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