Try Fly Sky : Chapter II

Winter Wonderland...

2010-12-27T11:54:00.005-05:00

So, my buddy Tremayne and Chun Hua, spent their Christmas in Worcester, MA. It's all fun. Good food and great company, nothing says Christmas more than that right? Over the long Christmas weekend (Thur - Sunday), we had quite the eating journey. We had dinner Thursday night at Blue Ginger, the restaurant owned by the famous TV chef Ming Tsai (his tv show 'Simply Ming'). Overall, our experience here is OK. Below my expectation to be frank. I'll elaborate more on my review on Yelp! I don't think I'll come here for a 2nd time. It's not that bad, but given the steep price tag, I think it's not worth it.

On Christmas eve, for lunch, initially, we wanted to dine at a seafood market - cafe place, Captain Marden's, but the kitchen was closed. So, we went to Legal Seafood in Framingham instead. The meal was good. The lobstas and chowda and the onion string and... were all good.

For dinner, we went to Cheesecake Factory for cheesecake as main course and entree as sides. As usual, the cheesecake was great.

On Christmas, we roasted turkey, some vegetables, and prepared some stuffing... It was way too much food for the 3 of us and we didn't get to the Boston Creme torte cake. And, for unknown reasons, I got an irritating headache (again) after having turkey and wine. Called it an early night.

On Boxing Day, because of the forthcoming storm, we decided to go into Boston earlier, with the intention of have dimsum as brunch and then Tremayne and Chun Hua catching an earlier bus to NYC. When we got to the bus station, it was like a war zone. Fortunately, they have online ticket and was able to get on the 12 noon bus. Their original bus at 3pm was canceled. Anyway, because of this time change, we weren't able to grab a dimsum brunch, and they left for NYC soon.

Anyway, I think NYC + weather hates me. It seems like whenever I made plans to travel to or through NYC during winter months, a winter storm/blizzard coincides. Because of this blizzard, I had to cancel my initial plan of spending Boxing day and the day after (today) in NYC.

So, the heavy snow and strong wind knocked out the power for about an hour yesterday night. With heavy snow outside and nothing much going on the tv, after a few brewskis, I called it an early night.

This morning, I woke up to more than a foot of snow. At this time, even though most of the snow has stopped, the wind gust is still really strong, 40+mph, tossing loose snow around. To put into perspective how much snow, pictures are much better than words.

I was trying to get out of the house through the side door, but I can't get it to open. Snow must be blocking it. (Yes, my door opens outward.)

When I open my garage door, voila:

No wonder I couldn't open my side door:
It's a whiteout...
A serious whiteout:
The pile of snow I shoveled from the front of my door and the front of my garage:
After some hard shoveling work (and yes, it was still snowing...)
A different view:
My neighbor and I contracted a guy to plow the main driveway -
I was wishing that I'll get some snow for a White Christmas, guess I wished too hard, and too late...

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

xkcd...

2010-12-11T14:39:00.002-05:00

Came across this comic... It's hilarious and ingenious...

Checkout www.xkcd.com...

All credits to xkcd.

Might be a little 'adult'... but the best part of the comic is, if you mouse over the picture on the original link http://xkcd.com/492/

It reads - A veteran Scrabble player will spot the 'OSTRICH' option...

*Speechless...*

Off the ground...!!!

2010-11-26T19:26:00.002-05:00

Finally, I got a desk for my desktop... This means that my computer is off the ground and I don't need to sit on the floor while using the computer... This translates into not as painful for me to spend time in front of my computer at home. So, it's only logical to spend more time updating my blog.

I got the desk from Walmart.com, taking full advantage of their new free shipping to home for certain items. It's surprising to me that it only took them 3 business days to ship the desk and chair, instead of their first estimated 1-2 weeks.

Anyway, the putting together of the desk took me a good 1.5 hours, with a minor snafu, I got the sliders for the drawer upside down, but other than that, it was rather smooth. The chair, though it's height is more suitable for my kitchen island, by having it at the lowest position, I was able to sit comfortably in front of the desk.

So, 2 more items added to the house. What's next? I still need to get a few nightstands and dresser for my bedrooms. Maybe a bigger tv for the living room so that I can shift the current tv to my bedroom. But, the tv will only come next year.

For Black Friday, the only purchase I made was a new cellphone. After 6 years, I decided to switch away from T-Mobile to Virgin Mobile. This is because the plan is more suitable for my use. Instead of paying $40 bucks for 300 mins and 1000 texts, I've decided to switch to Virgin Mobile for $25/month for 300 mins and unlimited data. Though I have to pay more for the Samsung Intercept phone, ($250), by saving on the plan monthly, over time, it gives me a bigger bang for my bucks. I'm still waiting for the line to be ported and my phone to be activated. Once that's done, I'll be able to check my email and access the web and do all the good stuff with my phone. Android... Able to sync my phone to my Google account is HUGE. Guess I finally caught up with the smartphone phenomenon.

What else? My satellite tv's been acting since last week, often times, it loses signal. So, for the last week, I've been relying more on the internet to get my tv shows and sports fix. I also got more done last weekend (house work and reading). So, if ESPN and all were to offer more online live sport streaming, I might be able survive without cable/satellite tv subscription.

2010-11-14T22:16:00.003-05:00

Sorry guys, it's been a very long while since I last updated my blog. Guess my laziness, work and studying for CAS 9 exam had the better of me.

So, what's new since my last updated?

It's been 6 long months since I moved into my new place and I'm still loving it. Things are still being added to the house piece by piece... Finally, 2 weeks ago after my exam, I was able to find time and energy to put together the shelf I got from Ikea back in August, and also, to put up the sliding shade I got in June.

Things at work seem to be going well. I find myself maturing, in terms of setting expectations for myself and working with others. And finally, I'll be rotating to a new position tomorrow, after a long wait. I'm really excited about this change. It was getting to a point where I'm feeling that I'm carrying too much weight for my own good and for the good of the team.

Also, last week, I went back to University of Michigan on a recruiting trip. It was a short but fun-filled trip. I met up with few of my professors and friends. It was good to step back and drive around the campus again. It's fun to reminisce on those fond memories in my college days. That, and also, taking a break from work, and to watch a historic Michigan football game is just plain fun.

What else is new? I started playing table tennis again. It's kinda funny how I decided to pick up my paddle again after such a long break from the sport which I consider to be my first love. Well, it started with my Course on Professionalism trip to Chicago, where one of my ex-coworker challenged me to play him. So, we took a cab to outskirt of Chicago and played there, where I found myself to be enjoying the game a lot. So, after I came back from the trip, I decided to look for a club 'nearby' and started playing there every Thursday, and even Monday now after the exam. It's really fun to play with different levels of players. I'm thinking about going serious with table tennis - getting a table and a ball-robot to help me improve my game.

What's next... I'm also planning to organize more after-work get together with colleagues as we seem to lose a lot of those fun nights because of work and exam. Since it's after exam now, I should kick-start those activities (movie night, bar night...) again.

Things/dates to look forward to next... Thanksgiving and Christmas and New Year.

2010-07-25T11:40:00.004-05:00

At Sichuan Gourmet - chinese zodiac on the table reads:
Ox- Bright and patient, you are a good listener but disdainful or failure. You are attracted to the snake, rooster and rat, and should avoid the ram.

Lol. A failure...

Uphill battle...

2010-07-25T08:52:00.002-05:00

As Tremayne noted, I missed June as well....

Well well well... It's getting harder and harder to update my blog even at a monthly basis... Guess I'm just getting lazier, and having to update my blog Japanese style is definitely not helping either (my computer is still set up on the floor in my living room, hence, having to use the computer sitting on the floor). Well, at least it's nice hardwood floor.

So, I missed June and now, it's almost the end of July.

I'll do a quick recap of what happened in late May, June and July...

Late May...
After coming back from the long short trip home, long in the sense of the journey, short in the sense of it being less than a week, I got busy with the whole house thing - signing the closing contract on the house, the 30-year loan, and planning the move, and actually packing and moving. It was a lot of work over the 2 weekends - the packing and the moving, a trip to Ikea, a couple of trips to Home Depot & Lowes, the unpacking, the cleaning of my old apartment before returning the keys.

June...
Long days at work. Long nights spent watching tv. Started rock climbing again. Also, there's a movie theater near my new house, about a mile away. So, every Tuesday ($6 a movie), a bunch of us from work will catch a movie after work. I think that June 2010 was the month which I've watched the most movies. Also, started running a little after a long hiatus... Also, I am finally able to work on the grill. At the end of the month, I found out what I was sorta expecting, failing exam 7. It was no doubt humbling, and I only have myself to blame - time management...

July...
Work's still busy. Started studying for exam 9. It's been 2 months since moving into the house and I'm loving it -minus the cleaning, and the flies problem I was experiencing, and the larger utility bills. Went on a trip, walking around Boston, and a day trip to Newport, Rhode Island over the long 4th of July weekend when May Ying and Mel came visit. The following weekend, met up with Hui Ying in Boston for a dimsum brunch, and then, last weekend, had an official housewarming party at my house. Last Thursday, did a 5-miler race and finished at a time of 43:40 min, ~8.45 min pace... Given the lack of actual running lately, I'm happy with the time. If only the weather was cooler, I coulda shave 15 secs per min off my pace... Maybe I'll get more serious into running again and aim for a half marathon in the Fall...

2010-07-25T08:51:00.001-05:00

Cool... Now i can annoy the hell out of my blog followers with tweet-like updates... 140 characters... Lol... :-)

2010-07-25T08:49:00.001-05:00

Testing... Blogging via texting...

Wow, I totally missed April?

2010-05-13T19:19:00.002-05:00

Looking at the when the last post was dated, I realized that I totally missed posting in the month of April!

Well, all of that because of work and studying. Now, the exam is over and work is getting better, life's getting better. All this got me thinking, what the hell am I doing with my life? For the last 2 months leading up to the exam, I woke up early, heading into the office to study from 5-6am til 8/9/10am, and work til 5-6pm, sometimes later, and then, head back to my apartment and dinner and some tv, sometimes, some more studying, and then, REPEAT.
What's willing me on was the thought of getting to the end of the road of actuarial exams and not having to study the same darn material again if I were to fail (which is very likely, as based on the past exams, misled about the type of questions and the level of understanding and the speed that I need crank through those problems).

But, I guess my approach towards the exam, this exam I should say, was wrong. Instead of trying to read the actual paper, I spent time reading the summary of the papers and trying to memorize the lists of lists (well, this exam is all about Accounting, Regulations & Laws, and Government Programs). So, when the questions were posted in a lengthier/indirect/unsuspecting ways, I was schooled. It was a humbling experience and I think all I can do is to suck up all my pride and prepare for the battle again next November (that's 2011) better. In the remote chance that I do pass this exam, (as much as I think I don't deserve so, I will still take it if someone were to give me a pass), the bonus for passing the exempt on the first attempt which I will get will be all used for a party at my new house. (New house - see more below...)

Anyway, I'm getting back to my more desireable lifestyle of reading for leisure, watching garbage on tv and eating out and cooking more. Life's good.

So, I'm typing this half jetlagged, just spent a good 24+ hours in planes and airports and 12 timezones ahead of 36 hours ago. And will be leaving home for my new house (see more below) in less than 96 hours. I'm a sucked when it comes to sleeping on a plane. On my BOS-JFK-HKG-KUL series of flights yesterday, I didn't sleep from BOS - JFK (it was a 1-hour flight), slept at most 4 hours (in 3 naps) on the JFK - HKG 16 hours monster, and another hour for the 3.5 hours HKG - KUL flight. I'm really jealous of people who can just sleep on a plane as is if it's as easy as flipping a switch.

Anyway, the reason I'm home, for less than a week, is to attend my brother's wedding dinner, and all the pre-shows prior to that. So, there's a buffet dinner at home tonight, there's the going to the bride's house tomorrow morning, tea ceremony in the early afternoon, some kinda gathering after, and then the big wedding dinner on Saturday. With all the drinking and merrymaking, will need Sunday to recover, Monday, might be able to meet up with some friends? or just spend time with family... Tuesday morning, KUL-HKG-SFO-BOS... reaching Boston Logan International Airport at around 11.30pm, by the time I get back to my apartment, will be the May 19th...

May 19th, which is the day I'll be closing on my first house! It's been crazy buying a house. The whole searching, walking through houses, deciding, and committing. Now, there's the furnishing and all that. Later, will be the maintaining. Ahhhh! The joy of homeownership. And, damn, 1 thing I learned, it's freaking expensive.

Will get some pictures up here... Hmm, will try to get more pictures this time, from the wedding and the of the house...

Another month...another year...

2010-03-29T19:23:00.002-05:00

I'll try not to express and describe how time passes by. I turned 25 earlier this month. That's when it hits me that, wow, can't believe, I'm 25 already. Been 2 years out of college, working for 2 years, and settling down at a new place, in my job, and what's next?
(By the way, thanks for the birthday cards! And gifts! Thank you! Some of them remind me of my past while some remind me of my far future...)

The trip home was great. It's true that it's not easy to come back after being home for 2 weeks. Even though I get back to the usual drill quick, but deep down inside, I still feel a hint of 'homesickness'. Guess that's the magic of family and love.

Anyway, the trip back wasn't all smooth sailing either. Our flight from JFK to BOS was canceled, again!!! And with the inclement weather forecasted for the next day, we decided to wing it and rented a car and drove up. Because of the heavy snow in NY and part of CT, the drive took us 6 hours, instead of 3.5 hours. By the time I got back to my apartment, it was 5am. Took a shower, unpacked a little and I went straight to work at 6.45am. By 3pm that day, I was more dead than a zombie. Even after 3 coffees and a redbull, my eyelids were barely open.

I'm not sure if it's my aging, or because of the drive, but it took me a good week to totally overcome the jet-lag. I'll be heading home again for my brother's wedding in May. This was somewhat brought forward. So, I'll be home for a shorter stint, traveling back on May 12th, reaching May 13th, leaving for the States again on May 18th. 7 days vacation, spending 2 days on the plane.

Other news, in preparing for my upcoming exam (CAS 7) on May 4th, I'm now waking up at 4, studying from 5 - 9ish 10am on weekdays, and a few more hours here and there on weekends. So, May will be a big month for me. First, the exam, then, the trip home, and finally, closing on my house and moving! Can't pack anymore into a month than that...

Also, something happened few weeks back that surprised myself. It's just interesting that I did what I did. Not to reveal too much, I did what I believe is right. I did something out of the ordinary. I let myself heard. Not sure how that well sit with others, but, I think I've done myself proud. I wasn't even sure why I actually did it. You know that feeling, where you think you're gonna say something, but ended up keeping it to yourself because you're too afraid. Well, I didn't keep it to myself over that. I did it in a professional way, requested, inquired and responded with what I had in mind. If someone is gonna preach about something, I'll make sure that I'll hold them to their preaching. And NO, this has nothing to do with religion. It's about values, more about principals. (Thanks for my 'life' coach, and my email buddies. You know who you are...)

So, upon turning 25. I thought, what will I be in 5 years? Other than being 30, will I be a guy with attachment? Will I be in a different city, with a different job? A different country? Do I want to be at a different place? Do I want to give up the bachelor life and turn to a new chapter in life? Do I want to chase my dreams - if I know what they are, or be slightly contented and let opportunities seek me?

All the waking up at 4am in the morning and studying for 4-5 hours every morning, sometimes got me thinking, why am I doing this? What's keeping me going? Every now and then, I'll be able to think that I'm doing this because I want to get it over with. I'm close to getting this done. Just 3 more exams, best case scenario, that's 15 months away. I won't be able to deny that's not a tempting reason. Part of it because I do like the stuff I'm learning. Call me a dork, call me a nerd, but hey, some of them are rather interesting. I believe the main reason I'm willing myself on is I think there's much more in life. Hence, by doing my best the fastest, I can do more. What will I be doing? I don't know, but, it's definitely than not doing anything. Just keep throwing them at me, and I'll let you know when I can't handle it.

Sometimes, I couldn't help but to think back to all the what ifs... what if I didn't do that, what if I did it in a different way... But, well, what if I didn't think about all the what ifs?

I think why I'm doing what I'm doing is so that I won't regret what I didn't try the hardest at whatever I did when I'm looking back at a later point in life, and then I think, what if I had tried harder...

Funny how and what I think about upon reaching 25... I mean, can't believe that I'm 25 already. People tell me how much I've achieved... Well, not bad at all.
But, well, come to think about it, life's short, there's no guarantee for how many 25 years ahead is ahead of me...

Back at home!

2010-02-17T21:06:00.002-05:00

Happy Chinese New Year. May the year of Tiger bring great health and prosperous to all!

So, where shall I began this post?

Let me begin with my interesting trip back home! (Yes, I'm writing this from home - Subang Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia!) For the Lunar New Year, I took 12 days of my annual leave. (Gonna be a tough rest of the year, with 6 days left for the entire year.) It was all good until the night before my flight, where the weather forecast for the next day was turning tricky in NYC. I had half of my luggage packed (1 suitcase with all the foodstuff: dried plums aka 'prunes', dried apricots, dried cranberry aka 'craisins', almonds, peanut butter, jelly belly and macadamia nuts, all ~40 pounds worth of food) and some of the essentials clothing in the other semi-packed. Thinking that I had the entire night to pack, I decided to work til ~6.30pm on Tuesday night.

Things got interesting for me as while I was on the phone with my realtor, sorting out communications for the next two weeks when I'm back at home, I got another call coming in. I ignored it and got a voicemail. It was my travel agent. Eff! Apparently, my flight from Boston Logan international airport to JFK the next morning was canceled. I tried calling American Airlines (AA) to talk about when will be my next flight if I were to miss this one. Because of the inclement weather, I was waiting on the phone for a good 20 minutes before I got to talk to someone, and another good 20 minutes for the personnel to searching for possible flights and all, before him telling me that it will be a good week (today) before I can get another flight home. TROUBLE!

While waiting on the phone, my mind was wandering everywhere, and I was talking to Mel on Gchat, thinking about possible routes, and finally, I decided to check if there will be a train that can take us to NYC that night. Or, as a last resort, there's always the 'dependable' Chinatown bus. So, I gave up on the AA's help, and decided to take the chances of going to JFK by land and hoping that the flight out of JFK will not be canceled. If it were to be canceled, I was thinking that what I could do will be to stay in NYC til Sunday and go back to work (instead of going home) the next week.

At that time, it was around 7.30pm. I took a quick shower and rushed to pack the remaining suitcase and cleared the trash and left my apartment at around 5 past 8. It was a total mad dash and I was pretty sure I was going to forget something because I was too lazy to prepare a packing list this time around. Fortunately, I had placed all those important documents into my bag the day before. Knowin that things that I will forget are things that I can live without. So far, things that I found out that I forgot : Some clothes, my sunglasses, my SD card for my camera (so much so for clearing the SD card so that I can take more pictures)...

So, I reached my friend's place at 9.05pm. Our cab to Boston South Station was already there. Drove with him to his workplace and back so that I can park at his place. Finally, left his place at around 9.20pm. Thankfully, the cab was willing to wait for us without charge, we gave him a rather generous tip for that. We reached the South Station at around 9.50pm, we missed the 9.45pm train. So, we ended up taking the infamous Chinatown bus (Fung Wah to be precise) at 10pm to NYC.

Normally, the bus ride takes about 4 hours, with a short stop after a couple hours for passengers to grab a bite or to take a P... I guess it was because of the weather getting worse (forecasted), they didn't stop and drove straight to NYC. We reached NYC with my empty stomach (didn't have dinner and only had 1 packet of Cheezit and a couiple of clementines for lunch) at 1.30am. From Chinatown, my buddy and I walked to the nearest subway station, took the J train to 2nd to last stop and from there, took the airtrain to JFK. It just started to snow then. By the time we got to JFK, it was about 3am. By the time we reached terminal 7, it was 3.20am. Too bad, the terminal doesn't open until 4am. So, we waited in the indoor connecting bridge between the parking lot and the terminal til 4am. At 4am, we went into the terminal 7 and waited at the Cathay Pacific counter until it opened at 5.30am to checked in our luggages and went through the security checkpoint to get FOOD. I had never tasted McD breakfast as tasty as that one. The coffee was still bad though. By that time, I had been awaked for more than 24 hours straight (minus an hour or so nap on the bus).

So, we hung out at the McD after our breakfast, and waited for Mel! She got there around 6.30am. She had breakfast too and then, we went shopping for stuff at the duty free shop. The price was just reasonable. So, I didn't buy anything, and decided to buy them on board. All but 2 flights were canceled, one Cathay Pacific to HK flight and the other is British Airways to London flight. So, the terminal was pretty empty most of the time.

There was a minor delay at JFK because it took them more time to clear the runway and also to de-ice the plane. It was delayed for about 1.5 hours. It was a long flight... How long? 16 hours + long. Given that I always have a hard time sleeping on the plane. The 16 hours was hard to kill. I saw 2 movies (law abiding citizen & cloudy with a chance of meatballs) and gave up on 2 other movies (surrogate & district 9). Spent a couple of hours studying (Materiality, Preamble, and yada yada yada on Statement of Actuarial Opinion...) and 3 1 hour+ naps. The food was OK, but I particularly enjoyed the instant noodles. I guessed I was really hungry and also it had been quite a long time since I had instant noodles. I want to say, it must have been more than 2 years, closer to 3 years since I last had instant noodles.

We reached HK at about 3.50pm (more than an hour later than scheduled.) We were hoping that the plane that we were supposed to be on was delayed, hoping that many of us who were on the plane from JFK were going to be on the connection to Kuala Lumpur. And indeed, there were more than 30 of us. So, they held up the plane for more than an hour for us!!! While walking to the very end of the plane to our seats, we saw quite many unhappy faces. Even more so when we had to 'kick' the people who were occupying our seats . People, really, please follow your allocated seat.

We reached KLIA about an hour late at around 8pm. After clearing the immigration and finally collected my luggage, I met up with my dad outside, and my brother waiting in the car. I saw my friend Laura at the airport as well! The weather was crazy hot and humid. It's bad for your body to jump out from a freezer (it's way sub freezing in Boston, MA) into a sauna steam room (35C/95+F and 100% humidity here). I finally got home at about 9.45pm. So, from door-to-door, it took me a good 36 hours and 45 minutes to get home. How fun!

I'll write up a separate post on the food I've had so far. :-)

Making an assumption that...

2010-02-07T23:10:00.003-05:00

you are smart...

http://toughguide.blogspot.com/2010/01/5-mistakes-smart-people-make.html

I was only skimming this, but think that it's good and relevant. Enjoy!

Quote of the Day!

2010-02-05T07:41:00.002-05:00

"Due to the "proration provision" of the 1986 Tax Reform, tax exempt income
is not completely tax exempt for insurers. "

Cold... So cold

2010-01-30T22:50:00.003-05:00

The month of January just went by like that. Everything was like a blur to me now. I wanted to post quite some thoughts, but it's all so blurry, and no longer seems that significant now. So, guess I'm not gonna waste words on them.

While work's been getting most of my attention at the moment, studying is definitely getting more and more of my attention apart from work.
My daily drill (weekdays): Study 6am - 8am (+1 or 2 hours of study time), work til 5/6pm. Gym for a 3-mile run. Study 9 - 10+pm... Repeat...

Also, in other news, I'm looking. Been thinking about doing so for awhile now. You know, it's been 1.5 years out of college, and things are settling down. Given the current situation, I think it's a good time for me to be looking. So, you guys have any good recommendations, please send it my way. Of course, I want one that's close by so that I don't have to deal with the long distance, which can be stressful in the long run. At first, I was only looking online, then my colleagues told me that I should get some outside help. So, I did. Make a phone call, and we met once for a few hours and it was insightful. Oh wait, I wasn't crystal clear in saying what I'm looking. I'm looking to buy my first place. I want it to be somewhere close to work, and I met up with a realtor couple weeks ago after searching online to see what's available in the area. LOL!

For some reasons, this month, I did quite a few things that's out of my box. Last week, I went to a concert with a couple of colleagues. It was Skillet, Puddle of Mudd and Shinedown. We went to the House of Blues Boston for the concert after work last Tuesday. It was certainly fun.

Then, this morning, I went to ice fish with my colleagues. It was bad timing as today was cold. The temperature, without considering the windchill was at 0 degree Fahrenheit (-18 Celsius). The whole experience was great. We had some grilling, chatted a little while waiting for the fish to take our baits, and played football. We caught five fishes, and released them though all of them were keep-able (more than 12 inches in length). I would definitely go again because it was fun. Hopefully, it's not that cold the next time.
Not me...
The drill... The ice was about 1-foot thick...
Me with a bait...
Flag UP --> There's a bite!
Here fishy fishy!

An update...

2009-12-18T17:33:00.000-05:00

Seems like I'm slacking more and more when it comes to updating my blog. I think it's my fault of setting a really low target of updating it once a month at least. Even that, I think I'm barely meeting the minimum. Oh well, I'll try to make up for the lack of frequency with severity. So, I'll try to write a long one here.

Thanksgiving came and I didn't travel to Richmond, VA like I did last year. I didn't spend much on Black Friday either. I bought a shoe rack, a couple sets of tools and a vacuum cleaner. I'm so proud of myself for not succumbing to all the 'temptations'. What I did over the long weekend was just eating, drinking, watching tv and reading. How relaxing!

Can't believe it's December already! Well... in less than 3 weeks, I'll be done for the year. I'll be heading down to VA to celebrate Christmas and New Year. On the way back from VA, I'll be stopping in NY to attend my cousin's wedding dinner. Maybe even stay a day or two in NYC. :-)
However, that translates into slightly longer work hours, just to make sure I can get my stuff done before I take my vacation for the year.

(Took another week off here...)
Last week, in separate visits to stores and Amazon.com (thanks Trent for hooking me up with Amazon Prime!), my Christmas shopping's done. I still need to wrap them up, most probably will do that while watching football tomorrow.

Anyway, just found out that I PASSED CAS 6!!! So, 6 downs, 3 more to go.

I've been reading more, as some of you might be able to tell with those quotes and all. Currently, I'm reading Super Crunchers by Ian Ayres. Hopefully to be able to get a few more books in before I start studying for CAS 7. Given CAS 7's reputation (most material among all CAS exams), I'm pretty sure I'll be spending much more time preparing for the exam. Also, given it's the exam to ACAS, a lot more is at stake. :-)

So, working on Monday, and I'll be done for the year! I've said 'time flies' too many times now, but really, it certainly does. In less than 2 weeks, we will be entering the year of 2010. That's mind boggling!

Again, it's been an amazing year. Just want to take this opportunity to thank all of you who have supported me in any way.

Wishing all of you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! Enjoy this video by Straight No Chaser - an a capella group with their version of 12 Days of Christmas

Another quote...

2009-12-13T18:07:00.002-05:00

Hi guys,

I'm writing another post which isn't a quote, but that's going nowhere at the moment.

So, here's another quote, this time, from Superfreakonomics: Global cooling, Patriotic Prostitutes and why Suicide Bombers should Buy Life Insurance by Steven Levitt & Stephen Dubner.

"Who among us wants to describe ourselves as "typical"? If, for instance, you added up all the women and men on the planet, you would find that, on average, the typical adult human being has one breast and one testicle - and yet how many people fit that description?

That's why I read...

2009-11-27T08:51:00.002-05:00

Lifted from Thomas Friedman's "Hot, Flat, and Crowded" (Yes, I started this a year ago, was halfway into it and actuarial exams took over... and a few other books to be blamed.)

"A recent study found the average American golfer walks about 900 miles as year. Another study found American golfers drink, on average, 22 gallons of alcohol a year. That means, on average, American golfers get about 41 miles to the gallon.
Kind of makes you proud.
~From the Internet"

Minesweeper...

2009-11-01T06:56:00.001-05:00

This is hilarious!

Finally, it's over... It's done...

2009-10-29T21:36:00.003-05:00

So, for those that know actuarial reserving, enjoy!

Winter's here..

2009-10-18T16:33:00.003-05:00

Hi guys! Sorry for the long hiatus from updating my blog.

Anyway, I've been around. Just that I didn't have the desire to update this blog. I can't even pin point why the lack of desire but many times I wanted to write something, I just ended up watching some tv shows and forgot about what I wanted to write.

So, enough is enough, instead of watching the tv exclusively, I decided to write this post while watching the tv. Problem solved. Currently, I'm watching the New England Pats kicking the Tennessee Titan's ass, badly. Not sure if it's really the weather, but Titan is just playing so badly that it's not even fun to watch.

Anyway, lately, life's been pretty routine. Work is work, exciting and frustrating at the same time. There's the ups and downs as expected. Other than that, there's the studying. I've been going into office at 6, study til 9/10 for the last 2+ months. Sometimes, there's the additional hour or two at night. So, with all that, the gym sessions are getting less.

Few weeks back, I went to DC for an exam seminar. It was a 5-day seminar, Friday through Tuesday. It was rather rough as I flew down to DC on Friday morning, and flew back on Tuesday afternoon. So, woke up at 2.30am of that Friday, get ready and all, drove to the airport and reaching there at around 4am for my 6am flight. Got into DC at about 7.50am and caught the shuttle that took me to Hyatt Reston, where the seminar was. Everything went smoothly. Checked into my room at lunch. First day was not too bad, other than I had 4 coffee throughout the day. Was too lazy and tired to venture out to get dinner, hence, grabbed dinner at Panera and used their wi-fi to check my work email and stuff, and drop dead at 8.30pm. At first, I was planning to wake up early the next day to go to the gym, but I was just too tired. For the next 3.5 days, it was pretty much breakfast, seminar, lunch, seminar, dinner. Repeat.

It was a good 'break' away from work, and to eat out for dinner every night. But, I'm not sure if that's what I can do all the time (which will be very likely if I decide to pursue a job with in the actuarial consulting line.) Part of me want something like that, to be on the run, fast-pace work kinda life, but a part of me also want something more constant, something that I can return to after work. Yeah, that's what keeping me up at night (not really, but that's what on my mind.)

Also, seems like the weather totally skipped Fall, and it's already Winter. It snowed last Thursday night (Oct 15th) and it's snowing heavily outside at the moment (Oct. 18th). Go figure.

I'll be flying back to Ann Arbor this Friday for the Math Career Conference, recruiting effort for my company. It's gonna be fun, to be able to go back to Ann Arbor since leaving close to 1.5 years ago right after graduation in April 2008. So, will be able to see a bunch of my friends and few professors!

Also, I bought tickets to fly home for CNY next year! Will be home for 2 weeks! That's only 3.5 months away. Excited!

That's all for now! Take care guys!

And i'm counting again...

2009-08-23T12:46:00.003-05:00

This time, is how long it's been since stepping into US for the very first time. Exactly5 years!

5 years ago, a bunch of us left home for US. Come to think about it, it had been a great journey. While I had some rough idea about what to expect when coming to college in the States, there were so many things that happened exceeded what I asked for and then some.

Through the 5 years, I've learned a lot about myself and have made some good and also some questionable decisions that I wished I can reverse. But how one thing leads to another and all really have me thinking that things do happen for a reason.

I guess one can't help but to learn to be independent and to grow and mature when you are alone. And, I like it.

5 years. That's a long time for someone who's not even 25 yet.
Highlight of every year: (I think it's easier for me to look at this in an academic year basis, as compared to calendar year basis).

Freshman year - Traveling to NYC and Washington, DC. That was an amazing experience, as not only it was an eye-opener to visit all the tourist spots, it was also a great trip with good company.
I was also glad that I made the decision to stay back in the States over the Summer as that was when I actually had the more 'real' US college experience, where I stayed in a house with 5 housemates that I didn't know going in, where I went to several parties and where I started working for real.

Sophomore year - Traveling to Florida (Disneyworld and Miami). That was fun too. Started working over the school year. Also, during Spring Break, I volunteered on a farm in TX. It was fun as a group of 10 of us drove down to TX and back. It was a totally different experience as I don't think I've ever work in a farm (milking goat, weeding and planting, and etc).
Went home over the Summer and interned with Accenture. It was a good experience as well. It was good to be home after 2 years.

Junior year - Went to England and Ireland during Spring break. Interned at Hanover Insurance Company. That was another interesting story as the timing was really tight. After my actuarial exam in late May, I went to Midwest games, and then, the next day coming back from the games, I flew out to Massachusetts for the interview for that internship position. And, at the end of the month, I got the offer. Between then and the starting date (June 12th, 2007), I needed to settle my housing over the Summer in Worcester, MA and also, to purchase a car, so that I can drive out there for the job. It was quite a feeling to be making so many big decisions and boy, my parents were worried. As I didn't have the chance to drive much while I was back home, I wasn't an experienced driver, even for a young driver's standard. So, the whole driver half way across the country alone idea didn't boil well with my parents.

Senior year - Well. I took less classes. Accepted the offer from Hanover. Went to Yosemite National Park, drove through Death Valley, then Grand Canyon, last but not least Las Vegas. Taught an exam preparation class. Graduated in April. Dad came for graduation and stayed for a couple of months.

First year out of college - Started my job on 2nd of June. It's been more than 14 months, and I still like the challenge from my job. That plus studying for exam really keeps me busy. Ran my first marathon last October. Initially planned to run 2 marathons this year, but injured my calf in June, and had to stop running for close to 2 months. Started running again though my calf still not at 100%, hopefully, I can increase my mileage enough to run a half marathon in Hartford come 10th of October. Took 2 weeks off and went home for Chinese New Year, while the journey home was long, it's been 5 years since I was home for CNY, so, it was all worth it. But, I will definitely try not to fly with Northwest Airlines (at least for international flights).

So, I'm like doing a summary of what happened for the last five years. But well, life's getting a little routine lately, not a bad thing, but it is not easy to blog about it. So, that's all for now.

4th of July Weekend...

2009-07-05T19:44:00.011-05:00

Last year, I celebrated 4th of July weekend with family in Richmond, VA. Can't believe it had been a year.

This year, the weekend wasn't plan until last week, when I met up with Teck Hua for dinner and Transformers, where we bounced the idea around of going up North. After asking a few more friends and getting suggestions and recommendations all around, we decided to go to Acadia National Park, ME. And it wasn't until late Wednesday night when we started looking up rooms and booked a motel room at the very last second. So, the plan is: May Ying will take a bus from NYC Friday early morning to Boston, we will pick her up, lunch, then drive to Bar Harbor, ME.

I was running a little late on Friday morning (there was a line at the ATM and I needed to get gas). So, I was 20 minutes late picking up Teck Hua, and then May Ying waited at the bus station for a good 20 minutes. I'm sorry!

So, we had lunch at Chinatown. The serving was huge. I had salted fish fried rice, May Ying ordered a bowl of noodles, and TH a bowl of porridge. We sorta split the dishes 'family-style'. The food was pretty good. Anyway, we left Boston Chinatown at about 1pm for Bar Harbor, ME.

The traffic wasn't bad at all, there was a section where it was slightly congested, for a short period of 20-30 minutes, and that was it. From one of our emails, Mel (the poor thing that got too excited about the trip and had a gastric attack earlier in the week and decided to bail out) mentioned those 'cute little towns' in Maine. So, we decided to punch in 'shortest route' instead of 'fastest route' into our GPS and the it took us through some rather interesting towns and little roads. We stopped by a souvenir shop and also a strawberry stand. We were told that Maine strawberries are really sweet, but, the ones that we ate were rather sour. But it was really flavorful though. I bought a jar of strawberries jam, and we shall find out.

So, we continue our journey by the back roads, and it was a good while before I decided that it was the same 'cute little towns' scenery that I grew tired of and decided to go for the fastest route to our destination. We reached The Villager Motel, smacked right in the middle of Bar Harbor, ME at 15 minutes past 6. We checked in, walked to the information center to get some answers and maps, and then it's time for dinner. For dinner, it was planned well before hand that we will be going to my friend, David's family seafood restaurant, Lobster Pot in Ellsworth, ME. The dinner was amazing.
(I had a lobster pie dinner, TH got a surf and turf, MY got a lobster dinner), and I was able to catch up with David too. Awesome! Thanks!

After dinner, we drove back to Bar Harbor. We drove up to Cadillac Mountain, hoping that we will be able to see night sky with stars, but it was really foggy and the drive up was rather dangerous. It was so foggy that we could barely see the Moon. So, we decided to call it a night and to wake up early the next morning for the sunrise. As it's the Summer right now, waking up for the sunrise means waking up at 4ish. We woke up at 4am and got to Cadillac Mountain again at 4.45am. We were there, and saw about 5-6 other cars up there. It was even foggier than the night before. So, we were shit outta luck. We walked along some easy trails and took some pictures, and left at 6.30am. On the way down, we saw the Sun being way up high, and as it was still foggy, it was still kinda nice and we took some pictures then. Then, we went back to our room, changed and packed and checked out of our room. We rented bikes for the day, and it was fun. We decided not to stick around downtown for the parade and other activities as we were thinking that we woulda enjoyed the biking more.

Fortunately, the weather held up, so we were able to enjoy the entire day. We biked along the main carriage trail/road (about 22 miles long) and it was a great way to enjoy the nature. The ponds/lakes, the greens... it was just great to be so close to 'pristine' nature. We stopped at the Jordan Pond house for lunch, where I had a lobster quiche lunch.

We were able to sit on the lawn and enjoy the amazing view by the pond.
This is the scene.
Pictures from the other side of Jordan Pond.
We are not the only one enjoying the view...

So, the biking was from 8am til 1.30pm. We then went to the Bar Island.
It's a rather interesting geographical formation, where during the low tides, we can walk to Bar Island without getting wet, and while during high tides, you might have to swim a lil. Walking towards the Bar Island...
On the Bar Island, looking back.
It was interesting to step on those wet rocks that's covered in barnacles that clicks all the time.

We returned our bikes, bought some souvenirs, and then, we went to the Sand Beach.
What's interesting about the Sand Beach is, all the other beaches are rock beaches, and you guess it, Sand Beach is actually a sand beach. The water was rather cold.

From there, we hiked to Thunder Hole, where we are on high rock cliff right by the sea, watching the tides crashing into the rocks.View from Thunder Hole.
A picture of downtown Bar Harbor. A rather small town, where everyone's friendly and nice.
We decided not to wait for the fireworks as the weather were getting iffy, and staying for the fireworks at 9 would mean we would be driving back to MA really late. So, we left Bar Harbor, ME at 5pm, and we went to this winery that's on the way back, and tasted some wines, bought a few bottles, and left for Boston.

Got back to Boston at about 11.30pm, back to my apartment at about 12.30am. The next morning, I met up with them at 8.30am, and I was dead right on time this morning. We had dim sum for breakfast, and MY took the bus back to NYC.

So, while it was a short trip, it was a rather fun one. Thanks for the company and everything else.

Some updates!

2009-06-29T22:05:00.004-05:00

I'll try to do this in as little words as possible.
Last weekend, saw Transformers 2, or Transformer: Revenge of the Fallen. I enjoyed it a lot. Explosions, computer graphics, car-chasing scenes and Megan Fox. Sometimes, it's really enjoyable to just be able to watch a movie without having to think much... Call it low brow, but, I enjoyed myself.

I injured my leg running a couple weeks back. It's healing slowly, but it's getting there... So, I can walk fine, but just can't run... my right calf still can't handle much impact yet. On a somewhat related not, a new wall-climbing gym just open for business a month or two ago. It's really close to my workplace and a bunch of us go there weekly. After a couple of climbs, I decided that I like it, like it enough to buy my own gears... so, I have my climbing shoes... and also a complete set of indoor climbing gear... Harness, carabiner, belaying device (ATC), chalk bag....

On a totally unrelated note. I was sorta on a spending mood last weekend, and my friend commented that the walls on my apartment need some love, some personal touch... So, i decided to pick up a few frames and hang up some pictures... So, below are some pictures in pictures...

I love this picture of me staring into the great Grand Canyon...

Some pictures of Michigan... ~~the Union on the right, and the bell tower on the left~~
the Union on the left and the bell tower on the right.

So, yeah, I'm liking it... it seems more homely now... guess i might pick up a few more frames and do something more about it...

And another note. I passed exam 5. :-)

Too much TV...

2009-06-21T08:35:00.002-05:00

So, I've been watching way too much television shows lately. So, most sports ended last week (NBA, NHL), and I don't really watch baseball as there are just way too many games played every season. But, instead of spending less time in front of the screen, I'm just spending the hours watching new shows and movies.

Finally, I'm actually utilizing my netflix subscription to its potential. To give you a sense of how much TV shows I watched, last weekend, I saw 5 movies and countless more hours of HGTV and Food Network shows.

This weekend, I saw 2 more movies and more than 5 hours of HGTV. And on top of that, all 7 episodes of season 13 of South Park. I think I missed the entire season 12 as well. But, that's too much to catch up this weekend. Maybe next weekend.

Also, started watching a new drama series Leverage. Interesting so far.

I partly blame my watching more TV on my injured right leg. I still can't run on it. Walking is fine, but I soon as I put more weight on it, my right calf aches... I'll give it another week, if it doesn't heal completely, I'll have to seek for some treatment. Absolutely not what I want to do.

Other than watching tv, there's also more cooking and baking going on around here. I baked another sheet of brownies again today. This time, instead of marshmallow creme and chocolate frosting, it's butterscotch, peanut butter and semi-sweet chocolate chip morsels as toppings. It got a little messy as I tried to cut it before it's fully cooled down (thinking that it will be hard to cut it once it's cooled and the topping hardened). But I like this week's brownies better as it's even richer with all those morsels.

How much...?

2009-06-14T08:22:00.002-05:00

So, my obsession with numbers/counting continues... So, it's been a slightly more than a year since I moved into this apartment. And, I just renewed my contract to stay in the same place for another year. Guess, I'll try to save up some money and see what's next. Maybe I might decide to move into my own place next year. Maybe I might decide to move to another apartment next year.

So, in a year, I used about 1 liter of cooking oil. What else?
4 tubes of toothpaste,
4 toothbrushes,
48 rolls of toilet paper,
7 rolls of paper towel,
250 sandwich bags,
6 boxes of facial tissue,
300 bags of teabag,
4lbs of brown sugar,
...

Anyway, I wanted to start studying this weekend, but instead, I decided to procrastinate a little longer. To effectively do so, other than watching movies and sporting events, I came up with something even more creative. That is, to make brownies... (inspired by my manager a month back as a pick me up for us who were studying and a colleague who brought brownies in a couple weeks back,).

So, it turned out really well, much better than I expected.
The ingredients... Baking spray, marshmallow creme, chocolate fudge frosting, chocolate fudge brownie mix (not in the picture: a pinch of salt (even though it's not mentioned in the instruction, I was told by my mom that you need salt for whatever you cook/bake...), 2 eggs and 1/3 cup of cooking oil (which pretty much finished that liter of cooking oil).

Mix the ingredient and spread them onto a baking tray...
350 degrees and 29 minutes later... this is the semi-finished product... well, semi-finished because I decided to go fancy than just plain brownie...20 minutes later, when it's cooled down, I spread a thin layer of marshmallow breme on it.
Then, I add some chocolate fudge frosting onto it, spreading it with a butter knife in a circular motion to give that swirling effect...
To give it some room to be cut into slices, I took away about half an inch from the side so that I can have some sliding room for those cut slices so that they are well separated (also, so that I can eat that half inch that I took away). It came out really much better than what I expected it to be... Must be from all the watching my mom making all the cookies and cakes when I was growing up. Or just because I can follow instructions well... :-)

So, will let you know what my colleagues think tomorrow... Who knows, this might sprawl a bake-off...

Either way, I successfully procrastinated studying.

Out of the cave...

2009-05-16T23:23:00.002-05:00

So... I'm out of my cave... finally, seeing light again. Still a little 'traumatized' by sun light after all this while of hiding in my dark studying...

Now the exam's over, and I refuse to start studying for the next exam until June 1st, knowing myself, I'll procrastinate for two more weeks, so technically, I'll start preparing for it come mid June...

So, what do I do with all my extra time? (Extra time due to my waking up early to study, and can't sleep much, and body clock gotten use to it, and now, i'm waking up at 5am, before my alarm clock goes off.)

Well, there's more TV, there's more leisure reading, and there's this...

Finally, I decided to scramble my 4X4 Rubik's cube...aka Revenge Rubik's Cube yesterday morning...
20 minutes later, I regretted it already...I got one face and the corners down... need to slowly figure out the 'Dedges' and 'Center'...

And not sure if I mentioned this... but my laptop is going crazy, part of me thinks that it's Macrohard's conspiracy of screwing the OS so that people will be forced to use their newer OS... but well, it's been 4 years since I got this laptop, and it's been running 99% of that 4 years, I guess it's time for a new system... And I jumped on a monitor deal, and thinking I'll buy a desktop as my primary computer...

So, the 24" monitor, sitting beside my current laptop... makes my 15.4" laptop looks like a netbook...

So, that's about it... things are getting better... now, i just need to figure out how to sleep longer...

Off to watch Star Trek on IMAX later... heard about all the rave reviews... those battle scenes should be great on IMAX...

One year ago...

2009-05-03T19:28:00.002-05:00

Not sure if it's just me or everything has this thing about counting... days, months, or years... Funny thing is I'm pretty bad when it comes to remembering friends' birthday, but I'm a fan when it comes to tracking dates.

I still remember how I started counting every 23rd when I first started college more than 4 years ago, because that's when I first arrived in the US. It was on the 23rd Aug of 2004. So, for a few years every month, I would pay particular attention to date 23rd. I don't know why but just being able to count and reminisce the days and to think how fast time flies is my thing.

Anyway, life's been busy. And yes, I'm ranting about being busy. Guess as much a workaholic that I am, there's a limit to it.

Been changing from nocturnal to an early-riser... instead of going to bed at 1 and waking up at 6ish, i've been going to bed at 11ish and waking up at 4ish... Not sure how long i'll keep these hours, but will be at least until after my exam on the 13th. The reason for doing so is so that I can get my study hours for the day in before immerse myself in work. I kinda like the change as most of my time after 11pm were wasted surfing the internet and all that. So, might as well going to bed earlier and waking up and going into work earlier to study. More efficient that way it seems. Hopefully my hard work will pay off soon. Else, it's gonna be a dreadful 1 year wait for the exam.

Weather's been getting much warmer. And more rain too. Just 10 more days and I'll have my freedom back. There's so much to do... But I'm pretty sure when my exam is done, I won't be as excited about doing things as I'm now. But hey, all those Summer blockbusters are popping up, and there are so many books to on my shelf... and all those miles to run... I'm planning to run 2 marathons... One in July, and another in October... So, better get those miles in... I've been testing with a new running style, well, just giving more attention to how I'm landing my feet... Instead of pounding the ground with my heel, I'm gonna land on my heel and use more of my forefoot. It's more taxing for my calves but, it's definitely easier on my knees and ankles...

So, just want to drop by and update this blog before people start wondering where the heck I am.

The Assumption Song

2009-03-14T14:47:00.001-05:00

Orion in the sky....

2009-03-05T21:57:00.002-05:00

Growing up, I was fascinated by astronomy. Spaceships, outerspace, the Solar system... (Not Sci-Fi though, so, not really Trekkie or Star Wars fan...) I still remember those few instances where I was stargazing by the beach (those nights on Pulau Langkawi, Pulau Redang...) where I could see thousand of Stars, and even vaguely outlined the Milky Way when I was spending a night camping in Waco, Texas during my Alternative Spring Break trip. It was just mind boggling to imagine how big the Universe is.

Enough of an opening. So, for no apparent reason, I just love the constellation of Orion. I think I first saw it in its majestic entirety during my Freshman winter (Guess light and air pollution in Subang is really bad... and well, cloudy skies back home). My best guess is sometime in October of 2004. I just like the shape of it, how you can picture it, and how the stars form its belt, and the dagger and all that.

Early this week, when walking out from the gym after work, it was dark, and I noticed the constellation of Orion again. Well, it's rather hard to miss if you are under the Northern Hemisphere winter night sky. So, the plain sight of it brought back all those memories while I was in Ann Arbor. It's funny how things like this trigger my mind to think back all those moments.

Oh well. Better cherish this winter constellation before Spring comes...

De-toothed...

2009-02-22T21:11:00.007-05:00

So, my dentist told me that I should get my wisdom teeth extracted as the bottom two are impacted, and since I'm getting two out, might as well get the other top one out to prevent future problems, and the other top one is hidden from sight, beneath the gum and will most likely be hidden forever. So, unless that one starts giving me problem, we will let it be.

I scheduled my wisdom teeth extraction on last Friday, so that I will have the weekend to recover before showing up at work looking like a chipmunk.

Before the surgery last Friday, I had my first consultation end of last year in mid Dec, where I took an 360 degree x-ray, it was rather cool. Then, the surgeon had the talk with me after had me watching a video. I was given the option to be how 'sedated' I want to be during the procedure. I've heard about the drilling and the 'noise' that people talk about so often, and decided to experience it first hand. I got a look from the surgeon when I told him that I want the local anesthetic (instead of sedative with laughing gas, or general anesthesia (being put to sleep)), he told me that probably about 10% of people choose the option I'm choosing. So, I'm all set then.

When my colleagues learned about my brave decision, they thought that I'm some kinda freak, and started describing how horrible the entire experience was for them. How they puked and all that, had bad migraine and what not. I got to admit that I was a little freaked out by them the night before the surgery, second guessing my decision of just having novacaine to numb my mouth and nothing else. But, I guessed that since it's an option on the table, it shouldn't be that bad.

Knowing that I'll be on liquid/semi-liquid diet for a few days after the surgery, I made some preparation the weekend before by buying yogurt, jello, mashed potatoes, and ice cream (gelatto, sorbetto, and stuff). Also, the night before, I soaked some dried mushrooms for the congee I'll be cooking. What else on the menu? Oh yeah, steamed egg (cawanmushi style).

The morning of the surgery was like any other morning, except that I thought I needed to fast, so, I skipped my coffee, but I was so hungry, that I had some munchkins that my manager bought at work. After a half day of work, I left for my surgery at 11.30am, in the middle of a conference call. The weather was frigid, and the wind was blowing strong. Not sure why the weather matters.

After 15 minutes of waiting, I was brought into the surgery room. First I was given few novacaine shots to numb my lips and tongue, and 7-8 minutes later, I was given a few more novacaine shots because my lower lip wasn't numb enough after the first round. And another 7-8 minutes to let the shots to do their work, my lower lip was really really numb by now. So, the surgery began. The bottom two wisdom teeth needed to be broken into two pieces in order to remove them, while the top one was a simple wiggle and pull extraction (in my own terminology).

The whole procedure took about 40 minutes (including the 15 minutes of numbing), and I was done. Just need to come back this following Friday for a post-operation check.

The first day wasn't bad, especially the first 6 hours after the surgery as my lips were still so numb to feel anything. I tried eating jello for lunch, but it was a hilarious sight as my lower lip felt like 5 times its original size, and trying to shove jello into my mouth was like a hit and miss. And to be careful, I just pretty much swallow them straight. Same for the congee I had for dinner. The ice cream and yogurt too.

Oh yeah, I even drove myself to the store to get my prescripted painkiller, and a couple more food items. My apartment-complex-mate cum colleague (due to several misinterpretations, need to clarify that it's the same apartment building, but different unit) noticed that my car was missing when she got back from work and I got a text which reads: Crazy! Where you at?

LOL. And I got many more texts asking about my condition, I even got a call from Keng Yang. He was semi-expecting that I won't be able to speak clearly. Take that! :-p
The pain wasn't bad, it's not really bothering me until I have to eat. And when the painkiller wears off.

So, I spent most of my weekend watching tv and that's about it. I tried studying but, was too distracted.

Here are some pictures...
My drugs - anti-inflammatory and antibiotic.. missing from the picture, Percocet (painkiller)
Ice Cream...
And yogurt...

Jello...
Soaking those dried mushrooms overnight...
Congee... with mushroom and ham...
Steamed eggs with ham...
The plastic bag I got from the surgeon... At least he has a sense of humoUr...

And my swelling isn't that bad. I took my before and after pictures, but it's not really that visible. So, I decided to scrap it.

And... my extracted wisdom teeth... WARNING... There's dried blood on them!!!
The whole one (whitest one) is the one from the top, just the wiggle and pull extraction...
The others are from the bottom, needed to be broken into pieces to be extracted...

So, there you have it... My wisdom teeth extraction...
75% less wise now...

It's been two weeks...

2009-02-14T20:27:00.003-05:00

So, it's been two weeks since I left home for the States again. Wow, that's pretty quick. My tentative plan of going home for CNY next year is probably about 51 weeks ahead. Since it's exactly 1 year from today, Valentine's Day... Oh yeah, Happy Valentine's Day to all...

I've been having some problem with my laptop lately. But, since I'm only using it to surf the internet and check my email, it didn't really bother me all that much. See how long I can survive on this problematic machine, and then, I'll get a new one. I'm not sure if i should get a desktop or a laptop, considering my laptop pretty much sits on my desk 99% of the time, and I don't see myself needing the mobility of a personal laptop after college. So, a desktop, with a huge monitor sounds like a better fit for my needs.

Digressing a little. So, the trip back to the States from home was a little eventful. The 6+ hours layover in Singapore was dreadful. I had 2 huge coffee, and some Sushi to get me through the night. I did manage to study a little, though I'm about 2 weeks behind my study schedule. At the airport, I managed to catch the last 20 minutes of the Man U game, and well, Man U won and topped the table with 1 game in hand. Sweet!

The flight from Singapore to Japan was alright. Because I wanted to set myself to US time, I tried to delay my sleep as much as possible while I was on this flight, making it a 36-hour day. I wasn't too bad, as I can't really sleep much on the plane anyway. One thing that really bothered me, was how rude the stewardess on Northwest Airline acted. They don't have the pleasant smile, not personable, loud, and just miserable. "CHICKEN OR BEEF!?!? CHICKEN OR BEEF!?!?!?" "COFFEE?!" "COFFEE!?" There was this one air stewardess that was just miserable and looked like someone stepped on her tail or something... Cheer up!
Not to mention, the food was terrible, and not to mention no free booze, and the in-flight duty free shopping was lousy, and again, VOD selection was pathetic (or no VOD service for the longest leg of the flights.) Sorry for my ranting, but, that's my last international NWA flights that I'll take.

Not to mention, that one of my checked baggage was somehow sent to Detroit, and took them a day to return that to me. What's worse, they tried to send it to me during workhours, so, I need to have them sent it to my workplace, and it did look funny - me dragging a huge 26" baggage across the hallway to my car after work. And the stuff inside were pretty hammered. Losses: A cup stand, a mug, a bottle of garlic chilli sauce, a bottle of black pepper sauce and cookies. Well, the cookies are still edible, but not really presentable. Next time, I'll just bring those cookies in my carry-on instead.

So, it took me about 3 days to get over jetlag. Longer than usual I must say, maybe I'm really getting old. LOL!!! Not really, just that I got so tired the first day that I pretty much dropped dead at 6pm, after getting back to my apartment from work. I skipped dinner altogether, and woke up at 12 midnight. Sweet! The next day, rolled back my sleeping time another 3 hours, and finally, the 3rd day, back to normal...

With the jetlag, and also, catching up with work, I was finally able to find time to go to the gym on the Saturday, and that's when I found out that I gained 8 freaking pounds over the 2 weeks I was home, plus a week of not going to the gym after coming back from home. 8 freaking pounds... Unbelievable. Last week, I've been running more. It started with 2 3-miler on Monday, one in the morning at 6 before work, and another in the evening after work. Then, one 3-miler before work on Tue, and a 3-miler after work on Wed, then, so-on... a total of 22 mile from Mon-Sat. Depends on the weather, maybe I'll be able to venture outdoor tomorrow. That'll be fun. Need to get rid of those extra pounds asap, and also, to get my mileage up to start training for my next marathon, maybe in June or July. (checking the schedule, hmm... unless i want to fly to west coast or the midwest or the south, don't think there's any marathon in New England area in those months... maybe Aug or Sept or Oct then...)

That's all for now... Too bad that I had quite a lot in my mind during the week, but couldn't find time to post them up here, and by the time I find time, it seems to me that it's not that important or noteworthy anymore. Oh well...

Light bulb...

2009-01-28T10:10:00.002-05:00

This is quite funny... but gets a little tired til the end.

From Jokes.com

"How many lawyers does it take to change a light bulb?

Such number as may be deemed necessary to perform the stated task in a timely and efficient manner within the strictures of the following agreement. Whereas the party of the first part, also known as 'the lawyers' and the party of the second part, also known as 'the light bulb' do hereby agree to a transaction wherein the party of the second part (light bulb) shall be removed from the current position as a result of failure to perform previously agreed upon duties, i.e. the lighting, elucidation, and otherwise illumination of the area ranging from the front (North) door, through the entryway, terminating at an area just through the primary living area, demarcated by the beginning of the carpet, any spillover illumination being at the option of the party of the second part (light bulb) and not required by the aforementioned agreement between the parties. The aforementioned removal transaction shall include, but not be limited to, the following steps:

1. The party of the first part (lawyer) shall, with or without elevation at his option, by means of a chair, step stool, ladder or any other means of elevation, grasp the party of the second part (light bulb) and rotate the party of the second part (light bulb) in a counter clockwise direction, said direction being non-negotiable. Said grasping and rotation of the party of the second part (light bulb) shall be undertaken by the party of the first part (lawyer) to maintain the structural integrity of the party of the second part (light bulb), notwithstanding the aforementioned failure of the party of the second part (light bulb) to perform the customary and agreed upon duties. The foregoing notwithstanding, however, both parties stipulate that structural failure of the party of the second part (light bulb) may be incidental to the aforementioned failure to perform and in such case the party of the first part (lawyer) shall be held blameless for such structural failure insofar as the non-negotiable directional codicil (counter-clockwise) is observed by the party of the first part (lawyer) throughout.

2. Upon reaching a point where the party of the second part (light bulb) becomes separated from the party of the third part ('receptacle'), the party of the first part shall have the option of disposing of the party of the second part (light bulb) in a manner consistent with all applicable state, local, and federal statutes.

3. Once separation and disposal have been achieved, the party of the first part (lawyer) shall have the option of beginning the installation of the party of the fourth part ('new light bulb'). This installation shall occur in a manner consistent with the reverse procedures described in step one of this self same document, being careful to note that the rotation should occur in a clockwise direction, said direction also being non-negotiable and only until the party of the fourth part (new light bulb) becomes snug in the party of the third part (receptacle) and in fact becomes the party of the second part (light bulb).Note: The above described steps may be performed, at the option of the party of the first part (lawyer), by said party of the first part (lawyer), or by his or her heirs and assigns, or by any and all persons authorized by him or her to do so the objective being to produce a level of illumination in the immediate vicinity of the aforementioned front (North) door consistent with maximisation of ingress and revenue for the party of the fifth part, also known as 'The Firm'."

The Year of the Ox

2009-01-27T12:55:00.003-05:00

Happy Chinese New Year! May the Year of Ox will be a Bullish Year to all!

So, Chinese New Year is the biggest holiday for Chinese all around the world. It's the time where families get together, especially for families with members scatter everywhere. Because of the timing of Lunar New Year, normally in late January - late February, which coincides with regular school year in the States, I hadn't been celebrating it with my family. Even though it did coincide with Spring Break at University of Michigan a few years back, the length and cost of the trip made the traveling home for CNY almost impossible (traveling 50-60 hours for a 7-day trip).

Thus, prior to this trip, my last CNY spent with my family was back in 2004. To finally see my relatives after such a long separation was indeed interesting. My cousins, the younger ones, have grown so much; the older ones, well, are 'aging' well. The uncles and aunts, are still so well, uncles and aunts.

Meeting up with high school and college friends are interesting too. So far, I've had one meeting with 3 friends from UMich - Jin Ye, Ren Jie and Safiyyah (still looking forward to our second, bigger meeting this Thursday) and one meeting a bunch of primary & high school friends - too many to list everyone here (another one on Friday). It's interesting how everyone is now doing different things in different places, yet, all it takes is some good old memories to have us all sharing a good laugh again.

Good times...

Did I mention Malaysian food? Well. I've been stuffed every meal and I will be surprised if I didn't gain 5-10 pounds in the 2 weeks I'm home. It's rather unfair for them to use the same sentence to persuade me to finish the leftover of any dishes all the time - "You can't get the same thing in the States." And the hot weather is not helping - I can't go for a good jog under this 30+ degree weather. (Tremayne - take note, it's in Celcius!!!)

So, it's been a great trip home so far. Can't imagine how i'll survive the trip home and then work. Pretty sure I'll be buried under work for a few weeks to come. Happy New Year!

At last...

2009-01-18T10:37:00.003-05:00

After a long journey, I'm finally home. So, I left Boston Logan International Airport at 8am on Friday, Jan 16th.
1st Flight to Minneapolis St. Paul International Airport.
2nd Flight to Narita/Japan International Airport. That's a killer long-haul, close to 13 hours. Left there at 1pm on Friday, Jan 16th.
3rd Flight to Singapore, Changi International Airport. That's the other long one, about 8 hours. Left there at 6.45am on Sunday, Jan 18th. (Saturday was lost in the flight, and in the 13 time zone difference).
4th Flight to KLIA. That's the most ridiculous one, considering the actual flight time was less than 30 minutes. And I waited 6 hours for this flight. Seriously, someone need to introduce a flight between Singapore and KL at 2 in the morning. Looking at the number of people who spent the night in the airport, I bet there's a market for this flight.
Oh yeah, total number of cups of coffee over the entire trip - 5.

Now, more about these flights themselves. First off, Northwest Airlines had a bad reputation when it comes to international flights, and they live up to their reputation. Just to be diplomatic, I should start with something good about Northwest to say. All the flights were actually on time, if not earlier that schedule. Kudos to them on that. BUT, I seriously would rather pay the couple hundred bucks more for, a VOD screen - they didn't have it for the Trans-Pacific flight. And, 2nd, and probably the bigger problem is, they charge for booze. Double no-no. As I can't sleep on the plane, even though I was dead tired (I thought that by pulling an all nighter before the flight will strain me enough to knock me off on the plane - note to self - bad idea). So, even without sleep for the last 27 hours prior to taking my first flight, and through all the series of flight, I might have gotten a total of 5 hours of sleep out of the past 48 hours. Bad...

Next on to the flight food. I didn't expect much to begin with, and they didn't disappoint or amaze me either. At least, they didn't try to achieve too much and fall flat on their face. They just prepare the simplest and blandest food, to provide the carbs one need to survive and be contented about it.

And, need to end on a positive note. Per previously mentioned, there are many challenges that Northwest can work on to improve the quality of their service, they did try to cover all the bases, by meeting all the needs one need to survive the trip. The constant offering of liquids is really a plus. Too bad I was sitting in the middle seat and didn't dare to hydrate myself too much, or I will have to trouble the person sitting next to me to give way everytime I need to go. Another surprising thing was, there weren't any crying babies that chalk up more points for me to consider being a bachelor for life on the plane. So, good job, mommies, or should I be thankful to the babies instead. Or maybe the inventor of the baby pacifier.

So, without a VOD screen for 13 hours, and not able to sleep, I had to resort to my plan B.
Now, I'm pretty confident in solving a Rubik's cube. Just need to fine tune my skills more and be more efficient with my algorithms and I should be able to move on to the 4X4X4 cube.

I read few more pages of the book.

I read a paper on Exposure Bases by Bouska. (Study material for exam 5).

And I solved few more sudokus on my Nintendo DS.

Last but not least...
Food... Malaysia, foodie's paraside. So, my parents and brother Gary picked me up from the airport, and we went to have dim sum for brunch, even before I went home. After that, in the afternoon, I sampled some durian, and for dinner, had Bak Kut Teh. A pretty solid line-up for a first day, and definitely not for the faint-hearted.

And with that, the menu for the next 2 days were already planned. Breakfast - Nasi Lemak, Lunch - paper-wrapped chicken and yong taufoo, Dinner - somewhere in Kajang (not gonna be satay though)...

Nothing has changed much back home. It still gives me the welcoming feeling and, not sure if I was that exhausted or what, but, I had no problem falling asleep in my room at all. And 1 thing is definitely real, the 80+ degree weather (Fahrenheit) is real.

Flying home...

2009-01-16T00:02:00.002-05:00

After a long 2 years and 5 months, I'm flying home again. Come to think about it, this might be the longest time i've been away from home.

Well well well... Can't wait to see what's different and what's still the same. :-)

It's a long journey though. But, I'm prepared. With a book, a couple papers (study material for exam 5), a 3X3 Rubik's cube, Nintendo DS and my iPod shuffle (my 3.5 year old iPod died a couple weeks ago).

Gift and giftcards...

2009-01-11T10:45:00.003-05:00

So, gift giving is a big part of Christmas. Well, at least it seems like it with all the retailers' marketing plot. Since it's only normal to both give and take, there's this chinese saying - li shang wang lai, lai er bu wang, fei li ye? - Translation - To give and receive; if it's only to receive, then, it's rude/impolite... Wow, that rather awkward, but, you get the gist of it.

So, for my trip to Richmond for Christmas, these are the presents. Not bad wrapping huh?

So, back to gift giving. I still remember it's never easy to buy a gift for a person. Those nightmarish trips to the store, trying to buy a birthday gift for friends. It's funny that it's harder to get a gift to the person that you are closer to. Guess is, the closer you are to a person, you have more data to cipher through to get to the perfect gift.

So, the kind-hearted retailers save consumers a ton of time by having gift cards!!!
Gift cards are great!!! Because all you need to know is whether your friends shop at that retail at all. So, say, if he/she drinks coffee, Starbucks giftcard and you are set. (Or maybe Dunkin' Donuts, especially if you are in MA.) If he/she buys electronics or play console/computer games, then Bestbuy. If he/she reads, then, there's Barnes and Noble, Borders, and even Booksamillion. The list can go on and on. So, the picture above shows all the gift cards that I have. Other than Exxon Mobil cash card (got that from my credit card reward points instead), I received all the others as gifts or prizes. So, anti-clockwise - Dunkin' Donuts, Olive Garden, Starbucks, Barnes and Noble, Bestbuy, Exxon Mobil and Booksamillion.

So, what's better than gift cards?

CASH!!! That's how the Chinese do it. No wrapping like you need to wrap presents (I don't consider putting cash into red envelopes and wrapping), No special retail store to redeem your gift card, just cold hard cash. People might say that's not as sincere as choosing the perfect gift. My defense - cash teaches one to manage his/her money. And, with the money, he/she can definitely buy the perfect gift.

D-5... Will be back home for Lunar New Year for 2 weeks!!!

Christmas and New Year break!

2009-01-04T15:32:00.004-05:00

So, I spent Christmas and New Year (because of the inclement weather) in Richmond, VA. The drive down was the usual, mostly smooth until I hit Northern Virginia. I tried using alternative route instead of I-95, but it was still bad. I drove down on Christmas eve, and I guess many people are out for last minute shopping (as the alternative route passed by some strip malls and I saw that all the parking lots were packed.) So, it took me a good 11.5 hours to reach my cousin's place. Started the journey at 6.45am It was snowing/raining when I left my apartment.

As I spent Christmas in Richmond as well last year, but, because I was flying (no luggage room for gifts), and I was still a poor college student, I didn't buy any gifts last time. So, I did sorta double up this year. It was actually kinda fun to Christmas shop. Trying to pair gifts to my cousin, her husband, my niece and all really tested my memory. It got me trying to recall our conversations, my observations from my last few visits and trying to figure out what they will like. It's not so much about the price of it, because they can definitely afford most of the stuff they want, it's more like putting in time and effort to find the perfect gift. This may sound cliche, but, it's the thought that counts. So, after few trips to different malls/shops a couple weeks before Christmas, I finally got all the presents and even wrapped them nicely the weekend before.

As always, my visits to Richmond are always filled with food and drinks. Couple that with festive seasons really spell more food and more wine. Knowing that, I actually bought a case of wine down. (3 of us actually put a huge dent to that case of wine over the break.) So, for Christmas, there's turkey and lamb, then, all the eating out -> Sushi, and then, the visit to Harrisonburg to celebrate my cousin's mother-in-law birthday, there's ham and more... I did manage to put in a run with my cousin-in-law.

So, as my niece loves drawing and crafts, i bought her a colossal craft kit sets, with glass stone painting, friendship bracelet kit, sock puppet kit, stone painting kit and clay shaping kit. I actually can't believe I have some 'touch' in glass stone painting. :-)

Last year, I saw my very first Barbie movie. Well, lightnight struck twice. I saw another one this year. I got to admit that it wasn't as bad as I first imagined. It's actually an adaptation of the play 'A Christmas Carol'. For those who know the play, I was wondering how they actually adapt such a classic play into 'Barbie'ish. I actually saw the play live a week back at the Hanover theater, and then, another one on TV few days ago. It's kinda weird as I had never heard of it, let alone see it before that, and then, in a short span of less than 2 weeks, I've had seen 3 versions of it.

What else? Oh yeah, the new tinkerbell movie, also, Mamma Mia! the movie on dvd.

At first, I was thinking about leaving for MA again on the 30th, but I wasn't feeling too good. I guess it was because of the excessive merrymaking (reads wine drinking) and Rummikub from the night before. So, I postponed my trip to the 31st, not knowing that there was a snow storm brewing in New England. So, I found out about the snow storm warning on 30th afternoon. That's when I decided to spend New Year in Richmond. Well, it was all good. On New Year Eve night, after watching Mamma Mia!, it was about 11ish. Did the Countdown thing in front of the tv, bad champagne (a Chandon - lovely, not too dry) and strawberry to celebrate the new year! May the New Year of 2009 be a better year for all.

Woke up the next morning early to load up my car and all. After breakfast and a little waiting, I hit the road at 10.30am. The traffic was light all the way from Richmond, VA to Shrewsbury, MA. I stopped twice, for food and fuel. And with 30 minutes of stopping, I managed to cover 520 miles in 8 hours (including the stops), putting me traveling at an average speed of 65 mph, or if just average speed of moving, closer to 69 mph.... shhh....!!!

Also, last weekend, I bought a luggage sets and other stuff to start preparing for the trip home. I'm so excited!!! Finally going home again since Aug 2006. And finally be able to celebrate CNY back home (since 2004). Guess things might get a little awkward, but definitely gonna be some good time.

pictures? having hard time with firefox lately... guess i really need to restart it after updating... will try to get few up here...

New Year Resolutions?
I actually do have a few on my list. But, nope, I'm not sharing them here.

Happy New Year!!!

I find this kinda funny...

2009-01-03T11:31:00.001-05:00

"From Jokes.com

Fortune Cookie says...

-- Passionate kiss like spider's web. Soon lead to undoing of fly.

-- Virginity like bubble. One prick, all gone.

-- Man who run in front of car get tired.

-- Man who run behind car get exhausted.

-- Foolish man give wife grand piano. Wise man give wife upright organ.

-- Man who walk thru airport turnstile sideways going to Bangkok.

-- Man with one chopstick go hungry.

-- Man who scratches butt should not bite fingernails.

-- Man who eat many prunes get good run for money.

-- Baseball is wrong -- man with four balls cannot walk.

-- War doesn't determine who is right. War determines who is left.

-- Wife who put husband in doghouse soon find him in cathouse.

"

Frozen...

2008-12-14T23:41:00.000-05:00

The colder the temperature, the worse the situation? Not really.

Last Thursday night, it started raining. The temperature was at about freezing. Wind was blowing. It rained for the whole night, it wasn't pretty but I didn't know it was that bad. I went to bed at about midnight as I was planning to wake up at 5ish and be at my cube at 6ish. As I was pretty sleep deprived for the last few days, I pretty much slept through the night. Even though the rain got even heavier and all (according to my colleagues). So, the next morning, it was still raining rather heavily and everything was just like normal, until I started driving. I saw many tree branches on the road, and one fell right in front of me as I was driving to work. I didn't react in time, and drove over the rather huge bunch of branches. Then, farther down the road, it got worse, a huge tree limb block the entire road and I needed to turn around. And, in December, it's still pitch black at 6.20am.

So, I used an alternative route, thinking that I need to avoid all the smaller roads at all costs. So, big road I chose. And, still some tree limbs managed to block 2 of the 4 lanes, and well, fortunately it was still early, else, the traffic problem could be much worse. So, that's the eventful drive. On my way to work, I saw many fallen trees and all.

When it started to get brighter, it was actually quite a sight, as all the trees are 'frozen', covered by a thin layer of ice. Yup. Ice, not snow. That's why it's so heavy on the tree limbs that so many branches gave in and fell.

Many power lines were down, and consequently, some phone lines and cables... To read more, check out this news article. The street in the third picture was taken just few minutes away from my apartment.
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20081213/D951FQH80.html

So, Friday after work, I went to the bar with my buddies from work. Went to Armsby Abbey,
http://armsbyabbey.com/welcome.html for a good pint. Well, quite a few actually. So, they just tapped some specialty Christmas Belgian Ales, and those stuff are rich, and potent. 3 of them were 10+ % alcohol, and another, unknown as it was aged for 2 years. I had 4 of them and wow. Quite a night.

Yesterday, I went to do some Christmas shopping, and not too bad. I managed to control myself from spending too much on myself.

Thanksgiving Break

2008-12-02T13:57:00.000-05:00

Whenever I've a long drive, I tend to think a lot, if I'm not singing to the tunes blaring on my stereo. So, for my drive down to Richmond, VA and back over the Thanksgiving holiday, more than 1000 miles of tar to cover, I got the chance to reflect on a lot of things. About the future, about my future and all that uncertainties. Fun stuff...

So, in order to clear up my vacation, I took 4 extra days for vacation for this break. So, last Tuesday, I started my journey at about 7.45am. The drive was pretty smooth until I was leaving CT and entering NY. Then, some traffic on the Geo. Washington bridge in NYC. But, the worst was at Northern Virginia (I got stuck here every time... 3 out of 3 times). The traffic was pretty much crawling at 10-20 MPH for 2 hours! So, instead of the 8+ hours, it took me a good 10 hours and 15 minutes to reach my cousin place. Reaching at 6pm.

Also, for this trip, I planned that I'll be reaching Richmond, VA early enough to meet up with my college buddy Quang, before he leave for home for Thanksgiving. So, we met up for dinner. And followed by coffee and pub til late. It was fun to catch up with a Wolverines. I think that was my first time seeing a college buddy since graduating in late April. Can't believe it's been that long.

So, like Thanksgiving should be, I stuffed my face with a lot of food and wine over the break.

Other than eating, I helped out with some Christmas decoration, and also, helped my niece with decorating the gingerbread house. It's a laborious task, even with pre-made icing and ginger bread and candies.

Also, as it was also my cousin's birthday, we went to The Jefferson's in Richmond for dinner. Fortunately, I brought a change of preppy clothes, as it was certainly a place that you need to dress-up for. Even though it says casual, the decorations and the staffs in the restaurant warrant for more than jeans and t-shirt.

Also, we played this board game 'Rummikub' over the holiday. It was like Gin Rummy, but with tiles. The rules are simple, but the possibilities are vast. It's amazing to see how mind clicks and all that. It was so fun, that I decided to order a set and have it for game night with my colleagues once in awhile when we have them.

So... my thoughts... well, it was just a bunch of questions with no certain anwers. I rather not to bore you guys here.

The drive back from Richmond, VA wasn't that bad. Knowing that Sunday after Thanksgiving is the busiest day on the road, I decided to wait til Monday to start my 516.6 miles journey. I left my cousin's place at 9.15 am, and got back to my apartment at 5.50pm. I did hit some office traffic in CT. Oh well, if not, I could have pulled an 8-hour, including 30-minute stopping for coffee and restroom.

Also, with this trip, I managed to try out my ride's full potential. It's rather responsive to the accelerator, and I can get pretty good mileage, close to 30 mpg on average. And with gas prices this low, it's not really that big a factor... but to see the car going 400+ miles on a tank of gas is rather amusing... :-)

Miles and Months later...

2008-11-06T22:51:00.000-05:00

First off... i'll start with some random picture...

While shopping for groceries, while looking for something to spice up my lunch (sandwiches most of the time), I came across Heinz(R) Chili Sauce... Well, I was skeptical at first, but well, other than hopes, what's there to lose right? So, I bought it and tried it, and of course, was disappointed by its spiciness, more like lack thereof.

Then, bought this awhile back, while surfing some shopping sites, I think it was featured on Buy.com, so, I bought a solar-powered charger. Thinking that it would be cool (branding myself as a nerd here) to be green, I gave it a try.
See... It's charging my iPod. The problem is, you need rather strong direct sunlight to actually charge an iPod. If you look at the yellow legal pad beneath the charger, you can actually see the word 'Max Likelihood'... I was studying...

OK... enough of random stuff. So, I was MIA for awhile, mainly for three reasons... First and the biggest reason was I was lazy.

Now that I got that out of the way - 2nd, I was preparing for a marathon, which I did ran two Sundays ago. I finished way outside my target time of 4 hours. I guessed I wasn't fully prepared for it.
Me at the Cape Cod Marathon starting line...
It was a little warmer than I like.
Can you find Waldo?
I mentioned it was Cape Cod Marathon right?
After a long 4 hours and 45 minutes... Me stepping on the time mat... Outslogging a few people in my last few hundred yards...
Warning... gross picture of my blisters...

Too late...
Me wrapped in a 'space blanket' with my medal... :-)

And my third reason... last Monday, I took my 4th actuarial exam (AGAIN)... Exam C/4 ... It was much tougher than the previous ones, and I was a little demoralized, but after comparing with PAK, I'm actually on the higher end of the passing mark. So, hopefully, I'll pass it this time...

That's all for now... Gonna go catch up with movies and books and magazines...

Slating away...

2008-10-18T10:29:00.000-05:00

Well, saw a couple of good articles on Slate.com and thought I would share them. This is not an attempt to post something on my blog for the sake of keeping this alive. Another post will be up shortly, I promise. Even though a promise of an update in a near future on this blog is as good as ... can't think of something smart now, but well, i'll try.

1) http://www.slate.com/id/2202303/pagenum/all/#page_start
"Why Humans are so quick to take offense..."

Quite an interesting read, about well, why humans are so quick to take offense... Some of the examples in there are pretty tasteful.

2) http://www.slate.com/id/2202432/pagenum/all/#page_start
"The 18 things you need for your computer..."

I have 8. How about you?

And my new ride is here!!!

2008-09-21T09:13:00.000-05:00

It's a 2009 Mitsubishi Lancer GTS. And few pictures will do the explanation. :-) I got the gray (my 2nd choice) instead because it would take another month before I can get the blue.

The 'damage' is rather huge. But, it will be awhile before I spend anything on the car. Since the warranty offered is rather generous. But who knows, maybe I'll spend some to accessorize it.

We'll see.

My new ride...

2008-09-14T10:39:00.001-05:00

So, my current car (soon to be my old car) had been giving me some problems lately. For the benefits of people new to my blog, my current car is a 2001 Ford Focus ZTS. Bought it 2nd hand last June. It had 113k miles on it when I purchased it off craigslist. Don't get me wrong. The Focus is not a bad car. It's very economical, but, after a year, and 12k miles later, making it to 125k miles, and it's 7-year-old, if not 8, since you can get a 2001 model in year 2000, so, it's about time.

Oh yeah, the problems? A couple months ago, I had to change the front brakes and all the stuff at 120k miles, set me back a whopping 800 bucks (a stupid move, since I'm trading in 2 months later). Then, few weeks back, the a/c started to give me some noise when I accelerate, and then, the cigarette lighter died (I smoked like a chimney, yeah right! It's for my GPS and other electronic stuff). Then, the best one came last Monday: As the weather is getting colder, my windows are covered with a good layer of dew every morning. So, I powered down my windows before my drive that morning, and 'click-click', my left rear-window ran out of its track, and wouldn't stay shut. And it had been raining a lot lately! To have food wrap covering a window is definitely not a good sight to behold. Figuring all these little fixes will add up to some money, I decided once and for all to get a new car instead.

For those who has yet to find out what my new ride is, i'll make it a teaser, kinda slowly ease into it.

Some hints: It's a new car, it's sporty, it's blue, it's Japanese, and it's setting me back a good 20k. And it has CVT technology. It's unique.

http://auto.howstuffworks.com/cvt.htm

I'm getting the car next week. And the mystery will be revealed!

I'm so excited!

Fully furnished...

2008-09-07T17:24:00.000-05:00

These pictures are kinda long overdue. Took advantage of the tax-free weekend 3 weeks ago, where I went to Ikea to pick up the floor lamp and a sofa bed.

So, here are the two items I picked up from Ikea.

Then, the coffee table, which completes my living room.

What's next? Maybe gonna add some deco as the walls are still stark naked.

The End of the World -- Flash

2008-09-01T18:08:00.001-05:00

Saw this quite a while ago, and just came across it again, thought that some of you might enjoy it. So, here it is.

The End of the World

Reputation... and Image and Sportsmanship?

2008-08-17T23:33:00.001-05:00

So, Olympics Games is well on its way. Athletes are breaking records like mindless rules, they are just proving mankind is getting stronger, faster and better, at least physically. However, of all the things that happened, one thing came to my mind - how important reputation and image of a person/country is.

First, a day after the opening ceremony, it was revealed that some of the fireworks TV audience saw were actually faked. It was added using computer graphics. For me, that was acceptable, as fireworks, not being at the location, be it CGI or real, was not that big a deal. Then, a couple of days after the opening ceremony, it was revealed that the child singer at the greatest opening event yet in recent history was actually miming. That was still not the shocker. The knockout punch was the reason the girl that sang with such beautiful voice was removed from the front. She wasn't cute enough. What makes it worse was, some of the comments were along the line that, it was a shameful act, now, foreigners will think that we can't find a young singer with a perfect look and a perfect voice.

Now, for me, that's wrong. Very wrong. It was a shameful act because it was the wrong thing to do. In my opinion, that's a very wrong message for the organizer/country to be sending to the world. The very same logic that size-zero models are portraying that being anorexic was the way to go. A child singer shouldn't be judged by her look. Scrap that. A singer, be it young or old, shouldn't be judged by his/her look. They are singer, not looker.

To be continued...

Continuing...
Where was I?

Then, there's the whole Chinese gymnasts age issue. No doubt that these gymnasts are great. However, did they meet the minimum age requirement? I don't know for sure. But, some of them really don't look 16. And, I'm not comparing a 16-year-old Asian to a 16-year-old American. I think I have yet to experiencing so much changes that I can't tell a 16-year-old Asian from a 16-year-old Asian. And, even though there's passport as proof of their age, I still have my reservation. Why? Again, I don't have something against China, but, just that their reputation in something still lingers. That's why, reputation is very important. Once you lose it, good luck gaining it back.

Really. As I was watching the closing ceremony, when the fireworks were all magnificent. I can't help but wonder: Any CGI this time around? What's not "real"? Call me skeptical, but, I was just being myself. Once 'bitten'.

And sportsmanship? While watching all the games, I can't help but wonder, how do one differentiate professionalism and sportsmanship? On one hand, looking at all the professional athletes, some of them 'cheat' - well, at least didn't admit the wrong call from the umpire when the decision was for their favor. It's understandable that in a competitive game, one would just keep quiet and let the umpire's decision stand. But, is this what Olympics games promote? Sportsmanship? Professionalism? I can't help but wonder.

These past 2 weeks had been great. I enjoyed watching all the different games, and witnessing all the records being shattered, and all. Even though I did sacrificed some sleep and study time. Kudos to China for being topping the medal tally (if you are like the rest of the world, that look at the number of Gold medals won). Kudos to USA for winning the most number of medals (that's how the US count). I do hope that all these strong contingents will try to put in more effort in their not-so-strong events, or else, the Olympic Games will be killed, by different countries dominating different sports.

London 2012... I'll definitely try to make my way there! Tremayne, if you are reading this, you better stay in London til at least Summer of 2012. :)

Chicago? Tokyo? Madrid? Rio de Janeiro? for Summer Olympic 2016? Who knows? Will be wonderful if it's in Chicago. But that's 8 years down the road.

Annoying ads...

2008-08-11T19:26:00.000-05:00

You got to read this. It's more hilarious for those who are fortunate to have seen these commercials.

http://www.slate.com/id/2197146

Worst of the worst gotta be the ICan Health insurance.

Game on...

2008-08-10T23:56:00.000-05:00

Well, what's bigger than the Olympic Games? Nothing. However, the start of the Olympic Games Beijing 2008, at least to the TV audience of the United States was a bummer because, in order to maximize their TV ads money, NBC decided to delay the telecast of the Olympic opening ceremony by 12 hours in order to show it during primetime. So, it's all about the money. What's next? Breaking news only available during primetime?

The opening ceremony was the greatest ever. No doubt about it. However, I found it to be a little overkill. In my opinion, it was too much, too condensed. It was a great effort to showcase everything, from Chinese culture, to Chinese history and more in a short 3-4 hours. The ceremony did show the world one thing, number counts. The sheer number of performers was mind-boggling.

So, over the last 3 days, a lot of my time was spent in front of the TV, at least, with the TV turned to the Olympic channels, even when I was not watching. Also, preseason NFL started last week. And, just today, the Community Shield of EPL was played. So, all the sports games are coming back as well.

By the end of the month, College Football will be back as well, and it'll be all eyes on how Rich Rodriguez will do as the expensive new head coach leads the Michigan Wolverines into unknown territory. Better don't let me down. :)

Also, my colleagues and I decided to give trivia a try, so, every Tuesday, 6 of us will be at a local bar, 'competing' against other teams in answering random questions. Last week was our first time joining the trivia, and we did rather well. We did better than we expected, finishing third to last in field of 10 teams. Hopefully, we will do better this week.

Another article...

2008-08-04T20:11:00.000-05:00

I'm not being lazy, just to copy and paste a link here on the blog, and say that I update my blog. Well, maybe I'm kinda guilty for the lazy part, but, I'm not that lazy. If I were, I could have just don't update my blog. Period.

So, therefore, I'm not lazy.

So, now that we are aware of that. I'll talk about the article.

http://fish.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/08/03/i-am-therefore-i-pollute/

Reading this article reminded me of a not-so-recent conversation, actually, email exchange with my cousin Tomas. It's about how people think that eating locally grown food is better for the environment, because you don't have to spend tons of fossil fuel to transport your food, leaving a huge carbon footprint behind you every time you take a bite. Imagine, instead of having your strawberries delivered and refrigerated for thousand of miles, you eat locally grown fruits, depends when you are, this could be papaya or apple. Fresher, cheaper (might not be true), healthier (locally grown normally means less herbicide, pesticide,... partially true), and smaller carbon footprint? Right? Sounds logical and reasonable.

This might hold true if it's strawberries and strawberries only and if we were before the modernization of modern farming. Don't get me wrong. I do believe that global warming, or more politically correct, climate change, is real. Too real. And, I do think that we are the culprit causing it, or at the very least, accelerating it. So, with all the judging of my character and believe done, we can continue. Modern farming is about efficiency and productivity. Everything, from sunlight, chemicals (all the pesti-herbi-.....cides), water, land use and etc are calculated and maximized to make production as cheap as possible, and to achieve that, as efficient as possible. So, for a lot of food, if you are just talking about carbon footprint, eating locally grown food might leave a bigger carbon footprint than indulging yourself with exotic food, grown in faraway land. How so? Bad planning, more manpower, water wastage, chemical wastage, inefficient land use... the list goes on. Surpising eh?

So, what prompted this conversation with my cousin? I was thinking about getting a new car, and we did talk about the upcoming VW Jetta TDI (Diesel). It boasts great fuel efficiency, close to 40mpg. So, what's the catch? Dirty? NOPE. With current technology, diesel fuel burns really well, and could achieve zero particle emission rating, or something like that. Bottomline is, it's clean. But, it does take more crude oil to obtain 1 gallon of diesel as compare to 1 gallon gasoline. Also, if I were to buy a new car, imagine the energy it takes to produce a new car. Wouldn't it be a better decision to buy a used car, so that the energy takes to produce a new car is saved? Well, that argument is kinda flawed, since, if I were to buy a used car, I would be deterring someone from buying that used car, and that might cause that same someone to buy a new car. So, by proximate cause, I am still the culprit that leaves a gigantic carbon footprint.

Seriously, I can't believe I wrote this post. In short, I'm concerned about what's going on in the world, but, as much as I will try to reduce wastage, I will not go out of my way to do something differently. Call me selfish, call me a hypocrit all you want. But, I'm sticking to my judgement.

I do turn off lights when I leave the room, and most of the other appliances, except my laptop. To put that in picture, my monthly electricity bill is $25. That's including a few days of AC, and all the cooking.

A great article about trolls...

2008-08-02T14:45:00.001-05:00

An article I came across on New York Times. It's about trolls. At first, I thought these people just want attention and enjoy getting the backlash and responses. But, there's more to that, much more.

A rather long article but it's a really good one.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/03/magazine/03trolls-t.html?ex=1375329600&en=b5085d50ee5c65e5&ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink

Edited to include this link: (as it was mentioned in the article, I thought it might be better to give you guys some background about it).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lori_Drew

This is about the incident that caught the attention of the nation, and to have people start questioning the effect of online social-networking sites have on people, especially teens as they have yet to learn and see the world. It's a sad story.

Sunday morning run...

2008-07-27T08:49:00.002-05:00

Running around the neighborhood this morning aimlessly for an hour... Kinda fun...

In the morning... at about 8am, I took this route. I wanted to start earlier, but it was raining rather heavily.

View Larger Map

And then, in the evening, after witness Rafael Nadal lifted another trophy, and Dinara Safina in top form, winning a title, and the rain (again) stopped. I went for another run. My very first 2-run day. This time, I added a little more distance to it.

Just a little 'triangle' to it, where, from Maple St., I ran til the intersection with Main St, and turned onto Main St. and turned at Gage Lane, and back to this morning route, then, back, and on the very end, instead of making a circle at Spruce St, I ran all the way to Main St, and turned around and back in a more direct, but longer way.

View Larger Map

My left ankle is hurting right now, but, nothing to serious. Stretch and ice a little should do the job. I'm not sure how running 2 runs, instead of one long run will help, there are arguments for and against it. But, I don't think I can sustain this for long. But, it definitely helped piling up the mileage.

This week's mileage : 38 miles. Target for next week: 40 miles.

Simplicity...

2008-07-26T07:28:00.002-05:00

Copy and paste from Daily Yiggles...

AMAZINGLY SIMPLE HOME REMEDIES

1. YOU ONLY NEED TWO TOOLS IN LIFE - WD-40 AND DUCT TAPE.
IF IT DOESN' T MOVE AND SHOULD, USE THE WD-40. IF IT SHOULDN'T MOVE AND DOES,
USE THE DUCT TAPE.

2. IF YOU CAN'T FIX IT WITH A HAMMER, YOU'VE GOT AN ELECTRICAL PROBLEM.

Potpourri

2008-07-20T20:07:00.000-05:00

So, just thought I should be random again and put together a collection of pictures and thoughts.

It's really a small world after all. Like, even though I'm in a rather random place in the States, I can still find Malaysians.

Pictures on totally unrelated stuff.
Cravings... well, it'd been a hot Summer so far.... So, it's only fair to cool down with some ice-cream/sorbet...

The house-warming gift from my cousin. The one that survived the 500+ miles journey.
Also, the care package from my uncle and aunt.

Old and new... Identical model, different color. Bought the new one from Amazon at a much cheaper price than the old one, like 40% of what I paid for the old one. Anyway, I've clocked 450 miles on the old one thus far, so, it's time to ease into the new one.

Been catching quite a number of movies lately as well. Well, actually, just two. Hellboy last weekend, and The Dark Knight yesterday. Both movies were pretty good, of course, with The latter trumping the former. Another movie this coming weekend? Maybe not. I think it's my very first, in 23 years, to go to the cinema on back to back weekends.

More details about yesterday's trip to Boston next time.

About Bees and DRIVING... Lotsa Driving

2008-07-14T21:20:00.000-05:00

So, for my 4th of July weekend, I took an extra day off, on Thurs so that I can enjoy a 4-day weekend. I drove down to Richmond, VA to meet up with my uncle and aunt, who were visiting my cousin.

I thought leaving at 8am will allow me to most of the traffic, but I was half-right. I managed to beat the traffic in New York and most of New Jersey turnpike, but, it was about 3pm, when I was clearing Washington DC. The traffic in Northern Virginia was bad, really bad. I was pretty much crawling at 20-30mph for a good hour. So, my 8.5 to 9-hour drive turned into a 10 and a quarter hours.

It was great to see my uncle and aunt, and of course my cousin, and cousin-in-law and niece. I really enjoy hanging out in Richmond, VA. More like, hanging out with family. Too bad, I was suffering from a minor cold. Started feeling a parch-throat on Wed, stuffy-nose on Thurs, droopy-nose on Fri, and the rest were history... But, that didn't stop me from enjoying all the good food. All the grilling and roasting...

So, the next day, Independence Day, we went to the Botanical Garden. Weather was hot, but, we went there anyway. The garden is of good-size, but well-maintained. The colors were so breathtaking, and just the sight, sound and smell of nature were really overwhelming. And the lunch at the tea-house was great. Amazing food. The Baja beef salad I had was delicious. I took a bunch of pictures, and here there are...
Bees... pretty huge ones...
More of them...
The colors....
Looks artificial sometimes.
Flower... flower... ORCHID-Lah...
More flower... oops, i meant more ORCHID-lah
An interesting-looking orchid. Just like a pitcher-plant.
A giant hibiscus, like the size of a soccer ball.Dragonfly...
The conservatory, reflected upon the lake.
More bees...
And another...
Very last one...

So, that was fun. Then, we had a great dinner on Friday. Always do when I was in Richmond, VA. Always some kinda holiday or celebration. Grilled lamb... seriously...

On Friday night, we planned to watch some fireworks in the city, but, the event was canceled because of bad-weather. And, we drove to the other part of town, more like another town, hope to catch another firework display, but apparently, it was canceled as well. My poor niece was very disappointed, as all the anticipation to her first 'LIVE' firework display was called off.

The next day, we drove up to Washington DC, to attend a cook-out of my cousin-in-law's relative. Well, it was a great party. We spent the night at Westin Hotel, in Arlington, VA. It was a nice hotel. The next day, we drove to Silver Spring, MD for lunch. I found a highly-rated, well-reviewed dim sum place, and true to the words, the food was pretty good. And we waited about an hour for it. Probably, 'value-added' in that sense too.

Then, a good drive back to Shrewsbury, MA from there. We left the restaurant at about 1.30pm, with them heading south to Richmond, VA, while I head North. On paper, it should be 7 hours. But it turned out to be a 11.5 hours monster. Again, the driving through New York was actually not that bad. With my fastlane tag, I managed to skip all the queue of cash-paying drivers. But, the traffic came to a standstill on I-91, right outside of Hartford, CT. Apparently, a fatal accident had occured and the police closed down the highway, and it wasn't 3 hours later that I was able to get out of that. When I google-news the next day, I found out that it wasn't until 6 hours later that the freeway was fully reopened. It was like something I thought would only happen in some movies, where people turned off their car and walked on the highway. But, what can you do?
Looking back...
Looking ahead...
So, I got back to my apartment at about 1.10am. Starving and exhausted, I assembled a quick bite, took a quick shower, and went to bed at about 2.30am. Woke up 4 hours later to go to work...

Did I mention that my house-warming gift from my cousin survive the entire journey. It's a plant. I'll get the picture up soon.

A mix of everything

2008-06-29T09:18:00.000-05:00

So, it's been a long while since I really updated you guys about my new job. Well, not really new since I interned here last summer, and pretty much working on the same role, with many of the same people, and many more new people. The group has grown so much that the size it almost twice it used to be. Really glad that the company is doing well, and I'm on this train.

Anyway, it had been an exciting 4 weeks so far. Many night-outs with the actuarial group, (I guess not many people can imagine that... given that the perception of actuaries are dry and nerdy), but hey, not this group.

Also, in my second week, we had an Olympic game thing, which I got really badly injured. How badly, well, a bruised forehead due to someone running full speed at me while playing dodgeball; a gashed lip, resulted from someone running into me (again) while I was catching a ball while playing kickball and a sore-ankle, from my foot catching too much ground while playing kickball. It took me a good 4 day to fully recovered from the injuries, the worst being the gashed lip, as the cut in my inner lip developed into an ulcer, which, well, made it painful to eat.

Then, on the following Monday, I took my dad to the airport. After 2 months in the States, he's heading back home. Before he came, I wondered how the two of us will be, given that I had not been home for more than 2 years now, closing up on 3. But, it had been great. Traveling with my dad and spending so much time with him doing everything. And, not having to think about what to eat... :P and to have dinner ready on the table everyday by the time I got back from work. All these things. Really want to thank him and my mom for all their sacrifices.

So, it's almost 2 weeks, since dad left for home. I'm surviving and well. Just that I had been having dinner later now, instead of 7, it's 8.30pm. Instead of 2 meat dishes and 1 vegetable dish, I have 1 meat dish and 1 vegetable, and more leftovers. But hey, it's all good.

Running. Somehow, I found a new gush of energy in me to run more lately. Much more. I did 38 miles the other week, with a long 10-mile run. Even though the speed wasn't that impressive, averaging 9-minute mile, I did feel pretty good at the end of the run, and could have ran few more miles to make it a half-marathon. But I think I will do that today. I really hope that with all these training, I will do well in my first marathon, Falmouth Dunkin Donuts Marathon (sorta like an oxymoron there), on October 26th. I hope that I will complete it under 4 hours, hopefully, under 3 hours, 44 minutes and 52 seconds... why that time, so that I can beat Bush.

http://completerunning.com/archives/2007/06/18/famous-celebrity-marathon-runners/

That's rather a tall order, as to run a marathon within that time, I need to run a pace of less than 8:35 minute/mile. I can run 10-mile at this pace. Not sure if I can sustain if for the entire 26.2 mile course. Also, I started doing some interval workout, which is meant to speed-up my running, so, let's see how that will go. Also, I'd been running with my new iPod shuffle, since I won't be able to run with headphones in the marathon, I might need to find a new method to pace myself. But, the Falmouth marathon has one of the most beautiful sceneries for marathon, hopefully, that will help.

http://www.capecodmarathon.com

Next weekend, it's July 4th weekend, and because my uncle and aunt are in Richmond, VA, I'll be driving there (again), and to make it a more worthwhile trip, I'm taking Thursday off, so, it will be a 4-day weekend for me! But, it's about 9-hour drive each way. So, there's a lot of driving.

And, yesterday, I took my car for a good maintenance, expecting a pretty high bill, and they surprised my high-expectation. The damage - $800+. Well, it will be good for awhile. A long while I hope.

Wordle...

2008-06-22T20:01:00.000-05:00

Cool website that I came across - http://wordle.net

Using If by Rudyard Kipling, this is what I got...

First week...

2008-06-08T11:55:00.000-05:00

So, last week was my very first week of work, real work. However, I didn't really feel new or out of place. If anything, I felt really comfortable, and know my way around.

Before that, last Friday, the day the bed was delivered. In the evening, I went to the bar with the whole bunch of them, and had a really good time.

So, don't want to really bore you guys with my work, but, after just a day or orientation and another day of getting my computer and HR paperwork done, I'm pretty much started doing real work, which I actually enjoy and able to get quite some sense of satisfaction. Workaholic. What more can I say?

Also, I rejoined the gym, so I resumed my running 'regime' again, did 4 miles for Monday - Thursday, and 5 miles on Friday.

Got hit by a strong heat wave, and temperature was up in the 90s for yesterday and today. Also, because of the strong heatwave, I didn't go down to Boston either. The heat, and the people (baseball in the afternoon and basketball at night) would have made it an not-so-enjoyable trip. So, will be going there this weekend instead.

More orientation for the next 2 days, and then, on Thursday, gonna have something like an actuarial-olympics game event. Missed it last year by a week when I interned last year. Not gonna miss it this time. It's gonna be a blast!

Did I mention the NYC trip was great? Well, maybe another post.

My Bed is Here!

2008-05-30T13:33:00.001-05:00

The title says it all!

So, long story short, the people screwed up my shipping the first time. I got 2 expensive pillows as a result, and I love my bed!

Goodnite! ZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

A random fact about me...

2008-05-26T11:47:00.000-05:00

So, to accommodate the huge bed that will be here later today, I had to put away my clothes and stuff away. And, I was bored enough to count how many polo, t-shirt and dress shirt.

T-shirt: 50+
Polo: 27
Shirt: 23

Making a total of more than 100. Not something to be proud of, or is it?
Fortunately, I have plenty of closet space. Need another dresser/rack for all my t-shirts and my closet will be PERFECT. Of course, there's still plenty of room for polos and shirts.

And, mind me, there's another closet in guest bedroom. And the coat closet by the living room.

Also, as I'm still procrastinating on getting a futon/sofa bed/couch, and also coffee table, my living room will be pretty bare. Thus, I'll have pictures of my purchases instead.

The "damages" from Wrentham Village Premium Outlets.
My "work" station. Too cluttered. Which reminds me of the quote: a cluttered desk implies a cluttered mind; If that's the case, what's the significance of an empty desk?
New addition to the kitchen: A microwave oven, and a toaster oven.
Also, bought a tv-stand.
Dining table + chairs.
And to show you how bare my living room is.

And it's good to have my own place. Here's a good Bak Kut Teh meal.

Suddenly, I remember-

2008-05-25T00:36:00.000-05:00

this quote by my cousin Tomas - (not an exact quote, but the meaning is still there)

(Situation - while watching a tv commercial of artificial-lime-flavored beer)
"[The world has gone crazy], we put artificial lime flavoring into something we consume, while we put real lime juice into dish detergent we use."

Just want to put this out there.

Also, my apartment is coming along rather well. Now, it's still missing a bed (still sleeping on an air-bed), a coffee table, and a couch/sofa. Went to Wrentham Village Premium Outlets Center this morning to buy some work clothes and presents for bros and mom. Mission accomplished, but I ended buying some 'presents' for myself too. My wallet took a huge damage.

Will head out to hunt for a bed tomorrow. Then, need to break down the boxes in my living room and stuff. Will be going to NYC with daddy on Tues - Thur. Cable guy will be coming Friday to install a HD-DVR box and internet (piggyback on neighbors' now). Then, once that, pictures of my apartment will be up. Also, will be transferring to MA license next Friday afternoon. Then, the following Monday -> first day of work, but well, it's just gonna be orientation and stuff.

If by Rudyard Kipling

2008-05-22T10:39:00.000-05:00

On top of all those other stuff, for my graduation, I got a card from Jessica. It's a really simple card, with the poem, If by Rudyard Kipling. I'm pretty sure all Malaysians, who took SPM after 2001, remember this poem well. It's one of my favorite poems. So meaningful.

[IF]

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you
But make allowance for their doubting too,
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:
If you can dream--and not make dreams your master,
If you can think--and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it all on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings--nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much,
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And--which is more--you'll be a Man, my son!

--Rudyard Kipling

An update since graduation... for real

2008-05-19T22:41:00.000-05:00

I didn't publish many posts since late April, but that doesn't mean that I didn't write many posts. Most of those posts (half-written) are saved as drafts and most likely will remain as draft forever, lost in wasted memory space, stored as 0's and 1's, never to be read (at least that's what I hope). One thing about blogging is, it's rather a spur-of-the-moment thing, if you don't blog about it now, eventually, you will tend to forget a little, and then, you don't feel like publishing it after you wrote it half-heartedly.

So, here I am, late at night, typing this post. A real (in my opinion) post. The reason I'm still up late at this hour is because I had a headache earlier today, took some aspirin and had a nap in the afternoon -> won't fall asleep til much later in the wee hours. So, what's better to do than to update my blog when the air is cold (it's less than 50 degrees outside, and it's late May) and the surrounding is quiet?

About the headache. I think I'd been rather stressed out recently. Well, I always think that I handle my stress well, that's just because I don't show it, and manage to let go of it (at least that's what I think) with a chuckle, a deep breathe and a smile. But, come to think about it, do I really handle my stress well, or I'm just good at hiding it? Come to think about it, maybe it's a good combination/mixture of both. So, back to headache and stress. So, since graduation, I'd been trying to study as much as I could for the exam. Even with all the support and understandings from Jessica, Tomas and my dad, I still couldn't concentrate, partly because I feel bad for them, and I still think it was kinda selfish for me to write the exam, with my dad flying across the globe to come to the states and all. And now, knowing rather well that I didn't do well enough to pass the exam is really adding salt to wound. Ouch!

So, other than a 3-day vacation to Harrisonburg, VA and Charlottesville, VA, I hadn't been enjoying much of my 'freedom' of a fresh graduate. In addition, there's the apartment hunting, and still staying under other's roof stress that I'm feeling. Because of preparing and taking the exam, I didn't have much time to hunt for apartment in Worcester, MA. Fortunately, my colleagues help me on that. Now, I've the furniture hunting stress too.

Living off suitcases and with your car-trunk loaded is no fun too. And, the worse of all is, eating out! Try eating out 80% of the time for close to a month now. There's only that many restaurant and fast-food that one can have before you get sick and tired of them all. To me, eating out is only good once in awhile. Regardless how good is the premium burger, or the panini, or the pho, or the sandwich taste, it's not as good as a simple home-cooked food like simple celery hearts stir-fry, oyster-sauce chicken with potatoes and a simple omelet, all to go with rice.

So, thanks to my colleagues, I found a 2-bedroom apartment for myself. Why a 2 bedroom? Because this apartment doesn't have any of the extraneous amenities like gym, dvd library, tennis court, pool and whatnot, and for that reason, it's cheaper and bigger and more practical that all the 1-bedroom apartment that I found. So, if you need a place to crash if you are in town, once it's furnished (not sure when), just let me know in advance. I'll be moving into the apartment this Wed or Thurs. As much as a planner I am (aka a worry-freak), I started looking for furnitures since Sunday, actually, since 2-3 weeks ago on Craigslist, but didn't find much. So, I've been to Lowe's, the Home Depot, furniture outlet stores, Bed Bath & Beyond, Linen N Things, too many websites to remember, Pier 1 import, Sleepy's, Mattress Giant, BJ's wholesale club (which I'm now a member), Target, Staples, Office Depot and you-name-it. Furniture hunting's been not bad, especially for today, it's rather fruitful as I have quite some KIVs at Pier 1 and bought a set of cookware.

So, that's all the stress. People were telling me furniture hunting is fun, maybe, if you have the money to spend and also don't have a deadline to meet. Deadline being having no real bed to sleep on, and no chairs to sit on, and no table/desk to use.

Also, I can't mention enough how grateful I am to all the people that have helped me over my pre-university and undergraduate life. Also, worth another mentioning, is to Jessica and Tomas for helping me transitioning from graduating to starting my new job. THANK YOU!

So, guess, pictures next! A picture a day, and I'll try to elaborate on that day...
04/25/08 -- Right after Econ commencement. With my dad. In front of the Rackham Graduate School. Bell tower as background!

04/26/08 -- Right after the Actuarial Math Commencement, which was after the Spring Commencement. Congratulations, Class of 2008!

04/27/2008 -- Because of the dinner and then a party last night, I didn't finished packing and didn't start loading the car yesterday night. So, with all the cleaning and packing and loading to do, my dad and I only started our journey to Richmond, VA at 11am, 2 hours later than we initially planned. Here's how my bedroom look after all the cleaning up and stuff. Goodbye Ann Arbor. You'll be missed.

04/28/2008 -- Arrived at my Tomas' and Jessica's, Richmond, VA at about 10.45pm last night. Other than a 25-minute delay, before I decided to turn around and took a different route, because part of I-70 being closed for hazmat cleaning up after a spill, it was a great smooth drive. After a good night sleep, I did some unloading today and getting comfortable in this great house which I'll call home for the next 3 weeks.

04/29/2008 -- A big bird (related to hawk) perched on the very top of the tree beside the house, and shows how bored my dad was. (He took this pic.) LOL!

05/03/2008 -- Weather was great. Went to the park, Deep Run Park. Look at those cute goslings. Then, we went to downtown Richmond, and took the James River boat tour. Pretty interesting and informative.

05/04/2008 -- Cousin threw me a party. THANKS! Beef was great! Beer was better! Then, Jose took us back to his place at Harrisonburg, VA. Where we spent 2 nights there! First night, we tried some really authentic Mexican food for dinner. Also, my dad and I sampled 3 tequilas -> 3 shots each supposedly, but my dad gave me some of his, sangria, wine, and more!

05/05/2008 -- Visited the Luray Caverns. Nice and not smelly like Mulu Cave I visited. No bats!

05/06/2008 -- On the way back to Richmond from Harrisonburg, we stopped by Charlottesville to visit University of Virginia. Of course, I took the opportunity to visit Wooi Yang. Back to Richmond, VA! About 1 week to study for my exam! Yippee!

05/08/2008 -- A doe? Well... it's eating some flowers at my cousin's backyard.

05/11/2008 -- A squirrel got onto the bird-feeder! I was bored! And studying for the exam, and saw this. :)

Just in case...

2008-05-08T10:49:00.000-05:00

Just in case if you are wondering, I'm alive and well. Really well... other than burying myself in tons of papers and accompanying myself with 2 calculators, I'm in great shape! :)

Trying to study as much as I can for the next 6 days, I'll be free again after the 14th of May! Then, I'll be very well on my way to go to and settle in Worcester, MA (as soon as my colleagues find me and apartment! Thanks a bunch guys - don't think any of you will be reading this).

So, yeah, need to go back to my study manual. I'm only online once every few days to check my mails and all. My laptop's been sitting in my backpack for about 2 weeks now, it must be hard for it to be in there for such a long time, after being on virtually 24-7 for about 3 years.

I'll keep you guys posted, with many pictures and fireworks as soon as I got my internet and stuff at my new apartment in MA.

Ciao and good luck to all who will be taking exams and congrats to all who have recently graduated and will be graduating!

Since I'm at Ctrl + C and Ctrl + V

2008-04-12T11:04:00.000-05:00

From Comedy Central...

Things I learned from watching movies:

1. If being chased through town, you can usually take cover in a passing St Patrick's Day parade - at any time of the year.

2. All beds have special L-shaped top sheets that reach up to armpit level on a woman but only waist level on the man lying beside her.

3. All grocery shopping bags contain at least one stick of French bread.

4. Once applied, lipstick will never rub off - even while scuba diving.

5. The ventilation system of any building is a perfect hiding place. No one will ever think of looking for you in there and you can travel to any other part of the building without difficulty.

6. Should you wish to pass yourself off as a German officer, it will not be necessary to speak the language. A German accent will do.

7. The Eiffel Tower can be seen from any window of any building in Paris.

8. A man will show no pain while taking the most ferocious beating but will wince when a woman tries to clean his wounds.

9. When paying for a taxi, never look at your wallet as you take out a note - just grab one at random and hand it over. It will always be the exact fare.

10. If you lose a hand, it will cause the stump of your arm to grow by 15cm.

11. Mothers routinely cook eggs, bacon and waffles for their family every morning, even though the husband and children never have time to eat them.

12. Cars and trucks that crash will almost always burst into flames.

13. A single match will be sufficient to light up a room the size of a football stadium.

14. Medieval peasants had perfect teeth.

15. All single women have a cat.

16. Any person waking from a nightmare will sit bolt upright and pant.

17. One man shooting at 20 men has a better chance of killing them all than 20 men firing at one.

18. Creepy music coming from a graveyard should always be closely investigated.

19. Most people keep a scrapbook of newspaper cuttings - especially if any of their family or friends has died in a strange boating accident.

20. It does not matter if you are heavily outnumbered in a fight involved martial arts - your enemies will wait patiently to attack you one by one by dancing around in a threatening manner until you have knocked out their predecessor.

21. During a very emotional confrontation, instead of facing the person you are speaking to, it is customary to stand behind them and talk to their back.

22. When you turn out the light to go to bed, everything in your room will still be clearly visible, just slightly bluish.

23. Dogs always know who's bad and will naturally bark at them.

24. When they are alone, all foreigners prefer to speak English to each other.

25. Rather than wasting bullets, megalomaniacs prefer to kill their arch-enemies using complicated machinery involving fuses, pulley systems, deadly gases, lasers and man eating sharks that will allow their captives at least 20 minutes to escape.

26. Having a job of any kind will make all fathers forget their son's eighth birthday.

27. Many musical instruments - especially wind instruments and accordions - can be played without moving the fingers.

28. All bombs are fitted with electronic timing devices with large red readouts so you know exactly when they're going to go off.

29. It is always possible to park directly outside the building you are visiting.

30. A detective can only solve a case once he has been suspended from duty.

31. If you decide to start dancing in the street, everyone you bump into will know all the steps.

Read it on Tremayne's blog and stumbled upon on the internet....

2008-04-11T03:13:00.000-05:00

So, I read this on Tremayne's blog and was hit by this again on the internet... so, guess it's only fair for me to post it here.

"Here are the top nine comments made by sports commentators during the 2004 Summer Olympics that they would like to take back:

1. Weightlifting commentator: "This is Gregoriava from Bulgaria. I saw her snatch this morning during her warm up and it was amazing."

2. Dressage commentator: "This is really a lovely horse and I speak from personal experience since I once mounted her mother."

3. Paul Hamm, Gymnast: "I owe a lot to my parents, especially my mother and father."

4. Boxing Analyst: "Sure there have been injuries, and even some deaths in boxing, but none of them really that serious."

5. Softball announcer: "If history repeats itself, I should think we can expect the same thing again."

6. Basketball analyst: "He dribbles a lot and the opposition doesn't like it. In fact you can see it all over their faces."

7. At the r owing medal ceremony: "Ah, isn't that nice, the wife of the IOC president is hugging the cox of the British crew."

8. Soccer commentator: "Julian Dicks is everywhere. It's like they've got eleven Dicks on the field."

9. Tennis commentator: "One of the reasons Andy is playing so well is that, before the final round, his wife takes out his balls and kisses them... Oh my God, what have I just said?""

Skydive

2008-04-06T00:04:00.000-05:00

So, finally, I got a video using blogger. Stupid youtube is acting up on me again! And Northwood III internet connection which is kinda unstable for me is not helping either.

Finally got this up after 3 attempts.

Tandem Skydive!!!

2008-04-05T21:18:00.001-05:00

Well, because I want to do something insane before I graduate, I decided to attempt skydiving. And, to do it, the easiest way is by doing a tandem skydive, where you are attached to a tandem master, and off you go. Not much training, but almost all the same fun, actually, even better since you dropoff at a higher altitude, at 14,000 ft. So, I pitched the idea to my friend last semester, and then, because of the winter season, the idea got shelved, until a week ago, when I sent out a mass email to them and asked who's interested. And, got a positive reply from Ivy right away! Then, Jason too. But, that's all I got. Instead of like 2 carloads of people, we only got 3. But, as we are really determined to go, we decided not to let the lack of number discourage us.

So, after looking at weather forecast and all, we decided to go on a Saturday. And the weather turned out to be amazing. Great spring weather. A little breezy, but a whole lotta sunshine.
I was freaking out.... neh... just kidding.

We left Ann Arbor for Tecumseh (about 30 miles South West) at about 1.30pm. With my newly purchased GPS, I managed to get to this place without any problem. We were surprised to find that many people were there, and most of the people there are experienced skydivers.

So, after signing a bunch of released forms, waiving virtually all my rights, and paid a hefty price tag of $294 ($195 for tandem, $99 for dvd), and watching a video (what we learned from the video was we can still ask for a full refund if we decided not to jump at that point). After the video, a guy showed us generally, what we should do and all. Because all three of us wanted video, and they only have 2 video guys, we were separated into different flights. After a long wait, Ivy and Jason set off, and did their thing. My flight was 2 flights later.
Ivy in her suit.
Jason in his.
And me in MAIZE and BLUE!

So, after a really long wait, it was about 5ish pm, I met my tandem master, Larry. A really experienced tandem master, he's like a big old teddy bear. So, the camera guy, Marshall popped by while I was waiting to put on my skydive suits and all. Did a short video of that. Coincidentally, both my skydive suit and my canopy were of matching Maize & Blue color. How cool is that?

Then, Larry kinda prepped me up, asked me how I want to jump off, how intense I want the whole thing to be. And how I can steer the toggle, how I should land. Most importantly, I needed to arch my hip forward and tilt my head back.

So, soon after that, we were ready to take off. Before I stepped onto the plane, I got harassed by Marshall with the camera again. And again while I'm on the plane, and then, while ascending, Larry pointed out the direction of Ann Arbor, Saline and other places, and also, reminded me about all the things he wants me to do. After a tic tac and a long ascending, it takes quite awhile for the plane to reach 14,000 ft. Right before I was ready to jump, a small accident happened, my goggles' strap broke off while Larry was adjusting it for me. Fortunately, there's a pair of spare on the plane and after a minute of delay, it was time for me to jump.

We did a flip while jumping off the plane, then, managed to hold onto my Marshall's leg, then, some spinning, then, poof, Larry pulled the parachute, and felt a huge jerk. After the parachute was full launched, we did a sharp turn, and then, steer around, practiced landing motions, and then, we landed nicely, right in front of Marshall for him to continue the video capturing and some photo shooting.
No looking back!

Off I go!!!A flip.
And still completing a flip.
Almost there...
After stabilizing with the pilot chute...
There we go...All smiles!
Here's another look.
Holding on to Marshall's foot.
And Larry pulled the plug...
And the jerk!!!
And Marshall was going down much faster.

So that he can take pictures of Larry and I landing...
Descending...
And more...
And almost there...
Slide...

Touchdown...
And AMAZING!!!

We had to wait for about 40 minutes for the DVD to be ready. As we were hungry, we decided to go grab some food. And, relying on my GPS, we found quite a number of fastfood places nearby. At first, I decided on Burger King, but, while turning into BK, I saw a KFC and really wanted KFC instead. So, I drove to KFC instead. The KFC was really shorthanded, with the guy in front of us waited for more than 30 minutes before he get his food. It took about 15 minutes for us to get ours.

Then, after a good ol' KFC meal, we headed back to the dropzone to collect the DVD, and then, back to Ann Arbor.

Overall, it was a great experience, even though it's not as scary and as thrilling as I hope it would be, still, it's quite something. And I can announce to the world that: I went skydiving! So, I'm better than you! Or, as Nike put it, 'My better is better than your better.'

But no, there's more to that than just paying and skydiving. It's more about doing something you really wanted to do. Even though there's some risk, after considering the risk, you are still willing to take the risk and do it. Because, we can't be afraid of doing something risky by not doing it. You can't avoid risk all the time. Assuming some risk will add more spice to your life. Oh yeah, my parents didn't know about this. Think I'm gonna tell them later when I call home. :P

Hopefully I can get the video up here too.

Spring Break 2008...part 3 (Grand Canyon, AZ -> Las Vegas, NV : 02/27/2008 - 02/29/2008)

2008-03-05T21:59:00.001-05:00

Part 3:

Day 6(02/27/2008):

So, the day started early, really early, because we needed to reach the airport at 9ish for Keng Yang's flight at 11.30am flight. Not too bad that the flight's at 11.30am. But too bad that we were 200+ miles away from Las Vegas McCarran International Airport. So, to be safe, very safe, we decided to take off from Grand Canyon, AZ at 4am. YES, 4 AM (Mountain timezone). So, we have more than 6 hours to make sure we make it to the airport with plenty of time to spare.

Also, it was a really cold morning. Checkout the snowflakes on my windshield.

Somehow, we managed to make it in slightly less than 5 hours because we didn't have to stop for anything, other than a little bit of gas. Because of driving, I missed the star-filled skies! As it was there wasn't much light pollution driving from Grand Canyon, AZ to Las Vegas, NV, star gazing must be great, and the sky was clear too. KENG YANG, I blamed you for this. And all this while, you were sleeping at the back. ;-) Just kidding.

So, we made it to the airport at 7.45am. So, it will be too long a wait for our friend, and we were pretty hungry, so we decided to go for breakfast and come back later. At first, we were thinking about some breakfast buffet, then, I remembered most of us have never been to IHOP, so, I decided to go to IHOP instead. And, after some turning around, we found one right next to the hotel we will be staying at for the next 2 nights, Stratosphere. So, after 4/5 cups of coffee, a huge omelet and a stack of pancakes, I'm all recharged. And others too had their stack of pancakes and whatnot, at about 9.30am, we went back to the airport to drop our 'burden' down. Did I mention where he is going? Oh, for a job interview. All the best!
Stratosphere tower.

Driving down Las Vegas Boulevard. MGM Grand.
New York, New York.
Bellagio, with the infamous fountain.

So, after that, we went back to our hotel and try our luck on getting an early check-in. After standing in-line for awhile, (I tried to self-check-in kiosk, but it didn't give me the non-smoking room option); hence, the waiting in-line. So, we got our room at about 11am.
Me, waiting in line.

SWEET! After some rest, we went to check out the casino. It was alright, but I don't like the 2nd-hand smoke. My throat was irritated. The reason we chose this hotel, north of the Las Vegas boulevard, was because of the great price for the promotion I found. Not only it was free 2nd night, there were 2 free show tickets and a bunch of coupons in the package. So, we got tickets for the show at night, and then, a couple of us started playing slots. At first, it was just some random slots that I played, then, I discovered the video poker and that was it, before we knew it, we spent like 3 hours playing it in a trance.

Then, it was about time for us to go to the show. It was American Superstars. A show tributes to some of America's best stars: Elvis Presley(wasn't there for our show), Michael Jackson, Tim McGraw, Rod Steward, Christina Aguilera and Britney Spears, impersonated by some rather talented people. Especially, the Michael Jackson, the moves of the impersonator was amazing. The singing of Christina Aguilera and Tim McGraw impersonators were great too. The Britney Spears' wasn't bad at all. Rod Stewart too was alright.

After that, we decided to walk to Sahara to try out their buffet there because I saw it on an advertisement in the in-flight magazine and it was cheap or something. So, we went. It was like dorm food. (SO, never trust in-flight magazines.)! :P

Then, we went back to our hotel to call it a night. I guessed most of us were so tired that we fell asleep without taking shower. I managed to be the first one among us to fall asleep, quite an achievement for me since I had been having trouble to sleep early and sleep much.

Day 7(02/28/2008):

But, I woke up at 6am, after a shower, I went to play some slots again so that I can accumulate enough points to get a t-shirt. :-P I mean, it's a free t-shirt, and I was only like 10-15 points from getting it. So, $10 later and an hour later, I got the t-shirt. After that, I went to the gym to run off the carbs I'd been piling on from the buffets. And, we were planning to go to a few more buffets before the end of the trip. So, 3 miles later, I went back to our room and others were up and about. We went to the Stratosphere tower as planned. (We got free tickets as hotel guests get to access the tower between 10am - 2pm for free).
Some crazy rides on top of the tower.
View from the top of the tower.

After that, when it was time for lunch, we went out to the central of Las Vegas boulevard, with all the cool hotels and stuff to do all the touristy stuff. From my friends' recommendation, we went to this Japanese Restaurant, Todai for what we considered to be the best buffet of our trip. We enjoyed the sushi and stuff a lot.

The weather was great. Mid 70s in the afternoon.

We concluded that people here loves to read, as most of these magazines racks were empty.

Paris!More of Paris!
And Paris at Night. Viewing from Bellagio.

Then, we walked more. Because of the amount of food we store in our stomach, we were worn off easily. We went back to our hotel for a siesta. Then, Siew Gee and I decided to explore some stuff around Stratosphere. First, because we walked past these aqua-massage machines many times and were tempted by it. So, we finally gave it a try (we had those coupons too). In my opinion, it was not shabby, but, somehow, too noisy for my liking, one suggestion, prolly providing us a pair of headphones with some sort of relaxing music will be great. Then, on the way back, we passed by this oxygen bar, and out of curiosity, and didn't want to go back to our room and rot yet, we decided to give a try as well. The package was a neck and head massage and 30 minutes of inhaling pure oxygen. It was rather corny, having to inhale it through some special tubes, and stuff. Not sure whether it's a psychological effect or physical effect, but I did feel fresher after the session, not to mention $20 poorer, and also, sore from the massage.
From Bellagio, looking to the North of Las Vegas Boulevard.

Poooooofffffffff... The climax of the fountain show. (I had the entire video, but it's 300+ mb, can't seem to get anywhere to host it for me, and I'm too lazy to resize a video.... it takes forever.)
Siew Gee missed her show at Cirque Du Soleil...

Ahhhhhhh!!! The city of Lights...

But, it was rather fun. At night, we went to Bellagio, damn, the hotel was magnificent. We went there for the water fountain show. Then, for some reasons, we decided to walk from there to Excalibur, a good 20-minute walk, with a bunch of Latinos(nothing racist here, but that's who they are...) handing out call-girl cards and promise us a girl in 20 minutes. DAMN, that's even faster than Domino's delivering a pizza. Come on, Domino's, pick up your game.

Luxor... Love the architecture.
So, from Excalibur, we took a tram to Luxor, where we walked around a bit. As we couldn't stomach another buffet (pun intended). We decided to call it a night.

Day 8(02/29/2008):

Last day at Las Vegas, NV. Woke up at 7ish, and went running and soaked up some sun. Well, the weather was great, in the 60-70s. Then, we checked out at about 10.45am from our room, and then, went for the lunch buffet. It was rather good. Ranked 2nd among all the buffets we had on the trip.
Soaking up some sun. That was me.

So, we left for the airport at about 1pm. Because of some rather heavy traffic (Nascar weekend at Vegas I supposed), we arrived at the airport at about 1.30pm. So, for the entire trip, we(I) drove more than 1500 miles. Yup fifteen hundred plus miles.

We were kinda rushed but made it through the security and all for our 3pm flight with 15 minutes to spare. So, I managed to buy a shot glass and a deck of cards as souvenirs. I thing amazes me of this Las Vegas airport is there are slot machines right beside the boarding gates.
Amazing, isn't it?

The flight wasn't bad at all, even though I sat between a huge guy and a big guy. One's a student from U of Michigan - Dearborn, while the other is a Marine on leave, and will be a free man in a month. We had quite a lot to talk about, and it was eye opening to talk to a Marine. Hats off to you, man. He was only a few months older than I am, but, he already served 4 years in the Marines Corp. To make such a huge decision fresh out of high school, and to undergo all the trainings and all. Good man. We talked about a lot of stuff, joked a lot too. And finally, bid each other best of luck once we reach St. Louis, MO. We had a connecting at St. Louis, MO, just a 45 minutes layover.

We reached Ann Arbor at about midnight. Due to the heavy snow storm just before that, the drive back was INSANE. Everybody was going really slow because the condition was extremely bad. I was talking about 25-30 miles/hr slow. And even at that speed, I was having quite some hard time controlling the car. It took us about an hour and a half to drive from the airport to Ann Arbor. Along the way, we saw more than 5 cars skidded off the road, making some 180/270/360 degrees spins. I was so afraid driving, not that I was afraid that I will crash into another car (I was keeping a really safe distance from the car ahead of me), but more so that other cars will rear-end or side-swipe me.

Fortunately, we got back to Ann Arbor without any incident. Got back to my apartment at about 2am. Called home, and called it a night at 3ish. After transferring more than 3Gbs of photos and videos onto my computer.

Overall, it was a great trip! Within my budget, great memories, great companies, and great experience.

What's next? Skiing, skydiving and many more.

Spring Break 2008...part 2 (Yosemite, CA --> Grand Canyon, AZ : 02/24/2008 - 02/26/2008)

2008-03-02T20:51:00.002-05:00

Part 2:

Day 3 (02/24/2008)
So, after another complimentary Continental breakfast, we left Oakhurst, CA for Las Vegas, NV via the Death Valley National Park. Because the famous CA-120 is closed for winter (one of the most scenic driveways in the US), we had to take a rather long detour in order to go to Las Vegas via the Death Valley National Park. According to both Microsoft MapPoint's and Google Map's directions, it was a 10-hour journey. The drive to the Death Valley National Park was rather uneventful, the sceneries were not bad at all. We saw a bunch of wind-turbines (modern windmills) along the way.

For lunch, we stopped at somewhere-I-forgot when we found a Denny's at about 1pm. Breakfast food for lunch is always good. :)Long drive, but this is what we see for most of the drive.

Death Valley National Park is famous for its well below sea level elevation, in fact, it is the lowest elevation in North America at -282 ft. Also, it features the Mojave desert and stuff. We saw some great sand dunes, and drove through dips and stuff. (Sorry, not really that well converse in geology.) Also, Death Valley is also famous for being hot. Really hot in the summer. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_Valley

Also, while driving to/along Death Valley, our GeoSci major friend Keng Yang spotted a horseshoe-vortices cloud formation.
I tagged this photo because it's a rare thing and don't want others to steal it... :P http://www.weatherscapes.com/album.php?cat=clouds&subcat=horseshoe_vortices
Keng Yang couldn't find a pole, so needed to look for a hole to settle his business instead. On his way back after his small business.
Cam-whoring while waiting for Keng Yang dealing is small business.

We continued our journey and reached the Death Valley National Park and found a designated scenic spot. So, we took some pictures, some rather interesting ones. It was rather windy, so I decided to put on my sport jacket.

I suggested (I think I did) people to leap/jump and I'll snap their pictures while they were in mid-air, a much better pose than the usual say-cheese-toothpaste-commercials-smile. So, it was all good when I was taking the pictures, perfect timing for most of them. :P
First, Pei Ying...
Then, who else...
Then, Siew Gee...aka Atsuki
Then, Ren Jie...

Then, when it was my turn to jump, oh my, Keng Yang and Ren Jie really wanted me to have some workout, had me jumping umpteen times, until Pei Ying finally got it on her second try.
Here are the evidences:
Too late...Another one...
Yet another too late...
And another...
And another again...
And another...

FINALLY!!!
Then, the harder group-jump photo. Other tourists must be thinking that we were crazy and all.
Pretty neat huh?

After about 20-minute of admiring the beautiful view of the basin lake, and enjoying strong wind breezing through our hair, we decided to continue our journey.
Because of unclear printed directions, we sorta overshot but managed to claw our way back when we saw a kinda 'unofficial' road sign pointing us to Las Vegas - 86 miles.

~"Country road, take me home, to the place I belong..."

Ren Jie and I decided that it was 'safe' to follow the unmarked, but paved road, as it was leading us to the right directions. It took us to a town, Pahrump, NV, where the highest building of the town is 2-storey tall, and it was ghetto-looking and stuff. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pahrump,_Nevada
Love this picture. Ren Jie!!!
We stopped for gas, and Keng Yang, Pei Ying and Siew Gee almost wandered into a bad-looking bar while looking for the bathroom unknowingly. Luckily we spotted the sign of the bar and Ren Jie warned them just in time. After refueling, we continued our way, and hit the major road of Pahrump and it was much better.

So, after a rest stop, where I got more coffee, the sky was getting darker, and we had about 60 more miles to cover before reaching Las Vegas. As we had to go up and down the mountainous terrain all these while, often going up to elevations of more than 5000ft, it took more than an hour to cover the 60 miles.Elevation 4000 ft...
Sun is setting...

We reached our hotel at almost half-past eight. It's the Monte Carlo Hotel, on the Souther part of Las Vegas Boulevard! Checked in and ka-ching. We were set for the night.
We went to Luxor for dinner buffet. It was not as good as we expected. So, Luxor buffet, a NO-NO. But, we still do pretty well. At least I did, 3 full plates of meat and stuff, a plate with 5 different desserts and some fruits. Not to mention ice-cream and a cup of coffee.

We walked around and stuff, and called it a night, of course. The 3 lightbulbs gave Keng Yang and Pei Ying their own time and space, but asking them to go on their own. The 3 of us pretty much back-track to our hotel room and called it a night after everyone of us had a long shower. Really need to point out that the water pressure was really strong and I really enjoyed the shower. Best shower in a long long time.

We dozed off at about midnight, and the two lovebirds only came back later. Ehem...

Day 4 (02/25/2008):

We woke up slightly later today, at about 7.30am I think, after packing and all, and Siew Gee and I got our Starbucks coffee, we hit the road at about 9am. Next stop, Grand Canyon, AZ!!! Initially, according to our directions, one says it's gonna be 4.5 hours, while the other claims approximately 6 hours.
Crossing Hoover Dam... into the state of Arizona
Also, the weather was great... Some interesting cloud formations.

We did it in about 5 hours. Including a little bit of stopping for informations (maps) and gas. Of course, along the way, the lovebirds were busy dozing off, while the other three of us sang our hearts out to some old tunes we can remember. Fun fun fun! ZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz........

So, we were able to check into our hotel early, at about 1+pm (different time zone, it's Mountain time here). We had a late lunch at a Wendy's nearby, and then, went back to our hotel room for some rest. Before we headed out again for the Grand Canyon National Park for the sunset.We saw snow on our way to Grand Canyon.

So, some pictures of the beautiful Grand Canyon and of course, the sunset.While waiting for the sunset... we took pictures of what else at Grand Canyon....
Magnificent...

Can't believe wherever we went, there were snow.
Group picture...
Staring at ... well, just turning away from the camera man... Keng Yang
How cute...
Quick... guess a professor... You know it, you know it... come on...
Sun setting...
Sun really setting...
Sun really really setting...
Told you so...

How cute... over the shoulder...
On the way back to our car, we saw a couple of rabbits.
Snow at Yosemite and now snow at Grand Canyon. At night, we did nothing much, other than watching tv and playing Big-2. Dominating the game of Big-2 was fun. :P

We went to bed rather early again because we were planning to catch the sunrise the next day.

Day 5(02/26/2008):
So, we woke up at about 6am and left for Grand Canyon National Park at 6.30am. As we checked from weather.com, the sun rise will be at 7.09am. While driving there, just a short 5-mile drive, the sky was kinda bright, and we thought we were gonna miss the sun rise, but apparently not.
Love the color...
This one looks even better... The shading, the color...
And, love the leng chai...
First glimpse of the sun rise...
A couple minutes later...
And later...
And even later...
And by popular demand...
Love the light shone on the lens and created the ray and the refraction.
It was freaking cold, well, relatively. It was still below freezing and the wind was really gusting. But, the sun rise was absolutely amazing, and thanks Siew Gee for sparing me your extra pair of gloves.
Mother nature at her grandness...
Yup... no doubt about that...

After the sun rise, we went back to our hotel for the breakfast. It was rather good breakfast. Bacon, cereals, biscuits and sausage gravy, yogurt, coffee, toast, eggs and stuff. I pretty much stuffed myself with it. Then, after a couple of hours of resting, we went back to Grand Canyon National Park again.
The weather was great, but the temperature was still not warm at all...
There, we did more sight-seeing, drove along the scenic driveway, stopping along the way. Snapping pictures of deers and elks.
~"Doe a deer, a female deer....
A GIANT ELK doing its business... That's our car hood...it's only like 10 ft away from us. And our friend Keng Yang suggested me to honk it. You crazy ar?!?!

And all those stuff. We even had our cute little picnic at the very tip of the South Rim of Grand Canyon.Our picnic spot...
I mean, having a snack while enjoying such breathtaking view... Can't be that...

We did some 'hiking' too. Nothing serious, just about half a mile, until we saw a sign that says where the trail leads to and warnings to people that are unprepared. It was a 9-mile trail that will take us all the way to the Colorado River. Maybe next time, as we said it so many times during the trip, we will come back in the summer. Right, guys?

So, we head back to our room at about 3pm, I think. Bored! I went to check out the swimming pool. Damn, the swimming pool was tiny. One kick off the side and I'm at the other end of the pool. Spent about 30 minutes floating on my back, just relaxing. Then, went back to join others and dominated the game of Big-2 again. Went out for dinner, and then, called it a night even earlier as we will be hitting the road at unearthly hour tomorrow. All for the sake of our friend Keng Yang.

So, that's part III.

Spring Break 2008...part 1 (San Francisco, CA --> Yosemite, CA : 02/22/2008 - 02/24/2008)

2008-03-02T19:17:00.000-05:00

So, the highlight of my semester so far is Spring Break. It's not where I had in mind during winter break, none of those Caribbeans beaches or Spanish cruises, but instead, a trip to San Francisco -> Yosemite National Park -> Las Vegas via Death Valley National Park -> Grand Canyon National Park -> Las Vegas. The trip was great in many ways, the destinations, the company, the price tag, and all the jokes. The company, a couple and 3 very bright ones, as in lightbulbs. (Keng Yang & Pei Ying, Siew Gee, Ren Jie, and I).
My luggage.

Day 1:

Where should I start? From the very beginning. We left on a very cold Friday (02/22/2008). We took the very first AirBus to the airport at 4.30 in the am to catch our 6.30am plane. Well, we took the red-eye because not only it saves us more than $100 a ticket, but also, gives us more time in San Francisco. We flew from DTW to San Francisco, CA via Chicago Midway. The transit flight was delayed for about an hour. We reached San Francisco, CA aka The industrial city at 12+pm, and finally got our rental car at 12.37pm.
One of our(Siew Gee and I) many Starbucks coffee of the trip.
Sleepy heads... how lovely...
LOL... sorry... :P
Arrived at San Francisco International airport.
The weather was great. Sunny and windy.
As I can never sleep much on moving objects, I decided to become the driver of the trip. All 1500+ miles of them. :)
It's a full-size car, (a good choice as we had a lot of driving to do for the next 7 days.) A Chevy Impala.
So, our first stop is San Francisco Chinatown. There, we stopped for food. Good food. Soy-sauce chicken, Roasted duck, Roasted Pork (Siew Yoke) and Barbecue Pork (Char Siew) and Wan ton. Not to mention the complimentary soup. See picture below.
Satisfied...

Also, we bought some pastries for the road. Custard tart aka Egg Tart, custard pie and custard rolls.
It was kinda 'foggy'...

We drove around for awhile to look for a good spot to take the famous San Francisco bridge (the red color one).
Titanic... Jack and Rose... bleuuukkk... almost lost my lunch there... :P
We found a scenic drive route and found a perfect spot.
While we were trying to navigate our way back to our printed directions to start our drive to Yosemite, CA, Keng Yang noticed that we were close to the infamous San Francisco road that's very steep and curvy. Lombard Street. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lombard_Street_(San_Francisco)
We took a video of our drive down the road, but it's pretty high in resolution and stuff, more than 100mb. So, I'll figure out a way to upload it somewhere.
Siew Gee spotted this in downtown San Francisco. Wolverines!!!

Ooops... sleepy heads...
Downtown San Francisco, CA. Californians are pretty bad drivers... :)

Driving in San Francisco is really insane. The slopes. Some roads are at an impossible gradient of 40-50%. I wonder how people walk these slopes. Worst of all, there are stop signs at virtually at every single junction. Even with an automatic car, the car starts to roll backwards. It will be fun to drive a shift stick, to balance the car with the clutch and accelerator pedals.

It's about a 4-hour drive from San Francisco, CA to Yosemite, CA. Because of the office traffic at about 4+pm, it took us a slightly longer time to get there. We reached Yosemite, CA at about 9pm. We had dinner at McD, drive-thru actually, because it closed at 9pm. We called it a night at about 10.30 - 11pm because of a long day tomorrow.

Day 2:
We woke up at 6ish am, went for the complimentary breakfast at 7am. Hit the road at 8am. While filling up gas, a nice guy asked us if we will be visiting Yosemite National Park, well, we looked pretty tourists-like, with my Michigan cap and rental car, we said yes. He asked if we have snow-chain/cables for our tires, and snow boots and all. As, we can see snow-covered at about elevation of about 3000 ft.
The snow-covered peak is 3000ft.
We should expect much more snow at about 5500 ft (Yosemite National Park). So, we asked about where we can get snow cables and got it on the way there. Also, we stopped by the information center to get more brochures and information about the conditions up there. And also, where to stop for pictures and all. At about 9.30am or closer to 10am, we arrived at the entrance of the national park, after purchasing the annual pass, we started our more adventurous drive, and even more so when we were told that we needed to install the snow cables and all.
Yup. This is the kind of snow we were talking about.
Another one. This is at the entrance where we purchased our annual pass.
And we managed to install them by reading the instructions.
Me installing the snow cables...
Installed...
Group pictures in front of Yosemite Valley... The one of the left is the El Capitan rock formation. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Capitan
Better view of El Capitan and the valley.

Dirty and frozen fingers after installing the snow cables

Most people were there for the skiing, but we were there for the sightseeing and 'hiking'.

We reached the top at and finally parked our car at about 11.30am, had our lunch at Degnan's Deli, and then, caught a bus started our real journey in Yosemite National Park.
We hiked quite a lot for people as underprepared as we were. We only sneakers and walking clothes. We hiked about 1-mile to the Mirror Lake, but it was kinda disappointing because, well, there's not much water to reflect the surroundings on water surface.
Mirror Lake... Nice, but not super nice as I was expecting...
On the way to Mirror Lake.
Slightly longer exposed to get the silky water effect.
Then, we hiked for another 1.5 mile to a trail, just to find out that it's closed for winter.

But the sceneries were breathtaking.
Those are real, wild deers. This is a national park, not Disneyland.

Also, we went to the Lower Yosemite Fall, where we took some really nice pictures... :)
Group picture are lower Yosemite Fall
Me at Lower Yosemite Fall. A closer look of the fall.

We hit the road to head back to our hotel at about 4.30pm because it started to get dark, and because weather forecast said that weather was gonna get worse. Snowing and all. We needed to put on snow cables again, and another nice guy helped us to install our cables. So, on the drive down, as it was really snowing heavily, with strong wind gusting, I pretty much drove at 25-30 miles/hr. It was about 6.30pm by the time we reached our hotel. We drove around in Oakhurst, CA downtown to search for food, but to no avail. We did some stocked up on drinks and snacks for the entire trip at a hypermarket. Then, we decided to have dinner at a Chinese restaurant right beside our hotel. Again, we went to bed early, relatively, at about 11pm because of the long journey the next day.

You are what you eat...

2008-02-17T16:58:00.001-05:00

So, some people eat to live; others, live to eat. I'm both. If I'm not lazy, I'm the latter, else, the former.

So, when i'm lazy, it will be sandwiches - egg + cheese + ham or cheese + sausage or frozen pizza + extra cheese (well, topping it up with extra mozzarella really enhances the taste) and pasta + meatballs.

When I'm bothered to cook, it will be something like the pictures you see here.
Croissant...
Barbecue Chicken...
Upclose...
Stir-fried coleslaw... with fried onions + dried shrimps
Tofu with fried onions + pork strips
Pork chop...

Also, something new that I tried, it's called Grapple
It's actually apple, soaked in grape flavorings and whatnot. Initially, I thought it's some kind of cross-breedings between grape and apple, but, nope. It's just Washington apples soaked in grape concentrates. It kinda tastes like grape as claimed.
Also, dark chocolates... The higher percentage of cacao, the better. Here, the Hershey's special dark contains 45%, the Maya Gold, by Green and Black, contains 55% cacao, while the Cacao Reserve by Hershey's contains 65% cacao. Sweet! (more like bitter sweet).
Need i say more...
Also, new additions to my cereal stash. Well. It was on sale, and I wanted to try some of their new flavors. The chocolate flavor is actually pretty nice, as it's not too sweet, like dark chocolate. Among the new flavors, I like the peach the most. The strawberry is not bad either.

Alright... enough about food, also, while I went to take passport pictures for my paperwork stuff, I bought a couple of pictures to decorate my bare walls.

A lot of things happened, but, it's been awhile, and I don't think I want to revisit them here. Next post, will be all about my Spring Break.

Oh woah!!!

2008-01-31T15:44:00.000-05:00

Well... can't find a source for me to embed it, so, you will have to visit this link to watch Cristiano Ronaldo's crazy freekick goal he scored on Wednesday against Portsmouth.

{edit: found one...}

http://www.goalvideoz.com/watch/2067-manchester-united-portsmouth-cristiano-ronaldo-free-kick/

Divide and Conquer

2008-01-29T19:49:00.000-05:00

It's been awhile, and I don't think I did anything particularly interesting for it to be mentioned. So, I'm just gonna share my thoughts in this one.

So, as the title suggests, it's about divide and conquer. How so? Well, as far as I'm concerned, it's about me getting troubled with a bunch of problems related to my time after graduation. About the paperwork of getting a work visa, about traveling after my graduation, about when should I start my work, about where should I stay during the transition month after I graduate and before I start my job.

No doubt that's a lot of problems, and somehow related, but that doesn't mean that I need to solve all of them at once. Hence, that's how the divide and conquer comes into play.

First of all, divide the problems into individuals. Even one problem can be divided into smaller pieces to make it more manageable. So, if you're ever feeling overwhelmed by problems, try to take a step back and look at your problems from a high level. Take a deep breath, get an overview of things and try to tackle it differently. And most probably, you will see a way through all these complicated problems. Then, conquer them.

Also, sometimes, you will find things are not in your favor, where something don't go your way. But, hey, that's life. Not everything is gonna be smooth sailing. What fun will that be if everything is easy (quite fun actually...)? But, you know what I mean. Instead of fussing, whining, complaining, giving up hope, getting discouraged and disappointed (caffeine makes me sound like a thesaurus), why not do what you can at your very best and see how things turn out? For instance, sometimes, doing your best might not be enough to make things sway your way, but, you can't possibly do more, like my potential problem with getting a work visa. So, what can I say? I did my very best, but, that's how it is. You just have to do your part, and hope that things will work out eventually. Also, have a back up plan. If plan A doesn't go your way, make sure you have a Plan B. Better still, have difference scenarios and plans for each one of your different scenarios. Make a tree chart, think about all the what ifs.

So, what if things don't go your way? Well, you have other options. :)

That's what been clouding my mind recently.

Here are some pictures. Random ones.

something is fishy... well, a huge chunk of salmon and potatoes, oven roasted.
strawberries... need I say more?

Cereal killer... Get it?

So... I said i wanted a 6...

2008-01-12T15:07:00.000-05:00

Will...since the exam C/4, I said that I wanted a 6. I didn't get a 6 for it, but a 5 instead, missing it by 1 question, (quite sure about that). But, what's freaky is, I went to my 2nd Michigan hockey game yesterday, and well, we beat Western Michigan University 6 - 1.

Then, today, Manchester United beat Newcastle 6 - 0.

Hmm... freaky huh?

Big House...

2008-01-09T00:43:00.000-05:00

Why is this so important? Well, because the Michigan Stadium is the BIG HOUSE.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michigan_Stadium

Also, check out this blog to see what students are planning to reverse this unacceptable bullshit.
http://bighouse08.blogspot.com/

"Those who stay will be champion!"

I'm pissed!!!

2008-01-08T23:24:00.000-05:00

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Teresa A. Sullivan and E. Royster Harper <targetemail@umich.edu>
Date: Jan 8, 2008 10:38 PM
Subject: Spring Commencement
To:---

Dear Students, Faculty, and Staff:

Because of construction and the disruption of utilities, Michigan Stadium will not be available for the 2008 Spring Commencement ceremony. There is no other venue on our campus large enough to accommodate the graduating class and their guests. Crisler Arena, the next largest venue on campus, would require that we limit each graduate to 2 or 3 guests.

After exploring all other options, the planning committee has decided to hold the all-University ceremony nearby at Rynearson Stadium at Eastern Michigan University. All school, college and department graduation events will remain on campus as originally scheduled. This alternative venue is the best option available to us this spring because it is close to our campus; it offers the capacity to continue to provide eight tickets for each undergraduate degree recipient and four tickets for each graduate degree recipient; and it has excellent parking.

EMU will work with U-M to transform Rynearson into a "maize and blue" environment for the commencement ceremony, and we thank the EMU community for sharing their facility with us for this event. The ceremony is scheduled for 10:00 a.m. Saturday, April 26. Bob Woodruff, former ABC News Anchor, a Michigan native and 1987 Law School alumnus, will address Spring Commencement and receive an honorary Doctor of Laws degree.

Seniors and other graduates are invited to help us make this year's Spring Commencement a joyful celebration by sharing ideas and exploring options with the planning committee. Several opportunities to participate will be posted on the commencement web site at www.commencement.umich.edu <http://www.commencement.umich.edu>. The web site will also provided detailed information on academic attire, accessibility arrangements, ticket distribution, and graduate assembly, along with important updates about the change of location, shuttle bus schedules, and maps.

While this information may disappoint those of you who anticipated completing your academic career with Spring Commencement at the Big House, we hope you will join us as we take steps to ensure this event is an authentically Michigan experience.

Kind regards,
Teresa A. Sullivan, Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs

E. Royster Harper, Vice President for Student Affairs"

I'm pissed.
I left a comment on their "Questions or Comments" page.

"Why isn't this information convey to students in the previous semester? Is this bad planning or lack of planning? Or just to keep students in the dark? Whatever it is, this is unacceptable. If I were to learn about this, I would have graduated in the last semester. So much so to have my parents to travel close to 10000 miles to attend my graduation at another University's stadium. Thanks."

Total BULLSHIT.

Should I donate to University of Michigan after I graduate? Well, maybe other charities can use the money better. Thanks for nothing. Not to insult Eastern Michigan University, but I came to Michigan for its tradition at the first place. If the administration has no respect for its tradition, don't think I should have respect for them too. So, the very next time I get a call from the Michigan telefund, guess what I'll remember? Oh, my graduation at Eastern Michigan University. Thanks for nothing.

I need a boost...

2008-01-07T11:27:00.000-05:00

As usual, like an old-grandfather clock, I need to be winded up really good at the start of every semester in order to function well. Even more so as this will be my very last semester.

Come to think about it, I'm actually not too bad this semester. I've my to-do list and all on my desk, and I'm actually working on it, but just that my efficiency is really low. My attention span is still obscenely short, and I'm somehow are more curious about stuff and ambitious than usual, hence, adding more stuff to my to-do list.

So, I need a boost, a pat on the back, or on my head, or get a girlfriend (i'm hinting), or well, something. :)

Oddly enough, I'm motivated to do physical stuff like running (with a calf pain) and weights and even swimming, but just not stuff involving my brain, like homework assignments, and emails!

Just a random ranting and thanks for reading... :)

Of Movies and Books...

2008-01-05T11:48:00.000-05:00

So, I was saying my Christmas break, or to be politically correct, my Winter holiday was spent eating, drinking, relaxing... by watching movies and reading..

So, movies & DVD I watched over the summer (in no particular rank and order):
1) Mary Poppins
2) The Sound of Music
3) Santa Claus is Coming to Town
4) Frosty the Snow Man
5) The Namesake
6) The Simpsons Movie
7) Saturday Night Live dvd
8) Ratatouille

and drumroll... last but definitely not least...
9) Barbie as Island Princess (my niece made her daddy and I sat through with her...) Little girls and Barbies... to keep my niece occupied, all you need to do is put on a Barbie movie, and she'll be as happy as a little girl, oh wait, she's a little girl... But, good for her parents, they are really strict on how much TV she can watch a day...

Books...
1) I Am America (and so can You)
2) What is Religion (still reading... as I told my cousin I'll be taking a class on Asian Religion, he went through his stash of books (a really huge stash) and found me that book on Swami

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year...

2008-01-02T23:01:00.000-05:00

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Well, i guess it's still in time since it is not epiphany yet.

Happy 2008. A leap-year. My senior year.

So, for my Christmas, as I mentioned many times in previous posts, I went to Richmond, VA to spend time with my cousin and her family. It was really good to be able to spend about 2 weeks with them. (I was only able to spend 2.5 days last time when I visited them on my way back to Ann Arbor after my Summer internship).

I flew from Detroit (DTW) to Richmond, VA with a layover at Columbus, OH, just to avoid Chicago (because of their infamous delays) and I'm too cheap to pay 200 bucks extra for the direct flight. I didn't drive this time either, as it took me 11+ hours to drive (one-way) last time around and I don't think I'm that comfortable driving in the snow. Anyway, I left on Thur, Dec 20th, for Richmond, VA. Both flights were on time, and my luggage showed up at Richmond too. My only complain was the tiny flights. The first plane seats 4 per row(2 and 2), and has 11 rows, while the 2nd plane seats 3 per row (2 and 1), and has 19 rows. Really tiny plane. I'm 5-7/8, and by standing up straight in the aisle, my hair can reach the ceiling of the plane.

"My" room for 2 weeks...
My stuff... notice the football jersey...GO BLUE!...
So, it was basically just eating and drinking (wine mostly, on average of 2 glasses a night), some dinner parties, and of course the really TACKY Christmas Light tour.
One of the houses on the tour...
A video I took from inside the car on the Tacky Light Tour at Richmond, VA.
...just like a gingerbread house.

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I tried uploading more onto youtube but it's acting up again.

I also spent two nights at Harrisonburg, VA, my cousin-in-law's hometown. It was also all fun. And more good food.

Not to mention. Got quite some Christmas presents from my cousin and relatives. Let me see, a sweater, a sleepwear set, 2 books, an audio-book, 2 bars of chocolate(dark), a B&N gift card...

So, what else did I do over the 13 days I was under my cousin's care. Let me see, I was computer technician-carpenter-babysitter-white-or-red wine decider-cousin. :)

And children say the darnedest thing. I mean, without any filter. Like my niece, 4.5 years old, in a restaurant, pointed at a lady and said, quite loudly, "She's smoking." Also, at the dinner table at home, "I don't like peanut butter, it's disgusting". And, all the tantrums and flares. Also, while talking to grandma (my aunt) over the phone, she went, "Nana, I want to tell you something... my birthday is coming soon." And her negotiation skill is second to none.

Also, I also recorded quite a number of 'first-times', (Tremayne, NOT THAT first time...). Like, carrying a conversation with someone for more than 2 hours (yes, my first time); watch a Barbie movie; use a power-screwdriver; and playing kiddie stuff with a niece for a long period of time (go check out "my littlest pets"), and Chutes and Ladders, and without getting bored. Also, first time decorating sugar cookies with icing and all. All in all, it's a great learning experience, of American way of Christmas celebration.
Sugar cookies i decorated...

Also, what a great man my cousin-in-law is. Someone that I really look up to.

And, all the conversations really gave me more to think about this year. Especially, I'll be graduating in no time and start working before I know it.

I managed to scribble down my new year resolutions: (not even sure if you can consider this my new year resolutions, more like a to-do list)
1) learn how to float (I can swim the length of a pool but not float)
2) do more running
3) eat more
4) read more
5) think more (sorry if my future post are more philosophical)
6) sleep more (I think i can use 6-7 hours average...)
7) drink more wine, less beer
8) travel more (Cancun for Spring break? not just drink-silly Cancun, but explore Cancun)
9) buy less

...

Some advice...

2007-12-18T00:08:00.000-05:00

Be careful with what you wish for... Why? The other day, while at work, I talked to my co-worker about how the weather is cold, but we had not been getting much snow for the past 2 winters... And when on about how I wished we will be hit by a heavy snow-storm... And voila... last Saturday and Sunday, we got hit by a snow storm, and got dumped on about 10-12 inches of snow.
Right outside my apartment, there's about an inch of snow... Did I mention my apartment is on the 2nd floor?
Looking down from right outside my apartment into the 'courtyard'
Pretty?
Partly plowed...
And, the snow were still coming down. I took this pictures at about 9.15am. It didn't stop snowing until 2pm.

Snow-covered cars...
Mine included... The wind was blowing from the other direction, hence, this side wasn't badly covered.
And, finally, in the late afternoon, they came and cleared some of the snow to create a passage.

Don't have such high expectations... So, in the midst of the snow storm at Saturday night, while there were only 2-3 inches of snow accumulation on the road, we went to catch 'I am Legend', Will Smith newest huge flick. I saw the preview awhile ago, and thought that it was awesome (well, don't all movie previews are). And also, I read that it had a huge Friday premier, expecting a huge $70 million weekend, I thought, well, how bad can it be? Well, it was far from meeting my expectation. No spoilers. But I think the plot was sloppy, not well-developed as it should be. Some of the logics were just not there.

Grades... It's kinda sad that since young, many of us were taught to get the best grades without really understanding the importance of understanding what we were learning. In the end, we just look at the grades of the subjects and classes we took, and didn't really think about what we get out of the class. This might not be the first time I mentioned this, but, really, it had occurred to me more than once that I managed to get an A in classes that I didn't understand much what was going on in classes. And if you were to ask me what I learned from the class now, I really can't tell you much. So, having said that, how importance are grades? VERY IMPORTANT. For work, for scholarships, for graduate school, for awards and for everything subsequently. Where I am going with this is, finally, in this semester, I took a class with an optional pass-fail as my grading choice. What it means is that I will get a passing grade if I were to score a C- or better, a failing grade if I were to score a D+ or worse. Why would anyone take a class pass-fail then? Well, for many reasons. Firstly, I took it pass-fail because I really wanted to take the class, Behavioral Economics as it was really interesting and thought-provoking. Secondly, I was really busy earlier in the semester, preparing for the exam C, and I wanted to make sure that I will be able to enjoy the class without having to worry about what grades I will be getting if I were not able to put in enough time for the class. Thirdly, I wanted to see how I will do in a pass-fail class, how discipline I will be in terms of going to lecture, studying for the exam, doing the assignments, and generally, spending time for the class. Also, I wanted to see how I will react if I were to get a good grade for the class but pass-fail it. So, this experiment did reveal a lot to me personally. So, throughout the semester, I didn't miss a lecture. There isn't any assigned homework, but I did attempt all the optional homework posted right before the midterms. I did make notes for the class. Other than stressing that I should pay as much as attention to any other classes than to a pass-fail one, I did nothing different. And, I did get a good grade for the class, but it doesn't really matter. The overall experience for the class was actually better as I did care less about the outcome of the class because I know one needs to put in some effort to get a failing grade. Putting in effort as in skipping lectures and not doing any homework or preparation for the exams. Even though I did feel a hint of 'wasteful' for taking the class pass-fail, but come to think about it, it was a great class and I did enjoy the class more knowing that I'm not in it to chase for an A. I was in the class whole-heartedly and making to every single lecture itself was a great achievement. And really, this is one of the class that I most enjoyed.

No Man is an Island... I used to think that I can just be on my own. Being independent without the help from the others. Of course, I was wrong. Not just help, but also just being around people is important. I just want to put this out there, I really want to thank all of you guys here in Ann Arbor. The email chain among the group... (an amazing 44 emails in 2 hours), the one-liners, the eating outs, all the random stuffs and etc... And for you guys...

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It's OK to say NO... Some of us have hard time to turn people down. I'm guilty for that. So much so that I was stressing up just to help others. Finally, enough is enough. I started learning to say No. Sorry! I can't do it. Of course, I will only say 'No' if I can't do it. Finally, I understand that saying No is not a sign of weakness or incapability. Instead, it's being responsible, both to yourself and to the person you are planning to help.

Impulsive purchases is OK, or Retail Therapy as they said... as long as you can repay your bills at the end of the month... Well... all the excuses. So, I spent more last week or two... on a new game for my Wii : Super Mario Galaxy... a really fun game..., a nice jacket which was on sale from Aeropostale, on an unplanned visit to the mall while taking a break from studying for my finals. (How's that?) Also, few days before that, I went to the mall on my own, for a short shopping, and ended up with 2 shirts and a sweater. And not to mention, 6 bottles of wine... with 3 of KJ which were on sale.

Good food is important...Dim sum at ShangriLa. 2 Saturdays ago, went to this restaurant for dim sum. It was a good 35-minute drive but the dim sum was really good. So, good food + good company... The long drive was well-worth it.

And take a break... I'll be off to Richmond, VA to spend Christmas break with my cousin and her family on Thurs, and will only be back on the 2nd of Jan... So, to all, a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Alphabetically...

2007-11-29T01:06:00.000-05:00

Ambitious... Well, as a rather positive person, I always think that things gonna be better, or, it could have been worse. But, something really hit me big time, the fact that, after 3 years +, things are not better, and I think it's hard for me to even imagine if it is possible for it to be worse. I'm talking about the situation at somewhere. I think it's really hard to see the whole picture when ones eyes and ears are covered.

Black Friday... So, on Thanksgiving day, many of us hung out at my apartment, watching Forrest Gump, til 3am, I went to bed at 1+am, and woke up at about 3am, and then, Wei Ping, Jason and I went to Meijer for Black Friday's deals. I was there to pick up a Wii. And true enough, and fortunate enough, there weren't a huge line by the time I got there at 3.15am. I was 8th in line for a Nintendo Wii, and they promised to have at least 30 systems. So, I'm happy. After waited for 2 hours +, plus thanks to inefficient checking out and the floor manager was really dumb. While waiting in line, I talked to some of the people, and many of them were actually there to buy a system and turn around to sell it on eBay. Due to the shortages, I think by doing so, they can earn about $75 - 100. Come to think about it, I'm not sure if I'm willing to sacrifice a good sleep for that.

Credit card... Credit card companies have been flooding my mailbox with pre-approved account. Thanks, but no thanks. I already have 3 credit cards, I only used 1 and the other one serves as a back up, and the 3rd one is virtually dead. I never got the card, and I requested for the card to be resent to me, but never got it. It's a Old Navy, GAP and Banana Republic credit card, and since I don't really shop there much, I didn't bother to ask them to resend it again. Well, maybe I'll ask them to resend it to me just for keep-sake. Also, I read that, on average, American adults have 6000+ credit card debts. That's a lot of money. Imagine with more than 100 million adults in the States, and that's an average figure. That sums up to more than 600+ billions of credit card debt. The interest charges that these people are paying huge. Guess that's why I'm getting so many credit card offers as it's a lucrative business for these banks.

Deers... How often do you see a deer? Well, if you live in the woods, you will see it all the time. Here in Northwood, my apartment place, I think I've encountered them like more than 10 times now. Last Wednesday, they were right in front of my apartment building and I managed to take some pictures.Are those stars?
Nope... deers!!! What a nice formation.
Them scurrying away...

End of semester... It's December already. In 2 weeks time, I'll be done with classes and finals, and not before long, it'll be my very last semester as an undergraduate student here at the University of Michigan.

Football... Capital One bowl... Orlando, Florida on New Year's Day. Guess that's how i'll be spending my 2nd half on my Christmas break, visiting my friend in Florida and go to Capital One Bowl.

Guitar Heroes III... The picture below only shows the 'guitar', and if you pay a closer look, you can actually see the game and the box of it. So, this is what had been consuming my life lately. I'm ok at that game, just OK. Have 2 songs left on Hard, and beat 4 songs on Expert so far (prolly after 20 hours clocked on the game). I did have about 20 hours worth of experience on Guitar Heroes:I, but that was quite sometime ago. But, this version is definitely much harder than the previous 2.

Heroes... The other thing that had been consuming my life was Heroes, the TV series. Well 2 different heroes are consuming my life. Guess, I'm destined to be a hero. :)

Inefficient...

JPA...For those who knows, enough said. For those who don't, well, it's better that you don't know.

Krispy Kreme... Doughnuts' holes are amazing...

...

Mountain Dew

N

Orange Juice... It's actually really good. Not only does the two mix well, the fizzling OJ + caffeine really give a good kick to my tastebud.

Running... So, I ran for 7.5 miles the other day, and 4.5 miles the next day, and my left knee ached for several days... And today, I ran for 8 miles. :) And my left knee is aching again... I could have pushed for another 2 miles and make it 10-mile run, but I figured I can do it on Thurs.

Sleep... So, even though I can afford to sleep more right now, somehow, I just don't do it. And still only getting on average 5 hrs of sleep.

Thanksgiving dinner... I had 4 Thanksgiving DinnerS this year. First one being in the cafeteria, the 2nd, at my buddy's house, which I prepared a Sweet Potatoes Casserole. It was my first time preparing it, but it turned out rather well. Well, it's hard to screw up something like that. :)
Boiling the sweet potatoes...
Mashed and baked...
Marshmallows to top it...
And also, I brought a mini-keg to the dinner... It's a 5-liter baby Heineken draught keg. :)

Wii...
The system!!!
The focus...
Wii... = Muscle Sore...

Look at the huge motion while Keng Yang and Wei Chieh were playing Wii Tennis... No accident from Wii yet... hopefully it will stay that way. Guess we can really get 'fit' by playing.

Work... I've been working a lot more recently... Well, since I've some free time. Why not?

Alright, this posts is weird... Trying to hard to fit it alphabetically is not so good an idea... :)