A keen eyesight for good sales

I spent the last weekend shopping at various malls, hunting for good deals.

For example, this Levi's Red Tab jacket would normally cost USD$69.99. I saw the discounted price at $19.99. When I paid at the counter, we (including the cashier) were amazed that the price was actually $9.99. She scanned a second time to confirm and it still registered as $9.99. I encouraged her to buy for her hubby or children since it was such a good bargain.

Sales in USA are really worth waiting for. The discounts can be up to 80% off. Singapore sales should emulate if it wants to be a shopping paradise and not offered only 50% off on off-season stuffs!

Taking a bite at The Big Apple (NYC)

I went to New York City (NYC) from June 15 - 17 with Fero who is leaving USA to go back to his homeland, Slovakia in July. We had free accommodation at Fero's friend, Isabelle's home in Brooklyn.

We took Greyhound from Downtown Baltimore at 4.15pm and the travel time was about four hours. We reached Manhattan at 9.30pm instead because the coach took a detour to Newark to pick up some passengers.

The next day, we toured Brooklyn Chinatown. I noticed that along the side walks, they had gates leading to the basements. This is a pedestrain hazard. So, do keep a lookout and not be engrossed in sightseeing.

Next, we walked across The Brooklyn Bridge to Manhattan over The Hudson River. The sheer size of the bridge was impressive. After that, we headed towards Chinatown along Canal Road which was packed with tourists. Vendors were selling souvenirs, perfumes, watches etc.

We also took a free Staten Island ferry ride which allowed a good snap shot of the city scape of lower Manhattan and passed by the Statue of Liberty. On Staten Island, the buildings were mostly four-storey high in contrast to the towering skyscrapers in Manhattan. I actually preferred the tranquility of this island.

On Sunday, we attended mass at St. Patrick Cathedral which was packed with tourists and worshippers. The church looked grand but I could not worship fully with so much distractions. We walked around the main shopping belt and the items were pricey. Next, we visited the Bronx zoo where I had a good shot of the tiger up close.

Spending 4 days in the Big Apple was too short for me to cover everything. I will be visiting here again whenever I can.

NYC photo album.

A literally wet Thursday indoor and outdoor

I was woken from my sleep by my ringing cell. I checked my clock and the time was 2.48am. The call was from BJ, our lab manager. I was thinking it was strange for her to call me at such an odd hour.

I was shocked when I heard the bad news. "The laboratory is flooded and your new laptop is drenched," said she. She was informed by the night guard who noticed water flooding the ground level. My lab was located on the third level. You could imagine the amount of water flowing. Thinking that my experiment might be affected, she thus called me so that I would not be shocked when I reached the lab in the morning.

After our conversation, I could not get back to sleep as my mind was racing through the different possibilities of savaging the damages. I tried to get some sleep as I had been deprived of deep sleep by my persistent night cough which had kept me awake till 3am for the past few nights! Frustrated after tossing around, I read a chapter of The Secret Magdalene by Ki Longfellow before sleep caught up with me again after 4am.

Before I left for the lab, I prayed from the prayer booklet which I got from joining the prayer group at Blessed Sacrament Church. What struck me was the aptness of the prayer, The Serenity Prayer with regards to my situation.

O God and Heavenly Father,

Grant to us the serenity of mind to accept that which cannot be changed; the courage to change that which can be changed, and the wisdom to know the one from the other, through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.

I reached the lab before 9am and noticed puddles on staircase landings. Workers from house cleaning were busy drying the floor. I checked my work bench and was surprised to find that it was completely dry but not Vladimir's and Greg's.

The fire sprinkler at Greg's area had burst. Greg's new laptop (USD$2500) was spoilt. The irony was he would bring it home every night but yesterday he did not bring it back since he had social engagement. Also, the sprinkler was actually leaking a few weeks ago. Maintenance was informed but no action was followed up.

There were dark water marks on the walls, cupboards, etc. The damage ran up to more than $50 thousands. Fortunately, the departmental manager said the lab was insured. I helped Delores to throw away the heavy water-soaked stuffs. Vladimir had to pull out all the drawers to drain the water since it had seeped in.

The lab was running again by afternoon.

In the evening, the sky was overcast. So I checked with weather.com for the forecast. It stated 20% chance of precipitation. When I reached the bus stop, there was already a long line waiting for the shuttle bus heading towards Homewood campus. There was no way I could get on the first shuttle that arrived. Just as the late bus arrived, it started to rain and the front passengers were quickly loading up the bus. Since I could not get on this bus, I ran back to the lab to wait till the rain ceased. However, just as I was crossing the road, I heard the bus driver informing the passengers that the bus had broken down.

Today was like Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events.

Beach house at Barnegat Light, NJ

After my failed attempt to visit NYC over Memorial long weekend, I got another chance to travel out of Baltimore from Jun 2 - 5. This time, I went to a beach house at Barnegat Light in the Garden State, New Jersey with Eduardo and Punar households.

Prior to our trip, we decided that each household would cook dinner for the three nights while we were there. I made Chinese dumplings (as requested), Greta cooked lots of Brazilian meals (lunch included) and Stephanie whipped up chicken stroganoff.

We arrived around 12pm and were tired since we met at 6.30am and had travelled for 4 hours. I wasted no time to snap pictures of the beach house. From the website, the interior looked pleasing but there was no picture of the exterior. We suspected that there was something amiss. Sure enough, we drove by the house because it was inconspicuous and some paints were peeling. We did not mind the exterior since it was comfortable and cosy inside with TV, DVD player, washer, dryer etc.

I tried not to sleep, so I went out to explore. The Barnegat
Light State Park was located at the northern tip of Long Beach Island. There was a group of unicyclists touring the light house which I managed to capture secretly.

In the evening, we went to the beach. Boy, it was chilling with strong winds blowing across the cold Atlantic Ocean. We did not stayed there for long because we were not dressed for a cold spell. Instead, we went to the bay side where the sea was calm. We even started to have a stone skimming contest among the adults. The highest number of bounces was six, held by Sthefane.

Unfortunately, it rained for the next two days where we spent the time watching DVDs and eating. I was teased for sitting in front of the box because I had said that I did not come to a beach house to stare at a TV. Well, I had to eat my words. On Monday, we went to a mall since we had two toddlers who were hyperactive. We needed them to run around so that they would be exhausted and hopefully sleep early. I bought myself one box of cookies & cream smidgens, and strawberry smidgens from Gertrude Hawk Chocolates to try out this chocolate chain. The sales tax in New Jersey was 7% compared to Maryland's 5%.

On our way back from the mall, we stopped by a surf shop. I bought a bodyboard and luckily, the rained had stopped and the evening sun was out. We quickly went to the beach to compensate for the lost time spent indoor. The water was icy cold and our soles even hurt standing on wet sand! Courage was needed just to go into the freezing water and the waves were towering. Anyway, you can see me riding the wave which was a superb feeling when you disregarded the numbing cold.

On our last day (Jun 5), Eduardo, Greta, Mathias and I went to the Barnegat Lighthouse before proceeding to the beach again. Climbing up 217 steps inside the Barnegat Lighthouse and carrying a 15kg-toddler was an intensive workout. We were panting when we reached the top. I had a good view of the island, the bay and the Atlantic Ocean at the viewing deck. The view was picturesque!

More photos are available here.

My first trip to a physician here

After suffering from a sore throat which developed into a cough, I finally went to consult a physician after coughing for a week.

I called to make an appointment with the University Health Center. As this was my first visit, I had to filled up a 66-questionnaire so that the center could serve me better. Next, a nurse took my blood pressure and temperature before sending me off to a physician. The nurse had to retake my pressure because it was slightly high as I had walked for 20 minutes.

The physician was energetic and professional. I was diagnosed as having a cold, thus there was no need to prescribe antibiotics. But I requested for some medicine to decongest my lungs. She wrote a prescription for two cough syrups.

The difference about the health clinic here is that you do not get your medicine at the clinic; only prescription. Instead, you go to a pharmacy and buy your medicine. I found this inconvenient since I was not feeling well and I had to go to another place to buy my medicine.

Another point about the health care here is you need to have a medical insurance in USA, else pray that you would not get sick because you could be turned away because you do not have insurance. A good thing my fellowship covers my medical insurance so I do not have to fork out a sum of money! A normal consultation can set you back by $75. Let's see how much this would cost.

A sad thing I heard from my friend was that once her husband was suffering from a heart attack and she rushed him to a hospital. Instead of attending to him upon arrival, an administrator asked my friend if he had medical insurance. Of course my friend was furious and asked her to go away. The administrator was persistent and my friend said her cash and credit cards were in her bag and could take it if she wanted.

HonFest 2007

HonFest is the brainchild of Denise Whiting, celebrating the culture, language and people of Baltimore.

The word "Hon" is a friendly Baltimore greeting for honey. There were street stalls selling clothes, crafts to food, which covered four blocks on 36th Street in the neighborhood of Hampden.

In conjunction with this festival, The Baltimore's Best Hon Contest had women dressed up like in the sixties with beehive hairdos, pointy glasses, spandex pants and things associated with leopard print. Some even had curlers on their hairdos walking around (that day was a good excuse for not taking out those curlers).

I was drawn to the stage by a catchy tune Good Morning, Baltimore from the movie, Hairspray. Sitting down, I felt relaxed and began to appreciate Baltimore as a local rather than a visitor.

Sick

Lack of sleep plus clocking in over 12 hours of work daily equals weaken immune system.

Weaken immune system plus pathogens equals sore throat which developed into fever and cough.

Taking a relaxed pace now to heal myself and administering a cough syrup that makes me drowsy. I need to sleep more.

Talking about cough syrup which I bought over-the-counter, a 17-year-old track star died from over usage of anti-inflammatory muscle cream, the kind used to soothe aching legs after exercise. Never would have imagined that this cream can kill people. The old philosophy of exercising, "no pain, no gain" is flawed. We should listen to our body and rest when it is hurting too much.

Rest when pained to go further,
Gained by no injury to self.

Intuition

I enjoyed the novel, Intuition by Allegra Goodman, thoroughly who had done an excellent job of writing a story I identify presently since I am working in a wet laboratory.

The story revolved around on the need to balance between rushing to publish preliminary findings to gain a head start and confirming the findings are accurate. It also depicted the lives of overworked post-doc fellows "slaving" in the lab in wee hours of the night.

The reason why I have not been blogging is that I am busy with my experiments now. One ELISpot experiment usually takes three days. If I am not doing it, I am performing other experiments (such as ELISA, cloning etc.) or preparing for the next ELISpot experiment.

Look out for Barnegat Light, NJ pictures and adventures

In the process.....

Northern Central Railroad Trail (NCRR)

On last Saturday, Fero and I went to The Northern Central Railroad Trail where we walked for more than 8 miles (13 km). Along the trail, I spotted 'a' black snake sun basking on a branch and Fero was interested to find out if it was actually one. He commented that it was too long to be a single snake. Being short-sighted and phobic of reptiles, I nudged him to move on but he stood there. Finally, he saw two heads where the snake was actually two snakes entwined together.

This trail actually leads to the boundary of Maryland and its northern neighbor state, Pennsylvania. From the start to the boundary, it extends 20 miles (32 km). Along the trail, you can see many people running, walking, cycling or even horse riding. Fishing and river tubing are also available. I am interested to try out river tubing when the water gets warmer. Now, it is still cold! My second intention is to reach Pennsylvania by bicycle. But first, I need to ride on a bicycle again to condition my bottom since I know I will have a split bottom from such an extensive distance without proper conditioning.

Thereafter, we proceeded to Hunt Valley Mall where we had lunch at California Pizza Kitchen. I ordered an appetizer called Singapore Shrimp Roll to find out what it was. It tasted like the Vietnamese spring roll where the ingredients (shrimp, lettuce, carrot, vermicelli etc) are wrapped by rice paper and dipped in some kind of sauce.

I am going to make this dish but first, I need to do some background research on it by going to a Vietnamese restaurant and surfing the net.

Disappointed by result of American Idol's top 2

Season 6 is full of twist and turn. Most of my predictions for who will go home is true. But the result for the finale is disappointing. Melinda Doolittle was kicked out instead of Blake Lewis though she was, as Simon said, consistent in delivering her performances throughout the competition.

Well, with her talent, I believe she can cut an album and sell records. You go WOMAN, Melinda!

Feeling out of touch with the world

I find myself clueless about what is happening around the world since I do not read newspaper here. Most of the news are local (in Baltimore) or within the boundary of USA. News that are coming out of USA will be those in Iraq because US troops are there.

I did tell myself to read news from the internet to keep abreast but most of the time I am just lazy. Luckily, this afternoon, I read an article about the Singapore government giving out cash to help Singaporeans offset the impending 2% GST raise in July from 5%. All I had to do was to register at the GST Offset Package website, www.gstoffset.gov.sg.

Hope that the news stations in USA can do a better job in informing its citizens rather than being so oblivious to the world.

Do not let your heart be troubled or afraid Jn 14:27

From time to time, you often need to hear words of encouragement. I got mine at church today.

During sermon, Father Joe recounted at the special Olympic Games in Seattle where nine contestants were lined up to run the 50 yards. When the start was flagged off, eight ran but one tumbled a few times and he cried from a scraped knee. The eight who were in front, heard the cry and all eight went back towards the starting line, comforted him and together, all nine crossed the finishing line to thundering applause from the spectators.

These nine special athletics had shown what true winning is compared to our notion of winning from what we were taught since childhood.

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you.
Not as the world gives do I give it to you.
Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid.
John 14:27

A great website for Men's haircut

I chanced upon this website, Haircuts for men while 'googling' for a picture to show to a barber for the haircut (crew cut) I wanted. So far, they had not given me the cut I desired for I still found it too long. I like a fuss free and ready-to-go crop.

I was amazed by the different hair styles you can carry on your head (short, medium and long) plus styles for thinning and curly hair (this applies to me when my hair is long). This site also advices on which cut is suitable for the various face shapes. Scalp and hair care, shaving advice and beard care, you name it, you got it.

There is even a message board for 'live' interaction. I do recommend this website for those who are clueless about men's haircuts and hair care.

A midweek celebration for Dijana's arrival

This feast was arranged by Vladimir in honor of his newly wedded bride, Dijana who joined him two months ago.

The initial plan was to celebrate at Tom's home but the venue was changed to the lab at the eleventh hour due to 'imminent bad weather'.

Everyone in the lab chipped in at least one dish and we got ourselves a wide spread of food (the food multiplied when we shared). There were sushi, Zha Jiang noodle, rotisserie chicken, salad, beef stew (mine), apple pie, cakes and Serbian dishes (which I did not get the names). Dijana's dishes were pleasing to the eyes and delicious for the palate. I must ask her for the banana wrap and tuna-egg roll recipes.

We had so much left over that we consumed them for lunch today. I took 15 pictures for this event and only three had people in it. The rest were displayed here. My focus was on the food as I was hungry. Hope you do not salivate from seeing.

Les Misérable

Surrounded by people, yet I felt alone.
Life was going well, yet I felt frustrated.

To see the source, I reflected inwardly.
Longing for home, broken relationships faded by distance and time.

My heart yearned for the good old times,
When I lived with loved ones close by.

Alas, time runs ahead, never turning back.
Leaving me to cherish sweet memories of my good old times.

Awaiting for my goodies from Singapore

Recently, my sister, Donna came over to USA on a business trip for one week. The world is getting smaller when a nursery principal has to travel half the world. I did not met up with her since she was flying to three places within a week. Most of her time was spent waiting at airports.

Anyway, she became the courier for me to get some of the food that I could not find here e.g. the chicken rice paste, some type of fungus for 'cooling' the body and rock sugar.

My neck is stretched long from waiting for the parcel since she sent it on last Wednesday by DHL from Michigan.

Running against time!

In the blink of an eye, five months of 2007 have gone by and I have not fulfilled one of my resolution to visit as many states as possible.

Many factors are hindering me. First and foremost, my experiments have just started and many things need to be worked out. I also need to familiarize new experimental techniques.

Second, the weather is just starting to warm up.

Third, money for travelling.

Acting like a tour guide at DC

Eduardo and family, Kuen OK and I met around 7am on April 22, 2007 (Sunday) to head towards DC to get the White House Garden Tour tickets, which would be distributed at 8am on a first-come-first-serve basis.

Instead of driving all the way to DC, we tried out the route suggested by BJ since parking would be a problem at DC. We drove along I-95 south to the New Carrollton Metro Station and took the subway to DC.

Since I had taken the metro before, I had to lead them regarding which line to take and at which station to alight. After collecting the tickets from the Ellipse Visitor Pavilion, we decided to go to the National Zoo by metro again. You can say that we used the metro a lot for that day where we got ourselves day passes ($6.50).

At the zoo, I saw three panda bears face to face for the first time (instead of on the tv). Surprisingly, they had brownish fur instead of white (wonder why). Most of the exhibits were empty with placards apologizing that they were under construction. Friends who had visited the zoo a few years ago commented that the placards were also there then. After covering half the attractions, we were hungry and had picnic at a resting place where I supplied macaroons, Snickers and Chocolate Chip-A-hoy cookies. Kuen OK prepared the most with sushi, noodle and cucumber kimchi.

After filling our tummies, we toured a bit more before heading back to the White House. As food was not allowed on the tour, Eduardo and Greta decided that they would wait for us with the leftover food at the Washington Monument.

There was a sea of people visiting the White House that day. However, we could only walked on the bitumen road and not even on the lawn. Needless to say, entry into any building was prohibited! At least Eduardo and Greta did not missed much since they could see the building from the fence too.

After our tour, Kuen OK and I met up at the meeting point with Eduardo and his family. Since they had not been to the Lincoln Memorial, I suggested to go in that direction. We rested on the Reflection Pool where Mathias tried to jump in. Luckily, I was holding on to him else he would be drenched. I had a good laugh because he was so spontaneous. Coming to two-year old on May 26, he would not know what is danger.

From Lincoln Memorial, we proceeded to Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Thomas Jefferson Memorials along the Tidal Basin. There, I posed with the brass sculptures, waiting in-line. By the time we reached Jefferson Memorial, we were tired after so much walking and tanned from the relentless sun.

Link to my pictures on that day. Below is a portrait of a soldier engraved onto a marble wall at the Korean War Memorial.

Call me, "Tanned Tan."

After three long months of cold harsh winter, I now understand why people living in the temperate countries love the sun.

From a tropical country perspective, you would not see locals sun bathing on grass field during midday. Nope, you would see sun bathers at the beach or pool only. Here, in USA and Australia, I had seen people lying on the lawn and "getting bake".

For myself, I had bought a beach towel during the winter sales and I used it for the first time yesterday where I lied on the field opposite to my apartment. The sun was warm but not humid. It was so soothing that I dozed off while reading Intuition. I was wearing sleeveless and Bermudas, blending in with the culture here.

Contrary to what is portray on tv, daily Americans are not that liberal when it comes to showing off their skin. Guys would wear board shorts instead of swimming trunks at beaches and pools (they called trunks, "Speedo" though it is a brand name). Gals wear one-piece suit instead of bikinis (I think for the gals, it depends on the location).