Not exactly back from the dead. Taking some time off to mess with this blog :D Time's running out and I'm still procrastinating. Shucks.

It happened.

Really upset. My phone was first lost at the science center and kept by some dishonest creep, which ruined the day for Candice too. I knew something like this would happen one day because I'm so careless. Plus my phone is NEW. Arrrrgh. I've misplaced my umbrella and pencil case within the last 2 weeks too. What is happening to me? Geez. I've never lost things continuously, guess I must have been rather distracted. *tears hair out*

Lost all my contacts :( I'm going to get a new SIM card ASAP. So if I can't recognize your call or SMS, please don't be too upset.

Beauty and the Geek.

I am the Geek and I'm proud of it!!! *pllbt*



I feel geeky. Can geekiness be considered as feeling? I've been chilling out with the books, the computer and the games. Going back to school after the exams ended, reading journals next. Looking up on universities and research stuff. The geek gravitates between school, home and church. So I think I'm a godly geek? Erm. I think I need more emphasis on the GODLY. I wished I could have gone for the camp. But, I couldn't. Not even one evening. I get bits and pieces that transpired there and God seemed to have been really busy there. Perhaps I haven't been actively seeking God. Ashamed to say that many times I feel that God is the One who reaches out to me, the wayward bespectacled sheep. Maybe God wants to be found, He is waiting for me to open my eyes, put on those glasses and see what He's been doing. He wants to cure me of my deafness to His voice, that the noise of this world has caused. So much to be done. So much to say. So much to rectify. Yet, I feel as though I've haven't got a voice.

Blogs.

Had a discussion with my friends about blogs today, we all love visiting people's blogs in our free time, entertaining ourselves with so and so's life, love life, etc.. Some people put up their life stories on their blogs and geez, their lives do seem like a soap opera. It's their blog, they're free to do what they want to do, but I wonder if they have any idea what kind of Internet traffic they are generating. I guess not. So, I came to the conclusion that whatever I post up here had better be neutral and non-gossip fodder. Haha. And. I've decided to blog only when I really have a point to make.
Considering that I've kinda disappeared, not really though, I still post little short snippets that don't really say much. I can only say that I have been really busy. On the other hand, I feel like I have not accomplished much. There wasn't a break after the exams, lessons started the very next day! This course has cured me of any desire to be an entrepreneur, at least for now. Living, breathing, eating, sleeping and talking entrepreneurship for the whole week! Educating this financial dummy here about stocks, shares and marketing. Frankly, it was TOO much. I'm totally brain dead now.
Aside the pain, there were some fringe benefits :D The best place to go on a holiday is Bandung. Fellow suffering BS ppl, should understand why. Hehe. It sells American brands like GAP, Banana Republic and more at goodness knows what fraction of a price! That's coz all the factories are there and apparently shrewd money-making factory owners have opened up factory outlets selling the excess and rejected goods at a fraction of the price! Hohohoho. Do I foresee a shopping spree soon?
I used to think that doing business was very risky, apparently not so. When the risk has been calculated correctly, it is actually not that bad. The difficulty lies in the many variable factors . I think it's crazy. I'm much happier being a researcher. Calculating risks seem worse than huddling in the lab. If I had to look at a spreadsheet all day, consider competitors tactics, Porter's 5 forces, etc... I rather go into a coma. I salute all business ppl out there. Hat's off!

Aside all that business about business (heh), here's 2 Aquafresh ads by the talented Wongfu ppl.

Exams, the best time to hibernate. Sleep. Eat. Study. *Yawn*

What's painful and occurs twice a year for most undergrads?



Ans: The exams are here again :)My last series of papers as an undergraduate. Life after this is a huge "?" . My final year project seems like a big mystery to me, although I already know what I'll be working with. It's going to be exciting. Before the fun stuff, the boring stuff happens first. Exams are a pain. *Groan* Despite telling myself to start early for revision every semester, I always find myself procrastinating and studying at the very last minute. What's the difference this time? I'm really unsure of what I know or what I have to read. I'm relying on God's grace again, as always. The amount of stuff that has to be memorized and vomited out feels inhuman.



These are the days that I'll be battling it out:

20th Nov - Cell Biology

23rd Nov - Muscle Biology

27th Nov - Immunology

28th Nov - Structural Biology

30th - Immunomics



Having a hard time convincing myself to do my best. I know I'll regret if I don't though. Mugmugmugmugmug. My eyes are closing despite how hard I will them to stay open. Nothing seems to be going into this empty head of mine. Still. I will trust God. That's all that really matters.

Switchfoot: Let That Be Enough

This song means alot to me. And the answer is God :) Everytime I fall down, I am a step closer to You. It hurts, but I know You'll be there to comfort me. You sent Your angels and I thank You for them. When I asked You to mould me 8 years ago, I certainly wasn't expecting this and I know there will be more to come. My sandcastles are falling apart, but Your love is enough.

Are YOU excited?

Someday, I would like to see the breath-taking Northern Lights dance across the Arctic Circle and take many beautiful pictures.
Any takers who wanna go in a couple of years too?

Some good things that have happened lately:

The bacteria have decided to be good and start overproducing purple protein! Yay. Nice dark purple protein :) Thanks to them I got a payrise. Hahaha. And I get to do more stuff in the lab.

Eliz taught me how to play something on the keyboard :) Germ got me a guitar, but I've yet to really play with it.

Hiphop dancing has provided a pretty good outlet for excess energy and a perk me up weekly event.

Other than that, I really have to buck up on my homework. Lagging faaaaaarr behind. No more slacking.

This song wormed into my head and refused to get out. Result: Walking home with a stupid grin. :)

Chocolate and Slavery

The sinister story behind chocolate
Steve Chalke
September 18, 2007

CHOCOLATE is regarded as a treat, a sweet luxury often given as a gift. But that is only part of its story. The rest is more sinister. Two hundred years after the British Empire abolished the slave trade, nearly half the world's chocolate is made from cocoa grown in Ivory Coast, West Africa, where tens of thousands of children are forced to work on plantations as slaves.

A 2002 study estimated that at least 284,000 children were trapped in forced labour in the West African cocoa industry, the majority of these — some 200,000 — were to be found in Ivory Coast. Even the most conservative estimates, including those by the chocolate companies themselves, concede that the number of chocolate slaves is at least 12,000.

These children are forced to apply pesticides without protective clothing and to work for up to 12 hours a day on the plantations for little or no pay. Their toil helps the giant chocolate makers produce the chocolate we find on the shelves of our stores.

Parliamentarian and social justice crusader William Wilberforce, whose life-long crusade resulted in the abolition of the slave trade — which then formed a critical part of the economic foundations of the British Empire — would be horrified. A recent feature film, Amazing Grace, heralds Wilberforce's crusade to free the slaves, yet the tragedy is that more people are ensnared in slavery today than in the entire 400 years of the trans-Atlantic slave trade.

Human trafficking generates $A37 billion annually and enslaves at least 12 million around the globe. Some estimates even put the number of people enslaved as high as 27 million. And the epicentre of today's slave trade is in Australia's backyard — South-East Asia.

The tragic nature of this industry is evident when you realise that the average age of a girl locked in sexual slavery in South-East Asia is 12 or 13.

However complex this trade in people, it is inescapable that there is a strong and foundational link between poverty and modern-day slavery. People who are poor are more vulnerable. We can't fight slavery without fighting poverty.

Overseas aid is critical to developing better public justice systems but it is also important in providing livelihoods for emancipated slaves.

According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, people trafficking is the world's fastest-growing crime, already bigger than the international drug trade and second only to the illegal buying and selling of arms.

But action is being taken. Stop The Traffik, the organisation I founded three years ago, now has more than 600 member organisations in 60 countries around the globe determined to raise awareness of the problem and to demand action at all levels to bring it to an end. One of the most powerful tools we have at our disposal is as consumers. In 2000, the chief executives of the major chocolate makers were hauled before the US Senate and a bill was proposed that would require the chocolate industry to certify all their chocolate as "slave-free".

The cocoa industry successfully lobbied against this, arguing that the supply chain for cocoa was complex, with middlemen buying the beans and mixing them before selling them on to conglomerate buyers.

But such major companies control the market and they can determine under what conditions they buy their cocoa beans. Unless the industry can guarantee that our chocolate is not made from beans picked by trafficked children, then we will never make progress. Industry must be able to tell people which farms beans are from and must guarantee no trafficked labour.

Consumers for their part should buy chocolate only from those companies that give this guarantee. It is a practical way we can all contribute to today's crusade to end modern-day slavery.

Human trafficking is a global problem that requires a global response. At the end of his life William Wilberforce referred to the battle against slavery as "unfinished business". Today, working together, we can complete the task.

Steve Chalke is founder of the global Stop The Traffik campaign. Go to: http://www.stopthetraffik.org.au/

An extremely painful thought: If boycotting chocolate can end the slavery. Yea, I will. But, can it?

There was an old lady feeding squirrels in the park in Savannah and we snapped pics of the squirrels while they were in a frantic rush for bread crumbs.

How I miss the benches under the trees back in Tech. In Singapore, there are no squirrels scampering across the field from 1 tree to another. There are only cats. :s

Dearest, most esteemed parents have left for their 2nd honeymoon. Not even sure if my parents EVER had a honeymoon. They were really poor when they got married. I'm left at home with Ruffy. It's just the both of us. If I'm hungry I may just cook her. Heh. (Like real) It's really quiet at home :S I like noise. So I'm making noise at home. TV, radio, etc... If not it's pin-drop silence.

Anyway, I present : The Cross

Something tells me I don't want to be like Fido Dido here. Though many times I ask God the very same question.

I survived! 2 sleep deprived nights preparing powerpoint slides for 2 consecutive days of presentation. I'm getting used to talking on the stage. Not forgetting the graded Immunology tutorial that didn't make sense in the beginning. The worse is probably over for now, until the exams roll round the corner.

Time flew exceptionally quickly this year, and before I know it, I'll be out of NTU and into the Biopolis. Is there more to life than this? Feeling really restless, really unproductive, not just in terms of work, but in God's kingdom. How I long to go out there and proclaim the good news with no reservations.But, noooo.... One must always speak with properly peppered words. What wisdom is it to speak like a fool? I am fool because I talk like one.

I really admire Travis, for giving it all to God. I miss them lots. All the bible studies, crusade meetings, prayer meetings, the evangelizing, the parties, movie outings, roadtrips...


The crusaders.

Went to watch... 881. Anyway, the song played when the credits was rolling is really nice :)

Giving up doesn't always mean you are weak; sometimes it means that you are strong enough to let go.

Dear God,

Grant me strength. This is so suffocating, choking the life out of me. *puke*

"Fun game": tagged by eliz

Rules of the game: Each player of this game starts off with ten weird things or habits or little known facts about yourself. People who get tagged must write in a blog of their own ten weird things or habits or little known facts as well as state this rule clearly. At the end, you must choose six people to be tagged and list their names. No tagbacks.



1.Before putting on braces, my 2 front teeth were so obvious that people thought I was smiling when I wasn't. Sometimes, people will actually ask me what am I smiling about when I don't close my mouth completely. :D

2. I've contemplated getting a scooter license so that I can get my very own cream coloured vespa scooter. But, I think I shouldn't. I'm already dangerous enough on a bicycle :S

3. The last thing you can imagine is Dawn running around the jungle in camouflage being GI Jane. After my A's, I applied for the SAF women's scholarship which required me to do exactly that. I made it all the way to the interview, 12 army officers against lil' ole me. Talk about a "live" firing session. Guess they couldn't imagine me carrying a rifle either, that explains why I'm still here. Haha.

4. I own a burgeoning wardrobe of clothes, in which I only wear maybe about 1/3 of the clothing in it. I always find some excuse to keep my clothes no matter how old, small they are.

5. Super bad memory for card games, game rules, jokes and music theory. I've been taught how to play the piano, the cello, the recorder (everyone has lor) and guitar. But, what do I STILL know how to play? I mastered the first 3 instruments, meaning I could play complete pieces on them. The guitar can't be considered because I've yet to play a complete piece on it. Ask me to play now and I can't play ANYTHING. I think I exasperated my piano teacher. You can tell me the same riddle 2 weeks later and I won't be able to remember the answer. Fun right?

6. Read me like an open book. I am lousy at hiding my emotions. Enuff said.

7. I jiggle, wiggle and pirouette in the privacy of my own home. I jiggle, wiggle and swing in dance classes. Yes, I dance. (Well, used to, no chance now.) Surprise, surprise. Though I'm not good at it, but at least it's better than my attempts at mastering an instrument.

8. Disclaimer: I've got sweaty palms and feet. Don't say I didn't warn you. Which makes my shoes smell at times, especially when I wear them for too long.

9. I've been told I snore. Loudly.

10. Listen to Alternative rock Franz Ferdinand, Indie Rock music, Mayday, though I hardly seem like the person to. More of a rock person than a pop person. If it makes sense to you. I also adore the polar opposite of rock music, jazz and easy listening tunes.

The 6 people I pick are: Lichang, Ereen, Geraldine, Christine, Marilyn and Evangeline.

Haha. Finally I answered the questions eh. Not as difficult as I thought.

A bird landed on my shoulder in an air-conditioned SBS bus.

?!?!?!?!?!!?

Don't ask me how the bird got into the bus and flew to the upper deck of the double-decker bus, but it did. The poor thing was trapped and flew smack into the windows in failed attempts to get out of the bus. It made a few girls scream and passengers vacate half the deck. It made me scream as it flew into me, but I could only sit in my seat as the stairway was clogged with students it had frightened. Finally, a brave soul, walked to the front of the bus, caught it and held tight onto the indignantly squawking bird. Thank God the pane right behind the bus could be opened slightly and the poor creature was let out where it belongs.

What can I say. 1 bird vs a deck (-1, the brave guy who caught the bird) of frightened passengers.