Protected: Just This Once

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211109

Hello,

there was band in the morning, we did gimmicks, which wasn’t as fun as how gimmicks are supposed to be! Haha I remember choreographing gimmicks for Limelight last year, and who’d forget the Orange Girls (poor Sec 1s) who danced as we played 演歌 hahaha.

So yeah, we didn’t prac much, I cannot play, lousy stamina.

Lunched and movied at AMK Hub after that, watched My Girlfriend Is An Agent. It’s really funny, stupidly funny, guess I enjoyed it. :)

And then it was home after that. Sorry this sounds so boring, not really in the mood.

Protected: can’t be worse. Hopefully.

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TAG day four

Hello!

It’s over; no more hearing my parents nagging for me to wake up/take a shorter time preparing early in the morning, traveling from Tampines to Boon Lay, stoning and sleeping and reading and talking and stoning at the sofa waiting for someone to get us, trying to keep awake while listening to the people talk about and explain their complicated researches, having long lunches and having more time to stone, trying to stay awake once more, and traveling back to tampines after the long day.

But well it really isn’t as bad as it sounds; I just left out the good parts in there.

Hm. This morning I realised the importance of PW/OP. We were made to listen presentations on projects, which were bad because for two of the mini presentations the presentors were simply reading off slides, in a slower pace than I can read so why not just stop presenting and let me read the slides by myself! But I guess that’s too harsh a comment because I shouldn’t judge them, and furthermore one of them was from China I think, and speaking in English is naturally tougher. Maybe that’s how people feel when I present something in Chinese, so there I really shouldn’t have thought all that. S:

After getting through the presentations we were brought to a lab where we observed the isolation of bacterial DNA plasmid. Really cool; it’s really smart to have come up with the thousand and one steps to isolate the stuff. So many times of centrifugation; requires lots and lots of patience. And when the guy was measuring the concentration of the DNA (dissolved in water) everything was so precise. I mean, the machine measured the concentration with just a tiny drop of the solution. And by “a tiny drop”, I mean from the smallest pipette I’ve ever seen. I’m not sure of the volume range though, >( And everything else was done so carefully, including the cleaning of the machine. Cool.

Speaking of pipettes, take a look at this. Heh S:

After that was lunch. Oh the guys who demonstrated the centrifugation and stuff are really nice people; one of them very cute lah, hahaha.

Lunchhhh at the food court; they’ve got nice and cheap food. Took me long to realise and appreciate. Ohh and Huifang and aerospace engineering friend joined us for lunch. :)

Hmm and what next. Went back at 1 I think, lunch was supposed to end at 2. Stoned at the sofa till Three. =.= Told you this wasn’t well-planned. Slept a bit, stoned a bit, sudoku-ed a bit. :(

And then after that one of the postgrads took us around the labs, showing us all sorts of microscopes with all sorts of other tools and all the fluorescence stuff, cells, … He was really nice too. :)

And feedback and we were done!

I guess I DID learn from this TAG programme even though everything was really slack (as compared to Aerospace Eng at least; they’ve got mini projects and there’re products (reminds me of last year’s EEE) and all, really cool and fun.). At least I learnt that I’m not interested in some of the stuff we were exposed to, and I learnt what I was interested in as well. I found Tissue Engineering most interesting, and then it’s the DNA isolation next, although I don’t really know about the application part of the latter.

Yeppp. :) Trained to Joo Koon (from Boon Lay) with Meng Fei and Elizabeth after the programme, and I trained all the way to Pasir Ris and then to Tampines, just for the sake of traveling the entire green line.

Speaking of trains, look at this! All the trains. I was googling/flickring for Orient Express hahah.

Love the cold weather, Band tmr :D, I want to sleep (in).
do you think of me like I think of you

TAG day three

Hello,

it’s so cold the fan isn’t switched on,
it’s so cold my fingers are typing more slowly than they normally do. D:

But hello anyway. I forgot to mention how I counted to 500 yesterday. Hahahha I really did; remember how I said I was bored in the morning during one of the sessions at the lab? Once I heard on the radio; one dj asking the other if he’s ever counted to a thousand. So yeah I began counting, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and all the way to 499, 500. Stopped somewhere in the 500s; I might continue sometime soon.

Hmm but attachment’s gotten better I think! Met again at Boon Lay this morning and a few of them got McDonald’s breakfast and we went to the lobby to stone/eat.

In the morning… Oh right we went to a lab and got talked to by three of the staff/postgrads? there. They briefed us on the research they were working on. The first was on carbon nanotubes. Well so were the subsequent two actually heh. But the second was more on the properties of water. I found that quite interesting but it’s a pity the focus of the research project is to prove a theory, not to apply it to life. I mean ultimately a proven theory will lead to applications but Idk; I think something driven by the want and need for application would be better, ideally? Heh.

The third was this lady who talked about simulations. Or rather, she does simulation-related stuff, but she didn’t talk too much about it. I think it’s kinda cool, because other than studying all the bio and science-y stuff she also knows programming and all. :)

Dropped by Associate Prof Liao Kin’s office for a bit after that. I think he’s cool hahaha.

Lunch, had Subway :D And then we were doing our own stuff at the canteen before heading back by 1, and stoning till 2+ once more. This time we actually managed to talk and entertain ourselves quite a bit though. You know those stupid annoying games like ‘black magic’ and ‘fuzzywuzzy’ and all? Yeah we played those. Quite amusing I guess? Not like there’re other stuff that we could’ve done, unless you count homework.

In the afternoon we talked to A/P. Kathy Luo; she’s really nice and well I kinda regret saying “I don’t like Bio” when introducing myself lol. I guess I don’t really dislike it. But I don’t like it now either? Heh. Oh well. Went to a lab and saw cancer cells under the microscope and one of the people there talked to us about…

I don’t know. She was speaking in Chinese.

:(

Heh she was speaking in English till she found difficulty explaining and she asked if she could explain in Chinese. After she was done explaining she was commenting (in Chinese), “seems like explaining in Chinese lets you all understand better.”

Yeah right.

Hmm yeah. ZP couldn’t go out, but KY could so we decided to drag CT along and yay thanks for coming out! We dropped by City Hall and talked and walked and I’ve been spending lots of moneyD: and laughed and alll. :)

Last day of TAG tmr! Thankfully it’s gotten progressively better. Heh. See you.
Seven days without you.

TAG day two

Helloooo.

Just back, t’was a long day.

I keep having weird dreams; dreams that make me tired when I wake up, as though I’ve done a lot of thinking through the night. D:

Hmm but yeah today I trained to Pasir Ris (yes the kiasu way to get a seat) and then started my journey to Boon Layyyyy.

To keep it short, in the morning we stoned for a while at the receptionist-less reception and then someone came to fetch us and threw us in a lab, in which we all attempted to keep awake while the professors/researchers/postgrads explained to us the mechanisms of the tools, and the projects they’re working on and stuff. Plus it was quite difficult to follow with their accent of English. But anyway one cool thing was the detection of cancer cells, because then I finally understood something (before that there was a whole load of info on detection of humidity and all) and it was pretty cool. Like how the cells are different from normal cells; the arrangement and all. :)

And then we went for the long-awaited lunch and after that we were on the sofa in front of the receptionistless reception once more because lunch is really long (2 and a half hours. Today’s was 2 hours because the first half of the day took longer than as scheduled.) and listened to music/slept till the next person fetched us.

The afternoon was better, much better. The professor’s explanations were much clearer, and well he started off with an intro to stem cell engineering and all and he sounded enthusiastic, like he’s prepared beforehand or like he’s given such demonstrations/tours before. Unlike the morning session when we all felt like we were just random unimportant kids thrown in a random lab to observe what random people were doing on an everyday basis.

Yeppp and stem cell engineering’s pretty interesting :) Maybe it’s because of the contrast from the morning session. I can’t say I remembered everything he said; heck I can’t say I even absorbed everything he said at that moment, but at least there was no I’m-trying-my-very-best-to-stay-awake moments. :) And oh right throughout the day we were introduced to tools and instruments and machines which are really cool; I think the makers of such equipment are even cooler than the subject of bioengineering itself hahaha. I mean, machines have to be made, and these machines are made from machines, which have been made from machines… Who started it all? Haha. I always wonder that when I watch ‘How It’s Made’ on Discovery Channel.

Yeppp. And we were released early! It was around 340 when the professor said that’s all and that the lady will come and fetch us to continue the programme, so we were once again at the sofa, but the lady walked past us twice and never spoke to us so the third time we asked her and she said we could go already. =.= Waste time lah.

Met Zhen Ping @ Bugis at 5, walked Bugis Street (I still don’t like the place) and Iluma as well in search for bagssss. To no avail, unless you count the plain green one I was considering. Heh oh well guess I’ll continue the search someday else.

Waited for my dad/trained back with him/met my mum at TM/had dinner at Long John Silver’s. Food was quite good I guess; I don’t like the rice stuff though. Realised I probably have never eaten there before.

And then supermarket/home. Tired tired. It’s ten already D:

a partridge in a pear tree

When you’re bored you start forming stuff with your food.

I’m eating some alphabet biscuit thing which has more numbers than alphabets, so I started taking photos of the numbers and all. Formed 5683, 09S74, and other stuff. Oh right and there’re also spades/hearts/clubs/diamonds haha so cute.

Today I started using the Samsung phone that’s been rotting at home for a while. I don’t like it :( It’s sleek and pretty but it’s difficult to use (I think I really don’t like touchscreen phones) and the camera’s lousy :( So no more being happy when snapping photos. Gah, I suddenly like my pink phone a lot.

Okay bye once more.

TAG day one

Hello.

I’m feeling very frustrated, Idk why. It’s the I-don’t-want-to-do-anything-and-neither-do-I-want-to-talk-to-anyone kind of feeling.

TAG wasn’t as bad as I’d expected it to be. Well I’d expected pretty bad, so I guess nothing could get worse.

Traveling wasn’t TOO bad. Tampines to Boon Lay. It’s just 3 stops less than the whole of the green line =.= But yeaah it didn’t take too long. I think it takes longer to go to school actually, lol.

On the train I was listening to Orient Express,
and the MRT was louder and noiser than Orient Express. Zzz.

Reached there pretty early. Besides City Hall and Raffles Place and Tanjong Pagar, a lot of people alight at Buona Vista and Dover too. So I got seats after Dover, I think. Yeah so met KY and then met the rest and we bused to NTU. I’m not sure if I’ve ever been to NTU before today. I guess I have but I cannot really remember when it was. But anyway the place’s pretty cool, and we reached at around 930. Was supposed to report at 950 so we stoned at the seats in front of the reception, which didn’t have any receptionists.

We were then brought to a room (which looks like conferences and meetings are held in there) at around 950 and waited for some more, and then there was some briefing about Chem/Bioengineering during which I was trying hard to make my boredom less obvious.

Oh, and KY and I camwhored quite a bit. There was nothing else to do, anyway.

And then we stoned some more, and the lady who brought us to the room told us at 11 that our break’s at 1130, and we can come back at 2.

So right, we didn’t know what to do, and if there’ll be anyone coming to talk from then till 1130 so we pretty much just sat in the conference room till 1130 and we looked for food.

Had lunch at one of the canteens/buildings. Block 2.1? Forgot. Had food from Canadian Pizza.

And then we went back to that conference room place. We had 1+ hours before 2pm, I think. Stone.
Oh, Elizabeth had Plants VS Zombies in her thumbdrive so we plugged it into some computer in the room. When I saw “Pop Cap” I immediately thought of P VS Z, and then it really turned out to be that game hahaha.

Played till 2, and stopped for fear that someone’d enter the room.

And nobody did.

Not at 230,
not till 3,
when the same lady came in and told us the person who was supposed to take us on a campus tour wasn’t free.

So righttttt, she said “I’ve printed some brochures for you so you guys can proceed to that room to read them.”

For 2 hours? We were all wondering. Entered the room which smelt of coffee, so we decided to test out the coffee machine instead hahaha, I think it was the highlight of the day.

The coffee tasted horrible, by the way. Diluted. Bad.

It’s either us or the coffee maker but I guess there was too much noise, and another professor came in. And he had a cup with him, and headed to the coffee maker and after our second cup was filled by the coffee maker he put his cup there like it’s an everyday thing and got coffee for himself.

I wonder if the coffee’s this bad every day.

Hmm and then he asked us what we were doing, and learnt our situation and called someone to give us a tour around the campus. Before the person he called came and after he’d left we were back to testing the coffee. It was so bad they added lots of sugar, and there was no stirrer so they used a lollipop to stir the coffee hahaha and it tasted of a hint of strawberry, and the coffee plus strawberry plus creamer plus sugar was actually good. Well, relatively.

And then the professor who was to give us a tour came. She reminded us of Ms Lee. And then we toured, went into different labs. Different cool labs. With all the cool tools. With way cool stuff. Haha, sorry I cannot stop emphasizing on its coolness. It’s really, wow.

But somehow I cannot imagine myself working on these tools. I guess this first day made me realise that I’m not really cut out for engineering, and maybe I’m not really interested in it anyway. S:

Went to the library after the visits to the labs. On the way there were so many students at the benches, studying. It was a scary atmosphere, but rather cool anyway. Uni’s so different. I need a synonym for “cool”.

The library was (insert synonym here). Shelves and shelves of books, on Science, on Engineering. There were books on Medicine and (synonym) books on everything, it was so (synonym). :D

After a while of touring the library, walking around and awing at the range of books, we left the place, bused back, trained back, the long journey home once again.

This is such a long post for not-too-eventful a day. S:

once bitten twice shy,

I keep my distance but you still catch my eye.

Hello again, I’m really bored, I’ve been making lots of wrong decisions of late,
life’s bad as of now.

Hopefully it’ll be better tomorrow.

I think band is my only source of entertainment,

I have no life. Bandgeekftw. Zzz.

100 miles an hour,
in the wrong direction.

161109

Hello :D

Had band today, it was alright..? Okay fine a bit boring but well in retrospect I cannot think of anything that was bad or anything so I guess it was good. If it’s logical to think that way.

It’s so cold and nice I wish I could just snuggle in bed the entire day and not move. Is that why animals hibernate during winter? Parker shall go into hibernation soon.

I want to go to Thailand with the band.

I’m not going for the Thailand trip, I’m not going for church camp. I hope I get out of the country somehow, anyway. Somewhere, somewhen. With somebody. Oh let’s go to Mexico.

Russian Roulette sounds nice.

Lunch was kinda fun, in a way. Went to KAP (haven’t been there in a while) and there was that Monopoly thing. It was funny seeing how enthusiastic Ros and Peisan are over that. And the conversation during lunch was rather amusing too.

John Williams sounded rather nice (sightread today).

Halfway through playing Xin Yao Medley it suddenly occurred to me that I should treasure my band days. I mean, I knew it all along, but somehow the music triggered that thought. Next year, just a few months and there’ll not be band anymore. In universities they’re mostly orchestras right? Okay I’m not sure. But it’ll be different, I’m sure. Just like how HC was different from NY, but I guess I’ve gotten used to it. In uni if I join a band/orchestra it wouldn’t be that fun, I guess. :(

Played more random pieces after band, the way Mr Leng would call “what childish secondary school band members do”, which is to play through favourite parts of our favourite pieces and not actually rectifying any articulation/whatever problems.

After band/on the way to the toilet we saw people armed with guns and running around and speaking in hushed/anxious tones about the enemy.

Hahaha it was the leadership training workshop thing; the scenario was pretty funny.

Then home.

TAG starts tmr. D:

the reason isn’t important;
it’s the reason behind the reason that is.