Woot!

My supervisor requested to see me this morning after my molecular biology paper and guess what? She wanted to discuss the options of getting my research paper published in an international journal. It is an opportunity not to be missed and I'm definitely elated about it.

She gave me two options regarding the publication. Option one was that she will handle everything, from the rewriting of the paper to be submitted to the handling of the correspondence. Option two was that I do everything myself with her guidance. Guess what I chose?

I chose option two of course. It would be a very good chance for me to gain a little experience regarding getting myself published and it is something I will not want to miss. Of course it will mean more work for me but getting your name in print is definitely worth it.

There is definitely a possibility that I will be rejected by the different journals, but then again... there's no harm in trying.

Post-raya Shopping

One would have thought that shopping for something after the raya festival would be a very quick thing. One would have never guessed that the check out line would be such a long one. One could have died waiting for all the kiddies to pay for their toys with their duit raya. One should have smashed their heads with all the coins and dollars they were counting out to pay for their purchases. One is evil...

Life?

Is life always that cruel? My cousin just told me her house got robbed and she was devastated. What's worse is that her laptop that was taken contained all her assignments and they are due soon. What can she do? She had a backup in a pendrive but that got taken as well. Double blow of the suckiness of life? She lamented to me over the net and somehow I felt very much saddened that sometimes, life just blows.

Her parents and brother seem to be handling it rather nonchalantly maybe because all that was lost were just material stuff to them but to her, work and effort lost cannot be recovered so easily. Sometimes grown ups think that for students, life is just so simple. I find that patronizing.

She said and I quote:

thatz y...i cried so hard not for the laptop
i cried for the content
my family said they will buy a new one to replace
its not that
they can get the latest high tech one
but its not the same as the old one
because all my stuff is gone

Well, I understand. My heart goes out for you in these troubled times...

Hanging up the ol' lab coat

The place was desolate on that particular day with everyone having fled with anticipation of much joyous festivities on the morrow. The long halls he traversed were eerily muted with the ringing silence of emptiness and as he walked on by, he noticed how much this contrasted with the everyday hustle and bustle of footsteps and voices.

It was rather amusing how he had such a change of feeling now that he had completed those few months in the lab. He remembered how frightening it was on the first day with much trembling hands and jumping hearts but with time, experience steadied the hand and confidence calmed the heart. As stressful as it was, those couple of months will be a time always remembered. The friendly jibes, the whispered secrets and the shared whining all added colour to the long lab hours. It was hard work but satisfying all the same.

As he cleared his cluttered workspace he can't help but think about it. He will certainly miss it, now that it is over. Slinging the lab coat over his shoulder, he walked out with the thought that maybe doing it for a living isn't so bad after all.

I'm not imaginative

"I'm just very selective about the reality I choose to accept."

Calvin

Es tut mir leid

I know, I'm dreadfully behind time with this one.... Apologies to Ah-Bong. My fingers are to blame :S

Five Things:

In my bag
(I'm assuming it's the bag I take to classes).

1) Freakin notes for different classes
2) Lots of rubbish - candy wrappers, torn papers, etc
3) Bits and bobs from the lab that have mysteriously lodged themselves into my bag - PCR tubes, latex gloves etc
4) Ethidium bromide contaminated pens and pencils
5) A paperback novel of any kind - never left the house without them!

In my wallet

1) Movie ticket stubs
2) Sheaves of receipts
3) Identity stuff
4) A minute amount of money
5) A coin - who is probably dying of loneliness

In my room
(Of course the room I have in my hometown)

1) My TV (I LOVE YOU)
2) My huge ass shelf of books and more books
3) My giant queen size bed
4) My computer (I LOVE YOU TOO !)
5) My laptop (I LOVE YOU THE MOST !)

I would like to try

1) Backpacking
2) Taking a hiatus from life and just travel for a year
3) Going to Germany and yakking in German
4) Extracting DNA samples from chorionic villi
5) Throw rotten eggs from the balcony of my apartment - don't ask


I'm doing now
1) Falling asleep doing this
2) Thinking up a fairytale to write during my viro paper tomorrow
3) Thinking of reasons to explain why the multiplex PCR I developed has a less than perfect sensitivity and specificity
4) Typing?
5) Errr.... breathing?

I'm tagging

No one. I'm probably the last person on the face of the earth to do this.

Diabolical Sweetness

The things these quizzes come up with these days. Here's one I found to be highly amusing. I do not certainly feel like a brownie. A brownie sounds so mushy and all sugar and spice, everything nice kind of thing. Ok, so the description says otherwise but in the end it says I'm sweet. Sweet? Me? I don't think that those two words will ever exist in the same sentence.

I wanna be something more thrilling yet demure in its way, with a quiet affluence in taste and with a sense of a swagger in its name. I wanna be the rum and raisins chocolate truffles dessert. Now that's cool :)

On second thought, I could be the silent killer type of sweetness. Think of diabetes and being sweet does in the end, sound evil after all.

*Roar*

Ehem

*ROAR*

You Are a Brownie

Decadent and intense, you aren't for the weakhearted. Those who can deal with your strong flavor find out how sweet you really are.

What Dessert Are You Most Like?

Sexy Veggie

Now who wouldn't go vegetarian after watching this? :)


Alicia Silverstone’s Sexy Veggie PSA

When death is no longer a fantasy

James Oliver Rigney, Jr or better known as Robert Jordan has passed away on September 16th, 2007. I only found that out reading the newspaper today and I'll be mourning the loss of a great fantasy writer. His World of Time series is a masterful work of meticulous detail that brings a reader into a world where you could lose yourself for days. Yeah, his series spans eleven books and one prequel. In my opinion, the world Robert Jordan created even rivals the classic Middle Earth by Tolkien. He now joins the ranks of writers, like the late Marion Zimmer Bradley, who I feel, live and died for fantasy.

When the cookie crumbles

I had my honours research project presentation last Thursday and the outcome? Bad. The first 20 minutes of the presentation was smooth but I got burned in the 10 minutes, question and answer session. Could I be better prepared? Did I get tough examiners? I wouldn't know.

I wanted the best oral presentation award so badly but now it wouldn't come true.

The cookie crumbled...

But in whose hand?

Click on it to get a bigger image and you can almost see me in the camera
screen. Yeah, the man with the bald pate is one of my examiners. He was
the nicer one of the two.

I see it's hard

I just saw the new Kelley Armstrong book on the shelves the other day and I can't wait to read it. Too bad only the hardcover version is out. I'll have to wait for the paperpback and that is gonna take months. *Sob*

Sway with me again?

At about 8 am I once again felt the building swaying and this time, the tremor felt is rather strong. It went on for almost a minute and I really thought soon my apartment would come crashing down and we would all have something to read about in the papers tomorrow. I have been preparing for my research project presentation all week and I thought that I wouldn't even survive to the actual thing by being dead a few hours before it is due. LOL.

I missed the quake yesterday at about 7 in the evening because I was out shopping so maybe this was a chance for me to feel it and maybe have my life flashing before my eyes? :)

She ain't heavy, she's our Britney!

Britney's VMA performance was something you wouldn't expect to see...

Landlubbers Unite!

My life's soalan cepu emas

Does unspoken words signify hope or just an unavoidable ending?

Bug me!

How wrong could I be when I decided to go for a movie to take my mind off matters? A whole lot of wrong I would say. I wanted to forget that harrowing viro term paper assignment that I received today which requires a minimum of 7 pages (excluding title page, figures, tables and reference list) on novel ideas, that makes me feel like jumping off my balcony, so stupid me decided to go see The Invasion.

I was treated to a whole hour and a half of a story full of terms like vaccines, bugs, immunity and epidemic which promptly jolted me back to the thoughts of that bloody term paper which I have not started on. The story was great but Nicole Kidman was even greater. :)

Elizabeth The Golden Age

I am looking forward to many movies but none rivals this in unbridled anticipation. The rush of emotions that the trailer evokes is enough to have you starving for more.

Holiday afflictions

The problem with self-made holidays are the classic symptoms that seem to manifest effortlessly after you have stayed home for a few days. It kills the fun and ultimately makes you feel rotten, like all other diseases.

Symptom 1: Lethargy

Too much time spent being idle apparently causes the body to become lazy and every movement that isn't followed with an immediate pause for relaxation makes you feel like you're gonna keel over and die of exhaustion. This is because you have been lying around listlessly doing nothing for days in a row, very much like a 200 pound bear in hibernation.

Symptom 2: Mental deterioration

A drastic decline in mental capacity is bound to follow the long days of putting your brain on hiatus. Your mind becomes sluggish and you eventually find yourself blanking out every few minutes where your thoughts seem to be occupied with thinking about nothing. When you realize that what you have been thinking about is redundant, you just don't care because a repetitive loop of blank thoughts keeps the voices away.

Symptom 3: Drooping eyelids

In the case where you do go out, you are then faced with the problem of eyelid ptosis. Too much 4 a.m. gaming rounds and afternoon wake times wrecks havoc with your sleep patterns and you soon feel like falling asleep at any time of the day. Just let your eyes have their way and soon you will walking around with your eyes half closed and your mouth half open.

Symptom 4: Guilt mania

As with sex and chocolates, an over indulgence in holidays makes you feel like you've done a crime. The onset is at the end of your break and really sets in when you realized you have been doing absolutely nothing productive in the span of that few days. You start to punish yourself mentally for being weak and giving in for a taste of the oh-so-delicious sinful pleasures that you have vowed to never be tempted with again.

Symptom 5: Obesity

When everything you see around you is food, you naturally pack on the pounds. Food seem to magically replenish itself with help from your parents and everytime you enter the kitchen you are faced with delicious smells and sights. How can you resist?

Hilfe!

You know you're in trouble when you have a German language test in a few hours and you don't even know whether the Waschbecken is a masculine, feminine or neutral noun.

Hilfe! Ich bin sehr dumm. Ich verstehe nicht!

Is that an oasis I see?

I was left high and dry with these really boring topics to choose from for my principles and practices of management class. Which one do you think I should choose? I have to do a presentation and a five page paper on it. Five pages!

1. Discuss the different skills that a manager must have and the roles they can fill.

2. Identify the stakeholders of an organization and the impact on the organization and the environment.

3. Discuss issues a manager must consider in applying ethics.

4. Describe the common barriers to effective communication. How may these barriers be overcome?

I am seriously thinking of picking number three because as it is always with ethics, you get to ramble alot. Ethical issues are soooo debatable. Anyone here with a background in management wanna lend me a hand? I'll won't do anything naughty with your hand :P
If all else fails, then it's back to the old trick of completing non-scientific assignments that I have tried and tested. Writing beautiful sentences that looks mightily impressive but if one delves deeper into the meaning, you get nothing. In short, cover your lack knowledge with flawless English. Seriously, it works.

Disclaimer: Method only works for public universities only.