run
About 12k today, but I didn't run all the way. Stopped at Delta for about 30mins to chat with a friend and continued the last abt 2k home. Feels wierd to run again after such a long rest.
Something happed to my left ankle some weeks ago. ligament problem? Anyway my physiotherapist friend said it will take 6 weeks to heal. This is the 4th week and although its still stiff, i feel like its much better. I did stop running for almost 2wks to give it a break though. I don't know how my ankle will be like after today's run. Will find out tomorrow morning if i can get out of bed. hahah
Labels: runs
Solo Travel
I like travelling. In fact, I enjoy travelling alone. People always ask me why and I just tell them its more fun -- which most don't understand of course. And hey, guess what I just
found ...
Finally, some people who know why it can be great to go globe trotting alone. You make so many friends along the way, even if the don't last. You tend to interact more with fellow single travellers at youth hostels, you open up more easily, and you learn so much more.
Suddenly, I have a list of places i want to go...
Silk Road:-The first time that I thought of traveling the Silk road was in when I was 15. i must have read something from either National Geog or Reader's Digest that got me so inspired. A few months ago, I read a work of fiction set in Inner Mongolia. Somehow at work, I wind up talking to a colleague about doing the silk road. Hmm... its some kind of personal trip to me. Feels like my pilgrimage, my mecca. haha! The Silk Road starts in China and ends in Turkey, a place I have always wanted to go. I guess when I do make this trip, i have to set aside months for it. Because I will need to feel the place.
Mt Kinabalu:-After Anapoorna, Nepal, I didn't think that I would like to climb another mountain. recently, my sister had this urge to climb Kinabalu. which got me gathering information about it. It does look beautiful, over in 2 days and maybe not that tough. Rather managable. very possible in the near future.
Spain:- For the MOMA, Dali and Picasso.
Russia:-Just to see the dome/onion roof of the churches.
Greece:-i have to visit all the ruins. Need to go island hopping.
Thats all I have in mind right now. ideally, I would like to go to every place possible...
had a bad day
yesterday, i helped a blind man cross the road and brought him to the mrt station. We chatted a little and he asked if i was a christian. Not wanting to go through some evangelical session, i told him "yes i am" (ok i know that i am a religion bitch. i am a christian, catholic, buddhist, mormon watever! -- depending on the situation)
man: so which church do u go to?
: (thinks for a while...) St Paul's
man: thats the one at Hougang right?
: Oh yes it is.
man: I go there too. so maybe you have seen me there b4
: no... (oh shit!)
man: I go for the 8.30 service.
: haha, i go for the 11 one, maybe thats why i don see u around.
I've done this St Paul's thing a couple of times, and it has always worked. As in, Christians with evangelical intentions usually stop bothering me. This is the first time i get some one telling me that he goes to that exact same church. Granted that I use to attend the service there, which is why i know a little more to fib along.
To be honest, Saturday was just not my day. First, I took a cab to ballet only have my teacher tell me that since my other 2 partners could not attend rehearsals, we could have cancelled the class. oh, and i didn't have enough money for the cab!! Next, I wanted to go Bugis to have my leotard altered. Went all the way there for discover that the lady was out and the only person around was clueless. Oh i was so sleepy that i fell asleep in the bus and missed my stop. I bought a pair or earrings and misread the price. I ended up paying much more than expected and the whole time, i was feeling so confused and tired to realise what was goin on. I decided that i need to stop at some cafe for coffee and read a book. I walked to TCC only to discover that its closed for renov. I went to the library to look for a book, which can't be found.
Certainly felt like the world was out to get me that day.
At the library, I saw a magazine entitled Men's Fitness (somthing like that). On the cover, it says "10 ways to get a girl into bed, and out of it". Page 30. It was no where to be found. Apparently, someone, some desperate soul has torn out those pages which could be stuck to his bedroom wall. Or, it could be something deserving of censorship so the librarian was compelled to tear it out?
losing muscle
According to the American College of Sports Medicine (ASCM), your lean muscle mass may decrease by nearly 50 percent between the ages of 20 and 90.
"If you don't do anything to replace that loss, you're losing muscle and increasing fat," says Dr. Laskowski. "But if you do weight training, you can preserve and enhance your muscle mass."
Isn't that freaky?? So the reason why I am losing weight is because I am losing all my years of hard-earned muscles via judo training???
So there are 4 elements to a well rounded fitness routine. Aerobic, flexibility, stability and muscular.
I work on everything regularly except for muscular fitness. I need to start going to the gymn.
Wake up call came one day when I was running with my arm wallet strapped to my arm. As I ran, I could feel the wallet jiggling on my flabby arms.
That's it! I have to do something about it!
pms
S: Hey are you alright?
: Yeah I am ok I guess why?
S: You don seem happy these days. So thought I’d ask if everything is ok
: Huh? Oh yah, maybe its pms or something
S: Oh come on, I hate it when gals say that…
: Haha.. ok ok my fly is not working out..
S: Oh, so that’s it?
Really, what is wrong with me?
Every morning, I wake up and that very act reminds me that I am still alive.
A life that is going nowhere.
Tell me, how can I not be sad?
Oh gosh, I sound depressed.
Just popped a choc into my mouth. Maybe that will help/
wat am i?
You are what you eat.
Today, I am
Wheat cereal, cheese, ruccola and bread.
plum
Rice, egg, fish and spinach.
Today, I am
mostly sunflower seeds.
igloo
I am no Eskimo, but I swear that I work in an igloo.
I live in a tropical country with unbearably humid weather, but yet, I wrap myself in layers of clothes at work.
I travel in mobile igloos. The buses have air conditioning which blasts right into your head.
The MRT has frequent drafts of cold air sweeping through the carriages.
But when the air conditioning in the bus breaks down, it can be equally unbearable too.
With no windows, there is absolutely no ventilation at all and we simply inhale someone else's used air.
We try so much to control our micro climate, and yet fail terribly.
Step out of an office and the warm tropical heat greets you like a smothering blanket
Step back into the office and the chill lambaste u.
ego
my ego: i am all talk. An incessant chatter, monologue to reinforce my sense of self. I talk about who i am, what are my likes and dislikes to hold on to some reality of who i am. For without it, my world crumbles. I will lose my sense of self.
We have often heard comments like "he has a huge ego". But yet when someone has less of it, won't he seem more like a wimp? How much ego should we have to keep it just right?
Diet Hypes: --
The Zone diet, who says that carbohydrate makes u fat, seems to have quite some followers. Hmm, wait, doesn't the Atkins diet say so too? I don know, I am not into diets, i just try (the key word here is
try) to eat healthy. But i know people, mostly females who seem to view carbohydrates as something evil and which should be avoided. Still, there was something I really didn;t understand -- that is, the asian diet is mostly carbohydrate based. We eat rice all the time! And we are till thinner and smaller than our european/american counterparts. I firmly believed that it has more to do with our serving portions then how much carbo we consume.
If one imagines the diets throughout southeast and central Asia, and the typical body size of those peoples, it is clear that carbohydrates are not responsible for obesity. In a roundtable discussion hosted by the Gatorade Sport Science Exchange [1995], the typical Chinese diet was described by a leading nutritionist:
The 'typical' Chinese diet tends to be higher in carbohydrate and fiber, and lower in fat than the Western diet. In the morning people often take porridge or millet gruel for the main food. Soybean milk, salted vegetables, eggs [boiled or fried], deep fried dough sticks or cakes are the common choices for breakfast. For lunch and dinner, steamed rice and boiled noodles are major foods...eggs, chicken, fish, meat and vegetables are non-staple foods ...
So, pretty much as I had suspected.
I am a sucker for cakes and chocolates and pastries and bread. But i don eat that much of them.
Its ok to eat them, but not exessively.
I can't stand it when people tell me that justbecause i am not fat, i can
afford to eat more. geez, thats so not the point. Though i must admit that i do eat more than the average female... i do exercise quite a bit more than the average person too!
At the end of the day, its not about attaining an anorexic figure, but maintaining a certain level of fitness. There are really thin people out there who are just fats and bones with little muscle mass. I think that is unhealthy.
sighs... sometimes i feel like i am too fussy.
need to work on my pointe!!
The more i stare at this picture, the more dissatisfied i am with my pointe. I mean, u can barely see the arch! Looks rather awful. Eww.. maybe i will put up a picture every week and hopefully over time you can see some little improvement!
Before i forget, I attended a friend's 1-month-old-daughter's thingy. Its a chinese thing, that when a child is 1 month old, it calls for some kind of celebration. (maybe it stems from some ancient practice of rejoicing when the baby could survive a month... dont know) So when the little girl was awake, everyone wanted to carry her. i was thinking it would be a wonderful idea, if we could play "passing the parcel *baby*" with her. And if when she cries, the person carrying her at that moment will have to do a forfeit!!
She was such a fragile little bundle.
Labels: dance
passion?
I ran into someone who was doing her Masters in my lab a few years ago.
: why didn't u go on to complete you phd? why stop at masters?
E: because i hate research.wow, that was said without a pause for thought at all.
: When did u realise that?
E: As soon as i started my grad studies.
wat about you? plans for grad studies?
: I don know, its a big decision, its like marriage u know. The amount of commitment involve and once you are in it, its almost for sure u can't get out of it. even if u do, wat can you do? u will be a highly qualified but jobless person.
see, the thing is that I don't know how far passion alone can bring me. i guess passion and stupidity will do!
By the time i decide, i could be way too old.
today...
8km
Labels: runs
chat bits
: i still feel like i am not doing enough. I am bored.
c: i feel bored too. seriously
:maybe just restless. She has a boyfriend, a nice family, religion, job and hobby... and still bored.
Whats wrong with us?
: if u had only 24hours to live, what will you do?
f: I will definitely go home. Spend time with my family. u?
: i don know. Maybe go choose a coffin and prepare the funeral so that i won't trouble my mum.
f: (laughs)
: actually i don know. I use to know, but now i don. [i don know what is important to me anymore. only I am important to myself so when my life is curtailed there is nothing else that is of importance? I use to say something like spend it with my boyfriend when i had one, guess when i don... then there isn;t one. well, i could go visit all my ex and tell them something like "I hope u join me soon!" hahahahah *evil grin*]
: i am very serious about my life you know. I may not look like it but I am! grad studies is no joke. Its like marriage.
in fact, its worse than marriage cos you can't go for divorce. Even if you get out of it, there isn't going to be alimony! So its something I have to think over carefully and be very sure of.
Just thought of how i like this
quote
bluetooth
By the way if, you're wondering where the Bluetooth name originally came from, it named after a Danish Viking and King, Harald Blåtand (translated as Bluetooth in English), who lived in the latter part of the 10th century. Harald Blåtand united and controlled Denmark and Norway (hence the inspiration on the name: uniting devices through Bluetooth). He got his name from his very dark hair which was unusual for Vikings, Blåtand means dark complexion. However a more popular, (but less likely reason), was that Old Harald had a inclination towards eating Blueberries , so much so his teeth became stained with the colour, leaving Harald with a rather unique set of molars. And you thought your teeth were bad...
SO i finally received my new phone. After a couple of mishaps. Such as, how they delivery man refused to give the phone to my mother on monday because I had to be the one to sign for it. And how there was a miscommunication and the delivery guy didn't know he was suppose to send it to my office.
I feel kinda sua-ku to say that i just got to use, for the 1st time,
Bluetooth. Its really cool and I am so loving it =)
Phone comes with a 1.3M camera which makes my 2M Olympus camera sounds so obsolete. Playing with my camera...
Pretty cool huh? looks like its smiling, Glowing smile...
So Gerbera, also known as African Daisy, or Transvaal daisy or Barberton daisy...
Gerbera is named for Dr. Traugott Gerber, German naturalist by Dutchman Jan Frederic Gronovius in 1737. Apparently, not much is known about Dr Traugott nor why Gronovius named a south african plant after him...
I like Gerberas, especially the orange-yellow kind. Its a really happy cheerful flower that totally can brighten one's day. Its a standalone flower. Pretty on its own without the need for accessories. Its a beautiful one, tough much smaller than a sunflower, it stands tall and proud. Tough little thing!
The idea that love leads to happiness is a modern invention
: aren't there times in life when u just feel so lonely, that you wished you had someone to turn to? To just perhaps, hug to be held?
b: oh please! even when you are with someone u will sometimes feel this way too.
: ???-------------------------------------------------------------Its conversation like these which i think somehow makes me feel really small. Anyway, I guess that is true. Sometimes i ponder the universal question of who are we and where do we come from and where do we go from here. what is consciousness. Is there a god/higher being? Are we just a random make up of of organic components in the cosmic soup. An accidental event in the entire history of the universe. If we do find LIFE out there, so what? Will that answer our questionS? Its like an orphan forever in search of his parents. Even if he were to find that they are dead.
I sidetracked. Back. So i think when u still feel lonely when u are with someone, does that mean that its the wrong person? I have given up thinking about "wrong
|right" person. There is no such thing. Its all a matter of perception. Maybe i am wrong? haha this is getting a little confusing.
What do i want to do in life? Do some good in life and contribute to the ever increasing pool of information on pubmed? Or be entire self-centered and take off, travel to some inner mongolia territory in search of myself? I have had repetitive dreams in the past years. Its always in the same place, just different things happening. It has stone walls. Which seems to surround some sort of temple. Its huge. Off the temple grounds, there was this little curvy street of cobble stoned pavement. Looks like some quaint european thing. The train travels by the coast. -- i would like to find this place some day.
I fill my life with activities. I do all these things justified by the statement
| I am only young once. I am only going to be in my 20s once. I must therefore do as much as I want because there will never come a time when I have youth, time, some money and no commitment/responsibilities.
| on retrospect. sometimes i wonder if i am simply running away from the more pressing issues in life -- such as, where am i going? We live only once. Try not to make a trial-and-error thing. It has to be right. At least almost. I sound like some control freak who is afriad to make mistakes. Maybe. Its one life. Don't screw up! So dancing, takes up most of my weekends. It helps be making weekends fly by such that i never feel bored. I never have time to be lonely. to even feel anything. tired perhaps. it helps to make the life of being single go by more easily. Sometimes i feel happy the way i am, but then again, will i be happy like this for the rest of my life? I doubt so. Filling up time with so many activities is sometimes, i think , a pathetic excuse to fill up some void. Something intangible.
The idea that love leads to happiness is a modern invention, dating from the end of the seventeenth century. Ever since then, people have been taught to believe that love should last forever and that marriage is the best place in which to exercise that love. In the past, there was less optimism about the longevity of passion. Romeo and Juliet isn't a happy story; it's a tragedy. In the last few decades, expecations about marriage as the road to personal fulfilment have grown considerably; as have disappointment and dissatisfaction.
-- Paola Coelho, The zahir
Why do i sound like this? why am i thinking about such depressing thoughts. Why do i ponder over such questions which has no answers anyway? Why? And you know what? the answer to it all could be simply that I have a reduced level of a certain amino acid in the brain which is therefore making me brood this way.
total anti-climax
my week
I never thought that I was one of those typical women prone to being temperamental.
Perhaps I was wrong. Somehow, this has been a rather bad week. It first started off with going out with a friend who I felt was really weird. And boring. And therefore such a bore. Till now, I have no idea why we even went out. I think I could have been better off hanging out by myself. Seriously.
There was this other really bad morning which was so awfully hot and humid that it makes me wonder how can anyone ever tolerate such conditions. Somewhere along the way, evolution and natural selection got lazy, loosened the survival criteria and allowed beings to survived such humidity. What asked what was the greatest invention in the last century, LKY said it was the air-conditioner. Which hence got Singapore dubbed as "The Air-conditioned nation". He explained that without the AC, none of us will get any work done. How true. We'll probably start taking siestas too!
This morning, didn't start off too well either. I broke a bottle of condense milk. It sort of slipped out of my hand when I took it out of the fridge due to condensation. I stared at the broken bottle swimming the creamy white sticky milk and simply stared. How does one clean up such a mess? Thankfully, mother appeared and with a huge "AI YO" she proceeded to clean it up. Phew.
Sick porn refers to the fascination one can have with sick scenes/images. Think of the way one's eyes can stayed glued to some accident scene, or an amputated limb. That's sick porn. I first came across this phrase in "Love Thy Neighbor", a non-fiction work on the Bosnian/Serb war. The author was describing how he finds himself fixated to a scene of grossosity and yet can't help staring. Can't stop staring. I don't know if everyone is a closet sick porn viewer. I admit that I am. Since young, I had this fascination with staring at wounds. Amazed at the scabs, sometimes floating amidst a sea of pus. There was once I thought that it was like the earth - continental plates drifting on a bed of molten pus. Today, I had another sick porn moment. I was trying to move some larvae to a new vial because the old one looks rather crowded. I scooped up whatever I could and tried to get them into the new vial. This ball of writhing, living squishy larvae. Laymen will call them maggots and pronounce them disgusting. But I could not tear my eyes from them. It was as if the writhing bodies of those white larvae had a hypnotic effect on me and I just stared. Simply stared.
I know that I am in a awful mood this week because I was in absolutely no mood to kid around. This colleague of mine was wondering what was wrong with me and that totally got on my nerves. He was, irritating, as unfairly described by me in this awful psychotic state. Besides that, I am hideously tired. All thanks to Haruki Murakami. I started on South of the Border, West of the Sun and couldn't put down the book. Its not a great book but still I can't seem to stop, When I think about my actions over the past few days I am beginning to suspect that I am developing some sort of obsessive compulsive symptoms. I stayed up late last night reading that and I feel like i'm n such a mess now. Even coffee can't redeem me because I've ran out of it! So tell me, why is this week just not my week?
------------------------------------------
I find that as I grow older, friends feel more precious to me. They are like vintage wine, which with age gets better (haha!). You can meet up with a friend to catch up and suddenly, this feeling of warmth overwhelms you. You think of the past and realise that memories can be priceless. You treasure that friendship not just because you love your friend but also, maybe for selfish reason, that friend bears some kind of testimony to your life. Even if its for a short time.
=Friendship is so beautiful, why do we have to settle for just one partner, one soulmate? Why can't we all just have one huge orgy?
geeek coffee
I just
needed coffee. For no reason in particular. Its a comfort food. Like chocolate chip cookies.
So I wonder why is that so. And I wonder what coffee can do for us physiologically. We hear stuff all the time about the good and bad of certain food. How red wine is a good antioxidant, how beer can be beneficial too.. what about coffee? And since I have access to research journals, I decided to check it out.
Though alas, most of the publications were in somewhat obscure journals that my institute does not subscribe to. All I have is their abstract which I guess, says enough. I mean who is going to plough through all those papers unless you are really into that area of research?
Coffee consumption is a regular part of daily life throughout the world. Research into the effects of coffee on human health is ongoing, but a recent study suggests that coffee and caffeine consumption can reduce the risk of elevated alanine aminotransferase activity in individuals at high risk for liver disease.
--Nutr Rev. 2006 Jan;64(1):43-6.
Parkinson disease (PD) is of unknown but presumably multifactorial etiology... ... Recent epidemiologic studies have focused on the possible role of environmental risk factors present during adult life or aging. Smoking and coffee drinking have consistently been identified to have protective associations, whereas roles of other risk factors such as pesticide and infections have been reported in some studies but not replicated in others.
-- Environ Health Perspect. 2005 Sep;113(9):1234-8.
Epidemiological and experimental studies have shown positive effects of regular coffee-drinking on various aspects of health, such as psychoactive responses (alertness, mood change), neurological (infant hyperactivity, Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases) and metabolic disorders (diabetes, gallstones, liver cirrhosis), and gonad and liver function.
-- Br J Nutr. 2005 Jun;93(6):773-82.
Emerging epidemiological evidence suggests that higher coffee consumption may reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes... ...In the cross-sectional studies conducted in northern Europe, southern Europe, and Japan, higher coffee consumption was consistently associated with a lower prevalence of newly detected hyperglycemia, particularly postprandial hyperglycemia. CONCLUSIONS: This systematic review supports the hypothesis that habitual coffee consumption is associated with a substantially lower risk of type 2 diabetes. Longer-term intervention studies of coffee consumption and glucose metabolism are warranted to examine the mechanisms underlying the relationship between coffee consumption and type 2 diabetes
-- JAMA. 2005 Jul 6;294(1):97-104.
Caffeine is the most commonly consumed drug in the world, and athletes frequently use it as an ergogenic aid. It improves performance and endurance during prolonged, exhaustive exercise. To a lesser degree it also enhances short-term, high-intensity athletic performance. Caffeine improves concentration, reduces fatigue, and enhances alertness... ... It is relatively safe and has no known negative performance effects, nor does it cause significant dehydration or electrolyte imbalance during exercise. Routine caffeine consumption may cause tolerance or dependence, and abrupt discontinuation produces irritability, mood shifts, headache, drowsiness, or fatigue.
-- Curr Sports Med Rep. 2003 Aug;2(4):213-9.
it is concluded that for the healthy adult population, moderate daily caffeine intake at a dose level up to 400 mg day(-1) (equivalent to 6 mg kg(-1) body weight day(-1) in a 65-kg person) is not associated with adverse effects such as general toxicity, cardiovascular effects, effects on bone status and calcium balance (with consumption of adequate calcium), changes in adult behaviour, increased incidence of cancer and effects on male fertility
-- Food Addit Contam. 2003 Jan;20(1):1-30
Labels: food, geek
routines
My weekends are rather predictable. I have dance from 11 till around 2pm on saturday. After that I either hang out with my nieces or do some shopping on the way home. Its a long way home. I get to choose if I want to shop at Bugis or City hall. On Sundays, I dance from 12 to around 2pm. And after that, its the same as saturdays. Sometimes, I meet up with friends for dinner. Other times, i just well, do nothing in particular. If the weather looks fine and I reach home early enough, I will go for a run on Sundays.
today, was polling day. This is the first time I am an eligible as a voter but alas, my area was uncontested (since 1991) and basically, i had the day off. dance was cancelled. For once, in a long time, I slept till late on a saturday. Spent the entire day at home, I can't remember what I did. trying to get a vcd to play but it always has an error or some shit. I read. Kafka on the Shore. its a surrealistic novel by it self. Makes me think of Dali and Margritte and Tanguy. Its an intriguing story. Has been a long time since I felt like reading something besides Nature/Science papers.
At around 5ish, I went for a run. decided to do a new route and ran to labrador park. I don't know exactly how far that is from my place but since I took 30mins to reach, i guess its around 4 to 5km. Somehow, the air felt heavy today. Dense, humid. Little wind. And perspiration just remain stuck to me. Even my adidas climefit material didn't help. It was a difficult run!
I have not been to Labrador park alone before. In fact, there have only been 2 people I go there with and thats because they drove. Its a good place to sit and talk while gazing at the smoke emissions from the southern islands. Labrador park today was filled with people. It wasn't all that crowded. just filled. Joggers, dog walkers (there was this guy with 2 husky - one of them pretty huge), families, strollers, couples... the typical idyllic scene. It felt nice to be there. It was not too noisy. maybe the sound of the waves helped. You smell the sea, its different from east coast park which is too big and has none of the cosy feel and too much smoke from bbq pits. It was just, nice. Definitely different from mt faber as it was lacking in the busloads of tourists. Oh and the sea breeze was such a welcome after that sticky run... i actually spent half hour there doing nothing in particular.
And had to run back. It was a pain. have no idea why I have been feeling so heavy these days. Can't seem to run with that kind of spring i use to have.
It was a lazy day. But i got to spend it alone. reading, music and running. Simple things in life which I have not been able to indulge in.
But this is not the typical weekend that I can endure every week. In fact, having
that much time on my hands today felt a little wierd. Its good to rest but I can't do this for long. So i guess, having a routine keeps me grounded and sane. Dancing on saturdays keeps me from going mad with restlessness.
When i was younger, i hate routines. Now I began to see the beauty in them. I still hate them, but I don't think I can do without them. Its another one of those love-hate things in life. Contradictions.
u are what u eat
If you are what you eat,
then,
hi, my name is Cookie. Chocolate Chip Cookie
--------------
"But listening to the D major, i can feel the limits of what humans are capable of -- that a certain type of perfection can only be realised through a limitless accumulation of the imperfect" Labels: food
SBD
so, finally over with the presentation. It wasn't that big a deal because it was a small one within my lab. But it was my first presentation and I didn't want to screw up. Also, I didn't want to seem as if i haven't been doing anything the whole time. Why was this one presentation stressful? For one, this is my first presentation in 2 years! There was once when I had to present so much that it became routine. On thursday i told myself that same thing. Just another presentation -- i did feel rather rusty at talking about stuff though. Ok, next, this is the first time since Jan that I had to collect my thoughts. My project is sort of everywhere, like there are so many possibilities, so many areas to go into that i get swarm at the literature search stage.
But boy was i glad to finally piece everything together, gather my thoughts, and as HJ likes to say "tell a story" =)
That very same day, I ran home from work. Though very tired, and i ran slower, i did it anyhow. 1hour to complete. It helps me unwind, i get to exercise and it felt good.
-----------------
Valiantly trying to do some protein modeling today when I knew almost zilch about it. The fun was in learning how to use it. Learn as you go... anyway with only a sequence and little homology to its closest relative, SWISS-MODEL was unable to do what I wanted.
----------------
Felt like such a complete idiot today. So I met up with a friend for dinner and he was going on and on about this issue that has been bugging him. Causing him to loose sleep. pretty much distressing him. Of course I felt that all that was futile but sometimes, i wished that i could shut up because sometimes, when one is distress, all you ask for, however subconscious that could be, is empathy. Not opposing views, not opinions that will cause more stress, just empathy. Even if I could not fathom the gravity of the situation, I should have just kept my peace. But no, I had to aggravate it. Guess when I realised that, it was too late and no amount of remorse could reverse that.
Which led me to think about someone else. Mark always get into little arguements with his galfren (ex). Because if he knows that what she said is wrong, he will insist to correct her simply because he knows tht she is wrong. Till one day, she burst out "must you be right all the time? Can't you let me be right for once? Must you win every arguement?" It was then that Mark realised that sometimes, all he had to do was shut up. Because all he girlfriend wanted was not "truth" but someone to agree with her. Someone to "let her win". Sometimes.
--------------
There is this peptide that we are tying to get. Its called SBD. Eric thinks that its too boring to be known as Sphingosine Binding Domain. This peptide is Steffan's pride and joy. So you guys want a more interesting/fun name... I stared as Stef for a moment and went Steffan's Big D.... go fill in the blanks youself =)
from book to screen
Just showed Queen of the Damned on channel5.
I must say that its an awful film! It does not do the book justice at all. Absolutely not.
The story was splendidly crafted, spanning across time all the way back to ancient Egypt.
This was something the movie completely neglected. Such that if you didn't read the book, you will think its total crap. And when u did read the book, you still think its total crap anyway! Anne Rice never made her characters all gothic, the clad-in-black type. So why were they all in black? With black eyeliner?? I mean Lestat is quite a flamboyant guy who loves to dress up. Not go around in black the whole time! (ok there was 1 scence in which he was in red shiny pants, with a black top...)
Don't make a movie out of a book unless you can do it justice. Other wise, leave it up to the reader's imagination. It works much better this way.
Don't take a photo unless you can do it justice. Otherwise, leave it to your memory.
So we smile...
The thing about dance. Is that when you do it right, it simply tires you out. If you don't feel the stretch and the pain when you dance, you are doing something wrongly. Ballet is painful -- this is something my teacher never fail to remind us. Does that make dancers masochists?
I just spent about an hour doing some basic exercises. Its amazing that with just 2-3mins of tendue, i broke into a sweat equivalent to a 20mins run!
Dance is an art of artful disguise. We smile though we are in pain, we smile though some part of our body is unnaturally stretched. It always looks easy. Thats the crux of it all. We make it look easy. No one enjoys seeing high legs from a face contorted in pain. So we smile.
Labels: dance
oh well...
ok this just basically says that I am narcissistic. (i just spotted a bruise on my hand, geez, i am such a clut! I have mysterious bruises appearing like rather often!) I get along with myself! And yes, i guess i could spend the rest of my life with just myself! haha
mainz, u go around searching for such stuff??
| You scored as Sagittarius. You get along best with the sign of Sagittarius. Although Sagittarians can be difficult, or argumentative, they are very enthuastic and optimistic by nature as well. Sagittarians have a strong affinity and interest in matters conserning philosophy and truth. Sagittarians always strive to find new ideas, and higher levels of thinking. They like to roam from place to place in search of adventure. They are wise beyond their years.
Sagittarius | | 85% | Gemini | | 70% | Leo | | 70% | Aquarius | | 65% | Pisces | | 65% | Aries | | 55% | Libra | | 55% | Scorpio | | 55% | Taurus | | 50% | Capricorn | | 45% | Virgo | | 40% | Cancer | | 30% |
What sign of the Zodiac are you meant for?
created with QuizFarm.com |
source of motivation...
remind me why I have to be rich some day. Or why I should marry a rich guy.
cos i wanna be able to have the
Christian Dior Gaucho Saddle bag!Its one of those love at first sight episodes. I walked past Isetan Scotts and there it was, perched on a stand behind the glass window. It screams look at me. It exudes a fluid aura, it melts in everything yet is so distinct. I told a friend then that it reminds me Dali. Something about those curves is just so appealing. I swear the bag was smiling at me!! Makes me want to empty my bank account for that. (spells Danger for me!)
really, sometimes I think i am out of my mind because bags and shoes smile at me! yes they do!!
lunch in 30mins
tomato cheese omelette.
I love eggs but eggs are also high in cholesterol. I try not to take more than 1 egg a day. But thats difficult considering that there are so many 'hidden' eggs in our food. There are eggs in my pancakes yesterday and in the cake i had for dessert just to name a few..
Anyway, i made tomato cheese omelette for lunch. It quite a simple affair (ingredients: 1 egg, meiji fresh milk, 1 tomato, 1sliced cheese, salt and pepper). non-stick pans are such a godsend. I remember how i use to burn everything when i was younger. How i panicked as soon as the egg gets stuck to the pan. Anyway, poured egg mix into buttered pan, after a min, added diced tomatoes, and bits of 1 sliced cheese keeping the rest for later. Folded egg over and ta da! it was done! Next, the bread i had was rather stale, so pan-cooked it with butter, added the rest of the cheese, had a 'grilled' cheese sandwich. had some tomatos left over, poured that into the pan, with some salt and season with rosemary... that was lunch. I know that it sounds more like breakfast food but I like breakfast food anyway. Light, yummy and easy to make. 10mins to prepare and cook, 10 to 15mins to eat, 10mins to clean up.
So proud of myself!!! =)
Labels: food
rashy scratchy
Yesterday, the sudden appearance of rashes freaked my mother out. It first started out as slight itching on my wrists which I found to be rather peculiar as I never had rashes there before. later in the evening, i thought my feet felt slightly swollen and itchy too. About an hour later, the area from my hip bone, across my abs began to itch too and as i scratched, rashes appeared, red and all. Its like one of those scrach and win cards -- scratch and the rashes appear. Some of the them were these red flat things. It freaked my mother out. that is rather rare. Recall a couple of years ago, after i had puked all over te floor, and told her about it, she non chalently told me to clean up and went back to her tv... now she panicks over rashes...
I've had sporadic, unexplained episodes of rashes before, but never on such a grand scale. Once was a patched which appeared on my tighs, those flat red bumps that resemble some continents. But usually, they go away within an hour. Yesterday's rash episode was different. First, they appeared on a few specific places (both wrists, on the outside of my both my feet, hips to abs area -- why??? its like so symmetrical!), and they stayed for a long time. In fact, I am still a little rashy now. My mum thought I drank but i swear i've not had any alcohol last night. This morning, my feet felt swollen and I wondered if I could fit into my ballet shoes.
Apparently, i seem to be allergic to some mysterious substance.
Talking about ballet, I unfortnately, didn't cut enough of my toe nails resulting in a huge chunk of superficial skin coming off within 5mins of pointe work. And of course, i didn't know about it till the entire session was over! It hurts quite bit now to make walking a pain.
Then again, i had the wonderful Soffiato at Menotti in the evening. I love that warm chocolate cake. Someone passed me the recipe for that and it seems amazingly easy to make. Except that I don't have an oven to use at the moment. Waiting for my mum to inaugurate the new oven for use. She refuses to let my touch it citing that I have the ability to spoil everything i lay my hands on. She likes to say something like...
"i've been using this for years and nothing happens. But as soon as you use it, it spoils!"
my retort is always
"precisely because you have used it for years, its time to break down!"
She doesn't buy that. Its still my fault nonetheless.
Mothers are irrational. At least mine is.
About 12k today, but I didn't run all the way. Stopped at Delta for about 30mins to chat with a friend and continued the last abt 2k home. Feels wierd to run again after such a long rest.
