Naked

So, my watch stopped today. It stopped at 5:03 AM. So when I put it on my wrist on my way to school this morning, it was there, not pulsing, dead. I hate it!

Maybe it is the battery, or maybe it is something else. I had the battery changed last year, I suppose, so that may be the problem. Or maybe it was because two weeks ago, I was rained on very hard, and some moisture got inside, so it clouded the glass window.

So there, I had to put my Seiko Macchina Sportiva away for the moment, until when I have the time to visit the watch shop and see whether I need a new battery or a new watch. Come to think of it, I got it ten years ago, in Japan, when I was just 16.

I suppose the fact that I do not have a watch at the moment makes me feel naked. You know, that feeling that somehow I lost control of time, that I won't be able to tell time by just by surreptitiously glancing at your arm, which won't even take a few milliseconds of your time, just a simple glance, and that's it! You're back in time.

Now, I have to take out my cell phone from my pocket in order to tell the time. Funny, but not having my wristwatch makes me conscious of how many times I look at my wrist to tell the time. I guess I have been doing it quite a lot, since now that I don't have it, I still do that gesture, and get disappointed of course. Not having my watch there makes me notice the action.

So there, I feel naked, incomplete, vulnerable. I better head to the watch shop and see whether they can fix it. In the meantime, I am here enjoying Bela Bartok's string quartets, given the fact that I have no pressing thing that I have to deal with, since I finished my paper revision by yesterday.

(Take the Plunge, from my Watkins Glen Series)

Magnus Is Back

Yes, due to the fact that I woke up yesterday at around 4:30 AM, due to that huge thunderclap, and wasn't able to get back to bed again, I set to work to finish my revision. And guess what? I am done!

Ha!

I thought I would be bringing this paper with me to accompany me on this trip that I would be making, but it turned out that I do not need to do that anymore. I am finished revising the thing, and I hope that I adequately addressed the problems that the previous version had.

Yeah, it is kinda funny to think that whenever you write something, you think that it is the best thing in the world, and then you turn it in, and then it gets back at you, full of comments, and then you realize that you write really bad, and then you try to fix it, turn it in again, and then you get it back with further comments, and you have to fix it again.

Hard work, yes, but I think it is just fair. After all, this is academic writing, and who knows, this might get published as well later. I remember when I first had a paper to be published, the revision process took a while, and the reviewers kept sending me back comments, to which I addressed in my replies.

But I have to say, it is a good feeling to have one's name in print.

So there, my baby is around, once more, in his third generation. Hopefully, this is the last major revision that I would make, and then after this, my adviser would hopefully pass it on to the second reader, who I suppose will just give minor comments for revision, and then to the third, and then after that, voila! It will be filed and then my record would say that I have that requirement fulfilled!

So there, I am moving along. Wow. I cannot believe time flies that fast, eh? This blog is already on its third year, and still going strong. I just renewed my domain ownership the other day, since I do not intend on closing this blog in the near future. So there, I will still be here, writing, traveling, taking pictures, the whole enchilada.

Just sit back, relax, and enjoy the show.

(Rock and Falling Water, from my Watkins Glen Series)

Scattered Rainshowers

When one gets to live in different parts of the world, one gets to know the efficiency of that place's weather reports.

For example, the weather forecast for Buffalo has been scattered rainshowers, for the whole week. And indeed, for at least a small part of the day, it would rain. It may not rain the whole day, but it would rain at least once. And it is good to know that it is accurate.

In Japan, they give the chance of rain in percentage. Usually, if it is at least 50 percent, then we would bring an umbrella, because chances are it would rain, and usually it does, indeed. If it is below 50 percent, then we don't bring one.

The funny and weird and dysfunctional weather report is the one in the Philippines. Guess what? Every day, it would be "scattered rainshowers and thunderstorms" even if it is sunny, cloudy, or rainy. Alway scattered rainshowers and thunderstorms. Wow. So, if it didn't rain one day, well, the rain clouds just didn't scatter that way.

Anyway, why am I talking about the weather report? Oh yes, because the weather report was again accurate this morning. The day before, I checked and it said that it would be thunderstorms the following morning. And guess what? I was awakened by this huge thunder, booming into my window. I have the windows open because it is hot, and so when it did boom, I heard it loud and clear.

At 4:30 in the morning.

So there, I have this headache due to the fact that my sleep was interrupted, and yet no matter how I tried, I couldn't invite the Sandman once more. So I just got up, turned my laptop on, and worked on revising my qualifying paper. I know that I mentioned earlier that I would be revising this while I am on my trip, but I figured that if I could finish this before leaving, then the better. After all, in that way, my adviser would have it back earlier, instead of when I get back, and so he could give it back to me for further revisions, if necessary.

Ok, let me get back to work, but before that, let me switch my reggaeton station on first.

(Rocks and Falling Water, from my Watkins Glen Series)

No Wonder I Am Not a Musician

I suppose many of my previous posts, both recent and not so recent, has reflected the fact that I like measuring things. I like doing stuff where there is one right answer, and not plenty of them. In short, if I were to pick a discipline, I would be in one where I do quantitative research, and not qualitative.

Now why am I bringing this up? The reason is because of another conversation that I overheard yesterday. Yesterday, while waiting for the bus to go back home (yes, it happened in the bus stop again, there are plenty of interesting conversations that happen in bus stops), two students were talking about music. By the looks of them, they both look like graduate students, and international students as well. You know, they aren't the iPod-plugged, I-don't-really-care student type. Rather, these are more of those intellectual bunches.

They were talking about music. Classical music, Indian music, Ravi Shankar, Beethoven, Mozart, Schoenberg, among others. I found the aura of the conversation rather arrogant, you know, those radical anti-establishment types, but centered in music. Now the thing that really got me thinking was when one of them commented that Schoenberg was the hip-hop of his day.

What?

I have listened to Schoenberg's music, and I cannot really say I like it. Some people do, and some people don't. However, I recognize his genius in the sense that he pioneered atonality in music. And the fact that he is equated to hip-hop just doesn't make sense to me.

First of all, hip-hop is popular music. Even if it is a genre where not all of the people like it, it still is popular music, in the sense that quite a large number of people have access to it and can appreciate it. I do not, but most of the student population here perhaps can. Schoenberg's music was never popular back in the days. I don't think a sub-group of the population back then danced and enjoyed Schoenberg's music, playing it on the radio. Why is that? Because we have to admit that there is this divide between "classical" and "popular" music. And it is just now that this divide is becoming blurry.

How does one divide it? Well, analyze the music, and see how these musical types fare with theory. If you look at popular music, they have very simple harmonic progressions, using extensive vamping. Classical music on the other hand do more than that, with complex harmonizations and other stuff that makes your head swirl.

So back to Schoenberg and hip-hop. Schoenberg's music did not function as an anthem of a subculture, the way hip-hop music is right now. Schoenberg's music was a radical version of classical music, not a radical version of popular music. And it simply does not make sense to compare Schoenberg with hip-hop.

Now although I am emphasizing a divide between classical and popular music, I do not want my readers think that I am being elitist here. The fact that there is a divide does not mean that preferring classical music to popular music is better, and more refined. I do not intend to convey that thought. All I am saying is that there is this two huge categories of music. And all I want is to give Schoenberg his due. Heck, if you just take a listen at my playlist, you would be amazed.

No wonder I did not become a musician. Things are subjective. One can argue about these things forever, and even analyze it to a deeper level, sometimes, to a level that makes you wonder whether the composer actually intended others to analyze or not.

(Water Curtain, from my Watkins Glen Series)

How to Reheat a Baby

It is sometimes funny thinking about the metaphors that I use whenever I talk about my qualifying paper. Well yes, I have finally decided a few months ago that I would personify my qualifying paper into a baby, as outlined here (By the way, I just found it ironic that in that post, I was talking about being a father-to-be and yet, the accompanying picture was depicting a tomb. How opposite is that?).

And so yes, Magnus has been born for quite a while now, and he was reincarnated once. It is time to chop him up, and reincarnate him one more time. I have my second draft here with me, and I am fixing it. The good thing though is that the issues that I have to fix are more presentational, rather than content-related. That is a good thing. It means that the revision isn't as hard as the first one. All I need to do is stir a little, microwave a little, reheat a little, and voila!

So there, hopefully, within a few days, I can churn out a new version of Magnus.

Time for my book review one more time. I just finished reading this novel by Tod Wodicka. In short, I hated it. It was a complete waste of my time. The only reason I read through it was because I never stop reading a book halfway. But, the book was awful. The main character is a demented old man with a rather disfigured nose, and yes, that nose plays quite constantly in the story. This man seems to be time-warped, well, he believes that he still is in the medieval period. He wears old clothes, acts old, and talks old. Because of that, he alienates his family. The main conflict basically arises from that aspect.

If I were his family, I would have committed him to a mental asylum. Because that is what he is, crazy. He has a number of loose screws in his head. And using medieval logic as an excuse for drunkenness is just plain pathetic (Apparently, people back in the Middle Ages only drunk alcoholic beverages because water was dangerous to drink.). So yeah, you got this demented alcoholic, who acts like a child, even though he is past retirement age.

So there, I returned it to the library, and now I am starting on this new book, by Stephen King. Wow, it has been a while since I last read a book by this guy. The last time I read one was back in August of last year, when I read about fatal cellphones.

So now, I am reading Dreamcatcher. I remember seeing the movie, but the DVD was pirated, and the quality was bad, so I didn't persevere in watching it. Fine, I did not see the movie. Well, that doesn't matter since from my past experiences, Stephen King is better consumed as a book and not as a movie anyway. So this will be the book that I suppose, am taking with me during my trip to Denmark. And the good thing is, I don't even have to return it here, since I got this one in a used-books bookstore almost a year ago. If I am done, then goodbye! Hopefully this is a good one.

(Water Flowing, from my Watkins Glen Series)

Exemplars, Prototypes, and Tongue-Twisters

Wednesday. Nothing much in particular happening today. Aside from the fact that today is lab meeting day, nothing much.

So there, I went to lab, discussed a bunch of papers about exemplars, prototypes, metal representations of language, among other things. There were some French dark chocolate made with Brazilian cacao beans, and I made some mini origami with the paper wrappers, such as the rowboat and the Thai royal barge.

So let me ask you this, do you believe in the prototype theory or the exemplar theory of categorization?

The prototype theory is basically this: if you encounter an object, you then compare how close or how far it is from a prototype, and the closer it is, the more related it is to the prototype, and the farther it is, the less related. For example, if you see a rather exotic looking animal, with wings, it flies somewhat, has feathers, then would you categorize it as a bird? A robin is usually the prototypical bird in the Western world, not a penguin. Basically, prototype theory computes a certain object against the average of the previously-encountered objects, namely, a prototype.

The exemplar theory on the other hand is this: if you encounter an object, you then compare how similar it is to the whole inventory of things that you have encountered so far. Therefore, the main difference with this theory compared to the prototype theory is that there is no averaging of elements; every member of your set is still salient and is a point in comparison. There is no "prototype", but rather, previously encountered exemplars, to which the new input is compared against.

There are psychological studies that argue for both. Take your pick.

So there, if you get tired of pondering how you categorize things in your head, then perhaps you should try these tongue twisters. And no, they are not in English, but in Hungarian. They can be rather funny.

• Nem minden szarka farka tarka, csak a tarka fajta szarka farka tarka. - Not every pie bird has a colorful tail, only the colorful type of pie bird has a colorful tail.


• Öt török öt görögöt dögönyöz örökös örömök között. - Five Turks are massaging five Greeks, causing eternal pleasures.


• Ádám bátyám pávát látván száját tátván pávává vált. - Seeing a peacock, with his mouth falling open, my brother Adam turned into a peacock.


• Te tetted e tettetett tettet? Tettetett tettek tettese, te! - Did you do this pretentious deed? Doer of pretentious deeds, you!

(Paradise, from my Watkins Glen Series)

Rifle-Tongued Hair-Whipping Duo

Ok, before I start this one, let me make a disclaimer. This entry isn't one of those I am not prejudiced, but... statements in which one is prejudging a certain group of people. I just found it funny, in a good way, what I saw this morning, and therefore I wanted to write about it. No harm intended.

So, I was waiting for the shuttle that would take me to my office in North Campus. I was standing at the bus stop in South Campus, when I saw these two non-Caucasian girls, speaking in a different language. At first, I thought that it was something I never heard before, some language I never recognized, but upon further eavesdropping, I realized that it was Spanish.

But wait, it wasn't the type of Spanish that I at least was used to, the type that I myself heard and had some minor capabilities, as evidenced by my interactions in Ecuador and Peru. No, this was something else.

Judging from the skin tone of these two ladies, I am assuming they have a Caribbean background. Puerto Rico perhaps? I just cannot be sure. But the Spanish they speak was very different.

First, it was monotonous. It seemed that both of them were speaking using the same pitch, for all of their sentences. And secondly, the rate of speech was horrendously fast! It was like the firing of an Uzi. Seriously.

Now what I find funny was the body language of these two ladies. They had rather long hair, and they would sometimes flip it with their heads, whipping it back, or sometimes they would use their hands and flip it behind their heads. I don't know, I just find the whole scenario funny.

So imagine this, two ladies, facing each other, talking rapid fire. Ratatatata-entonces-ratatatatata... (whips hair) ratatatata-trabajo-ratata-por que-ratatata... (whips hair again) ratatatata... and so on.

Ok, I better stop.

(Reflecting Water, from my Watkins Glen Series)

Are You Psychologically Real?

So, what happened today? Well, there are still a number of things that I dealt with starting with the morning.

First, I landed in Sao Paulo, Brazil and booked a ticket to Santiago, Chile. Then, upon arriving, I caught the plane to Lima, Peru, to which, as of this hour, I am airborne.

Oops, I guess I am mixing fantasy with reality. I am indeed an airline geek. I have this online virtual flying game that I sometimes play. Anyway, back to reality, psychological reality.

I just came back from the lab after running a participant for an experiment. Wow, I guess my activity in the Psychology Department is increasing slowly more and more by the hour. My records are now there, since I am now legally able to run experiments, having performed the educational requirements by the Institutional Review Board.

I guess this has something to do again with my "rebellion" from the linguistics of my undergraduate years. See, the thing with linguistics is that sometimes, their theories may not be aligned with what really exists. There is this thing called language, and the linguists study it, and posit theories about it. But are these theories real? Do the structures that linguists posit actually exist in speakers' heads?

When I was an undergraduate, I learned about linguistic models, tree structures, and how speakers transform structures in their heads in real-time, in order to build the vast amount of sentence structures that exist in any language. However, are those transformation really real? Do the linguists have proof that those transformations actually exist in the human brain?

So there, I rebelled, went out and sought other flavors of linguistics. Now, I prefer the flavor of linguistics that does not isolate itself from other disciplines, and instead collaborate with other fields in their research. So for me part, I try to collaborate with psychology in my research. No wonder I decided to be an experimental linguist. So I measure things.

Anyway, enough of that, it may bore you, although I am not. So, let me do my periodical book review again. I finished The Egyptologist, which to my opinion, is one of the best books I have read recently. It is written in the epistolary form, where the bulk of the text is a collection of letters, cables, and diary entries. I like this form due to the fact that it leaves the task of piecing information together to the reader. And so since this was a detective story revolving around people scattered all over the world, from Sydney to Cairo to Boston to London, then it was the most brilliant choice of form. It is about an arrogant archaeologist and his exploits, partly historical, since the novel is set around the time the tomb of King Tut was discovered. Anyway, I do not want to reveal the whole thing, so I will leave it like this. But if you liked reading Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, and Dracula by Bram Stoker, then I suppose you will like the guessing game of this novel.

So I returned that book, and started on this new one, All Shall Be Well, and All Shall Be Well, and All Manner of Things Shall Be Well by Tod Wodicka. Very long title, and so far, it begins rather interestingly. I will review this once I am done.

So there, ten days to go before I cross an ocean and head to a different land. I should finish this new novel before that, since I don't want to carry a borrowed book across the ocean and back.

Speaking of things being carried, it is funny that my second draft for my qualifying paper has been back and forth the Atlantic. Why? Because I gave it to my adviser to read while he was in Paris, and now that he is back, he gave it back to me, after meeting with him and discussing the additional revisions (which are not as much as the first draft), and then I will work on it, carrying it with me when I go to Denmark, and back. I'll be working on it within this week, while on the plane, and while over there.

So there, still busy, even if it is the middle of summer.

(Falling Water, from my Watkins Glen Series)

Shakespeare Makes Me Look Stupid

Here in Buffalo, there is an annual event every summer, called Shakespeare in Delaware Park. It is the country's second largest free theatre event, after the one in New York City.

So me and my friends decided to go and attend this past Friday. The event was free, there was a stage in the middle of the park, and there was a hill facing it so the audience can sprawl down and relax, or mount some chairs and sit, so they can enjoy the play.

So we were watching the play. And it didn't take long for me to realize that I am not Shakespeare literate. They were performing King Lear, which is apparently one of his most important works. But I didn't get a thing. I didn't understand it. And I blame the type of English that Shakespeare used. It was appropriate in his time, but I do not understand it.

I had to depend on one of my friends who studied it back in high school. So he was relating to me what the events were, and who the characters were, and how they were related to one another.

Well, I suppose I like watching theatre, but only the theatre that I can understand. Shakespeare is too far back for me.

During the intermission, the actors went uphill to the audiences and collected donations. While my friend was handing some money to one of them, I noticed that the actor was in a couple of plays I have watched before, so I brought it to his attention that I saw him in The Shape of Things and in Spring Awakening.

It is funny how my sense of entertainment evolved. I used to go only to the movies, now I have a varied collection of performances I appreciate.

So there, that was my first experience of Shakespeare in Delaware Park. After the performance, we went to IHOP and had breakfast at 11:00 PM.

(Jagged Cliffside, from my Watkins Glen Series)

Windows Thinks I Am Stupid

Well, yes, I believe that Microsoft Windows thinks that I am stupid. Why do I say that? Let me give you a background first.

It is a habit of mine that whenever I would get to my office, I would turn on my laptop, and then attend to some things worth doing. So I just did that recently. I came to my office, turned on my laptop by typing in the password, and the Windows turning-on music came on. That was good. So I went out of the office, and this time I went to the library to get something and return something.

Usually, when I come back, the laptop is all ready for use. You know, those programs that are supposed to load every time you turn your laptop on is already loaded, and so it is just waiting for you to sit down and do work on it.

However, this time, it asked for my password again. Duh! It seemed that it restarted itself. It's not that it is a sign that it is a problem, but I know why this happens from time to time. So yeah, I typed in my password again, and then waited for it to load again all the programs that it is supposed to load whenever it starts.

And there it is, on my lower right corner of the screen, I see this icon, with a message on it. It says, "Windows recently downloaded and installed an important security update to help protect your computer. This update required an automatic restart of your computer." So there, apparently, it installed something without my knowledge.

Now this is the thing that I do not like. I hate the fact that Windows can just download stuff and install it automatically without even me approving it. I know that they say that these are security updates for computer protection, and I appreciate that protection, however, at least let me have the option of approving it first, before proceeding the download and installation. It seems that the manufacturers of Microsoft Windows XP thinks that the users of their product are stupid, and so everything is done for them. I guess this is the same complaint I have with Microsoft Word, which is why I have shifted to LaTeX.

The weird thing is, some programs and downloads are messed up. In fact, there are some "intelligent" updates done by Windows that is not compatible with their system! Windows has this thing where updates can be downloaded whenever you are connected to the Internet, but you have the option to delay the installation. Most of the time, I delay it until I turn the computer off, and it will install before it shuts down.

However, there seems to be one update that is incompatible with my system, because since that update was ahem, automatically downloaded, and I tried installing it before shutting down my laptop, it would not shutdown. It fails to install, so I am here waiting, five minutes, ten minutes, fifteen minutes, waiting for the laptop to shutdown, but it couldn't because it could not proceed with the installation. So, I shut it off manually, and from then on, I just shut down using the option of not installing the update that was supposed to be installed.

I wish that Windows could clean up their act. Instead of pretending that things are well, and assuming that its users are stupid.

(Pools, from my Watkins Glen Series)

Returned Sun

It has been raining for the past week. It kinda sucks and it kinda doesn't, but it not really is your ideal weather. Well, if it is raining, then the temperature is lower, which is nice. I am not really a summer person, and the heat just is irritating. However, when it is raining, then the wet feeling isn't ideal too. You wouldn't want to be walking around carrying an umbrella that isn't really helping your lot.

So, today, I was looking forward for another day of wetness, but the afternoon proved wrong. The sun came out, and the rain clouds went away. I was sort of happy, as long as it is not very hot. Well, at least, I prefer that compared to last Monday, when it hailed twice here, once around early afternoon, and another about three hours after that. I was in a coffee shop when it happened, and it just created some weird popping sound in the roof.

Some good news: I finished the social and behavioral sciences human research curriculum. Well, before conducting research that deals with human subjects, researchers in the academe must first complete a course on research ethics, and it just is very extensive. It deals about participant protection, especially if you are dealing with research that concerns pregnant women, students, prisoners, children, and workers. It is an issue that pertains highly on ethics, and believe me, you would not believe the unethical procedures that people used to do in the past. They used to just grab prisoners for example, and inject them with syphilis strains, observing how their bodies would react. You can just imagine how their participants ended up.

Well, I guess we have to thank the Nazis about this. Back in World War II, they grabbed Jews and performed medical experiments on them. Participant rights were unknown. So there arose the Belmont Report, but still, this wasn't enough. So, experiments that violated participant rights were still run.

Ever heard of the Stanford Prison Experiment? This was a rather famous experiment that investigated the reaction of people whenever they are in prison situations. The things that happened during that experiment would never be allowed nowadays, thanks to the Institutional Review Board, or IRB. So now, whenever a study involves human subjects, before it can be run, its protocol has to be approved by the IRB.

Last year, when I ran my experiment in Manila, I had to complete an IRB application, and it was approved after a few revisions. I already finished an ethics tutorial back then, but it already expired after a year, so in order to participate in this lab that I am going to participate in, I had to complete a new one, which I did. And needless to say, I passed.

So there, I am street-legal when it comes to conducting experiments with human subjects, and I have this status for the next three years. Sweet!

(Pathways and Gorges, from my Watkins Glen Series)

Independent Travel 101: Taking Good Photos

This is the eighth of a series of entries about independent travel. Note that this is not professional advice: these are simply subjective opinion of the author, who happens to be an independent traveler.

I do not want to claim that I am a professional photographer. Believe me, I am not. I just bring a simple camera with me whenever I go, and I just shoot a lot.

So I am surprised when people say that my photography is superb. If you have clicked on a link I had here in an earlier post about my blog being ranked, apparently, one of the plus points of this blog is that it has "superb" photos. Well, if my photos are superb, then thank you. Let me tell you my not-so-secretive secret.

I guess you have noticed that most if not all of my own pictures I upload here have one common theme, that is, they show shots of travel. Yep, my photos are in the genre of travel photography. My mom complains that she wants more photos where I am in the picture, but my reasoning is that I can always see how I look if I just stand in front of the mirror, but I cannot do the same with Machu Picchu. Instead, I see my shower curtain.

So folks, if you want to have superb photos like these as well, then read on.

First, you don't have to have a very hi-technology camera whenever you go. Just a simple point-and-shoot will be fine. I currently use a Sony DSC-S600 with 6.0 mega pixels and 3x optical zoom. Granted, with a digital camera as simple as this, I cannot do dramatic fish-eye shots, or those intense ultra-zoom shots. But, I believe this equipment would be enough to keep memories alive, which is my main purpose in taking pictures anyway.

Framing is crucial. You have to see what gets in your viewfinder. Compose your shots well, and you will make your audience gasp at how wonderful the shot is. I have to admit, the subject is vital here. I don't know any photography theories, I didn't go to art school, and so I really think that when reviewers think that my photography is superb, that is highly due to the subject I am shooting. Well, my most recent bunch of photos that I have here are photos of Machu Picchu, so why can that not be superb?

Anyway, back to topic. Yes, speaking of framing, I am pretty sure you will have more accurate information if you read photography books, I am simply pointing you to the right direction.

Regarding flash, I rarely use them. Even during night shots. The thing is, flash usually floods your subject with light, so it ends up that you have this one super bright thing in the middle, and the background is ultra dark. If your camera has a low-light setting, then this is perfect. You have to learn how to hold your camera very still though, since shooting in low-light settings require a longer exposure time, so if you move, then the shot will be blurred. Better yet, get a tripod.

Flash can also be used to create different effects even if it is not dark. To illustrate the difference between flashed and un-flashed exposures, look at this shot for a flashed version, and this shot for an un-flashed version. Both were taken two years ago, using the same camera, in a semi-lighted church crypt in the Czech countryside.

Still speaking of lighting, the thing I hate the most when taking photographs outside is when it is sunny. The reason is because the sun is a source of light, and you can't move it around for your convenience. This shot I believe is an example of a bad shot. I took this shot of the Church of Saint Barbara two years ago, and the sun in front of me just drowns the facade of the church, making it darker than what it is supposed to.

Aside from that, there are a number of creative things that you can do. Experiment with weird angles. I guess it helps if you know your geometry, both Euclidian and non-Euclidian. Most digital cameras also have a black-and-white or sepia feature. Use these to give some aged effect on your shots. This shot is taken inside Prague's Old Clock Tower, using a weird angle, while this shot was taken in Vysehrad, using black-and-white, making the effect that it is quite an old photo when in reality, it is not.

(Rock Tunnels, from my Watkins Glen Series)

Hypothesizing

So, I attended the psycholinguistics lab this morning. And so my brain was working all the way until around three in the afternoon, because after the lab meeting, I went with the other members and I was sort of initiated into the goings on of the lab. I learned how to run experiments, and use the machines. I learned how to run subjects and deal with them.

In short, tons of new information entered my cerebral cortex, and I am having a bit of an information overload. Not that I mind, it's just this feeling that you have when you know you know the information you are supposed to know, but is still not confident that you can recall what they are. I guess I just need practice.

Anyway, I am happy, since I get to learn these new skills in manipulating machinery in order to test my hypotheses in my own studies. It is sexy, in a rather different sense of the word.

So there, tomorrow, I have another appointment with another one of the people in the lab, and I will be doing a test run of another experiment they have, because presumably, later on, I will be running these experiments myself on my own.

I also printed a bunch of papers that I have to read before I head to Europe. I still have about two weeks ahead. I am not worried, with my schedule, I would easily forget that this is summer and that I have plenty of things to do.

One important thing that I have to do though, is to go through the tutorial of the review board and prove to them that I know the ethics behind the experimentation environment in the academe. I have done this before, but I believe that they have revised the scheme, so I have to do it again. I will be doing it tomorrow, and people say that it takes four hours to do it. I guess I will have to learn about the botched scientific experiments of the 1950s again, and why those are not permitted nowadays. Unless I do that tutorial, then I cannot run experiments in the lab, so I better do it quickly.

(A Gorge, a Pathway, and an Argentinian, from my Watkins Glen Series)

LIW Gets Ranked

So, I check my tracker one day, and I was surprised to find out that there were readers coming from a certain site. When I clicked that site, I was surprised. Apparently, this blog you are reading right now, was ranked as one of the Top 10 travel blogs!

Previously, I had been rated by a blog rating site. You can actually see the rating on my left sidebar. Now, I am ranked by PC Advisor. And I made it to the Top Ten! Hooray! They think that my independent travel advice is educational, and that my photos are superb. Find my ranking in here in the PC Advisor article. My blog is listed somewhere on the third page. No wonder a lot of my traffic recently is coming from that site.

So there, I guess I am slowly carving a small portion of cyberspace and marking it my territory. And people are noticing it. Well, for that reason, I am happy.

(Rocks and Water, from my Watkins Glen Series)

Taking Flight

So, I headed to my office today, and there was a package waiting for me. Yeah, my passport is back. And it has a rather valuable sticker on it! Yay! I am now ready to roll!

If you have been following my rather quotidian escapades lately, I went to New York City to get a visa from the Royal Consulate of Denmark. This was because I am attending a conference-workshop in the University of Southern Denmark in Odense, next month. After that, I am proceeding to Budapest, Hungary to visit my family. So I had to apply for a Schengen visa, which is valid for both countries. Good thing that this happened after the enlargement of the Schengen region; otherwise, I would have to procure a separate visa for either countries. I like this idea of supranational entities. Hopefully, other areas of the world would be like this, but I can just hope.

So, in less than three weeks, I will be riding in one of these (Aircraft photos courtesy of Airliners.net.).



Yeah, I know, this is my trademark here-are-my-aircraft post. I did it when I was flying to the US when I first moved here, I also did it when I went to Quito and to Manila last summer, and most recently, I did it when I went for a backpacking trip to Peru. So I am doing it again. The top photo shows my first leg, from Buffalo heading to Chicago.



This one on the other hand is the first long-haul segment, that will carry me from Chicago to London Heathrow.



An Airbus A319 of British Airways will then connect me from London to Copenhagen. I get to see how the new Heathrow Terminal 5 looks like. Good thing I wasn't flying when they just opened the terminal; apparently, there were teething problems, such as mishandled baggage.



After the workshop, I will head to Budapest, so I will fly two segments on Brussels Airlines, via Brussels, on an aircraft similar to the one above.



Then, when it is time to go home, I am flying to Paris, on Malev Hungarian Airlines. I will then connect to American Airlines in Paris, riding on a Boeing 767 like the one shown below.



This plane will take me from Paris to Chicago, to which I will connect with another Embraer like the first photo I have shown you from above.

So there, now everybody knows I am an airline geek, while most travelers don't even know what model of aircraft they will be flying on. And the good news about this, is that I get to earn American Airlines AAdvantage mileage on all segments of my trip, since British Airways, Brussels Airlines, and Malev Hungarian Airlines are all airline partners of American Airlines. The only thing that I am not looking forward to is transiting in London Heathrow Airport and in Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport. These two airports happen to be the busiest in Europe.

Wow. I just realized that I haven't flown in which I checked a bag. This will be the first one in almost a year. I guess I usually travel light, with just a big backpack.

(Jagged Rocks on the Side, from my Watkins Glen Series)

Atypical Asian

Summer is here. And the fact that school is out paves the way for some activities that usually isn't done during the regular semester.

Cookouts, for example. My friends have been inviting me to cookouts and dinners at least once a week. Most of the time, this is potluck, but also, most of the time, all the courses are taken care of, and since I do not mind washing the dishes, that's usually my contribution. Last Friday, we had a barbecue dinner at a friend's house. It was rather filling. And yesterday, we had a 1950's South Carolinian dinner, because most of the food was made with recipes from my other friend's grandmother, who comes from South Carolina.

These two instances were rather interesting. I kinda realized a couple of things while I was with my friends.

First, that I think that I am not a big fan of micro-brewed beer. I only drink socially, never would one catch me drinking by myself (well, except when I was on holiday, when I enjoyed Peru's own Pisco Sour). Well, when I was in the Czech Republic, I enjoyed their beer, substituting it for water whenever I was hot and walking around (which brings to mind a shirt I saw the other day, it said "Save Water. Drink Beer"). I like Guinness but I find it too thick sometimes. Corona is nice, since one drinks it normally with a slice of lime. However, here in Upstate New York, there are a number of local brands, most of them I have only seen here. It is ok to try, but sometimes I don't like it. Such as one called "Ithaca" apparently brewed in Ithaca, New York. It was bitter. I didn't like it. I rather drink soda than that.

Second, I found out that I am an atypical Asian. Well, perhaps, this was already known, but it was just reinforced to me recently. When we had the barbecue dinner, I was the only non-American there. I have a German friend, and she usually comes too, but on this occasion, there were only locals in the occasion. And they were talking about the Asian people in the university, about how very secluded they were, and about how they acted rather anti-social. To which they interpreted that it was a case of culture shock. I blurted out that I am Asian, and yet I do not act the way they described the other Asians. To which they said that I am an atypical Asian. Perhaps that is true. I don't consider myself Asian anyway. I guess the fact that I have spent half of my life overseas, outside of the Philippines, is a major factor. The fact that my passport says that I am a citizen of the Philippines may just be an accident.

So there, those were a couple of thoughts that I had the past few days.

I finished my novel about a spy in some undisclosed country, and it was a blast reading that. I finished that within a week. So, I returned that book and now, I am reading a historical novel, entitled The Egyptologist, by Arthur Phillips. It is a novel in journal format, every chapter is either a diary entry or a letter. Reminds me of how Dracula was written.

Oh, a third realization. It seems that it is rare to find someone who actually finished reading James Joyce's Ulysses. Yesterday, at the dinner party, there was one there, he was Romanian-American, and he finished the book, and is actually a fan of it. He knows every chapter, and about what happens to Leopold Bloom in every chapter. Another guest remarked that she finds it amazing to have two people in the room (me and the Romanian-American guy) who finished reading the book. Well, I told her, it took me 7 months to finish the whole thing.

Now why am I mentioning Ulysses and James Joyce? Well, tomorrow is Bloomsday, June 16. Well, just so you know, the whole thick book of Ulysses happens in one day, June 16, 1904. It is not my most favorite book, but I have to admit, that there are episodes in the book that I find amusing. I guess I find it amusing enough to refer to it in a number of my posts here in the blog, that people may think that it is my favorite book. No, I have a different favorite book, not this one.

So there, this is getting long, so I better stop here for now.

(Close-Up, from my Watkins Glen Series)

The Sky is Falling

I am no airline industry expert, but I guess things have changed much that I decided to blog about it for this time.

It used to be the case that flying was a sign of glamour. People who had money to burn were known to be jet-setters, and they would fly inter-continental, from Los Angeles to New York and back. And then the experience of flight became more common, with the common middle-class flying to places, when they visit their grandparents in Florida, to when they have a wedding to attend on the other side of the country.

However, the high price of gas at the moment is causing a bad turn for the airlines. At least, in the USA. I actually found it surprising that Lonely Planet even categorized the current trend of charging for checked luggage as a travel warning. Yup, if you go to the Lonely Planet website, and look for the entry on the United States of America, there is a travel warning that several airlines are now charging for the first checked bag you have.

It used to be the case that checking bags are taken for granted, and you don't have to pay for that. Now, you do.

The weird thing is, this doesn't happen in Europe. True, the legacy carriers in Europe do not charge for the first checked bag, and the airlines who do are those who are considered to be LCCs, low-cost carriers. But the weird thing is, here in the United States, the LCCs such as JetBlue and Southwest allow you to check bags, while the legacy carriers don't. Why the reverse situation?

I really don't know why. Maybe the business model of these airlines in the US are somewhat tweaked.

However, I sort of am in agreement with the move that the airlines are doing. If I am a passenger, and I do not need to check bags, then why would I pay for that service? I would rather pay for the service that I would actually use; if all I need is transport, and no bags to go with it, then all I want to pay for is the seat. Now the annoying thing is that these airlines who do these claim to be legacy carriers, full service airlines, and yet, the LCCs are doing a better job than them.

(Green Gorge, from my Watkins Glen Series)

Terrestrial Entry

There is a time when nothing seems to be happening in people's lives. Well, not really nothing, there are always things that are happening in people's lives, but I suppose, the philosophical question is, Is it worth blogging about?

Nothing exciting is scheduled to happen to me for the next three weeks. I will just be here in Buffalo, enduring the heat (yes, I hate the heat, and even though I come from a tropical country, my body seems to be programmed otherwise). I have a number of papers and articles to read, in preparation of the summer workshop that I will be attending. I also have a number of grant applications that I need to read before attending the grant review panel meeting next week. But otherwise, there isn't anything spectacular as what I had last month, when I frolicked in South America and took more than 1,600 photographs.

I guess it is true what they say, that what goes up also goes down. If there is a peak, there is a valley. Well, I look at it this way, if I am heading for a valley, the good thing is that there is a peak after that valley.

Now I do hope that this is not similar to the US economy.

Anyway, I have a rather geeky yet interesting find. I have this website where I can record my flights that I have taken, and so a few months before, I took the initiative to record every flight that I have taken, from the moment I took the very first air trip. If I remember correctly, my first instance of flying is from Manila to Los Angeles, on my way to Denver. This was when I was just 3 years old. So, I took all those flights, entered them in the database, and I had some interesting descriptive statistics.

Apparently, it was the Manila-Los Angeles flight that was the longest flight that I have taken, spanning 11,753 kilometers. The shortest flight on the other hand was 308 kilometers, when I flew from Cleveland to Buffalo, three years ago. By the end of July (I already entered the flight details of the eight scheduled flights that I am taking this July), I would have flown a total of 191,954 kilometers, which is enough to circumnavigate the earth at least four times. It is 0.499 times the distance from the earth to the moon.

Regarding flight time, I would have flown a total of 261 hours and 56 minutes. This translates to 10.9 days of continuous flying. Buffalo Niagara International Airport and Ninoy Aquino International Airport in Manila are tied at 15 for the most used airport. American Airlines is my most used airline, with a total of ten flights. My most used aircraft is a Boeing 737, with a total of ten flights. And my most flown route is the Buffalo-Chicago (and vice versa) leg, having done it three times already.

Wow. This is becoming a rather geeky post. I better stop here. And hopefully something more substantial and worth blogging comes up in the next few days.

(Ridges and Steps, from my Watkins Glen Series)

Reading, Reviewing, Running

So, after a slight bout of silence, to which my Central European fans have started complaining about, I am back.

The reason for the delay was simply that I was busy with running errands and doing things. I have a number of articles and book chapters that I need to read before I head over to Denmark, and so that I would not look stupid when I get there. Some preliminary reading, I suppose. After all, this is a week-long intensive course. So I am doing that.

I also am reading grant proposals again, since I am once again a member of the review committee for a funding source here in the university. So I am reading quite some applications coming in from different departments, ranging from comparative literature to physics.

And, I am also trying to coordinate with some of the members of the lab of another department, since I am planning to join that within the next few months.

So there, it is the summer, school is not in session, but it is still a busy period.

I finished my surreal book the other day. It was about the very fertile guy, who impregnates every woman he sleeps with. It was ok, nothing spectacular to write home about. So, I returned that to the library, and I picked up another one. This one is called An Ordinary Spy, by Joseph Weisberg. It is the story of a spy who was sent to somewhere. The funny thing about this book is that there isn't a page where there isn't a word that is redacted. Yes, parts of the prose are hidden in black ink, and so I don't even know where the guy is sent to. It starts as him being recruited by the CIA, and then he undergoes training, and he is sent to some country. I have to fill in the blanks for the most part. But still, it is intriguing.

So there, nothing new and special for my part, at the moment. I am still here in terra firma, for the next three weeks. And when this three weeks is up, I will be on the move again.

(View from the Top, from my Watkins Glen Series)

Mission Accomplished

So, I am back from New York City. It was an ok trip, with the things that I needed to do being accomplished. So, now, I am back here in Buffalo.

I spent two days there. When I arrived, I immediately went to the Danish Consulate in 2nd Avenue, and my visa application was approved on the spot. Now, I am just waiting for them to mail back my passport, with the visa sticker affixed to it. So I can say that I now have the legal capacity to fly across the Atlantic once again!

After the consulate visit, I visited the Temple Emanu-El, the largest Jewish religious meeting place in the world. I took some photos, but I couldn't stay long. I still had my luggage which I was hauling all over Manhattan, so that was an inconvenience.

The next day, I went out and visited the Museum of Modern Art, near the Rockefeller Center. I haven't had the chance to visit this museum when I was in the city last year, so I visited it this time. And surprise surprise, I got in free. Apparently, all State University of New York students get free entrance, regardless of which college or university you attend. As long as you are a student of any SUNY school, then you get in free.

So, I got a free ticket, and took photos. I saw interesting important pieces of modern art, like Pablo Picasso's women, Giorgio de Chirico's trains, Marc Chagall's goats, Jackson Pollack's spattering of ink, and Andy Warhol's soup cans.

After that, I met with my sister, and we bought some supplies for a picnic in Central Park. Well, what I meant by picnic was just getting food from the hot bar and taking it out to eat in Central Park. We had planned to walk around Central Park, since neither of us has done that before. So we did that, and we saw plenty of greenery.

After that, we headed over to the Upper West Side, almost near the border to Morningside Heights. We went inside a bar and had tapas/dinner, while enjoying happy hour. Then, we headed to the Greenwich Village, because we had tickets for a modern dance performance. It was a rather interesting event.

So, after that, we headed back home, and the next day, I headed to the bus station to trek back to Upstate New York.

(Gravity and Water, from my Watkins Glen Series)

When in Gotham...

So, I arrived here in Gotham City, around 7:45, just when the people are arriving into town, and the cars are pouring into Manhattan. The amazing thing was that there was a bus lane that was dedicated only to buses, and that enabled the buses to bypass the traffic jam that otherwise affects the other vehicles.

I guess many of my readers know that I prefer Washington DC over Gotham City. The thing with Gotham City is that it is not pretty, yet it is indispensable. The people who have the power are in Gotham City. While I was taking the stroll from 8th Avenue to 2nd Avenue, where the Royal Danish Consulate was, I passed by several diplomatic cars, and the buildings that had flags hoisted on them. You know, those "Permanent Mission to the United Nations" or "Consulate of Pakistan". And personally, I had to make the trek to New York City just to apply for a visa.

But otherwise, I do not like the city. Yeah, that's the thing, I don't like the city, but I need it. The people are so plentiful, the traffic is just nuts, and everything is just fast. It's not that I want to live in the rural boonies, but I guess Gotham is just too much for me.

Anyway, I guess I have good news to tell. The visa officer immediately approved my visa application. All I have to do is wait until they mail me back my passport with the visa affixed to it. So there, I now have the legal capacity to fly across the Atlantic again.

Back to Gotham. I needed to take the New Jersey Transit bus to head to my sister's house. My goodness, the elevated freeways. It looked like a gigantic ribbon of steel, winding left, right, up, and down, and all the cars are passing through them. Unbelievable. I guess it is just a wonder of civil engineering. Not my cup of tea.

Anyway, I will be here for a couple of days. I will be back in Upstate New York by Saturday evening. And back to reality.

(Rocks and Water, from my Watkins Glen Series)

Giant Cockroach Heads to Gotham City

So I finished the other novel I was reading. It was hilarious. The novel was about Gregor Samsa. If you have read Franz Kafka, then you know who this is. The author intended it to be a sequel, and so you have this one giant cockroach, about 6 feet tall, lurking around Vienna. Then he goes to New York, meets numerous people, like Charles Ives, who dedicates his third piano sonata to Gregor. He then moves to Washington DC and becomes part of the staff of Franklin Roosevelt. Finally, he becomes part of the Manhattan Project and has a direct role in developing the atomic bomb.

So there, fact and fiction are mixed, and I usually found myself laughing at the humor and comedy that comes with it.

So I returned that book to the library last night, and started on a new one, entitled Genesis by Jim Crace. It is about an actor who is very fertile. It is set in a different country, but where it is it does not say.

Anyway, things are getting exciting this summer. I have been discussing plans for the summer with my adviser, and I might be joining a lab in a different part of the university. If that arrangement works out, I might be part of it running numerous experiments on human cognition.

Aside from that, I am also looking forward to my workshop in Denmark. I just found out what my topic would be, and I also received several articles that I have to read beforehand. So yes, this summer will be jam-packed.

Anyway, I am also looking forward to seeing my sister again tomorrow, since I am heading down there tonight. It is bizarre yet funny that the four members of the family cannot find themselves in one spot anymore. It has been three years since we were all in one place. Three years and counting. I don't see any near occasion in which this streak will be broken. Oh well, not that I mind.

(Mythical Pools, from my Watkins Glen Series)

Jetsetting

I am off to Gotham City later this week. I needed to run some long-distance errands, regarding a trip that I will be taking next month.

Yes, after a stint in Peru, I am off to another location this time, in a different continent. But, this is not a pleasure trip, unlike Peru. I am attending a workshop in Odense, Denmark in the first half of July. After that, I will proceed to Budapest, Hungary, to visit my fans.

So, in order to go there, I needed to head to the Danish consulate. And, due to the fact that I now have every bit of my paperwork with me, including the official invitation of the university in Denmark, I can proceed.

So, I am scheduled to ride the bus to the Big Apple, and then I will head to the consulate. I will be meeting with my sister in the process, since she lives in the vicinity. I will be bringing my camera, since my sister and I are planning to spend some time together, during the two days that I will be there.

Wow. 2008 has been a very travel-plenty year for me. It hasn't ended yet, but it has already brought me to plenty of places. I guess this year saw me extending my northernmost and southernmost visited places. Until last year, Prague was the northernmost place I have been to, and Quito was the southernmost. However, this year saw Cuzco as my southernmost point, and Copenhagen as my northernmost point. Come to think of it, there aren't many major cities more northern than that, aside from St. Petersburg in Russia, Oslo in Norway, Stockholm in Sweden, and Helsinki in Finland. Maybe sometime I will extend my reach. But not in the near future, I suppose.

Sometimes, I find it amazing, that I would be in South America one month, and in Europe the next. The world certainly has become smaller, and travel has become easier. So there, my country count would increase again, it is currently at 14. There would be a couple more that will be added next month.

I am so excited.

(Beauty Takes a Fall, from my Watkins Glen Series)

Blurry

Not much happens this time of the year. People are away, and things that were supposed to be done are already done. For me personally, I simply uploading some more photos, processed some paperwork for another upcoming trip I have, and ran some more errands. Nothing spectacular.

So, I will end this blog entry short, with a joke. Read on.

A worldwide survey was conducted by the UN. The only question asked was: "Would you please give your honest opinion about solutions to the food shortage in the rest of the world?"

The survey was a huge failure, in Africa they didn't know what 'food' meant, in India they didn't know what 'honest' meant, in Europe they didn't know what 'shortage' meant, in China they didn't know what 'opinion' meant, in the Middle East they didn't know what 'solution' meant, in South America they didn't know what 'please' meant, and in the USA they didn't know what 'the rest of the world' meant!

(Detail, from my Watkins Glen Series)

Independent Travel 101: Safeguarding Your Health

This is the seventh of a series of entries about independent travel. Note that this is not professional advice: these are simply subjective opinion of the author, who happens to be an independent traveler.

So, I believe that many people will agree with me that a vacation can be ultimately spoiled if you end up sick while in the middle of your vacation. After all, months of planning will go to waste, if you just spend your hours lying down in your hotel room, trying to make that fever go away, instead of seeing the sights.

So, this entry will try to give tips on how to prevent that.

First, let me describe the things that one can do even before boarding that plane, in order to keep oneself healthy during the trip.

One should read on the peculiarities of the destination. Most of the developed world are sanitized, and so this is not a worry of the people who go to Europe. There is no health requirement to enter most European states. However, not all of the world is like that. There are places that are, should I say, more exciting, with regard to that.

Let me start with the legal stuff first. There are certain countries in sub-Saharan Africa and tropical South America that require travelers to be vaccinated from yellow fever. There is actually an internationally-approved yellow fever card that travelers will get once they get vaccinated. I have done this myself, and although it costs a little bit, it is valid for ten years. Carry it with you at all times, so that you won't get any surprises from Immigration at certain airports, since some countries will actually not let you in if you do not have one.

Aside from this, there are malaria-endemic areas. Anti-malarial drugs can be purchased and should be taken some weeks before the trip, and also some weeks after the trip. I have not experienced this one yet, so consult health authorities for more details.

There is also this thing such as traveler's diarrhea. This is when one eats food that one's system is not used to. I always carry some anti-diarrheal medicine, just in case. I haven't had the chance to use them yet, since I take precautions not to be in that situation.

Read on whether tap water is drinkable in your destination or not. If not, always carry bottled water with you, and avoid eating fresh uncooked foods, say, salad, whose contents may have been washed with non-bottled water. Watch out for your water that you use to brush your teeth.

Do not impulsively buy street food. Watch out first whether people do patronize it or not. South America may have amazing juices, but they may not have the most sanitized way of preparing it. Taiwan may be selling exotic skewered meat, but see whether they have prepared it clean enough for your consumption. To be extra safe, hepatitis vaccines are also available in clinics.

Aside from things eaten, there are other aspects of your health that you should take care of. If you will head to the jungle, forest, or other exotic locale, you might need to bring a mosquito net, in order to prevent the spread of insect-borne diseases. Aside from that, and this is something I always forget, bring sunblock, especially if you plan on being out in the open air for quite a while. The fact that it is cool does not mean that the sun is weak, as I personally learned. Sunburn can be painful as well.

What else? Having proper gear is also important. If you plan on trekking, hiking, or mountain-climbing, have the proper equipment, such as having the right boots for the occasion. Do not hike using your running shoes: they might not have the right grip, and you might slip and roll from the mountain slope and die. You obviously do not want that.

Oh, and another thing, follow directions. If the sign says, no entry, and there is a low fence protecting people from a cliff, then do not enter. That pretty picture that you may be able to take by going closer is not worth your neck.

So there, I think this covers most ground on what precautions one can take. As always, read and research about your destination, its highs and lows, and the things that you need to be aware, in order to fully enjoy yourself.

(The Rocky Cliff, from my Watkins Glen Series)