Happy Halloween

This year's Halloween is a little boring since no one is around. But even if there is plans, I probably won't be able to participate since I am wrapping an experiment today - because I'm going down South on Tuesday!!! Actually, Southwest to be exact! It will be an interesting trip since the weather is so extreme. Haha, in fact, when compared to Michigan, the weather here is right in between the warm, SUNNY Phoenix and freezing cold, SUNNY Los Alamos. Yup, that is the key - the Sun! Steph also said that it has been snowing in Los Alamos. That will be fun too!!

Even though it is a quiet Halloween for me, I did managed to carve 2 little pumpkins a few weeks back. This is the first one. Hehe, I accidentally destroyed its nose!

Here is pumpkin #2 that ah boy and me decided to call it "Ah Bot". See who can guess where this name comes from...hint: if you don't know, then your English is not 'Hokkienized' enough. :P

I was trying to make it smoke a pipe but it failed. So I had to think of something else, but I didn't realize that I carved the pipe so close to the ear until I lighted it up!! Whoopss. :P

Last week, when I drove over to tai lo's house to have 火鍋 with Alan, MC and everyone else, I passed by this house...

Isn't it cute? It makes me miss all the good times with the girls and the M'sian gang!

There are also a bunch of cute decors around town like this M&M at CVS Pharmacy (the equivalent of Malaysia's Watsons).

The Colors of Fall

秋天來了!! But this year's Fall is a little weird. It feels more like Spring. 天天都下雨, 下到表土都邊泥土. Soil sampling is not as fun when the soil moisture is so high. Sieving is even worst because my 2mm sieve gets clogged up easily. But now I switched to a 4mm so not as bad.

Besides that, Fall is pretty fun for photos because it is so colorful outside! It is lovely just to walk outside too because the leaves are falling and sometimes, the cool mist is pretty refreshing.

This is the newest remodeling on campus - Wharton Center. It is where performing arts such as Broadway shows are held. Super excited that Phantom of The Opera will be in town next summer!!

One of the major streets on campus. The red leafed trees line the side of the walkway.

The red colored trees are pretty but I like the mix colored ones better.

Stumbled upon this rock while walking along the river. Someone must have gave it a pair of eyes! It made me thought of Steph's pet rock widget. Boo! Only Mac has cool widgets that don't slow down their system. Windows need to chill a little. Hehe.

While the trees are pretty, we haven't been getting nice, blue sky for a while. This is one of the rare days when the sky is blue and clear that even its reflection on the river is blue.

This shot came out blur but I still like it. It reminds me of a painting in a storybook. For some reason, I thought of Alice in Wonderland. It is actually the trailer of the movie (Johnny Depp is in it!!) that made me thought of it first. I think it will definitely be one to watch on IMAX, but after I hear the reviews first. :P

The Tree of Love. Its leaves are heart-shaped.

Red Cedar River. As usual, my favorite spot is along the river.

Ping have to go soil sampling tomorrow. Boo. It is going to be a rainy day hence, a muddy day for me. Planned to go today, which is pretty nice out but have to collect soil from one of the plots that is locked and it is hunting season so not recommended to sample during the weekend. Am starting to get tired of this high humidity and moisture weather. 8 more days!! Hehe.

Too many methods!

Arghghggh!!! 我快發瘋了啦!! 我在做一些 meta-analysis 關於 soil respiration. 讀了那麼多文章,沒有兩個用一樣的method. 我必須用他們的raw data 來自己變換和分析. 更難的是要猜為什麼他們用哪些做法. 真不明白為什麼some research group 喜歡收那sample in 4 or 5 degrees C for 1 week 或許 acclimate to 25C for a few days before carrying out the experiment. Grrrrr...the community is going to change and microbial activity will decrease! Hai, guess that is what happens when soil scientists don't talk to microbiologists.

唉, 還是繼續認真的讀好了. 讀完後就可以回家吃飯了!! 今晚的晚餐...

Hehe, 其實這是昨天的晚餐, 但還沒吃完, 所以今天還可以吃, 明天都可以吃! 是我最喜歡的美國素菜 - 紅蘿蔔(carrot)和西蘭花(broccoli). 華人素菜忠實比較好吃, 可是久久一次還會想吃這些菜. 另一個是豆腐炒雞肉. I am missing the chap fan back home!!! Hehe, Ping is starting to countdown to going home edi. Hopefully sampling will be done by early summer then I can 安心的回家!!

Cici Jelly Drink collection

Earlier this year, Pei got me this Cici Jelly Drink endorsed by Jay from Oriental Mart. When I went back a few weeks later, they only have the regular packaging ones. That means no 杰倫's face on it. Hehe, so of course I didn't buy any ler.

Last week, I went to 大華 to get some vegetable and as usual, will also wander over to the snack isle. Guess what, I found tons of Cici Jelly Drinks with Jay's face staring back at me!! :P

Am sure you all know the outcome of the encounter....

Hehe, can't help it. One don't come by Jay's merchandise easily in the States! Bleh. Malaysian fans are going to be so excited when he goes to M'sia to promote 刺陵 in December. Too bad, they won't be showing the movie in the States. Will have to get the DVD when I go back next year.

How do I get there?

Back in M'sia, this question is typically answered by "Go there and ask people lah" or when I am in Penang, "ask gee ku lah". Yup, we just wing it and eventually we will get to the final destination. The first time usually takes us a lot longer. I still remember all the hand-drawn maps exchanged between mummy and tua tiow or gee ku, depending on if we are in PJ or Penang.

Ever since I started learning how to drive in the States, going places is pretty easy - online maps! I used to get it from Mapquest but eventually Google Maps became more popular and satellite view is much more appealing. Both Mapquest and Google Maps are usually pretty accurate but recently, Google Maps have been providing directions that are not accurate or are hard to follow. After the first two not so good experience, I started looking closer at the directions by using the satellite view and zooming in closer to look at nearby landmarks and the street patterns around my final destination. Basically, I try to get a sense of the area just incase I am unable to follow the directions, maybe I could still get to the place based on what I can remember from the satellite view map.

This past weekend, I looked up the directions to the Livery Brew at Benton Harbor for Hannah's wedding on Google Maps. As usual, I zoomed in to the area around the bar to see the exact road that I will be taking and noted any nearby main roads. It is a pretty simple to get there as it is pretty much right off the main road that we get on just as we exit the highway.

The exit I should be taking according to Google Map is Exit 31.

But we (Jen went with me) couldn't find Exit 31! We saw mile 31 but there was no exit there. It was Exit 33, 32 and then 29! Did I wrote it down wrongly? So we exit at Exit 29, turned back (actually Exit 29 is not too faraway from the place either but I didn't know what direction I was heading so to be safe, we turned back) and took Exit 33. My instinct had told me that I should be taking Exit 33 when I drove passed it (because it says Downtown Benton Harbor) but I trusted Google Maps so I passed it to look for Exit 31. We did call the bar just to make sure Exit 33 is the right one. Once we exit, it was pretty easy to find it (although I did miss it again because I thought it was a one way street. Hehe).

When I got home, I checked it again to see if it was Google's fault or it was because I wrote the wrong exit number. Nope, it was Google's fault! In fact, if I had click on the camera button right next to that particular direction, I would know that I should be looking for Exit 33. The picture below is what you get when you click on the camera button.

Wanting to know if there really is an Exit 31, I zoomed in by clicking on the U.S 31 route. Guess what, the sign says Exit 33!!

Question: How did Google miss that?

Now I am curious to know how does Google calculates directions for us. Was there an Exit 31 sometime in the past that was then removed? It sure gets it using a different algorithm than Mapquest because Mapquest gives the right direction, using Exit 33.

Knowing someone is going to bring up GPS, nope, I am not getting one yet. I managed to find my way back with just regular maps and directional instinct from Sleeping Bear this past July and made it slightly faster than the wrong direction given by Google Map too! Unless I am traveling somewhere where I am not familiar with or going for a road trip, GPS is yet to rule my navigation skills. Hehe.

A fun weekend!

Hmmm, let's see...this past week was quite eventful, especially when compared to last week's mooncake-less 中秋節 and the broken glasses drama.

First of all, I actually did get to eat mooncake! 是John送給我的! Got home one evening and had two mooncakes waiting for me!

One is the original 蓮蓉 (lotus paste) with an oblong shape instead of the regular round shape,

and the other one is a flavor that I have not tried before - 火腿五仁月 (ham and five nuts). It is definitely a weird combination. I thought that it might be one of those flavors that were designed to suit the American market (like how there really is no Singapore mai fan in Singapore although it is a pretty popular dish here in the States). But, Fan told me that it is actually the more popular type of mooncake in Southern China like in Yunnan and Kunming. The five nuts (which are not all nuts since 仁 actually refers to kernel, even though the English label says 'mixed nuts') are walnut, almond, date seed, melon seed and sesame seed. It is actually pretty good but it was weird that they made it sweet instead of salty. Even though having 火腿 inside a mooncake is weird, I haven't had it for so long it was yummy!

He got them from a Chinese bakery in LA. I looked it up and guess what, they also have 豬籠仔 (tu long kia)!!! It is a little piggy made out of the outer crust of a mooncake and put into little baskets. Wow, I haven't seen it in forever and haven't had one since...hmmm...sometime when we were still staying in SS4 I think? I used to love it a lot!! No wonder people say that when you're in California, you won't miss home as much.

That was sometime during the week. Most of Saturday morning was spent in the lab working on experiments and then I went over to the East Lansing Public Library to check out the book sale. They have tons of fiction books for really cheap prices. I got a bunch of Amy Tan, Nora Roberts and James Patterson books. I was only there for 1 hour and already got 13 books. If I had stayed longer, I would probably end up buying more. All that 13 books were only for USD 6.50! Even Amazon used books will not be that cheap (especially since shipping itself is typically USD 4)! Later that evening was Hannah's wedding at Benton Harbor (yes, she is the one who came over the day before my graduation at Western). I thought that I have not been to Benton Harbor but after driving through it, I realized that I have drove past it twice when we went to some beach at St. Joseph. As much as I think that traditional Chinese wedding is a hassle, I still enjoy going to Chinese wedding reception more than the Western style. Somehow it adds a character to the reception, like it really is a wedding reception, rather than just the bride and bridegroom having a party.

Today is stay home and do nothing day but as usual, there are always stuff to do at home like washing someone else' dishes! What is so hard about washing dishes that Lee ah boy have to leave all his dishes in the sink until he runs out of dishes to use?? Grrrr!!! Don't even ask me to nag him about doing house chores because then he will just get pissed off. I rather not have to deal with that. After doing dishes, I made wat tan hor without the hor fun. Hehe. Not a big fan of hor fun so I used egg noodle instead.

For dinner, I made kay phui with sio bak (叉燒飯)....and now I'm back in lab to prep for tomorrow's experiment. It might actually snow this week because Lee ah boy baked chocolate brownies today! He better find time to get those baking utensils cleaned tomorrow as I won't be going home until past 1am and will have to get back here by 8am tomorrow morning.

Busy 'hunting'

Just before I went to Colorado, the 'soil team' (there are so many different projects going on in the lab right now that we can have teams) went out to KBS to sample all the main sites ranging from mature deciduous forest to different levels of successions to agriculture. That was the last time I was out at KBS before today.

One of the things I like to do during sampling trips is take photo of bugs that happens to come by while I sample. Today, I didn't feel like being out there at all. It was freezing cold when I started and then when the frost melted as the Sun came out, my shoe was wet and it was not fun sampling with cold feet. But, at least it was a nice sunny day.

Since I didn't take any photos (besides the regular site photos) today, here's a video of a bee looking bug hunting for food. I love taking video with the macro function!! Actually, video or not, I just love macro photography. Hehe.