one smile at a time

The other day while i was eating breakfast (with najah:)), I took the "Popular Mechanics" infront of me and flipped through the pages. Apparently it was the closest reading material to me. There was about how to create your own mailbox and physics concept and all that stuff.

And out of all things, something totally unexpected caught my eye. i came across something like an ad. Or a plea for donation. With this girl's picture on (which later i found out that she is not a she but a he):

I don't have the exact ad scanned but it was asking for a donation for treatment for poor children with clefts. And at that point, it truly deeply moved me when i read the line: Changing the World one smile at a time. And at that point as well, i thought that i just really wanted to become a pediatric surgeon; just so in the future i can change the world; literally one smile at a time.

Over the past ten years, we have provided free cleft surgery for hundreds of thousands of children.

These children were suffering not because they were born with a cleft, but because they were born too poor to ever afford surgery.
Being born with a cleft in a developing country is truly a curse. In fact, every baby born in Uganda with a cleft is given the name Ajok which means literally, “cursed by God.” And no one knows how many newborns with clefts are killed or abandoned right after birth.
And the ones who are lucky enough to find a Smile Train free cleft surgery program, not only survive, they thrive. After a 45 minute surgery hands them back their future, and a second chance at life that they never thought they'd get.

The story about the boy in the ad:

Shivarudrayya (Shiva) was born with a severe cleft lip and palate in a very poor, rural area of Northern India. His father is a laborer who earns about 50 cents a day. But that’s when he can get work, which is usually only 10-15 days a month.

Shiva’s parents were in shock when Shiva was born with a massive cleft. They thought it was a curse and they blamed themselves. Local folklore states that clefts occur when a pregnant woman uses a knife during an eclipse.

Even worse, they did not know that clefts can be repaired until they came across an advertisement in the local newspaper that a neighbor read to them (they are both illiterate) about a Smile Train clinic in the nearby town.

Shiva was operated on by one of Smile Train’s best partners, Dr. K. Gopal Krishnan and his all-Indian medical team, at SDM College of Dental Sciences & Hospital in Dharwad, India. Since he was operated on when he was so young, Shiva was saved from many years of pain and heartbreak. And he will never develop the kind of speech impediment that is often impossible to correct in children who have their clefts repaired much later in life. He may never know how truly lucky he is.

I want to change the world. One smile at a time.

http://www.smiletrain.org/

.

When two worlds meet:)


for some reason, there's so much things to blog about, i've lost the mood for now.

:)

last paper was chemistry yesterday:) finally all science papers over and done with. what a relief.

gelotology

Did you know that gelotology is the study of humor and laughter, its effects on the human body, and of medical abnormalities of laughing?
And did you there are two types of smiles? The Duchenne smile and the non-duchenne smile. THe duchenne smile basically means that your cheek muscles (zygomatic arch) are lifted and there is also a smile in/at your eyes (orbicularis oculi). Many researches agree that the Duchenne smiles indicate genuine spontaneous emotions since most people cannot voluntarily contract the outer portion of the orbicularis oculi muscle.

XD <-- Duchenne smile

lulus:)

Alia Nadhirah lulus dalam peperiksaan Bahasa Kebangsaan!:)

Alia rasa macam nak lompat bila Puan Haliza beritahu yang alia lulus. Alhamdulillah>_<

Peperiksaan Pengajian Malaysia pada hari Selasa. Alia akan mencuba sedaya upaya.... untuk merayu pada puan haliza dan encik ismail untuk mengarang dalam bahasa inggeris.

Doakan alia boleh lulus pengajian malaysia. Alia tak nak ulang subjek ini. Sangat membunuh.

on my mind

1. Organic chemistry is the most devastatingly difficult and fun chemistry i've ever learnt.
2. How to get CUCMS students to join toastmasters.
3. A good, entertaining and action-packed script for MN09
4. How Sharon does the lastest last minute work but still score high even by just asking, "Okay, what are the important formulas for this topic?" just before the quiz.
   
5. What if I might suddenly kill someone in the future because of a simple mistake over my inability to know if the person is unable to take the magnetic resonance imaging scan or the x-rays because of his skeletal component?
6. Running away to do medicine abroad just so that I can escape pengajian malaysia. I don't mind doing pengajian malaysia if it's in english yknow. Malaysian studies.
7. Why politics and life have to be so complicated sometimes.

Cool Boys Super Sons!

COOL BOYS SUPER SONS ARE OUT NOW!:D

My mom's latest book. Finally it is out after like.. 2 years of writing?:) I am so enormously proud of my mother. She is the awesomest. Because it takes hard work and countless effort and nonstop perseverence (that's kind of redundant) to finish up her book.


I used to think that illustrations are a piece of cake. But they're not. They're as difficult as eating rockcakes. What with my studies and assignments and lack of incentive, my mom pushed me for the drawings. I growled. She *sternly* reminded me. I hurrumphed.

In the end, I did the drawings two days before the deadline. Inked it til 1am whereby I'd be having my chemistry test the next morning at 8am. When I looked through the book, I'm pretty satisfied compared to the first book (cool mum super dad) but not AS much because they cleaned out the drawings but didn't exactly do it wholesomely; if they wanted, they could have asked ME to do it.

AAAAAAnd the front cover. The troublesome tiring front cover. I slaved away two days also trying to come up with an attractive front cover. Up to 20 different designs, all getting the "shaking of the heads" from my critics (ie brothers and parents). I drew a boy with a superman suit. Sketched dudes playing all the stereotyped guys stuffs (football computer etc). Penciled males doing action-ish stuffs. UNTIL, finally my mom liked something I did which eventually led to this:

But the story does not end there. We had to INK it on the computer which was a feat because I had to draw with the graphics tablet which was pretty new to me. I am uberly happy Ahmad is such a computer geek because it made my life all the more easier since he knew how to deal with photoshop and all. I drew it til late night. And at 10am next morning, my mom said the publisher wants it NOW!

So, of course, undergoing all technical stresses what with the forgetting-to-save, and the tersilap tu tersilap ni, and really finally blanking out and cannot think anymore because it's supposed to be 2000 by 2000 pixels but it's saved as a nonbitmap whatever and everything. Finally, after ALL the blood and grime and sweat of CREATING the front cover; it was finally finished:)

Come to my mom's book launch! International Book fair, PWTC. 3pm - 4pm Monday 20th April.

If I can take my bio lab final exam within just half an hour and exit the exam hall and rush to PWTC, I can make it:) Sadly, it is not meant to be....


btw, there's a "About the Illustrator" at the back of the book. With my picture; and some cool facts my mom wrote about me. Ahahaha. (I'm an illustrator! I have a job title!>_<)

Anyway, Support local authors and support my mom! Coz she's the awesomest:D

so there.

I was instantly bombarded when I made my blog private... Good to know people read my blog eventhough I ramble on about my daily going-ons and the not-so-random things that flow through my mind. Sadly, no one actually gets depressed for not being able to read it...

But perhaps to an extent, i'm still a bit wary of letting others read my blog since someone says I'll be easily judged by people. I DO do more things that what I write in my blog. I finish off organic chemistry tutorials. I masak nasi goreng. I listen to Najah's multiple/parallel universe about how we can actually be someone else in a different world. I try to figure out why is it that Schrodinger's cat would either die or live if you open the box. though it does not make a difference if i do try to figure it out. It would only result to frustration and endless hours of discussion with najah with no concrete conclusion.


And my blog was made because I like to write down about my thoughts and daily happenings. Just not really on islamic, political and current issues.

All these things and more. So there.

idea

So, someone suggested to me "to discuss bout islam, politics n current issues n tazkirah".

I wish I write as good as Iman when she received something like this. Lol.

Oh well; for those who DO wish to read about my views on islam, politics and current issues, perhaps you may not find it on my blog. Since my blog is more towards the penning down of my feelings and day-to-day happenings.

But there's an idea...

anime character

The other day, I was walking back from foundation building to the main campus and i saw a cat jump maniacally from a high boulder to the ground and scampering drunken-like away. It got me staring widely after it.

I met Najah Kaktqa and Alina at main campus and *animatedly* told them what I just saw.

Najah tried to take pictures.

"... and there was this cat(!) that JUMPED from this high rock!..."

"... I was so shocked and it was sooo funny; you should have seen it!..."

Najah and Kaktqa said that the way I recalled the story was more interesting than the courageous catapulting kitty.

Qila N says I'm fit to be an anime character.

demo

Ahh... how relieving it is to finally give a speech. After worrying about it nonstop for a whole night. Suddenly there were changes to the Toastmasters Demonstration Meeting at CUCMS. Someone's car broke down. Someone's husband fell ill. Things happen:) So in the end, I had to take over a role and give a speech instead of my dad.

And some people couldn't make it for the day eventhough they wanted to come. As always, my dad has reminded me again and again to manage my expectations. Of course, I was quite disappointed, but it was okay. Hearing the feedback from the many others about how they enjoyed it was really heart-warming:)

But the committee sat together after that... And we realized that the financial constraint was too much on the students. Initially the objective of the Demo was to establish a CUCMS TM Club. So we thought that maybe we should create a module close to a TM Meeting and incorporate it as a class or part of the credit hours for the English Class. Which to me sounded pretty good if they are interested up to that extent:)

it went well. Could have been smoother but that's okay. More people could have come; but I'm not sure if that's due to lack of promotion or due to unsuitable time. According to the evaluation forms from the participants, they said we should have more people at the event... Sigh; will do post mortem soon.

Thank you Alina and Najah for allll your support even BEFORE the toastmasters meeting demonstration:) And faizal, kakwani, kakqila, and kakdila for your help:) It's good connecting with people who are equally interested in improving their communication skills.

And people kept quoting from my speech. Which was really awesome:D

overall, a good feeling after the demo.

on a different note, Someone's getting engaged... Ooooh I'm so jealous>_<

winner in my eyes

Ahh... How relieving it is to finish giving a speech; after worrying about it for a whole month.

I started rehearsing only 4 hours before giving the real speech. I wrote the content a week before and think of the idea a month before. But I guess rehearsing is the most important. I stopped TWICE longer than expected because I totally blanked on my next line. By the time I reached my last paragraph, I was thinking: Wow, I'm finishing up this fast? It was supposed to be between 5-7 minutes. I aimed for 6 minutes but I finished at 5mins and 3 seconds. Lol. That's because I missed out chunks of my content.

I thought I did a pretty lousy job. I was even shakier than my previous speech; which was NOT good.

So, I was really surprised that people came up to me and congratulated on giving an excellent speech. Chia, my evaluator, said she was really impressed. I was voted Best Project Speaker. Richard came up to me and said, "It doesn't matter how many times you win, you'll always be a winner in my eyes." Which was so very motivating and touching to hear.

Join Toastmasters!:)

major awesome

While I was searching for ideas for the MN09 scene in New York, I came across Improveverwhere. Check out their website.

They have like a mass number of agents who do scenes like suddenly freezing in a subway station. Or suddenly creating a spontaneous musical performance at a food court.


I mean, what can be cooler than creating scenes around unsuspecting people? And what can be more fun than inducing excitement and craziness in other people's dull and monotonous lives? That is major awesome and creative.

Among the things they did:

For our latest mission, Agent Lathan gave out 2,000 high fives by standing next to a subway escalator during the morning rush. Five additional agents spread out along the adjacent stairs, holding signs that prepared commuters for the upcoming high five fun.

we should do something like this:D Super Awesomeness.

seasons

When seasons change…

There was a man who had four sons. He wanted his sons to learn not to judge things too quickly. So he sent them each on a quest, in turn, to go and look at a pear tree that was a great distance away.

The first son went in the winter, the second in the spring, the third in summer, and the youngest son in the fall.

When they had all gone and come back, he called them together to describe what they had seen.

The first son said that the tree was ugly, bent, and twisted. The second son said ‘no it was covered with green buds and full of promise.’
The third son disagreed; he said it was laden with blossoms that smelled so sweet and looked so beautiful, it was the most graceful thing he had ever seen.
The last son disagreed with all of them; he said it was ripe and drooping with fruit, full of life and fulfillment.

The man then explained to his sons that they were all right, because they had each seen but only one season in the tree's life.

He told them that you cannot judge a tree, or a person, by only one season, and that the essence of who they are and the pleasure, joy, and love that come from that life can only be measured at the end, when all the seasons are up.

If you give up when it's winter, you will miss the promise of your spring, the beauty of your summer, and fulfillment of your fall.

If you are in the winter of your life now.... this message comes all the way... Just to say... 'Don’t give up - it's too early!'

go and chase it

We had Introduction to Medicine and Pharmacy lecture just now where every week, a lecturer from the faculty will come and give us an insight of what we'd be facing in the future. Today, we had a pharmacist lecturer originating from Iraq coming in to talk about Research and Development.

He said;

I am not here to convince you to join Pharmacy. Because your dream is your dream. Go and chase it. I am only here to clarify any misconceptions and talk about R&D in Pharmacy.

And I want you to know that whatever you choose now will determine your future. Don't study for exams because once you become a doctor, you will have to bear the responsibility of holding that title. And you cannot say that "I did not read this" or "I forgot that part". So be really sure of what you want.

If I could turn back time, I would take pharmacy; but this time, do it out of my own choice (because he wanted to do medicine but for some reason could not and was asked to do pharmacy).

Eventhough it was a 2-hour slot, he gave an awesome 30 minute talk:)