Ray's of Life

Feng Shui, Astrology and Clairvoyance! Believable?

2012-02-04T21:15:00.000-08:00

I am a great believer of you can be in any control of your own destiny. However things somehow and sometimes did not turn out the way we want. So destiny does play a part, but what the major part concerned here is lying within our own will! If we make thing happen, only will it yield out two possibilities : Happen or not happen. If we do not make thing happen, only one possibility will be yielded out: thing does not happen definitely!

If you ask me whether I believe in Feng Shui , astrology, and clairvoyance, I would answer it all depends on individual perception as I always hold on this formula:

90% of hard work + 10 % of luck!

10% of luck comes with the right time and right place!

I do indulge in soothsaying practices which education, logic and common sense might dictates just a bunch of phooey and I guess I am not the only one.

There are indeed countless businessmen in Asia who practise either a combination or singular belief in any of these alternative life coaching techniques. I say life coaching because it seems the best word to describe the effect these various practises seem to have on the people to use them as guidance.

My aunt was especially a firm believer in clairvoyance and every year I remember she used to pay a visit to a clairvoyant and sometimes I just follow suit. Curiosity kills the cat, I often move to spend some time to reflecting on why I felt compelled to follow my relatives to approach the clairvoyant , read the astrology charts and hear the Feng Shui stuffs from the so called Feng Shui expert.

In figuring that one out, I went to utilise the power of Wikipedia which had the following explanation to offer on just what these practices are:

Feng Shui is an ancient Chinese system of geomancy or divination which is believed to use the laws of both heaven and earth to help improve one’s life by receiving positive qi or energy.
Claivoyance ( clear vision) is the ability to gain information about an object ,person, location, or physical event through a form of extra sensory perception.
Astrology consists of a number of belief systems which map out a relationships between astronomical phenomena like the stars, the sun and the moon and events in the human world.

In a world fraught with uncertainties and difficulties, human beings have come up with techniques which through the ages, has made a lots of sense to them. Though astrology, Feng Shui and clairvoyance did not survive all this millennia just because it was a mere phase in the development of human society, it seems entrenched in our lives, like it or not. So entrenched ,in fact that business and empire have been built on the foundations of providing the masses with Feng Shui tips, clairvoyance readings and daily or annual horoscopes.

Well, I take all these beliefs with a pinch of salt because I believe at the end of the day, we are the one to have a say and power to carve our own destiny.

Here Goes My < Gong Xi Fatt Chai> !

2012-02-03T23:30:00.000-08:00

Well, finally i managed to update my blog after 2 week 'deactivated'! lol.

It is time again for our Chinese festive seasons where angpau are expected to be given and taken and lots of delicious and yummy delicacies are to be served. Well, this year celebration was a bit different from last year. The difference is in term of the number of people paying a visit to my hometown – Malacca as well as the number of angpau I have received. As far as I remember, when my late grandma was present, we will expect lots of relatives influx for a visit , greeting , angpau etc. But now, her absence makes this slight difference. Put aside the slight difference, an obviously huge difference is that this year Chinese new year , I hardly taste any delicious and yummy dishes. Simply to say I miss my grandma’s cook so much!

During the eve, we usually have a praying ritual with food served to pray our ancestors. I remember when grandma was present, lots of delicious food will be served, especially sea cucumber, but now no more. I can’t criticise much on the cook by my aunt and my mum but anyhow, grandma who was known as the ‘manager of the kitchen and domestic’ still produce the best cook. Her absence is felt strongly and a great loss to us.

Chinese New Year is indeed a great time to be deaf, here in Malacca. Why I say so? Well, you need to duck and cover when meeting unexpected firecrackers while you are walking around outside your house during the celebration. It goes on from the eve till the 15^th day( Chap Goh Meh) with eve, 1^st, 2^nd ,9^th ,Chap Goh Meh being the day with the loudest firework!

Fireworks are all well and good, due to the belief that the louder the celebration , the more luck this new year will bring. At one point, lighting fireworks was supposedly illegal but many locals still do this at their own free will.

Chinese new year also come with the colour RED which is an auspicious colour for Chinese. Those who wore black, grey or other dull colour would have gotten a tongue lashing from their mother ,aunts and old female spinsters lurking around nearby. For us this year, red is a no no! This is due to the passing of our beloved grandma and we are not allowed to wear red and other bright colour clothes for 2 years. Thus, only dull colour clothes are allowed.

Another thing about Chinese New Year is the imminent onslaught of the annual interrogation continues and will continue until years to come.

The interrogation are as follows: ( I even can list them out!)

- Got a girlfriend already or not?
- Getting married or not? ( at least this doesn’t apply to me yet! But my eldest brother is the one being bombarded by this question lol )
- Working already or not? ( I am glad to answer : With God’s will, will be soon!)
- How is your study?
- Why you never look fat? Not enough eat? thanks to high metabolism! I eat a lots but cannot gain weight easily! Err…but isn’t it a good thing? But some of them believe fat is wealth! so am I poor? lol

Never mind that I probably have a bunch of busybody relatives who ask me this constantly anyway. To me, it is a form of interaction after a long time hiatus.

Well, to put it simple, here come the pictures of my neighhbours who were so excited in playing firecrackers.

We went to Funfair Melaka Raya on the 3^rd day of Chinese New Year night.

On the 4^th to 7^th day of Chinese New Year, unexpectedly, I went to my cousin brother- Ah Qiang’s Zu Chuang Restaurant at Gajah Berang there to help out with some chores like taking an order, prepare beverages, serve and keep the bowl and glasses etc- A typical work of a waiter. But I am glad during the 4 days I worked there, I have learnt to act fast, communicate effectively with customers while taking the order, learn to prepare beverages like Kopi, Tea, honey lemon, 3 layer coffee/tea, cendol, ABC, barley, Luo Han Guo, etc. Though I felt exhausted working from 10am- 12pm, it is a fruitful experience of having to know how a typical Asian restaurant is operated and able to deal with customers from all walks of life.

During the first day ( 4^th day of Chinese New Year) of work, I was fortunate enough to witness a lion dance which Ah Qiang hire. Sound of reverberating drums ,clashing cymbals and a thunderous gongs filled the restaurant where the glittery and majestic lion perform in sync with the percussion team. For a while, the lions paused to greet the customers and spew the orange peel to the cheering customers. The lion is seen as icon of power, wisdom, and good fortune that chases away evil spirits and bring happiness and good fortune.

Well, definitely, I believe with the large influx of customers everyday to taste the speciality – Mee Hoon Kuih etc at the restaurant, it is no doubt that Ah Qiang managed to expand his business by opening another few more branch at Malacca.

The Battle Is Over!

2012-01-19T00:09:00.000-08:00

Finally, I have completed my Sem5! The final exam is just over! Thank God, after 3 weeks of having down with exam fever, facing lecture notes, scribble every words onto piece after piece of papers, I am FREE.

It is just another one semester to go before the I could put on my graduation robes!

For now, I shall go back to my hometown to celebrate Chinese New Year with my loved family.

Gong Xi Fatt Chai!!=)

Sem 5 Exam Fever

2012-01-03T19:07:00.000-08:00

Well, It's exam period!! A battle for everyone of us, to score with flying colors.

4 papers to go till 19th January.

Hoping i could muster my strength to sit for the 4 papers and score up to my expectation.

Gambahteh!

Happy New Year 2012

2011-12-31T06:04:00.000-08:00

Happy new year to ALL!

Wishing you and me to have a:

Fantastic JANUARY
Love able FEBRUARY
Marvelous MARCH
Fool less APRIL
Enjoyable MAY
Successful JUNE
Wonderful JULY
Independent AUGUST
Romantic SEPTEMBER
Tastiest OCTOBER
Beautiful NOVEMBER
Happiest DECEMBER

Have a VICTORIOUS '2012'

“Another fresh new year is here . . .
Another year to live!
To banish worry, doubt, and fear,
To love and laugh and give!

This bright new year is given me
To live each day with zest . . .
To daily grow and try to be
My highest and my best! ^^

A week with satisfaction

2011-12-25T03:52:00.000-08:00

Guess what? This year Christmas is the most devastating one,no special celebration, not even an hour of relaxation and a minute to allow me to sigh a relief! What else can keep me busy like hell except lab?! I have spent eve and Christmas in the lab!
Thus, laboratory works like inoculation, autoclave, preparation of peptone water, MRS and enumeration have been my expertise! Lol.
To think in a positive way, being stayed at lab for this whole week and start busy myself at least could allow to complete a small portion of my final year project. All thanks to Sales Executive of Supreme Enterprise Company, Kelvin Tai for his prompt action in ensuring me to get in hand all the chemicals fast. Now , although Chemolab's order of a list of other chemicals still on the waiting list, I could at least start a portion of my lab work now.

Hundreds of Peptone water are needed in centrifuge tube for serial dilution

Can you imagine the extend of work involved for a dilution of bacterial colonies?

MRS agar

In the process of making ice cream. It takes about 1 hour.

Preparing for Inoculation to petri dish

Growth of mold in MRS agar after being left overnight. You can say that MRS is an excellent nutrient for bacteria and mold's growth

Last but not least, the product: Enumerate the colonies.

Fortunately, after a long one week of spending almost day and night in the lab, the final product satisfying. At least there is a growth of bacteria for the first trial, but still have a long way to go for the completion of my final year project. Wish me luck then;)

Merry Christmas

2011-12-24T05:08:00.000-08:00

★*˚°。°*。°*。★*˚°。°*。°˚°★*˚°。°*。°*★*˚°。°*。°*★
˛°_██_*˚°。°/♥ \*˚°。°*。°*★*˚°。°*。°*★*˚°。°*。°*★
˛. (´• ̮•)*.。*/♫.♫\*˛.*˛_Π_____*˚°。*。°*❤*˚°。°*。°*★
.°( . • . ) ˛°./• '♫ ' •\.˛*./______/~＼*˚°。°*。°*°*❤ ˚°*★
*(...'•'.. ) *˛╬╬╬╬╬˛°.｜田田❤｜門｜╬╬╬╬╬*˚°。°*。°*
★*˚°。°*。°*。★
MERRY¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨ ★¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨ ¨¨¨¨CHRISTMAS ¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨**¨¨¨¨¨¨¨ ¨¨¨¨¨..

Unknowingly, in a nick of time, Christmas is coming, and within a week after, we will be entering a brand new year 2012.

My dreamed Christmas present for this year: To complete my final year project as soon as possible and make it a success one. May I muster all strength to overcome the obstacles!

In this festive season, I wish all to have a nice Christmas celebration with your loved one. Remember to cherish and enjoy every moment in life. Cheers! ^^

Konvensyen1 Malaysia (9th Dec- 11th dec)

2011-12-15T17:24:00.000-08:00

Well, just recently, I was being selected to participate in the Convention 1 Malaysia at AKEPT, Bandar Enstek from 9th Dec- 11Dec 2011. It was a last minute call on Thursday by HEP, informing me that I was selected and was told to wait at UM main bus stop the next day.

Without much hesitation, I do agree! because through this convention, I know I will be able to learn more on the knowledge of current affairs and country politics besides expanding my network.

Throughout this 3 days convention, here is what I shall summarize:
1) I am disappointed with the accommodation . It is out my initial thought of being given an advantage to stay at AKEPT's room. Before I come, i have learnt that AKEPT is a 4 star room. Lol, unfortunately, but all of the participants were only allow to stay at Kolej Nilam Court, one of the hostel of USIM. The condition there was a dirty and most of the facilities are out of order. But being grateful for having at least a roof upon me for for shelter, I shall not complaint and should be thankful enough! =)

2) I am happy with the food. It is surely a good news to me , considering that I am on the plan to put on my weight. Well, 6 meals per day will surely make my plan a success.

3) I am so glad to meet with lots of friends from different universities such as USM, UTHM, UNIMAP, UUM, UPSI ( the cikgu-cikgu), UPNM, UTeM etc etc. Even a few UNIMAS and UMS students flying far away to participate this convention.

I am happy to attend the convention because it is a platform for me to grasp the Malaysian current affairs and politics. As a university student, it is not only a responsibility for us to study and achieve well in academic, but also to be more sensitive to our country's current affairs. I am proud to say that i have registered as a legal voter, and will surely vote for the coming election.

A lots of participants of the convention comment that this is obviously a brainwashing one, seeing the fact that election is around the corner. No matter how, personally, i think most of the important thing that we all should realise: It is very subjective to judge whether it is true, false, right, wrong in the world of politics. It depends entirely on our personal views and judgement after all. To me, it is very simple:

If you are enjoying your life today and you feel you and your future children will continue to do so, then by all means stick with the status quo. If you're worried about the future because things have hardly changed since the days of your father, then vote for a change.

Okay, time for showing up photos:

Kolej Nilam Court which all the participants stayed

Upon reaching AKEPT, a few photos to portray the environment( I learnt that the AKEPT building was just newly built and completed by April 2011.It is not fully established yet especially the facilities. But i can say that the facilities stated are excellent. It is a very conducive place for official training event to be held as well as a nice accommodation to stay in.

A little bit info on AKEPT:

Higher education leadership academy (AKEPT), established in January 2008, is an organization under the Ministry of Higher Education created in line with the objectives of the National Higher Education Strategic Plan to transform higher education in Malaysia, especially in the area of human capital development.

More info: AKEPT

Okay, it is time for showing up talks and forum by various speakers:

1st speaker : Datuk D Ahamd Faiz , Vice Chancellor UUM talks about Patriotism
Managed to learn various types of patriotism such as iconoclastic patriotism, capitalist patriotism etc.

The VC talks energetically.

2nd Talk( Noon time) : Transformasi Kerajaan by YB Datuk Hj. Ahmad Maslan.
A lots of political story involved , more like a clarification being made. But after all, it exposes me well to the political current affairs.

3rd Talk ( 8.30-10.30pm) : Perlembagaan Malaysia by Mr Idris Abdul Hamid from Majlis Keselamatan Negara
I feel like attending a history or shall i say a law class ? It involve a lots of Akta, Perundangan etc. But it is a nice one to be able to learn this all. As a Malaysian, we ought to KNOW!

While singing the National Anthem- Negaraku and Warisan!=)

4th session: Forum Pembinaan Negara dan Bangsa by panelist Prof Madya Dr Majid Konting ( AKEPT) & Prof Dr. Mansor Mohd Noor ( KITA UKM).
It is a nice and informative talk that exposes me to the root of nation building. managed to learn that Malaysia is Negara Payung Anak Watan which consists of various different etnik, while countries like Germany and French are Negara Anak Watan which involve the concept of rakyat versus tamu.

Last talk:Cabaran Dalam Mentransformasikan Kepimpinan Belia By Mr Roslan Latif
An interesting one as there are a lots of interesting stories shared until i am so obsessed and not jotting down whatever he talked. =p

After all the talks, a short summary was delivered by VC UUM. The very important message from him which i remember the most is about the criteria to apply for being a civil servant:

1) CGPA must be 3.00 above

2) Be familiar with current affairs

3 ) Have a good command of English ( Multilanguage is a bonus)

4) Active in co-curriculum activities

5)Possess a required technical education

The exposure and knowledge gained from this convention are fruitful and beneficial. Before i end my post, the most important things which I value the most is after all-- Friends which i have met during the convention.

Here comes my forth attempt on FYP!

2011-12-02T06:01:00.000-08:00

Well, today is a tiring day!

Due to the long lab session of my final year project( FYP)!

I have been in the lab since 10am in the morning , until the clock ticked 7.30pm only i managed to finish my lab work.

It is about the stubborn probiotic bacteria which do not grow within my expectation despite my third attempt. So,this is my fourth attempt by using a better method, more sterile and more experience in making sure the seemingly stubborn bacteria could ever grow! However, I am thankful for having a good supervisor ,working together to achieve a common goal as it is almost impossible for one man work, considering a tedious work of innoculation and agar preparation.

Prepared MRS agar + BPW Ready to be autoclaved!

Prepared to do serial dilution!

Serial dilution of sample using BPW

Sample innoculated into the petri dish containing media

Creating Anaerobic condition. To test whether it is anaerobic, light up a candle inside the container, wrap it with parafilm. Once the flame goes off, it signifies anaerobic which means no oxygen!

Innoculated Petri Dish, Waiting to dry and then incubated.

All in all, keeping my finger cross that the bacteria would grow in 2 more days! =)

In reality, I am....

2011-11-27T19:44:00.000-08:00

Sometimes, comparison allows us to see the REALITY.

And so in reality:

I am rich!

I am the top of the world's wealthy!

I am blessed!

I am lucky!

In short, I am fortunate for what i am !

Life is a gift, live it, enjoy it, celebrate it and fulfill it! =)

Lab session teach me to be patient!

2011-11-26T18:47:00.000-08:00

Well, this post is gonna to be a bit bored. I have finally start my final year project with the enumeration of yoghurt mix culture. I did not expect the lab work which i am going to deal with is more or so related to microbiology, that is dealing with bacteria!!

While it may sound easy to prepare the MRS agar and M17 agar for culturing probiotic bacteria, well,in reality it is not! Put aside the need to wait for the autoclave of apparatus and agar for 1 hour, we need to be very extra careful with the agar so that it won't solidify while being left to cool down after autoclave.
Guess what! it takes my supervisor and I triple work to be able to get the reason we are unable to see the grow of bacteria colonies in the agar plate. The culprit is EXPIRED MRS agar! Too bad we weren't notice that! The expired MRS agar is dark brown colour while we were comparing it with the unexpired one which is light brown colour.

So, last friday, i was staying in lab from 11am till 7.30pm again to repeat my bacteria culturing. hopefully my 3rd time trial will be succeed! Can't wait to see the growth of probiotic bacteria on Tuesday!=)

I am bored with this autoclave--After long wait and repeated use!

Everything will be extremely sterile inside Vertical Laminar Flow (VLF)

After autoclave the Agar and Peptone water

Serial dilution of sanple with peptone water done in the VLF

The ready innoculated agar waited to be solidified!

I definitely need passion and patience in order to carry out my lab work! there are still lots more to go!

Klang Trip

2011-11-14T05:18:00.000-08:00

Oh well, my 1 week semester break goes well with a one day trip to Klang. Thanks for Xie Jun and his girlfriend for bringing me there for a tour and around Klang area for tasty, yummy , delicious food.=)

Again, Picture speaks a thousand words:

This Wisma Haifz is the first building i saw upon reaching the terminal bus station Klang

Walking across a bridge ,where Sungai Klang flows is a must to be able to reach Xie Jun father's Kopitiam

the view of Sungai Klang.

See..there is reflection. No No, it doesn't show the river water is crystal clear. Look closer, you will be stunned by the muddiness and rubbish laden situation.

The first Bak Kut Teh Restaurant that i saw upon walking down the bridge.

The view upon walking down the bridge. Seem crowded isn't it?

The First food stall that we treat ourselves

The food stalls crowded with people at noon

The pork lunch

Our lunch.

Cendol Klang...Cannot be missed

The news about Cendol Klang years ago

Yummy!!

The shop look spacious but not much people there when we reached

Next destination: Jusco Bukit Tinggi. Wanna buy something, so insisted Xie Jun for bringing me there lol

Hmm...found this BMS Organic Shop inside Jusco which sell lots of Biogreen product=)..

Found these bakery shop!! The bread is extremely yummy!! what else! Lavender Bakery la!

Lavender Bakery!

Kedai Biscuit, famous for its Xiang Ping and Tau Sha Pie

Hotly baked from oven.

Last Destination: Hehe, the Yao Yao Ping..Yummy

Last destination: Still eating mode..The crispy fried chicken!~

Last but not least, thanks to these two lovely coupled tour guide! xD

Can you feel my world?

2011-11-13T08:23:00.000-08:00

My favourite song , it conveys my feeling.

Over! My Dear Semester Break!

2011-11-13T08:00:00.000-08:00

Over is a word to describe the ending of my one week semester break!

Thus far, what i have done during the whole 1 week of my semester break. well, picture speaks a thousand words:

The first destination

Add caption

The nice drawing

We were not entering the museum belia malaysia, just outside snap.=p

Museum Belia Malaysia.

Along the road of red houses

The classic shop

The Cendol Vendor

Baba Cendol and Durian Cendol

Cendol Durian..YUMMY

The Orang Utan Shop..Have bought a shirt for Andy

The policeman on the horse ride. The horse just defecated right after i walked past it.

Sound crazy but true, Dream Box is famous for its cheap Sing K fees. Only RM 6 + per head count.

Dream Box at Dataran Pahlawan

Ah toh and Zhe Yi ' posting.

Ah Toh, on his highest peak of expressing his voice! ;p

and finally, Mee Hoon Kuih at Mahkota Food court-- My cousin brother - Ah Qiang secret recipes.

Besides the one day trip to bring Zhe Yi sight-seeing at Melaka, what more could i do by indulging myself to my favourite Astro channel!!

Astro AEC
Astro Diva
Astro Nat Geo
Astro Awani
Astro Bernama
Astro HHD ( Highest View rates-- Champion!!)

All in all, the 1 week sem break is over and i will have to focus more on getting my final year project done for the coming weeks.

Wish me luck then=)

It is a week Deepavali Break!

2011-10-24T03:13:00.000-07:00

Wow, i will be going to have a week holiday off after my enzymology test 1 today!' This thought has got me to think over the excitation of how free and how relieved i would be after released from several continuous assessment tests ( neurochemistry, plant biochem, and membrane biochem)! I realised there are quite a numbers of stupid mistake i made in my enzymology tests though the questions are relatively direct!

Haiz, let bygone be bygone, as long as i have tried my best to study for this subject!

Well, to say that i will be totally free isn't sound as true and as fun as it may go. I still have my final year project (FYP) to worried about! Seeing most of my course mates have started their FYP while i am still doing nothing, i feel as if i am so helpless. I wish i could start earlier but lab materials and ingredients are still in the midst of purchase and order( P/O).

So, the only thing that i could do is to keep on enriching myself on what am i going to do for my FYP. Though journal after journal have been printed out, i just need some time to further understand and grasp the concept on the FYP that i am going to conduct.I will start to fully utilise my deepavali break for that!

Thing to do within the 1 week break ( 25 Oct- 30 October)

1) Finish my UMEC ( Masheng) works. Hope to settle it as soon as possible!

2) Do revision on subjects like Plant & Membrane Biochem( feel like i am far lagging behind) =(

3) Back to Melaka to spend some precious time with grandpa, watch my favourite Astro channel, teach my neighbours- Ah De and Ah Phing( Both form 4), maybe shop with Aunty, that are the things i normally do while i am at Melaka.
and....wait!! did you see the picture as follow ?

The Dairy technology book which i borrow from library, somehow might be useful for my FYP..

Laptop and Journal!! @@

4) Not to forget about my FYP!! To research more on the topic concerned! I will have to enjoy this lifestyle more : Journals, books and laptop!! @@

All in all, hope i could fully utilize my time for completing my tasks and achieve my set targets!

I LOVE Snowflake!!

2011-10-24T03:11:00.000-07:00

Well, after my enzymology test today, haha! I have an important appointment with Chui Kheng! Going to discuss somehting important with her--Work and Travel (WAT) USA.. If you remember my previous post about this, you will surely ask: ''OMG! you haven't go to WAT US yet?! i thought you have?!''
Lolz, i wish i could have experienced it just like Chui Kheng!! it is just that during the last 4 months semester break, i have been utilizing it for my practical training and temporary teaching at primary school! Plus adding to the fact that i miss my grandma so much and wish to spend time with her has made me no regret of not going to WAT or student exchange programme to Korea. I am sure there will be another opportunity for me to venture there.=)

So , we have our lunch at OASIS, the 2nd class famous food court after the food court on the top floor at Midvalley according to Pei Er ! We put off our initial plan to go for KimGary after seeing the huge crowd especially during lunch hour!
After she explained and told me about her experience of joining WAT programme under Speedwing, we went for having snowflake at top floor of centre court Midvalley.

Upon reaching ( 3pm) , there are a few people lined up before us.

Luckily we grab a seat! can see chi kheng at the middle xp..

The Beeping UFO. Once it is ready, it will vibrate and shine! Fun right?!

The electronic ads showing Grass jelly series. there are actually many series to choose.

Certain but not all deserts can be adjusted according to sugar level you desired!

3 famous series. but personally, i think soya series is the nicest!

I ordered Taroballs series , set 2 ( with Barley and Pearl) , while Pei Er and Chui Kheng both order soya bean series.
Soya bean series is more nicer as it has a thick layer of ice made up of concentrated soya.

Yeah, two soya series and one taroballs series

Taroballs series ( mine) ..Personally the taroball just taste like Chinese famous Dong Zhi food ' Tang Yuan'

Soya bean series with yam, read bean and pearl. yummy!~

Pei Er

Snap a shot!

Behind the receipt ' I Love Taroball'

And before we went back, saw this ads at South Court. I Love Taroballs again! LOL..
I feel like the taroballs nothing special, just taste like Tang Yuan with different colours.

From that onwards, i fall in love with the yummy snowflake! This is my second time for having snowflake! Will be going to have it again surely.=)

Btw, i envious Chui Kheng for having her eye opened during the last 4 month semester break at US! Will surely think about it after your motivational guidance=)

Sushi Zanmai @ The Garden + Zhe's Bday celebration

2011-10-20T17:57:00.000-07:00

Well, time to post about FOOD, entertainment and wine!...This time it is all about Japanese food --Sushi Zanmai! Last night i had a wonderful night with Zhe Yi, Khang Way, Hui Ying, Chui Teng, Stephanie Tan, and Toh not only to have the indulgence on Sushi Zanmai in The Garden, but also movie, cake and wines! =D

Let's start with the Sushi Zanmai first! In order to make ourselves to be seated by the waiters at Sushi Zanmai, haha! one thing which we need to bear in mind: Get yourself ready early in order to catch up with the long queue awaiting you. Luckily i managed to catch a bus and went there myself to catch up with the queue first. It was 6.15pm and i have waited till 6.55pm until i managed to get seated by a waiter. It was coincidental that Zhe and others reached by this time and we start to have our ' Feast' immediately!~
* Hungry look*

Okie, let's have a look at the atmosphere inside the Sushi Zanmai.

When i reached, it has been seen a few people lined up before me.

The waiters are busy serving the customers in making reservation

A typical style of a Japanese Sushi surrounding

This sign has definitely served its function very well! Customers have to wait to be seated during peak hour almost all the time.

Nice arrangement

Khang with his Namebono

Me with the menu! xD

Me and Khang way's order- Nabemono

And the Sushi!

After eating, POSE!

Not forgetting about the RM1 Japanese green tea which is refillable.
Well, the price cost us one person about RM 25-RM30,but after all we think it is worth a taste!
_____________________________________________________________________________
After that, Jen Jen! A surprise birthday party for Zhe at a bakery shop ( forget its name, but it is right opposite the The Garden's Cold Storage .

The cake and the wine :

The Banrock Station Moscato Wine displays lifted Muscat-style aromatics, with subtle hints of fresh grapefruit and lemon.It is just nicely blended with our cake! not forgetting to metion its 5.5% alcohol! 0.o

Zhe cutting the cake after making his wishes

The cake! Yummy!

and a final shot! xD

I salute Hui Ying's way of organizing the celebration, make it filled with cake and wine, and that particular must performed ' birthday ceremony'..xD..
But it was just too nice after all, hope Zhe would find it a memorable one! And Happy 21st Birthday to you. Opps, suddenly realise all of us ---Baomily has reached 21st ! All old liao >

Last night was a memorable night! not forgetting about the movie---Real Steel ! Highly recommended for the year 2011 best movie! The excitement to enjoy the trilling of victory and failure of fighting robot- Atom versus Zeus.
Not forgetting the dialogue between Max and Atom:

Max: Don't worried! your secret is safe with me!
Atom: ^^

Final Year Project is all about RESEARCH!

2011-10-13T00:03:00.000-07:00

Final year signifies the need to struggle with my final year project . Everything has not yet to start, due to the waiting of response from Sigma company regarding the ordering of the materials and ingredients for lab work.

I have done what i am supposed to do: search and read related journal, preparing my proposal,start my roundtable with Miss Fatemah( my supervisor), try hard to grasp the concept of fermentation and sort of previous studies done by other scientists etc.

Till today, Miss Fatemah has briefed me about the protocols and what i need to do for my final year project and what i can do now is to further enrich myself with the know-how in probiotic, diary chemistry, functional food's fields.

All these final year project has made me think of the option on whether to continue my postgraduate education or not.

So, have been searching for the right information regarding this and suddenly bump into a comment given by Mr Azarimy , a architecture lecturer from UTM Skudai.

His reply in LYN helps me to get what really a Master in research all about.

For research based programmes, it is highly recommended that u obtain honours in ur degree. some universities take honours into consideration during an application for a research degree.
Research degree (masters):
generally ur application to the course comes with a topic proposal, a focused field of what u wanted to research. some schools require just a page of proposal, some require an extensive research being done prior to application. a research degree will produce a thesis written on the research that u have done during the course of ur study.
topics can range from qualitative or quantitative study, an basically u need to be very fluent in academic writing (which is quite different from a general degree's dissertation way of writing). u'll spend a year or sometimes more just reading, cross-referencing, testing, searching and writing on one particular subject. first u come up with a hypothesis, then a research to prove ur hypothesis.
that's roughly what a research masters is all about.
and u dont go researching things that have been done before. no sir.

i have a basic method of explaining level of studies here:
i. primary school - basic of all learningii. secondary low - wider scope of learningiii. secondary mid - wide focus on a group of subjectsiv. secondary high - deeper knowledge on a wide range of subjects
v. diploma - basic applied skills on a specific fieldvi. degree - skills and knowledge on an specific, established fieldvi. degree + honours - skills & knowledge, with an academic discussion contributing to the body of knowledge
vii. masters (taught course) - advanced study on a specific, established field; with basic focus on new, unexplored areas of study.viii. masters (research) - advanced study on a specific field, focusing on unexplored areas in a field of knowledge.
ix. phd - generally creating a new field of knowledge that have never discovered before in the world.

Source: azarimy

To continue or not is a dilemma! the time to decide will come when i finish my degree first =)

Why we should be taking probiotics?

2011-10-09T05:10:00.000-07:00

The moment when i heard of FINAL YEAR PROJECT, my head start to spin and the nightmare of no sleep and busy labwork will drive me to maximum madness. >
Finally, i get to know my supervisors - Miss Fatemah from Iran. From our meeting last week, i was brought to the lab- Makmal Serbaguna, which is located just next to our SBK. Pretty lucky as i don't have to walk so far unlike some of my coursmates who have to go till Institute Postgraduate Studies( IPS) for doing their final year project. Miss Fatemah is a current Phd candidate under the supervison of Assoc Prof ASB which is also my supervised lecturer for my final year project. I am given a project entitle ' increasing functional propertie of probiotics ice cream by addition of saffron.
Well, since i have started doing my final year thesis now,i am required to submit a proposal. A lots of work like journal reading and searching have to be done.

Here is the video which i would like to share to make all of us understand the reasons we should take probiotics.

Among the point which i have taken down:

1) All farmers give their animals good bacteria Probiotics after a course of antibiotics because antibiotics given to cow will destroy the good bacteria which will make them cannot digest grass---> starve and die.
2) Why we have appendix--A reservoir of good bacteria, protected from diarrhoe and antibiotics because if w we take antibiotics , basically will kill all good and bad bacteria.
Antibiotics are in:
Pills--for any infection
Our food ( chicken, fish, meat, eggs, milk)
Chemicals, sprays (anything that kill bacteria)
3) bad bacteria create Dis Ease. If Ecoli, salmonella, clostridia which is present in most people's bowel grow unrestricted, it will cause diarrhoe, typhoid, gastrenteritis etc.
it will cause mould ,putrefaction and toxin release, food is not absorbed( malnutrition, weight loss etc),parasite trive, attack the gut lining ( most dangerous--leaky gut)
4) Protein entering the gut are broken down into small proteins and amino acids, as they pass through the gut wall, the immune cell identifies them.
But if some proteins appears in the bloodstream, our immune system attacks it. If it goes wrong, this can cause immune diseases like asthma, lupus, diabetes, Crohn's disease, eczema. Leaky guts allow larger proteins to get through. If that protein is similar to one of our body tissues, our immune system attacks that tissue, of which if attacks on lung ( cause asthma).
5) Thus, bad bacteria cause major problems, so we have to replace it with ' good bacteria' , which can cleanse the bowel. Good bacteria are called pro-biotics ---'for life'.
6) Probiotics- healthy bacteria similiar to those found in breastfed infants. Most come from 2 bacterial species Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium. They are found in some foods: yoghurtm fermented and unfermented , miso, tempeh, and some juices and soy beverages . also found in diatery supplements in capsules, tablets and powder form.
7) we should also take Prebiotics which is non digestible food that the probiotics feed on, usually soluble fibre to feed the probiotics bacteria.
8) Are all probiotics the same? well, different starins of bacteria are more effective , they must be able to get into the bowel.
- Acid, bile and pancreatic juice tolerant.
-Gel matrix coating the bacteria
-Enteric coated capsule which dissolves in small gut.

A good probiotic could make a huge difference to our health:
So, take a short course regularly, when :
-you go overseas
-with a course of antibiotic
-with any bowel disturbances
-allergies and immune diseases
- thrush and other infections

Hope my final year project regarding probiotics would be a success with my ready hardwork!! =)

Eat and play make Ray a lively boy

2011-10-09T02:36:00.000-07:00

It always happens that whenever i feel boring, stress over assignment, final year project and all sort of university works, i will surely have friends or coursemates there for sparing and spending our entertainment time together.

We have been going to Ikea on 27 September and bowling on 4th October, McD breakfast on 7th October. It has been so much fun mingling and spending our time together and cherish our friendships as well.

Plus i need to break the chain of being too obsessed with study and work will make me even dull like the saying, all work and no play make jack a dull boy. =(

Friends have been telling me ' you surely can't miss Ikea meatball when you come to Ikea'. And now i get to taste, well, it is DELICIOUS! especially the sauce and jam.Have tasted 5 meatball for RM5 .=D

And this cake ordered by Fiz. Get Tasted a bit and YUMMY!

Bowling session at Ampang Superbowl ,5th floor Time Square

My first time bowling experience teach me one lesson: 'Practice makes perfect'! Indeed when it comes to bowling, one has to know the correct ways of holding the ball by placing which 3 fingers of yours into the hole on the ball. ( i have learnt ;p). Sometimes luck is on my sides, i could bowl and topple down all except three( the best result i obtained)! And sometimes, i could just miss it and bowl into ' longkang'. LOL, it depends on luck sometimes but more importantly is you have to practise the correct way of bowling. Tt is a form of exercise too, especially when you are holding a rather heavy ball and bowl ( roll along the ground) , you are strecthing your muscles involuntarily.

Well, i am proud to say that I start to love bowling !~ ^^

Big Bad Wolf Books

2011-10-07T09:43:00.000-07:00

Today is my first visit to UPM!! I went there with 3 of my friends with no intention to just visit the campus but we went there for the Big Day Wolf Books---The so called biggest book fair in the world! LOL~ http://www.facebook.com/bbwbooks

Being in the first time we go there, we have little to no idea how to get to the book fair. I initially thought that it would be an easy and convenient task for going there since upon reaching KTM Serdang, there will be a shuttle provided. But i was wrong.

After we reached KTM Sedang, we have been asking people and searching for the right way to reach there. I learnt that MAEPS is actually inside MARDI which is located within UPM campus if i am not mistaken.

Initially, we have gone to the wrong place. We boarded a UPM bus to get into UPM and move all the way long to the so called Bukit Espo which is opposite Kolej 13. >

Then after asked for the direction, we further board a UPM bus to the Faculti Sains,in which CIMB is nearby and then we walked across the bridge and search for a taxi. The taxi charge us RM 10 after several bargain( still freaking expensive since it is quite a short distance to MAEPS from UPM science Faculty). The taxi driver took us till the gate of MAEPS( --and told us that there are actually a bus ( going to Kolej 17) passing by the MAEPS's gate.

So, after we finished shop for books at about 8pm, luckily we managed to board the kolej 17 bus to the bus stop which is opposite Faculty of food science and technology. From there, we further board a UPM bus to the KTM Serdang.

So, the lesson of today is: for those who are taking public transport, the route is:

KTM Serdang------> Board a UPM bus----> Stop at Faculty of Food science or others (i am sure you may stop at other faculty as no 17 bus wil surely pass by)----> Board a bus (kolej 17)----> Stop at MAEPS-----> Walked into and take the free shuttle provided

Throughout our journey, we are lucky enough to meet drivers who would allow us--non UPM students to get into the bus though some of them not even checked and we just look like normal student luckily .
Most of the people are taking their own transport as it is impossible to get there by public transport and you will be faced with charges if u did not show your campus matric card upon requested.

The books which are on the list are more to international books, range from fiction, references, cookery, gardening, transport, children, etc..

Managed to grab some of my favorite fiction and Robert Kiyosaki--rich brother , rich sister and reality check by Guy Kawasaki, as well as the journey to the centre of earth by Jules Verne( finally i got this and i am sure i will enjoy it after unintentionally watched and fall in love with the story =p ) . But personally i feels that there are not so much academics book such as medical and engineering reference textbooks available as i was expecting i would buy some of the international textbooks.

Anwyway, today trip has taught me one lesson: plan well your trip for the sake of avoiding 'going astray'!

Visa's Birthday

2011-10-01T05:28:00.000-07:00

I knew Visa when i was working as a computer lab temporary assistant at Tunku Abdul Rahman College (TARC) way back in 2008. We were working in the same department. Now , Visa is still working there as usual, and i could see he is very happy and satisfied of having his working life at TARC. Moreover,funny laughter always overwhelmed his colleague including my brother as well.

I remember a day before i went back to UM to start my new semester, my family was being invited to his 21st year old birthday party . So here is a few pictures which i have snapped during the party.

Happy Birthday Visa!

Final year!

2011-10-01T05:00:00.000-07:00

Well, I have been starting my semester 5, final year life for 3 weeks since the beginning of new semester. Life has been going quite well. I managed to stay college but it is a different college - 2nd college (Tuanku Bahiyah) compared to the former 4th College( Bestari) which i have stayed for 2 years. I moved to this 2nd college with unfamiliar surrounding and faces, but i could said i am quite satisfied with my room and the college surroundings though i have to face with hilly road up to my room daily! =p

I managed to get my final year thesis title under my choice of lecturer. will be doing ice cream and saffron, more to nutritional biochemistry area. I guess i would be extra busy for the coming week. have been starting to read various journal etc..

The subjects which i took for this semester may not be sound easy though there are only 4 subjects have to be sat for in final exam. Well, i guess i need to put in extra efforts in pulling up my pointer. Hope for the best.

I start to think, how time flies! I 'm already in final year. Plus, yesterday Interaction Day told me that i am no longer a junior!

Gonna appreciate every little moment studying at UM!

Compliment for myself : I am glad I have spared some time to have my blog updated.=)

Logos Hope Penang

2011-08-30T01:27:00.000-07:00

Logos Hope offers more than books and features a fully air conditioned deck that is open to the public to explore. The Welcome Experience, will introduces this new vessel through a short movie and various displays. The vessel also offers ice cream, drinks and snacks for everyone to enjoy at the International Café.There is an expanded selection of over 5000 books that covers a range of subjects including science, sports, hobbies on board. This includes children’s titles, academic texts, dictionaries, atlases and more.

After having Dim Sum with Mrs Chiu and her students, Caleb and his brothers, Xiao Ling, , Chenny etc, we departed to Swettenham Pier right at 10am. This is the first time i arrived at Swettenham Pier after being away for Penang for several months. When i was stepping into the Logos Hope ship, a few friendly staffs with their badge smiled and greeted us.I believe the staffs come from all over the world,there are Hong Kong, German, etc which i know.Indeed, there are really a huge collection of books for us to choose, ranging from fiction, biblical, spiritual, gardening, travel,health, transport, etc to even university reference text books. The bad thing is that after we went out of the cashier counter ,clearing our fees,little did we know that there are still university reference books on the shelf after the counter cashier. The university textbooks are sold in RM 40 for any 3. It is really WORTHY!but bad enough, I didn't pay much attention on the offer though there was a signboard stating ' Buy 1 Logos Hope bag for 3', i didn't know it was actually referring to the university textbooks, or else i would grab some of them!

At last, I have managed to snap a few free books and most if not all, have also managed to share some books with Mrs Chiu: The 101 of the world Heroes.Too bad, i didn't manage to get the books which i was desperately looking for: Killing the Mockingbird and The journey to the center of the earth.

After all, the weather is nice and sunny, unlike yesterday, raining cats and dogs.

On our way to the ship

The ship from far

The Logos Hope Ship

People lined up to go into the ship

the ship is indeed big

Can see Caleb's parents and brothers on the queue

Inside the ship

lots of people inside the ship

The multimedia introduction of the ship

crowded condition inside the ship

People grab for books which is so cheap. Only RM8 for 100 units. ( The easier currency converter)

While going down from the ship

I am glad to have dim sum with my lovely teachers and friends, and the trip to Logos Hope was a nice one=)

Does Penang still remain GREEN?

2011-08-29T05:29:00.000-07:00

It has been a while( Nearly 6 month) since i last went back to Penang. Also, the great news is that i have been staying at Penang for nearly 1 month since i step my foot officially on the island on 3rd August.

Well, a lot of changes has been seen here and there, especially the opening of a new international school near my house- Tensby International School of Penang as well as other Three Storey Terrace House aligned in a row. This also signifies lots of tress had been cut down for the sake of this development, a development meant to meet the demand the people of Penang and at the same time taking the environment for granted.

Personally, it has been very hot and heaty in my surrounding housing area compared to the previous surrounding when the development has not been carried out.

The Tensby School compound

The Tensby School Tennis court

The development of high rise condominium at Batu Ferringhi( managed to snap it from Yeap's residence.=)

The Upland School of Penang at batu Ferrighi (near Yeap' residences)

The construction works done at fourth floor of Island Plaza

So, with the rapidly development of high rise buildings in Penang to meet the demand of the people, do we love to live in an environment where we could hardly see any tress and greenery around? I really long and wish to have these environment as below ,still preserved nicely in Penang!

*Taken from Botanical Garden Penang ( while jogging with brothers and friends)*

What had done is done to mother nature by human. What we can do is have little self awareness by not polluting the environment. This is very important. Whether it is going to reduce global warming by doing so or not? We dont know. But at least, maybe it can help from getting worst.

Please, the government and people of Penang, For the sake of and in the name of GREEN DEVELOPMENT, Please do consider and preserve our natural environment as well. We want GREEN!

小学生的天真..

2011-08-10T04:57:00.000-07:00

小学生永远都是那么好奇的，总爱问些我们年轻人都觉得似乎不以为意的问题如下：

1）第一天一进4B班（我是他们的代课级任）和3B班(我是他们的国语老师)，就有学生问：
a) 老师,你会很凶吗?
b)老师,为什么你很高耶!
c) 老师,为什么你教马来文?你是不是马来人? =.=

2)也有一些问题是我们觉得毫无必要问的:
a) 老师,这面不够位写了,怎么办?(下一面啦!) @@
b)老师,这个那个要不要抄?

其实,虽然觉得这些问题是'多余',可是小学生嘛,他们的辨识能力还不够佳.需要时间来慢慢学习,磨练.所以身为老师的,也就要更加有耐心来回答他们的'问题'.

当老师,真不易啊!

Start teaching at SJKC Hun Bin

2011-08-06T20:11:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow, 8/8.2011 is a date where i start my teaching at SjkC Hun Bin. Here i come as a Guru ganti for a month and half to teach subjects to 4B class students on subjects of Mandarin and Maths.

An inspiring quote by Eunice Tan which i will use it as my sole motivation to teach :

A good teacher tells and demonstrates.
A great teacher asks and inspires.
But a great teacher can never be great without first being good.=)
~How to become a great teacher~

Hope everything is perfectly fine!~ =)

Internships Done! Yay...

2011-08-01T07:01:00.000-07:00

Saturday ( 30 July 2011) is my last day of intern at Farm' Best Food Industries. Well a mix of feelings overwhelm me, there are happy, sad, worried touched etc... The lists go on and on ..End of my 2 months Industrial Training

First, I wish to take this opportunity to thank the GM of Farm Best Food Industries , Dr Subra, for giving me the opportunity to undergo my internships for 2 months. Yes,you may wonder why he is called a Dr, and No he is not a medical doctor but he is a vet! He joined Farm Best on the year 2010 as a QA Manager, and currently he has been appointed as the GM of the Farm's Best. When having a conversation with him, i was a bit nervous, this is the first time when i stepped into the meeting room to have the first interview with him. He briefed me a bit about the operation of the factory and i was asked to start the intern as soon as possible. I started a bit late than most of my coursemates who have started right after exam, 16 May 2011 and so i completed it a bit late as well.

Well, the 2months industrial training has exposed to the real operation of food industries. Moreover, SInmah as an intergrated company, have the chain of operation from poultry breeding, livestock , to poultry and further processing. Luckily I have seen with my own eyes the operation of Sinmah Livestock(refer to ), Farm’s Best Food industries, and Sinmah Multifeed Sdn Bhd. The only Group which I haven’t see is the Sinmah Breeder Sdn Bhd which I hope in future I will be able to see the operation.

Below are the persons who I would like to thank. Since I have done my training in 3 different places and meet many different people so I have divided into 3 different places and with each different people that have come to my industrial training’s aids.

Farm’s Best QA Lab ( ALor Gajah):

Puan Maslinda: You are such a good helper, remember the first time when I asked you whether you are able to pick me up on the way to work, and without hesitant, you said Yes! I feel lucky to know you as my supervisor and as my friend. Throughout the whole industrial training you have not only helped me by providing me a transport to work and also, you have taught me about microbiology, the ways to perform a microbiological test on food samples, equipment swab etc. Seeing the facts that I have not exposed in dept to the microbiology field, you have indeed help to shed light onto this area. Not forgetting to thank Kak Chandra , Kak Zabidah, Abang Shamsul, all of you are just nice!=)

1 Malaysia slogan always been with us whenever I went out lunch with Kak Chandra and Kak Linda. LOL

Farm’ Best Food Industries Plant:

2 Senior Supervisors have helped me a lots, they are Hemah and Alina.=)

I thank you two for your generosity in sharing your knowledge the moment I stepped into the plant with zero knowledge. Your explanation is great and it helped me to get a clear picture of the whole operation of poultry and further processing plant.

Sinmah Multifeed Sdn Bhd( ALor Gajah):

It is a feed manufacturing factory, one of the Group of Farm's Best berhad. In fact, it is the headquarter. Quite a number of accountants and office administrators from various groups like livestok, breeder, working there. The silos are extremely huge! But the production department have fewer number of workers since the whole operation of feed manufacturing is simpler than the Farm Best Food Processing plant where you would expect 500 workers are needed for the whole processing plant.

I was assigned to QC Laboratory, the so called chemical lab to performe various tests like protein, fat, ash, moisture, sodium, calcium etc on feed and food samples.

Thanks to Miss Toh, the QA Manager for her generous sharing of knowledge,you have shared with me the feed nutrition and the book which you lend me may be just another good start-up of my learning in poultry nutrition. Pretty much appreciated=)

While on the water treatment plant:

The EQ tank and the SBR tank

The boiler and the chemical tank

Behind me is the huge SBR tank

The huge SBR tank 1 and 2

While at the Farm's Best Food Industries plant:

Wearing custom inside the plant

Abang Shamsul and me

Abang Shamsul, Kak Bedah and me

1 Malaysian: Kak Chandra, Kak Linda and me

While at the Sinmah Multifeed Sdn Bhd:

Kak Ila , Mr Balan, and me in Simah Multifeed

阿媽的話

2011-07-23T07:51:00.000-07:00

阿媽,你走的那一天,距离现在已有2个月多了,

想你,在每个家里的角落,不管房里,客厅,厨房,都有你那犹新的脚印,

那双毫无从来不觉得累的双手,无时无刻都会准备佳肴,清理一切家里的事物,

记得每当我从大学回来时,不管是假期还是新年,都会有一道道佳肴摆在桌上,

有你煮的咸菜加里,酱油大虾,卤肉,杂菜等,每一道都无不垂涎三尺,吃了一次还想要呢!

你说你是向祖母(太妈)学习这些亨饪功夫的,虽然我只是小时尝了太妈煮的,可现在也许忘了其味道,但是你煮的每一道菜都有你亨的独特味道,无不叫人喊’赞’!

还记得我最喜欢在厨房帮你准备材料吗?尤其是切蒜头,你还赞我的切法’妙;呢!呵呵!好光荣!~

至今,我还保持着这功夫呢!当然哦,我就是这样习惯这个切法啊!~

在你开始无力一人在厨房亨饪时,每当回到来,在厨房陪你的次数越多,也向你学习亨饪的工夫也更明白

你开始无能为力的在与病魔抗斗时,我心里好难过.每当看你那辛苦的呕吐,无法消化,肚子胀风,腰骨痛时,吃药只是暂时性舒缓,好心酸! 我好想可以立刻发明一种药,把你的病即刻医好!

童年,虽不是我理想中的那样天真,那样活泼,那样幸福.可你让我决的人间处处有温情,

这种亲情,好真挚,好真诚,也好难形容,就像在冷冻的天气里,你无时无刻把炭送给我,让我感觉温暖.这远远超越母爱,你对我的疼护,我的关爱,我铭记于心,我要在天上的你知道,无论天涯海角,不管哪个角落,我都希望你开开心心.无法无时无刻的服伺你,照顾你,我心里有点遗憾,可是我相信只要在这世上做好自己的本分,活出自我,那就是对你最好的礼物.我知道你希望我好,我也是如此,所以不管如何,想你,后哭了,也好,我都明白生活都是要好好充分度过.生老病死是生活的必经之路,每个人来到这世上,也一定会有离开的时候.我会活出自我!

阿媽,安息吧!

这首歌道出我的心声~

A Visit to Chicken Farm

2011-07-16T01:23:00.000-07:00

It was my 6th week of intern ,and yesterday, friday, unexpectedly, i have the chance of going to chicken farm!

One of the farm of Sinmah Multifeed Sdn Bhd, coded NS 1

The outside view of one of the brooders

The entry to the farm

Thanks to Dr Narex and Dr Azril for allowing me to have a chance of having a short trip to Sinmah Breeders Farm ( NS1) at rembau .

Today at noon, I am so surprised that Dr Azril came to me and told me that he and Dr Nerex will bring me to the breeder farm.i was taken aback, feeling so surprised as I am not expecting he will bring me over there today. I thought he will bring me over next week. At the same time I am so excited to have this chance to go to the farm to witness the operation and condition of the farm with my own eyes.

We departed at 12.30pm after I got permission from Miss Toh( QA Manager of Sinmah Multifeed). We had a chat in Dr Narex ‘s new car( Kia) while on the way to the farm. This new car is a four wheel car which is newly bought by the company. As a vet, Dr Narex and Dr Azril are expected to travel a lots, thus the car, petrol fees, as well as all the maintenance fees are under company sponsorships and responsibility. As they need to travel daily to the breeder farm , so this kind of benefit will be surely provided by the company. Dr Azril was expecting his new car to be a better four wheel car, maybe a Hyundai or Kia, but he is not so expecting the company will provide him a better and costlier can than Dr Nerex as Dr Nerex is his senior and junior, and I am wondering is a junior will expectedly have a company sponsored car of cheaper price than a senior? LOL, I guess this is a very subjective and I know that Dr Azril will feel contented to whatever new car the company got to offer him. But for sure the previous salon car was a no no, as it would be very troublesome to travel against a stony and hilly roads up to the farm with a salon car, definitely a four wheel car is needed.

When we reached the farm after having our lunch( Nasi Daun Pisang) at one of the famous Indian restaurant at Tampin, Dr Nerex and Dr Asril guided and explained to me the operation of the farm.The farm located at a very remoted area. I noticed at the entrance there are wheel drip column specially for lorry to dip the tyres and be sprayed with the disinfectant sprayer fixed around the wall before entering the farm.This is to avoid

any contamination and ensure good sanitary.

The chicks are lying and enjoying the feeds on the feeder.

The drinker in Red and Yellow colour.

A few chicks awaiting for Post-Mortem.

Wow, when you stepped into the brooder , the chicks will shunned away from you.

The heater in the brooder

There are 5 workers and when I reached there, there are 2 indonesian workers in charge of the farm. They have their own wooden house to stay as they need to take care of the birds 24 days 7 weeks. The farm manager is a Chinese guy who rent the facilities and land for Sinmah breeder group to grow broilers there. There are 7-8 brooders( a heated house for chick) for growing the birds, each brooder can have the capacity to accommodate up to 17000 birds.

The wood shaving are scattered on a floor layer for the small birds to move around. According to Dr Nerex and Dr Azril, the use of wood shaving has its purposes. It protects the small birds (Grower) from falling down from the brooder. When the birds start to grow for a certain size, the layer of wood shaving will be rolled up because the birds are able to walk stably on the brooder. Besides serving the purpose of protection, the wood shaving also absorb moisture and provide heat to the birds. There are drinkers and feeder inside the coop which are to provide water and feed to the birds. Sometimes the drinkers might be unbalanced and contains not enough water, so the workers need to take note and correct the mistakes whenever possible. Dr Nerex said the feeder need to be full of feeds as birds sometimes can have a different eating habit, and thus the feed need to be filled fully to ensure the birds obtain enough nutrients for their growing pattern.

Besides , the brooder also equipped with heater( using infrared ray ) to provide heat to the birds. it is usually switched on at night. When the birds grow to 1.5-1.7kg only will the birds be sent to be slaughtered and further processed in Food industries.

It will take half year for a hen to mature and 67^th week old to continuously producing eggs . The capability for a hen to produce eggs range from 175-180 eggs per life span.

Integrated companies like Sinmah have the whole operation of producing chicken to further processing the meat based food . So basically there are Sinmah Livestock, Sinmah Breeder, Sinmah Food Industries which cater for the need of an integrated company.

To make it simple, there are basically divided into three categories:

Broiler- The tasks is to grow the broilers for further processed food purposes. The broilers are usually be given unlimited nutrients and allow for quicker grow.
Layer- This category has its sole purpose, that is to grow the broiler which meant for only laying eggs.Cocks and hens are not allowed to mate, thus hens will yield unfertilised eggs.
Breeder – to breed the birds , allowing the mating between cocks and hens. Fertilisation occurs and eggs hatched to produce chicks.

Dr Nerex and Dr Azril performed post mortem to a few birds. As a vet ,they are supposed to check the farm in which mortality of birds are reported to verify the health status. Dr Nerex even tested me the name of the organs from which he dissects the birds. luckily I answer them correctly all thanks to the practical experience I obtained from dissecting rats during Matriculation Biology practical as well as biochemistry practical 1.

It is an eye opening experience to have short visit to the chicken farm. If one day i ever have a chance, i will surely set up my own farm=p

Chapati and tosai as breakfast=)

2011-06-13T02:02:00.001-07:00

Today is my 2nd week of internships.Treat my supervisor -Kak linda and Kak Chandra 2 Tosai and Chapati.

Suddenly,it pop up my mind to 'research' and ask Kak Chnadra about the preparation of tosai and chapati!

It makes me realise that there are indeed many other more delicious food.

A) Tosai is a fermented crepe or pancake made from rice batter and black lentils.It is known as many alternatives names like Dosa, Dosay, Dose, Dosai, Dhosha, Thosai, Tosai,Chakuli. We usually call it as Tosai.

2 main ingredients:

-Batter is a semi-liquid mixture of one or more flours combined with liquids such as water, milk or eggs used to prepare various foods.

-Black Lentrils( Ulundu) It is largely used to make dal from the whole or split, dehusked seeds

Preparation of Dosai

Rice is ground finely to form a batter. Rice can be uncooked or parboiled. The mixture of urad dal (black lentils) and rice can be replaced with highly refined wheat flour to make a maida dosa orsemolina for a rava dosa.A thin layer of the batter is then ladled onto a hot griddle ( a thava) greased with oil or ghee (clarified butter). It is spread out evenly with the base of a ladle or bowl to form a pancake. It is flipped to heat both crusts and removed from the griddle when the crust becomes dry. Dosa are served hot, either folded in half or rolled like a wrap.

Types of Tosai:

1) Rava dosa: made with rava (semolina), which doesn't need fermentation and is usually considered a snack or fast food.

2) A masala dosa is made by stuffing a dosa with a lightly cooked filling of potatoes, fried onions and spices. It wraps the dosa around an onion and potato curry orsabji

3)Plain Tosai

Nutrition of Tosai!

Nutrition:It is a common breakfast dish, and street food. The dosa is rich in carbohydrates, contains no salt, sugar or saturated fats and its constituent ingredients of rice and lentils mean that it is gluten-free and contains protein. The fermentation process increases the vitamin B and vitamin C content. There are also instant mix products for making dosa, with somewhat lower nutritional benefits.

B) Idli is another great food to try!

C) Chapati

Made by Tepung Atta

Atta ialah perkataan Hindi untuk sejenis tepung gandum yang selalu digunakan dalam masakan Asia Selatan. Ia kaya dengan protein, menjadikan doh tepung atta adalah kuat dan boleh dicanai menjadi sangat nipis. Tepung atta lebih ringan berbanding tepung-tepung lain.
Secara tradisionalnya, atta berasal daripada proses penghancuran batu, yang memberikan karakteristik aroma dan rasa kepada roti. Atta ialah makanan yang kaya dengan serat. Kandungan karotinnya mengeluarkan bau dan memberikan rasa manis atta.
Roti yang diperbuat dari tepung atta ialah capati, roti, naan, dan puri.

Oh, the next time i shall try to make one;)

Use PDF format For your Document!~

2011-04-10T02:35:00.000-07:00

Sometimes, we might have some issues with microsoft words documents , we will see ugly underlines, single line space becomes a double line space,and for whatever text the software thinks is an error just because it is not compatible and we can't simply assume the recipient has an application that’s capable of reading such format.
So, always remember that not everyone has an application that reads Microsoft’s format installed. Microsoft Office isn’t cheap.. One way of soving this problem practically is as follow:

Why Use PDF?I think from my elaboration on the weakness of Microsoft’s formats, you could probably guess what are the strengths of PDF documents.
1. It is readable on almost any other device, and Adobe PDF document readers are available for free!
2. It is not editable.
3. It makes everything look neat and nice.The only down side of using PDF document is that the file size is a lot bigger. I tried converting a 22Kb .docx text file and the PDF version of the same file was 143Kb. Yes, you still need a reader but...
Converting to PDF
Don’t have Adobe’s Acrobat to convert files to PDF format?Here’s are some other ways you can get it done.- If you’re using the latest version of Microsoft Word, you can immediately save it as PDF document but from my experience, Microsoft’s conversion to PDF bloats the file size really badly. The same 22Kb .docx file I mentioned earlier resulted in a 515Kb PDF document when I saved it to PDF via Microsoft Word.- If you have OpenOffice, they also have a button for you to convert the document to PDF.- Use PDF995, it works like a printer so all you have to do is choose PDF995 as the printer and you’ll get the PDF file.- Use Zamzar, all you have to do is upload the file to the site and they’ll convert it for you.

Source: PDF Format By Goldfries TechBlog
I am very glad to come across this articles written by Goldfries, i would rather use PDF form than causing a little errors to recipients and myself.

Commonwealth Day Celebration 2011

2011-04-09T09:18:00.000-07:00

Commanwealth Day Celebration 2011 was on the news, 5th April 2011 Kosmo newspaper! =)
Witnessing, celebrating and enjoying a grand commonwealth celebration day from 12th March to 15 March 2011 together with participants from 5 countries : India, Maldives, Bangladesh, Brunei and Sri Lanka. Have a great moment though!~ Bravo to ALL!=)

Read More on Kosmo ( 5th April 2011): Apabila Budaya Komanwel Bersatu

Oppurtunity is everywhere, don't lose hope!

2011-03-26T22:11:00.000-07:00

A misfortune today may well be a blessing in disguise for tomorrow. When a door closes in your face, it means that somewhere out there, another has opened. So you can either wail and bang the closed door with your fists until they bleed, or you can start looking for that other open door. Don't give up, and keep telling yourself that there's a better opportunity waiting for you elsewhere.

I love this particular meaningful quote, dedicated to all my family members and friends=)

A drink called Samsu

2011-02-12T01:35:00.000-08:00

Well, nowadays, a drink called samsu which contains caramel,water ,alcohol and sugar is easily available and sold at a cheap price often become an alternative alcoholic drink among teenagers. I totally advocate for a ban on Samsu because the consumption of samsu has become a habit, avery bad habit that even a children can buy it without any hassle. The price for 1 bottle of samsu range from RM 3 to RM 5 and hence making it affordable to children. You might wonder is there any law that governs the selling of samsu? Well , there is! Under section 32(1) and 33(1) of the Excise Act 1976, no person can sell ( either wholesale or retail), intoxicated liquor either for use in the premise or outside without a licence. The licence issued must specify the precise place where sale is allowed. Any sale without the licence is an offence under the Act.

So, since there is a law which specify a licence as a pre-requisite to sell samsu, but why there are so many rampant problem of ill comsumption of samsu? Well, the popular demand of samsu has spawned many illegal outlets selling it.

In the past, the Consumer Associaton of Penang has made several reports to the custom and Excise Department about the illegal sale of samsu. However, till today, the illegal sale of samsu still prevails and is even more rampant. Government must realise the bad effects which can be brought about from samsu- drinking habit which includes social problems like domestic violence, child abuse, suicides etc. After realising this problem, government should take a stern action to ban the sale of this cheap intoxicating liquor to protect Malaysian families from this scourge.

兔年来咯~恭喜发财！^^

2011-01-28T06:04:00.000-08:00

再过6天就是兔年的降临咯！~
在此祝大家新年快乐，心想事成，最重要还是要身体健康哦！~
听这两首新年歌-One FM NTV7团圆饭和988许愿过好年 !~

團圓飯大合唱～歌詞詞/曲:賴奕忠

一陣陣米飯香在飄揚裝滿新年帶來的溫暖那遙遠的家鄉那扇窗還有著兒時的模樣
轉運的風車轉呀轉一轉眼我們都已成長
我把所有祝福大聲講朋友啊祝你新春吉祥

一人一個夢想一人一個願望慢慢變成滿天的星光
再刻一個夢想再許個願望別怕我有寬大的肩膀

一頓團圓飯心裡藏數十年溫馨都一樣
歡迎你共聚一堂齊聚這圓圓的桌上
團圓飯加碗熱湯就像有我在你身旁
化作一雙大翅膀待你飛越重重難關

一陣陣米飯香在飄揚裝滿新年帶來的溫暖
那遙遠的家鄉那扇窗還有著兒時的模樣
轉運的風車轉呀轉一轉眼我們都已成長
我把所有祝福大聲講朋友啊祝你新春吉祥

一人一個夢想一人一個願望慢慢變成滿天的星光
再刻一個夢想再許個願望別怕我有寬大的肩膀

一頓團圓飯心裡藏數十年溫馨都一樣
歡迎你共聚一堂齊聚這圓圓的桌上
團圓飯加碗熱湯就像有我在你身旁
化作一雙大翅膀待你飛越重重難關

一頓團圓飯心裡藏數十年溫馨都一樣
歡迎你共聚一堂齊聚這圓圓的桌上
團圓飯加碗熱湯就像有我在你身旁
化作一雙大翅膀待你飛越重重難關

Looking Back 2010

2011-01-14T16:58:00.000-08:00

The year 2010 is coming to an end and we welcome the coming year 2011 with open arms.

Much has been done and happened in our country over the year 2010,from the recent northern flood to the murder case of Sosilawati. Well, while we prepared to welcome the year 2011 with much anticipation and new resolution, I have several monthly issues which worth of my reminisce and of which catch my attention over the year 2010.

January 8th: Involve yet another religious issue in which the Metro Tabernacle Church in Desa Melawati was damaged after a group of youths threw flammable materials into its premises. Worst still, two other churches in PJ , the Assumption Church and the Life Chapel Church were also targeted . Malaysia is well-known to be a country of multi-ethnicity and all other religions should deserve the rightful respect. Everyone has the freedom for devoting to their own religion as well as preserve the mutual respects to other religions as well. ISA should be used against the offenders.

February : China launched a 10 day emergency crackdown on tainted milk product after several were found creeping back into the market on 2^nd February . Haiz, yet another China food contamination, earlier on, I remember vividly there is this melamin contaminants which cause kidney damaged among many people. Luckily the China Health Minister Chen Zu had promised a thorough crackdown to destroy all the melamin -tainted milk. Please, if this problem yet to be resolved, people would lose trust of the product of China!

March : MCA deputy president Datuk Seri Chua Soi Lek and 20 other leaders resigned from the central committee on 4^thMarch to pave the way for fresh election within 30days. Out of surprise, incumbent Datuk Seri Ong Tee Keat and former president Datuk Seri Ong Kah Ting were defeated by Datuk Seri Chua Soi Lek at the 28^th March party polls after a protracted crisis that had dogged the party since its AGM last October . Datuk Seri Chua staged a stunning victory and he was elected as the 9^th President of MCA.

April : Remember the Bangkok red shirted protest. These protester/demonstartors stormed the ground of parliaments ,forcing government ministers to flee by helicopters and raising pressure for snap elections. The red-shirted supporters of ousted premier Thanksin Shinawatra protest in Bangkok’s main shopping district , causing injuries and 50 deaths. A curfew was declared between midnight and 6am. Lucily, the issue was resolves when Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva dissolve the parliaments. He also called for calm and reconciliation in Bangkok.

May: 11^th of May had seen a remarkable history for UK as British Prime Minister Gordon Brown resigned from his post following his announcement that he would stand down as Labour leader ,thus making way for Conservative Party Leader David Cameron to become premier.

June: Proud to see Malaysians and Irish activists involve in the humanitarian aids by taking the MV Rachel Corrie ship heading to Gaza with its cargo of aid. However, Israeli forces boarded the MV Rachel Corrie after it ignored orders not to head to Gaza.Pro-Palestinian organisers accused the Jewish state for ‘hijacking’ the ship. On the other note, a very memorable history for Australians on 23th June - Julia Gilliard became the first female prime minister of Australia after the ruling party installed her in place of former premier Kevin Rudd.

July: There are two Malaysian heroes in which I think they are well-deserved to be remembered. The first one is MCA founding member Tun Omar Yoke Lin Ong. Aged 93,he was laid to rest at the Warriors Mausoleum in Masjid Negara . He was the nation’s last independence fighter and the last member of the country’s first cabinet under our Father of Independence-Tunku Abdul Rahman. The second one is the conferment of Datukship to Malaysia ‘s first Mount Everest conquerors ,N. Mohandas and M.Magendran. Both of them are Malaysian proud icons, Malaysia Boleh!=)

August: the most memorable time in the world history, to combat terrorism and war and to promote peace in the world we live in. The Iraq war and insurgency have caused the America’s oil production to drop below pre war levels , creating the largest cumulative oil disruption since World War 2.It had been more than 7 years since the US led coalition invaded the country and more than 4000 US troops have been killed. Now, Americans troops celebrated the end of their war in Iraq on 19^th August as the last 4000 soldiers crossed the border into Kuwait. World peace is indeed achievable.

September: The murder case of Sosilawati which strike the whole Malaysia as to how cruel a person in high profession could become. Two lawyers brothers –the main suspects behind the slaying of cosmetics millionaire and three others were picked up along with their six workers. The 5 victims’ body were then burnt and their ashes scattered in a river after being stabbed to death. It is really gruesome,indirectly portraying the cruelty of mankind. On other note, the day worth to celebrate in the month of September- Malaysia day. Good news comes as the government declared September 16 as a national public holiday. This will make more Malaysians to remember and celebrate the day when our country gain the name of ‘MALAYSIA’.

October: Think of the In-vitro Fertilisation( IVF) dad- Robert Edward from Britain won the 2010 nobel prize in medicine for developing in-vitro fertilisation, a breakthrough that ignited heated controversy in the 1970s but has helped millions of infertile couples to have children.

November:There are good as well as bad memory lingering in my mind, and I shall categorise them.

Bad:

Still fresh in mind is the protest where thousands of British students marched through London and stormed the Ruling Conservative Party’s Headquarter to protest against plan to triple university tuition fees. This is really a bad news as education should be made affordable to all people.

Bad news of two natural disasters strike. Mount Merapi violently erupted hot gas and ash again and that caused more than 60 people killed overnight.. We also know that usually during this monsoon month ,flood will strike certain areas .Non-stop rain caused flood in Perlis and Kedah, forcing people to abandon their home and seek shelters in temporary centres.

Moral of the lesson: natural disasters can happened at any time , we should always beware all the time of the risk that might befall us.

My condolences to Tun Dr Lim Chong Eu’s family. Tun Dr Lim has been well known as the father of modern Penang passed away on 24^th Nov after he suffered a stroke .

Looking back on the year 2010, what have happened will make a history and lesson to all of us. Try to absorb the lesson and do our best part for this new year 2011!~

第四届全球闽歌赛总决赛

2011-01-09T03:00:00.000-08:00

1月8日在澳门是个具有丰富歌声的一刻， 海选阶段，在原有的福建、杭州、台湾、马来西亚、新加坡、汶莱、印尼、美国、加拿大等赛区的基础上，本届比赛进一步增设了港澳赛区。

全球闽歌赛”创办于2006年。赛事为全球闽南语歌曲爱好者提供了最为国际化的舞台。让全世界看到闽南语歌曲不再是“老派”的代名词，它不仅可以时尚、可以创新，更可以吸引来自世界各地、不同年龄层次与文化背景的人群。四年来，“全球闽歌赛”凭借其全球化、风格多样性、参赛选手水平高、赛事传播影响广等几大特点，有效强化了闽南语歌曲在华语乐坛的地位，增进了全球华人之间的沟通理解和各国家地区的文化交流合作，成为了福建特色文化输出的品牌活动之一。
在经过三轮演唱后，来自福建的郑奕灿夺得冠军，成为闽歌赛创办以来首次夺冠的福建选手，来自印尼的谢伟娜获得亚军，马来西亚的陈采君成为季军，而来自台湾的叶诺帆和印尼的古椿晶分别为第四名和第五名。
马来西亚的陈采君获得第四届全球闽歌赛的季军！值得骄傲的成绩哦！
虽说目前无法看到这场比赛，但是还是希望可以有机会观赏到astro欢喜台的重播！=）

UM 2011/2012 Academic Calender

2011-01-07T02:50:00.000-08:00

Here is the UM latest 2011 academic calender and yes, the coming semester break would be 4 months long. Besides having the task of completing my industrial training, i have come out with numerous plans.Hope i could manage to sort, plan and implement them well.Definitely Looking forward for this coming long break!Yay! =D

A short creative video -change education paradigm!

2011-01-06T18:06:00.000-08:00

Too much alcohol kills!

2011-01-05T06:05:00.000-08:00

Alcohol is a carcinogen that upon consumption increases the risk of mouth cancer,liver and female breast,and to a lesser extent stomach,colon and rectum cancer. Heroin,crack cocaine and methamphetamine or crystal meth were the most lethal to individuals. However, when considering their social effects, alcohol, heroin and crack cocaine were the deadliest with alcohol outranked all other substances. Marijuana, ecstasy and LSD scored far lower.Thus we can say that alcohol consumption is a growing health threat. Despite authorities plan drastic cut and possibly a total ban on alcohol advertising, alcohol continues to be a great and growing threat around the world today.

According to the World Health Organisation(WHO), men in Russia have an average life expectancy of just 60 years, well below that of western Europe where men have an average life span of 77 years. Statistics also shows that there are more than 23000 people die of alcohol poisoning annually in Russia. The condition is Malaysia is also worse, The WHO Global Status Report on alcohol 2004 shows that 45%of Malaysian youths under the age of 18 consume alcohol regularly. This figure is really alarming as drinking alcohol excessively can pose a threat to our teenagers. I myself, have seen quite a lots of teenagers binge drink in the pub, cyber cafes and even in public places. They don’t care whether the authorities would catch them red-handed since it is not an illegal act.

They should bear in mind this:

Alcohol is a toxin,poison, dangerous drug, mother of many maladies, destructive substances,highly advertised demon and potent killer.

And to those who fear of being obese, indeed, alcohol makes you FAT!!

Why? Because the presence of alcohol in the body will undergo anaerobic respiration, which in turn being oxidised to acetaldehyde. The breakdown product of acetaldehyde is acetate which will rise sharply after alcohol is consumed. In a study, blood levels of acetate were found to be 2.5 higher than normal after drinking 2 drinks of Vodka. Consequently, this steep rise in acetate puts the brakes on fat loss. Our body simply burns more acetate and less fat.

Here is how this metabolism works: after one or two drinks of alcohol, a small portion of the alcohol(<5%) is converted into fat. The liver then converts most of the alcohol into acetate , the acetate then released into the bood stream and replace fat as a source of fuel. Our body tend to use whatever we feed. Another problem is the body starts making other substance called acetyl CoA which is the starting material for biosysnthesis of fats, thus cause body to make more fats.

Besides, alcohol will make us have a good appetise, in other word, it is an apetite booster. Ever heard of the word ‘aperitif’, which is alcoholic drink enjoyed before a large meal to whet the appetite . It is a method used by most restaurants to encourage more patrons to order and consume more quantities of food. Most people will consume alcohol during evening or night time, this is very harmful as the metabolism is at its slowest, and consequently they will store fat instead of burning calorie.

Let us beware of the effects of alcohol by looking at statistics figures. World Heath Organisation (WHO)’s Global Burden Disease( GBD)study found tht alcohol was the 3^rd most important risk factor after smoking and raised blood pressure for ill-health and premature death in European Union.( Enderson etal.2005). Overall, injuries account for the largest portion (40%) of the disease burden due to alcohol, with unintentional injuries outweighing intentional injuries. Neuropsychiatric disorder and disease accounted for 38% of the disease burden. Other non-communicable( eg liver cirrhosis), cardiovascular disease, cancer, each contribute 7-8% of the total. Alcohol not only destroys our health but also damage the economy of our country as it amounts to more than 1% of the Gross National Product with the costs of social harm constituting a major proportion in addition to health costs.

Let's get back to our part to ban alcohol!

第四届全球闽南语创作歌唱大赛

2011-01-02T04:04:00.000-08:00

It is coming! A competition which is witnessed by over millions of people around the world each year.The competition has moved to its fourth year since its’ inception on 2007. I have the chance for watching and enjoying the competition through Astro 333 live ,though it is not watching it live on the spot at Fuzhou.

This year competition seem to be pretty tough and competitive as all top 10 contestants are very well-versed and talented, and the proudest thing is that there are 3 contestants from Malaysia who successfully get into top 10. Malaysia Boleh! My warmest congratulation to 黄紫薇,陈彩君,蔡汶琦.你们是最棒的!

在这十天连续在astro333-欢喜台播放的闽南歌大赛，优美的歌声也跟着响连天，这一届的比赛的确实非常的精彩！除了这三位参赛者成功进入`十强外，还有来自大马的菲比姐姐竟也当这届比赛的主持人呢！性格幽默，爽快，开朗，活泼的她真是拥有当主持人的料喔。她与郭涛哥哥真是绝配的主持人耶！哈哈！=D

虽说这是我第一次观看这精彩的闽南歌大赛，但是第一次听完每一位参赛者的歌声与闽南歌后，让我赞不绝口！我非常地喜爱听闽南歌，所谓的福建歌在我还是儿时当年已听上耳油了。

这一届的闽南歌大赛，可看见闽南歌是不分国界的，来自世界各国如印尼，马来西亚，福建，台湾，加拿大，美国，新加坡等，及懂得闽南语的选手都纷纷来参加。最让我印象深刻的还是来自美国的Danielle，一个纯洋人，竟也懂得唱闽南歌呢，其唱腔及发音还真像是个华人呢！真叫人惊叹不已哦。

陈彩君，第一次听到她是在第一季的绝对Superstar。那时，她是成功进入了5，可没获得冠亚军。这一次的她又在闽南歌界亮相，成功以她甜美的声音及一把温柔的嗓子获得世界级评审的肯定！

陈采君进大决赛

黄紫薇，9岁小女孩，唱功与声音好比18岁半的少女。记得黄舒骏老师曾点评小紫薇：你唱完歌之后，后面还没唱的哥哥姐姐们都被你吓跑了。可见年纪轻轻的你有这么好的表现，已经让很多人来不及羡慕啊！虽然无法进入5强，无法继续在舞台上再让我们为你的表演惊叹又赞不绝口，可是路还很长远呢，才9岁的你一定要加油喔！想当年9岁的自己还在小学奔奔跳跳，天真无邪的样子还真可笑呢！

一直走成熟唱法、表现一直都很坚强的小紫薇回归了一个9岁小孩的天性，含泪与观众挥手告别

这一届的5强人马，有包括来自马来西亚的陈彩君，来自印尼的古春橸和谢维娜，来自台湾的谢诺帆，以及来自福建的郑奕灿。5位都是高强人马，相信在1月8日的总决赛一定势君厉敌，非常精彩！唉!1月3日开始新学期了,希望可以有机会观看这场总决赛吧=）

当然也不忘了祝大马的陈彩君All the Best哦！

欢喜来卡拉在大马隆重举办当时的十强选手

My New year resolution 2011

2010-12-29T21:10:00.001-08:00

I wish to strike harder to get a better pointer. I need to really pull up my socks . Second year to me was really a culture shock, this is because we are required to write essay in most of the subjects taken. During first year, we are not really exposed to the essay writing styles,most of the core subjects such as Life Process, Bio-organism, Bio-cell and Bio-population come with objectives questions. Well, this make me have to undergo a huge transition where I got to get used to write an essay. Essay styles questions obviously require us to describe in full details,and in some cases, with the aid of diagrams and figures. The subject-Metabolism, alone require us to remember the whole lots of cycles and the chemical structures of the intermediates as well.Protein and Biomolecules require us to describe in full details about the concept and keywords used in biochemistry.One questions would cost us 10 to 15 marks.Though I hardly understand the allocation of marks,I believe as long as we read up and practise the past year question and grasp the concept, I am sure it won’t pose a problem to score well in that particular subjects .Well, I am satisfied with my result as maintaining CGPA 3.5 above is always my aim. Hopefully, by learning and absorbing the lessons from the past semester would allow me to have a remarkable improvement in this coming 4^th semester.=)

I wish to learn a language. I love French and that explains pretty well my intention to learn French. France , a country of perfume,fashion and champagne has lots of beautiful, artistic and antique buildings . Italy and Franch are two of the European countries that I wish to have a tour.Maybe in near future, if and only if I got the extra money for the vacation…lolz! French is one of the official language used in the United Nation. It's not only spoken in France, it is a major language in Canada, the Carribean, and majority of Africa, Southeast Asia, and is present in many major cities such as San Francisco, LA, New Orleans, etc. French is also used far more in business, humanities, law, history, and literature, so in terms of academics it is just as applicable if not more applicable than Spanish. I once got this comment from a friend, saying that studying French can help you understand English way more than English can, as nearly one-third of modern English actually comes from Old French following the invasion of William the Conqueror of France in England during the 11th century, which forced the French and English languages to merge. That is how we have so many French words in our language, such as mercy, amiable, coffee, rice, etc. In that sense, French is much more applicable to your daily life just in your speaking English.

I wish to secure a good internship. I choose to go for 3 credit hours of internship because I believe that internship is very important and much more useful in future. So far I haven’t make up my mind which company should I apply for an internship as currently, I am trying hard to look for any good and suitable companies around. Xepasoul and GSK are two of the few companies that were in my mind. Either I will be doing it at KL or Melaka, I just wish to settle at a good companies and I believe accodomation and food will be managed accordingly. Just pray hard for my internships application to come with a success.=)

If I can schedule my time well, I wish to give tuition .Starting from next semester, UM ‘s 4^th residential college no longer provide any food which mean I have to settle my 3 balanced diets myself and obviously with my own money, so I have to tighten my budget . Giving tuition not only poses as a way for me to sharpen my teaching skills as I have not been teaching for quite some time, but it also allows me to earn some extra income. So far, I have managed to register HometuitionBest.com online and have applied for teaching PMR Maths around SS2 area, hope to received good news from the parents concerned.

I am looking forward to this coming new year! New year always come very well with new resolution and I hope all my wishes can be fulfilled along with God’s will! God Bless!=)

When too many tablets...

2010-12-28T00:48:00.000-08:00

Polypharmacy happens when one patient purchases medicine from more than one pharmacy. Complementary medicines are becoming increasingly popular, and that has become so common among patients who use both medicines as a ‘treatment’ for their diseases. The potential drugs to drugs interaction cannot be underestimated. It can affects both the pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics.

metoprolol( for hypertension), digoxin, celecoxib(osteoarthritis),diazepam(sleep)

1)Affects Pharmacokinetics:

Take my grandmother as an example, she age 72, considered old age, we have to realise that ageing does affects how drugs act.We got to get clear of the three components of pharmacokinetics: Absorption, distribution and clearance.

1.Absorption

Though Absorption after oral administration is least affected , the Gastrointestinal (GI) system is affected by ageing which contribute to the of stomach protection and an increased risk of gastritis and ulcer formation. The use of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs- Celecoxib and Ibuprofen), aspirin, warfarin threaten GI bleed.

2.Distribution

For the elderly, medication gets distributed into either fats or water, depending on its chemical characteristics .

The % body fat in elderly increased, making the diazepam (fat soluble) stay longer in the body

The %body water in elderly decreased, blood levels of drugs that are water soluble are higher.

The serum protein (albumin) production decreases. Less drug is bound to albumin , increased serum levels of displaced drugs.

1. Clearance

Blood flow to liver decreases and clearance of certain drugs may be reduced by 30-40%.

Size of kidney and renal blood flow decrease, cause renal clearance reduced up to 50%.

2) Affects Pharmacodynamics:

Increased sensitivity to medication

Benzodiazepines, antidepressant, antihistamine containing cough remedy, with the low blood pressure caused by GI bleed.

Thus we need to protect the elderly patients from potentially harmful effects of polypharmacy by:

· Knowing which drugs frequently cause problems to the elderly.

· All medication that the patients take(prescription, OTC, complementary medicines) should be documented.

· Patients’ lab value (liver and renal function test) should be monitored closely.(Ageing affects how drugs are cleared from the body)

· Clear therapeutics endpoint should be established at the beginning of the treatment.

· The prescriber must rely on his clinical judgement and knowledge of the patient’s condition.

· Medicines should begin in low doses and increase slowly in small increment.

· Pharmacist perform medical reviews and counsel patients on the potential side effects of medication to minimise polypharmacy problems.

Polypharmacy has become a common problem among Malaysians. However,I believe these problems are less likely to occur if one physician oversees the patient’s medication regimen, not only that, the steps listed above should also be taken by patients and families to help curbing the harmful side effects of consuming too much medications.

References:

1. ~ Wiliam CM(2002) Using medication approprotely in older adults. Am Fam Physician,66 1917.

2. ~Lim WK, Woodward MC(1999) Improving medication outcomes in older people. Aust J Hosp Pharm 29:103.

Year End Pangkor Trip

2010-12-23T23:16:00.000-08:00

Day 1 (18Dec2010)

We, a group of five people were going down to Pangkor for a vacation. The bus departed at 9.30am,and we reached Medan Gopeng at about 1pm. Initially, we plan to take a direct bus from Penang to Lumut, but unfortunately there are no direct buses going down to Lumut, according to the staffs of KKKL Bus Company( the aunty is really friendly),we have either two options as follow:

1. 1.Take a ferry from Penang across to Butterworth and from butterworth, take a bus down to Lumut.

2. 2.Take a bus to Ipoh( Medan Gopeng) , and from there take another buses down to Lumut.

So, we go for option 2 because according to the aunty,there are plenty of buses going to Lumut at Medan Gopeng bus terminal . However, things weren’t be as expected when we reached there. There were only one bus company- Express Kesatuan , the only bus company which provide buses going down to Lumut. We were quite lucky as there were 2pm bus available for going to Lumut by the time we reached Gopeng. Moreover, we were fortunate enough to meet with Wayne before the bus departed.So we managed to buy ticket which cost us RM7.10 each person.

It was really a long journey, 60 km more from Gopeng to Lumut. I did not expect this, Oh well, it is not only I, but WE did not expect this! So, chit chatting along the journey will be the only way to spend the time efficiently.=p

By the time we reached Lumut, the clock ticked 4.30pm. So straightaway,we managed to board a ferry (Mesra Ferry Sdn Bhd) which cost us RM10 each to the Pangkor Island. Finally we reached the island. Feeling completely tired, we board a van( pink in colour) to Seagull Beach Resort which cost us RM15. Personally, I feels that the resort is not so bad, though it is quite far away from the town, it is famous for its hornbills’ favourite spot.

When the night approached, we took a light walk to the nearby beach and took our dinner. There were not so much activities on the very first day as night was approaching by the time we reached the island. Five of us spend our time in the room, chatting, teasing , scolding , laughing, joking etc. P/s: You have to be sporting enough to indulge in this game! XD

'Packed' with heavy luggage! XD

Beautiful scenery

The beach resort that we stayed for 2nights

Seagull beach Resort is well-known for its hornbill habitat.

The view of Jetty

Day 2（19Dec2010）

We woke up early in the morning, planning to enjoy the sunrise, but it turned out to be so dark. The sun supposed to rise in the other Teluk, so disappointing. So we just enjoyed the beauty of early beach views.

Well, being in Pangkor island, in order to travel around the island, you have either of f these 2 options:

1. Book a pinkish van and travel around the island for RM70-RM80 for only 2 hours.

2. Rent a bicycles ,motorcycles or cars to travel around the island for RM15 per Bicycle, RM36 per motorcycle or RM100 per car for 1 whole day!

Initially, we planned to rent 3 motorcycles. But I am not too used to riding a motocyle, too bad I know, sorry friends as I did not practise my riding skill long time ago and the road at Pangkor is very steep and swayed it will be quite risky for a novice to ride here. Well, eventually we go for renting a car. We were lucky enough to be able to rent a Kancil car, though the charge is RM140 per car( considered quite expensive as there were other car owner rent it for a mere RM80), and one more frustrated thing about the Kancil car, the engine is so dead. We need to push the car numerous time in order for it to move!

Well, after all, option 2 is more worthy as we are allowed to travel for one whole day as compared to option 1. So, I can say the journey was overally fun as we managed to travel to Dutch Fort, Satey factory, FulingKong Temple,Jambatan Gantung from noon till evening.

Dutch Fort: A historical place, nothing much to see except the remained huge wall.

Satey Factory: Lots of people made satey , managed to see the process of making satey and bought the famous local products like Ikan Bilis, Keropok Ikan, etc.

Fuling Kong Temple: Very nice and really display a panoramic view! I particularly love the word ‘缘’carved on the huge stone on top of the hill.

Jambatan Gantung: Quite spooky as there were no one there except five of us.

At night, we went to Pangkor town to look for other souveniers, and best of all, we celebrated Chun Tatt birthday. It came as a surprised to him! Lol.

The temple near Teluk Nipah

Having seafood,yummy!

smooth Sea cucumber

Snap at Dutch Fort

Day 3(20Dec2010)

Time to check out at Noon, so early in the morning we went to swim. Enjoy the crystal clear water , building sandcastle, eh, is not sandcastle, is ‘sandpeople’made up of Jiunn Haw as a framework model. Xtra Creative and funny!!XD

Finally, we checked out from the resort and lucky enough we drove the kancil car to jetty to return to the owner and boarded a ferry back to Lumut. The trip is really fun! =)

Angel Found! XD

The sandpeople with us

Red cum white match!


celebrating Kct's Bday

Learning Japanese -The easy way

2010-12-16T21:20:00.000-08:00

I have come across one website which is very useful to learn Japanese,a very informative site indeed

http://www.japanese-language.aiyori.org/beginner1.html ,the cartoon is just the nice way to begin and the flash is so easy to use! =)

To those who aren't well acquainted with the Mandarin language and Japanese language, but wish to learn both, so you might be as well wondering 'should i learn Mandarin first or Japanese'? In my case, since i already know how to speak and write Mandarin, i might be wondering whether i could get confused with the Mandarin words with that of Kanji.

I found the comment by mumeichan to be a useful one, and indeed it could clear your doubts too =)

Doesn't really matter. The are two differences.

Japanese uses the traditional form of all characters while the Chinese use the simplified form. Chinese in Taiwan still use the traditional characters though. And anyone who has at least been to a primary SJK will know quite alot traditional characters. The character for car in Japanese is 車, while in Chinese is 车

Secondly, when a few base words are used to make another work, it will have different meanings in both languages. For example, bicycle in Japanese is

自転車 which is literally self transfer vehicle

In Chinese however it is

自行车 which is self go vehicle

But actually, when you're reading, you immediately recognize a set of characters as one word. You won't read it as self transfer vehicle, the whole set of three characters will instantly appear as bicycle to you. So even if you learned Chinese first, you will simple be memorizing sets of characters. And if you learned Japanese later, you need to memorize an alternative set for the same word. Even though English and Malay use the same roman script, you're not confused are you? When you read "air" in Malay, you don't ever think it means air in English right. You know right away it's water.

Another example I can give to convince you is that when people who already know how to speak English learn French, it's not going to be a big problem if some words sound the same but have different meaning.

"Vous souhaitez assister à une classe de langue?" The sentence means "You want to attend a language class?"

The bolded word certainly sounds like the English word assist, and assister without the à also means assist in French. But anyone learning French will someday learn that "assister à" means "to attend" and will recognize it from then on.

Personally i love to learn French too, planning to take up French courses soon with the hope that i could manage to distribute my time well. I believe with any language, reading is the key. The more you read, the more sentences you'll be familiar with.

Next semester gonna start and well, i must come out with a new aspiration indeed. =)

I love lion city!

2010-12-15T06:15:00.000-08:00

A sudden trip with grandpa to Spore for a visit to relatives' house.Short stay for 4days 4 nights(14Nov-18Nov2010) at Aunty Song's house at Tao Payoh, treated with palatable cuisine etc.and not forgetting to thanks my cousin, Melvin for accompanying me for a nice tour. Clean, destination for shopholics,advanced and convenient, Particularly love Tao Payoh as the facilities there are excellent!

Night Street view along Tao Payoh

This kind of family clinic is very common around residences area

Town Council

Very crowded MRT

The Standard Ticket machine

Orchard road is full of shopping malls! It is indeed the shopping heaven for those shopaholics XD i really impressed with all the shopping malls like Lucky Plaza, Far East Plaza,Takashimayo,ION Orchard,Paragon and many many more....

The Singapore river located along Raffles Place:


Victoria Teater

Street is clean

Market down residence area.

Singapore is really beautiful! Look forward to visiting this lovely country again!=)

Study and Work at America!

2010-11-30T17:09:00.000-08:00

I worked for 2 months, originally just in Colonial Properties, but I got a second job in McDonalds. I earned about US $ 400 a week, working 36 hours a week at Colonial Properties and 24 hours a week at McDonalds. Accommodation cost me US$ 250 per month, and I spent about US $ 200 a month on food. Apart from that, I spent about US $ 80 per month on leisure, laundry, etc.

The above work and travel statement is shared by Suzy, a student at UPM, who had traveled to the US between May and July 2006. Sound good isnt't it?how much i wish i could join the Work & Travel USA programme to experience a different culture and to improve my English. Not only that,the best part about it will be the time we will be spending at work, making friends with people from around the world.=)

If you wish to work and travel in USA:

2 agents ,Think Out of The Box and Speedwing are under CIEE and GeoVisions, which are the main sponsors of this program is what you gonna to see.
From what i know ,actually the most expensive part for this application would be the 2 way flight ticket from Malaysia to USA, which is about 4 to 5K, depending on flight agency.The application fees that paid to the agent would be around 2 to 3K.

You might be wondering what kind of work will you get there?Well, let say my field of study is more to life science, Biochemistry to be precise. if you haven't notice yet, the jobs in this program actually doesn't have anything to do with student's field of study. it's actually those low-requirement jobs like housekeeping, server, sales assistant, theme park worker and stuff.

This Work and Travel(WAT )program is designed for current university students and last semester students awaiting graduation only. for more info : http://usa.workandtravelusa.com.my/w&tdetails.htm
so my chance might come for final semester before i grads, hopefully!=)

Passport Application

2010-11-30T01:40:00.000-08:00

8^th November 2010. Today ,Ah Soon uncle and his sister(from Australia) accompanying and fetching me going to Jabatan Imigresen Ayer Keroh for doing passport as grandpa and I will be going to Singapore next week. i know it would be abit troubling Ah Soon Uncle since we have gone there yesterday(7^th Nov)but who know it is closed, we didn’t expect it would close consecutively from Friday Deepavali holiday till Monday.haiz, so we went there again on Monday. Grandpa and my aunt following too.

And guess what? We reached there at 9.30am and we got the number 1120(me) and 1123(my aunt),which are far from the current waiting number 1028.In other words, we have to wait for another 100 customers before reaching our turn. Not only that, after waiting for our turn, we have to wait for another turn to be called for paying the passport fees at the cashier counter, then only that we are required to submit our resit to another counter which we claim our passport from, only after 2 hours time.That is fine, 3 tiring rounds before we could get our newly made passport. However, things went a bit messy and unsystematic, we are supposed to claim our passport at 3pm as stated on the resit paper.

So we approach to the counter and waited for our turn at 2.30pm and I manage to get it earlier, so I am so glad as I don’t really want to wait for such long. But, my aunt only manage to get it at 3.45pm! which is a way too ridiculous, isn’t it? We submitted our resit at the same time but we got our passport at the interval of more than 1 hour? How can that be? We have stood and waited there for so long to help my aunt to claimed her passport, the thing is the staffs mixed up all the passport, those who supposed to claim it at 11am or 12pm didn’t turn up and those 3.30pm claimed it first, while those 2.30pm have to wait, the list of documents was totally mixed up and long waiting queue with lots of grumbling were obvious.Luckily after a long wait, ‘Low Soh Chin!!’, finally my aunt ‘s name was called.Can you Imagine that the long wait from 9.30am to 345pm? It really made us exhausted especially my grandpa. In short,the whole procedure of getting a new passport is really tiring.=(

Where come the explanation for the long wait?

the crowd is scaring

While waiting , I strolled around the department compound and saw the Gallery Produk Penjara. The artsy crafts and stuffs made by prisoners in Malaysia are all available there.So,in curiosity, I think of having a look there since from the outside of the compound, it looks so traditional and very unique in its architecture. When steeping into the Gallery, lots of unique and artsy crafts and every little stuffs ranging from handmade to kitchen utensils etc are all nicely exhibited there. Look at it, aren’t our prisoners are all so talented? Wow!=D