Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Money Talks

I've found that it is difficult for me to manage my money well in university. Money management doesn't sound familiar to me as i am not exposed to it before. When i was young, my expenses were managed by my parents.
Last week, I've read an article entitled "Money Talks" in Reader's Digest (October 2007, page 140),which mainly states the ways how parents should teach their kids to manage their money well, written by Chan Hse May. I found this article is useful to me and I really enjoyed reading it as it teaches me to list down the items i am going to buy before grocery shopping and buy the things i need only. Moreover, I would like to use the tips and the rules of managing money that has been discussed in that article once i have my own kids in future.

Healthy diet spoils taste for cigarettes!

As we know, smoking is the bad habit that can destroy our lung and it is the main cause of lung cancer. I have read an article in Reader's Digest (October 2007, page 64) which stated that the US researchers has suggested that taking milk, water, fruit and vegetables may help us to quit smoking, while as drinking coffee, alcohol and eating meat may enchanced us the taste of cigarettes.
I have an uncle , who is actually a chain-smoker, can finish a packet of cigarettes in one day. At the same time, he is addicted to coffee. This proved that coffee enhanced the taste of cigarettes. So, try taking less coffee, alcohol and meat to reduce the percentage of becoming a smoker. I enjoyed reading this article because it provides me new information and at the same time, it reminds me not to take too much coffee as it may enchanced me the taste of cigarettes.

Transsexual toilet offered in Thai school


I have read an article published at BBC news site regarding transsexual toilets offered in Thai school. Firstly, i enjoyed reading this article as it is a well-organised and it is an interesting article. Have you ever see any sign like this before? As we know, Thailand is well known for its tolerance of transgender men. Now, they are offering a transsexual toilet in Kampang Secondary School. There are 10% to 20% of the boys in that school who consider themselves to be transgender (boys who would rather be girls) every year. They feel uncomfortable as they has been teased when they enter either boys' and girls' toilets. Thus, the school decided to offer transsexual toilet.
Well, actually the transgender would like us to treat them perfectly as normal. However, discrimination still occurs as they are not allow to change their gender on identity card. It is not their fault to be a transgender as it is not their will to be one. So we need to respect them and their rights. They deserved to be treated as a normal person.
Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7529227.stm , By Jonathan Head

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Home Front.

I have read an article written by Alanna Nash in the Reader's Digest (August 2007, page 25 to page 27). It is about a daughter whose name is Mary Ellen gave up her six-figure salary job in order to take care of her father, Woody Geist, who is announced to have Alzheimer's Disease.
Have you ever think that if you were Mary Ellen, would you give up your high salary job and making a decision to take care of your ill father who can't even recall your name and do silly things in public? Or you would rather to send him to the old-folks' home? Well, keep the answer in your heart. Nowadays, more and more ill old men and women in our country have been sent to old folks' home. This shows that our moral has been corrupted. This article had actually reminded me that there are still a lot of elderly people need our attention. I really enjoyed reading this article because it is touching and it is well-illustrated. On the other hand, i also love what the daughter (Mary Ellen) had mentioned in that article " There is such a feeling that wells up inside you when you put someone's needs in front of your own." (page 27).

Plastic Plasma?!

According to an article in Reader's Digest (August 2007), plasma that is made from plastic will be soon able to save lives in emergencies when the real blood is not available. Don't you think it is amazing, do you? This plastic plasma is created by Lance Twyman, PhD from University of Sheffield and it is made from polymer and prophyrin that can hold iron atoms (page 63). For your information, it is similar in size and shape to the haemoglobin and able to transport oxygen. However, it is still confined to lab at this moment.
Here, come a question! Do you dare to pump plastic into your bloodstream if you are in a situation that need a quick replacement of blood loss to save your own life? If you said you are brave to do so, don't you think that your action is already opposing to the law of nature? Now, people are using science to create anything. They even started to clone just intend to get the organs. In my opinion, it doesn't mean that it is not good to use science to save our lives but the point is we need to use it properly and do not against the law of nature. I did enjoy reading the article because it introduced me to a new invention.

How dangerous it is?

Starbucks! Coffee Beans! Nescafe! Ipoh White Coffee etc. Those are the world's top-selling brands of coffee. Here, i am going to share an article that i have read in Reader's Digest (August 2007) written by Katharine Mieszkowski saying that kids nowadays are consuming more caffeine than ever (page 93). According to Dr. Angela Sharkey, a paediatric cardiologist, kids are ended up with dehydrated and some fo them even suffer from dizziness and fainting after they had overdosed on caffeine (page 94). The factors ,which has been mentioned in the article, cause the young to drink caffeinated beverages are they want to stay awake studying especially during the exam time, to stay all night playing online game and want to be more energetic. In fact, when they are consuming too much caffeinated beverages, it will actually make them feel more lethargic and may also linked them to high blood pressure in adolescents.

Ladies and gentlemen, it is better to stop your child and your relatives from developing the caffeine habit after you had finished reading my post. I didn't enjoyed reading this article as i love to drink caffeinated drinks like coffee and tea. Well, i will start to reduce caffeine from today!

Pace yourself!

It's my pleasure to share a topic here entitled "Pace yourself!" that i have read in Reader's Digest (August 2007) . Nowadays, people are always in rush and put themselves in a risk of getting coronary heart disease. According to the article, the top ten fastest paced countries are Singapore, Spain, Denmark, China, Ireland, Brazil, Germany, USA, Netherlands and Austria. Singaporeans use only 10.55 seconds to cover 18 metres while as residents in Austria use 12.06 seconds to cover the same distance(page 135).
Time is money! Therefore, people are rushing to earn more. Usually, they do not exercise, eat poorly and spend less time with their family and friends. Some scientists and psychologists even mentioned that the increased pace of life is driven by technology, such as internet. People are getting less patient and tend to have higher percentage in getting coronary diseases. Yes, it is undeniable that money is important and hard to earn. Money doesn't grow on trees and money doesn't fall from sky. Yet, health is more important. If we died, all our hard earned money will be left behind! Hence, sometimes, we need to slow down. I enjoyed reading it because it reminds me to have life in slow lane.

Monday, July 28, 2008

How to test one's honesty?

There is an interesting article in Reader's Digest (August 2007) entitled " What we found when we lost 960 mobiles around the world?" (page 28) The article is about a group of local Reader's Digest reporters had conducted an experiment to test one's honesty in 32 countries(page29). They conducted their experiment in this way: Two reporters will be in one group, one of them will purposely mislaid his mobile phone in public and the other observed the mobile from a distance. Based on the data collected, they found that only 43% Malaysians return the mobile to the owner after the reporter called them to have his mobile back (page 31). See, Malaysians are very honest!
Having tested the world, Reader's Digest found that 97% of mobile phones left in public was returned in Solvenia (page31). This statistics shows that its residents were universally helpful and can be trusted. Besides that, what's interesting in this article is they compared the old and the youth, they found that young people were just as honest as their elders (page33). Here, come a question, how are we going to teach our young generation if we are the one who do not practice the moral value? Let's think, if you were a mother who saw a mislaid mobile in front of your child, what would you do? Well, will you just simply pick it up ,switch it off and keep it or you will give it back immediately to the owner and set an example in front of your child? Think about it! I didn't enjoyed reading this article because it is too long.

Friday, July 25, 2008

Dolphin can tell calf who's mum

I have read an interesting news at the BBC news site http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7511352.stm ( written by Anna-Marie Lever
Science and Nature reporter, BBC News). This news is regarding the findings of a US team appear in the journal Marine Mammal Science by which the female bottlenose dolphins will whistle more than 10 times after giving birth so that their calf will recognise who's their mum. By producing this kind of signature whistles, it may also help to prevent the female dolphins from stealing newborns from other dolphin mothers. According to Dr Fripp, theft incidents always occur in the first day of the calf's life. Don't you think it is interesting, do you? This really shows how unique the ways mammals taking care of their young. However, what had made me dissapointed after reading the news is even an animal know how to take care of their young, why humans don't? Why do the cases like dumping the newborn child still happen in our societies? Think about that!

Living Green

According to an interesting article entitled "living green" in Reader's Digest (November 2007, page 36 to page 41) illustrated by Chirstoph Niemann, Finland is the greenest and most-livable country based on her social and environmental factors. The writer has analysed the data, which covering 141 nations, to rank the planet's greenest and the most livable places. How our country, Malaysia, rate? Overall, Malaysia is still a nice place to live. Our ranking is at 54 among 141 countries (page 39). However, from my point of view, we still need to put more efforts and be more co-operative to make our country a better and a greener place to live. People are urged to practice 3R in their daily lives. However, it seems people in our country are still not aware about recycling and energy saving, so it is our responsibilities to preserve mother nature for our next generation. Remember, we are just the one who borrow the earth from our young generation. I really enjoyed reading this article because it teaches us how to preserve and improve our current environment condition.

Super Soap?

Have you ever heard of a soap made from Wasabi? If you don't, let me introduce you the wasabi soap. Based on an article in Reader's Digest ( November 2007, page 133) which was written by Kenrya M. Rankin, Japanese researchers had found that the wasabi can fight bacteria and hence, they are using wasabi to make soaps. In their study, they found that if we use wasabi soap to wash our hands for 30 seconds, it will help us to get rid of 99.9 per cent of germs on our hands. What an interesting article! Will you try this super soap? I will want to try it if it can be found in Malaysia. I enjoyed reading the article as it introduced me to a new beneficial product.

5 surprising reasons to get more sleep

I have read an interesting article that is published in the Reader's Digest (November 2007) entitled " 5 surprising reasons to get more sleep"(page 135). Based on that article, we are encouraged to get more sleep. These are among the few benefits that are mentioned in that particular article if we get more sleep: 1. sleep makes you thinner ( i am happy with that) 2. sleep boosts your memory 3. it can fight colds, ulcers and even cancer 4. sleep slows down ageing 5. sleep could keep you orderly. Nowadays, people are busy with their work and they don't have enough sleep, especially those who are staying in the urban area. Normally, we all need to spend at least 8 hours a day for sleeping. Well, i like sleeping and i will definitely grab some extra shut-eye if i am free. I enjoyed reading it as i will have more reasons to get more sleep to lose weight. I am pleased with that.

Monday, July 21, 2008

the best fellowship night i had ever been

I went out on last Saturday for MYF fellowship in Kuantan Methodist church. We (my friends and i) were welcomed by cards and some sweets. Then, we were divided in groups to play a game just alike Amazing Race. We were instructed to buy things which has been listed on a piece of paper at 6 different places. Those places we were asked to go were Megamall, East Coast Mall, Tunas Mart, Eng Hung Mart, The Store near the Terminal Makmur and Kuantan Parade. The winner of the game will be the first group coming back with more things at the cheapest price. It was an interesting game. My friend and i were in rush to choose the cheapest thing to buy before we left for the next destination. Finally, we have succeed to buy 10 things with the price RM10.10. Now, i knew where's the Tunas Mart located and for sure i won't get lost in Kuantan. Hee Hee

Friday, July 11, 2008

My friend - Miss Chitra

Wearing a blackspot on her forehead,
Love to listen the musics,
And love chinese food,
Coming from the capital of Malaysia - Kuala Lumpur,
The only girl in her family,
Cute,
Intelligent,
Dedicated,
Friendly,
Pretty. But, complicated in status.
I am not the William Shakespeare,
but i think this is the best description of her.
Welcome to UMP, Miss Chitra.