In Uniform

In Uniform
Originally uploaded by Mail Order Bride.

MoB in my old uniform! I kept warning her that its really big and frumpy and not very flattering, but I guess desperate times call for desperate measures. I read somewhere that my school uniform is voted one of the 'hottest' uniforms around for girls in Singapore to which I can only scratch my head and go 'really meh?!?'

You see.. it only works when its fitting and tight in all the right places macam like Japanese sailor girl uniform plus short short skirt. But when you have a mother sewing the uniform for her daughter at age 12 thinking:- "Well.. I better make it as big as I can so she can grow into it else I'll have to fire up the sewing machine in two years' time - not worth it!" It can only mean one thing.. big baggy shapelss frumpy sack for the next four years. On the bright side, it is super comfy and I can eat as much as I want during my *cough* growing years without getting uncomfortable around the waist (unlike SCGS girls). It explained my ballooning weight during my teenage years too. Oh well.. I'm glad its being put into good use. I've love to go to a uniform party in my old school uniform too!

That's me, more than a decade after graduation.. I lost the badge tho.. boo. Anyway. have fun tonight MOB! No dubious stains hor! :P

MOB and Joe
Originally uploaded by budak.

The weekend came and went and I did fuck all as far as work was concerned. This is bad. Just felt tired and restless and didn't want to be in the lab alone.

This was taken at Ruok's birthday drinkies do at Wala's on Sat. Sigh.. Remind me not to take pics with MOB next time. Her peepers are humungous! My eyes are tiny compared with hers! Oh well.. at least they are functional. But then again, I'm almost legally blind without seeing aids so I'm not very sure if 'functional' is the right term for that.

That's the BD boy by the way. Very well preserved! Happy belated Birthday ruok!

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In other news:

Pop geek conversations...

Me: Hey.. I think I found out the etymology of "Snow Patrol". Do you know... that there is in fact an Antartic bird by the name of Snow Petrel?

R: Hmmm.. so are there any Arctic Monkeys?

Me: -_-"

Well.. I'm not very sure but considering their last name was Polar Bears, I could have hit the proverbial 'jackpot' with this. Maybe.

Quotes from dreams:

I can only deal with one set of sharp teeth a day

No idea what the context of the dream is about anymore. A normal garden variety dream and then I blurted out that line. I think someone, thing? was trying to bite me.

This morning I dreamt that I had hit upon the idea of a really good anime concept. It is a spaghetti western and the protagonists are a pair of cowboy prawns. Er.. that's right.. prawns. I thought it was a really good idea too. Talking western prawns! I don't remember the species now.. perhaps a couple of Peneaus.

Too much late night Samurai 7 and Inuyasha, methinks.

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Its May already!!!! AAAAARRRRGH!

Friday night geography quiz

A and I were at the canteen bitching about life in general and the t***** and I tried to explain something about my results to him.


Me: So yes.. its like this... current... so you see?!? That means that they don't meet! Its very interesting right? The North East Current is supposed to link these two regions up but it doesn't... very strange... 1 + 1 not equal to 3!! conclusive proof! Hurrah!.. etc etc...There! *Scribble scribble*

5 seconds later..

A: I hope you're not going to put that diagram in your thesis or explain it the same way you just did to me..

Me: ...

Anyway... I present the inaugural TGWTTIHS Friday Geography Quiz!

Simply tell me what country the finger (not to scale - its much bigger in real life - muahahaha) is pointing to. First name out of the hat get points and we all know what points mean right? For bonus points, tell me now... Where on the map is...Gibraltar?

I shall await your entries with bated breath then. Good luck!

P.S. I blame the fact that I am all alone in the lab with the Chemical Bruddas for company.

All I wanted was Salonpas

Evil co-op finds
Originally uploaded by island_girl.

when I stepped into the co-op.

But noooooooo, I wasn't going to be leaving with a miserable pack of medicated plasters. As a matter of fact I don't know what came over me and I left with a gazillion extra calories five minutes later. Was in a complete trance the moment I stepped inside and it was only when I was in the line paying up for the goodies when I saw the medicine cabinet behind the cashier and remembered my original objective.

The co-op is evil, I tell you. Or I should have just gone there with $2 in my pocket instead of 10.

Choccies, anyone?

More online shopping shenanigans

So.. yeah. I missed the 3rd episode of Planet Earth yesterday and reading what the dragon lady had to say about it only made me feel worse. Unreliable webcast!

Nest best thing was to look it up on the web. Ebay is normally a good place to start and scope out bargains but surfing into amazon.co.uk, I saw something even better! An exclusive Blue Planet/Planet Earth 9 disc box set! I've been thinking about owning my own personal copy of the Blue Planet for a while and this gives me the perfect excuse to own get my grubby hands both series*. Hurrah!

In the end, the total amount I had to pay was about £36.34, deducting VAT and adding international shipping. Pretty good deal, even though this means that I have to live on baked beans and spam for the rest of the month.

* editted because I'm now in the writing zone and it is spilling over to my non-science writing. Bad form (as in, unpolished, not rude) to repeat the same words within a sentence. Or a paragraph. Listening to Just a minute helps, as well as having the handy thesaurus widget on my dashboard.

In the zone yet?

Not really..this couple of paragraphs were banged out in the last hour though. I was getting ready to settle down in front of the mac for an hour of jaw dropping telly (Planet Earth, by the way) when I couldn't connect!

So I was really upset and what did I do except to get back to work. Yes, boys and girls, repeat after me.. I.have. no. life.

So forgive me when I begin to blog in simple or monosyllablic words because you know now. Everyday I come in and gobble up an immense amount of literature that is not Cosmo or Bill Bryson or Yeats or (insert latest Booker prize recipient here) and repackage it for use in my dissertation. Actually there is a nifty guide to scientific writing here.

Its not the data collecting, its not reading or keeping up with the lit. Its the damn synthesis, and the writing. I happen to be a chronic sufferer of writer's blog. Gah.

My eyes are going to pop out of their sockets now. Thank goodness I have friends like R and TC to read it before I offer it to the boss.

P.S. No.. not done yet..and don't ask me if you see me in person!

Read my VisualDNA™ Get your own VisualDNA™

You know when exams are round the corner

Sometimes I wonder if the 8 month wait between A levels and entering university causes one's brain to fall out, or perhaps it is university life itself that is contributing the the ongoing atrophy of brain matter.

Case in point: An email in the morning from a student asking me some questions such as:

1. why are sponges considered as animals?
3. What is meant by "polyp"? What is the difference btw "polyp" and "sessile"?

n.b. grammatical errors uncorrected

There were seven questions in all, but I think you get the idea. In all honesty, I don't know whether to go WTF??!?!!, laugh myself silly or feel sorry for the poor girl who attended lectures and practicals for the entire semester and evidently still has no effing clue as to what is going on in class. I have corresponded with primary school children who wrote better and did indeed know the fundamental differences between a plant and animal to boot. She was very apologetic though, bless her.

In the end, this very nice and helpful TA drafted an email giving her directions to the nearest basic invertebrate zoology text book and to book an appointment for a face to face session if she feels that she still needs it after reading up on her own.

I think a few of my students do need a tutorial session before the exams. Shall email them soon.

Me: I wonder if there's anything to do in Switzerland..

Z: Switzerland? Huh! Could be boring! You'll be doing nothing except ski...

Me:...eat lindt chocolates and collect cuckoo clocks?.

Z: What's with all these stereotyping.

Me: Stereotyping? Switzerland? Never! Efficient Swiss men in white socks!

Z: I think you're refering to the Germans.

Me: Well.. maybe the German speaking part of Switzerland then.

Inane conversation of the day brought to you by a postdoc advert. Perhaps I'll pass.

Thinking aloud

Marti Pellow is not aging very well.. he's 42 going on to 60!

I've been reading old copies of Smash Hits. I had a crush of Marti back in his 'Wet days. Ahh.. Marti when he was 25. Swoon.

Now that Take That is famous again, maybe I should flog issues with them on the cover on ebay. heh.

Somehow eating a wedge of black forest cake just because I feel like having some feels a little indulgent. Cake on a non-birthday! Good heavens!

Short of attending the ambassador's ball, I am spoiling myself.

Inane conversations

What a stroke of genius!

bagel to go
Originally uploaded by rodrigo piwonka.

An elegantly simple solution to recycling CD cases.

Shins' Showcase (Music Monday)

So this installment of music monday will feature one of my favourite indie pop/folk acts, The Shins.

I like their sound, indie rock growers with great melodies and complex lyrics. Many of these tunes have also made their way into mainstram pop via film and telly. Gone for good, in particular has been getting repeated plays on my ipod

Gone for good mp3
Saint Simon mp3
Girl Sailor mp3
Sealegs mp3


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These mp3s are for your references only. Please support the artist if you like what you hear!

She's a strange one, tgwttihs

Well well.. I got tagged by the monkey! That six weird things about so and so thigamajig. So in the 'spirit' of things, here goes

1) My big toe is shorter than my second toe. Significantly shorter. I didn't used to think about it too much, and toe watching isn't really my number one hobby,so I'm not sure what's 'normal'. Apparently, my toes are very weird indeed and is an ominous indication as to how my life will unfold. Ranging from 'gonna have a hard life'(grandma's insight) to 'going to be a hen-pecked wife'(Barry from the Philippines). If you wanna see me toes in their full glory.. its somewhere on flickr. Philippines set.

2) I have a dodgy gait. My right foot tends to point inwards towards the left foot with every stride, so it looks like I am limping due to some unfortunate ankle injury. It is something I consciously correct when I am walking. Unless I'm too tired and then people will stop me along the corridor to ask me if I've hurt my foot or something.

3) I can mirror read and write (that's about 1 in 6500 people, fact fiends)

4) I have a vein of my right arm that resembles and ox bow lake and a cutoff. That's how I remember my geography facts. A little like cheating, but natural.

5) I have the most delicious pyschedelic dreams and its not because I eat cheese before going to bed. I really should start keeping a dream log by my bed. I wake up exhausted most days because I often feel like I've been sitting (sleeping?) through an all night dream marathon. In technicolour! With plot! I once asked a room mate to use the bathroom first (I usually beat him to it) because 'I was in the middle of a 9 course chinese dinner dream and I wanted to hang around for dessert'. I was on the the 3rd (steamed soon hock Hong Kong style) when the alarm went off. Dessert was red bean tang yuan with almond jelly and longan. Yum.

6) I was- and still am- a walking bag of contradictions. I can be very loud one moment and painfully shy the next. I once avoided the school tuckshop for two years(!). It started because I was short of 5 cents buying a bottle of soyabean drink (Yeo's, if you really must know) from the drinks stall uncle one day and he said nevermind, just give him the money the following day. I forgot to, and was so embarrassed that I decided that he must be Very Upset with me and I didn't dare to step into the tuckshop for the next couple of years, just in case he told the other uncles and aunties about the girl who cheated him of 5 cents. Looking back. It was one of the silliest things I've done in the history of silly things that I've done. Weird too. I didn't starve though, I got my friends to buy my food while I hung around the quadrangle like some pariah.

What a nutter.

So there you go. Six strange things about me. No one will get tagged though. As per the norm, I am the graveyard of memes.