Since I am paying school fees while I am interning,

As the title goes, Since I am paying school fees while I am interning, I made the decision to take more evening modules in NUS on top of the self study module and forensics which was the initial plan. Just one more evening module to go, 6 to 9pm on a Monday night. It is a level 4 Core. Yup, level 4. To me the level doesn't seems to make a lot of difference except for the cohort that you are taking it with. Alright, maybe its too soon to make that conclusion, but at least that was what I felt when I took level 3 core in year 2. Dawn was commenting that it sounds like smart joan taking advanced level things. I think she forget to add in just one more word, smart aleck joan would be more appropriate. Hope I don't regret what I am doing. No, I will love what I am doing. The Law of Attraction is powerful, It is The Secret and I faithfully believes in it.

Just to add a little surprise at the end of this post, I might take one more GEM module, provided that I can bid for both forensics and that GEM. Both are modules with high bid points. Together with my Internship, the number of MCs I am fulfilling this semester would be 24 (: Happiness, it makes the money I pay to NUS totally worth it.

why do girls improve their looks?

"Girls improve their looks but not their minds,
because they know that some boys are stupid, but not blind."

haha! :P sorry to all the guys in this world! I just thought that it was funny that's why I posted it here! No offence!

another eventful week!

Day after day, there are gatherings and dinner meetings with friends. (: I am loving a lifestyle like this, which is attributed to me still not having much to do at work. THAT WAS AN UNDERSTATEMENT, how about me not having any work at all being assigned to me? Yes, that is the correct description of my state at work. Joanqiqi doesn't like it when she gets to slack too much when she is supposed to be getting the most out of her internship. It shouldn't and must not work this way. She doesn't feel good that she is not doing anything and getting paid, she doesn't feel good when she there is no sense of satisfaction out of what she is doing. She is one who needs to be constantly doing things to show herself and others that she is useful to the society, and her actions are being appreciated. In other words, she (wants to) feel(s) egoistic at times, and loves to challenge the impossible.

Acting busy everyday has came to a halt, it became trying hard to keep myself occupied with something to do for as long as it takes. Meaning, I would decide on what I want to do for the day, for example, labeling of the files, then, I would double and triple check things, make sure that the alignments, font size, logo size, label size, and every other minor details is perfect before I print it out. Even the task of cutting up the pieces of labels was done so meticulously, that it takes me forever to cut out one single label. Effort was also put into making sure that all the clear folders in the files are intact. As reinforcement rings were not available, I would do it the manual way, paste scrotch tape (the 3M brand, made in USA one) over those torn and tattered holes, punch them manually, and file them back into the files. Some of those documents must have aged over the years as they turned yellow and has a stench of "antique"? Hence, that manual reinforcement rings task would take forever to mend up every single aged documents. As you have guessed it, I am just trying to stall time. Doing things to full perfection, which brings along one dis/advantage, me living up to my old name of a perfectionist - a name which has departed from me for years..

Despite all that delaying, I finished all that by late afternoon. Thinking that I have two hours more, I decided to slowly make my way to the filing room with TWO files sandwich between my arms and elbows. I meant slowly, I tried to take my own sweet time to stroll across the lab, get the key from the keybox, stroll out of the lab to the room, open the dehumidified filing room, arrange the files a little though they have all been alphabetized, and numberized by ME last week. Gosh! I can't even stand my own walking pace! I don't walk particularly fast, but I can't stand slow walkers (reminds me of CupWalkers! YUMS! sorry irrelevant!) I hate to waste time getting from one place to another, I hate travelling slowly, I hate waiting, that explains why I am a fan of SBS iris. Afterwhich, I start to feel the dryness and the heat in the filing room becomes unbearable, I made my way out of the room, and get TWO more files and the cycle repeats itself. There were about 2 rounds of 6 to 8 files. Whatever, call me inefficient, which I think might be infecting my brain cells and making them think that this is the way to go! No way man! I told myself to be more efficient starting from the next day, as I do not wish to continue living in a world of inefficiency.

That was the story of yesterday workload and inefficiency. Today, I woke up telling myself that I need to brace myself up and gain something more valuable than purely labeling of files. So I went into lab, started staring at all the protocols and trying to combine all the knowledge that I gained from my endless trainings and figured out how to write a protocol myself. I did a few pages of my own protocol (they are just notes/methods you should follow in layman terms, but I wanted to sound professional) on how to write a protocol. Am I cool or what? I feel so proud of myself, I analyzed the various protocols, looking up various Quality Standards, tried to figure out how the calculations are done, got my brain thinking hard as a list of questions are being generated onto my protocol. I felt so proud of myself the whole of today, I learnt so much more. Rather than sitting there and complaining of having nothing to do, and randomly surfing around, at the same time being afraid of getting caught, I should have taken the initiative to learn on my own. I know that this protocol that I am doing for myself would be useful in future, even as I am typing this out, I thinking about my protocol, and how I should continue improving it tomorrow. I will try and explore around more to find those answers to my questions. Maybe when my supervisor is free, I can bombard her with that list of questions. As for tomorrow I will continue with my protocol. I will begin with the evaluation of calculations and try out some calculations on my own, making sure that I am capable of performing them. This part is tricky, I tried it once before, but I failed. Tomorrow, I am going to make sure that I get it done, if not I am not going to go home! joking!

Are you readers thinking that joanqiqi is such a sensible and hardworking intern? Just a little secret to divulge here so that I don't appear that angelic to all of you. I am not that hardworking at all times. There are times (quite a lot) when I am just too bored to continue reading my protocols. These are the times when I start emailing friends (thank you to these friends!) with my NUS email, messaging from my phone gets too obvious, so emailing is a better choice. Furthermore, the only email that I can access is the NUS email. (rahhs!! ) which in fact is a good choice as emailing from the NUS email makes it less suspicious that I am in truth "enjoying myself". It serves as a façade as though I have some important school stuff to settle. However, the ploy exposes itself soon after, as I am well known for the overuse of emoticons. Seeing all the symbols/smileys floating all over the email messages, you are bound to decipher that façade, and understand that my emails are not for formal school/studies purposes. Sadly.

That best friend has been telling me that he is busy at work, and I have been replying that I hope I can be as busy as your are. I am gonna tell myself "Be careful what you wish for". I liked that song (:

certain someone seems not that bad after all, stop passing judgments so soon, I am not so sure if the bad has turned good though.

it has been three weeks

three weeks, out of the 24 that I am supposed to accomplish. Merely 1/8 of the total. Ask me if I am passionate and excited about the internship, Yes, I could bravely admit that I WAS. That is not the end of the story, because I believe I WILL.

I am glad that I chose to get out of my comfort zone at times, I chose to take the initiative to do things, I chose to interact and take the social route. After three weeks of "work", I finally see the direction I want to head towards, values that I want to gain out of this internship. Today, people start looking for me, in fact too many people were looking for me; some were good news others bad. Nevertheless its still good news to make my presence known.
joanqiqi gives herself a *pat* on her shoulders. (: smile like you mean it, sincerely.

There were some problems/ situations faced at work. Things that irritates me, not that much of irritation, just a bit upset by the way things go. Alrights, at least I have people whom I message straight away to talk to them about my problems. Thanks baby and best friend!

Looking backward, I think it might be the circle of life at work, I have lent a helping hand to two aunties, and one watermelon army guy today. Maybe that's why things are starting to perk up a little. (:

My beloved Enfant left for Laos, hope those reflective glands in brain work themselves out, I am looking forward to an interesting narrative. And me being an obedient friend is doing what she has instructed, DON'T MISS HER! :D no worries, I am not missing you a bit at all.

Baby, is sick. ): He looks tired just now. ): hopes he get well soon!

My supervisor is sick too. The colleague sitting behind me is sick too. Xuejiao seems to be falling sick too. My brother too! Please flu bug, go away and never come back. I hate you, I am gonna develop some new drug to kill you!

三个愿望 - 梁文音

你开始会计划未来了
那恋人正拿我看心灵的存折
像火星的脾气少很多
很忙 也会记得抽空练完
你做的事我都看见了
所以抱你的时候眼里红红的
就算你有时候会犯错
怎么想都在不开心什么

你答应送我三个愿望
第一个希望你能健康开朗
第二个希望我能更懂体谅
第三个希望我们永远有话讲
其实我不用三个愿望
每一天都有感动值得收藏
每一夜天使陪我祈祷仰望
每滴泪都被你的魔法 变阳光

因为很爱 所以会想通
不再去坚持己见让彼此难过
当感情很稳定 很浓厚
退让 也会有种甜蜜感受

感谢我们的爱情没有翅膀
一步步走在往幸福的路上
再用足够的时间好好欣赏
让开心春夏秋冬四季的风光

This song is currently on repeat, read the lyrics (:

Wavin' Flag is another addictive song which has the lady gaga aura.

i dialed the two numbers over and over again

I am supposed to be asleep at this hour, however here I am blogging. Sleepiness got kicked away by some scare-of-the-night. ): rahhs. Definitely not scares that are related to eeriness, I would have freaked out. Anyway, scare is too much of an exaggeration, worried is the appropriate word choice here.

Thank god, everything is fine. Just some irritant caused somethings to happen again, which resulted in me worrying for the safety of someone. At times, I think I am too overly paranoid about these things. However, today was so out of the norm that I had strong suspicions that something went wrong. I just couldn't go to bed, flipped around the bed while dialing the two numbers over and over again, trying hard to get through, leaving a dozen of smses, and I even had the intention to contact a friend whom was in contact with him!

ok, I gotta go le! nights all! :D

should I get this tattoo?

Picture taken from http://www.visual-orgasm.com/

Then again who gets a Tattoo of their own name? I am not that narcissistic to want to get a tattoo of my own name!! However, upon seeing this picture, my anti-tattoo stand was wavered for that short moment. Don't you think this tattoo is really beautiful? The name makes it even more so (:

Looking at some of the other tattoo designs that Visual Orgasm does, I must say that I am impressed! Tattoos by them no longer reminds me of the "ah bengs" and "ah peks" from 369 (sa luck gao), they are drawn with so much details that it becomes an art piece, some looks so real that they sent shivers down my spine. Like this one:

Joker's tattoo!

Personally, this tattoo changed my perception on why do people get tattoos. I always believe that there is a story behind each and every tattoo, I wonder what the story is behind this one?

If you have decided to get a tattoo done after reading this post, do drop by

Virtual Orgasm

2 Haji Lane Singapore 189195

They offer a wide range of designs, which I am personally impressed. Please show me your tattoos after that, and perhaps you could ask the tattoo artist to sign off as inspired by Joan (: (:

P.S. Despite having my stand wavered, I would not expect myself to be getting a tattoo in the near future. I suspect I would be homeless in the case that I do get one. ):

the story behind that little tablet you pop into your mouth (:

After one week of work at a Pharmaceutical Company, it sets me thinking about how serious and meticulous one needs to be when working in a Pharmaceutical industry. Quality departmentshas to conduct checks very carefully to ensure the safety of our customers taking the drugs. Every little step is not to be belittled. Checks are so thoroughly done that every single ingredient, be it the raw materials to synthesise the active pharmaceutical ingredient(API), the crude API, the purified API, the API present in the final drug form, the excipients (other ingredients that make up the drug besides the API itself), all these have to undergo various stages of testing. Failure in any one stage, depending on the magnitude of deviation, would trigger investigations and reports to account for the failure. Double checkings, with initials and dates are required for each and every step, such that no errors are tolerated. They even have special manuals and protocols to follow when washing/using/storing the apparatus. All the procedures they have to go through, and all those mentioned above constitutes only a small portion of the quality control department.

What about the manufacturing plant itself? Where conditions are even stricter as the drugs produced are to be released into the market for sale. Even the storerooms that issues safety equipments to employees are not spared, every single piece of information needs to be documented and accounted for. This is part of Good Manufacturing Process and Good Documentation Practice. This is the power of logbooks, logsheets, and MPS (Merck's Production System, something like the famous Toyota Production System), which summaries the complexity of a MNC at work.

For every action you take, keep in mind that the final product made is going to be released markets all over the world, and eventually someone is gonna take the tablet, in hope of improving his/her quality of life. This patient is putting full faith in the company that the tablet has been produced under stringent conditions with all the requirements met and that his/her health would improve after taking the tablet.

Purchasing a drug is not like shopping for clothes. You will be able to see a loose thread on a skirt, or a missing button on your shirt, but physically it would be impossible to tell if a drug is safe to be consumed just by looking at it. The safety lies in the hands of the company producing it, and that responsibility is huge. Always bear in mind that someday, your loved ones might be taking those drugs produced by the company, you would not want those drugs to hurt them would you? Every little step, no matter how tedious it is, matters.

Next time, before popping in a tablet, think about all the combined efforts that have been put together in order to produce that small little tablet. A lot has to be done. Do appreciate it. (:

I clicked on post with my magic mouse! :D

As seen from the title above, I have finally gotten my magic mouse. (: (for those who doesn't know what a magic mouse is!) Dearest mummy got it for me! :D Our family went out for a little outing yesterday evening, destination was Marina Bay Sands. Walking along the Helix bridge, explaining to my family members about ATCG base pairs, and also the DNA double helix structure. The best part of it is, I explained most of that in Chinese. (: Only with those short pauses in between to clarify certain nouns. Joan, I am so proud of you!

Of course, with Epi Centres blooming all around new shopping centres in Singapore, Marina Bay Sands is bound to their very own authorised Apple reseller too. The purpose of entering an Epi this time round was for brother to replace his lousy iPhone cover that cracked, resulting in a blocked 3.5mm jack. Brother finally settled on the silicone Air Jacket after various attempts of testing and comparing textures between those Jackets. Conclusion of the day, Air Jacket jacks up their prices, but not their quality, in fact their quality is inversely proportionate/related to the cost. ):

After purchasing brother's Air Jacket, mummy suddenly asked me if I wanted the magic mouse! :D of course I do! Happily we paid for the magic mouse, to our dismay, 10% rebate does not apply to the magic mouse due to certain absurd reasons, which I could not comprehend. Even my MacBook Pro Charger was entitled to the 3% rebate! rahhs rahhs rahhhhsss.

With my index and middle fingers gliding and sliding around the slick looking magic mouse, immense enjoyment follows. (: In comparison with his predecessor, the mighty mouse, no mouse pads are required, 360 degrees scrolling is much personalised and carefree! You get to flick between photos, control the speed you want your scroll to be, eliminates the ache you get from using the trackpad, all in all, life's good. :D $98, totally worth it for a laser mouse! One of the regrets would be the removal of their side squeezing function, bid bye bye to one-squeeze exposé!

*edit* forget to mention that magic mouse is wireless. (: facilitates scrolling through an eBook from the comforts of my bed among my snoopies (:
Currently reading: I Believe You by Low Kay Hwa

revamped my blogskin!

HELLO PEOPLE, YOU ARE AT THE RIGHT BLOG! :D I JUST CHANGED MY BLOGSKIN!

That sense of happiness after I revamped my old blog skin. (:

I am not sure what came over me today. All I know is the rain has dampen my plans to head out, and here I am stuck at home, reluctant to finish reading my P.S. I love you, 'cause I don't quite agree with the book, and I am partly angry at what is happening in the last few chapters. Just like the character in the book, I need some time to think through, perhaps also to reconsider the meaning of love from another point of view. This isn't the love that I am used to.

Back to my new blogskin, I can't say that I did the whole thing myself, all I did was to do some clicking here, moving sliders here and there, just to customise the whole blog to a "joanqiqi" feel (: somebody commented that my new blog skin looks pretty (: Thank you! :D :D The only part that was rightfully done by myself was the banner (: Decided to make something not so kididish like my previous one, played around with comic life once again, and got the banner done! It agree that it isn't perfect, it could have been better as I did not spend a long time doing it.

With the new blogskin, it marks a brand new start. A whole new motivation to blog too. (: I will try to blog more often from today onwards, in spite of the starting of my internship. With the internship ongoing, tuition ongoing, I can feel my life picking up speed. Routines after routines over and over again. Perhaps blogging will become part of this routine, to document my everyday life as an Intern, and also serves as a time machine, transporting us back to the past as and when I want to. (:

Blogging in English seems to be a considerable feat nowadays, pardon my Singlish. :P Efforts shall be made to cut down on Singlish, that shall be my 21 year old resolution. (I am not 21 yet, just 21-to-be) Revamping this blog was also part of the 21 year old resolution thing; I am too old for a childish looking blog. ):

Now, back to doing a lonely 21 year old thing, cooking dinner for oneself.

rainy day, so will it flood again?

Today's weather was looking all so fine, all the way till I finish researching about my new-found love.

Those dark clouds succeeded in discouraging me not to get out of my house. Yeah, I found no exact purpose to go out if it was pouring this heavily. So here goes another wasted day. Feeling pretty free and alone now. Should have invited liyong over for Wii session! We have yet to complete our Mario and Sonic Winter Olympics, though its Summer now.

Life over the past one week was love. ♥♥♥
I get to spend almost every second of my life with dear dear(: (maybe minus the sleeping time)

This is the first time we ever took *muacks muacks* photos! :P

dear starts to think that he has a really tan chi dear dear :P I have been eating tibits non-stop, and reminding dear dear everyday about yummy chilli crabs!

They are the two little cuties that went wherever I went. (: I love them loads (:

24 hours of our road trip, etched forever in our memories! together with the many photos snapped and taken throughout the 24 hours. Going to many places for the first time in my life, falling in love with all those places and our never-ending conversations that makes time fly super-duper fast! Sitting on benches, along sandy beaches, under the yellow tint of moonlight shining through coconuts trees, feeling and smelling the strong sea breeze while looking at colourful lights shining from afar. Bliss. (: I prefer sitting on benches as opposed to on those break waters. The cockroaches on those break waters frightens me, and keeps my mind focused on looking out for them instead of concentrating on our ♥2♥talks.

Braving the stormy weather, and we had our piping hot breakfast at the macs in East Coast Park. It was an exciting moment as the water level outside macs were rising, almost level to the door, and the electricity in macs got cut off TWICE. (It bothers me as my WiFi connection was disconnected twice!) Though, it was a romantic macs breakfast with the lights off. heee (: macs should try out candle light breakfast. Just needed to mention this, it was really early in the morning, probably around 7 to 8 am? considering that we slept at around 2am the previous night, we had every reason for our sleepy eyes :P

sleepy eyes + dear's sunburnt face (minus the sunglasses marks!)

Just returned from our batam Spa retreat at Harris resort. Totally Rejuvenating. Though it was quite paiseh as I laid there giggling/shaking uncontrollably. The place was pretty and rather clean. Service was never without a smile! Seafood was darn good & cheap!! We ate a lot for two person! I just can't seem to stop thinking about the chilli crab!!! Urghhh.. hungrryyy now!! Ate a lot once again! A&W (: gosh! I wanted to steal one of their spoons back to remind myself of the wonderful Rootbeer float! Seasickness kicked in a little on our way back. With the noisy indo kids going out to Singapore for an overseas trip, dear dear was pissed. They were rude little rascals! rahhs. Our mood were ruined! Other than sleeping in too late and missing the hotel's breakfast, everything went fine (: I love swimming with dear dear! hee (: we shall go diving next! I overcome the fear of touching fishes, and you had to mention the jelly fishes, need to work on my fears once again :P ohh, and lets try bintan too (: I want to drive the buggy car!

After we were back from Batam, we crossed the seas once again over to JB for a half day trip! :D we got the best buy for the month! *right darling? :D Ate at Nandos, same food, same price, different currency! How good is that huh? I don't find the Hot and the Extra hot Peri sauce very good though. I prefer the garlic one! :D I think I secretly love garlics, just like how I love A&W garlic chilli and of course, THE ALL-TIME-FAVOURITES Mcdonalds garlic chilli! :D shopped around, dear got a geniune leather wallet, specially for overseas use! :P cheap cheap only and he bought it 'cause I kept reprimanding him about his wallet which cannot keep money neatly. :P ate our favourite Snow Ice! :D hee! (: yums to the max! I still can't find any shop in Singapore that sells Snow Ice better than them! Wanted to eat Baskin Robbins 31 too, but was too full, and we had no money left! :P We didn't even have enough money for dinner, and we didn't wanted to change more money as the exchange rate dropped till 2.29 ): rahhs. We, two poor little souls then decided to head back to my home and dear cooked the 22cents per packet of Indomie, imported all the way from Batam! :P of course, in order not to seem too pathetic, I fried some scrambled eggs and steamed a New Moon *atas* Otah! Home-cooked food are filled with loves and warmth. (: (: (:

This roughly summarised my life for the past one and a half week. (: gonna resume blogging soon. Anyway, for those who are still reading here, you can actually read at my Tumblr too. Short little updates are posted there (: