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!=)