Saturday, February 26, 2022

[Book] Friendship: The Evolution, Biology and Extraordinary Power of Life's Fundamental Bond by Lydia Denworth

 

“Friendship marks a life even more deeply than love. Love risks degenerating into obsession, friendship is never anything but sharing.”―Elie Wiesel


This is the second book I've read this year. The first book is Malay and insyaAllah I'll write about it on my Malay Blog. I bought this book at Bookxcess Tamarind Square, Cyberjaya. The title caught my attention as I was about to leave the store. So, I bought it. For me, this book is good. The only problem maybe it is full of researches and findings by professionals, I found it quite hard to understand all the scientific and technical terms. But overall, I could understand the main point that the author want to convey, the importance of friendship in our lives. Here are a few points that I highlighted in the books;
  • social relationships, or the relative lack thereof, constitute a major risk factor for health - rivaling the effects of well-established health risk factors such as cigarette smoking, blood pressure, blood lipids, obesity and physical activity [House et al., 1988]
  • Loneliness was a convenient, helpful way of assessing a fundamental need of human existence, that we are bred to connectedness, we are bred in connectedness, that we cannot avoid it and that to the extent we have those needs thwarted we are going to pay the price [Hawkley, 2018]
  • Social buffering is a way of describing the protective, positive effect of one individual on another. It describes the power of one person to reduce another's stress
  • Happiness is slightly more contagious than unhappiness. Each additional happy friend boosted your cheeriness by 9 percent, while each additional unhappy friend dragged you down by only 7 percent. The more links you have in your network - the larger your wider social net is cast - the happier you will be [Christakis & Fowler, 2009]
  • With friends our attention becomes focused, distractions lessen, awareness of time disappears: we emerge into a world which the intimacy and joy shared with others is the fundamental reality, and for a time the world becomes a different place.
  • it took between 40 and 60 hours to move from acquaintance to a casual friendship, from 80 to 100 hours to call someone a friend and over 200 hours of togetherness before someone rated as best friend [Hall, 2019] 
  • Those who spent the most time on social media were twice as likely to feel lonely, and those who visited social-media sites most frequently were more than three times as likely to have higher perceived social isolation [Primack et al., 2017]
There are many other interesting information like the researches done on different animals to study their connections and 'friendships.' Most of the findings stated that animals also need to form some sort of friendship to thrive better in life. That's all for today's entry. I'll write again when I feel like it. See you when I see you then...

Friday, February 25, 2022

Dream of Tiger

What Does It Mean When You Dream about a Tiger? 

Because the tiger is such a big symbol for power, dreaming about tigers could represent your authority, people who have power over you, or issues and problems prevalent in your life right now (thus having power over you as well). It could mean that you’re currently facing a difficulty or that an obstacle is soon to arrive. 

The tiger could represent your boss, career, or studies. And the dream could be a reminder for you to work harder or maybe it’s admonishing you to stop procrastinating. The tiger also represents persistence, so your dream might be telling you to be patient.

(Source: Labex Cortex)

I just knew it!!! 😆 And I knew exactly that one THING I keep on procrastinating!!! I'll start ok, I'll definitely start but just not today! 😅 Next week maybe, huhu.. (See, see, see, and the procrastination continues...) 

 "Morgen Morgen, nur nicht heute, sagen alle faulen Leute!" The only proverb 'auf deutsch' that stucked firmly in my mind and you could certainly guess why.. 😂 

❤️ Friendly self reminder: Little by little, step by step. You just have to start okay! You can do it! You have already gone this far! Just believe in yourself!

#FinalThesis

#EarlyChildhood 

#StopTalkingStartDoing 🐯

Monday, February 14, 2022

Series of Unfortunate Events


Today was not going very well for me!!! Let me list the unfortunate events that happened to me today and made me grouchy like Grinch during Christmas;

  1. First thing in the morning, I went to Pejabat Pos Alamanda to withdraw my ASB (I want to use the money for changing my iPhone's battery) and to post chocolates from Langkawi to my friends. Everything went smoothly until I want to renew my parents' road tax. I just want to know the quotation, so I asked one of the worker. She said that I should take a number. Of course I understand her situation for I am ' 'counter person' as well. But the way she said it, well it's another story. The tone of voice she used is very unfriendly and quite demanding. So, I took a number! I missed the first number for I went to another place. My fault entirely. So, I took another number. Waited around 20 - 30 minutes. I went to the counter and the worker told me that they were out of car's road tax. So, I wasted my time there!
  2. Next, I went to Conezion IOI City. I have appointment for my iPhone at Thundermatch there. I saw the store on the first floor but I couldn't find my way up there. I went around the building, cursing the people who designed those building, still couldn't find my way up. I asked the security officer (I should do this first instead of wasting my time walking around. Well, on the bright side, I completed my 10,000 steps that day, huhu..) and he showed me the elevator. So, I finally managed to get to the store. And again the worker's attitude really got on my nerve! In malay, simply kerek! He told me that the repair required 14 working days because my phone is a very much older model. And FYI, it's not that old, it's iPhone SE and I only bought it four years ago. I understand that in terms of phone, yes it is a bit old. But the way he said it, made me think that mine was iPhone 3 instead of SE. I pushed him and finally he said if they managed to get it done in a week, they'll contact me which he doubted. Not wasting any more time, I went to my next chore that was renewing my parents' road tax.
  3. So, I Googled the nearest post office and it was at Shaftsbury Cyberjaya. I went there but I couldn't find it and I Googled the nearest JPJ. It was only 2 minutes away. But, unfortunately it is only the IT Department, not opened to the public. So, the security officer told me to go Shaftsbury. I made my way back there and finally saw the post office on the top floor! Alhamdulillah, I managed to renew the road tax without any hustle.
  4. Since I'm already in Cyberjaya, I thought of going to Bookxcess Tamarind Square. Again, I encountered the same problem in Conezion. I parked on the level of Bookxcess but the entrance to Bookxcess was closed due to construction. I walked around for almost 15 minutes until finally I found the way in. I almost gave up! Browsing through books calmed me down. I bought a few books and fortunate enough to find my way back to my car easily. 
  5. I went back to my sister's house. I couldn't find Pujim. And it turned out that she was missing. She was not familiar with the area, unlike Tiger that's originally from there. We searched around the house and still couldn't find her. I blamed all the people in the house for not looking after her! I knew it was unfair to simply blame them but like I mentioned before, the series of the unfortunate events made me grumpy... 
To made things clear, my grumpiness and grouchiness has nothing to do with Valentine's Day that happened to be today, haha..

Saturday, February 12, 2022

Closure of Office due To COVID-19


Two of my friends were confirmed positive of Covid-19, so most of us were considered as close contacts and needed to be quarantined. We were required to do self-test. Alhamdulillah, mine is negative. At first, we were instructed to go to work if we were negative and have no symptoms. But late at night, we we ordered to close until 19 February 2022 by PKD (Pejabat Kesihatan Daerah). It was too long in my opinion. We needed to reschedule all those appointments and we are confirmed to be very busy the following week. But still... So, since I'm negative with no symptom, I made my way to Putrajaya straight away the next day. My mother got MRI scanning appointment on the 15th. I brought along the two cats with me...