Tearing my hair out with BLASTn

Blastn is an online database which anyone with any amount of genetic sequences can try to find a match from their libray (or sea of sequences) and hopefully find a reliable match to their own unknown research sequences.

BUT, this database is firstly filled with junk sequences which anyone anyhow also go and dump their sequences into the database.

So, you might end up matching to a very unreliable source.

*BLEAH*

alot of conflicts that needs to be resolved BEFORE the data is considered sorted out properly.....

*double BLEAH*

Helping Each Other Through Change

by Rick Warren


“I hope you will be patient with me ….” (2 Corinthians 11:1a, NLT)

(Today, Rick Warren supplies our devotional – jw)

In order to manage change, you must remember five things –

Love each other

The first mistake most people make during change is to focus on what they’ve lost, instead of what has been gained – and that creates fear. The antidote to fear is love: “There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear ….” (1 John 4:18 NKJ)

It’s impossible for love and fear to exist in the same environment – If we’ll focus on loving each other, then we’ll break out of the self-centeredness that often emerges during change. The love that conquers fear involves thinking about others instead of focusing on your own needs – and the more you love, the less you fear.

Listen to each other

During transition, we must be “quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry ….” (James 1:19 NIV) If we get the first two right (quick listening, slow speaking), then the third (slow anger) will become automatic. It reflects the concept of “seeking to understand” before trying “to be understood.”

“Post this at all the intersections, dear friends: Lead with your ears, follow up with your tongue, and let anger straggle along in the rear.” (James 1:19 MSG)

Level with each other

We must speak the truth in love to each other if we’re going to walk together through change. It is human nature to avoid confronting someone directly, but then we fall into problems – even gossip – by talking to other people about the person we need to confront.

We can’t get close to each other until we deal honestly with our fundamental differences. “Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ.” (Ephesians 4:15 NIV)

Liberate each other

Finally, we need to show each other grace – “cut each other some slack” – during transition. Liberating each other means letting go and treating someone else the same way Jesus treats you.

In other words, we shouldn’t lean into legalism or lording mistakes over others. People will make mistakes, and our response should be to recognize that these things will happen. The goal is not to make those who make mistakes feel bad, but rather to let them get over it and move on.

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I particularly find 4th point abit tough to achieve and also tough to find another person willing to speak up. What about you?

BS wet wet

Each time when it pours heavily, there's a small problem with we have a call of nature...

Because directly above our toilet bowl is a small ventilation window....

Normally, this window can closed fully until....



our money plant decided to seek more sunshine outside of the room!

here's a closeup!


next time might have to use an umbrella when we need to pee!! hahaha

Board Games!

Its been a while since I played games with friends. Literately..... erhm, those that involve tiny ivory-like tiles not counted lah.

I mean its Monopoly, board games etc.

Friend A got this semi-board game that got me HOOKED!

Its called Car-Kor-Song (cannot remember the actual spelling, but sounds like this)

Maximum 6 players, each player given 7 men to use.

There's one bag of tiny board (tile) that may have roads/river/castles/intersections on it.

The idea is for each player to chop as much castle/roads as they can. Once the castle or the road is completed, they can claim points for it. Each castle tile is worth 2points, each road tile is worth 1point. Hence the bigger the castle the more points you can accumulate during the building process.

Each player will pick dig their hand into this mysterious bag of tiles and pull one out at a time (almost like scribble), once they picked out their tile, they will place it with the rest of those existing ones to form castle/roads or even open space (that's abit suay).

Everyone takes turn to go round.

You can put one of your 7 tiny men onto the tile which you have just placed onto the master board to chop the castle/road. The next person with a tile that can match up to it can also put THEIR men on it. Hence, as the castle grow, players fight it out to chop as many tiles of the same castle/road with each other. The winner is the one with the most men on that plot when its completed.

Points are calculated towards a smaller board (something like the snake & ladder one minus the snakes and ladder hee hee), so if u chop a castle that is worth 10points, u move 10steps on the board.

Then there's a dragon....

Winner is determined at the end of the game when all the tiny tiles are exhausted.

Guess who WON??? hahahahaha



now u know why i'm hooked onto the game??

when is the next game man?? bring it on!

You-Hoo!

I found a LAN line that is still active, accessible power point, secure, aircondition room with a huge window view....

what more can I ask for??

maybe some music... yeah nothing that Peppermint cannot provide for me hahahah

YOU HOOOOOO

1 man car

This is so cute, i cannot help but take a picture with it....

its a solo car, driven mostly by electricity!!



so cute, but it would be an issue to use it for gorcery shopping. wont have enough boot space! hahahaha

BBQ!

Yes after a long absence of charcoal burnt food in our diet, Canticle has revived BBQ!!

The night was filled with food, alcohol, games, fun and laughter.... kids had fun playing squash, table tennis, swimming in the pool (Big Brother R included hee) as well as the good dose of running around playing catching.

While there's a strong rotation of chefs at the pit churning out large amount of good quality food to feed us, its the gang of RED that takes the day like a storm!

oops sorry, that was mostly just ME hahahaha
the others in the background are the accessories

After a long time, I finally got to hug and play and take picture with one of my favourite young man!!!!

Travelogue Series : Perth

Two very expensive bottle of water...

do not be fooled by their ordinary looks, small petite size that holds about 250ml of pure distilled water.

Normally they cost about 3 for $1 at supermarkets.

Here we paid $6 for two of them. That is $3 for EACH bottle.

did you hear my heart in pain??

*ouch*

all because of the silly rules of NOT allowing passengers to bring their own water supply onto aircrafts!

Sharing Your Life Message

by Rick Warren


“Those who believe in the Son of God have the testimony of God in them.” (1 John 5:10a GW)

“Your lives are echoing the Master’s Word .... The news of your faith in God is out. We don’t even have to say anything anymore – you’re the message!” (1 Thessalonians 1:8 MSG)

When you became a believer, you also became God’s messenger. God wants to speak to the world through you. Paul said, “We speak the truth before God, as messengers of God.” (2 Corinthians 2:17b NCV)

Your Life Message includes your life lessons. These are insights you’ve learned about God, relationships, problems, temptations, and other aspects of life. David prayed, “God, teach me lessons for living so I can stay the course.” (Psalm 119:33 MSG)

Sadly, we never learn from a lot that happens to us. Of the Israelites, the Bible says, “Over and over God rescued them, but they never learned – until finally their sins destroyed them.” (P 106:43 MSG) You’ve probably met people like that.

While it is wise to learn from experience, it is wiser to learn from the experiences of others. There isn’t enough time to learn everything in life by trial and error. We must learn from the life lessons of one another. The Bible says, “A warning given by an experienced person to someone willing to listen is more valuable than … jewelry made of the finest gold.” (Proverbs 25:12 TEV)

Write down the major life lessons you’ve learned so you can share them with others. We should be grateful Solomon did this, because it gave us the books of Proverbs and Ecclesiastes, which are filled with practical lessons on living. Imagine how much needless frustration could be avoided if we learned from each other’s life lessons.

Mature people develop the habit of extracting lessons from everyday experiences. I urge you to make a list of your life lessons. You haven’t really thought about them thoroughly unless you’ve written them down. Below are a few questions to jog your memory and get your started:

So what?

What has God taught me from failure?
What has God taught me from a lack of money?
What has God taught me from pain or sorrow or depression?
What has God taught me through waiting?
What has God taught me through illness?
What has God taught me from disappointment?
What have I learned from my family, my church, my relationships, my small group, and my critics?

PM's Rally

woah, lots of interesting new ICT included in his speech.

my first proper rally experience. because i'm "forced" to watch it.

Was waiting for some interesting announcements but none so far, just depressing news of delayed retirement age...

but am impressed that PM used google earth-like programs to show the latest developments for our HDBs.

also looks like PM is using Keynote for his presentation.... wont that be kinda cool?? hehe

3 no 4 no 5 places which I would love to visit

1. Bahamas Beach - Stay at Alantis Resort

It has the largest underwater marine collection of over 500,000 marinelife, with some of its collection yet to be named. The simple knowledge that the manta ray is waiting in a giant tank for you to discover it is awesome, I dun have to put on my wetsuit (which usually takes a long long time), dive underwater and wait for it to appear, I can simply walk up next to it. So cool!

It has got giant slides that runs through the giant marine tanks as well, wont it be cool?? Never tried that but I definitely want to!!


2. Egypt - Pyramids

I have heard about this cleverly designed building since a kid, got more fascinated with ancient architecture after a trip to Turkey and realised that history CAN be so rich and full of amazing facts and some fairy tales... Nonetheless, the Pyramids are definitely worth the trip as the last reminding ancient wonder of the world. I was at some of the other ancient wonders of the world previously but found that I was just standing on a pile of rocks, altough the view was inspiring, it was hard to imagine its magnificance.



3. Japan - Tokyo

Since my fetish for Peanuts started, I have been dreaming of going to this city that is crazy over comics characters. Its rich rich diversity of creative juices spilling over every corner of its street is going to be an exciting journey. Each visitor to Tokyo always returns with something about the place that amazes me. Language barrier might be an issue if we visit it Free & Easy style... However, I am sure that I'll need extra luggage space to lug back all my Peanuts favourites hahahaha.... so I can only visit Tokyo when I can afford to purchase whatever I like.... which might take a long long time to happen.

Anyone interested to donate to my Tokyo discovery fund? I'll blog and blog for your money's worth!! *promise*


And my MUST visit place..... Snoopy Town!!



This blog started out with 3 places which I would love to visit..... then I remembered something else!! So here's no. 4!!

4. China - Xi'an: Terroracotta Army

I was very fascinated by the scale of the "fake" army that was built. The amount of energy, resources, money that was poured into ensuring a protected afterlife, the obsession with wealth and grandeur of his death is almost madness to think about. Yet this one man did it.

I was told my R that: today, there are still many many MORE underground tunnels and army/slaves/rooms that were being discovered. There were so many of them that they were uncertain what to do with the newly discovered "treasures". Instead, they were covered up again as determined by the state as to prevent modern day pollution and rapid degradation.

I have not known anyone who has visited this unique army that has a bad review of the place, I am guessing it will be very well worth our time there. I want to spend like 3 full days there.... maybe I will change my mind later... but who cares?? Let's get there first!!



5. South Africa - Wildlife

Wah, this has always been a dream to sleep under the stars in a tent with the giraffes as my "pets", elephants in my backyard and tigers roaming around.... feels like in some movie!! I'm picturing a clear night filled with light from the bright stars. Perhaps also to meet someone with an interesting name?? hee hee

Quickest way to put on a Starwars costume

Travelogue Series : Beijing

AhChoo to the begining of the Lunar 7th Month

Each year, I have a strange way of realising that its the time of the year when the air is alot more smokey and there are lot more "boogie" traps on the roadsides.

Yes, I am referring to the start of the Lunar 7th Month.

The time when the neighbourhood is filled with folks trying to each find the best corner to burn their offerings to their loved ones.

This year there is no exception, my nose has been leaking the whole day and sneezing non-stop...

The time has arrived!!!!!

Wish there was a better way to do this rather than to suffer through annually.

I'm sure there are many folks out there who is also suffering the "side-effects" of our chinese traditions & customs.

Perhaps this is why the Chinese has started to use cyberspace as the burial grounds and cyber-gifts as the alternative way to connect with their departed relatives. It would certainly cut down on burning of the paper and reduce air polluction index.

Either that or we need more heavy rain to wash away the ashes and strong winds to blow away the smoke hee hee

Peppermint in Heat

These days, Peppermint seems to be in heat. She's always hot down under and I'm not even running alot of softwares on her!

Even when she's asleep, she's HOT!

So strange.

I read somewhere that battery life is not shortened by the number of charging cycles rather is the amount of heat that is generated on the machine throughout its lifespan and that itself will weaken the battery architecture....


HOW??? Peppermint is barely 1 yr old! She's going to celebrate her first birthday next month!

hmm.... shall we throw her a party? would be fun to get all the Macs for a get together...hee....

Glomming

Came across an article lately that discuss about the topic of a friend poaching another friend.

Someone used the term "Glom" to describe this situation.

Interesting....

have you glommed others or being glommed before??

New Mac, iLife08 and who knows what?

woah its so exciting trying to catch what's happening Live @ Cupertino. But the feeds are coming in too slowly for me. Its exciting enought to read about the new Mac that comes with wireless bluetooth keyboard and mouse. way cool!

iLife has new iPhoto called events! which makes so much sense!! let's hope that its backend system is less messy then the current iPhoto.

catch updates at TUAW, The Apple Store, Engadget, Mac OS Rumours, Gizmodo Live, SlashGear, The Mac Observer.

Still got lots more to unfold. Jobs is way cool!!

What happens if Apple takes over other consumer market?

This is a series of innovative ideas that might jolt Job's creative juices to just burst out of the computer & iPhone market hee... courtesy of some other creative juices, came in an email, sources untraceable. But definitely not the work of a local.

How about ironing? hee... so cool iRon cute name, I might name my Philips iron as Ron from the next time i use it hehe


A damaging device? I doubt this will ever get into Job's list of to-dos.


hee hee... this is such a cheeky product but might prove useful for geeks! will come with a video on how to use it effectively. user forums to discuss its effectiveness against STDs, unwanted pregnancies and possibly bringing the 99.9% effectiveness of current rubber to 99.99999999999999% Might come free with ever iPod/Mac purchased? hee


ooh, nice device, will record the number of skips that you have done, how many of it that you actually did it correctly (as most of us have our legs tangled up when we do rope skipping), it may contain a sweat detector to make sure that you are really exercising and not just fooling around with the rope. Might have the built in chip to tell you how much calories that you've burnt. Will retail cheaper than Nike+ for sure! hee


This device has been rumoured for YEARS yes YEARS, we have yet to see it being launched. But its a nice nudge to remind Job's that the consumers are interested in another neat gadget that they can wear on their arms besides the iPods to show that they are in the Cool Dudes League. Might come with inter-changable colorful straps to suit the dress code of the day. 2nd version should come with color screen.


iPottie! hahaha... super cool device to bring the home to a true Tech home! Imagine the pottie reading out news to you or playing the radio, maybe should include a mini projector device to project news on a wall facing the person using it. We can use the remote to control pages, volume, content etc. Cool Shit!


Going Green? That is so boring, This colorful Apple looks alot more appetising and attractive. Almost like a candy! Cant wait to pop it into my mouth!


Ahh finally, a truely innovative kitchen solution to stubborn stains, ugly residues, environmentally friendly, non-toxic cleaners, milk and bottles. The solution to all our kitchen problems! I cannot wait for this to happen! I can almost believe that if Apple were EVER going to launch this series of products, they will most definitely have them tested, tested and tested so rigourously that it'll pass all the world's standards and beyond. Jobs, think about it??


This is definitely an elegant device I would love to have at home! I'm sure its water-saving capacity is going to be jaw-dropping, possibly with a recycling feature to allow the water from the last rinse (which would be super clean water, cos the clothes would be super clean anyway) to be used as the first soak/rinse in the next cycle (wont matter even if the water contains some dirt/detergent as these clothes are dirty and meant to be cleaned anyway, more detergent wont matter). Can any engineer look into this aspect?


way cool! bet one will be brighter too after drinking this hee hee


This will probably TEACH us how to play the piano. Most likely comes with Grade1-8 tutor with evaluations on how lousy the learner is. It will record all your practise sessions and tell you when you did the best at what time of the day, which day of the month etc, does an evaulation, combine with personal mood evaluation software, will make any two left handed souls into concert grade pianist.


YEAH finally a Mac integrated Karaoke device! This should match up to the Magic Mikes from Philippines. Maybe it'll have a built in chip that will make any croaker a world class singer. All you need is the iSing ;-) Singapore idol, siam ah! here comes iSing! haha


hmm..... no comments. must try first! but i'm wondering how to put this on ....


this gadget will most probably weigh less then a MacBook, travel faster than a car and have innovative features on it that no one will ever imagine!


hee hee... iWave! No need to figure out the temperature/timing on how to defrost/warm up/cook your food. This device will analyse it for you and have it ready in mins. Maybe can even "tell" it how well you want your beef to be. Next time it senses you putting the beef inside, it'll automatically recall your previous beef settings. May even be able to detect common health condition like body temperature, blood insulin, blood pressure levels etc to determine if the food type that is placed inside is suitable for your health condition. If not, then it'll refused to work haha


iPuff, definitely a hot favourite with ALOT of smokers out there. Gadgety and maybe gives the same shiokness in smoking but have no smoke coming out of the smoker's mouth? Intelligent design required....


hmmm... iCandi, will take care of all sore throat, bad breathe, low sugar and whatever the situation, its an intelligent sweet hee


ooohhhh this one should be a reality soon... maybe?? who knows.....

Exciting Times Tmr

Yeah, It'll be real exciting tomorrow when I step back into a classroom as a "teacher". hahahaha

Module has a focus on Student-Centered Learning. So not sure how much of a "teacher" will I really become.

Its really exciting to be standing on the "podium" (yes, all classrooms in where I'm going to be has a mini stage for lecturers to stand on hahaha get the students to worship us better!)

so how "Student centered" is that??

K bet u can sense the mockery in my tone.

Well, a short while before tmr, we had a briefing, since then, there has been a constant flow of emails attempting to burst my mailbox about the course. Some want to change student groups cos they feel that they can assess them better at the end of the course if they had MY students. Well Ok. Whatever, I havent met them yet right?

Then, some brillant person who planned the MASTER TimeTable (which means that THEY are incharge of scheduling ALL the courses for every student in the whole entire univeristy) cleverly planned two consecutive school-wide-compulsory activities on the same day of the week!

Any child would be able to tell you that it will affect the same class/course/group of students in not one but TWO consecutive weeks!

And we are EXPECTED to fulfill ALL the course requirements like having a fixed number of hours of student-contact time. HOW?

Naturally, if we cannot find any time during the normal school hours, we would just have to do it beyond the normal working hours right?
Then some lecturers trying to be funny, started to email long stories about how they have evening commitments and THEN requests for travel allowance if the course has to be conducted in the evenings? HUH??

so if give u transport allowance then ur evening commitments will magically disappear??

It was such an eye-opener. haha

Then i get students who writes to tell me that they will be taking leave for the first lesson?? Ooi! No respect ah!!
Another write to say got medical appt. These are the definite TWO jokers who will be bugging me with questions like "Assessment %", "absent how?" and many other admin questions which we will be sorting out DURING our first session.

Lastly, there was this other lecturer who contacted me to exchange classroom with him because the one which I've been assigned to was his "favourite" classroom... huh? Got favourite wan meh? Is there Feng Shui involved? Both rooms have the exact same setup leh. Not that I really minded the change in rooms. But I really do not wish to add to the confusion that we are all having with regards to the change in tutor/time table etc. To add another change will be like giving myself MORE admin work lor. Plus, I truly believe that if we want to continue to evolve successfully, we should be adaptable to changes around us. So I had to decline his "offer"

So u tell me, is it going to be exciting or what? hahahaha