My Own Happiness Project

My Own Happiness Project
because happiness begins inside and flows out...

20090730

4th a(h1n1) death in malaysia............

Death were more commonly expected of those with pre-morbid coditions, or the extreme of age, but of the last 2 deaths, young people were involved... yikes!

PUTRAJAYA, July 29 — A 20-year-old Malaysian women died from Influenza A(H1N1) yesterday, bringing the number of deaths since the contagious flu outbreak in this country to four.

Director-general of Health Tan Sri Dr Mohd Ismail Merican said the victim died at 9.40am at the Melaka Hospital due to severe community-acquired pneumonia, and samples taken from her throat yesterday showed she had Influenza A(H1N1).

“She had been having fever, sore throat and cough since July 16 and although her condition worsened, she only sought treatment at Melaka Hospital on July 26 where her chest X-ray showed that she had pneumonia.

“The same day at 8.30pm, she was transferred to the intensive-care unit when she had breathing difficulty and required a ventilator to breathe. On Monday, the patient developed complications, including “septicaemia secondary to community-acquired pneumonia, acute renal failure and acute respiratory distress syndrome” and died at 9.40am yesterday,” he told reporters, here, today.

Dr Mohd Ismail who had earlier chaired the 10th meeting of the Influenza A(H1N1) Pandemic Technical Committee, said the rising number of deaths from the disease in this country was worrying, especially when the victims sought treatment late or the doctors failed to detect the infection early.

Hence, he said, the meeting today decided that all medical practitioners, whether at the public and private hospitals or clinics, must have an index of suspicion for pneumonia cases which must be investigated for possible Influenza A(H1N1) infection.

“Throat swabs must be taken from severe pneumonia cases at the hospitals to be tested for the disease, patients given anti-viral treatment and the history of their influenza-like illness and Influenza A(H1N1) infections noted.

“I hope after four deaths (from the disease), people will be more alert. If you don’t feel well, if you have symptoms like breathing difficulty, put on a face mask and seek treatment early.

“All this shows that we (doctors) need to really strengthen our examination techniques. When the patient comes, you listen well to the history, and if the history shows respiratory symptoms, you examine the respiratory in detail.

“But this is not happening, so we are alerting the doctors to examine all patients thoroughly, especially those with respiratory symptoms and unusual clinical features,” he said.

Dr Mohd Ismail said all severe pneumonia cases due to suspected Influenza A(H1N1) must be given influenza anti-viral medicine with the doses increased.

He said laboratory tests for Influenza A(H1N1) which so far could only be done at the Institute of Medical Research (IMR) and Sungai Buloh Hospital would be extended to government hospitals in the states and as such, they would be given training and the facilities.

He disclosed that 21 private hospitals had been supplied with enough influenza anti-viral medicine to treat patients with the disease and suspected cases.

“We will top up the supply from time to time, so there is no more excuse for the private hospitals to push the patients to the government hospitals,” he said.

On the current situation, he said 47 new cases had been reported nationwide and all these were locally transmitted.

The new cases have brought the total number of cases so far to 1,266 including the four deaths. Of the figure, 574 or 45 per cent are imported cases while 692 were locally transmitted.

Dr Mohd Ismail said 1,233 cases or 97 per cent had recovered, and 24 cases receiving anti-viral treatment at the hospitals and nine at home.

On the global situation, he said 169,753 cases with 1,125 deaths had been reported in 159 countries as at this morning, an increase of 6,038 cases with 100 deaths since yesterday. – Bernama

20090729

third death due to influenza a(h1h1) reported......

July 28, 2009 12:42 PM

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia reported Tuesday the country’s third death due to Influenza A (H1N1 2009). The latest victim is a 42 year-old local male who died at a private hospital in Kuala Lumpur at 4.40 pm Tuesday.

-Bernama-

20090728

a(h1n1 2009) status, press statement by minister......

Situasi Semasa Pandemik (H1N1) 2009
Dan Tindakan Kementerian Kesihatan Malaysia
27 Julai 2009

Pada 27 Julai 2009 sejumlah 49 kes baru influenza A(H1N1) dengan 1 kematian telah dilaporkan, semua kes adalah kes tempatan di kalangan warga negara Malaysia. Daripada 49 yang dilaporkan hari ini, 29 kes merupakan kejadian dari 9 kluster baru dan tiga belas (13) kes merupakan kejadian dari 4 kluster sedia ada. Tujuh (7) kes yang lain termasuk 1 kematian yang dilaporkan merupakan kes-kes sporadikatau terpencil.

Jumlah terkumpul kes influenza A(H1N1) di Malaysia sehingga 27 Julai 2009 adalah sebanyak 1,124 kes dengan 2 kematian. Daripada 1,124 kes yang dilaporkan tersebut, 574 (51%) merupakan kes import dan 550 (49%) kes jangkitan tempatan. Daripada jumlah ini, 1103 kes (98%) telah sembuh hanya 10 kes atau 1% sahaja yang sedang menerima rawatan anti-viral di hospital. Lapan (8) kes atau 1% mendapat rawatan antiviral di rumah.

As of 26/7/09 @4pm, there are 1124 cases in Malaysia, 2 deaths and in Sabah 110 cases, 0 deaths.

20090727

the day facebook crashes...

I bet even Nostradamus didn't even see this coming, a day when Facebook refuses to load, and people all around the globe getting anxious and disorientated, either because they couldn't tell the world what they were thinking at that moment, or because they could not read about what other people are thinking at that moment...

I bet the productivity of the industries would have increased substantially by lunch time, when people have taken in and internalised in their system, the fact that Facebook doesn't work today and they'd better get back to work.

Finally... Missed this one, eh, Nosty?

20090721

bringing home ookiikuro........

20.07.2009

Introducing Ookiikuro, the new gadget that runs on a 5kg battery and burns fluid combustive hydrocarbons.

The day I first saw it in Sandakan UMW showroom...

Today, dad and I went to the Inanam UMW to pick it up, after another trip by trailer over the weekend back from Sandakan, all ready for the road...

Taking Ookiikuro out for an evening stroll in the neighbourhood, and Yiyi seems to be more excited about this ride than anything else....

CheCheMiMi in the cockpit, both of us in the bucket.

20090715

management made easy, in 6 parables........

This is the funniest way to teach management, found it while browsing someone else's blog this morning... See if it makes good bed time story.

Lesson 1

A man is getting into the shower just as his wife is finishing up her shower, when the doorbell rings. The wife quickly wraps herself in a towel and runs downstairs. When she opens the door, there stands Bob, the next-door neighbor.

Before she says a word, Bob says, "I'll give you $800 to drop that towel, "

After thinking for a moment, the woman drops her towel and stands naked in front of Bob After a few seconds, Bob hands her $800 and leaves. The woman wraps back up in the towel and goes back upstairs. When she gets to the bathroom, her husband asks, "Who was that?"

"It was Bob the next door neighbor," she replies.

"Great," the husband says, "did he say anything about the $800 he owes me?"

Moral of the story:
If you share critical information pertaining to credit and risk with your shareholders in time, you may be in a position to prevent avoidable exposure.

Lesson 2
A priest offered a Nun a lift. She got in and crossed her legs, forcing her gown to reveal a leg. The priest nearly had an accident. After controlling the car, he stealthily slid his hand up her leg.

The nun said, "Father, remember Psalm 129?" The priest removed his hand. But, changing gears, he let his hand slide up her leg again.

The nun once again said, "Father, remember Psalm 129?"
The priest apologized "Sorry sister but the flesh is weak."

Arriving at the convent, the nun sighed heavily and went on her way.

On his arrival at the church, the priest rushed to look up Psalm 129
It said, "Go forth and seek, further up, you will find glory."

Moral of the story:
If you are not well informed in your job, you might miss a great opportunity.

Lesson 3
A sales rep, an administration clerk, and the manager are walking to lunch when they find an antique oil lamp. They rub it and a Genie comes out.

The Genie says, "I'll give each of you just one wish."

"Me first! Me first!" says the admin clerk. "I want to be in the Bahamas , driving a speedboat, without a care in the world."

Puff! She's gone.

"Me next! Me next!" says the sales rep. "I want to be in Hawaii, relaxing on the beach with my personal masseuse, an endless supply of Pina Coladas and the love of my life."

Puff! He's gone.

"OK, you're up," the Genie says to the manager.

The manager says, "I want those two back in the office after lunch."

Moral of the story:
Always let your boss have the first say.

Lesson 4
An eagle was sitting on a tree resting, doing nothing. A small rabbit saw the eagle and asked him, "Can I also sit like you and do nothing?"

The eagle answered: " Sure , why not."
So, the rabbit sat on the ground below the eagle and rested.

All of a sudden, a fox appeared, jumped on the rabbit and ate it.

Moral of the story:
To be sitting and doing nothing, you must be sitting very, very high up.

Lesson 5
A turkey was chatting with a bull. "I would love to be able to get to the top of that tree," sighed the turkey, "but I haven't got the energy."

"Well, why don't you nibble on some of my droppings?" replied the bull. "They're packed with nutrients." !

The turkey pecked at a lump of dung, and found it actually gave him enough strength to reach the lowest branch of the tree. The next day, after eating some more dung, he reached the second branch. Finally after a fourth night, the turkey was proudly perched at the top of the tree.

He was promptly spotted by a farmer, who shot him out of the tree.

Moral of the story:
Bull Shit might get you to the top, but it won't keep you there.

Lesson 6
A little bird was flying south for the Winter. It was so cold the bird froze and fell to the ground into a large field. While he was lying there, a cow came by and dropped some dung on him.

As the frozen bird lay there in the pile of cow dung, he began to realize how warm he was. The dung was actually thawing him out! He lay there all warm and happy, and soon began to sing for joy.

A passing cat heard the bird singing and came to investigate. Following the sound, the cat discovered the bird under the pile of cow dung, and promptly dug him out and ate him.

Morals of the story:
(1) Not everyone who shits on you is your enemy.
(2) Not everyone who gets you out of shit is necessary your friend.
(3) And when you're in deep shit, it's better to keep your voice low and watch - enemy or friend!

Visit the real PATCH here

20090714

20090713

now that we're in mitigation phase.........

As of last Friday, Malaysia has put its H1N1 control from CONTAINMENT EFFORT to MITIGATION PHASE. That's just a fanciful way to say that at this point, the H1N1 virus is already present in the general population, and the effort to quarantine and contain cases of H1N1 patients would bring very little fruitful results.

So now, what can be done is just to minimise complications, treat those who are ill, and hope for the best. Nevertheless, investigations are still being carried out just that contact tracing will be reduced and people will not be put under quarantine anymore.

Hospitalisation and isolation is still done, only to those who might get severely ill from this flu.

To make thins simple, these are the important few things to remember as we are in this phase now...
  1. Social Distancing - 1 meter or 3 feet from potentially sick people, and avoid crowded places. This can sometimes be impossible (ie in the lifts, public transport etc) but remember also that significant contact occurs when someone splutter respiratory fluids / tampias on you or you're within 1 m radius of a H1N1 patient for approximately 4 hours
  2. Protect yourself - the 3 ply masks (surgical masks) are good enough when traveling out in crowded place, although N95 is best but can be costly nowadays. I saw N95 being sold for RM15 at Sandakan airport. The point of the mask is to filter out the air that we breath in, so if we adjust the mask so much so that we breath easily like normal, chances are we're wearing it wrong. We should be slightly uncomfortable when wearing a filtering mask. Logic, right?
  3. Proper hygiene - wash hands with soap often when in public places. We don't need a Phase 6 Pandemic Influenza to teach us this.
  4. Cough / Sneeze Etiquette - disposable tissue best, handkerchiefs alternative. Sleeve, hand, or even turning away while sneezing into open air is bad. Close, close, close that orifice.
  5. If not feeling well, seek medical attention.
  6. Call the bugger by its proper name - no more swine flu please... Human-swine Influenza is still okay, but Selsema Babi is just wrong... Influenza A (H1N1) how difficult is it to say it right?
Facebook: Visit the real PATCH here

20090704

10k hits........

So the hits counter shows 9,991 visitors for now... 9 more and I'll join the 10k hits club... whoppeee. Kinda pathetic as compared to Tun Mahathir's blog that joins the million-hits club in mere days... heh.

20090703

arteo's third day in kuantan, a misadventure.....

Well, okay, the day went well, sessions were fruitful, there were many issues discussed, and then I went out at night, absconding myself from the last session...

I saw there was a sale at Giordano, the usual t-shirt I wore that cost RM50 for 3 now selling only RM40. After dinner I joined DrLJF for teh tarik and then went on to get my Giordanos. That done at about 9pm, I had some time to walk around Berjaya Megamall, and decided to watch Ice Age 3 at 10pm.

With 1 hour to waste I walked around the mall, and happened across this newly opened Adidas outlet. Yep, I came out with a new shoe, but not without feeling a tad irritated first. See, I was asking the lady if she has the bigger size for the shoe I was interested in. She checked some tags and confirmed there is a pair of size 11. Great. So after a few minutes waiting, she came back with size 10 and said that she can't find size 11, and why don't I try size 10 instead. Okay Madam smartie-pants, I told her I wouldn't fit in it but she gave me a blur look. I thought, okay, maybe she needs to see the shoe rip before she understands, so I sat and tried putting it on. To be nice to the shoe, I asked for a shoe horn. She never heard of it. She asked a colleague. Colleague and colleague's colleagues also never heard of shoe horn. Never mind, so I explained, something that looks like a rice spoon, only narrower and used to fit shoes, so to protect the shoes, and make it easy for clients to put it on, but no, not in their universe. Okay. I pulled the sorry pair of shoes on and showed to her, bloody tight. Need 1 size bigger, and we went like, tak jumpa. I asked her, what do you mean tak jumpa? Is it lost in the shop? Is it being displayed? What? She asked for a few more minutes and went back in again, and after 10 minutes, came out with the box of size 11 shoes. I reserve my comments on stoopid lazy asses like this. Ah, darn I said it.

So I told her, after putting it on and liking it much, that I'll wear it, and have my Hush Puppies (yes, must mention) oxfords put in the box instead. She sort of retorted "PAY FIRST" In perfect 2 words phrase kind of sentence without any grammatical errors. I swallowed my own poison and let out a soft "I know"....

Then, at the cinema, while booking the ticket I saw the seats were full, to the brim, and I was lucky to get a seat at the corner lot, fourth row from the back. I wasn't really that early, but by the time I sat down, I was the only one on fourth row. I knew it, I'm gonna have some peoples' asses rubbed on my face when the show starts, and yes, prediction was right at the moment when Sid went away from the herd, when Manny was talking to Diego and when Sid was doing stunts with the eggs. The horror didn't end there, the ultimately cina bitch sitting next to me had her canto-pop ring tone chiming twice throughout the show. WHY ARE SOME PEOPLE SO BLOODY DENSE ABOUT CINEMA ETIQUETTE, AND THEY HAVE TO HAVE CANTO-POP RING TONES, AND THEY MUST SIT NEXT TO ME????

After the movie, the mall was all closed so I was just following the crowd to get to the exit. Suddenly a joker security guard came and sang to us (yes, he was either mocking / flirting with the girls in front of me or that he has a disorder that makes his speech kind of melodious in the wrongest way) "Nak ke mana?? Nak ke mana??" So we said we're getting out, then he sang again "Tak boleh, tak boleh, pusing balik, pusing balik..." repeatedly, I'm telling you. The girls went all confused and I as usual, got irritated with the whole musical drama, so I asked him, "Encik, bagitau, nak keluar ikut mana?" in a stern voice and I was wearing my Kementerian Kesihatan t-shirt. He pointed to the way out. And that felt normal. I turned around and said to myself, "menyanyi semacam bodoh" and the girls giggled. Yes, acknowledgement! Needed that much.

On the way back to the hotel, I passed by the mamak shop where I had a drink earlier, and wanted to try the mutton soup, supposedly very nice according to DrL. Then a Benggali (no racist remark intended) came to wait on my table, telling me soup kambing habis. Her said only sup yeakeh is available. I went, WHAT? Sup Yeakeh, sup yeakeh... I almost asked for the boss to come, then he pointed out at the menu he grabbed from the next table, Sup Ekor. Owh.. what's the whole thing with YEAKEH?? Can't blame him for being Benggali though... That wasn't my most enjoyable supper, first the soup came without a spoon, so I asked for it, the spoon came. Then, I realised I had to hold the bone while chewing on the meat, so I asked for a fork, and after a few minutes it came. I had some soup splashes on the table and on my hand, and the napkin came after a few more minutes. Damn, next time anybody comes to eat at this place, make a bloody CHECKLIST!!

After that I came up to the room, tired and full, and as I went into the room, I wondered why the room was warm, the aircond was not working... So I called the reception counter, asking for engineering to come have a look. I introduced myself as room 609, and she wanted to know my name. I almost asked her, shouldn't she know? I am the guest and she has the bloody guest list in front of her. What is this, some sort of security password? She should be greeting me by my name! After I told her, she went "Okay" phew, glad I got the password right!! But I didn't want to think much of it, I just want to have my aircond done, and sleep...

But before I sleep, I have to type this down... yea, what a day.

20090701

arteo sick in kuantan........

Morning started with slight gritty scratchy feeling in the throat, and slight temperature. I thought it might be the air conditioning blasting the whole night, and it got better by breakfast time. However I felt lethargic through out the lectures and the group work, so I sneaked up to the room and slept through lunch.

During the afternoon session, I was still not feeling better, and salbutamol couldn't seem to sustain effect. I thought I was just cold from the A/C but DrLJF felt my head and confirmed it was a fever. So I took a walk to get my Panadol Actifast (the only type that works) and Ubat Batuk Kelapa Laut Afrika (none else would do) and came back to the hotel and slept through dinner.

At about 8:30pm, I got dressed and set out for jalan jalan cari makan, but disappointingly, I only came across mamak style restaurants... and I want something authentically Kuantanese... although I must say I don't quite know what I'm looking for. So I stopped by at the pharmacy to get ipratropium (since I think I've overdosed on salbutamol and getting this cramps in my calves) then sat at Starbucks for dinner (mocha and Oriental BBQ Chicken Pie).

Got some handkerchiefs from Parkson since I'll be coughing a bit, hopefully it will go off completely tomorrow. Don't want the airport thermoscan to pick up my fever and get me quarantined...