Dinner with Gossip Lane People

Yes. Dinner with Gossip Lane people. Well... actually, girls are more accurate (all of them are, except me, though I do not see myself as part of Gossip Lane. It is too "gossipy" for me.). Great company. I like to listen to people talk and learn stuff about them along the way. This bunch of girls are extremely chatty. Perfect fit. Anyway, after a year of working together, they have moved on bigger things. It is real nice to get together once in a while and see how everyone is doing. Even though these just a click away on social networking websites, nothing beats seeing and talking to them in real person.

One of the Gossip Lane people, VW, when egged by the group to reveal her "analytical skills" regarding our strong points (one for each person) said that I am the type who, when faced with a problem, will go all the way to get the answer/solve the problem. In a way, it is true (most of the time anyway). I think to put it more accurately, I do not like things I do not know. That is why if it bugs me, I will get down to it. Also, I see it as a challenge to be overcome/crush (Especially if it is in certain areas I am confident of. Yeah. I know. "Hubris" comes to my mind.).

On work front, I still need to improve my assaying of the Organism. No doubt I am getting used to the steps. However, I am still not sufficiently comfortable with my skills at this point.

Excited. Extremely Excited.

Excited about the coming work year. With a significant number of people gone, those that are left are supposedly the stronger ones (Some of the people who left are strong too of course. It is a pity they have to leave.). The competitive blood in me is boiling up. Let's see how this "battle" will go. I might end up losing of course. However it will definitely be very interesting. How long can I last? Hopefully external forces will not intervene.  

(Note: Ok. From the above paragraph, you probably think I am a nut case. Just using analogy to make this coming tough year sound nicer and more interesting.)

New Self Fragmenting

I think I am breaking up on social front and work. Losing patience with a certain person. Somehow, that person is getting increasingly irritating. That person kept on asking questions, and sometimes even repeatedly, and making strange remarks. Well... that person does have a point most of the time. However, I think the timing for that person's questions and comments are not very appropriate or that they are pointless.

On the side of work, I think I am lapsing into my careless, rash self. I need to rein that it or trouble will follow up very soon.

Robot Damashii over Kits

Ok. After looking at photographs of Robot Damashii figures (and that I do not have time nor energy to build gunpla anymore), I think I will buy Robot Damashii figures instead (when I start having income). Gunpla... perhaps for the main characters' MS.

The downside of Robot Damashii is that it is small. Very small in my opinion (~11cm). No sense of awe... Oh well... that is the trade off for a figure off the box.

Another (Not so) Dumb Week

Another dumb week. Fixation went wrong. Nevermind. The medium turned pink. I was doing assay halfway when senior came in and noticed the colour. Although he merely commented, I abandoned the assay. What is the point of continuing when it is already wrong. Good thing I had the foresight to keep another set of sample to perform the assay.

So yes. This week, beside literature review, I accomplished little else. THIS HAS TO CHANGE OR I WILL BE REPEATING MY MISTAKES LAST YEAR!!! I need to change the way I work. So one week gone. Wonderful. Nevermind. I still one week before school starts. Need to work all the way through next week. Must keep Friday night free. So Monday to Thursday, I declare war against my sloth!

Project Final Fantasy Week 7.5

Literature Review presentation for main supervisor this week. It was 1) unrehearsed (It was NOT prepared last minute, though I realized it was missing a number of important points) 2) packed with a lot of information [I talked until my throat felt dry and the laser pointer went out of battery] 3) not to my satisfaction (The audience appeared to think otherwise. I missed out a few small details.). I need to improve on the presentation to pass a sterner supervisor 3 weeks from now. 

Regarding real work, biochemical C assay was postponed to allow time for plating optimization (I am close to completing this part). Biochemical C assay will resume next week with an improved protocol. However, there is only sufficient material to run a single assay. After that, I will have to wait for the company to deliver the goods we have ordered. In the mean time, I will work on other stuff.

The main work this week is the time point study of Organism. Isolation of Organism at various time points and fixing of cells for analysis was done. Unfortunately, I fell prey to carelessness again. I used only a half-strength fixative due to pipetting error. I admit. It was stupid. 2 days of working till 11pm gone down the drain because of a stupid mistake that I discovered only on the final day. The only consolation was that I managed to harvest the Organism to perform quantification next week. Of course, if that assay turns out negative, it means I have wasted an entire week again. Given my tight schedule, this is not acceptable

Although it is human to err, I must learn from my mistakes and not repeat them EVER. I realized that the different between the current me and the me several months ago is that I am putting more thoughts into my work. Since I have no assigned mentor to follow and there are a myriad of protocols that work, I need to decide how to carry out my work so that results obtained at this point can be used to analyze and compare against future results. If there is anything I think that is worth celebrating thus far, this modest maturation of thought is it.

Project Final Fantasy Week 6.5 Update

2 weeks till real schedule kicks in. No progress for this week. I thought I could finish my literature review this week. But problems cropped up and my slowness (self-perceived) ate up quite a bit of time. My immune cells for verification were wasted because my lysis buffer was missing an important component. Therefore, the biochemical C assay has to be postponed until at least Monday.

I hope to begin Organism growth curve determination this week. It might take a week or two. I will have to ask seniors if this is necessary. I hope to at least start cytotoxicity test within these 2 weeks as well. With these two matters settled, at least I think I am done with the bulk of optimizations. Literature review is moving along slowly. Many things to read. Many many things. Next week is the scheduled presentation week. The exact day has not yet been fixed. I will discuss with seniors tomorrow. Compared to the others, I think I am less "controlled". No one sets deadlines for me (unlike my friend who has schedules planned out by her supervisor - I kind of like that. But it sound that she is not trusted to run her own schedule, which is not good in a way). Then again, I intrinsically know I am behind time. At least a week or two behind time. This will help put the fact that my co-workers left behind me. No time to feel sad about what has happened when there is so much more to be done.

So you see, I have a lot of things to do. Medicine people will end their exams in early September. However, that is the time when the other people are slugging it out (Yes, you have seen it right. Slugging it out). Hopefully I can squeeze out an evening for a dinner. It has been more than a year.

Ah yes. I "skipped" work on Saturday (Simply take a break from experiments). It feels nice to stay at home (finally got to re-watch Aliens), though I was feeling groggy most of the time. Probably due to the lack of sleep for the past month or two.