My flight from Phila to Salt Lake City was cancelled, so Delta kindly and promptly put me on a US Airways direct flight to SF. I was actually quite curious to see the SLC airport, though. Eric and I had an eccentric, speechless, awkward experience at the headquarter of a religion in SLC 2 years ago, and I was wondering if there would be that kind of feel even at the airport.
The direct flight was pretty good.

After a long testing day, I got home around 8:30pm, fell asleep around 10pm, and woke up at 3:30am.
Since then, I've completed one quiz on database and taken a shower. That quiz took me longer than expected (for 2 hrs with a book open *not cheating!*)
I feel pretty good about waking up early (way too early?!) and watching the TODAY show from the beginning at 7am while drinking freshly brewed coffee.

I should pack now!

Off to Precious 48 hrs in Berkeley, CA.

I installed MATLAB and EEGLAB on a lab computer on Monday.
Since I have been always curious about EEGLAB, I am so psyched to work with it!

Last night was full of panic.
I am going home in June (for those who know my previous plan, yes, i recently changed my dates.) and applying to get my visa stamped on my passport at the US Consulate General. Somehow I was totally convinced that I could pick it up at the Consulate on a later date, but it turned out to be a bullsh$t after the last minute research. Massive anxiety hit me when finding out that it typically takes one week to receive a passport in mail. Oh my gosh, I also had to spend freakin' $15 (a total rip-off) to ask an operator of Consulate Info Service whether it'd be possible to pick it up (the answer was NO). In short, my 10-day stay might not allow me to get it done since the Consulate is open on limited days. (!!!!!f r e a k i n g o u t!!!!)

Then Eric suggested that I visit one of the US Consulate in Canada for 3-4 days in April or May as his boss (the sexy african professor) went to Canada to have his visa stamped 2 years ago. I was hesitant about this idea because it's typically considered harder to get a visa stamped in the 3rd party country and I don't want to spend nervous days in Canada alone. What if something goes wrong and takes me 30 days to return to the US???!!! Seriously. I blamed myself on this and couldn't sleep until 3:30am.

After panicking all night and today, I realized that Consulate's choice of mailing method is an express next-day delivery system called EXPACK 500. It's pretty neat that they deliver this compact parcel pretty much anywhere in Japan for approx $5.
Presuming they process my case in 2 days and I receive my passport within 5-6 days,
I decided not to change my 10-day itinerary. It's sort of risky, but what the heck.
In the worst case, it will be a good excuse to stay for a few extra days eating more sushi. :)

A new Japanese restaurant Zen opened in the apartment complex last week.
As sushi lovers, Yuan and I had been curious about this place and decided to eat there last night. We ordered raw oysters as an appetizer and a platter called "Sushi Sashimi for Two" that seemed more reasonably priced than ordering individual sushi pieces or rolls. Oysters were a bit disappointing. The vinegar-based sauce was good, but oysters weren't as big as expected for the price. They served a decent plate of sushi and sashimi, but the portion was definitely not for two people!
Another downside comes from the fact that the owner is not 100% Japanese. The servers wear Chinese jackets like this one and they use Chinese bamboo chopsticks with the red envelop that clearly indicates "enjoy your delicious Chinese food with these traditional Chinese bamboo chopsticks." Japanese disposable chopsticks "waribashi" are made of wood! Unfortunately, use of waribashi is imposing environmental issues, though, as described here. For more general info on chopsticks, read here.
It's interesting that the Japanese restaurant has a hint of French and Mediterranean theme because of the owner chef's heritage, but I wish they tried to be more Japanese.

For the past 3 days, I have been eagerly exploring some podcast. I don't know why I never thought of podcasting before. My favorites are all science-related - Australian All in the Mind and The Science Show, British Nature and The Naked Scientist, and Science & the City provided by New York Academy of Sciences. These talk shows and public talks are all excellent sources of some scientific knowledge because they invite or interview experts in each topic. Well, when I listen to these podcast shows, I am not gaining as much facts as I should because I am either dazed in the morning train or falling asleep at night.


I finally recorded EEG on one real patient/participant today. Due to misc minor adjustments, it took forever to finish everything, but fortunately the patient was
very patient! (no pun intended!) The first time recording always involves some troubles. Since I had troubles when I conducted ERP experiments at the two Illinois labs, I didn't expect today's session to be a smooth ride, but it was indeed rocky.
Based on today's experience, I am confident that I can do a lot better next week,
though.
A lot of weight has been lifted off of my shoulders as if it was the day of final exams. :) Gotta celebrate it.

I know where I want to spend my senile days. Read this.
Isn't this funny?

I booked flights to go back to Japan for 2 weeks from the end of May till early June!
(oops, my boss hasn't approved of my vacation yet)
It's exciting because 1) it's been 2.5 years since I went home last time, 2) Eric will come with me, 3) we will fly ANA (feeling immersed in Japan from the very beginning to the end of the trip), 4) I have a long list of things to eat.
I am totally psyched to eat all the food I love!!!

I need to buy some clothes and at least one pair of shoes before going home, though. Well, that's part of fun to go back home.

Hearing research involves a lot more than visual one. There are a lot to take into account especially when the study participants have hearing loss. I was burned out last week, but am feeling better.

Yuan and I impulsively decided to go to Mitsuwa this afternoon. I am happy to have some kirin beer and natto. :)

A Happy Birthday to Melissa P & Albert Einstein!!!

Thanks to Einstein, I got a free soft pretzel at work. :) (I work at Albert Einstein Medical Center)

Kundalini Yoga is the type of yoga I am trying to learn. Sat Nam Sat Nam... Ong Namo Dev~.

It's been very very warm for the past 2 days. According to the weather.com, the temp is going down to mid-40s by Thursday.

I don't like it when there are chatty people around me in the morning train. It's not that I have to listen to them, but I evesdrop anyway, and thinking about where their energy comes exhausts me.

It was very warm today. The lab was so warm because the central heating hasn't been adjusted for the sudden temp hike.

Feel free to send me some coffee ! Your thoughtful gift may improve this blog, don't you think? I LoVe the Power of Caffeine. It really makes a difference in my morning productivity.
For the first time in a few weeks, I got up at 6:30am and gave myself enough time to enjoy freshly brewed coffee and news shows. My head was so clear unlike other days when I have only 30 mins and rush out.

Because of getting cold and nasal congestion, I have been so thirsty for the past 2 days. Thirsty enough to feel like chugging 1 gallon of ginger ale. Well, being health-conscious, I have been drinking water instead... sigh.


I signed up for a saving account with ING which offers fairly decent interest rates.
Thanks to Anita's referral, my account got bonus $25. :)
I love earning points and little extra money. In spite of my deep love for freebies, I intentionally carry bland, non-reward credit cards because I am afraid of spending too much money just to earn points. Amazon.com card has been appealing to me for about one year, though. For those who want to earn some points little by little daily, I recommend memolink.com. Even if you don't purchase anything through ads on the website, three minutes of simply clicking several sites become $25 gift certificate of your choice after some months! There is a different reward site Anita likes, but I don't remember it.

On Wednesday night I did yoga for the first time in my life. Yuan takes yoga over the internet from her friend's mother. By the time we got to the last step, 1 hour had passed. The last posture was to lie down for 11 mins and stay relaxed.
Guess what, I fell asleep! I found the exercise very peaceful, and it's something I can probably continue doing.


Eric is skiing at posh Lake Tahoe.
The last time I skied was in high school, which is ... 6 years ago!

Today is Hina Matsuri.
My marriage will be delayed because I keep forgetting to display my two dolls every year after I came to the US! My mother kindly sent them to me when I was still a fledging freshman or sophomore.

Unfortunate things add up:

It all resulted from my oblivious brain. The collaboration meeting dragged until 7:10pm ish and I was finally going home and mentally getting ready for a 2-hr CS midterm. In order to fuel myself, I got a medium coffee from Dunkin Donuts with the only remaining two $1 bills. Getting caffeine high, I swiped my subway pass. "Pee." Swiped again. "Pee." Yes, I had totally forgotten that February was running away and I was supposed to buy a new monthly pass. The pass must have been effective until sometime in the morning of the 1st day of the following month because I had no problem coming to work at 8am today!
With only 50 cents in my wallet, I wondered what to do. Well, I could buy some tokens from the vending machines, but the machines didn't sell token packs less than $3. The hospital building where an ATM machine is located was locked, but I wondered around and managed to get there from a remotely connected building. Got enough cash, and things looked better.

Then I wanted to break a $20 bill to buy tokens, so I used a change machine next to token machines. That was a huge mistake. That machine gave me 16 freaking useless $1 coins in addition to some other coins! What's worse, the token vending machines at Olney station did not accept any coins!!! It makes no sense at all to place that change machine there. I was so mistaken because token machines at other stations take coins. I had more than 20 coins in my pocket, stranded in a not-so-safe neighborhood with my dead cell phone. I went back to the lab to use my office phone to call Yuan for help.
I probably looked suspicious while walking back and forth on the same streets trying to get to ATM and my office. The hospital was kinda eerily quiet at 8pm.
In the heavily African-American populated area, you rarely see Asian people after the majority of hospital employees go home around 5pm.

It turned out that I could put coins at the ticket wicket (Thanks, Yuan!). By the time I found this out, 1 hour had passed since I was let go...

Because of the off-peak time, I had to take a local train to City Hall which took me about 30 minutes. After transferring trains, I finally got home at 9pm.

Shouldn't have used those 2 dollars for coffee...
Though I thought about getting $1 bills by buying french fries at McDonald's, I didn't feel like eating junk food even for the sake of going home.

I hate having $1 coins!


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Last night we ended up going to Korean restaurant after Chie came back from her last exam at 9:30p. I was so glad the restaurant was open until 11p and she enjoyed the food!