Randomness

Happy 2011!

2011-01-01T14:59:00.002-05:00

Another new year has arrived. It really is just another day, but somehow it feels like another new beginning, a chance to start over again, really grab the world by the balls and move forward!

It's been one hell of a semester, one hell of a year really. The constant questioning about what I'm doing with my life, what I want to do with my life... more than ever now this year is the year to decide. To quit grad school and get a job? Or to stay with it, put in two more years and work towards academia. It seems as though the closer the deadline is for me to decide, the less and less I know about what I want.

Relationships have gotten stronger this year. I finally feel like I am part of a community, that I finally have a place where I belong at Cornell. Old friendships revisited have just gotten stronger, and it's just proved to me that just because you're far away from someone doesn't mean that the feeling of kinship diminishes. Kevin and I are doing well, and talking about moving out to the West the first chance we get.

All in all, a good year and lots to look forward to! Hope that everyone had a great year as well =)

Dude

2010-10-22T11:24:00.003-04:00

The days since the semester started have been: wake up at 7:30, shower, eat, be at office by 9:00, work (sometimes through lunch) till 5:30 (TA stuff, homework, maybe some research), go home, make dinner, work again till 1am, sleep. Rinse and repeat.

Quite honestly, TA-ing is not my thing. TA meaning being a Teaching Assistant. The job description is that I assist my professor with all matters pertaining to the class and that I do this for 15-20 hours a week. Not too bad, right? Except that the professor I'm TA-ing for is also my advisor, and so our research meetings kind of give way to TA meetings now. It takes up way too much of my time doing busy work: photocopying class handouts, putting together solutions, putting grades into gradebooks, harrassing my students with emails, announcements, posting stuff online and now the latest: writing exam questions and teaching a session in class. Then, I have to worry about two classes, and getting some decent research done in time.

My research has been stopped at a standstill for quite a while now, giving way to both classes and TA-ing.

There are not enough hours in a day!!!

Thankfully, my weekends are not too bad, and I've been able to take a breather every once in a while. Kevin's been up here or I've been down to NJ almost every weekend since we got back from Malaysia, so that's been great. But then with all the running around we do on the weekends too, I haven't had a chance to just sit. And breathe.

I think I need to take a long, long nap when this semester is over.

Story of my life

2010-09-22T00:05:00.003-04:00

I find comfort that no matter what aggrevations and concerns I have faced as a grad student, there is a PhD comic that aptly describes it.

Happy birthday, Malaysia

2010-08-31T22:18:00.004-04:00

The Cornell Malaysian Association got the Cornell Chimemasters to play our national anthem today for all to hear!

The video was from last year, but this was the gist of it.

Again, much to blog about, but things have picked up a lot quicker this year than last because I am now a teaching assistant with lots of busy work to do.

I miss being home already! T.T

Duuuuuuullllll!

2010-06-16T09:40:00.002-04:00

One of these days I may just wake up and have some kind of sense knocked into me and go get a job or something.

For now, I am content with the fact that my data is finally working and I can make 2 10-hour simulations of the model everyday till my advisor convinces me that what I am trying to do doesn't make much sense.

Biker Chick

2010-06-14T11:00:00.001-04:00

I've never been one for rollercoasters. Somehow the idea of strapping myself to a car going over 100kph without any control where I'm going, being thrown left, right, upside down... all that seems rather terrifying to me.

Put me on a bike with nothing for protection save for a helmet and send me hurtling down a hill dodging trees and jumping logs... now THAT's something I can get into!

Since Kevin and I got our bikes about a couple of months ago, we've been going mountain biking every opportunity we get! The exhilaration of hurtling down the hill and not quite being in full control is quite addictive and the bonus of being outdoors and in the arms of Mother Nature feels pretty damn good :)

Plus, on a bike it takes less time to get to the good stuff... :)

Of course, Jon being our in-house guide for all things outdoors, so he showed us the ropes around Shindagin Hollow State Forest, which has some of the best biking in upstate NY.

Jon is ridiculously fit (he runs 5 miles a day), so keeping up with him can sometimes be quite the task! Having my Malaysian partner-in-crime, Yih Lin, to keep me company at the back of the pack is nice :)

And of course, what's mountain biking without getting yourself a little (or a lot!) dirty:

Now if you'll excuse me, I think I hear my bike calling out my name...

biography of research (continued)

2010-06-09T17:33:00.005-04:00

(short) Biography of a research project

2010-06-03T17:33:00.005-04:00

Day 1: Excited about finally getting into it! Read papers, start planning what could be done

Day 2: Meeting with advisor, draft up a timeline for the summer. It's going to be tough, but I think we can do it!

Day 3: Learn how the program works. Read more papers. Try the model. Receive error message. Leave for tomorrow.

Day 4: Try the model again. Receive error message again. Try model again on different computer. Receive error message again. Why can't the model expert be here?! Email model expert.

Day 5: Maybe today will be different. Try model again. Receive error message again. Model expert is on the road and won't be back till next week. Read more papers to pass the time.

Day 6: Meet with advisor again. Advisor reminds me that there are only 6 weeks for me to get some results to present at the conference, so time should be used with the utmost efficiency. Start to panic.

Day 7: Model expert is back (!!!)... but he has no idea what this error is. Good news is, I don't need that particular model run to work, and there are other ways to get the job done. *phew* Get an account on a computer cluster that will allow me to run the model on a computer other than mine.

Day 8: Try to log on on said computer cluster. Some security issue occurs. I email the computer guy to get access. Try running a short version of the model on my computer using model expert's advice. IT WORKS!! Computer guy emails and says I should be able to log on to computer cluster. IT WORKS!! Try running full version of the model on the computer cluster.

Wait.

Why isn't it working?

Email model expert again. Find out that model will not work the way I need it to. Timeline is no longer valid.

Back to the drawing board.

To be continued...

I iz FREE!!!

2010-05-26T21:54:00.006-04:00

Spring is gone...

But summer is now here!

Since school ended, I've been running around soaking up the sun after many days in the office. Lots to write about: Kevin's working remotely for two weeks so he's been staying at my place and we've been out mountain biking, hikes and sights around Ithaca, going to the farmer's market... Plus I finally have time to dive into my research and I'm getting ready to present a poster for my first ever conference in July!

It's been a great first year in grad school and hopefully it'll be a productive summer till I get to go home and see mah peeps... :)

How appropriate

2010-05-18T11:31:00.002-04:00

see more Lolcats and funny pictures

Spring frenzy!

2010-05-13T10:21:00.004-04:00

April and May are months that always seem to go by in a blur... maybe it's because:

1) The weather is finally warming up, which means more time spent outside, less time spent on the computer.

2) So much is going on outdoors! It's like the town is coming out from a deep hibernation... the Farmer's Market is starting up again, and weekends are now spent mountain biking or hiking or just hanging out in the sun.

3) It's coming close to the end of the semester, so on top of it being nice outside, I have to deal with an increasing load of homework, final projects/presentations, and FINALS.

SO, because there has been SO much going on (lots of photos... but also lots of homework =.=), no updates have been had for a while. Believe me, I have many swimming around in my head right now, I just need time to get to them.

We need more than 24 hours in a day!

Anyway, I leave you with another video... this one of a very very talented 4-year old playing drums. Not sure how recent this is, some of you may have seen it already, but if not... SO WORTH IT.

Check out his facial expressions... priceless!

Till next post! :)

Fact: Quidditch is now a real game

2010-03-24T12:53:00.002-04:00

My favorite quote is the proud parent who says.. I'm so proud of my son. This is why he came to college... to play Quidditch!

Really?

On a lighter note

2010-03-15T15:16:00.003-04:00

In our Risk analysis class, we're talking about traffic fatalities and how to analyze the risk... apparently the solution is quite simple, as shown in the following graph:

Just import more lemons from Mexico!

Note that the correlation between these two quantities is very high (R squared = 0.97), which means that the data fit almost perfectly.

What does this mean for Malaysia?

(thanks to Chris for posting this on his gchat status :)

Some somber news

2010-03-15T09:30:00.003-04:00

The bodies of two students were found last week in Fall Creek Gorge, just a day apart from each other. Both were engineering students. This makes the third suicide this semester, the first one being an Economics student about a month ago, and something like the 5th or 6th since I've been here... that is way too many!

It saddens me to think that these people could have sought help, but instead they chose not to say anything. I'm sure their friends are devastated and meticulously going through their final days with the students to see where they could have seen the signs, and how they could have prevented it. Devastated is even an understatement for their parents, who had so much hope for their children, and would have been proud of them no matter what results they got, or what they ended up doing. Both were well liked by the community, so why they decided to go in that fashion no one will really know.

If there is any lesson from this, it is to reach out when you need help; to not be afraid to say, I don't know what to do anymore, please listen. Please help. Going to see a counselor is not a sign of weakness... it takes great strength to ask for help from someone when you're at your wits end.

Know that you are loved. Know that sometimes things just don't work out the way you want them to, there's nothing you can do about it. Know that there is always hope: light at the end of the tunnel, the silver lining on a cloud... and above all, know how to BE HAPPY.

God bless.

A slightly delayed Chinese New Year

2010-03-13T23:55:00.004-05:00

My package of Chinese New Year cookies arrived from Malaysia in the mail after the fact that it had been sent like almost a month ago...

My mother has perfected the art of super efficient packing. Someday, I hope to reach to her level of being able to fit the most things into the tightest nooks and crannies in a box smaller than an A4 sheet of paper and about 3 inches (7.5cm) deep:

The box contained:

Pineapple cookies made in Taiwan
Pineapple tarts and biscotti made by a colleague of hers
Almond cookies
Peanut cookies
Love letters (more cookies, not actual letters)
Herbal supplements
Two traditional Chinese New Year red packets (no money, but with little notes in them... one for me and one for Kevin)
DVD of the Chinese New Year celebrations from my hometown in Jasin, Malacca

After helping myself out to some delicious pineapple cookies (easily my favorite), I popped the DVD into my computer to see what Chinese New Year was like back home. I noticed several things while watching said DVD...

(1) How old my younger cousins became

When I left for the states 7 years ago, a lot of my younger cousins were still in diapers and toddling around. Now, some of them are teenagers, all are in at least grade school, and actually speak words not babytalk. In my mind, they've been frozen in perpetual toddler state, and of course I intellectually know that they must've grown up by now, but actually seeing how they've all grown... it's amazing!

(2) What a loud affair Chinese New Year celebrations and family gatherings in general usually are

I now realize where I've picked up the habit of speaking really loudly now. I guess when you have 25 people at once in a house with everyone trying to be heard at the same time, you gotta speak up!

(3) How quickly sights and sounds can take you back

The altar in front of our family house in Jasin, the faded sky blue color of the walls and ceilings, the beam where the baby bouncer hung where all of us have been soothed to sleep at some point in our lives, the kitchen area where its the coolest and where the whole family normally is, the clanging of a spatula on a wok... I can almost smell the ginger chicken and feel the warm breeze wafting through the house.

(4) My uncles have a lot more grey hair than I remember!

Still the same cheeky demeanor though

(5) How frail-looking my grandmother is

Her mind's still sharp as a tack, but her body is definitely failing her... This year she had to have surgery for her knee because the cartiledge had pretty much worn down to the bone, and she was wheelchair bound, which amounted to a sort of personal hell for her, especially being someone who likes her independence and tries to cause the least amount of hassle to everyone.

I miss home! Hopefully I'll be back for NEXT Chinese New Year... fingers crossed!

So... I'm back in kindergarten apparently...

2010-03-11T23:26:00.003-05:00

I definitely do the last one more than once a week!

Just took one of the most intense exams so far in Cornell today... this prof is famous for overestimating how fast most mere mortals can compute, and thus his exams consist of furiously writing and computing for 90 minutes. I literally finished my last sentence and the TA said pencils down.

I am now officially free until spring break though... which is just around the corner! Just have to finish the rest of the homework assigned to us, so I'm hoping to finally get some research in. ALSO, the sun is out, the weather is finally warming up! Now I just need to bring my running shoes and shorts to school and I can start jogging on campus...

Life is good! =)

2010-03-06T19:05:00.007-05:00

There's plenty to do out in Ithaca in the winter! Put on your hat and mittens....

emo/sexy look Kevin lol

And go out and frolic in the snow with your roommates:

Or join in a massive snowball fight:

Or go to a hockey game (or two):

Fun fact: When you go to a hockey match, they always play the Canadian national anthem, followed by the American national anthem. That's because most of our players on the team are from Canada!

Another fun fact: sometimes the other side decides to bring their pep band and seat them right next to us... thanks RPI >=/

Hockey's a great game to watch because it's played at such a fast pace! It's amazing how these players manage to glide through the ice with such ease, bringing a puck that's like iffy at best to handle, and having to constantly watch out for other players trying to hurtle them against the wall. And yes, there is a certain sense of satisfaction when you see the opposing team's player being face-planted into the wall by your team. Especially if you're sitting right where they're face-planting =)

Cornell fans get pretty rowdy, and they really rally behind their team. There are shouts aplenty of "You suck!!" directed at the opposing team and "Sieve! Sieve! Sieve" to the team's goalie. My favorite is a rather long one that goes:

"You're not a sieve, you're a funnel! You're not a funnel, you're a vacuum! You're not a vacuum, you're a black hole! You're not a black hole... you just suck! you just suck! you just suck!"

Another of Cornell hockey's oddities that are really cool: the guy who smooths out the rink after each period dresses up in costumes every time he comes out.

It also helps to have your very walking hockey dictionary handy... mine comes in the form of Jon.

Front row seats for all the action!

Kudos to Yih Lin for the awesome action hockey pictures!

On a typical winter's day... Cornell usually looks like this:

So on the rare occasion that we do get some sunlight... You gotta go outdoors and explore!

It's cold enough up here that the waterfalls freeze up in the winter, so Kevin and I decided to go check them out on a chilly January weekend:

We took a chance to marvel at Nature...
Play on the frozen river...

And check out natural snow sculptures.

This one is called Roll 'em up by the artist Gravity lol.

This guy climbed over the barriers and walked over on the ice to take this picture.

And just because it's winter doesn't mean you still can't enjoy the outdoors! Jon gathered up a few of us for a cross country skiing trip this past weekend... since Jon's from New Hampshire, he's been cross-country skiing practically since he was in diapers, so he could show us a thing or two about how to maneuver the 1 1/2 feet of snow. We rented our skis from Cornell's outdoor rental center, for about $16 for the day.

I rocked the fratboy look for the day... big furry hat and giant aviators
Our group consisted of three of us from the CEE department (Jin, who has his ski stuck in the snow, Jon and myself), Jin's wife Min, Kevin, and Yih Lin who so perfectly captured this moment!
Speaking of Yih Lin...
It's great to finally meet another Malaysian on campus! Not that non-Malaysians are bad, but it's good to talk about how much we miss nasi lemak, and to speak Manglish lah lol. She's an outdoor enthusiast just like me, and between the both of us we have like 30 trips planned already... all we need is the money and the time T.T

Cross-country skiing is not quite like the downhill skiing people usually do... it's done on mostly flat surfaces, and the majority of the time it's like you're ice-skating on the snow. Yes, it's as fun as it sounds! Plus you get a major workout, so even on the coldest days you find yourself wishing you only had a t-shirt on!

The only thing you don't really want to do is to go down really steep hills. You're only strapped on to the skis by your toes (as opposed to your entire foot in downhill skiing), so you have almost no control over your skis when you're going downhill. Most of the time when we were tackling the small hills on the golf course we just kinda braced ourselves, and because we didn't know how to stop, we were falling over or sitting down on our butts!

It's such a wonderful, quiet way to explore the outdoors though... when we went out we were pretty much the only big group out there, and so you're out there in this beautiful, calm serene day, with nothing to break the silence except for the swish swish of your skis. It's really breathtaking in every sense of the word...

then of course you break the silence occasionally by engaging in a quick pick up game of snowbaseball lol...
We all had a blast! So much so that Kevin and I started looking online for cross-country ski sales... and came all too close to buying a pair of skis for ourselves!

I've always been more of a summer person for obvious reasons, and maybe I wasn't adventurous enough when it came to winters at Lehigh, so winter was never really a time for me to go outside and play. Winter here in Ithaca has shown me you really CAN have fun even though it's -15C and snowing. Ok, maybe not at the same time, but yes. Winter in Ithaca is gorgeous!

Quarter of a century =)

2010-02-16T21:45:00.007-05:00

I guess turning 25 warrants a blog post... :) I had a great (albeit non-productive) day checking Facebook every 5 minutes to see who was the latest person to post on my wall,

(this picture made my day!)

texting back people who sent texts, celebrating with my officemates, having a little party with the roommates....

Not to mention lots of birthday wishes from Mum and Dad back in Malaysia... and having Kevin up here for the entire weekend!

It's times like these when I realize how lucky I really am to be surrounded by great people, both near and far... And, as I have learned from my Risk Analysis class this semester, just making it this far is a gift, lol. Thank you everyone for making this day truly special =)

RAWR! Happy new year!

2010-02-14T13:20:00.005-05:00

Been caught up as usual with the mountains of work that I'm slowly getting used to as a grad student at Cornell... but that doesn't stop me from thinking about everyone at home! I talked to mum this morning about the goings on back in Jasin, Malacca for Chinese new year and about all my cousins' shenanigans. It was almost as if I was there... not. It's been about 6 years since my last Chinese New Year celebration with them? And it still doesn't get any easier... Good thing I have Kevin!

Anyways...

I saw Avatar

2010-01-15T22:59:00.004-05:00

People have been buzzing about Avatar for a while... my colleagues were telling me that they've seen it two, three times and they'd still see it again. James Cameron's masterpiece, even better than Titanic, the best movie they'd ever seen by far! Usually, I'm skeptical when I hear rave reviews like this, not just because I don't want to be another one of a herd of people who like certain movies (Twilight fans come to mind)... but when a movie is built up like that, I'm bound to be disappointed.

Also, I heard that it's basically Disney's Pocahontas, but with blue people and advanced weaponry.

With healthy skepticism in mind and no expectations, Kevin and I got a pair of tickets to see Avatar in 3-D. Almost three hours later, we got out and our reaction was

see more Lolcats and funny pictures

You can definitely tell that a lot of thought has been put into this alternate world, Pandora... with heartbreakingly beautiful scenery, a stunning menagerie of animals, and a proud race of people so in tune with the nature that surrounds them it makes you want to run outside and hug a tree.

The storyline was somewhat predictable, but if the movie ended any other way I think I would have incited a riot right there in the movie theatre. The message spoke to me, but I'm a tree-hugger and scientist at heart anyway... long story short, go watch the movie lah!

Baby, it's cold outside

2010-01-05T00:46:00.005-05:00

see more deMotivational Posters

Am currently working on my post from Christmas and New Year's in the Pacific Northwest. Suffice to say I had an awesome time, meeting the parents went smoothly, we had lovely weather...

Now I'm back in Ithaca, the weather channel says it's -10C outside and it will be snowing for the next 10 days. It's good to be back.

btw...

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!

This year I hope to keep keeping my head up, learning, and discovering myself! :)

To all my friends and loved ones near and far...

2009-12-24T22:19:00.001-05:00

Important lessons from my first semester at Cornell

2009-12-14T10:06:00.018-05:00

1. It is more expensive to rent a small van than a large truck for a 200-mile drive from Bethlehem, PA to Ithaca, NY. How the economics of this works, I have no clue... but all I know is that all this stuff that could have easily fit into a van...

Had to be spread out in a difficult-to-maneuver, lunky, big-ass truck. Thankfully, I wasn't the one who was driving it... Kevin was =)

2. If you venture out of the Cornell campus every once in a while, you will be thoroughly rewarded.

Not only does Ithaca have a great Farmer's Market, a beautiful lake and wineries to boot, the fall scenery is spectacular and a short drive out of the Cornell bubble is a great sanity break and may just melt all your worries away...

3. That being said, take time from studying to explore what the campus has to offer as well. Cornell has a gorgeous campus with various nooks and crannies that are well worth time to explore...

Kevin and I went up the Cornell clock tower on one of their open times to see the Chimemasters in action!

Being a chimemaster is no easy work! It involves a friend, your hands, your feet, and lightning fast reflexes... plus if you make a mistake, the whole campus of 30,000 hears it. Talk about pressure.
The view from the tower is spectacular... Here's a shot of Ho Plaza looking towards Collegetown
And on the other side, Cayuga Lake:

We also found some books on Malaysia's history in the beautiful old Uris library (also known as the Harry Potter Library)...

4. Learn to accept the fact that just because it's a weekend doesn't mean you have time off. It just means you have more time to do your work since you don't have class to go to...

5. Do not underestimate the importance of friends. They make for great weekend work companions, drinking buddies, they're better than a wall if you need to rant (they might actually respond), and most importantly, they keep you sane!

This semester I definitely missed seeing my old buddies as often as I used to... at least Lehigh wasn't 4 hours away from Manhattan... but it also gave me a chance to make some new friends.

I've definitely lucked out when it comes to roommates... all of them have been great, and even though we're busy a lot of the times, we've managed to find some time to celebrate everyone's birthdays, watch some movies, even go to some festivals together. It's also nice not to come home to an empty house... having people to come home to, even if you don't hang out together that often, is definitely very comforting.

Since I spend more time at the office than I do at home, I've become quite close to some of my colleagues in my department. It's amazing what working through weekends, rushing assignments and projects, and collaborating does to your relationship! Plus, it's fun to unwind together at the end of the week and laugh at how ridiculous your assignments and professors are...

6. Neglect your boyfriend at your peril!

Unfortunately, I didn't quite anticipate the amount of work that I would be encountering in grad school... Poor Kevin has had to live with me working through weekends and seeing me only once every other week, even less as the semester wore on. We had our rough patches, but hopefully things will slow down as I advance in my grad career... I'm also trying to get him to come to Cornell for his MBA, so we'll be closer together!

7. Most importantly, enjoy learning... because if you don't, you're in the wrong field.

I was suffering from a bit of burnout at Lehigh last year and I wasn't really sure if pursuing a graduate degree was the right thing for me... I mean, another 4 more years of school? No thanks!

However, the first semester here really showed me that I really do enjoy learning... and that not only can I face the challenges that classes bring, but that I really thrive in such challenging environments! It's hard to imagine doing anything else right now... and hopefully I'll get a chance to apply what I've learned one of these days.

This Thanksgiving...

2009-11-25T22:24:00.002-05:00

I be giving thanks for the break!

Which is welcome after five weeks of straight working through weekends, churning out homework after homework and slipping in some midterms in between with barely any breathing time in between...

Weird to say, but I'm rather enjoying it. I'm being challenged on a day-to-day basis, and the burnout I felt from last year seems to be old news. I'm actually looking forward to possibly pursuing a PhD and taking another step towards my goal of changing the world. Is there a Dr. Tan possibly in the future? Only time will tell.

For now, I'm just glad for the respite, some time to breathe and just... to be.

This epically bimbotic post brought to you by: Maroon 5

2009-11-09T00:20:00.003-05:00

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*

2009-10-27T21:31:00.002-04:00

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

2009-10-19T01:35:00.005-04:00

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

2009-10-06T21:53:00.009-04:00

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

2009-09-03T20:45:00.004-04:00

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!

2009-08-29T15:38:00.006-04:00

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!

2009-08-27T14:30:00.003-04:00

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...

This is my new favorite

2009-08-26T19:51:00.000-04:00

My roommate Christina turned me on to this. I think they're hilarious!

btw... 4 hours northwest from New York City and the temperature difference is 10C! It's 28C down in NYC and 18C up in Ithaca. WTF is this... I'm going to be one COLD panda this winter =(

LehighMilk@Cornell

2009-08-24T22:42:00.004-04:00

No "interesting" flight stories this time, thank God :)

The most interesting thing that happened was that I bumped into my professor from Lehigh while waiting to board the plane at KLIA... turns out he was in Malaysia for the week trying to establish some networks to bring more students out to Lehigh.

The 4-hour drive from Kevin's to mine is not too bad either... I was on the phone with friends (ah... the joy of handsfree) pretty much from the halfway point onwards, so time seemed to fly by. Can't say what the roads or the drive will be like in the wintertime, but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.

The apartment at Cornell turned out to be great, even though I had signed the lease without ever setting foot in it or even looking at pictures of the actual room and apartment itself. But hey, you can't beat saving $400 a month on rent compared to studios, free shuttle to Cornell, free internet, and best of all, free parking!

The roommates are nice: Christina from Florida who also went to Cornell for undergrad, Marie from Ghana, and Priya from India, so we're a pretty diverse crowd.

Classes don't start till Thursday, so till then it's orientations... I actually don't even have anything for tomorrow, so I'm going to enjoy the day bumming around at home, maybe sign up for classes or at least take a look at things that I need to get done.

And that's about it! Pictures of the apartment to come, as well as pictures from my new "baby," the Canon Rebel XSi... XD

Truly a Malaysian legend

2009-08-13T12:46:00.006-04:00

Lately, I've been on a Malaysian movie kick. Actually, really just a Yasmin Ahmad movie kick. Before she passed away last month, I must confess I hadn't even heard her name; Malaysians tend to know more about what's going on in the outside world than in their own country.

When I was a kid, I had this idea that all races in Malaysia are all living in perfect harmony, each of us understanding one another, going to each other's houses for festivals, everyone understanding each other. One of my aunts even married a Malay, so the spirit of muhibbah (goodwill) between the races was there, so I thought.

As I grew up I realized, I've lived in Malaysia for so long, and yet I remain quite ignorant of how other races go about their daily lives. Most of the time, the Chinese hang out with other Chinese, Malays with other Malays, Indians with other Indians, and so on and so forth. Out of all the friends I have here I can honestly call only one Malay guy and one or two Indian people my friends. Everyone else is not even on my radar, or merely acquaintances. And here we are living in such a culturally diverse place and not taking advantage of it!

Yasmin Ahmad brings this diversity to her films, and is not afraid of exploring the issue of race in her movies, even occasionally bringing up racial stereotypes, a subject usually very taboo in a culture that likes to sweep our problems with each other under the carpet. This is the beauty of her movies: the overall story is simple, but it's the social commentary she makes in them that really hit the mark, mostly in scenes that have little or nothing to do with the overall story.

For instance, in Sepet (translation: slit eyes), she laments the deteriorating quality of Malaysian films. In Gubra, she talks about the one-sidedness of loving Malaysia: "It's like you love someone, but they don't love you back." This frankness and fearlessness of speaking her own mind are what makes her movies so special, and also why most of her movies were banned in her own country. But it is obvious that what she did, she did with all her heart, and all her love.

Anyways... I've included some videos of some of what I think are some of her best work. The first video is an ad for Petronas that she did for Independence day; followed by the trailers for Sepet, Gubra and Mukhsin; and finally the ending credits to Mukhsin, which has my "song-of-the-moment" featuring her mother singing, her father playing the piano being joined by herself (without the headscarf), her sister, and finally the entire production crew.

Man, I've really been wordy lately!

Eat. Sleep. Meditate.

2009-08-09T04:55:00.006-04:00

Having gone to the Vipassana meditation retreat for 10 days without having many expectations, I must say that the experience has truly been a wonderful, eye-opening one.

Let's face it: life is full of misery. Something happens that we don't want, we don't like it, and it causes misery. Or, something we want doesn't happen, we don't like that either, and it causes misery. The reason why we feel so miserable is because of attachment. And how we develop these attachments are through habits of craving and aversion. Our whole lives are punctuated by this never-ending cycle until we die.

Sounds quite depressing, until you realize that there is a way out of this.

Vipassana, in the ancient Pali language of India, means "to see things as they really are." And the way things are is this: nothing is permanent; everything changes. If we know that nothing lasts forever, then we know not to develop any kind of attachment to anything, concrete or imagined, for this kind of attachment is ultimately useless. The fact that nothing permanent is easy to accept intellectually; neither good times nor bad times last forever. However, most of us are so busy reacting to the current situation that the thought of "this too shall pass" does not even occur to us long after the situation is over!

What we really need to do, is to look at these things with a feeling of equanimity: a balanced mind, one that is not craving for good things, or averse to bad things. However, knowing is one thing. Experiencing it is something else altogether.

Thus in 10 days I started learning how to develop equanimity and see this ephemeral quality of life for myself through this technique called Vipassana. For 10 days, I underwent a rigorous ritual of eat, sleep and meditate. Awake at 4.30 every morning and asleep by 9.00pm, eating when it was time to eat, and each day sitting for an hour to two hours each time totalling 11 hours a day.

The task was simple: simply observe what sensations I get while I sit, always maintaining perfect balance of the mind; maintaining perfect equanimity. Not so simple when your leg falls asleep, or when a fly lands on your nose, or when your mind wanders. And how the mind wanders! It was really all I could do to reign in my mind, so used to flitting from one thought to the next to just focusing on one or two things for an extended period of time.

The fact is that most of the time, we put so much importance on things that are happening to us outside, that we forget to look inside and see what is going on there. I realized for myself that really, a good reaction or bad reaction to certain things comes not from the things themselves, but how those things make me feel. And sometimes, these sensations are so subtle that only the unconscious mind registers them, not the conscious. But at the root of this technique is how to break the cycle of craving and aversion, not only at the concious mental level but also at the unconscious.

Of course, there's so much more to this technique than this, but I can't go into them here, it'll take all day! You really should experience it for yourself.

Ten days later, am I now gifted with the ability to shoot chi out of my palms and vanquish my enemies for good? Or, more seriously, am I now so perfectly equanimous that nothing can faze me now? I wish! The path of dhamma is a long one, and I've only just taken a single step. Many more steps to go, many more hurdles to overcome. But hopefully I'll get there one day.

May all beings be happy :)

On to my next adventure!

2009-07-28T12:24:00.004-04:00

I can't say that this summer has been uneventful. I graduated (!!), travelled (to Niagara Falls and Toronto, Canada then to Melbourne, Australia), visited with relatives, hung out with friends, went paintballing, went rafting (twice), went clubbing, attended a party, celebrated a friend's birthday... I'm actually surprised that for all the things that I've been doing this time around, I've still managed to enjoy some days where all I did was wake up, go online, eat, watch TV, exercise, eat, and go back to sleep.

Now I'm switching gears and I'm attending a 10-day meditation retreat up in rural Kuantan, Pahang... "getting away from it all," so to speak.

Ten days of complete silence, no communication with anyone else (not even eye contact!) is going to be an absolute shock to my system. This is a time when I'm supposed to reflect on myself, come to terms with who I am, learn a thing or two about this meditation thing, maybe even get to face my demons... who knows, I may even find out what inner peace really is, intellectually and physically.

It's not supposed to be easy... I'm trying to go into this with as little expectations as possible. My parents who have done this say that they have experienced everything, from physical pain to mental anguish. I'm still not really afraid; maybe it's because it's one of those things that you have to experience for yourself before you really truly know what it feels like.

I hope I will come out of this armed with some sort of "tool" that will help me weather later challenges in life. Stress tends to affect me a lot because I tend to pile responsibilities on myself, not because I want to say "look at all the things I'm doing!", but because I want to do it really truly believe I can do it when I sign up for it (yea, I'm kind of insane sometimes). Maybe I'll understand why I react the way I do to certain things. I hope that when I do actually see myself, I'll like who I turned out to be. I hope that I'll still be the same person when I come out of this, just maybe a little better.

We'll see how this turns out! See you all again in 10 days... I have a good feeling about this :)

Haha! Ver. 2

2009-07-25T04:04:00.001-04:00

I've seen a lot of Indian music videos with "English lyrics", but this takes the cake!

The great outdoors

2009-07-19T23:43:00.005-04:00

I'm tired of clubbing! There, I said it. I never thought I would ever say it, honestly but I am! Not that I would never go again, but I've been feeling the pull from the great outdoors lately...

So this time around I've suggested more outdoor activities to be had, with great results!

We went paintballing at Tanamera Paintball Park at Sungai Buloh, Selangor two weekends ago (July 12):

our group of 19 (!)

We had originally planned to play amongst ourselves... we just had enough to have couples on one team and the singles on one team... with a tradeoff between Ah Mian and Ah Phang so they could shoot each other to their heart's content, but alas, we had to combine with a group of 5 and play against a team of 26!

Of course, in order to be safe, we had to have a briefing session. Our leader was pretty hilarious, as he demonstrated how a shot of a paintball could penetrate a cardboard box, so a direct shot in your eye could pop it out; and also how sneaking up on someone could result in paintballs in your... well... balls. Of course, once we were out on the course, we were reminded once again by our marshalls...

After what seemed like hours of briefing, we finally started our games!

Cynthia and I tried to stay together, but ended up separated more often than not....

After three rounds of the Vietcong Village (we won two of them!) we moved over to Lake Placid, a much larger, more open, much tougher course...

You can't see, but we managed to fit all of 25 people in old Ford pickup: in the cab, a bunch in the back, someone on the roof, and 4 guys hanging off the side...

We lost badly at Lake Placid, since so many of us were so kiasi (afraid of dying), so the other team managed to pick us off one by one. What the other group didn't have though, was our hero of the day, Edwin, the last one in our team on the battlefield who rushed out of his hiding spot in the last seconds of our last game picking off three of the enemy before taking a headshot. Epic! All in all, we were filthy, but happy...

Then this past weekend, we went rafting at Kuala Kubu Bharu... The guys told me about this place and how apparently there were sick rapids on this river, but I didn't really believe it until I searched online and found Whoa-Adventures, which had this on their website.... from that point on, I was hooked!

Josen from Whoa Adventures hooked us up with Pie from Pierose Swiftwater, who gave us an AMAZING experience that day for RM180 per person. I can't emphasize the word AMAZING enough lol.

Pierose is basically the combination of Pie's and his wife Rose's names, and they've been running this company for about 13 years now. While my experiences with whitewater rafting have been that of as many as 25 to thirty rafts and three or four guides on kayaks (ala Jim Thorpe River Adventures), our group was the only group that day. Pie only takes groups of up to 10 rafts, with two guides per boat.

With all that attention, we really had as much time as we wanted to do whatever we wanted... rest, float down some rapids, and most importantly, flip and fall out of the boats over and over again...

We were fortunate enough to have a dam release that day (10 m/s), which resulted in rapids of up to class IV+... which was, again, AMAZING.

After our rafting experience, we had the privilege of having a homecooked meal by Rose herself. Pie shared his experiences as a rafting guide with us, how he started out (he used to canoe, saw whitewater rafting on TV one day, went to Sabah to raft on the Padas River and was hooked), and what he does when he's not rafting on the weekend (helping FRIM scientists collect plant samples).

Pie, it turns out, is one of those individuals who does this because he loves it. If he wanted to make money, he could go out everyday, but he doesn't. He could charge more for less service (one picture for like RM40) as opposed to giving over 200 pictures of our rafting experience for basically free. He could expand his operation, but he prefers to keep it small and simple, just enough to run the operations and make a decent living.

Conservationist. Naturalist. Outdoorsy. This is a man after my own heart!

So here's my public service announcement to you: if you feel as if you're in a rut, put down that book/turn off that computer/stop working on that assignment and start living! Go experience the great outdoors...:) --Message sponsored by myself, Milk aka Susu aka sueneetan :)--

Oh yea, and here are the pictures on Facebook in case you were wondering...

Everything's falling into place :)

2009-07-16T00:50:00.004-04:00

After Cornell's housing division told me that they had nothing for me as far as on-campus housing goes next year, I was a little distraught at the fact that I had to remote apartment hunt for an apartment in Ithaca NY from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. However, thanks to the valiant efforts of my apartment search team (aka Kevin and me), I managed to secure a pretty good deal on a 4 bedroom apartment at Cornell.

I was kind of looking forward to having a place of my own and not having to deal with anyone else's messes but mine, but as it turns out I like saving $450 on rent for other things more :) Plus, the additional benefit to living with roommates is, I won't be feeling lonely living by myself in a whole new environment! I already had one of my future apartment mates contact me and we're discussing who's bringing what next year.

So that worked out.

I also got done with visa applications yesterday... I was a little worried about how the whole deportation episode from freshman year (see here) would play out at my visa interview... but it turns out all I got was a wagging finger from the lady who was interviewing me. The whole interview took only 5 minutes, but in true bureaucratic fashion it took me about 2 hours before I was even at the interview window!

So that worked out.

I've also been trying to get the gang here to go for more outdoors-y type stuff... and so far it's been working out great! We've already been paintballing, and this Sunday it's rafting at Kuala Kubu Baru on Sungai Selangor. There are also plans for SkyTrex at Taman Pertanian Bukit Cahaya or hiking up the world's longest quartz ridge right in KL on Bukit Tabur... Me likey!

So that worked out... pretty great ackshually :)

Haha!

2009-07-14T13:54:00.001-04:00

see more Engrish

Reunions of all sorts in Melbourne

2009-07-05T04:00:00.006-04:00

Barely a week after returning from the States, I ignored the myriad health warnings about Influenza A(H1N1) and boarded another plane headed to Melbourne, Australia. Mom was already there, visiting my brother who is studying at RMIT and Dad was to join us the week after I arrived. It was part graduation present, part family reunion...

I also saw some old family friends I hadn't seen in ages! The Liew family has known my parents since they were in high school and they have remained close friends over the years. I have known their children practically since I was born...

Not to mention, my cousin was also doing her study abroad over in University of Melbourne...

Last but certainly not least, I spent a lot of my time catching up with some old friends as well. My high school friend Josh took about a week off work, and together with my brother, Josh's girlfriend Sunny and good friend Sam, we toured the Great Ocean Road. Best. Road trip. Ever.

I managed to get a hold of Vino after I returned from the trip, and the three of us had a great time catching up on old times and being loud and silly... we even made friends with a waitress who admired Vino's tattoo and was probably amused at the old stories we all had from high school.

I spent like 4 hours total picking out the "perfect" pictures from the pool of 766 I had from the trip on Facebook, just so I won't have to do it again, you can get to it from here:

Melbourne Trip Pt. 1: Great Ocean Road

Melbourne Trip Pt. 2: City and Surrounds

The trip came and went just like a dream... can I go back again plskthx?

Flying sucks

2009-06-17T13:53:00.004-04:00

I love coming home to Malaysia, I really do. It gives me time to reconnect with my roots, finally exercise that "-lah" muscle that inadverdantly gets shut off everytime I go back to the US, be with family, reminisce about those good ol' days with friends...

What I don't like though, is the journey over.

It seems like everytime I fly, I end up sitting next to some characters. In order to get extra leg room, I usually get the bulkhead seat, right up at the very front. The bulkhead seat also happens to be the seat they give people with really young children. These young children, having not had command of language as yet, communicate their discomfort through various other non-lingual ways such as yelling, screaming, crying, fussing, wailing... well, you get the picture. Hence, "Elbows" in the last entry about flying (see here).

This time though, no screaming baby. Instead, I sat next to a rather grumpy, but grandfatherly old man who was on his way back to Malaysia from visiting his son in New Jersey. He was nice enough, and we even had an empty seat in our 3-seat row (even though he opted to sit next to me, instead of leaving the empty seat between the two of us).

All was going well, I was on the second leg of the flight and finally getting some shut-eye when I was jolted out my sleep by:

Old man: What are you doing??
Some dude: I'm just filling out some forms I'll only be two minutes
What are you doing here?? You're not supposed to be here, you're sitting on my medication!!
I just told you I'll only be two minutes, I just wanted to fill out these forms...
Are you trying to steal my money? This is not your seat!
This is not your seat either! I don't see your name on it.
F$%# you! Get off!!
I told you, I'm only going to be here for two minutes...
No! This is not your seat!!
F%$# you lah two minutes only what...
No! you're stealing my money!
Eat shit lah, you want me to hit you? You want me to hit you?
You'll hit a 70-year old man? *smack*
F%$# you lah, why are you hitting me?
*cursing and a lot of smacking sounds ensue*
Stewardess: What's going on here?
Old man: This guy, he sits on my medication and he's not supposed to be here! Trying to steal my money...
Dude: What... I'm only here to fill out this form la, two minutes only.
Stewardess: Sir, I'm going to have to ask you to go back to your seat.
But...
Sir, back to your seat please!

Meanwhile, the seats are shaking like there's an earthquake on the plane, I'm up, wide awake (2 in the morning? afternoon?), and can't go back to sleep for the rest of the ride.

Someone should really work on that teleportation techonolgy.

I r graduaeted! XD

2009-05-19T16:37:00.002-04:00

I've done myself proud :P

Simple pleasures

2009-05-11T10:59:00.004-04:00

We had one of those perfect days yesterday... the sun was shining bright, there were light, wispy clouds in the sky and there was a breeze rustling the leaves on the trees. Kevin and I had spent most of the day playing video games, making lunch and watching movies, so we decided that it would be time we enjoyed the nice day outside.

We had just gotten out of the car and were perusing the shops in the Bethlehem Commons on the Northside, when we happened upon a kite at the toy store, at which point Kevin said, "Let's fly a kite!" And so we bought the kite and took it up to the fields in Goodman Campus and had one of the best trips back into childhood.

We spent about two hours up there flying that kite... and dubbed this day "Simple Pleasures Day."

Sometimes we're all so inundated by technology that we forget the joy in simple things, a walk in the park, face time, flying a kite... here's to the simple pleasures in life!

And... done.

2009-05-06T13:48:00.004-04:00

After 5 years... 10 1/2 semesters... 41 months later and I'll be getting two of the most expensive sheets of paper in the world: $225,000 in total. No more homework, at least not the kind that I've been used to for the last 5 years or so. And when I come back, it'll be a different game, this studying thing. I've been running around so much I hadn't let it sink in that I'm graduating. I don't think my brain can comprehend that I'm not coming back to Lehigh next year.

It's all a little anticlimatic, really.

Lehigh in the springtime

2009-04-25T21:58:00.003-04:00

It's that time of the year again... when the nasty nippy cold weather gives way to brilliant azure skies and mild temperatures and the trees explode in blooms... I dont' even mind the rain as much when it's misty; although I have to admit when we get thunderstorms and downpours here it makes me miss Malaysia even more!

Being at Lehigh makes me doubly fortunate because (and my travels to other schools have confirmed this... although I dunno... I MIGHT be a little biased) Lehigh has the most beautiful campus, especially in the spring and in the fall. And to prove it... I'll let my pictures do the talking :)

I can haz phuture?

2009-04-17T09:21:00.004-04:00

Those of you who've been around me for the past month or so know that I haven't been the most pleasant person to be with at the time. looking for job + visiting grad schools + homework + mental & physical exhaustion = stress = not a very happy SueNee. There were a couple of times when I had concerned friends call me to see if I hadn't slit my wrists yet... thanks for the support!

But rejoice people, for the SueNee you know and love is back! Well, almost. I still have lots of homework to do and an exam to study for by next week, but at least the "what the hell am I doing after graduation??" question has been solved.

After much deliberation on the living out West vs. more of the same up on the East Coast (Colorado vs. Cornell) among other factors... Cornell finally played its trump card by offering me a fellowship (read: "come to our school, and we'll pay you!"), which is not something you say "no" to, because (1) it's freaking Cornell! (not to be confused with Correl, who makes those nice unbreakable dishes) and (2) who doesn't want to be paid to go to school?

No real world for one more year? In this economy? and be paid? sign me up plskthanx :)

Hey... Isn't that the pillow we saw in the train?

2009-04-06T11:16:00.006-04:00

Kevin and I joined Ryan, Rissy, Nile, and Ryan's roommate James to go to the 4th annual NYC Pillow fight. This year, it was at Wall St, in front of the New York Stock Exchange... quite befitting for the economic situation we are in.

The invitation said: "dress in a suit and bring a pillow" and dress up they did. Definitely saw people in suits... and among other things, Mr. Moneybags from the board game Monopoly, a bumblebee, pajamas and spiderman. There was even a dude with a HUGE fro (real, of course).

The best way to describe it is this: Think of the sweatiness and energy of a mosh pit combined with the frantic swinging of pillows and trying not to choke on feathers or being stomped on.

We only lasted about 15 minutes before we had to get out of there (I know, I'm a wuss!). That being said, it was great fun though... definitely good to do at least once in your life!

My mind is a broken record

2009-03-26T15:18:00.004-04:00

Especially when I'm really, really, really tired.

Like when I don't sleeep.

Then again, it's my fault I guess... I shouldn't be moping around feeling sorry for myself about the whole shenanigan with the grad schools and the jobs, and the feeling burnt out when I have WORK to do! But, thanks to the all-nighter I pulled last night (worked from 12am-8am straight, showered, had breakfast, then went to my 9:20 class), I am finally, almost caught up.

Yay!

But that's not the point of this entry... no... what I really wanted to tell you guys about is that my brain behaves like a broken record when I'm really, really, really tired.

Like for instance, this morning, I was walking to class, and there was this random song playing in my head. Doesn't really matter what song, cos I myself don't remember. All I remember is, in that daze, as I'm walking, all I hear is parts of this song repeating over and over again. Like you know, when your CD skips in your car's CD player when you run over a huge pothole. Or someone was trying to be smart and burned the same song clip over and over and over and over again on the CD you're playing in your car. Something like that.

Anyway, what was I saying? Oh yeah! My point is, my brain's like a broken record when I'm really, really, tired....

This is so cute!

2009-03-20T18:15:00.003-04:00

What I'd give to be in Santorini right about now...

This economy sucks

2009-03-17T23:05:00.003-04:00

Okay... let's get the bad news out of the way first... so I thought I was set as far as a job went, got an offer from a company I interviewed with, and was sitting pretty waiting for my offer letter to arrive so I could sign on. It was supposed to take about 2 weeks, which turned into 2 months almost and after some back and forth with the recruiter, I found out that due to the downturn, they were anticipating less jobs and so could not send me the offer letter!

wtf right... I guess it was my fault for not being more persistent (I didn't to like, call every week and say "so... about that offer letter...") so anyways, what to do? I like to think forward (even though in the back of my mind I keep beating myself up) so so far I've narrowed it down to these options:

1. Hope for a job offer at another company I'm interviewing with on Thursday
2. Stay on at Lehigh for grad school (assuming that I still have my Teaching Assistantship)
3. Ask around to see if anyone is willing to hire an intern for the year, then go back to school after the internship.
4. Go home, work for a couple of years, then try to get back to the US
5. Go home, work for a couple of years, apply for PR in Australia?

People have asked me why I want to stay in the US so badly... I mean, I have Kevin here, so that's a BIG reason why I want to stay, but another reason is that I would really like to pursue environmental consulting, and the US definitely has a leg up over Malaysia... maybe not as much as Europe does, but I figured it might be a good place to start. Also, the pay won't be so bad either... but at this point, it's not even that much of a priority anymore.

Truth be told, I have grown to love this place, despite the bitter winters, the ignorant rednecks, and brainless television (who am I kidding... I'm guilty of enjoying shows like "Millionaire Matchmaker" and "The Bachelor" every once in a while too)... it's too early yet to say that I would like to stay here forever, but I'd like to see how far I can go here.

That's not to say that I'm absolutely dreading having to go home. Going home has its benefits too... I'll be close to my parents, have a bigger network of people to lean on (read: high school friends and relatives), understand the work culture... but truth is, Malaysia (and Asia in general, I think) doesn't really nurture out-of-the-box thinkers... at least, not that I know of, anyway. I'm afraid that if I go back, I'll be put into the generic "Civil Engineer" position and not know how far I could've gone to "save the world", so to speak.

(Oh God, that sounds pretentious!)

So I guess, in the end it's back to the drawing board... sow my seeds, utilize my networks, and see how far that will get me.

Btw, there's a trend that whenever there's a downturn in the economy, a lot of women get their hair cut short... apparently the theory is that women feel that they need to change up their life a bit, get a new perspective, and what better way is there to do that than get a fresh bob? Was that why I felt like I should get my hair cut short?

I just thought it was because I wanted to get rid of all the weight.

There was a power failure at my house... so I'm at the library

2009-02-24T20:04:00.004-05:00

I made sure I brought my essentials!

In this picture (clockwise from left): My trusty lappy (wireless signal still good!); toilet roll of tissues (to blow my nose); slightly used pile of tissues; Ladybug (to keep me company while I "work"; trusty SIGG water bottle (slightly germy); 7-year-old pencil case (by Converse); handy-dandy stapler; and paper(s) I am supposed to be summarizing.

Not pictured: tupperware o' cookies, courtesy of Mom; sneezy, coughy, sniffly SueNee hard at "work"; other coughy, sniffly people at the library; Black Magic Woman -to get me home safe from all those laptop muggers I've been hearing about.

I'm ready for my study session!

Happy Valentine's Day

2009-02-14T10:31:00.004-05:00

I want this ;)

It also made me think about this:

If I could fly...

2009-02-14T10:19:00.002-05:00

Yesterday while I was going down the stairs from the 6th floor of Fritz down to the ground floor, I wondered wouldn't it be nice if humans had evolved to fly, so I could just fly out this window and go straight to Ulrich (which is on top of another hill), cutting out this whole walking bullshit?

Then I thought about how windy it was and decided that flying would probably affect my flight path trajectory, forcing me to fly in a roundabout manner rather than simply a straight line from the window to Ulrich, and decided that it would be more trouble than it was worth.

The engineer, satisfied with her analysis, resumes her carefully measured strides down the stairs...

Musings

2009-02-10T22:04:00.005-05:00

So I'm supposed to be writing up 3-sentence summaries for my Environmental Science Senior Seminar, and also modelling the chemical weathering rates of minerals in soils and the subsequent leaching of cations into the groundwater for Physical & Chemical Processes on the Earth's Surface... and what am I doing instead?

Typing up some random thoughts on Blogger and Stumbling through the Internet (this site is hilarious and had me rolling around the floor like a madwoman). Oh, and talking online. ANYTHING but actual work.

Senioritis sets in. And it's ugly. Thank God I'm only taking 13 credits this semester. What a change from 22, let me tell you!

Oo wait... I just got an email message from Mom... better check it before... you know... uhh... before it's too late? (As if spending half an hour on Facebook before this wasn't enough).

By the way... did you know Google only searches one percent of the Internet?? Makes me wonder what the other 99% is... and how VAST the Internet really is.

Whoops false alarm... the email from Mom was just another one of those cute/funny forwarded things. I love getting em... but just can't be bothered to forward them. Plus I think people get enough of these already.

Speaking of spamming thingers... this "25 things about you" trend on Facebook is really spreading quickly! The way it works is that you write 25 things about yourself, then tag 25 other people who then have to write 25 things about themselves and tag you back. I'm learning more about random people than I really ever wanted to know (some more than others), but I really appreciate the fact that they're putting themselves out there. Thankfully, I've only been tagged only once (I'm a loser), and no thanks, I'm too lazy to think of 25 things about myself that I would care to share with other people.

Lets see... if I had 25 things to write about myself... what would it be? Perhaps I could share the fact that I lived in Birmingham, UK for 9 months while my dad was completing his Masters. Or that I'm unrationally squeamish of dead things, especially birds and fish. Or that I like to make up words (see: unrationally). Or I had always envisioned that when I grew up I would live in an apartment in the city and have a cat named Jasper (I wrote about that for my SPM paper, I think!). But do people really care?

I really love spur-of-the-moment, crazy idea road trips and I haven't had too many of them, but those that I have been on will be shelved as part of the best trips I have ever been on. Like the time freshman year my friend Ben suggested that we go see Everclear in concert in Reading, PA and it was at this sketchy little bar, and we were introduced to an up and coming band called Avalon (don't think I've heard of them since, really... I guess that's what you get for playing at a random bar).

This year, it was a 4 1/2 hour drive up to Punxsutawney, PA to see THE prognosticator of prognosticators, the preeminent Groundhog, Punxsutawney Phil for Groundhog's Day. So basically we drove 4 1/2 hours, got there at 3am, drank, took the bus up to Gobbler's Knob, danced till dawn, saw Phil prognosticate, had a hearty $5 pancake and sausage breakfast, and drove back. Oh what fun! Don't know if I would do it again, but it was definitely worth it to go at least once.

Sometimes I think people just need an excuse to party. Especially if it's the middle of winter and there's really nothing to do outside except for slip and slide in the snow/ice.

Speaking of slipping and sliding in the snow, there was a hilarious picture in the school newspaper of two Lehigh students trying to maintain their balance as they were going down the stairs in front of the University Center... but I couldn't find it. :( There have been some pretty spectacular ice storms, at least one of which I believe should have warranted a closing of the University, but hey we are Lehigh and we don't cower behind ice! NO, we will slip and slide if need be.... Learning is our NUMBER ONE priority! No amount of snow and ice can stop us.

Seriously, if I have to skate up the parking lot in no-traction shoes and step into 12-inch deep puddles of snow and ice on my way to class one more time this season... I may just have to kill someone.

My doctor says I have to keep upright so I don't injure my knee again... won't anyone think about my predicament?!

Alrighty... now that I've unwittingly exposed my not-so-sane side... I guess it's time I got back to that modelling...

Till the next assignment!

Happy Moo Year!

2009-01-26T22:16:00.001-05:00

Looking back on last year

2009-01-09T14:19:00.012-05:00

2009 is a pretty big year for me. For starters, I'm graduating (OMG!!!). I'm turning 24--officially putting my demographic in somewhere in the mid-twenties. And I'm starting my new life as a working professional...

However, you can't look forward without looking back first... so here are nine things that I did in 2008, in no particular order.

1. I became a card-carrying member of the automobile club

After 5 failed attempts at getting a license (and they were all NOT my fault... well okay, maybe i failed once), I finally get my license at trial #6. I got involved in a minor incident right after I picked up my Black Magic Woman a.k.a. Honda Civic, the day I got my car insurance. Since then, however, I have been incident free *knock on wood*

2. I drove around in treacherous weather conditions for the first time... and survived.

It was freezing rain/snow on the day of my GREs struggling to pull my car away from the road shoulder while my wheel slips for every foot I move forwards... finally coming to a halt behind a big truck salting the roads on a slope and cursing as the car refuses to budge and the wheels spin hopelessly in the ice. Epic to say the least... but I got my Black Magic Woman and I back in one piece!

3. I learned the true meaning of 'responsibility'

Toto, we're not in Kansas anymore. Decisions I make now could really affect the way my life goes further on. No more running to Mommy for her fix-all solutions... I am now fully in the driver's seat of my life (literally and figuratively), ain't no one gonna tell me what to do now. The effect on me is both liberating and frightening at the same time. So this is what its really like being grownup huh....

On second thought, can I revert back to my teenage years plskthanx.

4. I ended a dysfunctional relationship, and am now embarking on a new one

Thankfully, the ending was drama-free. It was a case of it wasn't going to go anywhere, but let's stay together because we still love each other and it's more comfortable this way. But we knew it was coming and when the ending came, I breathed a sigh of relief, not gonna lie.

Then I found myself a good man who is by no means perfect, but loves me for who I am and will go to the ends of the earth for me if need be. Show me another man who is there for me through thick and thin, picks up after himself (and me sometimes), gets me almost anything I desire and I'll show you my boyfriend.

5. I visited a Korean spa and learned that modesty is all relative

Apparently the experience was not entirely optimal according to my roommate who is a native of Korea... but having experienced a mere shadow of the true awesomeness that is a Korean sauna, I have to say I can't wait to experience the real deal. There are a whole range of services to choose from, from whole body scrubs to foot massages to body massages. Being poor college students, we opted for none of the above and chose to peruse the different mineral saunas.

Each sauna room has different mineral properties and health benefits.... the rooms fit about 15 people at the most, so it can get a little crowded in there. In between sauna rooms (you can only be in there for about half an hour before you get a little dizzy), there are tables and TVs in the common area where we saw people writing cards, doing work, watching the news, etc. There's also a food court that serves noodles (hot and cold), herbal eggs and a myriad of health drinks. And when you're done the wet area has three jacuzzis, a wet herbal sauna and showers.

Here's where the modesty comes in. When you enter the wet area, you are instructed to remove the uniforms that they provide to you (basically shorts and a T-shirt) and shower before entering the jacuzzi or wet sauna. Of course, the showers are completely open and communal. And of course everyone has to be naked in the wet sauna and jacuzzi areas too. Vicky, her sisters, and I had of course never seen each other naked ever (underwear, yes. Naked? Cmon...), so there was a little bit of hesitation, but once we decided that we'd probably stick out more if we tried to cover up, the wet area turned out to be the best and most relaxing of all.

6. I had knee surgery

T'wasn't fun. Paying the bills for it isn't going to be either... the first few weeks of actually trying to lift my left leg were akin to torture... but I'm almost 4 months out, going back to the gym and when the recovery is all over and done with, I will sure be glad to be going back to doing things I couldn't really do before... playing racquetball, badminton, hiking, running, all with a stable knee that I don't have to worry about as much anymore! *crosses fingers*

After all that... all that remains is this scar as a reminder... about an inch (maybe around 2cm?) long.

7. I got hooked on Wii

Just when I thought I didn't need anymore distractions...

Kevin bought the Wii AND the Wii Fit Board and left it at my house... leaving me to the mercy of Rayman Raving Rabbids and Mario Galaxy. Actually, come to think of it... the Rabbids are so cute... I want one of my own!

borrowed from reverenderic.com

8. I had a 9 to 5 job (well, an 8.00 to 4.45 job)... at least for the summer

And it was GREAT! I learned a lot about working in the 'real world' in an engineering consulting firm... helping them with permitting issues, fixing drawings, even dabbling in some modelling, and various other functions (like breaking the big printer on a weekly basis).

Best part about working? Gotta say the money and the fact that there is NO HOMEWORK when you're done with work.

Worst part about working? It's the same shit day in, day out. Well, it got more interesting once I got to put my engineering skills to work, but when there's not much work for interns... sitting in the office SUCKS.

Still, I learned that I am ready to go into the working world... College is great and I've had so many great experiences so far, but I think I need to be out there making my own way for a while... and maybe when I get tired of working... I'll just quit and go back to school.

9. I got published!

So the Martindale Center is not all about the fine dinners, fun go-kart races and the trip to Europe. We have to work too! All the blood, sweat and tears finally came out to our newest issue of Perspectives on Business and Economics entitled "Benelux: Integration and Individuality."

A copy of my article can be found here.

So looking back, I guess 2008 was when the 'real world' hit me smack in the face, and this was really the year that I started to realize what 'being an adult' really means. It's scary! But it sure is an adventure... Here's hoping that 2009 will bring some great developments!

Happy 2009 everyone.

Happy New Year

2008-12-30T10:07:00.004-05:00

I stumbled upon this book the other day in the bookstore on sale: The Best Poems of the English Language. I don't know what possessed me to buy it, maybe I just wanted to catch up on my literary education which had effectively come to a halt since my freshman year of college. Then I came upon this poem by Robert Burns.... a song that I think all of us in the English-speaking world recognize:

For auld lang syne [1], my dear,
For auld lang syne,
We'll tak a cup of kindness yet,
For auld lang syne!

Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
And never brought to mind?
Should auld acquantance be forgot,
And auld lang syne?

And surely ye'll be your pint-stowp [2],
And surely I'll be mine,
And we'll tak a cup o kindness yet,
For auld lang syne!

We twa[3] hae run about the braes [4],
And pou'd [5] the gowans [6] fine,
But we've wander'd monie a weary fit,
Sin auld lang syne

We twa hae paidl'd [7] in the burn[8]
Frae [9] morning sun till dine [10],
But [11] seas between us braid [12] hae [13] roar'd
Sin auld lang syne

And there's a hand my trusty fiere [14],
And gie's a hand o thine,
And we'll take a right guid-willie waught [15],
For auld lang syne.

Robert Burns [16]

--------------------------------

[1] "Auld Lang Syne" means old long ago

[2] Pay for

[3] Two

[4] Hillsides

[5] Pulled

[6] daisies

[7] waded

[8] stream

[9] from

[10] dinnertime

[11] without

[12] broad

[13] have

[14] companion

[15] goodwill drink

[16] From the book "The Best Poems of the English Language" by Alissa Heyman

---------------------------------------------------

A man reminiscing about good ol' times with his companion, about how they used to play in the streams and gather flowers from dawn till dusk, nary a worry in the world... sharing a good pint in a bar, I imagine, and taking a drink for old time's sake.

Makes me think about my own memories with my own friends: the trips we took, our adventures that we had, the games we invented and played, some frustrations, some heartache, but all in all, those were great times that we had... I'm glad for all the time we all got to share, and I'll be having that pint with you all this New Year's eve, whether you know it or not. Here's to many more years as friends!

What the hell is her problem?!

2008-12-26T20:57:00.004-05:00

Blah.

This has gone on for long enough. I don't understand what her problem is. If I had done anything wrong to her, maybe it would be justified.... maybe it was something that I said? Maybe she was actually around one of the times when I was griping about her insanity? I don't know. What I know is, I did NOTHING wrong. And I have had enough of feeling like I should feel sorry for something. Like I should feel guilty for some wrongdoing.

And worst of all... puh-leease... you're supposed to be an ADULT, and if there is some kind of conflict, you TALK about it... not give nonanswers and snide smiles, or completely ignore my statements... which is totally SO high school.

Bitch.

That's why I have to stay away from them now. Can't go back there anymore. That's why I'm writing this... so that I remember the madness and insanity and not make the mistake of making contact again. If she wants me out, then out I will go. I don't want to be held responsible for anything... least of all the very things she might be accusing me of. I love them, but I love them too much to let her use me as a scapegoat for all the problems she may be having with them. From now on, it is THEIR problem to be dealt with, and I will keep my distance.

Merry. Fucking. Christmas.

Greetings from my gingerbread house

2008-12-24T15:13:00.003-05:00

Have a Merry Christmas everyone!

I love and miss you all....:)

Epic FAIL

2008-12-19T15:42:00.003-05:00

I woke up at 7, showered, and headed straight for the computer lab to finish studying for my GREs, which was scheduled for 1pm today. And then IT STARTED F*ING SNOWING.

Please be sure to note the lack of any plowing on the road and ice on the tree branches.

Just my luck, I guess.

I tried venturing out anyway... but the ~~Black Magic Woman~~ Honda Civic could hardly even make it up the hill. The car kept swerving to the right every time I went from stop to go, and I even redlined the engine as I was trying to get myself moving. Seriously, I might as well have been driving on a frozen pond. Disgusted, I turned back.

Oh well, it's all good I guess... I wasn't really feeling all that prepared anyway, even if I had gotten there, how the heck was I going to get back it was going to start raining while I was taking the test, and I would have to deal with rush hour? Bugger, bugger, bugger. It seems like yet another disappointing venture in the quest to figure out my future.

Come to think of it... this all sounds awfully familiar...

Oh yea, that was the story of my life this semester.

Peace of mind... for only $29.99!

2008-12-18T12:37:00.004-05:00

You know you watch too much TV when you start having opinions about advertisements that you see... and not just because it's the Christmas season either. Okay, so studying for the GRE is a snore, and I'm just taking a break okay?

But anyway, back to what I was saying, even with a downturn in the economy it seems like there's nothing you can't buy these days.

Wife getting old and wrinkly? Treat her to a facelift this Christmas! Now at a special price... a $5,000 value for only $299! What a bargain. She'll thank you for the renewed confidence she has from feeling like a million bucks.

If you're not the kinda guy who'll forgo watching the game on TV with the guys for helping your girlfriend bathe her puppy while she's out, do not fret. Just get her diamond jewelry! The perfect substitute for telling her that you actually give a crap about her wishes and needs and wants. Toodles or Fluffly or Mr. Schnookums or whatever can deal with being dirty.

Too lazy to make Christmas dinner? Have it delivered to you! And if you act soon, we'll even throw in your very own punch bowl with a ladle absolutely free of charge.

Shopping for Christmas too overwhelming for you? Get peace of mind with this 3-CD meditation set. And if you call NOW, we'll throw in affirmation booklets and a sample journal entry... a $150 dollar value for only $29.99!

If you live life in front of the TV, I guess it just seems like if you have problem, there's a solution you can buy that will fix it. No one really takes the time to ride through the hard times, accept that wrinkling is just a part of old age (I guess I can't speak to that since I'm not quite there yet), get off their asses and DO something nice for their loved one instead of just buying them something and hoping that they'll be happy you did. All you have to do is call.

I guess coming from a culture where we are not bombarded by these consumerist messages, it is hard to take in all the consumption that comes during holiday seasons like Christmas. Where are the messages about Christmas spirit and getting with the family? I guess there are those feel-good movies but you have to PAY to see them. Petronas, Malaysia's oil and gas company, launches ads every major holiday season to remind us all what the holidays are really about.

Sure, it's an ad for the wrong holiday season (this one is for Chinese New Year), but the take home message is this: No matter how much money you have, nothing beats actually showing up and letting your loved ones know that you care. And that is what Christmas should be all about.

Okay. Back to studying for GREs. :P

A ray of sunshine on a rainy day

2008-12-10T23:38:00.003-05:00

This made my day.

It would too if your day consisted of waking up, getting on the computer and typing 7 pages worth of bullshit for a take home final. Only 3-4 more pages to go... yippee!

Sure beats going to class though. Happy finals!

Burnt out

2008-12-02T15:55:00.003-05:00

Career fair to coordinate tomorrow. Grading labs for students by tomorrow. Foundations final on Friday. Choir rehearsal on Saturday. Choir concert all day Sunday. Finals week after.
Still looking for jobs.
Still gotta look at those grad school applications.
Thanksgiving break was great, but not long enough.

At least I'm walking normally now....

Updates when all this madness is over!

Happy Halloween!

2008-10-31T23:02:00.001-04:00

This year... I'm a cowgirl who fell off her horse (crutches not shown). Original, huh?

I am special!

2008-10-28T05:46:00.004-04:00

I finally heard back from Parking Services, and for $25, I can get a permit to park in any faculty/staff spots till the end of this year! That beats the $2 a day I'm paying to park at the libary right now.

^^

Feeling kinda giddy right now, wonder if it's because it's 6 in the morning and I just pulled an all-nighter?

P.S. (7.00am): Whoever said a shower wakes you up from sleep clearly doesn't know what he/she is talking about.

Two weeks later

2008-10-22T21:29:00.002-04:00

I'm off the horrible hard brace.

My left knee is almost the same size as my right.

My left leg actually fits into pants (!)

Lehigh's parking services still hasn't done anything about my parking pass request so I can drive to classes.

My leg can go all the way around when I'm pedalling the exercise bike.

My stitches are off... I can shower without a baggie!

I'm learning how to walk all over again.

I can sleep on my side again!

The hard part is over.

I'm back to classes.

And looking forward to when I can go hiking again...:)

Monkey balls!

2008-10-12T11:26:00.002-04:00

Day 3 of my recovery... and I must say things are going swimmingly! I haven't been on any pain medication since Saturday (except for your everyday ibuprofen to reduce the swelling... ) and I'm doing just fine. :) Add that to the fact that my roommates took care of me the right after my surgery and my boyfriend took off working on Saturday to come wait on me hand and foot, I'd say I'm having the best recovery ever!

The procedure itself went well... I was pretty agitated the day of the surgery, despite trying to convince myself that it wasn't going to be so bad... The anaesthesiologist (sp?) came in and started explaining how he was going to sedate me through the IV drip in my wrist, then put nerve blockers on my leg so I wouldn't feel the pain right after coming out of surgery, and then put me under general anaesthesia when I'm in the surgery room... by the time he had sedated me, I had already fallen asleep from sheer exhaustion after trying to finish up projects and homework the day before.

The next thing I knew, I was up and groggy and my leg was in a big brace. They let me hang around for about 45 minutes and then turned me over to the care of Josh and Kai.

The leg, as promised, was numb... couldn't feel a thing, which I was thankful for since it seemed like it would hurt a lot. Was pretty funny actually, dragging it around like a piece of meat... I could poke it, bang it into stuff and not feel a thing. As soon as the tell-tale tingly feeling came when my foot regained feeling was back though, I popped a Percocet into my mouth and settled down to sleep.

My roommates Min Suk and Kitae brought me over to physical therapy the very next day.... NOT FUN... it's surprising how much muscle strength I lost in my left leg... even lifting it off the ground was difficult! Getting into the car was a whole other story... I basically stretched out over the entire back seat, and had to be extracted out by the brace very carefully...

Kevin arrived later Friday evening and, despite being tired from work, he made dinner while I was groggily smiling to myself upstairs (Percocet is an opiate [think "like morphine"] so it makes you pretty happy). The next day (Saturday) he was off buying more games for the Wii (like Super Monkeyball Banana Blitz, lol) and essential items for my recovery such as a bed desk for me to do work on and a bathroom stool and bucket so I could finally shower. What a great man.

And now... back to Monkeyballs...:)

My own biggest fan

2008-10-08T00:15:00.003-04:00

In a couple of days, I'll be able to emulate my favorite TV star, House... I'll have the limp, the cane will be upgraded to crutches, and I even have the pain meds!

Granted, it's not Vicodin (the strongest one I have is Percocet), but I'm not going to argue with it as long as it works.

On a slightly more serious note... the surgery for my knee is Thursday. I'm SO ready. I just sprained my knee again a couple of weeks ago by just kneeling in front of the TV trying to fix the cable.. I guess that's what happens when you don't have an ACL.

The doctor prescribed me three types of pain meds for after the fact: Motrin for mild pain, Lorcet for medium pain and Percocet for extreme pain. He gave me 20 each for the mild and medium pain, and doubled the amount for the extreme pain meds. Ouch.

I'll be out of commission for a couple of weeks... Jumping back into physical therapy the day after my surgery, and hopefully will be riding an exercise bike in 10 days, and off crutches after 3 weeks.

I welcome any sympathy, flowers, chicken soup, well-wishes, visits, rides, notes from class, homework to copy from, etc. in the meantime... :D

Wish me luck!

Cabin fever

2008-10-04T15:30:00.003-04:00

Too much homework!

Wanna go there instead... :(

Anywhere but here!

Whats up with Malaysian politics?

2008-09-24T13:13:00.003-04:00

I regret that I've been so busy this last month that I've only NOW realized that Malaysian politics seem to be going down the shithole.

Kenny Sia's entry a couple of weeks ago about the UMNO leader calling all Malaysian Chinese "squatters" in their own country! And then he goes on to tell us not to be like the "American Jews" who not only want to "control the economy but [...] want to dominate politics as well." Awtf... it seems like the 3-year suspension he got was just a slap on the wrist... surely if a Malaysian Chinese would've made a similar comment about the Malays he/she would've been locked up for many years under the Internal Security Act. What a load of bullshit.

And it seems like our former Deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim and our current Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi is engaged in some sort of he said, he said argument about Anwar's attempt to take over the country... and no one from either party can either confirm nor deny the fact that they are in talks about handing over power?

Add that to rising food costs and fuel prices... seems like Malaysia's heading towards a tumultuous time... Anyone can shed some light on this? How are things going over there?

One month later...

2008-09-23T16:32:00.002-04:00

I notice that as I grow older, it gets harder to get back into rhythm after the summer holidays... even when my summer holidays consisted of working for 10 weeks followed by a whirlwind vacation in Malaysia (i.e., lots to do). But... as things go... it's finally business as usual for me.

I FINALLY have a little time to take a quick breather from schoolwork and thinking about my life after college (two things that occupy a large part of my mind these days). A lot has happened this month, including:

Getting a combination of strep (a really bad sore throat) and a strange rash that started as soon as I got back to school
Finally scheduling my knee surgery
Lots of driving to see Kevin at work
Getting a Wii (!!) and being a total bum on weekends
Figuring out what to do with the rest of my life

I won't go into being sick (not a pleasant memory)... but for those of you I didn't tell, I sprained my knee pretty badly last semester (good drinking + bad dancing = bad life decision), and it never really got better over the summer.

So I went to see a specialist in Malaysia who demonstrated with a really neat little knee shift how my knee was in pretty bad shape. As it turns out, the MRI I had when I got back to the US showed a missing ligament. I think the words the doc used were "pretty much decimated." So yea, surgery... in TWO WEEKS nontheless. A little nervous about the rehab, but... it had to be.

On better things, Kevin bought a Wii (yay!) and left it at my house, so I've been glued to the idiot box playing Mario Kart and Mario and Sonic at the Olympics on weekends. By far the most fun I've had is Mario and Sonic at the Olympics... this game for me is perfect for the Wii, since you actually have to shake the Wii-mote and imitate some of the actions in such events as hammer throw, running, swimming, rowing, and archery (my favorite). The game actually gets you pretty worked up...

As for life decisions, who knows what they really want to do, eh? I wanna go to work, but it seems like most companies won't hire international students with only B.S. degrees. So, it's back to the drawing board? I dunno.... not really a big fan of the idea of going back to school again for at least another 2 years (if i want to get funded). I'm still waiting for HatchMott to give me something, anything.

Well, there you have it... my life in the past month in a nutshell. Hope I didn't bore you all to death. heh. Coming soon... pictures of my new room...:)

Elbows

2008-08-23T15:42:00.002-04:00

Sidenote: As I write this... I'm in hour 6 of my wait at Stockholm airport. They had a small problem with the plane and we might have to spend the night... this is NOT my day.

-------------------------------------------------------

Once again, I was jarred from precious sleep. Elbows was at it again. Her baby, (I shall call him Wailer) mewed and fussed. Can’t people have a little bit of consideration?? I thought to myself as her elbow jabbed into my side all the while tending to Wailer. I mean, I know that space on a plane is at a premium here, but I thought at least we were supposed to stay within the limits of our handrests??

…And is that a soiled diaper I feel on my footspace!? That is IT.

As always, in order to cut down on jetlag after flights to the States, I had slept little the night before, in hopes that I could just pass out on the plane. Thanks to that little stratagem, I was tired, grumpy, and ready to smack the living daylights out of Wailer. (Either that or give him a spoonful of whiskey… I hear that knocks them out). I’ve had experiences with screaming babies before, but not quite like this.

How, of all the places, did I manage to get the seat next to the one baby on this flight. Again, Elbows with her, well… elbows.

She looked like she had come right from India… the box that she fished her son’s medication out of was all in Tamil, or Hindu, which confirmed my suspicions. Passengers bound for the U.S. from India through Malaysia airlines usually have to first fly from India to Malaysia, then backtrack to Sweden and the U.S. Why they can’t have a direct flight, I don’t know… maybe just not enough people to fill the plane.

She must’ve been flying for a while before this.

Her features were young, if I were to guess, she couldn’t have been any older than 25, 26, but what do I know about guessing people’s ages. She looked young. And the baby was sick, coughing away. She was travelling alone, no husband to accompany her. He was probably waiting for her in New York.

As she got up with the child to walk him around the cabin, I shifted the soiled diaper back towards her footrest. Lady, I feel bad, but really, soiled diaper is where I draw the line here.
Wailer was asleep when she came back around. After she laid him in the bassinet, she herself settled into a fitful sleep, her young features ragged and worn. Time to catch a moment’s respite, not matter how short.

Peace and quiet now… at least, until the baby wakes up again.

My favorite commercials

2008-08-21T03:49:00.005-04:00

So there's this new mobile network in Malaysia that's offering a pay-as-you-go package... how it's different from other mobile networks in Malaysia, I'm not sure, but their ads are damn funny!

Apparently Nadia knows the guy from the 'teh tarik' commercial.

There's another Henna tattoo one, but not as original/funny... Definitely Malaysiana at it's best!

OMG is it really already the 20th??

2008-08-19T12:01:00.002-04:00

School starts in five days!
I leave in three!

I still need supplies... Just ordered my books... gotta get my affairs in order...
See everyone one more time before I leave....

Time is always running out.
Must.
maximize.
efficiency.

I haz randum pikturez

2008-08-08T12:24:00.005-04:00

The thing about having a camera on your cellphone is that, you get great pictures, at random times that you forget about! I discovered that the other day while in the hospital waiting room for three hours waiting for my turn (we'll leave that for another day)... The result: a treasure trove of random pictures I want to share with all of you...

Seen outside the petstore in MidValley... can anyone tell me what the heck a "Herptile" is??

She sells seashells by the seashore...
Taken during a school field trip to the beach.

Team leader Tim Coull completing our diagram for our water tank for the water distribution system for the village of Pueblo Nuevo in Honduras. My senior design project.

Chris and McDreamy? Ooh la la...

This was from a geology field trip to a limestone quarry. Check out the sensuous curves of that rock face, the fluid folds that occured during millions of years of burial, compression and uplift. It's like looking at Geology porn...

Just another lazy spring day on Lehigh's campus...

What can you do with an old steel bridge truss, a table, cups and lots and lots of beer? Well, leave it up to us Civil Engineers to turn it into Lehigh's favorite pastime of a good ol' game of Beirut... (a bastardization of beer pong)

Yes, that is only one table. Two halves of one table, to be exact.

I got really excited (I don't know why) when I stopped for gas and my odometer hit 50,000 miles exactly one night.

Finally, I present to you... the most spoiled dog in the world.

On coming home

2008-08-03T11:21:00.004-04:00

Sidenote:

So last night I discovered how small Malaysia really is...

I went clubbing at Velvet in Zouk KL with Putt, Cyn, Fishy and Shirley...when Putt swung by Fishy's house to pick her up, he saw Shirley and recognized her instantly from when he met her through a mutual friend, Tasha, who used to go to primary school with Shirley. Then at the club, we met some dudes who had studied in the states as well... This guy Adrian who went to Harvard was roommates with a guy who was Putt's senior in high school, and also former roommates with Andrew, who was my friend Satiesh's friend from Lehigh! Not to mention the reason I knew Putt was because I met him five years ago at the AFS orientation after my exchange year in the States and his friend Nikhil had stayed with my friend Pepe from Soria, Spain as an exchange student.

----------------------------------------

After living in the States and traveling around for almost 6 years, "home" seems like an abstract, undefinable concept to me. At this point, I've lived in the States for a much longer time than my stay here at "home", Malaysia. When I go back to my house at Lehigh after class, I go "home," but going over to my host parent's the Blaus' house for holidays is also going "home."

Maybe this is a mechanism I subconsciously employ to help me cope with the fact that I'm far away from the people I love, that I've grown up with. It seems like I lead a double life sometimes, one in the States and one in Malaysia. As much as I miss Malaysia, I don't really think about it when I'm in the States, and as much as I enjoy my time in the States, I don't think about life there either when I'm back in Malaysia.

Well, that was true up until recently. It seems like the two lives are starting to blend together... It's usually easy for me to compartmentalize my life when the people I meet in the States and the people I know in Malaysia don't really mix. But within the last year or so, I've had Bridget from the States visit, I visited Candis at her internship in Singapore, I've also seen Kevin, Daryl's cousin on a number of occasions, Putt came to visit from Michigan for his spring break and is now back to stay in Malaysia, and my boyfriend Kevin is now visiting me in Malaysia... it's not so easy to compartmentalize now.

Maybe it's about time I came to terms with what I really am: A girl with her right foot firmly planted in Malaysia and her left foot in the States. If you asked me a month ago, I would tell you without hesitation, I could live in the States. Now though, you could probably convince me to stay in Malaysia... pay cut or no pay cut. No matter what, we all want to go back to what we grew up around eventually...

I guess the key is now to find the balance. I still think that I could live in the States, but I'd have to be able to visit Home whenever I wanted... *cross fingers* We'll see if that happens

My last day at work!

2008-07-25T13:55:00.002-04:00

I walk into the office this morning, and a bunch of my coworkers were hanging around my friend Mike's cubicle, deep in discussion. I walk into my cubicle and sitting there was a brown paper bag with a note that said, "Just in case the water cooler isn't good enough." It was signed V. I immediately recall a conversation I had with V earlier in the week that went something like this:

V: So what time are you showing up to work on your last day?
SN: Err... the usual time... at 8?
Yo, you should so totally show up drunk to work!
Are you kidding me? I'm planning on getting blitzed throughout the day!

I open the bag with some trepidition and sure enough, inside are 9 little bottles of Smirnoff vodka in flavors such as: Vanilla, Strawberry, Watermelon, Lime, Citrus, Cranberry...

Apparently he took me seriously.

Later on during lunch, I discovered why they had been hanging out around my cube. There is a prank played by one of the characters on another in a show called the Office where he steals his coworker's stapler and suspends it in Jello... sorta like this:

Apparently, they were trying to do it with my coffee mug, but since I took the coffee mug home yesterday, they tried to do it with V's mug. It worked well for about 5 seconds at which point Jello started oozing all over the table. Apparently he hadn't let the Jello set for long enough, or it had been 'compromised' while sitting in his car. Either way, they had a mess to clean up before I arrived.

They did a good job, because up to that point, I had no idea.

I am going to miss Hatch Mott!

As I promised...:)

2008-07-20T23:36:00.003-04:00

Here are my pictures from the summer...

First off... Graduation! Yes, the time has come for us people in the class of 2008 of Lehigh to don our caps and gown and proudly strut our stuff for graduation. Oh, except for yours truly... Mine's not till next year. This year, I got to sit through my friends' graduation ceremony... at least until it started pouring...

But here's to good times together, eh?

Actually, we did do something together the week before graduation... also known as Senior Week. Instead of braving hurricane-speed winds and evacuations from hotel rooms like some of our other counterparts, we very cleverly managed to pick the window of great weather to go camping down in Assateague National Seashore, about 5 minutes outside of Ocean City, Maryland where the rest of the Lehigh seniors were.

Cool thing about this park was the wild horses that run around the campsite... it's pretty cool for the first 1/2 hour, and then you realize... horses poop. And they poop a lot. But as my friend Da (quoting a TV show, the Dog Whisperer) says, "You gotta establish your DOMINANCE!"

As you can see, the horses come up pretty close...

For Vicky's last weekend in the states before leaving for Taiwan... we decided a night in the city would be appropriate.

This shall forever be known as the time Chris Chen was outdrunk by our very own Vicky Yen. Take a bow, Chris, take a bow.

Two weeks later, Henry and Gina were kind enough to let us raid their beach house down in Atlantic City... and somehow the 10 of us were able to squeeze into their 2-bedroom duplex. Anything's possible if you don't mind sleeping on the floor!

A trip to the beach is not complete without the burial of someone in the sand. Above, we enhanced James' ahem... manhood... and completely emasculated Kevin...

One thing I love about summers is barbecues and the thing I love about barbecues is that guys are completely willing to take over kitchen duties. I dunno, must be something about the open flames that makes guys think they're Mr. Man. So while Candis and I are sipping on our beers...

Kevin regains his manhood by grillin like a villain. Check out the cigar/beer combo. Baller. That's our hostess Gina in the background, by the way. She's awesome.

Speaking of Kevin... I knew I'd hit the jackpot when I came back from work one Friday and walked into this:

Friday, June 13, 2008... Kevin and I become official. No, we are not superstitious about the date.

Actually, the first 'official' date we had, he took me out to the city for dinner, and as soon as we stepped out of the parking garage into the street, the sky just opened up and poured on us... we still had about 4 or 5 blocks to walk to the restaurant, and by the time we got to the restaurant, we were completely soaked. And I was wearing a white dress. Nevertheless... dinner was good, and the wine was excellent. And we're still not superstitious about the date.

I took the Thursday before July 4th weekend off to go down to Lehigh with Kevin, went to get my oil changed and some minor tweaks done on the car (it runs like i just got it out of the dealership!) and went cherry picking...

Kevin and I picked 8 lbs (about 4 kg) of cherries... and Kai must've picked about the same amount... they were good though... mm... cherries.

Then on Sunday, we went rafting with James and Da...

Da gives me his best action shot.

And Kevin forgets to pick up lunch. I'm hungry... and he's happy? Actually he apologized profusely. The view made it all better though...

Martindalers Jeremy, Bridget and I had a little gathering in New York... just cause... you always need an excuse to drink! We started off the night at an all-you-can-eat-and-drink sushi place at 6.00pm and hit a couple of bars before passing out at 12.30 am. Found an amazing bar called Cooper 35 Asian Pub that had $4 drinks (including mojitos and sangria) till midnight... and after midnight it was $5... so worth it.

Jeremy got really excited about the Jaeger machine (prounounced yay-ger)... Jaeger kinda tastes like cinnamon? I never had it... apparently it's good for Jaeger bombs.... Jaeger and Red Bull... sounds like a recipe for disaster.

Apparently the table behind us was more excited about $4 drinks than we were. They should be... the other bar we were at before charged $8 for a glass of wine, and it was still on the cheaper side.

And yes, I am ending on this picture. Because it's full of symbolism. In his hands, Jeremy celebrates his first succesfull attempt at eating with chopsticks and discovering sake bombs. In mine, I make a toast to the $4 sangria.

And somehow... I managed to find time to go to work too!

People!! I am still alive!!!

2008-07-14T21:58:00.004-04:00

So.... yea... about the lack of updates for the last month... I could give excuses, say that I was busy, work and boyfriend's been filling up my schedule (it really has!) BUT... I know, I have neglected you guys... and for that, I am sorry!

I can't believe how the summer has flown by... it feels like just yesterday that I started working at Hatch Mott, and now, 8 weeks later, it just feels like work has flown by. It started a little slow, but now I'm doing just about the same things as my first-year employee colleague... I even have my own project that I'm working on! Tomorrow I will accompany my supervisor to Princeton to meet with some clients and visit a site... something that I only saw on paper right before my very eyes... This is why I became an engineer in the first place!

Socially, I've been trying to get to know my other colleagues at work... After being at HMM for 8 weeks, there are certain things you learn about people, how the social dynamic works... it certainly wasn't as hunky dory as I initially thought it was (just like everywhere else, there is much politicking) but I still think that people are generally very willing to share what's going on. I tried to start some kind of happy hour thing for the new hires, and hopefully it'll turn into a weekly social thing... too bad I won't be around to enjoy it when I leave, BUT... at least there'll be a nice social scene for when I go back after graduation (fingers crossed!).

Other than work, the weekends have just been spent hanging out with Kevin doing various things... like visiting my friend Henry at his and his girlfriend's beach house over the weekend, partying in NY for James' birthday, cherry picking and whitewater rafting over Fourth of July weekend, and just getting to know each other...:)

There will probably be some people who are surprised by the news about me and Kevin, and for that, I apologize. Sometimes there is no way to just bring it up. I didn't mean to be secretive, and I wasn't really hiding it from anyone. It's just that I never made it known to the world.

Pictures to follow... when I get a spare moment. I am alive and well, and in less than two weeks, I will be on a plane on the way home and seeing family and reverting back to my high school days. I can't wait to see you all! :)

For Father's Day...

2008-06-15T10:55:00.005-04:00

"What do you want to be when you grow up?" The father asked his daughter. "Do you want to be a a teacher like your mommy?"

The little girl shook her head. "I don't know if I will have the patience to teach"

"Do you want to be an engineer like your papa?"

She shook her head all the more vigorously. "No way! Your work is boring...I wanna be a scientist... an inventor!"

And so the little girl kept that thought in her head through primary school, secondary school, and eventually came the time when she was not so little anymore and on her way to college.

"Ma" she said, "I thought about it. I think I want to be an engineer. A civil engineer, just like Papa! When I was little, I didn't know how important what he did really was. Now I understand, it is because of people like him that we get to enjoy modern living like being able to drive on roads, having electricity, and clean water to drink. I want to do that too, to make a difference in everyone's lives, even if they don't know it!"

"Sue Nee" said her mom, "Your Papa will be very proud of you."

Happy Father's Day, Papa!

Know that all my acheivements could not have been done without your neverending support all my life....:)

More nerdy humor.. it's LOLgraphs!

2008-05-28T23:49:00.003-04:00

more graph humor and song chart memes

I love their song references...

I'z at work... blogging blogs

2008-05-27T15:14:00.000-04:00

So I started my internship at Hatch Mott MacDonald (most of my friends only hear the 'MacDonald' part and are like, you're interning at McDonald's??) last week.... it's not too bad, last week was a 4-day week for me since Monday was Lehigh's graduation... followed by another 4-day week this week since Monday was Memorial Day. What a way to ease into the working schedule, eh?

I've been kept busy with mostly busy work, although I've been promised that things get more and more interesting as time goes by. I really like it here though, the atmostphere kind of reminds me of my internship at SMHB... and everyone's really nice and friendly, and willing to show me the ropes. I've learned a lot already about water works (funny the things they don't teach you in college)... but what I've had for the last 4 years has somewhat prepared me for this job.

Anyways... I guess I should go looking for something to do... can't have ppl staring at me like "who does the intern think she is??". Hopefully more updates to follow, time permitting, of course!

The end

2008-05-11T21:55:00.006-04:00

Okay.... so it's not THAT bad... we both knew it was coming but still... actually doing it was painful. I guess breakups never are easy, whether you're the one to break it off or the one being dumped.

It was really the most mutual thing too... kind of like how we started. We never really had a set start date... like a day when we were official... we were friends, then we started hanging out together a lot more, then we just sorta slipped into the 'going out stage'...

The night we made it official I don't think either one of us knew that that was going to be it. He came over, as usual, we hugged and then he asked me when he would see me again (or did I ask him?) and then it just hit the both of us. I guess it was because we had talked about it before, but neither of us had really acknowleged it until then. We held onto each other for a long time and cried until finally he had to go...

What we had... it was special. I guess there is some reason I spent almost 4 years of my life with him, right? We had so much fun together... trips to Washington DC, Boston, New Orleans, nights spent just hanging out and watching movies, going out to dinner... We both hated confrontations, so we never really argued or fought... which was both a good thing and bad thing, since things never get said... just buried. There wasn't any deep or buried resentment though, which was what was great about us, we just let each other grow in our own spaces and we both gave as much support to each other as we could. We worked really well together.

I think our fundamental problem was that we were just too different fundamentally. Religion was never one of the issues that was really brought up between us, but it was no secret that his mother resented the fact that I wasn't Christian. I had no feelings on that matter... to me, religion is a very personal thing and it was great that he never really pressured me to convert or anything, although I know it would have meant a great deal to him. I was also more liberal, he more conservative. And then there was the business...

Don't get me wrong... I wasn't the perfect girlfriend by any means. We all have problems.

And so here we are... at this point. I'm glad it ended the way it ended... sort of bittersweet, but thankfully, without much drama. I know there will be some pain as the transition goes from being 'taken' to being single... but I'll live. AND we can still be friends... so it was all I could hope for, and more. We'll see where life's journey takes me, but for now... I'll just ride whatever comes my way.

You will always have a special place in my heart.

So cute!

2008-05-11T02:58:00.004-04:00

A little something to hold you guys over while I work on updates.... been partying hard lately...XD

What we all need right now...

2008-05-02T00:53:00.005-04:00

28-Hour Day

(click for larger image)

for more nerdy humor: xkcd.com will satisfy your needs

It's finals week... and I'm busy (go figure!)

However, if you do see me online on AIM/MSN... feel free to talk to me... I welcome all distractions! :)

Can't wait till Sunday... when I'm done... Summer plans ahoy!

If my life were a Korean drama...

2008-05-01T22:19:00.000-04:00

It might go something like this:

Our heroine is a plucky young individual with a seemingly perfect life. Good grades, friends... not to mention a steady long-term boyfriend who looks like a pop star we all fantasized about in our teenage years. Of course, nothing is as it seems, yada yada yada, lo and behold she's really in a rut.

Enter a new love interest. He seems to have everything she wants... he's witty, a great listener and fun to be with. A breath of fresh air. Intrigued, she spends a good part of a semester going through great lengths to see more of this new person, pursuing him, almost... which leads to some hilarious situations.

In the end, she realizes by the end of the semester that she needs to return her life to status quo. She ends the dead-end relationship, and in doing so realizes that she pursued her love interest so ardently because he represented everything that her ex used to be and that she wished he was. Oh, and plus he is in love with someone else. Minor detail.

Now that she is alone, she hesistatingly embraces her single life... going out with friends, having a grand ol' time, and catching up with the people she'd been neglecting for a while.

She confides in an old friend... *flashback* He had come to her when he was going through his breakup a few years ago with his long term girlfriend (an old roommate of hers), and so she feels that it was just as right that she confided in him. She spends the night comiserating ad nauseum about the death of her relationship, and her recent mess of a semester. He listens diplomatically, being that he is also friends with her recent ex.

A few days later, he confides that he has feelings for her. *the audience sees it coming, of course* She, not knowing what to do at first, tells him to give her some time to think. They end up together a month later.

And then someone dies of cancer. I say that because most writers for Korean dramas seem to hate happy endings.

Seriously, though.... if real life were that exciting, we would be too occupied with our own drama to watch it on TV, wouldn't it? I guess it's a good thing most of us lead lives that are uneventful enough to keep these people in business...

*wink wink*

Most romantic poem ever

2008-04-28T01:43:00.002-04:00

The Square Root of 3 by Dave Feinberg

I’m sure that I will always be
A lonely number like root three
The three is all that’s good and right,
Why must my three keep out of sight
Beneath the vicious square root sign,
I wish instead I were a nine
For nine could thwart this evil trick,
with just some quick arithmetic
I know I’ll never see the sun, as 1.7321
Such is my reality, a sad irrationality

When hark! What is this I see,
Another square root of a three
As quietly co-waltzing by,
Together now we multiply
To form a number we prefer,
Rejoicing as an integer
We break free from our mortal bonds
With the wave of magic wands
Our square root signs become unglued
Your love for me has been renewed

P.S. if you haven't seen the new Harold and Kumar movie yet... it is one hell of an experience. Not recommended if you have a stick up your ass. Really.

Other movies that look promising (for the summer)

Pineapple Express (brought to you by the dudes who did Superbad) - Seth Rogan does some good weed and witnesses a murder, then proceeds to go into hiding with his dealer... much laughter ensues (?)
The Dark Knight - Heath Ledger's last performance as the Joker. It's supposed to be sick... and more dark and twisted than the last productions of Batman. So full of promise.

There were others, but I can't remember them right now. Back to Structural Geology.

News! News!! News!!!

2008-04-07T01:25:00.002-04:00

Too lazy for words... and as they say, pictures paint a thousand words...?

February 7, 2008. BETHLEHEM, PA- Passed driver's test on my 6th try... yes... 6th!

February 8th, 2008. RHODE ISLAND -

Visited my friend Rissy (the one in the middle) with a couple of Field Camp buddies...

We almost missed the ferry up to Connecticut... second to last car in. Pretty clutch.

Hanging out with geologists usually means an outing looking at rocks...

But you get to see some pretty things along the way

This is the weekend I learned about the beauty that is Rock Band...

February 14th, 2008. BETHLEHEM, PA - Josh and I went out for a (rare) outing for Valentine's day.... and I walk in to this sitting on the stairs...

of course, we stay up till 3 in the morning 'testing' it out...

February 16, 2008. BETHLEHEM, PA - Dinner at Italian restaurant Bravo followed by a night of silliness and SoCo and Lime at MacGrady's...

February 22, 2008. BETHLEHEM, PA - Kai and my themed party at Element... and Putt's arrival. All in one exciting, fun-filled, ohmygoddidireallytakethatpicture night...

Between Kai and I... we invited just about everyone we knew... and the troopers really showed up despite the shitty weather (ice and rain)...

February 28, 2008. PHILADELPHIA, PA - At the airport leaving for Los Angeles, CA to visit our friend Jiselle for spring break!
This one, however, deserves its own entry... so I'll leave you all hanging for another day... hahaha.

March 24, 2008. BETHLEHEM, PA - I got my car!!!

That is all.

Just another day in Dave's structural geology class

2008-03-22T16:25:00.003-04:00

Scene: after 2 hours of looking at a rock face on a road cut trying to draw a fold in the rock and taking measurements, we drive to our next stop and pull over at the side of the road...

Dave: Okay guys... we're just gonna cross this 4-lane highway... try not to get run over... and then walk along on the south side, cross the river, and when you get to the other side, just hop over the guardrail, and go under the bridge abutment. Walk along the railroad tracks, upstream and then follow me up an 80-degree slope to our next outcrop.

...........say what??

The word was Kangaroo...

2008-02-25T03:32:00.005-05:00

So a bunch of friends and I were playing Pictionary (on a Sunday night... what?) and it was a Battle of the Sexes of sorts...

Believe it or not... the guys beat the girls... wtf?

On a side note, this has been an awesome month. So awesome, I don't have time to blog about it because there is much work that needs catching up on. Two exams this week and then we're leaving for LA (READ: Los Angeles) on Friday... woot!

AND... my friend Putt from Michigan is here to visit... hence Pictionary till 3.00 in the morning on a Sunday night...

I'm going to pay for this next week.

Valentines Day... You and I has it!

2008-02-14T00:02:00.001-05:00

I am super annoyed!

2008-02-13T12:38:00.005-05:00

Last year it didn't snow till January, and I thought it was bad.

THIS year takes the cake.

This is THE SECOND TIME it's snowed one day and then rained the next... and it's seriously getting ridiculous considering I have to literally swim through the giant puddles in the snow depressions on the streets just to get to class... PLUS my hardy semi-waterproof hiking shoes are AWOL. Sitting in class dripping wet with toenails a bright muave is not exactly the best conditions to be taking an exam in.

Fuck big industry and your polluting fumes, stupid rich people and your stupid SUVs, and stupid Industrial Revolution for the global warming that is causing this.

This is war.

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On other things... I was scanning The Sun for news on Malaysia's upcoming elections (seems little sudden to me) and came across this piece of news on a new RM5 billion project in the boondocks of Sarawak called SCORE or Sarawak Corridor Of Renewable Energy.

Thinking this was maybe a project to set up a solar power plant or something, I read on and discovered that it's little more than a pact between the government and some oil companies in the area (the East coast of Sarawak is oil-rich and has been explored by many oil companies) to provide power to develop a strip of virgin rainforest in Sarawak to encourage economic growth... one of the projects being an aluminium smelting plant.

WTF.

What does a smelting plant have to do with 'renewable energy'? First of all, the energy supply is coming from oil companies, which is definitely NOT renewable... not only that, the aluminiumm smelting plant will release so much heavy metals and pollution into the air that the surrounding forest will be dead and gone soon.

Not that I'm all for development to reduce the "hardcore poverty" in Sarawak, but hey, how's bout calling this what it is? Sarawak Corridor Development Project or something... There's buzzwords and then there's just outright lies...

-_-"

Road Test

2008-02-07T17:51:00.000-05:00

borrowed from http://www.pbfcomics.com/

Okay so it didn't go THAT bad... I finally PASSED!

I now have the license to ~~kill~~ drive...

*evil laughter ensues*

Happy Year of the Rat!

2008-02-07T00:39:00.000-05:00

Image borrowed from disney-clipart.com

Just so you guys know... it's the second time around the year of the rat has come my way... which means by Chinese age I'm actually 24... -_-" damn old wei wtf...

ANYWAY... it's my FIFTH Chinese New Year away from home, and I must say, it doesn't get any easier... I was looking through some other pictures to put up on here for my Chinese New Year entry, and nostalgia just hit me like the smell of firecrackers on chinese New Year... yep with a bang. I could even smell the gunpowder.

But seriously... it's been too long since I felt the hot dry Chinese New Year air on my skin and my never before worn clothes, smelled the firecrackers, the joss sticks, saw red, red, red everywhere, heard those annoying high-pitched girls on TV singing chinese new year songs (I miss them too!) and the cousins running around screaming, crying, tasted the food that took the aunties all day to prepare...

People in the US have Christmas... I have Chinese New Year... I think some part of me inside feels a little sad everytime this time of the year rolls around because I remember that yet AGAIN, everyone will be busy asking for their angpows (red packets with money in them) and admiring each others' new clothes. And of course, everyone's back at the family home in Malacca for a week... playing Playstation, basketball, cycling through the village, and maybe this year they're old enough to even start gambling? We'll see. Anyway, everytime I'm on the phone with my mom or Ama (paternal grandmother) they never fail to remind me that I'm the only one missing out on festivities. As if I needed reminding.

But hey, I'm beginning to think this entry sounds a little depressing, and actually I feel far from that right now. I know that everyone at home will be thinking of me and missing me... and pretty soon once I get out into the work force, I'll be able to pick my own holidays and maybe be able to go home for Chinese New Year again...:)

So I hope everyone enjoys their New Year celebrations, and I hope that this year will be a fruitfull one for all my unmarried comerades who will be getting that little red packet....:)

GONG XI FA CAI WAN XI RU YI HONG BAO KUAI KUAI JI GUO LAI!

These things only happen to other people...

2008-01-30T21:19:00.000-05:00

Or so you think.

My parents got mugged outside our house in Sri Petaling today! WTF. I think the last time something like that happened was when some thieves broke into our front porch and stole our shoes. Even that also damn scary, okay?

Looking back on my years in Sri Petaling I guess we had our fair share of crime... several houses on the street next to mine were burgled in one night a couple of years ago, all my friends have been mugged on at least one occasion coming home late at night, a family friend had their car stolen, my parents had their car stolen, the jewelry store at the local mall was robbed by the AK-47 gang, there are several rumoured gangsters living in our area with several store fronts for their operations... one of the most sensational crimes in our area happened when I was still in high school... A husband and wife were slaughtered by their Cambodian workers who lived with them in their own home. They were found by their teenage son coming home from school... (not mine) Imagine coming home and finding your parents gruesomely murdered!

Anyway... so back to my parents... so apparently this mugging happened at 7.05 in the morning RIGHT IN FRONT OF MY HOUSE. The buggers pulled up in a motorcycle next to our car which my dad was cleaning off before driving to work. The guy in the back jumped out and pulled out a parang (machete)... my dad lost his work bag and about RM100 in cash... apparently the robbers dropped my dad's PDA out of his bag in their haste to get out of there.

Thankfully, my dad escaped unscathed... they only wanted his work bag (which, God knows WHAT is freaking valuable about a freaking work bag), the situation could've gotten SO much worse and this scares the hell out of me.

But seriously...who the hell gets mugged at 7 in the morning?! It's not like it's the dead of night when no one is around. And what the hell were they trying to get?? A freaking work bag? What they want to steal the plans for the dam that my dad is working on? I guess they thought it had a laptop or something, but the most expensive thing in the bag fell out anyway!

The police should start doing their jobs for once and stop doing their stupid road blocks looking for 'compensation' on late nights... then maybe crime will be down a little bit. Maybe our government needs to pay our cops more so that they don't have to go out and look for 'duit kopi'.

As for the muggers... ihopeyourmotorbikecrasheswhileyouretryingtodoyourstupidrempitstuntsyouassholes... I just hope that they remember that karma can be quite a bitch.

Malaysian entertainment goes online

2008-01-26T02:58:00.001-05:00

Frankly, I've never subscribed to Malaysian locally-produced entertainment because oftentimes it ends up just being something really cliche or just one physical gag after another. I guess I've become somewhat of an entertainment 'snob' because I am more entertained by more subtle forms of humor like House or the Office. Also, most of the time, when Malaysia attempts to do something more 'Western', *ahem*Akademi Fantasia*ahem* it usually falls flat on its face.

What really survives though, are the comedies that really portray Malaysian life... I remember Baba dan Nyonya as a kid... and I used to follow Kopitiam religiously. Phua Chu Kang was classic, but it's Singaporean, so I can't really claim that. There were definitely a couple of other shows in there as well, but nothing really stands out at the moment. Something that shows the interaction between the races, explores it, pokes at it... that's where the humor really is. But we're so careful of trying not to offend all the time that most of the time, we stick to the safe, slapstick, physical cliches and we don't grow...

However... I learned about a new online show called Malaysian Talents.com through Kennysia.com that attempts to inject an Office-esque humor into Malaysian entertainment. Of course, the humor of 'The Office" is that the characters are all bumbling idiots and have no idea how to communicate with each other. Now, the Office it is not, but hey... It's a start! Kudos to Douglas Lim for going for it... I think it shows a faith in the Malaysian public that says "now we can trust you to enjoy some more subtle humor". I think new episodes are posted every Tuesday and Thursday, and because it's online, it means that I can FINALLY get my fix of Malaysian entertainment without any fuss.

Maybe it's just the fact that i've been away from Malaysia for so long. Can anyone out there please tell me that i'm terribly, terribly wrong and there have been amazing shows playing at home?

Now, if I could only get some old Kopitiam episodes... that would make my day.

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On another note... there's also Malaysian Dream Girl, which if I were in Malaysia I would SO go and audition for just for the pure heck of it. Haha... Nadia, I think I'd be really disappointed if I didn't see you going for auditions. Take this as a dare...

Another semester, another year

2008-01-15T22:40:00.001-05:00

I believe that the first week of school is there to lull you into a false sense of security for the rest of the semester.... something like oh yea... I still have time to rent Superbad and watch it on a school night... I bet I could do this and coast through the rest of the semester and still get an A.

WRONG!!! YOU FAIL.

Anyway.... I guess I will enjoy it while it lasts... go grocery shopping for 3 hours, then bathing suit shopping with a friend, spend long hours cooking dinner, and go to a bar on Wednesday night for another friend's birthday.

Just until the workload piles up and it's bye bye social life for the rest of the semester...

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On other things... my New Year's resolution is to take better care of myself. I don't usually make New Year's resolutions, because I tend to forget about them after a while, but I figure you know... taking care of myself should be a pretty high priority-type thing right? so... we'll try it.

I want to:

1. Do yoga everyday
2. Go to the gym at least 3 times a week
3. EAT BREAKFAST
4. Stop beating myself up
5. Ask to be treated as I want to be treated by certain parties.
6. Start grooming myself more and remember to shower everyday (yes, as disgusting as it may sound, I actually forget to shower sometimes... good thing I'm not one to have strong B.O.... or so I last checked anyway)

Good luck to me I guess... If I remember this by next month I'll be sure to give you guys an update...:)

My Carribbean vacation

2008-01-05T23:42:00.000-05:00

Note: So... I just saw this ad on TV the other day: Hummer Commercial
Pretty ironic considering the extreme weather patterns are being caused by global warming, which is caused by carbon dioxide emissions, which gas guzzling vehicles like... you guessed it...the HUMMER contribute towards. Ah... marketing.

So... how was my Carribbean Cruise, you ask? All I have to say is that if you have the cash to pay for the trip, you're pretty much guarenteed a good time and great service.

The Carnival Vitory is a HUGE ship with a capacity of about 2,500 people... which I think we hit. it has about 9 decks filled with rooms, three or four restaurants, a theatre, a casino, a small arcade, lots of bars and lounges, a large deck on the 9th floor with pools, a water slide, giant (and I mean GIANT) screen TV, 9-hole minigolf course, a spa, a jogging track... I mean, it's impossible to be bored on this ship. I spent most of the first two days at sea being seasick (somehow, going up and down on the eliptical while the boat is swaying from side-to-side doesn't bode very well for your body), so i was pretty much confined to my room or the sunning deck, but we took full advantage of the shore excursions when we stopped at the different islands.

One of the things I really wanted to get out of this vacation was to avoid the touristy things at all costs and try to get a 'local' experience. On our first shore night in San Juan, Puerto Rico, I chatted with a local artist in her shop about life in San Juan, and walked the city by foot. It was Christmas night, so not many stores were open, but I was surprised at the number of stores I saw open just for the tourists.

Wei Loong and I had decided to forgo our usual dinner on the boat and try some local fare... local being a small Mexican sports bar somewhere in town. It turned out to be a gem of a place though, I ended up chatting with the guy sitting next to me who plays the trombone in the band for the theatre on the cruise ship. halfway through my delicious plantain burrito, a group of people came in with a commotion, singing and banging on their drums. We thought they were singing for money or something, so we were getting ready some change out to give to them, but they just sidled past us into the restaurant, sat down at a table and proceeded to order from the waiter. Apparently, that's how people go to dinner in Puerto Rico.

Next stop... St. Thomas. We didn't really do much here, just took a tour of the island, went swimming at the beach... I'll just let the pictures do the talking...

The highlight of my trip HAD to be the scenic coastal hike in St. Maarten. That's where the picture from my last entry was from . Actually our guide told me that there was a trail that ran along the top of the mountain and that every year there was a 6-hour race from one end of the island to the other... I wish we had more time to spare on the island... I would've been hiking all day...

And if you've never been to a pebble beach before, the sounds the rocks make when the waves crash over them is so cool! You can spend all day out there meditating....

Okay... maybe the commentary by moi was unnecessary, but you get the general picture.

The service was phenomenal too... Right from the very start of the trip... you just drop your luggage off at the terminal with your tags saying where your room is on it... and they'll just pop up where they need to be... no need to lug it around getting it on the ship.

We had the same table every night for dinner so we got the same waiter and servers for the entire trip, and you get to know them and they get to know your eating habits and before you know it, they'll be like "so, you want a Caesar salad with your dinner, right?" or, "would you like your regular glass of wine with that?" Or if you wanted a more casual setting, there was always the dinner buffet up on the 9th floor. And if you were still hungry, there's a 24-hour pizzeria and a midnight buffet...

These things are put out an hour before the food starts being served just so people can take pictures of them...

Our rooms were made up twice a day every day and at night with your daily schedules of activities on the ship, you also get a folded towel animal!
However, I think I'm more of an adventure traveller type... I wished there were more opportunities to do hiking or kayaking exploring the natural wonders of the islands or some kind of cultural tour would have been nice. I feel like most of the things were catered to tourists who were there for the duty-free prices and didn't care about the town that they were seeing. I mean... how many jewelry stores do you REALLY need on one street in St. Thomas? Answer: One street of jewelry stores is NOT enough, apparently.

It's a good thing to have done at least once though... and thanks again to the generosity of the Blaus... I have a cruise under my belt for my last adventure of 2007.

Happy 2008!!

2007-12-31T00:14:00.001-05:00

Sorry no Christmas pictures over Christmas... because I was out hiking on the coast of St. Maarten. Or was it lounging in Magen's Bay in St. Thomas? No no no... it was definitely chilling in a Mexican sports bar in San Juan....

okay okay.... i think i'm rubbing salt in some wounds here...:D

But seriously though... this warm weather is making me miss Malaysia a little bit... I can't wait to go home this summer...

Anyway... another photo entry to look forward to soon! Till then, hope everyone has a safe and HAPPY NEW YEAR!