Sat, 21 Feb 2004
Announcement
Hey people, my blog has moved again!  It's now at http://azuresque.subtlethought.com.  Please update bookmarks and links.  Sorry for the inconvenience.  With our own domain, we all will have a lot more freedom and flexibility with our blogs and webpages.  See ya there!
::| posted by sam @ 11.05pm |

Tue, 17 Feb 2004
php induced headache
Direcow, Kakita, Petey and I have finally got our own domain!  It's www.subtlethought.com. We haven't really made the move yet, cos we've still got some coding and layouts to figure out.  Our blogs should be moving there too.  Yesterday I had a hard time getting used to the php.  I still have some things to iron out.

On Sunday I had a good lunchtime talk with one of my cell group members.  It was one on one cos the others couldn't make it.  It was a good, fruitful time of sharing.  Today we got to do an experiment to see the effects of caffeine on the ECG, heart rate and pulse rate of the human subjects.  We had 2 volunteers:  one to drink coffee and one to drink water.  They were the only 2 guys from our group, so we hooked them up to the electrodes while us girls got to fuss over them.  Haha.  They also had to see the effect on their capacity to perform a simple mental task.  We had a grid of numbers randomly arranged and they had to point to the numbers and count from 1-50 in running order.  We timed them before and after drinking the beverages.  Junwei, the one who drank the coffee set the record (as expected).
::| posted by sam @ 8.18pm |

Sat, 14 Feb 2004
my funny valentine
This Valentine's blog is dedicated to Alvin.  Thanks for a wonderful day and all the roses =)  I know they're not cheap.  This day is a reminder for me to show you how much I love and appreciate you.  This year is our 4th Valentine's day and our 5th year together and I've been so blessed.  ~Hugs
::| posted by sam @ 11.20pm |

Wed, 11 Feb 2004
walking in memphis
Yesterday I had an interesting practical.  We injected some poor unsuspecting zebrafish with DNA and we're hoping to see their muscles glow around the injection site the next time we observe them.  We also did microinjection on the zebrafish embryos.  Our lab group is so happening.  We've made plans to go see the Bodyworks exhibition next Wednesday.  Looking forward to it.  I guess even though we're not all close friends or something, but we're all so familiar with each other after 3 years of lab.  Finished my 2 lab reports and the next 2 aren't due till next month.

Today as I was going to Holland V for lunch with Charlene, we ran into Samuel at the bus stop.  (Yes, THAT Samuel).  Didn't get a chance to say much more than "Hey".  After lunch we got distracted by a little puppy in the pet shop next to Subway.  I managed to secretly snap a picture of it on my phone.  Maybe when I figure out how to transfer my files from my phone to my computer, I'll put it up.  It was a tiny Jack Russell puppy and from a distance I wasn't sure if it was a tiny puppy or a big hamster.  Haha.  Very cute.  Tried taking more pictures of the other puppies, but the shop assistant stopped me =(  Finally got to see Last Samurai and I quite enjoyed it.  Japanese culture is fascinating.  Funny thing is, this is a movie where the guys in the audience usually cry (or feel like crying) and the girls don't.  I also discovered Subway sandwiches are terribly difficult to eat in the cinema without dropping veggies all over the place.

This week after watching the first group of 8 on American Idol, I see 4 people I hope can stick around.  They are Matthew Metzger, Katie Webber, Fantasia Barrino and Erskine Walcott.  Although when Erskine performed Open Arms, I couldn't help comparing it to Clay's version of it last season.  I still prefer the latter.  ~Whew finally a decent blog.
::| posted by sam @ 12.21am |

Mon, 09 Feb 2004
something stupid
This morning I was at home doing my lab report and watching the Grammys.  Celine Dion performed Luther Vandross' Dance with My Father and it very nearly brought tears to my eyes.  The song was co-written by Luther Vandross and Richard Marx (remember him?).  With these credentials, the song does have the potential to be a  cheesey ballad, but it wasn't.  It's in the same league as Colin Raye's Love, Me and  Bob Carlisle's Butterfly Kisses.  You can listen to it on the official Luther Vandross website.  Songs and movies about parent-child relationships always get to me.  My sensitive spot I guess.  (Remembers Armageddon and Freaky Friday)

I stayed up late to finish up my lab report and I think most people did too, so a lot of us were zombified in the lab.  We made soooo many mistakes.  Couldn't calculate stuff properly and got stumped when our syringe was too thick to go through the neck of one of our bottles.  We couldn't get our stuff to dissolve and best of all, we almost walked out of the lab without inoculating our culture medium (which would mean we would have no results whatsoever!)  Some microbiologists we're going to be =P  Potential employers be warned.
::| posted by sam @ 5.45pm |

Sun, 08 Feb 2004
right through your noble intentions
I had 2 whole weeks plus to write my 2 lab reports and what do I do? Put them off till practically the last 3 days.  I guess I don't have much choice but to lose sleep tonight.  Why? Why do I never learn?  I'm procrastinating right up to my last semester.  Gotta start writing my resume too, for all the career fairs coming up in this month and in March.  Will probably need my Dad's help with that.  Can't get used to the fact that my time as a student is fast coming to an end.
::| posted by sam @ 9.58am |

Thu, 05 Feb 2004
where have you been?
Many apologies for not updating for such a long time.  Decided to just use this new layout now, cos our new domain name is still in the making.  Please do tell me what you think of it =)  Yesterday Direcow and I went to watch Stuck on You.  Initially I had my doubts about it because of the Farrelly brothers, but I found it quite nicely done (read: not as irreverent and crass as their previous outings).  It had it's sweet moments.  I'm still dying to watch The Last Samurai.  Been trying to start on my lab reports but the going is slow.  Get distracted by my laptop, The Amulet of Samarkand (my current read) and Summer Scent.  The fact that I've been coughing and sniffling doesn't help either, but my appetite is coming back which must mean I'm getting better.  Been hankering for beef hor fun.  Mmm....  Also been wasting time watching American Idol and Survivor All Stars.  I'm in reality tv heaven.  All I need to make my week perfect is Amazing Race.

In case you all are still looking for Clarissa Oon's article that inspired Direcow's writing on Feb 03, it's here>> Lass' Rapid Transit.
::| posted by sam @ 11.47am |

Tue, 27 Jan 2004
just another manic monday
Wow, it's been a week since my last blog.  As promised, here are some pictures of Jonathan Brandis from The Neverending Story II and a early shot of Jeremy Sumpter.  See if you can tell them apart.

I tried looking for my old collection of Jonathan Brandis memorabilia, but only managed to find my old SeaQuest DSV guidebook.  Probably the only thing I didn't throw away.  Sigh.  I bet you nobody in Singapore had as big a collection of his photos as I had.  I used to stake out Holland V and Kinokuniya at Liang Court to look for magazines with him in them each month.  His passing makes me feel like part of my adolescence is gone too.

Had a pretty standard Chinese New Year with all the visiting and ang paos.  Played a lot of bridge and tai ti with my cousins.  Also managed to find the time to watch my Summer Scent (Korean Drama) VCD.  Song Seung Hun has perfected the art of playing the lovelorn guy, even though they gave him a totally metrosexual makeover for this series.  Also been working on a new layout which will debut when we move to our new domain...  oh, and I got my Sony Ericsson T610.
::| posted by sam @ 9.57pm |

Tue, 20 Jan 2004
i'm on your side and i still care
Today I came home in a good mood, after having an interesting lab with white mice and then meeting up with Direcow and the guys.  I wanted to blog about my day, but that shall wait till another day.

I was searching google to find pictures of Jonathan Brandis, as I wanted to do a photo comparison of how much he and Jeremy Sumpter look alike.  I did find those, but I also discovered the saddest news I've ever discovered through the internet.

On Wednesday, November 12 2003.  Jonathan Brandis hung himself and was discovered by friends.  There was no suicide note.  He was 27 years old.  He was an only child and is survived by his parents Greg and Mary.  The news is on CNN and E! Online News.


Jonathan Gregory Brandis
April 13 1976 - November 12 2003

He is best remembered for his role as Lucas Wolenczak on the TV series SeaQuest DSV (known in later seasons as SeaQuest 2032).  He also played Bastian in The Neverending Story II.  More about him from IMDB. My secondary school friends can testify to how big a fan I was of him.  However, after Sec 4 when SeaQuest 2032 was losing it's edge, I didn't continue watching it.  Subsequently , like many other fans, I didn't follow Jonathan's later progress.  The media forgot him and so did we.  His suicide was not even reported in the papers here.  Or maybe it was such a small byline that I missed it.  It hurts to have to find out this way.  It hurts to have found out so late and it hurts that no one knows why he did what he did.  I hope his parents find comfort and peace and that he is in God's hands.  My next few blogs will probably be about him.

Forever is an awfully long time.

::| posted by sam @ 12.02am |

Hosted by www.Geocities.ws

1