I haven’t been writing much due to school work, but there is this interesting topic which came across today that I want to write about.

It is about this bioengineered pet inside a factory from GenPets. It is an animal living inside a plastic wrap on store shelves in Toronto, Canada. The genetically engineered pet does not grow, but it has slowly growing hair under his armpit which can be trimmed. It does not walk, but it wiggles. It is reactive to different situations, and learns new things as it lives its life.

The pet, knows its owner like any other pet. It does not eat regularly and does not poop. It is fed with a special mix of food manufactured by the same company. How does it live inside a plastic wrap? It is hibernating, and a device is showing its heartbeat.

Well, first I thought it is cool, but then I thought it is freaky.

After all, I found it to be a hoax created by Adam Brandjes, an artist and sculptor. He has done such a good job of putting the website together. I bet it is fooling bunch of people wondering about features of stem cell and genetic engineering.

Saying that this whole thing is a hoax is not enough. I think it is inevitable for pets like this to be created one day, however, it is too early for the society and government to adopt something like this.

Today, there was a job fair at UCLA for internships. As usual I went for shopping in the career fair. I mean not shopping at the mall, but to just get a taste of all good gadgets and giveaway promotional goodies that companies have at their tables. The first table I went to was PriceGrabber.com. They had these plastic wristbands that I like in green color. I already have three of them on my right wrist. One of them is the yellow one from Lance Armstrong’s cancer foundation that my best friend Farzad gave me three years ago, and I am wearing it ever since; the second one is red and is from UCLA Aids Institute, and its purpose is to raise awareness about knowing your aids status as well as educating people about safe sex practices, and I am wearing this one for two years; the third one is the white one from One.org which my coach and friend, Steven gave it to me; One.org is an organization started by Bono, the U2 artist, to help the poverty, and I am wearing this one for almost eight months. With all these wristbands having good causes and colors matching, I walked up to the PriceGrabber lady, showing her the three, “Do you think your wristband matches these three that I have?” I asked. “Absolutely!” she replied with one of those big smiles that HR people usually give you. So, I explained to her that all these three that I already have are for good purposes such as helping people, “Who do you help?” I asked. “We help rich people to save more money,” she replied. I immediately realized she grasped my sense of humor, so I greeted her and left the table.

It was soon that I realized the first time I found an internship was actually because I was not looking for internship but went to a table to grab a cool flashlight they were giving away as promotional item, and that yield to a conversation with their hiring manger. Since I did not want to go through the hassle of job hunting and interviews because I already have an offer, I decide I just leave the facility and go to work.

I went to work today that I found out they are having a wine and cheese party with the cheese and wine that I supposedly brought for them as a gift. Anyways, after all it was all cool and I started to make a huge cheesy sandwich, and that is what you see in the picture.

Humans do not typically hibernate in winter season, but tonight is significantly different. I myself, who was alone at the apartment, came to Coffee Bean to study. Despite that last night I did not get enough sleep, I haven’t slept since I woke up this morning. The weather is crazy as usual. Two days ago, the temperature was above 80 degrees Fahrenheit and today it dropped below 50s. As of typing this blog, the temperature is 45 degrees and it is getting lower. I have been observing people and wondering if humans hibernate in cold.

The answer is maybe. I have been in touch with most of my close friends today, and during the day everybody was motivated to plan a hangout for tonight. As of now, which is 11:10 pm, most of them are sleeping, but I am sitting in coffee been and am eavesdropping on others. Well, I called one of my friends at 10:30 and realized that I had waked him up by calling him. Two of my other friends were going to bed and three others on the way home and thus to bed, and another one hibernating inside a room on campus taking a nap not being aware that the cold weather might have affected him to fall sleep.

And inside The Coffee Bean, there are many people enjoying hot beverages. Few walked in, pieced off that why it is so cold? They we two girls dressed in skirts and open tops and a jacket. I mean what do you expect; it is 45 degrees out there and you have it open; of course you will be cold. It is funny how people order drinks to keep their hands warm and not enjoy the taste. These couples sitting in front of me are cutely speechless. They are sitting next to the entrance door; as people enter, wind from outside brings a new flesh of cold air inside, and these two couples who are constantly holding their hands together, separate and hold their tea cops. Then they crouch and hold their knees, and after the cold air went away, there are back into the cuddly mood. Their actions are really harmonic and nicely tuned together. For a moment I was thinking whether cold weather causes bonding or causes separation. Last time I heard them, they were talking about how to take it into the bed tonight!..

And Jews are still cheap in cold weather. A Jew man walked in the store 15 minutes ago. He went to the counter and asked if he can have a large iced-mocha for a buck. Large iced-mocha is typically $4.60. He starts the bargain that it is cold and no-one buys cold drinks, and since he wants it, he must get it for cheaper. I this case I concluded that this dude’s mind has already hibernated even though he is physically up.

From O’Hara’s bar across the street I have to say that they are losing business tonight. Every weekend after 10 you usually cannot get in because it gets full, but tonight the front door is still open.

My favorite food places are also very slow because they have outdoors service area. But what would people eat in cold weather? Not iced-mocha! Thus people’s stomach hibernates too.

So in conclusion, cold weather affects human and its functions. Watch out people, it is cold season, make sure you same stuff inside just in case you did not feel like going out to cold for eating or shopping.

How did you get into graduate school!

This is a little aggressive, but I want to ask you if you don’t know what N=NP means, how did you get into UCLA’s graduate school mastering in computer science?

TA comes to the class and is not even able to answer a simple question. No, the answer to my question was not what you said. In fact you kept stressing your own point over my question which obviously had nothing to do with what I was asking. “Did I answer your question?”, you said. “No, that was not what I was asking,” and I continued rephrasing my question. I rephrased the whole thing, then why did you repeat the same answer? No, I am not an idiot, but I think you have slept with one and became an idiot.
You want feedback? Can you read the feedback sheet? I mean, if you were illiterate, you were more respectful than what you are right now. So, let me ask you this question: Have you had life? I mean have you had some fun besides hiding in the basement of a concrete building? I saw you drinking beer in the street the other night. Why are you doing this to us? You drink beer the day before class at 8 am. Please don’t be so cheap. At least go buy some good wine, and enjoy it all night. I understand that English was your third language, but I promise if you speak with me with your second language, I will understand you better.

I have a suggestion; go home, and bake some sweet potato, eat it, and get smarter. Then maybe you can answer my question.

Have you been in a situation which you accidentally made a phone call? If you haven’t, you are so darn lucky because it happened to me many times and many of them were not fun. Here is what happened today:

We were at the Spot restaurant with friends that I asked for one of my friend’s phone number. She kindly spelled it to me and I punched in into my cell phone then I pushed dial so that she will have my phone number on her caller id. We kept talking that I realized my phone was on call for 45 seconds, so making jokes, I said “Hey!.. Look I am on the phone with you for 48 seconds!” This happens a lot; you call someone and you forget that it went onto the voicemail system and your voice gets recorded, so as the times that your phone dials unintentionally because it is under pressure either by your butt in your back pocket or some object on your front pocket. Anyways, but this time it was slightly different. Continuing on making jokes, I held the phone next to my ears and yelled “Hey! Ati’s voicemail.” It was not pleasing rather scary that I was staring at her face and she did not have a phone on her hand, but someone replied “Yes!” Was it ghost or something? I am not really scared of ghosts but I don’t like shocks like this either. I knew I dialed the correct number so it couldn’t have been someone else unless the congestion in the wireless network resulted in a jam and thus my line crossed some other line. But this happened rarely, so it was not that easy to realize it at that moment. All of the sudden, I realized that it is the ghost of her mother speaking with me. Yes! Her mom had her phone that day. But the story does not end here. Persian parents are typically curious, so was her mother. She had heard my voice and not her boyfriend’s voice thus resulting into little bit of confusion. Thankfully things were resolved and the story ended with laughter.