Class of 2007

We were so proud of Spencer and his speech drew tears in more ways than one! I will dearly miss these friends. Team mates, study companions, friends, club colleagues, these people are very special indeed. Surprise visit from Abel! Thanks for the flowers :)

Existential transition: graduation/unemployment

My last exam this morning was a killer, right to the very end. It spared no means to torture my classmates and I, poor honours students who thought cell biology could not get any worse than the nightmare 2 years ago. But gootbye Free Radical Biology, hello erh, post-traumatic-exam-experience-angst unemployment. But I had some good times in this institution, and a select few friends who may be idiots but well we've stuck together in more ways than one. Eye keeess you all. *slurps*

Eh meiyu goot luck!

It's finally done.

Almost there but not quite. An ISM paper and 3 exams to go. But today, brief relief.

Betraying my arachnid calling

You really must visit this site at Calacademy and read about and watch these amazing critters in action. They make our ferraris and dewalts look dated! Madagascar is simply amazing. The saddest thing is that at the rate we're clearing our forests and damaging the environment, all these fascinating animals, and those we've yet to discover, will disappear forever. I mean, check out the jaws on that bugger! I stumbled upon this while reading up on the first truely social spitting spiders for my thesis.

Meanwhile, do visit a new link on the sidebar for really cool insect photography!!! Like this photo of a living bridge of Eciton burchelli, an army ant from america.



In other news, um, well there's no other news. Nothing that screams a compelling need to be splat updated on the blog. Well, there was the honours presentation which was on Tuesday that went surprisingly well, to my relief, despite being allocated two evolution profs, one of whom has feared notoriety for being, well, frightening. Luckily, the hours of last minute reading, support from some lab people (and surprisingly, a supportive Mr. Hsu who turned up to marvel at everybody's project on the day itself) as well as some quick thinking at some tough questions, I'd think I pulled through rather alright. Now that the thesis draft is finally done, it's time to do some serious proof reading, and then it's on to a 3 day sprint to research and prepare for the next term paper and presentation, which then leaves me a week to study for 3 papers. Like many people tell me, I'm really stretching myself for the last semester as an undergrad. What a way to go.

Oh, and Mr. Mort committed suicide some time on Wednesday, probably by violently hurling himself out of the tank, onto my desk, possibly flip-flopping around until he found the edge, and plummetted to the floor, and died from desiccation. Meme think it's cos I cursed him with the name Mr. Death and gave him bad luck to begin with, which could explain why Mr. Thor is so strong and healthy now. I might just name my next one 'Scurvy' and see what happens, while we're testing this naming phenomenon.

The Spider Orgasm

My spiders probably experience more sexual pleasure than anyone of us. Thus far, out of almost 20 females I've put in the mating ring, courtship (or foreplay) lasts 22 minutes at the longest, and copulation (or sex) lasts up to 53 new record: 70 minutes! This is a fascinating result, considering mating in Paraceba for example, lasts in the seconds, while many other spider species, like other Scytodids and Salticids, last up to a few minutes only. I can think of a few reasons for the high reproductive success of this spider, among them; nutritional status (all healthy and well-fed), low natural population density (thus high reproductive investment in the first mate encountered), low incidence of predation in the natural habitat (thus cost of being eaten while copulating is lower than benefit of a long mating period?) ... ?.

A reliable source tells me his flies mate for up to a few hours. Mind-boggling stuff.



But of course, they can't actually feel any pleasure. How tragic.

So that's what I've been up to. The bunny appreciates that you do not sneer at the evident lack of a social life this holiday season.

Field trip again

I'm feeling a little guilty dragging 3 grad students with me up to Gombak to help me in my collection, and especially dear jaded Jeremy, who really has better things to do, assuming he has more fun grading papers and cursing "pesky undergraduates" every few minutes than driving 3 girls up to ulu land and back, putting up with our inane nonsense.

So we got lost a few times, in particular trying to get out of a rather tricky situation with the 10123 flyovers just outside UM in KL, trying to navigate in wonderful Malaysian road planning, to get on the right highway out of the damned place. Though we were panicky about the fuel guage most of the trip, we neglected to check it on the way back and had to detour in Kulai and got lost in the process of finding a Petronas petrol kiosk. We were more than ready to battle it out with the mozzies and cold water at the Gombak field station again, (un)fortunately, there was some camp going on there and we were forced to spend my precious grant money on a luxurious stay in the Genting hotels. Oh, heated water, oh electricity, oh, no mosquitoes!

After a whole day of collection at Gombak, we managed to catch almost 40 specimens. That's 3 times as many as the first time. So we rewarded ourselves with a trip up to the top of Genting to watch Casino Royale. Oh James, you are so manly. Your manliness is just too much for me. Oh. Oh. Mmmmhfhgfsdkjshfjgarow;ie;fisdjvncx.

Then of course, we get lost on the way up to Cameron, but it's ok. We managed. Thank goodness for the GPS.

Back to reality at home and a week's worth of study, yesterday's animal paper just blew me away. Don't worry, I've mourned and gotten over it somewhat.

note: see previous post for more field trip photos.

Something for the graduating hons class of 2007

Field trip

So there are some incredible stories to tell of my 5-day field trip to various parts of Malaysia. The photos speak for themselves, mostly because words can't fully describe some of the amazing (And not so amazing) things we saw and experienced.

On the first day we set out, all 5 of us, bleary-eyed at 7am in the morning, chucking up all kinds of equipment into the back of a chartered van.

Our first destination was Cameron Highlands, absolutely nothing there, cold as shit, windy as hell (why people torment themselves with the nauseating hour and a half drive around the mountain to see n.o.t.h.i.n.g. I will never understand.) We spent the night in darkness along the forest trail of Robinson's falls, searching for a new species of spitting spider that is hard as hell to spot and catch. Exciting stuff. We headed out there again in the morning before heading off to Fraser's Hill. There, we had an evening hike along the Hemmant Trail where we first encountered leeches. We headed off for a rather heavy hike along the Mager and Bishop's Trails (this is the one where 2 boys went missing) in the morning before moving on to Gunung Senyum (gorgeous facade, bad air, no food within an hour's drive - we missed lunch here. Grr.).

That night we got lost in Temerloh, ulu as shit town, and the only decent hotel opened was expensive and oh so baaad. *shudder* Thankfully, we headed for KL the next morning, 2 hour's drive from Temerloh, lunch, and headed off to Gombak, where I could finally catch my elusive spiders. There we got erh, comfy, in the University of Malaya field station at the Gombak forest. Here, the field station runs on one lone generator that is never started unless absolutely necessary. Trips around the place were thus mostly lit by head torches (and halogen lamps for the faint-hearted :D) Exciting stuff. Woah, this field station was truly close to nature. But it was hell trying to sleep with the deafening sound of cicadas in a fogged bunk with the lingering smoke from the mosquito coil all night long.

Hoho! I got my inaugural leech bite in the bathroom of the gombak field station, of all places, mostly because we are way prepared for the forest critters to get bitten by anything out there (i.e. slathering self with copious amounts of army repellent, and slathering our leech socks with copious amounts of army repellent, and spraying our clothes and hats with copious amounts of Off repellent.)

At Fraser's Hill, we spent 2 whole hours combing the hillsides for tarantulas and trap-door spiders. Oh, what fun!! Here we procured some rather illegal piece of invertebrate that I shall not divulge in the public domain :D I'll youtube a really hilarious video of us teasing a trap-door spider when I have the time and patience.

Socks

Socks was probably the first dog I knew that prefered kicking a tennis ball over grabbing it in her mouth. She never needed a leash when walking in the compound and always loved scooting over to the parking lot where we'd usually give her a nice comb down before coming back home. She nearly always went crazy when she saw a ball, but that sort of waned as she grew older, wiser, wearier and more tired.

Socks was also the prettiest dog I knew and still is.

On the morning of 29th August 2006, Socks was euthanised first thing when the vet opened at 9.30am.

When I returned from my Tioman trip, I was informed that Socks, over the weekend, had suddenly fallen very ill. She was disoriented, started walking into things, and had so little energy that her legs gave way when she walked. She was sent for observation at the animal hospital and an ultrasound showed her liver, spleen and pancreas were swollen with tumours. A blood test showed extremely low blood sugar and high levels of toxic liver enzymes accumulated.

That Sunday, she returned from the hospital with a half-shaven left front leg where the drip was inserted, and a shaven belly from when they took the ultrasound. It took her 3 days to recover from the trauma from staying at the hospital.

Over the next few weeks, she grew stronger and even seemed to recover. Last Sunday was the last time we had Socks around for our weekend beach breakfast.

On Monday, I received several phone calls from my mother, sounding very worried. Socks had taken a turn for the worse. She was exceptionally weak and had severe diarrhea. She was also vomitting frequently and started to refuse food and water.

Later that day, my mother called again. Socks had suddenly got into a fit. I said I would come home that night.

When I returned, she was lying on the living room floor, eyes wide open, her body was stiff and her breathing was fast and heavy. When I cuddled her, she seemed to show some recognition and sat up for the first time that evening.

My mother, exhausted from the day's cleaning and looking after her, asked me to let Socks sleep in my room that night to keep an eye on her.

From midnight, I stayed up with her as her fits became more and more frequent. With each epileptic attack, I cuddled her, telling her that everything was ok, and that it wil be over soon. I'm not sure she could hear, her eyes were glossed over and wide open, they wouldn't even close when I tried to force her eyelids close.

I kept vigil with her all night, along with kind calls of concern from Abs and YC. Exhausted from the lack of sleep the night before, the night crawled on. My heart ached with each spasm she went into, her jaws gnashing uncontrollably, limbs stiffened and thrashing wildly.

By 6am, I was exhausted beyond words. I could only imagine how Socks felt. At 630am, the parents awoke to find me stroking her gently, cradling her as another seizure gripped her frail body.

My mother sat by her as I wearily washed up and fell asleep on my parents' bed. My mother woke me at 9am saying it was time to take her to the hospital. I couldn't bear to watch her go, neither could I really stand up and walk straight, having only gotten 2 hours sleep in the past 24 hours.

I woke up to see her one last time, and watched as my father cradled her gently and brought her downstairs to the car.

We woke the brother telling him what was happening. He and I, we watched from the landing as my father put her into the car. Socks, still pretty as ever, but wide-eyed, her tongue hanging out helplessly, I couldn't believe she was going away. Tears streaming from my face for the first time, I fled the scene, leaving my brother to watch in silence, taking in the gravity of the situation.

I crumpled back into bed, wishing the nightmare would go away. My brother came in later asking which clinic they'd gone to, and I told him. I knew later that he actually went down there.

An hour later, my mother called saying that it was quick and she didn't put up a fight.

I only wonder if she heard me talking to her the night before, whether she was scared, whether she was in pain, whether she knew that we loved her more than anything.

Toxins from her liver had attacked her brain.

I now realise that it is harder when watching helplessly, instead of actually doing something to help. Shrinking back into the sheets, I lay there thinking how helpless and horrible I was being to leave the final leap to my parents. My father especially, to whom Socks was most attached.

He headed for work after the trip to the vet. I know how he must have felt.

All of us deal with grief differently. My father and I chose to flee the scene, him to work, I to school. My brother locked himself in his room. My mother, the strong lady she is, wandered the house, still talking about how Socks had been perfectly fine the day before.

Yesterday as I came home from school, I found myself eyeing every corner for signs that Socks used to live here, almost afraid to see anything that would remind me of her. A piece of scratched furniture, stray tennis balls, her green collar with the PWD license and other bits of her memory lay where they always were.

It took me this long to find the strength to blog about her.

I miss her terribly. I will miss her especially on Sunday mornings, when she would noisily wake everyone up to take her to the beach.

I find myself expecting to see her smiling face look up at me imploringly each time I open a packet of biscuits, or greet me enthusiastically when I enter the house.

My mother becomes alert when it starts to rain, wondering if Socks was freaking out like she does at the sound of thunder. She said the house was too quiet without Socks around. My brother left the living room light on this evening, as if Socks were still around.

Pets really do become a part of our lives. Socks was definitely my best friend growing up. We had a wonderful 13 years together.

Celebrity dawg

Well looky what surprise I got this morning when the newspaper was shoved in my face while I was still very much in bed!



ST finally wised up and featured the world's prettiest dawg in Sunday Lifestyle! I actually sent this photo in late last year and never thought it's see CMYK print but voila! A year later, after turning 22 (*note, text says I'm 21, and Socks is only 12. Rolls eyes), I finally got her on ST :D A happy morning indeed.

Relief

Relief is when you have friends who believed in you more that you did in yourself and you proved them right.

A-minus baby!

Idle days where work = play