Back in the Lab

Whew... I'm back in the lab(s) again... happily completing my LAST PHASE of research- mechanical characterization of the music wires. I'm looking at creep characteristics, ultimate tensile stress, young's modulus and microstructure under SEM and Optical microscopes. While its the last bit, its pretty complicated, cos its many small, short and different tests that have to be done (in a short span of time).

This complicates things cos I've gotta shuttle between three labs (advanced manufacturing, biomechanics, and materials lab), try to juggle time and bookings and lab technicians and equipment, and while running one test (eg. creep which takes two hours) I will be in another lab polishing up my samples (eventually with diamond paste!! woohoo... haha... that's what happens to diamond dust- 0.05microns which is 1/20000th of a millimeter). So lots of running around, and waiting.

Free gaps are spent sorting out data. I wonder how research could have gotten on before Excel came about. See, I'm happily juggling 10Mb+ of data points with each file- that easily works out to 80million pieces of info (?) per file... and i've got over a thousand data files data to crunch through (they're happily backed up in excess of 16CDroms, 8DATs-1.3GBeach and i'm using 4 active zip disks). I just need to make sense of all those numbers! Thank God for computers and software engineers.

Oh, and I'm wondering if I should top off my research with an actual Listening Test- recorded samples (already prepared) of the treated and untreated guitar strings (on a Taylor, no less... solid sitka spruce top+sapele mahogany sides) will be played to test subjects. They will be required to fill out a semantic survey test, where they would be asked to describe/evaluate the sound of each sample. It may just be really interesting to see if there is concensus with the general human perception on the effect of the treatment. It may even be more fun if I split up the sample group into trained musicians and non-musicians. All this, of course, if I still have some time left over. Makes an interesting study- acousticians do this sort of tests all the time. You can sign up as a test candidate if you want! haha... just drop me a mail or something. A small sample size is required.

Speaking of mail, i've just got my v own gmail account haha... Now you can all send me HUGE files.

Joy in the Journey

Michael Card

There is a joy in the journey
There's a light we can love on the way
There is a wonder and wildness to life
and freedom for those who obey.
And all those who seek it shall find it
A pardon for all who believe
Hope for the hopeless and sight for the blind.

To all who have been born of the spirit
And who share incarnation with Him
Who belong to eternity stranded in in time
and of struggling with sin.

Forget not the hope thats bid for you
and never stop counting the cost
Remember the hopelessness when you were lost.
There is a joy in the journey
There's a light we can love on the way
There is a wonder and wildness to life
and freedom for those who obey
and freedom for those who obey.

Topology!

These are works of art, topology and manufacturing technique! Its simply quite exciting, first conceiving the shapes, then subsequently rendering such fluid, intricate forms into bronze/steel alloy. Read up about the artist and works here.


Metatrino


Quintron


Metatron

Addendum

As it turns out, that siberian crane is actually an Egret. Which is how I feel after doing something wrong.

But seriously, they're called Egrets, and they come from Siberia... A little more read up shows them endemic to North East Asia, East Asia, Indochina and South East Asia, including the Philippines, and as far west as the Eastern Coast of India and Bangladesh

Trans-Siberian Crane

Its weird, but yesterday waiting for the bus at nus, I saw one of those migratory storks- the white, beautiful, slim birds you'd see around in singapore this time of the year by the herds, and it was happily pecking away in the grass catching insects and stuff.

Suddenly I realized that they fly from siberia to the equator and back every year!!! That's a distance of over 10000km one way!

And I'm thinking these birds must have seen alot in their lifetime- alot of human destruction and encroachment of their environment and stuff; And they're all somehow still adapting to us, like, they'd still happily flock through s'pore in all its urban glory...

Lets see: First from the arctic tundra/taiga in the summer, (where they roost, have babies and stuff) they fly south in autumn, passing firstly through manchuria, then mongolia, then northen china (beijing, tianjin, heilongjiang), then east cost of china (shanghai) then south china (fujian, guangdong, KH, macau), vietnam, cambodia, thailand, malaysia, s'pore, indonesia where they spend winter happily in the tropics... and then fly back home again in time for summer, just to have kids.

Its quite an amazing experience at any rate! And I wished for a moment that I should like to try and follow them somehow on their amazing journey.

And how their tiny wings could carry them such great distances... I wouldn't even dream of walking to KL.

Yar... exactly... hmm I wonder how high they fly at, how often they stop, and if they fly together in definite family groups.

haha... sure some die, get eaten, hunted and roasted... yum!

Another amazing thing is, by autumn, the chicks are all grown and ready to start their first migratory trip!! (thats six months old max!)

It's amazing, especially more so, if you believe there's order, timeliness and direction to creation! That God should even devise such a mind boggling thing. The birds themselves are just happy to live out the miracle they've been created for.

So, for a split second, at the bus stop, on a sweltering mundane afternoon, waiting for a bus that took ages, I was just absolutely transfixed! Awe at such a design; Wonder at such beauty, yet harshness.


I said, "Oh, that I had the wings of a dove!
I would fly away and be at rest-
I would flee far away
and stay in the desert;
Selah
I would hurry to my place of shelter,
far from the tempest and storm."
Psalm 55: 6-8

Labbing

I've been staying in my lab crunching more numbers again on the analysis software and stuff... grr... been staying there up til 4am on average this last week; thereafter, go home and snooze til lunch, go back to the lab and the cycle repeats. My only consolation while I manipulate numbers and graphs and figures and other nasty stuff is that I've been listening to excellent teaching/sermon/forums by Ravi Zacharias off the net. Pretty substantial stuff. At anyrate, I thank God the way I'm wired allows me to listen to sermon/conversation/cognitive processes and doing silly stuff like punch numbers and figures; otherwise I'd be bored stiff...

And, I finally managed to get back to cell group after more than 6 months of absence! Woohoo! Our friday night practices for SNL have been shifted to more friendly time slots! yipeee...

Another good news is that, this 2nd cycle of acoustic data analysis seems to be going pretty smooth, cos now i know what i should be doing, and i already know how to manipulate the software... I think if all goes well, it'll take me 1/4 of what it took me the first time. Thank God for this!

Church stuff has pretty settled and I've come to terms with changes. HUGE changes, that is... Oh well. Kyrie Eleison! Christe Eleison! Kyrie Eleison!

And for the record, I've finally gone to see my niece, this past monday! pretty cute! Welcome to the world, Alethea- αλήθεια. Its not the easiest world you've come into, but with much love, wisdom and favor, you'll find it full of wonder and awe, of passion and of pain, ultimately of infinite joy in the Creator. Live on!

Small Enough

Nicole Nordeman

Oh, great God, be small enough to hear me now
There were times when I was crying from the dark of Daniel's den
And I have asked you once or twice if you would part the sea again
But tonight I do not need a fiery pillar in the sky
Just want to know You're gonna hold me if I start to cry
Oh, great God, be small enough to hear me now

Oh great God, be close enough to feel You now
There have been moments when I could not face Goliath on my own
And how could I forget we've marched around our share of Jerichos
But I will not be setting out a fleece for You tonight
Just want to know that everything will be alright
Oh, great God, be close enough to feel you now

All praise and all the honor be
To the God of ancient mysteries
Whose every sign and wonder turn the pages of our history
But tonight my heart is heavy
And I cannot keep from whispering this prayer
"Are You There?"

And I know you could leave writing on the wall that's just for me
Or send wisdom while I'm sleeping, like in Solomon's sweet dreams
But I don't need the strength of Samson, or a chariot in the end
Just want to know that You still know how many hairs are on my head
Oh great God, be small enough to hear me now