what do you get when you put a bird and 5 girls in an office?

the answer is: utter and complete chaos.

we just had half an hour of post-lunch excitement when a bird apparently flew into our office without anyone noticing, us finding out only when the technicians and cleaners of the stadium walked in asking about the bird they saw "fly in on the cctv".

we denied the existence of such bird until it started to fly around the room, provoking some shrieks as we strove to get out of its way. startled by the cries and the net being swung around, the bird fluttered from wall to wall till a point when it either collapsed into the wall from fear or excitement or temporary blindness and proceeded to faint...behind my cubicle.

now for a little explanation. my working area is a stand-alone cubicle where the back wall is pushed against the wall of the office. unfortunately, when they moved it in, they misgauged and the wall of the cubicle is a few inches away from the wall of the office. it was into this gap that said bird fainted into.

4 excited girls then proceeded to climb onto my table (note: said table has no legs. it is just a board screwed into the cubicle walls. needless to say, there was panic on my end) and seeked the bird, which was apparently cramped and unable to spread its wings to get out.

worried about the possibility of bird dying behind the wall, we proceeded with a lot of "helpful" actions before reaching the solution of pulling the cubicle further from the wall to allow the bird to fly out. which worked. which resulted in more screaming before bird decided to make a smart choice for once and fly out the window.

chaos...complete chaos...*shakes head*

oryzae yeast is love

this has to be the cutest opening ever.



yes, those adorable little critters are microbes (fungi and bacteria, for those who still need further explanation). i am in love with oryzae. it's the cute yellow one with all the balls bobbing its head to the music at the beginning.

oh, and chrysogenum.


(click on the picture to see the words. now tell me you don't love it too.)

the dreaded shopping...

for a mobile phone, that is.

my (not-so-smart) company rewards employees for not taking too many sick leave every financial year, and this (not-so-smart) employee managed to snag a $300 "lifestyle benefit" by virtue of going to work even when sick the previous year.

yep, dumb i know. still, that's $300 that can be used on a new mobile phone.

i've never been very trendy when it comes to phones. proof? i've never spent more than $200 on a phone before. what that means is that i pick phones that no longer has the "new" or "latest" tag on it. it means a substantial amount of saving, but also means i was 1) unable to take pictures when everyone and their brother had a camera phone and 2) unable to bluetooth pictures when everyone and their sister could.

(for your information, i'm using a panasonic vs2 right now. 1 megapixel camera, no bluetooth. i use infrared.)

part of the reason for this is that i am a tech-idiot (wth is 3.5g and why should it matter to me?). the other (bigger) reason is that i like my phones to look pretty, and the phone designers never seem to be able to give me a good-looking phone with all the latest features. (case in point? the "N" brand phones. latest in everything, user-friendly interface...but the ugliest phones ever.)

anyway, since i've just reached 21 months on my contract, i've decided it's time to take the $300 and put it to good use. unfortunately...WHERE ARE ALL THE NICE LOOKING PHONES?

bah...