wat een dag...

Weet je wat mensen...
The weather was so good today, warm but not too, sunny but not too, bit cloudy but not too..
On the occasion of VU lustrum 125 year, they celebrate it by having a parade at the binnenterrein. It started around 4 till 10.30 I guess.
The opening act by the Sheer was awesome. The Sheer, it's a Dutch band but thank God not Direct-y if you know what I mean... Gelukkig man!!
They did rock and we rocked as well, at least the first 3 rows and the rest of the audience just stood there as if their feet got nailed to the pavement... Jeetje mina, die Nederlanders begrijpen gewoon niet wat lol betekent...
But hey, Nat and I had a good time. That's the only thing that count. It felt so good after dancing and jumping like crazy. It's exactly what I needed and still want some more.
You know, jumping with your hand in the air, screaming as if everybody is deaf, making some crazy movement... Man, I think I'm addicted to concert, especially the free ones. hahaha..
Following that, the others went to see Gegen die Wand, a German-Turkish movie. I wasn't in the mood for movie so I just stayed outside and saw the VU koor performed.
Was quite nice, performing some songs from Cats, Jesus Christ Superstar, and my fave Les Miserables. Geez, I really want to see the original musical. Saw a part of it in TV some time ago en was meteen verliefd. Apa sih istilahnya.. oya hoteldebotel... hahahaha...
So far so good for me.. and to make the story short, we actually went to see the final act of the day from a Dutch band called Rowwen Heze.
I was all excited coz the recentie about them was quite nice, so it's not my fault rite if I expect sth good from them after all those great performances.
So there we were, Nins Pras and I, rite in front of the podium, looking quite excited at hearing the start of the guitar which sounds really promising.
And after a few beats.. jreng jreng jreng.. the white screen opened and WTF they started playing some country-sounded music, which is ok at the 1st place.
BUTTTTT. it went to the wrong direction... the music suddenly sounded so..... I don't know what the exact word for this, I'll try anyway..
It sounded so BOEREN and DUTCH and LIMBURG and .... jesus christ.. suddenly I felt so dumb and deep inside me, my musical appreciation is hurt and somehow I felt humiliated and degraded..
I know.. I know... as usual I exaggerated.. but that was basically really the feeling that I got. You'll know what I mean if you hear it yourself.. Check their website, probably they have some free tracks to download http://www.rowwenheze.nl/ (sorry dont wanna check it out myself, I'm still recovering from the shock)
Anyway, trying to be positive and lying to myself by keep saying 'Ina, come on, this is the chance to broaden your horizon and really get to know the Dutch culture', I stayed there with Nins.
How bout Pras? hahahaha.. she ran away which I think was a wise decision of hers.
Maar toch, hoe positief ik probeer te blijven... de music is gewoon niet voor mijn oren ( en niet voor de gezondheid)!!!!!!!!!

So peeps... I think I won't go to another Limburgse band concert, at least not in a near future.
The thing that really annoys me is why the Limburgse band?????? We are not somewhere in Limburg for GOD sake.. we're in Amsterdam.. so why not hiring Acda & de Munnik which is much much much much much much much much much better and more civilized and not BOEREN at all.... GEEZZZ..

Phew.. I think I got too emotional now. Anyway, after all it was a great day and can't wait for tomorrow's and Friday's concerts... Intwine and Tasha's world man!!!! Hopefully there won't be any "bad radiation" from any bad bands

panas...sumuk... pengap...gerah... jadi pengen marah + pms

lagi2 pms.. lagi2 pms..
aku ndak ngerti knp pms bisa bawa emosi yg beda2 terus saben bulannya..
kadang2 dia bikin semangat dan full energy
kadang2 dia bikin positive thinking
kadang2 dia bikin ceria dan dunia serasa indah
tapi kebanyakan dia bikin aku bt setengah idup (berusaha positive thinking, jadi nggak pake kata2 mati ato kosong ato apapun itu)

udah dari lama aku nyoba ngedeteksi siklus hormon yg dibawa tiap bulan ini. dan hasilnya: NUL besar..
karena memang nggak ada siklusnya. pas bulan ini aku pikir mungkin dia bawa good mood, eh malah bikin aku jadi ndak semangat + pengen marah terus bawaannya.

ya mungkin karena penelitianku cuma asal2an aja, jadinya juga hasilnya ngga akurat banget.
pikirku sih, hormon yg dihasilkan sama si pms ini tergantung dari banyak aspek. misalnya asupan nutrisi dan gizi, terus kegiatan sehari2 dari yg bersangkutan, keadaan mental juga ngaruh banget, dan juga keadaan fisik. yang sudah aku buktiin sendiri memang, kalo pas lagi mood utk makan sehat, dlm arti ngga makan processed food dan semua kroni2nya. makan teratur dng sayur dan buah membantu banget dlm mengatasi ato menghindari ke-bt-an dlm pms. terus banyak minum air putih juga.

aah... percuma deh ngomong gituan. ini lagi sakit kepala terus perut juga bloating, sakit punggung juga. aah kasihanilah para kaum hawa yg tiap bulan harus menanggung derita seperti ini. ato mestinya kaum adam ya yg harus dikasihani? karena tiap bulan mereka yg dimarah-marahin, diomel-omelin tanpa bisa ngomong apa2, just for the reason of pms. hehehehe....

Solving mysteries with sciences

When you turn on your television every other night, you'll notice the evidence of the usage of science to solve mysteries, like in a forensic crime dramas to real life crimes on the news. The use of DNA fingerprinting has become a boom since the 90's I suppose. Suddenly the police, forensic team, or whatever people involve in solving the crime try to find an evidence by looking at the hair comb, or a string of hair in the drain, and maybe a spit or a drop of blod.
Forget Hercule Poirot and "his little grey cell", they won't survive in this tough modern crime world. --Mind you, deep in my heart I'm still a big fans of him. Not so much of Ms. Marple though--

A “DNA fingerprint” is kind of like a regular fingerprint. You are born with it, it is unique to you (unless you have an identical twin!), and you can leave it behind wherever you go. But unlike a fingerprint from your hand, your DNA fingerprint can’t be found by just “dusting for prints” like they do on detective shows. To find a DNA fingerprint, a scientist has to first take the DNA out of the nucleus of a cell.

The cell that is used to get a DNA fingerprint can be a skin cell, a hair root cell, or even a cheek cell that gets washed out of your mouth in your spit. This is because your unique DNA is the same in all of your cells. So what do they do once they take the DNA out of the cell?
Well, the goal is to analyze the DNA in a way that shows scientists the tiny differences in the DNA of different people.

In the past, scientists used a technique called RFLP (Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism) which needs lots of DNA, but sometimes only a little is left behind at a crime scene. That's not really handy I guess. So scientists found a way to use less DNA. They worked out a method called microsatellite analysis, Google it if you want to.

But scientists want to find ways to use even less DNA. They also want to find a way to speed up the process. On TV the investigators get the DNA answers by the end of the show, but in real life there are so many samples waiting to be tested that labs can’t handle them all. So CSI and all those fancy stuffs are kinda too good to be true, and some of which are really impossible to do in such a short time.

In the future there will be something called “lab-on-a-chip.” It will be a credit card sized machine that you could load a tiny sample into on the spot – you wouldn’t have to wait until you got back to the lab. Lab-on-a-chip would use tiny tubes and pumps to perform all the steps normally done by hand by scientists. It would take the DNA out of a sample, make lots of copies of the DNA, and analyze the fingerprint. It would do all this at a fraction of the cost and in a fraction of the time that current methods use.

Here are some evidence that DNA fingerprinting really works in real life problems in the articles I just read:

What do the 2004 tsunami in Southeast Asia, African-American history, and the 9/11 tragedy all have in common? Yep, DNA.

Baby 81. DNA saved the day when it helped bring parents and a lost child together after the tsunami hit Sri Lanka on the day after Christmas 2004.
Lots of people were separated from their families. In particular, a lot of children were separated from their parents. One child was called “Baby 81” when he was admitted to the hospital.

As you can imagine, many parents who lost children in the tsunami hoped that Baby 81 might be theirs. The hospital didn’t want to give the child away to the wrong family, so a judge ordered DNA testing to prove who the parents really were.

Everything turned out in the end for one family when the DNA fingerprinting tests came back and they were able to reclaim their son.


Ecuador, New Hampshire, and African-American Heritage. We all want to know where we come from. Many African-Americans have trouble figuring it out because their ancestors were slaves and there are not very good records of their lives. Several scientists are trying to use DNA fingerprinting to identify which regions in Africa slaves came from so that modern day people can trace their family history.

Scientists sometimes have trouble collecting DNA samples in Africa for comparison to samples taken here. This means that the scientists have to look for other ways to trace the trail of history left by DNA.

A random email from one scientist to another has connected the search for African roots in two very different places. One scientist was trying to identify the remains of slaves buried in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. The other scientist was interested in the black people of Ecuador.

These two scientists shared information and found that there were similarities between modern day blacks in Ecuador and the slave remains in New Hampshire. The scientists now plan to take more DNA samples in Ecuador.

They will use these to build a database of DNA fingerprints. They can then combine this database with records from the American slave trade and build a better picture of the African-American history, helping more people know about their roots.

9/11 and the World Trade Center. When the airplanes hit the World Trade Center in New York on September 11, 2001, nearly 3000 people were killed. The impact of the planes and the fires that started made it impossible to identify many of the victims.

In order to give closure to the families of the people who died, the medical examiner’s office in New York has been working on identifying every remain found using DNA. Even reclaiming a little bit of their loved one has been important to some families.

People turned in toothbrushes and hair brushes and anything else that might have traces of their loved one’s DNA on it. The medical examiner’s office then tried to match the DNA in the remains to these samples.

Unfortunately, they had to stop the DNA identifications in February 2005—researchers had reached the limits of DNA fingerprinting technology. There are still samples that contain tiny bits of DNA, but they will have to wait until methods like the lab-on-a-chip that needs less sample become available. When that happens they will be able to begin their work again to bring more closure to the families of those that were lost.

----So.. intrigued??----

O blessed and happy spirit whence comest thou?

Envy must be represented with a contemptuous motion of the hand
towards heaven, because if she could she would use her strength
against God; make her with her face covered by a mask of fair
seeming; show her as wounded in the eye by a palm branch and by an
olive-branch, and wounded in the ear by laurel and myrtle, to
signify that victory and truth are odious to her.
Many thunderbolts should proceed from her to signify her evil speaking.
Let her be lean and haggard because she is in perpetual torment.
Make her heart gnawed by a swelling serpent, and make her with a quiver with
tongues serving as arrows, because she often offends with it. Give
her a leopard's skin, because this creature kills the lion out of
envy and by deceit. Give her too a vase in her hand full of flowers
and scorpions and toads and other venomous creatures; make her ride
upon death, because Envy, never dying, never tires of ruling. Make
her bridle, and load her with divers kinds of arms because all her
weapons are deadly.

Toleration.

Intolerable.

No sooner is Virtue born than Envy comes into the world to attack
it; and sooner will there be a body without a shadow than Virtue
without Envy.

O blessed and happy spirit whence comest thou? Well have I known
this man, much against my will. This one is a receptacle of
villainy; he is a perfect heap of the utmost ingratitude combined
with every vice. But of what use is it to fatigue myself with vain
words? Nothing is to be found in them but every form of sin ... And
if there should be found among them any that possesses any good,
they will not be treated differently to myself by other men; and in
fine, I come to the conclusion that it is bad if they are hostile,
and worse if they are friendly. 

The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci

i told you so

Hah.. it's so freakingly true about what I said earlier
I am cursing myself at this moment while trying to keep my bloodshot eyes open
I hate to be right...
And yet still got the time to reveal how right I am
It's 5 am now and probably hv to be working through this bloody assignment till 8 or 9
and then get some sleep before going to the lectures....Bugger
The lecturer is not my fave one too...

Btw, can't help myself not to write this down
In an article I just read, it’s mentioned that receiving email may reduce your IQ.
The reduction is quite significant, around 10 points, which is equal to the reduction you’ll get without sleeping the whole night.
So, what’s wrong about receiving email? Apparently it’s not the email itself but the alerts you receive every now and then that make you tired and loose concentrations. According to the article, it somewhat exhausts our brain and unfortunately makes us stupider.
I haven’t slept a wink tonight and believe me or not, I do feel quite dumb at this moment. Hopefully the boost from my coffee starts its effect soon

Background song: John Mayer - Your body is a wonderland..
hehe jadi inget, dulu pernah dng pd-nya bilang judulnya lagu ini "your body is a temple"
tapi bener kan... your body is your temple????

It’s all in the DNA

Are you aware about the Human Genome project?
The Human Genome project is a project that was sponsored by various countries in the world like US, UK, Japan, Germany, etc. The nature of the project was to figure out the genomes of the Homo sapiens, us thus. The project started somewhere in the 1990 and finished around 2003.

The researchers’ hard work finally paid out with the finding of the approximately 3 billion genes in the human being, which are almost 3 billion base pairs of DNA. The quite shocking fact that comes out, at least for me, is that only about 20-30.000 of the DNA are really containing the information about us, the information that built us as we are today. Isn’t it amazing??
The DNA is a genetic blueprint that ensures continuity of life from our ancestor to the offspring. So if you have small eyes or too large a nose that you probably hate, don’t blame yourself. Blame it all in your ancestors that almost certainly have the genes that carry those characteristics in their DNA……

Well, although the project has finished and gave us the result that might change our future forever, the result still need to be processed and there are lots follow up project that concentrate on how to use these valuable information to make our life better. Yes, hopefully one day they will know how to eliminate or to switch off genes that make people so annoying or have a swinging mood. I guess with that off the table the world will get lots better.

Have you read this book by Harry Mulisch – The Discovery of Heaven / Ontdekking van de Hemel-? In the first chapter of the book he mentioned about how the Creators were amazed by the ability of human to find out the secret essence of life, the DNA’s. It’s too bad I don’t have the book myself so I can’t cite the awesome sentences written down there. I’ll try to find it out later if I have the time.

You know that the characteristics that we have nowadays are biologically inherited or culturally transmitted. So for example if you have blue eyes and tantalizing (original) brunette hair, thank your parents for that. And if after the dinner you have the urge to belch for the reason of politeness, thank your ancestor as well for they are responsible for making such agreement. See the difference?

And now I wish all of our characteristics are controlled by our genes and we have the technology to switch it on or off as we desire. That would make our life easier, wouldn’t it?? Take for example what’s happening to me. It’s now 1.15 in the morning and I still have to dig in the damn intracellular network research assignment and pouring all my sweat into it. But of course, I have no interest on doing so since I’m not in the mood and instead, I’m writing this useless thing that nobody is interested at. And you know what will happen, I’ll stay awake the whole night and cursing myself for not doing the research earlier. Have no enough sleep, going to school in a bad mood, ruining all my tomorrow plan, just to mention a few of the negative result.
Now imagine if only I can turn off my lazy mood with just a flick, use your imagination and put yourself in this all too familiar a situation, and see just how wonderful it will work for us. But yeah, let’s wait and see if my wish will become reality one day.

A quote from Abraham Lincoln:
“I don’t know who my grandfather was; I am much more concerned to know what his grandson will be.”