Jude

I am in a chaos of principles--groping in the dark--acting by instinct and not after example. Eight or nine years ago when I came here first, I had a neat stock of fixed opinions, but they dropped away one by one; and the further I get the less sure I am. I doubt if I have anything more for my present rule of life than following inclinations which do me and nobody else any harm, and actually give pleasure to those I love best. There, gentlemen, since you wanted to know how I was getting on, I have told you. Much good may it do you! I cannot explain further here. I perceive there is something wrong somewhere in our social formulas: what it is can only be discovered by men or women with greater insight than mine--if, indeed, they ever discover it--at least in our time. "For who knoweth what is good for man in this life?--and who can tell a man what shall be after him under the sun?"

Jude the Obscure, Thomas Hardy.

Back health

I will be glad to see my chiropractor when I get back to Ithaca. Don't get me wrong, I've been feeling pretty good since my last visit (right before I left town), and having a gym routine that works out my core and the muscles along the spine has been wonderful.

But I know I'll feel better after an adjustment. Actually, my jaw kinda hurts when I open it wide and YES, having my spine adjusted will help with that! Only the uninitiated would doubt it.:)

The whole deal sounds kinda kooky, but so far so good! My friends tell me that I sound like I've joined a cult of some sort whenever I talk about how my chiropractor has helped me. I agree! I'm just so glad I found them when I did, and I'm really glad that I stuck with the treatment, even if it means sitting up straight and carrying cushions around with me all the time. I haven't sat in a couch or a soft chair in over a year and a half.

Doing all the weird things Pierre tells me to do is easy . . . putting up with all the teasing I get is the tough part! Nowadays, it's just easier to tell people I have a really bad back, which is a kind of a lie since my spine is a hundred times better now. :)

Batman!

Saw this quiz on a friend's site and thought it sounded like a lot of fun!

Unfortunately, my friend scored highest as both Neo from the Matrix AND Batman, while I scored Batman AND MAximus (who's he??). The quiz-maker had seriously dubious methodology. But it was still fun. :) :)

Spiderman's my favorite superhero, I think, followed very closely by Batman. The quiz-maker put Capt Jack Sparrow as a superhero too, which sounds a little odd to me, but once I get used to the idea, he'll definitely supplant the Dark Knight and the web-swinger. Johnny Depp is way cool.

Tupper Lake!

Some folks from CICF are planning another canoeing/camping trip for Sept 2-4! See my earliest blog entries for pictures and stories from last year's trip.

I hope this year we won't have to paddle for 6-7 hours before finding a campsite!!!!!! Cold weather comes pretty early to the northeast and the nights were pretty chilly the last time.

Monkey Business

I live in an upper unit "townhouse" so we don't really have a proper backyard, but there's a little strip of greenland out at the back that's slowly being eroded. If you know what you're looking for, you can see some of the remaining wild monkeys sitting on the branches in the pictures. I could only get one clear picture of a monkey clambering off my neighbor's back window.

Two years ago, you could see the whole tribe (or band??) of monkeys playing and swinging from tree to tree, but now there's hardly a baby monkey among the few monkeys that still visit these trees.

what to read next

Hmmm . . . I think I'll look at this book when I get back to the US. Sounds like fun.

Visit to Miri

Visited Jey and Jurgen in Miri at the beginning of the month, and had a wonderful time. They're such a wonderful couple and I was so glad to spend some time with them. Miri was nice, but spending time with the lovebirds was even better. And no, they didn't make me feel like a third wheel. :)

Now, I'm sick again with another cold. I really hate this. Cold meds are getting better and better, but I still feel *funny* taking them.

Historic/Culinary Melaka!

The historic town of Melaka, first conquered by the Portuguese in 1511 . . . and now a gournmand's paradise. 4 car loads of us went down (3 weeks ago now?) for a weekend of eating and drinking.

I kid you not.

We ate and we ate and we ate. All we did was eat, nap, and eat again. Horrifying.

I felt so sick when I got back. I could only eat one bowl of rice a day for 2 days. But the funniest was that Ann and Rebecca both had to take medical leave from work the day after the trip.

married???? free???

So, an old, long-lost friend just asked me (see comments in the blog entry below) if I am "married" or "free" (btw, he's earned the tag of old married man, so it wasn't anything more than curiousity), and he said that it's hard to tell from my blog.

Wow. Well . . . hmmm. If Wesley's still checking my blog, he's probably rolling on the floor laughing right now. (Wesley graduated from the Guys Should Know These Basic Things Training School run by sisters of the Cornell Int'l Christian Fellowship, Ithaca, NY, USA, but he should definitely return for further studies from time to time.)

Well, I agree with Alwyn that it's sometimes hard to tell if people are in a romantic relationship or not.

Btw, this is a photo of two very old friends (I've known Kim Sun since we were 10 years old, and Irene has been a screaming buddy since we were 12-ish). She complains that I'm really really loud, and I agree with her. If I weren't loud, she wouldn't have quite so much fun, even if she refuses to admit it.

Okay, I'm going out for a run right now. I've just been told I need to lose more weight. One of these days, I'll take a picture of the monkeys swinging on the trees in my "backyard." They are real cute.

Baby Ethan's bday

Ethan Dunn turns two! He's the son of Francis and Mabel, and we all graduated from Bangsar Gospel Center's youth group (Francis is still the leader there though). I was an annoyance with my camera again . . . got many a scolding. :( :(

Chinese New Year (yes, I know it's late)

This is my family, celebrating the New Year back in Taiping, the small mining town in which both my parents spent their childhood.

The second picture is one of us with our grandparents. The tall boy in the black t-shirt to my right is my baby cousin Jae Han. The last time I was home, he was at least a head shorter than me, so imagine my surprise when he walked in the door. As kids, we carried him around like a little baby monkey! And now, he tells me I'm too long-winded in my blog. My baby cousin. Tsk tsk.

This is what I do. Everyday. Whenever. Wherever.

another New Year!

I'm having a WONDERFUL time at home. I'll get to see my extended family (about 45 of them) this weekend for the Lunar New Year celebrations!

Since getting back, I've mostly been getting over jet-lag and a bad cold; EATING A LOT; and slowly getting back into contact with my old friends. I hit the libraries after the New Year. (I've only been reading one of the few books I brought with me from the US.)

final NYC adventure

Last stop in NYC was the UN, where I met up with Yang Laoshi (Chinese prof at Bates) and his wife. Here we are in the General Assembly. Yang Laoshi's wife is an interpreter at the UN so it was really fun to be able to go where regular tourists could not go. I saw the booths where the interpreters did their jobs, sat in the Malaysian UN delegate's chair, and walked right up to the podium in the front where all the fancy buttons and mikes are. The seat of power, ooohhh . . .

Yang Laoshi's wife also had great stories to tell. Apparently, sometime in the last week or so it rained so hard the roof started leaking in the General Assembly (I know, can you imagine??!!). Water started dripping on the French delegate's head, and he looked up and said, "What have I done to deserve this?"

Sorry, it was funnier when Yang Laoshi's wife told it. I'm not really good with funny stories.

Whan in April the shoures soote (sp??)

During my weekend in NYC, I also managed to meet up with Ms. Milstein, who claimed we hadn't met up in years. I did miss her wedding about a year and a half ago, but that was only because it was at about the same time as Kiat's wedding in Kuala Lumpur and they didn't have port keys or magic buses then.

Sara said I've mellowed! I couldn't tell how serious she was though. I think she thinks I'm still pretty hyper.:):)

Sara and I took Chaucer together in college, and we had to recite the first 15 (or was it 18??) lines of the Canterbury Tales in order to pass the class (can you imagine?!!), so we did our recitation together. I think we got through it without giggling. Maybe.:)

I can only remember the first three lines now, and only on my good days.

cicf in ny . . . and nj

Jennifer and I met up with Mike and Onimisi at their apts in New York City and New Jersey, and we can both attest that their mothers and sisters have done a fabulous job of training these men.:):)

Sorry, girls, Mike's already taken, but Onimisi's still available, I think!!!!!

Jennifer picked out a dress for me while we were speed-shopping, and when Onimisi saw it, he went: "BWAW, HAW, HAW, HAW, HAW, HAW, HAW . . . "

But that's okay, because he then added: "I'm sorry, I think Sze Wei's a little too conservative for that."

Since my own response was a look of horror, his laughter was was welcomed. I'm afraid all attempts to turn me into someone fashionable or trendy, or anything less than unimaginative and boring, is a very lost cause. :(

Rushil's wedding

It never ceases to amaze me how people who have so little in common can be such great friends. Besides the fact that most of us are international students who graduated from Bates, our lives really are very different, but we talked the night away, as if we haven't been apart for years. Thanks, Rushil and Luna, for getting married and giving us an excuse to get together for a Bates Reunion.:) I saw a few people I hadn't seen in about 9 years! (They were second-semester seniors my first semester at Bates.)

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

I got in 7am, January 18, and am horribly tired and jet-lagged. I'm not on the US sleep cycle, but neither am I on Malaysia's sleep cycle. And I can hardly tell what day it is. It also doesn't help that the time on my computer is still set to Ithacan time.:)

The last 2-3 weeks at Cornell were really fun because I was mostly playing and seeing people. Why can't it be that way more often at Cornell?? But I guess it'd be harder leaving Cornell then.:) I actually found myself having mixed-emotions about leaving the place--that took me a bit by surprise.

More posts/pictures on my weekend in NY coming up. Had a ton of fun seeing old college friends, some of whom I hadn't seen in years.

cat-napping

Kate on the left, Jade on the right.


Sleep problems continue, but with different variations. If I weren't so paranoid about turning into a hypochondriac, I'd think I have a sleeping disorder of some sort.

Last night, I dreamt that while I was at my grandparents house, I was "attacked" by friendly looking cutesie dogs who kinda chomped down on my leg (didn't hurt) and wouldn't let go. I tried to lock the big gate on them, but I don't think I ever got rid of them. Then after that I was plagued by "live" toys that I could not get rid off even though I eventually chopped them all up and sent the different parts away (they came back, all of them).

This afternoon, I finally succeeded in taking an afternoon nap, but then I started dreaming that I was visiting Jade and her girlfriend Kate in their loft. When Jade and Kate weren't looking, I popped Kate's cat into the oven and turned it on. "Luckily" it wasn't actually Gilmore in my dream (it was my IVCF staff worker's daughter's cat, Princess!!) , but still!!

In my dream I was convinced this would be a real treat for us all until I fell asleep on Jade's futon and started realizing in my sleep (I'm dreaming about dreaming now!) that Kate would be really upset. I was absolutely pressed down by guilt until the moment I woke up from that nap and could tell myself over and over again that I didn't really put a cat in the oven.

Those thirty sleeping pills the health center prescribed are starting to look real good now.

Packing up but still in Ithaca

I've been packing and moving for the past few weeks, and I still have a little left to do--it's the neverending story! I tend to accumulate a lot of junk that I think I "might" need at some point. Of course, I end up forgetting that I even have that stuff because I squirrel them away in "safe" hiding places and only discover them whenever I need to pack and move again.

My lease ends this week and one of my friends very generously lent me her studio apt to live in for about 2.5 weeks while she's away. It's small but nice, clean, and quiet. I better get some work done while I'm here!!

I just realized that, in the last 7 years, I've never lived in the same apt for more than a year. Because of unforeseeable circumstances, I've had to move around a lot, and while it forces me to clean and throw away junk (last week I found notes and handouts from the class I took 4 years ago on Classical Chinese--I hated that class!!), I think I'm going to be happy when I finally get to stay put for awhile.

I don't ask for much, do I?? That ain't gonna happen anytime soon, unfortunately.

I leave for New York City on Jan 14 to attend a college friend's wedding reception, have Nigerian food with Nigerian friends on Jan 15, and will be meeting an old prof and his wife for a tour of the UN on Jan 16 before flying home that evening. I can't wait!

no more car

Had to sell my trusty (tan+rusty) Toyota Corolla station-wagon today. :( Storing it in a friend's garage for the 7 months I'll be gone sounded like it would be too much for my friend even though she said it would be okay. So, thank God someone wanted to buy it.

Never realized before just how dependent I've become on a car--getting things done now takes a lot longer, and having to walk extensively during the Ithacan winter (today it's -7 deg C w/o windchill, and -15 deg C with windchill) is . . . well, it must do something to one's soul.

Badminton coaching clinic

Last weekend we had a badminton coaching clinic here at Cornell. We brought up Andy Chong, who played 3rd singles for Malaysia in the 80's and who later played in the US national team. Andy and his assistant coach Radu Milevschi did a great job--everyone had a ton of fun!

I'm playing doubles with Archit in one picture (or was it mixed-doubles??) and look at the flex on Andy's racket in this other picture--and he uses mid-stiff rackets too!

Charlie and the Choc Factory

Has got to be one of the most bizarre movies I've seen in a long time. I think I'm traumatized. I need to see my therapist.

parables for academia

http://www.intervarsity.org/gfm/resource_item.php?id=3305
Parables for Modern Academia
by Deborah & Loren Haarsma
What might Jesus say if he came to the quad on your campus? Deborah and Loren Haarsma, both faculty in the physics department at Calvin College, have retold many of Jesus' parables, changing the setting to that of the early-21st-century American university, instead of the agrarian society of the New Testament era. Told from a new perspective, these parables are meant to catch our attention in fresh ways, and they remind us that the words of Jesus are as relevant to us today as they were to his original hearers.
Discussion questions for these modern parables are available for individual or small-group use.

[1]
The kingdom of heaven is like a professor who went off on a long sabbatical. Before he left, he called together his graduate students and gave each of them projects to work on; to one he gave five projects, to another two, and to another one, each according to their ability. The one who received five projects immediately went to work, designing experiments, building equipment, and analyzing data. She worked long and hard, and eventually she achieved good results on each project. Likewise, the one who received two projects immediately went to work, and eventually got results as well. But the student who received one project was easily discouraged, got distracted by her coursework, and eventually gave up.

After a very long time, the professor returned to settle accounts with his students. The first student said, "Professor, you gave me these projects to work on, and see, here are the results." And the professor answered, "Well done, good and faithful graduate student. You have been faithful over five projects. You shall be co-author on five publications and receive a Ph.D! (And you can expect a good letter of recommendation, too!)" Likewise the second student showed his results, and the professor said, "Well done, good and faithful student. You have been faithful over two projects. You will be co-author on two publications, and receive a Master's degree."

But the third student came and said, "Professor, I know that you are a harsh man, publishing where you did not labor, and claiming credit where you did not contribute, and I was afraid. So I kept the lab locked up and I didn't let anyone borrow any equipment. See, everything is just the way you left it." Then the professor answered, "You wicked and slothful graduate student! I will judge you by your own words. So, you knew that I was a harsh man, publishing where I did not labor, and claiming credit where I did not contribute; well then, you should have at least gotten a teaching fellowship so that I wouldn't have had to pay your salary out of my research grants! Now depart from me and from this institution ... out into the REAL world, and try to find a job. There you will have weeping and gnashing of teeth." For to everyone who has, more will be given. But to him who has not, even what little he has will be taken away. (Matthew 25:14-30)

[2]
The kingdom of heaven is like an original manuscript in a used book store. When a historian found it, she sold all her other books to buy the manuscript. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a scientist looking for new projects. When he found one theory of great promise, he joyfully gave up all his other projects to focus on it. (Matt 13:44-46)

[3]
Suppose one of you wants to start a research project. Will he not first sit down and estimate if his grant is large enough to cover the cost of equipment, salaries, and overhead? For if his grant runs out halfway through, everyone who sees it will ridicule him, saying, "This fellow began a project and was not able to finish." In the same way, any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be Jesus' disciple. (Luke 14:28-29, 33)

[4]
The dean was speaking at a faculty meeting. One of the professors stood up and asked, "What must I do to get tenure?" The dean replied, "What does the faculty manual say?" The professor answered, "Do good research, teach well, and mentor students." "You have answered correctly," the dean replied. "Do this and you will get tenure." But the professor wanted to justify himself, so he asked the dean, "What does it mean to mentor students?" In reply the dean said: "One term there was a student who was struggling in his courses. He went to talk about it to the professor of one of his classes, but the professor brushed him off with, "If you can't handle the work, you should drop the course." The student then went to his academic advisor, but she was on her way out the door to the airport and didn't have time to talk. A custodian overheard the conversation, and, seeing the discouragement of the student, invited him out for a cup of coffee.

It turned out the student was dealing with the death of a family member, and the stress was affecting his personal life as much as his studies. The custodian walked him to the counseling center and arranged an appointment for him. He called the student several times in the next few weeks to see how things were going, and helped him think through whether to drop the courses or not. Now, which one of these was the true mentor to the student?" The professor replied, "The one who had mercy on him." The dean told him, "Go and do likewise." (Luke 10:25-37)

[5]
When you are writing a paper about exciting new data, do not overstate the impact of your result. Someone else may come along later with better data and prove you wrong, and then you will be humiliated and your colleagues will not respect your work. But when you have an exciting new result, be modest about its implications. Then when the review paper comes out, it will say, "This is an important piece of work," and you will be honored in the presence of all your colleagues. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted. (Luke 14:7-11)

[6]
Obedience
There was a professor who had two grad students. She went to the first and said, "Take care of this project for me." "I will not," he answered, but later he changed his mind and did it. Then the advisor went to the other grad student and said the same thing. She answered, "I will do it," but she did not. Which of the two did what the advisor wanted? (Matt 21:28-31)

[7]
Appropriate religious observance
No one runs untested code on a network server, for the code may crash and take down the server. Likewise, no one puts old format data files into new databases. The new database will be corrupted, and the data will be lost. No, you put new-format data into new databases. (Matt 9:14-17)

[8]
Responses to the gospel
A researcher published an exciting new theory. Some readers didn't understand it, and quickly forgot it. Other readers were too busy with their own work to test the new theory. Others immediately went to work and got preliminary results, but the difficulties of performing the proper controls and testing for systematic errors discouraged them. Still others tested the theory and produced not only confirming data, but also new data and new theories to test. (Matt 13:3-8, 18-23)

[9]
The kingdom of heaven is like a department chair checking on the progress of the graduate students. She came to a graduate student who was supposed to turn in his thesis that week, but had procrastinated and hadn't started to analyze data yet. The department chair reminded him that there was no more funding for him after this term. The grad student pleaded with her. "Be patient with me," he begged, "and I will finish the thesis by the deadline." The department chair took pity on him, and told him she would let him re-enroll and would find money somewhere for another term.

But when the graduate student went out, he ran into one of the undergraduates in the course he was grading. He yelled at the student, "Where is your homework? It's a day late!" The undergraduate begged him, "Be patient with me, and I will turn it in tomorrow." But the grad student refused and said, "No. I'm giving you a zero and you're failing the course!" When the other students saw what had happened, they were greatly distressed and went and told the department chair everything that had happened. Then the chair called the graduate student in. "You wicked student," she said, "I forgave you for procrastinating on your thesis because you begged me. Shouldn't you have had mercy on the undergraduate just as I had on you?" In anger the chair expelled him from the department, to find a job until he could finish his thesis. This is how the heavenly Father will treat each of us unless we forgive our brothers from the heart. (Matt 18:23-35)

[10]
In a certain department there was a chairman who neither feared God nor cared about students. There was a student in that department who kept coming to him with the plea, "Grant me justice in my petition." For some time he refused, but finally he said to himself, "Even though I don't fear God or care about students, yet because this student keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won't eventually wear me out with her coming!" Listen to what the unjust department chair says. Will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? I tell you he will see that they get justice, and quickly. (Luke 18:2-8)

[11]
The kingdom of heaven is like a student who left one research group to work in another. His former advisor was demanding and manipulative; she coerced the student to continue to work on her projects without pay, threatening not to acknowledge his work in the publication. The student's new advisor called a group meeting, but the student was too ashamed to come. He had no new results to report, for he had spent all his time on the old advisor's projects. When the professor asked where he was, the other students explained. The professor was frustrated and said, "This has been going on for months! He'll never be able to pull away on his own. Tell him that if he has any trouble with the other professor, I will handle it. I'm paying his salary and I want him to spend his time working for me." (based on a true story)

[12]
There was a biology professor whose graduate student was accused of wasting time. So she called him in and asked him, "What is this I hear about you? Give an account of what you have done because you cannot be my student any longer." The student said to himself, "What shall I do now? My professor is taking away my funding. I don't have good enough work habits to get a real job, and I'm too proud to move back in with my parents. I know what I'll do so that, when I lose my job here, other research groups will hire me as a technician." So he called each of his professor's competitors. He asked the first, "How much of that gene have you cloned so far?" "Only about 40 percent," she replied. The student answered, "I'll tell you the parts that you're missing." Then he asked the second, "Have you decided what experiments you're going to do next?" "We're still deciding that," the second replied. The student answered, "I'll tell you what ideas we've discussed in our lab." The professor commended the dishonest student because he had acted shrewdly. For the people of light should be just as shrewd in doing good as the people of this world are in doing evil. (Luke 16:1-8, Matt 10:16)

[13]
The grant proposals of a certain professor were all approved. She thought to herself, "What shall I do? My lab space isn't big enough for all these projects." Then she said, "This is what I'll do. I'll get brand new lab space and hire many new post-docs and graduate students. And I'll say to myself, 'You have tenure and many research projects which will produce papers for years to come. Take life easy; go to conferences and take sabbaticals.'" But God said to her, "You fool! This very night your life will be demanded of you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?" This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich towards God. (Luke 12:16-21)

[14]
The kingdom of heaven is like an array of sensors left to monitor an experiment. When the experiment was over, the scientists downloaded the data. They saved the data from the good sensors for further analysis, and threw away the data from the bad sensors. This is how it will be at the end of the age. (Matt 13:47-50)

[15]
Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a programmer who started many processes on her computer. While everyone was sleeping, a hacker broke in and started some counterfeit jobs, which began using some of the CPU time. The programmer's assistants said, "Didn't you start useful jobs on the computer? Where then did these counterfeits come from?" "A hacker did this, " she replied. The assistants asked her, "Do you want us to kill the jobs?" "No," she answered, "because while you are killing them, some good processes might be interrupted by accident. Let them all go to completion. Then we will purge every counterfeit process from the disk and memory, and save the results of every good process onto permanent tape." (Matt 13:24-30)

[16]
The kingdom of heaven is like a professor who had many papers to grade. She asked her teaching assistants to start helping her early in the morning, and agreed to take them all out to dinner when the grading was finished. About mid-morning she realized she would need more help, so when she saw other graduate students standing in the hallway doing nothing, she asked them to help her, and agreed to reward them appropriately. Again at noon she found other graduate students eating lunch, and got them to help her, and again at mid-afternoon. About 5 p.m. she found still others and asked, "Why are you standing around doing nothing? Come and help me grade my papers."

When they were finished grading, the professor took them all to a restaurant. When she paid for the dinners of those who had started work at 5 o'clock, those who started early in the morning expected to receive more. But when she only paid for their dinner too, they began to grumble, "These others who only worked one hour got just as much as we did, who slaved all day over those papers." But the professor answered, "I am not being unfair to you. You got what we agreed upon. I want to give the students who only graded one hour as much as I gave you. Don't I have that right? Or are you envious because I am generous?"
So the last will be first and the first will be last. (Matt 20:1-16)

[17]
The kingdom of heaven is like a college president who was hosting a banquet for an important donor. He sent announcements to all the important administrators and faculty, but they all began to make excuses. The first said, "I just received some new lab equipment, and I want to try it out, so I cannot come." Another said, "My book just got published, and I must make sure the bookstores and libraries have copies, so I cannot come." Still another said, "I'm on sabbatical, so I cannot come."

When the RSVP's came back, the president was angry and told his assistant, "Go quickly into the classrooms, dorms, and offices and bring in the graduate students, undergraduates, and staff." "Sir," said the assistant, "what you ordered has been done, but the banquet hall still isn't full." Then the president said, "Go to other colleges down the road, and invite them to come! The banquet hall must be filled! I tell you, not one of those who were invited first will be let in the door." (Luke 14:16-24)

[18]
How can a student, whom her professor put in charge of his research projects, be faithful and wise? It will be good if the professor finds the research assistant working hard when he returns; surely, he will give her an excellent recommendation. But suppose that research assistant is wicked and says to herself, "My professor is staying away a long time," and she begins to misuse the equipment and spend her time surfing the web. The professor will walk into the lab on a day she does not expect and at an hour when she is not aware. He will reprimand and humiliate the student and take away her funding; then there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. (Matt 24:45-51)

[19]
At that time the kingdom of heaven will be like ten students waiting for a professor to return to his office. They needed his signature to add his course, and the forms were due early the next day. Five were wise and five were foolish. The wise ones brought something to eat while they waited, but the foolish ones did not. The professor was a long time in coming, and as they waited all afternoon, they got very hungry. The foolish ones said, "Give us some of your food." But the wise ones answered, "No, we only brought enough for ourselves, and there isn't enough to share. Go to the cafeteria and buy something." But while they were on their way to the cafeteria, the professor arrived. He signed the forms of those who were waiting, then locked his office and went home. Later that evening, the others telephoned him at home and said, "Sir! Sir! Come back and sign our forms." But he replied, "I tell you the truth, you are not my students." Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour. (Matt 25:1-13)

[20]

Therefore, whoever hears these teachings and puts them into practice is like a wise scholar who built his theory upon data. The criticisms came down, the controversies rose, and the counter-arguments blew and beat against the theory, but it did not fall apart, because it had its foundation in data. But whoever hears these teachings and does not put them into practice is like a foolish scholar who built his theory upon conjecture. The criticisms came down, the controversies rose, and the counter-arguments blew and beat against the theory, and it failed spectacularly. (Matt 7:24-27)

Copyright reserved by Deborah and Loren Haarsma. May be freely distributed electronically in whole or in part, but please keep this notice attached and do not alter the text.

zzzz-ing

A friend lent me his book on sleep, and it's pretty cool. I know, I know, you're probably thinking, "Sze Wei? Sleep? She's always falling asleep, everywhere, wherever, anywhere--does she really need to learn more about sleep?!"

The answer to that is a resounding YES. James Maas, a psych professor at Cornell, works on sleep research, and his book "Power Sleep" debunks our myths about what sleep is, how it works, what are good sleeping habits, how to discern if you're sleep deprived, etc. , and I think it's starting to work for me. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0060977604/qid=1131310473/sr=8-1/ref=pd_bbs_1/104-6735267-3108741?v=glance&s=books&n=507846

For the first time in my life, I'm waking up before the alarm rings (most days anyway)! I don't ever remember having done that before, and I'm starting to feel much better during the day. I went in to the health center because I was having insomnia and had felt perpetually fatigued for the past 2 months or so (yes, after turning in the A-exams), and they gave me 30 sleeping pills. 30 pills. Thirty.

I guess American-sized portions don't just apply to meal servings, they apply to medication too. Talk about excessive.

planning my jail break

(yes, yes, yes, i'm procrastinating again--this is what happens when i have to grade student papers.)

so, i don't know how i feel about this: i've been dithering about when i would leave ithaca i.e. how much time i want to spend in the cornell libraries before getting free of this place. then i finally decided that you know what, i don't care, i'll take off as soon as the library closes for christmas break. too late. one week, and all the seats are gone.

i've been on the phone with three travel agencies today, and so now because i waited about a week to make up my mind, the soonest i can fly is jan 17!!!!! which means:

1) i won't be in kuala lumpur when rushil and luna will be visiting the city over the new year.

2) i can attend rushil's and luna's wedding reception in queens on the 14th!

(secretly, i'd much rather be with them during their ceremony in kathmandu, but queens will have to be exotic enough since i'm living on a graduate student stipend.)

3) i will see alake and others at the new york reception

4) i can probably feed petra, kim's cat, when dan's with her inmalawi

5) i need to find housing for jan 1 to jan 12/13

what i'd really like to know is . . . who's all them folks who're flying to malaysia at this time????!!!!!! and finally, can i face another winter break at cornell??

well, at least i can pass myself off as a super-hardworking and ultra-dedicated grad student to the profs on my committee. God forbid they ever come across this blog.

personality test

take the test:
http://www.humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/JTypes3.asp

my personality type:
http://keirsey.com/personality/ntij.html
http://typelogic.com/intj.html

Sometimes I wonder if the results are who we really are or who we'd really like to be. Surprisingly, I seem more cut out to be an engineer rather than a literature teacher. Hmm. Well, it's too late for a career change at this point, and I think anyway that literature professors are too-often misunderstood. :)

shopping for a wedding gown

No, I wasn't shopping for a wedding gown for myself . . . Dilkushi, Jennifer and I helped my roommate, Kim, pick out a beautiful gown. I can't put up a picture of Kim in her fabulous gown because Dan might chance on this blog and he's not supposed to see her in it before the wedding day.

Comp Lit partners in crime

Two fabulous women in Cornell Comp Lit: Shital and Tsitsi! We started in the prog in the same year. Yup, only three of us in our class. Aren't they just beautiful??

Doug's Fish Fry

This is Car no. 2 to get back to Ithaca. I think we were celebrating the fact that no one came back with broken legs or hypothermia, that we didn't get fined by the ranger, that our food was safe from the bears (even though several of us brought jars of honey), and that most of our stuff made it back to Ithaca with us.

Miraculously, Car no. 1, Onimisi's babe magnet of a car, made it back to Ithaca in record time. They must've either paddled super hard or drove pretty fast (or done both) to get Roxann to her class on time.

Car no. 3 made a detour to Lake George and they had a wonderful time there, hosted by Laura's family for the afternoon, but Jennifer hasn't developed her pictures yet.

I had a really great time (once my sleeping bag dried out, and I got to warm up in front of the fire), and would actually consider making the trip out again next year.

Just kidding, Samson, I wouldn't miss it for the world!