Choral version of 3月9日 (March 9)

I actually prefer the choral version of this one to the original. The song works well when sung in different parts.

Original version by レミオロメン (Remioromen)

Choral version of 粉雪 (Konayuki)

I never thought that I’d find a choral version of this one!

Original version by レミオロメン (Remioromen)

My second week of work is finally over, and there’s the long weekend to look forward too! These 2 weeks haven’t been the best ones for me, being in a new environment and all. I’m someone who hates changes, as I find comfort in things that are familiar. Having to enter a new environment, especially when I don’t know anyone else, is something stressful for me. Starting this internship, having to adapt to this new environment and to learn new techniques… it hasn’t been easy. Plus my mentor just left the organisation yesterday, so I’m following someone else now. Now I have to get used to this change and to adapt to a different style of teaching, and that will take me some time.

Sometimes when I’m free at work, I wonder to myself whether deciding to do an internship this holidays was the best choice that I have made. I wonder why of all places, I was accepted into this lab at a time where the person assigned as my mentor was leaving. Did I really need this internship so that my resume will look more impressive? If I didn’t do this internship, I could have gotten some other job instead and earn more money. If I chose not to work, I’ll have more time to do my own stuff, and I’ll be able to go for the church camp. If I didn’t do this internship, I wouldn’t have to deal with all this… stuff. Maybe I’m supposed to learn something from this experience, just that I’ve yet to see what. At least now I have a clearer idea of what an outside lab is like (in comparison to say, a lab in school), and a change to be in an environment very different from the lab that I was previously in. Somehow, I’m starting to think that maybe genetics is not a field that I should be in if I end up doing lab work after I graduate. At least not this aspect of it? I do have some interest in it, but I’m not very good when it comes to actually doing something or applying my knowledge in this area. Maybe as I continue doing my internship my opinion will change though, so we’ll see.

I came across this site which has translations for Kitou Aya’s diary once again a few days ago, and it was finally updated! Her story was made into the Japanese drama, 1 Litre of Tears, which should be familiar to some. I first came across these translations some time after I watched the drama, but the translations had stopped in 2006 and were incomplete. Even so, I was glad to be able to read more about her story. I really admire the strength and courage Aya had when it came to facing her disease. No matter how tough it was, she never gave up and fought on until the end. Whenever I think about her story, I am reminded never to give up. It’s ok to complain or find an outlet if you need to. It’s ok to feel upset or frustrated, because all humans have emotions. But at the end of the day, you need to continue moving forward after that and not just throw in the towel after meeting a setback.

As Aya wrote in her diary,

It’s okay if you fall.
You can just get up again.
Why don’t you look up at the sky, while you’re down there.
The blue sky spreads across above you.
Can you see it smiling at you?
You are alive.

If someone like her, being in much worse of a situation than I am, faced her problems bravely and never gave up, how can I give up when the problems I face are insignificant when compared to hers? I hope that one day, I’ll have that kind of inner strength that Aya has.

If you’ve never seen the drama or read her diary, I highly encourage you to do so. I’ve heard that the Chinese version of her diary is sold at Kinokuniya, but I have yet to come across it. I’d like to own a copy if I ever see it.

Translation of the lyrics for the song above:

Only Human - K

On the opposite coast of sadness
Is something called a smile

On the opposite coast of sadness
is something called a smile
But before we can go there,
is there something we’re waiting for?

In order to chase our dreams, we can’t have a reason to run away
We’ve got to go, to that far away summer’s day

If we find it tomorrow, we can’t sigh
Because like a boat that opposes the stream
we have to walk straight on

In a place worn down by sadness
something called a miracle, is waiting
Yet we are still searching
for the sunflower that grows at the end of spring

The warrior who awaits the morning light
before he can clasp it with red nails, his tears glitter and fall

Even if we’ve grown used to loneliness
only relying on the light of the moon
We have to fly away with featherless wing
just go forward, just a little further

As the rainclouds break
the wet streets sparkling
Although it brings only darkness
A powerful, powerful light
helps push us to walk on

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At 9.45 this morning, we were supposed to head down to the basement to practice. I happened to meet Zeling at the lift, and he told me that he brought a prop. I can’t remember what exactly it was that he said, but something sounded suspicious. When we got down to the basement, he then proceeded to pull out a knife from his bag. EH! It was a pretty big one too. Imagine if he got stopped for a security check at the train station! If the security guard finds the knife in his bag… that would be bad! Anyway, Jireh got the honours of getting to hold the knife throughout the skit. As a loanshark. (It’s kind of weird putting him and loanshark together, heh.)

For some reason, the weekend seems to have passed really quickly. I wouldn’t mind having another day to rest at home!

Took the Fusionopolis bus to Holland Village for lunch since that one came before the Biopolis bus. But I guess next time I should try to stick to the Biopolis bus on my way back! The Fusionopolis bus that we took just now made a big round into the private estate behind Biopolis, only to stop at this deserted bus stop where no one wanted to get on or off. I’m not in a rush so I’m fine, but I think Jasmine’s friends needed to get back to their labs soon, so it wasn’t a good thing that they took that bus. Walking back might have been even faster!

Today’s a pretty relaxing day. There’s nothing to do in the lab so far, and until now, I’ve only analysed the set of data we obtained from the experiment done on Monday. I think generally, the interns here don’t have much to do, which can be a good or bad thing, depending on how you see it. I’m lucky to have a computer that I can use (for now at least), so I can surf the net or blog when I have nothing else to do. Poor Jasmine (Lim) upstairs seems to be more bored than me, since she hasn’t done anything in the lab and she doesn’t have a computer that she can use either. Too bad we’re not on the same floor, otherwise I can have someone else to chat to. Oh well.

Went over to one of the labs at Immunos just now, and the lab is really nice! The lab space is huge, clean and really bright. And they have areas where they can change their labcoats too. Nice sliding doors to access the lab and nice chairs to rest on too! I like! Jas would be there if she had gotten that attachment… too bad she’s at TLL now. (I know too many Jasmines! It’s getting difficult to differentiate all of them when I write their names.)

It’s 2pm now… 4 hours till I get to go home! (Yay!) I don’t think I have a lot of things to do later. I think I need to meet my boss to discuss the results and I don’t know… do some PCR?

I’m so sleepy now.

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The eyes are a beautiful part of our body. They not only allow us to see, but also, by looking at one’s eyes, we can tell how a person is feeling. There is another saying that “The eyes don’t lie.” I do believe that there is some truth in that. Someone might be smiling, and whether this smile is a genuine one or not can sometimes be determined from the look in his or her eyes. There are times when we try not to show how we’re really feeling, but the expression in our eyes gives us away to those who are observant enough.

I’m no artist by any means, but I do believe that the eyes are one of those things that are difficult to draw well. (Perhaps someone who draws can tell me if I’m right about this?) For me, it’s not just about the shape and the proportions, but also how well the expression comes through.

I recently came across Hino Matsuri’s (樋野まつり) art in her current manga series Vampire Knight, and I was attracted to her character designs. I like the amount of detail she has in her drawings and the expressions that she draws for the characters. Take Kiryuu Zero (錐生零) for example:

I just love his expressions! There’s something about the look in his eyes that draws me in, something different from other characters I’ve seen before. I think it has something to do with the way that his eyes are drawn. It helps that I do like Zero as a character too. Haha. The anime is showing right now, but the art there just cannot be compared to that of the manga. Not that the character designs are bad, it’s just that the drawings are not so detailed and the characters seem to lack intensity in some of their expressions. But of course, to have the anime art at the same level of detail as that of the manga would require a crazy amount of effort, money and time, so to expect that would be kind of unrealistic.

Anyway, have I mentioned that I adore Hino Matsuri’s art?

If by now you’re wondering what the whole point of this post is… the point was just to show how beautiful Zero’s expressions are. Haha.

Having 4 days of downtime is really unacceptable. Other than not being able to access my site and blog, I’m not really affected by this. But think of those hosting business sites, 4 days of downtime means 4 days worth of revenue lost!

Hopefully now that the servers are at a new facility, the stability and uptime will be back to how it used to be, or even better. If not, I guess it means time to go shopping for a new host again.

The Drug Discovery and HRM papers came first, and they were only a day a part. Drug Discovery is the one that has the most content, and HRM is something I’m really bad at. But thankfully, these 2 being the first papers, I could just focus on studying for them first and not have to worry about the rest of the subjects since they covered less content.

Genomics was next, and I had just enough time to study for it at a comfortable pace. Then came my Social Inequalities and Stem Cell papers, one in the evening and the other the very next morning. I only had 2 full days to study for these, and I was rather concerned that I might not be able to complete everything. But on the bright side of things, I just needed to pass the Sociology paper (since I S/Ued it), and I had studied for all except 1 lecture for Stem Cells since there was a test not too long before the exam period. If it was 2 other papers that were on those days instead, I seriously doubt I would have able to finish studying without sacrificing my sleep. (I should really start my revision earlier next time! Heh.)

And the last paper which was yesterday… Pharmacology. 6 days sounds like a lot of time to study for one paper, but honestly it’s not! At least when it comes to Pharmaco. After 6 days of studying I still couldn’t recall many of the drug names, and for those I could recall, I had problems linking the name to the function and the disease the drug is prescribed for. I have this feeling I bombed this paper rather badly. But I don’t want to think about it anymore! Now it’s time for me to relax before I start my internship on Monday.