One more month to go

It was a good week at home for Thanskgiving, a much-needed break before the end-of-semester push. Our academic calendar rocks - whole week off for Thanksgiving, hence the age-old H-Y game chant "School on Monday!" I got to visit my high school, chat with a lot of former teachers and old family friends...I also somewhat caught up on sleep, though I didn't get nearly as much work done as I should have =P At least the weather's been pretty nice - even now highs get into the low 60s, which must be really confusing for the plants. I even saw one tree starting to bloom in the courtyard this afternoon (photo to left).

Still, the holiday decorations are starting to go up, like this (not blooming) Christmas tree in the courtyard and lots of festive evergreens/icicle lights festooning the common room. Koffee Too? went all out and semi-painted their windows into a holiday scene. I hope it actually does snow before we leave for winter break - it would be rather strange to have this weather for much longer.

I had a semi-philosophical discussion with some friends today about the upcoming stress of finals and such - all of us had ambitious plans about catching up on work over break but none of us seem to have accomplished that goal. In the end, though, what needs to get done is finished one way or another, and you look back and realize that one paper or one not-so-good exam grade isn't a big deal in the grand scheme of things. It like Timon says in The Lion King: You gotta put your past behind you. The only thing that really helps is take a deep breath and keep working toward what you have to do next.

The next two weeks are going to be pretty crazy. I need to decide if I'm writing a 15-page research paper or taking a final exam for "Molecules, Life, and Disease in the 20th Century" class, analyze data and write up the results for my Caplab project, prepare a poster with Sydney for the Perspectives on Science symposium, hopefully finish YSM production, clear out a bunch of Phoenix paperwork for UOFC funding and props/costumes purchases...next week isn't going to be fun just because of the Genetics exam Thursday and the last organic chemistry in-class exam Friday. Grr.

It's not all just work though. Winter IMs started tonight - my goal is to make it to at least half of the women's volleyball games and go cheer at more than half of the ice hockey games. The hockey games start super-late at night and the rink is halfway up Science Hill, but getting there and back is half the fun as long as you're walking with friends. Silliman is doing its share of holiday stuff too - we're having our traditional holiday dinner at the School of Management since we don't have our own dining hall, plus some other yummy things like "Fireside Fridays" with s'mores and kareoke night study break at Yorkside Pizza =D

For now, though, it's back to coding capuchin behavior patterns and then maybe some genetics reading...

A thought-provoking trip home

First of all, this guy's story is incredibly touching...

Secret Santa, Facing Cancer, Encourages Generosity in Others

There were a lot of interesting conversations going on around me on the train from Boston to New York, and even a few before then. Waiting on the Quad for the shuttle to Harvard Square, a guy (presumably a senior) was talking about his research taking MRI images of people while they meditated, perhaps something related to the work of Dr. Jeremy Gray. In the South Street Station, I was waiting in line for my sandwich at the ABP stand and a woman with a bright blue Yale scarf almost ran up to me smiling. "Wasn't it a wonderful game yesterday?! So many people came, the weather was wonderful..." We chatted for a bit - turns out she was an alum (duh) and her son is currently a sophomore in Saybrook, so that was pretty cool.

The train itself was full of Elis and Cantabs. Two people sitting behind me were a Harvard alum and a current student, the girl sitting next to me was a Silliman '06 graduate, and the group across the aisle included a Yale law prof with his young son and another Harvard alum. Understandably, the conversations were rather on the intellectual side - the merits of Harvard vs. Yale law school (the Yale law prof had gone to Harvard law school); the revitalization of one alum's neighborhood in northern NJ; etc. but some were fun too, like the the adults were asking the young boy what were his favorite school subjects and his favorite sports to play.

For me, though, the most interesting group was the four women in front of me - three who were apparently visiting from Australia (judging from the conversation and their accents) and one American. Their conversation ranged all over the place and provided an interesting cross-cultural comparison, but there was almost an element of bragging or competition underlying the subjects, at least on the part of the non-Australian. For example, in talking about the different holiday customs, the Australians were talking about fruit pudding - how they made it by boiling the mix in cheesecloth instead of baking like fruitcake, the consistency and taste - and her response was, "That's the silliest thing I've ever heard!" They talked about the custom of giving out gifts to wedding guests and at one point she said, "Oh no, that would be considered a cheap wedding here..." and went on to talk about a wedding where each guest received a commemorative pottery plate with the bride/groom's names and the date inscribed on the underside. Seriously, isn't the point of a wedding to celebrate the happiness of the two people who are getting married?

What really got to me was at the end, when she went to the cafe car and came back with a tray of drinks. "I wanted to get cocktails for all my new friends, but the credit card machine is broken.[insert more monologue]..I hope you all like white wine!" I didn't realize until later that this woman strongly reminded me of a TV character: Samantha from Sex and the City. Socially aggressive, dominating conversations, ostentatious mentions of wealth (she talked about her husband taking one kid up to Maine to go skiing while she took another one to Florida for that week because he/she didn't like the cold) and connections (his best man flew in from India - he was studying with the Dalai Lama)...she even had the blond hair. It's easy to see why the rest of the world often stereotypes Americans as loud, brash, braggarts who practically throw money out the window...I sincerely hope that's not the final impression that the Australian women will have of this country.

Anyway, the rest of the trip was fairly uneventful - it's nice to be home with good food (chicken soup with mushrooms and qing gong tsai!) and the luxury to sleep for more than 8 hours at a time, even though I have quite a bit of work to do over the break. I doubt I'll end up doing as much as I should, between running errands for Mom and helping my sister de-stress, but you can't do anything but try =P

Yale 34, Harvard 13

Advance apologies to all my friends up her in Boston (especially the ones who were generous enough to host me for the weekend), but Harvard just sucks =P

No pranks this year, minus the streaker in the fourth quarter who had a huge MIT written down his back, but who knows if he was really from MIT? For all the strict rules and regulations, hundreds of Elis still came out to support the team - I even got to see some alum buddies: Quan, my predecessor production manager at YSM, and Will, my ethnic counselor. There didn't seem to be that many problems with the tailgates either, though there were definitely still drunk people and I heard the ambulance sirens a few times. Overall it was a crazy game, from the early 7-0 lead (which we kept the whole time) to the interceptions on both sides, to the Trojan War-themed YPMB halftime show and everyone storming the field as the clock ran out with Yale in possession. Some snapshots:

The Harvard side of the stadium

One of the many plays leading to a Yale touchdown

The final score...this definitely makes up for last year's loss in triple overtime.

Storming the field to congratulate the team

After the game I just walked back to Pforzheimer (incidentally running into a lot of the Duke's Men along the way) and met back up with Vincent from NYSC, who is roommates with Craig from Gov School and who was generous enough to host me for the weekend. I also have a funny connection to their third roommate Aaron - he went to high school with one of my fellow Sillimanders, Jason, yet again proving that it's a small world after all =P

The afternoon was pretty quiet - all the guys have tests/quizzes Monday (our academic schedule is so much nicer and Aaron agrees with me on that) so I just uploaded/edited photos. Dinner was (very yummy) Thai take-out the more down time before going to watch The Ten Things I Hate About You with a bunch of Cantabs. If there's one thing I realized from visiting Harvard this weekend (and I hope some of them realize this too) is that we're really not all that different, at least the people that I've met. We enjoy similar music (as evidenced by the Shared lists that popped up on my iTunes), like similar video games/movies, enjoy similar food, etc.

Anyway, time to go to sleep and head home tomorrow....g'nite!

Cambridge - 1 hour and counting...

We leave for Harvard at 6:00 (well, the buses leave at 6:30 but we have to be there at 6:00).

This promises to be quite an entertaining weekend...stay posted for photos!

P.S. I'm going to Jamaica with Reach Out for spring break! w00t!

Be thankful every day, not just Thanksgiving

I see things like this and feel profoundly grateful for the opportunities I have been given:

Life is complicated at Louisiana school

Reading the New York Times has probably become my favorite form of procrastination, but at least it's educational =P I remember how much of last year I felt like I was in a bubble, not really in touch with what was going on outside of school.

It's been a long day and there's still a lot of work to do, so not going to write much. I presented the Theory of Mind project at Caplab tonight then went straight to do layout for Yale Scientific Magazine since Brian wants to do final copy Weds and Thurs before we all leave for Thanksgiving break. Both meetings went pretty well - got a lot of good suggestions from my fellow Caplabbers about how to quantify the capuchins' behavior and ideas for future experiments...wish I could post some of my photos, especially of the new baby capuchins (there's two now!) but that would probably get me in trouble with various administrators. YSM was amazingly efficient - my team of five enthusiastic frosh laid out most of the articles that were on the server in the 90-minute session tonight, so I think I'll even cancel the layout session and just have final copy tomorrow night. It doesn't seem possible to get this out to print before break considering we don't have graphics and/or title art for most of the articles, but we'll see.

Schedule for the rest of tonight: Spanish grammar practice, working on my Spanish presentation about popular Latin-American music (Enrique Iglesias and Shakira, anyone?), then maybe some HSHM reading? Let's see how far I can push my body to get everything done the rest of the week...I'm definitely sleeping on the bus going to Boston Friday afternoon.

S'Wings, Screw, and siblings, oh my!

It's been a good past few days, minus managing to poke myself while unwrapping a syringe needle in chem lab and then having almost no product after the recrystallization. At least the needle didn't have any benzophenone on it yet =P My parents came up with my sister for her interview so she got to see campus (again), attend classes, etc. while I got my "care package" of yummy Chinese food (for some reason I've had a craving for tsa sao bau lately) and more winter clothing. Though the way the weather has been lately - highs in the 60s every day - I won't really need such thick sweaters. The poor plants must be so confused by now, though the autum leaves are still gorgeous (as seen in the Swing Space courtyard).

Thursday night was also the entertaining preliminary competition for the S'Wings eating contest. Each college got to send 4 guys and 1 girl to the overall contest at the Princeton-Yale tailgate, but Silliman is so awesome that we had 10 volunteers. How else could we pick the best representative but have our own competition? I still can't believe that Kunmi ate 46 wings of varying spiciness levels: sissy, medium, and smokin'. Lulu is another source of amazment - she went for all smokin' since they're worth the most points. I tried just one of the "sissy" wings and had to run for a drink to cool down my mouth ^^; Our team didn't win at the game this afternoon, but I get the feeling that this just might become another Yale tradition. I would actually be somewhat curious to have an inter-school competition at the game, whether it's Princeton or Harvard...

Friday I came back from orgo lab and had a crash course in sari-wrapping from helping Atisha with hers - I wish I could have gotten photos since she looked so pretty, but my hands were full of turquoise chiffon and safety pins =P I'm also kind of sad that I didn't get to go to Roshni, the South Asian Society cultural show, but instead I had to help set up for "Screwed by the Bell," the 90's-themed Silliman Screw. Just goes to show that our college has no lack of spirit despite not having our own dining hall ;-) There were a few nervous moments...the DJ not arriving until 9:45 when it was supposed to start at 10:00, trying to figure out how to turn off the lights in the Stiles dining hall, only 7 people out on the dance floor (including me) until about 11:00...but overall I think it went very well. It was definitely awesome to see so many upperclassmen come with and without dates, just everyone dancing together. Perhaps deep down inside, we all have a soft spot for the likes of 'N Sync, Ricky Martin, and the Macarena.

Today has been extremely hectic but quite worthwhile. My schedule from 10:00 am to 7:00 pm looked something like dance practice -> brunch with Zimo and Liubin to discuss funding for Phoenix -> running the folk dance workshop for the Chinese Adopted Siblings Program for Youth (CASPY) -> performing my ribbon/metal fan solo at the CASPY talent show -> back to my room to take off makeup, shower, and change -> run down to the medical school to see the new baby capuchin in the lab -> dinner with Yale Scientific Magazine masthead to discuss the e-print and other ideas we have for community outreach. Didn't get to go to the awesome Silliman tailgate or the Princeton-Yale game, but at least I didn't see the football team lose a 14-point lead (-_-) and there's always the Harvard-Yale game tailgate next year.

CASPY was adorable as always...every time I see these kids, I can't help but think of how fortunate I am to be born in the United States to parents who love and care for me, though some of these children's parents may not have had any choice but to abandon them to the orphanages. Still, they're also some of the more lucky ones with such caring adoptive families. These foster parents are incredible; they care so much about the kids' retaining their cultural heritage that they send them to Chinese school, take them to wushu/Chinese dance/kung fu lessons, and make the trip here twice a year to participate in this program. Some of them even learn Chinese along with their kids!

Tonight was quiet: doing a bit of work and watching The Little Mermaid with my roommate...now I know that whenever I need to relax, all I have to do is watch a classic Disney movie =) But for now I think I'd better go to sleep and prepare for catching up on work tomorrow...one more week until Harvard-Yale game and Thanksgiving!

It's a dangerous world out there, Mr. Frodo.

Saddam Hussein is Sentenced to Death

While I agree this sentence is just (if anything, it's not enough punishment), I can't help but think of how it complicates the situation even further. I'm no expert on Iraqi politics, but it seems that we're stuck between a rock and a hard place, which is where we've been for some time.

On the good side, it's a "victory" for the families of the many people he killed, for all those who suffered under his dictatorship who can now have some sense of closure. It's interesting that the sentence is death by hanging, which could either be very quick or very long, instead of something like lethal injection. I suppose stoning would be considered "cruel and unusual" even though it's a traditional method of execution.

On the bad side, Hussein's execution, if it ever happens, is only going to turn him into a martyr for his supporters - the great leader who was unfairly tried by his enemies and, of course, sentenced to death. Even if the other trials and appeals take so long that he dies of natural causes, he will continue to be a rallying cry against the "foreign heathens." Hussein's chief defense counsel warned, "The doors of hell will open in Iraq, the sectarian divide in the country will deepen, and many more coffins will be sent back to America." He's right, unfortunately, but what else could we do? There's no way Hussein was innocent of wrongdoing in this or any other case, just like other dictators in history, Hitler and Pul Pot to name a few other examples. About the only thing you can say about Castro and Kim is that they haven't tried to commit genocide.

Only time will be able to show us the consequences of this decision...justice may be blind, but America and the rest of the world cannot afford to be blind to how the Iraqi people stand, divided against themselves.

Facebook friendbombing

This was too funny not to share:

A Son's Revenge: 'Friendbombing'

I wonder how scary it would be if my parents suddenly popped up on facebook...

First post =)

Now that I have two less exams to worry about, I can actually start working on this =)

At Master's Tea with Carl Zimmer today, he pointed out that much of science writing and journalism in general is moving online. More people read the New York Times online than the print version, which makes sense since the webpage is updated much faster than the presses can print issues. Even he has a blog, which he mostly uses to comment on new scientific discoveries that he finds interesting but may not be able to write about for a publication. There are lots of people, celebrities or not, that use their blogs to bring attention to social, political, and economic issues that others wouldn't normally pay attention to. There are lots of people who use blogs to express their opinions, whether it's a well-reasoned argument or ranting at the current situation. There are lots of people who just want to keep family and friends updated on recent events, photos included.

My purpose is a mix of all three and then some. First semester last year in English 120, Professor Stepto asked us to keep a daily journal, just jotting down notes and thoughts that might seem random but could potentially turn into an interesting essay. Now that I'm no longer in that class, it seems that I don't have time for that, though I'll have a good conversation with someone or hear a funny story and think, "I should really write this down!" Since I haven't been writing, however, it feels as if my life is flying by even if an hour of orgo lecture seems to drag on forever. College is supposed to be the best four years of life (I sincerely hope that isn't true - life would be pretty pathetic if it all goes downhill after 22) but what good is it if you can't remember it later? I don't mean forgetting the big things like the horror of having two midterms in two hours, but forgetting the small everyday things that make you smile and want to get up each morning.

So, to begin...I just found out it's suprisingly difficult to pull a Twizzler out of its wrapper (only tore a small part of the top) in one piece. Apparently the structural integrity of the Twizzler itself is less than the adhesive forces between the Twizzler and the inside of the wrapper, at least in this case =P

My favorite part of today was framing and hanging about 20 old YSM covers for our display "112 years of Yale Scientific Magazine" in the Davenport art gallery. From the two-tone bordered text of the 1920's to the brilliantly colored digital graphics of today, it was fascinating to see all the redesigns as well as the scientific advances that each cover depicts.



















Our knowledge of the world has greatly increased and our publication has correspondingly evolved to reflect that, but there is still so much to learn. I remember I considered joining the YDN or the Herald because I thought I would miss newspaper, but I think I've really found my media niche here, where I'm always interested both in the writing and in the topic.

But now it's time to go do some not-so-fun writing...orgo lab report!