Another death

Another death. It's close to me. It's affecting me. Badly.

And to think back, i had been taking it for granted. And when that dead occurs, i am at a total loss.

The heart of my van died. (The battery).


And it's refusing to sent any electric supply in order to start the engine, and my van was standing down there, lifeless, unable to move under it's own power.

So, AF, Viper did a resus. They used a small "AED", which is actually a small lead-acid 12V battery (used by us to charge our kite batteries outside) to try to "Jumpstart" the engine.


The "AED"


The cables that will sent a electric current to the engine of the vehicle.

Surprising that the small battery can actually jumpstart a vehicle! But in the end, we had to go to a workshop to to change the battery and did some checks also.

Teen Triathlete died

Family of dead teen triathlete does not blame anyone
By Ng Liang Cheong / Wong Siew Ying, Channel NewsAsia Posted: 25 June 2007 2227 hrs

A promising Singapore Triathlete had died... From cardio-respiratory failure.

He collasped after crossing the finishing line.

And there's ain't any medical personnal on site at the time of the incident.

Quoted from CNA :"The Triathlon Association of Singapore (TAS) said although there were no medical personnel on site, the coaches present were all trained in first-aid."

Simple thing is this. How well-prepared are the coaches to deal with collaspe cases? Especially cardio-respiratory failures? Are they equipped with oxygen and AED? Give them a dummy on the spot, and ask them to perform CPR. Does they remember how to do, at that moment of time? What does they know about "resus" cases?

Coaches know first aid. That i know. But the best first aid that the coaches knew are those closely related to their sports forte. Especially sports injuries, like sprains, cramps, they know how to do perfectly. Even better than some first-aiders out there, i must admit.

But dealing with massive truma injuries? Piority one cases like cardiac arrest? How well prepared is a coach to face with one?

TAS should know better then that when organising activities like the triathlon, be it competitions, selections or even trainings. One cannot rely totally on coaches with medical emergencies.

The top 10 unintentionally worst company URLs

Some whacky stuffs i got from the E mail.

===============================================

The top 10 unintentionally worst company URLs

Countdown!!!

No 10)
Want to holiday in Lake Tahoe? Try their brochure website at http://www.gotahoe.com/

No 9)
If you're looking for computer software, there's alwayshttp://www.ipanywhere.com/

No 8)
Then, of course, there's these brainless art designers, and their whacky website: http://www.speedofart.com/

No 7)
Welcome to the First Cumming Methodist Church. Their website is http://www.cummingfirst.com/

No 6)
And now, we have the Mole Station Native Nursery, based in New South Wales: http://www.molestationnursery.com/

No 5)
Then of course, there's the Italian Power Generator company…http://www.powergenitalia.com/

No 4)
Need a therapist? Try Therapist Finder athttp://www.therapistfinder.com/

No 3)
Looking for a pen? Look no further than Pen Island athttp://www.penisland.net/

No 2)
Experts Exchange, a knowledge base where programmers can exchange advice and views athttp://www.expertsexchange.com/

And the best of the best. (Drums roll)

No 1)
A site called 'Who Represents' where you can find the name of the agent that represents a celebrity. Their domain name… wait for it… is (Drum rolls)

Can you guess wht is it??

Come on, guess....

Answer is.........

http://www.whorepresents.com/

===================================================

Amazing of all the IT personnal who can just give any URL address....

Black sheep in charities

I was clearly disappointed upon reading in the news that another charity was in troubled waters over missing funds.

St John's Home for Elderly Persons under probe for loss of funds
By Wong Siew Ying, Channel NewsAsia Posted: 22 June 2007 1953 hrs

Before I shall continue any further, let this be known that the St John's Home for Elderly Persons have no connection in whatever way to another charity, St John's Ambulance, Singapore.

It's the trend, a worrying trend.

Charities rely on the donations from the public to run their normal operations, be it caring for the aged, disabled, sickly and the kids. And stealing from the donations is akin to stealing the trust from the public. And that actions is even worst than a politican.

Before i gets sued, let me explain. This was quoted in one of the movie, (i forget the title), a politican was telling a military man, "I am a politican. That means either i am hugging kids or i am stealing their lollipops."

It's even worst than stealing kid's lollipops, without hugging them!

Behold!!! The powers of money! It is so strong that man can fall for it's lustful desires, to process it, to be able to carcass it, to count it, and to spend it. Man have even know to kill a fellow human being, the same species on the earth, just for the sake of it.

I am following the news closely, and read another article with interest.

Don't wait for another black sheep
By Jasmine Yin, TODAY Posted: 25 June 2007 0920 hrs

The goverment had stated that those charities that went into trouble are the incidents of "few black sheeps".

But then, it raise the question. "Just how many black sheeps are there in the whole list of the charities in the NCSS list?"

Just how many black sheeps are there?

And everytime another black sheep, or rather, wolves in sheep clothing, appears and highlighted in the press, the public confidence level in charities is further shaken and weaken, and as a result, the whole charity sector, some 1,900 charities registered, are affected.

Just because of the acts of a selfish man, who scrumbled to the lustful desires of easy money.

And as the saying goes, it only takes a second to destroy the trust that had built up for years.
I certainly does not want to see another black sheep appearing with the same kind of nonsense. And certainly, the management of those charities must choose their employees carefully.

Banned from driving

Some people should be banned from driving. Permanently. Forever. Life Ban. Full Stop. No appeals.

I was chatting with AF, Kenny, Ernest and ZX yesterday night, when AF was telling us some stories about his riding (Bike) experiences, an near accident.

He had stopped behind a car, with a car behind him. When out of a sudden, the car in front of him engaged reverse gear and started to reverse into a parking lot, WITHOUT checking the rear mirror if there's any vehicles behind.

AF slanted to the side and "drop" his motorbike, while his pillon dismount and went to the car in front and slam on the door. But its too late. The bumper of the car did hit his bike's front tyre.

The driver, a lady demanded why AF had got up behind her when she's reversing. AF countered that he's already behind her before she engaged her reverse gear, and that's she have not switched on her hazard light. He's got an witness, the driver of the car behind him.

AF then wanted to do some checks on his bike. (lying on the ground), and he wanted that lady driver to pay for all those safety checks.

And the lady driver offered 50 bucks to AF, saying this. "i am giving you 50 bucks. I know you will not check your bike, you will spend the 50 bucks on something else."

That is the extreme. Can you imagine that?

==================================================

I was downstairs eariler in the day, walking towards my van, and i saw a driver attempting to park a car.

Another lady driver. She tried umpteen times to do a reverse parking, and in the end, she reversed too close to the right hand side of the kerb.

(I should have taken some photos during that time.)

As a result, her right front tyre hit the kerb. Normally, once your tyre hit the kerb, you stopped and adjust your vehicle, and attempt to do a parking again, right?

Not for that lady driver. She rammed her engine, and her tyre brushed against the kerb all the way till she brake and off the engine.

That's when i walked past her car, (at the front), took a look at that lady driver (an auntie) and shook my head, signing to myself, and making sure that she can see me shaking my head.

Those drivers should be banned for driving for life, before they caused fatal accidents...

Uncle Tiu's retirement party

We (SJAB) had a surprise big gathering yesterday night. Nothing special. Just to celebrate Uncle Tiu's retirement.


Those who regularly goes for duties, or those who had went for duties would have know Uncle Tiu.

He is a paid driver of our ambulances. But what he does goes beyond his job scope and his responsibilities.

When you meet uncle Tiu, he would always put on his trademark big smile, gave a colonial salute and greet you "morning sir". And he's always smiling.

Going for duties with him, and he will treat you to some drinks and sometimes, snacks from his own pocket.

You got a duty? you need driver? Uncle Tiu is always there, volunteering to help you out, even when it's a weekend. He even volunteer when he's sick.

And now, he retired and it's time for him to have his own time to relax and enjoy his old age.

So TS got an idea. He "conned" Uncle Tiu to HQ on the notation that there's a duty, and there's not enough drivers. Uncle Tiu volunteered to help, even though he had retired.

So, me and SQ went down to pick him up in an ambulance.

On the way back, SQ managed to snapped a few photos of the fly past of the NDP rehersal.

And when we reach back HQ, TS was telling us to go into lecture room 2 for duty briefing. I miss all the fun, as i was parking the ambulance back into the garage, and packing up all the medical equipment.

"Surprise, Surprise!!"



Uncle Tiu and the whole group of his "fans". Can't imagine the whole brunch turn up to celebrate for him.

And we have a makan time.

Food, food, glourious food!!!

And knowing Uncle Tiu, he will always appear at SJ HQ, helping us out at major duties, be it retired or not.

That's our Uncle Tiu.

Surf's up

Surfing is fun.

Especially when you see a group of penguins holding surfboards , dashing towards the waves, and start surfing.


It's all about surfing!!!

The movie is about this character, who idolise a great surfer, and took up surfing. He join in a surfing competition only to realise that the competition standards are just too "great".

So, how's he going to overcome it?

Little cordy and the big Z.

On the whole, the movie is entertaining.

And this chicken Joe, Cordy's best friend. A poor chap who had lost his daddy when he's young. Kinda funny character.

Worth your money for a weekday movie.

FTPSS A SJ C 2007

I was invited over to FTPSS for their annual SJ camp. To teach campcraft (knots and lashings) to their members.


I was given a pass when i entered the school, stating me as a External Instructor.



Officially looking pass, that you have to wear when you are in school.

I miss camps. Recalled the times when i was a member in a Uniformed groups. And initially, i do not like camps.

I feel like some "caged animal" having to do what the camp instructors tell me to do. Just follow blindly, follow their way, even i can think of better ways to get the job done with less effort and with better results.

That was in the past, the era of regimental discipline, where creativity and thinking out of the box does not exist.

And i envy the instructors. They seems to have all the fun.

And when i become an instructor, i think otherwise. Planning a camp is work. Excecuting a camp is worst work. When the campers are sleeping, you are planning. When the campers are eating and bathing, you are doing some briefing and de-briefing.

But that was the fun part of it.

I always like going down to schools.

The wordings are on a classroom door!!! Isn't vandalising?

In my time, this qualifies for a session of public caning and suspension of school. How the times change.

Games playing (Teamwork and bonding session). A superman wannabe trying out his luck. Maybe his team should let go of their hands and see if he could really fly or not.

One thing's for sure. Superman doesn not fly with his head down.

And i am sure that that superman wannabe will envy the 2 persons sitting inside the helicopter below. (Being able to fly while sitting down, not in supine position).

And finally, its dinner time!!! Before you must consume your dinner, you must first cook your dinner.

And it's supposed to be field cooking session. I can't help smiling when i think back on my NPCC days field cooking session.

We really collect firewood to start a fire. No such things as a solid fuel. We were given 3 matchsticks to start a fire also. Additional matchsticks needed will have to request... wrong... begged from the instructors, and after much "punishment" you will receive a pathetic matchstick.

And imagine opening a can without can openers! Those were fun. And cooking noodles in pineapple syrup. Yummy!!! It's tasty!

My time had passed. There's definity a better way to cook maggie mee. But to those starved campers, it's a gourmet meal.

If i am a camper, i would say maggie mee the most delicious meal in the world.

There's a nice shot taken of CK. He's cool! He can go and become a model!

And then, there's another model wannabe in the picture below.

But somehow, he does resemble someone. His poise, the way his arms are crossed. Even the angle of his head turned also does resemble someone, someone very famous in Singapore.

Can guess who's that someone?

Look below for the answer.

Haha...

CK and Venod. No punk intended.

Dengue reaches epidemic levels

Dengue reaches epidemic levels in Singapore.

This is a worrying trend. It has reach epidemic levels in Singapore.

Graphs showing the past history of dengue cases.

Hotspots of dengue outbreak in Singapore.

(Graphs are taken from NEA website)

And in the world, the dengue hotspots are,

Picture from http://www.stanford.edu/group/virus/flavi/2000/dengue.htm

Dengue is caused by a (+)ssRNA, positive single strand RNA (Ribosenucleic Acid) virus, belonging to the Flaviviridae famile and the Flavivirus Genus.

If you that sway sway (unlucky) to kena (catch) the dengue, you will know when you suddenly develop a high fever, with severe headache, muscle and joint pains.

So, lets do take care of ourselves.

Declare war on the mozzies!!! KILL KILL KILL!!!

And this website teaches you how to fight against mozzies!!

Classification of Friendster's friends

Alright. I do admit that i got too much free time on my hands!!!

I am waiting for the big bugger to cool down from the temperature of 121 degrees C to 25 degrees C.


This is the big bugger, which is known as a fermentor.

It's undergoing a sterilization process whereby the medium is heated up to a 121 degress C using superheated steam, to kill all the bacteria in the medium.

And while it is heating and cooling, there's nothing to be done, except for some monitoring.

And it can take a long long time to cool down.

So, i surf the net. And in my friendster, looking at all my friends listed in there, i suddenly got a thought. Do i know everyone in there? It's been a long long time since i really took my time to go in and have a look at all my "friends".

So, i took a piece of paper and start to keep records of all my friend's list in friendster.

And here's the results.

The graph above decipts the percentage of the gender of my friends in friendster.

And this graph shows how i got to know my friends in my friendster list.

There's 2 ppl whom i don't know, and i cannot recall how the hell they got into my list. It's kinda funny, to sit down, to scroll throught their pictures, and trying to think. There's no one closely related in my network of friends.

Okie... Stop cursing at me. I know this is a damm bo liao post, but then, i just got too much time at hand now.

Maybe you should do just i did. You will be surprised by the statistics.

Duan Wu Festival

Today is the 9th June, according to the western calander.

But on the chinese lunar calander, its the 5th day of the 5th month, and for the chinese, its also known as the Duan Wu Festival.

Chinese on that day will eat dumplings, or meat dumpling (usually pork) is stuffed inside glutinous rice together with other fillings and wrapped with bamboo leaves into a pyramid shape, which is later secured with raffia strings and steamed.

On that day, there will be dragonboat races too. Dragonboat are multiple oars powered boats with a dragon head in front, and a a tail behind. There's a dummer (supposely to co-ordinate the rowers) at the front and a steersman (to steer the direction of the boat) at the back.

A dragon Boat.

At the bow of the boat is the dragon's head.

The dummer. He's doing multi-tasking.

The 2 fellows standing are the steersman.

Legend of the Duan Wu Festival

Duan Wu Festival is celebrated in honor of a patroit man. Qu Yuan, (ca. 340 BC - 278 BC).

Qu Yuan was a minister in the government of the state of Chu, descended of nobility and a champion of political loyalty and truth eager to maintain the Chu state's sovereignty.

But he was back-stabbed by corrupt ministers (politics again... haiz~~)

In 278 BC, learning of the capture of his country's capital, Ying, by General Bai Qi of the state of Qin, Qu Yuan is said to have written the lengthy poem of lamentation called "Lament for Ying" and later to have waded into the Miluo river in today's Hunan Province holding a great rock in order to commit ritual suicide as a form of protest against the corruption of the era.

(information taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duanwujie)

Qu Yuan, portrait by an unknown artist; in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, Taiwan.


I do wonder ppl in the past does commit suicide just for protest against the goverment? Modern day protest consist of holding cardboards, chanting and sleeping in front of the goverment house.
After Qu Yuan had died, villagers went out in boats (similar to dragon boats) to search for him. They beat drums along to scare away the fishes from feasting on his body, and they threw rice into the river as a offering to him.

One day, Qu Yuan appeared in the dreams of a villager. (Too bad, there's ain't 4D in the past), and informed him that the rice offering to him had been stolen by the fishes.

So, to prevent fishes from stealing the food, the villagers wrapped the rice and meat with bamboo leaves and streamed them and threw them into the river as a offering.

And in Singapore, if you dump dumplings into the sea or the river, the NEA, NParks will prob come after you with a writ of summons. So, please don't.

Thus the story.

===============================================

I got no dumplings to eat today. Anyone kind enough to spare me one or 2 extras???

A little girl and a rabbit

I was at one of the Pet Shops recently, looking and admiring their rabbits and hamsters when a family walked into the shop.

The "daddy" is asking about rabbits. They are buying a rabbit as a birthday gift for their daughter, who is present at the scene also. The daughter was staring lovingly at the rabbits that are on display.

There's nothing special about someone buying pets. But what clearly engraved on my mind is that little birthday girl to be soon.

She selected a rabbit, a nice cute huggable rabbit. The sales assistance was telling them tips on how to care for the rabbit, but that little girl, her eyes was only on the rabbit. I doubt that she is listening to the sales assistance.

I can see the sparkle in her eyes. I can tell that she has fallen in love with the rabbit. She could not take her eyes off that little white furry thing. Even when her mum was talking to her, she is still looking at that rabbit instead of her mum.

The sales assistance turned to that little girl. teaching her how to carry the bag with the precious cargo inside, telling her how not to frighten the rabbit, how to carry it.

She became very attentive. She place her hands on that rabbit for the first time. She carried and hugged that rabbit for the very first time. I can see her joy, her smile, which is very infectious, and make everyone witnessing the scene to break into a smile. Me included.

At that moment, i knew that the rabbit had found a blissful home.

And i hope that the little girl can still cuddle, hug, play and stroke that same rabbit with the same loving care years down the road, and not ignore, abuse that rabbit.

No food and drinks in the coffeeshop

Seen this sign inside a coffeeshop where ppl do go and have their drinks and meals??


Does it say "NO FOOD AND DRINKS?!?!?



No food and drinks in the coffeeshop? And what's a coffeeshop for? It's just like you go inside a toilet and there it reads "no peeing or shitting."



Oh man... Those people are driving me bonkers!!!

Best answer in Yahoo! Answer

Sometimes, i do go to Yahoo! Answers to surf through questions posted by web-users, and if i am able to, i will try to give them my answers to the best of my knowledge.

And in one of the questions posted, my answer had been voted as one of the best answers.

Nothing to cheer about it. Since there's only 2 answers to that question posted.

http://sg.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20070511234908AAw3qPW

Anyway, it's a molecular genetics question, and i majored in that subject in my studies.

===================================================

Another drowning case. Sad to read about it.

Man drowns at Pasir Ris Fisherman's Village

A Farewell dinner, ROM and Birthday celebrations

Had a very very busy weekend.

Friday. Went to Supreme Court for the last time (to teach CPR) for this round. A group of 6 administers. Though the class size is small, the workload is still the same.

I tried to bring in my camera into Supreme Court. The Cisco security guard stopped me, after X-raying my bag.

Cisco Guard : You got camera in your bag?

Me: Yes.

Cisco Guard : Cameras are not allowed in Supreme Court. Even staffs have to have permission to bring cameras into the Supreme Court.

In my mind, i wanted to ask her (Cisco Officer) what about camera phones. But seeing her revolver and her handcuffs around her belt, i stopped. I got no desire to join Christopher Lee in the same cell.

That friday is the appeal sentence of Christopher Lee. No wonder that Cisco Officer thinks i am an reporter undercover to smuggle camera into the court room, and photograph the bald headed Christopher Lee?

But then, i got this picture of a infant manikin sitting in the chair using my camera phone.

Kinda funny right? No cameras allowed in the Supreme Court, but camera phones are allowed even to the public....

Haiz~~~

Friday evening. Went to Seoul Gardens for dinner, an outing organised by Zone 3 in honor of MT. She is going away to US for 2 years as part of her job, and it is sort of a farewell dinner to her.

Delicious soup! We used lots and lots of prawns, to get the best taste of the soup. YR and me did an act. Initially, the prawns tray was empty. And when YR and me was there, i innocently asked the staff if there's any more prawns, he nodded and took out a box of prawns, and poured them into the tray.

I gave a signal to YR. Basically we wacked off about 90% of the prawns from that tray after the refilled.

Frankly speaking, you must be a chicken lover to go and eat at Seoul Garden. Most of the meat there is chicken. Coffee chicken, garlic chicken, Char Siew chicken etc etc. I find the choices of meat very limited.

I compensate by wacking up all their ice-cream.

Night time. We (AF, ZX, WC and me) managed to drag AM to Geylang for his bachelor night. We walked through geylang to look at the ladies standing by the road-side. (No hanky-panky involved). Stayed there till 0330 in the morning.

Sat morning. Went down to HQ to train our zone members for the First Aid Competition. Manged to claim some money from HQ too. A fruitful trip indeed.

Afternoon. I was very tired, but there's a big big event coming up. Packed up my things, and off i go to help AM for his ROM later.

Maybe i was too tired, i need to return home 3 times (after i drove off) to take something which i forgotten to bring along.

Aaron's ROM. I was helping out as the "DJ", and here's my tools for the job.

Wireless microphones, A lap-top, a amplifier/mixer, speakers and of course, i was Aaron's receptionist (just answer his mobile phone calls), and basically to speak, AM was more busy than me.

One thing to take note. Next time you are attending a wedding or ROM, please do not call the bride and the groom if you are able to. Coz they just simply do not have the time to answer calls.

Theme of the ROM is RETRO. And indeed, the bride and the groom is dressed to the skies for that theme.

Seen a couple dressed like that for wedding before? Maybe in your parent's time huh?

Me and the groom. The retro and the "un-retro".

I got to know AM through the wholivesnearyou.com website. The photographer for that event, my friend, HS, was amazed by this BP WLNY supper group.

A small portion of the whole BP WLNY group. These are the ppl whom i had been hanging out with for a couple of years, beside the SJAB ppl.

As the event goes on, i realised one thing. In the solemnization event, there are a few fellows very important in capturing the beautiful memories of that event, which was often ignored. The photographers.

So, i capture the photographer in action.

HS in action. He's a professional photographer, and he is my "master", in teaching me the skills of photography. So, my dear readers, if you do need any photographers for any events, one got just the "lobang" (contacts) for you.

After the ROM, the BP WLNY supper group got "round 2".

The ROM is on a saturday, and the next day, sunday is AM's birthday. So, we got into another celebration.

The ice-cream birthday cake.


The groom blowing out the candles with the happy bride looking on.

Cake-cutting ceremony as a birthday celebration. They have yet to cut their wedding cake.

I had 2 small slices of that delicious cake. Yummy!!!

I left the celebration early. I was so tired to the extend that i suddenly had double visions while driving. Luckily, i arrived home safe and intact. And no, i did not take any alcoholic drinks.

Sunday, i woke up feeling hungry in the afternoon. Thinking back and to my surprise, i realised that i had not eaten anything since the Seoul Garden outing with my SJAB zone 3 ppl, except for that 2 pieces of ice-cream cake.

No wonder i am so hungry.

E mail spams

I got a burning issue.

Somehow, i keep receiving E mails from ppl saying that they need help for some medical condition, and needs to raise money, and some internet service provider will offer to donate money based on that circulation of E mail.

Is it true or is it just a normal @#*&^#*^%@#&* spam ppl create just to see how much circulation it travels around the globe? for the fun of it?

Does anyone knows about such things, and comment on it please?

Another spam whereby normally the end messages are:

"Forward this to XX ppl and you will receive a great surprise,
Forward this to YY ppl and you will receive 2 surprises
and if you delete this mail, you will encounter a horrible incident"

Or another spam

"Forward this mail to all the contacts in your address book to keep your account active"
or
"Repost this to keep your account active"

I called them spams. I deleted the E mail, and i still did not encounter any horrible incidents, and i am still alive and kicking.

I did not forward the mail, and all my accounts are still active.

One wonders the state of mind when a wu liao person started the whole thingy. Why can't they do something more meaningfully?

And one also does wonder the others who actually DOES forward the mail to others. Did they have too much free time on their hands?

Bullshit.

F4, ROTSS

Another movie caught by me and the usual gang.

Fantestic 4, Rise of the silver surfer. (F4, ROTSS in short?)

A silver surfer that can goes through walls!!! that's cool. Can save on the expenses of building a door for his home! With his board, he can even save the trouble of taking a lift and the MRT in Singapore! Just go surfing with the board!

And that silver surfer does some dumb things like making holes on the surface of the earth.

And that silver does oxidise when he has no power. I wonder how much he's worth. His weight in silver?

SMRT should have recuited him long time ago to help in digging tunnels for our train system. Would have save lots of money. I certainly needs his help when i go back to reservist training. To dig foxholes (fire trench) for me.

And here comes the heros to save the day.

+


=

A combination of the 4 powers. Cool!!! You can stretch, light up ciggies, fly and become invisible at the same time!!

Not a bad movie to watch, though the movie is predictable, but hey, this movie comes from a comic. The computer graphics is great, especially when the torch goes after him in a great chase.

Looking forward to the next special effects movie, TRANSFORMERS!