EliteSpace

Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow

2008-05-08T14:33:00.002+04:00

Yesterday was the last day of surgery cycle. Unlike other boring days, we'd chance to see an operation - Laparoscopic Cholecystectomy - which is a surgical removal of gallbladder through a small incision on abdomen and manipulated by insertion of fine surgical instruments and a small video camera.
Patient's abdomen was inflated with carbon dioxide and the whole operation is carried out under a video monitor in front of the patient. It took hours for this operation as some gall stones were dispersed during removal of gall bladder. Indeed, it is not easy to be a surgeon, who requires great patience and good skills, as well as strength.

Today is the first day of new cycle - extreme medicine. This course is taken place at traumatology department in one of the farthest hospital from my hostel, which takes about 1 hour by public bus. The whole cycle lasts for 1 week and it's relatively relaxing course compared to others.

Tomorrow will be public holiday here for a memorable called Victory Day. This day has a very significant meaning for all the people living here. Every 9 May, they celebrates the victory over Nazi Germany, while remembering those who fell in order to achieve it.
9 May was chosen, since in the night from 8th to 9th 1945 the German military surrendered to the Soviet Union and its Allies in Berlin (Karlshorst). For people in Russia this happened on the 9th (time change).
As usual, a grand military parade will be held in Moscow as well as other regions to celebrate the day. There will be a small celebration here in Kursk also according to the news released, which will take place at Memorial Park, a 5-min walking distance from my hostel... maybe I should take this chance to snap few pictures on spot ^^

Have a nice day to all, and to those who celebrate Victory day, enjoy your holiday! =)

Links Update!

2008-05-05T22:54:00.004+04:00

Hi All!

Taking a long break here since last post =P
Actually, I'm not having break, instead, busy with other things. I'm sorry for no update lately but really much more things yet to be done here, both academically and non-academic aspects. I'll reschedule my timetable to make it able for me to spend time equally in each aspect. Just wanna shout out loudly - 24 hours in a day is just not enough for me!!

Ya, here is an update for my blog. As you can see, there's no more links displayed on the main page. I've replaced it with a hyperlink, and removed this long list of links.
Thanks for this suggestion given by my fellow bloggermates. Ya, I admit that it makes my blog messy and untidy with such a long list, and the most important thing is it causes inconvenience as visitors have to roll down the list before they could find my chat box.

I've moved all the links (MyLink1 and MyLink2) to another page. (Click here for it)
I'm pretty sure that all the existed links in my blog are included in this page. However, I still need you to check it out once more time, to make sure that your link is correct and no broken. So please check it out and just leave me a message on that page, if there's any mistake.
Thanks!

Have a nice day! Stay cool ^^

*P/s: Both pages of link lists are labelled with 'Link' at Labels on the right sidebar, under blog achieve. Just click there to find out both MyLink1 and MyLink2. Thanks!

Labour Day

2008-05-01T10:13:00.001+04:00

Happy Holiday!

Today 1/5 is labour day! I’m sure all of us have a day-off, or if not at least will get a doubled or even tripled-paid for your work today =)

For me, I’ve 2 days holiday here, Thursday and Friday. Good thing is many activities can be carried out on Thursday as the day follows is holiday. However, we’ve actually to ‘pay’ for this, because there will be no holiday on this weekend – meaning we’ve class on Saturday and Sunday! argh… can’t enjoy in this weekend =(
Anyway, I heard from my friends that there will be 2 days-off again next week. What a good news! ^^

I believe that many of us have plans in our mind where to go, what to do, especially in this public holiday. It’s a great time to have gathering with friends and family, party, BBQ, picnic, a day-trip or some might prefer to just stay at home, lying down relaxingly and watch movies for the whole day =)

I wish all of you Have a Nice time! Enjoy the holiday! ^^

*Supposed to post this on the day itself, somehow just forgot to do it... =p

Thank You!

2008-04-30T03:43:00.002+04:00

Hi All! I'm back the blogging world after having a few days break =P Nothing special event, just simply get myself out from here for a while and hope to get some 'fresh' ideas of changing my blog =)

So, first of all, I want to thank all those who gave me some tips and suggestion. Just wanna shout out loudly that your opinion is much appreciated! As I've promised, here is a THANK YOU list ^^

Anneberly
Lis
LynnWei
myjoyfuldays
Blanne
anon
My Daily Thought
Gerelyn
Laura
maya
lee_chien
Jed-revolutia
Elmo
Sheng
Prily
little pooh
vera (Thanks for the link! that template is really cool, will take into consideration! =D)
Perfumes (your post has been removed, couldn't get your link)
e-tavasi
Normand
ann
Orange
Jeff & Nova
Last but not least! also all those who posted your ideas in the chat box too!

Thanks again for your comment and time. This post is specially devoted as a token of appreciation to all who helped me out here. As the changing is taking place step by step, your opinion is still welcome!

Wish you all Have a nice day!

Easter Sunday

2008-04-27T23:22:00.003+04:00

Today is Easter Sunday for Orthodox churches here in this country. I didn't really know about it until I saw something in the supermarket here yesterday. I went to bread corner to grab something for tomorrow's breakfast but it has nothing except...

Ya, only Easter cake! Looks like muffins with sugar cream as its topping.
It's very common for ppl here to buy this cake during this celebration. It has different sizes and shapes, but they're basically all the same in taste. Easter cake can be found in almost all food stalls along the street. Well, I've no idea why is this cake so popular here...maybe it has certain meaning behind? or just merely a symbolized food for Easter's day.

Still remember that I'd one post about Easter's celebration last month, and someone might wonder why is it again once more Easter celebration here. Well, ya we've 2 Easter's Sunday here, one is for Western countries (on 23 of March) and today's one (27 of April) is for Orthodox, where most Russians here are celebrating it.

I bought a small one since there's no other choice =p
The taste is still ok and it has raisins in it...just I don't really like its creamy topping, too sweet! >.<

Tired...

2008-04-26T10:21:00.004+04:00

This is a really tired week for me =( Don' t really know what things occupied me so much, but just feel like I've never had enough time to finish something in my plan... maybe because of many little simple things that all needed to be done at a time.

I've just finished final credit test for Tropical Biology today! well, it's an interesting subject in which you learn more about causative agents of many popular tropical diseases in human. We've learned the morphology(this part is boring...but important to know), epidemiology, route of transmission, life cycle, pathology and clinical features, treatments and preventions of the diseases.

Some of the worms are well-known in our community like malaria, which is a major health problem with ober 40% of the world population affected. Just a reminder, it's very important to maintain a hygienic way of lifestyles eg. always wash hand before and after doing something, keep your living place clean, having a proper dressing (no bare foot, use slipper at least when you're outside), be attentive when choosing food (especially meat products), make sure food is well cooked before serve, boil water before drinking, etc... simple things to do right? yet some just ignore it...

It's good to know some facts especially route of transmission into human body. I'm gonna share this in future post when I'm bit free =p I'm sure you'll feel disgusting when you read more about it, like for example the worm Schistosoma japonicum can stay in your intestine and produce 2000-3000 eggs per day! Just imagine...

Well, I'll share this in the coming post and I'm sure it's good for you to know as this is not uncommon disease among our society.
Time for nap =P Have a nice day! Stay tuned! ^^

Thanks to all Commentors!

2008-04-24T00:48:00.003+04:00

Hi All!

First of all, a BIG THANKS to all of you who giving me opinions on how to make this blog better! I really appreciate all the suggestions given. I'm now planning to bring some big changes for my blog and it will be carried out step by step. It might take some time as I'm still a newbie in this area and I hope everything goes on fine =)

For the time being, I'm busy checking through all the names in my link list. It really takes time but I think it's worth it as I've found many faulty links, inaccessible web address and broken back-links. I'll make changes soon on for the link list once I finish this scanning.

And I'm sorry for no new updates these few days. I've just finished credit test on clinical pharmacology yesterday and today is the first day of tropical pathology cycle. I'm gonna be busy this whole week I guess...

Anyway, the blog will still be updated from time to time, so hope to see you around here often ^^
ohya, about the request of link changes, questions, etc in the chat box, Sorry for the delayed reply! I promise to reply as soon as possible once the link check is done.
Also, I'll make a 'Thank You' list sooner later, as a token of appreciation to those in contributing the ideas of changes in my blog, thanks again! =D

WIsh All of you A Nice Day!

Calm after the storm

2008-04-24T00:30:00.001+04:00

Heavy rain yesterday and today mark the coming of real Spring here, after few episodes of weather alterations in past few weeks. Ya, weather forecast says it correctly, it is a raining week in Kursk here, almost everyday from this Monday till today, there's a sudden heavy rain with strong winds each day. And today, it's kinda a surprise, small snowflakes drop together with the rain! Maybe it's hardly seen if you're walking on the street, but I can see it clearly from window of my room (9th floor in hostel)

Well, guess what changes I notice following the raining days?

Yes, it's earth-worm! Everywhere on the street you can see earth-worms!
How many do you think inside this snapshot?
I bet there're not less than 100 earth-worms in this street I've seen on my way back from university! well, I've no idea why are they 'migrate' from soil to street, but it's definitely caused by the heavy rain here.

Look closer at this earth-worm... it's just big and long! It's longer than length of a pen, much bigger and longer than the earth-worms I've seen before! a very good fishing-bait =)

What Do You Think?

2008-04-21T12:57:00.004+04:00

HI ALL!

I need your help to give some opinions about my blog. As most of you know, this is my very first blog, which established at the end of year 2007 and only becomes active this year. I'm still learning how to make it in a better way that brings a nice and more convenient outlook to all.

What do you think about the appearance of my blog now? does it look ok? or just untidy and unorganised that causing eye-sore? What's the changes needed in your opinion?

I've thought of adding something new to my blog, eg widgets, search button, etc... but my blog has large enough contents that it will just make my blog longer and looks more messy if I continue to add new things in...

Thinking of changing templates, to make it more organised and better looking appearance...does it help?

Be frank please =)
I'm in need of real opinions and constructive comments from all of you.
Thanks in advance!

Design Your Own Google!

2008-04-19T00:34:00.002+04:00

You can now design your own unique Google using Google MyWay!
Create a name you wish to have, just simply enter the text and your unique logo will appear in seconds! Look at my google!

So what you can do with your own google?
Well, tell and show to your friends and your family your own unique Google page =) Besides that, bookmark it and use it every time you search Google! There're some suggestions listed there as well, and the option to send an email to others is available, so just spread your google around!

Have fun with it and go for a try now! =)
Wish All have a blessed weekend!

Microwave Popcorn

2008-04-18T01:08:00.005+04:00

Microwave popcorn! hehe, maybe you have try it many times, but this is my first try! ^^ kinda good taste but I'd prefer the one which honey-coating =)

IT is wrapped in a small packet when I bought it from Magnesh supermarket. I'd been looking for honey-coated popcorn but only the butter-coated popcorn was available. well, didn't know much about the way to made it for the first time, just follow whatever instruction written on the packet. Pretty good to know that full instruction is clearly stated and popping hints are attached on the packet too!

Here are snapshots taken in sequence of preparation:

It's just easy as 1-2-3, and can be done within 10 minutes. Good choice of healthy snack! =)

Ever suffer from Gastritis?

2008-04-17T01:02:00.005+04:00

As I've promised my sister to share something about gastritis, I'll make this topic as today's post =) Though it is a bit late, but it's never to late to know the fact ya right =p
Ya my sister was asking me in a sms whether or not to continue her medicine for gastritis prescribed by doctor. She asked so because of the allergy to the drugs used and wanna me to tell more facts about gastritis, which I'm going to share it. Well, just a share of what I've learned so far =)

Rather than writing full info about gastritis(which is bored really...and I believe most will not even bother to pay attention on it if i include pathogenesis, theories, mechanism of actions...etc), I'll make it easy and brief.

Gastritis simply means inflammation of the gastric mucosa of the stomach. It is of 2 types: Type A (caused mainly due to autoimmune disease) and type B (due to bacteria, which is more common). The following are known causes and factors related to gastritis:

- Bacterial infection (most often by Helicobacter pylori)
- Fungal infection (most often in people with immunodeficiency)
- Stress
- Excessive caffeine consumption (eg. Coffee)
- Parasitic infection (most often by Anisakis spp. from poorly cooked seafood)
- Bile reflux
- Drugs (NSAIDs and steroid treatments for other conditions)
- Cigarette smoke
- Autoimmune disorders
- Excessive alcohol consumption
- Certain allergens
- Certain types of radiation
- Stomach injury
- Eating Disorders, such as Bulimia (common in women)

The main symptoms of gastritis are loss of appetite, nausea, vomiting, headache, and dizziness. There is always pain and discomfort in the region of the stomach.
Other symptoms are a coated tongue, foul breath, bad taste in the mouth, increased flow of saliva, scanty urination, a general feeling of uneasiness, and mental depression. In more chronic cases, the patient may complaint of heartburn and a feeling of fullness in the abdomen, especially after meals. Often there is constipation, but occasionally, there may be diarrhoea due to intestinal catarrah.

If the diagnosis has been confirmed by doctor, drugs are often a choice for treatment. Treatment for gastritis usually consists of removing the irritant or the infection. In cases of infection, a doctor will most often prescribe antimicrobial drugs.
Helicobacter infection typically responds well to the triple therapy protocol (consisting of two antibiotics, and a proton pump inhibitor). Glad to know that nowadays, Quadruple therapy has a >90% success rate and includes PPIs, Bismuth subsalicylates, Metronidazole, and Tetracycline.
It is always good to finish the prescribed doses of drugs unless stated otherwise. This is to make sure that the treatment is at full course and prevent residual bacteria to develop resistance against the drugs.

It is good if you know what's the exact causes for your gastritis as full resolution will be achieved only upon removal of the causes. I've found these interesting alternative treatment other than drugs, which I think it's somehow good to know =)

- Gastritis treatment using Coconut
Coconut water is an excellent remedy for gastritis. It gives the stomach the necessary rest and provides vitamins and minerals. The stomach is greatly helped in returning to a normal condition if nothing but coconut water is given during the first twenty-four hours.
- Gastritis treatment using Rice
Rice gruel is another excellent remedy for acute cases of gastritis. One cup of rice gruel is recommended twice daily. In chronic cases where the flow of gastric juice is meagre, such foods as require prolonged vigorous mastication are beneficial as they induce a greater flow of gastric juice.
- Gastritis treatment using Potato
Potato juice has been found valuable in relieving gastritis. The recommended dose is half a cup of the juice, two or three times daily, half an hour before meals.
- Gastritis treatment using Marigold
The herb marigold is also considered beneficial in the treatment of gastritis. An infusion of the herb in doses of a tablespoon may be taken twice daily.

Well, here is the list of recommendation, which proven to be effective in relieving and curbing the symptoms.
-- Fasting, Water
The patient should undertake a fast for two of three days or more, depending on the severity of the condition. He should be given only warm water to drink during this period. This will give rest to the stomach and allow the toxic condition causing the inflammation to subside.
-- All-fruit diet
After the acute symptoms subside, the patient should adopt an all-fruit diet for the next three days and take juicy fruits such as apples, pears, grapes, grapefruit, oranges, pineapple, peaches, and melons.
-- Avoid alcohol, tobacco, spices, meat, sweet, strong tea/coffee
The patient should avoid the use of alcohol, tobacco, spices and condiments, meat, red pepper, sour foods, pickles, strong tea and coffee. He should also avoid sweet, pastries, rich cakes, and, aerated waters.
-- Have curd and cottage cheese
Curds and cottage cheese should be used freely. Too many different foods should not be mixed at the same meal. Meals should be taken at least two hours before going to bed at night. Eight to ten glasses of water should be taken daily but water should not be taken with meals as it dilutes the digestive juices and delays digestion. Above all, haste should be avoided while eating and meals should be served in a pleasing and relaxed atmosphere.
-- Well-balanced diet
He may, thereafter, gradually embark upon a balanced diet consisting of seeds, nuts, grains, vegetables, and fruits.

Other gastritis treatment may include:
--Warm-water enema, dry-friction
From the commencement of the treatment, a warm-water enema should be used daily for about a week to cleanse the bowels.The patient should be given dry friction and a sponge daily.
--Application of heat with a hot compress or hot water bottle
Application of heat with a hot compress or hot water bottle, twice a daily, either on an empty stomach or two hours after meals, will also be beneficial.
--Avoid hard physical, mental work, worries.
The patient should not undertake any hard physical and mental work.He should avoid worries and mental tension.
--Breathing exercises are essential
He should, however, undertake breathing and other light exercises like walking, swimming, and golf.

Remember! It is essential to know what's the real cause if you've suffered from gastritis. Relapsing is very common for this disease if the underlying pathology is not fully removed.
Hope this is useful for ALL! =D

Sharvama

2008-04-15T16:43:00.005+04:00

One of the most common and famous local food in this little town is called 'sharvama' (in Russian) It is a mix of grilled pork pieces, Korean preservative carrot, mushroom, spring onions, and sometimes French fries or cabbage stripes, together with tomato sauce and mayonnaise, wrapped in a skin(made of flour, well..no idea what it called exactly =p) It is of 2 types, Sharvama lavash(in flour skin) and sharvama butke(in bread).

Ya, it is very similar to the one we've known -- Kebab. Maybe it is originated from kebab, just the people here modify the content and call it 'sharvama'. However, they are not the same, coz kebab has different ingredients and most of them are wrapped with bread. In this town, Kebab is sold at high class food court and restaurant while ppl can buy 'sharvama' from food stall in the market or by the roadside.

It is very delicious and tasty, very tempting food especially if you're hungry. Although the price rises up again last semester, from 30 Rub to 50 Rub (about Rm 7) per piece, but it is still a good choice of meal since eating other outside food here is probably double or triple the price of this (see here for more) I like it very much, so do my groupmates and other ppl here =)

This is one of the most famous sharvama stall, situated at the end corner near the entrance of the market. It gains better reputation over other sharvama stalls because of its special ingredients and spices used in making it. You can smell it from miles away.. ^^

Look at the grilled pork, they look so delicious and smell good!
We'd just ordered 4 sharvamas (me, Eddy, Kelvin and Liew) and this russian lady was busy preparing for it. Just in less than 5 minutes time, we'd our sharvama ready to be taken =D

Ya, one of the sharvama we'd ordered. The shot is not that good pretty much due to the cold windy weather making my hands shivering =s

A must-to-try food if you've chance to visit any part of Russia =)

The Day

2008-04-14T00:07:00.000+04:00

IT is the first day of clinical pharmocology cycle today. This cycle will last for 1 and the half week. Nothing special with any other cycles except we all got 'pawned' by lecturer on the very first day itself due to some mistakes we did during the class. Well, it has been quite a long time we didn't get such a big bomb' and instead of being mad and down, we'd different feels most probably of slight 'excitement and refreshing' =p

And also we'd final exam on psychiatry subject today after the class of clinical pharmacology. Nothing much to say about this exam, one thing good is we can have it done before the semester ends. I was kinda tired after coming back to hostel and had a over-time nap till forgot the time for ping pong training session... >.<

Not a good feeling day. Something wrong with my stomach in the afternoon and continues till now, probably problem of the food I've taken... having few times diarrhoe and slight weakness ensues =(
Weather changes again abruptly today, no idea what's the exact temperature today, but it's probably around 4-6 C... still not that bad for me, but the strong wind is killing...

Just a simple day of mine...

World Tallest Skyscraper!

2008-04-13T23:37:00.005+04:00

Once in the past when I was still a school kid, I'm so proud of Malaysia's Petronas Twin Tower, which was the world tallest building during that time when it finally finished its construction in 1998.

But now it's no more the tallest building. With the advanced technology and descent creativity of mankind, more and more countries compete to construct a more unique and taller building in the world. Taipei 101 Tower has taken over the world record to be the tallest building in 2004. It is 504m in height over KL petronas Tower which is 452m.

Yet after all I'm sure no one can beat this ones... sooner later in this year, it will be the tallest ever skyscraper in the history of the world...Just imagine, it is almost double the height of KL twin tower!
--> The Burj Dubai.

Compare the top 5 in the world! KL Twin Tower is now World 3rd.
(Credited to BurjDubaiskyscraper.com)

View over the construction site. It is planned to be accomplished soon in the end of this year! No one knows yet its exact height, but estimated to be around 850m!

Just Great and Magnificent! The yet-to-be World Tallest skyscraper!

Amazing right? I found this when I search through the interesting places in Dubai as I might have a chance to pay a visit there if my flight transition period is too long. There's a lot of interesting and wonderful places in Dubai, and quite a number of them claimed to be the 'World Most' and 'World Best'!

Well, I'll look for more info and share with you all when I confirm my trip over there =D

All in vain in seconds!

2008-04-11T02:55:00.003+04:00

Today I'm really in bad mood! Just imagine that something you've worked up for several hours, combining all the related datas, information and statements from many different resources and just right before you finish the last step...bang! everything disappear and you've no way to trace back what you've done, no backup can be found, all your efforts just went in vain like that... >.< how will you feel in that moment? Have you ever had such experience? ...ya, it just happened to me...

I wrote a post about my points of view regarding HIV transmission rumours, which spread widely among the community of internet users. In this post, I wanna share some solid facts about these atypical way of HIV transmission so that more ppl know about the truth and correct idea of how exactly it can spread out. There's a large collections of these information, which I've to combine and extract them from different sources. It took up to 3 hours+ for me to do so. I've skipped my time for BMR event of the game, which I could rarely missed it before this. I was really tired but happy to see that my post was almost done. But guess what, just right before I finished my last sentence, I moved my mouse over the page and double clicked it... and my page disappeared!! I was stunned and couldn't believe what was happening.. was it gone? I quickly checked my history, my draft box, and even make it works offline, hoping to get back all that I'd just wrote... No, all had gone, this was just really disappointing! Few hours of works just wasted and gone in vain in a second of double-click =(

Well, I've no idea why I made a double-click over the page... it was really a very big mistake, but why the hell in this earth could a double-click close the page without any warning message?! ya, I'm using Advant Browser, and it was its default setting for double-click to close the page, which I knew only later. This is a very bad and not user-friendly default settings for closing a page. For IE (Internet Explorer), double clicks will only make it minimize but not closing the entire page. It is just ridiculous to bring down a page with a simple double-click >.< I was pissed off... well, nvm..after all, it's still my own mistake... =(

I should be more careful next time, especially when I see this line 'Could not contact Blogger.com. Saving and publishing may fail. Retrying...' I've no idea what was going on to my connection but I see those line quite often due to unknown reasons. I didn't really care whether if it is autosaved to draft before this, but now I know how pain it is to lose all the things that you've just wrote. I swear I would never let this happen again, a painful lesson for me...

Just wanna share this to you all, especially those using Advant Browser. Never double-click a page that you wish to continue to work on, it will cancel and close everything on that page (Well, maybe I'm still a noob to this browser, but it's still a good reminder to all)
About the lost post, I'll try to work it out again, but I need to rest now, it was 2.30am in the morning when that page was declared lost finally...

Local Restaurants

2008-04-09T19:00:00.005+04:00

Just wanna share something about eating outside in restaurants here in kursk =)
It is very common and often for everyone of us to eat outside everyday especially if you're busy and have no time to prepare a good meal. Another reason that most ppl choose to have meal outside mainly because of the food is cheap and at reasonable price. Anyway, the story is different here in kursk.

If compared with other Asian countries like Malaysia and phillipine, it is much more expensive to eat outside here in Kursk. We as students here seldom having meal outside except for some birthday parties and special vacations. We rather choose to cook and prepare the food in the hostel, which is really much more cheaper than having it outside.
It is not surprise to spend up to Rm 100 per meal in the restaurant here. Sometimes for having a simple normal meal, you got to spend at least Rm 20, which is just enough to fill up for your stomach. The place where most reasonable price you can get for a meal is university canteen(Stalovaya in russian), of which the food there is partly subsidised by local government.

Some of you might wonder why is it so expensive to eat outside here? Is the food served really worth that much of price? well, in my opinion, I think it is all because of 'class' of the restaurants here. All, if not I bet at least 90% of the restaurants here are all 'High Class' restaurants and they're just so well decorated and looks luxurious. They put lots of efforts and money on designs and decoration, made the restaurants look like 5-star hostel. Food isn't the only main aim for what the restaurant is built, frankly speaking, they aren't really tasty sometimes, just the atmosphere in the restaurants is good and comfortable.

This is the pic of a restaurant nearby a metro station in Moscow. I didn't even dare to have a try after looking at the price.. it costs at least 600 rubs per person for a normal meal.

This is restaurant named Dacha, situated nearby my hostel. Well decorated and nice designs on the wall. Price is still considered ok (if you know what to order =p) and the place is great for group meeting or friends' gathering.

Guess how much is this meal cost? It costs nearly 300 rubs, which is about Rm 45...

Ya, this is part of pizza =)
This semester, I've most of my outside meal here with my groupmates in Broaster n' Baskin Robbins. The food is just nice and the best thing is this pizza, costs only 130 rubs per 8 pieces. Really worth it especially for those who want nice food and yet reasonable price. Kinda cool place for students =)

The prices above are for kursk region only. It is 2x, 3x or even 5x in capital Moscow, the most expensive(living expenses) in the world nowadays, edging out Tokyo, New York and other big cities. (see here to get more info about living costs in Moscow)
So, better make sure the price of the food before having any meal in restaurants here, otherwise you would have to pay an unexpectedly high amount of money just for a normal simple meal.

updates!

2008-04-07T19:48:00.000+04:00

Hi to ALL! ya, I'm here again, not forgetting to update my blog although it has been quite some time I didn't update it =P

Well, I'm now having O'n'G cycle (Obestetric and Gynaecology). Thanks to the different teacher from last semester, this cycle is not as hectic as I thought. Apart from case-history taking, we've most of our time chit chat with each other. All different chatting topics can be found randomly here, we talk about everything, ranging from the most famour PRer Niny H. about her unique perspective of $$, to food and drinks, recent news in Malaysia, animals, dota, nick names, online games, hostel rumors, shifting to apartment, etc...blah blah... all kinds of topics except OnG-related topic =P
well, I do enjoy this time especially listening to those news or rumors in 5th hostel, since I'm the only one in my group staying in 4th hostel >.<
Yeah, Welcome back to Eddy S., who finally back rejoin our group =)

Maybe those who asking why I'm not here updating my news..well, I'm actually busy with other stuffs. 4th hostel cable renovation (click here to know more about this) is now reaching 7th floor, and I was busy helping my friends to move the stuffs in and out of the room between the floors. Thank God everything is getting almost done now after cleaning of the room for whole afternoon today. Apart from that, as you know (if you've read my previous post), it is now BMR event of 2Moons. Although not as crazy as some folks in the game, I do spend some of my time for that =)

Just my updates, wanna thanks to those who paying me visit from day to day, I really appreciate it ^^ take care all, c ya around~

Best 2Moons Christmas Video

2008-04-04T20:52:00.000+04:00

Aha! Just checked out the forum for the latest news and I've found this, the winner of December Dancing Girl Video Contest! It was supposed to announce the result of this contest earlier but due to some circumstances, Acclaim GM has postponed it till now. Anyway, Congratz to the winner, Windbringer2! The prize is so attractive and nice, which are $100 in Acclaim Coins, 2Moons T-Shirt and Mouse Pad! Wow, how nice if I'm the one getting this! hehe.. =P

This is really a good video, nice show and great creativity! I've met some of the character ingame before and this great videa comes to a success thanked to all his guildmembers in the game, who worked out together to get the video done.

If you've been playing one of any MMORPG game before, you'd know what the video says about. However, it has sad ending, with the beloved one died in the battle. Well, from what I heard, this guy plays this game together with his wife, and both of them come out with this idea of making a romantic video during Acclaim December contest. Great job! ^^

BMR event!

2008-04-03T10:43:00.001+04:00

Updating news for 2Moons players! ^^
Ya, is Bad Moon Rising event, in conjuction with the latest patch release, 2Moons has announced a series of events! I've found this in the latest news release, and I believe it's just a part of it, not all! ^^

To know more, please check it out in the forum. Hehe, maybe some of you might wonder why I shared this here, actually just wanna to let more players know about it, if there's any here, because some of the players never check forum for any latest news and always miss such a great and rare event!

The 2x event is only last for 1 week! Starting from April 4 to April 11. So grab this chance to power up your character. Time and events are stated below, and I'm really envy those newbies for the new level milestone gift! Most of them are item mall stuffs, and it's just nice to have them!

Hmm... ya, I'd received this question from a friend here, asking about IP block in certain countries. Well, it's true that this game has limited all the IP from other countries other than US and Canada I guess. Try to check it out more in the link to forum, as provided in my previous post. Ya, you can still register, but just can't log in the game. For some who know how to deal with proxy, can have a try of it, it might work! ^^
For those who wanna try this game out but failed due to IP restriction, here is another good news! Dekaron EU has set up exactly another server exclusively for EU players! Try to google it for more info, so far as I know, they are having closed-beta testing now, it's a great time to get yourself familiar with the game, the chance too good to be missed! =P

Well, so here are the news!

-- Experience Point/Drop Rate Boost
Earn 2x experience points and item drop rates during these event times. *The amount of XP/Drop rate boost on Wed will be a surprise!
11am – 1pm PDT
7pm – 9pm PDT

-- Treasure Chest Drop
GMs will drop treasure chests around the specified maps. Find the treasure chests to win special prizes inside!
2pm – 4pm PST
Maps: Denebe, Parca and Draco

-- Level Up Event
Increase your character’s level to earn special rewards for reaching the various level milestones!

LEVEL and REWARD
Level 10 prize
DIL –100K
Level 20 prize
Magic Health pack-B
Level 30 prize
Noble Health Pack-B
Level 40 prize
Divine Health Pack-B
Level 50 prize
Trieste Water-A
Level 60 prize
Soul of Alchemist 5EA, Trieste water-A, Abaddon Powder-A

- GM Showcase
Meet the GMs to see some of the game’s special high level content! GMs will meet with players at scheduled times and locations to showcase various special gear, weapons, items, and high level monsters. GMs will also be allowed to PvP during this event to show high level skills.

-- Bug Hunting Event
Submit screenshots of any game bugs or text errors to 2mbugs@acclaim.com. Prizes will be awarded to the players who submit the most bugs, the most significant bugs, and randomly for lucky bug reporters.

-- Random Drawing
All players who played during the events will be eligible to win prizes in a random drawing. Prizes include Veteran’s Amulets, Health and Mana Packs, Pets, and more!

-- Hunt the Creatures of God
Special unique items will be dropped when you hunt and kill the creature “Akris” wandering throughout various maps.

-- Contribution Event
Players need to contribute a certain number of vouchers to open the gateways to the new high level maps. Every player on the server needs to cooperate to open the maps. The number of vouchers needed will be displayed as a percentage in the game.

Just sharing out for some gamers around! =D
Have a great time!

Changes

2008-04-01T17:20:00.002+04:00

There're always some changes in our surroundings all the time, whether it's the good things or the unpleasant ones, sometimes we gotta accept and take it unconditionally. Different peoples have different reactions towards changes in their lives and therefore different outcomes ensue from the same changes. As we can see, for the same changes, some might react aggressively, some accept it quietly, while others with 'who cares?' manner will just ignore it.

I'm writing this because I notice that there're some changes taking place in my life here recently, especially on this very first day in April. Varying from significant degree to things that literally of no importance at all, these changes somehow affect me as well as the surrounding peoples. Few changes here include:

-- Transportation
My monthly expenses increase again due to increase in public transportation fees. Effective from this month onward, public bus fare increases from previously 6 rubs to 10 rubs..What a big difference!
Still remember when I first came to this place 5 years ago, the bus fare was only 3.5 rubs, and now it is almost triple! kinda burdening to use public bus now everyday but what to do..no other choices...
Anyway, it is still much more better than Moscow. In Moscow, public bus fare is 25 rubs per trip and for the metro-train it is 19 rubs per trip (cheapest transport). I think the price here will catch up sooner later if there's still no control over high inflation in this country.

-- Heavy Cycles
I've a very hectic timetable in April because of all heavy cycles dropped into this month. Well, yesterday was the first day of Therapy cycle, quite an interesting subject but it just takes too long time, which is almost double duration of normal class.
Good thing is that we're able to learn more things in this period of time, but each time after class, all of us are almost exhausted especially if there's another class or lecture follow by. After course of internal medicine, next cycle will be Obstetric and Gynaecology subject..another stressful and busy week to go..

-- Weather
Finally Spring comes! After weeks of great fluctuation of temperature, it is now eventually become more acceptable. Temperature ranged from 6-12 C this week. Personally I like the most this kind of weather =) not too hot or too cold, just nice and cooling ^^
But...today I saw for the first time in this year a mosquito in my room! Argh... you just can't imagine how terrible is the mosquitoes here! They are not only big in size but also in number and summer is their most active period that they can just make you an insomniac for the whole night!

-- Class Atmosphere
My group now is [11-1], of whom this 1 is still in Malaysia now. He is the one who smiles the most in the class no matter how boring the class is. He likes to joke around, creating a pleasant and wonderful atmosphere in our group.
Today we've Russian language class, the atmosphere was changed so significantly without his presence. All of us were so tired after therapy class and the atmosphere was so dull and weird. And for the first time ever, we'd such a boring and the longest russian class in this semester. You might not know how 'powerful' is his smile, that would otherwise not only makes teacher happy and euphoric, but also able to greatly shorten the duration of normal class!
We really miss this guy a lot especially his charming smiles that can bring so much 'advantages' to us (well, if you know what I mean hehe =P)
We're all waiting for you to come back to get started with a series of our planned activities. Group is not complete without you! Ya, I know you're reading this ^^
Hope to see you soon!

-- New Game experience
With my sharing about the games in previous post, I believe that you have already well-acknowledged of what are the changes in this game, which I've been playing since last year. 2Moons is a great MMORPG game that has recently undergone a big update called BMR patch (Bad Moon Rising). Ya, one of the visitors just leave a request for link to download the client. So, here it is.
Ya, answer especially to tiborsho - Yes, it's free to play! No month payment or hidden charge, unless you wanna spend on item mall for some extra equipments but it is your choice =)
One reminder: Make sure that you've signed up for the game before you can actually play it. Another restriction of this game is it has no longer allow new IP access from different countries since December last year, except for United States. To check it out more, it's good to visit 2Moons forum here.

And other minor changes here include my lifestyle, sleeping hours, etc...
How about you? ^^ I believe all of us experience changes every moment in our life. Well, no matter what the changes are, how big or small, I think we should take it as a challenge and face it optimistically.
Some changes might seem to be very unfavorable to you initially, but they might also turn out 360 degree anytime to give you an unexpected surprise, who knows right? =)

A Quick Snap

2008-03-31T21:03:00.001+04:00

Tame and Lovely...

Just wanna share this interesting picture! This rapid snapshot taken on my way back to hostel after therapy class. I was in a public bus, sitting alone at the back and felt kinda sleepy until I saw these herds of goats! I quickly took out my handphone and managed to take a shot before the bus left far.. luckily the snap is still ok =)
Actually, it is not too difficult to see herds of ruminants such as cattles and sheeps in this town, but rarely you can find them around the town area.

Well, let's count how many of them... 13 in total ^^ (Don't count the one on standing, he is the owner =P) Small herd but I was attracted by their colours, especially the only brown ones. Look at them, how tame and lovely are they! They're not only be 'friendly' to human and vehicles, but also they seem to know how cross the road, without instruction from their owner! Look left and right, then go... well, maybe these goats somehow learn something from human world in their daily routes =)

I've just discovered this! look at this white goat standing in the middle of the herd... do you see something? lol! look down... shitting?? hehe, I'm not so sure tho =P

Any idea how old are these goats? Here are some datas of their life span:
-- For Does (adult female) = 11-12 years average age, but... usually the death in does is kidding related. Does that are "retired" from breeding period around age 10 live longer... up to 16-18 years. But some can live up to 24 years.

-- Wethers (castrated ram) = 11-16 years average age

-- Bucks (adult males) = 8-10 average age - bucks usually live shorter lives than does and wethers due to the stresses of going into rut each year.

Kinda short life span if compared with human, but from the view of life expectancy ratio between male and female, it's the same that female always live longer than male.
Highest life expectancy (age) recorded in human is 76:83 (male:female), which is from Japanese nation as well as in Australia, while the lowest average expectancy lifespan found in Zambia, which is only 36:36 (omg, this is shocking! average 36 years..just imagine if we were born here...) In industrialized countries like Russia, it is relatively low in men:women, which is 57:70.

Just my sharing =D Have a nice day~

Bad Moon Rising

2008-03-29T12:22:00.000+03:00

2Moons... Big Patch effective on 31 March 2008!

Ya, this is the latest update of 2Moons, the game which I've been playing for few months since last year. 'Bad Moon Rising' (BMR) is the patch we're waiting since last year december, and it finally comes true after few delays!
This is the biggest patch ever in 2Moons. The patch includes many updates and new changes. Here's the latest release news from Game Master in the forum:

___From The Historian

We have a lot to cover..
To all the new people and those of you strting fresh, you will find a number of changes to helpyou get started in game. Not only have the low level quests been reworked, the Maze of Newbies has been modified and you will find a new creature, the Akris, that will really help you get going.

Additionally there are now little bonuses when you meet milestone levels.
First start downloading!
Lvl 10
Megenta Candy

Lvl 20
Super Magic Health Potion – Mini Pack
Red Lollipop

Lvl 30
Fortress Map [rabble]
Cyan Candy

Lvl 40
Super Noble Health Potion – Mini Pack
Blue Lollipop

Lvl 50
Fortress Map [fear]
Portal Scroll 10

Lvl 60:
Super Divine Health Potion – Mini Pack
Experienced Battle 3
Red Heart
Blue Heart

So what else is new? Well the Cash Shop got a few new things:

Mounts just got better. It used to be a 28% boots to your speed but now it is 32% and of course there is a new mount.
The old cash shop mounts can now be upgraded, so go see the stable master in-game!
Don't fret if you don't want to purchase a mount from the cash shop you can always get one in-game with dil. Unless you want the new mount... for that you will have to collect some feathers, though none of these have as good of a speed boost as the cash shop mounts.

So we know it is a pain to stoop down and pick up all the goodies that the mobs drop.. and maybe you are really just after divine items. Well with teh help of a little pet you never have to worry about it again.

First you purchase an egg, once cracked the pet will stick with you for a month. Once the month is complete it will go back in to its shell to recover some strength. Man can those pets sleep! You will have to purchase a bell to wake them out of their shells, but the bells are a lot cheaper than the initial egg.

We have 2 new maps for you..

First up the Aquirai Ruins. For those of you near level 131 prepare yourselves for a harsh map.

Here is a a peek of the layout, you will have to get there and explore for yourself.

Your greatest challenge will be the Immortal. He only spawns once every 24 hours and should prove to be a trial for the greatest of our warriors. Don't think that he will be your only challenge though there are many new creatures to get through before you see him.

The Space of Pilgrimage.
You will need to work with the Incar knights to help build the Tower of Hope by donating supplies. Once it is open you will need to move through the Aquirai Ruins.

There're New Weapons and Armors too!

The skills are coming too.. look around at the major MMO sites.. you might find details out there.. soon... very soon.

Finally.. there are significant changes coming to the server side to help with the issues we've been seeing in game. Along with these changes will be a zero tolerance policy for Hackers and Bottters. If you are caught, you will be banned with no chance of ever getting the account back. You've been warned.

___ Approved by The Historian

Ha! What a big info from GM! I like all particularly the last sentences which claimed to have 0 tolerance policy for hackers and botters. I think this is the main hope for me and many other real legit players out there, to whether continue or leave the game. Hackers and botters are now most serious problems in this game. But unlike certain MMORPG I played before, Admin here cares much about what players say. I hope there's no more hackers along with implementation of this Big Patch!

well, I think most of the 2Moons fan have gotten this latest release right? Downloading link is available now in the forum. Check it out =)

Have fun!

I'm Sick...

2008-03-27T23:13:00.003+03:00

I'm not feeling well these few days. Started from 2 days ago, I've this feeling that I gonna sick soon. Mild sore-throat and coughing are always 2 main symptoms before I fall sick. I hate sore-throat, it is so irritating that causes you not only hard to speak, but also difficult to eat and drink. I still remember that kind of burning, excruciating pain in the throat. I know this from past experience, and therefore without any hesitation I took 4 tablets of Vit.C supplement that day. As predicted, these symptoms alleviated next morning, and totally subsided on that day itself.

Thought that it was over, but when I wake up yesterday morning, other few symptoms came. I've suffered from nasal obstruction, sneezing and slightly dizziness. I didn't really care of it as I was rushing for psychiatry class. In the class, watery nasal secretion making me hard to pay full attention. Just right after case-history section with patient, my eyes felt so irritated when I looked at the sunlight reflected through the window. I couldn't control tears from running down, omg...I felt so uncomfortable with these lacrimation and epiphora. [Photophobia]

The symptoms worsen last night and I experienced heaviness of the head and eyes, fatigue and loss to concentration to do anything includes updating my blog and preparing for credit-test of psychiatry tomorrow. I knew it won't come out with something good if I tried and forced myself to finish all these works in this situation. So, right after my care-history assignment was done, I quickly jumped into my bed. Nasal obstruction just made me so hard to breathe and it became better only after application of decongestant ointment.

Today, I'm still suffering from all these symptoms, but a little bit better than yesterday. Photophobia still killing my eyes and sneezing is just terrible. Thank God that I passed my credit-test smoothly, even without any preparation! I was so scared of oral part, which I've to answer the questions given right on the spot. Ah! everything is over now! Just feel nice.. =)

All these while I continue to take vitamin supplements, especially Vit.C. It really helps a lot in fast recovery if you're experiencing the above-mentioned symptoms. And it prevents sore-throat effectively, 100% proven as I've this experience in past 5 years. But do remember to take it once you feel something wrong with your throat, before the pain appears.

Well, here is what I've concluded to have better and clearer view of this illness:

Symptoms: Nasal Obstruction, Feeling of dryness in the throat, sneezing, watery nasal secretion, epiphora (watery of the eyes, caused by photophobia), slight rhinolalia clause (abnormal speech attributable to nasal obstruction), dizziness, slight headache, fatigue.

Self-diagnosis - Rhinitis (Should be of viral origin - rhinovirus most probably)

Treatment - In my opinion, bed rest and vitamin supplements are the best treatment. Other methods consist of symptomatic treatment includes decongestant nasal drops to temporarily relieve unpleasant feeling.
Some people might use antibiotics at the very beginning of the illness, in order to get rid of all symptoms. Actually, this is not a smart way to do. You should give time to let your body to produce enough immunity to resolve it. This is the most natural and healthy way to deal with disease. However, it doesn't apply to all the cases, especially if you've fever, urgent seeking for doctor is the best way. In this case, Antibiotics are given only when there's secondary bacterial infection.

In normal course, it should be recovered within 1 week. But I believe it takes shorter course for me =D
I'm not sure about others, but every year I fall sick 2 times since I stay in this country 5 years ago. It happens in between season changes - from autumn to Winter ; from winter to spring. Most probably due to great fluctuation of temperature, low air humidity, strong cold wind and other factors which lead to decreased immune system of body. It seems hardly for me to avoid it, unless staying all the time at hostel without going out but that's impossible.

Take care everyone, especially those who staying in areas where season changing is taking place now.
Have a great day! Stay Blessed!

Improve Your Blog Stats

2008-03-27T22:30:00.005+03:00

Dexie, has sent me message informing to improve our Blog Stats for the blogs. Thanks Dexie for the tag! =D

So here it is.

Start Copy Here:

I have randomly selected 5 of you below to be tagged and I hope that you will similarly publish this post in your blog. You have to tag 5 other bloggers and just keep adding on to the list. (Do not replace, just keep on adding! Yes let’s hope a long list!) It’s real easy! Tag others and see your Technorati Authority increase exponentially!

The benefits of Viral Linking:-
One of the fastest ways to see your Technorati Authority explode!-Increase your Google PageRank fast-Attract large volume of new traffic to your site-Build your community-Make new friends!

And these are the people who already took part on this tag:Blognation, Pinoytek, Reyna, Bluep, Kotsengkuba, Buraot, Iris, Banco De Reyna, Mitch, Tatapilla, HappyMum, Mommy's Little Corner, A Simple Life, moms.... check nyo, Denz Techtronics, Denz Recreational, Sweet Lullaby, Buzzing Around, Beckoning Destiny, Loving Living and Laughing, Elite Space, [next insert here]...

End Copy Here-

I'm now passing this to Breezy, Zhoe Wynz, WongHongWeng, ShooHao, and xiaoxue.

Take care all! have a great day!

Phobia

2008-03-26T23:04:00.005+03:00

Do you ever have a strong fear of something? I'm sure all of us have experienced this term many times, if not at least once in our lifetime.

Phobia means a strong, irrational fear of something that actually poses little or no actual danger. It is a type of anxiety disorder and has now becomes very common in our society. I've came across this term just few days ago when I read about neurotic stress-related disorders. There're many terms denoting types of fear, but most of them are rarely seen, or even never been case-reported before.

There're few phobias that are very common among all of us. Here is the list of them:

1. Agoraphobia -- Fear of open spaces or of being in crowded, public places like markets. It is the cause of 60% of all phobic patients. Over 2/3 are female. Some of them may abuse alcohol or drugs in a effort to overcome their phobia.

2. Social phobia -- Fear of scrutiny by other people in comparatively small groups ( as opposed to crowds), leading to avoidance of social situations. It occurs in 3-4% of general population and average age of onset is 20-35 years old.

3. Specific phobias -- a.k.a isolated phobias. It is restricted to highly specific situations such as proximity to particular animals, heights, thunder, flying, blood, etc. I believe almost all of us have certain specific phobia. As for me, I've phobia toward specific insect, well, not gonna to tell what is it, or otherwise my groupmates will surely give 'something' surprise to me =P
I've found few interesting terms in this category as follow:

Phobia -------- Object of fear
Acrophobia -- Fear of Heights
Algophobia -- Fear of Pain
Achluophobia -- Fear of Darkness
Alliumphobia -- Fear of Garlic (too bad, garlic is so essential. Read more -here)
Elurophobia -- Fear of Cats
Anuptaphobia -- Fear of staying single
Arachnophobia -- Fear of Spider
Claustrophobia -- Fear of Closed spaces
Ichthyophobia -- Fear of Fish
Metathesiophobia -- Fear of changes
Myrmecophobia -- Fear of Ants
Xenophobia -- Fear of strangers or foreigners
Teleophobia -- Fear of Religious ceremony
Alektorophobia -- Fear of Chicken
Tonitrophobia -- Fear of Thunder
Selaphobia -- Fear of Light flashes
Zoophobia -- Fear of Animals
Obesophobia -- Fear of gaining weight
Logizomechanophobia -- Fear of Computer (?... sound funny)

Well, I found that it is not difficult to construct the term as long as you know Latin language, so there're probably thousands of terms.

Treatment is different in each case but general ones include psychological therapy and medications, such as antidepressants, behavioural therapy, beta-blockers, etc.
Of course not all ppl who fear of something obligatorily require these treatments. Anyway do not hesitate to consult your psychologist if the fear has given you troubles in normal daily life.

Have a nice day. God Bless All!

Psychiatry Cycle

2008-03-25T13:13:00.003+03:00

I've 2nd part of psychiatry cycle this week. Although at first this subject looks kinda boring, but some facts about which I've studied so far are really interesting. It is not easy to understand thoroughly the mechanism of mental disorders in human. It is so complex that it involves various fields such as neuroscience, medicine, biology, pharmacology, biochemistry and psychology.

Yesterday I've a chance to meet and interview with mentally-ill patient. Well, he was able to answer some questions normally, while others I've no idea what was he crapping about. I doubt whether if he understood what I'd asked, and seriously I've no clue which answers he gave were correct or maybe he was just bullshitting all the time?

Today we'd a movie clip section about this lady who was sent to hospital due to unexplained episodic seizures. When you see this clip for the first time, you might lol all the way at her behaviour, but once you understand her background and past history, you'll know how much sufferings she'd gone through these while. This world is cruel. she was 29 years old in year 2000. Before this, she was a normal person just like us. After an incidence (failure in relationship with her husband and family, peer pressures, financial difficulties, problem with her studies and baby...etc), she got some degrees of neurosis which she couldn't control it at all. This great impact had destroyed her normal social life as well as her future and everytime when psychiatrist asked her about this point in her past history (this is normal procedure of history-taking before an appropiate treatment can be given), she went in an uncontrolled state of seizures, failing to the ground, crying, shouting, yelling, muscle spasms and weird unsteady gaits. She was then returned to normal after few minutes. But again went into this state once she recalled that incidence.

I would say it's not uncommmon to meet such cases here in Russia. This is probably just a tip of an iceberg and I would say that this lady was lucky to be able to receive treatment after which her condition improved. Everytime when I walked into patients' ward at this department, I see these mentally disordered patients wandering along the corridor without direction and motive...ya, just aimless... you'll never know what they wanted to do next...few same question always appear in my mind - What are they waiting for? how's their future? do they know where are they now? do they know what's going on in their life?? I doubt they can give you even a single appropiate answer...

Some patients have positive result from the treatments given, and they are most probably able to return to normal life. But some patients are just hopeless I'd say, like the one I met past few weeks who is a Down syndrome patient, he is still a young teenager but probably gonna spend his whole life here... doing nothing at all, but eating and hiding all the time in his bed.

Being a nurse or physician here in this department is definitely not an easy job. I admit that I don't have such a great patience and persistence to deal with these patients. I really salute and respect those colleagues who have been serving here for many years. Without great loves, persistence and patience, one just can't take it and serve well in this field.

Finally I just wanna say that we should be grateful for who we are. Be thankful for what we've in our life. If we've a chance to read over the life-story of each and every single person in this world, it's not difficult to find out that we 're actually few lucky and the blessed one, of the billions ppl out there.

God Bless All! Have a nice day! ^^

Garlic and its Facts

2008-03-25T00:26:00.002+03:00

I was watching at Global Korea TV channel through satellite few days ago and found this interesting and very useful information about Garlic. Garlic, I'm 100% sure everyone knows about it and it is so often used in daily preparation of meals. But do you realise how much benefits would you get from this small little plant despite of its strong pungent smell?

Garlic has long been known as a herbal wonder drug, with its reputation in folklore for preventing various diseases ranged from common cold flu to grave disease like plague. It was worshipped by the ancient Egyptians, as a snack chewed by Greek Olympian athletes and thought to be 'essential' for keeping vampires at bay!

Garlic brings indisputable benefits not only to our health but also to medical fields nowadays due to its therapeutic effects. Really, it has play an very important role in our life that its uses are just too many to be mentioned so I'll just share its beneficial uses in the following list:

1. Antibacterial effect -- probably the ONLY antibiotic that can actually kill infecting bacteria and at the same time protect the body from the poisons that are causing the infection. The most sensitive bacterium to garlic is the deadly Bacillus anthrax which produces the poison anthrax. Besides that, tuberculosis cases treated with garlic are shown very successfully as the invading organism Mycobacterium tuberculosis is sensitive to several of the sulphur components found in garlic.

2. Natural mosquito repellent

3. Decrease cholesterol level -- Garlic is lipid lowering agent. The largest study so far was conducted in Germany where 261 patients from 30 general practices were given either garlic powder tablets or a placebo. After a 12 week treatment period mean serum cholesterol levels dropped by 12% in the garlic treated group and triglycerides dropped by 17% compared to the placebo group.

4. Impotence -- Believe or not?! Garlic has been known as an aphrodisiac (substance that can arouse sexual desire)! Well, fact is that an enzyme called nitric oxide synthase (NOS) is primarily responsible for the mechanism of erection. Studies have recently shown that garlic in certain forms can stimulate the production of NOS particularly in individuals who have low levels of this enzyme.

5. Circulation -- from a medical point of view it can improve blood circulation significantly.

6. Pregnancy -- Data taken from research carried out by O&G department in Chelsea and Westminster hospital, London, showing that garlic can cut down the risk of pre-eclampsia (high blood pressure and retained protein in urine). It can boost as well the birth-weight of babies destined to be small.

7. Powerful Antioxidant -- Antioxidants help to protect the body against damaging free radicals.

8. Fast cure for common cough and cold

9. Anti-cancer properties

10. Useful in Diabetic patients

11. As a cardioprotective agent

12. Garlic festival? -- yes! Gilroy is a small town in California and for many years now Gilroy and garlic have been synonymous, but it wasn't until Gilroy's annual Garlic Festival began in 1979 did the community embrace the local garlic industry. Today, Gilroy is best known as "The Garlic Capital of the World" and is world renown for its annual Gilroy Garlic Festival where thousands of flock to see, touch and yes, eat garlic.
Garlic however is popular all over America and there are many festivals held during the year - another big event is the Hudson Valley Garlic Festival in Saugerties, New York. At most of these events you will find garlic flavour in virtually everything from wine to soap, ice-cream, candy, meat and cakes!

13. It has synergistic effect with other health food supplements.

And many others! Well, you might wonder what is the component inside the garlic that make it so useful and beneficial. I got this info from TV as well, ya, ALLICIN is the key component of garlic!

I'll share more about Allicin in the coming post. Actually, I wanna share in this post about the way of making a good meal purely from garlic! 3 dishes in a meal, simple and easy And most important of these all 3 dishes, Garlic is the main ingredient! So let's call it as Garlic meal! ^^ Proven delicious and of course the healthy ones! But before all these, I wanna let all know about it benefits and uses, then you'd appreciate it way much more than just its good taste =)

So, do keep tune with following post about which I'm gonna share this recipe.

Have a great day!

By BlueStar

*Sources partly taken from Garlic Information Center, mistral.co.uk.

Easter Celebration

2008-03-23T20:09:00.004+03:00

Hi all! Happy Easter All! What are you guys doing in this day? any special celebration?

well, for me I've joined this special easter celebration in 4th hostel cell group. A small, simple and meaningful gathering of multi-racial students from Malaysia, SriLanka, Ghana, Africa, Nigeria, and India. Besides sharing about the real meaning of this Easter Day, we'd section of ice-breaking to introduce each other since most of them are newcomers to this cell-group, including me hehe, my first time here! ^^

It was then followed by series of brain-storming games and creative art drawing of easter's eggs! well, drawing made on an egg is not that easy by the way if you've tried it before. These self-designed easters eggs were then used as gift-exchange as a wish to each others =)

We'd also been served with various delicous finger-licking snacks and cakes. I like the most cheesecakes with fruit-topping, just delicious! (too bad i didnt take a snap on them..) Here is a snapshot of this spagetti which I think is very special, look at its layers and colour...I would call it as 3-layered spagetti =D

Although it wasn't a big celebration like past few years, but i think it was a nice and cool ones, especially celebrating this meaningful day with people from different backgrounds and countries =D

~~ Happy Easter Day to All! ~~

PhotoHunt | Metal

2008-03-22T17:08:00.004+03:00

This is my very first time joining PhotoHunt! Thanks all for supports ^^

This is an old bridge which I'd to walk through everyday during early weeks of my semester this year. I'd 2 weeks course of Tuberculosis cycle and this bridge is the only way for me to cross over to the opposite side of the river, where the hospital is situated. It was built for railways and now is nearly abondoned. It's an very adventurous journey and every step has to be very carefully especially during winter time. Have a nice weekend!

Joints Replacement

2008-03-22T13:03:00.003+03:00

Today I've seen some new instruments, shown by our teacher in traumatology class. This is first time I ever heard of them, and of coz I've never realize something like these would exist. So amazing to see how experts in this medical field put their efforts to save end-stage patient of poor prognosis of recovery from losing their legs.

These instruments are used only in the last stage of many severe diseases of the femur and knee joints, include osteoarthritis and osteonecrosis and often as a last choice of surgical treatment. Prior to this intervention, there're many other alternative surgical treatments such as core-decompression, bone-grafting, osteotomy, bone resurfacing..etc but once the disease involves joints and causing severe destructing effects on the sockets of articular surfaces, surgical replacement of the affected part is the only effective treatment.

Here are the pic taken in the class.

Stainless-steel hip joint! made of metal and is really hard, just imagine you've this piece of heavy metal inside your body... >.<

Knee Joint replacement parts - Left one is attached to femur bone, while right one to tibial bone.

This shows how they're used in joint replacement therapy.

I was searching for some useful informations and found this -- Pic taken during operation of Knee joint replacement surgery, where those devices are inserted to replace the diseased joint.

X-ray after hip replacement surgery.

Success rate of this surgery is very high, up to 95%. However, some patients suffer from chronic pain after the surgery. It is believed to be result of nerve damage during the operation. Besides this, another most common problem after surgery is dislocation due to man-made prosthetics are smaller than the original joint, the ball can then come out of its socket. Other rare complications include blood clots formation and infections. With this intervention, patient is able to resume his normal lifestyle except for having certain activities such as jogging and high-impact sports.

Just my sharings =D

Make A Wish

2008-03-21T00:40:00.003+03:00

I got tagged by Abby. Thanks Abby, I appreciate it! ^^

The “Make A Wish” Meme.

Here are the rules:

1. Think about what it is that you want more than anything, what your heart’s desire and fondest wish is, and what it is that you would wish for if you were to see the above wishing star flame across the night sky.

2. Right click and SAVE the blank graphic above.

3. Use a graphics program of your choice and place your wish on this picture.

So here are my wishes:

Now, I'm tagging LeeChien, dexie, glensgirl, LynnWei, Kang Yong, JohnnyKiu, Elizabeth, simplymama, deepben, Ik, Ling Di, writeshy, and Nederhop vidz.

* Is this 'Make A Wish' tagged to me so coincident?
I've just received a shocking sms from my good friend, one of my groupmates has to fly back home tonight following a heartbroken news about his father has passed away suddenly in this afternoon...i was stunned...
I Pray That My Wishes Come True And May God Bless and Guide him and his family. My deepest condolences to you and your family, take care buddy..

Unexpected Snowing

2008-03-19T14:12:00.004+03:00

Many of us here think it's spring season now and have never expect such a heavy fall of snow in the late morning today. For the past 6 years, I've noticed that winter season in this country ended earlier each subsequent year, probably due to global warming? It was normal weather changes if this happens in 2003, but nowadays, it's rarely happen to snow again at this time.

When I was discussing some X-ray films with my groupmates in the ward of traumatology department, snow fall out of sudden giving a surprise to everyone here. Some of us love it, while some worry about the way back to hostel as they didn't bring snow cap with them. In fact, it is quite a far distance from our hostel to this hospital, estimated about 1 hour by taking bus. And we've to bear with this for 2 weeks.

Some words about this hospital... personally, I don't think we can grab to learn much here because its condition is just... terrible. Well, can't expect much as it's kinda a rural area, and therefore the facilities and equipments are not as good as those in the regional hospital. The general condition of this hospital is even worse than what I'd expected before the cycle. Many casualties are hospitalized here because of the newly-built surgical department in the vicinity of hospital area. Overcrowded population, frequent blackout, unrestricted rules and patients' hygienic status making its quality highly doubted. I'll give the most 2 pts out of 10 pts of which 10 is the best.

Back to main topic =P yeah, here are some quick snaps to share with you all ^^

Window view, pic taken 5 minutes after 'discovery' of snowing.

Heavy snow after the class -- taken an hour after the previous pic.

ha! they are my groupmates =p all tried to hide under the only available umbrella, taken while waiting for the bus.

On the way for lunch! however, not all of us joined this, the rest back to hostel. Guess how many of my groupmates have just walked through here? =p

Looks like back to winter again! nice scenery around ^^

Temperature today is about 5-7 C, just nice for me =D

Chinese New Year Concert 2008

2008-03-18T01:26:00.002+03:00

Chinese new year(CNY)?? Hehe it seems somehow funny to post this topic at this time as CNY has passed long time ago =p

But it is true that we'd CNY celebration last saturday! Indeed it was a so belated celebration, but all of us as students in Kursk do really appreciate and treasure this concert. It is not easy to have such kind of celebration especially in Russia here because all of us are from foreign lands, and many difficulties ranged from Organising committee selection, approval from university, budgets for each event, financial sponsorship, performances, food, venue, ticket promotion...etc gotta break through before it is finally carried out. At first, it was planned to be held in January but due to semester exam, it had been postponed to February. And again due to majority of students left for winter vacation to other places, it was then rescheduled to March.

CNY celebration '08 was organised by Malaysian CNY committees @ Kursk Malaysian Medical Students' Association (KMSA). There're altogether 19 events include Lion Dance, Martial Art Performance, 'Wu Niang' dance, Acapella performance, bandchestra aka Dragon9, Fan dance, lucky draw and many more.

In my opinion, it was a very successful concert and CNY committes had really done their best to bring to all students here such a great wonderful night. We can see the hardworks of people in each and every single event. Credits and applauses to Wong Choc Ky, organizing chairman of CNY concert 2008. And also special thanks to our financial sponsorship namely Magaram Enterprise, Trans-Russian Company and Datuk Dr. Wong Sai Hou.

Another important thing not forget to mention is although it is this concert wasn't involved purely chinese, but also Malays, Indians, Africans and other different races over the nations! Glad to see that CNY concert this year was held successfully =) Many of my groupmates were involved and they'd a real busy weekend. They are Johnny Kiu (Camera-man of the night), Eddy Su (Usher + Mr. Chinatown of the night --Best chinese traditional dress..wow! kononnya la =P), Kelvin Chong (Backdrop and helpful committe member), and Ik (Usher too? or ticket collector? not so sure hehe =p). Any other of my groupmates involved indirectly? Well, if so, tell me and I'll put your name up! ^^

Here are some snaps from the concert =D

As written on the left banner -- China Town. View during last preparation of the stalls outside the hall before the event started.

View of the concert hall, taken before the opening ceremony. It is newly renovated and can accommodate more than 500 ppl. Many students arrived early to choose a best-view seat.

Lion Dance during opening ceremony. Well.. a kinda small 'lion' but it is really something so special here in Kursk, and I bet that this could be the first 'lion' in Kursk, Russia =) It was brought from Malaysia by a student during this winter holiday. I guess the organizing commitee members are surely much heartened by arrival of this little 'lion'.

Dancing Diva or so-called Wu Niang in chinese. Nice performance brought by a group of enthusiastic chinese and indian students.

Bandchestra-Dragon 9 performance - a cool musical show with all 9 different musical instruments played by 9 'Black Dragons'. So nice are the musics, so cool are the peoples, just fantastic!

Break time! Besides food, there're many stalls set up in 'China Town' to show and demonstrate the chinese traditions. Here twins were showing the correct way to make chinese tea to Dean of foreign students, Prof. Yuri Lyashev, accompanied by our organizing chairman, Mr. Wong Choc Ky (Right)

Guess what they were waiting? yeah, waiting for their names to be written by calligrapher pro! looking around you can easily see that both calligraphy stalls were full of ppl..russians, chinese, indians, malays, africans were all here for their chinese names! Hottest spot during the break.

Introducing the way to use chopsticks! 3 different levels of challenges, from the big-sized meatball, to cabbage slices, and the smallest - nuts! Well, these 2 russians are smart, they managed to grab meatball well in 2nd trial. ^^

Latin dance. Perfect performance brought by 5 couples of students.

Wow! This one is truly not an ordinary band! Formed just 2 months old and has 8 talented members. Before the performance, there was a funny clip about the process of band forming, causing much amusements and laughters from the crowds.
And now guess what song they performed?? ya, once the most famous song -- Kai Bu Liao Kou -- Jay Chou's song! Song performed not by chinese singers but 2 malays!! respect ^^ really a good job!

Agogo dance...just LOL! Can't stop laughing by looking at these funniest dancers, especially they're all your friends! Look at their dresses and the way they dance =D deafening applause from audience, excellent job!
Well, to those who might not know what agogo means, it is actually from words GO-GO, dance was originated in the early 1960s and one of whose meanings is "power of going, energy, vigor".

The whole concert lasts for 4 hours+, bringing to all the students here a joyous and wonderful night. =)

Just Feel Nice After All....

2008-03-15T00:51:00.005+03:00

Hi ALL! First of all, sorry for not updating my blog since 11 March. I was too busy with shifting all my stuffs into a new renovated room.

Well, if you've read my previous posts about hostel renovation, then you'd know what's happening here to my room. Not gonna explain more but just to share with you some pics about this change as I've promised to. (Care to to know in detail? read this and also this one)

I was homeless for about 1 week, staying in friend's room with almost all my belongings in another storeroom, except my computer and important documents.
Pics say it all...

Everything is moved away from the wall and covered with clothes.

Wall before drilling.

Wall after filling. The room was so dusty and dirty, I couldnt even breath without mask... just suffocating... >.<

Another view. The drilled drain is running up and down to all sockets in the room.

The corridor is full of bags, tables,..etc, some students just put their stuffs here left unguarded.

Cable renovation involves all rooms in this 9-storeyed students' hostel. It was built in 1970s and designed chiefly for low-cost residence. As it turned into students' hostel in the end of last century, it is now no longer able to supply adequate electricity.

New wall paper covered the damaged part of the wall. All at own expense. I spent hours to finish pasting all damaged parts... so tiring, and it's really not an easy job =s

And finally, I've settled down in this small lovely room =) Spent up to 2 days to clear the dust, clean and rearrange everything here. I slept for only 3 hours on the first day of cleaning =(
Dust is the main problem, vacuum the floor is just simply not enough to clear it, coz it sticks everywhere on the wall, ceiling, window,...etc. Most of the time used up for cleaning the dust.

Cleaning every single little thing, includes my CPU interior!

And now, I've it back =) My gaming, blogging, surfing, movie.... entertainment corner! ^^

My study corner =)

Well, is time to rest now, need a good sleep...so sleepy and really exhausted after all these. Thank God for my recent cycles are not that hectic, and for now I'm having traumatology cycle, not busy at all just the hospital is located too far away from my hostel, 1 hour taking bus >.<
Anyway, feel happy and contented after everything is over and knowing that no more blackout would happen again after this renovation ^^

Rules of FOUR

2008-03-11T23:36:00.004+03:00

This tagg is given to me by my friend in blogging Noel. Thanks a lot buddy, i really appreciate it! ^^

RULES OF FOUR Here It is...
4 jobs I have had:A promoter, A seller, a student and and a tuition teacher.

4 movies I watched over and over:Die Hard, Rush Hour, Kung Fu, Hitman

4 shows I watch: Superman, Cartoon Network, Black sheep, Guess

4 places I have been: Berlin, Prague, Dubai, Moscow ( there're more for all i believe =p )

4 people who email me: Game alerts, forum alerts, Google groups & of coz my dear friends...=)

4 favorite things to eat: Sushi, MacDonalds, Pizza & Jelly

4 places I would rather be: Wellington, Berlin, Borneo , sydney

4 things I look forward to this year: good result in my studies , More Blessings to come, Healthy Body & mind, and Success in all my plans!

Now Im tagging lynnwei, EddySu, umdenosdois, Johnny, Ik, liza, A Blessed Life, Abby, +*+ julia +*+, hannah, curryegg, ester, Green Bali, and sexymom.

New cycle

2008-03-11T14:16:00.000+03:00

New cycle starts today - Pyschiatry. It's branch of medicine dealing with mental disorder and its treatment. 'Psych' in Greek word means soul and mind while 'iatros' means healer.

Well, what come first to your mind when you see this word 'Psychiatry'?
It is actually different medical branch from psychology but both of these departments are placed in the same block in most of the countries due to close inter-relationship with each other.

Flipping through the notes, I found some interesting topics - Disorder of Intelligence (IQ), Personality disorders, Sleep disorders, Mood disorders, Eating disorders, Schizophrenia...etc. All of these topics are somehow new to me and different from what I've studied in the past...sound interesting, hope it's not boring concepts of mentality like the one in Psychology =p

Online Games Abbreviations

2008-03-10T00:07:00.002+03:00

If you are an online-gamer, I'm sure these short-forms listed below are not a strange abbreviations for you. I've exposed myself in many different games for many years and I've concluded these most common abbreviations used in the world of a gamer. Not to blah about anything, just wanna share with you my own gaming experience. Maybe some of you use these short-forms too often in daily sms, or you've gotten familiar with them because of peer interation around you. But I'm sure not all of these terms you've seen unless you've been such a hardcore gamer like me =P
Well, I've spent much time engrossed mostly in MMORPG games (Silkroad Online, 9Dragons, 2Moons, etc) I've shared it in the early post, and if you're still new about it and wanna get to know more about facts of online games, click here.

Some most commonly used abbr.

asap - as soon as possible
afk - away from keyboard
brb - be right back
brt - be right there
bb - bye bye
cu - see you
cq - commision quest
dp - dungeon party
gl - good luck
glhf - good luck have fun
gm - good morning
GM - Game Master
Gl - Guild leader
gn - good night
gtg - got to go
Imao - laugh my ass out
L1 - Lane 1
L2 - Lane 2
LFP - Looking For Party
LFM - Looking For Members
LFG - Looking For Guild
lol - laugh out loud
np - no problem
nth - nothing
nvm - nevermind
omg - oh my god
omfg - oh my ****ing god
omw - on my way
pls - please
pt - party
pwlvl - powerlevel
ss - screenshot
stfu - shut the **** up
sry - sorry
ty - thank you
ttyl - talk to you later
wtf - what the ****
wth - what the hell
WTB - Want To Buy
WTS - Want To Sell
yw - you're welcome

**** are vulgar forms, I believe you know what they are =P

* Thanks to Eddy for giving me some of these information =)

Sushi Day!

2008-03-09T00:50:00.002+03:00

Today I'm really bloated with different kinds of sushi! =) They are really delicious and tasty, and worthy at the same time the price is much more cheaper than that selling outside. Thumb up to those students who prepare it!
In conjuction with MyGame! winter07 price giving ceremony, our Malaysian Students' Association (MSA) has organised such a event called 'Jom Kita makan-makan'. There are about 8 foodstalls of which different kinds of food are sold. There're nasi lemak, nasi campur, various kinds of cakes, egg sambal, indian food, drinks, and of coz my favourite sushi =)
Actually I didnt know what kind of food they're selling before I went there. Thought of going there to receive medal of MyGames! winter07 for 1st runner up in ping pong men's double. The hall was crowded with mostly international students and some russians were there to join the event as well. Such event is seldom seen here but good response from students showing it is a success and worthy to hold it more often =)

I like this one very much! Sushi with prawn, seaweed, cucumber,etc covered superficially by.. hmm should be fish eggs =P

Each set of this costs 160 Rub. This guy bought 5 sets!

Different colours of sushi made of different ingredients, taste very good! =P

Another new tray of green sushi. Previous one sold off in 10 min!

Women's Day

2008-03-08T03:13:00.003+03:00

It's 8th March today -- a special day to all women out there.
HAPPY WOMEN'S DAY to all! ^^

*---Woman is the companion of man, gifted with equal mental capacity ---*

Athlete's Foot

2008-03-08T00:11:00.003+03:00

What? Athlete's foot?? sound nice is the term but when one comes to understand what exactly it is, you'll be freaked out of it =p
No doubt, this term indicates a medical pathology. Its medical term is tinea pedis, a fungal infection which is very common in tropical and subtropical countries, especially in the summer and the monssonn than in the winter. Men are more frequently affected than women.

What is the causes?
The body normally hosts a variety of microorganisms, including bacteria and fungi. Some of these are useful to the body. And others may, under certain conditions, multiply rapidly and cause infections. Athlete's foot occurs when a particular type of fungus grows and multiplies in your feer (especially between your toes) or less commonly, your hands. These fungi thrive in warm and moist areas. Your risk for getting athlete's foot increases if you:
-Wear closed shoes, especially if they are plastic-lined.
- Keep your feet wet for prolonged periods of time
- Sweat a lot
- Develop a minor skin or nail injury
- Athlete's foot is contagious, and can be passes through direct contact, or contact with items such as shoes, stockings and shower or pool surfaces.
Athlete's foot is a communucable disease. It can be transmitted from person to person in moist environments where people walk barefoot, such as showers, bath houses, and locker rooms. It can be transmitted by sharing footwear with an infected person, or less commonly, by sharing towels with an infected person.

How does it look like?
Lesions may appear as isolated vesiculo-pustules, or bullae, or as patches of erythema and oedema with a scattering of vesicles and pustules, the vesicles may develop into ulcers. Oozing is slight. It is accompanied by intense itching and burning. Secondary infection results in pain, lymphangitis and regional lymphadenitis. This variety has the appearance of an eczematoid or pompholyx eruption. Auto- sensitization produces an ide eruption (which resembles dyshidrosis from which it must be differentiated) on the palms of hands, and, may be, the, other parts of the body as well.

How does it diagnose?
Although athlete's foot can usually be diagnosed by visual inspection of the skin, the diagnosis should always include direct microscopy of a potassium hydroxide preparation (known as a KOH test) at the start of treatment to rule out other possible causes, such as eczema or psoriasis. A KOH preparation is performed on skin scrapings from the affected area. The KOH preparation has an excellent positive predictive value, but occasionally false negative results may be obtained, especially if treatment with an anti-fungal medication has already begun.

What is the best treatment available?
Over-the-counter antifungal powders or creams can help control the infection. These generally contain miconazole, clotrimazole, or tolnaftate. Continue using the medicine for 1 - 2 weeks after the infection has cleared from your feet to prevent the infection from returning.

In addition:
- Keep your feet clean and dry, especially between your toes.
- Wash your feet thoroughly with soap and water and dry the area very carefully and completely. Try to do this at least twice a day.
- Wear clean, cotton socks and change your socks and shoes as often as necessary to keep your feet dry.
Athlete's foot almost always responds well to self-care, although it may come back.
Severe, ongoing infections that don't respond to 2 - 4 weeks of self-care, and frequently recurring athlete's foot, may require further treatment by your health care provider. Stronger, prescription antifungal medications may be needed. These include topical medicines, like ketoconazole or terbinafine, and pills. Antibiotics may be necessary to treat secondary bacterial infections that occur in addition to the fungus (for example, from scratching).

Last but not least, Prevention is better than cure =)
To prevent it, it is important to
--> Dry your feet thoroughly after bathing or swimming.
--> Wear sandals or flip-flops at a public shower or pool.
--> Change your socks often to keep your feet dry. This should be done at least once a day.
--> Use antifungal or drying powders to prevent athlete's foot if you are susceptible to getting it, or you frequent areas where athlete's foot fungus is common (like public showers).
--> Wear shoes that are well ventilated and, preferably, made of natural material such as leather. It may help to alternate shoes each day, so they can dry completely between wearings. Avoid plastic-lined shoes.

Stay healthy. The groundwork of all happiness is healthy! =)

Hostel renovation

2008-03-06T14:11:00.000+03:00

Boom! It was Wednesday yesterday and I love this day not only because that my dermatology cycle has ended but also there's an multiple experience event in the game that I've been playing for nearly 5 months. I was kinda tired after coming back from clinical pharmacology lecture. When I reached my room, there's no power supply in my room as usual, due to the cable renovation, as I mentioned in the previous post. Electricity will be on normally at 8-9pm and at that meanwhile, I went to have my dinner in friend's room.
Right after dinner before I reach my room, I saw hostel dean was standing near staircase, and she told me that my room got to be ready for renovation by tomorrow. I was like..wth..before this she told me my room will be done in next week, and now she said tomorrow... damnit, I was in the mood of game and now I got to sacrifice the time to occupy myself with this matter. My friends next door had quarrels with hostel dean and it is all about this stupid ever idea of renovation. I visited few rooms where renovation has been done, and omg...I really got a shock -- scene not better than that after 2nd-world war, all dirty dusty stuffy... I couldn't stand it, wondering how the host gonna clean this mess up.
I spent nearly 5 hours to move all my belongings to a designated vacant room, and those of no great valuable things I left them in the room, covered by big white clothes provided by hostel admin. I moved 2 of my computers and important documents to friend's room...finished everything at 2.18am =S
How sad I can no longer access to internet anymore until the renovation is thoroughly done. Thanks to Esther who allow me to compose and publish this post =) Hopefully everything gonna over soon...

Online Games

2008-03-05T08:40:00.000+03:00

Just wonder what online games have you ever try before? For myself, I started to expose myself to online games since about 10 years ago. Still remember the first game I played is first-person shooter game, then had been addicted to Neopets for quite a long time before my interest shifted to real-time strategy games. And now I've get myself into Massively mutliplayer online games, which I think is the most popular and the best kind of game I've ever seen. Personally, I like to play MMORPG (Massively multiplayer online role-playing game), but there're also many of my friends playing MMORTS (MMO-real-time strategy) and MMOFPS(MMO_ first-person shooter) games. Others which are gaining more popular nowadays include MMODG(MMO-rhythom games), MMOMG(MMO-manager games), MMOR(MMO-racing games), MMOTG(MMO-tycoon game), MMOSG(MMO-Sports games), etc.
Online games has became popular since late 1990s and its population has increased dramatically in 2000s. Here are top 10 gaming industry facts that prove no doubts that online game has became one of the most important activity in a person's pastime.

TOP 10 INDUSTRY FACTS:
1. US computer and video game software sales grew six percent in 2007 to $9.5 billion – more than tripling industry software sales since 1996.
2. Sixty-seven percent of American heads of households play computer and video games.
3. The average game player is 33 years old and has been playing games for 12 years.
4. The average age of the most frequent game buyer is 38 years old. In 2007, 92 percent of computer game buyers and 80 percent of console game buyers were over the age of 18.
5. Eighty-five percent of all games sold in 2007 were rated "E" for Everyone, "T" for Teen, or "E10+" for Everyone 10+.
6. Eighty-six percent of game players under the age of 18 report that they get their parents’ permission when renting or buying games, and 91 percent say their parents are present when they buy games.
7. Thirty-six percent of American parents say they play computer and video games. Further, 80 percent of gamer parents say they play video games with their kids. Sixty-six percent feel that playing games has brought their families closer together.
8. Thirty-eight percent of all game players are women. In fact, women over the age of 18 represent a significantly greater portion of the game-playing population (31%) than boys age 17 or younger (20%).
9. In 2007, 24 percent of Americans over the age of 50 played video games, an increase from nine percent in 1999.
10. Forty-nine percent of game players say they play games online one or more hours per week. In addition, 34 percent of heads of households play games on a wireless device, such as a cell phone or PDA, up from 20 percent in 2002.

Some interesting facts I found in gamers player data researches in US showing that the average adult woman plays games 7.4 hours per week. The average adult man plays 7.6 hours per week. Though males spend more time playing than do females, the gender/time gap has narrowed significantly. Whereas in 2003, males spent an average of 18 more minutes a day playing games than did their female counterparts, in 2004 they spent ony six minutes more each day doing so. Females spend an average of two hours more per week playing games now than they did a year ago.

So what about you? =)

Another renovation...

2008-03-04T20:52:00.000+03:00

Argh...just hate to know something gonna happen to my room again. I'm staying in this old students' hostel for years. Recently, there's a series of renovations carried out from room to room thoroughly and blackout happened so many times in past few weeks until this week when it finally get stabilised. Before I can enjoy this happy moment, another renovation is carried out! well, it is also not about something good, but installation of new eletrical cable. Ya, it sounds good, but I dont feel that way as I know how they're going to do it.
We, residents of 9th floor are the first batch of such 'project' and we're asked to shift all our belongings away from the wall because they're going to drill a drain in the wall to put the new cable inside. This is crazy! My room is packed and full of stuff (it's 3-ppl room but large enough to accomodate only 2 persons), no way for me to move all things from the wall unless to bring them out from my room.
It is just a very bad idea to drill the wall for cable installation, as it will not only destroy wall paper but also make the room stufft and dusty. For this matter we'd a discussion with hostel dean and gave our opinion to fix the new electric cable On the wall (covered with palstic pipe) instead of In the wall (in drilled drain), this is obviously easy, less time-consuming, energy and manpower save, and most importantis bringing less affection to our normal students' life here. But they insist to go on their way, which I really can't see any good reason they're doing so except maybe... save up a little penny on plastic or pvp cable pipe? >.<
The worst thing is we've no idea how long it will take to finish the whole installation. Every installation of each single unit requires shutdown of power supply of the whole floor and just imagine, there're 10 units in each floor...1 unit a day = 10 days no power supply... WTH can you do within this time?! However, thank God for what they've promised to resume electricity at night.
Well, today is the first day of this 'big project', I've taken few pic of each room and will share with you all the changes of before-and-after the installation.
5th hostel ppl are lucky no renovation is needed since it is a new building, I think i'll spend more time there now rather than going back own room doing nothing in the dark =(

Tang Yuen

2008-03-04T02:38:00.000+03:00

It is also known as glutinous rice ball. Tang yuen is usually eaten only on special occassions like the Winter Solstice (Dong Zhi) and on weddings.
Neither both when I eat this, just simply an idea of having different kind of dinner. Ya, I've tang yuen and green bean soup for my dinner today..simple,easy and nice! =D I bought this packet of glutinous rice flour in Moscow during winter break and this rice flour might be too common to get in your place, but you'll never find one in Kursk. That's why make it so precious =p
No special recipe used, just simply add adequate water to the rice flour, then make it into round oval shape and put them one by one into a rapidly boiling water. Stir few times to prevent sticking together, and after 5-6 min when you see them floating, it is ready to be served. You can either serve it in soup or with grinded groundnut+sugar, like what I used to do =)
Actually there are many ways of making various kinds of delicious and colourful tang yuen (like pork filled tanh yuen, black sesame seed tang yuen, black sesame soup, etc) the one i made is the simplest plain tang yuen =p

Tang yuen mixed with grinded nuts, believe me it's nice! ^^

Full and bloated after eating, although not so well-mixed, but it tastes great =)

Colourful tang yuen soup

-Late post-

Moscow

2008-03-02T03:05:00.000+03:00

What do you think about life in Moscow?
Something might be just hard to believe until you really experience it. According to the latest cost-of-living survey from Mercer Consulting, Moscow now ranks as the world's most expensive city, edging out Tokyo, which held the No. 1 spot for four straight years. Can you imagine that..A luxury two-bedroom in Moscow now rents for $4,000 a month; a CD costs $24.83, and an international newspaper, $6.30, according to Mercer. By comparison, a fast food meal with a burger is a steal at $4.80.

I myself really experience how expensive it is during this trip to Moscow. Well, let's compare the bus fare. In Kursk, it costs 7 rub most but in Moscow, cheapest is 20 rub. Tram fare in Kursk costs 6 rubs while in Moscow 25 Rub. I'd this most terrible experience - do you think how much does it cost to develop 5 passport-sized photos? In Malaysia, instant photo costs around Rm10 or less(which is about 70Rub), but here in Moscow, guess what, it costs 450 Rub! (~Rm 65) I feel like money flows out from my pocket faster than any other thing else here =s

I'd my 3 meals all in MacDonald since it's the cheapest fast food you can get here. Wanna share few pictures taken during the trip.

Malaysian Embassy frontview

Huge German Embassy building with nice japanese decoration around the compound there.

Pic taken in one of the most beautiful shopping complex in Kievskaya, Moscow.

Trip to Malaysia Embassy in Moscow

2008-02-29T18:36:00.000+03:00

It was not a holiday or any vacation, just a trip to Malaysian Embassy in Moscow for the purpose of passport renewal. The due date for the passport is on July 08..yes 6 months still, but because of this, visa validity will be effective till July as well and this is a problem coz our summer holidays last 2 months till Sep, so needa extend its validity till that time.

Well, this is not the first time I visited Moscow, i'm quite familiar with its local transport system and metro-lines. But still there's a tricky part, which is to find the location of the embassy. The address itself doesn't provide any clear route as there's no direct link way to any metro station. It is always a difficulty for non-local students to find out the exact location.

Thanks to Kenny from M2 for providing the useful information about the way to Embassy. For those who has encountered the same problem or confuse with the location of Malaysian Embassy, here are some options and useful information :)

Address : Mosfilmovskaya Ulitsa 50
117192 Moscow
Russian Federation
------------------------------------
Telephone : +7495 1471512, +7495 1471514, +7495 1471523
Fax : +7495 9379602
Email : malmoscow@kln.gov.my
GMT : +4 (Daylight Saving Time), +5 Winter
Work day : Monday - Friday (9.00 am - 5.00 pm)
Holiday : Saturday and Sunday and *other official holidays.

*other official holidays? ya, check this, here is the link I've found:

It is, however, important to call to embassy to confirm whether they're working or not on the date you plan to visit, especially if you're from other regions. As for me, I did mistake on the first visit which was a day-off..ended up staying overnight in Moscow's airport =(

All routes I gonna share here take start from Kuskaya intercity train station.
1 -- From Kuskaya station, take a public cab and show the driver the address. (However not all drivers know the way! So ask before you get in =)) Recommended for rich ppl only, not me for sure =p it's costly, I dont know exact price but you may have with you at least 2000 Rub!

2 -- From Kuskaya station, go to Kuskaya metro (which is directly located beside Kuskaya train station). From there, take metro N3 (blue line) to Kievskaya metro station. When you reach Kievskaya metrostation, come out from the station and you'l find many public buses right in front of the metro building. Take any bus which has 'Mosfilmovskaya Dom50' written on routeboard near the bus entrance. It is better to ask local ppl at which station you need to go down. But it is ok if you choose not to ask. Just have to sit on the right seat near window so that you can clearly see everything outside. It takes about 10 min. (Dont follow the route line shown in the bus, it's not correct and misleading!) Right before the stop, you can see a green petro-station on your right side and there's a traffic light before the stop. Go down at here and walk straight down the street where you can find huge German Embassy (Brown Building) on the left side and to the right side, you can find Austria Embassy. Malaysian Embassy is situated behind German Embassy. Most economic way, whcih costs less than 100 rub per trip.

3 -- From Kuskaya station, Take metro to University metrostation (Red Line, N1) From there, take either bus or tram (with route to Mosfilmovskaya Ulitsa/Dom 50) Again, the most important landmark is the green petro-station and German Embassy. In this case, the petro-station and German Embassy will be located opposite the road on your left side.

I chose 2nd option and it's really easy to find it. 3rd Option is nearer to Embassy from said metrostation, but take longer time for metro to reach there.
Anyone who wanna know more about this, I can share with you more detail. Just add me in Msn at 2mstar@live.com =)

Unforeseen...

2008-02-28T14:13:00.000+03:00

Well, it's me here. It seems like I've been disappeared for a long time, but im actually not. Many unforeseen things happened recently, things just messed up unexpectedly sometimes, even you struggle to make it to be in your way.

First, I was unable to sign in my google account ever since my last last post and that's why couldnt work on to update this blog. I can visit my own blog and it seems normal, just I couldnt do any changes since I wasnt able to login. It was really sickening, since all correct data(pw and username) had been entered accordingly, but yet it comes to an error page.
Some changes I did notice on the login page. Firstly preferred language. I'd set it to English but now it appeared in Russian language. When I changed it back to English, yes it was alright in English then right after setting...but turned back to Russian language again in the subsequent page -.- well, it was the same result after few attempts to login in russian laguage page.

I asked my friends regarding this, some said it was due to recent update of Blogger. But all of them here were unaffected except me alone =(
I did suspected it might be caused by virus, but nothing found after scanning through with 3 updated antivirus software.
Next I searched for Help section in google page, and found some useful threads. Ya, at least i realised that not only me in this earth got this problem =p tried all suggestions, eg. deletion of all cookies, use of other explorers otherthan IE, recheck password and username, simple trials for xxx times....etc..failed!

What else can I do then? worst comes to the worst, recreate a new blogpage. Well, just let it be at that moment as I'd to go to Moscow for passpost renewal, a more important thing to be done. 2 following days spent on that before back to my hostel...>> internet problem >> blackout >> more to come?

Wanna say sorry to those who were here looking for my updates and I know I've disappointed you all. Well, thank God it's now OK and frankly, I dont know what, why, how it works again but I do enjoy this moment to write here =)

Wow !!

2008-02-25T12:39:00.000+03:00

Finally!!! Finally Im able to sign in and everything is OK at the moment!
Tot I've lost in space forever?? I was thinking of creating a new one other than this but after think twice and try for xxx times, finally Im able to be here!!

Really thank God for this! k, recontructing now... be right back!

I'm BACK!!

2008-02-12T16:56:00.000+03:00

Hi All!! I'm BACK!! :D
Back to my lovely bed, my games, my study, my normal life...as well as here my blog! =)
Actually I was back few days ago from the winter trip, just too tired and busy to get to here as many things got to be done. Right after I came back from Moscow, I got to return back my visa to OVIR department ASAP as it has been stated that any student who arrives this country has to issue related documents and register with the authority within 3 days upon arrival or would otherwise liable to a fine of 5000rub! (more than half of my monthly expenses =s)
Other than that, unpacking my backpack and things which I bought from Ikea took me some time and of coz before all these, sleep is most important! =p

About the trip..ya, a tired and yet wonderful trip! It was a 10-day trip covering 3 big cities -Berlin, Prague and Moscow. I'd 6 days great memorable trip in Berlin, 3 and the half day in Prague, and 2 days spent in Moscow. It was a 8 ppl trip and we settled down most of the time in local hostel except 2 nights before coming back -a night in 24-hours MacDonald and another in Moscow airport.

I still haven't got time to arrange all the photos taken during this trip. (btw, they're still in my memory stick =p) Anyway, I'll share with u all the trip from day to day once I've collected and organised everything. And to my sis Hee, if you drop by here, share my experience of this trip to pa, ma and others =) Also thanks to my ex-roomate Andrew, for taking care of my comp during the trip ^^

Well, is time to make a thoroughly clean up of my messy room. Btw, new semester started this week and my first cycle is ptysiopulmonary course (weird when I first heard about this term, only now I found it is actually a subject related all to Tuberculosis). Something really interesting about the location of this hospital which I'd like to share with you all in next post. It's just like an isolated hospital hidden in a quiet remote area, you'll definitely lost if there's no guide from others!

Hope to hear from you all again. Ya, my belated wishes to all out there celebrating Chinese New year: Happy CHY!!
(guess wat, no celebration of CNY for me this year...how pity i'm to stay in Moscow airport during CNY' eve >.<)

Wow!

2008-01-27T03:32:00.000+03:00

Wow! It's holiday finally! ya, yesterday was the day last of this semester. The exam lasts for 5 hours and i was so tired after that (coz didnt sleep for whole night. Anyway, it's over and now it's time to make a proper plan for my winter trip to Germany. I've just got my visa today in OVIR department and met quite few of my friends there. Most of them are going to Europe for winter break.

It seems like I've disappeared from here for quite some time hehe =p too busy recently with my preparation for exam. And for the next week, i'll not be around here, and most probably cant update my recent news here as i'll be in Germany and some other nearby places, unless i stop by CC there. But, i'll share with you all about this trip for sure! it's planned by one of my friends and we're actually doing backpacking this time. Im going to snap as many pic as possible using my new digicam which can save up to 3000 pic =)

Have a nice winter holiday to all my coursemate here!

E.N.T.

2008-01-22T01:06:00.000+03:00

E.N.T.??
It is actually an abbreviation for Ear, Nose and Throat or Otorhinolaryngology in medical term ^^ It studies about anatomy and physiology of the nose, pharynx, larynx and ear together with the problems of propedeutics, development, diagnostics, treatment and prophylaxis of ENT diseases.

Ya, it is the my last final exam for this semester. 3 more days for preparation and it seems like I'm a bit slow in my revision. This exam is somehow different from the previous one as it's gonna be face-to-face presentation of the answers. It has 3 parts, which mean 3 Questions. All questions have to be answered orally and it depends largely on how well you can ellaborate and bring out the correct answers. I heard from my seniors that if someone can perform well in the first 2 Questions, the third one is bonus (u got + without answering that Q). But, if he/she cant do well, additional questions will be asked! well, hope that I can get easy questions for part I and II and skip the 3rd one =P

I can see that people around me are so stressful. They look tired, dull, full of anxiety, restlessness... So i ask myself, do i feel stress? hmm...i dont really know...but i dont feel so, I dont know why but normally I dont feel any stress until a day before exam. Some might think that this is good ya =P Anyway, without stress, there's lack of force to drive you further and faster...I've such experience in biochemistry exam few years back in which i'd spent up to 2 weeks to finish the whole book, but A DAY to repeat everything from head to toe. yeah, it was exam eve, the only moment that i really feel the stress.

Do pray for me so that I can do well in this exam =)
All the best to my fellow coursemates in your preparation! Gambate!

Aromatherapy!

2008-01-20T03:09:00.000+03:00

Hi!
Have you ever heard of aromatherapy? I've made some projects on this topic few times and I'd like to share with you all here, as it is especially useful during the exam period, it'l help you in the way that you'd never know! =) Maybe it's still kinda new term in Malaysia but it's quite popular over here. Aroma means odorant, smell, or fragrance while therapy is the attempted remediation. It can be defined as an art of using essential oils of plants and flowers to promote healing of the body and the mind.

These essential oils are natural plant extracts which give the plant its vitality and health. These oils contain the ingredients that nourish, energize, defend and regenerate the plant. When the pure oils are extracted from parts of the plants (leaves, flowers, fruits, seeds or roots), they still possess these active ingredients. The essential oils are also aromatic in nature and this is in part responsible for the healing. The body and mind are healed safely and naturally and actually take part in the healing process with no side effects. Pure oils are extracted from particular varieties of plants which are grown especially for this purpose. Not all plants and species contain essential oils and some plants contain more than one. If this is the case, the oils from that one plant will contain common properties as well as some individual properties.
Each plant has unique characteristics and its own molecular make up giving the different fragrances of each essential oil. The plants used in Aromatherapy have been cultivated over many years and contain billions of active cells, some producing oil. The plants are carefully harvested and the oil is extracted and nothing else is added to it.
Maybe someone will think that essential oil is equal to fragrant oils, actually they are totally different. The latter has synthetic substances added to it and is only for pleasant smells. Essential oils are potent and powerful, having many therapeutic properties. They are antiseptic, antiviral, anti-inflammatory, sedative and stimulating. They should also not be taken internally.

ya, Im sure you want to know how does it work rite?...
They have an immediate impact on our sense of smell, also known as "olfaction". When essential oils are inhaled, olfactory receptor cells are stimulated and the impulse is transmitted to the emotional center of the brain, or "limbic system".
The limbic system is connected to areas of the brain linked to memory, breathing, and blood circulation, as well as the endocrine glands which regulate hormone levels in the body. The properties of the oil, the fragrance and its effects, determine stimulation of these systems.
When used in massage, essential oils are not only inhaled, but absorbed through the skin as well. They penetrate the tissues and find their way into the bloodstream where they are transported to the organs and systems of the body.
Essential oils have differing rates of absorption, generally between 20 minutes and 2 hours, so it is probably best not to bathe or shower directly following a massage to ensure maximum effectiveness.

Once you start to use it, you'l notice the benefits that it brings. There are many ways to use your essential oils - as treatments, in your beauty regime, when under stress, insomnia, to help studying teenagers, like me =P or to uplift and seduce. Aromatherapy is a way of taking charge of your vitality and well-being.

All essential oils are divided into 3 types for ease of use. These are…
Top notes - which are more volatile and evaporate quickly. They are uplifting , light, refreshing, clearing and emotionally stimulating. The top notes are Basil, lemongrass, bergamot, mandarin, clary sage, orange (sweet), eucalyptus, palmarosa, fennel, peppermint, ginger, petitgrain, grapefruit, rosewood, lemon, tea tree oil.
Middle notes - are a medium evaporation. These oils are emotionally balanced, fragrant and harmonizing. They include black pepper, marjoram, chamomile (German), myrtle, clove bud, neroli, cypress pine, geranium, rose, juniper, rosemary, lavender, ylang ylang. And..
The base notes - are the least volatile. They are heavy, sedating, calming and grounding. They include cedarwood, frankincense, patchouli, sandalwood and vetiver.

For myself, I've tried 2 types of essential oils - Jasmine and Lavender. Jasmine essential oil has antidepressant effect ( of coz it doesnt mean tat i've depression =P ) It's particularly useful in case of anxiety and stress (during exam period). Lavender essential oil acts as midly analgesics and antiseptics. It can be used to reduce headache, treat wounds, bruises, acne, calming insomnia, etc. There are many other types of essential oils with various effects. I'll try rosemary oil next time as it's useful for physical and mental fatigue and forgetfulness =)

If you want to try it out, you must have first to buy aroma lamps or diffusers. There're many kinds of them but actually they're all having the same function. Here is the one I bought in spring last year.

Look nice rite? =p

Another view =)

About the price of essential oils... they are kinda expensive especially the pure one, due to the methods used to extract the oil are time consuming and expensive and require a high degree of expertise. Given that it takes in excess of 220 pounds ( nearly 100kg!) of rose petals to produce only 4 or 5 teaspoonfuls of oil, it is a process probably best left to professionals! Though expensive, I'd still recommend to buy pure ones as they are highly effective - only a few drops at a time are required to achieve the desired effect. Some oils will be more expensive than others but be weary if they are too cheap - the quality may be compromised!

Here are things that you should know well before using essential oils...
· Essential oils should not be taken internally
· They are best stored away from light and heat.
· They can be combined and still keep their individual properties.
· They are best used in carrier oils such as avocado, jojoba or apricot kernal oil, or creams which are not made from animal or mineral sources.
· Do not use the oils directly on the skin unless that type of treatment has been recommended by a therapist
· Be careful using the oils while pregnant
· Do not use on babies less than 2 weeks old and only one drop of lavender for children 2 weeks to 4 months old. At 4 months of age to 12 years use a quarter of adult dosages.
· Use with care on the elderly - use very little essential oil and seek advice from a qualified aroma-therapist.
· Do not use animal products or mineral products (sorbolene) .
· Do not use near eyes.
· Do not use more than recommended doses.
· Always use your conventional medicine if prescribed. Aromatherapy is not a replacement for your recommended treatment.

In my opinion, it's worth to give a try if you never use it before, as they dont bring any side effects. You can choose the oils by looking at their different qualities, main functions and their tradisional uses or just anyone that you feel comfortable with its smell...my first oil was chosen based on its scent =p

A healthy body and soul come from an unencumbered mind and body. ~Quoted~

it's a Silent night...

2008-01-19T02:35:00.000+03:00

A silly thought always appears in my mind recently. IF a man doesnt need to rest 24/7, he could just have enough time to do all the things he wanted to do...well, Just a thought this would however, never happen.

It's 3.49am at this moment, I'm having a small break before continue my last strike of revision for Peadiatrics final exam, which is 6 hours later. Make a hot refreshing tea and eating some biscuits while waiting for my brain neurotransmitters to regenerate before I can continue. Actually, I dun feel sleepy at all, Im alert and fully awake, but my eyes and body are getting tired and exhausted with passage of each hour of time. Another 5+ hours to go, I think I'll just go to the stake over it, to cover as much as possible all the topics.

I just hope that I've 48 hours per day, or more.. or maybe like the thought above, endless energy to do countless things that yet to be done. Let's say if a man needs 8-9 hours of sleep every day (well, it's standard sleeping hours according to various studies) and it will be... 2920 hours a year. So, If he lives up to 75 years old, guess how much time he'd spent in his life for sleeping? yup, it's 25 years! 25 years of sleeping in your life!! ..hard to believe ya.. =p

Anyway dont get me wrong, I like to sleep a lot actually, but just life circumstances sometimes dun allow me to have such a sweet time.....But, still..again when you think a moment the calculation above, sleep is such a waste of time.. Imagine all the things you could do in that 25 years of time. Hmm...hehe.. contradiction! >.<

It is so quiet here, kinda hard to differentiate the low frequency noise produced by my computer and the surrounding sounds.. or maybe it's just a tinnitus?
Well, teatime is over, it's time back to revision.
All the best to my fellow groupmates, batch-mates, and all those who are taking exam today, God's favor upon you!

...Midnight oil continues to burn...

Stability Restored =)

2008-01-16T12:14:00.000+03:00

Internet connection problem that bring severe instability for few days to my hostel community is stabilized finally. The core problem causing this after several investigations was from a notebook of one of the network user here. This notebook, according to technician, kept sending bad package of data into local area network for past few days and the related IP is now temporarily blocked for further solution. The user however doesnt know what's wrong with his notebook and has no idea why these bad datas kept sending into LAN even he switches off his notebook... weird?? virus? doesnt seem like.. but no conclusion yet for this...

Whoo...! it is just so nice to have a stable connection =) Today I've bought my very first Switch (usually ppl call it Hub) to replace the one I borrow from friend. D-link brand and it has 8 ports 10/100Mbps NWay auto-MDI ports with maximum packet filtering and forwarding rate. It costs nearly Rm 100, which I think is a bit expensive if compared to the price in Lowyat Plaza (of coz no doubt!) now I can connect another laptop to the network easily =D

Another good thing about this Des-1008 is there's a set of mounting instruments which allows you to mount it on the wall for better visual control of network signalling by LED.

These days juz make me sick....

2008-01-15T03:16:00.001+03:00

First of all, Internet is personally important to me. All these while, I was hoping for an incredibly high-speed internet connection with super cheap price. Ya, it is still a dream, thing just goes on contrarily.

Internet here is really making me sick recently. The connection is so diseased that it becomes so unstable from morning till this late evening. It appears on and off intermittently, and sometimes it comes to the worst situation that you cant even open a single webpage!

I think I'm patient enough to call the ISP to check over and over again for this problem everytime. I've been calling them since last friday night and till now I've made over 15 calls. Well, they did tried to repair it and to make it constantly stable, but good things just wont last long, it goes wrong again at that night itself! Today Im really pissed off when I notice that it again back to that horribly unstable state. I tried to ping main server IP and guess what...

First 3 times I received 'Reply from 1xx.1xx.x.1;bytes=32 time=5ms TTL=128'......
following 2 times I got ' Request timed out'......
And then I received 'Reply from 1xx.1xx.x.1;bytes=32 time=5ms TTL=128' subsequently,
and again 'Request timed out' for another 3 times....wtf..

Well, I couldnt do anything but call this internet guy ( a server technician actually) to tell him that internet is down again. To my surprise, this guy shouted in the call as if he doesnt believe this happens again. He then promised to come to my hostel and check the connection system here. Too bad, I wasnt able to meet him at the time he came this evening as I've something else to do outside. When I came back, connection was fine and stable, I was so happy to see this and felt thankful to this guy for his effort. At the same time, I also feel worry it might goes wrongly again...

Unfortunely...again it comes back to comatosed state at this moment as I'm writing this. My mind is blank, Im really tired and headache for this same recurring problem. I should have to use this time to prepare for my coming final exam but instead, I messed with unplugging all the cables, shut down all unused programmes, restarting my computer, set everything back appropiately and reping the IP....yet getting the same result... pissed off!!

Be patient... this test my patience indeed.. well, nothing else can be done except to make another call again tomorrow morning and I really pray that this would be my last call for this problem.

What a #%@& weekend!

Talk too much?!

2008-01-13T01:12:00.000+03:00

Wanna share here an interesting fact I read from somewhere talking about the amount of words you're spoken daily. Ask yourself how many words do you speak in a day?

A study says that in an average middle-class household, 1000-1500 words are spoken daily--wat a mouthful!! Why not give your mouth a rest? Vocal Focus voice studios in New York advises several ways to rest your tongue in order to minimize vocal stress, as follow:

In front of a mirror, stick out your tongue but keep it relaxed. Using a low voice, say ''ah''. Change to a higher pitch while doing this.
Wag the tongue gently, without much force, from side to side, while your siren impersonation.

It is a small little tip which I think is useful for most of ppl out there who are talkative =p Stay young and keep healthy! ^^

Last Day!!

2008-01-12T03:42:00.000+03:00

Yeah! Today is the last day of this semester!
Happy? yeah sure! coz tomorrow and days to come--holidays! Actually d semester supposed to end tomorrow but since we've dealt with our surgery teacher 'privately and confidentially' so we've today 2 topics combined and therefore earlier holidays than all others. =)
Hmm.. worry? >.< well, it is... no doubts, final exam is just round d corner. Few more days to prepare for it. It's time to get started! Hope tat I do have enough time to make a good preparation and do well in this exam.
And same wishes to all my groupmates and friends here around me, Happy holiday and studysmart ( instead of studyhard ;p)! Gambate for coming exam!
All d best n God bless!

My LINK!!!!

2008-01-10T03:49:00.005+03:00

HI ALL!!! Here is the new home for all my links in MyLink1 friends! In order to make my blog looks better,tidy and nicer as well as easier for visitors to enjoy the moment of reading, I've decided to move my links here! It's just a step of parts of my blog's changing.

I'll regroup all bloggers' friends into categories sooner later. And I'll add a special corner in my main page.

Remember to check your link to make sure it is correct, especially to those whom we've just done link exchange. If there's any mistake for the link, just leave me a message here and I'll correct it as soon as possible. Thank You!

*If you can't find your link here after link exchange, check MyLink2 ! =)

MyLink1

BBO

knowlegdeInfoDirectory

Let

whw

MyLink2

2008-01-09T23:26:00.000+03:00

HI ALL!!! Here is the new home for all my links in MyLink2 friends! In order to make my blog looks better,tidy and nicer as well as easier for visitors to enjoy the moment of reading, I've decided to move my links here! It's just a step of parts of my blog's changing.

I'll regroup all bloggers' friends into categories sooner later. And I'll add a special corner in my main page.

Let's welcome a new year -- 2008

2008-01-01T15:31:00.000+03:00

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!
Ya, it's 2008 at this moment and I would like to greet all of you happy new year and may God' blessing of peace, love, joy & good health be with you toward this year!
It is a cold night here, outside temperature is -11 C, but I feel d warmth from ppl around me. We all came out from our room and greet one another. And some of our Sri-Lanka and Indian students here have their party overnight in the floor lobby hall. I can hear random sound of fireworks all over this city...it is just like the scene i experienced long time ago during my childhood life..i miss home..
New year New start New plans... and New look for one of my friends surprisingly shave off his long hair which he kept for years.
Happy 2008!!

Welcome!

2007-12-12T01:30:00.000+03:00

Greetings to all who visit my blog page and this is the first blog I've made here.
Well, since this is my very first post, I would like to say HI and Welcome to all of you to my blogsite.
Just a simple message to start my blog and hope to have ur support and suggestion to improve the quality of my blogging space.
Have a nice day!