Stupid self poked self with used needle today

Poked myself in the fleshy part of the middle finger on the left hand with a needle which I held in my right hand (what details... O_o) while doing the daily injections for my mice this morning. Must be bad karma... for all that I have done to my mice... Sighz. Hope I don't get anything dangerous from them... Who knows, I might turn into something with pointy ears and super powers tomorrow (mouse woman?!?!). Ha!

Read Zan's entry today about those racist b*stards. I hate those kind of people! A while ago, I've wanted to write about a racist incident that happened to me here but I've never gotten to it (almost forgot about it).

One time, when my sis and a couple of friends were here to visit, I brought them to a church (Sacre Coeur) that is very nice (right on top of a hill where one can get a pretty good view of Paris).

One not-so-good thing about there is that there are a lot of black people there trying to cheat tourists into letting them tie some stupid (cos' it's just turning round and round of one thread over another and I can do much much better than that) 'friendship bracelet'-like thing on one of their fingers, claiming it's an African tradition and then asking for 4 euros (or more) for it. I know because I watched some colleagues almost fall into it when we first arrived. I had strongly refused to do it, knowing they would ask for $ for it. Ever since than, I've always just said 'Merci, no' (politely) and walk away. They would tend to leave you alone when they see that you have seen through their tricks and are not some ignorant tourists.

Anyway, this time, one of them approached one of my friends and since I was just behind my friend, I said 'Merci, no'. Guess what that damn black said? He shouted at me, (the gist of it, since I don't remember exactly) 'I'm not talking to you, you Chinois (which is French for someone whose nationality is Chinese, specifically China, not other countries)! I don't do this for stupid Chinois.' I was so pissed and disgusted, I wanted to knock his lights out!!!

First of all, I am not from China, and second of all, even if I was, he has no right to say that! B*stard!!! I have nothing against black/dark-skinned people and am proud to say I don't practise racism. But right there and then, I had wanted to say, what are you feeling superior about, you stupid black! If you are so good, you wouldn't be here cheating tourists' money!' Arghhh... just thinking about that makes my blood boil!!!

Anywayz, better get my blood pressure down.

Realise that ever since Straits Times started charging for its online newspapers, I've been getting my dose of Singapore news from blogs of friends and relatives which in any case, are much more interesting to read than boring old Straits Times. ^_^

Had our final review meeting (for which I stayed till 9plus last Friday to finish the ELISA) yesterday, with heads of various labs. The results for the assays that I had done were a little strange (by strange I mean, not as they had expected and some results were not reproducible in the 2nd round) and I was worried about what they would say about that. Some irritating colleagues had already incessantly asked if I had done everything, my dilutions and calculations correctly. Enough already! For the last time, I knew what I was doing, and am sure I did my dilutions and calculations correctly!!!

When it came to the slide where my results were presented, everyone was looking curiously at me. I started to shrink in my seat when the CSO (Chief Scientific Officer - boss of the boss of my boss) of the company said, 'What worries these young people is that the data antagonizes their hypothesis. But I am not at all bothered by it. The assay is definitely ok, the hypothesis is just wrong.'

Whoohoo!!! I was soooo relieved!!! Everyone else then started saying things like, ya, maybe IL1-b itself (by no fault of the assay or the person who did it) is not such a good marker, there might be other processes involved in this etc etc... ha! *feeling just a little happy with oneself that the CSO was actually on my side!*

At the end of the meeting, after the vice-president of business development (boss of my boss) said his piece, the CSO said he has something to say. Immediately, everyone who were leaning in their chairs, pulled in their chairs and sat up really straight to hear what he has to say. And I was just like thinking 'Wow!' I have heard from a lot of colleagues that this guy is very well-respected and thus I know that everyone sat up to listen to him not just because he's the big boss but also that what he says is important and respected. Compared that to when my China colleague was presenting his results and after a while, everyone started rolling their eyes, whispering, looking restless, giggling (one guy did. eww!). He cannot do a presentation for nuts!!! Anyway, back to the CSO. When he asked questions during the meeting, he even used a light joking manner and totally did not display any of the 'I-am-oh-so-superior, I-know-everything' attitude (again, as opposed to my China colleague, who is nothing, by the way).

I am absolutely impressed! Don't think I would ever reach that level but I would keep this CSO in mind as one of my role models (he is a professor in Yale too, by the way. Half his time here and half in Yale. Flies through 2 continents every week.)

Have got to go do some treatments for my mice now. Will be very careful.