Resisting the sales

There is no doubt that once your desired clothing or gadgets are on sale, you would not wait to pull out those dollar bills in exchange for something you dreamed for a long time. I know I am definitely like that, no patients and lack in self control. Some sales are 50-75%, which made my heart skip a beat, while others are 10% maximum, but still stimulated my urge to look further.

My funding for the month has been low for the past week, due to uncontrolled spending to pamper myself. While dwelling over the internet, I discovered crazy sales for my favorite clothing brands like banana republic, J.crew, etc. I spend an hour of my time looking over the different sale items, each and everyone of them is absolute requirement to complete my wardrobe. But at the end, I was still hesitant to click on the checkout button. I guess for online shopping it is easy to add items into your virtual basket and check things out. There is no sense of the flow of money when one mouse click means doing a simple math problem with the number that appears on your bank account. The danger of sales is not just that it prompts people to spend, but to spend while thinking it is the buyer's only opportunity. The safe-then-sorry notion plays our psychology very well here.

The Blue Danube by Strauss

Johann Strauss II originally composed the blue danube as a symphony. Currently there are many different versions of the blue danube. For the piano, there is a simplified version played by a single player, and another far more complicated version that is much closer to the original symphony for duo pianos. I have a suspicion that the duo piano version of the blue danube was what appeared in Tom and  Jerry episode about Johann Strauss. It definitely seems like there are more than five melodies on the piano being played when Tom was on the piano.

Anyway, I was thrilled the other day that I was able to find the duo version on the piano. Unfortunately, this version of the blue danube is no longer in print, and is therefore lost in history forever.

Roommate Situations

When it comes to roommates, I am sure people have different experiences. Of course there are those people that are very picky when it comes to roommates, while others do not have strong preferences because their personalities are just so "chill". I, on the other hand, have had many problems with roommates. Either because their standards of living does not run on similar horizon as mine, or because our passive aggressive manners behave like nuclear bombs.

I guess my first roommate was my mom, but that didn't count. I got my second and third roommate in college freshman year. It was a "triplet", which you are stick in a small room with two other seemingly very nice ladies. Judging from our young age, many people will know immediately that this did not go well. We initiated our imaginary fun college years with no rules for the room. And that means you can bring any boy over at any time, you can get up at anytime and play loud music at any time, you can have loud and emotional telephone conversations at any time, you can be drunk at any time of the day and talk about your current drunken state at any time. That ended up not going well, especially since all of us have many thoughts not communicated, and complaints to each of our newly-established friends. We ended up the college year gaining more enemies than friends.

After that year I was devastated, so I moved into an studio apartment by myself. That, was heaven, until the rent got too high. Luckily one day I met a very studious girl in my junior year in college, who is extremely responsible and shares very similar living habits with me. We then decided to room together and everything was great.

Good roommates are very hard to find. It involves a certain degree of trust, understanding, and respect for one another to live without any conflicts. Often times I became too lazy to actively go and search out those people, and pay extra in rental fee for the harmonious living situation.

Wisdom Teeth

I got my bottom wisdom teeth pulled when I was 20 years old. It did not feel good afterwards. Indeed, my face was swollen for almost a week. It was even worse since I was starting a new job the day after the dental surgery. I ended up giving people at work with the first impression of an asymmetrical face. For all of those events, my view towards wisdom teeth is not a good one.

Recently I got the chance to expose myself to additional radiation -- the grandiose panoramic film that covers my entire mouth. Surprisingly, it showed four wisdom teeth in my mouth, including new ones that popped up again at the bottom. Of course I was not thrilled to see that those had grew back. Moreover, wisdom teeth growing back was never anything I have ever heard of. It turns out that when the dental pulp, which sort of works as stem cells for bone growth, is not completely removed, then another set of teeth might grow back! And that was what happened to mine. And strangely, there are small population of people that can grow a second set of adult teeth. Because it is a very small population, do not wait for that to happen when you have dying molars.

Relatives' Weddings (Part VI)

One year later, it was another relative's wedding. It guess it is about time that people reach their age for marriage: setting down, starting a family, and all that jazz. But really, I find individually in people who do not follow the trend of setting down in their late twenties and early thirties. Then again is the question that my mother always asks me -- "are you going to their wedding?" Without thinking my answer is no, but this time I wanted to end this tireless questioning of whether I will ever attend any social events hosted by any of my relatives.

I told my mother that my reluctance to attend those activities is due to their general vibe of prejudice. I purposefully dramatized their sense of superiority, because I know my high self-respected mother cannot tolerate those things been done to her precious daughter.

"I am so sorry, I haven't realized all of those things that you went through. If I had know, I wouldn't have given you all the invitations."
"That's okay, mom."
"I'll just go by myself and make up some excuses for you. I'll tell them that you cannot attend because you are a lot of things at work."
"Thank you, mom."
"I know they won't be happy about it, but I will just sweeten them up a bit by giving them compliments."

It was then I realized that my recklessness has caused a lot of problems for my mother, the middler person who has to make two sides happy. I cannot imagine all those excuses that my mother made up for me in front of those chatty relatives about how busy I am with work and school. I cannot imagine all  the complaints that my relatives has made once acknowledges my absence. But on the other side, I was not sure if my mother was purposefully saying that to make me feel guilty about all of those things that she does for me. I know that mothers can be passive aggressive, and introducing guilt to me is not something new.

Poster for gbAMSA General Meeting

There is nothing hard about making a poster, but there is something hard about making a poster that you have no idea about the style and ways of advertising. This poster, seems simple, but took me three hours to complete. Worse, I still think there is something missing from this boring looking poster. What could it be?

Maleficent (2014)

I was fortunate enough to go see Maleficent with a whole bunch of friends who are in love with disney princess characters. I walked in the movie theater thinking that this movie was going to be a horror movie just based on whatever that is going on on the top of Angelina Jolie's head. I thought maybe it was going to be something psychological like Black Swan. Overall the movie was pretty good, and I am not going to ruin it for anyone out there.

I had always thought the sexiness of Angelina Jolie is all hyped up because of her marriage with Brad Pitt, her overly large lips, and her flawless makeup (credit goes to her makeup artist). But after I saw this movie, made by disney (which often I associate with kids' shows), I really do associate her with the sex image. There is no nudity, and absolutely no reference to sex, but one thing that people often associate to the sex image -- power. Maleficent is powerful, and can do things that even the king cannot do. She can get whatever she wants, the fact that she was the villain was only due to a brief moment of aggression. At one point there was Angelina Jolie without her omnipresent cape, and what was underneath was -- leather suits, which I also associate with sex image. That made me wonder, had Maleficent always been wearing leather suits under her cape? If so, that just adds more complex character to her.

Chopin's Fantasy Impromptu

Chopin's fantasy impromptu is the only piece I still remember how to play. Unlike other sonatas or Bach's three or five part inventions, this piece has some uniqueness to it that makes lasting impression, especially on the hands. Figuring on this piece is really important. Good figuring will lead to smoother practice and faster time to master this piece. The slow transition in the middle of the piece gives the hands a break from the busy polyrhythms. The coda on the other hand, is what I would say the toughest. There are many repetitions in the coda, making the practice very boring and easily neglectable.

If you are confident enough to try this piece, I would say practice very slowly with both hands until you are use to the whole idea of both hands going at different paces. After you have done that, slowly increase the speed. If you try practicing very fast at first, which is what most people are very eager to do, then it will be harder for you to completely master the piece. Anyway, enjoy!

Street Performer in Dupont Circle, Washington, D.C.

So I was meeting up with a friend at Dupont Circle in D.C. the other day. It was the south of Dupont Circle Metro statement where the escalator were paralleled with LED and neon colored lights. Right outside of the metro station is a nice African American family with each member playing an instrument: the drum, trombone, and tuba. I don't quite remember if the french horn is in it or not. They were playing bebop, a style that was really popular in the 60s. Along with the fast tempo was this little boy standing in the street and enjoying all the attention. I have to say, he has the music genes within him -- able to play jazz with such ease, swinging the musical notes with ascends and descends.

As an individual who is trying to tackle jazz on the piano after years and years of classical music training, jazz is quite a challenge for me. The inability to express myself and let myself go on the piano is preventing me from conquering the field of jazz. Compare to him, my training still has a long way to go.

Coping with post break-ups

After my last relationship breakup, I slowly dig my way into the art of busy-ness. Piling projects on myself one on top of another. Every now and then was the feeling of emptiness at sleepless nights, resulting in twists and turns that eventually led to combustions of tears in silent realms. During the day, these emotions retrieved back into the subconscious, and allow me few moments of my own time.

I have signed for many things to help me cope with my breakups-- ambitious acrylic paintings of landscapes, new scores from Liszt and Rachmaninov, daily runs, organizing social events, graphic design competitions, etc. Believe it or not, I am still looking for projects to involve myself with. And if there isn't one, I make one.

What resulted was stressed day time and absenting night time. Sharp contrast of socially-involved day lights with silent and neglected moon lights is (from what I believe) really having an affect on the way my hypothalamus secrete its hormones. If you are as equally as frustrated at the world as me, click the youtube video below -- it will calm you down a bit.

Despite all these things going on, I have to say that I am handling the post break-up times very well. From my experiences with post break-ups, there is a few pointers that I came up with.

If you noticed that you are constantly buying, eating, and obtaining new things for yourself, then you see the break-up as something is missing in your life. These behaviors tend to happen to people with decent amount of self-confidence and self-esteem (yes I think self-confidence and self-esteem are two different things). A good coping mechanism for your post break-up would be to embed yourself in work. Work will slowly take over what you initially considered missing, and it will also build a good reputation for you as a hard worker. You will gain more confidence through the amount of time you put into work, and enjoy the fruits of success.

If you noticed that you shut yourself in your room and refuse to go outside and see people, then embedding in work will not be good for you. You will feel the extra burden of facing your own tragedy as well as being slaved around by your boss. This behavior usually occur to people that are in the process of maturation. If you are one of those people, something good can be volunteering. You will find through volunteering that there are people that are less fortunate than you; there are actually people in this world that needs you, as oppose to dumping you. Once you understand this, you will be able to pull yourself out of the post break-up and move on to a better life.

Relatives' Weddings (Part V)

In my third year of college, I got a warming phone call from my mother.

"Do you know that [Random relative's name] is getting married?"

"Really...congratulations to him."

"They are getting married in two weeks, and the ceremony is taking place in New York."

"Cool."

"...You are not coming?"

"No...I am busy with my exams."

"I understand you are busy honey, but you should try to come. It's [Random relative's name]'s wedding, people are getting together."

"I am not sure, I will see what I can do mom."

"Try to come, okay?"

"Okay..."

I did not go. Afterwards I sneaked at some of the wedding photos that some relatives have on Facebook. It was good that they made these photos public, that way I can get to know what happened as an internet passing bystander. The bridesmaids with faces I can recognize. 'Look at that ugly color...such stuffy wedding dress...poor decorations...what are they eating?' These are the thoughts going through my head-- harsh and bitter. But what is causing those ideas, are my deep desire to become one of them. If things are different, I could have enjoyed the wedding with them. If I attempted at befriending them, I probably would be in happier state of mind. But I didn't, and the longer I wait to reach out, the less bonding will form. 

Too late, things are already this way. I ended up trying to convince myself that they actually looked down on me due to my immigrational status, so that I can channel this sense of injustice to something more useful to me -- career. As a result, bitterness subsided few days afterwards when I performed well on my exams. However, even now, I am unable to truly blame this broken connection to their prejudices. Because I know that I was at fault as well.

Satsuma in Bethesda, MD

Another ramen place but located in Bethesda, Maryland!

If it's not from a strong recommendation on top of indecisive dinner choices, I would not walk into this restaurant. The exterior does not look so inviting, indeed, the outside gives off the impression that there is something under-the-table going on. With the addition of 80s flashing "OPEN" neon lights, this place  walk straight out of some movie about mafias.

I would give a 1 out 10 for interior decorations since I immediately noticed the damp ceiling with marks of water leaks, worn out chairs, aluminum framed windows, and bad lighting. But since I am not being an interior design critic, I will move onto the dish of the day.

We both ordered the same dish -- spicy miso Ramen. I wanted to compare this with the ramen that I had a few days in Sakuramen. And I was very surprised, that a place with mediocre rating (3.5 stars) on Yelp can have very good ramen.





I guess it is unusual to incorporate corn into ramen soup, but having been to Sakuramen so many times, I have already adjusted to the idea of corn in ramen soup. This time, the noodle was bouncy and tender, much unlike the one I had in Sakuramen. I have no idea what they add to make this delicious broth other than miso. I guess you have to go there and try it for yourself to decide. I am usually not a big fan of sesame, but the addition of little sesame did not bother me at all. There was a thick cut of beef lying at the bottom of the bowl when I work midway into the ramen, it seems as an ingredient for the broth.




Our ratings for this dish was overall good. They have many other things on their list such as bibimbap, kuppa, sushi, bento, etc. Seems like a good variation of different asian goodies.

Sakuramen in Washington, D.C.

Ramen! A bowl of ramen tend to be the go to meal for blue collar workers in Asia. Sitting on the side of the street on cracked chairs and taped up tables to enjoy a bowl of ramen is something uniquely distinctive for the asian culture. In major cities there are always at least two ramen shops that people are crazy about. They stood out because of several things: they offer large quantities of food since they were designed to feed you full, they are exotic since they are from cross the globe, and they do not take reservations.

A few days ago I visited one of my all time favorite restaurant in Washington, D.C. -- Sakuramen. Last time I have been there before this visit was a year ago. And let me tell you, things have changed since then. One word to sum up the experience -- disappointment.

A year ago I was a fan of their Chosun Ramen. They incorporated korean future into this ramen. The addition of non-authenic Kimchi into their ramen really make this dish pop from the classic Shoyu and Tonkatsu. My friend at the time ordered the vegetarian Sakuramen which she gives an above average rating for.



One thing about Sakuramen that I like is their presentation. It is hard to present Ramen, just like it's hard to present salad. Lack of compartmentalization within a bowl of liquid makes neatly placed toppings works of art.

Few days ago I went with a friend from Japan. I wouldn't say that her standards are high since she grew up in Japan eating very authentic Ramen noodles, but she does have some guidelines when it comes to the quality of ramen. We started off with Bulgogi buns and spicy sweet pork buns for appetizers. We were hungry, so we swiped it clean. It was very delicious. Spongy buns topped with juicy bulgogi or sweet and sour pork. The addition of the raw lettuce makes this dish guilt free for health-lovers.



Then comes the Ramen. My friend ordered Tonkatsu Red that is mild spicy. This was a bad decision to start with since she really doesn't eat all that spicy. I went with Spicy Miso Ramen with an extra fireball. This is where the disappointment comes. The noodles were not bouncy and chowey like some other ramen I have had, and seems as if they were not cooked for long enough. The broth were salty but light, way too watered down. These are actually two important factors that makes a good bowl of ramen.


(Spicy Miso Ramen)

We were not so happy with the ramen itself, but very happy with the buns. Imagining two or three years ago this place had gone viral with long times on Friday and Saturday nights. It is so disheartening to see such a good place gone down with its building reputation.



This is something I have learned from a former foodie that I used to know. At the end we ranked our dishes 1-10. Results does not look so promising.

The Economists - Audio

As an immigrant, I choose to expose myself to media that are in my mother tongue. However, I often recognize my over exposure to non-English causes my English to decline. My solution to better verbal English is listening to The Economists Audio. This can be available when you have the Economists prescription. This method is especially convenient for me since I run a lot of experiments in lab that do not require communicating with others.

One time I did not finish all of the audio for the newest article, so I decided to go home and play it on my laptop instead from my phone. The audio can be downloaded from the Economists website, but will be separated into individual articles. Now, even through I am a big fan of Mac systems, I dislike iTunes. I dislike iTunes in a way that I will purposefully avoid opening it. Of course the next option aside from iTunes is QuickTime Player. I selected all available audios and clicked on QuickTime Player, then felt incredibly stupid afterwards.

I ended up spending solid two minutes closing all of the windows, only then to discover the hot key for closing all of those annoying windows: command+w.

I am still on the hunt for good media playing software that is simple, convenient, doesn't take up much ram for Macs. Maybe I should develop one myself. 

Relatives' Weddings (Part IV)

Living in Westchester, New York for a couple of years has eventually diverged me in different directions from my fellow relatives. I remember beginning a conversation with my cousins and ended up with the only comment: "You talk like white people". I always end my conversion with them in confusion, wondering if some of the topics they were actively discussing about were actually important or "fun". One time I overheard the conversations that my cousins were having, and they were talking about new immigrants. Alarmed, I paused what I was doing, and focused on what they have to say.

"She is so quiet, I'm not sure what I can say to her."

"Maybe she is just shy."

"Well she shouldn't be shy anymore since she has already been with us for a couple of month."

"She can't speak English."

I slowly moved away from these sound sources, and swam to look for a safer place for docking. I'm not sure if they were talking about me, but for a timid individual who only has her parents to talk to, the American sassiness only frightened me more. They dislike me-- for my status as an immigrant, and for my appearent lack of enthusisum in talking to them. The latter was not true, I wanted connections with them more than anything, since positive relationships with people can only benefit me. However, I was not able to overcome my fear of messing up my English while talking to them. 'What if I don't know what they were talking about? What if they don't think I am as cool as them? What if I mess up my pronunciation?' Now reflecting back to the concerns I had, I admit I was being silly.

When people have bad first impressions, especially when they were in a more vulnerable state, it will make a large impact on the rest of their relations. My first impressions with my relatives were not positive. On top of that, I did not try to make any efforts to move our relationship with them in positive directions. Maybe it is because I refuse to kiss up to people, or because of my odd experiences in Westchester.

No doubt that this odd immigration journey has made me feel much unique compare to other immigrants. Similarly, these unique environments has yielded very little heart-to-heart friends. Often times I see a group of girls walking on the street talking in a foreign language in the city of New York. These encounters were especially prominent during the summer, when students take advantages of their summer vacations to go to places exotic. Seeing those groups of people has never affected my mood in any positive direction, either because larger crowds of people are always intimidating, or because I never belonged to any groups of friends close enough to travel together.

Relatives' Weddings (Part III)

Walking along the neatly cut grass I place my foot into the asphalt. Birds are nesting on the trees, dogs are running around looking for buddies. Occasionally I pass by a few hispanic loan cutters who were incredibly nice to me -- they said hello. It is 7:30am. I am going to school. Cars constantly zooms over me. And I can feel the eyes inside of cars that pass by me. They are going at 40 miles per hour, I am going at 2 miles per hour. Do I feel that I belong there? I do not. I try to, but my own insecurities prevents me from making the best out of an incredibly successful school system.

After I leave that town where my relatives reside, I come to Westchester, New York. I then was able to see many things that I never saw before, expose to people with ideas I never thought of before, and do things I never done before. It is a vast different world here. It is clean and quiet. People are overly civilized to each other. Everything here is photoshoped picture quality. Unlike my home country, there are no cows walking on the street. Unlike my relatives' town, there are no garbage on the side of the streets. Unlike any other places I have been to, there are huge houses!

The place where I can feel the most change is the schools. My fellow classmates in the hall way saying things like these:

"Stop by to my house in the Hamptons, (random girls' names) and I plan to stay there for a couple of days."
"She is going to do work for Bloomberg this summer because her dad knows him."
"My family is going to Paris again, I am so board of it."

As oppose to my older classmates saying things like these:

"Are you going to go home today? You mom is going to kill you."
"(Random boys' names) were part of that gang, they beat Michael up."
"Are you from China? Chin Chang Kin Kong Wan Wa..."

I do feel safer in my new environment, because I don't have to witness people getting beat up everyday. This picture perfect utopia, however, is constantly questioning my existence and position. People in this town do not walk, they have their own method of transportation -- cars. People do not yell at their kids, they have their babysitters do that. People do not cook, they have reservations. And me? I do not have cars because even my whole family cannot provide a car for ourselves. We do not have babysitters because cannot afford one. We do not make reservations for dinner because it is cheaper to make dinner at home after grabbing friday sale groceries.

I do not fit into that environment because my family background and my financial situation prevents me from doing that. I ended up spend the rest of my middle school years and high school years living like an oddball, rejecting everyone's invitations to their birthday parties because I do not have anyone to drive me, cannot afford tiffany gifts to the birthday girl, do not have a dress that is dressy enough for those events.