The dumbest argument I've ever read.

It is Friday and someone pissed me off.

When I decided to study abroad, the sole purpose of me choosing to study here rather than in Malaysia is because of the advantages the US system offered.

Sebab pertama:

If I were to buy a chemical reagent from an overseas-based company, it will take months for the item to arrive where as I could get the same reagent for 2 days here in the US (if I use expedited shipping, I can get it right the next day, ha!).

Sebab kedua:

Studying in the US forced me not to speak my mother-tongue language. As a result, I won't go stutter whenever I have to converse in English.

Sebab ketiga:

The only expert in my field is my mentor back in UPM. No doubt he was a graduate from Cornell. But having only one professor teaching you everything about one subject doesn't give you a broad idea about your field.


So, if you think, the reason why I chose overseas for my graduate education is because I would like to bring my husband, having a US-born child, tettttttttt, you are totally wrong. My husband won't even want to accompany me at first. I have to beg him for the first few months after we got married.

And do you think I would just sacrifice the idea of me being pregnant during the peak fertility age (ie: in my 20's) just to get a scroll of Ph.D?

Tettt, again, you are totally wrong!

I am married and the reason of me getting married is to have children. I do not simply go pregnant once I am in grad school. I waited a few years so that I could get everything out of the way before we decided to have a child. Even so, I know a lot of married couple with children that could manage their time really well during the first few years of grad school. The very valuable skill that I learn from having a baby when I am still in grad school is I get everything organized. Dulu masuk lab, bukak email fb segala mak nenek sampai kul 12, pergi lunch, lepas lunch baru buat kerja, balik rumah kul 7pm. Now, I make sure I have everything planned a week before and I get everything done by 5pm.  So, shut the f*ck up, you have no idea how grateful I am having a baby now rather than later. I know 5 people who didn't finish their study and they were single. So, everyone has sh*t in their life, it is the matter of how they deal with it.


Do you think I live a luxury life here in the US?

Although my husband is working, half of his pay goes to our baby's daycare. The other half is to pay our car insurance, bills and emergency saving. The Malaysian government allowance is just enough to pay our house rent, electricity and groceries. If we want to go for vacation, we have to start saving 6 months prior. 6 months okay? Bukan esok nak bercuti, suka2 hati leh pergi.

Thank you for wasting my time writing this piece of emotional sh*t when I should be expressing my milk for Faliela. Thank you for ruining my Friday. And again, shut the f*ck up when you have no idea what you are talking about.

Traveling with infant

As I promised, this post is meant to share some tips on traveling with infants.

Weeks before my departure, I did some internet research on the do's and dont's when traveling with infants. I will give you the link of one of the best posts I came across at the end of this writing.

• Kids have problem to balance the pressure of their ears during take-off and landing. Provide them with something to chew/suck on such as pacifier, bottles or nurse them directly. Technically, because their seatbelt is attached to one of the parents (if you are purchasing on lap ticket), the mother can always nurse them directly during take-off and landing. We don't want to introduce pacifier to our baby, but we brought one, just in case, and Faliela kept spitting it out from her mouth. So, we did our best to hold the pacifier on her mouth. Fortunately, by the time the plane took off or landed, Faliela dozed off to sleep already!
• Dress yourself comfortably. As Faliela is exclusively on breastmilk and I didn't bring any expressed breast milk(EBM) on board, I decided to wear loose or button-shirt and don't forget to bring your nursing cover! You can actually bring EBM or your own baby food on board but make sure to declare during security check point and bring it in smaller quantities (about 3 oz). Some airports require you to 'taste' your own EBM just as a safety precaution.
• Dress your baby comfortably. We dressed her in her pyjamas so that I don't have to put her socks on. Bring extra clothes for your kids as well as for you in case you have a major spit-up. Faliela used up all 4 clothes that we brought on board. Terkena poo lah, milk spit-up lah etc. So do bring at least 5 extra clothes for your baby.
• Try to get flight that is during your baby's nap/bedtime. Both of our flights were at night, and from the total duration of 20 hours, she slept about 2/3 of the time. 
• Bring some toys on board. We brought some toys such as rattles so that she won't get bored whenever she's awake. In case for toddlers, I saw some parents brought their own portable DVD player (especially if you are on a short-duration flight) and played cartoons to occupy their kids.
• If you need to carry a handbag, a sling handbag is recommended. The strap of shoulder handbag will usually get in the way when you are holding your baby, so when using sling handbag, you will have 2 free hands!
• Usually on a long-haul flight, they will give you a bulkhead seat (where you have wall in front of you) which means you have to stow your bags in the overhead compartment during take-off and landing, so don't forget to bring out the important stuffs such as toys,pacifiers/bottles, washcloth. I separated them in one transparent bag (such as Ziploc bag) so that whenever we have to put our bag away, I can just pull out the Ziploc bag from my handbag.
• You can also put diapers and wipes in one mini bag (again, Ziploc bag) so that you don't have to carry diaper bag into the toilet. There is not enough room to begin with, so make sure you bring only the necessary items.
• Last but not least, if your baby is crying, try your best to entertain or distract her. It is really annoying to let your baby crying and parents did nothing to calm their baby down.

       Good girl on board playing with rattles!





And, check out the article here!

8TV stupid ads

I've always put Malaysia's TV commercial at a higher standard compared to the US. Most of the commercials in the US are either irrelevant or illogical. But the 8TV Ramadan ad is by far the most stupid ads I've ever watched. Yes, it is a well-meaning TV ad but associating it with Ramadan is totally irrelevant (for 2 out of the 3 ads). In the context of Malaysia where racism is still exist, putting a Chinese woman and expecting people to portray her as Malaysian is absurd. Banyak je perempuan Muslim yang pakai shorts or singlets. Bersepah kot. And should the Muslim men restrain themselves from feasting their eyes on women just during Ramadan? Time puasa behave, lepas puasa perangai cam setan, boleh?

Bottomline: Associating it with Ramadan-irrelevant.

Ahmad Idzham Omar, you should hire someone else as your creative director.

What happened when journalists didn't do their homework properly?

Read this link here

It is just weird when an uncle left a 'presumably' vicious dog with his 3-year old nephew, alone. As if his uncle doesn't know the behavior of his dog better than anyone else.


This is a lesson I would like to teach all of you who think all dogs are vicious:


Dogs (as with most other animals) won't attack people unless being provoked. With an exception: a guard dog. And some dogs won't attack people even after being provoked.


If you really want to stay away from a vicious dog, then I'll say stay away from a pit bull. Other than that, you are fine.

This one or the other?

We were hunting for a daycare this week. We've made several calls and so far, only 2 family daycare accepts infants under 2 months old.

We went to one family daycare which was strategically situated just behind our house. The rate per hour is affordable but if I go over 5.30pm, she will charge $1 per minute and the minimum hours is 20 hrs/week. Other than her daughter, she has 2 other kids she cares for, one is 8 months and the other a one-year old toddler. Her apt is typical of a daycare center, a lot of toys etc.

Then, we decided to ask the owner of halal market in Davis and she forwarded our number to someone she knew whom might be interested. The woman is an Indian muslim, she is a housewife and has 2 kids, one is 8 years old and the other is 5. When we asked how much we have to pay, she didn't say how much but insisted that we should be comfortable with her taking care our daughter. The downside: Because this is not a daycare, she doesn't have a baby's crib or playpen so we might have to lend her Faliela's bassinet and her apt is not really a child-proof apt, like for example, there's no gate to avoid Faliela from crawling to her kitchen. Anyway, in terms of time, she is more flexible. If I go over 5.30pm (which I think I might be), she is okay with that and we don't have to send our daughter for minimum 20 hours/week. Location-wise, somewhere between my lab and home which is convenient to me, but probably not for Jai who is going to send her off.

We will be visiting the second family daycare on Monday and hopefully, I can make a decision by then. This is not really an easy decision, kalau boleh buat sembahyang istikharah kan bagus. Tapi still tak boleh lagi :P Korang rasa mana bagus ek? Or persoalannya nak suh Faliela pandai cakap Tamil or Spanish? Hahaha.Ok, I'm just kidding.

Sharing is caring: Coping with pregnancy sickness

I've been meaning to write the so-called 'sharing is caring' post, for the sake of sharing my experience throughout this pregnancy as well as for a reference for my future pregnancy, but had no time to do so until now. So, here it is!

Remember, every pregnancy and every woman is different. And the sickness(es) I'm gonna list down here were what I have experienced and the way I deal with it might not work for everybody, but it is worth a try!

1. Nausea/Vomiting

When I was first hit by nausea and vomiting, I became phobia to eat almost anything. But, you can't! Cause you will end up accumulating more gas in your stomach and you will only make it worse. Try to eat at least some snacks such as crackers, protein bars or whatever snacks that you think you can tolerate the best. If you start feeling uneasy, try to take strong-taste candy like Hacks, cough drops to create some sort of diversion of your physiological feeling to vomit. Try to rest as much as you can because from my experience, exhaustion will only trigger more sickness. I had a lot of nap time during my first trimester, so that helps a lot.

I admit, at first I was annoyed when people gave me advice how to deal with morning sickness but everything didn't seem to work. But, don't worry, keep trying and deal with it with whichever way works for you and by the end of first trimester (some women went over 3 months), you will start feeling like yourself again ;)

2. Heartburn

I had this sickness for a few weeks during second trimester. As I have been dealing with on/off gastritis way before I was pregnant, it was easier for me to recognize the symptoms and avoid taking food that could trigger more acid production. As for me, I avoid drinking soda and eating spicy food, as well as taking milk. Weird huh, milk is supposed to reduce the pH of your stomach acidity but it tend to make it worse in my case. Lying upright while sleeping also help me a lil bit since it reduces acid reflux into the esophagus etc.

 

3. Nose bleed

I think I had occasional nose bleeding due to the excessive use of heater during winter weather. But if you have this symptom, one thing that  helps to reduce the possibility of having nose bleeding in the future is to have a humidifier in your room. It helps moisten the room as well as the air =)

4. Leg cramps

Seriously, I don't know how to deal with this except for lying down and rest as much as you can.

5. Stretch marks

The scariest thing women had to deal other than labor pain! Alhamdullilah, at 38 weeks ++, I have no stretch marks (just yet!), hopefully takde lah muncul sampai deliver. I applied Palmer's Cocoa Butter once a day ( I think as early as 2-3 months kot), but personally, I think as long as you apply any cream/oil that can moisturize your skin, it should work to prevent you from getting stretch marks. I have a friend who used just baby oil and it worked for her (she applied as early as 2 months and twice a day). Tapi kalau dah ada gak kuar stretch mark tuh nak buat camner, it will dissappear eventually as what my mom told me.

I think those were all the symptoms I had/are having throughout this pregnancy. The symptom I dreaded the most was the first one, serius rasa cam nak tido dalam toilet jer. I felt terrible!! But, remember in the end, every sickness you are having occured for a reason, that is, you are growing a tiny human being inside you. So, embrace the journey bebeh!

P/S: Next in the series of sharing is caring will be 'breastfeeding' :D

Episiotomy and perineal massage

Childbirth prep class attended today!

After not watching "A Baby Story" (reality TV shows of birth experience) for a while, I was (again) all teary watching birthing process video of several moms. It hits me again, parturition is a pain-enduring experience and it is scary!  I am scared, yes, but the truth is I am more nervous to the future prospect of handling a new tiny little creature (which is not a cat). Pain is pain, they will go away. I am talking about taking care of another human being. Oh my.. definitely there is no turning back (haha!) at this point of time. Hopefully I will be as strong as you, yeah you, all the mommies out there! 

Anyway, after learning all the different breathing techniques, the advantages and disadvantages of C-section, epidural, and many more, the only thing that sticks in my mind : labor is not a one-person job, it is a two-person job (or more if you wish). What I know right now is I need Jai to be by my side all the time, during the labor, giving me all the support and motivation when I need them, whispering to me every now and then : "You can do this" as I know I can easily lose my concentration especially when I am in pain. Although I do not know if he gave his full attention during the class today (as he only slept for 4 hours due to work), but all I know he will be there with me, he will guide me until our daughter is finally in my arms. Ok, tibe2 rasa nak nangis. 

Now I know how my mother must have felt. No wonder she said she has easy labor experience with all of us cos Allah knows the best.

Ok, back to the title. I have promised to write something about episiotomy. As what I have been told, both by the midwives and in childbirth class today, episiotomy is not a routine procedure in most hospitals in the US. Yes, you will tear especially when you are a first-time mother, but there is something you can do to minimize having an excessive tear. It is called a perineal massage. It helps to soften your perineal muscle so it reduce the possibility of excessive tear or needing episiotomy. It is generally done 6 weeks before your due date and you could ask your partner to help if you are not comfortable doing it yourself (you know with your big belly and concurrent back pain, it is uncomfortable).

How to do it?

I have not started doing it, not yet. But I like to share with you this link which is the same leaflet provided to me by my midwife.

Click HERE.

So, according to several research articles I read, episiotomy is unnecessary unless you are having speedy second stage labor in which baby needs to come out fast. Having said that, other than perineal massage, a slow labor process also helps to reduce tear and the need of episiotomy. 50% of women who had vaginal birth do not require episiotomy and if routine episiotomy is still performed, they provide a greater injury as a result of the surgical incisions made. Episiotomy is also one of the risk factors of having anal sphincter (anal muscle that control your bowel movement) lacerations. The healing process is also faster in women that had no episiotomy.

Note:
The paragraph above were summarized from these following articles:

The Risks and Benefits of Episiotomy: A Review. Banta et al., 1982.

Outcomes of Routine Episiotomy. Hartmann et al., 2005.

Episiotomy Use in the United States, 1979–1997, Weber et al., 2002.

Episiotomy in the United States: has anything changed? Frankman et al., 2008.


Hopefully we could all benefit from applying perineal massage before labor so that episiotomy could be avoided in the future. Happy trying =)

Of being grateful

I am being grateful.....

for having a husband that is workaholic yet managed to fulfill his wife's wish.

Jai is 'Employee of the Month' again. He was one way back in 2009 and that was in his former workplace, out of 15-20 people. He won again, this time outcompetes 150-200 people. And for that, he is also nominated for 'Employee of the Year' where the winner will win 2 free flight tickets, dinner for two and $500. Not that I'm very hopeful (dalam hati, tolonglah sebelas orang lain tuh kalah, tolonglah :P). I am grateful that he is still the person whom I attracted to because of his way of living. Campak ke mana pun he can survived.

Congratulations husband! *Tak sia-sia kena tidur sorang2 for the last couple of weeks* And yeah, thank you for taking me to San Francisco yesterday for my JJCM mission. I am proud of you and I will always be ;)

for the tiny heartbeats inside my womb

She survived inside me for 30 weeks now. I am being grateful for Allah has granted me a chance to conceive again and a smooth-sailing pregnancy so far. I am being grateful for this pregnancy has made Al-Quran recital a must everyday and made me feel even more closer to Allah. And I intend to keep it that way. I would not understand the feelings of other women having difficulties to conceive nor would I understand the feelings of other women who lost their babies halfway through their pregnancy. Every cloud has a silver lining, insya-allah your time will come soon.

for the speedy recovery

Alhamdulillah, I am getting better. I had a good sleep last night, not having that terrible and persistent dry cough were indeed a blessing.

for not to be conscienceless (most of the time)

Sometimes people tend to go overboard in advising other people without realising they were actually putting that particular person on the spot in front of everybody else. If someone do not want to breastfeed her baby or fail to breastfeed her baby, that is her choice. That is none of your business. You do not have to tell the whole world about that, why don't just give her a call and talk to that person directly. The same goes with pregnancy. Some people are just not ready and some do not have their luck on their side just yet. You do not have to make such a hurting statement or assumption just because you have kids. We all like to make plans, sometimes it works, sometimes it does not. As simple as that.


And please do not go overboard in judging other people's religion. If in Islam eating pork is forbidden, it is forbidden.Period. Do not go hoohaa and criticised why were such rules implemented in Islam. Talk to another Muslim if you want to know why, do not simply making bad judgments.



Therefore, I am being grateful that sometimes I know how to put myself in other people shoes. Critiques are good but you do not want to hurt other people's feeling, aite?

Gosh, I hate Keri Hilson's song, Pretty Girl Rock, pretty sangat ke? *Nih apehal tiba-tiba Keri Hilson nih?*

The memoir was written

I'm rejecting 100-storey Menara Warisan Merdeka!

I stopped writing about current issues for a while just because from day to day, I kept reading crap, crap and crap about Malaysia. I'm proud of Malaysia, don't get me wrong. In fact, during a conference I attended last week in Tahoe, one of the presenters actually mentioned Malaysia using transgenic mosquitoes to control dengue outbreak. The sense of pride made me feel like I was floating in that conference room, literally ;)

Then, this news about building another tower in Malaysia kept appearing on my FB wall after they announced the Malaysian budget 2011. I was like, "Are you kidding me? Seriously?" Another one? What are we trying to achieve here?  The fame? The Guinness Record? or The road to failure?

I know when Mahathir presented his idea to build the Petronas Twin Tower, everyone was in rage just like what we see now. Although Petronas Twin Tower was a success, merely just because it has Suria KLCC (which is attractive to most Pak Arabs and not to mention, foreign workers), but the vacancy rate was high. Tell me how many empty office spaces in that tower alone. Referring to the tallest tower in the world as in 2010, ie : Burj Al-Arab, their vacancy rate was very high forcing the developer to reduce the rental rate. They were also in massive debt during the construction of this tower when the economic downturn hits the world.

So, tell me who is going to benefit from building this tower? The Malaysian? I'm sure they are gonna hire foreign workers for the construction. Designing the building? If they trust our local architects which was not the case for the Petronas Twin Tower.

During my practical in Sabah several years ago, I was inspired by the breathtaking scenery of Sabah but was taken aback by the poor condition of their roads and the transportation system. To generate more income, they should pay attention to the East Malaysia for tourism destination rather than spending 5 billion dollars of OUR MONEY to build some crap tallest building.

As similar to Akademi Fantasia, every singer needs an X factor to be at the top of the list. Najib wants his X factor but he didn't realize it might bring him to the doomsday of his career. He has to come with his own X-factor, not 'copy-catting' (I don't know whether this word exist or not, hahaha) Mahathir's X-factor. I think he might have to develop something in Johor instead since Singapore has its own Universal Studio and he has to get the tourists visiting Singapore to enter Malaysia as well. But not in the already crowded area of Kuala Lumpur.

Terrorism and Islam are two different things

A couple of days ago, I read an article written by Sharjeel Kashmir about how the perception on Islam changed after 9/11. I quote some of interesting paragraphs on his article:

"When I first moved here, I felt welcomed. I was truly impressed by the fact that America gave me as an immigrant the same opportunities it did to its own citizens. Today, that is still largely the case, unless your name is Mohammad or if you choose to wear the hijab."

"Some people have clearly decided that 9/11 gives them the right to persecute Muslims. And as a result, we are all collectively paying for the sins of terrorists -- a radical, crazy few who just happen to share the same religious background."

Sharjeel Kashmir explained everything I had in mind when I first set my foot in the US. I tried to convince my husband that people were looking at me differently, but he didn't really pay attention to my complaints saying I was just being paranoid. Until the incident in Seattle.

Then, another article appeared in the CNN about Islamophobia, the author, a Muslim who happened to be an international human rights lawyer. Then, I realized why was the first article written. It was all because the so-called 'Ground Zero' mosque which I thought already down-the-memory lane.

First, it was unfair to describe the mosque as a 'Ground Zero' mosque as it was not going to be built on the site where the World Trade Center collapsed.

Second, the site where they proposed to build the mosque is a private property.

Third, this issue has turned political and the politicians has taken this issue as an advantage to bash Obama and his administration.

Fourth, the news of plan to build this mosque was out publicly in Dec 2009. No one had any issue with it. In May 2010, the issue was being debated again and one website started calling it as a 'Ground Zero' mosque and now, it was being made as a political debate during the holy month of Ramadhan.


I felt obligated to write this entry just because I had heard enough of the allegations against Islam which was not true and I'm sick of it.



First, Bryan Fischer mentioned that "Permits should not be granted to build even one more mosque in the United States of America, let alone the monstrosity planned for Ground Zero. This is for one simple reason: each Islamic mosque is dedicated to the overthrow of the American government.”  He is a spokeperson for American Family Association and he graduated from Stanford University. Listening to him trying to convey the message about Christian is the religion of peace but not Islam was not surprising at all, knowing he was a pastor. However, to persecute other religion is a really terrible thing to start of.

Second, Pamela Geller, a right-wing activist who was invited in today's CNN: Anderson Cooper. Her extreme views on Islam was really obvious when she said it is the tradition in Islam to build a mosque at the place they conquered to acknowledge their victory.


When I said  "Shallow Americans", these are the people I was referring to.

As what I recalled from the movie: My name is Khan " Being a Muslim is not a bad thing"
 
Please make your own judgments.

P/S: If you want to read full article  by Sharjeel Kashmir and Arsalan Iftikhar, please click HERE and HERE

KJ has never failed to make me smile

I know many Malaysians don't like KJ. The reasons are many. He was the son in-law of the former Prime Minister of Malaysia. He showed himself too ambitious for a political position. He was claimed as one of the Tingkat 4 mastermind that was the backbone in most of Pak Lah's decision. Rumor has been circulating that he married the daughter of Pak Lah because of his hidden political agenda.

Regardless of what people said, I like him.  I remembered when people were raging because of the 'kepala lembu' issue, one of the minister who was the former Ketua Pemuda (hint: Keris defender) defended the act of the shallow-minded Malays who paraded the kepala lembu in Shah Alam. But not KJ. He sees thing for it to be solved not to perpetuate the already messed-up issue.

Anyway, I posted this entry after watching him in this debate. KJ vs. Ibrahim Ali vs. Khalid Samad

Fast forward to 8 mins if you don't want to watch all of it

" We don't have historical baggage in this generation.... I don't have this baggage"

"What makes Malays special is not the constitutional provision in the constitution of our special position. That does not make us special. What make Malays special is he can compete.....he can achieve excellence in education and in business on its own"

The important point is he admitted UMNO has to open their eyes and make changes in order to win the the next GE. Most of the UMNO members until now haven't realized that at all and keep on pointing fingers and making allegations towards the opposition rather than looking at their own mirror.

If he can bring our country forward, why not? Rather than giving the position to someone else who only worries about his pocket all the time but leave our country stagnant, why not give it to someone that is idealist and realist (although he might be filling in his pocket as well)?

p/s: Happy birthday Shila!

Can I ban Facebook because the creator is a Jewish?

Since the Israeli barricaded two flotillas bringing humanitarian aid to Gaza, I've been wondering should I ban Facebook once and for all since Mark Zuckerberg, the creator of Facebook  is a Jewish.

Not all Jewish are Zionists but one never knew their true intention..... Since the Zionists were funded by wealthy Jewish people, I do not know if I could make an exception to this one. FYI, Mark Zuckerberg is only 26 years old and he is already a billionaire.

If we can banned their products, why can't this one?

I don't know the answer to this one yet, but I will make my decision by September. I can live without Facebook before January 2008, why can't I live without it now?

What say you?

Any ex-Mercilon user?

To my readers who had experience taking Mercilon and had stopped taking the pill, I have questions to ask but it is kind of private, could you please email me at fina_vet@yahoo.com.  Thank you!

Politics is money

Even Dr. Mahathir said so :) Click HERE to know more about it

I'm not implying that I agree with the act of throwing money during election, but money politics has been an endemic situation in Malaysia.

When people say politics can survive without money, I was like (quoted from Zewt), kau duduk planet mana? 

Yes, you can say that if you were living 60 years ago when British was colonizing us because we would like to get rid off them, so people appointed the leaders because we would like to fight for freedom. But that no longer serve the purpose. The patriotism at that time was off the scale, dude.

Few people implying that I hate the government so much. No, I'm not. It is the mentality of certain people I hate the most. Orang melayu cakap pendek akal.

I gave you few scenarios:

1. Selalu kita buat law ini dan itu, tapi no enforcement. So, what's the point of making the law in the first place? I did a practical in a veterinary public health lab, so basically we were testing food products that contain antibiotic residues. Company XX chicken product has antibiotic residue that was beyond the limit, so by right the product need to be taken off from the market. But because no cooperation between one agency and another agency, so barang tuh still ade dalam pasaran. So, lambat-laun semua Malaysian ada masalah nak carik antibiotic because we were all resistant to antibiotic that available in the market.

2. We like the approach "Tunggu dan lihat". What happened most of the time " Tunggu dan ternganga or tunggu sampai ade orang mati baru kita buat perubahan " Go and grab the opportunity while you have it. When I was applying for places to further study ie: Ph.D, I enrolled for a Master's Degree in UPM just in case kalau tak dapat sambung Ph.D terus. At least if I didn't get to do Ph.D right away, I already done with my first semester of MS. A friend of mine went to see the Deputy Vice Chancellor herself when she found out she didn't get the scholarship. Now, she almost completed her Ph.D in Glasgow. Initiate an effort, do not just wait. Macam kes PPSMI, the children were like guinea pig. Kejap BM, English,BM, then tiba2 nak buat pendidikan seks pulak. Adoi, tak paham lah.

3. We like being pampered by privileges. I do. But what the purpose of us having privileges, if we do not make an effort to live a better life. I hate to say this, but orang Melayu suka nak mempertahankan hak orang Melayu but in the end, yang kaya jadi lagi kaya, yang miskin macam tuh jugak. In the Malaysia's Top 40 Richest people, only 10 of them are Malays. Considering Malays are the majority in our country, the number is VERY low. I was sent to the US under 'bumiputera' ticket, I know and I would not deny that fact. But what's the point government sending me here if I do not perform. In my DVM (vet) class, we had almost equal proportion of Malay to Chinese, but during graduation, from I don't know 15-20 awards, Malays only won 2 awards.

These are only few scenarios I could think at the moment. Kalau nak senarai semua, 40 hari 40 malam lah aku bertonggok depan computer nih. Anyway, the take away message is change our perceptive in seeing things, like my brother sarcastic remark, LIVE IN THE REAL WORLD!

Does it really matter?

Before I came to the US, I always felt proud of having the title Dr. and always making sure to put it in front of my name when I signed up for official events. I busted my ass for 5 years to earn a vet degree, so I deserved some recognitions huh?

But now, I no longer feel the same when realizing most of the Americans don't really care about title. I call my supervisor by her first name.  Often when I emailed the lecturers, I addressed them with their title, initially. Then, quite often they will reply with signing their first name at the bottom of the email. This is American style, and most of the Asians don't really feel comfortable addressing their professors with their first name. And most of the professors originating from Asia still address themselves by their title. This is Eastern culture I presumed.



At first, I don't really care when people not calling me kakak. But because of this one incident, my perception had changed. I had a roommate who was a year younger than me which I insisted not to call me kakak. She had a DVD renting business based in our double occupant room and the problem, she was not home all the time and that left me with no choice other than to help her until one point, I burst out hysterically because I could not study when people kept knocking our door. From that point, I felt people would not respect me unless there are certain barrier such as addressing me in an appropriate way. I hardly say no to people seeking my help and I do not like confronting people, so that is why. If people asking, should I call you kakak? Most of the time I will reply, yes, you should.

I do not know if I will remain this way when I return to Malaysia for good. I do not like feeling distant but I would like to earn some respect as well. As for now,the title Dr. is no longer matter to me, we are all human race and God greatest creation.

Once in every fortnight?

Well, this happened last week.

While I was discussing with Liz (my supervisor) on my research proposal, out of sudden she was laughing out loud looking at the timeline of sample collection for my research.

 

Taken from http://www.swapmeetdave.com/Humor/Cats

I was like (dalam hati) "Why the hell is she laughing?"

She asked "What do you mean by once in every fortnight?"

I answered "I would like to collect samples once every 2 weeks after inoculation"

She replied "I bet if you ask 10 Americans out there, no one know what fortnight means. I knew the word because I read Jane Austen's novel, a British novel " And she continued laughing.... hahahahaha

The conclusion of above conversation are :

1.  I know fortnight could not be used in scientific writing. 
2.  I was surprised I might know an English word that Americans don't have knowledge of. 
3.  This British-American English system is making me crazy! It started with spelling the word faeces (British) to feces (American) = tahi (Malay). Diarrhoea (British) to diarrhea (American)= cirit-birit (Malay) and the list goes on and on.Why can't you stick with one spelling? Bontot kan sama putih?

My English instructor who is an Irish once said "You  know what? English is the most difficult language other than Mandarin". So true!

May 13th, same issue over and over again..

I've been wanting to write a review about this book weeks ago but haven't had time until I read the recent issue of fire-bombed churches in Malaysia.

At first, I was skeptical about the facts presented in this book, facts that pointing out Chinese was the majority that were killed and discriminated during May 13th incident. Plus, it was written by a Chinese. Anyway, I was reading the book side by side with Jai (who was reading Zaid Ibrahim's, Saya Pun Melayu) and being skeptical, I uttered the reliability of the facts presented by this book. To my surprise, he said his atuk/my grandpa-in-law was a policeman at that time and was instructed not to leave the police station during this incident. How could they? People were on killing spree but the police were instructed by the higher orders to stay put. Guess who was the predators? The Malays!

I'm not writing this to blame the Malays, my own race but merely to raise a point for us not to just rely on the history lesson we learned in secondary school. I hated my Chinese friends back at school when I knew they did not have the courtesy to share us the senior's past year exams, but after I gotten to know them better, they were all nice and friendly. I knew some of the Chinese/Indians who didn't have friends from opposite races must have the same feeling too. The hatred among us were cultivated way before I was born and along the years, some of us has learned the way to accept and tolerate the multicultural diversity. But there were also among us being egocentric racist who like to create chaos in their own beloved country and spread their evil agenda to those who naive about the nature of politics. I don't want to put in words here who was rumored to be behind the May13th incident as it involved a person who most of us highly respect his contributions, but if it were true, it would bring disgrace to the Malays.

I'm not going to write comments about the church issue. Although being disagree about the court ruling on Allah issue, performing 5x prayers a day doesn't mean I'm qualified to talk about Islam. Those people who fire-bombed the churches? They were morons who thought they served justice to Islam, but they actually  ruined the image of Islam.

The advantages of solat Istikharah..

I'd like to share my experience on doing solat istikharah....

The first time I performed solat istikharah was when someone asking me to be his gf and that happened during I was in form 4... And I don't think I did my solat istikharah with a good naiwatu.. I already knew the answer and was expecting the same answer to appear in my dream and it did appear... BUT, the relationship lasted only for a month.. Again, things happen for a reason but from that time onwards, I never did solat istikharah dalam hal mencari2 jodoh nih...


The second time was, when I was offered a JPA scholarship to pursue a German Engineering A-Level programme which obviously was not in my list of interest AT ALL. Physics is a big NO-NO for me.. But the idea of pursuing abroad was ahead of me... My mom despised the idea of me being an engineer and at that moment, I was already in UPM pursuing my diploma in animal science..

Mom: "Two engineers in the family are enough, your ambition is to be a doctor, remember?"
Me: "Urm... But I want to go abroad......."

So, I decided to perform solat istikharah... It was weird actually, cos my decision was biased towards going to do my A-level. Then, I woke up without any dreams, but I felt like I don't want to leave UPM (saya takde bf UPM lagi time tuh, so takde kaitan dengan leaving somebody ek..)
Yet, I still went to register at INTEC, Shah Alam the next day but I felt really reluctant, so halfway through the registration process, I told my brother that I wanna go back to UPM....


........... 7 YEARS LATER........... jeng..jeng..jeng..


And after 7 years of that very last minute decision, I am a proud veterinarian.... And some of my friends who did enrolled for the programme had to settle down in local university instead because they didn't passed the exams and learning German language according to them, is tough... Another interesting fact, I married Jai whom I first met in a dairy farm during my practical. If I went to do Engineering, would I get to know him?

I performed another solat istikharah when I was making decision between 3 universities, UC Davis, University of Florida and North Carolina State University. I dreamt of meeting UPM's Deputy Vice Chancellor of Academics and she told me to go to UC Davis and she sees that I will win a Nobel Prize one day.. (Selingan : Ok, I know my dream was some sort of a high achiever's dream, tapi layan jelah nox.... )

To make the story more interesting, the supervisor whom I contacted in Florida suddenly didn't reply my email and the one in NCSU said he could not give me a conditional offer letter before I officially apply into the program. So, I went ahead with my only option and I got accepted! From about 30 people shortlisted for the interview, I was among the twelve that got accepted. I don't know how many people actually applied during my year, but this year my department had 200 applicants...................................................................(panjangnye dot, berfikir sejenak)

And now, here I am in UC Davis, doing research on a cat disease which I am very fond of since I was in my 2nd year when I learnt about that disease in Microbiology class.

Despite the fact that I nearly failed to find any supervisors for my PhD and one that accepted me when I was in Malaysia didn't remember at all of her promise to me, I managed to settle down with another supervisor, a better one actually! My supervisor is one of the experts of feline diseases and among the pioneer researchers of Feline Coronavirus. My supervisor decided to retire soon, so he had no PhD student, but after knowing that I'm very interested doing research on this particular subject, he accepted my request.

I don't know what my future would be if I chose the other path but what I know now, performing solat istikharah is a big advantage if you're in doubt. And remember, things happen for a reason!

Coach price range..

Because of many people asking what is the price range of COACH over here.. So, I'll make a post just for this one.. (Sebenarnye baru tgk confessions of a shopaholic kan, so terinspire sikit).

And do take note, this price is only valid during sale period..

Macam nih boleh dapat around $100 or even less, it's a pouch handbag..




Wristlet cam nih leh dapat as low as $29-80, depending on design etc. Wallets range lebih kurang sama..



Shoulder bags can get as low as $80, again depending on design etc..



Hobos, totes and satchels from as low as $120....


* All the pictures above taken from www.coach.com*


So, my plan is to buy few handbags, wallets, wristlets and publish the pictures on this blog, so if anyone interested,can just pay me then...

Tapi kena tahu ada sambutan ke tidak baru semangat nak beli... Sila angkat tangan sapa mau!

Sebagai inspirasi anda semua, di bawah adalah beg Coach pertama saya.. Beratur 3 jam di dalam kesejukan untuk beli beg ini.. It was $120 and the original price was $398.. So grab it now sementara saya dok kat sini lagi! *wink*



P/S: The conversion is around RM3.56 for USD1.00 as for today.

Calling all the early riser out there...

Today I made a history.. Went to lab at 7.30am in the morning..

Reason being.. Had a fight with hubby over the phone and I stayed awake from 3am.. Did not want to face him when he got back from work, so I decided to take off early..

Oh, by the way, I usually wake up around 10, and went to the lab around 11am.. I know, it's freaking late but I am a night person. Even if I try to turn in early, I still wake up like the same time. So, might just tidur lambat kan..

Anyway, the point of my story is, if I go to my lab early, there's so much thing I can get done in a day.. Hari nih baru sedar..

So, to all the morning person out there, share with me some tips on how you can keep your eyes wide open though your body is reluctant to do so.. Dulu mak saya suka janji saya hadiah kalau saya bangun awal pegi sekolah, tapi sekarang dah tak logik dah idea tuh... Looking forward to hear from you guys...