Happening 2006

Chinese will call the new year 2007 as the year of the pig, or khinzir (cannot say 'ba**). Health minister, Chua Soi Lek said that we should not eat pork because of the cancerous substance called beta-antagonist used by some farmers to make pigs grow fat. Too bad because I love makan bakkutteh and can't keep myself off from it unless somebody finds me a chick-kut-teh in town as replacement. Btw, chick-kut-teh - even how good also, I bet, cannot beat the taste of pork.

One year passed soo fast. I still remember myself struggling in the first semester of my Ph.D. programme. Dr. Tan, Sam, Pui Wah and Kaynoosh and I were sooo close; we were dubbed the the most unlikely friends ever. Ahhh....now we are soo far (geographically)apart. Pui Wah in Taiwan and Kaynoosh finished her Masters, going to Australia.

I would also remember this year where I started teaching swimming to kids. Kids are a wondrous lot. Nowadays especially. They are sooo smart that you can't trick them anymore to get into the pool. They question their teachers (and swimming teachers) as if they know more than you do. You tell them that they can't drown (it's shallow!), and they don't believe you. And after 6 months teaching these kids, they still call me 'Aunty'. Cheeeez. Thanks Hafiz for the teaching opportunity.

2007 - Toll naik, petrol (most probably) will naik . What more can I say. I am sooo dependent on all 3 LDP tolls --> I will die lah....60% increase? SemiValue - you considered it the lowest in the world. But, wei, how many bloody tolls are there in this whole Klang Valley, hah? Yes, low payment, but sooooooooooooooo many tolls. And the traffic jams?! It's a disgrace - RM1.60 and still stuck in traffic immediately after the toll booth. Many racial disharmony issues were brought to attention in 2006. Toooo many. Racial issues are normal in Malaysia, but none were properly resolved. That's the problem. Resolve lahh properly. Our PM should jump in to resolve the problems ASAP, but most of the time, he intervened too late. All I can say is that the racial thingy in this country is already - bagai telur di hujung tanduk. Verge of breaking down. I think people are going to burst out anytime. ANYTIME. Remember May 13? I am scared though.

I should say this year generally isn't that all good. My appendicitis struck mid March, then came my car accident in September. I have, I would say, a permenant injury on my left wrist due to aikido. Thank God it is my left wrist. But good things did happen too. My scholarship by Kuok Foundation saved me at the nick of time (I was quite broke that time). I passed 3rd kyu in June - it was great. Networked with many great professors and ppl in bio-research during the recent agriculture congress - a good start.

Year 2007 - I dunno what is installed for me. Dear God, this year I pray for: no increase in petrol price; MNG and Zara sales whole year; my beloved car is loyal to me (pls don't break down); breakthroughs in my research; my friends are still my friends; my parents are in good health; people will love me for who I am; I can flip properly and make good ukemi; and I strike lottery.

Friendster blocked in UPM again

UPM has once again blocked the access to Friendster and related websites. How cruel!

Aisehhhh, how come for the last 6 months it was allowed, and then boomm (!)...went out again.

Is Friendster is bad for the academic community? Hmmphhh....block MSN and block Yahoo messenging then!

Thinking bac

E. coli is one of the most common bacteria, and what I meant by the word 'common' is that we can find it in our gut (it is basically harmless to human, animals), and we usually use it in genetic engineering, esp. in cloning purposes. However, the strain Escherichia coli O157:H7 is now being identified as the culprit in the recent outbreak of E. coli poisoning in the US. CDC has yet to establish the source from which the disease spread. It could come from the cheese, milk, or more probably vegetables like spinach and lettuces; some vegetables may have come into contact with feces of animals. The bacteria may even arrive on our food thru' the fertigation system. I am not sure about the situation in The US, but it interest me a lot because I believed that last September, I was victimised by some bacteria thingy tooo......

It was Sept. 2006 that we had our annual aikdo camp near Betong, foot of Genting. Well, my boy-boy had already realised that our lunch was not fresh. He claimed that the pok-choy has this pesticide-laden-taste kinda feeling, and does not look fresh either. However, I went on gobbling up my lunch. Aha, upon returning to my house....the same night, I developed some nausea feeling; I felt sooo weak that I can barely wake up. The headache was soo bad. Pounding on my right eye socket. It was sort of like some migrain. I took a whole lot of Panadol, eventhough I know that was not recommended, but even the pills could not help. Next morning, in the lab, I was vomitted, and my lab stinked! Vomitting all out couldn't help either. I thought throwing-up would have solved the problem, but it didn't. The pounding on my head was sooo bad that i couldnt drive back home.

The next 2 days (!!) was hell. I had this appointment with an Australian company and together with my professor (I drove!). I was already shivering in the car. During the meeting, I couldn't even concentrate. It was a shame, because the meeting was very fruitful, and imagine this - I didn't talk much. Usually, I would be the one dominantly speaking in the meeting. :) Anyway, my fever was soooo bad (my supervisor did not know), and freezing, I drove my supervisor back to UPM, ran straight for the toilet bowl and vomitted.

Many people who joined the camp also experienced the same problem. I heard that Kow sensei was also sick, Jong Yan and others too. I could have gone to the hospital, and that is, if Dr. House were there to diagnose me. Love him. Til today, I have no idea what triggered the whole thing or what was that bloody sickness all about. I implicated that the bacteria Salmonella typhi was the bloody cause of it. Typhoid. It was the most probable cause.

Twist

"Durian". What a funny name given for a typhoon/twister hitting the Philippines. I thought it was 'Duu-ren' as pronounced by the newscaster on StarAsia, but read the headlines on the local papers today...and it was... hmmphhh: 'DURIAN'. I pity those people. Imagine durians flying/twisting around.

My co-supervisor told me to twist my head a bit more. He said, "Ivy, you've gotta twist you head more lah. You've got data, but no breakthroughs". I wonder what he meant. Maybe I will just pop in a few esctasy pills and my brains (and head) would definitely twist more. Ahhh, then sure got breakthrough wannn!

Suppose to order a machine from China for some research stuffs. I needed an agent that does importing to get me the machine. My uncle imports printing machines and he is willing to help. He said that my machine is 'sap-sap'sui' to import into Malaysia compared to his larger stuffs. He said, all you need is to 'pusing'/'twist' the invoice a bit, and this Malaysian kastam sure won't know wannn..... He said he knows alllllll the 'lobang-lobang' to get this machine into my unversity. My uncle knows ALL the 'twist' and turn of the shipping & importing machine thingy. He's been doing it for years.

All this twist and pusing in a day. Pening already.