I’ve gotta lot of work to do, but I wanted to share a recipe that I found from Lynn over at the Actor’s Diet. Check out the blog when you have a chance! In the last few days she posted about a wonderfully simple but really delicious Mediterranean salad, and so yesterday I decided to try it out.

You can read the blog about her making this salad here, but I wanted to show you my version of the recipe that she posted.

According to Lynn, her recipe includes the following:

Lynn’s Mediterranean Salad
Heirloom cherry tomatoes
Persian cucumbers
Zest/juice of another big lemon
2 tablespoons Extra Virgin Olive Oil (EVOO)
A handful of chopped fresh Italian parsley
1/4 tsp. salt and pepper
Cut up a bag of Misto alla Griglia and added (with all their oils) to the mix

Basically grilled eggplant and zucchini in a special marinade, only available in the US.

I went to the local supermarket here in Los Banos (Robinson’s) to try and see if they had any of the ingredients. They had most of what I was looking for except for the specific Heirloom tomatoes or Persian cucumbers. However, I found out that just the regular small native tomatoes and cucumbers sufficed. I of course couldn’t find the Misto alla Griglia that Lynn used in her recipe since that’s only sold in the US, so of course I decided to see what I could do with 2 extra large eggplant. (Surprisingly, there was no zucchini to be found in the store which was sorely disappointing).

Since I didn’t have any of the already prepared eggplant and zucchini I decided to grill and marinade the veggies myself. Since I only had eggplant that’s all I used. And it turned out like this!

Lynn's Mediterranean salad, my way.

After mixing together all the ingredients I had a zesty, refreshing and totally scrumptious salad. Best part was, that it was all totally healthy and it tasted great! Here’s what I used to make the marinated grilled eggplant my way.

Marinated Eggplant
2 extra long eggplant, cut lengthwise and then cut up into 2 inch pieces
6 tbsp. of EVOO
3 tbsp. of Balsamic Vinegar
1/2 tsp. each of finely minced oregano, thyme and basil
1/2 tsp. of salt and pepper
Mix them all together and grill for 8-10 minutes a piece, while turning.

Some marinated eggplant is the best part of this dish.

And there you have it… a perfectly simple, easy, but delicious and refreshing salad. Lynn sure knows what she’s doing when it comes to food! Now I’ve just gotta figure out how to get some avocados so I can try out her ultra simple guacamole recipe at some point…

Got my surgery test grade back from one of my professors. I did pretty well actually and because we were awarded some bonus points I scored a little higher. Really happy about that… and it was great because that’s how my day ended.

After classes today I went with my friends Larra and Chat to the Student Union building to play some ping-pong with our newly acquired racquets (I had bought her one for her birthday a few days ago)! We stayed there for about 2 hours just playing non-stop before calling it a quits. I was tired, but we had lots of fun!

Now I’m wondering what to do with my time. I don’t really feel like opening a book tonight since that’s all I’ve been doing all of this week. I guess I will just make myself some tea and see if any of my friends have any plans. If not, I will just take this night to relax I suppose. It’s raining outside and I guess it’s not the right weather to go out. Haha…

Lynn Chen, writer of "The Actor's Diet"

Anyway, hope you guys are doing well. Before I go though, let me redirect you to a blog that I’ve recently started reading called “The Actor’s Diet”. It’s written by one of my favorite Asian American actresses, Lynn Chen (star of “Saving Face” and “People I’ve Slept With”). She talks about balancing her food habits with life, as she’s struggled with dieting as an actor. It’s actually a pretty interesting read. She takes pictures of almost everything she eats and updates the blog quite frequently. I love what she does to eat healthy, and I’m trying to do the same. Check it out if you have a chance!

Take care guys! Have fun doing whatever you’re doing.

I feel like I’ve just been grinding each and everyday. When I say that I kind of mean that I feel like I’m still recovering from something. Even though I had the pleasure of enjoying a three-day weekend, it still didn’t seem like enough time to recover from everything. I still feel like there’s too much to do and too little time and I’m worried that things will catch up to me. There’s still too much to do… I feel inundated with things. So I’m feeling a little stressed.

I’ve resulted in watching some YouTube videos. Here’s a cool one of my brother who actually won a contest in Coney Island, NY a few weeks ago. Check it out. The guy definitely has moves.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Well I still got stuff to do but will actually destress a little bit. Gonna go do some cardio for a bit, read for a bit and then sleep. Tomorrow we have a slightly big lab to finish up in Physiology class.

Catch you guys later! xD

It’s funny when I talk to my friends here and they talk about seasons. I’m from New York, so whenever I hear seasons I automatically think “Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter”. Here in the Philippines, it’s “Summer and Rainy Season”. I don’t know… I thought that was pretty interesting. ^_^

Oh, I got a cool jersey today! A few weeks ago the Lady Vet org asked me if I wanted a special dry-fit polo jersey with a name and number. So I got one and it looks like this:

Oh also, I examined a dog that was in mid-estrus two days ago. One of my lab mates had found a metestral cell though, which is pretty interesting because you see a neutrophil inside a non-cornified cell. Here’s what it looks like:

Interesting huh? This is what you’ll see in a female dog (bitch) when she’s in the metestrus stage of the estrous cycle. This is pretty confirmatory that she was in that stage at that time of examination.

Anyway, I should get started with some thesis literature review stuff. If I didn’t mention it already, my thesis will be focused on the ultrasound of Southeast Asian box turtles (Cuora amboinensis). I’ll specifically be focusing on the heart and will be running echocardiograms on them. Cool, huh?

Well, I’ll be back to post later. Take care peeps!

This morning I got a really bad case of diarrhea. And it was the morning I was to go over my notes one more time before me Veterinary Medicine I exam today. Needless to say, because of my condition (which lasted a good part of the day), I didn’t attend class until I really had to leave my room to head to the exam. My mind was flustered, my head was aching and I felt like I needed to go to the bathroom like every 5 minutes. And the exam was a tad difficult… without my head fully in the game, it was just really hard to focus today.

I’m hoping that the next few days will turn out better. While I’m feeling somewhat relieved from my condition, I don’t think I’m 100% yet. I’m hoping that tomorrow will just fly by so I will have more time to recover.

I will leave you guys with a new music video done by a French Wonderful, Nicolas Khamsopha for producer Tommy Park of JYPE Entertainment. It’s the song “We Ride” and it’s the theme song to Mnet’s Made in Wonder Girls series, which is currently airing in South Korea. It’s an amazing piece of work and a pretty damn good song if you ask me, especially considering they only used old footage and media. Enjoy my dears.

Click here to view the embedded video.

So remember that I told you guys that I was an honorary member of the Lady Veterinarian (LV) organization at UPLB? (You may think that’s weird, but hey, the ladies love me… haha, joke ). Well they were nice enough to have a gathering today in Caliraya, Laguna. It’s about an hour and a half away from here in Los Banos, so the girls chartered a jeep and by 9:30 this morning we were off to have some fun.

My physiology teachers Dr. Amie Estacio and Dr. Rina de Luna are the advisers for LV and they helped set up this trip. The organization set up a place in Caliraya where we could spend the day to relax, eat lunch, go kayaking and fly some kites. I was the only guy on the trip besides the ones Doc Amie had with her (not sure if they’re her nephews or something), but regardless, I always feel comfortable with these girls. They’re a really nice bunch, and very warm and welcoming. I was honored to be asked if I could be one of their honorary members last year. I thought it was cool before, but it gets even better because I get to go to these LV-exclusive events. Lots of fun indeed.

Once we got there we set up camp… Doc Amie and Doc Rina had two tents we could set up so they made me in charge of setting them up and they assigned me LV minions to help me. Lots of them were very helpful actually… but of course they made me do all the hammering of the pegs. When I asked why I had to do it, Doc Rina said it was because I was a guy and that’s what guys are for. That kind of made me laugh.

After that some of the girls set up a grill to make some grilled liempo (which is basically pork chops with fat) and we had some salted eggs, rice, soy sauce with chopped onions and tomatoes and some grilled eggplant. We didn’t have enough forks and spoons so we just all ate with our hands. Really felt like we were living in the outdoors… But the food was delicious, let me tell you that. Good job to the girls who cooked it.

Shortly after the meal we washed up, got into our bathing suits and then tested out the beach. It was a little muddy, but a good temperature so we jumped right in. Eventually, the kids set up 2 kites which we played with for awhile and then we got a 2-person kayak to go around the lake. At the same time some of us also ventured around the area to see the scenery.

We did this until around 4pm and then we started to head home. We did a lot today and so many of us fell asleep on the jeep ride. I almost missed my stop actually!

Tonight I decided to try out a new place for dinner. In LB Square (a place where many bars and cafes are here in Los Banos), a new sandwich place popped up called the Submarine Sandwich Hut. They serve good quality Italian sausages and great sardine sandwiches (which is something I tried tonight). Pam, one of the owners, was someone I talked to tonight. It seems that the place is attracting a lot of foreigners since sandwich places are a staple in American culture. Heck, it’s the same reason why I decided to try it out. So if you happen to be in Los Banos and are near LB Square, I suggest that you try this place out.

Okay, I’m off to catch up with some friends before hitting the sack. I’ve got a lot of things to do tomorrow, as usual.

So I’ll catch you guys soon. See you later ya’ll!

Cystocentesis & Cystotomy in a Feline

Ahhhhh, so the week is almost over. It’s Thursday night and I’m sitting at home after some dinner and just relaxing for a bit. I had my physiology lab test today which went alright for the most part and then had to run to surgery afterwards to help my friend Faye with a cystocentesis and cystotomy procedure. We finished within 2 hours and everyone worked hard, so we were the first ones out of the 3 groups in lab today.

I realized that I do a bad thing when I have a lot of stuff to do in a day. If I have a lot to do and a lot to study for or have an impending exam that day I’ll take every short break I have and run to the cafeteria for a snack. I think today I ran to the cafeteria about 3 times to get something to eat. It’s kind of a bad habit of mine… always wanting something sweet to fill in the gaps between classes, tests and such. I was on such a roll with the exercise bit for the last month but this past week I wasn’t able to actually do any exercise. Usually I’d run or do some type of cardio for at least 30 minutes to an hour and I was able to fit a little weight lifting into all of the craziness. But this past week has been a blur and I’ve been feeling more tired and cranky than usual.

I don’t like to get up in the morning. My alarm goes off and I hit snooze thinking to myself, “Just 15 more minutes…”. That is why I set two alarms… I can never really get up the first time unless I push myself.

So now after dinner I’m feeling relaxed and sitting at my computer I’ve decided to tweak the background and color a little bit for the site. Nothing really flashy, but just something to make it more pleasing to the eye. Belle, one of my surgery teammates, visits my blog a lot and said that the color I put in the first revision of this site I did yesterday was quite interesting since it was a lavender or lilac color. She said it was kind of girly looking, but to tell you the truth I get that a lot. (Just so you know, I’m red-green colorblind. ). I always make mistakes like that when it comes to designing and art… oh well. I’ll leave the colors to people who really know which ones are pleasing to the eye.

Gonna rest a bit… maybe get some coffee with some friends later and then hit the sack. The week is almost over but it isn’t quite yet as I have to run to my equine rotation tomorrow at the veterinary teaching hospital in the morning.

I’ll leave you all with a picture of me helping out Faye during our surgical procedure today. Catch you all later!

So this week has been a blur. I say that a lot I know, but seriously, I look at this past week and ask myself, “Where the hell has all the time gone?” This week, if you haven’t already guessed, has been extremely busy for me and it won’t stop until probably until Friday afternoon.

A break down of my schedule is as follows for classes during a typical week:

I pretty much leave home around 7am each day (except Mondays) and don’t return home until 5 or 6pm (if I’m lucky). By that time I’m exhausted and tired from all the class, but after I get home of course I have to study and complete any assignments that have been given to us. For today, I had to finish a Physiology post lab for two experiments (which takes about an hour or two), and tonight I have to study for my Physiology III lab exam tomorrow. Not only that, but I have to complete an epidemiological case report review which is due tomorrow morning.

Add reviewing the procedure for the surgery we’re doing tomorrow (since I’m assistant surgeon) and I’ve got a packed night ahead of me. Not to mention that I have to go running around trying to find animals for our labs and also that I have the dog I castrated in my room with me which I have to take care of until next Tuesday (since that’s when our professor checks the status of our animals after surgery). Oh, and I just remembered the literature review and outline that I have to do for my thesis (which I haven’t even been able to start yet) and a clinical case report and presentation that I need to go over, review and refine for my first draft submission which is due soon.

AHHHHH! Someone shoot me now! Let’s just hope I’ll be able to get some sleep tonight!

So while having dinner tonight I decided that my blog site should look a little different. Don’t really know why I thought it should have a new layout, but I decided to go for it since it’s been something that’s been in the back of my head recently. I like the site the way it is, but I guess I just wanted to do a little tweaking and see what I could come up with.

So there you go… a new lighter background with some changes to the header. A picture of Wonder Girls and some dogs to show my love for both animals and Asian culture (and I guess an emphasis on KPOP… haha). A new picture of me and a slightly new description is up, but the rest is pretty much the same. I’ve always loved dark backgrounds, but I decided that for now, it’s time to lighten things up.

So here’s a twist on something that’s been here awhile. Let me know what you think!

The main reasons these two have started to shine a little brighter on my KPOP radar were the new songs they both released just recently. Secret released their new song “Madonna” and Rainbow released a new single called “A”.

Here’s the MV for Secret’s “Madonna”…

Click here to view the embedded video.

… and here’s the MV for Rainbow’s “A”

Click here to view the embedded video.

Both girl groups seem to have a rockin’ sound and they both sport really catchy beats. I did a little research into the groups and unfortunately since they’re new there isn’t a lot of information on them out right now. But let’s run down the members of each as well as the recent singles they’re released.

According to what’s out there right now the members of Secret consist of:

Hyo Sung (효성) (Birthdate: October 13, 1989 (1989-10-13) (age 20)), birth name Jeon Hyo Seong (전효성)
Zinger (징거) (Birthdate: February 2, 1990 (1990-02-02) (age 20)), birth name Jung Ha Na (정하나)
Ji Eun (지은) (Birthdate: May 5, 1990 (1990-05-05) (age 20)), birth name Song Ji Eun (송지은)
Sun Hwa (선화) (Birthdate: October 6, 1990 (1990-10-06) (age 19)), birth name Han Seon Hwa (한선화)

I haven’t figured out who’s who yet, so don’t ask… The latest songs they’ve released are “I Want You Back” in October of 2009 and “Magic” on April 2010. There was a big gap between these releases which is the fact that I didn’t really know who they were then. However, now that they’ve released “Madonna” and it’s kickin’ sound this month, these girls will be some that I will be keeping a close eye on from now on. (I especially like the move where they’re sliding their heads with their arms crossed. The girl with the black hair is cool too. She caught my eye the minute I saw this video. If someone could tell me which one she is I’d be grateful. ).

The next group is Rainbow from DSP Entertainment and they consist of 7 members:

Kim Jae Kyung (김재경) (Birthdate: December 24, 1988 (1988-12-24) (age 21))
Koh Woo Ri (고우리) (Birthdate: February 22, 1988 (1988-02-22) (age 22))
Oh Seung A (오승아) (Birthdate: September 13, 1988 (1988-09-13) (age 21))
No Eul (노을) (Birthdate: May 10, 1989 (1989-05-10) (age 21))
Jung Yoon Hye (정윤혜) (Birthdate: April 14, 1990 (1990-04-14) (age 20))
Kim Ji Sook (김지숙) (Birthdate: July 18, 1990 (1990-07-18) (age 20))
Cho Hyun Young (조현영) (Birthdate: August 11, 1991 (1991-08-11) (age 19))

Before their release of “A” this month, the only other song that they’ve touted under their belt is “Gossip Girl” which was released all the way back in November of 2009. I heard this song awhile back, but didn’t think much of it. The sound wasn’t that great and the video wasn’t anything to gawk at either in my opinion. And since they’ve been out of the KPOP circuit for such a long time, Rainbow just seemed to be one of those groups that failed after it’s first single due to its low popularity. However, I was wrong when I heard “A”. The song is really catchy and the dance moves in the MV are pretty awesome too. These girls definitely know how to dance.

Looks like I have two more groups to keep my eye on in the coming months. I didn’t think that these girls would have such a strong comeback, but hey, it gives me more to look forward to right?

Give me your thoughts if you have any on these new groups. I’d like to know your opinions!

Till next time, see you on the flip side!