Wise Quote

The secret of getting ahead is getting started.
The secret of getting started is breaking your complex overwhelming tasks into small manageable tasks, and then starting on the first one. —Mark Twain

How "Malaysian" Are You?

I got this from a friend's website, and thought it is interesting and funny. Let's see if you are a true Malaysian! ;)

You Know You're Malaysian When...
1. You complain about the quality of the pirated DVD you just purchased. "What, RM10 for DVD5?! Aiyah, boss ... sound no good, cheaperlah ..."

2. You're willing to consume sambal petai and durian and gladly suffer the bloating and wind-breaking incidents.

3. You're exceedingly polite to the Mat Sallehs but you sl*g your own kind. "Hello, sir. Why don't you sit here, it?s got the best view of the city skyline." But, "Aunty-ah, your table is over there next to the kitchen."

4. You order Maggi goreng and fried chicken, complain about how oily the food is, and then proceed to finish it anyway.

5. You love to talk about food. You're already thinking about what to have for dinner while eating lunch. "I'm stuffed. What shall we have for dinner?"

6. You dive into a communal-style meal the moment the dish lands on the table only to hesitate at the last morsel of food on the serving dish. There are two possible explanations for this: the first is the pai seh (embarrassed) factor, while the other is the myth that the person who eats the last piece will be a spinster.

7. You hit the accelerator the moment the first drop of rain hits your windshield. "Alamak, it's going to rain. Sure traffic jam one. I'd better drive faster."

8. You seize the opportunity to make a U-turn anywhere ... especially where there is a sign telling you not to. Well, so long as the cops aren't in sight.

9. You feel a burning desire to send text messages and even have the gall to give your friend a blow-by-blow account of the movie to your friend on the handphone ? during the screening of the movie. "Okay, now that girl Lizzie is impersonating an Italian singer; she so doesn?t look Italian ..."

10. You forsake your loved ones for the all-important four letter-word: S-A-L-E. "Sorry, mum, I can't take you to Aunt Mary's because I have to go to MidValley before the crowd." You?re also more than happy to be part of the insane traffic jam that forms around malls during weekends and sale periods.

11. Reality shows Akademi Fantasia and Malaysian Idol dictate your social life. "What, no TV at the mamak? Count me out ? I'm staying home. Rinie needs my support."

12. You pepper every sentence with lah. "No-lah, I can't see you today-lah. I have to study-lah. You know-lah, the prison warden aka mak is watching me like a hawk"

13. You fail to function normally without your daily dose of teh tarik and nasi lemak.

14. You have owned at least one Proton in your lifetime. Cheap, cheap. That is until you start to make enough dough to buy that Honda you've been salivating over.

15. You slow down at an accident site to take down the car number plate, but won't step out of your car to help ? the victim could be a robber!

16. You'd rather park your car along the main road outside the mall, where there's a yellow line, rather than pay RM1 to park inside where there are adequate bays.

17. You plead, bat your eyelids and relate a sob story to the officer at the town council office to let you off the hook (or reduce the amount considerably) for the fine you incurred when you parked your car on the double line.

18. You make an appointment for 10am and conveniently show up a half hour late ? Malaysian time, what ...

19. You pop open the wet tissue packet at the Chinese restaurant by squeezing the trapped air to the top of the packet before proceeding to smash your fist into it. The louder the pop the better.

20. You greet your friend / neighbor / acquaintance on the street with "How are things?" or "Have you eaten?" or better yet, by stating the obvious: "Went to market ah?"

21. Ramlee burger is the "piece de resistance" of your growing-up-years cuisine.

22. You catch all major televised events at the mamak.

23. You have roughly six meals a day (breakfast, mid-morning tea, lunch, afternoon tea, dinner and supper). Then there's the snacking ? keropok ikan, pisang goreng, muruku, jam tarts and the like.

24. You get the whole family dressed to the nines, jump into the car and head for the minister's open house ? and ask for styrofoam boxes and plastic bags to tar pau food.

25. Your accent and language style vary according to the race of the person you are conversing with.

26. You've got a friendly disposition. Smiles are abundant and your "Apa khabar?" is warm and sincere.

27. You exclaim loudly how expensive everything is, even though the items may in fact be going for a steal. "Wah! So expensive, ah? Hak sei ngor (Scare me to death)!"

28. You dig deep into your pockets to contribute to the latest appeal for donations in the newspapers.

29. You "dis" our country all the time, but as soon as something good happens (like winning the Thomas Cup), you morph into a proud Malaysian.

30. You never travel abroad without a bottle of chilli sauce, or sachets which you can sneak into restaurants.

I am proud to be a Malaysian! :)

The Art Of Getting Things Done (Part II)

I was blogging about David Allen's Getting Things Done quite a while ago. And I am still fascinated and addicted to learning more about the tips and tricks to manage my life and time better. Constantly improving myself is something I find worthwhile doing all the time. I come across this website by Sylvia, and she has quite a huge collection of GTD resources.

So now if you have a Palm or Pocket PC, start making the To-Do list/Tasklist into various categories so that they look neater and more organised. Example:

@Agendas-Office: Items to cover with specific people at work.
@Anywhere: Actions that can be done wherever I am.
@Call: Actions requiring a phone.
@Errands: Things to do while out-and-about, such as on the way home from work.
@Home: Actions to be done at home, at places other than my desk.
@Home Desk: Actions that can only be done at my desk at home.
@Office: Actions to be done at the office, at places other than my desk.
@Office Desk: Actions that can only be done at my desk at work.
@Waiting For: Actions other people are doing that I need to keep track of.

Or we can actually categorise them in any other ways which we like or suit us. The sky is the limit to doing this. Try and see, you will be more organised from now on.

JPA Scholarship

Read this post in China Press today, about a Chinese boy who didn't get any scholarship despite having 16A's in SPM. So after appeal made to JPA, he was finally given a scholarship to study medicine, not in UK or Ireland, but in Czechoslovakia. I know Czech is a country with some of the finest medical schools in the world, and I believe a good doctor is produced not because he or she comes from a prestigious med school, but the personality and character of that person as a whole. However, in this issue, I just feel that this boy deserves a better treatment from our JPA. There are lots of other people with less than 16A's are sent directly to the well-known UK or Irish medical schools. But this poor guy will be sent to Czech, probably need to learn a whole new language, just to survive there.

He has 16A's man... not just 8As or 10As! When I got 8As in SPM back in my days, I already thought I was very good. Looking at those achievers nowadays, 10-15As on average... my goodness, I really salute them from the bottom of my heart! So why is JPA doing this to this poor guy? Why can't he deserve a better scholarship to pursue medical degree in USA/UK/Ireland, just like others? I know that could be expensive, compared to going to Czech. But at least let him enter a twinning program like those in PMC or IMU, where he will later have a chance to be in the USA/Ireland/UK? Double Standard, 'nuff said.

4th Dell PC

After blogging about "Dell Boleh" back in May, the nightmare of my Dell PC crashing didn't just end there. For weeks, ever since I purchased my first PC from them, it has always crashed upon me, for whatever reason I never understood. But luckily, Dell has been very patient with me, and for their extremely commendable service provided, I have been getting many replacement units, whether be it parts like speakers, processor chip, memory chips; or even the whole CPU getting replaced for me.

The funny thing is that, ever since I got the PC, it's been like a curse that I shouldn't own one of these superb machine! The PC will crash, and crash and nothing but crash in front of me, even if I havn't installed anything in it yet (so this ruled out any conflict in softwares). The whole PC would just go in a loop of booting-and-rebooting... endless! Occasionally it can go into Windows, but there won't be any sound. Other times, it would say my thumb drive is faulty (but in actual fact, my thumb drive is not at all the problem!).

So finally, the fourth replacement unit arrived at my doorstep yesterday. And of course, it is also an upgrade from previous model -- so imagine I am having an even more overkill machine now -- Intel Core Duo 3.2GHz! And true enough this time, I am the lucky star -- my machine works flawlessly till now (still keeping my fingers crossed!)... and it is so speedy and smooth -- never before I have played with such a perfect system! :)

Dear PC... Please don't let me down anymore, ok?

But anyway, thanks Dell. You're still the best!

MC For FootBall Fans

I received this interesting picture from a friend of mine: Doctor's MC for all football fans out there, during this world cup season! So go get one if you are too tired to go working the next day! :)

IT technician

Of late, my colleagues have been taking for granted, that I'm the gadget-man around whenever needed.

When they need to take pictures of either X-rays, CT films or clinical signs of the patients, they will look for me, as I carry with me an iXus 40 digicam everyday.

When they need to look up detailed information about complicated topics like Multiple Endocrine Neoplasia, during the departmental CME, they will all stare at me, while I flip out my x50v to search through Nelson Pediatrics!

During ward rounds, when my consultants forget about the exact dosages for ciprofloxacin or aciclovir -- they turn to me, and say,"Can you look up in your little computer for the dosages?" In fact I am just using the Frank Shann DrugDoses!

When they need to use the calculator while discussing about a patient by the corridor, no one has one in the pocket (coz the calculators are in the wards) -- they turn to me and ask if I could calculate for them the body surface area of that patient, again using my little computer!

When the projector is not projecting the images from the laptop PowerPoint, they turn to me and ask for my help "Err...how come no image ah? Need to press what button on this laptop?" is the usual routine question asked, to indirectly request me to help them get the images projected on the wall! ;)

So once I joked with my boss, "Besides on call claim, can I also claim extra for the IT services I provide for the department?"

Portable Apps

Recently I have been quietly enjoying the Mozilla Firefox and OpenOffice softwares installed in my hospital ward computer, without the admin people knowing it -- thanks to PortableApps making it possible. Most of us who work in big hospitals, will have access to the internet using IE, which is pre-installed. Many of us don't have the admin rights to install new softwares into the computers, because they are usually server based, ie. unless you have the admin password to do so! So even if you are a Firefox addict, you won't be able to install it to use in the hospital computers. But now, thanks to the PortableApps, we can surf net using Firefox anywhere, anytime. Very simple, just download and install the Portable Firefox into your thumbdrive, and bring your thumbdrive everywhere. Plug into the computer, and run the firefox from your thumbdrive. That's it, just so simple!

Some of the computers in my hospital do not have Microsoft Office installed, and the IT team is not willing to take the effort to install the Portable OpenOffice (which is a freeware) in them as well (strange people...) So again, with PortableApps, I successfully install the OpenOffice (inclusive of Word, Excel and PowerPoint equivalent) into my thumbdrive and use it in any computer with ease -- can even detect the default printer and print documents too! ;)

Try and you will enjoy it!

Da Vinci Code

Just watched the most controversial movie of the year "Da Vinci Code" last night. Actually I am surprised to see most people and papers rate this film "C-"! After watching it, I think it deserves an "A" or at least "B+". In fact I am thinking that those who give a low rating to this movie are people who are already "pre-judgmental" and bias of this film. They think that this movie is somehow "degrading" the Christianity as a whole, and also twisting the facts from what is documented in the holy bible. Well, it's just fiction, folks! I always think that if people are to be so naive in differentiating fiction from facts, then these people can't be the leaders of the future. These people are not firm in their teachings and faith. They need to re-read the whole bible! ;) There are even blogs which I read, about people condemning Tom Hanks for acting in this movie, aiyoh... c'mon lah, guys, be more sensible a bit! Come back to the real world!

I salute Dan Brown, not only because he writes great novels, but also he makes people believe that his fictional world and thoughts, are "facts" to many people -- causing unnecessary turmoils! Goodness gracious! Gullible humans! ;)

Minister Above Law

Sometimes when you see the double standard policy our country is practising, makes us really fumed and frustrated. The other day my friend called me up, telling me that he just got a summon from the police officer, for parking along the yellow line because his mum was sick, and he needed to get some medications from a pharmacy outlet. He couldn't find a proper place to park his car then. And upon returning to his car in less than 5 minutes, he already saw the summon clipped under his car wiper!

Now if we take a look at this picture posted by the public at the Hall of Shame Gallery... this is what I call Double Standard!!! ;(
Do you think the police officer dare to even go near this car?

Skype Phone

Saw this cool VOIP phone at Doctors' Gadget. Now I start to daydream... if one day there is WiMax in my area, I will no longer have to pay the Telcos for the fixed line or handphone charges! It will be the true free calls then! :) Just flip out the phone from my pocket and dial to any friends anywhere, then chat for hours -- exchange gossips and catch up with all those friends whom I have not met for the past few years! How nice would that be! But on the other hand, I might get warning letters from my boss for that! ;)

Cool Call

It is in fact true that on call during the Gawai celebration was cool... :) Yesterday marked a record of zero admission rate! And I really slept well throughout the night! Easy money! Now it's time to go for my breakfast -- my favourite Pak Jab's Roti Canai!

How High Is Your Phone Radiation?

Came across this article in Cnet about Handphone Radiation. The SAR rating(W/kg) which is considered safe is anything less than 1.60 W/kg. My handphone is the ol' faithful Nokia 3100, which scores 0.98! Actually rather high radiation... (ahem, a good excuse for me to change phone?) And surprise to see that Palm Treo 650 is among the Top Ten Highest Radiation Cell Phones of the year!! 8 of the Motorola handphones have already topped the list, and luckily I am not a fan of the Motorola phones anyway!

So what handphones are you guys using? Better check out, and have a great excuse to change a new phone! ;)

Selamat Hari Gawai

Today is 1st of June, which is also the Hari Gawai celebration. There will be 2 days off here in Sarawak. Hari Gawai is celebrated on the first of June by the Dayaks or Ibans of Sarawak for a week marking the end of the paddy harvesting season and the beginning of the new planting season. There is singing, dancing and considerable drinking of tuak (rice wine) in the local longhouses. The Ibans working outside their villages will return for the grand celebration. There are plenty of food and certainly not shortage of entertainment and wine in the local way.

Last year, I went to a few nurses' home for those nicely baked cakes and biscuits, also tried out their tuak... but frankly, I don't like the taste! ;) But afterall, I don't drink much alcohol anyway!

It's the best time to be on call during the Gawai celebration, coz the wards are usually extra-ordinarily quiet. Most patients will try to tahan... and not come to hospital, despite being very ill. They will all come after the Gawai. So luckily I am not on call the few days right after Gawai! Haha!

Every year after the Gawai celebration, the Paeds ward will be filled up with acute gastroenteritis cases; the Surgical wards with all the UGIH (after bottles and bottles of tuak); the Medical wards with stroke and hypertensive crisis patients (drinking and eating, but forget to take medications!); Ortho wards full of RTA cases (fracture hands and legs after drink-and-drive); Radiology unit will be packed with all the forms in for URGENT this-and-that, be it X-rays, CT scans, or USS. Every medical staff will be working double hard to cater for the needs of the public after such grand celebration!