Swordie Bloggie

August was the busiest month… not busy of work but family affairs and personal stuff. I’ve taken 5 days leave in August alone… that is way too much than usual…

During the month of August, there were two family wedding receptions… first was my brother’s on the 8th and then my cousin’s on the 29th.

For my brother’s wedding reception, I guess there was no choice but to be fully involved… 😛 all the way up to the stage.

And lucky it was only reception since they have married in church last year outside the country…

As for my cousin’s, involved for the hall preparations… you know… carry chairs… carry tables… more on physical kind of work… and during the reception which started at 6pm, I turn myself as a bar tender… a bar tender who doesn’t know how to take liqour 😛

Well it was fun handling the alcohol when you yourself don’t like to drink it… Me, brothers and cousins was handling the hard liquor and drinking water… and other brothers and cousins handle the beer… handling the beer is much more easier than handling the hard liquor and the drinking water… the request for the drinking water was non-stop… way before the reception started because we need to provide drinking water to everyone especially to those fasting for their breaking fast at around 6.30pm.

Then there are also futsal games… which I have not played… either I watch only or never go at all… friends must be mad at me… 😛 they have started using their new futsal shoe… but mine, it still wrapped in plastic and kept inside the refrigerator… 😆 Then there are birthday parties… 😛

 
Updating facebook… 😀

Wokay… now, it’s time to recover… there are many works to be done… in the office and home… but because I took so many leave… I feel like not going back to work… I just feel lazy… I just don’t feel like working… I don’t like waking up early in the morning… I wish I strike the jackpot and don’t have to go to work any more… just travel around the world… eat… and sleep… 😛

Last Wednesday, 19 August 2009, I went to our branch office in Sandakan to fix their network. Their network has been acting weird since it was struck by lightning.

We, me and two colleagues, took the road instead of flying to Sandakan. I’m getting fade up flying because you have to stick to the flight schedule and you can’t carry many gears on board.

By driving, time is in your control and able to carry more gears… and of course mobility.

I was looking forward to the journey since my last journey was at the end of last year… by road too 😀

I feel very fresh when we left Sandakan on that morning. The journey is about 400km and will take about 6 hours. Depending on traffic volume, the journey can be reduced to 4 hours.

There are many big lorries and buses travelling along the Kota Kinabalu – Sandakan road, so most of the time if there are convoys of lorries or buses, we have to tail along… especially when overtaking is hard and climbing hills.

During the journey, we did not stop anyway and we travel at moderate speed… we don’t want to rush… rushing is dangerous.

Since we did not stop anyway, we skipped our lunch and immediately checked into Kesington Hotel at Bandar Maju, Sandakan, around 4.00 PM.

We were so hungry… after unloading our gears into our rooms, we went out for food. We end up eating at Pizza Hut… lame… After our late lunch, we went back to our room and try to have a short rest before dinner.

I joined a few friends for dinner around 8.00 pm… seafood dinner. Here, the seafood is damm bloody cheap… you can eat prawn, fish, etc… as much as you can… you can have anything from the sea… you name it… they have it… and they are bloody cheap… like 50% cheaper than Kota Kinabalu!!!… and they are also damm bloody fresh… the taste of fresh seafood is heavenly… it just so good to chew… better than the Japanese food at Usagi in Karamunsing…

Anyway, came back yesterday and arrived home around 5.00 pm… usually I don’t feel tired when travelling… but I was so tired yesterday… I took a short nap before I went to the MCSE class around 6.30 PM…

Usually I will stay alert during my journey while snapping photos from inside the vehicle… in fact I sleep enough the night before… even took two packets of 3in1 Nescafe… I actually don’t take coffee… only tea… but I took it anyway, but still I feel so tired during the journey… Maybe I should have taken stronger coffee like Capresso… but every time I take coffee, my pee will smell like coffee after that 😛 that’s why I don’t like coffee.

The short nap I had before class was enough for me to attend the class and continue with movie… District 9… around 9.50 PM last night 😛

Anyway, gonna get some more rest today… or do more other stuff…

I guess the rains are gone today… 🙁

The beautiful clouds are gone too… 🙁

I’m very sad coz there is no more rain or cloud…

When I’m sad, I will say WHY?…

If there is war… war in the Middle East… or anywhere… I want the rain and cloud to take it away with it… and there will be PEACE to mankind…

The top picture shows the morning sky along Penampang Bypass Road today. See the difference?… there are no more cloud… I hope the sadness is gone too… gone together with the rain… gone together with the cloud… aahhh…

Since there is no rain or cloud today, it is a bit hazy and a bit hot… but still OK… bearable…

If there is no rain tomorrow or Sunday, I will send my car for washing… cleaning… I wanna give my car a pressure washers coz I have not wash my car for the past three weeks… three weeks you ask?… well probably I’m too lazy… I have to be kind to my car now… I must wash it tomorrow…

The dirt are quite visible on the body surface… luckily my car is not black… it is silver, so the whitish color from the sandy dirt on it is not that much visible although they are quite thick. And luckily no one write something on my car’s dirt… 😆

I’m still sad and confused… WHY?… WHY?… and tomorrow… and the day after… I have to take my exam… I have not studied… should I study tonight or play games?… play the Mafia Wars?… Oooo well… we’ll see that tonight… Oooo no… I have exam for two days… I can’t send my car for washing tomorrow… WHY?… WHY?…

And because I felt a bit low for the past few days… I feel very low… low with energizer battery… but maybe nobody notice it coz I look physically fit 😀

So today I bought my supplement at Karamunsing… hopefully it will make me clever and make me pass for the exam… 😆

I took leave today and for tomorrow, so I took the opportunity to go and pay my house assessment at DBKK this afternoon…

Thinking that it will be difficult to get parking near the DBKK HQ office at KK, I decided to try the DBKK’s One Stop Payment Center at Luyang.

I pick my friend at Damai and headed to the one stop payment center. I missed the junction… the only junction to the center from the main road. But lucky there is some space for cars at the side right of the main road in front of the center.

I stopped my car there and proceeded to the center… but it looks deserted. I try to open the door but it was locked. I look at the signboard… Ooo no… it open up to 12.00 pm only… and the time was 12.30 pm… Ooo well… that mean I have to go to its HQ… about 5 km away.

😛 😀 😮 😉 . . . Continue Reading »

OK, I was rumblings… so how about escaping… escaping from the hectic work through Westgate for a while… that will be great right?… that will be blasting… imagine going away from the office for a while to enjoy life… to enjoy a vacation or two or more.

Yeah… why not… we are already on the other half of the year, time to go relaxing and shopping maybe 😀

Sure every one has been saving for the year end trip… ok not everyone… maybe some… some, because of the economic downturn, so not everyone going to enjoy vacation this time… but it is time to plan where to go now…

Where to go ahhh…? Island vacation? Beach vacation? City vacation plus shopping? Mountain vacation? River cruising? How about going to the desert?… still undecided… will decide where to go next time… still go plenty of time to plan… or maybe vacation in my room only lah… 😆

Work… work… work… haiyaaa… day in day out… work only… then have to study at night for exam… Luckily the MCSE exam was postponed… it supposed to be held last week… then it was postponed for another week… phewww… I have not study for the exam… I’m not prepared for it yet… and now, even with the extra one week, I’m still not prepared… gosh… what am I going to do… my brain is not like a student brain any more… I really lazy to study… lazy to memorize… lazy to read books… for sure I can solve it my way… but when it come to exam and have to answer it according to Microsoft standard or wordings… no way lah…

I want to enjoy a little bit… I want to forget about work and exam… I want to watch movies… I want to listen to music… or songs… Michael Jackson songs?… errr… but he is dead… well, any good music… or any good songs will do… anything that can calm me down…

And I want to blast the music into my ears… but I need walkman to do that… err that’s too outdated… I need an iPod… iPod with big storage and screen… I don’t want to blast the HiFi speakers… else the whole neighborhood will throw eggs to my house…. maybe I have to look for wholesale ipods… hahaha… no lah… I need one iPod only… I don’t need whole seller… tomorrow I can get it at Karamusing Complex… o ya… had a Japanese dinner at Karamunsing Usagi just now… with a bunch of friends… OK lah… enough with the rumbling… doesn’t sound like myself today… 😛 Anyway, I’m going to take leave… I want to relax before my exam on Friday and Saturday.

How is the country’s future generation going to perform in the near future internationally? Will they be able to debate in the international arena? Will they be able to send message clearly to the world? Will they be able to do business or work in the open and borderless world?

Or, they will continue to need some form of assistant or ‘tongkat’ to survive in the open and borderless world… maybe a booster such as speech pill when they are representing our country in the international arena in the future?

There are so many WHYs… it’s like a total black hole to us and the future generation…

After 6 years and spending RM4.6 billion, the government suddenly abolished the policy introduced in 2003 whereby Mathematics and Science were taught in English instead of in mother tongues at vernacular schools and Bahasa Malaysia at government schools.

The way I look at it, the government reversed the decision just because of pressure from certain groups… which are mainly trying to defend their mother tongues.

But why do they need to defend their mother tongues?… Is it vanishing from the surface of the earth?… I think they have no clear vision… no future… just like what the former Prime Minister said in his CEDET blog.

Mathematic and Science should be thought in English so that when the kids further their studies overseas, they don’t have to struggle to translate all the craps they learn in school.

The technology of the world is advancing so rapidly and most of it are directly related to mathematic and science… there is no time to do translation.

If you really want to defend your mother tongues… there are many subjects you can use like Bahasa Malaysia, History, Geography, Morals etc… but please not the Mathematic and Science!!!

Did your insurance company contacted you recently?… or did your insurance company send you any flyer or update letter recently?… or did your friendly insurance agent contacted you recently?…

emm… usually, insurance company will inform their clients the soonest possible whenever there is new kind of dread disease. Some years back, I will usually receive their update regarding the changes in the dread diseases list for my existing insurance policy.

Sometimes they add and sometimes they strike off certain disease from the list base on my insurance policy coverage. It depends on the status of the disease… because the disease might not have any cure before or when the policy was purchased… probably it was not even mentioned or spelled out in the term life insurance rates by your insurance agent when you purchased your insurance policy that time.

But it is weird… up until today I have not receive any letter from any of my insurance companies regarding the Influenza A H1N1 coverage.

This mean, as long as they don’t inform or update my policy coverage for Influenza A H1N1, I’m not covered for the that dread disease!!! I probably need to buy additional coverage into my existing policy… or probably need to buy a complete new insurance policy for it…. Anyone out there who has received updates from their insurance company regarding the coverage for Influenza A H1N1?…

Ever since the first news about the death of the King of Pop, the internet was like haunted by him… any site you visit, there will be stories about the King of Pop’s death.

The youtube is no exception… suddenly it was flooded with MJ’s tribute videos.

OK, all his fans are sad… deeply sad about his sudden departure… but life must go on. He may be better dead than living… more peaceful on the other side than going through his scandalous life over the other side.

And now another scandal crop up… Is he dead or not?… Haiyaaa….

OK… OK… I don’t want to talk about his death anymore… I want to talk something else about him…

Not about his songs or the songs he wrote… not about MJ videos… not about Michael Jackson’s dance moves… errr… well it has something to do with his dance move actually…

OK… OK… I want to talk about Michael J Jackson’s invention!!!… YES, his INVENTION!!!… Yes, he did invent something and patented it… probably more than one invention or patent…

😛 😀 😮 😉 . . . Continue Reading »

What is influenza A H1N1?

Influenza A H1N1 which is referred to as “swine flu” early on, is a new influenza virus causing illness in people. This new virus was first detected in people in the United States in April 2009.

Later on, other parts of the world including Malaysia, reported people infected with this new virus. This virus is spreading from person-to-person, probably in much the same way that regular seasonal influenza viruses spread.

Influenza viruses are famous for their ability to share genetic materials between different strains of virus. Over the years, scientists and public health officials have developed a sophisticated way to characterize the different types of influenza virus.

This influenza is officially known as Influenza A (H1N1) meaning that this is a type A influenza which has hemaglutinin type 1 (H1) and neuraminidase type 1 (N1).

So please, call it Influenza A H1N1 or simply H1N1 and not other like swine flu or gajah flu.

Why Influenza A H1N1 virus sometimes called “swine flu”?

The virus was originally referred to as “swine flu” because laboratory testing showed that many of the genes in this new virus were very similar to influenza viruses that normally occur in pigs in North America.

But further study has shown that this new virus is very different from what normally circulates in North American pigs. It has two genes from flu viruses that normally circulate in pigs in Europe and Asia and avian genes and human genes. Scientists call this a “quadruple reassortant” virus.

What The Health Ministry Said?

Our Health Ministry say we will call it Influenza A H1N1… and they are abiding the World Health Organization (WHO).

What The Information, Communication and Culture Ministry Said?

Our Information, Communication and Culture Ministry say we must call and will continue calling it in electronic media, Radio Televisyen Malaysia (RTM), Swine Flu.

The reason is it is easier for the people, including those in the rural areas, to digest.

And here is the Bernama report:

RTM Will Call It ‘Swine Flu’ – Rais

KUALA LUMPUR, June 26 (Bernama) — Radio Televisyen Malaysia (RTM) will continue to use the term ‘swine flu’ instead of influenza A (H1N1), said Information, Communication and Culture Minister Datuk Seri Dr Rais Yatim.

Denying that the term would cause confusion, he said ‘swine flu’ was easier for the people, including those in the rural areas, to digest despite the Health Ministry’s stand of using the term ‘influenza A (H1N1)’.

“The issue does not arise at all. What matter most, the people understand that it is swine flu and not elephant flu… if H1N1 is used (by the Health Ministry), RTM will use swine flu.

“We have discussed this matter and internationally it is known as H1N1 but in Malaysia we will use the term ‘swine flu’. This is to ensure that the people understand the meaning.”

HUH… WHAT?

Damm… our rural people are too STUPID to know about the actual fact of Influenza A H1N1… it is easier for them to say out swine flu than H1N1… so that they know the flu is from PIG and not from GAJAH!!!

And the rural people are fed with this WRONG information by none other than the highest authority about information!!!