The Wolf and the Moon

SNOW! so much SNOW!

2009-02-10T01:02:00.002-08:00

I just got back to Sheffield yesterday from my 2 week break in Singapore. I heard about the heavy snow in England on the Singapore news, but nothing compares with experiencing it. I am sure the snow is light in Sheffield compared to the other english cities, but this is the most snow I have ever seen in Sheffield in my 6 years here. :p Here are some pictures I took this morning and yesterday afternoon.

Sunrise on my street

Look at the amount of snow!

Right outside my house.

The little snow man

Inches of snow!

I was meant to have my driving lesson this morning, but my instructor and I decided against it. :p I don't think I will be able to cope with skidding down the slope outside my house. I took twice the amount of time to walk to work today, but I think I actually fared pretty well compared to the cars edging slowly along the roads.

DurHam Castle +Cathedral

2009-01-18T09:03:00.007-08:00

I went to Durham city for a Developmental Psychology meeting at the University last week. :) It was nice to get out of Sheffield for a bit. I was strangely excited about going somewhere new even though it was just for a day. Perhaps I have been so 'out and about' the past year that I felt a bit odd staying put in Sheffield and just going to the Department day after day after day since I got back in Oct 2008. It was also more or less going between the lab and my house during my last few months in San Diego, but there were still a lot of places nearby which I have not explored or things I have not done before. So, doing a day trip to Durham after 2.5 months the same weekly routine was a refreshing change of scene.

Durham city centre is quite easily navigable and it only takes about 30mins to get from one end to the other. On reaching Durham at 9.20am in the morning, I took a stroll from the rail way station to the meeting venue and took some pictures along the way.

Look at the nice river view. I was very tempted to take the 'river path' to the University that on my not very high resolution Durham city map looked like a decent way to get to the meeting venue. I thought I asked a passer-by just to check that it was a feasible plan, haha and she advised me against it. :p Probably not an adventure to go on when I had to get to the meeting for 10am.

I do vaguely remember The Straits Times in Singapore suggesting that Durham city is one of the best tourist attractions in the UK. I could not remember what is was famous for. Durham castle and cathedral is the top MUST-DO on the Durham tourism website, so in the little 2.5 hours after the meeting, before my train back to Sheffield I wandered down to Palace green and managed to catch the last tour of the day (at 4pm) for Durham castle.

The castle was amazing. I could not take photos inside the building itself so the above shots are the best I could do. The castle was first buillt about 700-800 years ago. It still a working castle as it is one of the colleges of the university. It houses hundreds of university students, and serves hundreds of meals from its ancient kitchens everyday. Lotsa stories about the different rooms, slanted staircases, double doors for bed rooms, which I won't go into them now.

Durham castle is right opposite Durham castle. This is a night shot of it. :)

This door knocker is for people who want to seek refuge in the cathedral. The cathedral will not refuse anyone who needs shelter, but the person has 37 days to prepare to stand trial or sort himself out or something. :p haha ok lah I lost steam writing this post. Hungry. Going to cook dinner. Till next time...

I Oppose to Discrimination of Number 13!!!

2008-12-14T03:34:00.004-08:00

'13' is my favourite number. I was born on the 13th day of the month. I lived in BLK 13 Teck Whye Lane in the first 8 years of my life. My class register number was 13 when I was in Primary 1 and 2 (I think). And recently I realized my room number in the department is 13 (room 2-13, I always call it 2-1-3 so I don't notice it, but it should be level 2, room13).

However, many house buyers are not very keen on buying a house numbered 13. :( and developers are finding these properties very hard to sell. So now some local UK councils have decided to ban number 13 from new developments. :(

see http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/7779212.stm

Life's never fair is it.

BATMAN in SHEFFIELD!!!

2008-12-14T02:58:00.006-08:00

My friends told me some of our friends saw a guy dressed up as Batman sipping coffee in Starbucks (right opposite my department). I just heard on the radio that he's actually a local entrepreneur dressed up as a caped crusader to inspire other people to do good. he's given out 10000 pounds in donations too!!! go see this article on him :)

http://www.sheffieldtelegraph.co.uk/news2/Holy-Christmas-crusader--It39s.4782718.jp

sigh... too bad I missed him.

hmmm maybe is a gimmick by the local newspaper. But still, I'm sure its having a good effect on the community. :p

Ok, BBC was right. Heavy Snow.

2008-12-04T00:30:00.002-08:00

I took 45 mins to walk to the Dept today! It was snowing when I started my journey. It was really pretty up where I live. A white blanket on the roads, with speckles of big and little footprints from parents bringing their young kids to school. It unfortunately turned wet and slushy and icy when I got to the main road.

My running shoes and socks were wet by the time I got to the department. But I found my water-proof shoes in my office. yeah! Hopefully no more wet socks from now onwards.

There are severe weather warnings for the north of england. Some schools in Lancashire, Cumbria and Greater Manchester have been shut for the 3rd day. I hope it gets better tomorrow. Too bad you can't have pretty snow and not go through the disruptions it can cause.

The view from my office. :)

Heavy Metal in Baghdad

2008-12-03T01:26:00.002-08:00

(see you've got me going. My last words for today.)

I watched a documentary on bbc last night about 4 Iraqi musicians trying to carve a career for themselves with their heavy metal band ACRASSICAUDA (it means black scorpion in latin). It has been (and still is) an up-hill struggle for them since they started in 2001. They had the war in Iraq to worry about, civil strife, the danger of roadside bombs, cultural police who find their music controversial, keeping themselves and their love ones alive and well, etc. A poignant example of the obstacles they had to put up with is when their rehearsal space was destroyed by a missile during an air raid. Through out this battle, they have managed to find ways to bring their music to their fans and new listeners, providing people with a temporary haven from all the chaos that was going around them. They are still trying to live their dream. A documentary was done about them and it has won a number of awards at international film festivals. This gave them a bit of publicity and they have since left Baghdad. 2 of the band members are in New Jersey, USA, and 2 others are in Turkey (I think). Their story is still unfolding and I hope the band will be reunited soon. See their website:

http://www.heavymetalinbaghdad.com/uk/

Croc massacre...

2008-12-03T01:21:00.002-08:00

Heavy snow is predicted for Thursday. hmmm... that was yesterday's forecast. let me check.

ok let's start again.

Heavy snow was predicted for Thursday but now is light showers. :p maybe I'll be able to get myself to the gym tomorrow. I was going to give myself another gym rest day again tomorrow :p

anyway. Now I've made bbc.co.uk my homepage I get distracted by little news like this

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7755393.stm

Right, I'll go do work now.

Article 16, Universal Declaration of Human Rights

2008-11-15T06:29:00.002-08:00

(1) Men and women of full age, without any limitation due to race, nationality or religion, have the right to marry and to found a family. They are entitled to equal rights as to marriage, during marriage and at its dissolution.

http://www.un.org/Overview/rights.html

California Prop 8

2008-11-15T02:08:00.006-08:00

I was elated with I heard that Obama won the US presidential elections 2 weeks ago. It remains to be seen if Obama can bring about the 'CHANGE' that has been the theme of his campaign, but I really hope he does.

What really brought me down was the shocking news that California has voted in a referendum to ban same-sex marriages which was legalized by the state's top court in May. Thousands of gay couples got married since same-sex marriages were approved. Their marriages can now be challenged in court, but the court says it will apparently defend the legality of same-sex marriages that were performed after May and before election day (see http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7723645.stm). Other gay couples have their marriage registration appointments put on hold because of the voting results. The votes were 52% for and 48% against I think.

I am appalled by how this situation came to be. For a while I could not really explain why I was so against prop 8 being passed as there were also people talking about how civil partnerships should be sufficient, that marriage is not something that one , but after hearing Keith Olbermann's "Special Comment" on Prop 8 (see the link below, it was sent by an ex-colleague, and a very heart-rendering video I must say) I think I am beginning to make a bit more sense of my repulsion towards the verdict. Mr Olbermann is exactly right. Proposition 8 was getting people to vote for something that was to take away other people's rights. That to me is an abuse of democracy (see http://usinfo.state.gov/products/pubs/whatsdem/whatdm2.htm). A democratic society is one in which the people have a say in political decisions, and decision are made by the majority rule. The article however explicitly says that there are limitations to that standard as minority rights have to be upheld. Democratic rules are meant to protect the rights of all citizens, and to pass a law on majority rule, that will eliminate the rights of a proportion of those citizens, is an outright violation of the principles of democracy.

These people are not asking you to do something at your detriment. They are asking you to give them the same rights that everyone should enjoy. They just want to be able to go through the same rites that you can go through, be sanctified by marriage that you are committed to a person you love and want to spend the rest of your life with.

http://www.couragecampaign.org/prop8repeal

Anyway... I am in no place to say such things. :p Going to research a bit more about LGB issues in Singapore

2008-11-12T15:51:00.007-08:00

This has been in the news headlines for the past few days.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/hereford/worcs/7721231.stm

A 12 year old wins the right to refuse a heart transplant. The terminally ill girl who was born with a hole in her heart, was stricken with leukemia and has been taking drugs for it since she was 5 years old. Those drugs have weaken her heart and she was advised to have a heart transplant. There is a risk that the heart transplant would not work, but if it did, it sounds like she would be able to live, albeit on constant medication. Her parents support her decision but the doctors were in doubt. So they called in the child protection team. The case went to court and the court ruled in her favour, reinforcing her right as a patient to make decisions about her treatment.

I suppose the first question that comes to mind after reading about this is whether a 13 year old is able to make such a major decision. One reader commented on the bbc website and raised the point that a child not of age to vote, drive or drink alcohol should not be allowed to make a decision to die. The General Medical council on the other hand, states that on principle patients should have a say over their care and children are no different.

I believe that if the child has the capacity to make such a decision one should respect that decision. After all it is her body and what ever is done to it, she would have to live with it. I believe that a child has the capacity to make such a decision, provided she has had counselling from doctors, psychologists, and explored all the possibilities of living and dying and has thought through what she things life is about and what its means to live.

Even so, I still feel pained by her decision. I might be speaking from my privileged perspective. I am enjoying good health and have the freedom to do the things I like (most of the time), but I feel that no matter how hard life is, it can't be worse than death. For a person like me who does not believe in a higher order, death would be nothing. Nothing at all. and there is no point in giving up something (no matter how slight) for nothing, is there? To be conscious, to be aware, is to me the most amazing thing in this world. Would you bear to let it be taken away from you? Even if it is the most horrible feeling, being conscious, can emptiness be better than that? If there is a zimmer of hope that one can have a sustainable life... fight?

She is brave, brave to face that great unknown that most of us fear. But would she be braver if fought with all means possible (including those given by advanced medicine) till she could no longer physically fight or if there was really no hope of improvement? The point is, she has a shot at having a better life after the heart transplant (right?). There is a risk that that would not happen, but there is a chance that it would be better. I understand that she must be emotionally exhausted from having to deal with chronic pain and being unable to have the life that all her same-aged peers are having. but no matter how tired she is, this is a crucial point in time where she can't let this fatigue bring her down.

Other people might not have had the same chance like her to have a second shot at life. I remember a girl from my school who had leukemia and had only 6 months to live. She stopped treatment then because it was apparent that the treatment was not going to do her anymore good. The school was raising funds for her treatment so I think she and her parents decided to use that money to provide financial aid for students who need it.

Back In Sheffield :)

2008-11-08T06:28:00.004-08:00

I am back in Sheffield and living with K (my friend from UG psych). Still trying to get my life organized, and my things together. I've got some of my stuff stored at 2 other friends' places and still have some house things I need to buy. I am also currently the subject of Animal Abuse = I'm getting abused by an animal. And its this little lady over here.

She looks pretty docile in this picture, but don't be fooled. This is Tiger Lily/ Lyra/ Ezzy. K's kitten/cat. She's 3 months old now I think. She lovely at times, but can be a complete nightmare most times. It's only been 2 weeks and I have bites and scratch marks not only on my legs, but on my hip and back too. Yes, she jumps that high up to attack you. haha but I do love her. I'm glad K's taken her in. I'm sure too that K has worse 'injuries ' than I do. I think the cat attacks the people she loves most. hmmm...

I'm living further away from the department as I have ever been. I was closer in distance even when I was on the notorious Crookes Hill. :p But it is a really nice and quiet area. I am having a bit of difficulty getting groceries up there as the bus stop is still about 15mins away, but I'm sure I can get used to that (be a online grocery shopper? not eat or drink? go with K in her car when she goes grocery shopping? :p). There are options. I'm leaving you with some pictures of my neighbourhood.

5 minutes away from my new place and 30mins to the Department.

Looking back at Ranmoor Inn. My apt is just 10 mins up the road on the right.

ooh the Department of Psychology. Its probably a good thing that it is shrouded by trees now. The building's exterior is actually surrounded by scaffolding. They've been doing works on the windows since the start of summer.

In San Diego, no more. :(

2008-11-08T06:01:00.006-08:00

I left San Diego on the 24th of October at wee hours of the morning. I had my 'last meal' at Denny's (24/7 breakfast oohoo!) with Irene, and she sent me off to the airport for 5.20am. I must say I was in a daze (I think the beer I had at dinner the day before made me sleepy) and probably could not have made it to the airport without Irene. :p The plane flew off at 6.20am. This was my last shot of San Diego. I think that was Mission bay.

It has been an amazing 6 months. The friends I've made, the things I've learnt. Well I guess it is one chapter in my book done, time to start a new one.

This is appropriately sun rise. :)

I'm going to keep the La Jolla Cove picture on my blog heading for a while. :) I'll change it back to the moon soon.

La Jolla Shores and La Jolla Cove

2008-10-21T11:24:00.010-07:00

I went to La Jolla Shores for surfing and walked around La Jolla Cove the day before yesterday. :) The initial plan was to go cycling towards Del Mar and Ocean Side, but my bike rental choice ran out of bikes for hire. Surfing and La Jolla Cove was on my to-do list before I leave San Diego, so I went on with those activities.

I took some pictures... :p so enjoy...

La Jolla Shores

La Jolla Shores(2)

There was some filiming going on at La Jolla Shores for the ex-list (CBS). I don't know who the stars are, so just took a picture of the Star Wagon :p

Adults and Children going about their activities on the beach.

Filming going on...

After surfing I walked about La Jolla Cove.

Seals!!! :>

Body Malfunction

2008-10-21T11:16:00.003-07:00

I am happy to say that I survived my whirlwind trip to London and back. I managed to catch up with some good friends and had an amazing time at the conference. Not without a price though...

- Caught a cold during the trip. Was in a bad mood, stressed with work, sniffing and coughing for 4-5 days after my return to San Diego. Could not go jogging or surfing, and hardly had the energy or mood to test any more kids coming for my research project.
- when I stopping having a running nose (but not all recovered yet) I went jogging. I possibly strained my ankle while jogging on the sand, had a headache while I was jogging. and coughed for 20 mins after the jog. (I don't regret going jogging though. exercise, the beach and the ocean will always make me happy)
- I made myself go surfing and walking around La Jolla cove (see next post) yesterday coz I decided they were 2 things I needed to do before I leave San Diego. I think I aggravated my ankle strain and still feel intermittent pain when I walk.

hmmm is my health going downhill or what.

Stress at Airport

2008-10-04T09:46:00.002-07:00

Hwan Cui's been really bad at making decisions lately. Very bad...

I decided to fly to London from San Diego for 3 days... 3 days... that's equivalent to the time I will spend on the plane to get there and back. Am I crazy or what? (yeah I am)

I'm going for a conference that I booked a place at before I extended my stay in San Diego. I was thinking of just not going to it, but I guess I'm actually the kind of person who cannot take changes in my plans. So I've decided to take a 16 hour flight to London and back, to stay there for 3 days, just for the conference. Gosh maybe I do have PHD (permanent head damage).

haiiizzz now I'm worrying about being detained when I transfer in CHicago to fly to London. Coz I am now at my airport without my DS-2019, which has my new extended expire date proving my business in the U.S. they might charge me as an illegal over-stayer... how??? yikes!!!

k I need to go to the washroom. boarding the plane soon.

Surfing Alone...

2008-09-28T15:45:00.003-07:00

I went surfing on my own today... I guess you could count it as a 'bad day' (even though I'm always happy when I can go surfing). My friend overslept and stood me up... I got flipped over tons of times by the scary waves today... it was cold... and I think I got stung by something on my foot... possibly a sea urchin or sting ray. I was in pain for a while and my tummy was also not feeling too good. To comfort myself... I went to my favorite cafe at mission beach on my own... (see www.olivecafe.biz) and got a 'Keep it simple' and a Cafe Mocha. I was still having abdominal pain and nausea after that, so took the bus back to the house.

I felt much better when I got back. The bite on my foot has disappeared so I guess that's the end of it. :D

I still had fun today. Lotsa really good surfers out there today. Tried to keep out of their way (but you know how clumsy I am... on land ... and worse on my board). It was really exciting watching them :) plus... the surf rental I went to today charged me only $15 for renting a board and a wetsuit for 2 hours. The last time I went to them, they charged me $20 and usually I get it at the cheapestm, $18 from another surf shop. hehe I'm not complaining.

sUnSet... All's Well That Ends Well...

2008-09-28T15:38:00.004-07:00

this was taken at a spot near my new place last Sunday. I decided to watch the sunset and wait there for a friend to come pick me up, to go see a Shakespeare play at the Old Globe in Balboa Park. I had a book with me (which I ended up reading only 4 pages of), and a Star Bucks Kopi-O (i.e. Black Coffee with Sugar).

鸟石 i.e. Bird Rock (Pictures)

2008-09-20T12:55:00.008-07:00

This is my sole form of transport to UCSD. :p And the blue sign says 'Bird Rock'

This is the path that leads to my new home.

Yah... there is a door (thought I showed it since it was not evident in the last photo)

My street. I identify the house when its dark at night, using 'OBAMA' across the street.

I took some pictures when I went jogging this morning. There is no sandy beach here, but there are rocky cliffs and breath-taking views of the ocean. I saw some people bringing their surf boards here... but it look pretty scary to me without a sandy beach to be washed shore on. Maybe I might not surf here.

Do you see the person in the middle of the ocean (little dot on top right quadrant of photo). He/She is on a punt-like thingy. The boat part looks like a surf board and he/she moves him/her-self with a pole/oar. I always see people doing that when I go surfing, but have no idea what it is. I will try and find out.

These pictures are of the street where I wait for my bus. :)

Starbucks across the street

The French Pastry Cafe... mmm mmm.
hmmm will check this place out.

There is actually breakfast at my new place 7 days a week! Cereal, toast, peanut butter, jam, coffee, and a fruit basket with rock melon, bananas, grapefruit, etc. Gosh what more can I ask for. There are even place mats to eat on, and a tray if you would like to bring your breakfast back to the room. There are bowls of 3 different sizes (S, M, L) and the cutlery in the drawers are arranged in perfect order of type and size. I think I'm going to be very happy here.

鸟石 i.e. Bird Rock, La Jolla

2008-09-19T23:59:00.006-07:00

I've moved out of my cozy home at La Jolla Village Drive. Irene helped me move out. I felt a little bit of despair at having to leave. I don't know why. It's not as if I've stayed in the same place for more than 9 months in the past few years. I even felt the urge to go home early last night, after testing participants till late, just to go home, sit in the kitchen for a bit, and play the piano...

I've settled myself 3.2 miles away from school :p in BIRD ROCK, LA JOLLA. Right by the beach, near a surf shop, starbucks, a french pastry cafe (oooh hooo!!!) but 30 minutes on the bus to get to school at back. Irene went on and on about how silly I am to move to such a 'faraway' place. She's kindly offered me her place millions of times, but I felt it would not be convenient as she is not living on her own. Plus recent events made me feel like I really needed to find a place on my own.

My new place is like a guesthouse. :) I get towels, bed linen, breakfast and dinner is served Mondays to Thursdays and all utilities are included. There is even a grand piano for me to play, and a big screen tv I can hopefuly catch the season 3 premiere of Heroes next monday (if I come back in time from testing). I am going to enjoy myself here.

I will take more pictures of the area tomorrow, when there is light.

SURFING!!!

2008-09-14T16:52:00.005-07:00

The ocean was relatively calm today. It gave me the chance to paddle out from the shore further than I usually would. (sometimes the on coming waves and wind are so strong I could be paddling on the spot for 15 mins, and would still be so near the shore, it's embarrassing.) Being further out in the ocean was pretty cool. The ocean felt so big and vast. I could see flocks of pelicans diving in and out of the water. I would have paddled towards them, but I thought... I had a wave to catch ;p Too bad I can never be able to take a picture of that sight.

While the ocean calmer today, there would be intermittent series of little waves (as a teaser) and then an occasional big wave. For a beginner like me, there were 2 possible outcomes of experiencing such a wave.

1. NOSE DIVE - I do catch the wave beneath my board and I would be elevated with the height of the wave. However, by the time the wave breaks, the distance between my board and the surface of the water would be large enough to cause my board to drop head-down and get tossed into the water, with me tumbling right after it (think washing machine :p)

2. BIG MISS - I would still be paddling out to the ocean and then the big wave would come. I would be caught off guard, and even if I saw it coming, I would be defenseless against that formidable force and get washed back to shore. All my time and effort attempting to paddle out into the open would then be wasted.

Still, I did catch a few decent rides :) I rented a shorter foam board today and did not really have the control to actually stand up, but I was balancing a bit on the board in the knelt down position. It is such an exhilarating feeling when the wave propels your board forward and you feel that stability in your board for you to be in a position other than lying flat on your tummy. Makes me happy :)

anyway... like I said I haven't been taking photos. But I did find some photos my surfing classmate took for us. :) from April. Thank you Y. :D because I don't look very good in most of the ones with the board, I 'give you' a photo of a surf board similar to what I used, along with my 2 instructors :p

And this is one of my and Y. with our hair in a mess after surfing. man... I have lately tried to tie my hair in a manner such that my hair does not get in my view when I catch a wave. It never works. :( My hair still gets messed up so much and the worse thing is that my hair bands come loose and get lost in the ocean. I have lost so many of my hair bands that I only have one left for daily use. Something to add to my list of things to replenish. sigh...

C-O-F-F-E-E :p (a song I learnt in primary school)

2008-09-10T09:30:00.003-07:00

C-o-f-f-e-e, coffee is not for me,
It's a drink some people wake up with,
That it makes them nervous is no myth,
Slaves to a coffee cup, they can't give coffee up.

http://www.musicanet.org/robokopp/usa/coffee.htm

hmmm I don't know how to tell you the melody.

Chopadi - Culture versus Cruelty

2008-09-08T23:10:00.003-07:00

My sister has just given birth to her first daughter 9 days ago. She is now in the comfort of our house, under the care of my mother, observing the traditional chinese custom of confinement after birth, for 1 whole month (zuo yue). She is supposed to have lotsa rest, eat lotsa restorative foods, not do any strenous work. She cannot go out of the house so as to avoid wind/draft and any disease causing sources. Her sole responsibility is to nurse the new-born and besides that most things are taken care of for her. The end of the confinement period will then be marked by a celebration of the first month of the baby with gift distributed to family and friends. The birth of the child is marked with joy and happiness, and the welfare of the mother is of great priority.

What caught my attention when I was listening to the bbc this morning was a report on Chopadi, a traditional practice in Nepal whereby women are expelled from their home for 11 days after childbirth, and for all post-pubescent women, during their monthly periods. The post-natal or menstruating woman is thought to be 'unclean' and is thus ignored by family members during this confinement period. When these women, right after childbirth, should be needing nutritious food, warmth and comfort, many are cooped up in dark damp windowless sheds and exposed to harsh weather elements. Many of these mothers die of pneumonia and conditions that arise from these severe living conditions.

It is inconceivable to me how such a maladaptive custom can survive for so long through the ages. It sounds as if it would be a major cause of mortality in women of child-bearing age and their infants ( who would probably be best cared for by their mothers). If not thinking in terms of the impact on individual women, should not there be devastating effects on the health of the nepalese population as a whole. So should not the society have self-correctted such self-inflicted damage on itself by slowly abolishing this custom? It is also shocking how this difference in culture could mean life or death for women after child-birth.

The Nepalese government has just passed a law banning the custom. So that is definitely good news. But it sounds like this custom is deeply ingrained in the largely patriarchal nepalese society. hopefully time would make a change.

go see
http://www.nepalitimes.com.np/issue/247/GuestColumn/267
(anyone has other sources of information on this?)

A BIG FAT POST!

2008-09-03T20:54:00.014-07:00

Dear Blog,

I apologize for being away for so long. I don't know what has come over me. :( I've been thinking of you all the time though. Well the important thing is that I'm here now and I will again try to maintain posting something every one or two weeks :p

I am still in San Diego, and will be till the end of October. Here's a list of happenings in my life since my last post, not in any particular order.

I lost my enthusiasm for photography (and my camera case). The last photo I took was in June when I went to Los Angeles. I'll put some photos up at the end of this post. Most of the photos are with A (a new friend I met and a fantastic travel companion/ house-mate for 6 weeks). I went to LA and San Francisco with her.
A and I went to 3 beaches in LA and SF over the Independence Day (July 4th) weekend. I watched a community parade at Palisades and watched the fireworks at Venice Beach, in LA.
I stopped eating rice almost for 1 month because I do not have my rice cooker with me and I got tired of boiling rice on the hob.
I went to Hotel Coronado, Coronado Island, San Diego, where Marilyn Monroe shot the classic movie 'Some like it hot'.
I was so angry that I was ready to knock someone's eyes out of their sockets
I was so upset that I was drinking coffee everyday as my very odd way of dealing with the emotion. (I have since become a hardcore coffee addict. Thank goodness for the coffee machine in the lab, the coffee cart on my way from the bus stop to the lab, and for the past 2 days the $5 starbuck giftcard my labmate M shared with me, that she got from a nice man at the side of the road when he saw our car go by)
I have found surfing buddies in my labmates K, M and M :D (I am still with my big blue foam board, but I'm standing up on my board longer each week ;>)
I have been a part of the most number of friendly discussions about sex, these few months, compared to what I have ever had in my entire life. It's mostly me listening and others talking :p
We had a bon fire by the beach, and I had a 'SMORE'. It was during a send-off for 2 of our endearing labmates who left the lab for greener pastures. A SMORE is melted marshmallows sandwiched by 2 chocolate-coated biscuits.
I went to an Autism support group meeting one evening. I was so undecided about whether to go or not (as taking public transport meant I had to travel 1.5 hours to get there) that by the time I decided to go, I did not have time to take with me a map or a bus time-table. I could not find the venue at first and was lost walking up and down hills and valleys for 1 hour. I got there eventually and listened to an inspiring talk by a parent. But when it was time to go home I realized I had missed the last bus. Irene had to come rescue me. She drove down to get me. I had my first Carl's Junior burger (for 99cents ooo-hooo! and I need to try the one in Singapore) while I waited.
I have decided that while asking 'why?' is essential for pushing the boundaries of scientific knowledge, it is a waste of time for matters of the heart.
I appreciated the beauty of the flora and fauna, and learnt about how life was like for a prisoner on ALCATRAZ, SF :p
K made me get a 'tramp stamp' i.e. a lower back tattoo when K, E, M and I went to Wild Animal Park, San Diego. Don't worry it was a stick on, not a permanent one.
I learnt a more authentic and efficient way of saying 'Vietnamnese Beef Noodles' -Phở (pronounced 'foa', sort of)
I bought a hard rock cafe (SF) T-shirt because I was running out of clothes to wear :p
I have not worn my glasses for 4 months after my housemate accidentally broke the frame when she stepped on it
I really really need a hair cut but I only want to do it when I go back to Singapore
I played chinese chess after not having done so for a long time. I won one game against W but lost to the arrogant Doctor :p
2 guys younger than me caught my attention everytime they appeared :p (The Chinese Gymnast Captain Chen Yibing and Michael Phelps).
I watched 'The Dark Knight' at 12am on the opening day!!! I was well impressed with the script despite being half asleep
I made egg fried rice :p
I had freshly caught yellowfin tuna sashimi with Irene. Her dad caught them when he went on a fishing trip :p

and LAST but the MOST MOST MOST IMPORTANT!!!!

my dear sister gave birth to little Kai Xuan on the 31st of August (Father's Birthday too)! CONGRATULATIONS!

might post some pictures of her when my sister and brother in law sends them to me.

oki dok, I'll now leave you with some photos I took in LA and SF.

The La Brea Tar Pits; An amazing archaelogical site smack in the middle of LA. Holds asphalt/tar/oil residue that preserves animal remains from the ice age :p

Sabre tooth Cat Skulls

HOLLYWOOD BOULEVARD!!!

The Grauman's Chinese Theatre (where lotsa hollywood movie premieres are held)

Beverly Hills, Rodeo Drive (where the rich and famous live)

There was a car show on that day. :p

Biosemi EEG :p

2008-05-09T12:46:00.006-07:00

I went to do an experiment for my supervisor. :p Here's me in the Biosemi EEG cap

This is a 128 electrode cap. My supervisor had to put electrolyte gel (to help the electrodes pick up my brain waves) in all 128 cap holes, fit each electrode into the each cap hole, then connect the electrodes to the recording system. Took quite a bit of time, but it was fun and interesting. I had lotsa gel in my hair for the rest of the day.

Happy Wednesday!! :p

2008-05-07T08:38:00.006-07:00

Someone said 'Happy Wednesday!' to me when I went jogging this morning. :) It's not really been 'Sunny San Diego' these few days but at least some people are making an effort to be happy. W says it does not rain that much in San Diego, so I guess I am definitely 'lucky' to catch that drizzle yesterday.

I realized again I've been neglecting this blog. The past 2 weeks have been pretty crazy weekends. I went to surfing AND Disneyland the weekend before (and I stood even longer!!! haha but that might have to do with the over-sized foam board I rented). It was California Adventure Park the Sunday that has just passed (I went to a series of Neuroscience talks on Sat which I will blog about too :p). We had a 2 park offer for our Disney land ticket so we had free entry to California Adventure as long as we went back within a month. It was pretty cool. Lotsa 3D shows to throw you off your feet, there was an Aladdin spectacular which I really enjoyed despite being apprehensize about actual people acting out cartoon characters. I went on the Biggest Roller coaster Ride I ever went on (yes I am a wimp) and it was the first time I actually screamed on a ride (embarrassing!!! haha).

Work has been going well (I hope my supervisors feel the same way). I needed to visited a school to speak to the staff members and deliver recruitment letters to the students and parents. W gave me a ride there. I played 'Miss Independent' and took the buses when returning from the school. It's always interesting when I take long bus journeys. People are so friendly here, I ended up having 2 memorable conversations within that 1.5 hour journey. There was a nice old lady orginally from the Phillipines whose husband just passed away last October. She was really helpful when I asked for advice on where to stop for my next bus. And there was Melvin, 48 years old, and a plumber. He gave some tips on how to see San Diego. I said I will remember him even though we would probably not see each other ever again. :p
I did catch a glimpse of how life can be hard for people who have a handicap. The buses here are like the UK where there are ramps and space within the bus for wheel-chair users to board (they even have bicycle racks in front of the bus so that you can bike and ride if you are tired). A blind couple got out of the same bus as me, but a little later than I did. I did not catch what happened, but before I knew it they were 'cussing' and scolding some of the passengers who have gotten up the bus. You only enter and leave the bus by the one door at the front of the bus. The couple was complaining that those passengers did not wait for them to get off the bus before they boarded. They were pretty angry about it. We were waiting for different buses, but 20 mins into waiting, they asked another passer-by if the 15 has gone by. Again I was chatting with Melvin so I had no idea what was going on. When the passer-by told them that the 15 has just left they started 'cussing' and scolding again. Apparently one bus had stopped and they asked the bus driver what bus it was, the bus driver told them it was the number 1. They thought that could have been the 15 and the bus driver was 'playing' them. I was thinking it could have been when a bus number 1 stopped and a bus 15 stopped right behind it. They could have been asking the bus number 1 driver and it was all a misunderstanding. Still it must be really hard for them to be travelling around.

http://www.thebergennetwork.com/z-monthlyphotos/mpbus-200603.jpg

Anyway, I'll leave you with some photos of Disneyland and California Adventure Park.

Mary Poppins :p ermm its my only pic of Disneyland here

High school Musical 2; No Zac Efron and Vanessa Anne Hudgens but they were pretty good

This is the 'monster' I got on and screamed for the first time in my life, on a ride. :p The ride was appropriately called 'California SCreaming'

The Aladdin Spectacular :p

Do you see Aladdin and Jasmine on the flying carpet??

Cinderella's pumpkin carriage, on the Electrical Parade

We stayed for the fireworks at disney land, but my camera had run out of battery by that time :( The Funtasia performance was beautiful, lights everywhere, the music, shots of water and laser displays. I need a new camera :p

Surfing Day Two

2008-04-20T19:23:00.003-07:00

I stood for 2 seconds on my surf board :p Does that count?

Today was much sunnier than yesterday. Still, according to our instructors the conditions were not the best for beginner surfers like us. :p I had fun though. There were a few really amazing people who were riding the waves.

I met a few friends who we might go surfing together next week. haha we'll have to see if I'll keep this up.

here are some photos of Mission beach before my camera battery 'died'.

My friend from the surfing class helped me take a photo of me looking really short and fat in my wet suit and with my beginner's surf board :p We'll wait for her to send it to me.

I Tried Surfing today!!!

2008-04-19T15:19:00.004-07:00

This is my way of containing my excitement :> by posting on my blog. a bit sad right? haha but never mind.

I went to 1 of 2 of my surfing classes today (the next one is tomorrow!!! ahhhh...) We actually spent 1 and a half hours on theory, and half an hour learning some paddling and doing a swim test. I don't suppose we tried surfing at the beach more than 30mins? but man am I tired. I havent had such a good workout in a while. My back muscles and my arms are so complaining now. I hope I will be able to survive tomorrow :p

The waves were huge (to me) and they came one after another. I think someone said today was not the best day to surf. I'm quite proud of myself that I dint freak out actually. The ocean was cold and my muscles felt like they were screaming to get out of the water. It was alright after warming up and then you forgot about all discomforts and just focused on getting on that on-coming wave.

I dint manage to stand on my board (haiizzz) but at least I caught the waves a few times and it was a fantastic feeling having the water rushing beneath your board and you are just being pushed head long towards shore. Tomorrow we are going to have a 2 hour long session of pure surfing. My goal is to at least stand on the board once :p Going to be brave tomorrow and paddle out to sea (no matter how strong the waves), instead of striding out. If a wave comes, I'll do a 'turtle roll' (when you going under your board and turn your board back up after the wave has passed), then carry on. Then when I see a good wave, I'll sit on my board, turn round and ride the wave. haha this is my mental imagery of what will happen tomorrow. I'll let you know if it actually happens.

Drank a lot of sea water today. It don't taste that bad :p

oh... there were lotsa jelly fish :p moon jelly fish tickling us when we were doing the swim test in the bay

La Jolla Cove and the Seal Beach :>

2008-04-15T22:52:00.006-07:00

I went with Liz (my supervisor) and Simon (her husband) for a walk along La Jolla Beach today to watch the sun set :p

150408 - the seals on seal beach

150408 - here's a cute one frolicking in the waves oops, he disappeared ;>

150408 - we thought we would not be able to see a decent sunset, but the clouds left as a bit above the horizon just to see the 'egg yolk' going down

Snippets of San Diego

2008-04-14T22:56:00.010-07:00

hey hey, I got my memory card reader today. :p I think if I were to start this post with the intention of writing about what I did and saw the past few days, I would not be sleeping tonight. So I shall just post a few photos up and say a wee bit about them. Toying with the idea of going Hollywood this weekend. hehe we'll see we'll see.

080408 - Those white houses with the red roofs is where my house is. There's tennis courts, a pool and Jacuzzi!!! gosh I don't have access to such facilities back home do I? got to make good use of them.

100408 - Baked my 'special' easy chocolate cake for Irene's Birthday. My housemates loved it. The whole cake was finished by the next day.

I went to Balboa Park on the 13th of April, Sunday. It's the city park of San Diego boasting a collection of exciting museums, parks and the San Diego zoo. The area was the designated ground of at least 2 expositions in the 20th century that was to boost economic growth of the region.

130408 - The view of a canyon from the Rose and Cactus garden at Balboa Park. According to the park ranger, this is the natural landscape of San Diego. Sem-Arid

130408 - The Moretan Bay Fig. Look at the extend of the trunk

130408 - Pretty Roses for my mother :p

130408 - The Botanical Gardens with lotsa plants from all over the world in the greenhouse. An endeavour by Kate Sessions, a teacher turned gardener in the early days of BalBoa Park
130408 - Venus Fly trap I think; Beautiful flower, but deadly for bugs

130408 - San Diego was a 'new land' founded by Spanish explorers. Many of the buildings in Balboa Park are of Spanish-colonial style.

130408 - A wet Persian carpet?
130408 - The Spreckels Organ Pavillion; the BIGGEST outdoor organ in the world (I think). The organ was donated by the Spreckel brothers for the people of the world. So that the people of San Diego can enjoy music as people in Europe could easily have access to.
130408 - I stayed for a 1 hour concert there. In the hot sun. San Diego was sweltering on Sunday. 32 degrees celsius!!
130408 - the inside of the organ; 4500 odd pipes, with some as big as the ones below, and others the size of a pencil; it takes a total of 3 days for 3 people to tune the entire organ

130408 - there are the Snare drums and Chimes within the organ too

130408 - I went to the Model Railway Museum too. It was fascinating. All the displays were made by volunteers. They tried to re-create the landscape, railways, towns and villages back in the old days... The wild wild west :p In contination of the pipe organ theme, we have a miniature church by the railway with a pipe organ in it :p Remember, evertyhing in these pictures are little. The people in the pictures are the size of a nail (or even smaller).

130408 - The modellers do try to make this interesting by having scenarios like forklifts over-turning

130408 - The volunteers will also run trains within the models :> I tried to catch one in action.

130408 - Here's another one. This one carries lotsa goods like soya beans, petroleum, ply wood, etc.

Random facts for my dear Sister :)

2008-04-08T05:53:00.004-07:00

1. Your child's name :p (Christenfeld and Larsen, 2008)

surnames starting early in the alphabet are thought to be advantageous; in certain fields like economics, creators of multi-authored papers are not sequenced by their level of contribution, but in alphabetical order; in discussions by medical staff, patient surnames starting early in the alphabet also get more attention than those names later in the alphabet (Singh, et al, 2006)
unfortunately, Stephen's surname starts with 'S' and our family name starts with 'K', so you can only do something about his/her first name :p ; apparently, Not giving daughters 'common and old-fashioned names may enhance your little girl's claim to be young and exotic' ;> easier to find a life partner; giving sons 'common and historically popular names may signal that the boy is mature and established
with regards to giving your child a christian name; sadly, there is an implicit form of racism observed for names that indicate 'whiteness' and names that indicate 'blackness'; this has been demonstrated in organizations' reponses to job applications (Bertrand and Mullainathan, 2004)

2. this second bit is what I picked up at the Infant vision lab today ;>

if buying toys for when the baby is 1 month old, avoid pastel colours; only saturated colours are visible to the baby at this age
I think its by 24 weeks, the foetus is able to detect light from outside your abdomen; haha something to try with your baby and a torch light

Might send you more random facts soon. Take care babe :p

[Day 3] La Jolla Underwater Park

2008-04-06T16:26:00.004-07:00

I woke up at 8am this morning. I debated with myself about going for a jog and finally stepped out of the house, into the sun, at 9am :> I thought I'd jog to the beach and back. I set off with US$2.20 in my jumper pocket just in case I needed to get the bus back.

My house is just on the junction of a very busy road. Not the best for jogging I would say, but I had to run along that road before I reach any nice jogging areas. I checked out googlemap before I set off, but things always look closer than they are on these maps. I mistook the road Liz took me on, as Torrey Pines road, and thus embarked on a long journey in search of the coast.

The roads in San Diego are really scary or its just that I jog along the roads that I should not be jogging along. Torrey Pines only has a pavement for pedestrains on one side of the road, which of course was not the side of the road I was on. I did not realize that until I entered the stretch of the road that had a unsurmountable road divider in the center of the road. By that time, there was only lush green vegetation on both sides of the road and no houses in sight. I felt pretty uneasy about being stuck on the seemingly endless road where I only had a little bit of the side of the road to go on. I carried on and finally reached a more populated area with houses, a school and lotsa people.

The search for the coast was still difficult after I emerged from Torrey Pines. I jogged into a residential area and ran towards the palm trees and the little bit of ocean I could see. Unfortunately the whole beach in that area is owned by a country club which I of course could not access.

I carried on, feeling more determined to find the beach, the more time I spent searching for it. I then saw a sign that read 'public access to ocean'. Unfortunately, it was a little pathway in between some houses that led directly to the sea. No beach, just the sea. But I could see a really nice coastal area from there. I quickly went on my quest. There were other joggers on the road, so I thought I could not be far off from a nice beach.

Finally, I saw a sign that said 'Coast'. I jogged into the side-road with excitement. The scenery that engulfed me was nothing like I had imagined.

It was beautiful. The blue sky and the deep navy sea. Seagulls chirped as they soared over the winds. The waves threw themselves on the rocks, to an upbeat rhythm. I looked across to the neighbouring cliff and spotted a path that led to the next headland. On the face of the cliffs I could see many sea bird perched on there. I could also see an amazing-looking patch of white rocks past those cliffs. I totally regretted not bringing my camera along. There were many houses lined along the coast and I thought how lucky those residents are to enjoy this view everyday.

I went on the path, and little did I know I had entered the La Jolla Underwater Park. I walked over to the cliffs I had watched from a distance and was not prepared to see all the different kinds of wildlife that was there. There was a little squirrel running over the rocks, close to where I was standing. There were not only Sea-gulls and sea birds, but huge Pellicans grooming themselves on the rocks. These were the white rocks I saw and a close up look made me realize that there was a possibility the white 'paint' on those were Pellican waste. This idea was reinforced by the smell of bird poo and salt in the air. I saw a family of seals looked on, as some of their family members frolicked in the sea. There was so much life around me I was taken aback.

I walked on along the coast till I reached a little park where there was lotsa people going down to the beach for scuba-diving, kayaking and swimming. There were restaurants and cafes all around. I had a nice stroll on the beach before heading back home. I definitely would want to come back here again. Perhaps not on foot the next time :p

The journey back was long and tiring. I saw the bus stop for the bus service that goes to my house, but could not cross the road to get to the bus stop. I walked further along the road, hoping to find a crossing and find the next stop. When I finally crossed the road, I could not find another bus stop. So I decided to walk home.

By the time I got home, I had jogged for 50 mins to the beach, strolled for 1 hour along the beach, and walked for 1 hour 20mins back home. Not bad as an activity on a Sunday morning I guess.

New Friends :> [Day 2]

2008-04-06T15:43:00.010-07:00

(this is me again, trying to write as much posts before I start getting busier next week :p
also, if you haven't noticed, I've started to put in names of the people I know. think now its much better than keeping people anonymous)

After 2 days of being on the recieving end of other's kindness, I met some more really nice people today. :) I had a more proper introduction and chat with John and Will (who I just met today). John is a personal trainer and vegan, and is going to read Kinesiology (the science of human movement, according to Wikipedia :p). Will is a computer science graduate and currently works at the University.

Irene, Will, Will's friend Allan and I went supermarketting in the afternoon. Allan is also a psychology graduate and will be doing optometry in the Sep. We went to a lot of faraway supermarkets which I will not be able to get there easily without a car. sigh... it's true what everyone says. One without a car in the U.S. can be very restricted in where one can go. Irene's really nice and said that she goes to the Chinese Supermarket every 2-3 weeks and that I am welcome to join her on the trip. We had a lot of fun chatting in the car. While I still felt quite lost in everyone's American accents, they were so inclusive that I felt really comfortable with them.

I went with Irene and her cousin Mina to dinner at a Korean restaurant in the evening. We went to a little shop which does neo-print and have those machines in which you turn a knob to get a little toy. Irene and Mina persuaded me to join them in getting a little handphone toy, which I have fixed on my handphone :p. They got pooh bear ones, while I got Emile from Ratatouille. We then adjourned to have dessert at Yoghurt world, the most fantastic place to have yoghurt of many different flavours and toppings. We then went to meet Will and Allen at a pool place. I tried my hand at the game after so many years of not playing. haha no improvements in my shots but no deterioration either. I feel blessed :p I had a really enjoyable evening.

At 11ish, I had to leave Irene and Mina to finish the movie we were watching on Irene's laptop. Could not keep my eyes open. I had a shower and got into bed by 12am.

So long Sheffield, Hello San Diego... [Day 1]

2008-04-06T14:23:00.010-07:00

(hmmm maybe too exaggerated a title. I'm coming back to Sheffield, don't you worry ;> )

I will remember the day in Sheffield, before I left for San Diego, for a 5 month research stint. Amidst the frantic packing, I managed met up with some of my Psychology friends at CREAM (a very nice cafe in Broomhill Sheffield) and had a gathering with my Singaporean, Malaysian and Chinese friends. I was staying at Renie, Huiyiang, Kimberley, Davinder and Yih Chyn's place and the gathering was spear headed by Yih Chyn. I was slightly worried about having to rush here and there to meet up with people and get myself organized for my journey to San Diego, But everyone was really sweet and helped me in everyway they can so that the evening would be smooth going. We left the house at 5ishpm to have an early dinner at noodle inn. I deposited my luggage in David's car. After dinner, David and Kimberley sent me to the train station, while the rest of my friends walked down to the train station to send me off. They waited with me for the train and stayed till I got on the train. My heart was all warm and fuzzy when the train moved off.

It was a long and tiring journey to San Diego. I reached Manchester airport at 9.30pm, and had to wait for my early morning flight to London Heathrow airport. I then got on the flight from London to San Francisco. The view from the plan was amazing. We flew over the north atlantic ocean and passed over Greenland. I could see all the ice-bergs on the deep blue ocean (unless I was hallucinating). The view when we flew across U.S.A. was even more breath-taking. I could see the snow capped Rockies (again speculation, think that's what I saw, according to the map). Right before we landed in San Francisco airport, the waters of San Francisco bay glistened in the sun. The plane landed smoothly, and I was on American soil...

It was another short wait before I hopped on the the connecting flight to San Diego.

I had not thought about what to expect when I got to San Diego. The change from the British accent to the American accent was definitely the most remarkable difference. While the scottish accent is still the accent I like to hear most, I would rate the sounds and rhythms of the american accent as one of the top accents that could make me so captivated, that I would forget to process what people are saying.

Liz came to fetch me from the airport. We stopped by the supermarket and got some groceries, had dinner, and she gave me a night tour of the University campus. It was really nice having a familiar face show me around my new home for the next few months. :) She dropped me off at my new accommodation and made sure I was alright before she left.

The Chinese couple who owns the house was really friendly. They helped me with my bags and 'auntie' even gave me a bowl of green bean soup. I met their both their sons, John and Justin, who are also living in the house. I also met Irene, my next door neighbour, a very cheerful and out-spoken 3rd year Biomedical Science major. She 'chirpily' invited me to join her for supermarketing the next day. :>

I turned in for the night and had a much awaited good long sleep.

Overdue photo of the rainbow. :p

2007-12-23T01:58:00.000-08:00

Double Rainbow from my office window (mid-Nov 2007)

Carrot Cake

2007-12-23T01:45:00.000-08:00

I made Carrot Cake with Renie yesterday :p

Cake being cooled on the rack.

In the fridge with cream cheese frosting :p.

Multi-Cultural London Road

2007-12-23T01:10:00.000-08:00

I've been walking to work in the mornings. :p This is the PA (Personal Assistant) work with a family, to support care for a little boy. I pass by London Road, a road I know as the place to go for exotic and economical foods. :p My favourite Turkish restaurant, Zeugma, is there, there's a chinese bakery, a few Chinese and vietnamese noodle places, and the famed Japanese restaurant, Wasabi-sabi. There is also a choice of Middle-eastern, Pakistan and Indian food. Just the other day I noticed a greek restaurant. I usually go there after dark for dinner with friends. I also have fond memories of marching with SOUL (my community group) holding up massive hand-made laterns, for the Sharrow Lantern festival.

While I do like going there, I have heard many negative things about the area, especially when venturing there at night. My friends have been shouted at when walking along the street.

It's different seeing it in the morning though. That's especially when the shops have not opened for the day. There is a sense of serenity and a feeling of safety as you can see round every single corner. The shops and restaurants with shop names of different ethnic origins stand side by side in the calm, emanating an air of harmony.

:p Someone from a passing car shouted something at me the morning I took those photos. (Not when I was taking the photographs, just when I was walking back to University). Did not really hear what he said... haha but oh well. That morning I just felt like it added to the vibrancy of London Road.

Another reason why I love Singapore :>

2007-12-20T10:12:00.001-08:00

It's the end of the semester and everywhere in Sheffield, people are preparing for Christmas. Not many people (non-muslims that is) seem to realize it EID @ Hari Raya Haji (in Singapore) today. Schools in Sheffield celebrate EID and Christmas and the bbc website mentions it. However, a rough survey of my colleagues in the department suggests that most people are not aware of it. I would not be aware either, if I did not work with a muslim family.

This was when I thought about Singapore, and how lucky we are to enjoy cultural diversity and how making cultural festivals a public holiday is a fantastic way for people to know that the festival exists. If people know about the festival, they are more likely to want to learn about it. This learning leads to increased inter-cultural understanding and better social cohesion among different groups in the community. If people don't celebrate a certain festival, they will certainly know of it, as they won't have to go to work.

This practice works well in Singapore probably because we have a fair number of people in different cultures. Of course, there are still minority cultures who are left out of the Singapore public holiday calendar. But it just means that we have greater opportunities to learn more about other people's way of living. Hmm... one more thing to add to the list of things I like about my country. :>

A European and Australiasia Night :>

2007-12-01T16:41:00.000-08:00

I went to my Czech friend's potluck party last night. :> It was fantastic!! Everyone brought a dish/ drink from home. It was a really fun evening; everyone was really friendly, I felt really comfortable, and had many interesting conversations. :) There were people from Italy, France, Germany, Poland, Czech (of course) and even Australia. There was a persistant euphony of different tones and accents in the living room.

Lenka and Alena made lotsa Czech cuisines, including a meatloaf with potato salad, a christmas sweet and spinach pastry. There was pasta made by Italian hands :>, gratin dauphinois (potatoes) from France, a fantastic nutty cake made by German Estee, who claims the cake is from Iceland :>, a Polish eggy beer, mulled wine, and I made Siew mai and pandan agar-agar. Our tummies have never been more satisfied.

I even learnt a little about Australian slang in the 2 minutes before Alena and I left for home. e.g. Dutch Oven?? hmmm better not describe that. Jam Jar for Car, Bugs bunny for money, Molly the monk for drunk

Shame I forgot my camera... but I don't suppose I will forget such an enjoyable event :>

I had a Wicked Time In LOnDon... 10th Nov

2007-11-24T18:32:00.000-08:00

I met up with Dawn in London on the 10th of Nov. :> We went to watch WIcked The Musical... which was 'Wicked'!!

'Wicked' is a new broadway musical, which presents the unheard story of the Wicked Witch of the West and Glinda the Good, characters from the classic Wizard of Oz. The Wicked Witch has been known as the antagonist in the orginal story. The Wizard of Oz was about Dorothy, a sweet innocent Kansas girl. Dorothy, by a twist of fate, is transported by a hurricane into the land of Oz. The house she travelled in accidentally crushed a lady known as the Wicked Witch of the East and was subsequently hailed as a hero by people of Oz. As all she wanted was to return home to Kansas, Glinda the Good Witch instructs her to go on a journey to meet the Wizard of Oz, who she says will help Dorothy go home. The WIcked Witch of the West was the evil witch who tries to stop Dorothy from meeting the Wizard of Oz. In the musical, we see the Wicked Witch of the West as a misunderstood individual, who from young was bullied and ostracized because of her emerald green skin. We see how her good intentions were misconstrued and her kind acts condemned by opponents, as full of malice. We see how people can be easily swayed by authority to see a good person as bad, possibly because of the person looking so different from them. Dawn and I caught the matinee. We bought cornish pasties and had them in the theatre. :> then had ice-cream at interval. We were mesmerized by the well-though story-line, witty lines and beautiful songs. The voices were so powerful, every emotion they were trying to express resonated in our hearts. It was absolutely fantastic. :>

http://www.wickedthemusical.co.uk/

Dawn and I then went for a pub meal. :p We had a walk along Oxford street and had some fun in Hamleys the toy shop. Really exciting... they were selling Harry potter wands, demonstrating making snow from magic powder, toys everywhere. It was fun!!

I went to meet up with Despina, who was hosting a house party themed E-vil. You either had to dress up as someone who's name began with E, or be someone evil. I unfortunately was totally rubbish and did not dress up for the occasion. I did have a very good time catching up with De, from the 'E'ighties, Charlotte, who was 'E'nvironmentally friendly, and chatting with Edward Scissorhand, an Energy drink, and Exit sign, and a few Egyptians. A pretty interesting experience indeed :p

The next day, Dawn and I had a ramble around London Bridge area and went to the Tate Modern for a bit. We then went to meet up with a few of my friends... Watson, from Primary school, Therese from Sheffield Uni and Jiamin from my RGS days.

Edale, closest to heaven in the peak district

2007-11-24T09:00:00.001-08:00

Gosh I think it was more than a month before that I went to Edale (21st of Oct). I feel the need to post something about it. :p Here are some magnificent photos from that day.

Peggy, Weizhong, Yih Chyn, Lenka, Kel Win and Renie. Resting before our descent :)

The past few weeks...

2007-11-22T10:48:00.000-08:00

My life seems to have taken a turn a few weeks ago. Sudden onslaught of work to do, errands to run, people to meet from all possible aspects of my life. I've barely had time to talk to my mom, do any bit of 'stoning' (in my dictionary means staring into space and not doing anything), or even watch strictly come dancing on tv. haha in some sorts it was an amazing time, just 'diving into things and swimming over wave after wave'.

1) Started my PA job with a family. little boy has CP so I'm to get him ready for school in the morning. That means 6am starts for me, fighting the morning traffic and waiting for buses which never are on time.
2) went to London to meet Dawn and friends
3) Started testing in schools for my research project. I was testing in a school in the next city too. that means more early morning starts to catch the early train.
4) Birthday celebrations
5) had an Autism Symposium to prepare for. It was organized by my supervisor to feedback to parents, children, schools who have participated in our previous projects, and fellow collaborators.
6) My Monday volunteering group starting again (SOUL and FAME) after rising from the ashes, due to management and funding issues.

The waves have stopped for a bit the past few days. As I've been telling quite a few people, I quite enjoyed having some normality back in my life, and being able to fit jogging in, in the morning. I went to ASDA supermarket today just to try out grocery shopping there. Had the weekly rider from having to travel to schools during the week. Not a very short journey at all, about 40 minutes. totally 'stoned' on the way there and back even though I brought my much neglected psychologist magazines with me...

having friends round for potluck dinner. :p making my well-practiced spinach and cheese lasagne again. this time though its without the recipe. bbc for some reason took it off their website. we'll just have to see if my improvization works this time :)

Sushi :>

2007-10-27T09:48:00.000-07:00

hehe finally got a photo of it. :) Made sushi for the Singaporean gathering later on this evening. It's much better than when I made it the first time. At least I got the ingredients in the centre this time :p

My new housemate bakes GRrreeeat :>

2007-10-13T14:19:00.000-07:00

My dear housemate from Czech baked for her friend's birthday last week. She saved some for us :) Apple tarts and a fruitty cake thingy (she got the latter recipe off the wrapper) :>

I'm Not a 'Girlie' Girl??

2007-10-13T13:39:00.000-07:00

This week...

1. A friend was talking to me about a young person who might need a personal assistant [under a direct payments scheme in which people needing extra support in their daily living can employ some one to provide that support] to do 'girlie' things with her. She was talking about how that might be something I want to do, and I do... but then we agreed I'm not that kind of 'go shopping', 'paint your nails', 'dress up', 'read female magazines', type of 'girlie'... hmmmm....

2. went to salsa class today for the 2nd time... There are always more girls than guys at such social dancing classes. This time I made sure I got to dance the 'girl's' part for most of the lesson, unlike last week... but I still did the guy's part for the merengue (which is probably a bad idea coz I can't lead people and I don't know the steps). We were doing the couples dance in a big circle and change partners after each dance. hmmm.. I don't want to dance the guy's part next week...

3. My new housemate and her friends were going to a 21st party today.... They looked stunning, in their pretty frocks and snazzy shoes. hair-straighteners to do their hair... matching handbags... I always say I cant be bothered to dress up anyway... but I guess its also when I want to... I get confused about what's nice... usually I don't have too many options to choose from anyway... coz I can't be bothered to go shopping so don't have that many nice things.... It's a simple case of 'you sow what you reap OR you get nothing out of sitting on your bum at home all day instead of going to MeadowHELL (term of affection by Sheffieldians for Meadowhall, a big shopping centre in Sheffield which is crazily busy on weekends)'. haizzzz...

I'm definitely not the only 'un-girlie' girl amongst my friends... haha but at least they have better fashion-sense than I do... (Disclaimer: I'm not in any way saying 'un-girlie' is an un-desirable trait... 'girlie' or 'un-girlie' are both neutral descriptions of how people behave in this world)

also, I think I'm not bothered enough to change myself... I find it a little tiring trying to be 'girlie' when I'm not... I think I'll concentrate on my salsa dance steps instead :p

Can't take on too many things at one time can I? :p

It takes 2 hands to clap...

2007-10-03T11:07:00.000-07:00

This is a poem written by Jim, a 27 year olds man with Autism (Cesaroni and Garber, 1991, Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders).

Jim feels that suggestions of people with autism lacking empathy and not taking other people's perspective, are unfair. He feels it more objective to say that people with autism have difficulties with expressing their thoughts and feelings, and understanding social cues. He writes about the tremendous efforts he puts in to interact with other people, though very often unsuccessfully. The poem also seems to have a hint of disappointment, at how people without autism often do not help make interactions with people like him, easier.

I built a bridge
out fo nowhere, across nothingness
and wondered if there would be something on the other side.

I built a bridge
out of fog, across darkness
and hoped that there would be light on the other side.

I built a bridge
out of despair, across oblivion
and knew that there would be hope on the other side.

I built a bridge
out of helplessness, across chaos
and trusted that there would be strength on the other side.

I built a bridge
out of hell, across terror
and it was a good bridge, a strong bridge, a beautiful bridge

It was a bridge I built myself,
with only my hands for tools, my obstinacy for supports,
my faith for spans, and my blood for rivets.

I built a bridge, and crossed it,
but there was no one there to meet me on the other side.

How wrong could Roast go?

2007-09-30T16:20:00.001-07:00

It can go pretty wrong... especially if

1) You do not put enough oil

2) You put the tray at the bottom of the oven (how daft is that?)

3) You are not constantly watching it and keeping time (muddle-head)

Today was one of those days when my cooking was bad. These were the nice people who came to my house. :) The company was really good. My new housemates Helen and Alena joined in as well :>

We managed to make good Yorkshire puddings though... haha credit should got to Max who did the mixing and watching them 'grow'; the research team... Renie and Helen who were in charge of finding the recipe on the net. :p

My First time (in 4 years) on the Women's safety bus

2007-09-25T16:39:00.000-07:00

My friend 'forced' me to take the women's safety bus tonight (my dear friend... if you are reading this... I must say I really appreciate it... but its this pathological problem with me that I must feel as if I can take care of myself :p).

The women's safety bus is a really great service runned by the Sheffield Students' Union to send female students home after a late night out. It runs from 1130pm till late late. It is definitely something most people see as allowing women to party as much as they want without worrying about having to go home alone. But some how I felt dis-empowered travelling in it today... Its the thing about not being able to choose whether I can walk home by myself at night. I guess there's different standards of what it means to be 'free' for different people.

A different Mid-Autumn celebration - 另类中秋

2007-09-25T16:15:00.000-07:00

My friend C decided today that he was going to have a party and invite his friends over. :p I'm not usually up for spontaneous social events but I decided to take up the invitation. After all it was Mid-Autumn celebration... a time for gatherings.

I had a really interesting night. :) I met some of C's friends, who he met online with the chinese student internet forum in Sheffield. They are really nice and friendly people and I would love to spend another time with them. It did take a while for me to warm up and join in the conversations. Firstly I was very confused by them using their internet aliases when speaking with one another. I did not even know they were refering to C at certain points during the night. Secondly, I was slightly lost in the 'Chinese Chinese' everyone was speaking. They spoke chinese with their beautiful mainland chinese accent and speckled their sentences with what I would think as posh phrases and sayings. There was a slight oxi-moron that while I identified myself as a being a rather traditional chinese person, I definitely would not appear as such to them. I actually felt inferior interacting with my new friends with the way I was speaking (to be fair... my chinese fluency has decreased since I came to study in UK :p). It was quite a strange feeling.

This comes back to our little discussion about ethnicity at SOUL last night. :) F was talking about how ethnicity is not only defined by skin-colour, but also by a common history or way of living. A group of chinese in one country may live a life completely different from another group of chinese else where. While they are bonded by a common ancestry long long ago, recent developments have put them down different cultural trajectories.

What I learnt today...
that there are savoury mooncakes!!! Apparently in certain parts of China, people use meat as mooncake fillings. Today J. made some and we all had a try. He used short-crust pastry to wrap the fillings in.

The mooncakes that I am familiar with are usually the ones that are filled with sweet fillings like lotus paste, bean paste, nuts. The only savoury bit I know would probably be the gorgeous egg yolk and the occasional time when I have the 五仁 type with bits of ham in there.

http://www.chinatownconnection.com/chinese-mooncake.htm

Start of Academic Year 2007/2008

2007-09-24T01:00:00.000-07:00

Oh My Gosh!!! It's the beginning of Freshers' Week!!!... It's the start of Autumn!!!

and how does Mother Nature mark this special day in the calendar???

RAIN!!! Lotsa and Lotsa RAIN :>

Every year... without fail...

Homity Pie...

2007-09-23T07:51:00.000-07:00

I had a really good weekend, catching up with my uni friends :) I met up with my Psychology friends last night for dinner, then with Kathryn and Jess today for lunch in Bakewell.

Did not manage to take a single picture with my friends... haha so I thought this picture of my lunch in Bakewell will remind me of this weekend. :>

中秋节- Mid-Autumn Festival

2007-09-22T05:34:00.000-07:00

爸爸，妈妈，姐姐和Stephen 现在在新加坡庆祝中秋节。我却再Sheffield 无所事事。没有月饼吃，没有朋友陪我提灯笼和玩蜡烛。haizzzz...

至少这个周末约了几位大学老朋友吃晚餐，明天也会和 Jess 和 Kathryn 去Peak district 走走，吃午餐。

新的大学学期下周开始。。。 Sheffield 又会‘活' 起来了。

(A chinese friend got me to chat over msn with chinese... haha thought I practiced a few lines on my blog... feels funny writing/typing in Chinese... havent done that for a while)

42nd Street

2007-09-20T15:57:00.000-07:00

I went to watch 42nd Street (the musical) at the Sheffield Lyceum tonight :) It was amazing!!! check out some of the music from this youtube link. This was performed at the 55th Tony awards. those tap dance moves.... wow!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXKK8m_67NU&mode=related&search=

Apparently Catherine Zeta Jones was a chorus member in the 1984 West end production of 42nd St. :p and just like the main character Peggy Sawyer in the show, she was given the starring role of Peggy Sawyer when the star actress fell ill. :> hehe from wikipedia...

Could not resist putting this in too :p Girl Power!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0C5uXz6Cy0&mode=related&search=

Helicopter in Weston Park

2007-09-12T05:33:00.000-07:00

A luminous green helicopter landed in the middle of Weston Park today. :) My friends and I were having lunch in the park (just beside the Psychology Dept) and were just in time to catch the excitement.

2 policemen on bicycles cleared the grassy area where many people were having their lunch. The helicopter then hovered above the park creating swirls of wind that blew grass and flower petals around its landing perimeter. Then it slowed to a smooth landing.

We still have no idea what its purpose was for. There were some staff and patients from the nearby Children's hospital, who came to receive the helicopter. But whether some one was getting transported somewhere else or if the helicopter brought important cargo was not apparent. The people near the helicopter were evidently feeling the same as the on-lookers as they were taking photos of the not so common event :p

Too bad I did not have a camera with moi.

Autism Europe Congress 2007

2007-09-09T03:42:00.000-07:00

I had a good time at the Autism Europe Congress 2007. :> There were many good speakers there from all aspects of Autism research and clinical practice. :p There was plenty fodder for the mind (if none for the body).

There was an Art exhibition displaying works from people with Autism. I thought this painting really matched one of the poster presentations about face processing and visual perception.

The study by Deruelle and colleagues was looking at high spatial frequency and low spatial frequency information biases in emotion and gender aspects of face processing in children with Autism Spectrum Disorders and typically developing children. High spatial frequency information in a visual image provides the details of the image; Low spatial frequency information provides the global outline (i.e. relationships between different parts of the picture) of the image. The picture above can be what a face would look like if only low spatial frequency information were given.

Hybrid faces were used. Each had a low spatial frequency filtered faces super-imposed on a high spatial frequency filtered face. The high and low spatial frequency face were either male or female, or of 2 different emotions. Each image was presented for 100ms and then participants were asked to categorize the faces they saw as male or female, one emotion or another.

Typically developing participants made more low spatial frequency choices for the gender task, more high spatial frequency choices for the emotion task. Participants with ASD showed more low spatial frequency choices in both types of task. The typically developing participants differed signficantly from the ASD participants only on the emotion task.

Participants with ASD did not show differential use of high and low spatial frequency information like the typically developing controls when switching between emotion and gender tasks. The authors suggest reduced top-down modulation on perceptual processes in participants with ASD.

People with autism have been known to show difficulties in processing emotions in faces. Could this low spatial frequency bias in hybrid faces be a clue to understanding why that is so? :p The picture is a pretty good description of this question isn't it?

Self Portrait with a Wine-Bottle

2007-09-07T05:37:00.001-07:00

Edvard Munch is best known for his painting 'The Scream'. This painting is one of my favourites of his, after I visited the museum. It just feels to me that his paintings is his way to express his current state of emotions. There are times when he shows his confident side, but there are times his moments of pain and suffering slips out uncontrollably. Like in this portrait of himself... The wine-bottle (use of substance to get away?), his posture with hands clasped over his knees (a sign of resignation), the 2 waiters standing back to back who seem to grow out of his back (confusion? conflicting thoughts?).

For more: http://www.munch.museum.no/work.aspx?id=17

Concluding remarks about my Trip to Norway

2007-09-07T05:06:00.000-07:00

I spent every last Kroner I had. If not for the unexpected 50 NOK fee (see... did not read the hostel description properly) I had to pay for bed linen hire each night I stayed at Anker hostel, I might have enough for a good breakfast before my morning flight back to Manchester, UK. Well, let's not complain and be thankful for what you have. :p I had a nice bread roll and a satisfying caffe latte. Coffee was good and fair-priced in Oslo. I've definitely become a coffee addict now.

After I came back from Sogndal, I was really tired. It might be age or the 2 consecutive nights spent on overnight buses really took its toll. The last bus ride was really crowded. I only had 1 seat to myself. The passenger in front of me placed the back of his seat so much into my space it was pretty uncomfortable. I must have annoyed the lady sitting beside me very much with my tossing and turning. Being by the window made me feel even more claustophobic.

The bus got to Oslo at 5.25am in the morning. I hanged around the train station till the attractions opened and went on to Akershuss castle. I had a nice walk around and then went to the Cultural history museum. I tried my best to absorb as many interesting facts at the museum (as it was really interesting... Did you know that the Vikings had a monetary penalty for murder? If you murder someone, you had to pay 1000x amount, and your brother would have to pay a lesser amount and so on with your relatives. That was meant to deter people from killing as it would impact your entire family... hmmm but just money for taking a life?). I was however overcome by hunger and fatigue by 11am. My idea of having a lavish dinner before I left Oslo turned into lunch instead. I took almost 20 mins to get to the cafe. I was so dis-oriented I was walking in the wrong direction!. I had my long-awaited meal of meatballs and pea stew (actually its like mushy peas) and a slice of cake.

I returned to the hostel well before check-in at 3pm. I was hoping to get a room early to have a wash and a nap. They were however very strict on timing that day. Still, by 4pm I was feeling fresh and clean and tucked myself in bed :>.

I woke up at 6pm and went to get some food. I had a ice seat in the botanical gardens (which I went on the first day too) with my bread roll and orange.

I went back to my hostel and had an early ngith. i heard the Dutch couple come in at about 10ish. They must have thought me lazy as they caught me sleeping at 4pm too when they arrived.

Finally, some other highlights of my trip that have not been mentioned:
- Kontikii museum: Thor Heyerdahl (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thor_Heyerdahl) and his amazing voyages on open seas with mere rafts.
- The FRAM museum: the story of Norwegian polar explorers. most impressed Fridtjof Nansen (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fridtjof_Nansen) and Roald Amundsen.
I might go read their books :>
- The Munch Museet: showcased lots and lots of Munch's works.
- BROWN CHEESE (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geitost)

Nigandsbreen - BiGgest Glacier on MainLand Europe

2007-09-07T04:24:00.000-07:00

I went to the biggest alpine glacier in mainland Europe at Jostelsbreen national Park. It was a fantastic experience (this might be effort justification: I spent so much money, time and effort, that the outcome MUST be good :p). The scenery was spectacular. The mountains had mini-waterfalls and streams, likely consequencies of melting snow. The glacier was a massive blue crystal etched between 2 mountains. It was a valley glacier, slightly different from ice sheets in ANtartica and Greenland. Fallen snow collected within the valley became the compact ice structure. The blue arises from the water molecules absorbing some of red light. :>

I had a miraculous journey to reach the glacier. It began with a 7 hour overnight bus journey. Then 3 hours of waiting for a bus at Sogndal bus terminal. Further waiting (and not too sure there is a bus) at Gaupne, a nearby village. Then a private ride in the bus carrying also a truck load of goods at 70 miles per hour on the narrow mountain roads. I managed to get there in time for the only glacier walk that day. Finally I had to hitch a ride with a kind Dutch couple from the visitor centre to the base of the glacier.

Sognal

Gaupne

We were given spikes for our shoes, ice picks and harnesses. Our group of 8 were all belayed on 1 long rope. After the guide showed us the 'power' of the spikes... that as long as you kept your feet flat on the ice, you could not slip no matter which way you walked... I felt a sense of invincibility :p

the crew

View from the Glacier

A crevice

The journey back to Oslo was yet another adventure. I was definitely was like a 'fox thinking its safe passage, while it was being skinned' (a saying I learnt at the Cultural history museum :> opposite of better be safe than sorry). I got another lift back to the visitor centre with the Dutch couple. My intention was to have a look around the visitor centre, then take the bus back to Gaupne, back to Sogndal. I thought I double-checked with the lady at the reception about bus times and she warned me that there were no buses that day. The time-table I was looking as actually indicated return journeys only on saturdays. I was still in dis-belief as I thought it inconceivable that the bus will take you there, but not back. Still I took her advice to ask for a lift from someone. Luckily, I caught a Spanish couple in the centre and they were happy to give me a ride. They took me straight to Sogndal as it was on their way. :) I was really lucky to have met such nice people, or else I would have been stranded in Jostalsbreen (or be completely broke from getting a taxi ride for 500 NOK).

Oslo, Norway

2007-09-03T09:25:00.000-07:00

:p It's been a long while since I've gone travelling. Here I am in Oslo, Norway. The most expensive city for tourists. yups they even charged me 4 pounds ish extra for rental of bed linen at my hostel.... grrrr...

Still, I've enjoyed the past few days and am looking forward to the next few. I tried to be a little creative in the post before this. :p Thought I wrote something about my morning by the sea. I went to Bydorg, an area where there was a collection of museums about marine exploration, Vikings and Ships. It was about 8am in the morning and while waiting for the museums to open, I went about the peninsula. I always loved the sound of the sea, but it was only today that I realized what the sea sounds like when there were no ships moving about in the near distance.

When the sea was calm...

2007-09-03T09:09:00.000-07:00

The sea was calm
still asleep
breathing lightly
like a baby curled up in its cradle

The sea was calm
it tip-toed up the rocky shores
peace and tranquility
Music in silence

Then, the city wøke up

Boats sped across the bay
the airplane hummed overhead on its first flight out
All these,
just when I wanted to sit and enjoy the peace

The sea shared my agitation
Its waves clashed with the coastal rocks
the baby was crying
it will be a wait...

till the sea is calm again

Sometimes I forget...

2007-08-28T10:50:00.000-07:00

1. Speak TO the person directly involved
2. Do not shy away at certain topics, it makes it worse; talk the person through it, ask questions since it has been brought up; CHECK if unsure, do not assume
3. Remember, sometimes things are mentioned because people want a listening year. the word as sister says is 'VALIDATE'

Dream-Catcher...

2007-08-22T08:05:00.000-07:00

I made a dream-catcher at my volunteer group on Monday :) Too bad I could not bring it home. The organizers of the project are going to different community groups in Sheffield to ask people to make them. They will be part of a grand installation to promote conservation of Sheffield's waterways and will be exhibited end september :p

This photo is to show my mother what I meant :p

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dreamcatcher_(Native_American)

On Top of the World (well Sheffield at least)

2007-08-21T02:14:00.000-07:00

I went to my new accommodation last night to move a few things in :)

I think I'm going to be very happy there. It's an attic room. It looks gorgeous and overlooks Sheffield. This is the view I get from my window...

This is my new little dwelling :) The biggest room I have ever had in Sheffield. Look! It's even got a sofa chair.

The door to my attic room is opened by a silver key... Makes me think of a magic key that opens to a whole new world, up in the attic. :> Perhaps staying there will make me more creative in the next 6 months.

Watch National Day Parade Online :p

2007-08-09T01:25:00.001-07:00

http://www.ndp.org.sg/multimedia/webcast/index.html

Mother asked me to take a photo of fresh sardines

2007-08-08T00:20:00.000-07:00

Marathon...

2007-08-07T23:24:00.001-07:00

I watched another good Korean movie on my flight to the UK :> The movie entitled 'Marathon' illustrated the story of Cho-won, a teenager with autism, and his passion for running. He initially got into running because his mother chose the activity for him, but he develops a love for the sport even though he never expressed it in words or action. The plot revolves around him training for his first marathon, amidst struggles between his reluctant marathon coach and his mother, trying to understand what Cho-won wants.

In the film, Cho-won emerged from being a boy with a disability working in a sheltered workshop, to a someone who knows what he wants in life and has the strength to compete on par with people who are supposedly more advantaged. He is not the only character who grew in spirit in the story. Cho-won's reluctant coach had no understanding of autism at first. He grew to see beyond Cho-won's condition and began to treat him as a promising athlete and a good student he is. Cho-won's mother started off as a guilt-ridden and controlling mother, trying to find her son a niche in life and to make the best choices for him. Cho-won's mother was 100% behind her son running the marathon, but started to go against him running when she lost faith in her belief that Cho-won likes running. She did not want Cho-won to risk his life running the marathon just because she wanted him to. Cho-won finally shows that he really loves running, by competing in the marathon against her wishes. From that, she discovers that her son has grown up and is capable of making choices for himself. Subsequently, she was able to let her son be, and assumes a supportive role.

A sub-plot in the story was the effect of Cho-won's autism on his family. Cho-won was a difficult child from young. His parents lack of understanding of the disorder led to a lot of tension within the family. His father left the family. Cho-won's mother had custody of Cho-won and his brother Jung-won. She however concentrated all her efforts on Cho-won, and seemed to have neglected Jung-won's needs. Jung-won grew up feeling resentful about Cho-won. Even so, in moments of crisis, when their mother was hospitalized and Cho-won runs away to participate in the marathon, Jung-won was able to put his bitterness behind him and helped his mother find Cho-won.

I really felt that the movie depicted autism in a very real way. It demonstrated the difficulties in communicating and interacting with people, the poor understanding of emotions, and restricted interests. What it did very well was also to show that people with autism are also not much different from supposedly 'normal' people.

Cho-won often seldom tell other people how he feels, especially whether he feels tired or in pain. When asked questions, he often repeats them and it takes some effort to get him to answer your question but that still leaves you thinking whether you lead him to that answer in the first place. He takes things literally, running 100 laps around the field when his coach just said it jokingly. He is over-formal with his brother as he bows to his brother when ever he sees him. When asked how does he feel (happy, sad, angry, frightened) in different situations (including one of his mother being in hospital), he could not answer. Cho-won however did feel really distraught when his mother was hospitalized. He could not put a name to it, but he was definitely feeling a negative emotion.

Another thing I thought was wrapped up really well in the movie was Cho-won's love for running being shown as very exhilarating sensory experience for him. The air brushing against his cheek as he sprints; his hand running through the long grass on the side of the track; his heart pumping to push blood around his body. It made him feel alive. :)

That is what we all are and that's what we all want... to feel alive. We may have different personalities, different beliefs, different abilities, different limitations. But our aspirations always lead to one things, the feeling of being alive :)

Cute Elephants :p

2007-08-03T21:33:00.000-07:00

This is rather late news. hehe but I was talking about elephants and self-recognition with my friends yesterday. This is an article from the bbc, which has shows the elephants and what the experiment shows

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6100430.stm

I always felt self-recognition was a very important part of our humanity. I used to see some of the clients in the care home I work with hurting themselves, pinching, bitting. As the clients don't see much of themselves in a full-view mirror (mirrors might be a safety issue in the home), I always wondered if their self-injury behavior would be lesser if they looked at themselves in the mirror more. Pure conjecture on my side. :p

Hmmm slightly out of point again... but think J Lacan's mirror phase... Not too sure if he is a friend/ foe of Freud, but he is part of the Psycho-analysis movement. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques_Lacan

I have Bad Taste in Music?

2007-08-03T18:49:00.000-07:00

I'm not a person who listens to music very much. My favourite music albums consists of West End Musical soundtracks and old disney songs... quite pathetic right?

I've listened to the most new music this holiday. :p One big reason was that I've been poking my nose in the sing-a-long sessions at Westend Project (this is the Singapore Westend :p a MINDS Youth group project for the Intellectually Disabled). The first sing-a-long was in conjunction with LIVE EARTH (yes... this has got to do with my drive for meaning, there must be a reason why we want to sing a song). I listened to Madonna's Hey you! so many times, I've started to like it :p Like my volunteer senior said, the lyrics are meaningful. Still, I thought the melody could be zestier. Today's sing-a-long will be for national day :p. I've been talking about the national day songs with my mother, my sister and my friends... I LOVE national day songs and I LOVE to sing a long to them. But the response from most people has been less than luke-warm. While I see crowds of people at National Day parade swaying in enjoyment to those classic and most recent songs, a survey of my family and friends make it seem like I'm a small minority.

oh well... different people have different opinions. For people who I have not surveyed, or have not had time to listen to the newest, or from the UK, go visit the link below :> {to my good friend who is into trying new music, and a big bollywood fan, and wanted me to bring some of the music from my region over: maybe you will be interested in listening to these}

http://www.ndp.org.sg/multimedia/audio/index.html

My favourite National Day songs:
(My 5 cats Gang and I had a discussion on that... hehe you gals will be glad to know that I've found the name of my favourite song, the one I could not name*)

The Magic is You*
It's the Little Things
Will You
There's no place I'd Rather be
We will get there

AND the children's day song :> Semoga Bahagia (May you Achieve Happiness)

A few good friends at Uni love going to music festivals. They definitely know all the newest coolest music. I was with them at one jamming session and they are really good :p 1 friend even joined a band comp at Uni before. I always feel I need to educate myself in this area... haha :p Another friend at my UK volunteer group once teased me about not knowing what songs David Bowie sang (that's the person we were talking about right? hmmm...). haha sometime really needs to be changed.

'Daughters are like spilt water'

2007-07-13T21:13:00.002-07:00

I read with interest today's Straits Times' special on the social issue of gender imbalance in the Hainan province of China. The traditional preference for boys over girls has led to a troubling sex ratio of 136 boys to 100 girls within the group of offshore islands. Straits Times reported the rise of 'bachelor villages', with many young men unable to find a match.

The traditional preference for boys stemmed from many practical issues. Many of the Hainan dwellers are farmers/ fishermen. Such trade is considered unsuitable for women. Boys are also required to carry on the family line and to care for the parents in old age. When daughters grow up and get married, they are thought to 'belong' to the other family and their duty is to care for their in-laws in old age.

The China one-child policy complicates matters further as if couples can only have 1 child, they would want a baby boy. While scans for baby sex and sex-selective abortions have been made illegal, there are ways around these restrictions.

The Chinese government is going through great efforts to change people's attitudes about having baby girls. Financial incentives like one-time payments, school fee waivers and free medical treatment for female new-borns have been implemented. Still, time is needed if people's mindsets are to change.

I know a friend of Hainan descent in modern day Singapore. She comes from a family of 2 daughters while her uncles had at least 1 boy in their families. Some of her relatives subscribe to such sexism and naturally express favouritism towards the families with boys. While its pretty funny to laugh at some of the things that happened before, there is inevitably some bitterness enmeshed in those memories. Its sad how such prejudices can be so deeply in-grained. Of course her encounters are nothing compared to it being a life-and death situation for female foetuses in certain societies.

On a happier note, the article also highlights the kindness of a middle-aged couple in Hainan who adopted 14 abandoned girls even though they had 5 children of their own, 2 of which are boys. The family is not well-off at all, but the couple made sure that their adopted girls were well-fed and have access to education.

Humans have played with nature in too many ways already. To play with the gender balance in the human population might be something that can back-fire pretty badly.

KuSu... Tortoise Land

2007-07-05T06:57:00.001-07:00

I went to Kusu Island with my family today :). Kusu Island is off the southern shores of Singapore. It is really small. One could walk around the island in about 30 minutes. It does not have the vibrance of Sentosa (another Singapore off shore island, and a favourite haunt for tourists). It has no crazy theme parks, fancy restaurants, or ornate museums. It only has a tortoise sanctuary that is home to 1000s of terrapins, tortoises and turtles, a chinese temple and a mosque.

Kusu Island is also known as the 'turtle' island. The island was in a shape of a turtle before land reclamation took place. Legend has it that a giant turtle turned into the island to save 2 ship wrecked sailors. One sailor was chinese, and the other muslim. Thus a chinese temple and a mosque was erected on the island to thank the turtle who sacrificed itself for them.

My parents, my sister and I had a really good time just lazing about on the island. Peace and tranquility are 2 things Kusu Island offers, that Sentosa can never. We had a really nice picnic lunch with sushi, sandwiches, breadstick with guacamole. The weather was just right, though it was switching between slight drizzles and sunshine. We had a choice of hot coffee or iced juice depending on how warm or cool we were feeling :). Sister brought some funny picnic 'tents' which could be folded up. we unfortunately took a very long time to figure out how to fold and twist them in the right way when packing them away.

I performed my usual ritual of feeding the turtles in the turtle sanctuary :>

Let's talk about tea and coffee

2007-07-03T01:23:00.000-07:00

I've been many times to the local coffee shop with my mother since I came back to Singapore last Tuesday. Everytime I take a sip of the iced yuanyang (coffee and tea with condensed milk), I never fail to think about how different people in England drink their tea and coffee. Even more with sweet reminiscence, I recall the time at a SOUL residential when my young friend accidentally put coffee and tea in one cup and was feeling silly about having done so. I was telling her that that's one of my favourite drinks back home.

My friends in england usually drink tea or coffee with fresh milk and/ or sugar. It is not usual that condensed milk or evaporated milk is used. No body ever mixes tea and coffee together.

In Singapore coffeeshops, Kopi (coffee) or Teh (tea) if drunk with milk, would be with evaporated milk or condensed milk. I'm not really sure how this drinking style came about. Singapore coffee shops were opened by Hainamnese immigrants from Singapore's olden days (Hainan Kopi?). Wikipedia describes this type of 'milk tea' as originating from Hong Kong and spread its seeds to many Asian countries. In Malaysia and Singapore there is also the popular Teh Tarik (pulled tea) in which the milk to is made frothy by pouring it from one cup held high up to another cup and from that cup back to the first in the same way, several times.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hong_Kong-style_milk_tea
(has links to yuanyang and teh tarik)

Milk tea is so popular it is also sold in cans. My friend once told me how he bought lotsa of milk tea of a particular brand when he was in China. He was returning to Singapore with them, but the airport immigration authorities barred him from bringing on the plane a few cans of milk tea. This was post-september 11 I think. and he had to ask all his friends to finish them up before getting on the plane.

I thought it was quite funny that the wikipedia website talked about how westerners do not hold 'milk tea' in much esteem. It has been thought to originate from Holland but does not seem to be something that has captured the imagination of western tourists. Travel guide books apparently fail to mention milk tea when informing people on what is good to eat in HongKong.

I actually only knew about Yuanyang from a friend not more than 4 years ago. I never knew tea and coffee put together could taste so good. :p An even more recent discovery was ginger milk tea at the indian drinks stall. :p Its amazing how even up to this age (I'm not that old I know, but I reckon I should know my own country quite well by now) I never knew of such a drink. I thought it was like the chinese ginger tea in which ginger is boiled with water and a little bit of sugar is added to taste (brewed ginger is supposed to be good for wind and stuff). I did not know it was a variation of milk tea too.

Its humbling to know that there's so much to learn from something as simple as tea/coffee.

'Freud for Beginners'

2007-06-28T20:36:00.000-07:00

:p 3 blogs at one go to compensate for the 'deadness' on my blog for the past month.

I just finished reading 'Freud for Beginners' today. Hooray, one thing to tick of my 'to do list' this holiday. I thought I needed to get in touch with this man, who's ideas most people think is fundamental in psychology, but is actually De-NouNced in the psychology education I had. The book has not really changed how I feel about Freud.

Psychology has greatly criticized Freud as unscientific. His theories are thought to be un-falsifiable (It says A is B, but when A is not B, it explains why A is not B too). It is also based on research on a relatively small and specific group of clients (for the conclusions he makes). The clients that he has are mostly upper/middle class Jewish women with neurotic/ hysteric tendencies. He has no objective measure of what he was finding out. He was the person writing the notes and they were usually done at the end of the day when he as seen many clients throughout the day.

Based on the above, it may be pretty amazing how his ideas became so famous, and have started a psychoanalysis as a form of therapy of the psychologically ill. Still they are ideas (notwithstanding 'fluffy' as a friend would call it) that revolutionalized how we thought about ourselves and how we think. What is the 'unconscious' and could it affect the way we behave and interpret the information we receive about the world? (I must admit I do not fully understand Freud's works... this is just off the top of my head)

Freud's theories do not account for all instances of psychological behaviour and is essentially male-dominated. His 'Oedipal complex', talks about the boy when growing up, falls in love with his mother, but because of fear of his father suppresses this sexual desire. The girl is described as 'a boy with a little bit less' as she is said to have a similar complex which is based on having 'penis envy'. His 'oedipal complex' theory does not also talk much about in other situations where the children are not cared for by the parents; neither does it say anything about sibling rivalry. His idea of dreams as a product of unfulfilled wishes also does not really explain nightmares, although he often explains nightmares in symbols in which is turns out to be unfulfilled wishes.

Still, Freud has many lessons to offer. :) Thought/Ideas can never be bad or useless unless people who recieve them do not make appropriate use of them. Freud's work made people want to explore the psyche more. If not to study his ideas, but to refute them too. It also can be interpreted as a reflection of the time that he was in and how his growing environment and living period affected his work. It also provided us with a strong caveat on how to conduct systematic enquiries on the human mind. I'm sure there are more of Freud's contributions to the understanding of the human mind...

I love Singapore :)

2007-06-28T20:11:00.000-07:00

I forgot that I've been away for 9 months. There have been some positive changes in my neighbourhood that I feel really happy to be in Singapore. :)

1) My complaints about the lack of accessible re-cycling facilities a few years ago, have totally been 'squashed'. They were already in abundance in the city area. Now, within 10 minutes of walking in the Bukit Gombak area, you would see an average of 1.5 sets of yellow, green and blue bins. They are literally everywhere. It does not guarantee that people will use them and that the re-cycling culture in Singapore will improve, but the efforts made to remind people is impressive.

2) There is also an average of 2 fitness areas for the elderly within 10 minute walking distance. There are at least 6 different 'excercises in each area' and are not your conventional excercise equipment. Some mimick gym equipments like the 'ski-walker' and others requires users to specialized movements like taii-chi palm circles. They are not adjustable so I was slightly worried about the possibility of injury if users are not suited to use them. Lack of guidance means users may not use them appropriately too. Still, I think its a great idea. They do encourage retirees to use them and move parts of their bodies that they would not normally use.

There is always space for exercise in Singapore... I've never really valued that until now (I guess). People can use the running tracks freely, there are nice parks with good exercise facilities, the weather is generally good, it's safe to jog at night... what more can one ask for... I'm so going to good and start excercising again this month...

but then... you get really good tasting (not good in the health sense) and cheap food everywhere... hmmm let's see what happens.

Rest... Home...

2007-06-28T19:48:00.000-07:00

That the last blog was about 1 month ago and about Inuyasha shows how 'engaged' I have been the show...

I touched down in Singapore on the 26th of June, Tuesday :>. That's 4 days ago. And I have not felt so rested in months :p. My last week in Sheffield was filled with 'leaving anxiety' (making sure I had all the work I needed before I left), last days at work and volunteering, and my really short-term comitment to spreading the word about the GLO-Ball (a ball/night club specially for adults with disabilities). It was great just spending time at home... with my parents... and starting to get in touch with my friends :). I managed to push myself to do at least 3km the past 3 days... I cooked dinner last night... and I finished reading 'Freud for Beginners' :p Is that accomplishment enough?

I left Sheffield just as the skies poured a whole summer of rain on it... It feels really odd seeing Sheffield as a disaster zone in the Singapore papers. It rained really badly 2 weeks ago, and I knew the meadowhall area was flooded... but I would never think Hillsborough would be hit this time... my friend says that 'I picked the right time to go home'. She did too say that there is a nice show of community spirit as people are talking about what's happening.

INUYASHA

2007-06-07T09:26:00.000-07:00

Yes... Hwan Cui likes shows that have to do with inter-dimension/ time travel/communication...

e.g. Dr Who, TOrchWood, Sliders, X-men, Butterfly effect, Frequency

and stories of females with extra-ordinary lives

e.g. Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Charmed

That is why she has a fascination with INUYASHA since she first saw the cartoon on Arts Central, Singapore, in 2005.

[INUYASHA is a Japanese Anime about a 15 year old girl, Kagome, who accidentally travels back in time to Feudal Japan, and meets the half-demon Inuyasha. She finds out that she possesses a jewel of power that many demons and humans are after. The jewel endows its owner with great power, so should never fall into the hands of evil. When the jewel was broken into pieces and strewn all over Feudal Japan, she joined forces with Inuyasha to retreive them. They meet many friends along the way who have the same purpose of defeating a BIG BAD Naraku and toe retrive the jewel shards. The pair reluctant at first to cooperate, also ends up falling in love. Things are never simple though... as Inuyasha has a tragic past with an brave demon hunting priestess... who is likely to have reincarnated as Kagome]

It has been a painful relationship for Hwan Cui with INUYASHA... (the cartoon... not the boy :p)

1. She could not watch it anymore after she came back to Sheffield
2. She could not afford the Comics or the DVDs...

but now... after 2 years of missing out on the story... She has found it on....

YOUTUBE!!!

Hwan Cui is officially on holiday now... haha she is spending all her after work hours watching the cartoon from episode 1.

I'm just ranting...

2007-06-06T01:51:00.000-07:00

I've been trying to set up a UK and Singapore study investigating effects of culture of perceptual influences (i.e. how we see the world) in children. I hope to start with typically developing children, then go on to compared differences in children with autism in the 2 countries. I've been filling in forms to get approval to do the study in Singapore and to see if I can get some money for the research. I am quite positive about the study and have been working hard to put it all together. But there is always a line or two in the application forms that make me less confident about how it would work out. Most of them go alongst the lines of the relevance to inteventions and education... i.e. applied research...

My research is rather theoretical. Its about how autism develops and how perception might have a role to play in the developing of the social difficulties observed. I usually try to be conservative and not make wild speculations about how it can be applied to the real world... Basically because I don't know yet. I see my research filling the niche of building up the foundations of our understanding of autism, in which future interventions and early diagnosistic tools can be based on. How can we not stress the effectiveness of early intervention? and how does early intervention come about... diagnosis at a young age... how can diagnosis be done at a young age? If we understand how autism develops!

I don't know if my line of research will lead me anywhere... but lots of esteemed researchers do think so (or else they wont be spending half their lifes doing it would they?). I would not mind contributing to autism research in that it eventually tells people 'DOn't go down that way... there's nothing there...) That is how scientific knowledge grows is not it?

Why I study vision in autism? Because robust differences have been found in people with autism and people without autism. People with autism have been found to be better at processing details of visual/ auditory information than people without autism. They have been found to be better on the blocks design and better at finding target shapes out of complex designs. There is a difference there... so I study it. to see if that tells me anything about changes in the developmental trajectory of a child that might lead him/her to develop social communication difficulties. If it is possible to translate that strength in detail processing to tasks that the child can excel in and make it easier for the child to learn social skills. Identifying strengths to let the child maximize his potential and to overcome weaknesses.

On another note... I am slightly wary genetics research in autism... specifically if the research aim to eradicate developmental disorders. Is a developmental disorder an 'illness' or variation in the human population. My stance is skewed towards the latter. Many congenitally deaf people believe that that is how they are born and that is who they are. Thus they fight for recognition of sign language as a language and deafness as a culture. Differences amongst people make life colourful. And making those differences disappear might make what makes us human, disappear too (I'm quite sure someone at Autism Research UK said that). What we need to do is to help people whose 'differences' cause distress or limit their potential to excel, in our 'difference' un-friendly society.

(oops... went off course... )

Conclusion:

I have a good product.

I believe my product is good.

I need to know how to sell it in Singapore!!!

In Pursuit of HappYness

2007-06-02T04:12:00.001-07:00

HappYness with a 'Y' and not an 'I'....
hmmmmm...

Different ways of making a statement...

2007-06-02T02:31:00.000-07:00

1) Dutch television created a huge controversy before the broadcast of a new reality tv show:
A terminally ill lady will choose one of 3 patients as the recipient of her kidney.

There were protests for it not to be broadcast. The Dutch donor authority also condemned the show. The Dutch media went on with the broadcast citing their agenda as to highlight reality of the organ transplant situation - the lack of organ donors. And they did...

And they shocked the world...

The show was a hoax. The terminally ill lady was an actress. STILL, the 3 patients who were 'competing' for the kidney were NOT. They are real people who have been waiting for a chance for a new life.

I guess the main thing was that the message did get across... As part of the show, viewers sent text messages to the 'organ donor' to help her decide who she should give the kidney to. And people responded, emphathizing with the plight that the patients were in.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/6714287.stm

2) In my time of boredom... I've been watching TOrchwood on You-tube the past 2 weeks. TOrchwood is a spin-off from Dr Who. Both are sci-fi dramas by bbc. The main character was Captain Jack who was the head of a team of paranormal investigators. Their job was to prevent beings from other dimensions from travelling through a time-drift and causing havoc on Earth. They were given the mandate by Queen Victoria in the 18th century (I think). The team was hardly your typical 'Fantastic Four' super-hero characters. They were un-expectedly dysfunctional and unable to cope with the demands for secrecy in their job, the atrocities they see everyday and to have a supposed 'life' outside of work. How Captain Jack worked did not help either. He was a man who kept to himself. Still, he was a good leader in the sense that he always made sure that if he knows his team members had problems, he will be there to support them through it.

Captain Jack was an interesting character in the sense that he cannot die, and he seems to flirt with every single person he meets... man or woman. He was human (he could still be). but SOmething happened to him and now he cannot die.

The last episode of the season gave me a really odd realization. And it made me wonder if the authors meant it to be a message that homosexuality and Christianity may not be that incompatible (an association that's there, but somehow, also not there). The Earth was in peril as the time rift was splitting. The 'baddie' was persuading the torchwood team members to open the rift, which he says is the only way to save them all. He used images of their loved ones to coaxed them into doing so. Captain Jack was completely against that and asked his team to believe in him. His team was in desperation, so went against him and shot him in the head. They then used his pupil image to activate the mechanism to open the time rift. That was when all hell was set loose. A gigantic demon appeared inthe middle of Cardiff, Wales and was sucking the life out of everyone.

Captain Jack, who cannot die, woke up after that. He saw what was happening. This was when his team turned to him again, said their sorries and asked him how to fix the situation. Jack ran out into the city towards the Demon. He figured that since the demon is a destroyer of life forces and full of 'death'. By offering his ever-lasting life force to the demon, it might destroy the demon. So Captain Jack's Life got sucked out of him.

The team mourned Jack. All members of torchwood were cryo-genically preserved when they die. They were about to put him in the cryogenic processor when Gwen, his second in command, and definitely the person with the kindest and emphathic person in the team stopped them. She said to give him a few days to see if he will revive. SO she stood by him and waited for him to wake up... Lo and Be hold he did... all his team members were forgiven... and they were Torchwood again.

An allusion to the bible? there were other torchwood viewers on the web who agreed with me. But in combination with the ambiguous sexual orientation of Captain Jack... It did make me think...

If you are interested to watch the show on Youtube...

http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=had437

Wonky Eyes ;p

2007-05-23T02:47:00.000-07:00

I helped out at the Orthoptist Clinical Skills Exam today. :p I was a patient for the prism fusion range test. I was not too keen to be spending 2 hours of my time on it. Now, having gone through it, it was pretty fun and enriching. :p

I was suppose to fixate on a target at a distance, while the orthoptist students placed prism of different refractory range in front of one eye. I was suppose to tell them when the target went double. This was to test how far my eyes can converge and how far they can diverge. There were 12 stations, and my task was just one of them. I might have gotten it the wrong way round... but I think I was 20-30 deg Base Out 6-8 deg Base In.

Funny thing was I met one of my orthoptist students from my tutor group last semester... which was nice... not too sure if appropriate, as were were having a 'subdued' chat after she finished the test on me. The funnier part was when another student who did the PSY 101 Lab I helped out with, last semester, was doing the exam too. I was doing the lab demo and telling stduents about this visual illusion. And after I finished my introduction to it... he was the one that commented, 'I've never met such a lively Chinese!' I thought that was hilarious.

Now my eyes feel a little wonky... haha...

I only go to church when I'm at work...

2007-05-21T09:26:00.000-07:00

I went to Church with my client on Sunday. The pastor made a joke during the service...

One day, an Atheist was fishing in lake, in a boat.
Suddenly the Loch Ness Monster emerged from the waters and was about to eat the atheist and the boat.
The Atheist cried 'Oh God, please help me!'
Suddenly the scene freezed for the moment and the Loch Ness monster stopped, with it jaws almost devouring the Atheist.
There was a light from the sky and a voice boomed. 'I thought you did not believe in me...'
The Atheist replied, ' Oh give me a break... I did not believe in the Loch Ness monster until 2 minutes ago.'

I laughed at that... but I still not too sure about what it meant to me.

During the second part of the service, the service organizers prepared an 'exercise' for people. They made a big rectangle with 4 smaller boxes on the floor with masking tape. The boxes had the words 'Sorry', 'Praise', 'Thanks' and 'Please' in them. People were suppose to stand in each part and pray/ talk to God about they sins they have done, how great is God, for the things that He has given them, etc. I stood on the outside of the rectangle and watched as the believers made their rounds around the boxes. Some sat on the floor, some knelt on the groun and some stood up. Some spoke aloud and some prayed silently to God. I stood outside the rectangle with my client... clearly seeing how I was away from the supposed person up there...

Autism Research UK, 2007

2007-05-13T02:50:00.000-07:00

I had a good 2 days in the 'city of Roundabouts', Milton Keynes, for the Autism Research UK Conference. The company was good and my sister came for a brief visit. There were many interesting pieces of research on display and the talks were thought-provoking. The conference re-assured me of the importance of the psychological approach in shedding light on developmental disorders.

The conference in the entirety was well-structured. It started the story of autism, with diagnosis and assessments, followed by aetiology, epidemiology, and genetics, on to neurobiological perspectives, followed by psychological approaches in perception and cognition, and finally with interventions. However, there was a large propotion of genetics and neurobiologically related talks on the first day. That did make some people in the audience cringe in their seats (including me). Genetics and neuro-biology had evidently become the top priority for organizations funding autism research. Don't get me wrong. I am all for neurobiological explanations of disorders and behaviour. The processed in our body and or mind are no doubt correlated. Even so, can autism be reduced to purines and pyramidines? Can we ignore/bypass the person that is in the midst of the condition? Many subsequent speakers from non-genetics and neuro-biological background reiterated the following point:

'it may be useful to know what parts of the brain and which segments of DNA are different in people with autism, but we need to know what these larger/smaller distances between neurons, or changes of one nucleic acid for another, means in psychological and behavioral terms...'

Autism is expressed in behavior. It is currently identified as having difficulties in social communicaion and interaction. People with autism also exhbit stereo-typed behavior or have restricted interests. It is only in this behavioral domain that the condition causes the person or other people distress. Thus, while it is important to find the biology of the disorder, we need to understand how the biological difference correlate with behavioural difference. Only then can diagnosis and interventions work in unison.

This is what I see the role of Psychology as... Autism can be studied on many different levels. The genetics level, biological level, cognitive level, psychological, behavioral and on the social level. Psychology seeks to bind these levels together. It ensures that while research from the different fields is going in parallel, there is inter-level communication. This is so that we can understand how processes at one level relates to processes at another level.

The psychological and social perspetives are as important as genetics and neuro-biology. As one of the speakers said... there is no autism without 'other people'. No one can have Autism on their own, on a deserted island, can they?

I made Lasagne :p

2007-05-08T05:37:00.000-07:00

Been moaning and groaning too much... I'll post something happy in my blog. :p

I had friends round for dinner on Saturday evening. Cooked Lasagne with Spinach, Cheese and Tomato...

I also made a Chocolate, Fruit and Nut Refrigerator Cake which I put in the freezer and it was rock hard :p No picture was taken so that I will not be reminded of my silliness :p

Hallucinations...

2007-05-07T23:40:00.000-07:00

Read an interesting article titled 'Researching psychotic complaints' by Dr Bentall, in this month's issue of the Psychologist... The issue was dedicated to ariticles talking about issues with diagnosing psychological disorders. Dr Bentall main argument was that if symptoms of disorders are explained well enough, the disorder itself will cease to have form... here are bits from his article.

--------------------
Hallucinations (hearing voices, seeing things, etc that are not really there) are experienced by a substantial minority of people who do no report mental disorders.

Voices heard can sometimes be negative or positive :)

Explanations of auditory hallucinations include source-monitoring errors. Inner speech could be mis-attributed to an external source. A proposed mechanism is that people who hear voices have difficulties monitoring their own intentional states. A research study showed that they are more able to tickle themselves than people who do not hear voices.
--------------------

One fact I learnt about general inner speech is that it is accompanied by 'subvocalisations'. There is activity present in our speech muscles during inner speech that can be detected by electromyography...
--------------------

Food for thought... haha breakfast for my mind...

A few reasons why I woke up in a bad mood...

2007-05-07T23:25:00.000-07:00

I woke up to the smell of grease... My olfactory bulbs transmitted ringing signals to my limbic system which through some complicated neural mechanisms I have no idea about resulted in me feeling..... ANNOYANCE... for the 4th/5th time this week

Some highlights:

My room has smelt of grease the entire day on Sunday...
I wore clothes smelling of grease last tuesday...
To TOp it All Off... The Towels for My ERP participants Smell Of GREASE!

ANNOYANCE is always greater when there is no one to blame for a state of matter... but it was a source of motivation for me to tell the person who could minimize the occurence of this grease filling the whole house (predominantly my room coz the door cant close) issue.

Cross fingers I will not smell of grease tomorrow... I'm washing all the towels again tonight... I don't care if my housemate complains I'm using the washing machine 24 hours, 7 days a week!

When personalities clash...

2007-04-30T15:55:00.000-07:00

Some people just don't get along. Even if they are both wonderful people and both do good work for others... Some people just don't get along.

I have learnt today that no matter how you feel about a person, the important thing is not to let it lead to you doing/ not doing things that will cause irreparable pain to the other person. It also causes other people to feel confused by the situation, and it de-humanizes you...

Let's stop persecuting people for being different.
Let us embrace those differences and focus on the positives that have emerged due to those differences.

We all have demons we need to deal with...

The Beautiful VEP...

2007-04-25T04:53:00.000-07:00

This is a Visual Evoked Potential (VEP). It is the electrical response of the brain, averaged from 10 participants, to viewing a bright light for 500ms on a grey background, 50-70 times each.

This has nothing much to do with my research question ;p But I thought the graph was very pretty. :p 128 lines on the graph, 128 for the 128 sensors in the EEG net. :>

The wonders of technology... and our human physiology.

London Marathon? Nah... TV marathon :)

2007-04-22T13:44:00.000-07:00

My psychology friends and I went out for a meal last night... A friend is going to Australia tomorrow for a few months before coming back to do medicine. Last night was also this year's Psychology Ball. All of us went last year as it was the final year of our degree... I can't believe a year has passed...

I noticed that it was the London Marathon today. I saw it on tv... I still remember a year ago when I saw similar footages on tv (that was on western road, probably with my housemates). I can't believe a year has passed...

Been 'stoning'... (literally) in front of the television... just watching and not moving at all... I've decided to take the night off again :p Gang's of New York's on in a bit...

Make do with what you have :D which isn't too bad most of the time

2007-04-14T08:39:00.000-07:00

My watch 'died' last night...

My hand-held mixer 'died' today...

I baked a cake without the slightest inkling of the amount of ingredients I was putting in (my kitchen scale went wonky)...

Well... at least my Lemon Drizzle cake went alright (looks ok does not it.. the taste test is tonight, my friend's surprise bday gathering)

Mother cut her little finger on a broken pepper shaker at Ya Kun Kaya Toast (a Singapore cafe famous for coconut and egg jam on toast) yesterday...

I cut my ring finger on my kitchen tap... the round plate on the knob was coming off. I asked my landlord to fix that last October (you can't blame me for refusing to pay my rent on time :p)

E-prime and Netstation... worse than little children

2007-04-14T03:28:00.000-07:00

I had 12 amazing children come in to help me with my research this week. They have been brilliant at putting up with the long time they had to sit in front of a computer, with a net soaked in saline solution over their heads, playing boring computer games.

E-prime is the computer program that writes my experiments. NetStation is the program we use for recording Event-related potentials to the stimuli in my experiments. They don't always talk to each other. And if E-prime says something that NetStation is not used to... NetStation gets confused and 'runs away' (automatically shuts down). They did that to me when I was with 2 participants today... haha I was glad the family who came, were a jolly bunch and were really patient with me... or else I would have had a melt-down... :p

Today I picked up another of NetStation's Triggers for challenging behaviour:
opening start-up windows for 2 different experiments

Walk in the Peaks - Baslow

2007-04-08T09:22:00.000-07:00

Fiona, Renie and I went for a walk in the peaks yesterday... Beautiful weather again :> I got the details of the walk off the internet

http://www.peakwalk.org.uk/default.asp

the website had really good descriptions of which routes to follow. It also had bits of history about the rocks and monuments on the walk. We got around fine with just rough map print-outs from multimap.com. :>

The view from Baslow edge.

Toilet bowl?

The Eagle Stone.

This bull was not very happy with us. It was snorting at us when we went pass it down the path.

An English Sea-side town...

2007-04-07T00:12:00.000-07:00

I went to Cleethorpes on Thursday, with a group of young people I work with. It was warm and sunny... and as it was the school holidays, Cleethorpes was alive with children running about on the beach (very different from the last year, when I went... it was colder then).

The tide was down and the beach stretched till a little below where the sky met the earth. This is a photo I managed to take before my camera battery went. :p

My group and I had whipped ice-cream, freshly made hot donuts and they did some gift shopping. Dinner (or Lunch as we call it :p) was of course Fish and Chips. The afternoon tailed off with an hour at the arcade and on the amusement rides on the beach...

Internet connection down...

2007-04-06T02:57:00.000-07:00

Many a times this week I have been thinking of writing really mean things to express my anger on this blog. But I've decided not to 'deface' my blog with unacceptable language.

I still cannot figure out if its me being laid-back or my friend being selfish and irresponsible. Or again... lack of communication...

Does not matter... Bottom line is... no internet at home till next week posssibly...

I'm going to the peaks tomorrow... will bring nice pictures back. Beautiful weather in Sheffield and England.

I saw a Fox today...

2007-04-01T15:34:00.000-07:00

I saw a fox today... on my way home from work... another first.... wooohooo!

Anyway... Profile will be changing soon... just sent an email to the carehome... said I will tender in June... A lot of people who care about me will be happy...

Quote my sister, ' there are 2 things I hate about your life in Sheffield... your house and your job.'

Mother's Cherry Apples

2007-03-30T12:08:00.000-08:00

Mother's garden back home is in bloom. My brother in law sent the pictures to me... Pretty one of the cherry apple...

'What' Interfering with 'How'

2007-03-30T11:12:00.000-08:00

I went for a cognitive reading group on Thursday. We discussed an interesting article about how declarative learning/ memory (of fact or events) can interfere with the consolidation of procedural memory (of skills, know-how).

The authors (Brown and Robertson, 2007) ask participants to do an experiment in which a solid visual cue could appear in any of 4 positions. Particpants were to press a corresponding button for the position the cue appears, as quickly as possible. A sequence was embedded in a great number of trials and if participants could 'detect' the sequence, their reaction times would improve. Procedural learning was assessed by increase or decrease in reaction times, while declarative learning in the task would involve the person recalling what the sequence was. Interestingly, when participants were presented with a word list immediately after the experiment and asked to learn it, reaction times improved (procedural learning) 12 hours later. This was as opposed to when participants were asked to count the number of vowels in a nonsense word list. The learnign the word list was supposed to interfere with declarative memory of the task; the vowel counting task was a similarly demanding activity that is not suppose to interfere with declarative memory of the task.

The authors suggested that this indicates competition between our declarative memory system and procedural memory system during consolidation. In the experiment, disruption of declarative learning improved procedural learning. Perhaps this released any inhibition effect declarative memory had on procedural learning... and that could explain why skill learning often improves after a period of sleep than wake... where in sleep the declarative memory system is suppressed (i.e. you being unconscious). To top it off, participants who did the word list were poorer on sequence recall (declarative learning) than participants who did the vowel counting.

Pretty exciting results, but with possible confounding factors like arousal and people being more motivated to learn when asked to remember word lists, compared with a 'no-brainer' task like counting vowels.

Still, it makes us think about how we can optimize our learning of new skills? :p haha maybe after my driving lesson, I should be trying to memorize the conversion values of pounds to kg, or cups to millilitres (haha for baking) or stuff like that... maybe that will improve my driving next week... especially if I'm suffering from lack of sleep. :p

Scam!!! BEWARE!

2007-03-24T02:14:00.000-08:00

I was involved in a possible scam last weekend :p haha I thought it was really cool other than the fact that I could have been cheated of a few hundred pounds... but if you start imagining what the story behind it and who the people involved in it could be... it was pretty exciting.

I have been posting ads on the internet for a new housemate to replace my housemate who is moving out in April. In some sense we were pretty desperate to find some one for the room. I had a flood of emails after I did the most recent posting and quite a lot of them were talking about how they were from another country and needed a place to stay... Some were models from W.A., evangelists doing missionary work... students... all sorts... and quite a number of them said that once agreed they would get their agent to send a cheque to me for 3000 odd pounds and I am to transfer the first month's rent to the my landlord and the rest back to them... they would say its for a favour and they needed me to do that so they can pay for their air tickets and stuff...

I have never heard of such situations before... and did find it a bit odd (yes... I was naive and gullible, this sentence is to save my ego). haha so in my desperate attempt to find a replacement, I picked the most 'normal' sounding person (she did say I was her only friend after a few emails). She said the cheque would arrive in a few days time. I felt a bit edgey about the entire matter, so asked her to get her agent to ring me...

I waited for a few days... no cheque, no phone calls... and got paranoid that she was a computer generated message or people playing a joke on me. After consultation from a few friends, I decided to find someone else for the house. I did tell her via email to ring me before Sunday or I will rent the room out. She did not ring me by sunday. I gave the room to my current new housemate :p

On Tuesday... I received a cheque!!! and a phone call from her to check my email (I was feeling guilty about letting the room out so did not ask her anything over the phone... she did not seem too keen to talk to me either) I checked my email and she left a message saying she still needs me to cash the cheque... and she will tell me where to transfer the account to later. And she made it sound like she really needed me to help her to free up this money.

At first I was thinking... that sounds a little dodgey... and as an international student I thought it might have something to do with coming from another country and having dificulties with bank accounts being activated and what not... so was quite tempted to help... I did go and read up on fake cheques but was not sure whether to do it or not.

haha so I did another first in my 4 years in Sheffield :p I went to the Students' Advice Centre at the Union (this year has been an exciting one for me I must day). I had a chat with the lady and we came to the conclusion that it might not be in my best interest to help her. She looked at the cheque and commented that that bank might have been robbed last month or something... haha and I was like 'ooh... this is getting exciting'. She checked with the money advisor and apparently they had a few cases of fake cheques being sent to people and stuff... And she told me something I did not know... that when you've cashed the cheque, it might clear and you might supposedly be able to use the money within 5 days, but the entire transaction might take 4-5 weeks. By the time the bank realizes that the cheque has bounced, you would have transferred your money else where... haha I thought that was a pretty good way of cheating people actually...

I went home, took a picture of the cheque (haha for keepsake... first time nearly getting conned), then tore it up.

anyway... I'm glad the whole business is over. I was polite and sent her an email saying I'm definitely not going to cash the cheque ;>. But if it was really a scam... its quite sad too... she sounded quite desperate on the phone... ;(

Sharrow Lantern Parade!!

2007-03-21T16:52:00.000-08:00

The Sharrow Latern Carnival is coming soon... On the 1st of April, Sunday evening (usually after dark). It starts on Mount Pleasant Park and it will pass by London Road... Not a bad day to go to NoodleInn or the nice Turkish restaurant on there? just to catch a glimpse of the pretty lanterns (handmade, with willow sticks and rice paper)... especially if you are not into walking in the cold with the contingent :p

see

http://www.creativeaction.net/

The Cherry Orchard...

2007-03-21T16:28:00.000-08:00

I went to see THE Cherry Orchard at the Crucible theatre with a friend. It was a comedy set in the early 1900s about the downfall of a Russian aristocratic family. It was really enjoyable... perhaps because of the stress I've been having this week... I really laughed out loud at the jokes today. :> I quite enjoyed the plot... but I guess it's meaning did not struck me as much because I had zero knowledge of the Russian revolution and how it changed the lives of serfs (servants) and their masters...The Cherry Orchard was the last play written by a Russian playwright, Chekhov.

I did something I never did before though... when I went to the theatre. My friend is is an expert in theatre and the arts. She's a big fan of the lady who played the Russian aristocrat in the play... Joanna Lumley... and we stayed on in the bar afterwards to catch a glimpse of the actors in their 'real skins'. haha I was trying not to stare... as the actors and actresses who played some of the characters I quite liked were there...

The story...

Madam Ranevskaya was the rich owner of a Cherry Orchard. She was ruined when her parisian lover stole her money... and she had to sell the Cherry Orchard to pay off her debts. Lopahkin, a merchant came up with a business proposal to save her family land by transforming the land into a summer holiday stay. She refused change and certainly was not agreeble to cutting down the cherry trees... Moreover, she carried on with her frivolous spending and expensive parties. In the end... the merchant bought over the land at the auction and she and her family had to move out and find their own means of survival.

Serious story line aside... there was a bit of the story about the mechant and Madame Ranevskaya's daughter, who supposedly loved each other. The businessman never revealed his feelings... and even when he was given the greenligh by Madame Ranevskaya to ask for her daughter's hand in marriage, he did not... When the two were left alone... they just talked about mundane things and he was called away by a servant... The story ended with the lady leaving the Cherry Orchard for a new life...

Peace Declaration... Lesson learnt...

2007-03-20T01:01:00.000-08:00

I went to the department late today (well wanted to be there earlier). But it was well worth it...

I spoke to M. and told her I meant the 3 drawers... she understood.

P. spoke to me and told me why she wrote what she wrote... I understood. She has a reasons for her view and I have my reasons for my views... we might not agree... but I could see where she was coming from.

This is why world leaders spend thousands of tax-payers' money to travel to different places for conferences and meetings... Important things should be discussed face to face... where verbal, non-verbal cues are present... when unambiguities can be verified immediately...

This is why life is not all about work and not leaving time to communicate with people around you...

Going to the department later than usual, made a difference today.

The 'War' of 3 countries

2007-03-19T23:26:00.000-08:00

A little Paper war has erupted in my little dwelling...

It unfortunately started with me... (I thought it was the quickest way of communicating as all of us are seldom in at the same time)

My intentions were just to re-organize the storing space for the new housemate coming today... The new housemate was to replace M who was moving out. She is moving in 10 days earlier... so we would have 4 people in the 3-bedroom flat until M. moves out on the 31st. In the note, I asked M. if she could move her foodstuff to the 3 drawers under the sink, while P, the new girl and me take 3 shelves worth of cupboard space (all four spaces are the same size to me).

M. thought I meant the washing cupboard (am I not communicating properly?). And replied on the note "No way my thing going under sink with washing stuff". sigh....

Once I started the ball rolling... P. decided to make her stand... She asked us (last week) to keep the electricity usage as low as possible, as she will not have enough money to pay the bills if current usage goes on.

She wrote on the note "I will strictly brief her (the new girl) as well... The new girl will pay her due bills from the day she arrives i.e. 20th of March. I am in no position to do hospitalities to anyone and neither am found of them being P--------- or otherwise... (P and the new girl are from the same country).

I wrote a note in reply ;> the war might go on...

Seahorses, Space monkeys and Memory

2007-03-17T04:14:00.000-08:00

That was the title for the department seminar yesterday.

Seahorse - for the hippocampus (the part of the brain often associated with our memory for events); a structure that is in the shape of a sea horse...

Space monkeys - for his experiment with monkeys on tasks relating to memory of where things are in any space around them

Slightly random... haha but its something that made his talk more memorable... and I thoroughly enjoyed it (not all deparmental seminars have that effect on moi)

yupz... my hippocampus should be coding the 'where' and 'when' components of my memory for the talk ;>

Disclaimer: There is still debate on the brain structures associated with recognition memory and different aspects of episodic memories (when, where, etc)