Dilemma!

Ugh.. what shall I do? My friend just contacted me suddenly today to tell me someone's giving away a HEDGEHOG! My goodness... i've been wanting to keep one for ages! But i always thought that it was only a pet popular in America and not here in Singapore. Anyway, i contacted the middle person, and now i found out that i actually gotta pay for it - 450 bucks, and it's an albino baby. Haiyah... i much prefer a brown baby to tell the truth. What shall I do? It would be awesomely lovely to finally have a Hedgie for a pet though. ~dilemma dilemma~ Then I can make a little nice pen for him with warm clean soil and some wood, and feed him with meal worms and cat biscuits every day, and take him for little journeys to meet my human friends....

Easter/Good Friday weekend

Friday's concert was a beautiful culmination of all the hard work and spiritual battling over the past two months. The stress of coming up with a music track that the leaders wanted, choreographing the dance, helping out with STOMP item (loved it), encouraging the Sec 1s to get serious about their stepping dance, seeing my fellow dancers stress over finding appropriate costumes, seeing the lighting crew struggle with uncooperative light fixtures, seeing the painting and dance segment fit in perfectly with the amateur music medley i came up with, fighting private emotional battles, praying fervently during service with the dance gals, seeing non-Christians and backsliders making a stand for God. WOW. I'm totally worn out, but I'm freakin' happy. I feel alive. It's totally madcap how God made everything turn out beautifully despite all the imperfections and haphazardess.

Can't deny it. To use all that's been given to us to bless others, and to see one more walk in freedom. That sure is kick ass.

SCREAM!!!

Yay!!! It finally happened! Whee! I wanna scream out for joy in the lab but I have to restrain myself and not act like a high school kid (even though I'm madly feelin' like one now). Heheheehehehe.... I feel foolish but I don't really care! Yay! That sure chased the blues away.
I was so glum the whole mornin 'cuz there are some complications in the paper I'm writing. Don't think can finish it easily now. Aiiii.. but for this moment? I DON'T GIVE A DAMN!

Race against time...and myself

A paper that needs to be written so that I can apply for leave and go on a mission trip. My workplace is far from the ideal place to write - it is delightfully filled with distractions and a never ending list of errands to run, coupled with people. Oh shucks... I feel so stressed. And it's horrible because I got to do lab inventory, entertain some people from Bintan Banyan Tree who's here to learn conservation techniques, and process finance claims tomorrow. All this time, the clock is ticking and I'm losing time.
And guess what, I'm wasting time writing this because I can't bring myself to look at the paper 'cuz I'm feeling so uninspired. Discipline is something I'm not fantastic in. Shatz. I can't fight myself...but I gotta. HELP.

Forbidden food and a glimpse of the olden days

i was greeted with a surprise today when I went on board the Mudskipper boat this morning. Ishak, Rahmat and Salam greeted me with an awesome dish that I never thought I'll try in this lifetime.Pufferfish curry!
Apparently the boatmen had the fortune of catching a huge-ass puffer yesterday (about 0.5m long!) at Semakau Island and as was the usual practice, their catch became lunch the next day for the lucky soul who's doing work-dive.

In Hawaii, seven deaths have occurred from pufferfish poisoning. In Japan, many have died from pufferfish poisoning because of a popular dish called fugu. Fugu is not a Japanese name, but the genus (the first of an organism's two scientific names) of the type of pufferfish Japanese prefer eating. Fugu pufferfish are not found in Hawaii.

Even though there's a risk of being poisoned or killed by fugu, some people consider it a delicacy and pay high prices to get it. Certain methods of fish preparation take out most of the poison. Japanese chefs who prepare fugu must undergo training in special techniques and then pass rigorous tests to be licensed.

Still, fugu chefs don't remove all of the toxin because part of the fun of eating fugu is the induced sense of euphoria. Some also claim it is an aphrodisiac.

Whatever its effects, eating anything that might contain any amount of tetrodotoxin is not worth the risk. This poison is about 10,000 times more potent than cyanide.

In "Foodborne Pathogenic Microorganisms and Natural Toxins Handbook" (2003), the FDA reports that the gonads, liver, intestines, skin and flesh of pufferfish can contain levels of tetrodotoxin sufficient to produce rapid and violent death.

Or not. Some pufferfish contain no poison at all.

The reason for this variance is that pufferfish (and other animals) get their toxin from marine bacteria that manufacture it inside the fish. Several kinds of microbes make this deadly poison.

All occur naturally in warm sea water and estuaries throughout the world.

Among these are some bad-boy bugs: Vibrio species, some of which cause cholera and other lethal infections, and Pseudomonas, usually the source of the infection (among others) known as swimmer's ear.

Some pufferfish accumulate these natural, poison-producing bacteria while grazing on algae, invertebrates and decaying plants and animals. The fishes' four big teeth, which form a kind of beak, are ideal for scraping, crushing and cutting such food.

Miniature Drums!

I'm not a gadget freak but this product totally rocked my socks! All thanks to June who send me the link to this.

Without further ado, let me introduce to you the coolest drum set on earth:
the FINGER DRUMS!

Made for any drummer who has a habit of drumming fingers on desks, steering wheels...whatever. Also a welcome relief for bored people stuck in the office during the day who's itching to get some groove going.

The web address to view product details is:
http://www.iwantoneofthose.com/office-toys/desk-top-toys/mini-drum-kit/index.html

Please Read This

Sorry for cancelling the jamming today. And sorry I had to put up this post.. Don't really know how to talk this face to face (not a very fantastic speaker)

After jamming together for quite some time, I really feel that things aren't working out as I would hope our band would. We've been trying to compromise on things and try our best to work well with one another all throughout but I believe that a band isn't just about compromise but about having the same direction, psychologically, emotionally and most importantly, musically.

And so, I feel that our band should come to an end.I'm glad to be able to jam with you girls, but if things don't work out well, we should all move on.

For me, I would love to jam often (weekly or even more than that), work efficiently on covers to gain a good grounding in basics, so that I can use that knowledge in doing more originals, more efficiently as well.

I also want a chinese band essentially (because there is where my musical inclinations lie ultimately).

And last of all, I feel that we have different working styles (in terms of practicing and how we want to conduct jam sessions). So rather than hold one another back (not just in terms of the band but also in our other interests or careers), its better to put an end to things, to go develop in our own directions.

Thank you girls for making my dream of performing as a band come true and for those great jam sessions we've had. Wish you all the best =)

Sorry once again.