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The craps of "(disapproving) a rude, noisy or violent person" (Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary)

Farewell 2006

Time flies. In a jiffy we're already at the terminal of the year, and it seems everything that happened in last 365 days is still fresh in my mind. My life during 2006 was basically struggling for studies and handling troublesome relationships besides wasting my time for more than three months during holiday.

I failed many targets, especially academically, it's a failure thoroughly, and yet I still gain some. Overall I'm unsatisfied of the year 2006. Let's hope that we'll all have a better year ahead in 2007!!! Happy new year.

Some Useful Softwares

Here are some useful softwares I found when fixing my computer. I'm not paid a single cent to advertise for them just I recommend based on my experience, and also comments from sites. Use on your own risk.

Anti-Spyware
Ad-Aware Personal
The most popular anti-spyware. Quite effective.

Spyware Blaster
Other anti-spywares detect and remove spywares. This useful software block high-risk sites and fend off spywares and adwares before they are installed in your computer.

WinPatrol
This software does not only anti-spyware but also provides some other useful features. You can control which programs to be on the start-up list and let your computer be ready faster after sign in.

SUPERAntiSpyware
Alternative.

Anti-Virus
Avast and AVG are two leading free anti-virus softwares with most downloads. I'm not sure which one is better but make sure you only install one of them because more than one anti-virus softwares installed might cause interference and slow down computer.

Others
Active Security Monitor (AVM)
Nice appearance and interesting scoring system showing how well the protection of your computer from 0 to 100, based on certain aspects. The highest I got is 94 try challenge me! Hehe!

Gen Disk Cleaner
Help free up hard disk space by removing some superfluous files without risk. I cleaned about 1 to 3 gigs and according to the website there is even someone get 20 gigs back!!

Winsock Fix
After deleted certain spywares or adwares you might find problem logging on Internet, or browsers showing "Page not displayed." This software should help effectively.

I shall recommend more softwares in coming post if I find any useful. That's all this time adios!!!

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas!!! And Happy Yuletide!!!(a word i just learnt yesterday morning)

Basically I did nothing much but talked a lot for this Christmas. Silent night I spent at my friend's house barbecuing and chatting. We asked a pastor some questions to have a better understanding about the religion.

I'm just back from another friend's house for Christmas dinner. Actually he's the son of my family doctor. I talked a lot again, as usual, from eight to one, and the doctor must has never thought that I'm so talkative, after so many times seeing me in his clinic haha.

What a dull Christmas. What a dull post.

冬至 dōng zhì

Yes it's dōng zhì again! "dōng zhì", that normally falls between 21st Dec and 23rd Dec, literally means "arrival of winter". Coinciding with the winter solstice, it is an occasion for the family to gather and celebrate the good year they have had. Tang Yuan, sweet soup of glutinous rice flour balls which is indispensable during this festival, is cooked and eaten to symbolize unity and harmony within the family.

dōng zhì, or winter solstice signifies the beginning of winter. The sun is at the Tropic of Capricorn and this results in the longest night of the year for those living in the northern hemisphere. The festival began as a farmer's festival to celebrate year-end harvest.

Here are some literal explanation about tang yuan. "Yuan" (literally meaning "round") signifies "yuan man" (complete) and Tang Yuan means "tuan yuan" (family reunion). Eating Tang Yuan is symbolic of family unity and family prosperity. For good luck, families prefer to have some pink tang yuan to mix with the white ones. Here are some pictures of the tang yuan my mum and I made.
Before
And after
Yummy!!!

Too bad this year we did not make chocolate tang yuan, yes you didn't hear it wrong, it's chocolate. Invented by my creative brother. Wanna try it? You can easily find tang yuan's recipe online, mostly posted in blogs. Till then, I wanna go and have another bowl of tang yuan. Bye!!

Library

After 5 weeks wasting my time at home without good purpose, finally I made up my mind and went to library to study. As usual my productivity was low because again I was distracted.

Okay above was just my prologue. My real point today is the use of our library, at least the one in my district. Just like my previous visits, you can count the number of staffs and visitors with your fingers. My saying is too extreme? Okay, use your toes only occasionally. The attendance is so few that there was once they could even close the library on working day because there was so-called a meeting that involved ALL staffs in Selayang. Now there are more visitors and why? Because now free Internet is provided in library, and they are not using it for right and better purposes rather than MySpace and Friendster, most of them.

It is hapless and worrying to see most people, especially the youngsters (perhaps including me regretfully), do not have the thirst for knowledge. Yes it's not necessary that people must go to library to acquire knowledge but this just displays how low-ranking knowledge is in their priority list. Knowledge is power but unfortunately people are not educated to think and gain knowledge, we are just trained to score in exam. This is not a good thing if we want to develop our country and compete with others in this globalization era.

Palace Visit

On 14th December 2006 I went to Istana Alam Shah, the palace of Sultan of Selangor in Klang to attend a simple tea party celebration in conjunction with His Majesty's 61th birthday. Haha don't misunderstand I'm not anyone big enough la to be his special guest, it was just that they invite all heads of village, including my father of course, so he decided to bring my family there to experience this kind of function.

The food was okay, but the significance of the visit is finally in 19 years of my life so far I got to step on this palace. Hope one day i'll come here again, to be titled as Datuk, or even higher titles. That will be a dream, or perhaps a target. Haha. So the followings are some photos I'd taken in the palace.

Handsome brothers before palace


This time in front of a helicopter plak (anyway don't know why la it's displayed there)

Hospital Attachment


Too bad I didn't take at any picture at hospital so this will be the only related picture, before I was going to hospital.

From 20th to 24th November (supposedly 20th and 21st only), I'd been at Kuala Kubu Bharu Hospital for hospital attachment programme. As aforementioned, the attachment programme was supposedly two days only, but Sister Chandra offered to extend it to five days, each day for every department(except surgery because surgeries are usually referred to Selayang Hospital), since IMU students usually come here for 2 weeks for community posting. So i asked Puan Rita, our beloved ALM (A-Levels Medicine) Core-Person for permission, and her reply was 'definitely yes.' Then I embarked on my attachment with a brief orientation led by Sister with some Masterskills nursing students. Trail behind are my brief 'report' of my 5-day stint at Kuala Kubu Bharu Hospital (HKKB).

Day 1
After the orientation I was posted at Paediatrics ward, Ward 7, under Dr. Sevugan. There were some patients, with minor illness and conditions, because major and more serious cases are referred to Selayang Hospital. So basically the patients i met there are dengue, asthma, and jaundice patients. I was told that i suffer from post-natal jaundice,which is quite common, and that day i saw how jaundice infants treated by phototherapy. They were put under blue light, with the fragile eyes protected by some kind of blue cloth. The doctor left the ward at 10am and then started our boring period before i left the hospital at 1pm. The remaining time i spent loafing around the hospital, and i was tired explaining that I'm still an A-Levels student when people called me Dr.

Day 2
Sister went to a course, and i was sent to men's ward, Ward 1 (considered as orthopedics) by another Sister. The first thing they wanted me to do was to put on my white coat/lab coat, and hey, i looked great and smart in it. Haha what a pathetic self-praising narcissistic boy/guy I am. I strolled around the ward, and guess what, i noticed, but still not so sure that time, a familiar man with a familiar name, who is actually my father's acquaintance (not friend), who visited me when i was first born. Coincidentally he's charged in that morning, which I think we're destined to meet there. He was weaker and weaker every time i see him. Another interesting case was a man who got infected and has his right shank eroded by virus till the bone could be seen. Quite disgusting and scary. I learnt quite a few things in Ward 1, and the most significant was I tried my first ever ECG (Electrocardiograph) on the former patient. Still remember the motto for the colours of wires , "traffic light and chipsmore'. And oh ya i met another old man who is already 95, but looked like 75, quite astonished when first knew his real age. Wish i could be like him to live not only long but also healthily.

I was too free, and chose to merayau (loiter) again, and when i reached women's ward, i perceived another familiar face, my primary ex-classmate. She just lost her foetus, and going to marry the following month (which is the month this post posted), so I didn't know whether to congratulate her or not, just hope that she'll live happily and healthily after this. The most troublesome and uneasy moments were when those MCA people, including my father, came to visit that old patient, because I was quite tired acting and answering all their questions. I was just not myself during the moments.

Day 3
I was transferred to Ward 5, the delivery ward, as for Obstetrics and Gynaecology (O&G) session. There I met Dr. Azran, a cute stubby yet friendly and humourous young doctor, who taught me many things, and was never skimpy in sharing his experience with me. The patients I met there are pregnant and post-natal mothers, and of course, new born babies. It was quite surprising to see a 18-year-old, with only 134cm in height, was already having her third baby.

At 10.15am came my historical moment: the first ever labour i watched in my life after 19 years(I'm sure though many out there never watch before, and will never have chance to watch one until their death). The process was quite smooth and fast since she was already a multigravida, and this miserable world then announced another female newcomer. I am exciting enough to watch how baby was pushed out (then pulled out), followed by umbilical cord, placenta, and coagulation debris of blood and other substances, before the cut opening below the mother's vagina was stitched back using CatGut. On the other side of labour room the baby was resuscitated, bathed and injected before reunited with her mother. I thought I was lucky and satisfied to watch one labour, but in the end of the day i got to watch two more labours. How lucky I am! Even Kamal who spent 13 days in KL General Hospital hadn't got to watch one.

Mothers really sacrifice and suffer a lot, at least from what i saw and experienced, birth-giving process is the best proof, so receive my salute here, all mothers in the world!!!

Day 4
The fourth day i spent at Accident and Emergency department (A&E). Basically it was another boring day in hospital except my visit to the so-called operating theatre. As aforementioned there are few operation conducted here because we have another far more state-in-the-art hospital in Selangor not too far away from here. However I was still excited enough of getting minute compensation to watch circumcision ie the removal of prepuce. There were three circumcision operation I watched, and the conclusion I got from the operations is: the older people get, the more coward they become. While the younger boys stepped on the operation table bravely and chanted bismillah, the older boy hesitated and feared. There are even people who refused to be circumcized until the age of 14.

Apart from that, I just watched television (bawang putih bawang merah) to pass my time, because there are less accidents during school holidays. The attendants told me that A&E department will be only busy after 5pm because of a bunch of irresponsible people who want to avoid the waiting process for outer patient session for rather trifling illness such as fever and flu during day-time.

Day 5
My last day i spent at Pharmacy department. Nothing much special happened that day but I did get some knowledge and experience about the pharmacy field. Unlike the previous days, which I had not got to talk to the doctors as much, I had more chances to talk to the pharmacists. The Head of Pharmacy is very particular and concerned about her diet, while ironically I saw many of the medical staffs there are not. I guess she was in the right mood to share her experience studying pharmacy in Iraq, just right before JPA stopped sending scholars to Iraq due to the outbreak of Iran-Iraq War 1980-1988. Other things I learnt were the strict classification of medicine that can be only used by different qualification of medical staffs from nurse to consultant (but this is generally practised in government sector only, some private practitioners just don't follow the rule), and the right methods of using various kind of medicine.

So that's all my brief record of my 5-day attachment programme. In conclusion I've acquired and imbibed some useful and beneficial experience and knowledge, rather than wasting my time at home. I'm even more motivated to be a doctor in the future. The attachment is proven definitely a boon to myself.

It's Ma Birthday!!!

Yes! It was my birthday! This year, just like last year, I had my only and "official" early birthday celebration on 8th december night, together with my cousin, whose birthday falls on same month same day, at my father's hometown, Kampung Batu 12, Teluk Intan. Anyone heard of it? Haha. Never mind if you don't have any idea where the heck it is. So proven it is really a kampung(village).

Too bad my father didn't take any picture of my cute birthday cake with a Winnie the Pooh on it. Winnie the Pooh always reminds me of a lovely friend, or is it her who reminds me of Winnie the Pooh? Haha doesn't matter, but Madonna, don't tell anyone, if not I'll be dead.

It was a fruit cake, and maybe later turned into tens of chocolate cake(passed out as motion). Hehe =p. Heard it's nice but too bad I can't eat it. The reason? I'm allergy to egg. "Pity you!" "U miss so many nice food." Those are the common reactions I got after people know that I cannot eat eggs. Friends I'm OK. Life's still ok and normal without egg believe me. I've no regret since I never enjoy those delectable egg food what! For me they are poison and I'll vomit out after I eat. So why pity me? And Xiao Yi please it's not my fault not to eat but just I simply cannot eat.

Here goes some pictures during that celebration.

The one in red singlet was another birthday boy

Blowing candles

3 "leng chai"s

Yummy!!!

Then the next day, which was yesterday was my birthday la. I didn't do anything special except my mum brought me to buy clothes, actually for Chinese New Year. Oh yeah already 19 but still follows mum but who cares I bought clothes worth of RM400. It may seem a small amount for some people, maybe even a piece of cloth can worth more than that but I've never bought so many clothes at once.

So my birthday was okay. Hope I'll have a better one next year (greed's human nature) haha!!!

Brief Prologue

Finally on today, my 19th birthday, I've taken the first step to start blogging, and hope my efforts and enthusiasm won't die out by times. I know I know, apparently I'm very outdated, now only start to blog, but I'm not following the trends actually. In fact I just want to record and express my wierd and random thoughts that bother me all the times if I don't vomit them out. Haha. People who know me quite well, or even don't need 2 know me very well will know, I'm very talkative(over-talkative and inquistive) and 'random'(who changed topics too fast while talking and let people lost in the jungle) person. So hope u all won't mind if see crappy and meaningless posts here in future(hopefully I will keep on blogging).

Why yahoo87? Most people who are acquainted with me should know why. For those who are wondering, you will have some explanation here(if you're interested to know). 87, of course, here I mean 1987, is my year of birth, and yahoo? According to Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary (2005), yahoo means (disapproving) a rude, noisy or violent person. You can see how great and significant my nickname is. And yes, I must say "thank you" to Edward Lim, who created it, and Steven See, who further popularised it. "Thank you!!!" Now in certain places i'm more known as Yahoo, my nickname, rather than my real name.

Okay. I think that's all for now. I'd better wrapped my blog up before 12am Malaysian time. So. Bye bye. And shall we meet again! Paka(russian - bye)!