This epically bimbotic post brought to you by: Maroon 5

zomg I just came back from the best concert everrr!

The opening band (Fitz and Tantrums) were great; I've decided I want to get dance lessons from the lead singer... he's probably one of the most awkward dancers I've ever seen but he dances with such abandon that you'd think he knew he was one of the greatest dancers in the world :) What I'd give for such self confidence.

This is the first time I've actually been to a concert that I know pretty much all of the band's songs. It's quite the experience singing along to songs that up till that point you only heard on the radio. Adam Levine's voice live sounds exactly like he does on the radio, none of that fancy crap needed to 'tweak' his voice needed. He put on a great show, and was very interactive with the audience, at some point talking to this girl carrying a sign saying "Adam can I have your stool?" and pulling her up on stage towards the end of the concert.

Drummer Matt Flynn was out on a family emergency and in his place was Adrian Young (fully clad) from No Doubt... which was an equally cool experience. He stepped out for a couple of songs when Adam decided he wanted to go acoustic, which to me was probably the best part of the night. They played my absolute favorite Maroon 5 song Secret and then followed it up by ad-libbing Pink Floyd's We Don't Need no Education and Police's Roxanne.

All in all, a concert well performed, and a break well deserved :)

Google is my professor/Wikipedia my checker*

I never thought that I would be using Google and Wikipedia so often as my first reference for many problems in grad school. If I have any questions from statistics to iterative algorithms, just Googling in Properties of Uniform Distribution, or How to implement a Thomas algorithm opens up a wealth of sources (many of which are surprisingly well quoted and reliable). Some professors even endorse the use of Wikipedia as a reference, and I quote, "Wikipedia is the source of all knowledge."

Somehow this seems a little unsettling to me, although I can't pinpoint an exact reason why. Thoughts?

*Coffee/beer on me if you can guess where I got my title from :)

1:30 AM

I've been so wrapped up with grad school, worrying about where I'm headed in life, and if I am going to ever find a job lately that I have failed to appreciate the small things in life that make me happy.

Like taking in a breath of the crisp fall air and taking in the sights of the rich warm fall colors everywhere,

listening to the rushing of the water as it tumbles down the rocky gorge,

taking silly pictures,

my jacket has armpit zippers!

Kevin's sprouting a tree

Just taking in the sights with my favorite partner in crime :)

And along with that realizing that life really is too short to take it seriously... you'll never make it out alive anyway so enjoy every second of it!

(also known as annicca... annicca...)

inspired by colormekatie.blogspot.com

One and a half months into my first semester as a grad student, and what do I have to show for it? For starters, working into the wee hours in the morning is not particularly helping my figure or my complexion, especially considering since I'm at my desk pretty much all day. I don't even have to leave my building for class anymore! Give me a couple more years and I imagine I'll develop a paunch and have a hunchback on top of it. Good God, I need to get out.

My days consist mostly of shuttling back and forth between two places: the office and home:

Hollister Hall, the office and home sweet home

Valentine Park, my other home lol

My office at Hollister is right at the edge of campus on the Engineering Quad, only 15 minutes walk away from my apartment, which is really convenient. On top of that, my apartment complex has a free shuttle that goes to campus every 20 minutes between 7.30 and 11.30 in the morning, which saves me an uphill walk.

With the amount of time I spend at the office I'm beginning to think I should just grab a sleeping bag and just live there. I could just leave my shower stuff at the gym. Heck, I could be like that kid that camps out at different places at night on campus because he can't afford housing. Think of the rent I could be saving! You can probably tell I've seriously considered it at least once, but I'm not THAT crazy.

The campus here is a typical northeastern US campus with faux Gothic architecture, and some modern buildings thrown in:

The Cornell clock tower - Chimemasters play any tunes

from the Cornell Alma Mater to Disney songs to current hits

Duffield Hall - research building in the Engineering Quad.

Also has a cafe where I takeout sandwiches and sushi on occasion.

Cornell Law School right across the street

Lots of pretty flowers

Cornell's MUCH bigger than Lehigh is... My officemates and I were trying to walk to a class on the other side of campus... took us 25 minutes to get there! Not very good when you have only 15 minutes between classes.

Cornell also has it's own little town adjacent to campus and right by the Engineering Quad aptly named Collegetown... which has more Asian restaurants than any other type of restaurants I've seen anywhere. There are at least two Korean restaurants, three sushi places, two chinese restaurants, a vietnamese place and even a store just for bubble tea. In contrast, I counted one pizza place, one sandwich place, a mediterranean place, three bar-type places. Perhaps a testament to how many Asians are on campus.

A small downhill walk from my apartment is downtown Ithaca, much less kitschy and comfortably outside the college bubble, somewhat. A lot of classier restaurants, crafty stores, and a pedestrian mall called the Commons... occasionally there are community activities where local businesses get together, like the recent Apple festival:

Some weekends though... I do get to take my 'sanity' breaks and take a drive out to enjoy the natural beauty of Ithaca....

My little domokun keeps me company on the road

Plenty of beautiful campsites to whet that adventurous appetite

Since there are so many gorges here in Ithaca, there are a multitude of gorgeous (hehe) waterfalls to go and see:

There's Robert Treman Falls

Lucifer Falls in R. Treman State Park

Taughannock Falls, which is featured on all those 'Ithaca is Gorges' t-shirts.

And the best (in my opinion)... Buttermilk Falls!

After all that nature it's time for some... (ahem) refreshment. The Cayuga lake wineries offer some of the best tasting wines around. For only a couple of dollars, you get to sample some of their wines... go to enough wineries and you're pretty much guaranteed to be very happy at the end.

My favorite winery is the Thirsty Owl... they had a great cafe that served great sandwiches and baked brie cheese, and when we were buying wine the owner chastised us for not having a wine opener and gave us one for free! Plus, you can't deny the great view of the lake...

Who woulda thunk... 4 hours away from civilization, there could be so much fun to be had?

A one-sided love story

Picture this:

A group of 50 rowdy men dragging your sacred symbol around the streets, spitting and stamping on it, threatening "bloodshed" if your 150-year old house of worship were to be relocated to their neighborhood. Actually, it's not even known that the men who were protesting were actually residents of the neighborhood itself.

The police do not arrest anyone in connection with this protest, and the Home Minister commends them, for they want to avoid "incidents that can possibly lead to or cause any racial tension."

By the way, public protests are illegal under Malaysian law...

...Rewind to two years ago.

A group of 8,000 peaceful protesters gather to hand over a legal document to the British High Commision, asking for compensation and legal representation for their ethnic group which has been marginalized ever since Malaysia gained independence. Among the requests were that the special rights of a certain ethnic group be abolished or amended and that the targeted demolition of their houses of worship be stopped.

Riot police use tear gas and water cannons on the protesters, and detain 100 of them (so they say). They are held under the Internal Security Act without trial, and some of them were not released until this year (two years later). A minister in the Prime Minister's department say that police were forced to halt the protest by any means they saw fit because they wished to avoid racial riots that would spark from this protest.

Two rather similar situations with quite different reactions from the government. And the reason why is because of... religion? ethnicity?

Of course, if you're brought up to be Malaysian, you're supposed to sweep it under the carpet, accept the blatant racism that the government forces upon you as a "minority" ethnicity, be grateful that at least you're given a citizenship in this country because you're not a bumiputera, or "son of the soil", and just shut up.

This reminds me of a conversation in Yasmin Ahmad's film Gubra, which I paraphrase:

It's like a one-sided love story...You love your country, but you're not so sure it loves you back.

On another note, I loved this article about how Malaysians should view being "Malaysian":

To put Malaysia first, put Malaysian second, by Paul Si

Happy Independence Day!

Sempena Hari Merdeka tahun ini, saya telah memutuskan untuk menulis salah satu daripada karya blog ini dalam Bahasa Malaysia.

Ya betul.

Walaupun saya tidak begitu fasih dalam BM, saya fikir, apalah salahnya jika saya cuba? Sudah hampir 7 tahun saya tidak menulis apa-apa dalam bahasa negaraku ini. Sejurus selepas menghabiskan peperiksaan SPM, saya tidak pernah menulis sepatah ayat dalam BM; bukannya kerana tidak mahu, tetapi peluangnya sahaja tidak muncul. BM memang saya tidak banyak digunakan kerana saya memutuskan untuk melanjutkan pelajaran di Amerika Syarikat.

Tetapi baru-baru ini, saya mendapati bahawa mempelajari BM bukannya sesuatu yang sia-sia. Malah, saya bersyukur kerana dapat mempelajari BM kerana BM telah memperkayakan hidup saya.

Pertama, ia membolehkan saya memberitahu rakan-rakan saya di Amerika Syarikat bahawa saya boleh bercakap bahasa yang lain. Kebanyakan orang hanya boleh berkomunikasi dalam satu atau dua bahasa, tetapi dengan BM, saya boleh mengatakan bahawa saya boleh berkomunikasi dalam tiga bahasa!

Kedua, dan yang lebih penting, (serious sikit lah) saya dapat menikmati aspek budaya rakan-rakan antarabangsa saya. Ini adalah kerana BM terdiri daripada perkataan yang "dicuri" daripada bahasa-bahasa yang lain. Oleh itu, apabila saya mendengar atau membaca perkataan seperti duka atau syukur dalam buku-buku daripada penulis berbangsa India atau Arab, ia mengingatkan saya bahawa dunia ini sememangnya saling (diikat? how do you say connected?).

Sepanjang menulis karya ini, saya mendapati bahawa cara penulisan saya sekarang bukannya banyak berbeza daripada cara penulisan saya semasa menulis peperiksaan SPM saya hampir tujuh tahun lalu. Mungkin menulis sebuah karya blog saya dalam BM akan menunjulkan kelemahan saya, kerana saya tahu tiada orang hari ini menulis dengan cara formal macam ini lagi. Walaubagaimanapun, saya berharap para pembaca terhibur dengan cara penulisan saya.

Selamat Hari Merdeka!

Prepare to be blasted away by my powderful courses!

This Fall semester, I will be taking:

Heuristic Optimization
Stochastic Hydrology
Transport, Mixing and Transformation in the Environment
Water Chemistry

So do I sound way in over my head yet? Tune in later to find out...