Thursday, December 24, 2009

Fraser Hill

Last weekend was perhaps the best and the worst weekend ever.

It was my first visit to Fraser Hill. It is a slow going town with a cool weather. Definitely one of the best place to stay.

Getting close to nature is the first thing you can do over there.

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Spiders spun webs all over the grills and gates.

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The smoke house.

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...Cosy and warm house to stay in

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There is also a waterfall about 5km away from the clock tower of Fraser Hill – Jeriau Waterfall

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You can ride horse at The Paddock or play archery here.

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Not much you can do up there at Fraser Hills. But if you would like to enjoy the cool weather and some nice sceneries, you’re most encouraged to go up there and experience it yourself.

 

 

Dear all readers,

     This would be my last post for the year 2009. I would be heading off for holidays soon, and will be back in Malaysia on the 11th January 2010. Thanks to all for being so faithful to this blog… haha.

     Anyways, before I leave, I’d like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Do enjoy the holidays while you can!

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Christmas at Pavilion KL

After visiting the lab yesterday, I decided to dropped by Pavilion KL to have a look at their Christmas decoration…

A view from the shiny globe… DSC_7505

Lots of trials and errors stitching and editing for this almost seamless photo stitch… still not a perfect stitch… No wonder the Nat Geo photographers took over thousands of photographs just for a perfect stitch…

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Then it started ‘snowing’ out there… at 8pm sharp…

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Snowing in the Tropics…

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The ‘snow’ is not actually snow… just some foam like soap… haha.

Everyone enjoyed it though… and lots of people are taking photos…

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Tuesday, December 15, 2009

A visit to Setapak FYP

So… I dropped by Setapak FYP labs for a visit… have a chat… and attempt to feel the hustle of getting things done in the Setapak FYP lab… no wonder everyone is under a lot of stress…

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This lab has less students in it… or maybe they’re absent… not sure…

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Cleaning the glasswares after PTC lab…

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One of the best shots of the day…

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And the cutest photo of all…

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Big headed Greg… haha… specially shot with wide angle lens… Give it a try!

Friday, December 11, 2009

The end of Lab Work…

Now that I’ve finished my lab work in Kampar… I am starting to miss the lab life here already…

I’m so going to miss these things…

The troublesome Gilson Micropipettes…

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...where I have to manually pull out the pipette tips instead of pressing the ejector.

 

The tedious agarose gel preparation…

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...where I have to boil and boil and boil before I can cast the gel… and risk getting my migrating gel curved just because my gel is too thick or thin or not well hardened.

 

The place where we put our tools and run our prepared gel…

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LB Broth and Agar…

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...where I have to prepare the cultures in streak plates and broth before I can proceed with DNA extraction…

...and the tools I use to culture them…

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...and the horror of changing the Campingaz canisters when the gas has finished… as if the gas tank would explode or something.

 

The Microcentrifuge machine…

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...quiet hum of the spinning samples… telling me that I’ll be able to separate the pellet and supernatant soon.

 

The tube trays…

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...where I can hold all the microcentrifuge tubes prior to any lab work…

 

The cute little red PCR machine…

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...where I have spent lots of hours trying to figure out why contaminations were still there even after countless times of changing the reagents.

 

The distilled water bottle and tap…

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...to clean up the glasswares after using them.

 

and last but not least…

 

 

 

...the God in my lab…

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...haha!!!

 

I’m sure others would miss their lab hours too… the contaminations, the worries, the troubles, the arguments, the toleration, the helps, the laughter…

They are part of growing up in the lab.

Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Cure for sickness?

I know that prevention is better than cure… but sometimes, when the cold virus hits, you really have to take measures to heal faster…

Instead of going to the Doctors, I’d rather spend money on Vitamin C… 1000mg a day… no harm if you take twice or trice a day…

Then, I head over to sports stadium for exercise… Badminton for 4 days in a row… do sweat a lot…

And gargle your sore throat with Listerine… I know it stings a lot, but you feel very comfortable after that… also, don’t forget to drink lots of water… it helps.

Take hot shower on from head to toe… then cold shower for below the chin… Cold water will cool down your body, while the hot water will keep your head warm and comfortable…

Sleep with thick blankets and jackets to sweat all night… the more you sweat, the better you are the next morning… haha

 

And see… without antibiotics, without anti-pyretic drugs, without flu meds… I’m feeling so much better already… =)

**May or may not work for all people… I’ve done this multiple times… that’s why I know it’s effective for me.

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Blue, blue sky…

It’s been a while since I updated my blog…

Last weekend was not a very enjoyable one… don’t want to talk about it. Let the past slip…

Today, another team of people requested me for another shoot. They’re (again), very easy to photograph… except for the personal portraits.

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This one looked better as compared to the previous photo shoot… but there are still room for improvements…

The sky in this shoot is fantastic, but due to my lack of equipments, I do not have sufficient lighting to light up the subjects. So, I had no choice but to take 2 shots – 1 over exposed, and the other underexposed. Although I don’t really like heavy Photoshop edited photos, I made the choice to merge the 2 images together, to make it a better image.

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I know that the 3 guys’ heads are literally ‘glowing’, but this is strictly no Photoshop! I only used to merge the sky… some sort like HDR.

Anyways, here’s a full panorama view of the blue blue sky…

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Really fascinating…  do not hesitate to click on the panorama to enlarge it. See it for yourself…