Old Already? - The Prelude

I was walking out of the car with Isma, Kak Sofie, and Nurul towards the Maryam's cafe, after a brief silence; I mumbled to myself; "Dah tua rupanya kita ya."

Kak Sofie laughed at my abrupt comment, asking what had led me into such conclusion. Expalaining to them about how much things have changed since our first year at university, Isma noddingly agreed to my notion by putting the example of how naive we were those days waiting every day for bus to go back and forth from Mahallah to Kulliyyah until nowadays we're commuting with our own car. Kak Sofie smiled and said; "Well, we're getting older, not old - that's more appropriate."

I believe the incidents that happened for the last few weeks had shaken our solidarity, at times like those we begin to see clearly the true identity of each and everyone of us in face of adversity. Somehow deep in our heart, we begin to re-judge each other, clouded by hurts and disappointments we had to suffer. As I once wrote before, an incident like these blurred the lines we had established for each other, it disturbed the equilibrium of our friendship, and somehow it is, undeniably, hard and upsetting.

However, I also believe such incident happened for a reason (though Lutfi adamantly put that it should never happened) - I believe the conflict was the beginning of our next stage in friendship, the conflict challenged our unity with each other, and it confronted our individual personality - and to overcome all those; only sane, awake, and matured minds can do - which I believe all of us are. Yes, without doubt along the way we made mistakes we thought we never would do, but we're humans - and unless we accept the idea that we'll make mistakes over and over again - we'll never be able to forgive each other, and most importantly, to forgive ourselves.

I browsed through our previous posts, I was surprisingly amazed at how easy we were to each other before. Unlike these days where some of us seems to always have something to say to each other but we never did. Now then I realized how true Lutfi was when he said to Kak Sofie how 'sayang' it is for us to let go of the friendship for petty reasons we had been cultivating the last few weeks. What has gotten into all of us, I wonder?

Change, I presume.

We were all on the same track prior to the industrial training, which was not a problem to all of us because that was how we were when we knew each other since the beginning. However, after the practical, some changes are tremendous. Those who have changed are confused as how to go back to their previous identitites in the old days, and those who have not are equally confused as how to react to these friends who suddenly became stranger to them. No one is actually at fault, we are just at lost with the departing times that seems to be either too slow to some of us, or too fast to some other. And those who lost are sometimes scared, angry, disappointed, and sad - which is all what we are - emotional organisms.

It is without doubt however, hurts shall leave scars, and trust had to be rebuilt - but we're exceptional; we're organisms with not only emotions or minds, we're also endowed with soul; and only by learning from our previous mistakes and by making the best out of it shall we truly be characterized by that - spirited organisms; man, woman - human beings. I believe, as I already mentioned it before - the incident that had happened (and thankfully resolved) - happened for a reason - it happened because Allah wants us to be better persons; better individuals, and better friends to each other. And I have faith, and trust, and confidence in each of all of us; Arshana, Ann, Amer, Fauzan, Isma, Lutfi, Mun, Nurul, Sitot, and Kak Sofie - that all of us have become and will always be better person afterwards - no matter what happen.

Wet Lab

The word wet lab has taken a whole new definition. Our first Design & Optimization of Biotechnology Process lab yesterday was one bloody mess.

Four people in one group didn't seem to do the trick. We needed more hands. After making 1/4 of the lab wet with all the water spillage, and also partially taking over the 'makcik' cleaner's job of moping the floor, we finally succeeded.

The objective of the experiment was to measure the velocity of the water flowing through plastic pipes with various diameters and opening of the valve.

Not only was trying to fix the pipe to the valve was difficult, but when we nearly succeeded, the water starting spurting out through whatever possible openings it could find. Even after jamming it with plasticines, it still didn't help. The water kept flowing out all over the place.

Since we started with the biggest diameter, which was the hardest, we successfully managed to wet the lab and give it a good mop which I think it deserved. We have engineered a method that ensures the water flows out bubble-free as much as possible. But that was of course after all the unavoidable spillage.

It got easier after that. The smaller the diameter, the less spillage. We were the first group to finish. Woo! That hasn't happened in a long, long time. But that's cause most of the time we're not really bothered to join in the crazy frenzy to fight for the apparatus and materials. We're civilized, you see. =)

It was one tiring lab practical. Having to control the water from spilling more, avoiding poking friends with syringe (which I accidently did anyway) and without any air-con (unfortunately it's switched off on Sat). But it was fun. Probably one of the most fun labs so far. Whee!

Key to Score Bioinformatics

Since i'm bored to death right now waiting for Fauzan to finish his work on bioinformatics, i have no other choice but to make this entry.

Just now, we have a bioinformatics practical class. I'm in the same group as sitot and ann. We were asked to choose a species and a gene of interest for that species, then search for its sequence at NCBI a.k.a GenBank. After that, we need to BLAST (Basic Local Alignment Search Tool) the sequence in order to find 29 more sequences of the same genus and gene of interest.

With the skills that ann and sitot have, we managed to finish it earlier than expected. That's why right now i am in quite a boredom. But they were great. I had learnt a lot from sitot. She said, in bioinformatics, we must remember the motto: STEP BY STEP TOWARDS UNDERSTANDING. I hope all of us can remember that! It is the greatest learning process in bioinformatics. If u wish to get A for this subject, stick to the motto :) Credit goes to sitot for her devotion in bioinformatics. Thank you, sitot!

Do You See Me Any Different?

Just a rather bold question to be asked, answers will not be evaluated. :)

(Anyhow, I think study of human behavior is interesting but I never get to figure out my own self, just yet.)

Science and Technology in the 21st Century

That was the title of the public seminar by Nobel laureate Professor C. N. Yang who won in 1957 in the field of physics. It was held at the Le Meridien hotel yesterday from 2 till 5 pm.

The place was filled with students and lecturers, professors and researchers. The seminar was started off by giving the background of the speaker. For someone aged above 80, he sure looked young and energetic. He looked 60. Maybe it was the distance from the stage that played such trick.

Prof. Yang started off by giving the history of MRI, computer and biotechnology. And then he talked about these fields in the current situation, followed by the future prospect in the next 50 years. Just as it was starting to get interesting, it ended abruptly.

Prof. Yang was talking about the inter-relation of basic science, developmental science and applied science. According to him, in the next 50 years, more emphasize will be given to applied science. At the end, it's all about money.

Kak Sofie was about to ask a question related to where Malaysia stands at this point. Is applied science given its due importance? Or are we lagging behind? But people were starting to queue up behind the microphone. Alas, it was too late for anymore questions. Better luck next time Kak Sofie.

The speaker was an interesting person. He knew all the people in the history he spoke about. He even knew Watson and Crick. In case you're wondering, they're the guys who discovered the double helix structure of DNA. It was a shame that his talk was a short one.

Apparently it is the Academy of Science Malaysia who is in charge of bringing these Nobel laureates here to give talks to the public. Hopefully, Malaysia will be able to produce one of its own soon enough. And I hope I'll live to see that day.

I'm Back!!!

Happy new semester to all my Biotechnologist-to-Be friends!!!

I'm not at all prepared to go to class. No money (all finished during practical), no stationeries (all lost during practical), no shoes (yet to be collected from Lanchang), no lab coats (and yet to be collected). And not to mention the unending compound I receive from Mahallah's office, and it's totaling up to RM100! What the...

This is by far my most unprepared (and/or un-motivated) self ever. But hey, ain't it a well-known phrase that "it's not how you start it, but how you end it'.

So I guess this time I shall only say; bring it on...

Till then, hope to see you guys in one piece this Monday at class. Ciao!

Timetable for Sem I, 06/07

Due to popular demand, or also known as incessant annoying by Hajar Fauzan, here'’s the timetable for the next semester.

1. Introduction to Bioinformatics
2. Instrumentation in Biotechnology Research
3. Design & Optimisation in Biotechnology Research
4. Medical Biotechnology
5. Chemistry & Biochemistry of Natural Products
6. Research Methodology
7. Skill - Replace the Photography class with whatever skill class you're taking

So there you go. A mouthful of subjects. Gosh, it sounds difficult. And I seriously have no idea what it's going to be about.

But one thing for sure, it would be a semester that I'm truly looking forward too. Reports. Assignments. Quizzes. Aaaahhh.... The bliss of the education system. And also the Photography class. Really hoping to get some pointers in this field. And maybe along the way shoot some really amazing photos. Wohoo!

The only thing I'll be complaining about would be the Saturday classes. I'm keeping my fingers crosses that it would be changed to a different time, but that's never going to happen. Bah, nothing wrong with wishing right? But since we need to 'import' our lecturers from outside, it willdefinitelyy be night classes and Saturday labs. I really, really hope it won't be therepetitionn of the previous semester. Replacing classes is a big hassle. Especially if it's with these imported lecturers.

Alrighty then. Can't wait to see all you guys real soon. And don't forget, I've got stuff from Aussie too. So behave. :)