Celebrations in Foreign Land

Among the many things I love about Malaysia are the multi cultures, multi ethnics and multi-what-are-in-between, of people and celebrations! Even tough now that I am in America, deep down I am always excited when a celebration is coming up in Malaysia. I will try to celebrate it in whatever way I can.

I will try to google for the celebration's advertisement. I love the late Yasmin Ahmad's creative adverts in particular. They always depicts the multi-cultural society that always reflect who we are as Malaysians.



This year is also the same. I start to search for the video clips on YouTube. I found a few which I like.



I love one short film which was produced by Petronas.



However, when I saw this by Bernas, I was kind of lost.



I am not sure where I stand about this as I am lost about the meaning behind it. I know Muslims visit their family members grave on the day of Raya but why the sad story of these two children who doesn't have anyone to celebrate with? What happen to all their families and friends?

I do hope that this Raya celebration, no one is left behind.

Selamat Hari Raya to all! Maaf Zahir dan Batin.

Scientist

Growing up, I always pictured being a scientist as a cool career path. I have the image of "mixing different chemicals" and "looking at cells" conjure up in my mind. Occasionally, I would imagine "blowing" things up in the lab too. The image of fuzzy hair scientist and Einstein fluffy hair and with tongue outstretched will play itself over and over. When I was in college, I imagined myself cloning "stuff", as it was the hype then when "Dolly" the sheep was cloned. 

However, nobody told me this was just pure delusion for a scientist. Yes, you do get to mix chemicals, look at cell under microscope, blowing things when experiments go wrong and cloning too. But, how long can you stare at cells under the microscope without your eyes gets tired and then again, how many times would you want to look at the same type of cell over and over again? Try counting chromosomes under the microscope or play catch-up with sperms when you want to count them on a slide; doing all while staring into two-eye piece, fancy, gazillion dollar equipement that limit your plain of view but zooming in to all the microscopic details. 

Then, I realised the saying publish or perish! What is that? I didn't want to be a writer or journalist? I want to have fun playing with my C₈H₁₀N₄O₂  + H₂O +C₄₇H₄₈N₃O₇S₂Na + C₁₂H₂₂O₁₁. I don't want to sit in front of the computer typing away or tucked in a corner in the library browsing through the journal. I don't think any scientist actually do that, that's why the journals in the library are always dusty and look brand new. But I love the cold, secluded floor that housed all those journals. It's a perfect place to run away from your boss and take a 2 hours long cat nap or shoot your video for Science blog! 

Apart from that, I never thought about having to look for money to play with all that. Never cross my mind that I have to face with headache and heartache writing grants after grants and being rejected countless time. I have spent countless nights thinking of how to impress my 'readers' about my fancy, meticulously thought up idea on I can determine how human migrate from Africa to South East Asia using saliva! Yes, your are right, SPITS! Well, thanks to Wilbur brothers invention, this simple idea I have, had just becomes more difficult to perform! 

Anyway, here I am, still sitting in front of my iMac, still try to decode all the mysteries in life which essentially just made up of 4 letters -A, T, C and G; out of the 26 letters in the alphabet! On that note, I should go back to staring my PC again and maybe, imagining myself giving the Nobel Prize speech to continue motivating me doing what I am doing!

P/S: The chemical formula on top is how I make my coffee in the lab (Caffeine + Water + Casein + Sucrose)! Oh now I am getting more sophisticated on how I make my coffee. I add  C₇H₈N₄O₂! That's Theobromine (at least that is one of the compound in it!)

Starry eye

Spoilt for choice! Paradise? 

--
Khai Chung ANG

Gone AWOL

I am sorry that I have been missing for so long. I am trying to find a way to be able to post more often. Since welcoming our baby, life have been very hectic. 

Let see how often we can update once I figure out what is the easiest way to do that. 

ABC? Nope MBC...

Being a Malaysia and growing up in a multi-ethnics country is a privilege. A Chinese descent, I would always tell people that I am Chinese Malaysian. I am proud of my heritage as a Malaysian. I learned to speak in three languages fluently, amidst Malaysian ‘slang’ and also few other dialects.

            However, while growing up in Malaysia, I have also been labeled as  ‘ABC’ (American born Chinese: not sure why, when MBC might be more appropriate since I am born in Malaysia!), banana (being yellow on the outside and white inside), OCBC (Orang Cina bukan Cina; translated as A Chinese who is not Chinese) and what’s not! I have learned to take all that in my stride but sometimes I don’t feel comfortable when people, CHINESE, gave me a ‘kind’ of look when I said I don’t read and write Chinese! They always said how you could forget your root! *You know who you are!

            Since moving to the States in July 2010, I am comfortable here because everyone speaks what I understand. United State being culture melting pot of many nations and peoples, English is the common uniting language. Being a Malaysian who speaks three languages and few more dialects, people are always amazed with our abilities to speak more than one language. However, I faced one stereotype here, since I speak English differently from how a Chinese (from countries whose native language is Mandarin) speaks, people (read Chinese) thinks that I don't speak or understand Mandarin at all!

          I can't count number of times people are surprise when I spoke in Mandarin and they will stop what they are doing and look at me strangely and amazed! Many times, I have used that to my advantage. Once, I uttered something in Mandarin to distract my opponents in badminton to distract them from the game and won that crucial point! Many times too I have keep quite and just observed the conversation they are having!

           Here is one situation during the course of my work. I wanted to collect some East Asian DNA and I asked from some people I work with in the department. After explaining what I am doing and what I am going to do, here is the conversation that took place.

Me: So, would you help me by spitting some saliva in this kit? It's painless took about 5 minutes!

Chinese 1 (turned to her another friend and started to speak in Mandarin):  I don't want give him this sample. Not sure what he is going to do.

Chinese 2 (relying in Mandarin): Yah, me too.

Chinese 1 (turning back to me and replying in English): Let me think of this and will give you the samples later!

Me: Ok (and at the same time in my mind thinking, no you don't! Don't you think I don't understand?)

            I felt like answering them in Mandarin and look at the smirk in their faces, surprised that I can understand all their conversation all these while! However the sense in me hold that back and just smile and said thank you!

That is not just the first time I participate in 'silent' conversation and smiling in my heart!

Penang has it all!

Growing up in Penang, Malaysia sometimes make you take things for granted. However, after living in foreign country for more than a year now, I started to think of Penang more often.

I love this video about Penang.



Enjoy!

Playing Angry birds using football...anyone?

I wonder how many shots they have to do in order to hit the birds?

Undilah video clip

I don't feel insulted from this video clip. Is our government getting more paranoid and fear that they will lose at the next GE?

Satay: Can’t believe that we made this!!

I really couldn’t believe that we actually grilled our own satay and made the peanut sauce too!! We have never appreciated satay more than now that we are in US. KC has been craving for satay: it’s one of his favorite food when he was in Malaysia. He could just eat 30 sticks of satay for his meal! So we decided to make some to soothe his craving and to introduce this wonderful dish to our friends from different countries (US, China and Republic of Georgia) whom we invited for our BBQ party yesterday evening.

VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

The original recipe used is from RasaMalaysia. I need to modify it according to the availability of spices I can get here. However, it still turned out pretty good and all our friends loved it. We were so proud of ourselves =P You know what, the first question KC asked me this morning was ‘When can we make satay again?’ *faint*

We are one of the few families who use charcoal grill here =P

Ta-da!! All the hard work pays!!

Updates

Since the last post, which was 4 months ago, we have done a lot and a lot changes too. I, in particular, finding harder to have the time to post anything and felt that nothing much is there to write about since I have fall into the routine of work, home and church. However, in that short period of 4 months, MANY things changed.

1.     Went back to Malaysia for 2 weeks. It was a work-related trip and didn’t get a chance to meet up with many friends and relatives. I was ‘jailed’ in the lab most of the time.

2.     Visited Washington D.C. for the first time. Also work-related!

3.     Being a part of new cellgroup startup for our local church and has been busy preparing all the training materials.

4.     Work is hectic. The pace picked up so much since we returned from Malaysia and a lot of ups and downs too. Not complaining though, at least it is moving.

5.     Wrote 2 posts that I never posted on my blog. One might be sensitive and another I never get the chance to complete what I started. Maybe one day, I will have the courage to post it!

6.     Had been following a lot of news (social, politic, business, sport, etc) about Malaysia and most time, it is with certain feelings about how things are turning out…though most time angry and sad!

7.     Found out that I was terminated from work since July started…but now re-appointed again. So, my status now shows ACTIVE. Well, it’s computer glitch and now all has been fixed! Never know computer do take summer vacation too!

8.     And YES! Got a piece of news that a stock is flying our way! Yes, I am going to be a DAD! I still have 6 more months before packing my ‘social life’ into the box. Nevertheless, OVERJOYED. Hopefully, later, I won’t be one of those who will flood my own FB page with all the baby pictures and updates! If I do, you can ‘unfriend’ me!

So, there you go! A nutshell of what I can think of happened in the last four months! I might update my blog more often or I might be AWOL even for a longer period since I need to prepare for the arrival of the stock! After all, it’s summer time too!

Cioa!