Wednesday, August 22, 2007

thoughts this week.

"Let all those who seek You rejoice and be glad in You;

And let those who love Your salvation say continually,

“Let God be magnified!” "

Psalm 70:4

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RNA-dependent RNA polymerase is an essential component of a self-enforcing loop coupling heterochromatin assembly to siRNA production.

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Welfare Services Club Annual General Meeting Vice-Presidents Report

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God's 34 years of blessings on Bethany

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Unconditional Love.

Friday, August 10, 2007

washington (state) weekend.

due to some logistical miscommunication, i have no updates (yet) on nyc and the rest of the the summer trip. so here i present a weekend around seattle. my eldest sister arrived from singapore 2 days before my 2nd sister. and i met her at the airport, together with dan and gerri, my sis's friends that stay in issaquah, 40 minutes away from seattle.

after settling in their beautiful house, dan left for work at microsoft, while gerri, my sis and i sat around the table and chatted. when lunch neared, we left to drive to microsoft to pick up dan for some lunch in microsoft's staff cafeteria. it had good food!

microsoft offices, or campus as they call it, is filled with identical buildings with hardly any decoration. it's simple, frills-free, functional and compact. i was reminded of them when i visited the WB studios in burbank, california during my LA trip.

the microsoft company store, features staff security, cheap microsoft software and a whole range of microsoft memorabillia. i particularly like the 'geek' tees and the msn butterfly keyrings. (:

then we headed to costco for some grocery/dinner shopping. costco is this retail chain in US that sells everything in bulk. really in bulk. everything there, from cereal to frozen food to vegetables and fruits, were all packaged in HUGE packets/boxes. it's quite hilarious actually. and cheap. and you need to be a member to get in. so what the americans do is they either buy and keep, or buy and share with their neighbours. this way they save a lot of money. here is a huge selection of many wines from all over the world.

the next day, we had this yummy spread for breakfast. ahhh i miss it. and for the record i cooked the pancakes! so it was pancakes with maple syrup and strawberries topped with icing sugar and whipped cream, pan-fried bacon, sunny-side up eggs and toast. plus good coffee. yummyyy.

and it was a beautiful saturday. we headed south to tacoma to visit the famous tacoma glass museum.

an installation featuring thousands of wine bottles.



glass-blowing demonstration. the museum also produces their own glass art pieces. it was cool watching them shape molten glass by hand, mould and our very own air.

outside the glass museum. cool crisp saturday air.

that's xandaer, gerri and dan's older son.



railroad tracks.

the famous glass overhead bridge links the glass museum with the university of washington, tacoma campus.

and this is the very pretty younger daughter, miranda.

the bridge.

over our heads on the bridge.

and then we went horseback-riding! it was great fun! and my first time on a horse. sadly i couldn't take pictures of myself with my horse. they are in some other camera. so this is dan with miranda on a really greedy horse, who kept stopping to eat the plants. looming behind them is my eldest sister, riding the most handsome horse of the lot.

xander, on his pony, holding on to our guide's horse.

the tiny farm.

this is my horse! he is not bad-looking isn't he?



on the way home.

the next day, we headed to downtown seattle for some shopping for my sis, before meeting my 2nd sister who just arrived, all jet-lagged, demanding for a starbucks venti vanilla latte. then we all drove down to chateau ste. michelle, a very famous winery in washington state.

the main winery place for wine tours looks like a high-class villa. but inside, are high-tech machines to churn out bottles of wine each day to feed alcoholics like my sisters.

after the free wine tour and free wine-tasting (which was yummy by the way), the kids played outside on the lawn. (: while my alcoholic sisters roamed in the shop, buying 4 bottles of riesling.

then we headed back to downtown to see the olympic sculpture park, an open-air museum. a smaller-scale than the one my sis and i went in hakone, japan.

here is the familiar steel tree, also present in new york city. here instead of surrounded by skyscrapers, it's surrounded by the sea and mountains.

olympic sculpture park's signature.







art is all around.

the 2nd sister contemplates.




so the first week of school wasn't so bad. except for the slew of projects and presentations coming up, a stark difference to our usual lecture-tutorial-70%exam-30%quiz system, which i so detested. i like doing projects and presentations (even though sometimes they freak me out). the one i remember was for my genetics seminar - presenting a paper on my own, for 25 minutes, in front of undergrads with much research experience, plus a super zai genetics prof. but i survived anyway.

oh and i finished the west wing. finally. 7 seasons in 1 month. not bad at all. (:

Saturday, August 4, 2007

madness.

i really had a crazy 2 weeks. it was a wake-up "welcome-to-the-real-world" call. realizing that differences become magnified and it's hard working with people. people who aren't your friends and you realize they can never be your friends.

which was quite apt that pastor talked about friendship at today's ypg3/tertiary students gathering. real friends are really so hard to come by. and in the midst of raging a war with my new 'friends', i've found comfort in what the Lord has provided me with. that handful of people whom i can call friends. the friends that i've grown to treasure so much. people who know me. and the late nighter i pulled with my sister, working out a brilliant marketing plan. (:

i miss travelling. sam is now in laos shooting an investigative documentary of sorts with his broadcast media and journalism pals. sounds so amazingly exciting. much better than being stuck here drafting a business plan for a vegetarian fast food restaurant that i wouldn't patronize, because i'm such a carnivore.

the corrinne may concert was very heartfelt. as always, she really sings from her heart and it shows. her songs are beautifully written. not just the lyrics, but the melody and accompaniment too. she makes me wish that i'm more musically talented. and i really wish i could write songs like her. it's a great way to express yourself beautifully. she sang familiar favorites from her old albums and every song on her new album. which features some really beautiful songs. it's very heartening looking at her - a singaporean girl, just writing her songs and singing them, someone who loves God so much she just shines. i wonder if she'd be so popular if she never moved to LA.

after getting her autograph and a picture, melody and i went for some prata in the dead of the night and got back only at 3am, after sending her home. here lies my record of getting home late. i broke my own record set during wala wala's with the bioscience gang. and to my surprise my sister was back even later! haha.

i wish i could blog more about my summer trip here, but i'm very determined to finish watching the west wing. now at the final season. school is starting. it's a little disconcerting that i'll be back in ntu. i feel detached from it. going to school in bioscience building, listening to boring intellectual-unstimulating lectures. it's upsetting that i can never be as interested and motivated to do readings and go for lectures and participate in discussions as i was in seattle. but i do pray that maybe year 4 will be different. maybe it will be so interesting. hopefully. but meanwhile, i'll always have the Lord's word to stimulate me. i'll always have sam to challenge me intellectually.

here is my favorite song from corrinne's new album. (i'm capping all the You's because i like to refer you in this song to my great God)

Love song for #1
Corrinne May

In the twinkling stars that dance like fireflies
In the blushing fruit that hangs upon the vine
In the face of a baby as he forms his first smile
I see You

In the whisper of the wind's soft lullaby
In the laughter and the roar of the rushing tide
In the song of the sparrow as he takes his first flight
I hear You

*Why do you hide among the nameless and forgotten
Why do you walk along these long forsaken roads
Calling to me in the hungry and the homeless
Calling me to water your thirst

**So i'll give You my heart and my song
In a world where so much is right
but so much is wrong
Your love is my beginning and i know it won't be too long
Till i see You

*
**
I hear You
I love You