Biotechnology is Great!

Our ethics prof is going to be away on the 27th, so she asked us to keep track of Halloween stories to tell her. My story idea was simple. The classroom would be deathly empty on the 3rd, because we all died on the night of the 29th due to a Rob overload.

On a brighter note, Keith spent the morning talking about how we were having trouble advertising and recruiting people into the program. Apparently our reputation as a program is that it's near impossible to get in and that there is a ridiculous crap-load of work.......well, i wonder why?..............Keith did mention that when we do happen to blog about the program we should refrain from complaining and shine a better light on it, so I shall do my part

*looks down at the list for the next two weeks*

This will be a breeze!~~~~insane amount of work? Unheard of and a totally foreign concept!

*downs a bottle of ethidium bromide*

~

Next two week at a glance:

Monday Oct 26
- Chem Lab
- Chem Lab Report x2

Tuesday Oct 27
- Biochem Midterm
- Ethics Quiz

Wednesday Oct 28
- Biochem Lab w/ Genetics Lab Part 1
- Biochem Formal Lab Report
- English Bible Study

Thursday Oct 29
- Plants Lab w/ Genetics Lab Part 2
- Genetics Lab Part 3

Friday Oct 30
- Pharma Midterm
- Process Lab
- Process Formal Lab Report w/ Process Assignment #3
- TCF Bible Study

Saturday Oct 31
- S-club pumpkin carving w/ Halloween Party and Trick-or-treat

Sunday Nov 1
- Teaching Sunday School
- Evening Service Meeting

Monday Nov 2
- Chem Lab
- Chem Lab Report
- Dentist Appointment

Tuesday Nov 3
- Plants Midterm
- Ethics Group Assignment #2

Wednesday Nov 4
- Biochem Lab
- Award Ceremoney?

Thursday Nov 5
- Plants Lab
- Genetics Lab

Friday Nov 6
- Process Midterm
- Process Lab

I have an eerie feeling I forgot something on that list. I did stop using my agenda, after all........

Asian Parents.....joy....

Well, what do Asian parents care about the most? Money, yes.....school, yes......now mix the two together and it's no surprise that the latest magazine from the Chinese papers is featuring some top four (Chinese, surprise surprise) students entering university this year......among the interviews and information, there lists not only their grades but also the scholarships they managed to get their hands on.

It's pure joy to have Asian parents......you might have thought that I, of all people, would have been immune to all of this.......but sadly that's not the case........

Like honestly, is it not enough that I'm not using a penny of your money for my university tuition? Does it really matter that those kids, with their faces plastered all over the magazine, got $15,000 in scholarship for their first year and I came a horrifically shameful $7,000 short?.....what's even worse is that first year was ages ago.......even if i wanted and even if i tried i can't go back.....

I just can't help but feel a little sorry for those kids.......not only are they now pointed to by all the Asian parents in town, they are now hated by every single Asian kid in town (with the exception of Jenn, as she would like pointed out).........but imagine, to have your worth as a person and as an individual evaluated based on your academic success and the sum of scholarship money you amassed.....and to have your value assessed based on how much advice you can give for parents who want their kids to walk down the same path of academic greatness (although their definition is rather short-sighted and narrow-minded.....whereas i'm thinking academic greatness is making some sort of immense breakthrough in research, the Asian equivalent is entering Harvard with a 102% average)......

I guess i just dread seeing those kind of articles here.......there is just something fundamentally wrong......I mean, the Hong Kong government actually run ads on television for parents (and kids to a lesser extent) with the slogan that learning is not about grades (which of course no one gives a crap about).......pathological? very much so......

FML, or PTL (Praise the Lord), according to Jenn

Amidst flailing arms and protesting pokes from Jenn, I'll brave the challenges and type this up.......

After plants class with the program head this morning, the brief after-class discussion led him to tell us of a new headache he has. Apparently, it came to his attention that our program has more credit hours than allowed by the government for an undergraduate program (even after taking honours into account). We were told that he has to now somehow cut some courses from the program to make it all work. We were very eager to give suggestions, such as scrapping ethics, or the critical writing course for next term. When someone mentioned lab safety (and amidst our laughter), Keith told us that's not even a course that is recognized by UBC, so cutting it won't do anything.............that's when the thought struck me......

So, I'm in a program that not only makes us take more credits than allowed by the government, some of the courses we do take don't even count towards that. FML.

On Death Row.......

Had the first overtime lab of the term today.........and we were promised man, many more to come.........definitely not very thrilled......

The term started (coming to think of it, only last week) with us concluding we'd be hating Fridays. Monday rolls around and we decided that we really won't be liking Mondays very much either. Once Tuesday came along, we decided, you know what, screw this, we're going to be hating the entire term. And the thinking was reinforced today during biochem lab. As we were taking time out of our biochem lab to do parts of our genetics lab, Rob comes in to tell us we have our process lab handouts ready..........it's just going to be one, unending nightmare of labs.....

There has definitely been a significant shift in thinking for the labs. Whereas last term was "hurry up and finish and burst out the door", this term definitely has a tone of resignation to it........."if we are going to be trapped in here until we rot, might as well take our sweet time". Where half an hour on top of a 2-hour lab is a lot, one hour more to a 7-hour lab doesn't sound very unpleasant anymore

Last term it took until April to get us collectively to the suicide mood, this term, mass suicide has already been brought up one week in..........twice actually, if you count a discussion about Lemmings........

50 years.....and counting?

Seeing as Vince blogged about the Killarney Park 50th Anniversary, I shall do so too (or well, at least that's what I think he wrote about XD......I will admit that I was slightly confused =P)

Just a little background info, Killarney Park is the congregation that shares our building, or more correctly speaking, we share theirs. Walking into church this morning I was surprised to see all the decorations up, with board after board of old photos from the ages past.......and i just remembered I was in a state of shock......how did it come to this?......how does a congregation of way over 200, which once had hundreds in their Sunday school, multiple services on Sunday morning just coz people couldn't fit......how did a congregation like that dwindle to a mere 20 people after 50 years?

But even more importantly, what will happen at our own 50th anniversary next year. True we might be doing better number-wise, but are we truly any better? I can't help but think it's time our congregation had a mid-life crisis.....not in the sense that we should buy ourselves a Porsche or some plot of land up in the interior.....but it's time someone pointed out how dangerously similar we are to the church of Laodicea we are - lukewarm (Revelations 3:14-22).....I just can't shake this feeling, that, as a congregation, everything is half-hearted at best......that's why I was always adamant about our 50th Anniversary....I just don't see a point......true, it would be a great cause for celebration for whoever had a hand in founding this congregation, but what about for the ones in this congregation now? That we have been great a sitting on our hands and warming the pews? Wake up, people!

It has been a while since I've heard a good sermon, but the one for the KPLC 50th year was definitely a refreshingly good one (not spectacular, but very decent)......and one line, one line just stuck......and despite this line was being directed to the church, it just repeated itself over and over again in my head......

......it's not about being famous, it's about being faithful.....

and i just can't help but think........do I truly want to run the risk that, at my own 50th anniversary, I'm going to look back at my life and regret how I've spent it?

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