Happy Chinese New Year!

To everyone, that is. We had our lab retreat at KML over the latter part of the week and saturday, so I had been reasonably busy with that last week, and the lab meeting the week before. But finally I am able to get back to experiments. I think I am making good progress towards my degree, haven't felt that way in like forever, but I think that I'm doing okay, and perhaps getting out in June may be a possibility after all. And since all is back to normal once again, that means practising, learning the new barber songs, and getting into running again. Ankle's still sore, but getting better. Figured I can start with a run/bike/weights regiment and then easing back into my usual schedule.

Good news for the new year--I have been chosen to TA a course to train high school teachers as part of an initative to affect science education by "teaching thru inquiry." I wasn't entirely sure about it at first, but I think it will be a really good experience. Considering that I intend to do teaching for a while after I graduate, the experience would be really good for resume building and to help me in learning how to design a curriculum for a course. It's a little unusual, as I will be teaching high school teachers rather than college students. And the added benefit, it pays $30/hr. Couldn't beat that I suppose.

Got an email about singing in the chorus for La Traviata at this summer's Redland's bowl music festival. The experience last year was fun, but the drive was brutal. If it were a regular choral concert I probably would have said no, but I need all the stage experience I can get right now, and a costumed opera is definitely a great to get it! Also need to start coordinating the publicity for the chorale, and to start remembering to put down everything that I have done on a list. It's way too easy to forget stuff I've done before, especially now that I'm doing more/higher level things.

Dumpster Diving

Now that was a new experience for me. And all for some music scores. Knowing that Diane was going to be driving to rehearsal tonight, I had brought my music out with me when I got to work this morning. I placed them on the desk next to me, but somehow during the course of the day the music "fell" into the trash can. Come 6:30, my carpool was waiting for me, and I was in a panic attack because I have no music! Called Diane telling her I was going to be late, and then spent ~15 minutes looking for them to no avail. I suspected that it might have gotten thrown out by accident. After all, who in the world would steal that! Called Roger on the phone, and what he said suggested that they may be in the dumpster behind the building. So after I got back from rehearsal (having to buy new music since I didn't know what happened to the old ones) I put on some gloves, got a big stick and made my way to the dumpsters. After a little digging around, I figured out which one of the dumpsters contained trash from my lab (yes, isn't that lovely) and after a little more I found all my music (the fancy pencil I had has gone MIA however). The Mozart got a little dirty, but all were in surprisingly good condition. One might wonder why I would go looking for music when I already got new ones? A-ha, I have notes on the old ones, and like a good choir geek, notes were what made the music valuable in the first place. They are on my desk now (in the middle this time) until tomorrow when I find the time to transfer the new notes I put in tonight into the old music. My Samuel Barber art song book has arrived at the local library. Going to pick it up tomorrow!

Finally got my butt in gear to start preparing my talk for the lab retreat. Of course I couldn't get started, and once I do I start freaking out as I have SO MUCH MORE TO DO!

My allergies brought on by the howling winds are wrecking havoc on me. At least that's why I hope they are. I just cannot imagine the thought of coming down with yet another cold!

Wasting time

I find myself once again trying to avoid preparing for the lab meeting. After all these years, I have gotten reasonably good at picking out the important nuggets and leaving out the details, but I still like to wait till the last minute before I absolutely have to prepare for it. My presentation is on thursday. Yeah I know it still seems like many days away, but I have a major experiment lined up on wednesday so I only really have tomorrow (and even then just part of it) to finish reading the papers and preparing the presentation. I am almost through the second paper, just one more to go, but it is a review and you know how those go. Can be a royal pain in the ass.

On top of that, the new and improved me would like to start practising my singing more often, like an hour a day. I had always been lazy when it comes to practising. When I used to take piano lessons you can hardly find me at the piano, but I've decided that for me to be truly phenomenal at my craft I would really need to start practising more. Yes its such a cliche, but practice does make perfect. As DN would say, "no one is that talented." So I made my way to the music house today, but it turns out that my student ID isn't actually activated to use the room, but this lady who works there kindly let me in and told me that I can go to the card office to get it activated. They have these pretty neat soundproof rooms now, much better than the old ones, and some of them with different acoustic options you can choose, from recital hall to arena. But now there is a big glass door, so everyone can see what you are doing inside (which I'm sure was exactly the point), but it made me a little self conscious. I think I will try to get "Quando Men Vo" and "Rejoice, O Daughter of Zion" memorised this week, and perhaps start prepping the "Alleluia." In addition to my biweekly 60 min private lessons I am also doing a voice class this term. I wasn't entirely sure about it at the beginning, but it turned out to be really good for going over the repertoire with a pianist, and there was a little bit more pedagogy involved.

I am finally starting to feel that my ankle is getting better. I think I can resume biking wednesday and start running 1 mile to ease into my regular regimen. I can already feel my legs getting flabby.

The TIVO is a real dream. We have taped the 4 hour premiere of 24 and watched it without commercials. What an efficient way to watch TV! I'm going to only do that from now on.

Ray's Gospel mass is awesome! It's not in the style of something I had sung before (other than some spirituals) but it was fun and rousing. John wants us to perform it from memory (this would send shudders down the spine of any choral singer) but I understand his reasoning. I still have a nagging cough and the dreaded itch in the throat, which was preventing me from singing pretty much anything above the staff yesterday. My voice class starts friday, and I'm really hoping to get well by then. Keeping my fingers crossed.

My ankle is still swollen and turning greenish purple. Eeew!

Recently I have been having trouble sleeping. It's rather annoying, to go to bed and then toss and turn waiting for the zs to come. The last few nights I had been taking nyquil, but since I don't really need it anymore I didn't take it last night and laid it bed for quite a while. Some chamomile tea is in order, and I figured that if I didn't get enough sleep last night then I would have no trouble sleeping tonight. :P

Choir starts tonight! Yay! Something to make my life more interesting. This term we are doing Mozart's Coronation Mass (in honor of 250th anniversay of his birth) and Robert Ray's Gospel mass. Sounds interesting.

Trying to wake up early is not easy. Took me till noon to awaken completely, and I'm already starting to feel sleepy...

I arrived, happily distributed all the goodies I had acquired during my trip, and promptly came down with the flu the next day. A few days later I am finally starting to feel better, though I'm still very congested. Choir starts this week and so does my private lesson, so I hope I'll really get well later on in the week. Picked up a copy of Mozart's Alleluia, and it looks hard!

Succeeded in spraining my ankle after parking my bike in the back the other day. I'm really only bummed about not being able to bike and run. First I was on vacation and hadn't been able to run, then I got the flu, and then the sprained ankle. Seems like there is some greater force impeding my physical fitness. I just hope the pain goes away soon so I get back to my normal life. Plus, now that I don't have parking on campus I really need to get well so I can start biking to work once again!

My TIVO has finally arrived! Whoopee! But turns out the the usb adapter I bought doesn't work with the system so I'll have to go buy another one. Bummer. But we have already taped an episode of Gray's Anatomy with it.

National Taiwan University 

Shi lin night market 

Fort San Domingo 

Hsin Chu 

In Cathy's office 

With Annie at Takashimaya 

Food! 

At Balaclava's in Suntec City 

Nifty Sites

Happy new year everyone!

After a bout with the flu after I got off the plane I am once again back in commission.

Via my ex classmate Andrea's Blog I have discovered the coolest site where you can sell and buy handmade goodies.

Also discovered some book swapping sites like Bookins, Paperback swap and frugal reader. Hubba hubba.