Winter Wonderland...

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!

Winter's here..

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!

Frozen...

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.

Some advice...

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...


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!