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I See I Write

Messy Western Baby

took the above photos when I had my lunch at the Botanical Garden. I was in shock when I witnessed the baby just playing with the plate of rice by pounding the spoon onto the plate for a good half an hour or more. Rice flying everywhere and if you think that the table was messy, the floor was worst. The poor waiter has to clean the floor a couple of times while the baby was having fun and the mother was just not giving a damn!

What shocked me more, besides at one time the baby dropped the spoon onto the floor and his brother picked it up from the floor and gave it back to the baby (guess what, the baby licked the spoon clean!), was the baby’s mother after seeing much of the rice was “eaten” refilled the plate with even more rice. What sort of motherhood is that?

I was used to admire the way Western culture brings up the children – teaching their kids more independent and all. Now, I really admire the Chinese way of upbringing – discipline and respect.

Well, I may be bias but you must understand the emotion I am going through with these pictures.

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I See I Write

More Similar Than I Thought

I remember towards the end of the the show “Something’s gotta Give”, the mother said to her daughter that they probably have more similarity than her daughter have thought ever since she was young. Having my mother and sister flying from Hong Kong visiting me over the weekend surely reminded me that amongst us, we do have a lot of things in common. Walking in the Botanical Garden after lunch was like having three of me walking together. All three of us took our time strolling in the park, observed everything from flowers to tree shapes, taking photos on every unique locations, and just walking till dusk. The entire experience was so enjoyable.

Back at home, my mother was showing the photo album that my father has composed in video format. My father must spent a lot of effort in making a 40 minutes slide show with background music, the photo selection and arrangement, and the title texts and effects. It must have been an obsession for him. And according to my mother, this video copy is already the “Greatest Hits”. I wouldn’t be able to image for a full length video will look like. At times, I have no doubt that all my passion and obsession in everything that I do – right now it is music making – comes from my father.

And back to the Botanical Garden trip, I have taken a total of 180 photos not counting those that I have deleted on the spot. Of course, that is nothing compare to my mother’s reputation in taking thousands of photo whenever she has a holiday overseas.

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I See I Write

A Song That Goes On And On

LC introduced me to DJ Tiestos’s Close To You. And she is right. You can just keep playing this song again and again and keep on wanting more. It is true. For the entire day, I listen to nothing but Close To You. I grew so addict to the artist that I actually bought one of his latest album today.

The beauty of the song mainly comes from the tune and the very sexy lady voice. But the gem comes from the lyrics itself. LC asked me to listen to the lyrics of the song and see what I get out of it. I had so many interpretation ranging from a song sung by the ghost, to someone who is very depressed over the lack of love, to a song to be sung to a lover who is buried under the tombstone.

LC has a different perspective and it has completely blown my mind away. Why don’t you try to decipher and have it posted as a comment. I will post what LC thinks later on.

The lyrics of the song can be found in http://lyrics.trancestation.nl/79 and this song can be downloaded quite easily via the Internet.

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I See I Write

Upstairs Neighbour Having Fun in the Middle of the Night

Back in UK while I was staying at the accomodation provided by the University, it was quite common to hear the “bed squeaking sound” from upstairs. Occasionally you would hear the sound of moaning. Those were the days.

It is Singapore. Even when I was living in a government housing block, I did not get to hear the “music” from upstairs. Last night however, in the condo of mine, the “bed squeaking sound” just appeared from no where. Do I have new neighbour moving in after months of vacancy?

When I went to bed last night, because the weather was quite cool, I didn’t turn on the air-con. And it was this quietness did I realise my newly occupied neighbours from upstairs were having fun of their own.

My mind was actually drifted back to my Oxford days. I remembered the block where I was staying. The coldness. The darkness. The foreigness. All the oh so sweet memories. What can I say? Golden age of mine.

The pattern from upstairs was interesting. Seemed to me that there were plenty of resting between the actions. Actually I was not paying attention to what was happening upstairs. My mind was flooded with memory.

Before I know it, I heard the footsteps towards the bathroom and water was flowing down the bath tub pipe.

And that was when I fell asleep.

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From the Attic I See I Write

Of Nuclear Transfer and Transgene Technologies

Been a very tiring day (last night’s party) and didn’t really work for the whole day.  Meeting here and meeting there.  Politics and gossips and so on.  Enhancement and bug talk.  You name it.  Lunch time rushed down to “New Men” and collected my pair of trousers.   Japanese for dinner.  What else?  Brought a pair of sport shoes and I am ready to go for my holiday.  One more thing, finally had my haircut appointment.  Still no news from JP.  Probably she has forgotten me.  Wanted to dial in Lotus Notes but the server in Paris does not respond.

Check this out.  The Nuclear Transfer Technology.

The technique involves several steps.  First, the donor cells are grown under special conditions in culture.  In this way the number of cells can be increased by several orders of magnitude.  It is also possible to make genetic modifications and to select just those cells in which the desired modification has occurred and multiply these up.  These cells are then fused with an unfertilized egg from which the introduced nucleus can lead to the formation of an embryo.  The embryos are then transplanted into sheep and lambs are born naturally.

  1. Cells of donor embryo are separated
  2. Chromosomes are removed from the unfertilized egg
  3. Donor cell is place next to oocyte and fused it with an electric current
  4. Embryo develops as though a newly fertilized egg

Check this out as well.  The Transgene Technology

Transgenic technology is the introduction of a gene(s) from one species into the DNA of another.  In the current methods for production of transgenic animals, the gene of interest is introduced into a fertilised egg and becomes integrated into the host DNA.  The gene is linked to a piece of DNA, called the promoter, which makes it active only in certain parts of the transgenic animal.  In PPL Therapeutics’ case, genes encoding human proteins are expressed so that the protein is produced in the animal’s milk.  Because the protein is produced only in the milk, the animal is normal and healthy.