I keep talking about all the great things about living here in California - but of course, any place has its downsides too. Minor earthquakes are a part of life here in California due to the San Andreas Fault. But
this morning I experienced the strongest earthquake I've ever felt (see an article about it in the NY Times here). It was about 5.4 on the Richter Scale, which fell into the Moderate Earthquake category. Luckily my friends and family were okay through the ordeal, and everything was alright in my apartment (only my box of Grape Nuts fell from the top of my fridge). I was basically just sitting in my apartment during my lunch break, and all of a sudden I hear things dropping really hard and loud in the apartment above me, then I felt the ground moving around, almost as if several rolling waves just passed by. The whole apartment was shaking and all of the loose items (e.g. glassware, cups, etc.) were rattling. It didn't occur to me that there was an earthquake right away, but as soon as I realized it I ran outside. I just read in this article from FEMA that you're supposed to stay indoors actually (oh well). When I was outside, my neighbor from upstairs came down and told me about how he had to stay in the apartment to hold down the fish tank, which would have tipped over and potentially cause a leak down to my apartment through the ceiling!

What can I say, I'm so used to living in La-La land here, thinking that nothing can go wrong, but it's crazy to know that because of the seismic activity here in California, within a few moments, all of your things can be buried in rubble. Now I'm thinking, geez all of this stuff that I have related to optometry school could be buried just like that, and not to mention all of my work in my computer!!! It reminds me of what Forrest Gump said: "life is like a box of chocolates, you'll never know what you're gonna get."

Normally, during the weekend, I hang out on Friday evening and Saturday (either the day or evening), then all the other times I'm not out (including all day Sunday), I study for the upcoming exam that Tuesday. Since I don't have an exam this coming week, I was able to truly relax for the weekend.

On Friday evening, I watched The Dark Knight, which is the new Batman movie. I came in the theater knowing that the movie had excellent ratings, so I was hoping that it would not be one of those typical Hollywood films, with cliche lines and predictable plots and endings. However, I must say that I was truly blown away! It was very interesting to see how the plot twisted a couple times throughout the movie, instead of the typical single twist at the end. Definitely an unpredictable plot. And I must say Heath Ledger's rendition of The Joker was creepy as heck!!! So yeah, I highly recommend it! Check out the ratings all over the internet and you'll see what I mean, but even better, go watch it!

On Saturday, my fiancee and I spent the day around some of the Orange County beaches (yes, we got engaged - sorry I didn't mention anything until now, but yeah I popped the question in May). We went to Laguna Beach and ate at a very popular restaurant called Las Brisas, which serves excellent Mexican food; I heard that it's known to have celebrity sightings there. I highly recommend the calamari if you ever stop by there! We walked around the beach there and enjoyed the waves crashing against the rocks and cliffs. The surrounding area is definitely a great place to stop by to relax and walk around for a scenic stroll. Next, we went to Sprinkles Cupcakes in Newport Beach; this place has been very popular in the LA area, and so a location was opened in Newport. It's a very simple bakery that specializes in cupcakes, and what makes them so special is the icing. My fiancee had the strawberry and I had coconut - both were good but the strawberry was awesome!

Here's a sample of what they looked like - don't they look delicious???

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This weekend was definitely a well needed boost, especially since I keep hearing about how horrible fall quarter is going to be (and it's coming up faster than I would like to)! I'm just trying to do as much fun stuff as I can before I go back to hermit status...!

This past week was probably one of the busiest of the summer quarter, and yet it was even more easy going than the least busiest week of spring quarter. There was one lecture exam and one open book/open note proficiency. I can't overemphasize how relaxed this quarter has been compared to last quarter!!! I actually have time to do a lot more things during the weekend, e.g. the past weekend I went to see the movie WALL-E which was one of the best movies I've seen in a long time. Well, you can't go wrong with Pixar movies anyway. WALL-E however was leaning towards a more indie/artsy type film since there wasn't much dialog going on and there seems to be a lot of messages to be interpreted in the movie (e.g. environmentalism, overconsumption, love conquers all, etc.). Here is a trailer:



This weekend I went to see OneRepublic (plus Carolina Liar and Phantom Planet) in the Orange County Fair. As usual with most fairs, there were farm animals, rides, games, and lots of artery-clogging greasy food. OneRepublic's performance was one of the best live shows I've ever been to - the lead singer, Ryan Tedder, has an amazing voice. I am not crazy for pop music, but I was absolutely amazed with his talent. Many of singers nowadays have artificially enhanced voices on their recordings, but Ryan Tedder has a good voice live and that shows a lot for his singing abilities. Just search YouTube for some of his live performances and you'll see what I mean. Well that's it for now folks - hope you're all enjoying your summer too!

Currently I'm taking a class called Diagnosis and Management of Learning Related Vision Problems. This course involves just that - how optometrists can help people process visual information more efficiently in such a way that helps people to learn effectively. Most people think that optometry involves just the eyes itself - we get glasses to improve our vision and that's it. Well, that's true for the most part, but did you know that the scope of optometry also covers beyond just vision from the eyes. People seem to forget that vision involves the brain as well, and we in optometry school learn techniques that help people with such problems in that aspect e.g. dyslexia. Vision is undoubtedly an important aspect in learning language and reading, and as a profession of vision, we are able to practice techniques that help correct problems with processing visual information such as reading.

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