Joe Wong 2

Because Joe had kept joking for several years, he had a lot of storage. Meanwhile, all of his jokes had been told to his wife. He felt limited to develop his jokes further. Therefore, he went to a joke training class and over there he got knowing the most famous talk show by then in US, stand-upcom edy. He also knew that there was never a Chinese performing a talk show in stand-upcom edy so he got sparked: why I cannot have a try? He began to create jokes and told them to his wife. This lasted for several years and finally he though he was ready for some stage performance. He went to see a club manager but got the answer that he had to be named by certain audience so that he could get a chance to perform. How can you get some audience before you actually perform on the stage? So he had to try to persuade pedestrian on the street to give him a chance but after several hours' trial, he failed. He dare not go home, ashamed of himself. His wife did not see her husband home for such a long time so she went to look for him. Finally she got him in the street, shivering with cold. She was so sorry and began to persuade people listen to his husband. Like that, Joe got more and more opportunities to perform and became more and more famous. At the very end, he gave talk shows to vice president and many journalists in DC, starting with a joke on Biden: I read about your biography but I think the book is better than the real people. He finally succeeded in making all of them laugh and received respect. 

Joe Wong

He was a chemistry PhD. He was also a talkshow star. How can it be related at all?

Joe and his wife moved to US about 11 years ago as the first generation of migrant. Language was a big problem at the very beginning - Joe was pursuing his PhD degree with decent English but with strong accent. His wife, could not speak nor understand English at all. So their life was pretty tough: He had to work into nights in his lab which located in Rice University and his wife worked in a small cafeteria. The life was very tight but Joe had a habit, telling jokes which helped him successfully chase his wife. One night, he was talking to his wife "There are two firebugs flying around but one is not shining. The other one asks, hey buddy, why not keep shining? The answer is, 'I forgot paying my electricity bills'. " This joke made his wife cry because that joke described exactly the situation of them just now. He felt shamed because he could not give his wife happy life. Since then, he kept telling jokes before his wife fell asleep, no stopping until she was laughing. Time flied to several years' later. They graduated simultaneously and he got a job in a genetic company and his wife got a job in an accounting company. The life had become better and better and they had a house and cars. However, something was missed - Joe was sick of repetitive works and looking for some exciting changes.  

Theft about dog food.

Dog food was the bait when we were catching fish. As we put the trap into the water, we were focusing on the pond. At this time, a thief was stealing our dog food - a squirrel. Because the dog food bag was behind us, we were facing the water and the food was free to go. The squirrel walk toward the bag in quiet and if we had any actions, it would turn backward pretending that he was watching something in the other direction. When it made sure that we were not watching him, he moved closer to the bag again. In one or two second, he got a piece of dog food from our bag and faced us with his back, telling us that he was concentrating something unrelated to us. After that, he enjoyed his accomplishment - a piece of food. After he finished one piece, he would turn to a second piece. If we walked a little further from the bag, he would even stay beside the bag and keep eating regarding that the food was his property. When he noticed that we were walking back, he would disappear immediately, but not very far - he waited for next chance to return and get more food. He was very cute.

Fish are smarter than what we thought.

In the Thanksgiving, I helped my girlfriend fishing - she is working on mating preference behaviors with mosquito fish. There are three continuous ponds on her campus, upstream-pond, middle-pond and downstream-pond. The upstream pond was occupied by a kind of large fish (I cannot remember the name) which feed on other small fish so that fish is the only species in upstream pond. In the middle pond, there are mosquito fish which are of large size and they are mature fish. Downstream is dominated by sailfin molly together with small mosquito fish. She wants only large mosquito fish which can only be caught in the middle pond. We used traps with large entrance but small exit to catch mosquito fish. For the first time, we put traps at the bottom of the middle pond and made some dog food as bait inside. 20 mins later, it was empty. As mosquito fish swim in the top layer of, we turned to trap them on the top layer of water. This time, over 30 fish got trapped and she was so satisfied. It was a pity that when we tried to replicate this success, the second trial gave us only several fish and the third trial gave us zero. It is hard to imagine that fish can learn so quickly because those fish which got trapped cannot communicate with other fish about the experience being trapped. Fish can actually learn by only watching and twice is many enough for them to adjust their behaviors, somehow faster than some humans.

Lab moving!

We moved our lab into RH on this Wednesday! We got three new incubators (I don't have to work with the one fluctuating!) and we got six fly stations with brand new bench top! Though the experiment bench area is still under construction, we can start working as long as we have some fly stations which are used to apply CO2 and sort flies. We are on the 4th floor of RH and the window view is really good! Norman in Fall is so colorful and I enjoy the view very much. When it rained last night, I was working in the lab. Hearing heavy rain outside and working in our brand new lab is ridiculously exciting!

Here, we have more people, biology people to communicate. We were called strangers when they saw us before in RH because we were working in Stephenson. But now, we move back and we can shout that we ARE Zoologists! Stop by to see our new lab and I will give you a leading through!

And excited about Thanksgiving? Enjoy!

Chinese food.

Mum asked me to eat some lamb/mutton because according to our tradition, lamb/mutton can help your body fight against cold. It has been colder and colder recently. I missed a lot about many Chinese foods, home-made food. No matter how hard I tried, I cannot make the taste which mum has been making for more than 20 year for our families.

My city is along seashore so definitely we have A LOT sea food to enjoy. I like shrimp and crab most but my city Qingdao is most famous for clam. There are about forty clams per kilogram so it is not famous for its size. It is famous for its taste - you do not have to add any flavorings to make a soup which is amazingly delicious! In addition, my city is also famous for its beer which you can get some even in US which is called TstingTao beer. We do not drink bottle beer or can beer - they are not fresh enough. What we do is to buy some beer from a huge barrel and hold it in a plastic bag. Bring it to home or to a small restaurant to drink with clams - you cannot imagine until you try it - especially add some ice in hot summer. That is the happiness of Qingdao style!