Howdy

So I have a totally screwed up sleeping pattern now.

Nap for 2 or 3 hours... then wake up... then sleep till the morning comes.

Anyway...

My colleague finally found my blog. I said that in a previous post right?

But nope... she's not someone from the tech era, clearly. Because she still hasn't figured out how to navigate away from the spy arashi page to read all these posts.... Or else i'm sure she'll be telling me about it already. Asked unsup about it yesterday and she said she was approached by said colleague asking if another of her guesses was me. But no. I'm not biohazard bunny and unsup didn't bother searching my name.

I should encourage her to? HAHAHA.

Since I've already played with fire. Why not? It's the last chance I'll get anyway.

Tmr, I mean, today, is her last day.

Plus... I'd like to see how long it'll take for someone who's internet savvy to find DNA. 

Yeah. Maybe I'll do that.

Playing with fire... It gets addictive really. Whether the fire comes in the form of a little squirrel... Or her husband.

Wahahhaa. We'll see if I get a chance to ask at tmr's lunch. I mean, today's lunch.

Now this is awkward. You know how I personally see a COD (change of day) as whether I've had a proper night's sleep.... SO well. It's not Wednesday anymore cos I've slept. But it's not Thursday yet either by my definition because I've not actually slept.

Gosh.

The things a fragmented sleep can do to you.

I've been so tired lately... Can't sleep properly? I'm waking up earlier and earlier. Like. At 7. So I've been showing up earlier to work too. Though that might change rapidly since things are definitely less hectic come next week.

Probably do a FISH on Mon. Confocal on Tues... And then I'll have to wait??? We'll see... There's one main experiment outstanding to carry out. Another still on-going. But yeah that's about it. Slackkkkk. I should start writing letters again but then... Yesterday I got that R book from unsup and now I'm too excited thinking about what random crap I should try plotting with R. Yeah. I won't learn till I can mess with things. And as nice as the book is with examples. No, I don't like the examples. Kind of lame actually. Nah. I need my own thing to play with. And of course. Games comes to mind immediately. Tally all the damage dealt and the make some nice stats. Or do that paragraph VS words size thing that unsup was talking about. Though that isn't covered in the book. Gah. Or look at some of the actual experiment data I have sitting on that shiny new HD from unsup. Well, data which I mostly have on my lappy since it's stuff that we did together. Well but what? We'll see. I'll get more idea as I read. And try. Well. We'll see how busy I make myself.

And of course it depends a lot on how my new bench mate is. I've stolen 3 of unsup's pipettes and I'll see tmr (I mean, today) what to do with them. Swap the pipettes maybe... Yeah. I prefer eppendorf...

And all the other stuff that's stored on unsup's bench... Which will be given to the new rf (who probably needs a nickname soon)... We'll see. If she's easy to work with and stuff... Cos well. I don't want to clutter up my bench. But if she's not happy about how I'm always drawing stuff out from her bench... As I do with unsup... Then I'll take those stuff to my bench. Well... See the thing is that those stuff are on unsup's bench because it's hers. But I need them for experiments so I'm constantly taking all sorts of stuff from all parts of her bench. Yeah. I know the stuff and their location on her bench pretty darn well. I raided it more often then she raided her own bench after all....

But yes... The new rf.

I don't know what to make of her yet.

But well...

Been thinking about it yesterday and the day before cos we just got formally introduced...

I curious to see how our relationship will turn out hahaha.

But it'll...

Definitely be quite different from unsup.

The starting are different after all.

When I first knew unsup, she was already doing molecular bio stuff.

But the new person? Honestly, I'm still trying to probe and figure out just how much of a molecular bio background she has. How much does she know...? What has she done before...? Still probing, still testing. With all the engineering background people that they hired... I'm definitely wary of the new comers. I just hope that I don't end up doing all the teaching... Because really, it shouldn't be that way. I know nothing. Nothing compared to unsup, compared to people who actually know molecular biology. Which is the problem here. Who actually knows molecular biology? Let's see how the new rf will fare. So yeah. I'll be judging her every step...

It's funny how unsup became well. My sup. Not just 'the one giving me craptons of work', but 'the one I respect as my senior and supervisor'.

Thinking back... I can't pinpoint an exact time it happened. Well, such things don't occur spontaneously after all. It's a gradual shift.

Unlike pretty much all the other rfs that I've worked with. I see them as my equals. As friends but not as someone my senior. Even though in terms of qualification they definitely have more than I do. (That's why they are rfs after all, dammit.) I guess because... I don't see their area of expertise after all. Because when we interact, they are coming into my field. My tiny area of a little expertise. In which they have zero. So they stand below me. But of course, with unsup I'm going into her area. In which I have close to nothing. And in which she still doesn't know just how little I knew. And you can't go wrong with someone so nice, and so knowledgable. There was never a power struggle. She was on top all along. With all the new things (to me then,) that she was getting me to do. All the detailed instructions and protocols. She knew what she was doing and I know that she knows. Which is a lot more than I can say about many of the other people in this lab...

I guess it's mostly because I don't know the background and how much the new rf knows huh. Doesn't help that everyone has been putting me on a pedestal about how much I know... Well... Because no one else knows anything now. Lol. What a fucking joke. The only molecular biologists in the whole institute is an RA. What a fucking bad joke. We'll see... At least now I'll have a new game to distract myself from missing unsup...

Though I should probably distract myself with doing something more useful instead.

Like writing letters. (Aka finding a new job.)

I should find one by May huh? With the current timeline... I'd definitely still be here till June... So I'll just stick around and collect my puny little bonus before hopefully heading elsewhere.

Though.

I'm also wary of other places.

At least here... I don't have to pull long hours. Not anymore anyway.

And definitely not as long as where some other labs are doing. Like working till 9pm everyday.

I almost cried when unsup said that never ever happens in the US. Like. What the fuck am I doing here????

I mean.

Gosh.

Like in my previous job. I'm at work like... 12 hours or more a day on average. Even if you take 2 hours off for lunch and dinner... (And sometimes I only take lunch, no dinner...) That's still 10 hours a day. And I get called back to do pointless things on weekends and public holidays. And the pay was even lower than my current job. Fuck shit. I just hope my next gig won't be crappy like this.

Maybe I'm just really unlucky huh? And only know about all the crappiest places in sg. But that's 3 institutes I've worked at, covering the two main universities in Singapore... As well as the main research agency, and I've heard about a few other institutes... Well. You can say that I hardly know anything... But well, that's just how small Sg is. Just two unis with science research, well a 3rd that just came out. Like just as in literally established 7 years ago... And they don't really do bio stuff. More on design and engineering. So well. And I do know quite a bit about various labs and institutes in the other uni because of the interactions I had when I worked there. The complicated series of interactions... Not that it's really bad actually. Really depends on who you are working with. But well... Would I like to study there? For PhD...? Idk... Students there... Feels to be lacking that excitement for science. Though I think it's definitely better than the students here. And ultimately I'm sick of the system here (been sick of it for more than a decade now) and I want to see the world... At least. Another country.

But anyway. I was going to do a list before I got carried away.

Things to do next month:
- R
- GRE
- JLPT
- Write letters
- Probably be more active on lj, and get back to writing at least once a week on NM

Yeah. That's about it. I can probably get the R thing done pretty well during work hours. Plotting charts of three kingdom soldiers o.0...

I'd like to finish going through the book in a month. Then again, considering how I skipped the first 3 chapters about... Downloading and installing R? And made it to chapter 5 yesterday... I should finish it in a solid week of work huh. Or less. Well, internalising the commands will probably, definitely take longer. Because I have the memory of a fly when it comes to memorising things. But I can REMEMBER things when I use them. Hence the need for a personal project. Or projectS. Well. Hopefully the enthusiasm stays. But I really should get that learnt and over with because there's a ton more programming languages that I want to learn... I'll probably just start with C++ for iOS. And Swift... (Goddamn you just pick any damn language and start learning already!)

Though there's the Adruino toys that I got... and Raspberry Pi... What language do those even use anyway? Gosh I'm hopeless... Depends on what I flash them with huh? Well definitely for the CHIPS anyway. You can dump in android or linux... or... idk what. Yeah... learning android is a must for all these tinkering projects... :X

Anyhow.

Oh yes JLPT.

So I said on FB how I need to sign up by Friday. And now I really have to because unsup asked me about it and she's making goddamn sure that I'll sign up on Friday.

I think I'll just go ahead and kill myself by signing up for the N1. Lol.

Speaking of which, I need to dig around for a passport photo... Or fork out 7 bucks to take a new instant passport photo. I'll probably end up doing the latter. There's a machine at the mrt station near my house. I just gotta remember to do it before heading out to work. Or when coming back from work tmr. Yeah. A quick search on my table reveals nothing. I'll go take that photo. Sis needs to decide which level to sign up for and pass me her photo too. If she wants me to help her sign up that is. Yeah. Which means I'll have to leave work early on Friday so I can get the registration done. Well. Ain't got no work planned for Friday anyway. Just feed my babies and mop around...

Yeah.

That's all for today I guess.

Till next time.

And yeah. Don't know why I'm cursing so much today. I don't usually do that...

Sidenote: Parents are in China on holiday till the 9th of April...