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*

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

POP goes the tube

one day I found a POP up tube in my freezer.... Not funny, good thing its all frozen, wont drip....

The Story of the Printer - a long story

Be prepared to be reading for a while on the story of the Printer....


It all started with lab work. We do alot of gel work in the lab, after looking through like 1500 samples, it becomes important to have hard copy photos pasted into our logbook to make reference to the correct gel image, to the correct sample. Else, ALOT of errors CAN occur!!

Each sample has 2 sets of photos, one to demonstrate if it carries a correct size insert, the 2nd to demonstrate its concentration. Both set of information is essential for downstream experiments. In other words, we have no choice but to PRINT these photos.

3yrs ago, our lab was not blessed with a gel photo-taking device NOR a printing device. So our daily activity include carrying our toxic gel up and down a flight of stairs to a central facility (which conducts classes occasionally) to take our pictures and print them out at the same time. With the restrictions in their lunch, closing hours etc, we have to time our experiments to fit in nicely with their hours, Sometimes we have to end up begging them to allow us to use the facility at 530pm even though official end of work day is at 545pm. Dun ask me WHY these people are so special!!

We had to just deal with the circumstance and make the best use of it.

We survived 1.5yrs like this, sometimes we walk up and down about 5-8 times daily until our butts and legs develop strong muscles.

Then we shifted up to 2nd level. This "new" lab premises has alot MORE facilities than what we used to have. They have a functioning gel photography system! FABULOUS!

We can now take as many gel photos in the same lab at any time we desire. Its a great feeling to have to his luxury as many times, the gel images determine the subsequent experiments, having this luxury of almost real time imagery means we can work faster and better. Wonderful.

The only thing is... we still do not have a printer to print out these images. So we are still pretty much dependent on the other labs.

Well, we can save all our images into a thumb drive and print them in ANOTHER open facility that IS meant for all.

Its still good. Because we can now plan our printing of the gel photos around the opening hours of the facility and not to clash with the classes that might be held inside. All's good.

Until, they decide to CHANGE the system!! AiYoh. The existing system has some quirks that needs to be sorted out and then it'll be fine. But someone up there decide that its time to CHANGE the system and the new system will take a while to be activated.... which means the old system CANNOT be used any further as it has be shifted to a new location (called the store room) :(

So we patiently waited and waited for the new system to be "initiated". Then the service engineer happily announced that the new system does NOT take in any other image source other than its own. Which means, one must use the camera on the machine to take the picture and then Only the printer will recognise it and print it out willingly. No other software will work on this machine.

GREAT!

So we went back to our primary source of photo printing..... armed with my thumb drive, I went down to the lab and asked for permission, got it and started the computer (which took a long time) and plugged in my thumb drive... and it did not recognised it!

Luckily the system can access the internet and I went to my gmail and started downloading my images ONE at a time. (imagine having about 50 each time....) a very painful procedure. but a neccessary procedure

Great one lot done. Happy. Return to lab to stick all the photos into my logbook.

The following week, I did the same thing, did all my experiments necc. and went to print the photos at the end of the week....

When I made a call to enquire if the machine was available....

someone asked me if I had permission to use it.

I went "huh? We had permission since 3yrs ago leh"

the person went, "Oh that was very long time ago hor? You better ask again lah."

GREAT! my boss is away on leave. cannot ask this two weeks.... my photos kana tio for 2weeks. just gREAT!

2 weeks later, when my boss returned, he went ahead to ask for permission AGAIN, only to find out that their highest order of personnel is away on leave for 2 weeks.

Very fun lor. very small innocent activilty kana drag for 4weeks for nothing.... sianz

FINALLY when ALL the permissions were granted.... I went down again to print my like 200photos....

the machine broke down!!!

WAH LIAO EH!! Win already lor!!

I moody sia

I went to pester another technician for his "help". previously when they changed to the new gel system, the old printer was in perfect working condition. I have asked him for MONTHs to loan us the printer... but he's gotta get clearance from higher order persons which NEVER came back. Finally, when I went this day to ask him... I bet he was in a good mood, he happily led me to the old printer and put it on a trolley to be loaned out. hahahaha.....

but hor, this ancient monster uses the jumbo printer port which I was not sure if our computer in the lab has the same port. Thankfully our lab computer is in the same generation as the printer haha....

Cool... port works.

Found the driver for the printer and downloaded it online.

But no matter what settings I did, the printer simply refused to print! It has an error message.... *bleah*
*i wanna tear my hair out look*

The technician came to our rescue! Yeah, he fiddled around with it and got it to work finally!

YEAH YEAH YEAH!

now this printer is sitting happily in our lab. after all this trouble... it finally got to a state where I would have prefered from the begining....

say hi to Mitsy people!

hahaha

I'm loving IT!

Technology is amazing!!

As I am preparing some samples to be sent out to Korea for processing, it involves lots of form filling and clarifications to avoid mistakes and delay in time.

Guess what?? Their customer service center has a msn available, online during their working hours (which is the SAME as ours) and we can ask them any question, any time!

Its really lovely to be able to seek clarifications on the spot, beats sending out emails and waiting for responses. Beats trying to figure out what the other party is trying to say.

I'm loving IT!!

Yahoo No Test tonight

But still got assignment!!

*SIGH*

And I still have one book review rotting away, waiting for me to ferment out some interesting aspect of it. Like as if it was not fiercely debated previously.

hmm... the art of writing has to be learnt through practise practise and more practise....

gues what?? I'm in my last night class YahOO!!!

The return of SBK!

one never truly knows how and when things fall out of plans....

SBK of another kind has returned, the inconsiderate kind who works with NO regards of OTHERS' experiment.

last night I put in my samples into a shared facility to be used at 37degC, overnight my cultures will grow beautifully and this morning would be good and ready for me to do 60 of the 1500 extraction.....

Then I discovered that the temp was set at 25degC this morning... some joker changed the settings AFTER I've put in MY sample!

Can YOU believe that??

I cannot.

well, its not the first time it has happened. it wont be the last either.... *SIGH*

TEST tonight

yep, going to get my first written test in a long time... wonder how i'll fare, I refused to take a module that has a sit down exams because I'm scaddy cat about sit down exams, I think the smell of the exam hall makes my stomach churn inside.

I remember how one classmate (smart ass kind, straight distinction kid) used to come and cause mega fear amongst us average students by asking ultra tough questions 5mins before we enter the exam hall. She'll strategically ask JUST before we have to enter, put aside our notes ensuring that we have NO time to double check our information, entering the exam hall with alot of doubts in our minds.

That lady is dangerous man! After sitting through two papers, like that, no one wanted to stand next to her before we enter the exam hall. hahaha

yes, am getting slightly panicky for tonight's TEST. even though its an open book test. even though our examiner is pretty open-minded (which can be loosely translated to he accepts all sorts of crap hahaha). I'm still feeling the heat.... just like old times.

I think i better hide somewhere to MUG first!

i should also pray that he can read my handwriting eh? I think hor, nowadays I can type faster than I can write leh. how eh?

Thank God for Free Softwares

I was about to be in panic mode already, cos I've been trying to write up this "paper" that is of precious importance to me and I have little clue of how to handle the massive load of data.

After months of sitting on it, when I finally got down to sorting them out, they are actually not as bad as I thought! Thank God for free softwares!

And I must emphasize that they are EASY to use free softwares! hahahahahahahaha

I made my contribution!

haha am in night class, managed to read some bits of the class first before the class starts and I gave my 2cents worth!

hope it'll contribute towards my "participation" points that i'll badly need to pass this module.

Philosophy of Science!

dun play play

HA HA HA