Travel Channel showcasing Singapore

While watching the Travel Channel, there was an advertisement on the host, Samantha Brown visiting Singapore. There is a sweep where one lucky winner can win a trip for two to my home country, Singapore.

The sweep started on November 1, 2009 at 12:00 a.m. Eastern Time ("ET") and ends on December 31, 2009 at 11:59 p.m. ET. I have not been entering for the sweep daily. Just a few more days and I hope that I am a lucky fellow.

It would be fun for the winner to experience Singapore, with its diverse culture, food, cleanliness, and low crimes.

The snow blizzard on Dec 19, 2009

Every local network's weather center forecasted a major snowstorm on Dec 19. It started snowing lightly in the early morning of Saturday when most of us were asleep.

By morning, the scenery was transformed overnight into a wintry snowscape, though officially, the Winter Solstice began on Dec 21 at 12.47 pm EST.

Initially, it felt kind of romantic with pretty snowflakes falling as I looked out from my warm apartment. However, as it continued to snow without abate and gusty wind picking up, it became scary. Cars were sliding on roads and pedestrians had to walk in knee-deep snow. This was the longest snow storm I had experience since I was here.

By Sunday Dec 20, the blizzard had stopped and everything was covered in snow. My balcony had snow dunes where it was 9 inches at the highest dune.

A cool idea struck me and I began building my first snowman, Feisty with the snow on the balcony. The snow was very dry, not conducive for make a snowball, let alone, a snowman. To overcome this, I sprayed water on the snow as I built. Ideally, you would need to form a snowball initially and then roll the ball around in sticky/wet snow. Imagine animation of cartoon characters rolling down a slope and forming a large snowball.

In this case, I made two snowballs, one for the body and the other for the head. I sat the body on a chair and added snow to it, layer by layer after spraying with water to cement the dry snow. After building the body to a sizable scale, I flatten the top of the body to place the second snowball and started working on the head. Since I had no carrot for its nose, I compressed some snow into a rod and stuck it in. The mouth was a red chilli, eyes were star aniseed, and buttons were dried flower pods from a potpourri. Instead of bundling it up with my cashmere scarfs, as pointed out by Charlene, I used two rags. To complete the look, Feisty, as I called it, was decorated with various hats (see Snow Blizzard album).

Then, I went outside, armed with a measuring tape to measure snow accumulation of the storm. The deepest was at 26 inches. There was this car, completely covered in snow but had a clearing on its driver's side, carved out by wind.

As the snow was deep, I could not resist making snow angels. The last time I made a snow angel, my jeans got dirty because the snow was not deep enough. Not this time, it was 13 inches deep.

I proceeded towards Sherwood Garden to take wintry pictures. Along the way, I saw private house owners busy shoveling their walkways or digging cars out. There were children sledding down a slope.

Houses covered in snow with Christmas decorations make great Holiday pictures. I walked around to capture the scenery but I did not last long as my feet were freezing after getting snow into my boots.

Five days later after the storm, Feisty was fighting to stay frozen. It needed some nose job and half its head was deformed. Things were falling apart. Well, as the saying goes, when a door closes, another opens. A row of icicles were hanging from the roof which looked fantastic. Let's see how long Feisty is going to last.

Blessed Christmas to you and wishing you joy, health and peace in 2010.

Snow Blizzard album

My best Christmas 2009 gift

Today, I received an email informing me that my manuscript entitled,"Conservation and Diversity of Influenza A H1N1 HLA-restricted T Cell Epitope Candidates for Epitope-based Vaccines" had been accepted in Plos One Journal.

Getting this 'baby' out was a fruit of setbacks, labor and toil. Now, I can enjoy the fruit and look ahead. It is the best Christmas gift to myself.

Blessed Christmas and may his birth reminds us of God's love for us.

Shopping spree

As I write this post with my laptop on my laps, I do not have to feel the heat from my laptop anymore. The heat was uncomfortable and for men, it is unhealthy for the scrotum.

Well, I just got this Logitech Notebook Cooling Pad
from Amazon. The fan works well, keeping the laptop cool and it is quiet. I bought it because 91 customers gave a 5-star review of this product.

Oh, by the way, maybe it is the spending season, I had ordered more stuffs (e.g. Kirkland Extra Strength Glucosamine HCl and Chondroitin Sulfate Tablets, Bower step down adapter, books, patches, calendar) from Amazon. Since running the Baltimore Marathon in Oct, my left knee has not been feeling right. It is not swollen, i.e. not inflame. However, I feel a cooling sensation even though I did not apply or take any medication. Glucosamine and Chondroitin are building blocks which help to maintain healthy joints. I have to see if these tablets help after three months.

For the step down adapter, prior to buying Nikon D70S, I bought a Nikon F55 which fits a 58mm lens. Among the 58mm lens I invested were a fish-eye lens and a macro lens. I am waiting to get the adapter so that I could try out wide-angle shots and really close up shots.

Argh, I need to rein in my spending spree as I had spent $250 on this Black Friday. I was tempted to rent a car and drive 1.5 hrs to Hagerstown, MD for the midnight sales. I wanted to experience the madness of Americans lining up in front of stores to get the deals. However, that night was raining and foggy plus I was tired. In the end, I slept through the night and drove to there in the morning. In all my shopping trips at Hagerstown Prime Outlet, I had never seen so much crowd before. Lines were long at the cash registers. Luckily for me, the few things that I bought were at shops which were not that packed. I was holding myself back from shopping too much.

First snow

White, big flakes falling from the sky,
Disappearing on the ground.

Temperature falling fast with strong wind,
I huddled in bed underneath a quilt.

With the ugly weather outside,
Outdoor plans were canceled.

Armed with a good book and a hot cup of tea,
my adventure began as I turned the pages.

A Day on Earth

Twenty four hours in a day,
One-third of it spent sleeping; Eight hours passed quickly.
Another one-third employed in working; Another eight hours elapsed erratically.
The last one-third engaged in living life, what do you want to make out of it?

Put on comment moderation

Recently, a group of Japanese had left their comments on one of my postings. Never mind that their comments were irrelevant to the postings, but when you click on their links, it led you to some Japanese porn site. After some Japanese-to-English translation, they were discussing about fantasies too!

This is my last straw. Please respect my blog, you know who you are.

Jury duty

My introduction to US justice system was through The Law and Order as well as Law and Order: Special Victim Unit TV series. The shows will have scenes shot in a justice court, with prosecutor and defendant lawyers presenting arguments to a group of lay people called the jury. All defendants have the right to a trial by jury which goes back to June 15, 1213. Then, King John of England granted part of the civil liberties designed to prevent too much power being in the hands of the king. The jury is ideally fair and impartial to determine the facts of the evidence in the case.

Well, I was summoned by the Circuit Court for Baltimore City to serve as a juror on Jan 5, 2010. Failure to comply with the summon may result in 60 days imprisonment, $1,000 fine or both after a hearing. This was my second summoning. However, with the current summon, there was not an option for me to check the box, stating that I am a non-US citizen. Other criteria to serve as a juror include residing in Baltimore City, persons who are under 70 years, and did not commit a felony.

Hopefully the Jury Commissioner's Office can strike me off their list after I fax to them my documents.

Inspiration from a song

This period has been a time of reflection as I come to closing my life chapter and looking forward to opening another. There are lots of factors to consider and no textbook for reference.

This song caught my attention when I was listening to the radio. As I grow older, I tend not to be as excited over things and taking certain things for granted. Living, as the lyrics goes, means taking chances, for that is how human grows.

I hope to dance too!

I Hope You Dance by Lee Ann Womack
I hope you never lose your sense of wonder
You get your fill to eat
But always keep that hunger
May you never take one single breath for granted
God forbid love ever leave you empty handed
I hope you still feel small
When you stand beside the ocean
Whenever one door closes, I hope one more opens
Promise me that you'll give faith a fighting chance

And when you get the choice to sit it out or dance
I hope you dance
I hope you dance

I hope you never fear those mountains in the distance
Never settle for the path of least resistance
Living might mean taking chances
But they're worth taking
Lovin' might be a mistake
But it's worth making
Don't let some hell bent heart
Leave you bitter
When you come close to selling out
Reconsider
Give the heavens above
More than just a passing glance

And when you get the choice to sit it out or dance
I hope you dance
(Time is a real and constant motion always)
I hope you dance
(Rolling us along)
I hope you dance
(Tell me who)
I hope you dance
(Wants to look back on their youth and wonder)
(Where those years have gone)

I hope you still feel small
When you stand beside the ocean
Whenever one door closes, I hope one more opens
Promise me that you'll give faith a fighting chance

And when you get the choice to sit it out or dance
Dance
I hope you dance
I hope you dance
(Time is a real and constant motion always)
I hope you dance
(Rolling us along)
I hope you dance
(Tell me who)
(Wants to look back on their youth and wonder)
I hope you dance
(Where those years have gone)

(Tell me who)
I hope you dance
(Wants to look back on their youth and wonder)
(Where those years have gone)

A comfortable one-bedroom hotel suite while attending a course

From Nov 9 - 13, I attended a 4.5-day course on flow cytometry offered by BD and paid by my boss. My lodging was at Hawthorn Suite, North Chelmsford, MA.

I was impressed by the layout of the small suite. There was an open kitchen which was well-equipped, looking out into the living area. Two wooden doors at an angle led to the bedroom, with a big vanity area, opposite to a good-sized closet. The restroom had a bathtub. For one person, it was very comfortable and cozy.


Service was excellent too. The staff was helpful and courteous. It is hard to find good service here. The hotel even organized a shopping trip to Nashua Mall, NH on Tuesday evening. A light meal was offered complimentary to hotel guest on Wednesday.
Breakfast menu was different everyday, a refreshing and delectable change for my appetite.

I would not mind designing my own place after this hotel room. Every space was maximized and had a function. I took these photographs for design references in the hope of getting my own place in the near future.

Found it at last

I had been looking for my first generation iPod nano for the past two weeks. It was a farewell gift from my fellow graduate friends before I came to USA for my post-doctoral position.

I used it only when I work out at the gym and ever since I broke the ring of my armband while rowing, I have been putting it in my pocket.

After gym, I usually would place it near the kitchen counter for my next trip. When I realized that I was missing the iPod, I looked high and low for it at two possible places, my cluttered desk in my room and the equally crowded computer desk in the living room. It was strange that I still had my earphones.

I suspected that it had dropped out of my pocket when I was pulling out my keys. Nothing was turned in after my inquiries at my building concierge and gym.

Yesterday, I went to The Apple Store at Towson Town Center, intending to get a 5th generation iPod 16GB nano which cost USD$189.74. The new features that I like included a FM radio, video camera and its huge size versus my 1GB antique.

Not wanting to be in a hurry to get one, I left empty handed. For dinner, I just wanted to eat instant noodle and when I reached for it, lo and behold, I found the missing iPod. I wondered why I had left it there. Just a very strange place for me to put it.

As for the 5th generation iPod, it can wait now since I am contemplating on getting a iPhone which has all the features I wanted plus a telephone. Also, ordered an armband so that it would be easier to locate and would not obstruct my movement at the gym.

Courage to face adversities

Yesterday, the priest's sermon on Mark's Gospel touched me. The reading was about a blind man who begged Jesus to give him sight (see below).

He preached about courage in the midst of disappointments and hardships in life. I noticed that as I aged, I tend to be cynical and realistic about life.

Having been rewarded with good grades for working hard as a student, I used the same strategy in my life. However, Life in most cases does not always go my way. I ended up frustrated and disappointed.

As I reflected, ordinary people whom we called heroes have no super power. They accomplished extraordinary acts through sheer courage and determination such as climb Mt Everest without oxygen, sail alone around the world in X days etc.

Life goes on regardless of my disappointments. So, I choose to be courageous and smile at what Life throws at me.

Mk 10:46-52
As Jesus was leaving Jericho with his disciples and a sizable crowd,
Bartimaeus, a blind man, the son of Timaeus,
sat by the roadside begging.
On hearing that it was Jesus of Nazareth,
he began to cry out and say,
"Jesus, son of David, have pity on me."
And many rebuked him, telling him to be silent.
But he kept calling out all the more,
"Son of David, have pity on me."
Jesus stopped and said, "Call him."
So they called the blind man, saying to him,
"Take courage; get up, Jesus is calling you."
He threw aside his cloak, sprang up, and came to Jesus.
Jesus said to him in reply, "What do you want me to do for you?"
The blind man replied to him, "Master, I want to see."
Jesus told him, "Go your way; your faith has saved you."
Immediately he received his sight
and followed him on the way.

Going after the elusive peak autumn foliage in Vermont and New Hampshire, Oct 13-15

Three days after the Baltimore marathon, I flew to Manchester, New Hampshire, wanting to see the famous autumn foliage in New England. My flight from Baltimore-Washington International Airport was at 8am. I booked a shared Supershuttle which picked me up at 4.50am instead of the stipulated time of 5 to 5.15am. I reached the airport at 5.20am and had plenty of time to eat breakfast. Passing through security was a breeze as there was no line at such an ungodly hour.

I caught up with my sleep on the plane and reached Manchester around 10 am on a raining day. After getting my rental car, I started to plan on my route as this was a last minute trip. I had not booked any lodging since I did not want to be tied down at one place nor know where I would be.


From Manchester Airport, I drove West towards Brattleboro, Vermont, hoping that I could get a map of Vermont. Along the way, I stopped numerous times to take pictures of the colorful leaves despite of the rain. After some time, I found that the scenery looked similar.

At Brattleboro, I managed to get an official road map of Vermont at the visitor center. After a quick driving around, I headed to Wilmington which was a small town at the intersection of scenic Rt 100. I had lunch at a diner where only cash was accepted. It was inconvenient not to used credit card.

Next, I traveled North along Rt 100, passing by vast farms and closed ski resorts. I drove till dusk which fell a little after 6pm to arrive at the town of Rutland.

After checking into an inn, I was glad that I had brought my laptop along since my cell provider, T-mobile had no reception in Vermont. I could call using Skype and surf on the internet. For dinner, I asked the receptionist to recommend a place to eat and I decided to try Seward Family Restaurant. I ordered stirred fried chicken with rice, chocolate milk shake and a pumpkin pie. The pie was delicious, not too sweet and I could taste a tinge of cinnamon.

The next day, weather was still not looking good. I wanted to tour Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream Factory in Waterbury and I realized that I was missing out on the famous covered bridges which were off the main route.

From the map, I could see two bridges along the way, near to Proctor. Road signs in Vermont were not well marked. At Proctor, I asked a group of workers for directions and they joked about the road signs when I mentioned them.

Luckily, a guy was headed in that direction and offered to lead me there. Without his help, I would never have found them. They were secluded.

Driving along, I kept looking at prices of gas at various places. Gas stations in the middle of nowhere tend to have higher prices than more congregated places. This made economical sense since it took more effort to serve remote regions than buildup towns.

I reached the factory just in time for the 12.30pm tour. In the 30-min tour, we saw the history of how the founders, Ben and Jerry, came together and started their company to become a worldwide ice cream phenomenon, the actual ice cream production and of course, free ice cream tasting. I was tempted to buy some udder-shaped bowls for serving ice cream or soup.

Lunch that day was a blueberry pancake and a raspberry pancake, drenched in the famous maple syrup as well as bacon. Having only three days to visit two states, I gave up on Burlington in the east and drove west back into New Hampshire at Wells River.

I wanted to drive along the scenic Kancamagus Highway when it was still daylight. The highway cuts across The White Mountain National Forest and has many outlooks for photo taking. It was amazing to see snow covered mountain tops against the autumn foliage. At some point, it was even snowing. There was a warning sign that there was no gas station for 32 miles upon embarking on the highway.

Since I did not bring my CD, country music was the main genre as I tuned across the radio frequency.

With darkness falling, I drove slower with a car tailgating me. Suddenly, a deer jumped in front of my car. I was sandwiched between knocking down a deer and having my rear rammed. Luckily, no animal or human was hurt.

The town of Meredith, situated around the lake region of New Hampshire, looked stunning at night as I drove pass it. Because I was tired from driving around eight hours, I did not stopped and headed towards Laconia where I checked into an inn. My seventh-floor room overlooked a lake.

On my last day, I went on Mt Washington scenic cruise at Lake Winnipesaukee, the third largest lake in New England, covering 44,586 acres. It has 365 islands, of which 274 are inhabitable (see a house built on a tiny island). The rain finally let up but temperature was very cold after factoring in wind chill as I stood on the deck taking pictures. The scenery was picturesque with mountains as backdrop and beautiful houses along the shoreline. It took about 1 hour 10 minutes to reach Wolfeboro before it headed back to Weirs Beach.

For my last scenic drive of New Hampshire, I took Rt 11-S along Lake Winnipesaukee and headed to Manchester Airport. When I returned the rental car, I was surprised to see on my receipt that I had driven only 1 mile instead of about 500 miles for my 3-day trip.

Vermont pictures.

New Hampshire pictures.

Longwood Gardens.

Euphoric high on endorphin after completing my first marathon

Pre-marathon
I was anxious for the last seven days before Oct 10, 2009 partly because I wondered if my body could run 26 miles/ 42 km as I had sustained injuries from training. Basically, my left side was in pain which were interconnected. My left knee started aching first, followed by my lower back and eventually my left sole hurt. Because of the pain, I could not keep to my training schedule and had to improvise by cycling on a stationary bicycle or swimming.

Feeling desperate, I visited a sports injury clinic, called the Arnold Palmer SportsHealth Center at Union Memorial Hospital on Sep 22. I was diagnosed with over-pronation and was prescribed some pain killer and advised to get a Spenco RX full arch support insole.

The next day, I cycled from my apartment to Falls Road Running Store, about 4.4 miles, along some treacherous narrow road heavy with traffic. I purposely took the afternoon off so that I would not be caught in the evening rush hour and "commit suicide." I ran with the insole the next day and it helped to relieve the pain. The investment was worth it.

Besides my injuries, the farthest distance I ran was only 15 miles. It was a mental hurdle to complete another 11 miles. Further, I was trying to stave off coming down with a sore throat by sucking lots of lozenges on Wednesday.

For the last week, I ate more carbohydrate and avoided spicy food. I was also glad that I just had to run 4 miles daily.
On the night before (Oct 9), I laid awake around 10 pm as I was excited and nervous. I tossed and turned till about 12 am and did not have a deep restful sleep.

Marathon
I woke up at 6 am to have breakfast and to stretch. TiahLing and Wenmin offered to send ShuZhen and I to the starting line at the intersection of Russell and Camden Streets. Another two supporters, KianMeng and SauLing met us at the starting line itself since they were living nearby. The starting line was divided into sections according to the speed one could complete a marathon. We headed to the section marked 10min/mile as we were targeting to complete in 5 hours.

It was hard to stretch without bumping into somebody since the place was crowded with runners. According to the organizer, about 22,000 signed up for the various events (marathon, half-marathon, 5k, and team-relay etc), including participants from 44 countries. Also, there were some runners wearing interesting outfits e.g. a tuxedo suit, a beer can costume, a denim bib with straw hat, and even Spiderman ran instead of climb.

At 8am, the horn blew and confetti was blasted into the air. It took me about 4 minutes to pass the electronic timer. Roars and claps resonated from supporters lining on both sides of the street. My pace was slow since I had to jostle with others. ShuZhen and I decided to split up as we ran at different pace.

The temperature was surprisingly pleasant and not humid. The forecast for the morning was passing showers. Some runners had jackets on which I decided against as I would be warmed up in about 15 minutes. Wenmin said that there were garbage bags and even branded sweaters, littering the beginning route at last year’s marathon in New Jersey.

The initial 6 miles toward Druid Hill Park was elevated, rising 350 ft above sea level. At the park, I saw some runners heading to some bushes. Initially, I thought that they were taking a short cut but realized they were relieving themselves as there was no Porta-Johns around. I had heard of runners peeing while running. Talked about dedication!

The route brought me to streets that I had not visited before and would not have gone in the first place. Supporters cheered and official photographers snapped pictures along the 26-mile route with police officers mending traffic. No doubt, some drivers were caught unaware of the race and were stuck in traffic.

Along the way, I saw various groups of runners clustered together, keeping close to their pacers. For me, I just wanted to complete my first marathon under 5 hours. I kept reminding myself that I needed to pace; I was not competing in a 100-meter sprint.

Maintaining 12 miles for 2 hours were easy. After that, it was a constant struggle to maintain my speed and pain started to build up in my legs. To prevent chaffing, I wore a pair of shorts with inner running thighs and a tight fitting shirt. However, I forgot to cut my toe nails and my left second toe started to ache.

Cheering from friends really helped as I ran faster after seeing my supporters. A boy shouted my bib number to encourage me. “You really feed off from the positive energy of the supporters,” said Jamie, my friend who participated before. In addition, fast music also helped as I ran according to the beat of Beyonce’s Single Lady as I passed by Under Armor Headquarter where there was music blasting away.

I kept hydrating myself with the official drink, Gatorade and water. Somewhere along, I started to pour water on myself to cool my core temperature. Bananas, oranges, gummy bear sweets, potato chips, and PowerGel were some of the food given out. I thought that banana was inappropriate as I had to avoid stepping on banana skins to avoid slipping. I lost count in the number of PowerGel I consumed since I finished four of my own, and took several along the route.

The weather turned out perfect for running as there was a slight drizzle and remained overcast throughout the marathon. I was praying that the sun did not come out to evaporate the precipitate and increase humidity. With the road slightly slippery, I slide along instead of lifting my tired and sore legs, thus using other muscle groups.

The run between Mile 16 and 23 was elevated again and both my soles hurt now. There were cardboard advertisement on feet therapy along the way. What a great reminder! I found that the difficult part in completing a marathon was not lack of stamina but in overcoming the pain. Running after stopping was excruciating, so I tried not to stop.

At 22-mile marker, it was my "longest" last 4 mile. My left knee hurt badly now and I put my weight more on my right footing. Crowds thronged on both sides near the finishing line. I sprinted after running through the Camden Yards, thinking the finishing line was near. However, I slowed down as I could not last the distance. Emotionally, I was high and I held back tears of joy.

Finishing at 4 hours 46 minutes, I completed my first marathon. I had stepped up a notch higher for my mental endurance.

Post-marathon
After meeting up with our supporters, we had lunch at a Vietnamese Restaurant at Inner Harbor and I slept for two hours before going for a Thai dinner at Federal Hill.

Ten days after marathon, I still walk with a limp but am recovering. People asked if I would run for another marathon, I replied that I shall see after the pain has subsided.

My marathon statistics

ChipTime	ClockTime	Overall	SexPl	DivPl	AgeGrade
4:46:40	4:49:37	2108	1447	241	43.60%

Statistics of marathon 2009 (2014 M / 1104 F)

Finishers	Min. Time	Avg. Time	Max. Time
3118	02:14:04	04:30:26	07:10:32

Statistics of Males between 30 and 34

Finishers	Min. Time	Avg. Time	Max. Time
322	02:17:12	04:22:57	06:49:48