Where to bury a dog

May, born 21 Oct 1988, departed 30 Aug 2003

"There is one best place to bury a dog.
If you bury him in this spot,
he will come to you when you call -
come to you over the grim, dim frontier of death,
and down the well-remembered path,
and to your side again.

And though you call a dozen living dogs to heel,
they shall not growl at him,
nor resent his coming,
for he belongs there.

People may scoff at you,
who see no lightest blade of grass bent by his footfall,
who hear no whimper,
people who may never really have had a dog.
Smile at them, for you shall know
something that is hidden from them,
and which is well worth the knowing.

The one best place to bury a good
dog is in the heart of his master."

By Ben Hur Lampman
from the Portland Oregonian Sept. 11, 1925

The Rainbow Bridge

"The path of my life is strewn with cowpats from the devil's own satanic herd."

~ The Blackadder.

It looks that way now.. I have 1 month to shovel everything before I disappear!

Big ass form

This, my friends, goes into the annals of departmental teaching history for the largest indemnity form evar.

lol. That guy should be given an award. For making NNK and I laugh so hard that staying in the lab on a Saturday night is not as depressing as it really is. :D

One of those days

Inspirations
Originally uploaded by Wattwurm's View.

Its one of those days again, where I got caught up with something, didn't quite make the last bus and after crafting a carefully worded letter that took so much out of me that it's just not worth it to take a cab back home, only to put my head on my pillow, snuggle under my duvet, and have to drag my ass out of bed in 4 hours.

One of those days...where I would like to crawl into a corner and just be still...but I can't.

Today, R the Evil brought a Bengawan Solo chocolate marble cake and left it on the coffee table.

And its still there now. The rich creamy butter cake.

Taunting me. Teasing me. "Oooh come on now.. you know you want to, you naughty girl...I'll be an absolute delight with your coffee...."

It's a good thing I have not succumbed yet. Not through sheer will power, but I am not quite up for butter cakes today. Especially not after 2 days of irresponsible munching.. nasi lemak (twice!), Ben and Jerry's Mint chocolate cookie cone (this one I had to. It's a travesty for a day at the Zoo to not end with a B&J!), instant noodles, a supper session of teh-si and fish sliced behoon (because I had a sudden urge to consume cellulose at the unearthly hour of 12.30 am and there's chye sim in them fish beehoon) and chicken rice.

Plus I'd expect a whole lot of food later on at Applecow's pre birthday dinner do. So its time to do some cunning calorie accounting. Balance my credits and deficits so there'll be no shock, horror, denial followed by tears at the scales later on, although I suspect the damage is being done as I write. Lipids finding snug locales in my being and deciding that they like me enough to want to stay for good. And they don't even protect me from the cold! The lumpy ingrates.

In the meantime, I think I'll take the spurned cake and dispose of it in the fridge. Plenty of hungry mouths in the lab tomorrow.

*******

Mingko, Applecow and I have taken to running with music plugged into our ears.

Look out world! For we are....the iPlodders. (lame, I know...)

Anyone up for this?

The annual Nokia Starlight Cinema is here again, and it is being held at the Padang this year, a departure from the usual venue, Fort Canning park.

I remember the last one I went for, 2 years ago. I attended the Lord of the Rings movie marathon, except that I had to run off after the Fellowship of the Rings to check in on my baby who was sick. On hindsight, I shouldn't even have attended, because I spent the duration of the movie worrying about leaving her alone at home. Finally, guilt stricken, I decided to go home only to find her in the same spot I left her 6 hours ago.

This year, I don't have any of these worries, so it'll be nice to enjoy a movie under the stars again. I missed Batman Begins and Hitch when they were on local screens, so this seems like a good opportunity for a night out. In the padang no less!

Who's in?

What is... a Rubicon?

My latest bedtime reading companian is Richard Dawkins' An Ancestor's Tale. In it, he makes several references to the phrase "crossing the Rubicon". And I have absolutely no idea what it means except that I gather it means something rather controversial in the context of the discussion.

So today, I have done myself a favour and looked it up on Wikipedia.

From Wiki: -

"The Rubicon (Rubico, in Italian Rubicone) is an ancient Latin name for a small river in northern Italy. In Roman times it flowed into the Adriatic Sea between Ariminum and Caesena. The actual modern identity of the water-course is uncertain, it is usually identified as the Pisciatello in its upper reaches and then the Fiumicino to the sea.

The river is notable as Roman law forbade any general from crossing it with a standing army. The river was considered to mark the boundary between the Roman province of Cisalpine Gaul to the north and the Roman heartland to the south; the law thus protected the republic from internal military threat.

When Julius Caesar crossed the river in 49 BC, supposedly on January 10 of the Roman calendar, in pursuit of Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus he broke that law and made armed conflict inevitable. According to Suetonius he uttered the famous phrase 'the die is cast'. Suetonius also described how Caesar was apparently still undecided as he approached the river, and the author gave credit for the actual moment of crossing to a supernatural apparition.

The phrase "crossing the Rubicon" has survived to refer to any person committing himself irrevocably to a risky course of action."

Tadaa! (Smugness all round now!)

You learn something new everyday.

In other news... I'm going to send out another manuscript today! Morale is high... let's see how long this happy state of affairs will hold out. :P

Apparently..

I'm applecow's fave stalker. YAY!

This is not looking good

First practical of the season coming up, and I'm feeling like crap. Feel so sleepy. And my coffee seems to be adding on the heavy liddedness.

Butt hurts from the game of squash last night. But Mingko and I concluded, yeah, this could possibly be a game we could do. As long as we don't play with boys. Boys are scary. No shit! hurhurhur. No offence, but we girls play in a non competitive manner. Nice and easy to reach for balls smacked right in the middle of the wall. No slamming (not that we have the physcial strength for that anyway) and no cunning back of the court shots, sly drop shots to the front, or misleading side to front wall slams. No sireee no. We play like girls. hahahaha. Plus half the time, we spend prancing around in the court picking up balls. That's also energy spent ok! I wish I could slam a ball like a guy though. The sound of a top speed ball slammed against a wall is one of my favorite sounds in the world (power!). Alas, I can only stomp around the court in the manner reminiscent of a baby elephant. It isn't hard to figure out which court I'm at. Just go to the one that sounds like a safari.

Think I'll skip the climbing tonight. Will do the running and squash bit again tomorrow if there are enough suckers. (Blokey girls unite!!!) Mingko was right. Listening to music does take your mind off the loneliness of a middle distance run.

Pimped A with mixed success last night. After all, other party is also a bloke (ha!) But at least he got hot and sweaty (woohoo!). It'll be his turn to reciprocate soon. Cue my entrance at the next rugby training. lol. Kidding!

Song of the day

Download it here

Friday was D's birthday and the whole bunch of us trooped down to Plaza Singapura for dinner at Lao Beijing followed by cheena beng/lian karaoke at Orchard Cineleisure.

Yesterday, R told me that he'll never forget that how i was when I (we) sang Georgie Girl. I guess its all bit cheesy leh. Plus I was slumped on the sofa at one with the world when that happened. My musical taste is now under serious review from them all when I slipped in unfortunate titles like Octopus Garden and Super Trooper. How can anyone go to a karaoke and not sing Abba or Beatles songs! Carpenters was a tad sad.

Boyband songs are fun to sing-along!

Mingko : All I remember from "Picture of you" is "you will be there!!!!" Complete with finger pointing routine. hurhurhur!

And if i could use one word to describe our rendition of 'Over the Rainbow' it would be - scary.

Sunday lunch at an old haunt, bak kut teh, followed by a lazy beer at Blooies, shooting the breeze, catching up, what he's been up to. How we have grown up over the years, changed perceptions. From a left winger to someone who works in an extreme right wing organization. Selling illusions to people under your management because that's just how things have turned out. No complaints though.. life could be worst. All these in between spotting the odd little heron fly across the pond, and terrapins swimming languidly in the afternoon sun, not a care in the world. Very very pleasant.

Some more new music plundered from his CD collection and return my pitiful offerings in the form of David Gray, Natalie Merchant, Bic Runga and Anti-Nowhere League.

What a lovely Sunday. Now I have angsty music in my ipod to run to! Bonus!

And I thought I'm a l'il dachsie

From this website, I'm actually channelling a German Spitz.

I was waiting for Umami to write this one up.. the National Day dinner hosted by T. No telly in the main hall, so we gladly gave up watching the parade for some catching up and stuffing our faces.

She's way much better at describing the food, and takes really kick-ass mouth-watering pictures.

I finally met CHH's daughter, D.. lovely little thing with her ku niang hankie!

From Nature this week

I'm trying to get back to keeping my finger on the pulse regarding science related news, especially those that I find are interesting and worth filing away in my mental file cabinet . So from today, I'll try my darndest to share with whoever happens to drop by what's happening in the world of Science these days.

I've uploaded a couple of pdfs from some journals via yousendit, which I figure can't be all that bad since the link is only active for a week. Hopefully no lawyers will come a-knocking on my door for violating copyright laws.

Enjoy...I hope!

What's happened to Malaysia's Biovalley?

Neutral theoy of evolution tested by birds

In a nutshell...

..this is pretty much how the long break went for me. Term has started now..sigh.

Here comes Snuppy the Afghan Hound Clone

Hot off the press from Nature, South Korean scientists have gone and cloned a 3 year old black and tan Afghan hound.

Read more here.

fat freddy says hi

Because he's been sulking..say I never mention him in my blog.

Here you go now Fat Freddy..... don't give me that :( look anymore! LOL

Something to think about

It is not birth, marriage, or death, but gastrulation which is truly the most important time in your life.

~Professor Lewis Wolpert

I want!

After sunday lunch with F and M, I now have a new object of desire.

The Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX8! It's so tiny, yet big in features. Takes perfect pictures and is deliciously sexy. There's even underwater casing available. What's not to like?

But apparently these virtues can be topped. Panasonic just released the DMC-FX9. Wow!

Drool....gotta start saving. Donations welcome!!!!