Crayon Shin Chan

If you are a manga freak, you will definitely know about this evil, funny, naughty but somehow cute Shin Chan. Shin Chan is a 5 years old little kid which are extremely naughty, and because of his mischievous behaviour, he is very popular and the favourite of most of the readers. Always talking nonsense and making lot of jokes here and there, he is a weirdo and always in his own world. Though he is very naughty, and always fool around with his mother (Misae) and his father (Nohara), but deep inside, he has a golden heart , full of kindness, loves and one of the priceless values which hardly be found anymore – innocence. He has the body of 5 years old kid and yet his big head contains a soul or a mind which sometimes can be very mature, and sometimes so innocence that he touches everyone’s heart.


Personally , I like this manga very much. There are lots of reasons for me to be fond of this manga. I love the simplicity shown, of a happy family with different spices of life – when Shin Chan is being chased by Misae after he finished playing his mother lipstick or wearing her bra; when Shin Chan takes care of his little sister (Himawari); when Nohara is fighting with Misae; when they all sit together enjoying a dinner….It’s such a blissful life. Of course , together with Shin Chan ever-stopping jokes around, the manga becomes a warming, touching, funny and simple reading material that can cheer you up even in your worst day. It brings hopes and happiness when one indulges in that world, because of the love (Misae and Nohara, Shin Chan and family), simplicity of life (nothing as complex as the real world), and of course the purest innocence in Shin Chan which will cheer you up for sure. It’s a world of fantasy, such a wonderful life, so simple, so warming and it’s my world of fantasy too. Really envy such a beautiful life….


Follow the life routine of Shin Chan and his family, where they will show you a simple yet happy life, that is able to touch you and wake you up on how much you have missed while busy pursuing money in your life. Let your mind soars in their world, and find back your long lost innocence soul….

Before The Dawn

Slept very early last night and woke up very early this morning, it's 5.30am and i couldn't continue sleeping. The room was too cold, and even with the blanket wrapped around me closely, i couldn't bear it. At last , i decided to stop trying to get to sleep, turned the air-condition off, and get online. My mind has been wondering around with endless thoughts, and perhaps listening to some musics, it might help me to relax, and cool the brain down.

Without any purpose, i just simply surfed in the net world. And bumped into pages that i don't like to see. I guess it will always be there, and again i know that probably i will be disappointed somehow. Well, nothing left to say, maybe i should just don't care that much about it....

Life is so short and the question is, what is the most important element in your life? Career? That's quite a good answer, after all, we live to eat (eat to live is true too) and money is this world is just too important, and with money, as we said in Chinese, one can even control the ghost. Family? Aha, that's a good one, it's our families that is the one who will always be with us, and as we all know, we need home, and family is our shelther. Friendships? Well, good too. Some people love to make friends, and believe that true friendship is something priceless in the world, just like your brother or sister, close enough to family. Happiness? Oh, certain people will only look for this, as long as they are happy, everyday is a clear sky,they are fine. No worries on other things, we live to enjoy.And how about love? Anyone actually consider love as the most important element in your life? Just like fairy tales, once found a true love, happily ever after. Yes, agreed that they are lots of people in this world believe that, but in reality most of them are either being proved by others they were wrong, or they just couldn't find it. It's really sad to know the truth sometimes, but is true love exist? I bet you too, are wondering now.Judge it yourself. How much your lover loves you? How much cares he/she gives? How much he/she is willing to sacrifice? Is he/she willing to give up everything for you? Is your happiness his/her main objective? And more importantly, is he/she really really loves you deep inside the heart and you are the only one person, the only one Sun, the only centre of universe?

Just be honest with yourself too, if you are in a relationship, do you really love your partner?

Skip Class Prince

Well, how to start with this? Emmm...let's start with how many classes i have missed out throughout this semester in IMU. I have missed more than 5 times lectures, and moreover, it's continuosly skipping of lessons. Been travelling to here and there, and of course, other reasons including laziness (my biggest enemy) and the very low spirit in me. As i already said previously, IMU doesn't seem to be the destination, and don't really have the sense of belonging here, as it's not the correct one. Hence, as one can see, with low spirit and laziness together luring inside my mind, even if i attend classes, i won't be able to absorb all the knowledge;and thus, the Skip Class Prince is born....

Results? Consequences? Apparently, i am lagging lots of lessons behind others. Lost totally, with no notes and nothing cause time never travels backwards. Now with the lighter brain than the others, I have to study double the time they used everyday, only I will be able to catch up with them. Of course, this Skip Class Prince isn't stupid nor dumb. So, I went to the computer lab in university, clicked here and there, copied this and that....I got all the notes I want (haha). But only with the notes it won't help one to gain knowledge nor increase the mass of your brain, and the prince knows that. Additional tools include time, plans, dilligence, concentration, attitude, and a happy mood. With all those, I will be able to catch up with them very soon, and get rid of the feeling of silliness especially when their talkings become sort of sophisticate. Then, they will know that though the prince is always skipping lectures and looked evil, but he is actually a good student also, except for the skipping lectures part.

Oh...it sounds easy, but actually it's really hard to catch up when you are lagging behind, requires lots of effort and discipline. Hmmm, the prince likes challenge, and will try his best ;p .

(P/S : Will really need lots of luck to get discipline though...need to pray harder now,lol)

The Decision

So, this weekend has been a critical weekend for me, as I need to make up my mind on which university will be the key pathway leading to my future. Of course, if I have gotten confirmed offer from National University of Singapore, then I think the decision will not be hard to make, but since I don’t really know whether I can enter NUS, so now there are choices to choose – IMU or Monash University in Malaysia campus.

I have been asking opinions from my family members on which one they prefer me to enter, but well, as expected, their answers are ‘it depends on you’, after all, I am the one who are studying. For me, the only big difference between these 2 universities is on going overseas or not. If I stay in IMU, then 2 ½ years later, I will be going to overseas; and if I change to Monash University, then I will be staying locally for the 5 years. Personally, I don’t really care much on the quality of the teachings in these 2 universities, cause I believe whatever university one enters, as long as one has the determination and interest, one can definitely graduate with full knowledge.

It’s strange to see how much I have changed since I left secondary school. I used to dream on going to overseas to study and at the same time, do some traveling as well. But somehow now, it seems like I have doubts (or can be said I don’t want) to go overseas to study, even though I can. And due to the significance role of this decision on my future (if I can’t get in NUS), it really has doubled the saiz of my head.

I think deep in my heart, I already have the answer myself. I always have difficulty in making decision, it’s my biggest weakness, can’t really make up my mind. Well, I guess nothing much to think or to be considered anymore, my destiny will lie on Monash University…

Problem-Based Learning : File Case (2) - Alcoholism And Obesity

After the first trigger last week, we have our second case coming this week. This time,our case file revolves around this Mr Anthony, who is a 56 years old retiree.He has the weight of 90kg at a height og 160 cm. Not only that, he has a habit of drinking 6 cans of beer per day. Doing nothing except sitting on sofa and watching movies everyday, he has become a total social recluse.So, we have a 56 years old married guy who has problem of obesity and alcoholism.

After some research, we found out lots of informations regarding alcoholism and obesity. We started to discuss about alcoholism. It's always the best to know the whole mechanism on how alcohol is being absorped our body, how it is being distributed and how our body eliminate them. Alcohol (ethanol)is a very small molecule (very volatile) which has acidic properties that can dilutes easily with water. It can be taken into the body by any of the common routes of administration for drugs, but most effectively, by oral ingestion.As soon as it enters our mouth and throat, it actually already started to diffuse into our cells and to our blood vessels. Once enter to our stomach, it is being given ''1st class treatment'' where it can be absorped directly through the wall of our stomach, as it is small in saiz, without being digested by different enzymes.20% of the alcohol will be absorped in our stomach whereas the rest of it will be absorped by the small intestine, where a rapid absorption is being carried out. If the alcohol concentration is very high, the pylorus valve that connects the stomach to small intestine can go into spasm, as a way to protect the rapid absorption of concentrated alcohol through the wall of small intestine, since our liver cells have a certain rate in breaking down the alcohol that enter our body and too high concentration of alcohol in blood stream can cause coma or more severe effect, death and that's why alcohol stays in our stomach for a prolonged period. The rate at which the alcohol is being absorped in our stomach usually depends on a few factors, such as concentration of alcohol consumed, type of beverages (carbonated drinks speed up the process), gender, body fat tissues, food ingested and etc. Once enter our blood stream, alcohol will be distributed to all the parts of our body - brain, liver, kidney, lungs and etc.The alcohol concentration in our blood is measured by BAC / BAL (blood alcohol concentration/blood alcohol level). Alcohol will be carried to all cells (except fat cells)of body and enter to the cells together with water, since it's soluble in water but not in fat. Our body eliminate alcohol through our body main detoxification organ , the liver. Our liver cells are able to break down alcohol molecules by converting them to other molecules. The mechanism is as follow:

The Breakdown of Alcohol
The breakdown, or oxidation, of ethanol occurs in the liver. An enzyme in the liver called alcohol dehydrogenase strips electrons from ethanol to form acetaldehyde. Another enzyme, called aldehyde dehydrogenase, converts the acetaldehyde, in the presence of oxygen, to acetic acid, the main component in vinegar. When ethanol is oxidized to acetic acid, two protons and two electrons are also produced. The acetic acid can be used to form fatty acids or can be further broken down into carbon dioxide and water.

Other than this chemical method, our body also eliminates alcohol through other organs like kidneys and lungs. Kidney eliminates 5% of the alcohol in urine whereas the lungs exhale 5% of the alcohol in our breath,which explains why the smell in our breath after we drink beer,or any alcohol beverages.

The effects of alcohol on our body can be divided to short term effects (immediate effects) or long term effects. The effects are dependent on a variety of factors,such as age, weight, sex, amount of food and alcohol consumed and etc. After drinking alcohol, the short term effects can be differentiated to 6 stages, which are euphoria (0.03-0.12% BAC), excitement (0.09-0.25% BAC), confusion (0.18-0.30% BAC), stupor (0.25-0.40% BAC), coma (o.35-0.50% BAC) and lastly death (more than 50% BAC). So, at low doses, basically it impairs our brain cells' functions, and thus significantly affect our normal judgement, interpretation, coordination, self-control, and all sorts of brain functions. One has to realize that alcohol is actually a drug that depresses our central nervous system, just like sedatives and definitely not a stimulant. Although there are drinker who actually become more daring, more aggreasive and feel more emotional, and actually these ''stimulations'' occur only because alcohol affects parts of brain which control brain judgement, and these '' stimulations'' are actually a depression of self-control by our brain. Not only alcohol affects our brain cells, it also causes dulled hearing, slow time reaction, impaired vision, slurred speech, hazy thinking, weakened muscles, fogged memory and hangover effects (including nausea, headache, thirst, dizziness and fatigue).

Long term effects, on the other hand, are far more dangerous than short term effects. It affects most of our vital organs. Long term exposure of alcohol on our liver can cause our liver cells death and the hardening of tissue (cirrhosis of the liver) due to overworked and increased activity of liver cells. The brain cells will die also, and with each drinking episode, our central nervous system functions deteriorate in a predictable sequence, start with intellectual functioning, followed by disturbances in sensory and motor control. Last affected will be the automatic biological functions, such as breathing and beating of heart. Brain is the most affected organ by alcohol, and most noticable effects are memory lost, confusion ,augmentation (is a physiological response to alcohol which results in hyper-alertness to normal situations, perceiving light as brighter or sounds as louder than usual, or the drinker’s becoming extremely sad or angry for no apparent reason). All of these are the injuries caused by alcohol to brain cells, as alcohol cuts off the oxygen supply to brain cells, and lack of oxygen can kill thousands of brain cells each time you drink.So,let's put all in an easy way,prolonged and chronic usage of alcohol can cause death of brain cells and reduce our brain total mass. Other than that, long term effects also include increased tolerance and dependency on alcohol. Alcohol can also cause stomach and intestinal ulcers as the constant alcohol use irritates and degrades the lining of these organs.Blood pressure can also increase, as the heart compensates for the initially reduced blood pressure caused by alcohol, and ''blood sludging'', where red blood cells clump together causing small vessel to clot up, starve the tissues of oxygen and cause cell death (in brain), thus sometimes anemia can also occurs in those heavy drinker due to sedation of bone marrow (where red and white blood cells are made) which reduces the amount of red and white blood cells formed, and hence low resistance towards infections. In addition, alcohol will result in low amount of sperm productions because of decreased sex-hormone,testosterone secretion (increased of female sex hormone,estrogen and cause enlarged breast and decreased in body hair). This is because alcohol sedates our endocrine glands. Chronic usage can even cause infertility in both men and women. And most often, alcoholics may suffer from poor nutrition,as a result of lacking of vitamins (due to poor absorptions in small intestine).Also, as drinking alcohol rises the blood sugar level steeply, our pancreas produces high amount of insulin to lower it which causes fast drop of sugar level and can lead to hypoglycemia (chronic low blood sugar level), and gradually, the overworked pancreas may stop producing insulin and results in diabetes.One should know that alcohol actually contains higher caloric values compared to carbohydrate, 7 calories per gram, almost as high as fat (8 calories per gram), which explain why exessive alcohol always link to ''beer belly''. Alcohol has not nutritional values, except that it can provide energy, thus can cause obesity but in the same time, malnutrition due to lack to vitamins.

The treatments for alcoholics are not very advancing at this moment. There are medicines to take, but mostly it depends on the drinker himself/herself. Supports of family members, and group/individual counsellings are very important to help them in kicking out alcohol of their lives. And of course, drinkers must have strong will, determinations and perseverance to be able to success and thus mental supports and encouragement from family,friends or lover are very crucial.

Of course, small amount of alcohol can actually help in improving our health . This is because small amount of alcohol can increase our blood pressure (heart pumps faster), and improve blood circulation, and when our blood circulation is working well, it improves of health as well, just like when the road traffic is good, less problem occurs. And here are some interesting facts on alcohol and our body :

1) Why after drinking, we have red and blotchy skin, our eyes become redish as well, if we drink too much?
This is because after drinking, red blood cells clump together, blocking the vessels, and the increased pressure leads to bursting of vessels, and thus, red , blotchy skin and eyes noticed.

2)Is alcohol one of the factors lead to obesity?

Alcohol can cause obesity, as it contains 7 calories per gram, and has no other nutrional values.

3)Why is it we will blackout or feeling nausea and vomit after drinking too much?

Due to large amount of alcohol can cause serious damage to our body, it's actually one way of our body system to protect ourselves by vomitting out the alcohol which is in our stomach, and thus give more time for liver cells to detoxify. Blackout is actually due to large amount of brain cells are affected by alcohol as lack of oxygen, thus neurons in our brain stop working, and we just black out. It's also one way of our body system to protect ourselves from taking in more alcohol.

4)Men or women are affected more by alcohol?
The answer is women. As when we compared men and women of same height, weight and build, men tend to have more muscle cells and less fat cells than women and because muscle tissue has more water than fat tissue, alcohol dilutes more in muscle tissue. Therefore, given an equal amount of alcohol will be diluted more in men than women, and thus women will feel the effects of alcohol more than men , as the BAC is higher.In addition, women who drink during pregnancy risk the development of both mental and physical defects in their children. Effects on the child can include: growth deficiencies; poorly formed bones and organs, heart abnormalities, cleft palate, retarded intellect, delayed motor development, poor coordination, behavior problems, and learning disabilities.

Part I on alcoholism finished, Part II on obesity - to be continued...

Lessons Started

Finally after 2 weeks of stupid orientation, finally the lessons start. Yesterday was a busy day, started with a terrible lecture as i can't understand the accent of the lecturer and it was terribly done as the lecturer was rushing due to time constriction. Well, after that was my wet-lab practical lesson. Got myself pricked , really have no idea why me again , as there are 3 persons in my group for an easy experiment . So, at last my red blood cells ended up being examined under the microscope after being immersed in different solutions by my group members. And my last class was Problem-Based Learning session (PBL). It was much fun than i expected, though it will be boring. And my day ended with a tired body and mind, it was raining though.

Today lecture is much better as it was done by other lecturer. Was very clear and fun. At least i have notes to read, and able to understand what was she trying to tell us. And now finally i have something to do, not just sit at home, and play computer games. So, seems like i started to getting used to the life here. But still, the only thing that is lacking now is internet. Have been trying to apply internet services and was told will be ready by next week. Thus,things seem getting better now.

And, now thinking of that i am going to stay here for the next 6 months...i wonder how's my life's going to change...

Problem-Based Learning : File Case (1) - Hair Loss (Alopecia)

I had gone through my first trigger for my Problem-Based Learning session in my university (though i missed the first class,haha). And my very first case for this PBL was about hair loss problem. The case started with a 20 years old John who was concerned with the finding of many strands of his hair on the pillow recently. He was not sure whther this was a normal hair loss...

Thus, our group members were required to identify the issues for discussion as well as the learning issues for this case. Of course , when we are studying a case file, it's neccessary to do it systematically .So, we started off with defining the normal hair loss per day, the anatomy of the hair, to the causes, effects and treatments.

After a week of research, we found that the normal hair loss per day is about 50 - 100 strands and if one has this amount of hair loss per day, it's considered normal, and there's nothing to worry about. If maybe one found out that the hair loss is more than this amount, then one should only start to worry.

The factors influencing the hair growth/loss including nutritions (diets) and hormones which both are the most important factors. Nutritions like iron, protein and vitamin A are important for our hair growth. And for hormones, it's the androgens (male hormones), specifically testosterones , and it is the metabolite of this hormone which is converted by an enzyme that inhibits the terminal hair (type of hair that grows on our scalp) growth but promotes vellus hair (type of hair that grows on our skin, the fine hair) growth. Of course, there are other factors contributing to the hair loss, like stress level (related to hormones level as well), diseases (fungal infections) , genetics linked , medicines taken, age factor and conditions of hair (excess oilly can cause hair loss,and while in wet condition, hair is at the most fragile state).

Hence, what are the effects of losing our hair? Basically it comes back to our knowledge on the functions of hair, which is to protect our scalp from sun burn and mild physical impacts. Other than that, it might be the psychological problems one may be facing when losing hair. The feeling of shame, and the importance of the opinions of the others can often cause one to look for treatments.

Now for treatments, there are different types of treatments available now. There are injections (hormones), oral taken medicine , cream (to be applied on scalp) and surgery (hair transplant, laser biostimulation). Of course, these are treatments available if one really want to grow back their hair. One should always be aware of the contents of the medicine, or cream that he or she used as to prevent side-effects or undesirable consequences.

Conclusion for this case study was that, one should only start worry and look the causes and treatments if one day you found that you lose strands of hair, and that will definitely require your attentions, and should start putting attention to the matter. Other than that, if you know that any of your family members had the history of becoming bald (usually the male, and is called the male bald pattern), personal thought is that not to worry about that, as becoming bald isn't really something to feel ashamed of , after all, a person's value isn't measured by the look, but by the heart, and of course, you save money in buying shampoo too : )