Nearing the end of summer

My last update before I go back to my sweet home next Tue!

About my project, to sum it up, I've successfully completed what's on the summer agenda. After all the frustration everything just worked like magic in the last week. Everything that I spent 3 months' hard work on and still went haywire just suddenly all worked out in one week's time. Funny isn't it? In layman's term, my project is to make green fluorescent fusion proteins which could be easily monitored and visualized under confocal microscopes. The protein our lab is interested in is an adhesion protein found in slime mould and it's responsible for cell aggregation, sorting, signalling, the various aspects of development. The protein consists of two parts, each playing a different function and I was to take them apart and join them seperately with green fluorescent protein to study their individual functions. The way to do it isn't really complicated. Normal PCR and cloning will do the trick but numerous 'accidents' happened along the way, some of which weren't exactly within my control to say the least. Alas, I can enjoy my 3 week holiday in peace now. Thanks for everyone who cheers me on, or encourages me in their own eccentric way lol. Happy the end of summer!

And I've moved to a double room :P coz the rental is so much cheaper. House moving is a pain as usual. I'll post up some photos of my new room tomorrow (maybe).

Movied!

House moving officially took place. Luckily the double room is only next door, 5m away but still, nothing's really smooth with 2 doors blocking the way. The room looks scarily symmetrical and therefore there's no advantage as to which side to reside on. Left. Left. I don't know why I prefer left although both sides look exactly the same. Maybe I like facing the street and seeing the red car lights flashing on and off after all. The view will be magnificent on a storm raged winter night, where everything is completely wiped out by the snow, no movement, no sound, and the archaic building with seeminly thousand windows south of street will look like a replica of the Czar palace in its dimmed glory. But you only get to see that around 4am, if you could stay up that late.

Home. This will be my home.

相爱太早

今市子的作品一直很喜欢，开始只是被她的插画吸引，那种淡雅脱俗实在让人嫉妒。后来看了《百鬼夜行超》，虽然是怪异的故事，但情节人物的刻画都是上等的艺术之作。有时候，看她的漫画和读晦涩怀旧的小说没大区别。今天不留意又看到这部作品，自从初中看到书名后，就一直被吸引着，然后到此时此刻仍然是停留在憧憬遐想中，一页未翻。至于为什么会被吸引，也许是封面的安静不喧，却又胜过千言万语。相爱太早，仅一个“太”字，就栽下了遗憾的苗，似乎不该，似乎无助。

预见流水账的到来，因为又是不知从何说起。

这两天都没有好好睡，应该很累了，但又处于半空虚，半焦虑的状态，整个人只能用煎熬来形容。刚才觉得呼吸不畅，开始怨恨bra，我真的很讨厌这不知何人何时的发明。凡是觉得窒息了，我都一股脑的把问题归咎于bra，估计是大冤枉，因为我不肥，绝对不是被勒出来的。纯粹的燥热没有去处，注意力便集中到无辜的某一处，像聚焦太阳光一样，不一会儿就烧起来，整个人更是抓狂的想发泄，起身想去洗澡，脚在桌下蹭啊蹭，只套上一只拖鞋，低头看也没见另一只，就满房间转圈圈儿的找，我像杀人诶！！！

倒转到一天前。昨晚在刚那里过的夜，原本只是去给她做饭，吃完后就开始聊，聊的内容主要也就是未来，感情，性格，云云。无论性格如何迥异，感情总是大同小异，除非你是禁欲者。总让我想起不相关的那句话，All happy families resemble each other, each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way。只要是凡人，终究会孤独，终究逃不过患得患失。我问刚，习惯会不会让人产生依恋的错觉？就如我和桂子，是否一切只是假象？刚说我很依赖别人，粘人，而且只粘准一个。不否认从小学开始就是如此，身边必定会有一个形影不离的友人，同出同进，几乎好到像穿一条开裆裤的铁兄弟。初中的时候是曹，是班长，小学的友人也是班长，高中时是ET。父母都说我的朋友像我的保镖。她们也都是开朗直性子的人，和我正相反，也是因此才被吸引。可我和桂子，如果用这个理论套，似乎说不通。可我也懒得再想，真的很累了。只能说八成都是自作多情，为什么如此自虐，仍然放不了手。毫无防备的心软，什么铁石心肠，什么铜墙铁壁都在顷刻间崩溃决堤。桂子是个不负责任的人，为什么还值得执著。似乎那些瑕疵和不完美，也是神伤的催化剂，痛恨，却又无法撒手。为什么坐自己的大牢，她却在远处潇洒。最后只能说为什么自己那么笨，那么拗，那么贱。一年后会怎么样，试着想象最终离别的场景，也许会大哭一场，痛痛快快的哭，哭走七年的狗屁默契，看着它焚烧，然后怎么办。想这么多也就只有我，所以是庸人自扰。解决办法似乎只有转移注意力，况且也没这个奢侈再多想。为自己活着，就要FOCUS。这就是为什么我如此失败的主要原因。

很无理头的笑话，不记下来有点可惜。
我和Sherry开始讨论未来的打算，最终得此结论：“没工作就去卖咸鱼！”这句话从Sherry嘴里道来有很多可行性。因为她家做的菜真tm咸，有两次去吃都暗自感叹“这家人的taste buds绝对变异了。”她还绘声绘色的说，“咸鱼啊咸鱼，不咸不要钱！”我都笑岔气了，突然想到，“如果你在学校对面摆摊儿，我就在街对面做你的对家，专门卖鱼和盐，请按1比10的比例食用，不咸不要钱！”后来把我们的打算转告给Shrivani，blah blah we sell fish，她很不解的问“Why are you selfish?”。。。

然后是今天中午Eric说的笑话，他的小儿子Jeremy有一天说“Dad, I'm a fun guy!”Eric哑然，怎么儿子会说自己是fungi? 不对啊，fungi是复数，怎么样也该说“I'm a fungus！”吧？

刚说，engineering science的男生都很恐怖，自身条件都很惨不忍睹，却又自视清高，对女生还相当desperate。她不幸被一印度男生盯上，那男生像鼻涕冲似的粘在她左右，却又没任何表示，因此被刚定义为“焦虑型”男生。有一次刚msn上display name是“The maker makes”，brokeback mountain里用的插曲，如此感人。结果，5分钟后，那男生很不知趣的把自己的display name改成“The dreamer dreams ",这样的男生，会一辈子光棍儿吧？！

狗不理

今天其实应该纪念一下，长达3个月都不合作的clones，终于做成了！第一次一口气做24个mini preps，一共用了估计100来个Eppendorf tubes，有点点麻木。做miniprep早就得心应手，而且也总结出了自己的所谓“tricks”，但终究太单一无聊，一边听mp3一边手里上上下下的pipette。结果终于出来的时候，Shrivani也在一旁，似乎是很好意的想陪我，无论结果好坏。意想不到的24个clones有23个都是阳性，哈哈。Kiss you goodbye, Domain II, DdCAD-1 GFP!! 高兴的太早果然有点心虚，真正好坏需要sequence过后才能肯定。不管怎么样，能在回家前做出点东西到底是很开心，想到后天的送别饭心里也舒畅了很多。反正如果不行，开学了回来继续做呗，只是有点窝囊罢了。

和Jady聊啊聊，等到终于从粘乎的板凳上站起来时才发现裤子估计弄脏了，有粘湿的感觉，不妙啊。然后3点去洗内裤，边洗边想为什么女的要一次次的流血才能成熟，仔细分析似乎非常原始，是真正意义上脱一层皮，掉一块肉的蜕变，残忍却又深切的在痛里生长，就为了能孕育另一个生命。女人果然是不可思议的造化之物。有时候这样的想法不便和别人讨论，太唐突，八成还会被人说变态。我初中的时候，学校里发卫生巾（做广告而已），是超薄型的超强力吸水类型，回家就按照小册子介绍的做测试，倒了一杯水在护垫上，看着水珠凝结成蓝色的胶粒状，很激动，还写了周记教给班主任。后来似乎被Beier说变态。

Lab完了去刚那里蹭饭，可惜她脚扭了，行动不便也没做吃的，幸好钟晓来送肉包子，救了两个绝望的灵魂。一饭盒的狗不理，我真的第一次听说这个名字，被嘲笑“你还是中国人么你？”，后来知道是天津特产，吃着像南方的小笼包，只是没那么水汁汁，也没尝出特别。百度了一下名字的由来，摘抄于此



“狗不理” 创始于1858年。清咸丰年间，河北武清县一农家，四十得子，为求平安，取名“狗子”，期望像小狗一样好养活(按照北方习俗，此名饱含着淳朴挚爱的亲情)。狗子十四岁来津学艺，在一家蒸食店铺做小伙计，狗子心灵手巧又勤学好问，练就一手好话，不甘寄人篱下，自己摆起包子摊，它以水馅半发面，口感柔软，鲜香不腻，形似菊花，色香味形都独具特色，引得十里百里的人都来吃包子，生意十方兴隆，狗子忙得顾不上跟顾客说话，这样一来，吃包子的人都说“狗子卖包子不理人”，日久天长，都叫他“狗不理”。
　　当年，哀世凯在天津编练新军，将“狗不理”包子带入皇宫，敬献慈禧，太后大悦，曰：“山中走兽云中雁，腹地牛羊海底鲜，不及狗不理香矣，食之长寿也。”从此“狗不理”名声大振。

很久没有那么开心畅怀的和朋友聚在一起吃喝聊天，纯粹的开心，不停的笑。饭后（其实没饭，只有包子三大盒），我们还正儿八经的品茶。我带来了西兰香，那次去黄山旅游时非常喜欢的一品，带点儿甜味的香茶，还买了一筒说要带回来慢慢喝，结果也没泡几次。我们三个是如假包换的茶痴，并非痴迷，而是白痴的愚痴。反正就是茶么，泡开了就喝=.=||

方的主动让我觉得害怕，看来我并不很期待任何发展。而期待的人，却只是频频让自己伤心而已。遂得此结论，写在msn display name里。l is a b, then u d。read, Love is a Bitch, then you Die. 十分钟后终究后怕被人看穿了，不好解释，于是换上了正在播放的歌，蔡健雅的my color tv set，其实也相当颓废，自暴自弃。也许该学着所谓“大人的狡猾”，维持着暧昧的关系，糊里糊涂的过，双方都惬意。

A brief stop

It's been a month since my last entry. I was feeling kind of guilty disappearing from blogspot like that and when I browsed through the others' blogs. Heck, no update either. So it's still summer where everyone's in non-operating mode.

I'll be going back home in a week and therefore the past few weeks have been the most hectic, the culmination of summer craze! A big chunk of my time is spent in lab as usual and out of my notice(when did it happen, really?), I have a few more jobs newly added to the task list although they're in essential, revovles around the same cloning technique. Sometimes even Shrivani, the master student who guides me along gets pretty lost as what stage I'm at. Once we discussed it over lunch. I said 'A is for B. C is for D. A is not for the purpose of D. I'm doing AB.' my progress report of some sort and after a brief silence where I stared at her for confirmation of my correctness and she, stared at me practically just dumbfounded by the amount of things going on in paralle, we both bursted out laughing. Hail to all the mess.

When the hand hits seven or eight, I thought 'hey, maybe I should go home. I kinda want to go home.' It's hard resisting the temptation of homely comfort but I know if I don't finish it today, I'll have to do it again tomorrow anyway and in between, 12 good hours are wasted for nothing. I lugged all my snacks and instant drinks from home to our cafeteria. A cup of steamy capuccino/hot chocolate really helps boosting the half dormant neurons.

Anybody heard of a non mainstream Japanese group called 'Sleepy ab.?' Ah I should probably post this in uku. Their style is atmospheric and abstract (so comes 'ab' in the name), filled with colourful visions.

I shouldnt' shy telling my buffet experience. This Thur. after lab, I went to an 'all you can eat' sushi buffet with my labmate Sherry. It's 19+ dollar each. We ate 35 dollars worth. I ordered lots of dishes just coz they have funny names. I should've known better the Japanese illiterate me was in a rather dangerous postion blind ordering off the menu like that. Therefore in the 5th round of order, I pointed randomly at a name under 'soup, noodles and wat not'. It was called 'Ten Don', clean and simple. I thought 'Don' sounds similar to the chinese pronounciation of 'Tang'(as in soup). We all know Japanese borrows from Chinese kanji so my guess shouldn't be too much off the target. Who cares what Ten is. It's a Don. And I need a Don. (the thirsty me speaking) In 10 min's time, a big steamy bowl of rice richly topped with tempura, sweet potatoes and fried beans loomed into my sight. What da hell is this?? After non-believing, checking and rechecking, there was no doubt I, I, ordered the monster bowl. That was a final, lethal blow to self confidence.