Chapter 39-- Honours Project(Part 1)

Have been working on my honours project at Centro of Biopolis from morning around 9 to evening 5-6pm since the beginning of June and I feel that it is about time to share in my blog what my project is actually all about for those of you who might be interested. Basically, my project involved using biochemistry and molecular biology techniques such as plasmid purification, restriction enzymes digestion, gel electrophoresis, transfection and western blotting to try to increase the quantities of the antibody HerceptinTM in the treatment of breast cancer. It is however quite ironic that despite trying to steer clear of projects involving molecular biology which is not my strength at all, I still ultimately ended up dealing with a project that needs lots of molecular biology knowledge.
Anyway, finally managed to get a small break this week due to one of the reagent which is needed for me to proceed being used up and therefore have to wait for the new stock to arrive before I can continue. This however provide me with an opportunity for me to reflect upon and review what I have done since the beginning and man I must say that I am actually quite impressed with my progression as I am almost half way through my project after spending just 1 month plus on it. Of course, the more difficult and time consuming parts of the project will only began when I started on my transfection because there is when I may need to keep trying in order to obtain favourable results. Nevertheless, it is still quite heartening to know that I am proceeding quite smoothly till now. Actually, the reason why I chose to do honours is of course to give myself a chance to experience and gauge if I am suited for research works so that I will not regret getting a research related job when I graduated. I believe that if I am poised to enter pharmaceutical companies in future, one should be armed with good lab techniques and therefore I would like to make use of my honours project to learn as much lab techniques as possible. Hopefully, the skills and techniques learned will benefit me if I did enter the field of research.
Well, will update on my project progression periodically till this “baby” of mine is born next march. Do look out for the next update!

Regards,
Yongster

Still many more good years ahead...

Chapter 38--Class of 2008

Went to the life science graduates commencement ceremony on Friday evening to witness the “passing out parade”of some of my fellow course mates and I must say that it has been a night of mixed emotions for me. Although I am happy that some of my friends have successfully graduated and are about to or have already embarked in the next phrase of their life which is seeking a full time job, I cannot help but feel sad at the same time also that my 4th year will be so much more lonely and boring without them around. Even though I have already been mentally prepared for it when I chose to pursue honours, yet that night I still so much wanted to hold on to them…

Anyway, here are tributes to a few of my friends who have accompany me through rain and shine for the past 3 memorable year and are now embarking on another chapter of their lives…

Jiewen: One of my soul mate since primary school days which made our friendships close to 18 years, it would certainly seems strange not having you around in school to accompany me for lunch, breaks, lectures or lab sessions. Cannot believe that more than 8 years of being classmates and 15 years of being schoolmates have now finally really comes to an end. Wonder what life has in store for us for the next 18 years more of friendships. Will we even become colleagues in future?

Siling: If I have not took lsm2202, if I have not work at the same bench as you, I would not have met such a nice and wonderful person. Will remember the times when we crack and stress our brains to rush through the cardio essay and presentation J

Shaokai: Another dear friend of mine since secondary school days. Never fail to provide entertainment around during lab sessions. Now, lab sessions will be so much more boring without your funny comments and jokes.L

Yong Ann: Although we are of different course, we still manage to meet up for lunch when possible. A good friend of mine whom I can bitch about life and NUS with. Will certainly remember the funny and enjoyable times spent in the kayaking course.

Besides the above mentioned, I would also like to thank those friends that have contributed in one way or another that makes my tertiary life so much more colourful for the past 3 years. Hong yi for being such a good lab partner during my first year making that bitchy TA in LSM1103 slightly more tolerable as well as Manga and Song kun for being such great project mates in my human physiology and effective communication course respectively.

Lastly, to all my dear friends who have graduated, I wish you all the best of luck in finding your dream jobs…


I miss you guys n gals…


regards,
Yongster

Still many more good years ahead...

Chapter 37--Tete a Tete

I always feel that enjoying a heart to heart talk with close friends over coffee is one of the greatest enjoyments of life. It is always during these moments that one TRULY opens one's heart and allows others to reach their most inner thoughts and feelings. It can also be a golden moment when one gets a chance to know their friends or loved ones all over again.

During the recent ICT, I was very lucky to have a really good talk one night with my previous comrades cum good army pals. I can still remember that it was a thursday night just before the day we out-pro with most other people booking out for the company night off. From my clique, only the 5 of us--me, Dong yang, Yong jian, Daniel and Han xiang remained in bunk on that day and to pass time, we started having some really unexpected meaningful conversation. As we were supposed to have IPPT the next day(which was later cancelled), Han xiang concedes to us his "fear" of taking IPPT when he was still "unprepared". In fact, he was visibly sian and restless upon learning about having to take IPPT on the last day of ICT. His dilemma lies in that he knows he will most probably fail 2.4km because he did not train for it yet he also feel that he might just pass if he really give all that he got. However, what he fears most is that he still fails despite giving his very best rendering all that gutsy efforts meaningless. Come to think of it now, I am also kinda in a similar situation as him, I know that I will fail IPPT because I would not be able to clear SBJ since I did not train for it( ya, ya I heard some of you nagging me to go train for it) hence I have not be taking IPPT seriously this few years(which luckily for me, do not have to attend RT since I am still under protection :P) Nevertheless, I have been thinking lately that I must really try to make an effort to pass SBJ liao as I will no longer be under protection very soon. Thinking of RT can be quite sian and furthermore, there are monetary rewards for those who pass IPPT.
Anyway, we then started drifting into the topics of ghost stories in SAF camp with each of us contributing to what we have heard from our previous experience. At first, we merely talk about suicides in BMTC and this slowly bring us to suicides in OETI with the famous ghastly corridor at the former 2 GSMC( I can still remember that dark corridor where we have to patrol for our guard duty which often makes my hair stand). Of course, talking about suicide at OETI will suggests that dong yang will have to re-live his memory of that horrible encounter that he had with the SSG who commit suicide by strangling himself with cable ties in the toilet. Now, although I have long known that Dong Yang was at the scene at that time, I have never actually ask him about what actually happens during that time(probably because I know that people do not really want to talk about such thing) and so it was quite a “hair-raising” experience for me hearing him actually describing the scene all over again. In fact, I had always thought that the SSG hang himself but was surprised to learn that he actually kill himself with cable ties instead. Poor Dong Yang was simply at the wrong place at the wrong time. I could even vividly recall that the whole episode happened while we were about to fall out in the evening when we heard a shout up stair in the toilet on the second floor before hearing people shouting for scissors(hence I thought he hang himself) followed by lots of people scurrying around on the second floor. According to Dong Yang who was at the toilet at that time, 2 cleaners who were cleaning the toilet realized that one of the cubicle’s door was locked and that was no response inside when they shouted for it to be opened. One of the deceased SSG coursemate(btw, SSG Fong was also a coursemate of the deceased. They were attending the ATT[advance technician training] when the incident occurred) then climbed over the cubicle to unlocked the door while finding that his coursemate has already collapsed on the floor. All 3 of them(deceased’s coursemate and 2 cleaners) then run off to get help leaving just Dong Yang alone with the deceased. Dong yang was also relaying to us the surprise that he was able to pull the big sized deceased out of the cubicle proving to us that human can have amazing strength in such times of urgency. He told us that he could not even sleep that same night at home and really who can blame him since I think that he was already been very brave as if the incident was to occur on me, I would have definitely freak out. In the end, all 5 of us were so shaken by these ghost stories that we did not even dare to go anywhere that night alone. As a result, we accompany Yong jian to the front gate where he deposited his stuff for his parents to take home so that he will has less barang barang to take home the next day and we even went to toilets together hee. Me and Han xiang were also too timid to bath that night keke. Hey the atmosphere during that time was really damn scary k…
On the brighter side, it was always wonderful reminiscing about the good old times at 46 and it was actually a bit heartening to learn from people inside the BV-Han xiang and Dong yang who agree that BV is so much more comfortable than recovery to travel in and they understand that recovery driver and VC have a much tougher time outfield. I always envy people in BV because they do not have to brave rain and sunshine when outfield but knowing that they emphatise with us made me feel so much better haha.
The Chinese has a saying that goes like this “Close friends that can share a wine session with you are hard to come by, with people that you cannot connect with, even half a word is considered too much”. Indeed friends that can make you comfortable and confident enough to pour out your most inner thoughts without hesitations are very difficult to comes by and I am very fortunate and honour to have a few such friends(you know who you are people!) To me, I do not lust for lots of friends as I think only really lonely people need lots of friends to be around them all the time. I mean, what’s the point of having so many friends but yet none of them will be there when you really need them. I often wonder whether those people that have more than 100 plus friends in their friendster account or MSN contact really bother to keep in contact with every one of their friends on their list. If they really do make an effort to do so, then I really have to kudos to them for that person will definitely be one great fantastic friend. Yet, I know that some of them are merely trying to show off how “charismatic” or “friendly”they are or how widespread is their network to people who do not know them or know them well. To these kind of people, I have only one word for them-- Losers.

Regards,
Yongster

Still many more good years ahead...

Chapter 36--SAF Day

Yesterday is SAF day and since I had just completed reservist training and have witness some really dramatic changes in SAF during my previous 2 ICT, therefore feel that it is time also for me to review some of the transformation of SAF over these recent years.
The most obvious and celebrated change in policy must be the reduction of full time national service to 2 years for all national servicemen regardless of educational level instead of 2 and a half years for those having A level or Diploma certificates. I can still remember that when this policy was announced, there was an outcry of hurray in my camp and we were joking that we had won 3rd prize in lottery since all NSF in service at that time had a 2 months reduction with immediate effect while the subsequent batches will have 4 months or 6 months reduction based on their enlistment date. However, it is not to say that all of us were happy with this change as some of my seniors who had less than 2 months to their ORD suddenly found themselves basically being converted back into civilian without any prior notice or heart preparation. They must have felt more shock than happiness since all their accumulated leaves and offs will now have to be forfeited. I believe that it is also the first time that SAF compensated NSFs with monetary values as in the past, only regulars can exchange their used leaves for monetary values(although it is now not allowed also).

The next obvious transformation in SAF must be its hardware. M16 rifles were now replaced with SAR21 while SBO were superseded by LBV. Even duffle bag and field pack had a make over with the field pack certainly becoming more spacious now and recruits no longer have to squeeze all their field pack items into the previous miserably small field pack. Combat rations have also certainly improve in quality since there is actually a can of coffee or milo in each assessory pack now! Wah now...recruits are surely having better life now. On the armour side, SM1 tanks were slowly phrasing out as the newer Leopard tank makes it debut. Even m113 were also slowly making way for the more powerful Bionix. This was testify by people from my previous 46 SAR unit who traditional handle only SM1 and M113 but now have to go for BX and Bronco conversion course soon.

Training in SAF has also certainly changed a lot in the past few years. With the shortening of the duration of full time national service, most of the courses in SAF were also either shorten or becomes more compact. Criteria for entry into leadership course also appear to have relaxed a bit. Read in forum that even recruits who had failed their IPPT can now get into SISPEC(school of infantry specialists). This was almost unheard of in my era. The training programme in SISPEC have also been modified and the POP route march is now 28km instead of 32km with some of the more xiong exercises such as firecrackers and nut shells being moved to ASLC(Advance section leader course) instead of having it in BSLC. On the technical vocation side, the highest rank for privates passing out of OETI(Ordnance engineering training institute) is now CFC(Corporal first class; a new rank introduced btw) and no longer 3SG. Only those that are selected for specialist course will obtain 3SG after attending the relevant course in Tekong.

When I enlisted in Tekong on the 13th December 2002, Bayonet fighting was still part of the curriculum and we were issued grey army t-shirt. Now, barely 6 years later, Bayonet fighting has becomes an ancient art of skills and recruits nowadays donned brown army t-shirt. Such was the speed of SAF transformation. It is now even say that we may have a complete change of uniform into the digital camo type soon after the previous major change in uniform involving the sewing of country and formation badge onto uniform occurred less than 2 years ago. It does seems that SAF is very efficient in this area.

I wonder how many more changes will occur in the next 6 years…( by which I would have almost completed my reservist then) Will 3G army evolve to 4G or even 5G by then?

Oh…and btw Happy SAF day to those waiting to be enter army, are now in service, those awaiting to be called up for service and those who is longer needed in service.

Regards,
Yongster

Still many more good years ahead...