我的一颗心交给谁?
交出去会不会后悔?
爱情的边缘一次又一次徘徊
我的一颗心交给谁?
交出去能不能收回?
付出了感情只怕换来是伤悲.
过去我为爱流过泪,
现在已锁上我心扉...

黄品冠

less than a month away

if not for pb who mentioned tt it's their 11th month, i wouldn't have realized that we're already past thanksgiving and nearing christmas! Less than a month away! Time flies. too fast. been too busy.. so busy that i don't even have time to fall sick. Cannot afford to fall sick! Want to shop also cannot. boohoohoo. Oh well. at least i have time to come online occasionally. ^_^ And i found CouponChief.com that has useful stuff! My favourite Body Shop.. heez.. pple who 'smell' me everyday would know.. and i couldn't help but notice Dell.. something that mr Dell should like!! XD And that reminds me of our happy meal together at Crystal Jade last christmas.. mr Dell's best-meal-of-the-year.. wonder how christmas would be like this year? hmm..

Helping hands

Just a couple of weeks ago, my brother was frantically studying for his A levels. As one family, we all studied with him, trying to help him with sums he had problems with, making sure he got enough brain food, ensuring that he was in his top form for his exams.

Today, less than a week after he fought that month-long war, it’s my turn to need his help. A sudden reversal of roles, it was his turn to make use of his finely polished differentiation-integration skills to help me with my school work. So who said only the older and more experienced can teach the younger students? We help one another, and my brother who had just completed his high school managed to solve my graduate school assignment! =P

Remember the sweet moments

I seldom see my sis watching the news so attentively, especially when it's early on a saturday morning. It was only then that i learnt of the incident, the cambodia dragonboating incident. The next couple of days, i saw my sister buy every single newspaper featuring the incident, following the updates so very closely. Because one of the five who went through a brave struggle last friday, was her very good friend. To hear of such freak accidents is one matter. To know someone involved in it is another. It is so heart piercing to read the blogs and comments by family and friends of the victims. And it is even worse to read the forum comments by naïve, thoughtless people who mock the victims and their families.

I used to think that those people suddenly dying in their sleep without any known health ailments was scary, simply coz you really won’t know when you’ll die. But now, I think to die in a freak accident like this is even worse. In both cases, you don’t expect to die, but there is definitely less suffering if you die in your sleep.

To those who are families or friends of these five who have left unexpectedly, I really hope they’ll cope well and remember them at their very best.

And she’s off and away. Maybe it’s a good opportunity to lessen the grieves too, returning to only remember the good times they once shared.

So it really happened..

After so long of not touching any experiments, I was totally lost. Like a newbie in the lab. And I made a mistake. BAH. And it wasn’t even myself who discovered the mistake. I was so so soooo fortunate that it wasn’t a big mistake. This better not happen again. Mass production cannot afford to have mistakes. Too costly, too costly.

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On a happier note, sister made tiramisu yesterday (and so today can eat!). I haven’t had tiramisu since.. since Arzhou last made one for me as my farewell. Oh that was so long ago! I liked my sister’s tiramisu actually. The liquor was good.. haha. But unfortunately, there was way too much cocoa powder! I mean.. not that I dislike cocoa.. I LOVE it.. but.. it’s in the wrong place! Tiramisus shouldn’t taste like that.. cocoa overpowering the cheese and coffee.. lost the essence of tiramisu. Maybe she should just rename the dessert as something else.. then... it’d be wonderful. =P

New ministry

It’s been a long break. Had tried out various ministries last time.. choir (dun luff!), chijmes, youth, thai ministry… then I took a break when I went overseas to study.. a break that extended for 2 yrs. I’m now getting back. From 2008, I’d finally be serving in the Sunday School! Yeah.. after so many rejections when pple tried to pull me over.. there’s really no excuse lah.. fear of unpreparedness and inadequateness is no excuse.. coz we wouldn’t need God if we’re fully equipped and ready for the job, would we? It’s precisely the fearful and unequipped pple that require God’s providence. ^_^ I agreed to sit in Stan/Roy’s class today.. and before I made it to their class my name got taken down already! Haha.. I was just walking past.. and my name/email/phone number all got recorded. Like being caught by a prefect for being late for school lah!! Haha.. In addition to that, I’d prolly be stepping up at Assistant CG leader next yr too.. it’s gonna be a busy but exciting year ahead! ^_^

pretty flooring

I always imagined garage to be the most unkempt places in a house. A storage place, dirty, messy and untiled floors. Worse still, a garage full of rats running around! >.< tiled and be pretty.. and shining like diamonds! Not a dark and gloomy place, but pretty, clean and pleasing to the eye! It can even be protected with professional grade epoxy to make it easy to clean and to keep it nice and new.. whoahaha... i am day dreaming.. but when i finally get my own landed property with a big garage, i'd definitely pay attention to the garage flooring. The car.. will come later. =P

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It's gonna start..

After so many months of waiting, they finally arrived yesterday. Spent a couple of hours doing preparation work today.. it's been so long since i last did any benchwork, the pipette's exciting to the touch! XD I can't wait til next monday, when experiments start. It's a funny feeling, how excited i am to finally start on this project, but at the same time a little fearful coz i have never done this experiment before, yet the first time i am gonna do it, it's gonna be mass production already! Oh well.. i can't always waste time and resources to just practice alone.. i have to learn to be more confident, as well as of course be more careful and diligent with everything so that things can succeed at first try. No more allocating weeks just for practise. FEEL the experiment! woot~

Want..

It'd be nice to have this.. Nike+iPod Sports kit.

"Transform your iPod nano into a personal workout coach with the Nike + iPod Sport Kit. This wireless sensor and receiver combination works exclusively with your Nike+ shoes and iPod nano to give you real-time feedback during workouts and let you track your performance on your Mac or PC"

I don't really gian the ipod, but the tracking function is cool.. and is compatible with alot of events by Nike! Can even do charity k.. =P

Unfortunately, tho the sports kit is only $29, i still don't have an ipod to match with it. Bah.

Morning Surprise

Been sleeping a lot lately, for some unknown reasons. I went to bed at 10+pm yesterday, and only woke up at 9+am! I got out of bed, and saw a big bag sitting on the dining table. ‘Donut Factory? Not again..’ I thought. Donut factory isn’t that bad lah, but after a few times, it gets boring. Nonetheless, I peeked into the bag to grab my breakfast.. and then I saw… “Krispy Kreme”!!!!!!!!!!!!! I was stunned for a moment.. Groggy after sleeping for 11 hrs? Nonono.. Indeed, that’s what I saw. Muahahah… Krispy Kreme after almost 1.5yrs of no KK!! This has got to be the best morning surprise ever lah!! ^_^ Thanks to my sis who just returned from Manila. I guess I have given up eating KK ler, such tt it didn’t even occur to me that Manila has KK outlets. ^_^ I had 4 different donuts today, of which only 1 I’ve eaten before. Manila sure has different flavors (or has it been so long that KK has come out with new flavors that I don’t know of?) Oh that boundless filling oozing out of the donut from all directions.. the sweetness of the icing.. the softness of the donut.. is heaven~ Pity there was no chocolate filled.. But still.. KK is all that matters!!!! =P (But I feel so full after just 2 whole donuts.. I cannot imagine how I used to be able to eat 4-6 at one sitting.. bah.. no wonder I gained so much weight in so short a time.. maybe it’s good KK is not coming to Singapore. Maintain weight while the craving for KK will remain. ^_^)

Special insurance for Women?

A recent debate about whether oocyte extraction from women is harmful raised a question: would such a dangerous or emotional harmful procedure require insurance companies to create new policies for such events? Would it be better to have such insurances that could possibly insure women in case they emerge emotionally harmed by the oocyte extraction procedure? This is definitely not a rubbish question, as oocyte donation is becoming more and more popular, with human oocytes being higher and higher on demand for infertile couples, as well as for research. (of course, not nulling the fact that woman are very much highly paid for their eggs, ranging from a few thousand to 5-digit numbers depending on their educational level, ethnic group and age!) It's value compared to other insurance policies such as car insurance, home insurance and even pet insurance cannot be neglected. Of course, i personally do not think that any insurance would be able to account for the damage done on a woman if she suffers side effects from the donation. However, this is only my opinion, and i believe that many people have and will continue to 'donate' their eggs because of the huge monetary incentive.

* this is a sponsored post*

where’s the responsibility?

Yesterday, I took an exam. Graduate students, as you would expect, should be people who take learning seriously and study terribly hard for exams. I was shocked when 2 guys sitting beside me seemed shocked that there was an exam. After the lady left the room (she only came to give out the exam questions and left us to write our answers, assuming that graduate students are old enough to know to keep quiet and hardworking enough to have studied), the guys took out their handphone to make a call to confirm the date of the exam. Ok, since they weren’t using it to ask people for answers, so be it. There isn’t anything wrong with using a cellphone if you are not cheating with it, right? But then.. what about discussing exam questions? Is there an issue then? Those 2 guys started off whispering to each other, but eventually ended up having pretty loud exchanges that disturbed a lot of people. I was really pissed, and wanted so badly to shout at them to shut up and write their own answers, but held myself back as I didn’t want to disturb the rest of the students even more. I was sooo glad when a guys sitting right in front of them turned to say “can you please do your own answers?”. I was cheering for him deep down. Unfortunately, these guys don’t listen. They continued to discuss. Obviously their discussions were futile, coz both of them did not study for the exam, and I suspect they’ve never attended the class either. The guy beside me obviously saw me scribbling furiously, and decided that it was more wise to check out my answers. He was at questions 2 then, and I was at questions 7. He made it so blatant as to flip quickly to question 7 and turned to discuss my answer with his friend. I was so PISSED!! I started covering up my answers, sitting in weird positions.. and he happily changed his seating to continue checking out my answers! I’m so glad he never saw the though, coz some time later, he gave up and went back to his question 2. Then, the most unexpected thing happened. The guy in front (the one who barked at them earlier to shut up) turned and started discussing answers with them! By then, I was so angry at them that I was writing my answers as fast as I could, so I could leave the exam hall. I left an hour early in the end. Any longer and I would not be able to contain my anger.

I am totally dumbfounded by what happened. In undergraduate courses, cheating and copying is quite common in class tests, but even so, exams are treated more seriously. At those times, I just close an eye coz I know some people really resent what they’re doing, mostly coz they’ve been tricked or force into taking a course they didn’t like. However, graduate students obviously chose to further study because they have the interest, and they know this is the career they want to seek. Noone in the right mind would choose such a tough road for the fun of it. So if these people are serious about what they’re doing, why aren’t they putting in any effort at all? If there is interest, why is there still such behavior? To add on to that, we’re graduate students, old enough to take responsibility in what we do, matured enough to know what’s right and what’s not. What’s more, this exam consisted of questions that are easily answerable by JC students as these topics are simple stuff covered in JC! If they have never studied all these before, never attended the lectures, never even heard of such simple things before, I really question what they are doing with their lives. These 3 guys totally changed my impression of that particular nationality. Terribly ugly behavior.

(I just wrote to the authorities regarding this. I didn’t name any names, but simply suggested that maybe there should be invigilators for future exams. Sad to say, I have to ask them to treat us like young, immature undergraduates again. I chose not to name names simply because I do not want to make such a big hassle out of it, knowing that I am already known to be a complain queen by the school authorities within 3 months of candidature. Furthermore, I doubt that those students managed to get very far by trying to cheat, thus they should have already received their deserving punishment)

Bliss~

I pretty much enjoy what I do right now. Being a student. Sitting at the back row in class, listening to the lecturer feed me with knowledge, taking part in heated discussions.. I am beginning to like school more and more. If only I realized this earlier. I used to be so caught up with finishing my lessons and scoring my As that I never really sat back to enjoy the process. I no longer view exams as so important. It’s the learning process that matters more. I have to enjoy it while I can.. coz I may have only 1 year more of school.. (don’t know to if I should be happy or sad.. on one hand I am hoping they cut down the syllabus and I clear my courses faster, while on the other hand I enjoy schooling.. life’s a contradiction, ain’t it?)

it's GIS day tmr!

I happened to check my Earth Calender today, and i found that tmr is GIS day!! What a cool day!! haha.. And i managed to trick alot of pple abt it.. hehe.. what fun~

Demonic Visitation explained

I used to hear about such things called gui3 ya1 chuang2 or demonic visitations, especially on Taiwanese variety shows. They make it sound so scary, but i never knew what they meant, until i experienced it for myself--not so coincidentally in Taiwan. It was scary.. really.. but i am not one who believes in such things, but prefers to take things from a scientific point of view. Indeed, there is a scientific explanation behind what many cultures have long thought to be a demonic/spiritual attack.

For those who dunno what i am describing, "Sleep paralysis is a condition characterized by temporary paralysis of the body shortly after waking up or, less often, shortly before falling asleep. Sleep paralysis occurs when the brain awakes from a REM state, but the bodily paralysis persists. This leaves the person fully aware, but unable to move. In addition, the state may be accompanied by hallucinations.

More often than not, sleep paralysis is believed by the person affected by it to be no more than a dream. This explains many dream recountings which describe the person lying frozen and unable to move. The hallucinatory element to sleep paralysis makes it even more likely that someone will interpret the experience as a dream, since completely fanciful, or dream-like, objects may appear in the room alongside one's normal vision. Some scientists have proposed this condition as a theory for alien abductions and ghostly encounters.

Sleep paralysis occurs during REM sleep, thus preventing the body from manifesting movements made in the subject's dreams. Very little is known about the physiology of sleep paralysis. However, some have suggested that it may be linked to post-synaptic inhibition of motor neurons in the pons region of the brain. In particular, low levels of melatonin may stop the depolarization current in the nerves, which prevents the stimulation of the muscles, to prevent the body from enacting the dreamt activity (e.g. preventing a sleeper from flailing his legs when dreaming about running).

Several studies have concluded that many or most people will experience sleep paralysis at least once or twice in their lives.

During paralysis episodes, patients may be advised to try moving the facial muscles and moving eyes from one side to the other. This may hasten the termination of the attack."

For more information, visit wikipedia

Closing Banquet at Swisshotel the Stanford

The ballroom where we had the conference..


On the final night.. we had a banquet at the former Westin! ^_^

That's some of us at the cocktail reception..


I'm a pro.. can pose while looking for my favourite nuts to eat.. hehe


We wanted to give a cool look.. but tt extra 'mike man' popped into the photo and made us luff. grr..


I had a really good time at AACR. i can't wait for the next big conference!! (prolly a yr later bah.. boohoohoo)

Sleep more to stay slim!!

More excuses to sleep more! Not only do early nights help in the rejuvenation of your skin (and thus make you prettier.. that's where 'beauty sleep' comes from), sleep also keeps you slim! Now now, isn't staying pretty easy after all? Just lay in bed!! ^_^

"In experiments by Van Cauter and others, sleep-deprived adults produced more ghrelin, a hormone that promotes hunger, and less leptin, a hormone that signals fullness..." Get the full article here.

AACR Pathobiology of Cancer Workshop

32 workshops in 30 years, and this is the first time the workshop was held outside the United States of America.. and they came to SINGAPORE!! ^_^ A thoroughly exhausting but beneficial workshop. I feel so honored to be amongst this group of very privileged people. Presenting the students and teachers~~

End of Part 1

90 more minutes to the end of the pre-conference workshop. The professors from overseas are touring biopolis.. thus i took the opportunity to come back to the lab for a short rest.

I never excepted this workshop to be SOOOOOO intensive! Heard from a colleague (who'd attended this same conference some years back in the States) that this is supposed to be a week-long workshop, which for some reason has been compressed into two days! Imagine the amount of information crammed into our tiny heads.. and staring into the microscope for 12 hours a day is a source of terrible headache! It was a good experience though.. learnt a whole lot of stuff.. but could have been maximised if it was more spread out over a week.

Some people got abit reflective during this course.. coz we got to see really bad tumors in their raw form.. (and touch some of them).. and also getting to hear from the pathologists' point of view.. certain areas of research really isn't getting anywhere beneficial to the general population. But somehow, many pple outside the field get this misunderstanding, that everyone doing scientific research is due for a world-shattering discovery sooner or later. However, the real fact is, science is not something that one can do alone. It's not about making HUGe discoveries and being the next einstein. Working on cancer does not mean i am due to find the next cure. What happens is that everyone does a little bit.. we're like little people working on a huge puzzle. Each person finds a piece that may look unimpressive.. but when everyone comes together with their own little pieces (some bigger than the rest) and puts it together, a big picture is formed, and that's the whole big result that the general public sees. So, it's a group effort. I didn't enter this career wanting to make it big by finding a cure that noone could. I'm just joining this big team in finding more pieces of the puzzle that could eventually make up a big, beautiful picture.

Of course, i am not saying that there are zero big discoveries possible in the near future and that we're all bound to die. BUT, more often than not, alot of big discoveries are surrendipitous.. and thus it's something that we cannot really 'search' for, but can only 'chance upon'. We just have to wait for that surrendipitious discovery (whoever's lab it may be), or wait for the big puzzle to be solved piece by piece. ^_^

AACR

Woot~ My first real conference.. hope the pre-conference workshop would be fun too! (better be fun.. coz i've got to wake up at 6+am just for it!! >.<)