Cross

Life's been crazy.  Prospective, but darn bat-guano crazy.

Kelly has settled in quite well, which is great.  Her housemates are close to graduation, so she's well taken care of.   She's a really cool person, come to think of it.  Well then again she and her sister, Gaby, are very much alike.  I do apologize.  My brain's multitasking three different fronts while typing this, so it can be spastic talks.

It's been close to three weeks since I've moved in to my new apartment in Tripp Street.  Although rather new, here are some pics of the place in its early phase.

Living room, with my humongous bean bag

A partially-filled kitchen

My still-messy bedroom

Reverse side of my study desk

Dresser

The best part about my room was that I only spent money on my bed:  the dresser, study desk and chair were all free!  Sure, I allocated more funding to the TV and beanbag, but I feel that it is a fair trade-off.  Cooking has been rather fun, too, especially when you have proper cooking utensils to work with. 

Destination Iowa State was a mixed review.  I had the good/bad fortune of having a group of seven Freshman girls (yes they were mostly eye candy, but that's besides the point).  I was a little bummed to be picked for the Towers though, as we get sorted based on housing assignments; I really wanted to join the Transfer students group.  As my team members were all of the opposite sex, it was tough to relate with them, let alone strike a proper conversation.  Unsurprisingly, I was left with no team members showing up for the rest of orientation.

Now, that sucked a lot!  I've texted them, reminded them in-person, and even called them, but to no response from most of them.  It was saddening, as I felt like I wasn't doing my duties as a Team Leader.  So, I joined another group under the Towers and helped them out instead.  Things got better from there, as I had a proper group who I could teach, and learn from as well.  DIS ended with a hypnotist show by Michael C. Anthony, and it was phenomenal.  I ran out of tears to weep from all the laughter!

Classes had just started today, and I am terrified!  One on hand, I'm taking the hardest course in ISU (in the form of Organic Chemistry 2), and my hundreds-strong Genetics class has a lecturer who wants you to learn by creating your own notes, with him acting as a reviewer instead.  Now, that's daunting.

And no Fang Hao-esque story is complete without his emotional needs.  Well, I've been back to the whole idea of "is she, isn't she".  It's been almost eight months now, and I felt like I've pondered around too long without having a sniff of success, as she doesn't see me as something more.  But then I witnessed the luster of what had encapsulated me from the start, and I fell for her again.  I guess I find her extremely attractive, but I need to let the notion go, since she doesn't feel the same.  Bright side?  I'm still only 20, right?

Vienna - Billy Joel

Suffice

"You know when sometimes you meet someone so beautiful and then you actually talk to them and five minutes later they're as dull as a brick? Then there's other people, when you meet them you think, "Not bad. They're okay." And then you get to know them and... and their face just sort of becomes them. Like their personality's written all over it. And they just turn into something so beautiful."

- Amy Pond

Enough said.  This quote was taken from Doctor Who, via stumbleupon.com.  

Not much has happened in the past few days, besides watching the Dota 2 competition and work, with itty bitty stuff in between.  Team Orange from Malaysia made it to the Semi-finals of the Dota 2 competition and although I'm not a fan of the game, I must admit that they were pretty good, albeit unfortunate to not beat their opponents, Navi.

Plus, I'm starting to watch Dexter, which is a nice show to watch.  Currently at Season 3 out of 8.  It's dark, a bit bloody, but fun and thought-provoking.

The next day saw Yan Yao, Yen Fei and I on a day trip to Kansas City, which bridges the state of Missouri and Kansas.  We initially intended to go for Oklahoma Joe's (the "Original Gas Station" branch), with it's long list of merits, plus the experience of gracing Chef Anthony Bourdain.  The queue for the place however, was a big no-no.  So we opted for Smokehouse BBQ instead, which was super nice as well.

The line had stretched all the way to the back alley

With stuffed bellies, we drove about the city and took some shots:

College Basketball Experience

It was a fun trip, albeit a energy-sapping one, especially for Yan Yao.  Still, it was great to hang out with my two besties, evidently patching things up with Yen Fei.  We bought a Five Guys burger for dinner and that was amazing as well.  Well Kansas, you're another name to cross of my checklist.  That's 11 states out of 50.  I'm thrilled, but not so speculative *wink*.

I even tried out Taco Tuesdays at Es Tas, which were 89 cents per taco.  They were nice, but tiny.  So not knowing that, I under-ordered.  I need to make a mental note to get at least four tacos next time.  A pair of them were measly.  Nice, but short-lived.

Besides that, most nights spent here in Todd Drive involved Texas Hold 'Em poker with the seniors.  With a buy-in of two bucks, it was a really tempting offer.  I was rather rusty on the first night, as I almost forgot how the game ran.  But one thing of which I enjoyed the most that night was playing with loose hands, as being the newcomer made me unpredictable to the table of eight others.  Of course, that evidently led me to being ousted many, many times.  Since I was in the mood (plus having a job the following day which pays for my buy-ins), I bought in 4 times after going bust, which amounted to $8.  However, I had a good streak of cards and luck, and had managed to fish, bluff, and lucked my way to a $12 cash-out.  That felt pretty good, earning $4 on my first try.  The next two nights were uneventful, as we had four-man games, with not much pot moving around (that, and the fact that I lost a bit).  After the three-day rally, I left the place with a gain of 2 quarters.  Funny, but not that funny.

Moreover, I have taken a two-week break from work so that I have time to unwind before the semester recommences.  Upon turning in my time sheet, my boss had called me over for a discussion.  Ever-curious and obedient (it IS work, after all), I motioned over to his desk.  With a smile on his face, he slowly produced a 10 dollar note from his back pocket, and said:  "This is between you and me, but here you go.  You worked really hard this Summer and here's my token of thanks" - or somewhere along those lines.  Nevertheless, I was overjoyed.  Initially I thought of turning down the offer, but I think the refusal would  upset him, so I graciously accepted it.  With a large smile on our faces, I bade him goodbye.  That had made my day. 

Kelly just got here last night and we'll be heading out to run her errands soon.  In fact, we need to head out in about 5 minutes time.  Furthermore, Liverpool started the new season with a 1-0 win against Stoke, with our new keeper saving a penalty.  Good start indeed!

That's it for now.  Gotta gear up.  Ciao!

Dreaming - Smallpools

Bored

Sitting in Yan Yao's still-bare apartment on a Friday mid-night, I am bored mindless.

I've had enough of gaming (completed a DLC pack in Borderlands 2); I just got done with my TV show (this time it's Hell Kitchen, Season 11); I got bored watching a live DOTA 2 game commentary with friends (living next door); I kept floating between units to check on people, and am not in the mood (or clothing to do a workout).

So what else can I do but blog?!  *enthusiasm: activated* It's been quite a while since I've crammed my emotions and experiences and wrung them out dry.

Work is great, as usual.  My boss had a 2-week vacation to Florida to see his in-laws and left me, 2 undergrads and a grad student to watch over the lab.  The first few days were fine, but uneventful.  As we were in midst of a steak run project (which had a 20 steak test per week for four weeks), midweek was hectic as Brett, Alex and I have to excise a 5 x 10 cm portion for each steak (we had scalpels and templates), dilute them in peptone water and mush them up with a stomacher machine.  We then have to do ten-fold dilutions for each sample, from 10^-2 until 10^-7 on both Anaerobic Count Plates and Enterobacteriaceae Petrifilms (two per dilution).  Yes, it took the whole day to do (about 5 working hours) and it was rather tiresome.  Thankfully it was only a day in the week.

Run 2 was done smoothly with minimal deviations and anomalies.  However, we (or maybe I?) plotted INCORRECT data points to the spreadsheet, which was programmed to count the number of generations of bacteria per sample.  The deviation, was a log count of about 2, when it was originally supposed to be around 7.  That was a difference between 100 bacteria per area of exposure, to 10000000 bacteria.  That was boo bad, to say the least!  I felt like crap, and quickly emailed our supervisor about the mistake.  He noted it and made the necessary arranges to contact the company.  Sadly, this was only noticed in the following week, when we need Run 3.

Our boss got back shortly after Run 3 and told me that the steak project was cancelled and that "the company had pulled out".  I sincerely hoped it was because the company were satisfied with the results, and not the more apparent notion.

Besides that hiccough, I had my first experience boating with the Malaysian peeps.  It was a really great way to unwind (although I had a major ENGL 250 assignment to do, dislike that class...).  The tan was not fun at all, but kayaking and floating along the lake in Big Creek, Iowa was a great experience.  Here are some pictures (a tad gutted that the photo of me kayaking was deleted, life goes on!).

On a sourer note, Yen Fei and I got into a big argument.  It was terrible as I felt like I was treated like a kid, and the pent up anger made me snap at her.  It was solely my fault, and not approaching her in person like an grown-up only made matters worse.  If there's one thing I can take from that, it is to always be honest and straightforward to a person.  Speak your mind, and act like an adult.  Don't go talk cryptic messages and spout dribble behind that person's back with the notion of "avoiding conflict".  We eventually made up, thankfully.  It hurts to think about how I had wronged her, and myself too.  But a lesson learnt it was.

Last night was Mun Wai's birthday, so naturally alcohol was involved too.  Sadly, it was another off-day for me, as a can of Lime-a-rita (of 8% alcohol content) left me with rashes.  I beat a hasty retreat to Yan Yao's room, as I had work the next day.  I was not prepared to miss work due to social protocol.

I suppose that's it for now.  Sorry for not writing in a while.  Take care, peeps!

Royals - Lorde