On September 16, I lamented about the myriad of car problems that I faced. I listed out many things that I needed to do but I only did one: I checked the area around the spare tire for the radio code – Nothing. Since at that time I was still working on my comprehensive exam, I thought I could put everything on hold till after the exam. I thought wrong.

September 24
On the day before the exam was over, the car died (or so I thought). I drove home from the office, parked the car, closed the sunroof and windows, and before I could turn off the ignition the car just died. Usually if this happened, the alarm would sound when I opened the door, but that didn’t happen. I thought that was odd. Anyway that’s great, no alarm, so I tried to close all the doors using the key but only the driver’s door would lock..this was very odd. So I got into the car and tried to start the car but no sound nothing. No cranking sound, nothing happened. Yikes….the battery died and it wouldn’t wait till my exam was over. I manually locked all the doors and was very grateful that I was home and the sunroof and windows were closed before the battery died. What to do? I still had to work on my exam, so I just mentally put this stress aside and focused on the important and urgent task at hand. But at the same time I was planning all the things I needed to:
1. Call Garage Kleins to inquire about the battery.
2. Call AAA and get them to come and either jumpstart the car or toll the car to Kleins.

September 25
I handed in the second part of my comprehensive exam. I took the shuttle bus home. As I walked past the car, I thought I might as well try to start the car one more time before I did all the calling. When I opened the driver’s door, I was pleasantly surprised that the other doors would unlock too. And to my absolute amazement, the car started so I quickly drove to Kleins, crossing my fingers that the car would not die on the way there. I got there, told the mechanic my long long car problem history, stretching back to last winter. He looked at the battery and started the car many times and each time without fail the car started. Isn’t that the usual case?!! When you finally bring it to the expert, the problem cease to exist. He said everything looked fine but from what I told him, it sounded like a battery problem. So I suggested that I get a new battery instead. He went to look up a manual on battery-types for my car but then he didn’t have the exact size, so he took one off the shelf and said that that should work. And I was thinking, “Huh?! Can he do that? Is that safe? Maybe I should wait till he gets the right battery size.” But as usual, he’s the expert, so I should maybe just keep my mouth shut. As he was working to remove the battery, he eureka-ly found the source of all my car battery problems: the battery terminals were corroded, lots of oxidation on the areas that should have been clean and metal-shiny. And he went to get a battery terminal cleaning gadget and worked on it. This trip to Kleins cost $21.20.

October 8
So far no stalling, electrical shut-off, or car alarm problems. I haven’t worked on trying to remove the audio player to get the serial number yet. I suspect that I won’t be able to do it on my own. Even so, I should give it a try one of these days. Anyway, I’ve gotten used to driving in silence.

October 9
I promise I will get the car washed today.

No, not in any race that matters, it’s just another Nike challenge – The 2nd Asian Challenge (check out My Run+Walks thing on the sidebar and scroll down to see Malaysia). So far, I’m the only person running for Malaysia. I hope more Malaysians join soon because at the moment it looks like Malaysia not-very Boleh.

10am to 3pm

The average age of a homeless person in the United States is 9 years old!

The college of education had its first Day of Service last Friday. The day started with an information session and a simulation activity to expose the attendees to the issue of homelessness in the area. After a free lunch, the attendees separated and went to 3 different non-profit organizations and performed some community service. My group went to the Neighborhood Center and painted a stairwell.

I expected many students/staff/faculty members would turn up for this event, but only about 15 people came…that was rather disappointing for a college of over 600 students.

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4-5:30pm

People in Mainland China do not call each other by only the first name, they will say both the last (surname) and first names. Using only the first name is too personal and culturally unacceptable. Only close family members can do that. Friends? Nope.

That’s what my chinese/mandarin exchange class teacher told me. I never knew this cultural taboo, since in Malaysia, people go by first name basis all the time.

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7-9:30pm

The bible study group met again after a long summer break. This time we are doing Beth Moore’s The Patriachs. The introduction session talked about how names are very important to people and how many people are trying to make their names known and acknowledged. This is so true in the academia world. Professors want/need to publish many articles/books to maintain their status as top people in their field. Assistant professors want/need to publish many articles and books in order to be tenured. Doctoral students want/need to be first author in several articles, and co-authors in as many articles/books as possible to boost their CV in order to get a good job. Some people are shrewd and cunning in getting their name in an article. Some people’s work are stolen from under their noses, and someone else gets the glory. So much strife just to see one’s name in print.

Top Ten things I like about Les Miserables

10. I’m close enough to the stage that I can actually see the actors’ faces/expressions and I was able to differentiate the numerous characters. Compared to my previous Broadway shows where I was sitting up in the balcony towards the back….forget about facial expressions, sometimes I couldn’t even differentiate who is who.

9. The turntable stage. A big part of the stage floor is a turntable that can spin around. So the prop people can actually set up the props on the turntable towards the back of the stage and then spin the props to the front of the stage. And when someone dies at the front of the stage, the turntable will spin and bring the “body” to the back of the stage and the “body” can get off the stage in the dark. Hard to describe actually. Just imagine a CD with miniature people and props, put that CD on the table and spin it slowly and you’ll sort of get what I mean.

8. The major props. Big gigantic wooden structures that came out from the sides to form the ghetto in one scene and then later those same structures were spunned around to form the barricade in the battle scene. Very ingenious.

7. The music. Live orchestra and actor-singers.

6. The ensemble of actors. All the actors giving their very best. Fighting on stage, messing around on stage, dying on stage.

5. The for-comedic-relief actors. The innkeeper and his wife made everyone laughed. It was good that they added some funny parts in this otherwise too intense show.

4. The story. A very remarkable story. The self-righteous Javert unmercilessly pursuing Jean Valjean who skipped parole after spending twenty years in jail/hard labor for stealing bread. Later when Jean Valjean spared Javert’s life, Javert couldn’t accept the fact that he’s indebted to a “crook”, so he committed suicide. Also, the young revolutionaries fighting and dying for justice was quite inspiring.

3.The suicide scene. They lowered a platform bridge and Javert was standing on it and then he climbed over the bridge. As soon as he jumped off the bridge, the platform was pulled up to the ceiling quickly (indicating Javert was falling deeper and deeper into the water) and only one spotlight (almost like moonlight underwater) was focused on Javert who was rolling on the floor “struggling” in the water.

2. Lea Salonga. She’s the main reason I went to see Les Miserables. Without her in the show, I probably would have gone to the Museum of Modern Art instead. I got her autograph after the show

1. The actor who played Jean Valjean. He was really good. I cried when Jean Valjean died.

Random observations and minor unsubstantiated critiques:
1. I’m glad I was in the fifth row. From where I sat, I could see sprays of spit flying out of the actors’ mouth blessing the people in the first row. I think it’s the orchestra conductor who got the most blessing. Not that the actors were purposefuly spitting, the microdroplets of spit just came out naturally when they had to sing strongly and loudly.

2. I found the very soprano-ey voice of the actor playing Cossette rather irritating.

3. Lea’s voice was lower and harder compared to her voice in Miss Saigon. I was surprised by that.

4. I thought the actor playing Eponine didn’t have strong stage presence, but she sang very well.

5. An understudy (replacement for the main actor) played Marius (a major character) in that show. So when this actor came out of the theater, many people asked for his autograph. I wonder if anyone will ask for his autograph on the days that he plays a lesser character. Because I noticed when many of the lesser character actors came out of the theater, people hardly even glanced at them.

6. Did you know that top Broadway stars earn around $30K a week?