Swordie Bloggie

Read someone posting in her facebook’s wall yesterday advising those who are trying to lose weight using diet pills to be extra careful… coz not all diet weight loss pills are good or true to its promises in their packaging… some are genuine and some are imitation… and some are completely fake and made from dangerous ingredients 😛

If you pick the wrong pills… fake or imitation… you can lose weight pretty quickly as it promises, but the side effect is the most damaging to you. After consuming those fake pills, you will start experiencing migraine, lack of energy, insomnia and all kind of stress related side effects…

The worst part is, the moment you stop taking those fake pills after realizing its side effects, you will start ballooning!!!… you will immediately start gaining weight… probably higher than your highest weight before… so you must be careful when picking diet weight loss pills… especially from unreliable source… the best way to get one is by getting advice from the pharmacists or doctors or weight lose experts.

I’m sure all of you have seen the iPad with 9.7-inch LED-backlit glossy widescreen Multi-Touch display with IPS technology… and of course with its super sensitive accelerometer… errr… the thing that sense the position of the iPad… something like the gyroscope in the segway 😛

But that’s not really cool… most of the smartphone has that too nowadays… the coolest thing is not even close to the Sony PS3’s Move… much far away from the Nintendo Wii… the coolest thing today is the Microsoft Xbox 360’s Kinect!!!

Kinect is so cool compared to Sony’s Move coz you don’t have to hold or wear any sensors… you just stand in front of the screen and do whatever action you need to do to play your games… or dance… or run… or jump… or do aerobic… or kung-fu… this kinect is so cool… it can be used to do exercise… it can be the best fat burner for the potato couch… parents don’t have to shout at their obese kid to stop watching tv or playing the game console… they can burn fats with this… 😛

I need a HDMI cable to dispay two external monitor from my notebook… I have been using external monitor on my notebook… in the office and at home… but I only use the VGA port… never used the HDMI port before.

Since the notebook video cards memory is 1GB, connecting two monitors trough the VGA and HDMI port should not be a problem… it should be able to play video and 3D games at the same time… as long as my processor can run both applications without hiccup…

I prefer to extend my display from the notebook screen to the external monitor… in that way, I have more room to view… and more windows can be spread out… 😀 With another monitor through the HDMI port, I’m gonna have even bigger room to view and much more windows to display… or wider excel view… 😀

The PM announced the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) initiative to build an Academic Medical Centre in his 2011 budget speech today. The PM said, this will enhance the private sector involvement in economic activities… the project details is… the project is a joint venture between Academic Medical Centre Sdn Bhd, Johns Hopkins Medical International and the Royal College of Surgeons Ireland.

But some quarters said, the government should maintain and upgrade the current healthcare system.  Privatized healthcare is making healthcare inaccessible and unaffordable to low-income consumers. Government needs to increase the allocation for public healthcare services to upgrade the quality of services.

Whatever it is, we hope, the Academic Medical Centre will produce high quality health professionals and the government have to make sure there are enough health care jobs available out there so that the products from the academy don’t go into waste…

Last month, I renewed my car road tax and insurance. My car insurance and car road tax are handled by UMW Toyota… so all I have to do is go to UMW office and pay the due amount. If I do that in the morning, I can get my new road tax disc by evening…

Anyways, that is not what I want to talked about today… I want to talk about the Malaysia Budget 2011… particularly the full exemption on import and excise duty for hybrid cars until 31st December 2011 😀

Currently there are two types of hybrid cars available in Malaysia… the Toyota 1.8 liter Prius Hybrid and the Honda 1.4 liter Civic Hybrid… and right now the price for 1.4-litre Civic Hybrid is RM129,980 from Honda Malaysia  and the 1.8-litre Prius at RM175,000 from UMW Toyota Motor. Once the exemption are imposed, the price will get lower… how much lower? We have to wait… but although the price will go down, usually the car insurance premium will goes up… that how the government get back their money… lower at one end, increase at one end… end up, we are back to square one 😛 But I’m still hoping that the price will go really low and hopefully there are cheap car insurance at the same time. The government has taken the right step by exempting the excise and import duty for hybrid cars coz it will reduce the CO2 emission in the long run.

Malaysia seems to be doing well this time in the XIX (19) Commonwealth Games staged in New Delhi, India which runs from 3rd to 14th October 2010.  Malaysia is sitting at 7th spot with 35 medals… 12 gold, 10 silver and 13 bronze.

The best medals collection for Malaysia before was during the XVI (16) Commonwealth Games staged at home in Kuala Lumpur with 36 medals… 10 gold, 14 silver and 12 bronze at 4th spot. Comparing this year 2010 games with the 1998 games,  you can see that total medal collection is short one medal… but it improved on gold medal collection, 12 compared to 10 and silver with 13 compared to 12. But collection for silver is short of 1 medal… only 10 compared to 14.

Although Malaysia did not bring home any trophies, the better gold medals collection is enough to make some smiling. Let’s wait and see what Malaysia can do on the next games… the XX (20) Commonwealth Games in 2014 to be held in Glasgow, Scotland.

The overall winner for XIX Commonwealth Games 2010 is Australia with 35 gold medals followed by India and England with 25 and 22 gold medals respectively.

Usually compression stockings are used for medication… for example to fully wrap your wrist or arm when it has some internal injuries… in fact it works almost just like the normal cotton bandage. And today there are many types and design available… and you can buy these compression stockings online.

But what’s the big deal about these compression stockings?… well today, especially the compression stockings for arms has an overall colour just like the skin colour… if it seen from far, it’s quite difficult to tell if the person is wearing a compression stockings or not. So what? What the big deal will that?… well today’s compression stocking not only having single colour like the skin, they are also printed with all kind of decorative arts and they are very colourful… and when you see someone wearing it, they looks full of tattoos!!! Last week I was a bit shocked when I saw a small girls full with tattoos on her arms… but it turn out to be just a compression stockings… 😛

Do you trust your tap water and dare drinking directly from it?… you should not trust it… if you ever serviced your water filter… of course only if you have installed one… you will never trust your tap water the same way you trust it before. Boiling the tap water is not enough to remove the sediments in the water.

First of all, you should install at least one good water filter… today, water filter is not that expensive coz there are many wholesale water filter around.

But do careful when buying water filter… if you bought a bad water filter, it will only give you a false sense of security… and end up poisoning yourself and family… 😛

Just look at this water filter after being installed for a month… for normal house hold usage… cooking, drinking and dish washing… imagine if you don’t have the water filter?… just imagine how much of that black rusty stuff goes into your body throughout the years… boiling the water alone will not help… just think about it…

Went to KL on Sunday, 10 October 2010… 10/10/10… and where was I on 10:10:10am on the day of 10.10.10?… well, I was in the airport, KKIA, checking in for my flight to KL at 11.45am.

I went to the airport almost two hours before my flight… I started from home around 9.50am and reach there after about 15 minutes journey… and this is the first time I used the self check-in kiosk… actually at that time, passengers do not have any choice… all are asked to use the self check-in kiosk… two of them… before going to the counter (again) to check-in your luggage if you have any, else you are ready to board the aircraft. But I understand counters were open to receive passengers later on after more passengers are crowding the kiosks.

It is very easy and convenient to use the self check-in kiosk… you just need to key-in your eTicket number, and you can even choose seat if you don’t like the pre-assigned seat. I was given seat 8D… i usually asked for window seat… but when I tried to change my seat, windows seats are only available at end of the aircraft… I decided to accept the predefined seat… after all it is row 8 which is only 3 rows behind from the 1st/Business Class section.

After checking-in, I roamed inside the airport… for more than 30 minutes. It seems the airport is not fully completed yet… there are still many sections still under renovation. The airport is not really big… at the moment… the structure is not bad… although it looks like steel buildings, it is actually  not… there are some artistically in its design…

Althought all passengers were akready inside the aircraft by 11.45am… we only took off at 12.10pm… we were held inside the aircraft for almost half an hour… just becoz our aircraft hasto give way to two incoming aircrafts…

Effective tomorrow, 1st October, if you travelling by air, take note that there is a new regulation on hand carry bag by Malaysia Airlines (MAS) but I do believe other airlines will also make adjustment on their hand carry bag policy sooner or later…

OK, what is the new policy said…

First, let’s look at the measurement…
For wide body aircraft like B777, B747 and A330, the dimension is:
56cm/22inch (L) x 36cm/14inch (H) x 23cm/9inch (W)
And for narrow body aircraft like B737, the dimension is:
56cm/22inch (L) x 30cm/12inch (H) x 18cm/7inch (W).

Second, you are allowed to carry only 1 piece of hand baggage. Unless you are first class or business class passenger, then you can carry 2 pieces.

In addition to your allowed carry-on baggage, the following can be carried into the aircraft cabin:
– a handbag, pocket book or purse;
– an overcoat, wrap or blanket;
– a small camera or a pair of binoculars;
– a reasonable amount of reading material for the flight;
– an infant carry cot;
– walking stick/canes or crutches and/or braces/prosthetic devices, which the passenger is dependent on;
– electronic equipment such as cell phones, portable music players, laptops;
– Syringes or needles for personal medical use with needle guard in place. These have to be accompanied by the medication in its original labelled container.

Examples of items not permitted beyond the screening checkpoints:
– All knives, cutting and puncturing instruments including box cutters, ice picks, straight razors, metal scissors, metal nail files and corkscrews;
– Weapons including handguns, rifles, ammunition, gun powder, pepper spray, bear spray, mace, tear gas, replica or toy weapons;
– Aerosol spray cans including hair spray, deodorant, insect repellent, or butane fuel;
– Balloons filled with helium gas;
– Flammable liquids or solids including fuel, paint, paint thinner, lighter fluid;
– Sporting equipment such as: golf clubs, lacrosse sticks, hockey sticks, ski poles, squash/tennis racquets, ice skates, baseball / softball bats, pool cues;
– Any other hazardous item as defined and regulated by law including explosives, fireworks, radioactive materials, poisons, infectious substances;
– Umbrella is not allowed to carry on board as its looks like a weapon in some cases.

That is all you need to follow starting tomorrow when boarding MAS aircraft… there are other items like liquids which are not permitted especially on international flight… well it is not a total ban to carry liquid into the aircraft… for instance you still can carry a small amount of face moisturizer… but don’t expect them to allow you to carry half litre or more of that… definitely not excessive… If you have a large amount of liquid, you can buy a permitted liquid container at the airport… so all you have to do is transfer as much of the liquid into the ‘legal’ container… the rest of it you can donate it to the airlines staffs…. they love free stuff… 😆