Busy busy busy

Had been rather busy for this couple of weeks, and hadn’t had a rest day at all since like 15 days ago? Yeah, it should be somewhere around there. Why? Because my experiments are proceeding nicely forward (shhh…. Keep it to yourself, else if you let it know that you know it’s working, it will purposely fail!), and that I’m rushing to complete as much as possible before I come back to Singapore come Jan 2008 – I had a schedule to adhere to. Furthermore, Rick said somewhere along the line that it’s up to me if I wanna go back to Singapore during Jan 2008 and he is ok with me taking 6-weeks off my work. BUT, as long as work is being done and is progressing, and ultimately the project/PhD is mine! Argh well… I sense some undercurrent going on, but heck, I will take it as it is on the surface. I hate having to guess the subtle meanings behind a conversation. Furthermore, although I always come into the lab around 11am-1pm, I sacrifice my lunch hours and stayed till 7-8pm at times to do my work, and even come back to the lab over the weekends as well. It is just that he didn’t see it, but still my conscious is clear – in that I work hard and that things weren’t going too well before. It’s not that I don’t want to do my work etc… But anyway, I will continue to work hard and I just hope that they aren’t many hurdles for me to cross, and have at least achieve my targets before going back to Singapore.

Anyway, even if I were to slack, it is ok to do so as according to Jorge Cham! LOL… the power of procrastination can lead to great things! And as he mentioned, procrastination is not equivocal to lazy, but rather taking things at a much slower pace, and thereby allowing yourself to reflect more on a certain problem etc… LOL… Just as Newton is procrastinating under the apple tree and not doing work, he came up with the law of gravity! And, how about Kary Mullis? While procrastinating in his car, cruising along the Pacific Coast Highway, he comes up with the concept of Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR), now an essential tool in molecular biological work and Kary Mullis was thus awarded the Nobel Prize. So, maybe I should procrastinate as well! LOL… Anyway, the talk by Jorge Cham on last Monday (10th Sept 2007) is really hilarious. Really brings out the worries of a PhD student in a comical way, and yes, we are not alone! Or rather, I am not the only PhD student with problems. And one thing that was mentioned, and I remembered vividly was – successful researchers or Professors weren’t successful because of their work when they were PhD students! They were successful for their work after their PhD candidature! This is really quite true, and it’s so simple that I didn’t realize it! Another point that I remembered was on the stipend that PhD student received in the US a few years back. Generally speaking, a PhD student would only earn $15 more annually if you compared it with a person who works in MacDonald’s instead! LOL… See? We are just poor students! LOL… I really enjoyed that talk, and I bought the whole series (3 books) of PhD comics. Had Jorge Cham autographed on one of the book, and had to wait for the other 2 books to arrive from US… I hope they arrive soon!

Anyway, my little collection of the plant life in Australia! Enjoy! =)

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Argh.. couldn't get Flickr to display the flickr badge here within a post! Anyone knows how to do it?? Or, just go to http://www.flickr.com/photos/tummybear to look through the pictures! ARgh....