the flavilab chronicles

how to remove scum

2009-01-23T16:29:00.001+08:00

bus god

2009-01-21T16:28:00.002+08:00

Gasp....
the gods of buses are tiny trucks?

Merry Christmas

2008-12-25T21:10:00.001+08:00

its good to know you have friends half way around the world on christmas day.

Merry Christmas and have an Amazing New Year.

truly asia

2008-12-22T01:29:00.001+08:00

malaysia is the cheapest tourist destination, says X-Change. Cheaper than Chile, South Africa, Kenya and Philippines.

France Study Trip

2008-12-16T04:47:00.009+08:00

Anthony and I were sent for a short study trip to Dr Hong's lab in the university of Lyon. Before the 2 weeks of work in Lyon, we had 1 week of tour around Paris!!! =P

We were sent off at the changi airport by friends.

The Sacred Coeur basilica, Paris.

Hey, its the Eiffel Tower.

The Lourve museum is so huge, we couldn't finish walking though it in one day.

The famous Hall of Mirrors in the Palace of Versailles.

The Grande Arch at the La Defence is really huge. =P

We finally arrived in Lyon, which is possibly slightly colder than Paris. Behind us is the Lyon III University at night. We'll be going everyday to Lyon I University (medical faculty), which is situated quite far away from here. =P

escalator

2008-12-13T18:48:00.002+08:00

escalator in germany. emergency stop is called 'Not Halt'. hmmmmm. i smell a sadist.

one copy

2008-12-12T06:07:00.002+08:00

can i have one copy of god in size A4, and two copies of god in size A3?

splitting cells

2008-11-12T21:29:00.002+08:00

every wednesday is split cell day. yups, thats what i split every week. a whole panel of stably transfected cells. its maintained and not frozen down because when you thaw it, it takes a month or to to stabilize.

this is the amount of facs buffer the lab orders every month. took a pic because its alot, and because it was just outside my office door. of all places, got to put there...

Today in the LB broth of records...

2008-11-10T23:28:00.009+08:00

Today, Anthony submitted his thesis...
and he decided to do something creative.

Presenting...
The Plaque Assay Triple Tower, totally made up of Anthony's collection of PA plates over his one year of honours.

The Plaque Assay Triple Tower, made up of God knows how many 24 well plates, spanning 2 storeys high, if stacked one on top of another. Osama is designing paper aeroplanes now.

Melvin and Anthony.

Anthony

The self acclaimed F4.

Yay.. I submitted by thesis today

sigh... all the plastics

Santa clauses are coming to Flavilab. Its still a bit too early for Christmas.

Ok, time to dump them away...

Microbiology Welcome Tea 2008

2008-10-31T23:25:00.010+08:00

Welcome tea started off with a big bang....

Guess who is Austin Powers?

Its Justin! Quite cute... =P

Flavintage in action!!!

Justin's lab did a dance performance..

This year, everybody wins for performance...

Ivan received the price for Justin's lab.

Our lab got the best food stall for Welcome tea this year... Prof is just grinning ear to ear...

Somehow something tells me that Adrian is a very lucky guy... =P

The flavivirology group.

Welcome Tea Microbiology 2008 (preparation)

2008-10-31T23:08:00.006+08:00

Deco for the seminar room this year, decorated by Sylvie's group.

We are in charge of desserts again this year.

Kim Long busily securing the strings to hold our signboard...

Flavintage. The name for our team this year.

Prof's delight... come eat... don't shy.

Pic before the welcome tea starts...

Final Practise

2008-10-31T22:53:00.006+08:00

Final practise round just before the MicroB welcome T.
Our theme this year is "back to the 70s".

Flavintage in action!

Team flavilab posing for a shot.

Hey, check out our lab T-shirt. Designed by Lysshan and Shu Min. =)

Front

Back

Lysshan and Shu min and the pipette tip boxes

2008-10-24T20:39:00.007+08:00

Today in the Luria bertani broth book of records...

Tallest tower of yellow tip boxes... created by two overly enthusiastic girls.

Then they realised that the sky is the limit....

Inserting the final piece to jam up every box from floor to ceiling.

LB book of records has another new entry... tallest filled tip box tower.

goofing around... =)

ok... time to autoclave the tips.

Practising for welcome T

2008-10-24T20:29:00.004+08:00

MicroB welcome B is just round the corner.
our theme this year is 70's oldies.

Anthony is browsing though his uncle's song book for some fresh ideas...

trying out some new ... ahem.. old songs...

to be continued....

powderful england

2008-10-21T22:35:00.001+08:00

These data reinforce the
growing awareness that noncoding RNAs are key players in
tumor development by placing miRNAs in a central role in
a well-known tumor-suppressor network. As another tumor
suppressor, Rb gene, there still never had published data
about miRNAs involving its downstream pathway.

In the searching of normal control for the Rb cases, the
situation we met in the study just like that in another mRNA
profiling study of Rb

Identification of miRNAs associated with tumorigenesis
of retinoblastoma by miRNA microarray analysis
Jian-Jun Zhao & Juhua Yang & Jianhong Lin & Nan Yao &
Yihua Zhu & Jianlong Zheng & Jianhua Xu &
Jin Q. Cheng & Jian-Yin Lin & Xu Ma

powderful england

2008-10-21T22:35:00.000+08:00

These data reinforce the
growing awareness that noncoding RNAs are key players in
tumor development by placing miRNAs in a central role in
a well-known tumor-suppressor network. As another tumor
suppressor, Rb gene, there still never had published data
about miRNAs involving its downstream pathway.

Identification of miRNAs associated with tumorigenesis
of retinoblastoma by miRNA microarray analysis
Jian-Jun Zhao & Juhua Yang & Jianhong Lin & Nan Yao &
Yihua Zhu & Jianlong Zheng & Jianhua Xu &
Jin Q. Cheng & Jian-Yin Lin & Xu Ma

did you fart?

2008-10-20T17:32:00.002+08:00

Q: did you fart?
A: no, i din fart

Bowling

2008-10-17T22:28:00.008+08:00

Microbiology vs Immunology Bowling outing 2008.

we had a mini competition between the microbiology and the immuno group at clementi...
in other words, it is an official snake eating day for micro dept.
snake population was at its all time low... =(

posing for a shot

anthony and gang goofing around while queing up for their shoes.

Adrian keyed in our names for the game, while Anthony appeared overly fascinated with bowling balls...

Another Lab photo.

Prof is very happy the drain (longkang) is cleaner now. =P

Guess who?

Anyway, immuno won the competition... =P (overall)

mooncakes - invitrogen

2008-10-01T20:31:00.002+08:00

ritz carlton leh, donch pray pray ah. but i really cant taste how atas it was anyway...

Singapore F1 night race.

2008-10-01T01:10:00.010+08:00

The F1 fever is on and this time it hits Singapore.

So Lydia and I went to have a look on sat (during the preliminaries). Didn't have money for the grandstand, so we stood outside the fenced area. Couldn't see much, except for an occassional glimspe of the top part of the f1 car whizzing by. The lighting was excellent.

Love the noise!!!

F1 was live on channel 5 the next day.

Many 1sts in F1 history. i.e. 1st night race crash goes to NP.

1st Night race pit stop drama. Technical error caused Massa to drove off with the fuel pipe still attached to the car, causing injury to one of his mechanics. 3 crew members had to race down the pit stop area to the far end, where Massa was to remove the torn fuel pipe. Massa, whose car was the 1st at the starting grid, became one of the last few to finish the race.

1 car got engine failure, and 2 other cars crashed out of the race. David Coulthard also had a similar accident with fuel pipe attached when he moved off by 1 metre, injuring 1 of his crew. Safety car was used twice.

Fernando Alonso the won the drama filled F1 singapore GP.

ok... looks like sam fish missed the action. tsk tsk... aiyo

Leaving on a jet plane

2008-10-01T00:54:00.005+08:00

Sending Sam off to Sweden...

Yen Ling penning down some thoughts...

Essay writing competition in progress... =P

Fantastic four with the silver surfer. AKA steamboat kaki.

One last pic before taking off...

by the way... dun forget the karolinska t-shirts we ordered =)

mooncakes - promega

2008-09-30T20:29:00.003+08:00

pictures taken a long time ago but now only find time to upload. first time i see such small and weird shaped mooncakes.

email dead

2008-09-29T20:59:00.000+08:00

my email account dieded. they sent me an email to ask me to extend it if i need the mailbox one day before they terminated my account, but it takes 5 days for the application for extension to be processed. thx lor...

-----Original Message-----
From: Computer Account Administrator [mailto:cceaa@nus.edu.sg]
Sent: Mon 9/29/2008 10:30 AM
To:
Subject: Account Termination Notification

[NUS Restricted]

Dear SAM,

Computer Account Termination

Please be informed that your computer account [MICCCCS] will be automatically terminated after 6 pm on your last day of service [30/09/2008].

If you need to extend your computer account, please obtain support from your Head of Department and email to xxx five(5) working days in advance with supporting reasons and the last day of extension.

We regret to inform that once the computer account is deleted, we will not be able to restore the data and emails in your computer account.

Meanwhile, we would like to advise you to set an auto-reply message informing your colleagues, business associates and friends that your NUS computer account will be removed on the above mentioned date and re-direct them to your new email address.

May we take this opportunity to wish you all the best in your future endeavors.

Thank you and regards,

Account Administrator
Computer Centre
DID: 6516 6522

This is a computer generated e-mail. No signature is required.

Sam's farewell lunch

2008-09-16T13:34:00.015+08:00

Sam wanted some local food for his farewell, so Prof gave us a treat at the Copthorne King's Hotel.

Satay

Very fragrant Nasi Lemak

Penang laksa (made in Singapore)

and finally a group photo of all who have been well fed.

10pm

2008-09-04T22:58:00.002+08:00

2200 hours on 03 September 2008. highest density of NML students in the corridor at such an hour. entered into the LB Broth book of flavilab records.
super bo liau lor...

new boss

2008-09-03T14:29:00.000+08:00

this is your new boss: prof Capsid Chong

ant and the girls

2008-09-02T16:51:00.004+08:00

ant showing the two new girls how to do plaque assay... hmmm
the other day he was saying no time to finish his thesis work... but today can show them how to do experiments....

new people some more he try show power how to use multichanel pipettor. sigh...

ed and ev II

2008-09-02T08:12:00.000+08:00

after pizza we went pool.

calculating speed, resistance, drag, accuracy, wind, force, and best camera pose...

close eye go in

congregation

split second

ed and ev

2008-09-01T20:06:00.005+08:00

went out to this 'secret' place for dinner with ed and ev. the most authentic italian pizza in singapore, so says ev.

\

nice fire

sausage

seafood

crayfish pasta. sauce very nice. tastes home made.

thin crust, flavourful

so between us we lick the platters clean.

ant bdae

2008-08-27T13:51:00.001+08:00

youngest member of the lab celebrates his bdae. choc chip cake by boss.

turkish delight

2008-08-21T15:18:00.004+08:00

prof and a few others went to turkey for a conference, she got back for the lab a slate of dates and a box of turkish delights. awfully sweet and coated with either sugar or coconut. and filled with nuts. not bad, but not something i can munch on for a whole day.

steam boat iv

2008-08-07T18:59:00.006+08:00

steam boat at my place, this is the second last time we are going to have it before...
hiak hiak hiak

today got good turnout
fantastic four, + silver surfer + silver surfer gf + califare x2

preparation is hard work

this time round, the soup is enriched with herbs. up one level for taste.

entertainment.

after dinner, we had durians as dessert.

once everythign is finished, we rounded it up by relaxing one corner for a long time and drinking the gre-chow - green tea with cincau.

the gang

'nuah-ing' one corner

vin playing with the cincau like a snake

and it ends up on MY floor. shiesh.

BTC

2008-08-05T15:18:00.009+08:00

we went for BTC, aka bukit timah campus, aka basic training center for lunch today.
took a 20 minutes bus from main campus.

all the super old buildings from ex-smu, ex-nus, now become nus again.

food court

my: beef balls

Domain Chua

Gold dragon

NS liew:

alot of posters around about the history of various spots.

on one side is the food court,

on the other side is the moot court.

small place, just for law, and policy studies.

the quadrangle. very peaceful

the corridor has this old fashioned blinds. very rustic feel.

Envelope Tan making a panorama shot.

break ass?

standing on steps and mocking the sign

panorama shots.
yea, i dont know what happened to the tree.

honours phototake 2008

2008-07-29T21:06:00.005+08:00

dragon boy and capsid kid graduated with Bsc hons last month. we got together to snap some shots as a lab.

f1.8 using Ad's sony 350. good stuff.

official lab's button-er

monkey

lets play guess who's the boss:

kena stone-d

i pity the hat.

monkeys not endangered species.

couple t-shirts!!

someone got framed

KL bdae

2008-07-28T12:16:00.003+08:00

dragon boy's birthday
prof baked a chocolate cake with almond and pistachio and marshmallows on top. good stuff.
happy bday kid.

honours treat IIi: the meal

2008-07-25T18:00:00.001+08:00

once everything is settled, we can get down to the primary objective, EAT!

04 lab table

07 lab table

07 lab

04 lab

fish warrior

can we start>?

growing boy

thumbs up for good food

dragon boys mum. now we know where he gets his colgate smile.

after

official lab photographer in training.

big group portrait

honours treat II: the preparation

2008-07-24T17:56:00.002+08:00

i think its one fun thing to eat all that lovely food, but its also fun to set it up together. lots of teamwork and planning. and at the end when everything is settled in, everybody's happy to start to tuck in.

the laksa preparation corner

rice boy

are we eating normal stuff? Nooooooo......

many hands make light work

before sauce, already looking mouthwatering.

sure contaminated la the way you pour your media...

oooo...

last touch up

guardian of the table

honours treat I: the food

2008-07-23T17:48:00.002+08:00

this year's honours treat is something special. first because we have two photographers, one resident - outgoing, the other apprentice in waiting.
secondly because we are going for street food, and it comes from the honours students own parent's food stores.

Dragon boy's shop, mixed rice, but all the dishes served are special order.

fried chicken pieces 4 stars out of 5

curry fish head. 5.5 stars out of 5

deep fried calamari 5.6 stars out of 5

mutton and potato, 3.5 stars out of 5

mixed veg 3.5 stars out of 5

the chef

the heir in front of the store.

go visit, its in khatib area.

the second honours kid's parents opened a laksa store. quite famous too.

JC bdae

2008-07-22T15:11:00.004+08:00

from JC's lab, his new postgrad, JC jr.
mango cake

too much wind around

make a wish, that his work is publishable

blow it out

ceremonial cut

official cake cutter

dinner and movie

2008-07-17T17:46:00.004+08:00

as part of the fun filled week movement, we went for dinner and movie at vivocity.

Envelope Tan,

Ex-Adjunct student

my beef soup

the ambiance at food gourmet

no birds

Capsid Chong

Yu Tiao!!! freakin oily but not bad at all.

Domain Chua

chomp!

GV max

Super big screen

prof's candies

2008-07-14T16:27:00.003+08:00

back from her annual migration, its chocolate time!

the super sweet one

the spoils

why so sweet one?

singapore made italian chocolates bought in australia

ferrero rocher look alike

sugar rush

arts canteen

2008-07-13T18:26:00.002+08:00

arts canteen got renovated and we went to take a look at it now. alot more spacious and more seats. food so so only, except the excellent onde onde at the malay stall. the most popular stall? noodles and fruit juice.

super long q at the fruit juice stall.

level 2 is burger king. but not very obviously stated.

epmotion - music video from eppendorf

2008-07-10T09:40:00.000+08:00

Pipetting all those well-plates, baby, sends your thumbs into overdrive
And spending long nights in the lab makes it hard for your love to thrive

What you need is automation, girl, something easy as 1 2 3
So put down that pipette, honey, I got something that will set you free

And it’s called epMotion (whisper: ‘cause you deserve something really great)
Girl you need epMotion (whisper: yeah girl it’s time to automate)
It’s got to be epMotion (whisper: no more pipetting late at night)
Only for you epMotion (whisper: girl this time we got it right)

DNA
RNA
Proteins
Cell Cultures
Less reagents
Faster workflow
Saves you money
Well, well, well

And it’s called epMotion (whisper: ‘cause you deserve something really great)
Girl you need epMotion (whisper: yeah girl it’s time to automate)
It’s got to be epMotion (whisper: no more pipetting late at night)
Only for you epMotion (whisper: girl this time we got it right)

steamboat part 3

2008-07-03T23:17:00.006+08:00

steamboat #3 of the year back at my place. the plan: leave for work early, grab raw food, gather at my place, have jolly good time.

food!!!

ok, must first intro the main players:
1. adjunct student

Mr. N.S. Liew, and Mr. Envelope Tan

the Fantastic Four reunited. but where's silver surfer?

just dump in la

meat-ivor

louuuu ahhhh....

every man for himself!!

That's mine! NS Liew got 'scooped' muahahah

N.S. Liew: this soup cannot make it.

at the appearance of Silver Surfer, adjunct student rejoiced.

idiot shots:

too full

how's the food?

how's the host?

part 4 coming next month!

shredding

2008-07-01T16:20:00.003+08:00

so, this is what happens to all my years upon years of writing exams. it gets torn to pieces and shredded into bits. so much for education.

vin and bhu bade

2008-06-26T17:13:00.004+08:00

celebrate early coz boss going away next week for awhile.

vin - cheese coffee cake, with choc chip topping.

close up

apple crumble with nuts

birthday kids

for the camera

smile

waiting

waiting

waiting

waiting for the cake to be cut

the cheese cake

the apple one

kl

2008-06-23T10:05:00.001+08:00

half the lab were in kl lastweek for a conference. they brought back fish satay. well, there was more air in that bag than fish.

justin's bday

2008-06-18T11:57:00.003+08:00

JC bdae

prof made fruit jelly

we got him choc cake from 4 leaves.

Ad destroying the cake by trying to rid the plastic wrapping

super thick and rich.
the second last level is hard biscuit.
look at it like look at the earth's rock layers.

the pudding

Terror's work

leaking

2008-06-17T11:54:00.002+08:00

haiz, the bi-yearly event of leaking ceiling returns. same spot, same pipe, same problem.

lost bird

2008-06-16T11:49:00.002+08:00

baby pigeon lost and wondering around the outside of the lab. the nest must be in a nearby tree and it fell down. dunno where the mother is.

new cryotank

2008-06-13T17:12:00.005+08:00

one huge box came
was looking for the sign 'to: madagascar"

to prove its big, i put mel by its side.

two guys delivered it then the next day two other guys dismantled it.

the freakin long screws they used to fix the crate

yup, the product is less than 1/3 the size of the case. the main cylinder occupied one corner, and the base plate together with the grip gun another corner. the rest is packed USA air.

the remnants of the crate

the remnants of the cardboard inside the crate.

save a tree, dont buy so many new equiptment.

new soup stall in science canteen

2008-06-11T12:47:00.002+08:00

new stall in science canteen, the old one which was the pasta/pizza one closed down coz i think hardly anyone goes to. the soup was pretty ok, just amount of meat was rather dissapointing.
so we tried stuff on the menu:

bitter gourd chicken

foreground: watercress chicken
background: salted veg duck

steamed rice with chicken and chinese sausage

chicken ABC soup

black chicken herbal

steamed rice with chicken, veg, and chinese sausage.

june's bday

2008-06-03T14:50:00.003+08:00

fake fire drill

2008-05-29T11:25:00.003+08:00

yesterday md4, md5, and md7 had false fire alarm after lunch hour. everybody gathered around md7 which is the new gathering point after the void area outside med library is under construction, but because it was raining, no one went to the tarmac but wandered around the area. the alarm went off, then 5 minutes later off, then 1 minute later on, then off then the different blocks took turn to go off and on and off and on. spent like 30 minutes outside doing nothing.

lab breakfast

2008-05-28T11:37:00.004+08:00

prof got us mcD breakfast to welcome the new batch of students

like rationing in army

all the boys one side

oh yeah, notice the new air conds? the fan super strong even at low fan and 30C.

all the girls on the other

adjunct student went for a tour of europe and got us chocs.
85%!!!!!!

this is adjunct student in the middle

the 85%

the brown sweet choc

the 70%

new darkroom pc

2008-05-26T19:41:00.003+08:00

the aging P4 pc with 64mb graphics card, 80Gb hdd, and 1 Gb ram, for the inverted microscope has been replaced by a new pc. from Lenovo, its a x2 AMD 6000+ with 4Gb ddr2 cl5.0 ram, two 300Gb sataII hard disks, and a 9600GT video card. the big black square is a Samsung 22" wide screen monitor. yummy.
too bad didnt have enough dough to upgrade the metamorph from 6.05 to 7.0.
but now better than nothing.

trash

2008-05-24T10:35:00.001+08:00

had been busy with the microtome.

today is a good day

2008-05-23T10:30:00.003+08:00

its a good day because bio rad came and gave me a $5 coffee voucher because i had been a nice customer and the school gave us all free grapes as part of the 'eat more fruits' day campaign. also they had a lucky draw and i got a $1 voucher to buy more fruits. got a punnet of korean strawberries for $5.5. n0t exactly cheap but never tried before.

ex ed of embo

2008-04-29T09:54:00.000+08:00

went for a 2 hour talk by the executive editor for the EMBO journal. very basic, theoretical, and general stuff, but learnt a few things from her. this was what i wrote down, if you can understand, great.

praying mantis

2008-04-28T15:29:00.001+08:00

at level 4 staircase of my block. was actually on a glass window, and the camera was pointing up at the insect. it was staring down at me, thinking how to divide this meal into bite sizes.

PQE treat part 3

2008-04-17T13:26:00.000+08:00

stonned kids waiting for the food. our lab meeting before the pqe treat ended early, to quote 'the staff dissapointed us today'.

PQE treat part 2

2008-04-17T13:07:00.000+08:00

well, actually before the golden pillow, we had pizza as an appetizer.
Canadian pizza, specially flown in, 1 for 1.

below is the newly nominated 'bottom of the pile' kid opening up the boxes.

erm, dunno what this one is called. lots of beef.

veggie

pineapple- chicken, aka hawaiian

bbq chicken

all laid out, ready for the onslaught

ready men?

the remnants

4 down, two to give the cleaner uncle and the EM girls.

after that, we waited for the pillow.

how to open the pillow?
cut open at the sagittal meridian

expose the innards

unravel the inner mysteries

Huat ah!!

ed and eve's PQE

2008-04-16T12:56:00.001+08:00

ed and eve just passed their phd qualifying exam, so got poked to treat the whole lab.
got the 933 brand golden pillow. its actually just a bun with curry chicken inside it wrapped it in a plastic bag

this is terror terrorising one of the pillows. no one dared to eat from his after he polluted the whole thing with his amylase.

honours poster presentation

2008-04-09T16:20:00.000+08:00

honours students presentation for final results to two examiners before the submission of their thesis and semester exams.

'stop swan-ing me'

the quiet one:

dragon kid:

female attractor:

ed's place on sunday

2008-04-08T16:12:00.000+08:00

marvelous time of steamboat and mahjong. ed's mum super champion mahjong player.

picture quality

2008-03-29T01:38:00.000+08:00

some of you out there have been telling me that the picture quality on my blog is one step higher compared to screenshots from the malaysian health minister sex scandal video. i would like to assure you that this is on purpose. should you or any of your underlings want any picture found on this site, kindly inform the webmaster/data entry clerk/publisher/writer/creator/everything else for the full resolution ones, which are normally either 3.2, 6, or 10.1 megapixels. the reason why the pictures are so bad is to speed up page loading, and/or discourage people from using the pictures for their own benefit.

thanks for visiting.

Dr J Jr.

2008-03-24T14:42:00.000+08:00

Dr. J had a kid and she turned 1 month,so we get ang ku kueh!, and some other weird stuff. i dare not eat teh colourful cream; i treasure my life...

med lib is gone!

2008-03-21T21:57:00.000+08:00

before

during

after

hohoho

i am SOOOOO strong...

2008-03-20T21:46:00.000+08:00

Sartorius homogenizer 2ml
born x.x.2007 - 18.03.2008
native of germany, true foreign talent of singapore
you have been a friend in high pressure and low clearances
may you be rest in pieces.

ed's bday

2008-03-19T15:30:00.002+08:00

Ed the overpaid student's birthday!
chocolate base biscuit like thingy with cheese filling, and marshmallows, topped with chocolate and almonds! mouthwatering lipsmacking tonguecurling sensation!

prof bday vid

2008-03-16T21:40:00.002+08:00

prof's bday

2008-03-14T14:41:00.000+08:00

my boss birthday. got her a card, a cake, a bunch of flowers, and canteen food! muahahah...
thanks to V the "punk hunk" for organizing.
cake was choc fudge from secret recipe.

leftovers.

tearing down MD5

2008-03-11T15:21:00.000+08:00

clearing up the -20 fridge

2008-03-10T13:31:00.000+08:00

mel hacks and whacks

chocolates

2008-02-25T20:15:00.000+08:00

prof brought back chocs from oz. the two bars of 70% is special for a certain person. no one dared to touch them. we ate up the rest.

where's your hand in?

career fair

2008-02-21T22:27:00.000+08:00

NUS career fair, your annual dose of freebies!
this year special, a football like fluff thing from credit suisse, and a cool fan with LED words from bloomberg. some company called bombardier gave out mints in a small white box.
other interesting stuff include little paper clips by A*star, little milk packets by tetrapak. will skip the dozens of free pens, post it notes, and note books.

the cool fan.

tearing down MD5

2008-02-18T19:55:00.000+08:00

after pharmaco building gone down, they are tearing down MD5, medical library now. so the whole place is cordoned off and its in a mess. the med lib is now merged with sci lib. also gone are the level 2 walkways from md5 to md2, and md5 to md11(CRC). all the pandans and aloe vera in the garden also gone now.

MK bday

2008-02-17T15:54:00.001+08:00

before

during

after

basketball round 2: the 36ers

2008-02-16T18:30:00.000+08:00

Slingers were up against the Adelaide 36ers. wonder how they got that number for a name.
they beat the slingers, but not so much that they were so good, rather, the slingers played extra terrible. their defense was just standing around when the opposition came into the basket area. their passing was sloppy and they couldnt communicate well. worst of all, they played zone and not one-on-one, which i think was their major flaw that gave the game away. slingers caught up with the 36ers only once, slightly after mid-time with the score tied at 55 apiece but never caught up after that. in the end, they lost out by 29 points. i think you can call that a trashing.

Lanard Copeland, btw, he's 42 years old

Matt Sutton

Darren Ng

Brad Davidson

Brett Maher

ball head

David Cooper

Julius Hodge

basketball round 2: the home team

2008-02-15T16:59:00.001+08:00

the home team who lost
singapore slingers got slinged

Rod Grizzard

Shane McDonald

Blagoj Janev

coach Gordon McLeod

Mike Helms

Koh Meng koon

Ben Knight

Chris Cameron

Pathman Matialakan

Michael Wong

basketball round 2: aftermath

2008-02-14T14:46:00.001+08:00

basketball second time round!
quite a disappointing match, so will talk of other things after the match.
FOOD

Liang Seah St. 'Ah Chew's' desserts. red means sold out, yellow still available.
remember to specifically order your dish hot or cold.

pointing fingers

the peanut and sesame paste has to be prefiltered through a 100000 micron sieve for smoother texture and better viscosity.

black sesame paste. good for retaining black hair.

peanut paste

yam and sago in coconut milk.

mango and pomelo with sago. only available cold.

basketball round 2: girls!

2008-02-13T15:05:00.000+08:00

self explanatory

touched up toilet

2008-02-12T17:33:00.000+08:00

for some strange reason, i suddenly found the male toilet on level 2 of biochem all decorated up. the other toilets elsewhere showno signs of such guided evolution which makes me speculate that its the workings of a creative being.
however, such a being really should place more appropriate decorations. a picture of coffee mugs where you urinate? and potted plants at the sink? they will drown with all the water from the sink splashing around. anyway, good effort shown.

oranges

2008-02-11T20:21:00.000+08:00

the small tiny types. no seeds and super sweet. eat too many and you get vitamin C induced diarrhea.

kuih lapis

2008-02-10T22:09:00.000+08:00

from invitrogen, chinese new year goodie

tried to eat the kuih lapis, lapis by lapis but it was too brittle and broke off. so got to eat it whole.

basketball real one

2008-02-09T17:26:00.000+08:00

after basketball

2008-02-05T16:52:00.000+08:00

went to liang seah street for some supper.

glutinous rice balls in syrup and coated in peanut

bandung

black sesame paste with almond paste

just black sesame paste

the street.
see the details in low light condition.

I LOVE MY CAMERA!!!!

basketball again

2008-02-03T16:22:00.000+08:00

in case you were wondering, yeah, the slingers won

other distractions in the game

2008-02-01T15:31:00.000+08:00

during the basketball game, there were some other interesting moments.

here, the home team's mascot, the walking merlion, terrorizes some secondary school kiddies.

some ang moh showing his singlish prowess. i dont think the opposition oz team understands-lah

fanatic fans. really cheering and making noise throughout the whole game using those red longish baloons that goes 'thong thong thong' when you slap them together, and of course, screaming.

tony fernandes, the owner of Air Asia, teh low cost budget air company, giving it a shot. the singapore team is being sponsored by air asia.

the mascot

the mascot flipping over.

some singh that really became annoying after some time.

at half time they had this contest, if you get a score from the 3-point line, you walk home with a tv. this lady got it.

the annoying singh again.

HN sponsored the tv's

game over

outside what the stadium looks like.

singapore slingers

2008-01-31T15:21:00.000+08:00

went to a basketball game in the indoor stadium yesterday with mel, ed and adjunct member L.
too bad MK wasnt around, he would have enjoyed the cheerleaders, aka Ed's 'lala girls'.

save the cheerleader, save the world

besides cheerleading, they also had to organize some games during quarter breaks. here they are playing with some remote car

these people dont knwo how to drive.

after half time, they changed costumes

actually i found them quite pro in their choreography and moves. they could do splits, and cartwheels. wonder how long they practiced.

swimming

2008-01-18T13:43:00.000+08:00

fun with my underwater camera housing. at the nus pool.

The PCR Song

2008-01-17T14:50:00.000+08:00

the people at biorad came up with this pretty hilarious song

http://bio-rad.cnpg.com/lsca/videos/ScientistsForBetterPCR/

There was a time when to amplify DNA,
You had to grow tons and tons of tiny cells.
Then along came a guy named Dr. Kary Mullis,
Said you can amplify in vitro just as well.
Just mix your template with a buffer and some primers,
Nucleotides and polymerases, too.
Denaturing, annealing, and extending.
Well it’s amazing what heating and cooling and heating will do.
PCR, when you need to detect mutations.
PCR, when you need to recombine.
PCR, when you need to find out who the daddy is.
PCR, when you need to solve a crime.
(repeat chorus)

Choux Parity

2008-01-17T12:06:00.000+08:00

Bought these choux pastries (like Beard Papa) in Isetan basement - quite a posh bakery. How come no QC?

vin's donuts

2008-01-16T10:52:00.000+08:00

vin, the new postgrad bought donuts for the lab meet this morning. the choc one has filling, and very filling. two donuts and i'm already full.

murder

2008-01-15T19:36:00.000+08:00

this is a very distubing video of how a mouse dies under carbon dioxide asphyxiation. please do not watch if you dont think you can stand to see an animal die. this method is a totally legal and humane manner of putting down used animals in research.

new webbie

2008-01-13T19:20:00.001+08:00

http://medicine.nus.edu.sg/mbio/

http://medicine.nus.edu.sg/mbio/staff/n-mahlee.html

Not very PC

2008-01-10T11:26:00.000+08:00

This was a pretty good one - presenting....Non Homo Milk!

what happens

2008-01-03T20:08:00.000+08:00

what happens when the cleaner uncle goes on leave?

what happens when the blogger goes on leave for a week?

yea, nothing happens on this page.
come back on 14012008.
happy new year, may all your pcr's work

prof's mouldy wall

2007-12-28T09:34:00.000+08:00

probably because of water seepage. the people came to repaint it but trust me, it wont do no good because the leak will just come throught he paint in time. what the wall needs is a layer of waterproofing under the paint so the moisture in the wall cant get out.

invitrogen's organizers

2007-12-26T19:16:00.000+08:00

comes in three colours, two of them matt and the other two glossy.
the maroon one for prof
the shiny shocking red one for Dragon boy
the shiny black one for Terror

The silver one for me!!

what it looks like inside. very nice :)