The following is from a Forbes ranking of the best city for singles. Pittsburgh, to place where I'm now, unfortunately, ranks the last but look at what they have to say about Carnegie Mellon!



The tragic cycle continues. Each year, we publish our ranking of the best cities for singles, and, despite our hopes and prayers, Pittsburgh finishes dead last. E-mails from angry Pittsburghers wish SARS on our newsroom. The following spring rolls around, and, despite all the outrage of the previous year, Pittsburgh gets drubbed on our singles poll. The poll results, combined with a horrible job growth projection, paltry nightlife offerings and dearth of singles, conspire to make Pittsburgh finish last on our best cities for singles list. Again. And with that, we expect renewed threats to our well being. But before you hit the send button this time, Steel City, read this: Pittsburgh is one of the most beautiful, cultured, and, yes, fun towns we have had the pleasure of visiting over the past four years. New Yorkers would be jealous of a museum as wondrous as the Andy Warhol. There's nary a campus in Boston as pretty as Carnegie Mellon. And no Little Italy can match the magic of Penn Avenue on a Saturday morning. So buck up, 'Burgh! —Davide Dukcevich

Summer Session 2 began this morning. Contrary to my initial plan of taking three subjects, I dropped differential equations with hope to enjoy the next 6 weeks with just C Programming and Intro to World History.



My friends and I went to a Hong-Kong-style restaurant called Tasty's somewhere at the more shady part of Shadyside. There was great talk about this restaurant as being the best place in Pittsburgh that offers authentic, home-cook Chinese dishes. Honestly speaking, it was not as great as what I expected. I think Oriental Kitchen is much better despite not being as cheap as Tasty's.

My Photo of the Day



Caption by Reuters.

Palestinians carry the body of a wanted militant after he was killed by Israeli troops during a raid in the old city of the West Bank city of Nablus June 26,2004. Israeli troops shot dead seven Palestinian militants, including three senior faction leaders, in the deadliest raid into the West Bank for months. Among the dead in the militant stronghold was Nayef Abu Sharkh, West Bank leader for the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades of Palestinian President Yasser Arafat (news - web sites)'s Fatah (news - web sites) faction, medics said. Photo by Abed Omar Qusini/Reuters



I can't imagine dragging away a dying comrade.

Watched Count of Monte Cristo for the second time. This time with the ability to pause and repeat scenes that seem unclear. Yes, I have trouble listening to movie dialogues sometimes.



Imprison me in that French prison I'll be insane in a day. In two days, I'll be dead unless some neighbouring fellow prisoner visits me and teaches me something. One line in that movie that I find rather blasphemeous - "God is everywhere....even in a kiss" said Mercedes.



Ah, I wish I can one day name my daughter "Mercedes" but with the name taken by a car manufacturer, she'll be endlessly teased by her guy friends in school.



I wonder whether Stephen King gets his inspiration for Shawshank Redemption from Count of Monte Cristo. There's this scene in the movie where the prisoners were sorting the books for their library when one of them stumbled upon CoMC and pronounced "Dumas" as "dumbass".

How I wish I can tear my Concepts of Maths notes into tiny pieces, soak them in a glass of Coke and drink the solution of great mathematical knowledge with the hope that that knowledge will settle at some memory location in my brain that allows for quick retrieval.



I wish life is that easy.

Tuesday, June 22 2004, 8 pm - started doing last 217 homework

Wednesday, Jun 23 2004, 8am - struggling with 217 homework

Wednesday, June 23 2004, 8am - stuck at questions 1, 2 and 3b.

Wednesday, June 23, 2004 8pm - still doing 217 homework

Thursday, June 24, 2004 12.01 am - finished 217 homework. time to start concepts homework due tomorrow

Friday, June 25, 2004 10.30 pm - 36-217 Summer 1 final exam

Friday, June 24, 2004 1.30 pm - 21-127 Concepts of Maths final exam



doomed.

Spinning Gasing, watched it for the second time and this time with opportunity to pause and rewind. Used to admire the production of this movie. I thought it was one of those superb Malaysian movies. But after seeing for the second time, I have second thoughts of opinion on it.



It really defied a lot of the norms of a Malaysian movie. Finas could have censored 1/4 of the movie. There's a scene on a guy banging a girl on a table, there are scenes of homosexuality. There are scenes where the characters argued about law governing inter-religious marriages in Malaysia.



The good thing is the movie potrays Malaysia as a country that does not belong to any race. Spinning Gasing features the typical HK-style loan sharks as well as religious Muslims on the East Coast. I think that's how the world should see Malaysia.



I quite like the soundtrack.



---



It's Summer 1 finals week this week. Will not be writing much but will try to study more. Lots of catching up to do in very little time.



Catch you when I still can.

"A summer without you..."



It's Friday night. Despite the upcoming concepts test on Monday and Max leaving for Chicago tomorrow, I've decided that I should bring Max and Leong Sing to some place for dinner. Hard Rock Cafe Pittsburgh.



HRC Pitt is in Station Square, a riverfront area developed intentionally for nice restaurants and as a shopping district. I've never been there before so that's also a reason we headed there.



We took the Ultraviolet Loop bus back. It's a special bus service for the weekends that serve major nightspots here. The bus brought us through the South Side. I've heard a lot about it especially the night life it offers. It is pretty much similar to Bangsar or Bukit Bintang back in KL. I promise myself that once Summer 1 is over next weekend, I'll try my best to bring my friends here. Enough of Asian eating outlets around Oakland, Squirell Hill and Shadyside. It's time to go beyond Oakland and venture into the other districts in Pittsburgh.



Won't it be regretful that after four years of college in Pittsburgh you realize that all you know about the city is limited to Oakland and shopping malls?



It's so much different than back in Taylor's and Shah Alam. I have Uncle Roni and friends to bring me all the places around KL and thanks to them I get acquianted with the roads there.

finally, the homework for this week is done. Yesterday was a horrible day having to spent nearly 12 hours finishing concepts and 217. i'm slow i must admit but at least i learn it the hard way.



I've not touched the piano for more than a month. Last time I played was after the calculus final exam at mudge. the piano there seems to be better than the ones for practice in the college of fine arts. mudge's close for the summer.



i remembered my mum sending me for my first piano lesson at 5. Mrs. Wong was a very gentle teacher and charges lower fees than other music teachers in town. When I first took her lessons, it was in a shophouse in town. 2 years later she moved her school to her home which is a proper semi-d house.



i'm not really sure why mum made me take piano lessons. probably because other parents were sending their kids for music lessons but i know for sure that my dad wants me to have at least some inclination towards music. my father's youth revolved around the guitar and even until now it still does. he was fresh from law school and was just starting his own firm so he couldn't afford a proper upright piano and instead got me a Roland KR-33 keyboard that had 12 different sounds and barely the touch of an acoustic piano. 5 years later, he bought us a proper upright. a reconditioned Yamaha U-1 that i think has better sound than any other uprights I've played so far. my dad bragged that he was so lucky to get that one for 7k and it still sounded superior. a brand new would cost nearly 20k.



i'm glad i had a formal and a rather classical training. as usual, we kids started off with scales. two octaves and at a moderate pace which i used to dislike at first. many would agree as well but to those who think that scales are useless, they actually miss a great training for improvisation. being proficient in the scales mean that you're proficient in pressing the right key to produce an acceptable, audible melody.



my dad has always been a big encouragement for me to take music seriously though not to level of making a living out of it. he believes that one who's trained solely on classical pieces is hardly a musician. i believe that one who plays music just by trying to playing other music exactly note by note is missing 99% of the beauty of music playing. dad told me to developed my listening skills at a very early age. he would accompany me with his guitar. on the other hand, i'm very poor in my sightreading since i quite dislike playing from music sheets. but i think they are useful to learn other players technique.



i quit taking music lessons when i was form 1 after 7 years of tutorship under Mrs. Wong. she's my longest teacher that I've ever had. most school teachers will only teach me for no more than 2 years. i left at Grade 5, a grade to me i think is the grade where most boys leave music lessons. zunliang left because his parents promised him than he can stop taking lessons after grade 5. on the ABRSM exams, i merely make the passing grade which saves my parents from another year of expensive fees. generally, girls do better than boys in the piano exams and that explains why many of them made it to the 8th grade. priscilla, tracy, florence, kerry, etc. counting the guy friends of mine: .... none.



i quit because learning 3 pieces for a year just to be tested by an Englishman for half an hour. it gets more and more tense as the exam day gets nearer. my sister, during one year, failed to show up for her exam because she having a really bad fever. she had to wait for another year to pass her current grade. in short, she took 2 years complete her third grade all because of being terribly ill during the exam day.



on the other hand, the classical music training taught me how to play properly. the scales that i learned are so useful that i still can play any of them today. from that, i learned the proper fingering. since it's my parents 21st wedding anniversary (yes, i'm the eldest) tomorrow, i'd like thank them for spending a significant portion of their monthly salary on an opportunity that not every child will have.

econs 4th test was today. hopefully my grades will be good enough so that i don't have to take the finals.



concepts and probability homework due tomorrow. yet to properly start on any of them.

Despite 2 cups of coffee, I still feel sluggish for another round of concepts revision. Two more weeks of this dreadful first summer session and then I'm done. But there would only be a weekend for rest until the second session starts.



Max arrived this morning 1 1/2 hours late. It can be guaranteed that Amtrak trains never arrive on time. Even on short journeys. I remember going to Boston from NYC last winter. The train was 30 minutes late and that 30 minutes provided a Singaporen conman a chance to ask me for money. He approached me saying that he needs me to return to Boston because he lost his backpack. Initially, he spoke Chinese and within seconds I told that I'm not. "You Malaysian? Oh, good, good. I'm from Singapore. You know Sandakan? I have sister in sandakan?" Ok, that sounds genuine. Imagine someone telling you the name of a Sabahan town in the middle of Penn Station, NYC. I wanted to give him 8 bucks until he said he needed $18. Wtf. He just said he needed $8. So, I told him that I don't have that much cash. He kept on begging like a small kid holding his pee. I gave a few rather strong No's and he soon left. Oh ya, another funny incident happened then too. There was a punk girl walking around showing her middle finger to us travellers.



...



My friends have been telling me not to drink too much coffee lately. I thought 3 cups a day was bad enough until Max and Leong Sing came here. Both of them have been drinking coffee from my coffee maker for the whole evening as if it's like water or cordial drinks. Yes, there are still drinking right now as they watched anime. I'm glad that there are people who are much addicted than I do.



I realized that Max and Leong Sing have much more social life than I do here. I do not have the typical American dorm life. I hardly go around Pittsburgh. It has always been either home, campus or Squirell Hill. I wish U. of Chicago has a renown comp engineering department or at least, an engineering school but they don't. I would transfer there if they do.



I'm thinking of going to Chicago for the 4th of July holiday weekend. $140 for a round trip to Chicago on U.S. Airways. I'm not sure whether I should spend that amount of money to visit the Windy City.

Leong Sing arrived via flight from Chicago this morning. So, Kenneth and I picked him up. Never seen Pittsburgh this quiet during the day although I would consider it to be a quiet city generally. We went to strip district to buy groceries as our supplies of soy sauce, minced garlic, bee hoon etc. had ran out. I discovered that the strip is actually bustling on Saturday mornings.



It was an atmosphere 10 times better than going to a shopping mall which the girl friends of mine love to go to during any free time (sigh). The Strip today had lots of street vendors selling rather cheap goods like souvenir t-shirts and pastries. The scene was somewhat similar to Notting Hill's I guess. I was really taken by surprise because all along I though the Strip is just another quiet part of a city with a declining population. I just wish Pittsburgh is as vibrant as New York. It's a sad thing to note that in the 1940s Pittsburgh population was over 600 000 and today it's merely above 300 000. Thanks to the closing of the major steel mills the city no longer attracts job seekers. In fact, this city seems to me a retiring place for old people.



NYC is an awesome city to visit. 12 days there during winter was amazing despite the cold. It didn't take me long to familiarize myself with the street system in Manhattan and the subway. The island was so full of people. I doubt the city will be declining in population. It has never depended on any mining industry. What kept NYC alive as it was 150 years ago is its financial district and continuation of the influx of immigrants. I wish I can return there again this summer. Maybe to enjoy the streets and avenues without the hindrance of chilly weather. Tasneem couldn't agree more on how great the city is.



We watched Harry Porter today, a week after its release. It was much better than the previous two.

Max and Leong Sing will be coming down to Pittsburgh from Chicago this weekend. Their Spring quarter ends this week so they'll have a week off before summer classes.



I've been very unmotivated for the past 2 days. No will to work hard especially revise the discrete math class that I'm taking right now. Today's lecture was the worst since the course began 3.5 weeks ago. Frankly speaking, I could only absorb 10% of the 1.5-hour long class on ring theory, equivalent classes and binary operations. The lecturer went so fast that every new material is based on previous material that was taught 5 minutes before.



Summer courses cram so information in a very short period of time. Maybe I'm not born to understand maths quickly or it's all because I didn't put much effort of revising after classes.



Feels like throwing books at the four walls of bedroom. Even out of the window.



What a stressful life in a tech school.

I'm really disappointed with my concepts grade today. One of the lowest in the class 11 students. I really thank God for having the professor to award and extra bonus points of 20 due to some typo.



Called home today and surprise to hear from my little bro that he and my uncle were mugged on in Sarawak Plaza, Kuching. They were approached by some youths claiming that they belong to some gang and asked for money from my uncle. My brother was quite scared but he did a very wise thing. He stood up and walked away. The leader of the gang asked where my brother is going. He boldly said that he's gonna call the police. "You telephone la kalau you berani". My uncle was not really afraid but found it amusing to be in that kind of situation.



My bro placed a call to dad who was back home. He called a friend of his who's one of the assistants supritendants in the Kuching. My bro called my elder uncle who called a cousin who's some quite important person in the state government. In 10 mins, my bro said, 2 police cars arrived but the gang had left already. The only thing that they took was my uncle's cellphone.

Nice. I spent the weekend working my ass on stuffing theorems and proofs into my head. It's very hard to concentrate at times. There's so much things going around that need attention. Anyway, the Concepts exam this afternoon was quite tough. Fortunately, the professor let us answer only 5 out of the 10 questiosns.



Went to Hunt library to borrow Ronald Reagan's A Life of Letters. The library search engine, Cameo, lists in in the "gifts" section. When I asked the librarian on the whereabout of the section, she said books listed under "GIFTS" are still being processed and yet to be placed in their sections. I read some of the letters in the bok before and they were quite interesting especially one when Reagan wrote to his son Michael who was having problems with his grades in school.



I used to write to X before. Even when she's around. It was funny how we used to exchange letters 5 to 6 pages long, mine having the worse handwriting. In fact, much worse because I felt somehow threaten by the amount that she could write.



Another exam tomorrow. Econs. Econs will over by this week. I hope I won't have to take the final.

"When the Lord calls me home, whenever that may be," he said, "I will leave with the greatest love for this country of ours and eternal optimism for its future. I now begin the journey that will lead me into the sunset of my life. I know that for America there will always be a bright dawn ahead."



- last words of Ronald Reagan



I remember reading about Alzheimer in one of Nicholas Sparks' novel called The Notebook. What a sad way to die by slowly forgetting people you love.

The exam review during Concepts was intmidating with the expecation to know how to prove every single theorem and lemma the lecturer presented for the past 3 weeks. So, we headed out to GE to buy some supplies for the upcoming week.



Bob was reluctant to cook so I took up the duty and made nasi lemak. I'm probably biased but I think my mum's nasi lemak sambal is the best in the world. No kidding. So, I cooked the sambil based on her recipe. Then, I saw a bag of uneaten Pretzels belonging to Kenneth. It was there since Winter so I think it's time we make use of it. None of us really like to eat Pretzels anyway. Since chicken is part of nasi lemak, so I decided to use the pretzel crumbs as a coating for the fried chicken. Grounding the pretzel was a problem. Having the pretzels packed in a ziplock bag, I took a soda bottle full of water and start crusing them. It didn't really ground much and the ziplock bag started to tear. So, I used the blender instead.



Saw yummy brownies sold at Giant Eagle but what a price for just half-a-cake. So, I baked one last night. First time baking a cake. I didn't really work that well. Too moist.

Now Arthemiz mentioning of travelling during the summer, I'm thinking of New Orleans. But the flights there are expensive. For the 4th of July weekend, a return is at least $500 on Orbitz. Thinking of going to Chicago but I'm not really keen of going there except for visiting my friends.



Can't wait to go home for the 3 weeks aftert summer 2. Actually, I can't wait to travel out of Pittsburgh.

Another 5 a.m. bed time. Surprisingly, these days I sleep early on weekends. Summer classes can be taxing when the questions are hard and even discussion is not allowed. I have a probability exam tomorrow and a concepts exam monday as well as a econs exam on Wednesday. Good thing that econs will be end by next week so I don't have to take up at 8 for the rest of Summer 1.



So far, today's weather has been good. Not very hot. Around 20 C. No sweat but still can wear shorts and t shirt around. That's the ideal weather.



I'm thinking of working as a lab assistant for 15-100 in the coming fall. Applied for it but need to attend some recruitment meeting. If I get the job, I'll be spending some weekday nights in the programming clusters helping freshmen out with their programming assignments. I need to start working on some job if I am to apply for internship in the future. Right now, I have no working experience.

Click here for another interesting post about the lost heir of blues legeng Robert Johnson. A inspiring story somehow.

Read this:

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=572&ncid=572&e=5&u=/nm/20040531/lf_nm/france_germany_warbabies_dc_1



a very sad thing to find out

What a waste. The web server thing is getting more and more distracting. I played around php-nuke and tried to set up a forum for my secondary school but the sendmail daemon screwed up that registered users didn't get any confirmation e-mail. No wonder no one is in the members list.



Summer school here is really like a summer boot camp. It's a mental one though. For the past 2 weeks, I've been grilled with basic discrete maths that drives me into a record low of confidence. My friends who are not taking summer classes tell me that what I'm doing just sucks but I find it's not much different than studying during the normal semester. I enjoy concepts of math but the material is really needs a good push or squeeze to get into that narrow pipe that delivers knowledge into my brain. Not just delivering it into my brain is my problem, but to make sure of it at the right time and at the least amount of time is another problem. What a way to describe dumbness. Is there such a word, dumbness?



I think I drank 5 cups of coffee today. Thanks to the pack of coffee machine that makes coffee-making a very appealing activity. Oh, I feeel quite jittery now.



Oh again, it's Gawai today. My grand family is not celebrating it the usual way. My grandparents are somewhere in Colorado with one of my uncles and his family. They arrived last week but no plans are made to visit me here in Pittsburgh. So, the gathering place this year is Kuching. My family's there right now I think. To me, it's just another day spent in my room with sheets of paper lying around and a very distracting laptop. No, I'm not cursing you, Thinkpad. You're still one of my closest buddies around.