a little bored

have been spending most of my time in the lab these days. finally can start sorting my invertebrate samples, but the microbiology work still gets into the way...have to repeat the process because i cant get any results. haih...i thought i can get it over fast and just concentrate on the invertebrate part, but no. hopefully next week i can have some results and get over with it

sorting the invertebrate samples..is not hard actually, basically you will just have to sit there, look under the microscope, search for those little insect larvae in the sample, pick them up and put them in another smaller bottle. but it is SO TEDIOUS..time consuming and tiring. imagine sitting in a place and searching for little things under microscope for hours! can chat..provided i have someone else in the lab, but actually no good because i will forget which part i have looked through and which part no hahaa. thank god i have a radio in the lab. can at least listen to something and make life a little more interesting hahaa

start to miss field trips..i have just had one on 17/10, but then getting stucked in the lab just making me feel like going out there somewhere again. start to think about the project trip 2 weeks ago (6/10 - 11/10), whereby those few days we were just working in the plantation from early morning until late evening..of course no easy job, but then at least we get to go to different places everyday, and occasionally can see some nice birds..and we did something called 'lamping' one night. we drove around in the plantation and shone light around to detect the animals present. animals' eyes would reflect the light, looking like some little lights, and thats we detect them by looking around for those little eyes. seriously very interesting and exciting haaha..it is really fun to be with these professional wildlife people, you can really learn a lot and see a lot of interesting things. too bad we can only join them for lamping for 1 night

some pictures of the trip..all of them are not my own photographs. i only bought my camera after the trip. next time i will have my own photos. yay!

first day of work. first site. testing the stream water with Jim Fong. she is my batchmate from Monash, working for Wild Asia too for now (photo taken by Yong)

towards the end of the first day. Yong, Jim Fong and me sampling in another river (photo taken by John, one of my bosses)

Yong going through the sample, looking for the tiny invertebrates, counting and identifying them. while Jim Fong recording down the data. i was the one collecting the samples since my identification skill is not as good as his

have a good smell at the sample :p (well of course not la hahaaa. just taking a closer look at the sample for the invertebrates)

caught a cat fish in one of the samples at that sampling site. quite a big one (photo taken by John)

dragonfly mating. saw them on our way out from a forest. the bottom one is the female (photo taken by Yong)

in that forest, i saw some peakcock fern too. really nice looking fern, the leaves are blue in some parts other than the normal green. this picture was not taken in that forest though. it was in taman negara (photo by Yong)

a black shouldered kite. one of the nice birds we saw in the plantation (photo by Yong)

the lovely common palm civet cat that we saw when we did lamping that night. it was hiding on one of the oil palm trees. so cute!! (photo by Dave, one of the bird watchers in our team)

we also saw a leopard cat. beautiful, isnt it? :) (photo by Dave)

closer look at the cat

our group photo, taken at the place we stayed. from left: Jim Fong, me, Dave, Yong, John and Kim Chye. Dave, John and Kim Chye are the professional bird watchers. John is also an ecologist. he knows almost everything! from birds to flowers to dragonflies..you name it. he is just amazing!

zz time. back to the lab tmr..

new camera!

lately my cousin's old Canon Ixus died...which is really quite inconvenient for me since i want to take pictures of my sampling site, and it is really a pain when i go for field trips because i cant take any pictures at all. so decided to get one, using some of my hard-earned money and the other part is sponsored by my father. went to the Canon Expo today, and bought it!

This is it: Canon PowerShot A570 IS



my actual target is actually an Ixus, since i have been using Ixus all this while. but then..mainly because of the price (which is a little cheaper than the Ixus 75 i wanted initially), and also the functions (since you can sort of 'play' and learn more as you can adjust those shuttle speed etc, but you cant do these with an Ixus), and the freebies (i got a backpack and a 2GB memory card), so i bought this...at first i was still a little worried about the camera, since it is obviously more complicated than just a simple Ixus. but to think about it now, i m happy, since i have my own camera :) hopefully i will fully understand everything one day hahaaa

saw Simon Yam (任达华) today..well he is not really my idol, but he is still a super star. so joined in the fun to have a closer look at him, asked for his autograph and took a picture with him. once he arrived, the camera flashes just couldnt stop!!! but he was really friendly, didnt see a moment of him rejecting any shots or refusing any request for autographs. it is of course undeniable that he is VERY GOOD LOOKING, eventhough he is not very young. show u the picture when i get it then

had quite a nice day with Eileen, who went to the Expo together with me. thanks for the day :)

have been sick for a few days..sorethroat and flu. haih..dont like flu because i cant sleep well when i have blocked nose, and flu is always tiring. let me get well please..

ending

the damselfly is dying...or maybe by now it is dead already.

yesterday when i came back from the field trip, it was still on the plant, moving slightly. this morning when i reached the lab, it wasnt on the plant anymore...feeling a little nervous, i started to look around, searching for it. not on the plants, not around the pots....i was about to give up the search when i finally saw it..it was lying on the floor, looking dead. i thought, oh god, times up..but as i put it on my palm, i realised it moved! not dead..kind of happy, but it was quite sad looking at it, not able to move much, most probably because it was too hungry. i cant do anything to help it...where can i get any insects to feed it?? i can only watch it ending its life slowly. how sad..

i left it on my table, and started my work. it didnt move at all for most of the day, not that i noticed. before i went home, i decided to put it on the petri dish cover that i have, and by then, it really didnt move anymore..as i was considering whether i should add in any alcohol to preserve it, it moved!. god! i nearly killed it..lucky i havent poured in the alcohol yet. but it was really quite sad looking at it, trying its best to move, maybe trying to escape thinking that we were hurting it, but it was just too weak to do anything..it would really be a miracle if it survives over the weekend

it is always sad to watch living things losing their life. i dont like it...or maybe i shouldnt have developed any feelings for it, and just treat it as a 'thing'..then maybe i wouldnt feel sad when it is gone. but i am a human..how can i not feeling anything?

surprise in the lab

yong brought back some dragonfly and damselfly larvae during the field trip last week. they were left in the lab when we were back to KL on last friday. over the long weekend, i had been wondering what would have happened to them, whether they would survive, since they had no food. today when i was back to the lab, i found that some of them actually survived, alive and kicking in the plastic jars..and when i moved one of the jars, something actually flew out of it! God!! i was really surprised! it was actually a damselfly..one of the damselfly larva had turned into an adult!! hahaa...really didnt expect this to happen. the damselfly looks really delicate, and it is white in colour. maybe it will change colour later on, which i am not sure. i remember seeing the same type of damselfly when i went to one of the sampling sites. one of them flew out when i disturbed the water grass in the stream.

so what happens to the damselfly? it is still in the lab hahaa..the owner decided to let it hang around in the lab. it is still alive and hiding on the plant in the lab when i left. hopefully tomorrow i will still see it alive in the lab. poor thing...struggling without food. i wonder how long more it can survive

this is how a damselfly looks like. damselflies look more or less like dragonfllies, but they have a slimmer body, more delicate-looking. damselflies have their wings closed up when they perch on somewhere, whereas dragonflies have their wings spreaded out when they perch. do have a good look at a dragonfly next time if you have never noticed this before

long weekend

which was not eally very long though. thought i would spend most of my time at home, resting after the tiring field trip, but i ended up being out on sunday and today.

on sunday eugene invited me to the church. have not been there for such a long time..last sem was quite caught up with assignments. then slowly didnt really visit there anymore. still felt the same warmth that i had before when i was there. saw some familiar faces. had a good time catching up with eugene too. enjoyed it

today went back to the office. the lab was closed due to public holiday, so decided to go back to the office to do some work. one of my batch mates, jim fong, is working in the same office as me now, so it isnt too boring or just about work when i m back to office. had quite a nice lunch, and then we decided to go for a movie after work. watched Lust, Caution (色，戒). quite a good movie, eventhough ya, there was only caution and not much of lust due to the censoring hahaha..quite a nice day. enjoyed the outing

have not been very happy these days. but these 2 days of outing really cheered me up. great :)

i guess i am just too kind to some people...no matter how much they make me angry, eventually i will still forgive them somehow. i will still be kind to them. am i stupid? most probably...i dont know

angry for nothing

back from the one-week field work. no easy job...but did have some fun. maybe will talk more about it another day. not today. i m very tired

tend to get even more emotional when i m very tired. if i m sad i will feel even more sad, if angry i will just feel like killing people. maybe it is just something not really worthwhile for me to be angry with, but still i just cant make myself to feel better. guess i m just too tired

there are a lot of things that i dont understand. maybe there is really no need to understand at all..maybe

i really need some sleep. good night

work

very busy...sampling after sampling, field trips non-stop..had one field trip last week which was purely just for fun, then 2 sampling trips this week (one on wednesday, another one on thursday), from tomorrow onwards until next thurday will have another field trip which is for work and hopefully i will enjoy it. i do enjoy field trips, but i realise it can be really tiring when the trips are just too close together. just feel so tired because of the consecurtive field trips on wed and thurs....just feel like having a good sleep. just dont feel like having any trips anymore..yet i do feel excited when i think about the trip tomorrow. like the idea of visiting new places, eventhough i will be going to oil palm plantations yet again..just hope that i will enjoy myself. to tell you the truth, i enjoy my trips eventhough they are tiring. ya i do..hope i will have fun for the trip tomorrow

guess i should just finish up my work as fast as i can and then sleep.....i am just SO TIRED....haih