Out of the frying-pan into the fire

So, last day of co-op today! =P........it was rather uneventful and not very dramatic........the lab was oddly empty today, with only 5 other people in the two rooms that we occupy, which normally houses around 12.......

but yes, these past four months have definitely been interesting.......not quite sure how to describe what has happened (both in and out of the lab)........i guess really the only adequate description of such an experience is that I found myself sailing across the ocean and all of a sudden I realized I no longer knew where I was going........the sky started to cloud over and waves started to thrash....rain started pouring and lightning filled the sky.......and so I found myself thinking that if i sailed just a little further I'll see land..........

So after roughing it past four month's of co-op, and realizing I'm more lost than ever, new concerns have made figuring out where I'm headed a trivial matter......I have been blind-sided by tropical storm BCIT. With its seven courses and five labs and 32 hours of classes a week, it's bound to wreck havoc and cause major system failures.....yet, even as we speak and the gale force winds start to pick up, storm-proofing will have to wait.........the co-op paper needs to be written and the questionnaire requires completion.........

hai.........shoot me.........

Drunk at the Lab

The story goes that someone at the lab got their paper accepted, and so we had a little celebration before lunch with some bee-shaped cookies and some honey whiskey (or more appropriately, honey diluted with whiskey)


Now I've never had anything this strong ever before.....so i was rather startled by how repugnant it smelled (yes, I'm definitely no fan of alcohol).....but of course, out of politeness I had to finish the cup I was given......by the time I was finished everything kinda tilted to the right and walking in a straight line presented a bit of a challenge XD.......and i also developed a headache for the rest of the afternoon.........good thing i didnt have anything intensive to do, just more bacterial plating

38th Annual Summer Reading Session for Church Choir

Now this was definitely a very different experience.......having had the chance to attend a couple of different conferences (both for church and for academia), I was very much caught off guard by this one......being a fish out of water doesn't quite encompass the inadequateness of my talents for an even such as this.......

I was thinking this would just be similar to any of the other conferences I've attended. There'd be lecturers and powerpoint presentations as they go over the finer details of leading a church choir and singing with the right voices.....and so i didnt think much of the fact that while most of the people at the event were choir directors, I was given the noble title of "selector of a fun Christmas tune"......until I was handed the package of 60+ choral pieces at the registration desk


I sat down and sifted through all the sheet music, finding only an order form attached.....interesting, i thought......no program? no topics of focus?......it was then that i realized we were sitting in front of curtained stage.....maybe, i thought, there would be a choir that would sing all of this for us, and so that's why i am here to pick one that i like

It was not until the "clinician", as they called him, stepped up that I realized how wrong I was.....the reason of why this was a "reading" session finally dawned on me.......as we flipped open the first piece of our stack and he signaled the piano to begin, I realized that WE were the ones to sing through all of this

This arrangement posed several problems. First of all, given that my professional piano career ended more than three years ago, my sight reading abilities were virtually nonexistent. Even then, I have never learnt to read voice. I would follow along the melody and completely miss all the words, or follow the words and have no clue what to sing it to. Secondly, singing aws definitely not my strength, especially not SATB. The accompanist would play the intro, and everyone would automatically know what to sing and what pitch to sing in, and i'm just left standing there wondering how in the world do they do that and frantically trying to pick up the right pitch. The of course, as if to make matters worse, my voice falls between the tenor and the bass. The tenor had notes that were too high for me to reach (I have trouble singing higher than a D4), and the bass was at times too low for me to accurately hear what I was singing.

In short, the only thing that I could sing were segments that were in slow quarter notes without huge leaps or odd accidentals. So the majority of the time was spent following along and listening to other, more accomplished vocalists do the work =P True, there were some trickier pieces that we slaughtered (especially the couple following lunch), but generally it was very well done. And I do admire them for being able to sing well on the spot like that, wish I could have done the same.......

But hey, I'm not complaining. At least it's a very different break from the regularities of work =P (and imagine if an scientific conference was like this XD "Ok everyone, this is my experiment, let's do it all together!")

PS: Saw Ms MacCulloch there, but then she never taught me and I doubt she knows me, so I didn't bother to say hi

PhD or MDiv?....or both.....at the same time?!

Well, that debate has definitely been one that has gone on in my head for quite a while. Seeing as my career as an undergraduate student is bound to come to an end in the foreseeable future, my mind has been constantly at work trying to decide what to do with my life after I get my BSc.....provided I haven't killed myself in the process

While entering the work force is definitely an option, a better option would be to pursue some sort of graduate degree........which one?

Looking at the scientific spectrum of things, I can do a PhD in medical genetics. It sounds interesting enough, but the most alluring reason is because my Honours BSc allows me to skip MSc should I be able to maintain an 80%+ average for my last two years as well as the first 12 credits of graduate courses........Dr. Stephen Choi does have a certain ring to it.....

On the less scientific side of things, I can do an MDiv and pursue a career in ministry......that is also a four-year program (arguably it can be three)......that of course, leads me to become Pastor, or Rev. Stephen Choi

Now, for the longest time I've been debating between the two.....coz I really couldn't see myself spending 12 consecutive years in school to get both.....and so I've been asking myself if I'd be willing to give up one for the other. On the one hand, a PhD would theoretically give me the financial security to be able to become a volunteer/part-time pastor/churhcworker, freeing me from having to depend on a congregation to feed me (and it would also put me on the same level as my wife/doctor-to-be......provided all goes as plans). Yet on the other hand, would I be willing to spend so much of my life doing something that, deep down inside, I really don't care very much about? I mean, if ministry is the ultimate goal, then what am I doing wasting my time with a PhD? Yet, would straying from the realm of academia and scientific research be putting God's gift of brains to waste?

But some reason I stumbled on a third options today........studying part-time at Regent while doing a PhD! Apparently Regent offers online courses, at around 10 of them matches up with the requirements for an MDiv, which I would assume is the same as the first year of studies.....so if i take enough courses online to cover that and maybe all my electives, then I might be able to get an MDiv after my PhD in two years rather than four.......Rev. Dr. Stephen Choi at the age of 28.....doesn't sound too shabby!

But so are the dreams, we'll see what reality has to say........

RAWR!!

yes, there really isn't any other way to express how I feel right now......I just feel sorely deceived, thinking summer would be a nice break from school, and I'd finally be able to enjoy some stress-free time with all the hours I have not thinking of writing a paper or studying for a midterm.......but now that we are stepping into August and summer is quickly coming to a close, I realize how the phrase "taking a break" has never been part of my dictionary

I don't even know how I got landed in this position. I seemed to be fluctuating between extremes....when two months ago i would be sitting at my desk in the lab staring at the screen wishing there was something more productive to do, and all the while wishing going on facebook and youtube would be an appropriate activity on the lab computer, I know spend all my hours in the lab on my feet doing something or another....

Normally a co-op student would be responsible for half a project....We'd work under some research person and help them in their endeavour for discovery.....but for some reason I got landed one whole project plus two half ones.......My original task was just to work on honeybee cell immortalization, but then now, on top of that, I also have to do a honeybee cell proteomics project as well as an american foul brood bacterial assay.......stress definitely is my bestest buddy....

and to escalate matters, I was told by my PI that I'm probably going to get published......under any normal circumstances I would have been thrilled.....first co-op job and I'll get published? it's definitely one step closer to my PhD option, where being a co-author of a paper is a preferred attribute......but honestly, at this point in time it just translates to more work for me.......and so with my weeknights and weekends practically filled with church stuff, I now feel more overworked than ever..........

I am now setting my eyes on winter break.......

PS: sooo excited, i realized our program added new options to our courses back at UBC!! =P.....we no longer have to take a ridiculous number of microbi courses =P......medical genetics, plant biochemistry, developmental neurology =P...........too bad I only need 3 courses out of the 14....they all sound so cool! =P

Altar Boyz!!!!

Watch the Altar Boyz with Jennifer last night.......they were SOOOOOOO goood!!!!

Ok, I will admit, the lyrics to the songs were not overly smart, the musical itself was not that insanely funny, and there was bearly a storyline involved in the whole hour and a half. However, what made it truly exceptional was the fact that it was live music (I suppose you really don't need that much space for a drum, a guitar, and two keyboards) plus awesome singing and harmonies, AND completely amazing choreography! Everyone in the theatre gave them a standing ovation at the end of the performance and I thought it was very, very well deserved.


The fact that the musical poked fun at Christian bands made it feel all the at home. Finally something that's blatantly Christian (despite the fact that they are poking fun at us). True, almost everything was exaggerated and I can assure you no Christian bands ever do things like them (at least I certainly hope not), but I thought it was very funny how they blended in popular culture into all of it. And although some inside jokes would have been very funny, most of the humour was very publicly understandable.

So yes, I'm very glad I got a chance to see them. It's actually a performance I would consider going to see again, becuase, like I said, what you are watching for is the singing and the choreography, and not really the plot.

It was definitely worth the $33 (despite the fact that I didn't pay, and better yet, parking was free because it was after 7), and I might actually try convincing our fellowship to go. I know a couple of people who I'm certain would thoroughly enjoyed it.

They've extended their showing till August 29th!!

PS: Matthew looks like the Starfield lead XD

Mid-term Progress Report

So, July has finally decided to round the corner, and in the midst of constant barbecues (5 in a week) and slightly unbearable heat, my co-op term has past its midway point. What would I have to say about it at this point?

Well, the first thing is that things have definitely gotten a little ridiculously busy. With renewed fervour in collecting eggs and starting fresh cultures, my incubator has now accumulated close to 40 plates of cultures, all of them screaming and demanding some fresh media either every Monday and Thursday or every Tuesday and Friday. To make things all the more complicated, they are suspension cells and are thus not attached to the wells, preventing me from simply sucking out all the media with a vacuum and an evil laugh.

And of course, I am now one co-op student working on two separate and completely different projects. Not only am I now responsible for growing some honeybee cells, I will also be responsible for some bacterial assays. So yes, I do both cell cultures AND bacterial cultures.

However, on a brighter note my bee cultures have turned the corner and are now doing fairly well. After numerous tries and countless failed attempts, we were blessed with cultures that appeared like the following (I really hope I don't get sued for releasing these photos.......I don't recall signing anything that tells me I can't.....there were more photos, but they were all blurry and out of focus):

Culture 6 No Antibiotics, 200x Phase Contrast Microscope, with suspension embryonic cells and adherent fibroblasts

We have finally realized what has been screwing us over, and that is the antibiotics we have been using. We had it at such a ridiculously high concentration that none of our cells grew properly. But now that we've reduced the antibiotic concentration by almost 1000 fold, things are starting to look pretty. There was even this one clump of cell that was contracting periodically as if it was a heart. It was totally wicked XD definitely not something we were shown at school =P

So, looking at my lab related schedule for the next little while...
July 11 - Flying to Grande Prairie
July 15 - Expected Return Date
July 27 - Project Presentation
Once School Starts - Co-op Paper Due