Friday, October 28, 2005
Since lz says that i'm one of te 7 ppl who will do this.
7 things that frighten me
1) not meeting my expectations
2) being disliked
3)losing ppl i love
4) the world running out of dirty jokes
5) going to big parties / events where you don't know anyone
6)failing
7) Adipose tissue
7 things that I like most
1) Singing
2) Dancing Street jazz n hiphop
3) drawing cartoons
4) stoning at home with my family
5) spending time with close friends
6) blogging
7) playing guitar
7 important things in my room:
1) My bed : for sleeping, for lazing and erm.. other things
2) My laptop : the world at my finger tips!!
3) my desk. : where i spent most of days during school going years
4) my books
5) my guitar
6) my clothes
7) my sister
7 random facts about me:
1) I am an extreme case of a type A personality.
2) I had erthyma, bleeding nose and sinusitis every night when I was a kid
3)I used to be the kid who turned up 1/2 hour b4 the meeting time and had to wait another 1/2 hour for the rest to turn up
4) I sing in the bathroom
5) I tend to push my self till the brink of insanity
6) I"ve a scar on my left leg from a boil removal in pri 3.
7) i used to be calle d"mr Tan " in Junior college.
7 things I plan to do before I die:
1) travel around europe, rome, switzerland, etc.
2) work and live in a 3rd world country
3)record my songs on an album
4) learn to relax and not take it out on ppl when i'm angry
5) do somersaults on a trampoline again!
6) dance street jazz on a performance level
7)forgive, live, and let live, and be happy :)
7 things I can do:
1) write songs
2) draw cartoons
3) vocal percussion and simple beat boxing
4)turn a somersaults on the trampoline
5)sing without shattering the glass panes
6) think dirty
7)get annoyed at the slightest thing
7 things I can't do:
1) grow tall
2) slim down
3) back flips
4) Real time PCR w/o contamination
5)hug a stuff toy for more than half an hour w/o sneezing
6) cook something elaborate
7) break dance
7 things I say the most:
1) Hey woman! ( greeting to sister)
2) Diao.
3) bloody hell
4) heh?
5)Oi
6) wat the hell?
7) xian ji pua
7 Celebrity Crushes:
1) matt damon
2) orlando bloom
3) johnny depp
4) Michael Buble ( oooooh the voice!)
5) Elvis LIVES!!
6) Er.. Ryan? Does he count?
7) Dunno....
7 people who will do this
1) hmm. lz. ( dunno if this counts, since she did already)
2) JAG :P
3) Cherie
4) Jo
5)j9 LOL.
6)?/?
7)??
run out of ideas liao.
ah well. there you go!
7 things that frighten me
1) not meeting my expectations
2) being disliked
3)losing ppl i love
4) the world running out of dirty jokes
5) going to big parties / events where you don't know anyone
6)failing
7) Adipose tissue
7 things that I like most
1) Singing
2) Dancing Street jazz n hiphop
3) drawing cartoons
4) stoning at home with my family
5) spending time with close friends
6) blogging
7) playing guitar
7 important things in my room:
1) My bed : for sleeping, for lazing and erm.. other things
2) My laptop : the world at my finger tips!!
3) my desk. : where i spent most of days during school going years
4) my books
5) my guitar
6) my clothes
7) my sister
7 random facts about me:
1) I am an extreme case of a type A personality.
2) I had erthyma, bleeding nose and sinusitis every night when I was a kid
3)I used to be the kid who turned up 1/2 hour b4 the meeting time and had to wait another 1/2 hour for the rest to turn up
4) I sing in the bathroom
5) I tend to push my self till the brink of insanity
6) I"ve a scar on my left leg from a boil removal in pri 3.
7) i used to be calle d"mr Tan " in Junior college.
7 things I plan to do before I die:
1) travel around europe, rome, switzerland, etc.
2) work and live in a 3rd world country
3)record my songs on an album
4) learn to relax and not take it out on ppl when i'm angry
5) do somersaults on a trampoline again!
6) dance street jazz on a performance level
7)forgive, live, and let live, and be happy :)
7 things I can do:
1) write songs
2) draw cartoons
3) vocal percussion and simple beat boxing
4)turn a somersaults on the trampoline
5)sing without shattering the glass panes
6) think dirty
7)get annoyed at the slightest thing
7 things I can't do:
1) grow tall
2) slim down
3) back flips
4) Real time PCR w/o contamination
5)hug a stuff toy for more than half an hour w/o sneezing
6) cook something elaborate
7) break dance
7 things I say the most:
1) Hey woman! ( greeting to sister)
2) Diao.
3) bloody hell
4) heh?
5)Oi
6) wat the hell?
7) xian ji pua
7 Celebrity Crushes:
1) matt damon
2) orlando bloom
3) johnny depp
4) Michael Buble ( oooooh the voice!)
5) Elvis LIVES!!
6) Er.. Ryan? Does he count?
7) Dunno....
7 people who will do this
1) hmm. lz. ( dunno if this counts, since she did already)
2) JAG :P
3) Cherie
4) Jo
5)j9 LOL.
6)?/?
7)??
run out of ideas liao.
ah well. there you go!
Well, ever since the DNA contamination of my real time PCR
DNA AWAY surface decontaminant ready to use in a 250ml bottle and proven to remove nucleic acid contamination from a variety of lab surfaces. Spray, wipe on or soak labware with DNA AWAY then wipe or rinse off to leave surfaces free of residue and contamination.
CHeck it out:DNA and RNAse away. Psychoboy used the whole bottle to rid the RNA corner of the BIG the BAD ...
DNA
So while we're on the topic of DNA away, me, M and psychoboy came up with a new proposal.
Presenting... EX Away!
Ex AWAY decontaminant ready to use in a 250ml bottle and proven to remove traces of your Ex GF or BF from your life. Spray, wipe on or soak with ExAWAY then wipe or rinse off to leave your days free of sorrowful memories. )
We'll win the Nobel prize! or at least have all the jilted ppl in teh world extremely grateful to us.
ah well, juz 3 very very jaded and bored ppl on a post lunch hiatus.
If only we could trouble shoot life.. Just use the alcohol spray , cleanse everything, redo the whole experiment, change the protocols, throw out some stuff, put in some new ones. ANd tada... good results.
See.. we've gone mad. that's what spending more than 9 hours in the lab can do to your brain.
mebbe we need " Lab away"
Evidence that there's a serious contamination problem in your lab
1) someone tries to shove a pipette up your ass
2) When there are not enough seats at lab meeting, the next option is to sit on someon's lap and while you're at it, throw in a lap dance for good measure
3) If BSh is missing with a female lab member, chances are that he can be found in the dark room
4) Someone tries to shove a protocol up your ass.
5) The guys throw the stress balls around and gleefully announce that they like playing with each other's balls.
6)We snuck out for lunch at city link. heheheh. While waiting for al to redeem some stuff, PY, Psychoboy, M and me were staring at a shop display window, when we saw a guy browsing through some female clothes. While having a debate about whether he was crossdressing female, or trying to buy something for a chick, Al walked up to uz and asked ," Why are you staring at teh mannequin's boobs?"
7) the guys want to buy red Gstrings and wear it on the outside to show that they are supermen.
Well, looks like no amoutn of DirtyMindedAway solution will cleanse this lab.
.
Sunday, October 23, 2005
i wish life was like a still life drawing.
erase away all the stray markings,
rub away all those lines you don't want anymore
And get the beautiful picture at the end of the day.
erase away all the stray markings,
rub away all those lines you don't want anymore
And get the beautiful picture at the end of the day.
Yoz.. here's one of those irritating little update about my life.
Serious contamination in my experiments in the lab. sigh. i think my poor pipetting skill caused a DNA contaminations. Psychoboy and I got really warped results for the REal time pCR. It was friday evening, 7pm...
I just walked out of BOss' office and saw psychoboy checking his real time results. So i went to help him intepret the graphs. As I clicked on the graphs, both our jaws dropped at the bombastically awful readings.
" So how did it go?"
Uh oh. The boss was standing behind both of us. As she gazed at the resutls on the computer, she frowned.
" it's a really bad contamination>"
ARGH>!! THe death sentence to any experimnet! The HUGE road block.. Squueze the breaks on everything!
She started listing ways to trouble shoot. Psychoboy was jumping from foot to foot, itching to go for his hot date. I urged my rusty, tired brain into first gear, tryign to keep up with the rationales for the trouble shooting.
It's so frustrating sometimes. You can't see the contamination. Everything looks spanking clean. It's quite amazing and infuriating how a miserly 62 nucleotide long strand can wreck utter havoc. Anyway, i've to Re-RT pCR 8 patient samples. and then re run the real times.. Poor psychoboy was tasked with the mammoth task of troubleshooting. Because of the elusiveness of the nature of the contamination, it's almost impossible to pinpoint where it took place. It could be anything!!!
So psychoboy summoned me back to the lab on the nice sunny Sunday morning to troubleshoot. I was bloody late. As I zoomed towards the traffice light at the junction , the lights turned amber. I was going way to fast to stop so I ended up pulling a James bond like manoveur with my car, juz has the red light contemptiously lit up as my car passed the white strips on the road.
AAAAAAAARRRRRRGH>
I rung my dad.
" That is the very same place I got slapped with a 300 dollar fine!" My dad said disapprovingly. " That camera there is very very active."
uh oh.
" ... Well, when i get the bill. i'll just pass it to you."
UH OH>
" .. you're on probation . you shoudl have known better."
UUUUUUHHH OOOOOHHHH
It just hit me that i could get my license revoked. What was even worst was that when i reached the hospital this nice , bright Sunny sunday morning.. my h/p beeped with an sms.
" Sorrree. woke up late. gonna be 40 min late." - psychoboy
AAAAAAAAARRRRRGH.
" Do you have the key to the lab? run a gel first"
no. i don't have the key to the lab. wat freaking time are you gonna get your butt in here????
So I sat there, one miserable figure outside the locked lab, hammering away frantically at the computer, tryign to check the penalties for rogue probie drivers, until da geh found me and let me into the lab.
Psychoboy showed up a couple of minutes later, groggy and half asleep, but highly apologetic. He outlined his plan for the battle against the big bad DNA contaminants. It was raining, so we had lunch at the kopitiam, and i got my sneakers drenched.. hai. came back and continued running PCRs.
Next day. :
I ran the gel and we awaited the restuls with bated breath. Then as I popped another set of samples into the pcr machine, I suddenly froze.
I ran to the tissue culture hood and found psychoboy.
" J! Did we put in polymerase yesterday??"
Psychoboy looked at me . blur.
" polymerase???"
CRAP. my heart sank. the whole sunday's work was wasted. We put in everythign into teh experiments except teh most crucial ingrediant.. haha. i was running a gel with nothing in it. Wat the. a potential 300 buck fine, a potential license revokee... i had to miss sunday service and youth service at BFyouth, and all that for nothing.
Well, on the bright side.. attend Ajahn Brahms talks on sat and sunday nights.. It was soooooooo GOOOD. he was sooo amusing ;) yay . happy happy.
Week wise.. still hoping, they pinpoint the prob soon> i feel quite bad coz i think the contamination was caused by me. And psychoboy is up to his neck with work and so i'm still waiting for him to trouble shoot. Quite frustrating that i can't help, so i'm jsut sitting not-so-pretty in my lab coat and waiting for help. .
. Quite quiet now, coz M and Psychoboy have moved to teh downstairs lab to work. So i usually juz listen to bSh and his dirty jokes and Da geh's swearing.. " Ta MA de." ( like al says.. it must be said in person for the effect" They fixed the sink on thursday, so al, PY , psycho boy and Me pon tanged and ended up at Bugis for lunch. Then we landed up in teh arcade.. I played Time crisis with al. i haven't stepped into an arcade to play since sec. school days. I still remember wasting lotsa coins on the jurassic park machine shooting game. Well, i still can shoot. haha.. i was staring at the House of dead III ( it was house of dead II in my school days) . Al cajoled me into playing one game with him. gosh, do i feel old. it seems sooo long ago since me and XY would run into the arcades after exams ( like once a semester.. nerdy me) and eagerly shoot all the dinos on teh screen. haha. quite a wast e of money, come to think of it.
Friday: still nothing done. spring cleaning. SEriously, the stuff we dump down the sink will put anyone off newater. If there are reports of mutatnt fish in our reservouirs.. you know where to look for the source.
just updated my info into teh computers. talked to the boss aobut the artilce, talked crap with M and psychoboy. Al gave me a stress ball. i wonder if i looked like i need ed one.
Journal club was fascinating. the artilce was something about computational genomics. I remember just scratchign my head when i first got it. Totatlly zero understanding. I approached Dr. G for help and she kindly explained some of teh basics. SHe laughed and said she knew was the lost feeling was like. Uz. medical pple thrown into an alien world of research terminology and technology. JB and her did their best to help me understand the topic. I googled up most of the other definetions. And the beauty of it all, is i understood the article! It felt really good not to be utterly lost during the discussion. I foudn that i could ask questions, make comments.. just like the rest. it was qiute fun. :) and Caroline was really nice to offer to go throught the artilce with me and teach me how to glean points from it.
Jazz and gal hiphop.. fun fun fun :) still quite lost, but getting slightly better at jazz. i love ryan heh :)
Cocktail with the melbourne chancellor on friday. Yummy food. too tired to socialised tho'. It's a bit weird having a slice of my life in melbourne back here. juz listening to the aussie accents, and mentions of brunettis' and lygon street... sigh. so funny. you keep missing the places you're not in.
Sat: blading. haha. the most accident laden blading session i think so far. I landed in some stupid position on the bridge, strained my elbow. hurts a bit now. but thank goodness, nothing serious. I can go down hills now.. yez. not on my butt anymore tho'. still super slow tho'. my poor frens have to keep waiting for me. hope Calv is feeling better.
Psychoboy set up an RNA work bench.
point number 8 on his notice on the table
" If the person does not abide by the above rules ( of cleaning the bench), he shall be thrown into the UV hood, and given an icy cold drink of DEPC water."
--- on Bs grimacing as PY crumples a piece of paper into a ball---
Bs: argh.. don't crumple up my balls
Me; er... i think that model is an overrepresentation.
Serious contamination in my experiments in the lab. sigh. i think my poor pipetting skill caused a DNA contaminations. Psychoboy and I got really warped results for the REal time pCR. It was friday evening, 7pm...
I just walked out of BOss' office and saw psychoboy checking his real time results. So i went to help him intepret the graphs. As I clicked on the graphs, both our jaws dropped at the bombastically awful readings.
" So how did it go?"
Uh oh. The boss was standing behind both of us. As she gazed at the resutls on the computer, she frowned.
" it's a really bad contamination>"
ARGH>!! THe death sentence to any experimnet! The HUGE road block.. Squueze the breaks on everything!
She started listing ways to trouble shoot. Psychoboy was jumping from foot to foot, itching to go for his hot date. I urged my rusty, tired brain into first gear, tryign to keep up with the rationales for the trouble shooting.
It's so frustrating sometimes. You can't see the contamination. Everything looks spanking clean. It's quite amazing and infuriating how a miserly 62 nucleotide long strand can wreck utter havoc. Anyway, i've to Re-RT pCR 8 patient samples. and then re run the real times.. Poor psychoboy was tasked with the mammoth task of troubleshooting. Because of the elusiveness of the nature of the contamination, it's almost impossible to pinpoint where it took place. It could be anything!!!
So psychoboy summoned me back to the lab on the nice sunny Sunday morning to troubleshoot. I was bloody late. As I zoomed towards the traffice light at the junction , the lights turned amber. I was going way to fast to stop so I ended up pulling a James bond like manoveur with my car, juz has the red light contemptiously lit up as my car passed the white strips on the road.
AAAAAAAARRRRRRGH>
I rung my dad.
" That is the very same place I got slapped with a 300 dollar fine!" My dad said disapprovingly. " That camera there is very very active."
uh oh.
" ... Well, when i get the bill. i'll just pass it to you."
UH OH>
" .. you're on probation . you shoudl have known better."
UUUUUUHHH OOOOOHHHH
It just hit me that i could get my license revoked. What was even worst was that when i reached the hospital this nice , bright Sunny sunday morning.. my h/p beeped with an sms.
" Sorrree. woke up late. gonna be 40 min late." - psychoboy
AAAAAAAAARRRRRGH.
" Do you have the key to the lab? run a gel first"
no. i don't have the key to the lab. wat freaking time are you gonna get your butt in here????
So I sat there, one miserable figure outside the locked lab, hammering away frantically at the computer, tryign to check the penalties for rogue probie drivers, until da geh found me and let me into the lab.
Psychoboy showed up a couple of minutes later, groggy and half asleep, but highly apologetic. He outlined his plan for the battle against the big bad DNA contaminants. It was raining, so we had lunch at the kopitiam, and i got my sneakers drenched.. hai. came back and continued running PCRs.
Next day. :
I ran the gel and we awaited the restuls with bated breath. Then as I popped another set of samples into the pcr machine, I suddenly froze.
I ran to the tissue culture hood and found psychoboy.
" J! Did we put in polymerase yesterday??"
Psychoboy looked at me . blur.
" polymerase???"
CRAP. my heart sank. the whole sunday's work was wasted. We put in everythign into teh experiments except teh most crucial ingrediant.. haha. i was running a gel with nothing in it. Wat the. a potential 300 buck fine, a potential license revokee... i had to miss sunday service and youth service at BFyouth, and all that for nothing.
Well, on the bright side.. attend Ajahn Brahms talks on sat and sunday nights.. It was soooooooo GOOOD. he was sooo amusing ;) yay . happy happy.
Week wise.. still hoping, they pinpoint the prob soon> i feel quite bad coz i think the contamination was caused by me. And psychoboy is up to his neck with work and so i'm still waiting for him to trouble shoot. Quite frustrating that i can't help, so i'm jsut sitting not-so-pretty in my lab coat and waiting for help. .
. Quite quiet now, coz M and Psychoboy have moved to teh downstairs lab to work. So i usually juz listen to bSh and his dirty jokes and Da geh's swearing.. " Ta MA de." ( like al says.. it must be said in person for the effect" They fixed the sink on thursday, so al, PY , psycho boy and Me pon tanged and ended up at Bugis for lunch. Then we landed up in teh arcade.. I played Time crisis with al. i haven't stepped into an arcade to play since sec. school days. I still remember wasting lotsa coins on the jurassic park machine shooting game. Well, i still can shoot. haha.. i was staring at the House of dead III ( it was house of dead II in my school days) . Al cajoled me into playing one game with him. gosh, do i feel old. it seems sooo long ago since me and XY would run into the arcades after exams ( like once a semester.. nerdy me) and eagerly shoot all the dinos on teh screen. haha. quite a wast e of money, come to think of it.
Friday: still nothing done. spring cleaning. SEriously, the stuff we dump down the sink will put anyone off newater. If there are reports of mutatnt fish in our reservouirs.. you know where to look for the source.
just updated my info into teh computers. talked to the boss aobut the artilce, talked crap with M and psychoboy. Al gave me a stress ball. i wonder if i looked like i need ed one.
Journal club was fascinating. the artilce was something about computational genomics. I remember just scratchign my head when i first got it. Totatlly zero understanding. I approached Dr. G for help and she kindly explained some of teh basics. SHe laughed and said she knew was the lost feeling was like. Uz. medical pple thrown into an alien world of research terminology and technology. JB and her did their best to help me understand the topic. I googled up most of the other definetions. And the beauty of it all, is i understood the article! It felt really good not to be utterly lost during the discussion. I foudn that i could ask questions, make comments.. just like the rest. it was qiute fun. :) and Caroline was really nice to offer to go throught the artilce with me and teach me how to glean points from it.
Jazz and gal hiphop.. fun fun fun :) still quite lost, but getting slightly better at jazz. i love ryan heh :)
Cocktail with the melbourne chancellor on friday. Yummy food. too tired to socialised tho'. It's a bit weird having a slice of my life in melbourne back here. juz listening to the aussie accents, and mentions of brunettis' and lygon street... sigh. so funny. you keep missing the places you're not in.
Sat: blading. haha. the most accident laden blading session i think so far. I landed in some stupid position on the bridge, strained my elbow. hurts a bit now. but thank goodness, nothing serious. I can go down hills now.. yez. not on my butt anymore tho'. still super slow tho'. my poor frens have to keep waiting for me. hope Calv is feeling better.
Psychoboy set up an RNA work bench.
point number 8 on his notice on the table
" If the person does not abide by the above rules ( of cleaning the bench), he shall be thrown into the UV hood, and given an icy cold drink of DEPC water."
--- on Bs grimacing as PY crumples a piece of paper into a ball---
Bs: argh.. don't crumple up my balls
Me; er... i think that model is an overrepresentation.
( M, me and Psychoboy talking about self defence for gals against guys)
Me: easy, we juz kick you in the balls if we need self defence
M: i think that' would keep most guys down.
Psychoboy: yeah, most guys except mebbe superman.He's the man of steel
Me: i wouldn't be so sure about that. Man of steel doesn't equate to little man of steel.
Psychoboy: mebbe that's why he wears his underwear outside.
Me; i think that's coz he's always in a rush to get dressed when he's on call.
Friday, October 07, 2005
Meet the labmates.
Well, I've been giving little snippnets of lab life here :). so here's brief, quirky description of the ppl and objects I see almost everyday.
The seniors:
Al ,The supervisor: Hailing from the sleepy town of Malacca, don't let his laid back charm fool you. He runs experiments and writes out papers with deadly efficiency. ALthough he has high expectations for his charges to pick up skills, I appreciate his willingness to take time off his crazy schedule to teach. Has a myriad of dirty jokes at his disposal, which does surface sometimes during lunch hour. Loves rojak, alot.
Da Ge ( big brother): the pillar of strength of the lab, Da Ge loves to tease psychoboy about his kiasuness.. and loves comparing the extent of his kiasu ness to my mom. ( don't ask me why). He's a powerhouse when it comes to running experiemnts.. . he's running 3 projects at one go, and iz the local lab guru. approach and ask.. for he has the answers. apparently has a hidden library of dirty jokes.. still undiscvoered as of yet.
BS, The bottomless pit:
... for food and all things polluted with dirty jokes.
. . Oh yez.. sitting behind him in the lab does have its disadvantages coz you're trying not to laugh when pipetting. Very busy dude tho'.. lotsa students under his charge too. Be careful, will corrupt innocent girls if placed in close proximity. INteresting to observe after a few maotais.
PY: Chiobu Queen of sequencing. deadly efficient, prob rivals me in dirty jokes. can hold her fort in a lab overrun with the male species. Has a penchant for signs with skulls on it.
The doctor:
Hey!!! another member of the petite club. A medical doc with anaethetic training, and who has a love for geriatics and palliative med, she's amazing. SHe juggles clinical work with lab work , and still has time to work out!!! COOL! that's my idol . :) She compleletly understands my close relationship with the sole lab footstool. And both of us are trying to figure out why the lab ppl have placed the boxes of extra small gloves on the 2nd shelf. evidence points to a conspiracy to make the vertically challenged go into a bouncing frenzy when they need their next lot of gloves.
The Juniors:
H: A german exchange student who just left :(. gonna miss her. quirky sense of humour, but super duper dilligent and hard working. SHe's game for anything, including eating chilli padi on its own!!! loves seafood, can finish a plate of prawns by herself :)
Am and Me: hapless, bemused non-exchange non grad studnets from melb uni.
JB: this dude is the embodiment of the term hardworking.One of the earliest to arrive, one of the last to leave. Often seeks companionship with the "lady with the long hair and white coat" who is rumoured to ply the 5th floor labs during the after hours. ( I hope he doesn' mean any of the ladies in the lab) . he's a comp whizz. always willing to help out with a ready smile. Apparently a closet singer ... still waiting to hear him sing. . the target of matchmaking attempts by the other seniors. He has an affinity for light sensitive experiments , and his presnece is heralded by the arrival of darkness. May use the dark for other purposes, unknown at present
Psychoboy: my stand in supervisor while Al was gone. definitely has a degree in dirty jokes and specialises in all known and unknown psychotic behaviour. Rumoured to have done cell cultures and blots on a massive scale. ( a peek into his lab book confirmed that psychotic episode). Likes to try feeding lab mates with chemical solutions. Likes to throw ice cubes at juniors for kicks. secretly hoping to mix chemical solutions into a mind blowing concotion ( that might juz blow the lab up too). The very embodiment of kiasu. Dirty minded.. ( c'mon, which male in the lab izn't? ) .always hungry
note: I was telling M, that maybe dirty mindness and lameness were coded for by supressor genes on the X chromosome, which are absent on the shorter Y chromosome. Functional studies can be done on the males in our lab to confirm this hypothesis. I'm sure it 'll work. Anyone wanna sponsor a grant?
M: pyschoboy's exclassmate and current neighbour. Both have a huge craving for coffee esp post lunch. Also the target of icecube practise by psychoboy, and my partner in crime for defence against psychoboy.
THere you go, the ppl I see everyda.
Bs: So how are you settling down.??
Me: good i guess ( wah.. so touched you asked man)
Bs:: hmmm. great . now that we know you better* evil smile* go and fill pipette tips.
Me: ....
" Is this the key that turns you on? " - psychoboy's brainwave for a pick up line when he took the key for the lab fridge.
"scientist are all a bit cracko!" - boss.
Well, I've been giving little snippnets of lab life here :). so here's brief, quirky description of the ppl and objects I see almost everyday.
The seniors:
Al ,The supervisor: Hailing from the sleepy town of Malacca, don't let his laid back charm fool you. He runs experiments and writes out papers with deadly efficiency. ALthough he has high expectations for his charges to pick up skills, I appreciate his willingness to take time off his crazy schedule to teach. Has a myriad of dirty jokes at his disposal, which does surface sometimes during lunch hour. Loves rojak, alot.
Da Ge ( big brother): the pillar of strength of the lab, Da Ge loves to tease psychoboy about his kiasuness.. and loves comparing the extent of his kiasu ness to my mom. ( don't ask me why). He's a powerhouse when it comes to running experiemnts.. . he's running 3 projects at one go, and iz the local lab guru. approach and ask.. for he has the answers. apparently has a hidden library of dirty jokes.. still undiscvoered as of yet.
BS, The bottomless pit:
... for food and all things polluted with dirty jokes.
. . Oh yez.. sitting behind him in the lab does have its disadvantages coz you're trying not to laugh when pipetting. Very busy dude tho'.. lotsa students under his charge too. Be careful, will corrupt innocent girls if placed in close proximity. INteresting to observe after a few maotais.
PY: Chiobu Queen of sequencing. deadly efficient, prob rivals me in dirty jokes. can hold her fort in a lab overrun with the male species. Has a penchant for signs with skulls on it.
The doctor:
Hey!!! another member of the petite club. A medical doc with anaethetic training, and who has a love for geriatics and palliative med, she's amazing. SHe juggles clinical work with lab work , and still has time to work out!!! COOL! that's my idol . :) She compleletly understands my close relationship with the sole lab footstool. And both of us are trying to figure out why the lab ppl have placed the boxes of extra small gloves on the 2nd shelf. evidence points to a conspiracy to make the vertically challenged go into a bouncing frenzy when they need their next lot of gloves.
The Juniors:
H: A german exchange student who just left :(. gonna miss her. quirky sense of humour, but super duper dilligent and hard working. SHe's game for anything, including eating chilli padi on its own!!! loves seafood, can finish a plate of prawns by herself :)
Am and Me: hapless, bemused non-exchange non grad studnets from melb uni.
JB: this dude is the embodiment of the term hardworking.One of the earliest to arrive, one of the last to leave. Often seeks companionship with the "lady with the long hair and white coat" who is rumoured to ply the 5th floor labs during the after hours. ( I hope he doesn' mean any of the ladies in the lab) . he's a comp whizz. always willing to help out with a ready smile. Apparently a closet singer ... still waiting to hear him sing. . the target of matchmaking attempts by the other seniors. He has an affinity for light sensitive experiments , and his presnece is heralded by the arrival of darkness. May use the dark for other purposes, unknown at present
Psychoboy: my stand in supervisor while Al was gone. definitely has a degree in dirty jokes and specialises in all known and unknown psychotic behaviour. Rumoured to have done cell cultures and blots on a massive scale. ( a peek into his lab book confirmed that psychotic episode). Likes to try feeding lab mates with chemical solutions. Likes to throw ice cubes at juniors for kicks. secretly hoping to mix chemical solutions into a mind blowing concotion ( that might juz blow the lab up too). The very embodiment of kiasu. Dirty minded.. ( c'mon, which male in the lab izn't? ) .always hungry
note: I was telling M, that maybe dirty mindness and lameness were coded for by supressor genes on the X chromosome, which are absent on the shorter Y chromosome. Functional studies can be done on the males in our lab to confirm this hypothesis. I'm sure it 'll work. Anyone wanna sponsor a grant?
M: pyschoboy's exclassmate and current neighbour. Both have a huge craving for coffee esp post lunch. Also the target of icecube practise by psychoboy, and my partner in crime for defence against psychoboy.
THere you go, the ppl I see everyda.
Bs: So how are you settling down.??
Me: good i guess ( wah.. so touched you asked man)
Bs:: hmmm. great . now that we know you better* evil smile* go and fill pipette tips.
Me: ....
" Is this the key that turns you on? " - psychoboy's brainwave for a pick up line when he took the key for the lab fridge.
"scientist are all a bit cracko!" - boss.
Thursday, October 06, 2005
Life can do more than you
Lyrics by : Shuang Quan and Xueling
Music by : Xueling
hey, put up the song i was singing that day :) here are the lyrics as I remember them. sorry, haven't played it for really long. I only wrote verse 2. the rest is by my melbourne Dharma talk tranlsator team group leader: shuang quan. He wrote it as a poem, to submit for a competition. I think he it got selected and now this poem is hanging on the walls of a hospital. another great way to spread the Dharma!!!! ANyway, with kind permission from him, I put this uP :) so enjoy.
Failures are like faithful friends
ALways there when you are down
Sometimes you wonder how life began.
Am I a scientist, or a clown?
then something deep stirs within you
and bestows the faith anew
That's when you start to realise...
Ther'es nothing you can't do!
Chorus
Our body works in mysterious ways
An inner sanctum of peace
A balance of karma always in play
ONe we cannot resist
So rest when you're weary
Say a prayer or two
Coz that's when you realise
Life can do more than you.
Verse 2:
When life's full of troubles
and you're feeling tired and blue
remember life's just an illusion
face your troubles than welcome the new
Remember Lord Buddha's teachings,
hold on to you faith
That's when you start to realise
Ther'es nothing you can't face
Chorus
Verse 3
All work with no play is pure irony
What does a title mean when it's given post humously
An entertaining paradox
Of studying ourselves
Instead of delaying
We ring our own knells
Lyrics by : Shuang Quan and Xueling
Music by : Xueling
hey, put up the song i was singing that day :) here are the lyrics as I remember them. sorry, haven't played it for really long. I only wrote verse 2. the rest is by my melbourne Dharma talk tranlsator team group leader: shuang quan. He wrote it as a poem, to submit for a competition. I think he it got selected and now this poem is hanging on the walls of a hospital. another great way to spread the Dharma!!!! ANyway, with kind permission from him, I put this uP :) so enjoy.
Failures are like faithful friends
ALways there when you are down
Sometimes you wonder how life began.
Am I a scientist, or a clown?
then something deep stirs within you
and bestows the faith anew
That's when you start to realise...
Ther'es nothing you can't do!
Chorus
Our body works in mysterious ways
An inner sanctum of peace
A balance of karma always in play
ONe we cannot resist
So rest when you're weary
Say a prayer or two
Coz that's when you realise
Life can do more than you.
Verse 2:
When life's full of troubles
and you're feeling tired and blue
remember life's just an illusion
face your troubles than welcome the new
Remember Lord Buddha's teachings,
hold on to you faith
That's when you start to realise
Ther'es nothing you can't face
Chorus
Verse 3
All work with no play is pure irony
What does a title mean when it's given post humously
An entertaining paradox
Of studying ourselves
Instead of delaying
We ring our own knells
here's another meaningless little update on my xtra convoluted life. Somehow, i get the feeling that it's started to resemble a soap opera written by someone with an overactive imagination. LOL
Lab:
Al ( my supervisor) is still on vacation. My stand in supervisor has to juggle 5 students, so Caroline ( the big boss) put me under.... *drum roll* J. So yez.. psycho boy is now my stand in supervisor. I tried giving him chemical waste to drink, but he didn't appreciate my kind gesture. Dang.. mebbe can disguise agarose gel as agar agar. * rubs hands*
LOL. neway, experimental contamination. still trouble shooting. still listening to dirty jokes and starting to add some comments myself. *smiles innocently*
HIlde's leaving next week :(. we had lab lunch . boss brought us out for peranakan food. quite funny watching Psycho boy and GP downing plates of sambal and then gulping down copious amounts of water, while exchanging well placed jokes aimed at each other. ah well.
i think GP"s car was like super cannot move lor after lunch :)
spent 2 days sleeping thru lab safety course. amazing i passed the quiz ( just only tho') THe dude running the course has a habit of deviatingand repeating his anecdotes.. pelting uz with borrrring videos..
the only interesting one was a cooking video, where the guys' wok caught fire.
qn: wat do you do in this situation
Ans ( given by one of the gals) : throw in the food and start cooking! duh/!
Qn ( seen on my test sheet): indicate where you would throw the following.
a) radioactive iodine
b) methanol
c) blood
d) Ex-bf's/gf's photograph???!!!!
Ans: I was soo tempted to put it under radioactivate waste disposal.. LOL> i was like giggling and giggling at the question. , so was 1/3 of the room still awake to appreciate the sheer corninest of the question.
and yeah, i think i realised that we do half the procedures covered in teh wrong way.
Like me and Psychoboy only used 2 pairs of latex gloves to handle liquid N2. and ( dip our hands into the n2) ... where is the cryogenic gloves or the face shield???
. I've a feeling that 90% of wat you learn in the lab safety course, doesn't really apply. iI'll try to blow up the microwave.. promise
DAnce:
I love jazz. nuff said :)...I went fro street jazz beginners.. TUFF man TUFF.. i'm like barely a beginner.. and ryan taught some super duper complicated steps. but i loved it! haha. even tho' i was lost half the time. and i danced into some one else. so paiseh! everyone spun left and i happily spun right and smack into someone else.
we all ended up on the floor... haha. it's not wat you think. ! but it looked damn good!
I love the way he can coax out the style.. how he doesn't juz focus on the choreo.. but tries to get uz to focus on the style, the presentation, the looking hiao.. and feeling sao/! FUN!!!! can't wait for next class.! i hope i can catch up tho'. my gymnastics moves have all left me already.. geez. i can't even spin without falling ove.r
Buddhist fellowship:
Aaaah. last sunday so fun! watching the video of our concert. recapping. LOL :) so cool! and so many plans too! I can't wait for Soracco to put out a CD!!!! and yez.. singing choc salty balls. in BF. oh dear ;) here we go again! I wanna jam! i wanna jam!!!
Renshang gave a super duper good talk on genesis. He was really spunky to tackle that topic ;). bravo!!!!
Books:
Read opening the door of your heart.. Yay!! the life saving book from Ajahn Brahm :). now on Food for the heart , thanks wenjie the loan.
getting up at 6.45am to jog now.. coz gotta work late most of the time .
Aaaahh :P girl hiphop tomolo.. whoopeeeee!
ok.. update ended. XL over and out!
Lab:
Al ( my supervisor) is still on vacation. My stand in supervisor has to juggle 5 students, so Caroline ( the big boss) put me under.... *drum roll* J. So yez.. psycho boy is now my stand in supervisor. I tried giving him chemical waste to drink, but he didn't appreciate my kind gesture. Dang.. mebbe can disguise agarose gel as agar agar. * rubs hands*
LOL. neway, experimental contamination. still trouble shooting. still listening to dirty jokes and starting to add some comments myself. *smiles innocently*
HIlde's leaving next week :(. we had lab lunch . boss brought us out for peranakan food. quite funny watching Psycho boy and GP downing plates of sambal and then gulping down copious amounts of water, while exchanging well placed jokes aimed at each other. ah well.
i think GP"s car was like super cannot move lor after lunch :)
spent 2 days sleeping thru lab safety course. amazing i passed the quiz ( just only tho') THe dude running the course has a habit of deviatingand repeating his anecdotes.. pelting uz with borrrring videos..
the only interesting one was a cooking video, where the guys' wok caught fire.
qn: wat do you do in this situation
Ans ( given by one of the gals) : throw in the food and start cooking! duh/!
Qn ( seen on my test sheet): indicate where you would throw the following.
a) radioactive iodine
b) methanol
c) blood
d) Ex-bf's/gf's photograph???!!!!
Ans: I was soo tempted to put it under radioactivate waste disposal.. LOL> i was like giggling and giggling at the question. , so was 1/3 of the room still awake to appreciate the sheer corninest of the question.
and yeah, i think i realised that we do half the procedures covered in teh wrong way.
Like me and Psychoboy only used 2 pairs of latex gloves to handle liquid N2. and ( dip our hands into the n2) ... where is the cryogenic gloves or the face shield???
. I've a feeling that 90% of wat you learn in the lab safety course, doesn't really apply. iI'll try to blow up the microwave.. promise
DAnce:
I love jazz. nuff said :)...I went fro street jazz beginners.. TUFF man TUFF.. i'm like barely a beginner.. and ryan taught some super duper complicated steps. but i loved it! haha. even tho' i was lost half the time. and i danced into some one else. so paiseh! everyone spun left and i happily spun right and smack into someone else.
we all ended up on the floor... haha. it's not wat you think. ! but it looked damn good!
I love the way he can coax out the style.. how he doesn't juz focus on the choreo.. but tries to get uz to focus on the style, the presentation, the looking hiao.. and feeling sao/! FUN!!!! can't wait for next class.! i hope i can catch up tho'. my gymnastics moves have all left me already.. geez. i can't even spin without falling ove.r
Buddhist fellowship:
Aaaah. last sunday so fun! watching the video of our concert. recapping. LOL :) so cool! and so many plans too! I can't wait for Soracco to put out a CD!!!! and yez.. singing choc salty balls. in BF. oh dear ;) here we go again! I wanna jam! i wanna jam!!!
Renshang gave a super duper good talk on genesis. He was really spunky to tackle that topic ;). bravo!!!!
Books:
Read opening the door of your heart.. Yay!! the life saving book from Ajahn Brahm :). now on Food for the heart , thanks wenjie the loan.
getting up at 6.45am to jog now.. coz gotta work late most of the time .
Aaaahh :P girl hiphop tomolo.. whoopeeeee!
ok.. update ended. XL over and out!
Tuesday, October 04, 2005
It may seemed like a pile of dung has just been dumped on your doorstep ( aka life).
But no one can shovel it for you.
you've to do it your self.
but bear in mind that after you have managed to clear it,
the well fertilised soil will help the flowers to bloom once more. :)
that's life
--- my sumary of a story from Ajahn Brahm's opening the Door to you heart.
I quote my partner in crime , Red hot cold turkey,
I can compare my life to the analogy of stumbling along the railway trek to my destination, and getting mowed over by passing trains.
just as you feebly claw your way back on trek, another one hits you smack.
but i guess the thing we can both hold our head up and say iz that we're still going
After getting merrily squashed by many carriages and containers, and still reeling from the last well aimed hit... suddenly, out of the blue came another steam engine.
Well, i can't say I wasn't bruised. that would be lying. But i can say that there iz still a lot of joy in my life that the bruising can't take away from me. It's only after I read the book that I found what "opening the door to one's heart" meant to me.
Opening the door of my heart to the pain, the attachments, the disappointment.
Opening the door of my heart to the happiness that I know that others have found.
Opening the door of my heart to the blessings I rediscovered that I have, all the good bricks in the wall that makes up my complicated life :)
I picked myself up from the dusty road, closed my eyes and meditated. And through the calmness that my mind settled into, I saw in myself a mixture of sadness and relief and contentment. Sadness coz my of my attachment to my desires, Relief because I knew that I could finally let go, contentment because I looked around at my garden, and knew that even tho' the leaves weren't as orderly as I 'd like them to be, that the garden was in the sense, perfect enough to bring joy to me.
So a better analogy for life, probably woulnd't be : getting hit by a series of trains.
It would be more like a garden that we slave to keep in order... to our ultimate perfection. I watered that rose bush as best as I could and cared for it, but in the freak storm that swept into the fragile little paradise, it still died. Withered petals and dead leaves littered the grass.
You'll definitely feel a sense of loss and misery, for the effort that you put in, and the thing that you lost. But then take a look at the scene... the rough, wild and carefree beauty that the place has now acquired. The withered petals and dead leaves would fertilise the ground for the growth of new plants. Appreciate that other plants have survived, each lovely in their own way.. appreciate the new look of the place... be content with what is there, but at the same time, plan for what has to be done.
I'm still shoveling that huge pile of dung in front of my house. There are many people working with me :) but ultimatley, i know the majority of the work will be done by me. the pile is still there.. but it's growing smaller. and I know I will be done with it one day . i can't wait to see the flowers bloom in in that spot during spring time :)
But no one can shovel it for you.
you've to do it your self.
but bear in mind that after you have managed to clear it,
the well fertilised soil will help the flowers to bloom once more. :)
that's life
--- my sumary of a story from Ajahn Brahm's opening the Door to you heart.
I quote my partner in crime , Red hot cold turkey,
I can compare my life to the analogy of stumbling along the railway trek to my destination, and getting mowed over by passing trains.
just as you feebly claw your way back on trek, another one hits you smack.
but i guess the thing we can both hold our head up and say iz that we're still going
After getting merrily squashed by many carriages and containers, and still reeling from the last well aimed hit... suddenly, out of the blue came another steam engine.
Well, i can't say I wasn't bruised. that would be lying. But i can say that there iz still a lot of joy in my life that the bruising can't take away from me. It's only after I read the book that I found what "opening the door to one's heart" meant to me.
Opening the door of my heart to the pain, the attachments, the disappointment.
Opening the door of my heart to the happiness that I know that others have found.
Opening the door of my heart to the blessings I rediscovered that I have, all the good bricks in the wall that makes up my complicated life :)
I picked myself up from the dusty road, closed my eyes and meditated. And through the calmness that my mind settled into, I saw in myself a mixture of sadness and relief and contentment. Sadness coz my of my attachment to my desires, Relief because I knew that I could finally let go, contentment because I looked around at my garden, and knew that even tho' the leaves weren't as orderly as I 'd like them to be, that the garden was in the sense, perfect enough to bring joy to me.
So a better analogy for life, probably woulnd't be : getting hit by a series of trains.
It would be more like a garden that we slave to keep in order... to our ultimate perfection. I watered that rose bush as best as I could and cared for it, but in the freak storm that swept into the fragile little paradise, it still died. Withered petals and dead leaves littered the grass.
You'll definitely feel a sense of loss and misery, for the effort that you put in, and the thing that you lost. But then take a look at the scene... the rough, wild and carefree beauty that the place has now acquired. The withered petals and dead leaves would fertilise the ground for the growth of new plants. Appreciate that other plants have survived, each lovely in their own way.. appreciate the new look of the place... be content with what is there, but at the same time, plan for what has to be done.
I'm still shoveling that huge pile of dung in front of my house. There are many people working with me :) but ultimatley, i know the majority of the work will be done by me. the pile is still there.. but it's growing smaller. and I know I will be done with it one day . i can't wait to see the flowers bloom in in that spot during spring time :)
