Andrew's visit

So my buddy, andrew from U-Mich, had a job interview at San Jose and stayed over at my place for a night last weekend...it was unfortunate that he came at such a pressing time (finals projects research..) but i still managed to show him around Berkeley abit...he's interested in environmental engineering for very noble reasons and i respect that...i certainly hope he'd get in berkeley next yr so we'd get to hang out more..

Orchard Hotel X'mas Party

The annual Orchard Hotel X'mas Party, held at a rival hotel just one block down...we had a great time with tam's colleagues & won $700 (fake money) from Black Jack out of the $300 (fake money) they gave me at entrance...Tammy on the other hand saw a loss of $150 (fake money)...which brings down our household earning to $850, which converts to a handbag for Tammy (i think every employee get a prize)...not sure if I should be surprised at all but apparently all the big winners of the casino'themed night are all the cantonese house keepers aunties...respect!


Tam with 3 other co-workers who also work at front-desk


Tam posing with one of the doorman named Cornell...he's a great guy...and we're gonna run in the same marathon in Big Sur come April next yr!


Tam and Lea at their natural domain, behind the front desk...


Tam with Juan, a hyper-friendly guy who recently quit the door man job...


This shot is taken as we're saying "Thank You" to Christian, who apparently has an uphill battle using our camera...anyhow, it was a swellin' time..too bad Nate couldn't join us...

"Chestnuts roastin on an open fire..."

It's a X'mas time! And we've finally got around to getting a small X'mas tree for our humble establishment..


Ok...so after reading a few forums of ppl bitching about how hard it is to set up a X'mas tree at home...i must say that i have a natural flair for this...3-min setup with no injury...xie xie!


Nice! The $19 gamble at Walgreens pays off!


This is really nice! Just imagine an endless stream of X'mas classics from the Comcast "songs for the season" music channel...man, i miss singing acapella carols with skritch!

Sushi night!

This is what'd naturally happen after an eventful splurge at the Japanaese Supermarket in San Fran...


Very obviously a well-rehearsed pose rather than a candid shot...this should have been an advertisement for some diamond ring...


Some Sushi-love!


More Sushi-love..


Tempura...be prepared for a major kitchen clean-up after an intensive tampura frying session...

Starting a Start-up!

So after a few years of daydreaming, brainstorming and most of all inaction, I've finally decided to start a start-up based on an idea I have very recently. Right now I can't devilge any info regarding the idea (since the project is still work in progress) but it's been on my mind almost every single minute for the past 2 weeks. I figure it has definitely affected my preparation for my final exams but for now, I have no choice but to move with speed in order to get a first-mover advantage since this idea is new and never tried before (at least to the best of my knowledge). Yet it is really simple and doesn't take much work for others to implement. But I believe this has substantial potential. Hence, I've been calling some of the most capable people i know for the past few days who possess the specific technical skills that I'm looking for and pursuading them to join me as co-founders. I've also gone to seminars in school to approaach other bright minds in the field in the hope of building up a committed team by next week. It sounds crazy the rate i want things to get done, but i have no choice to push ahead really fast. i really really hope i can get there before someone else.

Now feeling: Inspired, excited, anxious....

Thanksgiving in San Francisco

at the risk of failing all my exams and missing all my project deadlines, me and tammy decided to spend 2 night at the hotel (Orchard hotel) she works at in San Francisco...it's defintiely a great decision thou...San Fran is really a great place, by far my favourite US city...well, i'd let the pics do the talking..


taken on our way to San Fran...this is how an empty BART (the local train) station looks...looks like a scene in matrix....


the famous SF cable car...it's really a fantastic way to see SF on $5 per ride...and in the process queue for an hr to get on one from the end station at Powell Street...and start snapping pictures of the amazing slopes of SF when the car beside you fly pass you...ok really i mean it..it's kind of an romantic experience actually...


tammy eating italian sausage sandwish from Uncle Vito ( a joint near her work place)...i must say those are some of the best sandwishes i've had in my time in US...


this was taken in the Apple Store near Powell Station...the latest iMac comes with a built-in 2.1 megapixel camera and we just had to take a pic there and send back the pic to ourselves in email...they have a selection of some cool effects (as seen above)...


hmm...without effects...


an amazing display of tap-dancing at the heart of san fran...to the tune of MJ's 'man in the mirror'...and of course there's no stopping a street dancer from stripping when he's on the roll...for 10 min...and without any sign of appreciation ($$)...like they say 'if u got it, flaunt it'..


the beginning of a US$300 shopping mission...


a really really tall christmas tree in the middle of Union Square...lighted in broad day light...


it always amazes me that gals go gaga over some unusual stuff and screams 'I need to take a pic with THIS!'..in this case, 'THIS' is an oversized wooden heart in Union Square..


yacht and the likes near Crissy Field...along the beach that faces the Golden Gate bridge


me taking a picture of my shadow in the backdrop of an amazing sky and blue water...


can the sky be any clearer? this is exactly why i have to leave michigan for california..


a playful dog taking a splash by the beach...there are people flying kites, family having picnic, couples strollin...runners and cyclists...all enjoying the superb weather...


and finally...the Golden Gate Bridge!


you just have to love the striking red against the deep blue..(pic enhanced by photoshop tricks..courtesy of tammy)


the Palace of Fine Arts...this Victorian-influenced architecture looks way beyond its actual age (less than 100 yrs) mainly due to the great San Fran Fire in 1910s after the major earthquake...while not as majestic as some of the bigger cathedrals i've seen in europe...there's a really idealic romantic feel to the place...which explains why it's a hot spot for wedding photos for the locals..


arrgghhhh...it's soo...it's soo blinding...oh me eyes!...oh...


another view of the palace...


Japantown in San fran...not a big place but really cool nevertheless, especially when u'r taking Jap101 and u need some native speakers to praactise ur oral...いただきます！ご地租様！日本語を話すは好きです！


in the hotel lobby b4 we go off for a great meal at Ristorante Ideale (in Little Italy)


and this is Nate...Tammy's colleague at the hotel...he's really a great guy and we ended up chatting for 2 hrs at a nice wine bar...we talked about music (he writes songs too and is plannin to pusue music full-time!), movies, american politics, energy crisis...this was a great way to end our 2-day holiday...


gd times pass fast...after 2 days of great fun in SF i find myself back in my room trying to finish a week's worth of work...this is the time when i really need to keep refering to #4 on my "Why am I here?" list (i made this 3 yrs ago when i first arrived in my freshman dorm room in AA)....

Mahatma Gandhi

So tammy and i watched the "Gandhi" movie last night (with Ben Kingsley doing a fantastic portrayal of the spiritual leader)...it was a really great cast and a great script..but none of this would have been possible if not for the personal triumph of this great man, "great soul" or "Bapu" of India...i was really moved by his insistence of using nonviolence to overcome injustice and wanted to find out more about this amazing man...so i ended up surfing the net for a long time today reading on him...and that leads to me reading about the brief history of india, and its entangled relationship with her neighbors Pakistan & Bangladesh...while my knowledge of her history is skin-deep, it definitely gives me a historical perspectiveof the political drama that goes on in the subcontinent and makes sense of the news surrounding Kashmir...i also ended up reading about hinduism...then i suddenly realize how little i know about the other major world religions...it's a pity i didn't take of advantage of those religion undergrad classes when i was in AA...anyway, i wonder if i'd live to be attain half the values and determination of this man who free india, and inspire the civil resistance movement around the world...

Movies I love!

Here's a list (thou by no means exhaustive) of some of the best movies I've ever watched..check it out if there's sth on there u haven't got a chance to see them b4..

Shawshank Redemption
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Finding Nemo
12 Angry Men
Notting Hill
Totoro
Dr Strangelove
Memento
City of God
Life is beautiful
Great Escape
The Incredibles
Spring Summer Fall Winter and Spring
Crash
Twilight Samurai
Motorcycle Diary
Downfall
Salvador
The Man who Copied
Laputa Castle in the Sky
Mar adentro
The Killing Fields

Great company last weekend

So my marathon buddies drop by my apartment last weekend...it was a great night of board game (such as this "Ticket to ride" game above and Taboo, in which the gals team just totally trash the guys team...i think there's a reason why I only get 540 for my GRE verbal..hee)...


A final pic before it's time to go home...can't believe my humble 1-bedroom apartment can actually squeeze in a 10-ppl party...

Working on a screenplay

So completing a screenplay is one of the things i listed down on my to-do list durin my time here in Berkeley...i've been gathering alot of ideas lately and i think i'm gonna start actually penning down the actual script...i'm really excited about this as this'd be my first serious attempt into writing a full-feature-length script and it already seems like a great outlet for my creative juices to get pumping...so here's the basic storyline:

A guy, early 20s, suffered from facial cheek muscle disorder such that he can't give any expression through his face...basically he can't smile or do anything that involves his cheek...so the only way he can convey his emotion is thro his eyes. naturally he grew up a loner and finds refuge in music and this one friend he has. This friend is a really lazy slob who can't stop talking, very much a nuisance except he's really loyal to our main character here. Then comes a girl who discovered the main character's talent in music and encouraged him to actively pursue music as a career. So the main character falls in love with the gal, only to find out towards the end that there's no chance of romance between him and her. The final scene ends with him crying, and finally able to move his facial cheek muscle and cry out loud. So in a way, the girl liberated him from this burden he's carried with him for so long, but at the same time he's feeling all empty again after pinnin high hope on this erlationbship that'd never be....

I want this movie to be as ironic as possible...i wanna convey the message that mant a times what we perceive and what we desire might not turn out the way we desired, and often it's beyond our control anyway...and i'd be using my own songs to cover the scenes...man, this is gonna be such a fun project to be able to incoporate my own songs in my own script...i'd put up more of the actual scripts once i've got sth going..

To be a 'T' person

I first heard this term during my design product class when the professor mentioned about one of these terms coined by Harvard...the 'T' person and the 'I' person...unlike most management jargon out there i actually like this one alot...it relies on the actual shape of the letter 'T' and 'I' to describe the breadth and the depth of a person's knowledge...an 'I' person is someone who has alot of depth in certain area...however a scientist who spend his life on say superconductivity could be said to be an 'I' person only if he does not has the ability to communicate or interact people of different field...a 'T' person would then be someone with certain depth in some area but able to relate to others' area and effectively communicate..

in that sense, to be a 'T' person has been my goal ever since coming to the states...i want to fully utilize the breadth provided by a US education...of course that's at the expense of some depths and i'm quite sure in terms of hardcore engineering foundation, a graduate from say NUS is gonna beat me with much ease...i guess that's part of the reason i chose to go for a graduate degree in engineering...to make up for some lack of depth...so breadth vs depth...it's a constant struggle between those 2...it always surfaces when it comes time for me to choose a class, choose a degree or choose my future job position....so a simple phrase that i'd come up for myself to help orientate my decision is:

"to be able to hold an meaningful conversation about anything with anyone" and "to be able to appreciate why someone would be interested in his/her topic of interest"

these 2 statements are really easier said than done...how do i hold a meaningful conversation on say gardening when i have little interest and basically zero knowledge in it...but i think if i'm able to do that i'd have advanced myself as a 'T' person...

An evening with Ayush

Ayush is this amazing dude I got ta know during my time in Michigan...though we didn't get to hang out as often as we could during my undergrad years, every time i have a conversation with him it'd inevitably turn into some kind of roller-coaster brainstorming session with ideas bouncing off between the 2 of us...fast foward 3 years after one degree under my belt and work experience in several top-notch companies for him things didn't change all that much as he visited my place last weekend...

we started bombarding each other with all the latest ideas that've been consuming us lately the very minute he arrived...i think our conversation got so intense that we kind of ignored poor tammy who cooked a superb vegetarian meal for us (pics below)...I couldn't really help it though as it is quite rare to find someone who share the same level of passion on design and spend an equal amount of time daydreamin about biz ideas...

well, Ayush is one of these dudes and more...he actually have the experience and knowledge to back it up. well, to say the least his working experience is definitely much richer than mine and it has taken him from the likes of BoA to now Google, which is why he's in town. Now I always hold on to the belief that a student life should be filled with travel experience during his school holidays instead of internships since we're gonna have more than our fair share of work once we start our career, when we'd no longer have the luxury of time we enjoy now...but compare that to the rich experience and amazing people that Ayush encountered during his internships, it's quite hard to argue against that indeed...i guess i just have fun travelling and he has fun on his jobs...and i think that's a really valuable statement for anyone to claim, that "I have FUN in my job"...that's why i truly admire companies like IDEO and google where the ppl 'working' there dun feel that it's "work", in the strict sense of the word as most of us has come to understand it..indeed we're taught since young that 'all work and no play makes jack a dull boy"...the distinction between work and play is so articulated and ingrained since young, it's hard and i guess something to celebrate about if you manage to combine those 2...so in that sense i think Ayush is a lucky man..

Between him showing me tons of interesting websites and me daydreamin out loud to him, we touched on our common desire to ultimately start our own companies...it's interesting thou that we differ in our opinion on when will it be the right time 'venture out'...i guess it's always back to the chicken and egg question of should we gain experience in a 'normal work' first or should we gain experience while strikin it out on our own...Ayush is convinced, espeically after his work experience, that one should pay his dues in top companies and learn and meet more people first...he actually placed quite highly the 'credential' that a person has...by 'credential' i mean explicit achivements such as good degree from top institutes, job experience with top firms etc...i can totally see his point but i guess it's just like the question of whether our school grades are important...i think that most people (me included though i try to make a conscious effort not to) are concerned about our school grades primarily because that's the common barometer that others will judge us...but i think that really defits the true purpose of education...it is really the journey of acquiring knowledge that makes it worthwhile...and of course we all know that grades are often pretty misleading in gauging a person's ability...likewise for all these 'credentials' that i'd be able to write down on my resume, i really dislike the idea of being judge upon merely by the layout and few sentences of what i can squeeze into those few lines on the resume...there's no way for anyone to gain a sense of the richness of my experience unless we've had a good conversation about it...it's all very idealistic of course...in this world of 'hire-the-best-and-QUICK'...it's much more 'efficient' and probably safer to automatically include someone with a Harvard degree to an interview and omit the guy who came from some unknown university...I know it's probably ironic for me to be saying all these since by most standards i'm riding the same wave of 'good credentials' of studying in a well-known institute and under sholarship with a respectable firm...i just hope though the desire to acquire this "line that'd look nice on the resume" won't be the basis of any of my decisions...

all the above are pretty heavy stuff but that's y i like to have conversations like these once in a while...that it actually keeps me thinking and inspecting my inner thoughts long after the covnersation is over...but the evening wasn't all just intensive talk...we enjoyed a great great meal by Tammy, who in my opinion pulled off one of her most successful meal so far...so check out the pics below!


Appetizer...yummy!




This is definitely the best dish that tammy has ever cooked in my opinion...and she's cookin for me again tonight!!!

Silicon Valley Half-Marathon

I made myself a list of 5 things that i wanna do/achieve in time here in Berkeley at the beginning of the semester..and one of it is running a full marathon...but at the time i really doubt i would have the self-discipline to really train and prepare for it...fortunately I received an email from hong how, one of the singaporean undergrad in berkeley a while ago about forming a team to join the silicon valley marathon event..it turned out to be a wonderful chance for me to make some great friends, explore some great berkeley sceneries (since we run to different destinations such as the Indian Rock which has a perfect helicopter view of the bay area) and the 'discipline' to get my butt out of my bed during my afternoon naps to train with my new-found running buddies...most of us (except yong he) decided to go with a half-marathon and use it as a stepping stone to the actual marathon which we hope to do sometime next March..

So after a rather manageable training routine (we do about 2 runs per week), we went to San Jose the past weekend where the run was held. In fact, we went to San Jose for 2 consecutive days since the run's registration takes place the day before the actual run. We received some tracking device which we're supposed to tie to our ankles during the run and it would apparently track our time. There were also a number of interesting stores set up at the registration room with booths showcasing some GPS-enabled tracking device (definitely for the pros) and plenty of free goodies. We also managed to do a mini health check-up which in my opinion doesn't really tell much except that I have a pretty high ratio of air burst volume and lung capacity ...whatever that means...there was also this guy who was trying to sell his book about his running career...and he certainly takes it freaking seriously...we're talking about a "oh i just did 350 miles non-stop last weekend" guy here! i wonder if that's a Guiness record...but it took him 3 days 3 nights...i think that's just absolutely nuts...


so this is the starting point of our race...the run starts at 7am so we didn't get much sleep the previous night...though the daylight saving hour thing definitely helps since we gain an extra hour over night...


this is the pic taken right before our run..when everybody still looks normal and feeling excited..soon we'd find ourselves limping away, cursing, swearing and wondering why did i pay $45 to do this?


I think the organizer's official photographer took this near the finishing point...actually i only realized half-way through the run that i'm not sure exaactly how long is a half-marathon in miles...well, so like any good engineer i did some mental calculation and convert 21 km to miles and got 15 miles...and of course i got it wrong and so was incredibly surprised when someone shouted 'half mile more!' near the 13 mile mark..that explains why i could still sprint in this pic since i was reserving my last ounce of energy for the last 2 miles which never came...


So i finally came in after 1 hr 51 min of running...I didn't have any prior expectation so i felt pretty good after the run...at least i wasn't feeling a state of total physical destruction after my last half-marathon 3 yrs ago...

so it felt great to achieve this half-way mark and i'm really looking forward to more runs with my new running buddies...for the first time after 3 yrs of junk food and american-style pizzas i'm actually beginning to feel healthy again..hee!

More cuisine adventure...

So anyone who knows Tammy should know that she's really into food...i mean good food. Perhaps inspired by her favorite movie, My Best Friend's Wedding, in which Julia Robert played the role of a food critic, Tam has taken on a zealous quest of good food...of course i, and sometime our fortunate neighbours Anwar and sanjena, end up having the honor of sampling some of her creations...below are some of pics of tam da chef's おいしい食べもの!


So this pic is taken in Anwar and sanjena's (our neighbor next door) apartment...we treated them to a homecooked 'french' meal a while ago and they returned the favor with some kickass bangladesh cuisine...


Appetizer by Tammy....tomatos saoked in olive oil..yummy!


Main course of roast chicken...i think we were drinking carbernet if i'm not mistaken..


And of course the dessert! coconut milk seigo with honeydew...


oh...and who else but yours truly aka "Mr Domestic Hubby" to do some damage control after tam's exploit in the kitchen...