A taste of home

  sitting down after a fortunately not so busy day, i bit into my homemade burger and hotdog. a wave of nostalgia washed over me as i tasted my creation. the sensual combination of the taste of meat, sausage, freshly cut cucumbers and tomatoes made me remember the good things that i had back in my hometown Miri. although the meat was of inferior quality(students package of ramly chicken patty and A1 cheese sausage)  compared to the fresh and good meat products that my mom uses at home, the food that i was brought up on and learnt how to make still  puts me in a happy state. its like having a substitute mama pat you on the back and say "good boy good boy" and the imaginary tail swishes at a frequency of 10 hertz, very very happy arf!!

  we are from where we are from, a cumulative bag of experience, habits and parts of our home community. from a single bite can light up and relinquish the memories of the past. a skill can tell others what you like and how much effort you put into it. a certain setting brings out the experience and attitude on how we handle situations.

  sometimes, as a guy individual, it feels like i forget my hometown and all the folks in it. i forget how much each person, place and thing has an effect on me and how they actually, in small ways, make part of me. i wasn't blessed with the feeling of missing anything, oho, how insensitive, so catching up with my family or old friends would need a little more initiative and effort. why do i suddenly come to this point? it is because it is about acknowledging your roots, which add up into your behavior and finally yourself. plus i feel its filial piety  that you update your folks at home and that u know what they are up to at the moment when they aren't directly looking after your parasitic butt in the house. :) and after saying all this, i suddenly feel that i miss home. . . .a bit. . . not very very . . . but at least a bit is better than continuing to be insensitive.

   SO, i'll call my folks. anyone who reads this, call your folks, unless you have been doing this, then you are a good and loyal son or daughter, and i applaud you.

 saying hi to my ma soon,
leon

the solo life of a researcher

  being in the lab really allows one to be free of the world. you generate your own little bubble that detaches you from everyone, what more with a valid reason to do so. with a reason and excuse to be anti-social, i find myself having difficulty finding the wavelength of other people. socialising becomes a hassle that comes out with topics like 'how was your day?' boring . . .and ends there, with mot much to discuss more. its either people are busy or i have been unaware of whats been happening out there for too long. it gets really busy in the lab too, with repetitive work, how can we make that a topic of discussion when there is so little to talk about it. anyway, bottom line is this is emoing much over research.

   but there are stuff to thank for, especially some helpful people in the lab. all those who have learnt the ways and techniques of the experiments. those who hold an offer advise, experience and equipment in the lab that helps make lab techniques much easier and more efficient. just yesterday, my second half of my MTT test was helped by 2 people that i really want to thank, that is ashwin (as my beloved batch representative says: son of muruhades) for letting me learn how to do the procedures so willingly. the other is my supervisors old student form UPM, whose name is chua, she gave me so mamy helpful tips on MTT, advice around the lab, and even offered to lend me this fabulous, maginicifent, awesome, holy, life convenient making piece of equipment called the 8 tip multichannel micropipette. basically this thing costs a fortune of rm1000 and its as big as your hand. it allows one to seed many well at a time. plus this thing is usually borrowed form the research office, adding more hassle if i wanted because i'd have to log in and out. bla bla.

  my lovely supervisor, Dr anna ling, is really helpful and um, i think the word is caring, to her students. she's rather a quiet person, sibu foochow(awesome foochow!!) who is very hardworking. she pushes her students while being considerate and sensitive to the students feelings towards the work. i wouldnt trade any other supervisor in Bmed science for her. i thank god for being so lucky to have her as the one who guides me in Bmed science.

  hmmm, so maybe i contradict myself in the title of this blog entry. it seems really lonely and emofying down in the lab, but i have forgotten the people out there who are so kind to help others in the research lab. i have felt the frustration and i too, want to pass down, whatever knowledge i have to others to make their life in the lab, a bit better.

for the love of my silly cells,
  leon

Life in tissue culture lab 1

once more i face a long and arduous day just doing procedures for my experiment. this week is the MTT assay which is actually a simple process, but being my experiment which needs 6 plants, this simple process is lengthened considerably, which different concentrations and 96 wells to fill. to put this part of my research in a bottle, it is to
1) culture cells, count them, calculate how much i want in the plate, then fill all tiny 96 wells. like putting shells into the congkak board, times 9 or 10. i can already feel the excitement doing this =.=. .
2) for one extract(yes JUST ONE out of six) i gotta dilute them into somemore tiny tubes of 1.5ml. dilute dilute .
3) fill the 96 well all over again, but this time with the different dilutions, not like the boring same old filling of wells in 1)
4) wait one or two days for the effect of the extract on cells
5) put the magical white powder(which can cause mutation by the way) into the wells, wait. . . the dissolve it with something else and lastly
6) let a computer analyse the wells.

 oh wait, thats not all man, you wish . . .

7) repeat each plant twice and with different waiting times for extract to treat the cells.
8) repeat
9) repeat repeat
10) .  . am i dead yet. .
11) repeat. . .

 ah well maybe one day in the tissue culture lab i may finally finish it.  till then,fit just goes on and on an on. . . . (taiyo-dynamite)

welcoming myself to the blogosphere

 ho ho,

  never have i thought that this day would ever come. I, leon tang ing chi, yes me the one and only, has created a blog!! ta-da!!!! *applauds to myself*  this marks a wonderful new start to this already ending 2010 year, but heck, who needs a new year to start something new. yeah man!! Life is what we make of it. :) (yeah i have successfully quoted myself) (Lame. . )

  just for a proper introduction to this blog, i only started this because a of the company 'Extrabytes' is having this competition for bloggers. the reward is an iPad. oh gosh i SO want one! so having this blog is one of the criteria for winning this awesome piece of gadget. how its won seems to be purely by luck, either that or i'm too stupid to understand what the instructions are. you can see the instructions of my facebook page : http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=466578781352&set=a.466578776352.245067.529161352&notif_t=like
 lolz man. who the heck knows what a TLD domain is? this is IT language. i'm bummed~ i'm too dumb to even understand wikipedia.

   so hopefully, out of some purely out of the world luck, i can be a lucky winner to get an iPad.  then i'll be the hapiest guy on earth . . .till some other new gadget comes about and i get this irrational urge to get it. (since when did i get so materialistic?)

   now that i'm starting to blog, (evetho this may be my first and last entry) i need to work on my typing skills. gak!!  i played typing maniac in facebook and i can only reach level 11. . . what the heck. . . my previous housemate who is some smart-ass with a dental girlfriend played it once and beat me straight in my highest level which i needed 2 days of playing just to reach that level. gotta envy/hate/love those blessed people. but back to the point. typing without looking at the screen is a challenge, but as its cool and if once achieved, will qualify me to being a better blogger who can write shit loads into a page with such ease.

 la~la~la, my housemates are happy that i'm getting a blog. one even said not to let this be the first and last post.. . . . hmmm. . . .we'll see.

here's to my first post, mine sincerely,
leoneedipad