I lost my voice for awhile.

I'm hoping that the trail of breadcrumbs I left will lead her home, but we'll just have to wait and see.


How are you doing?

I shall get around to updating and giving reasons why I've been gone for so long. However, there is a REALLY PRESSING REASON that has forced me to write once more.

I've been stuck at home for the past few days, only leaving to procure food and other essential items necessary for basic survival, to study (a.k.a. cram) for my final exams.

It was around the third straight day of re-listening to certain neurobiology lectures (which I had... Uh... "Partially lost consciousness" in when I had attended them in person...) when it finally hit me:

I have been studying ways to measure, quantitatively, how a type of sea slug controls it's ability TO PEE. I'm talking about shining light through their RENAL PORE and using the data from photo-sensitive cells to determine exactly HOW DILATED it is in response to having their neurons ELECTRICALLY SHOCKED.

...

I don't know. For me, it was a moment.

Frankly though, I'm kind of excited about all the wonderful dinner table conversation material I'll be picking up over the course of my time here at university.

-Jz

It is finally spring. I have one last final exam to do tomorrow and then I shall be able to go outside and make the most of it. Don't take the sun and warmth for granted everyone. Give the sun some love <3


I also have a new song that's stuck in my head (Mika's "Grace Kelly" is pretty distracting while trying to remember if it was cdc2 or cdc25 that was responsible for some biochemical mechanism. Trust me) called "Soft One" by Matthew Barber which you should all check out because
1. The first few lines are what hooked me and
2. Tilt-a-whirls.

Go check it out along with his other songs from his latest album "Sweet Nothing" at Matthew Barber's website

*************************************************
"Soft One" Lyrics

You might be messing 'round with other boys,
But they won't love you back.
You might be messing 'round with other toys,
But they won't hug you back.
You might be messing 'round with other men,
But they will do you in.
You might be messing 'round with other girls,
I love your tilt-a-whirls.

Come here and make it a soft one baby doll,
Come here and make it a soft one.
You don't come over that often baby doll,
Come here and make it a soft one.

You might be holding on to someone right,
But you don't know it yet.
And does the thought of that give you a fright?
You're second guessing now.

You might be holding on to someone new,
Hell, you might even be enjoying it.
And does the thought of that give you the blues?
Does it fill you with regret?

Oh, come here and make it a soft one baby doll,
Come here and make it a soft one.
You don't come over that often baby doll,
Come here and make it a soft one.

You might be making a mistake,
You might be making a mistake,
You'll never know if you miss him when you go.

You might be making a mistake,
You might be making a mistake,
You'll never know if you miss him when you go.

You'll never know if you miss him when you go.
You'll never know if you miss him when you go.

Come here and make it a soft one baby doll,
Come here and make it a soft one.
You don't come over that often baby doll,
Come here and make it a soft one.

Come here and make it a soft one baby doll,
Come here and make it a soft one.
You don't come over that often baby doll,
Come here and make it, make it, make it now,
Come here and make it a soft one.

-Matthew Barber

For those who need to see to believe, here's the view I woke up to today:



You can't even see the mountain the snow is so thick...

I can't wait to be able to go home to the tropics.

-Jz

If it weren't for your maturity
none of this would have happened
If you weren't so wise beyond your years
I would've been able to control myself...
-'Hands Clean', Alanis Morissette

Well... perhaps not so much a flash as more of a... ramble: a non-sequential retelling of certain events that are somewhat current. I also feel like writing this in one go. Kind of like a train of thought exercise. See if you can keep up heh.


Yesterday it was warm enough that I just went out in a t-shirt, jeans and a light jacket. Today it's snowing and someone mentioned that we're going to get 5cm of snow tonight. I swear, the weather is just toying with my emotions. WHY IS IT SNOWING IN APRIL?! WHERE IS SPRING?!

I have a 6-day weekend starting... well, now I guess. Don't have classes on Tues and Thurs and I have Fri and Mon off *does a happy dance*. Only one more day of classes left before final exams (eek!).

I went to the Biodome last, last weekend and I might go see the botanical gardens and insect park this weekend (two part ticket basically). If it's snowing though I don't know how much fun it will be... Unless it's indoors...

The twins, Jen and I have finally, finally got our apartment sorted. We thought we had it all sorted and ready to go by the beginning of Feb but halfway through MARCH our "future" landlord called me up and told me he couldn't give us the house because he wasn't too comfortable with the idea of us subletting and leaving for summer holiday bla bla bla. Feeling pretty pissed off and shocked as it seemed to come out of the blue (we were about to sign the lease we were all that sure it was going to work out), I demanded he let us meet and discuss this and see if we couldn't come up with some kind of compromise since it was already pretty late and most of the nice 4-person houses near campus had all been taken by that point.
    After battering him for a few minutes he then finally confessed that he didn't want to have to tell us this but the real reason why he couldn't give us the house was because he's now actually in the middle of getting a divorce and his soon to be ex-wife suddenly has taken an interest in the house so it might be part of the settlement.
    Awkwarddddd....
    So yes, after a panicked and frantic search for more houses, we found a gorgeous place quite close to school where no one has to live in the basement. Can't believe our luck to be honest. I have some pictures up on Facebook but if you don't have it yourself, drop me a line and I'll send some if you're really that interested in seeing it.

I'm taking a summer course from June 4th - July 4th. Calculus. Starts at 8:30am Mon-Thurs. THAT should be fun ¬_¬  <--- hehe my first sarcastic smiley :)
That means though that I'll only be in S'pore for May which means I won't get to see a whole bunch of you guys... *sigh*  On the BRIGHT side, Montreal is THE place for cool events so hopefully I'll get to go to concerts and see a few Just For Laughs shows. Who knows, I might even be the victim of one of their hidden camera tricks :D I'll also be going to a Chan Clan family reunion thingy in Toronto which should be awesome. Haven't seen the gang all together in ages.

I've spent the last week and a half stressing over course selection. I don't know why but the majority of the bio classes I need to take only happen in the fall and at one point I only had TWO courses for the winter term while I had 8 or so courses for the fall. Anyways, I think I have it sorted and if everything goes according to plan, I'll finish my degree in 3 and a half years with a major in biology and a minor in biotechnology (I get to take management courses! micro econs, intro to financial accounting and marketing. Should be an interesting mix).

I'm taking an intro to comp programming course this semester. I now know how to program using Java. I also now know that I can NEVER be a programmer. I've literally once had to spend 18 hours in front of the comp, only stopping to eat and such. It was SOUL NUMBING. Not to mention butt numbing. So yes, programming isn't for me even though I do enjoy it. Perhaps I'll go find somewhere where they teach website design. THAT I think I would really enjoy.

I was almost at risk of completely missing my birthday this year. Literally. I would've been on a plane and then due to crossing the International Date Line, May 2nd would've disappeared: leaving on May 1st and arriving May 3rd hahaha... BUT my daddy saved my birthday so that we'll be in New York, not on a plane, and he's treating me to dinner and the Broadway musical SPAMALOT! (based on Monty Python's The Holy Grail). I'm excited :D

I have just above $550 left on my mealplan card. I SHOULD be at around $300. I don't know how I'm going to be able to spend all that money... I can't help it that I don't eat that much nor that often :( It's too bad I can't get that money back...


THE CONCLUSION - The Obligatory Link To A Great Way To Waste Time

Dredged up this link from chat logs to show everyone. It's a BRILLIANT way to pass the time. You're a little micro-organism type thing that has to eat other things to get bigger and EVOLVE. Fun and has cool graphics and music. Very new age. If you don't really get how to play there's a mini help link up at the top but it's pretty much just learn as you go :) Oh, and because I know there are some competitive types out there, I got up to level 2 before realising I had wasted almost two hours on this thing and I still had work to do XD

GO TO THE FLOW!

-Jz

Taurus (Bull)

Born April 20 - May 20

Petty, annoying and a whiny pain in the neck, a Taurus loves to brown-nose and is often a snitch to boot. In life and work, always blows with the wind, and runs to answer to his supperiors' smallest whim.

A chronic poser (will pass himself for an altruist, or in the case of a woman - a tortured soul), while harboring contempt for those around him, and in his mind fancying himself the center of the universe.

A Taurus loves wealth, and will greedily collect it in secret for most of his life. He is willing to sacrifice the last bit of wealth for a good cause - as long as it's someone else's.

Ego-centric, with a sadistic streak, he will terrorise his family from childhood until his old age, all the while managing to project the appearance of love and kindness.

Tauruses love preferential treatment, and will usurp such privileges whenever possible.

Lately all my energy has been spent trying to keep warm and stop myself from dying from either exposure or hypothermia. Keeping up with civilised day-to-day conversation and assignments have taken the rest of it.

/end excuses for not updating.


Brief overview I guess:
Went back to Singapore during the break for about a week and a half. That was my holiday. I'm now back at uni taking 3 bio courses (basic genetics, cell biology and metabolism, biology of organisms) and a computer programming course. Up till now it's mostly been stuff I did back in gr 9/10 computing but what ever. I'm learning to programme in Java. Hopefully I'll come out after my next few years at McGill with at least ONE practical skill.

It is FREEZING here. -30ºC is awful. Windchill too. The novelty of snow and winter has long since worn off I can tell you that.

We've also had our 23rd fire alarm. One was at 3am and I had to go outside in -26ºC weather wearing a coat and pyjamas for TWENTY MINUTES. I actually thought I was going to die or at least lose my legs to frostbite it was that bad.

Enough ranting, it is now time to do the ritual quote of the moment (I FINALLY got around to watching "When Harry Met Sally").

Harry: You realize of course that we could never be friends.

Sally: Why not?

Harry: What I'm saying is — and this is not a come-on in any way, shape or form — is that men and women can't be friends because the sex part always gets in the way.

Sally: That's not true. I have a number of men friends and there is no sex involved.

Harry: No you don't.

Sally: Yes I do.

Harry: No you don't.

Sally: Yes I do.

Harry: You only think you do.

Sally: You say I'm having sex with these men without my knowledge?

Harry: No, what I'm saying is they all want to have sex with you.

Sally: They do not.

Harry: Do too.

Sally: They do not.

Harry: Do too.

Sally: How do you know?

Harry: Because no man can be friends with a woman that he finds attractive. He always wants to have sex with her.

Sally: So you're saying that a man can be friends with a woman he finds unattractive?

Harry: No, you pretty much want to nail 'em too.

Sally: What if they don't want to have sex with you?

Harry: Doesn't matter because the sex thing is already out there so the friendship is ultimately doomed and that is the end of the story.

Sally: Well, I guess we're not going to be friends then.

Harry: Guess not.

Sally: That's too bad. You were the only person that I knew in New York.

Harry: Would you like to have dinner?... Just friends.

Sally: I thought you didn't believe men and women could be friends.

Harry: When did I say that?

Sally: On the ride to New York.

Harry: No, no, no, no, I never said that... Yes, that's right, they can't be friends. Unless both of them are involved with other people, then they can... This is an amendment to the earlier rule. If the two people are in relationships, the pressure of possible involvement is lifted... That doesn't work either, because what happens then is, the person you're involved with can't understand why you need to be friends with the person you're just friends with. Like it means something is missing from the relationship and why do you have to go outside to get it? And when you say "No, no, no, no, it's not true, nothing is missing from the relationship," the person you're involved with then accuses you of being secretly attracted to the person you're just friends with, which you probably are. I mean, come on, who the hell are we kidding, let's face it. Which brings us back to the earlier rule before the amendment, which is men and women can't be friends.

Sometimes I disagree and other times I'm not so sure...

-Jz

Now that I'm a bit calmer, I also wanted to add that I watched the movie Happy Feet which turned out to actually be really fun. It also had the most awesome soundtrack.

"WAIT! Do you hear that? .... That's the sound of people wanting... ME"

THERE'S SLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEET

T___________________________________________T

it was NOT worth getting out of bed this morning.

Use key words in your speech to really appeal to your target audience. Some examples include but are not limited to:

BOMB WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION NUCLEAR USA IRAQ SINGAPORE GOVERNMENT ELECTIONS POLITICS SADDAM OSAMA FREEDOM FIGHTERS COMMUNISM DEMOCRACY DICTATOR SUICIDE JIHAD WAR HIJACK AIRPORT SUBWAY BIOCHEMICAL SMUGGLING DRUGS 9/11 PEACE AT ALL COSTS.

As the watchdogs descend upon me, I'd like to use my brief 30 seconds of fame to say
I love you too.

The darkness is messing with my brain.

-Jz