Conclusions of Summer

It suddenly struck me that summer is beginning to draw to a close. It's been a fairly boring, yet stressful, summer. However things are starting to fall into place.

1. Today, in the mail, I got my acceptance letter to the Medical College of Wisconsin (MCW) . . . for the entering class of 2009. I guess I wasn't fated to go to med school this year. Oh well. Point is, I'm in! Hurray!! ::waves a little flag of victory::

2. This means that I indeed will continue with 1 year towards my Masters in Public Health (MPH) in Hospital & Molecular Epidemiology at my alma mater. It has a very strong school of public health, 5th in the nation I believe. Apparently the Epidemiology department only has like 75 incoming students (some of whom I know) and my sub-program is obviously much smaller than that. I'm kind of excited to have smaller and more interactive courses. Unfortunately most of my friends graduated with me and are now strewn across the world, but mostly somewhere across the US.

3. Thankfully I also found a roommate to live with me. He's a 30-year-old Japanese guy from Tokyo who will be an incoming grad student at the School of Public Policy this fall. I don't know if he's found an apartment for us yet and he hasn't returned my last email. I sent him another email earlier today. Yesterday I was made aware of another person who needs a roommate and an apartment. So if this Japanese guy doesn't respond to my emails in a timely manner, I may have to abandon him and go with the other guy. Now, I know this other guy, and he's kind of annoying so I think I'd prefer to live with the Japanese guy if possible. But I'm going to keep my options open about roommates and housing for the next week or so.

4. Yesterday a bunch of my friends from campus came to my city to have dinner. So I got to see JW-M and DJ-M (his roommate) one last time before they go home on the other side of the state. And next week JW-M will be heading to Beijing for a year, studying abroad. It was nice of them to come by, and it reminded me how much I missed and will miss them. I should write a post on JW-M as a roommate and as a friend . . .

5. Tomorrow I'll be going to my friend JR-M's cast & crew screening of his movie. I'm part of the crew, as I was the cellist for the soundtrack composed by our mutual friend, CM-M (in this post). Granted I won't know most of the people there, but hey, at least I get to hang out with some of my old friends who I haven't seen in a while. He gave me a relatively unedited DVD of his movie, but he'll have the full DVD (with director's cut and all) at this premiere.

6. This isn't really anything interesting, but I'm kind of a planning whore. Yes, I do get a little stressed when planning things, but I think I secretly enjoy it. I have pretty much my next 1-2 years planned out (coursework-wise) as an MPH and I'm starting to plan what I should bring with me to my new apartment (when I get one) as well as next summer's plans. Maybe next summer I'll finally be able to visit Beijing and other parts of China. At least JW-M will still be there, he can show me around! Yeah I'm lame, don't judge me.

7. My cousin's back in Chicago! Which means I got my room back and my privacy to enjoy certain activities. I'm doubly happy at reading another news article on a study supporting the health benefits of this particular activity. Oh yeah, my cousin was able to improve his ACT score from 21 to about 26-27 in the two weeks he was here. That's right, hardcore academic improvement.

Fragments of the Past III

The Preamble to the Present

My parents aren't the kind who go on and on about their lives. What they do tell us come to us in short fragments, usually to highlight a point or just a fleeting moment of remembrance. Here I've pieced those fragments in a semi-linear fashion.

I don't remember the circumstances under which my parents met. Actually, I'm not entirely sure I know how they met. It wasn't in high school, it wasn't in college, it wasn't through work. I suspect it might've been through a mutual friend somehow . . . or I could be mixing that part up with how my uncle (mom's younger brother) met his wife. I do know that they were always spending time together like any other young couple in their early 20s. I wish I could remember some of the semi-interesting stories here, but alas I cannot.

Once my parents tried to impress upon us the importance of academia. When my dad was dating my mom, he called her every day. One day he asked her to put their relationship on hold for 2 months so he could study for his finals. And so, instead of seeing each other after work, my dad went directly to the library to study after eating dinner. My mom didn't begrudge my dad and instead went on a trip throughout southwestern China with some of her friends, climbing mountains, visiting the cities, and seeing sights. And so my parents pointed this out that academics was so important that it can sometimes supersede a relationship. Figures as much.

Moving on, my parents got married in Hong Kong about 2-3 years before I was born. I don't remember the exact circumstances that brought them to the US. My mom's family all moved to the US first ahead of my dad by almost half a year. My dad had to a lot of paperwork to complete in order to attend graduate school in the US. On a handful of occasions my mom mentions how I am the only one of my brothers who is "truly Chinese" as I was conceived before my mom came to the US, though at the time my mom didn't know she was pregnant (I was born in Chicago, however).

My mom's family moved to Chicago. Everyone lived in the same apartment near Chinatown. My mom's mom worked as a nanny/maid for a Chinese doctor's family, who we have become quite close with over the years. My mom's dad worked doing I don't remember what. My mom's older brother worked as a chef while his wife worked in a hotel. My mom's younger brother continued his studies at U of Chicago - Champaign. Once he got his Masters in electrical engineering he moved to California where he still lives. My mom worked in an assembly line for General Electric, I believe. When my dad came to the US, he went directly to live with my mom with her family all in that one apartment. (My mom believes my dad's mom doesn't like her much becasue she "stole" my dad away from Hong Kong to faraway US.) It would be over a decade before the last person moved out of that rather low-income apartment and into the ranks of middle-class America.

Both of my parents' families have worked harder throughout their lives than I can really even imagine going through myself. From practically nothing to middle-class in about 2.5 decades is really . . . okay, I don't have adequate words for what I want to say about how far my parents have come in life. But if my parents can do it, I believe almost anyone can if they have the motivation, the work ethic, and find the right opportunities. I think when my dad's dad named me when I was born (well, my Chinese name, as I explained in this post) he had in mind the importance of what his family and my mom's family were achieving - breaking free of the past and progressing towards the future.

And while my brothers and I were growing up, my mom worked nights part-time as a florist at a nearby supermarket. So for a few years my brothers and I would only see our mom for about 3 hours a day or so on weekdays. Eventually my mom worked a bit less so she could take courses at a community college, getting her Associate's Degree. Now she works for an architecture company detailing the electrical work on the floorplans. All those long nights and long hours . . . the so-called "American dream" is not an easy thing to achieve.

So I know and fully understand where my parents are coming from and why they put so much pressure on my brothers and me. Why they push us to excel and will us to succeed. For them, anything less than what they've achieved is a huge slap to the face, a dishonor upon the family. A "loss of face" as the Chinese say. It's just where they come from. But I have no intentions of taking a step or two backwards anyhow.

Fragments of the Past II

Mother's Past

My parents aren't the kind who go on and on about their lives. What they do tell us come to us in short fragments, usually to highlight a point or just a fleeting moment of remembrance. Here I've pieced those fragments in a semi-linear fashion.

First a random fact: my mom's dad was born in Indonesia and was one of 3 brothers (I think he was the youngest). My mom's parents were pretty well off and could have probably been considered among the middle-class. My mom's mom liked to read and practice calligraphy and such. Then the Cultural Revolution came. Many of my mom's parents' friends were imprisoned or killed during the Cultural Revolution. No one spoke of anything intellectual. Children were brainwashed and trained to turn in anyone who dissented with the government: their neighbors, their friends, and even their own parents.

I think my mom's family lost a lot as my grandma had to hide her books or throw them away. Like everyone else who lived in/near the cities, they had to go to the countryside. My mom and her older brother worked the fields. She would tell us that there were no bathrooms in/near the fields. Instead, there was a large pit in the ground with two planks spanning it in parallel to each other. When you wanted to go, you would crouch by standing on those two planks and try not to fall in. Sometimes this was difficult as the heat of the sun would cause the smell to fume up and could make one dizzy. This waste matter wasn't "wasted" but rather used as fertilizer sometimes.

My mom wasn't the healthiest child. She suffered from random maladies and hated seeing the doctor. She would hide or throw away any pills given to her. Her parents would try to trick her to take her pills by crushing them and hiding them in her food, but my mom would just throw away her food if she detected medicine. Eventually she would have to get a shot to the butt full of the medicine she should've taken orally. At this point the doctors were still "in hiding" around the country, though I think people knew where one was if their services were needed. My mom was also a very picky eater as a child and her parents would sometimes worry that she was malnourished. At one point my mom actually started to eat a lot but mysteriously lost a lot of weight instead of gaining weight. One day when my mom was like 7, her dad saw something poking out of my mom's butt (gross, I know) after she went to the bathroom. So he pulled on it and this really long tapeworm came out. He promptly took my mom to the doctor who administered some medicine to kill what the parasite might have left behind in her digestive tract. I still shudder at the thought of it.

My grandma's health deteriorated and she could barely function. She smoked and suffered from asthma as well as a number of other illnesses. My mom's family didn't make enough to break even so my mom's dad spent years as a traveling salesman around China, sending back all the money he made. My mom's older brother was left as the head of household while her grandma took care of my mom's mom. There are some messed up stories there (concerning traditional Chinese medicine) that I won't get into here. Also my mom's younger brother was just a toddler. Every week my mom and her older brother would go buy groceries, not at a local store, but rather at an outdoor market where other farmers brought their goods. To get there, my mom and her brother would wait until a truck passed by along the road and would jump on with other people as it went by. If you couldn't make it then you didn't go that day.

My mom did recall going to school periodically during this time, somewhat on and off. She remembered having to memorize the Little Red Book (that she says was full of stupid propaganda) as well as other Communist ideas. Soon things were looking up though. My mom's mom took control of her health and started walking several kilometers a day and eventually even ran about 3K a day. She literally walked/ran herself back to health. My mom's dad earned and saved enough money to take bring his family to Hong Kong.

Within a month my mom started working part-time (I don't remember what she did, but some factory work I think) while going to school. She only made it as far as 10th grade. Like my dad, she went from no knowledge of Cantonese to functional and soon became fluent - what can you do, it was a necessity. My mom's older brother also had to stop his schooling a bit early I think, but my mom's mom wouldn't allow my mom's younger brother to stop his studies. In fact, he never had to work and was instead burdened with all the pressures of studying and doing well in school.
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Part I Add-on: There was something interesting I forgot to say yesterday. As a kid, my dad once stepped on a rusty nail and got very sick. He became feverish, lost control of his muscles, and then his muscles started to spasm and contract violently. His dad took him to the local doctor in India who diagnosed it as tetanus. There was nothing the doctor could do and he said my dad needed to be taken to a doctor in the city about 3-4 days away. My dad's condition worsened and the tetanus was creeping closer to his lungs. Obviously, he made it, got the medicine, and survived without any lasting repercussions. Otherwise I wouldn't be here today.
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That was the end of part 2. Tomorrow, part 3.

Fragments of the Past I

Disclaimer: this post and the subsequent posts can be quite long. While few things said in them will be directly about me, it may be easier to understand where I come from sometimes after reading the following. And before I begin, how many people care or remember about their parents' past and/or even wonder how that affects their lives? Keep that in mind . . .
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Father's Past

My parents aren't the kind who go on and on about their lives. What they do tell us come to us in short fragments, usually to highlight a point or just a fleeting moment of remembrance. Here I've pieced those fragments in a semi-linear fashion.

Interestingly my dad was born in India (where exactly I forget). My dad's parents moved to India from China before he was born. My dad's dad was a dentist. And so my dad spent the first 14 years of his life in India where he learned Hindi, the local Indian language, English, and Chinese. Like me he went to a Chinese school (with the very few other Chinese kids in his town). He claims at that point in his life his Chinese was far inferior to what mine ever was.

His house was not huge but respectable. Since they didn't have an in-door toilet he had an outhouse. He recounted once that there was a lizard on the door of the outhouse and he wouldn't go for days as the lizard was just there, stuck on the door. He also said he used large leaves as toilet paper. Monkeys would also wander through his house like everywhere else in India. As a kid, he told us he and his friends would take a stick, twist the end of the stick in a spider's web so the web was wound around the end, and go up to a cicada and poke it so the cicada was stuck to the end of the stick. Then they would run around trying to touch each other with the cicadas stuck to the ends of their sticks. He also told us how he would take the excess wax from his dad's office (that was used to make molds of the patients' teeth) and make candles with them.

Then when he was 14, all the Chinese living in India were exiled. You see, China and India has fought a war and as a result all the Chinese in India had to be exiled (or many of the Chinese living there anyway). So my dad and his family (consisting of an older sister, 2 younger brothers, and his parents) moved to a China that had just experienced the Cultural Revolution. They had to live in the countryside. Since all "intellectuals" had to "return to the land," doctors and dentists weren't allowed to practice or they were jailed or killed. The country's hospitals were left in the crappy care of only nurses and quickly deteriorated. And so my dad's dad practiced dentistry in secret while doing other "legitimate" labor.

During this period my dad worked as an apprentice in a factory that made vehicle parts. My dad never finished middle school as all the schools were closed in that part of the country. No teachers - at least none "government approved," go figure. Everyday at lunch, everyone would stop working to listen to Mao Zedong broadcast over the radio about the wonderful changes the country was undergoing (aka, propaganda). My dad would get a newspaper from his boss which he used to follow along with the radio to improve his Chinese skills.

One day he heard Nixon on the radio berating the Chinese government for being so closed. This was the momentous visit by Nixon to China. After that, the Chinese said they would be more open and would allow some people to travel out of the country, and by that they meant Hong Kong (which was technically Britain at that point still). So my dad's family took this opportunity to get out of China and into Hong Kong. They were only allowed to leave China with $5 (obviously worth much less than the US dollar) and one suitcase between all 6 members of the family. Imagine getting a start somewhere with only $5 and a suitcase between you and your family! Thankfully my dad's parents had a few friends in Hong Kong already who were willing to help out a little (but only a little).

Within a few months they were established, which wasn't easy when everyone spoke Cantonese instead of Mandarin. My dad was able to go back to school though he continued to work. Eventually my dad graduated high school. He had wanted to follow in his dad's footsteps and become a dentist, but at the time there were too many dentists in Hong Kong (or something?) and they closed all the dental schools for 2 years. Not wanting to wait, my dad found a job making mechanical parts. After a year or so, he so impressive his superior that they gave him a scholarship to further his studies at Hong Kong Polytechnic, which at the time was a really good school. I believe he managed to somehow get his tuition was waivered or something. But my dad still worked part-time to make ends meet for the family. And so he studied mechanical engineeering at HK Polytechnic for 2 years and attained some degree (it wasn't a Bachelor's).
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That brings us to up to his life in Hong Kong. Tomorrow, part 2. But one last word, imagine a time without the internet, without computers, without TV. Imagine the excitement of the world delayed a day, a week, or however long it takes news to reach around the world. Imagine what it must be like to hear that the Russians sent Sputnik out into space. Then imagine what it was like when it was annouced that the US sent a man to the moon . . .

Mush . . .

My brain feels like it has rotted away from disuse this summer. And the following exemplifies my life of late:

Oh well. I really need to get out. And my morning run doesn't count. Too bad there's really nowhere to go in my city, especially without a car . . .

---mini-rant---

So apparently, the Amtrak is closed on August 11th for maintenance or something in my state. Thus my cousin will be staying until August 13th. Which is okay except I want my room back! I want the ability to jack off in the (more or less) privacy of my own room (my stupid door doesn't have a lock on it). Come to think of it, I haven't jacked off in about a week. Go me and self-restraint!

And I think my cousin has that "stinky Asian" smell. I don't know how else to describe it. It's weird! He's been here 6 days already. At least half of his clothes have gone through the laundry rotations. My house is pretty open with high-ish ceilings, so it's not like there's no air circulation or anything. Yet he has a distinct smell that's a bit off. My youngest brother also kind of has that smell, but he minimizes it well by not spending too much time in small enclosed rooms where you marinate in the same smell for a long time.

Yesterday my dad was teaching my cousin some algebra that, for the life of him, my cousin just couldn't get. Seriously, how hard is the equation: y = mx + b?! Anyway, my dad kept challenging him intellectually, having him work through the problems himself. After a while my cousin started to cry a bit. Which is sad as my dad was being unnaturally patient and wasn't even yelling. If it were my brothers or me, my dad would've proclaimed us useless and stupid long ago. My cousin's really not good at math. His English skills are lacking too. I'm surprised he hasn't entered an academic coma yet from all the SAT/ACT he's been doing.

On a slight tangent, I read a while ago that we need to focus more on math and the sciences in school. It's almost a double-standard when people say "Oh I'm not good at math" and that's okay, but when people say "Oh I'm not good at English" (or whatever primary language) they're seen as dumb and/or illiterate. So why's it okay to say one's bad at math while it's not okay to say one's bad at English? It's kind of lame when you don't have the ability to do simple math and simple algebra problems, assuming you don't have a learning problem and aren't mentally retarded. We're not talking about calculus here, just as we're not talking about analyzing John Milton (probably not the best analogy, but whatever).
---end mini-rant---

Anyway, Hish found out the identity of the guy in the yellow briefs in my last post. He's fitness model Bryan David Thomas and apparently he has his own blog!

Here are some more gratuitous pics of him. :P

Oh, on a final note, Chinese food is good for you. W00t!! Also, the sense of smell is totally underrated. Just a couple good articles in those links.

Random Pics

I'd rather post something more meaningful, but I need to think of what first. That could take a while . . . So instead I'll just post some random pics I found on my laptop when I was preparing to reformat it a few days ago (but thankfully was able to avert such an arduous task). I don't even know where I got most of the following pics from, haha.

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I don't know who this is, but he has a cute smile and a hot body.
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Wang Leehom smile progression. ::swoons:: lolWang Leehom and his coffee. :P

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Hmm, some Jessica Alba pics. Her top is see-through . . .
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Now on a totally unrelated note, I simply can't wait until the Summer Olympics start!!

Here are two YouTube vids with English subtitle translations. The first is a "less literal" translation than the second, though the second somehow actually makes it easier for me to understand (and makes more sense, as well as sound more poetic).

Next time I post I'll have something "substantive." Until then, enjoy some of the randomness I found on my laptop.

Mission Accomplished

Today my friend SP-M came over. I was set to move all of my files onto his external hard drive and then reformat my laptop to get rid of that damn file.

Then he told me to download a program called "Unlocker." Amazingly, it deleted the undeletable file! It was so simple. Wow. After this, he showed me how to make my Windows XP look basically like Windows Vista, which was pretty cool. I actually rather like the Windows Vista theme - it's rather sleek. Also, he directed me to a download that allowed me to change my boot screen and logon screen.

Now my boot screen currently looks like this:

And my logon screen looks like this:
Pretty cool eh? (No, my real name isn't Paul, that's just the pic the site had.) It's good to have friends who're good at things you aren't. SP-M: 3. Technology: 0.

And here's a funny pic my friend SN-F sent me: