Seven more US quaters to a full set

I have been collecting US quarters since 2006 after noticing there were different images representing the 50 states of North America.

The 50 State Quarters® Program began in 1999 and ends in 2008 where every 10 weeks, a new state's quarter will be released in the order states were admitted into the Union.

I found it interesting to see what each state choose to represent itself. The designs included state flora and fauna, state landmarks, landscapes etc.

The state I am residing in chose the familiar dome of the Maryland Statehouse which is the country's oldest state capital building still in legislative use (since 1772).

Presently, I am lacking quarters from Alaska, Arizona, Hawaii, Michigan, Minnesota, Louisiana and Ohio.

Cylburn Arboretum

Located within the city limit of Baltimore is a 207-acre nature reserve and city park, Cylburn Arboretum.

The Cylburn Mansion is Baltimore City's horticultural headquarters and home of the Cylburn Arboretum Association. The association is run by volunteers whose mission include working with the city to
preserve Cylburn's historic grounds and buildings by its horticultural and educational activities.

Cylburn Mansion began as a summer home for Jesse Tyson and his mother. Construction started in 1863 with gneiss quarried from Bare Hills, Maryland.

It became the Cylburn Arboretum Association in 1982. Educational activities conducted by the association are horticultural lectures and demonstrations, and guided tours of the Mansion and the gardens.

There is a small museum which houses Maryland fauna. This was where I learned of Blue Bunting which I spotted while cycling along the Northern Railroad Trail.

Plant lovers can see a variety of trees, shrubs and wild flowers. Many avid bird watchers also headed towards the nature trails, equipped with binoculars and water bottles.



Cylburn Arboretum pictures.

Cycled all the way to Pennsylvania from Monkton, Maryland

I could finally strike off one of my resolutions this year when a bunch of Singaporeans cycled crossed the Maryland-Pennsylvania state line in New Freedom, PA on May 3 (Sat).

We started the day with a big American breakfast at Pete's Grille at Greenmount and 31st. I could not finished my third big hotcake, served with turkey ham and scrapple.

Then, we proceeded towards Monkton, located near the 8-mile marker of the Northern Central Railroad Trail since the bike rental shop at the beginning of the trail was closed.

We rented five bikes from a bike shop located at Monkton Village Center. We began cycling at 12.30pm. The scenery from the 8-mile marker was more picturesque than between the zero- and eight-mile markers. There was more open space with big houses on huge yards, equine farms with grazing horses and vast fields. Adding to the scenery was the meandering of The Gunpowder River along the trail, where one could hear the river gushing over boulders, forming rapids. Large boulders also dotted the trail. For those interested in bird watching, I could recognize cardinals, blue buntings and hawks, among other bird species sighted.

I stopped at a spot to investigate strange markings on some tree trunks after spotting a dam constructed from branches. I suspected it was the work of beavers since no human would build a small wooden dam in the middle of nowhere. Secondly, the trunks did not show sign of being chopped with an axe. We tried to look for the animal to no avail. Upon researching on beavers, they are mainly nocturnal.

We finally reached the state line around 3pm and I discovered that the trail actually continued for another 20 miles into York, PA.

Going to York would require another trip but for this trip, we cycled for about 25 miles in 4 hours.

Mini-Las Vegas in Atlantic City, New Jersey

I had never heard of Atlantic City in New Jersey until Charlene suggested that we went there for a weekend getaway. After work on Friday evening (Apr 25), we decided to take our dinner before driving to Atlantic City. It was a good decision because we took about 3 hours to reach there around 11pm.

We stayed at the Sheraton Hotel which was located at Miss America Way. We found the street name hilarious till we researched the history of it.

The street got its name from holding The Miss America contest since 1921. Inside the hotel, there were displays of dazzling tiaras, splendid capes and beautiful gowns worn by past winners.

After putting our bags, we headed straight to the casinos. We went to Caesars, Bally's and Trump Plaza. Compared to Las Vegas, the resorts here were less lavished in their designs and glamor. We also checked out the prices of breakfast and lunch buffets which were over $15.

I tried on the slot machines and lost one-eighty. People taught it was one hundred and eighty dollars but it was just cents since I played on the five-cent slot machine. Charlene played the electronic roulette and actually won $5.75. Her strategic was to double the bet upon losing since the chances of winning was 50% each time.

We headed back to our rooms around 2am. I intended to run on the boardwalk early in the morning but skipped it since I had a headache. Instead, I slept in till 9am when we went for breakfast at our hotel.

After being fed, we proceeded to shop at The Atlantic City Mall where I 'lost' $200 to shopping. Then, we went to the boardwalk towards Trump Taj Mahal Casino. There were dilapidated buildings and empty plots along the way which reminded one of its glorious days. We did not stayed long on the boardwalk because the weather was gusty and chilling.

We had late lunch at a Greek restaurant where the walls and every surface conceivable like a football, ceiling fans etc were covered with one dollar bills with messages written on them. We wanted to paste a Singapore $2 bill but the owner said the fire department discouraged them as it could be a fire hazard.

We ended our trip by sitting in the car and sight-see the other end of the boardwalk around the Tropicana Casino before en routing to Baltimore.

More Atlantic City pictures.

White water kayaking along Antietam Creek

Twice in a roll, I had to kayak on raining days. This time, we were on Antietam Creek.

However, the weather did not spoiled my mood since I was confident and relaxed after mastering rolling on Friday.

The drive towards west of Baltimore took about 1.5 hours. Upon reaching our destination, there was no potty except the wilderness.

We did not practiced rolling since that section of the river was shallow. I would not want to roll too as it was muddy and smelly.

Along the two-hour journey towards Potomac River, there was only a section of rapid and a two-foot drop.

I felt a rush of adrenaline going through the rapid. With prior experience, I paddled harder to prevent myself from swirling and take control of my kayak.

Between this rapid and the two-foot drop was a long stretch of calm river. I commented to Rob, one of the instructors, that this was liked a dream come true, kayaking down a river and drinking in the sights.

We passed under the infamous Burnside's Bridge which was the focal point of the Battle of Antietam on September 17, 1862. This was the bloodiest single-day battle with the highest casualties (about 23,000) in the American Civil War. The rain added a more solemn mood to The Antietam National Battlefield.

Going down the two-foot drop was exhilarating and not as scary as it looked. However, ferrying across the rapid was challenging. I flipped and did a wet exit since I could not roll over. I could feel the rocks under my bum and the current was strong.

I succeeded on my second attempt, keeping my kayak tilted downstream. On the opposite bank, I learned to surf on the rapid where my kayak remained 'stationary'. I just had to control the direction.

Our trip was cut short because of lightning. We had to exit from the river quickly.

I am definitely hooked on white water kayaking and will enroll for more trips.

Rolling comes at a"bodily harm" price

To prepare for another white water kayaking trip on this Sunday, I practiced my rolling on Apr 17 and 18.

After the first day, I had a big bruise on my right knee and some on my hip too. The old wound on my left thumb slightly reopened. Still, I was not able to roll over upon capsizing.

Yesterday, while recovering from a sore hip, I reached the pool one hour later because I was very tired from only 4 hours of sleep. There was only one kayak left. So, I got into the Pop kayak. It was comfortable with roomy leg space. I did some hipsnap at the side of the pool for warm up. Then, I teamed up with another to roll, just in case I needed a T-rescue.

I was surprised and elated that I could roll upon my first attempt! Thinking it was luck, I tried many more and was successful at rolling every time. I definitely felt prepared for this trip compared to my first, where I was more worried and scared that I could not roll.

When it was time to choose the kayak we wanted for the trip, I was disappointed that someone had reserved Pop already. I associated me being able to roll with the type of kayak since I tried Riot on the previous day.

Well, I just had to practice my roll on the river in the Pyranha which had a similar look to the Pop. It would be a different location from the previous trip. I am all excited for tomorrow.

Help needed for ELISpot assay

One of my experiments involves performing quality check of the spots developed on a 96-well plate for an ELISpot assay. Akin to spotting the differences between two pictures.

Can anyone share their experience of how to get rid of the debris that was seen on the plate? I did filtering of the dilution and washing buffers. So, I am wondering what could attribute to it and at which step of the 3-day experiment?

White water kayaking at Violet's Lock

Prior to the trip on Sunday April 6, all participants were required to attend a pre-trip meeting where we submitted our medical and waiver forms. We were also briefed on safety issues and theory about river flow, eddy-in, eddy-out, terminology etc.

We met on Saturday to draw equipments and load them into a van. I chose an Ace kayak which was comfortable for my legs, not knowing what I was getting into. I had difficulties squeezing my long legs in.

I woke up at 7am to a drizzling Sunday to prepare lunch (two smoked turkey breast sandwich) and snacks consisting of six bars of Twix, four Japanese rice cakes and a banana. I wore three layers, a wicking sweater followed by a fleece sweater and a winter jacket. I reached the meeting place at 8am and we headed for Violet's Lock, about 1.5 hour drive.

At our destination, we had to put on more layers as the water was cold. We were 'bulked up' by a wet suit, a splash jacket, a spray skirt and a personal floating device. On top of that, we wore helmet and booties.

I got to know fellow participants when we had to introduce ourselves in a circle for warm up and describing one cool fact about ourselves.

Thereafter, we proceeded into the river where we practiced paddling, bracing and rolling. I was not confident of rolling upon capsizing. Next, we had to paddle one mile across where I had a hard time paddling straight. I was going left and right except straight.

The river was swelling from yesterday's rain and the river current was fast. After exerting much strength, I got my swinging kayak to the opposite bank.

There, white river kayaking began. Going over fast flowing water was exhilarating and scary. I was at the mercy of the river current. Our instructors kept telling us to paddle hard to gain control. Being a novice, I could not tell where to avoid submerged boulders. Before I saw them, I could feel them under my butt.

I was concentrating more on not tipping over then enjoying the thrill. It put me in my place to respect one of the forces of nature.

After the trip, I intended to go for another trip on April 20 but this time round, I wanted to be able to roll over.

Kite and Cherry Blossom Festivals

I went for my third Cherry Blossom Festival on March 27 since I came to USA. Before heading to DC, I went for Dim Sum brunch at Jesse Wong's in Columbia with a group of Singaporeans. Nine of us paid $21 each including tips. For $189, it was too expensive.

Thereafter, we drove to Greenbelt Metro Station. It cost $4.70 for a round trip. There were long queues buying the subway tickets. Before taking a 30-minute ride, a few of us wanted to use the restroom. Upon asking the staff, we were directed to a door with no conspicuous sign except a small unisex sign at knee level.

We were told to wait in-line outside the door while the restroom was in used. As it was cold, we decided to wait inside instead. The door led to the employees' lockers and different rooms pertaining to operating a subway station. Upon entering the restroom, there were an urinal and two bowls. The best of all, there was no partition. Basically, at least two persons could use the restroom at any one time. I often wondered why doesn't the Metro management simply install the restroom outside where they do not have to deal with the issue of security.

By the time we reached Smithsonian Station, there was a sea of people flowing out of the train. Some had kites since it was the Kite Festival. The National Mall was packed with people too. The peaceful ambiance I felt last year was replaced by constant jostling with people coming to admire the cherry blossoms.

I particularly love this picture of a cute baby with cool shades, all bundled up and sitting calmly on a branch! He was so adorable.



Cherry Blossom pictures.

White water kayaking

Yesterday, I went to my first of two rolling sessions to prepare for April 6 white water kayaking trip to one of these rivers, the Potomac River, Shenandoah River, Lower Yough, Muddy Creek, and Gunpowder Falls.

I had surfed JHU Outdoor Pursuits website which offered a variety of outdoor activities like sea kayaking, mountain biking and climbing since last year. This time, I wanted to participate in at least one of these activities.

After work, I had a quick dinner of two bananas and a pot of beef soup. I was lazy to transfer the soup into a bowl as I would have to wash the bowl too.

When I reached the pool at 7pm, I was the only person attending the rolling session. There was a small test before the session, I had to swim 50 feet and tread water for 2 minutes. After only 45 minutes of digesting my dinner, I swam slowly to prevent regurgitation. It is advised not to exercise strenuously one hour after meal.

After passing with 'flying colors' (quoting the tester), I was introduced to my instructress, Jamie. I had to put on a spray skirt to keep water out of the kayak (imagine a ballerina tutu). Getting into a tiny kayak was difficult for me since I had long legs.

Jamie taught me how to get out of the kayak upon capsizing. Basically, I had to lean forward toward the bow, tugged my head, pulled the
grab loop toward me and pushed the kayak away from me.

I had no qualm in water as I love swimming and water sports but I hate being inverted where water tend to get into my nose.

Next, I had to learn hip snap to row the kayak upright upon capsizing. This movement utilized muscle groups which I hardly used. A good thing I had been training my abs, obliques and back (core muscle) for running longer distance.

I practiced at the side of the pool where there should be a smooth but forceful movement involving twisting your hip up and keeping your head close to the shoulder where you last exit the water. Lifting the head up (a natural instinct to breathe) while hip snapping makes it harder to upright the kayak as it offset the roll.

I had little trouble uprighting on my right but had to practice more on my left. Next, we proceeded to T-rescue where you signaled for help by tapping on the sides, sliding both hands on the sides to feel for a rescue kayak and hip snapping using the bow of the rescue kayak as support.

The next training involved hip snapping using two floats and subsequently one float to simulate the paddle.

I had fun learning rolling though my neck is aching now. I am looking forward to the beginner level on April 6.

The Horse Whisperer

I took a while to finish this fiction as I had to flip through a dictionary to find the meaning of a word at every other page initially.

The way Nicholas Evans had written this novel was compelling and descriptive.

Definitely a good book to read.

Natural beauty in the sky

I was supposed to go snowboarding on Saturday, Mar 8 for the last time this season as winter is ending. This trip was organized by the Johns Hopkins Post-Doctorate Association where Hopkins post-docs were subsidized and paid only $25 compared to the usual $77.

However, the weather on Saturday was bad and the trip was re-scheduled to Sunday. I slept till 9am since I always sleep better when I am warm and cozy under my blanket on rainy days. My usual waking time is around 7+am. I needed the extra since I had a busy week.

The sky did not let up till 3pm and the sun peeked out from the overcast. I thought the rest of the day would be clear but Mother Nature proofed me wrong.

While cooking laksa for dinner, there was sudden pelting of the windows. It was falling 0.5 inches of hailstones. Just as I looked out of the window, I saw a beautiful bow across the sky.

I dropped what I was doing and took out my camera to capture shots of the rainbow. There were two rainbows, the primary bow with seven colors (mnemonic: Richard of York gave battle in vain; red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet) and the secondary bow in reverse order and of lighter intensity.

The amazing sight was the rainbow ending at a ruin castle-liked building and a sun ray illuminated the building while the rest of the surrounding was overshadowed. It was like heaven reaching out and pointing a way to me.

Whenever I see a rainbow, I remember the Bible passage of Genesis 9:13,15 where God made a pact with man to never flood the earth again: "I set My rainbow in the cloud, and it shall be for the sign of the covenant between Me and the earth... .. the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh."

Rainbow pictures.

Second hand item

Recently, I bought a Toshiba SD2805 5-Disc Carousel DVD and CD Player from a moving sales for only $5.

Since someone beat me to a $60-DVD player from a previous moving sales, I was on the lookout for one. In retrospect, I was glad that I did not get that DVD player.

When I went to pick up the Toshiba player, the owner highlighted to me that the metal case was dented, otherwise it was functional. Upon testing its function, I was a happy owner of the $5-DVD player. Now, it is sitting in my bedroom where I can watch up to five movies without moving from my bed to change discs.

I could not imagine buying anything second hand in Singapore but this seems to be the culture here.

Luray Caverns, Virginia

This was last year's trip to Luray Caverns, Virginia after I had recovered the pictures from my crashed laptop.

Upon entering the cavern, the cool and moist air hit you like a blanket. Lights were strategically placed to illuminate the pathway and interesting natural wonders of stalactites, stalagmites and columns. A way to differentiate between stalactites and stalagmites is a stalacTite hangs from the top like capitalized T and a stalagMite has two mounds protruding from the ground like capitalized M.

Other formations looked like two fried eggs or shells, waves at sea, majestic draperies towering down from the cavern roof and 'frozen' waterfall. Besides different formations, there were various colors to the limestone caves where white is the color of pure calcium carbonate, red calcites contained iron, and blue and green calcites have copper minerals.

There was an underground pool in the middle of the tunnel which reflected the hanging stalactites. It had a calming effect on me. At the last part, there was a wishing pond where the coins would be collected at the end of the year and donated to charities.

Due to the dim light condition, I had to use flashlight to capture the spectacular carvings and wonders. My battery was flat by the time I emerged from the caverns.

More Luray Caverns pictures here.

Recovering lost data

After nearly a year since my laptop crashed, Debbie informed me that her husband had recovered my data and had uploaded them onto his server.

I was glad to get back the data since I had pictures of my travel which I had not edited and family pictures. Downloading 8 gb took longer than expected since some files were corrupted and interrupted downloading. I had to manually checked which files were missing and downloaded those which were not corrupted.

Lesson 1: Always back up your files frequently.

Lesson 2: Don't give up when people who were trained in IT told you that it would be very hard and expensive to recover the data.

Thanks to Mr. Giam!

Following another car for direction

On Feb 24, Singapore International Foundation (SIF) had organized a post Chinese New Year gathering in Virginia. There were two rental cars and 10 people attending from Baltimore.

Due to some last minute changes, I had to drive a car and followed Wen Min's car since she had a global positioning system. This was the first time I had to follow behind some car since I would plan my route before going anywhere.

I hated leaving only a car space between us on the highway, so I left two to three spaces. Along the one hour odd journey, there were intervening cars obstructing my view where I struggled to ensure we were still in the right direction.

My passengers also complained that my overtaking was not smooth initially which I made a mental note and overtook smoothly.

The last part of the drive along D.C. was tricky as there were many turns at short distances. I had vague memory of the direction because I was concentrating on following, rather than constructing mental road map.

We arrived in one-piece at the cafe. The food was not superb but the company was. There were performances put up by young Singaporeans and I was picked to play 'Who is smarter than a fifth grader'.

I did not have to drive on the journey back since I hopped onto Wen Min's car. I only had the slightest memory to get back to 295.

Snowboarding Part II

After recovering from countless falls from my last snowboarding trip on Jan 19, I was determined to try it at least one more time.

I went to Liberty Mountain again on Feb 9 with my colleagues, Jianshi and Vladimir, together with his wife, Dijana and a new Singaporean friend I made, Charlene.

Because we did not have to rent a car, we reached there around 1pm. As I had lost my previous ticket, I could not get a mountain pass that day. If I had the mountain pass, this trip would be free for me. On hindsight, it was better that I did not get it since this winter season was coming to an end. I would rather utilize the pass for a full season. The cheaper alternative to renting the gears and getting a lift pass was to pay $77 for a lesson again.

I thought it would be a waste of time but I was proven wrong. Charlene and I joined a group taught by James Abbey. Since he had started with the group, he briefed on what we had missed. Sometime later, another person joined us and he patiently repeated the lesson to her all over again.

Compared to my first snowboard instructor and him, they were miles apart. James was professional to go around each person to check that our shoes were fitted snugly to the snowboard. He demonstrated alternative placement of the free foot. Now, I found I could move faster and freer, placing my free foot on the toe side than heel side of the board. He also corrected our individual mistakes by observing us one at a time.

I also learnt from him how to stop the helicopter effect where there was changing in the leading legs upon slowing down. The trick was to continue to shift my weight onto the same leg, which in my case was the right.

After one and half hour of lesson, I was ready to practice more. This time, I came prepared for falling. My secret weapons were wrist guard and two sponges (the type used for washing car) which I tugged into my ski pants. My jacket was large enough to cover the protruding 'bums'. The sponges really cushioned my falls.

My satisfaction came from not falling thrice while getting off from the lift and better maneuvers on the heel and toe sides.

I also thank God that my wallet was not lost when I looked down and saw that it was on my snowboard. It had dropped out of my pocket. Being a novice snowboarder, I am grateful that I did not suffer any major bodily harm where I witnessed a man falling off and injuring his right arm. He had to be escorted by a medic down the slope.

All said and done, I am looking forward to the next winter season where I visualize myself snowboarding down the hill.

Welcoming the year of the rat

This was my second Chinese New Year (CNY) spent away from home. I had no mood to celebrate since my family was not around and there was no holiday in Baltimore. In New York where there is a large Chinese community, Feb 7 was a holiday. Anyway, I spent CNY working away on my experiments.

With the addition of two Chinese colleagues to the lab in late 2007, we decided to take Wednesday morning off to watch China's CCTV countdown towards the year of the rat. Since Eastern USA is 13 hours behind China, we had to catch the program at 7am i.e. waking up at 6am to go to Jianshi's place.

I was told that the singers/performers had to pay the producer to appear on the program. That was new for me since I thought that the producer will pay artistes to sing or perform on stage. According to Jianshi, there was a large viewership in China and from overseas Chinese like us. Paying the producer is like advertising for your career.

While watching, we made some dumplings. I learnt that Northern Chinese eat dumplings while Southern Chinese eat glutinous rice balls (tang yuan) and Singaporean Chinese and Taiwanese have steamboat. Interesting!

Thereafter, we went back to work after lunch.

In the evening, I was invited to eat steamboat with a small group of Singaporeans. It felt good to speak Singlish and Teochew. We ate and chatted till 11pm. I had a whale of a time and was exhausted by the time I reached back to my apartment.

At 1am plus, I called back home to send my mum CNY greetings. I was exhausted when I hit the bed.

On Friday, Feb 8, I was invited to attend a CNY celebration at the Singapore Embassy in D.C.. I wore my suit while most of my Singaporean friends were put off by the formal attire.

There, I met a lot of familiar faces I knew from attending Cecilia's events. At the beginning of the reception, we had YuSheng, a Singaporean signature CNY dish which can be described as a Chinese raw fish salad. Auspicious greetings are said while adding spices, sauces and ingredients and mixing the salad. The tradition is to toss the higher to bring in better luck for the new year. Chinese loves auspicious stuffs.

In this new year, I am hopeful of finally publishing a paper. It will serve as my reward for my stay here.

Turning into "Super Webbed Handman"

Now that my left knee hurts when I run, the other ways of burning calories are working out on an elliptical machine, climbing up the staircase to my apartment on the tenth floor or swimming.

There is less impact on the knees while working on the elliptical machine compared to running on a treadmill. Climbing does not hurt my knee though I am careful not to aggravate my injury.

While browsing at Sports Authority, I chanced upon this pair of Speedo aquatic fitness gloves. It is different from the usual swim paddles which are not allowed in most public pools in Singapore because of safety reasons. You may hit someone with the hard plastic paddles. The fitness gloves is soft and has a flexible rubber palm for gripping and webbing for increased water resistance. I am improvising with this to swim faster and burn calories.

My obsession with burning calories or keeping my weight down started after I weighed myself recently. I thought my previous latest weight of 77kg/170 pd was due to dinner since I weighed after eating. At Jianshi's place, I weighed before and after dinner and found I could consume 2kg/4.4 pd of food. According to the Body Mass Index (BMI), I am 1 kg/2.2 pd short of being overweight. Coming from a BMI of 19 when I was around 20, I could not reconcile this latest figures.

Time to trim and burn before it is harder physically and mentally.

Reality TV is getting downright low!

Since the screening of Survivor where contestants competed to last 30 days in the wilderness, there are all kinds of reality series such as American Idol, The Biggest Loser etc. Some are inspiring while some are plain stupid.

I found the latest reality, The Moment of Truth, screening on Fox45 disgusting. Participants will be put on a lie detector to answer a series of personal questions where they may win up to $500, 000. As the price money goes up, the questions get more personal.

Why are people so nosy to know a stranger's secrets? Is money more important than relationship? Are TV broadcasters pushing the moral boundaries of audience? Is human moral suffering from decadence?