Wanted

Mmm, "Wanted" the latest summer blockbuster starring angelina and some new guy who kinda looks like shia le bouf. Pretty interesting and with acceptable action scenes i guess. I had numerous thoughts about this movie. It was a kinda weird movie with interesting ideas.

-The main character (who was a terrible character. he was kinda dumb and angry. but is it how anyone would feel in that situation. maybe??), along with the rest of the assassins all have this increased alertness you get like when youre on crack or something. It's what makes them super skilled because they can shoot wings off flies and curve bullets around objects. It takes incredible talent and practice to become that acute at shooting and it would indeed be impressive if there were those that could actually do this. Unfortunately, i haven't seen any...but i wish i have. Like some weird Cirque du Soleil act perhaps.

This "increased alertness" was related to the characters "anxiety" level where the character would become stronger when emotionally unstable. (like hulk) It would make them able to see bullets or anything moving at an incredible speed appear as objects floating in slow motion.

-The movie questions fate and belief. It touched on trust, destiny, the monotony of life, religion and all sorts of weird interesting issues. Self consciousness and how you want others to perceive you. I was high and i might have been over thinking a lot of shit. There was also a repeating motif of a new agent being used as a key for an assassination of that specific persons father. The main character was believed that the person who was assassinated in the beginning was his father, whereas his real dad was the person who assassinated that person. This "real dad" would later be killed by the father. (almost like oedipus where the kid kills dad) Also, the angelina jolie character (named Fox) was also used to trap her father into being assassinated. Ultimately it was because that person would be the only person the father wouldn't kill because he is their father. And what else? Who would you believe to be at fault?

anyways, go watch it if you have the chance. its kinda sorta weird but its a healthy fix for the mind.

Un saludo Coppa de Chile

Facebook is pretty amazing at times. You meet people you'd never ever expect. this person from chile found me because I'm also known as Coppa and their last name is also Coppa. It's freaking awesome. I now have "family" in South America...Here is our facebook message correspondence.

Un saludo Coppa de Chile

Between You and Cecilia Coppa Carrasco

Cecilia Coppa Carrasco

June 11 at 5:43am

Andrew hola
No se si nuestro apellido venga del mismo lugar
Mi Bisnonno llego de Italia del Piamonte a Chile...aca en Chile nos juntamos todos los Coppa ya que somos una unica familia.
cuentame si crees que podemos provenir de donde mismo.
Mio bisnonno se llamaba Gaspar Coppa Comerro
cuentame
un abrazo
Cecilia Coppa

Andrew Yu Coppa

June 21 at 3:49pm

Hola Cecilia,

Lo siento, Coppa no es mi apellido. Yo soy Chino (mis padres son de Taiwan y China) y vivo en San Diego, Califonia. El nombre Coppa es un apodo que mis amigos me darian. No se que el nobre Coppa tiene mas significado que un apodo! Es muy interesante y con facebook nosotros podemos conocer a otro. En el futuro, quiero ir a Chile o Italia y visitar el lugar de donde eres su familia. Muchas gracias para su mensaje.

Mucho gusto y tambien un abrazo,
Andrew Yu "Coppa"

Cecilia Coppa Carrasco

Today at 4:33am

Que lindo Andrew Yu!
Me habria encantado tener un sobrino Chinito...mis vecinos son Chinos y y tienen un restaurant de comida cantonesa.son bien amorosos y buenos.
Tu apodo " Coppa" espero ,que no sea porque eres bueno para el trago
Tienes que cuidarte....en todo caso " Coppa" recuerda hay de cristal y oro...todo el mundo se pelea por ganar una Copa en su vida y si tiene dos " pp" osea Coppa ,mejor para ti ,vas a ser un campeón.
Un abrazo y gracias por contestar mi correo.
Cecilia

Oh Germany

Germany day one:
-some soccer in the back yard

-mad skills

-whoa

-whoa 2
-we did this spin thing. she was airborne.

and some more spinning...

californication

I'm sitting at the gate for my flight home. Its been delayed for an hour and twenty minutes and I hope I don't miss my connecting flight...that would just be terrible. I don't want to miss the laker game, possibly the last game of the season.This opportunity to attend the isscr was extremely rewarding. As far as I can say, I have learned more about stem cells during these five days than my entire resear h career. I'm even more excited to get back into the lab tofinally have time to produce some results.

I've definitely learned most about HSCs but I was also introduced to iPS cells which stands for induced pluripotent stem cells. A year ago, the yamanaka group was able to generate these iPS cells by taking a human fibroblast cell and transducing four genes into it.

Pretty genius stuff.

Well I'm going to review all that I've leArned while i am in Germany. So many pathways, genes, markers and models I must know! So much cool stuff I'm stoked.

Ok must conserve battery for music on this iPod. Seriously the coolest thing ever. To have Internet in your hand is almost unfair.

Philadelphia, day 3

Hey everyone,

Day one "cool things that i learned" recap:

So the format of this conference is pretty nice. Everyday, there are talks about various topics of stem cells (ie. somatic stem cells, cancer stem cells, therapeutic applications, etc) and you basically choose to go to which ever talks you want based on interested or watever.

If anything, I've learned the most about hematopoetic stem cells which are stem cells that blood is derived from. A lot of the topics that the scientists speak about are just so encrypted because I just don't know enough about stem cells. I specialize in cancer stem cells and I still was confused during the cancer stem cell talks.

As far as haematopoetic stem cells (HSC) work, they are formed in the bone marrow and differentiate into RBCs, granulocytes, monocytes, platelets, and lymphocytes. The cool thing is what factors tell HSCs to differentiate into watever is needed and basically everyones trying to figure out how to program the HSC to do what they want it to do.

So related to HSCs and blood, another big topic is leukemia or "blood" cancer. By figuring out how HSCs work we can learn more about leukemia, and vice versa. In leukemia, its suggested that there are also leukemia stem cells (cancer stem cells).

A major factor that affects differentiation is the stem cell niche or the "neighborhood" of the stem cell. Much like how where we are from makes a difference in how we are, the neighborhood of the stem cell affect its outcome. i hope that makes it understandable. Also, different things will affect the niche, which will affect the stem cell "fate". Say all of a sudden, you are short on RBCs...then something will affect the niche, which will tell the HSCs to make more RBCs. This guy i met at the conference who also is from UCSD explained all this stuff to me about HSCs. He has been able to alter the Jak pathway for putative HSCs and form RBCs and this is FUCKING AWESOME.

This morning, I was supposed to get up at 9, but got up at 1 instead. The night before, i got trashed off free beer at the junior investigator panel (where we ask people about their careers and stuff) and two margaritas at chilis and i was done. I passed out at around 9 and woke up at like, all rejuvinated from a 3 hour nap. I stayed up till 5 and then fell asleep. I woke up at 1 instead.

Today, after the poster presentations, I went with Vikram to look for alcohol. Philadelphia is dry. No beer anywhere. There are wine and spirit shops, but no beer. Finally we found beer, after asking like 5 different people at 5 different places. I chugged two guineesses + 2 shots of baileys all at once and i was done. I was watcihng the laker game and passed out. They were up at 20 at that time. I woke up and they were down by 2. WTF. Lakers lost and that sucked. 1-3 is tough to make up for anything but I believe in Kobe and co. AND germany lost to croatia. Terrible day for teams that Andrew likes. :(

Anyways: pictures.





just my thoughts. Oh dreamgirl i miss you so.

Philadelphia: day 2

some pictures from yesterday


-both of us, talking on the phone before take off.



-i sleep with my eyes open. so watch out if you try to draw on me while im asleep...i can see you.

before leaving to conference.

more to come soon. i g2g. vikram needs to take his final.

I saw Irving Weissman talk today. He talked about how leukemia stem cells have this cell surface glycoprotein cd47 that tells macrophages "dont eat me." SO awesome!

Woo philly!

It is late here. Today, Vikram and I embarked on a great pilgrimage to honor the stem cell gods. Highlights included:

-taking 3 hours to pack when i should have only took 1
-finally realizing that Weg was indeed not coming with us to Philadelphia
-sleeping on the plane with my eyes open and vikram getting a picture of it
-playing n64 games on vikrams labtop (mario kart, wayne gretzy 3d hockey, mario tennis, diddy kong racing)
-buying a 16oz smoothie for $5.47 and buffalo wings for $9.26. airport food is expensive.
-wishing for an earlier flight in order to watch laker game and then after our flight was delayed, wishing for an even longer delay in order to watch the laker game.
-vikram noting that i apparently make this weird movement with my throat by licking the back upper roof of my mouth when i sleep
-making a "thats what she said" joke when the captain said "we'll now begin our decent from watever watever feet now blah blah..."
-ipod touch is amazing
-having a handicap hotel room (the shower has a seat. I sat on it and then realized that numerous wet butts have also sat on it. Yum.)
-walking the streets of downtown philly at 3AM in search of food in form of seven-eleven.

I miss my roommates. In the midst of school, work, frisbee, and nothing i lose contact with them. By the time I return to San Diego, I don't know if they'll still be there. I hope at least i can celebrate the end of our junior year with them before they all go home. I basically finished my finals on Monday and left on a business trip without saying good bye. Aish.

The stem cell conference starts tomorrow at like 1 and its right outside our hotel. It's going to be sweet. Vikram and I are going to get lots of booze, and figure this cancer stem cell thing during the night like mad scientists. I brought my pathways of cancer poster and hopefully we can make some crazy discovery.


And song lyrics of the day:
from Jack Johnson's Brushfire fairy tales:

Well Plato's cave is full of freaks
Demanding refunds for the things they've seen
I wish they could believe
In all the things that never made the screen
And just slow down everyone
You're moving too fast
Frames can't catch you when
You're moving like that
Slow down everyone
You're moving too fast

amazing lyrics. plato's cave is super cool and trippy. and I liek this song because it tells you to slow down and smell the flowers and not worry about shit. I forget about enjoying the simple things in life.

Oh bother.

I have to do this. My mind needs an outlet.

So time stopped on me last Thursday when I left class at 2:55 and saw Angela. Since then, the aspect of time has arisen numerous times. Perhaps heightened since I’m reviewing humanities material. I was hit hard this weekend.

I’ve had my Tissot PR50 for almost two years now. Every day, on my left wrist it has been my constant. This is the second one I own. I lost the first one (same watch)in high school after owning it for less than a month.

I went out to eat with Angela last night at Double Happiness down in Del Mar. Our fortune cookies were interesting. She got “Your Judgment is a little off at this time” and I got “Confucius say: If you have hope, you have everything.” And since there was a one in two chance of getting either fortune, I decided to heed both of them. Maybe the fortunes were for the both of us.

Judgment is never perfect. I remember a quote from a Bourne movie where the Blackbriar guy tells Pamela Landy that, “You and I both know decisions made in real time are never perfect.” You hope that your judgment is right. I hope mine is. And at this particular moment, my judgment is definitely off. I have two finals tomorrow and instead, I’m writing this entry. But I know I won’t let this go until I have finished writing. I trust my judgment…hopefully its right.

Last night while I was at home, Guilder said that he did not care about history and that it was useless. I was appalled. There was no way this would go down lightly. I had just been re-reading some ideas from humanities and I was riding the high. Marx, Kafka, Freud, Eliot, Woolf, Sartre, Genet, de Beauvoir, Ginsberg, and Dylan. The last 10 weeks of Hum 5 has rattled me. There’s no doubt about it. I freaked. I thought about things differently and I was scared. And now, there was no way that these ideas could be “useless.” Paranoia strikes again.

I was angry. I tried to convince him that history was not useless. Guilder would return with some bs answer saying “history is important, but useless.” Really now…

I was so frustrated that I couldn’t convince him. It would seem that the significance of history is self-explanatory. Obvious. He was just so adamant about his opinion about it. I couldn’t sleep on this issue. I stayed up late thinking, pondering, trying to figure out a way to argue my way with guilder. I realize that a group of people who actively burned history books were the Nazis. I wondered what my professor would say if I asked him whether or not history was important or useful.

We gather trends from history. We learn from history. I couldn’t find way to argue and that scared me. I couldn’t successfully formulate an argument and I got humiliated by Guilder and his narrow-mindedness. Oh ignorance is bliss.

I was so upset. What is history? A written record of the past. Textbooks. Ideas. Engineering formulas. Articles. Basically anything that validates existence right? Guilder said that history is just a bunch of records that just sit there. Useless? It seems so. Useless if you don’t learn about it. Useless if you don’t care about it.

And this morning while I’m eating breakfast, he has the nerve to say, “So coppa, what’d you do last night? Read some history before going to bed?”

A revolution is in action and we’re all part of it. It’s a silent movement towards a world governed by images, governed by technology that’s advancing so rapidly I feel that we’ll soon be like the uncontrollable sorcery of Mickey Mouse in Fantasia. I hope my judgment will guide me through. I hope I’ll make the right decisions. Will everything be ok? I hope so. And therefore, I have everything…haha

Time started again in Sears today at 2:55. Exactly 3 days after it had stopped. It couldn’t have timed it better. Funny how things end up.

My brother had some crazy shit go down this weekend and I hope he’ll be ok. Essentially, he ran stop sign, was driving with a suspended license, had 0.04 BAC, and best of all gave the cop my information. So i guess i got a DUI last week.

I can’t focus and I can’t get myself to study. I’m more bothered about my brother and Guilder’s absurd disregard for history than my own finals.

I’ll ruminate on it some more. Just my thoughts. They are only fortune cookies.

take what you have gathered from coincidence

It's All Over Now, Baby Blue
by Bob Dylan

You must leave now, take what you need, you think will last.
But whatever you wish to keep, you better grab it fast.
Yonder stands your orphan with his gun,
Crying like a fire in the sun.
Look out the saints are comin' through
And it's all over now, Baby Blue.

The highway is for gamblers, better use your sense.
Take what you have gathered from coincidence.
The empty-handed painter from your streets
Is drawing crazy patterns on your sheets.
This sky, too, is folding under you
And it's all over now, Baby Blue.

All your seasick sailors, they are rowing home.
All your reindeer armies, are all going home.
The lover who just walked out your door
Has taken all his blankets from the floor.
The carpet, too, is moving under you
And it's all over now, Baby Blue.

Leave your stepping stones behind, something calls for you.
Forget the dead you've left, they will not follow you.
The vagabond who's rapping at your door
Is standing in the clothes that you once wore.
Strike another match, go start anew
And it's all over now, Baby Blue.




Mmm, we're doing some Bob Dylan in Hum 5. This songs pretty cool. Great imagery. Stanza two is pretty sweet. And at the end where he goes "strike another match, go start anew" its like saying, " hey man, its ok. pack a bowl."