Day +849 : Not bad to be a government servant :-)

I am fine today.

Since my family and I will not be going back to Sarawak during the year end school holiday, I plan to bring them for a 3 days and 2 nights vacation at Port Dickson. The reason for choosing Port Dickson as our holiday destination is due to the fact that the children like the beach; sand play, picking sea shells and swimming.

My wife and I all agreed that Bayu Beach Resort should be the best place for us as it is situated on a nice beachfront, but unfortunately, its rooms and apartments are fully booked most of the time during the coming school holiday.

After proposing six or seven dates to the hotel reservation staff, we finally managed to secure our booking on Thursday and Friday, 27-28 November. The rate for a single room apartment on the 27, November is RM170 but since 28, November falls on weekend, there will be a surcharge of RM70, making the rate RM240.

I remembered Richard told me last time that hotels would normally give discount to government staff. So I asked about this and very glad to know that government staff will be given RM40 discount per night, thus generating a saving of RM80 for two nights stay :-)

If you are not a government servant and still single, get a spouse who is a government servant. Then you will be able to enjoy the discount and also many other benefits :-)

See you next post :-)

Day +848 : KidsWatch

I am fine today.

Today I would like to introduce to you a very useful software to control the usage of a computer. As my sons Daniel and Joseph are addicted to computer games and spend too much time on the computer, I searched for some softwares that can assist me in limiting their computer usage.

A software called KidsWatch do the job for me very well. The standard edition that control the computer and internet usage and also limiting access to particular softwares cost USD 29.90 while the Web Filtering Edition which comes with website filtering, internet chat monitoring cost USD 39.9. However, there is an annual subscription fee USD 29.90 associated to the web filtering edition. But one good thing is that we are allowed to install the software on three computers.

We can set the total amount of hours an user can use the computer or the internet on daily or weekly basis, the time that they can log in to the computer.

However, I set both the computer and internet usage to zero hour. Then the question is how are we going to grant access to the children? The answer is "temporary password". Once the children log in to the computer, they are given 1 minute to key in a password to extend the computer usage time. The password is for single use only, and I configure the duration of computer usage for each passwod.

This feature allows us to give computer access to children as a reward :-) For example, when they finish a particular task, I reward them certain number of minutes and at the end of the day, I summed up all the minutes and translate it to a password that grant them access to the computer.

Computer usage control Internet usage control. We might want to grant access to the computer but want to limit the internet access
We can restrict access to certain program as well
Prevent user to access to certain feature of the Windows
The is where the temporary passwords are configured. The password,"banjir kilat" or flash flood, grant one hour access to the computer. This password can be selected to reinforce what they learned. I taught them "banjir kilat" earlier, so I use that words as password and tell them the password is "flash flood" but in Bahasa Melayu :-)
The software can generate usage report as well which can even be emailed to us automatically. An example of usage report is as follow.
Frankly speaking, I am also addicted to the computer :-( May be I should let my wife, who almost never use the computer, to have the control :-)

If you need this kind of control, either for your children or yourself, I am most willing to help. I can configure the software for you remotely. Once you complete certain task for me, I will issue password to you very generously :-)

See you next post :-)

Day +847 : How much can happiness be bought?

I am fine today.

While I was re-filling petrol at a gas station yesterday, a man approached me and talked to me in Cantonese, a dialect which is beyond my comprehension. I shook my hand, signaling him that I couldn’t understand what he was talking about.

He walked away and talked to a van driver. It seemed that he was asking for something, but he was turned away. Then he looked for a car driver, and then a lorry driver, all of them turned him away.

I suspected that he needed some kind of assistance, whether a true need or just trying to bluff so that he could get something he wanted. Anyway, I felt sorry about him and at the same time admired his braveness and persistency.

I waved at him and he came to me again. I asked him to talk in Chinese. He said that he forgot to bring along his wallet and his motorbike was running out of petrol. He needed some money to fill the petrol.

“How much do you need?” I asked.

“Two ringgit.”

That is very easy to fulfill :-) I gave two ringgit to him straight away.

He is happy, and I am happy.

You see, with just two ringgit, you and me, and he, and all of us can have happiness :-)

See you next post :-)

Day +846 : Back to Grill King again :-)

I am fine today.

I brought my family for dinner at Grill King Hainan Western Restaurant last night. We also invited Pastor Andrew’s family to join us for the dinner.

As I was too busy to eat and talk during the dinner, I forgot to take many photos – different dishes that we ordered and also a group photo with Pastor’s family :-(

A family photo taken before Pastor's family arrives
French fries - specially for Aaron and Adriel

Wat Tan Hor(滑蛋河) RM6.90 per plate

A zoom in view
Apart from this, we also ordered Chicken Chop, US Deep Sea Fish Fillet, Pork Chop Set, Steak Ribeye Set, Yakitori Pork but too bad, forgot to take photo :-(

See you next post :-)

Day +845 : A very happy Deepavali :-)

I am fine today.

I would like to wish all those who celebrate this festival a very happy Deepavali :-)

See you next post :-)

Day +844 : A MAKNA contributor I am now :-)

I am fine today.

Majlis Kanser Nasional (MAKNA) or National Cancer Council is a not-for-profit organization with its main objective to pool and utilise all efforts, expertise and finance from all sectors of the society, to fight cancer and reduce related pain, morbidity and the suffering that cancer patients undergo.

I signed up as a regular donor a few months ago. The donation is done through credit card auto-debit facility; RM38 per month only :-)

How the money donated will be spent? According to MAKNA website:

“Money received by MAKNA is divided to many areas that are essential towards its mission, some of which are :

1. Undertaking cancer awareness programmes and education activities
2. Fund raising projects
3. Administrative/operational costs
4. Drugs and treatment at IKM-HUKM
5. Research - since 2001.
6. Used for Bursary programmes, where financial assistance is given to financially challenged cancer patients needing assistance and monetary support.

In addition to our cancer institute (IKM-HUKM), MAKNA also receives numerous applications from cancer patients, both children and adults, who are undergoing treatment for cancer at various government hospitals. They range from applications for radiotherapy and chemotherapy treatment, purchase of drugs to traveling expenses.”

MAKNA is financing my friend, Mr. Lim, on his post bone marrow transplant medication. His monthly medication cost can go up to as high as RM2000 per month, but he needs to pay a minimal amount of RM300 per month only, and MAKNA bears the rest :-)

You can find out more information about MAKNA through their website at http://www.makna.org.my/index.asp.

See you next post :-)

Day +843 : Dinner at Grill King Hainan Western Restaurant

I am fine today.

I invited my wife for a dinner at Grill King Hainan Western at Bandar Puchong Jaya last night. I just discovered the restaurant a few days ago even though it is situated very near to my house; within walking distance. In fact, Puchong got many good dining places but not many of them I really know.

The restaurant serves many varieties of western and eastern foods, and the foods here are very delicious, at least the one that we had tried last night. Furthermore, they are not too expensive.

I highly recommend this restaurant to you :-)

The restaurant
The banners outside that recommend customer's favourite foods
Another one
Internal setting
The menu - click to get a larger view
Many varieties of drinks
Don't know what to order? See what you must try.
We ordered a Pork Chop Set, Ngau Yuk Hor (牛肉河), Yakitori Pork and a cup of English Tea. The Pork Chop Set came with mushroom soup and a lemon or lime drink. It costs RM15.90.

The mushroom soup and lime drink
The pork chop
A zoom in view. Looks nice, isn't it? It tastes equally nice :-)
The English tea, RM1.80. It was served with sugar cubes.
Ngau Yuk Hor. It is huge but cost RM6.90 only. Enough for two person.
A zoom in view
Extremely tasty Yakitori Pork which you must try. It costs RM2.00 a stick.
A zoom in view
Lastly, just in case you want to visit the restaurant, its address:
19-1 & 21-1, Jalan Kenari 194,
Bandar Puchong Jaya,
47100 Puchong,
Selangor.
Tel: 03-80762578

Happy dining :-)

See you next post :-)

Day +842 : Open movie

I am fine today.

I think many of us have heard of open source software where the source code and the application are freely available, but have you heard of open movie?

I would like to introduce to you an open source 3D animation called Big Buck Bunny. The movie was made using an open source 3D graphics application called Blender. Since it is an open source movie under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license, the source contents of the animation are freely available. So if you would like to learn how to make a movie, you got all you need :-)

The movie was made by a team of 7 artists and developers from October 2007 to April 2008. The length of the movie is rather short; about 10 minutes only. Just nice for busy people like you :-)

I downloaded the movie and burnt it onto DVD and then played it on DVD player. The effect is very good :-)

It is perfectly legal to download the movie or its source contents, just visit Big Buck Bunny website at http://www.bigbuckbunny.org/ and grap anything you want. In addition, if you would like to get the 3D graphics software, visit http://www.blender.org/.

Enjoy watching the movie :-)

See you next :-)

Day +841 : “My mouth is broken”

I am fine today. I continue to share with you some interesting children talk today.

“My mouth is broken,” said Aaron suddenly when I was playing with him one day.

I didn’t know what he meant by that. Initially, I thought that he might have mouth ulcer, but he denied this quickly. My wife told me later that Aaron might want to tell me that he had a broken tooth. The tooth was slightly damaged when he fell down last time.

-----------------------------------

“Why you open the toy bus?” questioned my wife when she saw Aaron dismantling the toy.

“I need to play”

That is the reason Aaron gave, without any hesitation :-)

-----------------------------------

“I will spank you later,” cried Aaron while he was forced to take bath. As I was the one who took bath for him, he wanted to punish me for coercing him taking bath :-)

----------------------------------

“Lorry dustbin!” shouted Aaron when he saw a garbage truck. To him, the garbage truck is a big dustbin sitting on top on a lorry.

Not a bad name :-)

See you next post :-)

Day +840 : “Oh! Your goodness!”

I am fine today.

“Oh! My goodness!” exclaimed my wife when she saw Aaron messed up something.

“Oh! Your goodness!” exclaimed Aaron the next time he messed up something.

Most likely he thought that the “goodness” was belonged to my wife, so he needed to say “your goodness” when he messed up something.

Apart from “Oh! Your goodness”, he also said “Excuse you” when he wanted to catch someone’s attention and “I’m welcome” when someone thanks him :-)

This children talk is quite interesting. I will share with you some more next post :-)

See you next post :-)

Day +839 : “Mama is a big milk bottle”

I am fine today.

My youngest son Aaron is two and half years old now. There are two types of milk that he drinks; Mama’s (mother’s) milk and Baba’s (father’s) milk.

Mama’s milk is breast milk and Baba’s milk is bottle milk as there is no way for me to provide him breast milk :-) Since I prepare bottle milk for him most of the time, he calls the bottle milk as Baba’s milk.

“What milk you want to drink? Mama’s or Baba’s milk?” my wife asked Aaron one day.

“Mama’s milk. Mama is a big milk bottle,” answered Aaron.

I guess he imagines my wife as milk bottle – a big and alive one :-)

See you next post :-)

Day +838 : Follow-up

My Blood Count Today: - Readings in square bracket [] are result from previous test.

Red Blood Count (HB) = 140[148] (Normal 130-180)
Platelet = 196[209] (Normal 150-450)
White Blood Count (WBC) = 5.7[7.2] (Normal 4 - 11)
Absolute Neutrophil Count (ANC) = 2.394[4.4] (Normal 1.5 - 8.0)
ALT = 44[53] (Normal 30 – 65)
AST = 21[23] (Normal 15-37)
GGT = 52[77] (Normal 15-85)

I am fine today.

I went to do my post transplant follow-up today. The blood test result is excellent :-) All readings are within the normal range. Doctor cut down Prednisolon (steroid) from 5mg (1 tablet) per day to 5mg alternate day. Hopefully the dosage can be further reduced or stopped altogether during next follow-up, which is another 6 weeks from now.

After stop taking Prednisolon, the dosage of another anti-GVHD drug, Ciclosporin, will be reduced or stopped. And after this, I no longer need to take Penicillin and Bactrin anymore. Penicillin and Bactrin are antibiotics. They are needed to protect me against infection as the anti-GVHD drugs Prednisolon and Ciclosporin suppress my immune system. I took these antibiotics after bone marrow transplant until now; about 800 days :-(

Another two drugs that I take are Famotodine, to protect my stomach,and Forlic Acid, as a booster to red blood cell production.

If everything goes well, I believe I can live a “drug free” life very soon, perhaps at the end of this year or early next year :-)

See you next post :-)

Day +837 : Second opinion saves :-)

I am fine today.

The company car, a Proton Perdana, that I am driving was having problem in starting its engine occasionally for the past few weeks. When I turned the ignition key, I heard the sound “tak, tak” but the engine just reluctant to start. After I turned the key to off position and waited for a few minutes, the car’s engine managed to start.

Worrying that the car engine might fail to start completely, I sent it to a workshop for repair last week. The technician there was very quick to identify the problem; loosen key head. And the cost of replacement plus the labour cost is RM1000 :-)

I also planned to change the four units of air-conditioner blowers as all of them were broken. The workshop quoted RM700 for original parts and labour charge.

I was almost decided to let the workshop to go ahead with the repair when an idea came to my mind – look for second opinion.

I brought the car to another workshop the next day. The workshop owner told me that it was very unlikely the intermittent engine ignition problem was due to loosen key head. He proposed to fix a starter relay to smoothen the engine ignition, and if this didn’t work, he will dismantle the relay and I didn’t have to pay anything. I also asked him to fix the air-conditioner blowers for me.

The technicians there manage to repair all air-conditioner blowers by tying some copper wires inside, and now all the blowers work perfectly.

Together with the starter relay and labour charges, I only pay RM205 in the end :-) Most importantly, the car engine starts perfectly after this :-)

So always look for second opinion, it saves :-)

See you next post :-)

Day +836 : Company Seminar

I am fine today.

Our company organized a seminar called “Technical Talk on Reinforced Concrete Building Design (Using Esteem 7 )” today in Armada Hotel. About 240 engineers attended the talk.

The main speaker is John Tiong. He is the director of our company, and at the same time also my boss and my brother-in-law. One person, multiple roles :-)

My brother, Richard Ting, also did a software demonstration during the talk.

The topic of the talk Richard is demonstrating the software
I think to most attendants, the main attraction of the seminar is still food. That is why I must document the food we had :-)

We had pizzas, fried Mee Hoon and fried fish cakes as morning tea-break

Pizzas Mee Hoon
Fried fish cakes
The lunch
What I had for lunch - really couldn't eat much as we just had morning tea-break not long ago
There was a lot of food left. I think you should join us for lunch on our next seminar :-)

Day +835 : Online driving license renewal

I am fine today.

My wife’s driving license was expired on 1st July 2008 and we only realized it a few days ago. So she was driving without valid license for the past three and half months :-)

I searched the internet and came across this website http://www.myeg.com.my/ which allows us to perform the following transaction online, in addition to driving license renewal:

1. BUY AUTO INSURANCE/TAKAFUL
2. ROAD TAX RENEWAL
3. STATUS OF FUEL REBATE CLAIM
4. PAYING POLICE SUMMON

I renewed my wife’s driving license online on Wednesday and paid the fee through credit card. In addition to the license renewal fee, I was charged RM2 service fee and RM5 courier service charge.

The renewed license comes today. So the service is quite satisfactory :-)

If it is time to renew your driving license, this online service is highly recommended.

Online receipt See you next post :-)

Day +834 : A day trip to Tanjung Sepat (4)

I am fine today. Continue from yesterday...

We went for seadfood at Restoran Ban Joo Hing after visiting the GanoFarm. The jetty near the restaurant
The beach
Now the food :-) The 7 course meal including fruit cost RM150 per table.

Seafood bean curd soup
Fish ball soup

Steamed shells
Steamed fish
Fried sotong
Fried prawn - very fresh
Vegetable

Fruit
After the lunch, we stop by Yek Loong Enterprise to purchase some fish balls.
Partipants busy choosing their favourite fish balls.
Cooked fish balls - can be eaten straight away
Packing the fish balls

Raw fish balls
Different types of fish balls
They also sell stuffed beancurd
Waiting to be processed into various types of fish ball
See you next post :-)