"Only after I've got married, do I eat omelet and fried garlic noodle," my new land-lord (the husband of my new land-lady) told me, when I offered him some of my lunch.
My lunch today was fried garlic noodle since it is easy to cook. This time, I follow the easier way - boiling the meat up with light soy sauce. I used minced meat, too to save time of cutting things up.
Yes, I was extra busy with my research.
Today's Friday and today's the Thirteenth - Friday the Thirteenth.
Many people think it as unlucky, frightening or spooky. For me, nothing scare me :P
My lunch, today, was instant noodle at home. I was not going to school but worked at home.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 (yesterday's) lunch is Malay noodle (Burmese version) at my aunt's place. It is good - for it is cater to our taste bud in contrast to authentic Malay's. :P The whole afternoon afterwards is coding and coding. Nothing interesting, let's pass this part.
Take a look at it :
It is in America - the United States of America ! There was a G20 summit around September 25th and there was demonstration. The D.A (I think he/she is the one who's responsible in such cases) decided to use force (read riot police). The riot police was trying to crack down the mass. You know, riot polices worldwide are similar. They don't make decision and it is unwise to reason with them, argue with them or try to win a favor from them (by doing whatever you want).
My advice (actually my dad's) is when you see some trace of riot police, leave that area immediately. They don't make decision. Thus, never ever try to talk with them. If you must do/talk something, D.A or the Judge in charge (it varies from country to country) is the one you want to talk.
In short, riot police are always deaf - no matter what you do (even if you pay them homage as if they are your religious symbol).
Today's (sorry) Yesterday's lunch was Hokkien Mee at 1630 hour. So late. It is all because of that damn Visual Studio 2008.
I installed VS2008 - as my Mr. Microsoft-Attorney roommate told me its Intellisense is way much improved - into my Vista powered laptop only to find I can neither debug my applications nor the Project Properties came up. I had to remove it and re-install my good old VS 2005 which took my whole afternoon. (I also had to patch VS 2005 for Vista, geez)
That's why my lunch was at 1630 hour.
I learn that $3.00 Hokkien Mee is with chicken while $4.00 Hokkien Mee is with seafood. I thought the noodle amount is different but it turns out to be false (yet, the shape of the plate is different - round for $3.00 and oval for $4.00). Since I can get food-poisoning when I consumed seafood, $3.00 Hokkien Mee is both economical and healthier choice for me. Yummy !
Today's lunch is pork-rib noodle - a young man's style :P. In Burma, there is a chicken dish named "Young Man's Chicken". It is named that way because it is cooked as if the cook is a group of young men who don't know how to cook but steal each piece of the dish - oil, garlic, squash, chicken etc - and boil them together in order to eat while drinking (alcohol). My pork-rib is also young man's style - just boiled pork rib, fish ball, carrot, cauliflower and noodle all together (with salt and black pepper). It is so delicious.
Having my lunch, I chatted with my senior - I asked her when would the Hindi holiday would be. It turned out to be Muslin's holiday and tomorrow. She claimed I should know it is not Hindi as I am a Hindi. When I protested her by saying I am a Buddhist, she told me Buddhists and Hindi are the same. Her reasoning is - in Database term - classification-based one.
She hashed (if you are not so much into computer science, it means pair) Christian to church, Muslins to mosque and both Buddhism and Hinduism to temple (what about monastery and pagoda :P). Paying homage to various images with candle, flower and other offerings, talking about cycle of rebirth etc and being (sometimes) vegetarians are characteristics of both Hinduism and Buddhism so many people confused them frequently.
The main difference between Hindi and Buddhism is the existence of soul and not. Hindi believe a soul is moving from one body to another until it is cleansed and re-unite with The Soul. However, in Buddhism, there is no such thing as soul. It is only cause and effect and there is no single soul moving around. Whatever you do - good or bad - is Karma and that Karma create new body and events etc (This explanation is an over-simplification one).
In short, Buddhism and Hinduism are totally different.
Last night, I was finishing up my write-up on the algorithms I was working with for my supervisor. I burnt the midnight oil and woke up so late this morning. Up to lunch-time, I was feeling dizzy - bio-clock shifted again :( after all those efforts to set it right. I decided to choose a soup-based meal to relieve my dizziness.
I had chive dumpling noodle soup. In clear soup, there is chive dumpling, noodle (big one, bingo !) and some cabbage. It sure is delicious.
In Burma, we have the same word "Phat Htote" for dumpling and wonton. Burmese called dumpling or chive dumpling as steamed "Phat Htote" as dumpling done in other cooking method is not available widely. For wonton, we call it fried garlic "Phat Htote" (if it is prepared like Fried Garlic Noodle with wonton in the place of noodle) or fried "Phat Htote" (if it is fried of course) or boiled "Phat Htote" (if it is in some clear soup).
I remember my uncle (my aunt's husband) used to buy satay together with dumplings (at the edge of the satay stick). I liked the taste of that dumpling so much that I asked him what it is (I didn't know the name at that time). He replied "A pack of shit" to tease me. So long my uncle !
Today's lunch is Hokkien Mee (read Hok Kyant Me). It is a traditional food here in Singapore invented by local street hawkers. It contain both yellow and white noodle. To cater well with Malay muslins, it is made with seafood. It is yummy.
The only problem with many local restaurants is that they prepare the food in a flat plate and give chop-sticks to eat with. Many chinese seemed ok but for me, I am only comfortable with bowl and chop-sticks. Using chop-sticks for food prepared in flat plate, it is like a hard-time catching the food.
Back to my apartment, my land-lady showed me strange little creatures out of her rice-cooker. They are MAGGOTS !!! Eeesh ! I saw some two-three days ago in the waste bin but now I found the culprit. Eeek ! Please throw that away ma'am.
Today's lunch was a bit late - partly because I was finishing up a formatting of my algorithms in PDF forms. I had wonton and noodle soup together with char siew. Here in Singapore, noodle are so tiny - smaller than those you usually found in cheap instant noodle pack. A large yellow noodle made from floor is rarely a default in many outlet. However, if you ask for it, you can have it.
Last night, I was talking with my land-lady. I was asking why Hokkien Mee (Hokkien Noodle) has three different kinds of noodles (white rice, flat and yellow) together. She explained (I don't know the reliability of this source though) me that Singaporeans don't like the taste of yellow noodle (that also explain why the small noodle is default) so they had to mix it. It is true that the taste is good even for my taste buds.
When I nearly finished my meal, I saw the guy from Muslin outlet plugged his big big rice-cooker into an outlet in common area. To the best of my knowledge, no stall cooks in common area but in their confined space. I believe each stall has a seperate meter box. The outlets in common area is for students' use (laptop etc) and paid by the university. In this sense, it is some kind of stealing. Geez
