happy halloween!

happy halloween everyone! hope everybody is getting their share of sickening candy!! i don't know about you, but i'm waiting for the sales to start. you know what i'm talking about. the after halloween candy sale! i think i'm going to go to target on thursday to scope out the scenario. can't go too early because it's not all that cheap yet. but if you time it just right you get the most selection with the best discounts!! the only problem is that i like candy that josephine might not like. things like cow tails, sugar daddy, the "old fashioned" candy. don't get me wrong! i like the new stuff too! but i guess it works out because those are usually the candy that gets left over when it's 75% off! more for me!!!

fall back and spring forward...

that's how i remember if i should change my clock forward an hour or back an hour!

it's been a pretty unproductive weekend. i had great intentions to get a lot done but i'm sure all of you out there know how it is! especially during DST transitioning back to winter time. i heard that they are thinking about pushing back DST an extra month. i totaly agree because it is way to early to change the time. it is dark when we get up and dark when we get off work for about a month before the sun catches up! it is usually pretty depressing during this time period! and as for the season change, i think there is some serious barometric pressure differences that is leading to my migraines. i've talked to a few other migraine sufferers and they all have had an increase in the number of migraines in the past few days. perhaps it has something to do with the hurricanes too! but i've been ok for the past few days.

i'm watching a bit of the brown's game and i'm so disgusted! two turnovers in the last 2 possesions! i thought it was bad enough that we couldn't beat detroit! it's not easy being a brown's fan. it's not easy being a cleveland fan!!

today josephine and i went to aurora outlet for some shopping. it was a nice day to walk around. even though i'm pretty busy, i want to make sure i make time for what is most important in life!

motivation

this week has been rather unproductive. i've been unmotivated and trying hard to get myself to be focused again. with the migraines coming back, i've been trying to get enough sleep and relax a bit. but then i put my work off a little bit. then i get stressed out and then the catching up begins. then i get stressed again. then the migraines start. what a vicious cycle! but i saw in the recent american journal of human genetics that they have mapped a few qtls for migraines. especially interesting since they have separated the different migraines by those who suffer sound phobias, light phobias, auras, and other differences.

i hope i can someday find a cure for migraines! that is my motivation. and then maybe i can buy a car with a nice little horse symbol on it...

don't hate me cause i'm smart...

adelphia came today and corrected the situation. the technician that they sent was actually a pretty nice guy. he was originally from africa and got his bachelor's degree at kenyon college. he was working in the steel industry and trying to get his master's degree when he got layed off and is now trying to make ends meet with this current job. i really felt bad for the guy but at the same time i really respected him for working hard and trying to keep things together. unlike the man i spoke of yesterday!!

we got on the subject of race and how we both disliked stereotypes no matter what they were. he, of african descent, despised comments that assumed people of his race were better athletes and i sympathized with him. i told him i hated it when in high school, people said, "oh you don't need to study, you're asian, you'll ace it." that really down plays how hard i have to work to get to where i am. the technician agreed and said that it is most likely more about family upbringing. i couldn't have agreed more.

dignity

sorry for the long gap since i have written. it is exactly why i have been insistant on writing everyday! i knew that if i fell behind it would be so easy to just let it slide. but i don't want to do that! writing in this blog has been a great relaxation tool for me and i grateful for all those who continue to read it.

so yesterday as i was filling up the car with gas, a man approached me and asked me for fifty cents. i said i didn't have it and he walked into the store and bought a pack of cigarettes and walked away. this is not that rare of an occurence in cleveland but it got me thinking. what makes a man lose all dignity and ask another man for money? i use to think it was out of desperation, hunger, and lack of basic necessities that would drive a man such a level. or i would even understand perhaps an unfortunate event that caused a momentary cry for help such as a stolen wallet. but when i saw the guy walk out with a pack of cigarettes, i became totally confused. i no longer understood why he would ask me for money. desperation and loss of dignity were now separated. maybe the real question is, why does this man not realize he should have more dignity than to ask another man for money... what shame...

the weekend

hello friends. sorry i did not write last yesterday. i was in mansfield for the weekend. It has been a fairly relaxing. it was nice spending time with my mom and dad. we went to columbus on saturday and went to "little dragon" restaurant. it was pretty good. we then watched to movies at the dollar theater. "charlie and the chocolate factory" was great. i would really recommend it. johnny depp did a great job as willy wonka. we also watched "the "wedding crashers" which was hilarious!

tomorrow is monday again. i am not looking forward to waking up early again. but it's actually pretty good to get into work early and get lots of work done.

adelphia can !@#$!@% my @!%*..

i just wrapped up another lab meeting. it went fairly well. so i stayed up really late last night and determined that my mutation was not a mutation at all. in fact it was actually either a naturally occuring SNP or wrong call in published genomic sequence. long story short, the hunt continues.

i'm pretty ticked off today at adelphia. i had a bad migraine to start the day off. no triggers today, i think just lack of sleep. to top that off, the cable guy was late for his appointment. i mean, really really late. he didn't even show up. it's bad enough that you can't give an exact time of arrival but a window, but it's totally unacceptable to miss that window! add to that they didn't even call to tell me! absolutely ridiculous. ADELPHIA SUCKS!! i think adelphia is a big bully, a monopoly basically. if there was a choice, i'd definitely choose. but there is no choice!

i once called them and asked them, "aren't you a monopoly? what are my choices if i don't want you to be my cable provider if i live in an apartment and can't get satellite tv?" do you know what their answer was? "you have a chioce of our premium package or our basic packages." WHAT??? they haven't heard the last from me...

another mutation

guess what my friends! i think i've found a mutation in another gene! if so this will be great news. i'm working up the details now so i'll keep you posted. fingers are all crossed. sorry for the short blog today!

hot chocolate

my pcr is finally working, so i'm catching the lucky wave and getting back into the zen of things! i hope i can find this next mutation by the end of this week. i'm giving lab meeting again on friday so hopefully i'll have data to present.

i'm just not myself these days. i need to refocus myself and regroup. i have been very unhappy with myself lately. work has been piling up, not because i've neglected it, but there is just so much for me to do. i have so many pressures that are upon me. i need a little break to unwind. thank god for josephine who sees me through all of this. thank you honey for being so understanding when i get all cranky and grumpy. i know that you have your own stressful situations. and i want to be sure that i am there for all of your hardships. so tonight, make sure you tell me all about your day. i'll make some hot chocolate...

lay off the drugs...

so today i realized i need to stop taking my preventative medication for migraines. it absolutely plays around with my cognitive abilities. one side affect was memory loss and reflex/coordination problems. which i never really realized until today. some of you may remember that i said today is my father's birthday. well, in fact, it is my mother's birthday. i'm so glad that my brother corrected me. i was really disappointed in myself. i mean, i'm almost in depression. the scary thing was, even after i realized the truth, my brain could not process the reality. like i said, i need to stop taking the drugs. i can't risk losing memory like this. especially in graduate school. thank god, things were corrected in time. but i still can't believe that i misremembered something so important. it's like somebody saying my name is ricky and realizing it for the first time. it's really scary for me right now...

well, it was my mother's birthday, and we celebrated in mansfield. we had a nice dinner and cake. she was so happy to see all of us (my brother, josephine, and i). she was so sweet. she pulled josephine over and said "i want a picture with josephine since it's my first birthday with a daughter." it was very touching. we got her a food processor because she had mentioned a while ago that she wanted one. i hope she likes the one we picked out. next week is my dad's birthday. so we can celebrate all over again.

alone...

i walked to work alone today. it was very sad. josephine is working at the cleveland clinic now. she had her orientation today. i ate lunch without her. but i thought about her the whole time.

today once again, my pcr failed. i can't get these damn primers to work. i don't know what's going on! i'm actually pretty frustrated. my mom told me that this month was not a good month for me. she likes to read my fortune. i'm really not all that superstitious but once in a while, you just have to wonder, is it coincidence? but then again, since it is only once in a while that you wonder, then it must be coincidence. otherwise, you would be wondering a lot more often!

i'm also downloading all the short films from bmwfilms.com. they are taking them off the web i think to make room for the next season. if you haven't seen these shorts yet, you really should go check them out. my favorite is the one that guy ritchie directed. partially because he's one of my favorite directors and partially because the car that is featured is an M5. i usually don't capitalize on this blog, but i must capitalize M5. just out of respect. :)

and speaking of movies, have you guys heard that they have picked the new bond? who the heck is this guy! well, all i have to say is he's got some huge 007 shoes to fill.

blah sunday...

josephine starts here new job tomorrow. let's all wish her the very best. well, actually tomorrow is her orientation day. tuesday is when she actually starts. i'm so happy for her. i know that she will fit perfectly for the job. she is very organized and is always on the ball.

the brown's lost yet another game... really not all that surprising. but it's ok. when you are a brown's fan, you kind of expect it. :) sorry i have to keep this one short! i have to finish up a project today! but in the meantime, drool over this beauty... "GT-R" thanks eric lam for the link.

happy birthday jason

i went to a 30th birthday party for my good friend jason today. it's so scary to think we are all getting old! next year, i'll be turning 30 and i'm not looking forward to it. jason was actually the first person to get me drunk. he was drinking diluted orange juice while i was drinking screwdrivers. thanks jason for the wonderful memories. it was also on that very night that he and his now wife made a special connection. emily actually threw up all over him! you know it's love if you can marry someone after they throw up all over you!

and i also want to say HAPPY SWEETEST DAY to my honey!! you're the sweetest one out there!!

happy sweetest day love!

creative artists

today i was toally wiped out from yesterday but i still managed to pull a nine hour work day. mark was looking over my shoulder most of the time! but i still was feeling kind of exhausted from yesterday.

i'm listening to frankie j's rendition of "more than words" and i must say it really ticks me off when "artists" remake good songs. especially when they sing it almost exactly like the original artist. examples are jessica simpson's rendition of "take my breath away" and d.h.t. singing "listen to your heart." the last one really ticks me off because roxette is one of my favorite bands from the 80's. i thought the job of an artist is to be creative and artistic??? write your own songs!!!

migraine

migraines are my enemy. today i had a really bad migraine. it started off as a cluster headache and then became a full blown migraine complete with nausea and vertigo. i guess i can consider myself lucky that i don't get auras.

for days that i get migraines, i apologize, but i will use the blog as a place to figure out my migraine triggers. perhaps others with migraines can do the same so that we can generate a huge list and perhaps breakdown some of the real reasons behind these triggers. i know there are already some lists out there, but i don't think the underlying chemical mechanisms are known.

lunch: bagel, cream cheese with onion and chives, water
dinner: (red lobster) salad with ranch dressing, shrimp scampi, shrimp pasta with alfredo sauce, fried shrimp with cocktail sauce, fries, and ketchup, garlic cheddar biscuit.

i know, i know... my day was full of triggers! no wonder i felt like i was going to die!! but i remained dedicated. i told jo to wake me up before midnight so that i could post this blog in time for thursday. i didn't want you guys to think i forgot about you! when she did, i thought i was having an out of body experience!

no more zen!

today i lost my mojo... my pcr reactions failed and i had to start my sequencing all over. but don't worry, i put in extra time today and did double the reactions as well as started another sequencing project. can't fall behind you know!!

josephine is taking a test today. it's kinda funny since she already has her phd, you would think that she would be done with tests! she's actually still taking it now. hope you do well!

so yesterday was "national coming out day." i really don't know what defines national, since i doubt congress actually voted to have such a day. but it was funny, because i actually had people come up to me and say, "hey, did you know i was gay?" the problem was that i already knew. and so they were disappointed that i wasn't surprised. i guess i should have faked "surprise." but at the same time, i didn't want the person to think i was totally clueless about the gay community either! and as soon as i said, "yes" i was afraid they would say, "how did you know? what? do i look gay?" so i think it was kind of a loaded question. but i'm happy that homosexuality is no longer such a taboo. glad that we can all just get along as people and not labels. i'm not a big fan of labels. well... i take that back... i mean, i like sony, ferrari, and banana republic, but that's not what i mean... :)

speaking of labels... apple introduced their latest ipod today! yes! another one!! it's the video ipod and it will replace the current ipods on the market. feel bad for those who just bought an ipod photo! but the ipod video is not completely useful yet, it comes in 30 and 60gig flavors, but the content is still lacking. however, they do have all "lost" and "desperate housewives" episodes available for $2 a pop. not too bad. pretty smart to put tv shows on as well as music videos. i was thinking just movies, but this is a whole other market. i'm very impressed, but apple is coming out with stuff way too fast! i haven't even saved up for an ipod nano yet! and since my wife got me my 4th gen click ipod as an engagement gift, i really can't justify it!

no thanks...

if you need help with English, just say so...

a zen like state of sequencing

my boss told me today that i need to be in a zen like state of dna sequencing! i think it was his subtle way of saying get busy! i'm in the middle of finding another mutation in another gene. we have a few candidates so hopefully we picked the right ones. all fingers are crossed.

for those of you who don't know, my boss is mark adams. mark, along with craig venter, was a co-founder of celera. he was also one of the founders of TIGR. i'm very fortunate to be a graduate student in his lab. it's one of the reasons why i'm working my butt off. it's really a great feeling to be working in a lab with high expectations.

it was actually pretty funny today. mark was in the lab telling me about a movie he saw over the weekend. i was surprised that he had time to go see a movie. maybe i need to take a break too. but then again, he's earned the right to rest. i haven't yet! but what was funny was that the movie he saw was "serenity." and he was talking about it like a little kid. "there were these spaceships fighting these other spaceships. and they picked up this girl who had super powers." i guess you had to be there...

on a side note, toshi in boston said that Pu Pu Hotpot restaurant doesn't even serve hotpot. what a scam!! how can you name yourself something you don't serve! it's like pizza hut not serving pizza! or burger king not serving burgers! unbelievable!!

how lucky we are...

today i realized what a fragile world we live in. we work and try to make ends meet, but in the end, what does it all mean? from the latest hurricanes to the earthquake in pakistan, we are nothing in the overall scheme of things.

as tragic as these events are, they are also valuable lessons to what is truly important in life. humbling circumstances that makes us realize that social status, cars, houses, money, job, means absolutely nothing. they are just things that preoccupy us while we are here on this short vacation called life. so what is important? to not take forgranted all the things around us. from the walls that protects us, to the clear water that flows into our sink. every breath we take is a miracle and gift that for a million reasons could have been taken away. don't wait for a trajedy to realize how fortunate we are. please consider donating to charity or at least your thoughts to not only victims of these latest natural disasters but to victims of human nature.

American Red Cross

toys 'r us

it was nice having dimsum with motoo and eric chan today. sometimes it is hard to get together, and other times you just take friends forgranted. i'm glad motoo gave me a call today. actually josephine was already preparing lunch, but i told her to put it all back in the fridge! "we're going out for lunch!"

after lunch, i took a little break and walked around toys 'r us. i like walking into toy stores every now and then. not sure if it's because it makes me feel younger, or if it's because it brings back happy thoughts from childhood. but just seeing happy kids running around the store is very amusing. especially today since geoffrey the giraffe was actually there! i remember back in the day when i use to think, "man, if i was an adult and had money, i could buy whatever i want!" walking through that store today and knowing that i could, put a smile on my face.

memories of food

kinda hungry right now for some bratwurst. or as some of my friends would call it, "la sausage." this is a picture of a brat that has been long gone. don't really want to think about where it is right now! i came across the picture as i was sorting out my camera. soon as i saw it, i started getting hungry. people rarely take pictures of their food, but i do it often. food unlike other types of entertainment sometimes is really a once in a lifetime experience. sometimes the thing we miss most are food items. for example, if you have been to paris, you might miss the eiffel tower, but looking at a picture of the eiffel tower can bring back the sight of how grand and beautiful it is. however, if you had a great meal or had a glass of fine wine, even a beautiful picture could never bring back that taste in your mouth. sight and sound, no problem. but taste and smell my friends, are the things we can never capture. so next time you have a delicious meal, savor every bite. and take a picture, just to try to remember what a beautiful meal you may have.

t.g.i.f.

i am so happy the weekend is here. i can finally catch up on some sleep! which probably won't happen! it never happens. i don't think you can really catch up on sleep. sometimes when you sleep too much you just get more tired. something about too much REM...

i don't have anything planned for the weekend. actually i take that back. i have a ton of work to finish up. i have to wrap up two websites that i am designing. one for a bakery and another for frontiers in reproduction. as happy as i am that i actually get paid for this, sometimes i feel embarassed at my lack of creativity. or perhaps, it's more that i am too creative and i end up taking way too long on any given project. i hope it doesn't take too long this weekend!

as for josephine, she has to wake up REALLY early tomorrow for the race for a cure. i think it's really cool she's doing that. i hope that she can last the entire race! because of our busy schedule, she hasn't been able to excercise as much as she use to. i'm actually pretty excited that she has started her own blog. and though she says i forced her to make one, in reality, she has been begging me to help her!

fish and chips

today i took josephine to claudagh irish pub for dinner. we shared a half order of fish and chips and an order of irish stew in guiness. i must say, nothing beats fish and chips from london. specifically, fish and chips from the rock & sole plaice on endell street near covent garden. these fish and chips are to die for. before having them, i never really thought much about them. i mean, how special can fried fish be? boy was i wrong! i wouldn't think twice about flying to london just to have another carry-out order, if only i had the time... anybody out there know what i'm talking about or have had better? i'd like to know!

happy 2 monthaversary!!

just want to say happy 2 month anniversareeee!! to my beautiful wife josephine!!

toshi's acknowledgments

sorry guys! i know this took awhile to get on the web! but it is finally here! here is toshi's acknowledgement after his defense. it is rather long so be patient.

(for firefox users, right click on the link below and save the file to your own computer before playing it, add the extension .wmv at the end of the file name, otherwise it saves it as a text file for some reason!)

TOSHI's Video

jo and i, in vegas...

what a busy day! can i start all my entries like that or can i just say that this is a given! if it ever changes i'll let you know. it doesn't help that i've got another freakin migraine. i think this one started from the pepperoni sub i just had for dinner. but it is a beautiful day here in cleveland. a little unexpected so i really can't even enjoy it since i have over dressed!

just yesterday i found out that one of my ex-gf has moved back in town. although i am not completely alarmed, i am a bit unnerved. we didn't really end on happy terms and i think she feels that there are a lot of unresolved issues. i, on the other hand am happily married to my beautiful wife, Josephine! i think it will be a bit akward if i do run into her as it is very likely, since she is in the dental school.

free ipodnano? how about an xbox360?

i wonder if these free ipodnano sites work! i've heard so many things about them, so i figured i'd give it a shot. i also started one for the xbox360. it really didn't cost me much. for the ipodnano, i just signed up for a 3 year subscription to fhm for $33. i figure even if it doesn't work, at least i get some decent reading material for a good price. and for the xbox, an even trivial investment, a 99 cents subscription to realaudio which i have already cancelled. now all i have to do is get a few referals. interested anyone? you can do the same thing!!

free ipodnano

free xbox360

toshi

We miss you Toshi!

what did i do today?

so begins my blogging life... yesterday one of my best friends left for boston. we were all very sad to see him go. we wish you the best of luck in boston! hope the red sox win the world series while you are there! i'll cheer for them now since the indians are out of the running!