Recent wisdoms

I love talking to smart people. Or having wise people talk to us. Here are some random pieces that I don't want to forget.

From Sandy:
How much proof do you need before you believe something is real? You can always disprove something with an example of a case that doesn't fit the theory. But how much evidence would you need before a theory becomes a fact? Evolution by natural selection is a theory but we all believe in it. If it's just a belief, what makes it different from intelligent design? We believe in our evidence, they believe in theirs.. How's one more right than another?

From Ron:
Ron was just inspiring. He's right. I got to do something other than science. Help the community, help lab, make friends, spend time with friends and family. It's not about karma, it's about being human. Whatever happened to my humanities training?
My New year's resolution: be generous with my time and not hog it all for myself.

On a separate note, check this out. if you want to learn some biology, the lectures here are pretty good. Not too long, not too difficult.
www.ibioseminars.org

From me:
Watched this Jap postdoc come ask another Jap postdoc questions. Think they bowed to each other 5 times before started talking.. What would they think of american culture? where you call your PI by his first name, joke, curse, swear with ur superiors..

Back to life

I love holidays. Don't have to worry about work, school, deadlines.. But holidays have to end. And it's back to life. Let me bask in my last hours of holidays..

The older i get, the more emotional i get. Thought people get hardened by life. I never used to cry in movies.. but now i'm getting teary at albatross stories. Not to mention the tears shed for stolen clothes. Perhaps i'm just not used to having attention when bad things happen.. and crying is not an expression of sadness but an expression of thanks for all the concern? weirdo

Highlights of the holidays

1. hiding out in cafes in cold drizzly weather (if anything, i'm not against Starbucks any more
2. Pike's clam chowder
3. Avatar
4. train ride to Vancouver
5. bus ride in the rainy night back to Seattle (feeling warm and protected in the bus, playing Spikey and talking abt life)
6. Koi palace dim sum
7. quaint downtowns (Napa, SB)
8. Monterey Bay Aquarium (the bkgd music + the sea creatures never fail to attract me)
9. beautiful coastline, fierce waves, foamy seas (Monterey, 17-mile dr, Big Sur, I would go there any time)
10. different photo ideas from different people at the same spots
11. John Mayer trio (extremely talented 3 people, 5 rows away from me)
12. warm comfy beds
13. Guitar Hero
14. CS's sour apple pie
15. nice guitar
16. Balboa Park on a sunny Sat afternoon watching planes land and people take wedding photos
17. being around friends, all the time

Forgettable moments

1. discovering that the car's missing
2. hotel room getting broken into and luggage rummaged through
3. Hearst castle
4. LA jams

Wish list

I'm going to draw up a wish list, just in case u want to give me a present for any reason. Will try to update this as I get myself the things on the list. In no particular order..

1. something to make my room colourful
2. how about a flower? a live growing flower.. inspired by Ro's orchid.. must be able to fit on my window sill though
3. a good keyboard.. I'm eyeing Yamaha DGX530. I'll gladly accept any model above that too
4. IPod touch.. I don't really need one, my mp3 player works fine, it's just all these people fiddling with their iphones and ipods around me..
5. want to get me a car? I have a garage space all ready for it
6. or a bike so i can bike through GG park to ocean beach
7. something more realistic.. a comfy swivel chair with wheels that actually work
8. a container for hot drinks.. need to keep my drinks hot

Haha. Not like anybody who reads this will give me a gift.. u're probably not even in my neighbourhood.

i feel like i've left a life behind, a really good life, and building up a new one from scratch.. it's not fun.
sunlight somehow gives me hope, and strength.. maybe i'm just being emo, but i become sad when the sun's gone.. doesn't help that my body thinks i'm taking a nap at midnight and wakes me up every 2-3h.

why am i doing this? would i have enough motivation to push me through? who knows..

too many things to do.. things that i don't know how to do.
i'll hold on to every little glimmer of hope.

Journey

our MV.. my 2secs of airtime.. the song's awesome

Music appreciation

I like songs for 3 reasons

1. The melody/ chord progression attracts me
2. It has an interesting arrangement
3. It's technically interesting

and maybe a fourth, the lyrics are cool.. but it's rare that i pick up the lyrics at all

Most songs fall into cat 1, Jay Chou songs are usually in cat 2, and cat 3 is reserved for songs that i really look into, meaning they have to belong to cat 1 or 2 already. Sometimes when songs drop into cat 3, they become purely technical and i stop paying attention to the musical aspects any more.. and that's sad.

逃亡 is now in cat 3. 11/8
我要的幸福 as well. 5/4 + 6/4
The Moment. Maybe one day i'll get it.

Questions.. from a professor

I WENT TO A BOOKSTORE AND ASKED THE SALESWOMAN, "WHERE'S THE SELF- HELP SECTION?" SHE SAID IF SHE TOLD ME, IT WOULD DEFEAT THE PURPOSE.

WHAT DO YOU DO WHEN YOU SEE AN ENDANGERED ANIMAL EATING AN ENDANGERED PLANT?

WHAT IF THERE WERE NO HYPOTHETICAL QUESTIONS?

IF YOU ATE BOTH PASTA AND ANTIPASTO, WOULD YOU STILL BE HUNGRY?

IF YOU TRY TO FAIL, AND SUCCEED, WHICH HAVE YOU DONE?

CAN AN ATHEIST GET INSURANCE AGAINST ACTS OF GOD?

Quote of the day:

We do have hearts. =)

maybe not

when i read werther, i didn't understand how anyone could be so emotional.. it's over a girl that he obviously can't get. and it's love at first sight. i thought he was stupid. and the whole ending was just beyond me.

the other day i was shopping and overheard this conversation. this girl said to this guy, i'm willing to bet that i've put in more for u than u've put in for anyone..
wow, now that's a strong statement.

must there be ladders? i'm greedy, if i fall off one ladder, can i hop over to the next?

Privacy

I like my privacy. I don't like when living things get into my private space. That's probably why I don't have particular liking for pets. I'm a fish person cos fish live in their own space and not in mine. But went snorkeling and swam with fishes and decided that maybe I don't like fish so much. Cos they have no respect for my space. Things are ok though.

Saw this guy yesterday that looked really familiar, familiar but not as cute as I remembered him to be. Wondered who he was. I want his job, except that I think he doesn't get paid. And I don't qualify any more. Seek opportunities while you can, otherwise you won't qualify any more.

就放肆愛放肆追 放肆去闖
放肆是我的信仰
再不去闖 夢想永遠只會 是一個夢想
~ 五月天 - 放肆

闖!!

一滴眼泪

Apr 15
Applied: 9
Accepted: 4
Rejected: 3
Gave up: 2

It's the day where u know for sure u didn't get in. Where an impt decision that affects ur career is made. When u have a clearer inkling of what life's like for the next 5++ years.

I hate how everything's so transient in our life. It's 3 years somewhere, a year somewhere else, another 5 years somewhere different, and back. The only good thing is prob that if you get tired of a place, u can see an end to it.

Peiling claims that there's sadness in my laughs. Is that possible? I'm an inherently sad person?

Instincts were right. The female spidey sense picked it up. Either I didn't want to listen to spidey or I was genuinely confused. Irritatingly confusing. A phrase that's catchy enough to make a song.
2 days to get over it.
Not fighting it.
Then life goes on and i can continue being idiotic/ moronic.

xh thinks i'm "happy, cool and weird"
same to u xh, especially the weird part

I nv knew that andrea's a quarter indian.. cool

leukocyte

Had some really good conversations this week with friends. Maybe i'm not so hopeless at 2 people convos after all.

feelings or logic? present or future? yes or no?

Being as escapist as I am, I'd rather live in a good dream than wake up and face the reality. Even though the reality could be as good or even better than the dream. I'm not too satisfied with how things are, but am I ready to shape it? Nietzsche wouldn't approve of my inactions, nor would Schopenhauer. This makes me realize that I've pretty much forgotten everything about them. I should stick categorical imperatives on my wallpaper or sth.

I can live with categorical imperatives. In fact, I want to. They're logical. Well, logic was everything to these philosophers. There are reasons these guys cite for coming to such conclusions. They're not the result of some myth where something did sth wrong and was condemned by higher beings forever. I pick philosophy any day.

I'll probably go UCSF. It's not Apr 15 yet but I'm pretty sure of it.

Earth hour tonight. Get off electricity for a while.

Musicophilia

Bought Musicophilia to read on long transcontinental flights.. It's rather entertaining, got me interested in musical perception again.

I've always wondered, how would you know that what you're seeing/ hearing is the same as everyone else? Is there an absolute colour? Is what I perceive as red the same colour as what you consider red? A baby doesn't know an apple is red until someone tells him that it's red. Could the apple be triggering blue light receptors instead in the baby's eyes? And if so, will the baby grow up seeing things completely different from others but not knowing so? Everything red will be blue to him, but he would call it red and believe it to be red because that's what he's been taught. Are we all seeing colours differently?

Protect ur ears. People hear all sorts of weird things when their ears are damaged/ when they go partially deaf..

Have been addicted to music lately.. addicted and affected. THere are songs that make me happy and songs that melt me.. And horrible tuneless hip hop songs. Wonder what causes these reactions. when can i write a melty song?

Hello from LA

Yay for free wi-fi. I'm trying not to fall asleep by being online.

I can't help considering cancelling my UK trip. Traveling is tired, and boring. And i wonder if I'm wasting my time and energy going there. Will see how.

Sat next to this Singaporean who's a tour guide in Japan on my way to Narita. Makes me want to be a tour guide again. Also want to visit Japan. Some day.

The trick is to write the song when I'm feeling it. It helps take the feeling away, and also I'll get a good song. So far I have loads of feelings and zero songs. Let's see if the alien song materializes before the end of the trip.

Ok. going for lunch.

science

It’s always at periods like this when I have to prepare for an interview or write a personal statement that I think of why it is that I’m doing science. Science shouldn’t be about gathering enough data to publish. Publishing should be a by-product of the bigger aim to do good and save the world. We put that in our presentations, papers, oh my work is going to cure cancer and save the world. How many of us really believe that what we’re doing is significant, in the grand view of things? I know that I’ve forgotten that my goal is more than getting a paper out.

Of course I’m just being idealistic. Science, like every other thing in this capitalist world, is about convincing people to give you money for something you have. And to get money, you have to rush for papers. The world’s going to end soon. Save it while we can.

So I've been using the word 'so' too much. It appeared in almost every sentence in my presentation. I've been in a very tensed state for the past, let's see, a week or so. No idea why. Just uptight, highstrung, ready to explode. Bunny was going to diagnose me with anorexia cos I'm not eating much, though it's not like she eats much more than I do. I was thinking that if this goes on, I'll probably die of hypertension before 3 weeks are over.. But it stopped, thankfully. I still have no idea what the cause of stress is. Whatever, I'm tired.

song that's stuck in my head.. among others:
"love love love love love, love love, makes the world go round"
it's from powerpuff. i should watch powerpuff again some time. kindergarten kids are cute.

deja vu

All the highs of the recent weeks/ months have been musical. Others have been talking of their scientific epiphanies, intellectual highs. Nope, none for me. The only resemblence might be my realization that my drug plate was screwed up in a simpler way, and hence my project isn't as hopeless as it seems.

Anyway, music. 2 concerts in Dec, our band with no name and Coda. Practices are many, took up 4 days out of 7 for the past 2 weeks. And I actually look forward to them after a day of unproductive work. How wonderful. The band with no name gave its inaugural concert this week. The music was good, we had 2 original songs, the audience was a lot of fun and we still badly need a name. I'm already waiting for the next show to happen. Coda, they've agreed to mic me. Yay. Now I just need to improvise something decent, to walk a rather crooked line. Working on it.

Concert

Watched my first concert since I came back. Andoh's 3rd time in Singapore, promoting Mindscape 4 and STAGEA. I want to be back in the circle. It's some amazing music that he's creating. Concerts like these are always tacky, attracting attention using flashy lights, lively drumbeats, even catchy tunes. But there's no doubt that his composition and playing are good. And I like his playing style better now than before. It looks much less EF-like and more professional.
Many many thanks to the Internet, I managed to find some tracks from his CDs, and they melt me. I'm a liquid now.