[Article] Secrets of the Dog Tongue

OK, there'll be times I would post interesting facts and articles (at least to me! :p) that I found (besides about children)... and here's one of those...

You see... before I teach my children at school, I must make sure that I get my facts right. I do hope that all teachers do that, which quite sadly to say, not many teachers I know actually bothers about educating children beyond what they have in their text books (sigh! :/) .... Anyway, the theme this round is "MY PETS". And so, after some browsing, I thought it was interesting to know and share that....:

What is the purpose of a dog tongue? Why does a dog stick out his tongue when he pants? Why worry about canine tongue injuries? Get the answers to these questions and more.

Why Write an Article About Tongues of Dogs?
I'll start by saying that many people have come to Pet Comfort Products looking for dog tongue. At first, I couldn't figure this out. Then I realized that people were using image search tools, such as Google image search, to find dog tongue pictures.

As it turns out, I have a nice picture of a dog on the dishes and bowls page on Pet Comfort Products. So, the mystery was solved. I now know why people are coming here to find dog tongue.

In light of this, I started doing a bunch of research on dog tongues. This is really an amazing topic and I think if you stick with me, you'll really appreciate the nuances and complexities of the dog tongue.

What is the Purpose of a Dog Tongue?
A dog tongue is a large mass of muscle that is found at the base of the dog's mouth. Primarily, it organizes and manipulates food for chewing and swallowing. Like a human tongue, it is the primary organ of taste and it is somewhat neurolgically associated with smell. The surface of the tongue is covered with taste buds and it's kept loose and moist by saliva. It is well supplied with nerves and blood vessels, making it one of the most important muscles of the dog's body.

In addition to lapping up water and food, a dog's tongue is a heat regulator. That is, when a dog runs around and gets hot, the tongue hangs out to cool them down. Most people don't know this, but a dog's tongue actually gets larger during exercise due to increased blood flow. In turn, when a dog pants, the dog's entire body is cooled off through evaporation.

How does this work exactly? The tongue gets larger and the dog will pant. These quick and shallow breaths will cause the wet dog tongue to evaporate moisture which in turn cools the dog's tongue. As blood flows through the tongue, the blood is cooled off. It is then transported to the rest of the body, which helps decreases the dog's body temperature.

By the way, this is why leaving your dog in the car is so dangerous. If your dog cannot cool off their tongue, they cannot cool off their entire body. This can translate to heat exhaustion or or other heat trauma. Provide your dog with cool air please!

Here's a quick list of other functions of a dog tongue:

• Wound Healing Tool : A dog will lick wounds and facilitate healing to a point.
• Texture Testing Tool : A dog will lick surfaces and materials to judge texture.
• Affection Giving Tool : A dog will "kiss" their owners and provide affective.

Dog Tongue Injuries
Dog tongue injuries are not too common but accidents do occur. Commonly, a dog's tongue will injured during exercise or other realted exertion. Farm dogs, police dogs, and other work dogs are obviously most prone to tongue injuries. If your dog goes to doggie day care, be certain that there is good ventilation with cool air provided, especially if exercise is part of the routine.

If a dog's tongue is injured when hot, remember that blood flow is increased. This means that you need to watch for excessive bleeding. Be especially careful if the middle or back of the tongue is damaged. Be sure to help your dog cool down by providing a cool environment as quickly as possible.

Some dogs chew wood, glass or other breakable material. If their tongue gets stuck with a splinter or glass shard, it is important to seek help from a veterinary. Don't let this kind of injury go too long or your dog's tongue could become seriously infected.

Things to Consider
Dog tongues are really amazing. They are much more rich and complex than most people realize. Keep in mind that large dogs with large tongues have a need for different bowls and dishes. Obviously large dogs need larger bowls.

If you pay attention to your dog's tongue, you will learn a lot. You'll also be able to better understand the health of you good friend. Give your dog a hug for us!

Article taken from Pet Comfort Products.

After my 2nd term exams....

Just a short update.... my exams are over (phew!) A relief because I can now have some peaceful sleep... Was quite exhausted after the exams due to not enough rest. Well, it's not that I've been up studying all night, but my mind was not rested. I couldnt fully focus on studying as I shared before. So, anyway, my exhaustion resulted in me catching the common cold last week. Had to be on MC on Thursday and thank God by Friday I'm really getting better.

Yesterday I was able to eat durians too! Thanks to my in-laws! Hehehe.... And my body was craving for junk foods, and I did have a share of that as well :p

How was my exams? I guess it was good for me as I think I was able to "kelentong" well in my essay questions. My only hope is that I did not go "way off" from the question. "Kelentong" power is the key to success! Hahahaha! I guess blogging helps in shaping this skill. :)

One weekend off and after that, next Saturday, my first class for the 3rd semester starts. Oh, what a drag! OK-la... would really love to update more about my life, but as for now, I really need to get ready for church! Have a pleasant Sunday!

[Article] Colour Meaning

Since my interest about knowing the colour representations grew after watching Sarah "coloured" our family members, I decided to do a google search on colour representations and I find this article rather interesting....

Article taken from http://www.color-wheel-pro.com/color-meaning.html

Red

• Red is the color of fire and blood, so it is associated with energy, war, danger, strength, power, determination as well as passion, desire, and love.
• Red is a very emotionally intense color. It enhances human metabolism, increases respiration rate, and raises blood pressure. It has very high visibility, which is why stop signs, stoplights, and fire equipment are usually painted red. In heraldry, red is used to indicate courage. It is a color found in many national flags.
• Red brings text and images to the foreground. Use it as an accent color to stimulate people to make quick decisions; it is a perfect color for 'Buy Now' or 'Click Here' buttons on Internet banners and websites. In advertising, red is often used to evoke erotic feelings (red lips, red nails, red-light districts, 'Lady in Red', etc). Red is widely used to indicate danger (high voltage signs, traffic lights). This color is also commonly associated with energy, so you can use it when promoting energy drinks, games, cars, items related to sports and high physical activity.

Light red represents joy, sexuality, passion, sensitivity, and love.

Pink signifies romance, love, and friendship. It denotes feminine qualities and passiveness.

Dark red is associated with vigor, willpower, rage, anger, leadership, courage, longing, malice, and wrath.

Brown suggests stability and denotes masculine qualities.Reddish-brown is associated with harvest and fall.

Orange

• Orange combines the energy of red and the happiness of yellow. It is associated with joy, sunshine, and the tropics. Orange represents enthusiasm, fascination, happiness, creativity, determination, attraction, success, encouragement, and stimulation.
• To the human eye, orange is a very hot color, so it gives the sensation of heat. Nevertheless, orange is not as aggressive as red. Orange increases oxygen supply to the brain, produces an invigorating effect, and stimulates mental activity. It is highly accepted among young people. As a citrus color, orange is associated with healthy food and stimulates appetite. Orange is the color of fall and harvest. In heraldry, orange is symbolic of strength and endurance.
• Orange has very high visibility, so you can use it to catch attention and highlight the most important elements of your design. Orange is very effective for promoting food products and toys.

Dark orange can mean deceit and distrust.Red-orange corresponds to desire, sexual passion, pleasure, domination, aggression, and thirst for action.

Gold evokes the feeling of prestige. The meaning of gold is illumination, wisdom, and wealth. Gold often symbolizes high quality.

Yellow

• Yellow is the color of sunshine. It's associated with joy, happiness, intellect, and energy.
• Yellow produces a warming effect, arouses cheerfulness, stimulates mental activity, and generates muscle energy. Yellow is often associated with food. Bright, pure yellow is an attention getter, which is the reason taxicabs are painted this color. When overused, yellow may have a disturbing effect; it is known that babies cry more in yellow rooms. Yellow is seen before other colors when placed against black; this combination is often used to issue a warning. In heraldry, yellow indicates honor and loyalty. Later the meaning of yellow was connected with cowardice.
• Use yellow to evoke pleasant, cheerful feelings. You can choose yellow to promote children's products and items related to leisure. Yellow is very effective for attracting attention, so use it to highlight the most important elements of your design. Men usually perceive yellow as a very lighthearted, 'childish' color, so it is not recommended to use yellow when selling prestigious, expensive products to men – nobody will buy a yellow business suit or a yellow Mercedes. Yellow is an unstable and spontaneous color, so avoid using yellow if you want to suggest stability and safety. Light yellow tends to disappear into white, so it usually needs a dark color to highlight it. Shades of yellow are visually unappealing because they loose cheerfulness and become dingy.

Dull (dingy) yellow represents caution, decay, sickness, and jealousy.

Light yellow is associated with intellect, freshness, and joy.

Green

• Green is the color of nature. It symbolizes growth, harmony, freshness, and fertility. Green has strong emotional correspondence with safety. Dark green is also commonly associated with money.
• Green has great healing power. It is the most restful color for the human eye; it can improve vision. Green suggests stability and endurance. Sometimes green denotes lack of experience; for example, a 'greenhorn' is a novice. In heraldry, green indicates growth and hope. Green, as opposed to red, means safety; it is the color of free passage in road traffic.
• Use green to indicate safety when advertising drugs and medical products. Green is directly related to nature, so you can use it to promote 'green' products. Dull, darker green is commonly associated with money, the financial world, banking, and Wall Street.

Dark green is associated with ambition, greed, and jealousy.

Yellow-green can indicate sickness, cowardice, discord, and jealousy.

Aqua is associated with emotional healing and protection.

Olive green is the traditional color of peace.

Blue

• Blue is the color of the sky and sea. It is often associated with depth and stability. It symbolizes trust, loyalty, wisdom, confidence, intelligence, faith, truth, and heaven.
• Blue is considered beneficial to the mind and body. It slows human metabolism and produces a calming effect. Blue is strongly associated with tranquility and calmness. In heraldry, blue is used to symbolize piety and sincerity.
• You can use blue to promote products and services related to cleanliness (water purification filters, cleaning liquids, vodka), air and sky (airlines, airports, air conditioners), water and sea (sea voyages, mineral water). As opposed to emotionally warm colors like red, orange, and yellow; blue is linked to consciousness and intellect. Use blue to suggest precision when promoting high-tech products.
• Blue is a masculine color; according to studies, it is highly accepted among males. Dark blue is associated with depth, expertise, and stability; it is a preferred color for corporate America.
• Avoid using blue when promoting food and cooking, because blue suppresses appetite. When used together with warm colors like yellow or red, blue can create high-impact, vibrant designs; for example, blue-yellow-red is a perfect color scheme for a superhero.

Light blue is associated with health, healing, tranquility, understanding, and softness.

Dark blue represents knowledge, power, integrity, and seriousness.

Purple

• Purple combines the stability of blue and the energy of red. Purple is associated with royalty. It symbolizes power, nobility, luxury, and ambition. It conveys wealth and extravagance. Purple is associated with wisdom, dignity, independence, creativity, mystery, and magic.
• According to surveys, almost 75 percent of pre-adolescent children prefer purple to all other colors. Purple is a very rare color in nature; some people consider it to be artificial.
• Light purple is a good choice for a feminine design. You can use bright purple when promoting children's products.

Light purple evokes romantic and nostalgic feelings.

Dark purple evokes gloom and sad feelings. It can cause frustration.

White

• White is associated with light, goodness, innocence, purity, and virginity. It is considered to be the color of perfection.
• White means safety, purity, and cleanliness. As opposed to black, white usually has a positive connotation. White can represent a successful beginning. In heraldry, white depicts faith and purity.
• In advertising, white is associated with coolness and cleanliness because it's the color of snow. You can use white to suggest simplicity in high-tech products. White is an appropriate color for charitable organizations; angels are usually imagined wearing white clothes. White is associated with hospitals, doctors, and sterility, so you can use white to suggest safety when promoting medical products. White is often associated with low weight, low-fat food, and dairy products.

Black

• Black is associated with power, elegance, formality, death, evil, and mystery.
• Black is a mysterious color associated with fear and the unknown (black holes). It usually has a negative connotation (blacklist, black humor, 'black death'). Black denotes strength and authority; it is considered to be a very formal, elegant, and prestigious color (black tie, black Mercedes). In heraldry, black is the symbol of grief.
• Black gives the feeling of perspective and depth, but a black background diminishes readability. A black suit or dress can make you look thinner. When designing for a gallery of art or photography, you can use a black or gray background to make the other colors stand out. Black contrasts well with bright colors. Combined with red or orange – other very powerful colors – black gives a very aggressive color scheme.

Drawing the Family... (at Month 23+)

Another interesting thing that took place in Sarah's drawing ventures was to represent our family members with colours!

This was also another incident that took place right before my eyes and I was thrilled to see how the whole process went. We were in our bedroom and I gave her some crayons and papers for her to scribble. And just for the sake of asking :p, I asked her to draw "Sarah", and then I asked her to draw "Mummy", and then "Daddy". For each member, she used different colours to draw lines. And then of course, I repeatedly asked her to draw "Sarah", "Mummy" and "Daddy". One thing that struck me was she took the same colour each time to draw each one of us!

Orange represents "Sarah" and another shade of orange represents "Mummy".

Purple represents "Daddy".

Another 2 very very distinct characters are "Pek-Pek" - blue; and "Pek Niang" - pink.

As for others... I'm just sorry to say that perhaps Mummy's enthusiasm bore Sarah at that time.

I kept asking her to draw this and that repeatedly until she decided to stop drawing and play other things. :p

Few weeks later, I decided to "test" Sarah again on the colour representation. And guess what? She picked the same colour to colour each one of us. I'm seriously amazed with what she did. She's really seeing different people in different colours and that really made me want to study further about this child's development... the colour representation of people. Interesting, isnt it?

[+video] Draw-A-Person... (at Month 26+)

"... eye.... eye.... nose.... mouth.... hand.... hand.... leg.... leg..." As she draws, she says these words as well. I couldn't help noticing her actions and found her literally drawing pictures of a human being. Not one, but many of them! She would say she draws "people". But sometimes, if you ask her what she is drawing, she would say "dinosaur" or "autobots"! :)

I took this video about 2 weeks ago. Enjoy.....!

And these are the products of her drawings!

Nice piece of art, eh? :)

That's one BIG head with "eyes and mouth". 2 lines sticking out horizontally which represents the "hands" and 2 vertical lines which represents the "legs".

For some drawing, she added the "hair" as well!

This is really so so cool! I really find this interesting! :)

DAP

Gotcha!!! But no, am not into politics right now... hehehe.

In my first semester, my lecturer for "Arts for Children" did touch a little about what a child would draw by stages. And it appeared more real to me now when I first witness this "truth" through Sarah's drawing of a human being. It really made some sense to me now! :)

DAP stands for "Draw-A-Person" and according to wiki:

The Draw-A-Person Test (DAP, DAP test, or Goodenough-Harris Draw-A-Person Test) is a psychological projective personality or cognitive test used to evaluate children and adolescents for a variety of purposes.

I never knew this test actually exist until I had this sudden interest to know more about the development of my little girl when she started to learn to draw a person. I find it really amusing and I am in total pride when I saw the first "human-drawing" drawn by my little girl... I'll share more about this when I manage to sort the pix I took this morning :)

In the meantime, allow me to share with you some findings I had with DAP. One of the articles I read which gives much information is found here.

"...... The way the kids draw the person determines at what mental developmental stage they are at. You can pretty much test for intelligence with a simple drawing. At the age of 3, kids start to draw circles and lines, but usually can't really make a stick figure look like a person. At the age of 4, they are supposed to start drawing people more like we're used to: head, arms, legs. But at the age of 4 (mental age of 4) most kids draw the arms and legs coming out of their heads - no body. Jakub didn't do this. His picture had a body. Even in the picture above - drawn when he was 4 months shy of four, Jakub drew a body. The doctor said that this was an indication that his mental development stage is more like a 5 year old rather than a 4 year old (I always knew my son was smart :)). At the age of 5, children start drawing bodies, arms and legs coming from the bodies. Then, between 5 and 5.5, kids start to draw more detail, including 3 fingers (not 5), clothes, etc....."

Check out more about this test as you type "DAP test" on google search. You will surely find lots of interesting stuff relating to this study. I definitely found this interesting!

2nd term exams!!!! Pray for me, ya?!

Tomorrow's the start of my 2nd term exams.... nothing more than just a paper for me to "goreng". I do pray for wisdom to answer the questions correctly. Not too sure why but I've been in this terrible state of rebelling... against studies that is... the mood is just not right. I do my revision every day but sometimes, the mind is just telling me "enough is enough".... Maybe I'm too old for all these :p

Anyway, life goes on... I'll be facing my 2nd term papers tomorrow and next week. I just pray for God's guidance and especially for me to have the right focus. My focus is just not there and I get distracted pretty easily this time (worst than before). I didnt wake up earlier than I planned to and even in the evening, I didnt spend as much quality time revising than I have hoped for.

OK-la... for now. Gonna have lunch and later back to work!

Sarah's bath time = play time

Sarah loves bath time because that's play time for her as well. We call that "water play". Dont underestimate bath times with your little ones because it is during these times that they learn so many things about themselves, ie parts of their body, listening to instructions like "look up!", "wash your neck", "left leg up", "right leg up", "armpit!", "tongue", etc... :p They learn lots about maths & science! If they have cups, they can learn to measure and develop other fine motor skills like scooping water from one cup to another using a spoon... well, Sarah loves that activity a LOT!

Recently, I bought for her the IKEA's stacking cups. I've been wanting to get that or something similar for a long time but at one point of time, I couldn't find them at all. I particularly like the IKEA cups because besides being reasonable in price (only RM6.90/set), they are colourful and each cup has different patterns and number of holes in them. That made water play interesting!

I normally vary the toys so that she will learn different things from time to time. In my in laws place, there are some cups, ducks and frog in there. She likes to squeeze the frog in the water and that made some "glup, glup" sound, and she would smile and tell me, "got sound..." after that, she would take the water-filled frog and squeeze it hard so the water would be released through its mouth. She enjoys doing that and could do that many many times until mummy needs to "force" her out of the bathroom.

Anyhow, I would try my best to make it an enjoyable moment for her whenever I had the chance to bathe her. At times during the weekend, if she behaves well during the day, I will allow her to use the bath tub and extend her bath time so she can play a little bit more... just to reward her! Now that she learns about punishment and reward, this seems to work pretty well for us! :)

[+video] Doe, a deer, a female deer....

Check out our lil singer!
Sorry... this was taken at night in the car... don't mind the video, just enjoy the music! :)
This song is one of our favourites!
And pls forgive me... my pitch lari sikit! Cannot reach the note la.... :p

And recently.... thanks to ah ee, now, Sarah has another favourite - "The Barney song: I love you, you love me"

Yippie! No need to drive to work! :)

Am so happy.... today, I got my driver to send me to work. kekeke... yeah, u guys might think rachel is siao oredi... but, yeah... just missing that nice feeling of not needing to drive myself to work... it made half of my day! :p

So now, since I'm waiting for my driver to pick me up from office, I might as well do some blogging... :p