Unibrow is everywhere

First of all, a disclaimer: I do not hate this person nor do I bear any ill will towards him just because he is balding and has a uni brow, and once induced a dream where I grew a uni brow and could not wax/pluck at it because I just had eye surgery.

Uni brow is my colleague. He shows up nearly every other morning in the elevator no matter what time I choose to head upstairs from napping on the coffee shop sofa/chatting half-asleep with my boyfriend. Sometimes I see him pop up in the hall after lunch or before I go. I don't understand this uncanny ability of his to be everywhere I go. I don't bump into my other colleagues with such astounding reliability.

If he merely said 'hi' to me, it would not be a problem to see him so often. But English is nowhere near his first language, so when he sees me, his mind goes into "red alert! immediately switch to English mode!" but he can't switch fast enough, so something incoherent like "mghhpghh???" spews from his mouth to which I respond with a curt "and good morning to you too".

In the afternoon, he will ask me one question that I don't think he actually cares about, but for the sake of making conversation, will ask: what are you eating? when it is clear-as-day that I am eating a chicken Caesar salad at my desk.

Very nice guy. Very polite, and a good scientist. Just makes me go -__-'' sometimes.


Life Updates:

- Apparently whales have songs of their own that travel around like a popular pop song. See article here: http://ecocentric.blogs.time.com/2011/04/15/how-whale-songs-rocket-to-number-one/

Listen to them sing here:

http://www.eurekalert.org/multimedia/pub/31370.php?from=183196

http://www.eurekalert.org/multimedia/pub/31371.php?from=183196

- I decided to fast from facebook for Easter.

- I celebrated finishing my dissertation presentation with nights of crocheting, and failed mochi (I was so disappointed that I forgot to take a picture). I was still in the beginning of my "be gentle with it, I didn't use any stitches" lecture when my student squeezed the angry bird after throwing it into the air a few times. I decided to take it back home to make some reinforcements before handing it to this child. I turned a rat into an owl (the ball of yarn was getting bigger than I had expected, and a rat of that size would have been a bit too scary.)

My beautiful hand-drawn cell, used in the presentation.

- A fashion and beauty magazine distributed very very pretty free octopus card holders, which was enough incentive for me to pick it up (also as entertainment during lecture since I forgot to bring my laptop). The very next day, I lost the holder along with the octopus card. I think it was stolen. It must have happened between me finishing lunch and returning within 10 minutes to scour the area around my eating tray (which was not picked up yet), to see a girl sitting directly in front of my tray, responding nervously and quite suspiciously to my inquiries.

- I went to pam's ocean-baptism at the beach. TRES COOL!! ~

- Three weeks in a row with long weekends!

"The fee for sitting in the booth without taking a picture is 100HKD" says the sign.

It's time for indian food again. This is starting to get routine.

The photo type on the far right is only $5 so I opted for that option in the booth (I mean, it was for making the ID of my chinese class pic) and I thought I'll just cut my face out. BUT, the options that were actually there on the screen were all very strange ethnic pictures of real people with their own faces cut out (the point was to put your face where theirs were). I wish I could show you the result of that but I am afraid I already lost the picture. I ended up paying $40 for a row of really really ugly pictures that turned out even uglier (my student card).
Ocean park pictures. This is becoming routine as well.


Yay, rides!

Encouragement

Yay, giant salad.

I made miss meow meow a dress.

Pin the parts on the chicken (game I used when teaching sunday school)
woohoo!! successful home made kelp salad. (it came in a bag in dried form)
My classmate went to China and brought me a souvenir. He said you eat each shrimp whole, as is.
Hello kitty floral arrangements

At my low point two weeks ago, I parodied 'i will survive': http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZBR2G-iI3-I

first i was afraid

i was petrified

kept thinking i didn't have what it takes

to keep happy on this job

but then i spent so many nights

thinking how i did it wrong

n i grew strong

n i learned how to carry on

but it's back

from out of nowhere

i returned from the loo to find it here

with that email in outlook

responding to what i should have not have copied you on

if i had known for just one second

you'd be back to come after me

go on now go be your fuming self

just keep going now

fine i'll play your dirty lil game

i know how it works around here now

you think i'd crumble

you think i'd back off and leave

oh no not i

i will survive

as long as i have severence payment

i know i will stay alive

i've got all my life to live

i've got all my life to work

and i'll survive

i will survive

The stress (work--quite the long story, and school-- I was way behind schedule in my dissertation) has taken its toll on me in the form of excessive snacking as I tend to do when stressed, and cortisol, the hormone that compounds the effects of the former…. sigh. It will take me some time to get back in shape. Hot mexican buns are attractive when you're looking for a comforting convenient and cost effective treat.

At some point last week, I was unhappy and fearful about my career, but hearing stories about other people's hardships, and also the story of Joseph (as in Joseph from the Bible or Joseph and the amazing technicoloured coat of Webber's musical), reminded me of how life has a knack of continuing whether you like it or not, and that things usually get better. And I was reminded of how things could have been worse. And how it is in bad situations that someone can mature. Joseph, even while being kicked out of his family, getting jailed for no good reason; he stuck to his principles and did not blame anyone. The story goes, God pulled through in the end for him, reduced the crap that he could have been subjected to (ie he could have been killed instead of being sold into slavery), and used those crap experiences for a final extraordinarily good result. Even if you don't believe in divine plans, I think the same principle applies. Often we wonder why bad things happen. But it shapes our character, and sometimes the bad is necessary for a greater good that you only realize later down the road. From a christian point of view, believing in God doesn't mean you are exempt from farts in life and entitled to smooth sailing; it means leaning on God, staying true to Him through thick and thin, to his principles (Joseph didn't succumb to being depressed and whiney and justifying bad habits to his bad luck in life), especially in bad times, because He will take care of you.

So during bad times, examine your conscience, and examine yourself. Use this time to prepare for the good, because soon enough, it will come as long as you do your best and be patient.

Cannibalism in Action

This is Turtle Jelly in a container with a turtle eating turtle jelly. With a smile on its face I must point out.

My dad is now complaining about how he missed seeing how the elephant got caught by the lion on TV because my mom went somewhere in the house in the middle of cooking dinner... The conversation goes something like this:

Mom: *walks away in the middle of cooking to look at new clothes she bought today*
Dad: The celery is getting overcooked
Mom *ignores*
Dad *takes out the spatula*
TV *ROAR*
Dad *dashes out to see the elephant being consumed by the lions* aaaaaaah I missed it!!!
Mom: Whatever, they always show the lions eating something on TV
Dad: No, not an elephant!! It's always a bambi or something! Why did you abandon the cooking? You can always look at clothes later.
Me *standing over the frying fish* -__-''


After many excessive dinners later (some of which are because of work...we get a lot of guests, and of course we have to take them out for fancy lunches and dinners), I am back, bloated and feeling kind of heavy around the middle (I'd rather the heaviness go to my butt, because apparently that's healthy.), to report:

1. I took a professor from harvard (also pres of the american microbiology society, so very important person, I again don't know why my manager trusted me with this) to the peak so he could 'sight see HK', but we got lost on the twisty way to the top. But it's not my fault. The prof who offered to drive us there didn't know the way but insisted that he's gone before. On the way, we visited SWIMS (swire institue of marine sciences) HKU's coastal laboratory.

I also recently discovered that my manager's coastal laboratory at HKUST (Uni where I'm working at) has a really pretty view too, and a seafood restaurant-esque laboratory to boot. There were starfish, sea urchins, and mussels in these really large bins. (Yummy. Oops, there goes someone's experiment!)


Research Staff Quarters. Looks pretty, but gets very wet and humid in the summer.

The foggy road of Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.


Seafood restaurant Lab ("coastal marine laboratory") at the edge of the ocean, about a 15 min walk from my office.



2. I'm really tired most of the time.

3. I regret checking my work email at home just now (I don't even know *why* I opened outlook). My manager, who is now out of the country, happily unleashed a torrent of work on me. Now I don't feel so good...

4. I'm really tired most of the time. Oh did I say that already? I want to crochet, cook, play some piano (wow how long has it been???), and read, but no time to do peaceful things like that...

5. I'm waiting for my hula hoop. My colleague bought one for me from China and promised to bring it to me during work.

Lunar new year falls on Feb 14 this year. An explosion of candies, chocolates and other confectionery are found in supermarkets. I love pretty packaging.

Rip off! It says "Mixed Nuts" but if you look carefully, they're rice cracker bits, green peas, seaweed and the occasional peanut.

I look up.

Hello Kitty stares back at me.

The little girl who used to occupy this room must have loved Hello Kitty. The mouthless cat is seen in random places in the form of stickers, and now, a light.

NO MORE.

This is my new light and it's pretty damn cool. Isobutane on my ceiling is better than being in the ozone layer.


My manager treats the team to a meal, which includes a salad of mountainous proportions obtained from the salad bar. (Yes, this would be MY work of art!)
And on the subway, I spotted something RARE. A CASSETTE PLAYER. No, I'm not mistaken, I saw the cassette wheels spin.

I'm not sure how a cooler gel pack is used for fishing, on the beach, or for driving. "Eatable" is actually a word though...Remember the phone that could only do 'manho' and not 'mango'? Maybe this is why... it's apparently someone's name.


Time really flies! It's already the end of August, and for some reason I think there's one more month before September, but there isn't. And for some reason, right after September, I usually freak out cuz I know my birthday is hanging around the corner and getting older (and thus theoretically more mature) can be disconcerting.

But I'm happy time passed because it means I got into some sort of rhythm, and came out of the move alive and well. And I'm excited about school. School has become some sort of comfort zone for me, and even having a bit of it, is reassuring.

I went to the beach ('cheung chau') last weekend. The scenery, sand and water was quite awesome, as this is the actual sea, and not some disappointing murky pond with smoke stacks sticking out in the distance. Water was hella salty though. Seafood was great. The beach experience was enhanced by 'drama'. Which always makes life interesting.

Me in the middle with the UV umbrella.



To my dearest friends... thank you for your kind words. I'm happy, but I do get those 'moments' where I'm stressed out and in those moments, your messages really help lift my spirits and give me motivation to keep working at it.

And thank you especially to God who's always there, and blessing me with so much I don't deserve.

Feeling Guilty Over Down Time

I did absolutely nothing productive today. It's an uneasy feeling.

At the back of my mind, I think there's something important that I should be doing, except I'm not sure what, and staring at my to-do list isn't make me feel any better. I don't even have the urge to make to-do/goal lists; I used to be obsessed with them.

In any case, my mind is not at peace.

Maybe that's why I love stuffing my schedule to the brim, because it helps me get over the negative feelings of not being efficient/productive/maxing out all the resources I have. But I forgot that "change" is emotional stress that I should account for, and leave 'room' for it to avoid overshooting out of my buffer zone. I'd like to compare this to a titration.


I feel guilty for wanting easy times, because I have a dream, and to get to it, there's bound to be hard work involved. There's no way I can let myself take the 'easy way' out.

However, I'm moving into my new place, so that's a positive change. I want my boxes of STUFF!!!

On a random note, they can choose the sex of mammals now. "Chinese scientists have claimed a commercial breakthrough after breeding 10 piglets whose sex was successfully selected before conception, heralding potential higher profits for farmers."


Picture Roll of the Week

Cap to prevent shampoo from getting into your eyes.


The "Modern Toilet" is a restaurant. You sit on toilets (not shown here)
Humidity is often at 80%...

Random newpaper article...

I love the gloominess, emptiness and loneliness of this picture for some odd reason!
That sign reads "Time to be more chocolate!"

Yum green tea muffin with red bean! It's actually REALLY GOOD!

Buffet! + Strange commodities

I'm not sure what this is supposed to be...


Ah, there's a description... or something like that...

Cake bath time? Again, description... but I'm still not sure what it's supposed to accomplish.

His pain is your gain, it says.

Explanation:

Some ice cube trays...



Very cute...
Cell phone holders:



Row upon row of green tea inspired food products.

Are these tissues supposed to be special?

Food cushion.
Food inspired bath products. It says "Bath Sauce".

Food Inspired Bath Products continued... These are body sponges.

BUFFET PICTURES!

Starting with ... ice cream... haagen daaz!

More dessert...
Waffles!
Chocolate fountain!

Sushi!

Seafood!

I've been sending a lot of distress/depressing signals lately in this blog and on facebook lately. So, for this post, I just put up a bunch of strange HK commodity + food pictures! Very cheerful.

Nothing else I'd like to report...