Poster Done!

For the past weeks, I’ve been busy doing and preparing for this – a proposal for my Honours research. In case you don’t know, my Honours year is research-based, not an extended whole year of extra subjects and classes like any other normal semester. I’ve been waiting for this day for so long. Finally this morning, I was busy doing this...


Standing next to my poster for four straight hours on standby alert mode to present my research to anyone at any time, which includes yakking away about my objectives and how I’m going about with them as well as answering questions shot my way.

To put in simple terms, I’m actually using this method called Cyclic Voltammetry to detect two specific antioxidant compounds. While at that, the best suitable parameters (conditions) will be determined as well. If you don’t understand that, you can ask me the next time we meet face to face. Einstein said, "You do not really understand something unless you can explain it to your grandmother". Got to put that into practice right?

Of course, I had 2 examiners – one was really nice and asked simple questions rather than bombardic ones which I initially expected and dreaded since he was quite seasoned on this area, while the other was new to this field so I didn’t know what to expect from her. She did ask me one question which I – timely and awfully bad timing – blanked out. I could only recall very little details bleakly. Sigh. Nevermind. It’s only worth 3% of my overall marks.


P.S. I was gonna put in a picture of my poster, but Madhu hasn't sent me the photos yet. Argh, I really do need a digicam small and light enough to carry around.

P.P.S. Edited on 02/09, thanks to Madhu for the pic. I still need a slimmer camera.

The Crisis in Crisis

OK. So I've always been a big fan of Robin Cook, thanks to my sister. So when I went to Timesquare Borders 2 weeks ago, I was drawn to buy this book after reading the short synopsis printed on the back cover. No kidding, the synopsis was brilliantly written to intrigue and catch the eyes of even the ones who were casually selecting random books off the shelf to pass time. Can't say it attracts book-haters cuz if they hated books so much they wouldn't be in the bookstores in the first place.

Accused of medical malpractice, Dr Craig Bowman feels shocked, angry and humiliated. He has spent gruelling years in the service of others before eventually becoming partner in an exclusive medical practice which allows him to lavish personal attention on just a small number of clients. But this idyllic situation grinds to a halt one sunny afternoon... and this are about to get much worse.

Medical examiner Dr Jack Stapleton agrees to travel to Boston to offer his forensic expertise to Bowman's beleaguered defence attorney, but his casual suggestion of exhuming the corpse merely opens up a snake pit of further troubles. While the doctor's reputation and career are put on the line, Jack is on the verge of making a most unwelcome discovery - one of tremendous medical and legal significance.

However, there are some who will do anything to keep him from learning the truth.

Sounds interesting right?

BUT...

The revelation at the end was so anticlimatic that it totally killed the book. Killed the story, I mean. The entire mystery was unraveled right at twenty pages from the end of the book and it probably took only under five pages to present evidence of no malpractice. Could be more, but I wouldn't be bothered to look through again. The point is the story plot was very, VERY well built up only to greatly disappoint at the very end. The ending pissed me off so much that I had to control myself from ripping off the last few chapters of the book and burning them, then rewriting them myself. Eesh.

Along the way, there were great many conspiracies thrown in the plot. Maybe it was the young husband who murdered the rich old lady for her money. Maybe it was the lawyers trying to make money out of the lawsuit and protect their investment. Maybe it was the local hospital doctors who are determined to put Craig Bowman to blame to cover their mistakes and to end the, to put it in their words, outrageously stupid idea of concierge medicine. But as it turns out, it was neither. It was a case of ego and narcissism of the protagonist-turn-antagonist. Sigh. SIGH. S-I-G-H.

The ending came too late and went too fast. There was no explanation for anything or the attacks that happened. Like why was the assistant of the district attorney for Bowman's lawsuit attacking Jack Stapleton every so often? He couldn't have been working for Craig Bowman since they're on the opposite sites in the court. So what was the story there? And who hired the two guys to break into the Bowman's house, tied the children up and threatened them to warn their parents? Was it Bowman? How could he have done that sort of thing to his own children is just appalling. I may sound naive but I'm gonna say it anyway. I never once believed that there is anyone who was born a bad fruit. It's always some turn-of-events, peers and upbringing.

Me not happy girl. Not happy at all. Nasihat saya? Jangan beli buku ini. I remember Suzan once showed me this Indonesian website that reviews international and Indonesian movies, and rates them using two kinds of rating. For good movies, they're rated with stars (I think). Naturally the more stars it get, the better the movie is. And for the really bad movies, they rate them with underpants. The more underpants they get, the more sucky the movie is. If I were to use this rating system to rate this book, this one layak dianugerahi lapan setengah pasang underpants out of ten.

Ironically, this book is entitled "Crisis". Big crisis - can't come up with better ending.

I need good books to make me happy now.

Clouds of gloom & Shouts of joy

Last night we witnessed the crashing of our remaining two men singles in World Championships. Can't help but feel frustrated. One lost to a player seeded 7 places beneath him, and the other lost to an unseeded Indian player (the one who shockingly eliminated Indonesia's Taufik Hidayat earlier). Again and again, we have always fallen short in crucial stages and tournaments. Sigh. I think that sometimes we become too obsessed with chasing and beating bigger names that we tend to dismiss others too easily.

The thing that was most disappointing of all was the fact that Lee Chong Wei lost to Sony Dwi Kuncoro without putting up much of a fight. And newspapers report that he blamed the head coach for putting too much unnecessary pressure on him to win. So he thinks he's the only one being pressured to win? Kinda ridiculous, if you ask me. I bet it's many other reasons.

Although I may not like Lin Dan much (mainly because he's always eliminating our players from tournaments hahahaa), I think Lee Chong Wei needs to learn from his example. Ok. He may not be the most charismatic character on court. But he delivers when it matters. And he does it with tons more expectations from others than Lee has. He's the defending world champion. He's been world no 1 for God knows how many centuries. He has the team and coaches counting on him. He has the whole China population counting on him. The whole world is expecting him to win. He has more to lose. And yet, he delivers.

Or maybe if emulating your competitor is not a good idea. Think about the all-rounder, Sun Jun (player back in 1990s).

All this while, we've always had two so-called jinxes. One, no Malaysian woman has EVER become the world champion. Two, no Malaysian woman has EVER beaten the world champion. Yesterday, in the most unusual turn of events, our Malaysian player defied the odds and defeated the defending world champion China's Xie Xingfang (21-10, 21-8). It was the single most lopsided match I've seen with Xie Xingfang being - oddly and ironically - dominated and not the dominatrix. It was really her off day, making one too many unforced errors. So today, Wong Mew Choo has defeated a world champion, breaking all skepticism and pessimistic views, remarks on our local women badminton. Who knows in near future we'll have another breakthrough.

Good thing our men doubles defeated that Danish pair. Full of dirty little tricks and degrading badminton quality with their utter silliness. Delaying serves. Keep delaying getting ready to receive service like hundreds thousands of times. Changing shuttles, don't wanna change shuttles. Talking to the umpire unecessarily. Trying to get popularity vote har? So super annoying, irritating and unsporting behaviour. Serve them right to get booed by the crowd and probably the millions more who were watching from home. Even the commentator was going, "C'mon! Let's get on with this!".

Should ban them. Or tape their mouths. Or give them both red cards for lousy attitude and stupid behaviour. They have talent, but it's such a sorry sight to watch them having to resort to silly tactics like this as a strategy to win. I don't care if people say that those so-called psychological tactics are part of the game. Or whatever other excuses they give to justify them. It's pathetic and a disgrace to the sport.

Extra extra! Read all about it!

Few days ago...

"Jie Jie, what are the chances of getting selected ha?"

"Small, but still there is a likelihood. Whether you get selected is 50-50. Then you have to consider how many are they selecting this time around."

"Hmmm.. chances so small. Most likely won't kena one right?"

"... But still can't rule out anything. Tak tau *shrugs*"

Few hours ago...

I was just casually sitting on the sofa arm while my brother checks his fate... didn't think we can get through the website so fast as probably 100,000 17-year-olds were also trying to check the website too. And thus jamming the network. It's the survival of the strongest connection!

Anyways, moments later we managed to access the website. Nokkie inserts his I.C. no. And waits. And reads.


[translates as congratulations, you have been selected for the national service training program for 2008]
And re-reads. After a while, his jaw drops a little and eyes widen in disbelief. His face then slowly develops into the why-of-all-the-people-i-can-still-kena expression, banging his head against the table and screaming "why?!!" to all different directions you can think of. Hahaa, of course the later part was exaggerated. I pat him on the back and give him my condolences. But not after I have laughed out long and loud. And announced it to the whole house. Sorry lah. I know I'm mean. But I couldn't help it.

Nasi sudah menjadi bubur. Bukannya kita ada suara dalam hal ni. Apparent only one other person in his class also terpilih. And the unselected ones are telling him, "Good lah.. now you can lose weight".

Untuk mengakhiri cerita ini, bak kata pepatah (versi 2007 oleh Nokkie), "Kerana pulut santan binasa, kerana N.S. Enoch merana".

Tahniah, tahniah. Anyone wants to wish him the best / offer condolences?