Tried my hand at it today. Not bad at all! Mom’s rating – 5/10 for the first lap, 6/10 for the next.
Driving
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Author Archives: ericmjl
Brain Hack
My latest brain hack is to run something that is timed and useful, simultaneously with whatever task I’m doing. Like boiling eggs while working on a video. Twice the productivity.
MIT100K ACCELERATE Finalist Announcement
I had the privilege of making the announcement for the MIT100K ACCELERATE Finalists, and the energy level tonight was just… wow! Also, having personally interacted with some of the teams during the Team Stream filming sessions, just seeing their reactions tonight was a great privilege! What could I say? Just an all-round wow! Can’t wait to see what the Demo Show will be like!
Build a Tower, Build a Team
Having browsed through some old entries to my blog, thankfully saved by the Wayback machine, I found this video that I thought was interesting to share:
School has started, again
School has started again. A new semester is at hand.
IAP is now over. A fun time IAP was. Got tons of lab work re-setup, got tons of 100K work done up, and overall a good time of break from classes. Every university should take a 1 month break between semesters to let their students explore fun and crazy things.
1st week of classes have also gone by just like that. Time really flies now. Hopefully, I have carried over the same level of snappiness from the last semester.
Alrighty, 4:31 am. Time to sleep.
Research Progress
Sometimes, research seems to go just so frustratingly slowly. There’s a gazillion and one things that have to get done right before I can proceed.
For example, setting up controls. I’ve been attempting a bacteria-to-yeast light communication experiment, and after a few tries at the assay set up by my previous mentor Robin, I was unable to replicate her results. And hence I have embarked on a month-long journey to troubleshoot the source of the problem. Is it the cells? Is it the reagents? Is there something about the way I’m handling the experiment?
It’s been mentally challenging to ground my own expectations. I thought I could set the goal of wrapping up the project within a month and a half – end of December and whole of January. But I ended up using December to set up the equipment and reagents needed to conduct the experiment (which involved a bit of waiting time, as I had to order things during the holiday season), and used half of January so far to troubleshoot why I haven’t been able to get yeast and bacteria to communicate.
That said, I’ve also started to think about ways to cheaply (time-wise) prototype bacterial color photography. I’m in the fortunate position of seeing interest from iGEM teams in accomplishing this goal, who are also producing parts that can be used. For example, simple protein reporters can be used to prototype the color output, before I hook up the actual pigment producing genes. I also have been trying to hook up Karsten’s T7 wires, based on advice from Jeff Tabor, but that did involve a short detour as I found my antibiotic plates weren’t good (the ampicillin probably went bad).
Also, I’ve received great advice from Mike, one of the post-docs in our lab, who gave me a few good ideas to think about related to gene expression control and genome-scale engineering.
Okay, time to continue working after a little hiatus. Onward!
Minimalism
Ever since there was a carpet refresh in our Tang Hall rooms, and we had to do a mid-stay mini-move (i.e. packing out all our things and moving it outside into the living room), I decided I’d try out Leo Babauta’s minimalistic style of living, keeping as few possessions as possible.
In order to reflect this, I have decided to keep my refreshed website as minimal as possible, especially in terms of page structures. As much as I can, I will keep things as blog posts, with little put into pages. And any content that can be not duplicated, such as my CV (which is already on LinkedIn), I will not duplicate.
Let’s see how this experiment goes…
Blog Restored!
I recently got hit by a malware infection (SQL injection, for the techie types out there, and I have no clue how it happened), and finally I have restored my blog. Apologies to everybody who have been following it all this while.
With that said, this is a prime opportunity to rebuild my website. Nothing from the past is lost (the text is still in a database file I’ve downloaded, and the old site’s files are backed up on my HDD and Time Capsule), and over time, I will curate and re-upload old posts back online.
In the meantime, to all my readers out there, enjoy the fresh start to 2012!
圣善夜，圣诞夜
今年的圣诞前夕，过得很特别。今年是我第一次穿着诗班的诗袍，在教会的会众前，以及在神的殿中献诗；诗班负责人皓芳姊妹所选的诗歌深具意义，并且教导有才，使我们从不会到会，我们虽技巧有缺却能不断提升，感谢神我们有她带领我们的诗班。
今年的圣诞前夕也是第一次独唱献诗，能在这天献诗，真是莫大的荣幸啊！献的是“圣善夜”(O Holy Night)。之前与钢琴伴奏陈育琪姊妹联系了不少次，感谢主在24日当天顺顺利利地献上诗歌，从中也体会到，若是为主的缘故，并且是以祂喜悦的方式来做，祂必定会赐力量，智慧，与能力来管理自己，克服困难，并且安排美好的结果。
以后再贴录分享分享！
A Semester Gone!
Wow!
What else can I say, but wow?
It’s been a whirlwind ride here at MIT during my first semester. Looking back, the last entry I wrote was at the beginning of semester, and only now, at the end of the semester, do I have the chance to write up something.
Back at the start of the semester, when things were a little lighter, I took stock of a few things I wanted to do in school throughout the first semester. Here they are:
- MIT100K
- Thesis
- Korean Class
- MIT iGEM
- Sports
This, on top of regular school work of course.
Granted, school work did eat up a lot of time. But things have become clearer in the past semester as to how things will pan out for the coming semester.
MIT100K
I’ve moved from web team member to web team lead + marketing member. It’s been quite an interesting journey along the way. I’ve had the chance to converse with many Sloanies, and they bring a very different type of energy to the table. I really enjoy working with the 100K crowd, and I’m looking forward to continued involvement until the Business Plan Competition.
More importantly, I’ve learned quite a lot about business from an outsider’s lens, and I realize that a lot of it is commonsensical, except that in the excitement of doing a startup, perhaps one may lose sight of that common sense. Of course, that’s the theorist inside me speaking; if I were to one day get involved in a startup or industrial management work instead, perhaps my perspective might change.
Thesis…
…is more or less defined! And I have made more inroads into advancing the project further. Bacterial color photography. This IAP I will be beginning the first cloning steps to assemble the DNA, and with the 2nd semester around, I think I will be in the lab more often. This will mean balancing my studies better; in particular, making sure I’m reviewing the material right after each class rather than darting off.
Korean Class
1 hr 30 min every week, and then a drama episode or two when I have time, and I think I have made much progress in listening and understanding Korean. But my vocabulary is much too weak, and my confidence much too low, to be able to string together a sentence. Hence, I’m looking forward to moving onto the Intermediate level classes. Hopefully I’ll be able to make some progress here.
MIT iGEM
I’ll take Chris’ suggestion and keep my involvement low until I pass quals. This year might not be the year for me to step up just yet.
Sports
In this area, I haven’t done so well. During the semester, there were times when I went swimming, biking, and playing badminton, but there were stretches where I was too tired to go for it, or it was too hassle-some to go, or… okay, enough of the excuses. Basically, my primary care physician @ MIT Medical says I should have a 500 cal difference between intake and output, with intake < output, to lose weight properly, and I no longer have an excuse for being this much overweight. The coming semester is a time when I think I’ll raise my game more. I hope to go for more regular badminton games now, starting from tomorrow’s badminton game with Ian.