That was easy to say for my supervisor, to get some gene expression data from another group and then we visualize them in Cytoscape. Sounds easy and is easy, but ... my protein-protein network I have worked on so far is a human one. The gene expression data of interest are done in mouse, hehe.

Ok, I've decided to get the homologues between the two organisms from Homologene and just create the same network just for mouse. We have to be precise with this one. Although mouse and human have 80% of their genome in common ... I still prefer to get things right here. All this means I will have to do a lot of mapping again. Will see, if there are enough PPI data for mouse out there, otherwise we really have to assume high similarity between human and mouse. Will see what APID will spit out ;o)

I am also happy that I have finally fixed the XML issue we had on our download page of LOCATE. The XML schema is still not perfect, but at least there shouldn't be any issue anymore in the XML for mouse and human. I really took the time to go through the schema and tried to understand it. I think I got it. At least I understood so much, that I could fix something.

So, you can see I did some work for my PhD. Nice way to report it *whew*.

Photo Courtesy by Markus Brosch

As I am running several projects at the same time, I will hopefully get a quiet minute over the weekend to get things structured. I cannot jump from one project to the other. It is not good for the project itself, neither for me. Yesterday I got a bit knock down with plenty of headache. Drinking of 1.5L of water was not enough. I had to take some painkillers. And people who know me, know how much I hate that. Anyway, feeling better today with a clear mind after an evening without screen in front of me.

MyJuicer has reached another level, after we have put the sales letter online. We really have to get the keywords right. There is no point to get visitors from the US as we only supply Australia. BoutiqueWineries needs a bit of a kick as well. I think we all have to learn from outsourcing some projects. As soon as they overlap, it delays the progress. And we want to have the new website online as soon as possible. Fingers crossed. My project to find a new hosting service for InformationProfessionals is a bit struggling. This paper work is quite painful. Let's get this structured with nice procedures ... and all will be good.

the change of habit challenge ... trial 2

And it didn't became a habit ... I did write for some weeks almost every second day about thoughts, plans, up and downs and all this usual stuff. Two weeks ago I procrastinated, day after day and now here I am. I didn't miss it and I didn't feel any urge to write. Do I have nothing to say? Maybe ...

I cannot say that something unusual happened during the last weeks. There is still the pressure for the thesis and still the driving force to be active in BoutiqueWineries, MyJuicer and InformationProfessionals. Maybe I could blame Twitter? ... Nice try, right?

So, yeah, I don't really have a reason for not writing, but do I have a reason to write? YES, because there is still the dream to write a book one day. And for this adventure I have to learn to write. I will take this opportunity to re-start, re-focus and re-think the strategy. I need topics. What could I tell the reader about? What do they want to read? What value could I give them? About one value I am pretty sure already, and that are Markus' pictures. He uploaded plenty of new pics ... this resource is secure for the next coming weeks. So, let's make a plan.
Yep, I came up with some points. (And hopefully a lot of points are missing!) Most of them developed during the last couple of months. As you can see Passion and Purpose are the ones I still have to figure out. Stephane made me start thinking of them. I was not really aware of these two before or I didn't really pay attention. I can see now that passion and purpose are determined for every human being. We just have to figure it out what it is. What also opened my eyes is being part of XL. I still enjoy having the right people around me.

I can see lots of ideas are coming up for some blog entries. Let's rock it!

How to handle routine in your life ...

As soon some activity becomes routine in a human life it can be automatized. The question is, do you want it be automatized and out of your mind?

• You pay weekly/monthly your rent? You could set it up with your bank that the money is transferred automatically on a regular basis.
• You are traveling very often? Create a list with a spreadsheet, with all things on it you need everytime you travel. Such things could be your laptop, toothbrush or your favourite business shirt. So you just need to print the list before packing and tick off the item you put into your trolley. Quickly done and nothing has been forgotten.
• Accounting or bookkeeping are such activities which come up regularly and are not the most exciting tasks, at least for most of us. However, there are people out there who love to do it. The option here is to outsource these things. A virtual assistant might has already set up a nice system and is just waiting for you to get it done. Think about it.

I am not a big fan of routine tasks, but we can't avoid all of them. However, for some people it might be could to follow a daily/weekly routine. That is there way to get things done. That might be even the majority of people.

Photo Courtesy of Markus Brosch

Also, if you want to be more aware of things in life, it might be better to set up some routine procedures. Especially when it comes to regular payments. Getting out of debt is a great goal and achievable, when you keep track of your incoming and outgoing money. I love handling my bank accounts online. But at least once a month I sit down and follow things up. This way I am aware of any transaction happened. I also have set up my own balance sheet ala Robert Kiyosaki in his CashFlowGame. This way, I learn on what I have to focus more ... income!

Yes, you give some control away when you outsource things and automatize procedures. At the end it is up to you if you can trust the virtual world and save some time.

How many baskets do you have ?

The current financial crisis changed a lot of people's life. Yesterday rich ... today one in the 90% of the population that own 10% of the money. One way to avoid such a incident is to have your eggs in several baskets. If you invest only into the stockmarket your future depends on the stockmarket ... quite risky. So, why not creating several different streams of income ... coming from completely different areas. It could be network marketing, stockmarket, investment in properties, having several businesses or even passive income (copyright on books and songs etc.).

Steve Pavlina just wrote an interesting blog about the current Financial Meltdown happening worldwide.The last paragraph in the blog is as followed

Are you worried about the current financial and political climate? If you’re worried, then turn and face those fears. Accept responsibility for what’s happening. Is there some part of you that wants to get something for nothing? Do you value money ahead of personal relationships? Is greed more important to you than service? What will you need to change in order to live more consciously? What must you learn to let go of? Are you living your life as part of the solution, or are you part of the problem? You choose.

Most of the blogs from Steve are an eye-opener for me and I am enjoying his writing. I am also keen to get his recent book.

Photo Courtesy by Markus Brosch

Where on one side the PhD is my main focus right now (it should be at least), I am involved in projects to create other baskets. It is quite time consuming, but that's the way I have chosen. Just today we have started to outsource some work for MyJuicer. The outsourced projects for Boutique Wineries provided us with nice results and we are looking forward to get the new website layout done by the end of the month. Also InformPros will get something done this month ... so things are moving. It is hard not to get the reward immediately. But it is all made to reward me for the future ... so let's keep going.

How to tell your PhD supervisor about the dark side ...

Tuesday - it was time for a meeting with my principal supervisor. We had several items to go through. It was a good re-focus and goal setting session.

The collaboration with the German research group will be treated first as helping each other. If there will be a publication at the end ... we will see. It will be now a big exchange of data and ID mapping. You might be already aware of my issue with the latter one. I just need to establish my own little knowledge base with all mappings possible and I am ready to go. I will contact the group in Germany still today. Fingers crossed it will be a fruitful team work.

Rohan also came up with that I might start thinking about what I will do after my PhD. Here it comes ... how do I tell my PhD supervisor, that I want to switch sides. I want to start my own businesses and become an entrepreneur. I am already in the process of doing it. Now the matter of conscience: Should I tell him the truth? I really hate lying. But how much will the truth affect the work with him during the last couple of months? Will he still support me as he did in the last 2.5 years. He is an awesome supervisor, getting just the best out of me. I am afraid to hurt him by telling the truth. He can be grumpy and he is Australian. Do you know what that means? ;o) 80% of all living things on this continent is toxic ... I don't want to end up like Steve Irwin. Please let me know if you have any idea how to go around this issue. I think I have to face it one day. The sooner ... the better? I don't think so. I will just have to chose the right words.

Photo Courtesy by Markus Brosch

The nerd in me

This morning I did some work on our Boutique Wineries database. I loved it. Tracking down the code where a specific issues had occurred. I went through three different cold fusion files, that were involved in this process. But the actual issue was in a stored Procedure. I've found it and I am very happy. Yes, it was a bit time consuming, but sometimes I love tinkering with something. I was happy that I still understand the system behind Boutique Wineries. I wish I had more time to do such things. The bigger projects will be outsourced and I just do the stuff I love to do. Conclusion ... finish the PhD successfully and the world is yours :o)

Happy birthday Jeremiah and happy birthday DDR

Interview with Ricardo Semler

Ricardo Semler is the CEO and majority owner of Semco SA, a Brazilian company best known for its radical form of industrial democracy and corporate re-engineering. Under his ownership, revenue has grown from $4 million US in 1982 to $212 million in 2003 and his innovative business management policies have attracted widespread interest around the world. TIME featured him among its Global 100 young leaders profile series published in 1994 while the World Economic Forum also nominated him.



The Wall Street Journal America Economia, the Wall Street Journal's Latin American magazine, named him Latin American businessman of the year in 1990 and he was named Brazilian businessman of the year in 1990 and 1992. Virando a Própria Mesa ("Turning Your Own Table"), his first book, became the bestselling non-fiction book in the history of Brazil. He has since written two books in English on the transformation of Semco and workplace re-engineering: Maverick, an English version of "Turning Your Own Table" published in 1993 and an international bestseller, and The Seven Day Weekend in 2003.

A rocking weekend ... to get things done

8:15pm on Sunday night and Stéphane and me are sitting in front of your babies, oops I mean computers *blush*. I like the weekends. Then we sit together and exchange our ideas and thoughts. We share troubles and happiness. During the last couple of months we have developed our own language. English is already a quite simplified language, at least regarding to French and German. But we've discovered an even more simply way. I think as long we understand each other all is good ;o)

We are trying to simplify as much as possible. Where I am in the process of de-cluttering my room, Stéphane just found another Mac-Application to have a more simplier online ToDo list. The advantage is the synchronisation with the iPhone. There is a lot of stuff out there and some are pretty good. I am unfortunately working on to many computers right now. I did start with ThinkingRock, but never really got used to it. I might will check the latest version, just to have an Australian product on my Laptop :o) But I can see there is a huge playground waiting for me.

Photo Courtesy by Markus Brosch

I also tested my cooking skills today again. I've prepared our muesli for the next 2 weeks and I did bean stew for Stéphane. Will get part of it to the freezer, so food for the next days is secured. I do have fun with cooking. I just don't like it when I have to do it for myself.

So, still want to do some work for BoutiqueWineries and then I want to check out another business opportunity.

Passive income stream and network marketing

What the issue with network marketing? I have the feeling being an Independent Distributor is more a kept secret than a real business. On the other side, in the US (especially Utah) everyone does it and it is widely accepted. Every MLM (Multi-Level Marketing) company has a different strategy, but the main business idea is quite similar.

As an Independent Distributor you have your own business ... wow. That rocks! You can decide when you work on/in your business. No boss telling you when you can have your lunch ... awesome! You earn according the effort you put into the business (at least at the beginning). Later your downline will work for you. Sounds unfair? The downline wouldn't be there if you haven't done the work before. So, fair enough. In a real job the income stops when you stop ... think about it ;o)

As an Independent Business Owner you have in most countries tax advantages. People are so scared of tax or they just use it the wrong way. I haven't done much research in this topic yet, but the more I become a business woman, I might have to.

MLM companies exist for a wide range of products. Yes, you can see the Mama of all MLM companies and you can see all the new Web2.0 based MLMs. We will see which one will adapt quicker to the demand in the market. If you don't adapt your products, you will just miss it.

Why has the MLM strategy such a bad reputation? Or do I just listen to the wrong people? Where are the people open enough to accept this huge opportunity?

French Monopoly

Just today I read a Blog from Tim Ferris (yes the guy with the 4-hours-week). It reminded me of last weekend, where Stephane and I played Monopoly. The last time I have played this game it was in the early 90s. Anyway, the bigger challenge was ... it is in french :o) Yes, and I still don't speak french. The blog was a good reminder that I have my french-learning software somewhere here, possibly quite dusty already. Stephane and I communicate in english. Let's say Australian english, right buddy? :D But sometime I would prefer to speak just another language again, for fun. And maybe just to feel different again. ... Back to the Monoploy game. I thought I had no chance. Stephane could have told me anything, I would have done it. Did I have another choice? But I won! Yes, I've won a french Monopoly. I will now go to Paris and buy a property on the Champs- Élysées.

Photo Courtesy by Markus Brosch

PhD update

I am still having my fingers crossed regarding the collaboration with the German research group. Meeting with my boss is next Tuesday. This gives me more time to play with the different applications. I might have found another one .. VistaClara. It has this nice bar graphs for each node to display different gene/protein expression levels. Also it looks like that the mapping feature from UniProt is working again. Would be great to go around this issue ... pretty annoying. Anyway, I am a bit more up regarding my PhD ... let's keep it this way.


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