Bricks and Citrus Cucumbers

I just finished watching Brick, and I gotta say, it's one of the best films I've seen in a while. If I had to liken it to another film I'd have to go with something like Layer Cake or Basic.
Drugs, sex, and murder. In high school. Very film noir.
That's my 10 word summary.
Truth be told, I had it figured out by the time it was half way in, but watching how everything played out was still very exciting, and even though most of the minor characters don't get fleshed out very much, Joseph Gordon-Levitt was probably at the best I've seen him in a while. Granted, I haven't really seen a lot of things he's been in, but I found myself drawn to him, despite knowing next to nothing about his character. I also liked that very early on in the film I stopped caring about who Emily was, or why she was killed, and I just wanted to see how things were going to play out. Only at the conclusion did the film draw the attention back to Emily, and it wrapped up in a way that, at least to me, was very satisfying. Perhaps the worst part of it was that, when all was said and done, I still didn't really care about her. Rather, I was glad to see Brendan's arc in the brief period of time covered by the film come to a solid close.
I would highly recommend it to anyone who's a fan of film noir and whodunnit-type films, though it does start rather slow.

Throughout the film, I was also smoking a mix of Romman Summer Crisp & Lemon. Given the very summery feel of Summer Crisp, I was curious to see how I could make it more of a wintery flavor, given the rain we're currently experiencing in LA.
I gotta say, I largely failed. I did find a nice flavor mix, though.
I would definitely smoke it again in summer, or next week even, only...I'm all out of lemon.
I'd happily mix Summer Crisp with cherry, Good Times, rose, watermelon...or almost any of my other flavors, really. Though it is also very good on its own.

Now, to get a few more friends to join in the shisha smoking & movie watching...

Like a Chica Cherry Cola...?

For the last few hours I've been sitting here at my desk doing 2 things: doing some preliminary research for my new OTD project, and trying out Fantasia Mon Cherry. This, thankfully, ends my 3 consecutive days of trying new shisha flavors. Last night I tried Romman Cherry, on account of having found the joys of cherry flavored shisha at Beirut back home in Hong Kong.

Between the 2 cherry flavors, Romman tasted a bit like artificial cherry candy, perhaps a Jolly Rancher or Air Head.
Fantasia, on the other hand, tastes more like a black cherry soda.
Honestly, I like them both. Different flavors for different moods and occasions, I guess.

As for the research, well, Universal Design is a bit of a tricky beast. As has been the case since I decided to tackle Universal Design for my OTD, finding any amount of decent literature, let alone peer-reviewed articles, on the topic has proven quite difficult. I've largely been limited to literature that AARP, USC, and The Center for Universal Design at NCSU have put out. Not a whole lot by way of peer-reviewed articles there, and as far as I've been able to find, nothing at all on how UD can benefit individuals other than any given specific population: the elderly, individuals with physical disabilities, etc.
Perhaps this will serve as a decent step towards my needs assessment, but that's always a difficult argument to make: There's no material written on the subject, so I should write it!
Still, I suppose it's better than nothing.

Sweet Start

I guess I might as well start out with what initially brought the whole "blog" idea to my mind: hookah.

I just got my new shipment of hookah coals & tobacco in the mail yesterday from Hookah-Shisha.com, which included their Valentine's Day promotional free 50g pack of Sweet Start.
So, why not try it out?

When I opened the sealed package I was hit by a smell that reminded me of bubblegum ice cream. Honestly, as sweet and nice as it smelled, this was a bit off putting, as I'm not too fond of really sweet shisha flavors, despite my lifelong love of candy.

At first the flavor and smoke were incredibly light, which surprised me considering the Romman name on the packaging, but after adjusting the coals the smoke got thicker and the flavor came out more. The flavor stayed light and sweet, not nearly as overwhelming as the smell, which was kind of nice. After the first hour, though, it got a little old. I stuck it out until the end of the bowl and came to the conclusion that it'd be better as a mixer. What to mix it with, though, I'm still not sure.

After writing all that, I just realized - it almost tasted like cotton candy.

All that said, I hesitate to give any sort of positive/negative or 10-point scale type of rating for this.
Seeing as I think I may end up reviewing more flavors and/or mixes in the future, I will instead say this: If you like sweet shisha, but are not a fan of the many artificial fruity flavors out there, then this may be for you. If you prefer your shisha a little less sweet, perhaps along the lines of jasmine or rose, then you likely won't like Sweet Start.
If, however, you're like me and like a lot of different flavors then I'd say give it a shot. I wasn't a huge fan of it, but you just might be.

Oh look, I started a blog!

Why? Because it's easy? Because everybody's doing it? Am I hoping to pick up chicks with my clever posts?
Honestly, I have no idea. I may never post here again, but hey - it's free, so why not?

So, why "My Favorite Occupations?"
Well, if you've known me for any amount of time and have talked to me in the last 6 or 7 years, then you'll know that I am an occupational therapist. What is occupational therapy? Here's what Wikipedia has to say about it.
If you don't feel like reading all that, I don't blame you. But if you really want to know in any amount of detail, it'd probably take me a lot more words than that article has.
But basically, it's a profession that strives to help others get into or back into everyday life, doing the things that are meaningful to them.
See, here we're not talking about your job occupation, but looking at anything that occupies your time. Your occupations, then, are the activities and tasks that are meaningful to you.
Yeah, it's not the best name we could have picked, but that's what they went with way back when, so we're kind of stuck with it.
But, because what we do as occupational therapists is so client-centered, you hear and learn about a lot of different occupations that people have.

The way I see it, I have a wide range of interests, both professionally and personally, so this may be a great place to display my passions for the world to see.
Also, I like to talk a lot.
I mean a LOT. If allowed to, I could probably talk about anything and everything for hours on end, perhaps only pausing to eat or drink a little.

Actually, the idea for a blog probably started a year or so ago, when I thought about posting some tutorials on hookah preparation, hookah smoking having become a new occupation over the course of a year of casual smoking at hookah bars.

So, here it is. A place where I may put my favorite occupations on the internet to be read, berated, and taken out of context at the reader's whim.
Maybe I'll post something again soon, maybe not for a while, and maybe not at all.
I think I said that at the top of this post already. Oh well.