I've been promoted...

Yeah, because my roommate is taking a 5-day holiday, to Georgia and dunno where else, I've been promoted to become the care-taker of the house. Basically, there are 4 huge tasks that I must do.

1) The cats - my roommate has 2 cats, Callie and Fruitcake, so, basically, I need to feed them, and keep their poop-box clean (or else it will stink-up the entire house). Easy... Check... Even though I'm a dog person, but, well, just to feed them and clean after them doesn't require me touching them, so, it's OK...

2) The water. Specifically, the hot water, because the hot water system is built in such a way that it will collect heat from sunlight and all, and it's SUMMER now, it collects way too much hot water, and I need to use them up or the water in the system might over-heat. (It's incredible how hot the water can get, just from energy collected from sun light. So, I need to take at least a warm/hot shower a day. This is harder, I take my shower at the gym, and also, the weather is too hot to take a warm shower. Well, I did my laundry today, with hot/warm cycle. So, that takes care of the water for today, how about tomorrow, Saturday and Sunday? Well, according to the weather forecast, it's gonna be cooler, so, I think this 'task' is not too hard either.

3&4) Voltage gauge and funky batteries electronic system. As the house is wired in such a way that part of the energy for the hot water system is generated from the photo-electric cells, and the energy collected is used to charge up some batteries, and the batteries might go hay-wire for some unknown reasons, I need to check the voltage meter every morning and evening, need to make sure the Voltage is between 24-26V, and also, need to jot down the Amp/hour. If the Voltage goes lower than 24V, problem is developing, and I'll need to switch it to another set of batteries. Damn cool... :)

Also, as I was working in the office today, I overheard someone's car got stolen. (My colleague's car got stolen about 2 weeks ago too...), so, I was like, damn, I need to get a steering wheel lock/clamp. And I went to get one after work today. Also, at the Autozone, I bought a steering wheel cover and air freshener. The air freshener is so overpowering that I'm pretty sure I'll be choking in it tomorrow. Also, went for groceries, in fact, went to 2 stores for groceries. Trader's Joe for milk, fruits and scones (their blueberry scones are amazing). Then, went to PriceChopper for fish (got the Pollock this time), also a type of whitefish (a term that refers to several types of oceanic deep water fish, like cod, whiting... and pollock.

As I mentioned earlier, I did laundry today, and one interesting thing is, there's no dryer. So, after more than 3 years of not drying clothes by hanging them up on a clothesline, I finally did it today. In fact, I did it in the dark. As it was 9.20pm by the time the washer was done spinning my clothes. (I multitasked a lot after coming back from groceries at about8.10pm. First, I set the rice to cook, at the same time, fed the cats, then, went to check the batteries, the voltage gauge, then, back to check the rice, then, started my load of laundry, and then, had dinner, in between all that, 2 visitors came looking for my roommate, and by the time i'm done with laundry, and all, it was 9.45pm.

Interesting...

Finally, I met up with my cousin and her family

So, after about 3 years here in the States, I finally met up with my cousin and her family last weekend. So, as planned, I started driving after going to gym early in the morning on Saturday. Not planned: I tried out the sauna, and I found it quite fun. And, spent 2 10-minute sessions in there. Hence, I actually set off from my office at 10.15am. The weather was gorgeous. Sunny, spotless blue sky. After about 10 minutes of driving, I was at the toll-booth entering the Mass-Pike. There was slight congestion, guess many people were traveling on weekend.

So, after about 3 hours of driving, I was approaching New York City, and the traffic was bad. It took me quite awhile to get onto the Geo Washington Bridge, and then, was stuck near the Bronx area, and that slowed me down quite a bit. Then, I wasn't paying enough attention, and I went to the wrong lane at the toll and was forced to go to 'No Ticket' lane. Well, I was kinda confused by the signs, because I was thinking, :"I don't have a ticket, hence I should go to 'No Ticket'." But then, I was also thinking, maybe, it meant that there's no ticket at that line, if you need a ticket, you have to go to the line which says 'Ticket'. My second reasoning was right, but it was too late. I was forced to pay like 2 dollars more than what it would have been(lost-ticket maximum toll).

So, after another 3 more hours, I was about an hour away from Jessica's(my cousin) home in Hockessin (near Wilmington, Delaware). I got until Wilmington, and got lost while looking for the New Gap Pike (i was expecting it to be a big road, but it was actually a small road, and hence I missed it. I went to a gas station and asked for directions, but that person at the register was clueless. I went to a wise-old-man and asked for directions, and he actually pointed me to the right directions, towards Hockessin, but because I didn't want to risk it anymore, I saw a huge shopping center (Pike Creek shopping center), and decided to give my cousin a call to get directions instead.

So, her family came and that was when I met my cousin and her family(her husband, Tomas and their daughter, Amanda) for the first time in the States after my 3 years here. (Bad me...) But, it's hard when I don't have a car, and Michigan has really short and sucky break during the academic year. We went for some berries hunting (blueberries, cranberries, blackberries) for a fruit salad later that night. So, after shopping, my cousin drove Amanda, while Tomas came with me to lead me to their place. I would never find the place without Tomas' directions.

The house was OMG beautiful. No wonder my cousin felt sad for having to sell it and move to Richmond, VA in a month's time. I would be too. It's about an acre of compound, nice yard, and the house was really nicely decorated. 4-bedroom (including master), 3-bathroom, 2 dining-room, 2-living room, 3rd-floor attic, a huge-S basement, study room, .... damn, since when am I a real-estate agent? So, Amanda showed me my room, the bed was fantastic! But too bad, my body-clock won the battle again. I woke up after 6 hours of sleep, but my mind did fought back, and I got an extra hour of sleep. But, that's the sleep at night. So, after that, I played with Amanda, we built a 'house' with something like legos, but it's sticks and stuff. After that, it was time for dinner, we went to this Italian place, and the food was great. The white pasta with seafood, the seafood pizza, the appetizer(mozzarella, red pepper + prosciutto) which came late (after the entrees were served).

So, after dinner, we went home, where we had the fruit salad. Those berries were great. After dinner, at about 9ish, Amanda went to bed, and the three of us chatted while watching the TV. Comedy Central, where that Tosh guy was cracking a decent joke with every 2 bad jokes. Also, my aunt (Jessica's mom) called, and we had a long marathon of conversations, with me speaking to my aunt and uncle, and Jessica and Tomas speaking to their parents. Then, later at night, I called up my dad, and we did more talking, Jessica and I with our aunts and all. Phewww... I called it a night at about 1.30am.

Woke up at about 8ish the next morning, and Tomas was doing some gardening, prepping up for the open house later in the day. We had breakfast, and then some conversations and 2 cups of tea later, Jessica and Amanda woke up. Later in the afternoon, we went to Philadelphia Chinatown for lunch, where we had dim sum. And after that, we parted ways. I had to hit the road to go back to Worcester, MA. It was such a great weekend, but it was way too short. Thanks Jessica and Tomas for having me over for the weekend. And thanks for filling me up (my car too), and thanks for the atlas. :P Not to mention the fruit bowl, clementines, and cherries.
I'll try to pay you another visit at Richmond, VA. Hopefully, I can make a trip down to Richmond, VA, spend a night or two there. Then, from Richmond, drive back to Ann Arbor.

Worcester, MA to Richmond, VA (about 9 hours if traffic is good).
Richmond, VA to Ann Arbor, MI (10 hours, not gonna have much traffic)

Sounds like a plan, most likely to do this on the 18th of Aug - 21st of Aug...

So, yar, it was a great weekend... minus the driving back part, where I got stuck on near NYC for again. It was eve worse this time. I moved about 10 miles in like 2 hours, and I paid $6 of toll for that. GEO WASHINGTON BRIDGE! I can run faster than that. Yar, so, I only reached my sublet in Worcester at 11.45pm yesterday. My back was sore, and I needed bengay patch for it this morning.

So, more traveling to come... will be going to Boston this weekend. Fun fun fun!!!

one week of great learning experience

So, prior to this, I had not much knowledge about what actuaries really do in the real world. I did learn something about life insurance, annuities and perpetuities, and other stuff. But, I had not much knowledge on the property and casualty (P&C) work that actuaries do. Even that is an overstatement, I was so 'ignorance' that I didn't even know what are included under property and casualty.

Having said that, I learned a great deal in my first week of internship here. Not only did I learn about what they are doing now, my manager is having me working on some rather cutting edge ideas of his, and it'll be what P&C actuaries will be doing in the very near future. Cool huh? And that + being the workaholic that I am, every morning after waking up, I feel good and is actually happy to go to work. Yes, I'm for real. I mean, not many people can actually say that they are happy to go to work. I'm really fortunate to be able to say that loudly and proudly.

My colleagues are great too. Too bad most of them are staying at quite a distance from me, or else, I'm pretty sure we will be hanging out more. But, they are moving to Worcester or the neighboring neighborhood, Shrewsbury really soon though. So, that's a plus, and I'm definitely looking forward to that.

Tomorrow, I'll embark on another long journey, to visit my cousin at Delaware. It's gonna be a 5.5 hours drive, and even though this is dwarfed by the 13 hours drive I took last week, and actually, I'm loving driving now (not the having to pump gas part), I'll be driving quite some distance this weekend, because I'll be driving back on Sunday. So, it's gonna be 11 hours of driving over the weekend. So, that's quite a lot of driving too.

Last but not least, I've been having great success in my running. I ran 3 miles on Monday, 3 miles on Tuesday, 4 miles on Wednesday, 4.5 miles on Thursday, and 5 miles today. And I'm going to the gym tomorrow morning for another run before hitting the road for Delaware at about 10am. So, I think this will be my very first 20+ miles of run week for me. Also, the on-site gym (which cost on $20/month), has personal trainer service for free, and one of them is actually making a work out plan for me to help me achieve my ultimate goal, to run a marathon. I think, at the rate I'm going, and if I stay persistent, I'll be ready for a marathon by the end of the year, or end of the academic year. (Chicago Marathon?)

Also, another last but not least. I went to this supermarket, Price Chopper yesterday. And, I found seafood!!! So, I was looking and the cod fillet jumped to me, and they offer free frying service. So, I bought about 1 lb of cod fish (for 6.99/lb), I didn't know 1lb of cod fish was soooooo much, and I could only managed 1/3 of it. The fish was really fresh, and all I needed to go with it was some soy sauce and black pepper over it. I had it with rice and some mixed vegetables, and it was quite a meal. The fish was really good.

And another proud thing to say is that, I had only eat-out once (today's lunch), and that's also, to eat out with my colleagues (I actually brought lunch, but I didn't eat it, had it for dinner instead). So, I had been cooking and I had been pretty successful. And surprisingly, the rice that I cooked with a pot turns out to be OK. (even though I messed up the first time by having a little bit too much water).

So, it had been a great week. Really good week, looking forward to the weekend, and to Monday, to work, where we will have a meeting, and I'm actually gonna tell the team what I had been doing for my first week, and what I'm working on currently. (the cutting edge stuff is too cutting edge to be shared here, who knows who's reading my blog?)

Take care and have fun!

sleep... dream... ARGGGGH.... body clock kicks in...

The title pretty much says it all. So, I go to bed at about 12am, was thinking to wake up at 6.30am, but nope... body clock kicks in at 5.45am, thinking that I still have time to kill, tried hard to sleep again, and dreamed a crazy dream, and ARGHHHH... I was wide awake!!! (my second body clock?)

Well, so, I'd been pretty robotic with my time since I started working.

Wake up at 6.30am, shower + breakfast + prepare for lunch
Leave for work at 7.35am.
Reach office at 7.50am.
Start work at 8.00am.
Leave work at 4.30pm.
Go to work out at the on-site gym til 6pm
Cook and have dinner at 7.30pm
Online + reading + brain age til midnight!!!

Also, for three days in a row now I run at the gym. Hope that I really do my 20+ miles week for the first time. And we will go from there.

Information Overload...

So, today was the first day of work. It was definitely a lot of learning, and not sure how much of retaining. But, I can really see myself learning a lot from this internship, not that I didn't learn a lot from my previous internship, but, this will be more appropriate, and more applicable.

But, enough of that, so, I can only use the internet for work purposes at the office, which I think is a good training for me, considering how much time I wasted while using the Internet without restrictions.

So, I have a huge paper to read and understand for work tomorrow.

So, I'm really getting my pined-for way of life. Wake up early in the morning, go to work, then to gym, then dinner, then internet/tv. pretty robotic, pretty boring? I like it.

Also, I learned about how far and how much time typical Americans travel to go to work. Unless you are staying in the city, typically, people drive more than an hour to go to work. And that's just moving traffic, translating to 40-50 miles (60-80 KM) one way!!! (they wake up really early to beat the traffic). No kidding!

Also, the house I'm living in now is really funky. The water heating system is solar-powered, and also, there's solar panel on the roof to charge up some batteries for some percentage of energy used in the house. I have a really large room to myself, but it's kinda an old house, but it's a nice house with 2 cats, and the house owner!

Also, I forgot to talk about my trip to Cedar Point last Friday. It was really fun! I enjoyed it a lot, until the last ride, Max Air, where I got a little nauseous after the ride. The most fun one was definitely the Top Thrill Dragster, where it sped from 0 to 120 miles per hour in less than 4 seconds, and it got above 400 feets off the ground, and the it was really thrilling. We did 8 rides in our 5 hours there, and I got sun-burned and was pretty red, like a cooked-crab. It was really a lot of fun, thanks Alex and Joe for making this trip possible! So, Cedar Point is at Sandusky, OH, which was actually on my way from Ann Arbor, MI to Worcester, MA. So, the very next day, I took the very same route for the first 2 hours of my driving.

So, that's about it... have fun!

13 hours and 770 miles later...

So, I started my long drive from Ann Arbor, MI to Worcester, MA (a 770 miles = 1239.20km) at 6.15am. Look at the odometer, and also the trip counter. 4.3miles...
I stopped at Pennsylvania for gas, it was about 10.45am. I also stopped here for breakfast, there's a McD at the rest area. I had a sandwich whatever, but I really like the Ice-coffee.
On the way there, the weather was great. Sunny and nice blue skies... until the very last hour, where it was raining really heavily.
Second stop for gas at New York state line. It was about 3 something pm I think.
Again, the nice blue skies with clouds...
At about 5.30pm, I stopped at another rest area for food. McD again. For some reason, I preferred McD over other fastfood. And, I had already drive 700+ miles.
After this stop, it started to rain lightly, and I actually saw a rainbow. I finally got to my sublet at 7.25pm, could have made it there earlier, but made a wrong turn somewhere, and need to turn around and all.

So, I'm safe and I'm here in Worcester, MA. Will drive out later to check out the drive to work, and also to do some groceries.

Setting off really soon...

Hi guys, I'm hitting the road for the 769 miles journey pretty soon.

My summer sublet address will be:
57 Hollywood St., Worcester, MA 01610

Bye and take care!

It's Roller Coasters time...

So, I'm pretty much all set and ready to go to Worcester, MA to start my internship on Monday. But, because my roommates and I planned to go to Cedar Point in the summer, we decided to go there today.

I won't be bringing my camera because I'll be taking all those crazy rides. I won't be bringing my cellphone either, because I'll be taking all those crazy rides. :)

So, I'll be back tonight at about 8-9pm, then, I'll pretty much load the car with all those bulky but inexpensive items, and will wake up bright and early tomorrow and hit the road at 6am.

As I don't have a Canadian visa, I'll have to take a 'detour' to Ohio and stay in the US for my entire drive to Worcester, MA (making it a 12+ hours drive), instead of the cut through Canada 9+ hours drive.

I've burned some mix cd for the long drive too, but for some reason, my dvd burner died on me. I had to burn some disc using computer in the library.

So, that's about it. My next post will most likely be posted on Sunday, or late Saturday when I'm in Worcester, MA.

Take care and have fun....

I was tagged...

So, Eric tagged me.
Link

So, it's a food tag, where I'm supposed to :
Proposition: What is your favorite food in your state or country?
Requirements: Find some info about the food and show delicious pictures of it?
Tag Mode: You leave their blog and post link and add to the list below.

Alright, I love food and I do like to cook too. Back home, I love nasi lemak. With fried eggs and spicy sambal, it's delicious, for a complete meal, top it up with a glass of teh ais.

But here in the States, my favorite food that I can cook is casserole. It's simple, but it's really tasty. Pasta + canned soup + frozen mixed vegetable + some meat of my choice + cheese.

(I like egg noodles + cream of mushroom/cream of chicken/new england clam chowder as soup + frozen mixed vegetable + white chicken chunks/tuna/shrimps/crab meat + Mexican 3-cheese blend.)

This would be a much better post 3 or 4 months later, when I start to cook next academic year.

And here's the compiled list thus far:

Mybabybay loves Asam Laksa from Penang, Malaysia
JustMyThoughts loves Penang Char Koay Teow
My Lil Venture loves Laksa Sarawak
Montessorimum loves Teluk Intan Chee Cheong Fun
Chinnee loves Melaka Wan Tan Mee
Leah loves Hakka Lei Cha
Karen loves Pan Mee
Something about Lai loves Crispy duck skin from China
Simple American loves Cheese Enchiladas
Nicole Tan loves Char Tau Kueh
velverse loves otak-otak
Giddy Tiger loves Dim Sum
may loves Roti Bakar
Selba loves Gado-gado
Chen loves Satay
Doreen loves Hainanese chicken rice
rinnah loves Ipoh Chicken Rice
Misha loves tim sum in Hong Kong
Kenny Ng loves Jawa Mee
wmw loves Kuih Tutu
Lyrical Lemongrass loves Asam Boi
Pinkelle loves Mee Siput and Keropok Lekor
LB loves Siew Kai Pai Kuat Tungku Chap
day-dreamer loves Secret Recipe Chocolate Cakes
Eric Fu Esq loves Oyster Omelette
Voon Seng loves Casserole

I don't like the idea of tagging and all, so, I'm not gonna tag anybody.

Next up, Southampton, aka Soto. (Spring Break)

So, from Manchester, I took a red eye train to Southampton, to visit my dear friend Tremayne :)
The train was pretty nice.
Here's a look of the inside. As it was a red-eye, it was rather empty, eerily empty.
My ticket and my planner.
Tremayne is an amazing tour guide! Thanks man! I reached Southampton at about 10am, and we caught another train to go to visit the Stonehenge rightaway. (Because of time constraint, I was carrying my close to 40 pounds backpack with me all the time.)This is Tremayne. (He's on my blogroll too... Single and available, interested? I can be a matchmaker...) LOL... (pic taken by Tremayne)
(pic taken by Tremayne)
Listening t0 the audio tour at Stonehenge. (pic taken by Tremayne)
Again, it was really windy... But, perfect weather otherwise. (pic taken by Tremayne)

Amazing, isn't it?

Look at the white dots on the field. They are sheep. :)

After the tour to Stonehenge, we went back to Southampton, and Tremayne took me around downtown for a quick tour, pretty nice harbor town.

Early next morning, I took a bus to London Heathrow Airport, and went back to Ann Arbor to get ready for the 2nd half of the semester energized. :)

And, below showed pictures of my 'harvests'...
Everything cleared from my backpack onto my bed.

Something for St. Patrick's Day. (less than two weeks from the day I got back from Europe)


And, some leftover foreign currencies (Euros, and Sterling Pounds) ... One thing I learned about Euros and Sterling Pounds. You can have 20-30 dollars worth of coins in your pocket. So, when you want to spare some change, do think again. :) Imagine a 2 sterling pounds coin, that's 4 dollars!

That's about it. My trip to Europe was definitely a great one! An eye opening experience. Also, taught me a lot about traveling alone. Really, huge thanks to Chee Han and friends, Zhi Hui, the Barnacles bunch I met at Dublin, Ireland, Kim Tat, and last but not least, Tremayne for making my trip to Europe an amazing one! "There's vacation that you will remember, and there's vacation that you'll never forget." (quoted from a TV commercial) This was definitely a trip that I'll never forget!

Time to clear things up... Manchester (Spring Break 07)

OK, so, now that I have so much time, and also, I'm bored and need to kill my time, so, I'm gonna blog more. And there are a lot of posts for me to catch up, some dating back to my Spring break in Europe...

So, let me continue with my Spring Break... I think I left off at Dublin, Ireland.

After Dublin, Ireland, I took a flight to Manchester, to visit my friend Kim Tat. After a flight and a train ride, I met up with Kim Tat where I crashed 3 nights at his room! :)

So, Manchester is a great place, a very nice place with a lot of shopping malls, and good chinese food. The Chinatown is huge, and I saw a number of really nice cars (2 Ferraris, a Lumborghini...) I had some really good dim sums, and spent a lot of time walking around searching for jerseys(for my bro, friends and myself). Also, I spent few hours walking around lost after visiting Old Trafford, home of the great Manchester United Football Club, which I spent so much time in there, following a tour, checking out the Megastore.

The side entrance of Old Trafford.
I spent about 40 minutes walking around the Museum before the tour.
As I was traveling alone most of the time, some photos were taken with an extended right arm. Hence, the result. :)
As I followed the tour on a weekday, it wasn't that busy, and the tour group was about 20 of us. The tour was rather comprehensive, and the tour guide was amazing. Well, he had been working there for more than 25 years and worked during the regular football season.
I managed to get another person to help me to take this shot.

Ok, that's ugly... :)
The home players' changing room. :)


Me getting comfortable in Sir Alex Ferguson's seat.No comments... :)
In front of the main entrance. The Megastore as background.
This is slightly better... (oh yar, it was rather cold and windy that day...)

Some shot sI took while I was lost.

And, last but not least, a very amatuerish panoramic of Old Trafford.

I went back to Old Trafford for a second time because I couldn't find the third jersey elsewhere.
My bro's jersey getting personalized.
Well, this time, I went back with Kim Tat, and he took this shot. :)
And after that, we went to Trafford mall (i think), which was a really humongous mall, bigger than the new 1 Utama, and the decoration was amazing.
Also, here's a picture of me in front of U of Manchester.
Also, Manchester was the host of the 2002 Commonwealth Games, and this is the aquatic center, just outside Kim Tat's dorm.

And that's pretty much of my trip to Manchester, England. The very next morning, at 5am in the morning on Saturday, I took a train to Southampton, my last stop of my trip to Europe.

Mr First Car!!!

So, this is my very first car! RED is not my color, but, it's not bad a color, I would've definitely go for blue if I had more time to hunt for a car. It's a 2001 Ford Focus, ZTS, 4 door sedan. It's 2.0 liter.


Let me take you into my car.

It has a really huge trunk for such a small compact car.

The only thing missing is the license plate, which is what I'm gonna get tomorrow morning.
what do you think?