Confessions of a Percussionist - Part 2

Okay. Time for the much un-awaited second part. In the last post, I talked about the social aspect of being in a percussion ensemble, a concept that was not-so-familiar to me. This time, I'll talk about the not-so-pretty stuff of culture shock, namely the second stage: Disintegration.

Disintegration happens when you stop seeing things with rose-coloured glasses, when you stop being excited with being in and apart of something new. Alternatively, it could also occur when you're forced to participate in the new environment - you no longer have the neutrality of the outsider. You participate, rather than simply observe. Or for me, it was more of a sense of inadequacy. The feeling that you didn't belong in this new environment; you don't blend in. 

This began as early as our second rehearsal. Our instructor, Louise, would split us up into smaller groups to come up with some original djembe rhythms. Rather than contribute, I was just sitting there receiving instructions. Being passive in the group made me feel useless. The issue resurfaced again in a later week, when we were split into smaller groups again to help compose a form for our marimba piece. I stood there...again, and watched... again. But I described things with more details this time. "This was supposed to be our chance to... improvise and construct a form for our piece. And yet, I found myself unable to contribute to the conversation, to etch a part of myself into our performance". I went on to relate this experience to basically all the group assignments I've ever done. "This always happens. In every single task that requires group work. Why am I so passive? I feel ignorant for not contributing, yet dying inside for not being able to say or think of anything useful". Given that this happened on our seventh rehearsal, I wasn't really expecting much of how this would change in the remaining rehearsals. 

I believe my introverted personality did not make interacting any easier. Coupled with a mild case of anxiety, everyone in the room looked incredibly unapproachable to me. There were also few opportunities for us to interact. Most people cite ensemble activities as the perfect circumstances to interact with other people and develop a unified identity, which will confer that sense of belonging to them. However, I believe our sessions to be a little 'different' from your standard ensembles. A good number of us are beginners at music, that meant we needed more time to practice. And unfortunately, having two hours a week to learn and practice gives a group of novices very little time to catch up and prepare for an official public performance in ten weeks' time. My take on it would be, the situation just wasn't ideal for a bunch of strangers to come together and become the band of misfits they were destined to be. 

Digging a little deeper into things, I started noting distinctive patterns in my journal entries. Usually, I'd just stay quiet in my first class and be that way for the rest of semester. But this time, there was a sense of positivity in the air during the first few classes (during the honeymoon phase). What set being in this class apart from the ones from previous semester is interest. A great deal of early excitement had actually stemmed from my personal interest in the content itself, which is percussion music. It's very subtle, but my journal entries documented great joy, but also sombreness every week. The joyous parts were usually directed at the music; while the sombre parts dealt with the social interactions (or lack thereof) happening in the class. And even then, repeating the same pieces week after week got boring really quick. In the end, there really wasn't much to look forward to anymore. Of course, that does not mean the music was always perfect for me, which I'll delve into a little later. The main point here, is that a great proportion of the semester was not a very fun time for me. I'd go in feeling 'motivated', and come out feeling...not-so-motivated. At one point, I described Monday afternoon rehearsals as 'fun, surreal and (slightly) depressing'.

These episodes continued on until my seventh rehearsal. With only two more weeks until showtime, it wasn't hard to think that my perception of Monday afternoon change much. However, I was slowly moving out of the disintegration stage and into reintegration. The key trait that denotes this phase is taking the self-loathing that you felt during disintegration and redirecting it towards those around you (a.k.a the host culture, or in this case, my ensemble classmates). It's incredibly difficult to reach out to someone in this stage because they are hostile and antagonistic to you. While I have not experienced this very much, I highlighted two key events that contained elements of this stage.

Figure 1. Monday afternoon percussion rehearsals with other nonmusic majors. Photo taken at seventh rehearsal (week 8 or semester). Description: fun, surreal and (slightly) depressing.

The first was during our sixth 'gathering'. I say gathering because there wasn't an actual rehearsal that day. Louise had fallen ill that day and was unable to make it to rehearsals. Class was cancelled but no one was informed in advance. We all showed up normally only to be greeted by a short message at the door. My immediate reaction to reading it was shock and disappointment. I was probably genuine in feeling sad about the week's rehearsal being cancelled. In hindsight, that moment was pivotal in realising what my true feelings on the matter were. Yes, I actually like Monday afternoon percussion classes. Unfortunately, some of the remarks I heard from my peers were not too similar to mine. They weren't too happy about making the unnecessary trek all the way to the music school, among other things. It made me think that they didn't really care about music-making or anything. I was probably a little too harsh to think of them that way, but that was how I felt back then. While the musical and social aspects of ensembles were very much a black and white thing for me, I always believed that music was a non-verbal way of communicating with others. Those subtle cues that we were forced to perfect in order to make an ensemble performance work; I would also consider them a form of interaction within a musical setting. We listen for the signal, we check for visual cues, and we take in the myriad sounds that fill the air. When we do music, interactions aren't limited to words.

But I digress. Our viewpoints were clearly different, I thought. This was brought up again in our penultimate rehearsal. With only one week remaining, Louise briefed us through the schedule for the day - what to wear, what to bring, when to arrive. One question which hit me pretty hard was 'has anyone not seen the performance venue yet?'. Disappointed by the number of hands raised, I felt that my peers were simply not taking this seriously, or they just didn't have the interest to attend the weekly free concerts at the venue. 'How much are they actually interested in music-making? Were they just in it for the easy marks? What were their motivations for joining?', I asked myself. It looked like I was the only lunatic there who was actually finding percussion classes rewarding. Does everyone else see the marimba as just a piece of wood that makes sounds? Through these two events, I found myself growing antagonistic towards the other ensemble members, because it seemed like our interests and motivations differed.

Of course, with the power of hindsight, it looks a little silly to think that way. However, back then, these were my raw feelings. People fall into these situations all the time. They can't help it. That's why almost everyone suffers some degree of culture shock, no matter how hard they try. But I believe being honest and recording one's experiences in a journal can eventually help elicit these feelings and emotions. Stay tuned for the next part, finishing off the whole culture shock cycle with the autonomy and interdependence stage.




Listening to Kirifuda - cinema staff

An Amateur Percussionist,

TK

Confessions of an Amateur Percussionist - Part 1

"Music has always been a big part of my life".

A very common phrase, and one that's starting to sound a bit corny if you think about it. There are so many flaws to this generalised statement, and yet some of us just can't stop ourselves from saying it. Because such a broad and overarching statement is the only way we can express our love for this 'music', even if 'music' might just be the latest Taylor Swift track or a CD you got for your 15th birthday (Hah! Who still does this?). It just happens. So, what am I trying to get at? Well, this semester, I made a bold choice to take a music unit which involved actual music playing rather than theory (gasp!). The experience, while full of ups and downs, was both enriching and transformative for me. I found it thoroughly enjoyable (though finding out my actual marks was less-than-pleasant) and would recommend it to anyone interested in doing a 'easy' unit at UWA. Students kept a journal each week and used it as data to write up an essay about their experience as a final assessment. In this (and several upcoming) blogpost, I will share my experience as an amateur percussionist.

A major reason I am writing about this is because of the nature of the assessment; it intrigued me. Unlike writing a scientific essay, I got the opportunity to explore and write about myself, using 'data' I generated myself. In the following blog posts, I will discuss some of my 'findings'. 

One of the most prominent themes that emerged over the semester was how I interacted with my ensemble members. The biggest difference between ensemble and solo playing is people! You work with people, instead of alone. This provided a social dimension to my music-making experience, something I was not completely familiar with. I've worked with other people on duets but now we're talking about a group of twenty-ish students that I didn't know very well. While the incorporation of social aspects in ensemble groups have enabled participants to reap additional benefits such as garnering a sense of belonging, it's still rather unclear how and in what way this sense of belonging arises. Do people just blend in from day 1? Or do they have to 'earn' this belonging somehow? It is not unheard of that certain nonmusic students to find ensemble participation to be challenging, sometimes to the point of dropping out. My experience has served to elicit this process of obtaining a sense of belonging. In this scenario, I would brand myself as an 'introvert' with a mild case of social anxiety and this really shows in my weekly journal entries. A sizeable portion of my semester and journal was spent worrying about the social aspects of my ensemble.

When I analysed my weekly entries, I found a shift in feelings and perceptions. Thanks to studying this topic in Year 12, I managed to relate it to culture shock - the process of feeling belonged in a new environment, usually a culture. While many other shock-processes exist, such as role shock, which would fit my situation better, the literature hardly focuses on university and unit transitions, except within the context of international students studying abroad. I used Peter Pederson's "The Five Stages of Culture Shock: Critical Incidents Around the World" as a source material to complement my findings. The book was a similar record of a bunch of American students travelling around the world and writing critical incidents that can relate to culture shock. What I liked about the book was how it was qualitative, rather than quantitative, with majority being excerpts from these student journals. 

While many have debated over the 'correct' process of culture shock, the common one involves a five phases shaped in a U-shaped curve. You start off high, hit rock bottom but eventually get back up a high point again. Interestingly, a person is not guaranteed to be able to reach the final stage and exit this process, nor would the process progress in a straightfoward trajectory. Sometimes people rotate between phases back and forth and may revert to a precessing stage. These grey areas are the reason why many find it challenging to create a 'correct' model for culture shock. After all, human thinking and feelings are such enigmatic things.

Figure 1. The five phases of culture shock: honeymoon, disintegration, reintegration, autonomy and interdependence, along with associated emotions and feelings. 

Honeymoon Stage

The very first sentence in my journal had me describing my first rehearsal as 'giddy'. I was excited about participating in an ensemble, both musically and socially. While I was uncertain about many things, I tried to stay optimistic and happy. "This class would be different. It won't even be a 'class'. It'll be fun", is what I thought to myself. Interacting with my classmates was never my strong point. At university, what is a classmate, really? You sit in the same room for an hour each week for a semester and never see each other again. Anyway, knowing that we would have to rely on each other more than in an average classroom encouraged me to interact and think that interactions would be much simpler.

The first rehearsal went on well enough. I had not noted much about my interactions yet, probably because they were very limited. But I was still at a high. This was reinforced in our second week, where we had to play an ice-breaker game in order to get to know our peers better. I tried my best at remembering everyone's names, really. For the following weeks, I continued to stay optimistic with things. I tried my best to get to know my peers slowly, either by paying attention when their names are called or simply trying to have small talk with them. This was me in my honeymoon phase, full of excitement, fascination and adventure. I supposed everyone looked friendly enough.

I fully acknowledged that we would require some next level teamwork in order to pull our performance off. But more than once, my introversion made it difficult to really engage with them. My mind over-thinks and I usually end up missing opportunities to talk to them. My ability to engage was also limited geographically, based on where I was sitting and the time I had to work with. Coupled with our tight deadline, most of our time would be spent practicing and following our instructor's commands. Consequently, there were very few chances to start up a conversation with the person next to me, much less the person on the other end of the room. I would talk to Amy a little before we start the rehearsal and end up completely apart during rehearsals. 

This essentially sums up my honeymoon phase and sets things nicely (or poorly, depending on how you view this situation) for the next phase: Disintegration; which I will get into in my next update (trying to keep things as concise and short as possible).

Listening to Kirifuda - cinema staff

An Amateur Percussionist,

TK

My Life as an Imposter

I work in a lab. Let me change that sentence a bit. I 'work' in a lab. But I guess a better way of putting it would be 'volunteer'. I volunteer in a lab. Yes, that sounds better.

In the winter break, I was fortunate enough to earn a golden opportunity to help out in the Whiteley lab at UWA. The head, Winthop Professor Andy Whiteley, was the same guy chap who started the MicroBlitz project. I guess there were certain perks to working on the outreach team for this long. My efforts were rewarded, is how I see it. Anyway, I seized this opportunity without giving much thought: I get to work in a professional lab! A lab accessible only to postgrads and other faculty members. Hell yeah, I want this. They call this a pilot internship program, I think. 

Throughout my internship, I was working under the supervision of a PhD student, Ben. In a way, you could imagine this Ben-Theo interaction as those daunting supervisor-PhD student relationships. Ben's great though. I'll do a future post detailing the things I 'work' on in the lab. For this post, I'd like to talk about a problem obstacle I've faced in the past weeks: imposter syndrome.

Imposter syndrome is usually known as a self-diagnosed psychological phenomenon, where the person suffering from it thinks they don't deserve to be where they are today and don't deserve to enjoy their successes. Their current status is usually dismissed as luck; being lucky to have made it this far, lucky to be in the right place at the right time. Several studies have been conducted to understand where the syndrome is prevalent. I'm not sure if there's a proper academic paper to back this claim up but I believe this problem is also apparent in the scientific community, particularly people who've just started their research careers (e.g. postgrads and early career researchers).

I think you know where this post is going. I feel that I have a 'mild' case of imposter syndrome. I don't feel like I truly belong in that lab. And why should I? The lab is a place where real academics do real research. It's really not a place for an undergrad, let alone someone like myself. Due to the nature of my (informal) internship, Ben doesn't get additional payment or anything for supervising me. It's a completely voluntary task. In other words, he has his own work to get through, on top of looking after me. He's got his experiments to think about, papers to read, reports to write up and everything else a postgrad has to worry about. Needless to say, he can't be in the lab all the time to watch my every move. So that means, I'm working solo in the lab. To be honest, I'm totally okay with working in the lab alone. But it isn't that great if your experiments don't turn out the way you want, time and time again. That's the real issue here: I haven't been able to pull off anything successful lately.

And why would they work anyway? I'm a crummy undergrad. I've only ever held a pipette three times before I started this. I don't have any background in the stuff I do in the lab. Oh, did I mention I'm an undergrad? Personally, I feel worse-off than other postgrads. I'm sure they'd be able to pull themselves out of the imposter trap by telling themselves 'Oh wait, I can do this. I graduated with first class honours!'. But what do I have to save myself?  In a way, I literally got this internship opportunity because I was helping out in the office when the idea was brought up. 'Maybe they got the wrong guy', is all that's circling in my head.

I feel guilty. Guilty that I'm eating up all of Ben's time. Guilty that my failed experiments end up wasting lab resources. Guilty that I'm wasting value samples sent in by our valuable citizen scientists (who probably think someone with an actual degree was handling their samples). Is this how it feels like to have imposter syndrome? A whole bunch of negatives stacked against you? 

Heading into the lab used to be an exciting time. Ben would be there to teach me something. I'd work all day and watch how my gels fluoresced brightly when I shined UV light on it. Things are different now. I (dare I be ungrateful and say?) dread going in, knowing that my experiments probably won't turn out well. My samples would look crap, and then I'd have to go tell Ben I failed the experiment. He'd have a mixed expression on his face. And then he'll tell me to take a break and pack up for the day. I go home feeling like I've accomplished nothing. Rinse and repeat. 

Don't get me wrong. This is a rare opportunity and I would definitely keep it selfishly to myself, despite doing a sh*t job. But every time (literally, every single time) something goes wrong, I question myself. 'Do you really deserve to be here?' 'Why can't you do anything right?' 'Why can't my experiment work just this once?' 'Umm...yeah I should probably call Ben for help...'

I don't really know where this entry is going. Definitely not with a surprise 'Oh but I found a way to fix it' heading! I'm just glad I managed to get this off my chest. I want to start afresh. But what if the same mistakes come back again and again. The day I tell them I ran out of samples to reuse will be the day they know how much of a fraud I am.

I want to end this by asking: Does it sound like I have a bit of a imposter syndrome dilemma going on?

 



Figure 1. The results from a recent experiment I conducted. As you can see, it's a mess. What you want is for all the columns to have a single band forming a straight line across the row. What I got were not-so-bright bands, missing bands, double bands and a bit of smearing here and there. Also, if you look at the 8th column on the bottom row, you'll see a very faint band. That wasn't supposed to be there... Looks like I contaminated something! Yay.



 

 

Listening to It's Not Right For You - The Script

Lab-ing,

TK

Day 7: At Week's End

Here it is! The final entry to my second OVA: Sieban Chronicles.
I've already mentioned the name of this little OVA series. And if you've read the spoilers, it meant "seven" in German.
Sieben doesn't look very cool, but I can assure you, it sounds cooler.
For those of you who've never taken basic German before (e.g. me), it's pronounced as ZEE-bin.
I didn't really know what to call this when I first started.
'Chronicles' sounded cool so I thought I'd use that.
But what Chronicles?
I aimed for something simple and used the 'everything is more sexy in a foreign language' strategy.
I also recall the word being muttered by characters from an anime I was watching called Fate/Stay Night: Unlimited Blade Works.
In the anime, magic and spells are cast and called out in German, not English nor Japanese.
"ZEE-bin," the main heroine would chant to activate the power of her jewels.
Maybe it just sounded cooler when pronounced with a Japanese accent with epic strings in the background.

As for the project, I had a lot of fun doing it: recording, editing and uploading.
Actually, that was a joke.
Editing took forever and uploading was just plain impossible!
But the recording part was definitely fun! It's a really great way to experiment around with different things.
And it might even help expand your Johari window!
I know it has helped me immensely: I say 'interesting' a lot of times when I'm nervous or at a lost for words, or maybe just all the time.
It would be a shame to stop vlogging altogether, so I think I would save this for my next holiday to see if this vlog project would be feasible.
I might even do one when I head back to Malaysia, as suggested by my friend Audrey (superb idea!).

Lastly, I'd like to thank everyone who took part in this vlog.
Having people other than myself appear (and sometimes, even speak) can add variety and dimension to a boring vlog.
I'm sure if you watched it, you'd be glad you're not staring at my face 24/7.
I'll see you in my next blog post. Hope you enjoy reading and watching my content.

Figure 1. A picture I took from my trip up to Wongan Hills. I really liked the shade of blue and the blue-white contrast of the sky. I decided to add some 'inspirational' short quotes to it but I turned into music names and lyrics. This probably shows how much I enjoy music.

Listening to Kings & Queens - Brooke Fraser

Sieben,

TK

Day 6: To Go Your Way

*WARNING: I am not an expert in what I will be talking about. Do not take this as gospel (unintentional pun).

Coming to Australia has made me realise that Christianity can be seen as a dying religion.
Back in Malaysia, the spread of the gospel is becoming stronger, which is always a good thing to see.
But over here, in Western countries, most people are starting to remove religious aspects from their lives.
As a result, what I imagine would be a shift in the Christian demography, away from the West and more towards the East.
Although it is disheartening to see people lose their faiths and all, I feel that sometimes stereotypes and other social misunderstandings and misinterpretations tend to blow things completely out of proportion.

Take same-sex marriage as an example.
The whole incident caused a massive uproar in the States, and to Christians worldwide.
But let's look at things on a more local level, some Christians take things way too extremely (coughWestborocough).  And as result, Christians all over get a bad rep.
Now, people stereotype and put all Christians in the same box.
When people attempt to preach the gospel on the streets, they might receive verbal abuse for all their good intentions (I haven't seen one yet but I'm sure it's very possible).
The very people who preached non-discrimination are now the discriminators.
So now we have Christian extremists going cray cray over same-sex marriage, and we have the converse as well.
Both these things act to polarise society from Christianity, vice versa. Positive feedback loop, anyone?
We have people voicing their disapproval over marriage equality; and people voicing their disapproval over religious dictations.

Now, this is just what I think, my opinion. For all I know, things could be wrong and I'm just spouting an impossible story. But this is what I've concluded from making my own observations.
I have 'identified' a problem, but not a solution. Simply because I don't know what the solution is.
There isn't a special cheat code I can give to fix things, but I think it's important to look at the situation from both sides.
This is only one of many challenges Christians face in reaching out in a modern world.
To fellow Christians out there, remember what's most important: Love the Lord and love your neighbour.

Figure 1. Something interesting and cute I found at Go-Fest. It was at a corner of the foyer where they sold clothes and faith-related books. It looks like a frame with polaroid pictures hanging from yarn strings. I assume this frame was not for sale. But if it was, I would totally buy it! Aesthetically-pleasing and I love how they shined a light at it from behind. Very classy indeed.

Listening to Brighter Days - Taylor Henderson

Sechs,

TK

Day 5: Bye Bye Wongan Hills

Going up to Wongan Hills wasn't just a complete break for me.
We still had to work, y'know. More specifically, we were showing kids how great science is.
We had them extract DNA from simple strawberries, which were visible and touchable.
In the end, I even gave a couple of presentations to the school.
It was a really fun experience working with children, one I think all people should be exposed to (just to see whether they'll love/hate it).
Although running the same mundane tasks school-after-school left everyone pretty tired, I actually felt invigorated and excited.
And I was doing what I loved: science.
Plus, some of the kids were quite into science. Some of them asked about forensics and SPOILERS splicing (I don't even know what that is!).

I suppose this is another form of science communication.
I've tried doing this by talking to the general public at events with our MicroBlitz stalls, but I think I prefer school-trips much more. Especially if they're in middle/high school.
Education has always been something of a last resort for me, in terms of career directions.
It might've been low on my list, but it was always there.
People keep telling me "We need more STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) teachers".
Of course, I've also learnt to take everything with a grain of salt because "every sector is growing and prospects are looking quite good", according to every career guide I've read.

People also fear that they'll be sent to teach in rural schools, which isn't very exciting.
I'm not sure how 'rural' Wongan Hills is, compared to some of the other schools. But if I'm assigned to that kinda town, sure accessing the Internet might be a little slow, but I think I can live with that.
And lucky me, there's a graduate program that fits all these criteria: Teach for Australia.
The basic gist of it is that you take an intensive course in teaching. After that, your study load is reduced but they assign you to a educationally-disadvantaged school to teach for (at least) two years.
Your teaching load is also reduced so you can juggle teaching and learning at the same time (but mostly teaching).
You can the full benefits (including salary) of a secondary teacher while working those two years. And at the end of it, you 'graduate' with a Masters of Education (Secondary). That's pree' sweet!
You literally get paid to get a degree.
Of course, I'm well aware that, like any other program which eats up funding, people criticise it for many flaws, including sending 'amateurs' into an already disadvantaged school.
But hey, I'm gonna take this opportunity if it comes along.
When I say 'if', I mean only a small portion of people actually get in (>10%?).
But I can still dream, can't I?
Might start volunteering for some uni organisations such as Teach Learn Grow and maybe some pedagogical research with ULTRIS next year to get a better picture of how these things actually work.

Figure 1. Blurry Photo Warning. Ex-chief scientist of Wa, Lyn Beazley speaking to middle school children at the Wheatbelt Science Forum (organised by the Inland Lighthouse Network) at Wongan Hills. After acting as chief scientist, Lyn still does research and is highly involved in communicating science to people of all sorts. She attends events, seminars and even gives lectures on how great science is and why WA is a great place to do science.

Listening to Telephone - James Blunt

Funf,

TK

Day 4: Of Digging and Extracting

MicroBlitz is a citizen-science project.
I'm not sure if I've said this before (but I'll say it again anyway), but citizen science is where ordinary people (even those without a degree, such as kids) help collect information for scientists.
This can be a cost-effective method of acquiring data; at the same time, it acts as an engaging and educating experience of citizen scientists. It's a win-win situation.
MicroBlitz enlists citizens to collect soil samples from all over Western Australia.
Volunteers (or better known as MicroBlitzers) are given a sample kit and simple instructions they can follow.
After grabbing a sample from wherever they want, they send it back to us for analysis.
And all this is done at no cost to MicroBlitzers. We pay for it all.
Eventually, by using PCR (polymerase chain reaction) and fancy bioinformatics, we can identify the microorganisms (microbes) in the soil.
The end result will be a base map of the different microbes available throughout the state, which will improve decision-making processes.
Click here for the MicroBlitz website.

More information on MicroBlitz:

1. http://phys.org/news/2015-01-dna-facility-dirty-wa-soil.html
2. http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/bushtelegraph/microblitz-creating-an-underground-map-in-wa/4933900
3. http://crowdresearch.uwa.edu.au/project/digging-deep-for-was-underground-inhabitants/
4. http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/grey-nomads-get-the-dirt-on-western-australia-for-soil-study/story-e6frg6nf-1227050690808

Figure 1. Citizen science in progress! An image of me taking a soil sample for MicroBlitz. Notice the unique red soils, which is fairly characteristic of drier Australian soils. The top part is a little crusty, but after that, everything becomes sandy and easy to dig. Just think creme brulee! Both soil sample and spatial data (GPS coordinates) are important for constructing the microbial map back at the lab.

Another project happening at UWA is the Kwongan Foundation.
I'm not too familiar with this, but the general idea is that they're aiming to conserve the unique species of flora and fauna in WA.
Surprisingly, WA is one of the world's few biodiversity hotspot. This means we've got a lot of species that are not found anywhere else in the world.
The Foundation is garnering support to have the biologically-rich locations turned into UNESCO World Heritage List. Doing so will boost tourism and conservation efforts.
Aside from that, they are also geared towards science communication. On their Facebook page, Winthrop Professor Hans Lambers frequently shares images and news about our local biodiversity.
They also host workshops and presentations (which are too expensive for me to attend!).
Click here for the Kwongan Foundation website.

More information on the Kwongan Foundation:

1. http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/drive/getting-unesco-recognition-for-kwongan/6083870
2. http://rotundamedia.com.au/2015/03/07/south-west-was-kwongkan-region-facing-unesco-world-heritage-listing/

Figure 2. It is also characteristic of Australian vegetation to be shrubby and short. Although it doesn't look that impressive, the species richness found in these arid landscapes are able to rival those found in the Amazon rainforest. Due to the tough environmental conditions, the local flora have developed several unique strategies to adapt, which explains why there are more species around: there is no one clear way to survive in these environments.

Listening to Bloodstream - Ed Sheeran

Vier,

TK

Day 3: Road Trip

I've been living in WA for over two years now.
Lucky for me, my parents got us a place smack dab in the middle of the CBD area.
We were about 15-20 minutes walk to the city. Buses to the city were free. And we live in a highly professional area, where small environmental, legal and health-related firms are abundant.
We are about 5 minutes away from the renowned Kings Park. And my uni, UWA, is just on the other end of Kings Park.
How convenient is that!?

Not so lucky for me, I can safely say that I've been living within a 25km radius around the CBD area.
Not so fun for me now, is it?
I've attended high school up north for a year, but then uni pulled me right back into the busy city.
You also know that I don't do much travelling, because (SPOILERS) I am lazy.
Needless to say, I've never really been out travelling around WA.
I've been to the Pinnacles once. It sounds cool, but it's actually (SPOILERS) a dessert (obvious typo was unintentional). So that wasn't very fun either.

HOWEVER (do you see the positive-negative-positive trend going on here?), I've been lucky enough to head up to Beverly for a few hours with the MicroBlitz team.
At the time, we went up in the day and headed back down in the evening.
All we did was join the local Malleefowl Preservation Group for lunch and a quick presentation of our project.
THIS time, I got to do so much more. Again, thanks to the generous MicroBlitz project, I was able to spend three days up north, in Wongan Hills.
According to Wikipedia, the town has a population of about 600+ (back in 2006).
Most people would be bored to death to head up to an empty country town, but it was a real treat for me.
I got to go further inland and see how things were.
A real big surprise was how it reminded me (note: not resemble, just remind) of my dad's hometown, Kudat, back in Malaysia.
I used to head up there during my school holidays to live with my grandparents.
Life was slow, peaceful and stressless (not that there were any stress back in kindergarten).
Living up there might not be so bad after all.
Some peace and serenity sounds great after hearing the sound of traffic zooming past for the last two years (P.S. I can still hear it as I'm writing).

Figure 1. I'm not a big fan of travelling and all. But the sights were simply gorgeous! I'll never see this kind of sunsets in Perth. The tall vegetation spanning across the landscape gives me a very African/Lion King vibe when I see it. In a way, the 3-hour drive up to the Hills was in itself a treat.

Listening to Bad Blood - Taylor Swift

Drei,

TK

Day 2: Devour

Video editing is a new thing for me.
In my final years of high school, I tried delving into the surface of it.
First, it was just a slideshow+music for a Powerpoint presentation contest. A year later, I did it again but it was just cutting and pasting video clips together.
Back then, I used Windows Movie Maker for the job (read: have not been exposed to a Mac yet).
Somehow, things were simple enough and I managed to get things done.

I thought I could do the same, but I was clearly overwhelmed when I first opened my iMovie app.
I'm not sure if it's because doing editing on a Mac is different or my youthful ability to adapt to new technology is rusting. But I really hope it's more of the former and not the latter.

Not to mention the amount of time it takes to do these edits!
I think I could spend about two to three hours just doing cuts and pastes for a single video entry.
That eats into my daily schedule a bit and I do find myself being incredibly busy because of it.
I wish I could just grab a pair of scissors and a bottle of glue and just do it by-hand.
Somehow, I feel that it would go twice as fast if I did it that way!
Right now, I'm just bracing myself for the other five more days' worth of videos that needs to be done, two of which will be particularly large I reckon.

Figure 1. If you've managed to watch three days' worth of videos already. Or if you're an avid reader of my blog, I'd like to express my gratitude and reward you with this picture of flowers in front of a random house I passed by. Also, I couldn't find any good pictures of what I did on Day 2, so this is basically a filler image! But still, if you have read my blog (whatever the amount), thank you and I hope you've enjoyed it.

Listening to Flashlight - Jessie J

Zwei,

TK

Day 1: Compose

So why did I suddenly decide to up and make a Vlog?
A few weeks ago, when I was in the middle of my finals, I (like everyone else) was desperately looking for a way to procrastinate.
Thankfully, my prayers of ruin were answered when I found Emma's Vlogs.
Emma is a PhD student in London, studying ancient greek tragedy in postdramatic theatre.
She started a month long Vlog, where she recorded her life as a PhD student each day for a month.
In fact, today is the last day of her PhD, which means she's just about to submit her 3-year long thesis.
And since I didn't have anything better to do (except studying), I got completely hooked.
I watched video after video, day by day. Procrastination was one thing, but I was also curious about what a day in the life of a PhD student would be like.
After that, I thought it would, at the very least, be an eye-opening experience. And that's how I ended up with this little project.

Another motivation for this daily Vlog was to make myself update this blog more frequently. But that wasn't the primary reason, I think.
Let's face it. Blogging is dead. People have either stopped altogether, or moved on to micro-blogging with Tumblr and Twitter etc.
I thought it would be nice to try this alternate form of blogging and see how it would turn out.

Figure 1. Our trusty whiteboard at the Music Library. It felt good to jot down all the ideas we had, and using a whiteboard is always a fun treat. As you can see, for our medley, we've planned to use Meteor Shower (Owl City), Fireflies (Owl City), You're Beautiful (James Blunt) and Photograph (Ed Sheeran). We're also using smaller bits of Small Bump (Ed Sheeran) and Bloodstream (Ed Sheeran). Hopefully, the final product would be around 10 minutes long.

Listening to Because I Love You - The Master's Apprentice

Eins,

TK

Day 0: Introductions

Hey everyone!
This week (well, last week, technically) I decided to try something different. I'm making a Vlog series!
Seven Vlog entries, each detailing what I did that day.
And this post marks the first one: Day 0, which is like a brief introduction to myself.

All seven (or eight, if you count Day 0) videos will be uploaded on Youtube but are only accessible through my blog (because privacy). They'll be under a special tag known as "OVA 2: Sieben Chronicles" (sieben is German for seven, because SPOILERS: it's seven videos).

I will talk a little bit about my Vlogging experience in each post. So I hope you look forward to those too!

Figure 1. For those of you who've never tried it, you have no idea how easy it is to 'accidentally' press the 'Take a picture' button instead of the 'Take a video' button. As a result, cringe-worthy pictures usually result with you facepalming yourself extremely hard. The effects are amplified when in the presence of other people.

Listening to Feeling Electric - Parade of Lights

Null,

TK

This Is Me

According to Blogspot/Blogger, I've had this blogging here since 2009.
Yet, I've never actually had a post dedicated to welcoming new readers (read: YOU!) and telling them more about myself; something like a profile page of sort. So, I thought I would spend today writing one in case I have any new readers.

Figure 1. This is me, Theo, at the Fremantle Market. I saw this Domo beanie and couldn't help myself: I tried it on.
It was so adorable, I mean LOOK AT HIS FACE. I describes me perfectly! Too bad the price was incredibly high,
I couldn't afford it, not for a simple beanie. It would be great if someone bought it for me as a birthday gift!
Price: approx. $25.

Let's start. Hey everyone, my name's Theo. In case you're wondering, that isn't my real name and yes, I am Asian. I'm a science student at the University of Western Australia, studying environmental science and conservation biology (a.k.a Bachelors of Tree-hugging). In my first year of uni, I (somehow) got into the wonders of soil science. It's such a valuable resource but it's also so undervalued, kinda like phosphorus too (I like phosphorus in case you're wondering). I'm also a really keen communicator in science because A) that's what a good scientist should be doing and B) science communication can be a very creative and satisfying process. I particularly enjoy At the moment, I am keen on trying to do research and getting into an Honours program but I'll see how that goes.

Figure 2. My collection of books. Everything from technical 'HTML in 10 minutes' to success story 'Facebook Effect' to Asian 'Unpolished Gem'. The image is a little old and my collection has expanded by a fair bit. Surprisingly, almost half of these books have yet been read because I've just been so busy! I'm also a massive shopaholic when it comes to bookie bargains.

You could say I'm a nerd of sort. I enjoy watching anime (e.g. Naruto Shippuden) and reading manga (e.g. Fairy Tail). But I also enjoy playing games (e.g. Ingress, Final Fantasy), playing on the piano (Grade 5) and going through my ever-growing collection of books (e.g. Brekky Central, The Story of the Soil, The Russel Middlebrook series). Oh wait, that doesn't change a thing: I'm still sorta nerdy. Did I mention I tried laser-tag once and fell completely in love with it? It's like paintball without all the pain! Yep, definitely a nerd. Other random things about me: I enjoy a nice cup of chai latte, I take pictures of plants (that sounded weird),

Figure 3. I usually spend long hours at my uni library. This is where I do my work, mostly because I can't concentrate at home and because I need a big PC to work on. My tiny 11' inch Mac would never suffice as I grew up with Windows. I also make quite a mess when I work, as you can see. I guess this helps motivate me by creating a visual impression that I'm really busy and 'all over the place'. However, keeping up with my course work usually means I get less stress when exam times arrive, so it's always worth it to spend extra time getting work done.

Figure 4. A couple of plants I got from my uni's native plant sale. I went on the last day after everything good has been snatched but still managed to find some nice lil' plants. The one on the left is cool because it has moss growing on top of its soils, and I got the one on the right for free. It's supposed to be some sort of lettuce. I can grow it and add it to my salad or something, but I'll see if I'm willing to take the risk. I've handed them both to my mum because it seems I never remember to water them frequently and both were found half-dead in my room after a week.

To reinforce my nerdiness, I spend my days hidden at my uni library till the dark hours. But it's also because I am a perfectionist when it comes to my academic work. I like it when I produce high-quality work. As you can tell, it would be an absolute dream-come-true if I do research (, end up enjoying it) and become a academic at a university. Alas, such dreams are rare and competitive; but hey, I'm still young and I can dream, can't I?

Figure 5. My attendance at the Volunteers Welcome Night for the Our Outback, Our Story campaign. There was a diverse group of people in our midst: a teacher for asylum seekers, an ex-lawyer, a psychologist and someone who was apparently allergic to peanuts (running gag for the night). I didn't get to speak to a lot of people due to my horrific social skills and *sshole resting face (as confirmed by one of my friends). I look forward to contributing to the campaign though, and networking, of course! Photo taken from Our Outback, Our Story.

Figure 6. This is me, looking incredibly un-photogenic, while volunteering to run the MicroBlitz stall during my uni's Envirofest. Lots of the work I do involves manning a stall at events, doing outreach and trying to get people to join us. My facial expressions don't usually help bring people in, and if I try to smile, well, that'll just look creepy (also confirmed by my friend). MicroBlitz is currently where I spend most of my time volunteering. It's also where I've been volunteering the longest. Hopefully, doing good will reap some benefits at the end of the day. Photo taken from UWA Student Guild.

Currently, my official employment hours are 0. But, that doesn't mean all I do is eat and sleep (and lurk in the library). I have done casual volunteering with several organisations such as Salvation Army, ClimateWatch and SEN UWA. However, I'm mostly interested in long-term projects, as such I devote most of my time to UWA's MicroBlitz project, UWA student guild's Urban Orchard project and recently, the Our Outback, Our Story campaign as well as UWA's Unimentor program. To show my interest in all things research, I am an occasional guinea pig for behavioural psychology experiments and also assist PhD students in harvesting their experiments (which causes some major RSI).

Figure 7. This was taken while I was volunteering for PhD student, Kenny. He does research at UWA's School of Plant Biology, where he studies the relationship between soil and nitrogen-fixing plants (e.g. legumes). I assist by helping him harvest his plants, removing the soil and litter tangled between its roots, as well as collecting root nodules attached to roots (the black mass stuck in the roots). Those root nodules help capture atmospheric nitrogen and converts it to a form that plants can take up, which is really useful, especially in nutrient-poor environments such as Australia. Harvesting has been done over the course of several months because he did admit that he might've been a little overly ambitious with his project and had millions (that's clearly an exaggeration) of pots that needed harvesting. Oh dear...

Figure 8. These chairs are so cool! They've got wheels under them so people can move around the room while seated! I can already imagine how a tutorial class would end up playing tag with these chairs. These were found in one of the tutorial rooms in the Social Science building. Access was granted when I joined SEN UWA in doing environmental audits in these buildings. The program aims to gather information on all university buildings so that more sustainable and eco-friendly measures can be taken when improving campus facilities. I was told that it's highly successful, both in yielding large amounts of data and in the number of participants who registered. The latter might come from the promise of free chocolate and pizza.

I started blogging in 2009 because it was the apparent trend for everyone in school. At first, it was a very personal website where grammar mistakes and cringe-worthy sentences were abound. Slowly, I started becoming self-conscious about the way I write because...well, I'm sure no one wants the whole world to see how bad their writing is. I also became more wary of putting names up on my blog because I wouldn't want to endanger their lives. And who knows, a stalker might be a frequent visitor of my blog. As of lately, I've tried to blog more generally about my life, with not so many names because I wouldn't want to bore readers with names they don't know. I also try to do a bit of science communication by blogging about stuff that I work on in assignments or learn in class. I find that it helps me practice my writing as well as structuring. And it might even help someone out if they're having trouble with it. Or it could provide an entertaining read for the day.

Figure 9. Here's something completely random. A smiley face made from oranges and a banana. This was taken on the last week of uni. You can clearly tell that I've let my sanity slip ever so slightly. But what's really interesting is that the oranges were actually just picked from trees outside Hackett Hall (UWA). One of the perks of being tall (by Asian standard). They taste pretty alright. Nothing extraordinary, but not bad either. I think looking at this can definitely turn someone's frown upside down, don't you think?

Well, I hope that painted a clearer of what kind of person I am. If you're a new reader who just to happened to have stumbled upon this blog, welcome! If you're a frequent reader of my blog (whoever you are!), thank you so much for taking an interest in my blog. I'll catch you in my next post!



Listening to Little Lion Man (Cover) - Future Idiots

Time for a Break,

TK

Ready, Set, Burn!

I haven't been updating much lately. So that's no good.
Getting back into my bad, inconsistent habits.
But we all understand it's that time of the semester where uni workload just gets really out of hand.
And I've got another month of exams coming up, so do expect an another month of inactivity.
But I thought I'd share a little update before start studying for finals a.k.a this is my current method of procrastinating.
I was wondering on whether I should write about something personal or something educational and science-y. In the end, I couldn't make up my mind so I thought 'why not do both!'.
I'll just write about a topic that I find deeply fascinating.

So back in my first year, I did a earth science introductory unit.
In that unit, you had to contribute to a glossary in order to earn participation marks.
It was really hard finding original terms to contribute, what with 500 other students trying to get as many entries in as possible.
I looked around in my textbook for ideas. Eventually, I encountered something interesting called the Clathrate Gun Hypothesis.
I did a bit of reading up on it and thought it was quite interesting.
But first of all, I think I need to explain the concept of 'feedback'.

Feedback is simply how one factor affects another.
For example, eating more food causes you to become fuller.
You've got a feedback mechanism between eating food and being full.
We can classify these feedbacks into two categories: positive and negative.
In negative feedbacks, the process involved will self-regulate itself depending on the state of its components.
Now I know that sounds really confusing (and I really need to work on minimising jargons used), but an example would make this clearer.
So, if you increase the amount of food you eat, your stomach will be filled with more food.
However, when there is more food in your stomach, you will feel full and tend to reduce the amount of food you eat.
In this cycle, you are self-regulating the process, where the rate you eat food will vary depending on the situation.
Another example would be the production line in a factory;
if you've made lots of products, you can afford to tell your employees to slow down.
But if sales are doing great and you're running out of stock, you can tell your employees to speed up production (P.S. this might put extra strain on employees though).
These aren't really good examples, but it gives you a gist of what negative feedbacks are.

Figure 1. A typical negative feedback loop, where the processes self-regulate. Eating rates are determined by the state the system is currently in (hungry or full). Red arrows indicate an increase in forcing rates, while blue arrows indicate an decrease in forcing rates.

Now for the more confusing (but epic) positive feedbacks.
Positive feedbacks are where a bunch of processes repeats itself in a never-ending cycle.
But as the process repeats itself, the system gets bigger and bigger and bigger....
Until KABOOM! Well, at least in most cases.
Positive feedbacks are really interesting because lots of processes experience positive feedbacks in natural systems.
Of course, this means if we leave to alone for long enough, it'll go haywire and wreck havoc!
Okay, example time! I like this one because its simple (source: Wikipedia).
A farmer is handling his flock of sheep. He does his job well, but is still inexperienced.
All of a sudden, about 5 sheep strays from the herd. The farmer panics! He doesn't know what to do.
While he's panicking, another 5 sheep followed the stray.
The farmer proceeds to panic even further! His judgement is clouded while in this panicky state.
His managing skills decline as a result and more sheep start running amok!
This continues on in a cycle where the farmer panics more and more, while more and more sheep go rampaging.
Let's say, this continues until the farmer gets so worried that he faints.
That's what a positive feedback does. Inflates itself till it bursts!

Figure 2. A typical positive feedback loop, involving sheep running amok and its effect on an inexperienced farmer. The higher number of stray sheep, the more panicky the farmer becomes and the less effective his management skills are. As a result, more and more sheep run amok. This loop is repeated several times, where the effects are amplified with each loop until the system somehow collapses. Red arrows indicate an increase in forcing rates, while blue arrows indicate an decrease in forcing rates. 

The Clathrate Gun
Okay, now that I've used some relatively simple examples for positive and negative feedbacks, I'll give a real example now for positive feedback loops.
Just because I think it's way more interesting (and its consequences are worth noting).
Behold! The clathrate-gun hypothesis!
I say hypothesis because it hasn't been proven yet. But it was briefly mentioned in my textbook back in first year. And I thought it was pretty cool!
So this hypothesis talks about methane hydrates - a ice-crystal-like structure lying around in the bottom of the deep ocean.
Methane hydrates contain...methane, obviously.
And let's not forget, methane is a greenhouse gas, several times stronger than our normal carbon dioxide in fact!
So, why do we get methane hydrates only on deep ocean floors? Why not on land or on shallow water?
The answer is because these hydrates can only exist when pressure is high and temperature is low.
Because of these required conditions, the ocean floor is the perfect place for it to form.
But what if we mess up these conditions a little? Reduce the pressure or increase the temperature a bit?
These hydrates will dissolve and release methane gas into the ocean.
But what's really scary is the amount of methane gas these hydrates can pack - every 1m³ of hydrate is capable of releasing 164m³ of methane gas! That's a lot of gas!

Back to modern days, humans have really made quite a commotion.
Climate change is a big thing right now, with the atmosphere and ocean getting warmer.
So, if we increase the temperature of the ocean, those methane hydrates won't have a cozy environment to exist anymore.
A very small chunk of it will eventually dissolve and release large amounts of methane, which will travel to the atmosphere.
Remember how methane is a much stronger gas than carbon dioxide? Its effects are going to be more prominent!
And what happens with more greenhouse gas in the atmosphere? More warming!
More warming causes more hydrates to dissolve, releasing even more methane gas into the atmosphere!
The cycle continues until all the hydrates are gone.
But its not like we'll be there to see it, since so much methane in the atmosphere would have killed most organisms!
That's a positive feedback at play right there.
A small change can make a system repeat itself, getting bigger until it cannot sustain itself anymore.

Interestingly, notice how the hydrates were living peacefully on ocean floors until the fire nation attacked ocean temperatures rose to a point that they can't handle anymore?
These hydrates wouldn't end up in a positive feedback loop if it weren't for the initial change in ocean conditions (the temperature increase).
And that's why this planet is still in one piece even though many systems have positive feedback natures.
We haven't triggered these positive feedbacks yet. But when we do, even a small change can cause the effects to become magnified out of proportion, as seen with the hydrates!
So, why don't we make a move to reduce greenhouse gas emissions before it's too late.
Who knows when we'll kickstart a positive feedback loop and start a hopeless countdown to ruin for future generations.

Figure 3. A positive feedback loop, illustrating the basic mechanisms of the Clathrate-Gun Hypothesis. In order to 'initiate' the feedback loop, a small forcing must be applied. In this example, anthropogenic climate change applies a forcing on oceanic temperature and increases it. This causes hydrates to dissolve, which releases high concentrations of methane gas into the atmosphere. As a greenhouse gas, methane promotes climate change, which further increases oceanic temperatures. The loop continues. Red arrows indicate an increase in forcing rates.

As a closing note, I need to emphasise that this is a hypothesis.
It has not been proven, and the data obtained are showing mixed messages.
The topic is quite controversial in its field but nevertheless, I find it really cool and a concept that's easy to understand.
Although evidence on this is still mounting, we need to remain vigilant on the carbon footprint we leave on the planet.
Lastly, in case anyone finds this interesting, I've attached a list of relevant articles for you to check out (if you have trouble accessing them, just pop me an email):

1. Dickens, GR 2003, 'A methane trigger for rapid warming?', Science, vol. 299, no. 5609, pp. 1017-1017. (Link)
2. Kennett, JP 2003, Methane hydrates in Quaternary climate change: The clathrate gun hypothesis, American Geophysical Union. (Link; the original book, paywalled)
3. Lifland, J 2002, 'The Bookshelf: Methane hydrates in Quaternary climate change, The clathrate gun hypothesis', EOS Transactions, vol. 83, p. 513. (Link; paywalled, email me if interested)

Listening to Verge - Owl City

Halfway through,

TK

Transitioning

Transitioning in life can be hard at times.
I remember getting on my knees and begging my mum and playschool teacher when I overheard them discussing plans for me to attend kindergarten the following year.
Change is scary. Always was for me.
When I moved on to kindergarten. When I moved on to primary school. Then, secondary. And now, university.
You know there's nothing to be afraid of. You tell yourself that.
But your body doesn't listen. You heart rate skyrockets, you hear weird grumbling sounds from your tracts. Your hands get all clammy.
Uncertainty can certainly make us anxious.
We don't know what to expect.
It keeps us hanging. It keeps us guessing.

Thankfully for us, there are people and special programs that help us with our transitions.
Isn't that why every school, uni or workplace has an orientation program for newcomers?
Sometimes, they're done well. Sometimes, you constantly question the way the program is conducted.
We've all been there.
For my transition to uni, I was thankful enough to be accepted into UniSkills - a first-year transitory program at UWA.
The university goes out of its way to host a whole week of activities for orientation. All students are also assigned to a mentor.
And yet, I feel that this is one of those times where I tell myself "this really isn't effective".
UniSkills was, however, incredibly useful to me.
The program is open to anyone who's facing difficulty transitioning into life at uni.
International students, regional students, mature-aged students, you name it!
The first event I attended was a pre-orientation camp at uni.
That was extremely daunting. I didn't know anyone.
But, I walked away having loads of fun (mostly 'cause we got to stay at the uni colleges for free).
Most of the people I've met and my closest friends came from that program.
They host monthly events for members to meet up; and face it, who can ever say no to free cheesy toasties!
And even today (I'm halfway through my second year), I still run into people who've done the program.

Naturally, the program lets go of students when they're done with their first year.
An opportunity is given to any/all students who apply to volunteer for the program.
I applied, obviously. The pre-orientation was really fun and it's literally my only chance to stay over at the college (did I tell you they had an ice-cream machine at the cafeteria!?).
So yes, I wanted to retain membership for personal and altruistic reasons.
Very unfortunately, I wasn't able to enrol myself for the program this year because I wasn't in the country at the time of the camp.
I submitted an application as a general volunteer, hoping for the chance to try again next year.
I never got a reply...

I had a friend who got to attend the camp as a volunteer.
So in a way, I could still find out "what the hell was going on" and "what happened to my application".
As expected, everyone had fun at the camp.
And then, everything went quiet.
There was an (unusually long) period of inactivity.
All of a sudden, the news was out. UniSkills is history.
That came out out of nowhere.
The volunteers were invited to a lunch and that was it.
The students/members were not informed of this.
I was slightly outraged. But I'm glad to hear that I wasn't the only one.
Remember that lunch? It wasn't a lunch. It was a riot.
No one was happy about this.
Because of my connections, I managed to get my hands on some rather 'juicy' information.
It pains me to see one of the few useful transition programs get axed by the uni.
It's sad to think that I'll never go back to that camp.
I'll never get my own college bedroom again.
I won't get to stuff my face with yummy college food and play with that ice-cream machine anymore.

As expected, only volunteers know of the program's cancellation.
Students were kept in the dark.
Those who applied to volunteer for anything other than the camp were not entertained. That includes me, of course.
First-year students who got into the program this year will probably be ignored for the rest of the year.
Everything regarding the program was just put on a bus.
The application forms are still open. UniSkills is still the go-to transitionary program on orientation booklets. No announcements were made about the program.
It frustrates me. How can they just turn such a successful and influential program off?
The worst part?
Should the program reopen, my application is likely to have been trashed along with others.
Only the volunteers at the time of the program's closure will be notified.
Even if they come back next year, I still won't be able to eat from that ice-cream machine.

With all this chaos was happening, I was still eager to help out.
If I couldn't help out in the (nonexistent) UniSkills, I'll just have to make due with something else.
So I applied for the UniMentor program.
UniMentor allocates a student to several first-years during orientation to help with transition.
Needless to say, it wasn't very helpful.
Either the mentors were poorly trained and just not interested;
or the amount of students allocated to a single mentor made it unfeasible to feel included.
There was just no room for interactions.
Most people don't actually use the program. People meet their mentor during orientation and that's it.
They don't reply to the mentor's emails. They don't need the mentor anymore.
What a waste of resources!
And yet, when I went for my interview, I was informed that they had more funds and resources to work with now.
Hmmm, I wonder where those "funds" came from?
It is understandable that the program is trying to improve itself, but I am just acting bitter.
I do not hate other programs. I do not hate the student service department.
I am merely whining around like a 13-year old who can't get what he wants.
I pay my respects to the program.
And if it does come back one day, I hope I can still be a part of it.

Figure 1. Throwback to last year's orientation week. It was the last day.  After (foolishly) joining tons of clubs, we sat down on Oak Lawn to relax. Enjoyed several free 'popsicle' sticks while enjoying a live band performance. And that's when I told myself 'Hey, maybe uni wouldn't be so bad after all!'. All thanks to UniSkills, of course. It all started there.

Listening to Fine By Me - Andy Grammer

Loyalty,

TK

1.week

Apologies for not keeping up with this blog as often as I'd like!
Unlike most high schools and universities in WA, my uni's midsem break only lasts a week.
So while everyone is still out partying, we UWA students are already back to that all-so-familiar lecture theatre and dodgy tutorial rooms.
It's quite common to hear students telling you they use their midsem breaks to catch up on lectures and assignments.
And they do mean it, really.
But something always gets in the way. Namely, procrastination.
Or in this semester's case, episode leaks of the fifth season of Game of Thrones.
And it isn't surprising how spending 5 hours watching those episodes can escalate to spending an entire week binge-watching on Netflix!

Figure 1. A cute little succulent plant I got from this year's EnviroFest.
I've always wanted a rock as a pet, but this is so much better. Its low-maintanence AND alive. Those blue and green gems are also irresistible! I keep it in my room now and water it weekly (because I'm just that busy forgetful).

Fortunately for me, I have not fell into the dark, inescapable world of TV-shows.
Don't get me wrong. I get hooked to things really easily.
But as long as I stay away from them, I should be relatively safe. Right? RIGHT!?
People might say I'm missing out but I'm not.
A perk of being hooked to things easily is that I'm also easily entertained.
YES, I admit I liked writing up my paper for a bunch of plants competing for nutrients!
As a result, midsem breaks usually find me in the library at uni. Churning away on a computer.
Although it has never happened to me yet, I think people around me are somewhat irritated by my keyboarding ethics (I type really loudly).
Fortunately for all library-goers, I wasn't at the uni library (much) this semester.

Figure 2. Over the Easter weekend, I also went for a film at my uni's open cinema, Somerville Auditorium.
The auditorium looked great; lighted up bright and surrounded by tall trees. And the pizza they sold was to die for!
It was my second time watching a film there. The films were curated as part of the Perth International Arts Festival.
My friend wanted to catch a German film called 'Phoenix'.

Earlier this year/late last year, I had decided to become more active and not type so much.
And that's how I got into volunteering TONS, all of which coincided with my break.
Somehow, I had the 'brilliant' idea to do volunteering work by day and work on assignments by night.
Well, you'll be happy to know that, just like 80% of uni students, assignments were neglected throughout the break!
Having the long Easter weekend prior to the break was also...not-so-ideal, because all public libraries were closed.
But by the end of the week, I might've been completely exhausted, with assignments still stacked in front of me; but it was some really great experience and I'm really appreciative of it.
tl;dr I'm happy because I procrastinated by volunteering.

Figure 3. More pictures of my daily coffee fix. Double it this time! Actually, it's not real coffee; but chai latte.
Fun fact: I seem to get some weird gastronomic activity going on after I drink coffee so it's best for me to stick to lattes from now on. Chai's perfect as it tastes exotic and spicy and not bitter. I clearly have an obsession going on with it! Unfortunately, chai lattes are also sold at a higher price at cafes (and they don't even use natural ingredients!).

Over the course of the week, I was at the citizen science project office, MicroBlitz.
Helping my manager send out loads of kits to MicroBlitzers (you should sign up too!).
I managed to eavesdrop on the agendas my manager was working on, which is great if I ever wanted to become more involved with the project.

Figure 4. A few weeks ago, MicroBlitz made an appearance at the local Caravan and Camping Show.
Of course, I was there to volunteer a bit of my time over the weekend. Unfortunately, we didn't get a very good spot.
But still, no one could escape our trademark 'lure them in with lollies' trick (which is what Australian call gummy candy. Weird...). Doing outreach work like these might eventually help me develop some better communication skills.
Plus, it's a great opportunity to get to know some of the other volunteers.

The next day, I joined a bunch of other volunteers to do some building sustainability audits with Sustainable Energy Now.
A big reason why I did this was because environmental consultancy firms handle lots of these 'audits'.
I just had to find out for myself what these things were.
Auditing was pretty mundane but people tend to find ways to keep themselves entertained.
For me, it was spotting cool features in the faculty offices, getting myself acquainted with the building's architecture AND having a glimpse at the different offices our academics have.
I was definitely not disappointed with that last part.
Every room was different. And I'd say it reflects the occupant really well.
One of the room was full of books with only a single trail leading to their desk (also filled with books).
We also got academics with clothes, weird-smelling rooms, coffee machines (a big NO for energy efficiency, people!) and vintage clock collections (don't ask).
Having to go door-to-door asking academics if we could audit their rooms also gave me a different vibe.
I wasn't going in as a student begging for more marks on an assignment.
Maybe it's the way we communicated. But somehow, I felt like we were a bit more like equals in that situation.
Plus, we got free pizza and fair-trade dark chocolates.

Figure 5. A detailed map of the Social Science Building I got from SEN UWA to aid me in my auditing endeavours!
Unfortunately for us, most of the academics weren't in their office that day so we had the privilege of breaking in, looking at their stuff and sitting on their chairs. Contrary to what the map shows, the building is actually humongous; or really confusing, to say the least. Although we were only assigned to do half the building (and other major advantages), our group finished last!

On Thursday and Friday, I did some hands-on work with a PhD student from the School of Plant Biology.
His name's Kenny and he's doing research on plant-soil interactions, with a particular focus on nitrogen-fixing plants.
It sounds cool and all, but I didn't really get to do much.
A key thing to do in mind while doing research is that things are incredibly repetitive.
My job was to unload plants from their pots, wash the soil away, then remove the finer organic material (debris, twigs etc) from the roots.
And mind you, those are some really tangled up roots.
A single plant could take up to 30 minutes, depending on the soil conditions and species.
For two whole days, I've basically stuck to removing stuff from the roots.
It really hurts my eyes and my fingers get really tired from holding forceps all day long.
I think that might've been the closest I've ever been to experiencing Repetitive Strain Injury.
Don't try it!
But Kenny's great and really easy to talk to (I'm not, because I'm too busy trying not to screw up).
I got some really good tips and insight into the world of research.
Hopefully, all this networking will end up with doing some real lab-work, with fancy gizmos and whatnot.
Then again, even fancy gizmos get boring when you have to repeat a process a hundred times!

Figure 6. My volunteering with Kenny had me remove debris and other organic material from plant roots.
He was working with several species of plants, growing in different soil conditions. Depending on these two factors,
the root morphology might go from fairly clean to nightmarish-to-work-on levels.
To be honest, I'm not too quite sure what I'm doing or whether I'm even doing an OK job. Geez, I wouldn't want to be the reason his dataset looks out of whack! But I'm sure someone'll stop me if I'm not doing something right.
Did I mention I had to listen to Triple J for two whole days while working in the greenhouse? Pure torture.
I'm sorry, but they really aren't my cup of tea. 

I think that sums up what I did over the break.
I still remember what I was doing exactly a year from now.
My whole break was spent at the library writing up two papers.
I guess as you go through uni, you learn how to do your work more efficiently, like on the night before its due.
Because that's me right now! Like I said before, I was still facing piles of assignments at the end of the break.
Go me!
But totally no regrets.
It was great not being looked up in a library trying to vomit words for my reports.


Listening to The Days - Fast Forward Music (cover)

Back to school,

TK