Friday, April 29, 2011

Frisbee Golf vs an American culture shock

It was so nice out. Seriously. I enjoyed the sunshine so freaking much! So the day started out this way, there was this one guy, my FIL 341 classmate texted me to hang out. Well although finals are just around the corner, I said yes to him as I don't have much time left. So he said he would pick me up in 15 minutes to go to a park for a little. Frankly, his two-door sports car was really cool, so I jumped in his car and we headed to Maxwell Park. It was a lovely park for people to play frisbee golf. It was my first time ever playing frisbee golf because we don't have baskes in our quad. Frisbee golf is a fascinating and fun-filled sport! It was totally free on that day, I mean we didn't have any mulligan rules as I was a beginner =)

Well, basically I was always the loser (there were 18 baskets). At the very last basket, I took out my camera, handed to my friend and asked him to do me a favor to record me throwing the frisbee. You wouldn't believe it, I made it in! That was really an incredible shot! I was thinking did the video recorded matter? Did it force me to make my very best? I doubt.


After that he asked if I would like to go over his place to get our assignment due on that day done, well in a normal situation of course I said yes to him. It was pretty close to our school by the way. When we were done, I noticed something was wrong. He started asking if I like massages, if I would give him a chance to massage and stuff. How would I reject him, darn, it is always hard for me to say "no". So I said yes, but I'd prefer to sit up instead of laying down. After 2 to 3 mins, I stopped him by saying, "it's good :)" and he said "I have never had a chance to get a massage before", oopz, how should I response? I remained silent. He made me an egg salad before I suggested to go back. So, we were in the car. ..

"Do you have a boyfriend?"
"I do."
"Then do you guys have tie in between?"
"There aren't any abiding rules, but I do whatever I think I am supposed to."
 "Is it wrong to kiss someone else other than your boyfriend?"
"Definitely."
"So you wouldn't have sex with me, would you?"
"I'm sorry, I wouldn't do that"
"That's alright, cause I thought of that, and it's kinda normal to .. in America."
"Well, that makes sense, cause I'm an Asian ;)"

Reached. And I greeted him goodnight and thanks for the ride and the game.

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Milwaukee Trip

Do you like beer? I do but not every type of beers is my type. Apparently Choon Sian doesn't but sometimes he would be craving for it, @@. We happened to went to Miller Brewing Co. and participated in the tour which provided us samples of their beers. Yummmm. So the tour started out as follows:

Walk outdoors and upstairs to Miller’s packaging-center balcony. A blur of cans roars along conveyor belts that wind through wet machinery, packing up to 200,000 cases of beer daily.

The next stop is Miller’s mammoth distribution center that covers the equivalent of five football fields. Typically, you can see half a million cases of beer.

In the brew house, Miller makes its beer, up to 8.5 million barrels annually in Milwaukee alone. Climb 56 stairs to look down on a row of towering, shiny brew kettles where “wort,” a grain extract, is boiled and combined with hops. Stroll through Miller’s historic Caves, a restored portion of the original brewery where beer was stored before the invention of mechanical refrigeration.

Finish your tour at the Bavarian-style Miller Inn and sample a Miller beer or soft drink. Be sure also to take a few minutes to inspect the impressive collection of antique steins. In the summer, you can enjoy your beverage in an adjoining beer garden enlivened by music.

Jealous of us having free samples of beers? Well, you don't have to, just pay them a visit today! Am not promoting though.

Buddy Choon Sian again!

Great beers man!

This is huge!

Monday, April 25, 2011

Chicago Trip

Yes. It's Chicago again, you could probably tell how much I adore the windy-city with chilly temperatures! This time I was not alone as my pictures tell, Choon Sian, an awesome buddy, accompanied me in Chicago for 2 days. It was so much better than walking alone on the street because you'd have to look for people to take pictures of you. I really appreciate it.

So we went to several places like United Center and Buckingham Fountain - those that we have not been, we also went to Chicago Tribune to be in the headline of Chicago newspaper and visit the legs sculpture of Chicago. Visited the Chicago Cultural Center too, a baronial and dazzling buildinig which full of marbles and lights. You might wanna check it out to hold your wedding party there? That'd be awesome! Oh yea, they do rent it out and every Sat morning you would probably see lotsa people signing up for their marriage registrations there. Well and of course, we spent almost 0.75 day shopping for souvenirs, sounds lil bit scary but that's true, things in Chicago are way expensive! A normal t would cost 19.90 bucks? What do you think? Paying RM60 (excluding 15.1% tax) for a t-shirt? It gotta be kidding me! And of course, we had 2 meals there - The famous deep dish pizza and Thai food. I bought ginseng for bi's mom, anji aunty and teacher Zhao (those who gave me red packets before I came to US, mom said it's a MUST to buy them something) haha, mom is lovely ;)

Sometimes you think things are ridiculous but they happen. We met a couple in Milwaukee, WI and indescribable, we met them twice in Chicago again! And they appeared whenever we need someone to take a picture of both of us. I wonder, did God just simply send someone to give us a hand sometimes?

Still, priority goes to the BEAN!

Chicago Bull rocks~!

Deep Dish Pizza - Lou Malnati's

Sculpture of legs

Thai Tomyum and Red Curry Chicken

Friday, April 8, 2011

The Sleepless Elite

Check out the video provided by The Wall Street Journal


Why some people can run on little sleep and get so much done
For a small group of people -- perhaps just 1% to 3% of the population -- sleep is a waste of time.
Natural "short sleepers," as they're officially known, are night owls and early birds simultaneously. They typically turn in well after midnight, then get up just a few hours later and barrel through the day without needing to take naps or load up on caffeine.
They are also energetic, outgoing, optimistic and ambitious, according to the few researchers who have studied them. The pattern sometimes starts in childhood and often runs in families.
While it's unclear if all short sleepers are high achievers, they do have more time in the day to do things, and keep finding more interesting things to do than sleep, often doing several things at once.
Nobody knows how many natural short sleepers are out there. "There aren't nearly as many as there are people who think they're short sleepers," says Daniel J. Buysse, a psychiatrist at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and a past president of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, a professional group.
Out of every 100 people who believe they only need five or six hours of sleep a night, only about five people really do, Dr. Buysse says. The rest end up chronically sleep deprived, part of the one-third of U.S. adults who get less than the recommended seven hours of sleep per night, according to a report last month by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
[More from WSJ.com: How Much Sleep Do You Need?]
To date, only a handful of small studies have looked at short sleepers -- in part because they're hard to find. They rarely go to sleep clinics and don't think they have a disorder.
A few studies have suggested that some short sleepers may have hypomania, a mild form of mania with racing thoughts and few inhibitions. "These people talk fast. They never stop. They're always on the up side of life," says Dr. Buysse. He was one of the authors of a 2001 study that had 12 confirmed short sleepers and 12 control subjects keep diaries and complete numerous questionnaires about their work, sleep and living habits.One survey dubbed "Attitude for Life" that was actually a test for hypomania. The natural short sleepers scored twice as high as the controls.
There is currently no way people can teach themselves to be short sleepers. Still, scientists hope that by studying short sleepers, they can better understand how the body regulates sleep and why sleep needs vary so much in humans.
"My long-term goal is to someday learn enough so we can manipulate the sleep pathways without damaging our health," says human geneticist Ying-Hui Fu at the University of California-San Francisco. "Everybody can use more waking hours, even if you just watch movies."
Dr. Fu was part of a research team that discovered a gene variation, hDEC2, in a pair of short sleepers in 2009. They were studying extreme early birds when they noticed that two of their subjects, a mother and daughter, got up naturally about 4 a.m. but also went to bed past midnight.
Genetic analyses spotted one gene variation common to them both. The scientists were able to replicate the gene variation in a strain of mice and found that the mice needed less sleep than usual, too.
News of their finding spurred other people to write the team, saying they were natural short sleepers and volunteering to be studied. The researchers are recruiting more candidates and hope to find more gene variations they have in common.
Potential candidates for the gene study are sent multiple questionnaires and undergo a long structured phone interview. Those who make the initial screening wear monitors to track their sleep patterns at home. Christopher Jones, a University of Utah neurologist and sleep scientist who oversees the recruiting, says there is one question that is more revealing than anything else: When people do have a chance to sleep longer, on weekends or vacation, do they still sleep only five or six hours a night? People who sleep more when they can are not true short sleepers, he says.
To date, Dr. Jones says he has identified only about 20 true short sleepers, and he says they share some fascinating characteristics. Not only are their circadian rhythms different from most people, so are their moods (very upbeat) and their metabolism (they're thinner than average, even though sleep deprivation usually raises the risk of obesity). They also seem to have a high tolerance for physical pain and psychological setbacks.
"They encounter obstacles, they just pick themselves up and try again," Dr. Jones says.
Some short sleepers say their sleep patterns go back to childhood and some see the same patterns starting in their own kids, such as giving up naps by age 2. As adults, they gravitate to different fields, but whatever they do, they do full bore, Dr. Jones says.
"Typically, at the end of a long, structured phone interview, they will admit that they've been texting and surfing the Internet and doing the crossword puzzle at the same time, all on less than six hours of sleep," says Dr. Jones. "There is some sort of psychological and physiological energy to them that we don't understand."
Drs. Jones and Fu stress that there is no genetic test for short sleeping. Ultimately, they expect to find that many different genes play a role, which may in turn reveal more about the complex systems that regulate sleep in humans.
Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson and Leonardo da Vinci were too busy to sleep much, according to historical accounts. Winston Churchill and Thomas Edison came close but they were also fond of taking naps, which may disqualify them as true short sleepers.
Nowadays, some short sleepers gravitate to fields like blogging, videogame design and social media, where their sleep habits come in handy. "If I could find a way to do it, I'd never sleep," says Dave Hatter, a software developer in Fort Wright, Ky. He typically sleeps just four to five hours a night, up from two to three hours a few years ago.
"It's crazy, but it works for me," says Eleanor Hoffman, an overnight administrator at Bellevue Hospital Center in New York who would rather spend afternoons playing mahjong with friends than sleep anymore than four hours. Sometimes she calls her cousin, Linda Cohen, in Pittsburgh about 4 a.m., since she knows she'll be wide awake as well -- just like they were as kids.
"I come to life about 11 at night," says Mrs. Cohen, who owns a chain of toy stores with her husband and gets up early in the morning with ease. "If I went to bed earlier, I'd feel like half my life was missing."

Sunday, April 3, 2011

Drastic change of "Normal" 's weather

According to dictionary, "normal" means common or typical. 
The following picture shows the weather forecast of Normal, why isn't it normal?
I enjoy the sun so freaking much! It is so nice out!
This post is basically for fun by the way.

Chicago Trip

Yup, it's the Windy City one day trip organized by International House. Departed at 8am so I didn't get a chance to buy a Subway sandwich but I had breakfast so it was fine. Visited the Field Museum and the 3D was undoubtly impressive, I wish I would have a chance to visit Sue, T-Rex! A quick tour was then given and followed by that, we took off at north end of Millenium Park. Donglai and I had lunch ini Chipotle together and I spent almost 10 dollars for that meal + chips & guaca. We then headed to John Hancock observatory and surprisingly it was free because as far as I remembered, ChoonSian once told me it costs around ten bucks. Due to my craving for more food, Donglai walked me to a mall to buy some bao's' (buns), 5 bucks for 3! They were really savory and I am not kidding.

After that we separated as we have our own destination. So I walked all the way down to the Adler Planetarium through Navy Pier but I didn't get to visit the planetarium as it closed at 5, but I did enjoy the gorgeous scenes by the Nave Pier! It was great traveling alone sometimes as you do not have to put other people's time in your schedule and you are freed to make your own decision. However, it was really hard to hunt for an experienced photographer sometimes. But I was blessed to have some nice pictures with the AT&T sculpture! As time approaching 8pm, I lingered around the downtown and stayed for 15 minutes in Borders when my skimpy and delicate sweater did not allow me to stay in the breezy weather. Everything went smooth and we reached our dorm as scheduled. Donglai then drove me to Fusion Brew and I had a glass of Taro Milk Tea with Boba before the whole trip came to the end. Overall it was awesome!


AT & T Plaza sculpture


The Navy Pier

Friday, April 1, 2011

Indian Night

How many of us really understand how an Indian marriage works? ISA happened to introduce this splendid celebration to us through the Indian night. Joanne was invited in the fashion show so Fuey, Ola and I went to there to support her as well. The night was really long but I had fun because I knew most of the Indians who were participating in this event. They really did a great job.

At first, we had loads of dancing and singing slots. I love children so I captured tons of their pictures when they were dancing on the stage. Please help me to recognize them, they were really naive and adorable! Sketch, by most of my friends. It was about 2 teenagers fond on each other yet for your information, in India, arranged marriage is common in the society. At the very beginning both of their parents strongly expressed dissent towards them to be together so for that moment, what you could do was only trying to approach other family members to make things easier and be perseverant to your stand. Believe that your destiny is in your hand. And they made it! Also, they showed us how an Indian marriage is like, the ceremony and the way they celebrate. Check out the pictures below!