Today is D-Day. Almost all perishable food that is consumed. My Onee Chan came to my rescue by bringing home-cooked lunch box. It was filled with rice, char siew and fried small fish (my favorite). I also asked her to buy some Hokkien Mee at the stall down there so that we can have it together with rice.
It was really enjoyable lunch although the items are simple.
In the afternoon, it was so tiresome. We sweat a lot :P
I am moving home - tomorrow. Tomorrow is D-Day ! :P
The first thing I'd do in moving home is eating everything I have (as much as I can). The best bag in moving home is the bag my mom gave - my stomach. I put every food I have in my cache into that bag. When it is time to move, the bag is not so heavy to carry after all.
I have a piece of cauliflower. I fried it and had it as lunch, together with Chili/Beef fries. It was a dull but enjoyable lunch.
Everybody would notice that British are a little ... so exaggerated. Yes. Since I am moving home this Saturday, I was trying to get some advices from the net. There I found this : Moving Checklist
They have, in Britain, Insurance for your items during your operation: moving home, professional cleaners to clean your new places, pre-operation briefing on the mover team on which item goes where using color-coded boxes etc.
So ... something !
Today's lunch was rice with prawns in egg fries plus lady finger. The prawns were so yummy.
Today's chicken rice - again - with fried cabbage. I don't like Chicken Rice that much. But why ? The canteen was so crowded.
It was 1400 hours, I was hungry to the point where I was starting to get angry. Middle Eastern stall has a wonderful queue - they never had that long queue. Pasta guy, too, has his usual long long queue. Chinese stalls are also with longest queue in their life.
The only answer left - Chicken rice.
In fact, I had some problem going to the toilet this morning. Chicken rice alone would :P kill me. That's why there was fried cabbage.
Today's lunch was rice with fried cauliflower and cooked bean curd from Beijing outlet. When I nearly finished my lunch, I'd got an incoming call from my Onee Chan. She's coming here for her Master Entrance test.
She asked me to help with her preparation - yet, most of the works I had done is calming her down. It was a very bad habit of her that she used to panic most of the critical time. She needs to drop this bad habit in order to advance in her life.
It turned out that she passed the entrance test. She's going to have an interview coming Wednesday.
Today, my Onee E* visited my home to get prepared for her master entrance test - it is just an in-house GRE combined with some IT knowledge. Since she's already well-rounded IT professional, she may not have any difficulty passing the entrance test - the only problem : she ought to worry so much.
She brought one of my favorite foods : Pau. I have them before lunch (like my dad, I also like Pau, Prata and Fried Noodle). She also brought fried small fish and fried sour leaves (Kim Poon Chin). It was a yummy lunch. I felt a little bit sorry for I didn't prepare any food for her. :P
Fried small fish is one of my favorites. When I was young, I was thin and not so healthy. To have enough protein (since I didn't consume rice as much as half of I am now), my mom used to made fried chicken and fired small fish as my snacks. I miss my mom whenever I see/consume fried chicken, fired small fish, sweet potato (which I don't like) and Milo.
I love you mom !!! (and Aun' Mee of course)
Last night, I heard a terrible news - my aunt was robbed in the lift at her apartment. It was fortunate that she was not harmed, the robber only took her hand phone. She reported to the police. Hearing that I was shocked so much. Combined with other social problems (no, no, not about girlfriends) make me stressed out and couldn't sleep last night.
I am supposed to go to school to collect the data today. Instead, I didn't. My lunch was rice with fish curry (left from the other day) and fried beaf and chili. It was a good meal.
I need to move now. I have an appointment with my friends - my former roommate and his sisters - in the city, after which I have to fetch my Onee at air-port. Bye
The movie I waited long "Coraline" - based on a famous children fairy tales - would be out soon.
I am waiting for it - to watch it in 3D.
Today's lunch is rice with pig organ and vegetables (Juu Phuu). I first thought it was chicken curry but turned out that they are pig intestines etc. I should have asked them what it is (since I never eat pig intestine etc) but they don't understand English if I asked them in English and I won't understand their answer if I asked them in Chinese. However, it really is tasty. They put some peanut in it to create a unique taste.
Today's lunch was rice with pig leg and cauliflower - from Beijing outlet. It has been a long time since I had my last pig leg meal. It was so wonderful.
On my way to the library, I noticed that the tree that was featured in Curve no longer bend over. It is properly propped and straight now.
Good news folks, R* got a job. He rang me the good news and asked me some help. I met him at Peninsular Plaza and gave him the help he wanted. We settled at Loi Nai for our lunch.
My lunch is Shan rice noodle with tofu paste spread over. I ordered the vegetarian version since I don't like meat in my warm tofu paste. That food is a very unique food. Although Japanese, Chinese and some Thai also consume tofu, I never saw an equivalent of warm tofu paste on noodle. I like it very much. Our dessert is coconut jelly.
I also got a hair-cut today as he insisted I needed one. It was cheap - just $10.00 for cut, wash and treatment - probably because the stylist was a friend of R*. But I don't appreciate the resulting style - a little crude.
Today, I met with my supervisor again. He wanted to know which scenarios the other algorithm is not working. He commanded me to make that algorithm work by introducing some changes. Eek ! More works.
Today's lunch was from Beijing outlet, rice with pork intestine and vegetables. That Beijing outlet has a good cook - at least the food tastes good for me. I hope they (Beijing and Si Chuan outlets' workers) speak more English well. Right now, the situation is Point-N-Eat dining. :P
I am moving out end of this month to my new place. To make the moving out process easy, I am clearing my food as much as I can. I came back home early today (partly because I felt so sleepy) and cooked fish in Indian style using some tamarind. The dinner was yummy !
Just before I left for school, I checked the bus arrival time using my phone. The bus will be at the bus-stop next 3 minutes and, since it takes around 6-8 minutes to walk to bus-stop from my home, I decided to have my lunch at the food-court at the ground floor of my apartment first. That was a gross decision, which I regret.
I had rice with vegetable curry (vegetables in curry paste like you would cook chicken etc), tofu and fried vegetables. vegetable curry is very funny and taste awful. Tofu is not bad but they put dried fish in fried vegetables. I hate dried seafood. I decided never to have meal at that stall.
The heat is still intense. But wait ! why am I waiting for the heat to be less intense in Singapore ? I lost my appetite - partly due to the heat, partly due to the stress and partly due to repeating food. My lunch, therefore, is at somewhere with air-con, some non-boring - and, yes - it means Burger King.
Last night, I had a very strange dream. The WWII is still on. And Shwe Paw - one of my close friends who can't see anything unless he wears his spectacles - and me were fighter pilots. Aha, so strange ! Normally, to be a pilot, one must have a very good eye-sights. Yet, we were fighter pilots, in my dream. But it was a wonderful experience.
I spent my afternoon at the library maintaining my codes.
One of my dearest friends' birthday was on October 16th. I only remembered today. I sent a belated birthday wish using G-talk off line message. He was one of the five of us who have the same word (meaning "Victory" or "Victorious" in Burmese) in our names. We were attending same mathematics tuition in our university days. Happy Birthday M* M* !!!
Today's Sunday, therefore, before I set off to school, I had KFC fried chicken (2 pieces) with coleslaw and root beer as my lunch. I've got some KFC discount coupon (through postage) thus, enjoying the discount. Root beer is a non-alcoholic beverage - which tastes a little bit bitter due to some Caffeine elements just like coffee - similar to ginger beer. At first, I don't like it but later on, its taste is, to me, becomes coffee and chocolate and I started to like it.
If you haven't tried root beer before, you really should try it. It's very famous in the States (at least the sellers claim).
Today's Deepavali (Diwali) day - a holiday. I woke up quite late. I didn't know it was Deepavali until I got to school - I went there to return a book. Getting off at the bus stop, I noticed that the area was clear. Then I noticed that the canteen was close. I remembered, "Opps, Deepavali!".
That means no lunch for me at school ! I was quite relieved there was Subway. However, even at Subway, there was no bread left. I had to eat the wrap (a food that is similar to Indian Charpati). However, it is good.
This evening, I joined my aunt and uncle at their birthday party at a cool Chinese restaurant. Since they reserved the seat using my aunt's name, which starts with Yu (in Burmese, it sounds something like shorten "You"). "Yu" however, sounds "Ywee" in Pin Yin. There was an awkward moment.
Opps, what am I writing about ? This is a lunch blog, not dinner blog. I must stop. Bye !
Today would be one of the most memorable days in my life. My supervisor replied me that I could see him in the afternoon. After explaining all the mixed results I had got last night, he remarked, "WE are stuck." (note it is not "YOU are stuck") How nice ? No doubt he's a successful professor here. He is very good in motivation.
In the course of discussion, probably to cheer me up, he told me that there is some kind of dataset - and application - in existence that my algorithm - with some modification - would fit in. I was thinking my current problem as a sort of dead-end. It's clearly not. Although I can't describe the detailed nature of that dataset here, I could say, it is a large spatial-temporal dataset related to genetic/bio research.
Cheered up, I went on to canteen to enjoy my vegetarian lunch from Beijing outlet. Today's rice was rice with cauliflower and sliced and dried bean curd. It was really tasty.
In the afternoon, I figured out that the complex algorithm that existed to solve a dialect of my problem is giving incomplete result in at least two special - yet practical - conditions. I promptly sent an e-mail to my professor.
Now, aja aja fighting !!! (a quote from Korean dramas).
Eeee ! I don't even have enough strength to blog. But a tiny voice in my head kept saying "Law Shay, duty is duty. Plus, blogging would relieve your suffering." Therefore, I am writing this. Is it something they call a depression ?
I stayed late last night. To counter my dizziness, I decided to take the soup-based meal again. In the canteen - which is quite close to school's clinic - I found "Wine Chicken Noodle". It contains some vegetables - probably cabbage, chicken soaked in wine and noodle in a clear delicious but smelly soup. In some restaurants, I found it is named "Drunken Chicken Noodle" or alike and charged much. However, school canteen is just school canteen and it was just $2.00.
Umm ? The wine ? No, not that expensive wine. It was cooking wine just $3.00 a bottle. :P
It may be due to prolonged sleeplessness - I prone to fall sick if I am sleepless - the stress built-up. This evening, the experiments gave me mixed results. My new work is a hybrid of a simple one and a complex one and, like many hybrid works, its performance is in the middle to those two. Now, I am very afraid - not afraid about being scolded (my supervisor would never do that) but about having wasted nearly a year working on this good-for-nothing algorithm.
I wanna cry but tears won't come out. I noticed that I have some stress fatigue as well as some depression. It was a good thing that I noticed - rather than going unnoticed. I rang two of my Onee Chans to talk out. Luckily, R* - remember who's some problem with the loan sharks - rang me too. I spoke out and felt a little relieve. I decided to keep talking out - hence writing this post.
After this, I'd e-mail my findings (the mixed results) to my supervisor and go to bed. I am quite ok now. (Sorry, my reader, for unloading my stress onto you)
Today's lunch was Hokkien Mee downstairs. I really like to eat it these days. I feel like, this is some hawkers' food (Indeed, it is). In Burma, Rangoon, near 30th St Clinic, we have a big restaurant selling a very similar food. That noodle is named "Flying noodle" as the (original) chef used to throw the noodle into the air and catch it back (today, the chefs no longer do that). It was quite famous.
It rained so heavy that I decided not to go to school - hence the noodle from the food stall nearby. I gave notice to my land-lady. It has been quite a while that I lived alone here - my roommate moved out two weeks ago after being given notice a month in advance. I was helping her find new roommates but the affords was in vain (probably due to her price was a little bit high).
I felt like staying here would only hinder new guys coming in as they may feel unpleasant to stay with a total stranger. Moreover, some - couples, friends, the Rich etc - may want the whole room. My land lady seemed to know that although she didn't say anything. I felt I should make the initiative and made the first move. The problem : I also need to look for a new place.
Talking about my experiments, I found that an internal parameters has given the pruning power more powerful than complex algorithm can give. As, in reality, that parameter choice would not be that lucky, therefore, my problems are half-solved.
Today's a long day. I had two visitors at school.
The first one is my new - sworn - younger sister. She's really like a child - yet she's just 3 years younger than me. She asked me if it is possible to visit me during my work-hour. I don't want to resist this poor kid. However, I can't help but ask her sit (and read some magazines) at the lobby while I was sweating in my lab. She obeyed ! How cute !
I bought her some special rice from middle-eastern outlet. It is so similar to so-called "butter-rice" from Burma (but the Burmese version has dried grapes, many nuts etc). It went very well with vegetable salad and chicken curry. So yummy - except you feel a little bit sleepy after consuming it. After another hour of sitting in the lobby, she started to complain about being so bored and she went back home.
Another guest was R* (it is not his real name in his passport). He's a genuine friend of mine - and a good friend of my brother. It has been like at least 20 months since I had met him last time. He's now in big trouble - with losing jobs again and again consecutively in last year. He's also dealt with some loan sharks - Singapore loan sharks are terrible people if you owe them money. He has to hide at his friend's place for the sake of his life - here, I had to censor his story a little bit as well as conceal his hiding place etc.
I felt bad for him yet I am just a student who's always struggling to meet ends. Good luck my friend.
Finally, the new episode of coding - re-write - has eventually done. Now, it is time to see when - under which circumstances - the performance of my proposed algorithm is better than previously developed two.
I am also wishing my program good luck !
I woke up early today - probably due to stress - and got to school early. My lunch is from Beijing outlet - rice with cauliflower, pork salad and the vegetables I can't name in English (it is called "Juu Phuu" in Burmese). It was delicious but oily - I think - for I didn't feel hungry until late at night.
Today, I did a lot of coding - re-write actually - to cater a special but realistic condition. It is not finished yet. I am afraid my supervisor would mad at me for taking so long. Anyway, I'd try my best.
My experiments showed very very bad results. I hate to go to school in weekends but I must. Staying late at school is also costly. I thought sleeping in the lounge would save the taxi fares back home (after midnight, taxis fares is 150% eeek ! ).
Since I stayed very late at school, I woke up quite late. I know there would be only Mc Donald's, so I bought a pack of Hokkien Mee from the food court near my apartment. It was good but I need more jobs to be done.
In the afternoon, the procrastination was so strong that I couldn't resist it. I surfed to Mystery Zillion and saw a quiz asking to find a 9-digit number whose leftmore n digit must divisible by n (i.e. the number itself is divisible by 9; if you remove the unit digit, it must be divisible by 8; if you remove the unit digit again, it must be divisible by 7 and so on.) It inspired me so much that, instead of doing my own coding, I was writing codes to figure that number out.
I've got the answer (381 654 729) and I wrote about it in my Burmese blog. The results, my things aren't done yet. :(
Today's (Yesterday's) lunch was Hor Fun at school. There ain't not much to choose from. This or that ! That's why I hate to go to school in weekends.
My algorithm seemingly outperform the nearest competitor in certain condition (I am going vague here because one of my friends and my senior warn me not to write too much about my research, here). In other words, I need to do coding again ! I need to alter the programs in order to cope with that "certain condition". Now, I hate C/C++ (but I'll love her again, for sure.)
Wish me good luck pals.
Today's lunch was instant noodle with sausage and egg. In fact, I planned to cook fish (see my post on how to cook Burmese Fish Curry). However, I became very hungry while cooking thus, I decided to have instant noodle instead for lunch.
Sitting in front of the TV, I saw Obama winning the Nobel Peace Prize. Wow ! He's history. I also saw Burmese opposition leader - also a Nobel Peace Prize winner - Aung San Suu Kyi talking with an American (a re-broadcast of our state TV - MRTV). Wow (yes, again) ! What's happening in the world ?
If Burma can prosper, I am glad.
Today's lunch was late - because my breakfast was also late - at 1630 hour. I had cheese burger from MOS. MOS is probably a Japanese franchise (I haven't checked yet). Its taste is better than burger king. I can't think of why people invent a fried burger - a burger with fried meat in it. It tastes funny and bad compared to well grilled burgers.
After lunch, I headed to school. Graduate Student Society (GSS) conducts a series of social nights where a dance instructor comes to campus to teach us how to dance (at a rate of $5.00 per hour). With around 30 students, he could earn a lot, oh my ! Whatever, we learned tango today.
Basic Tango is not so hard (compared to Hip-Hop dance flavors) in my opinion. The main problem is tango is a fairly fast musics - with average BPM being around 120 - 140 where the fastest hip-hops run along 80 - 90 rate. Therefore, although not so difficult, the speed dictates precise practices.
Tango dance is composed of 2 bars units (1-2-3-4, 1-2-3-4). Every 4 is a pause. I think that pause is probably to synchronize between the dancers (the couple). Forgive me if I am wrong but as a computer scientist, I always think like one. :P
Today's the birthday of one of my best friends - TTN. I rang his home - since I don't know his hand phone number. His sister told me he's out of town - going to a special training. She gave me his number and asked me to ring after 2030 Burmese standard time. But not sure I can stay away around that time.
Last night, I was struggling with my experiments in the lab till 0330. I sent an e-mail complaining all the problems I encountered (in fact, the programs encountered) to my supervisor. This morning, I woke up at around 1030. My eyes are red. My head felt like it is bigger. My supervisor asked me, after some more e-mails sent back and forth, to meet him around 1330. The meeting was, unexpectedly, heated up and lengthy. But it was successful I think.
When I finally touch my lunch, it was 1500. I had Mei Fun today.
Yong Tau Fu is in fact a Chinese dish. It is more about a special bean curd. In special occasions like preparing dinner for special guests, the bean curd is often accompanied by meat balls, fries etc. However, in Singapore, the bean curd is long gone and Yong Tau Fu means boiling all the meat balls, fast food, sausages etc together with noodle of your choice.
I had Yong Tau Fu (with flat rice noodle) from the nearest canteen to my lab. Still busy with my codes.
Yesterday, the problem took longer than I expected to solve. I got back home by taxi very very late last night (or should I say very very early this morning.) I got up at around 1000 and my lunch is fused with my breakfast - becoming brunch.
My brunch was rice with fried chicken and some vegetables. After that, I headed down to my lab.
I was at my father's friends place and, again, Mont Hin Gar ! Today's Mont Hin Gar was a little bit more salty and Aunt Y* told me the maid has put too much fish sauce. Since yesterday was Thadingyut festival, I pay homage to those couple offering them some food and health-care accessories. Though the offerings are not so expensive, the essence is not forgetting to tribute the Elders.
When I left their place at around 1315, uncle asked me if I am going to school on Sunday. Yes, sadly, I was now in school. I found out that my new algorithm needs more fixes. I thought I'd get back home late tonight.
Many of my meals at school is, well, Pasta with this and Pasta with that. But today, I had really Italian food - Beef Lazania at PastaMania.
It has been quite a long gap since I met my little sister. Today, I need to kill some times before I visit my aunt - for Tadingyut celebrations. She asked me if I wanted a lunch together and I was at Bugis, having Italian food with her.
After lunch, I bought a new brown belt. I have a two-colored switchable belt but it is not a good idea, while dressing up every morning, to do the plier job. Thus, I bought a new two-colored belt set to brown. (Mine is set to black.)
My aunt had a super busy schedule and I didn't see her today.
Those cheese-rich meal made me sleepy all day and made me postpone my dinner until quite late.
Hor Fun and Mei Fun are Singapore food. In Burma, there is no Hor Fun equivalence but there is Mei Fun equivalence. Mei Fun, in Burmese, is called "Hta Min Paung" (Steamed Rice). If you go to a Burmese Chinese restaurant, ask thoroughly before you order the dish named Steamed Rice as it can be a plain rice or rice prepared as Mei Fun.
"Fun" in those dish names, in Chinese, means "Meal". Hor Fun is a meal prepared from thick rice noodle with either beef or seafood and vegetables. Soy sauce is a must as well as some thick glue-like paste will be spread in excess manner. It is one of my favorites in Singapore. Mei Fun is in the same fashion but it has rice in the place of rice noodle. It is also my favorite too.
Today's lunch is seafood Hor Fun. I found that the closer competitor for my algorithm was performing worse than mine - Bingo ! Now only those tasks such as running more with larger inputs, drawing some graphs and technical write-up left. Hopefully, my supervisor would like it and I can submit a paper to a conference.
Wish me luck !
Today's is full of thrill ! My new algorithm implementation is almost bug-free (except for a careless mistake - a condition check - and an endless loop - which I caught when I notice the program hasn't stopped). After a short debugging I had my lunch.
My lunch was Indian food today, rice with lady finger, eggplants and peas. It is expensive compared to Chinese food but yummy but - there is a fault - too spicy (too much pepper).
Arriving back from lunch, I run my code on some data generated several months ago and found it to be superior than my implementations of existing works. Shortly after the experiments finished did I receive an e-mail from my supervisor asking to meet him. It has been nearly a month since I last met him on 3rd of September - although we have e-mail conversations. I told him the new algorithm is working and superior than existing works.
Now, it is time to ensure how superior it is over current works. I have to re-implement those two existing schemes with my newest indexing scheme (for those who are not computer science literates, in any database application, there are several parts including query algorithm, indexing scheme and many others. To prove a given algorithm is superior, it is only fair if they are given the same environment - same or better indexing schemes).
Tomorrow is the eve of Burmese Lantern Festival. I need to visit my seniors and my relatives tomorrow and on Saturday. I must finish re-implementation tomorrow morning and present some graph to my supervisor. Right now, I am so tired, going to bed.
