sun and wind

It's such a lovely weather outside I couldn't resist the temptation to go out even though I had stacks of lab notebooks to grade. So I grabbed my camera and took off walking around the campus. With such bright sun and cooling wind, what better way could I spend my Saturday afternoon right?

Most of the flowers have yet to bloom but the buds are out and they should be blooming anytime soon. Magnolia is one of early bloomers and it's just lovely to see magnolia trees all white full with flowers.

I especially love trees that does not have leaves. When they are in full bloom, the entire tree will be covered and they are simply fascinating. For Magnolia, it can grow right out from the branch itself.

My other favorite is some blue flower. I see them here and there but have no idea what is its name. It kinda look like bluebells but there are more petals and they are separated from each other. Someone once told me that there is a bluebell woods someone in UK. It is so thick that the ground looks blue during blooming season. Would definitely love to go there one day. Bluebells and lavendar are definitely my soft spot but they are very rare...maybe that's why I don't get lots of flowers. :P

Came across a tree that looks suitable for a treehouse. We had a mango tree when we were staying in Bayan Baru and I loved climbing up on it just to catch the view from up there. When my parents chopped it off, we I wished that we would get a tree like this so that we can built a treehouse just for me. But of course that never did happen..but we got another mango tree when we moved to Batu Feringghi and it's bearing mangoes already!!!

It's been a long time since I walk out and enjoy nature's gift. Sometimes I get caught up with work and keep thinking that I have to keep going or I'll slack. But it doesn't always have to be like that. I came home a lot fresher and simple things like these reminds me of the beautiful life I'm granted with. It's not often one come across such lovely and peaceful day. I don't have to be watching all these thru a tv screen wishing I could see it, feel it and experience it for myself because I am part of it. I just love feeling the warmth of the sun shining on down onto my face as I lay down on the grass or just listening to the whispers of the trees. Even the squirrels are coming out again. Simply wonderful! There's more pics here too...

burung kakak tua

Was walking out of the kitchen and when I tripped over the little stool by the corner. Mumbled to myself that I should watch my path or I'll lose my teeth by the age of 30 and the tune to this song came to mind...

Burung kakak tua..
something something..
nenek sudah tua..
giginya tinggal dua.

Lettum, lettum, ooh la la..(or something like that)

Wanna remind me where this tune comes from? I think it's from Standard 1 or 2 when we had to learn all the pantuns..but I can't really remember. Why all of the sudden? I don't know either. Haha..just a random thought.

taugeh

Remember when we were kids (mostly us girls since ahboy never had to it :P) and mum would make us peel the 'ends' of taugeh for taugeh char kiam hu or the skin of peanut for soup? I used to dislike doing that, especially the taugeh ones, because it takes forever! But that's how we were brought up. Everytime we buy taugeh, we have to peel the ends and we got used to eating 'cleaned' taugeh. While I never did volunteer to do them, it will still be something that I will make my kids do one day. It wasn't just the taugeh that we had to peel but it was helping mum in the kitchen, spending time with mum and sometimes with dad and ahmah too. Sometimes we'll talk about what's going on in school and work..or we'll just pop in an oldies cd and sing along. Of course sometimes I'll talk too much and get the 'kah meh pek lah..kong uah ah ne cheh'. But if was definitely bonding time.

Today, people doesn't seem to be doing that anymore..or maybe it's just people here. Was having dinner at a chinese restaurant - char hor fun with chicken. They don't peel the ends of the taugeh! This morning, bought a bag of taugeh and started peeling the tails when roommate walked into the kitchen. 'Ping, do you know that it's okay to eat the that (refer to the ends)?' I told her that I know it's edible but I've been taught to peel them before cooking or eating them. Maybe it's just me but I'm pretty sure a lot of us were taught the same thing too. I even remember that you'll see some of the hawker sellers sitting by their stall after the lunch crowd peeling their taugeh..or maybe not anymore since I haven't seen any for a long time. But while I was eating the char hor fun, I just couldn't help thinking - don't they peel off the ends before they cook them???

Unsatisfied, I cooked my own char taugeh with hae and some sambal belachan from Hup Loong...after peeling off the ends. Even if the taste is not much difference with or without the ends, it still looks better without it.

stitch

Look...it's Stitch! These pics are taken by ahboy and posted as per his request. Stitch is my cousin's dog and he's soooooo huge already...but I'm comparing him to JubJub, which is a lot younger than Stitch. Isn't he cute??? But then I like JubJub's color better (no I'm not being racist!)...it just reminds me of Pinky. Too bad Trappers Cove don't allow me to get dogs, but then hor, when I have to go home or go away for a while, who's going to take care of him/her leh? Never mind ler..I'll just go home and play with Stitch or JubJub.

It would be funny if he just stuck out his tongue and licks your camera lense. What did you do to get this picture? It's not like 'Stitch' leh...too kuai.

mini-lab

While all the incidents were going on last night, I started liquid chromatography of my fluorescent proteins through a hydrophobic interaction column. But my protein solution was too concentrated that it takes forever for the sample to go through the column. I was tired of waiting for it when the time past 3am so I packed up a little mini-lab to bring home the column and all the stuff I need so that I don't have to go in this morning. It would be disappointing if I missed it and my column dried out or if I got there and it was still a long way more to go.

Been able to get 3 columns done and went back to lab this afternoon to exchange new columns and get more elution buffer. No worries...only working with protein, not carrying any biohazardous material out of the lab.

science and fun

It's been a while since I can describe my weekend in more than a sentence. I was doing something else!

Let's start with Friday afternoon (yeah..it started on Friday!). Managed to get quite a bit done on Friday and still got home by 7pm. Just before I left, I was sitting in the conference room talking to Fan about the lab we TA for when it started raining. After a while, the rain stopped and a rainbow appeared!!! I wished so badly I had my camera with me but nope, I could just watch it and plant the image in my memory. It's the most beautiful rainbow I've seen. The 6th floor conference room window gave us a large, unblocked view of the complete rainbow, starting from one end to the other. I could even count all the 7 colors. It was just amazing. It lasted for quite a while too.

Went home around 7pm, laze around for a while just reading papers and surfing until I slept off maybe around 10pm. Woke up at 4am on Saturday morning to get ready to meet KH and JW at the loading dock of BPS. JW drove us down to Ferris State University for the MI-ASM Spring Meeting. It's been 2 years since I last attended a MI branch ASM meeting and I didn't expect to see anyone there except for my previous PI from WMU. So I wasn't surprised when we got there and she was the only person I knew. The reason we decided to go this year is because Dr. Breznak was giving a talk on physiological diversity in termite guts. KH and JW went to support and I went because I have yet to hear him talk. He was the first speaker and we were going to leave after that. But JW decided to stay for the 2nd talk. I'm glad he did because halfway through Dr. Breznak's talk, a bunch of people from WMU came in! The break between the first and second talk gave me a chance to catch up with them. It's nice to see people I haven't seen in a while and to hear what research they are up to. Listening to JA's work, I realized that I never did have a lot of interest in it when I was at WMU but right now, I am working on something similar. That's when I realized that my aim in life has changed quite a bit from 2.5 years ago. It was also nice to know that these people remembered me for my work, for the stuff I've contributed in the lab..and unfortunately, for my tiny writing too. I had a great time there! Both meeting old lab mates and listening to the talks. The second talk was about nitrogen regulation in Klebsiella which I did not understand much but I thought the speaker was really good.

By the time we got back at MSU, it was already 3pm. I stayed a while in the lab to get stuff going and came home for a nap and dinner. Went back to lab around 8pm to check on my proteins and went to a movie and band night on campus. They showed 'Hard Day's Night' by the Beatles followed by a local band, the Yellow Submarine, which is a Beatles Tribute band. They sang all the Beatles greatest hits and some other songs from well-known Broadway music shows. Went back to the lab after the band and found out that the -80 freezer temperature was at -58C. The alarm went off after a while and I panicked. We have a lot of glycerol culture stocks in there and it's not good if the temperature kept increasing....

It sure was too much to handle on Saturday which is usually my chill out day. But sometimes, I don't mind it, like this Saturday. It's nice to be doing stuff away from my norm once in a while.

How sick is this?

‘Police made me strip’

Am looking through The Star in between centrifugation cycles. Came across this article and it totally gross me out. Sometimes, no matter how much I would love to be back home in my home country, it's situation like this that makes me hesitate. Give her a break man..she's a mum! with three kids!! Why do they need to do that to her for? For a boost of self-confidence? That is just so wrong. What happen to all the ethics we were taught in Moral class in high school? What happen to the well known 'friendly Malaysians'? Worst of all, it involves our own police force. How could we still trust them to protect us? To provide us with justice when we need it? To put them high in our pedastal because they are our shield? This is just so sad and disappointing...

snowflakes

Had been a crazy week...or maybe it's been a crazy 2 weeks. For the last three days, all I did was sat in front of the computer, from the moment I wake up until the moment I go to sleep. Had my lunch and dinner right in front of the computer too. But I finally presented the data this morning...after a two hours of sleep for the past 48 hours, I think I did a pretty good job (ish ish, praising herself). Well, how well it is doesn't matter as long as all the PIs was satisfied with it. In fact, I think we now have more information than they had before.

As for now, my days will go by without looking at the screen for a while. So I'll be leaving this picture for my visitors to ponder upon.

This was taken sometime last week at 6.55am in the morning. The snow was just falling and these clumps are still fresh on the surface of my car. I love it when the snow falling are not all clumped up together (which can be fun sometimes if you decide to build a snowman) but are in its distinct shape. There's a believe that no two snowflakes are alike...how true is that?

Unfortunately, the snow did not stayed around for long as it melts once it touches the ground.

Now that I post all the snowflakes pictures for my fellow M'sians who have yet to see snow, I will leave my readers (few, but definitely appreciated) with another picture of snowflakes and you can look for yourself it the really is an evidence for the 'no two snowflakes are alike' theory.

loves chewing ice???

'Everything is everywhere, the environment selects'... while this is the paradigm of microbial ecology about half a century ago, we now know that this is not always true. However, there are still some cosmopolitan strains such as Escherichia coli. Even then, it's abundance is usually very low. But when it gets to a certain level, it is 'predicted' that the environment is contaminated by human excretes. Why? That's because it is found in human feces and can be used as an indication of contamination. It is also linked to a variety of gastrointestinal diseases, some deadly while some mild. It still amaze me how one species of bacterial can be such a pain in the ass and yet bears the answer to fundamental microbiology. Isn't that interesting? But I'm kinda sick of it...we know so much already. We need new stuff!

Recently, a girl collected ice from fast-food chains and test for presence of E. coli for her science project. She's 12 and already has the mind of a microbiologist. At 12, I don't think I know what a bacteria was...I was still trying to memorize the all the layers found in the skin organ and draw the map of Malaysia (carbon paper sure was something to be treasured at that time!). Guess what her result came out...positive for all the ice she collected. And what's more intriguing, the water from the toilet that she collected were negative or has less E. coli. Can you believe that??? Well, I definitely can. The water that goes into the toilet bowl comes directly from the wastewater treatment and if the toilet bowl is clean, it should be pretty much low in bacteria especially if it is being flushed often. As for the ice, there are tons of hands going in there daily. True, there'll be scoop but how many people can say that they don't touch the ice when scooping it up? Furthermore, if the ice-machine is left open like those at kopi-tiams along New Lane or Macalister Rd, there'll be even more bacteria. I can't even imagine the counts one would get from places like these if there are tons from fast-food chains which are way cleaner than a kopi-tiam at Swatow Lane.

So for those who likes to chew on ice...beware...you might be consuming more bacteria than you should. Definitely not a good idea when immune system is weak...maybe that's why mum always prevent us from eating ice when we're sick.

STOMP

Went to watch Stomp last night (yup yup, despite all the late nights and yet to be finished task list. But hey, it's a once in a blue moon opportunity!). I have seen clips of it before at some of the video stores in Mid Valley or One Stop, Penang. I was intrigue by the performance but never thought that I could actually watch it live! But there I was, sitting right in the middle of Wharton Center, enjoying the 1 hour 40 mins 'chaos'.

There were only 7 casts members. They started out with sweeping the floor with a broom and moved into knocking the broom stick on the stage. Then it was with poles and bins and matchboxes...all the things that everyone would find in the house. One person will usually make some noise from an instrument and then the others follow and it become a blend of sounds like an orchestra instead of just 'noise'. While watching it, I remembered one day when dad found an aluminium sheet somewhere in the house and he was moving it to make noise. We were all irritated and told him to stop it. And here I am, paying USD25 to watch people make noise with bins and paper bags and newspapers. I can imagine showing the clips to ahmah and telling her I paid RM100 to watch that. I will very likely get a 'U lui bo lor khai' (literally, has money but no road to spend - basically it means money spent unwisely). We also had a metal washing machine drum from an old washing machine that dad had dismantled and had made a 'drum' out of it. So we were kinda close to Stomp...but for some reason, not quite up there. hehe..I think if we try that at home, we'll just get a 'mai cho luan lah' (don't make noise!).

The best part of the play was towards the end when he had the audience follow them. We were clapping different tunes and different parts of our body (which actually gives you different sound and they can blend really well), stomping our feets, clicking our fingers...that was fun.

Happy St. Patrick's day

I just realized something..I don't have any green top! The only one I have is a MSU sweater with the Spartan green. We were planning to wear green today since it's St. Patrick's day but when I looked into my closet this morning, I don't have any! So end up wearing my MSU sweater.

It's 8.20am and there is already a long line outside the bars! Can you imagine that? They can wake up in time to line up for green beer but not to class on regular days? Hmm...

infected

Whenever your doctor tells you that the cure to a sickness is just to relax and chill? Believe it. I consider myself a living proof. *grins*

Growing up with a dad who drill me about the importance of being optimistic, I don't get stress out very often. The number of times I get really stressed out can be counted with just my fingers. A major exam, a paper due soon, family events, etc...I get nervous but rarely stressed out. But when I do, I am bound to fall sick soon. Then I'll have to remind myself to cool it and take it one step at a time. Unlike my lil brother, I rarely fall sick too..once or twice a year is all about as much as I get. But if I get stressed out, the once or twice is big deal enough that I am glad that is all I get.

The past week has been really hectic. I had so many plans for experiments but I only got 3 of them done. Why? I had to get some 16S rDNA sequences analyzed and as I started working on it, I realized that some of the solution I need involves multiple programs. Grrrrr...why can't all computer scientist write in the same language? First of all was trying to figure out how to use DOTUR. That was really easy as it runs from command prompt. The same goes for S-Libshuff and TreeClimber...but they were all written by P. Schloss. When I had to take DOTUR's output and input it into EstimateS, I had to use a Java conversion script. It's suppose to be easy right? I mean..hei..it's just Java. Then went into some challenges with the script. Also learned the hard way that I can't copy the path from MS Word into the command prompt. Grrrrr...they are the same!! But apparently the computer must be reading it different. Got that all solved out eventually.

Next I have to built tree. Started out using MEGA. It is a great program and it runs on all MAC, Windows and Linux terminal which is good so I don't have to keep changing the format of my raw data. But guess what...the input for MEGA is totally different from any of the output I get! So what now? Have to do it manually lor. So started writing the script for changing the format of my data into MEGA's format. That was kinda easy...but took me 4 freaking hours straight! Besides playing Diablo or WarCraft, I don't sit in front of the computer for that long!!! And that was just dealing with 250 sequences. Thankfully, MEGA's output can be churned into TreeClimber easily. See..we need more computer scientist who think about other people. They have to learn to accomodata different formats!!

Now, am trying to learn Python. I want to use UniFrac to compare my libraries and this program was writen with the Python interpreter. *pulls hair back in frustration* One day, if I ever have the luxury to stay home and do nothing, I think I will take a class on writing scripts with Perl. Then I'll compile a program that will convert any of these different formats to any format that the user required. There must also be a program that can recognize sequence strings from different library based on their ID and color code them. Wouldn't that be so much easier? Currently we have to import the trees or sequences into Adobe Illustrator and color code them ourselves. Imagine if you have 400 sequences, you have to go through each of them, highlight it and change the color. Too bad the Ctrl button doesn't work for Illustrator. Hmm..now that I'm thinking about this, maybe if we save the Illustrator file with postscript extension then open it in MS Word and use the 'find and replace' function...maybe that might work.

How did I get to talking about all these????? Oh yeah..stressed out. So yeah..that's the spill of my stresses this past week. The challenge I faced last year when constructing a plasmid did not even made me so stressed out. It's only been a week or so since I had to bury myself into programming books and it's already driving me crazy. I think it's because it's not my field and I have no idea what is going on. The worst is when I get erros. Not knowing the codes well enough, it drives me nuts whenever there are 'syntax error' because I don't know where to start correcting. What more when sometimes the error could just be a semi-colon or an extra space (especially Python which is sensitive to spacing AND caps lock).

Due to all these crazy programs, now I am stuck with bacterial infection. Working with bacteria all the time, especially when doing batch growth, it is common to get infection once in a while but when we're healthy physically and mentally, the infection is not obvious. It is only when we get stressed out and the hormones seem to interfere with the immune system that the infection get worse. At this point, it is still at the early stage but I can feel the swell in my lymph nodes already. It gets worst at night when I am tired and my immune system doesn't seem to wanna work with me here. Sleeping is hard because when I lie on one side, the swelling increase due to fluid accumulation. Ice-cream makes me feel better but I don't think I can fit anything in my fridge anymore. Driving to Wendy's to get a freeze right now is too much of a chore too...don't wanna drive. So I've been sucking on ice all day. Am thinking of staying home tomorrow and come in just before my class tomorrow but I have to meet with Tom (the boss) before class. *head hangs down*

At the same time, all these crap is making me miss someone. One of the times that I got infection and it was one of the really bad ones, I didn't have to do anything except sleep and eat ice-cream. He was the sweetest then...

Alright, time to get back to cracking my head trying to use these programs. Praying hard I can get the tree to run on TreeClimber and analyze it with UniFrac. If not, I might have to start using Arb..boo hoo..am trying to avoid that.

game over...

Phew! That slow coach actually reaches stationary phase after 16 hours!! I can finally go home...and pray that I can wake up early enough to start comparing sequences before class. Spent the entire night trying to figure out the input for Arlequin. Can't all the computer scientist think with the same language? Why must they have different input format for different programs? Some are easy enough that they provide you a Java or C++ code conversion script. But unfortunately, Arlequin does not. Instead, it gives you some template code and I have to figure it out myself what to put where. Grrrrr....

Grumpy..need sleep (she actually realized that! I thought I have to start a mantra here!).

antsy

Got home at 11pm and I thought once I have my dinner, I will zoned out until tomorrow morning. But it's 3.30am and I'm still wide awake. Tired but wide awake. There's so much going on that I can't get myself to concentrate on anything. When I get started on something, an hour later I start feel tired and agitated. It's like I have to be everything all at once but that doesn't work all the time right?

After dinner sat down to read a chapter on Microbial Diversity but halfway through I decided to wash the dishes. Tried to read after that but my eye lid felt heavy and I was dozing off. Lie on the bed tried to sleep but my mind was wheeling through all the articles that I need to read, all the stuff I need to check, next week's experiments, etc... I get these feelings every once in a while when I am overwhelmed with lots of stuff. There are new experiments I am eager to try but don't know enough to get started. That means I have a lot to read up first but there's also stuff that I should read up and concentrate on first. Arghggh..distressed, antsy, unconsolable, agitated, bothered, fidgety..all at the same time. Usually a run around the block or a round on the threadmill does the trick but I'm at home and there's not a whole lot I can do pump up the adrenaline supply I need.

Ended up cleaning the bathroom, my desk, my bedroom, the kitchen...and now I have nothing else to clean anymore. My car maybe? But it's kinda dark and I am already comfortable in my pajamas. Maybe I should just lie on the bed and count sheep. One...two...three...

dogs

Went with Steph to walk UL's dog, N, this afternoon. N has seen us a few times but they were quite some time ago. N has a history that made him very skittish around strangers. We were not sure if he's going to be okay with us but UL thinks that he'll be fine once we pet him and give him some time to get comfy with us. I personally thought it's going to be fun as I do like N (he reminds me of my own childhood Pomeranian, Pinky).

When we first started getting close to N, he started shaking and barking. It seems like he was really afraid of us. He jumped up onto the couch and won't get near us at all. Steph went closer to get hold of the lease and tried coaxing her to come closer to us. After what feels like an eternity, he finally came close enough for Steph to pet her. After we pet him and played with him in the house for a while, we brought him outside and locked the door. But guess what, our little friend here kept looking at the locked door and won't budge an inch!! I kept telling him that it'll be a fun walk and we'll walk the way UL usually brings him but all he did was looked at the door. It seems like he expects UL to come out of the door and rescue him but we told him that UL won't be back till late night. After a while, he finally started walking around. We walked him to the front of the house and when we got to the front door, he stopped again! We got frustrated so Steph carried him and we walked away from the house and put him down. He walked a few steps, stopped, looked back towards the house and started pulling us back.

In the end, we didn't really walked him at all because all we did was went around the house. Either we looked really mean like we were going to kidnap him or he is just a really shy dog. When we brought him back to the house, we gave him a treat and we won't eat it either! (and I thought dogs are always looking for food!!). There goes our Saturday afternoon that was suppose to be fun!

I am not much of a pet person but if I stay in M'sia with my family, I think I would have gotten a dog..one similar to my Pinky. She came to our family just a few months before I was born. She stayed with me all the time and we were just the same size! When I was about to go to primary school, my family moved to PJ and we had to leave her with my grandma because we were renting a house. Unfortunately, not too long later she died of flu but according to my grandma, she's really old too. I didn't get a chance to see her because she died but I'll always remember the times when she watches over me as I was growing up. Almost every picture of me as a little girl has Pinky in it...

Hayman Island

Ever been to Lover's Isle close to Penang Swimming Club at Batu Feringghi? It's a really cute island, big enough to have it all to yourself and small enough not to get lost. It used to be within swimming distance from Penang Swimming Club but not sure if it still is or if it is still safe to swim over. When I was younger, I used to wish that I could live on the island with my family. (Blurrr...I was already living on an island!! It was just too big for me that I didn't realize it I guess). Built a small two-storey house maybe... As I grew up, I always wonder who owns the island and if someone can just buy it like buying land and built their own house there. Wouldn't that be cool? But it would be kinda dangerous when tsunami happens right? (How in the world would I know that tsunami would happen in Malaysia!!!)

Recently, dad accepted a job in Australia at Hayman Island. I was checking out their website and wow! I'm impress. On the entire island, there is just one resort. Just ONE. That's it. There's nothing else except for the resort. It'll probably be kinda boring to work there for a long time. But to go there for a vacation, I think it'll be lots of fun and definitely relaxing. I can imagine being there during non-peak season, having the entire place to myself (well, almost to myself), with great seafood being served anytime I'm hungry, enjoying the unpolluted breeze of Great Barrier Reef, and swimming with the colorful fishes of Australia in the clear, sky blue water of the Reef. They also have a whole bunch of water sports (I know I know, we can get this from Ferringhi Beach but I'm sure this IS different *grins*) and trails to explore the island. I wonder if there are wild animals on the other side of the island where it is still a jungle..if not, it'll be kinda fun to get lost and try to find your way around to the right side of the island. Haha..just a thought!

The one thing that might make this trip seem too far out of reach is the PRICE. The cheapest one I saw is A$620...calculating...USD455 per night. *Gulp* That means with one month pay, I only get to stay for 3 nights? Hmmm...not worth it wor. I'll just go back to Langkawi or Pulau Paya. Then again, maybe it'll be worth it when I'm earning USD4500 per month right? Yeah, if by the time I get married I still haven't been to Australia, maybe Hayman Island will be a good honeymoon spot. Ahahaha...wishful thinking..wishful thinking. But it'll be such a wonderful trip then..no disturbance, just relax and not having to think about work, sleep through the day and wake up to a wonderful meal via room service, swimming through the night looking up towards the sky full of stars, and exploring the island as though we own it (Ping's evil twin adds..what about hot and sexy love making through the night by the beach??? C'mon, it's your honeymoon! --- oh no no..don't even go there).

Alright alright..time to get back to reality and go home to my bed that will tempt me off to sleep in seconds. Sleepy....

new mouse

Remember the feeling when you get a new toy as a little kid? That's exactly how I feel right now. I bought my laptop a mouse! I have been using the touchpad ever since I got the laptop and all of a sudden I feel the need to buy a mouse. From one point of view, it's kinda waste of money since I have managed without it for almost 2 years now. But the temptation to keep looking for one until I find doesn't seem to hear my reasons. So I got it! Ordered online through CompUSA and went there to collect it a couple of hours ago. It's not a 'super-canggih' mouse. Just a simple Microsoft Optical mouse.

When I was looking online, I did not think about the connection port at all. Then as I was about to connect it, I realize that my laptop does not have the PS/2 port. Oh-oh! After careful examination, I found out that it is an adapter that can be removed to reveal a USB connecter. Phew! So now I have a mouse! The other motivation for getting the mouse is to be able to play WarCraft III with K. She have been asking me to play a couple of times now but I didn't have it on my laptop. Now maybe I will. Am actually thinking of installing Diablo...but I should finish analyzing my data before the weekend is over right? Hmmm...but Diablo is calling to me...ahaha.

It's gonna take some time to get use to using the mouse because I still have the tendency to use the touchpad. Oh yeah...I can actually use the middle button to open a new tab on Mozilla now!! Woohooo!! :P

Elizabethtown

Got home early last night as I was feeling really crappy. Stuff doesn't seem to be working and my brain refuse to cooperate with me. Went shopping for groceries and came home, stretched out on the couch with a box of baked chicken from Meijer and settled in front of the tv watching Elizabethtown.

One thing from the movie caught my attention - one that makes me think about myself and it actually turned out to be motivating.

"I've been the substitute person my whole life"

That is a line by Claire (Kirsten Dunst) while she was out walking with Drew (Orlando Bloom). They were total strangers - she the air-stewardess in the plane he took to Elizabethtown from Oregon. But when he checked into a hotel that night he arrived, he called his sis, ex-gal and none of them were available so he called her. Isn't that such a down time for anyone? When you want to talk to someone, no one seems to be available and you had to end up calling a stranger. I'm glad I always had mum to call whenever I can't find anyone else. Sometimes I wonder to myself, do I really have that few friends to call when I need to talk or just chat? Honestly, yeah..there's only a few that I feel comfortable spilling out my guts to. In fact, it became a whole lot fewer when BK left because he was the friend, the brother, the lover, the mentor...he was my everything. So why did I let one person took all these role? Fear? You never want to call a stranger...so you turn to the same person who is willing to take it all in. But I still have mum. :)

What in the world does that one tagline has got to do with me? When I heard it, I kinda refuse to believe there is such thing. I still believe that people do belong. That there is such thing as true love between a guy and a girl that has nothing to do with the true love between a dad and a daughter or a brother and a sister. Is that naive? BK thinks I'm still naive because of that. But what if you came so close to it? To know that there really is such thing as true love, there is such thing is feeling home when you embrace one person, there is such thing as the feeling of 'belonging', that you know you don't have to keep searching anymore because you're home.

Then as the movie goes on, I realize that what she said can be true for anyone. Why? We have to search before we find home. It's during this search that sometimes we feel that we're just a substitute person. We are close enough to the real thing but not enough to be the real thing. Think I'm crapping? I don't think so. And I think it's okay to be the substitute person. We just helped the other person to realized what is missing and why it wasn't good enough. I was just the substitute person until he found out what he wanted, what he was missing.

There can still be true love and the sense of belonging. But we just had to go through cycles of being a substitute or being with a substitute until we find our match. Thinking this way, I think that it's really okay to be a substitute person. Especially one who is not very easy to remember and yet is impossible to forget. I think that's what makes a person a really good substitute - because then you can be there for that person. You've made a mark right there and when that person can't find anyone else, you'll just be there because he remembers. But at other times, you're just occupying the unlit space in his mind, maybe even his heart.

It all made me feel better...because I know it's okay to be a substitute person.

He remembered February 22nd. We are no longer the closest to each other. We are like strangers. But he remembers...is it selfish to our future other halfs if I think that I had been a really good substitute? That being so faraway in distance and emotions..I am still remembered. Maybe..but at this point, I don't care.

helpless

It's been a long time since I have felt this helpless. I just had to get this out of my system. There's too much feelings here. I am overwhelmed.

As usual, while walking around the lab making sure all my students understand what they are suppose to do, I also try to make sure everything that they need are in order. I was putting all the bins that they need to incubate their plates in together and B came up to me and said 'We have a girl who is passing out here'. My first reaction - Oh no! So I walked out of the lab with him and saw her lying on the floor with her feet up leaning on the wall. What am I suppose to do??? We were never briefed about emergency like this!! If you spill a whole bottle of methanol at least I still know what to do! So I stood there and talk to her, asking her if she needs something to eat. She kept saying she's dizzy and all so I had B get a drink for her. When he came back, she sat up to take a sip and after a couple of minutes, she started panicking and so did I! She said her feets and legs are very tingly and she could hardly move them. Again, what am I suppose to do???

Thankfully, K came in and said we should call 911. Why didn't I thought of that??? I've never called before but there's always a first time right? Even then, it was B who made the call. While I always think they are very efficient and fast, this time, it felt like they were taking ages to get there. Eventually they came and I left the scene to tend to my kids.

I felt bad for my kids because they had questions, they wanted their graded notebooks back, they want to get things done to get out there early and at the same time, I wanted to be there for that girl. But what good was I if I could not do anything? Then I feel guilty because I didn't call 911 earlier. Why didn't I think of that first? Could I have brought her to the emergency room myself? or is there something I should have done to make her feel better? I felt so bad. I wish there was something I could have done. That I wasn't so scared. That I had been more calm and rational. That I had been more professional about the situation instead of sitting there talking to her. But no, I just felt so helpless. Gosh...what kind of TA am I? But I have never experienced anything like that before. Now I'm worried about her.

Remember, when there's an emergency, call 911! especially when I have no idea what to do.

how sad...

Can you imagine this happening? What are people thinking these days? No wonder parents refuse to subscribe to newspapers anymore. Do they ever think about what would happen if there was a fire incident around the area? Is whatever they earn from these arms worth the act of stealing?

Changing topics, remember how Guang Ming daily, Sarawak Tribune and most recently, Berita Petang Sarawak was suspended because they published the Prophet Muhammad caricature? I had wondered why was it such a necessity to suspend their license and have people lose their job, some whom depended on their job to provide for their family and yet they are not directly involve with publishing the caricature. Why can't situation be resolve using the 'civilized' way?

Today, SpartanEdge, an online campus news decided to publish the caricature. But instead of dumping it on their main site, they gave you the choice to click on a link to it. If you feel that you'll get offended by it, then don't click it. If not, the reason for publishing the caricature is to "broaden the community's discussion of the issue" (quote from The State News). At the same time, they also organized a discussion session later in the day for those who are interested to understand why some people get offended and why it is so important for them to make themselves heard.

Pray that everyone will always remember that life is a better place when we think about others before ourselves.

how time flies

I was about to go off to bed last night when I saw my cousin, ML, came online on MSN. I remembered she had her first presentation recently and decided to ask her how it went. Instead, her dad answered saying that she had already gone diving and won't be back till Sunday. So I chat a little with her dad and the next thing I know, her lil brother, TA, came on. Then he asks me how come both he and his sis MSN can be online at the same time on the same PC. My first reaction - did I read it right or did he mistype something? He's 13!!! He's my lil cute cousin! He has an MSN account??? I asked him to make sure we're on the same page and guess what..he added me!! He even has a photo uploaded for his display picture and a little personal message below his nick! I just can't imagine that!! When I was 13, I just started learning how to use e-mail and barely know how to connect to mIRC what more using all these fancy messengers. Gosh..the kids these days are definitely catching up with the technology.

Later, when I was lying on the bed, I actually felt kinda sad. Everytime I think about TA, I think about cute lil boy that I can carry around, curly hair that I mess around, the one cousin who can't wait to be taller than me (I'm the shortest among all cousins) and the one who still plays Hot Wheels cars. But he's grown up a whole lot since then. Before I left for the States, he told me that the next time I go home, he'll be taller than me. Ever since then, everytime I go home, the difference between his height and me seems to increase and he loves teasing me about it..arghghgh!!! Now, he's the one who does the teasing to drive me nuts instead of me teasing him about how he keeps changing his ambitions since he was a kid. Of course, I can also no longer carry him around and ruffling his hair is gonna be rewarded with a glare from him.

In fact, this is the one thing I miss most being so far away from home - being part of the family. Of course I'm still part of the family but when we're not literally there, we just miss the little details. In this case, I totally miss the growing up of TA and even my own lil brother. We never really did got along well with each other when I was back home but we have our moments too. Internal jokes that no one else would get and of course, he has kept some of secrets for me too. Now he's all independent and living his own life. I do get updates from my parents about what everyone is up to or what they've done recently but the feeling is completely different when being there myself. Sometimes it makes me feel left out whenever I'm back but hey, that's life right? We can't have everything at the same time. At least I know I'm still thought of enough that they'll ask me mum every once in a while when I'm going home or how am I doing here. And most of all, I'm greatful that whenever I'm home, they treat me just the way they used to, they remember my favorite food and places to go and they take the time to spend it with me.

But I know I'll always miss the times I'm apart from them because they are the best family I've ever had. I know lots of people are not very close to their relatives and only meet once a year. I'm thankful to be part of a family who is very close and whenever there's a gathering, it's always a happy event. Even when we don't see each other often, it's easy to get along.

a package!

This weekend have been quite an eventful weekend. It started on Friday night when I came home and saw a note from the USPS saying that they left me a package in the apartment management office. I knew it has to be from tiptup! Mum passed some cds to dk while he was back at Penang for a visit, so that I can collect it from them when I go to Boston this summer but tiptup said she's sending cookies too!!

Woke up early on Saturday morning and get all the regular household chores done. Went to the office at 10am when they opened, to get the package. Here's what I got..

My favorite is the pineapple tart!! I used to help my aunt to make them all day long but they will be gone the next day and the next thing you know, Ping is down with sore throat for eating too much pineapple tarts. The one thing that didn't survive the shipping was the 'kuih kapit'. It got crushed somehow. The white one of the left of the dodol is quite tasty too but I still like the pineapple tart! Did I say that edi?? :P As for the dodol, believe it or not, but I haven't tried the one that has peanuts in them (the brown one with white spots). But then again, Penang is not very well-known for their dodol so I haven't eaten much dodol before. Maybe dk bought the dodol from Malacca, which is his hometown...which reminds me I should make a trip there the next time I go back since I haven't been to Malacca since..hmmm...7 years I think??? Oh wow! My family used to make day trips there on weekends when mum and dad didn't have to work overtime on Saturday afternoon. I love shopping at the market near A'Famosa..I think??? It's at this huge field and tons of stalls selling clothes, games (ie. congkak!!), and of course, delicious food!!!

Next is the cds!!! Haven't watch either one of them yet but I finally get hold of a copy!! It made its way to San Francisco International Film Festival so I assume it must be really good. Mum said Puteri Gunung Ledang is not very good but I refuse to listen to the spoilers. Wonder if they have English subtitle since my BM is going down the drain. Listened to the igemz's Cradled in Buddha's Arms last night and I love it!!! Then I also got an angpau from tiptup and dk!!

After all the excitement of getting a package, Jarrod called me close to lunch time saying that he'll be in town! That was definitely an unexpected event as I haven't seen him or Amanda for 2 years or so..basically since I left WMU. It's always a great feeling to know that someone remembered me even if it's been such a long time since we last met or even keep in touch. Both he and Amanda are still in Kalamazoo and they were just passing by Lansing so decided to call me up. How nice of them to stop by..We went to Starbucks for a drink and I had a great time catching up with them.

Went back to lab to finish up some stuff and met Steph and Jen. Steph wanted to purify green fluorescent protein for her class and I always love watching the purification step so I stayed back. It's really cool to see the fluorescent band move down the column as we change the concentration of the ammonium sulfate.

By the time I got home, it was almost midnight but another surprise! Got a letter from Li Foong with a really nice postcard that says...

Kalyana Mitra, please take care of me
We somehow share the same destiny
Kalyana Mitra, I'll take care of you
Beautiful friend, I truly love you.

Isn't it sweet? Thanks a bunch girl! I love the card and it's great to hear from you!

Now that the weekend is almost over, gotta gather my strength and motivation for this upcoming week which is gonna be a challenging one with a presentation lined up on Thursday. But I'll do my best!

Buddhist Hymns

I was looking up the net to see if there are anything interesting happening at the Buddhist temple around here or a Buddhist camp during Spring break. While I couldn't find anything except for the regular Puja, I stumbled upon this site where the Buddhist hymns are available in mp3 format and downloading is free!!! I kinda feel guilty for snagging all the songs for free but I can't help it! I miss listening to all these songs as I haven't listened to them since my BISDS (Buddhist Institute of Sunday Dhamma School) days!! I do have these songs back home but they are in the form of cassette tapes so there's no point in bringing it here since I don't have a player. I'm just so happy to listen to these songs again!!! It kinda make me miss playing the guitar too. That's another thing I've been meaning to get but couldn't bring myself to spend the money for it, especially when I don't really have the time to play. It's only sometimes when I feel like getting away from reality, playing the guitar helps make me forget about everything and just enjoy the music.

Thinking back to BISDS, it's been 8 years since I left BISDS and every Sunday when I'm back at home, I'll go to Puja and wish that I am still part of BISDS. Thankfully, I still keep in touch with LF and SH to get updates. In fact, it was LF who brought to my attention that INCOVAR had just release the first album (actually, not so recent anymore as I think it was sometime last year). The moment I got her e-mail about it, I called my mum to get it for me but they didn't have it in Penang at that time. But when I called home last week, she said that she already got it and it's on the way here via my cousin. Can't wait to listen to it!!

~Sabbe satta sukhi hotu~

love...

Happy Valentine's Day!

It's the day when we're all reminded of how important it is to be with our love ones..but how bad the situation must be for us to only remember this on Valentine's day??? Why can't everyday be a valentine's day?

It's another year of being single for me and just like last year, it's just another day. On the other hand, people are rushing around getting presents and booking tables for dinner. Is that what a relationship has come to be? All about presents and dinners once a year? One of the best Valentine's day memory for me was in 2000. He picked me up from work, which was really sweet, drove me back home and surprised me with a blackforest chocolate cake...one of my favorite! We just stayed home, eat cake, talk and spend the night together. All throughout the years we were together, Valentine had never been a big celebration because we were always apart. There were a few years when Valentine's day was close to CNY and I usually go back to Penang for a long holiday. Later when we started college, one Valentine he was in Australia and then he left for the States. When we were here, I always had to work. We never did exchange much presents for Valentine's day except for one year...he left me a card with blueberry candle and a bag of socks (which I refused to buy and was wearing socks with holes in them) while I was asleep. Then while he was working, I bought a bunch of chocolate candies with lots of KitKats (which was his favorite), mixed them up in a box and placed it on his computer desk. They were nothing expensive or romantic but were all sweet and meaningful.

But I think the idea behind Valentine's day is to remind us that we need to stop and look at the people around us and treasure how important they are to us. That it's important to spend the weekend with them, to remind them how much we need their support and love and simply, to love them even more. So, Happy Valentine's Day to all of you and thanks for all the comments and support..and most importantly, for even bother to read anything I post!!!

As for today, it's gonna be a chaos during my lab session this afternoon as I'm sure I'll have students who will bug me about how early we can get out of lab...especially those with plans tonight...kids!!

scrapbooking

It's time to get more supplies for my scrapbooking project. Just finished the one on my vacations and I want to do another for family occasions. Since I wasn't in the mood to sit and read articles that I have been trying to read for the past hour in the morning (it was a very boring, computational analysis paper and I know nuts about C++ and what codes are right and what are wrong), I decided to take a drive to "Photos to Scrapbooks" at Okemos.

Looking around for a new photo album, I wanted one that has a plain cover so that I can decorate it with a vacation theme but when I saw this Mickey one, I fell in love with it. How can I now? It's Mickey!! My all-time favorite cartoon character! Then with all kinds of ideas in my head, I started picking up all the backgrounds, embossments, borders, ribbons and scraps. In the end, the final total came to $ 58.68. Definitely not a cheap hobby but hey, this last me for quite sometime and this is the only expensive hobby I have. The best about scrapbooking is when the memories of the photos come back to me. Both good and bad always catch up on me, reminding me of how important my family and friends are to me.

The only one album that I couldn't finish is the one I did for 'us'. Everytime I took the effort to finish it, I can only go so far because I get so upset and tears start to fall. They were happy days but how could I have been so naive to believe that we were meant to be? That he was different than the others? So that album remains half-filled.

truffles

The week past in a blink whenever I get caught up in work and especially when good results are in my hands. I am now closer to purifying the protein I have been trying to get my hands on for the past couple of months. There's a couple more 'cleaning' steps that needs to be done and to repeat with a larger batch of culture to get more of the protein. So, rejoice!!

As dad always reminds me, we should celebrate every achievement in our lives. We don't have to wait for a birthday or graduation to celebrate. Remembering that, I decided to do something fun on Friday night - Latin dance! Haven't done that since Dan went back to California. Planned to go with Fan but unfortunately, something came up for Fan so I decided to just come home and add a few more pages to my scrapbooking project.

But I still felt like rewarding myself...so what should I do? Chocolates!! Drove to 'How Sweet It Is' chocolate store at Hannah Plaza and bought myself a box of chocolate truffles. They are chocolates made into ball-like shape and dusted with cocoa powder (don't mix this up with the truffle that refers to a type of edible fungi!). They are not the standard of Godiva or The Chocolate Truffle which are both well-known internationally but hei, local made stuff can be good too. Especially when each truffle costs me 59 cents!! Yup, it's freaking expensive, which is why it's only worth it when I need to reward myself.

There are 12 in the box and I've tried two of them. The picture below is the 'chocolate cream cheese truffle' which is the one I prefers among the two I've tried. It's hard on the outside and soft on the inside. It has a slight sour taste from the cream cheese in addition to the bitter chocolate. Definitely worth the price when compared to these cheap ones we get at Meijer with extremely high sugar content. You can really taste the cocoa and the milk content is not as high either. Even the cocoa dust was licked from my fingers when I'm done with the truffle...gotta treasure every cent of it mer. kekeke...

The truffles remind me of another fact of life...life is like a box of chocolate. I can't remember where this phrase came from but I definitely agree with it. No matter how careful we plan (how careful we pick out the chocolates), we don't really know what's going to happen until it happens (like we don't know what's inside the chocolate until we take the first bite). While next week is gonna be another busy week for me as I pursue my protein to purity, there bound to be unexpected incidents. But right now, I'm enjoying my chocolates...wonder if the box will last through the weekend in the hands of a chocoholic. *grins*

it snowed!!!

During the winter, snowy days are my favorite. The beauty of the snow flakes that fall, the sparkle of the snow during wee hours in the morning, the softness of the snow on the ground..it takes some of the cold away. In fact, it is usually not so cold when it snows unless there's strong wind at the same time. Unfortunately, we haven't gotten much snow this year. I have been here in Michigan for 5 years and none of the 5 winters were the same.

My Mid-Western friends always give me an annoyed look when I get all excited when it snows because it can be a mess especially if you're driving. But hey, coming from Malaysia, a country right on the Equator line where it's hot all year long, we don't like it when it rains heavily either. It is a mess but it is always kinda nice when you're out there playing under the rain. The snow is like the same thing...it's a mess especially if it's gonna be really cold the next day and they freeze up, making it hard to walk what more drive, or if it's gonna warm up the next day, making all the snow turn to slush...but when it is snowing, it's a beautiful sight. You don't even have to be out there in the cold to appreciate it because it looks pretty enough from the window.

When it started snowing last night, I was hoping it will last through the night. With my crappy mood from my weird stomach ache, any cheering up will be good for me. So the first thing I did when I woke up this morning was to look out my bedroom window and guess what???...the snow did last through the night!! It's definitely something to rejoice about since the last snow we got was during Christmas and it has been dull and depressing. Isn't it pretty? Even without the sun, the snow somehow has a sparkle and brightness that can brighten the day.

The other thing I love about the snow is the leftovers. Not the grey slush by the road side from the dirty car tires. Not the sticky ones that stick to the sole of your shoe and make a mess outside your door. It's the ice-sculptures.

There are all kinds of shapes that you can find and they are all natural! Sometimes I'll let my imagination run wild and try to look for hidden patterns. This particular one reminds me of King Triton's spear from the Little Mermaid. If I'm lucky, there might be more around the campus tomorrow if the temperature stays low. The unique ones are usually by the river bank, where the shape is molded not just by the roots of the trees there but also by the water flow below the ice layer.

be careful....

Don't say you haven't been warned...but there are people outside the 'clan' of the Schmeznak lab that says we're nuts. Are we? Maybe..when you look up to the 6th floor window on the North side of the Biomedical and Physical Sciences building at MSU. You'll see shadows of people frustratingly pulling out their hair. So are we really doing science here? Hmmm...maybe not. Especially when it's 3am in the morning and your bugs seem to be taking their own sweet time to grow. So why don't we just go home? Because they love creeping up behind our backs when we're asleep..and when we get back to lab, guess what!..they have grown past a few doubling time that they are no longer useful to us anymore. But, life is all about survival of the fittess..so we'll get through this but we need our window friends with us...which somehow makes us the 'crazy ones' in the department. Ahahahaha.... *wink*

Hakuna Matata

Who in the right mind would plan out three growth experiments in a row? Well..now you know one. When the week started, I was set to make my week as busy as possible so that I can avoid thinking about some upsetting stuff. At that time, the idea sounded great - I'll get lots of data by the end of the week and I'll be so busy I won't have time to think about anything else except about work. But then somewhere in the middle of the week, Ping realized that it's the week MBL application is due, that she already bought ticket for Friday night's Lion King, and most importantly, Chinese New Year is at the end of the week!!! and she have yet to finish all the CNY cards she intend to send home yet.

Consequently, it's now Friday night or to be more specific, Saturday morning and Ping is still in the lab, just at the start of the last growth experiment for the week...maybe even for the next week. But thankfully, all the sleepless nights spent in the lab allowed Ping to finish up the cards and they were sent on Thursday. Hopefully they'll reach home before CNY ends. Ping also managed to get all the paperwork done for MBL application with expected fundings from the department (yahoo!!!). Mailed it late this afternoon and it should be on its way to Woods Hole by tomorrow.

The Lion King Broadway musical play was really good but I don't think kids would appreciate it very well...definitely something unexpected. I thought it was gonna be 'cartoon-like' but it's not that at all. In fact, I think it was really amazing how they include all the South African theme into the musics and characters. I like Rafiki among all the characters but Pumba is really cute too. While the show was great, I can't help feeling homesick when I remembered that the Lion King is one of the few movies that I had went to the cinemas to watch with my parents and cousins. I can hardly remember the movies that I watched with my parents as it was so rare...and I really miss spending time with my parents doing fun stuff. That led me to thinking about the Disney World trip I took with my parents when they came here to attend my commencement in 2004. That definitely feels like a long long time ago. The picture above was taken at Animal Kingdom during one of the parade they had. I couldn't remember if they had Pumbaa but I sure took lots of pictures with Rafiki.

Quoting from the Lion King, "It's a circle of life and it moves us all through despair and hope, through faith and love, till we find our place on the path unwinding in the circle, the circle of life". I really like this phrase. Reminding me that nothing is permanent in life. Happiness is shunted when there's sadness and there'll be negativity trying to take over our optimism but we always stay in the circle by seeking happiness and making the best out of the negativity. When there's too much negativity, then we have to remember - Hakuna Matata - no worries..let us not dwell on it and move on!

But for tonight, Ping is definitely dwelling on all the good food and family occasion that Ping is missing out..grrr...sleep is definitely a way to get back on track this time. Soon...few more hours...

Sudoku

What's the best thing to past time when you have to take optical density (OD) readings every hour throughout the night? It's too short of an interval to nap, too tired to read anything scientific, there's not a whole lot to surf on the net after a while...we solve Sudoku puzzles!!! I've been trying to solve the puzzle above for the past hour and still haven't gotten any closer to finishing any cube. This is the hardest I've done so far. I know I know..some of us could finish this in a minute or so but I just got started.

What is Sudoku? It is simply a number puzzle. As seen above, it has 9 large cubes with 9 small cubes within it. The goal of the game is to fill up all the boxes with numbers, so that every row, every column and every large cube has the numbers 1-9. It became really popular sometime end of last year but I did not realize it until I went to California. I first saw it in the airport bookstore..then at the Disney store...then the bookstores..and it was everywhere after that. When class started a few weeks ago, they started adding the Sudoku puzzle in the State News. That was it for me. I just had to try one and find out what's going on with the Sudoku buzz. My first one led me to the next..and the next..now, I even finds the puzzles online. Yup, it is that addictive. Try solving one and you'll get hook. The ones published in State News are short enough to last throughout my bus ride when I have to take the bus. But on nights like tonight, the harder ones are more tempting.

And there are soooooo many of them that it's amazing how it became so popular that fast. Check out these sites if you get hook on them like me...they have new puzzles everyday.

1. Online Sudoku
2. Downloadable Sudoku
3. Sudoku in pdf format
4. If you like a little challenge...

There's tons more!!! Gotta go get my next reading...have fun!

lab phylogeny

It's been a month since Dr. Breznak officially retired. The Breznak's and Schmidt's lab have worked together since Dr. Schmidt joined MSU in 1982..the year I was born!! Dr. Breznak was one of the professor whose work had drawn me to MSU. I was always intrigue by the symbiotic relationship between eukaryotes and prokaryotes. Unfortunately, he was already planning for retirement when I joined MSU. But when I joined the Schmidt lab, I had the opportunity to interact with him and I sure was excited to have a well-known scientist critique my work and ideas. Since we work so closely with each other, we call ourselves the Schmeznaks. Wertiplasma suffocatus is the last graduate student of Dr. Breznak and he will be graduating soon. Then it'll just be the Schmidt lab.

The phylogeny shown above is drawn by Jake as a retirement gift for Dr. Breznak. Isn't it awesome? Most of the characters do resemble the real person. My immediate boss is Schmidtaceae ribosomerus. Currently, I'm the newest lab member and most of them are on close to graduation or post-docs except for Levinella methanophage who is one year my senior. If we don't get any new graduate students this year, it's gonna a lot less people by the time I'm done with my exam end of next year. Just incase some of you wonder what 'brevis' means..it means short...coz I'm the shortest in the lab AND my height is below average for the Americans.

Kelps

While walking along the beach of Santa Cruz and Carmel during my trip to California, I encounter lots of kelps lying all over the beach. At that time I didn't know what it was until I was on the plane and started to think about this extraordinary looking plant. It has a bulb filled with stuff and I was wondering what it was at that time because you could burst it but no liquid comes out.

So I search for it on Entrez Pubmed and I found tons of stuff about this algae. The bulb is actually filled with gases that allow the plant to grow upwards and float at the surface of the oceon to obtain sufficient light for photosynthesis. What is more interesting, the major gas found within the bulb is carbon monoxide!! There are life form that can tolerate such high concentration of carbon monoxide! Isn't that interesting?

The current focus on kelp is the engineering of kelp into a marine bioreactor. In early 1990s, there are lots of researchers who pursue the capability of converting kelp biomass into fuel using bacteria such as methanogens that are capable of assimilating carbon monoxide and converting it to methane gas. I wonder what happen to these studies..couldn't find anything that is more recent than 1995. But isn't it cool that an algae can provide an alternative to the current fuel shortage that we're facing today?

Besides being an interesting subject to study, kelp is also used for food - natural salt in bonito shavings, a substitute of spirulina, alginate from kelp is used as a stabilizer in ice-cream and guess what.. Gaia Research, a South African company which provides probiotics for one of the labs here at MSU, is also looking into using kelp as an adjuvant to promote maintenance of intestinal flora.

crazy week

It's the first week of class and things are starting to get crazy already. It all started on Monday when I realized that the dateline for MBL Microbial Diversity course is February 1st. That means I have less than 3 weeks to apply for funding and submit it in time. So there goes my entire Monday just preparing proposals and 'selling' myself to the department, the College of Natural Sciences and the Graduate School.

Tuesday came and it started with another crazy morning. I was the earliest in the lab and Tom came in looking for my help - to get the projector ready for class in an hour and to make copies of notes. I was glad to help but turn out that I was the last to get to class but guess what...the guy I have a crush on is in that class too! What a coincidence! Just as I was saying I haven't seen him in a long time and that it's gonna be impossible to know him any more than just his name and who's lab he works in. In fact, I saw him twice that day. After class, I got enough time to run a gel and had to go TA for an undergraduate microbiology lab. It wasn't so bad since it's just the first lab but I kinda have the feeling that it's gonna be the one and only lab that we will get to leave on time.

The entire week was spent trying to get some lab work done and editing the proposals after getting comments back from everyone who read it. But on Thursday, the weather was soooooooo nice out - it was 45F!! - that I just had to go cycle around the campus. It's like spring! I don't even need my winter coat. It's been such a strange winter this year. We haven't had many freezing cold days where your ears hurt and you can't stand being outside at all. Actually, I've been here in Michigan for 5 years and I haven't had 2 winters that are similar. Michigan weather is just so unpredictable.

Unfortunately, the scenery doesn't seem to correlate very well with the temperature. Most of the days are just gray and dull. We haven't been getting much snow either. Now I really do understand why people feel more suicidal when they don't get to see much sun...thankfully I have enough sun in my memory - got enough happy hormones - not to feel suicidal. The crappy weather is making me miss my one day trip to Carmel, CA. J brought me there when I was at San Jose.



I can just imagine myself leaning against the rock, listening to the waves smashing on the beach, feeling the breeze of the Pacific Ocean. I just love being close to water and being part of nature. But for now, I'll just treasure the rare sunny days we get here in Michigan, or at least, in Lansing.

Pears

One of the things from home that I miss most is the tropical fruits. Sometimes I get bored eating the fruits here but thankfully, my favorite fruit - oranges - are available all year round and almost everywhere.

During late winter, as spring is around the corner, peaches and plums are very popular but I don't favor plum very much because some of them tend to be sour. As the summer approach, cherries and berries are the fruits of the season. I love bing cherries but they are a tad too expensive for fruits. Strawberries then is my next choice and the best way to eat them is to dip them in chocolate. Yum yum..

When it comes to Fall, apples are all over the place in grocery stores and farms but I don't like apple. Some of them is nice when it's crunchy but they are definitely not my fruit of choice. In fact, the last time I went apple picking, I gave all of them to my lab-mates. I prefer the crunchy, juicy grapes but too much grapes make me feel bad. There are also watermelons and honey dew but I don't really feel like making a mess in my kitchen since the biggest knife I have can hardly reaches the middle of the watermelon here. They are huge!!

While all these fruits are available according to the season, oranges is what I buy all the time. But sometimes, I can't help craving for guava (especially the pink guava - jambu air - in rojak sauce), mangosteen, rambutan, ciku, star fruit and pears. There are pears here but they are the green, hard and less juicy ones. I like the yellow pears we get at home - also known as 'la ya' in Hokkien. It's so juicy and sweet that I could eat pears all day long and not have anything else. Mum used to go to Bandar Sunway market when we were staying at Sunway and buy lots of them and it'll be gone in 2 days. They usually come in a basket of 10-13 and it only cost RM3-4. It's the best fruit when you're hot and thirsty.

When I saw this Korean pear at the Korean market yesterday, I just can't help putting a few in my basket although it cost USD1.50 per pear. Can you imagine that??? But I told myself it would be a nice treat for myself since I haven't been spending much over the past week. Furthermore, that's the first time I've seen it in Michigan. Of course, if I had brought a bigger luggage to San Francisco, I would have bought back a dozen or two of it. Keke..

But I'm just so happy to be able to eat the pears (they even come in the white spongy wrap like the ones we find in the market back in M'sia) that I just don't see the ridiculous cost of it yet. It is still not as good as the yellow pear we get at home but this is close enough for now. Hehe..

Happy New Year!!

It's less than 6 hours to the New Year and it doesn't feel like the year is coming to an end. It's so quiet out here there's just nothing to remind me that a new year is coming. But coming online and opening Mozilla, the first thing I see on my Homepage - CNN.com - is the countdown celebration at Sydney, Australia. Wow..that sure looks like lots of fun. Fireworks, party, intoxication, music, chaos, etc...

So what have I done this year? Dad used to tell me that we have to celebrate everyday instead of when there's a big celebration, that we have to make every little detail in our life an accomplishment because it's a step towards our goal and it's learning how to life the moment. So let me rewind back my days of 2005.

- managed to maintain summa cum laude
- finished constructing the plasmid required to test my hypothesis
- travelled to Atlanta, GA, Chandler, AZ, and the latest, San Francisco, CA
- started my holiday scrapbook
- recovered very well from the breakup a year ago..yeah..it takes a year but hey, I did it!
- get to know a few more friends here in Lansing
- learned to format my laptop!!
- survived a car accident...yeah, this is definitely something to hurray about
- read the most articles ever!

...and few other little things. Now, what's my goal for this year? Not gonna set any resolution this year since my resolution last year only lasted 3 months. But the reality plans are...

- have my first committee meeting in April
- improve my teaching skills by the end of the semester
- overcome my driving phobia especially when turning left
- have both fun and science at Woods Hole
- pass my preliminary exam by November

... and of course, the little things too. But what to do to spend the rest of 2005 away? No party, no getting intoxicated..well, maybe a little Marguerita before I go to bed (*wink), no crazy atmosphere, no hot, sexy dude (not like there has been any.. *blush*) but guess what I can do...finish reading The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown. Yup! That's what I'm gonna do while people all over the nation countdown to 2006. Have been meaning to read it for quite sometime but never did got my hands on it. While I was at J's place, I saw it sitting on his bookshelf and asked him about it. But he gave it me instead so now there's no reason that I should skip it again.

So while the busy cities celebrate the night away with fireworks and loud parties, I'll enjoy my peace and having the time to read. I will not let anything interfere...everything else can wait till tomorrow.

Tour Guide

Just got back from California yesterday. Still in holiday mood when I was back home but coming in to the lab did boost my nerdy spirit a little. Refreshed all my cultures to get them going again for experiments I plan this coming week.

Back to my trip to California..the plane ride there wasn't very fun because I was really tired from the night before so I slept all the way. But the moment the plane touch down at San Francisco International Airport and I saw fresh green grass, I was so excited. That's the sad thing about being here in the MidWest - you only get to see fresh greenaries half of the year. From the airport, took the Bart Metro System, which is the subway system in San Francisco Bay Area, to Montgomery Bart Station, which is right in the middle of the town area. Walked from there to Broadway, which is where Green Tortoise Hostel is located. In the afternoon, it's a boring place. Not many of the shops are open so I walked to Grant St., which is the main street of Chinatown. The picture below is the popular arch in Jackie Chan movies. It's at the main entrance into Chinatown section of Grant St.


While walking along Grant St., I feel like I'm in Hong Kong. Everyone speaks in Cantonese and it seems like the Americans there are the foreigners instead of the other way around. There are shops with Chinese characters, shops selling the traditional medicine similar to those in M'sia, shops selling clothes that are really low prices, Asian markets that sells all kind of vegetables - brinjal!! - seafood restaurants, dim sum and shops selling electrical goods like cameras. The electrical shops kinda remind me of HK and the way they con people. I wonder if they do that here too. hehe..

I also saw this little tour guide here. It is called the GoCar. It can sit 2 people and it has a Global Positioning System (GPS) that brings you around the town. J and me were walking around at Golden Gate Park and we heard this GoCar that tells you about the place that you're at. Initially I thought it was a speaker from the park. But J saw the car and we figured it's the car. Isn't it cool? But I'm sure it must be costly to rent that. I also wonder if it is powerful enough to go up the slopes of SF. All the roads there are very hilly - kinda like the road near SM Taman Sea in PJ.



From this picture, you can also see the shop selling traditional chinese costumes. There are lots of shops that sell these costumes and fans, clogs, chinese-themed furnitures and decors.

More to come...

just zipit

I found this bag, called Zip-It, in the mall a couple of weeks ago and have yet to use it. It came in a small roll of zip and I thought it is kinda unique. When you zip it up, it becomes a bag or a small coin purse, depending on how long the roll of zip is.

I got the one that I can sling across my shoulder and can zip it up. I bought a few coin purse too just because I think it can be a nice gift whenever I would need one.

I will be going to San Francisco for a short trip tomorrow and I thought of this bag. It's small enough to be carried around and large enough for me to fit some necessary stuff like camera, purse, maps, hand lotion, lip balm, napkins, keys etc. It's also easy to carry since I can just sling it across my shoulder.

I have been waiting all month for this trip. I've been wanting to go to SF for quite some time but never did have the money for it and don't really know people around there. So now that I am earning my own money and have been working so hard all this year, I figured that I do need a good break, just to get away for a while, to relax and refresh myself. I'll be staying at a hostel and travel by myself so it would still be within my budget. Furthermore, the hostel I'll be staying is right in the middle of the city and it's walking distance to most of the places that I want to visit. At the same time, I get to visit J whom I haven't seen for almost 7 years I think.

~excited~

MSU vs. CSU

What to do on Friday night after finals is done? Initially I planned to stay home and watch movies but guess what..I got free tickets to the MSU vs. CSU basketball game!! Would I pass that up? Of course not!

My boss had to leave town for some meeting and his boys have their own basketball game to play in so he gave me and BC each two tickets. I asked MW to go with me and it was fun to have BC and his room-mate there because they knew all the 'rituals' to the game. They taught us how to clap to the Spartan Fight Song, to some of the cheerleaders songs and some of the cheers like the 'Go Green, Go White'.

Initially, the game was kinda confusing because the CSU Vikings were green and I'm used to seeing us in green. But eventually I got the hang of it when I realized which numbers were our players. We started out good but the guys start to miss hoops and drop the ball towards the end of the first period. Sometime during the second period we starting winning and ended at 83-75.

After the game, we brought CY to Denny's for his last American meal. He should be in KL by today.

~funtimes~

last exam

The snow have been around for a while now. The fresh falls are always pretty and refreshing but after staying down for a couple of days, they start to get annoying and depressing. Yesterday was one of the days..the temperature was not low enough for them to stay frozen so lots of them starts to melt and it makes the road slippery because the snow now become like a slush. Imagine someone spill 10 cups of 7-Eleven slush on the floor and we would have to walk over it. It doesn't get better later in the day when it started snowing again because the snow melts once it touches the ground. Walking on such weather is the worst but it's one of the days when I have lots of errands to run too..but hey, this is Michigan. Cycling is even worse because all the dirty snow will be splashed around and dirty my back. You would think I'm used to it by now but some things we just can't seem to adapt to..especially the cold skin-slicing wind.

Just finished writing my cheat sheet for Statistics exam in 4 hours. It's my last finals!! Don't have to go through general classes anymore!! I do enjoy the class but sometimes they just require so much attention that I have to sacrifice some of my research time and it makes me frustrated that research is going so slow. But I've come this far, 4 hours is worth the wait. I'll be soo relieved after this exam I can start concentrating on my research and hopefully I can get enough stuff done to be able to go to Woods Hole next summer.

~anxious~

he appears again...

August of 2004 was when I first saw him. I walked into class on the first day and he's sitting right there, leaning back on the chair with a face so cheerful that you can't help feeling delighted. As the semester passes by, we exchanged only a few 'hi and bye' kinda conversation. But having him in the class was a plus because it just brightens my day even though we never really talk.

When the semester ended, I never did see him again as he's not in my department. May 2005 came and off to Atlanta I went for the ASM Conference. It was there in Atlanta, during the MSU Mixer session that I got a chance to really talk to him and get to know a little about his work here at MSU. But that was it. We never exchanged any contact number or e-mail.

Yesterday, we had a seminar by the environmental microbiology candidate, Dr. Gemma Reguera. She already started her talk and the door opened...it was none other than this cute guy. But the one thing that touched me was - he looked my way and said hi! Not only that but after the seminar, as we were leaving, he looked back before leaving and waved again. That sure made my day!!

Isn't life amazing? How can a simple gesture like that made my day? When I hardly know that person? How can just being near the person makes me want to know him more? But will I ever get to know him more? We're from two different world..he's in the most prestigious lab on campus..not that my lab is not a great place, it is..but compared to his..it looks small. Does he ever think about me? Does he know that when he's around the corner, he lights up my day?

~bubbly~

Koala's Chocolate Cookies

Ever get addicted to a particular food? I get that often. I will crave for that food and keep eating it for a few weeks and will eventually get bored of it. Then I'll start to find something else that I become addicted to. Lately, it's the Koala's March chocolate filled cookies. I saw it at one of the oriental mart here in Lansing and wanting to keep some biscuits at home, I bought it. There are 10 small packets in this big box. Each packet has about 10 -15 cookies. After my first packet, I couldn't stop eating it. I just had to grab another packet. I managed to stop myself after the third packet...and there goes my lunch because I'm too full of junk food to eat lunch. But I've managed to keep my hands from getting more during the weekday since I only grab it when I get on the bus. That way, I won't have more to grab.

Wonder how long this craving will last before I get sick of it....