A picture speaks a thousand words. A thousand words speak a picture?

Preface
I haven't been blogging for some days. I return with a full story in 6 episodes about what happen during my assignment grouping. [Yes, reminds me of the Star Wars too. It just so happened that it amounts to 6 parts so I name them as episodes instead.] Not a pleasant story. It is perhaps human nature to find someone to blame for this incident; but we can blame no other but ourselves. It's about leaving someone out. Of how many times have you been left out? Once only? I doubt.

"And in the end it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years. "

Abraham Lincoln  
(1809 - 1865)  

Episode 1: Finding partners
During the end of first week (of the semester), we were told of group assignment for molecular genetics. Dr. Chiam wants to see 2 to 5 people per group, and there are 16 people in my class. When told about it, I look at Yong Liang and we pseudo-confirmed to work together on this one. The reason is simple - at that moment, I only know Yong Liang well enough to embark on such a "mission". At the start of week 2, Percillus and Yi Zhen joined our class without knowing much of this assignment. It was only week 3 when we start to talk about this assignment. While talking to Yi Zhen, this topic came out, and he asked me if I have a group in mind. I denied having one, saying I weren't sure yet. He seems to have expressed interest to work with me. A day or two after, Bor En came to me, having the same query. Once again, I denied. At that time, I really do not know who I will end up working with.

Episode 2: Zhi Yuan
On Tuesday, Hai Jiao and Xinni suggested drawing lots to decide our group members. Before that suggestion, it has been decided that Ben, Yong Liang, Zhi Yuan and I will form a group to work on this assignment. Zhi Yuan is somewhat displease to put our fates on some white piece of paper with a number written on it. He protested for a while, but to no avail. Zhi Yuan did not even want to see his posting. I noticed that he ain't too happy about it. Yong Liang is posted to an all-girls-except-him group. Another girl went to an all-boys-except-her group. Obviously, Xinni assumed that they want to make a switch. However, I felt that it defeats the purpose of drawing lots if people end up switching. Hai Jiao and Xinni's intentions were good, having 4 people in each of the 4 groups will be the fairest, but I doubt it's going to work well, if at all. Eventually, no groups are decided and we left.

Episode 3: Library discussion
Ben, Yong Liang, Zhi Yuan and I left for the library to plan our works. We booked a discussion room and start well.. discussing. I consulted my cousin (she studies Biotechnology) to ask her for opinions on the various suggested topics. We settled on the topic - Genetic Engineering of Plants and Animals. The reasons are simple, there should be quite a lot of information available on these topics, my cousin has notes on plant genetics and she claims it's one of the easiest among all. We borrow 2 books and left the library. Then Pei Shan approached us, expressing her interest in joining our group. We accepted her right away. There can be a maximum of 5 people if you can recall.

Episode 4: Dilemma
On Thurday (that's today), we had Organic Synthesis and Reaction Mechanism (OSRM) lesson. Dr. Ng allows us to stay in the classroom after his lessons. Bor En left for home immediately. It is revealed that everyone except Bor En has found a group! There are a total of 3 groups currently, each group currently holding 5 people, which is the maximum. Bor En cannot work alone. One group has to split, or the drawing lots nightmare will return. Xinni has Bor En should be joining our group because he hangs out with us more often. Yong Liang's original suggestion is to negotiate with Dr. Chiam to have 6 people in our group. I think that's a good idea actually. Xinni doesn't think it'll be allowed. I think she's right too. I do not know who I'm siding. We tried contacting Bor En on his cell phone but he's not answering.

Episode 5: Pei Shan
Pei Shan looks disappointed. I start imagining what's she is thinking about. I assumed she is feeling guilty after Bor En is left out. She is the only girl in our group. There are 6 ladies in the class, including her. If only 6 ladies can be divided into 2 groups, with 3 in each. It turns out that my assumption is correct. She reveals that she felt bad, and she thinks that she messed the entire arrangement up by joining our group. She also has the intention to depart. Zhi Yuan oppose to that obviously. I reassured her that it isn't her fault that the arrangement turned out to be like that, and that she needn't feel bad over it. I don't think that helps much frankly, Pei Shan is still quite upset about it.

Episode 6: Percillus
Yeah, I think that's how you spell "Percillus". Bor En returned my call for 15 minutes. Before I can say much, Percillus request to be able to speak with Bor En. I hand my cell phone over. She say that the group with 5 ladies (including herself) has been split into 2. One of the groups has 3 people; the other (which is her group) has 2 people. She then asked if Bor En mind joining her group. Obviously, Bor En doesn't mind. The dispute has been settled. Our group consists of Ben, Pei Shan, Yong Liang, Zhi Yuan and I. Bor En is in a 3-persons group. It isn't a good ending though. It made me felt bad; after all, Bor En did ask me if I had a group. I should have just answered something better than "see first" or "I don't know". The decision must have made Pei Shan felt worse though. I think you understand why.

The peak hours are always on the afternoons. Peak hours for what, you asked? For the telephone's ringing. Whose calls, you then asked? None other than my brother's. My younger brother to be exact.
I start to find the telephone ring tone very annoying. My brother has always been very fast when it comes to attending to the phone. He rushed to telephone and picked it up. Once it's picked up, it's not uncommon to see him hogging to the phone for the next hour.

"A day without laughter is a day wasted. "

Charlie Chaplin (1889 - 1977)  

Recently, he got more and more lazy. He takes longer time to pick up the phone, expecting me to do my fair share I supposed. Sometimes he'll yell at me from his room to answer the phone. He doesn't have a phone in his room; I have one that's only inches away. Sounds like my fault, isn't it? NO!
Statistically, 90% of the phone calls are his. Imagine having to pick up a phone call that isn't yours for 5 consecutive times. Haven't experience that? I'll tell you how a typical conversation is like.
Caller says (in 12-year old kiddo tone. Hey! But his callers are all 12 years old anyway): Hello, Kah Seng (that's my brother's name) in?
I answer: No.
Caller says: Okay.
I hung up.
I think all his friends sounds like maids from Philippines when they say, "hello, Kah Seng in?". If my brother is in and I picked up the phone, I get quite frustrated too. He yelled at me from his room to answer HIS call? He ought to be ashamed of himself. Considering the fact that most (probably even all; most of my friends called my cell phone instead and waste my money) of the calls belong to him, he should just live with it and answer them.

My experiment went wrong today. Quite displeased about it. It's quite an important experiment as we've got to submit a report for it, and it'll be grade as part of the semester grades. We got to add 5 mL of Lowry [he's the one for first made it] reagent into 5 test tubes containing different concentrations of Bovine Serum Albumin (BSA; bovine suggests it's from the moo-moo?) and 3 test tubes containing different concentrations of an Unknown. Then we waited. And waited. And waited. Soon (or rather, not so soon), 10 minutes past. We continued to added in 0.5 mL of Folin-Ciocalteau [I suppose two guys made this stuff] reagent in the 8 test tubes [plus 1 more actually, with distilled water, it's just a blank or control]. All our solution in the test tubes turned yellow. It is incorrect as compared to the majority [theirs is a dark dark blue instead].

"Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former. "

Albert Einstein (1879 - 1955)  

We informed Jinkai (Dr. Jin Kai actually) about it. He claims that we added distilled water instead of Lowry reagent. I beg to differ. Firstly, I am positive that I've clearly read the labeling. The other reason is that I used quite a lot of Lowry reagent, I remember there isn't much left in the bottle. I check all the bottles with distilled water and find them to be at least half-filled.
Despite telling Jinkai repeated that I made no error of such, he insisted that I placed water instead. And he says in true-blue Chinese fashion, "you musta hafo adda distill watar instare of ze Lorry re-A-gent".

Edit: Upon reading this post again, I think I made Jinkai sound like a really bad guy. Fact is that he isn't, he allowed Yong Liang (he did the experiment with me) and I to take other's results to use for the report.

I start to feel that I am studying with a bunch of slackers, it makes me one too. Most of them love to have fun (fun-loving creatures). It's really very different as compared to my previous class. [I daren't slack in my previous class.] This class is much wilder.

"As a child, a library card takes you to exotic, faraway places. When you're grown up, a credit card does it. "

Sam Ewing (1920 - 2001)  

Tracing back the recent events that happened, I can recall playing Volleyball, Captain's Ball and Pool. Those I watched include - Basketball and Football. [The reason I chose to watch is because I suck at those games.]
Today, we played Badminton. How interesting, a new sport every time. So far, we haven't played back the same sport. Badminton's good though. I just play it with Jonathan (my cousin) yesterday by the way. Yong Liang insists on playing with the rules of servicing etc.. Not only do I dislike it, I absolutely hate, detest, loathe it! I never see Yong Liang as a law-abiding person frankly speaking. I felt quite irritated that he introduces this method despite my disagreement (and pleading). Servicing does promote better game play (so to speak) but it makes the game confusing and is certainly not required in a leisure game. [Actually, the other reason I dislike this servicing thing is that I have no idea how it work, let alone appreciate it.] Also, I suck at playing doubles, bad coordination. I kept looking if Ben wants to hit the shuttlecock and try to avoid getting too close to him. Yong Liang plays as if he were in a competition.
[Oh no, I went out of point! I wanted to comment on why my classmates are slackers, hence the topic heading "slack//class", instead I.. duh.. Oh, forget it, I'll talk about this next time. Nevertheless, let's try to drag back to the topic.]
[er..] Isn't it ironical that Yong Liang doesn't slack during sports? [Hey, at least there's some connection..] Period.

[My secondary school teacher always advise me not to start a sentence with a word, and I truly respect his wishes.] Watched Terminator 3 today. It is not turned out as well as I expect. Very good effects I have to admit. But the way Terminator (Arnold Schwarzenegger) defeats T-X (Kristanna Loken) is somewhat unentertaining. Jonathan pretty much agrees with me on that part. Nice machines though, especially those planes, there're really cool I've to admit.

(Drinking) "Coffee isn't my cup of tea. "

Samuel Goldwyn (1882 - 1974)  

Reached Jonathan's place at half past seven. Ours hands got itchy and decide to play an hour of badminton [yes! again!], of course I do not think Jonathan's mother is much pleased about it.
We played for around 10 minutes, and the Sepak Takraw gang came and.. and.. and.. we let them have the court. [hey, there have 5 people!] We moved to the other court, and we're pretty lazy to set up the net and stuff, so we played without a net.
Unlike the night at my place, the void decks of his estate is quite lively. Malay boys play soccer at one corner, noisy chattering of the senior citizens, not forgetting children's bicycles invading our badminton court... At first, we played a completely lousy game. Jonathan kept hitting the shuttlecock out of the court. I am very lazy, and refuse to save any of the shuttlecock even if I could. The shuttlecock kept falling on the ground, and the only form of excercise we are getting from it is to bend down and collect the shuttlecocks.
The funny thing is that, after three guys sat on the bench with their badminton rackets, we started to buck up immediately, and I do mean immediately. Jonathan starts to aim within the court (very rare), I start hitting harder too. We tried hard to save each other's shuttlecocks, hitting with much more speed and precision. We played for an extra 15 minutes. Those 3 fellows saw us playing this way and left, thinking we ain't going to let them have the badminton court anyway. After they left, we grew tired and I told Jonathan that it's time to return back.
Somehow we play better with people watching us. It's really weird. But does that make us "Attention Seekers"? lol

Not swimming pool, I am referring to the pool as in pool and billiards. We supposed to have our 3-hour Quantitative Analysis class today, but the teacher shorten it to 2. I am quite happy about it actually; it isn't exactly a joy to be in that class. However, in addition to another 2-hour break we have, it totals up to 3-hour worth of free time.
I can't recall who suggested it, but it wasn't long that I find myself at the pool house. Those whom I know who went there were (in alphabetical order): BenBen, Peishan, Priscilla (I think that's her name, I can't confirm; many a times I daren't call her name), Xinni, Yong Liang and Zhi Yuan. They asked me if I tried pool before and I shook my head. I lied (not verbally at least).

"Put your hand on a hot stove for a minute, and it seems like an hour. Sit with a pretty girl for an hour, and it seems like a minute. THAT'S relativity. "

Albert Einstein (1879 - 1955)  

As a matter of fact, I did try pool. Once, I played once only. I won too, against Billy (I think we were at Billy Billiards, lol). Billy made a mistake, allowing his white ball to go into the hole without touch his last ball (the black one). If it weren't for him to tell me that I've won, I wouldn't have possibly known it too. However, I do not consider myself knowing how to play still; I can't even hold the cue properly.
Anyway (anyhow), back to the point. Zhi Yuan taught me pool there. I played against him and lost the first round with him. I played the second round and won! This time, I did not win by that foul committed by Billy. I really did win.
Reasons I won: I am damn lucky, watching those solid-colored balls entering those hole. Zhi Yuan is constantly pointing out to me which ball to hit (although he kinda stopped after I left 3 balls). I have quite a number of chances to place the white ball anywhere I want.
Reasons Zhi Yuan lost: White ball goes into the hole several times. He has been quite unlucky as he failed to direct the ball into the holes. The position of his ball does not favor him, as mine is blocking a lot of hole entrances (I never intend for this to happen, those balls just went there themselves, hahaa). More importantly, Peishan taunts him constantly, supporting me instead.
Beginner's luck perhaps? I do not know about it, but Zhi Yuan looks at the pool table in dispair. He was so mad that time. He couldn't even believe he lost.

Aloha! There are several changes in this blog:

MSN Display Pic.   

+ Added Affiliates on the right bar
+ Added MSN Display Picture on the right bar
+ Changed the existing coding in the template to make the file size smaller (I always love doing these minor tweaks)
+ Customized the template of the feedback/comments page.

Right now there is only 1 affiliates, so it should be affiliate, with an "s". If you have a blog, be it using blogger or any other, give me a comment at the bottom of this blog and I might add you to my list.
MSN Display Picture is a feature found in MSN Messenger 6.0, which is an instant messenger. To save the display picture in your hard disk, right click on the image and "Save Picture As..." (this is for Internet Explorer browsers only).
Have you notice the colored bars on the extreme right? They used to be coded using style sheets (<div> tags for you info.). Now it is just a simple .gif file, this is done to save space, hehee.
I finally customized the template of the feedback/comments. It is not completed yet, half done only, but does look quite cool duncha think?

The reason why I wrote this post is I do not know how to delete this post, so I edit and over write it. I think there's a delete button somewhere, but... can't find it.

I would like to say that I-
never meant to make you cry,
I think about you everyday,
no matter what your friends might say...

Kym Marsh (Singer)  

When I am returning home this day, I decide to alight at Jurong East Station. I stepped out of the station and walked around Jurong East Central. For what reason? For none. I walked into the book store (they did not sell Web Design in a Nutshell, sadly) and walked around and walked straight home. I past by Yuhua Primary School and looks admired the school's architecture. I stayed for a second or two and left towards the overhead bridge.
Then, there's a very faint voice calling me accompanied with a child's laughter. No, I am not telling a ghost story! I continue to walk as I turned my eye balls toward the direction of the sound, taking a peep. I daren't look back again. I saw someone with a white shirt moving at an incredible speed. Ghost story NOT! Catching a glimpse, I quicken my steps ignoring the faint calling of my name. My legs aren't long, but they seem to bring me further than usual.
I did so till I reach the very end of the over head bridge. Noticing that the callings are getting louder, I walked briskly towards the market, away from my home.
I reached the market. I looked back, only to find myself alone. What a relief! Thank god I escape from my younger brother.

My first two days at school are really nice. I met totally new friends, some whom have tried hard to do a course switch even. When I am happy that I get into this course, a number of students are upset over their entry. They are sort of forced in, fillers I would say. However, if it's not for them, BioInformatics won't be there.

Day one
I had Web Publishing, Organic Synthesis and Reaction Mechanism (OSRM) and Molecular Genetics. I am quite familiar with Web Publishing. Our course is using Dreamweaver MX1 to teach. I'm quite native to Dreamweaver1, I use Dreamweaver 3.0, 4.0 and now MX. I use it to create web pages (although much of this blog are self-coded) for several years.
Web Publishing lessons will include: Browser standard differences (I am quite familiar with, after all I meddled with these things for some time already), Resolution (I am very familiar with, I am very particular about resolutions) and DHTML2 (I like these stuff, but I do not know and do not use much of it except CSS3)
OSRM is gonna be hard this time, I don't like that word "organic", fear that word "synthesis", loathe the word "reaction" and I rather not talk about "Mechanism".
Molecular Genetics MIGHT be interesting, hehee.
I spend the first day speaking only to Yong Liang and BenBen. I speak to no other. Good friend4 SMS-ed me and instruct me to be acquainted with Zhi Yuan. At evening, good friend4 also set up an online chat session consisting of Zhi Yuan, BenBen, herself and me. I felt weird chatting online with a person I never spoke to in class. He's alright I guess.
Hua Ming told me to look out for Pei Shan too. He claims she's cute and pretty. But then again, everybody is cute and pretty to him. lol
I met several ex-classmates: Minghao (no change definitely, he asked if I were still alive..), Chongkok (extremely intelligent fellow), Jinyao, Yu Sin (gosh, she look as if she went for plastic surgery! She's got prettier. Gone is the Ah-Bu5 look), Huaming (he bumped onto me on purpose to create a "chance" meeting, hahaa), Sylvia (miscellaneous changes in hair do), Joan (quite a bit of change too!), Guanjie (he asked me about Flash MX6, I love answering his questions), Teckhui and Alvin.
Ex-lecturers I seen include: Adeline Koh (she remembered me surprisingly, either I'm too good or..), Goh Tong Hng (still cheery as ever), Elango (He won't remember me even if I called him, so I watched him past at a distance.) and that A&P7 teacher whose name I can't recall.

"Why judge a book by it's cover when you can do so by it's spine."

Me, dew  

Day two
Yong Liang became the class representative, with Earnest being the assistant and another lady - the treasurer (the teacher claims females are better with money. That's pretty insulting. It's like saying males embezzle class funds). A short practical briefing followed by a 2 hour break. Good friend4 called me who no reason and ask me where I am. Good friend4 brought Erma (no visible change) with her and said 'hi' to Yong Liang and I, then left hurrily to her next class. I still wonder why she called actually. Met Chongkok at the loo too (rhymes? a little?).
I really spoke to Zhi Yuan as instructed by good friend4! He looks pretty beng actually. Turns out that he's a pretty nice person. I guess one should never judge a book by it's cover (I mean, just look at the spine is enough, no need covers). Spoke to Pei Shan a little too. She told me about the Singapore Poly ghost story (the one about the Red Bridge). It's not scary at all, and to think some people even avoid walking on the red bridge because of that! Spoke a little to Bo En (the first day, he was called "Bo Eng" which meant not free in hokkien, lol).
Met Guo Wei at the Main Library (Annex Building), he's my ex-classmate. He is reading a forum about how a fish die and the mistakes the owner made, how weird...
Yong Liang, BenBen and I went to the BizIT (Business Information Technology) Library to find "Web Design in a nutshell". Can't seem to find it there. We might have to buy that dumb SG$42 book, just wanna see if it's worth it. Black and white, and yet SG$42, too expensive.
To end the day, I had "Web Publishing" practical class. Yes, using Dreamweaver1. They taught us how to create table and do some simple HTML8 formatting. I do not use tables, I prefer the div and span tags. And also, I do not format much with HTML8, I use CSS3. I find it a torture when I am coding in the way that I dislike. I don't feel it's good to show off so I stick with the teacher's method. Yes, it is simple to understand, however it is by no chance easier to create as compared to CSS3. duh.. Day ended at half past 5.

1) Dreamweaver MX is a WYSIWYG (What-You-See-Is-What-You-Get) web editor by Macromedia.
2) Dynamic Hyper Text Markup Language, consists of cascading style sheets and layers etc.
3) Cascading Style Sheets, something I use quite often as you can see.
4) She started addressing me as "good friend" since our email conversations.
5) Ah bu is mother in hokkien, a chinese dialect.
6) Flash MX is a web animation program by Macromedia.
7) A&P is Anatomy and Physiology in short.
8) Hyper Text Markup Language. That is the basic language for the internet.

My mother has been refusing my recent attempts of sleeping later than midnight. She'll stay in my room and refuse to leave till lights off. I wonder what has happen to trigger her unusual behavior. Maybe she read an article on the papers about sleeping late. Maybe her colleagues told her something new. Maybe it's my aunt. Maybe.
Anyway, it's hard for me to get used to the new sleeping time slot. I used to sleep at 2 in the morning. I still get enough sleep as I take afternoon naps, though occasionally. But this just doesn't at all please her.

But why do I sleep late? (in no particular order)
Television:

"Better late than never."

John Heywood (1497?-1580?)  
Proverbes. Part i. Chap. x.  

Good shows appear at midnight thank to MediaCorp's excellent time slot planning.
Reading: I have a habit of reading magazines at midnight.
Online Activities: It's my habit to surf the net from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m.. Chatting and more surfing at 10 p.m. to 1 a.m.. Downloading takes place all day long without much monitoring hence not that big a deal.
Influenced by friends: This is the more likely reason in my opinion. Recall a scenario when you and your friends are literally competing on how late or how short you sleep. It happens all the time! One will proudly reveal he or she sleeps for 5 hours and the other will reveal (with much more pride) that he or she sleep for only 4! Never have I heard of my friends competing for who sleeps the earliest or similar.

Most of the people of my age group sleeps at odd hours. I somehow followed them unconsciously. Am I a victim of the classic case of mob mentality? I would like to think so. I certainly have my friends to blame for this.

In true blue (Dr. Charles Simonyi's1) Hungarian Notation fashion - txtIEnteredBioInformatics2. [Damn Dreamweaver hasn't got a superscript button.. duh..] I got the confirmation for my entry at midnight using Singapore Polytechnic's online services (it's extremely badly integrated? Badly integrated? Wrong phrase. "not integrated" should have been a better phrase.). It's been quite a relieve actually. I was afraid I couldn't get in, as illustrated in my previous posting. [oh~! Have you seen the TodayOnline newspaper? You haven't? You should! http://www.todayonline.com/ Exellent usage of stylesheets and javascript!] Gone are my worries. I am

BioInfomatics Modules  

Biochemical Techniques
Molecular Genetics
Organic Synthesis and Reaction Mechanism
Quantitative Analysis
Unix and Windows Operating Systems
Web Publishing

all set for my second year.
Note my modules in the pink box on your right. Biochemical Techniques sounds boring to me to a certain extend. Molecular Genetics sounded pretty scary, at the same time, interesting. I do not know how far my interest will go though, past statistics have proven my interest to be... I have no idea what Unix and Windows Operating Systems refer to frankly. I don't think they are going to teach us how to use Windows though. The word "Web Publishing" is a little vague too, I can think of a hundred-and-one things that fit into this category. If only it meant creating web pages...
One of the reason I chose BioInformatics is the fact that I know a little about computers (a little on software, none on hardware) and I am interested in.. Oh no! I can't seem to be able to say I am interested in BioTechnology. Now, that's bad. Real bad. I hope (Nozomi3 is going to Mars!) I'll be able to excel in those computer related subject so that they can pull my marks up a little. hehee.
Yong Liang (my current and still-to-be current poly classmate) and BenBen (Schoolmate, coursemate to be exact. He's in the opposite class) are in the same class as me. Only 1 class for BioInformatics. Guess I'll miss Jinyao4 who is in BioTechnology (General). *lol*

1) Dr. Charles Simonyi worked for Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (XPARC) when he first comes up with the Hungarian Notion. Now he works for Microsoft.
2) BioInformatics is part of the BioTechnology course
3) Nozomi is a Japanese spacecraft with the intention of exploring Mars. Formerly known as Planet-B; it is owned by the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science in Japan. So why mention this? Nozomi is "Hope" in Japanese, so I thought of.. hehee... eeto... You see, I was viewing this article a minute ago.
4) Jinyao is one of my better friends at school, pretty funny chap. Joker Type. Crappy Type. Like-me Type.

My second year in school will start next Monday, July 07, 2003. I am quite excited about it, at the same time, er.. not so excited. Reason being, heck (I can't complete my explanation in one sentence if I use 'Reason being').. Explanation is found right below this paragraph.
I study in Singapore Polytechnic (SP for short) for a Diploma

When people search for "Life Quotes" they are often looking for quotes about life. Why do the major search engines only give them hundreds of pages of commercial garbage about Life Insurance Quotes?

- Bill Austin