An "Icky" Christmas

Don't ask about the title.
I got the idea from a friend of mine.
"Icky" because I'm sick...on Christmas week!
Great. Just great.
So, I guess it really is an icky Christmas for me this year.
Full of mucus and tissues.
Bounded to my bed for all eternity.

I won't say much in this short update, because:
A) I'm sick.
B) I'm sick.
Besides, it'll take too long for me to blog about something and get it out on the same day (Christmas).
But I do want to thank and wish all you readers a Merry Christmas.
I get most of my views from random innocent (or not so innocent) people Googling about stuff.
But I'm pree' sure I do have a dedicated reader base as well;
even if it's only a single person, it's still someone, right?
So, thanks for reading.
And have a jolly good Christmas *to be said in a British accent*!

*Credit for the font style used in the image above goes to Måns Grebäck.



Listening to Girl Almighty - One Direction

Merry Christmas,

TK

my *biology* experience

Biology was my "thing".
An interested browse through my high school results yielded some interesting data.
As a trend, Biology was my worst science subject (more times than not).
Physics was my best, and Chemistry was somewhere in the middle.
I guess Biology really was one of those subjects where you had to devote a fair bit of time into memorising content.
Even if you did understand the concepts well, it still wouldn't help unless you knew the complex names involved.
Yes, that's what I'll go with.
I did bad in Biology because I was too lazy to read anything.
It definitely didn't help when I chose to pursue Physics and Chemistry in Year 12,
but not Biology.
So I thought it would be interesting to see how my experience was with Biology
when I decided to take it up (again) in my first year of uni.

An Australian Magpie (Cracticus tibicen) wandering around,  foraging for food.
It's aggressive, territorial and Oh my God those bloodshot eyes!

As part of my Environmental Science degree,
I undertook two Biology units this year:
Frontiers in Biology and Plant and Animal Biology.
I was nervous.
My very first uni lecture was Biology...
and I was late for it.
I sat at the left end of the lecture theatre because the place was packed.
I couldn't see half the screen and I didn't know anyone.
Scary.
I went to my next lecture, trying to remain optimistic.
And that definitely backfired.
Note to self, casually taking notes in lecture is not what it looks like in videos.
Let's just say, I walked out of the lecture feeling like I'm an imposter at university.


Okay, that's enough depressing stuff.
Biology actually turned out pretty good.
It was interesting (wow. why didn't I study back then?).
But most of all, the units were really engaging.
There were guest lecturers (researchers at the top of their respective fields).
There were fascinating labs (my very first DNA extraction from strawberries).
And the projects were fun (writing our first journal paper after analysing citizen science data).
We also covered biodiversity, cells, DNA and evolution in our lectures.
These concepts got progressively more complicated,
but I've had some great friends to help me get through it.
All the way till the day before my finals.
And I did quite well in it.
So overall, I was really happy with it.
Even better, my team's journal paper got published on our mini-journal, Cygnus.
Now it's online for future students to read and plagiarise.
This will probably be my only 'publication'.
But it's definitely better than nothing.

The Gymea Lily (Doryanthes excelsa) standing tall outside the Ken and Julie Michael Building, UWA.
I wrote a journal paper with my team in BIOL1130: Frontiers in Biology, analysing the reliability of D. excelsa sightings
submitted to citizen science project, ClimateWatch.

Here is a video of my lecturer, Prof. Nicki Mitchell, explaining the journal project we did.

In my second semester, I continued with Plant and Animal Biology.
After doing well in my previous semester, I was quite excited about this.
Its Biology, only more focused on parts that I was interested in:
flora and fauna.
Two words: Difficulty Spike!
There was definitely a whole lot more memorising.
So it's a bit of a trade-off then.
I get to learn stuff I'm more interested in,
but I'll have to memorise more stuff as well.
It's a good thing the unit coordinators decided to spice things up.
We got to build our very own animals (Build-A-Beast), field trips, there were so many lecturers involved (7 lecturers in a single unit).
My personal favourite would be W/Prof. Kingsley Dixon,
who works over at Kings Park and Botanic Gardens.
He gave incredibly cool lectures, and brought tons of different plants to show us.

It didn't stop there.
The unit organised various events and activities to get us interested for postgraduate studies in Biology.
There was the Postgrad Cameo, where a PhD student comes in and give a short presentation on their thesis every lecture.
And the Careers and Social Night, where...well, the name is quite self-explanatory.

The world's largest seed, from the sea coconut a.k.a Coco de Mer (Lodoicea maldivica).
It can weigh up to 20kg, and takes seven to ten years for the seed to germinate.
Brought to our BIOL1131: Plant and Animal Biology lecture by W/Prof. Kingsley Dixon.

Our Build-A-Beast Cephalopod, the Moody Quad-beak (Orthoceras mollibus).
It belongs to the extinct Order, Orthocerida.
We found him frozen in an iceberg and conducted some molecular tests (such as PCR)
to better understand its taxonomy.
*Note that the above description is completely fictional for the purpose of this project.

What can I say?
I had a really good time with Biology.
It was a good and priceless experience.
I really liked how the unit was taught and conducted.
And my lecturers are great.
Gosh I love them to bits!
I did find the Animal Biology exam to be a complete nightmare;
and the Plant Biology one to be the exact opposite.
But I really shouldn't be complaining.
They're successfully piqued my interest in both zoology and botany.
I'm grateful.
Biology is great.
Biology is life.

Yellow Kangaroo Paw (Anigozanthos pulcherrimus) basking in the sun at the UWA campus.
These pretty plants are endemic (native) the the southwest region of Western Australia.
One of my Plant Biology lectures, W/Prof. Stephen Hopper did his Honours thesis on Kangaroo Paw.

And I'll end this with a quote by my lecturer:

"It's never too early to start looking into postgraduate studies and future careers."

Nicki Mitchell, on my birthday.

*Update: My new layout looks rad! And I like the header art, even if I do say so myself.*

Listening to Thinking Out Loud - Ed Sheeran

Biology for Life,

TK

why i chose to study *this*

After another extensive period of neglect,
I am "officially" back to blogging.
I have finished the first year of my degree and
successfully discarded the title of "Fresher".
This semester (my second one) was definitely hectic.
But I managed somehow,
at the obvious expense of halting all blogging activities.
A solution that I AM trying to put into practice is micro-blogging.
No, not Tumblr.
But just shorter blog posts.
Random articles on Google told me a normal blog post should be around 500-800 words.
A norm that I've never adhered to, apparently.
BUT I SHALL ATTEMPT TO!
From now on!
#promise
Oh and I might also change the design of my blog
to something more....boring.
(The good news is larger fonts *yay*)

So, today
I thought I'd write a bit about why I chose to study my current major.
For those who clearly don't know me very well,
I'm studying a Bachelors of Science degree,
majoring in Environmental Science and Natural Resource Management.

This is a funny choice,
considering how I wanted to do computer and IT-related courses back in high school.
I made this decision to change my field when I was on my first trip to Australia,
when I was 16.
My parents got me a course guide from my now-university (UWA),
I looked through the large, cool array of courses available.
Oddly enough, the prospects of me studying codes and whatnot
did not excite me as much as I had thought it would.
I was indecisive.
I knew that computers were more of a dream,
than a realistic life decision.
So after ignoring all the IT courses,
I focused on looking for "the next best thing".

Environmental Science sounded promising.
A major about helping and conserving the environment.
How "noble".
The notion of studying something "noble" appealed to me.
The fact that its a new field of science also got me excited.
It wasn't Biology, Physics or Chemistry.
I've never taken Environmental Science before.
Thus, I've never "failed" Environmental Science before.
I could start all over again.
On a new, clean slate.
Yep.
I'll take 1 Environmental Science please,
thank you very much.

After picking Environmental Science,
its possible to have a second major.
I didn't want to throw thousands of dollars away
doing pointless, easy electives,
so I thought investing all that money into a second, complementary major
might be advantageous.
Science was a horribly underfunded industry,
I later discovered.
So having some knowledge in
environmental "business" and "economics" was bound to help!
After all,
money does (unfortunately!) make the world go round...
And luckily for me,
there was a Natural Resource Management course available.
So, I took it.

Although I picked those 2 majors to study,
I've went through day and night,
unable to decide on whether I should really stick with them.
Now that I'm entering my second year,
I'll really have to make that decision.
We'll begin studying our specialised subjects.
No more of those "general" units.
But I believe,
or at least I like to believe,
that I probably made the right decision.
Besides,
what's the worst that could happen, right?


P.S. Its working! A SHORT blog post! Finally!


Listening to Hey Ya! - OutKast

It's Summer Time,

TK

squirrelzzzz r us.

Just to let you know,

things at uni are getting pretty hectic.

I've got my "major assignments" for all my units.

So it's time to start working hard!

But before that,

let me just yell 'Congrats' to all my friends back home,

who've just had their first week of uni.

I hear cries of anguish already.

I am quite excited to share the Ups and Downs of uni with them.

#UniLyfe

Not that I've got that out of the way,

maybe I'll share a bit about what these "major assignments" are about.

For Organisation Behaviour,

we have to produce an article/essay about the Self-Fulfilling Prophecy.

Let me explain SFP with an example.

You see a guy you don't know.

He looks like a jerk to you.

You interact with him,

but you (unconsciously) treat him like a jerk,

because that's the picture you've painted of him.

He, in turn, becomes unhappy and starts acting like a jerk.

THE PROPHECY CAME TRUE.

He became the person you think he is.

So, to put this in theory:

Your perception of someone will cause you 

to behave according to your perception.

You behaviour will affect that person and they will react accordingly.

It's quite interesting, I must say.

Alright, let's not get sidetracked.

For economics, another essay!

This time about Common Property.

I'm sure no one likes economics (I don't either),

so I probably won't explain what common property is. 

For Data Analysis, we have to….

analyse data.

Ok let's not go into that too…

And last but not least, 

for Biology, we're writing a mini-review (AKA essay…again)

about the cross-kingdom symbiosis of animals.
And that's what I'll write about in this blog post.

Forgive me if this topic bores you incredibly.
But I just thought this would be a good opportunity
to practice my Scientific Communication skills
(not that I have any…).
But more importantly,
it'll help me structure my actual assignment better.
Now that I've given fair warning,
read at your own risk. =)

So, for this mini-review,
I'll be writing about the Northern Flying Squirrel.
Scientific Name: Glaucomys sabrinus.
It's a squirrel (clearly…) located in the U.S.
And when you think about squirrels,
what usually follows is nuts, acorns and trees.
But this is a slightly more interesting species.
It can FLY glide.
Its "loose" skin can act as a parachute when it jumps off a tree,
which can be extremely beneficial.
Now isn't that fascinating?

Figure 1. A northern flying squirrel (Glaucomys sabrinus) exhibiting its unique physiological ability to glide.

But what my review is focusing on is its symbiotic relationship with fungi!
What kind of fungi you ask?
Mycorrhizal fungi.
As many of you know, mushrooms use wind or water to spread the spores.
The spores land somewhere and a new mushroom appears.
A mycorrhizal fungi could do that too…except,
they're all UNDERGROUND (...or at least some of them) !
How are you supposed to let the wind blow your spores away,
when your whole body is underneath the surface of the Earth?

That's when the squirrel comes in.
Our tiny lil' mammal "flies" down to the ground.
Tracks down where the mycorrhizae is (mainly through smell).
Digs it up.
And eats the fruiting body of the fungi (ie: Truffles).
The spores of the fungi are super-strong.
So it wouldn't be digested easily.
It stays safe in the gut of the squirrel.
UNTIL it's time to use "excrete".
The spores exit the squirrel and land somewhere far away from its "mother".
And it begins to germinate and grow.
This is the life cycle of mycorrhizae.

That's a pretty concise summary of the squirrel-mycorrhizae relationship.
The squirrel eats the mycorrhizae's fruiting bodies and gain nutrients.
And the mycorrhizae benefits by using the squirrel to spread its spores.
It's a WIN-WIN situation.
Both parties benefits.
Its a mutualistic symbiotic relationship.
Happy Endings !

That's how most organisms function in an ecosystem.
They can't do things alone.
They usually work with a partner organism.
In fact, some organisms are sooooo dependent on these relationships,
their names actually describe the symbiotic relationships they have.
An example would be Lichen.
Lichen isn't actually a name for an organism,
but the name for the Algal-Fungi relationship.
The algae (think: seagrass) and fungi both have their own names,
but they depend on each other so much that they're inseparable !
And that's why we call them Lichens.

Now what's another example?
How about mycorrhizae !
Mycorrhiza isn't the name of the fungi.
It's the name of the fungi-plant relationship.
Some fungi grow underground (like the one I described with the squirrel!).
And they stick to the roots of trees.
By doing so, they leech the sugar and energy that the tree produces,
during Photosynthesis.
And the fungi returns the favour by giving the tree
nutrients it finds underground.

Figure 2. The root-system of a typical plant (left) and the mycorrhizal-enhanced root system (right).

Observe the figure above.
You'll see that a tree can't take much nutrients with such a small root system.
But with the mycorrhizae growing with the tree,
it's widespread root system will highly enhance the range of area
where nutrients in the soil can be taken.
This is another mutualistic relationship.
The mycorrhiza fungi takes the tree's energy,
and the tree takes the fungi's nutrients.
What's surprising is mycorrhizal relationships exist in easily more than 60% of all trees.
Next time you see a tree,
remember there might be a fungi living right underneath it.

Most symbiotic relationships don't happen because organisms are nice to one another.
They are selfish little bast*rds.
It just so happens that,
by coincidence,
their interaction benefits both parties.
Let's go back to our squirrel.
It wants to eat and survive,
it couldn't care less about those spores its helping the mycorrhiza spread.
But, almost unintentionally,
the actions of the squirrel has benefitted the mycorrhiza.
In most cases,
this relationship ends here.
But wait !
The squirrel is actually INCREDIBLY important to an ecosystem's health,
BECAUSE it helps spread mycorrhizal spores around.
And what does mycorrhizal spores do?
It helps trees.
You can't have a lush green forest without any trees, can you?
And trees need nutrients to grow.
Its root systems aren't good enough.
What do they need to help with nutrient uptake?
Mycorrhizal fungi !
And those fungi ARE there when the tree need them.
And its ALL thanks to our trusty squirrel (G. sabrinus).
Because of it,
the spores are spread all over the forest.
Lots of trees have mycorrhizal fungi helping them.
And the forest lived happily ever after.

Figure 3. The benefits obtained from the symbiotic relationships between the northern flying squirrel 

(Glaucomys sabrinus) and mycorrhizal fungi and between mycorrhizal fungi and coniferous trees and between coniferous trees and G. sabrinus.

Can you see the bigger picture now?
The squirrel-mycorrhizae relationship helps ENHANCE
the mycorrhizae-tree relationship!
And again, all this probably isn't planned.
It's just Mother Nature making miracles happen, naturally.
This is the story,
of how a squirrel's fungi lunch,
has saved an entire ecosystem of trees.

Oh Ecology,
How I love you.

Listening to Next Chance to Move On - Shihoko Hirata

Breaking Assignments,

TK

roasted turkey and cranberry sauce

Like the title?
It's a style taken from a TV show I'm currently watching.
Please Like Me.
No, I mean THAT is the name of the show.
Didn't see that coming?
Yeah, I get that a lot.

Anyways.
If you've been "following" me on Facebook,
you would've known that
I've been admitted into the hospital a few days ago.
And since everyone's asking what's wrong with me,
I thought I'd might as well document my short stay
at Ward 62.

So all this began,
presumably,
on Monday.
What better way to start you Monday
than with unbearable abdominal pain?
As per planned,
I went on a trip up Winthrop Tower
and took some pretty cool photos.
What's NOT so cool is
them finishing 30 minutes late.
I didn't mind that at all,
because the tour guide was pretty interesting.
He knew a lot of stuff…
Like, the student who drowned in the Reflection Pool.
Or the guy who committed suicide by hopping off Winthrop Tower.
*Ahem*
Back to the story.
So, after the tour,
I had 30 minutes to walk from one end of the campus,
over to the other end for my lecture.
All while trying to grab some grub for lunch.
Of course,
nothing of such triviality would be able to stop me.
I got to my lecture on time.
AND had enough time to have a full lunch.
(Oh gosh.
I'm feeling so sick just thinking about saying the word
"FULL" with the word "LUNCH".)
So I had a lecture after my quick lunch.
And a 3-hour lab class after that.
I brought some Red Frogs lollies with me,
so I won't go hungry.
Ahhh, I love Red Frogs.
Unfortunately,
my tummy wasn't feeling so well during the lab.
Could be 'cause of the Red Frogs I've been having.
I minimised consumption.
But I can't stop eating.
They're so good, especially in a 3-hour lab.

So my tummy pain didn't go away,
even after the lab.
In fact,
I think it got worse because I didn't have some work to distract myself with.
I had a quiz to study for after that.
But I couldn't concentrate.
I ALSO couldn't stop eating Red Frogs.
So, I decided to call it quits for the night.
Head back home and get a good night's rest.
That would be the sensible thing to do, yes?

It would be sensible…
If I could just bloody fall asleep.
I fell in and out of sleep throughout the night.
And I was just gonna stay that way for the rest of the night.
But then,
I freaked out because I thought it really was
APPENDICITIS !?
Say it with me, people.
A-P-P-E-N-D-I-C-I-T-I-S.
So I went over to Mum and Dad's room,
and slept with them.
I fell asleep this time.
Hmmm…
Could be the weird kidney pills they gave me
before I passed out…
But at least the pain was almost gone by the time I woke up!

I was quite crossed with myself.
I had lots of things planned out for Tuesday.
I had a Facelab Experiment to participate in.

And PAL Study Group to be part of.
And soil samples to unpack.
But it's all ruined.
Thanks to my weak, pathetic appendix.
WHAT IS IT EVEN GOOD FOR !?
We went to see my GP.
Our GP told us to get an ultrasound scan.
We did that.
And got redirected to the Emergency Department of the hospital.
Wheeeee~
I didn't get to sit in the ambulance though,
because it's not "life-threatening enough".

The doctors didn't think of appendicitis as much of a threat too.
They were pretty lax about getting me admitted.
I swear,
I've described my problem to at least half a dozen different people that day.
After talking to random doctors and sitting around for 2 hours,
I finally got onto a bed.
But by the time THAT happened,
the pain in my abdomen had pretty much disappeared.
I'm cured!
But the doctors still think I'm sick.
I got placed in Ward #62 on the 6th floor,
together with Mr Ashworth (love his last name),
Mr Uebbing and Mr Menners.
Hmmm….
I do kinda feel sorry for the patients in the hospital.
They're all fairly old.
And it's sad to see them struggling in bed.
But one thing that cheered me up was how nice they were.
They were relatively optimistic,
especially when you look at how frail their body was.
So,
as I laid there,
I stared up at the ceiling…
Because that's all I could do.
Oh, and that's where the TV's located too.
Pretty cool, hey?
TV at the hospital.
That means I wouldn't miss my weekly dose of Please Like Me!

The surgical team had a look at me.
And they were gonna operate on me that night.
But I looked fine,
so they decided to "observe" me more
for the time being.
And when you're under "observation",
you can't eat/drink anything.
So what they meant was,
"Let's starve him more, and then see what happens."
So I went to bed that night.
Hungry.
I'd only had a couple of cold sandwiches.
That's all they had to offer.
I missed dinner.

I hope I hadn't forgotten to mention all the special considerations
I'd have to apply for.
I missed a lab session,
a tutorial and my quiz closed that night.
And although the hospital was well-equippied with a television
for each patient,
they still had a long way to go before
they'd get WiFi access.
The next morning,
I was the last to wake.
Because I'm such a pig.
And I love sleeping.
The surgical team had a look at me again.
And then they left.
Y'know, this is getting really annoying.
They were going to get me to go for another ultrasound scan.
But because I'm such a good patient.
They decided to (surprise surprise) delay it.
And not by a few hours,
as per hospital norm,
but by a few weeks.
They fed me lunch and I was free to go.
Lunch was insanely good though.
I must've been really hungry.
Roasted Turkey with Cranberry Sauce.
(I'd say the picture for this looks the best in this blog post)
Peach Crumble and Custard for dessert too!
Ahhhh, good times.
I hope the people in my ward end up well enough to leave too.
They were nice people.
Every time I pass by the hospital on my way home from uni,
I look at it.
And I don't feel like it's such an alien place anymore.


Listening to Ghost - Ella Henderson

Catching up with Uni,

TK

shame in academia

Time to put on your academic glasses!
Because this blog post is gonna be science-y.
This will be my take on Science Communication.
I think Scie. Comm is interesting.
Well, it LOOKS interesting.
More than my Environmental Economics stuff anyway.
So here's a short review of the latest scandal in science.

Has anyone heard of STAP Cells?
It stands for Stimulus-triggered Acquisition of Pluripotency.
STAP cells can basically become any cells that we want.
That's what we call "Pluripotency".
We make STAP cells by putting stress on normal cells.
Said stress can be…squeezing them or,
if you like something more extreme,
dumping them in acid. *ouch*

Isn't this great!?
We can turn normal cells into any cells we want.
And the best part is it's so easy.
Take some lemon juice (which is basically weak acid).
Dip some cells in it.
Viola! God-like Cells!

And we owe it all to a wonderful,
charming, cute scientist:
Obokata Haruko-chan.
And she's not just your ordinary scientist.
She wears an apron to work,
instead of a lab coat.
And her lab is covered in kawaii stickers!
Her work was published in one of the most
prestigious scientific journal in the world:
Nature.
She shot to fame in her home country Japan.
All was well,
and Miss Obokata became an instant hit!

But (there's ALWAYS a 'but'),
several claims came in from different scientists.
They've read about STAP cells in the journal.
STAP cells are great.
They tried to make some too!
But the replication of the experiment failed.
And this is where the biggest scandal/
scientific misconduct in the scientific community started.
With Miss Obokata right in the middle of it all.

The STAP cells paper was retracted from Nature in July,
having only been there for six months.
The scientific community criticised the lack of integrity
in Miss Okobata's work.
But she was the only one who received the blame.
Her supervisor and co-author of the paper,
Yoshiki Sasai,
was also criticised by the scientific community
for not properly fulfilling his duties as supervisor.
Unfortunately,
Mr Sasai was found to have taken his own life.
It's believed that the cause of his death,
was caused by the "shame" of being involved in this
"scandal of the decade".

Miss Obokata has agreed to repeat the experiments
in an attempt to prove to the world
that STAP cells really exist.
So far,
the organisation responsible (RIKEN)
has worked with Miss Obokata
on the experiment 22 times.
With no signs of STAP cells yet.
Perhaps the answer is quite clear now.
That there are no STAP cells.
Or rather, STAP cells have yet to be found.
And we've still got a fair way to go before the next breakthrough in science.

~The End~

I hate these sad endings.
And that wasn't really an scientific article.
It was more like "Dramas in Science".
There's still a bit to write about regarding this case.
But I'll leave that for next time.
Wouldn't wanna bore you.
If you DID manage to finish reading the whole article.
What do you think ?
Am I THAT bad at writing ?


Listening to Superheroes - The Script

Reading lots,

TK

and so it begins

Phew.
So far, its only Thursday and
I'm already beat.
So far it's been,
1 online quiz, 1 in-class quiz, 1 assignment and 1 presentation.
It's like Semester 1 all over again!
Except it's only Week 4.
Not looking forward to future assignments.
Also, I've only attended 3 lectures this week.
Skipped almost/more than half of them.
#SuchARebel
I can totally see this becoming a habit too!
I'm shedding my Fresher identity.
Just like how Taylor Swift is shedding her country origins.
If you haven't heard anything about Taylor lately,
you are a disgrace!

Aside from my assignments and being absolutely hooked to Taylor,
nothing much happened these past few weeks.
Unless you're interested in hearing about my assignments. 0_0
I wonder what other bloggers blog about?
I COULD blog about the work I've been doing at volunteering.
But that won't be fun.
After all,
my job basically comprises of stopping people and
telling them about a random science project….
To make matters worse,
said science project is about soils.
"Wow such fun…"
But I suppose research is supposed to be torture (PHDComics, 2011).
Oh dear,
I just wrote an APA-style citation.
But I've never used APA.
It's always been Harvard.
I really need a break, don't I?

Let's see if there's anything interesting in my phone.
I'm sure there's SOMETHING that isn't a picture of my assignment/notes.
#Filler
P.S. I've been having A LOT of coffee lately.
So much for trying to save.
I just realised the Vanilla Chai Latte they sell at the Guild Cafe is quite good.

Ohhh here's something that's remotely interesting.
Everyone,
this is Oliver.
He's a Moody Quad-Beak.
He's not an octopus,
nor is he a squid.
We don't know what he is.
He belongs to the genus Orthoceras,
which was said to be extinct.
But we found him in the North Pole,
frozen.
He's cute, I reckon.

On Wednesday,
my biology group and I have successfully
(to some extent) brought Oliver to life.
Now, he's a cute lil' purple Cephalopod
with a loving owner.
May he lead a happy life
and have lots of kids,
through PCR and advanced cloning processes.
You know…
Since he's the last of his kind.







And here's a picture of me trying to collect a soil sample.
I failed miserably.
There was root material everywhere.
Mycorrhizal-fungi, perhaps?
If that was true,
then EWWWWW.
I touched a fungus.
#EnvironmentalistAtHisBest

And now for a picture of a rock I bought.
Got it at the Rock Museum at Uni.
It was sooo cheap and pretty.
That's a piece of calcite.
The most stable polymorph of Calcium Carbonate.
It looks like a diamond, doesn't it?
I got it because its shape looks the most defined.
It's natural but it looks like it's been processed.
I even attached a little pick-up line to it.
"I'm a piece of carbon. Date me!"
+1 if you get it!



And just to end this extremely pointless,
random and boring blog post.
Here's a picture of the coffee I had yesterday.
Vanilla Chai Latte for the WIN !
Too bad it's soooo bloody expensive.
I guess I'll be sticking to Flat Whites.
Flat Whites are good too.
I don't like the white foam they have on Lattes.
Maybe I'll talk about my coffee-drinking habits next time.
We shall see.



Listening to Shake It Off - Taylor Swift

Jump into next wave,

TK

a day in the life of a .first-day-of-uni student

It's Friday,
and I've successfully made it through the first week of Uni.
Fun fun fun fun,
looking forward to the weekend.
But now I'm at the library.
Chilling.
#NerdLife

First day of Uni always feels great.
You feel/think you're gonna do a great job.
A new semester.
A new beginning.
You're gonna study hard.
But still have excellent work-life balance.
And first-days are perfect for just that.
The fact that you don't get any work on your first day
makes your work-life balance look excellent….
even though you've spent the whole day doing nothing.
Either doing nothing or doing something stupid.
One or the other.

This time,
I thought I'd do another one of those "A Day in the Life" posts.
WITH PICTURES !
(yayyyyyyy)
It was a fairly fun day for me.
Probably boring for all you readers out there.
But whatever !
#NerdLife

*DRINKING (WATER) GAME:
Every time you see a laptop/computer in any of the pictures,
take one sip of water.
If both appear in the same picture,
take two sips.
If you survive this challenge,
you'll probably need to use the toilet really bad.
But I commend you if you survive !


7.15am
Wakes up.
Mum had to wake me up
because my biological clock was still messed up.
It still is.


7.30am

Brekkie Time !
I had to choose between bread and cereal.
I went with bread.
Because if I had cereal,
with COLD milk,
I would freeze.
Plus,
I feel that a cup of coffee
for appropriate for the first day of uni !

*Shoutout to Miss Fashion for the awesome mug from Vietnam !


8.30am

Bus ride to Uni.
First day or not,
I always end up running to the bus stop.
And this time,
I was determined.
MUSN'T BE LATE
FOR FIRST LECTURE
OF THE SEMESTER !
The bus was surprisingly crowded.


9.00am

I barely made it.
I went into the crowded lecture theatre,
and just picked a seat in the front and sat there.
Too intimidating to go any further to the back.
So many strange, alien faces.
Our lecturer, who is Chinese,
gave us the first lecture.
We didn't get to meet our Unit Coordinator.
I found the lecture slightly boring.
And it was a little hard understanding him.
But he speaks quite well….
Until he starts rushing.


10.00am

Went round the campus looking for textbooks.
First to the Reid library,
then to the Secondhand Bookshop.
Trying to be thrifty and all.
Unfortunately,
Secondhand always fails me.
So I went over to the Co-op bookshop.
$80 for my Economics textbook.
And $130 for my Organisational Behaviour textbook.
GREAT !
Such great deals !
#SmellTheSarcasm


10.30am

Gave up on my book search completely.
And went to hang out with some friends.
Meet Miss Mum and Mr Dad and did....
nothing of any significance!
Miss Mum was very loud though.
And Mr Dad was swearing a lot.
And I was stuck in the middle.
Hmmm....
Sounds quite like a typical family to me...
#Creepy


11.45am

Stopped by at the Science Cafe to get lunch !
I don't actually go IN to the Cafe quite often,
despite being a regular at the Science Library.
Well, it can't be helped,
since they close at 3pm.
As if Perth going to bed at 5pm wasn't bad enough.

I settled for a Ham and Cheese Croissant.
My first "usual" at Uni cafes.
Got sick of said "usual" after a few weeks of
continuous consumption.
Needless to say,
it's not a "usual" anymore.


1.00pm

Walked ALL THE WAY to the South end of campus...
or was it North ?
Well, the Business end of the campus.
This semester I enrolled in
Organisation Behaviour (OB).
It's my first time doing a commerce-related unit.
So, things were pretty mind-boggling at first.
It still is...
But the whole lecture was dedicated to housekeeping.
I've heard rumors about the unit being super dry.
That lecture confirmed it!
In other words,
I'm looking forward to it...

Sadly, there won't be a picture for this time slot.
Because I was too busy snoozing.
It's a trend in that unit.


2.00pm

I met up with Mr Mum and Miss Mum to go hunting.
Tutorial classroom-hunting, I mean.
Why wait till your tutorial to get lost,
when you can just get lost on the first day of uni!
Miss Frozen tagged along as well.
So that was kinda interesting.
We ended up in weird places....


3.00pm

...like the Rock Museum.
Miss Mum didn't know about this place.
So her jaw dropped exponentially.
Miss Frozen was as well,
just not so much.
We stomped on the seismic detector-O-meter,
touched soils (my favourite part),
and looked at rocks.
Apparently, they were selling rocks too.
Shiny, colourful rocks.
Not the boring ones.
(If you're a Geologist, please don't kill me.)
Pretty damn cheap too!
I'm going back one day to get some.


4.00pm

We ended up at Reid Library, somehow...
And we chilled at the Reid Cafe.
Miss Mum and Mr Dad pretty much had a divorce.
It wasn't an ACTUAL divorce.
But it sounded a lot like one.
And as always,
the husband is the one leaving the wife...
Aside from marriage values being questioned,
nothing much happened that hour.


5.00pm

Time for me to get some work done!
Volunteer work, I mean.
ClimateWatch work, to be specific!
I spent 3 hours looking at roughly 150 sightings
of Australian magpies.
I found some rather interesting error in the dataset,
which made the work more interesting...
Unfortunately,
the error was actually caused by my carelessness.
One step closer to unemployment!


8.00pm

My eyes were twitching after staring at
TWO computer screens for THREE hours.
Silent bus ride home.
As usual.


8.30pm

I had my dinner.
And then my shower.
Nothing interesting here.
And you're definitely not getting a picture of me in the showers!

10.00pm

I get my daily dose of online cwap!
Reading random things online.
And watching pointless videos on YouTube.
It's a living necessity for me.
Good thing I had some strawberries to munch on.
Fruits and nonsensical social media go extremely well together!
Kinda like cereal and bananas.

12.00pm

I hit my sack.
Not literally.
I also pray that I won't oversleep the next morning.
Guess what,
I did.



Listening to Up All Night - Owl City

 

 

Back to Busy Uni Life,

TK

rev. it up

Has anyone ever heard of Rev. ?
It's a TV show about a rev.
And in case you don't know what a rev is,
perhaps you'll know what a reverend is.
Rev is similar to reverend in that they are the exact same thing.
What makes the two different is that "rev" is spelt with only 3 alphabets.










As you can guess,
the show has religious implications.
The story focuses on a man called Adam.
And why don't you have a guess about what his occupation is?
If your answer was "He's a reverend.",
well done! WRONG !
He's a vicar.

I won't spoil much,
but I will
I definitely recommend it!
I remember seeing DVDs of it on shelves when I was browsing through the ABC shop.
The simple concept of having a reverend as the main character
was (supposedly) more than enough to draw me towards it.
I saw it some time last year but was not foolish enough to purchase it.
Instead, I got it from the library.
#SmartShoppersShopSmart

With only 3 seasons (or series, not sure what to call it),
each episode has a (more or less) stand-alone story.
So you can pretty much start wherever you want.
The main theme of the show is to project
the struggles of being a reverend/priest/vicar.
Even more so in this 21st century,
where religion is sort of a dying race.
Episodes focus on contemporary church issues such as
(but not limited to)
church finance, parish size, muslim community, same-sex marriage etc.
For me,
it's interesting to see how these episodes/mini-plots play out,
because I never really get a chance to see these things happen in real life.
And even if I do,
I'm probably not shown the whole picture.

So I admit.
It's bloody fascinating to see things through the vicar's eyes.
Oh, and I think Adam's a good man.
He may swear and drink and smoke,
but he's good on the inside....
which is what made Season/Series 3 soooooooo good.
Overall,
I think the show's pretty accurate about the modern challenges that the church faces.
If I'm not mistaken,
even local vicars in England watch the show and agree.

So why don't you give this a go as well !?


Listening to Next Chance To Move On - Shihoko Hirata

Back to uni,

TK

mr. innovative

Hello Everyone.
How have you all been ?
(I mean it.
Please answer the aforementioned question.)
If you still refuse the answer the question, fine.
But I'll just go on and tell you how I've been.
I feel great !

So in a week,
I've managed to turn down a "wonderful business opportunity",
do some reading,
volunteer for a bit,
have fun,

polish my piano skills,
visit a beach (enjoy the pictures of them scattered throughout this blog post) ,
and BLOG !
The last part is really something.
I mean, how many of us actually end up blogging
when we tell ourselves to blog ?
But it's only a matter of time,
before uni starts,
and assignments team up with the dormant procrastinating gene in me.
But still,
I shall make it a habit to keep blogging bits and pieces.

Let's talk about this "wonderful business opportunity" first.
By "wonderful business opportunity",
I mean getting into the direct sales industry.
An easier way to put it is,
a job that requires you to constantly bug your friends/family to buy products from you.
Said products are probably cosmetic/health-related.
Some of you may have some experience with this.
Personally,

I don't really like it.
Scratch that.
I hate it.
Its terrible being asked by a friend to buy their products,
when you don't want to.
But you can't say "no".
After all,
they're your friends.
#ThatFeeling

And I don't see myself as much of a salesperson.
I have terrible communication skills,

even if I do say so myself.

And even worse persuasion skills.
At first, I was excited at the notion of having a "business of my own".
But the more I was told about it,
the more I thought it was a direct sales kinda job.
My brain went no-no.
Unfortunately,
I'm not sure how to ACTUALLY say "no".
I'd been invited to a presentation of the job with a friend of mine.
I was sure I was going to force myself to say "no".

I texted my "employer", whom I met at uni.
I asked what the name of the company was.
But she did not reply.
Hahaha. What a great way to not raise suspicion…
But, being the awesome stalker I am.
I found the name of the company.
Google-d tons,
and told myself it DEFINITELY doesn't appeal to me.

NO was definitely my answer.
But what about my friend ?
I didn't wanna drag my friend into this.
So I told her what I'd found online.
And fortunately,
we both played it smart.
We both (kindly) declined.
Since we both lacked "the proper communication and business skills".
So,
to Ms Social Worker,
thanks a bunch for staying with me through the whole presentation.
And thanks for making (hopefully) the right choice of not getting involved.
Also,
thanks Mr Dang,
for tagging along.
Your "moral encouragement" did "wonders".

After we declined and left the cafe,
a wave of relief just swept us all off our feet.
Needless to say,
we went and celebrated….

And while we're on the topic of jobs,
I've managed to land myself in some volunteering positions.
One of it is at my Uni.
I'll be working on a project that involves…
*drumroll please*
SOILS.
That wonders.
It's a citizen science program called MicroBlitz.
Normal citizens will submit soil samples of a certain location in WA.
I will process them,
(Definition of "process" still unknown)
And they will be analysed in a DNA-sequencing Lab
to study the types of microorganisms that exist in that soil.
Fascinating, huh ?
My "processing workshop" is next week,
and I am eager to begin !

Another job I volunteered for is with ANOTHER citizen science program,
called ClimateWatch.
Again,
normal citizens will submit sightings of certain animal/plant species,
detailing their behaviour.
What we do is,
we take all those sightings and
study the trend of its behaviours.
To see whether the timing of its behaviour is affected by climate change.
First-year Biology students work with ClimateWatch.
We are given a dataset to analyse,
and we'd write up a scientific report about it.
My group chose to NOT write about the animal/plant we were given,
but the reliability of those sightings.
(And after looking through 500+ sightings single-handedly,
I am very crossed with how SOME people can't even submit a proper sighting)
So now,
I am simply reprising that role of checking sightings,
for reliability.
Only this time,
I am working directly with the organisation.
And my reliability analysis WILL be taken into account
when updating the database.

And so there you have it,
a bit about my career right now.
Total monthly income: Still $0
But I hope I'll enjoy volunteering now.
I love volunteering in a scientific environment.
So I guess I can end this by saying:
"And I don't know how it gets better than this…"
Give yourself a pat in the back if you get the reference.
Looks like my second semester is/might/maybe
going to be a good one !


Listening to Last Night - The Vamps

Head first, Fearless.

TK