Finally I know why my sitemeter acts so strange when it comes to measuring actual visiting length for each visitor.
The visitor needs to outclick from my site in order for the stupid software to log the visiting length properly. I have been wondering for ages how is it possible for my visitors to finish reading the stuff that I post (usually they are horrendously long) in 0 min 00 seconds and still be able to discuss the contents with me.
So, if you belong to the kind that logs on, reads, and then closes your browser/or types in another address directly in the navigation bar/or clicks directly on one of your 'My Favourite' links, you have been Superman for the past months. I have been really jealous of your reading speed.
Now no more. Hehehe show your true colours by clicking on one of the links that I have here. I will provide a link for Google, Yahoo and Hotmail so that you can do it easily *evil grin*
This thing is exciting. Even Bush is excited. See?
One year ago a team in Kyoto, Japan successfully reprogrammed normal mouse skin cells into embryonic stem cells. I read the paper some months back; it was a Cell paper and hmms as you can imagine the amount of data presented was overwhelming.
I will spare you the technical stuff - although I still can't remember everything even after lab meeting discussions and class discussions. Basically they turned on 4 stem-cell genes in these normal cells and through some miracle they became stem cells. Sounds simple: but they had to choose which genes to play with, put them into the cell, make sure the cells really became stem cells... That's why it's a Cell paper. I still remember being quite amazed by it.
Now that original Kyoto team and a team from Wisconsin repeated the same thing in human cells. Those iPS cells are going to give them their Nobel Prize sooner or later - if their results can be repeated.
Basically everyone is excited. Today Molecular Biology class was completely spent on discussing the two papers. This technology, if indeed valid, will solve the ethnical problems surrounding stem cell research and also solve the problem regarding rejection by the immune system.
This is an artificial process, of course, as the 'de-differentiation' of cells in natural settings is still pretty controversial. There are also potential problems with the technology: it involves turning on a cancer-causing gene called c-myc. Also, it involves the use of retroviruses - they are not known to be a safe vector that can be used in humans - a safer gene delivery system might be needed. Among others.
Alright enough of stem cells. Back to p53.
And HERO exam next week! Not doing very well so far... Must practise more :P
(Don't seem to be doing very well this semester anyway... Sigh as long as my GPA won't drop below critical level I really shouldn't think too much. Like Kai said, getting A- in a writing class is already extremely good for Asians like us. Even Grace's was around there. I really shouldn't think too much :P)
Interesting observation: realised that over Thanksgiving the visitor flow to this blog dropped - mostly all the US domain names are not around anymore :P
Haha thanks to all my friends who check my blog regularly (there are people who love me so much as to check it at 8am - hahaha well at 8am checking friends' blogs is definitely extremely low on my priority list - you know who you are :P)! Your continued support helps keeping me motivated to continue updating. Thanks for helping me keep this blog alive and allowing it to continue to serve as an effective communication platform!
I only have information to traffic in general and the various domain names (e.g. jhu.edu or comcast.com or singnet.com.sg) and I don't know who exactly my visitors are, but I guess I more or less know who my regular readers are. There are random people who drops by through a google search - these are usually very interesting. They can find my blog by searching completely random things like 'single Singaporeans' or 'Cantonese nicknames'.
Haha ok, I'm writing this at 7am because I hadn't been sleeping... slept a lot at the airport and on the plane because of looong delays, which is typically American. Haha Atlanta was pretty fun, went shopping overnight then Thanksgiving dinner then hiking then food then dim sum etc., while completing my presentation and set the direction for the rest of the first-draft of my final paper. Tk's friends (mostly Malaysians) are all very fun people... really glad knowing them! :)
Oh by the way someone called Tk 'Teddy' because he is 'gentle, nice, and likes soft-toys'. It is not surprising to me at all though it is just that this is the first time I heard someone directly describing him like that. And he embraces it - unlike GCS who decided to divorce his penguin and sent her back to Antarctica when we started talking about it. Hahaha I admit that I have soft toys too - I have a pile of small ones on my table and a big one on my bed.
Who says guys cannot play with soft toys. That's stereotyping!
Hmms have been sleeping past 3:00am for the past few days :P
Haha reason = trying to write my paper. Which is now 50% done. YAYY! And at least I am done for my presentation for next Monday too!
Finally can really enjoy the small break that I am supposed to be having now.
Wednesday night had Thanksgiving dinner... It was really fun :D hung around until almost 1am before going back to do laundry, pack and write a bit of homework... ended up sleeping at 4:30.
Last night effectively didn't sleep at all... Went black Friday shopping. Bought myself a formal sweater and a pair of Timberland boots for hiking and snow - for $54 altogether. Not too bad I think. Problem is, now I have one more bag to carry on board when I fly back on Sunday...
Haha and then worked through the morning (with a little nap that lasted 2 hours) to finish writing the presentation :) :)
Another Thanksgiving dinner tonight! With TK and his bunch of friends in Atlanta. Then Saturday might be going hiking. Hopefully it would be fun! :)
By the way, I have to thank my sister for always being encouraging. And don't know why GCS is so happy when my GPA is unlikely to stay at 4.0 :P
Because, hmms, didn't get good grades for a history paper... That was my fault because I didn't realise that I took an erroneous viewpoint until, hmms, today. And was quite demoralised after today's test because I remembered some stuff wrongly :(
I am still thinking over my schedule for the next semester. Currently it is like this:
1. Developmental Biology 2. Microbiology 3. Medical Biochemistry 4. The Nervous System II (TTh 1:30 - 2:45) 5. How Electricity Changes the World: A Cultural History (M 1:30 - 4) 6. The Concept of the Patient in Anthropology
Alternatives: 2a. Introduction to Glycobiology (Direct substitution) 4a. Communication Between Cells: The Synapse As A Model System (WF 3 - 4:15) 5a. Sanitizing Culture: Hygiene and Sanitization in 20th Century East Asia (W 1:30 - 4)
It's going to be a well-guided but hmms mug-like-mad semester (note #1 - 4!). 6x 3-credit arts and sciences classes with definitely-more-than-120-hours of research (i.e. 21 credits of all-work) can even be more crazy than a 24-credits engineering schedule.
Cannot do medical tutorials already I guess. I will find one for myself next fall. Hopefully I can find a clinical position in JHH that makes rounds, or at least one that is involved in clinical trials. It's pointless to do a medical tutorial that is research-centered.
Anyway I have decided to drop the pre-med idea in the US. Totally too troublesome, and the opportunity cost is too high. It's not worth it. I will only do a MD if I can do it in Singapore and if I can still do my PhD in the US. Final decision.
If I'm not doing MD, my first choice would be the seems-rather-promising Harvard HBTM + LMS. Haha hope that Boston would be filled with friends by then! :) (Hey guys come on, apply to MIT and Harvard!) It's easy to get to Europe from Boston (it's totally possible to take a 5-day break (Wed - Sun) over Thanksgiving and go to Spain or Italy or France or London for <$800 in total). Boston is certainly nice, relatively safe and not boring. They have a Chinatown that serves good food, as well as easy access to New York. And also, I have relatives there :D
Hahaha so that's great! I'm freed from all the silly requirements which I am reluctant to fulfill in the first place. So hopefully I can do this in fall 2008:
1. Genetics Lab (top priority) 2. Advanced Cell Biology 3. Probability and Statistics 4. History of Medicine: From Antiquity to Renaissance 5. (Another history course) 6. German Elements I 7. (Medical Tutorial?)
And good classes to take for spring 2009:
1. History of Medicine: 18th to 20th century 2. Medical Sociology 3. German Elements II 4. Immunobiology 5. (another graduate level biology course) 6. (Medical Tutorial?)
Haha next year I can start playing around with my classes already; basically will be doing all sorts of useless things that sound interesting. Nothing will actually be a 'requirement'... I would have cleared all my biology requirements by the next semester, except the lab. And plans for German now is that I'll take a year of that here, a year of that in Singapore and then I'll see how it goes afterwards :)
5 more weeks to the end of term: i.e. will get progressively more and more busy.
Class registration has started for next semester also; though because the classes that I planned to take are kind of full I might need to change my schedule quite a bit. Sophomores can only start registering on Friday... Now we can only watch the juniors and seniors take away all our favourite classes. Argh all the pre-meds. Don't want to say more :P
Will have to start real work from today onwards! i.e. less Internet. Hopefully this semester will work out fine.
Haha this is the song that really motivates me. I am born a Hongkonger and no matter what identity I bear and how I have been moulded differently a Hongkonger's blood still flows inside me. That is how my parents succeeded, and this is how I will succeed.
Never say die.
(The English translation is for those who are interested... it is done within 15 minutes so I apologise if it doesn't sound right :P)
東方之珠 The Pearl of the Orient 關正傑
回望過去 滄桑百年 (looking back at the one hundred years that passed) 有過幾多 淒風苦雨天 (there had been many cold and rainy days) 東方之珠 熬過鍛煉 (the Pearl of the Orient persevered) 遨過苦困遍歷多少變遷 (she persevered through hardship and endured changes)
沉著應變 苦中有甜 (she reacted calmly; there are pleasant moments even in difficult times) 笑聲哭聲 響於耳邊 (laughter and crying ring in her ears) 東方之珠 贏過讚羨 (the Pearl of the Orient has won praise and envy) 贏過一串暗淡艱苦的挑戰 (she has conquered a series of dark and trying challenges)
＊無言地幹 新績創不斷 (we work meticulously, as we keep achieving) 無盡的勇氣 無窮的鬥志 (our limitless courage and fighting spirit) 永存不變 (will forever exist and never falter) 繁榮共創 刻苦永不倦 (together we prosper, as we continue to strive on) 龍裔的貢獻 能傳得更遠 (the contributions of the dragon people can be spreaded far and wide) 光輝一片 (our future is bright)
迎面更有 千千百年 (there are thousands of years ahead of her) 這小海島 新績再展 (this little island will continue to achieve) 東方之珠 誰也讚羨 (everyone praises and envies the Pearl of the Orient) 猶似加上美麗璀璨的冠冕 (it is as though a beautiful and glorious crown has been given to her)
回望過去 滄桑百年 (looking back at the hundred years that passed) 有過幾多 淒風苦雨天 (there had been many cold and rainy days) 東方之珠 誰也讚羨 (everyone praises and envies the Pearl of the Orient) 猶似加上美麗璀璨的冠冕 (it is as though a beautiful and glorious crown has been given to her)
Haha Shireen says that I am addicted to lab. I have to agree :P
Spent 2 afternoons, 1 evening and 2 full days downtown last week. Ascertained that my control works (and one of the antibodies didn't), and determined for sure that either my primary or my secondary doesn't work at all for Western blot (most probably secondary, cos it was some weird antibody of unknown origin).
Haha one good picture that I took, and one not-so-good:
Mouse Urogenital Sinus, Organ Culture, 6 Days.
Mouse, hmms, Cerebellum. Dotted with crystal artifacts... That's my bad. I was in too much of a hurry and didn't fix the brain long enough :P
Oh nicer stuff.
I love this place's sushi! Sushi Hana in Towson. Every time, without fail, I will leave that place completely bloated... Their sushi platter can fill 2 guys to the brim. We got two of that, and in addition we ordered 2 plates of tempura and another plate of beef teriyaki (it came as a piece of steak) for all 6 of us.
These two pictures are taken when we're 75% done... and note, these two plates combined = 1 platter. We basically had 4 of them.
And saw this in Trader Joe's:
After he saw this Liu Yun went, 'There is a reason why everything else is in clear plastic bags but these two are not.' Hahaha and I was really amused by how they described the dried rambutan on the packaging (something to do with the 'Japanese 5th element of taste' - rambutan?!). No one bought anything in the end.
Haha I used to have a whole CD of McDull stuff but lost it :( Yesterday Songyu went to post two McDull videos on my Facebook wall and then I went ??!! (Hahaha must be because of Ka Yi. Cannot believe that Songyu understands such upper-level Cantonese.)
Nah this one is not one that he posted... but the one I like most. >HY Junior - you can find the 快餐常餐A餐B餐 and others related ones on YouTube! Won't post them cos I don't want my blog to be filled with videos only :P
Haha as you can see I do not believe that an education system that is too exclusively elitist (e.g. GEP, IP, ... whatever they have these days :P) is going to do any good for our country as a whole. It is still meritocracy but skewed - meritocracy that sets the path for a child way too early.
(I have been through the system... The GEP selection system is already skewed - i.e. designed to select for a particular group of people - at least in my perspective. For the English part, I don't think even my teachers know those words in the vocab section (I just remember being really stunned when I saw those words - where on Earth did they pop out from?!). For the math part, I knew how to do the sums because I was doing more advanced math for fun. Of course, if they had a Chinese section I would have owned everyone else, but too bad they didn't have it :P)
(Digression - so people who are better in Chinese are not GEP worthy la! It is truly the mindset back then, I can guarantee - because they want us to fix our English first. Even my dad thought that way. Well, 塞翁失馬,焉知非福... If they had a Chinese section and picked me, I won't be here shooting at people; I would be shot at instead. This perspective that I have now is going to help me a lot a lot in the future... I really have to thank my parents for that :) )
It is just that seriously our elites (i.e. future leaders of our country) need to understand heartlander Singaporeans instead of just superficially interacting with them and acknowledging that they exist. When our elites eventually become our leaders (or healers or whatever profession they choose), these are the people that they are going to serve. Our leaders need to know exactly how our people think and exactly what they need on top of all external challenges and other broader issues, and they need to convey all these not-immediately-apparent or even counter-intuitive problems effectively to the population (the aging population problem is to a huge extent counter-intuitive to a lot of people!).
I wrote this to Zaobao (I am replying someone) because I think that something has to be done, and it must start now. Let's not talk about how easy it is for our people to climb up the social ladder; I'm not trying to solve that problem. Though, since it is already in our social structure that the majority of our elites come from the upper-middle class or above (or they run in families - we can hardly change that), the least we can do is to get these people to interact with people from other social classes at a close enough basis so that they can develop the skills to communicate effectively with a heartlander Singaporean.
It may simply be overly idealistic to expect every single Singaporean in the elite class to be able to communicate with a Singaporean from the hawker centre auntie class with complete ease and zero reservation (when I say 'communicate' I mean 'to have a conversation lasting at least 10 minutes' - ordering chicken rice doesn't count!). That will make a utopia already. Though at least we should make an effort to approximate towards that :)
(Oh anyway, this reminded me of a quote from someone in tomorrow.sg:
'I might disagree with what you said, but I will defend to my death your right to say it.'
Haha I am criticising policies. No doubt about that. Hope that we can all defend to our death for one another our right to say these things :D)
The hell weekend is over :) Though that doesn't mean I can slack much. Will be running to and from downtown almost everyday this week, and I have just took some action to force myself to start writing my history paper and preparing for the final presentation. Still have to finish a take-home exam for molecular biology (basically it's a ~2-page essay - should take one night of reading notes/papers + one night of writing), hopefully by Thursday.
Great thing is that I managed to pull myself back up for Genetics! At least now I don't have to be too worried anymore :)
>Angel: Haha well said! The problem is that we are kind of results-oriented... It is hard to get people to enjoy the learning process when the most important thing is the amount of As we get. This happens in America too... It is just that, over here they very much leave us alone to do our own learning so it is up to us how we want our education to be structured. I want to learn as much meaningful stuff as possible; that's why I am taking the classes (haha I will be taking another anthropology class next semester) I am taking now...
Haha my choices had made my life more difficult surely :P Though again, what's the point of coming to America to do something easy? Like that might as well just stay at home and chill :P
Anyway, I always think that humanities play an extremely significant role even in professions such as medicine and biological sciences. I will talk about this another time... Got to run for classes :P
Monday: Genetics exam 10am, then lessons as usual until 6pm, EFR till 10pm. Paper due. Tuesday: Lessons 10am - 3pm, lab from 3pm till late. Wednesday: Lessons 10am - 12pm, lab till 4pm, then lessons again till 6pm. EFR till 10pm. Thursday: Lab 9am - 1pm, lessons till 3pm, then lab again till late. Friday: Camping in lab the whole day.
I have a lot of experiments to do... I need to confirm the results that I have been getting, because I am confident that what I have been getting is true. Got myself a cell line today (so now I have more things to maintain), made a cell block, froze some mouse brain (which I have no idea how to dissect until Brian came to my rescue) - so that next week I can get the western blots running and produce the first set of data by Friday.
I am excited about my research. I want to spend more time downtown...
Well but history is cool too. I have been spending the past 2 days trying to put together a paper comparing Kepler and modern empiricism. Initially I wanted to write about reductionism (kind of inspired by Henry Schaefer) - but found it a little difficult to put forward a solid case for a short paper because of the heterogenous nature of reductionism. It is complicated stuff :P
What's the point of doing simple things that pose no challenge though? It'll be a waste of life, and a waste of taxpayer's money :P
Ohh let me tell you what I think of the Chairman's Honours List poster this year, from the point of view of a trainee historian heavily influenced by biology and medicine.
(I am not posting the image - common sense tells me that I am not supposed to. If you don't have the picture with you then just imagine first, and check out standard A*Star propaganda sometime in the very near future.)
A*Star's bias towards the biomedical sciences is reflected in 2 very obvious ways.
1. The arrangement of the photos: Those are not just circles. They resemble the double helix of DNA - I believe that is the first impression you should get too. The guy who designed this definitely had that in mind. 2. Look at the background: it is an image of Fusionopolis. However, nowhere in the poster states Fusionopolis - but we have a sign which says 'Biopolis' right in front. Well, if you are not an A*Starian, just by seeing the poster won't you think that Biopolis is the two magnificant buildings in the background?
There is one more symbol that might be a little forced - look at how individual photos and descriptions are structured. They look exactly like budding yeast - saccharomyces cerevisiae - when they are budding. It might be unintentional, but if we assume it to be intentional, it can be metaphorically read as: 'these young people are our budding scientists'. Though do they have to use a model organism to illustrate the point?
The use of these symbols are not coincidental. It reflects the general attitude of the agency that produced it. Imagine, if it is EDB that produced this, or if it is SAF that produced this - do you think you will see circles arranged in this way? What would you expect to see?
That's what a history major does all the time - finding patterns from primary sources, putting them together in the form of a story and draw a valid conclusion. Another myth exploded: history is not just mugging. Basically nothing is just mugging. A-levels gave us a wrong world-view (or Weltanshauung - 'an intellectual construction ... that makes you feel secure' - Sigmund Freud).
People ask me why don't I want to find something easier (like econs) to double major in. Haha what's the point of getting formal instruction on something that is easy (or consisting of mugging only)? Why can't I learn it myself - when I need it?
So it is very unlikely for me to make it into next year's CHL (I made it this year because last year was just too slack). If I do, well, I will have to thank God for that :P
Kept running into admin problems with the school. First I couldn't get my international registration hold released because their system was down, then they wanted to delete my JHED account and give me a new one for some reason, now they said that my library account had expired and needed my class schedule to override the glitch.
I had just convinced those people that I couldn't afford to get a new JHED ID because it will mess up all my emails and webct applications. Though now my ISIS account was still registered under the new JHED - if it doesn't migrate back to the old one soon I will have to make more and even louder noise.
Probably this is because I have been complaining too much and have not been doing good deeds. I am trying to make up for it by registering for blood donation 2 weeks later :P
Entering November... i.e. the crazy period has begun. 1 essay due + 1 exam on Monday; will need to prepare some drafts by Monday, and there will be a take-home due next Thursday. It's not going to stop after that :(
Really envying those people who can go out and party tonight... (How come they can and I can't?! We are all from the same school?! Hmmms, that's not considering the fact that I don't get invited to parties :P)
By the way, should be taking these classes next semester: 1. Developmental Biology + Lab (3+2) 2. Medical Biochemistry (3) 3. AIDS (3) 4. The Concept of the Patient in Anthropology (3) 5. Science on Display (3)
That's 17 credits + research. Surely not as bad as the engineers, but I guess it's still going to be challenging (anyway I really don't dare to overload too much with biology and history courses - seriously will write essay/paper until I cry) :P
After he saw this Liu Yun went, 'There is a reason why everything else is in clear plastic bags but these two are not.' Hahaha and I was really amused by how they described the dried rambutan on the packaging (something to do with the 'Japanese 5th element of taste' - rambutan?!). No one bought anything in the end.