saya kacang yang merbahaya

this week we're studying about obstructive and restrictive disorders of the respiratory system. i don't really understand the difference between restrictive and obstructive, but i do know that both contribute to breathing difficulty.

back to the title, kacang yang merbahaya.

in obstructive disorders, there's a foreign body type obstruction. foreign body can be categorized into two: organic or inorganic (or the old one "vegetable and non-vegetable", why vegetable don't ask me). organic usually food, and inorganic usually something like coins, or pins or marbles, or razors, or whatever non-food thing that people sometimes shoved into their throat.

take a guess, which one is more dangerous, organic or inorganic?

since i can't hear your thought from in front of my pc, i'll just give my own guess. for me it's inorganic. yelaa, mana taknya, bayangkan kalau tercekik butang baju... tak ke haru jadinya.. but friends, that's where i'm wrong. the dangerousness of the category is not whether the foreign object is big or not, it's just which one is more frequent than the other. so, if you're talking about frequency, organic stuff proves to be more dangerous since we eat everyday, at least once a day. higher chances for food stuff to block our respiratory system. atau kata mudahnya, lebih senang tercekik tulang, dari tercekik butang. wahahaha. err..it's not funny, i know.

which food item that has highest frequency of blocking our airway?yeps, it's the nuts. and the sub species of it, peanuts, hazelnut, almond, kacang goreng, kacang botak, kacang dalam tin, kacang rebus etc etc. the biggest nut i've seen is only around 1.5 cm long (almond). not that big. and how big is a peanut minus the pod? around 0.3 cm maybe. or half a centimeter. small. this small peanut had once killed an A&E patient in the hospital near my campus. just because it got stuck in between the vocal cord. he died on his way to the x-ray room to be x-rayed. it's a very horrible death, i'm sure. dying of suffocation, cyanosis will occur, and you'll look blue. not helping that you can't talk and keep holding your neck trying to get the peanut out of your airway...

so, what's the moral of the story here?
the moral is (tanya sendiri, jawab sendiri, ini adalah sindrom syok sendiri), no matter how small a thing is, if it's placed in the right position, at the right time, it can change the world. small things, like throwing your trash at the correct place, don't spit in public area, washing your hands after using the toilet, don't bitch behind other's backs, be polite to everyone you meet, really do change your world. for example, washing hands after using toilet can prevent you from getting Hepatitis A, cholera, worm infection, and that gross feeling on your hands. not spitting in public can help preventing the spread of common cold, cough, TB, or whatever bacteria that you have in you. YOU can change the world by doing small, good deeds.
tak payah nak buat yang besar-besar. like creating a machine to stop ice in Antarctica from melting. just do simple things like, switching of the lights when you don't need it, stop open burning, recycle, etc etc.

at the end of the day, be careful while eating kacang goreng. remember, it can kill you.

The Amateur Transplants

a friend of mine gave me the youtube link to a song of this duo, The Finals Countdown. and it's horrifyingly terrible. not the band, but the depiction of finals exam for medicals students. like the lyric says:

Haem firm,
Paeds firm,
Psyche, surgery,
Rheumo, ortho,
So much stuff you need to know,
Learning drugs is so much stress,
You memorise the BNF,

Public health, public health,
What the fuck is public health?

Stuff that you need for finals,
It's all stuff that you need for finals,
It's all stuff that you need for finals.

and that's just part of it..haha!
this band is basically a duo of doctors from Imperial College, London doing parody songs, mostly dealing with the medical subjects. and written in a funny way. my favourite songs from this band beside The Finals Countdown,



are The Drug Song

,

Eternal Clerking



and Yellow (yeah, it's about a yellow fever patient)



oh, mind the thick British accent, strong language and filled to the brim with British humor. Medical terminologies are used in a maximum content in their songs, but it's okay if you don't get it. just ignore it. and don't use the Eternal Clerking song to diagnose intestinal bleeding, the song is totally ridiculous.
and while we're at the medical world parody, enjoy a song from Bowser and Blue (a comedian duo), Colorectal Surgeon:




ps: to my classmates, you can get the videos of this band from me.

all the good things had to come to an end.....

huuuu...
two words to start this post:

PERMAI BEST!!!

after months of planning and all the works, for me, Permai 08 was a success. well, i said for me, because i only came for the second half of Permai. i missed the mini-outbound sesatness, and the first part of controversial module. is it a good thing or a bad thing? hermm...

the most interesting part for me was meeting all the Malaysian girls from other places such as Makassar, Malang, Bandung, Surabaya and Jakarta. not to mention, i got to pester Farid for like a brief 10 seconds. which is good, because he's currently studying in Bandung. hahaha! that guy must be saying grateful prayers everyday for not being in the same university as me, since i really like to annoy him...XD

the delegation from Malang and Makassar did some sort of slide show presentation to show us how cool their places are. two words, REALLY COOL. especially Malang. they have a campus filled with greenery (which is like hell, pretty!), the place doesn't look dusty, the sunrise at Bromo mountain is definitely a scene from a beautiful painting, and it doesn't look humid at all over there! one of these days i'm gonna pack my bag and travel to Bromo....

as for the Makassar girls, a few of them are acquainted with my girl Aisyah, since they were from the same college, KMB. they said i'm like her, didn't know that! i know we're like leech when together, but wow, for someone i didn't know to actually say i'm a bit like my own best friend is like one of the greatest compliment i can ever get! haha!yep, the girls had scored a point from me, which in turn made me willingly accompanied them for shopping at one of the most packed, and bad ventilation market in jogja, to buy souvenirs namely kain kebaya. even willingly walked with them the whole road of Malioboro looking for other souvenirs like craft handbags, sandals, and t-shirts. for those who know how packed Malioboro is on weekend, and for those who know how i hate to be squashed in public, please give me an applause for my good deeds. XD

let's have another Permai next year!!!
yeah!!

i don't want to go to class...
isk.

Dear heart

Dear heart,
i know you hurting now, i know you might hate me now
but bear with me for a while, just a second longer
let me go my own way, for another moment
i need to satisfy this curiosity of mine

Dear eyes,
i can see that you are tired of shedding tears, i'm sorry
but be patient with me, just a while more
i want to push my luck, a little bit further
and see what's in store for me

You see
there's a person that i think
might help me heal
more than just a broken heart
but also a broken mind

i don't think he knows it yet
but the presence makes me forget
all the silly things that cloud my mind
and makes me feel happy inside

so dear heart and eyes
even if this person makes me sad
promise me all that you can
not to let hate visit again

apple anyone?

wohoo!!
exam's over, and i have another one and a half month to fool around with. well not exactly fooling around, but at least less stressful compared to exam weeks.

anyway, a friend of mine introduced me to a singer. she's not exactly new in the scene, she's been around for 10 years now. and in 10 years time, she had become a living rocker legend in Japan. i always wanted to try one of her songs, but somehow never got the time, or the mood for it. but after one youtube video of her and her band, i'm hooked.

her singing voice needs some time to get used to, but after you get pass the adaptation phase, she's one hell of a good entertainer. I'm talking about Shiina Ringo, the artist that inspired NANA, both film and manga/anime. she even have a group of fans that called themselves Ringo Gals who dressed up in her favourite designers' brand (Vivienne Westwood), and wear her signature VW Armour Ring.

She's really really great. her obsession on symmetry brings symmetrical lyrics and duration of her albums. plus she's not afraid to experiment in her music: from rock to jazz to techno to pop and even enka japanese traditional music). she even dabbles in 1940's-50's music style in Papaya Mango, where she sang in two languages, French and English. a song may have three different arrangements, and three totally different video clips. and a case of this is the song Yokushitsu: original version, La Salle de Bain (she totally retitled the song, and translated the lyrics into English and change the arrangement) and the third is where she collaborated with Saito Neko (first half of the song in Japanese, second half in English). her music videos (promotional videos or PVs to the japanese artists fans!), most of them are provocative, and unique. i especially fond of her collaboration clips with Saito Neko, they are such an eye feast. i included one of their work in this entry, it's the last clip.

i know i sounds like a girl in love, but what the hell!! hahaha! before i say things that may make me looks silly in front of shiina's hardcore fans, i better take my leave now. and to end this post, enjoy a few songs from her..



shiina ringo - honnou



tokyo jihen - kurumaya-san



shiina ringo x saito neko - yokushitsu

btw, ringo means apple in japanese XD

a visit from fellow malaysians

we had a visit from the UiTM Segamat students this week. and last night, we went for a get-together with them.

first thing first, i don't understand why are they visiting us in the first place. maybe the visit is for the students to see the different between studying in Malaysia and studying at someplace away from Malaysia. but then again, i'm studying in Indonesia for god's sake! how much different is that??? it's almost the same as staying in Malaysia!or as i like to say about Jogja, it's almost the same as living in Kuala Terengganu. boring. well, at least they have a Starbucks here. Tak taulaa KT ada Starbucks ke tak. people here speak Bahasa Indonesia, which you can learn just by watching 2pm sinetron at TV3 from Monday to Friday. and Malaysians are used to listening to Indonesian bands like Ungu or Padi, or Sheila On 7. satu lagi, majority orang sini adalah dari rumpun Melayu, contohnya orang Jawa ke, orang Batak ke etc. in the end we all have similar cultural values, and we can adept easily here. lainlaa kalau pegi Russia ke, Czech ke! tu baru ada cultural shock yang hyper!

second thing, all of us here are taking medical courses. or anything that has to do with the medical world: Pharmacy, Dentistry etc. so why are they coming here and discussing how sending students overseas gonna help our economy? for me, a doctor is a drain to the society. seriously, considering how our government supporting our health industries. unless the government decided to turn health into something commercial, then we can be an asset. other than that, be prepared for high medical costs, which will mostly be paid by government. and that's where we will be sucking out all taxpayers' money.okay, so we do have private hospitals, where the patients paid for every single thing they need in order to be treated. things like consultation fees, diagnostic tests, and meds. and where the doctors are paid much higher compared to working in public hospitals.
and honey, other than expert doctors, we need good equipments, high-tech diagnostic machines, state-of-the-art technologies that's gonna help us saving our patients. and that, my dear, need a lot of money. we need bunkers to do cancer radiation therapies, we need MRI sometimes, which costs more than RM500 per check up. and tell me how are us medical students going to be a help to the economy. sorry guys, its harsh living in the medical world. we would love to save all of the poor people who got cancer, but we can't. because we can't afford to pay for their treatment. and if the government decided to do like what UK did(they give free medical treatments), then all of the taxpayers in Malaysia will be paying a much, much higher tax than now. or, if they decided to do like what Japan did, then we all have to buy health insurance, since most of the hospitals refuse to take in patients without insurance. in the end, it comes down to who's gonna pay the money.

last but not least: oh that dreaded chicken dance! why oh why we have to do that chicken dance like a retarded 20-year-olds? chicken dance is okay if you go camping, or daring your friends to do silly things at a party. but chicken dance is absolutely NOT okay for a semi-formal meeting. heck we have to dress semi-formally, and at the end of the forum we are asked to do CHICKEN DANCE??? please lecturers, seeing you guys dancing on the stage doing the chicken moves made me wanna run and hide, and merasa sangat malu mengaku anda semua adalah pensyarah dari Malaysia.
dan boleh pulak pegang-pegang lelaki perempuan yang bukan mahram! okay, honestly, i'm kinda wild too. i have no problem hanging out with guys until late at night, or anything. but i do have problems when it comes to unnecessary physical contact with guys. i'm bad enough to be lepaking with the guys like i'm one of them, i don't need to add touching them to the list. I'm a Muslim for god sake! and you guys dancing on the stage, aren't you Muslims too? and you wear hijab too! doesn't that means something to you? shaking your hips around and dancing with guys... malunye saya!!!

haihh...
and they said that Indonesia had terrible social problems....

romance and other few things

i forgot to do a book review in April. honestly, i only finished reading one book in April, and that was "The Five People You Meet In Heaven" by Mitch Albom. i don't think i need to review this book, since well, so many well-written review about it on the net, and in book review columns in papers.

effi discussed about his reading habits in here. since most of the guys that are pretty closed to me don't read books except comics or when they have too, his entry is kinda surprising, really. and the comments from various readers. they make me feel like i'm just a novice. which is true, since i rarely read anything beyond the popular novels and trashy romance. ha ha ha (nervous laugh, really).

talking about romance, i bought three of them yesterday, in the spirit of "Today is the romance reading- day". the books cost me rp60 000 (roughly around rm30), which is expensive according to my "used romance should not cost me more than rm8 max, per book". one i bought just purely out of amusement:

Wolf Renninger was all that his name implied - devastatingly handsome, charming, lean, and hungry - a beautiful male animal on the prowl. Years before, Micki Durrant, nineteen and strikingly lovely, had been his prey, losing her heart and her innocence to him.

devastatingly handsome guy who is always on the prowl. not to mention hungry. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHAHA!
didn't know that there's still guys like him existed. or females still described their man like that. oh wait! the book was published in 1990! patutlaaa... isn't the males of the 90's were just a bunch of whiny men, like Kurt Cobain? no wonder women wanted men like "Wolf Renninger", a beautiful male animal in the prowl.

despite the controversial description of Wolf, the story was boring, moving too fast, till i don't know where i am. and all those flashbacks, confusing me, because there's never a clear cut border indicating the scene was happening in the past or in the present. and please, with guy like that, i'm hoping there'll be a lot of romance, especially involving kisses and such. but what i get? nothing more than just whiny bitch who wouldn't listen (the heroine yang konon prasan independent), and a wounded, sickly, old animal. tolongla. bad romance. bad.

and also, when Micki was 19, Wolf was 30. doesn't that make him like a pedophile of some sort? like cradle snatcher? or maybe just plain lecher? and as if a weekend together ties both of them forever. despite not seeing each other for 6 years, they still head over heels in love with each other.

and guess what they called their kid?Cub, as the name Wolf (Wolfgang actually) is inherited to the first male born of the family. so, now we have a whole tribe of wolves!yay! what kind of wolf is your favourite? mine is the siberian wolves. they are just so white and vicious..hehehe.

this is what i get for wanting to read trashy romance, trash. aihhh... i thought i could find something valuable among the garbage, but nooo..just plain old trash, stinky and boring.

does this count as my May book review?

exam oh exam

yikes!
next week is week 6, and i'll be having tons of lab exams(clinical pathology, parasitology, microbiology, and pathology anatomi yang sucks giler), not to mention a lot of lectures and rescheduled lectures.

and on week 7, block exam.
haihhh.
really not anticipating that.
gastrointestinal tract is a long one, and anything can go wrong anywhere.
which means, a lot of diseases, with similar symptoms.
heck, even diarrhea has at least 3 differential diagnoses!!
not to mention all those microorganism in the gut like E. coli, and tapeworms or what ever parasites living in there.
and the liver.
oh god, the liver.
horrid, horrid liver.

result of anatomy exam will come out next week.
i seriously hoping to pass that.
i DON'T want to do remedial.
there's NO WAY i'm going to flip thru anatomy textbook again for this block.
urgh.
i just want to pass. even if it just borderline pass mark.
desperately.

anyway, i'll stay off blogging for another two weeks. i think.
by the way, aisyah usik aku pasal kouji.