Certified!! =)

exactly 10 years after i first set my heart to learn to dive, i've finally done it. SO HAPPY!! A dream fulfilled, in just one weekend. Thanks to Marcus and qiaoling for organizing, kunshan for wanting to learn with me, all the TH peeps who made it oh-so-fun, and the very trustable instructors who made me feel so at ease so that i could learn to dive without any fears. Of course, a great thanks to God for the wonderful weather, and for keeping us safe throughout the trip. (and yes, roy and rose who made it possible for me to leave singapore without any worries~)

Actually, it started only with ks and i wanting to learn diving. ql offered to get us in contact with marcus, and she promised to follow. i didn't know that i'd end up learning with 4 other people, who were from TH too! that made it all so fun. The long F1 race to Mersing, the ferry trip with cockroaches, the motion sickness on the dive boat, the splitting of work while doing the exam coz we wanted to sleep earlier.. =)

Let's see what i sighted on my first dive trip: lots of corals and fish! starfish, trigger fish, moray eel, blue-spotted ray, turtle, cuttlefish.. and i got to play with nemo! =P pity i didn't get to see the dolphins, the sharks, the sea slugs and the cuttlefish mating! but i'm satisfied already. so many more trips to come, i will definitely see them once! hehe. So when's the next trip? anyone? ^_^

bah. used my cam for only 1 photo during the trip, coz there were many avid photographers there. save the trouble =) so here're just a few from facebook...

be a geek!

I really didn't expect myself to voluntarily sign up for the symposium. The very 1st student symposium organized by my faculty. Who'd have thought that i'd have put in this extra effort to organize and print out a whole poster to take part in this event? Then i found out that the organizers were mostly my friends. AIYAH.. should have said earlier.. would have showed my full support lah! Anyway, i totally did not regret attending this symposium. I've been to so many biology conferences and talks and symposias, that it gets a little dry sometimes. I had also forgotten that I don't come from a purely biology faculty (but an integrated school of sciences and engineering), until i attended the first keynote lecture on friday.. WHOA... so exciting! Prof Inami from Keio university in Japan was flown in to talk about the newest technologies in robotics... how cool is that?! and he even brought some of the robots to show us.. oh manz. There's this collaboration with NUS, where they even endearingly called it the CUTE centre, to stand for Connective Ubiquitous Technology for Embodiments. hehe. really cute. looking at his presentations of James bond movie-come-to-live, i wondered why i never stuck to engineering even though i excelled better in maths and physics rather than biology. At the end of his presentation, he indicated that he was looking for post docs to work in japan. I WANT!!!! heheheheh

And that was not the end. There was another student who presented hi phD project, about lovotics. yes, love+robots. hahahha.... how fun is that? And the ultimate... i met this other guy also from the mixed reality lab (even the lab name sounds cool!)who was involved in the very recent Babbage Cabbage project (do a quick search of it and you'd see). If you think about it, back in historical times, humans made decisions by getting clues from nature. Yellowing leaves and falling leaves indicate the need to wear warmer clothing. Stampedes of elephants and scampering of mice indicate imminent floods or earthquakes. So why not go back to nature? So this vege project is a man-plant interactive system where they make use of the cabbage to warn us of dangers around and within us! So the cabbage is so smart as to detect changes in pH in the soil, or even increases in our blood pressue, and change color accordingly so we may be alerted! Wouldn't that be a truly useful vegetable to have at home? =P

so cool right? and so coincidentally, right after the symposium, today the YA walk was at hort park... and we saw plants that would dance to music! i don't know what the relation is to the cabbage project, but to me, plants that can do things other than photosynthesize, are amazing! and gav was saying, that eventually, we'll need to have certificates to approve which vegetables we can eat and which we cannot because they dance/talk/move! XD

(rant on) pachelbel’s canon in d

Couldn't help but laugh out loud in the silent room when i watched this. XD
Many of you probably already know what this guy is gonna say in this video, but the way he says it is hilarious! go watch! =)

Robots

I've seen robots on the news and the papers so very often, but i've never really seen them infiltrate into our lives and become housekeepers or replace anyone in my life. Yesterday, i finally saw the true beauty of technology. Because of this wonderful creation called the robot, i managed to do so much more than i ever could in a stretch of 12hrs, and even had the luxury of sitting down for an hour in between to rest and chat (and be counseled)! i love robotics!!!!! =)

God has his ways

Was feeling so terrible with all that had showered upon me. The sudden awakening, the depressing realization, the unwanted trouble. Well, at least know i am no longer living in my own imaginary perfect world.

No one would understand it all. No one but God. Even those who walk through similar paths might not experience the same things. Amazingly, and so timely, was the chat-turned-counsel. Am so grateful to that person for understanding and being so comforting about it all. It helps so much to know that i am not the only one who thinks this way, in this dishonest and unfair world. Indeed, it's a road of character development more than anything else. Thanks dude.

sigh. what do you do when your mother pleads for you to go home for dinner, because nobody else is? i've been going home almost every single weekday night for dinner to keep her company. should i just forgo all meeting of friends on weekdays so that my mother doesn't have to be lonely? it's as if i'm the only child at home... luckily, i love my mother's cooking. it's yummy, not too oily, very fresh food, healthy, and very cheap! hehe~ looking forward to my asam prawns tonight. so sorry to 77 friends... esp wh who hasn't organized this in 2 yrs or something... next time yeah? and make sure it's not the 15th day of cny. =)

it only takes ONE to push you on...

teaching's never easy, especially when the crowd is young and hyperactive. it takes alot (unless if you're really charismatic) to hold their attention for an hour, and still make sure the entire session is not full of games and nothing to learn. But it's really worth it, when you find out that they really were listening, not just hearing. You know it when they start to apply it to their lives, or when they start quoting you a couple of weeks and even months later. Even if it's only one of the entire group that remembered, it is better than nothing. That's when you know you made a difference. That's when you know it was all worth it. :)

Never too far for a surprise =)

ah. been all too busy to do anything much besides lab and friends. busy with getting failed experiments is the worst thing. bah.

i know it was some days ago, but i really need to jot this down. amidst my busy-ness, i received an sms from an unknown number. some overseas number. the msg said it's from 'down under'.. so i was guessing who from Oz would msg me.. as i read down, i thought it was yet another surprise from the same person who called me just to chat from US years ago. then when i read til the end fo the msg, it signed off as 'the guy (i) saved from the heat in singapore' (or something liddat lah) . hahahaha. totally didn't expect an sms from you dude. at least i appear in your mind during a very boring monday afternoon. haha.

what's CNY without Chinatown with the Divas?

Our signature photo at the Garden bridge every year!

rejection

I never knew how to reject such people. Even though i really didn't want to agree to their request, i never could bring myself to say No and not feel bad about it. The only time i managed to do it, was when i was in Cali and fangers was with me. And being overseas, i seem to be a totally different person. But now, back home, i lose the ability again. Until today. Because i was trapped in the extremely crowded MRT train and i was kind of forced to do it. But i did! SO happy. hehe. hopefully from now on i can say no to all!!yay~~

Aloha Night!

DnD this year definitely did not disappoint me. I had loads of fun there! Hawaiian hunks and babes, hula dances, lucky draws... hehe i won lucky draw again this year! tho it's not as good as last yr's video cam, it's a 31st prize of an electric air pot! hey.. don't laugh. my family happened to need one ok! so it was relaly timely. And, i won 2nd for best dressed too! though it was really embarrassing having to dance on stage in front of everybody, the prize made it really worth it! i thought best dressed people would get something like a bag or a $10 voucher as participation prize. but no! it was $60 worth of takashimaya vouchers! whoahaha i really regret not trying hard enough in previous years to get this award!

didn't take many pictures with my camera. too lazy. so these are some i took from others. the professionally taken ones would come later! ^_^

Dancing with my twin~
with of course, my fav microarray girls

yes, he was high very early in the night.

The Hawaiian queen and runner up (me)!
the best dressed competition... (notice the mini surfboard! so cute!)

it's our 3rd year anniversary!

plus, it was CEO's bdae, and close to CNY. so that's triple the reason we had to get together! The pictures speak for themselves. The fun we had... will never end. I hope arzhou returns often enough to not forget us, his family! =)

I just thought this was very pretty... my body shop collection. hehe

that aside, i had a wonderful time with ling~

alas, i didn't bother to get pictures from her. nowadays, everything gets uploaded to facebook that noone ever bothers getting (and giving) the original copies anymore. which i really dislike, coz it's so troublesome to click on each and every picture on facebook to save them, and the quality is compromised. i do want to keep these pictures for memories you know.

ah i drifted again. a LSM outing turned out to be a sisters outing with ling instead. and we did some really fun stuff together, planning out next meetings and communication networks with the rest of the hall divas. can't wait for CNY with them! our yearly meetings... wonder how long we'll last? hope it'd be looooooooong

and talking abt CNY.. that arzhou.. want to stay in Oz and not come back.. cause us to have to change our CNY reunion+anniversary lunch to another day. grrrrr. better bring back some good stuff from oz to make up for it!! :P

stuck in a bottleneck

wonder why a large majority of people walking the same path as me have to face this kind of bottleneck at least once in their lives. why is it just so difficult to do it? really envy those lucky few who go through it every so smoothly. the tremendous encouragement from everyone around, only made it seem like i was blinded all along. Seeing things through tinted glasses, everything brighter and accentuated when actually there's nothing much to be excited about. Maybe it's good too, that now i get someone totally unrelated to bring me back to reality. Rather than living my entire life in my own delusions.

With a spin, it’s December already. Did I even do anything much? Was talking to Tong and I had even forgotten what my 2008 resolutions were. HOW TERRIBLE!!

Fortunately, I have a blog. Hahaha.

New Year Resolutions 2008

1. To grow spiritually
2. To serve well in the new ministries I am committing myself to. (CG and Sunday School)
3. To maintain the enthusiasm in the lab, and not to slack. Hope to clinch an opportunity to go for a conference overseas, based on my own works.
4. To improve my health.. coz it’s been going down. I don’t want to die yet! >.< (Thank God for a fellow friend who wants to be more sporty this year too! =P)
5. To spend quality time with friends and family, and not let anything happen due to my negligence.

Did I do it?

1. Unwilling to say, I don’t think I have grown much in this aspect this year. Haiz.
2. Managed to survive the first year as an understudy at SS. Next year I’m promoted to co-teach with rose! ^_^ Thanks to Stan and all who’ve given me the encouragement, let me sit in their classes and learnt from them… This is definitely not an easy ministry to commit to, for the responsibilities of teaching are tremendous. Nontheless, it’s by faith that He will provide. J Had the chance to teach Thai for a couple of months too. ^_^
3. Did go for a conference! And a month-long collaboration trip too! Hehehe. Think I did progress relatively well. I definitely did not slack too much this year!
4. Health’s been going up and down, but I’m still alive.
5. Met up with a whole lot of long-lost friends this year! All the way to friends whom I’ve not met for up to 15 years! I’m really happy abt that. ^_^

New Year Resolutions 2009

1. To read more and grow more spiritually
2. To serve well in SS as I co-teach with Rose, and to be a good CGL as I lead the group this year. Really hope that footprints would grow as one in the Lord this year.
3. To keep up the rate of spending time with family and friends, maybe with a better temper
4. To read up more in the field and keep up the work, without losing the steam. Hopefully a paper would come up soon! ^_^
5. To successfully overcome the inertia and pick up a couple of skills outside of labwork.

So much has happened this one year. Good things, bad things, happy things, unfortunate things, exciting things, unexpected things. It’s another year I’ve survived, another year where I’ve learnt a great deal about life and people. The years can only get better, life can only get more joyous, for God’s plan for me is a pleasing and perfect one! ^_^

Christmas dinner@sentosa! ^_^

My dinner tonight... *drools*

Christmas awaits us!

It's been a really crazy 3 weeks upon landing back in Singapore. but amidst all the experiments and presentations and church camp preparations, i managed to slowly ease into the christmassy mood!

First was christmas party with the lab.deco on the wall..

and some gifts i made for each one of them... :)Since part of the lab was moving down to our level, we had a ribbon cutting ceremony to welcome them! of course, that's Mr Santa in red, and the rest of his little elves in green... hehe
Doesn't this shot look like we all just broke into some crazy singapore sale!?!? hahahaha

the food! with choc fondue! (originally a choc fountain but the fountain wouldnt work! so sad...)

many shots of microarray gals in green! plus our gifts from the gift exchange!

my gift from wyee..

read the words... such a meaningful gift on christmas...

big family shot!! ^_^

Ronald and Yen Nee's big day~

For the first time in my life, someone was daring enough to invite me as emcee for their wedding. haha. and in mandarin too! especially when the wedding was one day after i touched down following a month-long trip to London. A place with minimal mandarin spoken. haha.

Well, it was a good opportunity to do my hair though. haha. i loved it. I can always trust Ken from Monsoon to do my hair nicely. Which is why i have been going there for the past decade! =)

That's me after i did my hair..


The side view..

The emcees!
Sisters with the stars of the night

cg group shot~

tomorrow is PB's big day!!! ^_^

And i received a "postmaster" rejected email today. For an email that i tried to send almost a month ago. So i've been waiting for the reply in vain! What a wasted month.

So there were some very bad news. Oh well, at least that's what it seems to me now. But somewhere within me, something tells me i'd get something better. But I need to wait. and the wait will not be short, i predict. I just have to trust the people involved, and trust that God has the best thing in wait for me. In the meanwhile, i have to learn to live with what i have. =)

weekend with yingying and eujin

took a train to loughborough to find yingying, and we had a 2-day roadtrip around the area! went up to the peak district at derbyshire, saw the chatsworth house (home to some duke, with a garden half the size of singapore, went to some cavern where the helmet saved my life multiple times, celebrated Guy Fawke's day at loughborough with the biggest bonfire i've ever seen, with fireworks that could match those at disneyland, and then down to stratsworth where shakespeare grew up, and cadbury world, the place which smells heavenly! =)

it was a really fantastic weekend, being able to speak with singaporeans once again. both yingying and eujin had really great cameras that captures very nice pictures of the time together, especially eujin's camera, that made the pictures look so much more colorful than they were during the gloomy afternoons!

besides traveling so much, i also met some of their friends, who, coincidentally, were all phD students too! but they're not the boring science/engineering phD students i know in singapore. these are people who're doing things like product design, people management, green energy, media, even surgery robotic design! what a wide range! had a really great evening with these people. i wish there were more of these interesting peeps back home! will really miss the night we shared.. ^_^

at the chatsworth house. it was decorated with christmas lightings, which made it so beautiful!

at the garden, with an A-M-A-Z-I-N-G view

still in that garden! actually what i saw was mostly orange and red, but eujin's fantastic camera captured what the naked eye couldn't!

group shot, still in the garden! i really love the colors...

at the bonfire night! the bonfire was so hot, but we were still cold under the rain and winds

the girl in pink

i didn't realize that most clothes that i brought over are in pink. or even if they aren't, my jackets and coats are. so essentially, i'm in pink almost everyday. and i didn't realize it til friends told me they described me to their boss (whom i only met today) as the girl in pink! and today, coincidentally, was my first day NOT in pink. and i met the boss. hahaha.

spot me!