Ouch...

How is it that at 30, I'm still discovering muscles I never thought I had? Namely in the neck, arms and thighs. I'm sitting down right now and my legs are quivering... Yup, I had my first yoga class today. It's been something I've been meaning to do for a long time, and since I'm finally done with coursework (yay!!) and have a little more time this semester, I figured this is about as good a time as any. Besides I know of people who attribute their success getting into grad school entirely on the focus and concentration yoga afforded them. I'm taking both my precandidacy exams this semester- I'm going to need as much of that mojo as I can get.

So anyway, back to the yoga. It's a form of yoga called Ashtanga Yoga, probably one of the oldest forms of yoga although it's enjoying recent popularity because celebrities like Madonna and Janet Jackson swear by it. It's very much focused on deep breathing, balance and posture. The breathing part I can do (although I think many of us ended up sounding a little like Darth Vader...); the balance and posture part... ok, not so much. The instructor hardly needed to tell me that yoga is all about concentration and focus- there really isn't very much else you can think about when you're trying your darndest to balance while holding one leg 90 degrees straight in front of you while bending to touch that raised foot (Don't ask me if I could do it, I'm not answering you!... )

I do have to say though that there is something perversely relaxing about that hour, in spite of the ridiculous amount of effort it took to contort myself into these fantastical postures. The focus helps, the stretching is amazing, and even though your entire sphere of movement is confined to only that 24 in x 68 in area of the mat, your body is getting some intensely cathartic workout.

The last time I did any yoga was about four years ago when Jude and I attended a class together. After that, we couldn't bend our legs for days, and my shoulders were so sore I couldn't carry anything on my back. Right now, there're aches and sores here and there, but I think I'll only start feeling any real pain tomorrow. The good thing is that the workout really helps generate heat throughout your body (I was perspiring so much from just standing still), which is a great thing in winter.

I'm not sure yet about the whole enhancing my clarity of thought thing- I'll let you know in April. For now, my body's beginning to feel the ache and I think the lingering jetlag isn't helping. Thank god this it's only once a week- any more than that and I don't think I'll be able to even crawl out of bed in the morning...

Pretty...

Sparkling tree with sunset
Originally uploaded by jyew.

Days like these make winter all worth it. Truly, Ann Arbor was breathtakingly beautiful today. I stood outside my office literally awestruck for several moments. The sunlight bouncing off all the ice-encrusted trees and buildings made you feel like you were in some fairytale universe, except with characters in clumsy jackets and hoodies instead of fur coats and crystal carriages.

Of course, it takes very specific conditions for days like today to happen. You need an overnight ice-storm (complete with loss of power and shattered windscreens, I'm sorry to say...), snow the next day so that the snow sticks on the ice that had formed the night before, and insanely bright sunlight the day after that to bounce resplendently off all the preciously accumulated ice and snow.

The only thing is that it's also blisteringly cold today and I couldn't stay out as long as I wanted to to enjoy the scenery. I could only sit in our living room and stare dazedly out the window... :) For more gorgeous pics, definitely check out Amy and Matt's photos!

Hiroshi Ishii talk @ NUS 01/10/07

Update on my previous post on the Hiroshi Ishii talk. Kevin has finally gotten the video of the talk up on Google video and it's embedded on this post for your viewing pleasure. There's much in this talk to think and talk about. Feel free to post a comment or start a discussion here :)

Home?

We've been home just over 24 hours and things are back to normal, I think (with the exception of maybe our sleep schedule and the living room). We've been in school since 10am this morning so yes, thrust right into the thick of things. It's good I guess- takes my mind off missing home a little and it gives my system less of a chance to succumb to the lure of sleeping some more.

Waiting for the bus today was an odd experience- I was literally the only person outdoors- only, single, alone. In the entire month in Singapore, except when I was at my parents' by myself in my room, I don't thinking I can remember ever being the only person anywhere. There were always people walking purposefully about, milling in the malls, scurrying here and there, packed up together in the trains... So yes, I definitely appreciated the stillness and silence of the cool morning today. It was nice.

Speaking of home, Jude and I will be at a play tonight- Singapore theatre director Ong Keng Sen is directing a musical/ opera composed by Bright Sheng- The Silver River- and it's playing at the Power Center. For $12, you also get a pizza/ meet-the-director session at the Alumni Center. It'll be an interesting experience in light of our recent excursion through the University Cultural Center back home. Ong Keng Sen is the Artistic Director of TheatreWorks (where Jude was supposed to do his undergrad internship) and is best known for his re-imagination of Shakespeare's tragedies. In particular, his kabuki-inspired King Lear has been performed all over the world. Let's see, between fending off jetlag and mouthfuls of pizza, we'll try to sneak a chat with the man, or better still, take a photo to add to Jude's collection of pictures of himself with random famous people.. ;)

I'll be seeing you...

I hate this night. Truly truly... Not this specific night per se, but all the nights just before we return to Ann Arbor again. Because we fly Northwest, our flights out of Singapore are always at 6am in the morning. Jude and I try not to sleep and just spend the night packing. We find the tiredness helps somewhat to numb us from the general dreariness of the NWA food, plane, and sulky service.

I hate this night because this is when I miss home most. I know it sounds strange- I haven't even left yet. But it's in the silence of my old room, amidst bits and pieces of things that used to be mine, now mixed up with Sam's trinkets, and surrounded by my luggages all packed up that I'm stung most acutely by homesickness. You would think that having done this four times, it'll get easier. It doesn't. I don't know what it is about this year- I don't even remember feeling this sad the very first time Jude and I made this 22-hour journey across the world. Maybe it's coz we took things a little slow this year, and there was more time to just relax and enjoy everyone's company without the stress of running about. It just makes you appreciate each individual person's role in your life that little much more.

We'll be leaving for the airport in about an hour. Everyone's asleep right now. I guess I am looking forward a little to returning to Ann Arbor and starting work again- this trip home has been inspiring in a whole lot of different ways and I can't wait to get started on my research. But it's sad too- we'll miss all the friends we caught up with this time round- it was great catching up with you guys and we'll be thinking of you as we return to the frosty Midwest! More importantly, hugs out to our family- for the gifts exchanged, rides home, meals prepared, swims together, breakfasts bought, movies shared, games played, and words mis-pronounced.

We love you all!

The places you will go, the people you will see 2: how I managed to meet Hiroshi Ishii

This post will detail how you too can meet Hiroshi Ishii serendipitously.

One: Make contact with the director of the National University's Center for the Arts (who also happens to be your mate's mum)

Two: Casually state your areas of focus to said director.

Three: Said director happens to have a meeting with the director of the Interactive Digital Media Lab (Adrian Cheok) and a Visiting Professor from MIT so she asks for your advice on digital media.

Four: State desire to meet with director of Interactive Digital Media and inquire who said Visiting Professor might be.

Five: Find out that professor is Hiroshi Ishii!

Six: Mention that you are familiar with Ishii's work and suggest some ways of approaching upcoming meeting. Coyly decline sitting in on meeting but nonetheless allow yourself to be persuaded to come along anyway.

Seven: Have a wife who will grudgingly help you edit the University Arts Festival press release thrust upon you by above-mentioned mate's mom so that you can attend said meeting with little knowledge of its agenda.

Eight: Smile alot at first meeting with Hiroshi Ishii, nod knowingly at all he says, and remember to ask someone to take a photo of you together so you can tell yourself at a later date that this serendipitous meeting was not a figment of your hyperactive imagination.

Nine: Accompany Ishii's entourage around the University and before you know it, you'll find yourself in several meetings where deans and faculty members of various departments will wonder what you are doing there ;)

On a more serious note, getting the chance to talk to Ishii has been great. I also attended his talk today, which is the first of a Distinguished Lecture series that the faculty of engineering @ NUS has launched. Ishii's talk was highly inspiring as he detailed his prior work in tangible user interfaces (think I/O brush). But more than that, Ishii's talk was also a call for a more interdisciplinary approach towards technology development. Specifically, Ishii is calling for more high-level vision and concepts rather than reinventing the wheel with technology. During the talk he revealed that Nicholas Negroponte had asked Ishii to abandon his research on augmented tables and to think about new and original ways in which people can interact with technology. This message seemed to not have gone down well with the engineering students as during the question and answer session, they seemed to be overly focussed on the technical details of Ishii's prior work during the Q&A segment of the talk. This seemed to disconcert him somewhat. Kevin has captured the talk on video and when he puts it up on his blog, I will be sure to link it to this post.

Hiroshi Ishii talk @ NUS tomorrow

I agreed to advertise this talk tomorrow. I know it's last minute but I think that Ishii is an interesting person for many Singaporean readers of this blog. Details of the talk below:


The Inaugural Distinguished Lecture Series Faculty of Engineering, NUS

The Distinguished Lecture Series, Faculty of Engineering, NUS is an initiative of the Faculty to bring in foreign experts and academics who could help to enhance th learning environment for innovation an entrepreneurship as well as the capabilities to teach and do research in cross-disciplinary areas which are relevant to all engineering disciplines.

Tangible Bits: Beyond Pixels
Prof Hiroshi Ishii
Tangible Media Group
MIT Media Laboratory

10 January 2007- 3.30pm to 4.30pm

Engineering Auditorium
NUS Faculty of Engineering
9 Engineering Drive 1
Singapore 117576

http://www.eng.nus.edu.sg/PACentre/courses/2007/DLSIshii.pdf

Registration is free but pre-registration is required.

To registration, please email your name, organization and email address to: engpac@nus.edu.sg by 8 January 2007.

Due to limited seating capacity, please register early.

Regards
Nurasyikin Mansor
Management Support Officer
Mixed Reality Lab

The places you will go, the people you will see 1

During our trip back, besides catching up with family, friends and local food, I had the good fortune of being able to meet and speak to a great variety of interesting people. As a way to document my discussions with them and to help spread the word about the work that they are involved with, I am going to blog about my meetings with these individuals/groups.




Kevin Lim is a doctoral candidate at SUNY, Buffalo, New York. I first came across his blog and became aware of him as a result of my interest in the dissolution of the School of Information in Buffalo. Kevin's blog has been a wealth of information for me and he is the closest thing to an online personality that I personally know. Kevin is going to be in Singapore teaching undergrads in a course focused on new/social media at SIM. In particular, he is attempting to look at how games can be used to incentivize and structure student contributions with social media. I won't go into what we talked about during our meeting as he has beaten me to it in his most recent "face-to-face" blogpost :)Drop by his blog and keep updated with his latest gadgets and exploits ... and not to mention his teaching.



Himansu Shah and me go back quite a bit of time. Shah runs an outfit called AV8 media that was a pioneer in bringing digital video and nonlinear desktop video editing to Singapore. I approached him several years ago when I was experimenting with digital video as a way to facilitate creative and critical thinking amongst my students. Digital video has since taken off in a big way in Singapore schools in no small part due to Shah's work. AV8 outfits schools with digital video labs/studios and also conducts Adobe certified training for both students and professionals. I remember back in 2001 when he and I were talking about an online means to showcase student video. To a large extent the bulk of what discussed has been realized with the presence of youTube today. I had an interesting dinner and discussion with Shah about user contributed video and how that relates to the recent efforts by the Singapore government in setting up bodies such as IDM and MDA. The both of us ruminated about the present efforts from the government to seed a digital media industry. While laudable and noteworthy, such government funding often comes with expectations not to broach on 'taboo' subjects such as politics. Also, Shah pointed out to me that there is much funding available for HD content production and game development from the MDA. However, the funding comes with strict guidelines and seems to want to push large productions (no funding for productions made with handheld HD cameras). But it was also noteworthy that MDA funding has resulted in a splashy large budget film called, One last dance, featuring Harvey Keitel.



Shah also arranged for me to have lunch with Pete Kellock, who was the former CEO of MUVEE. I have been peripherally aware of MUVEE for a number of years as being a prominent local software company that made it's name on automatic video editing software. However, I was completely taken aback as to how much this company has grown. The company recently moved to its present location and had undertaken a comprehensive survey of its employees as to what they would like for their work environment. The results of this survey is nothing short of impressive and Pete took me on an a thoroughly enjoyable tour of MUVEE's premises. You can check out my Flickr set of my tour of MUVEE's space.

In my interactions with Pete, there were a number of things that stood out for me. Firstly, the company had only recently set up its first usability lab and were new converts to the user evaluation and experience. Pete, being the original developer of MUVEE's software, told me that he was absolutely taken aback by some of the findings produced by their usability evaluation process. It was also heartening for me to hear that they were now seriously considering deploying TechSmith's MORAE, a software that I had worked on as a user experience intern in the summer of 2005.

My conversation with Pete and Shah over lunched revolved around youTube, user experience and how ubiquitous mobile devices were changing the ways in which people were taking digital video. In particular, during the conversation I raised the fact that there was now a lot of attention being paid research on adolescent use of technologies. Take for instance Mimi Ito's work on Japanese Teenagers' use of mobile camera phones. Considering how OBSESSED Singaporeans are with their cellphones, research work like Ito's study would be particularly relevant and important. It would seem that there is a lot of work to be done with regards to user experience and how user make use of technology. This is especially pertinent to software like MUVEE's which has been embedded in devices like cellphones. In fact, Pete himself readily admitted that MUVEE needs to know its users better. Hopefully, I can follow up with him on this.



Meeting the media socialists was especially eye-opening and important for me. This is a group of prominent bloggers who are working in educational technology in the tertiary institutions, in the national library, in advertising/marketing etc. It was especially important for me to be able to put faces to the blogs that I have been following online for a while. In general, the meeting was more of a put a name to the blog meeting. But there were a lot of connections made and information exchanged. I won't go into the details of everything discussed right now. I'll save that for a following blogpost after I have followed up with a couple of individuals from the group :)

Jalan jalan**

I hate to start off the new year with a snarky post but it's been something that's been bothering me for a while since we've been back. The seeds of these thoughts were actually planted way back last year when we watched Tan Pin Pin's wonderfully evocative Moving House, but has come into sharper relief since we've been back this year.

I am simultaneously amazed as well as disturbed by the rapidity with which the landscape of Singapore is continually transforming. There is construction work being done virtually everywhere I look and buildings are sprouting up like mushrooms after a rainy day. And even though we come home almost once a year, I find myself sometimes a little disoriented when landmarks I knew have now made way for something invariably bigger and shinier. I guess this means Singapore has become affluent enough that such change has become part and parcel of her development as a modern city.

But my question is this- honestly, do we need another shopping mall? Tampines- although a fairly large estate- is expecting its third shopping mall, on top of the hyper-mega Courts and Ikea that have just opened in the area. It is not without some resigned incredulity when I think about the fact that a small country like Singapore has two Ikeas (one of which is the largest in the region) while the whole state of Michigan virtually celebrated its socks off when the first and only one opened last year. And Orchard Road, already the shopping mecca of the country will have yet another shopping center opening just across the street from three existing malls. And of course, who can ignore VivoCity, 1.5 million square feet of "iconic retail, lifestyle and entertainment" space. Jude and I have steadfastly resisted the urge by every other person we've encountered to pay our respects to this behemoth of retail excess.

On the other hand, we've visited two beaches and there were chokeful of people- families with kids, families with pets, people in tents, people on bikes- everyone virtually packed like sardines in a place where relaxation and peace of mind are supposed to be key. Oh, and of course, there were rows upon rows of restaurants and retail outlets about. It's as if we walked into just another shopping mall, except that people were sweatier and there was no Bread Talk in sight...

Just as Moving House revealed the pathos associated with one's family's relocation of their ancestors' grave to a columbarium in the name of urban redevelopment, I too am coming to terms with a little tinge of sadness at the rapid (almost rabid) rate of consumption that has overcome my little country. I ask again, do we need another shopping mall? What are we giving up in exchange? How about building more parks and open areas where families can go to escape the busyness that already consumes all the other aspects of their waking lives? Does leisure now have to involve the same jostling and fighting for space as taking public transportation? What about the cultural sites that define us as a people? Our graveyards, markets or historically significant buildings which may not be aesthetically or architecturally pleasing but worth conserving nonetheless?

Looking through old postcards and history textbooks, we have been taught to marvel at how much this little tiny island has transformed into the modern, shining city that it is today- the narrow streets have given way to huge expressways, small shophouses into towering skyscrapers. We have been almost conditioned to view change as a sign of progress. I see the wistfulness in my parents' eyes sometimes when they reminisce about the place where they used to work and first met, or this one restaurant where my dad brought my mum on their first date, or where they bought the dress I was wearing in an old photograph. But these places don't exist anymore.

My little humble prayer is that when we grow old, let there be bits of our memory that can still find a physical anchor. Please, let our children be able to see parts of this country the same way as we do, see a building where Jude and I used to spend time in in the same site as it is today. Hopefully, there will not be in its place a 45-storey cineplex, or a 67-storey all-in-one living-entertainment-educational-retail-medical-hospice facility.

Call this my new year hope.

They paved paradise
And put up a parking lot
With a pink hotel, a boutique
And a swinging hot spot

Don't it always seem to go
That you don't know what you've got
Till it's gone
They paved paradise
And put up a parking lot

They took all the trees
Put 'em in a tree museum
And they charged the people
A dollar and a half just to see 'em...
-Joni Mitchell, Big Yellow Taxi

**[In Malay, jalan jalan means "streets". More commonly, it refers to Singaporeans' love for of walking about the city and its shopping areas.]

Holiday

We haven't been blogging much since we've been home not because we haven't had the time- quite the contrary actually; this time round- having learnt it the hard, hectic way last year- we've deliberately taken things really slow, not packing appointments and meeting people back to back, running to and fro our parents' places and basically trying to juggle too much in too little time. Instead, we've been sleeping in (like 11 in the morning in...), spending more time with family, dinners at home, and actually just enjoying each others' company without the accompanying stress of school and chores. Basically, we've been sorta having a real holiday :)

The constant downpour has been most inconvenient and a literal damper on things actually, but it's also made the weather a lot cooler than it would have been. Thank goodness coz I don't think we would have been able to bear both the humidity and heat plus the crazy crowds this time of year at home. As our Flickr pictures attest, we've been doing an inordinate amount of eating (don't even ask how many photos we've added to our Food Pornography set... ok fine, if you must know, 38 food pics in the last 14 days.) We also finally relented and made a small, teeny, little purchase- see here. I think Jude's in a better position to say more about it's snazzy functions and super-duper Leica lens. Me, I just love how it makes all our photos so bright and pretty :)

Merry Christmas!

To be able to celebrate the holidays at home two years in a row is a blessing I will never take for granted. It is the simple joy of being surrounded by family, friends and loved ones that makes Christmas truly, truly beautiful.

So here's wishing everyone a blessed Christmas and we hope that your holiday is filled with as much cheer and celebration as ours is!



[City Sidewalks. J. Pirman, 2005. Adapted from a holiday card available at MoMAstore.org.]

Little things

One thing about being so far away from home is that you realize how you've always taken so many things for granted, especially the little things. On top of the list, a good haircut. Both Jude and I have had little luck with the haircuts we've gotten in the States- Aveda is always a hit-and-miss thing with me, and the Asian lady who cuts Jude's hair makes him more frustrated than anything else.

Which is why one of the first things both of us do when we get home here is to get a haircut. Few men in this world understand me like 1) my husband, and 2) Ashley, my hair guy. The man's a genius. I barely say two sentences and he intuitively understands what I want. Any woman (heck, any person) who's had haircut problems, knows how difficult it is to find someone who just gets you, or at least gets your hair. And Ashley's such a lovely person too- I love the fact that he's still so sweet and down-to-earth despite the theatre people in Singapore having just given him a public tribute for helping them with their styling all these years.

As for Jude, his heart lies with the men we've affectionately termed his "surrogate fathers"- the Hainanese barbers at the basement of the Shangri-La. Jude and his friends have been going to them for years and as Jude put it, these crusty old men have pretty much tracked his life for the better of the last 10 years. They've even been asking Jude's friends about him every time he doesn't visit for months on end. Besides, where else in Singapore can you get a perfect scissor-cut haircut (none of that electric razor routine), a rock solid Hainanese neck massage, a warm face towel, and a good old-fashioned blade shave for under S$25? And as a plus- if it means anything- they cut Rock Hudson's hair when he was in Singapore those many many years ago :)

So folks, don't take your barber/ hairdresser for granted. You'll never know when you'll miss them.

The madness...

I'm evidently only half the woman I used to be... The old me would have been able to traverse the whole of Orchard Road without a word of complaint and only just one cup of coffee; she would have been able to dash in and out of shopping malls in spite of torrential rain with panache and reckless aplomb; that me would also have been able to juggle Christmas shopping for a mere six people without feeling like she was on the edge of a nervous breakdown. I don't know where that me has gone because today's little trip down to Orchard Road sucked the life out of me. Maybe it was the crazy weather (it's been raining non-stop since 7am this morning...), the equally maddening Christmas-shopping crowd, or just me having been away from all this insanity for too long, but I honestly remember having more stamina for these things at some point in my past life.

And just in case shopping in Singapore in the heart of Orchard Road during the Christmas season with rain pouring torrentially outside wasn't exciting enough for my system, throw in two exuberant teenagers to shake things up just that little more. Sam and my cousin Jill were with me and trust me, nothing makes you feel older than listening to the speed at which teenagers can 1) talk; 2) change the topic of what they're talking about. Just trying to keep up with their conversation was exhausting in and of itself... I was thoroughly zapped out!

Anyways, Jude will be home in just under 24 hours and I'm literally counting down the minutes :) I've missed my husband dearly and I think he really needs this break home to just relax and unwind from the stress of this past semester.

In other words, I think we'll stay away from Orchard Road for a while at least... ;)

History that we forget all too easily

Some advertising for a friend's talk. Sounds really interesting. Pop by if you are in the vicinity at that day and time.

"The University of Malaya Socialist Club and the Fight for Singapore Independence"
by Michael Fernandez, Loh Kah Seng and Lim Cheng Tju

15 January 2007 (Monday), 3.30 to 5.30pm

Venue: Conference Room, Institute of Policy Studies, 29 Heng Mui Keng Terrace, S 119620

In the 1950s and 1960s, the University of Malaya* Socialist Club played a crucial role in the struggle for Singapore and Malaysia's independence from the British. The club, which counted major figures such as Tommy Koh, Lim Hock Siew, Edwin Thumboo and Wang Gangwu,
among its leaders, was instrumental in helping the People's Action Party obtain mass support and in pushing for a free, democratic and non-communal Malaya.

This talk is based on research for a book being written by the speakers.

Register by emailing to Catherine_Lim@ips.org.sg

* In 1959, the University of Malaya had two campuses, in Kuala Lumpur and Singapore. The latter became the University of Singapore in 1962.

About the speakers:

Loh Kah Seng is a Ph.D student at Murdoch University, Australia. He co-wrote with Michael Fernandez aa chapter for the forthcoming book "Path Not Taken" on the history of trade unions in Singapore from 1945 to 1970.

Lim Cheng Tju is a masters degree graduate in history from the National University of Singapore and works in the Ministry of Education.

Michael Fernandez is a former union leader who was detained without trial for nine years between 1964 and 1973

Be happy together.

These are the words engraved on my best friend's wedding ring. They were told to Duncan by his grandma and that's the sentiment that's going to now guide their marriage. Just be happy together. Simple, but so important...

So yes, the wedding was lovely. Just lovely. Everything from the tea ceremony to the church solemnization to the lunch reception went on as envisioned; but more importantly, did so because it all stemmed from a genuine and deep affection for Aileen and Duncan. All the organization and coordination weren't just tasks to be accomplished or a schedule to be fulfilled, but individuals' gift to the couple on their wedding day for being two of the most wonderful people around. And so insanely in love... :) I almost cried just watching Duncan's face as he read his vows (thanks to the vantage point of standing next to Aileen...)

And no, I did not trip on my two-inch heels. Buddy Holly's True Love Ways was the perfect tempo for the processional [and reminded me a little of the last song I walked down the aisle to... :)] and by the time S Club 7's You're My Number 1 came on for the recessional, I had been in those shoes for 4 hours and wore them like second skin. And yes, you're seeing right- S Club 7 (or S Club, since they're now down to 6 members...). This was Aileen's one concession to Duncan :) Apart from embodying all the requisite characteristics of the proper Englishman- loves soccer, incredibly polite, armed with a wicked sense of humor and an unfathomable affection for all things tea- he's also been a now not-so-closet fan of the British bubblegum pop group. And of course, he loves Rachel...

I am also proud to report that my speech went down as planned- all the aeronautical engineers laughed at my Airbus A320 joke (thanks to Aileen for a heads-up on that one...), people didn't just sit dumbstruck when I made a reference to her many emails of undying devotion and promises of lifetime servitude (cue canned laughter...), and I did what I promised her I wouldn't do (all energies must be harnessed to prevent those fake eyelashes from falling off)- I made her cry. I think it also fit in well with everyone else's speech- the father of the groom, the best man and both Duncan and Aileen- so that was nice too.

Anyways, the newlyweds are off skiing in Japan as we speak and I can't wait to catch up with them when they get back in the new year. It was one of the most beautiful and moving weddings I've been too and it gives me great joy to have been just that little part of it :)

Congratulations Mr and Mrs Duncan Colyer!

The first two days home...

... have been a whirlwind of activity. I want to say that I've been relaxing and trying to slowly recover from the dastardly jetlag, but I haven't. With my best friends wedding happening in less than 24 hours, I've actually been panicking along with her (although I'm sure for rather different reasons...):
1) After walking around the mall for almost 2 hours, I finally found a nice pair of shoes to go with my dress. They're tan/gold suede peep-toes and my first 2-inch heels. I'm a little nervous about walking down the aisle in them, but as the priest said at the wedding rehearsal last night, walk slowly. Besides, the best man's like 6ft 4in- I think he only hears echoes when I talk to him from down here...
2) We're going to the bridal shop today to pick up her gown. There's kneeling involved in the ceremony and guess who's going to have to make sure that she can get up and down in her dress while herself being in 2-inch heels... I hope neither one of us falls.
3) I'm bravely going to get a haircut today. Of the people I've told this too, only the women understand what an act of courage this is, to get a haircut the day before a big event... I'm telling myself that no one's looking at me, but there's no way I'm going to walk down the aisle with what's masquerading as a decent hairstyle right now.
4) I've been stressing out about this speech I'm giving... How does one strike the balance between the right dose of funny without being inappropriate, moving without being overtly emotional; short without being forgettable, but just the right length without getting boring?... I wrote something up on the plane and I think I'm going to have to send it to Jude to ask for his opinion. I read it to Sam and she thinks it's sweet. But she's also thirteen- Singapore Idol rocked her world. Enough said.

So anyway, the next 36 hours will be a little stressful but ultimately also very exciting. My best friend is marrying a man who's made her happier than she's ever been and that just knocks my socks off!... :)

Wedding tracks

Ok, I think I'm done with the CD for my best friend's wedding. It's a mix-bag of songs- some stuff we listened to together when we were in school, a bunch of schmaltzy favorites, and a few others that hopefully distinguishes this wedding soundtrack from thousands upon thousands created every year. It needs to be a smashing collection for one helluva couple!

While the Web was kinda helpful in picking out some tracks, I had more fun reading about what NOT to have on a wedding CD. Some top no-nos:
1) YMCA
2) Chicken Dance
3) From This Moment & You're Still The One (Shania Twain)
4) Amazed (Lonestar)
5) There You'll Be (Faith Hill)
6) Wind Beneath My Wings (Bette Midler)
and ANYTHING Celine Dion...

That last one made me laugh- can you imagine how many brides probably walked down the aisle to "My Heart Will Go On" in 1997/ 1998??

Anyways, this is what I put together- with the bride's stamp of approval of course :) She has a jazz band playing during lunch, so this is more the "when-the-band's-taking-a-break-but-we-can't-have-silence-when-people-are-eating" music...

1) God Only Knows (Beach Boys)
I started compiling this over Thanksgiving weekend so there's a whole bunch of Love Actually-inspired tracks.
2) If She Wants Me (Belle & Sebastian)
3) Sparks (Coldplay)
4) Just Like Heaven (The Cure)
5) My One and Only Love (Sting)
Schmaltzy but oh so sweet...
6) Kissing You (Des'ree)
7) Flowers In The Windows (Travis)
8) Better Together (Jack Johnson)
9) Wedding Bell Blues (Laura Nyro)
Jude and I had this on our wedding CD too- nothing not to love about the joyous voice of Laura Nyro.
10) Pure (The Lightning Seeds)
11) All You Need Is Love (Lynden David Hall)
12) Fade Into You (Mazzy Star)
13) Ain't No Mountain High Enough (Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell)
This is on here coz it's from a movie we both love- go guess...
14) Northern Sky (Nick Drake)
15) Such Grest Heights (The Postal Service)
16) The Sweetest Thing (U2)
17) Nightswimming (R.E.M.)
I know, not conventional, but I've loved this song for a long time.
18) What the World Needs Now (Burt Bacharach with Elvis Costello)
19) Somewhere Over The Rainbow & What a Wonderful World (Israel Kamakawiwo'ole)
A gorgeous version...
20) The Final Frontier (Anita Baker)
From one of our favorite TV shows.
21) If I Should Fall Behind (Bruce Springsteen)
22) Truly Madly Deeply (Savage Garden)
23) The Luckiest (Ben Folds)
24) By Your Side (Sade)
Her voice is so sexy it should be illegal...
25) Ice Cream (Sarah McLachlan)
One of the sweetest of her songs, and one of her least angsty too.
26) Lovefool (The Cardigans)
27) Shape of My Heart (Sting)
28) It Had To Be You (Harry Connick, Jr. & Frank Sinatra)
29) Melt With You (Modern English)
30) Dreams (The Cranberries)

Ok, now to figure out what to say in my speech...

Christmas present 2006

Final product!
Originally uploaded by jyew.

I think we've started some kind of tradition without quite meaning to. So the Christmas present we prepared last year were ingredients for Cranberry Hootycreeks layered in a jar. This year, Jude and I had the same idea (at the same time!) to do something with hot chocolate. What's better to get you through those cold winter days and nights than a creamy mug of chocolatey heaven? Initially, I didn't think it was going to be very pretty since all the ingredients were kinda just shades of brown and beige, but then I stumbled across this recipe from Sunset that shows you have to brighten up your hot chocolate gift in a jar. We decided to go with a peppermint hot chocolate mix coz it's just that little more festive, and I lurve peppermint hot chocolate- so Christmas-y... :) It also ended up coordinating really well with the twine and crepe ribbons I have and pink & mint gift tags I made from card-stock from Target.

I really enjoyed putting the gift together- as messy as the process was (there is humanly no way to handle cups of milk, cocoa powder, sugar, choc chips and crushed peppermint candy without spilling things all over the floor)- and we're pretty happy with the final product :) There's just something sweetly satisfying about having made your own Christmas presents. Don't get me wrong, I love raiding the mall for Christmas presents as much as the next girl, but putting together a homemade holiday gift is just gratifying in its own little way :)

I think next year, we'll make Soup in a Jar...

Step out of the car please.

*Drats*… so I got pulled over for the first time today. Yes, you heard right. Pulled over. By cops. With the whole blaring sirens, lights flashing, you’ve-been-identified-as-breaking-the-law routine. And for what? Because I did an illegal right turn on the No Turn on Red corner from South University onto Washtenaw (yes, you’ve been duly warned…). I have no excuses for not seeing the sign, except that I really didn’t see the sign, but am just a little miffed that these cops had nothing better to do on a Wednesday night than to hang out on street corners waiting to catch someone turning on a red light onto a completely empty street. Isn’t there some drug party you should be breaking up or donuts you should be eating? Sheesh… Yes, you know Serene Koh’s upset when she makes snide remarks about food.

So there goes $130, and with it, my dreams of a new super-slim digital camera I was saving to buy myself for Christmas. Urgh… I am so not happy :(

7 days

I'm going home in a week! And yet at this point, it seems like such a looong way off... Someone dropped a bomb on the research project I'm on so now everyone's in crisis mode, plus I have to watch even more Sesame Street videos, and finish this 25-page final term paper by Friday, after which I will be HOME FREE! :)

Things to do from now till next Tuesday:
1) Finish term paper
2) Work on research project stuff
3) Watch Sesame Street clips (till tolerance for primary colors runs out)
4) Prepare Christmas presents/cards for our friends here
5) Shop for Christmas presents for our family/friends back home
6) Download, compile and burn wedding CD for best friend (see here for some pretty good suggestions)
7) Prepare speech for best friend's wedding (see here for some downright dreadful suggestions)
8) Make sure can still fit in dress for best friend's wedding, i.e. gym till I turn Grover-blue
9) Tidy up study room so that it looks less like tornado wreckage
10) Spend much time with The-Man-I'm-Married-To who's not leaving for home till the week after :(

Don and Drew no more

I am sorry to have missed this radio show in Singapore. I have been somewhat peripherally aware of the Don and Drew show for some time now. However, I never really took the time to listen to it. I just found out a couple of days ago that the show's been pulled off the air a couple of months ago and I think that it's a crying shame. It's one of the best things to happen to Singapore radio in a long time. Sure they're rude and make fun of everybody and everything. But these guys write, produce, and even compose music for their own shows. This is more than can be said for most radio stations that are all tangentially linked to the government and all seem to employ the formula that pretty young actors and actresses would make good radio DJs and hosts. How is Singapore going to attain the title of the regional IT and media hub when there is little tolerance for difference and creativity? I am not trying to defend Don and Drew because they can be extremely rude. But you have to admit that they had the balls to enact some change in the Singapore radio scene. And besides they were one of the first people to use podcasts as a means to draw in an international audience for a radio industry that is really quite parochial.

As I've said, my lament for this show perhaps comes too late. (and I should even admit that I know Don's brother & Drew's wife) But I do like their weird irreverent humor and making fun of all things local. Check out their inspired Ramly Burger Rap.

For those of you not familiar with what a Ramly Burger is, there's a wikipedia entry on it and I have attached a photo below for good measure.



It's a burger with a fried egg on top. I do miss it dearly. And the best approximation for a Ramly Burger for me is a triple with a fried egg and onions from Blimpy Burger. But I digress. You can listen to Don & Drew's last show below. Check out especially the last 10 minutes of the show. It's inspired and the saddest ending to a show I've heard in a long time.

Where's...?

[created by eBoy]

[click for enlarged version]

It's like playing Where's Wally, except with all things webalicious... Enjoy!

The beginning of the end

I've done it. Submitted the first draft of my first pre-candidacy paper. It's a little unnerving actually, and I'm not actually sure how good a job it is. I keep telling myself that it's only a first draft, but there was a sense of inevitability as I hit the "Send" button this morning when I emailed the draft to my committee. This first paper is meant to exhibit my ability to do original research, which means I had to "showcase" all the research methods I've acquired. I basically augmented my conference paper from last year and pulled out all the stops in terms of whatever quantitative skills I have. On some self-flagellating level, I guess I do enjoy crunching the numbers and pouring through reams of data, but it's not something I anticipate doing for life.

So a couple of weeks ago, I made a potentially momentous decision with regards to what I might be doing for my dissertation. I kinda have to take that step soon since my second pre-candidacy paper- which I'm writing in the Winter- is supposed to be the lit review for the thesis. Typically, doctoral students in my position use the research they're doing for their professors as data for their dissertations, but I'm in sort of a unique situation. The professor I work for isn't my adviser, so technically, I don't have to use her data. Besides, as much as I enjoy working with Sesame Street, writing curriculum, and all those things associated with early literacy instruction, I don't quite see it as my life's work. Jude and I were talking to Eric the other day about what kind of research we want to do, and I came to the conclusion that I want to write a dissertation that is rich and generative of later work, not just something which "shows" that I can run multilevel regression models. It has to be work I can stand by with conviction and say is mine. One of my friends who defended her dissertation last year talked about how she couldn't wait to wake up in the morning everyday to write her thesis because it was something that really inspired her and that she felt passionate about. I want the process to be like that for me- if I'm going to commit the next three years of my life to one single topic, it had better be one that I can really dig into and explore, break apart, put together, basically get my hands dirty so to speak and really grow intellectually from.

Rachael shared these wise words with me over lunch a couple of weeks ago, that as an academic or a scholar, you may not get paid as much as let's say lawyers or doctors, but your work belongs to you. It's your research and your ideas- you may be accountable to your professor or your dean, but ultimately, what you create is yours. Sorta like an artisan- ok, I might be romanticizing it a little, but you get the point. Anyways, it was truly quite heartening to hear what she said, and also made me think really long and hard about what I want to do.

So like I said, I think I've made my decision. I'm not sure if I'll regret it or if I might change my mind in a couple of months, but for now, I'm incredibly excited :)

Dissertation research

Hey... you... guys!!!!!!!

You know those moments you have after you've watched a really good movie by your favorite director, and you wished you could just meet them in person and tell them what a great job they did, and how their movies have profoundly changed the course of your life and you would appreciate it very much if they could adopt you as their charity case? Well, it was a little like that for me today, though not the movie director and adoption part. So as some of you know, the project I'm on works closely with Sesame Street, and is also partially funded by the Department of Education and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (which runs PBS and NPR). So the other people at the presentation today were producers of all these shows on PBS- like Sesame Street- who are also supported by the DOE. And guess what? I got to have lunch with the very people who created Between the Lions, Blues' Clues (they have a new show coming out in Sept '07, for all you parents out there... and are such wonderfully funny people), Zoom (the now online-only science program that Sam loved when she was younger), and get this Eric and Amy, the man who brought Thomas the Tank Engine to the U.S.!! I spoke to him actually and told him how I know a 2 year-old who would give anything to hang out in his office. He gave one of those full-bellied laughters only a man above 60 who's worked with kids is capable of giving... :)

I also met the puppeteer behind Bear in the Big Blue House and Sesame Street, and the most awesome of all, I discover that the woman I've been in contact with for the past month about this presentation used to work at Cartoon Network and was in charge of creating the Powerpuff Girls, Rugrats, and Dexter's Laboratory!! If all this means nothing to you, that's coz you don't have a sister 17 years younger than you who made you spend so many hours so many years ago plonked in front of the TV with her... These characters were such a huge part of her formative years, they were practically family.

Anyways, it was just heartening for me to learn about all the effort and care that goes into producing a children's TV show, especially ones that try to reach out to low-income children in order to teach literacy and numeracy (a certain yellow sponge was brought up disparagingly several times as being antithetical to all that these people are trying to do...) The research behind it all, the testing and trialing with the kids in actual settings (it's a little like user-testing really), we were shown storyboards of brand new seasons of many PBS shows, mock-ups, scripts- it was so exciting, I felt like a kid all over again!

But the piece of news that really thrilled the socks off me is that PBS is going to bring back The Electric Company!! For those of you not old enough to remember the Electric Company, it was conceived in the '70s by the Children's Television Workshop, building on the success of Sesame Street, but targeted at older children. It was cool, groovy, hilarious, and so much fun. And most importantly, it focused on teaching literacy skills to pre-teens who were otherwise not getting it anywhere else. That was when I first encountered Morgan Freeman and Rita Moreno (she's the voice that screams, "Hey-You-Guys!!!!!"), and the Spiderman (a.k.a. Spidy) who spoke only in bubble words. It was such a big part of my Saturday afternoons as kid that when I saw some of the old footage today, I could feel my heart just swell three sizes larger :)

One of the highlights of the new Electric Company is that they've gotten the help of Freestyle Love Supreme, an improv hip-hop troupe. Their specialty is improv rap, which is perfect for teaching literacy components like rhyming, phonics and decoding. You have to listen to one of the tracks on their MySpace site where fans challenge them to come up with a rap with the word "orange". It's brilliant!

So yes, Electric Company 2.0- and you heard it first here :)

Of Peanuts and presentations

How festive- I'm listening to the A Charlie Brown Christmas soundtrack while ambulance sirens have been blaring on and off for the last 3 hours... It's hard to get in the mood for Christmas when all you're thinking about is why ambulances are driving past your hotel in droves.

So I'm in D.C. for 2 days to give a presentation to the U.S. Dept. of Education at George Washington University. Sounds fancy I know, but honestly, I'd rather be home. I have so much work to finish before I leave for Singapore, it's not even funny. Which is why I have more books and notes in my suitcase than clothes. No sightseeing for this girl- it's going to be just me and my computer all night, with the soothing blares of ambulances outside to calm my fraying nerves...

But guess who's also going to be taking a break to hang with Charlie, Snoopy and gang on ABC later tonight? :)

I never thought it was such a bad little tree. It's not bad at all, really. Maybe it just needs a little love.
-Linus, A Charlie Brown Christmas

Tiger, tiger burning bright

My happy new desktop picture- all pink and orange :) Thanks to Julianne!


According to Dan, she had initially said, "Well, I kinda want to keep it..." Then she graciously let me use it after he explained that she didn't technically have to give it away... :)

Video of the week

Slacker turned musical wunderkind Beck, playing on Saturday Night Live:

Think Stomp, but with silverware. And if you didn't know better, you'd think Malcolm Gladwell had quit his day job at the New Yorker and joined Beck's band...

I suggest you watch the video quick before NBC pulls it off YouTube the same way it's done with almost all the SNL clips.

Oh, and I want to get myself one of those Beck puppets... :)

[Update: They've removed the video- I knew it! Here's the backup. The video mentioned above is the second one.]

The day after

So it's 11.17am the morning after and I'm still not hungry. The last time I ate? About 3.45pm yesterday. I think the menu speaks for itself:

Thanksgiving Dinner @ Rick & Emilee's (11/23)
Vanilla & Cranberry Biscotti
Dinner Rolls
Creamy Mashed Potato
Sweet Potato Mash with Brown Sugar and Pecan
Green Bean Casserole
Spicy Mac 'n Cheese
Herb and Bread Stuffing
Spicy Cranberry Sauce
Deep-fried Turkey (with gravy)
Miniature vanilla cheesecake with strawberries

See what I mean? How can we not be hungry for another 4 hours? And I just have to say one thing- people, wake up and smell the deep-fried turkey! There should be no other way of cooking the bird- because of the direct contact with the heat source, the turkey became extremely crispy on the outside, locking all the yummy juices inside so the meat stays all moist and fall-of-the-bone yummy... Is it dangerous to cook a 14lb bird in a vat of boiling oil over an open propane flame? Yes. Should it be of concern that to date, no turkey deep-fryer has been endorsed as safe by the FDA? Probably. But is it worth it? Definitely. The day after, Serene Koh gives thanks for leftovers... :)

She also gives thanks for the indulgent luxury of two movies in a day (both about the Brits- one she could watch over and over- and probably has because it's one of her all-time favorite holiday movies, and the other about one man's globe-trotting mission to save the world from global terrorism which she's glad to have to watch only once because it was incomprehensible from start to finish, Uganda to Montenegro.)

We may be a small country but we're a great one, too. The country of Shakespeare, Churchill, the Beatles, Sean Connery, Harry Potter. David Beckham's right foot. David Beckham's left foot, come to that. And a friend who bullies us is no longer a friend. And since bullies only respond to strength, from now onward, I will be prepared to be much stronger.

Thanksgiving photos here.

Give thanks

Our family, friends, good health, and happiness in each other- for these we are thankful :) Here's wishing everyone a Thanksgiving graced with good and simple things!

To wake at dawn with a winged heart and give thanks for another day of loving."
-Kahlil Gibran

Local indie covers by LocalBarBoy

Former Padres frontman and "Mee Pok Man" Joe Ng's new band Localbarboy only belts out cover versions of local band music and "aims to create a karaoke-friendly environment at our shows, with lyrics on cue boards for the audience to sing-along". All this according to their MySpace site. Joe has also made recordings of localbarboy's shows available on his blog.

I am not sure how aware Joe is about the limits of copyright that he is pushing with this band project. And I am not sure that he cares either. My impression of the music scene in Singapore is that it is still a nascent community that draws little mainstream acknowledgement. Perhaps localbarboy's efforts may be a little naive legally, but I think Joe's got his heart in the right place. When there are few official channels to publicize and make local music known, you DIY. Joe's offering of the recordings of many other Singaporean bands on his blog is not only a community building effort on his part, but also harkens back to the days when listening to a grainy, poorly recorded bootleg recording of a live show. And as testament to Joe's community building efforts is the fact that members of the other bands that localbarboy covers often play on stage with them. In solidarity with Joe, (and perhaps a little foolishly) I offer you a sampling of a localbarboy show above. As evidenced by the reception of the crowd at these shows, there is lusty enthusiasm and familiarity for these songs. And to think that a couple of years back, local media had pronounced that the Singaporean music scene was all but dead.

This brings me to a "rockumentary" that was screened in the Detroit Flim Theater a couple of weeks ago and that we tagged along with Eric and Amy for. "It Came From Detroit" highlighted the Garage band scene that was at its peak during the 90s in the city. One line in the movie stuck in my head "everyone's band was like their own little gang, and there's all these little gangs intermingling with each other ..." Kinda sounds like Joe's little project here.

Oh BTW, the track performed is a song called "Siti" by former Singaporean enfants terrible, Force Vomit. The recording was taken from a show that localbarboy performed at Homeclub on 28th July 2006.

Mythbusters

It's about time someone gave this show the accolade it deserves. Here's a NYT article on one of our favorite TV shows, Mythbusters on the Discovery Channel.

Is Mythbusters the Best Science Show on Television?

Basically it's a bunch of stunt-men/science geeks/ daredevils coming together to investigate if myths about certain phenomenon are really true. Like electrocution by throwing an appliance in the bathtub- is there a voltage threshold? Does having pee in the water intensify the effect? What about beating a security system? Can you really do what Tom Cruise did in MI-1? What if you covered yourself completely in mud? Would you be able to evade the motion/heat detectors?

My favorite cast member is Kari- she's the babe with the tools and she rocks! She wields a hammer and screwdriver in a way that would make Rosie the Riveter proud! So definitely try to catch the show if you can- it really is blast and you'll learn more in that hour than any chemistry or physics class you've ever taken. In the words of co-host Adam Savage, "It's Jackass meets Mr. Science". And that's no myth :)

Snowed in...

I don't really know what it is about this song- maybe it's just the mood I'm in today, the stress from end-of-semester work, and/or the fact that's it's snowing outside and it's just one of those physiological things that happens to your disposition when the weather drastically changes. It's not as if it's an exceptionally well-composed song, and I'm not even that huge a Snow Patrol fan at that, but there's just something about it today that I'm responding very viscerally to. The lyrics maybe- that combination of desperate longing and mute, repressed pain(?). It's almost sexy, in a "I-need-to-sweep-you-away-now-because-you-grip-the-madness-of-my-soul" way... Am I even making sense?

You decide for yourself.

Open Your Eyes

All this feels strange and untrue
And I won't waste a minute without you
My bones ache, my skin feels cold
And I'm getting so tired and so old

The anger swells in my guts
And I won't feel these slices and cuts
I want so much to open your eyes
Cos I need you to look into mine

Tell me that you'll open your eyes [x4]

Get up, get out, get away from these liars
Cos they don't get your soul or your fire
Take my hand, knot your fingers through mine
And we'll walk from this dark room for the last time

Every minute from this minute now
We can do what we like anywhere
I want so much to open your eyes
Cos I need you to look into mine

Tell me that you'll open your eyes [x8]

All this feels strange and untrue
And I won't waste a minute without you
-Snow Patrol

The end zone

Watching the game was supposed to be stress-relief for both Jude and I. Isn't sports supposed to be relaxing and fun? Shouldn't it allow you to take a break from the frantic cardiac palpitations that already plague the other 15 waking hours of a grad student's life? Apparently not- those three hours were instead nail-bitingly, nerve-wreckingly anxiety-ridden. Everytime we thought Michigan had control of the game, Ohio came back with an even better play, and in the end, it seemed clear that the Buckeyes were the better team (or so I was told of course- I just cheered whenever everyone else was squealing, and dutifully boo-ed on command...). With 19 seconds left to the game, we resigned ourselves to second place with a infinitesimally narrow score of 39- 42. And this was despite a momentarily euphoric touchdown in the last 2 minutes... :(

I can see how supporting a professional sport- even at the college level can consume you. It was intoxicating enough even without quite understanding what was going on. Kinda like when my family used to watch soccer when Singapore was still in the Malaysia Cup (the intoxicating part I mean, not the lack of understanding...). So Mr. Petersen, I think I might just take up your suggestion and read Don DeLillo's End Zone over the vacation. I could be convinced about this whole American football thing... :)

Hail to the victors...

As if the century-long rivalry isn't enough to make me give American football another chance to impress me, former UM football coach Bo Schembechler passed away this morning, making tomorrow's U-M vs. Ohio State game even more emotional than it already is. How big a deal is tomorrow's showdown between the two unbeaten teams and the impact of Schembechler's death just the day before? See here, here, and here.

Till today, I still don't understand the game. When our friend Terence came to visit, he attempted valiantly to show me the beauty of the sport as we watched a game together (ok, he watched and I watched him watch so I could pretend that I was watching too...) But I won't be watching for the game tomorrow. I'll be watching for the players. And I'll be watching for the fans. And I'll be watching to see the Wolverines beat the Buckeyes to claim the Big Ten Championship title.

Go blue!

BSS update

To complete the triptych of blogposts on the BSS concert, here are some videos of it that we found on YouTube. The sound quality isn't the best in some of them and others are a little Blair Witch Projectesque (cue: motion-sickeness and nausea), but you kinda get a feel for why until today, we're still reeling a little from the experience :)

Warming up


The ladies of BSS- Lisa Lobsinger on vocals and Julie Penner on violin ("Anthems for a Seventeen Year-Old Girl")


The crowd was invited onstage during "Hotel" (it was a virtual stampede- someone broke a pedal.)


Bandwitch


A less known track- "Canada vs. America"

What's that?...

[thanks to Rachel and Wikipedia]

It's been 48-hours. That's it. We have tinnitus.

Tinnitus (ti-NIGHT-us or TIN-i-tus) is the perception of sound in the absence of a corresponding external sound. It can be perceived in one or both ears or in the head. Tinnitus is the Latin word for "ringing", and usually it is described as a ringing noise, but in some patients it takes the form of a buzzing, hissing, humming, or whistling sound, ticking, clicking, roaring, "crickets," tunes, or songs. It has also been described as a "whooshing" sound, as of wind or waves.

Although there are no specific cures for tinnitus, anything that brings the person out of the "fight or flight" stress response helps symptoms recede over a period of time. Calming body-based therapies, counselling and psychotherapy help restore well-being, which in turn allows tinnitus to settle.

Libby says if she sticks her finger in her ear and then pulls it out really fast, she can hear for like 5 seconds. Beats psychotherapy.

Is the Social Scene broken?

[photo from NYT]

I am typing this as a desperate ringing in my ears threatens to drive me criminally insane. That's what you get for sitting four rows from the stage as Broken Social Scene spent three hours jamming their rambunctious Canadian hearts out in downtown Ann Arbor. And it was sublime...

They've been called everything from a musical co-op to a network to a "tribe and a cult" (see this wonderfully written NYT article about the Toronto music scene in general and BSS in particular). With a revolving set of band members, they can have anywhere between 9- 15 people on any one track at the same time. Which makes for a great live show because you see the full range of instruments and creative vibe just explode synergistically. Today, I counted seven guitars, a keyboard combo, two drum-sets, four horns, one saxaphone, one trombone, several tambourines, one violin, the cow bells, and one harmonica. And sometimes simultaneously.

BSS does not have a sound- that's not what they do, that's not who they are. Which is what makes their music so great. One minute they sound like a folk-band straight out of North Carolina, another they are jamming as hard as rock bands come, and always, as Rachel says, subtly symphonic. This is clearly a function of the fact that each of the various members brings with them something to the music which becomes a different creation depending on who takes the lead. One of favorite tracks, Ibi Dreams of a Pavement (see video) starts of head-bangingly hard-rocking, but then has a violin solo in the middle, and crescendos to the blast of the brass instruments at the end. And Jude just finds the social dynamic of the band utterly fascinating, especially how it contributes to the organic, electic nature of their music.

And yet this could also be what may spell the premature death of what could be one of the greatest bands of our generation. There are just too many sensitive artistic souls for one stage to accommodate. Some splinters were already beginning to show in the concert tonight as lead singer Kevin Drew said something to the effect of how the band is messy, disorganized, and how this might be BSS's last concert. It certainly was the last performance of their 2006 touring season (which was why there was an almost epic tenor to the whole concert) but the way he said it and the tension that seemed to transpire between him and some of the other band members (on stage no less...) seemed to suggest that we might be the last people to see BSS perform together again, whatever together might mean for a band like that.

Tonight, amidst a sound system that performed beyond what the acoustics of the Michigan Theatre could support, copious amounts of alcohol consumption on-stage, and a near stampede when the audience was hauled up to bogey with the band, BSS played their hearts out. Everything from the ethereal Anthems of a Seventeen Year-Old Girl to Jude's favorite Handjobs for the Holidays was heart-renderingly and exquisitely delivered. The whole theatre was enraptured, swept up in the electrifying combustion of a group of people just coming together to make good music. And Jude, Rachel, Libby & I had the time of our lives.

Will Broken Social Scene tour again? Who knows?... But I'm glad they toured today.


[I couldn't find a video of their concert here tonight. Here's one of them performing at Berkeley. I think it suitably captures the euphoric energy that is so much a part of BSS, especialy tonight.]

Radio scan of the day

Via BoingBoing. This is a radio scan from the Burning Man festival in Nevada. Sound familiar to anyone ;)

There she goes...

So get this, I've had my nano for more than two months now, and I've been religiously using my NikePlus transmitter when I run and downloading the data after. But did I think to look at the chart of my progress? Nope, not till today-*dumkopf*.... I'd always just looked at the History folder in the nano and used the last run as a gauge of how hard and long to run this time. But voila, I log on to my NikePlus account today and what do I discover? In the past two months, I've completed a total of 19 runs covering 65.45 km (40.66 miles)! Now that's incredible... Geez... I'm impressing myself...

Ok, this might not seem a huge deal for some of you but you try bearing the indignity of never (I stress that word with all earnestness) having passed a single physical fitness test in your entire life because you could never complete the 2.4km-run under 17 minutes. Trust me, this is nothing short of miraculous. If my math hasn't completely failed me, based on my last run, I'm clocking 2.4km in just under 15 minutes. And it could potentially be shorter if I disregard the time I take to cool down.

Now by my standards, that's incredible.

This all given appropriate motivation of course. That's what the nano's for- Arctic Monkeys great for running; Damien Rice not so great. The Radio Dept. good for warming up; Cat Power for cooling down. And gotta have that PowerSong. At the end of my run, I have Paula Radcliffe congratulating me for completing my workout. Now that's sweet :) Can I run without my nano? Honestly, I don't know. I might have to say No.

So I promised Sam I'll run with her when I'm home over Christmas. Hopefully I'll keep this up and won't end up eating her dust when she leaves me sputtering in her tracks...

Goopy Interweb arts

I love this set of arts about teh interwebs ;) I found them via mrbrown.com and fell in love with them immediately. For the complete set of interweb speak arts check out Goopy's flickr set. Best of all, he's using an open license and all are free to use his interweb arts as long as we credit him. FTW Goopy!!!

BTW can anyone guess what the above interweb acronyms stand for?

Georgia on my mind

So, I'm off to Atlanta tomorrow for an early childhood conference. It's just for two days and I'm presenting in a symposium on professional development for teachers. It's a different audience from what I'm used to so it'll be interesting I'm sure.

The furthest south we've traveled in the States is Kentucky (because Florida isn't quite considered down south, and if you think about it, Miami's like a whole other country anyways so that doesn't count...), so it'll be cool to see a little bit of Atlanta. I asked around about what might be interesting, and someone's response was that 1) people talk funny there, and 2) they serve everything with grits.

Fun... ;)

Oh, the horror...

Ok, so I thought I'd left the nightmare of taking stats behind me: three semesters of quantitative methods and a Masters degree later, I'd believed that I can now run a one-way ANOVA without reeling from post-traumatic stress disorder after. I've never seen myself as a quantitative researcher although I use it for my research, but at least I can distance the use of statistics from the pain I had to endure to learn it. Till today, my friends and I still think of that whole sequence of quantitative research classes as our Nam- we were stats PoWs...

But this video has opened the floodgates of painful memories all over again- I feel the rising nausea, the bile, the dull throbbing ache of an oncoming migraine, that sickly familiar cold sweat... What's the chi-square? How do you calculate the F-statistic? What does this standard deviation mean? Read the p-value!! I'm an English major!!!

And yet, I laugh... and laugh... and laugh :)


The scary thing is how much of the video I actually understand...

[video courtesy of Kevin @ theory.isthereason]

Pop

So as part of Serene Koh's continuing initiation into American culture, I decided to foray into a culinary unknown today.

I ate my first Pop Tart. Frosted Brown Sugar and Cinnamon if you must know.

It was... how shall I say this... OK. I mean, I wasn't sure what to expect, but maybe something more exciting? I hear people talk about it as the quintessential American snack- Lorelai and Rory love it on Gilmore Girls, there's a Smashing Pumpkins song all about it, and didn't it essentially kill someone in Pulp Fiction? Maybe I was hoping for something which snapped, crackled and popped, or exploded with taste, tickled my tastebuds, tantalized my senses... I don't know, the pop tart was just... fine, I guess. Kinda like a cross between a cookie, a covered pineapple tart from home, and a biscuit. And it's way flatter than it looks on the box. I was a little bummed...

Maybe I should start looking out for a deep-fried Twinkie.

Time Lapse Road Trip LA - NYC

Found this on Digg. I'm not familiar with the artist performing the music- Lacquer's "Behind"- however, this is a new video from the minds of Michel & Olivier Gondry. This one is for all you folks that have done that coast-to-coast drive (well from Michigan to the West Coast at least)- something that we would like to do at least one in our lifetime. Hopefully it'll happen sometime soon, though doing it multiple times could become a pain after a while (as some of you can attest...)

Challenge: Can you identify the different landscapes through which the guy drives? :)

First snow

My frosted phlox
Originally uploaded by jyew.

Yup- it was the first official day of snow here in Ann Arbor. The freak "blizzard" that couple of weeks ago doesn't count... The snow today was sustained and actually came down quite hard in the afternoon- I somehow managed to get snow on my sweater which was under a zipped jacket- go figure... And as you can see, my darling plants are bearing the cruel brunt of the frost :(

It would also seem that Michigan drivers have forgotten how to drive in the snow. The news reported a 10-car pile-up on Huron Parkway, and many freeways all across Southeast Michgan were experiencing crawling traffic as well. Trust me, come January, these same people are going to be hurtling through blizzards at 100mph...

As for my husband, we get snow, and what does it make him think of?

Ice kacang.

See, that's why I love the man... :)

Pumpkincide

Mr. Nervous post-carving, pre-lit
Originally uploaded by jyew.

Every year we tell ourselves to get more candy, and every year, we don't get enough. Once again, I had to turn trick-or-treaters away because we just ran out... Of course, it didn't help that Audrey screamed from half a block away, "C'mon guys, let's go to Serene's house!!", after which I was promptly assailed by a motley crew of Spidermen, ninja witches, fairies, princesses and a chili pepper. But my favorite this year has to be a the little girl who was a stick of bright red Crayola crayon :)

Anyways, Rick and Emilee came over with three monstrously huge pumpkins and we spent the night listening to The Pixies and Rickie Lee Jones (whose song, Ghetto of My Mind, incidentally, is what this blog is named after...) while hacking those gourds to bits... For some unfathomable reason, my pumpkin ended up with a perplexed expression *again* (see last year's)- it's as if I'm incapable of carving a scary pumpkin... Rick's Big Dipper pumpkin was awesome and so was Emille's Casper the ghost, especially with the flickering candles inside. It was good fun and Emilee even ended up with a huge bowlful of pumpkin seeds to roast.

Hope everyone had a ghoulishly good Halloween!