Roomie and I sent grocery shopping at NTUC (Jurong Point) & since we share a fridge, we could buy forzen food & store them in the fridge for supper. There's a mircowave oven in the pantry on our level we have got those nice aluminium trays. So he got his favourite pizza & I got my favourite chicken pie. Yummy!!!
Turns our that we were hungry that night & craving for supper after some really really intensive studying, revision and general brainstorming about how we can help mankind and ease suffering around the world (as if, right?)
I decided to go ahead with the cooking first. I was pretty sure that I had the microwave oven's power on Low when I set the timer for 10 minutes. Guess what, it was directly the opposite of Low, It was set to High! &%$#@!@#$ My moist chicken pie became very very hard chicken biscuit when i was just supposed to defrost it. So the lesson learnt is never ASSUME (ass, u & mi). Same goes for roomie. He heated his pizza a little too long, & it become pizza biscuit. Sigh. Well, we had a good laught about it, & took out our second serving & we got it right this time.
Ja neh!!!
Tuesday, February 28, 2006
The night my roomie and I burnt our supper
Thursday, February 23, 2006
Tuesday, February 21, 2006
My very own lab bench
Finally, I get my own space in the lab, no more doing experiments on other people's benches, no more hunting for equipment that would suddenly grow legs & run away from me (well, that still happens in the lab unless you put up death threat notices or hide them in a locked drawer or cupboard). First time blogging from the Environment Lab too. The other students must be thinking I came here to use the internet or the power sockets because I have not done a single things since I stepped into the lab this morning. Do not be mistaken, my samples were kept in a cold cold fridge throughout the weekend, & to achieve consistent results, I need them to be at room temperature (that's around 25 degrees C, according to most of our science textbooks), therefore I need to defrost them. Oh well, those hurtful eyes pierce through my very soul but they cannot accuse me because those freaking samples take so long to defrost!!!
They spelled my name wrongly again. As usual. What wrong with these people? Why do they always have to add an A to make it Chang, or an E to make it Cheng. It's Chng, not Ch'ng, not Chang, Cheng, Chong, Chung, etc etc. Sigh. It's the surname of great people, so you all must learn how to spell it properly ah. Heez. My ego took over for a while, or maybe I'm daydreaming, while the smell of digested sludge gets to me.
Better get some work done soon, because it's a short day for me.
Ja neh!!!
Sunday, February 19, 2006
The day the mighty Red Devils fell & taste the wrath of my Finance Minister
As I was walking to the pub after I parked the cheap korean taxi, I heard a thunderous roar coming from the opposite side of the street. It was an open air area where there were many big televisions showing soccer matches & shared by a few pubs & restaurants. I prayed it would be Man Utd fans shouting "Goal!!!" but alas, fate was not kind to me that night. Peter Crouch has scored a header against the Red Devils.
Such an irony. In today's The New Paper, 2 nos pages was dedicated to saying how horrible a striker Crouch was & that his headers are so weak, his only asset was his height. Seems like Crouch read today's New Paper, & decided that he would not take such abuse from the media, & silenced them in the best way a professional soccer player could. He not only scored, but also used his head.
http://soccernet.espn.go.com/report?id=194733&cc=4716
Halfway through the game, the Finance Minister was going through my budget & decided that the deficit was too huge to be tolerated & pulled the plug on the mindless spending that I incurred. I was to surrender all means of credit by the end of the day, or risk further action, said the sms. Sigh. Double sigh.
Time to lead a frugal livestyle until I am financially independent or until I win toto or 10 big 120 small in the weekly 4D draws. I will use the money to repay the credit company, & to save some portion in extremely extremely super duperly freaking low yield savings account or fixed deposits, & to invest in some high risk options like shares & stuff. Must increase financial knowledge asap!!! (the last line doesn't sound right...)
Ja neh!!!
Thursday, February 16, 2006
TLC chocolate chip cookies
Yenchua made some chocolate chip cookies again & being ever so nice, she offered them to us. Hmmm. Maybe she put something inside those cookies that made us like them so much, against our will, heez. Just joking. they really do taste better than those made by Famour Amos or Mrs Fields. Really really.
What are chocolate chip cookies?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chocolate_chip_cookies
Some recipes:
http://www.webterrace.com/cookie/recipes.htm
Some secrets of making better chocolate chip cookies:
http://www.well.com/user/vard/cookies.html
Famous Amos
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Famous_Amos
Ja neh!!!
New Gucci wallet
By the way this wallet costs 580sgd. Ouch!!!
Write up on Gucci:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gucci
Haute couture:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haute_couture
Some FAQs about the company:
http://www.guccigroup.com/genInfo/default.asp?ReqView=generalFaq.asp
Ja neh!!!
Valentine's day 2006
It's that time of the year again, where guys are obliged to buy grossly overpriced roses, amongst other flowers like lilies & sunflowers, & teddy bears & stuff to present to their special someone, who will parade with great pride & a hint of comtempt their "symbols of affection" as they spend the day in each other's company, as if mocking the single folks & reminding them of their "inferior" status.
I did not get Michelle flowers (anyway only 2 nos girls have received them from me, cos I'm a cheapo), nor presents. I only could give her my time on that day, which I believe is more valuable then mere mortal & worldly possessions.
Cheap Valentine's Day lunch too. We had Long John Silver's (LJS) at Level One, Far East Plaza. 
As we were having lunch, Michelle had a called from the travel agency she wanted to work at, so after eating, we made our way down to Chinatown so she can have her interview.
Her mum was around in the area, so while Michelle was being interveiwed, we had some dessert at a shop inside that shopping centre which I can't recall the name of. Yummy. Check out hthe most expensive item on the menu. 15SGD!!! Per serving!!! Got bird's nest or something.
After interview, Michelle & I went down to Funan Centre to look around at stuff. So we walked all the way from Chinatown to Funan (which isn't really a long way). Saw a booth selling Jabra Bluetooth Handsfree sets. So tempting, & as usual, we looked @ PSP games. There were 2 nos shops selling games @ slightly below market prices or those sold @ Mega Multimedia, but the catch is it's either cash or NETS. Fair enough. Must go down Seow Choon to take a look some day. We didn't buy any games today but MIchelle bought a Logitech hard casing for the PSP. The PSP's black but she deicded to go with white anyway. Really solid ocnstruction. Worth the money.
Soon we got tired, so we decided to have a drink & rest at McDonald's. Too bad I did not bring out the Apple lappy, or else I could spend the time surfing the information highway instead of feeding myself more calories. McFlurry!!! I had an army friend who called it McFluffy. No idea why. Maybe he can't RRROOoolllllll his tongue to make the rrrrrrrrr sound.
Suddenly we realized it was past dinner time, & there was a little rumbling in our tummies. We walked to City Hall, & decided to have a buffet dinner. Nice place, steep prices!!! Check out the rose petals on the tables. So sweet hor? And the tealight candle floating in the coloured water. Heez.
After stuffing ourselves, we walked to the Esplanade. Along the way, we saw many "artistic creations" in display in show cases, & this particular expression caught my eye. Very thin tracing paper with drawings (no idea what they are) being "suspended" in mid-air by fishing lines. Very nice. And we caught the artish in action!!!
Turns out that Esplanade always have artistic creations all year round, & this time, it seem to be following the Valentine's Day theme. Nice prink n red curtain-like strips of cloth. We couldn't resist & started taking pictures of ourselves with the SE K750. I look fat & grouchie. As usual. Sign. What's wrong with me?
Couples corner. They were everywhere within the exhibition. Sitting there, holding hands, chatting, gazing into each other's guys, whispering sweet nothings into each other's ears, making out (I made this one up, but GET A ROOM!!!)
I've started to appreciate Valentine's day more, now that I've mellowed & sorted out my thoughts. We spent close to 200sgd on that day, but well worth every cent. Could be less if it weren't for that VD (veneral disease or Valentine's Day dinner?), but Michelle was happy. I could see it in her eyes.
After that, roomie was not around, we were tired & exhausted from all the walking around. So a drink or 2 was in order. At the end of the night, half the bottle was finished, I was tipsy but happy that I made someone else happy, with my time, my company & my presence.
Cheers.
Ja neh!!!
Monday, February 13, 2006
Sunday, February 12, 2006
Turbidity of digested sludge
Turbidity is caused by the presence in water of particulate matter, such as clay, slit, colloidal particles, and plankton and other microscopic organisms. In other words turbidity is how clear the water is. The greater the amount of total suspended solids (TDS), the dirtier the water appears and the higher the measure turbidity.
Turns out that using the centrifudge thingy is not the right method as our aim is not to compress the sludge and measure the turbidity of the supernatent but to link the turbidty of the supernatent to the strength of the granules or microbials, as it should be more accurately called that. Granules must be consistently greather than a specified diameter and of a certain shape factor. Random pieces of sludge / dirt cannot be called granules.
The black stuff at the bottom is known as the pallet & the liquid is the supernatent. This is after it has been spun around at xxx (can't remember because I left my data in the lab) RPM for 30 minues.
http://www.ourlake.org/html/turbidity.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turbidity
http://www.thirteen.org/edonline/studentstake/water/BronxRiver/turbidity/turbidity.htm
We take a fixed amount of samle and wash away all the fines (very small particles) using the somewhat unorthodox arrangement. It's somehow arbitary because I do not know exactly the rate of flow of water into the sample & there is really no exact way to get the same rate of flow everytime I perform this experiemt. To minimize differences, each time, I wash away the fines of samples fom the 4 different HRTs & I leave the tap running in between. It's a waste of water but does anyone have a better idea?
This sample contains a lot of fines & it flows radially outwards & into the sink. What is left behind are the larger particles & they go into the nice test-tube thingy with the lovely purple cap. It is then shaken at 250 RPM for 30 minutes, if I remembered correctly.
So how does the turbidy relate to the strength of the granules? Well, when we take about strength, there are many types of strength, as it is a very general term. We are looking at the cohesive strength of the particles. How well they still stick to each other after being shaken. SO if they don't stick to each other very well, i.e. low cohesive strength, there will be fines that are seperated from the particles and this makes the supernatent turbid, i.e. high turbidity. Vice versa (it's Latin).
Get it? No? I don't get it too!!! Crap!!!
Ja neh!!!