Serenity Movie UK release

The upcoming movie Serenity will be released in the UK on October 7, 2005. This is the eagerly awaited movie based on the shortlived but cult favourite TV series Firefly. Personally, I'm a huge fan of the series, and I can't wait to catch the movie when it comes out. There has been a lot of buzz on entertainment sites, based on the 3 trailers that have been released so far.

Movie site
Trailers

Babe of the week: Gen13's Fairchild

In honour of IGN's Battle of the Comic-Book Babes, with Emma Frost winning the title of hottest drawn character, here's the gorgeous runner-up, Caitlin Fairchild.

"Fairchild is the opposite of Emma. She's a good girl who's gifted with incredible strength and an impossible bust. She's the sweet, strong girl you can take home to mom and show off to your friends. She is the apple pie of babes, a girl so beautiful and sweet, she'll make your eyes water.

Those with a thing for Amazonian babes or the beautiful girl next door can't possible pass up Caitlin Fairchild."

Excerpt from IGN

Student Diet

After being completely knackered from the overnight transfections, I settled in for hugely unnutritious student dinner before passing out for 11 hours into a semi-comatose state. In my momentary inspired state, I took a picture of my dinner before devouring it. Anyone who's lived the life of a student away from home will be familiar with this faire. It's a veritable smorgasbord of the best that instant food can offer to the lazy cash strapped student.



cut tomatoes
sausages
cappellati
baked beans
poached eggs

click on pic for more details

I am awake now. I hate the 2am sample. Cell counts just never seem to correlate at that time of the night. I reckon it's CHO-S witching hour.

And because I've only had 4 hours of sleep, my brain isn't too sharp, AND basically there isn't anything terribly interesting happening when you're stuck underground in a lab for 20 hours a day, here a pic of my Mr Incredible slippers. The woman got them for me last Christmas. I thought they were really sweet, coupled with me being a huge fan of Pixar Animation.

In the lab doing overnight sampling... soo... tired.... brain shutting doooownnn....... zzzzz

Stop closing Post Offices

They've closed my neighbourhood Post Office just down the road a couple of months ago. It's really made things difficult for me, having to send mail back home and all, even though I live in Central London. It seem that nowadays, it's getting harder and harder to find a Post Office in the UK. I understand the need for trimmer operating costs, and fatter profits, but surely there must be another way around it. Afterall, the purpose of the Royal Post is to serve the people of UK, and how can they do that if we can't even find the blooming Post Office?!?!

Evidently, other people feel as strongly about it as I do. Here someone's actually made a really bad video about it. Music reminiscent of The Streets. It's hilariously bad, please support him and check it out. The struggle of the common man.... and his mail.

Post Office video

Latin Fever: Jessica Alba, Eva Langoria, Eva Mendes

Haven't posted on the Babe of the week thread for a couple of weeks now, but fear not! This pretty much makes up for it. Egotastic has managed to get hold of an event with the 3 hottest latinas in the media today, Eva Longoria (Desperate Housewives), Jessica Alba (stripping, blue spandex and leather) and Eva Mendes (guns, fast cars and Will Smith) all in the same room! Personally I'm not really a fan of any of them, but since I've had a pretty good day, I'm feeling quite altruistic. Excerpt from the post is below. Find the original post here.

"What do you get when you put Jessica Alba, Eva Longoria, and Eva Mendes in a room together? A whole lot of exploded male heads, that's what. What follows are pictures of a Super Fantasy Latina Trio sure to raise the blood pressure (among other things) of every guy on the planet. Yes, every guy on the planet. The trio were together for the "Be More You" launch party. I don't know what that is."

Oh yeah, and BOLLOCKS to walkover "elections".

At least I got to vote in the UK elections, and it's not even my own country!! The irony.....

Good day

I had a good day. Mainly because the girlfriend is loving me again, well sort of. And I had a decent supervisory meeting. Only slept 2 hours last night, stayed up fretting about today's meeting and rushing whatever I had (basically a lot of waffle) so as not to go into it empty handed. I felt that I have pretty much been doing jack for the last 4 weeks since the last meeting I had with them.

Completely expected to be screwed over several times today, but things pleasantly didn't turn out that way. Pretty much spent the better part of an hour refreshing their memory on my theories, and presenting the meagre results which I generated several weeks back. They seemed to be satisfied and happy enough with that peace offering. Thank God for forgetful professors. :) Things are looking up. PTL!

When you try your best but you don't succeed
When you get what you want but not what you need
When you feel so tired but you can't sleep
Stuck in reverse

And the tears come streaming down your face
When you lose something you can't replace
When you love someone but it goes to waste
could it be worse?

Lights will guide you home
And ignite your bones
And I will try to fix you

And high up above or down below
When you're too in love to let it go
But if you never try you'll never know
Just what you're worth

Lights will guide you home
And ignite your bones
And I will try to fix you

Tears stream down your face
When you lose something you cannot replace
Tears stream down your face
And I

Tears stream down your face
I promise you I will learn from my mistakes
Tears stream down your face
And I

Lights will guide you home
And ignite your bones
And I will try to fix you.

Thanks Chris

I'm not a happy monkey.

Miss you.

Repentance

Angry words
That I shouldn't have said
Turn of regret
Now I know it's too late
I only wish I could fix it now
Unskilled hands can't build too much
If you could turn my way
Again
I'd hold you and not let go
This heart can't beat without you

Marc Newson's Nike Zvezdochka

I was browsing around Covent Garden yesterday and decided to step into Offspring. There I finally laid eyes upon what is probably the coolest pair of shoes ever designed. I first stumbled across it several months ago here. But to truly hold a pair in my hands, the design of the Zvezdochka blows me away. Its exhorbitant RRP of £190 is the only thing that stopped me from leaving the store with a pair (despite the insistent peddling of a certain shop assistant).



"Launched in the Japanese magazine Huge, the Nike Zvezdochka is out of this world. Literally. Designed by Marc Newson as a multi purpose shoe for cosmonauts, it's named for the Russian space dog that ventured aboard Sputnik 10 in 1961. While it may look like a reinvention of the Jelly, it promises to be the next major accomplishment in footwear engineering. If you're in London, you might be able to decide for yourself when Newson's show opens next week at the Design Museum."

Excerpt from Coolhunting





Photos from raeo

Alter Egos

My girlfriend reckons this is me. In case you guys are wonder what in the flaming 7 circles of hell is that?!? It's Sid the Sloth from the Ice Age movie. Hmm.... not entirely sure about the accuracy of her assessment. Well.... maybe the sloth bit.

Wind

A wise woman (basically TH's mum) once said:

A long distance is to a relationship what a strong wind is to a flame.

If a flame is small, a gust will blow it out, but if the flames are strong, a wind will only make it stronger.

Amen

Happy Birthday Singapore!

One can check out more about this year's National Day celebrations here.

Even though I've been in the UK for quite a while now, and generally a disgruntled human being, I'm proud to say that I'm Singaporean. I wish all the best for Singapore's future, economically and socially.

I'm not one for gahmen propaganda, but I agree with this year's slogan. Dear singaporeans, the future is really ours to make of it.

Here's a brilliant article on Singapore.

A boon

My beloved girlfriend has granted me the great privilege of a "rewind button", should I on the occasion blurt out something stupid! For people in relationships, especially the guys, I'm sure they would be fully aware of the generosity and power of such a concession.

Especially on the occasions when the partner goes "Do I look fat?" or "Have I gained weight?". Rewinding responses like "Then go on a diet lor.." or "I still love you even if you gain weight.." are critical to mental health and general wellbeing. Particularly if the girlfriend happens to be taking kickboxing classes at the local gym.

Sunny Day

It was a gorgeous day in London today, praise the Lord! Here's the view from my window on the 7th floor, pointing southeast from Kentish Town.

Doh! Just realised that humanbear has already taken a pic of her passport. But mine's in colour, so it shall stand.

One Singapore Minute

In response to Mr Brown's call, I've dug out my crusty old passport and taken a picture of it. I think it's pretty much the most singaporean thing I have in my room. Unfortunately, I haven't got a pair of Japanese slippers. You know the one I'm talking about? The one that all hawkers, uncles and market sellers seem to wear.

Cheap Michael Lau Knock Off Toy

Stumbled across this photo while trawling through my comp today. Got this toy in Hong Kong when I visited about 3 years back. Time really flies. It used to sit up on my shelf when I was working. Probably added to people's perception of me being a "see gee nah". Can't really blame me, right? It's such a cool toy, it even has a removable balaclava and removable MP5 magazine (all plastic of course).

What I never noticed before was the strangely coloured lips. It looks like he's got strawberry lipgloss on.... not that I'm terrible familiar with strawberry lipgloss.... or tried any..... just an observation that's all.

PBS

I now know more about Phosphate Buffered Saline than I did yesterday! It's amazing what one can learn just by spending a couple of hours Googling it up.

Basically, there's

Sorenson's Phosphate Buffered Saline
10mM Na2HPO4/NaH2PO4
150mM NaCl

Dulbecco's Phosphate Buffered Saline
10mM Na2HPO4/KH2PO4
150mM NaCl
Ca2+, Mg2+ salts

Been trying to rustle up some PBS at pH 5.0. Being a geek and not taking things as they are can really complicated matters for myself.

And then there's the Henderson-Hasselbach equation stuff.

Star Wars Original Prop Auction

Star Wars memorabilia

Ever wanted to wave Luke Skywalker's lightsaber around, dress up in his orange jumpsuit to go to clubbing (that'll so reel in the chicks with danishes on the side of their heads)? Chew on Yoda's gimer stick? Now you can!!

I've always wanted my very own prop used in the original Star Wars movies. None of the plastic crap you get from Hasbro. I already have 4 of those flimsy ones. That being said, the new collectors' Force FX lightsabers are pretty amazing. Light up LEDs, metal construction, "wooong wooonng kkrrshhhhh!!" sounds included!

But push comes to shove, nothing beats the the original prop using in Star Wars: A New Hope wield by Mark Hamill himself! (That was before his career took a downturn and he started doing crappy voice overs for cartoons.)

Wisdom

My girlfriend is such a wise woman. I don't know what I would do without her. I have been suffering from huge amounts of stress. Let me summarise it here.

Normal stress
Sloth behaviour, bumming around without a sense of urgency

Optimum stress
Beaver! High productivity, organised, get lots done.

Too much stress!
Ostrich, stick head in sand, complete denial of the amount of research that needs to be done.

Basically I've been research ineffective! But wise words from her pretty much helped me through it.

How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time....

(No elephants were eaten or harmed in the process.)

Productivity

This is so describes my life in UCL now....

PhD Comics 2nd August 2005