想念

最近很喜歡聽這首歌...讓我想起了一個人. :)

這首歌的故事是關於一對情侶.那女的在北半球,想那男的和她一起看雪.那男的在享受夏天的彩虹,卻想著女孩.雖然一個人是寂寞,有兩顆心在想念著對方,那寂寞變的甜蜜了.那MV也很可愛,又甜又苦.兩個人若要離的很遠,卻不想分開一定會有些苦苦的感覺,但,如果已經相處的來,也會有甜蜜的懷念.

品冠 - 當你想著我 (feat. 李心潔)

當你想著我, 當你唱者歌, 在喧嘩的時刻
一個人寂寞, 兩顆心都懂,
我陪在你夢中擁抱你的溫柔.

早安!

While you all get to see sunset at Batu Feringghi at this time, I get to see the sunrise from the office... :)

8.22am: Wait, it is still not fair! I don't get the warm weather that you all are getting. It is freezing cold here! It is like when you are walking by the frozen food isle in Jusco when it first open. Hmph! I'd rather be drinking Milo juak than Milo peng. But I don't even get Milo here. Blehhh.

Bright fungus

Fungus is a multicellular organism that has its own kingdom (Fungi) within the domain Eukarya. Fungi is also a group of microorganism but I don't work with them at all even though I am a microbiologist. I also don't know much about them except from what I have learned from college level microbiology. But, I could generally distinguish them (except for some species that are very tiny) from bacteria (which is the microbe that I work with). I actually did work with a type of fungus (Aspergillus sp.) that produces aflatoxin during one of my rotation when I first started grad school. That short rotation surely made me realize that I do not want to work with fungus ever. :P I still kill them when processing my soil samples.

But, that does not mean that I don't have an appreciation for a good looking ones like this...

Isn't it cute? The recent humid weather must have provide the perfect condition for it because it blossomed really fast. I was walking by this part of campus a week before I saw this and they were definitely not there. It is also weird that they are found only around this particular tree. I looked around and have not seen it anywhere on campus besides this place. Looking around online, I found one called Jack O' Lantern mushroom that looks like this and it seems like it could glow in the dark! Will have to check it out tomorrow...

Besides the fungus, there is a tree around this area that I really like because of how it looks. It does have a solemn look but that makes it more like a friendly tree.

But I guess no one really cared because now, this is how it looks like...

It has a broken arm and looks even sadder now. :(

Busy as a bee

I recently found out that I can take videos using a macro setting on my camera! It is lots of fun! Will hopefully be taking more when I get to go out and WANT to continue to stay outside. The weather is very much like Fall weather now. Maybe Fall is really coming...boo!

Here are my first two videos...no major editing or 'fancy-ing' since Ping is busy with the poster and an exciting new project!

This bee is looking around...

This bee has found a yummy spot and is busy stuffing itself with nectare. It is likely a worker bee judging by the amount of nectare it is collecting. Can you imagine how many times it has to do that repetitive action to get enough nectare to bring back to its hive to feed the rest of the bees? It was there for definitely a long time because when I got tired of leaning close to it, it was still going. Worker bees must have very muscular mouthparts.

Squirrels on campus

Squirrels! They are the cutest furry animals! Now is probably their feasting time because all the plants are making lots of seeds before the temperature drop and they don't have enough Sun to make food and carbon supply for their next generation. (Arghghg!! All I can think of is carbon this and carbon that these days! But finally submitted the abstract this morning!)

Want to know what the squirrels are eating? There are a few different types of tree seeds/nuts that they eat when they are not being fed by humans. This black one here was eating a tiny seed in a hard green shell that comes in bunches like grapes. It is from the plant 'flowering Dogwood'. I wanted to look for an intact shell but since this little squirrel was running all over the tree gathering all of it, it was like looking for a needle in a haystack. Plus, any of those seeds that are on the ground were already cracked open. This little squirrel clearly have no courtesy to people walking by. They don't look down to see if they were going to hit anyone when throwing the shells down. But it was also because one of its shell fell on me that I realized what the squirrels were eating.

By the way, I just found out that black squirrels are not native too Michigan but were introduced by W.K. Kellogg (the same guy who founded the Kellogg Manor House of Kellogg Biological Station!) to get rid of the more abundant red squirrels. Hmm, not sure if it was successful back then but there certainly is more black ones than the red ones now.

Another thing they eat is one that they are always associated with on cartoons...but Ping has forgotten what it is called. :P
It was this little brown squirrel who were looking for them, cracking them up and then throw them all over the ground. They seriously need a better table manners! Hehe. They seem to prefer the nuts with a certain ripeness because sometimes the squirrel throws down an intact one. No idea how they pick them but they sure are picky! They are really fast at picking them too because when they are running around the tree looking for and picking the nuts, it sounds like it is raining large raindrops and every time you pin point where they are throwing the nuts from, they would already be at another part of the tree.
Look at all the mess they make!

Fun at Kellogg Biological Station

One of the best thing about working with soil ecosystem is the field work portion. It will be great if the next lab I work will also have field work component. Hmm...*thinking of a sampling trip to the various ecosystem at Colorado* :)

This summer, I have been working a lot on experiments using soil samples from the Kellogg Biological Station. I have been driving to KBS to get samples almost every two weeks and will most likely continue to do so until shortly after harvest season. Here are all the fun stuff I get to see at KBS.
Ladybug on a soybean leaf. It is such a coincidence that the two water droplets on the beetle is right where two of its spots are, making it looks like baja hitam.

Some like it up, some like it down, some even like it by the side. :)
At each of the plots with different land management, sampling flags are placed to assist us in sampling. The position is determined based on global positioning system (GPS) and is moved every year. This particular one have become a habitat to a 'crawling plant' (argghhh!! I can't remember the correct term for it!
If I get there really early or when it just rained not too long ago, I wish I have a pair of boots!
But I love the freshness of early morning dews.
The native land plots will always have little creatures like this err...dragonfly (I think). It has become my new sampling friend. I saw it twice on two different sampling days, standing on the same sampling flag. Once on a cloudy day while another time on a nice sunny day. The first time, I managed to get a closer shot because I was sampling by that flag while the second time, I was over by another flag when I saw it landed there.
The not so fun part about sampling the native sites is this little thorny seeds. They will attach all over my shirt and pants that I always have to spend some time getting them off me before I go back.
This last trip, I almost got my first photo of a deer! I was walking through a corn field when I heard rustling. I knew at once that there are a bunch of deer in the corn field. The corn plants were already matured and were about my height. When I saw the deer through the plants, I knew it saw me too but it stayed really still. But clumsy me had to drop the soil coring tube when I tried to get my phone out of my pocket. Of course they ran away as fast as they could. There were 6 of them! I did get two of them running away though. One of them you can only see the top of its head.
Hopefully I'll get a bunch of wild animals photo during my trip to Colorado!!

#Malaysia

The luxury of growing up as a Malaysian is that we were brought up to interact with people of different cultural background. There is always something new to learn and to explore. Despite all the negativity of racial bias and multicultural tensions, it is no doubt that everyone of us Malaysian have a sweet, touching story to tell about being in a multicultural community. With the coming up Merdeka Day (Malaysian Independence Day), there are lots of fun events to explore both in Malaysia and on the Internet.

15Malaysia is a project that compiles 15 short films produced by Malaysian film producers (Buatan Malaysia!). The theme of the films is on the socio-political issues in Malaysia. A Malaysian will definitely find that they can relate to each of the story, some might just be something that we have talked about among friends, or an event that we have witnessed, or even happened at some point in our own life. The films will be released every alternate days, with four already up online for downloads on the website as of today. My personal favorite so far is Chocolate by the late Yasmin Ahmad. (Mei, for some reason, it made me think of our Standard 6 days..hehe.) Will be looking forward to more great films!!

1Malaysia is an effort initiated by our current Prime Minister, Dato' Sri Mohd Najib Tun Razak, to reduce the gaps between all the different unique races and cultures in Malaysia. Recently, a contest to pick a song that could represent spirit of Malaysians, where race and culture differences no longer holds valid. If one were to think back, what exactly is the cause of such strong racial tension in Malaysia? It is definitely not something we experience in our daily lives until we have to face the rules and regulations posted by the government. In fact, the racial tension is not a true racial tension. We don't pick our friends or who we hang out with based on their race, we do not decide not to eat at the nasi melayu stall at Jones Road just because it is not managed by a Chinese. It is our dissatisfaction over the way the government expresses their opinions on policies (which often take advantage of radical religion beliefts) that creates a scenerio that looks like racial tension.

Well, back to the main topic, the competition has picked the best 10 songs and is now open for public to make the decision of which song will represent 1Malaysia. Have you rank your top 10 1Malaysia songs? Here's mine.

1. Inilah Malaysia
2. Lagu Rakyat Satu Malaysia
3. Satu Malaysia
4. Nyanyikan Lagu Mu
5. Malaysia Satu
6. Sehati Sejiwa
7. Kami Anak Malaysia
8. Keranamu Hati Ku Malaysia
9. Perpaduan 1Malaysia
10. Satu

I find myself liking lyrics with the Rukunegara in it. It will be a great reminder to all Malaysians that when Malaysia was founded, the segregation according to religion was never incorporated into the principles in which the government is built on. True, "Belief in God" is the first principle but it says nothing about the path one takes to do that.

I dropped by Western this weekend when I went soil sampling. What a delight to see that the M'sian flag is flying high!

日出

你知道嗎, 當我們性情不好的時候, 只要向著外面看, 大自然一定讓我們找到一個可以給我們笑起來的畫面.
今天, 一大早, 在lab 看出去的時候, 看到了日出. 很美喔. 雖然不是在海邊或著山上, 還是覺得日出真的很美. 給了我一個新鮮明朗的早上 (照片不是很美, 是用手機拍的). 希望有一天能夠和自己喜歡的人在山上看日出...應該很甜蜜把. :P

回到家, 看到這一雙鳥, 他們好甜蜜喔. 這一些都讓我想起, 和必要讓不開心的事一直留著. 世界有哪麼多值得開心的事.

Frogs

Today, I walked to the 'Reflection Pond' by the MSU Library to look for a weird fish that swims sideways. I didn't see that particular fish but I saw a bunch of frogs!! Definitely way more than I usually see on campus ponds. But they were all pretty far in the middle of the pond that I had to use the digital zoom to 'catch' them on my camera. Now, if only I have an SLR with a zoom lens. Bleh.

Here is the first frog I saw. It is a huge one too! 你看到他嗎?
The guy sitting back there, he saw me looking for the frogs and pointed me to another one. He is actually a composer who is trying to write a song. Pretty interesting! I have never met someone who compose a song. He had a guitar that he plays every now and then, probably when he thinks of a melody.

Can you see another one here?
Here is an close-up shot of the little guy. It is the cutest one I saw today.
There is another big one on a wooden platform for some plant.
There are also lots of baby frogs! There are at least 9 in this box!
Besides that one weird fish, there is another first that stays in this pond. It is a white one that always hang around by this sign. I saw it there again today, but it was more actively swimming around.
真好玩的晚上!

哪裡有彩虹告訴我...

彩虹, 平常下雨後才可以看到的. 但, 天氣好的時候, 也可以找到彩虹喔.

在MSU 校園有一個, 常常都可以看到他喔. 特別是請好的時候. 今天, 在外面走走的時候, 我又在同樣的地方看到哪彩虹, 讓我想起杰倫的 "彩虹".

Meteor Shower

I saw meteor shower for the first time today!! There really is such thing! I still remember watching 流星花園 and thinking that one would never be able to see the meteor shower.

Tonight is the peak of the Perseid Meteor Shower. According to NASA, it is best to watch them between 9-11pm although it will be showering all night until sunrise tomorrow. Jo and I drove out to one of the roads by a residential neighborhood at Okemos where there are no lights. Due to the faint showers, it is recommended that we go to a place that is very dark. We parked by the road side, took out the blanket and lie on the car, looking up at the sky. The first shower I saw was a huge and long one!! Jo and I was so excited that we almost shriek out loud but remembered that people might be sleeping at this time. :P

We were out for about an hour and I saw a total of two long ones and 5 short, brief ones. Hehe, of course we couldn't resist making wishes when we see the 'shooting stars' as per the old legend. Hey, does no harm mer. :P We also thought of an old song while we were staring up at the sky...



I had intended to catch a photo of it but it came so rare and fast that it was impossible to capture it. But because it is so rare, I'd rather wait for it and see it for myself than trying to play with the camera to get a good shot. The moon is really low, bright and pretty tonight too but I was more interested in waiting for the meteor shower.

Nasi Lemak and movie

Met up with Ming for lunch on Friday when we decided to make some M'sian food and hang out on Saturday with him and Brian. The spontaneous plan we came up is to cook Nasi Lemak and a few dishes to go with it.

Nasi Lemak is one of the most popular breakfast dish in Malaysia but it can be eaten anytime of the day. The basic of Nasi Lemak is the coconut rice (which is where the name comes from, 椰漿飯), roasted peanuts (toh tau, 花生), anchovies (ikan bilis, 干小鳳尾魚), cucumber (黃瓜), hard-boiled egg (熟蛋)and most important ingredient - sambal (chilli paste, 辣醬). It is a spicy dish as Nasi Lemak is not Nasi Lemak without the sambal. In fact, the taste of Nasi Lemak is often judge based on the sambal so it is very important to know how to make a good sambal if one wants to make a tasty Nasi Lemak dish. With those basic ingredients, the cook can mix and match them up (with the exception of the rice) anyway they want. I like it best when the sambal is not fried with the anchovies because it will leave the anchovies crispy. Basic Nasi Lemak can be found anywhere and our family favorite is the one at the front of Sri Weld Food Court at Beach Street. Nasi Lemak can also be considered the M'sian fast food because they are typically easily packed and ready to be served within minutes. Such Nasi Lemak are usually pretty cheap, ranging from 70 cents (as I last remember) up to RM 2.00.

There are also more complicated ones that are served with various types of curry dishes. When we were staying at Bandar Sunway, we used to go to the one at a kopitiam (coffee shop) at Mentari Business Park. There, we can get the Nasi Lemak served with mummy's and my favorite ikan pari (some kind of ray fish) or sotong (cuttlefish). These dishes are more expensive and larger in portion. They can cost up to RM 6, especially if one gets a lot of meat or seafood dishes. Of course, there are also more gourmet Nasi Lemak that can be ridiculously priced, mostly for tourists or those who likes their Nasi Lemak to be served on pretty plates and nicely presented. I still like the ones that are served on banana leaves!

So what did we have with our Nasi Lemak? I made vege curry (knowing that guys tend to contribute more meat dishes and Ping cannot go without her daily vege servings!). Vege curry is another easy curry to make. As long as you pick your favorite types of vege, it will not go wrong! I have tofu, green cabbage (am still wondering if this is the same as ko leh chai but I never get the chance to taste them together so have yet to figure it out), green beans, and brinjal. I added a little bit of potato to make the curry thick (instead of using corn flour). The curry base can be thicken by using lentils too.

As for the rice, Ming and I cooked our own type of Nasi Lemak. Mine was just steamed with coconut milk and pandan leaves. Ming added turmeric (kunyit, 黃薑) and lemon grass (serai, 香茅) in addition to coconut milk.
Ming also made curry chicken (a pretty unique combination too because he added lady's fingers, which is typically used in fish/seafood curry) and sambal ikan bilis.
He also bought some banana leaves so that we can eat them on the banana leaves! Yummy!
Brian bought us Green Tea ice-cream for dessert. I hang around at their place to watch "He's Just Not That Into You" which is hilarious!! My conclusion from the movie is - don't try to read signs (which is sooo high school anyway!). Let the guy do all the work. If he is not clear enough, forget it! This is a good reason why I still disagree with girls who tries to 主動告白.
"If a guy wants to be with a girl, he will make it happen, no matter what" - Alex from He's Just Not That Into You.

Also, Ben Affleck is hot! :P

The fun stuff at MSU Campus.

The best thing about nature is that it is never the same. I can walk the same route 10 times and every single time, the story that one can tell after the walk will always be different.

It should not be a surprise that I would have seen all the trees on campus by now, especially one that is along the route that I walk by 3-4 times a week. But guess what, I saw something different this week! They are little brain-looking balls hanging from the tree!
There is the yard long beans from the MSU Children's Garden. The green biovar of this long bean is actually very popular in M'sia, where it is commonly used for curry. I have yet to see this in the stores here, or at least I have not paid attention or look for them since I don't like long beans.
What about this thorny looking plant? They remind me of slinky balls, the one that burst into a larger size when you throw it on the ground.
Sometimes there are also interesting looking birds like this yellow one here. Not sure what bird it is but it was flying very low and seems to have a liking for the flower seeds of this particular Monkey Flower plant.
Look, even flowers have eyes! Creepy looking ones too! Imagine if they could glow at night...haha.
There are also lots of lilies in the small pond at the Perennial Garden. There were a few white ones that looks like there are dirt on it.
But if you look closer, it is not dirt but some kind of bug!! They made the white lily their niche! Ewwwww! These little bugs are aphids. They are very persistent pest for water plants, especially when the weather is cloudy and humid. They also reproduce very fast via asexual reproduction. It is kinda creepy how live baby aphids just pops out from the adult aphids. The best organic way to get rid of them is lady bugs! Lady bugs will eat them all up and then the lily will be nice and white again! Hah, I knew lady bugs are the good bugs! :P They are one of the cutest bug ever!
While the number of aphids all over the lily plants is disgusting, the turtle doesn't seem to mind it at all.
On the other hand, another turtle in a pond with no aphids on the lilies looks like it is trying to get out of the pond.
The wonders of nature...Ping is loving it!

S'mores

I finally managed to make a yummy S'more with the microwave!! What is S'more? It is a sweet treat made of graham crackers, chocolate and marshmallows. The chocolate and marshmallows are smashed in between two pieces of graham crackers. Graham crackers are similar to the McVities digestives biscuits that can be found only at Marks and Spencer (at least in Malaysia lah, but I have yet to find it here in MI). The graham crackers are not as nutritious as the digestives but is quite tasty and I would eat it as snack once in a while. The McVities is still my all-time favorite biscuit. Every time I go back to M'sia, that is definitely one of the snacks that I will bring back here. Unfortunately, Marks and Spencer is only in KL so if I don't make a trip to KL, then there is no digestive biscuits for Ping.

The best S'mores is when the marshmallows are roasted over a bonfire. I have been in the US for soooo long and this is actually the first time I made one!! I learned how to make one from an expert too! We did it recently when we went camping at Sleeping Bear. First we have to prepare the chocolate pieces on a piece of graham cracker. Then put the marshmallow through the end of a twig or better if you have a satay sticks (Mei Ling, we have to do this when I go back...hopefully next year! We can do it at my parents garden!). It is very easy to get the marshmallows burnt so have to hold the sticks at the 'perfect distance'. :P It will take a while for the marshmallows to brown on the outside and soft in the inside so have to be very patient! It has to be brown on the outside because that will make it crunchy! (Yes, the photo is crappy because Ping does not know how to take photos when it is all dark!). Once the marshmallow is ready, use the other piece of graham cracker to 'kiap' the marshmallow onto the other piece that has the chocolate on it. Yummy! It is very very sweet though so two servings will be more than enough! But I like the marshmallow made this way so I was snacking on the marshmallow for breakfast the next morning! If you like dark chocolate, that will be better because it takes away a little of the sweetness from the marshmallow.

Even though it was sweet, I was excited about eating real S'mores instead of those S'mores flavored stuff. So I took the leftovers of the ingredients from Fan to make them at home. We used the microwave to melt the marshmallows. It is very tricky o! Different microwave requires different timing too. John did it the first time and it was just right. The marshmallows did not pop in the microwave and it melts the chocolate so that they mix well when you bite into it. Ever since then, I have tried it on my own multiple times and I finally get it right!!! The timing is definitely very important! Hehe...

This is how the S'mores would look like before the marshmallow is melted.
And this is how it looks like after I 'kepek' the crackers and bite into it.
Yummy! This is definitely an American treat!!

Maggi Mee

當你忙到沒時間煮飯, 卻好餓的時候,你會吃什麼呢?

Instant noodle!! The last packet I have at home - Maggi Mee!
While Maggi is actually the brand name of the instant noodle, it is the most commonly used word to describe instant noodle in Malaysia. This is because once upon a time, the only instant noodle available was Maggi. Now there are tons of different brands out there, and Maggi is actually one of the least tasty one. Haha, but I still like the Curry flavor from Maggi as most of the Thai made instant noodles that are spicy has a sour tinge to it. The best instant noodles are the Korean made ones like Shin Ramyun. That one has a larger serving size and will definitely fill me up real fast. The worst instant noodle is the Maruchan Ramen that is very popular here in the US.

While instant noodles is on the 'top 10 most unhealthy' list of foods (one is basically drinking a bowl of diluted monosodium glutamate/MSG and preservatives/coloring), it can be made pretty tolerable if you add some healthy ingredients to it. I always add some combination of fishballs, baby shrimp, egg, dumpling, carrots, and of course, the most important - some green vege!!
By the way, daddy, the chopsticks I bought from Bali cannot withstand heat at all. Those that I have used to cook noodles are now 'krekot'. So they can only be used when eating sushi or cold dishes only. This one is the one I bought from Wang Fu Jing when I went to Beijing.

心酸

翻著我們的照片, 想念若隱若現...
讓我哭笑不得.

雖然星期一已經說了再見, 今天才真真的感覺到哪心酸的感覺.
從今天開始, 我們就各過各的生活了. 好奇怪喔, 一直以來, 我都是一個人在校園走走. 剛才, 掛電話後, 想起一個人在校園走走, 好想很孤單. 哈哈, 是不是很怪呢? 不知道在這個短短的四個月裡, 我什麼時候讓他進了我的世界. 好不捨得喔...幸好在工作上, 回一直忙到九月. 那我就可以見到他了!! 還是現認真工作好了.

但今晚, 還是很想念他. Hmm...如果我們只是朋友, 我還是會哪麼想他嗎? 好想也會吧, 只不過會比較難過的想念. 現在只是戀戀不捨. :)




I didn't mean for this to go as far as it did.
and I didn't mean to get so close and share what we did
and I didn't mean to fall in love, but I did
and you didn't mean to love me back, but I know you did.
-Plain White T's -

Flickr

Blah!! Super frustrated with the organization for Picasa now! Want to upload all the photos me took the past few weeks and Picasa is just driving me nuts! So will be uploading the photos on Flickr instead. Plus, now that I finally figured out how to edit photos with Photoshop (okay, sort of lah. Still have no idea what I'm doing sometimes. Bleh), there really is no need to upload the photos on Picasa now. In fact, it is a lot easier to transfer photos from Flickr to Multiply than from Picasa.

Photos to be uploaded soon!!

Oh yes, Flickr has a way better organization settings than Picasa. With the Flickr Uploader, it is even easier! Uploaded some of the photos last night --> http://www.flickr.com/photos/ahping/