Happy Hacking!

Home Juice:Mag SI+Brain Projects About Us

Long overdue but welcome to another day of the life of two weirdos!

This time, hackathon style.

From Friday Jan 24-Sunday Jan 27, we braved 45 hours of brain freezes and heavy coding in the largest hackathon in West Coast history.

Location: Room next to Nordstrom near 3rd Street Promenade, Santa Monica

Thanks to HackTech for hosting the event and bringing in special guests like Jermaine Dupri, Childish Gambino and the CEO's and master developers of several other sponsors(Mashery, Digital Ocean, NameCheap, Firebase, etc.).

Let's take a look at what went on.

Day 1:

Hello Microsoft. With Microsoft as the HackTech event sponsor, HackTech just got even better

Jermaine Dupri and the CEO of RapGenius show. Half of the coders are too enthusiastic about their potential projects as half of them are already coding away. Sorry guys!

About a thousand participants fill the arena. Workspace gets crowded especially when some of the rowdier teams distract.

Welcome to our workspace. Each of the hundreds of tables are littered with outlets, wires and hardware.
Bringing apple chargers sure plants your name as an outlet hog.
Apple may want to consider creating smaller chargers.

After a day of intros, wi-fi crashes, and pre-coding, we get sleepy and start sleeping under our workspaces.
Here's a picture of a guy sleeping across from me.
Wipe out!

Day 2:

Second day: Childish Gambino shows up. The minute he arrives, coders start forming a...."swarm?" around him.

Second to last day, our sleeping habits morph. We evolved from sleeping under tables to sleeping in sleeping bags in packs.
Oh. We're tired.

Definitely not sleeping in there.

Day 3:

It's Demo Day! Everyone scrambles to put together finishing touches on apps. Ready or not, our apps will be presented science fair style.

This is what we were missing. Sunshine and fresh air. First pic of the real world outside of Hackathon.

With the event over, we wish for more.

Heading back to the buses that'll take us back to school.

One of the most exciting times of our lives. So want to do it again! :D

If you see your face in any of those pictures and don't want the pics up, let us know and we'll take it down right away.

-dd&mimi

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Light in Our Eyes: A Happy New Year Message

Home Juice:Mag SI+Brain Projects About Us

There's something about light, the way it glimmers and glances catches our eye.
Yet again, we find ourselves whipping out cameras to catch nuances of what we perceive to be beauty.

But what if someone told you that light is the answer
and that all you had to do was find out what light means for you?

To some of us, light means a glimpse into a new beginning.
Ready for 2014? Let's brace.

Happy New Year! 新年快乐!!!!

We will achieve!!!

-dd&mimi

No citations needed. We know how to take photos :)

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Food Map--A look into our Stomach

Home Juice:Mag SI+Brain Projects About Us

View Food Map of a UCLA Student in a larger map

Description of map:

It's no fun to be stuck in UCLA for 4 whole years. Instead, we trek out of the UC territory in order to enjoy the good food out there. While on a tight budget and on a tight leash, we've mainly been able to sample some good Chinese food out there(disclaimer).

In the spirit of gluttony and sharing, I've mapped out some of our favorite restaurants we've been to for the last 2 years and included the most basic information of what we usually order, how long we've been eating there and the company's website. The best part is that this map will always be in update mode as we discover more restaurants.

Basically, it's a Map into our realm of Food.

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Un Scary Perpetuem(For Mobile Users Since Blogger Doesn't think Think Backgrounds should be responsive)

Home Juice:Mag SI+Brain Projects About Us

There's something we'd like to show you.

Here's a bit of something for mobile users. Only viewable on non-mobile devices(desktops and tablets) since Google Blogger won't grant us responsive backgrounds when we bypassed its coding.

We bring you...our Halloween background. :D

-dd&mimi

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Have Yourself a SPOOKY SEPTEMBER

Home Juice:Mag SI+Brain Projects About Us

Fingers are twitching, ears and eyes extra sensitive to nocturnal happenings. We can't wait for Halloween. Only second to Christmas, Halloween is the most anticipated celebration and festivity of the year! Think of all the cheery decorations that will be put up in the neighborhoods, the orange, black, purple, and green, the weebly little kids targeting well lit houses for candy, rotten food passed off as holiday food and Candy Corn! $1 for a sickly sweet bag of this at CVS this weekend. YUM.

On account of boredom, we have taken to using green food coloring to make eggs a little more interesting. It remains unsafe to eat naturally green ham.

But one thing we can all attest to, is that we are never too old for celebrating all life has to offer. It's an excuse to have slightly nonsensical fun in the pursuit of happiness. So... why NOT go all out? Why NOT host a little get-together here and then? Why NOT expand your social circle?

You never know, something nice might just take you by surprise this year ;D

Knock Yourself Out!

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Bloody Mirror: Snap Hand Back

If you just got started here, want to start from the actual beginning instead?

Whoa that too close! That was weird. You can see in the room, right? So your eyes rove around and find the door. It's closed, but at least there are no locks.


Get ready to run.



1...





2...






3....













Go! You slam out from under the table, hitting the chairs to the side, and make it to the door. Hand goes to doorknob. Turn--- and



LIGHTS are back on!

BOOYEAH!



You look around, but nothing is there. Were you just imagining things?


Probably shouldn't have watched Insidious 2. That was way too scary, even for a low-budget film.


Director James Wan gets kudos, but geez, that was too scary, too close.



The chairs are in disarray, so you put them back in their correct places. The room looks quite homely again. Whatever were you so scared about? xD



Turn Laptop On.
Get Cheetos. Hungry

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Bloody Mirror: Reach Farther

If you just got started here, want to start from the actual beginning instead?

You feel around the table, trying to find the flashlight, scared that if anything is in the room, it will notice you.

Your hand goes left, patting the table cloth silently. The cloth is waxy and cool to the touch. Migrate the hand over the pencils, over the keyboard of your laptop, and ... onto something very smooth, very cold, clammy, very... rubbery?


Feel the object to figure out what it is.
Snap your hand back.

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Bloody Mirror: Stay Still

If you just got started here, want to start from the actual beginning instead?

For what seems like hours, you lay still. The burning itch on your toe eventually will go away.

And then, just like that, the electricity is back on!

WHEW!



Reassured, you head for the nearest cabinet for some candles and a light, just in case.

You check your flashlight for batteries, and yes there are batteries. And what?!? SACRILEGE!!
The flashlight is equipped with extra-sensitive-to-EM-Wave batteries! You definitely cannot count on these when weird stuff happens. You change them out for Energizer Bunny AAA batteries.

A job well done.



Turn computer back on
Get some cheetos. Yum yum.

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Bloody Mirror: The Conclusive Blow

If you just got started here, want to start from the actual beginning instead?

Your sight starts flashing, burnt-red, burnt-orange, burnt-red, burnt-orange.

So hard to concentrate.

Buzzing sound in your head is driving you mad.

Burnt-red, burnt-orange.

Someone's laughing, a girl?

Burnt-orange, burnt-red.

Blood is pounding to your head, and you can't move. You're frozen. Staring at the mirror while the pale hands with the long nails around your ears, and the Grinning Head shake side to side.

It sounds like there are so many creaks now, loud cracks, moving toward you, as if someone is running toward you, but never exactly reaching your position.



You hear a ripping sound, and then TEARS OF PAIN! in both ways! A tearing sound, as pain courses through you.

Close your eyes. Welcome the darkness.

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Bloody Mirror: .

The End.


Go back to very beginning?

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Bloody Mirror: Scratch Toe

If you just got started here, want to start from the actual beginning instead?

It's the battle of your mind against your itch.

The weird sensation of being watched goes away, and you gingerly bend sideways so that your hand can reach your toe. Very slowly and quietly.

And you scratch your toe. It feels much better now.

Maybe it's time for you to sit up now. It really is uncomfortable to lay on the floor.

Time to shift position.



Slowly, you turn around so you can face up. Dark as usual. Nothing there. Good. You think.


You slowly start sitting up.


Slowly does it. Just like one of those airplane chairs. Your eyesight is a little better now so you can make out that there is a very tall mirror standing in the corner opposite to you. Nothing weird yet. You're still working on sitting up from a 45 degree angle.

More, a little more, you're going to make it. And then you notice your reflection. Grin, because you're almost in correct sitting position. 20 degrees left to go!



And then, you notice some more objects behind you. A clump of them go taller than your head. They look stacked. And your hair, it looks like it got messed up, especially around the ears. The ear-area looks like they are covered by some interesting earphones, kind of lumpy yet smooth.

But those "earphones" look white, actually, they resemble... hands.

Small blip in your heart, a little alarming. Stay calm.

You slowly focus your eyes on the clump of objects you can see behind and above your head, in your reflection. Maybe you don't want to know.

But human curiosity always does you in.
The image is sharpening slowly, and...




























It's a FACE! GRINNING, just like you!! And those are hands around your ears! The eyes are folds in the face. The hands have nails!

Roll around, roll off WHATEVER THAT IS! THRASH around on the floor.


What Is Next?

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Bloody Mirror: Run to Farthest Corner

If you just got started here, want to start from the actual beginning instead?

Something hard slams into you, you feel like you're hit by a bus. Oh, it's the floor. You must have tripped. Well, as you're already on the floor, why not hide on the floor, like you're a rug?

So you just lay flat, real quiet.

Your skin's prickling, a little shivering chill is coming over you.

It feels like something, some presence is above you, and your position of lying postrate on the ground with your face smooching the hardwood floor is not helping.

Just lie very quietly so that whatever it is can just pass you by.

Unless it really knows it is you of course.


No sound yet. It's death quiet. And your pinky toe is starting to itch a lot.
Scratch your toe
Stay still

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Bloody Mirror: Dive to Floor. Leave behind batteries and flashlight.

If you haven't started from the beginning, go back to very beginning!
Wow! Holy FIZCHHH! You've left behind the most reassuring tools ever, the LIGHTSOURCE. 

And now you're sitting by yourself under the table in the darkness, all cuddled up, heart racing,

hearing your own raggedly breath, as the darkness envelopes you. You're scared.

As your pupil adjust slowly, you notice a faint bit of light streaming from your window, from the streetlight so far away out there. You look around the chairs around you, and though the opening of some chair legs, begin to discern your surroundings. 

And then, a creak--in the far left corner! It's probably the wood of the house settling. Keep telling yourself that. At least nothing else seems to be in the room with you. Remind yourself to clean up the room next time. The multitude of objects are casting seriously weird shadows-- kind of long, and lumpy shaped.

Is now a good time to pick up the flashlight? Quietly does it. Just in case. Your hand inches around the chair and over the table.

TBD...

Reach farther.
Snap the hand back to yourself and huddle to ground.

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Bloody Mirror: Fumble

If you haven't started from the beginning, go back to very beginning!
BAM!  You drop the flashlight on the floor.

Nothing too serious yet. You feel around the flashlight casing and find two batteries. Good.

So you switch it on.

Relief. You have 5 seconds of uninterrupted strong light from your trusty flashlight,
until the flashlight starts flickering--- a lot.

It is difficult to see in the dark when your pupils are still trying to adjust and yet,
your flashlight's flickering is sort of ruining the effect. Holy SHIP! Did something black just zoom by?

The light turns back on, and you heart gets a break.

Take a look at what batteries you have in the flashlight: extra-sensitive-to-electromagnetics batteries. Great. They were practically made to fail.

Switch out these "weaksauce" batteries for the trusted AA's from Energizer Bunny.


TBD...

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Bloody Mirror: Too Bright!

If you haven't started from the beginning, go back to very beginning!

Wow! Those lights give your eyes a zinger!


Remind yourself to install dimmers next week. After the tailgate party.




You rub the zing out of your eyes as your pupils adjust.

Oh wait, your pupils over-adjusted, and your vision colors everything a shade of grey[1],
then resumes to normal.

Good thing your flashlight and battery packet is still sitting on the table.

How about you make sure that it actually has batteries in it?

You open your battery pack first. Then proceed to attempt to prop off the power case of the flashlight. As you fiddle, all light goes out!




Fumble, attempt to turn on flashlight.
Dive under the table. Leave flashlight and battery pack behind on table.


[1] A little black speck appears in your peripheral vision. It's gone when you whip your eyes to it.

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Bloody Mirror: Surprise

Go back to very beginning

You can't see anything. It's too dark.

Your elbow bumps into something, soft, like fabric, but it sways away. 

It's too dark. You turn around, and 

when you do

you can discern something very dark and tall, human-shaped

all black

propped against the wall.

You slightly close your eyes because you don't want to see it in its entirety. 

Slowly, and silently, you turn away, and

Run to farthest corner   or    Run to table

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Bloody Mirror: Move the Soap Back

Go back to very beginning

You gingerly push the soap back into its correct position: .15 cm to the left, and .08 cm upwards.

You turn on the faucet to wash the soap residue off your hands and open the door to leave.

You look back at your desk in the living room, and see that your light is turned off.

Hmm... did you leave it turned off?

Not taking anything for chance, you go to your room to retrieve your flashlight and battery bag (a bag, that is filled with extra batteries).

---

You are a very dedicated worker and finish one of your assignments by the end of the day. 

No one else lives with you, so you enjoy considerable freedom.

You are in a detached, single dwelling, a small house, suitable for a small family, or more than suitable for you.

and it is now dark outside.

The full moon is up, and you have some mooncakes to eat. 

Your desk light is not enough though, so you get up and to turn on more lights.

and you cannot stop thinking about the Bloody Mary story so conveniently provided in the beginning.

and you flip the switch up.

Light turns on.
Power is cut. All lights turn off

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Bloody Mirror: Continue Working

Go back to very beginning

....

You hear your name again.

You continue working diligently, as if nothing happened.

...


Nighttime...

Your eyes are tired. Dry and tired.

Blink a little to refresh them.

and yes, you yawn.

Yawn for another time, as yawning helps you do only what yawning does.
Yawn again for a good measure, as it helps to relax you.
Do you feel how that yawn is a luxurious movement, how it moves every one of those
yawning muscles, from the yawn jaw, the yawn throat, to the yawn brain?

And your eyes, they are relaxing as you yawn like you want to yawn.




Remember that story about Mary?

Some kids online came up with their own rendition of the Mary curse.

It generally goes something like this:


Mary was once a beautiful young lady, admired by all of her town's men.
She could afford to be proud, haughty, and selective about her choice of
her companion for the day, as had never more so could those men look at something
so beautiful as her. But one day, when she was in the kitchens of her house,
she tripped a pot of scalding oil onto her face, and thus ruined her countenance.

She retreated to the seclusion of her room, bemoaning her appearance and
spying so jealously at the other maidens outside, gallivanting with what used to be her suitors.
She covered every mirror and threw out every reflective surface in her household
in order to avoid looking at any hint of her appearance.

And one day, years from the incident, she crept to the largest mirror of her house, to take
a peek at what she had been. She uncovered the massive mirror, it being as great as a wall,
and saw her self for the first time in so long.

And she saw she was UGLY. Scars, unhealed tissue, and mottlelations.
She screamed and cried, and clawed at her face, attempting to scratch it off.
In her misery, she looked up and saw, her beautiful young self, a version in the mirror.

How could this be?

She was so entranced with her reflection, and with wonderment in her face, stepped toward the mirror, and kept walking and walking toward her beautiful self.

She was never seen in the real life again.



Great Story
Yawn...

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Bloody Mirror: You turn your head around

Go back to very beginning

"Hi!" shouts Tony.

"I'm here for you."-Tony


"What?" -you, uncertain.

"I'm going to go to Riek Beach right now, and you said you were coming."

"Sure..."

"Alright then! Let's go!"


......


You find yourself, 2 hours later, in the back of his van, clenching the arm rests of the seat to keep from falling over.

Tony blasted his car through the apartments, jamming his head to the thrashy soundtrack of his radio.

He took a turn into the West Elm memorial, and onto the grass.



"What are you doing?!?" you shout.


"Shortcut" he grins.



The car hit a few bumps and hidden shallow holes, and lurched though the grass, leaving
a sad trail of dirt through the well-kept grass. Headstones sped by.

But then, Tony turned the wheel the wrong way and the van crunched though the loose gravel
in front a large memorial stone, the wheels losing traction as gravel bits flew up and
spicked the car sides.

And the car slammed into the memorial stone. It fell forward and slapped the car, ending with a short slide sideways.

"Damn, Tony, what the hell?!" you shout.

"Oops" - Tony.

You inspect the tombstone You stay in the car

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Bloody Mirror: dah dah DAHHHH!...

To be continued.

LOOKING FORWARD TO A SPOOKY HALLOWEEN!




-ddmimi

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