Friday, February 29, 2008

Lost and Found

Never take the bus if you are sleepy.

If you do, you probably would end up 10 km away from your destination like yours truly in the middle of nowhere where no one understands your language or even know where your destination is.

In the end, you would walk in some lonely desolated road where rain seems to have taken the invitation and all you could hope for is a miracle ... which in my case, did happen. Thank God!

Wednesday, February 27, 2008

I'm ILL!

For further information to this notion, refer to the previous posting.

*** On the other hand (which means very little or nothing to do with this post), I must complement Dell Malaysia for prompt service with my laptop woes. At least, I am less ill knowing that my soul-mate got refurbished.

Monday, February 25, 2008

Illness, Disease and Sickness

Sorry for being out (you are going to here these sorrys more often, rest assured) but today I found something curiously interesting.

How well are you? That's the question.

There are actually three ways we actually perceive the well being of someone; illness if the person is not feeling good but physiologically find. Goodness knows, whether Monday blues qualifies for this.

The next being disease in which the poor soul might feel fine while something is wrong or really wrong for asymptomatic cases. Better please check those weird lumps or bumps, they could something much, much worse!

While sickness is something that is sanctioned by the society on the individual, I think (I am not too sure about this; I will check and clarify later). And since society is the major determinant here, you know how vicious they can get. People with conditions like cleft lip get "looked" at a little bit too often while outpouring sympathy happens if someone breaks a toenail. Typical society...

So, if you are not feeling upto the mark, are you ill, diseased or plainly sick?

Sunday, February 17, 2008

A Tale Worth Posting

I rarely do sentimental but I would have sinned if I was not moved by the humanity in the following story:

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A man came home from work late, tired and irritated, to find his 5-year old son waiting for him at the door.

SON: "Daddy, may I ask you a question?"

DAD: "Yeah sure, what is it?" replied the man.

SON: "Daddy, how much do you make an hour?"

DAD: "That's none of your business. Why do you ask such a thing?" the man said angrily.

SON: "I just want to know. Please tell me, how much do you make an hour?"

DAD: "If you must know, I make Rs.100 an hour."

SON: "Oh," the little boy replied, with his head down.

SON: "Daddy, may I please borrow Rs.50?"

The father was furious, "If the only reason you asked that is so you can borrow some money to buy a silly toy or some other nonsense, then you march yourself straight to your room and go to bed. Think about why you are being so selfish. I work hard everyday for such this childish behavior."

The little boy quietly went to his room and shut the door.

The man sat down and started to get even angrier about the little boy's questions. How dare he ask such questions only to get some money?

After about an hour or so, the man had calmed down, and started to think:

Maybe there was something he really needed to buy with that Rs.50 and he really didn't ask for money very often. The man went to the door of the little boy's room and opened the door.

"Are you asleep, son?" he asked.

"No daddy, I'm awake," replied the boy.

"I've been thinking, maybe I was too hard on you earlier,"said the man.

"It's been a long day and I took out my aggravation on you. Here's the Rs.50 you asked for."

The little boy sat straight up, smiling. "Oh, thank you daddy!" He yelled.

Then, reaching under his pillow he pulled out some crumpled up bills. The man, seeing that the boy already had money, started to get angry again. The little boy slowly counted out his money, and then looked up at his father.

"Why do you want more money if you already have some?" the father grumbled.

"Because I didn't have enough, but now I do," the little boy replied.

"Daddy, I have Rs.100 now. Can I buy an hour of your time? Please come home early tomorrow. I would like to have dinner with you."

The father was crushed. He put his arms around his little son , and he begged for his forgiveness.

It's just a short reminder to all of you working so hard in life. We should not let time slip through our fingers without having spent some time with those who really matter to us, those close to our hearts.

Do remember to share that Rs.100 worth of your time with someone you love.

If we die tomorrow, the company that we are working for could easily replace us in a matter of days. But the family & friends we leave behind will feel the loss for the rest of their lives. And come to think of it, we pour ourselves more into work than to our family.
---

Life is not merely a march to death, there is depth and meaning to everything we live by. Our existence is always cherished by another soul all the time. So, think twice before being narcissistic, suicidal or even homicidal for that matter. Celebrate and cherish life by living it!

Saturday, February 16, 2008

PhD in Exposing Crap

Maybe one of these days I should start on a PhD thesis on identifying the malevolent falsities found in the World Wide Web. I seem to have a knack for these things as I constantly receive and spend time validating what I call as utter trash.

The following really got me spooked as it looked SO bona fide and I almost fell for it if not of my sudden impulse to cross-check with Wikipedia:

---
CHECK TOILET SEATS BEFORE USE !!!

Three women in KL, turned up at hospitals over a 5-day period, all with the same symptoms. Fever, chills, and vomiting, followed by muscular collapse, paralysis, and finally, death. There were no outward signs of trauma. Autopsy results showed toxicity in the blood. These women did not know each other, and seemed to have nothing in common. It was discovered, however, that they had all visited the same Restaurant along Jalan Kuchai Lama within days of their deaths.

The health department descended on the restaurant, shutting it down.

(Wait ~ If it was really true, wouldn't they have been in the papers; I do read the papers or at least am surrounded by people who read them. I smelled a rat.)

The food, water, and air conditioning were all inspected and tested, to no avail. The big break came when a waitress at the restaurant was rushed to the hospital with similar symptoms. She told doctors that she had been on vacation, and had only went to the restaurant to pick up her check. She did not eat or drink while she was there, but had used the restroom.

(The plot thickens.)

That is when one toxicologist, remembering an article he had read, drove up to the restaurant, went into the restroom, and lifted the toilet seat.

(How CSI - Horatio! Things became more fishy...)


Under the seat, out of normal view, was a small spider. The spider was captured and brought back to the lab,where it was determined to be the Two-Striped Telamonia (Telamonia dimidiata), so named because of its reddened flesh color. This spider's venom is extremely toxic, but can take several days to take effect. They live in cold, dark, damp climates, and toilet rims provide just the right atmosphere.

(Ah! Building up to the climax - including bits of facts like exploiting a real spider ... I am hearing Oscar buzz!)

Several days later a lawyer from JB showed up at a hospital emergency room. Before his death, he told the doctor, that he had been away on business, had taken a flight from Indonesia, changing planes in Singapore, before returning home.

(The before death statement - pure soap opera.)

He did not visit the restaurant, while there. He did, as did all of the other victims, have what was determined to be a puncture wound, on his right buttock.

(The spider now can tell difference between right and left, it is even smarter than yours truly who still has trouble reading left and right. How embarrassing of me!)

Investigators discovered that the flight he was on had originated in India. The Civilian Aeronautics Board (CAB) ordered an immediate inspection of the toilets of all flights from
India, and discovered the Two-Striped Telamonia (Telamonia dimidiata) spider's nests on 4 different planes!

(Wow! What survivor spiders! Does the CAB exist? I don't know but I welcome any news on the CAB.)

It is now believed that these spiders can be anywhere in the country. So please, before you use a public toilet,lift the seat to check for spiders. It can save your life!

(Hmm ... no comments.)


And please pass this on to everyone you care about.

(This is what that seriously riles me and makes my BP shoot up a few notches. Fooling unsuspecting people into fear and panic and apparently from 1999)

---

Now after reading the sensational crap, it is now the truth from our from our favourite online encyclopedia; WIKIPEDIA and how the Malaysian author or someone who knows Malaysia creatively stole it and did their little bit of hocus pocus:

The Two-Striped Telamonia (Telamonia dimidiata), is a jumping spider found in various Asian tropical rain forests, in foliage in wooded environments.

Females can reach a body length of 9 to 11 mm, males up to 9 mm.

They occur in Singapore (new record), Indonesia, India, Bhutan.

In 2002 the spider became the subject of an email hoax claiming that it was a fatal spider found lurking under toilet seats in North Florida. This hoax was a rehashing of an older email circulated in 1999 with similar claims, except under the name South American Blush Spider (arachnius gluteus) - literally "butt spider". No such events ever occurred.

This email looks like this.

NEW POISONOUS SPIDER IN THE UNITED STATES A spider bite...please read........... And you thought the brown recluse was bad!!! Three women in North Florida ,

(North Florida became KL didn't it; the beginning of innovativeness!)

turned up at hospitals over a 5-day period, all with the same symptoms. Fever, chills, and vomiting, followed by muscular collapse, paralysis , and finally, death. There were no outward signs of trauma. Autopsy results showed toxicity in the blood. These women did not know each other, and seemed to have nothing in common It was discovered, however, that they had all visited the same Restaurant (Olive Garden)

(The original author had a grudge with Olive Garden while our Malaysian friend took offense to a Jalan Kuchai Lama restaurant ... more digging would uncover the true identity of the Malaysian hoaxter [Cross-check with all the restaurants there and their unsatisfied patrons, CSIans!])

within days of their deaths. The health department descended on the restaurant, shutting it down. The food, water, and air conditioning were all inspected and tested, to no avail. The big break came when a waitress at the restaurant was rushed to the hospital with similar symptoms. She told doctors that she had been on vacation, and had only went to the restaurant to pick up her check. She did not eat or drink while she was there, but had used the restroom. That is when one toxicologist, remembering an article he had read, drove out to the restaurant, went into the restroom, and lifted the toilet seat. Under the seat, out of normal view, was a small spider. The spider was captured and brought back to the lab, where it was determined to be the Two-Striped Telamonia (Telamonia dimidiata), so named because of its reddened flesh color.. This spider's venom is extremely toxic, but can take several days to take effect. They live in cold, dark, damp climates, and toilet rims provide just the right atmosphere. Several days later a lawyer from Jacksonville

(Jacksonville became JB - an innovation which must be given credit!)

showed up at a hospital emergency room. Before his death, he told the doctor, that he had been away on business, had taken a flight from Indonesia , changing planes in Singapore , before returning home. He did not visit (Olive Garden), while there. He did, as did all of the other victims, have what was determined to b e a puncture wound, on his right buttock. Investigators discovered that the flight he was on had originated in India. The Civilian Aeronautics Board (CAB) ordered an immediate inspection of the toilets of all flights from India , and discovered the Two-Striped Telamonia (Telamonia dimidiata) spider's nests on 4 different planes! It is now believed that these spiders can be anywhere in the country. So please, before you use a public toilet, lift the seat to check for spiders. It can save your life! And please pass this on to everyone you care about.

So if you get an email like this, know it is a hoax.

---
So now you know, even the most benign ones turn out malignant (that's too much Pathology...) and thanks to my hobby of "wikipediaing", it is one more trash decomposed.

Wait, that is our cute spider there below from the Hoaxbusters (http://hoaxbusters.ciac.org/hbicons/telamonia.jpg):

Cheers.

***
There was an individual's name affiliated for spreading this rumour which I callously published without contacting the person. My lack of research is foolishness on my part. Thankfully the person has contacted me and I am able to make the correction. I apologize for this serious mistake.

The dangers of forwarded mails ...

ravi

Friday, February 15, 2008

I am OKAY!

Things are certainly looking grim but well, adaptation is the key and at least I do that well for once.
If there is a will, there is a way! And that concludes my shortest post to date.

Monday, February 11, 2008

In a Haze of Daze

The lack of activity in the blog was primarily me being busy and now feeling really crappy and down for some unknown reason.

Maybe homesickness or people sickness?
I just am muddled, confused, sad, irritated and all-kind of negative feelings put together and oozing out of every pore of my system. I still am in wonder on how I am handling it all but ah well life goes on.

I eat when I feel down and it seems to help (I am underweight so maybe it is okay) so at least I have something to take out all these ill-feelings. That is it for now; maybe it ought to end soon ... I hope.

Meanwhile I am trying to drown myself in work; at least the satisfaction factor is there! What a hope! =)

Saturday, February 2, 2008

Put an End to THIS!

Slim River Car-bus Crash - 26 January 2008
picture sourced from www.nst.com.my

Every other month we hear about a bus crash in every other place but we do not seem to care enough on why these things happen because it is every other life. The time has long come for us to act and stop living in denial by putting the blame on fate as all of these could have been prevented if only the bus operators were not negligent!

Today it is someone else but tomorrow it could be you. We all have the voice and the rights to demand safety during bus trips. I saw this on my friend's blog and it is seriously high time to act.

---

This section is posted in remembrance of Ms. Lee Nian Ning (1987-2008) and the others who lost their lives in the Slim River Bus Crash


Please post this on your blog now to help:

Chung Lern and Nian Ning’s families would like all families and friends of the victims, dead or alive, in the Slim River Bus Crash to come forward and join them in taking action against the bus company. Stand up to seek justice for these three innocent individuals, who were all so young and full of life.

If you have a blog, please call out to ANYONE who
knows someone who survived or did not survive

the crash to come forward to join the Lee family.
Make a huge difference, make a huge fuss.

For now, you may contact
Lee Chung Lern at chunglern@gmail.com or preferably on his handphone at 012-6670368.


Do check out the blog specially created for her as well at http://www.buscrashnomore.blogspot.com.
---

In that blog there is an online petition to the Ministry of Transportation, Malaysia where you can sign a petition to urge them to act against these unscrupulous and selfish bus operators and bring change so that all of us can travel in the peace of mind. You too could go there directly through this link:

http://www.petitiononline.com/buscrash/petition.html

If you are signing, please do include your
full name as it is in your NRIC (no nicknames, initials and anonymous nonsense, people you are not doing something against the law!) and e-mail address as it is counted as an e-signature. You also could alternatively send in your full name and NRIC number to
buscrashnomore@gmail.com.

So, use your voice, folks and put an end to this!

Friday, February 1, 2008

The Things People Come Up With ...

I recently read some crap out to fool people about a drug that can render tubectomy redundant i.e. sterilize a woman completely.

People, if any company discovered the know-how to sterilize a woman without surgery, then obviously that company would be rich (I meant for proper family planning purposes). And the Progesterex story circulating around is actually, well a hoax.

I found this on Wikipedia (not the best of sources but sufficiently satisfactory). Once again, if all the miraculous and bizarre things reported in networking sites are true, probably the next thing is we will see pigs flying or cows doing the cha-cha, sorry, the moo-moo.

---
Progesterex is a fictitious date rape drug. It is part of a hoax that began to circulate in 1999 via e-mail on the internet. No actual drug by this name or even with these properties exists, and no such incident has ever been documented or confirmed.

(Maybe the prankster got the idea from progesteron being used as a contraceptive)

Typical contents of the e-mail hoax are as follows, although different versions tend to turn up over time:

"A woman at a nightclub called _______ on Saturday night was taken by 5 men, who according to hospital and police reports, gang raped her before dumping her. Unable to remember the events of the evening, tests later confirmed the repeat rapes along with traces of Rohypnol in her blood and Progesterex, essentially a small sterilization pill. The drug is now being used by rapists at parties to rape AND sterilize their victims. Progesterex is available to vets to sterilize large animals. Progesterex is being used together with Rohypnol, the date rape drug. As with Rohypnol, all they have to do is drop it into the girl's drink. The girl can't remember a thing the next morning, of all that had taken place the night before. Progesterex, which dissolves in drinks just as easily, is such that the victim doesn't conceive from the rape and the rapist needn't worry about having a paternity test identifying him months later. The drug's effects ARE NOT TEMPORARY - Progesterex was designed to sterilize horses. Any female who takes it WILL NEVER BE ABLE TO CONCEIVE.. The weasels can get this drug from anyone who is in the vet school or any university. It's that easy, and Progesterex is about to break out big on campuses everywhere. Believe it or not, there are even sites on the Internet telling people how to use it. Please forward this to everyone you know, especially girls. Be careful when you're out and don't leave your drink unattended. Please make the effort to forward this on to all you know... Guys, please inform all your female friends and relatives."

(Unfortunately, it looks and sounds pitiful upto the extent that truth gets blurred in the process ... I mean why do these people do this in the first place? As if we need a little more fear in our lives?!)

A version of this hoax has also recently made the rounds via bulletins on MySpace.com (July 2006). It made it to Bebo in September-October 2006.

A version of this hoax has been seen on Facebook (Jan 2008)and in the form of a group named "Heads Up Ladies", and sports the same story as listed above.

According to the Spanish language website VSAntirus.com at least two versions in Spanish have made the rounds since 2001 as well.

Furthermore, no sterilization pill for horses exists. Sterilization is done via gelding of stallions. Mares are usually left unaltered.

(EXACTLY ... They never do it on females, only the male ego in humans makes all kinds of things go in reverse...)

In addition to this vet students do not have access to drugs. Drugs can only be prescribed by a qualified, registered veterinarian (Member of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons - MRCVS - in UK).

(Precisely, then next thing they will say is that Pharmacy students are commissioning drugs!)

On 18 April 2006 UK Member of Parliament Lynne Featherstone submitted a Written Question to the Home Secretary on whether the Home Office had calculated the number of date rape incidences that had been connected with Progesterex. Home Office Minister Paul Goggins replied that the drug did not exist.

(CASE CLOSED)
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Again, it boils down on how much an author wants credibility in his work. Especially when the internet has become so influential today, the truth must be the only thing that is spread.