Day +452 : Thank God for so many who care about me (2)

I am fine today. Continue from yesterday…

Anyway, I still appreciate the one who gave me and recommended me the Greenzhi toothgel. She really cared about me.

Apart from her, I received advices from church members regularly on how to combat my dry mouth, dry eyes and other health issues that I am encountering with. Without knowing exactly what problem I am facing, some of the advices really make me “don’t now whether to cry or to laugh (啼笑皆非)”. One typical example advice is “this product or exercise will increase your immune system and thus solve your entire problem…” I would definitely not take up this advice because after bone marrow transplant with GVHD effect, boosting my immune system will cause more problems to me than not. In fact what I need is something to reduce my immune system - Ciclosporin and Prednisolon that I took everyday belong to this class of drug (immunosuppressant).

However, I still thank God to have many lovely brothers and sisters in the church who care so much about me :-)

See you next post :-)

Day +451 : Thank God for so many who care about me (1)

I am fine today.

I mentioned that I had sensitive teeth problem on my blog Day +412 ：Sensitive teeth = healthy teeth? and Day +437 : The consequences of dry mouth (2). This really gave me a lot of problem. I thank God that the problem is gone now.

Initially I suspected the sensitive teeth was caused by graft-versus-host-disease (GVHD), but I never find any information that relate sensitive teeth to GVHD. Another possible cause might be because I am using Greenzhi toothgel(绿芝牙膏) from a direct sale company. The company claimed that the toothgel contains LingZhi (灵芝) - mushroom of immortality.

Someone in my church gave me the toothgel and said that it would probably solve me dry mouth problem. I thought it is no harm trying it since it is just a toothpaste. Who knows after using it for a few weeks, I developed sensitive teeth problem.

I switched to Sensodyne toothpaste which is specially formulated for sensitive teeth after that. About the same time, doctor also increased my Prednisolon dosage in a attempt to reduce the GVHD effect.

Since the last follow-up blood test result indicated that the additional Prednisolon dosage did not reduce GVHD effect much, but my sensitive teeth problem was greatly improved, I deduced that the problem not related to the GVHD but the Greenzhi, and the Sensodyne toothpaste is effective in reducing the sensitive teeth problem.

To be continued and see you next post :-)

Day +450 : Scam the scammer - Life Recordings (4)

I am fine today.

My brother Richard reminded me that I missed to post the last telephone scam recording. It is the most splendid recording of all. When Richard fooled around with the scammer, she realized that Richard was in fact playing game with her.

“Are you having fun doing this?” she questioned.

“Of course!” answered Richard :-)

Richard also told the scammer that he already received the money, but the scammer couldn't believe this as they knew that nobody ever received money from them. In the end, Richard said he would like to give the money to the scammer :-)

And there were many more interesting conversation that make the scammer very irritated and finally passed the line to her boss :-)

You can listen to the conversation here.

Part 9 - Click here to download the file.


After this conversation, Richard received a call from her questioning why he had to do this. Since Richard never anticipated this, so he didn't have a chance to record down the last conversation.

See you next post :-)

Day +449 : American Global University is a bogus university (3)

I am fine today. I would like to finish off this long talk about the bogus university. I hope that you learn something from here and always give a second thought on the teachings by those health teachers with Ph.D. in medical studies.

The "father of detoxification" showed his Ph.D. certificate and transcript on his website at http://tw.myblog.yahoo.com/lin-kuangchang/article?mid=408&prev=-1&next=400 and deduce from the fact that since his certificate and transcript are real, then his degree is real too.

I believe no one will doubt whether the certificate and transcript are real. Whether these papers are real in fact is not a main issue. The important thing is whether the qualification stated on the paper is up to minimum standard. What I can say is "Yes, it is real – a real bogus qualification" .

The certificate.

The transcript.
See you next post :-)

Day +448 : American Global University is a bogus university (2)

I am fine today. Continue from yesterday…

The degree of Ph.D. in medical studies(医学博士) itself is a very misleading term especially its Chinese translation. Many people would thought that those with the degree had completed their first degree in medical studies and are qualified medical doctors, and then furthered their study to obtain Ph.D., a process which can easily take more than 10 years to complete.

In contrast, anyone can obtain the Ph.D. in medical studies (医学博士), no matter which academic background they are from, and as long as they have money to spend, I guess. In the case of our “father of detoxification”, he claimed that he went through all the proper process including attending the class and completed the dissertation. I have no doubt on this. However, we have to know that really went through the process does not implied that the process is “real”; it might be just a setup by a bogus university to convince their students that the university is real. In this sense, the “father of detoxification” claimed that he is a victim.

To be continued and see you next post :-)

Day +447 : American Global University is a bogus university (1)

I am fine today.

Beware of those who hold the Doctor of Philosophy in Oriental Medicine Research Advancement (Ph.D.) (东方医学博士) from American Global University (美国环球大学). It is a bogus university (野鸡大学). I came across at least two Ph.D. holders from this university appeared as “health expert” to advise public how not to get sick. One of them is the famous “father of detoxification(排毒教父)”, and the other one is pushing some health pills and had written a book about the wonder of the pills. When I was sick, a classmate of mine couriered a copy of the book together with one box of the magic pills to me from Sibu, Sarawak.

The president of the university, Dr. S.A. Samadani is an Iranian who was suspected of tax evasion in USA. He shifted out of his 36 square feet university about half a year ago, and now the university is empty. The building administrator said that he did not see a single student or lecturer attended the “university” since it was established 10 years ago.

Apart from those who were graduated from American Global University, we also have to exercise extra caution on those who claim to obtain Ph.D. in medical studies (医学博士), no matter which university they graduated from. We have so many "experts" both local and abroad, preaching specious health theories under the umbrella of Ph.D. in medical studies. One of them (also a father – this time “Asia Father of Naturopathy” - suddenly we have so many fathers around) nearly convinced me with his magic cancer cells killing agent before I went for bone marrow transplant. I will share with you the story later.

To be continued and see you later :-)

Day +446 : Follow-up

My Blood Count Today:
Red Blood Count (HB) = 143 (Normal 130-180)
Platelet = 168(Normal 150-450)
White Blood Count (WBC) = 6.6(Normal 4 - 11)
Absolute Neutrophil Count (ANC) = 3.828 (Normal 1.5 - 8.0)
ALT = 504(Normal 30 – 65)
AST = 202(Normal 15-37)
GGT = 666(Normal 15-85)
ALP = 222

I am fine today.

I went to UH to do my post bone marrow transplant follow-up today. The liver function test result showed mixed result. The ALT level increased tremendously, from previous level of 294 to 504, which is about 8 times exceed the normal level :-( However, the AST (232 to 202) , GGT (734 to 666) and ALP ( 305 to 222) level show slight improvement. This means that the additional Prednisolon (steroid) dosage that I took since last follow-up two weeks ago did not bring much improvement toward the liver function.

With this, doctor maintained my current dosage of Prednisolon, which is 30mg (6 tablets) per day and fixed the next follow-up to be two weeks later. If my liver condition does not improve by the time I do my next follow-up, the doctor might prescribe additional drug to suppress the graft versus host disease (GVHD), the disease that causes my liver function to deteriorate.

In fact, managing the GVHD after bone marrow transplant is like a "game play". GVHD is an effect by which the transplanted immune system (graft) is attacking the host organs. Many medications can be used to suppress the immune system so that it will not be too aggressive toward the host organs, but we cannot suppress the immune system too much until the immune system is "too weak" to clean up the leukaemic cells (if any) left in the body. In other words, we are relying on GVHD to terminate the cancer cells in the body. As such, the skill of a hematologist does not rely so much on how well he/she did the operation (bone marrow transplant does not involve much operation - cutting and sewing), but more on how well she/he manage the transplant, including the "GVHD game play".

In order to make sure that the full blood test result was available when I see the doctor in the afternoon, I went to UH as early as 6:30am in the morning to let the nurse to draw my blood. I came back at 8:30am and then went to UH again at about 1:00pm for the appointment with the hematologist. A follow-up, two visits; but it doesn't matter, it is still worth to do it as long as this gives doctor sufficient result to manage my case more promptly.

See you next post :-)

Day +445 : A Mid-Autumn Festival Celebration

I am fine today.

Last night, my family and I attended a Mid-Autumn Celebration at our church. This is the first ever Mid-Autumn Celebration that I attended post bone marrow transplant :-)

There were about 100 adults and children attended the event. And of course, the most attracting program of the night was the potluck dinner :-) We had about 25 delicious dishes to enjoy :-) It is very unlikely that we would be able to enjoy that many dishes in the restaurant, but we achieved this very easily in the church. Just ask each family to bring along a dish of their expertise and there you have all sort of delicious foods to enjoy :-)

I was still living in isolation in a small room at this time last year, waiting for the blood count especially the white blood cell to restore to normal level. At that time, I was not even allowed to eat fresh fruit. This time, I not only managed to enjoy fresh fruits, but also all the delicious foods that church members had prepared. However, enjoying food is a secondary matter, the most valuable thing is to be able to bring my family to the event and enjoy fellowship with the church members.

A glance of the irresistible foods of the night. Adriel was drooling looking at the foods. Delicious ginger duck.
Home made mooncake by church member. Still available for order even after Mid-Autumn festival. Let me know if you are interested.
Adriel was enjoying the food.
Joseph was enjoying the food.
Everyone became tiger after the heavy meal :-)
A show of Mentos eruption, but not very successful :-( The one that I did on Day+427 achieved greater height than this.
See you next post :-)

Day +444 : Finally, the software was launched

I am fine today.

After four years of intensive research and development by a team of structural and software engineers, we are very glad to successfully launch our next generation software - Esteem 7 Integrated Total Solution - this morning. We have totally rewritten the software using the latest software development technologies. There were about 300 structural engineers attended the launching event held at Sheraton Hotel, Subang Jaya.

Compared to the launching of our Esteem 6 about five years ago, this morning launching can be considered a very successful and smooth one. Esteem 6 was basically a two man’s job – my boss and me. We spent about two years to develop the software, and due to some miscalculation, we launched the software way before it was ready :-( This caused us to work frenziedly for a few months; everyday worked until 10:00pm (except Sunday) with packed lunch and a short afternoon nap in the office. I worked until 4:00am on the day of launching :-(

It is a great sense of achievement to see a two years work (Esteem 6) by two persons funding the development of a four years work (Esteem 7) by more than 10 engineers :-)

You can visit our website a http://www.esteemsoft.com to see what our software is capable of doing.

I thank God for blessing me with good health to be able to involve and attend this great launching event. May God bless the company, the staffs and the software :-)

The managing director of the company, John Tiong was addressing the audiences.

The sales manager, Richard (my naughty brother :-)) demonstrating the software to the audiences.
The audiences.
See you next post :-)

Day +443 : Scam the scammer - Life Recording (3)

I am fine today.

I will continue to post the last two parts of the recordings today. I hope with this you will know how to play game with the scammer.

Just in case they telephone you one day to congratulate you for winning a big price, pretend to be ignorant and follow what they say. You can do whatever they say, but one thing I have to warn you : "Never bank in your money to their account".

In this case, Richard had done a very good job by tempting them to reveal two Maybank accounts . He told me he called Maybank and asked them to investigate and freeze the accounts because the accounts were used for swindling purposes. The more account you can "cheat' from them, the better it is. Actually, the scammers purchase Maybank accounts from Malaysian especially the students.

Part 7 - Click here to download the file.


Part 8 - Click here to download the file.


See you next post :-)

Day +442 : Scam the scammer - Life recording (2)

I am fine today. Continue to post the recording...

Click the blue play button below to listen to the recording. If it does not play the recordings at the first click, try a few times. Alternatively, you can download the files.

Part 4 - Click here to download the file.


Part 5 - Click here to download the file.


Part 6 - Click here to download the file.


Let me know if you experience difficulty in listening to the recordings, I will email them to you. Have fun listening!

To be continued and see you next post :-)

Day +441 : Scam the scammer - Life recording (1)

I am fine today.

I promised on my Day +428 blog (A wonderful lesson for the telephone scammer) that I will post the recordings for you to enjoy. I hope you will learn the technique to scam a scammer :-)

Here come the recordings. Click the blue play button below to listen to the recording. If it does not play the recordings at the first click, try a few times. Alternatively, you can download the files.

Part 1 - Click here to download the file.


Part 2 - Click here to download the file.


Part 3 - Click here to download the file.


Let me know if you experience difficulty in listening to the recordings, I will email them to you. Have fun listening!

To be continued and see you next post :-)

Day +440 : Preparation for software launching

I am fine today.

We are going to launch our next generation software application, Esteem 7 Total Integrated Solution, on the coming Saturday, 22 September at Sheraton Hotel, Subang Jaya. All staffs are busy putting the final touch on the application and also preparing the details of the launching event.

I started to fax out a 2-page invitation letter to more than 1000 companies since 2:00pm yesterday afternoon, and the response is good. There are about 250 engineers registered for the event until now :-)

You might wonder how I could complete faxing more than 2000 pages within such a short period of time. In fact, I automated the faxing through two notebook computers; just leave them there to do the hard work overnight while I enjoy my sweet dream :-) It was done the next day I come to office :-)

The two notebook computers that do the hardwork.

This launching is a great milestone for the company and are an exciting event for all of us who spend more than four years developing the software.

You can visit our website at http://www.esteemsoft.com.my/ to see what we are doing. Refer to the link, http://www.esteemsoft.com.my/Products/Esteem7/SampleProjects/tabid/80/Default.aspx to see the sample projects that the application can handle.

See you next post :-)

Day +439 : A first ever blood donation campaign of the church

I am fine today.

My church organized its first ever blood donation campaign last Saturday. There were about 50 people turned up for the event. According to Pastor, the hospital appreciated the church very much for organizing the campaign as the blood bank is always lacking of blood supply during the Ramadan (Muslims fasting month).

I donated blood many times before and I am totally “banned” from donating blood again after I was diagnosed with Leukaemia. My last blood donation was in the year 2005, not long before I was diagnosed with Leukaemia.

I accompanied my wife to donate blood on that day. This was her second time donating blood :-) She had her first blood donation in the year 2005 together with me. It was consider a breakthrough for her :-)

My lovely brave wife was donating blood.

The precious life-saving blood.
I received numerous blood transfusions throughout my Leukaemia treatment. I really appreciate these blood donation warriors who are willing to share their blood with those in needs. Their kind act managed to save many lives.

See you next post :-)

Day +438 : Teach Sunday School again

I am fine today.

Despite the dry mouth problem, today I started to teach Sunday school lesson in the church for the first time post bone marrow transplant. The lesson carries the subject “Getting to Know Jesus (认识耶稣)”. It is a beginner lesson for those who wish to know more about Jesus. Another church member shares the teaching load with me, so I only need to teach once a fortnight.

There are 15 students turned up for the lesson, most of them are teenagers.


I have to moisturize my mouth regularly with water to relieve the dry mouth problem; else I won’t be able to talk. In order to do this, I always have to bring along a big bottle of water no matter where I go.

This water bottle has been accompanying me faithfully since I did my second round of chemotherapy in UH.

I thank God for sustaining me my life to be able to serve Him. I like to teach very much and I treat this job as a great blessing of God.

See you next post :-)

Day +437 : The consequences of dry mouth (2)

I am fine today. Continue from yesterday …

I can always lubricate my mouth in the day time, but I have great difficulty while I was sleeping at night. After sleeping for one or two hours, not only the mouth dries up, but the throat dries up too :-( Lacking of the natural lubricant, I have to lubricate my mouth and throat manually with water at night regularly.

The Biotene mouth wash supposes to relieve my dry mouth syndrome quite well, but as I mentioned earlier, rinsing my mouth with it causes great pain to my teeth :-( So, I have a dilemma every night; to rinse or not to rinse, that is the question.

God created us a wonderful body whereby numerous mechanisms work within us automatically to sustain our life. We discover how some of the mechanisms work, but most of them still beyond our comprehension. Since they work so naturally, it is very difficult for one to appreciate them until one day the mechanism went out of order.

If you run out of items to thank God, I suggest you to consider giving thanks to God for supplying you the saliva continuously through the wonderful body that He created :-)

See you next post :-)

Day +436 : The consequences of dry mouth (1)

I am fine today.

As mentioned earlier, I am suffering from dry mouth syndrome because my saliva glands are attacked by my own immune system – one of the symptoms of post bone marrow transplant side effect called graft versus host disease (GVHD).

Whenever I am talking, I feel friction inside my mouth due to the lack of saliva. I could feel that all the parts – tongue, mouth, teeth – are pulling each other. The more I talk, the faster my mouth would dry up and it will very soon come to a point that I hardly could talk :-( So, please don’t be surprised if you see me stop talking suddenly; it is just because my mouth is jammed. Just pass me a cup of water and I will start to talk again :-)

Apart from talking, I have problem in eating dry food such as biscuit. For an ordinary people, the dry food would induce salivary automatically so that the food won’t get stuck in the mouth. Now without water, there is no way for me to swallow dry food :-(

To be continued and see you next post :-)

Day +435 : A visit from an auntie

I am fine today.

An auntie from Ipoh visited me tonight. We met in the hematology ward while I was doing my chemotherapy in UH. We became good friend. She was taking care of her daughter who contracted lymphoma. Unfortunately, her daughter passed away after a few round of treatments. I blogged about her on my Day +60 blog.

After doctors told her that there was nothing much they could do for her daughter, she came to my bed and cried. I comforted her with promises from the Bible; that we have eternal life and she is going to meet her daughter in heaven. This gave her hope and reduced her worry and sadness.

We were so happy to meet with each other today.

See you next post :-)

Day +434 : Attending Microsoft Tech.Ed SEA 2007 the third time

I am fine today.

After the nurse drew my blood on Monday morning, I rushed to Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre (KLCC) to attend Microsoft Tech.Ed SEA, a Microsoft’s premier and largest annual conference in the South East Asia region, focuses on the about to release products and technologies of the company. The four days event cost RM1,299 per delegate, but the early birds need to pay RM599 only :-)

I guess there are more than 2000 delegates from all over SEA countries attending the events and the biggest crowd was of course from Malaysia :-) You see, just my company along sent 8 delegates to the conference.

Among the technologies that were presented are Windows Server 2008, SQL server 2008, Windows Sharepoint 2007, Visual Studio 2008, Sliverlight, and many .NET related technologies such as Windows Presentation Foundation, Windows Communication Foundation, Windows Work Flow Foundation etc. It seems that Microsoft is jumping into many new fields in an effort to gain its competitiveness; they even provide tools for games and robotics applications development in which the express version can be downloaded free of charge :-)

I started to attend Tech.Ed SEA in 2003 and 2004. The event was shifted to Singapore in 2005 and I was unable to attend the event in 2006 because I was sick. I am very happy that I could attend Tech.Ed SEA 2007. The next year conference is confirmed to be held in Malaysia again and I am sure I will be attending the event again :-)

I let my nephew Heng Chiek to attend the last two days conference (today and tomorrow). He just needs to wear my name tag to gain entry into the conference halls and to enjoy the delicious lunch. With this, there are two David Ting for today and tomorrow – one in the office and one in the KLCC :-)

See you next post :-)

Day +433 : Finally, the father of detoxification landed in court (4)

I am fine today. Continue from Day +431...

Another factor for alternative health advocates to become widely accepted is that they are generally very good public speaker. They are either pushing their health approaches multilevel marketing (MLM) or had been in the business before. In addition to this, they might also be motivation speakers before. This is the case for this “professor”. If I were not mistaken, he was involved in MLM and motivation business before switching to talking about health. One reader commented on my Day +430 blog that the “professor” could speak alone for a 3 days 2 nights camp. Apart from this, he could also present his facts very fluently – blending it with Bible teachings and testimonies – that if affects the ability of one to judge properly.

One last thing I must clarify is that I believe he is sincere in what he advocates. His motive might be good – helping people – and he must believe that what he advocates does work. To this extent, I still regard him as a brother in Christ. One the other hand, we must know that sincerity could be wrong. When something is wrong, it’s wrong; there is no way for sincerity or good motive to right a wrong.

Most of the time, our family members, friends or relatives were sincere to introduce us some heath products or practices because they wanted us to get healthier. Unfortunately, very often they just say what other people say; without putting enough effort to analyze whether the concepts or theories behind them are reasonable. In the end, they might mislead us indirectly. However, we do not have to be upset should we experience this, they are just “wrong sincerely ”. We should still be happy as there are someone who concern about our well being. :-)

See you next post :-)

Day +432 : Alamak! My liver

My Blood Count Today:
Red Blood Count (HB) = 148 (Normal 130-180)
Platelet = 169(Normal 150-450)
White Blood Count (WBC) = 6.7(Normal 4 - 11)
Absolute Neutrophil Count (ANC) = 4.02 (Normal 1.5 - 8.0)
ALT = 294(Normal 30 – 65)
AST = 237(Normal 15-37)
GGT = 734(Normal 15-85)

I am fine today.

I went to UH very early this morning to draw blood for the afternoon appointment with hematologist. Since I went early, the liver function test result was available when I see the doctor. I was quite shocked to see the highly elevated level of ALT, AST and GGT which meant that my liver might be affected by GVHD again. I suspect this might be the reason that I am tired all the time recently :-(

Apart from this, I continue to have dry mouth and dry eyes problem. After examining my mouth, doctor said that I probably have chronic GVHD.

As a measure to counteract the GVHD effects on my liver and mouth, doctor increased my Pednisolon (steroid) dosage from 5mg (1 tablet) every two days to 30mg (6 tablets) everyday :-( The extra Prednisolon will definitely power me up – making me more “powerful” – but I really don’t like this type power.

Doctor would like to follow up my case more regularly to see if the extra Prednisolon reduces the GVHD symptoms. Therefore, they scheduled the next follow-up two weeks later instead of four weeks later.

See you next post :-)

Day +431 : Finally, the father of detoxification landed in court (3)

I am fine today. Continue from yesterday…

There are many alternative or natural therapy advocates out there uses Ph.D. of Medical Research (医学博士) to boost their credibility in the public. And the ignorant public would think that these people are those who got their Ph.D. in medical studies and thus, they are well above doctors and specialists. When these advocates say, “doctors don’t know..,” and only they know, the public would believe them straight away. So, be aware of someone who speaks in the title of Ph.D. of Medical Research (医学博士)! Check out their background first before considering what they advocate, else you might land yourself into big trouble.

If they continue to mislead people, I think they should be sued too.

I purchased and gave away a number of his books to cancer patients and also my family members initially. Being ignorant at that time, I was so excited to know a health approach that would bring “magic cure” to all diseases. Many quotes from Bible in the books diminish the ability of a Christian to judge the content properly. In addition to this, the theory proposed in the books was so specious (似是而非) that it is very difficult even for a non-Christian to judge them properly. That is why he was invited to speak in the radio and TV program which made him very well accepted by the public internationally.

To be continued and see you next post :-)

Day +430 : Finally, the father of detoxification landed in court (2)

I am fine today. Continue from yesterday…

I purchased three of his four books.

After I was sick, I examined the book again and discovered that the quality of his writing was far inferior to what we expected from a professor's writing. The book gave many healing testimonies and some of them were simply a note saying that “I am happy to know this detoxification approach” or “I am happy to attend this talk” which in no way should be included as healing testimonies. A person who earned a Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) and carries a professor title should be well aware of the fact that including those notes into the book to make the list of healing testimonies longer is no different from committing a fraud :-(

This father of detoxification earned his Doctor of Philosophy in Oriental Medicine Research Advancement (Ph.D.) from a distance learning university from American Global University (美国环球大学东方医学博士). All courses offered by the university including Ph.D of Oriental Medicine Research Advancement are not accredited at all.

Only after a laborious “treasure hunt”, I found the following disclaimer in tiny font size at the bottom of one of the web page:

“American Global University is licensed by the State of Wyoming under Wyo. Stat. 21-2-401 through 21-2-407. Neither the Department of Education nor the State Board of Education has accredited or endorsed any course of study being offered by the university. American Global University is not accredited by the U.S. Department of Education, the Council on Higher Education Accreditation, or any other recognized accrediting agency.”

If you would like to be as busy body as me, try to find the above “treasure” (disclaimer) on the web site http://www.americanglobalu.edu/. Let me know how much time you spend to spot the “treasure” :-)

To be continued and see you next post :-)

Day +429 : Finally, the father of detoxification landed in court (1)

I am fine today.

Yesterday, I learned from newspapers that the famous “Father of Detoxification” which I blogged about on my Day +76 blog was sued by Taiwan government.

“Just follow my detoxification diet and you will be healed without chemotherapy,” he claimed. With this, many desperate cancer patients regarded him as their savior.

In one of the talks conducted in a church here, he claimed that his detoxification diet and health approach will healed 95% of cancer patients.

He was once very popular in Malaysia. Many people address him with “professor” title and nobody knows who offered him such a title. I heard his detoxification theory through radio broadcast before I was sick. As he is a Christian, he was invited to speak in the church frequently and his talk always drew a lot of crowd. People tend to believe him very easily because he is a Christian and blend his health teaching with Bible teaching :-(

If you would like to read more about the story, you can follow this link.

To continued and see you next post :-)

Day +428 : A wonderful lesson for the telephone scammer

I am fine today.

Few days ago, a Chinese newspaper reported that a man fell prey into telephone scam and lost RM1,700,000.

On the same day, my brother Richard brought me a series of recording that recorded his telephone conversation with the scammer. Based on the slant, I realize that the scammers are from China, but operating from Hong Kong.

They contacted Richard and congratulated him for winning RM120,000, but in order for him to withdraw the money, he needed to bank in some fee to a bank account which surprisingly is a local Maybank account.

Richard was one of the most naughty and playful boy in the kampong :-) When he received the call from the scammer, he was very happy, not because of the amount of money that he was promised, but because he found someone to play with :-)

He started to beat around the bush with the scammer, and skillfully made up many stories to make the scammer believed that he was working very hard to bank in the fee.

I believe not many people can have such a quick mind under the situation – conversing with the cunning international scammer.

When listening to the recording, I would say that Richard is more “cunning” than the cunning scammer. I could not refrain myself from laughing while listening to the recording. Finally, the cheater get cheated :-)))

The recordings are definitely a fun to listen. I would publish them later for you to enjoy :-)

See you next post :-)

Day +427 : Cola + Mentos = Fountain?

I am fine today.

I believe every one of you heard of volcano eruptions, but any of you ever heard of Mentos eruptions?

Just in case you never eat Mentos before, here is a photo of different flavour of Mentos. My cousin forwarded an email to me about two months ago with photos showing Cola-Mentos reaction. The mail also said that two boys died after eating Mentos and drinking Coca-Cola together. I told her I would do an experiment to see if it is true.

On Monday, We did our first experiment by dropping two Mentos into 1.5l of Coca-Cola. We were very disappointed because the reaction was too small to generate a fountain. I suspected we didn’t drop in enough Mentos to generate a fountain.

We did another experiment yesterday and even called my sister’s children here to witness the great Mentos eruption, but my nephew managed to drop 3 Mentos into the Coca-cola. The rest of the Mentos were stuck in the Mentos wrapper. So the experiment failed again :-(

We don’t give up. This evening, we repeat the experiment again after much practice. In order to drop 11 Mentos into the Coca-Cola fast enough, we wrapped them in a paper tube that we made. And this time, we manage to drop all the Mentos into the bottle within a split of second and finally we get the much awaited fountain :-)

I am still very excited looking at this majestic fountain that we produce :-) Click any of the following photos to get a larger view.
More than half of the 1.5 Cola-Cola was gone.
See the amount of Mentos that we put in.
The happy experiment crews and audiences :-)

Judging from the amount of Mentos that are needed to create an eruption, it is very unlikely it can cause death to children. Who can swallow 11 Mentos within a split of second?

The experiment proved that I am no genius but quite persistent :-) I would try until I get to see the fountain :-) If I were genius, I should get the fountain in the first experiment and spent only one-third of the cost of experiment. For you information, the total cost of experiment is RM12.00 (3 bottle of Coca-Cola RM3 each + 3 bar of Mentos RM1 each).

If you engage me as consultant for the experiment, you only need RM4 for the experiment because I would make sure that you get the result in the first attempt :-)

Please let me know if you would like to repeat the experiment and need my help, I am more than willing to be your consultant :-)

See you next post :-)

Day +426 : : A healthy meal for the family

I am fine today.

I brought my family members except Aaron for a healthy meal this evening. Daniel requested to have pizza meal a few days ago and I fulfilled his wish this evening, and by doing so, everybody in the family, except Aaron, was blessed with a delicious pizza meal :-)

My wife and the children were enjoying the meal and I was enjoying taking photo :-)
See you next post :-)

Day +425 : A success without effort? (2)

I am fine today. Continue from yesterday…

I always achieved the first few positions in the school exam throughout my study and successfully graduated with first class honour in electronic and computer engineering. Many people in the kampong including some of my family members think that I am a genius, but what they don’t know is the amount of effort that I put into learning. So my niece also has the mindset, “you are different, that is why you can make it.”

I told her how I studied C++ programming. When I was doing my industrial training as a requirement for my degree course, I got a C++ programming book and studied it line by line, word by word to make sure that I don't miss anything. I call this "carpet reading" - borrowing the term "carpet bombing(地毯式轰炸)" in war. In addition to this, I never failed trying a single programming example in the book. If I failed to understand any part of the book, I would ponder over them until I believed I had understood them thoroughly.

Apart from persistency in study, I was also very self-disciplined. I could sleep at 8:30pm and wake up at 4:00am to study when exam was approaching. When I heard the alarm ringing in the early morning, I would spring up from the bed without wasting a single second, and then wash my face with cool water to chase away the sleepiness. The quiet and cool morning was the perfect time to study :-)

Not many people are geniuses and you don’t have to be a genius to be successful. Hardworking and self-discipline should be the real key to success.

I hope my niece and many other students could understand this principle.

See you next post :-)

Day +424 : A success without effort? (1)

I am fine today.

My niece who studies computer science has difficulty in C++ programming subject. She came to my house from her Malacca campus this weekend. When I enquired about the subject, she said it is too difficult for her to comprehend the subject.

“Do you read any book on C++ programming?” I asked.

“No. The book costs RM70.”

No wonder she could not master the subject. Unless her lecturer is very skillful in explaining the subject, else there is no way for her to understand the subject just by reading the lecture notes. I wonder how she was willing to spend hundreds Ringgit Malaysia (RM) for cosmetic products, but reluctant to spend RM70 for an essential programming book for her study.

I told her I did not have a chance to learn C++ programming, but I once earned a living through C++ programming.

“My mother says you are brilliant, not many people can be like you,” she responded.

To be continued and see you next post :-)

Day +423 : Attend Adriel’s kindergarten concert

I am fine today.

My wife and I attended Adriel’s kindergarten concert in the afternoon. The kindergarten is owned by my sister. As a photographer for the concert, I took more than 150 photos within one and half hour.

Adriel is slightly more than 3 years old. She liked the concert very much. She took part in quite a number of events in the concert. I am so glad and thankful to God to be able to witness Adriel’s performance :-)

Adriel was dancing.

Singing with action.
The children were rewarded with many goodies after the concert :-)
See you next post :-)