March 30, 2010

The Bitch (Episode 2)

I just realized very recently that the word Bitch actually refers to female dogs! But somehow, in the modern sense, that word really fits my cat Miming! Haha. My sister came up with that word to describe her when Miming (pronounced Mee-ming) was being particularly bitchy with Ben (my sister's  5month old Beagle). Ben was being quite hyperactive and playful that day and decided to channel his happiness on Miming.

So when the Beagle was taunting and barking at the Cat, wanting to get close and play with her, she went all Crouching Tiger/Hidden Dragon on him. She felt so threatened and mad the hair on her back stood up. She never really got to injuring him with her sharp claws thought. Thank God. It seems Ben is quite adept at evading her weapons.

See Miming hates being touched and caressed and the only interaction she enjoys with other species is when she can bite and scratch them. She hates being touched and played with and when Ben came along, it turns out she hates Ben as well. Did I mention she hates being touched?

Nevertheless, she is my cat. Or should I say I am her human and all of us here gladly put up with her. I went through my Multiply albums last night and saw quite a lot of pictures of her. She actually has an album of her own there. Here are some of Miming's earliest shots that I quite like.

[caption id="attachment_245" align="alignleft" width="210" caption="on her first night @ home"]Miming[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_246" align="alignleft" width="210" caption="she sleeps comfortably on an extra pillow beside my bed"]Miming[/caption]

March 29, 2010

Paper Cranes 2

See? Told ya I'm hooked on paper cranes. And I actually made an even smaller one! Just about the size of a 1 Peso Coin. Look!

[caption id="attachment_234" align="alignleft" width="216" caption="smaller pink paper crane"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_232" align="alignleft" width="216" caption="still the same smaller pink paper crane"]smaller pink paper crane[/caption]

March 28, 2010

Paper Cranes

[caption id="attachment_219" align="alignleft" width="240" caption="pink paper crane"]Pink Paper Crane[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_224" align="alignleft" width="240" caption="pink paper crane and me"]pink paper crane and me[/caption]

Origami figures really are much better looking (and more challenging to do) when their made smaller. I've learned Origami back when I was a kid and I can still pretty much do the figures I knew how to make back then. The "paper crane" unfortunately I learned quite later when I was preoccupied with other things and so I wasn't quite as able to absorb the steps on how to make them.

My friends thought me how to make them a few weeks ago and I've been drawn to making them ever since. They really are just so elegant and beautiful. I also like the fact that it's not all flat that there's actually a wide body between the wings. They're not so simple, yet their not quite complicated and advanced paper folding as well. Just about in between. I just love it.

I've probably made more than 10 of them. From scraps of paper in my room, to fast food receipts, and just about every other paper I could pick up when I feel like passing the time. I'm still urging myself to make a thousand paper cranes and get that magic wish :D

March 27, 2010

How To Train Your Dragon in 3D

GREAT MOVIE OVERALL!!! I enjoyed it a lot. Especially the flight scenes which was just breathtaking on 3D. Most importantly though, I really liked the story.

Won't say anything about it here though. I believe my rusty writing skills just won't do it any justice. It's been 3 years since I last blogged remember? :D

Anyways, I just want to say that its another great adventure/friendship/puppy love story you'll love to watch over and over again. Really worth your money. Comes with a free small popcorn, drink and 2 raffle tickets at Gateway Cineplex 10. What more can you ask for? (I feel like I should get paid for that plug)

Here's the trailer if you need more convincing :D

March 26, 2010

The Bitch

[caption id="attachment_196" align="alignleft" width="216" caption="Miming about 10 months old"]The Bitch[/caption]

I own a cat. Or should I say aside from people and a dog, there's also a cat living in this house with us. Owning would never be an appropriate term to use on cats because you never really own one. Case in point is this cat I'm talking about. I just call her "miming" (probably the tagalog equivalent of the term "kitty") since I've never had the habit of naming cats. They all respond to high pitched calls of "miming" anyway.

Miming came to existence inside a trash can in a parking lot of a plush mall in Makati. Clinging on the inside walls of the trash can and meowing with all her might in that small kitten voice of hers, she was probably just more than 2 weeks old at that time. That was about a year ago. With the help of a friend of mine who found her and decided to bring her home inside an empty juice box, she somehow found her way here in our house and she's been here ever since.

If I had to guess at who she was and how she got there, I would say her mother was a stray and she was born in a place where cats were unwanted, people there probably took the litter away to different places just to get rid of them. And with the behavior she's been exhibiting since she got here, I would say she never really felt any genuine care. My sister was able to give a spot on description of her behavior. "She's such a bitch!"

She doesn't purr, she hates being touched or caressed, but she likes play fighting A LOT. Touch her a bit and she would end up scratching or biting you thinking that that is exactly what you want from her. And she enjoys it. Play fighting is probably the only fun she knows of having, aside from eating expensive cat food of course. She only eats canned Whiskas or the dry Friskies.

Talk about a true rags to riches story. From the trash can to expensive cat food. But to her credit she does eat some left over fish from dinner though.

Xtina Update… can’t wait :D

[gigya width="300" height="300" src="http://www.christinaaguilera.com/widget.swf" quality="high" wmode="tranparent" ]

March 22, 2010

Predators

I checked Wikipedia and I found out that the first Predator film was actually released the same year I was born. About a month before I was born to be exact. Knowing that now is pretty weird because I grew up watching Predator movies I and II and is probably one of the first films that really got me to love movies. I think I was about 8 or 9 years old when I was able to watch the first one with Arnold (insert last name here) on cable. The second one with Danny Glover I didn't like as much but I still enjoyed.

Looking back now, I realize It was such a great suspense and adventure movie for me. Stranded in the jungle with an unknown creature killing you off one by one and in the end, you find yourself on your own and have to face this scary, dangerous extraterrestrial once and for all.

I just loved it. And now, 2010, we get to see a remake. Hmmm... hope they do this one right. Maybe I will like this new one too but we'll see :D Let's just enjoy the trailer for now.

March 21, 2010

Plants Vs. Zombies…

Hands down one of the most entertaining and challenging computer games I have ever played. I absolutely love it. I'm more of a RPG (role playing game) gamer and I'm not really into strategy games but I just cant help but get hooked with PVZ. I used to just play this in my friend's computer or at internet cafes to pass the time but now that we have it at home, I'm in gaming heaven :D

Just finished all the levels of the Adventure Mode. Not really a big fan of the Puzzle and Mini Games mode so I was really glad I finally unlocked the Survival mode when I finished the Adventure.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="371" caption="Plants vs. Zombies"]Plants vs. Zombies[/caption]

So far natapos ko na rin yung DAY level ng Survival. More Survival games to go. Hehehe.

March 19, 2010

No worries… I hope

I don't know if it was due to the stress of the day, my memory acting up on me, or I just had a bout of extreme stupidity :( It turns out that K.pneumoniae and E. cloacae do resemble each other in terms of colonial growth so there was really nothing to fuss about. Hehehe. I just had to make sure whether my bacteria is motile or non-motile because that is the only differential test between the two species I can do in our lab.

Here's a picture of the biochem tests I interpreted yesterday which I wasn't able to include in my last, hurried post:

[caption id="attachment_141" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="from left: TSI, SIM, SCA, LIA"]Clinical Bacteriology[/caption]

So anyways, when I got to school this morning I checked my SIM right away and after much scrutinizing, I realized it did become hazy as compared to the original clarity of an uninoculated SIM tube. I was focusing too much on the middle of the tube that I forgot to look at the over-all transparency of the medium.

So after yester-night's confusion, I was finally able to conclude that my final unknown bacteria in Clinical Bacteriology is indeed Enterobacter cloacae :D Whew... I just hope tama nga ako... toink!

March 18, 2010

Confusion!!!

Today I was able to interpret the results for the biochemical tests I did for my final unknown in Clinical Bacteriology lab. So far, from my last post, we already know that my unknown is a gram (-) bacilli, catalase (+), oxidase (-) with thick non-hemolytic colonies on BAP.

The biochem test's result naman revealed the following...
  • Triple Sugar Iron (TSI) = A/A (lactose fermenter), gas production (+), and H2S (-)

  • Sulfide Indole Motility (SIM) = motile (), indole (-), H2S (-)

  • Simmon Citrate Agar (SCA) = citrate (+)

  • and Lysine Iron Agar (LIA) = K/A lysine deamination (-)

If you noticed there's no sign on whether it is motile (+) or non motile (-). That's because I'm so unsure. Well, actually I was so sure it was motile when I left the lab this afternoon but when I got home, right now while I'm making my written report, I decided to look at pictures of Enterobacter cloacae and Klebsiella pneumonia online.

I stumbled upon a picture of K.pneumonia on BAP and its so similar to my unknown's growth on BAP.... which is unfortunate and is what made me hesitant because I was so sure it was E.cloacae because it's motile and K. pneumonia is non-motile. But now, looking back, I feel like it wasn't really motile on the SIM tube cause it wasn't totally hazy on the point of inoculation. Gosh...  To think that I even performed hanging-drop microscopic technique just to see the motility and because of a stupid picture online, I got confused. I hate this!!!

March 17, 2010

Clinical Bacteriology

Just wanted to put a record here of my progress in our final unknown in Clinical Bacteriology. We were given a bacterial suspension (the "unknown") yesterday and we inoculated it in Blood Agar Plates and Mac Conkey Agar media then incubated for 24 hours.

Here's what I came up with when we checked it out kanina...  As you can see on the pic below, it has gamma-hemolytic colonies which are very thick and aggregating... probably due to the slightly wet (really bad) BAP we all were using.

[caption id="attachment_127" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="to be identified for Clinical Bacteriology"]Clinical Bacteriology[/caption]

Don't ask me what happened to the one planted on the MAC... Halos di na makita yung streaking pattern dahil nag-swarm, again probably due to the wet medium plus sabi ni Sir Ems (our lab technician) baka na-contaminate daw. It has clear colonies sa gitna, then sa mga colonies sa gilid medyo nag-pink, so you cant tell anymore if it's a lactose fermenting bacteria or not. No worries naman cause we can determine that sa TSI.

So anyways, back to the BAP. I did Gram Staining as well this afternoon; twice actually. I had to make sure I really had a Gram (-) bacteria because it grew on MAC kahit papano. I think nakulangan ako ng decolorization the first time kaya may naiwang purple cells. Nung inulit ko, without pagmamadali and observing proper staining techniques, nawala naman ung mga false gram (+) cells and pure pink na silang lahat. If you observe the pic below, their actually rod shaped in... uhm... I'm not sure kasi may mga single, may magka-pair, may mga areas din na magkakadikit sila talaga so I cant tell wether the arrangement is single, in pairs, or in clusters. Sabi basta may nakita ka daw ilang humiwalay mag-isa na cells, single na daw yun. Oh well....

[caption id="attachment_129" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="final unkown's gram stain"]Clinical Bacteriology[/caption]

Anyways, I did the biochemical tests soon after staining. I did oxidase which gave a negative result (no purple end color), catalase positive (vigourous bubble formation), and the Enterobactariaceae tests namely TSI, SIM, SCA, and LIA; the results of which requires 24 hours of incubation so I'll get to that tomorrow.

So, after 2 days of action, the results for my final microbiology unknown are:
  • Gram (-) bacilli with singular arrangement
  • Gamma (non) - hemolytic bacteria
  • Catalase (+)
  • and Oxidase (-)

Will get to the rest of the biochem tests tomorrow and I'll see if I can make an interpretation by then. That'll be all for now. Ciao :D

March 13, 2010

The CMT Cheerios in Action

Got the 3rd place for this performance during the TUA Foundation Week Celebrations last Feb.1... can't complain, we deserve the place we got :D

I was appointed team captain this year and I was really proud of the squad because the newbies from last year, who are now on their 2nd year of service, really stepped up and improved themselves. We also got a lot of really good new members this year.

Here's the vid, enjoy :D

I'm still here...

been a while... or should I say it's been years(!) since I last updated this old blog of mine... I kinda like this and I will keep it. Especially now that everyone else is Tweeting, I will keep on blogging :D or should I say go back to blogging. It's a new way to reinforce my ode of not conforming to what is in and hip or uso.

I do have a facebook though... it's the best and easiest way to connect with friends, classmates, and now, even my professors. Hehehe... If I know you personally, you can add me up as friend, kung hindi, then dont bother.

Anyways, I will try to post entries here more regularly now, I've been meaning to blog again for quite some time now and finally here I am :D

Just wanted to share my still humble Doraemon collection. In case you didn't know, Doraemon is my favorite cartoon character.

[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="395" caption="12 items after about 5 years..."]Doraemon[/caption]

As for my next post, you can wait til next year.

JOKE.