Thoughts for youth

Got this from my Ang Moh colleague, i think is nice to share it with you all.

“Young people need compassion and guidance, not obscure mysticism.

Remember that you are always your own person. Do not surrender your mind, heart or body to any person. Never compromise your dignity for any reason.

Maintain your health with sound diet, hygiene, exercise and clean living. Don’t engage in drugs or drinking.

Money is never more important than your body and mind, but you must work and support yourself. Never depend on others for your livelihood.

Choose your friends and living situation carefully, for they will influence you. Find a mentor you can trust, one who can answer your every question, but never give up responsibility for your own life. No one lives your life for you.

A good education is always an asset.

Emotions are transitory and are not a good way to make decisions.

Every day, you must make decisions. Everything you do will have irrevocable effects upon your life. Before you go down any path, consider carefully. Rivers very rarely reverse course.

Know evil, but do not do evil yourself. Remember, there is a way out of the delusions of life.”

From Deng Ming-Dao, 365 Tao: Daily meditations (1992) 239 – Youth – Nian Qin

What do you think after you read this? =)

Puppies update (5-12 weeks)

Start of August

A busy month. Because i am very unprepared so i am not sure whether i can get my reagents and things ready before mid september for my training. Sigh.. gonna be more tough when really want to involve myself in research life.

Btw, early august and in this week, everyday scolded by my crazy manager. I don't know what happen to her, but she is just so bad mood that she liked to scold me anytime she felt want to scold people. Monday she asked me to shut my mouth when i was trying to help my new colleague to explain to her about my colleague's problem. Tuesday, she asked why i didn't off aircon on night time after finish work. I said i off and make sure everything off before i go back, she said i didn't listen and obey. Wednesday, when i just reach my office from UNIMAS and about to go for my lunch, she asked why i left my poster inside the room, "You thought that room is your rubbish room ar!". Ok fine, then afternoon i have a chat with a vendor about the equipments i bought from him. After the meeting, she came over to me again " I told you many times, this is your responsibility to on the aircon on daytime, off the aircon on nightime.. why just now you so happily talked with Mr xxx, why you never realized to on the aircon. i don't care, if the aircon didn't on, and the freezer beeps again (because of temperature rise), then your samples spoil, so i don't care" Siao one.. do you think because of the aircon didn't on, the -20 freezer temperature will rise and spoil your samples?

Let me explain, because the -20C freezer was beeping at night time due to the ice blockage inside the freezer compartment. So she thought it is due to the heat from the room temperature (you see we're 365 days summer, so it is very hot everyday). She then decided to on the aircon on daytime to avoid the freezer from beeping, and off the aircon in night time (because night time not so hot mah). She appointed me to take this responsibility. Ok, i admit i didn't really obey her (sometimes i forgot, sometimes i think not necessary), but what's the point that she talked about this and that everyday, when she already put on the notice to tell everyone? She purposely wait for me to on the aircon ar? even i wasn't in office this whole morning?

Weird lady. Siao Po!

End of July

Another month gone, and still, not much progress for my project, except that i going to run ELISA on august and want to extract RNA from all my stored blood samples and optimize the protocol. It is still a mess for me, especially i just sent over a few samples for bioanalyzer testing, and what returned is that very likely my RNAs were degraded. Even the highest concentration one the RIN only 4, and the rest either can't be detected any trace, or very low RIN. So, i would say it is start of my nightmare. I thought my sample preparation part is ok already, however, the low purity, low concentration and now the 'degradation' is distraught me right now. Ok, what should i do next, i have no idea.

About my personal life, still the same, except that i got one new pet at home. The puppy becomes so disobedient recently, every time i reached home, it will come to my feet and bite me! And when i open the door, it was so naughty and wanted to follow me into the house. I even closed the door almost flattened its nose, it still attempt to go in. Better think twice whether to keep it or not, i am very sure it will get more active when it grows up. Come back to my life after working hour, actually i am in "on call" status right now. All because i want to speed up my recruitment rate, so i told the nurses to call me when there is any putative patient coming in after working hours. In fact, this worked initially, as i got call when i was in my sweet dream and 11.45pm. This was a cool experience, pity to my parents because they got to accompany me as to protect me when this happened. However, my recruitment rate return to "zero" these two weeks, so my emotion is like roller coaster, high and low, excited and distressed. Not to say that actually i saw a patient went to coma and emergency condition, but a minute before he still consciously well; and my first time to see the hospital staff removed the dead body from the ward, with the wife stood restless watching her beloved.

Despite all these, i wonder how far i can go further. I am not doctor, not even a pharmacist or nurse. But if you said i am a researcher, because i am a postgrad in uni. I afraid i am not in that stage yet, i can't even decide when i should go uni, all the lab techniques and knowledge i have are blank in my head (because lack of practise). Being half of clinical, half of basic, i actually not belong to anywhere. Sad.

Ok, i know it is an irrational post. I will definitely look at a brighter side, maybe shall go marry first.

Puppies (4 weeks old)

The puppies grew up very big now, especially the "xiao bai". They can run, jump, play with each other, lick and bite. They loves to play wrestling to one another, mostly are "xiao bai" played with one black puppy. The other puppy (with white color on its feets) tend to be more "quiet" and doesn't play with other most of the time, maybe because it is a girl.

An update picture of my beloved puppy (sorry! I know i am bias!!, but it is just so cute~):

Endnote and SPSS

Last weekend i went to a 3 days workshop in UNIMAS for Basic Biostatistic course. Basically, attending this workshop just to give me a brief idea of how to conduct basic statistic analysis using SPSS and also learn to use the citation program called EndNote.

I heard from one of the UNIMAS lecturers that this speaker, Dr. Lin Naing is one of the best statisticians in public health science. Just feel fortunate to have this guy as the workshop speaker because i learned alot from him, though only portion of basic things but is enough for me at this moment. At least i know different tests in SPSS and what are they used for certain reasons.

The most exciting part will be the EndNote. I never know about this program until i joined GH last year. And i've totally no idea what is this until today. It is actually a citation program, maybe not perfect as i heard from others that it didn't actually search all the web databases. Nevertheless, as long as it is useful to cite the reference for us, then we won't be so headache when writing thesis or article. Another thing is this program can actually provide different publication format if you wish to publish in certain journals. For example citation format for article to be published in Brit Med J is different for other journals, and EndNote can help you to cite according to certain format "automatically", you no need to re-type the whole reference.

I haven't got time to revise all that i have learnt, hopefully i won't forget all these useful lectures. This is the only workshop i attended so far (after i joined GH), which i think is worthy. ^^

New Pet (3.5 weeks old)