WiseUp

Of Mobile Blogging

2011-12-08T13:39:00.001+08:00

It's nothing new, I guess..but some really prefer the conventional way of posting stuffs into your site..I am among those group. I really prefer the normal, hard keyboard instead of touch screen, unless it is big enough for me to touch-type..

Ah well, here I am..typing and backspacing to and fro between words while I'm trying to get this thing up..perhaps I will get better with this..

And unless you are planning to give me one, don't tell me to get an iAd :D

argh typo! Well, you get it :D

akmalmohammad

2011-12-08T13:38:00.001+08:00

Universal Beauty

2011-11-27T15:58:00.001+08:00

Downed Flier, a photo by Muhamad Akmal on Flickr.

There are always pretty things around us :)

Via Flickr:
Almost stomped her flat, lucky I saw it first. :)

Butterfly here, is very, VERY friendly.

Canon40D, Tamron 17-50 f/2.8 @50mm. Post-processed with Lightroom.

Problemo Problemo

2011-11-11T07:22:00.001+08:00

We live with problem. We strive with problem. We PROGRESS with problems.

But what is a problem actually is?

It is the conflict between expectation and reality.

I know. Deep, right?

Togetherness

2011-11-08T23:43:00.001+08:00

As the going gets tough, the toughs goes all out.

We are so much better united :)

Life is Full of Colours

2011-10-29T18:55:00.001+08:00

It is not a notion, an idea or anything. It is.

No matter what kind of person you are; the emo-melancholic type, the happy-go-lucky, the glow-in-the-dark type. As long as you have friends, they will always shine their metaphorical lights.

So get out there and make some friends :)

Harmony

2011-10-27T21:11:00.001+08:00

Another long period of me doing more disgrace to this little corner in the net. Yeah, I kind of missing posting things here. Maybe not the lengthy posts that makes people’s eye rolls up; even better, with no point being made. So, more of the shorty posts :)

This picture, well, I took it 2 months ago back in Gual Periok, my hometown. I have quite a big library of images I've been shooting. Many are worthless pixels, some are those I like very much. This one is among the best. It is a rather simple image to capture, but beautiful is beautiful, isn’t it?

It is the harmony that grabbed my attention the most.

Me gusta :)

Warded; now i know how it rolls :)

2011-08-10T13:42:00.000+08:00

Though I know how a ward looks like, I never actually had the first hand experience of being a patient before. Little did I know that I would this Ramadhan.

Not until recently when I was down with painful migratory arthritis, accompanied with rash and high grade fever. Yeah, it was a painful holiday. I was diagnosed with Acute Rheumatic Fever and was immediately hospitalized for further investigation and treatment. Thanks to this, I got to spend 6 nights in Hospital Raja Perempuan Zainab II in Kota Bharu. It was at the beginning of Ramadhan some more!

Being a medical student, to be in wards is compulsory. We clerk cases, do physical examinations, presentation and discussion of cases with Medical Officers and specialists, get scolded; you know, that kind of drill. But actually despite of us having on-call schedules, little do we know about patient’s life in hospital. Yeah, we can actually say that it is boring to the patient, to say the least. But there are actually more to it.

Issues are always with those with small kids waiting for them back at home, school-going children, and other people to take care about back at home. It is sort of dilemma of having something you can’t ignore back at home. For someone like me who don’t really have that kind of responsibilities yet, I might not felt the real impact. But for my mother who insisted to stay at the hospital despite me saying I was okay, she constantly wondered what’s going on back at home, my dad being alone, and everything. You see, when you stay at the hospital, you are not the only one who had to deal with the fact. Your loved ones will also feel it.

The experience will differ, but this is mine.

Overall, it was rather boring nights. It was thanks to the cubicle mates I had, the stay in HRPZII was made bearable..or rather fun, I might say. I was admitted into a subacute cubicle in Bendahara Ward, Right Wing, 4th Floor. All of my cubicle mates are Malay. We Kelantanese really enjoy making puns and jokes. There was this pakcik Adnan, 53 from Pasir Hor, admitted 3 days earlier than me for further invesigation of him becoming jaundiced. He is a unique person who enjoys coming up with weird, funny remarks. My immediate neighbour, Pak Mat, 69, an ex-writer of Bicara magazine, admitted to rule out Lung cancer, is a lively elderly who loves to talk to people. He was an active blood donor, with records of more than a hundred of pines of blood already donated. He is entitiled for free first class treatment, but it was too bad there was no empty bed for him. He has many things to say about many topics, but having Pakcik Adnan around makes many of his remarks rendered funny and off topics. It is even more interesting that the twisted new topic sticks and got a lengthy discussion, even though sometimes the topic is totally out of this world. Yeah, for those who enjoy such atmosphere, you will really hit it off.

My other immediate neighbour, Cikgu Fauzi from Bachok is suffering from end stage renal failure, admitted for peritoneal dialysis. He had to take 60 cycles of dialysis fluid, that’s 30 bags of 2000ml fluid going into his peritoneum and out. He was essentially bed-ridden and needing help even to sit up. Usually his wife helped him through, but sometimes I would also lend him a hand. Even with what he was suffering, I always admire him of how much he smiles. The only time he didn’t, I think, only when he was sleeping or in pain. His wife is of the like character. He was later transferred to Ward 6 where many of the cases are nephrology over there.

There was also many dengue cases. This uncle, Haji Azaman, a 48 contractor from telipot admitted for dengue. He is a delightful character and regards his prayers dearly. He is the sort who is direct in his thinking and is opinionated. He is also witty and funny on his words, and I think he is an easy-going person. He treats me, a 23 who could have be of the same age with his son, a friend. I was, of course, cautious with the words I chose to talk to him. But I can feel that I was less inhibited to speak to him. Having this condition alone, I bet he is very popular with his children. Another case, a Pak Imam, is a rather reserved person. But nevertheless he was very witty when he does come up with jokes. Together with Pakcik Adnan, they made our day.

There were also others who made good friend. Pakcik Man from Machang, a 52 years old policeman, admitted for heart attack. He was also diagnosed with several other afflictions; diabetes mellitus, hyperlipidaemia and hypertension. He is also another delightful person with a good sense of humour. He is very insightful about life, and enjoys making friend. He has a 7 years old daughter, and from our chat, her little daughter is very fond of him, even skipped her school the day he was discharged.

There was also a case of multiple myeloma. Pakcik Man from Wakaf Bharu was diagnosed with it recently after suffering bone pain. For those who don’t know about it, it is essentially a blood cancer. The main presentation is bone pain resulting from them being broken down as a process of the disease itself. He is can still move around with crutches, but lately he don’t take the risk of moving around unaided. I seconded this action, for many things can happen. However, it is wondrous to see that this pakcik, despite the adversities he has been having, is perfectly a pleasant person. He, like me, has trouble sleeping at night during our stay. His bed was just beside me, so we would chat to each other. I was reading the book A Doctor in The House by Tun dr Mahathir, so sometimes he would ask what made me so engrossed with the book.

Pakcik Nordin from Kota Bharu, 48, was admitted for fever with vomiting, and lost his appettite. No diagnosis made yet, yet he has trouble eating. He was denied fasting during the stay, but he didn’t really eat. He is a quiet person, despite the talkative neighbours. But one thing special about him is he always ask us how do we do every day. It is usually not a lengthy conversation, but everybody appreciates him for the little gesture.

Out of all these, I think that maybe just how people cope with whatever illnesses they have. Maybe that just a form of bearing burden of staying in the ward. Maybe it was just them being who they are. But it brought me to think about how we shouldn’t be too careful when dealing with people. Yeah, we heard it many times of how much people out there are up to no good. This may be a biased environment and closed population of slightly aged people having to be warded. But I still think that we are all started off as good people. As such, perceive them as such. People are of many colours of life and many experiences, and the are wised up by it.

The way they treat you should be put second. The way you treat them, put that as the priority when dealing with the people. After all, like a friend of mine always saying, strangers are friends you have yet met.

The thoughts of all this made me smile. It was just last week I spent my nights on the hospital bed. The life is slow over there, but there are always people to talk to. All of us are suffering from boredom, so having each other really is a blessing.

On the side of the hospital, I think works going on rather slowly, but who can condemn the very hardworking house officers, medical officers and specialists? If a house officer on-call, you would see him or her from the morning at 7, still see him or her at 1 am in the morning, and still see him or her leaving for home at 5 the following day. The 36 hours cycle, I am certain, would drain the energy off you. They are expected to stay alert, work normally and do all the many, many chores of the hospital. They are the first line anyway. So with this in mind, I really can’t be mad at them for coming up with the discharge letter late in the day, despite of the order given out at 10 in the morning.

Apart from that, I’d say we Malays are very courteous when dealing with people. The hospital staffs are engaging and caring. Some are rather loudmouth and bossy, but still nice nevertheless. I set my standards reasonably when it comes to things like this, and usually I try to reciprocate by being nice. For example, nurses taking temperature and blood pressure for the observation chart, I’d thank them afterward for their work. Even Radicare cleaners who comes along and clear the bin, I’d thank them too. I found myself trying to be pleasant a more radiant and easily acceptable to the people surrounding me. I think many people are like this. They know that for people to be nice to them, we must reciprocate.

If I am asked, I would firmly say I don’t want to stay in a hospital anymore. But the experiences I had and friendships I made, even though it was only a week, will be very much treasured. I am even thinking about looking for houses of some of my cubicle mates this Eid J

akmalmohammad

Been a While

2011-03-07T23:15:00.001+08:00

It has been a long, long time passed me by since I last posted something here in this little crib of mine. Some of it was the writer block. Most were the lazy bug. Yeah, I was a bad.

Just to make me feel better, I am currently on my clinical exam. So pardon the little silence :D

Just to make this place less miserable, come, enjoy this little rant of mine with some images attached. Or maybe just the image :P

Enjoy peeps (“,)

akmalmohammad

Break and Burn

2010-12-07T01:23:00.001+08:00

How do you cope when you think your troubles are taking you down?

You don’t need to, because YOU are taking yourself down. All of us are troubleshooters. Troubles are never impossible to handle; hard, maybe. But we people are tough. We can handle whatever it is in our way.

Keep a cool head all the times, consider the options and consequences, and take responsibility. When help is needed, remember family and friends you have around you. Fighting alone may be on occasions the best way there is, but why lose alone when you can win with friends? Having helping hands is not a weakness. True friends may even get angry when we are being too reserved.

Not to mention, you are never alone. The highest power is always there.

Top of all, never let your trouble take you on, break you down and burn you out. You take them on, break them down and burn them out.

No matter what kind of situations you’re in, people, smile :)

akmalmohammad

Selamat ber’SPM’

2010-11-23T21:24:00.000+08:00

My brother, Aideed. I believe he sat for Bahasa Melayu papers today. :)
Good luck. For you and all your friends in SMKA Lati, as well as all others who are sitting this exam.
Jangan cuak, y’all :D

…of Laziness, Facebook and O&G

2010-11-21T19:47:00.001+08:00

I was meaning to write this since the start of my obstetric and gynaecology posting. But yeah, quite a few things set me back from doing so; most of problems are mine essentially, being lazy and all. Not that I want to justify me being lazy is associated with study burden of the posting. No, not going to pin the spiderweb in my blog to that. It does contribute, but that would not justify my activity in facebook, would it?

Now, facebook is the phenomenon. You just want to share everything on facebook; pictures, posts, how you feel, latest gossips, funny videos. I think it is so because updating statuses in facebook seems to be an easier way to whine about things you hate, share things that make you happy, gossiping around, announcing events..you name it. I believe all of you have a facebook account and 98% of you are avid status updater. As for me, I facebook more than I eat. Yeah, I am THAT damaged.

This posting, O&G is a particularly one posting that I like. Not that I hate internal medicine. That one still is cool, but it gone subzero when you are involved in active management. This is the case in obstetric for medical student.

Yep, we have to conduct ten deliveries.

Each are thrilling and fun. Particularly painful for the mother in labour, but after the misery ends and the hear the cry of their newborns, the pain sorts of fade away.

Seeing the new life being delivered actually make you more thankful to your mother, about being able to live.

akmalmohammad

It’s the dreaded days again.

2010-09-26T19:46:00.001+08:00

Yes, tomorrow, and 2 days after is my examination day.

This will be the first clinical exam ever, and I’ve been palpitating. MCQs and PMPs tomorrow, long case and short case on wednesday.

And my heart won’t stop thumping my chest hahaha :D

Wish me luck, y’all :D

Brain and Brawl: medical school

2010-09-16T01:34:00.001+08:00

There’s quite a few things that you hate about medical school.
1. it’s taxing
2. it’s taxing
3. it’s taxing
…and yes, all the pros, HOs, MOs, Specialists; they just make you feel like an idiot who knows nothing; they just know simply a lot, making you think of how much of incompetent you are. The 2 years spent at Basic Medical Sciences felt like a waste; some things got stuck somewhere in your brain where retrieval are made almost impossible and triggers are essential; others are lost.

But it is otherwise a whole new set of experience. Thrilling, heart-breaking, amusing, and all the feeling you can list down. Good ones and bad ones, you can put in there.
This new set of experiences teach us more than what we have been doing for 2 years…and it’s been for only 2 months.

Then again, a lecturer of mine told the class: “Knowledge are practical information. Being knowledgeable is not just knowing, but also practicing”.
Couldn’t agree more :)

akmalmohammad

22

2010-07-06T00:27:00.001+08:00

…and counting.

10:29am, 6/7/1988; a boy was delivered. 22 years later, he’s struggling hard coping with the turbulence and miseries of life he didn’t see coming. Boy, he wishes he’s a little kid with nothing to worry about. Life, he saw, is a joyride all the way through. The speed bumps work as the adventure. He haven’t seen the agony of being stabbed at the back by someone he trusts, the misery of not being able to achieve something he really wish to only because rule apparently applies that you can’t have everything and the taste of losing something really dear to him. God forbid, but if he will, he hopes that whatever he have in his heart will make him strong and brave the turbulence with pride and honor.

Along the 22 years of sweet smiles, laughter and good hopes, he picked up lots of things; life has its own ways of showing you what you really need and what you really want.

He also learnt the value of having friends; it is not just the matter of being able to laugh together at good times and having a shoulder you can cry on when the going gets tough. It’s even more. You can live the way you are because you have those people who support you. Living alone is not the way to go in this world; the statement of “kubur kau, kubur aku” as the backbone of wanting to be anti-social really makes no sense. You can’t even count on the grave to be yours unless your down under them tombstones, and surely you can’t get there on your own. Family are not there just because of the obligation and the blood ties. Family are there because they care. You really don’t need to be related in terms of blood line; love and affection works well without it, as long as you care enough to care. The truth is, the feeling of caring and being cared of may take you to the cloud nine.

22 years of living with family and friends who care supporting all the way through, hopefully, makes him a better man for himself, his family, his friends and most importantly, makes him a better Moslem. This 22 years of memories, I’ll treasure it.

akmalmohammad

Clinical Years!

2010-07-05T00:44:00.001+08:00

…the new pages of my life. Pre-clinical years, albeit interesting and everything, lacks the ‘real’ taste of being a medical student; or so I was told by seniors. I agree with them; books, you can read anytime you want. Meeting this people with medical problems, helping them figuring it out by getting to know them; all the skills of interactions, relating issues with scientific background and reasons, makes a good doctor a good doctor.

I am posted, along with my housemates (yep, I am renting a house. the landlord is my lecturer! :)) in internal medicine posting; apparently, this is the killer posting with the highest rate of failure, and most of the theoretical, pre-clinical studies will make senses here. Challenge no.1: getting all the data from the achieve in my gray matters straight and making them a working memory; something that I can make a reason of in order to make sense of something. Challenge no.2: I am quite a slow learner; I can read, but most of the facts fade away quickly. I hope first-hand experience of learning will do me better. Challenge no.3: getting straight with all the requirements of the posting; cases, study needs, readings (lots and lots of this), you name it.

Of all, may the coming three years and more in the hospital make me a better person; personally and professionally, insya Allah.

akmalmohammad

Gual Periok in Pixels…

2010-07-03T07:12:00.001+08:00

“Hujan emas di negeri orang, hujan batu di negeri sendiri; baik lagi negeri sendiri”.

So, yeah, that Malay ‘bidalan’ is very well known. It never is about the differences of the aspects bounded by geography; by all means, go out there, ‘cari rezeki’, live your life. In the end, you will want to be at the place where you started. A place you call home.

This is my home. In pixels.

all images are taken with EOS40D with Ef-s18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 or Ef50mm f/1.8 II. HDRs were rendered with Photomatix Pro 3.2. Post Processing were global using Lightroom 2.5

akmalmohammad

Cowardice to no end

2010-06-01T11:21:00.001+08:00

You know who I’m talking about right?

Humanity efforts against their already inhumane action being shot down with a gun. And apache.

Now we have people on board injured. Now we have people on board DEAD.
And oh, they must be happy having it that. It’s across the headlines worldwide. Some sort of sick, crazy publicity and exactly making their point of “don’t help these people we are oppressing or we shoot you dead”.

And where in the hell the world known ‘merciful’ organization?

Of Habis Exam and Kucing Kemasik…

2010-04-29T01:10:00.003+08:00

Yes, the end block year 2 block 4 is history, the professional exam a misery :(
2 years worth of syllabus, about 8 textbooks, and 3 days exams of 5 papers, back-to-back…

Oh well, that one I can think about tomorrow. I’ll sleep first. In the mean time, enjoy the images, captured at Kemasik Beach, Kemaman. The cat is apparently very friendly; must be haven’t eaten for days, I presume. But cute, it still is :)

akmalmohammad

So yeah, new layout.

2010-04-25T00:22:00.001+08:00

Right when you are supposed to be all out thinking about what question going to kill you literally. This is Central Nervous System block, and I am nervous! What does that tell you?

Somehow the last layout got screwed big time. It is no longer usable; you can still read the content, but the background and all other things will bug you to no end.

Now, why this minimalist kind of approach I took?

For one thing, it is cool. But the biggest part was aforementioned in the first paragraph; I’m having exam this Monday!

Heck, I shouldn’t even writing a piece here right now.

Nevertheless, this is the final block exam I’m having for the first phase of studying medicine in IIUM; all the theories and jargons come to the axiom when you come to the fourth block, second year; the final block before you go to clinical years. You’ll be surprised that the many jargons you found previously were nothing like what this session has to offer. The come you all at once; plus double in quantity. Oh yeah, I almost knocked out. Exaggerated, of course, but nevertheless, it is somewhat true.

Neuroanatomy, as cool as the pronunciation goes, is actually really cool. Lots of thing make you go “whoa~~” all the way through. I mean, you start to understand how you felt pain, how the nasty smell made you nauseated; even vomited, how your brain works..It really is interesting.

But some people are just not very good with names. They do well with systems and sophistication, but names of parts of the system eludes them to no end. What a shame…

I am of that kind actually. Shame… :(

Eh, back to the books. Wish me luck for the exam lah :D

akmalmohammad

Muhasabah Diri…

2010-04-14T22:43:00.001+08:00

Watch this, reflect ourselves.

akmalmohammad

Say What?

2010-04-07T20:21:00.001+08:00

Kembali gedik? Whatthe??

akmalmohammad

Addiction is a Communicable Disease

2010-04-07T19:07:00.001+08:00

Yeah, and when we are in the process of infecting someone, we call it ‘meracun’.

Well, apparently I am quite good at that task. Proof? I am addicted to photography, hooked at least 4 others with me, in the process of meracun 2 more person, and I see positive results already.

The moment they fork out the thousands of ringgit is my joy of moment. Not that the fact that I am contagious made me feel good..well, it did make me feel good, but the fact of getting more friends into the fray of the fight over lenses, taking good pictures, and making them realize that handphones’ cameras are poop in comparison just made me feel good. Now, I am not putting down handphone cameras, for I also use them quite frequently. But compared to dSLR, with portability being put aside, it’s like heaven and earth. In fact, I also think that it is cruel comparing them side by side…

Oh, by the way, that’s a racun I’m giving to you all, readers! :D

akmalmohammad

Orang Suruh Study Malas. Ambik Gambar Rajin Pulak!

2010-04-05T13:09:00.001+08:00

Enjoy the pictures, readers! :D

CLS=CreativeLightingSystem. Thanks a million to the owner of the system components Muttaqi Misran for his strobes (YongNuo x2, Nissin Di622 x1), radio release (Cactus transmitter x2 receiver x3),umbrella (reflective x1, diffusive x1) and stands, lense (Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8), to Ayie (his gears I can’t use though haha :D), Badruddin Ghazali, Hayyul Ihsan, Anis Diyana. Gee, people, you rocks!

BMS Appreciation Ceremony

2010-04-01T22:35:00.001+08:00

The lecturers have been there for us for two years, and will always be there should we need any assistance. Appreciate y’all, we always are. But this time, we make it le grande.

It was a job well done. Congratz, committees! :)

akmalmohammad

Another Couple of the Year: Sulaimi and Razan

2010-03-27T07:19:00.001+08:00

Yup, right in front of my eyes, another couple made me think of how much I should start thinking about making mine :)

Oh well, I’m so not going to drown myself in the pure-self indulgence. So, enjoy the pictures, fellas! :D

Happy couple, happy friends :)

Selamat Pengantin Baru Su & Ajey :)

Now..who’s next???

Those spam bots!!!

2010-03-22T05:50:00.001+08:00

I hate spam bots!

I left this place for a while and i got trash comments..like 60 of them sprawling around the comment boxes :(

Sorry guys, but I’ll have to enable the word verification option; just to make sure that the commenter is human :)

Take care.

Make Hays While the Sun Shines!

2010-03-21T08:05:00.001+08:00

The way I see it, the sun shines most of the time.

The opportunity is always there, but lets look at the simple component of achieving something. I made this up myself, so don’t you dare quote hahaha :D

1. You/Me/Us
2. Principles
3. Goal

No sun in the list, is it?

Opportunity, the way I see it, is an extra element to get your goal done easier. The biggest, most important part of all is You/Me/Us. The person who are up to the goal. Adherence to the principles is always important; this will define you. If you achieve your goal breaking laws, backstabbing people, torturing somebody else in the process, I bet you’re going to have a very hard time sleeping at nights.

So, key points; be good, play nice, always try!

akmalmohammad

Never Too Late for Anything…

2010-03-10T00:10:00.001+08:00

…as long as you want it.

When people say that there is no end to human desire, I was wondering how would that work. Won’t a person realize his/her limitation; what one can do, what one can’t do, how far would one go to get something, how much would one sacrifice to gain?

Then I realize something. Limits are by our own definition; we set it. If it is your limit, then that’s that. But sometimes it is just us who don’t want to go that extra extent because we are afraid of what the cost might be, and sometimes pure laziness and and spiritless soul make you underrate yourself. When you can obtain more, you stopped at where you are. At some points in life that I haven’t encounter, maybe that’s the best. But other than that, why wouldn’t we push our limit?

It is even sad to think that we didn’t push ourselves not because we can’t, but because we don’t want to.

That’s what I get from the latest issue of Milenia Muslim, March 2010 edition; an article written by Prof Dr Muhd Kamil Ibrahim, the writer of “Travelog Haji – Mengubah Sempadan Iman”. He has an ambition, and he pushed through all the hurdles and difficulties to get through. Along the way, he found out that he lacked in a very vital part of being a human; even more so, a Moslem. He lacked the basic foundation of ‘ebaadah and most of other part. Yes, he prayed, but he himself realized that what he did was not enough. He didn’t even know how to recite the holy book. In essence, he’s a professor in his field, but at the basic level of being a moslem, he was a failure.

It is interesting to see in the article that his pursue of his ambition and career got him closer to the Creator. He then pushed himself through and finally get to know more about Islam, and being able to practice it in a more comprehensive, complete way gave him satisfaction.

What I wrote won’t do his article justice, but that’s my take. There’s a lot of thing that we can actually learn from him; but the most prominent one is when you want something, you set your heart to it, fall in love with it, and this will drive you to achieve what you set in the first place.

Go read the article. Not to do advertisement or anything, but Milenia Muslim can be found anywhere. If you happen to see one, go get it.

akmalmohammad

Oh gee…

2010-03-02T17:39:00.001+08:00

I did it again! After that VERY long break of no blog…i wonder what’s the significant of having this blog online; without people updating..in a way similar to rubbish lah :(

Whatever happened to that resolution…

Book: Vanishing Act

2010-01-04T12:11:00.002+08:00

This is a rather ‘old’ novel; published in 2005. However, I am still thrilled about getting t finished and leaving me enthralled. It took me some times to get started with the book, even though I bought it for quite some times already. After I started, I was desperate looking for some spare time I can use for this addiction. And boy, you can never tell how time passes by with such an outstanding piece of work in your hand; and you’re totally into it.

Consumer point of view, marketing strategy that just works; you get your buyer wondering about something and you have the answer; or at least an idea of it, in your product. I’ve read several of Jodi’s work; and her headers never fail to get me hooked up. Vanishing Act comes with “Your father is arrested for kidnapping. You were the child he stole. What would you do?”

That’s one you just can’t resist. Can you?

The story is basically as what the header was all about. Twist of it; he is your real father, but something bad about your mother really got him out of his nerves and out of unconditional love towards you, he took you away from home. At that time, you were four. 28 years later; with you not realizing you’re actually being told lies about your life for that period of time and actually having an established career, a family about to be built plus a really cute, adorable daughter, police officers pulled into your yard and took your dad away into custody.

It would really drive me crazy when I was suddenly told that I am not who I think I am; and that I’m someone with a past that I have no idea about.

The plotting of the story is very much Jodi’s style; you get to be everyone matters in the storyline, first-person based. Jodi has a knack of taking your mind not just to understand the situation, but she also all the tiny details you’d appreciate as if you’re there in the place where the story is taking place at. You’d feel the stirs of emotion, the intense feeling of seeing someone dead before your eyes; all those are vividly being delivered to you.

In the nutshell, this is another book you’ll have to buy if you haven’t read it yet. If you have the spectrum of buying this book in one end and getting a food in the other end, I say you go for the book.

Title: Vanishing Act
Writer: Jodi Picoult
Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
ISBN 978 0 340 97689 0
Price (paperback): RM 32.90 (POPULAR)

akmalmohammad

Long-long Time Ago...

2010-01-04T12:06:00.001+08:00

I took a long hiatus. No notice whatsoever. And I don't have any defense up my sleeves. So, yeah...sorry :(
But hey, I'm back.

akmalmohammad

Bad day, bad day...

2009-11-20T17:04:00.001+08:00

You’ll get one when you make a wrong move that involve other people. Even jokes. Making it even worse, not just that you’re bad at making jokes, you’re also bad at cleaning messes; perhaps you’re just afraid you’ll deal another blow; perhaps you just want to contemplate what we’re you thinking; perhaps it is just you trying to mess some other people’s life.

And that’s when you get all out stress. Not to mention the disturbances and whatever you’re trying to do the whole day will go bonkers; you’ll put lots of your mind into what you did, trying to figure out why the heck you did it in the first place, trying to make yourself feel better, trying to figure out the outcomes. Works even worse when the one you’re messing up with is someone you hold dear, some important friend or something like that.Perhaps putting it as something like “capable and incapacitated” isn’t too much of an exaggeration. In fact, it is how it works when you’re in this kind of situation.

Justifying what you did won’t change a thing in this kind of situation, and you know you need to work out something on it. What’s done is done.

That would be the view when you are someone like me...and seriously, I am bad at dealing things like this...

Lesson learnt: whatever you do affects other’s life. Be practical, be more sensible, and don’t SMS craps...

Worry not, I'll get over this, and bounce back in.
Signing out...
akmalmohammad

The End Product...

2009-11-18T09:06:00.007+08:00

...of the social breakdown, just too many to mention. For now, take this one; and take is as a bomb.

Increase in number of old-folks home; right when what they need the least is privacy and what we want the most is less people butting in our life.Some of the inhabitants might really need the place to continue their life safely. But most were sent there because they have became a nuisance and too much to be taken care of.

But the big question is, “Are they?”

The saying “A mother can take care of 10 children, but 10 children not necessarily can take care of one mother” is appropriate here, isn’t it?
That is one of those saddening stories you’ll see in many of such institution. Too busy, like always, tops the pile of excuses made; and I don’t deny it. This is era of all things pass by fast, and you really need to keep up with the pace.But is that an excuse you can use to, literally, dump the one who gave you birth?

That was the picture I was getting during my visit to Rumah Ehsan Bandar Al-Muktafi Billah Shah, Dungun, last Saturday. The house, unlike the typical old-folks home you may find scattered around the country, is located in a quite isolated place. Taking care of those with debilitating diseases, you will see many inhabitants are bedridden. Stroke, complicated diabetes mellitus, cerebral palsy and many more are in the what-you-will-see list. About half the inhabitants/patients are mobile. And trust me; they are deprived of what they need the most at this age; attention.

The headmistress, crews, attendants, nurse and everyone in the team did their best to tend to what they need. But I, betting my fingers on this statement, pretty damn sure that the attention they should be getting from their closest family member will win over the facilities they’re getting there. With hands down. Yes, they need professionals to take care of them because they are in the setting of not only they are old, but also are not healthy. But by dumping them at places like this? Away from home?

During our visit, one of the inhabitants passed away. If it is not due to our visit, there would only be 3 or 4 people for her “solat jenazah”. And she was a rare case whereby the body were taken home by her close family member for burial. Most of the cases, we were made understood, will be taken care of by the institution; bath to burial. No family member in the crowd.
Whose fault, what went wrong; that’s for us to think about.

Some of the pictures during the visit.

akmalmohammad

Gone with the Wind...

2009-11-18T09:03:00.001+08:00

You might think the writer of WiseUp has gone nuts or dead or something, leaving this place all dusty and rusty.

Well, if you did, you’re wrong. Can’t blame you for the thoughts, though. It was me who left without a notice, a one-lined posting or something. All you’d get is the idea that I’m dead. LOL :D

Oh well, I am back. The hiatus was the longest in my blogging history, I think. Well, it’s barely one year old anyway. But what the heck, I’m back. The hiatus, largest part of it thanks to no-connectivity; and yes, Celcom sucked big time here in IIUM. All the promises and they broke most of them. I heard Maxis users got the same problem as well. Campus is a high density population place; and we all feel good being able to go online anytime we want. so please, Celcom, gimme more of your bandwith!

Now you turned me into my nagging mode. Ceh...

Another reason I stopped blogging? Well, I think I just need some break. I do bloghop now and then, reading whatever being fed into my RSS (Really Simple Syndication) Google Reader (if you don’t have this, go make one. It’s easy to catch up with the latest news and gossips and postings and stuff; whichever sites it is from. All you have to do is subscribe. How cool is that?). But yeah, I reduced my online activities quite significantly; spend more times with books and some other things I am seriously hooked onto recently. That includes tennis (finally found a game I really can enjoy playing. Futsal, football didn’t amaze me like tennis did)...
Ah well, whatever it is, now I am back. Sorry though, for the notice-less leave. I’ll try to get more things coming up in WiseUp, making it once again, a place you’ll enjoy hanging out at :D

Cheerio, Assalamualaikum WBT
akmalmohammad

Er....

2009-09-19T15:42:00.003+08:00

End Ramadhan blunder.

ali : eh abu, kau tau tak?
abu : tau ape li?
ali : raya tahun ni tak jadi.
abu : kau nak kena pukul kuat-kuat ke ali?

:D

Selamat Hari Raya, Maaf Zahir dan Batin.

Book - The Broker

2009-09-15T12:21:00.003+08:00

While some might think many Moslem are in the race of getting their Quran recitation done before the end of Ramadhan, I, on the other hand, fell in love with John Grisham; an established legal thriller writer. His masterpiece, The Firm even made it to the silver screen; and from what I’ve heard, it is just too good that I might go and download it illegally from the torrent.

No, don’t get me wrong, please. I still read and love Quran more than any book, alright? It is just that the affair I’ve just fallen into lately worth a write up. So pardon the romantic kind of wordings up there. Jodi Picoult is still in my heart, in case you’re wondering; also Khaleed Hosseini. You just can’t get enough from these two people. Another one got into the growing list; now you make it this way. You’re NOT going to get enough from these three people. :D

Anyway, I was kinda disappointed for knowing about this one writer quite late. The book that captivated me was borrowed from a close friend/brother of mine in Kuantan. He got another two books of this wonderful writer that, definitely, is in my ‘gotta borrow’ list; write ups about them will come later, after I read both.

For now, it’s “The Broker”.

But of course I am not going to spoil the whole storyline in this write up. This is not a professional review, just in case you’re expecting one coming from me. What’s coming are just 2 cents from me on why the heck you should read this guy’s books. Points will be highlighted; mostly about the way Grisham delivered his story; the way the story develop; the way characters being presented; the way you’re involved in the story line. The last item will be very important, of course, because in my humble opinion, that’s how you actually get captivated and just don’t want to let the book off your hand.

In essence, “The Broker” is all about getting messy with your government. Just take it this way to make things simple; you were a lawyer by practice with suing people as your pastime activity (and apparently paid your bills). You’ve got yourself something that will definitely get you fortune so big you’ll never need to work; perhaps for several generations, each will have the opportunity to eat, wear and spend like king. That thing you have in your possession is software that will give you control over the world’s most sophisticated satellite surveillance system. The only thing you need to do is sell it to the interested party; and apparently this part is going to irritate some other parties. All of which have options that includes having you dead.

That’s the dilemma of our Joel Backman, the main character.

Adding up to the drama, one of your friends (ie; partner in crime) was killed for the same matter. The programme writers, too, are dead. Killed, needless to say. So our Mr. Backman, with the feeling of insecurity chilling up his spine, got himself to safety in a place that you’d expect the least. Prison.

What coming next will dazzle you endlessly; how corrupted the federal can be. They take you out the prison on a full pardon, send you to some foreign land, give you new identity, put you under their watch, and then leak your whereabout so that people with grudges against you can come to your door knocking and get you shot in the head. People who sent you there will, of course, sit back and enjoy the show. The only thing they wanted to know is who is coming to get you killed.

But of course, our Backman guy is one smart fella. He smelled something fishy is on the run; even his so-called protector smelled fishy. So he outsmarted this guy, get into the run, arranged things that will get him safe (you’ll see someone with some integrity at this point), get back to where he came from; his homeland, and get the stuffs cleared.

I’ll let you do the thinking with that much as the headstart. Go here to see professional reviews. You’ll see that critics are not good on this book. Partly, I agree with them. This book, as a legal thriller, is not really packed with actions; but somehow that’s the beauty of it; you’ll be much more involved with the situations, the scenes the writer wanted to convey.

In term of character development, somehow you are confined to just several characters that play major roles in the book. You’ll be with, mostly, the main character; what he do, how he eat, how he speak, how he learn new language (he’s being stashed in some foreign country, remember?). He’ll never beat Picoult in this sense; her writing is much more personal. You are everyone being mentioned in the book. But then again, everyone got their own style of writing, isn’t it?

The plot development is alright. You’ll be attached to the book, you just don’t want to let it go off you hand. The plot is quite simple, foolproof, not many twist; simply said, this is quite a leisure reading. Perhaps it is contradictory with the fact that this is a full-blown espionage, “I’m coming to kill you” kind of book. But yeah, it is not an all-out novel of people coming pointing gun at you, asking where the heck did you hid that satellite control program. You’ll be somehow involved in the storyline.

This is not professional work, so don’t quote. I’ll give 7 out of 10 for this book. This is not Grisham’s best, anyway. But hey, it kept me awake at night, eager to know what’s coming next.

I can’t wait to get my hand on his other masterpieces. Next coming would be King of Torts? Or perhaps the Firm, or perhaps his latest work, The Associate?

Abang, get ready to hand the books to me later, okay? :D

akmalmohammad

The Man Who Got Himself Back

2009-09-13T16:53:00.003+08:00

Imagine this.

You have just got promoted to another level in you office that requires you to handle cases worth millions and million bucks worth of pressures in an underhanded, bigger accountability and responsibilities, facility-like-crap government office; you have a wife with many ailments, and you have just lost one of your sons. In a motor vehicle accident.

And this son of yours, you were expecting to celebrate raya together; all of a sudden, he's gone forever.

How the heck are you going to conserve your composure in situations like this?

That's just what happened to my uncle recently. I tell you this; I have never see this guy lost himself like this before. He went all silence, didn't eat well until recently, didn't had enough sleep....you've got the gist of it.

Indeed, the Creator loves him more than any of us does. But to lose a family all of a sudden, I bet anyone would have the shock, even the aftershock.

But he made his comeback.

He talk, he started eating again, he got some sleeps (although not much; you'll definitely sleep less when you have too many things running about in your head)...but in essence, he made it through. All of his other family members did.

How?
It was the support he's been receiving, and the prayers he did.

You don't eat; then a sister of yours come close, and get the food into your mouth with her hand.
You've gone all silence; then your other brothers and sisters; sour nephew and niece come close, tell you to calm down, face the trial and tribulations with an open heart.
You had the tribulations in Ramadhan; you withstood the trials in the month of trials and blessing. If anyone got through such situation, you're indeed strong.

You see, getting through trial, for a dad, a husband, won't be an easy feat to be done. But the chance of surviving through it will tremendously improve if you have people you can rely on; people who are there for you to share the difficulties you are going through.

This is just a reminder for all of us, in this holy month. Should anyone need your help, be there. You need not be a millionaire to give help. You need not be a king to settle somebody's problem.
Sometimes all you have to do is to listen.

Alfatihah to my lost cousin. May his soul rest in peace.

akmalmohammad

The Comeback…

2009-08-23T16:24:00.001+08:00

Both, me and Ramadhan.

How long have I not been writing again, you ask? Well, don’t ask. The answer is a tad to shameful for me to even try to answer. Not that I don’t have things to write about; as long as it is not what I do day in and out we are referring to here because the routine is a tad too boring, never worth a mention, let alone being blogged about. Time constrain? Perhaps. But then again, I am not too busy to do anything, am I?

Let just put it this way; writer’s block. Ideas stagnated. Hands numb(Don’t.Buy.This). Pure laziness(You’ve.Got.To.Buy.This.Cash). And yeah, superslow(I.Meant.Super) connectivity helped the whole process.

Then came the auspicious, holy month of Ramadhan. I, for that, made myself a new resolution. This URL is going to live, at least better than how the past few weeks (or months) have been.

I’m sure good Moslems around the world is having a good time with the arrival of this holy month of Ramadhan. Many will start to think about what to do to improve themselves; many will think of what kind of ibaadah will they try to submit(Wow!), many might also started to think the way of celebrating ‘Eid already. Whichever way you try to celebrate this auspicious month, I’ll always reset my mind that Ramadhan is not all about fasting, and improvement shouldn’t be focused too much on this month and make another comeback of who I used to be.

But of course, being Istiqaamah is easier said than done. Agree?

Put some effort on it. Pray for it, and don’t let the whole thing being laid to only that. If that’s the whole life should be about, why the heck we are given all the ability, desire, even life? Well, if you said something about “life is all about making choice”; man, that’s is not to be refuted. So go and make your choice. You want to improve and stay improved; you want to improve and make a comeback of how you were; and you want to improve, and improve more.

Perhaps, when we are speaking about Ramadhan and getting improved, there might still be some sentiments of some section of the society that all the improvement should be about solat, zakat, zikir, and all of that kind of things. One thing to be clarified, there should be no differentiation between that and all the daily activities we do day in, day out. They might be classified as ‘ebaadah khassah’ and ’ebaada ‘aamah’. But hey, improvement shouldn’t be contained into only that. Improve everything; the way you talk, the way you befriend people, the way you respect others, the time you go to work or attend classes; all that kind of things. Simply put, everything you do in your everyday life.

Got the gist? Sure you did. In fact, you’ve been hearing all that for several times already. Now, Akmal, do you get the idea? Don’t just write about it. Do it.

Oh ya, i hope i’m not too late to say this.

Salam Ramadhan to all…

live the spirit of ramadhan!

akmalmohammad

Keeping ‘the swine’ at bay?

2009-08-07T11:14:00.001+08:00

Source from here. Read on, people. Long it is, but it will worth your time.

A(H1N1) flu: Updates on 10 FAQs — Dr David KL Quek

AUG 6 — 1) Can we distinguish between regular and H1N1 flu, without a lab test?

No, the flu is the flu, but there are variations in presentation. Some symptoms such as cough, runny nose, fever, body aches, fatigue, vomiting, diarrhoea occur more or less in every flu patient, but may present differently by different people. Some infected people have very mild symptoms, some in between, and a small minority, probably less than 10 per cent, have severe features including the dangerous pneumonia.

However, from sentinel testing and surveillance by the Ministry of Health the last few weeks have shown that almost 95 per cent of all flu-like illness are now caused by the H1N1 virus. Earlier some months ago, seasonal flu variants caused by the B and other A virus were the main causes, the bug causing most flu these few days is the A(H1N1). This appears to be the case also in neighbouring countries, meaning that the new virus is causing more havoc and symptomatic illness than previous types of flu (which are still in the community).

Because almost every flu-like illness (influenza-like illness or ILI) is due to H1N1, the MOH is now recommending that no testing to confirm this H1N1 will now be offered.

Treat as if this is H1N1 for ILI — symptom relief for mild symptoms (paracetamol, hydration, cough medicines, etc) and self-quarantine, social distancing, be alert for complications.

Most (70 per cent) do not need any anti-viral medications such as Tamiflu or Relenza. Only severe cases need to be referred to hospital for further treatment.

2) How should doctors decide if a person be given further specific treatment for H1N1?

If after 2-3 days, fever and cough symptoms do not improve, a recheck with the doctor is recommended, especially if there are features of difficulty breathing, severe weakness and giddiness, or, if the following risk factors are present:

1. obesity (fatter patients seem to have poorer outcome and more complications)

2. those with underlying diabetes, heart disease

3. those with asthma, or chronic lung disease

4. pregnant women

5. those with reduced immunity, cancer patients, etc

6. those with obvious pneumonia features

3) Many anxious people with flu-like symptoms want to be tested or treated for suspected H1N1, but are kept waiting or sent home, without being tested. Is this practice right?

There is no right or wrong practice as this outbreak is extensive and is stretching our resources to the limit. This is also the case not just here in Malaysia, but also elsewhere around the entire world!

The recommendation is now not to spend too much time and effort trying to get tested at designated hospitals or clinics — there is probably no need to do so. I have been informed that as many as 1,000 patients queue anxiously at Sungai Buloh Hospital for testing, due to fear of the H1N1 flu.

So the message must be made clear: Most flu illness do not require confirmatory testing, and are mild and self-limiting. More than 90 per cent will get better on their own, with symptomatic treatment — just watch out for possible complications, and risk factors as mentioned above.

Our resources are limited especially for testing. This is not just for Malaysia, but globally as well. The global demand for test kits and reagents for the H1N1 (PCR) is overextended and are rationed due to this extreme demand.

Some 200 million test kits have been deployed worldwide, but this supply is critically short because of excessive demand, so most countries have to ration testing to confirm only the worst cases, so as to monitor the pandemic better.

4) Are doctors confused as to what to do in this outbreak, especially when they do not have ready access to confirmatory lab tests?

Not really. Earlier on there was some confusion as to what to do next and who to test or who to refer for further testing and admission. Now the rules are clearer.

There is no need to do any testing to confirm the H1N1 virus for any ILI — just assume that this is the case in the majority of cases. Treat symptomatically when symptoms are mild, reassure the patients and ensure that these infected patients practice good personal hygiene, impose self-quarantine and social distancing, wear masks if their coughing or sneezing become troublesome, and keep a watchful eye on whether the infection is getting better or worse.

If there is difficulty breathing and gross weakness, then patients should quickly present themselves for admission. Understandably this phase of worsening is not always clear or easily understood by everyone... But there is not much more that we can do — otherwise we will be admitting too many patients and this will totally overwhelm our health services.

But prudent caution would help to determine which seriously ill patients need more attention and more intensive care. Unfortunately however, there will be that odd patient who will progress unusually quickly and collapse even before anything can be planned — hopefully these will be few and far between.

A more important note is that all doctors and nursing personnel should be very aware that they too have to take precautions, and employ barrier contact practices, if there are patients with cough and cold during this period of H1N1 outbreak, which is expected to last a year or two. Carelessness can result in the physician or nurse or nurse-aide becoming infected!

5) Are there sufficient guidelines from the Ministry of Health to address this situation?

I think there are sufficient guidelines from the MOH. Although some politicians have blamed the MOH and the minister for being inept at handling this pandemic — in truth this is not the case.

It is useful to remember that this is an entirely new or novel virus, which no one previously had encountered before — thus its infectivity and contagiousness is quite high and almost no one is immune to this virus.

Perhaps, there will come a time when all the resources from both public and private sectors can be put to more efficient use. Some logistic problems will invariably occur, because human beings differ in their capacity to understand or follow directives, whatever the source or authority.

Also patient demands have been extraordinarily high and at times very difficult to meet — every patient necessarily feels that his flu is potentially the worst possible type and therefore requires the most stringent measures and testing...

Doctors are also unsure as to the seriousness or severity of this new ailment — and we are only now beginning to understand this better — so our less than reassuring style when encountering this new H1N1 flu is sometimes detected by an equally anxious patient and/or their relatives.

But there is only so much that we can do under such a pressure cooker of an outbreak which is spreading like wildfire! But nevertheless we should not panic, and remember that most (more than 90 per cent) of infected people will recover with very little after-effects. Possibly only one in 10 patients develop more serious problems which necessitate hospitalisation.

6) Is limiting H1N1 testing only to those who have been admitted to hospital justifiable?

I have explained the worldwide shortage of such testing kits and reagents. Also it is near impossible to test everyone, the world over. Besides, knowing now that almost all the flu-like illness in the country is due to H1N1 makes it a moot point to want to test for this, especially when most are mild.

The rationale for testing only those who need hospitalisation is to ensure that we are dealing with the true virus, and also help to isolate possible changes or mutations to this viral strain. The MOH is also constantly doing sentinel surveillance (random spot-testing at various sites around the country to determine more accurately the various virus types and spread that are causing ILI).

7) Are we short of anti-virul drugs (Tamiflu, Relenza)? Should I take Tamiflu?

These antiviral drugs were available to most doctors during the earlier scare of the bird flu virus, but now are severely restricted, although some orders are still entertained from individual doctors, clinics or hospitals. Remember that these have been block-booked by more than 167 countries which have been shown to have been penetrated by the H1N1 flu bug.

Our MOH has actually stockpiled some two million doses of the Tamiflu or its generic form. In the last inter-ministerial pandemic influenza task force meeting, this stockpile will be bumped up to 5.5 million doses to cover some possible 20 per cent of the population.

Right now there is no shortage in the country. It is just that it is not readily available on demand for anyone just yet. The MOH is still of the opinion that this antiviral drug be used prudently and would like to register every patient given this drug.

The private sector on the other hand would like to have a looser control over the use of this drug — but we acknowledge that we should be meticulously prudent in its use. There is a genuine fear that resistant strains to this drug may develop with indiscriminate and unnecessary use — then we will all be in trouble with a drug-resistant H1N1 virus run amok!

Drug-resistant strains have been detected in Mexico, border-towns in the US, Vietnam, Britain, Australia even. So we have to be vigilant and closely monitor the situation. Right now, the very limited usage of Tamiflu gives us good reason to be optimistic.

However, because of some unusual patterns of seemingly well people dying or having very critical infections, some people and doctors are wondering if these new strains have already reached our shores... or have we been too late in instituting proper treatment...?

The rising number of deaths to 14 now is quite worrisome, but our health authorities are watching this development very closely and are also checking the virus strain to see if this has mutated. We can only hope that this is not the case, for now.

8) What are some of the problems faced by doctors in dealing with the H1N1 problem?

It would be good if every medical practitioner keeps a close tab on the H1N1 pandemic, and remain fully aware of the developments and changes, which are evolving daily. Every doctor has to be learning on the trot, so to speak, to keep up with the progress of this outbreak and its management, so that we can serve our patients better.

Logging in to the Internet regularly for more updated information will certainly help, instead of lamenting that not enough is being disseminated via the media thus far... Every doctor has to be more proactive and practice more responsible and cautious medicine during this trying period which is expected to run into at least one to two years. Importantly, look out for lung complications, and the above stated higher risk profiles, and refer these patients quickly for further care.

Easier access to antiviral drugs and their responsible use and monitoring would help allay public fears of delay in treatment, but this should be tempered with care and not over-exuberance to dish out to one and all, the precious antiviral drug, just for prevention — this may be a very bad move which can inadvertently create a worse outcome of drug-resistant bugs.

However, in the light of the very quick deterioration of some young patients who have died, it might be prudent to use antiviral treatment earlier and more aggressively.

We look forward to the specific H1N1 vaccine, when it does come our way, probably towards the end of the year. In the meantime, encouraging those in the front-line, heart or lung patients and frequent travellers to have the seasonal flu vaccination is a useful adjunct to help stem the usual problems from other flu types.

9) Are we doing everything that should or needs to be done?

Yes, if you check what other nations are doing, we are doing relatively well. We are not overstating the dangers and we have been quite transparent on the possibilities of this pandemic. Earlier, many agencies and even the public and doctors have accused us of exaggerating the pandemic, and our response was dismissed as being too much, even over the top! Unfortunately, it was only when some deaths occur that many are now decrying that we have done too little!

Also if you are quite honest about it, just compare with the countries globally, and you will notice that no one health or government authority has got this right, spot on.

We are all learning about this novel flu pandemic, and each country's response is coloured by its past experiences. In Hong Kong, China, Vietnam, Singapore and Malaysia we have had the SARS outbreak, so we are necessarily more paranoid! Also here the experience is that flu does not usually cause death in our community, unlike the west where seasonal flu kills some hundreds of thousands every year!

So the fear factor for this H1N1 flu is not nearly as great in the West, although it is slowly sinking in that its contagiousness and infectivity is far greater, and fears of its reassortment to a more virulent mutant form are growing, into the so-called second and/or third wave of this pandemic, but we will not know until a year or so down the line.

10) Is the public in general doing enough to help in controlling the outbreak?

I think the public is now reasonably well-informed as to this H1N1 pandemic. Perhaps, they are too well-informed, that they have a fearful approach to this virus. But the proper thing is not too over-react and to panic, although I know this does sound easier said than done.

It is almost a certainty that this flu will spread within the community — in schools, universities, academies, factories, work places, offices, etc. WHO has projected that possibly some 20-30 per cent of the population worldwide will become infected by this novel flu bug, after studying various models of spread of past infections — the huge and very rapid spread worldwide is mainly due to air travel. While older flu pandemics took six months to extend to so many countries, this H1N1 flu did so in less than six weeks!

In the worst-case scenarios of course, this outbreak will be alarming — hospitalisations may be required for 100,000 up to 500,000 Malaysians, with perhaps as many as 5,000 to 27,000 infected patients (depending on the case fatality rate or either 0.1 to 0.5 per cent) succumbing to this illness.

But because we have been monitoring closely and containing the outbreak thus far, with heightened awareness and greater social responsibility, it is possible to ameliorate the infectivity, spread and fatality that will unfortunately accompany this pandemic... Just how successful we will be in limiting these adverse outcomes remains to be seen, but we can be hopeful.

How can the public help? First learn and acquire good personal hygiene. If sick, please be responsible and stay at home, even in your own room where possible, wear a face mask (a cheap three-ply surgical mask will do, because large droplet spread is the main danger). Do not go out, practice what is now known as social distancing (about three metres from anyone), and be socially responsible, don't go to public places and infect others — for young people this would be hard, but absolutely necessary — the spread is most rampant in this age group between 16 and 25 years.

When the illness does not go away after a few days or when you are deteriorating, get to the nearest hospital. Most importantly, be very aware and responsible!

Finally, keep abreast of all new developments, because these are evolving all the time. With keen awareness, prudent care, early detection and social responsibility, correct and prompt use of antiviral and other support medical care, and later mass specific vaccination, we can overcome this novel H1N1 flu! But it will take time, patience, public cooperation, much concerted effort and consume great resources.

Dr David KL Quek is president the Malaysian Medical Association.

Oh ya, by the way if you think wearing mask will help you not to sign any contract with this tiny, little killer, you are right to some extent. You’ve got to be careful, because with improper use and disposal, you might as well increase the risk of you and people around you contracting the virus! Want to know how the mask might ‘kill you’? The article is downloadable in pdf form from WHO site here.

The Shoulder that Bears…

2009-07-24T17:29:00.004+08:00

If you think you have face all kind of hardship in life, think again. Why? Because life to Mohamad Ridhuan Wong bin Abdullah, his wife; Nurul Ain Lam binti Abdullah, and his son; Chee Kok Wen (Mohd Ali) is something none of us would never think of.

Let’s play a ‘What If…’ game.

What if a news struck you that your son is having a perimembranous ventricular septal defect (jantung berlubang), and you need RM18000 to cover the operation to do something about that, exclusive of other needs to cater the medical attention service charged by IJN, estimated to total up to RM28000?

Well, some of us who are well-to-do would give no hoot about forking out that amount; as long as our child get to lead a healthy life.

But what if you are not well-to-do, and in fact, calling this kind of house your home?

Bedroom, washroom, toilet, kitchen, all you can think of in a common space. Some of us might even have, in their mind, that to have three person in such a confined space is unthinkable.

What if your source of income is solely the odd jobs you do, looking for junk that, only, might be able to cater your daily need?

That is exactly what you can found in Kuantan; heck, i don’t think this is the only case you can found in Malaysia. But yeah, to even think that there is such case of extreme poverty in the middle of well-to-do residential in the area of Taman Zurina, Jalan Seri Teruntum 96, Kuantan; the fact is downright astounding.

This is the son in need of help. The surgery is scheduled on this August.

Those who are interested to help this family in need, cash donation can be made at Bank Simpanan Nasional, account no 0610029000202431

Some filler update…

2009-07-10T18:50:00.001+08:00

When was the last time i posted an entry on this page?

Oh well, i have nothing to be used as an excuse anyway. But hey, I’ve started my second year of study already. So far, so good, and more good things are being anticipated to come!

New student are here as well. Alhamdulillah, I’ve meet with some of them and i can smell many collaboration coming; i mean, we sure have a lot of fun things to share among us, aren’t we?

Time passes really fast, i have to say. I had my 21st birthday on 6th July; now I am legally an adult hehehe…sounds like i can do anything i like lah? no lah, cannot. Restriction may bum your day; call me ‘mat skema’, but they are there for reasons.

Now, got to work on a proposal. Got a programme coming maa… More update later, insyaAllah :)

In the Search for Nemo…

2009-06-28T23:21:00.001+08:00

I was soo eager to see mr Nemo in the eye. I did met the guy, but too bad, my camera’s battery went out! among the anemone, the clowns played their way :D

Feast on with some pictures taken under the crystal clear water of the marine park and 2 other snorkel hotspots around Redang island.

…the fun, well, you’ve got the gist :D

akmalmohammad

‘berRedang-Redangan’ with friends…

2009-06-24T21:14:00.001+08:00

…priceless!

Yep. We had a hangout at redang. RM310 inclusive transportation (to and fro Merang jetty), lodging(the aircond is reeeal cold!), meals (buffet style), snorkeling trips (2 trips open sea, 1 at marine park), and a real good time!

Man, that was fun! :D

akmalmohammad

Of Dusty, Rusty Blog and Jalan-jalan Cari Gambar…

2009-06-17T09:24:00.001+08:00

Call this one posting a filler readers, I’ll feel very bad for not posting anything for..what, 2 weeks already ah? Man…

Ain’t going to write much about how the fourth block exam passed us by. But yeah, I think I can say that my first year of raving, raging scientific, medical and statistical streams of brilliant sounded words is over. Well, at least we have passed through the stage of “Man that word sounds brilliant, tongue twisting and out-of-this-world!”. Exaggeration is embedded in the statement, of course. Entering the second year of phase one of preclinical years, we are expected to be able to comprehend the uniqueness, interestingness and awesomeness of human bodily system.
Oh yes, in case you’re wondering about the study system of IIUM medschool, we will have to go through three phases; first is preclinical comprising of 2 years of all about what’s written in the book and what you understand about it; second phase, a year in clinical setting, learning many clinical aspects of medicine and the soft skills of getting close to the people; third phase and the second is about the same, and we are going to have a whole 2 years to enjoy it.

Let’s not bore anyone to death with all that school thing. It is holiday, so self indulgence and good things are unavoidable, isn’t it? ;)

Recently, I joined a forum in the web, namely KLIK (Kelab Lensa Negeri Kelantan). Well, I am actually a member of several forums (ie. Velocity, Fotomedia, Photomalaysia), but this one really gives me the kick of being in a small community, sharing knowledge, information, and many other good things you wont get on your own. Not that I am saying that other forums are bad, mind you. All of the members are information-millionaire and tycoons of ideas. I benefit a lot from them.

GG, Kamal, Mekyah and me had a small photohunting outing on 14th June. One word, guys. Brilliant!

Now, the pictures will do the talking :D

Around Masjid Muhammadi first!

On the way to Pasar Besar Siti Khadijah

Inside Pasar Besar Siti Khadijah

Back to Masjid Muhammad

Pantai Cahaya Bulan

Sunset watching at Ridel Hotel

Long exposure/slow shutter tryout

That’s all folks! :D

GG, nanti buat lagi deh!

akmalmohammad

p.s. all pics were taken using 40D with kit lens (EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6), pic no.6 with Raynox DCR-250 attached.

August Rush

2009-06-04T00:45:00.001+08:00

This is not a thriller title or anything. Just a movie that, seriously, everyone won’t feel frustrated watching.

The storyline is rather simple and predictable and the way the director kept me having rounds of replay of this movie got me dazzled.

Perhaps it is because of these scenes? :D

Enjoy, and experience my obsession!

akmalmohammad

A Little Update Here and There…

2009-05-31T01:07:00.001+08:00

Alhamdulillah, we are about to finish this block; the public health block which consist mostly biostatistics and epidemiology. What’s left is the endblock exam; which surprisingly will be held within one day, taking from morning to evening.
I think this block really is different in comparison to other blocks; mainly because we really don’t have to memorize many things. Application, being able to understand what numbers in table is all about, being able to read various kind of chart, and being able to be critical in thinking scores more than the facts being engraved in the gray matters.

Finishing this block will also mean that we are going into 2nd year; we’ll learn more on disease aspect of human body, which i can bet my fingers, will be very interesting.

To commemorate the one year of feeling good, hard work and many books, we had a dinner at Sri Chempedak, Teluk Chempedak, last week. Here are some pictures of the event.

This chap named akmalmohammad was awarded with Nice title.

Many of my friends begged to differ though hahaha :D

That’s would be all for now folks. Have a nice day :)

akmalmohammad

Who says films are old school?

2009-05-24T01:44:00.001+08:00

Sapa kata pakai filem ni old-skool?

You see, this friend of mine is one chap with ardent lover and tenacious user of film. Mind you, he is ‘digitalized’ ie. a digital-everything user; heck, he even use Mac!…yes Ayie it is you I am talking about. And Acap also. And Anis also. And yeah, you too, Mueiz and Janggut!

Wait, counting all of you, sounds like I am the only one of the “Sesame monsters*” who don’t have a toy lomo, right? Darn! Ayie, Muiez and Anis, each got fisheye. Acap got supersampler. Janggut got lomolitos. Ayie got Diana, pinhole, polaroid…errr…apa lagi yie?

Fisheye

Supersampler

Horizon

Diana

Pinhole

Polaroid

Lomolitos

The aforementioned names introduced me to the world of Lomography; the sphere where cameras and films are for fun! It is not that DSLR ain’t fun. It is rather the uniqueness that captivated me to consider buying; if there is any reason i fork out money for one of these, that’s the reason why. Or maybe, just for the sheer fun of it :P

My first camera was a Kodak; film, cheap and reliable. But it was a normal camera; as normal as you want to shoot some pictures out, develop the film; process, print it out and finally neatly arranged in photo albums or frame it. These lomo cameras, people, are very much like that, except that you are experiencing something else. It is camera; a tool, something you use to pictures as mementos. But lomos are, if I may say, specialized in their own ways. Take supersampler for example; a multi-lens camera that can take sequence of events on a picture (this one is what i am eyeing on). Polaroid, well, I am sure everyone knew about this one right? You take a picture and it is being developed on the spot. Neat, isn’t it? :D

Now, can somebody tell me how on earth can I resist that?

akmalmohammad

*sesame monsters is some kind of fun things we do to group ourselves into when we are out and about as photographers, or roaming around in the worldwide web.

Pedajal kawan bersama Akmal

2009-05-16T04:29:00.001+08:00

A friend of mine, Majid, had his birthday today. We are living in the same block of our mahallah, Talhah 3; a hostel. So, yes, we did a prank on him :D

This is not the first time we actually have birthday celebration; so far that i can remember, it is already 6 or 7 times already we did such party for our batch members. A way of appreciating friends, and also a way of reminder that adding 1 year to the number is minus 1 year of the whole length of his lifespan which we know not.

Anyway, it seems like pedajal kawan is becoming a big thing; got brainstorming of its own on what is the best way to pedajal this so and so fella.

Call me terrible person, but heck, it was awesome! :P

Makan kek pakai muka!

Happy birthday mate! :)

Now, don’t get me wrong. I don’t like being a dajal or such thing. Still, I can’t help laughing my head off during the prank-that-guy session :)

akmalmohammad

Untuk kawan2 sahaja…

2009-05-13T13:28:00.001+08:00

My research teammates only :)

Download spreadsheet here. Not done, though, just key in all the data, let me worry about the formulas, will ya? :)

What a week…

2009-05-10T07:54:00.001+08:00

Just to make me feel less guilty about this blog that, again, collecting dust (3-4 inches thick this time), let me post something about things that have been going on around me last week.

1. Interbatch Sports Day Committee Appreciation Dinner.

You know what I like the most when a programme went smoothly and the are leftover money (hundreds in value) to be spent? Yep, you’ve got that one right. We had our dinner at New Horizon Garden Kuantan. A portion of the money was used, and what was left was given back to the organization for future programme.

2. Annual Grand Dinner/ Graduation Dinner, 8th Batch.

This one was held at Swiss Garden Hotel and Spa. Seeing happy faces of these young doctors gets me wondering what would it be like to be a real doctor. I’d rather not turn down invitation to attend such event for this one is an opportunity to learn a thing or two about event photography; which, let me tell you, can be quite tricky.

Some committees on high. The beach is beautiful, by the way.
Some pictures of the event

First year committees(Muiz, Zawanah, Kermal)

What a week :)

akmalmohammad

Rumah Lama, Cat Baru

2009-04-23T16:59:00.003+08:00

This new layout, people, was unintended. I was trying to get rid of the comment service JS-Kit, because, well, somehow it didn't work well for this blog. But I think it is quite OK lah, because turned out it is beautiful right? Anyway, i've reverted back to using the normal comment service provider. JS-Kit was good, but it should have served a convenience rather than a nuisance; at least for this site lah. For those who are using it, and found out it was alright with their site, I say go on. It is indeed good. It is just that it is not for WiseUp.

Very sorry for any inconveniences. Have a nice day people :)

Kat Kampung...

2009-04-23T15:36:00.004+08:00

Just a short holiday people! Will be back in Kuantan this 26th, new session starts on 27th; with Public Health Department this time, so lots of statistics I guess. :)
So, just a little something that I did kat kampung. Not many things, really, it was very, very hot in the afternoon, a bit chiller in the evening. Takde kerja sangat, I went out to shoot some. Found quite some good subjects, here's some.

Lembu

Bicycle uncle

Here in Kelantan, we call this 'ttuyup'; pepatung in Malay and Dragonfly in English.

Uncle at work

Carefree... :)

Book - A Thousand Splendid Suns

2009-04-20T15:36:00.004+08:00

I am ashamed of myself, calling me an avid reader when having books in my possession but never really had finished reading most of them. But hey, exam’s done, so I’ll have ample times getting my books in the list done with.

In fact, I’m done with this one. The second time, in fact, although the first wasn’t really something one can be proud of. This review might do no justice to the beautifully written book, so pardon this posting will ya? J

A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaleed Hosseini. I bought it from MPH bookstore in Bangsar Village upon visiting friend over there; his first novel made me nuts waiting for his second book. You loved that one, you’ll love this one. Mark my word, mister!

The book was as good as his first masterpiece; perhaps even better. The setting may look, in a way or another, similar with the setting of The Kite Runner, minus the United States. All the events revolve in Afghanistan, and a bit, in Pakistan. Some might find this book rather disturbing with the fact that there are too many people die in the war-stricken days. But then again, perhaps that’s one of the objectives of this book; war ain’t pretty. And yes, women might also find it disturbing to see how a man went nut when his most desired son turned out to be a case of miscarriage. Perhaps it is a form of desire and pride over there for having son. The way I see it, children are blessing we must be thankful having.

This ain’t spoiler to those who haven’t read it yet. Basically, the book is divided into several parts; each will in a way or another focus on one main character. The beauty of it is that the characters stealing the limelight are living in a same neighborhood and later will be brought under one roof to face the tribulations many of us cant even dream having.

Mind you that this is not really the happily-ever-after-ending kind of book. See how one of the main characters sacrificed herself for the sake of her sister.

I wonder whether this book will be made into the silverscreen or not. Block buster it will be, if it is making it’s way into the cinema.

I’m sure many have read this book. Heck, this book got the bestseller title ain’t for nothing, alright? Just in case you haven’t read it, go hit your nearest bookstore, grab one, and prepare to levitate.

Oh ya, don’t forget to pay muahahaha :D

akmalmohammad

ps. currently in Kelantan, with a totally no-go with his broadband. Bummer, ain't it? :(

Lagi sorang member aku nak kawen!

2009-04-10T22:36:00.001+08:00

Yeap, a friend of mine here going to get married this June. And I can only smile :)

I saw this coming anyway. He has been talking about looking for house (dah dapat dah pun. Murah pulak tu sewanya. Rezeki orang kawen. Kat IM2), getting engaged, children, this and that. Heck, he even has been ‘practicing’ nursing children of cafeteria owners; playing with them, taught them things, ask them to pray, tell them to be good…all that sort of things that a DAD (hehehe) would teach his children. Like eight of them at one time. Well, yeah, maybe it was just him being so fond to children. But I see it that it is a way of getting used to have a family.

Most of us, his batch members didn’t see this coming. Fast. I mean, all of us are in a way or another ‘have plans’ right? Those who are single will want to end it; those who aren’t single might want to go for number 2 (bwahahaha!!!)

He will be the number two in my class to be a husband. The first place was taken even before we started our session here in IIUM; during matriculation to be exact; both the husband and wife are my classmate. Both blessed with a cute baby Iffah :)

(Sori imran, ambik gambar takde kebenaran hehehe…tak marah kan?)

I should expect another daddy and baby in the batch, yes? :D

Anyway, bro, good luck! Knowing you, I know you won't have anything you can’t handle.

Hal Cameraman, jangan bimbang bro. Aku yakin akan ada around 4 bijik kamera hari ko kawin nanti ok? :D

akmalmohammad

muka-muka nak masuk exam :)

2009-04-06T01:23:00.001+08:00

Just a quick update people. Gave me excuses of getting away from the many books and medical jargons for a while hehehe :)

Taken during the dawn of the day…

Anyway, last two days (3/4/09), we had another round of earth hour (read:hours, it was 2 hours without light :D). Only in IIUM though, and mind you, it is not really an earth hour kind of thing. It was just 2 hours without electricity in our campus, I heard that TNB wanted to get the power line tested in the new building that is scheduled to be fully operational in the next session; the kuliyyah of pharmacy (KOP).

Yep, that’s the one. Pardon the grainy picture, i forgot to change the iso setting to lower value.

The power cut off was scheduled to be from 9pm to 11pm. Heck, i am not going to spend my night there lah, of course. Well, nothing wrong doing such stuff of course. But hey, you’d ever turn down an invitation to go out and shoot the breeze right?

And yeah, to Teluk Chempedak, AGAIN, we went :D Here are some pictures.

This was during the power cut off. Again, pardon the grains. Taken at ISO1600, aperture f/22, 30 seconds exposure.

owh bulan! jangan layan diriku lagi~~~ :D

incik karikatur. His drawing are awesome! :D

Tengah lepak-lepak tu, I saw lots of inspiring expression; the models are of course my friends lah. Hehe:D

This kid suddenly came and gave us friendly hugs, one by one dari belakang. Comel lagi hyperaktif, Nabil was his name :D

Some got pharmacology/ microbiology/ parasitology notes in their hand, considering we are about to get into exam hall for our battle next week. But hey, you shouldn’t expect us to concentrate much at places like this.

Whatever. We had good time, that’s for sure. :)

these pictures got no hidden meaning whatsoever. Saja nak menunjuk hehehe :D

To all my friends who are having exams these 2,3 weeks, good luck y’all! Do your best-est!

And for you people, have a great day, and enjoy life! :)

akmalmohammad

Real Homie

2009-03-27T22:38:00.001+08:00

Just a filler :)

Alhamdulillah, here I am, in Gual Periok, having a weekend off from the books and miseries with family. And yeah, it really is too bad having my internet speed switched from HSDPA to GPRS; and the worst is that it is that I am not receiving a full signal here. Connection is on-off-on like it is one of their hobby apart from being annoyingly slow.

Grrr…

Anyway, it is good to be able to be with mum and dad, and my other 3 brothers. Too bad, my sister can’t be home because his school got some activities; ‘lawatan sambil belajar’ type of activity to be exact. If she’s home I might as well get our family portrait updated.

Wait, we don’t even have one! Man! At least the proper one lah. Of course, we do have some pictures taken before. But none is proper family portrait, if you know what I am talking about.

It is actually hard to have everyone of the clan to enjoy their time being snapped away in front of the camera when a big portion of the crowd ain’t that photogenic. I was a big time example. You can take a walk with me to zoo negara; but you should expect the least that your picture will be included in any of my rolls (yep, plural there) of film. Trust me people, a yawning cat or a jumping monkey is much, much more cuter than your face in the super-cool style muahahahaaha :D That’s a camera freak for you. Well, at least that was what I was told my friend when I was in my secondary school lah. That was the only time I used rolls of film. :) In the present days, I enjoy taking portrait as well. Enjoyable what? :D

Whatever lah. I still can’t take a proper one for now. Need to get everyone of the clan to be under the roof and snap my heart out.

Enjoy your day, people :)

Si comel itu…

2009-03-21T18:06:00.000+08:00

“Our white, furry, nice looking, but too bad; rather unhygienic friends are very delicate. Befriend with them first before you inject anything”.

Experimental subjects for drug administration routes.

Sekor lalok, sekor dah bangun. (one is still sedated, the other has already waken up).Experimental subject for agonist and antagonist autonomic nervous system drug.

Yep, we did experiments with these beings. And they were alive, mind you.

Humming all Night Long...

2009-03-16T02:10:00.003+08:00

Sami Yusuf never fail to get me hum all day long with his tune, piano; and of course at the same time the advises, tazkirah and also get me reflecting myself of whatever things I do day in, day out.
He has, so far, three albums in the market. Not sure though, when this one was released into the market, but this album namely Without You definitely going to be one of those thing you'll never regret having :)

akmalmohammad

Of Chess…

2009-03-14T00:46:00.001+08:00

It was quite some times already since I touched chessboard. Of course, my chess play mesmerize no one. But I used to go nutty with it.

Last night I tried a round versus A.I., the computer. Was beaten. To pulp. Yep, against level one, and I was beaten to pulp. It was a 3-steps killer, and I was beaten to pulp. PULP!

Dang!

Guess what happened then? Yeah, that’s right. I went several rounds against level 3 A.I., and got my statistics less than 50% winning. Me, against the computer. I have lost.

You see, this is a computer game we are talking about here; nothing so serious. But this one thing is. I was dazzled with my lost. But that was not the fact that I am super mad at; rather, it is about the many mistake I’ve made during the games. I was repeating the same mistake, over and over again. Yep, I can say my queen were unharmed in most of the games, but still, I lost because I was concentrating too much on attacking rather than defending my own fortress.

I like this phrase “Offense is the best defense”, hence implementing it in quite many stuffs I do day in day out. I mean, something like making myself a go-getter, do stuffs first, learn the best options in order to tackle that stuffs, and somehow starts to consider risks and sometimes unrealistic pessimistic thoughts creeps in. The results? I’ll become too careful; mainly to avoid whatever bad may come. Oh ya, by the way, if you do read DeBono, I think I am more to the black-hat guy, rather than the other colors that are more productive.

You see, what is the problem when you have become something like this? Yep, you’ll start to miscalculate other factors and effects that may be beneficial to you because you’re being excessively careful; even missed big opportunities sometimes.

That somehow giving out an impression that I am not the person to lead right? hahaha. But then again, perhaps that explains why I hate it being on the mainboard in any kind of programme. Ground works, technical, well, I think I am pretty good at those kind of things :D But of course, leadership is to be trained.

Chess is indeed a very interesting game. If you do play, try to focus on the game; think of all kind of strategies, predict the opponent moves. The best thing about chess; thinkers win. Sometimes, being simpleton is best, and at times, think like your life depends on it makes the winner. Of course, playing against computer is not the best. Machines are machine. They calculate and permutations can be anywhere in accordance to the situation it is in; we won’t be able to train and learn much especially soft skills where emotion and human factors plays a big role.

And yep, you can expect another addiction growing up in me.

So, up for a game, people? ;)

akmalmohammad

No, don’t bang the monitor!

2009-02-28T20:11:00.001+08:00

You hit Leave a comment, but the comment box didn’t appear? Don’t go nutty on it man. I have installed new JS-kit comment box. Well, I did quite nothing to do that, really. All I did was download the original template, upload it onto JS-Kit page and they did the integration and all the other fancy things people who know little about HTML/Java modification script go lunatic over.

The main cool thing about this tool is direct reply to commenter. This is going to be forum-like, people.

And needless to say, I like! :D

akmalmohammad

Similarities vs. Differences 2

2009-02-28T19:53:00.001+08:00

I wrote this a month ago, all about what I felt when it comes to multiracial issues that have been cropped up from things we’ve been having, and regarding the “Institusi Perhubungan Kaum” idea by the government to tackle problems about ‘perhubungan kaum’, as the name of the institution may suggests. I say we don’t really need it if all of us are up to cherish what similarities we have rather than go all-out nuts about things that differ. Yeah, quite simple to put it in words, but practicing it is a whole different story to tell.

That’s for racial issue. What about religious issue?

“Religion is so close to our heart that we even exchange life of our kids, even ours to protect. So why don’t we talk about it?”

Dato’ Hamidon Abdul Hamid
Deputy Rector Student Affairs Alumni, IIUM

I’d say today is a history made in IIUM where we had our first Interfaith Dialogue between 4 main religions in Malaysia; Hinduism, Buddhism, Christianity and Islam. Each were represented by well versed people to talk about the very core of each religion; the concept of God : in the light of sacred scripture. Congratulation and million thanks are due to the committees (volunteer team, in collaboration with other Kuliyyah-based associations and clubs) who worked their butt out to make this a successful event. This is the first time such event were held here in IIUM Indera Mahkota Campus. This is not a debate. Rather, it is an intellectual meet-up, discussion, get to know better of each other, and most of all to be able to appreciate what we have and cherish what we share.

The representatives were Mr Rajagopal (Hindu Sangam) representing Hinduism, Reverend Benedict Eugene (St Thomas Church) representing Christianity, Mr Michael Kok (Soka Gakkai) representing Buddhism and Mr Shah Kirit bin Kalkulal Govindji (IIS) representing Islam.

The whole event was very heartwarming, full of ‘intellectual aura’ and all of the members of the floor showed a very high spirit and hunger to know about fellow human within their community; and most of all, showed a high level of maturity in appreciating and understanding what were being told in the dialogue.

The first part was presentation of the concept of God from perspectives of each faith. For me, there was too much information for me to get it all at one go. But it is suffice to say that there are many part of what I’ve been told before about these other religions are off the trail. This is a misunderstanding of the core of the faith itself; the concept of God, hence misinformation is very much unacceptable. Perhaps, just perhaps, it won’t hurt me too much if I misunderstood any part of other religion as long I am steadfast and understand what mine is all about, but personally taken, we won’t be able to achieve the so called harmony and mutual, communal understanding. It is as if we are the medium of wrong information, vessel of misunderstanding and the culprit of disharmony of the society.

Alhamdulillah, there were many outsiders came and join the crowd to learn about each other better, notably Chinese and Indians. Many international students were also there, with the equal amount of hunger and eagerness to know about us Malaysian, how we live along harmoniously. I was quite disappointed because I wasn’t able to spot Malays but some, who are not from the university among the crowd.

We student were actually cut into two notable events; one, the interfaith dialogue, and the other one would be the Marriage course. Me myself was in some kind of dilemma. However, considering that this kind of opportunity; to be in such a remarkable event, is somehow rare here, I chose what’s the best for me.

Marriage course, nanti-nantilah hehe. Bukan nak kawin lagi pon :P

May this kind of maturity, mutual understanding, eagerness and and the spirit to learn and understand about each other kept lit up all the time, and I am pretty sure that we can achieve lot of things with this.

akmalmohammad

Hail my blogger friends…

2009-02-21T21:45:00.001+08:00

Blogging, get connected with each other via words, apparently publicly on the net where bytes and bandwith matters, is indeed fun. No matter whether the writer block strikes or you are simply inspired to put every single matter around you, what you have to go through day in and out, you can type ‘em all out. Loud. Yep, maybe the writer of this blog is not exactly the one to talk; I mean, look at all the spiderwebs hanging here and there in this blog hahaha.

Whatever.

Ranting. Merapu. Experiences. Insights. Pictures. Mengumpat.

Whatever you write about, people :D

So. May I know what do you use to get your blogging routines go seamlessly?

List down things your blogging life going to be imperfect without. As for me…

1. Internet (…this is of no need to be said right? LOL) – My main stream of bytes is celcom broadband. Getting slower and slower, day by day. Especially when we are talking about places with darn many people sharing the same band. Take IIUM Indera Mahkota campus for a quick example :P

2. Laptop – Asus F5RL ain’t that shabby :) Just formatted it, though. Of dire need, not because I was up to extreme overclock, polishing the inside, and cut a wire off somewhere haha.

3. Windows Live Writer – You a blogger? This one gotta have a space in your harddisk. So far, i’ve found nothing comparable for ‘off-the-browser’ writing…heck, it is the only one I can find for such task. It is something like this…

Get things you want to say in words, put pictures you want to publish along the post, want to embed any youtube videos…well, pretty much everything you’d want to have in simple blogging. Got all done, spell-check if you want, then hit the publish button up at the upper left corner :D

Downloadable here, for free some more :D

4. Camera – DSLR, camera phone, Kodak c613 cabuk (apparently damaged due to battery leakage. Repair is highly not possible, at least that’s what the tokey kedai said). I’m nuts with EOS1000D, currently.

5. Inspiration, baby! :) – Writers are a bunch of people who can seamlessly write whenever they have a pen and paper. Yeah, keyboard, if you insist. I am no writer, needless to say. Mumbling is what I am good at. It is amazing having you guys around reading things I mumble about, alright? :D

But of all, i think i blog because it is always a fun thing to do; getting responses, get connected with people you only know in bytes and later get to know them on the real world, writing out what you think about things, or sometimes to let things go off your chest. Maybe for money also? I don’t do that though :)

So, Bloggers, blog it all out!

What the hell was that?

2009-02-14T01:24:00.001+08:00

Taken from thestar Online,

KLANG: Teachers and students at a secondary school in Kapar had the scare of their lives when an armed man stormed into the school and stabbed a student.

Klang OCPD Asst Comm Mohamad Mat Yusop said the incident occurred a few minutes after the morning session ended at 1pm.

He said the man, who was wearing a crash helmet, entered the school compound with a knife in his hand.

A female teacher tried to stop him but he quickly walked up to a group of students and stabbed one of them in the arm and thigh, he added.

The assailant then walked out of the school compound and slashed three more students who were waiting to go home.

The three students, however, suffered only minor injuries.

All the victims were aged between 14 and 15.

The four students were rushed to the Tengku Ampuan Rahimah Hospital here for treatment.

The student who was stabbed was admitted while the others were given outpatient treatment.

ACP Mohamad said police believed it was a revenge attack following a gang fight between two groups of students on Tuesday.

The assailant, believed to be a former student, is still at large.

Distorted, contorted, outta mind.

Talking about someone requiring psychiatric help…there you have it.

Masa aku PBSM dulu-dulu…

2009-02-10T01:46:00.001+08:00

A comment here took me back to my secondary school when I was a active member of Red Crescent Society. Well, ain’t that long to make it a real ‘reminisce of the past’, but long enough to give me the kick of how was it being able, or at least to know, to do something in dire situation and emergencies.

PBSM was known among my colleague as ‘Persatuan Bapuk-bapuk Se-Malaysia’, which is needless to say a joke, although rather harsh; considering I was (and still. My membership is still on, in case you are wondering ;)) the member. Mr. secretary, some more.

Camping was the ultimate thriller in any societal activities in school, at least to most of the members. But not me, as I found out that first aid training and classes is the killer. Of course, camping is still interesting; in fact it is like winning a car in Power Root lucky draw, especially for hostel chaps in the journey looking for something to break the routine. Gotten away from the endless cycle of class-room-canteen-prep class-room-mosque (…you got the picture) felt like one million bucks! Not an exaggeration, mind you ;)

Where was I?

Oh yes, that PBSM stuff. I learnt a lot by joining Red Crescent Society (RCS). They really are things that can be learnt easily by anyone. But..come on, let’s be real. Astro Sports Channel or CPR for Dummies?
You know what I’m saying? :D
All the Heimlich manoeuvre, CPR, first aid for various accidents techniques and knowledge can be summarized into three words in order for anyone to master them. Yep. Three. Cool, confident and manipulative; cool, in the term that you didn’t go nut and ‘gelabah habess’ in any kind of accident; confident, that is you know what you are doing; and manipulative, that is you know how to turn anything around you to help you aid the people in need.

Well, of course, putting things in words are loads easier than actually act. That’s exactly where you need practices and experiences. Practices make perfect is true, after all.

You see, being able to help is not to boost your ego up. Or yes, maybe it can, if you like it that way. But the important thing is to help; and to help, in dire situation, my friend, saves life.

I wrote something about this earlier. Check it out :D

Check our about Malaysia Red Crescent here.

Now if you don’t mind I better get to sleep. Class at 8 this morning ;)

signing off into blissful slumber,
akmalmohammad

For unfortunate things happened to my lands…

2009-02-08T01:53:00.001+08:00

…and when I said lands, I meant Palestine and Malaysia.

Many of us should have already known about the significance of Baitul Maqdis; the Masjid al-Aqsa, and the cons they are trying to deal onto all of us using the infamous Dome of Rock. For all Moslem, Palestine is a site that nothing else can replace; our first qiblah, 500 times ‘pahala’ praying in the al-Aqsa, the trust given to us by Sayyidina Umar al-Khattab, when the first time he set his foot on the land. He made it a waqaf to all Moslem of all generation; hence it is our right to defend it with all we’ve got; at least with whatever we can do from distance.

About Malaysia…well…

What we have been having these 2,3 days is rather saddening, and shocking. Lompat-lompat and all that stuffs, while none of the works are really being done. At whose expenses? People suffer the most, needless to say.
Various reactions have been made; available throughout newspapers, internet and blogs. So there’s really no need for me to get cranked up and write more things about it. Heck, I am not even constitution literate enough to jump myself into this matters.

What disturbs me much is HOW people react.

Yes.
People get angry because there are people jumping merrily while sitting high up there in the ‘Dewan’.
People get angry because they want a fresh poll; and they didn’t get it.
I am indeed dazzled of how much we are aware of our rights, and how much we love the land we are living in. Go on, get angry, whatever you want to do. What sadden me is how much we can really forget who we are; especially when we get mad. We curse, we become foul-mouthed; no more of those courtesy and tolerable; as long as our anger is expressed.

And I don’t see how is that going to help solving this matter. Perhaps it is rather unrealistic to keep on seeing things in a mess a mess and staying cool in it. Heck, it is unrealistic. But why sacrifice our value?

Perhaps we should consider what happening around us with the Six Hats of Edward deBono?

AkmalMohammad

Similarities vs. Differences

2009-01-26T23:15:00.003+08:00

CNY this year ain’t that bad after all (personal basis please, no harm meant my dear Ox-ers :D). I mean, you get to spent a night full of laughter and sweet-stupid talks with friends with colleagues. But for now, keep that one aside; it will be coming in the next posting.

This little brain of mine was tickled by this article “Kerajaan perlu tubuh Institusi Hubungan Kaum” in today’s Sinar Harian.

Yep, admit it. We are living very much alongside all the races we have in Malaysia. But the way I see it, we are more like water and oil. We can coexist, but not mix. Not applicable to all, this is from several occasions observed by me. I mean, why you need to walk to the other end of the bus stand just to ask what time is it while another person is right beside that person, wearing one damn big, heavy G-Shock? I mean, come on, that a G-Shock for god sake! It costs you RM400++ you know? You ask what the time is it from that person, you are complimenting him.

…right? :D

There can be no friendship without confidence, and no confidence without integrity.

Samuel Johnson

What this little mind of mine can think of is we are getting into too much trouble dealing with differences we’ve got rather than cherishing what we have in common. Look, we have a tad too many things that are different in the way we live. This is not only interracial issue in our country; it is even within Malays, up to some extent. Thank God that we are not putting too much hoot over such trivial matters; example, the differences in how we pronounce fish; ‘ikan’ or ‘ikang’ or ‘ikey’. In fact, we are having loads of fun with it. Now, why should we bother too much in the distressing matters while we should concentrate more on what we have in common?

Several thing we can first take note when dealing with any people;
1. Always have good intention – you got some ill will, you are no good. Why kick people out of no reason? Or rather, why kick people at all? (heh, idealistic mind, huh? :D )
2. Husn Dzhann (bersangka baik) – be positive and think about good things of people. be careful not to be too vulnerable though. Trust me, all good people out there will understand us being careful. It is a right thing to do anyway. Also learn to accept people and their diversity.
3. Communicate – this is how we get along with people. Have you watched Patch Adam? Another hammerblow in the silverscreen industry. Watch it, and you’ll be mesmerized with how much people influence each other; and the importance of communication for that.
4. Be moderate – or rather, be realistic. Put a line demarcating anything you consider inappropriate to be discussed with people.
5. Look for something we have in common to make rapport we people. Example, talk about eclipse today? :D

5. Smile. :)

Idea of getting relationship strengthen among the races in Malaysia is indeed a good idea. In fact, we have the bond established; improving it is what vital to make things go right; hence I see that somehow coming up with an institution it is of lower necessity compared to other bigger issues we should have been bugged more. Say, increasing number of murder reported in the paper?

Perhaps in the national scale, it is something relevant and significant to be established. I have got no figure, study result, whatever to support whether this is something we really need to have this problem nailed down. But the way I see it, what we really need to do is to encourage people to mix up with one another, engaging more in the daily activity, get to know their neighbour, be more courteous and honest, respect people the way we want to be respected, don’t judge people as if we are the court, the magistrate, the judge and what we say is final. People come with flaws, and that’s what makes human, human. Live with it, tolerate, identify our strength and weaknesses, and see people not for what they don’t have, but cherish them for what they have and what they are. I bet if we can have all this things in practice in our life day in day out, such problem of racist intolerance will be eradicated. Whatever race people are from, we are all human. Same blood, same right. So, buat apa nak gadoh-gadoh? :D

akmalmohammad

*disclaimer
What is written is entirely from the personal point of view of the blog owner. Any kind of republishing in whatever form of media without consent from the writer is not allowed.

Jaulah’09

2009-01-19T01:28:00.001+08:00

Alhamdulillah, finally managed to get a proper connection to upload this post up. Oh trust me, uploading pictures on GPRS drove me nuts!
But still, some website and blogspots are somehow ‘restricted’, in the sense that I manage only to get heading, or literally cannot load the page at all…hm…should notify Celcom about this. Download and upload speed also dramatically decreased.

Ok now, whining aside, last week was magnificent! Jaulah (jalan-jalan in Malay) was organized by some cleverbrains of 12th Batch Medical Student; mainly to get to know the member of the batch better, and also to dig into (hehehe…) their life back at home. Pity though, not all of the members can get together for the noble cause; mainly due to transportation problem and…well, we ain’t got holidays just like that. 10 days of holiday after endblock exam is too precious to be spent nowhere but at home.

A bunch of people, us, however begged to differ. So off we went to our destination; Jaulah this time focused on the members living in Selangor and KL area. Alhamdulillah, of all we managed to be with almost 20 families, with Jaulah participant kept fluctuating. Heck, these people are too good; and you know what? Foods all the way along the route! Lunch, dinner, tea, second lunch, second tea…man I love jalan-jalan :D

Due to time constraint and oversleeping (…oppssy), we managed to cover only Sungai Buloh, Shah Alam, Cheras, Kajang, Putrajaya, Petaling Jaya…and somehow, Bachok, Pasir Puteh, Kota Bharu and Rantau Panjang :P Jaulah Kelantan is just mini jaulah; hence only 5 people are around.

Pictures coming guys :)

You might have already noticed it, but we sure had a lot of time BBQ-ing chicken. But heck, each of the times never fail to bring us laughter and so time to unwind. BBQ at Sungai Plong, Sungai Buloh

D’Kota Uptown, Kota Damansara

Some random picture from various places visited throughout the ‘Jaulah’ :D

Of course this is not the last one; in fact, this would be the pioneer for such program in the future. Befriending all the members of the batch is indeed something each and every of us will treasure for lifetime, and to get to know them more than meeting the eyes will make it more memorable and fun; especially when you get to know some bad habits about your him/her of course :P

Next Jaulah destination; Utara or Timur. For now, let’s get back to Microbiology, Parasitology, Pharmacology and Central Nervous System Anatomy :D

akmalmohammad

Always something we can do…

2009-01-10T00:58:00.001+08:00

Zionist regime seems to go pretty out of hand.

A mail hit my box yesterday. Sorry sis Elviza, for not responding as as quickly as possible. Been having some joyous moment around Sg Buloh, Shah Alam, Klang…now I am feeling bad; for not prioritizing what’s more important…

I believe all of us want to help in a way or another; I mean, we are having our brothers killed there. Here’s one way. Sis Elviza has been with Mercy Malaysia for sometimes already, and they have Palestine Relief Fund set up on 30th December 2008.

Quoting her,

Mercy Malaysia has, on 30th December 2008, formed an Emergency Response Assessment Team to face the humanitarian crisis in Gaza strip. The team has been promptly dispatched to Egypt led by President, Datuk Dr. Jemilah Mahmood and Exco Member Norazam Ab. Samah.

The air strike and ground offensive on Gaza - as reported by AlJazeera - have killed more than 700 Palestinians, 219 of which are children. More than 3000 have been wounded.

Therefore, Mercy Malaysia appeals to generous Malaysians to send it cash donations. Contributions will support Mercy Malaysia to procure emergency surgical kits, medicines and hospital equipments to help the hospitals in Gaza.

Cheque is to be made payable to “MERCY MALAYSIA” and addressed to Mercy Malaysia, Level 2, Podium Block, City Point, Kompleks Dayabumi, Jalan Sultan Hishamuddin, 50050 Kuala Lumpur.

Cash donations can be made via on-line transmission or deposit at CIMB Bank Account No: 1424-000-6561053.

Donation form can be downloaded from here.

Further enquiries are to be directed to +603-22733999 or info@mercy.org.my

“Whatever little difference we made, makes the differences”

Post-exam High

2009-01-07T15:32:00.001+08:00

Exam last paper was taken this morning and thank God it was alright! Problem Based Question which was thought my best chance of nailing this exam down blown off with something I didn’t expect, but hey, my mistake. Anyway, life ain’t all about passing exam. Sometimes, filing things matters. (of course I am not hoping a failure here haha :D)

Ah, screw the exam, I’ll let it bug me more after holiday. Yes people, the long awaited holiday has been sentenced as we are out of the exam hall for the last paper. Mo more ‘Muhamad is down with books’ or ‘Muhamad driven nuts by the worrisome endblock exam’ Facebook status; and plans have been made for the holiday.

As for the time being, we'll see how the flow go. But Teluk Chempedak or some other cool eatery this night sounds very possible ;)

sapa nak belanja aku makan???!

signing out,

akmalmohammad

*oh lord it is so good to be able to be carefree again*

Dusk and Dawn

2008-12-31T21:39:00.001+08:00

*haih, dah bersawang dah blog aku?*

Alhamdulillah, 2008 is leaving; fortunately with things that I can smile at. Of course there are things that I cannot really say, satisfying, happy stuffs. But hey, it depends on how we perceive things.

Just like years we all have had, 2008’s dusk was beautiful. Dark days are because of blocked light, not because there are no light at all. How we take matters in hand, matters. Of course we can’t have everything, and having all the things always set right upon us. But the point is whatever coming, we learn something.

Things around the world, around us are really out of hands; and there’s nothing much we can really do about. Miseries in Palestine, social-ill, unfinished personal business, political issues, AIDS. But at least, we are trying hard to lead a good life, and for my fellow Moslems, ‘mardhatillah’ as the goal. In the society level, we are improving it by at least nurturing a good and strong building blocks; our self, and our own family. Drawbacks are there for a reason; for all of us to improve, for reflection, for a reminder of who we are.

Let us end this year with a smile, and strive for a better tomorrow.

Enjoy this song by Sami Yusuf, as a reminder to all of us.

Salam maal hijrah to all my moslem fellows, and Happy New Year to all :D

Rayap-rayap UIA

2008-12-20T15:20:00.001+08:00

Date: 18th December 2008

Time: 5pm

Place: …UIA Kuantan >_<

RSVP: None are invited. This was yesterday hehe…

This is a photo post. So less word, mind you ;)

IIUM is still developing; infrastructure, facilities, (that includes Mosque, Library, Student Centre, Campus Administration Office, Sport Centre, Kuliyyah of Pharmacy – all are expected to be fully functioning in 4-5 years time). View of dust and construction site somehow give me cringe moments.

So, I went for a bicycle ride, looking for some majestic view that I can enjoy.

(click to enlarge. 800x533 aje anyway ;))

Baling Selipar, Tarik Tali, Rebut Kerusi…when future medical personnel go awry

2008-12-15T12:49:00.001+08:00

Alhamdulillah, 14th December (yesterday) planned programme (Medical Student Society’s Family Day) went pretty alright; albeit all the problems and last minute uninvited pop-ups messing around. Family Day ain’t that hard to be done anyway; all about main-main, gelak ketawa, suka ria; if we manage to bring smile and sore throat to the participant; I’d say we are alright in during-programme management. But of course. there are always things we can work out on.Being one of the driving committee, there are always bunch of things we need to improve. Prior planning were impaired by the minitest and Eid Adha holiday; the programme was, of course, marginalized by both.

Overall, we did none of the ‘big games’; football, basketball, tennis, futsal etc etc. Those are the games you can play anytime in the world, hence we committee opted for simple, things-you-won’t-play-everyday kind of games; apparently three games dominated the limelight, namely Galah Panjang, Baling Selipar and of course, Tarik Tali.

It was raining after the game i-Queue and Hoop Tower, and thought to be party-pooper. But hey, the game right after that was Tarik Tali (tug-of-war), so yeah, we hit the dirt :D It is rather surprising to know that the people are so energetic in the rain; they pull the rope with too much force that the rope we borrowed from the university will be returned back as two, although we borrowed only one. (yeah, tali putus, dan aku kena susun ayat baik punya untuk mintak maaf dari department for that casualty, as I am the logistics manager (preparation and technical committe))

Considering that all of us are drenched already, so we decided to continue the fun.

Here are some pictures to give you ideas of what happened yesterday :)

Registration :D

Our VVIP! Iffah Mardhiyyah and mak-mak sedaranya. Pak Sedara dia kat belakang kamera :)

Future doctors.

Senamrobik; Chicken dance and hawaiian dance

Galah Panjang

Baling Selipar

Click to enlarge. Boleh tengok selipar tu nak jatuh :D

Stall perut besar (Gastromegaly)

Hujan

Marbles…

Hoop Tower

No pictures of tarik tali though, obviously because it was raining. My camera IS NOT waterproof hahaha :D

Have a nice day y’all :D

akmalmohammad

Eid ‘Adha ‘08

2008-12-10T07:42:00.001+08:00

Pictures will talk :D

I’m back in IIUM Kuantan already. There was a celebration here also, on the 2nd raya, but I was told by a friend that there were not many people around; 20 people, 3 cows! I think it is due to the lack of publicity, and also because not many of IIUM residents are around during that time. Raya, what else can you expect? ;)

The caption is a tad haywire, so please visit my picasaweb albums here. Uploaded into my facebook also; jump through here. For those with facebook, don’t forget to add me up :D

Salam ‘Eid Adha.

akmalmohammad

Perhaps…

2008-12-08T01:22:00.001+08:00

…when you are expecting good things coming, bad things come instead…

…when you are up to something good, hindrances come from all over the places…

…when you lose your way, guidance lights the way…

Salam aidiladha to all.

May this year gives you more than what you can get from gulai, rendang and masak merah of daging…

…for what matters is we learn, appreciate and implement the spirit of hari raya ‘qurban’…

ps. click picture to enlarge. size is optimized to fit your desktop, can use for your wallpaper this raya :)

Look Up the Sky

2008-11-30T10:14:00.001+08:00

A photopost this time. During the first time my friends and I went skywatching, the morning was rather cloudy; hence none of the pictures depict the true Teluk Chempedak beauty. But our second attempt to watch sunrise, looks like the sky is smiling at us. I mean, look at what I got…

Not sure though who got this; Me or Majid :D Brilliant sun

Thoughts of the day, that’s how much of beauty and tranquility we can get around us. Bad things are everywhere coexisting with what’s beautiful. However, it is our choice whether to appreciate the good one, or the bad one. Take no thing for granted, take it easy, and live life. There’s always good things to cherish when we are haunted with ghostly ones, so chill :)

akmalmohammad

Milky Way to Lala Land

2008-11-30T01:01:00.001+08:00

Man, I can’t sleep…

You got sleep problem? Well, I do; especially when you have things bugging you (eg. …exams?).

I daresay that everyone of us have had this; you know, tossing around on bed, awoken in the middle of nights, feeling some kind of fatigue upon wake up, blogging at hours you should be dreaming…well, you know what I mean.

Actually, you can help it out by some simple steps; unless you are suffering from serious sleep disorders; that one, man, go see doctor.

Our sleep is affected by various factors; mostly body clock which is very photosensitive. What we eat also apparently giving out effects. Now, if you think you have occasional trouble going to sleep, do this. Drink milk. Yup, you heard it right. No bluff, pranks, whatever. And seriously, man, you don’t look less masculine drinking milk. This is biochemistry we are talking about, mister.

An essential amino acid (requires intake through diet), namely tryptophan, is a brain calming material. Our body converts tryptophan into melatonin and serotonin; which are thought as sleep inducer. Combined with some carbohydrate in the diet, say, bread, you’re good to go. Carbohydrate and calcium help in the usage of the tryptophan.

Milk alone of course won’t do the trick. But it will definitely help you get a better night sleep. You need one; or else, your performance in the following day will be impaired.

Get to know more about this here, here and here :) Apparently blogging at this hour give me the same effect. I had a glass, anyway :)

Goodnight :)

p.s. Consider melamine also. You want to have a good night sleep. Not a ‘forever and ever’ sleep :P

Love Thy Physician

2008-11-28T02:01:00.001+08:00

Microsoft Examines Causes of ‘Cyberchondria’

By JOHN MARKOFF

Published: November 24, 2008

If that headache plaguing you this morning led you first to a Web search and then to the conclusion that you must have a brain tumor, you may instead be suffering from cyberchondria.

On Monday, Microsoft researchers published the results of a study of health-related Web searches on popular search engines as well as a survey of the company’s employees.

The study suggests that self-diagnosis by search engine frequently leads Web searchers to conclude the worst about what ails them.

The researchers said they had undertaken the study as part of an effort to add features to Microsoft’s search service that could make it more of an adviser and less of a blind information retrieval tool.

Although the term “cyberchondria” emerged in 2000 to refer to the practice of leaping to dire conclusions while researching health matters online, the Microsoft study is the first systematic look at the anxieties of people doing searches related to health care, Eric Horvitz said.

Mr. Horvitz, an artificial intelligence researcher at Microsoft Research, said many people treated search engines as if they could answer questions like a human expert.

“People tend to look at just the first couple results,” Mr. Horvitz said. “If they find ‘brain tumor’ or ‘A.L.S.,’ that’s their launching point.”

Mr. Horvitz is a computer scientist and has a medical degree, and his fellow investigator, Ryen W. White, is a specialist in information retrieval technology.

They found that Web searches for things like headache and chest pain were just as likely or more likely to lead people to pages describing serious conditions as benign ones, even though the serious illnesses are much more rare.

For example, there were just as many results that linked headaches with brain tumors as with caffeine withdrawal, although the chance of having a brain tumor is infinitesimally small.

The researchers said they had not intended their work to send the message that people should ignore symptoms. But their examination of search records indicated that researching particular symptoms often led quickly to anxiousness.

They found that roughly 2 percent of all Web queries were health-related, and about 250,000 users, or about a quarter of the sample, engaged in a least one medical search during the study.

About a third of the subjects “escalated” their follow-up searches to explore serious illnesses, the researchers said.

Of the more than 500 Microsoft employees who answered a survey on their medical search habits, more than half said that online medical queries related to a serious illness had interrupted their day-to-day activities at least once.

Mr. Horvitz said that in addition to his interest in creating a Web search tool that would give more reliable answers, the research was driven by clear memories from his medical school education of what was often referred to as “second-year syndrome” or “medical schoolitis.”

He said he remembered “sitting on a cold seat with my legs dangling off the examination table,” convinced that he was suffering from a rare and incurable skin disease.

While the doctor was out of the room, Mr. Horvitz said, he took a look at his medical chart and saw that the doctor’s notes read, “Eric is in medical school, and he has been reading a lot.”

The researchers said that Web searchers’ propensity to jump to awful conclusions was basic human behavior that has been noted by research scientists for decades.

In 1974, the psychologists Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman wrote a seminal paper about decisions that are based on beliefs about the likelihood of uncertain events, like the outcome of an election or the future value of the dollar.

They said that people usually employ common sense rules to aid in decisions. The rules can be quite useful, but they also frequently lead to systematic errors in judgment.

The Microsoft researchers noted that reliance on the rankings of Web search results contributes a similar bias to the judgments people make about illness.

At the same time, Mr. Horvitz said he believed that the Web would evolve to offer more reliable information.

In the 1990s, Microsoft researchers built a health advisory system for pregnancy and child care. Mr. Horvitz said that in the future it would be possible to create search engines that were able to detect medical queries and offer advice that did not automatically make Web searchers fear the worst.

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Perhaps we Malaysian has not reach this level; at least, yet. As the communication and internet are developing more than what we imagined, we’ll reach this stage in no time. The development is simply magnificent; that one we all have to accept. However in health, we should consider expertise, training and experiences of the person we are consulting with. In short, it is unwise to have all diagnostics being done by machine.

The patients and their families are not entirely at fault; in some cases doctors just can’t be bothered about providing adequate information. People may resort to internet to look for ideas about what they are dealing with. The number of such cases may be minute; but if we manage to overcome this one, we’re putting our healthcare services up a new level.

However, people, please, internet is meant to help us by providing information. To diagnose, no. It might sounds cool when you tell people that you have upper respiratory tract infection; and your laptop is super cool that you don’t even need doctors. Sign and symptoms may appear in forms you don’t even expect.

So guys, love thy doctor :)

Perfect Weekenders

2008-11-26T01:54:00.001+08:00

While varsity clans of other than certain courses in IIUM having their time killed in front of TV, hanging out, hitting on the gamepad, read novels, whatever they like to do to occupy their holiday, we who don’t have such luxury aren’t left behind. Our weekend was filled with all sorts of activities; hence I took the liberty to call ourselves the ‘Perfect Weekenders’. Why? You’ll figure it out. I’ll let pictures do the talking…;)

Sunrise watching at Teluk Chempedak. Yup, the ladies came prepared with breakfast also. Too bad, the morning was rather cloudy, perhaps due to the downpour during the early morning.

Pictures of the day…got nothing to do with the sunrise watching. That kucing is named as ‘Kasut’.

Another round of Teluk Chempedak in the night. Thanks Ainie, for the ice cream :)
Got no other place ke?…you might ask. Well, take this then.

Berkelah waterfall. While the place is rather secluded, requiring off-road hassles and some 15 minutes trekking, it worth the sweat.

And yeah, solat mana boleh tinggal. Atas batu pun jalan ;)

The Perfect Weekenders…

My Workspace

2008-11-24T21:19:00.001+08:00

Sekali kena tag daaa....this time by uncle YB :) Like usual, as I am the self-proclaimed a good sport, I’m willing to play the game. This one is rather simple though; snap pictures of your workspace, put your url on it, post it, and voila, you’re did it like a champion :)

The rules…

1) snap your workstation.

2) put your blog url on the picture(s).

3) iaitu bersebelahan dengan link-link blog yang ada..(i don’t know what does this means)

4) pass the tag to 7 other bloggers (like usual, I’m not much of a tagger, but for this one, I’ll do hehehe…)

So, here goes :)

This is my meja. Loads of books, what else do you expect from a student table anyway haha :))

This sight is rather usual haha. Berterabur.

On the shelf. Some of the books I read, some are unfinished. You want to read Kite Runner, A Thousand Splendid Suns, Vanishing Act; simply said all you can see over there hehe. Hadith 40 also :)

Best part with this workstation is this; nice view on my left hand side :) Stars also at nights. But sadly, no moon.

Another workstation. For my research, internet, chatting and blogging convenience. Usually the engine runs around the clock, minus the occasional cooling down. So, yeah, I sleep with my laptop haha. Oohh, call me nuts all you want :))

There you have it :)

Now, I would like to pass this tag to these people :)

1. Moon of The Colours of Moon

2. Von Charlie of Bantaplo

3. Wajihah of Eminence

4. Fidza of PRICE-less

5. Zira of Godmovesthroughyou

6. Anis Diyana of A-vanilla-D

7. Anisah of The Secret Dreamworld of a Bookaholic

All are my fellow student from various course hehe. Well, guys, show me what you’ve got, and let’s see who got the most messy table!

Bring it on!

10 Don’ts of Phrases

2008-11-19T00:54:00.001+08:00

Oxford compiles list of top ten irritating phrases

A top 10 of irritating expressions has been compiled by researchers at Oxford University.

by Charlotte Bailey

Heading the list was the expression 'at the end of the day', which was followed in second place by the phrase 'fairly unique'.
The tautological statement "I personally" made third place – an expression that BBC Radio 4 presenter John Humphreys has described as "the linguistic equivalent of having chips with rice."
Also making the top 10 is the grammatically incorrect "shouldn't of", instead of "shouldn't have".
The phrases appear in a book called Damp Squid, named after the mistake of confusing a squid with a squib, a type of firework.
The researchers who compiled the list monitor the use of phrases in a database called the Oxford University Corpus, which comprises books, papers, magazines, broadcast, the internet and other sources.
The database alerts them to new words and phrases and can tell them which expressions are disappearing. It also shows how words are being misused.
As well as the above expressions, the book's author Jeremy Butterfield says that many annoyingly over-used expressions actually began as office lingo, such as 24/7 and "synergy".
Other phrases to irritate people are "literally" and "ironically", when they are used out of context.
Mr Butterfield said: "We grow tired of anything that is repeated too often – an anecdote, a joke, a mannerism – and the same seems to happen with some language."

The top ten most irritating phrases:
1 - At the end of the day
2 - Fairly unique
3 - I personally
4 - At this moment in time
5 - With all due respect
6 – Absolutely
7 - It's a nightmare
8 - Shouldn't of
9 - 24/7
10 - It's not rocket science

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Somehow all of the 10 sound cliché right? :)

Of Language…

2008-11-15T01:08:00.001+08:00

It is so happened that Kelantanese are scattered all over the place; so some or many, or perhaps all of you have already familiar with how the accent goes. You can even tell by the ‘budu-ish’ smell of the words coming of their (read: our) mouth.

But you like it or not, from my personal and collective observation Kelantanese accent has become somewhat secondary, anywhere under the sun in Malaysia (primary in Kelantan, needless to say).

Kelantanese accent is not as simple as you might think. Yes, the general rule is to scrap off the alphabet ‘n’ from any words ending with it and replace ‘ae’ to it (Ikan –> Ikae, makan –> makae, jantan –> jatae). But no, not necessarily we follow that rule. We are a smart bunch. Take this for a quick example; ‘Kenduri’ in Bahasa is ‘bekwoh’ in the accent, and it was derived from ‘big work’ denoting a situation where there will be many people and proper planning involved to make an event goes right. Though, for certain words you can’t really trace where does the origin come from; but people who never heard of it will have a good laugh for the funny sound of it. Examples; ‘Jelly’ or ‘agar-agar’ in Bahasa, we call them ‘beledo’, ‘pukul’ in bahasa is ‘katok’ in Kelantanese ;).

We might want to associate kelantanese accent with Trengganu accent of certain part; the major difference can be seen is the suffix being added at the end of each words being used. For example; ‘apahal?’ in Bahasa is ‘guano?’ in Kelantan and ‘guane?’ in Trengganu; and ‘makan’ in Bahasa is ‘makae’ in Kelantan and ‘makang’ in Trengganu.

I am not sure how true is this observation; it was made by Makhtar Mansor, a ex-lawyer who developed ‘Kaedah Mokhdar’ to help students with difficulties in Math and Science by boosting their information retaining ability. His basic idea is to simplify the way we pronounce number; this was proven useful especially in memorizing the multiplication table. From his observation, he concluded that Kelantanese boys are better with numbers because the way we deal with number is simple; 1 in Bahasa is ‘satu’ and in kelantanese ‘so’; 4 in bahasa is ‘empat’ and ‘pak’ in Kelantanese. He also compared with other languages especially mandarin; which have much more simpler way of pronouncing numbers; and associated it with the relatively better achievement of Chinese student in Mathematic. Again, I would like to stress here that I don’t know how true this observation is. Someone out there got statistics about this? Please share :) Personally I like maths and physics very much not because I like numbers, but I like the wide application of both principles in our daily life; and the complexity of both is just beautiful. I mean, you cannot resist the beauty of dynamics, optics and probabilities, right? ;)

akmalmohammad
wiseup88@gmail.com
lion_heartff@yahoo.com.my
http://wiseup88.blogspot.com/

Akmal’s Cringe Moments ;)

2008-11-15T00:15:00.001+08:00

I wonder if what I am going to reveal here is of any fun to any of you; well if it is, then it is so apparent that you are someone who love to laugh off at people huh? Well, who doesn’t? :)

Well, I was tagged by ms b, who apparently was tagged by Kak Teh.

1/ My first cringe moment. The most cringing moment, I think. Well, this is during my secondary school; form three I think. Me being a comic addict at that time really can’t miss any of the Misteri Naga series that time; I’d rather die on malnutrition than missing one. Heh, boys. Ok, that is not the cringe part (I am lame if it is right?). You see, comic addicts will read comic anywhere, anytime; in my case, I did that when I am on my way back to the hostel; walking due to the short, ‘walkable’ distance. Yep, I read while I walk. There was a small burger stall, and I was too indulged flipping page by page. What happened, do I need to say it out loud? Well, here goes…

“Gedegannnnng!”

There was even a car stopped, asking whether I was alright.

Oh you don’t want to know how my face looked like. I don’t want to know. But as far as I am concern, I think I am having a damn good laugh over myself haha. Nope, no more of the comic reading-while-walking stuff. Just a relaxing and ‘emotional’ moment with some ‘sedih’ novels and headbanging moment of the medicine books ;)

2/ OK, this one is rather ‘naughty’ cringe moment, and it was so apparent that I made it public in the first place. In my previous posting, in the ‘Ubuntu Intrepid Ibex is Out and About’, I hit the publish button without proofreading. Well, you can of course expect typos here and there, don’t you? Ok now, this typo is rather not alright. It was double typo; I was to type disc, and I missed the c with k and s with c. You know what I am talking about right?
The silly, stupid, ‘face-water-dropping’ (you got it yeah?) mistake will remain a mistake if my blogger friend Munir didn’t correct me haha. Read his comment here. He is the last who left comment in the posting. Go read it, or you won’t understand what I am talking about hehe :)

Ok that’s it. There are lots of other cringing moment I had, but that’s that haha :)

Not gonna tag anyone, but hey if you’re up to ‘write out loud’ about yourself, go on hehehe :)

The Immunoprecipitation Frenzy

2008-11-12T23:11:00.001+08:00

This is the experiment where we are to check on a certain antibody class.

That apparatus over there is NOR-partigen. That is how it is from the outside.

Open it up, and we have that orange disk. Basically the surface of the disk has been covered with levelled agar layer, and twelve wells were punched in advance to put in antibody generators.

And then we do this. This is the step when we put a very minute amount of the antibody generators into the wells. We’ll then let it stay overnight and then check the reaction. Trembling hands are not advised to do this.

Why?

Because that orange disk, that apparently appear as something you really can get from any ‘pasar malam’, costs you RM200.

Not a ‘pasar malam’ stuff anymore huh? But if you are to steal it and sell it at any ‘pasar malam’ at that price, it is very likely that you are purely wasting your time.

Now if you are wondering why study science ain’t cheap, you know why ;)

The Call for Elizabeth Marks

2008-11-09T12:20:00.001+08:00

If you happen to know, or to be Elizabeth Marks, you will want to go here. You might find out that there are someone out there looking for you ;)

I will leave this message on the sidebar also. Have a nice day.

Ya, Saya Budak Medic yang Suka Berjalan

2008-11-09T03:11:00.001+08:00

It was unplanned, but my friends and I had another day out yesterday. Cherating this time.

This is the bright side of being in Kuantan. You got a long list of places you can be at to unwind, or just to let things go off your chest. Am not really up to type long lah this morning, hence the typical remark; I’ll have the pictures tell you the story hehe :)

Oh ya, pardon the date on the pictures. Someone played with my Kodak C613 and turned on the date stamp.

2 cars, several bikes, embarked into a 40km or so travel on the highway to Kemaman. The road is quite simple to follow anyway, and even if we got lost, GPS is of a great assistance.

Beautiful beach, not that many people around. Considering the reputation Cherating have got, I bet there must be more people during holiday.

Photos of the day.

Daun-daunan.

RM200 footwear. Waterproof. Perhaps idiotproof also ;)

Kema. That’s what my friends call me ;)

Majestic view. Just before we went back home.

Pantai Batu Hitam next, perhaps? Or maybe Bukit Panorama? Anyone? ;)

*sampai aje kat UIA, terus kena masuk meeting. Got to handle Family Day for the MBBS student batches, and the budget provided sucks. Anyone out there would like to sponsor money or goodies? Hmm? hehe…. :D

The Bucket List

2008-11-05T19:20:00.001+08:00

What would you do when you are told that you’ll be dead within one year?

This question was invoked in ‘The Bucket List’ (2007), a movie involving two terminal cancer patients; a crusty, hard-headed, proud health care businessman Edward Cole (Jack Nicholson) and knowledgeable mechanic Carter Chambers (Morgan Freeman), who met in a ward in the hospital; which belongs to Edward. Both were informed that they are running out of time. Upon realizing they have very little time left and yet, they don’t feel like dying, both took a decision; embarking into a journey of fulfilling what they have yet to achieve; skydiving, laugh till cry, car racing, see the world; safari, egyptian pyramid, this, that; all of those they really want to do before they kick the bucket.

The dateline draws near, and…hey, I don’t think I should get the movie spoiled, should I? Haha. Go to your nearest Movie store, get a copy for this amazing movie and watch; it will worth your every penny spent. You don’t want to, can also check out the synopsis and story line here in the Wikipedia.

I am not promoting this movie (…fine! I am, and this movie rocks, so what? hehe) but this movie rather made me thinking on several things; but the most important question is “what is it really I want to have in my life?”. Of course, after thinking over it, several things were added into my wish list haha.

Oh well, nothing wrong about dreaming right? Of course, each of us will work it out to get as many of the things in our wish list happen, and having dreams drive us all into it :)

Enjoy this song ‘Say’ by John Mayer, from Official Soundtrack of The Bucket List.

Enjoy life, y’all :)

Intrepid Ibex is out and about!

2008-10-31T20:35:00.002+08:00

Yes, I know you would like to know just what is that. It is the latest release of the open source operating system, Ubuntu. If you’re up to it, why not get yourself a copy? Click it and you’ll be downloading the .iso file right into your harddisk. Oh ya, mind you that that is an .iso file; which is a disc image. You’ll need program to mount it or burn it into a disc. I’d suggest Alcohol 120% or PowerISO. Not sure if you can directly burn it all into disc, though :) There are many mirrors to download the installation for those who are up to it. But I think it can also be downloaded as a torrent. Will update later the link :)

This version is 8.10 (the 8 stands for year 2008, and the 10 stands for the month of the release of the full system). Previous codename for version 7.04 was Hardy Heron, and for this one, Intrepid Ibex is nevertheless cool. The only reason I double-boot is because there is no driver available for my Asus T500 3G datacard; the bypass this one, trust me, Vista will be the ‘story of yesterday’ in my laptop, or at least the minor operating system.

Anyhow, I need to do some housekeeping on my harddisk for me to be able to get my laptop double-booted with Windows and Linux. Being not very familiar with hacking, coding, programming, whatever, I hope this version will be more friendly with my graphic card. Radeon Xpress 1100 was very well known as a not-Ubuntu-frinedly graphic card, requiring loads of coding, bypassing and hacking to get all the features and wow-stuffs working. People out there with a way to get this one done in an easier manner, rather than all those fancy sudo- commands, please email me at wiseup88@gmail.com, or lion_heartff@yahoo.com.my.

Ahhh, I can’t wait to get my copy downloaded, up and running :)

Get more infos about Ubuntu here.

ps. This is rather an inquiry to Malaysian Ubuntu Community out there, do you know where to get other side products like the t-shirt, this, that from Cannonical? It sure will be good if we do have a store specific for that, don’t you think?

oh ya, for windows diehard fans, I think windows 7 is going to be released soon. If you want to stay Windows lover, go on, and please don’t try Linux. You’ll get addicted to it ;)

The Mad Man.

2008-10-28T20:34:00.001+08:00

Just to share several fun and funny quotations from the class today ;)

“A rare ability to be angry with; 1, the right person; 2, for the right reason; 3, at the right time; 4, in the right way; 5, to the right degree”

Aristotle

Alright this is fun. After a round of “oh that was explicitly on my nerve”, I found this this morning during Psychiatry class with Dr. Umeed.

After a round of laugh and reflection, I think I don’t have that rarity. You see, I rarely go nuts over things even though I should. People refrain themselves from the heat because, generally, they think that there are so many things they can go nut over with than wasting all the time by screaming out loud, have a catfight, debating who’s wrong, who’s right, whatever. In a point of view, that is cool. Really. But there is always drawback by doing this; the person at fault won’t realize what they did, unless they themselves do some reflection over what they have done. Well, slow talks sometimes work; but that ‘s not how it goes with everyone. Sure you know what I’m talking about here, right?

Oh well, that’s your right, so do what you want to do :)

And oh, another quotation from Dr. Umeed about mad and madness,

“You need not to be mad to work in crazy wards, but it will help if you do”

Dr. Umeed

You see, those people with disoriented mind, are not crazy in their own world. We are. They interpret this world and their surrounding by their own theories :)

So somehow the saying is right, yeah? ;)

And when you are imposed by ‘good question’, this is how you get away ;)

“The problem with good question is that we don’t have good answer”

Oh heck, it works like a charm :)

Mind provoking huh?

Have a nice day y’all :)

Brace Yourself, Another Tag Coming :)

2008-10-26T17:36:00.001+08:00

From mueiz, the 7 Facts About Me.

Rules of the tag:- Link to your tagger(checked!) and post these rules in your blog(checked!). Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird (coming!). Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs. Let them know they are tagged by leaving a comment on their blog(like usual, skipping this one hehe).

1. I got a big hand, big feet. Big heart also. Go figure :P

2. I have too many hobbies. Computer, camera, photography (2 different things alright?), books, reading (also 2 different things ;)), blogging, used to collect stamp, latest one is writing on notebook. Keeps my head running, and inspire me. I write almost everyday you know? Nope, this one is for me, not going to publish it anywhere :D

3. I am irritable, so that my lecturer said when he *suka-suka* diagnose me with hyperthyroidism on my tremor and sweaty palm :)
So what if I am irritable? Homer Simpson is irritable what? But adorable also. No, scratch adorable. :D

4. I don’t like tag? But I am a sporting person I guess. :)

5. Takde awek. Enough said.

6. My music, Von Charlie said that it is terrible. Piano solos (Joseph Bangiorno, Maksim Mrvica, Timothy Davey, Doug Hammer, Chuck Brown, Joshua Rich, Rob Costlow (I’m his BIG fan)), Mariah Carey, Celine Dion, sometimes Sweetness and Last Christmas by Jimmy Eat World, Ramli Sarip definitely, that’s my music :)
Again, DON’T laugh.

7. My cadar kaler ungu? Haha.

I said it before, am not going to tag anyone. But please, feel free to share with the rest of us :)

Have a nice day.

Tagged.

2008-10-25T09:24:00.001+08:00

Ms. B tagged me sometimes ago. You see, I am not a big fan of tags, but hey, I am sporting yeah? ;)

Here goes.

1. When was the last time you ran? Trust me, just now before I am doing this tag. Hehe, wanna know why? I left my precious Sony Ericsson K530i in the laundry room. What, you think I am going to ‘walk’ for it? You wish!
2. Do your jeans have rips, tears and holes in them? Jeez, man that creeps.
3. What are you dreading right now? Erm…dunno. What about this; pathology subject gets tougher?
4. Do you celebrate 4/20? I don’t know what is that.
5. When was the last time you saw your significant other? I am a lone ranger, but I am not lonely hehe. Nope, no significant other. At least for now. Ask again the next 10 years ;)
6. Do you get the full eight hours of sleep every night? Usually 6 hours work fine with me :)
7. What is your favorite current song? Kelsey by Joshua Rich. Not a song, but it is a piano solo play. Trust me, it is soooooo beautiful you’ll find yourself listening to it over and over again :) Legally downloadable for free here. Get it and tell me your opinion :D You can also find other songs to download for free here. What you think I am that ROck ‘n Roll kind of guy eh? I enjoy Mariah’s I Stay In Love and Bye Bye also.
Please don’t laugh.
8. If anyone came to your house on your lazy days, what would you do? I got no house haha. But I think I will entertain them. Always good to have someone around right? :)
9. Who last grabbed your ass? What the?
10. Have you ever been in your school’s band? Nope.
11. Do you own a pair of Converse? Nope.
12. Did you copy and paste this survey? Question only maaa. What, you expect me to rewrite while we can do so by simply Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V?.
13. Do you eat raw cookie dough? Nope. Sedap ke?
14. Have you ever kicked a vending machine? Punch counts?
15. Do you hate it when a radio ruins a song by playing a slow one after it? I am choosy with music hehe. That depends on what is coming.
16. Do you watch Trading Places? Huh?
17. Have you ever stayed on line a long time waiting for someone? Sure did. Well, not entirely his fault anyway. Who asked me to be there 30 minutes earlier? Well, he came 1 hour later than the time he was suppose to. Glad I have a book to indulge myself into at that time hehe. Another occurence, well, you don’t want to know :P
18. Are you ‘cocky’? Dunno. You tell me ;)
19. Could you live without a computer? I. Don’t. Think. So…… Is that normal?
20. Do you wear your shoes in the house? Nope.
21. At what age did you find out Santa was not real? Never believed in one haha.
22. How many phones, house phones and cell phones are there in your home? 3 mobiles (2 mine, 1 my dad’s), fixed line were cut (we asked for it due to the many cases of daredevil climbing up the pole just to make the cable theirs).
23. What do you do when you are sad? Usually I will try to get away from people. But I think the best way that works fine with me is to take a bath. Or sleep.
24. Who would you call first if you won the lottery? My mum, I think?
25. Last time you saw your best friend? During raya vacation last 3 weeks.
26. Who, or What sleeps with you? My laptop haha. Told you I can’t live without my laptop.
27. Are you still in High School? Nope.
28. Is anyone on your bad side now? Erm….er…..aaa…..
29. What jewelry are you wearing now? None.
30. What is the first thing that you do when you get on line? Check e-mails.
31. Do you watch Grey’s Anatomy? Oh yes.
32. Would you ever wear a boy/girlfriends clothes? I have done that before :) But no, I don’t cross-dress.
33. Where do you work? As a student? Kuantan :)
34. What are you doing on Friday? Semayang Jumaat.
35. Is Justin Timberlake becoming the next Michael Jackson? I don’t think so :)
36. Favorite name for a girl? Never thought of this :P
37. Favorite name for a boy? Never thought of this also :P
38. Will you keep your own name when you get married? …I guess?
39. When was the last time you left your house? Last three weeks, and haven’t returned yet. Kat hostel maa :) *homesick homesick*
40. Do you return your cart (I assume trolley)? Cart stealer? Owh please. Get a life :P
41. Do you have a dishwasher? My hand counts?
42. What noise do you hear? Ceiling fan. Very noisy. Interchangeably called as Helicopter.

Done! Now it is tagging time. I am tagging, YOU! You, you, you, you, you and YOU! Hahaha. Feel free to do it alright? ;)

Have a nice day.

After One Meaningful Year

2008-10-24T09:49:00.001+08:00

Time really flies, isn’t it?

I guess after this one year of blogging, I should make some sort of reflection of what I have done and also what I should do to improve.

I was a completely ordinary chap when it comes to internet a year ago. All I did was doing all the works that require me to have an access to internet; looking for information, ‘socialize’ in friendster, things like that (But hey, I am still socializing. Another level this time. And we even met on the hard ground). Simply put, I was an ordinary consumer who use what I have right in from of me, utilizing all the complexities of networking which would be pretty hard for me to understand, just to make life so pretty darn simple.

It changed alright. I am no longer that ordinary consumer you can find along the roads, in the cybercafe, wherever it is. I am now a contributor; or at least that is what I am considering my self as, unless you got some other ideas of what my previous pieces was. To write is to disseminate; it comes with principals.

But anyhow, I chose to bear it on my shoulder, didn’t I?

24/10/2008. Happy Birthday, WiseUp :)

Last Weekend…

2008-10-21T00:27:00.006+08:00

It has been a week of hiatus, I guess? Anyway, I am back, with loads of stuff to write on. Basically I am in self-indulgence mode, so bear with me writing up many things about my rather boring life haha. You want to read or not, your choice. Pictures (warning, a lot are coming. Seriously) will do most of the talking anyway, but I’ll try to keep this one traditional; more words, I mean. ;)

I was in KL last weekend, just to get several things done with, open houses and most importantly to attend the annual event KLPF. The event has just started last year with a pretty good response from the public. So they made this one bigger.

One of the plan is to visit Rawang to visit my cousin; and I stumbled upon this Burger Kukus.

Yes, burger kukus. I don't know if it is pretty common among KL-ites, but that was the first time Burger Kukus hit me.

Trust me, we are not talking about the regular burger here. You might say Burger King rules the burger world. But this one rocks!

Was at Subang to attend a open house. Makan~~makan~~makan~~ sedaaaap dowwwh~~ :D

Being a photography enthusiast, getting to know that there are such event as Kuala Lumpur Photography Festival made me frantic. I guess digital photography got a lot of attention from the laymen. As far as I’m concern, a single lens reflex once was a luxury to have. Thanks to Canon for setting the ball rolling with more wallet friendly, budget SLR (EOS500, I guess), the business accelerated. Oh ya, anyone want to have EOS500, second hand, with TTL flash, email me at wiseup88@gmail.com :) Then the giant leap happened; it was when we saw the spectrum of usage turned from film to digital. Many other companies followed suit.

Anyway, here’s some of the pictures I managed to get during KLPF.

Too bad this one was conducted in Mandarin…or rather, too bad I don’t know mandarin…

Got money to spend? Lenses, speedlight, DSLR, bags, tripod, monopod, accessories, all were there waiting. Some of the vendors are Canon, Nikon, Olympus, Tamron, Sigma, Kata, Shashinki.com, Manfrotto, to name several of them :)

And talking about big cameras….D3, 1Ds Mark III, E3, 50Ds, D300, D700……

The model definitely had a bad time straining her eyes against all the flashlights ;)

Bumped into Abang Yazid over there also. He uses Olympus E410, and he bought a speedlight, and treated me also. Thanks bro ;). And yup, met Pak Adib or Berisman also, a EOS400D user. Both of us were there to get a closer look of EOS5D Mark II. One word; impressive. Enough said :)

I bought a 50mm f/1.8 prime lense. Cheap enough that it won’t hurt my wallet much :)

Being in Kuantan, visiting KL is a no everyday matter although it is relatively close. So I utilized the time available to visit Pak Idrus at his house in Ampang Jaya. We had a good talk, mostly of course he do the talking and I tried my best to absorb everything, trying to get the most out of the experiences this noble man got. I missed him on TV, RTM 1 at 8.30pm to be exact, that night because I was already on my bus, going back to Kuantan. Bummer!

Some of my hot (self-claimed) shots around KL…

Other shots are available here.

akmalmohammad

After Exam….

2008-10-12T23:33:00.002+08:00

We did this :)

Kuantan is indeed a place with flowing and falling water (ape daa bahasa...). This is one of the waterfall I managed to visit after my First Final Block Exam. Well, we’d better make hay because we’re going to have the new session of lectures started the following Monday :P

This place is nice to get your body cooled. But to get serenity and a moment of total getaway from the people, I’d recommend Berkelah Waterfall. The water is also deeper and there are not many people visiting because you need to go a bit deep by in the jungle by walking. Lots of stone also. So going there during rainy day is definitely not a good idea :)

Just for the rough ideas of how the Berkelah Waterfall looks like,

Well folks, what can I say, enjoy the pictures :) Can also visit my other picasaweb public albums through this link :)

Now if you excuse me, I’ve got to do pre-reading on Immunology and Thymoid system… and oh, molecular genetics also ;)

Have a nice day.

AkmalMohammad

Raya '08

2008-10-05T23:33:00.001+08:00

Enjoy folks! :)

Kuala Lumpur Photography Festival 2008

2008-10-04T23:49:00.001+08:00

Photographers gonna love this one very, very, very much!

Date:18-19 October 2008
Time:11am-9pm
Venue: Berjaya Times Square, Kuala Lumpur (LG)

There will be Photo Mania Seminar, Slide Show and Seminar, ‘Shades of Colour' Photo Exhibition, Photo Trade Fair and Model Shooting.

Most of the seminars will be conducted in Mandarin. For more info, come here.

Have a nice day folks!

Breakfast with Kelantan Bloggers

2008-10-02T22:21:00.001+08:00

Hear ye! Hear ye!

Come on and join the hungry, savvy crowd!

Venue : Hayaki Kopitiam Jalan Kebun Sultan, Desa Cemerlang

Time : 9.30 Pagi - 11.30 Pagi

Date : Sabtu 4hb Oktober 2008

No RSVP, whatsoever needed I think. But you might want to come along with your laptop. Hayaki Kopitiam got free wi-fi, I tell you! Further inquiries, please contact Pak Zawi (019 9125647)

And again, I will have to give this one a pass….

Bummer.