Happy New Year Everybody!

a few hours before 2006... i thank everybody who has been part of my life this year in one way or another: the people of a1 2008; the people of a1 & a2 2007; the class maximus; my new pals in ortigas who i can't even remember the names (my usual dilemma^_^); ate ruth & family; kuya anthony; my pals from angelicum; robert, marge and tina; my dad & mom, potsy and God! thank you for all the blessings this year! and although i'm crossing the years pretty sick(again for the umpteenth time), i feel soooo blessed...

i feel that the year coming will be a year of change in superaltive proportions for me... i'm excited at the same time nervous... i hope God's spirit is with me all the way... sigh... and of course! because it's saturday! it's time for!!!...

my week's 5 favorite things :

1. Phantom of the Opera (movie) - i have the dvd, just magnificent
2. Everytime You Hear Auld Lang Syne - really touching
3. Mr. John Williams - just... glorious music
4. Marshmallows
5. My new dieting technique - which i invented hehehe

lz

Merry Christmas Everybody !!!

it's Christmas Eve (well not technicaly hehehe) but i am already wishing everybody a blessed christmas. let's remember what this night represents. and it doesn't matter if we really don't believe that on this excact date Christ was born, what matters is that He was! we just lost his birth certificate and decided that a really cold month is good month to celebrate! spread the love people!

and it's saturday so... here's my week's favorite things:

1. coco jam from kuya anthony
2. the 2005 maximus medicinae christmas party
3. leoning's pinong palabok
4. christmas in the philippines

and...

5. tina & marge! merry christmas my princesses! God bless us three!

Our Christmas Party 2005

my classmate and birthday-mate tin alba hosted the class party at her parañaque house. had fun and the food was good. our subsec sponsored the food as i see it (jamie brought the food ^_^).

at long last... a complete subsec a2 (as complete as can be unfortunately) ^_^ - - chris, gelo, jamie, vina, ice, ivy, keech, steff, tin, aids, benrub, philip, ton, jet, joan, cha, aileen, marose, mean, ryan, and yaps

Readings on Motivation

i'd like to share a few things i've been reading, some people may know directly what i'm implying, for others, you may be able to use the new knowledge ^_^ these are researches on motivation and goal orientation :

"achievement motivation research initially established that effort and persistence on achievement tasks are greater in people who set goals of moderate difficulty(neither too hard nor too easy for their current abilities), who seriously commit themselves to pursuing these goals rather than treat them as mere "pie-in-the-sky" hopes, and who concentrate on trying to achieve success rather than on trying to avoid failure (Dweck & Elliott, 1983)"

"Effort and persistence are greater when people perceive a continuing connection between the level of effort they invest in a task and the level of mastery that they achieve (Cooper, 1979)"

"Effort and persistence are greater when people believe that the potential to control outcomes (e.g., achieve success on the task) lies within themselves rather than in external factors that they cannot control (Stipek & Weisz, 1981; Thomas, 1980)"

"Effort and persistence are greater when people believe that they can bring about desired outcomes through their own actions (act as origins) rather than feeling that they are pawns whose fate is determined by factors beyond their control (deCharms, 1976)"

no wonder... ^_^

lz

My Week's Top Five

1. i'm in the mood for love - the movie album
2. barbra streisand... and other musical instruments
3. cassava from white thumb ^_^
4. biology! hahaha
5. charlize theron

Nobody Taught Us How to Study

looking back, i'm quite disappointed studying skills were not taught to us as students. i realized, i, and i think most of my classmates never learned these skills through our teachers and we're left alone to discover how assimilation of knowledge takes place.

im beginning to think this is the reason why i have difficulty memorizing. well it's not that i can't memorize, but i'd rather avoid it altogether if i can (y'know what i mean) ^_^ my most effective way of doing it is: typing it in the computer in a big font maybe size 24 at 150% reading it aloud while i type it and then doing it again and again. i believe that when more senses are working to accomplish remembering something, it would be easier to recall. this way, i am using my tactile(keyboard) sense, hearing, and seeing it as well. you can say i'm still working on how to smell it hehehe.

well anyway, memorization is so low in the cognitive ladder its obvious it's not an good way of learning. no wonder there are many people who are good at remembering stuff but can't put it all together. this requires higher order thinking. the cognitive ladder from lowest to highest : knowledge(part of which is memorization), comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation. so if you have exams/professors whose questions are application, that's good, it's more challenging and starts to require you to use higher order thinking.

how has my studying skills evolved? well they're better that's all i can say. i am more efficient than when i was starting college. i can say i have developed more ways to motivate myself to study without a threat of test. i can even say i am ENJOYING staying up late for something ^_^ for those who know me... surprising yeah! hahaha Medicine sort of jump-started me, forced me to make study skills for myself... sigh... only through continuous challenges can we keep on improving. i've read that for people to get motivated to do something, the task must be appropriate in difficulty(we have to think that at we have at least 50% chance of success) and the reward we are going to recieve at the end must be something appealing to us(passing is appealing). it's true... stuff from research they can be creepingly true... i have been reading on motivation and you'd be surprised that some are so... "that's common sense" but seeing people study this and write about it makes us realize that some of this concepts are universal and can be applied to help other people get motivated to study and do stuff. i know i'm already blabbering here so i'll share more as i learn more ^_^

lz

My Week's Top Five

1. My Streisand Specials DVD Set
2. Longanisang Ilocos
3. Gavin De Graw's More than Anyone
4. American Chopper
5. Naruto

Great Great Gift!

i recieved my Streisand Specials yesterday and watched 3 of the 5 specials :

1. My Name is Barbra April 1965
2. Color Me Barbra March 1966
3. The Belle of 14th Street October 1967
4. A Happening in Central Park Spetember 1968
5. Barbra Streisand ... and Other Musical Instruments November 1973

this is just barbra at her best, pure and crystalline voice, you don't even know when she's breathing, it's just like one endless note :-)

lz

Meg's Debut

we attended meg's debut tonight. potsy was part of the 18 princes(18 roses) and mom the 18 treasures. me... i think i tasted almost all parts of the buffet, specially liked the maki, the chicken fillet and the fish fillet ^_^

lz

Last Night *edited*

i stumbled on a bbc interview which i don't know why, made me watch it... and in a few more moments... i was already glued. this guy from bbc (i forgot his name) was interviewing a man called jean-marie la pen, a man from the french legislative i think, and oh my god, i never hated a living man like this, i thought i was seeing the spawn of hitler alive!

this man was totally blaming ALL (yes, ALL) of france's problems to the immigrants(this is in line of the recent french street riots). he said that even immigrant's children born in france (and therefore are by birth-right french) was also part of the problem. he said he'd do everything to get get rid of these people! ...oh! don't get him wrong he says... "i have a black employee..." "i have other foreign employees..." "i am for intergration... but in small numbers..." "i am not an internationalist, i'm just nationalistic..." NATIONALISTIC!? F*CK YOU!! grrr...

it was very apparent that the bbc guy was starting to get irritated and was already making ways for him to say directly he hates these people... and la pen doesn't even seem to notice it... he's so preoccupied of thinking that what he's saying is right and good for his people and that they understand him. and this stupid guy bullshits all the bbc guys research about statistics on immigrants saying that the research is real bullshit when it was the french government itself that issued these figures.

hehehe... i remember the bbc guy saying... "so... you're saying these figures your goverment released are wrong and you're basing your statement on what you see on the streets everyday?" this was after the man was saying that "just look in the trains there are a lot more immigrants here" because the bbc guy was saying that in germany there is a higher ratio of immigrants vs. endemic people but there are no riots in germany. sigh... i really am disappointed there are still people in the world like this. and to think... this guy is thinking of running again for presidency in 2007(he lost to Chirac last presidential elections).

ANYWAY... i am enjoying watching HBO's rome and just noticed there are so much penis things in this TV Series-movie. penis graffiti on walls, showing real penises, on-stage dramas with penises hehehehe... i looked it up and it seems romans are really "in" to penises hehehehe... they view it as a symbol of power etc...

Another Friday

this was a really good friday. got to go break bread with my friends from a2 (though i didn't eat).

i watched harry potter and the goblet of fire on opening day. i thought it was better than azkaban. my only disappointment? it's too short for me, a lot of interesting things from the book were not included

oh! i bought my star wars episode iii dvd and have watched the yoda vs. sidious scene an endless number of times. reading from forums, many things were said about this duel which i think is really more interesting than obi-wan vs. anakin.

hmm... the emperor stronger than yoda? i think not, he had his advantages especially that he had an opposable thumb hahahaha but really yoda's real defeat was that he gave up when he lost his lightsaber. though i don't think he'd prefer any other method killing the emperor. i don't think he'd use force lightning even if he did know how to use it. during the last few moments of their force lightning resistance-battle you can see that master yoda was winning and sidious worried. but as i said... opposable thumb... hehehe

Star

looks like a mouse-deer ^_^

we have a new baby!

beautiful 1 month old japanese spitz of pure stock. we named her "STAR" ^_^ here she is nuzzling my tummy hehehe

Lame choices - -kind'a funny...

i tried a mock exam on bio and i found these choices... rather lame

why are large mammals sucessful in the grassland biome?
a) because they create their own shadow - - pfft! pretty lame huh

taxonomists...
a) work for the IRS - - haha im just oozing of sarcasm, was this supposed to be a joke!?

NEWphylum porifera(sponges) is appropriately named because...
a) they are not very rich - i don't understand why the exam has these choices ??

lz

Bacteria.... our ancestors

the endosymbiotic theory states that the origin of the eukaryotic organelles are symbiont bacteria which have been engulfed into other larger cells. this was trivial at first fueled by some observations. however, in the past few decades, it is surprising that evidences are accumulating providing evidence for this controversial theory:

a) mitochondria and chloroplasts have their own genetic material different from the information from the nucleus
b) mitochondria and chloroplasts divide in a similar manner as bacteria
c) mitochondria, chloroplasts, the nucleus, and the endomembrane system have double membrane systems the outer of which is similar to the cell membrane and inner more similar in make-up with prokaryotes
d) mitochondria and chloroplasts have 70s ribosomes, bacteria have 70s ribosomes. the ribosomes used by the cells are 80s

recently... centrioles have been found to contain small amounts of DNA. these were suggested as remnants of their origin.

what do you think?

Understanding - - then imparting

I admit, this is the thing that gives me that happy feeling inside hahahaha : understanding insanely unreadable stuff and then shedding light on it… reading stuff like gene regulation(which I ignored in college), I have to rest every paragraph just to give my brain breathing time hahaha sigh… I hope I do well doing imparting these stuff, I know it would be difficult, my paradigm-shift ‘ika nga, but I know I’ll emerge victorious ^_^
lz

Lessons to be learned…

I remembered the song I posted a while back… now… I send its message to a friend :

“there’s a universal plan for every woman, every man…”
“ there are reasons for the path we take”
“there are no mistakes, just lessons to be learned”

I’ve learned so much with all the things I’ve experienced, i hope you do too with yours ^_^

DNA methylation, parthenogenesis and hermaphrodism

Have you ever thought why there are no true mammal hermaphrodites or why mammals or vertebrates for that matter cannot reproduce parthenogenetically?

Today, reviewing gene regulation in eukaryotes, I’ve come to understand few basic principles which govern these events.

I’ve always thought that the only thing fertilization accomplishes is returning the number of chromosomes to the diploid number (2n). therefore, I also thought that if these was the case then, a zygote can be formed from a container and two egg cell nuclei or two sperm nuclei because it satisfies the requirement for the diploid number.

Apparently, it is not possible(as of the moment)because of an occurrence called DNA methylation. Cytosine residues in vitro are occasionally methylated and this determines whether a certain gene will be actively transcribed, repressed or do other functions. Now, the methylation pattern is usually preserved in the chromosomes you inherit from your mother and father. Remember that you have two sets of chromosomes, one from your mother and one from your father. Some genes are active only on one of the chromosomes… how is it determined which chromosome does the job? Is it the paternal of maternal chromosome? Some processes have an inherent order, for example, the gene for the enzyme ILGF-II (insulin like growth factor-II) is paternally unmethylated and maternally methylated. And in this case methylation serves as a negative regulator. Therefore, all your ILGF-II principally comes from your father.

The understanding of the principles which govern the pattern and inheritance of the methylation pattern is not yet fully understood. But this leads us to the point of my exhausting story, two egg nuclei thefore cannot be used to produce a zygote because the chromosomes have the same methylation pattern and in turn many of the genes will not function normally.

God is saying… "don’t mess with me, I’ve planned ahead" ^_^

Terms for the layman :
Parthenogenesis – zygotes develop without fertilization
Diploid – bearing two copies of chromosomes, humans have a diploid number(46 chromosomes in all), plants can be polyploid meaning they can have more than two sets, fungi and lower animals are usually monoploid/haploid
Cytosine – one of the four nucleotides which make up the genetic code
Methylated – a methyl group (-CH3) is attached to the molecule as a side-chain

Happy Christmas! Part II

since i got great reviews from my take on "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas," i've decided to do one of my favorite melodies...

widely believed to be composed by Henry VIII(1491-1547), Greensleeves is a traditional english folk song and the following is my take on it. this is my arrangement and i've added the intro, ending and interludes. robert said there's a christmas lyric for this tune and i've yet to see it, i've always liked its medieval sound. pardon my mistakes and i hope you enjoy it.

Playing : Greensleeves (LZ on Piano) Download

Happy Christmas!

i'm really looking forward to this christmas ^_^ for one jasper's(my car) going to be fixed and i can drive around again haha! sigh... and this maybe my last christmas here ^_^ if lady luck's on my side ^_^

'twas a lazy day so i thought i'd record a christmas song for all of you ^_^ just ignore my mistakes hehehe! raindrops for my effort!

Playing : Have yourself a Merry Little Christmas (LZ on Piano) Download