This morning I had a dream. I can't really remember what the dream was about but vaguely it was about a group of people (me included), laughing hysterically while trying to open a door. I also cannot remember, a door to what, but it was super funny and I was laughing in my sleep. But I was not laughing when I woke up, because I looked at my watch it said 8am. Why am I awake at 8am? Because I said in my mind last night that I wanted to be more productive in the lab today. But actually the truth is in the north-west-bottom-right-corner of my mind I wanted to sleep until 12 noon. Cos last night had a fun discussion with matlove which will remain in the deepest darkest realms of msn history. Unless he makes fun of me again and I will accidentally spill everything out.
There was an article in the Economist about Laughing. Funny right (not trying to be punny) they actually have these types of articles in Economist. Anyway some scientist said that laughing is an indicator / expression that fear has subsided and the danger is over. Har? So how does that relate to laughing at corny jokes? You fear for the person telling joke in case no one laughs? then after the joke is told you feel relieved? HAHAHA. The Economist is a fun read sometimes. I say sometimes not because I read all the articles and can distinguish between what is fun and what is not. It is because I only read the Economist sometimes. heh.


What do I do in the lab? I research on how to help old people. In other words, I'm investing in my future. For my supposed-to-be-completed-by-Labor-Day paper, I'm looking at something called the Personal Emergency Response System. Old lady stay at home alone, wear a pendant with a transmitter... if she bua tou cannot ki lai, she presses the button which dials a number on her phone to an emergency call center, then the staff there will contact her relatives or send yi or yi or yi or ambulance. So the question is... this technology has been around since 1974 (with constant upgrading of course, like the HDB flats in singapore), but the penetration rate in the US market has been remarkably slow. The adoption rate of this technology is much higher several European countries like UK and Sweden etc. My research is on an international comparison of the penetration rate of this technology and how it correlates to specific government policies in those countries... i mean things like, who pays for the technology... user or authority? blah blah blah. Sounds easy? booooooooo. It's very interesting to do international comparisons, cos you get an amazingly wide perspective of how things work in different countries and how policies must be custom made to fit the demographics and cultures of each.

Lucky my prof is nice... he makes it fun working for and with him! Every day he see me he will ask, "Thesis almost done? Don't print on the lab printer cos it's too long and it'll use up all the ink" or "Do you need me to sign off on your thesis?" Hahaha... joker siah. If you don't get it... well I haven't quite started on my thesis. What I'm writing now is perhaps Chap 2 of it. Or he will purposely walk past the room, close the door from outside and then grab someone along the corridor and whisper whisper with that person while pointing to me as if I'm a fish in a tank or monkey in the zoo. Then he will laugh... hahaha. And again, how is that related to fear subsiding? He scared of me ah? He is super not scared of me... every time I meet him my paper mutates and grows another arm because he will suggest new avenues to research or write about. Then my heart will sink like the Titanic because yah lah it's good that he thinks I can do a good job but then like that I will be Laboring on Labor Day instead of enjoying the holiday.


Perks of going to the lab to work instead of staying at home -- I have a desk there with 2 flat screen monitors which allows me to do many many many things at the same time. Hahaha... and the pantry is super well-stocked. There's this blueberry tea that's very shiok.... when I get it and bring it back to the room the smell diffuses and whoa! the whole room will smell of blueberry. I love blueberry flavor... blueberry bagel, blueberry muffin, blueberry pie, blueberry icecream, blueberry candy.... yum. Sometimes got free food also in the lab also. Plus lab got nice people to talk to when I get bored. Of course, msn also got nice people to talk to when I get bored. Ok so obviously getting bored isn't much of an issue.

Food of the day -- Salmon. Oof ate salmon for dinner, which made me feel like eating salmon for breakfast lunch and dinner today. Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) is native to rivers and waters in the Atlantic Ocean (duh) from New England to Scandinavia, and although it used to be caught in its wild form, nowadays it is farmed because we eat too much of it. The good thing about rearing salmon (other than the fact that supply increases and price decreases) is that because they are fed very well... most of the farmed salmon are high in fat content, which means better flavor. Wild salmon, like Alaska's Copper River and Yukon River kings are popular (and more expensive) because of their higher fat content. Ok there you go, education for the day. It's wonderful how much you can learn online huh. :P