Under Fire

Yeah, I'm feeling the heat, both literally and metaphorically speaking.
My finals are next week and I can't believe that my brain fails to register the panic and stress that I'm supposed to have.
Does that mean that I've lost it?

Since I'm on organic chem, might as well add something I read in the newspaper today.
See how badly she procrastinates

Ok, if you're living where I am (which I will decline to reveal) and subscribe to a local newspaper that rhymes with 'car', then you would be able to see a column titled "A Sip of Matcha"by Sara Mori.
It's a column by a local lady who has been living in Japan for the past 13 years or so after getting married. Her column only appears every Monday.
And to why I'm so tight-lipped about where my current position...Is my little secret.
No, I'm not a wanted fugitive.

I do read her column every week, along with 'But then again...' by Mary Schneider.
This week, Mori-san wrote about smoking in Japan.
I'm impressed with the Japanese government's effort to reduce the number of smokers in Japan.
It really does stand in line with Singapore, which implemented its "No Smoking in Public" ban around 20 years ago.
The number of smokers have reduced and the world is a slightly better place.

So why am I droning about smoking and smokers this time?
Because I absolutely, positively DETEST them!
I have allergies to the smoke from cigarettes and will start coughing and hacking whenever I'm near a smoker.
I don't understand why they have to smoke, or why they have to kill the people around them.
Yes, secondhand smokers die way before the smokers themselves.

Do you know that the carbon monoxide that is produced from the smoke actually erodes the mucus lining in your trachea and your bronchioles?
Just so you know, it will give you a positive acidic result when you test it with a wet litmus paper.
It will only display its acidic properties when it is hydrated.
When the mucus lining of your trachea has eroded, foreign particles will be able to move past what was your first line of defense from diseases.
Erosion of the bronchioles causes less oxygen to be diffused across and oxygen levels in the haemoglobin will be less.
Less oxyhaemoglobin means less oxygen is delivered to other parts of your body.
Less oxygen in your body means that metabolic reactions are less, since oxygen is needed in the production of Adenosine Tri-phosphate by the mitochondria.
Less ATP means less molecules are able to move across the cellular membrane of all cells by means of active transport or facilitated diffusion through the pore proteins and the carrier proteins, since the membrane is semipermeable.
And do you know that nicotine causes addiction by clogging/ weakening the ACh (I think it's acetyl choline). ACh is the body's own 'stop' button to stop a certain sensation/ impulse that goes through your nervous system.
Without it, the impulse will continue to diffuse across the synaptic cleft of your nerves and received by the post-synaptic nodes that are located at the dendrites of your nerve cells.
And since nicotine somehow gets your brain to produce dopamine (which I don't remember how or why), you will need more nicotine to feed your 'feel-good' sensation.

To me, smoke smells bad and smokers smell even worse.
I don't get why people start smoking in the first place and how some women light up a cigarette and sit there like she's oh-so pretty and wanton.
My first impression would be that she's a hooker looking for a big fish to reel in.
Yeah, that's what I think and I don't care if you call be a b**** for it.

I've been vacationing in China quite often and I'm really, really tired of having to be stuffed in a room full of chimneys.
Seriously! It's like they can't live for a few seconds without a puff.
I can understand that it's to warm up your body (that's what my dad told me), but there are also other options!
Geez, there isn't a day where my hair or clothes don't smell like I've been rolling in a pile of tobacco leaves whenever I return to the hotel.

Even though my dad used to smoke, he now says that it smells horrible and has no idea why he started.
I'm just glad that he stopped after getting married to mom.
Maybe it was because of her that he stopped or that Singapore doesn't allow smoking in air-conditioned and public places.
I think it's the latter, because dad doesn't seem like a romantic kind of guy...

Oh well, that takes care of Biology; which means that I should really consider being a doctor instead of [insert wanted profession here].
*sigh*