10 Biggest Brain Damaging Habits

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Randy Glasbergen's comic strips.

I stumbled with this article when i was reading my mail. We always keep lamenting when we unable to think properly. I've even seen a YM status of a friend of mine showing something like this: "I need my brain back!!". But why? The list may help then :P. (My by-not-so-damaged-brain annotation in red.)

10 Biggest Brain Damaging Habits

No Breakfast
People who do not take breakfast are going to have a lower blood sugar level. This leads to an insufficient supply of nutrients to the brain causing brain degeneration.
// Ah! I love taking breakfast. In fact, I guess, I've big breakfast everyday. So, no wonder la me gaining weight :P And my mind goes rusty (?!)

Over eating
It causes hardening of the brain arteries, leading to a decrease in mental power.
// OMG! This is well-known fact, but we keep eating like there is no tomorrow. Crazy!

Smoking
It causes multiple brain shrinkage and may lead to Alzheimer disease.
// I'm no smoker, but being surrounded by chain smokers. Ah, I keep my finger cross :P

High Sugar consumption
Too much sugar will interrupt the absorption of proteins and nutrients causing malnutrition and may interfere with brain development.

Air Pollution
The brain is the largest oxygen consumer in our body. Inhaling polluted air decreases the supply of oxygen to the brain, bringing about a decrease in brain efficiency.
// *Sigh* Where to run? :P


Sleep Deprivation
Sleep allows our brain to rest. Long term deprivation from sleep will accelerate the death of brain cells.
// Ehemm. Kindly gimme your verdict on over sleeping. :P

Head covered while sleeping
Sleeping with the head covered increases the concentration of carbon dioxide and decrease concentration of oxygen that may lead to brain damaging effects.
// I did this a lot when I was in my study years. I covered my head with folded blanket or with my pillow. I can see the effect now, I guess. :P

Working your brain during illness
Working hard or studying with sickness may lead to a decrease in effectiveness of the brain as well as damage the brain.
// It's hard to stop thinking sometimes, even when we ill. Once, I played chess in a tournament when I got fever. And I do believe that I've to sit exam and test a couple of time when I felt like fainting due to my bad condition. And worst of all, i cannot sleep because my mind so active thinking. Do you have ever experience that? (or am i crazy?)

Lacking in stimulating thoughts
Thinking is the best way to train our brain, lacking in brain stimulation thoughts may cause brain shrinkage.
// Hehe. How about over stimulate?

Talking Rarely
Intellectual conversations will promote the efficiency of the brain
// I'm a bit taciturn (Anon : *vomit*). In exchange, I write and chat with messenger a lot, discussing thought-provoking topics and not to mention, expressing "intelligent" craps :P Is it ok? :P

Hopefully, the list above will open your eyes as to why you feel your brain power deteriorating. (Read :as to why your brain numbing :P) So, try to avoid these habits yeah. :)

Disclaimer : I dunno the real source of this list. Refer at your own risk :P

A mere fiction?!

Disclaimer:
This is not a review. Rather, this is a spark of an old thought, being highlighted again by me :P And, i should say, i'm writing this piece when i was in not-so-calm state of mind :P Despite the negative sentiment i express here, i really enjoyed reading the book - a page turner. Unfortunately, after i finished reading it, i found it's lack of substance - the book is without feeling :P (This is of course a personal feeling which most of people won't agree :P)

I found this when i was looking at reviews on The Da Vinci Code at Amazon.com. This is a new way to give a review i think. :P

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***** Its FICTION!, November 12, 2004 Reviewer: Reid A. Ferguson "Simple Pilgrim" (Fairport, NY) The Da Vinci Code. What can I say? Dan Brown's wildly popular Da Vinci Code is one rollicking good piece of fiction. I will be the first in line to see the movie based on this wonderful piece of fiction. It is a taut, fast paced, fun-filled piece of fiction. Well written. Suspenseful. Intriguing. Fiction. Read it if you really enjoy good fiction. Have fun with its carefully, finely crafted twists, and turns of fiction. A great book if you love fiction. Buy it as fiction. Read it as fiction. Enjoy it as fiction. Forget about it as fiction. A nicely printed, well bound, thrilling, fun-filled work of fiction. It is pure, ummm, what's the word I'm searching here for? - Unh, that's it! FICTION! Don't believe a single word of it, it is fiction. Based on that, I highly recommend it! If you like fiction. Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary Entry for: Fiction Pronunciation: 'fik-sh&n Function: noun 1 a : something invented by the imagination or feigned; specifically : an invented story b : fictitious literature (as novels or short stories) c : a work of fiction; especially : NOVEL The Da Vinci Code - ITS FICTION

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And why do you think, this reviewer emphasized on a single point that this book is a mere FICTION?

I guess, it is due to the fact that - despite the huge number of followers who willingly to rate it with 5 stars - quite a number of readers condemned the book for its imprecise historical account. In the book, the quest for Holy Grail means finding the fact that Mary Magdalene is Jesus' wife. While moving toward the point, the author touches on Priory of Sion, of Da Vinci's painting, those mind-boggling encryption, riddles, anagrams, and a lot more historical background circulating the topic. This leaves those who found the facts being laid imprecisely with a bad taste in their mouths.

I realize that this is a work of fiction. And i dun have to take it seriously as a historical book. (Putting that aside, i still saw "The Last Supper" closely, reading about Priory of Sion etc. to satisfy my curiousity :P)

However, out of nowhere sometimes later, i did remember one occasion long time ago which involved the Salman Rushdie's Satanic Verses and how the Moslem take the novel as a serious religious insult. (Serious it was, the writer faces a death sentence from certain political leaders.) It's JUST a novel. Yes, but why Moslem throughout the World felt the content insulting? My fren, because when a writer include something so delicate - especially pertaining a religious matter or a belief - being elaborated imprecisely and without indepth understanding, then something as dangerous as this would happen.

Granted, they tried their best to be as precise as possible, but claiming it is a mere work of fiction can be a resort for an excuse.

So, it's a fiction - fiction is supposed to bring no harm. On the contrary, however, the material in there might harm those young minds who cannot distinguish between facts and fictions. They don't have what it takes to truly comprehend the details which seems so real.

And worse, the misleading facts will stuck somewhere in our subconcious mind, waiting to be unleashed in the future. Not only that, this tend to lead us misconstrued and make us convince the writing is a true account of an extensive research without us realizing it. The effect cannot be seen in a short time. It's more or less like a ripple effect : looks tame now, but eventually become highly dangerous.

New Year, New "Anak Buah"! :P

Selamat menyambut Maal Hijrah kepada semua muslim. Diharap tahun baru ini akan menjadikan kita lebih baik pada aspek yg positif dari tahun yg sudah. And, happy chinese new year to all Chinese out there.

And you know what, i got a new "anak buah" last Tuesday. The 11th. A boy. And no name yet. But, i dun think it will be another Yusof. (My bro first son's name is Muhammad Yusof Izzuddin bin Roslan, if you wonder what i'm talking about. Yusof. Such a nice name and sounds cute, dun you think? :P). Anyway, talking about name, my mom told me that, before they named me Yusof, what they had in their mind was Mohd Hafiz.

And, i laughed out loud knowing that. :P

On Painting

I still can see clearly until now on how i flipped thru a not-so-thick book on how to paint better. It's a fundamental painting book (something like "for-dummies-and-idiot thingy" :P). My elder bro and sis took Art back in their secondary school, and this book was one of their reference. Several pages before its back cover, the author included some famous paintings contain different kind of stroke, and of different schools - impressionism, realism etc. which was supposed, i guess, to whet the readers' appetite to go futher. These selected paintings were being explained in the seemingly simplest way so student can understand how each techniques contribute to the beauty of the great painters' brainchilds. (I should mention that the book was in Bahasa :P) I still remember how i engrossed myself to one of them which years later i recognized as Van Gogh's (since i didn't give a damn as to who painted it back then! :P), and only then i knew how famous he is.




Pardonnez-moi, but Van Gogh was
not a member of the Priory of Sion, rite? :P


I believe i'm a left-brain person. I love math, and play chess and put logic to a quite sky-high place. This self-realization, however, does not stop me from appreaciating Arts, Literature and things that touch my right brain. And, of course, i appreciate painting.

When we look at a painting, we tend to decipher its meaning, what the painter is actually trying to convey (which i'm not fluent at :P). We see the techniques developed by regular practise. The lines intertwined. The hard and soft strokes. The carefully chosen color. And how the Yin and Yang aspects being manipulated freely.

Dr. Huga Heyrman - Belgian painter, multimedia artist and a theorist of new media - in his notes on Space of Painting wrote the following: (You can find the full note here! It's beautifully written!)

Painting structures of attention. Painting transpositions of meaning. Painting belongs to culture as a domain to which people are extremely sensitive, because it provides a way of understanding oneself, a kind of shared experience. Painting as experience is about making decisions: a kind of give-and-take with the kinetic use of materials and the environment, analogous to the 'feel' of driving a car. Painting raises many fascinating questions in relation to exploring notions of time, which probe into the very nature and purpose of painting. Painting not beautiful images, but necessary images. Painting rigorous, demanding and concentrated images. Painting images that surpasses beauty, in both intention and effect, and stress necessity. Painting supersedes what's personal by becoming 'Post-ego'.

And i believe, writing is just like painting - with different medium of course! :P We paint with words to construct a beautiful piece of writing (writing simple and use simple words in order to deliver the message clearly is also an art, mind you!). It's a personal journey. Delusional again? :P

You decide!

"No one can make you feel inferior without your consent." Eleanor Roosevelt

Intelligent crap? Anyone?

Whoever read Bee's entry for today will absolutely think that she is going nut.

I think she IS. And the writing proves that very fact. If someone of higher authority read this, she will be surely detained under ISA, or being tortured like what we saw in the Hollywood movies, bloody and terrifying. And if I were to edit that piece of so-called crap, only one word remains. :P I of course don't blame her. This morning, I told her that both of us should write the crappiest entry of all. Our mind in the state of immense imbalance, and writing crap would be wonderful. Such state of mind can in turn breed a masterpiece. Kipling wrote his finest writing when he was not quite sober, rite? No!? I must be mistaken then! :P

(Puchong, if u read this, please hand me ur finest 60s!! :P)

I told her my crap would be logical and concise, clear and precise. I will write a crap of my standard with absolute precision, where people should laugh out loud for one minute - and sharp, with no second more or less. She laughed her stomach hurt. I guess. But, I'm dead serious, dear! (Do I look otherwise? :P)

(After she finished and published her writing, i told her that i JUST framed her so she writes an entry. :P "u'r soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo BAAAAAAAAAAAAADDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD", she said. It's her very words, with exact number of O, A and D! Feeling obliged and a bit guilty, here i'm. )

So, my fingers start moving around the keyboard now, wondering what should I write. It's hard. Is it really that a logical mind contains ONLY an educational crap, which turn out to be not crap at all? :P - where even whenever he craps, people will convince what he talks is really somekind of the philosophy with truest, highest, precious, (and boring) substance? :P

I dunno. :P ( I feel people just don't understand me, and they think what i told them about the martian thingy is nothing, BUT the plain TRUTH !! I pity them. :P )

So far, i'm pretty sure what i've written above is no crap. That's weird. Crap is supposed to be easy to write! And concentrating makes thing worse. Concentrating makes my mind more distracting. And, heck, Bee tells me to just keep writing and don't think.

So, I just write. And still, NO crap. (I write several things, but deleted them afterward because they were no crap!! Hmm, what a wasted time! )

[[Silence. I can hear my breath.]]

Damn! I give up! You won miss Bee. :P You crap wonderfully! :P *clap* *clap* You can vomit now reading my entry.

p/s: And I fail in my mission miserably to make you laugh for one minute! I will be more humble next time! :P