Interlude - The first BB lesson of 2008

The Leader oversaw the distribution of the coloured tokens. Each of the four Groups received two round discs -- one green, one red. Once accomplished, the Leader stepped forward to explain the rules of engagement.

Every round, each Group shall choose the colour that they will use. Discussion between different Groups is allowed, but no Group can reveal their final decision until the Leader says so. Points are awarded based on the green-red ratio of the round.

The goal is to score the most points possible.

Table 1: Scoring scheme, based on the number of greens/reds played each round

Tally	Greens score	Reds score
IIII	5	-
IIII	0	3
IIII	0	2
IIII	0	1
IIII	-	0

Murmurs filled the room as the Groups swiftly developed their strategies.

"Let's stick to reds every round; This will guarantee that no other group can score higher than us!" That was Group One's plan, and they made sure nobody else heard it.

Group Two had a different thought in mind. "Guys, the goal is to get the most points possible, not to get more than everyone else. We should all play greens to get 5 points!"

Group Four liked the idea and nodded in approval. There was no visible response, however, from Groups One and Three. The stakes were now high for Groups Two and Four. Do they go ahead with the plan? Can the others be trusted...?

"Hold out your tokens," instructed the Leader.

The Group ambassadors clutched their chosen tokens in their fists and extended their arms. They awaited the signal to uncurl their fingers.

"Reveal."

Eyes darted from hand to hand. Did they make it? Had their investments paid off?

As expected, Groups Two and Four had placed their confidence in their ability to score 5 points, and played green. As for Group One who originally planned to take the safe route, they had been persuaded to work together with the others, and their ambassador held out a green token also.

Things are looking good. The 5 points are now within grasp, since Group Three's token colour was...

Red.

Indignant complaints ensued. "Traitors!"

The Leader smiled. "3 points for Group Three, zero for everybody else. Now decide which colour you will play next."

More murmurs filled the room. Group One took the initiative to speak up this time. "C'mon, work together guys! Everone play green!"

The effects of distrust were becoming evident though. It was taking longer for the Groups to make their decisions.

"Hold out your tokens."

They did.

"Reveal."

Green. Green. Green. Red.

Whilst Group Three had agreed to join in the big plan, Group One had backed out and reverted to their original approach.

"Three points to Group One, zero for everybody else. Next round."

This isn't working! Group Two gave up. They are risking everything to help everyone score together, but all they have succeeded in was to get backstabbed. Their efforts leave them with no points while the backstabbers get the loot. This round is their turn to get something. Their ambassador plays with the red token before hiding it in his hand, and putting the green one out of sight. He smiled and waited for the signal.

"Reveal."

Red. Red. Red. Red.

The Groups burst out laughing, even though there was nothing to be happy about, really.

"Looks like nobody scores anything this round," commented the Leader. He paused for a while before continuing. "We'll go for two more rounds. Make your decisions."

This announcement alarmed Groups Two and Four. They were still stuck with nothing, after three rounds.

"Let's do this! Everybody play green!" Group Four presses on. Whether or not it will make a difference, they don't know. Every Group readies their tokens.

Green. Green. Green. Red. Once again, the calls for collaboration falls on Group Three's deaf ears. There is no stopping them now; no matter what happens in the final round, they would be the top scorer.

In a futile last-ditched attempt to raise their levels, no matter how slightly, every Group played red in the final round. A bad decision for all involved, of course.

Final scores
G1: 3
G2: 0
G3: 6
G4: 0

The Leader began the reflections stage. "Who scored the most points possible?"

Enthusiastically, Group Three raised their hands. It was time for the Leader to drive the message home.

"No. Every round, the most you can possibly score is 5 points. Given five rounds, you could've earned 25, but you only managed 6.

"Why? Instead of keeping an eye on the goal that mattered, you only cared about beating everyone else. You weren't willing to risk losing all your points to help the other groups reach the goal.

"If you're not prepared to risk yourselves, you cannot possibly bless others."

---

Interesting, isn't it, how even Groups Two and Four who were aware of the goal from the beginning, still ended up trying to do what the others did?

---

Side note: I'm horrendously unfit... one lap of kickboarding was enough to make my thigh muscles as stiff as a corpse's. Probably because my cells lacked enough ATP to unbind the motor proteins from the microfilaments.

Yay, I remember my Level 1 molecular biology. Level 2 biochemistry, here I come! ...after 1 more month of holidays from today, that is... ^_^

The Odyssey - Part II a - Faces and Places (West)

Kuala Lumpur was a strange and unfamiliar land, where Christmas trees are perpetually surruonded by camera-wielding tourists, and where huge malls dot the landscape. Not to worry, I came prepared!

Page 3 of 5

My sense of direction is absolutely appalling, so the tourists' map (which I photographed from the airplane magazine) came in handy when I got lost in the maze of malls. If my camera battery had died at the time, I would've been in a sticky sticky situation.

Taxi drivers, on the other hand, know their way around better. We hired one of the to drive us to The Curve, Malaysia's "first lifestyle pedestrianised shopping mall"

Model: Sze En

It's not often that I'm impressed by a shopping place, but the designers did a fantastic job with The Curve's exterior. Unfortunately, the same can't be said about some parts of the interior. I would've spent more time taking photos of the place, but Dad and Sze En were always eager to be on the move...

One thing that DID manage to stop Dad was the sight of NanXiang Steamed Bun Restaurant! I do recommend their tea, but only if you're not short on cash. Most Chinese restaurants in Malaysia only serve a "standard" type of Chinese tea; I haven't been able to find different brews anywhere else (possibly because I haven't actively searched for any, heh heh). Oh, and they have the quaintest china, too.

Cute!

These little buggers cost us a bomb

For grub of lower price but not necessary lower quality, Cousin Jenny took us to Taman Megah, an oversized open-air food court.

Many many many stalls

My beloved claypot rice; Something which is non-existent in Perth

You should know what this is ^_^

Scale: The mug on the left is about 15cm high

I'm normally not fussed about food (you might think I'm lying, since most of the photos above are of edibles, but it's true) but a strange thing happened that evening. As I walked around, deciding what I'd have for dinner, I couldn't help grinning when I saw some of the stuff. Pohpiahs, claypots, kueh chaps, etc. etc. etc.... I didn't miss them over the past 3 years because I never thought about them, but seeing them in front of me again was quite an experience!

Oh yeah, this entry is entitled Faces and Places, so I should show some faces, eh?

Cousin Jenny. She's married, guys... tough luck!

Slurp
(Naruto and his ramen are from chapter 181 of Masashi Kishimoto's manga)

Yes, I'm a mean mean brother who aims to shoot the most horrible photos possible of his beloved younger (but taller) sibling. To be fair, here's a stupid photo of myself.

Reeeee-tard!

This face of mine was snapped by Voon in Times Square, when I met up with the BB guys (and girl).

Representatives of 1^st KL, 3^rd KL, 10^th KL, and 1^st Kuching
L-R: Caleb, Debbie, Sam, Kenny, Sze Howe

The 5 of us were the ones who stayed the longest, actually. There was a much bigger group at the start, including many whom I've never met before. ^^;;

The story's like this: I first met Debbie, a budding young artist, through a chance encounter in deviantART. After learning that we were both members of the Boys' Brigade, we got to know each other more by insulting each other at every given chance commenting on each others' art. After that, I was discovered by Kenny Voon, who knew both Debbie and some UndergroundSquare members (partly because he shares the same name as one of the UGS founders, hehe). Small world, huh? Finally, I met everyone else through the BB Malaysia forum, and also become Sai Hong's correspondent for his International Relations award.

So, I thought I might as well meet up with them in their hometown! (No, I am not aware of any dangers about meeting up with people you met online) We had dinner and chatted at some Egyptian-themed eatery, then chatted some more at Starbucks (their coffee is overrated, actually). What else...? We also did a badge trade, hee!

Spot the odd badge out, among the bottom 2 rows

Captain Grove quite liked my new 'Arts, Crafts and Hobbies' badge when I showed it to him. ^_^ A certain 10^th KL sergeant now possesses my old Australian 'Skills' badge. These types of souvenirs are the best, I reckon.

Alas, given my short stay in KL I wasn't able to see everyone that I wanted to... Mian my fellow cross-dresser from Penang, who cancelled her debating competition in KL; Annabelle from my counterpart class in St Mary's, who was far far away in Sunway; and Sam the rhizobium who was also somewhat far away (and had a very squeezed shopping schedule to top things off).

No matter, I managed to catch up with the Kuchingites at a later stage. More details in the next entry which will be published over the next few weeks or so!

The Odyssey - Part I - Prologue

The first big question I asked myself after landing in Kuching was, "What the heck did I come all the way here for?!"

Three years ago I left Malaysia.
Three weeks ago, I went back.

And what did I get? Bullied. By the same group of people who gave me the following "punishment" for leaving Kuching, back in December 2004:

Nonetheless, being the forgiving and ungrudging person that I am, (yes I'm a very humble person too,) the said group of people and all my other friends back home are the reason for my 4000km trip to Malaysia. It was definitely worth every minute I spent there (ok, except for the few times I found myself stuck in a cybercafe with a certain MapleStory player).

I'm still waiting for a few more photos to be sent my way. When that happens, the serious blogging will begin, and the updativores (e.g. Samantha) will be satisfied. :-)

Cybercafes are useful, but have their pitfalls...

...although, I did attend the bestest party last night. ^_^

The Repeating Arpeggio

The gate for flight MH 126 will be open in about 5-10 minutes. Whee!

Whoever says that chemistry labs are boring should be shot

29/3/07
I broke a beaker that morning. It was annoying, really; I had hoped to commence work swiftly, but had ended up delaying myself. Never mind, I a quick visit to Kim's office got me a replacement beaker to work with.

Merrily, I began brewing my concoction. The object of the day was to transform diphenyl ketone into an alcohol, using sodium borohydride.

Top: Diphenyl ketone, a constituent of synthetic perfume
Bottom: Sodium borohydride, a product of the USA's nuclear bomb endeavours

10 minutes was the prescribed time for heating. My concoction sat on a gauze mat, which sat on a tripod, which straddled the Bunsen burner. Kinda like the setup on the left (image from www.raystorey lighting.com), except that my flask had a condenser attached, and was sitting in a beaker of water.

Being a perfectionist, I noticed (while the mixture was happily bubbling away) that the said beaker was off-centre! And being a perfectionist, I thought it best to shift the beaker to the middle of the tripod platform. Don't want to risk having the whole thing topple over, y'know? Safety first!

Of course, I realized that the beaker of water -- having been heated for 5 minutes -- would be rather hot. It would be rather silly to move it with my hand, as I would get burnt! No, no, that would be a dumb thing to do. So how should I proceed...? Ah, I know. The friction between the beaker base and the gauze mat should be useful!

Why would I need friction, you ask? Well, it's quite simple. My plan was to move my beaker via indirect means. First, think of a dinner table: If you pull the tablecloth towards yourself, friction will bring all the other items on the table (plates, cutlery, et cetera) along as well. So, applying the same concept to my scenario, what would happen when I move the gauze mat?

Answer: Cooked flesh.

The criss-crosses were white at first -- the same shade as minced chicken meat which has been heated in the wok long enough

No matter, such incidents are of no major setback! Undeterred, I proceeded to isolate and purify my alcohol.

The satisfying part of these lab sessions is watching my crystals form. Elegant, white crystals!

The dissatisfying part, however, is losing some of these crystals due to the difficulty of transferring them from the filter into the sample container. After much scraping, tapping, and wiping the filter paper, my sample tube was filled. Some alcohol crystals were left the spatula, and others had gotten onto the bench and my fingers. No matter. Almost done! All I need to do now was to weigh it, calculate the yield, and answer some lab book questions. Nothing to it.

It was around this time when my right eye started itching.

itcheh
http://brokenboulevard.deviantart.com/

Now, you might be thinking that the itch was due to chemicals that got into my eye. I assure you, this wasn't the case. I know this, because I was following safety procedures and had safety goggles on! The goggles did nothing to help my itch though. Instead, they blocking access to my eye... grr... Must! Relieve! ITCH!

I lifted the goggles to get to the accursed itch. *Rub rub rub*... Ahh, that feels better...

Wikipedia: "Diphenylmethanol is an irritant to the eyes"

...IT BURNS!!!

Where's the eyewash? Wherestheeyewash wherestheeyewash wherestheeyewash?!! In the corner of the room! Ahhh!

Sorry! Coming through! *weaves through people*

There it is! Quick, place my eyes over the faucet... TURN TAP!

(Powerful jets of water shoot out)

OWWWW!

...Have you ever wondered what it's like to have your eyeballs punched by miniature fists? No? Well if you ever do, all you need to do is use an eyewash on full blast. (oh yeah, eyewash image from www.uwm.edu, by the way)

Well, at least that's over. Having flushed my eyes as well as I could, I finished my final bits of writeup, handed in my notebook, removed my multi-coloured lab coat and stepped outside the doorway.

Time for lunch.

End note
Sze Howe is fine now. The grieving for the broken beaker has been completed, his fingers have regrown new skin, and his eyes have fully recovered from all chemical and physical injuries.

He has done well in chemistry this year, and is looking forward to completing his pharmacology major despite the prospect of future misadventures in chem labs.

Recommencement (an attempt, anyway)

Rightyo, I have officially used up all slivers of credible excuses for not blogging, now that I've completed 1st year of uni. ^^;; This also means that I need to get used to the free time I have on my hands again, hmm...

Has anybody ever had severe, chronic writers' block before? My holidays began last week, but until now I haven't been able to write all the emails, messages, testimonials, comments, cards, letters et cetera (or blog) because each time I sit down and try writing, I end up in agony. I find it strange, and possibly abnormal...

This is despite the fact that I have gotten over my need to produce The Perfect Essay In fact, I managed to churn out 3 essays -- with ~5 major topics each -- in 2 hours, for my IPE* exam. (This is a major accomplishment; I failed to complete any of my high school English papers on time!) The same doesn't seem to apply to my personal communiques though.

Help.

*IPE - Introduction to Professional Engineering - The most despised unit for UWA engineers