2014年2月27日星期四
2012年2月8日星期三
salter or proter
I have been frustrated, disappointed at times in my life. But never has anything work-related hit me hard like this. SHIIIIT i said to myself. i seriously thought that I had protein crystals long ago, with the conditions not seemed to produce any calcium salts. today when sarathy helped me put the crystals on the beam, it diffracted, not as a protein, but salt. I have been working on this very condition for months--- pH gradients, macroseeding, you name it. What made it seem more promising is the crystals don't appear until 2 weeks later, and they have been growing steadily which lured me into more excitement. I even thought I was gonna solve this structure by the end of the year. Guess what?!........ NOTTT.
So the mother nature has played a trick with me. A trick that she had played with many scientists, lead up path to the garden where there is a tiger awaits. To me, i rather be eaten by a tiger than fuckin finding about this crystal shit after months. I shall see this taught me a lesson. you aint getting anything easy, if you do, something is wrong. i loved sarathy's attitude towards this, all i have to do is come in tomorrow and have a fresh start. Start with more screenings! Really, u dont deserve a structure yet. think about it, I never worked as hard as tsun did on crystallization.
well that is life, pain or joyce, I will have to take it on like a man and make it better.
So the mother nature has played a trick with me. A trick that she had played with many scientists, lead up path to the garden where there is a tiger awaits. To me, i rather be eaten by a tiger than fuckin finding about this crystal shit after months. I shall see this taught me a lesson. you aint getting anything easy, if you do, something is wrong. i loved sarathy's attitude towards this, all i have to do is come in tomorrow and have a fresh start. Start with more screenings! Really, u dont deserve a structure yet. think about it, I never worked as hard as tsun did on crystallization.
well that is life, pain or joyce, I will have to take it on like a man and make it better.
2012年1月28日星期六
resume editing
Just added a couple things on my 2012 resume. it is funny that i had quite a few items almost forgotten. man, i've done a lot in these years! WOW. it is really a serendipitous experience every time i edit my resume. this time, its for the application of being a lecturer for the MCat students this summer. I really want this job, and hopefully this is not too late for me to apply. just thought maybe with accumulating teaching experience i could be free-lance lecturer or something of the same sort in the future. that would be really nice as that would almost set me as a typical young man i've been admiring in murakamis novels, except i've already got a stable relationship on top of it. this feeling of being "on the road" really sparks my excitement at times!
lets do it, and you will get it! if not, fuck it, try again next year! anyways its a good feeling, like its signaling that finally my knowledge is paying off. well get wild out there to experience, dont worry about the outcome for now! lets start the journey and uncover more of this mesh-like life!
On another note, i would really love to add one more iteam to my publication list. that is a paper with my name as the first author. well, it might sound a bit ego-centric, however, as once steve jobs said " when you were young, you care about those stuff". im just a young man who wants to get as much as I deserve, i guess there is nothing wrong in terms of integrity in this regard!
lets do it, and you will get it! if not, fuck it, try again next year! anyways its a good feeling, like its signaling that finally my knowledge is paying off. well get wild out there to experience, dont worry about the outcome for now! lets start the journey and uncover more of this mesh-like life!
On another note, i would really love to add one more iteam to my publication list. that is a paper with my name as the first author. well, it might sound a bit ego-centric, however, as once steve jobs said " when you were young, you care about those stuff". im just a young man who wants to get as much as I deserve, i guess there is nothing wrong in terms of integrity in this regard!
2011年12月1日星期四
Reading notes for "Predictably Irrational"
I have been reading quite a few books since I got my kindle last year. Instead of flipping through the pages without remembering anything, I guess it might be good for me to start writing up some notes to reflect upon at a later time.
A book i finished recently was called " Predictably irrational" by Dan Ariely, and it was quite a good read. The title was intriguing and its far-reaching implications were well supported with experimental data. We all know that standard economics assume human-beings are smart, logical and only make rational decisions. But what had been often (if not, always) overlooked was the fact that we can be stupid when it comes to decision makings. Some examples are "why we spend more money than we have; why painkillers that are 50 times more expensive seem to be so much more effective even though they have exactly the same chemical composition of those cheap ones; and why we procrastinate so much when we shouldn't" . All these phenomena were interesting, yet difficult to interpret.The authors had taken a experimental approach to address them in the book. Strikingly, it turned out that these "bad" decisions we make are not random. Instead, they are systematic, and as we repeat them over and over again, the irrationality is thus predictable. It all comes down to a new field referred to as " behavioral economics" which combines aspects of both psychology and economics. The author conducted very simple experiments to illustrate our irrationality. In one experiment, each of the two groups of students at MIT was given two slightly different beers: one is the commercially available budweiser and the other is budweiser with a few drops of balsamic vinegar. The first group of students was given the samples without knowing the fact that one beer was treated with vinegar, whereas the second group was told the difference before they tasted the samples. As you may have guessed, the first group loved the mysterious beer of balsamic vinegar when asked to compare the two samples; however, those poor kids from the second group were disgusted after knowing vinegar was added to their beer and opted for the commercial budweiser.
Many results like this were shown in the book. I dont know about you but they really just blew my mind. We can easily spot out the power of psychology here in our decision making and as demonstrated, we are indeed far less rational than standard economics assumed. I guess the point the author was trying to deliver was not how stupid we can be, but how we can improve upon our decision making skills by knowing the fact we can be irrational.
So, I swear I did not get any money advertising about the book, but I do think it is worth reading. And if you do read it, I hope you find it helpful like I did.
A book i finished recently was called " Predictably irrational" by Dan Ariely, and it was quite a good read. The title was intriguing and its far-reaching implications were well supported with experimental data. We all know that standard economics assume human-beings are smart, logical and only make rational decisions. But what had been often (if not, always) overlooked was the fact that we can be stupid when it comes to decision makings. Some examples are "why we spend more money than we have; why painkillers that are 50 times more expensive seem to be so much more effective even though they have exactly the same chemical composition of those cheap ones; and why we procrastinate so much when we shouldn't" . All these phenomena were interesting, yet difficult to interpret.The authors had taken a experimental approach to address them in the book. Strikingly, it turned out that these "bad" decisions we make are not random. Instead, they are systematic, and as we repeat them over and over again, the irrationality is thus predictable. It all comes down to a new field referred to as " behavioral economics" which combines aspects of both psychology and economics. The author conducted very simple experiments to illustrate our irrationality. In one experiment, each of the two groups of students at MIT was given two slightly different beers: one is the commercially available budweiser and the other is budweiser with a few drops of balsamic vinegar. The first group of students was given the samples without knowing the fact that one beer was treated with vinegar, whereas the second group was told the difference before they tasted the samples. As you may have guessed, the first group loved the mysterious beer of balsamic vinegar when asked to compare the two samples; however, those poor kids from the second group were disgusted after knowing vinegar was added to their beer and opted for the commercial budweiser.
Many results like this were shown in the book. I dont know about you but they really just blew my mind. We can easily spot out the power of psychology here in our decision making and as demonstrated, we are indeed far less rational than standard economics assumed. I guess the point the author was trying to deliver was not how stupid we can be, but how we can improve upon our decision making skills by knowing the fact we can be irrational.
So, I swear I did not get any money advertising about the book, but I do think it is worth reading. And if you do read it, I hope you find it helpful like I did.
2010年11月28日星期日
批判性
三个月来的研究所生活很忙碌,也很充实. 但是虽说每天都觉得自己学到了很多新的知识,却总是觉得在搞研究方面离得心应手还有天大的差距,而却不知道该如从下手去取得进步. 当然我可以很轻易的把这个归结到我才是一个第一年的新生,搞研究的技能是需要时间才能形成的.可是找借口又是不能帮助我去进步的. 直到前两天读了我实验室一博士生
nelson的blog才觉得受到了一些好的启发.
他把一个合格的博士生所需要具备的3条条件总结为: 1.努力 2.一些好运气 3.批判性思考的能力(critical thinking).
第一条也就不用多说,做什么如果没有付出也就不要老张着大嘴等着天上掉下来馅饼吃,这个大多数人都知道,而且我相信也应该是大多数研究生所具备的能力. 好运气在研究当中也很重要.想想crystallography,如果你连crystal都搞不到,那就没法做下去了. 不过,这个运气是有前提的,那就是努力,要是没有努力尝试,运气不会自己找上门的.所以人要"try hard enough to be lucky". How hard is hard? well, it's gotta be really really hard.哈哈 开个玩笑.
以上两点我也很早就悟到了,但第三条,具备批判性思考的能力这一项确实值得我再去深入研究. 这个词我曾在读本科时听到过无数次,但当时按照自己的努力去学习做事也确实做的还不错,大大的忽略了培养自己这方面的能力.
其实"批判性思考"只是从critical thinking直译过来的一个外来词,并不是告诉大家我们要总是以质疑的眼光去对待周围的人和事,也就是说"critical"这个词在英文中有它积极的一面. 也就是说批判性思考是需要一个人在考虑问题时不会因为一些简单的,表面的现象而很快的得出结论. 它需要involve一个人去用自己从多个方面得来的知识,去仔细 科学的去解剖问题的关键, 从而得出成熟的解决方案.
以上只是我读到一些东西后brainstorm一些想法,可能有些定义不是很准.如有兴趣,请参考一些更准确的source.希望其他的朋友也会觉得以上的东西有些帮助,似乎批判性思考不仅仅仅是针对搞研究的朋友们,也许在从事其他行业的你也会发现它的益处.
nelson的blog才觉得受到了一些好的启发.
他把一个合格的博士生所需要具备的3条条件总结为: 1.努力 2.一些好运气 3.批判性思考的能力(critical thinking).
第一条也就不用多说,做什么如果没有付出也就不要老张着大嘴等着天上掉下来馅饼吃,这个大多数人都知道,而且我相信也应该是大多数研究生所具备的能力. 好运气在研究当中也很重要.想想crystallography,如果你连crystal都搞不到,那就没法做下去了. 不过,这个运气是有前提的,那就是努力,要是没有努力尝试,运气不会自己找上门的.所以人要"try hard enough to be lucky". How hard is hard? well, it's gotta be really really hard.哈哈 开个玩笑.
以上两点我也很早就悟到了,但第三条,具备批判性思考的能力这一项确实值得我再去深入研究. 这个词我曾在读本科时听到过无数次,但当时按照自己的努力去学习做事也确实做的还不错,大大的忽略了培养自己这方面的能力.
其实"批判性思考"只是从critical thinking直译过来的一个外来词,并不是告诉大家我们要总是以质疑的眼光去对待周围的人和事,也就是说"critical"这个词在英文中有它积极的一面. 也就是说批判性思考是需要一个人在考虑问题时不会因为一些简单的,表面的现象而很快的得出结论. 它需要involve一个人去用自己从多个方面得来的知识,去仔细 科学的去解剖问题的关键, 从而得出成熟的解决方案.
以上只是我读到一些东西后brainstorm一些想法,可能有些定义不是很准.如有兴趣,请参考一些更准确的source.希望其他的朋友也会觉得以上的东西有些帮助,似乎批判性思考不仅仅仅是针对搞研究的朋友们,也许在从事其他行业的你也会发现它的益处.
2009年12月25日星期五
Quebec City 2 episode
The Christmas Eve dinner was alright, nothing that exciting but I had a good time talking with three European travelers. The conversation was mainly about our experiences with the Canadian University Styled parties. The food itself was not terrible but far from great, however, I always tell myself to be content with whatever food that feeds me. One of the fellows from Switzerland had a Queen's hoody on, and we had some talks about the university. He was excited to hear that I applied queens, and informed me about the party style in Kingston. I hope that was a good hint for me.
The Christmas Day of Quebec is quite, almost no shops were open, with a handful of cafes and restaurants still serving people. I chose a place called "Brendon", which serves crepes as I recalled from Bob who said Crepes are one of the amazing things that I can't miss in this city. He was definitely right, I liked it quite a bit. As I requested, Crepes were wrapped around pepperoni, beacons, with tomato sauce and swiss cheese. WIth this combination of the fillings, it's basically like Jacks pizza at Sackville, however it just tasted 10 times better with the Crepes wrapped around them. All service people at the restaurant were girls, I found myself have quite a thing for quebecois girls. They are just more exquisite than the girls I see at Mount A. With beautiful eyebrows especially, perfect skin tones (not pale as fuck), excellent smiles, and normally slim bodies. ohhh on top of those, their English mixed with a trace of Quebec French accent just makes it never better.
Now sitting at the lounge of Auberge Internationale de Quebec, across from me "sat" an old Quebecois (I guess), with his legs on the tea table, arms folded, and eyes closed. Despite the loudness within the vicinity, he's deep asleep snorting loudly with his mouth wide open. I wanted to giggle and take a hilarious video of him, and then i was like I :" Wait a second, this might happen on me in possibly 40 years. I would be in the exact circumstance, and a 22-year old brat might be thinking of taking me a video with his 580 Mega pixel Camera (or whatever they produce 40 years later)." So I gave up on the idea, and instead get it written here to at least have some memory saved of this funny moment.
The Christmas Day of Quebec is quite, almost no shops were open, with a handful of cafes and restaurants still serving people. I chose a place called "Brendon", which serves crepes as I recalled from Bob who said Crepes are one of the amazing things that I can't miss in this city. He was definitely right, I liked it quite a bit. As I requested, Crepes were wrapped around pepperoni, beacons, with tomato sauce and swiss cheese. WIth this combination of the fillings, it's basically like Jacks pizza at Sackville, however it just tasted 10 times better with the Crepes wrapped around them. All service people at the restaurant were girls, I found myself have quite a thing for quebecois girls. They are just more exquisite than the girls I see at Mount A. With beautiful eyebrows especially, perfect skin tones (not pale as fuck), excellent smiles, and normally slim bodies. ohhh on top of those, their English mixed with a trace of Quebec French accent just makes it never better.
Now sitting at the lounge of Auberge Internationale de Quebec, across from me "sat" an old Quebecois (I guess), with his legs on the tea table, arms folded, and eyes closed. Despite the loudness within the vicinity, he's deep asleep snorting loudly with his mouth wide open. I wanted to giggle and take a hilarious video of him, and then i was like I :" Wait a second, this might happen on me in possibly 40 years. I would be in the exact circumstance, and a 22-year old brat might be thinking of taking me a video with his 580 Mega pixel Camera (or whatever they produce 40 years later)." So I gave up on the idea, and instead get it written here to at least have some memory saved of this funny moment.
2009年12月24日星期四
Quebec City
This is the place that I have always wanted to go, and here I am, in this gorgeous city.
Prior to take off, I was wondering that there might not be as much snow as i would like in Quebec city due to the strange weather this year. Yes, no snow in Sackville, but as we were cruising through to northwest NB, my worry has completely drifted away as the snow was big enough to cause a major delay for my bus from Grandfalls to rivere du loup.
Fortunately, I got to catch the transit bus and arrived at quebec city just at midnight. Knowing myself as a direction retard, I took a cab right to my hostel "Auberage Internationale de Quebec." On the way there, I was already amazed by the gorgeous gorgeous architectures covered in the fresh snow within the Old Quebec city, and I knew that "Hell YAYY, this is FUCKIng righttt!".
Having slept in a eight person dorm did not bring me many of the good memories in High school, might've been too excited to fall asleep, as well the Japanese mid-aged guy underneath woke up dead early in the morning. Really, no complains at all, early start of the day, why not?!
I was surprised that this hostel had quite a few Asian visitors, including a jap girl who help me open my door (i was retarded). She reminded me of Shoko big time, with such similar features and politeness. Damnnn I got to get on it, i said to myself haha.
I didn't plan on doing much for the day, since I had been telling myself that the trip is not only about sightseeing, but more importantly it's about the feeling, the unique stuff that only this city offers and I knew that's is the real shit i would enjoy. So I spent almost the entire day strolling along the old city, taking pictures of all these unreal architectures whenever I wanted to. I would have to say that Quebec City is the shit, it definitely has a strong character compare to many other cities I have visited in Canada. I do find a couple stereotyping Quebecois who would refuse to give in their stupid pride for English. However, I rather found people are extremely nice and warm-hearted.
I went to a restaurant right across street from my hostel called" .......latin" and ordered the food "Caribou couritere", which consist of an awesome bowl of beef stew, a salad with berry sauce raised by the locals and some bread. It was a great meal, 24 dollars in total, a little expensive but I was content with the quality of both food and service. The owner/waiter was an old French man who did not really speak English, however you have to give credit for people who tries, our fragmentary English plus Smiling communication methods worked out well at the end.
In an hour and half, I will be joining the Christmas Eve dinner at the hostel, to be honest I'm dead exhausting from colds and long bus ride, but still super thrilled for this event. I think I will kick off awesomely, can't wait for it! Last little wish for tonight was to catch that shoko looking girl, and Joyeux Noël/Merry Christmas/ 圣诞快乐 to you all PEOPLE!!!
Prior to take off, I was wondering that there might not be as much snow as i would like in Quebec city due to the strange weather this year. Yes, no snow in Sackville, but as we were cruising through to northwest NB, my worry has completely drifted away as the snow was big enough to cause a major delay for my bus from Grandfalls to rivere du loup.
Fortunately, I got to catch the transit bus and arrived at quebec city just at midnight. Knowing myself as a direction retard, I took a cab right to my hostel "Auberage Internationale de Quebec." On the way there, I was already amazed by the gorgeous gorgeous architectures covered in the fresh snow within the Old Quebec city, and I knew that "Hell YAYY, this is FUCKIng righttt!".
Having slept in a eight person dorm did not bring me many of the good memories in High school, might've been too excited to fall asleep, as well the Japanese mid-aged guy underneath woke up dead early in the morning. Really, no complains at all, early start of the day, why not?!
I was surprised that this hostel had quite a few Asian visitors, including a jap girl who help me open my door (i was retarded). She reminded me of Shoko big time, with such similar features and politeness. Damnnn I got to get on it, i said to myself haha.
I didn't plan on doing much for the day, since I had been telling myself that the trip is not only about sightseeing, but more importantly it's about the feeling, the unique stuff that only this city offers and I knew that's is the real shit i would enjoy. So I spent almost the entire day strolling along the old city, taking pictures of all these unreal architectures whenever I wanted to. I would have to say that Quebec City is the shit, it definitely has a strong character compare to many other cities I have visited in Canada. I do find a couple stereotyping Quebecois who would refuse to give in their stupid pride for English. However, I rather found people are extremely nice and warm-hearted.
I went to a restaurant right across street from my hostel called" .......latin" and ordered the food "Caribou couritere", which consist of an awesome bowl of beef stew, a salad with berry sauce raised by the locals and some bread. It was a great meal, 24 dollars in total, a little expensive but I was content with the quality of both food and service. The owner/waiter was an old French man who did not really speak English, however you have to give credit for people who tries, our fragmentary English plus Smiling communication methods worked out well at the end.
In an hour and half, I will be joining the Christmas Eve dinner at the hostel, to be honest I'm dead exhausting from colds and long bus ride, but still super thrilled for this event. I think I will kick off awesomely, can't wait for it! Last little wish for tonight was to catch that shoko looking girl, and Joyeux Noël/Merry Christmas/ 圣诞快乐 to you all PEOPLE!!!
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