So, I've entertained a few questions as to what exactly happened with coffee that wreaked such havoc on my body, and I thought I would share the story here.
Exactly 5 years ago, I was in the middle of my first quarter at UCSB, and pulling an all-nighter in a desperate attempt to finish a group project. My partner and I camped out in his friend's lab to work on it, and sometime before dinner, we hit the nearby Peet's Coffee Shop for some coffee. Anyone that's ever had Peet's knows that they've got particularly strong coffee. And of course, being the coffee novice, I was unaware of this. I made the awful mistake of ordering a large cup of it-- and then drinking about 2/3 of it within the next half hour... on an empty stomach.
Bad idea. A few hours later my stomach started hurting like crazy, even though I'd since eaten dinner. I felt nauseous and naturally, couldn't sleep, even 12 hours AFTER I'd consumed the coffee. The nausea didn't fully subside for several days. I never threw up, but my gag reflex was on full alert, and hasn't gone down since then.
For months afterward, my gag reflex was heightened so much that anything could trigger it. I couldn't eat bananas for those months, for instance, I'd just gag at the mere smell of bananas. And Lord help me if I entered a public restroom stall that was less than spotless.
After a while I was able to eat bananas again, and my gag reflex, though still more sensitive than usual, had gone down.
Then in September 2003 I got pregnant, and guess what happened. Yup, gag reflex on full sensitivity again. I was worried that I wouldn't be able to deal with changing diapers, but luckily I haven't had any problems so far. Anyway, after giving birth, the enhanced sensitivity never fully went away. To this day, I will gag if I'm cold, if I'm too full (let's not think about what happens when I exit a restaurant, stuffed to the gills, into crisp cold weather outdoors), if I'm hit with noxious odors (however subtle), if I'm nervous. I can now understand why people can get so nervous that they throw up-- I don't, I just gag :-P
And of course, ever since then, I can't really take coffee too well-- only in small doses and only on a full stomach.
So there you have it-- my adventures with coffee.
(originally posted at: http://www.myspace.com/hellykwee/blog/187195958)
La Maison des Tortues: One third of the "heckled trio" writes...
Tuesday, October 31, 2006
Friday, October 27, 2006
An 80's *guy*!?!?
Swiped this off Scot's blog, the results are, well, mildly amusing:
Hmmm, I'd better watch out for Autumn, then, and those emotional scars ;-)
And it looks like Fuzzy's giving me two presents as well, LOL. He's certainly in a giving mood this year.
Now Scot-- you HAVE to tell me-- will it be quick and painless!?
(originally posted at: http://www.myspace.com/hellykwee/blog/185685274)
| hellykwee's Halloween ... | ||
| You will dress up as An 80's guy, despite earlier plans. | ||
| Scot will get you A magic crystal ball that shows you how you will die | ||
| Fuzzyhaze will get you pumpkin flavored chips | ||
| Fuzzyhaze will get you an enchanted bowl that produces whatever candy you want when you shout the name | ||
| She gave her heart to Tulsa will get you emotional scars | ||
| Ing will get you Some stale lollypops | ||
| 'What will you get on Halloween?' at QuizGalaxy.com | ||
Hmmm, I'd better watch out for Autumn, then, and those emotional scars ;-)
And it looks like Fuzzy's giving me two presents as well, LOL. He's certainly in a giving mood this year.
Now Scot-- you HAVE to tell me-- will it be quick and painless!?
(originally posted at: http://www.myspace.com/hellykwee/blog/185685274)
Monday, October 16, 2006
Try to be nice...
Wow, been a while since I posted on here. Been keeping busy with work... for a change ;-) And it's been good-- makes the days fly by, that's for sure!
So, a little background info on what's been keeping my so busy this past couple weeks, in addition to my regular programming work:
I came in as a college hire, fresh out of school at UCSB, and straight to work. Now, most of you know that I work for the world's largest biotech company, but I don't work in the science area-- I work in the Information Systems department, where we basically work to support the scientist and researchers with their computer/software/hardware needs. The IS department has an active college hire program, recruiting from target universities in the area every hiring season (each year). And this year we're expanding relationships with my alma mater. As one of UCSB's first few college hires, I ended up with the role of the recruiting facilitator, so I've been busy spearheading our recruiting efforts there. Since most of the recruiting occurs during Fall quarter, the past few weeks have been extremely busy, kicking things into high gear.
This week is full of activities: Career Fair tomorrow, where we'll (that is, 4 of my team members) be manning a booth, handing out info and accepting resumes, and then an Information Session Thursday to present more info about the IS department and make students aware that we do recruit computer/tech geeks, not just scientists and lab rats.
This year for the first time, another department (called POQ-- I'll spare you the explanation of what it stands for-- it's basically manufacturing and QC) is joining in on the college recruiting efforts, as they've got a ton of openings for other engineers. They are joining us for our Info Session so they can explain more about their department to prospective hires. As this is the first time venturing into collegiate territory, they've asked us to help them out with their efforts. Okay, no problem, always happy to lend a hand.
But then I found out that they weren't going to attend the Career Fair with us. Okay, that's fine too-- when we get people in their target majors showing up at our booth, we'll tell them to come to the Info Session for more details.
Then HR said they were giving us printed out job descriptions for handouts. Cool-- we can give those students a handout when we tell them to come back on Thursday.
Today Kinko's delivered the printouts. POQ has 7 types of positions available. And each position was printed on a separate sheet of paper. SEVEN sheets of paper for ONE department, and they're not even going to be at the Career Fair to hand them out!?
What irks me is that I've been pounding on desks trying to enlist their help with my efforts-- making the PowerPoint slides for the joint Info Session, making the fliers to post on campus to promote said Info Session, etc... and not a peep out of the POQ folks. But then they go and dump a bunch of papers on me and expect my team to hand them out tomorrow.
The second thing that irks me is that they CHOSE not to attend our Career Fair, which would've enabled them to set up an extra table RIGHT NEXT TO OURS so they could personally hand out their sheets and actually be able to EXPLAIN more about the jobs listed there!
Nope, apparently they expect that since we're already there, we can handle that for them.
Ummm... yeah, right. There's barely enough room on our table for all of OUR handouts, let alone some POQ handouts that none of us are equipped to explain.
I was tempted to chuck them into a fire. But, being the nice person that I am, and seeing how "team playing efforts" are prized at work, I decided to play nice and collated and stapled (by hand!) 50 packets of 7 sheets each, and stuck them in a box that my team can dig into (read: NOT displayed on our already-crowded table) to hand out.
Seriously, that's as far as I'm willing to go. If they run out tomorrow, too fucking bad. I'm only willing to be a team player if the others play too. And so far they haven't been playing.
Hey, I can be a bitch and play hardball, too.
(originally posted at: http://www.myspace.com/hellykwee/blog/181195810)
So, a little background info on what's been keeping my so busy this past couple weeks, in addition to my regular programming work:
I came in as a college hire, fresh out of school at UCSB, and straight to work. Now, most of you know that I work for the world's largest biotech company, but I don't work in the science area-- I work in the Information Systems department, where we basically work to support the scientist and researchers with their computer/software/hardware needs. The IS department has an active college hire program, recruiting from target universities in the area every hiring season (each year). And this year we're expanding relationships with my alma mater. As one of UCSB's first few college hires, I ended up with the role of the recruiting facilitator, so I've been busy spearheading our recruiting efforts there. Since most of the recruiting occurs during Fall quarter, the past few weeks have been extremely busy, kicking things into high gear.
This week is full of activities: Career Fair tomorrow, where we'll (that is, 4 of my team members) be manning a booth, handing out info and accepting resumes, and then an Information Session Thursday to present more info about the IS department and make students aware that we do recruit computer/tech geeks, not just scientists and lab rats.
This year for the first time, another department (called POQ-- I'll spare you the explanation of what it stands for-- it's basically manufacturing and QC) is joining in on the college recruiting efforts, as they've got a ton of openings for other engineers. They are joining us for our Info Session so they can explain more about their department to prospective hires. As this is the first time venturing into collegiate territory, they've asked us to help them out with their efforts. Okay, no problem, always happy to lend a hand.
But then I found out that they weren't going to attend the Career Fair with us. Okay, that's fine too-- when we get people in their target majors showing up at our booth, we'll tell them to come to the Info Session for more details.
Then HR said they were giving us printed out job descriptions for handouts. Cool-- we can give those students a handout when we tell them to come back on Thursday.
Today Kinko's delivered the printouts. POQ has 7 types of positions available. And each position was printed on a separate sheet of paper. SEVEN sheets of paper for ONE department, and they're not even going to be at the Career Fair to hand them out!?
What irks me is that I've been pounding on desks trying to enlist their help with my efforts-- making the PowerPoint slides for the joint Info Session, making the fliers to post on campus to promote said Info Session, etc... and not a peep out of the POQ folks. But then they go and dump a bunch of papers on me and expect my team to hand them out tomorrow.
The second thing that irks me is that they CHOSE not to attend our Career Fair, which would've enabled them to set up an extra table RIGHT NEXT TO OURS so they could personally hand out their sheets and actually be able to EXPLAIN more about the jobs listed there!
Nope, apparently they expect that since we're already there, we can handle that for them.
Ummm... yeah, right. There's barely enough room on our table for all of OUR handouts, let alone some POQ handouts that none of us are equipped to explain.
I was tempted to chuck them into a fire. But, being the nice person that I am, and seeing how "team playing efforts" are prized at work, I decided to play nice and collated and stapled (by hand!) 50 packets of 7 sheets each, and stuck them in a box that my team can dig into (read: NOT displayed on our already-crowded table) to hand out.
Seriously, that's as far as I'm willing to go. If they run out tomorrow, too fucking bad. I'm only willing to be a team player if the others play too. And so far they haven't been playing.
Hey, I can be a bitch and play hardball, too.
(originally posted at: http://www.myspace.com/hellykwee/blog/181195810)
Thursday, October 5, 2006
Luann on Myspace
I don't know how many of you keep up with the comic strip "Luann", but it ranks right up there among my all-time favorites. I was catching up on this week's strips while eating lunch, and couldn't stop laughing at the Myspace war currently brewing between Luann and Tiffany (oh, excuse me-- Sheraton St. Louis). Then I found out that those Myspace profiles actually existed, and nearly fell out of my chair laughing.
Before you scratch your head wondering what I'm on about, here's a recap of this week's Luann strips:
I am not ashamed to admit that I actually added Luann (and friends) as a friend here on Myspace. I figured, why the heck not-- an interesting way to blend fictional cartoon characters into real life-- or as much as "real life" that Myspace can be.
So check their profiles out, if anything, it's good for some giggles at this crossover between cartoon and online life. Makes me wonder how on earth Greg Evans finds enough time in his day to juggle all that.
http://www.myspace.com/luannandfriends
http://www.myspace.com/sheraton_st_louis
This is one saga I'm truly going to enjoy keeping up with! :-D
(originally posted at: http://www.myspace.com/hellykwee/blog/176589713)
Before you scratch your head wondering what I'm on about, here's a recap of this week's Luann strips:
I am not ashamed to admit that I actually added Luann (and friends) as a friend here on Myspace. I figured, why the heck not-- an interesting way to blend fictional cartoon characters into real life-- or as much as "real life" that Myspace can be.
So check their profiles out, if anything, it's good for some giggles at this crossover between cartoon and online life. Makes me wonder how on earth Greg Evans finds enough time in his day to juggle all that.
http://www.myspace.com/luannandfriends
http://www.myspace.com/sheraton_st_louis
This is one saga I'm truly going to enjoy keeping up with! :-D
(originally posted at: http://www.myspace.com/hellykwee/blog/176589713)
Tuesday, October 3, 2006
Childhood Survey
Spied this in the bulletins and thought I'd post it here....
1. Are you a child of the 70's 80's or 90's?
Um-- does this mean when I was born or when I grew up? Born-- 70s. Grew up-- 80s
2. Where were you born?
Muenster, Germany
3. If you were born in another country how old were you when you came here?
4 years old
4. Did you enjoy your childhood?
Yup, I had a happy one
5. When you were a kid what did you want to be when you grew up?
I honestly don't remember.
6. What was your favorite toy when you were little?
Bronto my stuffed dinosaur and Whopper my stuffed killer whale
7. Name the first memorable vacation you took as a kid :
Going to Disneyland (not really a vacation, as we LIVE in LA, but it was a memorable day trip) when I was about 5 or 6
8. What was your first best friend's name?
Vidhu
9. Is he/she still your best friend?
She moved back to India in the middle of our junior year of high school, and we lost touch since then :-(
10. How did you meet your best friend?
We met in 9th grade (junior high) in Marine Science class.
11. Can you name all the schools you ever attended?
(George) Washington Elementary School
St. Paul's Lutheran Elementary School
(Warren G.) Harding Elementary School
Nobel Junior High
Sepulveda Junior High
Van Nuys High School
(and I won't put my colleges and universities on here because the list would be a mile long and anyway, I wasn't a kid anymore by then)
12. Who was your first crush?
Some kid in 6th grade, I'll be damned if I can remember his name-- Jose? Julio? Something along those lines...
13. Were you a shy quiet kid or a very wild one?
Very shy. Still am.
14. When you were little what did you do for fun?
Played with my stuffed animals, lots of make believe.
15. Were you closer to your Mom or Dad as a kid?
As a kid, my dad (but it's Mom now that I'm grown up)
16. Do you have any embarrassing school stories to share?
You wanna know how shy I was? I was in the audience during a school assembly, had to go to the bathroom and was too timid to say so to my teacher (sitting behind me). So I wet my pants. When she realized what had happened and took me out, she asked why I didn't say anything. I told her I didn't want to interrupt the assembly. I will never forget the scorn in her voice when she told the principal what happened: "She wet her pants. Because she didn't want to *interrupt*"
17. What was the first record, tape or CD you remember buying?
Some sort of oldies, probably CCR or Elvis or Beach Boys
18. How old did you want to be when you get married?
Quite honestly? I always figured I wouldn't get married till I was in my 30s!!
19. How old to have kids?
Again, early 30s
20. Were you scared of anything?
Gremlins
21. What was your favorite subject in school?
Science
22. Did you buy school lunch or bring your own?
In elementary school, I usually brought it. In junior high and high school, I bought it at the cafeteria
23. Broken any bones?
Just my pinky
24. Were you a meanie head or miss princess?
Neither-- I was the nerdy introvert with the big glasses
25. Favorite board game of all time?
Win, Lose or Draw!
26. Did you play house or pretend to be a super hero?
House-- my stuffed animals were my kids.
27. Random memory from when you were a kid?
I was about 7 or 8, mom put me to bed but, being my usual naughty, night owl self, got up to play after she left the room. Decided to try my hand at doing a headstand on my bed-- all was fine while I balanced and rested my feet against the wall. But somehow my feet managed to move away from the wall and I balanced precariously on my own for a few seconds... then... CRASH I came tumbling to the floor, sending a very scared mom and dad rushing into the room!
28.Seriously, are you still just a kid at heart?
Absolutely!
1. Are you a child of the 70's 80's or 90's?
Um-- does this mean when I was born or when I grew up? Born-- 70s. Grew up-- 80s
2. Where were you born?
Muenster, Germany
3. If you were born in another country how old were you when you came here?
4 years old
4. Did you enjoy your childhood?
Yup, I had a happy one
5. When you were a kid what did you want to be when you grew up?
I honestly don't remember.
6. What was your favorite toy when you were little?
Bronto my stuffed dinosaur and Whopper my stuffed killer whale
7. Name the first memorable vacation you took as a kid :
Going to Disneyland (not really a vacation, as we LIVE in LA, but it was a memorable day trip) when I was about 5 or 6
8. What was your first best friend's name?
Vidhu
9. Is he/she still your best friend?
She moved back to India in the middle of our junior year of high school, and we lost touch since then :-(
10. How did you meet your best friend?
We met in 9th grade (junior high) in Marine Science class.
11. Can you name all the schools you ever attended?
(George) Washington Elementary School
St. Paul's Lutheran Elementary School
(Warren G.) Harding Elementary School
Nobel Junior High
Sepulveda Junior High
Van Nuys High School
(and I won't put my colleges and universities on here because the list would be a mile long and anyway, I wasn't a kid anymore by then)
12. Who was your first crush?
Some kid in 6th grade, I'll be damned if I can remember his name-- Jose? Julio? Something along those lines...
13. Were you a shy quiet kid or a very wild one?
Very shy. Still am.
14. When you were little what did you do for fun?
Played with my stuffed animals, lots of make believe.
15. Were you closer to your Mom or Dad as a kid?
As a kid, my dad (but it's Mom now that I'm grown up)
16. Do you have any embarrassing school stories to share?
You wanna know how shy I was? I was in the audience during a school assembly, had to go to the bathroom and was too timid to say so to my teacher (sitting behind me). So I wet my pants. When she realized what had happened and took me out, she asked why I didn't say anything. I told her I didn't want to interrupt the assembly. I will never forget the scorn in her voice when she told the principal what happened: "She wet her pants. Because she didn't want to *interrupt*"
17. What was the first record, tape or CD you remember buying?
Some sort of oldies, probably CCR or Elvis or Beach Boys
18. How old did you want to be when you get married?
Quite honestly? I always figured I wouldn't get married till I was in my 30s!!
19. How old to have kids?
Again, early 30s
20. Were you scared of anything?
Gremlins
21. What was your favorite subject in school?
Science
22. Did you buy school lunch or bring your own?
In elementary school, I usually brought it. In junior high and high school, I bought it at the cafeteria
23. Broken any bones?
Just my pinky
24. Were you a meanie head or miss princess?
Neither-- I was the nerdy introvert with the big glasses
25. Favorite board game of all time?
Win, Lose or Draw!
26. Did you play house or pretend to be a super hero?
House-- my stuffed animals were my kids.
27. Random memory from when you were a kid?
I was about 7 or 8, mom put me to bed but, being my usual naughty, night owl self, got up to play after she left the room. Decided to try my hand at doing a headstand on my bed-- all was fine while I balanced and rested my feet against the wall. But somehow my feet managed to move away from the wall and I balanced precariously on my own for a few seconds... then... CRASH I came tumbling to the floor, sending a very scared mom and dad rushing into the room!
28.Seriously, are you still just a kid at heart?
Absolutely!
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