A Citizen's View.

Exactly 53 years ago, the word "Merdeka" was yelled 3 times and great cheers from the crowd was heard. At that time, gratefulness, thankfulness, freedom, liberty --- all these feelings were expressed and felt all at once. No more bondages, no more tortures, no more outsiders --- just us, the Malaysian, we were once one. united. the chinese-indian-malay

we ate together, we played together, we go to school and receive education together. there were no differences in colours, we were once all colour-blind and there was only one colour.

that was 53 years ago.

now, its all different. even when the song Negaraku is aired on national radio and televisions, not many would appreciate or even stand up straight to sing in respect. the feeling of thankfulness for independence, the feeling of togetherness is no longer there.. thanks to some jokers who tried pulling the races apart separating everyone into individual entities.

if only people would start to realise and to appreciate the contributions from each races for this country. if only people would start to realise how we could each play our role, stand up and be counted to lift this country up to another level, a different phase. i bet things can be changed and positive outcomes will be seen.

For greater things have yet to come, and greater things are still to be done in this city

i may not be a patriotic citizen, but deep down, my blood still belong to this country and i'm proud to say that i'm a malaysian

happy independence!

Love Doesn't Exist Without Sacrifice.

I put this line in my facebook and my boss thought why am i suddenly all emo about love. its not true la. i actually kinda grasp this line from The Last Airbender

It spoke to me right away. Whenever people mention the word love, everyone will straight away refer to the boy-girl-relationship kind of love but its not necessary just that.

And love doesn't exist without sacrifice.

Just like if Jesus hadn't loved us, He wouldn't sacrificed Himself for us on the cross 2010 years ago while we were all still sinners.

If our parents hadn't loved us, they wouldn't sacrifice their money, time and energy to nurture us, to discipline us (which we usually take it as something negative), to educate us and all. They could have spend their hard-earned money on good vacations and to buy themselves things they like but nope. They'd rather use those money to pay for our (tertiary) education and to get all the necessary money to sustain the family. They could have gotten themselves Iphone but instead they'd just do with their basic-function Nokia mobiles. With their money, they could have gotten themselves a BMW 5 series or Mercedes Benz E class but they'd just do with their Toyota Vios E series or even Proton cars. But those are their hard-earned wages and they themselves deserve the best, instead they'd use them for us

And if we hadn't loved our friend, we wouldn't drive all the way up to PJ to pick a friend up for a meal and send our friend back. We wouldn't fetch our friend to school in KL and pick her later on at night when KL city looks like a dead town filled with danger at night. We wouldn't take the extra mile to make sure they've taken their meals, or if they're safe at home and superbly don't mind getting caught in a bad traffic just to spend slightly more time with them. If we hadn't loved our friend, we wouldn't sacrifice not seeing that person or contacting that person like we usually do when their loved ones are with them and tried not to put our friend in a state of dilemma and at the same time wanting them to know that they are not forgetten and we're still here when they're caught in the love bubble. If we hadn't loved our friend, we wouldn't mind being hurt and disappointed by their acts and bear it on our own.

And of course if we hadn't loved our gf/bf, we wouldn't save all our money or to work part time just to get them something really nice like an Ipod or a watch just to see their smile. If we hadn't loved our gf/bf, we wouldn't go all miles to catch a glimpse of them from afar when its not very convenient for ourselves to appear for some reasons. If we hadn't loved our gf/bf, we wouldnt go against our parents or tried making a stand for our loved ones when parents feel otherwise.

Look, all those examples given above are examples of sacrifices -- be it money, energy, time. But if it wasn't for love, these sacrifices will carry no significance.

Should I or Should I Not?

have been quite indecisive lately.

to make a decision, one may need to consider every other factors and the possible outcomes to the decision made.

its alot easier said than done, like to follow what our hearts want or what we like etc. but the something that we like may sound like some selfish ambition kind of decision.

but whats the point of doing something that we're not keen at but just for the sake of pleasing everyone around us right?

and what about a decision thats gonna determine how our life's going to be ahead. the commitments and all.

and what i was considering this morning is, should or should not continue my degree in MBBS?

actually this question is not something sudden, it has been a burden in me for quite a while already after finding out that my Medical Science degree can be converted to MBBS and get some units exempted. alongside with encouragements from the doctors (my customers) that i meet. most of them got a little personal once they see my namecard with my stated qualification and my status currently is like im neither here nor there.

but there are alot of other factors too. like, where? which university that allows conversion? finances? how long more?

or should i just continue working like now and do just like the others and take everything as part of lives.

lately, im really in need of encouragements and motivations.

Friday the 13th. Jinx?

I was reluctant to wake up this morning and i continued snoozing the alarm. At the same time I cannot afford to be late to work 'cause I've a meeting to attend. And out of a very rare sight, dad woke me up this morning!

Saw a missed call and received a good morning text message from buddy at 6.56am. Totally made my day!

Rushed and headed off to work but left later than usual time. Proclaimed and the traffic got really smooth and either the traffic light turns green or the police wave a "go" for me for all traffic junctions. So yay!!

Arrived office on time!

Looks like Friday the 13th is not that bad after all?

Actually it depends on what belief that you hold on to. If you believe that today's gonna be a bad day, whatever you do you'll have this belief that things won't work out right and it wont work out right!

On contrary, if you believe things will be good and its gonna be a productive day, it will be!

---

Also, I was looking forward in seeing buddy after days of meeting each other and that spurs up my excitement for today even more!

And oh, Happy 4 Months, buddy!

I cannot do it alone, let's walk this buddyship together. I thank God for you. I'm looking forward for the 5th month, 6th month, x months and years to come! I know i've been quite demanding and all, thanks for bearing with me all these while and be so accommodating.

Thanks again for being my buddy! *hugs*

just saw some of the old pictures posted up by a once-used-to-be a quite close friend to me.

the pictures definitely brought back good (and bad) memories. we used to hang out together, doing things together, sharing with one another but i dont quite see that anymore. worse still, the discomfort feeling

partly its my bad. i think i really have quit putting effort in the friendship when i dont see much responses from the other party. it may be fine for the beginning, but it grew quite tiring with time. when you tried pressing on to something that may not work.

to let go or not to? was i even doing the right thing from the beginning? to move on with life or to hope that things will get back to be like before?

i guess the answer is, go with the flow. but wait, effortlessly?

Soury Food Aids in Digestion?

One of the common misconceptions by many is that eating/drinking soury food aids in digestion or can help one to lose weight ('cause digest faster).

And before I could blog this out, i just heard my buddy sharing in this same misconception too! -.-

Why would I say its not true?

High acidity food (low pH) shares in the same property as the HCl (gastric juice) in our stomach.

Functions of HCl in our stomach:

1. kill all the microorganisms in our stomach
2. provide an acidic medium for the enzymes (pepsin and rennin) in our stomach to act optimumly

So lets say we drink limau ais (soury) when we eat our maggi goreng (food), when the limau ais enters our stomach, it'll work hand-in-hand with our gastric juice to kill the microbes that we ingest in alongside when we savour our maggi goreng. Other than that, it'd also prepare an acidic medium for protein digestion to take place.

Protein digestion. Yes, thats my point! There are only 2 enzymes present in our stomach, i.e pepsin and rennin and both these enzymes only aid in the digestion of protein. So whats the protein composition in our maggi goreng? The eggs? The tofu? Nothing much i presume.

So now, tell me, how would soury food help in our digestion (talking bout digesting our maggi goreng) when only protein would benefit from it? (:

And oh, I mentioned only digestion in our stomach 'cause digestions in other parts of our gastrointestinal tract (duodenum, pancreas, ileum etc) all tak boleh work optimumly with low pH one. The digestive enzymes in those areas work in their very own optimum pH (pH7-8) or alkaline. Stomach is the only GIT part that works well with acidic medium

Just something to ponder upon (:

BMR update #1.

Buddy kept asking me what's my progress for my increase-in-BMR-mission. I'm not sure if she's really really concerned bout my progress or she just has nothing to say/ask me for those point of time. Its not something immediate and the results will not be so evident in such short period of time la. Today's just like the Day 3 or so? Give me 3 months buddy!

Anyway I was reading yesterday while waiting for someone, and I found out the 3 culprits to my lowered BMR now!

1. (chronic) stress
2. lack of sleep
3. lack of fluid (H₂O)

gone la, gone!

looks like if i really aim to succeed, i guess i really need to kick some bad habit away mannn~

Bad Memory?

I remember vividly that when i was in form 5, my mom made me take gingko and salmon fish oil everyday just because i told her i have bad memory. it was true, up to a certain extend.

When it comes to subjects that require reading and remembering like history or biology or moral, i just cant seem to remember anything but only some touch n go points here and there. my memory power was really bad and mom worried that i'd fail these subjects if the reason for the failure was my memory

oh well, if memory power was really that bad, i believe by right i wouldn't even remember those 'steps' of formulae applications for additional mathematics, like how to get those figures or if more, the long and complicated chemical equations? or the structural formula of each chemical molecule? or the principle behind each physical reaction by the molecular forces or whatnot.

my question is, is memory something subtle? if we cant seem to remember an occasion or something, should we blame on the memory power or the subject to it? like, the subject is not of any importance or significance?

i personally believe its the latter. its not so much on we're-borned-with-bad-memory but its the subject that matters. if its all about something (or someone) we love, we care or something (or someone) dear to us, we tend to remember every single detail bout them. but if its otherwise and insignificant in our life, we'd just choose float by and be ignorant.

well after all we've only limited space in our cerebral, haven't we?