June 29, 2006
June 27, 2006
reflecting monday...
On my bus ride home yesterday, i started to think and reflected on the day itself. I think at this point of time, my (probably) greatest priiority is to stay healthy and fit. It is by far what affects me the most.
Yesterday was a 'bad' day. Just to give some background, I overstretched myself on Sunday. I have underestimated Singapore or to be more specific, Orchard Road. I was out on Sunday since morning and i only got home at about 10pm. The whole day was filled up with different things. Church in the morning, lunch with Matt, Sue, and Sherlyn which followed up by some shopping. Knowing my own limit and bearing in mind my full schedule all the way till the night, I took the shopping easy and purposely went to Borders to sit down and charged myself. I needed that. It was already a lot of walking to start with.
I sat there in Borders until about time to go take a bus to my colleagues house. To my dismay, i could not seem to figure out Orchard Road. It is so confusing and I don't like it. All the underpass, one-way street, no-crossing here and all, i managed to get myself walking in circles for like a good 1 hour just to find the right bus stop!!!!!! Can you believe it? It was a fuming hot afternoon somemore.. oh man. I think this was where i over exhausted my walking quota. And inevitably, that means a 'bad' day to follow.
I have not had a 'bad' day in a while. I usually pace myself quite well. Thanks to Orchard Road and the bad system. I got so tired after that ok. And so, yesterday was 'bad'. Lack of sleep (cannot sleep tight due to the whole madness during the day), and painful hip. Usually a painful hip is already enough to turn my day upside down. To top it off, everything at work doesn't work. The internet was down, i had no access to my class, something went wrong with the computatinal algorithm in the online tool we use, students were complaining and restless.and ... painful hip.
I was so glad the day was ending and i could go home and rest and do nothing. I think at that point of time, nothing would excite me or get my interest. All my mind could think of it to get home and rest. I couldn't care less if the sky was falling down. I was focussed!! Talking about having a set mind and focussing on our goal... I think no one could beat me then. (Just to add on, I actually bought a new ipod on sunday but i went to bed straight after my shower, leaving that baby in the package. That again showed that my health is more important than the new toy.. hehe)
I think this really showed me and made me realised my own priority. I did not intentionally make myself set my health as priority (i did to a certain extent but not this), and that sort of came out so evidently through what happened yesterday. Without my health and fitness, i am found incapacitated. I can;t handle what come my way properly and in the way i normally would. I felt sooo handicapped and just can't focus my mind. Health is important to me. And it is very important to me.
How am i doing today? Much better. Thanks. I got my rest yesterday and the fact that today got no class further helped!! Haha.
And the Ipod is charging!! it is black in colour. 30G. it's a beau...
June 23, 2006
friday!!
yay... its Friday!!! and i can sleep in tomorrow. This is the first saturday after many many saturdays whereby i need to wake up early to get things done. hehe.. so i get to sleep and slleep until i naturally wake up and make myself go back to sleep more.. the feeling is good....
hehe. had my first 3rd year class today. they are ok. the problem today was on a point mutation, to be more specific, a single nucleotide basepair change in the cis element called the TATA box located at the promoter region of a gene sequence coding for the protein NC16 in eucaryotes. Did i just loose you?? haha.
it is friday.. it is friday.. can't wait to start my weekend.
I think i am gonna work a lot with fruit flies (drosophila melanogaster)at work from now on. Gotta buy them, feed them, breed them, mutate them, mate them, freeze them and study them. How 'exciting'... between, they have got beaitiful eyes structure. see for yourself
June 19, 2006
transferred
Just got the notice at work that I will be changing team. I’ve been reassigned to the Genomics team. That means I will be leaving all my 100 first year kids for the 3rd years. Am I happy? Yes and No.
Yes, because 3rds years are more independent in their learning, more matured as a student and more familiar with how things are supposed to be done in school. Ie. Easier to teach.
Yes, because I will be teaching something that is directly related to my field of training. And that I won’t have to dig up some knowledge I’ve never learnt before, try to learn it in a very short time and teach it to some kids fresh out of high school.
Yes, because I will get to play a more significant role and contribute to the structure and planning of the subject. It is overall more exciting, challenging and fulfilling.
Yes, because that means I am progressing in my work. My expertise has been recognized and I am being transferred to the right place.
No, because 3rd year kids tend to be more arrogant and hard to deal with. They think they know a lot and they challenge their lecturer to test their knowledge on the subject topic.
No, because that means I’d have to walk further away from my office to the classrooms. We call it ‘cross country’ in our campus.
No, because with more responsibility comes more work and more thinking. Sigh… ;-)
No, because that means I will be leaving my first year kids halfway through the semester. Why am I sad? I have grown to know each and everyone of them personally. I have seen them grow in the last 2 months, spoke into their lives and became their friend. I am not satisfied to just leave halfway. The semester is not over, and I can’t bring a complete closure to what we have shared. My heart was so torn when I heard the news. “What about my students, those individuals under wing? You mean you are taking them away from me? What will happen to them?” Argh!!! I think I have grown to love my students. This arrangement sucks!
Had my last day with a specific class today, broke the news to them and it was a shock to them. Sigh… they don’t want me to go too. They asked if I will miss them and if I could do something to stay with them. For sure, I will miss them. I would like stay with them but I also know that I am called and needed more elsewhere. There is a place, a role for me to fill in the other team. It is time to move on again. For now, I shall do my best with the 3rd years and hopefully, I will grow to love my new students (if they don’t give me too much trouble.. hehe).
