6 ways to get more time in your day

Got this one from Reader Digest online. Hope it'll help :)

Take on Tasks One at a Time

We think we are reducing stress by accomplishing more than one thing at a time, when in fact, we are causing ourselves more stress than ever. Stress-busting tip: leave multitasking to your personal computer. Do one thing at a time, do it well, and move on to the next item on your list. That's the best way to regain a sense of control over time. (Ooo? Multitasking is bad? Meh, now I know >.>)


Make an Effort to Do Less

Think for a moment about where in your life you are spending valuable time on something that you could possibly live without. Think about getting away from the TV and computer screens that are mental vampires, sucking the life out of us by stealing our time and attention (This is SO true!). By doing less and by carefully choosing which activities give you the least amount of benefit for the time commitment they require, you'll actually end up creating more time in your day.


Scale Down Your Priorities

Make a list of four things that you would like to accomplish today. Keep the list with you and stay with each item until you have completed it. Then go to the next item on your list and repeat the process. Keep doing this until you've gotten to the end of your list. Most of us place overwhelming demands on ourselves, or we expect far too little of ourselves. The goal is to hit the "sweet spot," where our expectations of what we can accomplish in any given 24-hour period are in line with reality. If you're afraid that you won't accomplish all four things, well, that's why they invented tomorrow! (procrastinating! =D)


Clear Out the Clutter

When our homes, our workplaces, and our vehicles have a sense of orderliness to them, we actually feel more peaceful and less stressed out. We've all gone through the agony of trying to rush out the door when we can't find our car keys, wallet, or purse! Keeping your personal space clutter-free makes it easier to manage your time when you're in a hurry. (*Looks innocent* Clutter? What clutter?)


Replenish Your Body with Rest

Most of us constantly have our fingers on the fast-forward button, when we really need to hit the pause button for a while. Every time we add another activity or responsibility to our lives, we generally take the time for that activity out of our sleep. We can only carry on not sleeping enough for a while before it catches up with us, causing all sorts of health disorders, including a terrible sense of frustration and stress. (Heheheh, a waste of time, sleeping is NOT =P )


Think Positively About Time

We all know how weeds can overtake a garden, so it is our job constantly to notice and uproot any negative thoughts in the garden that is our mind. As a result, positive thoughts can take root, bloom, and create the beauty that we need in order to enjoy our lives to the fullest. If you hear yourself saying, "I don't have enough time," then say, and preferably out loud, "I have all the time I need for all the things I need to do." A declaration like that has a relaxing and liberating effect on every cell in your body, which relieves tension. (Think positive thoughts now...)

© 2009 Edward A. Taub, M.D., FAAP, Michael Levin, and David Oliphant. All rights reserved.

Denggi begone!

My dad has recovered! *cheer* Actually, he recovered 4 days ago so ya... my news are slow.. heheh. Anyway, he's way better now and was discharged from the hospital. It's just.. great!

The only thing now left to do (for him) is to build his immune system strength back to the way it was. His immune system is so far just at an acceptable level. Heh, I'm certain he can do it. My mom also quite the lady  of action - she took this opportunity to get my dad off his coffee addiction. He has not have a cup of coffee for a week now! Yay!

Alright, I'm very tired and want to get this report done ASAP. So ya, cya for now!

Just a Remark

This is the Remark that I've written for our group's Cell Biology assignment about Arthritis. Since the deadline's over and we have already passed it up, so I guess there's no harm in posting it here. I rather like it... a lot so.. enjoy! (Do some research on Arthritis first though, you'll get a clearer picture of what I'm writting about.)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It is rather a surprising yet nice news when our representative, Ms Wong Kit Yin, came back after drawing an assignment question and announced that we have gotten ‘Arthritis’. I mean, yeah, Arthritis is really common and we already know quite a lot about it… it is like the pain at knee joints – everybody knows that. Well, after doing this assignment, we have come to realise how wrong we were.

First and foremost, we never knew there are so many types of arthritis. We have found about a dozen but, in reality, there are 171 –yes, you definitely did not read wrongly- types of arthritis! It’s amazing, isn’t it? When we found this out, we were shocked! It burst our know-it-all bubble instantly and, as a result, had caused us to hunger for more information about Arthritis. Now… where to get the most information at the tap of just a finger? Of course! The Net!

Information from various sites, journals, doctor’s opinions, flooded our brain –nearly causing an information overflow, mind you- and we absorbed them all.

Fact 1: Did you know that a majority of people have arthritis but they do not know the presence of it? And why they do not know? It is because they keep postponing or totally neglecting their yearly medical check-ups or they are just plain ignorant about this. Some even choose not to have a medical check-up at all. The public should really take some time off their busy working schedule to find out why their joints are creaking or why they are feeling stiffness at their joints. They should take initiatives to find out the causes of these symptoms and realise that they have arthritis. Early detection is always important in any kind of illness for faster and a higher chance of recovery. Therefore, medical checkups are definitely not a waste of money. Hey, who knows? It might be your saviour one day. Besides, the government can also help by setting up exhibition booths or organise events at shopping malls, or general hospitals to further spread awareness and to educate the people about arthritis.

Sometimes, if they do know about their arthritis, they choose to ignore it. Why? Well, it’s rather obvious, isn’t it? Why choose to bother yourself with something as minor as arthritis when you already have so much on your mind. It’s just some aches at the joints, right? Definitely nothing to worry about. However, from what we have found out through our researches, they are terribly wrong! Those who decided to disregard these symptoms may find themselves in really deep trouble later on when the symptoms worsen. So, our best advice: pay close attention. This is because arthritis signs tend to snowball: joint pain and stiffness can lead to excessive fatigue and malaise. In short, each arthritis symptom impacts another symptom and, in the end, you will have lots of symptoms with no immediate way to relieve them.

This piece of essay is not all dreadful news though. Looking on the bright side, at least there are tested treatments against arthritis and, the best of all, most of the cures do not cost much (We are just being realistic here; it all boils down to money, doesn’t it?). There are some fairly cheap home remedies, aforementioned in the ‘Treatment’ section of the assignment, and are far more affordable for the general public if compared to modern surgery. We discovered that cherries –yes, the ones that are usually found on top of birthday cakes- are useful in treating the symptoms of arthritis, besides being just a delicious snack. It can relieve pain and eliminate swelling. Amazing, isn’t it?

Nevertheless, if you are very well off and would like to spend a nice amount of dosh (money) on the treatment, there is also the joint replacement surgery. Most hospitals are well equipped to handle these types of surgery but, of course, getting the best surgeons is not easy at all though unless you have the necessary connections or, yet again, the necessary amounts of ‘dosh’.

If you do not like surgery, then perhaps you could use that money for the stem cells research treatment that specialised in treating arthritis. We are talking about adult stem cells, mind you, and not the embryonic stem cells. As reported by Dr Max Gomez, an award-winning medical reporter, adult stem cells are currently being used to form new cartilage or even to repair torn ligaments. As since the adult stem cells are retrieved from the patient’s own body, there is no risk of rejection or contracting infectious diseases. So far, this method can only treat osteoarthritis of the knee, hip, ankle and back pain. However, in the future, these stem cells may be used to treat a number of other types of arthritis as well.

In conclusion, at the end of this assignment, we reckon we are rather good rheumatologists (paediatrician who is qualified by additional training and experienced in the diagnosis and treatment of arthritis) now (*joke*). Even though we are all not actually qualified rheumatologists, we have indeed learned lots about arthritis and we are rather grateful for it – at least we can recognise the symptoms if we have arthritis in the future. We would like to thank all of our group members for doing their part well and for being able to finish this assignment on time despite the heavy work load and time constraints. We also would like to thank Mr Chin for giving us guidance, for shining a light on our path as we walk along the road that leads to the end of this assignment. We hope that our assignment has met all the criteria that are required and is also comprehensive enough. We, too, hope that we could get good marks for all our hard work.

The Pembentangan

It's rather cool that our group's effort has finally been paid off. The lecturer loves us. She was like: "Kumpulan ini adalah yang terbaik antara etc etc" (I don't actually remember the exact words that she used but well, I still rememebr the gist of it). Not meaning to make fun of the other groups, but well, they just read -READ- from the slides... it's like.. duh.. boring~ No wonder the teacher loves our presentation - we have a sketch and a little song singing session. All in all, good work, people! Give yourselves a round of applause.

Thank god that we managed to pull this off after all the fiasco mentioned in the previous post (Bad News Come in a Chain).. Yeah, we rock!! And we will rock on!

P/S: Now... back to boring chemistry report... *sigh*

David Archuleta - Zero Gravity

Tell me what you did to me

Just stare beneath my feet

Didn't even notice we were miles above the ground

I'm not afraid of heights

We crashed into the sky

Didn't know that I could feel the way that I do now

I'm not asking for an explanation

All I know is that you take me away

And you show me how to fly

Nothing brings me down

When you're around

It's like zero gravity

The world just disappears

When you're here

It's zero gravity

When things get messed up

I lift my head up

And I get lost in the clouds

There's no sense of time with you and i

It's zero gravity

Ohhh

Ohhh no no no

Hey ooohhh

The ages fade away

Till there's no more shades of gray

You only have to whisper anything at all

You opened up my eyes

You turn my lows to high

And that's the only way that I know how to fall

Not gonna analyze or try to fight it

Don't even care if it makes no sense at all

'Cause with you I can fly

Nothing brings me down

When you're around

It's like zero gravity

The world just disappears

When you're here

It's zero gravity

When things get messed up

I lift my head up

And I get lost in the clouds

There's no sense of time with you around

It's zero gravity

You make it

So easy

To just drift away

I can't

Imagine

Being without you

Ohhhh

Don't think about it

Don't think about it

Don't think about it

Don't think about it

Don't think about it

Don't think about it

Don't think about it

Nothing brings me down

When you're around

It's like zero gravity

The world just disappears

When you're here

It's zero gravity

Nothing brings me down

When you're around

It's like zero gravity

The world just disappears

When you're here

It's zero gravity

'I really like this song. It's about the feeling you get when you're in love and, even though I haven't had a bf yet, I think that feeling should be almost the same as described by David here. Go David!' S.Y.

Bad news come in a chain...

Finally, I've experienced today what is called the most disappointing thing in my whole life. I always keep hearing that there are people who did study hard but yet can't good enough results and I thought, 'Wow, are they unlucky! They must have been studying the wrong thing (the not-so-important things)'. Unfortunately though, I have the chance to experience this.

I've did all my best for my mid-sem cell biology exam and was quite confident of scoring until I saw the question paper. My mouth dropped open and I went speechless. 'This is crazy! He (the lecturer) didn't even told us to memorise this and thus, I assume that it will be given!' Yeah, right... assuming really made an ass, maybe not out of you,but certainly out of me alright. The genetic code was NOT given and -wham!- 10 marks are lost because of my simple assumption.

The worst of all is that I had wanted to confirm with the lecturer whether the gene code will be given during the exams a day before the exam, but, haha, he must have been trying very hard to avoid us (the students), he took a leave for a WHOLE week during exam period. Damn, is it all my fault or partly his as well? I hate this. The strange thing is that I asked my friend about this and she said surely the code will be given. Heh. And yet today, most of my friends don't even look the slightest bit surprised when the gene code question, without the gene code to refer to, came out. Am I really the tortoise under the 'tempurung'? Perhaps it's my lack of social skills that caused this - I just dunno what's going on around me. As long as my family and I are safe in a cocoon, I guess I'm rather at peace with the world. Is that too selfish of me?

Another bad news, my dad succumbed to a bout of fever that resulted in vomitting. Uh huh, definitely NOT a good sign... From what I've heard from my mum, my dad's platelets' count is dropping (Another bad sign here..). He had about 120 but a normal person should have between 150 to 400. According to the doctor, if his count keeps dropping until it reaches 100, then he is diagnosed with severe form of Denggi. And I was like wtf? This doctor actually wanted my dad to get severe form of Denggi and 'baru' he will recommend treatment? This is just tosh! He doesn't deserve to be called a doctor. Worst of all, that so-called doctor doesn't even gave my dad MC! I mean, how the hell can you ask a person who is vomitting everytime he eats anything to go to work? That person is just.... @#$%!

Poor dad... I wanted to go back to see him but my mum said no. Denggi can be cured as long as your immune system is strong enough but, damn, I mean, I don't want to be a pessimist here - two of my friends, who are like in their prime teens, got cured of Denggi - but my dad's almost 53 years old. I'm very worried about him especially that he likes to stay up late at night previously. If the platelets' count keep dropping, he might get internal haemorrage. Darn. I can just hope that he'll get better soon.

In short, life's hell for me now. I don't know how I am going to face this but I'm fairly certain I can make it through... I've reached here so far right? Now, I still have a sht load of work waiting for me, a couple of mid-sems and my dad's condition hanging on my mind and some other personal problems of mine that I need to solve asap... I'm feeling dreadfully down.

Well, I guess I'll just go back to finishing my report and get some sleep to clear my cluttered brain. Dad, get well soon ok? :S

P/S: Ohh.. yeah, bad things come in a chain alright, I had just got another bad news from my friend. It seems that the lecturer's words are not worth anything. We told her that our group cannot present today because of a sick member in our group. She said, it's fine. But today, she went up in flames and threatening us that she will not let us present anymore. This means 50% of our assignment marks are gone... just like that. We're going to explain to her tomorrow and hopefully she'll forgive us (heh, I rather think it's her fault that she forgot her promise). Sigh... I am really hating this life... I won't like to be the next one crossing my path though - I might just bite his/her head off. Moods...

P/S 2: I went to one of the online counseling sites to check up on depression and yep... I fulfilled all the 8 -or is it 9?- symptoms. Walao. But ya, I DO feel depressed. I have a mental illness now? :o I am feeling a little better now since I shared my feelings with my mum - she's the best! Ok, now get back to my report and get it done with. I'm taking charge of my life now, no more bullying or influencing by friends. AND I am NOT going to ASSUME anything any time soon...

Linkin Park - New Divide

I remembered black skies / the lightning all around me

I remembered each flash / as time began to blur

Like a startling sign / that fate had finally found me

And your voice was all I heard

That I get what I deserve

So give me reason / to prove me wrong / to wash this

memory clean

Let the floods cross the distance in your eyes

Give me reason / to fill this hole / connect the space

between

Let it be enough to reach the truth that lies

Across this new divide

There was nothing in sight / but memories left

abandoned

There was nowhere to hide / the ashes fell like snow

And the ground caved in / between where we were

standing

And your voice was all I heard

That I get what I deserve

So give me reason / to prove me wrong / to wash this

memory clean

Let the floods cross the distance in your eyes

Across this new divide

In every loss / in every lie

In every truth that you'd deny

And each regret / and each goodbye

was a mistake too great to hide

And your voice was all I heard

That I get what I deserve

So give me reason / to prove me wrong / to wash this

memory clean

Let the floods cross the distance in your eyes

Give me reason / to fill this hole / connect the space

between

Let it be enough to reach the truth that lies

Across this new divide

Across this new divide

Across this new divide

"The new Linkin Park song and the new Transformers III theme song. GG. ", S.Y.

Critical thinking seminar

I just want to get this out of my head before I start doing my work :P

Well, last Sunday, Kai Wen, Wei Ying and I went to a workshop (more like) on critical thinking and our trainer is called Capt. Ariva. He's really a captain lol, I at first thought it is just a 'gelaran'. He said he was in the Malaysian Navy once and now he claimed that he had 5/6 shipping companies and, if I'm not mistaken, a millionaire. Actually, I think that's rather true. One thing for sure, he had the energy. I mean, he had been bouncing up and down in the workshop since 9am while most of the students are tired by 5pm lol.

Anyway, he taught us the 5 thinking hats method - there is a red hat, a blue hat, a white hat, a black hat and a yellow hat. And, well, truthfully, I really don't think this method is applicable in daily life or even in school life (during assignments). I had my own way of doing assignments, and so far, it's going on quite well... heyyy maybe I can give a talk as well. 10 ringgit per person and I'll be rich in no time =D

Back to the topic... the method is like... so not applicable. First things first, I don't believe in teamwork most of the time. It's cumbersome.... and it's my opinion so no flaming plox. But it's a good practice to do.. you won't get too bored -that's for sure- and, well, more brains to think up new ideas (wider knowledge pool, I guess).

Ok... back BACK to the topic... the workshop. Aha... yessss.. alrighty then, the workshop. It ended uneventfully ofc but I did had quite a good time there. The tea provided during the tea breaks is awesome. I also like the kaya+butter bread served for breakfast. Haha, thinking of my stomach again :P

Oh, talking about stomachs... my stomach is growling lol. Getting a quick snack then. :) THEN, I'll start on the work. Heh.

A realisation

I suddenly realised something :o

I know why teachers' children are so, um, well, I'm just being honest here... well, in short, they do better in exams. It's because they know how the teachers are setting the questions. They can easily identify the key points by just looking at how the teacher emphasise on some topic. And this experience can only be gained by watching over the back of your parent/s while they're setting their test papers or even helped them do it. I almost always help my mom type out her test papers (she is, well, not very computer savvy.. :P)

Besides, parent/s being teachers will know the importance (based on the education system ofc) of education and will somehow pressure their children to do well in their exams. Whether they realise it or not, these parent-teacher will exert some influence over their children's studies by promising gifts or denying the children some privilages etc etc. Normal parents do that all the time as well but not as good as a/two parent-teacher/s.

Hmm, that's something to think about isn't it?

Ok, I'm really going to do my work now... cya! xD

HeCTic

Arghh, my workload had finally caught up with me. Bear in mind that I'm not that kind of person who procrastinate every thing (only certain, selective things that are beneficial to me if I procrastinate, like washing my bathroom mat :P). I just can't believe the load that is now trying to bury me alive... and I really mean ALIVE...

Sigh, this is the life of a student... and I LIKE it (LOL) Just trying to be positive there :P There are nothing to gain by being pessimistic.. right?

Anyway, I really like the message that one of my friends posted on her MSN. She said: "We treat quizzes like tests, treat tests like finals, then what do we treat finals as?" (edited - grammatical mistakes) I would probably reply that we, the students, treat finals like THE END OF THE WORLD. Muahahaha. Haha. Heh. It's not funny at all lol.

Really! Why do we (the students) look at exams like it's the next big thing? Is the education policy of Malaysia (and all around the world?) to be blamed? Or is it Hishammudin (sorry for the spelling :P)? This is making a lot of students to be and feel old even though they are supposed to be in their teens. (Believe me, I've seen students with a full head of white hair [like an old lady] at my high school - that's how serious this problem has become!) This is just CRAZY!

And there goes my internet connection... again... lol. 'Could not contact Blogger.com. Saving and publishing may fail Retrying......' Roflmao.

Well, I better get started on the mountain of work that I have waiting for me back in somewhere called 'reality'. Haiz, this is one of the times I really wish I was living in some fantasy life. Sailing on some pirate ship... questing with soem other knight... slaying a vicious dragon to save a village... riding a horse across a battlefield... these I can do (in my sleep perhaps :P)

Actually, wait a minute, I have something to say... life is life... there're nothing to it really - a piece of cake. It's just that if you choose to achieve something in your life, aha, then you'll need to put in an amount of effort and that makes it a piece of #$%@. =.=' swt (touchwood)-ing at my own 'jokes' lol.

Ah alright, have to go reply my friend's sms about our pengajian malaysia assignment. Cya!