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Thursday, September 28, 2006 @11:42 PM

I love doing this kind of test. Thanks to H. for introducing the site of this test (Get to know yourself better).

***My results (I think it is close to what I knew about myself)***

Get to know yourself better

Your view on yourself:

You are down-to-earth and people like you because you are so straightforward. You are an efficient problem solver because you will listen to both sides of an argument before making a decision that usually appeals to both parties.

The type of girlfriend/boyfriend you are looking for:

You like serious, smart and determined people. You don't judge a book by its cover, so good-looking people aren't necessarily your style. This makes you an attractive person in many people's eyes.

Your readiness to commit to a relationship:

You prefer to get to know a person very well before deciding whether you will commit to the relationship.

The seriousness of your love:

You are very serious about relationships and aren't interested in wasting time with people you don't really like. If you meet the right person, you will fall deeply and beautifully in love.

Your views on education

You may not like to study but you have many practical ideas. You listen to your own instincts and tend to follow your heart, so you will probably end up with an unusual job.

The right job for you:

You're a practical person and will choose a secure job with a steady income. Knowing what you like to do is important. Find a regular job doing just that and you'll be set for life.

How do you view success:

You are afraid of failure and scared to have a go at the career you would like to have in case you don't succeed. Don't give up when you haven't yet even started! Be courageous.

What are you most afraid of:

You are concerned about your image and the way others see you. This means that you try very hard to be accepted by other people. It's time for you to believe in who you are, not what you wear.

Who is your true self:

You are mature, reasonable, honest and give good advice. People ask for your comments on all sorts of different issues. Sometimes you might find yourself in a dilemma when trapped with a problem, which your heart rather than your head needs to solve.

***The Real Me? (Click here for the link)***

The Real You

Here is the analysis:

  1. You've got great self-confidence and you're full of charm. Most guys who get to know you will be attracted to you. You are far from sweet and proper; your intriguing personality fascinates them. Most guys find it easy to fall for a girl like you.
  2. You really care about other people's feelings and are quite serious about the issues that affect your life. You are sincere, and your concern for the well-being of others makes many people want to be your friend.
  3. You strictly follow rules, and you expect other people to be the same as well. People can get tired of you easily, as you can make them feel a little guilty about themselves. You always make decisions on your own, and can be dismissive of other people's advice. You like to be the leader in groups, but can forget to be concerned about the people you are with.
  4. Your peers think of you as a fun person, but sometimes you can be a little irresponsible. You can be somewhat childish, and can try to ignore the fact that you will one day need to really grow up and be a mature adult! Perhaps you could start reading good books; they might help you look at the world in a different light. You do want to be taken seriously, right?
  5. Your boyfriend believes that you are a strong and independent person. Your confidence and cheerfulness make you an attractive person to be around, but sometimes you need to pay more attention to what other people, including your boyfriend, are thinking.
PS: Hmm...I wonder what my Travel Companion thinks about statement No.5.

***What's your personality love style is? (Click here for link)***

What's your personality love style?

Here is the analysis:

You desire a love that will last forever. You are quite serious about finding this type of love, and that's why you think carefully about the men that you meet before deciding whether you could really love them. You don't just develop a crush on someone overnight: you look at a person's personality and other aspects of their life before deciding to form an attachment. If a guy doesn't meet your expectations, you would rather be alone. Your love has to be perfect. Be careful though, you could be missing out on some worthy relationships because your standards are so high.

every page of my imagination


0 people traveled to my fantasyland

@12:01 AM

I have been people-watching during all these years of residing in different countries. I am not stereotyping, but somehow, there is a general trend of each nation, based on my naive observation.

Before I moved to Country D, my sister showed me an article that she read about how cold the people of Country D are. I did not pay much attention to that but took it as an additional piece of information with me. So I went there, busy settling down, meeting many new people. Everything seemed all right for me. After some interaction with the new people I met, whom were usually foreigners from other countries, I began to hear some not-so-good remarks like, "The people here are just like its weather." or "The people are cold here."

Are they really that cold? Yes, sometimes. But I guess using the word "cold" to describe its people seem unfair. I would rather say its people are a bit more reserved in terms of social wise. They are not that upfront compared to other nations in the world. But they are no doubt nice people. If you have a bit of patience for the fruit of the friendship to ripens, which generally takes longer time there than elsewhere, you still manage to be surrounded by a good bunch of good friends there. And usually good friendship comes when you least expect them. Since my sister gave me a head-up before, I was not expecting any friendship when I moved there. It all worked out pretty all right for me.

The place or at least this part of the country I am now visiting is the opposite of Country D. The people are warm in general. You get strangers saying hello to you on a bus, crossing the streets or sitting at the park, even the bus drivers greet you in the morning, as if he/she have been some old friends. Yet the downside of this acute friendliness is you are likely to see the obvious change in these people's mood here. I have been taking the campus bus rides. I always get to meet two bus drivers, either this man or this woman. Anyway, I have seen both jolly happily greeting people at certain days, but the next day, their mood turned a 180 degrees.

This morning, I was talking on the phone with my Travel Companion outside the corridor. There I saw a lady walking up to me asking for direction to Level 4. Level 4? I know the lab I was working in is located in Level 3, thus I presumed Level 4 is just one more level up. I knew where the stairs are since I have been walking from the entrance of the building up and down each day from the ground floor till Level 3, where the lab is located. So I stopped my phone conversation with my Travel Companion and told the lady that the floor we were at was Level 3 and if she was looking for Level 4, it should just be one level up, and she could take the stairs on our left after the door in front of us. She walked to the floor. I went back to my phone but keeping an eye on her to see whether did she manage to locate the stairs. She did, but 2 minutes later, she came back. I asked, "Did you manage to find the stairs?" She told me the door was locked prohibiting her to enter Level 4. I remembered there was an elevator on the right side of the building too although I have not taken it before. She went to try it. Another two minutes later, she came back but this time she looked furious. I wonder why. I asked, "Did you find your way?" She nearly yelled at me but trust me her tone was not that nice and told me "The door is locked. I can't get in!" I felt sorry for her but at that point I looked out the window that apparently allowed me to see the connected building for both east and west wings. I felt something was wrong. There is no Level 4 because the floor we were at was already the top floor of the whole building. I figured that the reason she could not get through the door after upstairs because that was the roof level and of course only authorized personnel would have accessed to it. So I politely explained to her that I was new here but it seemed like there was no Level 4. She refused to listen and walked past me angrily. I shrugged and shared this little incident with my Travel Companion.

I do understand there are times when we are in bad mood because something unpleasant has happened. But I always try to tell myself we should not be that temperamental. It does scare others surrounding us plus it is not doing any good to us. I told my Travel Companion that I like the moderate way. Be happy if you can, if not try to be extremely sad when feel agitated. I know it is hard not to be affected when things do not work out. But at least not happy for this second and angry or upset the next second. It is too tiring, for ourselves and others who have to bear with our temperamental change. Just imagine hot at this second and frosty cold the next. It only does damage to the tissues, the body or even the machines. That is why we need to warm up before an exercise or using a machine.

every page of my imagination


0 people traveled to my fantasyland

Monday, September 25, 2006 @12:47 AM

I am not good in Maths. But somehow after all these years of life as a nomad, some part of my brain remains active constantly to work out the timezone of several places of the world.

It started of when I was in Country B for my college years, my mom would always ask me, "What time is it over there?" I would explain patiently to her that, "Mom I am 3 hours ahead of you during winters and only 2 hours ahead during summers."

Since my relocation to Country D, although it has already been three years, my family would still ask the same question, "What time is it?" each time I call home. "Mom, you guys are 6 hours ahead during our summers here and 7 hours ahead during our winters." Then they would go further and ask, "What season is it over there?" Not only that, I have to also work out the time difference between my time and my sisters' time who are living away from home too. Sometimes I met them online when they were starting their days and I was just about to go to bed.

Now since I came here for my lab visit, I am close to a day behind my family. I guess if I were to stay here permanently, I would really have to figure out a suitable time to call home. That would be a bit tricky, not that the big difference of timezone but rather the time that I am most free within the day, it is either everyone in my family is out working or studying or it is already midnight for them.

Funny how it was for me to receive a short email from AA, my close friend knowing that she was starting her brand new day of a brand new week whilst I am still enjoying my Sunday afternoon at the other side of the globe. Oh by the way, I am sure AA was not aware of this until she reads this. Hey AA, good day mate! :D

every page of my imagination


3 people traveled to my fantasyland

Saturday, September 23, 2006 @12:03 AM

Thanks to Cindy, who forwarded this to me. And I would like to pass it around here.

***
Subject: I WISH YOU ENOUGH

Recently, I overheard a mother and daughter in their last moments together at the airport. They had announced the departure.

Standing near the security gate, they hugged and the mother said, "I love you and I wish you enough".

The daughter replied, "Mom, our life together has been more than enough. Your love is all I ever needed. I wish you enough, too, Mom".

They kissed and the daughter left. The mother walked over to the window where I was seated. Standing there I could see she wanted and needed to cry. I tried not to intrude on her privacy but she welcomed me in by asking, "Did you ever say good-bye to someone knowing it would be forever?".

"Yes, I have," I replied. "Forgive me for asking, but why is this a forever good-bye?".

"I am old and she lives so far away. I have challenges ahead and the reality is - the next trip back will be for my funeral," she said.

"When you were saying good-bye, I heard you say, 'I wish you enough'. May I ask what that means?".

She began to smile. "That's a wish that has been handed down from other generations. My parents used to say it to everyone". She paused a moment and looked up as if trying to remember it in detail and she smiled even more. "When we said , 'I wish you enough', we were wanting the other person to have a life filled with just enough good things to sustain them".

Then turning toward me, she shared the following as if she were reciting it from memory.

I wish you enough sun to keep your attitude bright no matter how gray the day may appear.

I wish you enough rain to appreciate the sun even more.

I wish you enough happiness to keep your spirit alive and everlasting.

I wish you enough pain so that even the smallest of joys in life may appear bigger.

I wish you enough gain to satisfy your wanting.

I wish you enough loss to appreciate all that you possess.


I wish you enough hellos to get you through the final good-bye.

She then began to cry and walked away.

They say it takes a minute to find a special person, an hour to appreciate them, a day to love them but then an entire life to forget them.

every page of my imagination


3 people traveled to my fantasyland

Friday, September 22, 2006 @8:19 PM

What's wrong with my hands? I don't know. I just knew they had been doing silly mistakes and resulting in screwing all the experiments I was doing yesterday.

It was a terrible day for me yesterday. Never in my entire lab rat days did I ever make a very basic simple mistake before. Can you imagine putting the catode and anode wires wrongly on the machine resulting the gel running in the wrong direction and hence lost my samples? Yep, that happened to me yesterday. It was the first thing when you entered a molecular lab, your senior would tell you this basic rule and you would remember since. I did not make this mistake when I was a newbie but I so not believe that it happened to me when I was in my 3rd year of a doctorate degree! Anyway, it was too late to saviour the samples. I just had to redo the whole experiment.

That was not it. The cells that I have been working were all contaminated. And I was from a microbiology background where sterile technique was a must in my early days of training. Most importantly my work schedule is now delayed because of this. Oh well.

There were more silly mistakes I made throughout the whole day. I was really exhausted about all these in the beginning. But towards the end of the day, it just slowly sank in. It was just not the day. And if everyone is meant to make some silly mistakes, then at least I am glad that it happened now than later. I would be more upset if I make this type of mistake when I am teaching someone later on in my career. Think of it that way makes me feel a lot better.

every page of my imagination


4 people traveled to my fantasyland

@8:01 PM

It is already 2 weeks since I came here. I pretty much have a daily routine for work, arriving at work about 9am and get off about 7pm. The working time is not longer than I used to. Yet, this is not really the reason that I feel that I have more free time here.

I thought I would spend more time on writing about my experiences here. But since I do not have internet access at the place I am staying and also I actually work more in the lab than I was in my own lab, hence lack of updates. I guess it is also pretty hard to slack off when you are at someone else's lab. There is a lot to do within the day in the lab. I feel that people come in and really work. They talk but talk lesser with not so much coffee breaks. This is really something different from the work culture of where I was from. With that said, there is lesser chance for the procrastinator little guy to be appear on stage. That is a good sign for me.

Another obvious reason is I do not have spend too much time in front of the computer surfing. It was a bit difficult in the beginning since internet and the computer have been a neccessity of my life. But after a day or two, I am all right without them. Without spending time in front of the computer really leaves me a lot of free time after work. I do not have a TV in my room. I only have a radio that Coworker A lent it to me. I have been tuning into the R&B radio station here when I am in my room.

I guess it is a nice change for me to feel that I have more free time now. But with more free time it does not actually mean I am more hardworking and productive at work because I spend more time on the phone with my Travel Companion. No, that is really not a complaint.

every page of my imagination


0 people traveled to my fantasyland

@7:51 PM


Few days ago, I was taking the campus shuttle bus to the hospital. I love the bus ride. The bus was making a round tour within the campus and it allows me to sit back and relax to enjoy the beautiful scene of the campus.

"HONK...honk...honk..."

The bus driver started giving some honk while he was driving into the main area. I looked out. There was a bunch of students in wearing the college t-shirt cheering at the side of the road.

"If you love {the college name}, honk!"

As the bus turned to the right and we saw another bunch of students again.

This was part of the orientation programs welcoming newbies to the college. Although I am not really the freshman students they were welcoming, I certainly felt the atmosphere and pretending I was their student.

Looking at these young students, it reminded me when my days as a freshman in college. Too bad the college I went to followed the formal british system; we had orientation but it was the formal ones. It is definitely an eye-opening to experience a different type of orientation during my visit here, albeit it was not really meant for me.

every page of my imagination


0 people traveled to my fantasyland

Saturday, September 16, 2006 @5:27 PM

"Knock the door before you open it. This is manners."

Since young, I was taught about this. I have been practicising what I was told.

This morning, while I was in the bathroom. Someone opened my door. Although the man asked, "Is there someone inside?" It still did not count since he asked while he was opening the door. I had to run and stop him from opening the bathroom door and closed it quick enough before it was totally opened.

I was told when I complaint about the lack of locs in this house when I moved in a week ago that, "It is ok. Everyone knows the rule. If the door is close, then we know someone is inside and will not open the door." The landlord even commented that I made a big fuss out of this. Now I am all confused. Does that mean the rule no longer applies? Or not everyone obeys the "rule" anymore?

I was so glad that this did not happen when I was in a shower. I would not be able to jump out of the bath tub and ran to the door soon enough before that man opened my door. It gave me a bit of a cold sweat!

Why can't everyone in this house just practice the little manner we all were taught when we were a kid? Knock before you open the door. It is so simple and could save their trouble of being sued for harrassment or invading others' privacy.

every page of my imagination


4 people traveled to my fantasyland

@3:00 AM

There is a funny observation about age. I was talking about this with NK one day at work.

I remember when I was a kid, everytime when someone asked me, "How old are you?" I would automatically said, "I am {insert the age number} PLUS old!" Yep, I said it out loud paying particular emphasis on the word "plus".

The other day, NK was asking how old I was. I told him, "I am 26." He was a bit confused and asked, "Were you born in 1980?"

Me: No, 1979, but I was born at the end of the year.
NK: Nah, you're not really 26, you're 27.
Me: You're wrong! To be precise, I am 26 years and 10 months old.

Did you see the difference? I mean my answer about my age when I was a kid and compared to my answer now as an adult (well, supposed to be an adult). This is such a funny observation about myself. The more hilarious part is I did not even realize it until NK pointed it out.

Eh, you know, I could be more precise when the next person ask about my age.

How old are you? I am just 26 years, 10 months and 10 days old. Don't you like that?

every page of my imagination


0 people traveled to my fantasyland

Wednesday, September 13, 2006 @6:12 PM

Yes, I have a long list. But no, I'm not going to expose all of them to you here. That would be too much for you.

Well, today is already my third day in this beautiful campus. I did not settle down quite well when I just arrived on the past weekend. The place I am staying is pretty run down. Usually I am quite an easy-going when it comes to living style and stuff, but this one is really bad. The house, the bedroom and the common bathroom do not have any locks. This really freaks me out because I really dislike the thought when I am sleeping or doing any business and all of a sudden someone opens the door. I need my privacy. Plus the bathroom is really dirty since it is shared by many people in the house. But given that it is tough to find a place to stay for just a month or so, I was only given two options, take this room or move to stay with my coworker, who would kindly let me slumber his bedroom while he would move to the living room. I decided to just adapt to the environment and stayed in the rented room.

Next big fear of mine is I have no sense of direction. Yes, this is not news to you anymore. One would really ask how did I survive for the past 10 years after leaving my home country and floating around different continents. Lucky is the only thing I can really think of. Those places that I had stayed or have been staying apparently have really good public transportation system. Hence I just needed to work out which bus or subway or even train to take to get to my destination. However almost everyone drives or bikes here. The campus is really huge and it would be pretty exhausting to walk from one end to the other. And I am staying off campus thus it makes my travel to work more tricky.

I got dropped off to work and got picked up on the first day of my work. But I had to be on my own since yesterday. One of my coworkers kindly lent me her bike. But that is not going to help much since I have not been on a bike for close to 15 years. It takes some time for me to fiddle around. So here comes my other fear. How am I going to work each day? I took out the map that I was given. Studied at it. And I told myself. All right, tomorrow I am just going to walk from here to the lab located in the North end of the campus where the university hospital is. It may take longer time but it is good chance for me to explore the campus a bit. Even if I am lost, I can just ask the people and better still I will discover more new things when I am lost. With that courage, I leisurely checked out the new walking route. It took me 45 minutes to get to the lab. When I walked to the lab, I heard coworker A (the one who was offering his apartment to me) talking on the phone to coworker B (who is working off campus), "Oh here she is. She did not get lost."

Today, I left the house an hour earlier to get here before 9am. And I made it. This time it took me 5 minutes less. My next target is trying to conquer my fear on biking on the road. I was told the biking lane next to the car lane is rather safe. But I still have this fear psychologically that I really need to conquer. If not I may also want to try to find other short cuts to walk to work or check out the campus shuttle bus.

When I was walking and enjoying the view of the campus this morning, I began to really appreciate the opportunity given to gain some new experience here. It is not about experience of being productive at work. It is more of an experience for me to look at my fears, deal with them and learn from them. I would always try to get away from those fears because there was no such opportunity for me to look and face them. But this time it is different. On top of that, it is more of a challenge for me during this stay here since I do need to adapt to the environment within a short time while juggling with a heavy workload of my schedule here. This is something different from my past stopovers at other places since my stays were generally longer and I could just focus and tackle one thing at a time.

As much as I do not like to expose myself to all these fears, I am beginning to enjoy acknowledging them and deal with them. They aren't that bad after all. I just need some time and confidence.

PS: more interesting observations and thoughts from my stay here later.

every page of my imagination


4 people traveled to my fantasyland

Monday, September 11, 2006 @8:54 PM

In case you're wondering where the heck this girl has disappeared to, I have to tell you that I'm
still around. But I just took a little break after my assessment that was held last week. Oh, the assessment went really well. It was a big relief to me when the whole thing was done at the end.

I do have more to talk because I am now at a different continent, different country, different lab doing some collaborative work. I'll be here for more than a month. Hopefully I have something exciting and interesting to talk about.

Hmm...anyone interested in playing the guessing game again? Anyway, stay tune and I promise to be back with more interesting stuff.

every page of my imagination


0 people traveled to my fantasyland

Sunday, September 03, 2006 @7:25 PM

Tomorrow will be my show day; my half-degree assessment. I just finalized the powerpoint slides in the evening. I did not even bother to write a speech or go through it. Looks like it'll be an hour presentation, or close to (if one slide will take about a minute to explain). Then the major part will be qustions by the thesis committee and the audience, which will be about another hour or so. This is the time people will know how much you know about your work. I used to worry about Q&A. But this time, I realize that's really pointless for me to worry, not that I know my stuff well. It's just that there isn't much I could do at this stage; last minute brainstorming or burning the mid-night oil does not work on me. So I'll try to be all relaxed. One funny thing my main supervisor advised to me was, "Remember, if you don't know the answer, just say you don't know." I could not believe he actually mentioned that twice to me. But it's a good reminder. You don't want to make yourself a fool by making up silly answers in front of the panel of expert there.

"I don't know." That sounds easy to say. But I do realize there are times that we feel embarrassed to admit to others that we do not know the answer for a question. Or sometimes we just simply make up some answer even though we do not have a clue of the question. I am not speaking about Q&A session in a presentation. Simple things like someone approaching you or you approaching someone for direction. I wonder how many of you were told the wrong information and ended up feeling more lost. Telling people "I don't know" is not easy for some people because they tend to think that if they admit they do not know the answer, they could be view as stupid, someone who's behind the group and stuff.

In contrary, there are some people for some reason wish not to expose the truth that they know. Hence when they are asked for the information or whatever, immediately they would tell you, "I don't know. Don't ask me. Ask so-and-so." This "I don't know" line is commonly exploited to cover ourselves from "trouble". Wise? I personally do not prefer this. I guess if you want to avoid answering, perhaps it's good to just walk away or at least not making up a small lie like "I don't know" when the fact is you actually know about it.

All right, I'll be really honest tomorrow when my thesis committee members happen to ask me tough questions, I shall just tell them, "Interesting but I don't know." Hey if you are interested to listen to my work, do drop by. It is an open seminar; anyone can just walk in and ask nasty questions. I'll try my best to answer, otherwise, "I don't know" is a good one too. Heh.

every page of my imagination


2 people traveled to my fantasyland

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