if you have eyes like this...

please stay away from me. this is self protection. ^_^

NUS-Baden Wurttemberg Joint Scientific Conference in Life Sciences

Office of Life Sciences, NUS, together with Baden Wurttemberg, will be holding the NUS-Baden Wurttemberg Joint Scientific Conference in Life Sciences in the fields of Immunology, Cancer, Tissue Engineering and Translational Research. Location: Centre of Life Sciences (CeLS), NUS.

Beautiful eyes..

Was headed to a conference today after class, when Lin called to say that she wouldn't be going today. Since i wasn't totally interested in today's conference topics, i decided to go home. In a split second, i pressed the 'stop' button on the shuttle bus and alighted. There, at the busstop, stood someone grinning at me. WHOA. if i hadn't made that split-second decision to go home, i wouldn't have met him! it's been so so so so sooooooo long already! And it was nice, knowing that it was all over-worrying. i had thought my memory and eyesight had failed me, unable to recognize someone who had been more than just acquaintances. it kinda bothered me, to think that my brain had selectively forgotten some things in so short a time. i even thought it was some variance of those selective amnesia people experience. geez. If that had really happened, i can't imagine what would happen if i don't see some friends for more than 20 years. so happy that i can still recognize a friend. ^_^

had wanted to do something in this post.. but.. i realized all photos have been transfered out of my lappy. too lazy to go find ler. haha. just as well.

toys for everyone

Cat gave me this toy from japan, for my bdae.. it's apparently a cultural toy! (woo hoo.. we're all so cultural.. hahaha) (with a really nice pink LeSportsSac pouch too! and my mum tried to steal it from me.. grr)


It's really fun! Seen fei1 ge1 play with it on tv.. now we have one too!! haha.. challenging k.. now everyone treats it as some morning exercise.. haha.. thanks cat~ ^_^

Loans?

Recently, there's been this big amount of talking about loans.. sigh... finances.. something which i really don't like to have dealings with.. yet, which one of us can run away from financial issues? Everything around us involves money.. home, school, work, holiday, cars, shopping.. involves some kind of $$$.. and worse still.. it usually involves INSUFFICIENT money!! >.< Secured Loans online! ^_^ bright orange template.. i like! makes the first step so happy alreay. haha. Magic Loans, they called it.. sounds fun and exciting already.. taking away the fear and anxiety the word 'loans' tends to bring along with.. heez..

**this is a sponsored post**

OktoberFest and Halloween Party~

It's my first time celebrating OktoberFest and Halloween!! ^_^

There were alot of people...
But i'm quite easy to spot, given the bright pumpkin on my head (courtesy of wyee) It's halloween mah!

All queuing for beer.. (now what's Oktoberfest without beer, right? ^_^)
The cheese sausages were really good..

Lots of other food too..


Some played Indian POker..

While i emerged the Queen of Gamblers~~
It was lots of fun. Can't wait for the next company event ^_^

Thanksgiving

if some of you know, i have a conference from 4-8 november, and a pre-conference workshop 2-3 nov.. luckily it's in singapore, so no plane/hotel to pay, but just entry fees, which total to about S$1000+ for the 1 week. (it's alot of $$!) Unfortunately, one of my current modules' exam is on the 6th.. right smack in the middle! i wrote in to the prof in charge, asking for an alternative plan for me, such as a term paper or an assignment (it's common for grad school modules coz phD students always have conferences overseas). However, this prof very mean.. he refused to excuse me! he insisted that i should skip conference for a useless exam... so i bobian...

Last week, the NUS grad school asked every student to give 1 feedback on any module we are currently taking.. of course i gave a heated feedback on this module! I told them how every module coordinator should be prepared to make alternative arrangements for students who have conferences to attend, coz this is grad school and it'd be a common sight in every semester...

Today, i got an email, informing us that the exam has been postponed from the 6th to the 14th of november!!!!! YAYyyyyyyyyy~~~~ Thank God. He always makes things right in the end. ^_^

Bdae..

Met the chestnutties today.. our almost monthly gatherings.. love it! ^_^ thanks pacey for organizing.. and shamir happened to pass by too!! ^_^

I received my first bdae present for this year.. from pacey! Thanks so much.. for spending time even when u are so busy with school and hyp and interviews.. ur presents are always so special.. so different from what the others give.. things that u make urself, things that i have no skills for.. and i must say ur painting has improved tremendously!! everyone look what he painted for me!! (it's an oil painting..)


I'm the sunflower (i seem to be always associated with the sunflower.. by everyone.. hmm) and he says the dark sky at the top left corner is him.. but i brightened up the sky ^_^ (correct hor pacey? i remembered correctly?) i shall have to think where i can put this up..

India?

Honestly speaking, i've never really thought about going to India, until Bong mentioned that she'd love to live there for maybe a year. It's about the ultra-rich culture there, she said. And i thought about it.. holidays in india would really be quite cool.. can try the authentic indian food!!! ^_^ I love indian food.. it may be oily.. but the rich use of spices!! woohoo~ And then i wonder about the pricing. Would flights to india cost alot? Ah.. no worries.. flights to India are available at DialAFlight! ^_^It offers Delhi flights, Bombay flights.. ah alot alot! I really wonder where will be my next holiday destination?

**this is a sponsored post**

Methane Burp-the end of human kind?

In response to Al Gore's film, my prof brought out a point that CO2 is not exactly the main greenhouse gas that we should be wary of. The scariest greenhouse gas is methane, which is 20 times stronger as a greenhouse gas as compare to CO2. However, where does methane come from? They're all hidden quietly, a ticking time bomb buried in the Arctic tundra. When global warming has caused the earth's temperature ot rise above the threshold for these hidden time bombs, a sudden emergence of methane called a 'methane burp' will occur. Then.. will humans survive that episode?

Read the full article on Methane Burps: Ticking Time Bomb. A follow up article is also available here

A change of perspective

Nowadays, I seem to be more affected by certain things going around me. Things that shouldn’t affect me as much. Take yesterday’s show for example. We all rushed home after CG fellowship to watch the final episode of a particular tv show. But I cannot believe how emotionally affected I was by the show. Just a show. But it got me thinking.. of what I will do if I was in a similar situation.. if someone around me was diagnosed with cancer. Not just focusing on the possibility of losing the person, but the reason behind it—cancer.

It just had to happen. Today I received a call, a notification of a relative who was defeated by cancer. I must admit I wasn’t very close to this person, but it struck me nonetheless. I know I couldn’t have done much, but.. having chosen this field to work in, I just feel more obliged to hold more responsibility for such things happening. I know I shouldn’t, and I know that there is a limit to what I can do. I know that whenever I tell people what I am doing and they ask me “so when will you discover a cure?”, it is probably not going to happen in the near future, nor from me (unless if a miracle happens, that is). Yet, I just feel.. I dunno.. like I haven’t done enough. Will my work now affect anyone at all in the future? Will my work be futile, and I end up not having contributed anything at all?

I haven’t found an answer to any of my own questions.. but I will learn to deal with it along the way. In the meanwhile, I just have to be more hardworking and go out even less.. just to complete my work and be a good student.

An Inconvenient Truth

A highly recommended film by Al Gore. I watched this during a class on a saturday morning. (Hey, i know this sounds pathetic, but it was coz my teacher got stuck in China due to some plane delays, and we had to rearrange our class time.) It was a class on ethics, and the show was to pose us the question: is it ethical to ignore environmental problems and allow future generations to suffer because of our negligence? Al Gore is indeed a very good lecturer, and i thoroughly enjoyed this 90minute film featuring him. Go watch!! ^_^

Lunch with IAP

And so today was the day I had lunch with the International Advisory Panel. It turned out that there were 5 tables, and each table had 1-2 professors and the rest were students. So it was a comfortable chat. My table had Jan from Sweden, and it was so coincidental that he mentioned my lab! (coz we do collaborations with Karolinska) So cool! ^_^ It was a really interesting chat with students of various backgrounds and scholarships coming together.. and sure did I gain a lot from the wise old man! Ah! And I met hongye from my junior class from hcjc! She was there too.. at another table. ^_^ (there was a camera crew around, but I bet the photos all showed me staring at my delicious lunch.. so I’d rather not publicize the glutton side of me. =P)

I realized today, that some students managed to attend the Nobel Laureate award ceremony.. sponsored by A*STAR! How cool is that? 3-week trip to Sweden! I also want!! I wonder if I will get the opportunity next year.. hmm..

Spoilt for Choice

Sometimes, it ain’t good to be too spoilt for choice. I was glad enough to have JQ’s sis to help.. who knew, my sister threw me another 2 pple to talk to, making my initial “definite choice” turn into a “difficult choice”! The biggest problem was that all 3 of them were from the same place, very professional, nice to talk to, were very well prepared and well equipped with relevant knowledge. Then how? It was such a tough 10 days.. with many sleepless nights while I tried to weigh to see who was better than who. Yet, even after so many days of contemplation, I still came to no conclusion! I have never come across such a difficult situation before… I really wished I could choose all of them! Even if friends want me to recommend someone, I wouldn’t know who to recommend! I’d prolly have to recommend all 3 and let them go thru this grueling decision-making process too. Argh. Oh well.. I’ve finally come down to 1. Not exactly based on all the important factors I need to consider (coz all 3 of them possess the things I was looking for), but on some dumb reason that even I am unable to truly convince the 2 other people that they’ve not clinched a deal because of such a lousy reason. I feel so bad… but well… life’s tough. I hope I have other chances to work with them next time. >.<

I need to get over and done with this issue, and get back to my term paper!

Start of my Journey

This is long overdue.. my award ceremony on 27th july this year. haha. coz i've been too busy to look through the cd that A*STAR sent me.. finally did so today! And oh manz.. i realize there're alot of photos of me doing such unglam stuff!! >.< onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVZL2_yYYbEfg66-Ghzj08PspFdK8-gIxo03ld_30JD5lZXLGJyEbyDuxcb4WNcKkYqPwYPqYiupHoCc1a631MP9u_fE9IX7HSfiet0ViA-lpjRom_WPS6b059hHACMMk-s1wE1fMKMQQ/s1600-h/130-me+receiving+my+award.+looks+abit+hunchbacked.+humph..JPG">After the ceremony, a few of us were selected to have refreshments together with the GOH (seperately from the rest of the population.. they split my parents and i!! >.<) This is me chatting happily with Dr Eng. He's a very pleasant man to talk to
I seem happy even after he leaves.. can't remember what i was thinking.. smiling to myself..


Caught looking greedily at the good food!! argh


Darn.. caught red-handed taking lots of food behind the minister's back! (there's a photo that captured my really overflowing plate.. but.. i shall not show that. enuff is enuff. XD)


Well, that was one of my first times 'forced' to network with people. So many more to come, and i realize i have so much to learn. I must improve my networking skills! This thursday i'm gonna have lunch with 5 of our international advisory panel. Once again, i was 'randomly selected' to interact with the IAP. Longer interaction (stuck at the table with them!), 5 times the amount of brilliant brains... wish me luck!!

For the biologists only

I was browsing through some NewScientist magazines (they're so much easier to read, like Newsweek.. rather than those dense scientific journals!) and i came across this really exciting piece of news! We all know that siRNAs are widely used to silence genes.. but.. did you know that they've been discovered to be able to OVEREXPRESS genes as well??? here's an abstract of the article..

Turn genes on, turn diseases off

• 07 April 2007
• Bob Holmes
• NewScientist Magazine issue 2598

THE experiment should have been straightforward. Long-Cheng Li was employing the hottest new technique in biology to turn off genes in cells growing in a dish. The trouble was that the opposite was happening. Instead of blocking production of the protein he was targeting, his RNAs seemed to be revving it up. In fact, levels of the protein shot up fivefold - a massive increase.

"At first I thought there must be something wrong with the samples, that we'd mislabelled them or messed up," recalls Li, a molecular biologist at the University of California, San Francisco. So he had his technician do it all again from scratch - with the same result.

That pulled Li up short. RNA interference, as the technique is called, is supposed to turn genes off, not on. All over the world researchers were using RNAi to turn off almost any gene they wanted, and its ...

I'm so sorry i have no access to the full online version of this article. But the magazine info is there.. so u can still find it at libraries ^_^ It's mainly saying that siRNAs that target promoters instead of the gene itself have a chance of having the opposite effect, i.e. overexpression. This phenomenon has been observed by multiple labs, but some scientists remain skeptical over this issue. There has also been no definite 'fool-proof' method for creating such siRNAs as yet. But think about it. if one day siRNAs can be used to overexpress tumor suppressor genes.. there goes cancer!! ^_^

Has it been so many days since I’ve written something? Have been SO BUSY with my term paper. Everyday come home early to work on it. (sorry bong, if you happen to read this. I need to rush my paper early coz of the conference week)

Today, someone hurtled a very hurting remark at me. It probably wasn’t intentional, but it wasn’t nice to hear, nonetheless. I really don’t see why having to give a packet of free lunch a miss, just because I have lessons to attend, makes me a loser. There are so many things I could have said at that point of time, but chose to keep my mouth shut coz I don’t want to end up hurting someone the same way I was hurt. Ah well.. just needed to get this off my chest. Everything’s still the same as before. ^_^

Challenge

It’s been some time since I last picked a challenge. For the past 2 years, I became rather laid back and decided to just do-well-enough-to-get-by in school. Finally, this semester, I decided to pick up a new challenge. For my philosophy module, I could have chosen easy topics to do. Yet, I’ve decided to write my term paper on the linkage between the Brain and Religion. How difficult can that be, you ask. Yeah, it’s just another 10-page paper on what I can find. Yet, it would be difficult to score when the person grading the paper is a neurologist and a very critical atheist. Thus, I figured that my term paper would need a lot of substance to not get thrown away in the bin. I chose this simply because it’s more interesting, and I do not want to do something boring just because I am more confident of scoring in that area (and guessing that the prof doesn’t know too much in that area to critic too much). As a start of this challenge, I’ve collated 60+ pages of information from the net, and today I went to the library to borrow 10 books! Woohoo~. I’m so gonna be a nerd til the end of November! XD

Presents for guys?

It's common knowledge that it's hard to choose gifts for guys. (Hey guys, APPRECIATE it k) For guys buying things for gals, it's usually a problem of 'don't know what the girl would like'. On the other hand, buying things for guys is kinda tough coz there're so few things you can really buy for a guy with a limited budget! Guys are BORING. haha. So I chanced upon this website that's specially created for pple to buy things for guys. WHOA. WONDERFUL eh? So i dropped by.. and saw.. hmm.. cabinets, workbenches, flooring, garage stuff.. whoaa.. i realize it's really all really 'gifts for him' kind of things! well, if there was a space large enuff for a garage, and i had no limit of $$, then i'd probably buy down everything offered there! haha.. the range is really quite cool. A place only for car-people though. ^_^

*this is a sponsored post*

misunderstanding

It’s funny how people automatically assumed my “publication” meant some scientific publication, when in actual fact it was a story of my life that was published. Haha. One of the pitfalls of how people have identified me with scholarly stuff. It’s getting more and more frequent that people greet me by saying “hey phD student!” or the likes. This was what I really didn’t want to happen, and thus wasn’t ready to tell anyone what my plans were after graduation. Thanks to a few of the FSC members, I was finally convinced that I should have more pride than inferiority regarding what I have gotten myself into. Good thing too, coz I think I’d have to live with this for more or less the rest of my life. ^_^

Life’s a story

And so I started writing (like I ever stopped).. and submitted it a couple of months later. Just for fun, just because I felt like it. And my story got published. ^_^ So now I have an official publication. Hee~

A day of coincidences

Today’s such a wonderful day. I had a gathering with my hall mates, to celebrate jq and rachel’s birthdays. Some people who’d be arriving were people I haven’t met for a few months. Place to meet—Kuishinbo at Suntec city.

Since I was early, I decided to shop around Raffles city. And on my way up the escalator, I happened to turn to my right, and saw yexin going down the other escalator! Yexin’s my jc classmate, and we haven’t met in years!

While having dinner, the few of us noticed the table beside us suddenly filled with an entire plate of sashimi and another plate of crabs. Noone was sitting there (they were off to get even more food). When the gal returned, jueqi gave a loud scream. It was ETeng, her JC softball teammate! And coincidentally, Eteng is also one of the people whom I went Thailand with to play weiqi! So they yaked away, excited at their meeting.. when.. her friend came along with yet another plateful of food. She turned to look at us, and.. “WEIJIA!!!” whoahaha.. it was tzehui, my secondary school classmate!!! What a small world!! And we later found out, ETeng’s bro is Alvin’s (hall friend who was there) friend too! Lalala.. Singapore’s so small. ^_^

Dolly and Alan Colman

‘Twas a really cool day. I realize that I have ample chances of meeting big shots nowadays. Today, my lecturer got her partner to be our guest lecturer. This partner of hers, is none other than Alan Colman, the man behind Dolly the Sheep! And though Alan’s well known for his work on Dolly, he’s done a lot of other amazing work in the past 20 years of stem cell research. He’s now the Executive Director of Singapore Stem Cell Consortium. Ah.. so many big names in Singapore. And I wonder why people still like to say bad things about the guy who managed to bring these people to Singapore. ^_^

Holiday season coming up again!

It's october.. Children's day just passed.. what's up next? Something that affects me more, i hope. haha. Thanksgiving and Christmas are what i look forward to. Last year was the first time i really celebrated thanksgiving, and it was with the Fat Sunshine Club people. At that time, there were only four of us in the group. A year on, we've increased our membership by 75% ^_^. Last year's thanksgiving was really great. We dropped by Estelle's place, baked a lemon cheesecake (topped with lots of fruits), made rosti, feta cheese and olive oil salad.. and had other things like 'turkey', sausages and our home-made chocolate fondue!! woohoo~~ what a spread!! I hope this year's thanksgiving would be as great. Maybe it's time to start thinking of the menu for this year's thanksgiving! haha. BUT, besides food, there're other components to holiday season-- Gifts! You know, gifts can be really fun things, especially when you know the people really well. Yet, they can be such a chore if the people are not as close, or seem to have EVERYTHING! oh well, the saviour is here! With Coupon Chief, you don't have to worry about getting the wrong things for people anymore! and i imagine what i could get for the FSC people with Coupon Chief... hmm..

Bong: what else for the in-house artist, besides ArtGazebo?
CF: maybe something more for her cats from Petfooddirect
Estelle: in view of her soon-to-be driving license.. driving comfort should be the choice =P
Mintea: for the photographer.. Kodak coupons
Fangers: scholastic store for our scholar..
Wyee: Orbitz dealsfor our hardcore backpacker!

Of course, i wouldn't mind getting all of the above for MYSELF instead. XD

guilty until proven innocent?

Had wanted to write about this some time ago, but forgot.. until I read cat’s recent entry. Indeed, some pple are very distrusting, and everyone to them is “guilty until proven innocent”. On the other hand, I prefer to give everything/everyone the benefit of the doubt, being “innocent until proven guilty”. I always thought this attitude of mine to be quite a blessing, for naivety brings a lot of happiness. Yet, for once in my life, it almost led me to a quarrel with a friend. I simply could not understand why she was so cautious about this other person, deeming him to be evil and out to trick her. It was a simple request that seemed all so harmless to me. I don’t know if it was her being oversensitive or me being dumb and gullible, but my not being able to understand her stand led our discussion to become quite heated up. Until today, I still cannot comprehend why people must be so cautious. Why must everyone in their eyes be sly and cunning, until proven angelic? And even when that happens, people might say there must be a hidden motive behind his angelic behavior. There’s no end to it. Sometimes I wish we were in a more unassuming and carefree society..

Personalized things

Pacey painted his own shirt. It’s really nice, and I didn’t even notice that it was made by him! (I simply dismissed it as another branded t-shirt, since he’s got a load of them after the trip to US!) Ah, how I wish I was as talented as him. His ‘sister’ sewed the t-shirt, and he designed it. I ALSO WANT!! I love personalized things. I also have 1 personalized t-shirt that I got from JB years ago. Haven’t been able to make it back there ever since, neither have I invested any creative juices into thinking of how I want my next personalized T to look like. But.. if only my whole cupboard had clothes that only I have.. clothes that are personalized.. that'd be nice..

(Pacey, if you're reading this, can i have a painted t-shirt for my bdae, for thanksgiving, for christmas, for new year, for vdae, for... maybe just 1 every month would do? XD)

Special name?

I don’t know why, but I seem to always get randomly selected to do things. Maybe it’s my name that makes everyone choose me. I can’t think of anything else. Focal discussions with Dean, being school representatives to talk to ministers, sieved out from scholars to entertain guest-of-honors etc. Today I got a new job-- to go for a lunch meeting 2 weeks later with the International Advisory Panel. These people are from well renowned universities all over the world, visiting Singapore for 2 days. ‘Informal Chichat’, they call it. At least, there’s always free food and special treatment whenever I attend these meetings. Haha. Just hope I don’t make myself look stupid! >.<

long overdue fountain..

This was about a month ago, our farewell for Shireen. Chocolate fountain!! enjoy~


The complete family of FatSunshineClub, plus Shireen! 8 very very happy gals. ^_^

Don't i look very happy? DUH. Who wouldn't be, when there's a chocolate fountain in front of them?
And.. after the whole thing, we got to LICK the chocolate right from the fountain!!!! BLISS~

(and yes, see the hello panda? Hello panda + chocolate fountain = heavenly. Coz hello pandas have a hole behind them, thus by dipping it into the fountain, u actually can end up with chocolate from inside and outside!!)

Best Buds

My bro shared this with me.. Really cool.. i wish i have such rich friends too. make an ad for me!! =P

Nike and Tiger Woods have produced a commercial with a cheeky good luck message for Tiger's good friend Roger Federer as he closes in on a potential fifth Wimbledon victory.

First Generation

That's one of the public artworks done by Fah Cheong. ^_^

music or books?

Wyee dajie posed a question one day, “If you had to choose between the 2, would you give up music or books?” It was a no-brainer for me, but I discovered that majority chose the other. I cannot live without music. I listen to music when I’m happy, when I’m sad, when I’m lonely, when I’m with friends, when I’m bored, when I’m stressed, when I’m relaxing.. music is my life~

cheap cheap calling!

During lunch at the market today, reb's daddy kept loitering around our table, chit chatting and talking about various things. He even insisted on buying us bazhang even after we'd had our lunch. We all came to the conclusion that he misses reb (who's away in London for 3 months for training), and thus needs to shower his love on someone else - us.

It's so common nowadays, for people to be flying from country to country, for either work or study. Some cheapo people (like me) insist on free methods of keeping in touch, but other people (especially the older generation) still prefer the more convenient physical phone. Expensive, we complain. But now there're some promotions for international calling cards with amazingly low rates! Virtual calling cards, they're called. Imagine.. 5 full hours of FREE international calling just by signing up with Pingo, a place for cheap calling card! There's also this Special phone card blog discount coupon: “ppp3” valid for $3 off Pingo. And receive $25 phone card for just $17. Alot alot of discounts and offers.. Pingo Mobile helps you save up to 90% on your International cell phone calls. And of course, there's always the benefit of recommending more friends to use this service. Pingo’s calling card affiliate program pays $15 for each new customer you refer!! ^_^ many many many things.. the Pingo business plan, the pingo family plan, Pingo's ratewatcher (that saves you from the hassle of digging through piles of prepaid calling card offers to see if you're getting really low phone card rate).. and my personal favourite Global Phone Card (coz it is applicable GLOBALLY, of course. haha).. all in all, they seem to have EVERYTHING you can possibly want! So.. Pingo's the way to go! ^_^

*this is a sponsored post*

Illusion of That Shrinking Feeling

Was doing some research on the brain, when i came across this. So fun! haha.

The researchers, led by Dr. H. Henrik Ehrsson of University College London, fooled 17 people into feeling as if they were getting skinnier by outfitting them with gadgets that stimulated a tendon in each wrist to create the false sensation that both hands were moving inward.

The subjects wore blindfolds and placed their hands at their waists, and then the stimulators were turned on, while an M.R.I. scanner measured activity in different parts of the brain. For the subjects, the feeling that their wrists were flexing inward was so powerful that they felt their waists had to be getting smaller.

Dr. Ehrsson said he had tried the tricks on himself.
"It's a very funny sensation," he said. "The nose is my favorite. It really feels like your nose is getting longer. You start giggling."

The first time people feel the illusions, "they're very surprised and shocked," Dr. Ehrsson said.

"The illusion happens as a result of a conflict between senses," Dr. Ehrsson said, explaining that the wrists feel as if they are moving, but the palms of the hands, resting against the waist, do not. "The brain has to interpret the conflicting sensory information. The brain hates ambiguity. It always tries to come up with an explanation."

"It's a little bit of a forgotten sense," he said. "We know about touch, pain and position, but the sense of size of body parts has been a mystery. There are no receptors in skin or muscle that tell the brain the size of body parts, so the brain has to figure it out by comparing signals."

He said the research might shed light on anorexia, in which people can be wasting away, and yet still see themselves as fat. Shown body images on a screen and asked to adjust them to match their own size, people with anorexia often overestimate and create images that are way too large.
"They seem to have a perception deficit," Dr. Ehrsson said. "We don't know if it's the cause of anorexia, probably not, but it's clearly part of the problem."

Dr. Ehrsson's finding was not surprising, since other studies had shown that people with brain injuries in that area had sensations suggesting that the sizes and shapes of parts of their bodies had changed.
Also, in rare cases, people with migraine headaches suffer from the "Alice in Wonderland syndrome," in which they feel as if parts of their bodies are shrinking.

The full article is taken from the NY time here.

Life outside the lab

At first glance, it just seemed like my university days were just school, hall, lab and nothing else. Didn’t do anything for the country, didn’t achieve anything big, didn’t live a worthwhile 4 years. Even my lab also nothing to be proud of. But, as I sat there at my first sculpture meeting today, I realized, I actually did a lot outside my regular schoolwork.

My resume.. has an ultra long list of things I did in uni. From all the committees I was involved in hall (pageant comm, environmental comm, production comm, writing comm, block comm, orientation comm), to the sports I was involved in, to the committees I was involved outside hall (funkamania, some other nation-wide video/photography competition).. it was in uni that I tried out various ministries in church like chijmes/youth/thai too.. and there’s the wonderful exchange at Penn.. ivy league university wor! So I think.. maybe.. it wasn’t too un-eventful bah. Haha. Probably just my final year that I stopped all outside activities.. and that seemed to me an entire lifetime. Haha.

So what sculpture meeting was I at today? That’s my newest commitment. I, together with 4 other students from my school (ultra long name of NUS Graduate School for Integrative Sciences and Engineering) are gonna join the other 13 faculties in making a batch of 14 marble sculptures, that will be displayed in the new NUS Alumni House. Sculpture, means designing it and really chipping pieces off to make a sculpture lah! Haha. Sounds cool eh? My commitment for the next 4 months. ^_^ And of course, there’s a professional sculptor to guide us lah! It’s our alumnus, Fah Cheong. Today then I know that his art work is everywhere in Singapore.. the pieces in front of NUS cultural centre, some piece in Toa Payoh central, and the most popular one is the boys jumping into the water in front of Fullerton Hotel! That one I’m sure most pple have seen. Now I can proudly say I know the guy who made that! ^_^

Hotelreservations.com

This year seems like a "traveling year", where every single FSC member went on holiday. From Shanghai/ Beijing/ Chengdu/ Jiu Zai Gou in China, to Tibet, to Taiwan, Cambodia, Vietnam, Korea, and most recently Bintan. What a load! So amidst the hoo-ha and everyone leaving and returning with gifts and foods from everyone around the world, i sit here and surf (fine, i had my fair share of holiday.. but i miss it!).. Hotel Reservations. It is one of the more user-friendly travel websites, where it covers all services ranging from hotels, motels, flights, cars, to whole vacation packages.

I've checked out the airline prices at this webby.. compare compare.. since i had recently flown to quite a few countries AND booked these flights myself, i decided to check out the range of airlines this webby covers, and the price range it offers. (Well, being cheapo and more importantly POOR people, i just had to do this. compare and try to find the best deals.) I tried a whole range of countries, from various states in the United States, to Taipei, Shanghai (pudong), and even Tibet. The results from the search... showed that the range of airlines covered by this website, is comparable to many other travel websites. However, the price range is only average, being comparable to most websites, but not providing the best promotion rates.

Then.. there's the don't-bother-to-plan-your-holiday section... 'vacation packages'!! haha.. the easy way out eh. And i must say.. i was truly amazed at the wide range of holiday destinations these webby covers!! The whole list of cities/countries.. took me so long to scroll and decide what place i wanted to check out! And the hotel list given.. is as extensive as the country list! whoahaha... this is really quite good.. and it's ultra user friendly, with pictures of all hotels provided! i love it manz... it's really like a one-stop travel planner! With regards to the prices, they're quite normal. Nothing too exaggerating, but at the same time no ultra cheap prices that are too good to be true. But since the prices are average, and the hotel/country list is so extensive, i pretty much like this site now!! ^_^ Strongly recommended for anyone who's planning a holiday! ^_^ Doesn't matter which place you're heading to.. they have it! (At first i thought that the website would be more established for common travel destinations like US and Europe only.. but i discovered that it had some really exotic places.. more than 1410 destinations!)



Ah. so where should my next destination be? would it be Christmas in London? Or would it be my long-awaited Thailand trip after picking up Thai so many years ago? Or maybe.. just maybe.. something more exciting awaits me? ^_^

Eye Candy or Eye Meat? XD

The MIT Media Lab's John Maeda lives at the intersection of technology and art -- a place that can get very complicated. Here, he talks about paring down to basics, and how he creates clean, elegant art, websites and web tools. In his book Laws of Simplicity, he offers 10 rules and 3 keys for simple living and working -- but in this talk, he boils it down to one simply delightful way to be.

gifts that make me happy

Little things that people give, out of no apparent reason, make you happiest. Just because, we’re friends.

Something from Shireen, whom I’d heard of for a month before I met her in person. Friends for 2 weeks before she left for Cambridge. It’s now on my lappy.. I see it whenever I use my laptop..

I place this on my desk, and it’s the first thing that greets me every morning when I awake. My own smile makes me smile. HAHA

achievements

After looking at my friend’s list of achievements in his life, I realized that I didn’t lose too much to him. But.. somehow.. he seemed much more achieved in life. Why? I realized.. in the first 20 years of my life, I took part in more things and achieved more. I excelled in everything—琴棋书画— the equivalent of everything that an educated Chinese child should know. However, 小时了了，大未必佳 (to excel as a child doesn’t mean one would be as great in later years). Indeed, ever since I entered university, everything stopped. All my performances/competitions stopped the very moment I stepped into NUS as a student. I quit everything when I was at my peak. I stopped playing the piano right after I passed Grade 8. I quit playing Go/Weiqi right after I returned from my first international competition in Thailand. I stopped dancing after winning countless trophies (and $$). I stopped drawing after I won the silver and bronze medals in international competitions. Even Olympiads and other international competitions in Maths/Science found their way out of my life as I grew older. Countless talents, countless achievements.. but those are part of the past. 20 years of glorious past, 20 years of limelight. Rather short, given that I will probably live much longer than that. Oh well, instead of wondering why I gave up all those at that time, I’ve decided that.. I’m happy where I am now. Being a normal person.. I do miss the adrenaline rush of competitions, and the limelight of performing on stage at times. But at least, I’ve experienced all those before. Nothing lasts forever. Nothing is eternal. The only exception is God’s love. ^_^

missing it...

2 years after i last met a friend, he suddenly appeared on the news, and facebook suddenly found him, thus i revisited his webpage. It's so nicely done up now. plus, there's a blog on his new life at Stanford. It totally reflected the life i had early last year. Miss the university life in US. haiz.

where’s the problem?

Yet another one. Through the years, multiple people have complained to me (directly or indirectly) about our problem. It’s prominent, it’s there, it’s never left us. But.. what can we do about it? We learn from it, we try our best to improve. But, we’re still humans. We can never be perfect, no matter how much we strive to be. Yes, I admit, maybe we didn’t try hard enough, thus there’s still a lot of room for improvement. And because of this, we did not lose just 1 friend, but more. So what should we do now, what do we need to do, so that this will not happen again? And.. is it just my thinking, or does this seem to always happen to someone around me?

Sigh. Can someone do something about this? Coz I really dunno what to do…

Winterfest in Knoxville, TN

Really nice video.. just need 5 minutes of your time.. thanks weilin for sharing this with me ^_^

in remembrance of tibet

i hang this on my hp, an accessory from tibet.. something to remind me every moment of the day, how simple life can be..

Chestnutties Foursome

Yeah, tt’s how cat called us. Our new name. Only 4 of us left. But I really enjoy meeting up with them every once in a while, and I’m sure they feel the same too! Arzhou, Pacey, Cat and I. Maybe cat’s right. We can do this regularly (lunch together). Have Vietnamese food often enough before pacey graduates and COOKS US A BIG MEAL!!!! ^_^

(yay~~ I’m the first to blog about this. Lalalala~)

distance

From 7pm channel 8 show today..

“the most heartbreaking distance, is when 2 people from 2 entirely different worlds come together, grow closer, fall in love, but end up returning to their 2 respective worlds, as far as before”

How true.

Love Song...

Was watching the 7pm channel 8 today, when i heard a familiar song..

There is none like You
No one else can touch my heart like You do
I could search for all eternity long
And find there is none like You

The male lead was playing this song on the piano, and singing it for the female lead. Wonderful love song indeed.. but i wonder who placed it there? The TV producer?

It's only when we listen to the other half of the song, that we know who this song was really written for..

Your mercy flows like a river wide
And healing comes from Your hands
Suffering children are safe in Your arms
There is none like You

written by Lenny LeBlane

News-worthy friends

I got a huge shock when I saw the advert in Straits Times today. It said that this guy, Lo Min Ming, was featured in Zaobao today. This guy is someone I knew from sec school, and even went overseas together for competition 6 years ago. A couple of years ago, we met again and he told me he’d just completed his poly education, and had been offered a scholarship to Stanford U after he finishes his NS. I didn’t know that this would make the news 2 years later, after he’d served his NS! Haha.. how would I have known that my friend’s life would be so news-worthy?! Told JQ about it.. she blamed me for not telling her earlier, if not she could have been the one who took up the job of interviewing him! Haha.. maybe now I should open my eyes wider to notice who around me has lives that are news-worthy..

FEH-llowship

Somehow, everytime fewer of us Footprints meet up, we end up having such a good time. I really wish more pple would be able to benefit from such wonderful time together, time spent bonding, time spent sharing.. (and time gaining weight. Share the fats lah! Haha) Really thank yiwen, Stacey, vivi and pbgb for the time and effort. Had a really nice chat together while doing up the board! Looking forward to more such Saturdays spent together ^_^

Al-Hamra

Al-Hamra is a Lebanese, Middle Eastern Restaurant situated along Lorong Mambong in Holland Village (the stretch with Wala wala, NYDC ). We went there to celebrate Min-tea's birthday, and were given a special offer of paying the set-lunch price, but getting a sort of ala carte serving of various dishes to share and try amongst all of us! It was cool...

The appetizers.. so many types! Most of us still liked the humus most.. ^_^


The main course. With lamb chop, chicken kebab and all sorts of other meat.. it all tasted SO GOOD! Totally worth it.. $20 for the entire set of appetizers, main course, drinks and dessert!


Only thing i didn't like, was that the food was a wee bit too salty. Not noticeable while eating (as the wonderful taste of the food simply distracted us), but we were all gulping down water my the litre the rest of the day! haha..

I signed up for PPP!

It's been a couple of months since i've signed up for this.. PayPerPost (aka PPP) thingie. Not like i'm a hardcore poster like some others.. (who thus end up earning thousands of dollars, literally, each month.. i bet they take this as a professional career!) Instead, i only blog about certain things that happen to interest me.. henceforth.. i get only enough $$ for tea from my blog posts. haha. well, tea isn't that cheap where i work! Each drink can cost 3-4 times more than some other places! So don't undermine my "coffee money" yeah. haha. But the interesting thing is, though i am asked to post blog ads about various places, i noticed a trend in my posts... i tend ot post about holiday destinations and things related to traveling!! and in the process, i discovered i've learnt much more than i've contributed! Now that i've got more knowledge about some online webbies on booking airflights, hotels etc, i'm all ready to travel! All thanks to PayPerPost! ^_^

iSight

iSight's really cool. Like neoprint machine! But i shan't make it an excuse to want to buy a mac. No, i won't.

We think.. (pencil function)

AH HAH!

Return of the Gal Band!!

There're so many functions. Here're a few. I'm lazy to upload more.. like the 'glow', the 'x-ray', the 'comic book', the 'thermal' etcetc

reaching out to the unreached

Today’s sermon was on evangelizing to the people who have never ever heard of the Word in their entire life. Majority of these people reside in the 10-40 window, which means between latitudes 10 and 40. Suddenly, I thought of someone from this group that I could have spoken to. I had made a friend with someone whom I doubt has ever heard of the Word. And amongst this group of people, it is probably very rare to meet someone without a language barrier, which was what happened in my case. I was really looking forward to making a good friend, but I must admit that at that point of time, I didn’t think of evangelizing to him. I wish I did, for I had ample chances if only I had noticed them. It’s such a great pity that we’ve gone our separate ways without me able to make this encounter a more meaningful one. I hope that the next time I have such an opportunity again, I will make full use of it. ^_^

Donut Factory

My sis brought back donuts from donut factory last night. That's my first time having donuts from there. On normal days, this would probably have made me ultra excited.. but she was so late.. that my mum actually came to tell me "hey, your sis is coming back with donuts from donut factory. you cannot sleep until she comes home" Oh well.. so i stayed up just to eat the donuts. They were really great, i must admit. Just that, being way past my new bedtime of 11pm (hey! i have to wake up at 750am ok), that was all i remembered of the donuts. haha. I guess sleep is more important than food then! ^_^

What Mary Didn't Know

Well.. I must admit that my class is quite interesting, but at the same time it's really confusing! Here's a short excerpt of the readings we have, and the kind of discussions we do..

What Mary Didn't Know.** Mary is confined to a black-and-white room, is educated through black-and-white books and through lectures relayed on black-and white television. In this way she learns everything there is to know about the physical nature of the world. She knows all the physical facts about us and our enviroment, in a wide sense of 'physical' which includes everything in completed physics, chemistry, and neurophysiology, and all there is to know about the causal and relational facts consequent upon all this, including of course functional roles. If physicalism is true, she knows all there is to know. For to suppose otherwise is to suppose that there is more to know than every physical fact, and that is what physicalism denies.

Physicalism is not the noncontroversial thesis that the actual world is largely physical, but the challenging thesis that it is entirely physical. This is why physicalists must hold that complete physical knowledge is complete knowledge simpliciter. For suppose it is not complete: then our world must differ from a world, W(P), for which it is complete, and the difference must be in nonphysical facts: for our world and W(P) agree in all matters physical. Hence, physicalism would be false at our world [though contingently so, for it would be true at W(P)].¹

It seems, however, that Mary does not know all there is to know. For when she is let out of the black-and-white room or given a color television, she will learn what it is like to see something red, say. This is rightly described as learning--she will not say "ho, hum." Hence, physicalism is false. This is the knowledge argument against physicalism in one of its manifestations.²

**[ Excerpt from Frank Jackson's, "What Mary Didn't Know", in The Journal of Philosophy LXXXIII, 5 (May 1986):291-95.]

Dick Lee!!!~

Chanced upon all these.. really funny!! hee~

Dick Lee changes lyrics to "Count on Me Singapore", the song he penned himself



It's abit old.. but this is really really funny! From 30th anniversary concert Dec2004..

Do things in Parallel

My HYP supervisor came over to have a chat with me today. She first asked me about my phD program, what I have to do.. then it led on to this:

A: You must do a lot of things in parallel during your phD.

Me: Yeah, I need to go to school, I have a project to complete at the lab, I have to teach..

A: Yes. But this is not the most important. There’s still one more thing

Me: ??

A: You need to find the right guy.

Me: !!??!

A: Really. You have to grab hold of your youth. Don’t miss the chance!

Me: Ok…

A: Look at XXX and YYY. They’re such wonderful ladies. They’re smart, diligent, beautiful, polite, kind…

Me: Yeah, definitely

A: And they’re interesting women. Right?

Me: Yeah!

A: Look at them. They’re doing so well in their careers. But.. they’re so lonely.

Me: oh…

A: They’re not bad people. They’re very good catches. Just that they missed the important period. Do you get what I mean?

Me: Yeah..

A: Men like young women. You have to grab your chance. So you have to do things in parallel! You have to find the right partner before you graduate!

Me: Oh.. ok..

Of course, the conversation didn’t go exactly like this. This is my own interpretation of the Russian-accented-conversation we had. Hehe. But it was really funny. How instead of my parents, my supervisor is the one who came to me and talked to me about finding life partners first. Haha. Of course, I took the opportunity to ask her how she met her husband. Oooh… how sweet. ^_^

Tears that came too late

Fangers asked me if I cried during the show. Coz apparently bong did. Then I remembered I did. But not because I was touched by the show, but simply because the issue brought up in the show, reminded me of some other things. The issue of daring to pursue dreams, daring to try their best to overcome all obstacles just to live their dream.

It was all indeed reflective of my life. This musical is about pursuing dreams. But I, being a cowardly girl, dare only to pursue dreams that are stereotyped in this society. My scientist dreams, I pursue. But other than that, I didn’t dare to pursue love that is totally outside of this world. I wish I could defy everything and live for myself, like that in the movies. Maybe if I weren’t brought up in an oriental society, I might give up everything just for my dreams. But that’s how life is. This is my life. This I how I have been taught to live it. I also didn’t bother to continue a lot of my classes. I really regret not dancing, not drawing, not playing the piano more last time. Then maybe I could be doing fun things like performing in musicals like this too. I miss performing on stage. Too late. Everything’s too late now. I have only 1 dream left to pursue. This is all I have left now. The lab is my life.

Of course, I didn’t think so much during the show. I guess it was just the sudden flashback of a memory this morning, plus the uncanny resemblance of george (lips, eyes, jawline, skin color, muscle lines..) that pieced everything together, and I wished I had dared to pursue that one dream. It’s a regret, but I know that even now, if I were given the chance to make the choice again, I would still not dare to do it. Just that, instead of running away immediately, I would face it and reject it. I hate it when people leave without giving an answer. I felt so bad for doing so.. but I wasn’t given a second chance to give a reply..

If there’re Seasons..

天冷就回来.. by Theatre Practice. that’s the musical I watched today. I’m so glad Wyee dajie (who’s playing in the orchestra for this musical) invited fangers, bong and I to watch (with the best seats too). It’s so worth it! It’s a musical inspired by popular hits of songwriter Liang Wenfu, written by HongKong playright Raymond To, and starring George Chan, Sebastian Tan, Joanna Dong, Magdalene See..

I must admit, I only knew George Chan as a choreographer who was a judge at Singapore’s Dance Floor. Hence, I didn’t know what to expect from this musical, besides the familiar songs by Liang Wenfu, as well as some dances by George. During the earlier part of the musical, I kept watching out for his body movements, trying to see how a famous choreographer like him would dance. I was kind of disappointed to see, that he didn’t have many dance parts, and didn’t even dance in the pub scene! The only times I saw him move around abit.. he looked abit stiff. Haha. Think it’s his role. Or maybe too muscular.. dunno.. haha.. guess I couldn’t help noticing that, coz Wyee kept pointing it out to me when she went for rehearsals. LOL. Well, I must say tho, that though I didn’t catch George dancing much in the show, his body movements were like sooo perfect.. sharp, concise, perfect timing. And because he usually dances as a group, it was easy to compare. Dancing aside, he moves like a professional would in a musical. (well, he IS a pro. Haha) Now I really am convinced of how talented this guy is.

(indeed, it’s his character that forbade him to dance. 'they won't let me dance. My character is pretty stiff, so I'm not allowed to gyrate my hips. I have to look like I cannot dance.' Read more here)

What caught me by surprise, was that George Chan’s Chinese is fantastic! I mean, I’ve only heard him speak English in a very ang-moh-ish way, so I didn’t expect him to speak Mandarin without any ang-moh-ish accent! And… I didn’t know he could sing THAT well!! Whoaa.. totally impressive.. not just because I didn’t expect it, but his vocals are really good!! Listen til the oil leaks out of the ear, as the Chinese description goes.

Ah! And I found out later from Wyee that George cried during the show we watched (which was the finale), and he didn’t the in rest! I’m so honored!! LOL

That's him. He starred in broadway musicals like Chicago and Miss Saigon in London lah!! impressed.

All in all, I had a really wonderful time today. Looking forward to more of such events!! ^_^