I have found Nemo

Blah...It was so hot outside today--weather.com said it felt as if it was at 555.67°Rankine. Poor me, for the purpose of inquiring about some quartz polishing service, I had to walk across campus to this place called the Biological Science Building.

It was a good thing that I have my sun-glasses on, but it definitely was a bad thing to wear a semi-tight pair of jeans. (And I wonder, how are the cowboys surviving the hot humid temperature in those tighties jeanies). Anyhow, the superego preached, "You've made the choice to come and live here, so live with it".

The sight of cool blue light and multi-colored creatures living in a 130-gallon saltwater aquarium wiped out the so-called torture as I entered the destination building. It sort of looked like the picture below.


Anyone with enough talent and resources would've come up sooner with a Finding Nemo-like idea after witnessing such amazing display. Guys, lemme tell you, it's such an easy task to despise that 5-gallon aquarium at home.

The saltwater aquarium is a serious project supervised by a Biology proffesor, which since its first display in 1989, has involved some 485 students. The environment is mimicking the real reef situation which includes the current relived by a high circulation of water, halide bulbs for photosynthesis, and real "live" rocks. The population consists of, clown fish, tang, anemone, scallops, shrimp, urchin, blenny, and bunch o invertabrae.

I, for sure, will come back to enjoy the fun.

In a Nut Shell

Phew, it's 5 o'clock and I'm back safe and sound in CS. Story from the Shell plant visit will be posted soon.
Now, if you'll excuse me, I gotta run to the sign language class.

A new week has come....

and it's going to be a quite memorable one.

*Today, I need to finalize the purchase and arrange transportation for the new pump.
*My father's 51st birthday is on Tuesday.
*Also on Tuesday, I will be on a Shell plant visit with a bunch of Chem-E guys and gals.
*Wednesday & Thursday, I will be busy as hell, finishing as much stuff as I could.
*On Friday, my younger sister will arrive in Houston. She's starting school this Fall.
*Who knows what will be doing on the weekend.

Have a good week everyone.
Oh, before I go, here's a dialogue from one of my all time fav flicks....

***
You know those days when you get the mean reds?
The mean reds, you mean like the blues?
No. The blues are because you're getting fat and maybe it's been raining too long, you're just sad that's all. The mean reds are horrible. Suddenly you're afraid and you don't know what you're afraid of. Do you ever get that feeling?
Sure.
Well, when I get it the only thing that does any good is to jump in a cab and go to Tiffany's. Calms me down right away.
***

Do you have your Tiffany's?

Movie character trivia

Who fashions an equus-tail hair, parting lips, matching outfit for every ride and has close friends in at least 3 continents?

IDoH

Just found out. Tomorrow is the International Day of Hunger. Wanna participate? One could always think globally, but act locally. So, please do something for the hungry arround, guys!

Crib

A couple days ago, I had a chance to take a peek on a residence of somebody whom we might say is enjoying a "good" life. It felt as if I was in one of those TV programs touring amazing homes with amazing interior decoration, only I happen to know the people who own it in person. Heck, I even came across the patriach's self-written autobiography in the 'net last night.

The 2-story mansion has 4 bedrooms, a formal living and a formal dining area, a family area, a kitchen, a game room, a fitness room, an upstair patio, a downstair deck, a big study, and a 3-car garage. The master bedroom's walk-in closet can easily be turned into a bedroom. In the bathroom, we'll see white towels with the patriach's monogram. All over, we'll bump into cabinets ensigned with the initial of the family's name, it looks like a Greenbay Packer symbol, btw.

The family room has an open bar equipped with an ice maker and a cabinet full of expensive liquors. The wine glasses are embelished with the family's gonfalonic symbol. A cello standing nicely on a corner of the room. On the wall, hanged a painting of the family's ancestor, a high ranking military man who had a role on Simon Bolivar's leading South American countries into independence from Spain. Oh and I forgot, there is an elevator in the house!

It's not the house's extravagant yet functional encounters that catch my attention. It's the devotion to the family and the struggles these people have endured to achieve all of those life goals and dreams. I swear you could feel them boldly fill in the air up there.

A fine example for a stranger living in a strange land.

Land of Origin

Wandering one's whole life among foreign tribes...
--Czeslaw Milosz

..ad patrem meum et patrem..

If there is one word that could delineate your mother or father, what would it be?

Ubi Actio Est

I'm trying to organize all those journals and proceedings for the references in the thesis and paper writing. They're either in the soft copy versions in the hard drive or out here as a print outs and hand outs. I usually group them by the topics. But along the way, everything is getting intertwined that it's kinda hard to properly grouping them for an easy search.

It will be nice to build a database and write a small program for it, so I could call all of the articles by the abstract, keyword, journal name, authors, title, and the date. Actually, there is this software out there performing exactly the same functions I want, and more. It's called the Endnote. Maybe I should just go ahead and buy it... Hmm... Darn it, illegal copy is not an option.

Zimbabwe

A small conversation on the shuttle service from an automative repair shop...
[We have to put that wreck of ours to the shop again. The previous repair place replaced the original bolt with a much longer one when they installed a new timing belt. That bolt touched and eventually deteriorated the alternator belt. *Sigh* ]

***
Driver: So, where are you guys from?
Brother: Indonesia.
Driver: Do you guys like it here?
Xinda: Yeah, it's much better after a while.
Driver: I don't like it here.
Brother: Where are you from?
Driver: Zimbabwe.
Xinda: *pondering* Dang, I don't know they have white population there in Zimbabwe.
***

Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time a.k.a. Public Auction and the Navajos

How's everyone's weekend so far? Mine has been great. I had to wake up at 7AM this Sunday. Well, it's good for me, the lack of sleep sort of balanced the amount food I had consumed at last night's big banquet of potluck dinner.

Well, the reason I came to life that early was that we were going to "participate" in a live public auction in downtown Bryan. Most of the things auctioned come from the estate of Mr. T.K. Treadwell, which unfortunately, had very slight resemblance to those presented at PBS' Antique Road House. So we left while it was still what they call the "viewing time". No regrets, the upcoming auction on Aug 16 will be from the estate of Dr. Graham Horsely, a retired Architecture professor. We expect good things are coming from there.

I proceeded to sit in to what by far is the-longest-most-interesting-homily-at-a-9AM-mass. Topic of the morning was the life of Navajo Indian at a reservation in northeastern part of Arizona. It was far better than sitting at an anthropology class or visiting an exhibition at a museum. The works in progress are not intended to make a white case out of everybody, but to quote from Father Jerry, "not only they don't have any hope, but also they don't have anything to hope for". Sad, isn't it?

The 300,000 square miles reservation is home to roughly 260,000 Navajos. The area has very low income per capita, high unemployment rate, high alcoholism case, as well as a high domestic abuse level. The Navajos are earth people, as can be observed from their legend of creation, that the first man and woman came out of a hole from the inside of Mother Earth. They live and sleep in dirt floor house, that way, Mother Earth's protection is attained perpetually. Death to them is not a sad misery but rather a joyous occasion because one is coming back to the warm love of one's mother.

When the Navajos greet, instead of shaking hands, they touch each other's palm as quickly as possible as everyone is suspected to be the evil Skin Walker, a witch that can suck life out with only the firmest of a handshake. This matriachal society is also very private down to the level that intervention on other people's life is a taboo. This mannerism is not only exercised among the people of the tribes but also to the outside world. It's really hard to get close to them and to experience the culture, that to quote FJ again, "I learnt more from Tony Hillerman's novel about the Navajos than the 6 years I have been living there."

At the 6000 ft elevation, in harsh winter & summer, these people posses only the minimum of cloth to wear, food to eat, and water to drink. When they do ask for help, they only take what's really needed, not a bit more.

Life is hard up there. I don't know how it is compared to the slum area of Indonesia or any other place in the world for that matter. Care to share?

In the summer time

Hoaamm...just woke up from a 4 hour "nap", am ready to rumble, well at least till 6 AM. That's when the evil PTTS, our school's parking authority, starts patroling. I'm slightly professional now not to get more of those tickets, especially for parking on one of the faculty member's basement spots.

There is this Blocker building, built exactly pointing to the East and West. I didn't realize that till today.

If we put a straight line from my apt and Zachry building, they are also exactly on the East and West direction to each other. So when I walk to school in the hot summer morning and walk back home around 7, the sun will blindingly shine at me.

Now, if they can turn down this AC a bit lower...in the summertime, it's always too cold inside.

Happy weekend, guys.

One Nice Chat

B: have you commune with god, about this ?
X: we never talked about God before, right..
B: who we ? what is "right"?
X: we as you and me
B: almost sure we do.
X: don't remember
B: or at least the purpose of using church for solace.
X: i sometimes differentiate church from God, God is personal, church is kinda a community
B: church as in the building of prayer, not as the institution.
X: i prefer praying alone in my room
B: anywya, have you done?
X: not that much, not as much as i need to
B: have faith.

New Addiction

If you ever want to simultaneously...
*. increase your attention span and concentration over non-entertaining subjects
*. reduce built up stress
*. damp down craving for unhealthy snacks
*. secure a fresh breath for longer hours


Chew a minty fresh gum...it's one rosin miracle...

***

Turned away from it all like a blind man
Sat on a fence but it don't work
Keep coming up with love but it's so slashed and torn
Why - why - why?

Insanity laughs under pressure we're breaking
Can't we give ourselves one more chance
Why can't we give love that one more chance
Why can't we give love give love give love give love
Give love give love give love give love give love

'Cause love's such an old fashioned word
And love dares you to care for
The people on the edge of the night
And loves dares you to change our way of
Caring about ourselves
This is our last dance
This is our last dance
This is ourselves

***

--Under Pressure, Queen

***

Now I feel I'm growing older
And the songs that I have sung
Echo in the distance
Like the sound
Of a windmill goin' 'round

***
--SoF, DP

Wishing and Hoping and Thinking and Praying

I just talked to my advisor. Brought up the legal issue, my I-20 will be expired this December, which means I really-really need to graduate by that month. Well, they can grant me another extension. But it's just getting out of hand, 3 years to get a Master's degree? Darn, he mentions the possibility of me graduating next Spring. No way, Jose!! I will bleed to the last drop for the October defense deadline. So wish me luck guys...

Movie Time

So, I caught the last 30 minutes of You've Got Mail on TV last night. As one of my fav flicks of all time, I must've watched it like 10 times already. Yeah, it might romanticized New York City and the internet a tad too much, but I just couldn't help to fall in love with both Kathleen Kelly and Joe Fox characters, both are so, so meant for each other.

To me, one of the best scenes is the ending. When Kathleen waited for NY152 in the park for their first rendezvous, and instead she heard Joe's calling Barkley and coming her way. Did you look at her expression? She was numbed, perplexed, and the instant she realized what truly happened, she released all of the emotions, the sadness and the overjoyousness... Is that kind of feeling really exist when you meet that sincere amore? I think I'm way too naive.

Anyhow, guys, if you have a chance and happened to like the adventures genre, go watch Pirates of Carribean. It's 2 hours plus full of fun. Based on its trailers, it wasn't even on my summer blockbuster list, but I'm glad I finally chose to watch it over T3. A couple of interesting aspects of the Pirates:
-It's hard to predict how the story ends, that way, the adventurous factor is pretty high
-It's hilarious, Johny Depp's Jack Sparrow really lives up the moments.
-The romance is not that cheesy.

I need to watch it again on video. Darn Brittish accent...

Bika Ambon

...for a minute there, I couldn't remember what I was planning to jot down today. Dementia attack? At such young age? I hope not, just like Phoebe of Friends, I'm intuitive but my memory sucks.

Oh well, I still couldn't believe that I found Bika Ambon cake mix at Diho Market in Houston. (Hi Pink..hehe..this blog does revolve around food, food, food...). My bro sucessfully mixed ingredients, raised it for 90 minutes, and then baked it. The cake did look and taste similar to the ones my father used to bring back from Medan.
Nyam..nyam..

Wednesday Indian Food

Reminiscing to that many times we passed by the restaurants in S'pore's Little India. I always tried to hold my breath as long as I could. Just couldn't stand the atmosphere around the area. My father & youngest brother, on the other hand, really enjoyed the food served. Roti prata, yum..yum.., that's what they said.

I used to think of Indian cuisine as something less edible, not only because of the strong "bombay" onion smell but also because of the too-much-spices taste. And today, that perception was a bit altered. Actually, the edibility level of an Indian cuisine is a strong function of the region the cuisine originates.

So, I went to a house blessing of an Indian friend. She speaks Malayalam, which makes Kerala her home province. She prepared 3 different kinds of curry for the celebratory lunch: potato & cucumber, sweet pea & mushroom, and the black pea & some unidentified vegetable. The recipes use the same basic spices, but there were adjustments on the exact amount used on each curry. And, man, they were quite delicious. There was also this tasty & crispy Lentil chip (forgot the name), and some baked chicken. The desert was a drink made out of somekind of milk and sugar with chopped almond and other nuts. The name of the drink is Kheer or something like that.

Ever tried the Clay Oven? Is the food okay?

Welcome to the (blog)world

Ladies and gentlemen, please allow me to introduce the new addition to the blogosphere, my real larger-than-life brother's blog.

Have fun, bro!!

Omen

My right eye has been twitching since last night. Is it a bad omen or something?

Weekend Recap

I woke up Sunday morning with a "hang over" from a 10-course wedding reception of a friend's brother and home-brew honey wine of another friend's birthday/farewell party. The amount of food I munched at the wedding reception worth more than 3 times of my normal lunch. The wine was almost as good as any $5 ones sold at HEB, or Walmart.

After the 11 AM mass, I went to the baptism of another friend's 1 month old bundle of joy which was followed by a celebration lunch at Wings-n-More. Our table, I believe, ordered the most variety of food and the most expensive too. Good for us, bad for the baby's parents.

T'was a good weekend.

Vent

So, this colleague and I were discussing the proper operating procedure of the newly-improved reactor. Safety has always been my first priority. Mind you, all the gasses used are flammable, even one of them is explosive. A bomb waiting to explode is what is this reactor is all about, if we are not exercising a scoop of extra caution.

I have a point that we should keep the source of inert gas open the whole time, that way it'll be a fail safe system. After all, the gas control system itself has a self-regulated valve that will introduce the inert gas whenever the reactor needs it. But of course, the system has no use if the main gas source is closed, right?

He was strongly against the idea. He believes that the procedure I proposed, first, will adverserly affect the quality of the film deposited, and second, it will waste a lot of gas. My counter arguments were that there's no way the gas will leak into the reactor, and that we're not going to do any waste here since there is that self regulated valve down there.

It could have been a one nice intelectual discussion. Ideally, it should go like this: I presented my case, he presented his, we discussed the possibility and then came up with the proper solution, all in a clear and nice argumentative way. But what I've been through yesterday was something else. During the course of the talk, I maintained an easy going attitude, he, on the other hand, was burstly raising his voice. Hey, man, you're not succeeded badgering me with that kind of attitude! Watch that temper of yours, please. I have noticed that he does the same thing whenever he "discuss" anything with anyone.

So we ended up bring the subject up to the other colleague, who quickly sensed the belligerent situation. It turned out, I was right, provided that the self-regulated valve work perfectly. Yeah baby, it felt really good. I wish he'll get his lesson someday.

I feel a bit uplifted now.

July 4th

Well, well, I just don't know what to write regarding the big day today, simply...

Happy 227th B-day, Mother America!



PS:
Those of you who travel out of town this long weekend, be extra careful, ok...

New Comment System

Hi, guys. [Hi, Rhin :)]. I'm trying to see through all of the possibilities out there in the com-sys world, so please bear with this current one, ok? :D.

Forgot, thanks Enetation for the past 3 mos.

Wee Morning Hours Anamnesis

Have you ever, suddenly woken up in the middle of a night sleep, thinking about your existence in this world? Not necessarily the future, just stuff from the past. Your childhood, your family, and mostly about yourself? It scared me to death, sometimes, to detach all the feeling, memories, facts and use them to look at me and my self from an "outsider" view.

Night, night, guys. :)

Coach

Last night's Coach rerun was so darn funny. So Hayden and the Screaming Eagles were pretty desperate in recruiting top quarterback. They spotted this 18-yrs old, Johnny Williams, who happens to be the son of a legendary QB who was down for injury after only playing for 1 season. The father also happened to be Hayden's teammate & roommate back in Pennsylvania.

So, Hayden pulled up a prep talk and showed Johnny how he values honesty and familiarity between a coach and a QB, as shown in his cozy & humble basement office as opposed to shiny large office of other coaches in other top notch teams. Mind you, the Screaming Eagles are the national champion for several years at that time, they could afford all the good stuff.

How panicked Hayden was after the would-be-Minnesota-State-QB suddenly confessed that he didn't really want to play football anymore. So, Hayden, being a Hayden, rooted for the kid to keep playing. After all, the kid was self-convinced to realize his father's football dream. So, everything looked smooth, until Hayden's dear wife, Christine, gave him a prep talk that the youngster should decide for his own life. And once again, Hayden saved another life.

What's the point of the story? Behind a great man, there is an even greater woman, of course. ;)

p.s.
It was a wrong decision. I should've asked my parents for some piano lessons instead of the monotonic organ lessons, or better yet, taking both lessons at the same time.