My hairstyles transitions... I guess I'll keep it long and straight for a very very long time.
I will not go curly or perm - that's not my cup of tea at this stage of my life.

A four-legged stops its activity to throw a glance at an idiot who is blocking its right of way near the entrance to Sungei Buloh...

True occurrences in Masters/PhD research unearthed...

These are true accounts accumulated from those whom I know of in the world of search and re-search…

• Don’t be surprised if you realized that you know more than your supervisors and they tell you that they cannot help when you encounter problems (especially those supervisors who do more paperwork and teaching than research). However, if they cannot even guide you verbally, then good luck!
  
• A paper was written and the student’s supervisor (an Asst. Prof.) deemed it as not up to standard for submission to a renowned journal (happened a few times). The best part is, the fed-up student eventually sent it out to an IEEE journal (without the supervisor’s knowledge) and it was accepted for publication. [Please DO NOT try this for you may get into serious trouble! The supervisor initially requested for the student’s candidature to be terminated but luckily it was resolved with the help of the student’s co-supervisor.]
  
• Another student wrote a full first draft of a paper and was corrected by the main supervisor. Good news: This paper was published. Bad news: The student was named as the third author (after the main supervisor and co-supervisor). The best part is the co-supervisor has contributed nothing to this paper. [Especially in oral defense for a PhD student, you will be questioned if you have no papers with you as first author because it will be deemed that most work are done by the first author – is that your supervisor? This is the kind of ‘black sheep’ supervisor – unfortunately also an Asst. Prof. – I think Asst. Prof. needs a lot of recognition and papers, that’s why they compete with their students – unethical!]
  
• Some supervisors are just like your English teachers. They only know how to correct your sentence structures, grammatical and spelling mistakes when you asked them to help review your first draft. Technical contents – you just have to rely on yourself. Bad luck! [So any people with good command of English are capable of becoming your co-author(s).]
  
• Politics prevail everywhere. If your internal examiner do not like your supervisor and if he/she is unprofessional, then it is likely that the former will try to find all possible faults, note problems that aren’t really problems, and raise unimportant issues (especially if he don’t really understand your topic) in your submitted report/thesis and during your oral defense. [Again, good luck but usually you will be backed up by your supervisor in this debate-warfare. If you have done your part well, not much issue anyway.]
  
  There are still plenty of things that have happened time and again. If you experienced any of this sort and would like to comment, feel free to do so.

My first dragonfly take on a Konica Minolta Z1 toy (no $$$ what to do) at Sungei Buloh... plus, I'm not a pro anyway...

Archery blues

I've just started learning Archery for fours lessons. Btw, I'm right-handed but left eye dominant (urrggghhhh, why like that?). Until now, I'm still bothered by whether I should stick to a right-handed bow (which I am pretty comfortable with the form) or should I switch to a left-handed bow (which is frequently advised for majority of the websites I visit).

Maybe I should give a left-handed bow a try during the next class... or should I just give it a miss?

:(

Met anyone who is inconsiderate & take things for granted...

The most frustrating thing that could happen in my lab is the need to pick up numerous phone calls for someone else (a particular person whom will be addressed as Mr. A subsequently). Note: This is not a workplace where each calls could mean sales opportunity etc. but these calls are personal ones btw.

Frankly, as I was seated one of the farthest away, I was not spared the irritating rings but I felt less obligated to pick up the call. If not for the higher decibels for those closer, they would have ignored the ringing. Anyway, those seated nearer to the noise source are tormented with the disruptive routine: i) stop their work or their flow of thoughts, ii) walk over to the phone, iii) pick it up only to realize from the caller that it’s (again!) for Mr. A (this is the case 80-90%), iv) get Mr. A to the phone, and then v) get back to work.

At that time, I was still relatively new as most people in my lab had already been around for at least half to a year. I must comment them for their tolerance. This continued until two geniuses came up with a “phone call attending” plan (If you get a call, then next time if the phone rings, it is your responsibility to lift the phone, no matter how close to or far away you are from the phone) and this was eventually implemented till today. The funny thing is that Mr. A still commented that this idea is innovative when the plan was first put up for comments and suggestions. The phone calls were still coming in everyday without fail but nowadays we had grown more immune to the ringing and would wait for that Mr. A to pick up the calls that were meant for him anyway.

I was not against Mr. A but somehow I was slightly irritated by this person’s lack of consideration for others. Just to quote one incident: We had to move over to another lab temporarily to allow ours to be renovated. Everyone, no doubt, took this opportunity to dispose of some items (especially unwanted and irrelevant papers). However, I would not have imagined that Mr. A to dispose loose pieces of papers (and lots of them) around and beneath his desk as though it was a rubbish dump. I did not put words into Mr. A’s mouth but he actually admitted that he had expected someone else to clean it up. Anyway, the lab technician told him that nobody would clean up his mess and made him clear all his rubbish.

He really had an infinite capacity for taking things for granted - *shake head*
Haiz! Wondering what will happen if this “someone else” goes into the workplace which will take place soon… hmm…

Temporary archery souvenir

Frankly, I'm not really sure what attracted me to sign up the Archery course. Anyway, I went for the second lesson yesterday and brought home a temporary souvenir - a 8x5cm bruise - measured after all the rubbing & massaging, etc... (well, my mistake of forgetting to rotate my elbow "down and out"). Oops! Ouch!