Ping just discovered something new today. There's a Chinese Language Support Pack that we can install from the Windows XP cd that allows us to type in Mandarin!!! Ping is so excited that Ping reorganized all her chinese songs with proper characters that don't show up as boxes!!!
Ping had ran out of 'demo' copies of Chinese Word Processor to download. Ping started out using NJ Star WP, starting with their old version, which expired after 90 days. They then had new version, which gave Ping another 3 months. Unfortunately, these demo programs seem to know that you have used it for 90 days because after expiration, Ping would uninstall it, delete all the files, download it again and reinstall, but it wouldn't work. It will just keep telling you that your 90 days is over. So Ping had to format her C:/ drive to get rid of whatever code that tells them Ping had used the program before. Did that in June last year just before going to Woods Hole.
Since then, Ping had installed two versions of NJ Star WP and Key5. Ping is currently running out of demo versions to download and these word processors are just way too expensive to get in the States. So Ping decided to look around for Windows based ones and while going through the Control Panel, Ping realized that you can install a foreign language pack!!! Gave it a try and it's great!! You can shift between typing in English and typing in Mandarin with Alt+Shift. For the Mandarin characters, all you have to do is type in the pinyin with the tone ie. hen3 hao4 wan2 and you will get 很好完. Furthermore, Ping don't need NJwin Viewer to see the characters!!! Yippeee!!! Don't need to feel guilty about trying to hunt for downloads or using pirated versions!
By the way, Ping has complete collection of Jay's new 依然范特西 and 七里香 albums already!! 5 more to go!!
晚安!
Saturday, March 24, 2007
Tuesday, March 20, 2007
smoothie
Yippee!!! 终于打分完了!!!
It took Ping almost three days! Of course not continuously lah. Stopped to read some other stuff, to watch 恶作剧之吻 and went jogging (it is finally warm again!!!). While grading, sometimes Ping wondered 这是大学生还是中学的学生呢? If that was what we did during secondary school, sure no one will read it. Ping had first hand experience when Pn. Saadiah said she won't read it when Ping handed in her buku karangan. Ping had to learn to write super huge for PMR and SPM!!! Even with Ping's tiny handwriting, it was much neater! 真的不明白为什么他们会写到真么烂. Seriously like cakar ayam only.
Now Ping can finally get back to lab work!! Yippee!!!
Thought of getting a smoothie and the best smoothie in town is from Blimpie. There used to be one from campus but they replaced it with McAlister's Deli after Ping's first year. So Ping went to Meijer last night to get some fruits and came across the Bolthouse Farms Strawberry Banana shake. Don't like it! They add apple juice!!! But Ping finished it anyway. Those who don't like apple...don't buy it. The main section of the label didn't say anything about apple juice and there's no picture of apple but if you read the description and ingredients carefully, there certainly is apple juice. That will be the last time Ping gets any of the Bolthouse Farms smoothie.
By the way, this picture was taken with Ping's Nokia 6315i. What do you all think? Not bad right? Definitely better than Ping's old Sony Ericsson although Ping misses the small size of that phone and it's capability to send and receive SMS from home.
It took Ping almost three days! Of course not continuously lah. Stopped to read some other stuff, to watch 恶作剧之吻 and went jogging (it is finally warm again!!!). While grading, sometimes Ping wondered 这是大学生还是中学的学生呢? If that was what we did during secondary school, sure no one will read it. Ping had first hand experience when Pn. Saadiah said she won't read it when Ping handed in her buku karangan. Ping had to learn to write super huge for PMR and SPM!!! Even with Ping's tiny handwriting, it was much neater! 真的不明白为什么他们会写到真么烂. Seriously like cakar ayam only.
Now Ping can finally get back to lab work!! Yippee!!!
Thought of getting a smoothie and the best smoothie in town is from Blimpie. There used to be one from campus but they replaced it with McAlister's Deli after Ping's first year. So Ping went to Meijer last night to get some fruits and came across the Bolthouse Farms Strawberry Banana shake. Don't like it! They add apple juice!!! But Ping finished it anyway. Those who don't like apple...don't buy it. The main section of the label didn't say anything about apple juice and there's no picture of apple but if you read the description and ingredients carefully, there certainly is apple juice. That will be the last time Ping gets any of the Bolthouse Farms smoothie.
By the way, this picture was taken with Ping's Nokia 6315i. What do you all think? Not bad right? Definitely better than Ping's old Sony Ericsson although Ping misses the small size of that phone and it's capability to send and receive SMS from home.
Saturday, March 10, 2007
Spring break ends
Boo hoo...the campus will be busy again. This past week has been great. Ping didn't get out a lot but it's nice to drive to campus without cars and human beings all over the place. Not that Ping has anything against human beings since Ping is a Homo sapiens herself but when Ping is behind a steering in a huge vehicle, they are pretty scary to Ping, especially those that koay lor bo khua chia.
It's been a great week for Ping. Not necessarily in terms of productivity since Ping hasn't learned that much more since last Saturday. But Ping did get more information about the two strains of E. coli that Ping was working with. Had a great time working in the lab all week. Ping loves teaching and going to the seminar that Ping is taking but they just take too much time away from lab. That is why this week has been awesome. Ping gets to stay in lab all day!!
Last week, during the gathering at Gylin's place, the atmosphere reminded of Ping during her Spring break days back at Western. There's always plans but they never materialized. Ping always end up working 40 hours a week. That's the only time besides summer that international students are allowed to work 40 hours. Ping collect hours between library and in the lab (Burnham was out of question since they are closed during holidays). Sometimes Ping can't help wonder what Ping would be like if those Spring breaks were spent going places rather than working? Probably broke and inexperienced.
Wheee...off to bed.
Ohh..by the way, did anyone go to Wang Li Hom's concert???? So jealous wei!!! Li Hom and Jay's concerts are the two that Ping would be willing to spend money on...especially if there ever is a concert where Li Hom and Jay do a piano duel. That would be awesome!!!! Haha...
It's been a great week for Ping. Not necessarily in terms of productivity since Ping hasn't learned that much more since last Saturday. But Ping did get more information about the two strains of E. coli that Ping was working with. Had a great time working in the lab all week. Ping loves teaching and going to the seminar that Ping is taking but they just take too much time away from lab. That is why this week has been awesome. Ping gets to stay in lab all day!!
Last week, during the gathering at Gylin's place, the atmosphere reminded of Ping during her Spring break days back at Western. There's always plans but they never materialized. Ping always end up working 40 hours a week. That's the only time besides summer that international students are allowed to work 40 hours. Ping collect hours between library and in the lab (Burnham was out of question since they are closed during holidays). Sometimes Ping can't help wonder what Ping would be like if those Spring breaks were spent going places rather than working? Probably broke and inexperienced.
Wheee...off to bed.Ohh..by the way, did anyone go to Wang Li Hom's concert???? So jealous wei!!! Li Hom and Jay's concerts are the two that Ping would be willing to spend money on...especially if there ever is a concert where Li Hom and Jay do a piano duel. That would be awesome!!!! Haha...
Sunday, March 04, 2007
MicroSD card
About a decade ago, Ping saw SONY MD player and was impressed by it. Such a small cd can hold so many songs. Then dad got a digital camera and it is amazing how one can fit so many photos into an 1in. x 1in. SD (secure digital) card.
Last week, Ping got a microSD card for her new mp3 player+handphone. It came in a small envelope and was really shock to see that it is soooooooo tiny. It is even smaller than an US 10cents coin.
Can you imagine that such a small thing can fit 1GB worth of songs? No wonder mp3 players are getting smaller and smaller. They also have 2GB ones but the price is way much more than twice so Ping decided to stick with the 1GB one first. Lucky thing the package that Ping found also has a USB adapter. Otherwise, Ping won't be able to read it as Ping don't have a SD card reader. Basically, Ping has to put the little microSD into the regular SD, which is then plugged into one end of the USB adapter as the other end is to plug into the computer.
Unbelievable!
Last week, Ping got a microSD card for her new mp3 player+handphone. It came in a small envelope and was really shock to see that it is soooooooo tiny. It is even smaller than an US 10cents coin.
Can you imagine that such a small thing can fit 1GB worth of songs? No wonder mp3 players are getting smaller and smaller. They also have 2GB ones but the price is way much more than twice so Ping decided to stick with the 1GB one first. Lucky thing the package that Ping found also has a USB adapter. Otherwise, Ping won't be able to read it as Ping don't have a SD card reader. Basically, Ping has to put the little microSD into the regular SD, which is then plugged into one end of the USB adapter as the other end is to plug into the computer.Unbelievable!
Saturday, March 03, 2007
Pengat
It's the 14th day of CNY. Tomorrow is the last day of CNY celebration. Of course it is not the last day of the new year but just the last day of celebrations (okay, okay. Dad will disagree with this since he thinks that there should be something to celebrate for everyday). But tomorrow is officially the last day of CNY celebration. It is known as "Chap Goh Meh", which literally means the 15th night. On the night of the 14th day, everyone in the family usually get together for a last reunion before everyone goes back to their own life for the rest of the year.
As usual, all these traditions and gatherings are meaningless when you're miles and miles away from home without any family members close by. However, sometimes when someone makes the effort to bring friends together, it turns out to be a pretty good time. It makes you miss home even more but you have fun and realize that there are actually people around you who feels the same.
While mum, dad, ahdik, ahmah and everyone else back home are having a great seafood dinner at home, Ping joined the chinese M'sians. On "Chap Goh Meh", the Hokkiens usually eat pengat. What is the significance? Err...dunno leh. Mummy say eat pengat..so we eat pengat lor. So Ping went out hunting for the ingredients required for pengat this morning. Went to Meijer to get the orange sweet potato and bananas, and was hoping they have purple yam but could not find any. So went to Oriental Mart to get yellow sweet potato, and coconut cream. Looked around for purple yam but could only find the frozen ones. So weird. Frozen yam??? That's the first time Ping saw it but bought it to try it out anyway.
Ping got the recipe from mum but it is the same one as in the "Nonya Flavours" recipe book (just realized that they have a different spelling for "Nonya" vs. the more common "Nyonya"). Some recipes call for black-eye beans but that is more like bubur cha-cha style.
100g yellow sweet potato (甘薯)
100g orange sweet potato
100g purple sweet potato
200g taro (yam)
1L coconut milk (from 1 coconut)
100g sugar or to taste
2 pandan leaves
3 bananas (preferably Pisang Raja)
1. Peel and cut sweet potato and taro into small diamond shapes. Steam, separately, until cooked.
2. Bring coconut milk, sugar and pandan leaves to a simmer, stirring until sugar dissolves.
3. Put the steamed sweet potato and taro into the coconut sauce. Add the banana slices which are cut just before cooking to prevent discoloration. Stir to mix.
Since Ping read online that purple sweet potato is rare to come by in the States, Ping skipped that and looked for purple yam instead. Even then, Ping could only find the frozen one. Ping defrozed it and steam it but the outer part became 'lembik'. So there was less purple yam in Ping's pengat because Ping had to remove some of the soft part (too geli to put in lah, although technically it is still edible). Ping also had to skip the pandan leaves since there's no pandan leaves here. There's pandan extract but the last time Ping tried it with the pulut tai-tai, it wasn't very strong in taste and fragrance. And of course, Ping just got regular bananas since there's no Pisang Raja here. But the bananas here are sooooo huge that it looks like pisang Raja anyway. As for the coconut milk, of course have to use can one lah. No 'ah ne ne' to sell us any 'ia cheung'.
So here's the final product....
Not sure if it is ho chiak or not but it was good enough for Ping who hasn't had it since Ayer Itam ahmah cooked it two years ago (summer of 2005). And Ping brought back an almost empty pot so it must be at least edible that people are eating it. *grins*
As usual, all these traditions and gatherings are meaningless when you're miles and miles away from home without any family members close by. However, sometimes when someone makes the effort to bring friends together, it turns out to be a pretty good time. It makes you miss home even more but you have fun and realize that there are actually people around you who feels the same.
While mum, dad, ahdik, ahmah and everyone else back home are having a great seafood dinner at home, Ping joined the chinese M'sians. On "Chap Goh Meh", the Hokkiens usually eat pengat. What is the significance? Err...dunno leh. Mummy say eat pengat..so we eat pengat lor. So Ping went out hunting for the ingredients required for pengat this morning. Went to Meijer to get the orange sweet potato and bananas, and was hoping they have purple yam but could not find any. So went to Oriental Mart to get yellow sweet potato, and coconut cream. Looked around for purple yam but could only find the frozen ones. So weird. Frozen yam??? That's the first time Ping saw it but bought it to try it out anyway.
Ping got the recipe from mum but it is the same one as in the "Nonya Flavours" recipe book (just realized that they have a different spelling for "Nonya" vs. the more common "Nyonya"). Some recipes call for black-eye beans but that is more like bubur cha-cha style.100g yellow sweet potato (甘薯)
100g orange sweet potato
100g purple sweet potato
200g taro (yam)
1L coconut milk (from 1 coconut)
100g sugar or to taste
2 pandan leaves
3 bananas (preferably Pisang Raja)
1. Peel and cut sweet potato and taro into small diamond shapes. Steam, separately, until cooked.
2. Bring coconut milk, sugar and pandan leaves to a simmer, stirring until sugar dissolves.
3. Put the steamed sweet potato and taro into the coconut sauce. Add the banana slices which are cut just before cooking to prevent discoloration. Stir to mix.
Since Ping read online that purple sweet potato is rare to come by in the States, Ping skipped that and looked for purple yam instead. Even then, Ping could only find the frozen one. Ping defrozed it and steam it but the outer part became 'lembik'. So there was less purple yam in Ping's pengat because Ping had to remove some of the soft part (too geli to put in lah, although technically it is still edible). Ping also had to skip the pandan leaves since there's no pandan leaves here. There's pandan extract but the last time Ping tried it with the pulut tai-tai, it wasn't very strong in taste and fragrance. And of course, Ping just got regular bananas since there's no Pisang Raja here. But the bananas here are sooooo huge that it looks like pisang Raja anyway. As for the coconut milk, of course have to use can one lah. No 'ah ne ne' to sell us any 'ia cheung'.
So here's the final product....
Not sure if it is ho chiak or not but it was good enough for Ping who hasn't had it since Ayer Itam ahmah cooked it two years ago (summer of 2005). And Ping brought back an almost empty pot so it must be at least edible that people are eating it. *grins*
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