today i dissected 100 flies.
took an average of 1 min per fly.
but that is averaged over the total time, which includes transfering of the ovaries into a tube, changing the buffer every 4 flies etc, all of which take time.
the actual dissection takes about 30 seconds i think. from 1 live fly to 2 clean ovaries.

the dissecting microscope is a brilliant invention.
i love it.

i can just sit there and look at tubes of flies.
cos its 3D, magnified, and the flies are still alive.
its great.
puts me in touch with the real biology stuff.
and makes me marvel at Creation.

like watching a larva crawling along and eating the food.
its amazing.
then i understand why the larvae have denticle belts.
much more exciting then learning about the molecular mechanisms controlling the patterning of the denticles.

kua si mi?!

3 X smurfs

pensive

tiger beer!



me and jack. with 2 mad men.

higher ground CG!

suiseng! dressed as an ah beng of sorts. top msian debator turned biochemist.


with benkoh! the cumsa ball i/c who had been slaving away for months to organise the ball.



with haihan. my dance partner for the ball. we performed a salsa piece that was the opening act. judging by the applause, i think the audience liked it :) thanks for everything partner.

now i need to complain.
i really don't like performing in Balls that i attend.
cos its such a hassle!
for the cumsa ball i had 2 outfits, 3 pairs of shoes, 2 feather boas, a hat and a fan.
and then i need to think of makeup that will match the 2 outfits (ball and performance)
and performing means sweating which means messy hair and melting makeup. (then we need to think about how to touch up the makeup. bring powder only? or foundation also. what abt blusher? etc)
and changing outfits, which means that stuff gets crumpled and hair gets messed up further.
so its an overall rather unpleasant experience.

then why do i still do it?
cos the cumsa ball is special. i'm performing for my friends, people who matter. if i can entertain them for that 3 mins i'm happy.
and cos i love performing. i love the stage.

its just the before and after that is a pain cos its a Ball setting.
if i'm not attending the Ball its fine cos then i only have one outfit and i don't have to care how i look before and after that (like the CNY ball).

that said, performing at the cumsa ball was fun.
i enjoyed it very much.
esp the entrance.
that required so much coordination by the logistics ppl.
i had fun :)

... i'm annoyed.
it puts me in a Bad Mood.

... i'm uninspired.
i was walking along the streets today, when i had this profound revelation:
just as amazing dancing, new concepts and good music can inspire me, bad dancing, ideas and music can uninspire.

yep.
so the state of being uninspired can be reached via 2 pathways- the lack of suitable inpiration and exposure to negative influences.


dance is an art, and art is subjective. what fascinates me might put the next person to sleep.
similarly, dancers highly regarded by others may not appeal to me.
so when i watch them dance i'm like 'eek'
and i don't feel like dancing anymore.
i know i shouldn't let others affect me.
but if i can be excited by watching someone else dance, i can also be put-off.
will have to learn to deal with that.

... i'm angry.
i let my frustration out through movement.

... i'm sad.
and there are no more tears.

... my heart aches.
i identify with the pain in the music.

... i'm inspired.
by amazing dancing, concepts, ideas.

... i feel an urge to perform.
in front of an audience.





i think the most important factor is inspiration.
when i'm uninspired i can't dance.
i'm learning to differentiate between not being inspired and being too lazy.
i used to really want to dance but be too lazy to head down to the club.
but today i thought it would be a good idea to go to club salsa.
in fact i've been considering all week. really.
but today i didn't feel compelled to salsa.
the music didn't inspire me at all.
so i think there is no point forcing myself to go.

interesting lecture today.
we were taught "why don't snakes have legs?" amongst other things.
first exciting lecture in a long time- the rest have been booring.

the answer
there are no forelimbs because the domain of hox gene signalling extends to the region of limb bud development, inhibiting its formation.
the hindlimb bud develops, but is not maintained and there is no AER. why this is so is not known.

but of course as in all evo devo cases, this is just a hypothesis so no one really knows.

last term the head of the lab invited us to her house for a party.
her house is amazing.
lovely furniture, and she dimmed the lights so the living room was illuminated by floor lamps and fairy lights.
pretty!

met her rabbit for the first time.
so cute! :)

his name is oskar.

he has been named after the oskar mRNA that localises to the posterior of the Drosophila oocyte during oogenesis.
which is a major research area of the lab.

whatever.
so cute!

dear Lord
thank you.
for allowing my to go for both CF and funk class.
:)

sometime ago i said that if i ever discovered a protein i would call it salsa.
turns out that some people beat me to it... 6 years ago.
they isolated a protein complex which they named "SAGA altered, Spt8 absent" or SALSA for short.

Spt-Ada-Gcn5 acetyltransferase (SAGA) is a histone acetyltransferase/transcriptional coactivator complex in yeast, that has a repressive function at the HIS3 gene. Work by this research group showed that the form of SAGA that does not have the Spt8 subunit associated with it is the major form present under activating conditions for the HIS3 gene, and this activating complex was named SALSA. Besides lacking Spt8, SALSA also has a truncated Spt7 subunit, and SALSA-like structure and activating function can be partially recapitulated in yeast by truncating the C terminus of Spt7.

you can read all about this interesting work here.

incidently, another group identified this complex and called it.. SILK (SAGA-like).

happy cny!
had 2 cny dinners this year.
none of them were cookouts because i'm in my final year and i'm too lazy too cook.

with my CG on friday. all the guys couldn't make it except sam haha. we went to Anatolia, a turkish restaurant. very good food! :)

Be Thou my vision O Lord of my heart
Naught be all else to me save that Thou art.


so easy to sing.
so difficult to live out.


Lord i really, really want to continue funk.
i really do.
but if its not in Your will for it to be so, then help me to learn to obey.
for i am first a Christian, and second a dancer.
Lord it hurts so much.
but be Thou my vision.

since nothing is confirmed yet, i can only hope.

first formal of the term!
robinson scholars dinner.
free food :)

this time i was sandwiched between 2 DOSes.
my director of studies and the one for the medics.
i was like 'oh my goodness' when i saw the seating plan.
so i had to make intelligent conversation the entire evening.
wasn't too bad actually.
cos the brit guy opposite me contributed to the conversations a lot so i didn't have to handle the stress on my own.


turns out that the medic DOS is peruvian.
cool.
gave me advice on phd applications cos she has been around the field for sometime.
that was nice of her.


my DOS told us about imprinting.
because he just published a paper on it.
and then he said that human babies learn to recognise the maternal facial features within the first few hours of partuition.
which means that if and when i have a baby, the baby is going to be looking at me not the midwife/nurse/doctor/watever.


right.
we had duck for dinner.
yum.
haven't had duck in a long time.



me and my DOS!


lovely old gentleman.
had to take a photo with him.
final year liao.
don't take photo now no more chance anymore.
time flies.
sob.

today i did many things for the first time.

i went for a journal club without reading past the abstract of the paper and actually still benefited from the discussion.

i cooked laksa from the prima taste pack. (yes, i know. after 2.5 years here.)

i had dinner with a brit guy, so i got to practice my brit accent for an entire evening. thats a long time. it was going well until ben koh rang me and i got a bit confused with the accents. otherwise it went swimmingly.
we chatted about historic linguistics and his exploits in russia.
it was nice for a change, to talk to a linguist instead of a nat sci/medic/engineer/lawyer.
one of the few ang moh frens i have in robinson. i have many acquaintances in robinson, but friends, not that many. cos i spend most of my socialising time with s'poreans.
because no matter how hard i try, there is still this barrier between me and the brits.
we can get along really well, chat about all sorts of things, but at the end of the day, we are still different.
there isn't the connection that is there with s'poreans somehow.
even with my best brit girl friend, our friendship isn't that deep. maybe cos i don't put in enough effort. i don't know.
its just not easy.


and today, for the first time, in a long time, i read the title and abstract of a journal article and i thought 'why on earth would anyone be interested in this sh*t?'
seriously.
i was just like 'why!!'
but i have to read the paperS (yes there are two of them!) for tomorrow's journal club. that is organised by my lab in conjunction with another lab. so presumably the papers are on topics that the other lab is working on. i have no idea. its just beyond me.
grumble grumble.
plus my supervisor sent out an email reminding us to read the paper and think of 'constructive criticisms for discussion'.
i can think of one 'they don't state the point of the whole study'.

so haihan and i did our debut performance.
went quite well la.
except for one hiccup.
which has never happened before- we never had probs with that particular move.
oh well.
but it was fun actually.
i enjoyed it.
it being performing.

big thank you to my responsible partner.
who remembers all the variations.
so i can concentrate on other things.
i'm sure we'll do better for the cumsa ball.
:)

i'm performing tmr.
salsa.
at the CNY ball.

i feel.. lidat loh.
i'm not particularly excited.
just normal.
i'm only doing it cos i agreed to.
and i must honour my word.

thats the only reason why i'm still dancing salsa now.
that, and the upcoming cumsa ball, which i've agreed to perform for as well.
its a responsibility.
so i will do it.

i don't like performing salsa cos its so counter-intuitive for me.
when i salsa in a club i just switch-off, relax and follow the lead.
but when i'm on stage i need to remember the moves.
so its quite different, and i honestly don't like it.
but i suppose performing salsa freestyle would be fine for me, cos then i won't have to remember the steps which is good.
but of course it wouldn't look as good as a choreo.
so we will do a choreo.



i want to lock myself in a semi-darkened room...
and dance my heart out.
alone.