{Underneath the Stars.

Sunday, July 30, 2006

10:08 AM

Thought u could escape the blog things?

you were WRONG!

Your Vampire Name Is...

High Priestess of the Night

What's" Your Vampire Name?

Your EQ is 140

50 or less: Thanks for answering honestly. Now get yourself a shrink, quick!51-70: When it comes to understanding human emotions, you'd have better luck understanding Chinese.71-90: You've got more emotional intelligence than the average frat boy. Barely.91-110: You're average. It's easy to predict how you'll react to things. But anyone could have guessed that.111-130: You usually have it going on emotionally, but roadblocks tend to land you on your butt.131-150: You are remarkable when it comes to relating with others. Only the biggest losers get under your skin.150+: Two possibilities - you've either out "Dr. Phil-ed" Dr. Phil... or you're a dirty liar.

What's" Your EQ (Emotional Intelligence Quotient)?

You Are An INTJ

The Scientist
You have a head for ideas - and you are good at improving systems.Logical and strategic, you prefer for everything in your life to be organized.You tend to be a bit skeptical. You're both critical of yourself and of others.Independent and stubborn, you tend to only befriend those who are a lot like you.
You would make an excellent scientist, engineer, or programmer.

What's" Your Personality Type?

What Your Soul Really Looks Like

You are quite expressive and thoughtful. You see the world in a way that others are blind to.
You are a grounded person, but you also leave room for imagination and dreams. You feet may be on the ground, but you're head is in the clouds.
You believe that people see you as larger than life and important. While this is true, they also think you're a bit full of yourself.
Your near future is still unknown, and a little scary. You'll get through wild times - and you'll textually enjoy it.
For you, love is all about caring and comfort. You couldn't fall in love with someone you didn't trust.

Inside the Room of Your Soul

You Have Your Sarcastic Moments

While you're not sarcastic at all times, you definitely have a cynical edge.In your opinion, not all people are annoying. Some are dead!And although you do have your genuine moments, you can't help getting your zingers in.Some people might be a little hurt by your sarcasm, but it's more likely they think you're hilarious.

How Sarcastic Are You?

Your Rising Sign is Scorpio

You're so intense and passionate - you're on fire!You want to be an angel or a devil... you can't decide which.
No wonder you seem moody and even a little dangerious.You've got some major mystery going on, so work it!
Your personality is the strongest of all signs, making you hard to deal with.While you're ruthless to your enemies, you're loyal to your one true love.

What's" Your Rising Sign?

Your Life Path Number is 4

Your purpose in life is to build your vision.
You are practical and responsible. You work hard, knowing that there are no shortcuts in life.You work for a better life for yourself and those you love, but you are not an idealist.Trustworthy and honest, you also demonstrate great courage. People can count on you.
In love, you are a loyal and committed partner. You are the ideal spouse.
You don't give up easily, and sometimes you can be too stubborn and unwilling to change.You also can be too conservative at times. You sometime miss out on good opportunities.Also remember that not everyone can work as hard as you, as disappointing as that is!

What Is Your Life Path Number?

People Envy Your Generosity

You're a giving soul, and you'd do almost anything for those you love. And they'd do anything for you!People may envy how giving you are, but more than anything, they envy those you open your heart to.

What Do People Envy About You?

You Are An Elm Tree

You are easygoing and a pleasure to be around.Good looking, you have a pleasant shape and tasteful clothes.You demand little in others, but you tend not to forgive their mistakes.Dominant, you like to lead and enjoy making decisions for others.Overall, you are cheerful, honest, noble, generous, and funny.

What's" Your Celtic Horoscope?

You Are Sunset

Even though you still may be young, you already feel like you've accomplished a lot in life.And you feel free to pave your own path now, and you're not even sure where it will take you.Maybe you'll pursue higher education in a subject you enjoy - or travel the world for a few years.Either way, you approach life with a relaxed, open attitude. And that will take you far!

What Time Of Day Are You?

You Are Best Described By...

From the Lake, No. 1by Georgia O'Keeffe

What Famous Work of Art Are You?

Your Aura is Green

You're very driven, competitive, and even a bit jealous.However, you seek out balance in your life - and you usually achieve it!
The purpose of your life: inspiring others to be better
Famous greens include: Tony Robbins, Donald Trump, Martha Stewart
Careers for you to try: Guru, CEO, Talk Show Host

What Color Is Your Aura?

Friday, July 21, 2006

8:05 AM

Today was such a funny day.
TTSH and NNI were holding a nationwide exercise on the plans of action the nation will employ in the event of a flu outbreak in singapore.

SO ...in addition to temperature scanners and the like, all staff in NNI including research personnel were requried to don on 'industrial duty' strength face mask from 11am to 3pm today.

alright, so a normal surgical face mask is unbearable enough, just imagine having this bloody mask that fits in a dead fit with a devil of a mechanism to put it on. It was really funny to watch Phd student Zhang shi and Dr. He running around the lab trying to get someone to help them put it on.

And today, finally confirmed my suspicion that Ma lao shi is really mad.
and hilariously funny in his stoic ways. and speech.
As the second in command for this lab, he is the exact opposite of soft spoken, but professional and executive like Dr. Tang our boss, i.e Dr. Ma is LOUD, CRAZY and INFORMAL. But they are both equally very smart.

Here's my evidence for this analysis:
1. At 2pm, one hour to the end of our tenure with the masks, lao Ma comes into the lab and asks if he can get a bigger mask because his mask is just too uncomfortable and he can't bare to wear it any longer.
then at half past two, he has this exchange with shwn chin, our big sister lab tech, the queen of the lab (i.e NOBODY there's go against her. Her word is the rule). This exchange was carried out in madarin but i'll do a translation.
Ma lao shi = MDL vs shwn chin (SC)

MDL: Su ching! I'll pass u my mask at 3pm. Do you want it?''
SC: (eyes him supiciously and looms nearer to MDL who's hunched over his microscope) WHY would I want it?''
MDL: ( not looking away from his slides) Well, if u join two masks together you can use them as .... (pauses and seems to consider the consequences of his actions) ... (turns away from the microscope and .... PLACES HIS MASK OVER HIS CHEST ! ) and starts laughing to himself, me and yongcheng who are washing specimens at the bench start to giggle hysterically.
SC: ............................................ ( picks up a plastic slide holder and starts hitting MDL in the arm )
MDL: (still laughing and not sorry for his actions) what?! In this time of economic instability one must save and recycle whenever they can. I'm helping u to save money!''
SC: ( slams slide holder down and yells ) YOu OLD pervert! how can u say such things to girls!''
MDL : '' eeeeeeeeerrrrrrr...... ( still giggling sheepishly and turns back to his microscope)

2. MDL vs ET ( SC supporting role)
I'm helping him mount his specimens on slides whilst he consecutively checks them to see if the tracer has been injected into the right spot.
So i'm mounting the last two slices and he comes over with the previous slide.
MDL:'' Put the slide in the buffer and let the piece glide to the right spot!''
ET:'' I know I know. ( N.B this is the last slice that is to be fitted in the furthest corner of the slide. and for the record if u soak the rest of the slide into the buffer all ur previously mounted slices will float back into the pot.)
MDL:'' Put it in the buffer its easier to do it that way''
ET: ......................(starting to feel that familiar twitch in the temporal region)
MDL: ( fingers approaching my brush and slide....)
ET:'' .... MA LAO SHI BU YAO ZAI CHAO WO! ( MDL stop disturbing me! )
MDL:'' ( hand quickly withdraws ....starts sniggering to himself) Suching you see."
SC" Good job Esther, if u don't tell him off he will take advantage of us.''
MDL'' (in mock serious tone) Just you wait Esther...one day..I will.."
ET:'' what?! you wanna fight? ok lah, we'll see who wins"
SC:'' Esther, now do you realise what a tiny heart Ma Laoshi has?''
MDL:'' (still in bravado) yah...I'm like that''
ET: ( Finishes the last piece and thrusts it violently into his hands) here take it and blot away the excess buffer yourself."
MDL: ( takes the slide begrudgingly and mumbles ) Esther ah, ni geng wo ji zhu.... ( Just you wait Esther...)
SC:'' Orrrrrhhhh....you're dead esther, you've entered Ma lao shi black books!''
ET:'' ..... i DON'T care"
We laugh and MDL goes away with slide in tow giggling to himself.
This also proves once again to me that MDL just enjoys distrubing people whilst their doing work.

Ok.....I so what's the verdict? To add more proof to my case that this guy is really an eccentric. We're talking about this truly smart guy, postdoctoral fellow and doctor and here he is spouting nonsense.

Ok, but to give him credit, he really is a nice guy who helps out when people request for his help and he doesn't put on airs and lets us kid around with him and make fun of him. And he is a good teacher. He is patient most of the time and explains stuff till he thinks u understand. Though that is usually about 5 minutes after you've already grasped the concept.

I guess that's one of the differences between research and clinical medicine.
In clinical medicine there just seems to be too much emphasis on hierarchy and formality. Everyone has to worship the ground upon which the consultants and surgeons walk upon. Informality and jokin with your superior is almost unheard of, just in case a slip of tongue may cost u that all important promotion.

I'm actually beginning to like this research medicine business. Though I don't know if all this is just because I was fortunate to be guided to such a great lab.
Thank you God.

Right....I just have to end with this bloody hilarious exchange that occurred at the end of the day when the entire ''family'' was back in the 6th floor lab.

As Zhang Si (ZS) ,our resident PhD student, enters the lab after spending the entire day in the animal room just to escape wearing the mask. yong cheng tells him the whole '' let's join 2 masks into a bra'' business. then SC tells us this rather interesting exchange she had with her frens over lunch.
( again this is a translation which kindd kills the edge but it's funny as it is )

Gender ratio in the lab : 2 F : 4 M ( on average )

SC : '' Stop laughing about that joke from this afternoon. Let me tell you something that me and the girls were discussing during the lunch. We figured that in the event of a real flu epidemic and emergency where there is a shortage of mask, the one thing that we may have to do is USE OUR BRAS AS MASKS"

(Entire lab erupts into hysterics )
SC: STOP LAUGHIN! This is true! When the epidemic breaks out there will be a shortage of masks."
MDL:'' Oh no then we are in trouble! This lab has too few girls and too many guys."
ZS: " Su ching! Does that mean we have to line up in front of you?"
(hysterics)
SC:'' STOP LAUGHING! THis is a fact!"
ZS:'' (sobers up a bit) " yah we know. So can we order some stock from you?"
(Hysterics)
SC:'' ZS! Why don't you just go bye some for yourself"
ZS:'' Yah I would like to do that but I think the sales girl at the lingerie section will think I'm weird when I pick up a bra and place it over my mouth to try for size."
( More hysterics. By this time I have to remove my gloves and cover my mouth to stop myself from laughin myself to death )
MDL (comes over to tell me the slide selection) " Esther don't listen to wat we're talking about."
ET:'' MA lao shi....you're voice is SO LOUD I think the whole level heard you."
MDL ( laughs and skips to the lab door and shuts it ) " LEt's close this door so that other people will not hear our professions of love for each other."

hahaha...omoshirou ne, kono kazoku...

professions of love indeed....

Level 6 Lab 1 Epilepsy research Lab. You guys ROCK! In your own eccentric ways....

Thursday, July 20, 2006

3:09 AM

Just finished doing the three mice that was allocated to me for tracer studies.
turns out they will be my last C57 mice....shit....I want to blame the lao ban.
becasue he is of the same nature as me i.e he's a ji xing kinda person i.e ''easily excitable''
and for the fact that he demans results kinda fast, he assumed that come hell or high water
i would not be able to hit a single thing in the 2 months that I'm here.
And clearly yesterdays results showed that lady luck has indeed shone down on me and
given me at least one favourable result.

anyways...yes today we decided to go for the 4.2mm lateral coordinates.
man....it was a matter of great anxiety.
First mouse I did had a bloody bleed out whilst I was injectin in the tracer.
which was a damn frightening time....
thankfully it had revived and was running around when I last saw it.

haiyah...just damn frustrated at my speed of doing things.
today ma lao tou told me once again " If u want to be a doctor not only must u be quick thinking but ur movts must be fast."
this is coming from a guy who does procedures fast but whos other actions are very slow.

ARGH......
somebody save me!!!!

Wednesday, July 19, 2006

7:14 AM

YEAH! REsults are out!
SO glad that I managed to actually inject tracer into the brain this time round.

Compared to last weeks dismal results with only a scratch made on the surface of the brain today has been a great achievement to me

Although my mentor jokingly said that it might just have been luck but still he said that sample had passed and I could use it. SO .... hip hip hurray!

For the record I injected my tracer into the endopiriform cortex which is just adjacent to my target of the piriform cortex.

but all good.... gained some confidence.
But this lao tou had to go spoil it with the beginners luck business and said that he feared that i might have gotten my central bregma landmark wrong which resulted in this off injection. Because according to the stereotaxic coordinates which are already very very lateral I should have hit the piriform cortex with the original coordinates.
so know we've calculated another +0.2mm to the lateral coordinates which is at a point that's seriously endanger of hitting completely out of the brain physically.
and he said it would be my call if i wanted to inject my three mice tomorrow using these new coordinates.

ok...unlike what u guys may be thinking of a mass production of mice in research labs, we are currently facing rather dismal numbers and as the attached student, my project basically gets funded with charity donations of mice. basically I get by each week with what mice i can get. which is truly a sad sad thing. but oh well as long as i can get as much experience as possible and can bring my project as far as it can i don't mind. OH WOE IS ME@!!!!!

yup, so basically after one hours worth of pondering and looking for articles that could confirm whether it would be a foolish venture to use those coordinates I had to swallow my pride and elation and find Ma laoshi and ask if he would be free tomorrow morning to come check if i am getting my mid points correct.

Oh woe is me.....well at least he's kind enough to volunteer his time.
haha...might attribut that to the fact that I basically threw a fit yesterday in the lab when these bloody poly students were busy yakking away in the lab and then this ma lao tou had to come and disturb me with idle chatter whilst i was busy trying to concentrate on cutting my precious samples in the cryostat, one such irritating encounter of which resulted in me ripping one sample in half which basically set off my fuse. Needless to say I kicked back my chair attempting to save the shredded piece and in the process telling the rest of the lab to not talk to me whilst i was doing that. hahaha....
Thank goodness it was the sample that wasn't injected with anything.

Wish me luck in tomorrows procedures!

Cheers!

Monday, July 17, 2006

8:00 AM

beginning of a new week once again.
This week I get to process my results.
my goodness.....so unnerving.....hope i get some positive results so that I can proceed.

well lets talk about interesting things that occured this apprently boring day.

today I had to start with the first step of the protocol for processing tracer resutls.
so first agenda of the day was to perfuse my two mice, retrieve their brains and after putting them in sucrose solution wait overnight till i can proceed to cut and wash and put primary antibody on my specimen tml.

so basically i was done within the first two hours of the morning.

After lunch, fell asleep at my desk after reading the world news. yeah...i wonder why.
woke up and was steeling myself for another 4h of readin papers and stuff when ma lao tou walked past my desk and I suppose did the foul mistake of checking on my progress.
And i told him that I was bored.
And so he invited me to go down to the 2nd floor to look at slides with the confocal laser microscope.

It's really a cool device that costs about the same as my entire medical education.
complete with its own suspension table, laser machine and stuff.
The only things that u can choose to operate manually are focusing and placing the slide on the stage and the rest is controlled via a software on a computer.
so basically u can view ur brain slices with fluorescent light which allows u to view the cells labelled with tracer in green or red light.
Then using the laser, u can cut these 40 micrometre slices into even thinner slices so that u can make a 3D composite.
so cells that overlap show a positive connection between them which u determine with positive antigen antibody reaction.

yup so that was the interesting part of my day.

The next interesting thing was a matter of coincidence.
this morning I thought i was going to be late, so on reaching Novena I was running towards NNI.
Then I noticed that hurrying along side me was Dr. Tang, the lao ban and Principle investigator of our lab. He apparently didn't see me and I figured that I'm safe since i'm goin to be just as late as he is.
well so anyway we reached the lift lobby and then he saw me we said good morning and started to discuss my project. so all in all it was good. for the record I was only 5 minutes late.

Right so coincidences aside....I was headed back home this evening and guess who was
at the lift lobby on the 6th floor now?
Lao ban again.
haha....we were laughin about this complete coincidence.

Yup so all in all it was a day of coincidences and big expensive machines.

cheers!

Friday, July 14, 2006

1:14 AM

End of the week at last.
Been hectic hectic hectic.

Having a mentor means that u have to help him carry out his experiments and process his results. That is for the one week that u are waiting for your own mice to have survived the one week before u can perfuse them to get results.
They often do this under the pretense that helping them do all these will help improve your skills.
well yeah that's kinda true but having to mount slides is just a REAL pain in the ass.

yeah so 5 mice perfused this week, 5 brains frozen and cut, 10 wells for DAB staining...10 bloody slides to mount.

MY GOD!

yup and today i had to assist in observing 12 day old mice as they were induced into status epilepticus.
yup it's cruel but seeing those buggers stopping their epileptic dance way before the right amount of time needed to generate some form of neuronal damage to their brain is also damn frustrating.
It gets even worse when they play dead. MAN! There u are running around tryin to get someone to be there when they actually die to perfuse them. Because fine, I know how to perfuse mice now, but at the sizes that they are at at 12 days, which is basically about about half the length of your index finger, trying to poke a needle into their hearts for transpericardial perfusion is a MAJOR feat. Basically one false move and there goes everything.

Yup so whilst your running around and can't find anyone, u run back to the lab steeling urself to do the unthinkable and then u see the stupid blighter jerkily crawling around the box. This all adds up to u wanting to stimulate it even more so that it gets one hell of a massive fit.

Touche~!

right so that's basically me for this week.
next week i will perfuse the 2 mice that i injected with tracer this week and hopefully this time there will be some positive results.

PLEASE~! PLEASE GOD PLEASE~!

Tuesday, July 11, 2006

6:26 AM

haha....haven't heard from me for some time ne?
haha...into the third week of my internship.
more or less getting a hold of the ropes.

first weeks results were off the spot.
remeasurements done on monday. man, the piriform cortex is a damn pain in the ass to inject tracer into.

somehow my mentor has also picked up the chase and become more interested in my
existence and my project.
ok ok
to be perfectly honest the guy is great. Though kinda childish. Hey! who cracks peanuts at people's ears whilst they're trying to mount fragile 40 micrometre brain slices onto the slides in an attempt to break their concentration and watch them flounder?!

But he's funny in his monotonous way and can be patient and encouragin in his teachings.
though scarce on the compliments it just makes his praises more
believeable and satisfying.

haha...other good news.
The two mice i did using the new coordinates on monday are still alive today.
my drill holes are getting more accurate and and nice and round.
i haven't broken a probe before injecting the tracer this week. though i did break one after i had removed it from the mouse brain.

did 5 perfusions today. 5 brains removed. not too bad. 3 out of 5 received the lao ma thumbs up.

all in all....i'm beginning to get more guidance and getting more confident and hopefully i will progress.

GUMBATTE ET!!!!!

Saturday, July 01, 2006

8:56 AM

YEsterday marked the end of the first week of trials.
Really invigorating week. For those of you following this series you should noe why.
If not. Shame on you. GO READ!

So on friday, I injected tracer into my final mouse for the week.
It managed to survive the 2 hour long surgery. ( yes! I managed to cut down an hour on my time! )
Hopefully it will survive the weekend. I must say that this time round I was more confident and I actually managed to control and steady my hand as I was drilling the burr hole and it was more accurate than thursday mouse. Well have to wait a weak to perfuse and retrieve their brains to check and see. Please let them survive the week.

And yes! Lo and behold the mouse that I did on thursday survived the critical 24 h!
I was so overjoyed to see her scampering about and eating when I went down to the lab.
And miracles abound the right sided weakness was gone too!

Right so friday afternoon after lunch I was taught the next protocol on how to mount slices of mouse brain onto slides. This happens after we have perfused the mouse and retrieved its brain and slice it into coronal slices.

Right so my sempai sat me down at the 6th floor lab with a small trough of buffer and a row of little wells filled with sliced brain. and the idea is to fix these slices onto slides.

And basically it's like arranging an MRI scan on a slide. You've got to get the right slices in ascending order of size and consecutive order with reference to the hippocampus. So you empty all your slices into the buffer solution and slide your slide into it and using a very fine art brush you select the pieces that you wanna place in order and gently manouvere them onto the slide. It's a truly delicate job because any rough movt results in the shredding of valuable results.
But my goodness it really sends u into cross eyed lunacy. Half way into my fourth slide I was feeling truly nauseous.

Haha thankfully it was a friday so we were let off at 5pm! whoohoo!

This evening, 1 july, went for dinner at my brother's in laws place.
It was a nice enough evening and they were a friendly and funny elderly couple.
The food wasn't all that good. Actually it kinda sucked. But the soup was nice. And the desert was good too.

Well, the two of them are doctors. The father's a diagnostic consultant with a great love of art and their entire home is filled with his paintings and some of his purchases. He does impressionistic style paintings on sceneries and scenes that he witnessed on his travels around the world which are really extensive and impressive. Some of them are really striking whilst others are....well let's just say 'special'.

Yah for those of you wondering wat a diagnostic consultant watch '' House''. He's citation is that of Dr. House. A doctor who solves cases which no one else can solve. aka...he's a freaking sharp and smart guy.

But he was really funny too so that was good. And upon steppin into their front yard I realised the whole saying about medicine being a fraternity. Somehow it doesn't matter at which level of the medical echelon to becoming a doc, you are somehow part of this association where pure strangers just hover around you and are so personal with you just because you are part of this morbid society. From the gate they were like '' Oh you've brought your sister this time.'' And then all of a sudden there was a flurry of activity around me. ARGH!

and no sooner had I stepped into the house and the mum was like showing me around the house their backyard and pool. And then inside they started asking the usual questions on what I would like to specialise in and life in UK. And the best part was that on the ride to their place, my brother had specifically stated that we were not to talk about work. Kudos to you asshole.

And the dad was showing me his pictures and giving me a running commentary about his travels. which was really quite interesting. Learnt quite a bit about different art styles and techniques.

Yup so that's basically my friday and saturday.

I need to SLEEP!