Gift of Live

This morning, I came across a video clip on promoting blood donation at youtube which reminded me that it is time for me to donate blood again. (Am I weird enuff? How come there is ppl always alarm himself to donate blood regularly? Haha, that is me ^_^)




Those who knows me should know that I am always active in donating blood.

Why I like to donate blood:

A blood donation truly is a “gift of life” that a healthy individual can give to others in their community who are sick or injured. In one hour’s time, a person can donate one unit of blood that can be separated into four individual components that could help save multiple lives.

From one unit of blood, red blood cells can be extracted for use in trauma or surgical patients. Plasma, the liquid part of blood, is administered to patients with clotting problems. The third component of blood, platelets, clot the blood when cuts or other open wounds occur, and are often used in cancer and transplant patients. Cryoprecipitated anti-hemophilic factor (AHF) is also used for clotting factors.

When I was below 18 years old, I always looking forward for the age of 18 as this is the minimum required age (in Malaysia) which you are eligible to donate blood. (Donors age 17 years will require parental consent before donating.) Blood Bank of Malaysia

Since I started my career in Singapore, I have been donated blood for few times (4 if not counted wrongly). Everytime before I going for my blood donation, I would like to invite other friends (is not mainly for the companion) but the majority will reject to join me for the good deeds. (Some of their reasons are funny: I am too fat, I'll be getting fatter after donating blood; I am so skinny, I scare I'll faint; I scare looking at blood;) Therefore, if there is 1 companion would like to join me for the blood donation, I am quite exhilarate.

There was 1 time when I managed to invite a newcomer to Singapore to join me and it is quite diverting that my friend had been given a sticker "treat me nice. this is my first donation" to wear on, that was cute! My friend quite enjoying for his first blood donation in his life and he complain me that "why don't you invite me during our university time, instead, introduce this
bloody game to me only at today". And my answer was "Sorry that I missed out you as I had always been rejecting by my friends and I assume you would do that as well." Since that shameful experience, I keep reminding myself that, never assume the answer since you never try it.

For those who never experience blood donation, let's share my latest 'true story' in donating blood.

Firstly, form will be given to fill out with personal particulars and health information. I had my blood pressure taken and did a blood test to check if i have sufficient iron. finally, i was ready to give away my blood!

When my turn reached, i was seated on a high chaira lady checked both of my arms, then decided my left arm had a vein that was more suited for the blood to be drawn.

she rubbed disinfectant on the joint area of my right hand, then injected a painkiller. Then, the big hollow needle with the long tube went in and immediately, the tube was colored in red. i was given a blood-shaped squeeze ball that i had to squeeze every five seconds. Watching the bag at the side slowly filling up with my blood made me feel great.

450 milliliters of blood was drawn from me. in addition they also took away three or four test tubes of blood to conduct tests, which i thought was quite a waste. Last step is to wrap around my wound with colored gauze.





So if you are healthy, please donate your blood. I would do it again once i could, and that’s in three months’ time. If you are based in Singapore at the moment and would like to give it a try for your another 'first', you might arrange your time here Donorweb.

My cuisine

Reached home at around 7:30pm (considered early) just now and the desire of making my own-styled dishes coming forth.

W/o any further hesitation, I went to the grocery which just located downstair of my unit and bought some "randomly-picked" materials -> "Lee Kum Kee Panda Brand" Oyster Sauce, Dried,shelled Shrimps, Garlics, etc.



Looking at the above served dishes (even though tasted ok), sense of shameful feelings arose. Hope that my next servings will be improved in term of uniqueness, textures, last but not least tastiness.

Forthcoming jollification in Georgetown & Malacca

Congratulations to all the Malaccans & Penangites as Malacca and George Town’s just jointly inscribed as historical cities of the Straits of Malacca under Unesco’s World Heritage Sites (WHS). Therefore, a series of celebrations can be expected to commemorate Malacca & George Town’s historical and honoured moment for being listed as World Heritage Site .

With its geographically strategic locations, (situatied at the border Straits of Malacca) both Malacca and George Town have developed over 500 years of trading and cultural exchanges between East and West in the Straits of Malacca.

As announced by the Penang state government, fireworks will light up the night sky at the Esplanade, Penang on July 26. A three-day celebration will be held within the historical enclave of the city, with cultural shows, free trishaw rides and clan jetty visits for tourists, flower mural painting and tree planting to commemorate the occasion.

For those who are either working in Penang or Malacca, will be guessing whether is there any state public holiday been given. (My answer is ~~ I also not sure).

Let's cheers for the given honoured again and at the same time preserve all the historical yet unique architecturals and cultural townscapes.

Toastmasters Club

Have you came across the name Toastmasters Club? Is it a club where you can learn how to make toasters? No, it is definitely out of your imagination.

Toastmasters Club is available internationally and FYI, I just came back from Toastmasters Chapter Meeting (as a guest ^_^, hasn't signed up for member yet, hehe).

For those who would like to have self-development( especially in public speaking ), you should take the opportunity to join any Toastmasters Chapter Meeting which should be available at/nearby your neighborhood (if not then it's still accessible within 1 or 2 hours).

Basically, every Toastmasters Club will has his own chapter meeting being held either once a week or every two week. The program flows for each Toastmasters Club mostly consists of Project Speeches, Speech Evaluations, Table Topics, etc. Other than that, additional short sessions will be included as part of the 'side dishes' for the Chapter Meeting.

For myself, I had heard of Toastmasters Club few years ago (from my beloved mum) in M'sia. In fact, quite surprisingly that even 'kampung kecil' (small town) where I had grown up at, also has Toastmasters Club established few years ago.

Craps so much? Maybe you will ask "How should I beneficial from this club? How this club distinguished from other public speaking learning club, seminar? Why should I choose this instead of others?"

Why join?

You will…

* Learn to communicate more effectively

* Become a better listener.

* Improve your presentation skills

* Increase your leadership potential

* Become more successful in your career

* Build your ability to motivate and persuade

* Reach your professional and personal goals

* Increase your self confidence.

My answer is "Seeing is believing, if you don't experience it, you wouldn't know it." Believe me, it is one of the best environments for you to polish up your language skill, sharpen up your public speaking skill (you will learn how to speak publicly and even how to evaluate the speakers) and last but not least is to forge friendship with the Toastmasters of different nationality (for the club which I soon-to-be joining, of course mostly are Singaporeans ), different walk of life (teacher, financial planner, businessman, engineer, etc), I'll fork out some money (figure it yourself how much do you have to pay for the membership, not too much but is worthy because you will be given the starter kit, refreshment during every chapter meeting, etc.).

It's a bit late for me to signing up as Toastmasters Club member as I heard about it few years ago. Nevertheless, as American proverb quotes, "It's never too late to mend your ways". (^_^) As for my own quotes, "If not now then when?"

For more info: Cheng San Toasmasters Club

p/s: The nonprofit organization now has nearly 226,000 members in 11,500 clubs in 92 countries, offering a proven – and enjoyable! – way to practice and hone communication and leadership skills.

Portable Apps

A friend of mine asked me whether is there any free compression program available for download? My answer is -> Yes, there is. And you don't even need to install it (w/o installing means w/o leaving any personal data behind). It's 100% free to use, free to copy, free to share and last but not least is free to carry to anywhere with any hardware you like (USB flash drive, iPod, portable hard drive, etc).

Let's share the website with all of you ~~ PortableApps.com

Due to laziness, here is the link for you to know more about What is a Portable Apps?

Currently, the portable apps available are:

Mozilla Firefox, Portable Edition (web browser)

Mozilla Thunderbird, Portable Edition (email)

Mozilla Sunbird, Portable Edition (calendar/tasks)

ClamWin Portable (antivirus)

Sumatra PDF Portable (PDF reader)

KeePass Portable (password manager)

Sudoku Portable (game)

Mines-Perfect Portable (game)

CoolPlayer+ Portable (audio player)

OpenOffice.org Portable (office suite)

AbiWord Portable (word processor)

As a Software Engineer that mostly have to be based at client site, some of the portable apps (Sumatra PDF Portable, Notepad ++, AbiWord Portable, 7-Zip Portable) which I downloaded from Portable Apps Websites are extremely useful for me (Due to the machine which I am assigned to be used at client site doens't has any softwares installed "just has one OutsideView TACL program installed in order to access to the server's files", pity on me @_@)

Someone Arose in my mind ~~~

Mr. Eng was my junior 1's English teacher and also was my scout's instructor. I miss all those memorable moments that we had gone through together and appreciated those invaluable guidances which he had given to me. Thank you, sir. Currently, he is teaching English in one of the private secondary school in Perak. I'm looking forward for our next meeting ^_^. All the best to you, SIR. I'll always remember the scout motto - "Be Prepared" ~~~