Black and White

Black and White- the new range of experimental decadent deserts from Kenchin's Culinary Laboratory

Hunger

Another past 12am finish at the lab today.. and without sleep from the previous night.. feeling tired but more hungry than anything.. despite not having dinner till now.. even 2 lean pork chops and 2 eggs is more than enough.. I could've (should've?) done without but decided its good to have some protein.. tired but not going to give up until I grasp victory..

Blue

Crystal Violet dye in a shade of blue- even scientists have a sense of aesthetics

Hot Data

Eureka! I've got it! my supervisor and I created a commotion in the whole lab, cheering once we opened the PDF of the data analysis that showed the graph.. untill the big boss came by to see what was going on.. handed him a piece of paper with just 1 graph on it.. and he had a smile on his face.. the first of our radioactive cell kill experiments have succeeded! and the data obtained is just IMMACULATE.. the graph fitted beautifully to the points.. as small as it was, it was a moment to rejoice and savour..

My supervisor took one copy, stamped it "Recieved 18/8/08" and asked me to autograph it.. so that we can remember this day.. thru many trials and tribulations, and tho we've sowed in tears and often frustration.. we are begining to see the harvest ripen.. bearing fruits of success.. this week promises to be an exciting one..

Inter-department soccer on thursday.. a high speed sport with science geeks.. but after revenge on Dept of Genetics 2-1, the Biochem team feels like they can take on the rest of the Faculty of Science.. it'll be a round robin with teams from every department and research institute.. may the best nerd win.. and as decreed by Supervisor, "make sure you score some goals man!"

Get up..

It has been a rather disappointing week.. tho it did end off with a slight bright tick on it.. got more data- one of my experiments showed EXACTLY what we were looking for.. showing the cellular lethality of ultra short ranged radiation. Beautiful...

I figured out that whilst its painful, life is never fair to us at all.. just guess that we have to dust off and get up again.. I was at soccer training today with the kids.. and when one of the kids got taken down by another tackle, his dad at the sidelines called out "GET UP! come on! get up!". It astounded me.. rather than tending to his injured son, he told him to get up and fight back for the ball.. maybe thats what I need.. someone to yell at me to get back right up.. and for me to yell at myself to get up and continue fighting..

People may not reward excellence.. but why do it then? I think I've found the reason:

"We are what we repeatedly do.. and thus, excellence is not an act, but rather a habit"

-Aristotle

So then being immaculate in my work or efforts should be a habit rather than a one off.. it should not be dependent on any condition.

It has been a hard bashing this week.. but slowly and surely I'll get up and fight harder..

Bitter

To finish the Poster for Melbourne Protein Group 2008, I haven't had sleep in 2 days, computer crashed 2x and I had to start again from scratch.. did 3 experiments at 1 go per day in the lab just to keep up.. was in the lab till 12:49am.. just to win the Best Poster award for the MPG conference.. but no, they wouldn't give it to me.. to make it even worse they split the prize up into smaller prizes to give out.. and I still didn't get it..

Bitterness.. I feel it gripping in my heart.. for the first time, I had all intention of swearing aloud.. but I just sucked it in.. they always say "hardwork pays" does it? because if what I did wasn't hard work.. I don't know what else to call it.. its just immense and incredible frustration.. people just can't recognise the amount of blood and tears I've put in to make it immaculate.. on top of my already heavy honours project.. people recognise dilligence and excellence don't they? As I walked out of Bio21 I just couldnt control the tears.. it really gripped my heart that people could either be that blind or that cruel.. the feeling is so sick.. the sacrifices I bore and they're not appreciated or at least recognised by people.. Just feel like yelling out in indignance.. God why have you done this to me? haven't I already suffered enough for the sake of academics? isn't and shouldn't my efforts be rewarded? the past week was hell but I endured it for the vision of winning.. why should I endure anything else if the world is so blind? when effort, determination and excellence is rewarded?

I walked home alone.. returning to an empty apartment.. just to suffer by myself- as if no one hears me.. no one to give me comfort but for me alone to shrug it off.. doesn't anyone understand how much hell I've gone thru for excellence?

Just feeling incredibly bitter and with anger simmering in me... I had to write this out here just to get it out of my system..

Wish I were up in the snow again..

Wanna go back to the snow.. to that peaceful haven high up in the sky.. oh well.. here're the pix from my cam and from Yan Yan's too..

Day @ Falls Creek

Night @ Falls Creek

Need for Speed

Daniel and Friends

Zhi realizes the truth about Skiing.. ITS MUCH BETTER THAN BOARDING!

Timo goes for the backstab

YEAH!!

The Drovers Dream Team!

Winter Sonata (minus leaves and emo scene)

Zhi's feeling warm..

Shar and Esther with the Arabic Princess Barbarella

Drover's Dream Run

Happy 3 Skiiers

The Dudes and Dudettes

Not with Timo again...

Yan dao kia

Snow gets in your eyes...

Kwah si mi?! Ai pah ah?!

Lone Skiier

Like it or Love it? hmm...dunno

Waiting room

Even the best fall down sometimes..

Chi-Gong

That way lies adventure

Board-Board-Ski

Ready to RUMBLE!

The worst idea ever..

eBeh and the 2 Villans

Timo's Reclined Pose

Snooze..
Fruits of the Spirit? but you can have these with chocolate!

Family Dinner

Dinner

A simple meal of balsamic red wine beef casserole, whole meal multi grain bread and salad greens..

Worn out shoes..

Treads worn so smooth I could probably use them for ice skating.. yet they've bore me swiftly with each stride forward.. Yes they've served me well on 2 half marathons.. countless of birthday sabotage escapes.. mornings round princes park, nights on the treadmills.. this's to my pair of beloved Adizeros.. my first pair of racers.. even so.. my racing has just begun.. :)

Eyeing a pair of red+yellow Adizero Breeze or red Adizero Pro+

Its as simple as dPBS -/-

Eureka! I've found it! the simple solution to the problem of my adherent PC3 prostate cancer cells falling off the petri dishes- instead of with 0.9% saline, wash with Dulbecco's Phosphate Buffered Saline (dPBS) without Mg2+/Ca2+! a trial run today proved it to be true.. felt awesome wave of relief- seems like the pH buffering effect prevents the cells from lysing and floating off..

My first cell kill experiment today.. its strange to feel the empowerment.. the power of a ultra-short ranged, focused, anti-cancer nuclear explosives in my hands.. I just want to dynamite those cancer cells away man! I can just imagine in my mind's eye the cancer cells DNA getting decimated, shredded by Auger electrons.. further potentiated by charged particle interactions; couloumbic explosions- Atomic charge repulsions.. just wreaking havoc in the cancer cells... these serve to sterilize, if not kill cancer cells to prevent them from spreading..

On the other hand.. if it was in the blood or on any other part of the body- as long as it didn't go into the nucleus, it is virtually harmless.. Beauty..