The adventures of KS in Baltimore

Why no one deserves my vote

2011-03-23T20:16:00.000-07:00

PAP dont deserve my vote this year, its obvious, because they are freakin paying ministers 0.13% of the govt expenditure! You might not think that is a lot of money, but think about how many people can use this money! Those people who need it to help pay for their medical expenses, the needy people who can use it to fix their broken houses, the education ministry to help improve education, and obviously what I'm concerned about, R&D, I'm just listing a few. How many people can this money help! Greedy ministers. I'm totally disgusted. Serving the people should be an honor, it should not be compared to whatever they can be doing in the private sector. Because we can pick anyone to serve us, but we picked you! The honor is yours, we should not have to pay such a huge price for this choice we made.

But again, read this: http://www.facebook.com/notes/joel-joshua-goh/my-vote-counts-10-reasons-why-i-cannot-vote-for-the-pap-in-the-next-election/236626774675

This is why the opposition doesn't deserve my vote too. For the longest time, I could not pinpoint why people who support the opposition turn me off so much. But today, something Weijie said really resonates with me. He said, so many opposition supporters are elitist ignorant people who think they are better-than-thou, that they know so much more than people who are blindly following the PAP governance. Yet, when you pick their anti-government rhetorics apart, it became apparent that all the 'facts' that they speak of so confidently are in truth, fiction. Also, really, do you want Singapore to become a full total democracy? Why don't you live in a totally democratic country like the United States and see how screwed up they are then tell me that again.

Maybe I should not have registered to vote this election.

2010-11-03T20:24:00.001-07:00

I guess its possible to live with someone and yet feel lonelier than you've ever been. Sigh.

wuss

2010-10-24T09:21:00.000-07:00

I'm such a wuss I'm the only one in my entire level in my building working today and I don't dare to go pee cos the last time I tried the bloody cubicle next door kept flushing by itself and the tap at the sink kept turning on FML. Then today I kept thinking I hear footsteps and turn around and I'm still alone double FML. And now I don't dare to go into the back room to do the work that I came here to do cos its even scarier and more claustrophobic back there triple FML. Every pindrop will echo across the entire hallway, and the whirring of the machines sound a little like shuffling of feet... or was it really feet shuffling??? OMG! I WANT TO GO HOME!!

bored

2010-10-18T21:37:00.000-07:00

The bf's asleep, preserving energy for an exam tomorrow. Its not my bedtime yet, but gotta turn the lights off cos cannot disturb his precious sleep. Cannot turn the tv on also, for the same reason. What can I do? *twiddle fingers* maybe i should post some overdue pictures on this space.......

nah.. too lazy. God its already fall and I havent yet posted pics from our summer vacation dammit. Nvm.. since I've already procrastinated so long might as well wait till we go for Fall vacation then post together. okay decided. time to chat with random friends who just pm-ed me. much more fun than catching up with readings or posting pics. thanks for reading a very boliao post bubbai!

shoppaholism

2010-10-05T18:38:00.000-07:00

have you ever had those moments where you see something that looks perfect, its perfect for you, exactly what you're looking for, you can picture yourself wearing it, or in my situation, picture it in your apartment, the exact location you want it, how it would fit right in. I'm talking about furniture by the way. But right after the excitement of finding something so perfect, you glance at the price tag, gasp. And then you spend the next few days, weeks, months trying to convince yourself its not exactly right. Its the wrong size, its the wrong color, its not going to be useful, you don't need it blahblah. But then you keep going back to the shop, just to look at it, just in case, and just so you can further convince yourself its not going to work for you. But it only ends up looking more perfect. And you want to hit yourself for being so dumb and walking back into temptation. And this is how my life had been the past 2 months. Refurnishing sucks. When you have no money. Blah.

2010-07-02T21:01:00.000-07:00

Too many unexpected tragedies this week. Began with the tragic death of a co-worker, cause as yet unknown. The most wonderful person, the most beautiful heart and soul. Plucked cruelly from us. Always putting herself before others. Yet she suffered in silence. One can only take comfort in knowing that she is now in a better place, away from all the physical pain that tormented her while she carried a ready smile, helping everyone out. Came back from her memorial, still seeking calm and finding peace, and was informed of another death, an ex-schoolmate. Such a happy, outgoing boy. My first thought was, this must be a mistake. How can this happen? This cheerful boy, grown to be a fine young man, how can this be true? No way this happened. No way. Then, I realized how much pain he must have felt, such a poor poor tormented soul. If only someone talked to him, if only someone intervened. If only. One can only think of what might have been.

My resolution:
From today, I will work hard to make sure there are no more 'if only's in my life. I will make a greater effort to keep up with friends, I will pay attention and care for people around me, co-workers, friends, family. I will not live with any more regrets. I will do everything I can (hopefully) to make sure everyone is happy. Most importantly, I need to find my own happiness. I need to be happy again. I'm trying so hard. One day, hopefully someday soon, when I smile, when I laugh, it will come from deep within me. Not just something on the surface. I will truly be happy, not just pretending to be happy for the people around me. I will. I believe.

SOO BUSY!

2010-05-09T09:52:00.000-07:00

I had no time to blog until today... boss was trying to make me rush the project out but then this week he decided screw it.. we're too far behind.. (told you I needed a technician, Boss... all to myself I mean). And he said to think of something new to do or to explore another angle.. I'm working on both right now, from the comfort of home.. Ahhh... can't remember the last time I did not have to go into lab at all over the weekend. Finally got some much needed laundry done, and housekeeping taken care of. Maybe I can even make a nice dinner for myself tonight! Got some readings to do and homework, but hope to finish that very quickly so I have time to do non-work related stuff hehe.

Took a class taught by a world-renowned scientist, and when I compare him to the other famous scientists I have met personally and had a chance to interact with or even just read about from interviews, I realize I see a pattern. These people are risk takers. Like the one who took our class... his pet phrase was "set the world on fire". Judging from the fact that he's the most highly scientist in the world right now, I guess he must have achieved what he aimed to do. If the project is replicating what someone else has already done before in another disease, its not important. And if the project is what someone else can easily do, its not important either. The average number of citations for journal papers in the world is ZERO, so what this means is, these papers have actually done nothing to better the world, because no one else finds the work important. To actually create an impact, think about things that are unconventional, that you're not sure whether or not they would succeed, but if they do, promise high pay backs. It was a really exciting talk, and I loved it precisely because my boss is not a risk taker. I personally would not call myself a high risk taker, but I would love to take calculated risks. And like he said, there are only certain points in your life when you can do that, like when you're a graduate student or a junior post doc, where failure would have little or no ramifications. Like me right now. Hehe... calculated risks. Not stupid risks.

Strangely though, for a world famous scientists whose pet phrase is "set the world on fire" and who is famous for being a risk taker, he is oddly close-minded when it comes to widely accepted theories in science.. is this a case of talking the walk but not walking the talk? I'm sure in his younger days he must have had been a great risk taker.. but right now, I'm not so sure. But after going for his class, I opened up the book Wj bought for me a while ago but I had not had time to read for the longest time, "Apprentice to Genius, making of a scientific dynasty". And just reading it, I found that the great scientists in the book all had the same risk taking mindset. And thats how they came to their greatest discoveries. And this risk-taking value rubs off on their subordinates, people they train. Hmm.. maybe I should aim for a post doc with this famous scientist after all.. and hopefully try to convert him in terms of certain scientific theories that I believe in but not him.

Singapore part 1

2010-03-28T15:32:00.001-07:00

My grandma's famous yusheng!!! YUM!!! Miss it..

Cousins fighting for their share of it.. wahaha

Vday outing whee! Flowers! I'm flattered wahaha

He made me pose wan.. so weird

Made me look greedy too..

Pork knuckle soup without pork knuckle.. cos I didn't think seeing it would give me any more appetite..

The circle line is completed! Never fails to amaze me how fast Singapore moves forward and how fun it is now.. especially when I haven't been home in about 6 months.. miss it more each time! Asian cities are still more fun than American cities I guess.. hehe.. NYC might be an exception but its a bit too dirty..

Classmates from long agoooo... plus a few exceptions like brothers of classmates wahaha

Daddy mummy me eat eat

Curry rice! WHEE

Tom yum soup...

Grandma's house decorated for CNY!

Met up with crazybatch mates

Had awesome food with the cousin and grandma... fried prawn noodles carrot cake and hainanese chicken rice! At maxwell market..

Had nasi lemak with Bobby at Adam Road kopitiam... wahahaha food adventure makes me happy

Some more yusheng!!!

Singapore's very own Universal Studio! Located in the IR..

Atas shops and crowd in the IR..

Beautiful new IR..

With lots of performances

And beautiful performers..

Some less beautiful. :)

My parents still consult each other as to what to order at meals.. haha so cute sia..

Funky atas restaurant in the IR.. can only come when parents pay wahaha

The more traditional version of yusheng.. not so yummy..

Cool salt and pepper shakers, and soy sauce holder!

Sharks fin soup.. I only eat this once a year, during CNY so I'm still rather environmentally friendly :)

Seafood fried rice with scallop!

Braised pork knuckle with mushrooms..

This is cool.. its like prawns cooked like chilli crabs with crispy bread sticks instead of man tou..

Cool glass made me think I got a fizzy drink hehe

Funky glutinous rice ball dish with chocolate cheese base that my parents and grandma hated but I loved LOL

Ok folks.. thats all for today.. for more of the Adventures of KS in Singapore.... in Sentosa, tune in!!! Whee!!!!

His name is Brody

2010-03-16T20:12:00.000-07:00

Coolest thing happened to me. Not going to talk much about it here.. but those who know what happened will know what I'm talking about.

PS: Weijie wants everybody to know that its not ARTIFICIAL diamond hor... its SYNTHETIC... like it makes much of a difference.

PPS: Is not a proposal ring. If it is, I will say no. And possibly be so insulted I will never talk to you again. So don't even try.

PPPS: Got a ton of cool pics to share cos been to a ton of cool places... but no time yet cos this is a freakin' busy yet so super awesome week, leading into Spring! Will share them hopefully over the weekend!

2010-03-14T21:12:00.000-07:00

When I was young, I loved reading martial arts novels. The one single most popular theme among them all can be described simply with 4 chinese words, 深藏不漏. The truly capable and greatest people never show their real capabilities for all to see. Instead, they know the smartest thing to do is to keep your best skills to yourself and only use them when necessary. A skill known to others is a skill lost. When I look at the personal message of some people I know on social networking sites, showing off each and every single small achievement they have, I can't help but wonder if this wisdom is lost in our generation. I'm guilty of it myself.

FML moment

2010-03-13T14:48:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, I was chatting with Wj when all of a sudden, he asked me for my ring size. My breath caught, my heart started racing... was he finally going to propose??? Was he was he?? Then I started panicking.. no cannot! I'm not ready! We are not ready! Then after like maybe 10 minutes, I finally got up the courage to ask him.. why did u ask me for my ring size.. and he said, "Oh cos I saw that there was this ARTIFICIAL diamond ring sale... okay la hor.. artificial one also looks the same.. no one can tell.."

Guys are so clueless sometimes... Fml!

LOL

2010-02-08T16:15:00.000-08:00

For Hopkins, having one snow day is like pinching a piece of flesh off their skin.. 2 snow days in a row.... is killing them. Imagine how amusing this is for me (top for monday, bottom for tuesday):

Emergency Alert

Operations for Monday (Please read carefully)
02/08/2010

The university has made a change to its previous decision about operations today.

All required attendance employees, all Outpatient Center employees and outpatient clinic employees, and all bargaining unit employees should report as scheduled on Monday.

Otherwise, Johns Hopkins University will be closed on Monday. Day and evening classes are canceled.

** ** ** ** ** **

The Homewood-Peabody-JHMI shuttle will begin limited service at 10 a.m. The service will follow the Saturday schedule: There will be one small bus on the route. It will be scheduled to depart Homewood at the top of each hour and to depart East Baltimore at the bottom of each hour. The operator will attempt to keep to that schedule, but there may be delays because of road and traffic conditions. The final departure will be from East Baltimore at 6:30 p.m.

** ** ** ** ** **

The Welch Medical Library is closed today.

The Milton S. Eisenhower Library at Homewood is open on Q and M levels only, with no services.

The Homewood Security escort van service will not operate on Monday.

** ** ** ** ** **

A special note about The Johns Hopkins Hospital: The hospital will return to normal operations for Monday, Feb. 8. Depending on conditions with residential streets and secondary routes, hospital staff are asked to dig out and return to work on Monday, relieving personnel who worked all weekend so they can go home and get some much-needed rest. If you can’t drive your vehicle because of unfavorable conditions, public transportation, which is expected to return to normal by Monday, is an alternative method for getting to work. The hospital expresses heartfelt appreciation to staff and employees who came in and stayed over this weekend for doing a stellar job on behalf of the hospital, and more importantly, for our patients.

** ** ** ** **

A note about parking at Homewood
If you do drive to the Homewood campus today, you may park in either the San Martin Garage or the South Garage. This will allow snow removal work to continue on surface lots. Gates in the two garages will be raised.

Tuesday announcements
02/08/2010

Due to the forecast of another major storm, Johns Hopkins day and evening classes on Tuesday are canceled.

All required attendance employees, all Outpatient Center and outpatient clinic employees, and all bargaining unit employees should report as scheduled. Otherwise, Johns Hopkins University will be closed on Tuesday.

** ** ** ** **

The Peabody Prep will be closed Tuesday at all locations.

** ** ** ** **

The Homewood-Peabody-JHMI shuttle will operate on a limited schedule on Tuesday. The first departure from Homewood will be at 6:30 a.m. The first departure from East Baltimore will be at 7 a.m. Buses will run on the half-hour from each location until weather and road conditions require that the shuttle be suspended.

** ** ** ** **

A note about parking at Homewood
If you do drive to the Homewood campus on Tuesday, you may park in either the San Martin Garage or the South Garage. This will allow snow removal work to continue on surface lots. Gates in the two garages will be raised.

** ** ** ** **

If you do go to campus on Tuesday, please wear boots or shoes appropriate for what is expected to be a deteriorating weather situation. Please be aware of the possibility of snow or ice falling from rooftops.

"Buses will run on the half-hour from each location until weather and road conditions require that the shuttle be suspended." This actually sounds quite scary.. considering I have work planned for at least 7 hours tomorrow.. gotta catch that 630am shuttle!

snowmageddon

2010-02-08T15:21:00.000-08:00

There's too much snow.. today was a snow day because there's about 30 inches on the ground and a lot still untouched, shuttle can't run until 10am, and even then only on a limited schedule, and no one could get to work because it was like a giant pool of snow covering everything. And guess what.. its going to storm again tomorrow.. another 10-20inches in the forecast.. just let me get home already... i'm so sick of the snow. I have so much work left to do and I can't do because of the snow and travel conditions.. cars were piling up because there was only 1-2 lanes open even on main streets, the rest were boulders of snow. When a police car or ambulance tries to push their way through, it was utter mayhem. For those who like snow, you can check out the pics on my facebook. I shall not take any more pictures for now and leave you with the good memories of snow.

MORE SNOW

2010-02-03T20:13:00.001-08:00

A mixture of fascination, dread, fear, and excitement building as weather center puts up a winter storm watch 2 days ahead of the storm... prediction of similar amounts of snow or up to 2 times of that as the last blizzard. As long as I finish my experiments before that.. as long as I finish my experiments before that and stay at home and watch DVDs and read books.

Stupid ads...

2010-02-02T21:11:00.000-08:00

This made me go wtf today...

Sartorialista

2010-01-31T10:58:00.000-08:00

Decided to try my hand at some more fancy photography.. including macro, infinity and shots with different ISO speeds. Because I am training myself to take on the DSLR!!! Wahaha.

What better subject for fashion photography than myself to brush up photography skills and improve my feel for fashion right (so bhb kns.. haha dont laugh!)

Satin-feel collar and cotton sweater..

Searching for the right angle..

Green sweater with black turtleneck for the cold days.... wait did I do this combi before?

A more casual look.. for the less frigid days.. in my gap peacoat and white scarf.

Practising photography means not just taking one subject, but multiple. So freshly popped corn became my 2nd subject... haha healthy (reduced fat) snack!

Attempting a more artsy shot..

Mix and match: Banana republic sweater (gotten at a discount, a total steal! Very proud of myself) and Cotton-on floral shirt.
I'm becoming a fan of casual/formal mix-and-matching. Gives unexpectedly good results sometimes! Of course, experiment with a few different combination before going out.. to give yourself a feel of how things look.

Saturday Jan 30th 2010: snowy day! Flurries were forecasted with 1-2 inches accumulation expected, but the storm turned North unexpectedly resulting in a full day of snow and 4-7 inches accumulation, and weather alert upgraded from winter weather advisory to warning.
Infinity+high ISO shot to capture falling flakes..

Winter wonderland early in the day..

Cars starting to get snow capped..

Flakes falling from the sky..

View from my couch..

Holly the reindeer on my couch.. watching snow fall (she's another subject of mine!)

"Ahh the bliss.."

Snowy sidewalk and bushes..

The aftermath, when its not so fun anymore.. the great digout!

Before..

Starting the digout..

Sweeping snow off the windows (in case you can't see clearly, the reflection shows me in my eskimo cap because it was -8 degrees C outside... ooh frozen fingers.. forgot my gloves at home FML)

Halfway done! Good job KS!

Almost cleared of the snowy mess...

Yay all completed!

That was not so bad after all.. the snow was really fluffy and none of it has really melted yet and stuck fast to the glass, so it was not that hard a job. Tougher to stomach was the cold hehe..

Okay! Till next time!

F My Life

2010-01-30T15:45:00.000-08:00

I just thought of a total 100% FML moment I had with this gay friend of mine so I gotta write it down because it was too traumatizing. Anyway one day he was talking to this lady and talking about setting her up with a guy blahblah (a straight guy not a gay guy... he knows straight guys too) and I just jokingly interrupted "Hey that's not fair, how come you never ever set me up with any guy??" And he replied, "But you have a boyfriend though! Or at least, I thought he was your boyfriend until I realized he's gay." FML.

PS he's not talking about Weijie..

snow!

2010-01-30T10:58:00.000-08:00

Oh the contradictory feelings of wanting to wake up early today to watch snow falling, and the throbbing hangover that makes me want to close my eyes and go back to bed. Finally got up at 12 noon, a little food and hot coffee took care of the nausea and back to snow watching! Flakes falling! Will upload some pictures soon whee! There's an inertia to move when beautiful snow is falling slowly outside. Let me enjoy this moment before it turns slushy and gross.

project runway (pirated version)

2010-01-17T20:58:00.000-08:00

Lately been hooked on this fashion photographer's blog, the sartorialist. He's pretty famous, seeing as how he gets invites to almost all fashion events. Ivy probably told me about this before, because it jogged my memory when I read about him from Marie Claire. There are a couple things that struck me about this dude.. firstly, he doesn't go for just high end fashions, although like all self-respecting fashion photographers he can spot a manolo blahnik when he sees one. And he can probably also tell you which season which year its from. But no, he photographs everybody from runway model to flea market hawker. Anyone who dresses not just fashionably, but also interestingly.

Another thing that struck me about him is his photography. This guy is probably photographer first, fashionista second. A lot of fashion photographers make models pose and then take shots from angles that look best etc. But this guy, he has to work with what he has, to shoot just random people walking in the streets. Precisely because of how difficult that is, and yet how he always manages to capture that picture perfect moment. Below is my favourite picture so far, beautiful woman strolling on the beach, colorful sundress, straw bag, beaded sandals, dog beside her. The best part? The setting sun at the back.

To be able to capture that perfect moment, where each step looks so random, relaxed, yet so beautiful. Amazing. Maybe I should pick up fashion photography as a hobby.. since I'm interested in fashion, I'm interested in photography.. now I just need to get that DSLR.. hmm waiting for my angbao money heehee.

Back to my boring version of project runway.. now I feel so inadequate kns.

Green sweater, black turtleneck. According to sartorialist, thats the 2 hottest elements this season in France (or was it Italy). SCORE!

This is what happens when I tried to be artistic. I was testing the Macro function in my canon.. apparently didn't turn out too well, although some might argue I look best this way kns.

This was the day between when the weather was crazy cold and today when the weather suddenly went really warm. So that was a really perfect balance between cold and warm, the temperature winter should be like. (pretend u cannot see that unmade bed behind.. i know its a far cry from a beach and setting sun as a background)

My favourite sweater this season from Banana republic, with black turtleneck. Love it because of its unique color, and how its 40% wool so it keeps me really warm, and how it doesn't get 'hairy' after repeated washes hehe

Same sweater, pink top. A more casual look.

On a particularly cold day... all wrapped up.

Plaid... last season's favourite but too comfortable.. love it!

Thats all folks.. look out for more as KS tries to polish up her photography!

Say No To Whiners!

2010-01-09T12:38:00.001-08:00

Have you seen those facebook messages/msn messages that go, "Have to go back to work on a weekend (insert sad smiley)" or "It's 10pm and I'm still at work (insert sad smiley)" or "Working late again" "Working on a weekend again" " Back at work on a holiday" "Back at work on New Years Day" blahblah. Doesn't it really get on your nerves? I sometimes feel like shaking these people and telling them, STOP WHINING! If work is all you have to worry about, YOU SHOULD BE GLAD!

You have to pardon me if I feel no sympathy for these people. You see, living all alone in a foreign country, and doing my PhD in a top university, of course I have a lot to worry about for work. I go to work every weekend almost, and stay late almost everyday, sometimes the only person working in the entire building. And see, for me it doesn't stop there. When I am about to go home, I think about which road to walk home from so that its safest. I wonder if anyone is going to jump me when I'm walking home late at night after work. Then when I finally come home from work, I have to think about what to cook for dinner, because eating out over here, unlike in Singapore, is too expensive for me to do on a daily basis. I mostly end up eating instant noodles cos I'm too tired to cook. And then there's the weather. Is it going to be windy tomorrow? Is it going to snow? Are the roads going to be icy (if its a weekend and I'm driving to work)? What kind of clothes should I wear? And then there's more. Checking the mail, seeing if there's any forgotten bill to be paid, checking the laundry, seeing if it needs to be done by today, looking around the house, seeing if it needs to be tidied.

And then there are the miscellaneous stuff that pop up along the way. Have I filed my taxes? Is it time for me to change the engine oil for my car? Is it time for the tyres to be rotated? Can it start up today (for the day after I got AAA to jumpstart my car)? Is it time to review my insurance so that I might be able to get a cheaper insurance? Is there a cheaper apt to rent/buy? And when things break down around the house, how do I fix it? (I usually just go to youtube and search 'how to do XXX', very useful!) And when it snows, I will wonder, should I go down and brush the snow off my car? And when it rains, should I go scrape the ice off my car (if the temperature dips below freezing) before it freezes hard to my windshield? And when household equipment break down to unfixable states, I will have to go search for a replacement and buy it.

But of course, this is not just about me. All I'm trying to say is, having to do all these alone is hard, having to take care of myself in a foreign country is hard. Sometimes I do wish life can give me a break. Sometimes I also wish there were a man around to help me with random stuff. But I don't complain/whine. Because I know that I'm not the only one doing this. There are many friends living here who have to go through the same things everyday. And many others who have a lot more to take care of than the above, those who have little ones at home to take care of, who have aged parents to take care of, those who have lost their jobs and do not even have a home to live in any more, having to face the harsh winter every night in the streets.

That is why I get so annoyed when I see people whine. Especially when they deem it their mission to make sure everyone in their friends list see their whinings. And usually its those people who have the least to whine about who whine the loudest. My message to those people, enough already! Suck it up and just do what you gotta do because there's no getting around it. Whining is not going to help. And to those of you who read this, help me out here. If any of your friends whine, do me a favor and get them to shut up. This is becoming a whiny epidemic! For the future of our fellow countrymen (yes because its Singaporeans living in Singapore who whine the most), this has to stop!

merry xmas and a happy 2010!!

2010-01-01T10:57:00.002-08:00

Hello all! Sorry for the lack of updates, been busy with lots of people visiting. Firstly merry christmas and a happy new year 2010 is here! Here are some select pictures I got in my camera, not in order, the rest are with the parents!

The most famous christmas tree in the world, at Rockefeller center. Thats my mom... freezing her ass off ahhaa

With flash.. no good.

Crazy tourists on horse carriages...

Bro and I at busy Times Square near midnight... crazy packed with tourists.

Mom and dad.

Times square again.. different angle.

Times square again.. another different angle. Kao this is starting to feel like a photo shoot.

Bro and I, a different angle.

Bro and I again, another different angle.

Inside the statue of liberty museum.. the original torch! Or something.

Outside the statue of liberty, the national park, snowy still after the monster snow storm.

Another snowy angle.

Me and the lady, again.

Bro and the lady.

The lady herself.

Me in my eskimo headgear.. it was a particularly cold week!

Ahhh coffee....

Snowy NYC...

Lincoln tunnel... leading into NYC.

This is why I decided never to ever drive into NYC again.

In the bus en route to NYC, this must be somewhere along New Jersey. There were still alot of snow removal going on after the monster snow storm.

The sun was rising...

rising sun reflecting off the snow..

Rising sun reflecting off some frozen lake..

Caught in a blizzard! 12-21-09. Dubbed the Blizzard of '09.

Long forgotten pictures from the long ago project hahaha..

Wearing my new sweater..

Turtleneck.

Wool scarf bought long ago from J Crew.

When it wasn't so cold yet.

short sleeved sweater..

Okay! Lets give an update about my life. Since my last entry, I have:

1. Received my parents
2. Brought them here into my home
3. Got caught in my first blizzard in Baltimore
4. Learned that driving with 22 inches of snow on the ground is a no-no
5. Gotten my car stuck in snow/ice
6. Gotten my car stuck in snow/ice a second time
7. Gotten my car stuck in snow/ice a third time
8. Gotten someone to drive my car out of the snow for me
9. Gotten someone's help pushing my car out of a pile of snow that I reversed into unknowingly
10. Gotten someone's help pushing my car out of an ice puddle I drove head on into while trying to park
11. Had my dad secretly gun my car engine while trying to park my car after sending me to buy salt to de-ice the ice around my tyres
12. Smelt the burned rubber and smoking engine after I got back
13. Deiced the area around my tyres so I won't have to do that ever again
14. Went to Atlantic City with my parents for the first time
15. Got into a dispute with the management office
16. Went to NYC with my parents
17. Showed them around NYC, to the many places the lousy tour did not bring them to
18. Met up with Emily
19. Spent Christmas eve and Christmas day in NYC, eating dim sum and korean food
20. Sent my parents and brother off and did not cry
21. Met up with Kim
22. Took a bus back to Baltimore
23. Took a cab back from the bus station to home and almost got kidnapped by the cab driver, whose cab stank of urine and happily drove past my home for a couple blocks, prompting me to yell at him and almost jumped off his cab
24. Swore to myself never to take a cab alone again unless I have taken precautionary measures
25. Went back home and went straight to lab the next day
26. Saw that no one was on vacation and felt really bad (oops no talk about work)
27. Still in a dispute with my management office
28. Seriously considering buying my own apartment now
29. Got a flat battery after leaving the lights on inside my car while I was checking on her after coming back from NYC
30. Considered sitting on the ground and wailing after numerous jump start attempts did not get her to start again
31. Got AAA membership after urging from friends
32. Picked Jing up and showed her around the Inner Harbor and brought her for crab cakes
33. Went with her and Indra and Kahjing to Philly to see the Liberty Bell and the Chinatown, didn't manage to see the Independence Hall before it closed
34. AAA rocks! Jumpstarted my car with one try and told me not to bother with getting a new battery cos mine works fine, and most importantly it was all free!
35. Drove Jing to Silver Spring for dim sum and then went to DC for sightseeing
36. Sent her off via shuttle because it was snowing again and I did not dare to take my car out again
37. Went back to lab on NYE and EVERYONE was there making me feel super bad again (oops no more work!!)
38. Went to watch Avatar with Indra and Kj on NYE, counted down in the car, car stopped right in front of my gate as the fireworks erupted behind us, thank you for welcoming me home Baltimore!
39. Spent New Year's Day at home watching DVDs cos I got no friends around nothing to do and I think watching DVDs is a bit better than going to lab

Okay thats all for the updates... hehe till next time!

Blizzard!

2009-12-18T21:31:00.000-08:00

Okay this is new and updated.. there's apparently a blizzard forecast for Baltimore tomorrow.. and my parents and brother are going to be snowed in. Its going to snow the whole day all the way into Sunday so I doubt we will be driving to Atlantic city on Sunday. There's about a foot of snow predicted.. about 50-60cm maybe? Whee! I duno if I should be excited about this much snow or worried about the winds accompanying the snow (20-30mph), dropping visibility down to almost zero, or disappointed my parents can't go anywhere. They seem to be pretty excited about making a snowman though.. heehee.. hope that makes up for it. Ahh... now all that's lacking is a fireplace and a nice armchair by the window to read while the snow goes by. Except now my studio is a mess cos of all the stuff my parents brought in =.= okay tomorrow is snowed in plus clearing up and laundry day! Stay tuned for the pictures!

2009-12-16T18:33:00.001-08:00

Life is such a bitch sometimes, and yet I can't whine. Reality is starting to take over the joy of science. I have a family Christmas coming up and yet I cannot enjoy it. Fuck this shit.

New Furniture

2009-12-14T21:44:00.000-08:00

Just felt the need to show of my new dining table, bought in anticipation of my parents and brother's visit heehee.. isn't it pretty?? okay time to pay my credit card bill before it piles up... sigh..

BUSY

2009-12-13T10:21:00.000-08:00

Sorry for the lack of updates, really busy busy busy. Since the last update... I had my orals, I bought a couch, I am desperately trying to finish up part of my project before my parents get to Baltimore, my parents and brother landed in the US already, and also desperately trying to launch a secret project.. haha.. oh and also got a new macbook WHEE

Lemme BHB this is the picture taken using the new macbook ahahha! Somehow the picture quality makes my skin look like its glowing and my hair look like its glossy walau eh wtf from now on all my pictures will be taken using the macbook liao... shit.. like I got a lot of time to take pics lidat.. SOOO BUSY! After my parents and brother get here for Christmas, it will be Jing hehe and now I'm desperately looking for a dining table so my parents and brother don't have to sit on the floor when they are here!! AHH okay expect few updates till the end of the holiday season.. meanwhile seasons greetings everyone! Happy holidays! ps I'll be home for CNY, help me think of a way to break the news to the boss :S

Its snowing!

2009-12-05T07:20:00.000-08:00

ITS SNOWING! First snow of this season! WHEE!

2009-11-29T12:34:00.000-08:00

Moments where I just wish I were more independent/back in the comfort of daddy's embrace: right now for e.g. when I just saw a black tail (or more accurately, something with a black tail) disappearing inside my drawer. I screamed really loudly I think but no one heard but myself. My closest neighbour/friend/classmate is back in Connecticut for Thanksgiving. So is everyone else. Think I'm not going to venture anywhere near the kitchen tonight.. if I'm hungry I'll just order in.

Music

2009-11-24T11:40:00.001-08:00

Just saw this violinist featured on kennysia's website. Too awesome! I mean, those who know me well know I've always loved classical music, especially classical pop. But its not just any classical music, its violin! I always got a soft spot for violin. I mean, this is the kinda music you dream about one day being able to play through high end Bose speakers surrounding you, while you just lie down and relax on the cushy sofa, sipping red wine, or rose for my case, and kick off your heels and just close your eyes, enjoy the wine and music, and unwind after a day of work. Phew, that was descriptive wasn't it. Enjoy this music:

I wonder if they sell his cd in Singapore.. that said, I'm still waiting to see if anyone is selling High Society's A Love So Beautiful series (marketed by That CD Shop) at a lower price :S too expensive for a struggling grad student!

Okay now you know when I'm really bored and don't wanna study, I keep doing nonsense stuff and reading crap online and updating the crap I read here. When I'm really doing work I have no time to read crap or update so its really quiet heehee. Obviously I'm not really doing real work now :S back to studying!

Random musing/procrastinating

2009-11-23T21:30:00.000-08:00

It took me a little bit of courage to write this, but I guess boredom and the stack of notes facing me was more intimidating. Why do I say courage? Because I bet this is going to create a topic for gossip among some of my closer friends wahaha.

I just randomly saw this person that I dated appear on my facebook list! He's on my friends list, I just added him really long ago and forgot about it, but now facebook has that annoying reminder thing, reminding you about how long you haven't been chatting with a certain person, and he was on there. I almost even forgot that I went out with him because it was so long ago. But then just out of curiosity I clicked on the link to see what he was up to lately. That's when I remembered.

You know a person my age must have dated a fair share of guys, and I must say, some of those are really rather good looking. Not just by my definition of course! (I can almost hear Jing protesting). I really don't know why most of them didn't work out. This one was among the better looking ones. Ja can attest to that, if she remembers who this person is. And I think for this one at least, I can sort of identify the reason why it didn't work out.

Back when I was in JC when I still believed true love is between 2 people with equal standing in life, this person I met outside school asked me out. We went out a few times. It was really sweet sometimes, the things he did. He would show me magic tricks and when I begged him to teach me he actually would make me swear by the magician's code and then taught them to me. And we used to roam around just doing nothing but him showing me his magic tricks and me marveling. But then the attraction ends there. When I was in JC he was still in secondary school. He was the same age as me, but because of his disability he was slightly slower than our peers. When we went out in our school uniforms we got stared at so much. When we went out without our uniforms people still stare at us, me, a normal teenager, him, a teenager with disability. Sometimes they try not to stare, but the more they do that the more conscious I got. Finally I stopped going out with him. I think he understood, or maybe he just felt more inferior, and he stopped asking me out.

Sometimes I wonder, what would it be like if I could get past all the self consciousness, if I could stop thinking about what others think, would things have turned out better? Hah Ja you're not supposed to reveal who he is even if you remember, because you should also remember someone else in the same group as him! Last I heard, he graduated from a polytechnic and is working somewhere now. And he still looks the same as he did 6 years ago! Isn't that amazing? :)

Ethics

2009-11-23T14:04:00.000-08:00

I remember when I was in JC, we were asked by our GP teachers, regarding the issue of ethics. Would you consider the usage of ES cells? Do you find it unethical? I remember saying, as long as its still a zygote, embryo, blastocyst, I think it is fine. As long as the fetus has not developed a nervous system, I believe it does not feel pain, or have feelings.

What an irony now, then, that I am increasingly regularly using fetal brain stem cells for my project. I am reluctant, but I am already refusing to do animal work, if I don't even work on cell lines I might as well go wash test tubes. My boss has no use for me any more. I try to reason to myself this way: even when I'm using cell lines, I obtained the cell lines from once-alive real-life human beings. So this is the same. I was not involved in the abortion of the fetuses, I was not involved in the dissection of the brain, I was not even involved in the growing of the cells. I am just doing experiments on them. But even then, I can't stop this nagging guilt growing in the back of my head, creeping up behind me. Sorry babies, I know you too, deserve a chance at life.. but now that the choice had been taken out of your hands, at least let me help other kids like you....

Okay I said I will stop writing about work, but when I said that I really mean work like in work place politics and confidential stuff regarding my project. This is not considered work right? Heehee. K back to studying and writing up my abstract :(

AACR

2009-11-19T14:04:00.000-08:00

Wondering if I have time to prepare an abstract for the AACR meeting in DC next spring. The deadline is exactly one day BEFORE my much dreaded orals.

Upsides:
-seems fun
-can get exposure to a lot of ongoing research
-its spring in DC (CHERRY BLOSSOMS)
-can showcase my own research and get some input
-close to Baltimore
-boss offered to pay for our registration fees

Downsides:
-not enough time to prepare abstract
-no hotel room, might have to sleep with a dog (my post doc kindly offered his basement with attached bathroom and doggy companion)
-can't think of any more

Seems like there are more upsides than downsides. But downsides include sacrificing time I should spend studying. Okay, time to get more efficient. Bye bye!

Let me correct myself

2009-11-17T20:34:00.000-08:00

Okay, its not all Americans, its not ALL Republicans, its just MOST. At least there are some relatively smarter ones like McCain who "specifically asked his former aides not to do television interviews rebutting Palin's charges and to avoid escalating the feud. In an interview with the Hill newspaper, McCain reportedly said he enjoyed reading Palin's book. "I hope she sells lots of them," McCain said."

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34002562/ns/politics-more_politics/

But Palin is still the dumbest politician... wait.. I mean EX politician I've ever seen. When AP delegated 11 reporters to fact-check her new book, she retaliated on facebook: "Imagine that," the post read. "11 AP reporters dedicating time and resources to tearing up the book, instead of using the time and resources to 'fact check' what's going on with Sheik Mohammed's trial, Pelosi's health care takeover costs, Hasan's associations, etc. Amazing."

Maybe, just maybe, Sarah, the very thought of you ever going into politics again is so much scarier than all of the above combined?

Going Rogue

2009-11-17T16:02:00.001-08:00

Sarah Palin should just shut up. The more she talks the more she disgusts the shit out of me. And the more she makes me glad she NEVER had a chance to be vice president and will NEVER have a chance to be. Please, don't ever let me see her going into politics again. Go take part in Mrs Universe shoo. Or whatever other beauty pageants. You belong there. Stay there soccer mom.

http://features.csmonitor.com/politics/2009/11/17/is-sarah-palin-newsweek-cover-sexist-palin-says-yes/

WTF?

2009-11-16T21:06:00.000-08:00

Another example what douchebags some Americans are. Obama bowed to the Japanese emperor in accordance to Japanese tradition and Americans are unhappy enough that it made it to national news? This, in addition to the 'uproar' the BSE shown on tv in conjunction with Breast cancer awareness month because some Americans (not some country folks, these are folks living in DC, the capital!) thought it was a publicity stunt, just proves that maybe Americans are not really ready for change after all. Maybe they should have picked a conservative to run the country instead of someone who so desperately wants to bring change for the better of all Americans. Sometimes the stupidity and naivete of some of these people just make me so angry!!! Totally ridiculous!

APEC and the our govt.

2009-11-15T14:55:00.001-08:00

I was reading the news. APEC leaders are unable to come up with a legally binding climate deal. Australian PM had to play host by the margin and come up with a mini-round table talk with Obama, Hu Jintao and Felipe Calderon. On the other hand, our PM 'angrily denied that the targets, of 50 per cent cuts from 1990 levels by 2050, had been dropped.

"We didn't drop the emissions, we negotiated a draft, we settled on a text," he said.

"I do not know the ins and the outs but this is not an occasion for negotiating climate change."'

Adapted from ABC news.

You know, that is the problem with not just our govt, but all Asian govts in general. There's this inherent obsession with 'face'. You cannot admit that you are wrong. Or that concede that something went wrong with the planning process and explain amicably. Asians in general, tend to get defensive whenever they think that they or their capabilities are being questioned. I am guilty of that myself a lot. Whenever someone suggests that could it be possible that my experiments have gone wrong because I did something wrongly, like added something wrongly or forgot something, the immediate reaction would be defence.. its not possible. I won't do anything wrong. I am a capable researcher. But then when I thought about it, sometimes I honestly cannot remember if I did everything correctly.

This is not about me but my point is, we're all not gods. We can't just do everything right or cater to everybody's wishes. If someone suggests that we did something wrong or poorly, the most graceful response would be to concede that we could have done it some other way, or explain why we did it this way even though it might draw fire. Rather than 'angrily denied' something. For that to come up on international news, frankly, is just an even greater embarassment than a gentle graceful explanation.

That said, I realize a lot of people never dare to openly write about the our govt or if they do, they do it anonymously for fear of being targeted. And when they do that, they often recklessly accuse the govt of doing a hell of a lot of wrong things that might or might not be true. Come on people, chances are, even if you're anonymous, if the govt wants to track you they probably already know who you are. But they won't bother. Even if they do, they probably wont do anything to you or care about you unless you start talking too much untruths. They don't want to risk an investigation into their human rights record especially now when they're chasing the expat dollar. So write freely, as long as you have evidence to back up your story. Criticism brings about improvement! Which also goes back to the 'face' issue. When they start thinking about how they want their public image to be like, then they will understand that constructive criticism is the key to improving our govt. I frankly think that the situation was much better than before.

On the other hand, a lot of people tell me how they envy me, being in the land of the free, where you can do all you want and everything is about human rights blahblah. If you call being scared to death every time you have to go out alone past midnight 'freedom', then go for it. Join me! Or jumping whenever you see a shadow appear from behind you from nowhere, or wondering where the next gunshot is going to be fired in the city. The land of the free? Really? I'm not one to judge, but if this is really the land of the free, how do you think the CIA manages to bust so many 'terror plots' every year? How do they know who to look for? Which phones to tap? What do they mean by 'intelligence'? They are perhaps 10 times more pervasive than our govt. Maybe 100X, with all their latest secretive technologies.

My point is, there's no real freedom anywhere in the world. Stop criticizing and whining so much behind an anonymous screen name. If you really want something to be done, come on out and shout it out loud. Thats the way things get done. For a start anyway.

MAD ABOUT MADDEN

2009-11-09T20:57:00.001-08:00

OKAY ITS CONFIRMED! I JUST BOUGHT MY FIRST PAIR OF STEVE MADDEN HEELS!! AND ITS SO PRETTY ISN'T IT! WOOHOOOOO!!!

Back to studying... its officially 3 and a half weeks before the BIG O!!!! MY ORALS! WISH ME LUCK!!! Till then, peace out.

My inspiration?

2009-11-05T19:17:00.000-08:00

I have friends who sometimes ask me, how do you know what you are doing is what you like? How do you know that this is the right path for you? How do you know you want to do this your whole life?

My answer is, I don't know. Maybe I never will. I sometimes feel lost, when things don't work out or I fall on bad times I feel like giving up. More than once I have felt like I'm too dumb for this. But today I read this article.. http://abcnews.go.com/Health/CancerPreventionAndTreatment/child-brain-tumor-leaves-notes-family-death/Story?id=8998612&page=1

Don't you sometimes feel like there is a guardian angel for everybody, whenever they feel lost in life, they get a little shove back on track. When I saw that article, I got reminded once again of why I am doing what I am doing, who I am doing it for. Not my boss, not really, not myself, not the post docs in lab, I'm doing it so no other kid has to suffer like this. No other family has to go through this kind of grieve. If I feel like the world collapsed around me when my grandfather died, I can hardly imagine the kind of pain these people are going through when they see their kids suffer and wither away, yet having to take care of them. The sheer mental strength is inspirational. Compared to that, what is the little suffering I have to go through?

That said, I don't really mind having more money to aid my research! Go to http://www.thecurestartsnow.org/ for more information.

P.S., read the sweet little notes here.. http://www.notesleftbehind.com/ I can't stop crying after reading them.

Rise and Shine!

2009-11-03T20:32:00.000-08:00

Living in a land of 12h sunlight every day, you never really treasure the Sun that much. That is why I used to sleep really late and wake up late whenever I can, sometimes at 12pm. Because I know I still have another 7 hours of sunlight that day to squander.

These days however, especially after daylight saving started, the Sun started setting as early as 4pm. It rises at 7am. I used to sleep until 7.30am or 8am or whenever, because in the Summer we had 16 hours of sunlight, sleeping away a little sunlight won't hurt. But the cold season is coming... and I am really easily affected by S.A.D. So these days I'm making myself sleep early and wake up early.. following the pattern of the Sun! That way, I still get my 10 or 8 hours of sunlight every day... it makes me happy! Even though I must admit the initial waking up part is still a painful process... but when I see the sunlight peeking through the window I tell myself there is no time to lose! Heehee.. I'm starting to become a fan of waking up early. Not because I don't like sleeping late, but because I love the Sun too much..

At least Baltimore is not like Vancouver.. you still get a decent amount of Sun, it doesn't just rain everyday! Good for vitamin D production! :) A sunny Baltimore makes a happy Kah Suan.

Project runway, week 1 + random halloween pics

2009-11-01T10:07:00.000-08:00

I was trying to think of a catchy sounding name for this whole costume dress-up endeavour.. and for lack of a better idea, project runway it is! Week 1.

Day 1: Wearing a tshirt that had NO CHARACTERS that the old man can use to make fun of me with, and a camisole inside. And I look fat here kns.. like I got a tummy.. but I assure u its the mirror.. hahaha. PS I did not make my bed cos I was rushing to work.. :)

Day 2: Wearing a white-and-purple-striped sweater. This was a kids sweater I think.. haha but I like it... cos its one of the few items I bought from here that actually fit me well. PS I did not make my bed because I was rushing to work again :)

Day 3: Wearing a black turtleneck inside a colorful striped sweater.. one needs to brighten up the cold season! PS I did not make my bed because I was rushing to work AGAIN :)

Day 4: I was wearing a long black shirt underneath a turqoise sweater. It was the first time I had brought this sweater out this year.. and guess what when I went to lab THREE other people were wearing sweaters of the same color.. including the old man.. FML hahaha. PS I did not make my bed. Not bothering with excuses this time.

Day 5: Did not remember to take pictures until the very last minute when I was literally rushing out the door.. hence the picture where you can only see the outerwear and scarf. This was the new coat I bought from Macy's online.. its supposed to be a Junior SMALL and it was too big for me FML. But if I don't button up its not that obvious isn't it.. if I do, the extra space makes it seem like I can fit another me inside.. PS you can't see my bed HAHA! But guess what? Its actually the only day I got up early enough to have time to make my bed FML

Day 5 coincides with the eve of Halloween! The classmates decided to have a dinner potluck and some halloween fun at Kihyuck's place! I was planning to finish work about 3 hours earlier than usual, i.e. 4pm instead of 7pm, then head home to cook and shower and change and go to Kihyuck's place. I only managed to leave at 4.30pm. My classmate finished even later. In the end it was just a mad rush.. cooking, dressing up, driving over.

My neighbour/classmate/friend Lucky.. she was the one who suggested that I dress up as Cindy Lou. I jumped at the suggestion because I was too lazy to make props and they insisted everyone dress up to the party. And Cindy Lou was easy cos I can just pick clothes that make me look like a girl and tie up the hair.
The hair proved to be too much of a hassle though, so I ended up just tying a bow in my hair and putting a hairband with a bow on the other side and pretending its supposed to be like that... heehee.

Group pic! From left to right: Bumblebee and beetle, vampires (they were supposed to be Edward and Bella), and the geeks Adenine and Uracil with the 2 hydrogen bonds LOL and then there's me Cindy and there's Kihyuck the Superman!! :S wait did I say superman? :S

'Bella' was trying to suck Cindy Lou's blood!!!!

Kihyuck decided to ditch his costume to be bumblebee.... :S a bumblebee mutant!!!

Me watching tv on Kihyuck's BRAND NEW couch while the others have fun.. hahaha I'm such a tv addict.. but luckily I saw Kihyuck taking the pic and managed to smile in time... turned out quite well didn't it! :)

AND I was supposed to cook fried rice for the potluck.. but was rather afraid because no one else has tried my cooking but myself.. and I was afraid they won't like it.. BUT it turned out amazingly well! The non-vegetarians like it at least.. but because I overlooked the sheer number of vegetarians there that night.. 4 out of 8 of us... I added pork sausage to the fried rice and they did not get to eat.. FML. :(

Fresh tumor!

2009-10-29T19:01:00.000-07:00

I'm excited today, over a totally wrong reason to be excited about. We got a fresh tumor!

It was also a little bit of luck... okay more than a little. We had just finished lab meeting and were walking back to the lab. I recall being the last to talk during the meeting and desperately wanting to talk faster cos my bladder felt like it was going to burst. So it was a miracle I decided to go back to lab to put my stuff down before going to the bathroom. Just as I entered the lab, I heard the phone ring. It sounded like it had been ringing for a while and no one was around to pick it up because of the meeting. I decided what the hell, let it ring a while longer, I need to pee badly... then I immediately felt bad because no one else was free enough to pick it up. So I decided to pick it up.

Even before I picked it up, I saw where the call was from.. I had a hunch, I definitely would not regret picking this call up. And I was right, there was a fresh tumor from the OT. They needed someone to pick it up. And its strange really.. usually when they call, its tumors other than the type I work on. But today, I just had a hunch it would be the kinda tumor that I want....

Caller: Hi is Mike there? (sounding rather urgent)

Me: No he's not, but I can take a message. (I don't usually take a message because I'm too lazy but because I have a hunch I decided to be nice hehe)

Caller: Okay, can you tell him we got fresh tissue?

Me, starting to grasp the urgency of the situation: Sure. What kind of tumor is it? (I also don't usually ask what kinda tumor it was but because I had a hunch I decided to be a busybody)

Caller: Its a p*******c.

Me, barely able to contain my excitement: GREAT! I'll let them know right away!

Now that I think back about it, I was so excited it was obscene.. I mean, a kid was lying in the OT with her head open (okay, not really a kid this time, more like a teenager), and I was so freakin excited about the tumor they just removed from her brain because I was praying it had the property I wanted.. I mean, on my defense, if it does, I can help a lot of other kids in the same situation. But as the day wore on, I just felt worse and worse thinking about how horrible it must be for her and her family, learning that she had a brain tumor, and only just finding out its not really malignant. I mean, good for her. But she still gotta go through rounds of radio and chemo on her brain to get rid of it.. but at least there's a high chance she will survive.

I remember for the past few days, I was so frustrated with my project I kept bugging Mike and my post doc asking them how often do the tumors I work on come by, I desperately need to create a cell line with the property I want. I mean, I don't even know if this one has the property yet but I am already so excited about it. It almost feels like my prayers were answered.. because these tumors come by very rarely, about 2 or 3 times each year. And this year I heard there were already 3. The latest was only recently, but the pathologist fixed the tumor with paraffin before we could get our hands on it so we couldn't even make a cell line with it or even check if it has the property. The boss went crazy when he found out. And I was also rather lucky because if I had not picked up the phone at that moment, if I decided to go to the bathroom, they might have decided to freeze the tumor, which means we won't be able to make a cell line of it.

I know it all sounds rather obscene how excited I am about another person's misfortune.. I am also yoyo-ing between extreme excitement and extreme guilt about feeling excited over someone else's pain. This might make or break my project!!!!

PS I know I said I won't talk about work any more.. but this is too exciting. In any case I blanked out essential words in the text because of sensitivity.. in case anyone decides to google and find out what I'm working on.. I'm getting too close to be scooped!

PPS It's halloween tomorrow and the classmates are semi-forcing me to dress up so I will go as the easiest I can think of, other than being a Singaporean girl, that is, Cindy Lou of the Grinch! Heehee. Maybe I will take pictures.. we're going to hang out at Kihyuck's place.

PPPS just a short note.. isn't being a translational scientist the perfect job? You get the excitement of like a doctor but without the extreme stress and without having to look at blood... well most of the time anyway. The tumors generally come in a soup of something with definitely some blood inside.. and when you hold it its still warm, straight from the brain. :/

Fall

2009-10-28T21:31:00.000-07:00

I remember last week I was looking at the leaves turn red, marveling at how pretty it was, the shades of pink, red, orange coloring the landscape. I thought to myself, this weekend I will find time to take pictures of the trees. This beautiful sight.

This morning, as I was on my way to work, the merciless rain fell, as it had for the past few days. The only difference was, this time, it fell with the beautiful leaves. The leaves were no longer a bright hue of red. They were turning brown. They were falling from the trees. Fall is not going to wait for me. I wanted to kick myself for not finding a chance to take the pictures earlier this week. Will the leaves all be gone by this weekend? Time waits for no one.

I was in a bad mood the entire past week. Its like this itch. I know there's something missing in my life. I just don't know what it is. Like an itch you can never scratch. Then I talked to Jackie and we started analysing why I was feeling like this. Why my life is so monotonous and filled with work, sleep, work, sleep, seems so busy, yet also so empty. And why I'm so frustrated by it. I think we sorta came to a conclusion as to why. I think I sorta came to a conclusion. I duno if its more frustrating that I cannot do anything about it, or I cannot write about it here. But I guess at least, now, even though I cannot scratch that itch, I know where it is. Its not like the kinda itch that just itches from the inside out and you can never find where it itches most thats just so frustrating! That was me earlier this week. It was a series of unfortunate events that started that itch, beginning from a bad dream. Then it just kept growing. Is it a sign from the higher ups? I need some change in my life.

As I go about my daily life, doing the same thing over and over again, day in day out. I am the same me, but the seasons keep changing around me. I feel hollowed out, this emptiness emanating from the inside. I know if I don't do something, time will past me by, the opportunity will go. But the most frustrating thing is, I can do nothing about it. Maybe I just don't have the courage to change. Maybe I don't have the right to change. Maybe I need to wait for other people to come change my life. Maybe I desperately want other people to come change my life. But maybe I have no right to. How many Falls do I have to go through before I see Spring again?

100th anniversary!

2009-10-25T20:13:00.001-07:00

This marks the 100th post I've made to this blog!! YAY HURRAY! clap clap.

Nothing much is going on in my life right now. I'm so bored I can explode.. or maybe in this case implode. I'm going crazy thinking about nonsense because I have nothing better else to do. I try to expend my energy by working out but that didnt work for long cos I got so exhausted I crashed on my bed after a while. I need some excitement in my life! Other than work that is. That is the one thing that is taking up too much of my life.. that I really need time off of, and need to relax from.. But of cos.. no talking about it here...

Anyway, I recently discovered this blog.. Its a good read! For me at least.. maybe because the writer is so similar to me.. we're the same age, at the same phase in our lives, experiencing the same things, hell we're even the same height. Okay except maybe she's prettier than me, and skinnier. Blarh. Oh and she's from Malaysia. I forgot where I got to know about this blog already.. but I like it cos she thinks a lot like me la. Sometimes reading it makes me feel a little better about my life cos someone out there is experiencing the same stuff as me. Hah fourfeetnine is the nickname she uses. Shit now u all know my height.. on my driving license I made the MVA (Maryland Vehicle Authority) lady put down four feet ten inches okay... make myself feel a little better.

Sorry this is a pretty nonsense post but I am feeling so frustrated now. Argh got a lot of conflicting emotions that I cannot write here because of the people who read it. But one thing I can though.. is a pretty superficial frustration.. hahaaa I WANNA GO UK TO VISIT JING AND JA AFTER MY ORALS!! Phew got that out. But the problem is, I will take 2 weeks off before my orals to study and then if I take a week off after that to rest, and my parents and brother are coming over the week of christmas (my orals are on the 2nd of december) I need to take the christmas week off too... HOW TO TELL MY BOSS!!! BUT I SO BADLY WANNA GO! If I don't go now, they will be back in Singapore before I know it and I have no chance to visit them already! Plus add to that I'm planning to go back home for CNY so anytime around that period cannot also.. not to mention its more ex to buy air tickets to the UK from Singapore than here. WHAT SHOULD I DO?? Or should I just settle for going to Cali to visit my cousin?? But that I can do any time!!!! Urghhh

How do I look

2009-10-24T21:20:00.000-07:00

In collaboration with the Dove Love Yourself Day, I decided to force everybody to read everything about me and see all my pictures and of course, tell me you love me! Wahaha!! HEY DON'T RUN AWAY LEH!

Okay restart. You know how I was saying Mike the old man and Eric the post doc kept making fun of the clothes I wear and how I look, then I decided to start wearing nice stuff to work and make sure my hair is brushed and everything right.. I also decided to take a pic every morning before I go to work to let whoever is interested see and tell me if its a BAD BAD outfit or maybe, you know, tell me it looks great! I love compliments.. and okay.. I also sort of think I dress pretty decently if I try. Plus isn't it nice and also some sort of encouragement if I know I'm dressing for whoever wants to see these pictures and not just whoever I see in lab? I mean, when I think of the old man and the few middle aged post docs there I don't really feel the urge to dress up also.. wahaha so help me out here okay! So here goes!

Oops.. flash too bright..

How's this for a rehearsal.. this is NOT the outfit I wore to work.. I repeat.. this is NOT a work outfit. This is just a phototaking rehearsal.. I wore this out to go grocery shopping and for a dinner outing. So it was no biggie k..
I think this mirror kinda sucks.. its the mirror on my bathroom door.. and because this is a 1920s building, the mirror is kinda corroded away or something.. it has a film of something on it, and then I think a coat was sprayed on or something but I never managed to clean it away.

So I decided to use another mirror.. this one is actually more flattering haha.. and yes I did not make my bed again =.=

This was a half body shot... not the most perfect one but I was still trying.. told u this is a rehearsal... heehee..

Hallo this is me! Say hi!

This is me on my webcam! I look so retarded..
Hmm... should I get braces??? I just realized that orthodontics will be subsidized 50% by my dental insurance!! YIPPEE!!! Should I should I?? But its gonna be soo painful and I duno how to cook porridge :(

Talking about porridge.. this most interesting encounter with this old lady as I was in line at Giant buying groceries today..

She was this really chatty old lady.. kept trying to talk to me.. but I don't usually like making small talk to strangers cos I'm so bad at it.. but she's pretty persistant..

So when it was my turn to put my groceries on the belt, I started putting my potato chips, my oreos, my diet coke blah blah.. and then I put the divider on the belt and she started putting her stuff.. her organic honey, her organic nuts, her organic vegetable, her organic hummus blah blah..

Then she took one look at my stuff and she started saying, "You know, I like to eat healthy. That is why I got this honey.. I always use honey instead of sugar. I also like nuts, hummus. Its really good! I believe god gave me a healthy body so I really should take care of it. Some people live to eat, I think its obvious I eat to live," (laughs and continues), "Look at me, can you tell I'm 61? Most people don't think I am. That is because I am really healthy. Look at my arms, I have muscles because I lift weights! I think god had been really good to me so I will take good care of my body. I hope to live to be 150 years old. I think I can do it, who knows!"

I just nod and smile... and I guess she took that as encouragement cos she continues, "You know, young women like you, of childbearing age, its especially important. When you eat well, your baby will be healthy. When you don't the baby will not. AND yes breast milk! It is the best thing in the world to feed your baby! Don't let your baby drink cow milk because God gave us breast milk for a reason right?"

I was starting to panic.. praying that the cashier work faster please.. I can't wait to get out of here...

Finally it was my turn to pay.... and yet she didn't give up. As a parting shot, she showed me this muffin she had in her paper bag and whispered, "I wanted to get chocolate muffin.. its my favourite. But I decided to be good and get blueberry low fat." Then she smiled.

I walked away from the counter feeling more than a little guilty at what I'm holding in my grocery bags... damn this old lady :( maybe I really won't live to be 150 years old after all

I am bo liao

2009-10-17T15:24:00.000-07:00

So this is gonna be crap let me warn you. But I'm currently super obsessed with this Taiwan drama (what's new) called 敗犬女王, and as can be expected, I'm infatuated with the actor because its the 2nd drama that I'm super obsessed with that he was the male lead of. The first one was 命中注定我愛你. Ya I know very corny sounding names :/

敗犬女王

命中注定我愛你

So anyway Jackie Chan is my default entertainment news provider now and she was always telling me about the latest gossip and what are the latest hottest dramas to watch out for.. and one day she told me that the lead actor Ethan Ruan actually had Mongolian blood and he looks really like a Mongolian. She said she once watched a show that interviewed a group of Mongolians and every single one of them looked like him... I don't really know if there's a typical Mongolian look since I've never met a single Mongolian in my whole life but I heard the ladies are pretty hot. So I decided to google Mongolians and I was right.. the ladies were hot! But guess what Jackie was right too! O.M.G.

How Ethan looks like:
LOL sorry couldn't resist.. oooh so hot!!! Hahaha he's also a model which I guess sorta explains this pic.

Okay now how Ethan really looks like:

And how a Mongolian I randomly googled and found looks like:
Guy to the right please. Check out the slit-eyes, high nose bridge, prominent cheek bones, small mouth... if you shave this guy and shape his eyebrows and dress him in a white suit... TADAA you have Ethan! OMG I can't believe this.. I need to fly to Mongolia to find myself a bridegroom NOW!

P.S...
Look out for the latest hot manga-adapted drama Momo Love! Not 1, not 2, not 3, not 4 or 5, but a total of SIX hotties and 1 very lucky girl acting in it.
Yup 6 hotties is right cos the poor Singaporean guy acting in it I don't consider a hottie sorry.. you might be a 'national treasure' but in this show you're pretty much a loser :/
The storyline might sound a little incestous BUT WHO CARES the guys are so hot! The hottest brother of all Geofred or whatever weird English name these Taiwanese can come up with is actually 193cm!!! Wayyy out of my league :( we will have trouble kissing.. even if I wear heels.. Nah.. give you okay Jackie? As long as the other guy in the weird band called Farenheit is mine.. (forgot his name).

Oh and another drama I'm watching is this one called Black and White:
OMG GOT MY ZAI ZAI!!! Okay now you know how old I am.. he was my childhood sweetheart okay.. and apparently this show and the above 敗犬女王 won the most awards in some Taiwanese entertainment award or something.. at least zai zai kept his shape.. unlike Ken Zhu... so disappointed in him... his face looks like a mooncake now wahaha :/
Apparently the guy costarring with zai zai is some Chinese Canadian hottie.. the most interesting thing is he's actually acting with his daddy in this show! His daddy is acting as his superior in the police force.. how odd is that! Anyway Jackie likes him more I like my zai zai more.. so no conflict of interest again. :D

For more Taiwanese entertainment and drama, please visit http://sugoideas.com/! Its where I get all my Asian drama fix!

Next up on my list.. Korean drama with Yoon Eun Hye (spelt right?). Forgot the name.. must have something to do with Queen as well.. but heard its cool. ^^

pps: Do I sound like a boy crazy teenager :/ no dont tell me I dont really wanna know the answer!!

Half day!

2009-10-16T15:00:00.000-07:00

Today is a half day! It was the official christening of the building and we were not supposed to hang around while the billionaires who donated money to the building toured it, so I happily went home heehee. So happy.

Anyway, I have decided that its not a good idea to write too much about work. So I will refrain from talking about my work here from now on. Its hard, since now my entire life is almost consumed by work, but I'll try.

So let me talk about what I'm really busy with the past few days, non work related. That is, shopping for a new winter coat!!! :)
The weather turned cold really suddenly and lazy me left my old winter coats uncleaned, so I probably need to bring them to the dry cleaners this weekend. Blarh. In the mean time, I decided I gotta try to look more fashionable in lab, i.e. no more old tshirts, cos the post docs and techs made fun of my funny threadless tees every chance they get :( bye bye comfy tshirts hello fancy shirts.

I guess its not that I don't like looking pretty, its just too much of a hassle to have to think of what to wear every morning. Guess I'll have to plan in advance every night now. But frankly, its not really hard because at least its enjoyable. The one thing, if any, I like about the cold season, is the clothes. Maybe I was too deprived in Singapore but some of the winter coats and scarves and caps are just so pretty! I can't help but like dressing up during the cold season hehee.

So I started flipping through fashion mags and youtube for any Fall 09 trends on coats and I decided I really like the loose fitting high waisted coats that are all the rage this season, but I need something that is also rather classic so I can continue wearing it after this year. So no plaid. But also maybe no black, cos all my winter coats are black. So I was thinking grey.. classic, yet not OTT. But then this PERFECT coat had to show up, in only the colors BLACK or RED! Argh...

Judge for me you people... should I get this or not..

HAI its nice right?? Btw its so hard to find a coat for me, something not too long so it makes me look like a dwarf, yet not so short it doesnt cover my butt so my butt freezes... I used to look under petite until I realized my size is not classified under Petites, but Juniors. FML.

Okay.. time to take a nap.. hope I wake up in time for Ugly Betty tonight! :)

Nobel

2009-10-05T18:07:00.000-07:00

This morning Wj called to wake me up at 7am with the news... Carol Greider won the Nobel Prize! At that point he didn't know that she once gave us a lecture.. maybe it was 2 lectures. Hmm.. I wasn't too excited initially. Who would be, being woken up at 7am in the morning... when I was still trying to pretend I don't have to get up for work/thinking up sleepy excuses to skip work that day.

But as the day wore on, his excitement and the excitement of the people around me started to rub off on me. Woooh!! How many people can boast of being lectured by a Nobel Laureate BEFORE she became one... haha. Okay... I know its not me who won the Nobel prize. I'm just a little excited/inspired. I did the math. She's 48 this year.. she made the discovery 24 years ago.. that means she was MY AGE when she published that landmark paper! Woohoo! I can do it too! Shit.. not much time left.. gotta work harder...

And also, I learned that often, the ones who win the Nobel Prize are not the most highly cited ones.. I mean she was relatively highly cited but not the most.. but the ones who win are often the ones who elucidate some mechanism, discover some important gene/protein, that go on to be super important. I.e. basic science stuff. And I also learned that most of the most important discoveries are stumbled upon. They didn't set out to look for it. They were looking for something else and ended up stumbling upon something great. Not that you would know its great, until decades later when thousands of other people are working on it.

Thus I came up with the kahsuan postulates. To win the Nobel prize, it has to be a combination of wit, extreme luck, and of cos, the person winning it has to be important too. In English, we say, the stars have to be aligned. In Chinese, we say, 天时地利人和. First, you gotta be extremely lucky to stumble upon something great. Thus luck plays a great part. After you get lucky, THEN you gotta be smart enough to know you stumbled on something great. Mind you, this is important too! Not everyone can tell an important discovery from a mediocre one. Lastly, the person is important too. Of cos, as I was telling Jac, one of the hardest part of winning the Nobel Prize is having to survive long enough to win it. Because it is never awarded post-humously. How many people get such luck early in their life/scientific career to stumble upon something great and live long enough to see it utilized so often that they warrant a Nobel Prize? Not many!

Now I'm banking on my secret side project now.. wahaha.. I'm really excited about it, because its just so promising yet not many people are working on it yet.. a lot of the field left to be discovered! Hopefully I will get to have a piece of the pie! Shhhhhh... eh not that I think I will become a Nobel Laureate.. but one can always hope right? *slaps myself* kahsuan!! wake up!! you're here to do research, come up with cures and help people, not daydream about winning the nobel prize! Don't let greed corrupt you!!! Blah.

So anyway as I was telling Jac, the lady with the maggi mee hair who appeared so kindly as she lectured our group about telomeres is actually now a Nobel Laureate! Can you believe that?! She replied, "Its not very nice to say a Nobel Laureate has maggi mee hair lor!" But you know, thats actually the thing I remember most about her.. her maggi mee hair. Until I walked around the school today and this picture of her in her younger days holding up a silver blot was pasted all over the campus, and I realized she's actually a natural brunette. Walau! Nobel Laureate will also be vain enough to bleach her hair blonde leh!

Pre-fame Gaga

2009-10-04T17:20:00.000-07:00

I like her then-look so much more. But I guess to her producers, that just won't cut it. :( Hope she gets to be herself again some time soon!

LADY GAGA ON SNL!

2009-10-03T22:00:00.000-07:00

To those who don't already know, I LOVE LADY GAGA!!!! At first it was her songs.. so catchy and so happy. And her looks, so funky and flashy. I know I know.. I should really mellow down with age. But I can't help it right.. its my inner self wanting to be flashy like her wahaha.

But today on SNL, I can't help but just wonder why. Why is she doing this to herself. She's a really nice girl. I can feel it. But she always has to dress up like a slut. Today she was wearing this totally horrible get up with like multiple metal rings around her while she danced and sang Love Game.. yet she's so amazingly talented. Beneath her heavy makeup, her bleached blond hair, her slutty clothes, she has such great talent. When she sat down at the grand piano and started playing and singing, her voice so beautiful, her fingers flying over the keyboard producing such great music. I was bowled over. It just made me wonder why she wanna hide all that and portray herself in such bad taste all the time.

And then when you think about it, she's only always like that when she's on stage singing. When she's not singing, when she's doing gigs and interviews and stuff, you can see that she totally doesn't behave like a slut. She's such a nice girl, maybe a little socially awkward. But nevertheless, she's so much more than the girl she makes us believe she is.

Just wanted everyone to know... it just made me love her more!!! I LOVE LADY GAGA! Hope she will showcase more of her amazing talent in the future :)

Random pictures- NYC, White House, and misc

2009-09-27T10:05:00.000-07:00

HOLA long time no see! Sorry I've been busy with work and stuff... but as promised, lets take a sneak peek inside my tiny but cosy pad!

Pics are taken in such that the view of the room is as complete as possible ahaha.

Here's my dresser in the middle of the room, beside my study table and my chair that is semi-blocked by the tv..

Thats the entrance to the kitchen and dining area and thats my tiny little table with my laptop on it. That thing that is beside the table, kinda blocked by the edge of the bed is my exerciser.. my stepper! I can feel the muscles building and the fats melting away.. haa no no nooo i dont want Madonna muscles! I need to find a way to lose fats and not build muscles..

Thats the view of the other side of the room. On the right is the closet door, with a mirror hanging from it, in the middle is my drawer set with my tv sitting on it.. my 32 inch tv! Not the biggest, but big enough! To the left is the entrance to the bathroom.. yes that door with a mirror on it. And somewhere to the left of the tv is my lame attempt at making my room a little greener.. my tiny little plant from ikea. That bizarre looking thing in front of it is my tv antenna.. so I can get free-to-air channels without having to pay for cable! The extreme left is my study table once again. If you zoom in you can see on the magnetic board above the table I have stuck some of the birthday cards that I got... from my parents and from JINGWEN with the very ugly duckling magnet hahahaaha jkjk.

That's my very comfy bed.. with my tiny table in front of it. I know I did not make my bed.. hahaha thats cos I was still lying on it surfing the net! I was too lazy to move to the study table.. heehee. And that box underneath the table? That holds the notes that I compiled to prepare for my orals.. which I have really yet to get to studying for.... :S

Enter the kitchen! View from the dining area.

I have this other tiny table somewhere in the dining area right beside the kitchen/dining area partition and it holds my tiny rice cooker and tiny coffee maker and kettle and most importantly the USD$32 mooncakes I got from Hmart. Exhorbitant I know.. but that was really the best kinda moon cakes they had, and I badly needed something to remind me of home heehee.

View of the ~~sparsely furnished~~ unfurnished dining area from the kitchen.. Where the tiny vase lies on the floor is to mark the demise of a cockroach.. dried up on the wall after many years of unnoticed death. Till this day, it lies, stuck on the wall.. because I dare not touch a dead cockroach FML.

My tiny stove in the kitchen.. super tiny eh.. no space to even put up a drying rack. I really need to start looking for one that I can hang on the wall.. one sturdy enough so it wont fall and crack all my ceramics.

My kitchen cabinet! Holding my stash of Chinese tea, milo, instant coffee.. and below it, my microwave, my apples and my stash of junk food... and some more tea and evaporated milk for my coffee (I love my kopi si!).

The last but not least picture of my room.. the view from my window! It faces South.. not fantastic view, but also not facing the source of noise etc from the pubs. More than what I can ask for!

Next up.. NYC! My Baltimore BFF Kailee persuaded me to accompany her and her parents to a weekend NYC trip. Bolt bus tickets = cheap! No need to drive = relaxing.

3 years before, I visited ground zero. Had the hardest time trying to find it cos there was really nothing there but construction. 3 years on, I visited ground zero again. This time, just a couple days after 911. Nothing changed. Its still a construction site. They said next year the official memorial will be ready. Lets wait and see.

View of the tall buildings around NYC.

This is still around ground zero.

New location I visited: Wall Street. Never was really interested in it.. but now that the economy is recovering, the people do look slightly happier than in spring.

NYC street view.

Another building in NYC.

Somewhere in the Wall Street area.

They were filming something!

We were trying to kaypoh but got chased away.

Changed a location to kaypoh.

Everything is fake.. even the cab is a prop!

Get ready for filming...

Thats what they were filming.. see if you can see it on tv! It should be an ad.. dont know what its for though.

Pics from Patho department picnic! The brownie was phenomenal.

K2, my labmate/bff2 Kahjing eating the crabs they provided at the picnic. Maryland blue crabs.

It was a beautiful day for a picnic!

The picnic.. and part of Jackie's face.

On the way home. Zoom in to the car plate and tell me what you see ;) ps it was at the red light.. I wasn't trying to take pics while driving!

Fall is here.. tree leaves are turning red! Sooooo pretttyyyyy!

Pics of the White House tour!

Obama invited us to his place one day. Blarh. Security was so tight and you would think for all the crap they make you go through, and all the background checks they did on you (quoting someone, they probably knew how much you peed in the past few days prior to the trip), you would think they would show us more stuff. But no. All we got to do was go in, follow a certain route through the first floor of the White House. No Oval Office of course, no Obama (he was at G20!!!), everything was barricaded.. we could only see from a safe distance. No fun at all!

Anyway, pics. Kailee at the entrance of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.

Me next.
Ya if you were wondering why I was holding on to so many things its cos they refused to let us bring in even tiny purses, only wallets phones and umbrella. And it happened to be a rainy day so everything I had to carry in my hands blah.

The only redeeming factor is it is really pretty.

The crowds milling around outside.

'We're inside the White House grounds and you're outside suckers!' wahaha.
It usually takes about 6 months to apply, and you gotta apply through an organization and through a congressman before you will have a chance to go visit the White House. But I would advise you, its not worth the trouble. For us, it took like 1 week so that was fine. Otherwise, there's really nothing much to see.

The protesters from Iran sitting outside.. hey you guys.. your President is in NYC! Why are you in DC!
The funniest thing about this picture was the tent was full of protesters on 'hunger strike, day 60'. But beside the tent there's a table full of snacks and beverages etc. Define hunger strike, someone?

Warning.. graphic pics. Don't zoom in if you gotta a weak heart! Tamil Indian protesters.

Crowds milling outside the White House, taking pictures.

Crowds leaving.

US Secret Service man. Wearing a vest with the huge words 'US Secret Service' emblazoned across his back. Guess that's not very secretive any more is it Mr Secret Sevice? Face has been blurred to protect his identity. Heehee.

As we were chatting outside, someone said that legend has it that there's a sniper above the White House aiming at each and every one of us, in case we try something funny. My hair started standing on ends. And another said that in the red building beside the White House, it appears that there are surface to air missiles ready to be launched any time they see any air craft going too close to the White House. Yet another said that he once witnessed the President coming in on his chopper. They gotta clear off immediately. There would be 3 choppers landing simultaneously, only one is the bonafide one holding the president. The others would clear off after the right one lands and the president gets off. Heehee sounds like a scene right out of a spy movie!

Talking about spies, secret service and stuff, it also happened to be the National Library of Congress book festival in DC this weekend! And guess what.. at the moment that I was at the fair, my favourite author David Baldacci was supposed to be giving a talk there! This is so totally random. We were too far away from the stage to be able to tell if it was really him, but it did not look like him in the book *disappointed*. But we were in such a rush to catch the bus home we couldn't wait. But a lot of other famous authors were also there, including my other fav Jodi Picoult (my sister's keeper), Judy Blume, and John Grisham!

Okay.. enough of small talk.. gotta go get some groceries and move my car. Seems the parking space is too cramped and I need to move my car closer to the wall so others can get past safely. TTYL!

Scared

2009-09-14T19:41:00.000-07:00

Did you read about the Yale graduate student who was killed? Its so scary how she shared so many similarities to me... both 24, both 4"11, both about 90 pounds, both Asian, both graduate students, both studying in dangerous cities. It's absolutely freaking me out. Especially when I got home today. I swear, I heard something in the kitchen. Later I realize it was this plastic bag holder I had near my backdoor which is in the kitchen. It fell to the ground. And initially I shook it off as my imagination. Then my microwave started beeping. And I KNEW I didn't touch it. I just got home! I ran into my kitchen. And I understood. Someone was INSIDE my apartment. He/she heard me come in and ran out the backdoor. In his/her hurry, he/she knocked my plastic bag holder to the ground.

The first response was to open the door immediately and check. But of course by then, whoever was gone. Then I ran back into my apartment and started looking to see if I lost anything. Nothing. It's not the first time something like this happened. The first time, my closet was messed up and the lights were turned on but I attributed it to the maintenance man because the pipes were in the closet wall. But there was no maintenance ticket, which is the normal practise for the maintenance man when he comes in. And I still don't understand why my microwave was beeping.

By then I was starting to shake in fear. I could only think of how lucky I was the person decided to leave and not stay and hurt me or whatever. I called the management emergency number and they promised to check to see if it was the maintenance man who came in. But I highly doubt it because I got home after the working hours of the maintenance man. The management also promised to change the locks if it was not the maintenance man. Now I think of all the time someone else might have the keys to my apartment while I sleep at night, while I was out working, and I just feel this horrible sense of fear. All the time I was under the false impression that I was safe...

My exciting life

2009-09-02T18:54:00.000-07:00

So do you guys wanna hear about the more exciting or less exciting story first? Both happened in the same day. How bout lemme decide for you guys. Less exciting story first.

1. A Fedex delivery person came rushing into the lab some time in the afternoon. He had a cooler box in his hands and he was looking for anyone in the lab next to ours. However, no one was around except for people in our lab. He looked pretty desperate, so old man Mike decided to help him out. He tried calling the people in the other lab. No one picked up their phones. Finally the FedEx guy handed the package to us and told us he needed to hurry and go about the rest of his deliveries.

We took a good look at the package and did a double take. On the top was a bright red stamp 'Medical Emergency'. AHH!!! Can't be some organ for transplant can it??! We decided to open the documentation accompanying the package. It was some donor information. The donors died a couple days ago. Bad news, its gotta be some kinda organ. Good news, its probably not for transplant if it was harvested a couple of days ago and only got here now. Mike decided to open up the box to store the samples in the freezer. And out came 6 containers. Mike joked, 'This person has 6 eyes!' and held the 6 containers right in front of me. AHHHHH!!!!

My exciting work life.

2. Yesterday, I went home earlier than usual. Took the shuttle back at 6.30pm. That was the express shuttle so it gets me home faster. A few minutes into the ride, the bus came to a screeching halt. It was really annoying and some people were standing so many people fell. I was really annoyed initially because I thought the bus did that because the driver did not see a red light or something. And then I heard sirens and I understood. Now, in the US, the thing about driving is, ambulances and fire engines are the kings of the road. If you hear any kind of siren at all, its not like in Singapore where you just change lanes or give way. Here you have to literally pull over to the side and come to a stop to allow the emergency vehicles to pass. If the road is too small you gotta go onto the kerb to give way. So I understood why the bus driver had to jam on the brakes.

But that did not prepare me for what came next. Like in a split second after the bus braked, sirens suddenly started wailing and a police car flew past. Right on its heels was a civilian car with police lights flashing on the dashboard. It was like right out of the movies. The plainclothes officers in the car were holding walkie talkies and looked really tense. In a split second, they were gone, as fast as they arrived. The sirens wailed in the distance. Like a slow mo movie, the cars that came to a stop on the road started slowly coming to life again.

It was then that I found out a shooting had just occurred. In the news today, it was reported that there was a domestic dispute right behind the hospital and someone started shooting. An innocent hospital employee was shot by a stray bullet. Poor lady is fine after some outpatient treatment. But must have been shocking! Rush hour too!

My exciting life....

When I told Jackie chan this story, she very enviously said, "I am so jealous of you. Not everyone can see that kinda stuff lo." Ya... I'm sure also not everyone wants to witness that kinda stuff.. no really..

God

2009-09-01T18:18:00.000-07:00

Do you believe in god? I was a believer. Just in that there is a god, doesn't matter which god. I have my faith, others have theirs. And I respect them all, so let's not go into an argument about faith. But I do believe that in this universe, there must be a higher power. Someone looking out for us all. And this week, my believe is strengthened. Everything that happened to me is just too much of a coincidence. God knows what I need. God is looking out for me.

So remember my previous entry about how money came when I was really hard up for cash? And so I thought, now that I am a little less hard up, how about lets get some of the essential, but not critical appliances that I had been putting off because of my financial situation. I needed a microwave, a rice cooker, and a coffee maker. The last one is just cos I drink so much coffee, it just makes more sense for me to make my own coffee every morning rather than buy coffee from starbucks. Anyway I digress.

So I went on craigslist looking for these appliances, in the same order. Microwave because its most critical, then rice cooker because I can always eat instant noodles if there's no rice, and then coffee maker because I can always get coffee from starbucks in the mean time. At the moment I still do not have that much spare cash so I decided to get them second hand. So I looked at the ads and started sending out emails to people selling off stuff and my emails were always titled 'Microwave' or 'Rice cooker' or maybe 'Vacuum cleaner'. So whenever I get replies, the replies always carried the same heading.

Yesterday when I saw the email titled 'Microwave' in my inbox, I thought it was another reply telling me sorry, the microwave is already sold or that the microwave is located so far away that its just stupid to drive there to buy it. Guess what, its none of the above. In fact, it wasn't even a reply to an ad. It was a fellow Singaporean here I've met just once. She was moving and she had 2 microwaves so she decided to give one away. She heard that I was looking for one so she wanted to offer hers to me. Isn't this the most amazing thing?

I was dumbstruck. I might not be the luckiest person all the time. I always get lousy data in lab, sometimes get yelled at by my boss, sometimes get so stressed out I can't sleep, sometimes I'm just really messed up. But this week, I feel like I am the luckiest person on Earth. Its small little things, but coming at the right time, really made my day. I guess that is why I say, god is watching out for me.

Maybe I should ride on this luck and go buy the 300 million USD lotto!!!!! WHEEE!!! Hahahaha just kidding!!! I won't squander my good luck like this!

Random

2009-08-29T21:20:00.000-07:00

some random thoughts:

1. A girl riding a bike is sexay.. especially a big bike like a Harley. Same for a girl driving a big car. Like a jeep. So I saw this pretty brunette wearing a pretty sundress with her hair let down and flying around her face riding this harley one day in Charles village.. and I remember thinking to myself.. Man.. that's just too sexy! Hehee

2. Remember the saying, when God closes a door, he opens a window or something along that line? Its true!!! So I'd been miserable the whole past 2 weeks because of my current financial situation. I was put on a leave of absence when I went back home so I didn't get paid. And when I came back I moved to a new place.. security deposit was 1.5 months rent, plus I had to pay rent immediately, plus I had to buy new furniture.. basically I was almost totally broke. So I ate sandwiches for lunch everyday and stopped driving to work and parking in school to save on gas and parking. And I was thinking, this must keep up because even if my pay comes in at the end of the month, I need to pay for my September rent and car insurance, parking, gas and electricity bills, phone bills, credit card bills, so not much is left.. at least until middle of the month when my biweekly pay check comes in again.

And voila guess what... money kept descending on me the past 2 days!! Heehee.. first I remembered that the security deposit from my old apartment was still not mailed to me, so I chased them for it and got the check this week.. and then Kailee just gave me my mail.. which was forwarded to her place when I went home.. and inside I found another check.. my tax return which they took too much of!!! It was not an insignificant amount.. for someone whose bank account is almost in the red like me. Woohoo!!! I'm so happy!!! Add to that the fact that they banked in our pay already.. now my bank account is starting to look healthy again. Heehee.

Okay, next time when I'm not so busy I will take pics of my room to put up I swear. Till then!

Back

2009-08-25T19:10:00.000-07:00

Back in Baltimore.

Moving to my new place + starting my thesis project proved to be quite a handful. Spent the past week unpacking and cleaning and calling the gas and electric company to set stuff up, and settling rent and parking and buying furniture, assembling furniture. All while still working 10 hour days in lab everyday at least. Lost about 5 pounds in a week ahahaha. Also cause I had no time for lunch plus had no food to cook.

But now I'm mostly settled. Still really busy at work though, but one day I will take some pictures of my new home and show it to you guys! Lab has moved to a new location too, into this new building with sunlight shining though the center and where everyone can see everyone else cos its so open concept. Very pretty, won't get S.A.D during winter again!

On the other hand, I just found out that my first authorship had been stolen from me! ARGH... the stuff I had done is going to go under the paper of this tech who left to go to grad school. Honestly, I think I did a lot more work than him, though he probably had another side of the story to piece into the paper. BUT why not leave my data alone so I can make it my paper!!!! damnit i wanna graduate too!!! ARGH! THIEVES!

Okay.. will vent my frustrations another time.. busy still.. till next time!

Photoshoot

2009-08-02T07:15:00.000-07:00

Hello hello!

So, Jackie Chan decided to become a semipro photographer and got Weijie and I to be her models one day. To accomodate busy Weijie, we went to Biopolis for the shoot and spirited him away from his all-consuming lab time to take the pics with us.

It was not that easy to find picture-worthy places in Biopolis, but glad we managed to find some!

First off, war of the sexes!

We were fighting.. Weijie incited it.. then he regretted. See me tame the monkey!

"Okay, from now on, u will listen to me and only me. No one else!"

You spin my head right round right round.....

Jac got us to ride on the kiddy merry-go-round.. it was indeed a frightful ride for us! Blame Weijie for his bright idea...

Moment of peace... momentarily...

A lot of pics of us laughing.. because we were all so amused with each other.. not just me and him but also Jackie Chan.

Can't really tell can you.. but we are on the merry-go-round still.

I look happy.. but I was almost dying of fear of falling off a spinning merry-go-round deep inside hahaha!

Tree top.. looks romantic doesn't it??

Wait till you see the actual place.. I was scared shitless, damn near shitting my pants at having to climb up that tree.. with angry red ants crawling up and down and all around.. and the tree trunk being higher up than the entire me added up.. I was still screaming my head off as Weijie nonchalantly hoisted me up the trunk.. "WILL IT BREAK UNDER OUR WEIGHT!?" "I'M AFRAID OF HEIGHTS!" "I'M GONNA FALL TO MY DEATH!"

Heehee this one is more romantic.. another merry-go-round shoot!
This one too, with some color editing.

Our cuppa.. looks great doesn't it!

This one's for the weshop4u.wordpress.com. muahaha our upcoming project...

This one too originally but we look super unglam here duno why..

I was supposed to stare at him lovingly.. duno how come it turned out like this... hahaha!

笑场!
Him being silly.

Taming the monkey/rabbit.

Okay.. finally.. behind the scenes.. evidence of us falling off the merry-go-round.

Test shoots of me alone..

Purrfect.. never a better shot of myself! Thanks Jackie!

Like the pictures? Want one for yourself and your partner? Visit tisromance today! There are more pictures of Weijie and I up there, together with other couples. Jackie charges by time, and you pick the place! Tell her what you have in mind, whether its for a wedding photoshoot or just a routine couple shot, give your significant other a treat!

And no, I'm not being paid for this.. hahaha just helping each other out! For more info feel free to contact me or email tisromance@gmail.com!

Growing up.

2009-07-22T11:01:00.000-07:00

Growing up. What it means: no longer being able to rely on your parents. Starting to carve out a career for yourself. And most importantly, starting a family of your own. Which of these am I doing?

As more and more of my close friends are getting engaged and married, I start thinking a lot. Is my partner the person I want to spend the rest of my life with? Is he who he used to be? Will he be the same person I knew 2 years ago? It is getting more and more confusing. When everything is smooth sailing, the relationship between 2 people is always good and sweet. The true test comes when we reach crossroads in our lives. When we meet with major life changes. Like the transition from student to joining the workforce. From staying beside each other to going long distance. When we are faced with career choices to make. When it may compromise the relationship. What do we do.

If he picks his career over you, does it mean he cares less? Should you wait? What about if at this time, we find that we each have very different priorities? When we were students, all we could see were our similarities. When we make the transition after graduation, the differences start to come out. It does not help that his career path is not smooth-sailing at the moment, thanks to the current economy. It also does not help that our differences keep increasing, and past ghosts we have chosen to ignore come out to haunt us now. Mistakes were made, promises broken. How long can we hold out? I don't know. Frankly. I don't even know if I want to hold out. He is not the person I used to know.

Also, there's my career. There are people who are contented with being a tai tai. There are people who are contented with a scholarship and an iron rice bowl thereafter. There are people who can achieve great things. There are people who will backstab others just to achieve great things. For some strange reason, I am a person who never wanted to achieve great things. I know what I want in life, I want to do research, to help people. That's all I wanted. I will be contented if I can do that. I am doing a PhD only because I know without a PhD I can never do much in research.

But by some weird stroke of luck, I ended up doing my PhD in a top college in the US. By some weird chance I was exposed to a lot of dirty politics that made me sick to the core. And all of a sudden, I found drive. Some deep carnal feelings stirred in me. I felt a rage I have never felt before. I wanted to stop all this. I wanted to make a difference. All of a sudden, I didn't feel like I was a mediocre person any more. I felt like I could make a difference. If I worked hard. I wanted to be a person people will look up to. I wanted to be a person any agency feel will be a bonus to them if they employed me. I wanted to work my way up to the top so I can change things. I have even thought about the changes I will implement. The fools at the top, they will never see the talent that is being buried under them, wasting away. While they fawn over 'foreign talent' long past their expiry dates. I need to change that. I felt like I owed the people I know to give them what they deserve. They are geniuses, all of them. Unrecognized geniuses that the agency has put in so much to groom and then put to waste. So angry. So indignant for them. I needed to change that.

I don't know why I have changed so much. From just being interested in research, in helping people, I have become interested in management, in politics. Politics! I used to shun the very word. I entered the world of research partially to avoid politics. Yet now I sharpen my senses observing people around me, just to learn how people think, to understand human nature, to pick up PR skills, and also management skills.

I know that if I were who I am a few years ago, I would have been sickened by who I have become today. I would never have thought I would become like this. Who can I blame, if my relationship would fail. He is not the only one who has changed. So have I. I remember a conversation we were having. I wanted kids, many kids, and I wanted to get married early. Yet I never thought about how I was going to juggle my career and family. He wanted to focus on his career. I told him how envious I was of friends who were already starting to carve their niche in their careers. While I was still being a student. He felt bad, because he felt he was not even as capable as I was, even though I beg to differ. As we grow up, more and more things are starting to come between us. Even the pace of our career paths. Our plans for the future differ. But it seems like he is clear on what he wants. At least for now. I am the one confused.

I wish the fog would clear, there will be some guidance as to what I should do.

LASIK

2009-07-12T08:58:00.000-07:00

Okay.. went for Weijie's commencement today. Crazy. Gotten sick of how I look with glasses on. Gonna try ditching them. Going for a Lasik evaluation tomorrow. Muahaha if all goes well. I will have purrrrfect vision once again!!! Back to when I was 8 years old!

The Flu That Shall Not Be Named

2009-07-03T00:21:00.001-07:00

I was just whining yesterday about how all my friends cancelled lunch and dinner plans on me the last minute after I told them I felt feverish etc etc. So sad so hurt. Not just 1 but at least 3 different people separately cancelled on me. SIGH! Suddenly everyone has babies and old people at home. Even those who are not married yet. Ahahaha.

So today I made up my mind to go see the doctor and get well soon so I can go out more. And I picked a doctor I know is really good at what he does and is not overly paranoid. Because I am terrified of being sent to TTSH or Aloha or whatever to spend a week alone.

Despite me thinking that to the best of my knowledge, I have no cough, only watery nose and eyes and maybe slightly light-headed annd giddy, the doctor measured my temp and determined that a fever is setting in ahahaha so exciting! Then he took down my particulars and what flight I came in on (of cos I don't remember, so I told him Northwest airline thats all I remember). Then he started chitchatting and asking me what I was doing in the US and stuff. LOL totally not scared of me. And contrary to what I used to think, my grandma actually told me he remembers who I am and who my grandma is. Cos there was once I brought my grandma there to see him. LOL. And I was also the totally bo chup kind. But I thought maybe I should be socially conscious and asked him if I should quarantine myself or call 955 or whatever or go TTSH or not. And he was like, AIYA the govt is too paranoid la. Just let everyone get the flu and the population will get immunity and be protected. Don't worry about it. Heehee. He don't even know if its H1N1 (swine flu) but he said its fine just go home and he gave me flu and fever meds and now I am resting at home wahaha.

Of cos being socially conscious, I cancelled my plans for tonight, maybe should also cancel my plans for tomorrow and Sunday. When I sms-ed yp telling her tonight probably should be postponed cos I was diagnosed with the flu, she replied, "Surely, you do not have the flu that shall not be named?!" AHAHAHA I duno what strain I got. But I'm surely feeling fit as a bull right now. So don't worry I will get well soon and meet u guys!

HOME SWEET HOME!

2009-06-30T20:45:00.000-07:00

Allo allo!! I'm home I'm home I'm home!!! *exhilaration*

There were no updates because I was busy trying to absorb everything here and meeting up with everyone. Ok actually, until yesterday the only people I met were Wj, Jacinth and my family and extended family ahahaha but! Yesterday I went back to my 2nd home Biopolis and met all my friends there! Okay wait.. not all. But fret not. I will be back again!

Here's Ja.. she's my darling my BFF my love <3 we went to Dintaifung for the newly launched mini xiao long bao which was such a disappointment =.= But disappointments aside.. I just realized that was the only day I managed to take pictures of.. hahaha!

Weijie being stupid.

Me being fierce muahaha.

OH and I got a haircut after that and got my teeth cleaned and am preparing my eyes to go for Lasik and also toying with the idea of getting braces cos I'd been feeling inferior about my misaligned teeth for some time =.= but we'll see cos the dentist I went to basically told me a grandmother story on whether I should or should not get braces and didn't even gimme a definite conclusion blah. And he also very hum sup.. kept staring at my legs and feet cos I was wearing some teeny shorts (cos I was sweating like hell everyday, the thought of anything that covered more skin was appalling!).

Oh and I went back to the lab yesterday cos my ex-boss/mentor was leaving to set up his own lab YAY! And since I went back I might as well go meet up with the rest of the people I miss so dearly like my SKII (minus fatimah). And we talked and talked and talked. I told them about all the shit I got into with the program cos my BLOODY BOSS-TO-BE went and complained to the program director. *calm down kah suan calm down*. And how I sent an email to him after that cos I was so upset with him and I indirectly told him how he screwed me over blah blah to get back at him. *oops*. Ahaha. And also Ky's story about her PMS PI and Sl's story about her 'wtf' post doc. LOL. And conclusion is, I feel much better after talking to them because I finally realized that I'm not the only one going through shit like this in the whole world muahaha. I am sick like that. LOL. Even though I probably have it worse because I am in a lot more trouble than them wtf =.=

And everything boils down to my bloody temper. IF ONLY I could learn to control it better. Shit. I used to have such good PR skills. For some reason after I went to the states my temper got very bad. I think it could be because I wanted to protect myself so badly in such an unfamiliar place, prevent myself from being taken advantage of. To show others that I'm not to be trifled with. But of course it wont always work. Tears, I have found, indirectly, really is the best weapon a female can have muahaha. After I was summoned to the program director's office, I was under so much stress from all the rubbish around me that I just broke down and cried in front of the 82-year old kindly director. And once I started I couldn't stop. Everything just fell apart. The poor old man didn't know what to do and started comforting me instead of berating me. Telling me how much I've achieved, how far I've come, and how proud he is of me. Heehee. Love the old man. And he told me to keep in touch with him after I go back to Baltimore blah blah. Of course, this only works with males. Don't try it with females. You might just get into more shit. Ahaha.

And now that I'm home, I can't even rest. Because of the bloody TAs of graduate immunology. The bloody bitch and her side kick. I mean, I didn't do well for the exam, granted. But if the difference between a pass and a conditional pass is the class participation, and I DID participate in class AS MUCH AS ANYONE ELSE WTF! And I KNEW what was going on. I can't believe the BITCH went and told the program director I DESERVE a conditional pass and not a pass cos I didn't participate in class. WTF! Just because she has a personal issue against me because I was unhappy about the way she conducted the midterm review?! The bitch and her sidekick. Damnit. Now I'm home and I can't freakin enjoy myself cos I gotta write a paper for the Immunology course if I wanted to pass. WTF! If I ever have to cross path with her professionally she better be afraid. VERY afraid.

Okay calm down Kah Suan. See what I mean about my temper? sigh. Need to learn to control it. Breathe in breathe out. I will just submit the paper and see what I got. Then I will go up to the program director with a complain against her and her sidekick. Of course the program director will protect her. But the least I can do is cast doubt in her direction to protect future students from TAs like her.

Ok till next time. TADAA!

Delay!

2009-06-18T20:23:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the long hiatus. Had a tough week but more about that next time. Today let me tell you about the drama at the airport!

So I was supposed to fly home this morning. Delta and Northwest merged and I got connecting flights from Delta to Northwest. We went to the airport in a rush after signing a lease for my new rental place at 8.30am this morning. Then we saw the crazy line. Bad feeling. Then we went in line. And then we waited. And waited. And waited.

After 1 hour, the line didn't move. Tempers were flying and people were getting upset. What is going on! It also happened to be the crazy summer break season so every one was going off on holidays.

It turned out that the Delta airline computer system crashed after the thunderstorm in Baltimore in the morning. So they couldn't check anyone in. So there were empty planes flying off and we were stuck in the airport not being able to fly. Dumb.

Anyway of course we missed our 1120am flight. And all connecting flights thereafter. And are stuck in Baltimore, in the airport hotel cos I checked out of my room so I can't go back any more. Blah.

Also met a lot of interesting people while waiting in line. 2 top the list.

1. An 88 year old lady traveling alone. Poor lady was waiting in line and couldn't rest at all the whole time. We got her in line with us and I tried to help her get to a counter in front of a crazy mob who refused to let anyone in front of cos they were waiting since 6am for their flight. Almost got into a flight because they were so mean (hello the lady is 88 years old waiting for the past 3-4 hours!). But everyone had had a long day and in the end we tried to settle stuff amicably.

Of course most people have domestic flights which are easier to reschedule than our international flight. But not us. Which is why we needed to try as hard as possible to catch our original flight.. which of course we ended up not getting anyway :(

The old lady finally got someone to help her and I was so happy. Before she left she hugged me and thanked me and that was the best moment the whole day.

2. Second interesting character was this soldier who was on his way back to Afghanistan. He also used to serve in Walter Reed and we chatted and he told us a lot of interesting stories. How Walter Reed used to be really good but after he left things just went downhill blah blah. Another soldier was going back to Iraq and he was waiting in line beside Afghanistan soldier. And we all started chatting while he waited for the stewardess to refund him 5 bucks. And after 15 minutes of chatting and waiting he was in such a terrible rush that he told me to take the money and he ran for his flight. When the stewardess came back, she took the 5 bucks and I told her the soldier left. And everyone behind me chimed in that he wanted me to have his 5 bucks and the stewardess put it on the counter and said she wanted no part in it. Everyone then looked expectantly at me. Weijie looked at me in disbelief. Not one to disappoint, I then calmly pocketed the 5 bucks much to the amusement of everyone behind us. Muahaha. Some light hearted moments to get us through the tough time.

Anyway, now we're in the hotel room, Weijie is watching crappy US tv and I am typing this out. Have lot more to say but very distracted by the tv noise. Will update more when I'm home.. in 2 days!

Pictures plus bad day

2009-06-09T18:55:00.000-07:00

Hello hello! Everybuddy! Long time no see! We had been having ourselves a blast in Baltimore baby! The weekend just past saw us going to the Homewood campus a lot.. to work on my presentation, to walk around, and just to chill in the beautiful sunlight.

Say hi to our dear friend Mr Squiggy! Squirrel is climbing on tree. Squirrel is not afraid of Kah Suan. Kah Suan walks closer to play with it. It stays. Weijie walks closer to take a picture of it. It runs away. Says so much. Who looks scarier.

Mr Squiggy.

Aww Mr Squiggy is itchy!!! Itchy itchy scratch scratch.

That's his Mrs Squiggy on the tree waiting for him.

Picture with the university sign. Muahaha. I realized I haven't taken a single one with it before. Not one.
So I took 2.

No actually 3. Except this is the only pic in which I am bigger than the sign and you cannot totally see the sign.

And the week also saw us going to the Charles Village Fest! Its sooo fun! Lots of food and games.

So many stalls!!!

I bought a cowhorn ring, that thing on my finger (at least thats what the sign said it was). Think its handmade.. hand drawn.. and probably done by some African tribal woman so by buying this I'm helping an African family build a mudhouse.

They had a live band playing!!!

The ring on my left index finger is the focus of the picture. Really.

We saw many beautiful kids there playing in the grass and decided to sneakily take one by pretending to take us.. but this one fails.

This one is better. See those kids playing the hula hoop? Hehe so cute! There was this small kiddo with a ginormous hula hoop and she can really move it man! Gawd.
I love parents who are not paranoid about hygiene and too rigid and let their kids have their fun when they can and when they are all innocent and not bogged down by the realities of life. That way they can truly be the happy kids they are and one day grow up to be great adults. And hygiene because if you are too clean you are spoiling your kids immune system by not allowing them to be exposed to the right spectrum of germs they should be. I say this cos I saw this ang mo kid crawling on his knees and tiny hands all around the grass patch and the stone pavement.. he must be at most a year old. And he was having so much fun his daddy was crawling with him. He tried to crawl down the steps (can't stand up yet) but was so afraid its so cute! Then he finally found a way to get down without hurting himself. Smart kid. Thanks to the dad. Respect the dad.

And then we saw a hippie car next. And decided we needed to take a pic with it hehee.

Weijie says.. dont be afraid!
Then we walked around and ended up in this cafe that looked really atas and I was like.. its not meal time so lets go in and get some coffee. Its probably the only thing we can afford in the menu. And its probably the only time we can go inside for coffee muahaha.

Then we felt bad and also paiseh (looks too miserly) to be ordering just coffee (with tons of free refill) so we ordered some fries with it. Its sweet potato fries! At first try it tasted so good. But then after a while the taste started becoming weird.. hmm. Not a good thing to be too daring with new stuff.

Oh god I needed the coffee.

Reflecting.
Yar right. Haha. I was staring at a dead spider on the wall when Weijie took this picture. LOL!

And I AM SO ANGRY TODAY! Bad day initially because of 2 things.

1. My ahneh post doc pissed me off! I am not racist la duh. I had many Indian post docs before but they were so nice. This particular post doc. Its not that he's not nice but sometimes I feel like shaking him HELLO DO YOU EVEN KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING! Every small little thing he will go inside and ask the PI (the big big boss) what to do. Seriously.

"Richard how many cells should we plate?" "When should we split the cells" blah blah. I felt so paiseh to keep going in to disturb my big big boss when he's so damn busy so I kept telling the post doc that we can find it out ourselves easily or I know what to do but he will keep telling me its okay and I should go in with him to ask the big big boss OMG! Paiseh me!

Then that was still fine until today it was the last straw damnit. In the morning I came and he wasn't there. He finally came at about 11am. Then he said hi and went to do his stuff without telling me what to do (its not that I need to rely on him for instructions is just he don't let me do things without asking him damnit). Then after I duno how long he came back and told me to go have lunch and stay after lunch cos we needed to treat the cells. Okay I said so I went and ate lunch and came back. Then he told me we needed to go for seminar. Okay I said so I went.

Then after seminar he told me whether we treat the cells depends on when they get the drug. They might get the drug tomorrow or day after. And so I thought okay fine. No matter what I should stay cos if they get the drug tomorrow means I need to plate the cells today (pardon scientific lingo). Then tmd after like I duno how long he finally told me to just check the cells then if need to split then split if no need then can go home WALAU EH. Thats not the worse. I found out later that no matter whether they get the drug tomorrow or day after they were never planning to seed the cells today WTF!

Cut the long story short basically I wasted my whole day in lab today because my bloody post doc didnt plan experiment, duno how to plan experiment, have no sense of responsibility, and i'm not sure he even bleddy knows what to do! Blarh.

And that leads me to 2. I am super angry with the post doc because I wasn't particularly free today, I wanted to go to MVA to settle the license once and for all.

2. BLOODY BITCH AT MVA! This is not the first time and it wont be the last time I am complaining about a US govt official. I HATE HOW THEY THROW THEIR WEIGHT AROUND AND ABUSE THEIR FREAKING AUTHORITY!

I went to MVA today, after Xiaoyang helped me out a lot by telling me what documents to bring etc. So I brought 2 proofs of residence and passport and Singapore license blah blah. And I went in line to get a number. BLOODY BITCH first pissed me off by telling me my proof of residence was not valid cos I didn't bring the envelop with it WTF! KNNBCCB! FUCKING LOSER I TELL YOU! ENVELOP?! Lamest excuse I have ever heard.

Anyway I was fuming but I said fine. I will go get another proof of residence since I got it in my car. I went back to the car and got it and went back and went in line again. BITCH was helping someone else with the application and the booth next to her was open with a nicer looking young lady so I went to her with the stuff.

Before I can open my mouth BITCH said, "You come over right here. Don't talk to her because she's new. She won't tell you anything different from what I said. Don't think you can get around the system by doing this." WTF!

So I retorted, "Well there were 2 booths open, obviously BOTH were available to serve people and since you were occupied I thought I can go to her. I have ALL documentation I do not need to get around the system bloody bitch." Ok I didn't say bloody bitch but I was BOILING inside.

And she said, "There are no 2 booths. I am the only one here. There is only one line." Then she saw all my documentation and she got nothing to say so she shut up. And the worse thing is, someone else in line behind me went over to the young lady in the booth beside and BITCH didn't bloody say anything! OMG I felt like screaming in her face and asking SO WHAT NOW! ARGH SO ANGRY!

Now feeling better after complaining. Whoo. Anyway not everything is done yet I still gotta go back to MVA tomorrow but wish me luck and hope I can get my license before I get home!

Bunny bunny!

2009-06-04T17:55:00.001-07:00

Ello!

Long time no pictures! Here are some pictures before I turn my blog into a serious scientific discussion place and myself into a nerd muahaha.

What better picture to show u guys than my pride and honor.. my Bunny!! Even though she's been naughty lately..

Interior.. yes that is a CJ7 doll hanging from my rearview mirror... hehe.. the chain's a little too short.. so its kinda got its head bumped into the back of the mirror sorry CJ7.

When I was gettin into the car..

6EZE33 Thats my Maryland plate number.. sorry its not 4 digits.. can't buy 4d (even though I got summon last weekend tmd).

Shotgun (not a wedding but the person riding next to me). Thats him.

Recently it's been raining garfields and goofies here omg! But its a good thing cos the rain here's cleaner than rain in Singapore so at least when I go out with its freakin pouring I get a free car wash! Hehe.. Oh and car washes (legitimate ones) here cost a freakin lot. So its always good to get a free one!

Oh and let me update u a bit about my life.. since life began last weekend (after the end of my exam) I'd been livin' it up. Went to the gym 2 or 3 times since.. working out hell of a lot.. Hope to lose some of that excess fat around my waist before anyone notices AHHH! Feels like shit to have to work out. Did I tell you I hate gym? I like yoga but that doesnt make u lose weight as quickly as gym. Blah. Every time I work out I burn like 300+ calories after running on the steps machine for 45 minutes. Then I do some weights. And I as I step down from the steps machine I tell myself STOP EATING SO MUCH! If only you ate less you wont have to do this. But when I enter my room I will think.. let me reward myself for going to the gym with this chocolate. =.=

Oh and we've been going out a lot cos poor Weijie complains I'm keeping him at home like a prisoner.. not my fault.. he can't wander anywhere without a staff ID and there's only 1 set of keys and he has no phone.. so I try to drive him out for a spin to get groceries or get ice cream or whatever after work.. but the price of gas is increasing!!! AHH!! When I first got a car about a month ago it was 2 bucks a gallon. Then it became 2.35 a gallon.. then last time I got gas it was 2.50 a gallon... then when I drove past a gas station and checked it became 2.60 a gallon!!!! I thank god my bunny is a gas efficient bunny and I didn't get the mustang I was thinking of heehee.

Oh and I talked to Charles today.. heart to heart. He finally has stuff that interests me. Its not exactly what I want and it wasn't his initial offer but I guess we finally met midway and I'm glad! Hehe no need to compromise on my interests. And Charles said he thinks my strength is that I read up and stay in touch with current stuff blah blah and have a lot of my own ideas and he won't wanna squelch that (hurray!) but let that wait till my 2nd or 3rd year in the lab because first he needs to work on the stuff he has grant for and not diversify too much muahaha. Okay I'll wait. I'm fine with that hehe. Exciting!

Okay no more boring talk.. till next time.. hopefully we get to go out this weekend!

The world is not fair

2009-06-02T18:42:00.000-07:00

LOL

Why is the world not fair? Because now that my exam is finally submitted, I have time to read up on my project at work, I realized something.. the same project, done by different people, one with a more famous PI, one with a less famous PI, can actually land in 2 different journals.. 1 a very high impact one (famous PI) and the other a lower impact one. Some revelation. Same drug, same cell line, different interpretation, different PI, different impact journal. Win already. Moral of the story, learn to spin a good tale when u wanna sell your story! Heehee. Oh and also, follow famous PI okay.. even if its a side project of his, can land in PNAS. Siao bo. I also wan!

Bad Bunny

2009-05-30T10:41:00.000-07:00

Bunny had been bad. Ok its not actually her fault.. its probably cos I was careless. But regardless. It was a bad day for both Bunny and me.

First we planned to go with Kailee and her bf for dim sum this morning. We got up bright and early! Amazing thing for me. Then I decided I needed coffee so we decided to drive to dunkin donuts before heading to silver spring. And on the way we decided we needed to get gas first. Bad call. As I turned into the gas station, I hit the kerb (cos i didnt see it) and poor Bunny got a punctured tyre.

Weijie tried to change the tyre.. but it took very long cos we were not very experienced and the jack wasn't very good. I did not have a spare tyre, only a dummy so after the tyre change we had to drive to my mechanic to get a new tyre. Ok got the tyre, paid the mechanic, all seems happy. Except it was still a bad experience all in all.. it took about an hour. Then we decided its too late for the drive to silver spring so lets just get breakfast at Tambers. And we drove a few streets down to Tambers. And parked there.

I looked around and all the cars didn't pay for parking. So I thought its free parking for Saturday. Except its not. After our brunch we came out and saw a ticket on my windscreen wiper. FML. Why why why!!!

I got enough of bad luck for today. I scheduled a meeting with Charles next week. Hope all the bad luck is gone and only good luck follows... AHHHH!!!!

Last stretch

2009-05-29T20:52:00.000-07:00

Just finished my last sit in exam yesterday. OOOoooh.. cant even begin to describe how relieved I am. Now 2 more take homes... last stretch last stretch.. just need to see if I pass... and of course there's also a presentation to give in a week, and then of course also, the need to find a thesis lab FML. No thesis lab = no PhD. I'm screwed. Dead. 1 year coursework also no use. Damnit.

So the other day I was at the hospital, and I saw these kids.. these bald kids in wheelchairs. I mean, you would think having to walk through the hospital every day I would be used to sights like these. But no.. it was so sad! I was suddenly reminded of why I wanted so badly to be in Charles lab, why I wanna work on brain tumors. Because they are among the deadliest tumors and a lot of them occur in kids. Now I'm in an gyn tumor lab. Successfully pissed off a good friend who was eyeing the same lab. AHH life sucks. Its not exactly what I like but the PI is good and nice and kinda up-and-coming and if I can finish fast its good so I can do a short post doc then go home.

But I want brain tumors.... :(

I kinda feel like I should email Charles my PI again and push my cause, tell him how much I like the stuff the lab does and what kinda research I can do blahblah. I just need the courage I just need the courage... damnit. Feel very scared to be rejected a second time. Like I am just not good enough. But then again, I don't think I am good enough anyway. He's too smart for me. Blah. He obviously feels I'm not smart enough too. Blah. Need to work harder.

Met an ex-senior here. He's doing an elective.. he's 4th year medicine. A councillor too. He's rotating in ENT and neurosurgery. He promised to bring me in to see a brain tumor op (OOH SO EXCITING!) but ahh no time. Because I was so busy studying for exams till today. And today was his last day.. so sad. Brains are so interesting.. living brains and dead brains so different he said. Living brains are criss-crossed with blood vessels and pulsating with each heart beat. I know this sounds nerdy but its the 1 organ that controls the rest of the body. So cool! Brain tumors, not cool =.= so we need to fight it! YEA!

And I also feel like I have a couple cool ideas.. about cancer in general and was talking to Xiaoyang about them. Now he has the freedom to go back to Singapore to work on them (for his 1 year stint with Astar) but me?! Hell no. But then there's this latest nature paper that came out that totally supports my theory. How about if we don't actually treat the cancer but just control the symptoms (paraneoplastic) and control tumor size so we dont select for resistant mutants? YIPPEE! I can't believe someone with the same idea as me actually proved his point and went to Nature. But of course this doesn't apply for brain tumors so its kinda oxymoronic.

Ok I just ranted on and on about work and science and geeky stuff in general sorry for non-science students. But these days I just can't stop worrying about my future here so that's all that's on my mind right now. Hopefully will have more exciting stuff upcoming soon!

Check back and over and out.

Weijie in Baltimore 2

2009-05-25T20:20:00.000-07:00

An excerpt from the Chronicles of Weijie Poh 2:

Sequel to Fruitflies are Vertebrates-

Ok I sound kind of dumb in this too. This started with me asking Weijie, "So how do chicken fertilize their eggs? Inside or outside the body?"

Weijie rolled his eyes and said, "Of course inside the bodies. Chickens are mammals right!"

I stared at him and asked incredulously, "Chicken are mammals???"

He replied, "Yes! They have hair right! Oh wait... never mind..." Then he proceeds to tickle me and change the subject to break the awkward silence that ensues...

Weijie in Baltimore

2009-05-21T21:24:00.000-07:00

An excerpt from the chronicles of Weijie Poh:

"A fruitfly is a vertebrate."

Me, dumbfounded. Stare at him...

Him, "What, fruitflies have a backbone what. Fruitflies have bones, right?"

Me, shakes head in despair. Hopeless case. How to tell the admissions committee in Hopkins stuff like that....

Thankful!

2009-05-21T13:43:00.000-07:00

Why do I keep meeting nice professors only now??? Maybe because the professors I am meeting now, I am a lot more guarded, not going to give them my all, and plus I told them my bad year... so they are really understanding and kind. Heehee. All in all, I see the situation might be reversing soon... I see a lot of up and coming PIs that I might be working with.. excited!! Best if I can graduate in 3 years, do a short post doc and go back home in 5 years! YAY! Parents and grandma will be happy. Muahahaha! I will be Dr Lim by 27!!! or 26 hopefully!! LOL!

Bad week

2009-05-17T15:58:00.000-07:00

Hola!

Long time no see! But the reason why I haven't been blogging is cos I have had a not so good week. Basically throughout the course of the week I've had enough setbacks to last others a year. Firstly, I found that Weijie wasn't gonna be accepted into the program because of primarily funding issues, secondly I found that I wasn't gonna be able to join any of the labs I have rotated in ALSO primarily due to funding issues. Which means Weijie would have to find a lab to work in here while he continues applying for graduate school and I would have to squeeze time out for a 4th rotation in the 1 month that I have left here before I go home to Singapore. That is assuming I even get to go back. And assuming there is any lab left that has the funding for new students, no thanks to Obama's so called stimulus plan. Narbeh.

So basically both Weijie and I are now in limbo. So one day I was so depressed I was crying to him over the phone and telling him I just wanna go home and start anew in Singapore (career wise), and he can also find a PhD position in Singapore so we can just stay there or we could go to Germany or something. And poor Wj, though reluctant, finally relented and went to ask our big boss if we could go under his wing in Germany both me and him. And ended up getting reprimanded for 'persuading' me to give up my wonderful career here at Hopkins. LOL sorry Wj. Guess our boss just cares about me more than him muahaha. The details are longer and more complicated but this is the take home point. LOL.

Anyway Germany was out, I can't run home crying, so I gotta stay here and stick it out, find a lab that can take me in, and start my thesis in 1 month. And Weijie is coming in a couple hours (hurray!)! Its a very last minute decision, hence no mention before. Because after he found that he wasn't accepted he thought the best thing he could do was to come here personally and stay for a month with me while looking for a lab that could take him in as a technician. So I guess thats a good end to a bad week, somehow.

And thats not the whole story about my bad week. Even my car gave up on me! So I picked up Xiaoyang's mum from the airport the other day, cos Xiaoyang's car died on him. And after I got home I forgot where I left my ID! It must be somewhere in the car cos I needed it to get inside the garage, but I couldn't find it anywhere. I needed it to go everywhere in the hospital so I had to find it asap. But it was dark so I decided to find it the next day.

So strike 1, ID lost. Good news is, I went back the next day, messed up my car searching for the ID, and finally found it. WOOHOO! I was so happy I forgot to turn off the lights in the car interior. The next day I went back to the car because I was gonna send Xiaoyang's mum back to the airport. And first sign of trouble, my alarm didn't sound when I pressed the auto lock. Shit. I thought someone broke into my car. I opened the door with the key and checked around, found everything intact and gave a sigh of relief. Then I stuck the key into the ignition.... and turned... and nothing. Panicking, I tried again... turned... nothing. I called Xiaoyang and started talking rubbish in my panicked state and told him to take a cab with his mum to the airport and then come save me!!!

Then I started calming down, and with a strike of genius I remembered the jumpstart kit in my trunk. Opened my trunk, lugger the jumpstart kit back home to charge it up, lugged it back to the garage... held my breathe... put the positive and negative terminals where they should be (good thing I ran a lot of gels before!).. and then turned the kit on.... VOILA! My car started beeping... I turned the ignition.. it coughed and sputtered a little... I turned the ignition again and again until it finally roared to life MUAHAHA. Easy peasy. Phew..

Felt bad about my car dying on Xiaoyang, called him and went to pick him up at the airport. And my DUMB GPS acted up on me. Strike 3 this one. It first led me to turn into a 1 way lane in the WRONG direction... that wasn't even a small road.. it was a huge busy road. Damnit... need to re-upload the maps. Then it kept bringing me into inner harbor in circles.. every time I turned into inner harbor I get stuck 20 minutes in traffic. It was a Saturday for Chrissake. Finally it decided to be good and lead me up I295 to the airport.. OMG.

And then up on the highway, I almost met with an accident at high speed (cos I was rushing, late picking Xiaoyang up). AHHHH!!! Strike 4.

Tell me u guys, is this a bad week or what... T.T

Bored

2009-05-09T16:32:00.000-07:00

After a hectic week rushing to meet deadlines, I guess a weekend of boredom stuck at home is what I deserve. Blarh. Got stood up for a movie. But I guess its alright since the make-up movie is something I prefer to watch... ANGELS AND DEMONS! For all Dan Brown fans like me, Da Vinci code was SUPERB. The sheer wit and brilliance behind the book, which led to the film, was amazing. Can't wait for Angels and Demons to be out!

Watched a couple DVDs at home. Should have gone with Renata to the something race around Baltimore or whatever but I woke up too late. Plus I thought I was going for the movie anyway. But its ok. I feel much more rejuvenated after spending a day lazing around watching movies and lying in bed. Heehee.

Oh and did I mention... I GOT BUNNY BACK! I sent her to get her windshield replaced and get the inspection done and also get the proper registration done which in total set me back 450 bucks. Damnit I'm broke T.T mummy come save me!

But is ok. All is good. Now all that is left is converting my license. Heehee. Sweet! Mah bunny. Every day that passes without me seeing you is pure torture. Even when I do not have to go out, I wanna just run to the garage to take a look at you, caress your gleaming curves, kiss you goodnight. I'm also fiercely protective. When I suspected that the people at the autoshop drove my bunny, I was about to flip damnit. My baby.. how dare they! But of course I couldn't do anything. Me so tiny, them so gigantic. I could fight them. But I doubt they will fight with honesty *sniffs.

Okay tomorrow guys, I will be going to meet up with the Singaporeans to celebrate Mother's day. To those who have the luxury of living with your mummies, remember to give her a hug and kiss and tell her you love her! I sent mine a card already! ^^ Today I shall just relax and watch more movies and cook something nice for dinner! Till next time!

PS dont worry about me. I will resolve the current sticky situation in time to come.

Disappointment

2009-05-04T15:23:00.000-07:00

I feel really disappointed. Why am I being discriminated against just because I have a problem with doing animal work? I know animal work is important and I totally respect the contribution it has towards science but I just have a problem with it. Why must cant I join a lab just because I cannot do animal work? There are labs who let technicians do it for you, there are labs who let you totally forgo animal work. I am fine with someone else doing the animal work for me, really. I just cannot bear to physically snuff out a tiny little life with my hands, watching the animal die in front of me. I cannot do it. Why can't they respect that? Do they really have to force me take a life that I never want to take, force me to cut up a tiny little animal, after all the suffering that it had been through, do they really have to make me do that? I came into science to save lives, not take lives. Right now? I just feel a deep sense of disappointment with the whole scientific community. Not least because the PI I used to think I respect the most is actually the one who is discriminating against me.

Bonding with the bunny

2009-05-02T14:56:00.000-07:00

I have my new car. Its silver. I've thought of calling it bullet, silver surfer, err bunny etc. But bunny is only if Kailee agrees to call her bug Bugs (adding an S to the end of her VW beetle), so she can be my sidekick and vice versa so together we will be Bugs Bunny! Initially she thought it was too cheesy so I thought my car would be silver surfer. But then today she told me her Bug did not have a name so I decided to name it Bugs for her. So then my baby would be Bunny!

So I thought since we just got to know each other, we should spend some time bonding. Since I got her, everytime we went out, we were never alone, not for long anyway. Driving with Kihyuck is proving to me more of a hazard than help, especially since he pulls my handbrake and tries to wring my steering wheel away from my grasp while trying to 'help' me with negotiating bends and parking etc, but its actually much more dangerous cos the driver doesn't know what he's doing and he just does it without giving me prior notice. Tsk tsk bad bad and scary scary.

I think he's just not used to not being the driver and not being in control wahaha.

So anyway we went to Grace Garden etc yesterday and I did not even have time to spend with Bunny alone cos Kihyuck came with me all the way back home. So today I decided to make it up to Bunny my baby by going out for coffee and donuts and grocery. Just me and her, the 2 of us. Muah how I love you Bunny. Today marked the first for a lot of things for me and her. First time we went grocery shopping together, first time I used the trunk for groceries, first time we went for coffee together, first time we drove around Baltimore together, first time we got stuck while waiting to turn out of a gas station, first time we negotiated the way out with other drivers, first time I rolled down the windows and opened the sunroof, first time I blasted the radio when my favourite song came on, and most importantly, first time I fed her. Yes over here you gotta do the feeding yourself yo. I thank god I am not clueless at pumping gas hallelujah. How crazy is that, its like a self-checkout gas station. You put in your card, key in the pin, unscrew the whatever u call it, put in the nozzle, choose the kinda gas to pump, and do everything yourself. Over here if someone does it for you thats crazy. But over in Singapore if you gotta do it yourself people would be going you gotta be kidding me wahaha. Anyway, many firsts.

OH AND I FORGOT! First time I parallel parked! My Bunny. Its not close enough to the kerb, but it would do for a first try. I was just going to get coffee at Starbucks in Charles Village, I didn't even pay for parking. Not sure if you need to pay to park even. I like my Bunny cos its small and cute. I wanted to say Just Like ME but I know some people would throw up and faint so never mind. Hehe.

Tomorrow am bringing Bunny out with the gang for some dim sum. Check back for more pics.

CRAZY DAY!

2009-04-28T14:44:00.000-07:00

That just sums up today pretty much. Today's been a crazy day of crazy ups and downs and blahblah.

So tomorrow I'm getting my new car yippee! I'm soooo happy. I mean not new but used but still new to me. Anyway my point is I happily went around doing my stuff, like getting ready the insurance, the garage space etc and the MVA appointment.

Then I was somehow a bit worried because I was wondering if I should still sublease this place for the extra 1 month I'm living in Baltimore before going home, cos I was just told there is no A/C!!! In summer, I will DIE. Melt and DIE. So I emailed the landlady to ask if I could extend my lease again, almost pleading this time. I emailed her a couple times before and she was adamant about not letting me extend it. But this time YIPPEE she did not just let me extend it, she let me keep my room during the extension! Before that she said even if she extends I would probably have to move to another crappy room with no kitchen and no bathroom boo.. so now YAY! Plus this kinda links back to the car in case u think I'm rambling (check above), cos if I can stay right where I am now I can just easily get garage parking and voila I don't have to leave my baby in the open the extra month I'm staying here!! YIPPEE!

But then after that high my world came crashing down when WTF I was suddenly told my presentation on Friday was moved forward till tomorrow. They tell me today at 4.30pm. SERIOUSLY SCREW THEM! I CANT GO TOMORROW! Its not just that its really last minute, I'm not done preparing yet, its also cos I need to go to the vehicle authority tomorrow to get my car title changed and get my license converted!!! OMG wtf! Now they tell me!!!!

So I was really upset and running around trying to find out exactly what went wrong but then after like many hours of negotiation it seemed like there was no way out but then heaven offered an Angel... Melek! She offered to present for me as long as I do the writeup and everything else so I can go do my stuff!!! OMG I love her and I owe her coffee. And from now on she's one of my diehard buddies I can go through monsters and demons for. So is Renata wahaha.

And then after that high I got home and there was a parcel waiting for me. Curious, I went to the front desk to pick it up and got home excitedly to unwrap it. Guess what! Its TULIPS!!!! My favourite flower! In a vase, waiting to bloom! I just fed it flower food and water and hopefully it will bloom in a couple days! Then I will upload the pics I took. Now its still not blooming heehee. Aww baby thank you! For making my day after its been heaven and hell and now heaven back again!

Cars

2009-04-27T19:36:00.000-07:00

Are such expensive things to have. From the time I made up my mind to get that car, I've had to make trips to the parking office and call up insurance companies to get the cheapest quote etc. Pay for parking pay for insurance pay for gas pay for mechanic. I am so broke sob..

Fulfilling weekend

2009-04-26T12:54:00.000-07:00

Walked to Fells Point for dinner on beautiful Friday evening. I keep forgetting to eat lunch these days bad bad. Walked home after dinner. Beautiful day, sunset at 8pm! Yay! Shopped some, bought stuff for people at home. Fells point look really amazingly gorgeous in summer I find. No its summer yet but it does feel like it is!

And then on Saturday, went to look at this car I fancy. I keep finding better cars to look at and also slightly more expensive but I managed to negotiate it down little. Woohoo. But this time I will wait till I actually get the car and take some pictures before I show mah baby to u guys! Wednesday is the day. Keep your eyes peeled.

After carshopping, we went food shopping, and alcohol shopping. Bought some beer, hopefully it will help me sleep better. Met Renata's pop and mom who are in town. Got more beer to drink. Yahahaha. Didn't get to sleep earlier tho. Damn. Webcammed with the people at home. A little too long.

Sunday is chores day. Kinda really worried about work in school. Don't wanna get kicked out. So trying to study little by little. Hopefully lab goes easy on me.

P.S. I don't have swine flu. I just have a mild cold. For those who are worried. :)

A Parable for Graduate Students

2009-04-20T19:26:00.000-07:00

Scene: It's a fine sunny day in the forest, and a rabbit is sitting outside
his burrow, tippy-tapping on his typewriter.

Along comes a fox, out for a walk.

Fox: "What are you working on?"

Rabbit: "My thesis."

Fox: "Hmmm. What's it about?"

Rabbit: "Oh, I'm writing about how rabbits eat foxes."
(incredulous pause)

Fox: "That's ridiculous! Any fool knows that rabbits don't eat foxes."

Rabbit: "Sure they do, and I can prove it. Come with me."

They both disappear into the rabbit's burrow. After a few minutes, the
rabbit returns, alone, to his typewriter and resumes typing.

Soon, a wolf comes along and stops to watch the hardworking rabbit.

Wolf: "What's that you're writing?"

Rabbit: "I'm doing a thesis on how rabbits eat wolves."
(loud guffaws)

Wolf: "You don't expect to get such rubbish published, do you?"

Rabbit: "No problem. Do you want to see why?"

The rabbit and the wolf go into the burrow, and again the rabbit
returns by himself, after a few minutes, and goes back to typing.

Scene: Inside the rabbit's burrow. In one corner, there is a pile of fox
bones.  In another corner, a pile of wolf bones. On the other side of the
room, a huge lion is belching and picking his teeth.

  (The End)

Moral:
   It doesn't matter what you choose for a thesis subject.
   It doesn't matter what you use for data.
   What does matter is who you have for a thesis advisor.

Am I cursed or what?

2009-04-19T21:30:00.000-07:00

This is the SECOND time a car I was eyeing, close to buying, slipped out of my hands just like that. And every time the car gets a little CLOSER to me. This time I even paid a deposit on the car. But then the seller decided to keep the car FML. My deposit was returned of course, by the very honest FBI. However I can't help feeling very deflated. For about 1 hour.

And then after that I feel happy again. Cos its car-shopping time again! Wahaha I'm just too optimistic to stay depressed for long. Duno if thats a curse or a blessing. But the more I think about it the more it seems like its God's will. I'm not Christian, my god is a different god. But they help me just the same. Anyway my point is, everytime I think of getting a car, after I set up an appointment to view the car or whatever, or even after paying a deposit, and I come back and think about it, I will always have a nagging feeling that the car just doesn't seem right for me. And because most of the sellers are in a hurry to get rid of it (usually in need of money thats why the prices are cheaper), I feel like I'm pushed to make a decision quick. Which I don't like cos I like to have time to think about stuff like that.

So now, I feel like I'm more in control. I feel like I have learned a lot about what to look out for when buying a car and the procedures etc etc for transfer of ownership and inspecting a car and how well a car had been maintained how long it can last. So since I really don't wanna get a new car in a place like Baltimore, these knowledge will serve me well in the future purchase and maintenance of a car! Hehe. Keep your eyes peeled for more good news!

Honda civic coupe!

2009-04-18T16:17:00.000-07:00

I finally got my own car baby!!! YAY! Even though my parents are paying for part of it. Wahaha. Today Kailee and Xiaoyang came with me to check out the car+shop since we were supposed to meet the guy at the mall. Test drove the car. Not very used to it yet cos it seems a little powerful. Hmm.. Maybe its a sports car? *delusional*

Anyway it was a really good price cos this guy selling it had 8 cars or something in his family and he recently bought another one. Plus he's getting married. When I spoke to him over the phone I expected him to be some young professional (I didn't know about the 8 cars then). But when I met him he turned out to be a beefy 40-ish or 50-ish guy. His biceps were larger than my entire head!!! And apparently he just bought his daughter a new car as well cos she was graduating from high school or something. So anyway good thing Xiaoyang came along else I'd be really intimidated.. though he's really nice. But his sheer size...

And after driving the car, we really think it was a good deal so I decided to pay him a deposit and settle the admin stuff on Monday! And here comes the coolest part.. when we looked a little hesitant about the payment, his wife got him over and whispered stuff to him and he came back and said, "Just to give you guys more assurance, I'm a federal agent. I work for the government." And proceeded to flash his badge to us. OMG!!! The first time I've seen the FBI here!! WAH Xiaoyang and I were awed. The light reflected off his badge blinded our eyes. When we go back on Monday maybe we're gonna make him take a pic with his badge with us. Wahaha. FOB us.

But then again, I probably won't wanna see that badge flashed to me under any other circumstances.... hmm.. wahaha

Cold Turkey

2009-04-16T19:56:00.001-07:00

I had been having irregular periods since I came here and started classes. I thought it was the stress. Then one day, before a particularly stressful exam, I stayed up all night to study, drinking tons of coffee to keep me awake. The day after, the exam was fine. But suddenly I found myself bleeding heavily, it was so freakin scary. Plus it made me anemic so I was feeling faint all the time.

Then I was told that it could be the caffeine thats doing that to me! Since I consume crazy huge amounts of caffeine, coffee and soda and tea day after day. So I decided.. ok lets try this caffeine cold turkey. I started drinking a mix of 50-50 caffeinated and decaf coffee, in smaller amounts, and just 1 soda a day. Previously I drink 2 cups of coffee sometimes 3.. and 1 soda or 2 each day. And the next few days I was so tired I couldn't get through any class without falling asleep. But then after the initial few days, I started feeling better.

Now its more than 1 week since I started my caffeine cold turkey. I am feeling so good and energetic each day! It could also be the spring weather that is doing this to me. I feel so good I take the stairs up instead of waiting for the elevator (up 9 floors) and I can feel a bounce in my steps. Slave to caffeine no more! Most importantly, I am healthier than ever. No more amnesia, no more aches here and there, no more nothing! Except feeling fat... :S

Whenever I feel like buying a cup of coffee, I get hot chocolate instead. I know its also caffeinated.. but its less addictive and there's much less caffeine in it. YAY! Cheers to a healthy lifestyle and a healthy Kah Suan!

Cherry blossoms in DC + smattering of other pics

2009-04-13T13:57:00.000-07:00

Hola! I know its been some time since I posted.. but seriously, you expect me to sit beside the computer and upload pictures while the glorious sunshine awaits outside? No way!!! (I apologize for the inconsistencies in sizes of the pics cos some I uploaded some I took from Facebook hehe).

Just so you know how it looks like every day now (almost), from 7am to 8pm, 13 hours a day. View from my apartment.

Time to bring out the skirts and shorts! Not all days, but most days!

And finally, on Saturday, after finishing the 2 exams and presentation, we decided woohoo! Time to catch the cherry blossoms in DC! Mafia gang, Kihyuck and Hy in back seat.
Me in front seat, Renata was driver.

We met Renata's friend Emily in the DC suburb Silver Spring and took the metro into town. And voila! There you go. We hit the cherry blossoms stretch!

Beautiful day... check out the view of the Jefferson Memorial. It wasn't like this the whole day. When we first started the day, it was rainy and gloomy and cold and we went inside the cafeteria in a museum and didn't wanna go out. But later on the sun came out and stayed out!

Cherry trees, many many cherry trees!

Emily, Renata, me.

More cherry trees.

I was playing with my new Canon Ixus and decided with a Canon, everyone can be a photographer. Really like this pic I took of Emily.

Thats another one, but Renata took this.

Renata showed me how to play with the color functions and took one of me highlighting my funky blue tights wahaha!

She turned Emily's lips and cheeks blue...

Me too ahhhhh!!!!! Scarrryyyyyyyy!!! Hehehe
Cherry blossoms...

Group pic!

Jefferson Memorial framed by cherry blossoms..

Blossoms fallen into the river..

Kihyuck turned blue!

Renata was normal.. there's one of her colored pic which I failed miserably at taking so I shall not post it :(

This one is supposed to have a reddish tint.. hehe.. the jeans look slightly reddish..

Cool one of us!

I duno what I was doing.. playing with the camera I guess..

Beautiful cherry trees!!!

Kihyuck in front of Jefferson memorial.

Duckies!!!

Renata with a cherry blossom in her hair!

This one is more reddish.. hehe.

I like this shot of the setting sun and the river.. framed by cherry blossoms.

Blue floating thingees you can ride on when they are in service.

I like this shot too. Very natural! I think I am a good photographer. hehe.

Pretty cherry blossoms..

Boundless blue skies

More Jefferson and cherry blossoms..

Renata Emily and me.

I was taking a picture again.

My funky blue tights and cute ballet shoes!!! Wahaha

Cherry blossoms..

I changed the tone of the pic..

Color contrast.. hehe to welcome spring!

Cute duckies... swimming away.

On our way to the museum of natural history before heading home.. its my favourite museum of all the Smithsonian museums!

Washington memorial..

The national mall, where the inauguration parade was held..

Beautiful tulips!

My 3rd visit to the hope diamond..

One of the most valuable diamonds in the world.

A night at the museum anyone?

Till next time.. tata!

INSOMNIA

2009-04-07T02:16:00.000-07:00

Its 5am and I can't sleep cos I'm suffering from stress-induced insomnia ahahahaha cos I have an exam tomorrow.. oh wait I mean today. And since I couldn't sleep I decided what the heck I'll just get up and continue studying until after the exam then I'll sleep the whole day. Am I crazy or what. Hehe. BUBBAI BACK TO STUDYING!

I'M GOING HOME!!!!

2009-04-03T14:26:00.001-07:00

I was being a spoilt brat and kept whining about how horrible United Airlines was blah blah and how I am SERIOUSLY sick of flying long distance on crappy airlines cos I always feel so grouchy at the end of it so I was telling Wj that THIS TIME I AM DEFINITELY flying Singapore Airlines. YIPPEE! I mean, I checked the prices, its not that much difference Singapore Airlines and the previous United flights I took. Turns out I was wrong.

So my classmate introduced this tour agent who offers cheap student tickets to me, and she gave me a quote for Northwestern and I replied saying (maybe even a little snobbily) that I prefer Asian airlines. Then she went back and worked out another quote for me and it woohoo SIA! And its DIRECT from JFK to Singapore! So I only need 1 transit from Baltimore to JFK then JFK to Singapore! And its also a freakin 600USD more than Northwestern! Blah.

I kept whining and whining and said I don't care I wanna take Singapore Airlines and Wj just very patiently explained to me that 600USD is actually like 1kSGD so it is a lot of money and trust him long distance flights just suck no matter what airlines it is. If I am good and take the NW flight he will spend half of the 1kSGD bringing me to massages and etc pampering me. Which I guess, after a lot of whining, does make a little sense. For the many hours of uncomfortable flight, I get in exchange a lot of fantastic pampering spread over many many days. Hmm. I'm looking forward to it already....

And since I'm looking for a car and haven't done my tax returns yet I'm basically very broke so I humbly went back to the travel agent and ate my words and told her I wanted to take the NW flight instead. And voila! She processed my order within the hour and got back to me and YIPPEE I will be flying home 18th June!!!!! YOU GUYS BETTER BE AT THE AIRPORT WAITING FOR ME!!!!

And Huijun... I'm waiting for an official invitation.

AHHHH!!!

2009-04-02T16:20:00.000-07:00

MY ROOMMATES ARE FUCKING DRIVING ME CRAZY!!!! HOW FUCKING HARD IS IT TO UNDERSTAND 'CLEAN UP ALL STAINS AFTER USING TOILET'???? HOW DO YOU LIKE TO SEE BLOOD STAINS AND GOD KNOWS WHAT EVERY FUCKING TIME YOU GO TO THE TOILET?! HOW DO YOU LIKE HAVING TO FUCKING CLEAN UP AFTER THEM EVERY SINGLE TIME! DISGUSTING PRCS!!!!! WTF!!!!

Sports car

2009-03-29T17:53:00.000-07:00

I wanna get a sports car I wanna get a sports car I wanna get a sports car. Currently eyeing this convertible. But my daddy will kill me if he finds out. So let's keep this our little secret ok? Shhhhh. I wanna get a sports car...........

Wasting time

2009-03-29T14:28:00.000-07:00

Went for dim sum on Saturday, then came home, watched some DVDs, over the weekend I managed to watch Mr and Mrs Smith, The Devil Wears Prada and The Medallion. I know, speaks a lot about my taste. I'm more mainstream :)

And also wasted time car shopping. Started with looking at this VW beetle that was really cheap. I know some time ago I convinced myself its not the best time to get a car blah blah but then Kailee promised to help me take care of the car when I'm back home etc plus there were some really good deals on Craigslist and Kelly's blue book so once I started I couldn't stop. I know I really shouldn't. especially when I have so much left to do.

Next week:

Wednesday-in class quiz
Thursday-take home exam due

Next next week:

Wednesday-in class presentation
Thursday-midterm
Friday-Final

After that, giving myself a friggin break.

Might be travelling to DC for the cherry blossoms! Hope they don't shed their blossoms so quickly! Otherwise there are a couple cherry trees in the hospital campus, gotta contend myself with those :( Also got a movie date, Monsters and Aliens in 3D! Hurray! I can't wait for that next next weekend to come. Now I gotta get back to work. Shat. Still car shopping. Mom and dad promised to help me pay for part of the car. Wj promised to gimme money if I need it. Note: he said 'give', not 'lend'. So remind me I don't have to return him the money if I ever wanted to :p

Anyway, there are more pictures to post but it takes tooooooo long waiting for that bloody thing to load. So gotta wait till that next next weekend. And then I gotta start packing bit by bit cos I'm getting evicted... booohoohoo.. nah just kidding. I'm moving out into a temp place until I find somewhere more permanent to move into. Yippee. I love moving.

Ok enough of wasting time. Back to work!

Feeling cheated

2009-03-26T13:11:00.000-07:00

When I first came to Hopkins, I found that my in-class exam grades were always bad but my take-home exams or assignment grades were always much better. So I thought ok its time for a change. I better pull up my socks and buck up for in-class finals. And I did! So for the last 2 finals that I got back I finally got above average! But then my take-homes for those 2 courses were just like slightly above average or average so I thought that is why I got Bs. But regardless I was very very happy to have passed cos it means I am on my way to becoming a full-time PhD candidate!

At least, that was until classmates who were collecting their exams beside me started whooping with joy and exclaiming that they got As. And they were saying how their finals suck but thankfully they still got As. Wtf. And I was like no way that can happen. My finals don't suck, my take homes were still kinda above average why the fuck do I not get a fucking A! Damn it. I feel like life is making a fucking joke of me. It makes me feel happy one minute cos it made me think hurray I finally scored above average and then the next minute it goes jussttttt kidding! You still suck cos you got a B! Booboo! And I can't even ask why cos I have a feeling the bloody prof isn't gonna entertain any bloody thing regarding regrading except for miscalculation.

Feeling so freakin cheated right now. wtf.

Negotiation

2009-03-23T18:05:00.000-07:00

I just recalled this little snippet that I forgot to record when Wj came. We went shopping this one evening when he came. We wandered into Old Navy and they were selling these flip flops in all sorts of colors. They were cheap too. I badly needed a pair since mine somehow fell apart. And I tried on this pair of brown ones. I asked Wj how they looked and he said ok. So I decided to get it. And at the same time I asked him to pick a pair for himself too since if you buy 2 pairs there was a discount.

Wj: Don't want la. I don't need it. (ever so frugal)

Me: Com'on just pick a pair. Its cheaper that way. Go choose a color u like!

Wj, resignedly: Ok I'll get the neon green ones.

Me, with a look of disgust: Are you sure?! Thats so bright!

Wj: Thats the whole point what.. If I get something I want it to stand out of the crowd, if not I'll rather not get it.

Me: Go get the brown ones la. They look so much better!

Wj: But you asked me to choose what.. I chose the green ones.

Me: If you wanna stand out so much why not you take the hot pink ones then! Will make you stand out more!

Wj: Ok why not.

Me, walking towards the pink slipper aisle: Are you sure? Ok then.

Wj the wuss: Actually the brown ones look better. Ok I'll take the brown ones. Lets go pay.

Weijie's visit part 2!

2009-03-21T11:53:00.000-07:00

This entry chronicles the 2nd part of Weijie's visit (i.e. Day 4 cos before that the pics are lost) and from now on you can see we are furiously taking pictures to make up for the loss of Day 1 and 2. Or maybe Days 2 and 3. Ahh whatever la. What I meant to say is you will see numerous failed attempts at taking photos of ourselves yet we NEVER SAY DIE! I feel like Energizer should get us as their spokesperson(s).

Anyway, so after we served chicken rice to the hungry people, we decided ok since we worked so hard we deserve a good treat. By we I actually mean I, ME. That day was Wednesday and there was a 50% off thing at this local Irish pub that Kailee introduced me to called Slainte. So we went. The curry chips there was AMAZING so we ordered one to go with beer.

This is one of the best pictures of us, ignoring the fact that it was kinda blurry. So I put it as my FB profile pic. But if you guys think another pic of us looks better please feel free to let me know and I will change my FB profile pic following a popularity vote! (feeling very thick-skinned wahaha)

He sneakily took a pic of me greedily devouring a curry chip.

Ha check us out. We can drink! (I realize after a while that he looks kinda drunk here but trust us we're not!)

Attempt 2: he cut himself into half + pic was blurry.

I pretended to be beer-monster.

Do you prefer a cup half empty or half full? I prefer it FULL!
Ok I know its lame sorry =.=

Check out that bottle he was taking. Isn't it the cutest! I wanted to keep it but Wj gave me a disgusted look and I felt like a noob so I left it there =.=

Attempt 1. Good try.

Attempt 2: we both look drunk wtf.

Attempt 3: I look drunk and he looks partially drunk so he wins =.=
And so I proceeded to down most of the beers we ordered and got very very happy and poor Wj could only look and sip his H2O cos he was our designated driver of the day nehnehnipoopoo.

The next day we dragged ourselves out of bed in the morning! Isn't that amazing!?

Ok ok I dragged myself out of bed in the morning while he stood by and gave me an annoyed look that says, "How long do you plan on snoozing!" =.=

Alright it was actually closer to noon when we finally got up and washed up and got ready to head out. By we I mean I. =.= He had an interview in the morning so he got up bright and early. And I was meeting Renata later in the afternoon so I didn't have to wake up bright and early =.=

But my point is, we were supposed to get up early and leave early cos after meeting Renata we were going to PHILLY baby!

We went to meet Renata at Dunkin' donuts HURRAY! For some reason after I discovered a place that sells Dunkin' I got hooked and never looked back cos "AMERICA RUNS ON DUNKIN!" (Feeling like a FOB now =.=)
I duno why we didn't take pics with Renata.. I think its probably cos we were too busy chatting and gossiping bad us LOL. Once we start gossiping it tends to get us distracted. Hehe.

And after like 2 hours of chatting and bumming around in Dunkin', the staff were looking at us suspiciously cos no other Dunkin' customer stays that long, we decided okayyy we've outlived their hospitality (if they had any to begin with) and decided to leave!

After dropping Renata off, we headed up to PHILLY! On the way we passed by this neighbourhood that had such tiny lanes the cars had to park with one wheel up on the curb to allow other cars to pass through. Wahaha mounting curb has taken on a new definition here.

Driving long dist is very boring as you can see... I duno how he managed to tell when I was taking a pic and even managed to look in the camera and give that dumb expression =.=

Look straight ahead good boy.

Along the way we saw nothing but trees 99.999% of the time.

Attempt 2: He drives I take pictures.

Sometimes there were no cars but ours on the road...

Sometimes there were many.
We're going to NY baby!
Ok not really just on I95 towards NY but we're actually going to Philly which is between NY and Baltimore.

We crossed a river, and Wj went, "I think we're in Philly!"
=.= just because u need to cross a river to get into Philly doesn't mean every river u cross is the river going around Philly...

"Ok.." he says with a defeated face..

We paid toll a couple times so much so that he began questioning if its more worthwhile to drive or to just take a Greyhound. But after some calculations, we kinda agreed that round trip its more worthwhile to drive. Ok I kinda agreed to myself while he gave me a disapproving look =.=

Attempt 3: He tries hard to smile I try hard to fit myself into the camera yet not affecting him in driver seat.

Attempt 4: I take pic of myself totally ignoring him cos I gave up.

We see trees...

More trees...

Going into Philly baby!

We got excited and started driving faster... wahaha

Now readers, THIS is the correct bridge going into Philly!

It looks like a lot of metal pillars and support with many many cars going inside via many many lanes..

And then we were officially inside Philly! Wj proceeded to proudly proclaim, "Remove that GPS. This is my territory. I know my way around without a bloody GPS!"

He goes on to become our tour guide, "Look to your left.. that's the apartment I lived in."

"Look above to your right. That's our first destination. Philadelphia Museum of Art."

"Look to your left, this is what Philly is most famous for, mural art."

I gave a tiny squeal.. "Baby this doesn't look right.. how come our destination is appearing smaller and smaller? It seems almost as though we're going further and further away from it.. Do you need the GPS?"
Weijie replies gruffly, "You sit tight. I know what I'm doing."

And we proceeded to circle the museum many many times... sometimes with it coming into such close sight of us that I half felt like unbuckling and getting off the car and just climbing up the hill to go inside.. and leave Weijie with his dumb male ego in the car.
And then finally after 15 minutes or 20 minutes of circling he finally gives up his ego and says, "Turn on the GPS and see what it says." =.= Men... dumb lifeforms with the biggest ego on Earth.

Within 5 minutes of turning off my trusty GPS we got to the destination. Maybe the GPS should be my bf instead don't you think =.=

We attempt to take the pic of some river he used to run beside when he was training for his marathon.. Attempt 1: half my face was cut off as he tries to get as much of the river as he could. =.=

Attempt 2: Much better. Check out my bewwwteeful Guess sunglasse!
P.S. I am not a showoff ok. Its not as expensive as you guys may think it is. Plus I am frugal most of the time and the only time I go crazy is when I'm in an outlet or when there's a crazy sale ongoing :)

Philadelphia museum of art attempt 1: Fail. Half my face was cut off and we can't see anything other than Philadelpl Mu....

Attempt 2: Much better. We can kinda make out its "Philadelphia Museum of Art" and my face is perfect. Only his face is cut off a little heehee.
After taking this pic we tried to go into the museum but the minute we pushed open the door the security stopped us and said, "We're closed for the day." but not before giving us an incredulous look that says, "What are you guys up to.. don't you check out the opening hours before going to a museum?". =.= we ended up feeling very stupid and feeling like noobs.

But all is not lost. There are many points of interest even outside the museum! E.g. I took a picture with downtown Philly as a backdrop. That road behind me is known as Avenue of the States. I will explain more later in this entry.

Weijie says, "Change pose and try again." I complied. Check out my Coach bag! Isn't it preettyyyyyy?? (feeling very much like a showoff despite my disclaimer =.=)

Main entrance of the museum.

Us v.s. downtown Philly and Avenue of the States.

Attempt 2: Not very good because I was training Weijie to SMILE more naturally. Like me :)

Attempt 3: Much better. After I tickled him to make him laugh and then made him freeze in that moment and take the picture. :)

He told me to climb the Rocky steps.. another attraction apparently. Its right beside the main entrance of the museum. I'm feeling like a PRC taking a stupid scenery picture here wahaha.

I am Rocky!!!!!!!!!

We managed to stop this kind lady bringing her son to visit our dear Rocky and asked her to take a picture for us.

The kind lady told us to change pose and try again. So we did.
After that we asked her if she wanted us to help she and her son take a picture with Rocky so she turned and asked her young son, "Do you wanna take a picture together with me?" and he shook his head and pouted and whined, "I wanna take it alone!" So the poor kind lady turned to us and gave a helpless grin and said, "You heard him. Thanks anyway." Awwwww Weijie felt so sorry for the lady while I just kept coo-ing "Ohh the boy is so cute!" =.=

We took a pic with the steps leading up to the museum. Apparently a lot of runners train there running up and down.

After taking that last picture we finally got too cold to continue in the open and half-hopped-half-ran back to the car to continue to destination 2.

THIS my dear readers is the Avenue of the states! The street lamps were interspersed with these flags of every country in the world!

SINGAPORE! MY HOMELAND MY COUNTRY MY LOVE!
No I'm serious! :)

Another mural.

Destination 2: Chinatown, Philly!!!

I ENVY Chinese living in cities with Chinatown. Shuddup I know Chinatown is supposed to be dangerous but trust me I can handle baddies with a fling of my arm and a flying kick!

I can't read some of the Chinese words here even though I love Chinese food so much T.T feeling ashamed.

We stopped at Penang!!!!! For Singaporean food!!! This pic is specially designed to make Jingwen jealous, as are the pics below.

Penang thanks you for your patronage.

CURRY LAKSA YUMMYYYYYYY.

I ate curry laksa *smug*.

In case you are not convinced I felt damn happy and blissful.

Cheeken rice!!!!! With garlic chili sauce!!!! OMFG!

*Salivating at the thought of it*

Curry laksa take 3.

Stuffing my face.

I think all this picture taking is becoming too fake but whatever la.

AND CHAR KWAY TEOW TOO!!! ALL THAT FOOD IS MINE MINE MINE!!!! Muahahaha *maniacal laughter*

Char kway teow! Penang style!!!!!!

This restaurant is Zagat-rated and appeared in many many newspapers and magazines and I can totally attest to it being FANTASTIC if anyone would please drive me there again :)

After stuffing ourselves with all that fantastic food we decided to take a walk around Philly since we probably need that exercise but cos it was friggin cold we didn't have the energy to take out the camera for more pictures. In fact by walking I actually mean more like skipping and running in and out of shops for the occasional comfort of heating while glancing around downtown Philly. And then after that we drove home from our day's adventure in Philadelphia (though it wasn't much the highlight was probably Penang :)

And also cos Weijie lost my cam I bought a spankin new Canon SD digital camera to replace it HURRAY! Good job Weijie! I was thinking next year there's no new coursework so things are gonna get boring I better get something to occupy my time with. So I have decided to pick up a hobby... either street dancing (like hiphop or something), piano or guitar playing (meaning for leisure since I already know how to do both), or photography! Since I got a good camera for a good price I guess photography tops the list hurray! Okay look out for Weijie trip 3. Gosh its so tiring uploading all these pics =.=

And remember to tell me which pic u think is nicest!!!! :)

Driving in NYC

2009-03-19T15:09:00.000-07:00

I just saw this joke that totally very clearly illustrates how driving in NYC is like.

RULES FOR DRIVING IN NEW YORK CITY
- When on a one way street, stay to the right to allow oncoming traffic to pass.

- Never, ever, stop for a pedestrian unless he flings himself under the wheels of your car.

- The first parking space you see will be the last parking space you see. Grab it.

- Never get in the way of a car that needs extensive body work.

- Always look both ways when running a red light.

- Never use directional signals when changing lanes. They only warn other drivers to speed up and not let you in.

- Making eye contact revokes your right of way.

- Whenever possible, stop in the middle of a crosswalk to ensure inconveniencing as many pedestrians as possible. And if a pedestrian ahead of you steps into the road, speed up, honk or yell loudly and chase him back up on the curb. Pedestrians have no rights.

Spring is coming!

2009-03-19T14:02:00.001-07:00

This morning, I woke up to a light drizzle, totally refreshed from having slept as long as I could remember ever sleeping on a weekday since I got here, and got dressed and went out.

And felt happy instantly! The trees are growing leaves again, flowers are blooming, birds are singing! Yes singing. Literally. Not chirping, there was a melody to their chirping! Beautiful birds, not ugly fat crows and pigeons. Yippee! Spring is decending on us! So according to the forecast, its officially spring starting tomorrow (20th March) and I can't wait!

Another incident later in the day made me rather upset, this PI I was really interested in told me he might not have enough money to fund me.. but still, the minute I got out of the building and walked back home, the birds were singing away and I just felt for that one second... how beautiful life is :)

Love Story

2009-03-17T17:12:00.000-07:00

Totally in love with Taylor Swift, and this song, and the amazingly sweet feeling it gave me! This is the live version, the music video is equally great!

Woodbury adventure

2009-03-15T19:30:00.001-07:00

This is an addendum to the previous post. Something else happened at Woodbury I forgot to mention and Weijie 'kindly' reminded me to blog about it. Weijie bought a couple more items that I forgot to mention. It was a genuine mistake but he insisted I write it down so people will know the exact things that happened at Woodbury. So one more shop we patroned was Calvin Klein! They split it up into Men's and Ladies section in different stores so when he said he wanted to go into the Men's store I was hesitant and a tad uncomfortable. Especially after he told me he wanted to go in to get UNDERWEAR. CK UNDERWEAR! And as if that was not embarassing enough for me he made my pick a pair for him!!!! He showed me 2 pairs and told me he prefers one of them but they don't have it in a color he likes. But all I could see were these on the cover of the underwear box...

And I said.. "Wow... " clearly amazed by the sight. And Weijie got a bit pissed off and asked me again impatiently, "Can you help me find this in black or not!" And I replied, "Uh.. they both look the same to me what... what you want me to find?"

Weijie's face darkened, "STOP STARING AT THE DICK! DONT THINK I DUNO WHAT YOU ARE DOING! YOU TELL ME THOSE TWO ARE THE SAME! CAN YOU PLEASE FOCUS! JUST BECAUSE BOTH OF THEM HAVE HUGE DICKS DONT MEAN THE UNDERWEAR IS THE SAME OK!"

I giggle to myself and skipped to one corner and continued staring on the pretext of helping him find his precious CK underwear. Oh men! When they feel inferior. Especially in a certain sense....

Weijie's visit 1!

2009-03-15T12:54:00.001-07:00

So! Weijie flew in on the glorious A380! With an amazing videocam on its tailfin! Woohoo! He just took this picture to make me jealous =.=

In the amazing A380 everyone has a personal entertainment unit in front of their seat in the plane where they can view takeoff, landing and flying v.s. United everyone-shares-the-huge-blurry-tv-screen-for-20-hours =.=

We rented a Chevy cobalt! Our first car woohoo! Ok not really ours but we can play pretend.

I wasn't used to the sun setting so late yet. But Weijie wasn't used to something else. Driving on the left. So much so that even after constant reminders he turned into the wrong lane when he exited the rental place wahaha. Luckily it was a deserted road and there was no road divider so we easily crossed into the opposite lane.

On the way to the airport (Melek drove me there) I found out randomly that Odenton, where the amazing Grace Garden Chinese food is (refer to previous entry about Vday), is like a couple miles away from the airport BWI! So I thought what the hell. I don't care if he just came from a place where Asian food was aplenty. I'm gonna make him eat what I like! And so we drove to Grace Garden!

That's the fried shrimp toast.. yummy! The secret to yummy Chinese food is to use the freshest ingredients, in this case, shrimps!

That's his double-cooked pork.

Double cooked pork and my dry fried hor fun. The beef version is really popular in HK but too bad I don't eat beef so I got the chef to make me a pork version heehee.

We got the infamous 'Chinese donuts'. I know. He was like, wtf is that?! But when it came he had no regrets heehee.
The next 2 days, we drove to NYC and visited Emily and her bf, and also Weijie's friend Isaac who happened to work at an investment firm there. No pictures because WEIJIE LOST MY CAMERA! *fumes* Considering I haven't met Emily in such a long while the pictures are really precious. Plus it took us so much effort to drive the 5 hours there (due to horrible traffic).. the least he could do was protect the camera the pictures were in! Bah.. anyway just written memories about that trip then.

We drove 5 hours, taking turns cos its so tiring. The GPS sometimes gave confusing instructions so we had to be careful not to make a wrong turn cos it could be a couple miles before we could turn back (how do we know? yah lah cos we still made a couple wrong turns). And traffic in NYC was truly horrible. Doesn't help that we drove in just during rush hour. But overall, the feeling in NYC was a horrible feeling. It wasn't as lively and busy as I remembered. Instead, everyone seemed as downcast as the weather (it was raining when we drove in). There were not many people in the streets. Shops close early (I know in most western cities shops close early but usually in NYC shops open till very late). And when we met up with Emily and Isaac, we found that the financial situation was very bad indeed. :S horrible.

But thanks to Isaac, who happened to have some connections, we got a hotel room in Manhattan for 50 bucks a night! Nope its not a budget hotel room, it comes with the works, including a bathroom and tv! Yippee! When we met up with Emily, I had the best xiaolongbao I'd ever had in the U.S, and when we met up with Isaac, we went to Serendipity, its this famous cafe where they filmed the film and where they had this famous hot frozen chocolate (I know that's an oxymoron but they somehow made it happen!) and they also had this Guinness world record holding most expensive sundae made of golddust blahblah. But of course we did not have that.. it would have set us back a grand. Plus we had to make an advanced order.

Next day we went to Woodbury Commons Premium Outlets where they had Dior Gucci Fendi Prada and of course not forgetting the original American luxury brand Coach!!!! They had a change-of-season sales but sadly, due to the financial crisis, we were all hesitant to spend. Regardless, I got myself a pair of shades from Guess and a bewwwwwtiful bag from Coach!!!!

The sales lady was telling me how 'gorgeous' this bag was and what amazing taste I have and how great a deal I got cos this bag costs USD350 initially and it was going for USD150 blah blah and I was beaming and feeling quite pleased with myself when Weijie just had to burst the bubble by telling me the sales lady tells everyone the same thing =.=

Never mind.. at least I got to go home with a spankin' new bag!!! YIPPEE! And a new pair of shades, and a new belt from Jcrew at rediculously cheap prices.. and a top from FCUK and Weijie got himself a couple polo tees from Ecko and FCUK and also a sweater at my insistent cos he friggin brought no sweater here and was freezin' his friggin ass off =.=

But of course! After all the exciting phototaking here and there and everywhere, I have none to show =.=

haha ok enough of making Weijie feel bad..

He felt so bad he decided to cook me chicken rice...
Oh wait.. isn't that me cooking in the kitchennette?

Making yummilicious ginseng chicken soup... omg.. his mum sent it for us.. heehee.. we just dumped everything in the box into the water and let it boil, then dump in the chicken.

Oh right.. Weijie didn't cook that. I did. =.=

'I suck I am a loser boohoohoo'

*After 3 hours of letting the chicken cook and camwhoring in the meantime*

It's time for the RICE! Yes chicken rice... with chicken soup... hehe..

Chicken soup to the boil...

washing the rice..

adding in the chicken rice paste and some chicken stock..

Yay! Yummilicious chicken rice!!!

Kahjing... we invited her and Kailee over to taste our wonderful creation! Look at the look of anticipation on her face as she ladles the soup!

All in all, yummy! Success! Yay! Ok more pictures soon.. whaddya think.. of course there's more.. haha he lost my camera but we still have his camera! Keep your eyes peeled.. and YES YOU GOTTA LOOK AT OUR PICTURES! How often do you get to see us taking pics together! :)

Life is good!

2009-03-06T15:44:00.000-08:00

YAY we finished 2 exams this week! And its SPRING BREAK! And wj is comin' to visit me!!! DOUBLE YAY! So we're planning to go pick him up tomorrow and then maybe dinner and then next day its NY city and then back to Baltimore then maybe DC and Philly!!! WOOHOO~~~ I've already checked out 3 DVDs in preparation for good times to come.. gonna get some chips and soda and unwind tonight. Laundry done. Cleaning done. GPS set up. Everything good to go.

LIFE IS GOOD!

Check back for updates, but if there are none, it can only mean I'm busy enjoying myself!

Procrastinating...

2009-03-04T14:36:00.000-08:00

I have 2 exams this week. One tomorrow, one the day after. And then on Saturday Wj is coming over. And damnit I can't freakin focus on studying cos everytime I try to study my mind would wander to think about what we can do while he's here. Damn Wj isn't helping by telling me he's gonna try cooking chicken rice for me when he's here. CHICKEN RICE! Its like a sweet savoury memory from home, one I'd been missing since the day I got here. How can you expect one to actually focus on studying while dreaming/drooling about chicken rice? Mmmmm..... Chicken rice made with love.. even if his skills aren't up to it (his cooking adventures have never ventured beyond instant noodles) I'm still looking forward to it! =)

But then as the days go by, it seems gloomier and gloomier. Not literally talking about the weather of course, but the prospect of him actually getting accepted by Hopkins just seems bleaker. The admissions director sent him an email telling him they can't actually promise anything even though he's welcome to come talk to people, because they might not get sponsorship this year. Damn Obama! What about your promises!! T.T

Anyway, just a random thought. As the days go by, I find myself enjoying reading trashy stories/blog entries about fashion/makeup/catfights/lame jokes less and less and enjoying reading inspirational stories/blog entries about umm... people fighting against diseases/sweet love stories/friendship stories more and more. I think I am growing up and becoming more mature! *blinks*

Ok back to the horrible notes... wait before that.. lets go grab a soda... I need the caffeine *sob

The adventures of KS in Baltimore

Why no one deserves my vote

wuss

bored

shoppaholism

SOO BUSY!

Singapore part 1

His name is Brody

FML moment

LOL

Emergency Alert

Operations for Monday (Please read carefully)02/08/2010

Tuesday announcements02/08/2010

snowmageddon

MORE SNOW

Stupid ads...

Sartorialista

F My Life

snow!

project runway (pirated version)

Say No To Whiners!

merry xmas and a happy 2010!!

Blizzard!

New Furniture

BUSY

Its snowing!

Music

Random musing/procrastinating

Ethics

AACR

Let me correct myself

Going Rogue

WTF?

APEC and the our govt.

MAD ABOUT MADDEN

My inspiration?

Rise and Shine!

Project runway, week 1 + random halloween pics

Fresh tumor!

Fall

100th anniversary!

How do I look

I am bo liao

Half day!

Nobel

Pre-fame Gaga

LADY GAGA ON SNL!

Random pictures- NYC, White House, and misc

Scared

My exciting life

God

Random

Back

Photoshoot

Growing up.

LASIK

The Flu That Shall Not Be Named

HOME SWEET HOME!

Delay!

Pictures plus bad day

Bunny bunny!

The world is not fair

Bad Bunny

Last stretch

Weijie in Baltimore 2

Weijie in Baltimore

Thankful!

Bad week

Bored

Disappointment

Bonding with the bunny

CRAZY DAY!

Cars

Fulfilling weekend

A Parable for Graduate Students

Am I cursed or what?

Honda civic coupe!

Cold Turkey

Cherry blossoms in DC + smattering of other pics

INSOMNIA

Operations for Monday (Please read carefully)
02/08/2010

Tuesday announcements
02/08/2010