January 30, 2006, 10:19am

Hey, so, I had three parties over the weekend.

Friday evening, it's the "welcome party" for new students, which was one semester late.

Saturday evening, it's the party in a fellow graduate student's house. It was planned to happen in the Christmas break. So, it ended up one month late.

And yesterday, it's a lot of fun. The New Hope Church people gave me the red pocket. They also treated me to have lunch in a Chinese restaurant (which is not quite Chinese). It was such a surprise. I was complaining to Shirley that I wanted red pockets. She actually organized that for me. So, I'm already asking for a dragon dancing for next year. :DDD

In the evening, I had a Chinese New Year party with some Chinese friends. Now, you can't imagine it. I became the chef because the ABCs don't know how to panfry the new year cake. And the people from northern China don't have the new year cake at all. So, I ended up to be the expert. Cutting up the cake into slices, put some eggs on it, and panfried it.

Feeling really strange. I can cook! :DDDDD

January 28, 6:07pm

Forgot to tell you... I was mad enough yesterday, thinking about the Chinese New Year. Food, all kinds of food. And I didn't see any here though a friend said she bought a small white radish cake for $3.99.

So, what I did to compensate was to search for photos of CNY food on the web.

January 28, 2006, 5:46pm

Hey, Happy Chinese New Year!!!

I cleaned my apartment. Not on the big cleaning day. I only had time to clean this afternoon.

Was having the "welcome party" last night for new students in developmental psychology. This was meant to happen in fall. It's months late but it's still fun.

When I become a faculty one day, I ought to be friendly to my students and invite them to my home. So, there is a lot for me to do. 1. Study hard for my Ph.D., 2. get a job in the university, 3. build a home, 4. be friendly to students, 5. invite them to my home.

Let me do this step by step. :)

January 24, 2006, 7:24pm

I called the HP case manager three times yesterday. Finally got him at around 7:30pm. I simply wouldn't let him go again.

So, finally, he agreed to fix my computer and I can have Fedex to send it to California. Actually I can have a Fedex pickup from home but I simply won't be at home from 1-5pm on weekdays. So, he gave me an account number and I can go to Fedex myself.

Then, Fedex still came and left me a tag at the door today. Saying that they missed me. Come on, I already said I wouldn't be here so why arranging the pickup when we had agreed that I'd go to Fedex myself?

Anyways, I have to figure out how to pack the notebook.

Mark, thank you so much for your email. I finally understand why it's emphasized so much about having persistence to do a PhD. Persistence is necessary for anything I have to do.

I'm not going for any unreasonable request. When I bought the notebook, it said clearly that I would have three-year local warranty and one-year international warranty. I simply don't understand why I have to fight this long battle to get my notebook repaired here.

January 21, 2006, 11:47pm

Shocking. Got the phone bill this month and I have to pay over $100... It's the long distance to Hong Kong. $3.17 per minute. This is like a robbery.

Got to find out where to get a phone card.

January 19, 2006, 12:40am

So, BBB got back to me. And HP will have until Feburary 8 to respond.

Let's see what it's going to happen to my half-functioning computer.

Very tired. Working late in my office to finish my scholarship application essay. Will have to grade a pile of student homework. Statistics assignment, methodology paper... all that.

Snafu.

January 17, 2006, 7:26pm

So, HP still has not got back to me. Hopefully, BBB will get back to me tomorrow. I keep thinking about the Andy Lau TV commercial... what a service attitude!

January 13, 2006, 10:13pm

Got a collect call request from the jail a second time. I hanged up again. Months ago when I got the first call, I thought it's just someone calling a wrong number. So, this time, I emailed to the jail director, and said this number is now used by me and I don't know anyone in the jail.

I feel really sad about this. I was a volunteer to write to inmates who do not receive any call or letter in Hong Kong. Usually, they are from mainland China. Many of them write very well. I even wrote to one in English because he said he wanted to learn English better. I must say, he has excellent grammar and very good vocabulary. Others wrote and told me what they thought about Lu Xun. It's such a shame. I didn't read any Lu Xun except one book chapter in F.4 or F.5.

They are very lonely in the jail. They said, people who do not receive letters or do not have any visitors are looked down by people who have letters and visitors.

I feel very bad about this inmate calling my number trying to find the person he or she wants to talk to. So many times, I feel so sad for not having a functional family. I don't call them. The best I can do is to avoid them. I have a feeling like, if anything happens, I'm on my own. I don't have any family to go back to. To have someone say, "Don't worry. This is going to be OK."

I cannot imagine how terrible the situation can be trying to reach out for someone in vain. I cannot trust my family in anyways. But I have friends supporting me. You're all a call or an email away.

Carmen and Lok, thank you so much for downloading the journal paper for me. And Mark, I finally got really furious about how they are handling my warranty issue and sent a complaint to Better Business Bureau and https://www.econsumer.gov.

BTW, the first week of the Spring semester has gone... time files. Went to the Gator Night movie, that is, free movie for students. It's Chicken Little. *Sigh*

Hey, JLM pals, remember what sort of movies we'd have in 208? Trois couleurs! And we would have stimulating discussions after movies. Just anything. Or Eric Ma stuff.

I really wonder, how come here in school, they would offer movie shows that may be comparable intellectually to the Stephen Chow movies in Hong Kong?

January 11, 2006, 8:04pm

So very frustrated. My knees got very bad since yesterday evening. It's been cold for days and it's just getting worse and worse.

Still haven't heard from the management about to fix the stove. So, I left two messages in the maintenance answering machine. And emailed the director.

HP called and left a message. But how on earth I will be at home to pick up the phone when my computer is only half-working?

Anyways, I got to work hard. Want to apply for a small scholarship. And a lot more things to handle in this semester. Will need to begin my master's research.

January 7, 2006, 10:58am

Just a quick note to let you know I'm still alive. Just that my HP notebook is down and HP here said I have to send it back to Hong Kong for the warranty repair.

So, I need to make sure HP Hong Kong is going to repair it for me. I really have to thank Leanne and Emily to help me deal with HP in Hong Kong.

So, nothing is sorted out so far. When I called HP here, they even tried to convince me to buy a discounted notebook. How on earth I'm going to buy another notebook when my notebook is broken in less than six months? Anyways, having an offer is better than none.

Last night, I nearly got a fire in the kitchen. Leanne, you know, I called you after that. I'm just blessed enough to be alive to talk to you again.

I was boiling water. Checking my answering machine right beside the stove when I was waiting for the water to boil. Then, I heard some Shhhhhhh sound and saw lots of sparks in the stove. Lucky enough, I was standing right beside the stove so I turned off the stove immediately.

The stove burned a hole in the pot and water was running into the stove. And the coil in the stove is now broken. I left a message in the managment maintanence call machine. Well, it's Friday evening so the management will only come next Monday the earliest.

What a new year I'm having. But it's real good I'm still alive. Things can only be worse.

January 2, 2006, 6:06pm

My self-esteem is hurt. I can't believe I have done such a stupid thing.

I was trying to clean the windows. It's real dirty. When I poured the blackish water into the toilet, I accidentally poured the towel into it.

So, my toilet is blocked two times in two weeks. Last time was when I just came back from Miami and it's blocked for reasons that I never know. And this time, the reason is me...

The management is having the new year holiday and there's no one to answer the call. So, I paid $60 and called a plumber to come fix it.

What a huge cost to learn a lesson in the new year. And I'm sure I have more lessons to learn.