Thursday, December 17, 2009

Christmas Wishes


Have you decided yet? What are your Christmas wishes for this year?

Exam Fever

I have 5 subjects in my syllabus for this semester. I have to study Internal Medicine (which is quite interesting though the content are so much); General Surgery (some are interesting, the rest are just okay, I had this one also in my last semester and I am still gonna have this subject in my syllabus next semester - 3 semesters in a row!) - theories are never that much fun if you compare it with practical classes, too bad I don't get too much chances to practice more, I guess I have to find a mentor for myself to teach me how to suture and other basic skills too; next is Radiology and Image Diagnostics which means learning how to read the X-Ray, CT-Scan, etc, classes are boring though, I skipped two or three classes for this subject, this is one reason I don't really enjoy Thursday this semester; the other two subjects are Traditional Chinese Medicine and Medical Chinese.

I had my TCM exam last week, so that means I still have 4 more to go! Medical Chinese will be on December 30, 2009 and the 3 will be on the second week of January 2010.
So little time, so much to remember. :((

Most of my friends will be spending their Christmas and New Year with their families, loved ones, friends without having to worry about exams. But this is just the way it is for students in China, we never have holiday for Christmas. Never.. Still, it's a blessing that we don't have exam on Christmas Day (it happened once to my senior).

I can't wait for next month, next year! HOLIDAZE..


Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Think Twice Before You Cheat.



I completely agree with whoever wrote this statement, sounds funny but maybe we should take it seriously..
I guess you could apply this to medical study also.

If you cheat in medical classes,
you WILL kill people later.
For your own sake and everyone else, quit or learn the meds!

How to make cupcakes?

Good evening people, I wrote this one last year, it was two days before New Year!! Happy Belated Christmas and God Bless You All.. =)
Here I am, sitting down in front of my computer, feeling a bit cold, trying to figure out what to write. After about an hour of thinking and browsing, I decided that I'll write something about cupcakes. We know about how popular cupcakes are these days.
I, myself is also a fan of cupcakes, I like its shapes (i LOVE the ICING!!, especially the Christmas edition), and I like how it tastes too. It's simple, adorable, and delicious.. So, here is the recipe:

Basic Vanilla Cup Cake Recipe
Ingredients
150g butter - softened
150g superfine (castor) sugar
175g self-raising flour
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
Method
1. Pre-heat the oven to 350oF (180oC). 
2. Line a 12 cup cake pan, with cup cake papers.
3. Crack the eggs into a cup and beat lightly with a fork. 
4. Place all the ingredients in a large bowl.
5. Beat with an electric mixer for 2 minutes, until light and creamy. 
6. Divide the mixture evenly between the cake cases.
7. Bake for 18-20 minutes until risen and firm to touch. 
8. Allow to cool for a few minutes and then transfer to a wire rack.
9. Allow to cool fully before icing.

Notes

Make 12 cupcakes


Source: Cupcake Creations

I want to eat cupcakes, it's too bad I still can't find any cupcakes here in Suzhou.
I plan to make it, but I have to wait until summer holiday I guess (6 months more), since here I don't have the appliances I need and I don't go back to Jakarta this winter holiday. I'll write some more about myself later.
         

Sunday, December 6, 2009

T I M E

To understand the meaning of one year,
ask a student who failed his exam

To understand the meaning of one month,
ask a mother who is given a birth to a premature baby

To understand the meaning of one week,
ask the editor of weekly magazine

To understand the meaning of one day,
ask a daily wage labor

To understand the meaning of one hour,
ask a girl who is waiting for her boyfriend

To understand the meaning of one minute,
ask the person who has missed the train

To understand the meaning of one second,
ask a person who survived the accident

To understand the meaning of one milli-second,
ask a sprinter who won a silver medal in the olympics

Saturday, December 5, 2009

I want my own library..

"I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading!
How much sooner one tires of anything than of a book!
When I have a house of my own, I shall be miserable if I have not an excellent library."
~Elizabeth in 'Pride and Prejudice'

When I have a house on my own, I shall be miserable if I have not an excellent library. 

I love books so much it's hard to resist not to buy some of them. The thing is books are getting really, really expensive. 
Actually here in China, you can find cheap English novels in many places, it's fake of course, it looks really similar except for the fact that sometimes they made mistakes on some spelling of the titles and the color is a little bit different from the original. It's about 10-20 yuan each.
I bought one for trial, well, the content is exactly the same but still... the feeling is just different. 
I prefer to buy the secondhand novels, it's not that bad really, sometimes you can even find the joy of having a secondhand novel, you get to wonder why the previous owner sell it, especially when you found a note on the cover or at the first page of the book.
Well, anyway, I am wondering what it would feel to be the owner of a library or a book store, do they read the books they are selling? Or will they become bored eventually?



I really wish I can have my own library in the future! 
My "picture perfect" thought: sitting in the centre of my library, lying down, closing my eyes and just feel the perfect ambience, me, myself, and my books. 

Friday, December 4, 2009

Ten Commandments for Blood Pressure Control

1. Know your blood pressure. Have it checked regularly.  
You can either go to the doctor to check it or just ask your family members to help you to check using the sphygmomanometer (digital one is more practical but less acurate). Keep a record of it.
2. Know what your weight should be. Keep it at that level or below.

Obesity is a big NO. I know it can be hard sometimes, okay.. not sometimes but MOST of the times not to eat those delicious foods. I will write more about this issue later.
3. Don't use excessive salt in cooking or at meals. Avoid salty foods. 

In China, this one is really hard to do if you keep on eating outside, the best you can do is eat home-cook meal.
4. Eat a low-fat diet 

Eat more veggies and fruits, less junk food. Try to eat in veggies restaurant, they have really interesting menu (looks like and tastes like meat but actually it's not, usually they replaced the meat with mushrooms). But if you really crave to eat in those famous yummy fast food restaurants, you can eat there once a month only.

 
5. Don't smoke cigarettes or use tobacco products. 

Never do any good to your health, especially for your lungs. It's a risk factor for hypertension and besides you might develop a disease called COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease) after smoking for more than 20 or 30 years. It's irreversible, one thing you can do to stop the disease from becoming much worse is cessation of smoking.
6. Take your medicine exactly as prescribed. Don't run out of pills even for a single day. 

7. Keep your appointments with the doctor. 
8. Follow your doctors advice about exercise. 

You'll be healthy physically as well as mentally by doing so.
9. Make certain family members have their blood pressure checked regularly. 
10. Live a normal life in every other way!

Be happy and manage your stress.  













Normal Blood Pressure should be 120/80 mmHg or lower.
Hypertension is when your blood pressure is more than 140/90 mmHg.

Source: Netwellness, Consumer Health Information 

"Picture Perfect"



This is the book that inspires me for the title of my blog. I just bought it few days ago, I found it in the secondhand book store near my dorm.
I haven't finished reading it but I'll write about this book again later in the future. I guess after I finished all of my exams for this semester.
Welcome to my "picture perfect" world everyone!

 Click to read more about Jodi Picoult ..

Have we love one another?

Part 1
Remember the suicides that just happened at two famous malls in Jakarta? It was Monday evening when I turned on my computer and was about to check on my twitter. I began to notice the word ‘suicide’ on some of my friends’ tweets. I thought at first it was nothing but then I realized that everybody was talking about it, lots of them made speculations about the motives, some of them even made jokes about it.. What makes it worse was that the photos of the body were posted also. It was quite disturbing. Can you imagine if it was someone you personally knew? It’s hard already for the family to accept the fact that they just lost their loved ones and now thanks to us, we just made their burden become heavier.
My deepest condolences for the family and friends of the victim.

Part 2
Why did they choose mall? I guess they were crying for help, desperately seeking for attention. Would anyone try to stop me? Would anyone notice if I jump? Would they still remember me if I’m gone? Maybe some of us would think that’s really pathetic. We are all messed up, we all have our own problems, but is suicide really the answer? That’s just stupid. We all needed somebody to help us get through hard times, it can be our friends, families, lovers, or even strangers that happened to be around us. No matter how hard our problem is, there is always a way to solve it.

Everything happens for a reason and everyone is worth knowing.

Couple of days before this happened in Jakarta, it was Sunday after the church, I was helping with the Sunday school, the church venue is in the 4th floor of one international building here in Suzhou. The church ended late that day and the reason was a Chinese man committed suicide from the building. His body was still in front of the building, the police moved it and covered it though. We were told to leave the building from the back entrance. The feeling was really indescribable, I got goosebumps all over my body. It was a really weird Sunday for me.

And now the challenge is what can we do people? What can we do to prevent these things from happening again and again?
My “picture perfect” thought for today would be:
“Owe no one anything, except to love one another; for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law.” (Rom 13:8)

Happy December!


Finally, it's December already, here I am and again still in China.. Another Christmas away from my family, and all of my lovely Indonesian friends. One of my Indian classmate asked me about how am I gonna celebrate Christmas since it's our festival, right? (for the Christians and Catholics) Mmm, I said yes. But, really I still don't have any plans.. With the exams coming really really soon, it's amazing that I still have the time to make this blog. Hehe, this is me trying to escape from my responsibility as a student.. :p

This is my 'picture perfect' thought today:
I would really love to have my other side of the world, the world where everyone doesn't really know anyone. So, it will be a fresh start for everyone.
Here, I can be anyone I want to, this is my world, the world where I can share my opinions with the world and exchange thoughts with them, the world with no hypocrisy.

Okay, I think I really need to get back to my study now.