A lot of random stuff.
This post is basically a whole chunk of unrelated stuff. Please bear with me :PThe House website isn't working! :( Have to try again tmr... Don't really want to use BT, and too lazy to go and reconfigure my DC++ (which I reinstalled), so probably tonight I will just finish up my anthropology homework :P
My organic chem exam was quite alright according to my standard... but the class did badly in general, so it turned out to be really really good. Though cell bio was, hmms, just right at the upper end of the standard deviation. In an absolute sense I did better for cell bio than organic chem... but apparently people did much better for cell bio, so comparatively I didn't do as well. No matter what I still love those ras, raf, rac, rho and sar stuff more than those don't know what Wittig reaction and Dean Stark distillation :P
By the way, biologists are certainly better at acronyms than Singaporeans. When you see all these in any biology related articles, think before assigning any meaning to them :P
RGS = Regulator of G-protein Signalling
GAP = GTPase Activating Protein
GEF = Guanine-nucleotide Exchange Factor
CREB = Cre-Binding Protein
SOS = Son of Sevenless (GEF of Ras)
PTEN = Phosphatase-Tensin Homologue (lipid phosphatase)
ATM = Ataxia Telengiactasia Mutated (p53 kinase, activator)
Mdm-2 = Mouse Double Minute 2 Homologue (ubiquitin ligase, p53 deactivator)
MAP = Microtubule Associating Protein
MAPK = Mitogen-activated Protein Kinase
MAPKK = MAPK Kinase (aka MEK 'family')
MAPKKK = MAPKK Kinase (aka Raf 'family')
Some more travel-related stuff: other than my UK trip I have confirmed a trip to Niagara Falls/Toronto from 11 May to 15 May with a group of friends. Because of James the lobang king we will be staying in hotels, and so far the total cost for transport + accomodation is $266.15 for me... And well, because of this trip, I would have accumulated enough miles to get a free one-way ticket from anywhere to anywhere in the Continental United States on Southwest. I intend to use it to fly to California over Thanksgiving/Winter to find Ching Hua and to admire nature around Bay Area :P
That reminds me that I have to order Rough Guides from Amazon, to help with my UK planning... :P
And a bit of A*Star stuff:
Philip Yeo on values:
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/
266446/1/.html
Basically what he said was what I practise at home, though this value system is constantly being rocked by forces here and there. How lucky you are if you do not have to face these kinds of challenges :P You don't have to doubt whether it all makes sense, it just does automatically...
Actually I guess at least some Singaporeans (even for those overseas) have a certain misguided impression about the US. I won't say much because I myself isn't sure, but take a look at this updated conversation between some bloggers and Philip Yeo... There are people who think that freedom of speech = tolerance for defamation? And there are also people who think that allowing authority to be challenged = tolerance for insolence? Both of which, from what I know, is not the case at all... (and really take some time to read the conversation. Philip Yeo is speaking just like one of us here. He is not acting like a big figure at all. I have never seen him like that before; I guess my PhD seniors might have. Haha well, he is leaving... I guess it is hard to imagine A*Star without him. I submitted something some months back when ASN asked for farewell messages :P)
http://aaron-ng.info/blog/clarification-from-astar-over-acidflask-incident.html
And refer to post 137 for the following:
If that policy is carried forward to A*Star, I guess I have hope in getting a MD, in Singapore at least, provided that I still want to do it after my PhD. Well, in order to make that happen, it means I have to finish PhD in 3 years, which means more graduate level classes now, which means what I am planning to do (if I can successfully register for everything) will bring me on the right track. Wish me luck :P
Of course the easiest way to do it would be to go to the UK to do my PhD. Though after I looked through the Cambridge NatSci-Bio undergrad syllabus and NUS Life Sciences undergrad syllabus, even Hopkins' sciences look slack (underlying assumption: cannot compete if I were to just relax and do what is required of me here?). I don't know about the reality, but since I am working my head off writing history and anthropology papers while the rest are mugging 2 levels beyond Wittig reactions, I have to compensate for it somehow. Well, with me planning to do a research paper on the history of p53 next semester based on the proposal I am writing up now, to be receiving real work soon in the lab (I guess would be something to do with PTEN expression in developing mice prostates, in which I expect myself to become an IHC expert after this stage of the project is over), getting more involved in the student groups that I am in now, and *maybe* not giving up on anthropology (had this nice chat with my TA and 2 classmates after class today, and got psychoed to take more anthropology classes), I guess I will just, well, need to watch more YouTube everyday :P
SSA elections on Sunday! Haha I guess I should get them to create a 'Map Reader' post and then I will run for it :P Haha I will see what positions are open la, and then I will see :P It will be fun anyway :D
(Just to add, the site posted above is still active. Apparently ST had an article on Friday, which I cannot access, on the issue AGAIN. I strongly suggest everyone, especially scholars, to read through the comments and then form your own opinion. Everything now makes much more sense, even the 3.8 GPA requirement. Think about it. It makes sense. At least I will not say that it is nonsense anymore. If you still don't understand, and want me to explain, haha think harder if you are in the US. If not, you are utmost welcomed to ask me.)
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philip yeo // Mar 28, 2007 at 6:32 pm
The excuses that “modules are of different difficulty, some easier, some tougher” are like old gramophone records.
The scholarship is a 8 years BS to PhD program.
The BS is the basic degree.
The threshold is 1st Class Honours OR 3.8 GPA and above.
If applicant think it is tough, he/she should NOT apply..
The standards of the undergrad schools and their curriculum are well established and known to us.
BS candidates must then apply to our list of top graduate schools on their own standing for the PhD part of the training.
The grad school admissions chaps also review their applications taking into the type and difficulty level of the courses that the applicants took at the undergrad level.
The End.
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