I just found out that I’ve been accepted to the ING New York City Marathon 2009. Since there’s always a very large pool of applicants, there is a lottery system for the entry to this marathon. I submitted my application sometime in May, right after watching the four Biggest Loser semi-finalist complete their first marathon.

If they can do it, maybe I can do it too…

It’s only after I submitted my application that it sort of dawned on me that I’ve entered into a contract that if I am chosen, I’ll be paying $171 for the marathon fee. If I back out, I would have paid $171 for nothing.

Just before the lottery results were announced, I started to doubt this spur of the moment decision. A marathon…6 hours of pain on marathon day, not to mention the discomfort of over 16 weeks of training to run 26.2 miles. I think I was hoping that I would not be chosen.

But I was chosen, so it’s a bittersweet thing. Sort of like “Yayyy!!! Oh no….”

I’m kind of excited that I have the opportunity to participate in the NYC Marathon. If I can endure through 6 years of graduate school in the US (so far) and the chronic stress of dissertation research for the past year and probably another 8 more months to go, I can endure 6 hours of running/walking. It’ll be great that when I finally reach the finish line because then I would have completed something from start to finish this year.

Dissertation research can get very disappointing, especially when it drags on and on and each day only results in one data point. So many more uncertain days to go. It’s also sad when I see friends finishing their research and graduating and I’m still here, struggling through another day for another data point.

I guess I’m trying to run off the frustration!

Anyway, here is my brand new marathon training blog: Run Ailsa Run

Research work routine has slowly solidified:
8-9am - research work with Daniel.
1-2pm - research work with Rob.

Fortunately for me, both participants are located within walking distance of each other and around 25 minutes drive from my home. Unfortunately for me, the 2 sessions are 4 hours apart. I couldn’t imagine driving home and back again in that 4 hours. So thus far, I’ve window shopped and/or hung out at a coffee shop to pass the time. Sometimes I would try to get some work done at the coffee shop but those sessions normally didn’t last more that 1.5 hours. It’s hard to get settled down to some boring work at the coffee shop. I always ended up leaving earlier than planned and I would be off to more window and/or real shopping.

At one point I was even tempted to sign up for a summer only student pass at the gym that’s also within walking distance. It cost $99 but since I’ve already paid for the spinning classes that I’m taking at the university’s gym, I was not eager to spend more money. Then a friend recommended the Whitehall library which is only a very short drive away. That sounded like a good place to hang out.

Today, I made the very first trip to the library (after a short window shopping trip). It’s a small cosy library. I love the parking lot. There are many shady trees that I can park my car underneath to keep my car relatively cooler during the hot summer months. In the library, there are several study carrels and I’m currently typing this while seated at one of them. They also have a rather large DVD collection. I’m considering becoming a member so that I can borrow those. This hiding place is definitely the economical and more productive place to spend 4 hours.

Here are some interesting photos:

The bags I lugged around every day:

1. My handbag: purse, sunglasses, tissues, lip balm, keys, hand sanitizer, etc.

2. My pink research bag: portable DVD player, research DVDs, folder with all the data sheets, 2 clipboards for data collection, flip ultra videocam, digital camera, gorillapod, extra batteries, a copy of my dissertation proposal, dissertation log book, and items for the “practice the skill” instructional session with Daniel (i.e., an empty spray bottle, rags, rubberbands).

3. My messenger bag (with stuff for the 4 hr in between work): Neosmart keyboard, research articles (for the never ending meta-analysis work), and iPod.

4. My cooler lunch bag: 2 freeze paks, a bottle of cold water, breakfast (muesli with vanilla yogurt) and pre-lunch (peanut butter and jam sandwich).

Since I dropped by a grocery store on the way home after research work was done, I came home with 6 bags.

June came around so quickly this year. Once upon a time, in March, I promised my first research participant, Daniel, that when we’re done with the research in June, I’ll take him to a nice chinese buffet restaurant for dinner. It’s June now and we’re only somewhat close to 1/3 done. The nice chinese buffet dinner has been postponed to August, possibly even later…

I have almost completed videotaping Daniel for the his second job task. This time around it was much easier. During the videotaping sessions for the first task, it was totally new to him so it was very difficult to get to him to do some things more than once and he got upset when we had him say some sentences more than once. Plus, I was rather tensed up about the whole videotaping business since it was also my first time doing the videotaping and trying to get everything to look as good as possible.

Videotaping the second task took a few more sessions because Daniel was dropped off late and we only had 30 minutes instead of an hour. So far, we have gone through three 30 minutes videotaping sessions and I think that should be enough. I just need one more clip of the store manger thanking Daniel for doing a good job and that has been scheduled for this Wednesday.

I’ve started my research work with my second participant, Rob. Work-wise, Rob is higher functioning so his 3 chosen job tasks are slightly more complex than Daniel’s. The first job task for Rob is cleaning the fitting room. Cleaning the fitting room as in removing all clothing and hangers from the fitting rooms, hanging them up again, matching the size of the item and the correct size hanger, and bring them out to the store and place them in their respective rack according to size.

Sounds simple enough until I tried videotaping him doing that task. Since I was trying to keep him slightly clueless regarding the correct sequence and steps to completing this task, I had to videotape the task out of sequence. We only had a short window of opportunity to do the videotaping, between 9:30 to 10am, and we had to stop the videotaping once the store opens. Those 2 mornings were definitely the craziest research days thus far. So many things to do, so little time, and so many things to keep track. I had to go back to the store another 3 days to do more videotaping of establishing shots that I needed which did not require Rob to be in them.

Because I didn’t foresee the craziness, I wasn’t well prepared and ended up with lots of continuity problems with the videos. Continuity problems? One videotaping session Rob was wearing white pants and the next session, he came in black pants. So in the final edited videos, he’s in white pants while walking out of the fitting room and in the next instant, he’s in black pants while looking for the correct rack. There’s a few more similar errors in the videos.

The cleaning the fitting room task is more dynamic and we had to move all over the store and the fitting room. Because of that, I had to do without the tripod and just held the flip video camera in my hand which resulted in some not so great clips. According to a friend, those shots looked like they were from a haunted movie! I have to agree with her and tried not to use the “haunted movie” clips.

After over 20 hours of video editing, I finally have the 2 videos ready for Rob. Unfortunately for me, Rob picked up on some of the steps during the videotaping session and he’s been demonstrating those steps during the second baseline. Since I’m evaluating the effectiveness of the videos to teach him the skill, if he picks up the skill during the videotaping session, without having the need to watch the videos, then my video intervention has just been proven useless/needless. Anyway, hopefully he does not pick up on all the steps and that he will only perform at 100% after watching the videos.

It has been a crazy applied research experience. With Daniel, apparently the task might be too difficult (or the videos were ineffective ) since he has not been able to independently complete the task after 2 months of watching the videos. But with Rob, he’s picked up some of parts of the skill even without needing to watch the videos. I guess I have just proven that the videos may not be worth all the trouble and it’s probably easier to just teach the tasks. On the bright side, both Daniel and Ron are excited to get a copy of their videos to show their family and friends. Unfortunately for them, they only get the DVDs at the end of the study.

I bought some frozen oysters that were on sale during my last Christmas trip to the Korean grocery store. Yesterday, I looked up Lily’s Oyster Omelette recipe and decided to give that a try. Instead of rice flour, I used sweet rice flour, leftover from my kimchi making days.

I think it looks pretty good, don’t you? It tasted quite alright too

Lately I’ve been noticing many Canadian geese flying around and hanging out at the harvested corn field behind my place. Twice while I was out walking (and probably scaring the geese), I watched the geese (over 200 of them) just take off from the field simultaneously, in sync. That was an awesome sight and sound. And both times, I wished I had my video camera with me.

Today when I went out for my walk, I brought along my tiny flip video hoping that this will be the day that I catch the most awesome video ever.

When I came out of the apartment, the sky was full of flying geese, as shown in this video.

And the field was filled with them too. I kept watching flocks of geese check out the place and landed in the middle of the field. In the video below, you can’t really see the geese in the field but there were lots of them walking here and there.

All that time while I stood waiting, I kept thinking, “Where are the crazy dogs, when you need one?” None of the dogs that were walking with their owners ran out into the field to chase the geese. So the geese just walked around the field, making lots of noise.

Finally, the sun set and it got rather cold. And I was tempted to pick something up and throw it at the geese, just so that I could capture a “Canadian geese: Awesome mass take-off” video. No, I didn’t throw anything and the geese just hung around in the middle of the field.

For a while, I kept wondering, “Why can’t the geese just fly quietly? Why do they have to make the loud honking sound all the time?” I finally figured it could be their way of checking if their gang is still behind them when they are flying in their big V formation. I mean they can’t be turning their heads all the time, right

Goose #1 to Goose #2: You still there?
Goose #2 to Goose #1: Yes.
Then Goose #2 to Goose #3: You still there?
And on and on….

Apparently their loud honking sounds, when they fly by, also indicate the arrival of Spring.

I invited four friends over for this year’s reunion dinner. Unlike last year’s elaborate Yong Tau Foo reunion dinner, I wanted to keep this year’s menu simple. Nothing fancy, just dishes that I might cook for myself any other day. So we had:

1) Stir-fried vegetables (broccoli, carrots, snap peas, mushrooms) with chicken.

I really liked the color of this dish. I kept to the common broccoli and carrots because my American friends may not be too adventurous when it came to their vegetables.

2) Tomyam soup with nappa cabbage, carrots, onions, tofu and chicken.

I didn’t have time to take a picture of the soup so here is a recycled old photo of a tomyam soup that I made ages ago. This isn’t a safe dish as it may be too spicy, but at the same time it shouldn’t be totally new since there are some Thai restaurants around. This soup added the “hot, spicy, sour” factor to the meal.

3) Baked chicken wings

I had to include a child-friendly item because a friend was bringing her 9-year-old daughter. But the girl would rather play with my Lego than eat.

4) Steam tofu with green onions and oyster sauce.

This photo was taken at another dinner that I hosted 2-3 months ago. I made a tofu theme dinner that day (i.e., steam tofu, stir-fry tofu puff with mushroom, and tomyam soup with turnip tops and texturized vegetable protein TVP-a soybean product).

Anyway, the steam tofu was served the same way, with green onions, garlic oil and oyster sauce. This was the “fear factor” dish since tofu is not common in this area and some people are afraid of the white cheese-looking item.

I wanted to make this dish to expose my guests to authentic simple Chinese food. I was hoping that my guests would take a step out of their food comfort zone and try the tofu. I think two of them did but one of my guests later told me she didn’t try the tofu. She failed the fear factor test!

And finally, we had carrot cake (that I baked) and eclairs (that someone brought) for dessert.

I’ve had this office chair since May 2006. A student was moving out and I bought it from her for $10. It was alright initially but soon the cushion wore off. It also never supported my back well. Lately, my back has been feeling strained and tired. Time for a new chair but good office chairs are not cheap.

I was attracted to this Staples Vocazo (mesh back with lumbar support), but it costs $99. Even with the $25 discount coupon that I received from Staples, it’s still more than what I’m willing to pay.

Then this week, the Staples store offered this nice microfiber task chair called Mullen for $69 (original price $129). The cushion looks so thick and comfy. But still too expensive.

There’s also this Staples Manilo leather manager chair for $39. But the reviews were really bad for this particular chair.

I decided my back comfort will have to wait a little longer till I’m in a better financial position.

Anyway I finally got verbal permission from the Salvation Army thrift store (YAY!!), so now I could start working on my research. Today, I went to the thrift store to get some research work done and guess what I saw?

This nice used office chair for $16! The tag said that it has been sanitized but I actually saw a big piece of cracker/biscuit in one of the crevices. Even so, $16 is a good deal. So now I am sitting comfortably in my “new” office chair….aahhhh….

I guess waiting pays.

Maybe I’ll donate the old chair back to the thrift store…

It’s been really cold the past few days. The temperature dropped to -17C but because of the windchill, it felt like -24C.

I normally turn off the heater in my room when I sleep. I do that because:
1) to save electricity, save money
2) the air gets really dry when the heater is turned on
3) since my bed is near the heater, I’m afraid my blanket might fall on the heater and catch fire.

But because the heater is off, it gets really cold in the room especially when the temperature is -17C outside.

From Cha-plang photos

For those really cold nights, in order to sleep comfortably and “warmly,” I use:
a) a cotton blanket folded in half (2 layers)
b) a fleece blanket (1 layer)
c) a polyester fiber-filled comforter in a flannel comforter cover (3 layers).

By the way, I was also wearing three t-shirts.

From Cha-plang photos

Whenever it is cold outside, water vapor will condense on the cold window inside the apartment…like the water droplets on the outside of an ice-cold glass of water.

From Cha-plang photos

The past two mornings when I woke up, I found ice on the window….not ice outside the apartment but ice on the window inside my room!

From Cha-plang photos

Thankfully, the deep freeze is coming to an end.

From Cha-plang photos

The first “major” snow of 2009 here.

It was nice and warm in the apartment but I decided to go out for a very short walk anyway. Took some photos, which was not easy to do with snow flakes falling everywhere.

I didn’t want to totally lose the fuzzy feeling for snow. It’s nice for a short while then reality kicks in and I have to dig out my car and walk around in slushy dirty roads.

I think the most magical moment is when thick fluffy snow is falling and you’re traveling in a car. The snowflakes look like they are suspended in mid air, and then your car hits them.

From Max in the Adirondacks

I started this Max in the Adirondacks cross-stitch project in 2004. The first summer that I was home in 2004, I took this back and was working on it (off and on) for three months. I like Max in the Adirondacks because the cat and fishing gears remind me of my dad.

From Max in the Adirondacks

At times I wondered why I chose this extremely elaborate and difficult piece. It seems it’ll never get done. After that summer, when things got busy at school, I put it aside and sort of forgot about it.

From Max in the Adirondacks

I pulled it out several days ago and started to work on it again. I guess the frustration of not being able to get things done for my dissertation makes me want to do plug away at something, anything, just to see something being completed.

From Max in the Adirondacks