Tak Pernah Berubah

Tempted to make a post in Malay but decided to hold off until later.

Tak Pernah Berubah, the title of the song by Suki Low (of One in a Million fame if you didn't already know). YouTube video of the song at the end of the post. Not sure if it's just me or there's really a hint of, for lack of a better word, poignancy throughout the song but relaxing nonetheless.

Never Did Change. I reckon that to be the correct translation. And I'd like to think that I never did change too; well, not over to the dark side that is. My view of the local academia remains: that a good percentage of them are selfish and avaricious people seeking office and high praises. But try forcing them back to reality and you'll see a showcase of 'faux intelligence'. In any case, I'll be facing this bunch of people in my thesis defence on September 3. Can hardly wait!

Anyway, I'm quite certain that I can finish the slides before Kak Mimi's engagement on the third day of Aidilfitri. Events such as this do make all the slogging worthwhile. After the defence, I'll look forward to Asyura's wedding on the 16th.

Yours truly with Syura and Kak Mimi. Note: this is 3 years old so what you see ain't what you'll get

Thereafter, interview by for a job with the Ministry of Health (nice way of saying government hospitals/public laboratories) in October. Lastly, a project report at Universiti Malaya in November organized by the Malaysia Toray Science Foundation.

For a moment, it's only natural to think that we have everything drawn out. Plan all we want but it's foolish to be too certain of anything that will happen in the future. The one who trusts in him-/herself will scoff at the notion that nothing is ever certain – or at the idea of a sovereign being – and human knowledge trumps everything.

James reminds that "you do not know what tomorrow will bring". And asks, "What is your life?" (James 4:13-17). Taken out of context, mockers will only be happy to say that it's the slogan of the unambitious. Oh well, I'll be the judge of that.

United Federation of Crows

They come in different forms and traits, and they usually stand in the way between point A and B; B being an objective of A.

Many are made to believe that this group people facilitates the process of getting from A to B but the truth is, they slow things down. Worse, there are times when they only function to be a barricade. You know, that one made of razor wires?

atsoram at sxc.hu

Yes, I've tried to be like a roach. Changing myself to adapt but there's nothing much I could do when there's a minefield to the left and a scarp to the right.

天下乌鸦一样黑

And yes, I understand some 谚语 but in their hànyǔ pīnyīn form. So you Chinese-ed fellas out there who love giving names like "banana" can just keep it to yourselves.

*growling*

Stuck in a Rut, I Went to Town

Need to break out!

Ever since the victory at Water-flu, I went back to the countryside and retired to a life of monotonous routine. Instead of growing tubers, weeding the garden, and tending to the chickens, I invested in some black and white seedlings sold under the trade name "Standard 102/102 Microsoft Natural *". I was told I'd reap the rewards in about 3 months from the day I finished planting them.

Daily, I obediently got up and selected the "seeds" to be sowed. This morning was a departure from the norm. I went to the town hall to support a fellow "farmer", also a war veteran, in his bid to obtain certification for his produce from two goodness-knows-who appointed officials.

Witnessed by representatives of the village chief and friends, he gingerly detailed his farming techniques and at the same time flashed rough sketches of the root system he'd made. Nobody knows if the occasional nods from the officials signaled their comprehension or an exercise to relief pressure on the neck.

I held my breath when the inquiry began. My farmer friend was quizzed about the Five Wives and One Husband **. One by one he answered them all until they came to the Husband. Try as he might, he couldn't seem to satisfy the inquirer. By now, even the cat that was lying by the wooden barrel began to walk away – uninterested.

The bell tolled and I guess the season's harvest wasn't quite what everyone was expecting. Apparently, some in the hall had already made up their mind on what they wanted even before descending upon our town. They wouldn't compromise. It doesn't matter that there was indeed a product. They were looking for a certain shape, size, colour, and weight.

A modern "reenactment" of that medieval scene at the "town hall"

Sadly, the colours olive, emerald, jade, lime, turquoise, teal, moss, chartreuse, pistachio, and avocado aren't green. See, he said green and they said, "Moss and teal". Never mind they weren't in agreement. The farmer's got it wrong alright.

Ah, soon I'll be sitting on that chair facing my own demons. When the time comes, I hope I match my shades of blue correctly. Absurd? You bet!

_________________

* Keyboard [layout]
** What, When, Where, Who, Why, and How?

Wednesday. The day I went and lend support to my friend who has to defend his thesis; an oral examination also known as - to be pretentiously genteel - viva voce.

    

That Much Needed Gaiety: A Sequel to Mile Marker 418

The participants of ICMSM 2011 are already pouring into the island but I don’t really care. They’re either the avaricious academics I so often denounce or Facebook-addicts in lab coats. The latter are a common sight in most labs from 9 to 5 each day; present company excepted.

Included – in the exodus of the educated – are two very special people who worked shared their life together with us more than a year ago (and still do, virtually). Meet Kelvin Swee, the dude who says ‘yes’ to everyone and the same guy who spent an inordinate amount of time cleaving MUNANA using neuraminidase to yield methylumbelliferone. The two groups of people in paragraph 1 should be ashamed. Boy, is he a sight for sore eyes when I walked into the lab during lunch hour. Didn’t know he’d be there today since I’ve agreed to meet with the other fellas.

Immediately, that marketplace feel I missed since their departure came back. Funny how the situation quickly turned out to be like speed dating on epinephrine and it was cacophonous at time. Handshakes. Pats. Lots of laughter. Conversations in English, Hokkien, Mandarin, and Malay. Rarely anyone completes two sentences in one language. I wonder what the Syrian dude, who was with Kelvin, thought of us. I wonder, too, what 'rojak' is in Arabic.

As I’m typing this, some of them decided to get together at Straits Quay. I’m giving that a pass since I’d be meeting Kelvin and Wen Tyng (the second dudette who will be giving an oral presentation) during the congress’ opening tomorrow. Due to the inept handling of my registration and payment (processing took 1 month!), I was told two weeks ago that payment didn’t go through yada yada... And I found out today how much they have to worry about spending for work-related activities: imperceptible. USM 0 — UM 20.

Hopefully, meeting them and attending conference together as presenters would alleviate that feeling of despair. I’m optimistic about this ☺. I should turn in now. Too much jocund repartee, guffawing, and a hot afternoon are giving me a raspy voice.

A sequel to Mile Marker 418. I ought to think harder about the title next time.
        

Digging a Hole

I'm posting from 2 feet under; within a hole I digged for myself. That's to hide from my embarrassment. Once, I posted something about the great people I've come to hold dear during my two years in the lab and I left out one person.

And this one person is someone quite close to me. In fact, if I were forced to rank those jocund folks, this person would be quite high up. Gosh! An honest mistake on my part yet it felt terrible.

To [Wendy] Kang Wen Tyng, one of the most efficient and hardworking – not to mention, resourceful – workers I've met: you deserve that place among them, well-regarded people. You're making good headway toward in your studies now and I even heard you'll be converting your present work to a doctorate. All the best, girl!

Firdaus & Wendy: We all miss that look on your face, the laughter, and some crazy moments in the lab

We're all behind you. Go get 'em!
     

White November: Recollection and Recounting de novo

Even if it's hot and humid here, Malaysians experience the occasional whiteout caused by a really heavy downpour especially now that the monsoon season is upon us. Elsewhere, it's pumpkin, candles, and snowfall.

September and October have said their goodbyes (good riddance!) and I'm welcoming November. And I can feel the noose tightening around my neck. Anyone realize that time somehow moves faster when we're hoping that they'd just slow down? Maybe it's just me dwelling in the past.

For so many reasons, I wish to be stuck in May and maybe, July. With each passing month, it becoming more and more difficult to complete this arduous journey. One made worse by the vista of decadence (huh?) and the filth emanating from it; all sustained by a stream flowing from that deceitful heartland (what?)

I can't think straight at the moment but my hope for November is... I wonder if there's anything I should look forward to.

The good feelings from six months ago? Is it the carefree days of June? Wait! The felicitous upshots of July? Those were the [more recent] days, and were being the operative word.

All I know is that the alarm has been set to go off at 8 and I have a huge amount of debt to settle – sleep debt accumulated from the past few weeks, that is.

     

24 + 6 = A Possible Windup

We've heard from the sages of old that there's no such thing as "not having enough time" and there's only "a bad time planner". I'm not so sure if 40 years from now I'd be saying that. 

Maybe not. Maybe I'll go, "Since 2000, time planners are an extinct group. With so much to do, their absence and presence are likened to that proverbial drop in the ocean.

"You see, unlike the 1970s, technology has grown by leaps and bounds and more output is required of us. Consequently, as one demand is satisfied..."

Really? Am I just finding excuses? I can't seem to finish anything and even if I did complete a part of it, I was rejoicing inside and immediately took a day worth of break. That's how tough certain things are.

I sleep 7, sometimes 6, at times 5 hours and I (my eyes) absorb blue light for the rest of my waking hours. Still, nothing's crossed out from my to-do list. of things to be done that seem go on and on.

Relaxation comes in the form of grilling that centre-cut fish fillet seasoned with nothing more than just salt and pepper for instance. If I decide to take more time off, then I'd be kneading dough (Newsflash: there's a no-knead bread recipe available online. See? Even bakers need more time to, say, prep a sourdough starter. Or to walk the dog and do the laundry).

It was 8 years (and still counting) ago that I last made pizza. Nowadays, my low-cal floury affair is Indian through and through. Who? Meet Miss Atta, people. That's right, chapati from atta flour. Goes well with that leftover rendang or a mashed up can of mackerel in tomato sauce.

Chapati anyone? Kneading it is rather therapeutic. All that pent-up energy and frustration...

Really, I wish there's an additional six hours or so in a day. Then I'd have nearly 2 days extra per week. Oh well, I've got to suck it up and push on. I'm glad I still come here to freshen up.

Clammy No More

Oh yeah! The sun has decided to step away from the thick clouds and warm things up here on the ground. Two of the five garlic cloves that I buried last week have also decided its time to breach topsoil. And no, I did not arrange nor wait for all these to happen so I can type something here.

Ah, I love this! (Source: stock.xchng)

I'm not in the mood to do a lot of thinking (need some time to warm up, heheh!) so I opened up Notepad and glanced through the points I would like to include in the acknowledgement section of my thesis. Renovation works in the apartment unit below ain't making the environment more conducive; au contraire, mon ami.

Then I came to the following paragraph at the bottom of the document which was sent to me almost two years ago. Each time I read it, I'm impressed by that simple, yet profound (?), reason why people keep doing things that had been done in the past. A very good reminder [from "Sophie"] when faced with doubts and apprehension.

The same holds good for research. There are thousands of scientists who burn the midnight's oil till the day they die and people may never know them or wonder if he has even contributed to society. But when the next person picks up from where he has left, he is providing a platform on which you can continue, and maybe, the next person, is able to achieve or make some remarkable contribution to mankind. A genius at work, he may be, but if nobody researched or published papers in journals, there would be no referrals. So I think success in a society largely depends on this. I know many may disagree.

____________
 

Setting Windows Media Player to shuffle the playlist, the scribe thoroughly enjoyed (surprisingly) Green Day's Boulevard of Broken Dreams besides the usual flavours like Firehouse's Love of a Lifetime or Martika's Toy Soldier. He attributed that to the mind's need for something stimulating. He also strives to cut down on the excessive use of contractions – that'd easily confuse – unless necessary.

 

Whispering in the Dark

Hello World!

Ah, those two words marked my foray into the world of programming. Back in varsity, I’m presented with two choices for a compulsory subject: Calculus or Programming (in C++). Being the idiot in math, I’d naturally go for computer stuff. How wrong I was; to think it’s about writing a working program. We have to work out the mathematical formulae to calculate the value of some spheres and some stuff about progression. I wonder how I survived that one.

Oh, I’m getting pretty good at C++ now besides Visual Basic and Java. Thanks to the fantastic books by John Smiley from the library. The best thing is that I don’t have to cram everything in 14 weeks. Just go at my own pace in a "simulated classroom atmosphere"

Stock from stock.xchng

It’s 1:32 AM right now and I can hear the revving from a performance exhaust in the distance. Saturday nights are never old, are they? I looked out my window just now and pretended I saw that beautiful skyline of Portland, Oregon. I don’t know, besides aurora and some deserted highlands, I love looking at randomly-lit cityscapes with their reflections on the water. Call me short-sighted since Johor might look just as great at night when viewed from across the strait in Singapore. The Kuching waterfront too, for that matter. Still, I like the night time view of the Red Square in Moscow, New York, Tallinn, Chicago, Bruges, and many more places fitting my inadequate description. Speaking of New York, CSI:NY and The Apprentice did well to win me over; yellow cabs, dark buildings, dark orangey sky, and steam rising up from some manhole or pipe.

Anyway, if you’d rummage through my archive you’d see my other make-believe journeys to Vienna and my favourite places: Arizona, Colorado, Utah, and New Mexico; although I didn’t make a direct reference to them. Back then (and I still do), I was thinking about mountains, valleys, and plains.

Eyes are getting heavy. I’ve just finished answering questions on YAHOO! ANSWERS. Figured, earlier, that since I’ve got nothing to do, maybe I’d help the folks out in Biology but I ended up answering more questions in the Relationship section, telling smitten kids to go easy (you know what I mean), giving my two cents to lovelorn guys, and imploring pregnant mothers to stay off alcohol – sending them to CDC’s site on Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD). Ha! What’s gotten to me? Too much damaging “answers’ on Y!A maybe? I'm not a pro and with failures of my own, I'm just another person who 'understands' what the other person goes through.

Time to turn in. Good night. Or спокойной ночи . Yes, I’m glad to announce I can read Russian now but I don’t understand [virtually] a word of what I read. I’d need Google translate for that. Learning the Russian alphabets is fun and easy. Try it sometime. Takes no more than 4 hours and a few hours each day, thereafter, to recap. Hope life's treating everyone well. I'm not feeling particularly happy but I hope I did some good for someone among the 6 billion. =)

 

One Cent at a Time

Dear Sir,

You have to pay RM 750 prior to handing in 10 copies of your thesis. Pay up!

Well, I’ve summarized the contents of the letter I received from the varsity's Institute of Postgraduate Studies today. They weren’t that blunt but still, they’re asking me for money.

Anyway, it did occur to me where and how I’m going to come up with that amount without clearing out my savings. I guess it’s one of those times when one’s faith is being tested.

Did I mention I landed myself a job? I haven’t replied to the email yet but before you think it’s some four figure salary kind of job, it’s just a part time job. What I have to do is write articles and for an article of about 500 words, I get paid RM 5. That's about a cent per word. So, RM 745 left to go if, and when, I finished my first article.

Hmm... Do I sound distressed? Honestly, I’m fine here. And it’s Friday. Time sure flies when you’ve made an appointment with the dentist. Speaking of the dentist, I was told I might have to pay a small amount [in the range of 0 – 50]. Let’s see how it went.

That’s just a fraction of what people pay in private hospitals. I think private dental clinics charge that much too. Last I heard, it costs four hundred ringgit per tooth to four grand if one chooses to stay for a few days. Ah, fortunate people.

I know the reactions of some people when they hear the word “government” or “public”. But I’ve had some pleasant experience in the past so yeah; I’ll put my money there. That is if I have to pay at all. Alright, enough of dentists and hospitals for now. This is what I watched before I typed this. So, click and watch it. Its 10 cents per view for the kids in Kenya.

Here’s Jubilee Project’s Picture This. A fundraiser with The Supply Education Group. Enjoy!

 

Mile Marker 418: End of a Chapter

So, here’s the end of the journey. By that I mean the end of a colourful and a very memorable period of my life yet. I’d use the entire adjectives in the English lexicon but still, I wouldn’t be able to reproduce that wonderful feeling in everyone reading this.

They’re special in their own way – conspicuous or otherwise. Every mention of the lab and every piece of picture evoked both gladness and a tinge of poignancy: glad to have established that bond and poignant because two years ain’t enough.

I’m well aware that there will be (and there has been) a getting together but it’s different. Like most people, we always hope that the good things don’t go away. Still, I’m happy to see them all settled down in their respective locations and I’m worried when one or two complain about work-related illness.

The bond is real, the mirth genuine, and the openness something to envy. We’re not pretentious and that love we display beats the grandiosity in which racial integration is being portrayed in the media. If we’re anything to go by, then what people see on the silver screen promoting racial harmony is everything but. We don’t need a list of standard protocols because we’ve achieved that.

Here's more food to mark our mates' departure: Asyura - undergraduates - Kak Mimi - undergraduates & birthday celebration

Regardless whether they’re undergraduate students on a relatively short sojourn or a postgraduate researcher with a seemingly endless amount of work to do, these people deserve a mention. A shout out to them that has appeared in Mile Marker 418: Loh Keat Lay, Mimi Taib, Poh Keng Chong, Teh Boon Aun, Lim Wui Chen, Lim Gaik Ling, Firdaus Latif, Shamimah Parveen, Nur Asyura, V. Kithalakshmi, Kelvin Swee Chuan Wei, Erna, Kang Wen Tyng, Khairiah, Shi Rou, Amira Suriaty, Rajiv Ravi, Sinan, Kiourmasi, Joanne Lee Yenping, Haw Boon Ping, Yusof, Yen Ying, Xiao Wei, Eric, Sok Wah, Shau Leong, and not wanting anyone to be last in the list, me.

I hold each and everyone close to my heart.

This is Me: Take 1

Today, I set up my stall at the intersection of Reminisce Road and Appraise Avenue. For some unknown reasons, I walked past my usual haunt right in the middle of Reminisce.

All this time, I regaled my friends with stories of school, of childhood, and a little on what growing up was like at home. Whilst experience shapes a person, I couldn’t attribute everything about me directly to it. So, what am I like, really – with or without experience in the equation?

Peaches playing in the background.

Let’s start with music. Something I appreciate (composition and talents) yet deaf when it comes to making music. I guess I’m more inclined to studying the words and meaning of a song together with the mood set by the melodies. Preference-wise, I’m nearly an all-inclusive but it very much depends on my ears. If I say I’m into slower, relaxing ones, I have many power ballads scattered among my playlists. Heck, I even enjoy Green Day!

I remembered being called “old” for my choice of music and the radio station I tune in to every time I drive. So I suppose you get what I meant. This leads nicely to my first persona. Note: I didn’t just grab these adjectives out of the hat. It’s what I’ve been told and affirmed time and again. I’m quite the sensitive type. Sentimental too. I don’t call every person I meet as friends (they are in a non-hostile manner), and my circle of friends are important to me. They’re people I cherish, care deeply for, and the same whom I’d go two miles with, and back. I’d think for them and take into consideration their feelings before springing to action. Farfetched you say?

Math isn’t my favourite subject in school. And I take great joy in writing, both for English and Malay subject. It's an avenue where I'd be able to put down my thoughts, on a piece of paper I may add, but usually in an indirect manner. I'd use a different settings and situations to represent the subject matter. Other times, I'd just put them in a poem. And one thing I've found out about conveying my thoughts this way is that I don't have to see the reader's expressions. I wonder to myself, what causes this cowardice?

Naturally (?), writing also means that I’d bury myself in books to explore the different styles people employ in their work; which was exactly what I did. To digress a little, the flair for writing comes with the willingness to write and some hard work thrown into it too. Over time, I realized I enjoyed history very much; particularly war histories. I’ve always known that history favours the victors and I’ve made it my aim to always turn the coin both sides. As an undergraduate when my peers registered for Management courses, something realistic I may add, I find myself drawn to Archaeology and spent so much time for a semester writing about life in the Angkorian era of Cambodia. It’s a wonder why I studied Entomology (to fill up credit hour requirements) instead of something that’d complement my major, Microbiology. Peculiar?

Speaking of peers, they’re a source of encouragement and other times the bane of my youth. *laughs* Growing up, we’re an impressionable bunch, no? I remember the time when I was brooding over the fact that I couldn’t own a football (or soccer, whichever you prefer) boot (or again, cleat, if you prefer) to play with the bunch of kids in school. So, I settled for street soccer and in the process wearing out my school shoes quicker than my parents would say “Ronaldo”. That’s one of many things that I couldn’t have dreamt of given the circumstances. Not that we’re living below the poverty line but let’s just say that my parents aren’t like the blue guy who lives in a lamp.

 

Mile Marker 418: Open Houses

I’ve officially finished my work at the lab and achieved all the project milestones. Until the day I obtained the scroll, I can never be totally free. I still have to go back almost daily to do some [culture] maintenance, cleaning up, and a small but tedious errand – cloning a gene into an expression vector and possible induction of the vector to overproduce a protein which will then lead me to the verification of the protein via SDS-PAGE. ‘Small’ and ‘tedious’ appear to be a gross understatement. It’s a goodwill gesture to my supervisor and something that I’ll give my best to do it.

One a much happier note, I’m looking forward to visiting Firdaus’ family orchard next Tuesday. Fruits! It’d be great if we’d repeat last year’s trip when Kak Mimi and the Kuala Lumpur branch (the Penang 418 being the HQ) members were there.

So, as this topic nears its last stop, I’m posting pictures of the open houses by Kak Mimi, Kitha and Firdaus. Over the years, we’ve stuffed ourselves under the roofs of these gracious host, cut birthday cakes, and fool around in true kampung spirit. But most importantly, we visit one another to celebrate our differences – the Eid, Deepavali and Chinese New Year (I’m not sure who has the pictures of CNY open house). Who’d forget rendang? Or briyani and chapati? Or mandarin oranges, satay, and noodle (sorry, pork wasn’t on the menu as it’s not halal)? And oh, the day out in Taiping Zoo after Kitha's Deepavali open house.

As we hear (again) of racist remarks by some of the most intolerant of people in the country, I take comfort in that the spirit of muhibbah is very much alive as far as we are concerned. Still, I don’t deny that the relationship among the different races took some beating; no thanks to a few bigots frothing at their mouths spewing venom. Wonder why we’re Malay, Chinese, Indians and Others here but Malaysians in the rest of the world.

Someone posted this on Facebook with the same caption. I'll leave it in its original language as I find it funnier that way. No, we weren't fighting.

Julian: pisang tu kat rumah saya.Curi-curi ambik pi goreng, ingat I tak nampak???
Mimi: Itu pisang kami yg beli la..
Kitha: Eh...jadi tak jadi makan lah??

Mile Marker 418: Puerile Vainglory

When I think of false pride and the exaggeration thereof, I can only think of the self-expression of cuteness involving the gang. Let me explain. It was a rather recent (recent being about a decade or slightly more) phenomenon that we see the 'V' sign making its appearance in photographs. If we see it as a victory sign among rebels in war-torn regions in the world (some raise their fists) or a victory salute, now we have it next to the face and the face usually belongs to a girl.

So, besides the V sign (or 2), I've seen 1, 5 and even 2 to the second power (2^2). I'll let you imagine how those were placed. As far as our being vain is concerned, it all began with this:

Yen Ying, final year undergraduate. Honours year if you'd like.

Somewhere, someone somehow came up with this bright idea of getting everyone to pose in the same manner and then get everyone on Facebook to vote for a winner. In no time, everyone submitted their shots and it's not without variation to the original pose. I never thought my picture would see the light of day, so to speak.

Here goes. Some pictures are not in there due to some reasons (you know what I mean). As always, click to enlarge:

Edit: June 13, here's a video by Wong Fu Productions on the evolution of the "Peace" sign. Entertaining but lengthy.

And oh, since Keng Chong had too much free time then, he did these too:

Mile Marker 418: More Food and the Silly Things We Did

Before this one, the last barbeque I had with my friends were during high school back in ’04. Now, it appears that five years isn’t a very long time considering how fast I’ve reached 2009 and my next outdoor open grill.

 It was about 6 pm that time and preparations were underway. Some pieces of chicken were missing and we're glad we found the culprit.

Many were called (for audtion) but few were chosen. These are the ones who... Let's just say they weren't shortlisted.

 Mash potato was a hit. Oh yeah! Two years on and they're still talking 'bout it.

 Realise this: That back then, everyone was well-fed. It's different now.

 See? Good food for everyone. Dude in yellow is Kiourmasi from Iran.

You see, we're really a very well-behaved bunch. Good mannered and a jolly bunch of young adults.

 That was until I decided to wet my hair, tucked in my T, roll up my pants, and started greeting everyone with a lisp.

 And boy, did Keng Chong and Wendy loved the idea of going back in time and followed suit.

Oh, those stick in our hands were the famed satay!

Looking back at all these pictures never, I repeat, never, fails to cause a smile on my face that will almost always progress to an uncontrollable laughter. Something similar to this:

 I suppose that's all for now. And the journey's nearing its end. Movie night in about 10 minutes. I better make my bed and jump right in.
 

Mile Marker 418: Birthday Bashes

Besides movie nights and open houses, birthday bashes are filled with a lot of laughter and crazy stuff. You only need one person to start the whole affair of getting-cream-on-the-fella-next-to-you or drop-candle-wax-on-skin and there'll be chaos!

Since I can't possible post 50 over photos, I've found a nice feature in Picasa Web Album that enables me to embed a slideshow here. Too bad though, I couldn't put a longer (and possible better) captions to every photos. I suppose I have to sacrifice that for space. Still, it's regrettable.

Ah, 2011 will be the last time we celebrate anyone's birthday. This December 31 being the last birthday bash. Well, time to look at past celebrations. From my very first celebration (with a ridiculously creative way of filling a small salad bowl with vegetable) to the longest (lunch, dinner and supper) incorporating the Christmas gift-exchange by the beach.

 

Mile Marker 418: Engagement and Wedding

Let's continue, shall we?

Of the many outings the gang had, our boss' wedding is perhaps the one event that's big in every sense of the word and one where almost everyone went. As of 1 June 2011, Dr Normi is a one-month-old mother. The first Malay wedding for many of us (more here and here) and Shameem's engagement an Indian Muslim affair. Not sure where the pictures of her wedding went.

Wedding's in Sungai Siput and engagement's at Sungai Petani.

Dressed to kill. Except for Joanne.

Introducing, Firdaus, Shi Rou and Kithalakshmi.

The bride. Shout-out to Wen Tyng, Erna, Wui Chen, Boon Ping (dude behind Kak Mimi) and Kelvin (the other dude on the right). Too bad, Blogger don't have the "tag" feature.

The celebrated couple

Shameem's engagement: Sinan (of the lab) and Ahmad from the Middle East. Amira on the right.

Hmm... I'm not sure who the dude in red is.

Still, every time we went out we'd be stuffed. Don't you just love Malaysia?

Mile Marker 418: Tandoori at Kapitan

The first in the series of outings with the gang. Food is always the goal in every outing. In fact, I can't remember if there ever was a time when we went out without a makan-makan (eating) session being planned. Here, we're joined by a handful of people whilst the others are MIA.

Gaik Ling and Keng Chong (this guy who owes me my car maintenance fees *LOL*)

Kak Mimi and Joanne. Much-loved kak besar (in age *winks) of the lab and the blur final year project student

Xiao Wei (fyp) and Nur Asyura. One broke the measuring cylinder and the other seems to attract a lot of unwanted attention and much teasing. Syura, bila kahwin?

Keat Lay. The second in line after big sister Mimi. Burned out from too much error-prone PCR.

Yours truly. Needs no caption, yes?

The only picture with the food captured. It should be eaten with the hand, girl.

In total, we've patronized this outlet opposite Queensbay Mall no less than 5 times. Lunch, tea, dinner, and supper inclusive. Food and a lot of laughter. Priceless.

Mile Marker : 418

As I've deleted my Facebook account many moons ago, I have downloaded most of the pictures of the lab to my computer. Those pictures need a good storage and each time I look at them, it never fails to make me laugh.

October 2008: that was two months after the convocation and I'm there every other day to maintain culture and hang around. I worked in the same lab, too, during my undergraduate final year project. It was rather empty then.


I officially registered as a postgraduate student in 2009 but by then, the ice has melted. And little did I know, we're going to gel and become a very cohesive bunch in the days to come. Over time, we're joined by other final year project students. I see them as my equal and I detest the term "juniors", used to describe those a year or more younger. So, they're friends and I address/reference them all by their name.

As I near completion in my studies, I'd like to put up a series of posts with pictures of some of the best days in an institution driven by greed and power. It's these guys and gals — each with a truly unique personality — that made life more bearable then. To have crossed path with them is a blessing. It is.

Catnaps and Holidays

The traffic’s smoother and the roads appear wider. School holiday is surely here. Not only that, it’s the term break for universities here and summer break for those abroad. I’m certain that the days leading up to the exodus are filled with packaging, storage, paper works and a flurry of other activities.

Near or far, be it by land, air or sea (not sure if anyone still travel long distance in a boat), they return. I had my little homecoming the other day. Not really home but rather a place find some quiet. The university library. Apart from the adjoining new building, the old place has more seats and comfortable ones I must add.

There’s the second floor where I spent most of my free time researching life in Angkor and the audio room where I drifted off to a deep slumber only to be awoken by the staff on duty at that time.

Next, I went to the top floor where the four of us did our Biostatistics assignments and other brain-intensive activities. Like I’ve said here somewhere, the university is the microcosm of the critter-eat-critter world and is a foretaste of the ugly things to come. Perhaps, the one saving grace about all this is the library. The place I met and worked with people I know well. It is also a place of bittersweet memories, mind you.

All in all, nothing beats high school. And I’ll pay her a visit soon.

June already? Time flies.