The Three Critters

Once upon a time,

In the Land of Critters.

There lived three bacilus.

Their cell walls was white as snow,

And pili black as coal.

They were as close as bacteria to dirt.

When they slept, they slept together.

Everywhere they went, they went together.

There were no lonely nights, for they had each other.

They had many a

crazy adventures

and exhilarating rides

Saved in the nick of time!

and close calls together.

But alas.

One day, they were not so lucky.

The first was killed, in a giant landslide.

And the second was buried, alive.

And the third got caught in the jaws of death.

The rest of Critter Land lived happily ever after.

~The End~

Revival!

It's been a long time.

I've finally done it.

Wrote a post on my other gaming blog...

And now I'm writing here.

It's high time I revive my blogs, even as I have new ones to deal with. So far so good!

Of news and disappointment

I guess... the only thing that could eclipse the disappointment of having to wait another 2 more months for my iMac is the disappointment with the election results. You have to wait another mighty 5 years for that. 5 whole years. I'd say the whole election this year was quite a disappointment. From the campaigns all the way to the results. Nothing much left to say. The winner takes it all. On the Apple side... it's back to waiting for the 4k iMac to be announced. If I'd checked the rumor mill earlier I'd have known that it'll be announced only in Oct, and available for sale in Nov. But I hadn't checked. The rumor mills are exceedingly accurate these days. Apple just can't keep stuff under wraps anymore (as much as they'd like to) because they have to outsource their manufacturing. Either way... it doesn't matter to me. I get my products all the same. iPhone 6s is out. Really I'd get it right away (and it better freaking last 3 years this time) if not for my parents. Still if I were to prioritise... I guess I'd put the iMac before a new phone though. We'll see. Sigh.

I can't wait...

I’ve been cursing for the past week… at my laptop. 

Can’t wait for next month… can’t wait for the Apple keynote. And the 21 inch iMac refresh.

This laptop is really at the end of active service. It hangs up too much. It can’t handle all the stuff I need to do on my main computing device anymore. Things like handling multiple downloads… or uploads. Playing videos while having word document open, while searching the web… my video tends to hang up and won’t pause when I want and need it to. 

Still… I say it with a ping of regret because other instances it works fine… until it hangs up and the words I typed comes out in a jumble again. Pfft.

Not something that leaves me in the mood for video watching/subbing/translating.

And then there’s the iPhone too. Will need a new one too. I’ll be mighty broke next month but it can’t be helped. I just hope the stuff lasts. Esp the phone. It has to last me three years this time! Sigh.

Alright… that’s all for now!

Of dreams and reality

I’ve learnt much more and done much more in this year thus far than I did for the entire of last year… and it shows. Not just in my bloat lab note book choke full of protocols and my ugly handwriting… but also in my dreams. Like seriously. 

I’ve been going to bed earlier and earlier these days but it doesn’t seem to help. I wake up as late as usual (or in the middle of the night, and go back to sleep), and feel as tired as I did if I didn’t sleep as early… only difference is that I actually remember my dreams now. And it almost always have some sort of relationship to work. Even when I was on holiday…. there was even once I said “oh I’m not dreaming about work,” in my dreams. Only to realise that there, in the dream, I was standing in the lab, in my lab coat, and claiming that I’m not dreaming about work. Ridiculous huh?

And then there’s today… the 3rd day in a row with some work related dreams… From running out as a refugee to the neighbouring country ($$$ required per pax was the same as the laser license I need to apply for, and you get this card thing - my work access card - when they let you through), to journal papers, to trying out another job only to realise I’ve been tricked and it’s not a research job (dream ended with me saying, ok I’m getting out of here, I have a better job to return to tmr), to burning blue and white paper balls with bunsen burners!?!??! (if you’re wondering about the relation to work, a Phd student in the lab appeared in the dream).

Just too much seriously. Lol. Sleeping later seems like a better option now. At least let me dream of something else?

 

On the plus side, it’s July. Just two more months (I hope!) till I get a new phone and comp. I can’t even playback videos properly now… it tends to hang. Videos continue playing when I try to pause, and don’t start when I try to continue the playback. How will I be able to sub anything like this!!!?!?!? Gah! 

Public holiday today yay! It’s the end of Ramadan. That means hopefully I’ll have more lunch buddies soon… then again that only works if I don’t go for late lunches. I’ve been so very lonely at lunch time now. And I’m about to get even more lonely after I’m back from holiday in Aug. I’m excited for the holiday… sort of. But even more eager for the Apple fall keynote to come. It’s been years of waiting after all. 

Alright. Have a crazy number of stuff to watch, and posts to write… so I’d better get started!

Apple, macs, iPhones and Android

So, I've been keeping a lookout in the shops for the new macbooks with force touch track pad for a while now... Well whenever I drop by the malls at least. Finally got to see it maybe two weeks ago after an unintended visit to the mall. Rainy days meant long queues for the shuttle bus... And since I hate waiting, I decided to take the risk in trying to catch the public bus today. The gamble failed terribly though, when I missed two buses on the way to the bus stop. Oh wells. Thought I'd try the bookshop and get some glue while I'm at the mall, but insanely long queues made me change my mind instantly.

Thankfully for me though, spotting the gold macbook in nubox made the wasted time worthwhile.

Some quick thoughts after an extremely short hands-on session.

The first thing that I checked out was the force tough function. But first, I had to find something to force click on. Since they had cleverly use parental controls to block all but the apple Web page, I decided to try Notes instead. It'll give me a good opportunity to try out the new keys with the butterfly mechanism too. On the force touch, it took me a while to get what a 'force click' actually is. It didn't work at first, till I realised that you really do have to press pretty darn hard for it to be considered a force touch. It's like clicking down a second notch. It's a further level of resistance, like the second notch on a pipette. When the technology was first unveiled in the Apple watch, I was worried about accidental force clicks... But after trying it out, I'm happy to report that you can't possibly make accidental force clicks. You have to press really darn hard, way harder than normal, for it to register as a force click.

Well perhaps more so than the force click, the new keyboard with the butterfly keys would catch you attention first. It felt weird typing on the new keyboard. It’s a dull thud when hitting the keys, because the travel of the keys is way, way lesser than the old one. It doesn’t take that long getting used to typing on the new keyboard - I could touch type without any errors in a few moments… but the sensation of hitting the keys felt weird. It’s not as bad as the soft keyboard with microsoft’s surface tablet though, because unlike that keyboard, these butterfly keys actually do have some travel. Just way less travel then the old one. I guess it’s something that takes a bit of getting used to. It’s the tradeoff between having a ‘good typing experience’ and having such a ridiculously thin macbook. It’s as thin and light as advertised. holding the machine feels a little unreal even. Soon you’ll be able to spot youtube videos of people using the new gold macbook to cut cabbages and the like.

The full sized left and right arrow keys does feel a little unfamiliar. I suspect it’ll take a while getting used to the location and feel of the arrow keys as you fumble around for the left key while accidentally pressing on the option key in the meantime.

Unfortunately, it was pretty bright in the shop and I didn’t think of checking out the new individually lighted keys of the keyboard. Some reviews have stated that the keys weren’t as properly lit up as Apple claimed during the keynote. The lighting was uneven and there was light leakage.

Personally, I’m really excited by the new technology in the macbook, though in it’s current form the macbook isn’t for me. It’s great if you’re a light computer user, mainly using it for web surfing and maybe some simple word processing. It is a full fledged computer in it’s own right, but fundamental things like lack of storage space, and the availability of only a single port would prevent it from becoming my main computer. It’s also the same lack of storage space in the macbook pros that’s pushing me towards getting an iMac instead of a new laptop this fall. Well, I’m hoping that history repeats itself and that Apple announces the 21.5 inch retina version of the iMac at least. Definitely looking forward to getting a new computer. Something went wrong with Total Finder last night, and I took over 40 minutes restarting my lappy twice, before it would run smoothly… -.-‘’’

Summer means it’s buzzing with news from Techland. With the google I/O conference two days ago, and the Apple WWDC coming up on the 8th June, there’s plenty of Andriod and Apple news floating around. My only regret is that I’ll be in Australia for holiday on the 8th. No more watching of WWDC live for me :( It’ll be what… 3am? in Australia during the conference. No way I’d be able to stay up till so late while on holiday! (And that’s if the internet in the hotel is even fast enough for me to stream the video live!) Guess I can only read the news the day after… if I even have time.

But yes! Exciting news from Google. Android pay, Google’s answer to Apple pay is finally here. New photo application for backing up your photos and videos called Google Photos, with UNLIMITED storage. Google Now is further enhanced, and a new OS for IOT. The Google Photos app is available on both android and iOS, and I’m definitely going to check it out. (yes, it’s free).

Loads of Apple rumours about iOS 9 floating around too. Dual screen for the iPads? Force touch for iPhones? Better Apple maps? San Francisco font on the iOS? I’d say the new font is highly likely. Apple made the new font for the Apple Watch. It’s only natural that they will move it to their rest of the Apple devices. Similarly for the Force Touch. MacBooks have gotten it, it’s only natural that it will fine it’s way into iPhones. It’s only a question of when. Would it be this year, or the next? I certainly hope it’ll be this year, since I’m getting a new phone this year… no thanks to my dead iPhone 5s.

I’ve been playing around with my xiaomi quite a lot… and in conclusion, I still prefer a smaller phone. The xiaomi is a torture when I have to use it one handed… like when I’m talking to my pals through Facebook message (well, when I say talking, I mean messaging) with my left hand, while my right hand is busy feeding myself a piece of chicken or whatever I was having for lunch that day. Or when the trains get ridiculously crowded. I’ve actually dropped the phone before (and not just once) because I was trying to reach for some far away button. Xiaomi has a one handed option, but calling up that option is really troublesome - the command often fails to execute. And even then, typing on the suddenly reduced screen size is difficult - I make more errors than usual… and it really defeats the purpose of buying a phone with a large screen.

So… June is practically here already. Just another 4 more months to bear. I really can’t freaking wait to get my hands on a new computer and phone. Especially the computer. My little one has been really brave and tough to last me for all these 5 years, withstanding all my abuse. I bet it’ll still last for years to come, but it can no longer handle that level of performance I demand from my devices. Already about two or three years ago I’ve stopped using 4 browsers at once because the system could no longer take it. And now, sometimes I quit every single program that’s unused - even things like iTunes, because the computer/ram just can’t quite handle things as well anymore. Guess it’s especially bad now that I’m doing video subbing. I tried to open ageisubs so that I could do the timing myself, but the little icon just jumped around for 10 minutes before I finally gave up waiting and force quit the app. I guess the mac would perform better once I strip down all the apps to leave just a few bare essentials… but doing so would mean I can’t use it as my primary computer anymore. In other words, I need another computer.

How many more days till the Apple fall keynote?

I need to countdown!

Of history and blogs

For quite some time now, I've been trying to recall the blog I used in my sec school days. I used it pretty extensively... grumbling about school, confessing my love for chemistry, posting tons and tons of chemical structures that I created with ChemDraw. I couldn't recall the site anymore... but I did some googling work and finally found it today. 'Found' it. You can see this news article: http://www.moe.gov.sg/media/press/2005/pr20050909a.htm

My school won second place pfft. But I was part of the blog contributors who made it happen.... So I do am glad for that... but sadly... the site is long gone... and with it all my entries. I can barely remember what I wrote there, though I did remember that pretty much every entry was about chemistry. Esp the pharm chem option I was taking. Man. Those were the days. The days when I was still in love with chem. How did I end up in bio now? Pfft. Blame it on the JC days. *Sigh*. 

Sad that I can't look at my old posts again. Would have loved to keep a copy for old times sake. Been recalling the stuff we learnt in sch and did in labs. It's sad. I barely remember a single shit from uni days when it was just a few years back... but I remember so much stuff from sec sch when it's been a decade or longer. Why so? Cos it goes like this I guess. 

Lecture: Prof teaches about NCBI BLAST.
Me: What the heck. I freaking learnt that in SECONDARY SCHOOL.

Lecture: Basics of org chem... showing all the functional groups
Me: Scans through the list. Ahhhh I've read about them all in SECONDARY SCHOOL. Except for this one! ONE new item. Wow -.-''' *rolls eyes*

Lecture: Separation techniques - GC, HPLC, MS, NMR, UV VIS
Me: I learnt that in SECONDARY SCHOOL, JC (H2 and H3 chem?), and we're learning it again? And what, there's NOTHING NEW in these lecture notes? Are you kidding me? 

Lab prac: Gel casting
Me: Zzzzz are you trying to bore me to death? We freaking did that in SECONDARY SCHOOL. All the time. So many times. Ok at least we get to use EtBr here. 

Lab prac: Cell culture
Me: But... I was doing so much of it in my INTERNSHIP already.

I do remember some of the stuff that we did for the first time in uni... like SDS page and protein pull down assays... but so many things were repeats, or simple add ons to my sec sch knowledge that it's no wonder that I don't remember them at all. Boring, duplicated experiences. Gah.

I realised my 'first' blog is gone too. Myspace. I didn't migrate it. I hardly posted a thing there though so it's fine... Oh wells. 

I checked my very first entry here. I wrote that this is my 3rd blog. I guess the myspace would be the first, followed by moblog… and then this. Afterwards I had a gaming blog… then LJ… and now a wordpress. 

I’m reluctant to completely abandon this blog just for old times sake… but maybe… maybe it’s time. Either that or… this blog needs a serious face lift. I don’t know. Just looking at the tags I have and really… it’s been a long time. Gah. Chem spa? Lololol. Well this was made in j1 after all. Hahaha! Oh wells. I’m hardly using this anyway. No one visits this place anymore either I guess? And IMO bloodspot itself has become outdated. Ok LJ is dying but that’s a different matter. 

Oh wells. Started my wordpress projects today. Let’s see how they will turn out… *cough cough*

Weekend!

So I went out with my family during the weekend... and thought I'd share some photos.
We went to Turf City during the weekend and there’s a hidden corner called the Pasarbella and it’s a really nice place. Doesn’t look like it’s Singapore in there.
Feels more like some market in the western countries… or in Australia.
Loads of food shops… selling all sorts of foods. Spanish, German, Japanese…. Seafood, cheese, cakes, pork…
Of course it’s a little pricey but… the atmosphere is pretty nice eh?
Paella. That’s the biggest pan of paella I’ve ever seen.
There’s this really nice shop (this is the corridor leading to the shop) called The Cheese Ark selling all sorts of otherwise not readily available cheese. The shop décor is really nice and more importantly, the staff is really, extremely, nice and friendly. Introducing you to the cheese and letting you try the cheese… and not talkative in an irritating way too. We were going to be out for quite a while so we didn’t want to buy the cheese right away… though we did ask what time they close. And guess what? We actually returned to that shopping centre for dinner just to buy the cheese. That’s how nice the staff are to make us want to return… of course, the cheese was great too. That’s got to be a must isn’t it? ;)
That’s the name of that… market place.
Really cute toilet signs.
We went around visiting various car show rooms around the island, but we went back to Turf City for dinner. Not in Pasarbella though. It’s a restaurant outside called the Curry Gardenn.
And boy the food was good. I didn’t take much photos though. We just attacked the rest of the dishes when they arrived. They took extremely long with the food. I guess they really put in the care and effort to cook the dish after you order… they don’t re-cook the food… but well… you really have to wait pretty darn long.
Anyway the drinks. The green one there is the butter milk, and no it’s nothing like butter beer or whatever you might expect. There’s green chilli, salt, herbs… yes salt. It’s a freaking salty and a little spicy drink. More like a soup than a drink? Supposed to be cleansing and what not but it’s darn good. The white one is lime juice. It’s good… but amongst the three it’s the least outstanding, the most normal. The last orange thing is mango lassi. Mango with yoghurt. And I just loved that too. The taste of the mango is really strong and good - it’s fresh mango - and the yoghurt provides just the right amount of sourness for balance.
That’s the BBQ chicken. Darn it was so fragrant, so juicy, so delicious. The sauce was fantastic too. It’s really ridiculously well prepared. You can smell and taste the BBQ-ness… the fragrance of the charcoal, but it’s still so juicy and tender. This is also the only dish I took a photo of yay! The rest of the food took really long to come and we were just starving by the time they arrived so… :P
We ordered a few dishes, mutton masala, some cottage cheese dish, nann… and some other dishes that I don’t quite know/remember the name of. They were all really good, very refined and well made. You can say it’s not that authentic or representative of the general food in India because dishes most likely won’t be so refined, but it’s high class and well made and definitely worth having. The prices are very reasonable too.
We went to buy the cheese after dinner… that’s the signboard and list of shops at the entrance of Pasarbelle. Passer means market in Malay by the way… and as far as I can gather belle means fine (amongst other meanings) in French. So Fine Market… and what a fine market it indeed is. That’s the entrance to the place. Up the steps and to the left. Hidden in a small corner, with a small entrance. I really didn’t expect it to be so big inside! There’s a level 2 (or more?) too but we didn’t go upstairs.
So we bought something from The Cheese Ark. They have a really cute paper bag.
What a cute tagline. Turns out there’s a reason for it. They gather rare cheese from traditional cheesemakers that would otherwise possibly close down due to being unable to compete without mass production… and give them business so that they would hopefully not have to close down.
That’s the cheese we bought. Casatica Di Bufala. Cheese made from buffalo milk, and this one is really fresh. Love it!
Personally… I prefer soft cheese to hard cheese. Well at least I’ve not tried a hard cheese that I’ve really liked yet. I love the texture… love it when it’s ripe too… when it starts oozing… that’s really nice too.
Their address… to be honest their FB page kinda sucks. They can do so much more with it but as I can see it… they just have reposts of cheese related articles. So cold and impersonal, and completely unlike my experience when visiting the physical shop.
Alright. That’s all for this entry! Till next time!

Bidding farewell

It’s a rainy, gloomy day as we bid farewell to Mr. Lee Kuan Yew. 

Went to CCK community tribute centre on Friday.

It’s… disappointing and at the same time hilarious to see how the number of Western media reports on chewing gum. It’s a long bygone issue here. It’s not as if all candies are banned anyway. Chewing gum is a novelty for us when we go overseas… but one that I’m more than happy to do without. Clean drinking water? Great economy? Clean and green garden city? Safe and secure nation? Those are much, much more important to me. Who cares about gum in the light of all these greater things? Will you die without gum? You can die from armed robberies though, or shootings. Or get sick from drinking unclean water. Or get injured in street riots and protest… and have your daily life inconvenienced by strikes. They pick on all the nitty gritty little things because they are ignorant, jealous even, of all the things that we do have, that we enjoy and they don’t. 

It’s… a sad occasion indeed. May you rest in peace Mr. Lee. 

Food porn!

Some random photos of food. Ate out with my family a few times recently and this is the result… 

Dry laksa from Curry Times. 

And curry chicken from the same shop. 

And this was from yesterday. We ate at Grandma’s kitchen. 

Almond soya bean glass jelly VS normal glass jelly drink. Syrup given separately for the glass jelly so you can make is as sweet or unsweet as you want. 

Cantonese hor fun. This one is really worth it. All  the main dishes we had were 5.80… but I think this was the nicest. 

The Char Kway Teow is nice too. Love those two. 

Some duck this… it’s nice but kinda pricy. It’s sour and sweet… and tastes like the nonya dumplings (ok, this IS a nonya food restaurant)

Darn blurred photos. Another expensive one… it’s tasty but look at how small the portion is! Both this and the duck dishes at around 10 bucks? More expensive than the main dishes! (ok they have pricey main dishes too, but a few which are cheaper to attract the lunch crowds I guess) Anyway… there’s petai beans, long beans, lady fingers and brinjal. You can’t even see the brinjal in the photo right? Because there’s only a freaking four small pieces! 

The last main dish we ordered. Hokkien noodles… using udon noodles sheesh! It just sucked. The taste was ok but the noodles was bad. WRONG noodles. It’s not even that they shouldn’t be using udon noodles anymore…. it’s that the noodles are just hard and yucky. It was a torture eating this one. 

Durian chendol. This was nice. The chendol was thick and fragrant. A nice desert to end off the meal. 

Loot!

So I went to the IT Show last week… and I’ve finally gotten around to talking all the photos and sharing. Went on both days… and mum got a Samsung Galaxy Tab S 8.4 inch (What a long name!) on Sunday too. No photos of that though hahaha. I only took photos of my own loots. 

Still have not finished ‘setting up’ all my loots. Well basically the USB fan and the new table lamp. Because my old table lamp is still working! And because my computer table is way too messy to set up the other fan… 

Loads of photos coming up!

MY NEW BAG PACK! Apart from the HD I think this would be the loot that i’m most happy with. It’ll also be my most used loot I guess. How much was this? Like 90 bucks or something… it’s really solid so I think it’ll be able to stand up to years of abuse. It’s a little sad that I couldn’t really find an absolute perfect one… There was another (and cheaper) bag pack also by Targus that I really liked… but the material isn’t as solid… and the zippers aren’t double zippers. Which I hate… this one has double zippers BUT it’s the their compartment type. The main compartment is divided into two. Great for putting documents, but for things like jackets… it’s not as good because the compartments are smaller. At least the laptop compartment is removable so if I’m not bringing my lappy out I can free up some space by taking out the laptop compartment (Targus is a brand specialising in laptop bags). Just started transferring some stuff from my old bag to this one today. I’ll be using the new bag pack next week yay! The old one was sorta dying… the side pocket for water bottle had broken, and the strap was broken too… you know these bag pack the straps isn’t just a single layer? The top layer of the right strap was broken. Cos I’ve been carrying too much stuff in my bag pack I guess… and esp when I carry it on a single strap at times… (always the right strap that’s why only the right side was broken). Already got my mum to help me sew it back last time but it broke again so… The compartments inside broke too :(

But yay for new bag packs! I hope this one lasts longer than the previous! The previous one only lasted like… maybe… 2 years? Or 3? Really short! I really like the build. And it has quite a lot of compartments for me to put all my little stuff (pens and what not!). Oh and…. the bag pack model name is really cool too. KING COBRA. Hoohohoho. I’m born in the year of the snake. Perfect. 

Hard disk covers! In bright neon colors! Well I hardly carry my HD out these days… but this size pouches are great. I can put other stuff in them, not just hard disks. It’s pretty and the neoprene material is nice too. (And it’s cheap)

HOHOHO! The single most expensive purchase we made on the first day. Mum’s tab won the honour later on. 

They charge what? A ridiculous 40 bucks more for the metal versions. Nah. This will do. $159…. Pretty eh? They call the color Titanium. I call it SPACE GREY. LOLOLOL.

The same pouches. With the laptop chill pad (aka cooling fan) from Targus. A free gift for buying that bag pack. 

Oh? What’s that? 

It’s a blue tooth keyboard! Full sized too. More for fun than anything else because I don’t have an iPad? If I want to do some serious typing I’ll be using my lappy…. but well I’ll definitely try playing around with this. The cover doubles up as a tablet/handphone stand too. And there’s actually this little tab that you can pull out from the bottom so you can erm… put in a tablet AND a mobile at the same time? Lol. That’s my Xiaomi by the way! XD (Oh got a cover and screen protector for the Xiaomi too, now it's not so slippery ha!)

USB hubs. A USB 3.0 hub and a 2.0 hub with 7 slots and a direct AC adapter… for us in charging phones, or running USB powered stuff (Like USB fan…) I’ve yet to set this up >< 

Multi card reader… well I only need it for the microSD card slot, since my lappy has an SD card slot built in already. Because my lappy can’t read my xiaomi phone… but on hindsight… it’s really troublesome to open the back cover and take out the microSD card… I’ll probably just do whatever that needs doing at work with the PC. Oh wells. This was really cheap anyways. 

My table lamp! Which I still have not set up! See it’s still nicely boxed up! I got the grey color one. So no blue stripes… just grey. Identical to the one my sis is using hahaha. It’s pretty cool. The on off button is touch sensor! And you can adjust the dimness XD 

USB desk fan! Which I’ve not set up. There’s a really cool USD powered humidifier on sale too which we got for my sis. I wanted one too but on second thoughts… I was already having trouble with all my stuff going moody cos it’s so humid here! In any case… my mum wanted one to use around the house so we got another for her on the second day… I can just ‘steal’ that if I really want it… (she hasn’t even started using it yet). Like if I feel like having a mint scent room or something and I can use that and add essential oils to the water… but well… looking at my table now. I don’t even have space for it. LOLOLOL.

Ok. That’s all the loot from the IT show. No BIG items like lappys because we’ve all switched to using macs (all authorised dealers here, so no price discounts at the IT fair). Save for the tablet. Next BIG item will be my mac later this year I guess.