No Body Knows

You would not forget this movie if you'd ever watched it. If you haven't yet seen it, please go rent it. It is a Japanese movie about 4 kids who were abandoned by their mother. The kids were so real... the movie so real... as if it wasn't really a movie after all. It was a painful story. Yet the kids gave me hope. I have yet to stop thinking about it.

Merry Christmas

To everyone who stops by this blog.... I wish you all a happy holiday season... a wonderful time with family and friends... and a great new year ahead.

Munchkin

Reading the rules of the game. The best rule by far is the following:

Rules Contradictions or Disputes
When the cards disagree with the rules, follow the cards. Any other disputes should be settled by loud arguments among the players, with the owner of the game having the last word.

Emphasis added.

Sooo lazy

Just woke up... it's 1:30 pm already. No work today. Haven't slept in this late for a while. Suppose to be a warm and sunny day. Wasted half a day in bed already. I am going to the bookstore today to buy "His Dark Materials Trilogy" by Philip Pullman. Should get going soon.

....

Updates:

Went to Orlande Park north of here. So many cars, so many people. I should have known better. 2 days before X'mas. Everyone's out shopping. You know what? Another free meal today. I've been lucky for free food lately. Stopped by an Einstein bagel for late lunch, and the register was temporarily out of service... so free food. I bought the Trilogy by Pullman... and a card game called Munchkin. The box reads

Munchkin
Kill the Monsters, Steal the Treasure, Stab your Buddy

Cool! Stab your buddy... ha ha... Hope it will be fun. Stay tuned for game review.

Untitled

Went to Barnes and Noble after work and got some magazines. I've been falling in love reading the New Yorker. I just can't put it down. I have already subscribed to it. Hope the subscription will start soon.

Anyway, I bought a grande latte and a coffee cake at the Starbucks inside the bookstore. It happened that the coffee cake is a corner piece. Then I remember whenever I went 飲茶 with my family, if we were ordering 馬拉糕, my mom would insist on getting the piece at the corner or at the edge. I still don't quite understand why to this day. Maybe I'll ask my mom next time when I talk to her.

X'mas party tomorrow at work. Half day of work. Yeah!

Merry Christmas to everyone!

PS I wanted to take pictures of my apartment and around town. But my colleague borrowed my digital camera for a trip to his parents'. Maybe I should dug out my film camera instead. Haven't used that in ages.

Birthday luck?

Yeah, today is my birthday. And I am celebrating it with a bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon. I don't realize until today that how lonely it is to spend a birthday without friends and family around. I shouldn't complain too much though because several unexpected things happened today.

First, I got a call from a local newspaper saying that I won a drawing for a $60 i-tune giftcard. Wow.... I have never won any lucky draw... except for those that guaranteed a winner. Anyway, what a surprise. You know... I just bought an ipod nano. A perfect prize!

Second, I went to Applebee's for dinner. Yeah... a chain restaurant. I hate to go to some fancy restaurant all by myself. Plus, there are no fancy restaurants around town. Anyway, I ordered my food and it took forever for the food to come. The food was ok. The steak was overcooked a bit (I ordered medium rare, came medium well) and the skewered shrimps were... arh... a bit raw. I didn't realize the raw shrimps until the restaurant manager came and apologized for the delay. He looked at my shrimps and commented that they were a bit raw and that he wouldn't eat them if he were me. But I had already eaten a whole skewer. He went to the kitchen and brought me another two skewers of shrimps. And he took the whole dinner entree off my check. I ended up only paying for my Miller Lite.

Third, I went to K-mart and did some grocery shopping. Haagen-Daz on sale! YEAH! I got my favorite Rum Raisin and a new flavor, Almond Hazelnut Swirl. Yum... I am now deciding which one to have first. Maybe I'll do the almond hazelnut tonight.

So... I guess I am a lucky guy today. Birthday luck maybe.

Here's a bunny courtesy of 可可:

     _ _
   \`\ /`/
    \ V /
    /. .\
   =\ T /=
    / ^ \ 
 {}/\\ //\
 __\ " " /__
(____/^\____)

Penguins

I watched March of the Penguins last night. The little penguins were so cute.... But I was really touched by the parent penguins who endure the harsh winter and the march, without food, for a single goal--to reproduce and raise their young. The father penguin will often starve for more than 4 months. And the march to the ice edge covers 70+ miles in the dead of winter in Antarctica. Not a one-time march but many times over the course of hatching the eggs and raising the cute little penguins. The single-minded determination amazes me and touches me deeply as well.

On another note, my white chili turned out pretty good... next time I'll add a little less cheese and jalapenos. And maybe replace some chicken broth with milk.

Unpacking kitchen

I finally can't stand eating out all the time. Plus, there're no good resturants in town. I am cleaning my kitchen and unpacking all the cookware, dishes, bowls... I have a lot of kitchen stuff. Really. Mostly inherited from ppl before me, I mean friends who had graduated a long time ago. I am wondering if I have time to make white chili tonight. I hope so... coz I am getting hungry again.

A really really strong coffee

courtesy of Mike, a colleague at work.

Flame Retarded... Made in China

Our office manager at work got a whole bunch of X'mas stuff to decorate our office. Mike found a tag in one of the garlands which read:

FLAME RETARDED
MADE IN CHINA

He trimmed off the "F" and "ED" and handed the tag to me. Now the tag read:

LAME RETARD
MADE IN CHINA

I gave the trimmed tag to Jeff. He couldn't stop laughing. Without me knowing, Jeff drew a big fat red arrow under the words and taped that tag onto my bookself.

I guess I can now proudly proclaim that I am a lame retard made in china.

Stopwatch

Time doesn't stop. It would have been nice if I have a magical stopwatch that can stop time. Email from my friend today in LA. She just gave birth to a six and half pound baby boy. I am happy and excited for her of course. But on the other hand, I feel a bit sad that I am still somehow stuck in life. Well... I mean being single and not married yet, like many of my friends, let alone having babies. But I guess I should be content instead. It's not my timing after all. And there's no such thing as a magical stopwatch.

Movies

I watched two movies over the weekend. Syriana and Chronicles of Narnia. Two very different movies. I didn't like Syriana. Not that the plot was too complex, but each scene seemed too short and lacked the depth it supposed to have. Narnia is a very good children's movie. That said, it wasn't too entertaining for adults. But if you have little brothers and sisters or kids... you should definitely bring them to see this movie. Very good message and good imagination too.

Internet!!!!!!!!

My cable internet is working... running great!!!! WOOOOO HOOOOOO! Thank you, Comcast. I am impressed with their customer service!

Unpacking...

I just moved to Bourbonnais over the weekend. I had help from several of my friends. I was surprised that we were able to move (almost) everything in one trip. I had a LOT of stuff and we only had four people, including me. So... not bad huh?

Anyway, I haven't been posting any new entry lately coz my internet at home is still not working right. Hopefully the problem will be resolved soon. I can't imagine not having internet access at home. But then... we didn't have internet before... how did we survive back then?

I have a lot of unpacking to do, which is an extremely long and painful process. I wonder how long it will take to unpack everything.

A friend from afar

It was nice to see my friend again. It's been quite a while. I had a chance to see her last year at her wedding. But I missed it. I regret that I didn't go.

We've been friends for more than 12 years. I just realized such a lasting friendship is very precious. People come and go out of our lives. The ones who stay friends can be counted with only one hand. Well... for me that is. Some people are more successful at making friends. I am not. I am not very inclined towards socializing. I am just weird I guess. I just think that I was never good at it and I am still not. But interestingly, I do have very good relationships with people at school and at work--colleagues, secretaries, professors... even the janitors. It seems so contradictory.

I will miss my friend dearly. But I know that she's married to a good husband. She will be well taken care of. I have a good instinct about people. I somehow feel that her husband is a good person and he will be good to her. I am happy for her.

Speaking of dreams...

I had a weird one this morning. In the dream, I was with someone and looking at the sonogram of a baby. Aiyo.. so weird... I have no idea who the lady was! I assume I was looking at her baby on the monitor. I felt I was close to that woman. But I have no recollection of how she looked like... and I am pretty sure that I do not know her. I also remember that seeing the baby kicking in her womb. Geez...

An update...

I passed my PhD defense on Tuesday. I am so gald that it is almost over now. I have to deposit my thesis and that's about it. At the mean time, I am very busy trying to get a NSF proposal put together for my advisor... and trying to pack up to get ready for moving in December.

A friend is coming all the way from California... I am going to meet her up in Chicago. A party of sorts... with her husband and her many friedns... looking forward to that. Kinda scared a little.. Meeting new people. Oh....

Acknowledgments

This is the acknowledgments I wrote for my thesis.

Six years into its making, this thesis finally comes to life. I must, therefore, give thanks with deepest gratitude to my major advisor, Dr. Rao Govindaraju, for his patience in putting up with my constant procrastination. In truth, Dr. Govindaraju has been a tremendous mentor, and I owe him everything that I have accomplished in my academic endeavor at Purdue. I am also deeply indebted to Dr. Dennis Lyn for his guidance not only in academic research but also in life. I will miss dearly the countless hours that I spent in his office distracting him from his work. His brilliant intellect (along with his hair) will always remind me of Albert Einstein. It has been my great fortune to know Dr. Lyn and have him served on my committee. I am greatly thankful to Dr. Ramachandra Rao for his support and guidance in life. He has been like a surrogate father to me for my many years at Purdue, away from home. I would also like to thank Dr. John Cushman for serving on my committee. I will always be in awe of his exceptional brilliance in mathematics. Dr. James Alleman, while not serving on my committee, has been monumental to both my
undergraduate and graduate career at Purdue. My sincere gratitude goes to him.

I have been fortunate to work with a group of great staff members in the School of Civil Engineering. Without their help, this thesis would not have been possible. They are, Rita Butz, Dinah Hackerd, Linda Higgins, Marcie Duffin, and Tom Cooper. My thanks also go to my fellow graduate students, Zorana Naunovic, En-Ching Hsu, Bin Zhang, and Nazmun Nahar, for their companionship has made my journey through graduate school endurable. Special thanks go to my friends, Karen Cheng and Jennie Mak, who have shared with me good times and given me support through difficult ones.

I have to express my utmost gratitude to my family. I am forever indebted to my parents and my sister for their sacrifice that had allowed me to pursue my dream and my future. I am especially thankful for their unfailing love and support. Their confidence in my ability provided me with the necessary strength to complete this thesis. Finally, I give thanks to God, for He has made every thing possible in my life.

During my graduate study at Purdue, I received financial support from the Joint Transportation Research Program (JTRP) and the Purdue Research Foundation (PRF). The School of Civil Engineering had also provided me with teaching assistantship, from which I gained valuable teaching experience and also discovered my great love for teaching. Their support is gratefully acknowledged and appreciated.

Bright and Beautiful

Time to post an entry. Lazy bone took on a strike this past few days and refused to produce any thing for this blog of mine...

I bid farewell to my parents last Saturday. I thought I would have felt relieved when they left... but I didn't. In fact, I missed them already... not only for the food that they prepared... but also for their very presence. I start to understand my mom's feelings about our family being all together. I did feel the completeness when my sister was here a few months ago. It had been years since we had a chance for 4 of us being together.

I finally found a place to live near work. It's a nice little townhouse with 2 bedrooms and an attached garage. The landlord is Filipino and she is so very nice and let me move in my stuff next week before I even start paying her rent. I am fortunate to run into nice people... I have to be thankful to God, for He has done amazing things in my life especially in the past few months. Thank you, God. You have made every day of life bright and beautiful.

Relationship

What sustain a relationship are not big promises, but rather, everyday little things.