Closing of a chapter?

Seeing all the retrospective posts of 2016 on my Facebook feed suddenly gets me in the mood to start writing again, which admittedly has been dormant for quite a while.

2016 really flew by this year and passed by like a blur. The only fleeting memories I have is the long hours spend on my research project and writing my thesis, trying to beat the deadline. This was like a year of finality, where everything that I've been working on comes (crashing?) to an end point.

I can hardly believe I'm almost at the end of my 4 years plus PhD journey. It seems not too long ago that I just stepped foot in Germany and getting used to life in Dresden.  And suddenly right now, I have submitted my thesis (honestly, the details of its creation process still eludes me) and having to start preparing for my defence.

This year also saw its fair share of people settling down, tying the knot and babies being popped out (one or more of them) - a gentle reminder that life is passing by and people are moving on with their lives. At this age, I'm no wiser to where mine will lead.

Happy new year 2017 folks.

p/s: From my trip to Swansea,  at Rhossili Bay.

Most awesome movie!

If you haven't caught the latest superhero offering from Marvel: Guardians of the Galaxy, you really should.

Not your current standard superhero movie fare which tends to be dark and serious (Dark Knight, Superman) or wisecracky (The Amazing Spiderman), this one veers more towares the tones of classic space/adventure movies like Star Wars and Indiana Jones. From the hero jumping from one adventure to next, to jaded characters that are not your typical superhero-material quality, this is a superbly fun movie that's bound to rekindle your inner child as you watched those classic movies

The appearance of a humble Walkman in the movie, featuring pop songs from the 70s/80s is a suprisingly genious move. I couldn't help but think back about the late portable music player (Aiwa, not Sony so can't be called a Walkman), that I've chucked in a drawer but otherwise is still in working condition. The same can't be said for most of my cassettes though: a lot of them now sound shrill, creaky or doesn't play properly.

While I might not have the original Walkman, which is a actually trademark by Sony as a portable casette player, the Walkman name still survives today. As a portable music player that plays digital music files e.g. MP3, AAC etc. When it comes to audio qualiyt, Sony still makes some of hte best products in the business. I've had a few of these later versions, and have been extremely satisfied with them. This is the latest one I got myself a couple of months ago (sort of as little birthday gift for myself):

I'm using it daily to stream music from Music Unlimited while I work, and it's been extremely satisfying so far. Superior audio quality, beating anything I've heard before. And subscribing to a music streaming service, has exposed me to various artiste and genres of music that I've never accessed before. Stuff from classical music, cool jazz, R&B, 90s music, modern classic fusion (e..g Lyndsey Stirling) and newly released music from tonnes of mainstream and non-mainstream artistes. Having a huge library music at my fingertips for a relatively cheap monthly fee is incredible and somethign I don't see myself giving up for a quite a long time. And I've even managed to comple the awesome playlist of 70s/80s songs that were featured in Guardians of the Galaxy:

Old photos

Time sure flies. I can hardly believe I've been here in Germany for slightly more than a year now! It only hit me when I was checking the calendar and then got an email reminder from the PhD office that I need to set a date and arrange for my 1st annual thesis review committee. Which I did by the way, as right now I've to prepare a report and a presentation scheduled for Nov 6.

Things seemed to pass by a blur. I haven't gotten much travelling around done, as most people who are overseas are apt to do. I mean, I did go on a Phd retreat in Prague and bits of Dresden but that's about it. I think I've come to realise I'm just not the "travelly" kind of person, which is you know the complete opposite of folks that harbours dreams of "travelling around the world and exploring different sights and sounds".  I mean, it's not that I hate sight-seeing but it's something that I'd prefer tagging along to someone's invitation rather than me logging on to lonelyplanet.com or lastminute.com to hop on the next cheapest plane to a "cosy, sleepy hamlet with unique traditional delicacies that will surprise travellers".

Another thing I'm bad is photos. As some of you who follow this blog would be well aware by now,  I'm terrible at uploading photos and keeping them updated. I just tend to snap some photos here and there, and then completely forget about them. Most of my photos are untagged and left to rot in the camera until one fine day I decide to transfer them to my PC. Now that I have a smartphone, things are a bit easier of course thank to the auto-upload feature of G+. However, since I'm also not that great at social media either... you can see where this is going. :)

Anyway, here are some quite old pics from my last trip to Aberdeen, Scotland. I was there from around March-May last year for an attachment at the University of Aberdeen, working with Dr. Sam Martin on ferritin genes in salmon. Yep.. these photos are more than a year old.

Hostel where I stayed. Has 6 person to floor, shared kitchen + 2 bathrooms. Around 5 minutes walk to the Zoology building where I go to daily.

The street near my hostel, walking towards the Zoology building.

Scene from the main city area, with double-decker buses. Most of the buildings here are not painted, with dull shades of gray.  A lot of the buildings here seemed to be renovated from old stone buildings.

If I remember correctly, this is the King's building/college of the university.

The long street across the university where I can walk from my hostel to the town centre. A bus ride to town cost 2 pounds, and after a while I figured it's cheaper to do the 15-minute walk to town and take bus ride home after buying stuff.

The famous St. Andrews cathedral. It is open free to public at certain times.

As usual, my favourite part of old churches - the painted glass windows! 

On a train ride to Glasgow to visit a friend, passing by the Stirling station.

 Passing the Perth station. Guess I learned that it is not just a place in Australia! :P

Most of the time the train passed by many large fields and farmlands. 

Cheap and large, juicy berries! My favourite strawberries and blueberries were great too! Bought 2 packs of each.

One of the best meals I've had in Aberdeen. The cafe is called Grub and is located on thatthat street stretching from the university to the town area. The panini with brie and cranberry was really delicious! For the complete meal set I picked a hot chocolate and yoghurt with muesli (which were pretty good too). Came to about 4 pounds.

Great reason to make a new post

.. so that I can skimp on writing and call this a blog update. :)

Posting the live version because it beats the studio version, hands down. So much energy and a flawless performance.

Retrospection 2012

For some reason I thought that today was 30th January and that New Year will be on Wednesday, until I got a notification of a new post by Jeremy that the year 2012 is actually coming to an end pretty soon.

If I could sum up 2012 for me in one word it would be change... and blur. Ok, probably in two words. Looking back in 2012 while I'm somewhat aware of what happened I still had to rack my brain to figure out where did all those calendar pages fly by? So many things happened, so many changes in my life and I'm still barely on top of things in my life now.

I started out this year a little uncertain of where things will take me. I've submitted my Masters thesis in September last year and was still waiting for my defense. I continued looking for a PhD position and started applying for a few different places. Then I was offered the chance to do an attachment with Dr. Sam at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland for 3 months. At the same time I managed to get past the first interview for a PhD position at the University of Glasgow and was invited there for a second interview. In Glasgow I met up with my long-time secondary school friend, Alvin and stayed at his place for a few days for the interview. 

Unfortunately I was not successful for that interview, and as I was working in Aberdeen I got a surprising reply to one of my "casual" PhD application. "Casual" in the sense that the offered position seemed really interesting and quite out of my league that I didn't think much of it as one of my more potential applications. Anyway I got a call later from Dr. Michael and 3 weeks later I hopped on a plane to Dresden, Germany to visit his lab at the Max-Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics. I came back to Malaysia in June and after two short months, packed my bags and left for Germany with much trepidation to begin a new unknown chapter of my life.

This is the first year that I've spend more time out of Malaysia then in it. Living in a foreign country can be quite draining, particularly one where you don't understand the language. Everything here is in Germany, from applying for a bank account to getting a phone and signing a contract. It can be quite draining at times, when you consider that a simple things like figuring out the lunch menu or looking at product label at a supermarket requires some considerable effort of guesswork.

I also found out how difficult it is to explain how things are in Malaysia and the way we see things. How do you respond to a guy from China who says "Your name sounds like a Chinese name.". Erm, cos I am?? There was also another time when someone said, "Oh Chinese people are usually quite thin, I've never seen fat Chinese people before", to which I laughed and said of course there are and it's a growing problem. "But you're not Chinese right, you're from Malaysia!" Uh, yes I am and yes I'm from Malaysia as well. I guess the concept of cultural plurality as well as ethnicity and nationality

being two completely different things are slightly harder to grasp for folks that came from  a predominantly homogenous country. 

On the upside, I've gotten to know quite a lot of different folks here from many different countries including Egypt, Croatia, Serbia. And I also had my first wintry Christmas here. Learning German .. has a bit slow and difficult (much more than English!) but while I can't speak that well or fully understand conversations, I could make do mostly shopping for groceries or ordering off the menu.

Being away from Malaysia, there are lots of things I missed - the food, the weather, the people. And by people I also mean the chance to have a witty and engaging conversation in English. I also really miss hanging out with them over a nice (!) meal. Granted,  I don't hang out much anyway while I was back in Malaysia but I think living outside and mostly independently back then have really prepared me to living by myself in a foreign country.

Hopefully 2013 will be less drastic so that I can occasionally take a breath and realise - the flowers along the way are smelling quite differently now.

Happy new year 2013.

I'm dreaming of a while Christmas

Just a short post to let you guys know that I'm still alive and having just survived my first "wintry" Christmas here in Dresden. "Wintry" in the loosest sense since it was snowing quite a bit for 2 weeks before Christmas, and then it stopped for Christmas week and most of the snow melted away. In fact Christmas started out quite bright and cheery (with sun! .... and there was much rejoicing among the people). So technically I didn't get to experience a white Christmas but a white pre-Christmas is still cool. And singing/listening to Christmas carols of snow and fireplace and warmth makes a bit of sense when you're not sweating under the good ol' Malaysian heat.

So to make up for this short post... pictures!!

 Heavy snow day outside my doorstep (street along my house).

 Walking through the park near the medical campus.

 An unnecessary walk through the street as I got off the wrong tram stop.

 Someone made a snowman right at the entrance of the 

 Centre of Regenerative Therapy and Diseases building. 

  Christmas tree decoration at the middle of a Christmas market

 Same decoration at night, and with more people

 

Closer look at a Christmas market. A popular item is the Glühwein, a warm 

spiced winethat helps to stave off the winter cold I suppose.

Hope you guys had a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Gehen nach die Stadt

Today I made a trip to town to get some supplies. And also to have a nice meal since I'll need to cook the whole day tomorrow as all the shops are closed on Sunday here.

So I took a tram to Pirnaischer Platz, which is like a plaza/kind-of-city-centre. I dunno really, I just saw a lot of shops and places while passing through in a tram.

I've passed by here previously, but only briefly to go to the Foreign Visitors Office to register my arrival in Germany.  A lot of trams and busses pass by here, and lots of tourists too I suppose. There's quite a number of shops and eateries around.

 
After having been here a week and a half, it's nice to be greeted with the sight of familiar food.

The little blue packet on the left is Europe's answer to our 'pop-pop' towels. You know, the scented damp tissue wrapped in plastic typically found in Chinese restaurants. Except that it's packed like a sterilised alcohol swab, smaller in size, stronger scent and only a polite inaudible tearing sound upon opening. I've seen them before when I was in Aberdeen, which I will make a blog post erm.. later.. :P

So I decided to try  the McRibs, which turns out to be like a slice of pork fillet with a dollop of meat/barbeque. Tastes alright, though the sauce can be a slightly overwhelming.

There's also a small section of McD, known as McCafethat sells coffee, pastries, and bubble tea! Yes, I kid you not. I think this is the next big thing in Dresden, at least. Incidentally I had passed quite a large Bubble Tea Original (hehe..) shop a couple of minutes away from McD.

This is the supposed plaza which gave rise to the name, I suppose. There's also a tiny row of open market stalls at the far end of the pic, selling mostly sausages, ice cream, coffee and knick-knacks.

ZOMG! Civilisation at last! An actual shopping complex! This is the first shopping complex I've seen in Europe that's comparable to the ones we have in Malaysia. There's quite a number of eateries too, will try them out next time.

As usual, you can check out a few more pics on my google+.

Auf wiedersehen!

Guten Tag!

Ok, so I still haven't posted bout my previous trip to Scotland, but that's gonna have to wait. 'Cos this post is THE update (in the loosest sense) of where I am.

Right now I'm in Dresden, Germany! To make it easier for you, I'm right here:

So what am I doing there? Well I'm currently a research assistant at the Max-Planck- Institut für Physik komplexer Systeme, aka Max-Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems. No, my disdain and suckitude at physics since secondary school was not a cleverly-concealed latent ability. Which, by the way, most of the research here is comprised of biophysicists that do research like kinetics of cell movement, protein shapes etc aka the physics of living systems.

It's just that I'm tied to a research group leader, Dr. Michael Hiller, who has links to this institute and another Max-Planck Institute, i.e Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics. So for now I'm doing work here.

I just got here and work has already started piling up. Lots of new things to learn, considering that I'm shifting to a slightly different research area, which is more towards computational biology and comparative genomics (wait till I find a nice introductory video for it.). 

I'll update more stuff next time (*cough, ahem) such as how all this crazy stuff came together as well as my attachment/trip to UK, but for now here's a picture of the guesthouse (behind the institute) that I'm staying at for now.

p/s: The suitcase is mine and did not come with the room.

Tschüs!

pp/s: there are more photos in my Google+, though I'm not too sure if you can see them since I'm still kinda new to this.

Extreme!

Just a quick note to anyone skulking here that though I might be MIA from Malaysia, I'm still not dead. :)

Been really busy lately, getting things settled and there is not much time left I'll be here in Aberdeen! Still haven't gotten to really see this place much. Anyway I've got this long blog post on Aberdeen stuff, but it's still in the works.

Instead, lemme just tell you the most extreme weather I've ever encountered - today on 3rd April 2012 in Aberdeen!

So the last week has been unusually sunny, reaching almost 22 C (a record and unusual weather! gasped the locals).  The weather then turned back to cold and wet over the weekend, and today I woke up to around 0-1 C. No snow, just cold.

Then around noon it became really sunny, like probably around 9-10 am sunny in Malaysia, though still very cold. Such a paradox, I was sorta trembling near the stairs area (which has some open windows) and looked out to the sun shining.

Later around 4-5 pm I was in the lab and noticed that it was really cloudy, wind howling, and snowing! Seriously, that was my first time seeing actual snow. I ran to grab my phone, but alas the winds stopped and there was not much snow left - very fine and little to be captured on camera. :(

Anyway, I carried on around after 5 pm in the office and saw, guess what! The sun is out again. and shining brightly  probably like 6-7 pm sunny in Malaysia. And yet it was snowing just a moment ago!

Well I left the building around 6.40 pm and it was still bright and sunny outside, but yet still very chilly and strong winds. After a while, I felt some small specks on my hair, and looked around and lo, it was snowing! Really tiny though, just a few tiny specks on my coat that turned to water the moment I touched them. That was probably the biggest contrast I've experienced, touching specks of snow while standing under the evening sun!

Hopefully in my next post I will have worked up enough motivation and time to post the Aberdeen stuff. :P  And please, stop complaining about the weather in Malaysia! You ain't seen nothing till you go outside!

Fare thee well!

Just a quick note to inform everyone or anyone who still checks in here...

*crickets chirp*

I will be going off to Aberdeen for 3 months (25 Feb - 30 May) for an attachment project at the University of Aberdeen..

So uh.. see ya when I get back!

What I do (Part 1)

A lot of times people ask me what I study/research/degree. This can briefly be summed as follow

X: So what is your Master degree on?

Me: Molecular Biology.

X: Oh. Sounds fancy/interesting.

*awkward pause, where you can tell they clearly have no idea what I do and don't know how to proceed*

Me: *in attempt to sound friendly* It's kinda like Biotech, but Biotech is more like the business aspect. This is the basic research part.

X: Oh.

Actually, I wasn't really telling the entire truth, kinda like watered-down and measured-in-PPM kind of truth. From Wikipedia:

Molecular biology is the branch of biology that deals with the molecular basis of biological activity ... Molecular biology chiefly concerns itself with understanding and the interactions between the various systems of a cell, including the interactions between the different types of DNA, RNA and protein biosynthesis as well as learning how these interactions are regulated."

It's kinda like saying I'm doing Biology. Or Physics (hah!). It's just a general term for a field of study. While I do quite a several aspects of research, my main interest and focus is on molecular phylogenetics.

For now though, let's focus on understanding the concept of phylogeny.  Rather than throw lines of jargons at you, I was pointed to this excellent and well-produced video, which I think does a great job of highlighting the wonder of nature, the concept of phylogeny and why we study it.

  

More to come.. 

Pretty fly

If you're an avid radio listener, chances are you would have heard Keri Hilson's Pretty Girl Rock (which I would say sounds like it's inspired by the rather terrible Pretty Boy Swag by Soulja Boy).

But have you seen the video for it?

It's actually quite awesome, and not a typical "scantily-clad female prancing around with gaggles of males leering after her as if they've never seen an attractive female" music video.

I'm not a music pop culture expert; when I first watched it without reading the description I wasn't really sure what was different transitions were about. Then I quickly identified the similarities of two particular scenes to Rhythm Nation by Janet Jackson and Creep by TLC. Intrigued, I checked out the video description and re-watched the video more carefully this time.

From the official video description:

Follow Keri Hilson through the decades in the video for her single "Pretty Girl Rock," directed by Joseph Kahn. Keri transforms herself into women who have paved the way for black female artists, including Josephine Baker, the first world-famous African-American entertainer; singer Dorothy Dandridge; disco queens Diana Ross and Donna Summers; dance music legend Janet Jackson; and R&B trio TLC.

The order of the artistes, as I've manage to dig around are:

1. Josephine Baker

2. Dorothy Dandrige

3. The Andrews Sister

4. Diana Ross

5. Donna Summers

6. Janet Jackson

7. TLC

As a homage video, I think it is very well-done and it really captures the essence and highlights the differences between each era/artiste. From the rather innocuous flirting of the first 3 artists to the synchronised swaying of Diana Ross and finally to the "tough gal" hip-hop dance of the TLC, I really marvelled at how things have changed and evolved in music and dance and the portrayal of female performers.

I was a little curious about Josephine Baker, so I dug around Youtube a bit and found this: Footage of Josephine Baker performing her infamous Banana Dance at the Folies Bergère in Paris, France c. 1927

If you have not seen the original Rhythm Nation by Janet Jackson, the one portrayed by Keri here is admittedly, quite a watered-down version. But then it's a quite difficult task to recapture the power and awe of the original video by Janet herself, which if I'm not mistaken, probably set the standard for flawless synchronisation and complex choreography in music videos, and an excellent showcase of the raw energy and power of group dancing.

TLC was among the pioneer groups that made hip-hop more mainstream, and females as hip-hop performers in general. I'm not entirely certain about this part, but as hip-hop became more mainstream, I believe hip-hop as a dance also evolved to be accepted as a type of dance - it's a very in-your-face style, wide arm and leg movements, and very energetic. As an example, you can check out this hip-hop routine performed on SYTYCD.

All this stuff might not mean a lot to most folks, but I find it fascinating and interesting, and definitely gives you a slight sense of pause and a raised eyebrow and how things have changed.

Finally...

It took a longer time than expected, braved through many seemingly innocuous nay-sayers... but finally..

I just submitted my thesis!!!



Phew! Now it's just viva in around 2 months time. But taking a short break in the mean time. Yep, only a short break cos unfortunately still got lots of other stuff to do.

Gloom...

Today is probably the longest raining day I've ever encountered in UKM.

Started raining around 7.30 am this morning, and has been since the whole day. Alternating between a drizzle and medium downpour the whole day.

Had not seen a peek of the sun at all.

It's gonna be a cold (and lonely*) night.


*which is practically every night anyway.

Random encounter of the kiddy kind

I was out with my parents out today and they wanted to buy some stuff at this grocery shop/medicine hall. I just wandered around and I saw some tins of brown rice/rice/cereal which was actually baby feed. So I picked one up and checked it out: "For ages 1+...Baby's first solid food!". Apparently there are also "3 delicious varieties" to pick from. A few questions ran through my mind: Would a baby even know the difference between brown rice and regular rice? Wouldn't it taste kinda plain and dull 'cos you can't really put in tons of meat and vegetables? Would a baby like to eat such plain gooey stuff, 'cos I wouldn't...

"Hi mister, so how old is your child?"

It took me a few seconds before I realise that a product salesgirl had crept up behind me, and was actually addressing me. Amazingly, even though my mind went black for a few seconds, I managed to hold back both a mental/physical choke. Composing myself a few seconds later, I replied with a sheepish, "Uh no kids, just looking around" and tried walking away in a seemingly non-embarassed/fazed manner.

ushering toys

Toy Story 3 is an awesome movie. Almost made me tear up; walking out of the exit a dad asked his little daughter if she's crying, and the mom herself made an audible sniff.

Anyone up for catching Usher next week?

Bull city

Yes, it's been a long long time since I've came up with a post that has any semblance of appeal and interest. Basically it boils do to procrastination, work, AWOL-ing in the lost Land of the Turtle, and uh, more work.

Anyway here is the long lost photo post of the obligatory "generic tourist pictures"! Pictures are from when I went to Spain last year (yeah, yeah) and Alvin (and his Grey's Anatomy-esque friend) dropped by from his busy work of saving patients and delivering babies to accompany me on a whirlwind tour around Barcelona.

Our first stop was the famous Sagrada Familia. Interestingly I didn't know it was still under construction, and well at 11 euros each we didn't feel like forking out the cash to see the insides of an incomplete building. So we just stood around and grab the best shots we can.







Then we went on to Park Guell, which I feel has quite a interesting history. Guess housing busts aren't a modern economic woe. Getting there was an uphill effort, literally. Which is why I'm thankful they build escalators to get there.


It's quite picturesque; a wide area that's nice for jogging and walking. Views from the hill.




This little lizard is quite famous; it is a highlight of the park. And it also representation of the mosaic art items prevalent in gift shops around Spain.



The following day we went to the cathedral, which turned out quite like how you picture in those books. The dark and forbidding halls emanates an aura of serenity, of smallness, and intrigue. For some reason when I think of old churches, I always picture a lady running up to stairs of a cathedral, banging frantically on the wooden door while shouting, "Sanctuary, Father. Please, I seek sanctuary!"

And unlike the Sagrada Familia, it is complete. Although I think at that time it's undergoing some maintenance.







And for me, nothing screams "old church" better than unreachable colour-tinted windows! Woot!


Montjuic. Uh, looks nice but we didn't go inside.



Then we looked at our map and thought of making a short romp around the park. Before that though, we stopped at a place called La Cascada. Me and Alvin and had no idea what it is, but thought it'd be interesting to go there, just in case it turns out to be a regulare perforamance venue for Cascada. We were a little disappointed that it turned out to be this Cascada instead. But oh well, we still grabbed some cool pictures!






We also dropped by Montserrat. Which was located in some mountains, hidden away from the hustle and bustle of the city. Where the pious folk can pray and seek enlightenment in peace and solitude; cut away from civiliation and modern amenities. Well, except the little train track that goes up all the way to the mountains (45 minutes), which carries throngs of noisy and curious tourists. And other than the little bakery, cafe, and gift shop over there, which is totally irrelevant as I'm sure the priests there subsist only on dry bread and plain water.

View from the monastery overlooking the mountainside.



The main entrance of the monastery.



Statues of patron saints


There's even one of Saint John Baptist de La Salle! Which of course I grabbed a picture with!



Supposedly there are choir performances at certain times by the castrated choir boys. Well, that's what I imagine they are anyway, but since I didn't see them there's no way to verify either way.

More colour-tinted windows!


A few more miscellaneous pics:

A statue which-name-I've-forgotten.


The jetty near my hostel.