Stressed (or not)?

I usually only give a title to a blog entry when I'm done writing but for this entry, I felt like I just wanted to pour out everything that has been going on in my life recently here hence the title: Stress (or not)? because I can't decide, for the life of me, whether I'm stressed out or not.

Read on, and you will know why I'm confused about the presence/absence of stress in my life right now. :P

Hmm, so many things to write about. Where should I begin?

Off the top of my mind, let me start with the Fundamental Science Congress 2010.

This Congress is organized by UPM's Faculty of Science and I received an e-mail from them about this event only after the registration deadline passed! And according to the e-mail, presentation during this Congress is COMPULSORY for all graduate students!! Dun believe me? I show you the e-mail:

Prof. Dr./Prof. Madya Dr./Dr./Tuan/Puan,

 

Pendaftaran di lanjutkan sehingga 14 Mac 2010 (Ahad)

dan hanya boleh dilakukan secara dalam talian (online)

 

Pendaftaran online  di  http://math.upm.edu.my/fsc2010

Senarai peserta      di  http://math.upm.edu.my/fsc2010/senaraip.php

 

 

Yuran penyertaan    

 

Bukan pelajar              : RM 300

Pelajar                        : RM 200

Tambahan kertas kerja : RM 100/(kertas @ poster)

 

Pembentangan adalah wajib ke atas pelajar siswazah (Master dan PhD) dan

kepada pensyarah yang mempunyai gran penyelidikan. Sila maklumkan

kepada pelajar di bawah seliaan anda.

 

What the!...Somemore must pay RM 200!

Anyway, they extended the deadline to March 14, so I could still register. But what if they didn't!? If it's compulsory for me to present in this Congress, but I received the e-mail informing me about this Congress only AFTER the registration deadline, WHY BOTHER SENDING ME THE E-MAIL, right!? Ugh, UPM's so bloody inefficient and slow!

So I'm already registered to present orally in this Congress. I still have to prepare an extended abstract (a 2-page abstract) and submit by 31st March. I'm presenting my undergraduate FYP so I could use my thesis' abstract, right? NO. They have their own format for the extended abstract I need to submit! :( 

More work...more work...Haih....

Then leh...let's move on to Item No. 2.

Which is...ah, my scholarship dilemma!

See, I'm a recipient of the government's 'bajet mini' scholarship for graduate students which only pays for my tuition fees directly to UPM every semester. No monthly allowance or any other form of allowance is provided by this scholarship.

On the other hand, UPM offers a scholarship called GRF (Graduate Research Fellowship) for graduate students which subsidizes the tuition fees and provides monthly allowance. The application for the GRF opens before each semester starts and I will only get to know the outcome of my application AFTER the semester begins. Which means that I will have to pay that particular semester's fees first. I missed the last application so I plan to apply for the upcoming one.

But if I'm already on another scholarship (the 'mini bajet' one), will they even consider to approve my GRF application? I don't dare cancel my current scholarship because of the uncertainty of my GRF application being approved. But if I don't cancel it, what are my chances of getting the GRF?

Oh, the dilemma!

Item No. 3 now...Errr, my experiments at uni.

This is an ongoing thing. It's keeping me very busy. There's so much to do in the lab...so much to read too, to prepare for my experiment. Haih...Read this, read that. Somemore not only read, must understand and extract information from all those articles and theses....@_@

 

Item No. 4. Tuition.

Right, I'm giving tuition from Mon to Thur night. Currently, my daily schedule's something like this:

7.30 a.m.   - Wake up

8.20 a.m.   - Go uni

10.00 a.m. - Reach uni

5.30 p.m.   - Go back

7.00 p.m.   - Reach home

8.20 p.m.   - Give tuition

10.40 p.m. - Reach home from tuition

11.30 p.m. - SLEEP.

 

I barely have time to do other things. When am I gonna read all those journal articles I have to? :(

 

STRESSED WEI!

But, actually, if I manage my time well, cut down on my leisure time, I will have enough time to do all these....

So it all boils down to time management and giving up my 'relax time'.

BUT I NEED TO RELAX LA...

:) i'm actually not that stressed. just lazy...

Valentine's Day: A Brief Review

First off, the official poster of the movie, just in case you haven't heard of the movie. I'm sure you've come across the poster at least, seeing as how ubiquitous the poster during the period the movie was premiering.

I remember watching the trailer of Valentine's Day last year (I think) at the cinema and thinking to myself  "Wow, big cast! I definitely have to catch this on the big screen". And so I did! LOL

Not only were the majority of the actors in this movie prominent actors, most of them are my favourites as well: Anne Hathaway, Jennifer Garner, Julia Roberts, Bradley Cooper and Jessica Biel.

Haih, I dun really know how to write a movie review so I'll just share with you my experience when watching the movie, k?

The movie was light and fun. There were some funny scenes, some emotionally touching scenes (scenes that make you tear) and some boring scenes. It's not your traditional type of movie with a fairy-tale ending but it isn't a very unconventional movie either. It's a movie to watch when you want something to distract you from the kesusahan in your life and just wanna relax and forget that there's a dark and cruel world out there! Just kidding about the 'dark and cruel' part. Hehehe...

Overall, I enjoyed the movie.

So, my rating is: 7/10

Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief

I kinda feel like my blog's dead. Haih, why can I never update regularly?

Nvm, here I am to save the day (or blog, in this case)!!

OK, I'm gonna do a sort of review of the 2 movies I watched recently. Hmm, I just realized that I watched these 2 movies with the same person: Timothy. Ya la, my schedule lately has been quite irregular and that fella has nothing to do at all nowadays.

First movie: Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief

This movie was a HUGE disappointment for me because I'm a fan of the books. I was really really really looking forward to watching this movie when Lydiar (who introduced the books to me) told me that the books were gonna be adapted to a movie.

I stayed away from the trailers and reviews of this movie so that I could be pleasantly surprised when I finally watch the movie BUT!!! I was HORRIBLY surprised instead :(

I guess I should never get my hopes up when a book's made in a movie.

The scenes in movies are almost always not what you'd imagine them to be and words (as in books) are always the best medium to describe things. Besides, how can it be possible for them to fit everything in the book into a 2-hour movie?

Still, even if there hadn't been any book in the picture, the movie was mediocre at best. It could have been done better... Haih, such a disappointment la :( :( :( 3 sad faces...

Rating: 4/10, but I'm biased cos I had such high expectations of it

*Diar was also disappointed with the movie. So basically, the adaptation was poor!

P.S. Will blog about the second movie (Valentine's Day) in the next post...wait for it!

Diabetes Mellitus (diabetes): Type 1 and Type 2

Now that you know what diabetes is and the role insulin plays in controlling the level of glucose (sugar) in the blood, let's move on to the 2 common types of diabetes which are:

                                            (i) Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus and

                                            (ii) Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus.

Type 1 diabetes was formerly known as juvenile-onset diabetes or insulin-dependent diabetes. Type 1 diabetes can affect children or adults but was traditionally termed "juvenile diabetes" because it represents a majority of the diabetes cases in children. Most affected people are otherwise healthy and of a healthy weight when onset occurs.

Type 1 diabetes occurs due to the decrease in the cells that produce insulin (beta cells). Remember that these cells are only in the pancreas. These insulin-producing cells are destroyed (either by our own immune system or some other reason) resulting in a decrease in the number of these cells. Therefore, less insulin is produced.

Treatment for type 1 diabetes includes taking insulin, making wise food choices, being physically active and controlling blood pressure and cholesterol.

Type 2 diabetes was formerly called adult-onset diabetes or noninsulin-dependent diabetes. It is the most common form of diabetes. People can develop type 2 diabetes at any age - even during childhood. Being overweight and inactive increases the chances of developing type 2 diabetes!!! (>.< OK, must start to exercise alrdy).

In Type 2 diabetes, all the beta cell producing the insulin are healthy. However, other cells become insulin-resistant. This means that the other cells do not respond as well as they normally do to insulin. Remember in the previous post that insulin functions to help other cells (like fat cells, muscle cells and liver cells) to absorb glucose from blood? Well, in this case, while there is enough insulin being produced, the fat, muscle and liver cells do not respond to insulin properly. This is called insulin-resistance, or decreased sensitivity to insulin.

In time, the amount of insulin produced will also decrease.

SUMMARY:

Type 1 diabetes: It is insulin-dependent.

                          The body produced little or no insulin.

                          To overcome this, the patient will have to take insulin injections.

Type 2 diabetes: It is insulin-independent.

                         The body produces enough insulin but the cells are insulin-resistant.

                         To overcome this, the patient will have to control the amount of 
                         sugar in their diet.

                         This is the most common type of diabetes that result from obesity
                         and too much sugar intake! And this is definitely the type of 
                         diabetes you DON'T want to have because you can no longer eat 
                         yummy stuff!