My New year resolution 2011

     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...

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

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.          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

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!

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!

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

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

Genting Trip With 马马

Genting trip(31Oct-2Nov)

It comes so sudden that the plan to Genting Highland during the coming study week, as being suggested by Ma Sheng seniors cause me have to reschedule my plan for going back to Melaka.

It was 31Oct(Sunday) when I together with Fuchai took a bus at Titiwangsa to Genting highland at around 12pm.it was an exciting trip as zee man, jhet and Terence come forth on the next day to join us.

Day 1

I got the chance to visit Chin Swee temple ,thanks to the plan as suggested by Brian. It is really a nice historical site to visit ,full of excellent architectural design of China temple,the 18 hell story as well as its various punishment as what has been strongly believed by the Chinese especially the Taoism and Buddhism are all available for us to open our eyes there. The culture ,custom and the traditional heritage of the Chinese are very well portrayed at the place called Chin Swee Temple. The Pagoda, the GuanYing,Rulai  Statue, and even the Lim Goh Tong Statue and not  forgetting the  cool thrilling atmosphere all made up the panaromic sight there.

The Big Pagoda

The cakes, Yummy!

For those who wanna make a wish

The plates of wish

Chin Swee Temple is so magnificent!

The story of hell, lots of stages.

Brian and me besides Mong Po Place

Hooray...

I Seem small with huge Pagoda!

Lim Goh Tong Statues

Nice View XD

Howard and I

Still remember the night when Brian and Howard brought us to the Genting casino to’ widen our views’.My first time being there wasn’t great enough as there are lots of smokers and it is quite silent there. I feel a tensed atmosphere surrounding me. Just have a free cup of milo and looking around for the people indulging themselves to the various gambling games.

Day 2

Zeeman, Jhet and Terence arrived. We have lok lok which cost us about RM32 each person.Then a short shopping with Zeeman, she is a pretty shopaholic who like to shop around , looking for all the minor and unique stuffs/gifts. Haha. Have the opportunity to visit the Genting Convention Centre, there is a GME branded store sale and many discounted stuffs  ranging from 50% to 70% are available there. I manage to buy a jacket(Goggles Brand since 1989) , Ginverra Oil Control and Alfredo Chocolate(for my roommates). I wish I could have more time to shop for these cheap and branded items.XD

At night, Celebrate Zee Man’s birthday .what a great surprise to her, Lol. Wish her happy always and be there to continue our Ma Sheng journey together.升学道路与你加油。

Celebrating Zee Man's Bday

take a Snap!

Having hot Pot! So full! Never eat never know! XD

Overally, I enjoy the trip! Hope in future we could go for even more trips=)