The reason why I still print my notes and write on them

We support the printed word in all its forms: newspapers, magazines, and of course books. We think reading on computers or phones or whatever is fine, but it cannot replace the experience of reading words printed on paper. We pledge to continue reading the printed word in the digital era and beyond.

Nothing can replace printed forms and handwriting and liners/highlighters on them =)

http://readtheprintedword.org/

One advertisement on why you should go for PhD

A short chit-chat with one of the TAs in teaching lab today, while waiting for my reaction to complete.

Him: Next week is my last TA session.
Me: Woah? Why don't you continue? *hope this super nice and helpful TA will be an exception to the TA scheduling rule*
Him: After that I will go to Cambridge.
Me: UK? I always want to go there!!
Him: Me too!
Me: Anyway why are you going there?
Him: Research!
Me: As in, continuing your PhD there? Or for post-docs?
Him: No.. My boss asked me to go for 6 months then I'll return here. He is paying for me.
Me: Oh. Super nice.
Him: I'm really happy to go there.
.
Me: (by heart) pleading to my boss: Boss? I want this, too! If not for research, you can bring me.. err.. maybe me and my labmate(s) along to your business trips or if you need to do some measurements abroad. Please? =P

Noticed this on twitter:



No Bahasa Indonesia?
I strongly believe that Indonesians are among top twitter users. Proof? Just check the daily trending topic. Some TTs are Indonesian-made, some TTs make it to the list because of the Indonesian users' contribution (especially those Korean topics.. DUH), and well, one of Indonesians' stereotype is : "I eat, I pray, I tweet". True.

Well, I'm not going to help them translate twitter to Bahasa Indo (my Bahasa for formal purposes is not so good either and has become even worse since I came here, lol) but they should really consider this. Should.

I was surprised that a lab-tech at teaching lab knew my name!

...Hopefully it was because of the fact that my name sounds Italian, but I don't even look like one since I am a Chinese descent with no European blood (I presume), and not because of bad behavior (or the accidental shots of ethylacetoacetate at two fingers in the morning of the first lab session).. I still want to (or have to, if I go for PhD) be a lab TA.. PLEASE??

Does loving your career equal to being a fanatic of it?

I don't know why, but while my labmates (as in, research lab-mates) aim for more and more papers published each year, my primary goal is *ahem* to contribute cover/frontispiece design(s) for my or my fellow groupmates' paper(s) and have them pinned to the board in front of my prof's office or pasted at the lab. It's not like I put my own publications behind; sure, I really want to publish more too - it is a privilege for an undergraduate here (suddenly an image of Natalie Portman passed by), but it won't be perfect if I have not achieved the aforementioned goal. Weird? Yeah.

My strong attachment to cameras and my habit of taking photos of anything, everywhere (including teacher's notes and unposted lecture slides since I was in junior high) plus enjoying my spare time (or having guilty pleasure my mind refreshed in busy times) with photoshop make me wonder if I'm a real full-time budding chemist..

Sheesh. My fellow friends in chemistry or those in physics and maths who are seriously pursuing their majors often relate to their respective fields in their convos.. Wow. Again, it's not that I'm not serious in here, I really love what I'm doing, I just think that I don't sound as enthu as them *staring at my camera, then to the ICES brochure at my push-pin board... and thinking, why I'm so contradictive?*

I hope that being a real chemist does not mean having mind filled with a fanatic enthusiasm on chemistry 24 hours a day, 7 days a week..

Oh anyway, I finally took a sip of this! One of my friend had bugged me to try this since, like, 2 weeks ago. I think she's a fan. Good that a fundraising event had this sold on campus, otherwise she will have to join the long long queue at Iluma for her obsession (OK, the Ang Mo Kio stall is said to have shorter queue, but I still don't understand the fuss). LOL. Anyway, I think the milk tea taste was not very intense, like it had too much water in it.. Maybe it was because I did not drink it immediately when it was still fresh and cold.. But it was smooth and the pearls were chewy. Well, at least this has much more appropriate feel than hawker's ones which are super intense.