredients: 
1 large egg
2/3 cup of butter, soft (about 1 and 1/6 sticks)

1 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour
2 tsp matcha powder
1 tsp baking powder
3/4 cup white sugar

Directions:
1. Put butter in microwave about 45-60 seconds to soften it.
2. Mix the butter and sugar and beat the egg together until smooth consistency.
3. Whisk in the dry ingredients- flour, sugar, green tea powder in another bowl until it looks evenly mixed.
4. Gradually mix the dry ingredients with the liquid ingredients until the dough comes together.
5. Wrap the dough in saran wrap and refrigerate for about an hour.
6. After an hour, let the dough sit in room temperature for several minutes until it is soft enough to roll.
7. Preheat the oven to 350* F.
8. Place dough in small round circles (or you can use any cookie cutter shapes if you like) slightly spaced apart to allow the dough to expand and rise on a baking pan lined with aluminum foil.
9. Bake in oven for about 12 minutes until edges or slightly browned.
10. Let it cool completely in room temperature.
11. Now you are ready to eat this deliciously matcha snack!

Turkey slider patties

It's been a while since I posted a cooking recipe. I was inspired to recreate a Turkey slider recipe when I watched one of Wong fu Production's "Lunch break" episodes where the Wong Fu members cooked lunch for the other members.

I decided not to follow a recipe and "wing" it with things I got from the last grocery run and whatever was in the fridge.


Here are the ingredients:
- cumin spice powder
- ground black pepper
- low sodium soy sauce (or your choice of soy sauce)
- cooking wine

- 1 lb of organic ground turkey (from Trader's Joes)
- 2 large chicken eggs
- half of a white onion, diced
- 1/2 lb mushrooms, diced
- your favorite vegetable cooking oil
- dinner rolls (or whichever type of bread you want to put your sliders in)

white onion and mushrooms

Procedure:
1. Marinate the ground turkey with a sprinkle black pepper, cumin powder and drizzled a small amount of the cooking wine and low sodium soy sauce. I put enough sauce to just flavor the turkey meat, but not enough to drown the meat in it. Add more or less, depending on how saucy you feel.

2. Let the meat soak in sauces for about an hour or so, or whenever you're ready to cook the meat.

3. Prepare the vegetables: dice white onion and mushroom into small squares.

4. Beat the eggs in a large bowl.

5. Combine eggs and diced vegetables and mix well together. Add in the turkey meat as you go. Mix all ingredients until they are about evenly distributed.

6. Heat a frying pan and drizzle in a small amount of cooking oil (I used grapeseed oil).

7. Use a spatula or spoon to place a small meat on pan in a flat, round shape. You can place multiple "patties" on the plan, depending on how large or small you want the patties to be, or how large your frying pan is.

Like so- I placed 3 "patties" in a pan to save some time and cook more at a time

8. Heat turkey meat and turn over on other side when they start to brown or become well cooked.

9. Prepare dinner rolls: slice dinner rolls in half and toast bread if you like.

10. Place 1 cooked patty in between a dinner roll. Add condiments, other vegetables as you wish.

I already had vegetables in my patties so I chose not to add extra vegetables to my patty and the meat was flavorful enough for me to not add condiments. Present your sliders nicely as you wish and you are done!

 This was easy to make and something I'll do in the future, though I might try to invest in some type of flour, which might make the patty stick together more.