Harvard Square

Right after Woods Hole, instead of coming straight back to Michigan, Ping took a self-declared 1 week holiday to tour Boston and NYC. *Grins* Boss asked me when Ping will be back and Ping told him about going to Boston and he mentioned that Boston is a nice place and Ping would enjoy it...so that should be fine. But now that I'm back, boss hasn't give Ping a hard time yet although have yet to discuss about my project yet. Am currently thinking of changing approach...sigh...scary ler. Qualifications coming up in few months and yet Ping don't feel like she has enough preliminary results.

Anyway, the first thing Ping did after arriving Boston via Bonanza busline...go home tidur. Hehe..tiptup came to picked Ping up from Boston South Station and was feeling very sleepy. Went back to TT's place but only slept for a while. It was a good sleep though...especially after the last few nights at MBL, kept thinking about having to wake up early to finish up the report.

The first place Ping went was to Harvard Square. TT drove Ping there and we walked around Harvard Uni campus and surrounding areas. Don't feel like a university campus at all...more like a little town. TT tried to bring Ping into the library but we could only go so far because need to show ID and students can only bring their parents in.

Check out this cool rainbow effect from the fountain just outside their computer lab building...
Another cool thing...this is a lady who stands outside the Coop store as though she's a statue. But when you place money on her skirt, she'll move around. Ping saw a similar act on a vacation to Disney with parents in 2004. A lady stood close to the bushes as though she's part of the flora community. But when you walk close to her, she'll move a little. If you turn back and look, she'll stay still again. Ping saw another lady preparing herself at Central Park in NYC too...cool eh? :P

Fresh seafood

The best thing about living so close to the ocean...seafood!!! That's another thing I miss most coming from an island to a flat land where you're surrounded by corns and soybean.

On weekends, mum would stir-fry 'pek chiau' with soy sauce...definitely the best! I could eat 2 just for lunch and skip the rice. When dad's around, we would have the baby 'pek chiau' deep fried. It would be soooo crispy you can eat the whole thing, even the bones! On days when ahmah is too lazy to cook, she would make steamed 'bola hu' in soy sauce with chilli and that's enough to go with rice. Mum actually managed to smuggle some 'bola hu' for me a couple years ago...gotta do that the next time I go home. Kekeke...

Whenever there's a function, we would go to Teluk Bahang or Batu Maung for finger-lickin good seafood. Crabs and honey prawns!! But now when I go back only for a month, I tend to get sick of them by the end of my break because seafood are not really healthy food and it kinda gets to my stomach after a while. The last two trip wasn't that bad because we have home cook seafood! Instead of going out, we buy them back for gee kim to cook. She's the best cook for homecook food I've known! She can make any hawker food too! That's one thing I'm glad that I get to go back to Penang for hols instead of to PJ. Kekeke..

There was one weekend when se han ee and Uncle Francis brought us to Gertak Sanggul to buy grass for our garden. Uncle Francis saw some fisherman coming up shore and approach them..the next thing you know, we got fresh fish! How often can you actually buy your seafood from the fisherman themselves just when they bring the fish back from the ocean? Definitely not in Michigan!
As for this year, since I couldn't go back home, I got my share of seafood from the coast of Massachusetts. There are fresh lobsters, they were caught and kept in a seawater tank until they are ready to be barbequed or steamed. That's me pulling up the lobster trap. Unfortunately, the trapped that I pulled out had a hard-shelled sea mollusc instead. But the trip out was fun. I just love being out in the sea. Once they are out of the water, the lobsters are basically harmless. They can't move very much except for their claw. So we have to hold them upside down and tie up their claw with a rubber band. If the claw is not tied up, when it is added to other lobsters in the sea water tank, they would clip off each other's claw. Agressive!
Besides lobsters, the Swope serves fish or scallops almost every other day. I definitely did managed to go poultry-less this summer. They have really good shrimp sandwich, crabmeat salad and seaweed mix. Then there's salmon, codfish, sea bass and more. The one thing that we still don't get in US is fishes are not served as whole fish. They usually use only the fillet. But it was still good.

The restaurants closeby all serves seafood too. I've had a mahi-mahi sandwich at Captain Kidd, fried calamari at Landfall, fish and chips at Lee Side and salmon at Phusion Grille.

Everything must come to an end...

The bulk of the summer is now over but it’s the best summer I’ve had ever since I came to the States. For once, I know what I’m doing and what the next step is. It can all be planned out and I can walk through them step-by-step. It is definitely a once in a lifetime opportunity to work on something like that but that’s just the beginning. Like all research, a troubled phase will eventually come if I work on it longer because that’s why it’s called “re-search”. I just have to go back every once in a while and start again. If everything is as smooth as it is over the summer then we won’t be doing any research today. But at the same time, it’s frustrating when nothing works, when for two years, everything you do goes down the drain because it doesn’t tells you anything. Wait….that’s life right? :) We just gotta keep going.

So what exactly was my research about at Woods Hole? I tried to look for methanol oxidizing denitrifiers at Trunk River. They are important for conversion of nitrate to gaseous nitrogen. Nitrate can be pretty harmful to the water quality because it promotes eutrophication that will decrease dissolved oxygen content in the water. From the first couple weeks, we were taught the classical enrichment techniques for different organisms and one of them was using high nitrate medium to enrich for denitrifier. That’s exactly what I used and providing methanol as carbon source. I’ve got the coolest bug ever! It’s a type of prosthecate bacteria, having cytoplasmic protrusions at one or both end of the cell. Aren’t they cute? The first one is at 400X magnification while the other is the scanning electron micrograph of the enrichment culture. They are pretty tiny too if you just consider the size of the cell without the prosthecae. Brought it back with me towork with but still gotta keep my fingers cross to see if they’ll grow as well here.
I’ve not done much culturing work since undergrad days and it feels good to be able to do that again. Molecular biology is definitely a great tool but sometimes it creates a gap between you and your bug. I no longer need to look at them under the scope or grow them under different conditions. All I need is their DNA or RNA to work with. In the end, I don’t even see the bug at all because I make use of our good ‘ol trusted E. coli. It is lots of fun working with molecular approaches because it can answer a lot of questions. But there’s a lot more out there that can be answered by culturing.

Besides science, it’s a lot fun at Woods Hole too. Definitely a work hard, play hard environment. People would work late into the night but we would also be playing games and hanging out in the afternoon. But one reason why it is so intense is that there’s nothing else to do there besides research. The lodging sucks so I’d rather be in lab. The one thing that I love the most is being able to take a 30 minutes break and just sit by the beach, looking out into the ocean and not think of anything. Yup, all I did was sit and stare. After dinner, I could lie down on the bench, look up to the sky and just look at the stars. Sometimes it makes me sad that all of us – mom and dad, ahmah, ahboy – can be looking at the same sky and yet we’re all so far apart. But the intensity of the research doesn’t allow much time to dwell on what we don’t have…which is the one thing that kept me motivated there. It’s all about science.

Now, Ping-Ping is back at Lansing…time to deal with reality.

a walk to Falmouth

The weekend before 4th of July was another lovely day. Took a long walk to Falmouth, which was about 6 miles from Woods Hole. I followed the bike path towards Trunk River. Initially it was within the woods which I really enjoyed. There's so much diversity of flora to see and the scenes on the bike path just amuse me. There's little kids trying to faster than their parents and parents teaching their little kids to roller-blade. I wish there's more bike paths like this in M'sia but as everyone M'sian I told this to would say...'ban ban siow'. The cyclist are so polite that when they wants to pass me, they'll say 'on your left/right'. It's simply wonderful.

Just before Trunk River, there's a gravel beach, which I have fallen in love with. Unlike sandy beach, I can just lie down on the gravel and dry off without having all the sand sticking to me.But I didn't have my swimsuit on that day so I just lie down and enjoy the weather. Ended up napping for about 20 minutes. Although it was nice, I would admit that it's a little hard to walk on it. But hei, people purposely add gravels to some of the gardens at the Penang Botanical Garden for health purpose. There's a mile of this here!
While walking along the beach, I came across this funny looking seaweed growing on rocks. I found a small one and wish that I could bring it back with me but I was heading towards town and didn't bring any sampling bottle with me. I look at it carefully and couldn't find any roots. Isn't that weird?
The Falmouth town is definitely a tourist town as everything is soooooooooo expensive. Every cafe that I stop by sells sandwich that are more than USD 5. Ended up getting a small scoop of ice-cream for lunch, which last me the entire day. It's huge!!!! Besides the price, it's a very 'old-fashion' town. I like the local shops there, unlike the common branded chains and fast-food chains we see in almost every town in Michigan.

4th of July at Woods Hole

I can’t believe how fast time past. It’s been almost a month since I came here. The environment here is so much more intense that I feel like I just gotta keep going but at the same time, there’s always opportunity to take a break here and there. Like today for example, I had to finish up some nitrate assay, check on growth, prepare media and inoculate for enrichment of a bagasse degrading/fermenting organism. All that can only be done after the morning presentation session, which ends at about 11.30am. Sometime in between, I also had to go collect sample from the Falmouth Wastewater Treatment Plant. I managed to stick to my plan as I finished all of the above. I had to miss a chemostat demonstration to collect sample from the Wastewater Treatment plant but the trip was worth it because I never really understand what is the benefit of having an activated sludge (involves a mixing and aerating cycle) or anaerobic sludge (include biogas generation and denitrification) system.

Before I go into all the fun at the plant, here’s some pics from the 4^th of July parade held here at Wood’s Hole. It is a yearly tradition they have here. Each of the summer courses here will have their own theme and costumes. The locals will participate and cheer on us. Initially, the plan was to have two spirochetes from our course but I decided to be something by myself and so did few others. Not being very creative when it comes to art, I did something really simple – I was a cyanobacteria and I called myself Anabaena brevis.

On the eve of Independence Day, Falmouth downtown played fireworks. Some of us took the course bikes to Nobska Lighthouse to see the fireworks. But I haven’t started on my costume at that time so I decided to just stay back in the lab and finish it. This is actually the first time I’ve seen a 4^th of July parade, what more participate in it. As for the fireworks, I’ve seen it a couple of times and Lansing usually plays them on some other occasions too. Besides, most of us ended up staying back after lab work to work on our costume...as you can see the mess we made in the lab. Some of us were pretty serious about it as you can see the huge squid made out of cardboard box. I just used a green shin and some colored paper. Some were also designing the costume for the directors. It has become a tradition that the directors will be dressed by the students and they won’t know about the costume until the day itself.

On the day itself, we get to sleep in till about 9am since there wasn’t any seminar session in the morning. We gathered in the lab at about 10.30am to dress up the directors, which was a tick and a deer. We also dressed up one of the faculty member who will stay with us until the end of the course as a hunter. We then walked over to a field near the School St. Marsh. That’s the starting point of the parade. It’s fun to see what other people have come up with. Among us, we had the spirochete, me as Anabaena, a streptomyces, two other cyanobacteria, an annamox bacteria, an Erlenmeyer flask, a mushroom, an ATPase, a squid, a culture of spirulla, a virus, a Corning tube, a magnetotactic bacteria, a sharps container, a flagellum, a tree of life, a square Halobacterium and a syringe.

The parade lasted only for about 15 minutes, where we walked from School St. to MBL St. Went for lunch after that and spent the rest of the day watching soccer (which was when Germany lost to Italy) and working in the lab. Also managed to relax by the beach for a while and also went for a run in the afternoon. It was simply a lovely day….

Beer making

Besides individual projects, there's also the group projects such as beer making!! It's the highlight of the week..anything to do with alcohol is always a highlight. But for Ping, it was more the fun of making it since Ping never did build up the affinity for beer although some of them do has a lovely whiff to it. We just bought a commercial kit for the process from Beer and Wine Hobby. While making it, we were all worried about the sterility of the instruments and pots that we used. I thought that was kinda funny because when we're cooking or making yogurt or bread, we never did think about sterility. But here we are, working in a microbiology lab, growing our cultures with one hand and a beer bottle in another hand...yet we're worried about sterility.
The first picture is the ingredients that we used. The beer we made was Honey Amber Ale. Looking at the recipe, it surprises me how much sugar is used to make beer and yet the drink is sooooooooo bitter. I guess the yeast used must be highly efficient enough to convert a huge chunk of the sugar to alcohol. The pot we were stirring is just the mixture of the wheat, malt and tons of sugar. It actually taste pretty good..kinda like 'bah leh ko' that we used to buy from 'cha tiam mah' when we were kids. Once the mixture boils and we added all the materials, we had to cool the beer, which we did in a huge bucket filled with ice. The third picture is R and B siphoning the mixture into the bottle. We then added the yeast, shake it up real good and let it sit for about a week.
We also hooked up some balloons to the brewing bottle to collect the CO2 gas emitted from the fermentative reaction of the yeast. Ours is the 2nd one from the left - Love Potion No. 9. About 35-40 hours later, our balloon started to fill up really well. We had the yeast that started out a lot slower as by the time our balloon started to fill up, the others we already about to burst.
Just this past weekend, we transferred the beer to a new bottle, leaving the yeast behind. Commercially, this would be the 'bottling step'. We also streaked them out on nutrient agar and there's definitely no growth besides yeast. Wheeee hah! There'll be our 'homemade beer' for the next symposium. I might actually try some....

Sippewisset Marsh

Besides sampling from Trunk River, we also went to Sippewisset Marsh for sampling. Unlike Trunk River, the microbial mats in the marsh are like pieces of cake. We can actually pull it out from the sediment intact. The picture on the right is a piece of the mat that we pull out. Similar to Trunk River, the top layer is cyanobacteria.






Here on the left is the picture of the entire marsh area. I was carrying my bag pack or else I would have jumped in and swim instead of threading on tip-toes to avoid getting my bag and my undies wet.

Most of the areas are not too deep but me being short, some areas came up almost to my waist. I waited for the taller guys to go in and see how deep it is. Usually, when I see area like these, especially back in M'sia, in my mind, I'll be like 'aiyoh..em chai u chua boh' but I didn't even think about leeches what more snake here. The water is calm and cool I wish we were there longer instead of just 2 hours. But I might go back there again since it's only about 5 mi away.

Besides the mat, the other sample that I like most is the 'berries'. They are not real berries that we eat but they are purple-sulfur bacteria that clumps together like berries. They are usually on the surface of the sediments and when you disturb the water, they'll float up. I tried to take a picture of it but everytime I get close, I mix the mud up making it hard to see the sediment. So I took it in the sampling bottle instead. They are the cutest bacterial complex I've ever seen!

An Inconvenient Truth

I think everyone should go watch this movie!! It's definitely reflecting what we're facing today. Some people might still just say 'nah..I'm not seeing it' but what about all the people who were sacrified in all the hurricanes we've seen the past year? What about all the natural disasters at places that are not expected to be experiencing such terrible phenomena?

Am definitely gonna make my parents and bro watch it. If only M'sia has hybrid cars..

Trunk River

Remember those National Geographic series on Astro where they show all the cyanobacterial mats, or consortium of sulfur bacteria at different places? I used to wish I could be an explorer like them to get to see all those stuff. Now, I don't need to 'coz I've seen em!! Who would have thought it's bacteria that makes all these colorful zones in the sediment? Well, Beijerinck did when he invented the enrichment for sulfur-reducers.

Here's some of the pictures we took at Trunk River. The first picture here is of the light pink layer of purple-surfur bacteria that are phototrophic sulfide-oxidizers, using light as source of energy and sulfide as their electron donor. As we go a little bit deeper, there are other phototrophic sulfide-oxidizers that uses light of different wavelength so that they can co-exist with the top layer ones. The reaction producers elemental sulfur which then can be used by sulfur-oxidizers. The sulfur-oxidizers will attached to the insoluble sulfur along the rocks and they are quite visible due to the reflective elemental sulfur.

As we go deeper, the environment becomes anaerobic and all that is available for respiration is sulfate to serve as an electron acceptor. Sulfate reduction is the source of sulfide for the sulfide-oxidizers but some of the sulfide also chemically reacts with iron to form pyrite, which is the black junk of the sediment.

Finally...the best part!

Volta Experiment

Woohoo!! Ping actually had the chance to do the Volta experiment! It's been the most well-known experiment involving microbial proces of methanogenesis. We've learned it in undergrad introductory micro, in microbial ecology, in integrative microbiology, we talk about it everytime the topic of methanogenesis is brought up...but it's not an experiment that is commonly done. At least not in regular classes. But here at Woods Hole, Ping actually lighted the funnel!

Early during the lecture, Ralph Wolfe actually showed us 'Pistola di Volta' that was a replica of Alessandro Volta's glass made combustion chamber. He and Bill had collected methane gas the day before in a syringe and he had N and L to volunteer to fire the methane gun. It fired pretty far too. That's one of the best in-class demo I've ever had. Definitely better than those we get in high school during chemistry and biology classes.
We went out to Cedar Swamp about 1 mile or so away from MBL. It's a pretty small swamp but once you get there, you can see the bubbles coming up due to the formation of the methane gases by the methanogens. The directors did it as an example and later, each of us get the chance to try it. We filled a funnel with water and turned it upside down. We then stomped in the swamp to collect the methane gas in the funnel. Once the gas fills up the entire funnel, we remove the stop cock and light it. It was definitely fun! Although my shoes and pants are goner, I wouldn't mind going in to do it again.

Got a video too...here's the link. If anyone knows how to add the video here...please let me know. It's not totally clear but you can kinda see the funnel and that we're deep into the water (it was definitely up to my chin but I was stepping on tree roots and holding onto branches).

A free day

Besides the brunch orientation this morning, it's pretty much a day all to ourselves. Since it was still too early for Brasil vs. Australia (it was around 11am when it finished), Ping tried to call daddy…but it’s actually 1.30am in Hayman Island (oopsss..blur with time difference). So went to walk around to try to look for the beach but could not find any within the short distance that Ping walked.
Walked back to Captain Kidd and got the same seats again!! - it was right in front of the beers! That was awesome because it’s right near the tv. Ping knows more people now so it’s a lot more fun to cheer for Brazil. J, M, and S were there along with those from Parasitology course. It was a nice group because there was approximately equal number of supporters for Brasil and Australia.

After the game, Ping followed J and the Parasitology group to Stony Beach. It was definitely an unexpected beach. Lovely but very tiny. Hang out there for a while and then walked around Woods Hole looking for another beach. Couldn’t find any but the houses around here are really cute and cosy looking. The other interesting thing here is the drawbridge! This is the first time Ping saw a drawbridge. It's cool but if Ping is staying here, Ping would most likely be pissed at those people who has their sail boat parked at Eel Pond. Everytime a sail boat needs to pass through, the bridge will be drawn up and it takes forever!!
Ping ended up at the souvenir store buying postcards and found that there is another beach but it’s about 2 miles away. Maybe Ping will go there next weekend or something. As for now, Ping wanna go get some dinner and start looking through the notes for tomorrow. So many ‘well-known’ people, gotta try to do my best too. Let the spirit of Microbial Diversity begins!!

First day at Woods Hole

Last night, Ping did not have to mark herself at the Boston Logan aiport. Tiptup and diddykong came to pick Ping up!! Ping got to sleep on comfortable bed in TT and DK’s apartment. Got wireless connection also!!! Ping was very happy to see TT and DK too since Ping hasn’t seen any of them since…I think it was since their wedding long long time ago. That time Ping was still innocent and kuai kuai. Kekeke..

In the morning, TT and DK brought Ping for dim sum. The char siew pau was very nice..or maybe because Ping hasn’t eaten any since last year??? Then TT and DK dropped Ping off to go to Woods Hole by Bonanza Bus lines. It was a 2 hour ride, going through Wareham, Falmouth and finally, Woods Hole! It’s a pretty busy place although it’s small. There are lots of sail boats everywhere and Ping can see the beach and even smell the sea water!!!

After checking in to Ping's room, Ping settled in, unpacked all the bags and wanted to go online but guess what…there’s not even a plug to charge Ping’s laptop!!! Ping has to go over to Ebert or Swope. But Ping will just type this out for now and lepak in the room for a while since Ping is pretty tired from all the traveling. Ping also met her roommate from Southern California.

After napping for about an hour or so, went over to Swope to check my email. So happy to know that Dr. O’Connor will be sending me the E. coli strains that Ping needs!! If only Ping can start the experiments once Ping gets it but it’ll just have to wait till Ping gets back to Lansing. Anyway, Ping then met J from Princeton who is also here for the diversity course. It was almost 3pm and he mentioned a bar that has tv. What else is Ping waiting for???? Of course go watch USA vs Italy lah. They are actually pretty good this game. Definitely not as good as a lot other teams but definitely better than their first game. McBride is definitely running a lot more although Donovan is still kinda disappointing. It was also so unfair that Pope got a red card. Hopefully they’ll be able to qualify for 2^nd round…but we kinda need a miracle here if they keep playing that way. The picture here is the cash register at Captain Kidd, which is the bar Ping goes to watch the games. Isn't it interesting that they are still using the 'lau iah' cash register?

After the game, Ping went back to shower, look through some notes and then went for the first meeting at Loeb. Ping wondered if it would be weird since Ping is from the director's lab but it turned out really nice. Tom greeted me really warm and all the TAs are very friendly and helpful. Ping got the first hand tour of the labs from Tom and it's amazing! Ping was already very excited to be here and can't wait to get her hands dirty. Ping also did not freaked out from the social gathering. In fact, Ping even had red wine while hanging around. But towards the end, Ping was kinda tired and left around 12mn. And you know what, that is actually Ping's second alcoholic drink that day...a screwdriver earlier when watching USA vs. Italy. Oh yeah..how can it get any better? Science and fun..it's always an awesome combination.

Happy Birthday to Ping

While hanging out at TT’s place last night, right around 12.03mn, Ping got a phone call from BK…turned out to be the first person to wish Ping Happy Birthday…at least on my birthday itself. Mummy was the first to wish Ping yesterday. Ping talked to BK for a while and even got cajoled into talking to BK’s mum. She’s a really nice lady who had treated Ping like her own daughter when Ping and BK were still dating. There was one time when Ping went back to M’sia and no one was in KL, so BK’s mum took Ping out for nice seafood dinner. It’s nice that she still treats Ping so nice now that we’re not dating anymore. In fact, she even think that Ping still can tell BK to do stuff…just so like my grandma who still keep asking about BK. Sometimes I feel like parents and family members should stop mentioned the other person’s name after the break up but Ping is glad to know that Ping was nice enough to BK’s mum, or at least presented a good impression that she still likes me.

Today is one of the most peaceful, relaxing b’day Ping had. I have the entire day to myself, not having to think about research for a while and definitely not having to deal with a whole group of people that I am barely close to. Ping’s two b’days in K’zoo was pretty much uncalled for. Ping appreciated CP for organizing it but she didn’t know Ping really well…so it turned out that Ping didn’t like the party very much. Ping is not a very social person and rather has few really good friends than tons of friends. CP invited almost the entire M’sian population to Ping’s house and Ping didn’t know what to do. The first year, Ping was kinda upset at BK coz he was part of it. Ping thought he would know Ping better…especially since we were spending time together at that time, Ping thought he had wanted to spend the night with Ping…until everyone else turned up and he brought Ping out to the hall.

The second year, it’s actually Ping’s best birthday. Ping was at home and BK asked Ping to go somewhere. Ping just followed and after a while, Ping realized that we’re actually going somewhere pretty far – we end up at St. Joseph. It’s a really nice beach and the most wonderful afternoon in the few years Ping was at K’zoo and it’s also the sweetest thing BK had done for Ping. Ping thought that Ping would escape any plans CP has for Ping…but when we got back, the kids were there. Ping has to play host again. L It turned out to be a pretty short one and Ping was okay with it in the end since Ping has gotten the best b’day present already.

The most memorable b’day Ping has was in Shanghai exactly 12 years ago. It so happen that Ping’s b’day also falls on Children’s day in Shanghai. Daddy’s colleague were all pampering Ping and showering Ping with gifts. We had a really nice karaoke celebration with Auntie Daisy, Auntie Ann, and all of daddy’s colleagues. Ping felt like a princess that day. It was like Ping’s most pampered birthday when Ping turned 3 years old. We had a party at our old home in Bayan Baru. Ping was too young to have so many friends yet so there were more grown ups than kids. But Ping was given tons of soft toys, enough to cover Ping up. Ping has outgrown most of them and they were given away to other kids when we moved from SS4, PJ to PJS10, Sunway when Ping turned 14. The one toy Ping remembered most is a little boy that was about the size of Ping at that time. It was given by Uncle Francis but mummy said Ping was afraid of it initially. J

While Ping loved the attention when Ping was a little girl, Ping is afraid of crowds now. Ping rather spends the day alone, enjoying the moment or having fun with few close friends. The day is still early..definitely more fun to come.

Leaving Lansing

6.20pm at Lansing Capitol City Airport

Phew! Finally a moment of peace, quiet and just me. It’s been a pretty crazy week so far. Tom left on Friday and I planned to get two things done before I leave – conjugation of B. subtilis with my broad range plasmid and test the Actinobacteria specific primers. At the same time, trying to catch the World Cup games too. However, Ping forgot about all the packing that needs to be done and that the apartment needs to be cleaned before Ping leaves since roommate won’t be around for a while. Ping also forgot about spending time with Jer (ooppsss…maybe it’s time to say let’s not keep going? Hmm…)

As you can see, all the stuff that Ping forg0t tend to add up and in the end, Ping was rushing for time. First of all, the conjugation did not work out as Ping had hoped it would. No B. subtilis transconjugations wanna grow for Ping. :( But Ping cheered up when Actinobacteria specific primers worked!! Yay!! Now we can dig into soil DNA. All the late nights were worth it after all! But Ping wasn’t too bubbly either because Ping is not getting enough sleep. Football games three times a day means Ping can hardly get a whole lot of stuff done during the day. So Ping
has to sacrifice sleep lor. Boo hoo…

Then come Thursday. Ping skipped Sweden vs Paraguay so that Ping can go home early to start packing. But in the end, Ping got home at 7pm. Started doing laundry first. Then cleaned up the hall and kitchen, threw out all leftovers and finally the bag is packed – one big luggage to be
checked in, one knapsack with my laptop and one small cabin luggage. By then, it was 4.30am!!!

On Friday morning, woke up at 8.30am, looked over the luggage to make sure Ping brought everything and then went to lab to finish preparing the 16S rDNA for sequencing whenever boss gives the green light. By time Ping got done, it was 4pm. Went home to shower and TT fetched Ping to the airport at 5pm, leaving Ping’s car under the care of UL. Finally, Ping just have to sit and wait for the boarding, not having to think about what’s next and how much time Ping has.

marriage proposal

It was half-time break during the Spain vs Ukraine game. I went to get a cup of hot chocolate and when I got back to the table, the guys were talking about ideas for marriage proposal. I looked at each of them and asked "Is tomorrow doom's day?" or has everyone got infected by 'KS and SJ's happy virus?" Err..that was kinda mean but hei..these are the bunch of guys who were wearing Brasil's jersey yesterday, who won't even answer me when I ask "Why was that a foul?", who ditch having lunch with their gf for soccer games, who are geeky biologist and nerdy computer scientists!!!! I was totally surprised and was definitely curious on how they got to the topic.

So RB filled me in on it and said that half-time during soccer games is a good time for a marriage proposal..which I totally do not agree! For basketball game maybe ler...there's the screen there...can pakat with the video-grapher to zoom in on her and pop the question on the screen. Haha..that's my lame idea.

One funny one was suggested by JB. He thinks that he can make a cd where when his girl pop it into her pc, the regular blue screen will appear (the one which scares me everytime I get it 'coz I never know what to do and they show you this long number that I have no idea what it means) followed by a 'will you pause a moment and marry me'. But I was totally opposing that idea.

The sweetest and my favorite one was the one suggested by JR. The guy should go over to the girls place really early in the morning, make her favorite breakfast meal, set it down next to her bed and wait for her to wake up...he'll be the first person she see when she opens her eyes. Give her a nice feet massage and tell her how he loves pampering her..and maybe she'll say something along the line of 'if only I get this everyday'..then pop the question and the ring. That is of course if the guy is honestly proposing a lifetime of pampering also ler..kekeke. But I bet that JR had already thought of that for some time, just waiting till ML is done with her masters to pop the question.

Knowing how cocky these guys can be..there's always the lame ones too like proposing during a roller-coaster ride or pin her down during a paintball game and pop the question. How could they skip the 'on bended knees' part??? Recently, KS proposed to SJ during their trip to Disney world on the plane on their way back...which I thought was pretty sweet but I kinda like the traditional on bended knees although I know that not many guys would do that these days. But as most people who knows me well, I'm pretty conservative when it comes to a relationship.

Oh..wanna know what's a real good marriage proposal? It's the well-known one by Johnson Lam! When my lil bro told me about it, I was like 'woah!'. I bet he made all the other guys cringe that night. They gotta work a whole lot harder to get up to their girl's expectations now.

The whole thing was definitely weird. Ever since I met them and we started hanging out, I've never hear them talk about anything but science, computers or basketball. I must have caught their soft-spot. What was even more surprising, they usually treat me like another 'guy' (considering how many 'don't be such a girl' comments that I get) but this time, they actually ask me for a girl's point of view. This is such an awesome day! Spain got 4 goals, Germany scored one at the 91th minutes and I'm a girl! *grins*

long days

World Cup barely started and Ping is losing sleep already. Hmm...wait, it's not all about the World Cup ler. I did watch 2 games yesterday and all three games today but then I still had stuff in the lab that needs to be done before I leave so have to sacrifice sleep lor. And....was partying this afternoon too. It's Fan's birthday today so we went to Peanut Barrel to celebrate it.

Was up since 3am this morning preparing for today's experiments. Got into lab by 5am and started working on the gel from my PCR amplification. Went over to watch the game, came back to stain my gel, have lunch and back to watch both the 12pm and 3pm game. There goes my day. But they were all really fun games to watch, unlike England's game on Saturday. Am thinking of skipping their game on Friday too if I haven't finish packing. I have yet to start putting stuff together yet..or even think about what to bring there. Part of me is not looking forward to the trip because there's an interesting project that I can do here right now. Part of me wish that I'll be leaving for home instead of for Boston. But mom and dad won't be around and bro won't be home so that means nothing to do and no car to drive and cousins are in school = boredom! But then again, this is a once in a lifetime opportunity and it is not easy to come by. It could be the turning point of my life if things turn out great.

At Peanut Barrel this afternoon, everyone was drinking. We ordered a pitcher of Blue Moon (a wheat beer that is really popular during the summer). I have never tried it since Ping and beer just don't get along very well. Sometimes if I have a ride home, I would get Long Island as they have awesome ones there. But Ping had to come back to lab to do a transformation so that I can pick the colonies for sequencing tomorrow. As usual, I got the 'aww...she's such a goody-two-shoes'. Sometimes I don't really wanna be that...but when you're so used to being responsible, it's hard to get over yourself to do something 'bad'. Hence, Ping was the earliest to leave and without having a sip of alcohol at all. Good girl leh :P
Now am waiting for my transformants to incubate and then I can plate them and go home to my comfortable bed and softies. Am too tired to read anything or write anything while I'm awake so here I am...tired, wishing I don't have to drive home and sleepy.

full moon

Saturday night was a the full moon day. It was so bright and I had to stop to take pictures because I couldn't remember the last time I actually look up and see the moon. It's like we always know the moon is right there but how many times do we actually take the time to look at it? To be alert of all the things around us? To be thankful for being able to experience something? I'm sure at times, there are people who wish the moon is bright that night to help them not fear the dark or someone in trouble who wishes to alert for help. I looked at it and I realized that I no longer know when is 'che it' or 'chap goh'. Back home, I used to remember it so that I'll remember that mum is suppose to be vegetarian today. I wanted her to know that I care, I support her decision to follow that tradition. But living her alone tend to make me forget stuff like that. It doesn't seem to matter anymore. It's like one day, when Jay and I was talking on web-cam and he saw me eating orange - I peel off the skin and bite into it like eating a pear. He ask, "Don't you cut them into pieces first?" Errr...I used to when BK and I was staying together. But sometime ago I stopped doing that. It's like there's no reason to cut them anymore. Why cut them up and put them on plates when I'm the only one eating it? Just peel and eat it lah.

So I decided to take some pictures of the moon that night to celebrate me realizing it's full moon day. *grins* Unfortunately, the pics didn't turn out as well as I hope it would. It was almost midnight and when I first saw it, the moon was covered by clouds. But there's a very bright halo around it that one could not miss it.
As I drove out of the parking lot, the clouds started to move away, presenting the bright, full moon. It was so bright that it didn't feel like it was midnight at all. I could still see the edges of the moon but somehow, I couldn't capture it. I tried using night shots but my hands was too shaky that it kept coming out blur. So I took them without the flash. This last one was taken with the lowest exposure that I could set and it kinda look better. It looks a little too dark but at least the moon is clear.
I finally gave up after 30 mins or so. I didn't know what else to change or mess around with. It was such a lovely night that I went home feeling a little better after the day's unsuccessful experiments.

boo-hoo...

This weekend started out crazy and ended peaceful. Wasn't feeling well when I woke up on Sunday at 8.30am when my alarm clock rang. I went to bed with the window open and it became too cold but did not bother to wake up and close it. I usually fall sick the next day when I'm too cold, especially my feet. So decided to skip Ser vs Net and listen it thru iTunes instead. In the end I wasn't really listening as I kept dozing off to bed. Finally dragged myself to get a shower shortly before the noon game and I started to get brain baby when I stand up. Crashed down on the sofa in front of the tv watching Iran vs Mexico and that kinda took my mind off the pain for a while.

At the mean time, somewhere within my thoughts, I kept wanting to cancel the trip to the temple. I had decided to go to the temple since Monday and all morning, I told myself that I won't be able to make it there. It wasn't until after the game, I caught another hour of sleep and told myself to quit it. I won't feel any better lying in bed all day. So made the effort to concentrated on dressing up myself, made some spinach soup and played Barry Manilow (yeah I know it's kinda out..but hei, the oldies tend to be more cheerful than heart-breaking pop songs these days).
Went out around 3.30pm and made it there in time for the 5pm Puja session. I rarely go to this temple at Southfield (below) but I like it there. It feels more like home. There's a temple nearer, at Williamston (above) but their Puja session is in Thai, which I have no idea what's going on. They went through Metta Sutta and Jaya Mangala Gatha. I can't remember half of it but just sitting there, I felt better already. I felt refreshed and peaceful just being there. That's also when I realized I've let myself being pulled into Samsara. I forgot about the Noble Eightfold Path. It's always hard when one lost their path of guidance but I think I found mine back. I'm glad I made it there. Am still feeling fuzzy but a lot better. The sun will definitely be good for me. Maybe this time I will really look into Buddhanusati. It's only 11 verse...I can do it!!

World Cup

It's the World Cup season again!! But this season is not as fun 'coz got nobody to go crazy with. Back home, we use to bring the mattress (not the big one lah..those from pasar malam one) downstairs to watch the game. Dad, lil bro and me would camp out in front of the tv. We would usually sleep off before the 3am match but it was fun. After the 12mn game, we would walk out to the mamak close to our house and I would get roti goreng. Definitely miss all that!! Lil bro and me would even have our own 'glow-band' (those plastic stuff that we can freeze it and when you break it after freezing, it'll glow) to support our fave teams. Can't remember when I started watching but definitely when I was still too young to know who is who. At grandma's place, we would even get peanuts!! I was also known of my tendency to hit my brother with the pillow whenever someone misses the goal. hehe

Here in Michigan, it's not very popular. This morning Eng vs Par game, there were only 20 people watching in the International Center. They showed it on ABC so I could have watched at home but I thought it would be much more fun to watch with other people and the tv there is bigger. Unfortunately, there wasn't as many people as I expected and some had to bring their little kids and that was kinda distracting. It's hard for me to watch that many games too since all the games are during working hours. Another reason why it is so much more fun to watch it back home. The crowd definitely suits the game this morning though. Soooooooooo boring. Crouch so panjang somemore. Everytime head the ball sure tak masuk goal wan. Then they keep kicking the ball up high high and reach the other end then goal keeper's turn to throw high high again..and the same thing repeats. Reminds me of this Pikachu game where you hit the ball with your head...ish..I can't remember edi. BK sent it to me once on my PC but I don't have it anymore. Or like Tekken3 where they throw the ball over the net. Definitely boring for football. I heard that Argentina's game is so much more fun but didn't get to watch. Grrrrr...had to do PCR reaction and then run my gel.

At the same time, I've been getting a lot of 'you watch it because of the cute guys' and as we all know, KS did made an effort to highlights the cute ones. I am strongly against that since most of the good ones are not entirely cute...except for Owen and Podolski and Ronaldo. Okay okay, I do admit that there are quite a few cute ones but that's not the point of watching mer. It's the fun of it and the game itself.

If wanna watch cute players, I might as well watch my own dude and his friends play right? They are more 'within the reach' than those soccer players who doesn't know we exist. It's a different set of emotions when watching my guy play too. He could just be out there in the field kicking the ball and not scoring goal but I would feel proud that he's out there. It was a plus that he played really good too. Unfortunately, the one competitive game that I saw him play was during high school when he brought me there. The fact that you personally know the person playing out there in the field just makes you feel good. Even when he's all sweaty, you wouldn't mind hugging him right there on the muddy field. A few years back, he played for WMU against Purdue but I wasn't invited to the game so I didn't get to watch him play. I guess the guys had planned to party after the game and he didn't want me to be his black sheep. But watching him practice made me proud that he's part of the team representing our college. Oh well..those were the days. Too bad he's no longer my guy.

Thank God for Internet today..I get to listen to the commentary on iTunes!!! or else I'll be so frustrated for not getting to watch the games. Plus, I get my personal commentator updating me on MSN messenger too!

how to get stuff done?

Masuk kerja = 10am, lepas kerja = 4.30pm. Chi fan = 1 hour. Belum tambah snacks and drinks break lagi tu. Lucky thing wo zhi you yi ke xingqi. If not, I'll end up doing everything myself. Seriously beh tahan wei. I know he's just an assistant tapi kerja dia is important to everyone. That's why dia dapat kerja tu. If not, buat apa nak hire undergrad kerja right?

Sometimes I just feel like saying out loud "Ni lau poh ta tou bu yi ting ni bu yong gong zuo." But of course it sounds kinda rude. So it's not my fault that I don't talk a whole lot to him. I type out the list and post-it to the door. Lu kuo bu ming pai cai lai zhao wo.

Grrrrrr...just had to lepas. Don't really wanna go in everyday bin or or but sometimes chin chia beh lun.

rose

Last week the pansies were blooming. This week, the roses gets all the attention in the gardens. Went for a walk this afternoon and took some pictures of the roses. It's one of the most common flowers as a gift but in the garden, they are kinda boring. It's nice to look at the big and striking ones but after a while, they pretty much look the same. There are not as many colors as the other flowers.
The one thing I like about roses is they smell really good. The red one is one of the most perfect rose I've seen. The orangy pink one is called Circus and don't ask me why but I think the name suits the color.
While carnations represent a mother's never-ending love, roses represent a lover's love and I do believe that it is true. A lover's love is a beautiful love but if we're not careful, the thorns will hurt us so bad that they stay for a while but it will always heal. As we go on, we learn how to deal with the thorns and everything is all good again. This is one of the most diverse bush of roses in the garden. Isn't it pretty? The roses here seems to be a lot larger than the ones we get in the store. Maybe? haha..I haven't really paid attention to store roses actually.

Besides the roses, they have also started to touch up the Herb Garden.
The one at the back is 'chien hom' (Basil) ...or is it called 'daun kaduk'? Can't remember!!! The one on the front right looks like 'po ho' (the one we use for asam laksa) right? It's been so long since I've eaten or seen a 'po ho' I can't really tell anymore. Boo hoo hoo..

Never mind. Can always go to Penang Tropical Spice Garden. :P

Hell, Michigan

Why would anyone name a place Hell? Nobody? You're wrong. There is actually a place in Michigan called Hell. Pretty small with a population of 266 but has their own mayor. It's between Ann Arbor and Lansing. They actually took the liberty to celebrate 060606! So how did it get the name Hell? Check it out here. The owner of a merchandise store called Screams even bought 666 merchandise for 060606 and sold them at USD 6.66. Wow!

Now whenever someone tells you to go to Hell, you know where to go! *grins*

While it is supposedly known as the doom's day, my day was pretty good. It started out with a good news from MW that a friend of ours had just given birth to a healthy baby boy. Then it kinda went downhill a little after analyzing my data from yesterday and it turned out to be something I totally did not expect. But as I was clicking around, trying to change the look of my graph and eating my lunch, I got an unexpected call. Have you ever called someone and not ask for anything but just to ask how are they or just talk? It was definitely a wonderful surprise. He just wanted to know what I'm up to, and just listen to me. For a while, I thought I heard the person I used to know, which I guess is still in him just not as much anymore.

After all, my doom's day is pretty non-doomed.

060606

There's no way one can write the date wrong..be it US or M'sian style. But yet, it is known to be a date that represents doom's day. Hmmmm....On the other hand, the radio stations are promoting 060606 merchandise. Why would I want to have something to remember 060606? Well, not unless it's a close friend's birthday or an anniversary or something important right?

Side-tracking, Ballack seems to be injured...bad enough that he had to skip training yesterday. It's only 3 days to World Cup. He better be playing (he should be right? since he's the captain?)...'coz he's my guy in the team. Well, besides Podolski. Isn't he such a hottie? Alright alright..I won't go gaga over him here but he sure looks good when he scores the goal! *grins*

Phototaxis

Remember the times when we first learned phototaxis? We would place the plant in a black box with a hole for light source. I can't remember if it was the beginning of Biology in Form 3 or was it Science in Form 1? When did it start diverging into different field of science? Shoootttt!! I can't remember!! Or was it Alam dan Manusia until Form 2 then Science in Form 3 then Bio in Form 4?. *Ping slaps her forehead* My Bio teacher is gonna be sooo disappointed in me. *grins* It feels like forever wei..

Anyway, saw a real-life evidence of phototaxis here. They planted the trees to close to each other for sufficient light source. So some of them had to move around to get enough sunlight instead of just growing straight upwards. Isn't it cool? This was at one of the trails at Hawk Island County Park. Love that place...although the mosquitoes are starting to appear now that the weather is warming up.

shopping weekend!

This weekend is suppose to be the AAA day at Birch Run but I also wanted to go shopping for some pants. When TT and I got there, I registered for the AAA discounts but realized that all the outlets where the discounts apply are places where I don't go or places that are still pricy after the discounts. So we just went to the places that we usually shop at.

Our first stop was Gap Clearance where they have out-of-season Gap, Old Navy and Banana Republic clothes. Saw a few tops and shorts but they were between USD10-15 and Kohls sells new style for the same price so we didn't get anything.

Then we took the trolley to Gap Outlet and I feel in love with the off-white pants. It is made of linen and recently, I'm crazy over linens. They are so comfortable during summer, especially in the evenings when it's chilly out. I also need to get pants like that since most of my pants are business casual and I don't think it'll be suitable for Woods Hole. I have never worn linen because I always thought that they look very 'char char'. Then I saw this male model in one of J's GQ magazine and I thought the guy looked really good and casual in it. So I went to American Eagle to find one, since that's the brand the guy was modeling for. It wasn't on sale but I tried it on anyway - I love it!! When we went to AE after Gap, I saw it and it was only for USD19.95 (original is USD48)!!! Hence, the green pants.

We also went to J. Crew and Banana Republic but couldn't find anything really cheap or anything that fits me. BK was teasing me about checking out stuff for him at BR. I wondered why he was so into BR all of a sudden and when I went there (which was my first time into BR), I realized that their clothes have really good quality. For the men's stuff, I think it's a lot better than Gap and Old Navy but for the women's stuff, they are kinda pricy and too sophisticated for me. I did found a top but when I tried it on, it didn't look good on me.

The place I splurged most was Nike. Bought three t-shirt, each for USD 6.99. It's the World Cup season so most of the stuff have soccer theme and I don't mind a bit since I'm a fan of soccer. Also got a sports bra and a pair of running shorts. There goes USD 102 in 4 hours. Can definitely imagine ah mah saying 'aiyoh, ah neh gau kai lui' but I haven't gone shopping for a while. Furthermore, none of the stuff above is more than 20 bucks so I'm not totally spending 'buta-buta'. But that'll be my only shopping for the summer.

fun but dangerous?

Flirting is so much more fun. I usually decipher sentences, wanting them to mean something more, wanting to bring it one step further. But this morning, I did not. We chat and I teased about things he said. It was fun. I had my share of laughter.

But is flirting a danger to my heart? Will I still remember that I was just flirting and none of it meant anything when it comes the time he needs to leave? I will. I will make sure I remember the promise I made to myself. A promise has to be kept. When he goes away, I will not let him hurt me and will not blame myself.

For now, flirting is fun and life is adventurous when we take risks. So who cares?

chipmunks

Thursday must be my lucky day. I haven't been able to catch a picture of chipmunks before Thursday. They are so fast and so tiny that they'll be right there in the bush without you knowing it. While they are really cute, they are also known as the rural rats because they are everywhere.

I was walking along campus towards Starbucks for our coffee break with Steph and BigK when I saw one who stopped just right in front of us and I managed to capture it before it went back into the bushes. Caught the other one near the library when I was out later in the evening with J.

They are definitely cuter than squirrels!! Especially when they start washing their face. They kinda remind me of my bro's hamster, Hammie, whom he had for a really long time.

up, up and away

Yeehaa!! Savings account interest is back up to 4.25%!! It's awwwwwe-some! *grins*

incompatible

J and I had our first argument today. Yup, we are only at the dating stage and disagreements are stronger than agreements already. I think it's a sign that we should thread lightly. I'm getting tired of trying to make it work and I'm pretty sure he is too. We are totally two different individuals with two different lifestyles. The only thing that we have in common is our love for nature and Xbox. It's the one two things we've done for real anyway. Heck, we never even really did have a classic 'dinner-movie' date.

I was up since 4am yesterday and have been working since. I want to finish this proposal and have Tom look over it before we start anything. It's taking me a long time since I have no idea about Actinobacteria at all. It is starting to be interesting but when something is so new, I need time and lots of reading to grab hold of it. Even more important when it is something that I will be working on for my dissertation. But obviously someone wasn't thinking on my part.

We were suppose to meet after work and I was thinking of cancelling it as I was really tired. So I called his lab but he wasn't there. Fine, I'll wait for him to call me. When he finally did, I told him that I am really tired and hungry. We could just go get something and head back to my place but I am really not in the mood. Then he gave me this long talk about how we haven't seen each other for the past week and that I should have told him earlier I wanted to get dinner because he just had his lunch not too long ago and that I'm leaving in 2 weeks and yet can't find the time to accomodate him. Can you imagine someone telling you all these when you're mentally tired, physically about to fall off the chair and hungry?

Now that it's getting to both of us, I can see that it's not gonna work out. He wakes up way past noon and hunts for lunch. I already have my lunch by then. When I get off work, he's deep in his experiments since he starts work around 2pm. I wanna have dinner by 8pm so that there's at least time for me to snack on fruits and still leave enough time before I go to bed. But he's full by then. I prefer working all day and chill in the park later. He likes to go in the morning and work at night. If it wasn't for weekends, we would probably never see each other at all.

Yup, it's definitely not gonna work. It takes too much 'let's do it your way' for me. A relationship is suppose to work out naturally. Not having to make plans that has to be filled into your daily calendar.