Celebrating a twenty-first

It was JM7 (2006)'s birthday on Tuesday.

JM7 thought we were all too busy to celebrate her birthday that day. But in fact we were all busy preparing her gift(s): a Sony Ericsson w800i and a photo canvas thingy. =)

Her first birthday cake (yeap, 1 wasn't enough!)

Then we went to The Reef to wait for the birthday girl to arrive. Not sure if she was shocked when she saw us there, since we plan birthday surprises to everyone in the flat anyways. :P

I ordered Grilled Fish of the Day.

Food was good, price was not. Chyi Mei was so absent minded that she brought her calling card instead of eftpos card to pay for dinner. Mempersiasoikan. Tsk tsk tsk. Also, we had to sing happy birthday twice that night, and actually I think the waitress was being very very patient and friendly as we were NOISY and CHOOSY.

Another birthday celebration over, which only reminds me of how fast this year is passing me by. And right at this moment, I'm suddenly craving for my beloved Char Bee Hoon at Jalan Sekama, Kuching. Can I just go home for a weekend without having to sit through 11 hours on the airplane?

Waszowski: see, aren't I photogenic?

Playing with fire

Embarrassing moment number 1000000: I almost set the genetics lab on fire.

Almost. As in if the fire wasn't discovered in 5 minutes, the whole 9 stories of microbiology building would go down in ashes. And it's all because I forgot to make sure that a matchstick is not still lit before putting it in the plastic trash bin.

Then a few minutes later while I was happily continuing with my experiment, a girl sitting opposite me alerted the lecturer about the smoke coming out from the bin. How could I have missed that smell and smoke just in front of my eyes?!

I was seriously either blind or blurry or just plain bored during the lab. But still, I'm surprised I can be THIS careless: putting other people's lives at risk, not forgetting to mention the whole building in big risk of going up in flames.

Thank God that the glass bottle containing ethanol wasn't anywhere near the trash bucket or the Bunsen burner itself, or else the outcome would be catastrophic.

If that's the case, then you would see the headlines for Otago Daily Times the next day as: Stupid Malaysian Student Burnt Down University Building. XD

July most miserable month for Kiwis

11:44AM Monday July 16, 2007

If you're feeling down in the dumps at the moment you're not alone.

Kiwis are more miserable in winter and July is the worst month for suffering the winter blues, a nationwide study has found.

According to the latest independent research commissioned by Neutrogena, July is the month in which 20 per cent of Kiwis are struck by the winter blues, followed by August on 13 per cent.

The researchers also found that Monday-itis affects the nation, with 41 per cent of Kiwis saying that the first day of the working week is also the day they are most likely to feel blue.

"If you leave and return home from work in the dark, don't get enough light while working, have high stress, rarely socialise and eat stodgy food, the blues are likely to creep up on you," says mental health therapist Leanne French.

Creature comforts reign supreme during the cold season, so it comes as no surprise that 30 per cent of Kiwi women say their favourite way to alleviate the winter blues is to spend time with friends, followed by 29 per cent who prefer a night in on the couch with a hot chocolate and their favourite movie.

A further 20 per cent relieve the winter blues with a warm bath, facial or massage.

The shortening of daylight hours and lack of sunlight in winter triggers symptoms such as sleep problems, lethargy, overeating and mood swings, says French.

The study - conducted by Consumer Link - also looked at women's skincare habits during the winter months and found that women who were feeling depressed were less likely to follow their usual beauty regimes.

The majority of Kiwi women interviewed in the survey confirmed that during winter they break two of skincare's cardinal rules - not using a sunscreen and failing to remove their makeup before bed.Seventy-two per cent of women surveyed said they used sunscreen less than once a week or never between June and August and nearly a third said they never removed their makeup before bed. Only one in every four women surveyed said they applied sunscreen on a daily basis during the winter months.

Dr Kevin McKerrow, President of the New Zealand Dermatological Society says those results are worrying: "People just seem to forget that during winter the sun doesn't go away and neither does skin cancer."

- NZ HERALD STAFF

***

They should add another reason to why July is miserable: second semester of uni has just started, and it's worse when you have a sucky lab partner who doesn't talk much stuck to you for the next 4 months.

Clueless

I still remember when mum and dad tried to coax me (indirectly) into considering xxx from church back home. How "nice" of them. Seems like history is repeating itself again.

Dad: So what did you have for dinner?
Me: bla bla bla... and lamb chop.
Dad: What? XXX?
Me: Huh? What are you trying to say?
Dad: XXX sounds like lamb chop ma... *snicker/hinting*
Me: (三条线...)

It's pretty obvious to who dad's referring to if you go to SFEC. I seriously have no idea why they like him so much.

I had a dream

Have you ever had a wonderful dream where everything is exactly what you wish for, too good to be true that you even pinched yourself in that dream? I had the dream that would make me the happiest person in the world if only it happened in real life. *sigh* But the odd thing was, be it a coincidence or not, something DID happen in reality 1 or 2 days after that dream. It wasn't as beautiful as the dream itself, but it was still a BIG deal to me.

I feel silly for feeling THIS happy about a tiny deal.

***

Anyway, did you know that if you sleep for an average of seven hours a day and live 75 years, 22 YEARS OF YOUR LIFE ARE SPENT DREAMING.

From the web:

If you are among the few people who cannot ever remember their dreams, you are missing one of the great wonders of human experience. To dream is to discover a virtual reality so authentic, that the people we meet, the sensations we experience, the dramas we are involved in, strike to our heart as deeply as the events we meet while awake. In fact sometimes the memory of dreams may stay with us for years, more potently than many everyday memories. The realm of sleep and dreams offers us a world so vastly different from waking, that our life may be enriched by happenings and realisations totally impossible otherwise. It has been said that travel broadens the mind. Dreams expand it far more. Without them, and without the act of imagination and fantasy that arises from such powers of the mind as dreams emerge from, we would indeed be impoverished. Without the process of mind that lies behind the inventive fancy of dreams, art, music, drama, literature and architecture would have remained starkly utilitarian. Imagination, in dreams or otherwise, is a divine power which lifts us out of today and transports us to yesterday, or to the future. Consider what it would be like if you could never remember details of the past, or think about what you would like to do in the future. Consider also what it would be like if you could never reshape in your remind or feelings, an event or words you have heard. There would be no comedy, no stories, no art, no drive to build something that is different.

Imagination changes the shape of the world, penetrates its external solidity to transform its shape and its events into innumerable fresh experiences. Imagination sees the wonderful possibilities in a piece of rock, or some coloured earth, and with them creates art. Imagination discovered the submarine and the motor car long before scientific endeavour developed the technology to manufacture them. Even people who appear to lack this divine power while awake, can in dreams spread wings of fancy and find ingenious dramatic creation while they sleep.

If you are someone who not only remembers, but soaks up the lush dimensions of dreams, then you already know that your visions of the night allow you entrance into strange worlds, new ideas, fresh and sparkling perspectives, as well as horror movies of your own creation.

***

Now if anyone could just teach me how to have a lucid dream. =)