Just got back from an Irish bar with some friends of mine interning at an invement bank. One of them shares the same birthday with me. Was listening to them whining about how their intern class at the ibank is becoming very clicky (from the work clique) where jocks and blondes are forming an exclusive gang.

Work's been pretty good. I am working for a software development team (coders, not business analysts) who writes apps for Credit Default Swap traders on Banc of America's trading desks in New York, London and even Tokyo. I don't deal with traders (at least not yet) as the applications that we develop are huge and require full software development cycles so we have business analysts to obtain the requirements from the traders.

I finally got my workstation after 2 weeks of roaming around for unused workstations. I am working from a dual-processor P4 HP machine equipped with TWO 19" LCD monitors. The cubicle and the chair are comfortable. Starbucks coffee is available free at the pantry. I work on the 29th floor at 40 West 57th St. Not sure what's the building's name. From my cubicle, I have a view of Central Park South. The building is in a quite trendy place in midtown Manhattan. I am less than a block away from the Ding Dong Plaza Hotel, made famous in Home Alone 2, and also the Trump Tower. 5th Avenue is a block away so you'll get the famous Tiffany & Co. there as well. Lunch is expensive if you sit down and eat so usually I tapau salads and eat them at my desk. Everyone does that. American's believe in quick lunches and long hours. Indeed, there are among the most hardworking societies in the world. Malaysians have long lunches and even long coffee breaks. Socializing for Americans come from Friday-night bar drinkings and not from lunches. The only restaurant eaters are bank ppl bringing the clients out for lunches.

New York is a thrilling place to be in. The Village is my favorite place as they are less touristy and caters more for a working class and student crowd. The East Village that I favor runs from 23rd St. all the way down to Astor Place near 7th and 8th St. Amos brought us to a really old Irish pub near Astor last week after a funky Japanese dinner where I ordered a whole fried frog. Friday was drinks at this cheap jazz bar.

The jazz bar was awesome as I met Han Chun's hot Msian housemate. Well, we came there with the intention to meet up with her. I noticed this Asian girl sitting at the couch having drink with another guy. I was like checking her out and she kept looking at me. Han Chun didnt notice her for a full hour as we drank at the bar. He turned around and realized that his hmate was there all along.

Yesterday, I took the trouble to attend CNN's Anderson Cooper's book signing. Two hours of waiting was worth the wait. If you haven't heard of him yet, Anderson is the anchor of Anderson Cooper 360. He's known for his highly-acclaimed reporting on wars and disasters from his days with ABC. He reported from Bosnia, Iraq and the Tsunami areas. So, this book that he wrote, Dispatches from the Edge, chronicles partly his life especially on the death of his father and the suicide of his elder brother. I had two copies of his book signed, one for myself and another for Kenneth. He looks just like he is on TV. Most of the crowd are girls and women, making me feeling a bit gay asking for his signature but those females are there mainly because they fancy his good looks. I am fascinated by his adventures as a journalist. I am thinking to attend to other book singings if there are any, from Anthony Bourdain and Frank McCourt. I am hoping that Christiane Armanpour (CNN's London-based Chief Foreign Correspondence) would follow the same book-writing steps of Andy sometime soon. Her experience outweighs Andy's by miles ahead.

Max is coming this weekend. I am hoping to meet up with other CMU ppl this weekend too. Friday's lunch will be with other interns, a plan that we skipped last week for lack of enthusiasm.

Privacy and How Your Keponess Concerns Me

Regardless how close the person is to me, even if he's family member, I expect him or her to respect my privacy when I decide to hide or not to discuss something. I just couldn't understand why some people (especially Malaysians!!) become angry when their friends refuse to share something with them.

I am thinking of taking up either saxaphone or trumpet and one day play in such a band.

Trying to Improv

Time flies extremely fast. These are the last two weeks of the Spring semester. Finals are coming up. Worse, projects are wrapping up. Presentations. Reports. I've been having very little sleep since the carnival, up till 5 a.m. almost every night working on this huge distributed systems lab. Yet, on Thursday, I took time off to drive up to Cleveland for Dim Sum. Zane and I rented a Nissan Altima with a 2.5 L engine. The ride was smooth. I was driving on the way back and 100 mph felt like 60 on a Dodge Neon. Anyway, we arrived in this dying city just in time for a heavy Dim Sun lunch. $11 including tips for dim sum that I barely can finish. Pretty cheap, eh? We met up with Brian after he finished work for some beer at this local brewery cum restaurant in the hippest part of town, West 25th St. The joke of the day came when the waitress brought us our finger food, "pub bites", which was a fried fish. $9 for 6 ounces of fish. King, Zane and I had 2 bites each. $3 for 2 bites. $1.50/bite. We might have gotten a bargain for the dim sum during lunch but we couldn't run away from being ripped off. Zane said I should do my Jesus thing - multiply the fish.

Friends have associated me with religion because I do talk a lot about Christianity but not to preach but simply as topics of laid back conversations. I do find interest a little bit of Theology but I don't find myself as that Christian hot shot wearing a Christian T-shirt 24/7 or having crucifixes around my neck. I don't listen only to Hillsong and I definitely don't have Christians as my closest circles of friends. I disagree when Christians (or with any religion as a matter of fact) get too close with each other, starting to form a tight clique or community. Eat, sleep and work with Christians when you should be a silent witness of Christ out there with your Muslim, Buddhist and Atheist brothers. This applies only to the lay people like us as I do agree and even am very well supportive of religious orders like monks and nuns because their sacrifices in giving up their lives to God.

Btw, I was getting a tour of the Penn State campus with Rafiq during Spring break. One building, called the Willard building, has a preacher from the Orthodox church preaching every afternoon. I happened to listen to him preaching about rock music in Christianity that Protestant churches are being said to be "cool" because they have Gospel pop during the service. But Christianity isn't about being a "cool" religion or being modern in accordance of current trends. All these hype and preaching about the Christian faith is able to restore your lives from your troubles is extremely misleading. Being a Christian is not about being protected by Jesus from personal, school, financial problems. It's a religion that promotes selflessness and ascetism.

Also, I have my own not-so-supportive view on the charistmatic movement within the Catholic church but I'll talk about it another day. Interesting to note that the charistmatic movement within the Catholic church originated from Dusquene University, Pittsburgh which is located 2-3 miles from where I am currently sitting right now.

Alright. Party time for carnival is over. Time to focus on the finals. BofA starts exactly in a month. Waiting for the good times.