Updates about me..

When the new year came I was very excited to post regularly on this blog. But sadly I failed again. Anyway, I think its a good time to post an update about me..

OFFLINE LIFE:

March is ending soon and my deadline for PRC submission is fast approaching which is on May 13. I have't finished typing all my scrub information yet and it needs signing after that from respective clinical instructors and chief nurses. I also need to catch up on my readings and studies if I am to aim passing the nursing board exam at one take.

ONLINE LIFE:

I don't have much enthusiasm lately. I've been slacking off with my moderating jobs. I hope the admins won't approach me about this matter. I have lots of plans to test and sadly this puts a conflict of interest on my part since I'm also busy offline. I appreciate that my friends PJ and Des bothers to talk with me when I am down.

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Avast! Anti-virus Boot Time Scan

These past few days my computer is very laggy and webpage loading speed is like the stone-age. I don't know what's causing it. I can't open yahoo messenger too. I have tune-up utilities with one click maintenance and avast as my anti-virus. When I run both, it doesn't show any virus or problems in my computer. I reached the point of desperation that I need to surf the net with a good pc running and all my efforts to try correct it was futile. I have no background with computer stuff so I'm just trying to try and fix things without spending money to bring it to some technician.

I was checking what else I can do with Avast. This is what I found.

BOOT TIME SCAN
The boot-time scan is one of the main weapons of avast! It runs before Windows is loaded and before potential malware has a chance to activate, thereby enabling an infected system to be cleaned before any damage is done. Moreover, the avast! boot-time scan uses direct hard drive access, which bypass the OS file system drivers and is thus able to handle even the most stubborn rootkits.

I highlighted the phrases which made me to try it out. The results? I had over 2000 files infected with Win32: Relevant-M [PUP] and most of it are Win32: Sality. I was amazed that I have this many infected files. After the scan and deletion of these unwanted files. My computer is all fine in loading and no longer laggy! I wish I did this earlier last year. It doesn't pay to be ignorant.

Avast! Boot-Time Scan is simply wonderful!

How to let it run?
If your using Avast too then open it.
Go to "Scan Computer" then look for "Boot Time Scan".
Simply click the "Schedule Now" button.
Then in the "Areas to Scan" just choose "All hardisks".
Also don't forget to set Heuristics sensitivity to HIGH. It's this easy.

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A great phone by Nokia!

Cellphones are a need to today's daily living. The trend now with mobile phones are with touch screens. Which are expensive, will ran out of battery after a day, loads slow if you have a big archive of songs and videos and for me I don't find it worth it. I simply go for practical phones.

I go with mobile phones which has...
long battery life.
gets easily full when charged.
over 50 messages to save.
sent items.

Not neccesarily a colored one. With or without mp3 music or songs. I go for these kind of phones simply because of practicality. I don't have the leisure of charging my phone everyday.

Now I found such a phone which suits for me!
The Nokia 1203 and 1204.

Features: It has a flashlight. Does not need to take long hours to get fully charged up. Stand by battery life is 5 days! Can save upto 100 messages. It's not colored, neither does it have music or videos. But this is the phone for me.

Now we come to an interesting part of the discussion, how much does it cost? Here in the Philippines, I bought each phone for about 1,299 Php! That's over $20 in American dollars.
If you would ask me if the price is worth it for such a simple phone, then the answer is YES!!!

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Making an online forum

So it occurred to me that I wanted an online forum. Since I have been lingering in these places for over a year now.

A good friend of mine gave me free hosting. (I'm lucky I have a good friend)

So the question now came to me. "What forum script will I use?"
I googled for free forum scripts and found several ones to choose from.

1. phpBB
2. SMF
3. myBB
4. yaBB
5. E-blah.

Several friends recommended to use SMF, because:
1. It has active online development.
2. Most secured free forum script.
3. Easy customizable
4. Lots and lots of free mods to use.

I said, ok why not give it a try.
Doing things in the cpanel really took time for me to know.
I have no experience doing such a thing before.

Eventually I knew how to install it online.
Know the basics, editing themes, adding mods etc.

Now I'm happy. But not completely happy.
SMF is really good, custumize friendly and simple to use once you get to know how to do it.
But the appearance is not appealing. I have downloaded dozens of themes and none of it would satisfy me.

So, I left it for now. Until I saw another forum using myBB script.
I said Gosh!, this looks good! The appearance is almost the same with vBulletin (the best paid forum script today). Then there I go, "I want to use this one!!" LOL.

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Bookstore... books! books! books!

I was in a bookstore the other day, and today or later on for that matter I'm talking to myself "WHAT THE HELL am I doing in there??" It's not my typical hang-out place when I have nothing to do and roaming the city for unwinding sessions. Ok so enough of the rudeness in me. I happened to ask the saleslady for a reviewbook about a certain concept in the field I am in to. I did a quick look and I was surprised! The questions were sooooo similar to our major exam questions the other year, the situations, the choices, the drugs almost everything!. In the midst of the shock I got (yes I was shocked, I'll tell you why), I immediately purchased that book. Went home and tried to finish reading it which later was in vain. It ended up in a corner of my room left to collect dust for eternity! Bwahahaha (Ok that was being sarcastic in a sick way).

Ok, to be serious. I almost did finish reading it until I got caught up trying to meet deadlines with requirements. I said I was shocked because I never knew about it in the first place or no good soul bothered to tell about it. It could have helped me bigtime back then. I then bought a another review book about another concept and after having a fixed time of reading these books everyday, I find myself understanding things better than I did before. Now I have set my mind to buy another book this weekend if I manage to save more money from my allowance.

The moral of this incident is. "Reading a lousy-looking book is not soo bad until you get the message it was intended to relay" and "It pays to invest in study material"

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Incident reports! What a semester!!

When I went in the nursing study, I told myself not to get an incident report even though my grades aren't that high. I aim for character rather than intellectual superiority. You can be smart and don't have the right attitude is a no-no for me. There are several reasons established why you can earn an incident report. Our beloved clinical instructors told us every generakl orientation that incident reports can either be a way of compliment a students outstanding performance or discipline in any shortcoming along this endeavor.

Going along my 2nd and 3rd year, I was happy that I didn't have any. It made me happy. The worst time is this semester. On my senior year. I was absent for 2 clinical days because I was sick which earns me 16 hours of make-up duty another 400 pesos for me to spend. Then my clinical intructor gave me an incident report for another 16 hours for neglecting my bedside duties of regulating my patient's IV fluid. Today, I just have earned another one for behavioral sanction. Eating along the national road wearing our clinical uniform and on duty hours. My day coudn't get any worst!

Its giving me rebellious intentions, "so its my last year huh? might as well do some crazy things!" Damn it, it hurts my ego this much.

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Skype simply amazing!

I'm sure all of us are using several Instant messengers. Windows messenger, yahoo messenger, skype and a lot more. Yahoo IM is quite popular and I am using it too. But I want to blog about Skype. I had to use it when I need to call someone abroad. I must say it made me save a lot of money for international calls. Here are the reasons why.



1. Skype has better quality when it comes to calls.
2. The interface opens up in quickly in old computers like mine.
3. Has lower calling rates when compared to Yahoo! Messenger IM - Landlin or CP calls.
4. And last but not least, they support Paypal if you don't have a credit card to buy their skype credits this would make it convenient.

I'm here in the Philippines. Often times I communicate with my aunt, uncles and cousins in America. It would be very money-wise if a lot of them knows how to use an IM. But my aunt and uncles don't. So they had to use a phone card to call us. First time I scrolled over the call rates of skype I was amazed! It's very cheap when you are going to call someone in the states! For as low as $ 0.021 cents! OMG, I liked it when I can use my Paypal funds to buy their credits unlike with YM which doesn't have this feature. When I had enough bucks in my Paypal account I bought $10 and guess what?! I was able to call them hours longer compared with buying cellphone load here or them buying phone cards there. But I'm a bit sad because my skype credit is almost out of funds and I am going to try to earn some more bucks online to get more credits in Skype.

Click here to download skype
Click here to see their calling rates in USD

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Shopping online

I've been keeping in touch with one of my cousins. We seldom talk lately because everyone seems to be busy. Every time I had a chance to chat with her she's at work. Yesterday we managed to chat though and she's been talking about her little angel (my niece). She told me that she's planning to buy her new clothes and also a little something as a reward for being a good little girl. Busy as she is with work and tired when at home, she plans to buy things online. We found an online shop where she had a lot of selections for girls clothing categorized for specific ages.

As for the "little something" she mentioned, she browsed the pets and toys category but she hasn't made up her mind yet. She finds the selections interesting and the site gives a lot of merchants to select from. Browsing some more categories lead her into window shopping for prices and other things that she would be interested in buying such as school supplies, cosmetics and beverages for herself. She can't believe that all of the things that she could think of buying are found in one place online!

It was getting late for her and she needs to wake up early for work the following day. She's going to show and browse the site again with her boyfriend so they can decide what to get for their daughter and check out more offers and prices. If you like to shop online visit shop and do some shopping! :D

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Medical Transcription a demanding job

This is the common setting when a medical trancriptionist is working. Looks very simple right? Sitting all day facing the computer and transcribing. But its not so simple if you ask me.

I came to hear about medical transcription from a friend online. I searched over the internet and I found that the requirements are very simple for a person who is in any medical related field. So I enrolled myself in a school and this month I would be getting my certificate. I am attracted to this because of a chance to work at home. But lately I realized that this profession is very demanding.
Why? Because it requires knowledge of human anatomy and physiology, pharmacology, medical terminology, laboratory results, and almost everything a doctor should know. Not only that you need to be very good with written English, and a high accuracy rate matched with a fast typing speed. I say it is demanding looking at the requirements. A common knowledge for doctors and a English proficiency of a English college teacher. And for what amount of pay? A few cents per line you transcribed or a few bucks per thousands of words? It looks very underpaid if you ask me. It is difficult to be an MT, especially if you just finished the course and found a job. Your lucky if you find a considerate dictator that speaks clearly and spells out uncommon terms or medicines.

I managed to find a friend who is doing MT homebased. She was able to let her client assess me and hire me on a trial basis. I was very happy. But then the rate is very low. I accepted it though considering I am a new and I am not yet very fast in typing. I just said to myself, there is no such thing as easy money and continued doing this. The doctor used to send me work once a week. But it has been over a week now and I have not heard anything from him although he replies to my email. I'm not sure where this will lead to. It would help if people were open to say things like "your fired" or "I can't send you work anymre" etc. Although I don't think that this is the reason in my case. Geez, I hate suspense. This is making me a little frustrated.

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WARNING: Fake Yahoomail Update!!!

I just woke up! As the usual day for me I go straight in to my computer check my emails. My ecurrency accounts and I found 1 very interesting email. I got a notification about yahoo wanting me to update my account information. I immediately checked who is the sender and it is not from a yahoo service email. Its from Yahoo! Mail Security Centre [verify.account0001@live.com]. Its very odd that this email is in my spam folder and is using a live.com email. I immediately wanted to blog it! LOL! Previously I have recieved scam emails from some foundation claiming that I have won something. Then This month I have recieved a few emails that my eccurrency account has been block and I need to reply to an email with all my log in passes and now they want our email details? What could be so important with our mails? More importantly if any of you get this type of email don't reply to it. Another phising activity.

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Listening to music when stressed..

Oh great another boring day for me! We had our Quiz today at school and after that I have nothing to do. I went back home, clicked in some ptc, made a post in some paid forum and checked some of my hyip investents. After that I have nothing more to do. I remember hearing a song of HIM the other day when I was really tired and stressed. It my first time hearing it and I really LIKED it A LOT!!


Funeral of Hearts (Lyrics)
- HIM
Love's the funeral of hearts
an ode for cruelty
when angels cry blood
on flowers of evil in bloom

The funeral of hearts
And a plea for mercy
When love is a gun
Separating me from you

She was the sun
Shining upon
The tomb of your hopes and dreams so frail
He was the moon
Painting you
With it's glow so vulnerable and pale

Love's the funeral of hearts
And an ode for cruelty
When angels cry blood
On flowers of evil in bloom

The funeral of hearts
And a plea for mercy
When love is a gun
Separating me from you

She was the wind, carrying in
All the troubles and fears you've for years tried to forget
He was the fire, restless and wild
And you were like a moth to that flame

The heretic seal beyond divine
A prayer to a god who's deaf and blind
The last rites for souls on fire
Three little words and a question - why?

Love's the funeral of hearts
And an ode for cruelty
When angels cry blood
On flowers of evil in bloom

The funeral of hearts
And a plea for mercy
When love is a gun
Separating me from you

I don't know when this was composed and what year it was released (I don't concern myself of this things though) after listening to it I feel much better. A little bit relaxed. I believe anyone would agree that listening to music is a good way of relaxing hen feeling tired and stressed.

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February 2, Yearly Fiesta

Every year we celebrate our annual fiesta in honor of our patron saint Nuestra Señora De la Candilaria (Our Lady of Candles). We never fail to celebrate it. It has been observed way back during the time of my great great grandparents. The image that you see on the left is the picture of our cathedral. A stone image of our patron saint is found there. It has been seen as a very holy artifact. My grandparents used to tell stories that during their time it was very small found by some fishermen on a corner of a river bank. Size was about less than 2 feet. But years and decades have passed it grew in size and now its over 5 feet tall. It made people think that it is very special and holy. People from neighboring towns and cities come here in devotion to her for blessings and a good life ahead. Which is a good thing for us and most residents here in Jaro. Relatives may it be close or distant comes over and celebrate it with us. A lot of my unknown relatives come by every year. It makes my grandparents happy. They would talk for long hours remembering their struggles in the past. I must say it is a good way of strengthening family bonds again. People nowadays are busy with life, work, and studies and only during this occasions we stop and think about our families.

Eight days before February 2 (which is tomorrow) we start our devotion by adding a Novena after our daily rosary. It will continue for 9 days and February being the ninth. A novena is a scared prayer in devotion to any saint. My grandparents take it seriously. But I being schooled in a Protestant school for all of my life fail to give much appreciation to it.

Foods and drinks: A fiesta is not well celebrated without tasty food and a lot of beverages. My aunts and uncles has sent the budget last month and my mom is doing the cooking. She is slicing meat at the moment to be cooked early dawn. About the beverages. I didn't invite my classmates over as I a m not good being a host and plus I can't ride along in drinking session. I have low tolerance for alcohol. But my brother is quite the opposite of me. He has bought a few cases of hard drinks for most of his classmates come every year to "drink and be merry". My family has been strict with us with vices but it is only during this occasion that they become ignorant and allow us to drink and smoke a lot (but of course the next day it is not allowed).

Guests do this "house-to-house eating behavior" during fiestas. You surely need to bring along some digestive medicines. You might end up having a stomach ache for over eating different kinds of food. Not all guests are into stay and drink. Other go to the plaza fair to try their luck with some street gambling. Elders to to cockfights and bet big money! At the en of the day. We have a lot of dishes to clean and some or no more food left (usually grandma gives it to her relatives as a take home give away).

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Things I've been doing

For the past few months I have been very busy offline and online.

Offline:
First, I am a nursing student. I went back to school this 2nd semester because of a hard subject I failed last year. I aligned my goal not to fail this year and guess what? My pre-liminary exam went well. I was happy and thinking that I would be passing this semester with flying colors. My optimistic behavior got reversed after I knew the result of my mid-term exam. Sigh, it did not went well. the results is very low that it neutralized my score in pre-lim and at this rate I will fail again. I really feel stupid. My class in only on Thurday and Friday morning, giving me a lot of time to study and yet I failed? I spent the past few days reflecting on myself what am I doing wrong? What do I need to improve? Now on Monday, the college faculty has arranged a remedial class (because many failed) for all the student who failed to attend. Anyone who won't attend that will not be allowed to get a removal examination. This gives me pressure. I can't oput myself to study. If I get to study, it does not stick to my head. I've been trying to pressure myslef to do so. My first cousin is sponsoring my tuition and my mom is hoping for me to pass this year. Sometimes I'm tempted to bang my head to the wall (to punish myself).

Secondly, I'm a medical trasncription student. I got to know of it a few months back. Since I have some sapre time I took up schooling. The first three months went well. I being in another medical related course, had no problem passing medical terminology. We're doing practical transcription now. I found one of my former classmates is doing it home-based. She managed to have her client assess me and I think I got the job. But sadly, no reports are sent to me to do yet. Guess I need to find other clients and improve myself. This adds to my worries.

Lastly, I am living with my mom and younger brother. Along with 4 old people. Two of them are completely dependent and alsmot bed-ridden. I sometimes skip class when things get messy. My mom is turning out sickly lateley. I, being the eldest child am helping her out. I sometimes skip class or sleep very late watching over them (the old folks).

Online:
I am a forum moderator online. It became my outlet of stress and worries I have in life. It's fun helping newbies around. Aside from that I have joined a lot of online money making programs. PTCs, PTPs, Autosurfs andHYIPs. I earn a few buck in some and loss I others. I wish there was an effective way to earn something from the internet. Life is getting hard and difficult each day.


I still am hoing that things will work out well with me in school and find a worthwhile job online so I can help with the expenses in the house. As of the moment, writing this down made me feel a little better. I'm going back to studying now and I hope I pass that removal examination next week.

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Online forum moderator

I haven't updated my blog quite much lately. I had a wonderful New Year and I am hoping for good things to come in this year. I'm going to finish medical transcription around the last week of February and I must say it's not too hard for me to learn it. We're going to have our midterm exams in nursing school on the 19th and I have not failed my prelim exam. I wish it would be the same in midterm. I need to keep pace with my studies as I have been busy online. Regarding the post title, last December I was hired to become a forum moderator in my favorite paid-to-post forum. It got me pre-occupied. I spend less time on other activities and focus in there. I find it quite fun. Our tasks include keeping the boards clean of spam, see to it that members follow the rules and any violations are given an infraction. I do check all the posts of our members whenever they request to be paid and I give my approval. Give new members new support and at the same time earn.

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My Holiday

I never felt so busy with my previous holiday experiences. Last December 20 me, my younger brother and my mom went to Calinog. My dad's home town. One of my uncle called and invited us to go over for a little thanks giving celebration. It was fun seeing the rest of my uncles and aunt's on my father's side of the family. Last December 25 we went to Zarraga, my grand mother's hometown. It was also a splendid experience. Seeing the old folks. I never had this much fun before. Seeing a lot of unknown relatives makes my heart fill with joy. Our next destination is Bingawan on the 28th. I am looking forward to go there if I feel well. I am a bit ill and I think I caught a flu. But I will try to go tomorrow.

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Christmas this year

For the past years Philippines has always started to express the celebration of the Christmas season early by decorating two or one month before December. It is an anticipated season where families gather and have a great time together. But for the years after until present date. People have been slowing down. And who could blame them? With all the price increase each year, people are being more practical and saves money as much as possible. It saddens me to see this. I used to see a lot of houses overly decorated with Christmas decors and lights, so warm, so happy and that around the months of August and November. Now it the 17th, and you can really tell that Philippines is very much affected by the Global economy. I don't see what I used to which reflects the anticipation of the Christmas season.

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Simbang Gabi

One of the best ways to spend my Christmas vacation is to go to church. Here in the Philippines we have this traditional mass every dawn which we refer to as "simbang gabi". It is actually a novena. It starts at the 16th of December and ends on the 25th. It is believed that if your truly devoted and never miss a mass you wish be granted a wish made at the last day. I used to observe this along with my friends. We wake up around 1 or never sleep and compensate by resting in the day just for everyone to be together. Gp to church and believe me it's one of the times where I see churches here overflow with people. Late comers just stand on the hallway until the mass is finished. After that, you hang out with your friends go to places, make some funny trips and go home. I completed my attendance once. It was when I was facing a problem with school. I was encouraged to attend it because of this believed wish that will be granted. So I wished to pass my second year and I did. But last year I haven't done this and was pretty occupied with school. It's a shame, I already missed two days. All this school stuff is getting me preoccupied. I wish to complete my attendance next year. Hopefully the gang would be around since much has happened. A few went to other regions to work, others are busy with their newly started family, and some of us are hooked into computer games. I plan to gather the group next year and observe this. For all time's sake.

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Glad it's fixed!

My computer got broken again last week of November. I was so pissed off! I got so annoyed! I tried getting into system restore, configure something in the set up and anything I could think of but to no success. I had to make use of several internet cafe's nearby which distracted me by playing an online game which I can't play at home due to pc system requirements. And I can't seem to update my blogs. But two days ago, I decided to have it fixed to a technician. But before I send it. I opened the cpu and cleaned a lot of dust. And when I turned it on, I was surprised! It running ok! It only I have done it sooner I could have saved myself the expenses. Anyway, back to my regular activities.

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I dn't like this time

I really am very upset these past few days. My computer is broken and it needs some reformatting. I never had it checked to some computer technician. (Saving money reasons). Just asking some people out how to fix it. I was very restless at the first day lie a person suffering from withdrawal syndrome. I was having "delirium tremens" for not being online and such. I never was able to focus on anything just kept thinking of how I can have it fixed. I never did bother mom about it. Because she's happy it's broken for all she cares about is her electric bill each month. It was a bad time for me. It was days before my preliminary examinations in nursing and medical transcription! But I could not put myself to study. Luckily, I don't see a problem with my Medtrans exam. Just today I'm much more worried with my nursing exam. I took it today. I was only able to browse a few pages of the book. And I'm thinking that I'm not going to enjoy the holiday worrying again how did I do with my exams. I really can't afford to be delayed again in this semester. The results will be posted next week. And right now I'm really anxious about my score.

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Aspartame in coke zero and pepsi max?

I received this SMS the other day. "The NEW coke zero and pepsi max contains ASPARTAME, a chemical substituted for sugar, which is known to be carcinogenic or cancerous! Cancer is now the leading cause of death worldwide, so do not drink COKE ZERO and PEPSI MAX! Always be a label reader. Please pass forward this message to your family and friends. Health is Wealth!"

I usually don't bother about this kind of messages. The last I received something like this was a misinformation saying that the president of our school died which was not true. So Let's examine what is this "ASPARTAME" is.

Wikipedia defines it as "spartame (or APM) (pronounced /ˈæspɚteɪm/ or /əˈspɑrteɪm/) is the name for an artificial, non-saccharide sweetener, aspartyl-phenylalanine-1-methyl ester; i.e., a methyl ester of the dipeptide of the amino acids aspartic acid and phenylalanine.

This sweetener is marketed under a number of trademark names, including Equal, NutraSweet, and Canderel, and is an ingredient of approximately 6,000 consumer foods and beverages sold worldwide. It is commonly used in diet soft drinks, and is provided as a table condiment in some countries. It is also used in some brands of chewable vitamin supplements and common in many sugar-free chewing gums and has now been found in some chewing gums that are not sugar free. However, aspartame is not always suitable for baking because it often breaks down when heated and loses much of its sweetness. In the European Union, it is also known under the E number (additive code) E951. Aspartame is also one of the sugar substitutes used by people with diabetes.

Because sucralose, unlike aspartame, retains its sweetness after being heated, it has become more popular as an ingredient. This, along with differences in marketing and changing consumer preferences, has caused aspartame to lose market share to sucralose."

So is it Carcinogenic?
I surfed in google and found this site with its descriptive explanation of thendangers of Aspartame. (Read Here)

Nowadays, getting sick or becoming ill is not a good thing to happen (even in the past) and having cancer is a NOT desirable thing.

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