Getting ready to go out today, I put on my ex-favourite pair of white strappy sandals.  I took 2 steps and felt instantly like dounut on stlits... really wobbly.  I checked the heels and they are only 2". 

Woah, this is what 2 years in Japan did to me.  I got so used to wearing flats that I find it difficult to walk even in 2" heels!  But I have never felt so tall in a long time.  :)

Don't you love my new layout?  :P

I was watching SouthPark and they talked about cameltoes. 

What the hell are cameltoes, I thought.

Oh! That!

Am I slow? Who knows what a cameltoe is without googling, put up your hands.

All I want for X'mas is a French-English electronic dictionary.

:)

I just electrocuted myself when working on my high-voltage high-vacuum chamber.  A sudden and strong jolt on my right thumb passing right through my body to my left hand.　　Never in my life have I been electrocuted so strongly before.

Thank goodness I am still alive.

Lack of updates because I have been super super busy at work.  It is a lucky day for me if I can squeeze out 5 hours for sleep.  Last week I was in Tokyo, Hakone and Yokohama with J and in 2 weeks I'll be off to Matsue for a conference.  Then 1 week after that it'll be bye bye Japan and hello Singapore and France.  Imagine the packing I have to do, which is not happening because my awake hours are all spent in the lab.  :(

Igor Cassina, Men's horizontal bar, Gymnastics, Team Italia.



Pictures from Athens Olympics 2004

The expression he made off-stage after his competition this evening made my heart skip a beat. 

His expression read "Oops I didnt win..." but I think he won the hearts of millions of females with that look.  :P

heeheeheee

Is this how you guys see me?

In bold are things I agree with. :)

You Are An ENTP

The Visionary You are charming, outgoing, friendly. You make a good first impression. You possess good negotiating skills and can convince anyone of anything. Happy to be the center of attention, you love to tell stories and show off. You're very clever, but not disciplined enough to do well in structured environments. In love, you see everything as a grand adventure. You enjoy taking risks for love. And if things don't work out, you're usually not too much worse for the wear! You would make a great entrepreneur, marketing executive, or actor. At work, you need a lot of freedom to pursue your own path and vision. How you see yourself: Analytical, creative, and peaceful When other people don't get you, they see you as: Detached, wishy-washy, and superficial

I realise that the insects in my area can walk and fuck mate at the same time, or fly and fuck mate at the same time....

amazing!

*speechless*

So today I called the Japan local office of SQ again to ask for extra baggage allowance. 

First i called the ticketing and reservation office.  Apart from the usual "each passenger gets 5kg unofficial extra allowance, and there's no need for special request or putting it down on file.", they refused to do anything else for me.  This is despite explaining to them that i now live in Japan and am moving things back to Singapore.  When I asked to be directed to the relavant department who could do something, they asked me to call the branch office in Osaka.

And I did. 

Told my story, and got the same crap about 5kg unofficial extra allowance.  This time they asked if I am gold member on star alliance airlines and i said no, and they made it sound like it's my fault then because if i am, then I can get an extra 20kg.  Hence there's nothing they can do.  I told them that hey i am moving; i am not your regular tourist on holiday.  Surely there's somewhere i can get help on getting extra baggage?!  She asked me to call Operations at the KIX airport.

grrrh!!  And I did. 

Repeated my story again and got the same crap.  This time, they advised me to call the ticketing office to ask for 'special permission'.  I was super pissed off already and pointed out that ticketing office asked me to call Osaka branch office, and Osaka branch office ask me to call Operations, and now Operations ask me to call ticketing office?! where is this leading to???  Then he changed his story and asked me to call the travel agent I booked my flight from.  I told him i booked it online  from singaporeair.com and so who should i call?  The Singapore office cannot interfere with KIX outbound flights and they asked me to call the Osaka local office.  And Singapore office don't give me so much crap for SG outbound flights. 

Sensing my frustration, this guy appeared to sound more understanding and he told me that he guarantee I can go up to 30kg without getting into trouble.  How does he guarantee that?  Can he put it down on file?  Again, the answer is a flat no.  But he offered that a few days before my departure, if my suitcase is really over 30kg, then i should call again and see what they can do (i hope he is not just saying that to get me off the line!)

I got the feeling that not only am I being tai-chi ed around, these people are super kiasi afraid of trouble and refuse to make themselves responsible for anything by putting their names on record lor.  But hey, they're customer service officers and that's their job isn't it?! (assisting passengers, not getting into trouble).

I feel like I am getting almost no assistance at all from the Japan offices of Singapore Airline.

What a waste of time.  Argh!

One of these morning I got really thirsty when i was asleep, and I think it resulted in me having this high-grade drama dream.

I dreamt that I was in the lab, and feeling really thirsty.  I poured out what I thought was water into a small beaker and drank it in one gulp.  When i took a second look at the bottle, I realised it was concentrated sulphuric acid.  I felt my throat warming up, but it wasn't burning painful.  Just a warm sensation as if I had just drank something hot.  

My first instincts was to wash my mouth with running water, which I remembered a few seconds later that it's gonna make things worse.  Then someone told me that whiskey will help, so I drank a glass of whiskey, neat. 

A few moments later, someone passed me some bread to eat, claiming that it's one of the first aid procedure for concentrated acid ingestion, because bread can absorb water.  (hahaha)

I was then rushed to the emergency clinic whereby some doctor diagnosed me with nothing more than some throat ulcers resulting from the acid burn.  No need to pump stomach because the acid did not get in there. 

I was sitting down with my head dropped to the back, and mouth wide open.  As the doctor approached me with his shiny spatular, with which he was going to scrap the ulcers out, I woke up with a loud gasp. 
(I was snoozing in the exact position on my bed with my back against a pile of pillows)

(For the non-chemists:  In reality, if one adds a little bit of concentrated sulphuric acid to a beaker of water, the dilution releases enough heat to raise the temperature of the water from room temperature to >100degC, depending on the amounts added)

Interesting tips for shiny hair.

1. Add 4 teaspoons of vinegar to 2 tablespoons shampoo and thoroughly massage head while shampooing.

2. Use white vinegar for blonde highlights, raspberry vinegar for redheads, and balsamic vinegar for dark hair.

3. Apple cider vinegar will thoroughly remove excess shampoo and conditioner when used as a final rinse. Mix with an equal amount of tepid water if desired.

4. Reinvigorate highlights by combining a half-cup white vinegar with a half-cup lemon juice and leave in 10 minutes before shampooing.

5. Combine 1/4-cup wine vinegar to 1/4-cup soy sauce to give subtle coloring to dark hair. The soy sauce not only has protein for strength, but also brown pigment. Leave on 15 minutes before washing out thoroughly.

(i have some expiring/ expired soy sauce and apple cidar vinegar at home, hiak hiak hiak!)

Whole article here.

The question:  Suppose N number of people have X coins, but none of them have pockets, how many eggs must they break to cross the river assuming the fix fox will eat the chicken?

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Answer:  4

Nothin' much to talk about recently.

I think i got bitten by some sleepy bug.  Yesterday, I slept until 4+pm, drifted around for 1 hour or so, felt tired and slept again from 6pm to 11pm.  Then at 2+ am slept again until 9.30am this morning.  Terrible!!  But strangely, my dark eye circles are double now.

I had funny dreams too!  I dreamt that I was back at home and the ceiling of my living room looks like bubblized glass, except that it was made of clay.  So it looks like the moon's surface.  And there was some fossilized lizards in them too (!!).  When i was staring at it, I felt really high and started hallucinating.  Then petitcherie appeared and commented about the ceiling.  I got really excited because someone shared my feelings and started describing to her in detail about how I felt when staring at the ceiling. 

Apparently it was Chinese New Year in my dreams, and the table was full of CNY goodies.   But instead of the usual goodies, we had an assortment of kiam chai  (salted vegetables) on the table, elaborately laid out in boxes and stands with kiam chai dangling from them like an art piece.  Yes, uncooked kiam chai.  Then someone joked that it looks like a vegetarian CNY.  So to correct the situation, my mum handed out some bananas (?!! how does that correct the situation?! haha) to put on the table. 

*end of dream* 

Ah...they  changed the fabric of the dress dress and took a better picture.  This one on the website currently looks much less like an insect than this! 




In another news, Yen to SGD today is 1000yen to 14.10SGD.  YEAH!!!!!

I saw this advert in Cosmopolitan US and I had to take a picture of it, because....




Hematite is the mineral iron oxide and should be place in the box for Fe.

Makakite is the mineral copper oxide and hence should be Cu.

Rhodolite, on the other hand, is iron-magnesium-aluminium silicate (i googled this) and should probably be tagged as Mn, since Fe is already taken by Hematite.

Ok, I know, I'm a geek!

HA! it's a occupational hazard!!!

I think stretch jeans are not a good idea in winter because the material stretches out at the arse and tights, so I feel cold there at those places.

I assume, as a defense towards the cold, they will start accumulating *more* fats under the skin to keep warmer.  Which then becomes a vicious cycle:  The jeans gets stretched more, arse and tights feel colder, deposit more fats.

 That's how i felt today when I wore my stretch jeans!

There was this lawn mower who was mowing the huge field beside my apartment this morning. 

After the field has been mowed, he parked the  mower on one side, took out his golf set, and practiced golf on the freshly mowed field. 

How random!  Somewhat amusing.

I study studied Chemistry in school.

All my years through graduate school, I've never encountered anything as powerful a reducer of Mo than ..... myself.

Mo = Money

Reducer of $$, that is!

(incidentally, my research was based on a reduced compound of element Mo, lol.  How apt!)

*Element Mo = molybdenum