On the packaging of raw fish I used to make this Easter delicacy, it said:
"Whole Tilapia, farm raised, China"



I'm used to Chiquita bananas coming from some South American countries, or Dole pineaples from Hawaii, or those Australian Angus beef. But "slightly frozen" whole Tilapia from China? Walmart sure has gone far in this globalization business. It was a pretty good price, it came up to about $1.60 per fish.

And then I found this from that Frontline PBS show:

"China is the largest exporter to the U.S. economy in virtually all consumer goods categories. Wal-Mart is the leading retailer in the U.S. economy in virtually all consumer goods categories. Wal-Mart and China are a joint venture."

For more read of the show.

The advisor has claimed the first authorship of this paper I had written for another journal. I'm all left as the second author. Well, he put some nice new ideas into it, but still, life is just so unfair sometimes. Anyway, from the look of things, it seems that the manuscript will be published soon.

I'm just hoping one of these days, when the PECVD is ressurected and the TA job is finally finished, I will beat him as the first author of lots of other papers.

I just couldn't wait to be finished with this seemingly endless journey.

PS:
It didn't rain on Friday, but there were a couple of black clouds around.

Celestial sound:
Fr. Keith singing 3/4 of the Eucharistics prayer<--This is why we need more priest with a music degree.
Brazos Valley Sola Scorum singing in Latin. <--This is the closest to chant-styled singing CS has to offer.

Calory intake:
1 brownies
20 grapes
2 cups of mac & cheese
deep fried wing and thigh (uh, pardon the dark meat)
1 muffin size of Ndoro Yadda's semi-homemade banana cake

Calory burning and exercise:
2-mile jogging
60 tricep extension
40 tricep press
60 abdominal
60 leg press
40 shoulder

I missed confession tonight. The exam proctor gave us extra time of almost an hour, which was good in a sense. Still it was impossible for me to finish. By the time I hit the church, it was all dark and a group of people was watching The Passion of the Christ passionately on projector screen at the student center. So appropriate, eh, the movie I mean.

Back to the exam. This one problem here was what I spent most the time on. Looking at it, I immediately identified two points to question.


Since I figured it would take significant amount of time to finish the 8-bit state table, I then planned on working it backward. Maybe I could select the adder ICs first and then figure my way up to the flip-flops and all, but then the third input confused me. See, I am not quite a logical creature to figure this one up. Heh.

Chocolate is always good for a self-deprecating time like this. So I bake double chocolate brownies -- no worries, it's from the box. 1/3 cup of water, 1/3 cup of oil, an egg, the mix, and a few good strokes. And that's it, I just have to make sure to put enough grease on the pan and to not overbaking it. It smells like chocolatey heaven here.

Nobel Laureate: ‘You’re Only as Happy as You Remember’ Mar. 23, 2005 – It’s generally accepted that money can’t buy happiness, but what about the things it can buy? According to psychologist and Nobel laureate Daniel Kahneman, they also do little to raise people’s sense of satisfaction and well-being – at least not in the long-term. Speaking Tuesday as part of Texas A&M University’s University Distinguished Lecture Series, Kahneman said one’s expectations and memories of an experience have greater influence on that person’s happiness than the experience itself. Thus, while the belief that a luxury purchase equates a better life can raise one’s spirits, the item purchased only brings satisfaction when the person is thinking about it. “There is an intensive mismatch between how wonderful it’s going to be to have that great big house or that wonderful refrigerator, and when you actually have it and are no longer focusing on it,” the Princeton professor said, using the Sub-Zero refrigerator in his home as an example. “Top of the line,” he quipped. “How much joy does it bring into my life? None.” Kahneman, winner of the 2002 Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel – commonly referred to as the Nobel Prize in Economics – for his revolutionary contributions to understanding financial behavior and decision-making, said memories often take the place of reality – what he called “the focusing illusion.” “Nothing in life is as important as you think it is when you are thinking about it,” he said. This, plus the fact that extreme experiences are more likely to be remembered, can cause even a short-term event – good or bad – to alter a person’s perception of his or her circumstances and overall satisfaction with life. “Because memories are all that we get to keep of an experience, ultimately we have the feeling that they are the only real thing. The only things that matter if it’s a bad experience are ‘How bad did it get?’ and ‘How long did it last?’” he said. “The peak and the end seem to be what matters, mostly.”

Farrell

03/23/05
http://rev.tamu.edu/stories/05/032305-10.html

After this exam on Wednesday, I'll be definitely ready for the Holy Week(end): Holy Thursday, Good Friday, Easter Vigil, and the annual Easter lunch at G's. This also includes getting on the latest train of confession marathon by Wednesday at ten.

Really, how time flies, Easter is already on the corner, it's almost the end of March. It causes me to tremble just to ponder about the things meaningful, researchwise and whatnot, that have yet been accomplished. Well, the last part of leak testing for the reworked lines is finished yesterday. So at least we're a step closer to bring the mighty PECVD to life.

Current mood: anxious
Current earworm: Were you there?

It says here:
The average unmarried female
Basically insecure
Due to some long frustration may react
With psychosomatic symptoms
Difficult to endure
Affecting the upper resperatory tract.

In other words, just from waiting around for that plain little band of gold
A person can develop a cold.

You can spray her wherever you figure there's streptococci lurk
You can give her a shot for whatever's she's got, but it just won't work
If she's tired of getting the fish eye from the hotel clerk
A person can develop a cold.

It says here:
The female remaining single
Just in the legal sense
Shows a neurotic tendancy, see note: (looks at note
Chronic organic symptoms
Toxic or hypertense
Involving the eye, the ear, the nose, and throat.

In other words, just from worrying if the wedding is on or off
A person can develop a cough.

You can feed her all day with the vitamin A and the bromofizz
But the medicine never gets anywhere near where the trouble is.
If she's getting a kind of name for herself, and the name ain't his
A person can develop a cough.

And furthur more, just from stalling, and stalling,
And stalling the wedding trip
A person can develop la grippe.

When they get on that train to Niagara
And she can hear church bells chime
The compartment is air conditioned
And the mood sublime
Then they get off at Saratoga for the fourteenth time!
A person can develop la grippe,
La grippe.
La post nasal drip.
With the wheezes
And the sneezes
And a sinus that's really a pip!

From a lack of community property
And a feeling she's getting to old
A person can develop a bad, bad cold!


--Adelaide's Lament, Faith Prince, from the movie Guys and Dolls, 1955.

Ndoro Yadda and I are on this quest to beautify our room. For starter, we had been working on the beddings and the window treatment (more of these on other upcoming post).

The two pieces of furniture that we worked really hard on were the bookshelf and the nightstand. Both are made from inexpensive (and ugly, hence the makeover) MDF with those fake wooden linings.

At first, we thought that it iss impossible to put a coat of paint on the surface of the MDF lining, but the good guy at Lowe's told us to simply apply this primer specially designed for shiny surfaces before applying the actual paint.

And that was precisely what we did on a fine Friday afternoon.



Ndoro Yadda here applied several layers of primer uniformly over the surface.

We found that priming is the most important step that determines the quality of the overal job. Once uniformity is achieved and the linings below are fully covered, the paint itself should have no trouble to follow the texture of the primer.




Like this


And here is the finished product. We changed the metal knobs and the missing handle with white plastic ones. Heh, I never knew plastic could be quite stylish.



And here is The Mini in her new spot. Instead of a night stand, we commenced her to be a whimsical TV stand.


Notice the color pick. We might be subconciously inspired by the decoration at Minnie Mouse's . I guess we never fully recover from that one trip there.

And if our always is all that we gave
And we someday take that away
I'll be alright if it was just 'til St. Patrick's Day

--John Mayer, St. Patrick's Day

It's been gloomy and cold these past few days, it sure doesn't feel like spring time.

So, anyway, this week is Spring Break week, and as always, it doesn't affect any graduate students on assistansthips. We won't get any official day off until Friday. Even then, I am not planning to go anywhere. Instead, the thought about taking a break brought me to the long overdue narration of the trip home, specifically, on the Lombok part. Ahh, I thought I've fully recharged my batteries.

Anyway, here is:
"Hal hal yang gw kangenin banget dari Lombok"

• Delicio Cafe

Sekeluarga. Bokap mesen pitcher bir, nyokap mesen mie atau apalah trus dibagi tiga ama Ndoro Yadda dan gw, soalnya kita selalu baru aja makan malem. Trus si Alda & Ucok mesen capuccinno, roti atau kue-kue dari bakery-nya. Kalo ada lagi pas ada yang maen musik, kita minta dimainin lagu-lagu lama atau Alusiau, sambil maksa satu kafe ikutan nyanyi.


• Pasar Ikan

Belanja ikan, cumi, udang segar ama Nyokap. Kita ke pasar sekitar jam 5-6 sore waktu nelayannya baru aja balik dari laut. Trus pulang dari pasar, langsung rame-rame di dapur nyiapin makan malam yang udah kayak pesta buat satu kampung.




• Meja bilyar di dapur

Yap, 24 jam sehari, meja bilyar ini milik kita berenam. Seringnya kejadian di tengah acara masak-memasak yang kita nyambi nyodok-nyodok bola. Yang paling jago, udah pasti Dek Alda.




• Balkoni kamar atas dan kursi malasnya

Di sini, gw betah baca berjam-jam diiringin bunyi khas semilir angin yang menerpa pohon bambu di halaman sekitar. Dari balik celah-celah pembatas, sekali-sekali keliatan para pekerja sawah yang mulai nanem padi di sawah belakang. Juga tiap sore, gw nggak henti-hentinya ngagumin pemandangan matahari terbenam dari atas sini.



• Kelima menjangan di halaman

Menjangannya kadang-kadang suka ganas juga sih, kaya' ngikutin, eh sebenernya lebih tepat hampir nyeruduk, gw yang lagi mau ngebuang kantong penuh sampah ke tempat pembakaran. Tapi sumpah, mereka itu sebenernya lucu-lucu.



• Nemenin Ndoro Yadda belanja mutiara

Haha, yang ini sih buat muas-muasinin mata ngeliat perhiasan mutiara yang bagus-bagus banget. Itu, Ndoro Yadda langsung ngeborong tiga untai kalung yang dijadiin satu kalung besar berikut gelangnya.





• Beach hopping





• Makan malam berlantai pasir

Di saat orang-orang berburu pelayanan prasmanan-nya resto ini, kita malah milih makan tengah. Rasa makanannya bisa lebih enak lagi sih, lidah Indonesia ngerasain masakan gitu loh. Tapi presentasi-nya bagus banget, begitu juga makanan penutupnya. Seperti biasa, bokap mesen banyak banget lagu dari pemusik di situ. Dan dengan sukses Mas-mas yang lagi tugas ngelayanin pada ikutan nyanyi Cucok Rowo. Nyokap udah rada mangkel, katanya lagu itu maknanya jelek. Huehue.


• Gili Trawangan dan dipan-dipannya

Waduh ini udah kayak surga. Dengan segelas minuman, angin malam yang sejuk, leyeh-leyeh, nontonin orang, makan-makan. Emmm.

Gitu deh. Entar kalo memungkinkan, gw pengen balik ke daerah ini lagi. Masih banyak yang belum dikerjain, kaya' trekking ke Rinjani, nyusurin Gili-gili lainnya, diving (mudah-mudahan udah punya sertifikat biar lebih asik), ke Komodo juga deh sekalian.

From: M***** M*********
To: h******.n********@c******.t*m*.edu
Cc: y*****@t*m*.edu **h***@t*m*.edu v**-*****@t*m*.edu
Date: 03/10/05 03:20 pm
Subject: Message from Dr. H*** - grad student photos

Good afternoon.

I'm writing to you on behalf of Dr. H***. You have received this message because the department does not have a recent picture of you on file. Notice was sent via e-mail about graduate student pictures being taken on the second floor, but to date you have not had your picture taken.

Please note that these pictures are mandatory, and the last day to take pictures is next Thursday, March 17th. Please come by either room 255 (my office) or room 250 (T******'s office) to have your picture taken. Let me or T****** know if you have a conflict and cannot come for pictures or if you have any questions.

Thanks,
M*****

So, that was how I started my day today. Yes, instead of, say, a cup of nice chai and a bagel with appropriate amount of cream cheese spread, I had a sligthly unpleasant e-mail. The e-mail, by the way, was carbon copied to my advisor, the Departmen Head, and the business administrator, in that order.

Needless to say, once I had arrived to school, I marched in to the second floor demanding for my picture to be taken on the spot. They gave in, I gave them my best fake smile, and there we were done.

Still, I don't understand what it is with the department and its obsession to compulsively update graduate students pictures. There are many other areas that are desperately needed some extra attention. Friendlier support from the computer guy, for example, or possibility to give more paid vacation days, uhm, oh yeah, what about efforts to elevate our sinking national rank.

Gaagh!!

Everyone I know is either on a committed relationship --or at least getting there, or getting married, or waiting on his/her first child. Here I am wandering the age-old question, am I really that not lovable?

Hi ya'll,

I'm interested in this Dove TV commercial where they featured Miss Piggy --of The Muppet Show fame-- at the end of it. She was just plain cute without the heavy make up on. I've tried Googling but to no avail. Anyone has a link to the still pictures or better yet to the actual commercial?

Thanks,
X

Living healthy is a challenge but I've managed it pretty well these past eight months, until today, foodwise, anyway. I'm officially back to my old habit during sophomore year. Yes, baby, it's a Dr. Pepper (150 Cal) and a Snickers bar (280 cal) for lunch. I don't know what I'll have for dinner and snacks once I get home tonight, if I ever get home.

There is also a question of when I'll have enough time for decent sleep, for a Saturday jogging around campus, for browsing through the bookstore, for going to the movie, for back-to-back of Law & Order and the X-Files, for plethora of other things to keep my sanity alive. For some reason, I enjoy all these lackness. Yes, I have become comfortably numb.

Later.

I have been peeping over so many people's LJ I need any old school journalism to cure me from this addiction.