Sunday, October 30, 2005

Random post

This past Friday, when I stepped out of the graduate library after working for 2 hours, guess what? I bumped into Senator John Edwards (John Kerry’s vice presidential running mate in the 2004 presidential campaign)!! Okok, maybe I’m exaggerating a bit. Actually, he was giving a talk in front of the library, and when I saw him, he was surrounded by a huge group of students. Too bad I did not bring my camera again. Maybe I should make it a point to take it around, since I might one day bump into some famous celebrities. :)

Did nothing much for this week except study, study and study. Decided where to go during the winter break though. This year I will be going to Seattle, and possibly Vancouver (not confirmed yet because I still have to apply visa to enter Canada). Hopefully everything will turn out fine…

MSD officers came to umich for “pemantauan prestasi”. I’m not going to talk bad about anybody since this blog might be watched and I won’t want my scholarship terminated. Anyway, we had some Malaysian food (Nasi Biryani) for the night. Not too bad a dinner…

Pemantauan Prestasi meeting 2005

Monday, October 17, 2005

Fall break trip - Day 2 (Mackinaw City - Mackinaw Island - Ann Arbor)

This day, we woke up early in the morning to watch sunrise. To get a good view of the Mackinaw Bridge and the sun, we went to the coast of the Upper Peninsular. The morning air was bitterly cold, but in order to get good photos and watch my first sunrise (always wanted to do this but to lazy to wake up), I brave the cold and chose a spot where i could find something to put my camera on (those who know me well will know why - my hands tremble all the time and therefore not suitable to hold cameras for long exposure photos). Still, most of the photos turned out bad...hmm. Maybe it's the camera's problem? (hahhaha...)

When everyone was satisfied and had taken enough photos, we went back to the hotel for free breakfast. We checked out after that, and set off for the pier to get a ferry to Mackinaw Island. The ferry fare was 19 bucks for round trip, and it departs from the port every hour.

Mackinaw Island was basically an island with 500 permanent residents and a favorite tourists spot. The natural beauty of Mackinac Island State Park was honored by National Geographic as one of the ten finest in America. The first thing that we see upon stepping off the ferry dock was a Victorian village. There was almost no vehicle on the island, and people there traveled mostly by bicycle or horse. Because horses are everywhere, their wastes are "omnipresent" too. I even witnessed a horse peeing right on the street!! The unbelievingly huge amount of water running down in a cascade was definitely a scene not to be forgotten...

We rent bicycles to move around the island. The rate was 5 dollars an hour for a 7-speed bike. The ride around the island was 8 miles long, which we finished in 2 and a quarter hour. The scenery was indubitably beautiful, and we had had a good exercise cycling. We managed to visit a few gift shops on the main street after that, and I have bought a shot glass. We went to a fudge shop too, where I bought peanut fudge.

We left the island at 3pm for Ann Arbor. The two-day trip ended with a bang when we filled our stomachs late at night (about 10 pm) with those authentic and delectable dim sums from a restaurant called Shangri-La in Farmington Hills.

Mackinaw City's sunrise 1

Sunrise and Mackinaw Bridge (taken from Upper Peninsular)

View from Upper Peninsular

Mackinaw City's sunrise 2

Gateway to Mackinaw Island!!!

A nice view from the island

Main Street

Dock of Mackinaw Island

haha...

Cycling in Mackinaw Isle...

inside devil's kitchen...(the name of the cave)

Fall Break Trip - Day 1 (Ann Arbor - Traverse - Mackinaw City)

After more than an exhausting month of studying, I finally got what I deserved – a break! For this break, I went for a short but fun two day-one night trip to Traverse City and Mackinaw Island. Five of us (Mike, Pohyi, Jinye, Kaikiat and I) were in this trip.

The journey started early in the morning. It was still 5.15 am when I dragged myself out of my bed. Mike rented a car earlier, and he drove us around most of the time during the trip, with me taking over only when he was tired. As promised, Pohyi fixed us some sandwiches for us to eat on the road. So, cheerfully, (fortunately not studiously, as no one study stats 426 in the car ) we headed to our first destination – Traverse City.

It was a four-and-a-half-hour drive before we reached Traverse City. The scenery on our way was picturesque, as it was fall and the leaves of the trees had all turned to an orangey color. Upon reaching Traverse City, we went to the visitor’s information center before going to a farmer’s market. There was a variety of goods in the farmer’s market: pumpkins, apples, walnuts, flowers, honey, meat, and so on. I had never known that visiting a market can be that fun. The reason of my appreciating this visit was probably because the market somehow reminded me of the pasar in Malaysia.

We proceeded to the Sleeping Bear Sand Dunes after that. It was a national park where one can see desert out of nowhere. We went for a “hiking trip” up the dubbed (by me, because can’t find another way to describe it) cliff of sands and another scenic drive in the area. The stop at the 9th and 10th station of the scenic drive was particularly memorable, as wind gusting from the lake mercilessly rained us with sands when we tried to go to the lakeside. However, the “ordeal” proved to be worthwhile as the view there was simply breathtaking.

We went for a late lunch at a nearby town. After that, we went to a winery before heading for Mackinaw City, where we would spend a night there (too bad that I was underage and could not taste the wine there). In Mackinaw City, we explored the town a bit at night and took some pictures of the famous Mackinaw Bridge that connects Michigan mainland to the upper peninsular. Wearing just two sweatshirts, I was almost frozen to death at the lakeside…Called it a day after having dipper (dinner + supper, a word “created” by Jinye) in KFC.

that's michigan lake!!!

i took the advice...

on the top of the world...

"oasis"

the "sand cliff" i mentioned

a lakeview on our way (not michigan lake or huron lake though)

Some weird stuff sold in the farmer's market

Wednesday, October 12, 2005

Bill Gates

Bill Gates came to my university this morning to give a talk on the future in computer science career. (Yes, it's him, the founder of Microsoft and the world richest person) Actually, more than a week prior to his arrival, the Michigan Daily had already announced his plans to visit Umich. Tickets could be obtained free from the Michigan Ticket Office, but to my dismal, they were all given away well before 9am (I reached the office at 12+pm). To console the disappointed students like me, they opened up an overflow hall so that we could watch the talk live via video.

Because the talk clashed with my GeoSci class, I decided to skip the lecture just to sit in the overflow hall and listen to Bill Gates. My skipping of class proved to be worthwhile as the talk was really interesting. Bill Gates was more humorous than what I had initially thought, and he even showed us a skit that he acted in. It was really hilarious as he did many stupid things in the video clip, including dancing!! (kinda like the solo free style dance) Difficult to imagine huh? He tried out a racing game too during the talk, which he sucked big time in.

Too bad I couldn’t get the main hall ticket. Photos of this event can be seen in Voon Seng’s blog (damn, that guy got the tickets!! Said his photo copyrighted wor…) under this link
  • http://voonseng.blogspot.com/2005/10/bill-gates-michigan.html
  • Monday, October 10, 2005

    Opus Clavicembalisticum

    Let's talk about classical music :)

    In piano forums, the FAQ is: which is the most difficult piece ever written?

    There are a few favorite answers, among them the famous (but infamously difficult) Rach 3 written by Rachmaninoff. But still, the Opus Clavicembalisticum is the generally accepted answer. Written by Sorabji, this monstrous composition is almost impossible to be performed. Not only it requries demanding techniques, it requires sheer determination and courage for a pianist to even attempt it(the length of the full performance of this piece is an astounding 4 hours+, and it varies with intepretations from different pianists). Only few pianists have managed to play this piece in its entirety, and even fewer recordings are exist.

    To get an idea of how the piece look like, here is the music sheet of
  • Opus Clavicembalisticum


  • More info about the work
  • Opus Clavicembalisticum


  • (p.s. gosh, why the heck am I blogging at this time? Tomorrow got GeoSci midterm!)