Weird weather

Today was a fine day for field work if not for the intermittent rain, and I wouldn't even have minded the first wave of rain! It started to come down after lunch, we waited for about 5 minutes before it got lighter. Then 15 minutes later it came down again, really hard this time. So I thought this time it wasn't going to stop soon, so we got out of the forest, Li Juan getting really wet even before we got out! Then just before reaching the restaurants 300m away the rain stopped... Damn! Should have stayed in there...

Wood density 2

Ok I went back to doing wood density again, but this time it's a manual recording and calculation of means of wood densities for some genera. I used an excellent website that records wood density of most tropical tree species (http://www.worldagroforestry.org/Sea/Products/AFDbases/wd/).
It's a bit hard to believe that I spent one whole day just making this list for my trees, and it's still not complete yet, but I think it was time well spent.
And one minor event happened today - I got locked out of my own office! The security guards must have locked it during the weekend, and they even took off the tape we use to keep the door unlocked! Darn... Made me wait outside for 15 minutes before I could enter... This electronic lock is really useless. It somehow fails to work after 6pm everyday, so anyone can come in anytime after 6! Nobody except us and the guards have noticed this I think... Our valuable computers and specimens are still in there, but I don't want to wait for something to happen... Complain or not to complain?

Velocity

I went to the coolest place in Singapore today! At least it is the coolest place to me. My heaven. The things I need for the great outdoors, from trekking to skiing... They're all there! I think I might get my waterproof boots there. Speaking about waterproofing, my boots and clothes got wet from a freak rain on Friday! Things were still manageable from my home to the final bus stop, but once I got out of that bus stop then rain got heavier and the wind got stronger! I can't believe I became 80% wet just from that 500m walk to the building! It really made me mad...
My wishlist now - a raincoat that covers half my thighs, waterproof boots etc.

Contact lenses

The last time I felt so scared was when I was a teenager... I always close my eyes if I feel something is coming close, even if they're still very far away. So to hold my eyelids open and insert a foreign object into my eyes was one of the most difficult things I've ever done in my life! It took 1 whole day of trying and resting before I finally managed to put a lens into my right eye (a great achievement to me!!). I have to thank the optician at NOOCC who helped me with great patience, and Yue Ying for her advice and patience too...
I'll continue to try until I can do it myself!!

Fire drill

There was a fire drill in the afternoon, and it was the most real fire drill I ever had. I was slightly irritated by the continuous ringing, and then it continued to ring for far too long, and i heard people outside on the corridor, so it started - the drill! Everyone was ushered out of their rooms, and one of the security guards shouted to someone so loud we could hear him from 4 floors above!
I met an ex-classmate on the way down, and we chatted all the way to the gathering place. On the way there, one huge fire engine came wailing in, followed by smaller fire trucks. It really looked like something happened! About 10 minutes later they started spraying at the buildings, then 30 minutes later we were allowed to go back to work, and we saw someone lying on a stretcher carried by 2 firemen. Best fire drill ever!

Wood density

Ok I forgot to post yesterday, so I'm doing it now. Wood density is another one of the complicated parameters I'm going to deal with. I'm quite certain that I can't do any increment boring here, so I'll either get the data from our neighbours, or use models to estimate wood density. Well I read somewhere that genus level values for a species' wood density works pretty well. So I guess that's my next step! Also I need to know how other papers got their density values for each species, so I can take an average from the references.

Effect of increased carbon dioxide on plants

I read a review today on carbon sources and sinks, and learned one thing from it. Increased atmospheric carbon dioxide increases the C:N ratio of leaves and twigs, meaning a decrease in tissue quality. Also there is no increase in biomass, which means that even with more carbon dioxide, plants are not sequestering more carbon.
Bad news for plants, and this condition is going to worsen in the next 50 years for sure...

The Handlebar

Since it was rather uneventful today, I'll post something about a past event. My friends and I went to the Handlebar, a very nice drinking place in Alexandra. The address is on the 2nd picture. Can you believe this piece of black bottle holder costs $8? I thought it was free! But anyway this place is cool, it has a pool table, bar-top, a TV and some other accessories that bring out the biker bar feel. For guys, there're lots of pictures of women wearing g-strings with their butt facing you pasted around the whole bar.
They serve the standard German/Belgian beer, plus local beer. The thing I like about this place is the music, it's not crappy like other bars, just smooth old oldies.

A start

23rd September 2008 6.13pm

Luan Keng came to the office today, and gave me some very good advice. She said given that I didn't take honours in university, I should publish something. Even if it's not a scientific journal, just write, be it a paragraph on a nature website, or some non-scientific issues. It will help in my writing skills and improve my English.

So today, just when I'm about to knock off from work, I'm starting this blog as a move towards my short-term goal - get a Masters degree from NIE. Now this can cure my boredom!